Eight Million Gods-eARC (26 page)

She had been through the cycle countless times. It had taken her a lifetime to learn what little control that she had. Except when she was heavily medicated, she hadn’t stopped writing since she learned how to read. Before then, she could remember telling stories as her toys met violent ends. Her mother had trouble keeping nannies for more than a few weeks; her first written attempts were merely a last straw.

“I couldn’t figure out what the connecting thread for this novel was. It’s one of the reasons I created my Post-in-Note tree. Sometimes with it, the invisible thread shows up. Since I didn’t connect your father to Kenichi, he seemed like an outlier, but he’s tied back into what I think of as ‘the Osaka’ branch, but now I think that’s the trunk of the structure, not a branch.”

“You can use this to locate the god, then?”

“I’m—I’m not sure. As far as I can tell, Kenichi is my only character still alive who has interacted with her besides Simon, but I think there might be others.”

“Her?”

“I think the god is a she—as in goddess.” She scrolled down through Kenichi’s section. “In the second scene, he keeps thinking of the visitor as ‘the stranger’ and ‘this person’ as if what he sensed about the visitor’s gender was conflicting with what he was seeing. After this, he just refers to her as the princess.” Nikki flipped through her recent notebook. “In this passage where your father is dreaming of being trapped. I thought it reflected the fact that he was stuck, but there was a sense of being outside with dirt and water dripping. The wording leans toward female. I think he’s picked up on her memories.”

Leo growled dangerously, reminding Nikki that his mother was
bakeneko,
and she wasn’t sure what that meant for Leo. One point in his favor: her mother would certainly hate him for his mixed heritage. Of course, she’d think he was Hawaiian Japanese and not part monster.

“The damn bitch is burning herself into my father,” Leo snarled. “Do you have any sign that she hasn’t burnt him out?”

She flipped to a blank page and attempted to lock in on Simon. It produced nothing but the familiar string of dots. “At this moment, the goddess is with your father. I can’t get a bead on him.”

“What about Kenichi? Is he with my father?”

She flipped the page and started a scene with the pretty host boy. “Oh!”

“What is it?” Leo slung them around a tight mountain curve, brushing his knuckles against her skin as he downshifted.

She blushed at Leo’s touch. “I wrote Kenichi inviting Hitomi to his apartment weeks ago, but apparently that happened fairly recently. He’s on the last girl, the American heiress. I think he’s seeing her tonight.”

Leo’s eyes narrowed. “At his apartment?”

“No, at the club.”

Leo shifted back to fourth gear to take a straightway fast. “Is my father there?”

Nikki leaned back in her seat and considered the question. At one time she had thought she’d built an elaborate imaginary stage in her head to push uncooperative actors across. When she was younger, her stories had been a deluge of information about the stage and actors, losing “the plot” under a flood of miscellaneous details. She had trained herself to stay focused on weaving a good story, but in doing so stopped paying attention to all the other information that she could glean from the setting and people.

She had only written a handful of words, but it was like she’d opened a window to the distant nightclub. The doors hadn’t officially opened for the night, and only the employees moved through the narrow, long maze of rooms. Kenichi paced in the large mirrored main lounge, for once not checking his reflection to see if his hair was styled to anime-perfection. He wore a perfectly tailored white Armani suit with elegant touches of gold jewelry. There were three
yakuza
drifting through the club, dark, menacing shadows.

She tried to focus on the
yakuza.
They refused to come into focus, staying blurs of darkness in the glitter of the nightclub. She could sense that they carried many hidden weapons: sharp knives and cold lumps of guns. Like an illusionist’s tricks, she imagined that Kenichi occasionally caught sight of inhuman eyes, sharp teeth, and clawed hands in the mirror as he paced.

At the moment, though, Simon didn’t seem to be in the nightclub.

“I don’t think so. There are three
yakuza.
I don’t think they’re human; they might be
tanuki
. Kenichi thinks of them as “the new ones,” and they terrify him. They seem to be waiting for the girl to arrive. Kenichi is acting like he doesn’t notice that they’re listening to his phone call, but he’s very aware that the
yakuza
can overhear what the girl is saying to Kenichi. She has been blowing Kenichi off the last few days. On one hand, he’s happy about it because it’s delaying the goddess getting her hands on the girl. On the other hand, he’s starting to think that his girlfriend is seeing someone else, and he’s jealous.”

Leo made a sound of disgust.

“Yeah, I know.”

The kitten pounced on her shoe, distracting her for a second.

“
Maru!
” Nikki wiggled her foot, trying to get kitten to stop, but it only encouraged him. She liked the fact that they hadn’t abandoned Maru in Izushi; it made it easier to pretend that they weren’t racing toward disaster. Three hours trapped in a car with a bored kitten, though, had its drawbacks.

Leo chuckled, deep and full, and the sound made delicious things happen inside of her.

I love him, don’t I?
More and more, she was feeling sure that she did. If nothing else convinced her, the rising panic over him walking out of her life and never coming back did.

She focused on writing. She needed to find everything she could about Kenichi, the
yakuza,
Simon, and the goddess. In the scene, the conversation between Kenichi and the girl continued. “The heiress has been telling Kenichi that she’s helping a friend of hers. She says it’s a girlfriend, but he’s suspecting that it’s a boy, possibly another host at a different club. Oh, oh, oh!”

“What now?”

“He’s trying to make her too mad to come see him. He’s afraid to start a fight with her with the new
yakuza
listening to his side of the conversation, but he’s pushing her buttons on purpose.”

“He should just tell her outright. If you love someone, you protect them.”

She wanted to protect Leo. She didn’t want him walking into this nightclub and facing the inhuman
yakuza.
Kenichi knew with certainty he loved his girlfriend because of how scared he felt for her. Nikki realized that she had the same fear echoing through her.
I love Leo, but I don’t know how to protect him.

Leo shifted, brushing her hand again, making all sorts of emotions shift and squirm inside her. This being in love was an uncomfortable thing.

She finished the scene and sighed. “She’s angry, but she’s still coming to see him.”

“Once she’s at the club, the
yakuza
will take her to see the god?”

“That’s the plan.”

“That’s how I’ll find my father.”

Leo was missing the big picture. He was seeing only his lost father, not the wave of destruction about to crash down all around his father.

“I have forty main characters.” She scrambled to explain. “Well, thirty-five. Five have died so far. Gregory Winston. Misa. Three others were killed by Harada. Oh, wait, make that thirty-four. I forgot about Harada.”

“Who?”

“Harada was the
tanuki
at my apartment. At least, that’s what I called him. Not sure what name he really used—I haven’t got anyone’s real name yet.” Thirty-two if they didn’t count her and Leo, but she didn’t want to tell him that he was one of her characters.

Leo’s confusion was clear in his voice. “And?”

“So far this is fairly typical story. People are living their ordinary life when something ugly brushes up against them and kills them.” She winced as she realized what it meant for Simon. “I’m sorry.”

He gave her a worried glance, and she realized that he was counting her as a possible victim, too.

“Teach me to write myself into a story.” She focused on the notebook and the finished scene. “Kenichi is the only Osaka viewpoint character—other than me. The rest are scattered all over Japan. I don’t know how they all play into this. When the goddess was talking to Kenichi, though, she mentioned something.” Nikki scrolled down through her files on her laptop, found Kenichi’s section, and read the line. “
I want to drink deep, eat my fill, and then destroy my enemies.
If this turns into one of my usual novels, every one of my characters is a likely target for her revenge.” A connection was made in her mind. “Oh!”

“Hmm?”

“Oh, it just fully clicked that Harada was employed by the goddess. I wish now we didn’t kill him. “

“If you had not killed him, he would have killed you.”

There was that small problem. She shivered, remembering the warm trickle of his blood running down her face. “Once a character is dead, I can’t write any more about them.”

“We’ll find my father without Harada.”

“Yes, we will, but I’m worried about the big picture. The thing is, normally, by the end of the book,
all
the characters are usually dead. Even if they do get out alive, every character has interacted with the main story line. Half my characters have had only their set up scenes—the goddess hasn’t interacted with them yet.”

“We’re going to stop her before she can hurt them.”

She hoped he was right, but it had been her experience that nothing she ever did stopped people from dying.

22

Love Hotel

It was nearly ten at night when they hit Osaka. Leo grew quiet and tense as they roared along the highways that bisected the city.

“I’m taking you to Umeda,” he said. “There are hotels there where you won’t need to hand over your passport. I’ll get you into a room under my credit card, and then I’ll go after my father. If something happens and I don’t come back, then . . . it might be safer if you leave the country.”

Hopscotch the world, one step in front of her mother. “I don’t really have the money to run.”

He gripped the wheel tight and took them down off the highway onto the busy streets of Umeda. “Write down this number. 19.43.47 north by 155.5.24 west.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a house in Hawaii. On the big island. Out in the middle of nowhere. You’ll need a GPS and four-wheel drive to find it. It’s off the grid, with solar power and catchment water. It’s yours for as long as you want it.”

Tears filled her eyes, burning like acid. This thing called love was stupid. He found a parking space and tucked the sports car neatly into the space.

Around the corner, the street was lined with neon bright hotels. The first was Hotel American and was fairly nondescript. The second was Casa Swan, with silver swans in midflight gleaming on a brilliant red corner sign. Beyond it, she could see Cupids flying down the center of Hotel Francisca’s facade.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding! A love hotel?”

“They’re mostly automated. No one will see you check in, so no one will ask for your passport.”

“I thought they were only hourly.”

“You can rent them for the night if you come in late enough.”

The first three places were full. The fourth hotel, a place called Love Now, had rooms open. The automated booking panel had four photographs still lit up, showing the unoccupied rooms. The rest of the room photos were dark, indicating that they were taken.

Nikki stayed tucked against Leo’s side, screened from anyone walking past. She could hear his heart beating through the thin soft fabric of his shirt.

“Not that one,” she said of the room he was about to select. The bed was inside a large birdcage and there was a steel chair beside it looking like the love child of a gynecological examination table and a science lab.

“Which one?” Leo asked.

There was no wonder that these were the last rooms rented; they were obviously tailored for very specific tastes. Of the three, one was styled on a boxing ring, complete with boxing gloves hanging from hooks over the bed. Another was a schoolroom with chalkboard and steel desks. It too, though, had shackles visible by the bed. She knew Leo didn’t plan to stay, but she never wanted to sleep on a bed with restraints again. The last seemed harmless. It was decorated in opulent golds and creams and blue velvet drapes.

“This one.”

“Belle’s Boudoir.” Leo read the
kanji
over the photo. He hesitated a moment and then pressed the button beside it and swiped his credit card. “Stay here a minute, I’ll get the key.”

He was back a moment later to walk her to the elevator. “I booked the room all night,” he murmured as he kept her hidden from anyone that might be scanning the lobby via remote camera. “If I don’t come back by dawn, I won’t be coming back at all. Just leave.”

He opened his wallet and took out all his cash. “Take this.” He pushed the yen into her hands. “Use it to disappear.”

Her hands were shaking as she stuffed the money away.
Tell him that you love him. Don’t let him walk away without knowing. Don’t let him walk away!

“I—I— “ The words caught in her throat. She couldn’t stop him from leaving; the host club was their only lead to where the goddess had Simon. She had no good reason to go with him; she didn’t read
kanji
, she didn’t speak Japanese, she didn’t know exactly where the host club was or what any of the people looked like, nor could she fight or shoot a gun. “I’ll wait for you.”

“Only till dawn.” The door opened to the elevator, and he pulled her into the small space and leaned over her, hiding her completely from the world’s eyes.

She shouldn’t feel so safe with him pressed so close, but she did. She reached out and put her hand on his chest, felt his heartbeat. She wanted to slide her hand up, to touch his face, to kiss him. If she did, she wouldn’t want to let him go.

Tears started to burn in her eyes again, and she looked down so he wouldn’t see.

The elevator stopped, and they stepped off into a narrow hallway. Their room was at the end. Muffled music and giggling came from the doors they passed.