Yokai (17 page)

Yumiko stopped and stared at it a
moment before she noted the shadows shifting behind her. She turned
and punched a green creature in the throat, and it fell to the
ground, gasping, hands at its neck. A kappa.

Her eyes flickered to the indentation
on the top of its head, wet from the rain. Kappas’ totems were
obvious, as it was part of their body, a weakness that was
well-known. They died when the indentation dried. But a downpour
was an ideal time for them to be out and about, away from running
water.

While the creature was down, Yumiko
pressed her advantage and stepped on its chest, pinning it. It wore
a protective shell, so she knew she was doing no real harm, but it
wouldn’t be able to get away while she held it in place.

“
What are you doing here?”
she demanded, glaring into its face.

The kappa stopped struggling and
swallowed hard, looking up at her with wild fear in its wide dark
eyes. Its beak was open, breaths coming heavy, as if it were afraid
for its life, which it most certainly was.

She almost felt sorry for it, it
looked so terrified, but she didn’t relent. She dug her foot into
its chest even harder until it grunted.

“
It is only watching over
you, child.”

Yumiko looked up sharply at the voice.
Ame-Onna had reemerged from the mirror and stood with her hands on
her hips, watching her.

“
Watching me?” Yumiko asked
between gritted teeth. “Why?”

“
You know why. I watched
you through mirrors on that train as you read the
prophecy.”

Yumiko blinked, then sent a dirty look
the kappa’s way as it began to struggle harder. When it saw her
eyes, it stopped, emitting a small whimper. With a sigh, she let
the kappa go, and it scrambled away from her on its knees until it
reached Ame-Onna, who helped it to its feet. She gestured for it to
go into the mirror, and it complied, then she turned back to
Yumiko.

“
You have questions,”
Ame-Onna said.

“
No shit.”

Ame-Onna smirked. “He was right, you
know. You did blossom into a courageous, fiery young woman. He must
be pleased.”

“
I will not let him devour
me. I don’t care if the world has to burn.”

“
No?” Ame-Onna chuckled. “I
doubt that very much. All you’ve done since you’ve come to this
world is train to help protect humans from yokai. You care very
much for them.” She paused and tilted her head. “And why is it that
you think that my lord would eat you?”

Yumiko blinked. “I…you said so
yourself.”

Ame-Onna watched her for a moment.
“You will be consumed by him, body and soul. Your entire body will
be on fire, you will be so in love with him. He will be your whole
world, child. And you, his.”

“
So…he won’t kill me?” She
sagged with relief. “If I do this…if I marry him, he will let me
go?”

“
Let you go?” Ame-Onna
frowned. “You will be by his side for eternity.”

“
In the mirror world,”
Yumiko concluded. She looked away. “And if I don’t want
that?”

“
Then I won’t force you to
stay.”

Yumiko stiffened at the voice at her
back. Her eyes widened as Ame-Onna bowed to the figure behind her,
then stepped back through the mirror and disappeared.

Yumiko turned around slowly, eyes not
believing what they saw standing before her so clearly.

Brian held his head high. “I told you
that I would return for you.”

Chapter
Thirteen

“
No,” Yumiko shook her
head. “It can’t be you.”

“
Why not?” Brian demanded,
taking a step closer to her. “Because you actually like me?” All
signs of an accent were gone. He spoke Japanese like he had his
entire life.

Yumiko squeezed her eyes shut,
recalling the little signs she shouldn’t have ignored. How he’d
tried to convince her that she was misunderstanding the intention
of yokai and the prophecy. How he’d claimed that they were meant
for each other, even hinting that he knew her. Of course he knew
her - he’d been watching her since she was seven years
old!

“
Do you have any idea what
you put me through?” she asked him, ignoring the rainwater that
continued to drip into her eyes. “How you turned my life
inside-out?”

“
I know,” Brian said
hesitantly, his voice so understanding that Yumiko wanted to punch
him. “I saw it all. I never meant for you to go through those
trials. But I can explain everything to you, if you give me a
chance.”

“
I’m not eighteen yet,” she
protested, taking a step back. “You can’t have me yet. I haven’t…I
haven’t had enough time.”

“
I think you have,” he
said. “I came to try to ease you into the transition, to make you
see things properly. I know you misinterpreted things. I don’t want
you to be scared. I never did. I was…angry when you rejected me
initially, but I understand that you were just a child then. When I
first laid eyes on you…everything changed for me. My perspective on
life changed. You don’t know what you’ve done to me,
Yumiko.”

“
I have an idea,” Yumiko
told him, looking away. “Everything changed for me too. My life
became a nightmare. A time clock, ticking down to the moment when I
would die at your hands.”

“
Yumiko…”

“
I know,” she snapped, not
daring to meet his eyes. She could imagine the hurt she would see
there, given the pleading she heard in his voice. But she just
couldn’t. Instead, she laughed. “I should have seen it. Turning
into a fox on the full moon. Very convenient cover. Inspired by the
werewolf myth, were you? Of course, it would take time to figure
out what to do with you, since that’s not even a thing. And since
you claimed to only change once a month, it would be a very easy
thing to fake. You must be able to shape-shift?”

“
No. I traded places during
the night, using a mirror. With a kitsune.”

She nodded. “Of course. Very bold
using a known trickster as your cover. But appropriate. You’re just
a different breed of trickster.”

“
Yumiko, please don’t do
this. You can’t deny what you felt just now.”

“
I felt betrayal,” Yumiko
shouted, looking up, eyes fiery. “That’s what I felt just now, a
dagger buried in my back.”

Brian closed his eyes as if she’d
slapped him, then opened them to gaze at the murky ground. “I love
you, Yumiko. I’m sorry for the pain you’ve gone through. I want
more than anything to make it go away, to take you away from here
so that you never have to feel angry or hurt again.”

Yumiko clenched her jaw, pushing down
any sympathetic emotions threatening to well up. “If I marry you,
it will be for the peace it brings. And then I will leave. But I’m
not going near you again until I turn eighteen.”

“
Yumiko…”

“
Get out of here.
Now.”

She looked away, but felt him standing
there for a moment, watching her, unsure of how to proceed. She
could feel his dejection in the distance between them, but she
sloughed off the feelings of sympathy that clawed at her to take
notice. She was so angry and sad and stunned that she was nearly
shaking.

Brian must have realized that he
wasn’t going to convince her of anything just then. A minute later,
she looked up and he was gone. And everything she’d been holding in
bubbled to the surface. She sank to her knees in the rainwater and
choked out a cry from deep in her soul. She felt broken, and
couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t get enough air.

Nothing made sense anymore.

She wouldn’t be destroyed at the hands
of a yokai king. She should have been grateful for that. But she
couldn’t help but feel a gaping wound in her heart, a loss for the
man she’d thought Brian was, when he had merely been yet another
monster in the end, the most cruel kind, having pretended to care
for her.

Yumiko lost track of time as she
headed home. Only when she found herself suddenly standing outside
of the front doors, in the night air, damp but no longer raining,
did she realize that she’d never asked about her mother. She’d been
so caught up in what things meant for herself that she’d forgotten
what she’d come home to that day. Her house in disarray, her mother
missing. But if Kagami was indeed the noble yokai that he pretended
to be, then perhaps her mother hadn’t been hurt. More than likely,
he had whisked her back to his mirror world, one more reason for
Yumiko to give in to him.

“
What happened to you?”
Reina asked when Yumiko stepped into the library. She stood up from
a desk, looking almost frightened.

Shou was there, as well. He frowned
when he saw her. “Where’s the were-fox?”

Yumiko scoffed.
“
What
were-fox?”

Shou raised an eyebrow, then turned to
Reina for an explanation. Reina shrugged in response. “Mr. Mathis?”
he specified. “Or do you prefer I call him Brian too?”

“
Call him whatever you
want.”

Reina walked up to Yumiko, concern
written on her face. “Yumiko? Did something happen?” Her face
darkened. “Did he-?”

Yumiko exhaled loudly. “No, nothing
like that. I…just need a little space. I’m tired and…I’ll fill you
in in the morning, okay?”

“
Okay,” Reina agreed,
looking uncertain. “If you need anything, let me know.”

Yumiko saw the look that the two
exchanged, but couldn’t bring herself to care. She dragged herself
up to her room and quickly fell asleep.

***

When Yumiko awakened and
looked out of her window, she assumed that she’d slept for a few
hours. They sky was still dark, and the rain had returned, its
gentle hum offering to lull Yumiko back to sleep, should she
desire. But Yumiko felt awake and alert, and wasn’t going to let
Brian – or
Kagami
–
dictate how she felt. She dressed quickly and went down to the
library, forcing an enthusiastic greeting with the Wadas that she
didn’t feel. On her way, she saw a kappa lingering in the doorway,
wide eyes blinking into the harsh light of the sake bar. Yumiko
sent it a withering look as she passed it by, and it retreated into
the shadows. Brian could send as many minions to watch over her as
he liked, but she wasn’t going to go along with it happily. Nor was
she going to kill the stupid beasts.

She’d been very reliant on her powers
over mirrors as a yokai hunter, but of course sending Kagami to the
mirror world with her sword wasn’t an option. He had more control
over that realm than she did. She would have to destroy his totem,
whatever that was, or exorcise him traditionally if she was going
to defeat him. But did she even want to do that? If the entire
world’s future hung on this union, could she just turn her back on
it? As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t do that. Countless
people would die because she couldn’t stomach the betrayal, the
life he’d forced upon her. And that wasn’t an option.

Thinking about her mother again,
Yumiko was annoyed that she’d thought of Brian as noble, how he
wouldn’t kill her. She was being too kind to his memory, after what
he’d done. If she didn’t harden herself to what he was, she might
regret it. But then, why couldn’t she stop thinking about his lips
on hers? About the look of desire on his face? About the shirt that
clung to his body in the rain? She shook her head to disperse these
thoughts. She was confused. She couldn’t think about this now. She
wanted to discuss this with Mori to get a fresh perspective, if
only she would hurry with her fool’s errand.

“
There she is,” Shou
greeted as Yumiko entered the library. “All bright-eyed and
bushy-tailed.”

Reina stood from her desk. “Yumiko, we
were getting worried about you.”

Yumiko scowled. “I’m fine.”

“
You slept for a whole
day!”

That gave Yumiko pause. Had she really
spent an entire day in bed? She hadn’t spent more than six hours
asleep for as long as she could remember.

Shou sauntered over to her. “You know,
Madame Mori didn’t trust Mr. Mathis.”

Yumiko frowned. “What do you mean by
that?”

“
That note you gave me.
Mori told me to keep an eye on you, to watch Mr. Mathis. She didn’t
believe he was who he said he was.”

“
She could have told me
that,” Yumiko snapped.

“
I think she wanted
somebody a little more removed from the situation to see how things
played out.” Shou wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “The chemistry
between the two of you was rather obvious.”

“
I’m sorry,” Reina said,
slowly walking over to them. “I thought I was helping. I thought
you deserved…someone.” She looked away, and Yumiko couldn’t help
but smile.

“
I get it,” Yumiko told
her. “You were trying to set me up.”

Reina looked up shyly and
nodded.

“
Even though you have
terrible taste in men.”

Reina’s mouth dropped open, and Shou
laughed. Yumiko joined him, then sent an apologetic smile her way.
“Sorry. But that was a terrible move.”