Takeshita Demons (11 page)

"What was that?" Cait blurted out as soon as the
woman of the wet had gone. "This is getting way too
weird, Miku."

I agreed. There were so many questions whirling
in my own head. "The nure-onna," I whispered to
myself, still holding Kazu safe in my arms. I'd never
heard of her. And she said Zashiko had sent her?

"I have no idea," I answered Cait. "But I agree.
It's getting too weird. We've got Kazu now. Let's do
what she said and get out of here."

"I've been suggesting that for ages. What
happened? You looked like you were going to
collapse back there."

I shuddered at the memory of clinging to Kazu's
massive, unnatural weight. "I'll explain on the way
home. Let's move it."

The water hadn't quite receded, but who cared about wet feet when a shiny-skinned dragon demon
lurked in the corridors and a flesh-eating flying head
could arrive back any minute?

"But she seemed to know you," Cait persisted.
"And your Baba. And she seemed to know a whole
lot about the nukekubi too."

We sloshed our way to a classroom window and
I wiped a veil of fog from the glass. Outside
everything was white, but at least it had stopped
snowing. Something had stopped the snow, and
that reminded me. The yuki-onna.

"Did you hear what she said?" I asked.
"About that other demon?"

"Something," Cait said. "Yes. No. I can't
remember all those Japanese names."

"She said she'd fought the yuki-onna," I said.
"That's the woman of the snow. She's a famous
demon, a big one, back in Japan."

"The yuki-onna? Great. What's she like then?
Another giant serpent we have to fight?"

"No." I struggled to remember all the details.
"She takes the shape of a beautiful lady, dressed all
in white and with snow-white skin." Then it came
to me. I remembered. "She's it," I exclaimed.
"She's the one."

"The one what?"

"The one with the weather. She's the snow
woman. She needs snow to survive, she can freeze
things with her breath. I bet it was the yuki-onna
who made the snowstorm, who cracked the pipes."

"Why would she do all that?"

I grimaced. Cait wasn't going to like my answer.
"Well..."

"She's not another child-eater, is she?"

"Not exactly."

"Good. So she can't be that bad." Cait breathed a
sigh of relief and turned her attention to the window.
"This one?" She picked the nearest window, the one
I'd wiped clean from the fog.

"Sure." Together we struggled to flick the latch
and open the window. I kept quiet for a bit, cradling
Kazu in one arm the whole time. There was no way
I was leaving him anywhere ever again.

"So what does she do, then?" Cait asked, halfway
through unlatching the window. "This snow lady.
She freeze people to death?"

"Well..."

"What?" Cait stopped working and stared
at me, incredulous. The window hung half-open.
"She doesn't!"

I stroked Kazu's sleeping head. "Actually,
she kind of does. She's some sort of lost soul. Angry maybe. Some people say she sucks the life
force from her victims."

"What?" Cait's face dropped. "This is mental.
What are all these things? Why are they coming
after you?"

I shook my head. "I dunno. But on the bright side,
she's not around any more. Look." I pointed outside.
"It's stopped snowing. Someone, or something,
maybe even that nure-onna, has forced her back."

Cait struggled to release the last latch on the
window. "Well, the snow lady can't be worse than
the water lady. She was just plain scary. I vote these
dragon people and snow demons fight their own
battles from now on. Let's just get out of here."
She flicked the last latch free with a solid click.

Cait swung the window wide. A gust of cold air
raced into the humid classroom and we were staring
out across a snowy white winterland. It was still
night and everything was silent. Deathly still.

"Wow."

"Come on," Cait said, and she started to climb up
into the window.

"Wait!" A flash of darkness, blacker than black,
had caught my eye. It was outside. In the sky,
in the treetops. I grabbed Cait's shoulder with my
spare hand and she froze.

"She's out there, isn't she?"

"You saw it too?"

"Something flashed. In the sky."

"Could it be more snow?" I tried to think.
"A bird?"

The black thing burst from the treetops and
came whirling in a vacuum of light towards us.

"No!" Cait screamed and slammed the window
shut, flicking the latches and backing away.

Something slammed teeth-first into the window.
The glass shrieked like fingernails down a blackboard,
but it didn't break. It was Mrs Okuda, or more
correctly, Mrs Okuda's flying demon head.

I jumped backwards, following Cait in an
attempt to get as far from the windows as possible.

"Now what?" Cait asked, her face white.

"I dunno." It was still dark, she'd come back too
early. We were alone now, us against her. Unless...
"We could find the nure-onna?" Maybe she was
telling the truth about dealing with the yuki-onna,
and the nukekubi. Maybe she could do the fighting
for us?

Mrs Okuda's head smashed again into the glass,
eyes rolling back in her head and teeth gnashing.
Her shiny hair flew around her like a cape, and
I could see the red marks at the bottom of her neck, the place where her head would reconnect to her
body when she returned to wherever it was hidden.

"No way," Cait said. "All these demon people
will have to sort themselves out. That water woman
was half-dragon, Miku. Disgusting. And dangerous.
Isn't there something else? Some other way to deal
with this thing?"

The flying head shot again in our direction,
a black comet through the white sky. This time it
slammed so hard into the glass that the whole window
shuddered. When it whirled away for another attack,
it left a smear of red blood on the glass.

"Her body," I remembered. "She has a human
body. We just need to find it, before her head does.
If we can move or destroy the body, the nukekubi's
power is gone."

"Right." Cait sprang into action. "Find the body.
It's a plan. Let's get moving and get out of here."

I nodded, jumping down from the window on to
the still-wet floor.

"We should split up," Cait said. "Save time. You
take Kazu and go left, I'll go right. Let's check every
classroom, every cupboard. The body's got to be in
here somewhere."

"Split up?" I didn't like the idea of going alone,
not with so many demons and spirits on the loose.

Okuda's head smashed again at the classroom
window. In the moment of collision I could see
everything, her skin pressed flat against the glass, the
gnashing of her teeth, her dark eyes watching, always
watching. And this time, the glass cracked.

"We don't have a choice," Cait said. "We need to
find the body, and quickly."

A jagged crack spread through the glass, but
the window didn't break. We were still safe, but for
how much longer? The head whirled away, trailing
long black hair behind it, then it turned in mid-air to
attack again.

"OK then," I had to agree. "Let's go."

We raced to the classroom door. The corridors
were empty but still shining and wet. "Good luck,"
I said. "We'll meet up again once the body's gone.
Here, OK?"

"OK," Cait nodded. "One thing. You said 'move
or destroy'. I won't be able to move a body on my
own. So how do I destroy it?"

I hadn't thought that far ahead. "Fire? Drowning?
I dunno. I think it's just like an ordinary body."

"You mean we have to kill it?" Cait looked
horrified.

The sound of shattering glass prevented my
answer. The classroom window was broken. The nukekubi had smashed a fist-sized hole in the
glass, not yet big enough for a head, but nearly.

"Go on! Good luck!"

Cait ran right. I ran left, cradling Kazu, still
sleeping, in my arms. My footsteps splattered and
boomed through the wet corridor and I could hear
Cait's echoing as she ran the other way. I looked
down at Kazu's trusting little face. Now we were
truly alone. And I had no idea where to look for
the body.

I ducked into the nearest classroom, jamming
the door shut with a chair before starting the
search. I checked under and behind desks, opened
the wooden cupboard at the back of the class, the
wooden cabinets along the side of the room. Nothing.
No sign of Mrs Okuda's sleeping body. I could hear
my heart pumping faster, drumming like the rhythm
of a taiko drum.

"This is ridiculous," I said, talking more to myself
than my sleeping brother. "There are dozens of
classrooms just like this. We'll never find it this way.
We need a plan."

I took a deep breath, tried to quiet the drumming
in my chest. "We need a plan, Kazu."

But what was I expecting? Kazu wasn't going
to answer. Even if he was awake and actually understood the danger, he wasn't going to say
anything sensible. He was just a kid. A baby really.
And he'd been so ill. He should be at home watching
TV, giggling at the cartoons. Not being carried
through a flooded school like a trussed-up radish.
He just needed a place to sleep. Somewhere quiet
and safe where he'd be protected from all this mess.

And that's when I had the idea.

"Come on, Kazu!"

I listened for a second at the door, then, with
Kazu wrapped in one arm, I removed the chair
I'd used to jam it shut and listened again. Silence.
Then, slowly and ever so carefully, I turned the door
handle and opened the door a crack and looked out.
The corridor was still empty, still wet. I expected to see
Okuda's purple-lipped head flying at me any second.
But I had no time to imagine the worst. I had to get
to Okuda's body, and fast.

Taking a careful hold of Kazu's little body,
I slipped out of the classroom and headed down the
corridor, towards the staff room, the school reception,
the sick bay. I don't know why we hadn't thought
of it earlier. The sick bay. With its calm, soft darkness,
and the full-length bed. It even had pillows and sheets
and a blanket. It had to be. Where else would a demon
supply teacher choose to sleep?

I splashed my way down the corridor, checking
behind me every few seconds for the teeth and hair
I imagined could be flying towards my back. Rooms
and doors began to whirl past. I remember passing
a dozen doors, the music room, the drama centre,
others that blurred into the beating of my heart and
my panic. I only slowed when the end of the corridor
was in sight. The staff room. The deputy head's
office. School reception. And there, right next to the
headmaster's office, was the room I'd been
searching for.

SICK BAY. I felt as though the sign was lit up
in neon and fireworks. "We made it, Kazu," I said,
giving his head a little kiss.

She had to be here. Sleeping, and headless, behind
this door. But what if I was wrong and the sick bay
was empty? "Get a grip, Miku," I lectured myself.
Because what if I was right?

Just then I heard an explosion of smashing
glass from down the hall. At once the air filled with
a supernatural scream. The nukekubi had made it
inside the school.

I gulped. I grabbed the handle on the sick bay
door, turning it oh so slowly, edging it around until
I heard its inner mechanism click. The door was
unlocked. I'd guessed it might be. Okuda wouldn't want to lock herself in, not without a head to think
her way out again. So this was it. I gulped again,
then turned the handle all the way, and opened
the door.

Inside, the room was completely dark. The smell
was overpowering, all the hospital smells I hate,
disinfectant, bleach. But there was something else,
a strange flowery smell.

Jasmine. Okuda's perfume.

I peeked around the door, but couldn't see a
thing. Someone must have pulled the curtains shut
across the back window. It was darker in this room
than anywhere else in the school. I screwed up my
eyes, squinting against the dark, and gradually, as
my eyes adjusted, I began to see shapes, shadows.
The cabinet along the right hand side. The chair on
the left. And the bed, smack bang in the middle.
I couldn't be sure, it might just be pillows, or a blanket
laid strangely on the mattress, but it looked as if
there was something on the bed. Something in the
shape of a person. A body.