Takeshita Demons (12 page)

Had we found it? I needed to be sure.

Outside, a long way down the corridor, the
head's undeathly scream echoed again. It seemed
further away now, and I felt my skin tingle with
relief. So far, so good.

I opened the door wider, creeping into the
sick bay, trying not to breathe in its stink of jasmine
and cleaning ammonia. It certainly looked like a body
on the bed, but the part where the head should be
was covered in darkest shadow. If I could get to the
curtain, somehow let in some more light. Then we
could be really sure.

I crept around on the left hand side, as far from
the bed as I could get. If that was Mrs Okuda lying
there, I didn't want her somehow to sense me.
Who knew how these demons worked? She might
not have her ears, but she still had the rest of
her body.

I made it as far as the curtain, but as I pulled
the blind aside several things happened all at once.
First, a strange cold came over me, moving from the
window to my hand and up my arm. I swear I could
see ice crystals cracking and forming across my skin.
As I moved the curtain aside I saw her, outside in the
snow. The yuki-onna. And she was watching me.

She was tall, incredibly beautiful but pale as a
ghost, and she was looking right at me, wearing a
long white kimono, all alone outside in the snow.
And in the next instant, she was gone, dissolved into
a frosted mist. Just disappeared.

In that same instant, another blood-curdling scream echoed through the school. It was the
nukekubi, and it was getting closer.

I jumped away from the window. And I fell
right back into the furniture, bumping a low table
with a screech and knocking into a water jug. The jug
teetered, then smashed to the floor in a cataclysm of
noise, exploding into sheets of water and shards of
glass. The body, for I could see it was a body now,
sat bolt upright on the bed, its headless neck glowing
in the crack of moonlight that shone from where
I'd opened the curtain.

It was her, but I didn't wait to see what else she
could do, head or no head.

I ran, rushing to the door of the sick bay, hardly
checking the corridor before sprinting down and
across the hall to another room. This one was a
classroom, and empty by the look of it. I spun around,
grabbing for a chair I could use to jam the door shut.

But the handle of the door started turning before
I even got close.

"Takeshita-san..." came Mrs Okuda's sickly
sweet voice. "I know you're in there."

I stepped backwards, away from the door and
that awful voice. My whole body convulsed in fear,
and I thought I might choke. But I still had Kazu.
I couldn't just give up. I looked around for a weapon, some kind of broom or baseball bat I could use to
smash her flying head. But there was nothing.

The door clicked open and began to swing
inwards.

"Takeshita-san..."

I soon realised even a baseball bat wouldn't have
helped. Mrs Okuda's purple painted fingernails
curled around the wooden door seconds before her
purple-lipped face appeared. The head had found the
body. The nukekubi was whole.

"There you are," Okuda smiled, baring her
teeth. A front tooth was chipped and her gum was
bleeding. I guess smashing through a classroom
window is difficult, even for a flying demon head.

She was still wearing her awful shiny caramel
skirt and jacket, but her hair was loose, no longer
wrapped around her head like a piece of fine art.
And she'd forgotten to put her pearls back on.
Her collar stood open, revealing the fiery red marks
where her head had re-attached only moments
earlier.

"And what have we here?" Okuda advanced
slowly. "A baby, is it? No." She smiled, her eyes on
Kazu and her teeth like an angry fox. "No, it's better
than that. It's your brother, isn't it? Another Takeshita
child. Shall I eat two in one day?"

"Get away from him," I warned, backing away.

She just laughed, an awful sound that grated
inside my head. "Your Baba can't help you now,
Takeshita-san."

I backed further away, thinking desperately.
There had to be something I could do, some way to
protect us. And then I remembered the cedar leaves.
My jacket pocket was full of them.

I reached with my spare hand into my pocket,
closing my fingers around the dry crispness of the
leaves. At once I felt powerful. This should do it.

"Hah!" I shouted, flinging the handful of leaves
right in Mrs Okuda's face.

But nothing happened. She just laughed again.
"Those leaves might work against lesser demons,"
she sneered. "But I'm no amazake-baba, foolish child.
Did your Baba teach you nothing? Do you even know
what I am?"

I pulled Kazu closer and backed into another
desk. "Stay away from us."

"Ah, but I've stayed away for so long already,"
Okuda crowed. "For hundreds of years I have hunted
the Takeshitas, but always your Babas have protected
you. And always that stupid child ghost has kept
your family safe."

"Zashiko?" I echoed. Again? Baba had always been careful to keep Zashiko happy in our house,
leaving her toys and games and food, but had Zashiko
really been so important?

"I don't know what you called your ghost."
Okuda advanced slowly, pushing desks aside with a
screeching slide. "But she's not here any more. You
are alone now. You are far from that house, and your
Baba is dead. Nothing can help you here."

I backed further away, bumping into something
harder than a desk. The classroom wall. There was
nowhere else to go.

"Give me the child," Okuda demanded, reaching
for Kazu with two toffee-coloured arms. "Give me
the child and perhaps I will let him live. Perhaps
I will not be hungry for such a tiny morsel after
I have finished with you."

The red marks around her neck grew angry,
glowing like new scars. I watched in horror as they
began to unwind, untying bits of her skin as they
curled and uncurled in a line around her neck.

I tried to scream for help, but my voice came out as
tiny as a bird's. Instead I clutched Kazu closer to me
and shook my head.

"Leave us alone."

"Leave you alone?" Okuda cackled. "When
I have hunted the Takeshitas for so long? When
I have followed you here across the oceans?
Never! I will sup from the famous Takeshita blood,
and then I will grow stronger than ever before. Your
powers will transfer to me."

"But I don't have any powers..."

"No powers?" Okuda laughed again. "Your Baba
and her Baba before that, all the Takeshita women
have spiritual powers. Why do you think the child
ghost stuck around for so many years? You are too
young to know your powers, but not too young to
share them with me. Now come, give me the boy."

The red marks around her neck wriggled as if
worms were digging through her flesh. There was
no way I was giving Kazu up, and never in a million
years to her.

I screamed and dodged left, hoping to avoid her
reaching arms. For a second it seemed to work, then
her head came fully detached and she screamed even
louder, zooming around the room in wild circles.

The scream slashed inside my brain, a katana
sword ripping terror right through me. I dodged and
ducked and ran, darting between desks in an attempt
to get to the door. But Okuda's head kept between me
and freedom, swooping back and forth like a black
and hungry hawk. Her headless body just stood there,
motionless and waiting, still as a statue.

"Give me the child!" the head screamed.
"Give me the child!"

Fist-sized fireballs started dropping from the
ceiling and the desklids began banging up and down
by themselves. The purple-lipped head whipped up
a wind, causing papers to whirl and jump in a frenzy.
Even the curtains came to life, reaching for me in wild
waves and banging against the glass of the window.

All I could think was to run. And I tried,
dashing between desks, dodging fireballs, trying to
steer clear of the head. Once it got so close that its black hair whipped my skin as it flew by in a rage.

But all at once I found myself back where
I started, up against the wall, staring again at
Okuda's headless body. And then, all too quickly,
something grabbed me from behind.

I tried to fight but got nowhere. This thing seemed
to have a dozen hands, to be made of rope itself. In
seconds it had wrapped me up, coils of fabric holding
me tight as an Egyptian mummy.

I struggled to get away, and then to cry out,
but more fabric wrapped itself around my mouth,
leaving only my nose free. I could hardly breathe as
I twisted around, trying to see my attacker. But there
was no one behind me - only the curtains, animated
into evil life.

Panic growing, I watched Okuda's head fly
back to her waiting body, the red marks swimming
through her skin like living needles and thread,
re-stitching body to head. At once the fireballs
stopped falling and the desklids stopped banging.
Everything was silent, but for her. In the distance
I could hear a steady dripping. The water pipes.
Perhaps we'd drown before she could eat us.

"Give me the child," she said, body reunited with
head, arms reaching again for Kazu.

I struggled against the curtains, but I was completely trapped. Only one arm was free, and that
was the arm that held my brother. I couldn't fight her
without dropping him.

I was beaten. I couldn't do anything to stop her.
Tears began falling from my tired eyes. We'd been up
all night, tackled a faceless demon, a flooded school,
a shiny-skinned dragon woman, and all for nothing.

Okuda's purple-nailed hands curled around
my sleeping brother, plucking him from my arm.
I tried to fight her as soon as my arm was free, to
punch her or rip my way out of the curtain prison.
But it was hopeless. She was soon out of range of my
punches, and the curtains didn't budge. I was totally
trapped. And now she had Kazu.

"What a beautiful boy," the nukekubi sneered.
"You must be very proud." She held him up, admiring
him like a delicious doll. And for the first time that
night, he woke up. He took one look at her and began
to cry.

"Ugh," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"Children. Who'd have one? Who'd be one?" She
plonked Kazu on the teacher's desk and turned back
to me, ignoring his wails.

I used my free arm to rip the curtain from my
mouth. "It's OK, Kazu," I said, trying to sound
comforting. "You'll be all right."

But Kazu looked at me, all tied up and trapped,
and he cried even louder. He was right. There was
no way things were going to be OK. I hoped like
crazy he wouldn't have to watch me being eaten.
And I hoped she might really let him go, after she'd
finished with me.

Okuda advanced towards me, the red symbols on
her neck working their way free. Her head was about
to come off. She was licking her lips. I hoped I'd taste
rotten, that she'd choke on my bones, that...