Yokai (20 page)

Reina stood up quickly and ripped part
of her sleeve off. She tied it around Yumiko’s knuckles, which had
been cut open when she’d punched the door. Yumiko stared at the
cloth as the blood soaked through it slowly. She welcomed the sting
it produced. Without sound, she felt almost like she was in some
sort of void, a nightmare. At least the cuts gave her something to
focus on. Pain.

“
Remember when you first
arrived?” Yumiko asked through the door. “You were exploring
everything, interested in every little thing that me and Mori
did.”

“
I remember,” Tanuki said
quietly.

“
We welcomed you into our
home without question.”

“
Oh, there were questions,”
Tanuki recalled. “I remember Mori telling you to throw me into a
mirror.”

Yumiko smirked. “Yeah. I remember that
too.” She was quiet for a moment, then her mouth twitched at the
corners. “But you were a constant friend for me when I had none.
And I trusted you. You could be a handful at times, but I trusted
you with my life.”

“
Right back at you,” Tanuki
said.

“
Then trust me now. This is
wrong. Brian is wrong. We can’t beat this by being separated, by
shoving me into a drawer and locking it closed. This is my battle
too, Tanuki. Please. Let me have this.”

Tanuki didn’t reply for a moment. “You
can be very convincing when you want to be” was all he
said.

Yumiko sighed and stared at the door,
willing it to open. What could she do to convince him? What were
the right words to make him understand?

“
So, you work for Brian?”
Reina asked. “Like, this whole time?”

Yumiko blinked. “Of course. He had you
watch me, didn’t he? He sent you here.”

“
I’m sorry, Yumiko,” Tanuki
said, his admission of guilt.

“
You were using mirrors to
complete the image of this building for this world,” Yumiko
accused.

“
No. The mirror world
doesn’t work like that. It can fill in images through walls, see
the insides of things. It gets the visuals down perfectly. It just
can’t get other things right. Like noise. You must have noticed
that.”

“
Yet Brian
speaks.”

“
Yeah. Magic, right?
Obviously when it copies a living thing, it isn’t bound by the same
rules as inanimate objects. Maybe because it copies the vocal cords
exactly? Who knows? I’m sure Brian appreciates it. It would be hard
to win you over without saying a word.”

“
It’s proving
difficult
with
a
voice.” Yumiko gnashed her teeth, mad at herself for not seeing
this sooner. “I really should have thrown you through that
mirror.”

Reina bit her lip and looked away, and
Yumiko stomped to the end of the hall, taking lungfuls of air to
calm herself down. She stared at the closed elevator doors and
recalled how Tanuki had jumped into the fray when she’d battled
with The Slit-Mouthed Woman. He hadn’t hesitated to help her out.
He hadn’t worried about getting hurt in the process. He had done it
for her, to keep her safe. Just like what he was doing now was what
he thought was in her best interest. That was what friends
did.

She sighed, thinking of
Brian, of how he was trying to protect her, misguided as he was.
And then she thought of his lips again. She leaned forward and
yanked on her hair, concentrating on the pain. She didn’t want to
feel sympathetic for the
creature
who’d destroyed her life, who demanded her hand.
But she couldn’t help herself. Whether she wanted to admit it to
herself or not, she liked Brian.

Lifting her head, she looked up the
corridor to where Reina was trying to tempt Tanuki with a bottle of
sake. For a moment, Yumiko felt hopeful that it might work, given
the yokai’s affection for alcohol, but then she scowled. “It won’t
have any taste.”

Reina paused and glanced down at the
bottle in her hand. She pulled out the stopper and sniffed it.
“Doesn’t smell either.” She took a sip. “Yep. No taste.” She leaned
back against the wall and set down the bottle. “Man, this world
blows.”

Yumiko approached her slowly, then
cocked her head. “Of course, the effects are the same, even without
taste. It’ll be nice and warm as it goes down, and sits in your
stomach. Makes you feel numb and fuzzy.”

Reina looked down at the bottle and
picked it up again. “Huh. You’d need something like that to make it
in this place.”

Yumiko waited for Tanuki to say
something in response, but he didn’t. She considered her next move.
Maybe she could cut herself, exaggerate the extent of the wound. He
wouldn’t let her bleed to death. And he wouldn’t smash the mirror
if she needed a hospital. She looked down at her knuckles that were
already bleeding, and wondered if it would work.

“
Alright, alright!” Tanuki
shouted. “I give!”

Yumiko blinked as Reina looked up at
her, astonished. It couldn’t be that easy, could it?

“
What? Really?” Reina stood
up.

The door unlocked and Tanuki peeked
out. “Just don’t hate me, okay? I was doing what I thought was
best.”

“
Like spying on me and
pretending to be my friend?” Yumiko demanded, pushing the door open
wider. The nurse’s office looked just like before, with the same
full-length mirror standing in the corner, gleaming in the light,
as if with mischief.

Tanuki looked hurt.
“I
am
your
friend.”

Yumiko ignored him and watched Reina
hand the sake to Tanuki, who began to drink it greedily. “You
ready?”

Reina nodded, but Tanuki grabbed her
leg, stopping her.

“
Nope. She stays here,”
Tanuki said.

“
What?” Reina frowned down
at him.

“
The deal was for you and
you alone,” Tanuki said to Yumiko. “You can’t let Reina get
involved in this.”

“
That’s sweet,” Reina said,
patting him on the head. “But there’s no way I’m going to stay here
with a perverted little beast like you.”

“
Yumiko,” Tanuki looked at
her.

Yumiko sighed. “Look, Reina. Maybe it
would be best for you to stay here.”

Reina scowled.

“
Hear me out,” Yumiko told
her, throwing her hands up in defense. “You don’t have the skills
to defend yourself like me or Shou. You could get hurt. If you
don’t want to be caught in the middle of this, you should stay
here.
However
, I
know what it’s like to be taken out of the fight unwillingly. From
firsthand experience.” She stopped to glare at Tanuki before
turning back to Reina. “So, the choice is yours. Although I would
recommend you stay here until things settle down.”

Reina chewed on her lower lip. “And
what if something happens to you and Brian? I can’t just walk back
into the real world like you can. I’d be stuck here.”

“
Would you?” Yumiko
frowned, thoughtful. “I wonder. Try it.”

Reina opened her mouth, then closed
it. “You mean I should…see if I can walk into the
mirror?”

“
Yes.”

Reina looked doubtful, but walked over
to Yumiko and stared at the surface of the mirror. “How does it
work?”

Yumiko smirked. “You put your hand to
the surface, and it should go right through it.”

“
That’s it?”

“
That’s it.”

Reina looked down at her hand for a
moment, then up at Yumiko with a little half-laugh. She put the
palm of her hand up against the surface of the mirror. Then she
pushed it into the glass.

And nothing happened.

Yumiko frowned as Reina pulled her
hand back, leaving a smudge of oil behind on the
surface.

“
Well, that didn’t work,”
Reina shrugged. “I guess you’re taking me back with
you.”

Yumiko touched the mirror and felt her
hand go through it to the real world just like it normally did. Was
Reina not able to do the same because she wasn’t the chosen bride
of Kagami? Or had Kagami merely given Yumiko that gift?

She glanced back at Tanuki. “You
coming? The sake tastes a hell of a lot better where we’re
going.”

Tanuki looked down at the bottle in
his hands, then set it down with a sigh. “Just don’t let Brian kill
me.”

“
No promises
there.”

Chapter
Sixteen

“
Shou is our top priority,”
Yumiko heard Brian say as she paused outside of the library. “If
all else fails, we will retrieve him. We’ve caused enough harm
here.”

“
That’s going to leave you
vulnerable,” a male voice said.

“
Then it leaves me
vulnerable. I have no other options.”

“
Yes, you do. The boy means
nothing. You could leave him.”

There was a pause. “That’s not our
way, Enenra. A human life is precious.”

Yumiko frowned and pushed through the
beaded curtain. All conversation stopped as she rounded the corner,
Reina and Tanuki behind her.

Brian leaned back against Madame
Mori’s desk, facing half a dozen kappa, who knelt before him, and a
man who was gray, from head to toe. His t-shirt, his jeans, his
shoes – all gray. As was his skin and the ruffled hair atop his
head, like he’d stepped out of a black-and-white movie. Otherwise,
he appeared to be a rather good-looking teenager with high
cheekbones, full lips and a lean build. His smooth skin, coupled
with the drab color, gave the impression that he was made out of
stone, but at a closer look, little black threads swirled beneath
the surface of his skin, making him look more like he’d been
chiseled from marble. But Yumiko hardly noticed the others in the
room. Her eyes zeroed in on Brian. He looked confident in his role
over the others, his head held high, his eyes serious and
commanding. Yumiko felt her heart rate pick up and she averted her
eyes.

“
What are you doing here?”
Brian sighed, crossing his arms. He glowered at Tanuki. “You
had
one
job.”

“
And I will not be held
against my will,” Yumiko said defiantly, lifting her head. “Don’t
blame your pet.”

“
Hey!” Tanuki protested. He
shook his head and looked away. “Sorry, boss. She’s rather
persuasive.”

“
It was the sake, wasn’t
it?” Brian asked.

“
Of course it was the
sake,” Reina chirped. She stepped forward angrily and jabbed a
finger at his chest. “You are one sexist jerk to think that we
can’t handle this. Just because you’re some yokai king doesn’t give
you the right to decide who will fight and who gets left behind in
some…pocket dimension.”

“
Pocket dimension?” Brian
grinned, making Reina scowl.

“
I like this one,” the gray
man said, appraising Reina. “She’s feisty. She will be a good match
for you, my lord.”

Brian blinked. “Ah, no. This is Miss
Arai. The other girl is Miss Sato.”

“
Miss Arai,” the gray man
purred, walking around her and looking her up and down. Little
wisps of smoke swirled in his wake, like dust motes taking to the
air.

“
It’s Reina,” Reina
snapped. “Who are you?”

“
That’s Enenra,” Yumiko
said, walking over to stand beside her. “The yokai who filled the
room with smoke. He’s made of the stuff.”

Reina looked Enenra up and down. “Too
bad.”

Enenra smiled slowly. “I’ll take this
one.”

“
Humans are not prizes,”
Brian told him gruffly.

“
No?” Yumiko asked him with
a challenging look. “Sure feels like that to me.”

Brian ran a hand back through his
hair. “Yumiko…I’m sorry about all of this. I would like the chance
to explain things to you properly.”

Reina scoffed. “You’re going to
explain holding her captive? I would like to hear this
too.”

“
It was…for your own good.
This is a fight between me and mine, and Shuten-Doji. If you are
anywhere accessible to him, he will hunt you down until he has
you.” He looked at Yumiko pointedly. “He will kill Yumiko. That is
his main goal.”

Yumiko pursed her lips, and decided to
shift topics. “What’s this about Shou?”

Brian let out a deep breath. “He has
been captured by Shuten-Doji’s oni.”

“
So much for the men doing
all the fighting,” Reina said.

“
This isn’t about…” Brian
shook his head helplessly. “I would have had Shou join you if he
hadn’t been captured. I didn’t want any bystanders
hurt.”

“
Well, I am not a
bystander,” Yumiko declared, standing tall and meeting Brian’s gaze
with conviction. “This battle is over me. I am at its heart, and I
have the right to fight.”

Brian held her eye. “You do. I am
sorry for making that decision for you. It’s just that if you are
killed, it’s all over. I couldn’t bear it.” He hesitated and looked
away. “The world will fall under Shuten-Doji’s rule if you
die.”

“
You’re just as
vulnerable,” Yumiko challenged him.