Yokai Read online

  Six oni entered the library then, and as their faces came into light, Reina gasped and looked away. Shou brandished a sword, and Yumiko drew hers silently, eyes watching as they filtered into the room, four with blue bloated faces, two red and swollen. Miss Mie stumbled into the room and hid behind Shou, who stood before her protectively. Yumiko would have been annoyed if not for the dire situation.

  The oni stopped a few feet shy of them, but it was clear that there was no getting past them. And with six in all, even with Shou’s help, it would be pointless to try to fight. It would only take one hit from her mirror sword to dispatch an oni to the mirror world, but likewise, it would only take one strike with the strength of the oni behind it to dismember her as well.

  An old woman entered the room after the oni, her skin wrinkled and hair thin. She looked like a witch, her body slightly stooped as she leaned on a cane, a fur coat covering her body. But her eyes were alert and clear, and took in Yumiko with admiration.

  “So, here is the mirror girl,” the woman said, in a raspy voice. “I’m impressed that you’ve gone undetected this long. My powers are potent, but you have remained a mystery to me, until you went to collect that book.”

  Yumiko stiffened. “Who are you?”

  “I am the right hand of Shuten-Doji. An oni myself, but with powers beyond your comprehension, girl.” She smiled. “My name is Oni-Baba.”

  “The witch-hag,” Yumiko sneered.

  “Sticks and stones, Miss Sato,” Oni-Baba sniffed. She looked sharply at an oni to her left. “Bring me the snitch. I tire of this form.”

  One of the red oni stepped forward and eyed Shou warily.

  Shou gritted his teeth and stepped into a defensive stance, holding his sword before him defiantly.

  The oni swung his sword at Shou, who deflected it with his own, but the oni pushed on the blade with his immense strength and caused Shou to stagger backward. The oni seized the opportunity to chop a hand between Shou’s neck and shoulder with such force that it sounded like his collar bone may have snapped. Shou fell to the floor, limp.

  Reina covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide, as the oni grabbed Miss Mie roughly by the arm. Yumiko shifted her stance, planning on stopping the oni herself, but three other oni mirrored her movements threateningly. It would be useless to resist.

  Miss Mie cried out and struggled in the oni’s grasp, but her efforts were barely noticed by the oni, who shoved her to her knees before Oni-Baba.

  Oni-Baba seemed to revel in the girl’s terror, and smiled down at her with pleasure. She ran a gnarled hand down Miss. Mie’s smooth cheek, almost fondly. “Come now, dear. No one likes a girl with no manners. Your young blood will not go to waste.”

  And before Yumiko could follow what she planned, Oni-Baba had slashed the girl’s throat open with a dagger.

  “Ah!” Oni-Baba purred, throwing off her cloak. She slashed at the girl again as the oni held Miss Mie up, and blood splattered over Oni-Baba’s sagging breasts and loose flesh, painting her face and torso crimson. The arterial fountain of blood lasted longer than Yumiko would have imagined, and pulsed to life with each beat of Miss Mie’s heart, growing weaker until it finally stopped. Then she was tossed aside like a bag of trash, left to spill the remainder of her blood over the hardwood floor. Meanwhile, Oni-Baba dug into her wrinkled flesh and tore it open with a wet ripping sound. She sloughed off her old skin like a snake, revealing firm, young skin and perky breasts. She tore at her face, revealing renewed skin beneath, supple and healthy. Her white hair came away to be replaced by radiant black hair, as if the old skin had been a rubber mask and this was her true form.

  “Much better,” Oni-Baba said, sighing, as the same oni as before helped her shrug back into her fur cloak.

  Yumiko recognized the woman’s black eyes, with red irises, and the cruel set of her mouth, but otherwise, she was a beautiful young woman now, boasting a slim waist and delicate features. Yumiko’s eyes darted to Miss Mie’s crumpled form, and she mourned the loss. She had been an innocent bystander who had merely been doing what she felt was right, and she’d paid with her life. Yumiko looked up from the pile of discarded flesh that Oni-Baba had left behind and met the woman’s cold eyes.

  “Now that we have that unpleasantry behind us, let’s get down to business,” Oni-Baba said, crossing her arms.

  “What do you want?” Yumiko snarled.

  “You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” Oni-Baba noted. “I like that. But it won’t save you in the end. You see, not all yokai want this peace to come about. We will not stand by while this union takes place, forcing us back into the shadows. And if Kagami has no bride, we have nothing to worry about.” She shrugged and grinned. “It’s as simple as that.”

  Yumiko swallowed hard. “What would you have me do?”

  Oni-Baba chuckled. “You mistake this for a negotiation, my dear, when it is an execution.” She nodded to the oni and stepped back to watch as they marched forward.

  “Yumiko…” Reina said, shrinking back. “You can take them, right?”

  Yumiko didn’t answer. She held her head high, and kept a steady grip on her sword. She wouldn’t go to her death without a glorious fight. But death, she was certain, would come for her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The moment before the oni crossed their blades with hers, Yumiko felt regret. The kiss she’d shared with Brian flashed before her eyes. Had that been the single best moment of her life? Or had it been the walk along the lane of cherry blossom trees? Or waking up on the train with his head on her shoulder? She’d been blissfully unaware of anything else during those moments, and they all had one common theme, as much as she tried to deny it.

  As she held up her sword to deflect the blade of the first oni, a rushing sound filled the air. Yumiko didn’t let herself get distracted, but took advantage as the oni did. She sliced its arm, and it disappeared. This got the other onis’ attention however, and they renewed their focus on her. Yumiko was faster than the yokai she faced, but she found that with two of them closing in on her, it took all she had to block their blows, and still more were coming.

  Then she noticed the smoke. It didn’t come with a burning smell, which was her first instinct of what its source could be, but was heavy and smelled of coal. In a moment, the room was so thick with blinding gray, that Yumiko easily dodged the blades of her adversaries, ducking low to the floor, where the air was cleaner. Apparently, the oni weren’t very flexible, for they didn’t follow her lead. That, or they were just confused or stupid. Whatever the reason, Yumiko pressed her advantage and took out the two oni near her with swift blows to their legs.

  Glancing toward the door, Yumiko saw several figures enter the room through the haze, and hop in the direction of the remaining oni. Kappa. Of course Kagami had come to the rescue. He had to protect his delicate fiancee. She looked up to see a ghost-like figure floating overhead, causing the smoke in the room to thicken. Another yokai. Enenra. He was made of smoke, so that mystery was solved. And she had to admit that using him in this situation was a rather good strategy. The oni were only powerful if they could see what they were fighting. And scanning the room, she saw that with the sense of sight removed, they were easy pickings for the kappa, even if the kappa were significantly weaker. They were knocking oni down left and right, pummeling them, and dancing out of the way of blows. And even if they were no match for the oni’s strength, they were still much stronger than they appeared. One kappa leapt onto the chest of an oni that fell to the ground with a roar, and quickly turned its neck nearly all the way around with a loud snapping noise. They almost made defeating the oni look easy.

  Yumiko’s eyes narrowed as she saw the form of Oni-Baba escape through the door, and she leapt at the chance to follow. She was intercepted, however.

  Blinking, she stared into Brian’s face, who looked resolved, his arms crossed over his chest. His sudden appearance startled Yumiko, and sent her heartbeat racing. But she was also resolved, and clenched her swo
rd tighter.

  “Get out of my way,” she ordered.

  “No,” Brian replied. A cheek muscle flickered, and Yumiko realized that this was painful for him. It gave her pause.

  “Kagami, I-“

  She gasped as she felt pressure in the back of her neck. She slapped her hand over her flesh and felt a syringe come away. Her vision immediately began to fade and her muscles became heavy. She heard her sword hit the ground but didn’t feel herself let it go.

  “Please, call me Brian,” he said, looking at her sadly as she fell to her knees. “And I’m sorry. But this is my mess. They found you because I wanted you to know the truth, so you wouldn’t hurt anymore. And I’m going to make sure that you’re safe until I fix this.”

  Yumiko’s vision blurred, then turned black all at once.

  Yumiko was twelve and fell to the floor with Mori’s chest heaving over her. Mori watched her for a moment, and Yumiko couldn’t help but glare at the woman. “I never beat you.”

  “That’s because you’re so full of hate and anger,” Mori replied. She held out a hand to help Yumiko up with a grunt.

  “You said that anger was good,” Yumiko protested, wiping the sweat from her brow and getting a better grip on the wooden sword she was using during practice.

  “It is,” Mori acknowledged. “It keeps you going. It drives you. But you can’t feed off of anger alone. It won’t nourish you. You won’t win when you burn with hate. It makes you sloppy and it blinds you.”

  Yumiko scoffed and circled Mori, taking a swing that Mori dodged easily. “Then what do you suggest? I pick wildflowers and skip around a meadow?”

  With a smirk, Mori attacked Yumiko with three successive strikes, which Yumiko was able to block, but just barely. On the last block, she’d felt her sword slip in her grasp. She tightened it again as she fell back into a defensive stance.

  “This is nothing to joke about,” Mori said. “When you face Kagami, do you expect you’ll best him if you come at him hard and fast? If you channel all of the pain and hate that you’ve been feeling into your blade? No, Yumiko. That is not how you win.”

  “Okay,” Yumiko said, watching Mori’s hands for any indication of her next move. “Then what will help me defeat Kagami?”

  “Focus,” Mori replied with a shrug. “Instead of fighting with your mind and all that rage that you have pushing you on, fight from your heart, from your soul. Feel out your opponent, intuit their intentions. Because if all you are is anger, you may as well be a monkey shaking a stick at him.” And with that, Mori swept her sword at Yumiko’s legs. Yumiko leapt and flew at Mori with the intent of landing a blow. Mori had guessed her move, however, and stepped out of her way, following Yumiko’s vulnerable body as she sailed past her and smacking Yumiko across the back with her sword. Yumiko imagined that the blow was harder than it needed to be, for she fell onto the mat with a loud grunt, her sword flying from her hand and clattering across the floor.

  Yumiko sighed and turned to be helped up by Mori, who looked her up and down. She gestured to Yumiko’s sword, lying at the base of the far wall. “Again.”

  With a gasp, the memory dispersed, and Yumiko opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling of her room. She winced as she stood, since her head was throbbing slightly. Recalling the syringe, she touched the back of her neck, which was still tender, and cursed.

  She looked around her room, and frowned as her hand went to her waist. Her sword wasn’t on her. Why would Brian take her sword? Did he think she would try to harm him? She smirked, realizing that she would probably at least try, given this stunt. Who did he think she was anyway? She wasn’t some helpless damsel in distress. Sure, she’d needed a little assistance with the oni, but she could hold her own against whatever he had planned to stop further movement against her. She could have taken out that witch Oni-Baba with little trouble, she was sure.

  A glance at the window told her that it was still dark outside, so not much time could have passed. She wondered what had gone on downstairs. And what of Reina and Shou? She walked over to the door and pulled on the handle, frowning when it didn’t open. She yanked harder, then let go with a sigh. She was locked in her own room? Brian was going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that to keep her out of the fight.

  Her head still throbbed, so she went into the bathroom as she decided her next move. She turned the faucet on, then stiffened, hands hovering over the water she had been about to throw into her face to slough off the lingering fog from her head. She stared at the water as it swirled in the sink, running down the drain in a counter-clockwise pool.

  It made no sound.

  Her eyes widened as she turned the faucet off, and was met with the same silence as before. Nothing came to her ears aside from the sounds of her own breathing and her own heartbeat. She cocked her head, realizing that the door handle hadn’t made any sound earlier when she’d jiggled it.

  She stepped out of the bathroom and stared around her living space, acknowledging the truth.

  She was in the mirror world.

  With a deep, shuddering breath, Yumiko walked back over to the door and yanked on it again, then pulled on it harder. She stepped back and stared at it, her hands going to her hair as she looked around wildly for something to get past the obstacle.

  She eyed the screws in the handle and nodded to herself. She would just have to take it apart. She returned a moment later with a screwdriver and got to work. It was slow and tedious, and with each minute, her resentment built. Brian had been clever, she’d give him that. But this was not going to deter her. She would get out of this place and she would kick his butt along with the evil yokai.

  When she finally got the door open, she shoved the door aside and left it hanging open, not caring if anyone went into this sanctuary that looked like hers, but wasn’t. She had no mirror in her room, otherwise she could have easily slipped back into the real world. And that was why she didn’t have her mirror sword, she realized. She chuckled and shook her head. She almost had to admire the move. Almost.

  She took the elevator down to the first floor of the love hotel, just like she normally would, and paused at the glass doors leading outside. They were boarded over with heavy-looking wood. She considered them for a moment, then moved on, walking through the empty sake bar. When she reached the library, she wondered why she’d even bothered to check there. The oni hadn’t attacked them in the mirror world. And, of course, the mirror by the door was missing. She looked around nonetheless, and thought carefully about mirrors. Where were they? She was so used to avoiding them, and Mori had very few on hand. She tapped her lower lip, then went back down the hallway leading to the sake bar. She turned into the women’s restroom and stared at the small mirror over the sink. Or rather, the place where the mirror used to be. It was now empty, framing a blank back panel. Just to be thorough, she checked the men’s room, but it was the same there.

  “I am going to kill him,” Yumiko decided, then raised her voice. “You hear me, Brian? I am going to gut you for this!”

  She sighed. Yelling had made her feel a little better, but she still felt caged. She needed to come up with a plan of escape. And preferably, before she turned eighteen. Tilting her head, she looked up at the fluorescent light that flickered in the hallway, just like in the real world. For the mirror world to have so much detail, somehow mirrors had to have been introduced into the building. Into her room. She frowned, wondering if he’d been sneaking around with a mirror over the past month, absorbing everything, filling in the gaps of the mirror world. Would this have just been a blank space in the mirror world otherwise? And did this mean that everything in the mirror world also existed in the real world? Even Kagami’s castle?

  She shook her head. Answers would have to wait. Right now, she had to find a way out.

  She turned the corner into the sake bar and jumped as she nearly ran into Reina.

  “Oh, thank god,” Reina gasped, then threw her arms around Yumiko, who awkwardly patted her on the
back in response. “I thought I was alone here. It’s…” She pulled back and looked around them. “Nothing makes any sound here. I mean, nothing but me. And you. I could hear you screaming from up the hall.”

  “Oh,” Yumiko bit her lip. “Sorry about that.”

  Reina shrugged, and looked past her. “The windows are all boarded up. At least the ones on the first few floors.”

  “So I noticed,” Yumiko sighed. She frowned as they returned to the boarded-up entryway. She stared at it while Reina pushed on the boards. They had been solidly installed. “I’m sure we can find something to tear this down, but it’ll take time.”

  “This is the mirror world, isn’t it?” Reina asked.

  “Yes. It is.”

  “So, can’t you just take us through a mirror to get us out of here?”

  Yumiko nodded. “I’m sure there are plenty of mirrors through that door. But searching for one may even take some time. In here…” She cocked her head. “They had to have gotten us in here somehow. And they mean to come back for us. There must be a mirror around here someplace.”

  Reina brightened. “The restrooms!”

  “I already checked.”

  Frowning, Reina looked through the glass door into the love hotel. “Well, I’m sure that some of the hotel rooms have mirrors.”

  “Of course,” Yumiko agreed, recalling the mirror she’d used in the nurse’s office to dispatch The Slit-Mouthed Woman. “Let’s go.”

  Reina followed her into the hotel, where Reina grabbed a ring of keys from the counter before heading into the elevator.

  “What other rooms have mirrors besides the nurse’s office?” Yumiko asked.

  Reina pursed her lips as she thought. “The island retreat might. And maybe the carnival. I think there are mirrors on the carousel.”

  “Good,” Yumiko nodded as the doors opened. “We’ll check them all.” She stopped in front of the door to the nurse’s office while Reina sorted through the ring of keys for the right one. After a minute, Yumiko frowned at her. “What’s taking so long?”