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  Yumiko glared at him, but he picked her up in his arms gently. His hands felt solid and somehow warm where he touched her, which she wasn’t necessarily expecting. And as he crouched, and launched himself into the air, she closed her eyes, the feeling of rising into the sky unsettling enough for her without having to see it.

  It only took a minute for them to reach an old pine tree, its trunk solid and firm. A creature ten feet tall was pinned to the tree by what looked like tent stakes that had been run through its hands, shoulders and thighs. Yumiko sent Enenra a look, but didn’t say anything about the brutality he’d shown the prisoner. If this mission was successful, she would let Brian be the one to explain the concept of humane treatment to the yokai.

  The satori looked vaguely ape-like, with thick hair so brown that it was almost black. Its face was a patch of raised brown skin, with unsettlingly human-looking eyes set in it. The creature struggled fervently against the stakes, and by the looks of its strong arms, it wouldn’t take long to free itself, although it would be a painful experience.

  “Would the queen like to cross-examine the prisoner?” Enenra asked mockingly as he set her down.

  Ignoring him, Yumiko stalked up to the creature, who stopped moving at her approach. Its eyes took her in at a glance and quickly grew wary.

  “The yokai hunter,” the satori said softly.

  Yumiko didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Where are your companions?”

  “Like I would give up that information willingly.”

  Enenra stepped forward eagerly. “How about unwillingly?”

  “Enenra,” Yumiko warned, putting up a hand as a sign to stay back. He complied, begrudgingly.

  “What are they reporting to Shuten-Doji?” Yumiko asked, stepping closer to the creature.

  The satori snorted. “Everything in the heads of your human friends. You are doomed.”

  Yumiko smiled triumphantly. “You’ve been cooperative already. You’ve given me two pieces of information. I now know that Shuten-Doji is indeed at his castle. And that you can only read the minds of humans, not other yokai.”

  Blinking, the satori looked stricken. “You…what are you?” He blinked, then his face darkened. “I can’t see into your mind either.”

  Yumiko quickly unsheathed her sword and struck it across his cheek. He vanished in an instant, leaving bloody stakes embedded into the tree in its wake. She gazed into her sword, where the image of the satori remained for a moment before it disappeared.

  “Why couldn’t he read your mind?” Enenra asked, then crossed his arms, watching her thoughtfully.

  “I am protected from his kind of attacks,” Yumiko said vaguely, and not really telling a lie. “My visit to the spirit world as a young girl gave me many advantages.”

  “How convenient.”

  Yumiko smiled at him, then stiffened as a flash of light caught her attention over his shoulder. She stepped forward and squinted through the trees. Something orange, something burning. And it was heading straight for their campsite.

  “It looks like Shuten-Doji didn’t waste any time,” Enenra observed, scooping Yumiko up with less care than before. “He must have heard something he didn’t like.”

  “Must have,” Yumiko agreed with a frown.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Are you alright?” Yumiko asked, running up to Reina, who was stomping the remaining fire out of a tent.

  Reina nodded, eyes wide and frightened. “I am. It just rolled through camp and went after the others.”

  “Went after?” Yumiko stopped and frowned, looking back as Enenra drifted over. “What was it?”

  Reina shrugged. “It was…the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

  “I think she wants a more detailed description,” Shou said, rushing over from another tent. He met Yumiko’s eyes. “It was Wa-Nyudo. He was chasing the kappa, burning them.”

  “Burning them?” Yumiko frowned, then looked around the campsite more carefully. The forms of two kappa were lying around the grounds, skin blistered and blackened. All at once, the scent of burned flesh hit her and she covered her nose and mouth automatically. “He’s killing them. Evaporating the water on their heads with fire.”

  “He seemed mainly to be after Ame-Onna,” Reina said, stepping back to examine the smoke that billowed out from the tent she’d extinguished. One side of canvas hung limply, angry black burn marks staining the edges of tattered cloth.

  “Ame-Onna?” Yumiko repeated.

  “Yeah. But the kappa were protecting her. And Harionago.”

  Yumiko blinked, processing this. There was only one reason that Shuten-Doji would have sent a yokai after Ame-Onna specifically. The satori had reported back to him, and from Reina and Shou’s minds, he’d gleaned that Ame-Onna was the only one among them who knew the totem that could kill him.

  “Damn,” Yumiko muttered. “Which way did they do?”

  “This way!” Tanuki said, leaping over a log nearby and skidding to a stop. He nodded back the way he’d come. “He’s got them cornered.”

  Yumiko quickly unsheathed the dagger she’d taken from Brian’s bedroom and laid it in Reina’s hand. “Just in case.”

  Reina looked down at the dagger with wide eyes and nodded.

  Yumiko smiled tightly at her, then pulled out her own blade as she ran, following Tanuki as he darted over the forest floor, dodging trees and leaping over rocks. He was quick, but Yumiko managed to keep up, although she couldn’t see the terrain as well as he could and stumbled a few times.

  When the smell of burned flesh hit her again, Yumiko almost gagged, and missed a rather treacherous hole in the path. She felt her foot sink into it, and suddenly she was sprawled over the ground, her knees stinging. She recovered quickly and jumped to her feet, wincing at the pain in her ankle. But she didn’t have time to indulge her pain. She was lucky enough that she hadn’t fallen on her sword.

  Darting around a large boulder, Yumiko stopped to stare as two kappa darted out of the way of a huge ox-cart wheel that was consumed by flames. Two other kappa lay on the ground, dead, although Ame-Onna and Harionago seemed to be in fine shape, keeping their distance as the kappa drew the attention of the flaming wheel. They were all trapped, however, as stone walls rose on all sides, with the exception of a narrow stretch of earth between two boulders where Yumiko stood with Tanuki.

  As the wheel shifted, Yumiko saw the head of a man at the center of the wheel, wooden spokes painfully driven through his flesh. His head was shaved, like a priest, and while his flesh seemed to be burned in patches of painful red and black, blistering and peeling to reveal bloody flesh beneath, he still had a black beard, full and unruly, that seemed untouched by the fire, but gave him the look of a terrifying wild man. His eyes were white orbs, his dry, cracked lips hanging open in a stupor. Yumiko had never seen such a horrid creature in all of her encounters, and would second Reina’s earlier claim.

  Wa-Nyudo made a sharp turn and drove toward one of the kappa unexpectedly, catching it before it could leap out of the way. In a manner of seconds, the kappa fell to the ground, limp, skin sizzling.

  “Enough!” Yumiko roared, stepping off of the path and holding her sword before her. “That is the last yokai you murder, fiend.”

  Wa-Nyudo paused and turned toward her, his white dead eyes staring, as if assessing her.

  “Yumiko, get out of here!” Ame-Onna ordered.

  “Not an option,” Yumiko muttered, but Wa-Nyudo seemed to have made a decision, and barreled toward Ame-Onna at top speed.

  “No!” Yumiko gasped, rushing forward to stop him. But Harionago stepped up, swinging her hair out wildly. As if she’d thrown grappling hooks its way, several tendrils of hair struck Wa-Nyudo, grabbing hold of the spokes, and swinging him off course. Harionago screamed as her hair began to catch fire, like the strands were indeed limbs, but she didn’t release Wa-Nyudo until he slammed into one of the stone walls.

  As Harionago reeled her hair back in, Tanuki stompe
d on any strands that were on fire, effectively extinguishing the flames. What she left behind was a splintered ox-wagon wheel, struggling in vain to pull itself out of a pile of debris. The horrible priest’s head sneered, grimacing as Yumiko approached.

  “You will die alongside Kagami,” Wa-Nyudo informed her in a deep, otherworldly voice, although his lips did not move. “Then you will join him in the realm of the dead.” As the last of the fire along one spoke died, the head seemed to disintegrate, flesh melting away like candlewax and dripping onto the earth, until all that remained was a skull, its jaw hanging open in silent laughter.

  “Revolting,” Tanuki muttered, padding over to the remains of Wa-Nyudo. “What is this thing anyway?”

  “Wa-Nyudo,” Yumiko sighed. “Supposedly, it comes from Hell.”

  “As do the oni,” Ame-Onna said.

  “The oni?” Yumiko frowned. “Then how does Shuten-Doji seem to have such a steady supply of them?”

  Ame-Onna looked thoughtful for a moment. “He must have an agreement with someone in that dimension.”

  “Dimension?” Tanuki tilted his head. “What do you mean? Isn’t Hell just…Hell? The afterlife? Death?”

  “It’s where our souls go to atone,” Ame-Onna told him. “It’s a place where demons rule. Where oni rule. Some would say it’s worse than death.”

  Tanuki shuddered and looked up at Yumiko as she turned, wincing at the weight she put on her ankle. “You okay?”

  She nodded briskly. “I’ll survive.” She glanced over at Harionago, who was fussing with her hair. “Are you going to be alright, Harionago?”

  The yokai shrugged. “As long as another wheel from Hell doesn’t ambush us.”

  Ame-Onna helped the last kappa to its feet and bit her lip. “Only one kappa remains.” She wiped the dirt from its back as it gazed down at its fallen comrades.

  “We were fools to come here,” it croaked.

  Yumiko blinked. “You can speak?”

  The kappa nodded, meeting her gaze. “When it suits us.” It shook its head. “The price for saving Kagami was steeper than we imagined.”

  “But it’s worth it, so long as we save him,” Ame-Onna said confidently. “With him, we can bring about an era of peace. We are all expendable as we work toward that goal.”

  “All except for her,” Harionago corrected her, nodding toward Yumiko. “She’d better be worth it.”

  “She is,” Ame-Onna assured her. She turned to Yumiko. “Wa-Nyudo was after me, which means Shuten-Doji knows that I’m aware of his weakness.”

  “Yes.” Yumiko agreed. “I think that’s a safe assumption.”

  “Then there’s no point in keeping it a secret any longer. Shuten-Doji wears his totem around his neck. It’s a pouch that contains the one love letter he never burned all those years ago. The smoke of the others transformed him into a yokai before he had the chance to add a final note to the pyre. Destroy the remaining letter, and you destroy him.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” Tanuki commented, eyes flashing.

  “Getting that close will be nearly impossible,” Ame-Onna cautioned, frowning at Tanuki. “He is the best there is with a sword.”

  Yumiko considered. “Then we have to be smart about this. Perhaps we won’t even have to confront Shuten-Doji at all. All we need to do is rescue Brian. After that, we return to the mirror world, where he can’t follow. He won’t be able to stop the ceremony from taking place.”

  “You would remain in the mirror world until you turn eighteen?” Ame-Onna asked, surprised.

  “If it means no more death,” Yumiko told her. “Then, yes.”

  “Then I’m sorry to be the one to put a damper on your plans,” a voice rang out from behind Yumiko.

  Yumiko turned to see Reina standing in the narrow path that was their only escape route. Yumiko frowned as Reina was pushed forward, revealing that her hands were tied behind her back. She sent Yumiko an apologetic look as Shou was shoved forward behind her, also bound.

  Then two oni filed up the path and stepped aside, each clasping the shoulder of one of Yumiko’s friends in an iron grip.

  Finally, Oni-Baba appeared from out of the shadows and grinned around her as she took in Yumiko and the remaining yokai. “Your little rescue party has failed, Miss Sato,” the witch proclaimed. She met Yumiko’s eyes and smiled, utterly delighted. “Shuten-Doji requests an audience.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Faster,” Oni-Baba hissed, poking Yumiko’s back with a hand fan. “No point in delaying the inevitable.”

  Yumiko winced as she tried to pick up her pace, and glared back at the woman. “I hurt my ankle. I can’t go faster.”

  Oni-Baba scowled and gestured to one of the oni bringing up the rear of the party. “Carry her.”

  Yumiko stopped and lifted her chin. “I refuse to be carried.”

  The oni hesitated and looked to Oni-Baba, who watched Yumiko warily. She gestured for the oni to step back and approached Yumiko herself. “Sit down,” she ordered.

  Yumiko frowned and, looking around, decided to sit on a low stone. She eased her bad foot forward and Oni-Baba took it in her hands roughly, causing Yumiko to bite back a groan of pain.

  Oni-Baba turned her foot first left, then right. As she did so, Yumiko examined the yokai. She was still dressed as a geisha, and seemed all female elegance at a glance. But as she moved, and looked at things, Oni-Baba gave away what she truly was, with cunning, cruel eyes and impatience. Crudely, Oni-Baba cleared her throat and spit into the palm of her hand, then rubbed her hands together and laid them over Yumiko’s hurt ankle.

  Yumiko scowled and looked away, trying not to think about the slippery feeling of Oni-Baba’s saliva as it was smeared over her flesh.

  “There,” Oni-Baba said, dropping her foot unceremoniously and standing up. “Now, move it.”

  Yumiko frowned and gently tested her foot on the ground, putting little pressure on it at first. When she found that no pain radiated from it, she stood up and pushed her full weight against it. It was like she’d never been hurt in the first place. She turned an impressed gaze on Oni-Baba, who tried to appear as if she didn’t find satisfaction in the look, but Yumiko noted that the witch held her head a little higher after that, and seemed more confident than before.

  Yumiko found the mountain pass leading up to the castle to be much less appealing with frigid temperatures made even colder by a brisk wind. After walking the pass in the mirror world, it was strange to experience it with sound and sensation, but Yumiko decided that the howling of the wind did little to improve its beauty. Even less impressive was the courtyard of the castle. Instead of a clean, bustling area, this one was filled with filth. Bones, picked clean of flesh, lay strewn about the cobblestone streets, discarded and forgotten, and resembling bones that Yumiko knew were normally found in human beings. The fountains burbled with blood, water no longer pouring from the neglected spouts. Everything was dirty and disheveled, many of the buildings missing doors or with broken windows that no one had bothered to fix. It was a pigsty. It stunk of rotten meat and death. In short, it was the sort of place one imagined monsters would live.

  An escort of two dozen oni marched Yumiko, two humans, two female yokai, a kappa, and a raccoon-dog through the halls of the castle, which, while cleaner than the courtyard, was still filthy with dirt and cobwebs.

  There had been no word on Enenra, and as Oni-Baba hadn’t mentioned him, Yumiko held out hope that he had somehow escaped Shuten-Doji’s grasp. It would appear that the yokai made of smoke might be their only hope, which left Yumiko feeling rather pessimistic.

  “Your pretty friend will keep me young for months,” Oni-Baba noted, jarring Yumiko from her thoughts, before the witch sent a knowing look Reina’s way. “Such soft skin and beautiful features.”

  Yumiko swallowed hard, trying hard not to take her bait and give her the satisfaction of a reaction. And truly, she didn’t want to think of Reina’s lifeblood rejuvenating this monster.

&
nbsp; “You might want to act fast then,” Reina spoke up, causing Yumiko to groan inwardly. “You’re starting to look a little rough around the edges, you old hag.”

  Oni-Baba cackled, sounding delighted. “Yes, I might bleed that one for days.” She winked at Yumiko. “And, of course, this lovely souvenir will go right on my wall, in remembrance of you, my dear.” She held Yumiko’s mirror sword up triumphantly. “You won’t be needing it anymore, after all.”

  Yumiko clenched her jaw as they were led up to a doorway at the end of the hall. Two silver double doors connected to form the body of a dragon, its body serpentine and scaly. The oni at the head of the procession pushed open the doors, and a gong sounded within, the sound of a harp falling quiet suddenly. The oni up ahead all filed to the left and right, and stood tall, facing forward like dutiful servants. Yumiko passed their cold stares with her head high, taking in the throne on a raised platform ahead. A harp stood to the right, where a human girl, pale with dark circles under her frightened eyes sat, and shrank back, as if willing to be forgotten by everyone in the room.

  Brian was chained by his wrists to an iron ring set into the floor beside the throne, and the moment that Yumiko caught his eyes, he closed his, clearly upset and disappointed. When he opened them again, he offered her a shaky smile that did little to comfort her. It was obvious by his expression that he expected this to be the end, that they were already dead.

  Once she’d set eyes on Brian, she found it hard to tear them away. He had terrible cuts over his arms and legs, as well as one on his side. A gaping wound on his shoulder looked painful and swollen, and bled freely, while a large bruise was painted prominently across his forehead.

  “Master,” Ame-Onna whispered, lowering her eyes, her voice choked.

  “God, Brian,” Reina murmured, turning her head away from him, then sending a sympathetic look in Yumiko’s direction.

  “There is only one master here,” Brian said, voice booming through the room as Yumiko came to a stop at the foot of the raised platform. Her eyes traveled up a dozen steps, carpeted in a deep red, with stains that were slightly darker, before she took in the throne. Then she realized that Brian hadn’t been the one who’d spoken at all.