Chocolate Fic for novemberbaby; part 2
To: novemberbaby
From: melonpaan
Title: Stranger Things
Pairing: Ohkura Tadayoshi/Kiritani Mirei, Sakurai Sho/Horikita Maki, Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko, plus a few surprise extras.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: No one said love during Meiji Japan would be easy, especially if you’re a yokai, or an ex-samurai, a prince-to-be, an artisan, a demon child, or a bum. But hey, stranger things have happened.
A/N: Dearest novemberbaby, I very much hope I’ve done your favorite pairings & prompts enough justice and that you enjoy this fic. Happy White Day! ♥ I also have the best and most supportive team of betas ever, so thank you very much to NRK. You guys are the best!
Mirei wakes to the sound of a fishing reel slowly spooling into the river. The sun is high in the sky; it’s much later than she usually wakes. The kodama are quiet today.
Everything seems quiet today.
Mirei rolls toward the riverbank and places an ear near the water. Too quiet. “Good morning, kappa-san!” she bellows as loudly as she can. Not even a single air bubble. They must still be angry about the cucumber delivery, but it’s not her fault that Yoshi destroyed most of them in his fall.
She sits upright and waves at Ohno, who is seated in his favorite fishing spot on the bridge. He waves back, then lurches forward, grasps the rod with both hands and struggles to pull in the line. He fails; the hook flings out of the water, empty. Mirei dives into the river to where Ohno’s hook must have landed, feels the motion of the water before barrelling left, in hot pursuit of a red-speckled cherry salmon. Once she snakes her hands around it, she dives upward, hopping out of the water and gasping for air, alighting neatly onto the bridge next to Ohno.
“A particularly wily cherry salmon, isn’t it?” he asks cheerfully as Mirei hands the slippery, flapping fish over. “Such a smart fish shouldn’t have its life cut short.” Ohno bows to the fish in his hands before tossing it back into the water. It may be a trick of the sunlight scattering across the ripples, but Mirei swears she sees the cherry salmon flap its fin once, then twice, before diving below.
“But Ohno-san, you never keep any of the fish you catch. What’s the point of fishing at all?”
“The fun is in the sport,” Ohno replies patiently, patting her on the head with a very tanned hand. The skin across his nose has peeled almost completely off, the new skin faintly pink underneath.
“You haven’t put on the sun cream Maki-chan provided, have you?” she scolds.
Ohno looks quietly abashed. “It feels too greasy on my skin. As long as my hands are in good working condition, the rest of me will be okay.”
“I don’t think Maki-chan would agree.” Ohno just smiles and Mirei laughs, seats herself next to him and stretches her legs out in front of her before bringing them back towards her chest. One, two. One, two. She does this as she watches Ohno fish, watches him reel in a carp-which is released for being too sharp-a sardine-which is released so that it can grow up fully-and finally a trout-which is released because its eyes are so bright and clear.
“Ohno-san,” Mirei asks, as Ohno casts the reel into the river once more, “does it seem quiet to you?”
“It’s well into autumn, creatures are finding their way to shelter and warmth.”
“I guess,” Mirei considers, but a strange anxiety pools into her stomach. The kappa have never held a grudge against her before.
“Say, Mirei-chan, can you run an errand for me today?”
“Sure thing, Ohno-san! Same price?”
“Yes, of course. One whole batch of cherry blossom rice cakes all to yourself.”
“What do you need?” Mirei asks, all anxious thoughts wiped clean by the idea of Ohno’s specially made rice cakes just for her.
“I need you to get me something from Kagami.”
“Kagami?” Mirei repeats, scrunching up her nose. “That’s quite far, Ohno-san, it could take all night.”
“If it gets too late, there’s a temple you can stay the night in. It’s a little old, but should be hospitable. Just give them my seal.” He’s already handing her a little wooden tablet but adds, as extra incentive, “I’ll make it two batches of cherry blossom rice cakes.”
Mirei pumps a fist in the air. “So, what’s at Kagami?”
⇀
Ninomiya is exhausted. Although he passed out the second his head hit the pillow, he still doesn’t feel rested. His head is pounding, everything looks blurred at the edges, and when he woke up in the morning he was sprawled halfway down the Jojakkoji stairs. He’s not sure where the strength to make it back up came from, but here he is, mere steps from his bedroom and-
“Nino.”
He jumps. Yuriko’s voice is but a whisper above her approach; she’s always been light on her feet, almost cat-like. She looks concerned, eyebrows knit and mouth forming a severe, straight line across her face.
“What?”
“Where were you?”
He can tell her the truth, or he can lie. “I woke up early thanks to Tada’s medicine, decided to take stroll down the stairs to see the foliage.”
The barest raise of an eyebrow. “What time did you get up?”
“What?”
The matching raise of the other eyebrow.
“Seven.”
“I was up at six.”
“You’re not the only one with quiet feet.” He tries to sidestep her but she won’t move, a tiny thing of a girl and she can keep him there with the palm of her hand.
He really is weak.
“Nino, you don’t look well. You look w-”
“Yuri, I’m fine. I just need to get more sleep. Look, I’m going to take another one of Tada’s pills and go straight to bed.”
“But-”
Bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch
He slams into her with his shoulder, with enough force for her to fall backwards in surprise. She stares up at him with wide eyes.
“N-”
“I-Yuri, sorry. I’ll be better tomorrow, okay? I promise.” He tries to smile at her, but his lips won’t work the right way, so he simply ducks his head as he makes a hasty retreat to his room.
He slams the door shut and breathes, trying to calm the tremors racing down his arms and legs and spine and the pounding in his head like something is trying to crack out of his skull and escape. He moves the joints in his shoulder and realizes it doesn’t hurt. Nothing hurts. He bends over and touches his toes without a problem.
Just what-
You are not weak. With me you are strong. How dare she defy you, that insolent, insignificant girl-
No. Ninomiya shakes his head to clear the thoughts from his mind. No, she’s just worried in her own way. Yuri is like that. Quiet, shrewd and manipulative but gentle in her own way, you can’t trust women they’re petty and selfish and she’s just trying to help she will never love you.
He shivers; pulse quickening, blood running hot in his veins. His entire body feels so heavy, yet light, and his fingers close into fists and-sleep. He needs sleep.
Ninomiya doesn’t remember falling asleep, but he opens his eyes to a faint knocking at the door.
“Nino?”
It’s Ohno, and for some reason the hairs stand on the back of his neck and something in the pit of his stomach gnaws and aches and travels up towards his chest. His hand reaches unconsciously toward his sword.
“Nino, can I come in?”
No.
“Yes.”
Ohno enters the room and he looks somber, smaller, somehow older, and it’s as if something clicks into place.
“Have you finally remembered?” Ohno asks quietly.
Remember what, he wants to scream, but his mouth won’t move accordingly. His legs stiffen, his eyes narrow, words that are not his drip like venom from his mouth “So it was you all along, Musubi-no-Kami.”
“I am simply Ohno, now, you know that, Ni-”
“Don’t call me that.”
Ohno sighs. “. . . Tokunosuke.”
And it’s like his body is consumed with fire, and he can’t speak, can’t breathe, is suffocating, choking on hate and anger.
“Don’t think I haven’t been watching you,” Ohno continues, shaking his head and putting on airs and he’s a hateful liar and a cheater and a thief. “I have. All across Japan, from Kagami to Tokyo to Kyoto, hoping that finally, with the Meiji era of peace, your spirit would find rest.”
“You ruined my life.”
“You must believe that I never meant for it to happen that way. Hanano-”
“DON’T SAY HER NAME.” His hands moves faster than his brain and he slashes wildly, wide angry strikes until he hits.
There is blood on his face, his lips, but when he licks it clean he smirks. It’s not his.
“You were meant for her,” Ohno croaks from somewhere within the dimly lit room and the voice rankles him because it’s so calm and so rational but so full of lies lies lies.
“Stop it. Stop lying to me! I hate you. I HATE YOU.” His arms are raised for a finishing blow, but the door opens and light floods into the room.
“Ohno-san, what-”
“And you,” he hisses, advancing on Yuriko. She takes a step back, furrowing her eyebrows.
“Nino, what are you doing?”
“You fucking bitch.”
“Nino, lower your sword.”
“You love him, don’t you?” he asks, nodding in Ohno’s direction, but he doesn’t wait for an answer, aims straight for her heart. She dodges the first blow, but he doesn’t miss a beat, angles upwards and strikes at her neck. She ducks. The sword gets embedded in the wall behind her and in the second it takes him to pull it free, she reaches both hands into the sleeves of her shirt and retrieves two paper talismans.
He leaps into the air just as Yuriko throws them at him. They land on the wall behind him and she curses as he clings on the ceiling, draws out two more talismans and shoots them at him, but he slices through them in one clean swipe.
“Tokunosuke!” Ohno enters the hallway slowly, hands raised in surrender, blood splattered across his clothing, his face, dripping down onto the floor and Yuriko gasps and runs to him fucking of course she does but he holds out a hand to stop her. “Don’t draw others into this fight. This is between you and me.”
“But I can’t kill you.” He channels his energy into his sword and it flickers blue. “Yet.”
A paper talisman sticks onto the sword in an instant, sending a jolt of electricity through his veins and he staggers backward. The light fades from the blade.
“Taking your eyes off your opponent? I knew you were too weak to be a samurai.” In a single fluid movement there is a calligraphy pen in one hand, a blank paper talisman in the other, and a whole stack of them in her mouth; a canister of ink hangs from a thin chain around her neck.
He laughs: a guttural, animal sound from deep within. “Are you just going to write me away?”
Her hands are a blur, ink splattering onto crinkling paper and she sends several in a row straight at him.
“Paper, paper, paper. Is that the best you can do?” he sneers, slicing through them in a another clean swing. It explodes in a ball of hot fire and he screams. You can’t trust women they’ll just tear out your heart and fuck you over and you should just kill her kill her kill kill kill.
She looks delightful painted in red.
“Yuriko!”
“The balance has been shifting for a long time, Musubi-no-Kami. Life is moving away from the spiritual and you are growing weaker-blood. When is the last time you’ve seen your own blood?”
“Toku-”
“This blade has been fortified by the blood of thousands of yokai-with just one more soul I will be able to cut out your heart.” Another barrage of paper talismans fly toward him, but he’s prepared, spins his sword and they fall, crumpled and useless on the floor. He glances over with half-lidded eyes. “Good little girls stay down when men are talking.” Blue flames lick the edge of his sword and he slices at the air, creating a ball of electric blue flames that hurtles into Yuriko’s chest. Tears sting her eyes and she looks so betrayed, so sad, so lovely. Yes, women look best laying at his feet.
Ohno edges toward Yuriko and lays her head on his lap, looks up at him with solemn eyes. “You won’t find them. They’ve left, all of them. They were warned.”
“Not all of them,” he clucks, wagging a finger at Ohno. “I smell something delicious coming this way. The last of her kind.”
“Please,” Ohno begs, and oh, how the tables are turned from that shameful day he knelt at Musubi-no-Kami’s feet, begging for mercy.
He leaps out of the temple and flies down the stairs, guided by the light of the full moon, his body so light and so strong and soon he will finally, finally have his revenge.
⇀
Maki wakes to a knock at the door, three sharp, almost frantic raps. She glances worriedly at the twins, who are slumbering away, and hopes the visitor will leave. Three more raps, louder, echoing throughout the clinic. Maki sighs, gets out of bed and says, softly, “Sorry, but we’re not open.”
This comment simply spurs the knocker on and Maki frowns and opens the door, is about to tell the person off, politely, but the person standing before her, the person with one hand raised in mid-knock is . . .
“Sakurai-sama?”
“Ma-Horikita-san.” He’s out of breath, sweat dots his forehead, and his eyes are glazed and unfocused.
She steps closer and places a hand on his forehead. “You look absolutely feverish. Is it your lungs again, Sakurai-sama?” Her hand comes away damp, but cool. She places both hands on his cheeks and frowns deeper. Still cool. She takes his wrist in her hand and feels his pulse. Erratic, jumpy; she thinks she feels his heart skip a beat and can’t understand it.
“Horikita-san-”
“Have you been eating well? Sleeping well? Taking your supplements? You know your condition isn’t-”
“Horikita-san-”
“Your pulse won’t slow down at all. Have you been exercising?” When she finally glances up at his face she stills, and he carefully removes her hand from his wrist.
“Would you like to go for a walk with me, Horikita-san?”
“Um?”
“There’s a full moon tonight.”
“Is that okay, Sakurai-sama?” Maki asks cautiously. Somehow Becky’s cheeky grin and thumbs up pop into mind and it’s definitely possible, so do your best.
“Your sisters are already asleep, right?”
“Not that-if people see us.”
“If they see us, they’ll see us,” he says gently.
“Let me just-um, change into something warmer.” She blushes, suddenly self-conscious, realizing that all she has on are her night clothes. She shuts the door, scrambles into the room as softly as she can, and places a hand over her beating chest. She thinks she might understand this situation, but she pinches her cheeks, pinches away the hope. He may need to talk about his father, and perhaps the sterile air of the clinic would be most unsettling for that.
“I’m ready,” Maki says, closing the clinic door behind her and Sho smiles and leads the way.
“Where are we walking to, Sakurai-sama?” Maki asks after several moments of silence. They are heading out of town, toward the direction of the temples. Surely he’s not thinking of a midnight visit to Jojakkoji-she’s not sure his lungs could take it.
“We are just-enjoying the night, Horikita-san. The weather is turning colder by the day, we should enjoy it while it lasts.”
“You are ever the romantic, Sakurai-sama.”
“In another lifetime I would have been a poet, perhaps.”
“Or maybe a bard,” she teases, the sleepy quiet night making her feel bold.
“I can’t play a whit-unlike your brother.”
“Yes.” Maki’s expression sours. “My brother.”
“Don’t be so hard on him,” Sho says lightly. “It’s-tough. Having so much responsibility, having your entire family’s future resting on your shoulders. Sometimes you would give up everything to escape.”
He’s looking at her with the strangest expression on his face and she can’t find any rhyme or reason to it. He is so confusing tonight, so open and warm and honest, yet-she shakes her head. It must be a trick of the full moon.
“That’s no excuse for wandering around town wasting his talents,” she huffs. Then unfurrows her eyebrows. “He didn’t come home tonight, either.”
“Horikita-san is cruel with her kindness,” Sho observes, nodding his head.
“W-what?”
“I, too, have felt it far too often. With the way you look at me, speak with me, make me smile.”
They’re not walking anymore, are standing in the middle of the town, staring at each other and if anyone happened to wander outside they would be shocked to find a soon-to-be Prince and a humble apothecary standing face-to-face. He is still looking at her like that and she’s not so sure she can blame it on the moon anymore. Her mother always told her to be wary of the full moon. It can make one do bold, crazy things.
“Sakurai-sama, I-”
“I’m to be wed soon, Horikita-san.”
The wind is suddenly so cold against her skin.
“You-what?”
“She’s coming tomorrow.” He’s not looking at her anymore, for which she’s glad. She squeezes her eyes shut and forces herself to breathe. Once, twice, and the water recedes from her eyes.
“I’m happy for you, Sakurai-sama.” And she means it. Really tries so very hard to mean it. “I’m sure it will be a most blessed match.”
“Horikita-san-”
“I must be getting back, though, Nat-chan and Sat-chan might wake up and worry. They’ve been so antsy since Tada-nii won’t come see them.”
“Horkita-san-”
“By the way, how is your father? Does he need anything more? I wish-” This time tears really prick at her eyes and she has to wipe them away. Silly, stupid girl. “I wish he was able to see you on your wedding day, Sakurai-sama.” This time she doesn’t have to try so hard to mean it.
In an instant she is in his arms again, but this time they’re not falling, though she feels dizzy and light and his arms are so surprisingly strong, warm and tight around her whole body. She feels choked with laughter. “You can’t do this, Saku-”
“Please don’t call me that, not now. Please, just one last time, call me as you used to, before you found out who I was, before your mother scolded you.”
“It’s not fair to ask such things of me now.” Maki doesn’t know whether to sob or laugh. “Shall it be your wedding present?”
Sho sighs against her neck. “Perhaps the cruel one is me.” He releases her and she feels unsteady, but finds her footing and stands. She was okay when her father passed, when her mother followed, and when Tada-nii left, she was okay because she had the twins to protect and take care of and she will be okay now. She will always stand.
“My father is barely hanging on. I searched for ten years, endured my aunt’s iron rule over my life, but I still could not find her for him.”
“Her?”
He smiles a sad, little smile. “My half-sister.”
“Your what-?”
“It was a story he told me when I was just a boy. A fantastic adventure my father had as a young man. He ran away from home, you know, for a few years, ran away and tasted a life of freedom. He said he met all sorts of mythical creatures-ghouls with long, pliable necks, trees with human faces, dream-eating chimera-and lastly, the most beautiful yokai in the world. A yokai with dark skin and glowing hazel eyes and wild, flowing black hair. A Midnight Rabbit yokai. But in the end he came back home, back to his father’s dying side. Family always comes first, Sho-kun, he would always tell me. Later, when my father slowly succumbed to madness, he went back to those stories. Told me they were real and that he had fallen in love with that yokai. That she had given birth to a daughter-my sister-and that I needed to find her, save her. That she had been lost for so long. Family always comes first.”
Maki covers her mouth with her hands and shakes her head, thinking, thinking-
“So I went looking for rabbits.” He smiles sadly, a touch bitterly. “Foolishly sealed my fate away to my aunt because I knew if I could just find her-my father would become whole again. We could live the way he’d always taught me to live, without prejudice and pride but with love and warmth. Ten years is a long time to chase after a fantasy.”
“S-Sakurai-sama.”
“Yes?”
“About your aunt-what did you mean?”
“Ah, that’s the silly part.” Sho sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I promised to live the way she expected of me if I couldn’t find my half-sister after ten years. For the sake of the family, for the sake of the Sakurai status. As it turns out, she’s been using these same ten years to match me to the daughter of a Prince in Aomori, who has been traveling for weeks while I still searched in vain.”
“Do you-not want to get married?” Maki asks, heart hammering in her chest, the thrum vibrating throughout her entire body.
“I’m sure she’s a lovely girl, but . . .” he trails off as he looks at her and though her mind tells her it’s too late, there’s nothing that they can do and she can’t be so selfish, she opens her mouth and-
Yuriko falls from the sky, twists her body to land on her feet seconds before the impact. It kicks up a storm of dust and Maki finds herself coughing into Sho’s chest, his arms tight around her as the storm subsides.
“Shit.” Yuriko turns to face them and her body is laced with lacerations and bruises, dried blood mats her hair to her head and her clothing is scorched and soaked with blood, mud, and . . . ink? “Did you two see Nino run through here?”
“Yuriko-san, what-”
“Did you see Nino?!” Yuriko shouts, and her tone leaves no room for argument.
Maki shares a concerned glance with Sho and shakes her head. “I-I don’t think so.”
Yuriko’s eyes darken. “Where does Mirei live?”
“Huh? What does Kiritani-san have-”
“The bridge,” Maki cuts in, wide-eyed.
“The bridge?” Sho repeats, dumbfounded.
“Is she-?”
But Yuriko doesn’t wait for her to finish her sentence, dashes toward the bridge at full speed.
⇀
Tadayoshi lays sprawled across the Togetsukyo bridge, staring up at the full moon. Another day gone without going home.
He isn’t even sure the Horikita Clinic still counts as his home. When Horikita Masao died, he felt bereft, betrayed, robbed twice of a loving home, of a father to be proud of. He left to study medicine with two goals in mind: to keep untimely death from tearing any family apart again, and to make things better for his sisters and his mother. He traveled from Aizu to Tokyo, studied with the most prestigious doctors, but it all seemed in vain. He would never be able to stop death.
It was on the verge of despair that he met a band of seven young men, whose fortunes and futures were less than bright. Still, they smiled and laughed and danced and sang and something in Tadayoshi’s heart lifted when he was with them. He felt no heavy burdens to become a great doctor, and for five years he followed them. In those five years he lost contact with Maki, she had no way of knowing where he was from one day to the next, and he never had it in his mind to write to her first.
And then they went home to Osaka. Yokoyama said he missed his cute younger brothers and though Tadayoshi’s stomach had twisted at that, he packed up his meager belongings and followed after them again.
While Yokoyama was off visiting home, the rest of them crammed into a tiny room at an inn and did what they did best: they drank. Yokoyama, he learned then, was the only one with family still in Osaka. Many of their families had moved to other towns; many of their families were taken by illnesses.
“Ryo and Uchi, they’ve had only each other for as long as they can remember,” Maruyama told him in a drunken slur, arm around Tadayoshi’s shoulders. He knew it was a bad idea to come back.
Yasuda sat plucking absently at his shamisen and Subaru laughed loudly, began to sing along in his booming voice, with Uchi and Nishikido joining in, badly, overcome by laughter and alcohol. Murakami smacked them both on the head, which sent them into further gales of laughter.
At night, after Yokoyama came back and they forced him to drink ten shots of sake for missing out, and after they all fell into deep, snoring slumbers, he snuck out and visited a graveyard-visited them all until he found the small headstone for his mother and father. A whole life dedicated to this town and their honor could fit in the palm of his hand.
That’s where Maruyama found him, that’s where Maruyama knelt beside him. Tadayoshi turned to see Maruyama’s head bowed, touching each of the prayer beads around his wrist in respect.
“Tatsuyoshi,” he said, smiling sadly at him. “You should have told us.”
“I’m sorry, I-”
“No, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to talk about it.” Maruyama frowned, as if debating whether to continue. “Your parents saved many lives. If it weren’t for them, Yoko-”
In Osaka, he broke, cried thick, hot tears into Maruyama’s chest, an entire lifetime of mourning in a single night.
In Osaka, one of Maki’s letters finally found him. His mother was dead, his sister was running the clinic all alone and here he was, pissing his life away.
He had to leave, packed his bags and wrote a hasty goodbye note to his friends, his brothers. He was always bad at goodbyes.
Maruyama was waiting for him at the town entrance, eyes bright and bag slung over his shoulder. “What took you so long?”
“Maru-what-”
“I’m coming with you-let’s get going.” Maruyama turned without another word and Tadayoshi yelped and chased after him.
“What do you mean you’re-what about the guys?” When Maruyama wouldn’t stop walking, Tadayoshi added, bitterly, “I don’t need your pity.”
Maruyama finally stopped at that. “Hey, Tatsuyoshi, did you know I’m not actually from Osaka?”
“Huh?”
“I just pretend because they make fun of me otherwise, but I’m originally from Kyoto. I haven’t been back in a very long time. I wonder how much things have changed. I wonder how much things have remained the same.” Maruyama sent him a lopsided grin over his shoulder. “You’re going that way, right? Won’t it be more fun to travel together?”
Tadayoshi sighed, but couldn’t help the smile on his face. He was always bad at goodbyes.
They arrived before the sun, stretching their limbs as the train billowed gray-black smoke behind them. “I think we can get some rooms at the Jojakkoji Temple. Ohno-san is usually happy to take in strays.”
Maruyama shook his head. “This is as far as I’ll come with you.”
“W-why?”
“I’ve got parents to visit, too.” With his back to Tadayoshi, Maruyama glanced up at the sky. “Looks like it’s going to rain-you should head home soon, Tatsuyoshi.” He left without a single glance back, waved a hand over his shoulder while singing some silly lyrics about rainy day blues, the dirt road behind speckled with little dark spots.
“Stupid,” Tadayoshi muttered after him, rubbing at his own eyes. “You could have just told me you were bad at goodbyes, too.”
But surely if he could not belong in Osaka, nor in Tokyo, then perhaps, perhaps his true home resided in Kyoto after all.
The fact that he hasn’t been able to go home seemed to prove otherwise.
Tadayoshi rolls onto his side to stare at the faint glimmer of moonlight on the leaves of the Arashiyama mountain trees, closes his eyes to better hear the slow tide of water from the Oi river below. How nice it would be to live here, carefree, forever.
“Yoshi?”
When he opens his eyes, Rei’s face swims into view. Her yukata is slipping off her shoulder and from his angle he can see the rounded cleavage of her breasts. He reminds himself that Rei is Maki’s age-and how would he feel if he saw someone ogling her like that-and averts his eyes to the wrapped parcel in her hands.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, just something Ohno-san asked me to pick up. What are you doing here?”
“Thinking about taking a stroll to the moon,” he replies, sitting up and destroying an otherwise pleasant view. Rei blinks at him, cutely confused. “Togetsukyo-the moon crossing bridge, named by Emperor Kameyama. He said it looked as if you could walk straight to the moon on the other side.”
Rei squats on her knees, hands on her cheeks, staring at him with amazed eyes. “You learned a lot during your time away, huh?”
“Not really,” he says bitterly, then notices the hitch in her skirt and groans, covering his mouth. “You should really watch how you sit-didn’t your mother teach you anything?”
Rei glances down at her legs and then frowns. “I don’t have a mother.”
“O-oh.” he sits silently. “S-sorry. I didn’t-Maki-chan never-”
“Maki-chan was always very cautious with her words.” Rei smiles this time, and though it’s a touch sad, it’s mostly bright. “It’s okay, though. I’ve grown up very happily.”
“All these years I’ve known you, but I don’t know much about you, huh?” Tadayoshi asks, shaking his head. “I don’t even know where you live or what your dad does or-”
“I don’t . . . have a father either.”
It’s just like him to think only of his own miseries. He never knew about Nishikido and Uchi, about Maruyama, about his own mother’s death, and he doesn’t know anything about Rei either. How insensitive must he have been to not notice this girl, this bright ray of sunshine that always skirted along his periphery, beaming brightly with his sisters. She was always so happy it hurt to look at her, so when she asked him to play he rejected her, when she called him brother, he rebuffed her.
“I’m so sorry, Rei, I-”
“It’s okay, I meant it when I said it the first time.” Rei swings her legs over the edge of the bridge and twines her fingers together. “I don’t know anything about my father, and I have only one memory of my mother, but I’m happy all the same. I can’t dwell on the past for my entire life, nor can I run from it-all I can do is move forward.”
Something stirs in his chest: shame, awe, and something a little less clear, nebulous-floaty.
“Rei, I think-” He turns to look at her, her innocent hazel eyes and flushed cheeks, her shiny red lips-Maki’s age. He quickly diverts his eyes toward the top of her head and then chuckles. “You have cherry blossom petals in your hair.” As he reaches to remove them, her face darkens, but before he can apologize, she cries, “Get down!” and tackles him to the ground.
When he opens his eyes next she’s straddling his chest with her yukata skirt hiked even higher than before and while he’s surprised by this rapid turn of events, he can’t say he’s displeased. Until a flaming sword lands just a hair’s breath away from his head. “What the-”
“Fox fire?” Rei asks under her breath.
“Fox what?” Rei rolls off him, lifts him straight over her head, and throws him over the bridge, into the river below.
“R-Rei, what’s going on?” he splutters, resurfacing just in time to see Ninomiya pick up the flaming sword. There’s an eerie smile on his face, a sinister gleam in his eye, and Tadayoshi doesn’t know what’s going on, but he does know that something is very wrong.
He scrambles for the bridge as fast as his waterlogged clothing will allow, holds his breath as Ninomiya swings his sword down. Mirei jumps-high, and he sighs in relief before realizing that a wave of blue fire is heading straight toward him. Before Tadayoshi can blink, Rei is before him in a whirl of cherry blossom petals that disintegrate in wisps of fiery blue ash-on her skin, her clothing, her hair. As the last petal on her hair fades to ash, something happens-a flicker, then, as if an invisible veil is being lifted from her head, two little ovals sprout from the top and they look almost like-
“T-tiny-”
“Later!” Rei cries, pushing him roughly onto the riverbank and jumping, landing on top of the bridge railing. “Nino, what’s going on?” she asks as Ninomiya races back towards the bridge with his sword ablaze. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to!”
“Lies, lies, and more filthy lies from a filthy woman!” Ninomiya sneers, his mouth a gash of red against his face.
Rei jumps backward, avoiding his swings by a hair, jumps towards the cherry blossom trees to snatch up a handful of flowers. She releases them toward Ninomiya and they turn into tiny sharp daggers, which he parries with the broad edge of his sword.
“Useless without flowers, are you?” he mutters, angling his step and racing toward the line of cherry trees. With a single swipe of electric blue they go up in flames and Rei gasps.
“T-that light,” she says softly, so softly the wind almost carries the sound away.
“So you remember.” Ninomiya smiles grimly, licking the remaining blue flames off the edge of the sword. “I thought I had gotten the last of the Midnight Rabbit yokai, but who knew one remained?”
“You-you killed my mother.”
“She went willingly,” he muses. “Could have put up a fight but she didn’t even try. I’d always wondered about that till now.”
“Rei-”
Rei screams.
Ninomiya laughs, mirthless and wicked and Tadayoshi is sure that this cannot be the Ninomiya Kazunari he knows. “So angry, such a will to fight and to live,” he sneers, glancing from Rei to Tadayoshi and back again. “But alas, nothing to fight with.”
Tadayoshi doesn’t even see her move, she is a blur of pink and red, racing to pick up her wrapped parcel from the other end of the bridge. She unravels it to reveal a bough of a cherry blossoms.
“Sorry, Ohno-san.” The bough flickers bright red and hot white and when the light fades, there is a sword in her hands.
“Don’t play with fire unless you want to get burned,” whoever it is that looks like Ninomiya taunts.
Rei smiles grimly. “Come.”
And then they are a blur of silver and pink and crackling blue and the sound of clashing steel vibrates in the air. Tadayoshi is so helpless, so hopeless, there is nothing he can do. Someone will die tonight and he won’t be able to stop it.
“This isn’t good, his body is disintegrating by the second,” Yuriko mutters, biting her lip. Tadayoshi nods before doing a double-take. Where did she-
“Where did yo, what-who-”
Yuriko blinks, then regards him blandly. “Oh, Horikita-san, I didn’t even see you there.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes! Stop them!”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried that?” Yuriko glares. “Kiritani-san is the only one who even stands a chance against him, because she’s-”
“A yokai?” he breathes. “But wh-how did you know? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Does knowing this change anything about her?”she asks coolly.
“N-no,” he says, and he’s amazed at how readily and truly he means it. “It doesn’t change anything at all.”
But Yuriko is not looking at him, following the fight intently with her eyes. Rei is just as fast as Ninomiya, if not faster. She blocks strike after strike, overpowering him until he is forced backwards. He charges at her but she ducks, drags her sword along the ground and cuts a crescent into the dirt before blocking his swing. This time she backs off, runs a short distance away and cuts another crescent into the dirt. What is she-
After the fourth crescent, Ninomiya seems to realize what’s going on and he shouts, “What are you up to, little rabbit?”
“This,” Rei replies, stabbing her sword into the center of the markings and then jumping toward the sky. She claps her hands once and dirt rises like tower walls, ensnaring Ninomiya whole. The dirt falls back onto the earth with tremendous force, the sound blasting Tadayoshi’s eardrums and the fallout of dust obscuring his vision.
Beside him, Yuriko mutters, “Just one opening and I can exorcise Tokunosuke from Nino’s body.”
Tokunosuke? An opening?
The dust finally settles and there is a mound of dirt where Ninomiya once stood. Rei stands breathing deeply in front of it, wiping blood from her face. “Guess my mother taught me something after all.”
“Rei-” he calls to her, relief flooding his bones. Rei beams at him, waving her arms to let him know she’s okay, but then there is a rumbling under their feet and the mound of dirt in front of her rises. Ninomiya stands in the center of it, coughing and dirty, but otherwise unscathed.
“Pretty little yokai tricks won’t work on me, little rabbit.”
He’s running towards her at full speed and Rei is unarmed and defenseless and-an opening!
His feet move faster than his brain as he steps in front of Yuriko, shouts with both hands around his mouth, “Hey, T-Tokunosuke!”
Ninomiya’s head snaps around to glare at him.
Bingo.
“Yoshi, what are you-”
But this time it’s his turn to cut her off. This time he will save her. “I like Rei! I don’t know very much about her, but I think like her a lot!”
“What?!” Rei shouts, back, eyes wide and alarmed.
“So if you’re intent on killing her, would you go ahead and kill me first? I don’t really want to see a future without her in it!”
“Ah, how positively romantic.” Ninomiya yawns.
“He’s lying! I’m your opponent-fight me!” Rei demands, but Ninomiya shoots her a feral grin. “You’ll join him in the afterlife.”
He’s a moving blue blur heading straight towards him, Rei chasing after him in hot pursuit, and Tadayoshi only now realizes the imminent danger he is probably in. “You better be a damn good shot,” he mutters to Yuriko, before wishing he had thought of better possible last words.
“Tada-nii!”
Everything happens as if in slow motion. Ninomiya notices Yuriko mere seconds before swinging down his sword, pivots his step and charges toward Maki and Sho. Yuriko takes out a fresh paper talisman from her sleeve and ink splatters everywhere as she writes. She sends it careening toward Maki and Sho and it beats Ninomiya, hovers in the air just before he strikes. He staggers backward from some impact as Rei finally catches up to him. Maki, confusion evident on her face, blurts out, “Lower back!” and Rei follows up with the hilt of her blade, a deafening crack that drops Ninomiya to his knees-but not before he swings upward, the blade stabbing clean through Rei’s body and coming out the other side. His swords glows a final dull blue before it fades completely and Rei falls, blood sputtering from her lips, landing lifeless and still. Ninomiya stares, eyes wide and mouth agape, and he lets out a blood curdling scream.
Yuriko is before him in an instant and as he glances up through blood and tears, she slaps a paper talisman on his forehead.
There is another deafening cry, but with Ninomiya’s lifeless body slumped over Rei’s, and Maki and Sho looking on in mute horror, Tadayoshi realizes that the cry has come from his own lips. He runs toward her as fast as he can, tossing Ninomiya’s body aside and gathering Rei into his arms. There is blood everywhere, but when he feels for a pulse it’s there-faint, fading, but there.
“Maki-chan, go back to the clinic and get me anything that will help stop the blood and the pain and dad’s old surgery kit. Meet me at the temple as soon as you can.”
Without another word he races towards the steps to Jojakkoji, taking them two at a time and praying to whatever gods might still exist in this world that he makes it in time.
Part 3.
From: melonpaan
Title: Stranger Things
Pairing: Ohkura Tadayoshi/Kiritani Mirei, Sakurai Sho/Horikita Maki, Ninomiya Kazunari/Yoshitaka Yuriko, plus a few surprise extras.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: No one said love during Meiji Japan would be easy, especially if you’re a yokai, or an ex-samurai, a prince-to-be, an artisan, a demon child, or a bum. But hey, stranger things have happened.
A/N: Dearest novemberbaby, I very much hope I’ve done your favorite pairings & prompts enough justice and that you enjoy this fic. Happy White Day! ♥ I also have the best and most supportive team of betas ever, so thank you very much to NRK. You guys are the best!
Mirei wakes to the sound of a fishing reel slowly spooling into the river. The sun is high in the sky; it’s much later than she usually wakes. The kodama are quiet today.
Everything seems quiet today.
Mirei rolls toward the riverbank and places an ear near the water. Too quiet. “Good morning, kappa-san!” she bellows as loudly as she can. Not even a single air bubble. They must still be angry about the cucumber delivery, but it’s not her fault that Yoshi destroyed most of them in his fall.
She sits upright and waves at Ohno, who is seated in his favorite fishing spot on the bridge. He waves back, then lurches forward, grasps the rod with both hands and struggles to pull in the line. He fails; the hook flings out of the water, empty. Mirei dives into the river to where Ohno’s hook must have landed, feels the motion of the water before barrelling left, in hot pursuit of a red-speckled cherry salmon. Once she snakes her hands around it, she dives upward, hopping out of the water and gasping for air, alighting neatly onto the bridge next to Ohno.
“A particularly wily cherry salmon, isn’t it?” he asks cheerfully as Mirei hands the slippery, flapping fish over. “Such a smart fish shouldn’t have its life cut short.” Ohno bows to the fish in his hands before tossing it back into the water. It may be a trick of the sunlight scattering across the ripples, but Mirei swears she sees the cherry salmon flap its fin once, then twice, before diving below.
“But Ohno-san, you never keep any of the fish you catch. What’s the point of fishing at all?”
“The fun is in the sport,” Ohno replies patiently, patting her on the head with a very tanned hand. The skin across his nose has peeled almost completely off, the new skin faintly pink underneath.
“You haven’t put on the sun cream Maki-chan provided, have you?” she scolds.
Ohno looks quietly abashed. “It feels too greasy on my skin. As long as my hands are in good working condition, the rest of me will be okay.”
“I don’t think Maki-chan would agree.” Ohno just smiles and Mirei laughs, seats herself next to him and stretches her legs out in front of her before bringing them back towards her chest. One, two. One, two. She does this as she watches Ohno fish, watches him reel in a carp-which is released for being too sharp-a sardine-which is released so that it can grow up fully-and finally a trout-which is released because its eyes are so bright and clear.
“Ohno-san,” Mirei asks, as Ohno casts the reel into the river once more, “does it seem quiet to you?”
“It’s well into autumn, creatures are finding their way to shelter and warmth.”
“I guess,” Mirei considers, but a strange anxiety pools into her stomach. The kappa have never held a grudge against her before.
“Say, Mirei-chan, can you run an errand for me today?”
“Sure thing, Ohno-san! Same price?”
“Yes, of course. One whole batch of cherry blossom rice cakes all to yourself.”
“What do you need?” Mirei asks, all anxious thoughts wiped clean by the idea of Ohno’s specially made rice cakes just for her.
“I need you to get me something from Kagami.”
“Kagami?” Mirei repeats, scrunching up her nose. “That’s quite far, Ohno-san, it could take all night.”
“If it gets too late, there’s a temple you can stay the night in. It’s a little old, but should be hospitable. Just give them my seal.” He’s already handing her a little wooden tablet but adds, as extra incentive, “I’ll make it two batches of cherry blossom rice cakes.”
Mirei pumps a fist in the air. “So, what’s at Kagami?”
⇀
Ninomiya is exhausted. Although he passed out the second his head hit the pillow, he still doesn’t feel rested. His head is pounding, everything looks blurred at the edges, and when he woke up in the morning he was sprawled halfway down the Jojakkoji stairs. He’s not sure where the strength to make it back up came from, but here he is, mere steps from his bedroom and-
“Nino.”
He jumps. Yuriko’s voice is but a whisper above her approach; she’s always been light on her feet, almost cat-like. She looks concerned, eyebrows knit and mouth forming a severe, straight line across her face.
“What?”
“Where were you?”
He can tell her the truth, or he can lie. “I woke up early thanks to Tada’s medicine, decided to take stroll down the stairs to see the foliage.”
The barest raise of an eyebrow. “What time did you get up?”
“What?”
The matching raise of the other eyebrow.
“Seven.”
“I was up at six.”
“You’re not the only one with quiet feet.” He tries to sidestep her but she won’t move, a tiny thing of a girl and she can keep him there with the palm of her hand.
He really is weak.
“Nino, you don’t look well. You look w-”
“Yuri, I’m fine. I just need to get more sleep. Look, I’m going to take another one of Tada’s pills and go straight to bed.”
“But-”
Bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch
He slams into her with his shoulder, with enough force for her to fall backwards in surprise. She stares up at him with wide eyes.
“N-”
“I-Yuri, sorry. I’ll be better tomorrow, okay? I promise.” He tries to smile at her, but his lips won’t work the right way, so he simply ducks his head as he makes a hasty retreat to his room.
He slams the door shut and breathes, trying to calm the tremors racing down his arms and legs and spine and the pounding in his head like something is trying to crack out of his skull and escape. He moves the joints in his shoulder and realizes it doesn’t hurt. Nothing hurts. He bends over and touches his toes without a problem.
Just what-
You are not weak. With me you are strong. How dare she defy you, that insolent, insignificant girl-
No. Ninomiya shakes his head to clear the thoughts from his mind. No, she’s just worried in her own way. Yuri is like that. Quiet, shrewd and manipulative but gentle in her own way, you can’t trust women they’re petty and selfish and she’s just trying to help she will never love you.
He shivers; pulse quickening, blood running hot in his veins. His entire body feels so heavy, yet light, and his fingers close into fists and-sleep. He needs sleep.
Ninomiya doesn’t remember falling asleep, but he opens his eyes to a faint knocking at the door.
“Nino?”
It’s Ohno, and for some reason the hairs stand on the back of his neck and something in the pit of his stomach gnaws and aches and travels up towards his chest. His hand reaches unconsciously toward his sword.
“Nino, can I come in?”
No.
“Yes.”
Ohno enters the room and he looks somber, smaller, somehow older, and it’s as if something clicks into place.
“Have you finally remembered?” Ohno asks quietly.
Remember what, he wants to scream, but his mouth won’t move accordingly. His legs stiffen, his eyes narrow, words that are not his drip like venom from his mouth “So it was you all along, Musubi-no-Kami.”
“I am simply Ohno, now, you know that, Ni-”
“Don’t call me that.”
Ohno sighs. “. . . Tokunosuke.”
And it’s like his body is consumed with fire, and he can’t speak, can’t breathe, is suffocating, choking on hate and anger.
“Don’t think I haven’t been watching you,” Ohno continues, shaking his head and putting on airs and he’s a hateful liar and a cheater and a thief. “I have. All across Japan, from Kagami to Tokyo to Kyoto, hoping that finally, with the Meiji era of peace, your spirit would find rest.”
“You ruined my life.”
“You must believe that I never meant for it to happen that way. Hanano-”
“DON’T SAY HER NAME.” His hands moves faster than his brain and he slashes wildly, wide angry strikes until he hits.
There is blood on his face, his lips, but when he licks it clean he smirks. It’s not his.
“You were meant for her,” Ohno croaks from somewhere within the dimly lit room and the voice rankles him because it’s so calm and so rational but so full of lies lies lies.
“Stop it. Stop lying to me! I hate you. I HATE YOU.” His arms are raised for a finishing blow, but the door opens and light floods into the room.
“Ohno-san, what-”
“And you,” he hisses, advancing on Yuriko. She takes a step back, furrowing her eyebrows.
“Nino, what are you doing?”
“You fucking bitch.”
“Nino, lower your sword.”
“You love him, don’t you?” he asks, nodding in Ohno’s direction, but he doesn’t wait for an answer, aims straight for her heart. She dodges the first blow, but he doesn’t miss a beat, angles upwards and strikes at her neck. She ducks. The sword gets embedded in the wall behind her and in the second it takes him to pull it free, she reaches both hands into the sleeves of her shirt and retrieves two paper talismans.
He leaps into the air just as Yuriko throws them at him. They land on the wall behind him and she curses as he clings on the ceiling, draws out two more talismans and shoots them at him, but he slices through them in one clean swipe.
“Tokunosuke!” Ohno enters the hallway slowly, hands raised in surrender, blood splattered across his clothing, his face, dripping down onto the floor and Yuriko gasps and runs to him fucking of course she does but he holds out a hand to stop her. “Don’t draw others into this fight. This is between you and me.”
“But I can’t kill you.” He channels his energy into his sword and it flickers blue. “Yet.”
A paper talisman sticks onto the sword in an instant, sending a jolt of electricity through his veins and he staggers backward. The light fades from the blade.
“Taking your eyes off your opponent? I knew you were too weak to be a samurai.” In a single fluid movement there is a calligraphy pen in one hand, a blank paper talisman in the other, and a whole stack of them in her mouth; a canister of ink hangs from a thin chain around her neck.
He laughs: a guttural, animal sound from deep within. “Are you just going to write me away?”
Her hands are a blur, ink splattering onto crinkling paper and she sends several in a row straight at him.
“Paper, paper, paper. Is that the best you can do?” he sneers, slicing through them in a another clean swing. It explodes in a ball of hot fire and he screams. You can’t trust women they’ll just tear out your heart and fuck you over and you should just kill her kill her kill kill kill.
She looks delightful painted in red.
“Yuriko!”
“The balance has been shifting for a long time, Musubi-no-Kami. Life is moving away from the spiritual and you are growing weaker-blood. When is the last time you’ve seen your own blood?”
“Toku-”
“This blade has been fortified by the blood of thousands of yokai-with just one more soul I will be able to cut out your heart.” Another barrage of paper talismans fly toward him, but he’s prepared, spins his sword and they fall, crumpled and useless on the floor. He glances over with half-lidded eyes. “Good little girls stay down when men are talking.” Blue flames lick the edge of his sword and he slices at the air, creating a ball of electric blue flames that hurtles into Yuriko’s chest. Tears sting her eyes and she looks so betrayed, so sad, so lovely. Yes, women look best laying at his feet.
Ohno edges toward Yuriko and lays her head on his lap, looks up at him with solemn eyes. “You won’t find them. They’ve left, all of them. They were warned.”
“Not all of them,” he clucks, wagging a finger at Ohno. “I smell something delicious coming this way. The last of her kind.”
“Please,” Ohno begs, and oh, how the tables are turned from that shameful day he knelt at Musubi-no-Kami’s feet, begging for mercy.
He leaps out of the temple and flies down the stairs, guided by the light of the full moon, his body so light and so strong and soon he will finally, finally have his revenge.
⇀
Maki wakes to a knock at the door, three sharp, almost frantic raps. She glances worriedly at the twins, who are slumbering away, and hopes the visitor will leave. Three more raps, louder, echoing throughout the clinic. Maki sighs, gets out of bed and says, softly, “Sorry, but we’re not open.”
This comment simply spurs the knocker on and Maki frowns and opens the door, is about to tell the person off, politely, but the person standing before her, the person with one hand raised in mid-knock is . . .
“Sakurai-sama?”
“Ma-Horikita-san.” He’s out of breath, sweat dots his forehead, and his eyes are glazed and unfocused.
She steps closer and places a hand on his forehead. “You look absolutely feverish. Is it your lungs again, Sakurai-sama?” Her hand comes away damp, but cool. She places both hands on his cheeks and frowns deeper. Still cool. She takes his wrist in her hand and feels his pulse. Erratic, jumpy; she thinks she feels his heart skip a beat and can’t understand it.
“Horikita-san-”
“Have you been eating well? Sleeping well? Taking your supplements? You know your condition isn’t-”
“Horikita-san-”
“Your pulse won’t slow down at all. Have you been exercising?” When she finally glances up at his face she stills, and he carefully removes her hand from his wrist.
“Would you like to go for a walk with me, Horikita-san?”
“Um?”
“There’s a full moon tonight.”
“Is that okay, Sakurai-sama?” Maki asks cautiously. Somehow Becky’s cheeky grin and thumbs up pop into mind and it’s definitely possible, so do your best.
“Your sisters are already asleep, right?”
“Not that-if people see us.”
“If they see us, they’ll see us,” he says gently.
“Let me just-um, change into something warmer.” She blushes, suddenly self-conscious, realizing that all she has on are her night clothes. She shuts the door, scrambles into the room as softly as she can, and places a hand over her beating chest. She thinks she might understand this situation, but she pinches her cheeks, pinches away the hope. He may need to talk about his father, and perhaps the sterile air of the clinic would be most unsettling for that.
“I’m ready,” Maki says, closing the clinic door behind her and Sho smiles and leads the way.
“Where are we walking to, Sakurai-sama?” Maki asks after several moments of silence. They are heading out of town, toward the direction of the temples. Surely he’s not thinking of a midnight visit to Jojakkoji-she’s not sure his lungs could take it.
“We are just-enjoying the night, Horikita-san. The weather is turning colder by the day, we should enjoy it while it lasts.”
“You are ever the romantic, Sakurai-sama.”
“In another lifetime I would have been a poet, perhaps.”
“Or maybe a bard,” she teases, the sleepy quiet night making her feel bold.
“I can’t play a whit-unlike your brother.”
“Yes.” Maki’s expression sours. “My brother.”
“Don’t be so hard on him,” Sho says lightly. “It’s-tough. Having so much responsibility, having your entire family’s future resting on your shoulders. Sometimes you would give up everything to escape.”
He’s looking at her with the strangest expression on his face and she can’t find any rhyme or reason to it. He is so confusing tonight, so open and warm and honest, yet-she shakes her head. It must be a trick of the full moon.
“That’s no excuse for wandering around town wasting his talents,” she huffs. Then unfurrows her eyebrows. “He didn’t come home tonight, either.”
“Horikita-san is cruel with her kindness,” Sho observes, nodding his head.
“W-what?”
“I, too, have felt it far too often. With the way you look at me, speak with me, make me smile.”
They’re not walking anymore, are standing in the middle of the town, staring at each other and if anyone happened to wander outside they would be shocked to find a soon-to-be Prince and a humble apothecary standing face-to-face. He is still looking at her like that and she’s not so sure she can blame it on the moon anymore. Her mother always told her to be wary of the full moon. It can make one do bold, crazy things.
“Sakurai-sama, I-”
“I’m to be wed soon, Horikita-san.”
The wind is suddenly so cold against her skin.
“You-what?”
“She’s coming tomorrow.” He’s not looking at her anymore, for which she’s glad. She squeezes her eyes shut and forces herself to breathe. Once, twice, and the water recedes from her eyes.
“I’m happy for you, Sakurai-sama.” And she means it. Really tries so very hard to mean it. “I’m sure it will be a most blessed match.”
“Horikita-san-”
“I must be getting back, though, Nat-chan and Sat-chan might wake up and worry. They’ve been so antsy since Tada-nii won’t come see them.”
“Horkita-san-”
“By the way, how is your father? Does he need anything more? I wish-” This time tears really prick at her eyes and she has to wipe them away. Silly, stupid girl. “I wish he was able to see you on your wedding day, Sakurai-sama.” This time she doesn’t have to try so hard to mean it.
In an instant she is in his arms again, but this time they’re not falling, though she feels dizzy and light and his arms are so surprisingly strong, warm and tight around her whole body. She feels choked with laughter. “You can’t do this, Saku-”
“Please don’t call me that, not now. Please, just one last time, call me as you used to, before you found out who I was, before your mother scolded you.”
“It’s not fair to ask such things of me now.” Maki doesn’t know whether to sob or laugh. “Shall it be your wedding present?”
Sho sighs against her neck. “Perhaps the cruel one is me.” He releases her and she feels unsteady, but finds her footing and stands. She was okay when her father passed, when her mother followed, and when Tada-nii left, she was okay because she had the twins to protect and take care of and she will be okay now. She will always stand.
“My father is barely hanging on. I searched for ten years, endured my aunt’s iron rule over my life, but I still could not find her for him.”
“Her?”
He smiles a sad, little smile. “My half-sister.”
“Your what-?”
“It was a story he told me when I was just a boy. A fantastic adventure my father had as a young man. He ran away from home, you know, for a few years, ran away and tasted a life of freedom. He said he met all sorts of mythical creatures-ghouls with long, pliable necks, trees with human faces, dream-eating chimera-and lastly, the most beautiful yokai in the world. A yokai with dark skin and glowing hazel eyes and wild, flowing black hair. A Midnight Rabbit yokai. But in the end he came back home, back to his father’s dying side. Family always comes first, Sho-kun, he would always tell me. Later, when my father slowly succumbed to madness, he went back to those stories. Told me they were real and that he had fallen in love with that yokai. That she had given birth to a daughter-my sister-and that I needed to find her, save her. That she had been lost for so long. Family always comes first.”
Maki covers her mouth with her hands and shakes her head, thinking, thinking-
“So I went looking for rabbits.” He smiles sadly, a touch bitterly. “Foolishly sealed my fate away to my aunt because I knew if I could just find her-my father would become whole again. We could live the way he’d always taught me to live, without prejudice and pride but with love and warmth. Ten years is a long time to chase after a fantasy.”
“S-Sakurai-sama.”
“Yes?”
“About your aunt-what did you mean?”
“Ah, that’s the silly part.” Sho sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I promised to live the way she expected of me if I couldn’t find my half-sister after ten years. For the sake of the family, for the sake of the Sakurai status. As it turns out, she’s been using these same ten years to match me to the daughter of a Prince in Aomori, who has been traveling for weeks while I still searched in vain.”
“Do you-not want to get married?” Maki asks, heart hammering in her chest, the thrum vibrating throughout her entire body.
“I’m sure she’s a lovely girl, but . . .” he trails off as he looks at her and though her mind tells her it’s too late, there’s nothing that they can do and she can’t be so selfish, she opens her mouth and-
Yuriko falls from the sky, twists her body to land on her feet seconds before the impact. It kicks up a storm of dust and Maki finds herself coughing into Sho’s chest, his arms tight around her as the storm subsides.
“Shit.” Yuriko turns to face them and her body is laced with lacerations and bruises, dried blood mats her hair to her head and her clothing is scorched and soaked with blood, mud, and . . . ink? “Did you two see Nino run through here?”
“Yuriko-san, what-”
“Did you see Nino?!” Yuriko shouts, and her tone leaves no room for argument.
Maki shares a concerned glance with Sho and shakes her head. “I-I don’t think so.”
Yuriko’s eyes darken. “Where does Mirei live?”
“Huh? What does Kiritani-san have-”
“The bridge,” Maki cuts in, wide-eyed.
“The bridge?” Sho repeats, dumbfounded.
“Is she-?”
But Yuriko doesn’t wait for her to finish her sentence, dashes toward the bridge at full speed.
⇀
Tadayoshi lays sprawled across the Togetsukyo bridge, staring up at the full moon. Another day gone without going home.
He isn’t even sure the Horikita Clinic still counts as his home. When Horikita Masao died, he felt bereft, betrayed, robbed twice of a loving home, of a father to be proud of. He left to study medicine with two goals in mind: to keep untimely death from tearing any family apart again, and to make things better for his sisters and his mother. He traveled from Aizu to Tokyo, studied with the most prestigious doctors, but it all seemed in vain. He would never be able to stop death.
It was on the verge of despair that he met a band of seven young men, whose fortunes and futures were less than bright. Still, they smiled and laughed and danced and sang and something in Tadayoshi’s heart lifted when he was with them. He felt no heavy burdens to become a great doctor, and for five years he followed them. In those five years he lost contact with Maki, she had no way of knowing where he was from one day to the next, and he never had it in his mind to write to her first.
And then they went home to Osaka. Yokoyama said he missed his cute younger brothers and though Tadayoshi’s stomach had twisted at that, he packed up his meager belongings and followed after them again.
While Yokoyama was off visiting home, the rest of them crammed into a tiny room at an inn and did what they did best: they drank. Yokoyama, he learned then, was the only one with family still in Osaka. Many of their families had moved to other towns; many of their families were taken by illnesses.
“Ryo and Uchi, they’ve had only each other for as long as they can remember,” Maruyama told him in a drunken slur, arm around Tadayoshi’s shoulders. He knew it was a bad idea to come back.
Yasuda sat plucking absently at his shamisen and Subaru laughed loudly, began to sing along in his booming voice, with Uchi and Nishikido joining in, badly, overcome by laughter and alcohol. Murakami smacked them both on the head, which sent them into further gales of laughter.
At night, after Yokoyama came back and they forced him to drink ten shots of sake for missing out, and after they all fell into deep, snoring slumbers, he snuck out and visited a graveyard-visited them all until he found the small headstone for his mother and father. A whole life dedicated to this town and their honor could fit in the palm of his hand.
That’s where Maruyama found him, that’s where Maruyama knelt beside him. Tadayoshi turned to see Maruyama’s head bowed, touching each of the prayer beads around his wrist in respect.
“Tatsuyoshi,” he said, smiling sadly at him. “You should have told us.”
“I’m sorry, I-”
“No, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to talk about it.” Maruyama frowned, as if debating whether to continue. “Your parents saved many lives. If it weren’t for them, Yoko-”
In Osaka, he broke, cried thick, hot tears into Maruyama’s chest, an entire lifetime of mourning in a single night.
In Osaka, one of Maki’s letters finally found him. His mother was dead, his sister was running the clinic all alone and here he was, pissing his life away.
He had to leave, packed his bags and wrote a hasty goodbye note to his friends, his brothers. He was always bad at goodbyes.
Maruyama was waiting for him at the town entrance, eyes bright and bag slung over his shoulder. “What took you so long?”
“Maru-what-”
“I’m coming with you-let’s get going.” Maruyama turned without another word and Tadayoshi yelped and chased after him.
“What do you mean you’re-what about the guys?” When Maruyama wouldn’t stop walking, Tadayoshi added, bitterly, “I don’t need your pity.”
Maruyama finally stopped at that. “Hey, Tatsuyoshi, did you know I’m not actually from Osaka?”
“Huh?”
“I just pretend because they make fun of me otherwise, but I’m originally from Kyoto. I haven’t been back in a very long time. I wonder how much things have changed. I wonder how much things have remained the same.” Maruyama sent him a lopsided grin over his shoulder. “You’re going that way, right? Won’t it be more fun to travel together?”
Tadayoshi sighed, but couldn’t help the smile on his face. He was always bad at goodbyes.
They arrived before the sun, stretching their limbs as the train billowed gray-black smoke behind them. “I think we can get some rooms at the Jojakkoji Temple. Ohno-san is usually happy to take in strays.”
Maruyama shook his head. “This is as far as I’ll come with you.”
“W-why?”
“I’ve got parents to visit, too.” With his back to Tadayoshi, Maruyama glanced up at the sky. “Looks like it’s going to rain-you should head home soon, Tatsuyoshi.” He left without a single glance back, waved a hand over his shoulder while singing some silly lyrics about rainy day blues, the dirt road behind speckled with little dark spots.
“Stupid,” Tadayoshi muttered after him, rubbing at his own eyes. “You could have just told me you were bad at goodbyes, too.”
But surely if he could not belong in Osaka, nor in Tokyo, then perhaps, perhaps his true home resided in Kyoto after all.
The fact that he hasn’t been able to go home seemed to prove otherwise.
Tadayoshi rolls onto his side to stare at the faint glimmer of moonlight on the leaves of the Arashiyama mountain trees, closes his eyes to better hear the slow tide of water from the Oi river below. How nice it would be to live here, carefree, forever.
“Yoshi?”
When he opens his eyes, Rei’s face swims into view. Her yukata is slipping off her shoulder and from his angle he can see the rounded cleavage of her breasts. He reminds himself that Rei is Maki’s age-and how would he feel if he saw someone ogling her like that-and averts his eyes to the wrapped parcel in her hands.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, just something Ohno-san asked me to pick up. What are you doing here?”
“Thinking about taking a stroll to the moon,” he replies, sitting up and destroying an otherwise pleasant view. Rei blinks at him, cutely confused. “Togetsukyo-the moon crossing bridge, named by Emperor Kameyama. He said it looked as if you could walk straight to the moon on the other side.”
Rei squats on her knees, hands on her cheeks, staring at him with amazed eyes. “You learned a lot during your time away, huh?”
“Not really,” he says bitterly, then notices the hitch in her skirt and groans, covering his mouth. “You should really watch how you sit-didn’t your mother teach you anything?”
Rei glances down at her legs and then frowns. “I don’t have a mother.”
“O-oh.” he sits silently. “S-sorry. I didn’t-Maki-chan never-”
“Maki-chan was always very cautious with her words.” Rei smiles this time, and though it’s a touch sad, it’s mostly bright. “It’s okay, though. I’ve grown up very happily.”
“All these years I’ve known you, but I don’t know much about you, huh?” Tadayoshi asks, shaking his head. “I don’t even know where you live or what your dad does or-”
“I don’t . . . have a father either.”
It’s just like him to think only of his own miseries. He never knew about Nishikido and Uchi, about Maruyama, about his own mother’s death, and he doesn’t know anything about Rei either. How insensitive must he have been to not notice this girl, this bright ray of sunshine that always skirted along his periphery, beaming brightly with his sisters. She was always so happy it hurt to look at her, so when she asked him to play he rejected her, when she called him brother, he rebuffed her.
“I’m so sorry, Rei, I-”
“It’s okay, I meant it when I said it the first time.” Rei swings her legs over the edge of the bridge and twines her fingers together. “I don’t know anything about my father, and I have only one memory of my mother, but I’m happy all the same. I can’t dwell on the past for my entire life, nor can I run from it-all I can do is move forward.”
Something stirs in his chest: shame, awe, and something a little less clear, nebulous-floaty.
“Rei, I think-” He turns to look at her, her innocent hazel eyes and flushed cheeks, her shiny red lips-Maki’s age. He quickly diverts his eyes toward the top of her head and then chuckles. “You have cherry blossom petals in your hair.” As he reaches to remove them, her face darkens, but before he can apologize, she cries, “Get down!” and tackles him to the ground.
When he opens his eyes next she’s straddling his chest with her yukata skirt hiked even higher than before and while he’s surprised by this rapid turn of events, he can’t say he’s displeased. Until a flaming sword lands just a hair’s breath away from his head. “What the-”
“Fox fire?” Rei asks under her breath.
“Fox what?” Rei rolls off him, lifts him straight over her head, and throws him over the bridge, into the river below.
“R-Rei, what’s going on?” he splutters, resurfacing just in time to see Ninomiya pick up the flaming sword. There’s an eerie smile on his face, a sinister gleam in his eye, and Tadayoshi doesn’t know what’s going on, but he does know that something is very wrong.
He scrambles for the bridge as fast as his waterlogged clothing will allow, holds his breath as Ninomiya swings his sword down. Mirei jumps-high, and he sighs in relief before realizing that a wave of blue fire is heading straight toward him. Before Tadayoshi can blink, Rei is before him in a whirl of cherry blossom petals that disintegrate in wisps of fiery blue ash-on her skin, her clothing, her hair. As the last petal on her hair fades to ash, something happens-a flicker, then, as if an invisible veil is being lifted from her head, two little ovals sprout from the top and they look almost like-
“T-tiny-”
“Later!” Rei cries, pushing him roughly onto the riverbank and jumping, landing on top of the bridge railing. “Nino, what’s going on?” she asks as Ninomiya races back towards the bridge with his sword ablaze. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to!”
“Lies, lies, and more filthy lies from a filthy woman!” Ninomiya sneers, his mouth a gash of red against his face.
Rei jumps backward, avoiding his swings by a hair, jumps towards the cherry blossom trees to snatch up a handful of flowers. She releases them toward Ninomiya and they turn into tiny sharp daggers, which he parries with the broad edge of his sword.
“Useless without flowers, are you?” he mutters, angling his step and racing toward the line of cherry trees. With a single swipe of electric blue they go up in flames and Rei gasps.
“T-that light,” she says softly, so softly the wind almost carries the sound away.
“So you remember.” Ninomiya smiles grimly, licking the remaining blue flames off the edge of the sword. “I thought I had gotten the last of the Midnight Rabbit yokai, but who knew one remained?”
“You-you killed my mother.”
“She went willingly,” he muses. “Could have put up a fight but she didn’t even try. I’d always wondered about that till now.”
“Rei-”
Rei screams.
Ninomiya laughs, mirthless and wicked and Tadayoshi is sure that this cannot be the Ninomiya Kazunari he knows. “So angry, such a will to fight and to live,” he sneers, glancing from Rei to Tadayoshi and back again. “But alas, nothing to fight with.”
Tadayoshi doesn’t even see her move, she is a blur of pink and red, racing to pick up her wrapped parcel from the other end of the bridge. She unravels it to reveal a bough of a cherry blossoms.
“Sorry, Ohno-san.” The bough flickers bright red and hot white and when the light fades, there is a sword in her hands.
“Don’t play with fire unless you want to get burned,” whoever it is that looks like Ninomiya taunts.
Rei smiles grimly. “Come.”
And then they are a blur of silver and pink and crackling blue and the sound of clashing steel vibrates in the air. Tadayoshi is so helpless, so hopeless, there is nothing he can do. Someone will die tonight and he won’t be able to stop it.
“This isn’t good, his body is disintegrating by the second,” Yuriko mutters, biting her lip. Tadayoshi nods before doing a double-take. Where did she-
“Where did yo, what-who-”
Yuriko blinks, then regards him blandly. “Oh, Horikita-san, I didn’t even see you there.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes! Stop them!”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried that?” Yuriko glares. “Kiritani-san is the only one who even stands a chance against him, because she’s-”
“A yokai?” he breathes. “But wh-how did you know? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Does knowing this change anything about her?”she asks coolly.
“N-no,” he says, and he’s amazed at how readily and truly he means it. “It doesn’t change anything at all.”
But Yuriko is not looking at him, following the fight intently with her eyes. Rei is just as fast as Ninomiya, if not faster. She blocks strike after strike, overpowering him until he is forced backwards. He charges at her but she ducks, drags her sword along the ground and cuts a crescent into the dirt before blocking his swing. This time she backs off, runs a short distance away and cuts another crescent into the dirt. What is she-
After the fourth crescent, Ninomiya seems to realize what’s going on and he shouts, “What are you up to, little rabbit?”
“This,” Rei replies, stabbing her sword into the center of the markings and then jumping toward the sky. She claps her hands once and dirt rises like tower walls, ensnaring Ninomiya whole. The dirt falls back onto the earth with tremendous force, the sound blasting Tadayoshi’s eardrums and the fallout of dust obscuring his vision.
Beside him, Yuriko mutters, “Just one opening and I can exorcise Tokunosuke from Nino’s body.”
Tokunosuke? An opening?
The dust finally settles and there is a mound of dirt where Ninomiya once stood. Rei stands breathing deeply in front of it, wiping blood from her face. “Guess my mother taught me something after all.”
“Rei-” he calls to her, relief flooding his bones. Rei beams at him, waving her arms to let him know she’s okay, but then there is a rumbling under their feet and the mound of dirt in front of her rises. Ninomiya stands in the center of it, coughing and dirty, but otherwise unscathed.
“Pretty little yokai tricks won’t work on me, little rabbit.”
He’s running towards her at full speed and Rei is unarmed and defenseless and-an opening!
His feet move faster than his brain as he steps in front of Yuriko, shouts with both hands around his mouth, “Hey, T-Tokunosuke!”
Ninomiya’s head snaps around to glare at him.
Bingo.
“Yoshi, what are you-”
But this time it’s his turn to cut her off. This time he will save her. “I like Rei! I don’t know very much about her, but I think like her a lot!”
“What?!” Rei shouts, back, eyes wide and alarmed.
“So if you’re intent on killing her, would you go ahead and kill me first? I don’t really want to see a future without her in it!”
“Ah, how positively romantic.” Ninomiya yawns.
“He’s lying! I’m your opponent-fight me!” Rei demands, but Ninomiya shoots her a feral grin. “You’ll join him in the afterlife.”
He’s a moving blue blur heading straight towards him, Rei chasing after him in hot pursuit, and Tadayoshi only now realizes the imminent danger he is probably in. “You better be a damn good shot,” he mutters to Yuriko, before wishing he had thought of better possible last words.
“Tada-nii!”
Everything happens as if in slow motion. Ninomiya notices Yuriko mere seconds before swinging down his sword, pivots his step and charges toward Maki and Sho. Yuriko takes out a fresh paper talisman from her sleeve and ink splatters everywhere as she writes. She sends it careening toward Maki and Sho and it beats Ninomiya, hovers in the air just before he strikes. He staggers backward from some impact as Rei finally catches up to him. Maki, confusion evident on her face, blurts out, “Lower back!” and Rei follows up with the hilt of her blade, a deafening crack that drops Ninomiya to his knees-but not before he swings upward, the blade stabbing clean through Rei’s body and coming out the other side. His swords glows a final dull blue before it fades completely and Rei falls, blood sputtering from her lips, landing lifeless and still. Ninomiya stares, eyes wide and mouth agape, and he lets out a blood curdling scream.
Yuriko is before him in an instant and as he glances up through blood and tears, she slaps a paper talisman on his forehead.
There is another deafening cry, but with Ninomiya’s lifeless body slumped over Rei’s, and Maki and Sho looking on in mute horror, Tadayoshi realizes that the cry has come from his own lips. He runs toward her as fast as he can, tossing Ninomiya’s body aside and gathering Rei into his arms. There is blood everywhere, but when he feels for a pulse it’s there-faint, fading, but there.
“Maki-chan, go back to the clinic and get me anything that will help stop the blood and the pain and dad’s old surgery kit. Meet me at the temple as soon as you can.”
Without another word he races towards the steps to Jojakkoji, taking them two at a time and praying to whatever gods might still exist in this world that he makes it in time.
Part 3.