This story was written for the Writers Anonymous Random Challenge proposed by Rhea Silverkeys and adjudicated by Writers Anonymous moderators. (The objective was to write a one-shot that incorporates the two words that this website instructs you to type when you log in.)
As per contest rules, this story DOES NOT require any reading of the preceding chapters. It is a standalone one-shot story. (I would've posted it separately to avoid any confusion, but website rules prohibit me from posting this story twice.)
My words were Lodging and Rector, defined below:
lodging (LAWD jing) n. 1. Accommodations and housing, especially those for rent. 2. A temporary place to stay; temporary quarters. v. (used without object) Fixing, implanting, or catching in a place or position; coming to a rest; sticking. v.(used with object) Bringing or sending into a particular place or position.
rector (REK ter) n. 1. Protestantism and Anglicanism. The clergy member in charge of a parish. 2. Roman Catholicism. An ecclesiastic in charge of a congregation or church.
These words are in boldface throughout.
Rated T for some coarse language, romance and innuendo.
Summary: The rare beauty of the sun rising over Mount Fuji inspires the usually stern Anna to "invite" Yoh along for a daylong hike. But what surprises await them on the trail, and will they even make it that far, given his knack of annoying her?
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Kiss #27
The faded wooden slats that comprised the En Inn's walls, knurled with deep ridges like fingers and toes after a long bath, looked as though they had seen many mornings just like this one. If someone were to look through one of the windows that dotted the exterior, they would see a kitchen, but it certainly wouldn't be a good idea, for their peeping wouldn't go unnoticed.
On the other side of the window, partially obscured by glare, a boyish figure was hovering, slightly hunched, over the kitchen table, like a lion cub awaiting his first kill. His mane—the rather unkempt hair in halfhearted bangs and spikes that protruded from the sides and back of his head—was certainly leonine enough. Even though it was black, it was lent a modicum of ferocity by the set of fiercely orange headphones half-buried within its points.
The figure, however, failed miserably at pouncing. Or rather, he went for the jugular, but his victim was merely a disc of greasy porcelain, all that remained of that morning's breakfast. Another humanoid, also concealed by blinding glare, came into sight. This one was seated with her back to the window. Its slender hand pushed another plate toward the kitchen's other occupant. It was hard to discern which was more radiant—the sheen of sunlight refracted by the window, or the dazzling cascade of blonde hair that streamed past the chair back and fluttered listlessly in the still air.
The boy, now cradling an unsteady contraption of plates, cups, and saucers, turned to face the window. The wail of scraping porcelain made him cringe, and not just because of the sound itself. He didn't dare turn around. Instead, dabbing at the beads of sweat on his forehead, he opened the window just a crack. Cool air rushed in and heated conversation leaked out.
"…don't have the money to replace those dishes, you klutz!"
"I…my bad, Anna," another voice responded without missing a beat. "Um, so how was breakfast?" His voice was the antithesis of the typical adolescent's brash declarations and overconfident assertions—deferential, even-tempered, and shaky.
The first voice replied unflinchingly. "Changing the subject and fishing for compliments! Nice double play, Yoh." A refreshing breeze was seeping under the window, but it was no competition for the icy comments that preceded Anna's stiletto lips—razor-thin, blood-red, and always needing a fresh coating… "Here's a tip. If you can write on the sidewalk with a strip of bacon, it's probably overcooked. But what do I know? Maybe eating carbon paper for breakfast is an Izumo tradition."
Yoh sighed and swallowed, pursing his lips in the gutsiest show of dissatisfaction he dared express to his fiancée. His defeated eyes roved around the room, determined not to meet Anna's gaze, but once he did he involuntarily flinched.
At first, as he had feared, she appeared to be staring—or, more accurately, scowling—directly at him, but when she shaded her eyes with her hand, he saw more clearly her gaze wasn't angry. In fact, it had that vacant, almost mesmerized appearance familiar to anyone who's ever witnessed someone in the midst of a daydream. Intrigued, Yoh followed her fixated gaze and found himself staring directly into the sun. He, too, arched a hand atop his brow to afford himself a better view.
His instinct, ingrained by his two-year cohabitation with Anna, was that there was some imperceptible smudge on the window, or perhaps a mote of dust on the sill, and Anna was irked by his inattention to cleanliness. He picked up a dishrag, gave it a preparatory ruffle, and poised himself in front of the window, ready to dispatch whatever aberration Anna was surely going to point out.
"Care to move?" Anna inquired in a way that made an answer superfluous. She wriggled her fingers above her eyes. "I sure as hell wasn't saluting you, if that's what you were thinking."
Yoh nodded curtly and stepped backwards. He was about to look out the window again, until he caught sight of Anna. Normally, he would never feel courageous enough to stare at her countenance, but now, basked in the invigorating aura that only morning sunlight could provide, he found it difficult—no, impossible—to avert his gaze. He forgot about the window and the dishrag draped over his hand. His eyes were drawn like magnets to a particularly stunning fridge. They glued themselves on her slender legs, taking in every perfect contour and curve, until they melded with a pair of smooth knees that flirted with the hem of her black skirt. His eyes somewhat guiltily wavered over her black-clad torso, taking brief but memorable notice of her waist and hips, and above them, a pair of shapely yet unobtrusive…
Suddenly aware of how inappropriate his glances were, he jerked his head up abruptly and chanced a peek at her face, praying she hadn't noticed his provocative staring. He breathed easier upon noticing that she was still preoccupied with the view from the window—those eyes, sedate, round, even eager, a welcome change of pace from the usual angry slits. The eyebrows above them, for once, weren't contorted downwards in a frown, and the delicate hand that shaded them wasn't clenched; Yoh ran his eyes down each thin finger.
The images of Anna's perfection were lodging in Yoh's mind even as he took them in, feature by feature: her unexpectedly weak jaw, which looked more feminine now that it wasn't clenched; her perky nose, unmarred by frown lines.
"Take a good look, Yoh."
He recoiled at Anna's sudden speech, but managed to steady himself with the kitchen table. He prepared a quick alibi—he hadn't been staring, just daydreaming (it was half true, at least). It was unnecessary, though, since her gaze still hadn't deviated from the window. Oh, she means 'take a good look' out the window, phew… He ditched the sorry excuse and moved beside Anna, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the intense sunlight, wanting to see exactly what was seizing Anna's attention.
No landmark is quite as impressive, or symbolic of Japan, as Mount Fuji. Backlit by the picturesque sunrise, Yoh appreciated exactly how Anna could stare at it for so long. No comparison could hope to do it justice, but Yoh thought it looked a bit like a yarmulke of snow knitted upon a pointy brunette head. The feather in this particular cap was an incredibly radiant sphere of light. It certainly lent a degree of credence to their country's appellation "Land of the Rising Sun."
"Say," Anna began, her eyes still squarely on Mount Fuji, "wouldn't you…We should climb it sometime."
"Huh?" Was Anna, maybe, just possibly, planning something that resembled a date?
"Uh, that is, you know, for—It would be good exercise," she stuttered. Her eyes finally moved, favoring Yoh with her all too familiar glare. "You're getting a little tubby, Yoh."
"I—I am not!" Yoh objected. "How can I be, with your 'special training menu?'" Determined in the moment to prove his point, he grasped the hem of his T-shirt with both hands and swept it off. He demanded, "Does this look 'a little tubby' to you?!"
Yoh, it must be said, had a good point. The results of Anna's grueling training regimen were plain to see, even now, years from the full flower of adulthood. Faint outlines of sinews and tendons rippled barely beneath the surface of his smooth skin.
Anna had been staring directly into the sun for several minutes earlier, but the blush that now flooded her cheeks certainly wasn't sunburn.
"Good God, Yoh! Put—wear a shirt, for crying out loud, do you think I—why would I want to see you shirtless?!" she screamed, seemingly revolted, but her eyes lingered on his biceps, shoulders and abs…
"Okay, okay," Yoh capitulated, poking his slim, solid arms into his wadded shirt. "But don't be so…angry, Anna, please. You're turning really red, that can't be healthy…"
Her eyes widened at this, and she spun on her heels to stare at the blank kitchen wall. She took a deep breath. "Look. Do you want to head for Mount Fuji, or not?"
Yoh smoothed out his shirt, straightened his headphones, and realigned his necklace. He took another look out the window; the feather in the yarmulke had risen slightly, but the sight was no less fantastic. "Sure, why not?"
The first plausible reason "why not" was the severely overcrowded electric train. The pusher, a gargantuan man who enjoyed all too much his job of playing Tetris with the passengers, shoved Yoh and Anna into the last remaining space in the car. A cocktail of unappealing scents pervaded the area, and although Yoh was in closer proximity to Anna than ever before, the constant elbowing, and kneeing, and getting coughed on, and not least of all, the nauseating odors, ruined the moment.
Still, he could occasionally glimpse the window, and the sight of Mount Fuji crowned in snow emboldened him. It loomed ever closer, until he could make out protrusions and ridges in the rock face. Anna's position was better than Yoh's, and she could see the window during the entire ride.
Every rider collectively lurched forward as the train slowed down before its next stop. "Well, this is us," Yoh thought he heard.
"What?" Then he figured Anna must've said, "This is our stop, but don't worry about getting out, because you'll get shoved anyway, and fall ungracefully onto the platform." She hadn't said that, of course, but it would've been right on target. He rose, adjusted his backpack, and nearly collapsed once more upon seeing the colossus looming before him.
"We…we're going to climb that? You know, it…didn't look quite so high from the window."
Anna rolled her eyes. "You don't say. Maybe the snow could've clued you in?"
"Mm, well, whatever. Time to stretch!" Yoh launched into his warm-up routine, a series of extensions, lunges, pirouettes, and feints that looked—to be charitable—a little silly.
Yoh was tucking his calf behind his back while rotating wildly when he thought he heard laughing.
"What's so funny?" he asked, hopping on one foot as he switched legs and began to twirl in the opposite direction.
"N—nothing," Anna gasped, followed by a torrent of unrestrained laughter. "Oh, Yoh, you look like a retarded top!"
"Grrr…We'll see who's retarded when you catch cramps halfway up!"
"Whatever. I know how to stretch. Properly." She sat down on the gravelly path and proceeded to loosen up her hamstrings. Yoh, his stretching done, took a moment to regain his balance from all the spinning and staggered over to Anna's side. She cocked her head and reprimanded, "Don't just stand there! Help keep my legs still."
Yoh didn't quite know what to make of this. He circled a timid hand around each of her ankles. They were reassuringly warm, and incredibly delicate—Yoh's hands were smallish and still the fingertips
almost touched. Anna lunged forward, aiming for her toes, and closed her eyes from the exertion. She pulled back and lurched again, this time missing by just an inch.
"Wow, Anna, I didn't know you were so limber," Yoh said, impressed.
"I keep in shape, unlike—" Anna took in a sudden, jagged gasp of air.
"What..." Yoh had injured himself from overzealous stretching before, and knew the feeling well: An overstretched muscle knots itself up and painfully resists unclenching. Yoh saw the tensed tendon in her calf—the leg was twitching—and he winced. "Sorry…Anna… this might hurt a little," he whispered as he touched his fingers to the uncooperative muscle.
Anna gave several more sharp inhalations as Yoh's fingertips coaxed the muscle into relaxing. Gradually he felt the hard tendon go slack. The leg ceased twitching. For good measure, Yoh continued to massage the calf. He admired its smoothness, its soft resilience. Gradually his purposeful massage became a tender caress…
"Ah, Anna, is that…feeling better?" he stammered once he realized what he was doing.
She opened her eyes and exhaled deeply. "Yes…hey, listen…Yoh…"
"Hm?"
"I…thank you."
Embarrassed and surprised, Yoh laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "No…no problem at all, Anna."
Still a little stunned, Yoh stood up and offered both of his hands to Anna. She hesitated for a second before clasping her fingers around his slightly sweaty palms. With his help, she rose to her feet, but the calf muscle had its last hurrah…
"Ahh!" Her knee buckled. Panicking, she relinquished her grip on Yoh's palms. Her free hands shot out to her sides, attempting to regain equilibrium, but she swooned forward. Her arms swooped together before her like pincers, hoping to break her fall on her hands…
The arms, however, had wrapped around something that was certainly not the ground.
Although Anna had just lost her footing, it was Yoh who now felt off balance. There he stood, having just caressed Anna's legs, and now she was…embracing him? Sure, it was just an accident, really, but Anna felt no less warm and tender clinging to his chest. Warmth tickled him, first his chest, then down to his legs. His breathing accelerated, and, racing with adrenaline, his arms returned Anna's hug. At this, the warmth rushed to his head, particularly his right cheek…
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Yoh shook his head and took a step back. He saw a furious Anna, standing in a martial pose. The instability in her legs was gone, and her left hand was extended all the way to her right. The warmth he had perceived in his cheek was now stinging.
"I…thought you were going to fall again, so," Yoh began lamely, but Anna cut him off.
"Liar!" For just a second, the image of Anna's face, etched with lines of anger, burned itself into Yoh's wide eyes. She strode past him tensely, leaving him staring blankly into the distance until he sighed softly, turned around, and started up the path. The memory of her slap kept him several paces behind.
Anna's icy demeanor wasn't thawed at all, not even by the incessant sun that, minute by minute, crept ever higher into the cloudless sky. A kind of glacial silence, interrupted only by heavy footfalls onto gravel, endured between them. Were Yoh courageous enough to attempt conversation, he would have remarked upon how deserted the path was. It unsettled him that the few people he encountered on his way up were invariably headed in the opposite direction, but he reasoned they must have been dissuaded by the merciless heat more than anything else.
Yoh bitterly reflected upon how beautiful the sunrise and the mountain had looked from afar, yet up close they were pedestrian, not to mention exhausting. It reminded him of the other fatal attraction in his life, the one that was still walking several paces ahead of him…
The view, too, was uninspiring, almost depressing. The trail was just an endless, ever-climbing expanse of gray on brown. Every now and then Yoh shifted his gaze to the horizon. He was aloft enough so that the view was decent, but he noted pessimistically it was nothing he couldn't see from Tokyo Tower, and with air conditioning to boot. He took much more delight out of sneaking occasional glances at Anna's back. Her steps were measured and deliberate, and she showed no signs of discomfort. That was remarkable, considering the blackness of her outfit and the simmering heat Yoh felt, even in his white T-shirt and loose khakis.
But even she had a threshold for endurance. "Pass me my water, Yoh." Judging from Yoh's reaction to her request, she might as well have asked for a lavender elephant on roller skates. He had expected the frigid silence to last, appropriately enough, till the end of the next Ice Age.
"Er, sure, thing, Anna," he said once the shock wore off. He swung his shoulder around, groped in his backpack, and withdrew two bottles of water. He pressed one of them into Anna's hand. She impatiently unscrewed the cap and bolted down a gulp of refreshment.
"It uh, sure is hot today, huh?" he asked, taking a sip himself.
Anna closed her eyes dramatically. "Not at all. I just want to stay hydrated." Her eyes were open again, and looking up to the peak towering over them. "If you think the climate is bad now, just wait till we get near the top. You'll be begging for this heat, mark my words."
"But," Yoh began, cowed a little at the sight of the peak, "we're not going that far today, are we?"
"Are you kidding? I didn't come all the way here to climb halfway up Mount Fuji. We're going the whole nine yards, and you're coming with."
"I…Anna, it looks a whole lot farther than nine yards, I think."
She rolled her eyes as the path before them widened into a small rest stop. Steps carved into the rock led down to a weather-beaten door that read "Restrooms." A weathered wooden kiosk labeled "Visitor Information" squatted in the corner of the outcropping, surrounded on two sides by sheer cliff faces. It was unoccupied, but Anna approached it anyway, and swiped a brochure from its front.
She chuckled humorlessly. "Twelve thousand feet. I guess you were right, it's a whole lot more than nine yards."
Yoh nearly spat out his mouthful of water. "Twelve thousand?! Yeah, there's no way we're going to make it. Should we start heading back?"
Anna was so indignant she actually snorted. "Would you wait just a minute? This pamphlet says there are amenities along the trail."
"Amen-a-what?" Yoh's underwhelming scholastic ability failed him. Anna rubbed her forehead with her fingertips.
"Ugh. Amenities. Food and lodging."
"Oh."
"So if we absolutely can't finish today, we can just rest in a cabin and start again tomorrow." She made a mess of folding the pamphlet back together, and half-placed, half-crumpled it back where she got it.
"Then," Yoh asked as they passed the information kiosk and hit the trail once again, "couldn't we rest in one of those ameni…amener…lodging places and leave once it's not so hot?"
"Sure, we could," she began, and Yoh's face lit up.
"…But that means you'd be my roommate for several hours longer than necessary. And believe me, you don't want that."
Crestfallen, he looked up as he continued walking. Judging both from the sun's position and its heat, he figured it was only about noon, but the temperature was sapping his energy. He wondered if it was making him delirious. The gray pebbles before him, sharply illumined, were painful and blinding to look at, so his listless eyes meandered. At least the view of the surrounding landscape was improving;
they had escalated enough so that, even on a totally clear day like this one, the distant sprawl of buildings converged into a single grayish line on the indistinguishable horizon. At the other end of his field of vision, Anna was marching on. She was seemingly oblivious to everything—the view, the blistering temperature, her uncomfortable shoes, even Yoh.
She's always like this, Yoh mused as the endless gray swath curved out of sight around a bend. Sometimes I wonder if she has feelings…well, no, I know she has feelings. Anger is a feeling. What's the word I'm looking for? Damn, he cursed himself around the bend, finding, predictably, the pathway continuing further, this time between billowing rock parapets. I guess I should take better notes in class. Uh, emotion? No, that's not it either, but I think it starts with "E"…Empathy! That's it. Like, consideration for other people's feelings. Does she care? I really wonder sometimes…
But pondering Anna's potential mental problems was getting Yoh nowhere. It upset him, or rather it would have, if he even had the energy to be angry anymore. Putting one foot in front of the other was all the exertion he could handle, even as the sun descended and the temperature followed suit. The grade of the path had been increasing steadily, and traversing it was gradually evolving from a nuisance to a taxing ordeal. Still Anna's ascent continued unabatedly. It's no wonder she's got no empathy for a mere mortal like me, he thought, half seriously, since she's something more than human…
Aside from getting the sun out of Yoh's eyes, the next bend presented a pleasant surprise. There the path broadened, and two wooden structures faced each other in the clearing. The smaller one was probably an outhouse; the larger, most likely one of the cabins Anna had promised. Yoh deviated from his path and opened the cabin door a crack, trying to sneak a peek, but a firm grip on his wrist stopped him.
"Don't even think about it," Anna reprimanded. Her hand moved to the back of his neck, and she shepherded him back to the path.
"But Anna," he protested futilely, "the next cabin could be miles away, or occupied, and then what'll we do?"
Anna suddenly relinquished her grip on Yoh's neck. Startled, he turned around to look at her. She was posing like she was appealing to the heavens. "Yoh, honestly, how did you not fall down the mountain yet? It wouldn't hurt you to be aware of your surroundings." With that, her hand found the back of Yoh's head again, and she pushed his line of sight about half a mile up. What he saw, beyond the jagged protrusions and serrated valleys, made him do a double-take.
"We're that close to the summit?" he asked in a small voice. Indeed, Anna had guided his vision to the exact spot where the bare rock met the blanket of snow that capped the mountain—and it didn't look unreachable anymore.
"Not that, dimwit. Look closer."
"What?" He squinted intently at the convergence of rock and snow. Soon he made out squat brown structures, easily visible against the white background. "Oh!"
"You finally discovered all those cabins. Well, keep sailing, Columbus," she said snidely.
Somehow, despite Anna's insults, the trek was a lot more palatable to Yoh now that the goal was in sight. The sun's descent, coupled with his elevation change, made the temperature pleasantly cool, even slightly chilly, but after the relentless heat it was refreshing. His languid pace quickened, and he found himself keeping pace with the perpetually sprightly Anna now. Even the pebbles that he crushed underfoot seemed encouraging, and as the ambient air chilled further, Yoh simply increased his pace. Much to her surprise, Anna found it was her turn, for the first time since setting foot on the path, to play catch-up.
In fact, it was Yoh who first saw the bank of cabins lining the ridge before him. Anna huffed her way over to him, her breath condensing in the cold. Rather than make a beeline for one of the cabins, as was Yoh's desire, she sidled up to the brink of the ridge and leaned on a cabin wall wordlessly. Yoh left a trail of footprints next to Anna's in the thin, powdery snow. He rifled through his backpack, unfurled his jacket, and spread it upon the ground. He was about to have a seat on it when he noticed Anna's inadequate dress.
"Anna," he mustered the courage to say, "would you like your coat?"
"Hm?" she replied distractedly. She glanced back to Yoh quickly before turning away again. "Oh, sure, I guess…"
He handed her the coat, and she slipped it on inattentively. He scrutinized her, fearing she'd stumble again, only this time at the edge of a precipice.
"See," she declared, sweeping her hand before her, "this is what we came up here for." Anna's voice was, to Yoh, difficult to classify. She had never sounded so relaxed before. Maybe she's actually satisfied, or even happy?
If there was ever a sight to make a dour young woman suddenly responsive, Yoh realized as he took in the panorama below, this was it. The sun, now threatening to dip out of sight, cast a golden sheen upon the parade of buildings that marched motionlessly toward the horizon. Here and there a lesser hill interrupted the buildings, rudely demanding an unobstructed view of the sunset. Copses of trees and parks burned an intense orange, their leaves modeling an early autumn. Near the foot of the mountain, Yoh took note of a few geographic features he couldn't see from lower on the mountain. Furthest out was a trio of lakes, the blueness of their water protected from the blazing sunset by a matronly hill, and in front of them, a small forest.
Yoh took a break from the magnificent view and shifted his attention to Anna. The light played upon her features and cast her profile in sharp relief, accentuating her deadly lips and chiseled nose. Her flawlessly smooth skin reflected the light with a uniform glow, and her vibrant blonde hair, for once, had found a rival in the sunset.
He blinked, just once, long and hard, as if trying to dismiss all the beauty before him—the view and, not least of all, Anna—as just a hallucination. Then, upon seeing it all still there after reopening his eyes, he shook his head disbelievingly.
"You know," Yoh offered, with uncharacteristic boldness, "there's room here for two." He patted the free space on his jacket with a nervous hand.
"I—" Anna started, but she gave a slight nod and sat on the very edge of the jacket.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Yoh said, and he inwardly wondered whether he meant the sunset or Anna…
"I told you it'd be worth it."
Anna scooted over on the jacket. Her hand hovered noncommittally behind Yoh's back, but placed itself upon the jacket just behind him. "Unforgettable. But…maybe you should take a picture, just in case."
"My camera!" Anna gasped, dismayed. "I knew I forgot something."
"That's a shame. A sunset like this, not a cloud in the sky, no annoying tourists making a ruckus? Definitely a keeper."
Yoh and Anna turned around simultaneously. A bearded man, covered head to toe by a ridiculous yellow raincoat straight out of a Curious George book, raised a wrinkled hand in a congenial wave. Although most of his head was hidden by a hood two sizes too big, one feature—a pointed beard streaked through with gray—poked out of it.
Neither Yoh nor Anna could think of anything to say to this stranger, the first they'd seen in hours. "Ah, a young couple in love. On a romantic rendezvous, eh?" He winked. They both stared straight ahead, not wanting to reveal their blushes to one another.
"But I suppose that's neither here nor there," he concluded, although not without another wink that further flushed their skin. "So, about to have supper, are you?"
"Well, we would be," Anna said once her blush had subsided, "but Genius over here figured, oh, a granola bar each, that should hold us over till Monday afternoon."
He chuckled heartily, so much so that his hood flew backwards to reveal a balding pate thoroughly lined with wrinkles. Yoh guessed he was in his sixties; he reminded him a little of his grandfather. "Well, you can't blame him much, can you? People get awfully stupid when they're in love."
"What?!" Anna protested vehemently, turning a delicate shade of pink as she did so. Yoh said nothing, but looked as uncomfortable as he was red. "Anyway," she continued, trying her best to change the subject, "we would've bought lunch, but all the kiosks were closed."
"You must be starving! How about you two help me finish my dinner? My eyes always seem to be bigger than my stomach."
Hunger won out over politeness, and the couple eagerly watched the man withdraw several foil-wrapped containers from his knapsack. It was all cold, but they didn't care; the ascent had made them ravenous. They inhaled mouthfuls of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and tofu, and washed it all down with generous gulps of tea from the man's canteen.
"I'm not surprised none of the kiosks were occupied, actually. Not many people are brave enough to come up here on this day of the year."
Yoh froze with a piece of sweet potato tempura just inches from his mouth. "Well, that explains how deserted it's been. But what do you mean, 'brave enough'? And what's so special about today?"
The stranger brushed a crumb off his beard. "You must be from out of town." When he saw Yoh nod, he went on. "Well, twenty-five years ago today, a group of three missionaries decided to pay a visit to this mountain. The rector of their church goes with them, and they all stay at a nearby hotel. The next afternoon, the missionaries figure they've earned a little break, so they go sightseeing. The rector stays back at the hotel to prepare a sermon. He wakes up the next morning to find the hotel room deserted. He starts worrying—missionaries aren't the type to stay out all night—and as he hits the streets to start looking for them, he sees the newspaper headline."
The deep-fried potato morsel was still dangling before Yoh's face. "Well? What did it say?"
"Three Bodies Found In Aokihagara Forest."
Yoh shuddered. He was suddenly conscious of the cold air, and contemplated evicting Anna from her seat on his jacket so that he could wear it, but wisely reconsidered.
"It's said they became fixated spirits because they were murdered before they could fulfill their purpose in life."
Yoh swallowed—his throat was dry despite the tea. He'd dealt with fixated spirits before—mellow folks from all walks of life turned into violent, unpredictable spirits because of wrongful death—and the prospect of dealing with three of them, unarmed and unaided, didn't exactly appeal to him. Still, maybe this had all happened far away. The stranger's just telling a ghost story, right?
"You're probably wondering what all of this has to do with the mountain. Well," he said, setting down his canteen and pointing at the dark cluster of trees near the lakes Yoh had noticed earlier, "there's Aokigahara Forest."
The morsel of tempura finally left Yoh's fingers—dropped in shock. It tumbled down the cliff, disappearing in the darkness. He had an uncanny sense that it landed somewhere in the forest, where the three missionaries' spirits were preparing to scale the mountain…
Seeing the reaction his little story had on both Yoh and, to a lesser extent, Anna, he gave an avuncular grin. "Oh, don't worry so! Local rumors get overblown. A mountaineer with a lantern becomes a vengeful spirit. A slip and fall is blamed on restless ghosts. You know how it goes. Still," he continued with trepidation, "it's funny how these things always seem to happen on this day…"
The sunset, now completely forgotten, had concluded. Darkness was rapidly descending, and Yoh shivered. "Don't kids appreciate a good ghost story anymore?" the stranger asked as he packed away the now empty food containers. "But seriously, don't let silly superstitions ruin your romantic getaway. Good night!" He did an about-face and slowly walked beyond.
"Like I'm scared!" Yoh blustered, standing up unsteadily. "A restless spirit—like I've never dealt with one of those before, right?"
"Naturally," Anna replied, standing up. In response, Yoh bent over to recover his jacket and wasted no time in pulling it on. "Then again, I don't believe you've ever faced one without your spirit or your sword backing you up."
It was now almost completely dark. What Anna said was true—Amidamaru was bound to his mortuary tablet on a nightstand back at the En Inn, and his sword Harusame leaned a few feet away against the bedroom wall.
"That's alright," Yoh countered, although the bravado in his voice had all but disappeared. "You've got your prayer beads, right?"
"Yeah, because I lug a strand of a thousand and eighty beads with me wherever I go. Fits right into my back pocket," she sarcastically agreed.
"Ah…well, I'm sure it's all just stupid ghost stories anyway." Even Yoh thought he sounded like he was desperately trying to reassure himself.
Anna shrugged. "Let's have a look in this cabin." It was too dark to see her expression, but did Yoh sense urgency, even fear, in her voice? She yanked the door rather forcefully and scampered inside. Yoh closed it behind him and squinted. It was dusk outside, but inside it was pitch-black. Gradually his eyes acclimated to the gloom. At one end of the room he made out a shabby bed—little more than a mattress sagging into a box spring, really—a foggy window, and a table perched beneath it. Set into the wall opposite the bed was a brick fireplace, complete with poker. Even Yoh saw the illogic of this, and commented on it, possibly to make himself think about something other than ghost stories that might be true…
"Ha! A fireplace? Where would I get the wood for that on this bare mountain? Maybe drag some logs all the way up here from the forest—"
Anna, who normally pounced on any opportunity to mock Yoh's stupidity, remained silent.
A shrill creak filled the interior of the cabin. Yoh leapt straight into the air. Frantically swiveling his head around, he yelled, "What the hell was that?!"
"Yoh, relax, geez, I just sat down on the bed, that's all. I'm a little worn out from the hike."
This candid admission was so unlike Anna that it made him even more ill at ease. Still, he preferred it to eerie silence. "I know what you mean. I'm pretty shot myself."
"We were lucky to run into that guy," Anna said as Yoh took a seat on the bed beside her. "Otherwise, we'd probably have starved."
"I dunno. I really could've done without that ghost story." Anna's figure bounced from Yoh's involuntary shudder.
"Yoh, come on," she reasoned, and in the dark her unusually compassionate tone was all the more distinct. "You live with ghosts—the En Inn's absolutely infested. You hang out in graveyards, for God's sake. Three missionary spirits?! What're they going to do, preach you to death?"
"Well, yeah," Yoh protested, turning to see Anna's silvery profile, "but…I've got no weapon and no ally to integrate with here. Just me and my 'slightly tubby' body."
Yoh expected Anna to laugh at this, but her profile remained stoic. He saw a tongue flit out briefly to moisten her deadly lips. "Yoh, you have a great body. You and I both know that."
The moonlight was just strong enough to reveal that Yoh's cheeks had flushed crimson. "No," she went on, "I was just trying to get you to come with me today. I…didn't know about the whole Aokigahara thing, I swear."
She twitched just a little. One of her eyes came into view, veiled in moonlight. It looked directly, penetratingly, at him. "Yoh, I'm sorry."
It was her turn to shiver, and she did so violently. "Are…you cold?"
"F-f-freezing," she chattered. Yoh began to remove his jacket, intending to offer it to her, but before he could so much as slip off a sleeve, two arms knocked him back onto the bed…
Yoh simply lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, his breath caught somewhere in his pounding chest. He refused to believe that Anna was actually lying right beside him, her arms tightly wrapping his torso, her body pressing on his flank.
But Anna verified that everything was actually happening. "Geez, Yoh, roll over. You know how awkward it is to hug someone from the side?"
She didn't sound annoyed in the least. Still Yoh hesitated, worrying that his racing heart might not withstand what would happen next.
He was conscious of every movement, even through the creases of his jacket and her coat: First his body adhered to hers, and a layer of warmth, evanescent yet palpable, enveloped his chest. It moved on to claim his back where her slender arms embraced him, and on down to his legs when they intertwined shortly thereafter.
"You…you're so warm, Yoh…" Anna's voice was slightly muffled; she was speaking into his shoulder. The way her words tickled upon his skin sent chills down his spine. Her delicate hair grazed his cheek and nose, and when he felt her exhaling on his skin, he realized he hadn't breathed for quite some time. When he finally did, it came in shallow, uncontrolled gasps.
"Don't…read too much into this, Yoh, I just don't want to freeze to death…"
Yoh had been expecting something like that. Still, it didn't detract from the reality of the situation; his staid fiancée was, after all, still embracing him in bed, and even if it was only for utilitarian reasons, it nonetheless took his breath away.
In addition to her mere proximity to him, her warmth was equally reassuring, and lying there after a grueling hike was slowly but surely taking its toll on him. His eyelids grew heavy, his breathing slowed down and stabilized, and his firm grip on Anna's back began to slacken—
A piercing whistle, like a boiling teakettle, penetrated the stout cabin walls—and Yoh's ears. His eyelids ratcheted open. "What…was that?"
"Was" turned out to be the wrong word. The whine persisted and intensified. He swore it was making the window vibrate. Then, once Yoh had firmly shoved his fingers into his ears and was convinced the screech would deafen him, it stopped abruptly.
He leapt from the bed and paced around the cabin nervously. "Oh, geez…Anna, what should I do?"
Anna was still lying on her side, her outstretched arms now embracing nothing.
"Crap…I could go out there and try to scare the spirits away," he muttered, "but wait! Maybe they don't know we're here yet. I'll just lay low and—" The window in the cabin faced the wrong way to provide any visual cues, but the moonlight that filtered through guided him to the fireplace poker. It was crude and unwieldy, but in both of his hands, it vaguely reminded him of Harusame. "All right, now come get some, you damn missionaries!"
As if on cue, the distinct sound of footsteps on snow rang in Yoh's ears.
"Shit, I didn't mean it literally!" Yoh moved just a few paces shy of the door, his weapon at the ready.
A solid thud echoed inside the cabin. The door buckled, and several splinters of wood pricked at Yoh's face. "Damn!" A second impact, stronger than the first, rocked the cabin's foundation so much that the table behind him wobbled.
"Why didn't I think of that…" Yoh set down the poker and grabbed the table by two legs. Orienting it so that the tabletop ran parallel to the wall, he pushed it towards the door, hoping to reinforce it before it was too late…
A third blow knocked one of the door hinges out of commission. It clattered to the floor like an ejected bullet shell.
"Come on!" Yoh and his table were just a few feet from the door now, when suddenly a voice boomed out.
"Our Father, which art in Heaven…"
Yoh closed his eyes and cowered in a corner in the cabin, abandoning both the table and his weapon. The missionary spirit's reinforcements had arrived. It was over.
"Hallowed be thy Name…"
The snowy footsteps, light and earthy, drew closer. He decided he wouldn't go without a fight; besides, Anna was still sleeping, and he would sooner die than see her attacked on his watch. Yoh recovered the poker into both of his hands. It shook in his frightened grip.
"Thy kingdom come…"
A sudden blast of chilly air greeted him through a newly formed crack in the doorframe. Yoh shivered, but managed to get to his feet shakily. Anna still hadn't stirred.
"Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven…"
The footsteps stopped, but the unearthly whistle took their place. Yoh cringed, trying to decide whether to drop the poker to plug his ears, but the voice boomed ever louder, reducing the shrill howl to a mere annoyance.
"Give us this day our daily bread…"
The whistling subsided instantly, but a much more sinister sound replaced it, something like a basket of hissing snakes. He also recognized the sound of displaced air, like the spirits were darting about outside, perhaps preparing for their final strike to the damaged door…
Then he heard the most disturbing sound of all: a noise uncannily like a scream. Its anguish echoed in the cabin and down the cliff behind him. The voice, still strong but now a little strained, continued shortly thereafter.
"And forgive us our trespasses…as we forgive those who trespass…against us…"
The whooshes of air from outside stopped. The footsteps were no more. A tense silence momentarily reigned. Yoh could hear his frenzied beating, his rapid pulse thumping in his ears.
"Lead us not…into…temptation…"
A dull thud, like a sack of flour smacking the ground, set the cabin's floor shaking. Then, a flurry of footsteps milled about atop the snow. The final words were the loudest and most strained of all, and Yoh stood in wide-eyed fright as they boomed down the mountain:
"But…deliver…us…from…evil!"
As soon as the last word had been uttered, a terrible wave of discordance emanated from the scene just outside the door. A mishmash of squeals, shrieks, groans, and grunts, as loud and jarring as it was quick, burst in on Yoh's ear. He glanced over at Anna, who somehow had slept through the ruckus. He thought, now that the prayer was over, and given how awful that last sound had been, that the final blow would come any minute now.
"Anna," he said, his voice steely, "I'm going out there." He cast a final, beseeching glance at Anna, who gave no indication of hearing him. Then he gave the poker a test swing, took a deep breath, and ran straight for the door, kicking it open on the way.
The sight that awaited him was nothing at all what he had expected. Rather than a trio of malicious spirits congregating before his door, there was a single figure standing in the snow, supporting himself with what appeared to be a bishop's staff. He wore a now very tattered yellow raincoat, its hood dangling by a few threads. It was hard to tell who looked more startled.
The stranger broke the silence first. "So they came after all."
"What—what did they do to you?!" Yoh asked, seeing all the tears and rips in his raincoat.
"Oh, nothing much," he said dismissively. "All they wanted was a chance to finish what they started. And what better way than to recite the Lord's Prayer with their old rector?"
Yoh flinched. "You—they were your disciples?"
He nodded gravely. "It's been twenty-five years, and goodness knows how much longer I have before the afterlife claims me. I…I've always been afraid of the supernatural, but I finally decided it's up to me to placate those vengeful spirits before they claim any more lives."
Yoh took a deep breath. He was relieved that the fixated spirits had been exorcised, but inwardly he was a little dismayed that an old guy in a ludicrous raincoat was responsible. Still, he wasn't unappreciative. "Thanks…You're very brave, you know, I was hiding in that cabin till the last possible moment…"
"Nonsense," the rector said, waving his staff before him. "What the heck did you imagine you'd get accomplished, swinging at fixated spirits with a fireplace poker? No, that girlfriend of yours is very lucky to be with a brave kid like you."
"He's…he's right, you know," came a soft voice from behind him.
Yoh whipped his body around. Anna was leaning upon the doorway, her hair mussed, her necklace off kilter. "I…was only pretending to be asleep," she admitted, abashedly twirling her finger in her hair. "I was too afraid to move. But you were ready to face those spirits to keep…to keep me safe…"
In two long, purposeful strides, Anna left her perch at the doorway and strode before Yoh. Before he could anticipate what would happen next, her arms were tightly encircling his waist. Yoh recalled their earlier hug in the cabin. "What's—what's the matter, are you cold again?"
"I…I know I can be, sometimes," she said from deep within his chest. "But what you just did for me is going to keep my heart warm for quite some time."
Yoh smiled—a stupidly ecstatic grin that, much to his surprise, was mirrored, feature for feature, in the beautiful face that looked back at him.
"Well, I've got a sermon to write," the rector said by way of farewell. "But what are you waiting for, son? Hurry up and kiss her!"
He could still hear his footsteps down the mountain when his lips touched hers. He recalled, as his hand caressed the back of her neck, how hearing those footsteps had terrified him just moments ago, but now, the only thing left to fear was Yoh waking up and discovering this kiss was just a dream. Surely it had all the trappings of fantasy—atop Japan's highest mountain, having just talked to a spirit-banishing rector in an outlandish raincoat, and, most unbelievable of all, having hugged his notoriously cold fiancée not once, but twice—but the tenderness, the warmth, the passion, of the lips locked upon his, was undeniably real. Everything—the heat, the cold shoulder, the fear—was worth enduring just for that one transient moment their lips were sharing, and nothing—not the spectacular view, nor the rector's feast—could hope to rival their sublime kiss…
"Y'know," Yoh said once their lips finally parted, "I…I love you, Anna."
"Love you too, Yoh." No hesitation. Yoh's heart skipped a beat.
"Can I say something?" he asked.
"Sure. What?"
"I have to admit…being this close to you is giving me a really hard rector—"
"Don't push your luck."
"Okay, okay. What if I said that I wouldn't mind lodging my rector in your—"
"I love you, but I swear I'm gonna shove you off this cliff."
