Warnings: None
Previously on Lucky Child: Prior to the Dark Tournament, Not Quite Keiko was kidnapped by Itsuki and Sensui. At the Dark Tournament, Keiko asked the Beautiful Suzuka to help her get supernatural powers; he gave her a bracelet that attracts energy. After the tournament ended, Keiko's school friend, Amagi, showed Keiko the Makai Insects invading Mushiyori City. Keiko and Kurama brought these bugs to the attention of Spirit World. Later, Keiko developed a Territory. Kurama noticed at school that Keiko was no longer wearing the bracelet Suzuka gave her. After banding together with fellow Territory users Kaito, Kido, and Amanuma, NQK traveled to Genkai's, where they found many other Territory psychics seeking Genkai's guidance. Ayame appeared shortly after Keiko introduced her friends to Genkai.
LUCKY CHILD
Chapter 123:
"Weekend at Genkai's (Part 2)"
Ayame's eyes, fathomless and black, pooled in twin pits above the white bone of her slender cheeks. A chill passed through me as they swept across my face, but I suppressed the urge to shiver. Although I trusted Ayame (as much as I could trust any emissary of Spirit World), I never quite knew where I stood with her, and that feeling of uncertainty left me unsettled.
"Keiko. It's good to see you." Her eyes cataloged every strand of my mussed hair and the folds of my travel-creased clothes. "You've recovered well, I trust?"
"Yeah." I swallowed. "And it's good to see you, too."
We stood in the large room with the brazier to which Genkai had earlier led myself and my friends, out from under the scrutiny of the other Territory users who had flocked to Genkai's temple. This time Genkai had shut the massive doors for privacy. Probably a good thing, by my estimations. The others had watched with open curiosity as Genkai sequestered Ayame and myself in that back room. Sumire—the girl with the round face and bouncing curls—actually came up to introduce herself, boldly offering to bring tea to our private meeting, but Genkai shot her down with a swift rebuke. Far from deterred, Sumire's eyes had followed us until we entered the temple, a calculating frown writ in the lines of her brow and down-turned lips. She'd forced a smile when my eyes met hers, gaze lingering on me like a shark hunting a seal. Her eyes looked even blacker than Ayame's.
Why did I get the distinct impression Sumire would sink her teeth into me about this later?
It hardly mattered; I had bigger fish to fry, and between Ayame and Sumire, the former represented the more threatening shark in the water. It didn't surprise me in the least to see her here. I had skipped our weekly check-in meeting due to being hospitalized from Mushiyori Fever, and as soon as Genkai escorted us into the back room, she broke the news to me that she had gotten in contact with Spirit World the second a Territory psychic showed up on her doorstep. Spirit World needed to know about the recent crop of newly awakened psychics, she reckoned, and Spirit World in turn told Genkai about the Makai Insects Kurama and I had brought to their attention thanks to my classmate Amagi.
It was only natural that Genkai also told them about my own Territory, once I called her and revealed I'd acquired the power of Dream.
"Don't be upset," Genkai grated when I pulled a face at this news. "It doesn't matter that I was the one to break the news. You would've told them eventually, anyway."
"Yeah," I said, eyeing Ayame sidelong, "but I kind of wanted to see the look on Ayame's face when I told her I got powers, too."
Ayame's full (if not pallid) lips curved into a smile. "I was most surprised, Keiko, I assure you."
"J'accuse," I retorted with deadpan skepticism. "I bet you didn't even flinch."
She laughed, which livened up her skeletal face a little. "No. I didn't," she admitted. "But of all the people to fall ill with Mushiyori Fever, it seemed fitting you would rank among that number." Her expression darkened again. "However... we need to discuss the obvious."
A sigh blustered past my lips, because I knew exactly what she was about to ask. "No, Ayame," I said. "I had no idea I'd get this Territory. The original Keiko didn't get any powers, ever. This was a complete surprise."
Genkai's face remained unreadable as she puffed on her pipe. Ayame's dark hair, haloed in smoke, nigh but disappeared into the room's aphotic gloom. The brazier cast sparks into the depths of her eyes like the burning heart of a submarine volcano drowned in cold water. I had no clue what either of them were thinking, nor what they made of my claim toward ignorance. Perhaps they believed me; perhaps they did not. Either way, I'd meet their questions without flinching.
"Why do you suppose have powers but the original Keiko did not, in that case?" Ayame said eventually.
"Honestly? I have a couple of theories." A shrug. "No clue which ones are right, but..."
"Well, out with it," Genkai said. "We haven't got all night."
"OK." A deep breath, lungs stretching before a race. "The first theory is that I've just spent more time in Mushiyori than the original Keiko ever did. Mushiyori is the nexus point for Territory acquisition. I take aikido lessons in the city, and some of my friends live there, so I visit a lot. The original Keiko, by contrast, never set foot within Mushiyori city limits as far as I know. Proximity upped her—my—our" (I stumbled briefly over pronouns) "chances of getting bitten by Makai insects, and here we are." I shrugged again. "Just a simple numbers game, really."
Ayame, sitting in serene seiza beside the brazier, nodded slowly. "And your other theory?"
"In the legend, Yusuke visited the original Keiko in her dreams to warn her of his death and resurrection," I explained. "He did the same in this reality, with me. The original Keiko also had a few instances of prophetic dreams, too, although these were brushed off by the narrative as unimportant or coincidental. But they always stood out to me." A grin spread across my face, cheeks curving at the memory of heated forum discussions centered on Keiko's wasted potential in canon; if only my past-life fandom friends could see me now... "When my Territory involved dreams, it seemed like a natural extrapolation of what power Keiko might've gained if she'd been granted one in the original canon."
"So even discounting the time spent in Mushiyori, you have had more exposure to the supernatural in this lifetime than did the original Keiko," Genkai pointed out, "so once again, this is a numbers and proximity game."
"That's right. Maybe combining my increased exposure to the supernatural with my increased exposure to Mushiyori was the one-two-get-a-power punch she—I—we needed to gain supernatural abilities." Shifting on the floor-pillow beneath my curled legs, I dipped a finger into the pocket of my jeans. "And on that note... the original Keiko never had this."
From my pocket I pulled a small drawstring bag—the kind that comes with jewelry, provided you don't buy it out of a gumball machine. Genkai took it and pulled open the neck, tipping a small tangle of red cord and fragments of white stone into her palm with a soft clink. The bracelet gifted to me at the Dark Tournament by the Beautiful Suzuka had seen better days. The cord, formerly a smooth and silken crimson, sported charred black edges and crispy threads, especially where knots looped through the disc of white stone with the hole in the middle. The stone was cracked clean in half, ends as jagged as broken bone. It looked like it had been violently smashed against a hard surface. Kurama had noticed when I'd ceased wearing the item, but apart from him, no one had seemed to realize the piece of jewelry had fallen from my daily sartorial rotation. This was good thing, in my book. I hadn't wanted anyone asking questions.
Ayame leaned toward Genkai with a frown. "What is that, Keiko?"
"A gift from a demon," I said. "I went to him looking for powers at the Dark Tournament."
For once, Ayame's smooth expression fractured. "You did what?"
"Keiko is nothing if not ambitious, I'm telling you," Genkai said with a chuckle. "If you'd been born with Yusuke's gifts, Keiko, you'd take over the world. Rewrite it in your image, no doubt."
"Ha ha, very funny. Anyway." I jabbed a finger toward the ruined bracelet in Genkai's hand. "The demon said the hole in that stone was naturally occurring due to many years of erosion. He said it attracts energy as a result, drawing it in over time. He'd wanted to use it as a battery for energy to call upon during fights, but he said the energy wasn't the right kind or something? I don't quite remember. But I remember clear as day that he said it could attract power to me."
"Forgive me if this statement sounds ignorant," Ayame said, "but why would a demon grant you an object of such power?"
"I plead a passionate case for his assistance and rolled a high charisma check."
Genkai's glare bordered on acidic. "Do not tell me you're a D&D nerd."
I beamed. "Of course I am!"
"D&D?" Ayame asked with obvious trepidation.
"Never you mind." Genkai's glared turned outright venomous. "It's extremely unimportant."
"Says you." Resisting the urge to defend one of my favorite hobbies proved difficult. "Anyway, that demon gave me the bracelet because he didn't need it himself. For him and his purposes, neither the type of energy it attracted nor the rate it attracted that energy were sufficient. He said it was a failed experiment, and therefore it was no great loss to give it to me."
Genkai gnawed on the end of her pipe. "This demon was the Beautiful Suzuka, I'm guessing?" She chuckled when I gave a nod. "Of course it was him. He did love his half-baked inventions..."
Ayame held out a hand; Genkai passed the bracelet to her. "And you think this bracelet may have had a hand in causing your Territory to manifest?" she said, one slender finger tracing over shards and broken string.
"Yes. When I got sick, I felt something weird on my wrist as I was blacking out," I explained. "When I woke up, the doctors had put my bracelet in a bag. Said it broke sometime during surgery, though they weren't sure when or how. Their best guess was that it had gotten hooked on a power cord and fried, judging by the look of it, but even they didn't look like they believed that excuse. So..."
Ayame and Genkai took turns studying the bracelet. Neither of them spoke for a time. At one point they exchanged a long, wordless look I did not understand. Genkai clutched the bracelet tight in her fist and shut her eyes, breathing deeply—no doubt using her own energy to investigate the bracelet, if I knew how to read her right. I felt nothing, though. Perhaps sensing energy wasn't an ability of Territory psychics? Or perhaps I'd learn to do that with time. Difficult to say, but hopefully this weekend at Genkai's would shed some light on the subject.
And speaking of shedding light: Watching Genkai work reminded me of Cleo. Their age and wisdom, the same hard set to their eyes—I couldn't shake the memory of Cleo closely examining the bracelet when we talked on the rooftop of the Hotel Kubikukuri on Hanging Neck Island after the end of the Dark Tournament. She had closely examined the bracelet, too, afterward making the offhand remark that I would have an interesting time ahead. Clearly she'd been able to see the writing of destiny on the demonic hotel wall. In truth, out of anyone, I most wanted to ask Cleo for her opinion on the bracelet, but Genkai and Ayame would do for the time being. Cleo ran on her own schedule. There was no telling when she'd deign to show her face again.
Eventually Ayame placed the broken bracelet back in its bag and returned it to me. "True to that demon's word, traces of residual energy remain upon the stone," she said, expression unreadable. "It's ancient energy—energy of the world itself, of tectonic plates and weather patterns, deep oceans and the deeper currents within."
"Don't be fooled by how impressive that sounds, however," Genkai interjected. "That kind of energy is useless in a fight, but it's not without other applications. It is possible this energy attracted the Mushiyori insects to you or somehow fueled the development of your Territory while you traveled within Mushiyori."
"It is difficult to say since it's in pieces." Ayame looked me over, assessing. "Are there any other theories you'd like to share?"
Of course I had more. I always had more; as an anxiety-riddled overthinker, having more theories and thoughts than necessary is kind of my thing. And the more elaborate and chaotic the better, you know what I mean? But Ayame and Genkai weren't interested in the machinations of a paranoid mind. They wanted data, facts, theories grounded in reality—actionable items, so to speak. The irony was that my most plausible final theory had to do with Hiruko, that elusive Spirit who, like Cleo, appeared on his own terms and in his own time, utterly out of reach and beyond my grasp.
Would they even want to hear the ways I thought he might be behind my acquisition of a Territory? Because his influence on the situation began years ago—before I ever even visited Genkai looking for powers, in fact. He had been visiting me in my dreams since I was a child. He was the one whose unwelcome presence in my sleeping mind forced me to lucid-dream for the first time. If it weren't for him, I never would've learned to control my dreams, and all Territories seemed to develop upon a bedrock of former abilities, skills and traumas. If anyone had had a direct impact upon the direction of my Territory's development, it had to be him. Because apart from Hiruko, Yusuke was the only one who had made my dreams in this life something more than just images seen whilst sleeping, and—
A smile curled my mouth. Or maybe Hiruko wasn't to blame for any of this. Maybe it wasn't about him at all. Thinking of Yusuke, of everything I'd shared with the protagonist of Yu Yu Hakusho... it never really had been about anyone else, had it?
"What are you grinning about?" Genkai grumbled.
"It's just funny," I said. "Looking back on it and thinking about my final theory... well, it's hardly even a theory." I couldn't help but laugh, low and to myself. "I think the reason I got powers is actually really simple. Too simple to be a formal theory."
"What is it?" Ayame said.
"Yes. Spit it out, brat," echoed Genkai.
"Earlier you asked me why I had powers." My laugh morphed into a wide smile, happy and genuine. "I think it's because of Yusuke and me."
Genkai's brow lifted. "That's going to take some explaining."
I wasted no time and jumped right in, the flow of my life's canon rolling easy off the tongue."Keiko was meant to attend school alongside Yusuke. Obviously my temperament made sure that didn't happen, because at his funeral, I almost punched a teacher who disrespected him." I grinned as Genkai's brow lifted higher. "That's what made me change schools. I was about to be expelled, but my mother enrolled me elsewhere before they could put an expulsion on my record. Her quick thinking saved my academic career."
"How adroit of her," Ayame murmured.
"Yeah." A pensive smile twisted my face. "It nearly killed me at the time, you know. Knowing something I did made such a big change to Keiko and Yusuke's shared life—knowing that I'd be separated from Yusuke when that's not how the legend should go, and all because of my actions." My head shook almost of its own accord. "I wondered what would happen to him without me there to watch over him, to guide him, to play the role of Keiko. But maybe I was just scared to let go of control." I swallowed, throat thick. "I dunno. I guess I should've trusted him from the start."
Genkai, ever impatient in the face of navel-gazing, grunted. "What's your point?"
"I always thought Hiruko was to blame for my change in schools," I told her. "He's been trying to trip me up for years, so I thought he might've influenced the situation. I thought maybe it was him to blame, not me and my actions... but if you look back and trace the order of events, it's really got nothing to do with him at all." I waved a hand, tracing the threads of destiny through the ether. "The entire reason I'm at Meiou now is because of my relationship with Yusuke. It all comes back to Yusuke and me in the end. Because he's my brother in this lifetime, because we're so close in a manner he and the original Keiko were not..." I lifted my fist to study it, reading fate in the curves of my fingers. "That closeness is why I tried to throw that punch at Iwamoto. I couldn't tolerate someone disrespecting Yusuke like that. And because I threw that punch, I now go to Meiou, and because I go to Meiou, I met Kurama and got closer to the supernatural, and because of that, I've met so many people from Mushiyori, and thanks to them I've spent more time there, and that proximity is probably how I got this Territory. It all traces back to that one, single moment at that funeral when I tried to throw that punch." My fist descended to my thigh, dropping like a stone. "It's... it's just wild to think about that domino effect. One, single punch, and... here we are."
Ayame's chin dipped. "The wings of a butterfly birth storms in far-flung places."
"Well said, Ayame," said Genkai.
Her chin inclined, dark eyes regarding me down the length of her delicate nose. "Whatever the reason for your powers, Keiko, I have to ask this, too: What purpose does Mushiyori Fever serve in the grand scheme of the legend we embody?"
My lips thinned. "I wondered when you'd figure it out."
Genkai looked between us. "Explain."
"Thanks to Keiko, we know Makai insects are invading Human World," Ayame said, eyes trained unerringly on my face (which I schooled into a mask of Keiko Politeness, impassive and bland). "People are developing psychic powers. The presence of the Makai insects and the surfacing of the Territory psychics indicates a breach between worlds likely exists."
"Rifts in the barrier between worlds often birth new psychics," Genkai said. "Yes, I know."
"Indeed," Ayame said. "More alarmingly, Hiruko seeks the Makers, who lurk between worlds... worlds separated by a barrier the Makai insects have already breached. Furthermore, Itsuki and Sensui, unseen by Spirit World in many years, have surfaced once again. According to Spirit World, Itsuki has the ability to manipulate dimensional space. He is more than capable of opening a rift between the Demon and Human Worlds."
Genkai smirked. "I see what you're getting at now."
"Yes. It cannot be a coincidence that Sensui, Itsuki and Hiruko are all interested in pseudo-space." She spoke in a firm but lulling rhythm, voice smooth, satin spread over hard stone. "While the overlap between Itsuki, Sensui and Hiruko's goals is unclear, too many elements in common lie between them to be ignored. There is no way these events and these actors are unrelated, Keiko. You hold the connections between these facts close to your chest, and I can't help but trace the threads that bind them."
'Threads,' Ayame said. Hiruko used threads to manipulate, to control, to influence. Perhaps she had used the phrased intentionally. Perhaps she hadn't. Either way, I couldn't keep the shiver at bay.
"Wow," I told her. "You just said the quiet bits out loud, huh?"
Her lips pulled up at the corner. "I confess I tire of dancing around matters of fate."
"You're becoming genre savvy, Ayame." I wagged a finger, trying to dispel the tension with humor, little good though it did me. "It's highly inconvenient."
"A dodging of questions if I've ever heard one," she said, not fooled in the slightest. She surprised me by ducking her head, a show of submission and humility. "But I won't trouble you further with my musings. I do not expect you to confirm them. I respect your efforts to keep the future concealed. I would merely be remiss not to tell you the conclusions I have drawn." Her gaze became hooded, drawn, as she stared into the smoldering coals within the nearby brazier. "Itsuki, Sensui, Hiruko, the insects, the Territory psychics, the Makers... they are all connected. We have but to wait to see the image formed by these disparate pieces when they come together at long last."
Genkai lifted her pipe to her mouth, but she didn't smoke. "Why do I feel like it'll resemble a Dali painting?"
"If it does, it is Koenma's highest wish that we will face that surreal madness as a united front," Ayame replied, intonation as smooth as an ocean current. "In times such as these, we must work together, after all. And on that note, we need to discuss next steps."
Genkai have an economic nod. "I'll train the Territory psychics to make sure they won't wreak too much havoc in the wider world."
"We would also like you to investigate the infestation in Mushiyori, with the goal of locating any breaches between Demon and Human World," Ayame said. "We have conducted our own search, but we have found little. Could you be convinced to travel?"
"I'll see if these old bones are up for it."
"Very good." Ayame shifted toward me. "Keiko. I can only assume these psychics will play a large role in the events to come."
My shoulders stiffened, but I said nothing.
"Can you share why you wear the look on your face?" Ayame asked.
"Some of the ones here are fated to play a role," I admitted, choosing each word with care. "But some... some of them I've steered from their destined path."
"Oh?" said Genkai.
"One in particular—I won't say who—was supposed to be an enemy of ours."
It was a gamble, telling them this. But ever since Amanuma had agreed to come with me to Genkai's (ever since I'd turned him away from Sensui's influence, truth be told), I'd known this confession was inevitable. It was better for Genkai to be on guard—not against Amanuma or Sensui, though.
She needed to be on guard against me.
"Interesting," Genkai said, studying me through shaded eyes. "Very interesting."
"But you've ensured that won't be the case?" Ayame asked.
"Yes." Squaring my stiff shoulders, I said, "This person is a friend now. A good one. One we can trust. We can trust all the ones I brought here. I vouch for them. And Eza, too." I couldn't help but smile at the memory of his broad, kind face. "Was shocked to see him here, but he's a good egg. We have quality allies."
"But one of them was not meant to be as such," Ayame said.
"Yes." And here came my dire warning. "And that creates a vacuum in my knowledge of canon. We need to be very careful in trusting my knowledge of future events due to how much I've already impacted them."
That was the main reason I wouldn't tell them what I knew about Amanuma and his foiled connection to Sensui. Me throwing a single punch at Iwamoto had potentially given me a Territory. What side effects would recruiting Amanuma wreak on Sensui's plans? Perhaps without Amanuma, the Gamemaster, at his side, Sensui wouldn't recruit Sniper, Doctor, Seaman, or the others—perhaps he'd recast his entire cadre of Territory users he allied with in canon. If I told Genkai and Ayame about the enemies they should expect per canon's decree, they might not be able to adjust in time should Sensui choose other allies instead. They would over-prepare for threats that never came and be less likely to adjust on the fly to aberrations in expectations. Due to my actions regarding Amanuma, I had created uncertainty in Sensui's methods. Rather than trust my knowledge, Genkai and my allies should make judgments for themselves based on any information they could find themselves—information organic to this version of canon, and not what I knew from my past.
Luckily I didn't need to explain any of that; the sage looks on Ayame and Genkai's faces said they understood. Still, I made sure to mention: "Someone will fill the empty place I created when I turned this would-be enemy to our side. I just have no idea who that person will be."
"So you're saying we'll have to face down psychics with unknown powers in future," Genkai said. "And by 'we,' I mean Yusuke and his friends."
"Yes."
"Hmmph. Thought as much." She bit down on her pipe and smirked. "Good thing I know exactly how to prep him for that scenario."
"Prep, huh?" I couldn't help but smile back. "I know what you're planning."
Genkai's smirk widened. "Do you, now?"
The glitter in her eye said she knew the answer to that extremely rhetorical question: Yes, of course I knew what she was planning, and she damn well knew it, too. In canon, Genkai conscripted Kaito, Kido and Yana into kidnapping Yusuke and holding him hostage. At her behest, they used their Territory powers to challenge Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara and Botan to rescue Yusuke from the House of Four Dimensions, a strange, abandoned house on the edge of town where Genkai's plan could go off without civilian interference. And because Territory psychics don't rely on their fists, Yusuke and his friends were completely out of their element, unable to use their usual tactics (namely violent ones) to solve problems, defeat the enemy, and rescue Yusuke.
Kurama, Kuwabara, Hiei and Botan managed to succeed and rescue Yusuke in canon, of course. Yusuke had never been in any real danger; Genkai's plan never involved actually hurting him or his friends. Whether they won or lost, the goal was to illustrate the degree to which Territory users differed from Yusuke's usual enemies, evidencing through action the way Yusuke and his friends needed to modify their strategic thinking when handling the new threats brought about by the advent of Territories. It was an elegant method to plunge Yusuke headfirst into the cold water of Territory psychics. She wanted to shock them into strategic evolution with an glacial blast of new information. We all know jumping headlong into a pool is the best way to acclimate to a frigid and unforgiving temperature, after all...
But I didn't need to explain all of that to Genkai. Instead I summarized her goals into a brief and perfunctory thesis statement: "You want to test Yusuke. You want to give him a trial by fire to show him he's out of his depth and how much he needs to evolve to fight the Territory users. This will involve a kidnapping and a test for him and all his friends, yes?"
She scowled, but the glitter in her eye gave away that she was pleased. "There goes the legend, ruining all my fun again."
"Sorry." But I sounded more eager than apologetic. "It's a good plan, by the way."
"I concur," Ayame said. "Genkai already told me what she's planning. And Koenma approves."
"Still not sure who I'll use for the kidnapping," Genkai said. She held her pipe between her fingers, thumb running over the length of the stem in a steady, contemplative track. "That's part of what this weekend is about. I need to assess my pawns and train them before they get within striking distance of Yusuke."
"Pawns isn't a very nice word, Genkai," I chided.
She ignored me. "Spill it, kid." Her pipe jabbed my way like a striking blade. "What's canon have to say about my plan?"
"While I don't really like the word 'pawns,'" I repeated, ever a dog with a bone, "canon says good things about it. Definitely move forward with the plan. Just..."
"Just what?"
"I don't want to be a part of it."
A long silence followed. I held my breath. Ayame's pale, skeletal face gleamed in the dark like the leavings of departed carrion. Genkai eyed me over, lips eventually giving way to a scowl.
"Who said I want you to be a part of it?" she said.
"Nobody." The word sounded defensive, even to me, but I had a logical reason for not wanting any part of Genkai's grand schemes. "It's just... Yusuke trusts me. If I'm part of the plan, he'll immediately know he's not in any real danger, so there's no point getting me involved. No one will be fooled, and the plan will be undermined. I want out of it as a result."
"Fair point," Genkai conceded.
"Additionally..." (here came the hard sell) "...I'd like to be released from my promise of secret keeping regarding my Territory."
Genkai's scowl deepened. Ayame's china-smooth brow creased, a dark line bisecting the skin between her eyebrows. I held my head high, though, and did not wither.
"You wanted me to keep my Territory a secret from Yusuke because of your plan," I said. "Well, if I'm not part of the plan, I can tell him what I can do. I don't have to hint others have a Territory. I can just act like my near-death experience awoke something in me. The rest of your plan and the other Territory users can still be a surprise."
"Sorry, kid," Genkai said at once. "But that's not how this works."
"But—"
"What happened to obeying me without question?" She didn't spare me even a breath to regroup or argue, plowing on ahead with fire burning in her rheumy eyes. "You agreed to my terms. Are you backing out now? I didn't think you were the type who didn't mean what they say."
Fuck. Leave it to Genkai to throw my words back in my face. I was trapped by my own moral code and I knew it, but even so—I was nothing if not a fighter. "Genkai, please," I said, only a hair's breadth away from begging. "I can't lie to them anymore. I just promised I'd stop lying."
"And you will stop lying—about everything except this," she said, as if that made perfectly logical sense. "I can't have you ruining the shock of unconventional powers by showing off yours at every opportunity. Revealing your Territory ruins my plan."
My head hung, neck boneless with dread. "Genkai..."
"I know it's not what you want. But even you can't be so blinded by your own desires to not realize I'm right."
"But—" Rebellion rose hot a heady in my chest. "You can't control me once I leave here. What if I just tell Yusuke about my Territory anyway?"
"I'm planning on kidnapping Yusuke. You think I'll hesitate to do the same to you to keep my plans in place?" she fired back. "I can imprison you here for the next month and not a soul will know. Don't tempt me." Her face softened when I balked, the barest hint of sympathy lighting her dark gaze. "In the end, kid, it's just easier for you to keep quiet. It's one less loose end to worry about—both for me, and for you."
My teeth ground together so hard, it's a wonder they didn't crack. I hated the reality of the situation almost as much as I hated that Genkai was right—but then again, this wasn't a surprise. Even before I tried to argue to be released from secrecy, I knew she'd say no, and even more than that, I knew my request wasn't logical. I knew telling Yusuke about my Territory was a bad idea no matter how much I longed to reveal it. It was better to keep the secret of my Territory a total surprise, even if I wasn't involved in Genkai's plan to kidnap Yusuke and test his friends. It was better for him to not have any idea people were getting powers of any kind. It was better for me to keep my mouth shut about everything, down to the last detail.
And that meant it was better to keep lying to him.
I hated to admit that was the case, but it was. Telling him about my Territory would give him too much time to adjust his thinking, ruining the cold-water shock effect of Genkai's plans. I knew keeping secrets was my best choice of action. I just didn't want to admit it. I just didn't want to choose it. I wanted Genkai to force my silence, because at least in that scenario. I wasn't the one to blame.
Asking to be released from secrecy was more for the benefit of my own conscience than anything, if I'm being completely honest with myself. When my secret at last came out, I wanted to be able to say with my whole chest that I'd at least tried to keep from lying to them, dammit.
But that alone wasn't enough for me. "If I do keep my powers a secret," I said, affixing Genkai with a firm glare. "If I do lie and keep all of this a secret... I need something from you."
One thin brow arched. "What?"
"I need assurances. You have to promise me that when the secret comes out, you'll have my back and tell them not to hate me."
Her brow lifted higher. "You want me to take the blame."
"Yes," I said, hating how childish the word felt in my mouth. "I am sorry about this, but I will need you to defend me when they—"
"You don't have to work so hard to convince me, you know."
I froze. She took a drag from her pipe, smoke lifting in airy waves toward the dark-shrouded eaves above.
"Do you really think I care what that gaggle of children thinks of me?" she said. "You can direct them to blame me all you like if it'll make you feel better. I'll bear their ill will without flinching." Her smile, lazy and satisfied, quieted the nerves still thrumming in my chest. "I'll take the fall for your secrets if that's really what you want. You are keeping them at my request, after all, and you know I'll kick your ass if you don't do as I say."
"That's what I'm gonna do, by the way" I informed her. "I'm going to remind them that you're scary and I had no choice but to lie to them under pain of ass-kicking."
"Fine by me, so long as it gets you to cooperate."
I studied her in silence, wafts of perfumed smoke tangling with my hair and brushing warm hands across my damp skin. I'd been sweating without realizing it; cloth clung to my back and chest, sticky and laden with the salt of stress. But Genkai looked sincere, not flinching from my questing gaze, only breathing in the smoke of her pipe through wizened lips pressed thin with flat solemnity.
"Good," I said after a time. "Well. OK then." A deep breath pulled warm air into my lungs, cloying and sweet. "For the record, I hate this. I hate it. I hate lying to them like this."
"I know," Genkai said.
"I don't want to keep secrets," I continued. "But..."
"But what must be done must be done," she said.
"Yeah." A hard swallow placed an ache in the depths of my clenched throat. "I tell myself that a lot."
No one spoke, for a time. Eventually Ayame rose to her feet with the fluid grace of a funerary flag. Her kimono blended with the dark of the room as she approached the open doorway overlooking the garden. For a time she stared out over the stone-ringed pond and green cheery tree, one hand resting bone white and china thin upon the door's frame.
"Keep me apprised of your plans." Her voice carried like wind through winter-bare branches, soft with chill and distance. "I will be in touch."
"See you soon, Ayame," I said to her turned back.
"Yes," she said. "See you, Keiko."
Ayame took a step forward, onto the porch beyond the doorway. The cherry tree above swayed, shishi-odoshi popping against stone as it filled with water. Ayame paused until the deer-scare popped a second time. Then her face turned until one black eye appeared over her shoulder, assessing and fathomless.
"For what it's worth—I agree with Genkai," she murmured. "You must keep your Territory secret for a while longer yet, if Genkai's plan is to come to fruition. This is one secret that is not yours to break." She paused again. The deer-scared dropped. Her eye shut, black hiding behind bone-pale lid. "If they do not see the necessity of your actions, once the secret airs... I will back you up as well. They may blame me, too, if they wish."
"Ayame..." My mouth worked, dry as bone. I was all I could do to say: "Thank you."
"You are welcome." She stepped forward, into the garden. "Take care, Keiko. Until we meet again."
A weight settled over my shoulders as she faded from view, her body disappearing between one blink and the next. The deer-scared echoed in the silence like the beating of a plodding heart. Genkai smoked her pipe until I rose, staring toward the garden as if I could read the reality of what had transpired here in the scattered leaves of the cherry tree.
Ayame had always been hard to read—but somehow, in that moment, it felt like I could count on her. Perhaps not on Spirit World, but Ayame herself... she would back me up if I needed her. Ayame would have my back, and so would Genkai, the pair of them protecting me when the icy deluge of my powers engulfed my friends in cold reality.
I could only hope, that when the time came, Ayame and Genkai would help us—myself included—tread that gelid water.
Territory users clustered around the firepit in the center of the large courtyard in front of Genkai's temple, and in silence I sat with them.
I'd tried to strike up conversation when I emerged from the temple after Ayame's departure, but no one seemed to interested in talking. The mood skewed toward the uneasy, like school kids falling silent as a teacher passed, glances furtive and speech hushed when someone reluctantly talked at all. I'd emerged from the temple to find most people eating (or at least trying to eat and cook around the fire burning away in the makeshift hearth someone had constructed from a hodgepodge assortment of bricks and river stones). One man attempted ineffectually to boil instant ramen over the open flames, but when the paper and plastic packaging began to shrivel and smoke, he yanked the ramen back and stared forlornly at his uncooked meal.
My friends were nowhere to be found, at least at first. When I asked, someone told me they'd gone off to haul some water up from a nearby well (I was not looking forward to seeing the bathrooms at this place), but I saw neither hide nor hair of them until at last Eza wandered up and sat beside me on the log laid out along one side of the firepit. He didn't stick around, though. He just shoved a bento full of onigiri into my hands before wandering off again, muttering that Genkai had asked him to take care of a few things around the temple and he didn't want to piss her off.
Watching me interact with Eza apparently lit a spark in the others, though. People looked at me directly, a few of them offering their names in hesitant introduction. Still others watched from afar or peered from the mouths of the many tents scattered around the courtyard, curious but uncertain. I didn't force any of them to talk to me, of course. Some people probably weren't here to make friends, and that was OK. Gave me fewer names to have to remember, anyway, which was a good thing. There were too many people here for me to memorize as it was...
The people most interested in socializing soon availed themselves, of course. Sumire came over to introduce herself a second time, curls bouncing and round face beaming before she trotted off to "take care of a few items, because Genkai definitely trusts me to manage things in her absence." I wasn't sure how serious she was about that, so I ignored the comment and instead got to chatting with two woman sitting close together on the other side of the fire. It was clear to me why the two had paired up. Both of them held a child in their arms, one a young girl of maybe four or five and the other a baby—a fresh baby at that, still swaddled up like a tiny, red-faced burrito in its mother's arms.
The mother of the older child introduced herself as Chiharu. She wore her hair in a long, dark bob, and her simple yet stylish clothes were neat and well-pressed despite the giggly little girl squirming on her lap. A total PTA mom in her late 20s who'd show up to a social event with homemade cookies even when she wasn't asked—that's the vibe of got from her. Her patient smile and the deft way she handled her kid, whom she introduced as Kaori, said she had the whole parenting thing down pat. The way Chiharu gnawed on a power bar with a quietly despairing look in her eye was the only thing that gave away any of the stress she might be feeling.
The other woman, meanwhile, was a study in contrast. Nakano looked barely older than me, obviously a very young mother, though her exact age I couldn't determine. Her hair—limp and in dire need of a trim—had been bleached to a stylish chestnut at the ends, but her roots had grown in dark black by at least a few inches. She breast-fed her child under a towel, nervously rocking the baby as she peered at Chiharu and asked questions in a hushed voice. Clearly Nakano was taking notes from the Dominant Mom in the room, and Chiharu looked more than happy to chat.
So did Chiharu's kid, Kaori. The little girl clutched a doll to her chest and smiled at my over the toy's curly hair. Her cheeks flushed and she giggled when I waved.
"Sorry," Chiharu said with an apologetic smile when she saw me making a funny face at her daughter. "She's feeling social today."
"She's adorable," I said. "I don't mind at all."
Chiharu and Nakano both looked relieved at that. Probably happy their future roommate (because I do believe these were the women with children Genkai had mentioned I'd be sleeping alongside) wasn't averse to sharing a space with their kids.
They weren't the only ones I ended up chatting with. The guy who'd nearly set his ramen on fire, Fumihiro, seemed nice enough, too. He sat with slumped shoulders on the far end of the log occupied by Nakano and Chiharu, occasionally glancing at them and me over the top of his thick glasses. Fumihiro wore a suit and tie and parted his hair down the side in an old-fashioned cut despite his relatively young age, and when he introduced himself with a low bow and a nervous stammer of his name, I got the sense I was dealing with the quintessential office-worker type. He listened in silence while Nakano, Chiharu and I chattered, clearly unsure of his place in the hierarchy. Poor guy. And hadn't Genkai mentioned something about his power being on the extreme side?
"We got here two days ago," Chiharu was saying. She gave the power bar in her hand a forlorn look. "I'm a good cook, but unfortunately Genkai only has a wood-burning oven. I'm at a loss to use it!"
"And I can't cook at all," said Nakano.
Fumihiro didn't speak. He just sighed and eyed his ramen, forlorn. His expression had my lips quirking, but I tried to hide the smile as best as I could.
"A wood burning stove," I said. "Want me to take a look? I can—"
The log I perched upon bucked, bumping my thighs and tailbone with a harsh thump. A man had sat down on the far end and made it jump like a seesaw. I couldn't help but shoot him a tiny glare, but when Nakano loosed a small, muffled gasp, I turned to her instead.
But she wasn't looking at me. Nobody was. Fumihiro, Nakano and Chiharu were all looking pointedly away, a heavy hush falling, the crackling of the fire the only thing punctuating the quiet. In fact, many of the curious stares I'd noticed when I first sat down had vanished, too, heads retreating back into tents and out of sight.
"So you're Yukimura, huh?" said the man on the far end of the log. "What's your Territory?"
He had a deep, growling voice that matched his ragged vest and baggy pants, not to mention the long, black hair sweeping his collarbone. Muscles corded in his bare arms and in the sliver of chest exposed by his dark tank top. Heavy boots thudded against the cobblestones when he leaned back on his hands and crossed his legs at the ankle, lounging like a tiger, all barely leashed energy and easy grins. I pegged him at once as an overgrown street punk who never outgrew his teen rebellion phase—or ever learned manners at all. The way his eyes crawled up and down my body without a shred of subtlety set my teeth on edge. It didn't escape my notice that he hadn't even bothered using honorifics when speaking to me, either. Bad vibes, this guy, no question.
"You know my name, but I don't know yours," I replied.
"It's Okada." His lopsided grin wasn't not handsome, but his oily expression killed any attraction I might have otherwise felt toward his narrow eyes, chiseled nose and square jaw. "So, your Territory?"
I debated whether the inevitable rage he'd show if I refused to answer was worth it, because he was absolutely the type of guy who wouldn't take no for an answer. Before I could tell him off or humor him, though, a light rush of air played over my nape. A second later, Eza plopped down beside me on the log, placing his large body between mine and Okada's.
Okada gave Eza a scowl, but Eza pointedly ignored him. He just stared straight ahead into the flames like a wall made of particularly impassive brick, arms crossing tight over his broad chest. Okada was muscular, by Eza was taller and had a stronger build; Okada would be a freakin' fool to mess with him.
Confidence bolstered by Eza's silent presence, I leaned around him and shot Okada a lazy grin. "Oh, my Territory is nothing wild. Yours?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out." Cocky shithead grinned from ear to ear. "It's impressive, though."
I shrugged. "I'm sure."
He looked dissatisfied at the dismissal, but I didn't give him a chance to engage with me again. Instead I cracked open the bento box Eza had given me earlier and shoved a rice ball into my mouth. Eza looked pleased, but his smile gave way to a frown.
"That rice is nice, but it probably doesn't hit the spot," he said. "Sorry. It's all I had. You need protein. I know I do..."
His easygoing speech eased some of the tension around the campfire, specifically Chiharu and Nakano's. Each of them gave a sympathetic nod at my friend, once again eyeing their power bars with doleful stares. Fumihiro looked positively depressive as he glanced at his singed ramen.
"Do y'all have any meat, eggs, anything like that?" I asked.
"Genkai got us some stuff," Eza said. "It's over by the oven, but..."
"None of us really know what to do with it, I'm afraid," Chiharu said.
Fumihiro swallowed and glanced over his shoulder, presumably toward the oven. "It sure does look tasty, though..." he muttered.
I had no clue what kind of impossible ingredients Genkai had provided, but it didn't hurt to take a look. "Why don't I give it a shot," I said, rising to my feet with a grin. "If I can manage the oven, I'm sure whatever she's got will be better for you and the baby than processed stuff."
"Oh, would you?" Nakano said, eyes lighting up in defiance of the bags beneath them. "That would be amazing."
Eza told me where to find the wood-burning oven around back of the building. The gigantic beast of an appliance had been made from stone and concrete and mud with a smokestack spearing out of the top, a traditional cooking implement I'd seen in photos but never in person—not in this life, anyway. Coolers beside the oven revealed even more antiquated ingredients, namely whole vegetables still covered in soil and freshly killed small game. The latter included fish, birds, and rabbits, unbutchered. If I had to guess, Genkai had probably hunted these down herself on her enormous, mountainous property. Quite the generous gift, but it was no wonder no one had known how to cook any of it. Breaking down whole animals wasn't exactly a commonplace skill in this day and age.
Well. Not for most people, anyway. But I was the child of a restaurant owner in this life and the child of a hunter in the life before that, and I'd done my fair share of cleaning and cooking meat in both. Most of my skills cleaning wild game came from my former life, however, after hunting trips spent alongside my avid sportsman of a father. I'd been especially good at cleaning the birds he brought home. There was something almost meditative in the act of gutting and cleaning, even if I didn't plan on eating a single bite of what I prepared. In both my lives, I avoided eating meat wherever I could. Hunting made me good at cleaning game, sure, but hunting also drove me to avoiding eating the product of the sport entirely. Ironic, that.
In addition to the oven (which already bore a roaring fire in its belly) and food, Genkai had provided some cooking implements. A wok, ceramic cooking vessels, knives, spoons—everything I needed to cook a meal, really, down to a basic spice rack I could make good use of. I spread parchment paper atop one of the game coolers and got to work on cleaning some game. Paired with the vegetables on hand and the big bowl of miso paste that sat with the spices, I could easily make a really nice stew out of the duck, and—
"You know, it would work better with another kind of knife. Like a chef's knife."
I looked up as I crunched down through a duck's chest with a heavy cleaver. It speared through cartilage and sinew like a dream—the preferred blade when breaking down a whole animal, at least according to my parents both past and present. Sumire, however, watched me with an unimpressed stare, hip jutting out in a defiant stance as she watched me work from a few paces away. She didn't move to help me or assist, however. She just stared, lip curling when I repositioned the duck and made another cut.
"I'm good with the cleaver," I told her with a grunt. "It gets through the joints better than a chef's knife. Sometimes you want the broader blade to—"
"The chef's knife really would be better." Sumire pointed at the roll of knives sitting on the cook top. "You should use that instead."
"Uh. I..." I gaped at her, then shrugged. "This one's already dirty. Maybe next time?"
Sumire didn't say anything. She just continued to watch, frowning. I ignored her as best I could. This stuff had been sitting here since before I arrived; if she was an expert on cooking, why hadn't she contributed yet? Not that it mattered. I was here now and the job would get some, cleaver or no cleaver and no matter what Sumire had to say about it.
To my disappointment, she had a lot left to say. Once the duck was butchered, I cleared my space and got to work on cleaning and then dicing the vegetables, and she was on me again with another suggestion.
"Why don't you try a thinner cut?" She stood over me and stared, still frowning and not lifting a finger to help. "They'll cook faster."
I smiled up at her with my very best (and fakest) Keiko Face to explain, "I want them to cook at the same rate as the meat, which is pretty thick, so if I cut them too thin, they'll burn."
"Oh." When I reached for a spice jar, she said, "You should use rosemary, by the way. Not peppercorns."
My temper flared. "Do you want to be doing the cooking?" I said, thrusting the jar toward her.
"Oh. No." She took a step back, out of my atmosphere at last. "Why do you ask?"
Was it not obvious? "You seemed like you weren't happy with how I'm handling it so I figured you were trying to take over."
The disgruntled look on her face evaporated at once. "No, your cooking looks amazing!" she gushed, attitude taking a complete 180 that left me feeling dizzy. "The duck especially looks so juicy and good. You're an amazing chef, Keiko!"
My brows lifted. I wanted to tell her that she'd never tasted my cooking and therefore her words were an obvious (and unwelcome) attempt at flattery, but before I could lose my temper, someone called my name. Kido trotted up carrying a metal bucket, strands of his blond hair glinting nearly gold in the half-light of the evening twilight.
"Hey." He set the bucket at my feet; water sloshed against the cobblestones below. "Can I help at all?"
"Wash potatoes?"
"Sure." He picked over the tools lying atop the oven and selected one. "Should I use this scrubber?"
"Yeah. Just make sure the eyes don't have dirt in them."
"Cool. Let me know if I do it wrong."
"Thanks."
We settled in to work. I kept my head down. Sumire didn't offer to pitch in. She watched us for a bit, standing over our efforts in silence, before at last growing bored (or something) and wandering off with a muttered goodbye. I finally raised my head to watch her walk away.
"That was weird," I murmured.
Kido glanced my way. "Hmm?"
"She was all up in my ass about how I was cooking." I grabbed the tray of food I'd prepped and shoved it in the door of the oven; hot air buffeted my face like a heavy blanket. "And then she wouldn't stop gushing about it."
"Huh." But Kido didn't look particularly bothered. All he said was, "Weird."
"Yeah... Anyway." I patted the outer shell of the oven and put the oddball Sumire out of my head. "Now we just gotta wait for that to cook."
The feeling of waiting lasted longer than the waiting itself, hungry as everyone was, but the food came out of the oven crisp and juicy. Even the more reclusive temple guests wandered out of their tents to grab a plate, and the people I'd met earlier—specifically the two moms—dug in like they hadn't eaten in days. And they probably hadn't had a good meal in that time, honestly. The food wasn't fancy, but the way they all went on about it, you'd think I was a five-star chef. Their reaction had me a little worried. The food situation here appeared dire at first glance, but this warm welcome to rustic cooking indicated we were in even direr straights than I realized. At least I could contribute and make this situation a little easier on everyone... I intended to duck out early on Genkai's training camp (pun intended, considering tonight's main course), but earning my keep while I was here seemed the least I could do.
To the others, though, what I'd made wasn't 'least' at all. Nakano looked almost teary as she dug into the duck, saying between mouthfuls, "Thank you, Keiko. Really. Thank you."
"No worries. Happy to help."
She wasn't the only one who shot me a grateful look when I got up to do dishes and clean out the empty cooking vessels (which had practically been licked clean at that point, anyway). Kido and some of the others tagged along after Eza dragged more water up from the well; we squatted over buckets and scrubbed until our hands turned raw, the mood more relaxed now that the temple's collective belly had been filled with something more substantial than a power bar. Eza and Kido shared my bucket—by design on my part. There were things I needed to know and I got the sense Eza had answers.
I waited until no one was looking our way to mutter, "Hey Eza?"
"Yeah?" he said, dunking a dinner plate in the sudsy water.
"Think you could give a quick rundown of the social dynamics here?" I nodded to our left. "Got a weird vibe off of that guy."
Okada stood not too far off smoking a cigarette. His hair looked greasy in the evening light, smile wolfish as he watched everyone else work. Obviously he didn't offer to pitch in. Kido eyed him the same way I did, gaze narrow and assessing.
"I know that type. Guy thinks he's top dog," Kido said. "I don't like 'im."
"Yeah." Eza picked up another dinner plate; it was only slightly larger than the span of his broad hand. "He's been coming here for a few weekends and does whatever he wants." Eza's thick brow furrowed. "Throws his weight around; that kind of thing."
"Genkai doesn't put him in his place?" I asked.
"He doesn't do it when she's watching."
Kido shook his head. "Bully tactics 101."
"Yeah." Eza's lips pursed. "He likes harassing Nakano the most."
I bristled. Nakano, the young mom—the mom whom I couldn't help but compare to Atsuko, or to my past-life grandmother, who'd been a teen when she had my mother. Some bastard was picking on a single mom? Not on my watch. I hadn't even seen the extent of his bullying, but he was already on my Shit List.
"I don't like that one bit," I said. But he wasn't the only person I wanted to ask about. "And what about Sumire?"
Eza rolled his eyes. "She also thinks she's in charge. Harmless, but..."
"Annoying?" Kido guessed.
"Yeah. She and Okada butt heads sometimes." Eza shot Okada a glance, dour and dark. "Was funny to watch at first, but when he uses his Territory..."
I still wasn't sure what kind of Territory Okada had, exactly, but I did not like the way Eza's face fell when he mentioned it. Clearly he had a doozy of a power, and if he had a menacing ability, what other surprises lurked among these unknown psychics? I couldn't know. I didn't like not knowing. This weekend at the temple was a veritable minefield of unknowns and I was not having nice time of it.
"I see." Time to clear up at least a few of my dogged uncertainties. "What about—?"
A dry clearing of a throat killed my plans like a hawk snapping the next of a rabbit. Genkai stood a few feet off. Eza dropped his plate into the bucket in his haste to rise and bow, but Genkai ignored him.
"Keiko," she said. "Put that down and follow me."
"Hmm?" I dropped the dish I'd been scrubbing and blotted my hands on a drying rag. "Why?"
"It's time to start training, brat."
My heart stuttered. "But you said training would start tomorrow. I thought—"
"Training starts tomorrow for everyone else. For you, it starts tonight." Her mouth curled like a wisp of rising smoke. "Night is when people do their dreaming, after all."
For the third time that day, Genkai led me to the large room with the brazier and the open doorway to the garden with the deer-scare, its hollow pop ringing every so often above the crackle of smoldering coals. This time, a futon lay neatly alongside the warm metal bowl. Genkai ordered me to climb beneath the comforter and lie down.
"You sure you want me taking a nap?" I arranged my hands over the blanket, fingers laced with palms spread atop my stomach. "I kind of need to be awake to use my Territory."
"Are you questioning my methods?" Genkai retorted.
My hands rose in a gesture of surrender. "Comment retracted."
"That's what I thought." She settled into a cross-legged seat beside my bed. "But we aren't using your Territory just yet. I want to test your ability to lucid dream in your own mind. We're testing your control before we move into someone else's head."
"Oh. That makes sense," I said. "Don't want me losing control on somebody else. I get it." My hands returned to my stomach. "So I just need to fall asleep?"
Genkai closed her eyes. "Yes."
I shut mine, too. "Fine."
We sat there for a long time, or at least that's how it felt. The passage of time doesn't make a lot of sense when you're bored, and anxious, and have your eyes closed for... well, I don't know how long it was, really. Sleeping on command wasn't exactly one of my skills... but considering my new Territory, maybe I needed to make it one? Oh, gosh, was this a test? Was Genkai testing my willpower or something? That'd be just like her, and here I was, proving myself a disappointment before we even got started. My fingers dug into the blankets, sleep slipping even further from my grip.
Eventually, Genkai sighed. "Relax," she said. "I can hear you grinding your teeth."
"Sorry." My face flushed. "It's tough to sleep with an audience."
"Is that so." Cloth rustled when she rose. "I'll be right back."
My eyes shot open, watching the stoop of her shoulders as she slouched out of the room. I stared up at the rafters while she was gone. When the deer-scare outside loosed a pop into the atmosphere, I flinched so hard my back came off the futon. I only flinched half as hard when the door rattled back open, admitting Genkai... and a confused Nakano, her tiny baby nestled in its sling upon her chest.
"Oh." I waved a hand. "Hi."
"Hi." She glanced at Genkai. "Where should I sit?"
"Wherever." Genkai gestured at the metal bowl glowing between us. "Will the brazier's smoke work?"
Nakano nodded. "Should work just fine."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
Genkai harrumphed. "Just shut up and close your eyes."
I did as told, listening while they settled on the floor opposite the brazier. Nakano's baby fussed; a quiet susurration soothed the child back to silence. Genkai tapped her pipe onto the rim of a metal bowl. My breath rose like morning mist, hazy and full inside my chest, tinted by perfumed brazier smoke. For a time, nothing happened, and I began to wonder if Genkai was just waiting for me to fall asleep again. If this was another test. If I was somehow failing an unspoken—
No one ever told me what an expanding Territory should feel like, but the second one washed over me, I knew precisely what it was. Entering a Territory is like plunging into teal water—dark, bracing, surging into every nook and cranny like you're drowning while you can still breathe. The breath catches in the throat, the skin prickles, every nerve ending reacts, but there's nothing to do but sink under the wave and learn to swim. The world shifts, light refracting into colors and textures that weren't there before, like reality took a step to the west and left you scrambling to catch up. Someone had just expanded a Territory through the room; I knew that in my bones, just as I knew on a basic, instinctual level that the Territory belonged to Nakano. I don't know how I knew that part. I just kind of... did. The Territory felt the way she sounded, the way she looked. I knew it was hers the same way I knew this was a Territory in the first place.
But nothing seemed to happen after her Territory expanded. We just sat there in that shifted-to-the-west stillness without speaking. I breathed deep, slow and languid, the scent of smoke gathering on my palate in subtle waves. Smoke... the brazier. Why had Genkai asked Nakano about the smoke when they came in the room? It probably didn't matter. It smelled nice, whatever the case. Floral, almost. Had it always smelled that way? So pretty? So peaceful? It reminded me of perfume. Maybe my grandmother's, gentle and comforting, sweet and serene...
I breathed in the perfume for a moment.
When my eyes opened, I was in the library.
Rows of books watched me like soldiers at attention, their spines straight and tall and even, uniformly measured and strangely cold. Normally I liked the library. I liked the quiet turn of pages and the close press of silence, gentle but heavy. Just then, however, I only felt watched. Unsettled. Like someone lurked in the stacks just out of sight, waiting. Observing from a distance while I wandered through the rows, fingertips trailing over text-embossed tomes and placards designating the genres on the shelves... or was that even what the placards said?
I leaned in close.
The letters swam, indecipherable ink crawling over white paper like writhing ants.
"A library, huh?" said a voice like wind through reeds. "Even your dreams are nerdy."
My watcher revealed herself. Genkai stood a few feet away at the end of the row. She watched me through narrowed eyes and with hands clasped behind her red-clad back, pale pink hair lying atop her chest in cobwebbed ropes. Seeing her made my eyes hurt. She pulsed at the edges like a hologram, the solidity of her shoulders threatening to puncture the image of the library like wings through a cocoon. Genkai appeared solid in a way that made the library appear wafer-thin in comparison, the impression of what once felt like a real place dissolving like paper in warm water.
"Hey." I took a step toward her, fixated on her odd solidity. "Why are you...?"
"You're dreaming, Keiko," said Genkai.
"Oh." Suddenly the crawling words and dissolving world made sense, world snapping into focus around me like a twisted camera lens. "You're right."
Genkai frowned. "You didn't realize it?"
I shrugged. "Not at first. I have to orient myself. Only takes a little while, usually."
Genkai nodded. "I take it you haven't picked a focus."
"A what?"
"Some people call it a totem. It's an item that—"
"Oh. Inception. Spinning tops, wobbling. Right."
Another frown, deeper than the first. "What?"
"Nothing." She hadn't seen that movie; it hadn't been made yet. "A totem is an item that tells you if you're dreaming or not. Like a spinning top. In real life, you spin it, it falls over because it must obey the laws of physics—the laws of the real world. But in a dream, that top may never fall over, because dreams don't follow the laws of reality." I raised a finger. Swirled it through the air in a tight circle, a spinning top in motion. "You train yourself to carry your totem everywhere while you're awake, and soon that bleeds into carrying it in your sleep, and you use it to determine if you're in a dream."
"If you know all of this, why haven't you gotten one for yourself?" Genkai asked, voice crackling with grouch.
I shrugged again. "Normally I can figure out I'm dreaming pretty fast without it, so..."
"Well, get a totem anyway. You never know when it might come in handy."
"Hmm... well." I patted my pockets, searching. "How about my bracelet?"
"Your bracelet?"
"I've been carrying it with me for weeks." From my pocket I pulled the red cord and broken white disc I'd shown Genkai and Ayame. "I wore it until it broke, and after it broke, I started carrying it in a pouch in my pocket at all times. So it's probably the closest thing to a totem I already own, and carrying it with me is already a habit."
Genkai said nothing. She watched in the library's weighted silence as I pressed the two halves of the broken white stone together. They collided with a click, circle complete, the seam of their meeting disappearing like cotton candy in rain. Mended, whole, fixed, I slipped the bracelet over my wrist and tightened the red cord. It pulled taut, skin indenting and turning pale, but it didn't hurt. My dreams rarely included pain.
"My bracelet can only fix itself with dream physics, so... it works, right?" I said, holding out my wrist. "I'll know if I'm dreaming if the bracelet is in one piece."
She eyed me over for a moment, suspicious. "You chose that as your totem and determined its function awfully quickly."
"Eh. Maybe I was thinking about it subconsciously." I shrugged again; I was doing that a lot tonight. "The bracelet might be why I got the Territory of Dream in the first place, so it seems fitting to use it as a totem, and I don't usually question the stuff that shows up in dreams. Dream logic and all that." I mimicked the roll of an ocean wave with my wrist and elbow, body swaying in its wake. "Just go with the flow, man."
Genkai muttered under her breath (something about hippies) and shook her head. "Fine, then. Since the bracelet is broken, you can only wear it in dreams. If you see it on your wrist, you'll know you're dreaming, and if you can make the pieces go back together, same thing."
"Sounds good to me."
"You'll need to start performing reality tests in the waking world every few hours, using the bracelet every time," she said. "We'll get you a timer so you remember. We—"
"Reality tests?"
"It's what you just described, dolt." Her glower threatened to catch the dream-books in the dream-library on dream-fire. "Checking on the status of the bracelet is called a reality test. We need you to build the habit of testing that bracelet while awake so you'll remember to do it when you're dreaming, too. Frequent reality tests help train your metacognition abilities—that is, your ability to think about your own thinking and dreaming. Your awareness of your own awareness. Metacognition is the key to lucid dreaming, and reality testing will build that ability."
"Do I really need to go to all that trouble?" I asked. "Like I said, I'm already pretty good about knowing when I'm—"
"Since when has 'pretty good' ever been good enough for you?" Genkai countered, a touch of acid in her voice—and at her combative stare, I heaved a weary sigh.
"Touche," I muttered. "I'll start reality testing out the ass."
"Good." She looked around the library for a moment, ire giving way to pensive quiet. "Refining your skills is paramount to mastery of your powers; I knew that even before seeing your Territory in action." One gnarled finger pointed at my wrist. "Every time you check on that bracelet, ask yourself out loud if you're dreaming. Focus on how you interact with reality around you and how your consciousness engages with the waking world. Consider the exercise a form of meditation."
"Meditation. I've been doing that." A grin eclipsed the nerves rising in my chest. "I got this."
"Let's hope," she dryly told me. "Once you understand how you relate to the waking world, you'll be able to notice how you interact with dreams. No doubt your waking and sleeping consciousnesses will be dissimilar. Once you understand those differences, telling the difference between waking and sleeping will be child's play." She pointed then at one of the placards on the nearest shelf. Words still crawled there, squirming and unintelligible. "Mirrors, objects, your own hands, time, words on the page—all of these things can be tested to gauge whether or not you are dreaming. Mirrors, technology and writing rarely work in my dreams, for instance. Start paying attention every chance you get."
I traced my fingers over the spine of a book. "OK."
"You look bored." Genkai bared her teeth. "Am I boring you?"
"No. Just." The letters under my hand tensed as if preparing for a blow. "These are basics and I feel like I've been lucid dreaming for a while now, so..."
"Only a true novice considers themselves a master of anything," Genkai groused, but she sighed and shook her head. "Fine. If you think you're so clever, show me something. Manipulate your dreams for me."
"Wait. First I have questions."
"What now?"
"How are you here, in my dream?"
"Astral projection," she said, as if it should be obvious.
"Is that safe?" I asked her.
"Absolutely not," she said at once. "Projecting my soul into someone else's mind is incredibly dangerous. It leaves my unprotected spirit entirely at their mind's mercy."
I considered that a moment. "The mind, dreams, the subconscious... you're surrounded by my energy," I deduced after a time. "That's why you're trying to help me get better control. Because if my subconscious spirals out of control while you're in here, it could hurt you. And it could hurt others if I lose control while using my Territory on them."
"You're no fool, Keiko." Genkai smirked. "An idiot, but not a fool."
"There's a difference?"
"Of course there's a difference."
"OK..." Didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but whatever. I gathered myself enough to ask: "Why was Nakano there? Back when I was trying to fall asleep?"
"Her Territory, called Miasma, uses scents to influence others. She used smoke from the brazier to induce sleep."
"Wow. That's handy." The smoke had smelled of languid comfort before I woke up in the landscape of my dreams, and: "And that explains a lot."
"Considering your powers, you'll be seeing a lot of her Territory in the coming days, I'm sure," Genkai said. With a smirk she gestured at the library stacks, a challenge rising in her eyes like a high tide. "Now, Keiko. You think you're good at lucid dreaming, eh? Show me what you can do, then. Show me your dreams."
I cracked my knuckles and obliged.
Dreamscaping with an audience is... different.
I'd done it many times alone, of course. All those nights I recreated my life with Tom, my former family, my past friends—I'd sculpted terrain from my first life many times, and I'd filled it with simulacrums of people I once knew more times than I could count. I'd even used these sleeping visions to role-play scenarios and work out problems. Like the time I'd practiced coming out of the reincarnation closet, for instance. I'd made dream versions of the Yu Yu Hakusho cast on Hanging Neck Island and playacted what it would be like to reveal my past life to them, hoping to perfect what I'd say and how I'd say it before ever speaking my truth aloud in the waking world. I was great at creating these scenarios, if you'll allow me a moment of pride. I excelled at crafting landscapes and filling them with convincing images of real people.
Giving these images true-to-life agency, however, was another thing entirely.
It wasn't like writing a fanfic. In fanfic, you can backspace and rewrite a line of dialog if it doesn't ring true. You have time to tinker, to fine-tune, to fiddle until it's perfect. But when you craft constructions of your friends and let them run loose in real time, the slightest hint of your creations becoming OOC (to use another fanfic term) can send the dream off the rails and straight into nightmare territory.
And having a witness there to potentially point out these inconsistencies in character? To critique your work and question your abilities? That makes a tough task even more difficult,
It makes sense, then, that I didn't dare craft images of people I knew for Genkai. I stuck to creating colorful locales and filling them with faceless dream-fodder, crowds of people I perhaps had glimpsed in the waking world, but none so familiar I needed to micromanage their words or actions. For Genkai I dreamscaped my favorite amusement park on a summer day, and then the inside of my parents' restaurant, and then a park in the dead of winter. Temperature, scent, scale, perspective—I made my dream as realistic as possible, showing her how detailed I could get and how convincing I could make the incorporeal world around us. Soon after that, I delved into the world of fantasy, creating the kingdom of Oz and other fantastical images truly befitting the rules-free world in which we stood. An alien planet, a starry expanse, worlds of color and shape and impressionist strokes... I went for variety, trying to illustrate just how good at this I had become.
And Genkai watched it all without speaking. She stood at my side as I manipulated the fabric of my dream like an expert tailor, occasionally giving me direction, but mostly letting me take the reins. I did my best to impress, but her face remained utterly impassive, yielding no clues as to how well I might be doing.
But then, after a time, she murmured: "You have impressive powers of visualization. Detailed."
Sitting atop a cloud in the heavenly vista I'd recently crafted, I giggled and said, "Well, I do play D&D. It's all theater of the mind."
"Maybe your nerd hobbies aren't so disgusting, after all." But Genkai did not look particularly sincere. "You said you were a writer in your past life?"
"Yes."
"Makes sense. You have the neuroses for it."
"I know," I whined, "but hey!"
She just laughed, not at all sheepish. "I've seen enough, I think. Can you make yourself wake up?"
I hesitated. "I have before, but..."
"Try it now."
Without another word, she vanished. Apparently Genkai could exit my dreams more easily than I could. For a minute I stared at the spot where she stood in silence, feeling the dream close in around me like warm water. In the absence of her very real soul, my dream-world felt real again, much easier to mistake for reality when you lacked Genkai's presence for comparison. Remaining lucid in my own dreams wasn't always the simplest task; losing concentration often meant slipping back under the whim of my subconscious, but there was not time for that tonight, so I mentally kicked myself and tried to will myself out of the grip of the dream entirely.
Nothing happened, though. The dream continued—and then, behind me, something moved. A heavy footfall, perhaps, or the thud of a beating heart. My own heart leapt into my mouth while I turned to face—
And then Genkai was shaking my shoulder, and I was awake again.
"What?" I blinked with bleary confusion, hands scrambling for the blanket atop my heavy limbs. "What's going...?"
"You took too long," Genkai said. "We'll have to work on your exit strategy."
"OK." My tongue felt like a lead weight on my mouth, bulging against my teeth as though it had swollen in my sleep. "Well. What now?"
Thin, wrinkled lips spread into a wide grin.
"Now we test your Territory for real," said Genkai—and she gestured at the three figures lying still and serene on a trio of futons at my side, the scent of Nakano's floral smoke weighing heavy on my head.
NOTES
I wanted this weekend at Genkai's to be a three-part chapter series, but it'll probably end up being longer since we have a lot to cover, mostly with Keiko's Territory.
Also, this'll get covered soon, but what Genkai is doing here is NOT the same thing NQK will be able to do with the Dream Territory. Genkai can go into NQK's head (the same way Yusuke entered dreams when he was a ghost), but she can't do anything but view NQK's dream while making herself super vulnerable to it. As you'll see, NQK's powers stretch far beyond that, but that's spoiler territory (pun intended I guess).
I had my first real lucid dream recently, which has made conceptualizing some of the coming training arc a lot easier. Excited to get to it with y'all!
We have a lot of side characters in the mix right now. It's fun to play around with the What If of Genkai's training camp, but we'll get back to more canon cast members soon enough, promise.
Thanks to those who commented since last time: Rasne, MissIdeophobia, buzzk97, Drachegirl14, cestlavie, Mugen-Muse, vodka-and-tea, EdenMae, RussetPearl, Forthwith16, Anya Kristen, Psycho Mutt, Sky65, The Mysterious Mr Anonymous, Convoluted Compassion, Himemiko, Serene Kumquat, cezarina, MysticWolf71891, CrystallineChaos, Emsss, tammywammy9, Mia, karenkg01, Kina Namine, Vienna22, EasilyAmused93, SandyBandy, Mad Mitsuky, Lost4ver2Fantasy, Vixeona, gutsy28ninja, GogglesFTW, Sasonie, Miraneko19, AvidReader2425, pinkbagofmiscellany and guests!
