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Let me pass, let me pass. Through the thousand crimson gates.
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"Revenge? What for?"
Okuni's voice trembled, but she wanted to know, wanted to hear the truth behind the sudden appearance of the mononoke. And so, even if it revealed a horrible truth that she never wanted to hear, she was going to listen. Her anger at the monks drove her to that desire, and she felt a sense of gratefulness to the mononoke, though she didn't care to admit it.
"This did not begin with us. We only served to aggravate the situation. No...this began before any of us were even born. It began with Kureha."
"The priestess?" inquired the medicine seller.
"It was hundreds of years ago, within this shrine. Kureha was the shrine's founder, a lady of great skill and talent. She spun robes of the finest silk, renowned for being protective garments because they were washed within the lake. Travelers would come from far and wide to buy the robes, but many also desired the waters themselves," Nishi stated.
"I...see. The waters are sacred, and since they are near the shrine, considered a part of the shrine as well. Kureha was the shrine's protector. There was no way she'd allow anyone to take the water with them," Okuni realized.
Nishi nodded, continuing with his story.
"There were four shrinekeepers before; monks, like my brothers and I. Kureha hired them to help her care for the shrine while she did her weaving. However, we humans are weak. Kureha was very beautiful. It did not take long for them to succumb to their desires."
"They...they killed her, didn't they?" Okuni barely whispered.
"Yes. They did as they desired, and then they threw her body into the lake. There she has remained, for hundreds of years," the monk answered.
"How...did you know all of this?"
"My brothers and I...we are repeating the sins of the four who came before us. We did not even realize it...but then we found something..."
A screech sounded from the other side of the door. The new set of scales the medicine seller had set up were rattling, rotating wildly in all directions as they tried to pinpoint the mononoke's location. And suddenly, all went silent. The only sound in the shrine was Mitami's whimpering. Even the storm had gone silent. The medicine seller stood facing the doors, eyes fixed on the steadily bleeding charms. A quick glance at the sword in his hand, and Okuni could have sworn she saw him sigh.
"It isn't enough. There's more. What did you find within the shrine?" he almost demanded.
Abruptly, Mitami stopped laughing.
"Wh-what? You want me to go there?"
"Huh?"
The medicine seller, the lady shrinekeeper, and the last monk looked over at the hysteric man. He was staring at the doors to the honden, eyes wide. Though, it looked a lot less like he was looking at the doors themselves, and more like he was seeing something that they were not.
"In there? Really? You'll forgive me?"
Okuni squinted as she spotted a shape on the floor, a flash of color catching her eye.
"Ku...reha?"
Indeed, the spider sat on the floor, front legs moving slightly. But...no one else had seemed to notice it; none but the medicine seller.
"Wait...come back! Don't go in there!" Okuni called out. Yet, she didn't feel her heart in her call.
Let him wander in, let him get what he deserves...
Mitami was following the spider, following the little creature with its many spindly legs...following it to the innermost part of the shrine.
"No, stop!" this time, it was Nishi who had spoken, desperation in his voice.
Whatever lay within, whatever it was that they'd 'found' was making him anxious. Yet, he still hadn't noticed the spider. Okuni stepped forward, about to cross over to the other side of the hallway and drag the monk back, but the medicine seller's voice stopped her.
"Don't," he said in warning. "You mustn't cross the barrier."
The barrier...Okuni glanced down near her feet, noticing for the first time the line of charms there, drawing a circle up the walls and on the roof. How had she failed to notice them before?
"But we have to stop him from going in there!" she protested. "If we don't, he'll..."
"Die." the medicine seller finished for her. "Do you wish to become prey as well?"
Though she hated it, Okuni had little choice but to follow his advice. He was right. She could do nothing, and they still did not know of the jorōgumo's Kotowari. Without it, there was nothing that could be done.
As she watched, Mitami steadily approached the doors, arriving in front of them with a hazy smile.
"With this, you'll forgive me?"
The doors snapped open. The room was completely silent for just a moment, but then the scales started rattling. They rotated and jingled wildly, most of them tilting in the direction of the doors. Mitami smiled and stepped forward, one foot prepared to cross the threshold.
"You must not!" the medicine seller warned, but the monk was oblivious to his calls.
"Mitami! Mitami, get a hold of yourself!"
Nishi ran to his fellow monk, tugging on his arm, but to no avail. Suddenly, the pounding and shrieking started up again, the sound of the storm returning full blast. The charms were disintegrating from the doors, crumbling away to nothing.
"It's here!"
The medicine seller took action, countless new ones flying from his sleeves and plastering themselves all over the walls and doors. Okuni squeezed her eyes shut as they whipped past her face to paste onto the wall behind her. Nishi threw his arms in front of his face to shield himself from them, not noticing the doors shutting beside him. At last, when the flurry had died down, Okuni dared to open her eyes. The paper covered the entirety of the hall, save for a few spots on the ceiling. A wall of glowing red eyes stared back at her as she caught her breath from the sudden movement. Just as she turned to chastise the medicine seller for doing that without warning, Nishi noticed that someone was missing.
"Mitami! Where did Mitami go?"
"Wh-what?"
During the flurry of paper, Okuni had been distracted and had not noticed the shrine doors. However, the answer of where Mitami had gone soon made itself clear. There was a scream from within the honden, and a loud sound, like something had been crushed. Okuni bit back a cry of horror as she realized that the monk had met the same fate as his companions. Nishi too realized it; the look on his face said as much.
"Kami...what have we done?" He sank to his knees, hands clamped over his face.
"Nishi-san...please tell us. What is it you found in there? We need to know, or...or else we can't do anything." Okuni's voice was trembling. How much more? How many more would the jorōgumo kill before it was satisfied?
"We found..."
The medicine seller was listening intently, sword held aloft as always, listening. Waiting.
"We found..." here, the monk paused, as if the revelation would spell his end. "We found bones. The bones of countless women who had been lured here. After...when the keepers killed the priestess, they stayed behind, trapped by the decadence they'd fallen into. That was how we knew that we were repeating their sins."
"Yet you did not stop it? You could have turned away from that path! You could have ended it there!" Okuni was close to screaming.
At this, however, the monk's demeanor took a dramatic turn. His expression of horror exchanged itself with a grin, a sadistic smile that spoke volumes.
"You took pleasure in it," the medicine seller stated simply.
"Yes," Nishi agreed. "Mitami and the others enjoyed the process of getting them here, enjoyed toying with them and bending them to their will. I? I enjoyed...what came after."
"Y-you can't mean that you-"
"It was I who disposed of them when we finished with them."
"You're sick! Absolutely sick! I cannot believe I let you back in here!" Okuni shouted.
After Nishi had finished speaking, the thrumming returned. The scales were going crazy again, the pounding returned, the storm howled louder than before. Before their eyes, the roof was being torn away again, completely bypassing the barrier of charms by going for a place where they were not pasted.
"No...no. Not again!" Okuni cried. The medicine seller himself looked slightly anxious, nose wrinkled in minor annoyance.
"It still isn't enough. What is it that is missing? What is your kotowari?"
"There was something fun about it," Nishi was still speaking, oblivious to the hallway's gradual destruction. "Their faces...their screams of agony and flailing as I drowned them...It made me feel so powerful. I delighted in doing it. The others could have their fun with the rest of it."
"You...all four of you...you're insane," Okuni whispered. "Stranger, what should we do? It's going to get in again!"
She could have sworn that the man was sighing, or at least, he'd closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, it was to look at her while he told her something she'd been dreading.
"We have little choice. We must retreat further within."
"I...had feared you would say that." said Okuni.
However, before she could even take a step towards the honden, the corner of the roof was torn completely away, a string of silk drifting in like before. This time, Nishi noticed it, scrambling backwards away from the creature.
"It comes!" the medicine seller shouted, throwing open the doors to the honden by some unseen force.
By then, Okuni knew better than to question his powers, and so looked to the doors. However, she stopped, torn between saving herself and trying to help Nishi. True that he'd killed women, more than she could have imagined, and they had hidden their activities from her, but still...
Let them get what they deserve...
"Come in here!"
Snapping out of it, Okuni followed his advice, quickly running into the honden. She turned to beckon the medicine seller into the shrine as well, but stopped short, eyes widening as the charms were sucked off of the walls by a mighty wind. The walls tore away in one chunk, leaving only Nishi, kneeling in the center of the chaos. She could see his lips moving quickly in silent prayer, no doubt begging the gods to spare him. It was not to be so.
The jorōgumo appeared fully then, and the girl could only stare in horror. It was like a massive version of the colorful little spider she was so familiar with. Glittering yellow and teal, orange bands on the legs...and a human torso where the creature's head would have been.
The creature looked directly at her then, revealing a feminine face among a tangle of inky black hair, and smiled. Just as the monks had said, her teeth were crawling with countless minuscule insects. Okuni could not even bring herself to move as the spider picked up the monk, flinging him into the lake (now visible due to walls being torn away) in one movement. Horrified, Okuni reached out a hand, wondering why she hadn't said a word, why she hadn't even tried to save him. And then, as the wind caught her sleeves and whipped them in her face, the doors slammed shut in front of her. The wind had stopped, the howling was gone, there was no more thrumming.
Only darkness.
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Note: A bit shorter this time, but the story is drawing to an end soon. Next chapter will be up soon. I hope you're all enjoying this!