Chapter Six
Hanako and I walk through the forest towards where I left the Kirin, giggling and chatting happily. After tidying Hanako up a lot (I spent quite a bit of money on new clothes for her), she passed Megumi in the street and went unrecognised. We're still trying to figure out how to get her 3DS back from Satoshi. Aside from the whole 'dead nine year old who was brutally murdered by her own father' thing, Hanako is just a normal kid.
The two of us make our way quickly through the forest, singing 'Remote Control' by Rin and Len Kagamine. Hanako sings Rin's part and I sing Len's. It doesn't take us long to reach the Kirin, and, as soon as we do, Hanako rushes forward and falls to her knees.
"My lord" she cries, "We've brought antiseptic wipes, a bandage roll and some animal-safe painkillers! Korin-nee-chan is our saviour, given by Kami-sama!" I raise my eyebrows.
"Kami-sama doesn't exist, Hanako-chan," I say. "I'm just an otaku who wants to help out." I crouch down next to the Kirin and let my hands find their way to its injured leg. I peel off the bandage and grimace. The wound doesn't look as deep as it did before, and it has scabbed over and shrunk, but the scales surrounding it are flaking off.
Hanako gasps, "Kirin-sama, you'll be okay! Korin-nee-chan will help you!" I sigh and hold my hand out to Hanako. She fumbles in the pocket of her new Totoro hoodie and pulls out the pack of antiseptic wipes. She dumps the pack on my outstretched hand. I bring it closer to myself and open it. I take out one wipe and rub it gently over the Kirin's wound. I don't know anything about medicine, so I don't even know if antiseptic wipes have any effect on a wound that's already scabbed over. I blink back the tears that form in my eyes when the Kirin moans pitifully. I glance over my shoulder at Hanako. She looks like she's about to have a mental breakdown.
"Give Kirin some painkillers." I say, and she nods, wiping tears out of her eyes. She takes out the box of painkillers and pops two out. She holds them to the Kirin's mouth. It opens its mouth slightly and Hanako drops them in. She strokes the Kirin's head while it swallows the tablets and I continue to clean the wound.
After I've used up seven antiseptic wipes, someone speaks from behind us.
"That's enough. The wound is clean." I turn and see a girl about my age, maybe a little older, wearing a silvery-white kimono. Her hair, the dark brown of earth scattered with strands of the white of freshly fallen snow, tumbles in soft waves to her elbows. Her mismatched eyes, one ice blue, the other the yellow-gold of the winter sun, bore into me.
"Who are you?" I ask, taking my scissors out of my pocket and holding them up in front of me, the blades angled towards the girl.
"Don't hurt her, Korin-nee-chan! She's one of us!" I nod and lower the scissors, but I don't loosen my grip on them. I've been lucky so far, but not all Yokai are as harmless as Kirin and Hanako.
"I've heard your voice before," I say to the girl. I think for a moment, trying to remember where I recognise her voice from. I gasp when I realise. "You were with that Kejoro- Mariko, I think- when she broke into my bedroom while I was asleep." The girl nods. Hanako gasps.
"Mariko-chan? Suzumiya Mariko-chan?" she asks. The girl nods.
"That was her name in life."
"Wait… She's the girl who used to live in my new house, isn't she?" Hanako nods.
"Mariko-chan was my cousin. We were very close, and she was always my father's favourite. Her murder drove him mad, and that's how I happened." she says slowly, her voice cracking as tears roll down her cheeks. I shuffle over to her and pull her into an awkward hug. She wraps her arms around my neck and sobs.
"How odd," says the girl, "That you, Belododia Korin, are able to mix so freely with both Yokai and onmyoji. Hanako-chan and Kirin-sama trust you fully. I'm not so sure, yet. While some of the forest's Yokai place their trust in you and see you as a gift given to us by Kami-sama, there is the inescapable fact that your best friend is an onmyoji, and of the Akiyama clan, no less."
"Megumi-chan asked me to help her to kill Hanako-chan, but I risked my friendship to help her to get away. I think you can probably trust me."
"It could be a ruse. You could be trying to gain our trust in order to destroy us." I open my mouth to respond, but Hanako beats me to it.
"Korin-nee-chan would never do that! She spent all of her money buying me new clothes and let me hide in her bathroom and ate in her room so that she could bring me food without her family finding out about me!"
"Answer these questions carefully," the girl says, "Why did you come to Japan?"
"I moved here with my family. My dad's a psychiatrist and does counselling. He thought he'd be able to make money here."
"You came here for money?"
"I came here because I always go with him when he moves somewhere for work. It's part of my cultural education. It has been since I was eight."
"Given the choice, would you have come here or stayed in England?"
"I would have come here. I've always wanted to see Japan."
"Why is that?"
"I'm an otaku." The girl smiles at my blunt answer.
"That was unexpected. You are being honest, though. I am glad of that. You can, for now, be trusted."
"That's great. Now if only I could put a name to your face…"
"Just call me Yuki." she says, and it clicks in my mind.
"You're a Yuki-Onna."
Yuki nods, "One of many. We're the most common Yokai in this area. All of the mountain deaths, all of the winter suicides, they become Yuki-Onna. I am the eldest of my kind, and the fourth eldest in the forest. Kirin-sama is the eldest, and the most sacred. You have done us a great service with your kindness." I smile at her.
"I'm glad. You guys are awesome. I don't understand why everyone hates you so much." Yuki sighs and shakes her head.
"There is a very small, almost non-existent, minority who harm humans and give the rest of us a bad name. There was a time when Yokai and humans lived side by side,.as peacefully as flowers and trees," Yuki sighs again. "Since then, not a single one of us has been able to socialise with a human. Every one of you fears us."
"I don't. I think you're inspirational. The way everyone hates you, but you still stand your ground and defend your friends and your territory, even when people are trying to drive you out and kill you." Yuki smiles at me.
"This is why many of the other Yokai of the forest are calling you our saviour, saying you were sent by Kami-sama. They think that you will be the one to bring harmony back and end our centuries of suffering." My neck goes soft and my head hangs down, my eyes fixed on the floor.
"I can't do that. There's no way. I'm not capable. You'd need someone who can influence others, someone who's good with people. Someone who's the opposite of me," I sigh deeply. "I'm just a logophilic otaku."
"That may be so, but not many would have the courage to lie to their best friend and go undercover to save their enemy. It's clear you're not a medic, though. I appreciate your effort, but you'll likely do more harm than good." Hanako gasps, as though she's outraged by Yuki's 'insult'.
"How dare you! Korin-nee-chan is trying to save us! Akiyama Megumi would have killed me if it wasn't for her kindness. She's a skilled Pokémon trainer, too! Her team is the only I've come across who can beat mine!" she screams, tears streaming down her face in thick waves, and her voice high, tight and choked.
I place my hand on her shoulder, "Calm down, Hanako-chan. She's not being rude. She's just stating a fact."
"Korin-nee-chan would never hurt anyone." Hanako says, her voice trembling with what seems to be rage. I laugh.
"You should see my behavioural records from all my old schools. Seriously, I would hurt someone if they gave me a reason." Yuki lets out a light laugh, strangely reminiscent of the bells Dad used to ring outside my bedroom on Christmas Eve when I was little in an attempt at convincing me that Santa was real.
"You can leave the forest now, Korin-san. You've done all you need to. You-"
"You have no business here!" Yuki is cut off by a yell as Mariko, the Kejoro who was once a human who lived in my house and keeps coming into my bedroom leaps down from a tree.
"Mariko-chan, I've told you already. Your parents sold the house. It's no longer yours or your brother's. Korin's father bought the house. It is theirs now."
Mariko sighs, "Fine. She can have the house. But only because she saved Kirin-sama."
Yuki, Mariko, Hanako and I work together to try to heal the Kirin (or, more accurately, Yuki tries to heal it and Mariko, Hanako and I hand her supplies as she needs them and generally just get in the way) until a girl who appears to be around my age with dark brown hair, streaked with purple at the front and cropped around her chin, comes running over to us and doubles over, panting.
"Y-Yuki-chan… We've got trouble. A group of onmyoji have Chibi Kitsune cornered," she says, "We need to go quickly, or we'll be too late." Yuki gasps and stands quickly.
"Kirin-sama…" she says, staring straight into the Kirin's smoky grey right eye. "Will you be okay if I leave to help Chibi Kitsune?" The Kirin lets out a small whinny. Yuki smiles and nods.
"What did Kirin-sama say, Yuki-senpai?" asks the new girl worriedly, her pond slime green eyes wide with fear.
"It said that it will be fine, thanks to Korin-san." Yuki says, gesturing to me, and I sigh with relief. I was useful, after all. The new girl turns to me.
"I didn't notice you there. You're not one of us. Why are you here?"
I open my mouth to speak, but Hanako bursts out with more defensiveness before I have a chance.
"Korin-nee-chan saved Kirin-sama and lied to an onmyoji so that she could save me! She was sent by Kami-sama to restore harmony!"
"So you're the one everyone's been talking about," the new girl says with a wry smile. "The English immigrant who made friends with the Akiyama girl."
"Yeah," I say. "That's me."
"You should come with us, then," the girl says, "Tell your friend and her family to leave Chibi Kitsune alone." My eyes widen. Of course the Akiyamas would be the ones attacking a defenseless Yokai baby! I feel a silent tear trace a track down my cheek. I think that what the Akiyamas are doing is barbaric, but I don't want to jeopardise my first ever true friendship. I so desperately want to help the Kitsune, but if I lose Megumi's friendship, I won't be able to help other Yokai to get away from her.
"She won't listen to me," I say quietly, "Her personality changes completely when she's about to kill a Yokai. I saw how she got when she was going to kill Hanako-chan." I shudder. I would never admit it to her, but the pure rage and loathing in Megumi's eyes after Hanako got away scared the shit out of me. Not literally, thankfully. Yuki smiles reassuringly at me.
"It's okay, Korin-san. I can handle it. You two stay here, too, Mariko-chan, Hanako-chan," she says confidently. "Come with me, Bunko-kohai. You can show me the way." The girl, Bunko, nods.
"Let's hurry. I don't want anything to happen to Chibi Kitsune." she says, and she and Yuki run off in the direction Bunko came from.
Mariko turns to me and pushes her glasses up her nose. I cough to cover my laughter. The gesture reminds me so much of Satoshi, and it amuses me that a Yokai and an onmyoji would have the same mannerisms as each other, probably without realising it. Mariko's head snaps onto me and she stares me down with cold blue eyes.
"What's so funny, human?" I shake my head.
"Nothing. Sorry."
Hanako sighs and sits down beside the Kirin, then takes a 3DS out of her pocket and switches it on. I do a double take.
"H-hey! Hanako-chan! When did I say you could take my DS?" Hanako giggles evilly and pokes her tongue out at me.
"I did."
"You little-"
"Catch me if you can, Korin-nee-chan!" she yells as she stands up and bounds off. I sigh and begin to chase after her.
"Back me up, Mariko-san!" I yell, and Mariko laughs.
"I don't know you weirdos!"