Chapter Twenty
I lay in the early November mid-morning sun, staring at the sky and listening to the gentle strumming of a guitar. Mariko and Satsuki are beside me, Mariko tapping her feet against the ground in time with the guitar, and Satsuki playing Fire Emblem: Awakening on her 3DS. Hanako lays on her front, playing Pokémon with a smile. Yuki sits chatting to Juro, a Ningyo on 'foreign relations' from a Yokai clan in Shingu. The two seem to get along well, though something about Juro is unsettling. Not the way his lip curled in disgust when he was introduced to me, a mere human, or the patronising way he talks to Hanako, or the way he broke Mariko's glasses, meaning I had to go and buy her a new pair, or even the way he set fire to the book Bunko was reading. Those are the things that make me despise him, though none of them unsettle me. What unsettles me is how familiar he seemed from the first moment I saw him, and the way he looked shocked and, momentarily, like a rabbit caught in a car's headlights when he first saw me. What unsettles me is that I know him, and he knows me, but I don't know where we know each other from. Juro strums his guitar as he talks to Yuki, his almost hypnotic voice washing over her. She's blind to the fact that he's a total dickhead, purely because he's a Ningyo, a merman, and Yuki has 'always had a thing for for fish butts', as Satsuki told us when Juro first arrived.
"I can't believe Yuki still hasn't noticed what a total jerk he is." Mariko whispers to me in English. I nod.
"I reckon he'd get on well with Jase." I say. Mariko nods, her blue eyes wide with agreement.
"And that idiot onmyoji boy. You know, the one with glasses." I frown at the way she insults Satoshi.
"Satoshi's not an idiot. When we were in the hot springs village, I accidentally gave away Hanako's identity. He could have killed her, but he didn't. Instead, he told us to be more careful and gave Hanako her 3DS back." I say, and Mariko raises her eyebrows with a smirk.
"Do I detect a hint of Satorin?" she asks, "I ship it." I roll my eyes.
"Honestly, you're as bad as Megumi sometimes." I say as a shadow blocks out my sunlight.
"What are you two talking about in a foreign language? If you have something to say, please share it with all of us." Juro says coldly. I sit up. I can see Satsuki behind him mimicking everything he does and pulling faces. It takes all of my self control to hold back my laughter. Juro glares darkly at me. "What is it that you find so amusing, girl?"
"Nothing, Juro-san." I say with a smile, trying to hide how much I hate him because I know that he's much stronger than me.
"Please use the correct honorific when speaking to someone superior to you." he orders.
"Sorry, Juro-sama." I say. Yuki places her hand on Juro's shoulder.
"I apologise for Korin-chan's rudeness, Juro-kun. She only moved to Japan in August. In England, they do not use honorifics." she says gently.
"Of course, and she is only young, even for a human," Juro says mildly, his voice softening until it becomes flawlessly melodic. Yuki's eyes seem to glaze over as he speaks. "I am sorry. I forgot that the culture you were raised in is very different from in Japan. You will learn more about the way things work in our noble land in time." he says to me. I nod, completely unconvinced by his words and filled with even more loathing than before.
"I'm terribly sorry, Juro-sama," Satsuki says with politeness that anyone who knows her can tell is fake, "But Korin-chan doesn't speak Japanese fluently yet. She needs to speak in English to Mariko-chan sometimes so that she doesn't get too stressed about the linguistic barrier." She says. Juro nods. I turn to look at Mariko.
"Please let me call Satoshi and get him to end this jerk for us." I beg her. She shakes her head with a light laugh.
"We can't kill someone who's been sent to form an alliance, Korin-chan." she says, as though talking to a toddler. "However much I want to end him in the slowest and most agonisingly painful way possible, it would cause a war that we really wouldn't be able to win right now." Juro taps his foot on the ground, clearly irritated by the fact that Mariko and I are continuing to speak in English.
"I must say, though, that I despise the English language." he says. It occurs to me that I should see what he thinks of Romanian or Greek, but I decide against it. From the look on Mariko's face, she's clearly thinking something along the same lines. We've discovered that when she speaks Latin and I speak Romanian, we can sort of understand each other, or at least what the other is trying to get across. Bunko's eyes flit nervously between Mariko and Juro. Naturally, she's sensible enough to avoid speaking in front of Juro as much as possible. She doesn't want him to destroy any more of her books.
"That's a horrible thing to say. It isn't Korin-nee-chan's fault that English is her first language. She isn't insulting you, so you have no right to insult her." Hanako says sharply, switching off her 3DS and putting it in her pocket. Juro's eyes flash with anger and cruelty, and for a moment I'm afraid that he's going to kill Hanako on the spot. He knows he can, because the Yokai here aren't in a position to fight. He can do whatever he wants to whoever he wants, and no one can do anything about it. I hate it, and I hate that he's endangering my friends and my family and the entire village. I hate that he has so much power that he can even make Yuki blind to his true self. I hate that he thinks he can treat me like I'm worthless just because I'm human. Most of all, though, I hate that I'm powerless to stop him.
Hanako stands and stares Juro down without wavering. I've never seen her look so angry. Mariko's hair bursts out of the hair tie holding it in a high ponytail and lengthens, stretching out and knotting together to form a shield around me. Satsuki raises her fingers to her mouth, preparing to fight. Bunko clenches her fist and a layer of frost forms around it, glinting silver-white in the sun. Yuki seems to be completely oblivious to what's going on around her. I take my phone out of my pocket and begin to scroll through my contacts to send Satoshi a message asking for help when the sound of something crashing through the undergrowth startles us. Everyone turns to the source of the sound.
"Kirin-sama!" Mariko cries. The Kirin comes over to us. It presses its head against my chest and I feel a reassuring warmth spread through my body, easing my concern and making me feel numb. The Kirin lets out a soft whinny. I don't understand it, but I can tell what it's trying to tell me. We won't let any harm come to you. I smile at it. It bows its head at me and walks towards Juro. It digs its horns into the soft earth and the grass begins to grow insanely high. It tangles around everyone, wrapping us in tight embraces, coiling so close to my skin that it digs painfully into my skin and tickles my nose. I gasp, preparing for more grass-inflicted pain, but none comes.
I am completely free of all feeling. Am I dead? I realise that I've closed my eyes at some point- when, I don't know. I let them open. I'm not dead. I'm surrounded by my Yokai friends, and the Kirin seems to be drawing power, because everything is tinted with a grass-green glow, strongest and most concentrated nearest to the Kirin. The grass has all returned to its normal length. Bunko is shaking. Satsuki looks more grateful than I've ever seen anyone. Mariko has her arm across in front of me, ready to protect me. Hanako is still glaring furiously at Juro. Yuki is on her knees, breathing heavily, sweating profusely. Her eyes are glazed as she stares longingly at Juro. She's confused, she doesn't know what's going on. She doesn't understand why a fight has broken out. I want to go to her, but my muscles won't obey. They are heavy, and even trying to raise my hand is as difficult as if I am wading through golden syrup after running a marathon. I stare straight ahead, not daring to blink in case I can't open my eyes again. Juro has a ball of water forming in his right hand and a smirk on his face. He doesn't look the same way he did before, though, now. His black hair had lengthened so that it reaches his waist, and his honey-gold skin is now smattered with scales of green, blue and gold that glitter and shine brightly even through the green haze coming from the Kirin's power. My heart beats so hard and fast that its powerful thudding echoes through my head, penetrating deep into my skull and throbbing throughout my entire body.
A large bird- tinted grass green by the light- swoops down and digs its razor-sharp talons into my shoulders. I cry out in pain as the bird lifts me into the air. I squeeze my eyes tight shut to stop myself from looking down, but I can't. My eyes snap open and fix on my friends. My feet are off the ground. Fear rises inside me. My breathing quickens. My heart pounds in my throat. My stomach performs somersaults. Beads of sweat roll down my cheeks, mixing with salty tears.
Every muscle in my body tenses.
I can't move.
I can't think.
I can't feel.
I can't breathe.
Finally, finally, the bird descends, dropping down rapidly until my feet are back on the ground. I collapse, shuddering, onto my knees. Someone takes my hand in their own.
"Korin-chan, can you hear me?" someone asks, though it sounds far off and fuzzy. Everything is fuzzy. The pain running through my shoulders and down my back is almost unbearable, and I feel as if something has been ripped out of my skin and drawn through every layer of my body. Something- a hand, I think- enters the pocket of my jeans and leaves moments later. Something is shoved roughly into my mouth and, as I gasp for air, each breath gradually becomes easier. "It's okay, Korin-chan. You're safe. You're okay. No one's going to hurt you. You're fine." I scrunch up my face. The voice is familiar. I know it well. It's soft. It's gentle. It reassures and calms me slightly.
Slightly.
I try to speak, to let them know I'm okay, but my words come out as a strangled cry. I feel myself being lifted off of the ground and I scream.
I don't mean to.
I don't want to.
They'll worry.
I don't want them to worry.
Their strong arms clasp me tight against them, and I feel the warmth and humanity of their skin, hear the soft pant of their breath, smell the delicate fragrance of cherry blossoms that the gentle breeze wafts from their skin towards me.
"Shh… Don't worry, Korin-chan. I've got you. You're safe now." I sob and shudder into the crook of their neck. I wrap my arms around them and clasp my hands together behind them, using every ounce of effort I can muster to pull myself closer into them. Something beats a rapid rhythm, gradually getting louder and nearer. A voice, female, speaks. The words are unclear. Everything is unclear. The world is a blur of colours. I can't make anything out. My skin tingles. My vision blurs further. I allow my eyes to close. I succumb to unconsciousness, my pulse throbbing in my veins and in my mind.