Spirits of the Noh

12

K ara and Hachiro ran along a path away from Monju-no-Chie school, passing beneath the arch that always seemed to welcome students and visitors. The moment they stepped into the street, Kara felt safer, but only when she had crossed to the other side did she slow to a walk, glancing back the way they’d come. The school sat up on its slope, a monolithic silhouette against the indigo night sky. Several lights burned within, but so few and so dim as to make the building seem ghostly. Haunted.

“Are you all right?” Hachiro asked, catching his breath. No matter how much baseball he played, their flight from the school had been a hellish sprint that left them both winded.

Kara nodded. She had told him, as they ran, what she had seen in Miss Aritomo’s art room. His eyes were wide and anxious now, unnerved, and that frightened Kara more than anything. Hachiro always seemed bold and confident, ready for whatever came next. Tonight, he had lost that edge.

She thought she might be in love with him.

Now they alternated between a quick walk and a light jog. Kara pulled out her phone and called Sakura, who picked up in seconds.

“Where are you?” Sakura asked. “I just talked to Ren. He said he’s outside your house, waiting for you.”

Breathless and halting, searching for words to express what she had witnessed, Kara explained.

“Mai and I will come over,” Sakura said.

“No,” Kara snapped. “No. You just stay there. Watch out for the Hannya, or for Aritomo-sensei, or whatever. After I talk to my father, I’ll call you, and we’ll figure out what to do next.”

Reluctantly, Sakura agreed, and Kara ended the call. As she pushed her phone back into her pocket, she noticed a look of dread and sorrow on Hachiro’s face.

“What is it?” she asked.

He shot a glance back toward the school. “There were a few kids still in the school. With her. Noh club kids. What if…?”

Hachiro let the question trail off, but he didn’t need to finish it. Kara felt the blood drain from her face. She had never paused to consider the fate of the kids they had left back in the basement of the school with Miss Aritomo-with the Hannya. Fear and disgust had sent her and Hachiro running.

Guilt began to grip her, but she shook it off. “We’re doing the right thing,” she insisted. “What should we have done? Attacked the Hannya, just the two of us? We have to get help. That’s the best way to help those kids, and anyone else the demon might prey on.”

As they approached the house, a figure emerged from the shadows that separated Kara’s home from her neighbor’s. Ren stepped nearer, and the three of them met on the edge of a pool of light cast by a nearby streetlamp. In that ghastly glow, Ren looked awful. Blood stained the right shoulder of his shirt and dappled spots all over it. His right arm was scraped and he moved gingerly, as though protecting the ribs on that side.

“Oh my God,” Kara whispered in English. She quickly switched back to Japanese. “Are you all right?”

Ren did not smile. “I will be, once we find Miho. I should’ve been paying more attention. By the time I realized we weren’t alone…”

The words trailed off.

Hachiro stared at him grimly. “You cannot blame yourself. We were all trying to do our best to prevent anyone else getting hurt. No one is to blame except the Hannya.”

Kara felt a terrible weight forming in her gut, like a ball of cold iron. “That’s not true. We’re to blame. Me and Sakura and Miho. The curse is on us, not on any of you, or the school. If not for us-”

Ren stood up straight, wincing with the movement. He stared at her. “Don’t say that. We’ve been over this. Ume and the others who murdered Akane, they were the ones who started it. But even they are not responsible for the whims of demons.”

“I should have told my father sooner,” Kara said.

With a sigh, Ren nodded. “Probably. But it’s too late for that. We only have now.”

Kara let the truth of that sink in. Now was all anyone ever had. She glanced at the front door of the house she shared with her father-this neat, little Japanese dwelling that she had come to think of as home-and turned to the guys.

“Wait here,” she said.

“Kara,” Hachiro began warily.

“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “This is going to be hard enough for him to hear. Just wait for me. I won’t be long.”

Though she felt their eyes on her back, she didn’t turn again as she entered her house and closed the door behind her. A half-empty glass of water sat on the otherwise barren coffee table. The day had been hot and the wooden beams of the house ticked as they cooled. Otherwise, all was silent within, and for a moment she feared that her father had gone out.

“Dad?” she ventured, walking through the living room.

“In here.” His voice came from his small study.

Relieved, Kara hurried into the room. Her father sat behind his desk, face illuminated by the glow of his computer screen. Only a dim lamp in the corner provided additional light. His brow was furrowed as he gazed at the screen, wrapped up in work, or perhaps e-mails from home. But when she said nothing, he looked up and seemed to wake from a trance. Lines of concern appeared on his forehead.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, standing quickly.

It lent her a certain comfort to know he could read her that well, but when she tried to reply, she barely managed to make a sound when her lower lip began to quiver and she had to fight to keep her tears from returning.

“Kara, sweetie, what is it?” he asked, coming toward her, reaching out to cup her cheek in his wide hand.

“Miho,” she managed. “She’s gone missing, too. It… it took her.”

His expression contorted with horror. “Miho? Oh, my God. What… I mean, how did you hear this?”

“Ren was there. He’s pretty banged up, Dad. It could have killed him, like with Yasu. And it took Miho.”

She felt his hand pull away from her face. He almost seemed to shrink back from her. Hurt and confused, she looked up to meet his gaze and saw deep concern there-concern for her.

“Kara, what do you mean when you say ‘it’ took Miho?”

His tone alone told her how difficult the conversation was going to be. She hadn’t even begun to tell him the truth, and already he had decided that she’d gone a little crazy. But the Hannya had taken Miho, and if she was still alive- please, God, let her still be alive -Kara had no time to waste worrying about what her father would think.

“There are things I’ve been keeping from you,” she admitted. “And I hope you’ll forgive me for that. I just never thought you’d believe me, and-”

His eyes had narrowed. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”

Kara’s mouth had gone dry. She swallowed hard, went over and leaned on the edge of his desk, and started to talk. She began with Akane’s murder and the longer she spoke, the more pale he became. When he took his glasses off and massaged the bridge of his nose, she thought he might be angry with her.

“So all of the things that girl, Mai, told Yamato-sensei-” he began.

“Yes,” Kara interrupted. “They’re all true. Or mostly. We didn’t do anything wrong, Dad. All we wanted was to stop the ketsuki, and now we have this…”

Her eyes welled up a little but again she fought back tears, and the emotion that tightened her throat.

“You really believe you’re cursed, don’t you?” he asked, somewhat amazed.

Kara blinked, anger flaring. “We are cursed. Do you think I’m making all of this up?”

That got him. Her father blew out a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what to think, honey. What I really don’t understand is why you never came to me about this before now. If even part of this is true-”

“It’s all true!”

He held up a hand to calm her, nodding. “Okay. Give me some time to process it, will you? And if it is true, I still don’t get why you never came to me before. I asked you before and after that meeting with Yamato-sensei, and you lied right to me, Kara. We just don’t do that. We promised, didn’t we? No lies.”

Frustrated, her jaw tight, she shook her head. “This is different.”

“Different how? If your life was in danger-”

“Stop it!” Kara shouted, pulse racing, fists clenched. “Damn it, Dad! Please, can’t this wait? Can’t you hold off telling me how stupid I was until we find Miho? Until I know if she’s even still alive?”

Her hands were shaking, her whole body quaking. In all her life, she didn’t remember being so furious with her father. Why couldn’t he just listen?

“Kara-”

“This is exactly why I never told you before!”

“All right!” he said, throwing his hands up. “I’m sorry. You’re right. We can argue later. We need to call the police, and Yamato-sensei. If the kids in the Noh club are all in danger-I can’t believe I’m going along with any of this-I’ll need to call Aritomo-sensei and try to explain it to-”

“No!” Kara snapped.

Her father flinched at the vehemence of her reaction. “Kara, come on. I know you’ve got issues with her, but now’s not the time. You said so yourself.”

“It’s not that,” Kara said, glancing away. “It’s something else.”

“What?” he demanded.

Swallowing, she stared into his eyes and told him what she had seen in Miss Aritomo’s room at the school. As she spoke, his nostrils flared and his face flushed a deep red. Before she had finished, he interrupted.

“That’s enough,” he said, his voice cold and quiet.

“Dad, I swear-”

“I said that’s enough!” he roared, and slammed his fist against the wall. He glared at her. “What did I do to you, Kara? Is it the move? Just living here? Or is it really just this thing with Yuuka? How did we get to the point where you’d go this far?”

“Dad-”

“No. No, Kara. Grow the hell up! What a stunt! How far will you go to interfere with me getting on with my life? I know you need me now, but someday you’ll be gone, and I’ll be alone. You’re so concerned these days with what your mother would have wanted, right? Well, is that what she would have wanted? Is it?”

The words echoed in the silence of the house. His chest rose and fell as he tried to calm himself. Kara wanted to scream back at him, but she realized now that nothing she said would do any good.

“You’re making a mistake,” she whispered.

“Don’t tell me-” he began.

They were interrupted by a loud knock on the front door. Kara whipped around, afraid for a moment, and then she realized it must be Hachiro and Ren. They would have heard the shouting and been concerned for her.

Her father seemed to deflate. Eyes dimmed by disappointment, he turned from her and strode over to the door. Kara followed a few steps, words on the tip of her tongue, ready to tell Hachiro and Ren that she was fine, that she’d be out in a minute. But when her father opened the door, instead of the guys, Kara saw Miss Aritomo standing on the threshold.

Kara’s eyes went wide and she drew in a sharp breath, on the verge of a scream. The memory of what she’d seen flashed in her mind, all too vividly. She tensed, ready to lunge for her father, to protect him.

But when she met Miss Aritomo’s gaze, she saw no threat in them. The teacher looked as she always did, pretty and petite and intelligent, yet also tired and sad. She nodded hello to Kara, then focused on Kara’s father.

“Rob. I’m sorry to come without calling first-”

“Not at all,” Rob Harper replied, glancing at Kara over his shoulder. “Your timing couldn’t be better, in fact. Come in.”

He stepped aside to allow her entrance, closing the door behind her. Then, as though to make a point, he took Miss Aritomo’s hand and gave her a quick, soft kiss. Kara went rigid, hair on the back of her neck bristling, and yet that was the moment that confused her the most. Miss Aritomo blinked and pulled back slightly from him, glancing shyly at the ground, obviously uncomfortable with this show of affection in front of Kara.

Where is it? Kara thought. Where’s the Hannya? Where’s the evil?

Her gaze shifted past her father and Miss Aritomo, toward the door. What had happened to Hachiro and Ren? Surely she must have seen them outside? Had she done something to them? Or did she seem so normal-so ordinary-because the demon wasn’t inside her now? Was it possible that Miss Aritomo didn’t know the evil spirit had been using her as its host?

“Anything else to say, Kara?” her father asked, obviously daring her to repeat her accusations in front of his girlfriend.

She hesitated a moment, trying to think of some way to continue the conversation. But she could come up with nothing that wouldn’t explode into a major argument. Either the Hannya was there with them right now-inside Miss Aritomo-in which case Kara didn’t think the woman had any idea, or it had left her body again. Either way, Kara had no idea how to proceed. She needed to talk to her friends. They had to find Miho.

Frustration and confusion overwhelmed her, and all she could do was shake her head and make for the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” her father asked, in English.

“Out,” Kara snapped, in Japanese.

“This conversation isn’t over!” he called after her.

She slammed the door on the final word, heart thumping in her chest, nervous energy making her want to jump or run or scream. She had to do something. This was all insane.

“Kara?” Hachiro said, stepping from the shadows beside the house, with Ren following close behind. “Are you all right?”

“You guys could’ve warned me,” she said, brow knitted in consternation.

“We didn’t have time,” Ren said, still holding his right arm stiffly against his chest. “She came walking up the street and we hid so we could watch her. We thought about just attacking her, but she seemed so normal, and… what if you were wrong? What if you didn’t see what you thought you saw?”

Kara stared at both of them. “I saw it.”

Hachiro nodded. “Okay. But even so, what were we to do? Try to kill her? We watched through the window to make sure you weren’t in danger.”

“You’re right, I know. It’s just… my father wouldn’t listen to me. He didn’t… he didn’t believe me,” she said. “The Hannya’s in there with my father, and I don’t know what to do!”

In the dormitory foyer, Mai leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, staring at Sakura’s back. The other girl stood in front of the door, staring outside at the moonlit field that separated the dorm from the school building. The silence between them crackled with their need to be doing something, anything, with barely controlled fear, and with anticipation. Any second, Sakura’s phone would ring. Kara would call. They would learn what her father had said, and what they were to do next.

“Why do you keep staring out there?” Mai asked, hearing how snippy she sounded but not caring. “The school isn’t going anywhere.”

Sakura didn’t bother to turn around. “If the Hannya’s out there, I want to see it coming. And if Kara and the others come back without calling first, I want to see them, too.”

The moonlight made the red streak in Sakura’s hair a deep crimson that reminded Mai of blood. Sakura had put some kind of henna tattoos on her upper arms and they almost look carved into her skin. The sight was unnerving, and Mai wished Sakura would put something over the tank top she was wearing now. The weirder things became, the stranger Sakura behaved. She made Mai’s skin crawl. But maybe that was just the girl’s way of dealing with her sister’s murder. Whatever. Mai didn’t know, and really didn’t want to.

“This is crazy,” she said. “We need to go to Yamato-sensei. He’ll call the police. He had no proof before, because Kara lied to him. But if you come with me now, and back up what I’ve told him, he’ll have to believe us, just a little.”

That got Sakura’s attention: she turned and glared at Mai with open hostility, and Mai knew Sakura had understood the part of her argument that she had not said aloud. Mr. Yamato knew that Mai was among the group of girls Sakura had blamed for her sister’s murder. If she said Mai was telling the truth, how could Mr. Yamato argue?

“Just wait until we hear from Kara,” Sakura said.

Mai sighed. “Why? Why are we waiting? Just call her and tell her we’re going over to see Yamato-sensei.”

Sakura’s upper lip curled in distaste. Any possibility that Mai might have one day become friends with her had evaporated, but Mai didn’t care.

“I understand. You don’t like me,” she told Sakura. “I’m not going to cry about it. I’ve never liked you or any of your friends very much, either. Except Hachiro, and that’s only because he’s cute and can play baseball.”

“This is you being persuasive?” Sakura sniffed.

Mai pushed away from the wall, throwing up her hands. “This is me wanting to do something before someone else dies! Or have you forgotten the Hannya took your roommate?”

Sakura strode over, shaking her head as though ready to argue, and then slapped Mai across the face so hard that she staggered back to the steps, stumbled, and sat down.

“You bitch!” Mai snarled, one hand clapped to her cheek.

Sakura ignored her, turning away as she pulled out her cell phone. Mai’s cheek stung, but her pride had been hurt even worse. Still, all she cared about right now was Wakana and Daisuke, and Sakura was making the phone call. Nothing else mattered. If she hadn’t been afraid to go out after dark alone, she would have gone to Mr. Yamato’s by herself. But this was better. These girls knew something, at least, about what they were facing, and something was better than nothing.

“Kara, what’s going on?” Sakura asked.

Mai wished she could hear Kara’s side of the conversation. After a moment, Sakura went on.

“Listen, we’ve got to go to Yamato-sensei. It’s the only choice now. You said before you thought he believed Mai a little bit-”

Mai raised her eyebrows. That was the first she’d heard of it.

“-and we need him to believe us now, and to call the police.”

Sakura paused, and it was obvious that on the other end of the line Kara was arguing with her.

“No, stop. Quiet, Kara. Listen. Mai and I are going over there, and if we have any hope of him believing us, you three have to come as well. He has to see Ren. He has to hear it from all of us. Two of us, he might think it’s some kind of prank. But not all five, and not if Ren is hurt and Miho is gone… I know, I know, but we can’t do this alone! We need help! Just meet us there!”

Sakura snapped her phone shut and put it away. She took a deep breath and started for the door without waiting for Mai.

“What did she say?” Mai said, following her out the door. “What’s going on? Why was she fighting with you?”

“Kara didn’t want to leave her house because Aritomo-sensei is there. The Hannya is there with her father.”

A chill ran up Mai’s spine and all her anger vanished. “But she’s going to meet us at Yamato-sensei’s?”

“She’ll be there.”

Mai nodded once, turned, and headed across the field with Sakura matching her stride for stride.

Miho woke to the copper scent of blood and the awful, rotting stench of death. As she grew conscious of her surroundings, eyes flickering open in the dark, the smells overwhelmed her, filling her nostrils and her throat. Her stomach convulsed and she rolled to one side, a thin stream of vomit erupting from her mouth.

Panic and revulsion brought her fully awake. She forced herself to breathe through her mouth, the stink of the room too much to take. Disoriented, she looked around, trying to make sense of what she saw.

The low ceiling above her head had a peak in the middle, and there were boxes and two old traveling chests stacked to one side. In the gloom-slices of moonlight gleaming between shutters or boards that blocked two small windows-she could make out a metal rack hung with what appeared to be old Noh or Kabuki theatrical costumes. A bare dressmaker’s dummy stood beside the costume rack like some headless, limbless spectator.

The smell. Where did the smell come from?

Miho sat up and her stomach convulsed again. Bile burned in the back of her throat, but this time she managed to suppress the urge to vomit. It wasn’t just the smell, she realized. The nausea and disorientation were symptoms of something else. Flashes of the conflict on the train platform came back to her. Fear flooded through her as she remembered the Hannya, its intimate hiss, and what it had done to Ren.

Oh, Ren. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed, terrible sadness gnawing at her. Please don’t be dead.

A fresh wave of nausea hit her gut and she thought again of the Hannya. One hand fluttered up to her neck and she gave a tiny yelp at the pain as she touched the bruised, punctured skin there. Some of the blood she smelled might be her own.

It had bitten her, and the bite had poisoned her or something. It had made her sleep as if she’d been drugged, and now the effects were starting to wear off. But the Hannya would be back.

Miho took a breath, still through her mouth, but now she could taste the stink of dead flesh on her tongue. Chills shuddered through her and she looked around, eyes at last beginning to adjust to the gloom.

In a dark corner to the right of the window she saw an antique dollhouse. In the black shadows behind it lay what was left of a human body. Torn and broken, bones showing, from what she could see in the dark it looked as though wild animals had gotten to it. Hungry animals. The darker stains on the wall and on the roof of the dollhouse must have been blood.

Miho began to shake. Her eyes swam with tears.

“No,” she whispered. “No, please. I haven’t done anything.”

Lurching to her feet, she banged her head on the low ceiling and then staggered toward the boarded window. Her fingers found purchase but she could not tear the wood away.

Miho dropped to her knees, threw back her head, and began to scream for help. She cried and she beat her fists on the boards and screamed until her throat hurt. Minutes passed before she paused to breathe, and to think.

And then a voice, little more than a dry rasp, came from behind the costume rack.

“You shouldn’t bother,” said the voice. “No one will hear. I’ve been trying for days.”