Spirits of the Noh

4

T here were no bad dreams that night, but Kara slept even worse than she had the night before. Wednesday morning found her tired and frayed, wiping the grit of fitful sleep from her eyes, her head aching just enough to annoy her, but not enough for her to justify staying home from school. Especially not today.

The skies were a wan gray and the air thick with humidity as she walked from her house down the street toward the campus. Off to her left, a narrow, dead-end road led partway down along the bay shore, a place for people to stop and admire Ama-no-Hashidate, or to walk down to the water and take a quick swim or skip stones. Beyond the road’s end, a broad swath of the school grounds touched the shore, and then there were trees in the distance, bordering the property. Sakura’s sister, Akane, had been murdered there, on the grassy shore.

The violence of Akane’s murder had combined with Sakura’s grief and rage to draw the attention of the demon Kyuketsuki, who had languished in the spirit world, or in some odd limbo where old gods went to die. The demon’s once-great power had withered over the centuries, diminished by time and the absence of belief. To most Japanese, it was only a story now, only a character on the Noh stage. The events of the previous fall and spring had begun to open a window for it to return, but Kara, Miho, Sakura, and Hachiro had closed that window.

Kyuketsuki had cursed them all. Despite the August heat and the humidity, Kara shuddered as she walked through the archway at the edge of the campus and up the pathway toward the school. She could still remember, word for word, what the demon had said to them.

Little remains in the world now of the darkness of ancient days… but what there is will come to you, and to this place. All the evil of the ages will plague you, until my thirst for vengeance is sated.

There might not be many supernatural evils left on Earth, but Kyuketsuki had basically put a bounty on their heads, marked them all for death. All the evil of the ages was a pretty broad statement. They’d lived in fear for the first month, and in a kind of cold, numb dread for the second.

But after a while, with no sign of any attack, or anything at all out of the ordinary, it had been easy to believe the curse meant nothing, that maybe whatever evils of the ages might still be around, they had either withered in power like Kyuketsuki, or they had better things to do.

Now this kid, Daisuke Sasaki, had gone missing.

As soon as she’d woken up this morning, Kara had asked her father if he had heard anything more, but he had not. Miss Aritomo had left after midnight-and Kara didn’t even want to think about what they had been doing in the meantime, with her dad comforting the art teacher. When Miss Aritomo had finally left the house, Kara had peeked out the window, her bedroom lights off, and seen them kissing. Erase, erase, erase. She didn’t want to think about her father kissing someone other than her mom. It had gotten under her skin, and the memory of it haunted her, but she had other concerns right now.

She needed to talk to her friends, and to find out if this Daisuke had gotten home. Kara thought she had met him a couple of times. With the way the rehearsals for the play worked-the performers practicing in isolation-it was no surprise that she didn’t really know him. But Miho would.

Other students migrated toward the school, both boarders who streamed around the side from the dormitory beyond the main building and commuters who arrived by train or bus or bicycle, and even some who-like Kara-came by foot. At the bottom of the steps she paused to glance once more at the overcast sky. No distant thunder today, nor even any ominous threat of rain, just a gray shroud that looked as though it had always been there, and might never leave.

Hurrying up the stairs, she walked into the genkan, a large foyer whose walls were lined with cubbyholes where the students stored their street shoes. Inside the school building, they wore slippers called uwabaki, pink for girls and blue for boys, which always made Kara think of the way parents seemed to color-code newborn babies.

Amid the milling students, she searched for her friends. As she took off her shoes and stuffed them into a cubby, she kept glancing around, but at first saw no sign of them. Kara felt odd, her skin prickling with tension. She was in school, but felt apart from the other students. When she caught sight of bitchier-by-the-day Mai making a beeline toward her, she wished she could have been anywhere else.

“What happened to him, bonsai?” Mai said, her voice low, expression grim. She glanced around to make sure no one would overhear them. “Do you know where he is?”

A tremor passed through Kara. She knew exactly what Mai was talking about, but not why the girl would be asking her.

“Are you on drugs?” Kara asked, speaking loud enough to be overheard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Mai hesitated, nostrils flaring with anger, eyes dark. Then she took a breath, and Kara could see beneath the nasty mask the girl had adopted in order to become queen of the soccer bitches. Mai had been quiet and unsure, once upon a time. That girl still lived inside this one. Kara got a glimpse of her, and realized that Mai was afraid.

“Ume told me what happened that night,” Mai whispered. She leaned in close and Kara flinched. “About Kyuketsuki. So don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m asking you. Where is Daisuke?”

Kara glanced around, wishing her friends would appear. Where were they all? She gnawed her upper lip and then made a little shrug.

“I don’t know. I mean, there’s no reason to think this is anything weird,” she said. Then her eyes widened. “Unless you’ve heard something. Is there news?”

Mai’s disappointment was plain. “No. Only that he didn’t go home.”

Kara felt bad for her, suddenly. Daisuke might be in Noh club, and Mai one of the soccer girls, but she clearly cared for him. “Is he your… I mean, are you two…?”

“We’re friends,” Mai said. “Is that difficult for you to understand? I do have friends who don’t play soccer, you know.”

Kara had nothing to say to that. Mai had been so awful to all of them over the past few months, she couldn’t quite bring herself to feel guilty, but she allowed herself to wonder if they had misjudged Mai a little. If Ume had told her what happened, perhaps Mai had been so harsh to them in order to keep them away from her. It didn’t excuse her behavior, but Kara had never considered that from Mai’s perspective, she and her friends might seem like the bad guys. Like trouble.

“If I hear anything-” she started.

Mai sneered at her. “You’ll do what? Get someone else killed? Don’t even speak to me, bonsai. You’re beneath me. Beneath notice.”

Kara blinked as if the girl had slapped her. Just a moment before she had been giving Mai the benefit of the doubt. Now no doubt remained.

Other soccer girls were starting to group around them, coming nearer, even as most students began to file into the corridor and walk toward the gym for the morning assembly. This time, it was Kara who stepped nearer, intimate, close enough to fill her senses with Mai’s plum blossom perfume.

“Your friend Ume murdered Akane Murakami. For all I know, you were one of the girls with Ume that night, one of the killers. I don’t appreciate the irony of you suggesting that I’m responsible for anyone dying. But, if you’d like, say that again, and I’ll be happy to hurt you.”

The soccer girls surrounded them now. If they had heard any of her whispered comments, they gave no sign of it, but Mai had heard her very clearly. Whatever part of her mask that had slipped was now repaired. Her sneering half smile showed no hint of the real girl beneath.

“I am certain your father would be quite proud of you, bonsai,” Mai said.

Kara nodded slowly. “You know what? He might be. Even if it dishonored him, he would understand. So don’t push me.”

Several of the soccer girls began to move closer as if to do exactly that, while others glanced around to make sure they weren’t observed. Mai held up a hand to forestall any scuffle.

“If you have anything to do with Daisuke being missing,” Mai said, “you will know what it feels like to be pushed.”

The moment went on for several beats and Kara balled her fists, ready to fight if it came to that. Then one of the soccer girls swore quietly in Japanese and stepped aside as Sakura pushed her way in among them, took Kara’s hand, and led her out of the crowd.

They walked quickly out of the genkan and into the corridor, heading toward the gym for morning assembly. The soccer girls followed perhaps ten feet behind, loudly whispering rude things to them.

“ Rezu, ” one of them said, taunting.

Kara glanced at Sakura, whispering, “What did they just call us?”

Sakura smiled. “They called me a lesbian.”

“Are you?” Kara asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I couldn’t say. It’s sort of like cheeseburgers, I suppose.”

“ How is it like cheeseburgers?”

“I’ve never tried one, but when I see them in movies or on TV, I’m intrigued.”

Kara let that sit for a while, trying to process it. Not that it troubled her. If Sakura eventually decided she liked girls, she wouldn’t be the first lesbian Kara had been friends with. She’d always be Sakura, and that was all that mattered. What disturbed her deeply was the idea that Sakura had never had a cheeseburger.

They walked into the assembly, where the students were lined up by homeroom. In a moment, they would separate, and not see each other again until o-soji. Miho must have gotten up earlier than Sakura; she was already in line with the rest of their homeroom class. Kara spotted Hachiro with his own class and waved to him. He waved back, but she thought he looked anxious, and knew why. They all needed to talk, and soon.

“Did you hear about Daisuke?” Kara asked.

“The whole dorm heard, last night. Teachers came to ask his friends if anyone had spoken to him, or knew why he might not have come home. Now they’re saying he has run away.”

Kara felt a twinge of hope. “Do they know that for sure?”

Sakura shrugged. “How could they?”

“So, do you think it’s got to do with… with Kyuketsuki?” Kara asked, whispering the last.

Before Sakura could reply, Mr. Sato snapped at Kara and gestured curtly for her to take her place in line with the other students in