*** Kitoushi & Her Assistant (Tomo POV)***
*** 祈祷師と助手 ***
Our tea was cold by the time I finished my story. I hadn’t realized just how little I knew beyond the surface facts. Don’t go out at night; don’t look them in the eyes or in mirrors; and the rules were inconsistent. That was about it. Pretty messed-up that I hadn’t been more interested.
Even with those thoughts, I couldn’t help but notice how the two spiritualists interacted. They sat next to each other at the kotatsu with an easy comradery. Kan-chan made and poured tea unobtrusively. She was quiet, but occasionally would ask a penetrating question.
Kao drank tea, looking across the table longingly at my cigarette, but turned one down, and listened intently to the answers to Kan-chan’s questions. I bet they were a good team.
Which was apparently what I needed. Kao’s face grew increasingly serious as I told my story and irritated at my inability to answer questions like, did I know where Mikawa was buried? I assumed Enpukuji Cemetery but didn’t know exactly where. A question Kaori repeated, but I couldn’t answer, was if Ume had dreams about Shiomi or Mikawa before she met them. It had never occurred to me to ask Ume.
When I finished, Kao was lightly tapping her fingers on the table and then spoke. “I suppose we will have to start with a thorough cleansing and put up new wards.”
“Am I cursed?” I ventured.
For some reason, that brought an amused smile to Kaori’s face. “I don’t know. I’m a kitoushi and do cleansing and exorcisms. You’re thinking of reibai. I can’t read auras, tea leaves, or even crystal balls. Sorry.”
Snarky, I thought. Not that I should complain, but there was a time and a place.
“We’ll start by doing a cleansing on you and then smudge your house. But that isn’t what concerns me. Are you familiar with the story ‘The Peony Lantern?’”
“No.”
“Mikawa sounds like the ghost, Otsuyu, from that story. More hostile and malicious than Otsuyu, but similar in they have come back for their lover, who is beguiled by an illusion of their beauty. What worries me is that in many versions of ‘The Peony Lantern,’ the ghost finds a human accomplice to take down the wards. In others, the lover sneaks off, finds her grave, and then joins her. In all versions, they had met in a previous life and plaited their love beyond that one life. Do you understand?”
“No.” I didn’t unless she meant it was hopeless.
“Then let me lay it out. This is not a simple haunting or curse. This feels like a fated encounter, in which case it will be very difficult to save Shiomi or even Ume. I wonder if Mikawa, Shiomi, and Ume were involved in a tragic love triangle in a past life and are still trying to work things out.”
I want to protest that it was silly; fate, past lives? But I waited; Kao hadn’t finished speaking.
“I can cleanse you and your house, but that doesn’t stop Mikawa from looking for a way in. You don’t know where she is buried and even if you did, we might not be able to drive her out of this world. The best option is for Shiomi to renounce Mikawa. That wouldn’t be enough, but would make things easier. Another option is for you to send Shiomi away. I could then break the link between you and Mikawa. That wouldn’t be hard unless Ume is tangled up in their fate.”
I didn’t grasp this concept of fate, but the logic of sending Shiomi away was clear. I didn’t see any hope of Shiomi “renouncing” Mikawa. If I forced the issue with Ume, she would give in, but was I willing to do that?
I felt my stomach sink.
No, I wasn’t.
Even if she didn’t recognize it, Ume was badly smitten, and I couldn’t do that to her. And even if she wasn’t? I still don’t think I could do it. I may not have bonded with Shiomi, but cold-bloodily giving her up to a ghost was a step too far.
That realization surprised me. I think of myself as a pragmatist, but there seemed to be limits to my practicality. I needed to stop laying all the responsibility on Ume. That road led to bitterness and resentment. No, I had a hand in this. I had agreed to let Shiomi stay and even now wouldn’t kick her out.
Taking a deep breath, I said, “I don’t think either of those things is likely.”
“I see,” Kao said. “It was my impression you didn’t like Shiomi.” Kan-chan gave her a brief nod and a smile. I felt like I had passed some test. It made me wonder what they would have said if I had been willing to throw Shiomi under the bus.
I wouldn’t find out as Kao continued, “Whether or not Shiomi renounces Mikawa, we still need to bar her entry into our world. Depending on how fate is written, that might or might not work. You can’t cheat fate and if Mikawa and Shiomi are fated for each other, there isn’t much we can do.”
Kan-chan finally chimed in, “And it gets messy if your wife’s fate is tangled with theirs.” She gave her partner a piercing look, and I briefly wondered what that meant. It didn’t concern me, so I put it out of my mind.
“In the meantime,” Kao resumed, “we need to protect you, and when your partner returns, make a plan. Hopefully, Mikawa won’t breach your defenses while we wait. That phone call worries me. She is more clever than most ghosts. There’s always a crack they can get through and Mikawa seems determined to find one.”
Kan-chan spoke again. “When we’re done here, I’ll stay the night in case something happens.”
“You sure?” Kao sounded surprised. “Shiro is expecting you to come back with me.”
“You two can survive without me for a few days. Just do takeout if you’ve forgotten how to cook.”
“I’ll take her back to that Italian place above Hanno,” Kao said, pleased with the idea.
Kan-chan rolled her eyes. There was a lot there that I was missing, but it was clear these two — no, the three, including the unseen Shiro, had a history.
While I was considering this, Kan-chan got up from the kotatsu cushion and fetched a chair from the kitchen. When it arrived, Kao pointed at it. “Sit. Let’s get started.”
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Note: Two professionals at their work. Let’s hope they’re good, because Mikawa is merciless.
If you would like to know about Kaori, Kan-chan, and Shiro, they are the main characters in my novel “My Girlfriend Almost Got Me Killed.”
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Story by Nara Moore
Twitter/X:@nara_moore
Mastodon: sakurajima.moe
WordPress: Josei Yuri and Paranormal Romance
Art by Mai-sensei
Twitter: @Maiisheree
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