汚れ
*** Defilement (Tomo POV) ***
“Wait there!” Kan-chan barked as she pulled me away from the door. My eyes flickered away from the ruined wards to her face. I read an alarm there that matched my own.
“Let me check,” she added. She began chanting as she pushed open the door to my house. I’d locked it, but they’d busted the lock. And with the wards down, anything could wait inside.
After peering in, Kan-chan stepped inside and beckoned me to follow. Entering, the smell of shit assailed me. I felt violated even before seeing the shambles in my living room. Intruders had smashed the TV, overturned the kotatsu, and left Ume’s books in tatters amid the ruins. Where the invaders had ripped Ume’s posters from the walls, they’d written our names in bold red letters. If the message wasn’t clear enough, underneath they had scrawled the character “死,” death. The only thing left untouched was Hanayome-shin’s shrine. It stood mockingly undisturbed amid the chaos.
Dazed, I started picking up Ume’s books, thinking about how upset she’d be. Kan-chan stopped chanting to interrupt me, saying, “Leave that. Pack.”
“What?” I responded dully.
She took my grocery bag and pushed me toward the bedroom. “Get your clothes and anything you value. We’re getting you out of here.” Until now, I had only seen Kan-chan as a shy woman who deferred to her partners. Suddenly, she’d transformed into a strong take-charge woman. Which was good, because the invasion had shaken me to the core.
The bedroom was no better than the living room. Slashed sheets and clothes lay scattered on the floor. I gagged at the overpowering smell of excrement. Humans had done this, not supernatural creatures. What had we done to be defiled this way?
“Hurry,” Kan-chan called through the door.
I needed to pull myself together. If Ume could take onryo and other supernatural horrors in stride, I could cope with the vermin who had done this. Now that I’d resolved to get my act together, I quickly shoved the rest of my clothes into a suitcase, and then picked up an ashtray my kid had made, and a picture of me and Ume in t-shirts we had gotten at a Hanno festival.
Kan-chan beckoned toward the shrine with her head. “Get Hanayome-shin. We can’t leave her here.”
Her words made me realize I was probably leaving here forever. It was no longer a safe place. This had been my home ever since meeting Ume. All my best memories had been made here. It was too much, and none of it was my fault. The barrier I had erected to temporarily hold back my grief and rage broke and I screamed, “It’s not fair,” and began sobbing.
The area behind the shrine screen had been untouched. How dare Hanayome-shin’s shrine escape the destruction that had touched everything else? My hands trembled as I picked up her silk-wrapped box and, despite my emotions, carried it carefully to Kan-chan.
“Why?” I asked my friend through my tears. “Why didn’t she protect our house?”
“Maybe because she knew it’s the only way you would leave. Ume said Hanayome-shin played rough.”
We both hurried back to the car. Tears blurred my vision, and I fumbled with the rear door before throwing my suitcase inside. Turning, I found Kan-chan had cut me off at the driver’s side door. I didn’t protest and handed her the keys. I was in no shape to drive.
As we pulled away, I could see a small crowd gathered at the vending machine. “Garbage,” I thought. If I’d been driving, I might have run the scum down. What the intruders had done was unforgivable. Fortunately, Kan-chan was driving, so I took out my phone and typed and sent a message to Ume. This was her fault. She had brought that woman into our life and now I was being hunted.
> They are still after me!
My finger hovered over the phone, about to add, “You did this to me!” But I stopped. I would have liked to blame her, but that road led nowhere good. Fate had always been unkind to me, and it had finally caught up.
I looked at the few special things I had kept with me. My memories. First, I turned my kid’s ashtray over in my hands. Fired green clay, slightly misshapen. I missed Keito. but with the way Shishi’s problems spread like a contagion, I had better not contact Keito again. It wasn’t fair.
I then looked at the picture of the Hanno festival. Ume and I had been such a happy couple. Our t-shirts featured the faces of two famous anime girls. A tom-boy for me and fem-girl for her. Why had I pushed Ume to find a girlfriend?
I’d wallowed in my problems enough and tried pulling myself together. Blaming Ume was pointless. As far as I knew, Ume and Shishi were dead. The map left amid the fliers showed the cult knew they had gone to Himekawa Hospital.
“You think they’re dead?” I asked Kan-chan.
“I don’t know, but my guess is they’re fine. Seems to me the cult is trying to intimidate you. If Mikawa or the cult had gotten them, I think they’d leave you alone or kill you.”
“What am I going to do?”
“Come home with me. We’ll put up till you decide where you want to go.”
“I can’t be bothering you like that.”
“No bother. We have plenty of space. Maybe this isn’t the time, but I like you a lot. Kao and Shiro are crazy in love with each other. Very physical. They like me, but don’t understand. You do. Anyway, it’s no bother you staying. Think about it.”
That was a lot for Kan-chan to say when she was sober, but I couldn’t deal with it right now. “Yeah, I’ll think about it,” I said.
“I have one favor to ask, though,” Kan-chan said after a minute. “Smoke if you want, but don’t get Kao started again. Shiro will get upset.”
I looked at her for a moment. What? But that was typical Kan-chan. If her life depended on reading the room, she’d perish.
We were quiet the rest of the way to Shiro’s place. It was large and had a spare room I’d used before. Miyazaki Shirohime was the COO of the place where I worked. A job I had thanks to her. At home she was distantly friendly, but at work, she was all business and expected to be addressed as Miyazaki-sama. That made it awkward for me to stay at her house. There was no way you could say we had equivalent status.
When we arrived, Kan-chan gave a brief report to Kao. “Someone tore down the wards and that cult trashed her house. They left death threats, so I told her to stay with us.”
Kao nodded. “I’ll go make her some tea. You get her settled.”
She left the room and Kan-chan led me to the guest room. “That’s her cure-all, sweet milk tea. Even if you don’t like it, pretend; it will make her feel useful.”
I was floating in milk tea by the time Shiro arrived home. Even though I’d the good sense to refuse the shochu Kan-chan offered to me, my head wasn’t working right. Thoughts of my situation and worries about Ume kept intruding, so Kan-chan and Kao brought Shiro up to speed on the situation. When they were done, Shiro addressed me.
“Does the cult know you’re here or where you work?”
“I don’t think so; I’ve been careful.”
“Good. I don’t want any trouble. But that being said, I sympathize with you. Kao and I had similar problems.”
“Thank you, Miyazaki-sama.”
“Call me Shiro, here. You’re Kan-chan’s friend, so that will do.”
“Thank you, Shiro-san.”
“I’ll let your supervisor know you might take a few days off. Take your time.”
“Shiro-san,” I said. “I need to set up a shrine if I stay. I’m sorry to inconvenience you, but I didn’t want to upset Hanayome-shin. She lost her home, too.”
Shiro turned to Kao for a second. “Kao, find her a place.” Then returned to me, “We welcome the extra protection. Between Kao’s wards and your guardian, there shouldn’t be any more trouble.”
If only that had been true.
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Note: Bad timing, Kan-chan. But, keep working at it. Ganbaru (頑張る)
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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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