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It wasn’t unusual for there to be commotion in the streets of the world over yonder, not as close to the red light district as they were.
It was the underbelly of these parts, the place where the lowest of yokai could walk among the divine and not even receive a second glance when all were here for the nightlife and to have the most carnal of desires fulfilled.
What was unusual was the scent that filled the air: cortisol and sweat and something distinctly human, and Tomoe halted in his steps as he sniffed the air, his ears twitching and twisting as he listened through the sounds of jeers and roars to the shrieking voice that shouted back.
No doubt about it. Those yokai had found themselves a human. How strange.
With a hum and a shrug, he continued on, his heart thumping excitedly as he made his way toward the brothel. It’d been too long since he’d last paid the girls there a visit, and the tension beneath his naval was beginning to build the longer it took to get there.
He didn’t make it more than a few steps before the human’s voice rang out above the other’s, the tone shrill and commanding.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” she screamed, but there was only a hint of fear lacing the command. It was decided, authoritative, and enough to stop him in his tracks once more to turn toward the scene.
“Oh? Don’t touch you, eh? You mean like this?” a large, scaly, one-eyed yokai reached out a gnarled finger and jabbed it into the upper arm of the girl. Her small foot stomped the ground, stirring up the dust of the street as the others snickered. Tomoe rolled his eyes. How pathetic. How juvenile. One should not play with their food.
“I said no!” she cried, and swatted away the finger. “Leave me alone!”
Tomoe pulled a fan from the front of his kimono and flicked it open, holding it before his down turned mouth as his eyes narrowed. What a stupid girl. It was over for her the moment she wandered into the world of spirits. Her shouts and demands were all in vain, as she would no doubt soon learn. Pity.
“Leave you alone? You’re on our turf now, human,” a portly yokai laughed, pulling down it’s eyelids and sticking its slimy tongue out at her as the others guffawed. Tomoe gritted his teeth at the sight. It was ghastly, and the longer this went on the more it gnawed at his insides. It was clear the human was outnumbered, weak. Why the others allowed her to live as they taunted her was beyond him. It would take no time at all and almost no thought to tear her head from her shoulders and eat her. To watch the flecks of saliva hit her reddened cheeks and their dirty, crusty claws and fingernails dig into her clothing made him sick to his stomach. It was like watching a cat toy with a mouse, and he couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Turning on his sandal, he started off once again.
But a vision of a brothel in flames, the screams of tanuki and even those of children echoed in his memories and he found that he was rooted to the spot. How he hated one-sided violence. It accomplished nothing, proved nothing. With a sigh, the agitation within him growing by the second, he ignored the lust that plagued the edges of his mind and whirled around to march in the direction of the huddle.
He would steal their fun from them and nothing more. It was what they deserved for ruining his mood and delaying his plans. Once he was certain the human was back where she belonged he would fuck the anger away and return to his hovel for a good night’s rest.
Without a plan, he pushed through the throng of yokai to stand in the center, his fan now tucked back into his kimono and a placid smile on his face.
“There you are, my love, I’ve been looking all over for you,” he purred. His eyes locked on hers, large and glowing pools of amber shimmering with tears, and for a moment the fury within him lessened to a mere smolder as he reached out and grasped her upper arm in his hand. Perhaps it was the lust whirling within him or the way his skin ached to be touched by the soft hands of the tanuki girls at the brothel, but without much of a plan he acted on instinct and pulled her close to his body.
“Follow along if you wish to live,” he hissed, quiet enough that only she could hear, and he pressed his lips against hers in a searing kiss that left the others in stunned silence. She squirmed but didn’t otherwise resist, and when he broke the kiss with a lopsided smirk he wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a grip that was deceivingly strong. She was stiff and trembling against his body, the scent of her stress astringent in his nose. If he was going to steal away their prey, he would have to be quick. No doubt, she would bolt at the first opportunity.
“Tomoe-sama, this human is your lover?” a small, fleshy creature asked in disbelief, it’s wide, bloodshot eyes flicking anxiously toward the others in unspoken worry.
“Why yes, she is, and I do believe that you have disturbed her quite enough tonight,” he sneered, the tips of his fangs visible and glimmering eerily in the lamplight. “You weren’t planning on eating my woman, were you? For your sake, I surely hope not.” Now he was the one toying with his prey, but it served them right. If they had only gobbled her up quickly he would be romping with Tanuko right now and their bellies would be full.
“N-no, Tomoe-sama!”
“We didn’t know she was your woman!”
“Your woman is a human?” The yokai talked overtop one another, and tired of this charade, he conjured a ball of foxfire in his palm, ignoring the fearful squeak at his left, and hurled it at the group. With barely enough time to scream, they were incinerated, nothing but charred suggestions of form in the brilliant blue flames that danced around. The girl screamed, and without another word, he turned toward where the veil grew thin, a cool breeze and the dampening atmosphere beckoning them forth.
“Stupid, stupid girl. What are you doing here?” He snapped as he marched her toward the conjunction.
“Let me go!” She shouted through tears, but he urged her on.
“This is no place for a human! I should have let those fools eat you!” He released his hold on her and gave her a shove toward the mundane world. She stumbled a bit, and for a moment he thought she might fall, but quickly she regained her footing and turned to face him, her hands planted on her hips and her stance wide. His expression morphed from furious to perplexed, his brows drawn and mouth tugged into a frown.
“Shut up! It’s not like I’m here on purpose! I don’t even know where here is!” She shouted. His eyebrow quirked upwards. How did she not know? How hadn’t she figured it out yet?
“You are in the world over yonder,” he explained, his tone almost bored. She blinked once, the action slow, and for a moment he swore he saw the realization dawn over her face, but she recovered quickly.
“Well, why didn’t you let those freaks eat me?” She snipped. It caught him off guard, and his ears lowered sideways, his lips parting and revealing one of his fangs. Who was she to speak to him this way? After he saved her?
“I don’t know,” he finally answered, then produced his fan to hide behind, tired of looking at her judging stare. “Go now, hurry along back to your little world, and never return. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
He ignored her offended gasp as he turned away and hurried back into the streets, the ashes of the others littering the place they once stood. He did not look back.
—
Days later, Tomoe sat in his home, his kiseru packed with fragrant tobacco that slowly turned to embers in the bowl, the mouthpiece hardly pressed against his mouth. He held his chin in his palm, his elbow resting uncomfortably on the low table he sat at and his mind a million miles away.
He’d been distracted since that night. When he’d finally reached the brothel he’d been hardly in the mood for sex and settled for whatever Tanuko had to offer him, which ended up being mostly one sided. He tipped her well for her hard work and for being a difficult costumer only to return home drunk, exhausted, and annoyed.
It plagued him that he had not seen the girl cross over. Had he trampled his own name through the mud only for her to be gobbled up by another opportunist? Had she tried to follow him, to demand in that shrill voice of hers that he answer more of her inane questions? She was a foolish, reckless, rash girl. Such a weakling might have died the moment they crossed into the mundane world. Easily she could have walked into traffic or tripped over the root of a tree, smashing her fragile human skull and dying instantly. With a sigh, he stood, adjusting the haori he wore as he emptied and packed away his pipe. There was no harm in a quick look, he decided, crossing his threshold and locking the wood door behind him. It would not be hard to detect the scent of a dead human. It would only take a moment.
But a moment turned to several when he retraced his steps and found no sign of her ever having crossed into the world over yonder. There was no body, no blood, no dust from decimated bones or lingering scent of death. How odd.
The only other explanation was that she had successfully crossed over, but had she died there? With his curiosity only mounting, he continued through the veil, leaving the streets of the spirit world behind, and stepped into the light of day.
To his surprise, he found himself in the shadows of an alleyway, crumbling asphalt beneath his sandals and weeds growing through the cracks. His interest piqued, he took a few, cautious steps forward to peer around. The alley didn’t open into a busy intersection, as he expected, but a sleepy residential street. A few quaint businesses dotted the array of buildings, and the occasional human or two made their way up the sidewalk only to disappear into a car or open doorway.
There was no sign of the girl from before, and with a shrug, he turned to walk straight back where he came. He’d lingered long enough as it was. It was only when the roar of an engine and the stink of diesel invaded his sense that he turned around once more, to find a bus pulling up to a stop. He hesitated, off-put by such a foul thing yet strangely transfixed by the sight of it, and when the passengers began to file from it one by one his ears flexed outward, his eyes suddenly wide and pupils constricted.
There she was, alive and well if not a little tired by the dull look in her eyes, nothing like the way they appeared full of fear, and unaware that she was being watched she started up the street.
His question had been answered and thus, it was time to leave, yet Tomoe couldn’t move. His feet wouldn’t obey, instead carrying him across the street toward her receding form despite whispers of ‘look at those ears!’ ‘Is that tail real?’ following him all the way.
“Girl!” he called out as he marched up behind her, a frown plastered on his face. He felt the need to confront her, to demand some sort of apology for making him…had he worried? Certainly not. An explanation, he decided, for why she was out so late and in a world that she didn’t belong in, for causing such a ruckus and spoiling all his fun. That’s why he chased her now, and when she didn’t respond to his voice, he reached out and grabbed the sleeve of her jacket.
“Hey!” she screamed, and whipped around so fast her hair brushed against his face. He froze, his fingers outstretched after she wrenched her arm from his grasp, and he blinked in bewilderment. After a moment, it seemed like something clicked and she stood a little straighter, the look on her face suddenly open, bright, friendly.
“Oh! Hey. It’s you!” she beamed. Tomoe eyed her warily before straightening to his full height and brushed off the front of his clothing. You? He wondered to himself. How casually she spoke to him.
“It is me,” he replied. “And it is you. I came to-“
“Sorry! I know I put you out last time. You really scared me, you know, but don’t think I don’t appreciate what you did for me!” Her voice was so chipper, sweet, even, greatly contrasting the shrieking and shouting she had done last time. It was enough to drive the thoughts straight from his mind, and he found that he could only nod dumbly.
“Let me repay you? Come with me!”
This time, it was she who grabbed his wrist, and with surprising force she yanked him up the sidewalk and he shuffled awkwardly behind her until they arrived before a store with glass doors which opened on their own when they drew close. Fascinating.
Inside the lights flickered in a way that stung his eyes, the sensation almost disorienting, but the girl seemed unbothered, her small hand still clamped around his wrist as she led him toward the back where rows and rows of drinks sat behind doors of glass.
“Let me buy you a drink,” she offered, finally releasing him. He glanced from her to the drinks, then back again before bursting into laughter. It sounded like a line, yet there wasn’t even a bottle of cheap sake to be found. He couldn’t help it. It was funny.
She held him in a glare, the expression taking him by surprise after the way she had looked at him moments earlier. So the girl who stomped her foot at a group of dangerous, deadly yokai did still exist, he realized with a playful smile. She was a strange one. So hot and cold and driven by impulse. He selected a drink on a whim, just to reward her for showing him such a face.
After purchasing their drinks they returned to the sidewalk, this time walking slowly as they sipped them. Apparently he’d selected a soda, and it bubbled unpleasantly in his mouth. It tasted of syrup and obscene amounts of sugar, and though he considered lobbing it in the street he’d resisted and now walked aimlessly with a human with a sweating plastic bottle clenched in his fist.
From the corner of his eye he watched her with interest, taking in the details he hadn’t made out in the commotion of the other night. She looked underfed and under-rested. Her hair was dull, long and the color of chestnuts, yet she was young, from what he could tell. Had the terrors from the other day kept her from sleeping at night? Typical of a human.
“Tell me your name,” he finally spoke, his voice sounding foreign to him after he’d been so uncharacteristically quiet. He’d intended to admonish her, yet here he was, making small talk.
She seemed equally surprised, and turned her face to him for a few beats of silence before offering him a small smile.
“Nanami. What’s yours?”
Again, silence. He had forgotten there were some who did not know his name. It was almost refreshing, the anonymity, and he was sorry to have it end when he responded.
“Tomoe.”
“Nice to meet you, Tomoe. Thanks again for saving my life.”
“Why were you there?”
It was as if his wits had finally returned after abandoning him, and he halted his steps while he awaited his answer. This had been his reason for venturing out of his world.
She seemed surprised by his question, laughing once as she glanced around at the passersby uncomfortably, but he refused to move, to avert his scrutinizing stare, waiting rather impatiently. His tail twitched this way and that, and the way her eyes followed the motion only furthered his annoyance.
“It was an accident,” she explained. “I got out of work late and was on my way home, and then I wasn’t. I don’t know what happened.”
He grunted, and attempted to cross his arms, but the bottle in his hand made the action awkward. Awkwardly, he braced his elbow on the cap of the bottle and touched his fingertips to his chin.
“Work?” What sort of work did such a frail thing do?
She scoffed, perhaps offended, and shifted her weight to one foot and popped her hip. His eyes flicked to the curve of it visible through the skirt she wore, then dragged upwards toward her arms crossed over her chest. She had fine breasts, he realized, then snapped his attention to her face at the sound of her voice as it met his ears, fighting against the rising color in his cheeks.
“Yeah, work. I have a part time job. Why are you being so nosy?”
“I’m being nosy?” She laughed incredulously, pointing to himself with a clawed finger. “I am merely curious how someone like you almost ended up someone’s lunch!”
“Someone like me, huh?” She asked, but her tone caught him off guard, as did the way her eyelids drooped. There was something different in her voice, like she’d already written him off, and when she turned to walk away his ears dropped low, his jaw gone slack. Where was she going?
“Thanks again for saving my life. I’m really busy. Have a safe walk back,” she called with a wave without ever looking over her shoulder. This time it was she who walked away, and he who retreated into the shadows, huffing and puffing as he did. He tossed the drink into the nearest gutter to the alleyway before disappearing into the world over yonder.
—
More days passed, and with each one his mouth watered for the sickly sweet taste of soda. He couldn’t take his mind off of it, the way the bottle felt in his hand, the way it bubbled up into the back of his throat all the way into his nose, and-
At least, that was what he’d convinced himself. The desire to traverse the veil grew stronger the more distance between that second meeting and now, and when all attempts to distract himself seemed to fail, he found himself dressed to go out and making his way toward the same point as before.
This time no bus came. He watched the shadows grow and stretch against the pavement, watched humans milling about in the streets, entering and exiting buildings and cars and peddling away on bicycles, but there was no sign of Nanami. In time, he decided that perhaps he could retrieve the soda on his own, without a weak human’s help, and stepped out from the shadows and in the direction of the store.
Then he passed it. He took another block, then another, turned corners as he pleased, until he found himself somewhere strange, a street seemingly preserved from the passage of time. How quaint.
Humans were quite sentimental creatures, after all.
Slowly, he took this street, admiring the familiar architecture and the shops despite it being much more crowded than the others. It seemed this place drew out more pedestrians, and he stared into the windows of the shops he passed by in search of what seemed to draw them in.
Suddenly he stopped, eyes boring holes through the window he looked through. A familiar face stood behind the counter, her features obscured by the glare of the glass, but unmistakably, it was her. It didn’t take long for her to notice him, and when their eyes locked something inside of him twinged- excitement? He couldn’t say, but she turned to speak with someone dressed similarly to herself, then quickly untied the apron she wore, hung it on a hook, then approached the door. He took a few steps back, narrowly avoiding a human walking behind him on the sidewalk, and before he felt prepared Nanami pushed open the door, a bell hanging somewhere above tinkling musically as she did, as if to announce her presence. How fitting.
“Tomoe?” she asked almost in disbelief. “What are you doing here? How did you find out where I worked?”
“Where you-“
“Are you stalking me?” She demanded, arms crossed and her foot tapping. His eyes flicked down to the motion, a tiny smile tugging at his lips. Slowly, he raised them to meet her eyes and shook his head in the negative.
“I am not stalking you. I was merely out for a walk when I happened to see you.”
“In the human world?” she questioned with a tilt of her head. That gave him pause. She had him there.
“I wanted a soda,” he blurted out, the excuses sounding just as stupid as it made him feel. Her lips parted, then she laughed, a lilting, joyful sound that pulled his ears from the pathetic way they hung back to attention. She didn’t behold him with disdain.
“C’mon, let’s go get you a drink,” she laughed, and gently took his hand. Her fingers interlocked with his and for a moment he couldn’t look away, stumbling against the cracks in the sidewalk until he regained his footing.
“I thought you were at work,” he protested, a confused look tossed toward the building.
“I’m on a break,” she explained. “I asked to take it early cause I thought I’d have to chase you away with a stick, but I guess you were just thirsty. Silly fox!”
He should have chastised her, ripped his hand away and demand she respect him, but instead he felt his cheeks begin to warm. He had been silly.
Minutes later, they sat on a nearby bench, sodas in hand and sipping them in comfortable silence.
It was just as disgusting as the first time.
“Hey,” she broke the silence, the monosyllabic word drawing an irritated hum from him. Her manners were atrocious.
“What did you mean when you said ‘someone like you’?”
He snuck a sideways glance her way, noting the way her dark lashes touched her cheeks, pink with embarrassment, as she looked down at the ground. That was right, he recalled, his ears flattening against his silver hair. That had been the comment to drive her away so abruptly last time. He ought to choose his words carefully. But that thought was disquieting on its own. Why should he have to tread carefully around a human? He should speak plainly. If she was offended, that was her problem not his. Clearing his throat, he fiddled with the label of the bottle.
“A human: weak and defenseless and out of place. That was what I meant.” It was out there. How she chose to respond was on her.
Somehow, that seemed to appease her, and her face brightened with each word spoken until she was smiling widely.
“Oh! Yeah, I guess I should have realized that,” she laughed, almost breathless. He arched an eyebrow and turned his face to her.
“Oh?”
She swung her legs, her ankles crossed, and nodded.
“You thought I meant something else?”
“Forget it. It was just a misunderstanding.” She waved her hand dismissively between them and he inhaled sharply at the gesture. “Anyway, my break’s almost over. I need to get back to work.” She stood and brushed the dust from the back of her skirt, her half-empty bottle clutched in one hand.
“So soon?” he said without thought, and her hand froze just above her backside, mid-brush, and she stared into his eyes.
“Uh, yeah. I only get fifteen minutes,” She explained, then averted her gaze toward the sky. He could only nod, ashamed of his outburst. He was thankful this interaction would be over soon.
This time, he would not carelessly discard the soda, should this craving ever rise again.
“But,”
Her voice pulled him back to attention, and his violet eyes locked onto hers.
“I get off work at ten.”
Ten!? He cried in his mind. So late! No wonder she wandered into the shadows, walking alone on these streets as she had. He sighed, tucked his soda into the sleeve of his kimono and then his hands into the opposite sleeves.
“I do not care,” he declared, then started in a direction picked at random. “Thank you for the soda, Nanami.”
She scoffed behind him, and the sound of her gradually receding footsteps was the only indication that she had left. He waited until he heard the tinkling of the bell, then turned, his eyes on the shop he had found her in, then read the sign for the first time.
So, she worked at a sweets shop.
Fitting.
—
She did not get out of work promptly at ten.
It was a fact that annoyed him straight to the bone and gristle within him, every minute that ticked past the hour grating against his being like sandpaper until he felt flayed raw with irritation. She said ten, so why had she not come out at ten?
Based on the many twists and turns it had taken him to find her work place, even with his enhanced senses, it was easy to conclude that she could wind up crossing the veil yet again should she walk home on her own, thus he decided to wait and ensure she arrived at her doorstep himself. He was not in the mood to deal with another screaming match when all he wanted was a peaceful night to himself.
And so, he found himself leaning against the siding of the sweets shop, his shoulder aching and stiff, his arms crossed and claws digging into his biceps even through his clothing as his patience ran out second by second. Finally, the door swung open, and Nanami’s surprised gasp was like music to his ears after the hours of lingering he had done.
“And finally, you’ve finished,” he droned, his eyes closed, and stood to full height.
“What are you doing here?!” She cried. “You nearly scared me half to death!”
“Which is precisely why I am here,” he explained, as if it was the most simple thing in the world. “It is dangerous for you to wander in the dark like this. I will walk you home so that you do not wander into mine.”
Silence. Then, nearly a full minute later, she mumbled, “Fine.”
He smirked. Clearly she’d seen the logic in his suggestion, and with a gesture, he indicated that he wanted her to lead the way.
She wavered on the spot, then started up the street, away from the direction of the bus stop where he had found her before. His hands tucked into his sleeves he followed, but only a half step behind, his sharp eyes surveying their surroundings but always landing on her, lest she trip and fall.
“You do not live the other way?” he asked, if only to break the silence. It took some time for her to answer.
“No.”
She must be tired after working, he realized, taking it as his cue to pipe down.
In silence, they made it down one block, then two, and the further they went from the sweets shop the more Tomoe realized that the sidewalks were less cared-for, more craggly, more broken, and when she tripped over an uneven spot on the concrete he reached out to quickly grasp her upper arm, stopping her from knocking each of her teeth out.
“You see, this is why I must walk you home,” he explained with a sigh. She wriggled out of his grasp, her hands clenched into fists, and she rounded on him, cheeks peek with anger.
“You do not!” She insisted with a shout, his ears reflexively flicking backwards at the volume of her voice. “I do this all by myself almost every day, thank you very much, and I do just fine! I always have.” She exhaled loudly, then started on her way once more, leaving him where he stood before he hurried after her.
“Always?” He asked, more curious than anything. “And you’ve only wandered into the spirit world once?”
She didn’t answer, only huffed another exhale.
“How is it you managed to make it this far if you always walk alone like this?” he taunted, certain she had been hyperbolic in her word choice and determined to call her on it. “You are how old?”
“Eighteen.”
“Ah, yes, eighteen. You are eighteen and always walk home alone, by yourself, in the dark, at night, and you are fine!” He snickered to himself. Sooner or later she’d bite and admit that what she’d really meant was that she sometimes did things alone, and that she was grateful for his help. Instead, she continued to trudge on, the barely audible grinding of her teeth only just meeting his ears. He had her right where he wanted her.
“Yes.”
“Hm?” Her single word answer made little sense to him.
“The answer to your annoying question is yes,” she clarified. “Yes I’m always alone, and yes I’m fine, so if you’re going to keep being a jerk you can leave.”
He frowned. His teasing wasn’t going as planned and was quickly losing its fun. Alright, he’d bite.
“Why are you always alone. What about your parents?” Silence. “Your friends? A lover? You are young, surely you’ve had plenty-“
“Tomoe?”
The sound of his name stopped his prying mid-thought, and he waited with bated breath for her next words.
“Shut the hell up, will you?”
A strangled sound caught midway between his chest and his throat and he ground to a stop, seething as she continued on without him. How dare she speak to him this way! He had half a mind to abandon her now, to allow whatever harm might befall her to come as it would, but as she continued on into darkness something like responsibility gripped his chest and he begrudgingly stomped after her, his sandals clacking noisily against the pavement. She sighed, almost disappointedly, when he approached her but said nothing else and so they continued on, shoulder to shoulder, arms occasionally brushing against each other.
Spotting another section of uneven sidewalk, he placed a hand on her far shoulder, his arm braced against her back.
“I would not want you to trip again,” he mumbled tightly. She grunted in response, and stepped carefully around the jutted concrete. He did not remove his arm.
Finally, they seemed to be close, as Nanami’s steps began to slow until she eventually stopped, but Tomoe looked around and found no obvious sign that her home was anywhere near where they stood.
“This is close enough,” she explained, then lifted his hand from her shoulder to step from beneath it. “Thanks for walking me home, but I really don’t need you to keep doing it.”
“Where is your home?” he asked, avoiding her statement, his eyes searching the buildings further down the sidewalk. “Which of these is it?”
In the darkness he could see her blush and the way she refused to meet his gaze.
“Nevermind,” was her non-response. “You get home safe.”
“I cannot do that,” He insisted, crossing his arms defiantly. “I cannot leave until I see you safely return home. How am I supposed to relax when you might plop on my doorstep at any moment? No, I must return you where you belong.”
Scoffing, she tossed up her hands. “I’m not some stray dog, Tomoe!”
Offended, he sucked a breath through his teeth. “I was not suggesting such a thing!”
“Well, I can’t show you where I live!” she retorted, her voice straining as she attempted to keep it down.
“Why not?” he growled. “I already explained that I am not stalking you, I simply-“
“Because it’s embarrassing!” she cried, and covered her face in her hands. That silenced him, and he simply stared at her trembling form. Embarrassing? How was her home embarrassing?
“I do not understand,” he admitted, his tone softer, less harsh. She sighed.
“Forget it. Look, if I go inside will you go home? Will you promise not to judge me?”
He laughed humorlessly. “I will go home, promptly, and I swear I will not judge your home. I would have no opinion either way. A human home is a human home.”
Shaking her head, he thought he might have seen her roll her eyes at him, but with another sigh she headed toward her home, a modest, unremarkable structure, but the darkened windows and locked door caught his interest. Was no one home?
When she’d worked open the door, she gave him a feeble wave, almost as if to say ‘see? I’m going inside!’ then disappeared through the doorway. She illuminated a single light, its yellow glow lighting up a window like a winking eye, and satisfied with his work, he turned and stepped through the veil, no more than a few paces away from where they had been standing. She had no idea just how close she had been to a repeat of their first meeting.
And somehow she’d avoided it over and over in the past.
Interesting.
—
Though she’d insisted she didn’t need his help, he’d taken it upon himself to ensure she avoided traversing worlds once more. He awoke early enough to beat the daylight, unsure of just how early she ordinarily left, and by the time she finally emerged from her home he was stiff with the morning chill.
“Oh my god!” She yelped at the sight of him lurking up ahead. “Tomoe! Thank god it’s you and not some creep. How long have you been standing there?”
He turned up his nose and sniffed, though something within him fluttered at the notion that she didn’t find his unexpected presence to be an offense.
“Irrelevant. It was imperative that I show you just how narrowly you’ve been avoiding a brush with death. Come look,” he answered flatly, then gestured for her to come closer. Blinking in surprise, she followed, and when she was close enough for her human eyes to find the gap between buildings where they air was cooler and the scent of spices and musk hung heavily, he continued.
“There is an entrance into the world over yonder, just there. Should you have walked just a little too close or stumbled your steps you could have easily wandered through!”
She observed the space, straining to try to find just how this place was different from any other, then sighed and readjusted her purse on her shoulder.
“Thanks, but you don’t have to try to save me all the time.”
He balked at her, a half-formulated shout of protest dying in his throat before he could speak it, because she turned to face him with a smile so radiant he could not seem to find his tongue.
“I’m fine on my own, but if you want to walk with me I’d like the company!”
He didn’t know what to say. It was a plain fact that as a human she faced death at every turn. A mere trip and fall could spell the end of her life, and so to deny his reasonable observation that she faced grave danger was absurd. She hadn’t turned him away, however, and so began the first of many days where he escorted her down the street.
Walking to work obviously required walking her home from work, and sometimes, it wasn’t work she was heading to in the mornings, but school, and he quickly learned where her bus stop was. Those walks took longer, and she quickly filled those extra minutes with chatter, and he found that it was no trouble for him to listen. He’d learned that she had been very serious about being alone always. She’d lost her mother early on. Unfortunate. She had few friends. Surprising. Her father was rarely home, a fact she carried like a badge of shame, which he failed to understand, but it seemed that it reflected poorly on her. Strange.
They’d shared several disgusting sodas, and after what must have been his fifth he finally confessed to her just how much he hated them. That conversation had been humiliating, but she surprised him with a bottled tea the next time she saw him. It more than made up for it.
Weeks went by, and his days were filled with trips to the mundane world, only waking and sleeping in his own bed.
He couldn’t remember the last time he paid a visit to the brothel.
Well, he could, because it was the night his routine had changed entirely, but the time passed so quickly he’d hardly noticed. The only indication of its passage was just how tired Nanami seemed to appear, the increasing dulling of her skin and the presence of bags beneath her eyes. She worked too hard, he decided.
That day, he stood on the now-familiar sidewalk, a smile on his lips as he waited for her to come out of her house, but she never came. The seconds stretched to minutes, the minutes to a full hour, and when it was clear that she would be late, for work or for school, he decided to rouse her himself, something he’d never done before.
He climbed the steps to her front door and gave a polite knock, just enough to announce his presence, and waited. Nothing. He knocked again, this time louder, more insistent. Nothing. He called her name, once, twice, but it was clear that she was not coming, and so he turned away, confused and more than a little hurt that perhaps she had forgotten, and returned to the world over yonder.
He waited a full day before trying again, both concerned for her well-being and too proud to admit that she had snubbed him, and when he returned to her street, fully prepared for her to assault him with questions of ‘where were you? Why were you gone!’ she did not emerge yet again. He sniffed the air deeply, taking in every scent that entered his nose, some foul, some fresh. There was no hint of death, no iron or sweat or salt. She had not been bleeding. She had simply vanished.
Defeated, he retreated home with his tail between his legs. He could take a hint. For whatever reason, she was done with him.
What use did he have for her, anyway? How he’d even become the bodyguard of a weak human girl was almost beyond him. It was laughable, at best, pathetic at worst. He went home, declaring to himself that he would visit the brothel that night, but when he arrived and attempted to lay with the girl he hired he just didn’t have it in him, and drunk himself into a stupor instead. Anything to block out the sound of her voice and the image of her face from his mind. That night, he stumbled home, blind and stupid and so very, very tired.
He awoke late the next day, his head pounding and ears ringing, yet even still, his thoughts were consumed with her. Where had she gone, and why? Was she well? Had she been eaten? He should have stayed longer, should have walked her inside. What did her house smell like? Did it smell sweet, like her? Was it cold and empty, devoid of the love of those meant to cherish her, or was it warm, as she was, full of light and tinkling bells as he imagined it to be. Without her there, he was certain it was cold like stale ashes.
That was it, he decided, and dressed himself hurriedly. He needed to find her. He needed to know, to understand, and then he would release her forever, if that was what she desired. He knew it was late when he left his home and traveled through the streets of the the spirit world, but he didn’t care. He needed answers.
He needed closure.
He slipped through the veil, hardly heeding his surroundings, and began to wander aimlessly. The sun hung low in the sky, twilight, he realized, and retraced all the places she had taken him over the weeks. Her neighborhood, the historic district where she worked, the bus stop, even her school, but there was no sign of her, and soon his feet began to ache and his chest felt as if a fist had sunken straight through it to tear his heart from beneath his ribs. Where was she?
Up ahead he spotted a park, lush and green with a winding path through it, and so he followed, his footsteps slow and sluggish, his arms limp at his sides. By now the sun had completely set, and all around the air grew cold, the warmth of summer gone with Nanami’s unexplained disappearance, yet on he walked.
“Tomoe?”
The familiar voice twitched his ear, and with a gasp he whipped around to find Nanami seated on a wooden bench, a large purse and a duffel bag at her side. Her hair was disheveled, as if combed with her fingertips, and though she smiled at him it did not reach her eyes.
“Nanami!” he gasped, rushing toward her, but he stopped just short of where she sat, unable to decide whether to join her or kneel. Both felt humiliating. All at once, the relief and the hurt and the anger boiled over, threatening to explode from within him. “Where the hell have you been!?”
She flinched, but laughed good-naturedly all the same. “At work, at school, around,” she explained. She sounded so tired. “Where were you? I missed-“ but she didn’t finish.
Had she been about to say she missed him? He was almost certain she had, but his hurt overpowered anything else. He wanted her to be sorry, not comforted, and certainly not happy to see him.
“I waited for you,” he said, his tone biting, bitter. “I waited, but you never came. I called for you and you did not answer.”
“Tomoe-“
“If you are finished with me, at least have the decency to say it to me!” he erupted, the ache in his chest traveling up toward his throat where a lump formed so large he could hardly speak around it. “If you are tired of me, then say it!”
“Tomoe!” She stood, her hands before her like a buffer. “That’s not it at all!”
He hated the way she looked at him now, her eyes full of pity, full of worry, without their usual light and hope. What was happening to her? He looked away, unable to bear it a moment longer.
“When did you come to my house?” She asked when he said nothing. His eyes on the path below, he swallowed.
“Three days ago. I came twice,” he gruffed, though the hurt in his voice was apparent, even to him. She hummed.
“I see,” she murmured. “That makes sense. I wasn’t there. That’s why I didn’t answer you.”
Turning slowly, he finally allowed himself to meet her gaze. “Not there?” he asked, incredulous. “Where were you?”
She laughed, the sound sheepish, and she toed the ground nervously.
“Here.”
He blinked, coughed into his fist softly, then blinked again.
“Here?” he repeated. She nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Um, well, you see,” she was fumbling, searching, for an excuse no doubt, he realized grimly, yet he waited for her to finish her thought before unleashing his fury on her.
“I lost the house.”
Ridiculous! He thought with a sneer. How did one lose a house? It was stationary! It hadn’t moved! He, himself, had been there twice just this week! Sensing he hadn’t understood what he said, she tried again.
“What I mean to say is, the bank owns my house now.”
“Hm?” he arched an eyebrow, her statements refusing to connect in his mind. Still, she smiled and still she ground the toe of her boot into the sidewalk.
“I’m homeless.”
Oh.
“You…are homeless?” He asked slowly, the dots beginning to connect, but only just. “Just like that? How?”
Nanami sighed and gave up fidgeting. “Listen, isn’t it enough that it happened? It’s really embarrassing!”
“I do not understand.” He took a step closer, his tone softening, his anger subsiding. “How did this happen?”
She stared into his eyes, pleadingly, almost, and something came over her features that seemed to change her mind. Her smile was gone, replaced with a look of such vulnerability he was tempted to take her into his arms and shield her from the world around her, but he resisted. This time.
“You remember how I told you about my dad?” Her voice was almost a whisper. He nodded. “He gambled away all the money. I’ve been trying to make ends meet for a long time now, but it was never enough.”
“And so the bank has reclaimed your home?” he finished for her. She nodded. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. It was too much for him. “And you have been staying here? In the park? All alone?” Again, she nodded. “Unacceptable.”
Her lips parted, her eyes widening at his sudden declaration, and she took a step back.
“Unacceptable? What was I supposed to do?” she cried, her hands clenched into fists. He crossed his arms over his chest and shut his eyes.
“Come to me! Have I not demonstrated how I am fully capable of protecting you from danger? Was staying in this place truly the better choice?”
“Oh, so what, I was supposed to just waltz into the world over yonder, the place you told me you never want me to go to again because you don’t want me to ‘plop on your doorstep’, and demand that you help me? Get real, Tomoe!” she shouted, punctuating her tirade with a stamp of her foot.
She had him there. She’d thrown every last one of his words back into his face, with surprising accuracy. Of course she had come to this conclusion, after the picture had had painted. Sighing, he lowered his arms.
“You are right,” he conceded. She hummed in questioning, but whether she hadn’t heard him or assumed she’d misheard him he couldn’t tell. “You are right, I did say those things.” He thought for a moment about what to do, weighing his options and the risks in his mind, before grasping her wrist and leading her off the path, grabbing her bags as he passed the bench.
“Hey, wait!” she cried, struggling to keep up through the dew-laden grass. “Where are we going?”
“You will come with me,” he explained, his tone firm yet gentle. “Stay with me in my home. I cannot have you staying in this park on your own for even a moment longer.”
“Come with you?” She almost laughed. “So I can get eaten for real this time?”
He stopped, her body crashing against his back, and turned to face her. His nose nearly bumped hers with their sudden proximity, and in a voice deep and low and soft, he stared directly into her eyes and vowed, “No one will lay a finger on you if you are with me. They would not dare.”
She shivered, and readjusting his hold on her he slipped his fingers between hers and led her to the edge of the veil.
“Wait!” she shouted, and with a sigh, he stopped once more. “Why are you doing this for me?”
His eyes widened, fixed on the shadows ahead. Why, indeed, he thought to himself. Why can I not stop thinking of her? Why must I remain close to her? Why am I unable to walk away now?”
The explanation was simple, so simple in fact he could not help but laugh. At himself, at this situation, at the way his life had changed in a mere few weeks. Slowly, he turned to face her, tugging their clasped hands to bring her close enough to wrap his other arm around the small of her back to hold her flush against him. Her eyes reflected the stars overhead and he thought, fitting.
“I seem to have fallen in love with you, Nanami,” he said, smiling with a tilt of his head.
“You have?” Her voice was small, delicate, fragile.
“I have.”
She continued to stare into his eyes, her cheeks pink, her lips quirking upward in a smile. She looked hopeful, happy, yet her next words were laced with skepticism.
“And this isn’t a trick, right?” she asked. At the look of confusion he wore, she clarified. “Like the night we met?”
He chuckled, then shook his head. “No, this is no trick.”
That brought a smile to her face, and she lowered her eyes to the ground. With one finger, he lifted her chin, bringing her eyes back to his.
“I love you,” he whispered, then touched his lips to hers softly. She returned the kiss and he felt the pain in his chest burst into stardust, filling him with a golden warmth he had not felt before now.
Breaking the kiss, he offered her a tiny smile, then readjusted the straps of her bags he wore on one shoulder before leading her into the shadows, to the world over yonder, toward home.