Jukai by Tara A. Devlin

Author:Tara A. Devlin [Devlin, Tara A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orochi Press
Published: 2019-02-07T22:00:00+00:00

19

The downstairs phone drew me from my revelry the next morning. I picked it up on the second ring.

“Matsuda Tea and Sweets.”

“Mako?”

My heart jumped. A voice I hadn’t heard in a long time replied. Possibly the voice I needed to hear most.

“Megu?”

“Oh thank god, you haven’t changed numbers! I was worried that maybe you moved and didn’t tell me, or maybe Ms Matsuda changed the number, or—”

“How are you?” It was so good to hear her voice again. The only blood relative I had left in the world. We didn’t see each other often, and our contact was usually kept to holidays or big events, but in that moment, Megu’s voice was the one I needed to hear most. I missed her.

“I’m… yeah. Okay, I guess,” she replied. “A lot of stuff’s been going on here. I don’t even know where to begin…”

“Stuff like what?”

Megu laughed, a sad, pitiable sound.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, no. Maybe. I don’t know. I… I met this girl.”

“Okay…”

“And there was a bunch of things… you know…”

I didn’t know, but I nodded anyway. She couldn’t see me, but it was a habit.

“Anyway, to cut a very long story short, it turns out she’s… different.”

I wasn’t following. “Different how?”

“Like you. I think. Maybe. I don’t… Help me out here, Mako.”

Megu was as scatter-brained as always. “Megu, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She sighed. The sound brought a smile to my lips. She was flustered and terrible at hiding it. “I met this girl. She’s very cute. But something was chasing her. Or at least, we thought something was chasing her…”

“Okay…”

“I tried to help her. I thought it was a ghost or something, or maybe something her father conjured. I don’t know how these things work, that was always your thing. But anyway, it’s not a ghost. Not really. I don’t think so. It was always around her, or connected to her, or inside her, or—”

“Sounds like an ikiryo.”

There was silence on the other end. “A what now?”

“Ikiryo. A living spirit. You’re right, it’s not a ghost, not really. Not of a dead person, anyway. It’s the spirit of someone who’s still alive.”

“…Huh. That actually makes a lot of sense now.”

I tried to hide my smile. Megu was older than me, but she always reminded me of a younger sister. “An ikiryo usually comes about to seek vengeance or revenge for something done to the person in question. They’re rare, but they can be extremely powerful.”

Megu snorted. “Yeah, no kidding…”

“So this girl’s cute, huh?”

I could hear Megu blushing from several prefectures away. “Maybe. Shut up. So anyway, putting that aside for the moment, how are things with you? I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

The store was empty. Not like talking to my one and only cousin for a few more minutes would do any harm, and maybe she could help the storm that was brewing in my heart.

“Sayumi’s missing.”

“What?” Sayumi was always kind to Megu, and Megu looked up to her like an aunt.

“She left a few weeks ago.

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