Red Winter by Annette Marie

Author:Annette Marie [Marie, Annette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781988153070
Publisher: Dark Owl Fantasy Inc.
Published: 2016-10-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The door to the storehouse slid open with a clack.

“Emi?” Katsuo called.

“Good morning,” she answered, poking her head out from behind a shelf to see him standing uncertainly in the doorway, framed in a rectangle of sunlight. “I’m back here.”

She returned her attention to the array of books spread around her. Joining her, Katsuo crouched to gaze bemusedly at the pile.

“This is where you’ve been hiding today,” he said. “I thought you were still holed up in your room.”

She nervously adjusted the scarf around her neck. After her adventurous night in the forest with Shiro, she spent the next two days in her room, claiming a mild cold so no one would see the spectacular bruises Yumei had left on her neck. Fujimoto and Nanako had been worried, so she’d ventured out, using the excuse of the chilly weather to don a strategically arranged scarf.

“I’m feeling much better,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes. Lying was one of those impure activities that kamigakari weren’t supposed to engage in, so she didn’t have much practice. “I wanted to get some fresh air.”

“I wouldn’t call the air in here ‘fresh,’” he remarked. “What’s all this?”

She made a face at the books. “I just wanted to … well, after our encounter with the oni, I wanted to look up some better self-defense ofuda. The barrier and the binding ones don’t last very long.”

The encounter with the oni that she’d shared with Katsuo wasn’t her only motive for finding a better way to defend herself, but she didn’t need to mention that to him.

“In general, ofuda reflect strength,” he told her. “A line in the snow lacks permanence, so a barrier ofuda wouldn’t last long in that case, but a line carved into stone would be longer lasting and more powerful. Binding a yokai by hitting it directly with the spell doesn’t work well either. It’s better to trap the yokai inside something and bind that instead.” He tapped a finger against his chin. “If you really want to bind a yokai, though, you’ll need a proper marugata.”

“You mean an exorcism circle?”

“Yes. A simple circle is the most basic form, but marugata can get extremely complex. You can use them to trap a yokai and force their ki into a vessel that you can then bind permanently. It’s how the ancient sohei dealt with immortal yokai who couldn’t be killed.”

A shiver ran down her spine. “Some yokai can’t die at all?”

“No, all yokai can die,” he corrected. “Ki is life energy, and whether you’re human, yokai, or kami, if you run out of ki, you die. However, very powerful yokai will come back to life after a while. Remember the story of Orochi, the eight-headed dragon? It terrorized the land and demanded young women as a sacrifice or it would destroy entire towns. The lesser kami of the area wanted to kill it, but they knew it would revive and destroy them. So they waited, letting the dragon ravage and kill humans and yokai alike until it drew the attention of a Kunitsukami.

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