I closed my eyes with delight while Natsu worked away on my hair. She’d insisted that she wanted to style it for the party Kaoru was taking us too, but wanted to practice first, to see what looked best.
The feeling of her fingers gently running across my scalp and through my hair was like a very soft massage and I found it easy to give myself over to it entirely.
The wound on my head had closed up by now, and the bandages removed, but still Natsu was being exceedingly careful with the tender skin, as if she worried it might break open again if she was even just the slightest bit too rough.
Facing out toward the garden, I was kneeling on the tatami mats, my back straight as if I were performing a tea ceremony, though I’d never learned how.
Kaoru stepped into the hallway, wearing a fancy-looking, green kimono with a branch-like pattern on it. I only saw him from the corner of my eyes because I didn’t want to disrupt Natsu’s work, but he circled around us once.
“That looks incredible,” he said with an appraising look, his two tails peeking out from the garment and swaying pleased.
“Thanks”, Natsu said smugly, putting the last hairpin into place, before she leaned back to admire her work. “Here, take a look, Mi.”
She handed me a little hand mirror, while she held a larger mirror up behind me. Tilting my head from side to side, I admired her handiwork—a beautiful mix of elaborate weaves, knots, and pearls, fixed together by three decorated, fanned-out hairpins that caught and refracted the light in tiny, many-faceted crystals.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “Thank you!”
“I guess I know what I’ll do for the party then,” Natsu said, pleased. Her eyes flicked to Kaoru who was still standing beside us in his unusual getup. She raised an eyebrow. “And where are you off to?”
I looked up at him as well. I hadn’t realized before, but he was carrying a large, pearly orb, that reminded me of a soap bubble filled with greenish-grey smoke. It almost seemed to glow from within as the colors moved and swirled gently within the sphere.
“I’m returning this to where it belongs,” he said, smiling gently. “Apparently the kodama came by yesterday to pick it up, but I wasn’t here, then.”
“What is it?” I asked, suddenly curious. The kodama had seemed nice, and not at all like they were keen on devouring me. It put them straight into my good books and made me want to know more about them.
A guilty look flashed across Kaoru’s face. “It’s a sort of hoshi no tama,” he said. “It was given to them a long time ago as a gift, a symbol for protection and allegiance, and it became somewhat important to them, but then it was stolen. I got it back, so now I’ll return it to them to renew our bond.”
Hoshi no tama… It sounded familiar, but it took a moment to realize why. In mythology, it was known as an orb guarded by a kitsune because whoever had the ball could make a kitsune do anything they wanted. It would hold part of their power and if straying too far from it, or for too long, the kitsune would die. Based on how he was about to give it away to the kodama just like that made me guess that parts of the stories were heavily exaggerated.
“Can I…” I almost reconsidered, but I powered through. “Can I come?”
Kaoru looked surprised at my request, but he nodded. “Sure.”
Excitement flushed through my veins, and I bounced to my feet as I beamed at him. “Really?” Then I looked down on myself, comparing the plain t-shirt and shorts he had lent me to his kimono. “Should I be getting changed?”
“No, you’re fine as you are.” He gave me a gentle smile before turning to Natsu. “Want to come as well?”
She shrugged. “Might as well. Better than being here on my own, anyway.”
Kaoru stepped outside into the garden and twirled the index finger on his left hand in the air. From there, a spiral of fox-fire appeared, a twister of blue flame into which Kaoru stepped without a moment’s hesitation. Slipping hurriedly into my sandals, I followed, Natsu right beside me.
Experiencing something new like this awoke excitement inside of me. It had only been three days since arriving at Kaoru’s house, and that time had been filled with a stream of new impressions and information, but most of it had been theoretical, and all the good had been tainted by the bad. But this… This was bound to be amazing, right? Those little kodama that Luan had been playing with had seemed thoroughly peaceful and joyful creatures. No way they could turn into hungry beasts. Besides, with Kaoru and Natsu there, it was bound to be safe.
The flames were warm, yet not hot. When passing through the center of the spiral, the world flashed white, and my next step was on soft forest soil covered in leaves and twigs. In wonder, I tried to take in my surroundings. We were standing in a small forest clearing, surrounded by impossibly tall and wide trees with shiny, brown bark and branches that didn’t begin until three quarters up the trunk. Even though the bark itself looked smooth, the trunks were gnarled and twisted, almost as though the trees had been practicing weaving and knotting early on in their lives. There were six of them surrounding us, each of them a radius of five people standing beside one another with outstretched arms. The small gaps between the trunks were filled with thick vines that hung down from the high branches and wrapped around the trees, rooting themselves within their bark. Dim, green light shone through the leaves high up above—leaves which, judging by the litter I stood on, were the size of heart-shaped umbrellas—tinting the world in an otherworldly atmosphere. I barely dared to move, for fear of disturbing the magic of it all by unnecessary sound. I wasn’t even sure I ought to be breathing.
Natsu beside me looked around with mild curiosity rather than the reverence I felt. It probably wasn’t the first time she saw something like this. Kaoru wasn’t frozen to the spot like I was, either. Slowly, he moved on, holding the sphere out in front of him like an offering as he approached the tree ahead of us. It was the only one of the six trees whose gnarled knotting seemed to construct something like an opening a few feet up.
Just as he reached the tree, he knelt to the floor, lowering his head and whispered a few words I was too far away to hear. As he did, the orb began to glow, and I felt the tiniest amount of prickling on the top of my head. My eyes were glued to the orb as it lifted from Kaoru’s outstretched hands, gradually floating higher, as if pulled by invisible strings, until, eventually, it settled within the tree’s hole. I was certain that the gap hadn’t been circular, but now that the orb had settled within it, it seemed a perfect fit. Against my expectations, the glow didn’t fade, not even when Kaoru rose to his feet again, watching it with satisfaction for a moment.
As though a spell had been completed, kodama appeared sitting on the vines all around us, one by one, until we were virtually surrounded by an army of them. They made odd twittering sounds which reminded me of birds, and Kaoru turned in a circle once, smiling, with his hands raised high and his fox ears twitching with joy.
I had to assume the sound they were making was akin to applause or cheering, but it really could have been anything.
“Once more, you are under my protection.” Kaoru’s voice filled the forest, as though it resonated within the wood of the trees and the earth underneath our feet. I was caught in his spell, watching him as though he were the only person in the world. His careful movements were graceful and certain, like those of a dancer, his words as clear and beautiful as those of a poet. “If you need me, your call will be heard. If you seek strength, it will be provided. This forest, and all that lives within it, will be taken care of. It always has, and always will. That is my promise to you as the kami no mori.”
The chirping increased in volume while I tried to understand what it was Kaoru was saying. God’s Forest? Was he talking about this place? It certainly seemed to hold enough divinity to be called godlike as far as I was concerned.
But he was promising to keep the kodama and the forest safe. Why? And from what?
Natsu must have noticed my confusion because she leaned over to me. “Isn’t it amazing? They all come to him when there’s trouble within the forests. It doesn’t matter what it is, they come to him, and he helps.” She sighed, and I glanced at her, though her eyes never left Kaoru, her gaze filled with admiration. “He may be a dumbass most the time, but he’s there for the weak, especially when it counts.”
Like me.
I looked back at Kaoru who had been approached by some of the kodama and conversed with them, laughing and smiling, though I couldn’t claim to understand a chirp of what they were saying.
Kaoru was amazing—confident and strong, with great skills and levels of kindness that just seemed to overflow.
Despite the warm fuzzy feelings in my chest, I suddenly felt an ice-cold chill rush down my spine. Almost simultaneously, Natsu stepped closer to me.
“Don’t show fear,” she whispered into my ear. “And move slowly back into the kitsunebi.”
A hesitant glance around showed several of the kodama acting odd, differently to the way they had been mere moments ago. Their large black eyes seemed… hungrier. Angrier. And trained on me. Their movements were twitchier, too. It wasn’t all of them, but it was enough to present a real threat. I didn’t dare imagine what sort of damage an army of kodama might do, considering what a single kappa had managed.
I stepped back like Natsu had instructed me, with her not so much as leaving my side, but even that first move caused a reaction in the nature spirits. Their chittering turned into ominous clacking. Some of them dropped onto all fours, others even baring teeth that I hadn’t known they had.
The look in their eyes, their intensity, brought back vivid memories of the kappa lunging at me, and I froze. But then, before anything could happen, Kaoru was beside me, taking my hand.
“It’ll be okay,” he said, pulled, and pushed me through the kitsunebi.
I stumbled through into the garden unharmed, Natsu following me right after.
Kaoru took longer.
“Are you okay? None of them attacked you, did they?” Natsu asked concerned, checking me up and down for injuries, but my eyes were glued to the foxfire spiral, waiting for Kaoru to emerge.
I should have known better than to ask to join. I was cursed.
Then, after a moment far too long in my books, Kaoru finally stepped through, and the spiral dissolved.
“They calmed down,” he announced and crossed over to me, smiling sadly. “Please don’t hold it against them. It’s not their fault. They can’t help their weakness to the curse. Their strength lies elsewhere.”
I nodded. “I understand. They’re okay now though, right? This doesn’t have a long-term effect on them?”
He shook his head, his smile changing from sad to warm. “Only as long as they’re around you. But it’s nice that you worry about them.”
My gaze dropped to the ground. They’d looked so sweet and cheerful playing with Luan, it was hard enough to believe that they could be affected by my curse in this way. But having just experienced it, I was just glad they were cured the moment I wasn’t around anymore. Perhaps I really ought to isolate myself and just wait out my days. My chances of making any more yokai friendships before they succumbed to the urges to devour me seemed slimmer with every encounter I had.
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