Kitabı oku: «Storm»

For Kevin

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise for Amanda Sun’s Ink

Books by Amanda Sun

Title Page

Dedication

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Glossary

Acknowledgments

Extract from Rain by Amanda Sun

Copyright

Ways to Put a Kami to Sleep Forever 1. Leave Japan 2. Die

I tapped my pencil against the paper propped on my knees. Ten minutes, and I only had two ideas, the latter scribbled in Tomo’s handwriting. If I went to live with Nan and Gramps, if I left Japan for good, maybe Tomo would be better off. There was ink trapped in me, kami power that didn’t belong, darkness that caused Tomo’s power to spiral out of control. But even if I distanced myself, it wouldn’t put the kami in him to sleep. He’d struggled before I’d even arrived here. And if he left the country, who knows what would happen? He could run, but the power would still lurk in him. I didn’t think it would work.

And the second on the list wasn’t an option, not at all.

How to put a dark power to sleep, one that whispered in your ear that you were a demon, one that gave you nightmares and brought your drawings to life with teeth and claws?

“Maybe a really good lullaby?” I suggested. Tomo rolled his eyes. We were slouching on either side of his living room couch, our backs curved against the arms of the sofa and our knees flopped against each other’s in the middle. Tomo mashed the buttons on the TV remote, cycling through the channels over and over.

“Or a bedtime story?” Tomo teased back. “Goodnight Moon?”

I shoved his knee with mine, gently, but he still winced. The bruises from his fight with Jun hadn’t faded yet. They hadn’t even had time to fade.

Only a few days ago we’d learned the truth, that the kami Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, wasn’t the only one with descendants. The power to make ink drawings come alive, the nightmares that plagued Tomo and Jun and the others who could control the ink...that power could come from other kami. Tomo had sketched Amaterasu in his notebook, and she had revealed the truth to us—that Jun was descended from Susanou, the kami of storms, snakes and the World of Darkness.Yomi, or, you know, Hell. Susanou was Amaterasu’s brother and most dangerous rival.

And worse, Tomo was descended from not one but two kami—Amaterasu, the imperial ancestor, and Tsukiyomi, the god of the moon, her scorned and vengeful lover. The two bloodlines fought within him, which meant that Tomo often lost control of his drawings and himself, his eyes growing large and vacant and deadly. It had become so bad that he couldn’t enter shrines anymore; going through the Shinto gateways knocked him out cold. Jun had called him a land mine; he could go off and cause mass destruction at any time. And then Jun had decided it was up to him to destroy Tomo, right then and there. It had been like both of them had lost consciousness, taken over by the ancient hatred between Susanou and Tsukiyomi. Ikeda and I had barely pulled them apart in time before they killed each other.

“Funny,” I said. “But I don’t think Goodnight Moon will cut it.”

I wished I could go back to the time I’d arrived in Japan, when the cherry blossoms had rained through the sky and Tomo had just been an annoying senior classmate, when neither of us had awakened the sort of forces we now faced.

I sketched a cherry blossom in the corner of my paper, thinking back on that spring. I wasn’t the artist that Tomo was, but I still drew a mean stick figure and flower bud.

Tomo lifted the remote to flip the channel again. The tiny gust of air spun the sketched cherry blossom in circles. I stared at it, my eyes wide.

When Tomo’s drawing of Amaterasu had come to life, so had the ink trapped in me. When Mom was pregnant with me, she’d been accidentally poisoned by a kami drawing. We’d both barely survived, and now the ink ran in my veins—Jun called me a manufactured Kami, a man-made descendant. I was nowhere near as powerful as Tomo and Jun were, but the ink in me called out to the ink in them. And now it was going totally haywire. I pressed my pencil against the edge of the sketched petal, stopping the blossom from twirling.

“Yurusenai yo,” Tomo said in a high, clipped voice, and at first I thought he was talking to me. I won’t forgive you. But then he made a peace sign with his free hand, holding it up to the side of his face. God he looked adorable. I wanted to reach over and ruffle his hair.

I glanced at the TV, anime sparkles and canned music blaring at me from the screen. A group of magical schoolgirls in a rainbow of skirt colors pulled elaborate poses, peace signs cupped to their faces like Tomo. They blasted a bunch of monsters with their special powers as they backflipped and whirled around the Tokyo Skytree tower in ridiculously high heels.

I rolled my eyes. “How can they fight in those? Where are all the broken ankles?”

The leader of the girls got a close-up now, tilting her head to the side as she posed. “Yurusenai yo!” she squeaked, and Tomo looked smugly pleased.

The scene cut to one of the girls smacking a monster in the face with an ofuda, a paper scroll that banished evil. Wait. “Hey, would that work in real life?”

“I don’t look so great in high heels and a miniskirt,” Tomo said. “Unless you’re into that kind of thing.”

I smacked his knee again. “I mean the ofuda. That’s a Shinto scroll, right? Couldn’t it stop a kami?”

He frowned. “I doubt it. They usually invoke the help of a kami, not banish one. They’re more for expelling demons. Like a larger version of the omamori I gave you.”

I pulled out my phone, looking at the soft yellow pouch Tomo had risked entering a shrine for, just to give to me. The charm read “Yaku-yoke Mamoru,” embroidered on the fabric in soft pink kanji. Protection from Evil.

The last time Tomo had entered a shrine with me, he’d collapsed in a pool of ink, attacked by some kind of kami alarm system as a threat to the sacred place. I am evil, he’d told me. I’m the demon lurking in the shadows. But even now, knowing he was descended from Tsukiyomi, I couldn’t believe it. He was descended from Amaterasu, too, right? And wasn’t she supposed to be the protector of Japan? The little bell on the charm jingled as I put the phone back in my pocket.

“If you remember, the omamori didn’t work so well,” Tomo said.

I chewed on my bottom lip and said nothing. It had worked. The omamori had fallen out of my pocket and clinked against the floor when Jun had kissed me at his school. It had broken me out of the moment; it had protected me from the awful mistake I’d made. I still wasn’t sure if Jun had actually liked me, or had just been using me to get to Tomo. It didn’t matter—I’d screwed up big-time, and almost lost Tomo. Heat prickled down my neck as I shook the guilt away.

“We’ve got to have more options than leave Japan or die,” I said, trying to get back on track.

Tomo closed his eyes. “What if I draw Tsukiyomi, and then rip the sketch in half?”

I stared at him; he’d lost his mind. “You’re joking, right? Ripping the drawing of Amaterasu nearly killed me. Ripping Tsukiyomi in half might kill you.”

He frowned. “There’s never been a constant way to stop the kami. Sometimes it overpowers me and I collapse, and sometimes I can get startled out of its control, but... I can’t see a connection. Maybe I just need to live under a torii and stay unconscious.”

I groaned, scribbling out my list. We weren’t getting anywhere this way.

Tomo rested the remote on the side table and sat up, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Hey,” he said. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll think of something.” He pulled me gently toward him, turning me so my back was against his chest. I leaned into the warmth of him, the scent of miso and vanilla around me, his heart thudding gently against the back of my shoulder.

The paper list slipped off my lap, floating toward the floor and slipping halfway under the couch. The cherry blossom in the corner spun like a pinwheel, and Tomo went rigid beneath me, his breath catching in his throat. “Is that—is it moving?”

I sat up as he grabbed the paper. He frowned as the flower shriveled before us, crumpling into a scribbled ugliness in the corner. “Katie,” he said, his voice deep and troubled.

“I know,” I said. “Ever since your drawing of Amaterasu came to life it’s been happening. But my sketches don’t come off the page like yours. They seem pretty harmless so far.”

“Yeah, but this is...” He ran a hand through the copper spikes of his hair. “Katie, I don’t want this for you.”

“Maybe it’ll stop,” I lied. “It’s not a big deal. We need to worry about you right now. And what’ll happen tomorrow.”

He dropped the page and leaned back into the couch. I curled up on top of him, my shoulder pressed to his collarbone and my nose tucked under his neck. When he spoke, the vibration tickled against my skin.

“Tomorrow,” he said. “Did you talk to your aunt?”

I nodded, my chin grazing his warm skin. “They want her to come in, too.”

The day Tomo had discovered his connection to Tsukiyomi, there had been horrible ink messages dripping from every chalkboard in the school, things like She Must Die and Demon Son. Then ink had poured from every sink in the boys’ change room by the gym. It was a huge mess, and the headmaster was convinced it was Tomo’s fault because of the way he’d reacted. Well, true, the ink probably was his fault, but there’s no way it was the horrible prank they were accusing him of. He’d been just as shocked as any of us to see it. Headmaster Yoshinoma had arranged a meeting for tomorrow with Tomo and his dad, and my aunt Diane and I had to attend, too, seeing as I had been in the change room with Tomo and given the ridiculous excuse that Tomo had been framed. Tomo had said my eyes must have given me away. They’re always earnest, he’d said, which had made my stomach flip over a little.

“Is she still going to let us see each other? Your aunt?” Tomo laughed, but it was dry and empty of humor.

I tried to smile. “So far you’re not making the best impression, no. What do you think will happen, though?”

“Suspension, maybe. Or off the kendo team.”

“They wouldn’t do that. You’re one of the top students, and they need you on the team.”

Tomo reached for my hand and laced his fingers between mine, squeezing with their warmth. “We’ll face it together, whatever it is.”

The colorful anime on the screen blinked off, replaced by a stark newsroom and a bowing reporter in a black suit.

“The news already?” I sat up, pulling out my phone to check the time. “I’ve got to get home.”

“I’ll take you,” Tomo said, but then his eyes went wide and round as he stared at the TV, his hand suddenly limp in mine.

I glanced at the bold white kanji on the screen, at the reporter who rattled off Japanese almost faster than I could follow.

“Sano Chihaya, known as Hanchi, Yakuza oyabun and leader in Shizuoka, aged fifty-seven, found this morning in a puddle of blood...”

My body seized with fear. I couldn’t move, completely immobilized by the memory. The Yakuza boss who’d kidnapped us, who’d forced Tomo to sketch money at gunpoint to save my life. The same one who’d exploited Jun’s father, making him draw drugs and weapons and money, the one who’d tried to recruit Jun after his father’s death. After Jun had killed his own dad, I remembered with a chill. His father had had an affair with one of the Yakuza, and left Jun and his mother with nothing after he took off. Devastated and desperate, Jun had scribbled down horrible messages, words of ink that had instantly and accidentally killed his dad.

“Sano was in Ginza district, Tokyo—” Ginza, the same place Jun’s father had been discovered dead “—when he had what seemed to be a stroke. Collapsed on the sidewalk...” They showed images of the storefront, the police tape and the traffic being redirected. “He appears to have hit his head,” the reporter babbled on, her words like syrup in my ears, thick and almost beyond understanding. “He was found in a significant amount of blood.”

They showed it then, a pale blue plastic tarp stretched over the shape of a body underneath, the blood seeping out the sides, unwilling to be contained, to keep the secret of what had happened.

“Police can’t identify a person of interest at this time. It appears to be accidental, but due to the suspicious circumstances and his Yakuza connection, he will be undergoing an autopsy at the NTT Forensics Center in Shinagawa, Tokyo...”

My heart pressed against my ribs with every beat.

This couldn’t be happening. I could see as clear as day that wasn’t blood.

It was ink.

Tomo squeezed my fingers in his, both of us unable to speak.

Jun...did you do this?

I found my voice after a moment, my words dry and barely above a whisper. “Was it...was it Jun?”

Tomo shook his head. “Hanchi was still trying to recruit a Kami after he realized I was too unstable to be useful,” he said, his voice scratchy and hollow. “Maybe he approached one who fought back.” But Jun had told us over and over how he wanted to rid the world of Yakuza. He’d told us he didn’t need Tomo anymore, now that he knew his true power as a Kami descended from Susanou. The words he’d said echoed in my thoughts. I will make the world cry.

I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t know what to believe.

“Maybe it was really an accident?” I said. Tomo’s eyes met mine, and we both knew. It hadn’t been blood pooled around Hanchi. The ink was all the proof we needed that a Kami was involved.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I’m going to call Jun.”

“Da-me.” Tomo shook his head, pulling the phone out of my hands. “It’s too dangerous to confront him. If he really had something to do with this, we’re not safe.”

My pulse buzzed in my ears. How could this happen? The world had cracked; everything would shatter. “We should call the police.”

“And tell them what? That Jun murdered someone on a piece of paper? We can’t prove anything. We don’t even know if it was him.”

I drew my knees up tightly, wrapping my arms around my legs. I hadn’t thought Jun was capable of this. I still didn’t believe it. And yet, a small piece of me, a tiny butterfly in the corner of my heart, fluttered with a dark thought. Good. I’m glad Hanchi’s dead.

I didn’t want to think like that. I didn’t want to be glad this had happened.

But he would never hurt us again.

Hanchi got what he deserved, the voice whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Life is precious, I said to myself. Just like losing Mom. Hanchi was someone’s son. He had family who loved him, right?

Even though he kidnapped you and Tomo? He was willing to kill you both. He had to be stopped.

Yes, but not like this.

How, then? He’s been stopped.

That’s...that’s true. He hurt so many people.

Who’s the monster now? In the end, there is only death.

The butterfly had grown too large, its wings enveloping my every thought. My mind grew dark and tinged with shadow. I could hear the whispers as if they were real. I shook my head to try and empty it, to escape.

“Katie.” Tomo’s voice snapped me back, and I blinked at the brightness of the room. His hand was on my cheek; the warmth of the pads of his fingers pressed against my skin.

I whispered, “What happened?”

“Your eyes,” he said. His face was ghostly pale. “Your eyes changed. Just for a moment.”

My heart was pounding like I’d just sprinted all the way to Shizuoka Station. It was the Kami blood that had awakened. It had enveloped me, just for a moment. I had lost myself.

“Daijoubu?” Tomo asked. Are you okay? I nodded. The darkness felt far away now. There was nothing but light and his warmth around me.

The reporter droned on about Hanchi, and the chill of her voice frosted around the edges of us. Tomo clicked the TV off and wrapped his arms around me.

“Let’s get you home,” he said. “You don’t have to be afraid. If it was Jun, he won’t hurt you. I know it.”

But he might hurt you. And even without Jun, Tomo was still in danger if the ink took control. Ikeda had said Tsukiyomi was a kami more deadly than Susanou. Didn’t that mean Tomo was more dangerous than Jun?

I closed my eyes and breathed in the warm smell of Tomo, let the tickle of his copper hair against my neck sweep away the fear. I’d always known the world of the Kami was dangerous. But with Tomo, I still felt safe. We would be all right if we clung to each other. I had to believe that, no matter what.

* * *

Seeing the Yakuza boss who once kidnapped you lying dead on the streets of Ginza takes the fear out of a reprimand from the school headmaster. Yet here we were, Tomo and me, Diane and Tomo’s dad, sitting in four tiny chairs squished into Yoshinoma’s office. I folded my hands in my lap, squeezing my own fingers as I looked down at the floor. Tomo and I sat in the center, surrounded by the parentals, surrounded by adults who were disappointed in us. I wished Tomo would reach out and take my hand, but I knew he would try to distance himself to protect me from any fallout.

Tomo’s dad rose to his feet; the edges of his suit were so crisp you could probably slice kamaboko loaf with them. He looked agitated and kept checking his watch; I wondered what meeting he was missing for this. If Tomo’s mom was alive, his dad wouldn’t even have to be here. Was he thinking that, too?

He bowed deeply to Yoshinoma. “Moushi wake gozaimasen,” he apologized. “I can’t believe my son would do such a thing. School has always been his top priority.”

“Please, Yuu-san, sit down,” Yoshinoma said, motioning with his hand until Tomo’s dad complied. “We were surprised, as well. He’s mostly been a reliable student, an example in his studies. He’s still maintaining his grades, and he’s advanced further than ever before in his kendo tournaments. But we cannot accept this disrespectful prank on our school.” The headmaster leaned back in his chair. It creaked as he pressed the back of it toward the wall. “I can only imagine that he must have become distracted.”

Tomo’s hand squeezed into a fist. “Kouchou, Katie had nothing to do with this,” he said, his voice tense. This was wrong. He had to stay calm, or we’d be in more trouble. Surely he knew that.

“Neither did Tomohiro-senpai,” I said. I figured now was a good time to put my slightly more formal Japanese into practice. “He didn’t do this.”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Miss Greene,” said Yoshinoma. “It’s true that we don’t have proof that Tomo painted those offensive kanji on the chalkboards, but he was visibly upset about them, and he does have a background in calligraphy. Not just anyone could have written those in the style they appeared. Furthermore, the change room...well, it was full of ink, and students saw him go in. We’re sure he went there to wash up.”

“You don’t know that,” I said, my voice rising. “It wasn’t him. He arrived at school the same time I did that morning. It wasn’t him!”

Diane rested a gentle but urgent hand on my arm, and I hesitated. Was the way I was talking back to the headmaster not okay in Japan? I was probably out of line, but so was Yoshinoma. Tomo hadn’t done any of it—well, it had sort of been him, but it was the ink, the kami blood in his veins. He hadn’t meant for it to happen. He didn’t deserve to suffer for Tsukiyomi’s sake.

Diane’s voice was calm and reasonable as she spoke. I’d never heard her sound so collected before. “Yoshinoma-sensei, these two are good kids. Katie’s working so hard on her kanji to stay at Suntaba and catch up to the other students. The last thing these two would do is jeopardize their future.”

“I agree,” the headmaster said, leaning forward and resting his folded hands on his desk. “But part of growing up is learning there are consequences to your actions.”

Tomo’s dad nodded like he approved, but he kept sneaking peeks at his watch.

Yoshinoma let out a slow, whistling breath between his teeth. “To be honest, some of the teachers have called for expulsion.”

A small gasp escaped Tomo’s lips, his eyes round and horrified.

Tomo’s father wasn’t checking his watch anymore. “Yoshinoma-sensei!”

Yoshinoma’s voice was grave and monotone. “This isn’t the first time he’s caused trouble. He’s been in many fights since his first year.”

Tomo’s father blurted out, “Because his mother passed away, and...”

“That was seven years ago, Yuu-san. And there have been rumors that he fathered a child with a girl from Kibohan Senior High. Is that the kind of student we want to represent our school?”

So, the Shiori rumor had reached the teachers, too. Tomo clenched his hands into tighter fists as his father’s face went white. “That’s not true,” he said, looking down until his chin pressed against the knot of his uniform tie.

I could remember it now, when that knot had been loosened around his neck, his top button undone. Tomo looking up at the wagtail birds as he spread out on the warm field of Toro Iseki, when I’d first stumbled on his secret drawing place. I wanted to take his hand in mine, to pull him to his feet and run back there where we were safe, where no one could reach us. Where we could fly.

Yoshinoma sighed. “Even so, your friend Ishikawa Satoshi was shot this summer, Tomohiro. Yuu-san, do you know what kind of life your boy is up to?”

I looked away from Tomo’s dad, frightened of the emotions he tried to rein back on his face. His voice came out shakily. “Kouchou, I assure you, Tomo is not involved in the way Ishikawa is derailing his life.”

“However,” the headmaster continued, “Yuu scored the highest out of the Third Year boys in the first term exams. And he’s earning quite the spotlight for himself in kendo. It’s good for our school to gain such national recognition.” He cleared his throat. “So I am going to override the teachers and ask Tomohiro to stay at Suntaba.”

The relief washed through me, and I let out a breath I hadn’t even known I was holding. Tomo’s dad bowed his head to the headmaster.

“He will have to be suspended, of course. You understand this cannot go without punishment.”

“Of course,” Tomo’s dad mumbled.

“One month, Tomohiro,” Yoshinoma said, and I flinched. A month?

“But his entrance exams,” Tomo’s dad protested.

“He will have to spend the effort at home if he hopes to pass them when he returns. This was a serious offence to this school, Yuu-san. And a month will give him time to refocus on his work and forget any distractions.”

Oh. They wanted to separate us, thinking that time apart would make us grow apart. I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. It wouldn’t work. They couldn’t stop us. We were something greater together than they could ever understand.

Tomo’s face was blank, unreadable. “What about kendo practices?”

“You’ll be back in time for the serious training for the tournament, Tomo. But in the meantime, Watanabe-sensei and Nishimura-sensei have recommended you do your exercises at home. They don’t want you to be out of shape when you return.”

“And for Katie?” Diane said. Her hand was still on my arm, and she squeezed it to reassure me. I was glad she was there with me. Even if she lectured me later, I knew she loved me. Did Tomo feel that way about his dad? They seemed so distant as they sat side by side, as if they were worlds apart, as if they couldn’t really see each other at all.

“Katie hasn’t given the school any other trouble,” Yoshinoma said, “and we believe she was likely dragged into this. She—I apologize, but—she lacks the skill to have written those kanji on the chalkboards.”

My own illiteracy had saved me. I guess I should’ve felt relieved, but mostly I just felt annoyed.

“We just think it best that she be...separated from Tomohiro for a while, so they can both refocus on their futures.”

There it was again, that patronizing we-know-what’s-best jab. You’re just kids. You don’t know what love is. You’re blind. You’re wrecking your own futures.

We bowed to Yoshinoma-sensei and parted in the hallway. I tried to catch Tomo’s eye, but he didn’t look up. He just stiffly followed his father out of the school. It didn’t matter, though. I could feel his thoughts as if they were my own.

They didn’t know us, not at all. They didn’t understand what we had. We belonged together. What I felt was real, and I felt it with every fiber of my being.

They couldn’t break us. Nothing could.