Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

They all bolted upright.

"You can break the curse?" Miho squeaked.

"It may be possible,"Kubo allowed.

The adults all exchangedglances. Miss Aritomo took Mr. Harper's free hand, gazing at him hopefully.

"Then Yuki-Onna would goaway?" Mr. Yamato asked.

The Unsui shrugged. "If Iam correct, yes. Without Kyuketsuki's curse to help anchor her, she will not bestrong enough to remain in our world."

"Can you do it?" Karaasked. "I mean, can you do it now? They haven't found Hachiro and all Ican think is that she's hiding him somehow, and if you could break the curseand send her away — "

Again, the old monk raised bothhands and they all fell silent.

Sakura felt her heart poundingin her chest. Was it possible this could all really be over?

"I believe I can performthe ritual needed to break Kyuketsuki's curse. But there is one element that isout of my control, and which you must arrange before it can be done."

"What is it?" Mihoasked eagerly.

"If your friend Hachiro isalive, she has kept him so because she something about certain handsome boysintrigues her, as though she seeks some young man to be her eternal companion. Butthe stories that speak of this also say that when she tires of these boys, shedestroys them. Hachiro must be retrieved from the mountain. But not only forhis own sake. You must all be there when I conduct the ritual, includingHachiro, because you were there when Kyuketsuki was defeated and driven fromthe world. It will not work unless each of those who were present take part inthe ritual."

Sakura felt her face flush withhorror and her breath caught in her throat.

"But that means. ."she began.

"Yes," Kubo said, andin his eyes she saw that he knew precisely what he was asking of her, and howmuch it would hurt. "You must find Ume, the girl who murdered your sister,and ask for her help.

"Without her, you willcarry this curse with you forever."

Boredom was bad for Mai. Overthe past year, whenever she had grown restless or distracted, she had tended toget herself into trouble. One of the favorite punishments meted out by theteachers at Monju-no-Chie school was to make the offender sit on her knees inthe hall for long stretches of time. Not only did it hurt after a while but itwas probably the most interminably boring thing Mai had ever experienced. Soshe tried to control herself in school even though the temptation to talk orwrite notes to friends or draw horribly insulting sketches of teachers in hernotebooks was often too much to resist.

It was a vicious circle, really.Boredom led to misbehavior, which led to punishment, which led back to boredom.

Outside of school, it wasn't sobad. The teachers gave plenty of homework, which kept her mind busy. Mai hadalways managed good grades — she was smart and happy to work and studyhard — and when she wasn't doing homework she could always go shopping inthe city or play soccer with her friends.

Winter created problems for her.The soccer club could still play in the school gym, but they never felt likereal games to her. Snow was the hated enemy of soccer players everywhere. Andthough most days the weather wasn't so cold or stormy that she would beprevented from going into Miyazu City to go shopping, the gray skies weren'texactly inviting. They didn't make a girl want to link arms with her bestfriend and wander from shop to shop trying on new outfits.

Which probably explained why shewas dancing to awful J-pop in the middle of her dorm room in short-shorts and atiny tank top, filming herself on her laptop's webcam. She tried to sing alongto the song — some silliness about boys on motorcycles by a girl groupcalled Kuza — but kept laughing at her own ridiculousness instead. She'dput her hair up in pigtails and wore bright, sparkly red lipstick, and theentire effect was to make her look like the happiest prostitute on Earth, butlooking at herself in the mirror had made her giggle at her own ridiculousness.

Boredom.

From the other side of the smalldormitory room, Wakana shouted at her. Mai glanced at her. The words had beendrowned out by the music, but she got the gist. Wakana was working on theresearch paper that Harper-sensei had assigned for his American Studies class,which seemed entirely pointless to Mai, considering that classes were currentlysuspended.

Wakana shouted again.

Grinning, Mai broke off from herhip gyrating dance to race over to the bed and grab Wakana by the wrists.

"Stop it!" Wakanasaid, brow furrowed in a deep frown. "No, Mai. I'm trying to — "

Mai hauled her off the bed andpulled her into view of the webcam. Wakana wore pajama pants and a faded pinkt-shirt that she often slept in, a clip holding her hair out of her face. Shelooked very cute, but Mai knew it was the last outfit in the world she wouldwant anyone to see her in. Soon enough they would have to go downstairs fordinner and they would both get changed, but Wakana's eyes flared with alarm atthe thought of being on camera. She tried to pull away but Mai gave her a poutylook and tugged her back, raising her arms and dancing like she was in anightclub in some sexy movie scene.

Then she made silly faces andWakana laughed.

"Come on!" Maipleaded.

Wakana thrust out a hip,shifting into a dance pose. Mai clapped her hands in glee, and seconds later,they were dancing side by side. Wakana strung a few moves together by sheerinstinct — for a shy girl, she knew how to move — and Mai mimickedher. They shimmied up and down against each other in mockery of boys' obsessionwith girls who kissed other girls — though none of the boys they knewwould likely have noticed the irony — and then collapsed together in fitsof embarrassed giggles. Mai pulled Wakana out of view of the camera just as thesong came to a close.

They fell onto their beds, flushwith exertion, and only then did they hear the banging on the door.

The two girls cast anxiousglances at each other.

"Who is it?" Maicalled, as the next song began.

Wakana jumped up and spun thevolume down as Mai closed the laptop and started for the door. As she reachedfor the knob she remembered what she looked like. It would take too long to doanything about her hair, but she darted back across the room and grabbed a pinkrobe, tugging it on even as Wakana handed her a tissue, with which she wipedher lips.

There was another round of bangingon the door, but now Mai had grown irritated. She stormed to the door andunlocked it.

"What is the crisis?" she demanded as she pulled it open.

The sight of the schoolprincipal standing grim-faced in the corridor actually made her flinch and backup a step.

"Yamato-sensei?" sheasked. "What are you. . what's wrong?"

Mai had barely taken note of thepresence of Miss Aritomo and Mr. Harper, but now she noticed the two teachersin the corridor behind the principal. Despite the tight, angry expression onMr. Yamato's face, she knew that he had not come to discipline her. She andWakana were not in trouble. This combination of Monju-no-Chie's teachers couldhave only one purpose for visiting them.

Mr. Yamato arched a disapprovingeyebrow at her pigtails and what she could only assume was a smear of sparklylipstick left on her mouth.

"Your music was very loud,"he said.

Mai gave him a tiny nod ofapology. "I am sorry. I did not realize — "

"May we come in?" MissAritomo interrupted.

Mai stepped back to clear theway, thinking that it would be cramped with all five of them in the small room,and wondering what could be so important as to prompt them to visit her andWakana here in the middle of a snowy afternoon. With the loud banging on thedoor, the other girls at this end of the hall would already be gossiping abouthow much trouble she must be in; they'd never assume Wakana was the one introuble. The rest of the students would assume that Mr. Yamato had brought theother teachers as witnesses or something.