Thomas Randall - Spirits of the Noh

They grinned at each other.

Which was when Mai appeared, practically between them, standing ankle deep in the rippling water on the shore.

“You two seem to be enjoying yourselves,” she said, her upper lip curling. Kara thought she looked like a shark on the prowl. “It’s a shame that Wakana and Daisuke can’t be here to watch the fireworks.”

Hachiro stepped closer to Kara, as if he feared Mai might try to hurt her. “You need to leave her alone, Mai,” he said.

Mai laughed humorlessly. “Of course I do. Everyone else does. Why upset the girl who knows exactly what’s going on, and might be able to do something about it?”

Kara shook her head. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. If I thought there was anything I could do to help, I’d do it without hesitation.”

“So American, bonsai,” Mai sneered. “You’d be a hero, if only you knew who to hit.”

“What do you want from me?” Kara demanded.

But Mai had already looked out across the bay, at the soft colors of the paper lanterns eddying in the currents.

“The white ones are the most beautiful,” Mai said. “I wonder which two are Daisuke and Wakana.”

“You don’t know they’re dead!” Hachiro said.

“No?” Mai said, whirling on them. “Then where are they?”

As Kara and Hachiro stared her down, a soft thup-thup-thup filled the air, followed by loud pops of the first three firework explosions. Multicolored flowers blossomed in the night sky, cascading down like falling angels. Several others banged in the air, loud enough that Kara felt them in her chest, and the lights played myriad hues across Mai’s face.

The crowd sighed and ooh ed in appreciation, and as a huge burst of blue and gold filled the heavens, Kara saw Mai’s expression falter. Her anger shattered and crumbled, leaving only desperation and sadness behind.

“Please just tell me what you know,” Mai pleaded.

Kara took a deep breath.

And then, in between fireworks booming thunder across the sky, she heard someone call her name. The three of them turned to see Sakura, Miho, and Ren hurrying toward them. Kara and Hachiro stepped out of the surf. Miho gave Mai a quick, curious glance, but otherwise they ignored her.

“What’s wrong?” Hachiro asked as they raced up. “What happened?”

Ren’s bronze hair reflected the lights of the fireworks like metal. He pushed his head between Miho and Sakura, somehow bringing them all closer together, so he could deliver his message with greater privacy.

“There’s another kid missing,” Ren said.

Kara’s eyes went wide. She glanced at Mai, then at Miho. “Someone from Noh club?”

“It’s Yasu,” Miho said.

They all went quiet. The fireworks seemed to explode all around them. They all knew Yasu, a charming guy, the epitome of boy-coolness, quiet when he wanted to be enigmatic, He wore his hair longer than some of the girls, yet never got in trouble with Mr. Yamato for dress code violations. He had the lead role of Anchin in Dojoji.

“What do we do?” Ren asked.

Her voice almost lost in the midst of crackling fireworks, Mai spoke up. “Can I help?”

Kara could not trust her. The girl was too unstable. She looked at the others. “He was here, at the festival? He vanished from the beach?”

“Just a few minutes ago,” Sakura said. “When it got dark.”

Kara nodded. “Good. The land is so narrow here, and there’s only one way to leave.” She started hurrying up the sand, cutting through the crowd, and they all followed, Mai included. “Split up. Get into the woods. Let’s try to stop it from getting him out of here.”

“It?” Mai said, tugging her arm. “What is it?”

Kara pulled her arm away, but she did look back, meeting Mai’s frightened gaze. “We’re pretty sure it’s the Hannya.”

“But that’s just a story,” Mai said.

“What if it’s not?” Kara asked, and then she ran to catch up with the others.

She could not be certain over the sound of the fireworks, their light splashing the white sand and black pines, but she thought she heard Mai start to pray.

I have seen many boys play Anchin, but you are more beautiful than any of them.

Yasu could not speak or breathe or move. His eyes bulged and his chest burned with the need for air as its voice- her voice? -wormed its way into his brain. Shadows gathered at the corners of his eyes, but he did not think this was the ordinary darkness of the night or the black pine woods around him. No, this was unconsciousness enveloping him, perhaps death drawing him down into an abyss of eternal nothing.

Air. Please.

She had been there in the crowd beside him, so beautiful and slender, her hair gleaming blacker than black, her eyes green. She wore a gossamer dress the same ebony as her hair, the moonlight hinting at delights beneath. When he had first caught sight of her, he had inhaled sharply at encountering so fine and delicate a girl. Only a few years older than himself, she had tilted her head back and thrust out her tongue as if tasting the night, and then she’d swiveled her head to return his stare, as though she’d been aware of his attention all along. When she smiled, he lost any sense of himself. In that moment, he would have been whatever kind of fool she wished.

“Come,” she’d whispered, lips brushing past his ear as she took his hand.

Yasu gave no thought to his friends, or the fireworks that were about to start. He had followed her through the crowd. Somewhere, he heard the low, sonorous bong of a bell, and then they had reached the part of Ama-no-Hashidate where the beach gave way to the thick tangle of black pines that ran down the center of the sandbar.

The first of the fireworks had exploded behind them, finally breaking whatever trance Yasu had been in. He turned to look up at the beauty of the colors shooting through the night sky, and behind him, he’d heard a hiss.

The hands that grabbed him could not have been her hands. One folded over his mouth and nose and one wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides. But then something thick and cold and rough coiled around him, squeezing, and now he felt something crack inside of him, the darkness at the edges of his vision rushing in.

Someone came into the trees, calling his name. Other voices shouted for him as well. The fireworks popped and thundered, throwing multicolored ghost lights among the pines.

Half-conscious, he felt himself being carried. Branches scratched his face and arms, but suddenly he could breathe again. Air rushed into his lungs. Still, he felt barely aware of his surroundings. His body swayed from side to side, still clutched by cold flesh. The touch was cold and rough at the same time. It flexed and shifted, and as awareness filtered back into his brain along with oxygen, he tried to turn his head, to get a look at the thing that had grabbed him. A single glimpse showed him red scales and dreadful yellow eyes, small black horns, wisps of white hair, and jaws opened so wide that they seemed capable of swallowing him whole. And teeth. He saw its teeth.

Yasu’s first instinct was to fight, but even as he bucked his body, trying to get loose, his gaze caught on a half-dead pine tree. He thrust his arms out and grabbed hold of a branch, gouging his left wrist but adrenaline overcoming all pain. His fingers closed tightly and he tore free of the creature’s grasp.

Breathing in ragged gasps, heart drumming hard, he snapped a branch off the dead pine and spun to face the thing with the yellow eyes. The woods were empty. Nothing moved. He scanned from shadow to shadow, strange colors still filtering through the branches from the fireworks high above. That single glimpse of the creature flashed in his mind and he twitched, whipped around, thought he’d seen it just out of the corner of his eye.