Chapter 48: 48. The Window Licker

Jiro and Sumire exited the underground library through the trapdoor and followed Yui back to the tearoom. Kaori was inside, kneeling on the tatami mat. When the door slid open, she gave a start of surprise, knocking over a stack of books retrieved from the library.

“Oh …” Kaori gripped the fabric of her kimono with white knuckles. When she spoke, her voice trembled. “It’s just you … I thought … he …”

“Kaori what’s wrong?” said her mother. “You look disturbed. Yui said you found a clue?”

Kaori’s eyes flitted toward the windows that lined one side of the tearoom

“There … I saw someone ...”

“Saw someone?” Jiro looked out the nearest window. The curtains were drawn open, revealing the pebbled grounds and the treeline beyond. “There’s nobody there now.”

“An old man. H-he was out there …” she pointed a trembling finger at the window. “Pressed his face flat to the glass.” She shuddered. “And then he started to lick the pane, up, down, left, right. Like he was tracing out the border with his tongue.”

Jiro looked at Kaori. Her hair was frazzled and her forehead shiny with sweat. He had never seen her quite so unsettled before.

“Yui,” he said. “Did you see him too? You were with Kaori, right?”

She shook her head.

“You didn’t see him?”

Yui pointed to a door in one corner of the room. “Toilet.”

“Oh …” So Kaori had seen something during that interval when Yui was absent. “Maybe it was just one of the other temple staff?” suggested Jiro. “Though I don’t imagine any sensible person would lick the windowpane.”

“No,” said Sumire. “That can’t be. I know for a fact that I’m the only one here today … We run a skeleton operation on weekdays. Most shrinegoers come on weekends and holidays, so …” The priestess looked at her daughter. “Kaori, could you describe the man that you saw? Any memorable features?”

Kaori took several deep breaths. Slowly, she stroked Yui’s hair. To Jiro, it looked like she was trying to regain her composure. “He was … old. Wrinkles all over his face. Short hair. Black in places, but with streaks of white, almost like a skunk … And one eye …” Kaori shuddered again. “There was no pupil. His whole eye was covered with a slimy white film.”

Sumire made a strange noise.

“What is it?” Jiro asked.

“That description. White streaks of hair, wrinkles, a bad eye … There’s no doubt about it. That’s our groundskeeper, Masa.”

“Well, then the mystery is solved!”

Sumire shook her head. She looked troubled. “But it’s not solved … Because there’s no way Masa can be here today.”

“Why’s that?”

“He twisted his ankle a few days ago while clipping some trees on the shrine grounds. I gave him two weeks off. He should be at home resting ...”

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“Maybe he felt better and came back?”

Sumire frowned. “His ankle was swollen to the size of a grapefruit. That’s not the kind of injury to heal in a few days.” She looked out the window. “And if so … then why hasn’t he come to greet me? Masa is not the type of person to act without letting me know.” She stood up. “I think we better have a look. I don’t like this. The four of us need to stay together.”

Together they exited the library building and headed warily toward the trees. The sky was growing dark: Jiro had to squint to make out the line of trees that encircled the compound. Had they been that long in the library?

When they reached the area outside the tearoom window, Sumire stopped and scanned the area around them.

“What are we looking for?” said Jiro, more out of fear than of curiosity. “Could we be dealing with another shifter yokai? Like that nekomata we saw at the bathhouse?”

“Unlikely,” said Kaori, who was also looking around. “There’s a protective ring of charms around the shrine grounds. It’s not impenetrable to the most powerful of spirits ... but it should keep most minor yokai and spirit creatures out. Which only makes me more confused as to what I saw. The most likely explanation …” She trailed off.

“What is it?” Jiro asked. Kaori and Sumire exchanged looks.

“I have a bad feeling … follow me.” Sumire began to stride quickly toward the line of trees at the edge of the compound, her red hakama trousers swishing as she walked. Jiro and the others hurried after her, their feet slipping on the loose rocks of the shrine grounds.

At the edge of the grounds, the rocks and pebbles were abruptly replaced by soil and a thick forest of trees. Sumire took several steps beyond the treeline and stopped with her palm resting on the thick trunk of a cedar tree.

“How is it?” said Kaori.

Sumire shook her head. “It’s gone.”

Jiro looked at the two women, and then at Yui. “Yui, can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Seal.”

“Seal?”

There was a rustling of leaves. Sumire knelt near a thick brush and reached underneath. When she stood up, she was holding a strip of something white in her hands.

“It’s as I feared.”

“What? What?” Jiro stepped up closer to look at what Sumire was holding. “It’s just a piece of paper …” he said.

“Not just a piece of paper,” said Kaori. She looked equally troubled. She took the slip of paper from her mother and flipped it over. Inscribed on it in red ink were kanji characters that Jiro could not read. “This is a seal. One of those protective charms I mentioned. They are set up at intervals all around the shrine to keep spirits out … but someone has gone and tore this one off the tree.”

A few meters away, they found another broken seal. Again, it had been ripped from the tree and torn into pieces.

“This is not good,” said Sumire. “We need to get back inside. I don’t know who you saw, Kaori. Maybe it was Masa … Or somebody posing as him. But one thing we know for sure. Somebody is here in this compound. And they’re disabling the shrine’s protections, one slip of paper at a time …”

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