And Then You're Gonna Die
Keisuke abruptly pushed back his chair and shot to his feet.
"I'm getting a soda," he announced, turning in the general direction of the kitchen. "Do you want one?"
"Sure," Tetsuya said, turning a page. "You're really on edge today, aren't you?"
"Don't I have reason to be?"
"Well, yeah."
Keisuke opened the refrigerator door. "There's grape, cherry, and Dr Pepper."
"Cherry soda will be fine."
The brunet removed two cans of soda and started back toward the table, the other young man, and The Book.
"It's more than just concern over your sister, though."
Keisuke stopped dead. "Why do you say that?"
His friend shrugged. "We've been friends for quite a while now, idiot. I can tell when something's bothering you -- and you're really freaked out over this."
"It's just that it's such a crazy way-out thing to happen..." he sat down, popped the tab of one of the soda cans, and slid the other across the table. "I can't stand unsolved mysteries. Never could."
The darker-haired youth opened his cherry soda and took a sip. "We'll solve this one. We'll get Miaka-chan and Yui-chan back."
"It's not that!"
Tetsuya raised his eyebrows. The effect was rather lost behind the sunglasses, but it's the thought that counts.
"It's... why? Why Miaka? Why Yui-chan? Why not some other girls? Why is Miaka Suzaku no Miko and Yui Seiryuu no Miko, instead of the other way around? Even when we get them back, we might never know, and be left to wonder if it will all happen again, and be kept awake at nights picking over it like I do the strange affair of the party and the child-eating oni."
"We," Tetsuya told him, "are GOING to find out." He paused for a moment, curious. "What *was* the strange affair of the party and the child-eating oni?"
Keisuke shrugged. "I was... maybe eight," he began. "Dad's boss was throwing a party, and all the coworkers' kids were invited. I went. Miaka didn't; she was too young. I always liked to see Takemura-san; he would give me candies from a dish on his desk and smile at me. He showed interest in whatever I was doing."
"Takemura-san?"
"Dad's boss. Anyway, I went to the party, and there was this girl there, about my age, Shizuru-chan. We were introduced, our fathers went off to get some punch, and she told me never, ever to be alone with Takemura-san. She said he was an ogre who ate children."
A very odd look began to creep over Tetsuya's face. "This Takemura-san. What was his personal name?"
"Something-tarou... began with a 'k' sound... Kentarou, Kitarou, umm... "
"Could it have been Koutarou?"
"Yes. Yes, it *was* Koutarou. I'm surprised I still remember that... guess it was from looking at the nameplate on his desk every time I was in his office with Dad." He looked up. "Tetsuya? What's wrong?"
The expression on Tetsuya's face was a sort of repulsed fascination, akin to the impulse that draws the eyes to roadkill or the detailed news report of some atrocity. "Nothing. Go on."
"Now, normally, when someone tells you that, even if their face and voice are perfectly serious, there's -- something -- that's off. But this one -- she believed it. She *knew* it so certainly that it -- well, I was willing to entertain the possibility."
"Go on."
Shizuru-chan had apparently warned the other kids at the party; they tended to cluster together, or stick near their parents.
"I wonder what game they're playing," Takemura-san commented to one of his underlings.
"They probably won't tell us," the man replied. "Children are like that."
Most of the people were down at the end of the conference room where the food was set up, or walking around with a drink or a sandwich in their hand, chatting.
At the other end of the room was a bay window, with thick curtains.
Keisuke and Shizuru-chan's little brother -- he hadn't caught the name, and was too embarrassed to ask again -- were playing a game that twenty years ago in the United States of America would have been called "Indianing." They thought of it as playing ninja: sneaking from one place to another without anyone else seeing them.
They were just congratulating each other on reaching a spot perfectly hidden behind the bay window curtains and a very large potted plant when two other people came up. The boys fell silent. It was the rules of the game.
The people turned out to be Shizuru-chan and Takemura-san. Shizuru-chan darted a glance towards the other partygoers, and then looked up at her father's boss and began to speak in a low tone.
Neither of the boys were quite sure what she was talking about. They didn't think they wanted to be, either. She seemed to get *older*, somehow, with every word she spoke, and the even matter-of-fact tone of her voice seemed to make the whole thing more dreadful (if possible).
"You know and I know what you want," she began.
"Shizuru-chan, what *are* you talking about?" His voice was kindly, a bit puzzled.
"You know and I know. And you and I both know that you're strong enough and big enough to take it, if I'm alone, if nobody's with me, or there to hear me. But I tell you now if you do, you'll never escape me. You'll never be able to trust a chair I've pulled out for you. You'll never be able to trust food I've been near or a drink I've handed you. You'll never be sure you've taken all means of protection from me.
"And someday, when I'm big, I'll *get* you. I don't know how yet, but I know what, and I'll figure out the rest as I go along. I'll take away everything you've ever had. Everything you've ever cared for. Everything you've ever wanted. I'm gonna take it away, and I'm gonna do it in such a way that you can't stop me and yet you'll know I did it. And then you'll know why.
The quiet intensity in her voice was blended with a serenity frightening in its utter certainty. "And then you're gonna die."
It hung there for a moment; then Takemura-san laughed nervously. "Let's return to the others, shall we?"
She waved a small hand. "You go on. I'll wait a bit." She smiled with the serenity of a bodhisattva. Except that this was not a comforting smile. "I'm very good at waiting."
Takemura-san went to the refreshment tables and poured himself a rather stiff drink. Shizuru-chan watched him for a moment, then shrugged and shook her head, much in the manner of a dog shaking off water. She started off to her father.
The two boys looked at each other for a moment, and then followed her.
"And that's what happened," Keisuke finished. "Takemura-san was transferred two weeks afterwards, but I don't think it had anything to do with the party."
Tetsuya whistled and began to clap softly. "That is one of the best methods of routing a child molester I have *ever* heard of."
"CHILD MOLESTER??" his friend squawked.
"Didn't you know? Takemura Koutarou was killed two years ago; it was a big scandal. It seems one of the mothers found out and stabbed him with a pair of scissors. What have you been doing for the past few years, vacationing on Mars?"
"No, you idiot, I was in that cram school."
"Oh, yeah. Well, anyway, if this Shizuru'd had to carry out her plan, I'd have been happy to help provided she didn't hurt innocent bystanders. If anyone ever deserved it... are you *sure* your brain wasn't on Mars?"
There was a pause while the two guys drank some more soda.
"Is this Shizuru-chan still around? Someone like that might be useful in this sort of situation, if we could trust her."
"Her family moved when I was ten."
Tetsuya shrugged. "Oh well." He passed The Book to Keisuke.
"'After her rest,'" Keisuke began, "'Suzaku no Miko went in search of the man called Tamahome.' It might be nice if The Book would skip the nothing-scenes and only tell the important stuff."
"But how would it decide what was important?"
"Dunno." He paused. "You think they'll make it?"
"If they've got *half* the spirit of this Shizuru-chan of yours... yeah, they'll win. They *are* the heroes, after all."
Tetsuya leaned back in his chair as he listened to Keisuke describe his little sister's rounds of the palace, hunting up the guy she loved. He hadn't told his friend, but Keisuke had quite a possible future ahead of him as an actor. That scene with Shizuru-chan and Takemura had chilled his blood, and he'd almost been able to hear the light childish voice detailing off simple facts.
"And then you're gonna die..."