Honoo no Mirage

“Yuiko-hyaan!” Morino Saori shrieked upon spotting Yuiko outside the ticket-examination booths at Shinjuku Station’s south entrance, and Takeda Yuiko, who had come to meet her, smiled widely at the unforgettable piercing voice.

“Saori-chaaaan!”

They rushed up to each other and skipped around excitedly, holding hands and chattering happily:

“Eeeeeeek! Yuiko-hyan, Yuiko-hyan! It’s been soooo long since I saw you!”

“Saori-chan, you grew out your hair! It’s so cuuute!”

“Yuiko-hyan, I love your ponytail too! Eeeeeek, I can’t believe it’s been so long! How have you been?”

“I’ve been great like usual!”

Three days before the end of summer, Saori had finally managed to save enough from her part-time job to visit Yuiko in Tokyo. It had taken her the entire summer to earn enough for the trip plus shopping, but she had made it just in time.

And speaking of that part-time job, Saori had been helping out at the Dentist Office run by Narita Yuzuru’s family. Nothing could have made her happier.

“Saori-chan, nice work on getting the perfect summer job, you schemer you!” Yuiko teased.

Saori responded with a regal smile, “But I got a personal invitation from Narita-kun!” Her face broke out into the grin she had been wearing all summer. “How could I refuse?”

A student from Shinshuu University had worked at Narita Dentist Office during the first part of summer, but he had gone home for the month of August, creating a sudden vacancy. Hearing of the problem, Yuzuru had remembered that Saori was looking for a summer job.

He hadn’t needed to ask twice.

“And you wouldn’t believe how great Narita-kun’s father is. He’s really nice and smart too—he’s the model dentist! Narita-kun is so like his father! Oh, but his mother is really refined, too! I’m pretty sure we’d all get along just fine if they were my in-laws!”

“What? Saori-chan, are you already...”

Saori looked blank for a moment before clapping Yuiko’s shoulder and saying even more loudly, “No, no! You’re thinking too much! Me, Narita-kun’s wife? Narita-kun’s wife! Eeek!”

She blushed so hard that an ice cream cone would have melted from the heat radiating from her face.

“All right! I’m going to treat you to lunch today with money from the Naritas!”

“Really? Yay!”

Their high-spirited chatter turned a few heads from the South Entrance crowd as they set off at a brisk pace for Mylord.

Though it was almost the end of August, the progression of sweltering-hot days in Tokyo continued unabated. The abundant rainfall during the first part of the year meant that there was no worry of water shortages, but the temperature here reached the thirties every day. Though it had also been relatively hot in Matsumoto this year, temperatures there were nowhere near Tokyo’s. Nevertheless, Saori was so happy at seeing Yuiko again that even the scorching heat couldn’t deter her from dancing exuberantly around her friend.

The two friends had lunch at a restaurant in the Shinjuku Mylord shopping complex.

“Huuum... Sounds like a lot has happened...”

Yuiko and Saori were engaged in a lively exchange of the latest news over a mushroom and sh.e.l.lfish dish at a Russian restaurant Yuiko had recommended. Saori was telling Yuiko about the Kasuke showing up after Takeda Shingen, followed by Chiaki’s kidnapping (?) of Narita Yuzuru.

“Yeeeah.” She sighed. “Geez, I can’t take it anymore!”

“Why?”

“Ougi-kun and those guys, they keep leaving me out of things!”

Yuiko’s eyes widened. Saori sulked, “Because I keep ending up the odd person out while they’re off on all those scary and interesting ghost-hunts and stuff. Don’t you think that’s just totally unfair?”

“Mmm—...nn.”

Takaya would probably have popped a vein if he’d heard her say that.

“Sure, I never thought that Ougi-kun would be able to do something that cool, but he’s totally monopolizing everybody—Narita-kun and Chiaki-kun and Naoe-san.”

Yuiko asked timidly, “Saori-chan, are you jealous?”

“Wha...? Well, yeah, of course I am!”

Yuiko blinked, then leaned forward slightly after a moment of thought. “But Saori-chan, I think it’s best to leave all of that stuff alone, really.”

“Why?”

“I can sense spirits, so I’ve always been scared of them. When I was possessed, I truly thought I might die. If you keep playing around like this and not take it seriously, you’ll get badly hurt one of these days. So I think it’s better to leave all of it alone...”

Yuiko’s tone was unwontedly serious, and Saori tensed as she bit into a mushroom. She had virtually no sensitivity to spirits, but she could hear the truth of experience in Yuiko’s voice.

“... So how have you been, Yuiko-hyan? Have you run into any more weird stuff?”

“No,” Yuiko replied, setting down her spoon. “But I can still vaguely remember the things that happened.”

Yuiko was referring to the time she had been possessed by Sanjou-no-Kata, Takeda Shingen’s principle wife. Sanjou had temporarily taken complete control of Yuiko’s body, but Yuiko could still hazily recall the things Sanjou had seen and done and even what she had been thinking.

“How can I explain this? ...It’s not so bad anymore, but it’s like the princess’ memories stayed with me even afterwards, and it hurt a lot.”

“You were really scary, Yuiko-hyan. You told me that you’d make me your handmaiden.”

“Yeah. ...I guess I was. But, how do I put this...? She was...happy.” A faraway look came into Yuiko’s eyes as she reached for Sanjou’s fading memories.

“She was so happy that she could meet her lord again. ...I think she must have really loved him,” Yuiko smiled. “It is kind of marvelous, isn’t it? Being able to see the lover separated from you by death four hundred years later? It’s a really really wonderful thing. I can understand how she felt.”

“I know, I know!” Saori, looking moved to tears, nodded vigorously. “I think I would definitely feel the same way. She must have wanted to be with him even after reincarnation.”

“Yeah. But I wonder what happens to people after they’re reincarnated?” Yuiko pondered the question, looking quite serious. “The person you love, your family, your friends—what happens in your next life? Do you come together again? Or are you all separated? But no one can guarantee that you’ll be able to find each other again...if I’ll be reborn apart from everyone and never be able to meet them for all my life, then I don’t want to die either.”

“Yeeah,” Saori nodded pensively. “I wonder who decides? I guess it must be G.o.d?”

“Maybe... I wonder. Oh, oh, by the way! That concert you mentioned!”

“Ah, what? Oh, they were really really good! It was the best concert ever! They’re coming to Tokyo next, right?”

So the conversation turned, and they chatted for close to two more hours.

They ended up doing a shopping crawl of Shibuya and Harajuku that afternoon, and it was close to eight by the time they got back to Yuiko’s house hauling large shopping bags. On the next day they would be going to an amus.e.m.e.nt park with pools and water slides, a trip they had been planning for some time, and they gleefully made paper charms for good weather like elementary school children on the day before a field trip. They finally went to bed after one in the morning.

The weather the next morning, as if amused by all their worry, was wonderful—perfect pool weather, in fact.

“Yuiko-hyaaaan! Hurry!” The swimsuit-clad Saori, who seemed unable to wait another second to jump into the pool, shouted at Yuiko with a floatation ring in one hand. Yuiko chased breathlessly after Saori as she charged full throttle ahead, completely ignoring the regulations forbidding running by the poolside.

“Sa-Saori-chan, you’re so full of energy...”

“Yes I am! Come on, let’s get in before anybody else shows up! Hydropolis, here we come!”

Saori had dashed into the park the moment it opened and headed straight for her target: the water slide which was the main attraction of the pool, called the ‘Hydropolis’. Coming to this pool, the star summertime draw of an amus.e.m.e.nt park in the Nerima District known for its odd and eccentric advertising, was Saori’s current heart’s desire. It boasted thirty types of water slides, and was awash with people every day of the summer. She was hoping that it would be a little less crowded now that summer vacation was almost over, but the succession of sweltering days seemed to have drawn the crowds out in force today as well.

“I even bought a brand-new swimsuit just for today! Oh, but what happens if a handsome boy says ‘what a cute girl’ and ‘let’s go have some tea’? What would I do then—?!”

“h.e.l.lo? Saori-chan? Earth to Saori-chan...?”

“But but I’ve already given my heart to Narita-kun. Oh, but having a summer romance once in a while would be all right, wouldn’t it?”

Unsurprisingly, even Yuiko’s smile had become a bit fixed.

Still, in the end Yuiko found herself dragged into the irrepressible Saori’s goal of ‘total conquest of the Hydropolis,’ and afternoon had arrived before she even noticed.

“Saori-chan!”

Saori was still running around without even a pause for breath, but she turned when Yuiko called her name. Yuiko, panting for breath, looked tiredly at her.

“What?”

“We—we probably don’t want to overdo it on the water slides. People say that it can wear holes in your swimsuit.”

“Whaaat? Really?”

“Yeah...” Yuiko responded, collapsing in place.

“Yuiko-chan! Are you okay?”

“Yes...”

Saori dashed up to her. Yuiko drew up her legs and took deep breaths. She felt slightly dizzy. The cause wasn’t tiredness, but a sort of physical malaise, a feeling of strangeness. Saori peered at her face. It was slightly pale.

“Are you feeling unwell? I—I’m really sorry. I wasn’t paying attention...”

“No, I’m all right. I think I’ll feel better if I can rest for a bit...”

Saori hurriedly looked around.

“Let me go get you a towel. Oh, maybe it’s because you池e hungry? Wait here, I’ll be right back with a towel,” Saori said, and was quickly swallowed up by the crowds of people.

Yuiko took another deep breath as she gazed after Saori. The pool in front of her was filled to bursting with people. Families, junior and senior high students with their friends or boyfriends or girlfriends—rather than swimming in water, it seemed like they were swimming in people.

The sun was scorching hot against her skin.

(I wonder if it’s the crowds that are making me feel ill?)

Yuiko looked weakly up at the sky. Her body felt heavy and sluggish. The sun beat down on her. Her head spun.

(I...don’t think it’s heatstroke...)

At that moment—

A cold shiver suddenly ran down her back, a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. Yuiko instinctively hunched lower, hugging herself.

(It’s cold...)

It was as if her body temperature had suddenly plummeted. The cold had enveloped her body in the blink of an eye, and she felt like she had turned to ice down to her fingertips.

(What...)

Something was not right. She could immediately guess what this chill meant. She had experienced this sort of physical abnormality before—many times, in fact. This was—

Yuiko’s head jerked up.

There, in the pool, in the moment someone broke the surface: the fleeting reflection of a gigantic human head.

(What...!)

Then, at almost the same instant, sudden pandemonium and a chorus of screams.

“!”

Yuiko turned reflexively. The clamor was coming from the wave pool. Someone appeared to be drowning. The lifeguard leapt in. Another scream came from the opposite side: a girl’s cry. It was followed by violently splashing water.

(Someone’s drowning...?)

Forgetting her chill, Yuiko dashed over. A young girl bobbed up and down in the water, screaming for help. The lifeguard had rushed to her immediately, but she continued to struggle wildly, half-crazed with fear.

(What’s going on...!)

“Yuiko-hyan!”

Saori reappeared from the crowd. She, too, stared petrified at the dramatic rescue scene, the towel forgotten in her hand. The girl was finally lifted out of the pool, but she had swallowed so much water by that point that she had lost consciousness. The lifeguards immediately began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Saori and Yuiko looked on from a large group of curious bystanders. The person from the other pool had also been rescued. Two crowds had formed, and those still remaining in the pools had also stopped to watch.

(What just happened...?)

Yuiko looked at the pool, face pale.

(A person’s...face...?)

Could it have been...? But she was certain she had seen it. A horribly unnatural human face reflected from the surface of the water. A face so large...that it could not have belonged to an actual person...

The crowd stirred. The girl had come around.

“Are you all right?” The lifeguard asked.

The girl, her face strained with terror, replied, “So-someone...someone was pulling on my leg! Someone was dragging me down into the water! They were holding my leg!”

“Pulling on your leg? But—”

“That’s what happened! Someone suddenly pulled on my leg really hard!” the girl yelled agitatedly, but the lifeguard only regarded her dubiously. Even if someone had been pulling on her leg, the pool wasn’t very deep. No matter how startled she might have been by someone pulling her down, to actually drown in such shallow water was peculiar.

“Someone just kept pulling me down! Someone kept pulling on my leg...!”

The crowd muttered. Yuiko’s face stiffened.

(Could it be...)

Another shiver suddenly ran through her, followed by a sharp buzzing that pierced her ears without warning. It was unbearable. Yuiko pressed against her ears.

“Ow...”

“Yu-Yuiko-hyan!”

Just then there was another scream from the pool. She looked up, startled. Another woman was disappearing beneath the water.

“Oh no!”

“I’m fine! Help her!”

Lifeguards flew to the rescue from all directions. Frozen in place, Yuiko stared at the woman flailing violently in agony.

(What is—!)

Yuiko couldn’t quite believe her eyes. She could see the suggestion of a hand pulling on the woman’s leg—a white, bizarrely long hand. No, but—or some reason... That hand—!

(It’s not attached to anything!)

As soon as she realized it, Yuiko could suddenly hear a countless number of voices speaking into her ear. Those voices did not belong to the park visitors. They were too different. They pressed around her, surrounding her.

(No... What?)

Dull, muttering, groaning voices that seemed to crawl along the ground. The air around her quickly chilled. Those repulsive voices swirled around Yuiko’s head, and she instinctively shut her eyes hard.

(What’s happening...?!)

“Kyaaaah—!”

A human scream from the poolside abruptly obscured the eerie voices.

It had come from the girl who had just been rescued. Yuiko and Saori jumped and looked over at her.

Both of them gulped.

The girl shaking in terror...

—had countless strands of unnaturally long black hair coiled around her foot.

The start signals for the roller coasters and the screams of the park visitors pierced into Yuiko’s head. Staring at them dazedly, she waved at Saori, who had returned at a dead run.

Yuiko was able to regain some of her balance at the picnic tables set in the shade of some trees. She took the juice Saori had bought for her.

“How are you feeling? A little better?”

“Yeah, I’m fine now...” Yuiko answered, her color slightly better. After the spectacle, Yuiko, feeling ill, had hurriedly changed and left the pool area. Putting some distance between herself and that spot had restored a little of her energy, but in place of the chills she now had the beginnings of a headache.

The three people rescued from the pool had not sustained any lasting harm, but... All three had given the same explanation: someone had been pulling on their legs.

Saori pulled the straw out of her mouth and leaned forward. “I heard people talking about it earlier—” She had overheard the park’s fast food restaurant personnel discussing the incidents. “I wonder what’s going on with that pool? I guess there’s been a bunch of accidents like that happening here in the past few days.”

“People being pulled into the water by their legs?”

“Yeah. And—” Saori frowned, “all of them were young women. They’re saying it’s somebody playing a prank, but n.o.body’s seen the culprit...”

Yuiko’s expression became grave. Saori looked over her shoulder towards the pool.

“You saw those long hairs wrapped around that girl’s foot, right? I heard that it was the same for the other people. People are saying that a ghost is doing it.”

“A ghost...”

“Yeah. Speaking of which, you said that you saw a person’s face on the surface of the water, too, right?”

“Yes,” Yuiko nodded, her lips tightening. “I think...it was a woman...”

“A woman...?”

“Yes. It was bad back there. It frightened me. I heard moaning, a lot of people moaning...”

Saori’s face suddenly stiffened.

“Moaning?”

“Yes. It’s turned into a scary place. It wasn’t like this the last time I came here. Is this what people call spirit-sensitivity? I don’t like it at all. It’s...listen...” Yuiko looked back at the pool. “There they are again. Those voices.”

“What?”

Saori jerked up. Yuiko’s expression had reminded her for a moment of the time when she had been possessed by Sanjou-no-Kata. Yuiko’s gaze was trained in the direction of the pool as if it fascinated her.

“Ah... There it is again.”

“...”

Saori stared silently at Yuiko. Yuiko sat frozen as a statue, her ears straining towards the sound. Words cracked her stone lips.

“Cold...”

“What?”

Yuiko, face blank, mumbled awkwardly, “The water...so cold...everyone...all together...”

“Yu-Yuiko-hyan!”

Saori stood and tugged at Yuiko’s arm with all her might. Yuiko came back to herself.

“Saori-chan?”

“Let’s go home! Yuiko-hyan, something bad’s going to happen if we stay here! So let’s just go home now, okay?”

“What was I just...?”

“Yuiko-hyan, we can’t stay here! Let’s go home! Come on, let’s go already! Come on, let’s go, come on!”

“Sa-Saori-chan!”

Saori frantically pulled Yuiko after her out the exit.

Yuiko turned at the sensation of something leaning on her shoulder. Someone was calling from the pool.

(Who are you...?) she asked in return. It felt as if someone were telling her not to go...

“Yuiko-hyan?”

Yuiko stood still, looking back at the pool. Cool air swelled from her feet.

It could only be a person’s malevolent thoughts.

A person’s...? No, not a person—

Not a living person, at least. A person who had lived a long time ago, to be precise.

«The water...so cold...»

Her body froze in place the moment she heard the voice.

«Everyone...all together...»

Even someone without any spirit-sensitivity at all would have recognized the br.i.m.m.i.n.g malice behind the thoughts that suddenly thrust into Yuiko’s mind in the moment of contact. The voice belonged to a woman. Though indistinct, the hatred in it slammed into Yuiko.

«Into the bottom of the cold water...»

Yuiko could see the girl within her mind.

«Everyone will go, all together...»

“St-stop it!”

“Yuiko-hyan!”

Still paralyzed, Yuiko cried out, “We can’t! Saori-chan, what should we do? Worse things are going to happen if we just leave like this!”

“W-worse things...?”

“The girl-spirit said she wants to take everyone with her. To pull them to the water’s bottom. What should we do? If this goes on, someone might really die. What should we do what should we do?”

Yuiko flung herself on Saori, who immediately started panicking as well.

“You’re asking me? What should we do? What should we do?”

“We can’t leave things as they are! What if someone actually dies? What should we do? I don’t want anyone to die! What should we do what should we do?”

“Uuuuuuugh...” Saori moaned, thinking desperately, when finally—

“I got it.”

She clenched her fists hard.

“I’ve made my decision. It’s our only choice.”

“Our only choice? What is?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Saori said very seriously. “«Choubuku».”