displayed around him was gone now that she knew he was gay. But the moment Miho realized that the others were looking at her, she shot a blank look at Kara as if to urge her to continue.
“There isn’t much more to say about step one, really,” Kara said, shrugging one shoulder. “My father got Yamato-sensei worried enough to bring the police in. They’re not going to say it officially, but my dad tells me the police are taking the possibility of abduction more seriously in the cases of Daisuke and Wakana.”
“They talked to everyone from Noh club this morning,” Miho confirmed.
“Not just from the club,” Ren added, glancing at Sakura. “They talked to everyone who’s been volunteering, too.”
Kara nodded. She knew this already. Sakura had hated every minute of it. After the way they had handled her sister’s murder, she had thought them a bunch of idiots, but when they had interrogated her after Chouku and Jiro had died back in April, Sakura had come to despise the police.
Hachiro threw up his hands, smiling, apparently sensing the tension and wanting to move on. “So, step two?”
“Step two,” Kara agreed. “We turn into bodyguards.”
She studied her friends, normally so open and trusting and-the attitude Sakura adopted notwithstanding- happy, and she hated to see the shadow of Kyuketsuki’s curse hanging over them.
“It’s a big job,” Ren said.
“We can handle it,” Miho piped up from under the umbrella.
Kara smiled at her. “Yeah. We can. At least while everyone’s at school.”
“What do you mean?” Sakura asked.
“Well, it’s not as if we can follow anyone home, so after the commuters go home, we only have to worry about the members of the Noh club who live in the dorm,” Kara explained. “Miho can keep in touch with the others by e-mail.”
“We can’t protect them all,” Sakura said.
“We might not be able to protect them at all,” Hachiro replied. He reached out for Kara’s hand, lending her his strength and support. “But we’re the only ones who know what’s really going on. We have to do what we can.”
“Without getting ourselves killed,” Miho whispered.
Ren sighed. “That would be nice.”
The taiko drums began again, startling them all. Kara hadn’t even noticed that they had stopped. Her mind had been elsewhere.
“All right,” she said, clapping her hands together. “Enough of that for now. Food and fireworks today. Let’s ‘eat, drink, and be merry.’”
She didn’t bother to finish that old saying.
For tomorrow we may die.
9
M ai had always loved the Toro Nagashi Festival, and today had been the perfect day for it, hot and breezy. The beach on Ama-no-Hashidate had come alive with people. Really, she thought, it was the people who had come alive. Even the normally sedate adults had seemed to laugh more, and swim more, and play more. She’d seen mothers and fathers tossing brightly colored beach balls to their toddlers and older couples splashing in the shallows. Faces that were usually buttoned up and serious had discovered their smiles, as if everyone over thirty had sipped one glass of wine too many before coming down to watch the fireworks. It should have made her happy to see them.
And perhaps it would have, if she had been able to stop thinking about Daisuke and Wakana, or if her soccer club friends had allowed their mouths to fall silent for just five minutes. Was it so much to ask? Mai had never been the most talkative among them, but it wasn’t just the talking that bothered her. They gossiped and complained, and when they weren’t doing either of those things, they talked about shopping and clothes and boys, and other things of little real consequence.
I miss you, Ume, she thought.
An elbow nudged her. Mai had been sitting on the sand, knees drawn up to her chest, watching the lanterns float out on the water. Seven o’clock had come and gone and the day had begun to slip away. Dusk spread its wings across the sky. The paper lanterns were beautiful in the twilight, the lights burning within them brighter and brighter as twilight deepened.
The nudge came again. She turned and looked at Emi, who sat beside her wearing a mischievous grin. The square glasses perched on her nose made her look far more intelligent than she had ever managed to be.
“Wouldn’t you like to trade places with her?” Emi said.
Beyond her, tall Kaori-probably the best soccer player in the club-snickered in agreement. The girls were focused on a twentyish couple who were chest deep in the water, wrapped around one another, kissing languorously. What had drawn their attention, no doubt, was the lean, muscular physique of the guy and the way he held his girlfriend or wife or whatever-crushed to him as though he could mold her like clay. And maybe he could. But that sort of guy had never appealed to her.
Mai smiled politely, but said nothing. Emi rolled her eyes and went back to whispering to Kaori. Mai didn’t mind at all. In fact, she felt relieved. When Ume had left Monju-no-Chie school, Mai had been confused and even a little glad. They had never been the best of friends, and even Ume readily admitted she was the queen bitch of the school. She’d aspired to become that very thing. But as the reality of her departure grew closer, Mai began to realize that she would really miss Ume. Whatever else she might have been, she had been smart and confident- someone who led instead of followed.
Not that Mai wanted to be anything like her. Ume, after all, had also murdered Akane Murakami. Mai had been there. She hadn’t laid a finger on Akane, but she had witnessed the whole thing and she had never spoken of it to anyone, not even the other girls who had taken part in the beating that had turned into a killing-girls like Emi and Kaori. The guilt from that night clung like a death shroud on Mai’s heart. If she had stepped in, she might have been able to save Akane, or she might have been beaten or killed herself, and her fear had stopped her.
And if all the things that Ume had told her were true-about Sakura and Kara and Miho and the demon thing they had faced-then Akane’s murder had been the trigger for everything that followed. Mai could have prevented it all.
She had to live with that stain on her soul for the rest of her life.
Part of her penance seemed to be listening to Emi and Kaori giggle about nonsense. As much as she wished she could just quit the soccer club and walk away from these shallow girls, she had chosen to become queen bitch in Ume’s place, partially to make sure they did not get further out of control, but mostly to protect herself. The only people they treated with more venom than students they deemed less than themselves were those who’d once been their friends but no longer were.
Now she wished she could take it all back. She cared more about her roommate and Daisuke than she did about any of these girls, but she had been nasty and aloof with them a lot of the time-especially Wakana. For a while, she had comforted herself with reassurances that they would be found, that they were together, even though she had known that night when she came back to her room still wet from the shower that Wakana had not gone out the second-story window by choice. Wakana was afraid of heights.
Stop it. Stop thinking about her in the past tense.
Emi and Kaori giggled again, and she wanted to slap them. All day they had been posing when boys walked by. Now the day had cooled enough that they had closed their umbrella and even pulled on shirts and sweatshirts, but that only meant they had to find other ways to draw attention to themselves.
Mai stood up.
“Where are you going?” Kaori asked, frowning, as if Mai needed permission.
“For a walk. It’s nice this time of day, and I like seeing the lanterns. Don’t worry, I’ll be back before the fireworks.”
“We’ll come!” Emi volunteered, starting to rise.
