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I found a pair of heavy cargo pants, t-shirt and thick sweater waiting on the bed. After shrugging them on, I headed out to the living area, hollering for Tetsuo.
When he didn't answer, I assumed he'd gone to get our dinner.
I'd left my naginata by the door. As I tugged on my boots, I considered taking it with me, then decided against it. There was no reason to suspect an attack from Mazawa tonight. He'd want to make sure the virion had taken hold, wait until he thought I was at my weakest, before striking. Besides, I reasoned, with a small militia at the lakeside, there was more than enough fire power to go around. Lastly, as much as I loved it, the naginata made me look too conspicuous.
After rummaging through one of the drawers in the kitchenette, I found a small torch that worked well enough. Flashlight in hand, I set out to find Tetsuo.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. Too distant to bring another storm, yet close enough to blot moon and stars from the sky. A chorus of tree frogs sang and a light mist had rolled in from the lake. Small gusts of wind scattered its tendrils, as it meandered about the trees and tents.
I slid down the flexible ladder. Many of the tents were dark, but lights in the largest bivouac burned bright, making it look like an enormous, misshapen lantern. As I started to it, I heard someone call my name.
"Is that you, Satoshi?" I turned, splashing my beam across trampled grass and empty ground. It sounded like him, and seemed to be coming from somewhere near the fuyu-kyu. "Where are you?" He had to be somewhere near them, since the only things behind them were dilapidated buildings and the damned forest. He'd have to be nuts to venture in there at night.
"Renata..."
I called out to him. Again, he called back, his voice further away this time.
It didn't take long to realize that he was moving away from camp. Exasperated—because of all places to sulk, he had to pick that damned cave—I stopped. "Look, Satoshi, I'm sorry. I should've found a better way to tell you about Yomichi—a nicer way—but I was tired and not thinking straight and—"
"Renata..."
Still moving away. Damnit! I stomped through the wet grass between the fuyu-kyu, narrowly avoiding a concussion from a low-hanging rope bridge, before I stormed towards the path. "I said I was sorry! Come off it, for fuck's sake, Satoshi! Something's happened and it's life and death serious—our life and death!"
Up ahead, where the forest crowded over the path like a tunnel, Satoshi, wearing a long, hooded overcoat, stood with his head bowed and back to me. "Did you hear me?" As I trudged over to him, the tree frogs suddenly stopped singing.
"What's happened, Renata?" he asked, his voice low and gravelly—a sure sign he'd been grieving.
"It's Mazawa. He knows that I have the Idoron!"
"How could he know?"
"Just now, he tried to kill me!"
Satoshi stiffened, but kept his eyes still glued to the forest. "Mazawa is...here?"
"No, but he detonated my implant. He's going to attack, Satoshi, it's only a matter of time! We have to do something!"
He said nothing for a moment, then nodding slowly, said, "There is only one thing..."
His voice was so low, I couldn't make out the rest. I didn't need to. "What, Satoshi? Please, what should we do?" I tugged at his sleeve.
He whispered something that sounded like, 'Give it back.'
"Back? What the fu—" His hand shot out before I could finish, closing over my arm like a vice. As he turned, twisting my arm, the beam of my torch hit his face.
"To me!" Tightening his grip, he growled, "Give it back to me!"
If I'd never believed in yurei, I did now. Because the man holding me wasn't Satoshi, but Jo. Jo—whom I'd killed only hours before!
I wrestled out of his grasp, then turned tail and raced back towards camp, bellowing a string of screams they could've heard all the way in Korea.
Just as fast on his feet, Jo followed, snatching at my long, wet hair.
Still screaming, I ran towards the fuyu-kyu. If I could make it to camp before he caught me, I'd be safe! Already, my distress calls had roused more than a few campers. I could see lights snapping on in tents and in floating dwellings.
Fingers dug into my sweater. Twisting free, I dodged between the nearest fuyu-kyu, only to whang my forehead against one of the suspended bridges. Bile cresting in the back of my throat, I groaned and staggered back. As I did, Jo grabbed a fistful of my hair and twisted, threatening to snap my neck. Sour breath gusted across my cheek and a blade bit into my neck. "You'll give it back—or die!"
A group of people burst out of the largest bivouac. I could see Tetsuo's imposing form among them. When they saw Jo and the knife at my neck, many of them drew plasma rays and MBLs.
"Drop your weapons or she dies!" Jo roared.
"Not if we kill you first, buddy," Tucker said. "You’re outnumbered and outgunned."
Now, Tetsuo burst through the crowd. "Hold fire! Please, hold your fire! I'd know that voice anywhere! Damnit, Tucker, I said, stand down, he's not a cattle rustler!" He forced the barrel of Tucker's massive laser rifle to the ground. "I know this man. He's Nani—" One look at Jo, however, made him do a double take. "Well, it's his voice, alright, only that's not his face." Unarmed, hands raised, he took a step forward. "Is that really you, Nani mo?"
"I am not as I was before, but you, once a thief, always a thief," he spat.
"His name's not Nani mo, it's Jo," I cried, straining against the blade. "This is the guy I told you about. The one who kidnapped me and tried to poison me!"
"You said you killed him," Tetsuo said.
"I-I did..."
Jo snorted, but still refused to relinquish his knife. "You sent her to steal, now I've come to reclaim what's mine!"
"Mazawa sent her," a voice boomed from the crowd. "He threatened my life, if she didn't kill you and steal the Idoron. But when she discovered your true identity, she came to Aokigahara to find you. Warn you."
Satoshi appeared at Tetsuo's side. He pulled the battered journal and phial from his coat, then proffering both like a sacrifice in his outstretched arms, took a few, tentative steps towards Jo. "Take them, just let Renata go. Please, Papa."
"Papa? Are you out of your fucking mind?" I kicked at the journal. "Yomichi is dead! I found his body! This is the man who killed him!"
"Our father's name was, and still is, Yomichi. His given name is Jo." Journal still in hand, Satoshi bowed to him.
"Are you blind? If he were alive, our father would be in his sixties," I said, struggling in Jo's grasp.
"Sixty-eight, next month," Satoshi said. "Isn't that right, Otosan?"
"Stop calling him that! He's one of Mazawa’s hired goons!"
"You are not my son. You cannot be my son. Mazawa destroyed everything and everyone I loved, a long time ago." Jo's grip relaxed, though he still did not lower the knife.
"No, he didn't, Papa—and I can prove it! I can tell you things that aren't in this journal." Although Jo shook his head sadly, Satoshi, undeterred, began, "Our mother's name was Reiko. Renata could be her twin."
I felt Jo's chest heave with the Ha-hmph! that followed this revelation.
"Your pet name for her was Chisana Kitsune. She loved mythology, but had a special interest in flora curiosa—that's cryptobotany, Renata," he explained. "It’s the study of extremely rare plant life. Things like carnivorous plants, sentient vines, even trees like the Wollemi Pines that were believed extinct for centuries. Only some of them do exist. One of those specimens—a tree indigenous to this country—contains the Idoron's most vital ingredient. She's the one who told you what it was and where to find it. You—but not Mazawa."
"Why would she tell that son of a—"
"Shh!" Jo nudged me, but not with a knife edge, this time. "Let him finish, Renata."
"That's why you went to Aokigahara. I remember, Papa, because I overheard the two of you discussing it. Like you, she knew that Mazawa could never learn about and never possess that ingredient, even though it meant betraying someone she loved dearly."
"Oh, gods," I groaned. "Please don't tell me that Reiko was Mazawa's lover!"
"No, Renata." Sighing, Jo threw the knife on the ground. "Reiko was his sister."