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“Okay,” Shun said when I came out of the bathroom. “We need to get to this matsuri.”
He handed me a light cotton jacket with a crest on the back.
“What’s this for?”
“We’re going to help carry the mikoshi. It’s the best way to get close to the action. We need to be there when the priest takes that kami out of the box.”
Huh? “We can just gatecrash the matsuri?”
Shun nodded. “Yamaguchi’s teams often join in and the more the merrier when it comes to helping carry that thing.”
“I’ll just run upstairs,” I said. “I can’t go out like this.”
“No time. Throw the jacket over your dress.”
“I’m not doing it,” Yuki said, crossing her arms. “I’ll go to the matsuri but I’m not a mikoshi bearer. You know my thoughts on that.”
Shun gave her a look, the one I’d learned to identify as his “be patient with Yuki look”.
I took off Yuki’s sweater then put on the jacket, crossing it over my body and tying the belt.
While I sorted that out, Shun went through the usual arguments with Yuki. How we couldn’t let Yamaguchi find out what we’d done and how we needed her there to deal with Jin. She still didn’t look convinced.
Surely it wouldn’t kill her to help us with this. She was part of the team, after all.
I opened my mouth to argue with her then I remembered what she’d told me earlier, about the different types of kitsune. Being a trickster rather than a kitsune who worked for the shrine seemed to be a point of pride with her, and Yuki had more pride than anyone I’d ever met. For her to take part in this festival would be a major deal for her.
I wasn’t even sure if we needed her. Shun and I could handle it. But could we handle Jin? Even though he’d given his word, I had a feeling the two of us would have a lot harder time controlling him than Yuki had.
Instead of arguing, I softened my stance.
“Please, Yuki,” I added. “We really need you there.”
“Phhht, Jin,” she said, and shook her head.
I thought she’d scoff at my pleading but she almost smiled. Her mouth definitely twitched.
“Wrong way,” Yuki said, looking at the jacket I’d put on. She untied the belt and fixed my outfit.
Did that mean she agreed? I wasn’t sure but I didn’t want to push her any further.
Once she’d finished adjusting my clothes, she sighed and picked up the jacket Shun had given her. He looked at me but didn’t say anything.
After she put her jacket on, she twisted her hair up in a bun and tied a strip of fabric around her head as a head band. She gave me one to put on too.
“We have to fit in as best we can,” she said.
I wasn’t sure that’d be possible for me but I tied my hair back and put the headband on.
“Cab’s here,” Shun said.
“So far, so good,” I said.
“Yeah, but that was the easy part,” Shun said. “We’ve got to make it convincing for the priest.”
With so many cars around the shrine, the driver pulled up as close as he could. Shun grabbed my hand and made me run with him.
I tried to take it all in. The teenage couples shyly holding hands, the families all dressed up for a day out, the old people. Bells rang out and a steady drum beat filled the air.
“It will only get busier,” Shun said. “The festival hasn’t even started.”
I just hoped we’d be around later to enjoy it and not being disembodied by Yamaguchi’s henchmen.
We dodged through groups of people, while smells of delicious food wafted around me. We ran down a row of food vendors and the tinny pop music from their stalls drowned out the drum beats.
Damn, I could eat some of that corn.
As we swung a sharp left, a row of game tents stretched out before us. Kids hung around tanks of goldfish, trying to catch them with nets.
“Too busy,” Shun said and slipped through a gap between the tents.
We cut across a grassy area and Jin and Yuki caught up with us.
When we got back on the path, the number of people around us increased. I could see the shrine building up ahead. The bright orange gates already towered above us.
Suddenly, voices clamored in my head. I raised my hands to my ears which didn’t help at all.
“I can hear kami,” I said. “Not our kami but the voices of hundreds of them.”
“There are many kami at the festival,” Shun said. “Not just ours. Each has their own mikoshi.”
I hadn’t considered that there’d be other kami. I thought if our kami was here, I’d hear his voice clearly but that might not be so. He’d blend in with all the others. There’d be only one kami here obsessed with chocolate, though.
“They’re excited,” I said. “They won’t shut up.”
We pushed through the hustle of people until we found a group sitting on the ground dressed in the same jackets as we wore. Shun waved to someone and they moved to make space for us on their mat.
The people around us ranged from teenage boys to old men. Not a lot of women, but a few around my age. I thought they’d question us being there but no one paid us much attention. A couple of men chatted to Shun as though they knew him already.
An old man handed me a can of something. I took a swig and nearly spat it out. Was that pure alcohol? My body heated as the booze hit it. It wasn’t even lunch time yet.
The mikoshi sat on a block near us, glowing with gold splendor. It really did look like a miniature pavilion with a tiny area in the center. I assumed that’s where the kami was supposed to go. If there were a kami. Which there wasn’t.
Damn. Just thinking about that my belly swirled again, and there was no convenient bathroom around here.
Red tassels hung off the corners and a phoenix rose from the ornate roof.
But that miniature pavilion wasn’t miniature enough for my liking. We had to carry that thing? If the kami box had been too heavy to lift, that thing looked a million times worse. Even with so many people to help lift it. No wonder no one cared about us joining them.
Near us, some kids rallied around a tiny little mikoshi. Why couldn’t I be on that team? That one looked light as a feather, and I bet the kami inside didn’t grumble and complain.
But, darn it, I missed that grumpy guy.
I wanted to get my phone out of my backpack and take photos but no one else was and I wanted to keep a low profile.
Yuki sat down beside me and handed me a bottle of water.
“You might need this,” she said. “It’s going to be hard work.”
Jin sat down beside her. “I wish I had my phone,” he said. “The renegade kitsune carrying a mikoshi. I never thought I’d see the day.”
Then he ducked before Yuki punched him.
The drumming intensified. Did that mean something? It seemed to match my heartbeat, getting louder and more frenzied while we waited. Added into that beat was the chit chatter of the kami.
I opened the water and took a few swigs then people started moving around us.
“We have to get to the front,” Shun said and grabbed Jin. The two of them rushed off while Yuki and I followed behind.
“Get in the middle,” she hissed at me. “Then we can let others do the heavy lifting.”
Rows of poles came out under the mikoshi and the team got into position. Shun and Jin had managed to get at the front but Yuki and I had to go further back. People boxed us in, their bodies pressing against ours.
With a lot of grunts and groans, we heaved the shrine onto our shoulders.
Suddenly, this wasn’t fun anymore. That mikoshi weighed a ton and it bore down on my shoulder as though I carried its entire weight. My body twisted and I couldn’t straighten back up. I couldn’t do this but there was no way out. Bodies squashed me from every direction, blocking me in so I couldn’t run even if I wanted to.
I didn’t have to worry about Yamaguchi. I’d die carrying this stupid thing.