Snowblood

Chapter 15: Enshrined

A subway ride brought them to the foot of a hill below a shrine. "Yushima Tenmangu," Yukie explained, "It means 'The Shrine to the God of Learning'. He's called Tenjin now, but when he was a human man, he was called Sugawara no Michizane. He was a notable scholar, an excellent poet and an adviser to the Emperor.  The shrine's location here near Tokyo University means lots of students come here to pray for help on their exams. I used to come here myself for exactly that reason, when I was going to University there.

"Tenjin died in exile thanks to a rival's machinations, and his ghost came back to cause considerable trouble. They deified him to placate his spirit, but he is not the main reason  we're here today. There's a ghost story associated with this area. There used to be a temple near here, but it no longer exists, thanks to the ghost. Let's have a look around before I tell you the story, so you can soak up the atmosphere. There's an easy way to get up the hill and a hard way." She pointed in the direction of each path.

"Hard way," her father said, predictably.

"Um--these are new shoes," Kari decided. "Easy way. I'll meet you at the top."

"All right," Yukie said, "I'll go with you, Matthew."

The shoes were an excuse. Kari had felt her phone vibrate, and once her father and his companion were out of sight, she took it out to check who had been calling her.

It was Aunt Alison. "Hey, kid. How is Tokyo?"

"It's okay, so far," she replied.  "Are you--are you and Aunt Maggie not mad at me anymore?"

"Oh, we're still mad at you, all right.  We are madder than a starving bear with an abscessed tooth eating its way through a bushel of pecans in the shell, but that doesn't mean we don't still love you and care what's going on with you.  So things are good with your dad and Dr. Kuwano, huh?"

"I guess.  Yukie and I went shopping in Harajuku and then we had scones.  Now we're going to this shrine where she used to pray for good grades," Kari told her aunt.

"Make sure you pray extra hard, then.  Now, the other reason I called is that I've set up a phone appointment with Doctor Thorold for you.  She will call you at  four PM on Tuesday, our time. For you, that's five o'clock in the morning.  You will take this call, or your dad will be sending you home on the next possible flight."

"Five in the morning?" she yelped.  "That's--."

"Not negotiable," her aunt said firmly.  "Kari, you ran off to Japan.  To Japan.  And now you're going to explain yourself to your therapist. Or else."

That was a conversation she was not looking forward to in any form.

"Okay," she grudgingly conceded.

"Good girl. Now, give Boo a scritch between the wings from me--and take care of yourself.  Bye, Kari.  We love you."

"I love you too," she said, and ended the call. Then,  because she was looking at her phone instead of the path, she set her heel on a patch of ice and half-fell, her phone flying off somewhere while she clutched at a handy tree for support.

"Oh! Are you all right?" A couple of girls coming up the path behind her hurried over to help, one looking for her phone while the other steadied her.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you," she told the girl at her elbow, who was looking at her with a comically astonished expression.

"You have a griffin! Oh, he's so cute! But you're not Japanese, or are you?" the girl exclaimed. She had dyed her hair auburn and had part of it divided into two poufy pigtails while the rest of it streamed down. "Mi-chan, come look. She has a griffin."