My Modern Kaidan

Chapter 11

It's strange to be in Kenji's room, a place I've only been in dreams. I let my eyes dart around the room as he stands in front of his bookshelf. I've never been in a guy's room in the first place. In this case, it's kind of like being in a kid's room. Posters of Naruto and Bleach hang on the walls and the shelf above his bed is devoted entirely to Gundam figures.

Kenji finds what he's looking for, turning and pulling a chair out from his desk and motioning for me to sit. He positions himself across from me, leaning against the table top before handing me a book.

I recognize my dad's name at the bottom, but the rest of the title I struggle to read, sounding out each kana symbol syllable by syllable.

"Rinchizoku," Kenji repeats with a native's ease. "Lynch club."

"Huh?" I say, cracking it open to the title page. My dad's drawing is instantly recognizable, one of his trademark girls, her eyes a dark, blank slate and her lips a solem line like she's hiding something. On the next page, her face is twisted in horror as she falls into an abyss of reaching hands, the gnarled fingers bent into claws.

"Have you read it?" Kenji asks me.

"No," I say, suddenly feeling guilty. I'm sure lots of people, Kenji included, would love a dad like mine, a famous mangaka, but I suddenly realize I've never really paid much attention to any of his books. My parents have managed to have a daughter who prefers Fruits Basket to her own father, a master of horror. To me, he's just dorky old dad, fogging up his glasses over soup and dressing as Doraemon for Halloween.

"It's an early Ego," Kenji says. "Rare. Maybe before you were born."

"Do you think I'm a terrible daughter?" I blurt out.

"No," Kenji says, looking startled. "I don't really like green tea."

We grin at each other.

Kenji guides the pages of the book along with his fingers. "I hadn't thought about it, but when you said the detectives were looking at your parents, I was reminded of this. Here, popular student Harumi goes missing. Tatsue is a reformed Yakuza trying to forget his previous life. Naturally, he becomes suspect number one to the neighbors when she disapears. They start to harass Tatsue and his family. Do you know what one of the first things they do is?"

Kenji skips ahead and my eyes widen at the page, a scale for scale drawing of that morning in the garden.

"They throw a dead rat over his fence," Kenji says.

Tatsue stands like my dad, smoothing the dirt over the hole.

"Do you think it's just coincidence?" My voice comes out in a whisper.

Kenji pulls his hand away, stuffing it and the other into his pockets. "It depends on what is in that hole."

I exhale, realizing I had been holding my breath. "What happens to Tatsue?"

"Harumi is found dead," Kenji says, before pausing. I know what's on both of our minds. If my dad's old manga continues to come to life, that means Miyako. . .

"And then?" I say.

"Kenji!" the screech from Kenji's mom causes us both to jump.

Coming to his feet, he quickly shuts the book in my hand and offers it to me. "Here."

"No. Kenji, I can't take your book."

"It's really okay."

"No, I'm sure my dad has a copy in his office."

"My mom," Kenji says. "I have to go back to work."

Kenji's room exits straight out to the balcony of the house. "Amaya," he says, pausing at the top of the stairs. "Please be safe."