Come by Night 3: Kitsune No Yomeiri

Chapter Three - The Fox's Daughter

*shinshi - animal spirit/s in service to the divine, such as the foxes of Inari. 

When my vision returns, one of my worst nightmares is realized. My daughter is gone. I hear you call out her name. It is the sound of my heart breaking. I want to call out for her, too, as if that could work and our dear child suddenly pop out of nowhere. I know better. The shinshi took her.

I grab you by the elbows and clutch you in my grief. You sob against me, then pound your fists upon my arms and chest. "Where is she? Where did that thing take Tsukiko?" you scream.

My ears flatten. I feel your pain, your fear, but this will not get our daughter back.

"Stop this!" I demand, and you reluctantly quiet. Your cheeks are wet, your painted face streaked and etched with pain. It hurts me to see you in such a state.

"I am getting her back," I vow.

You shake your head, the jewels dangling from your hair sticks jingle and flash. "Not without me! I'm going with you!"

I blink, shocked. You cannot be serious, surely. You are human. How can I protect you and confront the kami themselves? It is impossible!

"No! You must stay!"

You shake your head so fervently that one of the hair sticks falls out and clatters to the wooden planks of the bridge.

"Not again! I will not wait alone for you over and over, wondering if you are going to come back to me. And with Tsukiko gone? I will go mad!"

"I cannot keep watch over you and search for Tsukiko," I insist.

"I will watch over myself," you say, unyielding.

I am about to protest when I am cut off.

"Mitsuaki," a deep voice emanates from the lake. "Hotaru must go, too," the koi says. "She is right. This task belongs to you both."

I thought the koi would take my side, if it intervened at all. I am perplexed and stunned to silence. Fretfully, I stare down at your beautiful countenance, turned stern and petulant. What if I lose you? I fear what will become of me if that happens. I fear for our Tsukiko, too.

"Trust your wife, Mitsuaki. She will not let you down."

Your eyes plead with mine, hope alight in them with the koi's words. I want to deny you. I can't... I'm too weak. Oh, my love.

At last, I concede I have no choice. There is no leaving without you. I nod grimly.

"You must go at once if you have any hope of finding your daughter before the trail goes cold," the koi says. "If you would save her, leap now. To go high, you must journey the middle way. Your path begins on earth."

"I understand," I say. That makes things more difficult, but it is not unexpected. This portal goes to your world, not to the Celestial Realm. In order to have come here directly, a kami opened that pathway. It isn't hard to guess which one. My old master bears a grudge. You cannot possibly understand what we're up against.

I look into your eyes, fierce in your determination.  It wouldn't matter if you did.  I nod. "All right."

You breathe out in relief, until you look out over the bridge. Your breath comes fast. I take your hand in my own once more and I help you step atop the ornamental rail to stand beside me. It creaks beneath our weight. I can hear your heart beat frantically. I know you are afraid.

"You don't have to do this," I say.

"I do. For Tsukiko, and you."

Then you move before you can second guess yourself, and I must must leap with you to stay by your side as we jump into the abyss together.