She leaned forward, face scrunched in alarm. “Do not, under any circumstances, take down that barricade. The curse will spread out before we have time to react.”
“Then what is Seiho supposed to do? You can’t get inside, but you don’t want him to take off the barricade either. You can’t possibly let him die.”
“He’s been long dead!” she snapped, her rough voice making Nagisa lean back. “For how much time has he been stuck in there? Two hundred years? Three hundred years? His time has passed. He’s only a shadow of an era long gone and he’s been keeping a monster here to feed on reckless adventurers like you.”
“Blaming it on him now? I’d say you’re responsible too. You could’ve done something about it.”
“Whoever he is, that man is powerful enough to move an entire building from this realm to the one of spirits. I don’t know what he’s told you, but few are able to do that. Perhaps he doesn’t have a good grasp on the extent of his abilities.”
Letting her words sink in, Nagisa contemplated on what Seiho had told him, then answered, “He said he’s not strong enough to put the castle back in its former place or keep those like me—without powers—from getting inside.”
“It’s possible he can’t put it back because the place was purified in the aftermath and it repels the castle. As for the barricade, it’s in fact a lot more difficult to keep those without powers from entering a place as compared to those with powers.”
“How so?”
“Reiryokucan blockreiryoku, but it can’t block what doesn’t exist. You have no powers, therefore cannot be kept from entering the premises. Walls of strong double or triple barricades are required to keep those like you out of a place.”
Nagisa pursed his lips. “Feels backwards.”
“You don’t have to believe me, boy.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “We’re usually very careful not to get people without powers involved in such things. The man’s presence inside the castle was a miscalculation.”
Rubbing his finger over his forehead, Nagisa tried to gather his bearings. He’d gotten himself in a situation beyond his powers. He’d never thought his trip to Aomori Prefecture would turn from drinking and relaxing with his friends into trying to save a man from a castle haunted by a monster.
“Could Seiho somehow guide the jikininki to the other side?”
“Guiding works on calm spirits,” she said, “who are still holding onto their humanity and who understand they need to part with this world and move to the next. A jikininki is far from being rational and it’s so attached to something in this world that its body has become material. It can’t be sent through the gates to the other side.”
Nagisa gaped at her. “How is such a creature supposed to be destroyed then?”
“Jikininki are the result of human greed, of corrupted souls, of those who have done misdeeds in their life and became monsters in their death. This jikininki hassomethingof value that keeps it tied to this world. Something he’s too greedy to let go to. And I think you know what—or better saidwhothat is.”
Seiho.
The one thing the lord wanted most was to have Seiho for himself. And Seiho had promised his heart to the jikininki upon his death. But Seiho’s death would come slow or perhaps never and the jikininki would keep roaming, desiring, waiting for the moment Seiho gave up his heart.
“I won’t let the monster have him,” Nagisa whispered.
“It won’t have him. What he needs to do is take the castle to the other side, release the barricade, and burn the jikininki.”
Nagisa raised a brow. “That simple?”
Theitakoshook her head. “It is that same barricade which keeps him alive in the world of spirits. Once he releases it, he’ll belong entirely to that side.”
“You mean he dies.”
“Yes.”
“Got it.” Nagisa stood up. “Thank you for the tea and the information. You might feel okay letting a man die—”
“His sacrifice will save—”
“—but I’m not okay with that.” He was going to find a way to kill the jikininki and keep Seiho alive.
Theitakosighed. “You’re reckless, boy.”
“So I’ve been told.” Nagisa slid open the door and left without looking back.
Black clouds nestled above the temple, omens of bad weather and maybe bad luck for his quest too. He wandered through the criss-cross paths, gazing at the colorful paper windmills, swirling fast in the chilled late spring wind. It brought with it the sulfurous smell of Lake Usori and Nagisa turned his attention to it.