The Gate of Sorrows

  “Before what?”

  “Before that, let’s go someplace we can sit down.”

  Conveniently, the cafeteria wasn’t crowded this time of day.

  “This is really nice.”

  One side of the room was floor-to-ceiling glass. The big sun blinds were halfway up. Kotaro and the girl sat facing each other across a round table. She had a chocolate cappuccino in front of her—so sweet, it made Kotaro sick just thinking about it—and looked as if she couldn’t be more satisfied.

  “University students get to hang out in places like this between classes? I can’t wait.” She looked and talked like any high school student.

  Once they were seated, she reached into her pack and pulled out her student ID. She was a tenth grader after all, at a first-rate private high school. She’d be about two rungs up the ladder from Kotaro in terms of smarts if she was going to that kind of school. Her name was Yuriko Morisaki.

  “So you’re Kotaro Mishima.” She perused his ID. Her tone was slightly patronizing.

  “And you would be Yuri-chan.” Kotaro countered with the Big Brother card. “Do your friends call you Yuri-chan?”

  “The call me Morisaki-san, actually.” She didn’t smile. “But my associates call me U-ri. That’s the name I usually use. It’s who I really am.”

  Kotaro was beginning to suspect he was in the presence of a classic head case. This is what I get for posting all those questions on the web. If I’m not careful, she might turn out to be a real pain in the butt.

  “Kotaro.” She peered at him intently. “Before you start worrying that I might be some kind of oddball, there’s something else you need to worry about first.”

  “Um … What?”

  “I said I did a web search and found your questions.”

  “That’s what you said.”

  “Doesn’t that seem a bit odd to you?”

  She had the looks, the style, the aura. Yuriko Morisaki was a head turner. There were only a few people in the cafeteria, but she was getting looks from everybody. Kotaro could feel it. The student who’d just walked past their table made no effort to conceal his interest.

  “How do you mean, ‘odd’?”

  “How did I just up and find you? How did I go from reading your posts to sitting here talking to you?” She looked at him steadily. Her eyes were not large, but her pupils seemed dilated. “I’m not a hacker. I’m not even good at web searches. Finding you here just with your handle and mail address would be way over my head.”

  Kotaro had to work hard to generate a carefree smile. “So maybe your brother or father’s the hacker. Or your boyfriend.”

  Her expression didn’t change, except for a slight smile at the corners of her mouth. “You’re logical. I like that.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  The student who had passed by earlier was back. He was holding his smartphone to his ear and talking in a loud voice. The performance wasn’t convincing. He had bleached blond hair and pierced ears, and a large backpack with a camouflage pattern.

  “Sorry to tell you this, but my brother and father aren’t hackers. My brother—” She glanced away and paused. “I had a brother, but he’s not here anymore.”

  Kotaro was startled. “Hey, I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “No, it’s all right. He’s not dead or anything. He’s just not in this world.”

  Sorry Yuri-chan, but in my book, you are a stone head case.

  As Kotaro took a sip of water, he heard the faint but unmistakable sound of a shutter. He turned quickly to see Blondie grinning and pointing his smartphone at Yuriko. He had a sidekick with the same smile and taste in clothes, and a big bag under one arm with the strap slung over the opposite shoulder.

  “Hey, knock it off!” Kotaro’s voice was sharp as he stood up.

  “It’s okay.” Yuriko’s fingers brushed his wrist. “Don’t get upset. They can’t take my picture.”

  She smiled when she saw Kotaro’s eyes start from his head. “Don’t be scared. I’m not a ghost. I cast a barrier spell. No pictures.”

  Kotaro eyes wouldn’t bulge any further, and since there didn’t seem to be anything he could do, he sat down.

  “You don’t like rule breakers, do you?” Yuriko’s voice was gentle. “You hate it when people cheat, even when it doesn’t matter. My brother was like you.”

  Maybe Blondie and his sidekick thought Kotaro had bowed out. They walked up to Yuriko, bold as brass.

  “Hey, babe. ’Sup?”

  “Wanna join our club? It’s dope.” Blondie’s sidekick used too much men’s cologne. “The Computer Communication Club. You’ll love it.”

  Blondie’s grin turned upside down as he paged through his photos. “What the hell?” he muttered and turned to his friend. “She’s not there.”

  He showed the phone to Sidekick, who peered at the screen and frowned too. “Can’t you even take a picture?”

  “I’m telling you, I nailed it!”

  Yuriko watched this exchange with a smile. She turned away and moved her lips quickly, murmuring. She wasn’t talking to Kotaro, or to anyone, in fact.

  “Hey, quit yanking!”

  Sidekick was bewildered and angry. His bag had twisted itself behind his back and was expanding like a balloon, straining against the straps as though it were trying to escape upward. Blondie shouted with fright. Kotaro almost had the same reaction.

  Sidekick’s bag hung in midair, tugging hard and pulling its owner backward, like a headstrong dog tugging at its leash and yanking its owner off-balance.

  Scattered gasps of surprise rose from the room. Outside, people stopped to watch through the windows.

  Blondie’s scream prompted Sidekick to throw up his arms. His bag slipped up and away, but instead of falling to the floor, it flew across the room as if thrown by an invisible hand. It thudded onto the floor near the entrance.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Sidekick’s eyes flashed with anger as he stepped quickly toward Kotaro, but Blondie body checked him and they fell to the floor in a heap.

  “Ow!”

  “It’s not me! I’m not doing anything!” Blondie yelled.

  “Quit acting like an idiot and get off me!”

  “I told you, it’s not me. Something’s holding me down!”

  Blondie’s camouflage backpack was expanding crazily. It kept rising and slamming down on its owner. Then it rose violently, bending Blondie’s spine backward. Over by the door, Sidekick’s bag started to move again, as though something alive were inside it, and righted itself so abruptly that the straps flew up in the air. Before they could fall again, it hurtled out the door.

  Seemingly determined not to be left behind, Blondie’s backpack began dragging its howling owner toward the door. Sidekick brought up the rear, close to tears and wailing just as loud.

  Almost everyone was on their feet now, along with Kotaro. Everyone except Yuriko Morisaki. She put her chocolate cappuccino on its saucer and shrugged her shoulders. “I guess they had to go.”

  “How far?”

  “Until they run into something.” She stood up, looking as if nothing special had happened. “Let’s get out of here while everyone’s distracted. Come on.”

  Kotaro had no objections. They left quickly by the opposite door.

  “Is there somewhere quiet around here where we can talk?” Yuriko said.

  They crossed the street at the edge of campus to the municipal library and a large park that doubled as a disaster evacuation area. Kotaro reflexively broke into a trot and headed into the park.

  “You don’t have to hurry, you know.”

  “What did you do back there?”

  “Just a little parlor trick.” Yuriko was diminutive, but she had no trouble keeping up with him.

  “You mumbled something right before it
happened. It looked like—I don’t know what it looked like. Were you casting a spell or something?”

  She raised a shapely eyebrow. “You’re a good observer.”

  So I was right. But how could I be?

  Kotaro didn’t slow down until he reached the first bench along the path. He was out of breath.

  “If a little run like that is enough to make you huff and puff, you must be spending too much time in front of your PC. You ought to get some exercise,” Yuriko said.

  “I’m huffing and puffing from emotional shock.”

  “Oh, well. Better sit down, then.”

  She planted herself on the bench and crossed her legs as though she were quite used to sitting there. “You’ve never seen that kind of thing before, have you? The being you encountered didn’t use spells.”

  Kotaro still hadn’t caught his breath. He stood looking at her. “I still don’t understand what you did.”

  She shrugged her shoulders lightly under the baggy jacket. “I borrowed the power of the books they were carrying.”

  He gaped at her.

  “Both those guys’ve been ignoring their textbooks for too long. The books were pretty ticked off about it.”

  Come on. What is this?

  “Books have power, you know. They all have a basic power that’s the same. They each have their own individual powers too, depending on what they’re about.”

  Kotaro just shook his head.

  “They had natural science textbooks. Probably introductory texts, maybe study guides. All I did was borrow the books’ power to move on their own. You saw the rest.”

  The books ran away?

  “Books like the ones those guys carry are very young, or babies. It’s a sure bet.”

  “Time out. Hold it a second.”

  Yuriko wouldn’t wait. She glanced through the trees at the glass-enclosed main floor of the library. “There are a lot of young books over there, but one of the Elders is there too. Maybe I should pay my respects on the way home.”

  Kotaro’s head was spinning. He put a hand on the back of the bench for support and sat down unsteadily.

  “ ‘I come from the birthplace of the souls of words.’ ” Yuriko was abruptly solemn. “That’s what the warrior told you. Am I right?”

  Kotaro put a hand to his head to steady it. “Did I put that on the web too?”

  “Yeah, you did. Was it human?”

  Kotaro jerked his hand away from his forehead and stared at her. “Why are you asking that?”

  “Because a being that would’ve used those words wouldn’t really look human at all.”

  Kotaro gulped, loudly.

  “Its true form is a terrible monster. You would’ve been so scared, I doubt you could’ve exchanged words with it. Still, I guess you must have.”

  He nodded once, twice. He felt like someone was moving his head. “It was … It had wings.”

  “A woman with wings sprouting from her back?”

  “Yeah. And she was big. She must’ve been seven feet tall. And she was … She was beautiful.”

  Yuriko looked very serious. “Ah, yes. The beautiful woman.”

  “She said she was a warrior.”

  Yuriko nodded slowly. “She guards the Tower of Inception. She probably told you she was the Guardian of the Third Pillar.”

  “That’s right.”

  “The guardians of the first nine Pillars are especially powerful. A being like that would never leave its post except in the direst emergency.” She whispered to herself, “It’s just as Ash feared.”

  “Ash?”

  “An associate of mine.” For the first time, her eyes were smiling too. “Someone who helped me once. He’s my wolf master.”

  Kotaro almost said “time out” again, but by now he could see that was pointless. “A wolf. Right. Is that an animal wolf? Or a man with the spirit of a wolf?”

  Yuriko looked puzzled. “A man … with the spirit of a wolf. I never looked at it that way. You are interesting, Mr. Mishima.”

  Under different circumstances, this sort of comment from a pretty girl would’ve been welcome, but not now.

  “What is the Circle, Miss Morisaki?”

  “I’m asking the questions. Why do you want to know?”

  Kotaro was losing patience. “Why don’t you just cast a spell on me like you did with those guys back there? You’re a sorcerer, right? Use your magic. Make me tell you everything.”

  She shook her head. “Some wolves are powerful wizards. Not me. I can’t do just anything. I’m still new at this.”

  “Oh, okay. That explains it.”

  “But I can read your words.” She cocked her head and looked at him as though sizing him up whole, for the first time.

  “You live with your parents and two sisters. Are they twins?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she blinked once and shifted her pupils, still looking at him. “And there’s an older person. A woman. Not a relative. Oh—”

  She raised an index finger and wagged it gently. “Correction. You have one sister. Not twins. Your sister has a good friend. You know her very well too.”

  Yuriko’s eyes kept flicking here and there across Kotaro’s face. “You have teachers, or mentors. People with a lot of influence over you. A man and a woman. They’re married, or lovers. You’re very worried about someone too. A friend, or maybe someone you look up to. I can’t see him clearly … He’s not your older brother.”

  Kotaro almost swallowed his tongue with astonishment.

  Yuriko’s wandering gaze stopped. Her eyes narrowed. She almost seemed to be listening for a distant sound.

  “That girl, the one who’s friends with your sister. Is something happening to her?”

  Kotaro was speechless. All he could do was goggle at her.

  “Seriously. Something bad, or strange, is happening to her, I think.”

  “What— How—”

  “Complete sentences, please. You want to know how I know.” He nodded stiffly.

  “The book in your backpack is telling me everything. It’s really worried about her. About Mika. That’s her book, right? You borrowed it from her, or she gave it to you.”

  Kotaro dragged his backpack onto his lap and unzipped it. It was filled with a jumble of stuff. He upended it and dumped everything on the bench—textbooks and notebooks and dictionaries. Half-buried in the pile was a slender paperback.

  LAND OF THE SUN: ANCIENT EGYPT AND THE RIDDLE OF THE PYRAMIDS

  Yes, this book definitely belonged to Mika Sonoi. Kazumi had borrowed it from her, and it had been sitting on a shelf in the living room for some time before he’d stuffed it in his backpack, thinking it might be a good way to kill time.

  “Your friend Mika likes this kind of thing.” Yuriko’s gaze was gentle. “Does she like to read?”

  Kotaro finally managed a natural reaction. “Yeah, she does. Me and Kazumi—my sister—don’t read much, but Mika loves books.”

  “Did you read that?”

  “No. I was going to, but … I don’t even remember when I stuck it in there. I haven’t felt like reading much of anything recently. I’ve had a lot on my mind. Is this—is this book worried about Mika?”

  “It’s very, very worried about her. She chose it herself and read it cover to cover. They have a connection. But that’s not the only reason, it seems.” She reached for the book, but stopped.

  “It’s better if you check it. There’s a note in it.”

  Kotaro opened the book and riffled the pages slowly. It was still practically new. Nothing was written in the margins.

  “Look again.” Yuriko sounded impatient.

  “I looked.”

  He froze. There was something between the cover of the paperback and the binding—a thin, tiny, light-pink Post-it. He might’v
e read the whole book and never noticed it. There was a message in small, rounded script.

  If you touch Gaku, I’m going to kill you.

  Kotaro sat paralyzed with astonishment for a full ten seconds with the tiny note in his hand.

  “Girls use those little stickers all the time to pass notes in class.”

  Kotaro knew. He’d seen girls using them all through middle school and high school.

  Yuriko plucked the note from his fingers. “Don’t rip it up.” He had been about to do just that. “You borrowed this from her, then?”

  “Kazumi borrowed it from Mika, and I borrowed it from Kazumi.”

  “Kazumi’s your sister, then. Anyway, Mika didn’t know about the note. If she had, she wouldn’t have lent the book to someone. Would you agree?”

  “Sure, I guess so.”

  “This is an important piece of evidence about what’s happening to her. You can’t throw it away.”

  “But I can’t put it back where it was.”

  “Of course. I’m not saying you should. It wouldn’t be fair to the book. You should put it somewhere safe.”

  Kotaro felt faintly defensive for some reason. “I know what this is about, but the trouble’s blown over already.”

  The bad blood over Gaku and the soft tennis club had ended. Kazumi had said so herself. It had ended so suddenly that it almost seemed strange. Glitter Kitty had gone quiet.

  “Things were bad at the end of last year—at least, that’s when I found out about it, but it’d been going on for a while before that. That’s probably when someone put that note in the book.”

  “When did you borrow it?”

  Kotaro’s mind was blank. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d checked his pack.

  “Look at the colophon.”

  “The what?”

  “The last page. It shows the publication date. The book looks new.”

  The publication date was October 25 of the previous year. Kotaro was relieved.

  “See? Mika’s a fast reader. If she read this first and lent it to Kazumi, that would be the middle of November at the latest. That was when things were boiling over, supposedly. But everything’s settled down now.”

  “Looks like some kind of conflict over a guy.”