Читать книгу The Stone of Kuromori - Jason Rohan - Страница 8

Kenny felt the acid tang of bile in the back of his throat. ‘Whose blood?’ he croaked.

‘Not mine, if that’s what you’re asking,’ Kiyomi said, snatching back her phone, ‘although it was all over my hands. Took ages to clean off and I had to wipe the walls down with bleach. Nice way to leave a message.’

Kenny blanched, unable to clear the image from his mind. ‘If it’s not your blood, then . . .’

‘Don’t be such a baby. I checked the fridge and there was a packet of wagyu steak missing.’

‘You wrote that?’

‘Duh. Hello, Sherlock. Looks like someone can make me write in my sleep as well as walk. Aren’t I talented?’

Kenny rubbed his eyes. ‘Am I allowed to get up now?’

Kiyomi gave a curt nod. Kenny stood and went over to the workstation by the window. He picked up a notepad and jotted down the symbols.

‘These numbers,’ he said. ‘What do they mean? Is it some kind of code? A puzzle? Some ancient language?’

Kiyomi rolled her eyes. ‘You’re such an idiot sometimes. Give me that.’ Kenny handed her the pad and for a moment the only sounds were the scritching of the pen and a quiet scrunching from the kitchen. ‘Here.’ Kiyomi held out the pad.

Kenny took it and read:

24°2'55.2'N 123°00'39.6'E

‘Oh, man. This is some kind of mathematics problem? Am I supposed to draw it?’ He scratched his head.

‘They’re coordinates. You know, as in finding things on a map.’ Kiyomi took the pad back and drew a circle on a fresh page. ‘This is the earth, right?’ She drew a horizontal line through the middle and a vertical one, cutting it in quarters. ‘This is the equator. Sideways lines are latitude. Down through the poles is longitude. Zero is Greenwich in London. Got it?’

‘Yeah. And because it’s a globe, it’s three hundred and sixty degrees in any direction, right?’

‘No. That works for longitude, but you count one hundred and eighty degrees east or west of Greenwich to make a complete circle.’ She drew arrows pointing to the left and right. ‘For latitude, it’s ninety degrees north or south of the equator. OK?’

Kenny furrowed his brow and closed his eyes to visualise the planet. ‘So, twenty-four degrees north of the equator is about a quarter of the way up . . . and a hundred and twenty degrees east of London is about two-thirds of the way to the International Date Line . . .’

‘Why don’t you use that big shiny box called a computer, before your brain has a meltdown?’ Kiyomi flicked her head in the direction of the monitor.

‘Fine,’ Kenny grumbled, powering up his dad’s clunky desktop. He called up a browser window, found a mapping site and keyed in the coordinates. The cursor flashed on a page of blue.

‘Zoom out,’ Kiyomi advised.

Kenny clicked on the scale and a grey, clam-shaped blob appeared at the top of the screen. He clicked again, shrinking the island, and continued zooming out until the state of Taiwan filled the page to the left.

‘Keep going,’ Kiyomi said.

Kenny waited until Japan appeared, on the top right, then sat back and whistled through his teeth. ‘Wow. That’s on the doorstep of China. It’s closer to Korea than it is to here.’ He hit the print button. ‘So why were these coordinates given to you? Where is this?’

Kiyomi crossed her arms. ‘I’m not telling you anything until you explain what the hell is going on.’

‘Hell is right,’ Kenny muttered, taking the map from the printer.

‘Well?’ Kiyomi glared again.

Kenny hesitated. He was sworn to secrecy, unable to tell a soul about the deal he had made with Susano-wo, the dread Lord of the Underworld. On the other hand, what was he supposed to do now that Susano-wo had shown himself to Kiyomi? Not only had he dropped Kenny in it, he had also given Kiyomi important information to deliver.

‘OK,’ Kenny sighed. ‘You’re right. Susano-wo offered me a deal.’

‘I knew it!’ Kiyomi said, her face twisting in fury. ‘To do what?’

Kenny looked away. ‘It was for you. For your soul.’

Kiyomi froze. ‘Wh-What?’

Kenny’s rubbed his stinging eyes again. ‘Back in July, when you . . . died – not all of you came back. The missing part was made up by Taro, and his oni soul began taking over, gaining control.’

‘Oh my God!’ Kiyomi gasped in horror. ‘The red jade ring – it was from Susano-wo, wasn’t it?’

Kenny nodded. ‘It was half of your missing soul. That’s why you’ve been feeling better, why the oni part has been weaker this past month.’

‘And what did you have to do?’ Kiyomi said, her voice a horrified whisper. ‘What did he demand in return?’

Kenny shrugged, but it was stiff and awkward, the complete opposite of the nonchalance he was trying to project. ‘He wanted some trinket, that was all.’

Kiyomi’s hand went to her mouth. ‘You gave him the Mirror of Amaterasu? Please, no. Tell me you didn’t.’

‘I did it for you,’ Kenny said, reaching out to take her hands. ‘To save your life. I had to do something.’

Kiyomi jerked her hands out of reach, shrinking from Kenny’s touch. ‘We have to go to Inari,’ she said, turning towards the door. ‘Right now.’

‘What? No way!’ Kenny declared.

‘Why not?’ Kiyomi paused in the hallway.

‘Because she’ll try to stop me.’

‘Good. Someone has to.’

‘And then what happens to you?’ Kenny blinked, trying to stem the tears suddenly brimming in his eyes. ‘And me? I won’t be able to survive here without you.’

Kiyomi bit her lip and stepped back into the living room. She placed a hand on Kenny’s arm. ‘It’s for the best.’

He pulled back. ‘Says who? What’s the big deal anyway?’

‘Kenny . . .’ Kiyomi’s voice was low, the warning tone unmistakable. ‘You have no idea who you are messing with, or how much trouble we’re all in.’

‘No, I don’t, so tell me.’ Kenny stared at her defiantly.

‘That mirror isn’t just any old relic, like the ones your grandad used to recover. It’s sacred. It holds some of the essence of the Sun Goddess herself, but – more importantly than that – it’s also one of the Three Sacred Treasures, the Imperial Regalia.’

‘Which means what?’

Kiyomi grabbed Kenny’s shoulders and fought the urge to throttle him. ‘Do you have any idea how dangerous, cunning, unpredictable, manipulative and plain old psycho Susano-wo is? He was crazy enough to start with, but thousands of years in Hell have hardly helped. He’ll trick you, first chance he gets.’

‘No, he won’t,’ Kenny said. ‘He’s kept his word so far – including healing you, I should add – and, if he does try anything . . . then me and Kusanagi will be ready for him.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Kiyomi released her grip and lowered her head, a curtain of black hair surrounding her face. ‘So, you did a deal to restore my soul? You went to the Lord of the Underworld . . . just for me?’

Kenny smiled. ‘Yeah.’

Kiyomi stroked his cheek. ‘Aw. That was sooo sweet –’ Kenny closed his eyes and relaxed a little ‘– and so stupid!’

WHACK! The slap was so hard it rattled Kenny’s teeth and made his ears ring. Spots flickered before his eyes.

‘Don’t you know I’d be better off dead than have you help that filthy, treacherous, lying, slimy piece of –’

‘No, you wouldn’t!’ Kenny fired back, rubbing his jaw. ‘You can’t fool me. I remember how you were before . . . You didn’t want to die. You wanted to live. To be normal, to hang out, to have friends, to laugh and play. You even wanted to be kissed.’ He wiped his swelling lip with the back of his hand. ‘Somehow, I don’t think being stuck in Yomi with a thousand oni lining up to torture you forever is a better option.’

Tears glittered in Kiyomi’s eyes and her voice was little more than a murmur. ‘But still . . . you should never have done this.’

Kenny slipped his arms over Kiyomi’s shoulders and drew her closer. ‘It was worth it,’ he whispered.

BRRAAPPP!

Startled by the sudden noise, they glanced round to see Poyo squatting on top of the counter. He waved a paw to clear the pungent air, then held out two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

‘Great. Talk about a mood-killer,’ Kenny grumbled, taking one of the cups.

Kiyomi joined Kenny at the counter and they sipped their drinks.

‘I didn’t figure everything out,’ Kiyomi said. ‘I made Poyo tell me the rest, about your little trip to Matsue.’

Kenny glowered at the tanuki. ‘Thanks for nothing. Some partner you turned out to be.’

Poyo ignored him, rolled on to his back and aimed the nozzle of a can of whipped cream into his open muzzle. FW-AAAWSH! A cloud of surplus cream clung to Poyo’s whiskers, making him look like Santa Claus.

‘Well, I am not going to see Inari, I can tell you that,’ Kenny said, eyeing Kiyomi. ‘Besides, you heard what Susie said in your dream. He’s giving me four days to find this precious stone for him, or you’re going full oni.’

Kiyomi flinched and stared down into her Newcastle United mug.

Kenny leaned closer. ‘Kiyomi, I need your help. That’s why Susie summoned you in the dream. He knows I can’t fetch this jewel on my own, so he’s brought you in to help me.’

‘This is wrong,’ Kiyomi insisted.

Kenny’s grip tightened on his mug, his knuckles whitening. ‘What choice do we have? Go to Inari? Beg for forgiveness?’

‘You can do your duty, as she commands.’

‘Not if it means losing you.’

He slid off the stool and went to the desk, where he scooped up the map printout. After studying it, he returned to the computer screen and adjusted the map scale.

‘According to your dream,’ Kenny said, ‘the mirror showed that this stone he’s after is at the bottom of the East China Sea. If I’m reading this correctly, it’s somewhere off the coast of Taiwan, about a hundred kilometres east. Man, why is this never easy?’

‘Because if it was, Susano-wo wouldn’t need us,’ Kiyomi said, coming over to examine the map.

‘Does anyone mind if I have a look?’ Kenny’s father said from the hall. He yawned and closed his bedroom door. ‘I was trying not to listen, but you two hardly keep the noise down. As for you . . .’ He fixed Poyo with a glare. ‘You’d better clean up this mess. I’m tired of picking tanuki hair out of my food. Got it?’

Poyo straightened up, snapped a salute and fell into the sink.

‘Dad . . .’ Kenny began.

‘I know, I know,’ Charles said. ‘I’ve heard it all before. Not my concern. It’s for my own good. Blah-blah-blah.’ He held out his hand for the map. ‘Well, not this time. Last month, you pulled that routine on me and look where it got you. Lost in the mountains before ending up in orbit of all places. If not for me, you’d both be space dust by now, so I think I’ve earned the right to know what’s happening. Besides, if there’s any treasure hunting going on, I don’t see why you and my father get to have all the fun.’ He winked.

Kiyomi plucked the map from Kenny’s grasp and handed it to Charles with a winning smile and a small bow. Charles collected his reading glasses from the desk and scanned the map.

‘This isn’t so bad,’ he said. ‘Technically, these are still Japanese waters. The tiny island is Yonaguni. It’s the westernmost of the Ryukyu Islands and it’s accessible by plane. I can make the arrangements.’

‘Whoa,’ said Kenny. ‘Just like that? No arguing? No telling me I can’t go without an escort?’

‘There’s no need,’ Charles said, taking off his glasses. ‘I’m going with you. If you don’t like it, I’ll phone Harashima-san right now and the trip is off.’

Kiyomi’s face fell at the mention of her father.

‘Dad!’ Kenny protested. ‘We have to do this.’

‘Good,’ Charles said. ‘Then you won’t mind me coming along.’