Fuyu
“Lady Kou!” Hoshihiko called before bowing. “It has been a long time.”
“It has.” She returned his greetings as I walked up the last few steps. Kou’s thick gold kimono looked out of place in the dark forest, and I could almost swear I saw tails swirling behind her.
“Miss Asahi.” Kou smiled at me warmly before motioning me towards the shrine. “You have come a long way. Let us gather inside before the snow picks up.”
*
After Hoshihiko had gotten some charcoal, we all sat beneath the hori-gotatsu in one of the outer living areas.
“How do I get back home?” I glanced into Kou’s amber eyes, only to see her frown.
“That is not a simple answer. First you must know where you come from.” Kou placed her hand next to me. “Let me show you.”
With one quick reassuring nod from Hoshihiko, I put my palm into hers.
A sudden jolt of electricity shot up my arm. I tried to let go, but Kou’s grip only tightened. As the pain reached my head, my vision blurred.
“What’s happening to her?” I could hear the anxiety in Hoshihiko’s voice even though I could no longer see him.
“She needs to remember before she can decide.” Kou’s calm words were the last thing I heard before everything faded away.
*
Behind my eyelids, I relived my whole life at blinding speeds. I flew through the night my parents died and relived my aunt’s tear-streaked face. The memories tumbled together, but in the right order this time. First middle school, then high school, each day a slightly differently shaped blur of food, class, my aunt’s empty house, and sleep. As I got older, part-time jobs cycled through the mix, but nothing really changed.
A brief flash of my aunt smiling when I graduated high school streaked through my mind before the torrent of memories got brighter. I was starting college, I was at a museum, and then everything was black again.
*
When I woke up, Hoshihiko was much closer than before. Worry filled his brown eyes as I sat up and rubbed my head.
“What happened at the end?” I asked Kou, ignoring the faint ache pulsing through my temples. It is a small price to pay for getting my memory back. I wonder if my aunt has been looking for me all this time.
“Does your world have magic?” Kou responded with a question instead.
“No, not as far as I know. No talking wolves or flaming heads dropping out of trees.” I feel like that would have popped up in the news once or twice.
“Magic will die out by the time you are born. Slowly as generations fall, more and more yokai will disappear as their power and ties to the earth weaken, until only one final fragment of magic remains.” Kou glanced at the walls surrounding us almost as though she was looking through them. “Its original purpose forgotten, it was placed in a museum.”
Vague remnants of images flashed through my head. No…I… “I broke it.”
Kou nodded. “You released the very last sliver of magic into the atmosphere, absorbing it. Its loss caused a big enough disruption in the flow of time to send you back here.”
I glanced down at my hands. I accidentally destroyed the last magic relic in existence. “How can I get back home then?”
“Only by causing an equal or greater disruption will you be sent home.” The strange look was back in Kou’s eyes.
“What do you mean? What would I have to do?” Worry started to seep through me. I know my aunt is out there waiting for me, but I’ve already done so much damage to this world.
“You would have to take some of the magic from this world too.” Kou stared at Hoshihiko. “He is enough.”
“What do you mean?” Horror slowly replaced fear as I prayed I misunderstood her.
“You have to kill me, Asahi, if you want to get back home.” Hoshihiko’s words were quiet, and they broke my heart.
“I can’t do that.” I shook my head, glancing between the two people sitting under the blanket beside me. “I won’t do that. No way.”
“You have to. It’s the only way you can get home.” Hoshihiko refused to meet my eyes. “You have people waiting for you there, right? No one here will miss me if I disappear.”
“Are you joking? You save lives, Hoshihiko. I will not take yours in exchange for mine. There has to be another way.”
Kou shook her head. “This is the only way. Without your interference, he would live many years more. So if you want to get home, it is his timeline you must disrupt. It is from this shrine that the artifact you accidentally destroyed originated.”
“It all comes back to him.” I could barely hear my own voice as the storm picked up outside.
“I will give you until the Winter Solstice to decide. Be ready when the snows recede in a fortnight.” With that final warning, she was gone.
*
“We’re not having this argument again, Hoshihiko.” It had been a week since Kou announced her ultimatum.
“We have to talk about this sometime.”
“Not until you stop your stupid, selfish quest for martyrdom.”
Hoshihiko caught my arm as I tried to walk away. “I want to give you what you want. That’s all I’ve ever desired.”
“And you think I want you dead? I couldn’t live with myself.” I turned to stare directly into his eyes. “I fell in love with your beautiful, incredible world.”
“And your aunt?”
“I don’t want to leave you, Hoshihiko. I want to help the people of your time so that their ancestors will exist in mine.”
“Are you certain? You’ll never be able to go back home again.” White snowflakes filtered into his black hair.
Perhaps I didn’t need Kou’s ultimatum after all.
“Then this shall be my home.”
Author's Note: From the beginning, my plan was to have Asahi's only way home be to kill Hoshihiko, but I knew I wanted her to be conflicted because she had grown to love him.
Initially, I toyed with the idea of having two different epilogues, and readers could choose which one they wanted. I was going to have one of them be this one or a similar happy ending and another one where she finishes Hoshihiko off. However, I couldn't come up with a reason for her to kill him (or deal the final blow) without drastically changing her character. After a lot of brainstorming, I finally figured out a way it could work, but I'd rather just keep the happy ending now.
The biggest thing I researched this time were kitsune. Kitsune are said to gain a tail as their power increases, and Kou has nine, the maximum. Nine-tailed foxes are golden and omniscient, so I translated these traits into Kou's outfit and ability to show Asahi her past.
The only other noticeably Japanese element I incorporated was the hori-gotatsu, which is today known as a kotatsu. This seems like one of the best inventions ever as it is a table with a heater under it and a blanket that covers it, making it the perfect place to curl up in the winter. The hori-gotatsu version is merely a type inlaid in the floor and powered by charcoal.
The last thing I researched was the mystical artifact that Asahi broke. Although it isn't stated, she broke the shrine's shintai, which is basically an item that houses the kami or god of the shrine. This further ties her to Hoshihiko and adds another layer to why she specifically ended up there.
Image Information: Daigoji bentendo by 利用者