Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Setsura was lying on a bed. The bed of the Demon Princess. He slept. And if sleep could preserve these striking features, then he should sleep forever. An indigo glow surrounded his countenance. An onlooker might even believe that his body itself was the source of the light.

This was not a true sleep. He had been entranced by Princess’s eyes and so was compelled to slumber.

Would the “normal” Setsura have surrendered so shamelessly? Ryuuki’s demon qi was still dammed up in his gut. He had not completely recovered from the wound in his chest left by Princess’s dagger. No one could hold him at fault.

Not to mention that he’d just exhausted himself fighting his once friend and ally, Yakou.

Even if coerced, sleep may have been the preferable option at this juncture.

A small noise sounded in this eternally silent space. Once—twice—a polite knock.

Setsura didn’t move.

The knocking ceased. A minute passed.

“Aki-san?”

A woman’s voice. Had Setsura even an ounce of consciousness left in him, he would have recognized it as that of Takako.

“Aki-san—Setsura-san—”

It was Takako’s voice.

At that moment, Takako was in a casket with General Bey, and General Bey’s casket was in the corner of the parking garage of an abandoned apartment building in Wakamatsu. She couldn’t be here too. And yet her voice called out to him, achingly, endearingly.

“Help me, Aki-san—Save me—”

Her thin voice flowed around the door like water and to Setsura’s ears. A heartbreaking plea. Setsura’s eyes fluttered. He wasn’t lost in a dream. The fast sleep of his body had been stirred.

Takako’s voice broke through Princess’s magical powers. Setsura opened his eyes. The genie sat up on the bed.

“Princess performed as promised?”

He looked around the room and fell back on the bed. “She said she was going to find something that would convince me to take up permanent residence here—but this?”

Though under a hypnotic spell, he recalled what the Demon Princess had said.

The slender voice again called his name. He turned toward the door. “Takako-san? It can’t be.”

The realization that the thing Princess had gone looking for was Takako surprised even him.

“But it is.”

Surprise in her voice also. And joy. Setsura shook his head and craned his neck. But it was still Takako’s voice.

In the blue room, decorated with priceless antiques, Setsura Aki quietly came to his feet. He asked, “Where have you been up till now?”

“I don’t know. I was taken from a room guarded by Yakou’s men. When I came to, that woman brought me here—”

“And why would she do that?”

“I don’t know. She left me here and departed. She released me from the web of wires you cast and told me to meet you here. The door is locked and I cannot open it. But I’m so happy that I can finally—”

The voice on the other side of the door dissolved in tears.

No matter how he looked at it, the whole thing was weird. He’d seen General Bey take her into his casket. The general said that Takako had fallen from the sky and her life had been spared. He had spirited her away to the library. It was hard to believe she could have experienced so much and remembered so little.

But Setsura couldn’t categorically rule out what his ears were telling him. That Princess had gone looking for her concurred with Setsura’s primary assumption, and he presumed that no one else but Princess could undo a hypnotic state she had cast.

He didn’t know how long he had been asleep. During that time, it was not impossible to imagine that Princess had traveled to Shinjuku and taken the unconscious Takako from General Bey’s casket. He couldn’t help worrying about the fate of the doll girl and the raven who’d been watching over it.

It was unclear in any case why Takako alone would have been left outside his door. Though when it came to acting in an incomprehensible manner, Princess was one of a kind.

Questions and curiosity and the expectations of rescue pushed Setsura forward. He put his hand on the golden handle and turned it to the right.

The latch released with almost disappointing ease. The door opened. Takako was standing there in the hallway, surrounded by white light. She was wearing a pink gown that didn’t altogether agree with her. It must have come from a wardrobe somewhere in the manor house.

The teeth marks on her neck were clearly visible, and while her face was pale, it did not lack for a healthy color. And no fangs protruded from her lips.

“Setsura-san—” Her lips trembled. Tears welled up in her eyes. As soon as Setsura stepped into the hallway, she clung to him, her flesh hot against his chest. “I was so scared. So scared—” she said over and over, as Setsura stroked her back.

With a relaxed but searching gaze, he examined the hallway around him. The nature of Princess’s schemes remained a mystery.

“We’ll be leaving soon enough, but you need to bear up for a little while longer.” Takako had just begun to calm down, but now a shiver ran down her back. “This place is that woman’s heart, so to speak. I still haven’t figured out how to deal with it all. But done right, the damage should be equal to the effort. And there’s still Kikiou around here somewhere.”

“Then what will become of me?”

“You need to be taken someplace safe.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know either,” he said. “But no matter what, the search must go on. The dangers here are extreme.”

“She will find me no matter where we go.” Takako said with an empty voice.

So why had they been thrown together in the first place?

“By the same token, I can’t very well leave you behind. That may well be her objective.”

“Then what shall we do?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Eh?”

He gently poked her in the chin with the tip of his forefinger. Without any apparent pain, Takako crumpled in his arms. Setsura flung her body over his shoulder. Having been kissed by the Demon Princess, he had to assume that Takako could not escape her awareness. She might as well be walking around with her own klieg light shining on her.

The senbei shop owner found himself smiling ruefully. “I do have an acquaintance somewhere around here, but he’s good and pussywhipped.”

He had no idea what Yakou was up to. As long as he was under Princess’s spell, he wouldn’t hesitate to do what he had to do when the time came. There was an aura of menace in that smile.

“Well, then—” Setsura said nonchalantly, and set off down the hall in the opposite direction he’d come. He had to find a safe place to let Takako sleep it off. After that, he could destroy this world.

He felt a presence behind him. And heard a low growl. He knew what it was. This manor house was home to any number of strange beasts. According to the Shan Hai Jing and the ancient Shen Xian texts, these divine monsters were, like the crew of the Flying Dutchman, cursed to remain forever tethered to this ship’s hold, never again setting foot on their native land.

Setsura proceeded undaunted. The beast would sense in him the slightest fear or undue concern and react accordingly. Regardless of whatever it was trained to do, Setsura figured that the best strategy now was to ignore it.

At the end of the corridor, a door—on which was carved the scene of a great battle—blocked his way. Setsura lightly pressed on a soldier’s severed head. Light dazzled his eyes. A soft breeze brushed his cheeks and tousled his black hair.

The middle of the day?

The levels of light and shade changed, wavered, the layers upon layers mysteriously fluttering like the robes of an angel. Not exactly a metaphor. His path was blocked by sheer silk curtains blowing from the countless arches lining the corridor on either side, continuing on into the distance.

Where and how they were affixed was impossible to tell.

Depending on the strength of the wind, they trailed out like banners. Or hung wavering like drapes over a vent. Or like the hands of a playful witch, clasped across his eyes. After a few moments, Setsura said to himself, “Curtains of Wind and Light. So these are those.”

As its elegant name suggested, Emperor You of the Chou Dynasty filled a wing of his palace with artificial light and wind and thousands of silk curtains, creating a most curious setting for hide and go seek.

“Silken Splendors,” it was called. The most beautiful women in the empire were brought there and stripped naked and released within its confines. And then his retainers were let loose covered with animal skins to chase after the fleeing women and, pinning them against one surface or another, the debauchery of the Sumptuous Feast soon followed.

As Emperor You watched the spectacle in the company of his court ladies, he gave himself over to the lusts that the scene aroused.

The gossamer cloth entwined the women’s bodies, revealing all their contours—their silhouettes layered seductive outlines upon the curtains—all more stimulating than raw nakedness.

After that, the retainers turned into animals in all but species. Depictions of these forbidden bestial plays were preserved in murals now hidden away in the vaults of the National Art Museum in Beijing.

The scene spreading out before Setsura suggested nothing of its once ribald nature. Only refreshing bands of light and breeze. There was no hint of any other living thing. But he could well imagine the fear born from the inextricable union between this world and the threatening presence behind him.

With a last glance back at the door, he started walking. The random dance of the curtains dazzled his sight. They were long enough to trail along the floor, so even looking down engendered a sense of vertigo. Looking up, the wind whipped at the white gauze panels.

He’d gone ten steps when the door behind him creaked. And again.

Nobody saw the flash of movement. Setsura sensed it dodging his deadly devil wire and leaping to the right. The wire pursued it.

The curtains split in half. Without a sound, the severed strands of gauze rode on the wind. The beast ran behind them, through their shadows. And seemed to disappear.

Setsura’s wires shot out in all directions. The curtains shredded and fluttered in the air like confetti.

“What a bother,” he muttered to himself.