The Night Parade (6 page)

There was no bell to ring, and no waiter came. “Where do we order?”

“We've already ordered. This shop has only one specialty.”

Before Saki could open her mouth for another question, the vapors of a piping-hot soup brushed her nose. On the counter in front of her seat, which had been empty only moments before, was a bowl of thick, doughy udon noodles topped with lush green onions and fluffy fried tofu skins. A pair of wooden chopsticks rested near her hand. The fox began slurping up her own bowl of noodles with a note of satisfaction. Suddenly the question of how the food had gotten there seemed much less important.

The fox gave her a sidelong glance, a twinkle of something else in her eyes. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Saki dipped her chopsticks into the bowl and picked up a steaming udon noodle. Flecks of soup broth splattered her nose as she slurped. “This is delicious!”

“Of course,” said a voice across the counter. Saki looked up with a mouth full of noodles and nearly choked. Another fox, dressed in a shop owner's coat, stood behind the counter with his paws folded. “That's fox udon, the very best recipe. It's been passed down through my family for centuries.”

Saki glanced to her guide.

“I'm sorry, how terribly rude of me,” said the she-fox, patting her mouth dry with her paw. “I was so delighted with the food, I forgot to introduce you. This is my good friend, the shopkeeper, and this is the human girl who summoned me. The fox udon at this shop really is the best.” She nodded her head and continued eating as if she gave the recommendation to humans every night.

The shopkeeper fox didn't seem surprised. He smiled at Saki through his yellow eyes. “Very pleased to meet you. I can't remember the last time I served a human in my shop. You must need something very badly to pass by this way on the night of the Parade.”

“I'm not really going for a parade,” Saki explained. “I'm just going to get a little problem taken care of, and when I'm finished, I'll go home. It won't take a lot of time…will it?”

“I see… That question is best left to the guides. I wouldn't know the first thing about it.” The shopkeeper refolded his paws. “But good luck. Sometimes finding one's way during the Parade can be a little difficult. Take care not to get lost.” He watched Saki as she finished her noodles.

“Shall we go?” the she-fox asked when the last drop of broth was settled in their stomachs. “There is so much to do and so very little moonlight left.” Her nod to the shopkeeper fox was cordial and polite, but there was a will-o'-the-wisp gleam in her eyes that sent a prickle down Saki's back. “By the night's end, I'll come again to settle my tab.”

“I look forward to it,” the shopkeeper fox said. He bowed as they passed through the blue-and-white curtain and back into the night.

The path wove among the trees until it took a sharp turn and merged with a road wide enough to accommodate a few elephants. More painted daruma lanterns illuminated the night, but this path seemed to give off a kind of glow. Saki saw the forest in a new light, as if she'd become a kind of night creature. Far in the distance, other shapes bobbed up and down on the road ahead. The tinkling music grew louder.

Saki leaned forward for a closer look. “There are more people here?”

The fox flicked her tails, and a grin spread across her pointed face. “Others, but none of them human.”

“What was in those noodles?” Saki asked. “Things look…different…somehow.”

“Or perhaps you're finally seeing them as they really are. Have you thought about that?”

Saki hadn't, and she decided not to press any further. “Your friend in the shop was nice. It wouldn't be bad to meet more spirits like him.”

“Yes, he's very nice.” The fox tilted her head. “But be careful. Not all of the other spirits will be kind to a human girl lost in the Parade.”

“But I'm not lost. I've got you, right?”

“Hm. Yes, I suppose.”

The fox pressed forward, leaving Saki alone under a tattered lantern. She glanced back through the trees and down the path they'd climbed up. Even with the daruma lanterns, the trail twisted through too many trees and too many shadows. If she took even one wrong turn, she'd never be able to find her way back. In the corner of her vision, the fox's glow drew farther and farther away.

“Hey, don't leave me!” She rushed forward again but stopped short a few steps behind the fox's shining tails.

As they stepped from the forest to the Pilgrim's Road, Saki turned her head in wonder. More spirits than she could count stretched as far as she could see, filtering in from a dozen smaller trails. The fox sprang forward, and Saki leapt to catch up. If she focused on the dusty gravel at her feet and not the hundreds of pairs of eyes that watched her as she darted past, she might not be so afraid. The fox slowed with the rest of the traffic as another pair of trails joined the Pilgrim's Road. Saki let her gaze wander over the procession of spirits climbing up from the other side of the mountain, giant boars with charms and wind chimes dangling from their silver tusks. But these weren't even the strangest of the lot.

The Pilgrim's Road drew creatures of every color and shape. Some had the head of one animal and the body of another. Some looked more like rocks or trees than any breathing creature. Most, however, were nothing more than vague shapes that would fade in and out as if they were tricks of the light.

“This is the crossroads,” the fox explained. “All of the paths converge here. This is where the Parade truly begins.”

Saki wrapped her arms across her chest and tried to keep herself from shaking as a half-transparent figure with three heads lumbered by. “It seems pretty crowded…”

“Oh yes, and sometimes things get a little…rowdy.” The fox's tails flicked, as though they had caught wind of something. “Look out, behind you!”

A pair of wet blue hands pushed Saki aside. She fell into the dirt as a slick-skinned kappa sprinted past. His webbed feet slapped the ground as he waddled along, leaving soggy footprints in his wake. His pointy face was scrunched and twisted, which might have been his normal face, until he turned his head to mutter curse words behind him to whatever spirit he was quarreling with. Saki recognized the water bowl he held atop his matted hair from the picture books her parents used to read to her as a child. The stories said that if the kappa lost his water, he would be robbed of all his powers. They were also supposed to have a weakness for juicy cucumbers.

A gust of wind blew Saki's hair across her face, then whipped past her in the direction of the kappa. Chattering laughter filled the air as the sharp edges of the wind tingled against her skin. She caught a glimpse of three grinning weasels with razor-sharp claws riding the waves of the gust. None of her childhood picture books had ever talked about spirits like these. Their giggles chased the kappa, who shrieked back watery threats behind him.

Saki laughed in disbelief and trotted after the group to see what would happen. Spirits fought and argued, just like human beings! She passed the fox, who said nothing, and cut the corner at a bend in the road.

There was a sudden flash of scarlet before Saki toppled to the ground. She blinked to clear her vision, but when she looked up again, an ogre nearly three times her height stared back down at her. She tried to swallow, but the movement got stuck in her throat.

He was shaped like a man, but his skin stood out bright red. Two horns curled from the gray hair on his head, and two sharp teeth hung below his lip. He wore a simple black-and-white pilgrim's robe, and in one hand he held a wooden club. The ogre watched Saki for a moment. He blinked slowly. Then he looked toward the fox with drooping yellow eyes. The more Saki stared, the more she realized how old the ogre seemed. His red skin was wrinkled and cracked, his horns were twisted, and his teeth were yellow. His robe couldn't even cover all of his sagging shoulders because so many holes had been worn through the fabric.

The fox slid up to Saki's side and made a throat-clearing noise.

Saki took a deep breath and bowed. “Sorry…” was all she could manage before her voice withered into a whisper.

The old ogre grunted and plodded forward along the road. His body swayed from side to side, and his arms swung back and forth. His form disappeared in the tide of spirits, though his gray horns bobbed up and down among the crowd.

Saki remained on the ground for as long as it took for her heartbeat to slow down. She'd had enough close calls for one night. When she could finally breathe regularly, she tried to stand up on quivering legs.

“I thought he was going to eat me,” she confessed to the fox.

“He might have if you hadn't apologized,” the fox said. “Ogres aren't my sort of creatures. Much too blunt. Well, don't just stand there. We must move on.”

They continued down the Pilgrim's Road, where every sight was stranger and more spectacular than the last. Many of the spirits ignored Saki, though some stopped to pay respects to the fox. Sometimes Saki felt eyes watching her, but she could never catch any of the creatures in the act. Perhaps the fox was right, and there had been other humans before her. Or perhaps it had been so long that the spirits had forgotten what a real human looked like. Either way, she had no words to describe the kind of sights she was seeing. Even if she could, no one she knew would ever believe her.

An enormous torii gate, bigger than any Saki had seen before, straddled the spirit road. The pillars on either side were as thick as a train car and as tall as two of them stacked end to end. The bright red paint shone as though it had been put on yesterday.

“This is the first gate,” said the fox. “We'll need to go through all of them before we're even close to the shrine.”

“Wait, are you sure this is the right way?” Saki asked. “The torii gates leading to the shrine don't look anything like this.”

“What a silly question. Just because it looks different doesn't mean it is different. Look, over there!” The fox pointed with her four tails to one of the shining pillars. “That's your name, isn't it?”

Scrolled across the base of the torii pillar was indeed her family's name in vivid black calligraphy. She ran her fingers over the characters, half expecting the paint to rub off on her skin.

“This is impossible.” Saki gaped.

“Perhaps,” said the fox, “yet you can see it for yourself. Shall you believe your own eyes, or shall you cling to what you think you ought to be able to see?”

Saki had no answer.

“Don't think too long, or at least move your feet while you do it. Come on, we mustn't dawdle. I have other things to do tonight, you know, so the sooner we finish, the better.”

They passed through other gates, each just as bright and shining as the first. None of the paint looked chipped or faded. They passed half a dozen gates before the last one appeared far ahead.

The final torii gate was unpainted, just as it had been that morning, though it had grown ten times in size to accommodate the girth of the Pilgrim's Road. The wood rose smoothly out of the earth, as though the gate was somehow crafted from living trees. A queue of spirits formed at the mouth of the gate, and each spirit waited its turn to pass. Perched on the horizontal beam between the pillars was a creature covered in long black hair that dangled in clumps over the road. Behind the hair peered a blue face with a wide, twisting mouth. The guardian's claws braced against the edges of the beam, ready to pounce at any moment.

Saki and the fox stood at the end of the queue, waiting for their turn. Saki fidgeted on the path and twisted the hem of her nightshirt between her hands as even more spirits joined the line behind them. How could all the others be so calm and collected as they walked underneath the hairy blue spirit? Its claws seemed to get bigger and bigger with every step Saki took.

“Listen to me,” the fox instructed. “The guardian atop the gate must verify that all walkers in the Night Parade have purified themselves.”

“But the water basin is inside the gates,” Saki said, her eyes fixed on the hairy spirit.

“Only humans use the water. Spirits have our own way of preparing for the Parade. Our world, our rules. Remember that.” The fox stopped to sniff at Saki's hands. “You visited the shrine early this morning, did you not? The purification of that visit should still be in effect.”

Saki nodded, though she felt a clench of fear creep up her throat.

The fox continued the instructions. “After you greet him with a bow, the guardian will first ask you to show your right hand and then your left. He will nod once, and you must say: ‘Thank you for your vigilance.' As you say this, you must bow and face the ground for five whole seconds. After you have finished, quickly move on to allow the next creature in line to begin. Do you understand?”

“Um, yes?”

“I shall go first, and you may follow me. I will wait for you on the other side. All right?”

Saki nodded and wiped her sweating palms against her shorts. When their turn came around, the fox stepped forward and bowed to the gatekeeper.

“Show us your right hand,” the burbling voice of the gatekeeper asked. Its lips quivered, and its yellow eyes rolled around to watch the fox.

She extended her right paw and held it up for the gatekeeper to see.

“Show us your left hand.”

The fox repeated the gesture with her opposite paw. The gatekeeper nodded, and the fox spoke her words of thanks and bowed once more. After five seconds, she rose and crossed the threshold of the gate. Her tails flicked behind her as she ascended the last incline before the shrine.

Saki stepped forward. Dozens of spirits turned their eyes to follow her. With all of their attention focused on her, Saki was trapped. Even if she wanted to run, there was no way to escape now. She tried to remember the steps the fox had taught her. The gatekeeper stared down through its bramble-tangled hair and curled its lips. Saki bowed.

“Show us your right hand,” said the gatekeeper.

Saki's palms were sticky with sweat, but she was afraid to wipe them off again or do anything else that might upset the ritual. She held out her right hand. For a moment, it seemed as though she was seeing someone else's wrist and fingers shaking in the muggy summer air. She was half-outside her own body when the gatekeeper spoke again.

“Show us your left hand.”

Repeating the gesture, she took a deeper breath. Her heart stopped racing, and she relaxed some of the tension in her shoulders. The gatekeeper dropped its shaggy head in a slow nod. A surge of triumph burst through Saki's worries, and she tried to bite back her smile. The ordeal was almost over. She could be in and out of the shrine without another care.

“Thank you for your vigilance.” She duplicated the fox's words and bowed again.

A chill snapped through the air. Still bent in a bow, Saki focused on the ground as the shadow of the gatekeeper rippled and contorted. She counted down the seconds in her mind…

Three…two…

A roar like an overflowing cistern bubbled over every other sound near the gate.

“Lies! Lies from the unclean mouth!”

Saki felt the air move as the gatekeeper leapt from its perch on the gate beams.

She scrambled back, away from the gate, as the spirits behind her pressed in for a better view. Her foot caught on a hard, scaled claw and she toppled backward to the ground. Her hair fell over her face, and the dust from her fall clouded the air around her. The gatekeeper hit the road with a thump. Through the whirling of the dust, it stretched open its gaping mouth and smacked its lips.

The spirits around them began to shout.

“It's a human! A dirty human's sneaked into the Parade!”

“The fox brought it! It's her fault!”

Saki struggled to her feet and burst into a run. She darted toward the forest, away from the road and the gatekeeper's open maw. She ran through the curling tendrils of the underbrush and the prickly little plants hidden between the trees. Branches grabbed at her arms and face as she sprinted past. She tripped over a rock and stumbled to keep her balance as her eyes searched frantically for the fox. The fox would know exactly what to do. But Saki couldn't turn back, not even to check if the gatekeeper had followed her. Her heart was beating too fast to hear anything but her own blood pounding in her ears.

When she felt as though her heart would burst, she fell against a tree and gasped for breath. The woods around her were empty. There were no lanterns to light her path or any path at all to lead her back to the spirits. The darkness pressed around her like a heavy liquid. After so many haphazard rights and lefts in order to escape, she was completely and utterly lost. The slope in this part of the forest was so gentle, Saki couldn't even tell which way led back down the mountain. The only thing left of her guide was the wooden geta on her feet.