“I have noticed some people live here Beloved.” Jake pointed out as he dried my hair.
I nod. “I can’t help but imagine what this place would look like during the spring and summertime. I am sure it would look beautiful. It would be nice to live here.”
Then he stopped drying my hair. Confused, I turn to look at him and see him staring at me with eager eyes. “Do you want to stay here Beloved?”
I blink twice in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I…I mean…” his face reddened and after a short pause, he grasped my hands excitedly. “Let’s start a family.”
“What?” I ask in shock.
“Let’s start a family Beloved. We can start a family right here right now! I can buy a house, we can get a job and we can even raise our children here with no problems!” his grip on my hands tightened. “Please Beloved! Let’s build our home here!”
“I…I…but…” I babbled looking at ourselves; we were only in our towels. If he wasn’t holding my hands, I would have pushed him away and taken a step back to stop the chill going up my spine but I was stuck looking at him with shock.
“Uh…Jake, this...this is so sudden.” I managed to say. “How about we think about it when we get home okay?”
Upon hearing this, his eyes widened, and slowly inched closer to me. “But why do we need to think about it? We can start a family right here.”
“Jake?” I was slowly tilting backward as he inched closer.
“Please? Can we start a family?” he inched closer and I fell on the futon. Before I knew what was going on, he was on top of me, staring with pleading eyes. “Please? I swear that I will be a good father. I will take care of our children. I promise.”
The air suddenly became hot and my face heated up because I had never been in this position before for this only happened in my fantasies. My chest slowly bobbed up and down as my eyes slowly closed.
“I TOLD YOU I WANTED THE ROOM WITH A VIEW OF THE VILLAGE! ARE YOU THAT STUPID?”
“I am sorry Your Majesty but…wait you can’t go in there!”
Suddenly the door swung open shattering the atmosphere and revealing someone we weren’t supposed to see in a long time.
“Oh my!” Ying panicked covering her eyes. “I told you not to go in there!”
Staring at us in shock with her bodyguards and Regina by her side, Kizana Sunobu blinked twice before grinning at us.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Was I interrupting something?” she asked putting her finger to her lips. “My bad.”
Ying quickly apologized and shut the door while Kizana’s laughter echoed behind the door. Jake looked back at me with a disappointed look on his face and I folded my arms.
“You didn’t lock the door did you?” I ask with a deadpan expression.
“I…I am sorry Beloved.” He muttered while blushing madly. “Should we…”
“Nope.” I put a finger on his lips. “The mood is gone.”
He passed a hand over his face and bit his hand while trying to contain his embarrassment I quickly walked to the closet and changed into a loose white kimono.
“Aren’t you going to change up?” I ask.
“No,” he replied writing something on the floor with his finger.
He was angry and I was in a huge debate on if I should hug him or go to sleep.
I decided to go to sleep.
The next day, as I dressed up the standing mirror caught sight of the pattern on the lower part of my back creating a flood of emotions. Especially when I recalled what happened between us last night.
‘Oh no! This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen.’ Then I remembered what that creature offered. With that in mind, I dressed up in my winter coat, grabbed my bag, and rushed out of the inn. I was out of breath by the time I got to the village square where the statue was located and turned to the right where the marketplace was located to find the toothy old lady bringing out her wares.
“Why hello dearie.” She greeted with a toothy grin. “How can I help you?”
I stare at her wondering how to explain the situation to her but she smiles and transforms into her kitsune form.
“What do you need?” she asked looking at her claws.
“Ca…can you get rid of the curse?” I asked. “Please?”
After looking into my eyes, she nodded, opened the curtain behind her, and gestured for me to come in. When I entered, I was teleported to an entirely different place adorned with charms, pillows, and a crystal ball.
“I can tell you are no stranger to the supernatural.” It said while sitting down on one of the cushions near the table and gestured for me to take a seat. “How can I help you?”
I took a seat and sighed. “I want to get rid of this curse imprinted on me.”
“I know. I sensed his aura when we met and it is a strong one but it’s not strong enough.” then she stretched out her hand. “Give me your hand.”
I do so and she traced her long nails on my palm.
“This is strange.” She muttered looking at it. “It says you have a long lifeline but are bound to the wheels of fate thanks to your past life. Your life is littered with riddles and everywhere you go you will untangle the riddles and secrets kept from you. Do you know what this means?”
I shook my head and she sighed.
“I would love to perform more readings on you but that’s not what you are here for are you?”
I shake my head again.
“Where is the curse imprinted?”
Her question nearly made me blush in embarrassment. “It… it's behind… it's on my back.”
“Please undress.” She ordered.
I stood up and started undressing. When I was done, she wrapped a cloth around me and clapped her hands together. The objects in the room disappeared and we were teleported to a place decorated with different colors with a glowing pentagram drawn on the floor.
“Step into the pentagram.” She said. “This is going to hurt. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Something in me told me not to do it but I shook that feeling away and knelt down. “Do it. Do it before I fall in love with him.”
Third POV
Upon hearing this, the creature nodded and started levitating from the air as her three tails unfolded. Summoning spirit energy, her eyes glowed and she plunged her tails into Emma’s back where the curse imprint was located. This action caused Emma’s eyes to roll backward and arch her back in pain as lightning sparks emanated from the pentagram underneath them. The kitsune groaned as she applied more spirit power in an attempt to open a portal on her back so that she could yank out the source of the curse.
Then a huge blast occurred pushing the creature away from her. The room slowly disintegrated revealing the former room and as the creature stood up she noticed Emma was lying on the ground with the curse imprint still on her.
“Are you alright?” she crawled towards her and helped her up. “Say something White Fox. Are you okay?”
Emma slowly opened her eyes and looked at the creature who stared at her with worried eyes but those eyes reminded her of someone. Someone who cared about her.
“Yeah. I’m…I’m fine.” She muttered as the creature helped her up. “What happened?”
“It…it didn’t work.” It said. Its voice returned back to normal. “It appears that the curse is stronger than I thought.”
Somehow, Emma felt a wave of shame wash over her and she sighed. Standing up, she dressed up and was about to leave when the creature grabbed her hand.
“I know I have failed you but give me one more chance.” She said with pleading eyes. “Please give me a lock of your hair.”
Emma stared back at her in confusion before nodding her head. Grabbing a knife from the table, the creature cut off a handful of her hair and put it in a jar.
“This might take some time but you can come back anytime you want.” She said. “You can go now.”
Dizzy and slightly disorientated, Emma walked out of the door. As she stepped into the sun she recalled the days events and tears pricked her eyes. However, she quickly wiped them from her eyes before heading back to the inn and when she entered, she caught sight of Kizana talking to Ying and another staff about the rooms.
“Are you sure this room is perfect for me and my guards?” she asked arrogantly. “It’s rather small.”
“But your Highness, this is the biggest room we have here.” muttered the other staff who had a deadpan expression on his face.
Emma ignored them and walked into her room. The scent of freshly baked pastries filled the air and Jake was sleeping soundly on her side on her futon while a huge plate of piping hot buns sitting on the stool in the sunlight under the window. Sighing, she proceeded to take off her clothes and once she was dressed in a pink kimono and wearing a pair of getas, she walked out of the room and headed straight to the tea parlor in the inn. Sitting at the furthest place of the inn, she ordered a cup of green tea and took small sips while looking at the parlor. A few tables away, an old couple was taking a cup of tea. The man said something and the woman blushed before smacking him playfully on the arm and he laughed.
She focused her gaze on her cup of tea and drummed her fingernails on the ceramic cup while humming to herself.
“Are you alright Emma?”
She looked up and saw Ying looking at her with concern. “Yeah. I am fine.”
But Ying noticed the glassiness in Emma’s eyes, sat next to her, and placed a hand on her shoulders. “Whatever it is I am sure everything is going to be fine.”
There was a moment of silence as she warmed the cup of tea with her hands and wondered how she was going to explain what happened to her but she refused. Instead, she sighed and looked into her friend’s eyes.
“Do you think I am a bad person?” she asked.
“Hmm?”
“I think I have been a terrible person to Jake and I don’t know why and…” she trailed off and looked at Ying's eyes for judgment but there wasn’t any in her eyes. “I…”
“Emma it’s okay. You are not a bad person.” Ying assured her. “You are a good person and I don’t think that I know that.”
She sniffed. “Really?”
Ying nodded. “You see, Jake told us all about you after the ‘incident’ at the daycare and we were shocked.”
“What do you mean?”
He told us you were recovering from a toxic relationship and showing signs of schizophrenia. Also, he cleared your name when the false accusation reached the police." She smiled. “It was shocking to learn all that but it was also inspiring to know that someone like you could work with kids. All the children and their parents had something good to say about you.”
This made Emma feel ashamed of her actions when she heard that. “He…how did he do that?”
“Well, he started by telling the police to look closer at the child’s parents and the child himself. When they did, they discovered that the child was not a bumbling three-year-old toddler but a five-year-old.”
The news shocked her. “A five-year-old?”
She nodded again. “And that wasn’t the only shocking thing they found out. They discovered that he was the grandson of the wife of Barusa Town’s most infamous person.”
“Really? Who?” Emma asked while taking a sip of the now cold tea.
“Jokichi Aishi.”
Emma’s POV
I nearly choked on my tea when I heard that. “Wh…what?”
She nodded. “The police interviewed the woman and the boy separately. While she was adamant that you molested him, the little boy broke down and confessed that she told him to say that to ‘protect his grandfather’s 'love' for her’. They confronted her about his statement and she claimed the boy was lying to get out of the situation he was in.”
“If that’s the case, why did she enroll a five-year-old in a daycare meant for babies and toddlers?” I ask.
“She said something about him having some kind of mental illness or something. I don’t know. There was nothing to go by except the other kids’ testimony and your boyfriend’s insistence so they dropped the case but the damage was already done.” Then she sighed. As a result of the incident, many parents pulled their kids out of the daycare and we went out of business. Some of us had to leave town because we couldn't pay our rent."
Hearing this only made me sadder than ever.
“But there is some silver lining to this story," she added.
“What is the silver lining?”
“I heard her grandson was bullied out of middle school because of the incident and many people avoided her family because of the incident.” She replied with a beaming smile. “Thanks to the rumors surrounding her and her husband, many have attributed her to having bad luck or something but I left town before I could gather more information.”
“I can’t believe a woman could put her grandchild and family through that,” I muttered to myself but my curiosity peeked. “What did her husband do?”
She placed a hand on her lips and hummed. “I am not sure but I heard that he was involved in the embezzlement scheme that shook the country.”
“You mean the Saikou case?” I asked.
She nodded. “When federal police took a closer look at the crime, they discovered Mr. Saikou was sending most of the money he stole from the government to her husband or can we say Mr. Aishi in a secret account for years. On May 19th, 2017 he was arrested and interviewed then released when it was proved that he had no idea about the money.”
This was interesting to hear. “So they let him go after that?”
“Yeah, but I heard he had to pay a hefty fine or something and he had been blacklisted from working anywhere. Last I heard, he was a shut-in relying on his daughter’s family for financial support.”
Hearing this made me recall Mr. Aishi’s words he gave me the first time I visited his manga shop; ‘You don’t know who I am do you?’. Looking back, I really didn’t know who he was because I was only there to read the manga I knew I could never afford. I never pried into his private life because it was none of my business but hearing this gave me goosebumps.
So why did he close down his shop when I last saw him?
“Anyway back to the matter at hand. I believe you are a good person Emma and nothing is going to change that.” Ying pinched my cheeks playfully. “Understand?”
Her words made me smile and we hugged. When she left, I stayed in the parlor for a few hours before returning to the inn to have lunch. It was a quick affair and for some reason, I got a sense of nostalgia as I walked through the garden and it saddened me.
There was something familiar yet wrong about this place but what was it?
I pondered on that thought while I was taking a shower in the evening. As I soaked in the hot water, I felt the stinging pain at my imprint reminding me of what I did in the morning.
‘He looked normal when I walked into the room but his eyes were telling a different story,’ I thought while hugging myself. ‘Should I tell him or…’
My thoughts trailed off at that part and decided to step out of the pool of water. As Jake walked passed me, I could sense his anger and my guilt pricked me. To get rid of it, I busied myself with dressing up when I heard a knock on the door.
‘Who is it?’ I walked towards the door only to feel a cold presence behind it and it wasn’t caused by the winter air. Still, I take a deep breath and open the door only a golden token on the floor. Surprised, I pick it up and stare at it. Then I looked up to see one of the red foxes staring at me with its brown eyes except it had three bushy tails.
After a brief staring contest with the creature, it darted a few meters away from me and looked back.
I understand the message and take off my getas. “Darling? I will be stepping out for a moment. Don’t wait up.”
“Wait what? Beloved…”
I quickly shut the door behind me and chased after it barefoot. The night was cold and the streets were empty but the creature took me through the garden until we got to the direction of the bamboo forest. There, a line of white orbs was floating in the air next to fox spirits of different colors and tail numbers. Up ahead was a huge red wooden-like structure holding what looked like a silver portal.
“I know these things. I have read about them in the manga.” I whispered to myself. “They are the ‘torii’ a gateway to the spirit world found in temples and shrines.”
The fox trotted northward where another torii gate was located. There another fox spirit stood dressed in a green kimono that matched with its green eyes accompanied by its huge sword.
“Seriously? This is why you made me open the portal?” it asked looking at me.
The fox swished its tails and a blast of cold air fizzled through. The fox spirit sighed and stretched out its hand which was equipped with long red nails at me. His gesture confused me at first until I recall the token I picked up earlier and placed it on its hand. Its emerald orbs scanned and stared at the token before putting it back in its tunic.
“It’s a shame your engagement with the Dark Lord will prevent you from using this power but it’s none of my business. Here,” he handed me a token. “You will know what to do with it soon.”
Then it turned its back on me and walked into the portal leaving the red fox and me alone. The token in my hand was round and metallic with a symbol translated as ‘to reveal’ engraved on it. Putting the token into my pocket, I looked back at the red fox which trotted back to the line of fox spirits. As it walked, silver-like figures appeared out of nowhere, transformed into white floating orbs, and followed it.
‘This is strange,’ I thought looking at the token in my hand. ‘Yet again, when has life haven’t.’
In a flash everything vanished forcing me to close my eyes and the ground below me gave way. Falling fast, I looked down and saw that the ground was just inches from me and I braced myself for impact. Then something wrapped itself around my ankle and I jerked at the abrupt stop nearly dropping the token. Whatever it was slowly wrapped itself completely tightly around me as it carried me up.
“That was a quick save, Your Majesty,” a male voice voiced.
A chuckle could be heard as I struggled to get out of the binds.
“Now, now pet. The more you struggle, the tighter it becomes.” A familiar voice warned. “Region…”
“I’ll do it.”
What sounded like a sword slash and I was free. Jake wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“She is fine.” A familiar voice chimed in. “She is just in shock from what happened.”
Once he released me, I looked around and could see Kizana inspecting a rose, Regina who was grinning at us, and some men. Looking at the ground, I noticed green vines, and when I looked back at Kizana who had green vines entwining around her hand.
“Th…thank you,” I say.
She looked back at me with shocked eyes before turning up her nose. “Consider us even for releasing me from the curse.”
Before I could say another word Jake lifted me up to my feet and carried me back to the room. As we lay on the futon, he wrapped his arms around me while and planted kisses on my head.
“I am sorry Beloved,” he muttered placing another kiss. “I should have talked to you instead of giving you the silent treatment. I am sorry. I am so sorry.”173Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTu0Glx2XdB
I sighed in relief and closed my eyes as he drew me closer to him. 173Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoFbFcz3cwy
