Page 26 of Water Moon

Chapter Twenty-six

The Favor

One month ago

Haruto emptied a paper kettle into two origami cups that cradled the steaming tea as well as any cup or bowl made from clay. He looked up from the cups and smiled at Toshio. “I wish you had told me that you were coming. I could have brought some of the rice cakes my mother sent me.”

“I am sorry to have dropped in unannounced,” Toshio said. “I didn’t realize that I was going to push through with this until I found myself standing outside your studio. If you had not stepped out from the bamboo grove when you did, I would be on my way home.”

“Why? You know that you are always welcome here. You are like a father to me.”

“I wish that was not the case.”

Haruto frowned. “Why?”

“Because a true father would never ask what I am about to ask of you now.”

“I don’t understand. Are you in trouble? Do you need help?”

“What happened to my wife, Hana’s mother, is not a secret.”

“Every child is told her story. The Shiikuin made sure that no one would ever forget the punishment for her crime.”

Toshio stood up and walked over to the window. He leaned out and checked in both directions.

“What are you doing?” Haruto asked.

“I need to make sure that we are alone.”

“The museum’s visitors never come up here. Only the cranes keep me company while I work.”

“Then we need to talk elsewhere, because what I am about to say is only for your ears.”

—

“Will you tell me what this is all about?” Haruto asked as soon as he stepped out of the paper door and into his home. “I assure you that we are completely alone.”

Toshio drew a deep breath. “I believe that my wife is alive.”

“What?”

“I saw her in a dream, just before I crossed the bridge into morning. I heard someone call my name and I opened my eyes. When I looked back, I saw her on the other side.”

Haruto shook his head. “That is impossible. The dead are not allowed at the Midnight Bridge. You must have been mistaken. It was probably just someone who looked like her.”

“That is what I told myself too,” Toshio said. “Until I saw her again the following night. And the night after that. On both nights, she called to me just as I stepped into the dawn.”

“But the dead do not dream.”

“Which is why I believe that she must be alive,” Toshio said. “I think that the Shiikuin lied to me about her death.”

“Why would they lie?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that there is only one way to know the whole truth. I must see what really happened on the day they came to the pawnshop and took her from me.” Toshio’s voice cracked. “And from Hana.”

“Does Hana know you are here?”

“I do not want to involve her in any of this. It is too dangerous.”

“But you want to involve me,” Haruto said. “Because I am not really your son.”

“You know that is not true. You are family, Haruto. I would not ask for your help if there was another way. But there isn’t. Iam trusting you with this secret because you are not like Hana. She is too much like her mother. Impulsive. Questioning. Free. She tries to fight her nature for my sake, but it is in her blood. If she believed that her mother was alive, she would defy every Shiikuin to find her, no matter the cost,” Toshio said. “You would not.”

“You are asking me to lie to her.”

“To keep her safe.”

“And you do not care for your own safety?”

“I thought about my safety when I let the Shiikuin take my wife without a fight,” Toshio said. “Not anymore.”

“You were thinking about your newborn daughter.”

“I told myself that I was, but now I am not so sure. I was a coward. I said nothing, did nothing. I just stood there and watched them take my wife away,” Toshio said. “But I did not see everything that happened. That is why I need your help.”

“What possible help can I give you?”

“You have a gift, Haruto. Each day, your hands create cranes from the seconds and minutes of the other world.”

“I fold paper.”

“You fold time,” Toshio said. “And I believe that you can fold time back to the morning my wife was taken.”

“Belief and reality are two different things. You know as well as I do where the time we collect from the museum comes from and what we must do to take it. The years you wish me to fold are different. They belong to this world, and everything in this world belongs to the Shiikuin. I cannot fold time without becoming a thief.”

Toshio pulled out a corked bottle from his satchel. A bright blue light glowed inside it. “Which is why I have already stolen what is required for you.”

Haruto stared at the bottle, his mouth agape. “What have you done?”

—

Toshio uncorked the bottle and poured its contents into a small glazed bowl. Three glowing grains sat at the bottom of the bowl, and Toshio made sure to count them twice. A Shiikuin’s bones were nearly impossible to find, their whereabouts all but lost in a maze of rumors and lies. Toshio had caught whispers of the ground-up bones at the Night Market years ago but did not have any cause to pursue them. Until he dreamt of his dead wife.

The versions of the stories of how and where the bones were hidden far outnumbered the fragments to be had. The early whispers said that the bones could fill a sake cup to its brim. As the rumors faded, Toshio heard that all but a few grains remained. He wasn’t surprised. A Shiikuin’s bones were precious enough to make even the most dutiful become daring. Or foolish. Toshio had no illusions that he was anything but the latter.

“How did you get these?” Haruto asked.

“You would be surprised how many people believe that it is in their best interest to do a pawnbroker a favor.”

“And they would be correct. Everyone in this world owes you a great debt,” Haruto said. “And I owe you more than most.”

Toshio held out the bowl. “Then help me. Please. Do you think these are enough? They were all I could find.”

Haruto took the bowl from him and examined the bones. “I don’t know. I have no experience making paper out of anything other than bamboo pulp and the other world’s time. What do three fragments of a Shiikuin’s bone even mean? Do these bones hold the story of one life? Ten?”

“A Shiikuin’s bones contain the memories of all the Shiikuin that came before and after them, everything they have witnessed, every word they have spoken and heard,” Toshio said. “But no one really knows how powerful they are and what they can do.”

Haruto stared at the bowl. “Because the only stories you hear about those who attempt to use the bones are about those who fail.”