Page 39 of Water Moon

Chapter Thirty-nine

An Infestation of Ticks

Keishin’s shoulders and arms burned from rowing. The subterranean river that led to the Singing Forest was twice as long as the one that had led them to the lake. The sky lightened behind the waterfall at the end of the cave. Keishin kept his eyes on the light and pulled on the oars, ignoring the pain shooting up his raw palms. A tinkling melody drifted through the water falling over the exit. “Do you hear that?”

“The forest is close,” Hana said. “This is its song.”

“How far is the Night Market from the forest?” Keishin said.

Hana continued to row as though she had not heard his question.

“Hana?”

“I am sorry.” Hana sighed. “I know that you are exhausted, but I am afraid that it will take more than half a day’s walk to get through the forest. Once we reach the clearing, a puddle will take us to a village near the market.”

“No need to apologize.” Keishin glanced back at Hana with a smirk. “After sitting in this boat the whole night, I could use a long walk.”

Hana smiled. “Of course.”

—

Multicolored glass wind chimes in the shape of leaves grew from the branches of the towering trees and sang in the wind. Sunlight filtered through the shimmering canopy, painting a rainbow over the forest floor. Keishin marveled at the sight, unable to tear his eyes from the chimes. Their haunting song shifted from cheerful to melancholy, changing at the wind’s whim.

Hana grabbed his elbow. “Watch your step.”

“Whoa.” Keishin glanced down and stopped before tripping over a rotting log. “I definitely do not need to add a sprained ankle to the list of our problems.”

“The chimes can be distracting,” Hana said, stepping over the log. “I have fallen and scraped my knees in this forest more than once.”

“Distracting is an understatement.” Keishin forced himself to focus on the winding path. “I think I could easily spend my entire life in your world and still find something to be amazed about every single day.”

“That’s how I feel about your world,” Hana said.

“Really?”

“The glimpses I caught of it always fascinated me. Our clients’ clothes. Their things. Their stories. They lived in my mind long after the clients left and the Shiikuin came to collect their choices.”

Keishin frowned, tilting his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ve been so busy running from the Shiikuin that it just occurred to me that I don’t even know what the Shiikuin want my world’s choices for.”

“Perhaps we should keep it that way.” Hana walked on.

Keishin caught up with her. “After everything we’ve been through, don’t you think I deserve to know the truth? And what did Haruto mean by your entire world owing a debt to the pawnshop and your father?”

“It is not about deserving the truth.”

“Then what is it about?”

“It is about being protected from it.”

“You don’t need to protect me, Hana.”

“Not you.” Hana stopped walking. “Me. If you knew the truth about what my father and I really took from your world and what we did with it, you would never be able to look at me the same way.”

“Nothing you could tell me would change how I feel about—” Keishin caught himself. “How I think about you.”

Hana met his eyes. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you should know. Maybe then you’ll realize that coming here was a mistake and that you should go back home before it’s too late.”

“Home…it’s a mapmaker’s ultimate challenge, don’t you think?” Keishin kicked away a rock. “A cartographer can craft the most detailed map, include every landmark, and draw the clearest roads. His map can help you get to almost anywhere you wish. Bridges. Parks. Libraries. But not home. You won’t find it labeled on a single map in the entire world. You can live in the same place for years and memorize every bus, bike, and walking route back to it and never really know your way home. Maybe that’s why you can’t find it on any map. Because it doesn’t exist.” Keishin looked at Hana with a sad smile. “Or because it’s changeable.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying…” Keishin said. “What if I don’t want to go back?”

“We take souls,” Hana said.

Keishin stared at her, his jaw slack.

“The birds we keep in our vault…those aren’t just choices.” Hana’s voice shook. “They are pieces of our clients’ souls. Our clients think that they are trading an old regret for contentment, but they are wrong. My father tricks them. I trick them.

“My father told me that the piece of their souls that we took was so small that they would not miss it, but I never believed him. What we take may be small, but it is the best part of you, the part that made a decision to go left instead of right. It does not matter what the outcome of the choice is. It could be terrible, and they could regret it, but when clients leave their choice at the pawnshop, they give up a chance to make their own peace with the life that they did choose. It will be a journey they will never be able to complete, a lesson they will never be able to learn. How can you be at peace if a part of you is missing? It will be a hole that you will try to fill all your life without ever knowing why that hole exists in the first place.”

Keishin drew a long breath and exhaled it just as slowly. “And what do the Shiikuin do with the pieces you give them?”

“Do you remember the empty cages you saw at the Horishi’s home?”

Keishin nodded, dreading the answer Hana was about to give him.

“You asked me where all the birds were.” Hana pushed back her sleeve and held out her arm. “They’re here. In our skin, in the Horishi’s ink. We take your souls because we don’t have our own. This is the ‘debt’ this world owes my father for the duty he performs. Without the pawnshop, this parasite world that you think is so fascinating would not exist. This cannot be your home, Keishin. It is nothing but an infestation of ticks gorging on a dog’s back.”

—

Keishin and Hana sat in the grass, leaning on opposite sides of a tree’s thick trunk. Branches swayed in the breeze above them, conducting an orchestra of glass and wind. Keishin looked up at the cloudless sky through the wind chimes and found himself missing the rain that usually followed him everywhere. The weather had chosen an inconvenient time to decide that it liked him. Or perhaps, chasing away the clouds was its way of being even more unkind. A storm would have been quite useful in hiding tears that threatened to fall as soon as Keishin blinked. He wasn’t sure if they were angry tears or sad ones, only that they were going to sting.

“When we get to the clearing, you can use the puddle there to take you back to the pawnshop. Once you get there, you just need to walk through the front door to get home,” Hana said. “You will forget everything that happened here and move on with your life. You will find your neutrinos and answer all the questions you have about your universe.”

“And I’ll be happy.”

“Yes.”

“If only I could believe you.”

“You do not trust me.”

“How can I?” Keishin got up and marched over to Hana. “You just told me that you’ve spent your entire life being taught how to lie and manipulate people into giving up part of their souls. How do I know that what you’re telling me now isn’t a trick? What if I get back home and remember everything? How am I supposed to go on with my life and pretend that everything I’ve seen in this world doesn’t exist? How do you even know what happens to your clients once they leave your pawnshop? All you know is what your father told you, your father who abandoned you to chase after his dead wife.” Keishin regretted his words as soon as they tumbled out of his mouth. “I…I’m sorry.”

Hana stood up. “Why should you be sorry? It’s the truth. My one real skill and duty in this world is to lie, and my father did abandon me. And you’re also right that I don’t know what will happen to you when you go back. All I know is…” Tears watered her voice. “You will be safe.”

Keishin fought the urge to gather her to him. “Please don’t cry.”

Hana dried her eyes with the back of her hand. “You are right. Parasites do not deserve to cry.”

“Don’t say that. You are not a parasite.”

“I am.” Fresh tears filled Hana’s eyes.

“No, you are not.” Keishin circled his arms around her. “I don’t know why your world works the way it does or why it needs mine to exist, but I know this. You have given me more than you’ve taken. You’ve shown me things beyond my imagination and…” He tilted her chin up. “And made me feel things I never thought I could.”

“Things that you shouldn’t.”

“Because Haruto is your fate.” Keishin lowered his eyes.

“Haruto has nothing to do with this.”

“He loves you.”

“Yes.”

“And one day, you’ll love him too.”

“I won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. I kissed him,” Hana said. “And it was different.”

“From what?”

“From when I kissed you.” Hana pulled away from him. “But whatever we feel for each other has no place in this world or yours.”

“It doesn’t have to belong to either of our worlds, Hana. It just needs to belong to us.”

Hana leaned her head against his chest, letting her tears fall.