Ink Stained

14: jade water*

翡翠の水

The beforehand process was both surprisingly complicated and not. It made Shiori wonder if something like this had happened before, that there was a precedence and procedure to follow for it now.

Shiori fasted for eighteen hours, with no food and only three cups of green tea every three hours to sustain her. In addition to that was the requirement of taking a ritual cleansing bath. She washed her body clean with a bar of crystalline lemon-scented soap that hurt if she scrubbed too hard. She rinsed herself thoroughly before having to go through the whole process again two more times. Then Mizutani had had to come in and draw her a warm bath for her to soak in for an hour.

While Shiori quietly sat in the steaming water, allowing it to cleanse her of any negativity like it was supposed to, she chose to think that it was the heat of the water that brought the stinging tears to her eyes, rolling down her cheeks to plop in the water. She didn't notice that her hands trembled with nerves until she was towelling herself down.

Shiori tried to shove the doubts away from her mind, but they never truly left.

As she shrugged on some clean clothes Yukiji had laid out for her while she took the bath, she stared at the photos on her dressing table. She looked at the pictures of her family, her mother and father who had been dead for two and a half years now.

Ryu had grown so much since then, something she had never noticed but now did like a punch in the gut. He was taller, and his hair was getting long enough that teachers would start subtly suggesting he cut it before they outright phoned Obaasan to politely complain about it.

Shiori realized with a start that when all this was over, he would need to actually get a haircut. It was ridiculous that in such a dire situation, she was thinking about such a trivial thing, so normal – but there it was.

She looked at the picture of her and Pai together at Shigira Beach. She looked at their happy faces with their mouths open in wide smiles as they laughed at the person who took the photo. Shiori remembered that it was Pai's father who took it. He had told them a joke and caught the perfect moment when they started laughing at it.

What happened? Shiori thought. She lifted a hand and ran it through her shoulder-length hair, staring at the strands that turned red in the light of the sun. She imagined them white, but for the life of her she could picture what could be so bad to do that to a person's hair.

"What happened to you, Pai?" she whispered into the air.

She clicked her tongue, savegly wiping away the tear that leaked down her cheek. Her throat was tight and hot, but now was not the time for crying.

With a final look at the pictures that held the only remnants of their once peaceful and entirely ordinary life, Shiori spun around on her heel and left her room.

She headed out of Ayashi House, calling a vague goodbye to Karasatengu, Shouta, and Mizutani where they stood near the gate, joining a silent Yuu who waited outside the gate for her. Shouta had his arm wrapped around a pale-faced Mizutani, the two of them listening to something Karasatengu was telling them.

More out of respect and slight superstition than anything else, Shiori stopped by the shrine at the foot of the mountain to pray to the Kamigami there, as Yuu waited outside for her to accompany her to the hospital. She prayed for good fortune rather than being specific about what she wanted, exactly, good fortune in.

Praying to the gods was like dancing along the blade of a double-edged sword. It was fickle business, Daichi had once warned her. The gods could heed your prayer and grant your wish. But then again, they could listen to what you prayed for and grant your wish in ways you could never have wanted. They had done it many time before, all over the world, in all the different faces they donned.