Ink Stained

31: get out of the way*

どいてください

Pai dropped her phone, turned on her heel, and ran as fast as she could.

She was at the door, yanking it open when she heard her phone land on the ground, cracking and splintering into a dozen pieces. She didn't care. Nothing mattered more than stopping Kouta and the Daitengu from starting what would get them all killed.

She bolted out of her room and turned left, running down the corridor to the entrance of Ayashi House, white braid thumping on her back, an odd sort of comfort, centring amidst the blind panic crashing through her. Nothing else was on her mind except to get to where Kouta and the others were, and to get there before Shin found them first.

She blew past a uniform line of Burabura floating overhead, one attached to each light bulb on the ceiling. She ducked under them and weaved to the side, just managing to avoid trampling over a group of four or five bakezori straw sandals. She heard the sound of their soles slapping at the floor as they scattered, frightened away by how suddenly she appeared and almost crushed them.

Reaching the front double-doors of Ayashi House, she tugged them open roughly as she leaped over the stairs and ran for the gates. She felt as though she were running on air. Despite the end of the heavy snowing, it was blisteringly cold. The wind bit at her face as she ran, making for the gates.

By the time she got there her fingers were numb and the tips of her ears burned with cold. She darted into the security outhouse, pressed the same button she had before, and ran back out to wait impatiently for the gates to swing open.

From her periphery, she saw Yukiji kneeling in the snow by the tree close to the boundary wall. She must have come out to check on the roots of the trees after the heavy snowing, to make sure they were all right. Yukiji wore a dark red kimono with a black obi tied around her waist. The colour made Pai's lips tighten when she remembered the brightness of the uchikake Kuniumi wore. She saw Yukiji standing up when she came out of the outhouse.

"Pai-chan?" Yukiji called, worried. "What's wrong?" She didn't answer as the gates finally opened just enough for her to dart through. She didn't look back when Yukiji yelled out, "Where are you going!"

She didn't stop.

But she had to when she ran out of the gate and almost collided into Karasatengu, who dropped down from the tree branch hanging over the gates of Ayashi House like an arch. She hadn't noticed him up there. The trees all around her were stripped of their leaves a little over a week ago in preparation for the coming bitter winter, but despite that there were still always crows perched on the bare tree branches, always on a look-out for anything that approached Ayashi House.

In the span of time it took for him to jump off the branch and land on the ground, he transformed to his human form, arms crossed over his thick chest with his hands in the opposite sleeves and a deep frown nestled in between his thick eyebrows.

Pai halted and just managed not to run into him. She was breathing hard, her chest heaving as she drew in the cold air. Her hands were clammy, and the bones in her knees were turning to jelly. She looked up at Karasatengu, but in her frantic state she barely took notice of the disapproving frown he aimed at her.

"Pai-san," he said, low and dark. "Where do you think you are going?"

"I need to get to Kouta-sama and the others," she said, hoping that he would see she was serious, that she wasn't fooling around. "Please Karasatengu-san, please let me through."

Karasatengu shook his head. "You know I can't do that. Kouta-san and the others are running the simulation Torimaku on Jirou-san right now. It's too dangerous for you to be anywhere near them right now."