Koyasan Read Online Free PDF Page A

study her tongue. Koyasan and her parents were silent during the examination, awaiting Itako’s verdict.
    After five minutes, Itako opened one of the bags and poured a small amount of pink powder on to Maiko’s tongue. When nothing happened, she opened another bag, mixed a greenish powder into a paste by spitting on it, then rubbed the paste into Maiko’s eyes. She waited a few minutes, observing the girl’s eyes like an owl watching a mouse hole. When Maiko’s eyelids remained as they were, and the mist failed to lift, Itako sighed and cradled the girl’s head to her chest.
    “She’s not a spirit,” Itako said. “This is your daughter.”
    Koyasan and her parents gasped with relief. Fresh tears sprang to their eyes, tears of hope this time. But before they could get too excited, Itako spoke quickly to make them aware of all the facts.
    “Her soul has been stolen by spirits in the graveyard. They separated it from her body. This is your daughter’s form, but there’s nothing inside. She’s as empty as a dry well.”
    There was a long, tense silence.
    “What does this mean?” Koyasan’s father finally asked.
    Itako shrugged. “She will die. Without her soul, she is nothing. She will not eat or drink. You can force her, but it’s better if you don’t. She will linger for several days, then her body will pass. As for her soul...” Itako shrugged again. “The spirits can keep it alive tonight, but if they don’t destroy it by morning, it will dissolve with the rising of the sun.”
    As Koyasan and her parents stared in shock at the elderly lady and the doomed Maiko, Itako stood and set the young girl down. “There is nothing we can do about this,” she said softly but sternly, looking from Koyasan’s mother to her father. “You must accept it and pray for help. Under no circumstances must you go to the graveyard to try and rescue Maiko’s soul.” Itako’s gaze settled on Koyasan and her cold eyes held Koyasan’s in a tight, unbreakable grip. “We are helpless in this matter.”
    Itako stared at Koyasan for maybe another two seconds. Then she looked away and sighed. “I will tell the others what has happened. You should spend this night with your daughter, praying — maybe the spirits will take pity if they hear your prayers. But let Koyasan come to me if she wishes. Don’t stand in her way.”
    With that, she slipped out. Koyasan’s parents immediately rushed to Maiko’s side, wailing and clutching at her. But Koyasan didn’t move. Instead of sorrow, she was filled with fear. Because when Itako said that “we are helpless”, there was “nothing we can do”, Koyasan knew that what the old woman had left out at the end was, “but Koyasan can.”

THE MISSION
     
     K OYASAN STAYED WITH her parents and Maiko for maybe thirty minutes, trying to convince herself that she’d imagined the hidden message in Itako’s gaze and words. All she wanted was to stay by her sister’s side and mourn with her mother and father. But she couldn’t. Because part of her knew this wasn’t over. Her parents and Itako could do nothing to save Maiko — but Itako had hinted that perhaps Koyasan could.
    Finally, knowing she couldn’t live with herself if she stood by and did nothing when there was a chance to set this terrible situation right, Koyasan told her parents that she was going to see Itako. They only nodded miserably and waved her away, too concerned with the dreadful fate which had befallen their youngest daughter to worry about how it might be affecting their eldest.
    The crowd had dispersed around their hut. Everyone had gone home to pray for Maiko and prepare themselves for the hard days to come. Koyasan passed unnoticed by anyone from her hut to Itako’s, slipping through the quiet darkness like a spirit of the night.
    Itako was waiting for her, sitting by the fire again, but this time studying the smoke patterns above it. “I wasn’t sure you would come,” she said, without looking at