Takeshita Demons (10 page)

"Flood's getting worse?" I asked, my teeth
chattering despite the warm temperature.

"No," Cait said. "I think something's coming."

The waves were growing larger. We could see the
bulk of them as they pummelled past our open door,
with just the smaller waves pushing sideways into
our classroom. I didn't know what to do. We were
perched like helpless sailors on our school-desk
desert islands.

"Perhaps we should run for it," I said again.
"It could be her. Who cares about wet shoes?"

But it was too late. The waves had slowed and
now just a few cautious ripples were rolling into the
classroom. The thing, whatever it was, was nearly
here.

"Hello?" said a voice from down the hall.
It was a woman's voice, and not Mrs Okuda.
I heaved a sigh of relief, but I didn't answer. Cait
stayed silent too.

The ripples started again, pushing towards
us. A woman's face appeared round the classroom
door. "Hello?" she asked again. The face was quite
young and beautiful, with a small nose and wide
almond eyes, but both Cait and I screamed anyway.
Cait stood up on her desk, trying to edge backwards
and away.

"Children?" The woman seemed surprised to see
us. "But what are you doing here?"

I was asking myself exactly the same question.
We could have been at home eating pizza. But
I couldn't take my eyes off her, for although the
woman's features were as pretty as any of the girls in
the magazines, her skin was bright green and shiny
like a frog's. She had long black hair that hung wet
around her head and her tongue was red and forked. It seemed to quiver like a snake's, as if she was using
it to smell us out.

She came closer, gliding like a serpent. As she
approached, more ripples lapped against the legs of
our school desks.

Cait made a tiny choking noise. Her eyes were
bulging and she seemed unable to speak.

I wasn't surprised. Being eaten by a massive
snake-woman-demon-thing had not been part of
our plan. I just stood there, silent, and waited for
whatever came next.

The woman was wet all over and dressed in red,
with green scaly arms reaching out of each sleeve.
Her skin, green with streaks of mustard yellow, was
clearly visible beneath the transparent fabric.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She slid back a little.
She didn't seem to have legs, just a long, snakelike body that disappeared into the corridor.
"I didn't mean to disturb you. I didn't realise there'd
be more children here."

For that was the worst of it. Worse than her
green skin and forked tongue, worse than the
way her body seemed to melt into a legless lizard.
In her scaly green arms, this dragon demon held
Kazu, my darling brother, tiny and trusting and
asleep.

"Oh, but it's you," the dragon woman said,
suddenly smiling up at me with warm, blood-red eyes.
"Miku." She slid further into the room, her snake's
body seemingly endless as it extended through the
door and into the corridor. At the point where her
jacket ended, her skin turned to red and shone wet
and naked in the moonlight, rippling as it entered
the room.

I could only gurgle back. This dragon knew me.
And it had Kazu. And now it would have us too.

"It is Miku, isn't it?" the woman asked, her smile
revealing two pointed fangs. "Takeshita Miku. I've
heard so much about you. I was a great fan of your
grandmother's."

Slowly, like a statue come to life, I nodded.
What was this thing? What did it know of Baba?

"She did so much for your family," the woman
continued, hissing a little as her scarlet tongue flashed
in and out. "Such a tragedy that she passed away.
Still, she lived to a good age. It's your turn now."

My turn? I had no idea what this monster was
talking about, but I had finally found my voice.
"My brother," I said. "Give him back."

"Oh, of course," she said, looking down at the
sleeping Kazu. "But not yet. Not yet. I need him
still."

"Give him back," I demanded, a little louder this
time. "Give him back now." Now I had my voice
I was trying for my courage as well. My words
sounded strange, echoing off the walls and the
water.

"But do you not know me?" the dragon woman
asked, surprised. "The zashiki-warashi has sent me."

Zashiko had sent her, all the way from our
house back in Japan? The mischievous child
ghost, who had moved my pillow and swung
my bedroom light in the night? I didn't believe it.
Zashiko had always protected our family from
evil, but this misshapen demon monster had stolen
Kazu.

"He's my brother," I said. "We've come to take
him home." I had hoped to sound heroic and strong,
but in the face of this demon, I sounded almost
apologetic.

"But you cannot take him from me now."
The dragon woman looked concerned. "I have
travelled so far. I have achieved so much. I have
discovered the nukekubi, fought the yuki-onna.
We are so close to victory, you and I."

Victory? You and I?

Cait shot me a look that said, plain as day,
you know this woman-thing?

No. I shook my head. I'd never seen her before
in my life. The yuki-onna, the thing she claimed
to have fought, I'd heard of that. Another demon
my Baba had talked about. But there wasn't time
to think of that now. We needed Kazu back, and
we needed to go home. We'd been crazy to try this
alone.

"Give him to me," I said. "In the name of my
Baba. In the name of Zashiko, our zashiki-warashi."
If this dragon claimed to know Baba and Zashiko,
perhaps that could work in our favour.

The dragon woman made a strange sound, a kind
of watery whimper. "But the plan. The nukekubi.
She is here, somewhere in the school. I must take
your brother to her."

Take Kazu to the Okuda-monster? This was
the last straw. There was no way Zashiko had sent
this disgusting creature. It was a lie, another trick,
like the Mr O'Neill noppera-bo. I might not be
the world's best sister, but I drew the line at feeding
my brother to a flying demon head. I decided right
then and there: there was no way I was going to
let anyone take Kazu anywhere near the nukekubi,
and especially not this scaly green snake-demon
thing. Even if my life depended on it.

"Give him to me," I commanded. This time my voice came out booming and hot, like Mr Lloyd's
when he was mad at Alex.

The dragon woman squirmed. Kazu wriggled
in her arms, still sleeping soundly. "It's not right,"
she said. "Zashiko has a plan..." But she slithered
closer, her green arms extended slightly, holding
Kazu out over the water.

I moved to the edge of the desk, close enough
to reach out and touch Kazu. "Give him to me."

The dragon woman moved closer still, dangling
Kazu like bait over a shark pit. "Are you sure,
Takeshita Miku? Are you ready? Can you take him?"

I didn't answer right away. Instead I grabbed
Kazu as quickly as I could, cringing away from the
cool touch of the woman's scaly skin. "Yes, very sure.
I'm ready."

Kazu felt warm and alive, soft and heavy in
my arms. We'd done it! He didn't wake. I started to
dream that we might make it home, me and Kazu
and Cait.

The dragon woman hadn't moved. She stood
there, watching Kazu as I held him. Her red eyes
had narrowed, like a snake watching a mouse. It felt
weird that she hadn't backed away, but at least she
hadn't come any closer.

Cait had had enough. "Thanks for that," she said. "We're leaving now." But though she sounded as
if she meant it, she didn't move an inch. Neither
did the dragon woman.

"Leave us," Cait tried again. "We're going
home."

But the woman didn't even twitch.

And I wasn't going anywhere. Kazu was
breathing peacefully in my arms, but he seemed to
be getting heavier every second. He seemed to be
turning into lead, becoming heavier and heavier,
until my arms were aching with the weight of him.
I didn't care. I took a deep breath and hung on.

"Hey, Kazu," I crooned. "It's OK now, I've got
you. We're going to take you home."

"Come on, Miku," said Cait, still eyeing the
dragon woman warily. "Let's get out of here."

But I couldn't take a step. Kazu was growing
heavier still. My arms felt as if they were being
stretched, pulled down to the ground by their
tremendous load.

Kazu looked just as peaceful as ever, but my arm
muscles were burning up and my legs had started
trembling with the weight. "It's OK, Kazu," I said,
gritting my teeth. "It's OK."

But it wasn't. I was shaking with the strain now.
How much longer could I hold him?

I looked up at the dragon woman. "What have
you done to him? Let him go."

"You care for this child?" she asked, eyes
glittering and tongue waving in the air.

"Yes," I gasped. I was staggering. "I love him,
he's my brother." I didn't think I could carry Kazu's
weight much longer.

"But you leave him sick and alone, coughing on
the sofa..." the woman said.

"That was a mistake," I panted, my arms and
legs ready to explode. "The amazake-baba, then the
noppera-bo..." I cursed the spirits who had made
Kazu ill, who had distracted us as we cared for
him. And I cursed this dragon demon, who seemed
to be crushing me under the weight of my own
brother's body.

"No," the dragon woman reared up on her
massive snake's body. She towered over me with
her fangs shining in the moonlight. "It was you who
left him. You who left him alone. Nobody did that
but you."

My whole body was trembling as if under
the weight of a thousand houses, but I refused to let
Kazu go.

"OK," I panted. Kazu's weight was crushing my
lungs, breaking my ribs. "OK. I shouldn't have left him. I was wrong. But that doesn't change anything.
I still love him, and we're taking him back home
with us, today."

With a mammoth effort, pulling strength and
energy from places I didn't even know I had, I heaved
Kazu's tiny body up a little higher, holding him
close to my body and hanging on as if my whole life
depended on it.

Suddenly, the weight was gone. Kazu seemed to
float in my arms. He was back to normal, my ordinary
sleeping brother.

The dragon woman had returned to eye level.
"Good," she said. "I see you care for this child
properly, as all children deserve."

"What is going on?" Cait said. She seemed to
have missed everything. "Come on, Miku, let's get
out of here."

But now that I could move again, I wasn't so
keen to leave. "Who are you?" I stared at the demon
in front of me. Her scaly, shiny skin, her red eyes,
the fangs and serpent's body.

The woman suddenly looked sad. "I am the
nure-onna," she said. "The woman of the wet."
Yuki-onna I'd heard of, even my Mum knew

stories of her. But the nure-onna? This was a first.
Not even my Baba had mentioned her. "What are you doing here?" I demanded. "Why did you take my
brother?"

"Hush," the woman said. "The nukekubi is still
about, and it's nearly morning. Her head may return
any moment."

"But why did you take him?" After all we'd been
through, I wanted answers.

"He was sick and alone," she answered. "And
I needed him. It was Zashiko's plan. I could care for
him. You will see his cough is gone."

I looked down at Kazu. She was right. He did
seem to be breathing easily, with no sign of his earlier
illness.

"Quick," the woman hissed, red tongue darting.
"The water drains, morning grows closer. Take him
home and keep him safe. Do not come back to school
today. I will deal with the nukekubi. She is causing
only trouble."

The dragon woman was right. Outside the night
was growing lighter, and inside the water had stopped
gushing from the broken pipes. Slowly, the flood
was withdrawing.

"I must go," the dragon woman said, sliding
backwards out the door. "Go home at once. She
will be back any moment, and she will be hunting
for you."