Chapter 23: The Stalker’s Mark
In the carriage, Riko placed the small flat box on her lap.
“What’s that?” Seimei asked.
“The Lady who asked me to read poetry gave it to me. Said it’s valuable.” Riko opened the box, revealing a tiny sachet. She untied it and pulled out a folded note with three characters: Bai Rongyi.
“What’s Bai Rongyi?” she asked.
Seimei took the note, slightly surprised. “It’s a type of Tsukumogami.”
“What’s a Tsukumogami?”
“When an object is unused for a hundred years, it can turn into a demon out of resentment. Bai Rongyi is one, formed from a rag, shaped like a dragon. It emits slime and stench to suffocate people.”
“Sounds like something from a lazy household,” Riko laughed. “Who’d leave a rag unused for a century? But why give me this note?”
“It’s a demon contract,” Seimei said, folding it back into the sachet. “Keep it safe. It’s valuable.”
“A demon contract?”
“Yes. Defeat a demon, have it write its name, and you get one chance to command it. Tear the contract to summon it.”
“Nice!”
“Indeed. The Lady must know onmyoji to have this. Demons rarely agree to contracts, fearing they’ll be forced into unbearable tasks. Even for a minor demon like Bai Rongyi, it’s rare.”
That Lady is the demon, Riko thought.
Back home, Riko’s questions about Tsukumogami prompted Seimei to send Teng She to fetch one.
Teng She returned soon, carrying a washbasin with a stand. “I scoured abandoned temples for this. Here, Kaku Kansui.”
The dusty basin, set carelessly on the ground, looked nothing like a demon.
Riko stared curiously. Normally, stands were under basins, but this one had four long supports above it.
Seimei explained, “Washing your face wets sleeves, so this basin’s stand holds them up. Buckets replaced these space-hogging basins, and unused, they became Tsukumogami.”
“It can’t transform,” Riko noted.
“Not until you wash your face in it,” Seimei said. “It remembers your face, and when you sleep, it steals it.”
Riko flinched. “Why steal faces?”
“It thinks humans who don’t use it don’t deserve faces.”
Riko gazed at the Kaku Kansui, her expression complex. Abandoned objects turning demonic out of loneliness and taking revenge—she didn’t know what to say.
“Want to try?” Seimei asked, smiling. “It’s fine. Use it, and I’ll stay with you tonight to catch it, like sleeping with a curtain between us at the inn.”
“No way.” Riko shook her head firmly, eyeing the basin. She wasn’t risking her face.
“Oh,” Seimei said, a touch disappointed. “Kaku Kansui’s pretty interesting.”
“Nope.”
That night, Riko tucked the sachet into her usual small bag with paper figures and a lightbulb.
Suzaku closed her sliding door and left.
The room darkened, lit only by faint moonlight filtering through the window.
Unable to sleep, Riko sat up to take out the paper bulb and read.
A “hiss-hiss” breathing sound came from behind her.
She froze. Not the Kaku Kansui—Teng She took it, right?
She didn’t dare look, pretending ignorance as she stood to grab a book.
Nearing the side door, she yanked it open and bolted barefoot across the wooden bridge to the next room.
“Lord Seimei!”
Seimei had just gone to bed, his room pitch-black.
Riko rushed in, and he caught her to keep her from falling.
“There’s… breathing on my neck…” Her voice trembled with a sob.
Seimei’s face hardened. Releasing one hand, he formed a seal, locking down the courtyard.
“Don’t be scared.” He moved a lamp, removing its black cover, and the paper bulb cast a soft glow. “Let’s check. It might still be there.” He smiled. “Maybe it’s the Kaku Kansui. Told you a curtain would do.”
Riko realized her arms were still around Seimei’s waist.
His collar was tightly closed, covering even his Adam’s apple, but feeling his lean waist through the fabric, she let go like she’d been burned.
“Got thorns on me?” Seimei chuckled.
They entered Riko’s room.
A man’s head floated in midair, panicking as it looked around.
Its neck, like a long tube, was stuck in the orange barrier, unable to move.
“Guruguru Head?” Seimei’s voice mixed surprise and amusement.
“Like the one from the demon inn?” Riko recalled the creature in the women’s bath.
“Exactly.”
“Isn’t the house warded against demons? How’d it get in?”
“Well, this one’s special. It’s half-human. Guruguru Heads grow long necks from excessive lust, perfect for peeking at women. Its body’s still at home.”
Riko grimaced. “Disgusting peeping creep.”
“I’ll deal with it.” Seimei grabbed paper and pen from the table, writing a talisman.
The Guruguru Head paled. “Don’t kill me! I’m the one from Himeji Castle. We’ve met!”
Riko’s expression shifted. “Himeji? How’d you find us from so far?”
“It was tough, but I remembered your scent and tracked it. It’s our innate skill,” the Guruguru Head said timidly.
Like Qianxi Nü’s stalking talent.
It turned its face, showing a butterfly mark. “You left this on me.”
Seimei examined it. “My butterfly mark. I meant to track you down with it. It’s definitely you.”
“Yes, yes, it’s me!” The Guruguru Head beamed, relieved. “You finally recognized me!”
Riko thought it dim-witted.
The mark was to hunt it down.
Why be happy about being confirmed as the target?
“Who sent you?” Seimei asked abruptly.
“I don’t know, some dark figure,” the Guruguru Head said. “He’s searching for a lock. The trail went cold at the demon inn, so he rounded up all the city’s demons, asking who’d been there. I raised my hand.”
“Other demons mocked me, saying I went to peep at the women’s bath. But I swear, I was drawn by a comforting scent I couldn’t place.”
“He told me to find you, or he’d kill me. I followed the scent to Cat Island, Omi, and finally Heian-kyo. He marked me, so he might be coming soon.” A sly, time-stalling grin spread across its face.
Seimei’s expression darkened.
He clenched his fist, and the Guruguru Head’s neck snapped in the closing barrier, thudding to the ground without a scream.
“Teng She.”
A long-haired, slit-pupiled man materialized.
“The blood box?”
“Here.” Teng She handed over a palm-sized red box.
Seimei opened it, and the Guruguru Head was sucked inside.
“Clean up its remaining body. No trace of it here.” Seimei pulled a robe from a rack and handed it to Riko. “We need to leave for now.”
Riko slipped on the robe. “Just us? What about Lord Abe?”
“The mark on the Guruguru Head didn’t glow, meaning that person hasn’t found us yet. Thanks to this dimwit not being clever enough to hide he’d been to the inn or that he was stalling.”
Seimei donned a robe Teng She handed him. “Since they don’t know we’re here, we’ll use the Guruguru Head to lure them out of Heian-kyo. We’ll release a bit of your tablet’s scent to blur your location. They’re likely after what you carry.”
Riko paled, recalling the gods’ talk—everyone, god or demon, was hunting that lock.
Seimei grabbed a few items, bundling them up.
Riko slung her bag over her shoulder.
Following Seimei out the back door, she asked, “But the city gates are closed this late. How do we get out?”
“Not through the gates,” Seimei said, his tone lighter as the situation seemed manageable. “We’ll pass through a wall, but no one can see us leave. We’ll find a secluded spot to use this tool.”
As he spoke of secrecy, a carriage rolled by.
It stopped, then reversed.
“Rikako, Seimei, where are you off to this late?” Minamoto no Hatsuha peered from the window, smirking. “What, my father’s back, so you’re eloping?”
Seimei frowned softly. “Troublesome. Looks like we’re bringing her along.”