Chapter Fifty-Nine A Thousand Water Moons
Chapter Fifty-nine
A Thousand Water Moons
One crane lingered, pecking at a pebble by Hana’s feet. Hana crouched to pick it up, but it flew away before she could catch it. It flapped its paper wings and climbed up to the sky, joining the other cranes as they disappeared behind the clouds.
“They’re gone.” Hana stared down the road Haruto’s cranes had delivered them to. The pawnshop was a few steps away, but she could not find the strength nor the will to move her feet. “He’s gone. I have no one left.”
“Come with me,” Keishin said.
“What?”
“Come with me to my world… our world.”
“I don’t belong there.”
“You don’t belong here either. There’s nothing left for you here, Hana. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life running from the Shiikuin?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“You have more choices than you’ve ever had in your life. Left. Right. Up. Down. You can go anywhere. Be anyone. All you have to do is walk through a door. With me.”
“It is not that simple.”
“Why not?”
“Because we will never let you go.” A chorus of shrill voices spilled out of the mouths of the two Shiikuin standing at the end of the road.
—
Hana and Keishin raced through the pawnshop as the Shiikuin’s shrieks grew louder behind them. Hana yanked the front door open. Blinding rain blew through the doorway, soaking the pawnshop’s floor.
“Go!” Hana yelled over the storm.
Rain lashed at Keishin. He held out his hand to her. “Come with me.”
A Shiikuin’s talons closed around Hana’s arm. Keishin threw himself at the Shiikuin and wrestled it to the floor. The Shiikuin slashed at his face, slicing his cheek open.
“Kei!” Hana ran to him.
A door slammed over her voice. A lock clicked shut.
Hana twisted around. The second Shiikuin turned from the locked door, an illusion of a sneer curling over its mask.
The other Shiikuin broke away from Keishin and stood next to the Shiikuin blocking the door. “There is no way out,” they chorused.
“But there is a way down.” Hana grabbed Keishin by the hand and dove into the rain puddle on the pawnshop’s floor.
—
Golden moons shimmered above the water. Hana and Keishin swam up to them. They broke through the surface and found a rubber raft floating close by. Keishin clambered onto the raft and helped Hana climb on board. They lay back, completely dry. Keishin stared up at the sky of golden moons. The light detectors were much closer to the water’s surface than in the memory he had borrowed from his colleague. The Super-Kamiokande’s water tank was nearly full, and if he stood on his toes, he could touch the glass bulbs.
“How did we get here? I thought that puddles could only take you to places in your—” Keishin caught himself. “In the other world.”
“The puddle we dove into was not from that world. It was from this one. I was not sure that it was going to work. I just prayed that it would understand me when I told it to take us to someplace safe.”
Panic flashed in Keishin’s eyes. “Does this mean the Shiikuin can use the puddle too?”
“I’m counting on it.”
“You want the Shiikuin to follow us? Why?”
“Because I am tired of running. I told you when you first took me here that this was a beautiful trap.” Hana grabbed an oar and handed it to Keishin. “Now we get to use it.”
Talons broke through the water on both sides of the boat. Hana shoved a Shiikuin with the oar, keeping it from surfacing. Keishin slammed his oar into the Shiikuin on his side. The Shiikuin shrieked, their voices garbled by the water. Each time they clawed at the surface, Keishin and Hana beat them down.
“How long can they keep this up?” Keishin panted, striking the Shiikuin on the head. Its mask cracked, revealing the face decaying beneath it. Scraps of metal covered a hole where a nose should have been. “Why haven’t they drowned yet?”
“Because they can’t.”
“The Shiikuin can’t die…” Keishin said, remembering what Toshio had told them. “They just change parts when they wear down.”
“Metal parts.” Hana struck the Shiikuin’s shoulder.
“If you’re hoping that the water will dissolve them like that wrench I told you about, it’s not going to happen.” Keishin shoved the Shiikuin from the raft. “At least not before our arms give out.”
The water grew still. Keishin held the oar above his head, waiting for the Shiikuin to surface.
Hana settled back into the boat, resting her oar at her side. “They’re gone.”
“Gone? How?” Keishin scanned the quiet water.
“Time passes differently for the Shiikuin. A lifetime should be more than enough time for the water to consume every piece of metal and skin.”
—
Keishin paddled the raft to an opening at the top of the tank. Hana leaned back, watching the ripples they left in the water.
“Hana.” Keishin said her name so softly that Hana wondered if he had spoken or sighed.
“Did you say something?” Hana said, looking up.
“I was just testing something out.”
“Testing what?”
“If I still remembered your name. I was worried that I would forget you now that I’m back here. I haven’t.” Keishin smiled. “I remember everything.”
“Maybe it’s because you are from both worlds.”
“Like you.”
“Like me…” Hana ran her hand over her arm. “I am still here.”
“I suppose this means that we were both right about the weather hating us.”
Hana stared at her reflection in the water.
“Hana? Are you okay?”
She drew a heavy breath. “The Shiikuin will never stop hunting us, Kei. It is their duty. They do not know anything else.”
“We’re almost at the hatch. We’re safe.”
Hana gripped the sides of the raft. “It’s too quiet.”
“We’re underneath a mountain. It’s supposed to be quiet. I would be worried if it wasn’t.”
“Maybe if I can find a way back, they will leave you alone.”
“Hana, stop. Don’t even think about that.”
“Not thinking about it will not make it less true. I do not care what they do to me. They can have my eyes. My hands. My life. But I would never forgive myself if they found you.”
“Look around you, Hana. We’ve escaped. We’re free.”
“I can still feel them, Kei. I can still hear their shrieks. They are close. I know it.”
Keishin stopped rowing. “Come here,” he said, taking Hana in his arms. He kissed the top of her head. “Hana—”
Talons burst from the water and dug into Keishin’s arm. Keishin screamed in pain. Blood poured out from his wound. The Shiikuin pulled itself onto the raft, clutching Keishin’s bleeding arm. “You do not belong here,” it shrieked.
“Neither do you.” Hana leapt at the Shiikuin, throwing herself and the creature into the water. The rippling reflection of a thousand golden moons swallowed them whole before Keishin could scream.