Footprints Fade and Shadows Call

  That night, there was darkness. Inês dreamed that she was stuck; frozen in place by an unseen force in a void of frigid black. She was clad in her everyday clothes and she wasn't alone. Next to her and stuck as well, there laid a beautiful woman. She was young, with pale skin and inky almond-shaped eyes. Inês couldn't move or say a word. She was drained of all force. All she could do was take note of what little there was around her: under a cover of thin blue frost, there were bolts and machinery, and, all around them, a low, metallic hum. The hum got louder until it hovered over their heads. It was a large—much too large—arthropod, the size of a marionette, flying in a choreographed dance. The bug sat in between Inês and the woman, and, with a sudden kind of glitch, it faded out in a blue flash, leaving a calico cat to stand in its place; modest in height, and ending in a comely pompon tail. Still and purposeful, the cat gazed into Inês' eyes, his gleaming yellow orbs staid. It was only a second before the chubby insect was back in another blue flurry. Then, it climbed into the mouth of the insensate woman.

  Inês woke up. It was dusk, and Lu was laying dormant by her side. Her forehead damp, she let out an edgy sigh.

********

  Marcel and Jin's room was just like theirs, except their futon laid closer together.

  “He's still in rough shape, huh?” asked Inês.

 “Yeah,” answered Jin. “He hasn't done much but sleep since we got back yesterday. What about Lu?”

  “Same thing. She's all pale and small; it worries me.”

  "Well of course she'd be small, she's only like eleven or twelve, right?"

  "Thirteen, actually."

  Jin looked at her with surprise.

  "I know," she said with a smile. "I thought the same. How old are you, by the way?"

  "Me and Marcel are both sixteen."

  "Right, I figured you were older than me. I'm fourteen."

  Marcel laid at rest, his chest rising and falling wholly as they shared an anxious silence. All color had faded from the boy's cheeks, and dark circles lined his under-eyes.

  "What about you?" asked Jin. "Should you be up so soon after your heart trial and your first transformation?"

  "I've been tired," Inês admitted. "Well, exhausted if I'm gonna put it plainly, but there's something I want to get done."

  Jin looked at her with an inquisitive air.

  “Look,” said Inês, deciding to jump head first into the matter at hand. “The reason I came to see you is that I need your help,” she lowered her voice. “I want to go back to the path behind the shrine, just the two of us. There are a few things I need to make sure of.”

  “Like what?”

  “I'll tell you where it's safe. Also, I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Sure...”

  “Don't tell anyone I'm going with you,” she whispered.

  “How are you going to manage to sneak out without Debuu or the ninja-keeper knowing you're gone?” he asked, skeptical.

  “Leave it to me.”

  Inês went back to her room, making a whole production of it along the way: she asked for tea and dango that she could take back to Lu, and that the both of them would have when she woke up. At the same time, Jin told everyone that he wanted to go on a walk alone to stretch his legs and clear his mind. Back in the girl's bedroom, she sat the lacquered tray on the floor and glided the rice door open with nary a sound. Outside, her trusted friend the tanuki had trouble containing his impatience.

  “Hey, buddy! First of all, look at how I'm dressed very carefully,” she instructed him. “Now, can you make yourself look exactly like me, clothes and all?”

  The tanuki scanned her with his pixie eyes. There was a soft pop, and then: it was just like looking at her reflection. Well, a reflection with a poufy tail, but that wouldn't be an issue.

  “Here, get in my futon! I don't want you to leave Lu's side. You can have the tea and dango, but take care of my friend. Nothing can happen to her.”

  From under the covers, her own face looked up at her with a go get 'em expression, and, somehow, that gave her the courage she needed. She smiled and stepped out into the chilly morning air, putting on her Doc Martens so as not to raise suspicions, and marched on to the shrine.

  It took her no time at all to get to her destination. Surely, it helped that the weather was clement, and that she wasn't blabbering or strolling about. The woods were placid and fragrant; only haunted by the congenial vanilla balm. Inês climbed the stone steps two at a time and found Jin sited on the deck of the shrine, waiting for her. She sat down next to him and exhaled. There was quietude while she caught her breath. Jin was the first to break it.

  “So, what is this about?” he asked.

  She breathed in and closed her eyes. She could hear the wind dance with the trees, but nothing else joined in; no birds or rodents. She remembered her first day in this place—how she hadn't noticed any animals. She hadn't seen any animals since then.

  “Have you ever seen a fox or a bird in the time we've been here?” she asked.

  Jin took a pause, thinking.

  “No.”

  “Any other animals?”

  “Well, we have fish at dinner,” he pointed out.

  “Not cooked. In the wild, I mean. Like owls hooting at night or squirrels rummaging in the trees.”

  Jin looked down, lost in thought.

  "I've only heard an animal once," she continued. "It was a dog's bark, I think, but I'm not sure if it was even real. I didn't see a dog, and the sound was… bizarre, like it was coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once."

  Inês tried to gauge Jin's internal response to her words, but, as usual, the boy was a difficult read.

  “Remember what you told me?” she kept going. “About the food, I mean. Well, as the days have passed, I did come to realize… I never got hungry. I actually stopped eating in the morning. And I only eat in the evenings because Debuu and the innkeeper are always there, and I don't want them to get suspicious.”

  “You're scared of them?” he asked, perturbed.

  “I'm being cautious. I'm not sure who can be trusted. I have gut feeling—and it's not a good one.”

  Jin got up, crossing his arms. He paced up and down the shrine pathway a couple of times, gazing up at the clear forenoon sky. Finally, he turned back to face Inês.

  “Marcel is all in on this. He loves it here. What we do, the people…”

  “Does he love the people or does he love how they make him feel?”

  Jin looked up at the sky once more, searching for an answer—or maybe he already had it.

  “Have you noticed that no one in this place has names?” continued Inês. “No one seems to have likes and wants. It's as if they have no personalities; like they're…”

  “NPCs.”

  The two sentai exchanged a knowing look. Inês got up in turn and went in the direction of the path. The sky was blue, and the virgin snow glimmered in the high noon sun. There was a pleasant chill in the air, and the naked trees swayed lazily against one another.

  Jin hummed absentmindedly as he trod alongside her. It was a melancholic tune, mournful and nostalgic.

  "That's lovely," she said. "What is it?"

  "Oh, thanks," he said bashfully. "My grandfather used to play it for me when I was a kid. A really small one, because I stopped listening as I got older. I didn't really grow up with my parents, not really. So he took care of me, mostly."

  "It's good that you had him."

  "Yeah, he was a great man," he added wistfully.

  “He must've been to raise someone like you."

  After another few steps of silence, during which Jin glanced back to Inês a couple of times, he asked: “What about Lu?”

  “What about her?”

  “She's been getting more powerful. How does she feel about this place. Would she be ready to accept that it might not be what we hoped?”

  “Lu loves being a sentai, but if she knew for sure that there was something nefarious going on beneath all of this, she would want out. She has a heart of gold.”

  “Marcel has a good heart, too.”

  “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to suggest…”

  “No, I know. It's just… I didn't want it to go unsaid.”

  Inês stopped in her tracks. Looking around, she was lost—not actually: she was in the right place—but there were no traces of yesterday's fight. The trees and ground that Lu had charred were immaculate, and the remains of the Yuki-onna were nowhere to be found.

  “Jin, am I losing my mind or has the battlefield been completely erased?”

  He looked around, a hand on his chin, as if searching for clues on the scene of a crime. He was uncovering snow with a stick and digging for truth, when a distant chorus carried over to them. Watching the horizon, among the many sylvan figures, Inês saw the three children they had saved the day before. The trio was heading their way, playing and laughing around heartily.

  “What is it?” asked Jin.

  “I was just thinking… After the Yuki-onna had already been burned, and these children passed her by yesterday, I thought I saw her cry. I've been wondering why.”

  The boys and girl were merrily skipping about, unconcerned of any potential dangers that might be lurking yet. When they got to them, they didn't seem to notice Inês and Jin.

  “Excuse me?” asked Inês.

  The children stopped dead in their tracks, looking forward, still. Inês went up to them and kneeled to their level.

  “Hey, guys. How have you been doing since yesterday?”

  The kids smiled; a smile that didn't quite reach their eyes.

  “Good. Thank you.”

  “Really? And you aren't scared to pass through these woods alone?”

  “Scared?” the little girl asked. “Why? We play here every day!”

  “But it's not every day that you see the Yuki-onna.”

  The children exchanged a clueless glance. Looking back at Inês, the taller boy exclaimed: “The Yuki-onna doesn't exist!”

  The three children shared a laugh and scurried away, as they disappeared into the distance, their voices blended into one as they caroled a disquieting song:

Let me through, let me through,
Where the wind forgets to cry.
Past the gate of frozen blue,
Where the seventh child did lie.
Going’s soft: a breeze, a sigh,
But none return who say goodbye.

Step by step, the snow will fall,
Footprints fade and shadows call.
Whisper low and do not stray;
The road back melts before the day.

  Laughter echoing in the children's wake, a cold chill ran down Inês' spine.

  “Have we really ever saved anyone?” she asked.