La Llama en la nieve

  Lu had been combing her chocolate brown hair for the better part of an hour, now. It was morning in the House of Still Waters, and the group had been back for all of one day, but Debuu-ni wanted to set them on another mission already. Maybe it was for the best: they couldn't just wait for Truck-kun to set another plague on them after all; they needed to set their defenses up and get their affairs in order, but still, Inês had noticed the shift in Lu's demeanor: she had been speaking of home more and more, wondering out loud when they would be able to leave this place she once found exhilarating. Inês got up after straightening her obi and went to sit down next to her friend, laying an arm around her.

  “What is it, Lu?” she asked gently.

  Lu stopped grooming herself, not yet pulled from her thoughts. She put down the comb and turned to Inês, her green eyes wet with tears.

  “I don't think I want to go on this trip,” she said, her voice rasping.

  Inês looked at Lu, still in the quietude of the room; she didn't attempt a response. She stroked her face with favor and gave her a kindly smile. Without a word, she got up and left the bedroom.

  In the dining room, she found Marcel, Jin, and Debuu-ni. The trio was waiting for them.

  “Lu isn't feeling up to it today,” Inês stated simply.

  The boys exchanged a concerned glance. Debuu-ni's eyes' gleamed with feeling.

  “Did something happen?” asked Jin. “Is she ill?”

  Inês shook her head no.

  “No, nothing like that. She's… downhearted,” said Inês. “This place is hurting her, I think—I know. She wants to go back home.”

  Debuu-ni lifted from his cushion and hovered to Inês, its big scarlet eyes reflecting hers.

  “I understand what Lu feels, really, I do; I've seen it before,” it said with in a grave tone. “We don't have to go today, we can go tomorrow, but we can't keep putting it off. The faster you all get your powers back, the faster this ends.”

  Inês nodded. She knew Debuu-ni was right. She knew they couldn't do anything without reawakening their powers; they had tried to escape before to pitiful results. However, she couldn't bring herself to browbeat her friend, her sister. This mission would have to wait, if only for a day. She went back to the room she shared with Lu, her mind preoccupied but focused: Inês wanted to spend as much time as possible with her friend, be it in silence or by letting her vent.

  “Lu? Is it alright if I stay with you?” she asked as she glided the door softly.

  The calamitous emptiness of the room offered no response. For a second, Inês stood looking at the comb, laying on the floor, where Lu had sat just moments earlier, as well as the opened rice paper door that led to the outside, now letting in the cold dead air and icy white flakes. There were traces in the snow that something had come to the door; something big. Bewildered, she turned back and hurried to the others, staggering along the way. She found them still sitting there; they didn't understand the urgency of the situation.

  “She's gone,” said Inês. “Lu is gone. She was taken by something.”

  They shared a look, and she returned to the room without awaiting a response, the panic building up like the Tower of Babel inside of her. Debuu-ni and the boys weren't far behind. Inês stayed back while they quickly observed the scene. The bug's wings were buzzing at a rapid pace.

  “She must be close…” it said cryptically.

  Marcel turned to Debuu-ni.

  “Let's go, then!” he exclaimed.

  “Huh? Right, let's go!'

  They jumped through that same rice paper door, the boys not bothering with putting on sandals. Inês, for her part, had taken to keeping her Doc Martens on that side of the house since her clandestine investigation with Jin.

  The forestland was eerily quiet. Inês remembered how she felt when she first arrived in this place, before she ever met Lu, before they bonded in the onsen. She couldn't let anything happen to her; she wouldn't.

  Hovering through the woods, its pompon tail quivering, Debuu-ni was perplexingly panicked, leaving only the red glimpse of his diaphanous wings behind as it dashed through the sylvan block. Inês had never seen the bug act so human. Maybe the reboot had changed it more deeply than she had realized.

  “Up there!” Jin yelled suddenly.

  Passing through the red torii gate, a burly, humanoid figure was carrying Lu over their shoulder as she squirmed to free herself. Without a second thought, Inês got to climbing the steps two by two.

  “Jin! It's up to you!” said Debuu-ni as it soared above the endless steps.

  Resolute, Jin took out his komabue and filled the air with a mournful, familiar tune. The current seemed to thicken around the figure, and there was a lull in their movements, like they were suddenly advancing in swamp water. Seezing her chance, Lu kneed them in the stomach and fell to the ground, rolling on the snow just as Inês got to the gate, hyperventilating. As she passed the idle creature, she saw it was tall and furry, with a bright blue face, their skin cracked like ice and their eyes flickering the way of two Roman candles. Inês ran to Lu and put a hand on her shoulder. Together, the pair retreated to the shrine deck as the creature progressed at a slug's pace. In the same time and with a burst of light, Debuu-ni slammed into the demon's back with a zap. For a second, everything went still; then, there was a blinding white flash, light piercing through the cracked blue skin in flickers, and the creature exploded like an inopportune firework.

  Inês sighed and let her shoulders fall. The air regained its natural order as Jin's piece came to an end. The bug fluttered to the girls, followed by the two boys who had just climbed the stairs.

  “Lu, what happened?” asked Inês.

  Lu hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her face.

  “I heard something outside," she said, shaken by uncontrollable sobs. "And I just opened the door to see what it was. I never even stepped off the deck, but that thing grabbed me!”

  “That was a namahage,” said Debuu-ni. “They go around, targeting children who misbehave. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that this one's been corrupted to specifically go after you.”

  “Why?” asked Inês.

  But Debuu-ni didn't have the time to delve into its theory, because just as it was about to, other namahage appeared; not one, not two, not even a dozen, but about a hundred of them, their somber silhouettes outlined against the pale, powdery landscape. They arrived from every direction: the stone steps, the path behind the shrine, the woods to the left that they had never even explored… Some of them were carrying drums that they beat with a pressing song.

  “What do we do?” asked Marcel, alarmed.

  Without a word, Jin rose his komabue and started playing again. Once more, the figures slowed down, their defaced beat becoming low and more ominous.

  “Debuu-ni?” asked Inês.

  The bug was looking around at each of them as if to calculate an angle of attack that would make the most damage at once. Now that she thought of it, Inês had never seen it fight more than one foe at a time. What could they do? Among the sinister rhythm, she heard something else. Looking around, she notice it was Lu. She had her eyes closed and was speaking in short whispers. Inês listened closer; she couldn't really understand: it didn't sound like the Portuguese she had been hearing this whole time, and it wasn't English either… it was Spanish. The words were fast and repetitive, like those of a chorus or a prayer. Lu opened her eyes. Suddenly, it seemed as if she wasn't speaking to herself, but to someone only she could see. Waves of heat rippled around her like a desert mirage. A little, at first, then all at once, like a surge of water bursting through a barrage. She rose, grabbing the bottom part of her yukata as if it were a flowing skirt, and she started dancing. It was a passionate, fiery dance. Snow melted at her feet. The namahage stopped in their tracks, but it was too late to turn back now. The group could only watch. This was the same Lu Inês had just comforted, turning and twirling, and hitting the ground with her feet in defiance; red-orange shock-waves springing from her. Finally, she could say she had witnessed it: Lucía's dance, her Jarabe Tapatío. And what a dance it was! A beautiful, formidable, and sacred dance.

  The namahage were decimated; their black ashes mixing with the snow as they burned. Inês was in awe: the flames, dreadful against their foes, were perfectly benevolent to them; light and warmth were all that they offered the group.

  As it opened, so did the dance close; as if back from a dream, Lu fell to her knees, relieved.

  “You've awoken, Luci-chan!” said Debuu-ni with a smile.

  “Dime Lu,” she said with a smile.