Crows at the Gate

Raven woke to the smell of smoke and rain. For a moment, she thought that she was still in the alley. The darkness was the same shade of gray. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears like the slow, distant rumble of thunder that refused to fade. It took a few breaths for her to realize that she was home, in her room.

The window was cracked open . The morning light came through in thin, white rays that streaked across her hands. They were covered in soot, the black dust ground into the creases of her skin. Her hands trembled when she lifted them. There were no cuts or burns, just evidence of what had happened.

Her school uniform hung over the chair, the sleeve charred at the edge. The faint scent of ozone still clung to it. It reminded her of the smell that followed lightning.

A quiet knock broke the silence. Aki stood in the doorway with a porcelain cup of tea balances in her palm. As always, she looked composed, but her eyes betrayed a sleepless night.

“You should drink something,” she said softly.

Raven pushed herself upright. Her body felt heavy, as if her bones were filled with sand. “How… how did I get here?” She asked.

Aki set the cup gently on the bedside table. “Mika brought you. Said she found you near Kōenji Station.”

“Mika?”

Aki gave a small nod. “A friend. You will meet her properly when you are stronger.”

Raven tried to remember the events of last night. There had been a blinding blue-white light that seemed endless. She remembered the sound of wings, and a voice calling her Crow Girl. After that, there was only darkness.

Her throat tightened. “I… There was someone. A man.”

Aki’s expression did not change, but something in her posture did. She held her breath for the slightest moment before releasing it. “You’ve been through something frightening,” she said carefully. “Sometimes the mind fills in what it can’t explain.”

Raven wanted to believe her. She wanted to believe anything that made sense. But when she reached for her pendant, it felt warm against her skin.

From her bed, she could see the TV in the corner of the living room. A newscaster was speaking over video footage of emergency vehicles and rising smoke. “A gas explosion in Kōenji Ward. One injured and several missing. Officials suspect an electrical malfunction.”

Raven’s gazed locked on the screen. The camera panned across an alley. It was the same alley she was in last night with the same vending machines. The concrete walls were blackened where the oni had stood.

Raven’s voice came as a whisper, “That’s where it happened.”

Aki didn’t look at the screen. Instead, she reached for the window, closing it against the wind. “Eat something first,” she said. “Then decide what you saw.”

She brushed Raven’s hair with her hand in a very motherly fashion. Then turned and left the room, latching the door behind her.

After Aki left the room. The silence remained. The tea sat on the nightstand, cooling. Raven stared at it for a long time, watching the steam fade into the pale morning light. The silence was only broken by the soft hum of the refrigerator, the sound of the wind at the window, and the faint noise of a city pretending that everything was fine.

Her phone vibrated. At first, it was once followed by a pause. Then another vibration. Finally it was vibrating almost continuously. The group chat had exploded with Miyu, Kana, Ryo, and some people she barely knew contributing.

Miyu: Omg did you see the news?? That was right where we were!

Kana: I heard someone got hurt. Raven are you home? Pls answer!

Ryo: Reibon. Don’t ghost us. Not funny.

For a moment she stared at the messages. Her heart was thudding in her chest. The world was already moving on, turning her nightmare into headlines and gossip threads. Her thumb hovered over the screen before she typed.

Raven: I am okay. Just tired. Phone died last night.

Three dots appeared, disappeared, then reappeared.

Miyu: Don't scare us like that again, seriously.

Kana: Come to school! Everyone is talking about it.

Ryo: She will come if she wants to. Chill.

For the first time since waking up, she felt something real. Friendship and routines were the gravity pulling her back to the world.

She slowly stood up, putting the phone in her bag. She looked at the closed door, and took a deep breath to steady herself. It didn’t work, but she went to find Aki anyway.

She found Aki in the kitchen putting together breakfast. She appeared preoccupied with the situation, but looked at Raven when she walked in.

“What are you doing up? You are not going to school today. Get some rest.”

Raven looked at her. “You can’t keep me locked up,” she replied.

“You fainted in the street. You woke up covered in soot. You don’t even remember how you got home,”

“So! I am fine now,” Raven argued.

“You are not fine, Raven-san. You were lucky,” said Aki, her voice revealing more fear than anger. It was the same type of voice that hides behind military training and unspoken orders.

Raven bristles. “You are just like him.” She said it, but immediately wished she could take it back.

Aki took a long breath. “Your father would have had you confined to the base for evaluation. I am not him.”

For a moment, they stared at each other, neither of them knowing what to say. Finally, Aki relented with a sigh. “Fine. Go get dressed. I will take you after breakfast.”

* * *

The drive in was quieter than normal. Gone were the casual conversations that Raven was used to. Aki had been the closest thing to a parent that she had since coming to Tokyo. She hoped that she hadn’t ruined that.

Aki pulled up in front of the school. “Remember that you need to come home right after school. I will pick you up.” She handed Raven a small envelope containing a small paper charm with faint black ink symbols on it. “For luck,” Aki added.

By the time she reached the school gates, the world already felt too bright. The air smelled of chalk and rain. It was the kind of morning that made everything look sharper than it should. Aki had tried to talk her out of going. Raven promised she’d take it easy. She would eat lunch and keep her head down. It wasn’t a lie exactly, just an incomplete truth.

Miyu was the first to spot her. “There she is! Lazarus herself.”

Raven barely managed to smile. “That bad?”

“You really pick the best places to hang out,” Kana said, teasingly. “Hell, half the school thought you died in that gas leak.”

“I had a migraine,” Raven muttered. Nobody believed her.

Miyu nudged her. “Sure, from all that karaoke trauma.”

The banter helped. For a moment, the rhythm of normal life returned. The sounds of laughter. The high pitched squeak of shoes on tile. The slamming of lockers. These were the carefree sounds of youth.

Raven believed it until she reached her locker. A slip of aged paper was attached to her locker. A single crow feather was tied to it with red thread. The quill glinted faintly blue under the fluorescent lights. The message was written in a hand that was too steady to be casual.

She pulled the paper free. It smelled of smoke and cedar.

“You opened a door they’ve been trying to find for years. Meet me at the shrine before they do. — T.”

She folded the talisman twice before slipping it in her pocket. Her fingers brushed the crow feather. It felt soft, but unnervingly warm. Raven looked around, but could not see anyone watching her.

She put the best smile on her face, and went about her day.

* * *

Raven should have stayed home like she had promised. Every step she took from the apartment pressed heavier on her chest. Aki had trusted her. She believed her when she said she would stay home, rest, and let the world spin without her for a while. The note in her pocket had other plans. The words burned on her brain, consuming her focus.

“You opened a door they’ve been trying to find for years.”

She had told herself that she only wanted to see the place again. That if she could only stand where it happened, she might be able to prove that the thing in the alley was stitched together from threads of exhaustion and grief. But she knew that it wasn’t true. She knew what was awakening inside her. She knew that she was becoming part of something bigger than her.

The streets were quieter now. Everything had been washed clean by the earlier rain. Every window threw soft rectangles of light on the wet pavement. The neon lights hummed softly. Their reflections trembled like ghosts without a shape.

She turned the corner and the jinja shrine was there waiting for her. It was half-swallowed by ivy and shadows. Aki and her had driven by it on her first day of school, but it was smaller than she remembered. The torii gate stood crooked with age and neglect. Its blue paint flaked under the dim glow of the streetlight. She hesitated at the steps. The air here felt thicker and charged like the air in the desert after a violent thunderstorm.

She took a breath and crossed beneath the gate. The world on the inside was still. It was quiet. Absent, was the sound of the city and the wind. She glanced around, pulse quickening. The courtyard was empty, except for the fox statues that stared blankly through the dark.

A boy’s voice broke the silence. “You shouldn’t be alive after last night.”

She spins around. On the steps of the main hall sits an eccentric teenage boy. His uniform is loosened and dark hair brushing his eyes. He is calm and watchful.

Raven stares at him for a moment, recognizing him as a popular third year student from school. “You’re Takumi, right?”

“Senda Takumi. You’re Raven Yazzie, the foreign spirit-blood.”

Raven bristled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He stands, examining her pendant. “Whatever you called last night tore a hole through the ward's veil. Every oni within a mile felt it.”

Raven hesitated for a moment, contemplating her next words. Although she already knew the answer, she asked anyway. “You mean that that thing was real?”

“As real as this conversation. You sing fire, they listen,” he says as he flicks a coin into the offertory box. The sound echoes strangely, like water in a gentle stream. The veil responds with a faint shimmer that ripples through the air of the shrine.

“You were there?”

“No,” Takumi responds. “But my family monitors disturbances. You lit up the whole grid.”

“Who are you people?” Raven asks, pressing him for more answers.

Takumi looks her into the eyes. “We keep the balance. Make sure that the living don’t stumble too far into the dark. You, unfortunately, already have.”

A rustle breaks the tension. A crow lands on the stone fox statue beside them. Its feathers gleam faintly turquoise under the fainting light.

Takumi glances at it, his expression tightening. “That’s your familiar now. Whether you want it or not.”

Raven gleamed at it for a moment. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“No one ever does,” Takumi deadpanned.