Ambush at Home

The sink drain runs black as Kasumi scrubs the soot from her face. She looks in the mirror, the flickering fluorescent light illuminating a face she no longer recognizes. The cheeks are red from the foamy residue, the hair is tangled from lack of care, and black circles hang from the eyes to the cheeks. She looks worse than on her first day at her school, when she’s trying to look unapproachable.

“That doesn’t matter,” she mutters, patting the pearl in her pocket. She could hardly believe it when the inn collapsed, and Marshal leaped down the sinkhole. She was further astonished when the chaos gave her a chance to slip back into Marshal’s half-collapsed room, retrieve her backpack, and then slip away just as the sirens blared in the distance.

“This must be what God wants,” Kasumi thinks, still not bold enough to speak such blasphemies. “He wants me and Momo to be together, so he’s helping me.” The thought emboldens her, and she finishes scrubbing her face, just enough to avoid suspicion at the station. “He has to, not like there’s anyone else who cares about me. Not really.”

With plenty of money left over from the silver, she decides to splurge on a nice seat on the bullet train. As she waits on the platform, she tries eating a vending machine bento, only to find the food intolerable. The rice is as hard as pebbles, and the vegetables are as mushy as jelly; even the meat is dry like sand. She feels no better on the train, surrounded by businessmen who sit with briefcases on their laps or flip open laptops. Kasumi can’t even sleep despite her exhaustion, as the thought of Marshal jumping in through the window keeps her eyes locked on the scenery. Even as she arrives at Tokyo Station, the crowd offers no sense of relief. She weaves through the crowd, hand always clutching the pearl in her pocket. The anxiety never leaves her, even as she takes backstreets and rounds blocks on her walk home, arriving long after she disembarks.

Every hair stands on edge even as she inserts her house key into the door; the threat of looming attack never leaves her. As she closes the door, she remains vigilant, peering through the peephole for the slightest view of a tail. She’s so focused that she doesn’t even register the footsteps coming from inside.

“Kasumi?” asks a shrill voice. It’s coarse and exhausted, as if its owner hasn’t slept or hydrated for days. Kasumi turns around in a panic. She clutches the pearl still in her pocket with one hand while guarding with the other. Her focus on the outside slows her down, and by the time she turns, hands are already reaching out to grab her. “You came home!” the voice says, hands clutching her shoulders and pulling her into a tight hug. Kasumi barely holds back her scream as she realizes who is grabbing her.

“Mom!” Kasumi yips, surprised by the intensity of her embrace. Of all the people Kasumi thought would be waiting, her mother isn’t among them. She feared seeing Momo, the Metropolitan, even Marshal; the Diviner or her messenger crosses her mind, but never her mother. Despite that, the middle-aged woman clings to her daughter, embracing her as she fires questions in rapid succession.

“Where have you been? Why didn’t you call? Are you safe? Who were you with?” With each question, her embrace grows more intense until Kasumi struggles to breathe and her eyes bulge.

“Get off!” Kasumi shouts, pushing her mother away with all the strength she can muster. Her mother’s arms come off easier than expected. Kasumi knows she is weak, though the adrenaline keeps her moving outside. Now that she can relax, she feels her legs buckle just from standing. Kasumi looks at her mother, taking in the woman for the first time in what feels like forever. Her eyes are sunken in and red, her hair is a mess, and now that Kasumi is close, she smells like she hasn’t bathed in days, either.

“What’s she been doing?” Kasumi wonders, unsure how to feel about the scene before her. Kasumi’s mother also seems shocked, but regains her composure and speaks.

“Sorry for startling you like that,” she says, as clearly as her parched throat will allow. “I know you’ve never been one for hugs, but when I noticed you weren’t eating the food I meal-prepped, I checked your room, and you weren’t there.” Her voice cracks, jostling the tears welling in her eyes down her cheeks as she continues. “I tried calling, but your phone won’t connect. I call everywhere and everyone I can think of, but nobody has seen you for days. And then when the police search comes back with nothing, I… I…” Her mother struggles to speak through the tears, as Kasumi realizes her critical mistake.

“Of course it’d be like this,” Kasumi thinks, wishing she could go back and strangle her past self. “You just ran off without telling her anything? Of course, she’d notice, and of course, she’d make a big deal of it. You should’ve at least lied and said you went with Momo or something.” As Kasumi mentally berates herself, her mother regains control and stops her tears just enough to speak.

“It wasn’t that church, was it?” her mother demands, snapping Kasumi from her mental punching session. “I called them and went there to speak with that girl who fancies herself a nun. They said they had no idea where you were, and that they’d pray for your safe return, but—”

“They have nothing to do with this!” Kasumi screams over her mother, surprising even herself with her volume. Kasumi’s mind switches to damage control, knowing what her mother will do if her suspicions aren’t put to rest. “I purposely didn’t tell them because I knew they’d tell you.”

“How am I supposed to believe that? Especially after how the temple acted after—”

“I’ll prove it,” Kasumi declares, stomping into the house and placing her phone on the charger. “Shinpu-sama and Chi-chan are nothing like those monks.”

She waits a minute for it to power up, then calls Chi-chan on speakerphone. Chi-chan answers immediately and opens up with the same storm of questions as her mother, but Kasumi quickly silences her. She lies, saying she’s at the convenience store near the station and that she wants to meet up. She specifically tells Chi-chan to come alone and not tell Kasumi’s mother. Chi-chan agrees and says she will be right there. Seconds later, her mother receives a call from Chi-chan, who shares all the details and asks Kasumi’s mother what she wants to do.

“Thanks for proving me right, Chi-chan,” Kasumi says, taking the phone from her mother.

“Wait, what?” Chi-chan demands, confused by Kasumi’s voice.

“I’ll tell you about it at the lock-in,” Kasumi says, ending the call and turning to her mother. The older woman’s arms remain crossed, but her scowl disappears. With Chi-chan’s questions and immediate call, it is impossible to accuse her or anyone else at the church of hiding the truth or covering for Kasumi.

“Well…” her mother begins, still processing the details of the call. “I suppose I owe them an apology. I accuse them of… Well, I won’t repeat what I said, but I’ll have to make amends with them somehow.” She turns from Kasumi, looking like a guilty dog as she stares out the window. “If I’m being honest, I am always a little jealous that you go spend your Sundays with them instead of me, so…” Her eyes focus, narrowing in on Kasumi with such intensity that Kasumi feels a twinge of fear. “And now for you, young lady!” she yells, storming up to Kasumi and raising an arm as if to smack her. Kasumi can only clench her jaw, tuck her shoulder, preparing for the slap she knows she deserves, but it never comes. Instead, Kasumi feels her mother’s arm wrap around her, pulling her into another hug.

“Mom?” Kasumi asks, her fear shifting into an unease that is still no less crushing.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” her mother scolds. “I’m still furious with you for disappearing. You know better, and there will be consequences.” Kasumi feels her mother’s arms tighten around her. This isn’t like the crushing grapple at the door, but an intense, comforting embrace. “But just when I think I lost you the same way I lost your father… You came back to me.”

The pair stays like that for a long while. Kasumi’s hesitation slowly melts away, and she returns to her mother’s embrace. Tears well up and flow from both mother and daughter until neither has any more to cry. They spend the day together, eating, laughing, and even bathing together. Even when night comes, Kasumi takes her mother’s invitation to sleep together. So the pair ends the day in one another’s embrace despite the dim violet glow coming from the pearl still clutched in Kasumi’s hand.