The Passage Between Two Worlds

Once I walked through the doors of the abandoned house, the walkway stood in between the back doors and the doors of the human world glistened at each end. I could barely see; my eyes could only reach the sight of the doors that waited for me at the end. As I walked flashbacks had overtaken my mind completely. Images were appearing one scene after the other; It felt as if I was reliving the spirit world all over again as I was walking down the darkened hallway. Voices were talking in my mind, questions were being asked. Suddenly I saw myself in the kimono gown I once wore which grew into the ragged dress I wore when I was the peasant girl when I first came into the spirit world. My palms felt clammy as sweat dripped from my brow, I was transitioning from the spirit world and into the human world, which made my self conscious repeat into my mind which made me react this way. I pictured Satsu with his water bucket and to the time of the death of his dragon spirit, I could barely breathe. It felt as if my heart tightened as I had tried to get by. Until I was in a forest where everything was green, the trees grew tall, I looked all around and then I saw a figure emerge from within the forest. A boy the same age as me wore a white vest. He glowed under the setting light, there were many green lanterns that surrounded him. He had white hair that glistened with the green light, which also shined in his eyes.

"I see you are going to plant the seed. The master of mononoke sent me here, to make sure you plant it carefully so you don't mess it around. I am the master of onibi-awarshi of this forest, which is the forest located in the human world near the abandoned house which you are currently in. And it is our duty, the onibi-awarshi to defend this land. Thank you my dearest, I will take the seed now." The master of the onibi-awarshi held out his hand for the seed. I gave it to him, and suddenly little figures emerged all around the forest. They were small tiny walking people with little faces; they came to be the onibi-warashi, known as the will-o the wisps' of the forest. The master of the will-o the wisps had taken the seed and planted it in the middle of the ground where the trees surrounded us in a circle. Green light shown all around, slowly plants and trees had grown rapidly, and soon vines grew against the two large doors of the abandoned house of spirits. The will-o the wisps' worked together by chanting to themselves, causing the land to change rapidly. Once the master was finished clearing the land, soon he was done, and the will-o the wisps were gone. The master of the onibi-warashi looked at me and grinned, and he was gone. Soon the spirits of the land disappeared and the magic, and soon the forest looked normal. I am back into the human world, although everything had changed. The abandoned house still looked as if it were old as time itself, yet the land looked as if it was created into a whole new form of nature. I looked up at the abandoned house, and inside I could feel Satsus presence. I can feel him working inside, which made me smile under the sun which glistened between the branches of the tall trees, I could see streams and new plants, I was thankful for everything I had experienced.

I stood around the forest out looking the area, until someone spoke my name.

"Eyra." It called me. I looked around, no one was found. Until I looked closely behind the bushes and between the trees, there stood an old man, which appeared to be my mentor. I ran to him quickly.

"Mentor?" I cried; I looked at him. He hasn't aged at all; he looked exactly as if I had left him. "What happened to you?"

"It appears to me that I have died long ago." He said. He smiled at me with fondness, as I had done the same.

"So are you a spirit? A kami? A ghost?" I asked. He laughed only lightly, and then he spoke.

"Dear child, I am a spirit of this forest. When I had became your mentor I had thought I was human, come to find out when I died I became a spirit of the forest of the abandoned shrine." He said, I looked at him in wonder.

"Did you know I went into the spirit world?"

"Why yes of course." He answered. "It appears to me you met a boy by the name of Satsu, the dragon water spirit of Utma the master of the spirit house. Apparently once you become a spirit you instantly know everyone, I don't know how precisely, yet I manage to know about your whereabouts." Said he. I looked down carefully, and then up at him. "How did you die?"

"Apparently I left the camp because I knew a beast was after you. A cold dark kami, he had fangs and a burrowing tail. I fought him and died to save you." He explained. I walked to my mentor and hugged him tightly; my tears fell yet only lightly. My mentor let go of me and said this:

"Forget everything I had once said about spirits. Always follow what your heart tells you, it belongs to nothing, only your spirit."

These words traveled in my mind even after this very day. My mentor had died to save me and he never came back, and I managed to live by following the spirits path to the spirit world. Years went on without a trace, an unknown yokai was after me ever since I was a child, until my mentor saved my life by sacrificing his own. As a child in my cradle the human eye could not see the yokai, and he managed to slip into my parents presence and kill them both with an unknown cause, leaving my mentor finding me within an abandoned shrine in the middle of this very forest near the abandoned house, which the shrine is also abandoned. He had known idea why I was left there, although he thought of my parents praying for my safety as they slipped away into their death. A day or so came by, my mentor was fishing in the nearby creek until he heard a faint cry coming from the forest. He looked all around to find out where the cry was coming from, and so he found me as an infant laying inside an abandoned shrine with seals and other materials to protect me and fight off yokai. And so the mentor took me, and I lived the rest of my childhood with the one guardian that had taught and taken care of me at the beginning of my life as a human.

My mentor had looked pale yet healthy; due to this being his form as a spirit of the forest. I realized how important and what I have learned from the spirit world, although I had promised everything and everyone not to speak a word of it. I seemed afraid to even tell my mentor, until I realized that he had known almost and nearly everything because his self conscious as a spirit. I always had known of all of the times I've had with my mentor, and now that I've went to the spirit world it had made my memories even fonder. I'm grateful, even for perhaps days to come. My mentor seemed calmer, as if he no longer is afraid or had to worry about our future or past. I thought about my life, how my mentor died for me, how the voice told me to go into the abandoned house, leading to Satsu and I our first meeting, to working in the house of spirits to Utma, and traveled through the spirit world leading up to everything that had happened and to this moment. Seeing my master once more left me feeling calm and welcoming to the world and how my world is alike in one way. All living things are equal, if only the beings themselves would come to know of that.

My mentor looked at me, and then nodded briefly and bowed and then he was gone. Leaving me with the forest of my world, I looked all around. And so I decided to walk to the abandoned shrine.

It wasn't too far from here, I followed a narrow pathway and soon I was there. I felt a strong presence coming before the shrine; the walls were chipped as the weather eroded the carvings and pasture although it was still in tact. Two large Kara-Shishi lions stood beside the shrine, guarding the shrine quietly amongst them. To me the lion dogs are living, because I of how I went into the spirit world, I reckon the Kara-Shishi are somewhat alive. I walked in front of the shrine bowing at the two statues, and then walked inside the shrines it was small, and slightly unkempt. I noticed something that had caught my eye within the old shrine.

My knitted basket was here, where I laid within the shrine. And scraps of old paper were scattered about in here. I looked all around, until I found a letter within the shrine. It read this:

Dear my Kinanata Eyra Suzuki,

I am sorry to have left you bestowed away in this shrine, someday you shall find this after you have encountered many unknown beings, and you may have been brought here. Fate has aligned you to come here; this is your path that is being currently held. You have maybe met some beings and perhaps someone who has touched your heart, and I am thankful to write this as I am now. You may have met Utma and Kusubata, and here I will say that they are distant beings who are close to our hearts, not as relatives nor part of our family tree, not friends either, yet true beings who have agreed in our lifetime to give you power and protection for when I couldn't. You may have met Satsu, and it may be possible that the both of you are close, because of the likeness of your spirits. If you are currently wondering how I may know all this, again I made an agreement with unknown reasons because it is for your own wellbeing. It is possible that you once knew Satsu in one lifetime or the other. I will always remember you although we cannot meet in this lifetime, but soon my dearest Kinanata Eyra Suzuki.

Your mother,

Shinsi Kuziki Eyra Suzuki.

After I put down the letter, my mother appeared to have had a long name, Shinshi Kuziki Eyra Suzuki and my name is Kinanata Eyra Suzuki. I go by mainly Eyra, as my mother may have went by Eyra as well. It seemed to have been a legacy in my family to have precisely long names for I do not know why, although I am thankful to have met my mother and to have read her letter. It seemed difficult yet confusing how the way fate has made for my life, although I am grateful for meeting Satsu and Utma and Kusubata, along with all of the spirits of the spirit world. My life may be out of the ordinary, yet it will forever be extraordinary, because I am Eyra, the one human who has met the spirits and mononoke of the spirit world.

I thought of my mother and how the yokai managed to capture them, yet I kept silent. I knew that my mother and my father wouldn't abandon me for they didn't, although they thought of a plan to keep my safe and away from yokai. I looked around once more in the shrine, nothing was found. I kneeled down and lit extra incense I had gotten from Utma, and lit it and prayed. I held my magatama beads, which didn't glow with magical light as it once did, yet I shined under the light from the outside. I prayed, and then I stood up and I left the shrine, and said goodbye to the two Kara-Shishi lion dog statues, and then I was off. I walked around the forest, wandering on where I could stay, until I came across a house with no one inside. It appeared to be my families. I went on inside, it looked kept, although it was empty. I found an easel for painting. I decided to paint the spirits I once saw, and sometimes I would paint on plaster, to remember them by. And before I knew it, a couple of years went by. I lived a healthy life, painting was ideal for me, and some days later in my life I would sell my paintings to local Temples Buddhists, monks, and shrines. Because they seemed to like my artwork according to them they were religious artwork, yet to me it seemed to have been my memories and my life on canvas.

And years went on, I lived and cherished my life; living in a house and giving the local villagers children handmade dolls which I gladly made within my home, and covered each part of my house with artwork of figures I remembered within my own genuine imagination- as I would walk down through the forest and looked up at the old abandoned house where I could feel the one persons presence deeply within me, and I would smile. And here I leave you with a tale of a girl with an unkempt life, who met someone who had changed her heart nearly forever and the spirits who she once met and pictured within her own mind, and she will never be quite exactly the same.