Part I. The Gozen School Chapter 1

捨てる神あれば拾う神あり One god abandons, another takes in

Japanese Proverb

Part I. The Gozen School

Chapter 1

"Hey, quickly, pick her up!"

The voices came as if through a thickness of water. My head ached horribly.

"I told you that the night prayer would harm her!" a thin, piercing voice made me wince slightly.

I opened my eyes, and at that moment, they grabbed me by the arms, lifting me from the hard surface.

Wooden walls, a low ceiling from which strange mallets with red threads hung, an altar table, two small windows, and a scent that made me want to cough. Some kind of incense smelled so sweet that I wanted to get out into the fresh air as soon as possible.

I was held up by two girls. Both of them were Asian, looking no older than sixteen, dressed in purple soft-fabric suits that resembled clothing for martial arts practice.

But my attention was more drawn to the two men standing a few meters away from us. The one who was shorter and rounder continued to scream:

"I said it was forbidden! But no! Healer Izamu doesn't understand anything! Healer Izamu only thinks of the profound!"

The second man, tall with the bearing of a true fighter, didn't even change his expression. He stood with his arms crossed over his broad chest and silently listened to the healer. I wouldn't be mistaken if I said he was a warrior. A man like that could break an enemy in half with his bare hands.

At some point, the man threw a thoughtful glance at me. I couldn't read anything in his black eyes. A shiver ran down my spine.

"Aska, hang in there," whispered the girl who was supporting me on my right.

Aska? Is that me?

And who are they? And those two?

Worst of all, I was seeing these people and this setting for the first time in my life. Struggling to break through the headache, all I got was a wave of nausea.

Deep breath — out. In — out.

"Teacher Koji, do as you please, but I will be forced to inform the school director if this..."

"Calm down, Izamu." Koji's voice was icy and heavy, like a stone falling into a clear stream. "Let her speak for herself."

Both looked at me.

Silence hung in the air. I felt like I should say something clever, but what? My head still ached and refused to think clearly. My intuition told me that it was a bad idea to ask, "Who are you?" at this moment, and the conviction was so strong that I only exhaled loudly.

The girl on my left stepped on my foot. The signal was clear: act.

My knees trembled sickeningly. Any moment now, I'd pass out.

"I..." My parched lips were difficult to control. Had I been left in a desert or something? "I want a drink. And I'm about to fall."

"Misaki, Haruka, take her to the infirmary," Teacher Koji said sharply. "We will talk later."

He quickly turned to the healer, but I was already being pulled outside. Turning back, I realized we had been inside some kind of temple.

"How did you manage to get yourself into this mess?" hissed the one who had stepped on my foot. "We told you to hide! Not to show off in front of Koji! But no, you had to be a know-it-all! Now just look at yourself!"

I would have loved to, but there was no water or any smooth surface nearby. Instead, I immediately noticed the neat pathways, a white building with a curved roof resembling a pagoda, and many girls dressed just like my companions. I was wearing a long, plain white robe.

I tried to figure out where I was and how I got here. Why were there so many Asians? Both the girls and the men. It was hard to tell for sure, but judging by their skin color and the shape of their eyes, they were most likely Japanese. The names, too, were hard to confuse with others.

As we walked, people occasionally gave us curious, sometimes even sympathetic, glances, but no one asked anything. The girls were mostly busy cleaning the grounds and tidying up the flower beds.

"Misaki, you know Aska," the second girl said melancholically. "She speaks first, then thinks."

"Weaver, give her more sense," Misaki grumbled.

It was as if lightning flashed in my brain.

The Weaver.

The world seemed to freeze, all sounds grew fainter, and the faces of Haruka and Misaki blurred as if seen through ripples.

And then, from somewhere, came the clicks and rustle of threads.

"Greetings, my child," a quiet laugh echoed in my head. "How are you feeling? I hope the night was not in vain, and we will get to know each other better soon?"

I staggered, and an answer almost slipped from my lips.

And then, from somewhere, a scream rang out. A child's, desperate, terrified scream.

I clenched my hand into a fist, and strength surged into my body, erasing the pain and weakness. The girls recoiled from me.

The scream repeated.

I spun my head, pinpointing the direction.

Power boiled, it seethed in my veins, replacing my blood, commanding: "Run. Act. Run!"

I bolted to the right, toward a dark woods visible behind the fence. My bare feet seemed not to touch the ground.

"Aska! Aska!" they screamed behind me.

Someone was running after me, but they couldn't catch up.

A hollow, a bump, leaping over a broken tile on the path. From somewhere, I knew exactly where to run. There wasn't even a moment of hesitation to stop.

"Aska, you fool, stop!" the healer Izamu's shout came to me.

I vaulted over a low fence. My long robe got caught, and I heard a tear. I almost slammed nose-first into a pile of leaves and branches but managed to twist out of the way and stay on my feet, then sprinted straight into the woods.

Something pulled me there, drove me like a madwoman.

I jumped over a fallen tree, and at the edge of my consciousness, a thought flickered that a person couldn't possibly do that. However, I no longer cared when a terrible growl came from behind the tangled, curved trunks of the trees.

My fingers went cold; I didn't even want to think about who could make such sounds. I raced along the riverbank, knowing the scream had come from here.

A couple of minutes later, something red flashed in the water, and a small, dark-haired head appeared.

A growl came from behind again. I glanced over my shoulder—no one was there.

Again, the clicks and rustle of threads. And a soft touch on my shoulder.

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

Without a second thought, I pulled the stupid robe off over my head and jumped into the water. It was ice-cold, burning my skin, and I barely held back a yelp. But I got a grip on myself and swam with quick strokes toward the drowning person. No... the drowning girl. It was a little girl, desperately thrashing in the water and no longer able to scream. The red flowers in her smooth black hair sharply contrasted with her skin, which was turning blue from the cold.

What idiot left a child unsupervised? She couldn’t be older than five!

A surge of indignation rose within me. Bottomless, profound, ready to sweep everything in its path at any moment.

"Grab on," I rasped, giving the girl a chance to hold on to me. "It's alright, don't be afraid. We're swimming back."

The rage was still simmering, but I pushed it deeper down, focusing on the task of getting to shore. Not thinking about the cold, not thinking about the current that was pushing us back. We just had to move forward.

The girl quieted down, clutching onto me. A clever girl. She understood that there was no point in flailing her arms or screaming—it wouldn't help.

The shore was farther than I thought, but as soon as my feet hit the wet sand, I exhaled with relief.

And then I flinched, because standing a few feet away from me was... something.

It was my height, its skin a reddish hue, its body a chimera from a nightmare. Its eyes were so black that light was lost in them. Its mouth was twisted into a nearly human sneer, revealing fangs. But there was nothing human about this creature.

"The weak of spirit are food for the tsumi," words spoken in a dry, aged voice surfaced in my mind. "Remember this, students of the Gozen School. If you show a tsumi fear, the tsumi will show you hell."

"Tsumi," my lips barely whispered.

A memory immediately flashed: that's how "sin" sounds in Japanese.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The girl clung to my arm. It seemed she was too terrified to even scream.

I quickly tried to figure out what to do. Should I scare it away? Very funny. I was standing here in my birthday suit in front of a monster unknown to science. There wasn't a stick or a stone nearby, let alone a weapon. And with teeth like that, it would bite right through me. Pick up the little girl and run? That's an option. But how fast does this thing run? Judging by its developed muscles, our race would be over instantly.

The tsumi inhaled, its reddish nostrils fluttering. Its eyes narrowed slightly. It was waiting for something. But what?

My feet felt as if they were frozen to the shore.

You must not look a beast in the eyes—it’s a challenge. It's the reason it might lunge at you at any moment. But I suddenly realized: as soon as I drop my gaze, I lose. So I must look. Look until my eyes tear up, until it hurts, until it disgusts me.

The tsumi took a step forward.

Silence enveloped everything: no birdsong, no rustle of leaves, no splash of water. A terrible, thick, wild silence.

Everything was still, as if it had never been alive.

A deathly chill crept up my ankles. My heart hammered in my temples.

The air was trapped in my lungs. One more breath, and I would simply cease to be. There was no place for the weak here. Whoever shows their fear won't live long.

"Go away," I said.

Just one word—and the silence shattered into a thousand sparkling fragments.

The tsumi growled, scratching the ground with its clawed paw.

"Go away," I repeated, louder.

His eyes filled with blood, and his fangs flashed in a horrible grimace. A moment—eyes to eyes. And something seemed to crunch, to crack. The tsumi howled, lashed its tail with a black tassel, and darted into the thicket of the forest.

I took a deep breath. A shiver ran through my body, and everything went blurry before my eyes.

"Stop! Stop!" the little girl spoke quickly. "Don't fall!"

Her little hands tried to catch me, but the sand was against my cheek much sooner than I could have thought.

…My second awakening was much more pleasant.

A clean bed, the smell of herbs, and a healer muttering under his breath as he bandaged my arm.

Izamu was slightly frowning, his lips moving, then he frowned again and shook his head. Noticing that I was awake, he gave me a look of disapproval.

"Aska, have you been told that the head is not given to people just for eating?"

"Then what for?" I blurted out, and immediately bit my tongue.

This was probably not the time for jokes.

Judging by Izamu's eyebrows, which were now squeezed into a single line, he was not in the mood for laughter.

"Don't even think of repeating that in front of Koji. He'll quickly send you to the Border."

The Border? Judging by the change in the healer's tone, it was not a pleasant place. My memory helpfully supplied recollections of yesterday's events. I involuntarily flinched. Back then, I was acting on reflex, but now everything seemed much scarier.

"How do you feel?" Izamu asked.

I quickly analyzed my sensations.

"Fine. Only my arm aches and my head a little."

"Your arm has been mended, but your head… that's strange. What would there be to ache?" came the voice of Teacher Koji, who had appeared behind the healer without a sound.

Izamu spun around sharply.

"My patient needs rest," he said, his voice suddenly cold. "It's a little too early for interrogations."

"I am not conducting interrogations; I am supervising the students of the Gozen School," Koji replied in the same tone, looking directly at me.

If I'm not mistaken, he was younger than Izamu. And quite handsome. But his gaze made me want to hide under the blanket. He looked at me the way someone does when they know you've done something bad but won't admit it, and they need a confession, no matter what.

But I needed information too. Because other than yesterday, I couldn't remember anything. This was bad, very bad. So I answered as neutrally as possible:

"I am ready to answer your questions, Teacher Koji."

Izamu, who had been about to say something, shut his mouth. Then he twisted a massive ring with a red stone on his finger. Red. Almost like the creature's skin. Was this a warning, or just a coincidence, and I was looking for signs where none were given?

Koji pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. It seemed this was going to be a long conversation.

I thought about sitting up so I wouldn't have to look up, but then changed my mind. If need be, it was easier to pretend to be a suffering patient while lying down.

Izamu also tried to sit, but Koji gestured with his hand.

"Please, healer, leave us."

I didn't like this.

It was unlikely they would do anything bad to me, but on the other hand... I had no idea what the rules were here. Maybe I had done something that called for a serious punishment.

And then a clear thought emerged: "It wasn't me who did it. It was the one who was before me. Before I stepped into the Weaver's temple."

A quiet laugh, ringing somewhere on the edge of my consciousness, was confirmation. Something alien and strange was present in my head, and it was clearly watching what was happening with curiosity. It was both scary and... calming. As if there was a certainty that I would be supported.

"You have half an hour." Izamu pursed his lips and flipped the hourglass on the nightstand. "After that, I need to give Aska her medicine."

He left, but not before casting a quick glance at me from the doorway and twisting the ring with the red stone.

Hmm, he's definitely trying to signal something. But what? To keep silent about the creature? Not to talk about my stupid heroic act?

That would be nice, but I couldn't keep silent about the latter. Since I was brought here, it meant that at least part of what happened had been seen.

Koji waited until Izamu had left and then looked at me again.

A bird was trilling outside the window. But the silence in the room felt palpable. I was disliked. Not far from being hated. And if Teacher Koji's emotions were under control in front of Izamu, now he had no one to hide from.

I involuntarily tensed. If it came to it, I'd have to roll off the bed and run. But where to?

"Miya said that you chased away the tsumi," Koji said. "That you got her out of the water and banished the creature with just one word."

My eyes widened. At least, that was the only thing I could do now. Miya… was that the little girl I saved? Yes, clearly her. I only pulled her out of the water; it seemed there were no other witnesses to my conversation with the tsumi.

And Koji, it seemed, was seriously debating whether to believe the child or me. But he didn't want to do the second, and the first was impossible. Even if I had no idea how one was supposed to interact with these tsumi, a teenage girl was clearly not someone who could send a demonic creature away with just one word.

"I don't remember," I replied, trying to look as thoughtful as possible. "After... the night at the temple, I have problems with my memory."

Koji raised an eyebrow.

"But you knew where to run," he noted.

"I ran toward the scream," I countered.

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.

What was wrong? The scream was there. It definitely was. Was Aska deaf? Or was she not very bright?

"Why did only you hear the scream?" the question came immediately.

Ah, so that's what this was about.

"Misaki and Haruka were running after me."

"Exactly," Koji nodded. "They were running after you. Because one moment you were practically fainting, and the next you were sprinting to the woods at a speed no one could match."

"Did I do something wrong?"

A flicker of surprise crossed his face, but the mask of impassivity immediately returned.

Something was definitely not right. But understanding the correct way to behave was incredibly difficult. Before, at least Izamu was here, but now I had to handle it myself. But it was clear, without any explanation, that I should keep silent about the tsumi. They were surprised that I heard the scream; a demon, then, was beyond the realm of fantasy.

"Everything is right, Aska," Koji nodded. "The Director will be pleased."

Silence again.

The Director will be pleased that a child didn't die? Is the little girl a student too? Or is it something else? A-a-a, my head feels like it's going to explode! I need to lure one of the girls here, maybe I can find something out.

The conversation went in circles. Koji tried to pry out my memories, and I pretended to be a girl suffering from amnesia. At times he would start to get annoyed, but he'd remember to control himself in time.

In the end, he left me alone. Koji and Izamu bumped into each other in the doorway. I watched them both out of the corner of my eye. Their glances were very expressive. The teacher was clearly not thrilled with the healer, and the healer, in turn, made it clear that he was not thrilled with outsiders in his territory. Even though Izamu outwardly resembled a plump rice ball, a steel core of character could be felt in him.

"In how many days will Aska return to her lessons?" Koji inquired.

"At least three days," Izamu replied. "Her ryoku is practically exhausted."

I perked up my ears. Three days was good. And what was ryoku?

Koji shot me a glance and left.

I involuntarily sighed with relief.

Izamu approached me. He placed a hand on my forehead and nodded with satisfaction.

"If only you knew what a commotion you caused. Everyone was running, shouting, waving their arms. At first, they thought you'd completely lost it. Not everyone can handle the night prayer. And then Miya... Crying, rubbing her tears with her hands and insisting, 'She chased away the tsumi, she chased away the tsumi. She saved me.'"

"Where is she?" I asked. "Is she alright?"

"She's fine," he nodded, pulling a glass vial with a green liquid from the pocket of his robe.

Then he took a small bowl from the nightstand and poured the contents of the vial into it. He clenched his hand into a fist and blew on the ring. The red stone flared with a light that immediately rolled into the bowl. The air smelled of mint, and a wisp of gray smoke rose to the ceiling.

"Here, drink it all."

The bowl was in my hands. For a moment, my face was reflected in the green mirror of the liquid. Long bangs, high cheekbones, a straight nose, a scar on my upper lip. Mongoloid eyes. Not ugly, but not a beauty either. An ordinary girl from somewhere in Asia. Fifteen or sixteen years old, no more. I figured that, considering that Asians don't always look their age.

And one more thing.

This face had never been mine.

I squeezed my eyes shut and drank the medicine. It burned, and I coughed.

Izamu patted me on the back.

"Calm down. No matter what the teachers say, with ryoku so battered, I won't let you leave here. You'll study here."

Tears welled up in my eyes. I wiped them away with the back of my hand.

"Tha... Thank you."

"Don't get it all over you while you're eating," he grumbled.

For a moment, it seemed that the healer wasn't just taking care of me, but also getting revenge on Koji. Not openly or foolishly, but with a serpentine elegance. I made a mental note that I should figure out the relationships of the local... adults?

"You'll go for lunch in an hour," Izamu continued in the meantime. "The medicine will be brought to you. Aska, stop batting your eyes. Don't be foolish like that again. If the watchers come and you're running naked through the forest, they'll take you and you'll be gone for good."

"I wasn't running naked," I grumbled, adjusting the blanket. Feeling his gaze, I calmly explained: "It was impossible to swim in that clothing. I would have gotten tangled before I could push off the bank."

Now it was Izamu who was looking at me the way Koji had. As if something was happening that had never happened before.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. We both raised our heads at the same time. Misaki and Haruka were standing at the entrance, hesitating to come in.

"Healer Izamu, you said we could..." the first one began.

He nodded, giving them a sign to enter.

The girls quickly slipped into the room. Both of them were holding bundles.

"I told them to gather your things," he said dismissively. "You're not going to be wrapped in a single sheet forever."

I cleared my throat. A very reasonable point, indeed.

"Thank you, Healer."

Izamu waved his hand and left us.

Haruka and Misaki immediately plopped onto the bed and wrapped me in a hug. It wasn't a very successful one, but I squeaked from the unexpectedness of being smothered. They were hugging me sincerely and with all their hearts.

"You really scared us!" Misaki blurted out. Her features were softer than Haruka's, and her hair had a warm chestnut tint.

"We thought it was the end for our Aska when we saw her things by the river," Haruka added somberly.

Only now did I notice that she was dressed in black, which made her face seem paler than it actually was. And her hair was straight and stiff, with black strands escaping from the knot at the back of her head. Was she in black before? I must have just not paid attention when I first came to in the temple.

"As you can see, your Aska hasn't come to an end," I chuckled.

They stared at me for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing.

"Koji nearly had a heart attack," Misaki scoffed. "I thought he was going to tear the whole school apart when he found out you'd been left in the temple all night."

"And our pagoda without a roof couldn't care less," Haruka nodded.

Right, so "a pagoda without a roof" is me. Flattering, thanks, my dear friends.

"Do you even remember what happened there?" Misaki asked with interest.

"And how did you hear Miya?" Haruka added softly.

Judging by how both of them fell silent, waiting for my answer, Teacher Koji and Izamu's reaction to my actions wasn't an act. And that was bad. Very bad. It meant I had pulled off something that wasn't considered normal here. Even if this wasn't my world, there was an unshakable rule everywhere: don't stick your neck out.

"I don't remember," I said hoarsely.

They exchanged glances.

"At all?" Misaki asked, turning pale.

I shook my head.

"Okay..." Haruka shook her hair, and a few more strands escaped from her hairstyle. "Calm down. You definitely haven't lost your mind. And your memory will come back in time."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Teacher Tehiko wouldn't lie," Haruka cut in. "It's just the night prayer... Aska, how did you get yourself into this mess?" she suddenly exploded. "You were warned! We begged you to shut up! Don't look at me like a tsumi crawled out of a cesspool! You knew what the result would be!"

Misaki put a hand on her shoulder, but Haruka sharply threw it off and turned away.

"Quiet, you know Aska isn't herself right now," Misaki said softly. "She clearly didn't think what she said would lead to such consequences."

"And what did I say?" I grabbed at the thread.

Both girls looked at me at the same time.

"That the Shenghai Clan is alive. And you're ready to say it to the Weaver's face herself," Haruka said flatly.