Takeshita Demons by Cristy Burne Page B

this child?" she asked, eyes
glittering and tongue waving in the air.
    "Yes," I gasped. I was staggering. "I love him,
he's my brother." I didn't think I could carry Kazu's
weight much longer.
    "But you leave him sick and alone, coughing on
the sofa..." the woman said.
    "That was a mistake," I panted, my arms and
legs ready to explode. "The amazake-baba, then the
noppera-bo..." I cursed the spirits who had made
Kazu ill, who had distracted us as we cared for
him. And I cursed this dragon demon, who seemed
to be crushing me under the weight of my own
brother's body.
    "No," the dragon woman reared up on her
massive snake's body. She towered over me with
her fangs shining in the moonlight. "It was you who
left him. You who left him alone. Nobody did that
but you."
    My whole body was trembling as if under
the weight of a thousand houses, but I refused to let
Kazu go.
    "OK," I panted. Kazu's weight was crushing my
lungs, breaking my ribs. "OK. I shouldn't have left him. I was wrong. But that doesn't change anything.
I still love him, and we're taking him back home
with us, today."

    With a mammoth effort, pulling strength and
energy from places I didn't even know I had, I heaved
Kazu's tiny body up a little higher, holding him
close to my body and hanging on as if my whole life
depended on it.
    Suddenly, the weight was gone. Kazu seemed to
float in my arms. He was back to normal, my ordinary
sleeping brother.
    The dragon woman had returned to eye level.
"Good," she said. "I see you care for this child
properly, as all children deserve."
    "What is going on?" Cait said. She seemed to
have missed everything. "Come on, Miku, let's get
out of here."
    But now that I could move again, I wasn't so
keen to leave. "Who are you?" I stared at the demon
in front of me. Her scaly, shiny skin, her red eyes,
the fangs and serpent's body.
    The woman suddenly looked sad. "I am the
nure-onna," she said. "The woman of the wet."
Yuki-onna I'd heard of, even my Mum knew
    stories of her. But the nure-onna? This was a first.
Not even my Baba had mentioned her. "What are you doing here?" I demanded. "Why did you take my
brother?"

    "Hush," the woman said. "The nukekubi is still
about, and it's nearly morning. Her head may return
any moment."
    "But why did you take him?" After all we'd been
through, I wanted answers.
    "He was sick and alone," she answered. "And
I needed him. It was Zashiko's plan. I could care for
him. You will see his cough is gone."
    I looked down at Kazu. She was right. He did
seem to be breathing easily, with no sign of his earlier
illness.
    "Quick," the woman hissed, red tongue darting.
"The water drains, morning grows closer. Take him
home and keep him safe. Do not come back to school
today. I will deal with the nukekubi. She is causing
only trouble."
    The dragon woman was right. Outside the night
was growing lighter, and inside the water had stopped
gushing from the broken pipes. Slowly, the flood
was withdrawing.
    "I must go," the dragon woman said, sliding
backwards out the door. "Go home at once. She
will be back any moment, and she will be hunting
for you."

     

"What was that?" Cait blurted out as soon as the
woman of the wet had gone. "This is getting way too
weird, Miku."
    I agreed. There were so many questions whirling
in my own head. "The nure-onna," I whispered to
myself, still holding Kazu safe in my arms. I'd never
heard of her. And she said Zashiko had sent her?
    "I have no idea," I answered Cait. "But I agree.
It's getting too weird. We've got Kazu now. Let's do
what she said and get out of here."
    "I've been suggesting that for ages. What
happened? You looked like you were going to
collapse back there."
    I shuddered at the memory of clinging to Kazu's
massive, unnatural weight. "I'll explain on the way
home. Let's move it."
    The water hadn't quite receded, but who cared about wet feet when a shiny-skinned dragon demon
lurked in the corridors and a