The Demon Gate

Setting: Warble

Traveler on the road
stops to pray and sees above her
the golden cypress tree
-Old Nakatsukuni poem, author unknown

I record this in the hope that one day a more enlightened person may understand it. I believe I have seen Takamahara, or Yomi. I am no longer sure there's a difference.

Tae and I were traveling to Kiso to sell plums. As night fell on our first day of travel, we found a roadside shrine which had been built since our last journey. We slept across the road from the shrine, and in the morning awoke to find a person sitting with crossed legs and closed eyes beneath the tori'i. Strange that they would sit in the center. The gate was small, so we were blocked by this person from entering easily.

"Stranger, would you like a plum?" said Tae. "In return I only ask that you move from beneath the tori'i. My companion and I would like to pray."

"These plums are fresh and sweet, not fermented." said I.

The stranger rotated their head slightly, causing shoulder-length gray hair to spill over their shoulders.

"Not tori'i, kimon." said the stranger. "This is the northeast side of the road."

"So it is." said Tae, sounding mildly annoyed. "Does that not mean the shrine protects the road?"

"We'd still like to enter." said I.

"Very well." said the stranger. "I shall protect you no longer." They stood up and began slowly walking down the road toward Kiso. Tae and I walked through the tori'i.

The road to the shrine led to a valley, and the shrine's building stood between 2 peaks, blocking further descent into the valley. A priest stood on the steps.

"Hello." said she. "I am called Uzume. What shall I call you?"

"I am Naomi." said I.

"I am Tae." said Tae.

"Not many visitors to Takamahara!" said she.

"Takamahara?" asked I. "How can this be Takamahara if we are not amatsukami? And we yet live?"

"Let me show you around the grove." said she.

Passing through the shrine led to the rest of the valley, and what a sight it was. A cypress with a golden canopy stretched across the sky. My eyes traced the foliage down to the horizon, the tree so massive that it seemed to encircle the world itself. A river twisted across our path, with an arched bridge over it that would allow crossing. Figures in colorful silk wearing wide-brimmed hats walked around the valley fields, sometimes resting in the shade beneath trees, conversing, and embracing.

"Who are these wanderers?" Tae voiced her wonder.

Uzume's expression grew severe. "Do not call them wanderers." said she. "The wanderers are far. Past Yomi. By the shore."

"I can't help but feel that we are not supposed to be here." said I.

"Past Yomi?" Tae asked.

"We should leave." said I.

"If Yomi is here, we could see Shiina." said Tae. She walked forward, onto the bridge, stopping to look over the side.

"These koi are marvelous!" said she. She knelt down, grasping the edge of the bridge and peering into the water below. It was at that time I saw a fish leap from the water. Its scales glistened with every color of the spectrum, and there seemed to even be a luster of that beyond any knowable hue. Its mouth closed around Tae's small finger, and she made a sound of surprise. She shook her hand to dislodge the fish, and it fell back into the river. Blood was freely flowing from her finger, and she held it with her uninjured hand.

"Let us leave this place" said I. Tae did not respond, but kept her eyes cast downward and walked back toward us. Uzume drew her blade, and I stepped away with a cry. Behind Tae the water in the river had become black, and corpses in various states of decompose were crawling and writhing onto land. That same unknowable luster clung to them, and appeared to fill in where flesh was missing. A few began to stand.

"You have called the wanderers here." said Uzume. "Return back through the temple. You will not survive a fight with these demons."

I grabbed Tae's intact hand and ran, not stopping until we had crossed the threshold of the tori'i again.

We arrived in Kiso, but Tae developed a fever in the following days, and became confused much of the time. The wound on her finger seemed to have become infected, and darkness radiated from it, marking her veins. Doctors and priests alike knew of no treatment. I did not know whether returning home would be a beneficial action, or if it would strain her body too much. Within a few days, the fever improved slightly, and she demanded we travel home. I assented, and we set out at dawn.

"I wish we had never come across this baleful tori'i." said I.

"Not tori'i, kimon." said she. "Demon gate." She slowly turned toward me, a mirthless smile painted on her face. I stood there, petrified at the sight, and she took a step backward through the gate.

Her clothing and flesh and body evaporated. The last thing I saw was her blackened veins forming a macabre silhouette, until those too disappeared.

Even now as I think back on it, I cannot help but believe I saw in her infected veins the same unknowable luster that I had seen in the koi scales.