A Winter of Ghosts (The Waking Series) Read online

  Buses had taken them from school to Takigami Park, where the cherry blossom festival would take place come springtime, and they had walked up the long, wooded path to the observatory, which had taken the better part of the morning. Far feet, Kara had thought. They've got that part right.

  Now they all sat at outdoor tables around the observatory eating the lunch they had brought along. Kara and her friends had claimed a table for themselves. She sat between Hachiro and Ren, with Miho and Sakura across from her with a third boy, Sora, who sat in front of her in homeroom. Having Sora join them had been unexpected but not unwelcome. She was especially glad to have him along because his presence prevented them from talking about anything having to do with ghosts or curses.

  Her father and Miss Aritomo had been chaperoning their own homeroom classes, but now that the students were all eating lunch they had managed to take a few minutes for themselves, eating quietly at a small table for two at the edge of the observatory. They probably had the best and most romantic view available, and Kara smiled at the thought. The views from the observatory were spectacular, not only of the city but of the bay and of Ama-no-Hashidate.

  As Kara had predicted, her father had been unable to take them tubing on Sunday and the snowstorm the forecasts had been expecting had not materialized, so she had spent the morning studying and then gone for a long walk and a late lunch with Hachiro before spending a quiet night at home. But she had not minded at all, considering the plan for today.

  The wind gusted again and Kara shivered as she packed away her bento box.

  "It's so beautiful up here," Miho said, standing up. "And the air is just so fresh. I feel more —"

  "Awake?" Sora teased.

  Miho gave a shy shake of her head. "I was going to say 'alive.'"

  Kara studied her, wondering if she was just having a relapse of shyness or if she might have some interest in Sora. Miho loved to talk to Kara about American boys, which were sort of an obsession with her, but had also had a crush on Ren until she found out that he was gay. Sora did not have Ren's sense of humor and he wasn't quite as good-looking, but he seemed like a nice enough guy, smart and friendly. Miho could definitely do worse.

  "You're crazy," Ren told Miho. "I'd much rather be in class."

  His tone and expression were so convincing that for a moment he even had Kara fooled, but then he laughed and rolled his eyes as if to say, please, you didn't really believe that, did you?

  "You scared me there for a minute," Kara told him.

  Ren slipped his bento box into his backpack and hoisted it onto his shoulders. "Don't worry. I haven't lost my mind. I'd rather be almost anywhere than in class. And I don't mind the exercise."

  "Would you believe I heard two girls complaining about being here?" Hachiro said. He had been quiet, but now he grew animated as he mimicked one of the girls. "'I've been to the top of Takigami Mountain a million times. Ensoku should take us somewhere we've never been.'"

  Sakura shivered as the wind gusted. She put up the collar of her jacket and pulled her black cap down tightly around her ears.

  "I agree," she said. "There are so many places we could have gone. But since this is only a day trip, maybe we'll do more than one ensoku. Last year's trip to Osaka was an overnight."

  "That bus ride took forever," Ren moaned.

  "I love the mountains, anyway," Sora said.

  "This isn't much of a mountain," Kara said, as the rest of them packed their bento boxes away. "For a girl who's used to skiing in Vermont and New Hampshire, it's more of a hill. And the mountains in New England are nothing compared to Colorado."

  Miho sighed. "I want to visit America."

  "We know why," Sakura teased.

  "Not just for the boys," Miho said sharply.

  They all laughed at that, even Miho, who reddened as she realized she had essentially admitted her fascination with American boys.

  "So what makes the mountains at home so special?" Hachiro asked.

  "Well, it's more than just the size. They just look more . . ." She trailed off, looking around. No matter how proficient she became in speaking Japanese, she still encountered words that she did not know how to translate and it frustrated her.

  "Formidable," she said in English. Then, instantly, she thought of a suitable substitute. "The mountains at home are more impressive," she continued in Japanese. "Some of them are scary. They're huge and have steep cliffs and throw shadows that go on forever. In New England, most of them are covered in forest —"

  Sora spread his arms. "Look around. What is this?"

  Kara nodded. "Yes. That's one thing Takigami has. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't criticizing. I love it here, and it is beautiful. It isn't very steep and it makes for a perfect hiking mountain. I just like how intimidating the mountains can be at home, almost like you're looking at some other world. Or an ancient world. And in northern New England there's snow on the mountains all winter long."

  Much of the snow in the city had either melted or been cleared, but on Takigami Mountain a light covering remained. From what Kara had learned of the local winters, the average snowfall was unpredictable.

  Other students were getting up now, putting their backpacks on. Kara noticed Mai and Wakana a few tables away. She might have smiled at them except that they were with their fellow Soccer Bitches, including Emi and Kaori, who they all believed had taken part in the beating that led to the murder of Sakura's sister. Without proof there was nothing anyone could do, and by unspoken agreement they all avoided the subject. Sakura had made peace with her sister's death, as best she could.

  Just beyond the Soccer Bitches' table, she saw Mr. Yamato chatting quietly with Miss Kaneda, the fiftyish teacher who led the Calligraphy Club. Kara, Sakura, and Ren were all members of the club and enjoyed it hugely. Miss Kaneda had a voice that made her drowsy and set her at ease, and a love for the art of calligraphy so strong that it inspired that same passion in the club members. She was also acting as tour guide today. On the way up the mountain she had marched alongside the group, loudly regaling them with bits of history and folklore related to the mountain.

  Now, though, she looked somewhat troubled. She bowed her head to Mr. Yamato and then glanced up at the sky. The air had turned even chillier. It felt brisk on Kara's skin and the tip of her nose was so cold that she reached up to rub it. Even as she did, she took a breath and realized something she had missed before, something that only people who had been raised in wintry climates would probably notice.

  "It smells like snow," she said.

  Hachiro grinned at her.

  "It smells like snow?" Sakura said dubiously.

  Mr. Yamato walked to a spot roughly in the center of the picnic area and clapped his hands.

  "Gather your things," the principal said. "We are going to be following a mountain trail together. There are other, less well-traveled paths, but you are all to stay with your own homeroom teachers. Do not leave the group for any reason. I will be leading Miss Kaneda's class so that she can move from group to group, giving you instructions on what you should be watching for. Even in winter there is a great deal of wildlife on the mountain. There will be assignments in school tomorrow that will reflect upon your experiences today, so I advise you to be attentive both to your own teachers and to Miss Kaneda. Enjoy the beauty of the mountain and its views."

  It seemed he had finished and the teachers began to address their homeroom students, rounding them up into groups. But Kara watched as Miss Kaneda went to Mr. Yamato, glancing worriedly at the sky, and spoke quietly to him. Mr. Yamato seemed to consider her words and then nodded.

  He clapped his hands again. "One other thing. The weather center forecasts a ten percent chance of light snow."

  Kara bumped Hachiro with her hip. "Told you," she mouthed at him, then stuck out her tongue.

  "There may be flurries," the principal continued. "But if we do get a little snow, do not worry. The weather center predicts clearing skies and even the return of the sun later this
afternoon. And now we go. We will be on the trail for one and a half hours, including a fifteen minute break. Please do not . . ."

  Principal Yamato finished with a word that Kara didn't understand.

  "What was that?" she asked.

  Hachiro took her hand. "It means don't 'fall behind.' But don't worry. I won't let you out of my sight."

  He made it sound so sweet that she felt herself actually blush. Kara did not know how long it had been since a boy had made her blush, but she found that she liked it.

  Then they all had to separate. She and Miho and Sora were all in Mr. Sato's class, so they remained together while Hachiro, Ren, and Sakura went off to join their own homeroom teachers.

  "Sora's nervous," Miho told Kara while they waited for Mr. Sato to lead them away.

  Kara looked at Sora, who gave her a wan smile. "What's wrong?"

  "You must have heard about that woman who got lost in the snowstorm up here last month and froze to death," he said.

  Kara had not forgotten the story, but she had not remembered that the woman had vanished here on Takigami Mountain.

  "We'll be fine," she said. "All these people? It might not snow at all, and if it does, it will be just a dusting. You heard Mr. Yamato. If there was any cause for concern, we'd already be heading down."

  That seemed to set him at ease. Miho smiled at Kara.

  "You always know the right thing to say," she said.

  "Not really," Kara replied. "I just try not to say the wrong things if I can help it."

  Finally, they got under way, heading off into the forest along a wide, well-trodden trail. Kara had looked at the trail map in her pocket and seen that there were several scenic overlooks marked off, places where the woods opened up to apparently breathtaking views.

  As they entered the woods, she looked up at the sky again, wondering how long it would be before the first snowflakes started to fall.

  Wakana hated being cold, and she had been cold since she had set foot outside the dorm first thing this morning. Why they couldn't have done ensoku during the spring or summer this year, she had no idea. If she knew who had suggested traipsing around Takigami Mountain the first week of January, she would have slapped him in the face. And she was certain it had to be a him. What woman would be so foolish? She doubted that even Miss Kaneda, who obviously loved the mountain, and nature, even in the bleakness of winter, would have come up with such an idea.

  She knew that some people loved winter, and snow, and the kinds of sports and outdoor activities that went along with them. But she had never seen the appeal. And, certainly, it wasn't really that cold. But it was the principle of the thing.

  "Come on, let's not fall behind," Mai said, reaching back and taking her hand.

  Wakana smiled and they hurried to catch up to the rest of their group. Another one of their friends from soccer club smiled as they joined her, the three girls falling into step together. They called her Aka for the coppery red highlights in her hair, and Wakana had actually forgotten her proper name, if she had ever known it in the first place.

  "It's actually been kind of interesting," Aka whispered, indicating that they should pay attention to the commentary their homeroom teacher had been providing during the hike.

  Wakana felt guilty. She had been raised to be courteous and polite regardless of the circumstances. But she found it impossible to care about anything that the teachers might say today because she was so frustrated by the entire trip. Her feet were cold. Her hands were cold. Her nose might have been coldest of all. Fortunately she had a hat that covered her ears.

  Somehow, Mai seemed not to be bothered by the cold at all. Wakana smiled at that. If there had ever been a girl who adapted to change quickly, it was her roommate. Once upon a time, Mai had been relatively quiet and unassuming, though she had enjoyed the popularity that had come with being a member of the soccer club and a friend of Ume's, back when Ume had still been the one the others would follow. But when Ume had left, Mai had stepped into that role. Most of the soccer club girls, she said, just wanted someone to set the pace, someone to follow, and Mai had decided she would rather be that girl than follow any of the others.

  Wakana had never had an interest. They had been roommates, but opposites in many ways. Wakana had remained quiet and mostly innocent. But then their lives had been overrun by nightmares. Daisuke — Wakana's best friend, who might have been her boyfriend if either of them had been brave enough to initiate even a single kiss — had been abducted and murdered by the Hannya. It had taken Wakana as well, but she had been rescued by Mai and some others, including that gaijin girl, Kara Harper.

  For the rest of her life, she would be grateful to Mai. The girl wore a scar on her face that would be with her forever, and it would always remind them both of what they had faced, and of what Mai had done for Wakana. Which was why Wakana had decided that this term she would join the soccer club. She had not really wanted to make friends with some of those girls — though they had turned out to be nicer than she'd expected — but Mai had asked her. There had been no pressure, but Wakana had been happy to be asked, and she knew it would make Mai happy to have her in the club. They had become inseparable now, almost like sisters. They had come close to death together and they shared secrets they could never tell the other girls.

  If Mai wanted to lead, Wakana would gladly follow.

  "You two are going to end up off the path and lost in the woods!" Aka said.

  "Don't worry so much. We're fine," Mai told her.

  Wakana smiled. They both liked Aka, but the girl had a tendency to get bossy. Mai wouldn't let her get away with it.

  "Hey, look," Mai said, tapping Wakana's arm.

  The whole group began to slow down a little, whispers and mutterings rippling through the class. Fat white snowflakes had begun to drift lazily from the sky. A light gust of wind sent them dancing and swirling, but then the breeze died down and the snow eddied and fell.

  "Come along!" their teacher, Mr. Gushiken, called. "You have all seen snow before. Let's stay on schedule so that we can return to the buses before dark. We will be stopping for a break at a clearing ahead with the rest of the school. Ten minutes only."

  "Ten minutes," Mai said. "Mr. Yamato said fifteen."

  "It's snowing now," Aka replied. "They want to get us back."

  "I don't see why we need to stop at all. We should never even have come onto the trail," Wakana said. "We saw the view. That should have been enough."

  "Oh, it's not that bad," Mai said. "It's only a little snow. And the weather center said it would pass quickly. I want to enjoy it while I can. It's very pretty."

  Wakana rolled her eyes. "Okay, it's pretty. But I'd rather see it out a window."

  Mai laughed and shook her head. "If you never bother to explore it, the world outside the window might as well be a painting."

  "Who said that?" Aka asked.

  Mai gave her a hard look. "I did. Didn't you just hear me?"

  "I thought you were quoting someone. It was a great observation."

  "Do you think I'm not smart enough to make such an observation?" Mai demanded.

  Wakana dropped back a step, letting the two girls argue. Normally it amused her. She liked to listen to them spar. But right now her nose hurt from the bite of the cold and her feet hurt. So far there was only a little snow, but if it fell harder and much of it accumulated, she worried that it might ruin her shoes. They were really not meant for winter hiking, mostly because she would never have been here if she'd had a choice, so she had never had any reason to buy shoes that would be good in the snow.

  Listen to yourself, she thought, upset by how shallow her concerns seemed. This trip had put her in a bad mood from the second it had been announced. Tomorrow would be better. She would be back to normal, sitting in a nicely heated classroom, and then a warm dormitory.

  The snow began to fall a bit harder and the gusts of wind seemed to come more frequently, and blow a bit harder. If she was not mistaken, the sky had
darkened somewhat since the snow had started. She wondered how recently Mr. Yamato had checked with the weather center.

  Mai and Aka seemed to have finished their argument, so she quickened her pace and fell into beside them. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw that the next group — led by Miss Aritomo — was only fifty yards or so behind them, many of them out of sight around a bend in the forest trail.

  Through the falling snow, they seemed almost unearthly.

  With her head turned, she wasn't paying attention to the path underfoot, and her shoe caught on a raised root. Wakana stumbled and fell to her knees on the snow-flecked trail. Frustration and anger lasted only a moment, replaced by amusement at the absurdity of her situation. If someone was going to fall, of course it would be the one who most wished she were anywhere but here.

  Smiling, Wakana started to rise.

  Off in the trees, a boy stood watching her. Even in the deepening shadows of the dimming day, even through the veil of falling snow, she recognized Daisuke immediately. For just a moment, her mind distracted by so many other things, she forgot that he was dead and her smile began to widen.

  Then she felt it vanish and she took a step back, heart filling up with fear.

  "Wakana!" Mai asked, grabbing her arm, helping her rise the rest of the way to her feet.

  She blinked and looked at Mai, at that thin white scar, their mutual reminder of what they'd seen, and learned, and lost.

  "I asked if you were okay," Mai said.

  Wakana looked back, but the ghost was gone. A light gust blew snowflakes into her eyes and she wiped them away, the chill biting into her skin.

  She told herself she had imagined him there. What else could it have been?

  "I'm fine. Let's go," she said. "I won't be happy until I'm off of this mountain. I need a gallon of hot tea and some chocolate."

  Mai smiled. "I like the sound of that."

  They hurried yet again to catch up to the others, Wakana quietly wondering if even a gallon of tea would be enough to make her warm again.