Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate Read Online Free Page A

think for a moment that will warrant a reduction in my fee.”
    Kanemore just stared at the ghost for a moment, then glanced at me, but I indicated silence. “Seita-san, you at least owe me an explanation for allowing your patron to walk into an ambush. How long has that thing been here?”
    I think Seita tried to shrug, but that’s hard to do when your usual manifestation is a red paper lantern with one eye, one mouth and no arms, legs, or shoulders.
    “A day or so. Damned impertinent of it to usurp my bridge, but it was strong and I couldn’t make it leave. I think it was waiting on someone. You, perhaps?”
    “Perhaps? Almost certainly, yet that doesn’t concern me now. I need your services.”
    “So I assumed,” said the lantern. “What do you want to know?”
    “A letter was stolen from the Imperial Compound three days ago. I need to know who took it and where that letter is now. It bears the scent of Fujiwara no Kiyoshi, among others.”
    Kanemore could remain silent no more. He leaned close and whispered, “Can this thing be trusted?”
    “That ‘thing’ remark raises the price,” Seita said. “Four bowls.”
    “I apologize on behalf of my companion. Two now,” I countered, “two more when the information is delivered. Bring the answer by tomorrow night, and I’ll add an extra bowl.”
    The lantern grinned very broadly. “Then you can produce five bowls of uncooked rice right now. I have your answer.”
    That surprised me. I’d expected at least a day’s delay. “Seita-san, I know you’re very skilled or I wouldn’t have come to you first, but how could you possibly know about the letter already? Were the
rei
involved?”
    He looked a little insulted. “Lord Yamada, we ghosts have higher concerns than petty theft. This was the work of
shikigami.
The fact that they were about in the first place caught my attention, but I do not know who sent them. That is a separate question and won’t be answered so quickly or easily.”
    “Time is short. I’ll settle for the location of the letter.”
    Seita gave us directions to where the letter was hidden. We left the rice in small bags, with chopsticks thrust upright through the openings as proper for an offering to the dead. I offered a quick prayer for Seita’s soul, but we didn’t stay to watch; I’d seen the ghost consume an offering before, and it was . . . unsettling.
    “Can that thing be trusted?” Kanemore repeated when we were out of earshot of the bridge, “and what is this
shikigami
it was referring to?”
    “As for trusting Seita, we shall soon know. That thing you killed at the bridge was a
shikigami,
and it’s very strange to encounter one here. Thank you, by the way. I owe you my life.”
    Kanemore grunted. “My duty served, though you are quite welcome. Still, you make deals with ghosts, and encountering a simple monster is strange?”
    “A
shikigami
is not a monster, simple or otherwise. A
youkai
is its own creature and has its own volition, nasty and evil though that may be. A
shikigami
is a created thing; it has no will of its own, only that of the one who created it.”
    He frowned. “Are you speaking of sorcery?”
    “Yes,” I said, “and of a high order. I should have realized when the thing disappeared. A monster or demon is a physical creature and, when slain, leaves a corpse like you or I would. A
shikigami
almost literally has no separate existence. When its purpose is served or its physical form too badly damaged, it simply disappears. At most it might leave a scrap of paper or some element of what was used to create it.”
    “So one of these artificial servants acquired the letter and hid it in the Rasha Gate. Fortunate, since that’s on our way back into the city.”
    “Very fortunate.”
    Kanemore glanced at me. “You seem troubled. Do you doubt the ghost’s information?”
    “Say rather I’m pondering something I don’t understand. There were rumors that Lord Sentaro dabbled in Chinese magic, even