I Fell In Love With A Girl Who Died Before I Was Even Born

I'd just lain down in my freshly washed and dried futon sheets when I heard a knock at the door.

I was surprised. Normally, I would've sensed whoever it was through vibrations in the floor long before they got to the door.

Unless, of course, it was Natsumi walking on her soft, padded feet.

Natsumi knocked once, then let herself into my room like she always did.

I could tell she'd been smoking. She smelled like incense, mango gummies, and dank weed.

"Heyyyy, American-jin," she said, flopping onto the floor next to my futon. "Natsumi wants to know if training is something serious or not?"

Yuki crossed her arms straight away.

"What are you doing here, Natsumi?" she asked. "You'd better not try to get Ryu to sleep with you again."

Yuki's tone dropped ten degrees. Which was impressive, considering she was already dead.

Natsumi ignored Yuki and kept her gaze on me. Her lips curled into a mischievous grin.

"Does American-jin feel like taking a walk in No-Parking Park with Natsumi, nyaa?" she asked. "Could be fun."

Her eyes flashed in amusement.

"Come," she gestured towards the patio door. "Sneak out with Natsumi."

I looked over at Yuki who was shaking her head no.

"But it's not a school night," I said to my ghost girl.

Her mouth fell open.

"Ryu, please, you simply can't be serious."

Natsumi took a long hit from one of her vapes and tucked it away.

"American-jin and Natsumi have a very important mission," the nekomata said matter-of-factly.

Yuki looked skeptical.

"Well, Hibana did mention a dangerous yokai was in No-Parking Park. She wanted help fighting it," I said, and Yuki's face told me I'd said something wrong.

"You're considering fighting against a dangerous yokai that an experienced shinobi wants help with and the only thing you're bringing with you is a cat?!"

Natsumi stuck out her tongue.

"Natsumi's not afraid of ghosts."

I spoke up this time.

"Were you eavesdropping? How do you even know about that anyway?"

But the nekomata just shrugged.

"A little bird told Natsumi. Then Natsumi caught the bird and ate it. Two. Two birds actually. Then Natsumi got stoned."

Yuki appeared behind her, arms crossed, looking unconvinced.

"This is a bad idea," she said.

Natsumi snorted.

"That's what makes it fun."

I should've told her no. But Natsumi asking for help? That didn't happen often.

We arrived at No-Parking Park while the night was still young.

Once upon a time, the economy had been kind to Shin'yume, and the town flourished, growing like a tropical plant lit by soft neon and blinking commercial lights. Outlet malls, shopping districts, and plazas of all kinds sprouted like weeds on the vast suburban landscape.

Those days had long passed, but their skeletal remains stayed behind. The ghost of department stores long gone. No-Parking Park got its name from the faded "No Parking" sign that still stood nearby, an old holdover from when the lot belonged to Hills. The store's long gone, the asphalt repurposed into public land, but the sign remains. Old habits are hard to break, even when there's nothing left to shop for.

Now? It's the kind of place where every streetlight flickered like it was on the verge of giving up. Rotted playground equipment. Overgrown grass. The sign was upside down.

The walk through Shin'yume with Yuki and Natsumi was different from my walk earlier with Yuki and Shion.

That had been at sunset, and walking into town with the Pacific Ocean serving as a backdrop along with the pastel-colored sunset. Now, though, the off-white band of Milky Way outlined the night sky while neon lights assaulted the broken pavement beneath them.

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I'd hit Natsumi's vape cart (she had an entire damn fruit basket's worth of flavors), so I was pretty high when we walked by the Two Girls, One Cup of Ramen noodle shop. I had to stop and make sure I read the sign right.

"How could they get away with that?" I asked, pointing at the sign.

Natsumi laughed.

"It's a Friday night, American-jin," she said, as if that explained everything.

I shook my head in disbelief.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Natsumi just laughed some more.

"It's a Friday night, and this is the only Ramen restaurant in Shin'yume. If American-jin wants ramen, the wait is at least twenty five minutes."

My face fell.

"There's a- a- WAIT? You've got to WAIT at least twenty five damn minutes to eat at a place named after an internet meme involving poop?!"

Yuki floated to my side.

"Honey, I have no idea what you just said, but you're adorable."

I felt her lips briefly connect with my cheek as I stood in the shadow of the cursed restaurant's marque.

Natsumi took a hit from one of fruit-flavored vapes, and I waited for my life to start making sense.

Legend says that if I'd stayed there, then I'd still be waiting.

By the time we got to No-Parking Park, it was nearly midnight. As soon as we crossed into the park's threshold, the atmosphere around us changed. All three of us could sense it straight away. I didn't even have to mention it. Both Yuki and Natsumi knew without me having to say a single thing.

Even with the few scant, flickering, yellow streetlights, the park looked beautiful at night. The adjacent, abandoned Mongomery Ward parking lot couldn't take away from the dark, muted colors of the blooming sakura along with some red maple and Japanese white birch.

"What happened here?" I asked Natsumi.

She hit her vape and then handed it to me before answering.

"Hmmmmrrooowww…" she thought, blowing the smoke out. "Good question, American-jin. Natsumi heard a few rumors. Mostly from the Asuka clan themselves."

Hibana's clan?

"What've you heard?"

Yuki floated beside me as the three of us stood on the crumbling sidewalk that served as the boarder between the unofficially named Jorōgumo Street and No-Parking Park.

"Natsumi's heard that a handful of people have gotten frostbite from staying at the park after night has fallen."

We looked around and saw nothing.

"Are we supposed to do anything to summon this dangerous yokai?" I asked.

Natsumi shrugged.

I decided I was through with waiting, and I took a step forward, into the boundaries of No-Parking Park. Natsumi and Yuki joined me, and the three of us walked forward, and at first nothing happened.

We walked past the park entrance and beyond the three pavilion picnic areas. I could hear a small stream flowing through a cluster of white birch trees. To the right, a flickering yellow streetlight hummed above a basketball court. I could tell it was in relatively good condition.

One of the hoops was still standing.

There were restrooms to our left, and a playground beyond them. Natsumi took a hit from one of her vape carts and sauntered towards the bathrooms.

"Natsumi wants to climb on the monkey bars," she said.

I rolled my eyes as the nenkomata began walking away.

"Come on," I said louder than I intended. "We ought to stick together."

She turned around but continued walking backwards towards the playground.

"American-jin should stop at the boys' room," she teased. "Go in and find the stick up his ass. Maybe get ghost girl to pull it out."

She stuck out her tongue.

"Natsumi!" Yuki scolded.

It didn't do any good though. The nekomata spun around and within two steps, she'd disappeared into the darkness.

I turned to Yuki.

"Well we know one thing for sure."

She looked into the shadows, annoyed.

"What's that, Ryu?"

"Now there is a dangerous yokai loose in No-Parking Park."

Yuki and I caught up with Natsumi less than a minute later, and we stood beside an old playground.

But something was off.

The air smelled like old water and cold iron.

Natsumi was the first to say something as the three of us walked boldly into the empty playground.

A tall set of swings stood beside plain, grey monkey bars. Natsumi took one look at them and decided it wasn't worth her time to swing from them after all.

"Natsumi doesn't like the smell. There's something angry here."

Then I saw the nekomata shiver like she'd just walked through a ghost.

Even Yuki shivered.

"Something's wrong here," she said. "This place remembers pain."

Then she stopped. Dead still.

"Ryu," Yuki whispered.

She pointed straight ahead of her, past Natsumi who turned suddenly, seeing it too.

"Do you see that?" Yuki asked.

Through the mist, a figure moved.

Tall. Elegant.

Shion I thought for a second. Then I realized just how wrong I was.

Shion's graceful movements had an unnatural, robotic fluidity to them. But this thing moved like a snowflake in the wind. The vampire moved like water flowed. But whatever this was moved like blizzard wind through pine trees, draped in a rotted kimono of sleet and moonlight. Her face was pale. Her hair was long and black and trailed like seaweed.

And she looked just like Yuki.

Only colder.

Deadlier.

It stepped through the birch trees like it had always lived there, part of the frost.

A Yuki-Onna.

She opened her mouth and exhaled ice, and I could feel the cold. It wasn't emanating from the Yuki Onna herself, but from within.

I could feel the cold in my very bones.

Natsumi stepped forward, cracking her knuckles.

"Okay, creepy Elsa. Let's dance."

The moment the Yuki-Onna saw us, her expression didn't change.

She didn't roar. She didn't charge. She just breathed.

A cold exhale, slow and graceful, and instantly horrifying.

The mist that left her lips became a sweeping cone of razor-frost, whiting out everything in front of her. Trees iced over in seconds. Blossoms wilted and curled. The dead grass beneath her touch crunched, then shattered like glass.

I leapt back instinctively, wings flaring from my back with a burst of heat and muscle.

Natsumi blurred sideways in a streak of speed, her tail flicking snow behind her as she moved.

"She breathes frost," I shouted, gaining altitude.

Below me, an entire patch of flowers died where the mist passed. They crumbled to gray dust. Even the air stung in my lungs, bitter cold scraping down my throat.

Natsumi charged, claws out. Her grin was feral.

"Take this, bitch!" she yelled, slashing with both hands.

Her claws struck true, ripping straight through the Yuki-Onna's body, and for a moment I simply hovered in the air amazed at the nekomata. Chunks of ice and snow fell to the ground, spraying outward like glitter.

I expected to hear a scream. I expected blood. Instead… silence.

The slashed snow squirmed across the frozen grass like silver slugs. They slid back into place—reforming her body as if nothing had happened.

I blinked.

"It's like a cat attacking a snowman," I muttered, frustrated.

Natsumi tried again.

And again.

Each strike just took off a chunk, but none of it stuck. It was like slashing at grief itself.

I dove toward them, wings slicing the air. I aimed a kick—

—but I hesitated.

I remembered earlier that day. My fight with Ken. Remembered kicking an orc with skin as hard as stone. The way my foot lit up with pain like I'd kicked a tree.

I couldn't risk that again.

I just hoped no one died because of it.