The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon

wasn't a natural color, either. Those gang kids are all like that, and she was one of them, too."
    Dad, it's not true!
    "Stop slandering your own daughter!" Her mother's words boiled over with resentment. "What do you know? All you know is your work. But my work, everything to do with our child, I had to do!"
    "That's the way it is. That's the father's role."
    "Father? Who's being a father?"
    "Ritsuko . . . . "
    "So you go to work, you bring a bunch of money home, and that makes you a father? Our daughter disappears and you didn't even bother to take the day off! What kind of a father is that? Don't lecture me about what Youko is or isn't when you don't know a thing about her!"
    Her father seemed more surprised than angry, "Calm down, you're being hysterical."
    "Oh, I am calm. I'm as calm as I possibly can be. Just imagining what Youko is going through, what do you expect me to do?"
    "You have your responsibilities, too. You calm down, you do what you have to do, and then you can worry."
    "And doing your laundry is my responsibility, I suppose? Rather than worrying about my child, that's what I should be concerning myself with? All you can think about is yourself!"
    Her mother stared at her father. His face flushed with anger but he said nothing.
    "You say she was one of them ? How can you say that? She's a good, proper girl. She never talks back or acts up. She never gave me cause to worry, never. She could talk to me about anything. She's not the kind of child who would run away from home. Because there wasn't anything she'd want to run away from!"
    Her father turned away, still holding his tongue.
    "Youko left her backpack at school. And her coat, too. How can that be called running away? Something must have happened. That's the only thing that makes sense."
    "If it did, so what?"
    Her mother's eyes went wide. "So what?"
    Her father answered bitterly. "Let's say she did get caught up in something. Even so, what could you do about it? We informed the police about everything that happened. Running around like chickens with their heads cut off isn't going to bring her home any faster."
    "Why do you have to say things like that!"
    "Because it's the truth! Handing out flyers and slapping posters on telephone poles, do you really think that's going to make a difference? Be honest!"
    "Stop it."
    "If she didn't run away, if she got wrapped up in some kind of conspiracy or something, she'd be dead already."
    "Please stop!"
    "You see it all the time on the news. Do those kids ever turn up alive? That's why I say she ran away from home!"
    Her mother burst into tears. Her father stared at her, then stomped out of the room.
    Dad . . . Mom . . . .
    Seeing them like this cut her to the core. The scene blurred. She closed her eyes and felt the tears tumble down her cheeks. When she opened her eyes, her vision was clear. The images had already vanished.
    All she could see was the sword, the light gone out of it.

Chapter 20
    S he wept uncontrollably. "I didn't die."
    Maybe she would be better off dead, but for the time being she was still alive.
    "I'm not a runaway."
    There must be some way to get back. She missed her home and her parents more than anything.
    "That was the first time I ever saw Mom and Dad fight."
    Youko rested her forehead against the table. The tears came like rain.
    "Stupid, stupid, stupid . . . . "
    She didn't know what it was she had seen, but it wasn't necessarily the truth.
    She sat up, wiped away the tears, bound the sword in the cloth. Somehow it was like the sword itself was showing her these visions. She couldn't tell whether they were real or not. Her intuition, though, told her the visions were true.
    Stiffly she got to her feet. She opened the back door and wandered out into the night. The heavens were suffused with stars. She didn't recognize any constellations. The fact was, she had never had any interest in astronomy, so it was probably because she didn't know any of the constellations up there.
    She sat at the edge of the well. The cool stones and the cool breeze was a small comfort. She held her knees to her chest. Behind her a saw-edged voice stabbed at her ears.
    "No, no, no. You can't go home, missy."
    She turned slowly. Sitting on sturdy stones that formed the rim of the well was the blue head of the monkey. The monkey rested there on the hewn surface, bodiless, as if severed at the neck, and laughed at her.
    "My, my, my, but haven't you given up yet? You can't go home, little girl. You so