“You sure she’s a futakuchi, brother?” says another light. “She sure don’t look like one.”

“Yeah. What in the hell are you supposed to be, anyway?”

“Maybe she’s some sorta shadow yokai.”

“Well, she’s a pretty gnarly shadow, if you ask me. She just looks like a freak.”

The Yokai whirls around at the sound of each chastising word. Why do they keep calling me a freak? The Yokai thinks about all the creatures she has seen tonight. The strangeness of them all, and yet she is the one everyone runs away from. It does not make sense. What makes her more monstrous than them? Her words are on the tip of her tongue, but for some reason she cannot bring herself to speak. Instead, she tries to smile. “I’m sorry, I —”

“Ew! What’s wrong with her face? What’s she doing?”

“Are you smiling? What is wrong with you?”

“She must be stupider than we thought.”

“Or stupider than she looks!”

“And what the hell is that on her robe? Is that — ew, it is! It’s blood! It’s fucking blood!”

“No!” The Yokai waves her hands. “It’s peach … I think …”

“You think?! Oh ho, look at that, guys. She ‘thinks’! Could’ve fooled us, freak.”

The Yokai feels her stomach lurch again. Not from hunger, but from fear. She stops smiling. “I’m sorry,” the Yokai repeats. “I’m just lost.”

“Yeah. We know exactly where you’re trying to go. There ain’t no way in hell we’re letting ya, so don’t even bother trying to play nice with us!”

One of the lights descends so close to her face that her vision is blurred. The Yokai squints through her fingers and sees that it is the brightness of the other lights that is also blinding her. They dance around her in a wide halo of light. They are singing:

“Lost little Yokai

Looking for a friend

Wandering in a wilderness

She cannot comprehend!

Looking for the others

That she cannot befriend

Posing as a human fool

Or tryin’ to pass off as a ghoul

Dumb and stubborn like a mule

So she must meet her end!”

“Little? I’m not …!” The Yokai looks down at her body. She is about half the size of an average human. She can practically feel herself shrinking under her lengthening white robe. “Stop! Stop it!” she cries.

“Ha, ha, look at her now!” the voices cackle. The Yokai can sense them pointing invisible fingers at her. “She’s shrinking! Let’s make her shrink until she disappears!”