Chapter 29 - Laundry Day

The woolen coat around Char Char’s shoulders was too large for her and was a hideous dirt brown. It hung off her like a burlap sack and felt just as rough and scratchy as one. She pulled it close around her body to hide the fact that she was wearing a hospital gown, an equally unflattering garment made of undyed cotton. It was the kind that hung open in the back and was held together by a two strings. Even with the coat on, she felt incredibly exposed.

She didn’t know where her clothes from the previous night were - they were probably too damaged or dirty and were tossed out or folded up somewhere. All she had were her boots. The contents of her pockets had been emptied and left on the table by her bed - A small knife, a spool of ribbon, a soaked box of matches, a flask of oil. She had stuffed these items into the pockets of the woolen coat, which she had found hanging up in the back of the room.

Char Char’s heart pounded in excitement as she stepped out onto the quiet street at the edge of the city. It wasn’t completely empty, as there were a few passersby on a morning walk or heading off to work. The Hunter and the Cleric had already disappeared out of sight, but Char Char didn’t intend to follow them.

Her boots were still moist and muddy, and she made a disgusted face as she stuck her feet inside just around the corner of the clinic. With every step her feet made a squishing noise and the cold mud inside squirmed between her toes. It made her want to yank the boots off and throw them away, but she had other priorities.

The topmost one which was, to help with the investigation into the “parasite” that Hakuya had talked with Reid about in the hallway!

Char Char had heard the conversation in full and had memorized the key aspects. “Divination Recommends Fungal Treatment” was the message that came via telegram. There was no mistaking that “Divination” referred to a spiritual method of seeking answers. And Char Char could only assume that the message came from someone important in Hakuya’s circle. Since they were recommending a treatment, that means that Hakuya had asked someone higher up for advice. It humbled her to think that even Hakuya who miraculously saved her life needed help.

She had never heard of Biltricide or Biltishroom before, but it was clear that obtaining this mushroom would be the key to finding the cure. Thus, she had formulated a plan and left the clinic immediately, both to enact it at once and also to avoid being held back by concerned adults.

As she snuck around the side of the building, she felt the hairs at the back of her neck rise as she passed by a darkened window. She hesitated, feeling something draw her in towards the room. With a confused look on her face she stepped up to the window and peered inside.

An older blond woman in a hospital gown lay motionless on the bed near the window. Vines protruded from her body out of painful looking sores, some of them in the shape of tendrils curled around her arms and legs. Others were in the shape of sinister looking fern-like leaves. Several larger fronds stood in the air, their leaves oscillating quietly.

Char Char felt her heart tighten as she recognized the leaves as belonging to the same type of plant that had infected the wolves that had attacked her.

As she stared at the largest frond, it turned towards her as if sensing her. The end of the frond ended in a black bulb. It was shut tight by thick black petals, but as it turned towards Char Char, the petals opened like eyelids, revealing a disembodied, bloodshot eye.

Char Char ducked down quickly just as the eye was about to look at her, and quickly scrambled past the building. She glanced back at the window in fear only after she had crossed the road.

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Her goal of procuring the mushrooms for the antidote now felt all the more urgent. She doubled her pace down the road towards her first destination - the Lucky Pawn Shop.

~

Yuzu had finally arrived home in the dead of night after a long, arduous walk in the darkness back from the shrine. She had been so tired that she hardly cared that the bells rang out when she entered the front door, or that she left a trail of water through the house.

After she had taken off her coat in her room and dried herself off, she returned the ornate chest to the storage room. Then she stomped back up the stairs to her bed and passed out under the covers.

The next thing she knew it was morning, with the sun streaming warmly in through the window. Her spiritual intuition woke her from deep sleep as she sensed someone approach the other side of her door.

“Yuzu, time to open the shop.” Xiang knocked loudly as he called her through the door. He waited a few seconds before raising his hand to rap the door again.

“Morning.” Yuzu said dryly, opening the door just as he was about to knock.

“M-morning!” Xiang said, not hiding his surprise. Yuzu rarely answered the door until the third knock. “You were already up?”

“No.” She said, her eyes still half shut from grogginess. She walked past Xiang to the washroom.

“I’m going to the station soon, and then I’ll head to the lumber yard.” Xiang said, “I probably won’t be back until evening.”

“Okay.” Yuzu shut the door, leaving Xiang standing in the hallway.

Through the open door he saw Yuzu’s coat and boots in a heap on the floor. He had woken earlier in the morning and found puddles from the front door up the stairs. Zwei had denied that it was him, but neither brother could think of why Yuzu would have gone out in the storm during the night.

Xiang looked up to the ceiling, shaking his head as he tried to find a way to break the tension between him and his sister. He was used to her being curt with him, but the past few days she felt increasingly distant, too.

Maybe he had been too hard on her about giving the loan on the chest. He could have found a nicer way to explain her mistake. Perhaps her walks yesterday and during the night were because she really was bothered by what he had said.

He suppressed a sigh as he cleared his throat. “I’m leaving. Make sure to open the store soon.”

Yuzu grunted a reply from inside the washroom. Xiang hesitated before turning and heading down the stairs. Still shaking his head in frustration, he unlocked the storage room and retrieved the ornate chest and its contract. Then he grabbed his coat and left.

Yuzu took her time in the washroom. Her hair was a tangled mess, and it took her twenty minutes to wash it and comb it out. She let it hang down to her shoulders to air dry as she wiped down her body with a damp cloth. She waited until she heard Xiang leave the house before emerging from the washroom.

She was expecting him to yell at her to hurry up, but to her surprise he left without another word. She paused in the hallway to look at the golden strings and confirmed that he really had left for the day.

“Strange.” She muttered.

She entered her room and changed out of the oversized shirt she wore to sleep. Without putting much thought into her outfit, she threw on a light grey dress, knee length black socks and the woven black cardigan that she always wore. She also gathered her dirty laundry basket, throwing the damp clothes from the previous night on top. Then she went into Xiang and Zwei’s rooms and gathered their laundry baskets as well.

As she followed this regular routine she found herself continuously drifting off into thought.

She felt like she was in shock, unable to fully process the events of the previous night, but at the same time constantly remembering it. The battle replayed in her mind like something out of a novel - vivid, yet unbelievable. She felt like an observer more than a participant, even the parts in the white world seemed dreamlike.

She carried the laundry down in two trips, and opened the back door and brought the baskets outside. She started to fill up a wooden wash basin from the tap outside the house when her spiritual intuition was triggered. She looked up, her eyes glancing to the stack of crates piled up at the side of the building.

A golden thread materialized in Yuzu’s vision as she focused on the crates. She touched the thread with her spirit and her eyebrows knit in confusion.

“Char Char?” She called out.

Char Char stepped out from her hiding spot behind the crates. She was wearing an oversized, frumpy brown coat that looked completely out of place on the usually well-dressed girl. The shorter girl had an embarrassed look on her face as she pulled the coat over her body.

“Yuzu, is everyone else gone? I need your help!”