Nothing But Blackened Teeth

by Cassandra Khaw

It wasn’t charitable but apologies didn’t exonerate the sinner, only compelled graciousness from its recipient.

Brutally true.

It doesn’t matter how many corpses are lying in the soil with them. It’s not the same. The dead miss the sun. It’s dark down there.”

It wasn’t just tanuki on exhibit. There were other yokai. It was all yokai, a veritable parade: kitsune in elaborate tomesode, tails curling with questions. Ningyo crawling from the jeweled sea. Kappa and towering oni, negotiating for baskets heaped with cucumbers. Everywhere, every last brush-painted face in sight. Even the housewives: some with eyes, some only with lips, some with gaping smiles sliced into place. Every last one of them. All fucking yokai.

Suenomatsuyama nami mo koenamu.

If I were one that had a heart that would cast you aside and turn to someone else, then waves would rise above the pines of Seunomatsu Mountain.

“I hope the house eats you.” Talia, her charity only good for so much. “I hope the same about you.”

“Cat, this is literally the part where the supporting cast dies horribly. You’re bisexual. I’m the comic relief. It’s going to be one of us.”

“Spoken like a true white guy.”