Read Koyasan for Free Online

something, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Then a memory clicked into place. It didn’t snow very often where Koyasan lived, but there had been a heavy fall a few years ago, and Koyasan and the other children had spent a couple of days throwing snowballs at each other and making snowmen. This creature had that same appearance. It was made out of snow.
    Koyasan had no time to wonder how a beast made of snow functioned, if it had a heart, lungs, a brain. What she knew for sure was that it had teeth, and if it got its snowy hands on her, it would bite into her with great relish and make short work of her small, fleshy form.
    Koyasan could have raced back over the bridge. Escape was still an option. Flee to safety now and her life would be assured. The spirit couldn’t cross the stream.
    But she had come too far. She was even more terrified than she had been crossing the bridge, but her fear no longer had control over her. She could fight it now, having overcome the obstacle of the bridge. So, instead of retreating, she raced left, into the graveyard, pursued by the hissing snow beast.
    She shimmied around headstones and scurried over tombs, the spirit close behind. Her feet were soon scratched and bruised from collisions with hidden chunks of fallen stones and briars that couldn’t be seen in the dark. But Koyasan took no notice of such minor injuries. She knew she had a lot worse to fear if the snow spirit caught her.
    She had no plan. Survival was the only thought in her mind. If she kept running, the spirit couldn’t catch her.
    “Unless it doesn’t tire,” said the cynical voice which had tried to stop her coming here in the first place. “It’s not human. It doesn’t have muscles. Maybe it can maintain this speed all night. But you can’t. You’ll tire soon and slow down, and when you do...”
    The voice was hoping to dismay Koyasan, to teach her a brutal lesson, to drive home the point that she should have paid attention to it earlier. But it had the opposite effect. Rather than feed Koyasan’s fears, the voice let her think about the situation rationally.
    “That’s right,” Koyasan calmly said to herself. “I can’t outpace it. If I keep running, it will catch me. I have to face it and try to defeat it.”
    Now that she was thinking clearly, she recalled what Itako had told her.
    “Spirits have no bodies of their own. They’re naturally insubstantial. They can only assume a physical body when a human confronts them. They take their shapes from the thoughts of the humans they face. Because we provide them with their bodies, we always have the power to defeat them.”
    Itako had gripped Koyasan’s hands hard, to make sure she understood how important this information was.
    “Every spirit can be outwitted because their physical existence depends on the human they’re facing. If I went into the graveyard tonight, the spirits I’d encounter would look vastly different to those you will meet. They’d have to build their bodies from the thoughts inside my head.
    “You can get the better of all the spirits you face because they will be physically dependent on you. Your manners, patterns and weaknesses are theirs. Without you, they are nothing but shadows. Conquering a spirit is the same as overcoming a bad habit, like chewing your nails or spitting. It can be done by studying the problem, thinking about it, then acting to solve it.
    “You will panic in the graveyard. That’s unavoidable. But you must not surrender to fear. Keep a level head. Think of the spirits who attack as twisted images of yourself. Study them as you would study your reflection in a mirror. Look hard for their weak points. You do have the power to destroy or deflect them. You just need to use your brain and have courage.”
    Koyasan was annoyed that she’d forgotten such key advice. Itako had repeated herself several times, to make sure Koyasan knew how vital this was. But at least she’d remembered before it was too