"Eh?" I sense in it an uncharacteristic urgency.

"Follow me." A black void appears behind the shinigami. The shinigami turns around and steps inside.

I hesitate but follow, knowing that resisting is pointless. The smell of rot and decay hits even harder, though perhaps it just seems that way because I was out in the fresh air. Or, maybe this second trip through is not quite as shocking as the first, leaving me with a greater awareness of my surroundings.

The shinigami passes through Yomi and out onto the middle floor of an office tower and into the maze of a cube farm. Flashing red and blue lights reflect off the window from police cars in the parking lot below. Two policemen, at the end of one of these passages between the cubicles, are questioning some weeping office ladies. The shinigami and I turn down a side passage and stop at a cubicle where the spirit of a small skinny man crouches before a computer as if he were sitting in an invisible chair.

"It's time to go," the shinigami says.

"One moment." The spirit continues tapping furiously at the keyboard. "I'm almost finished. I must complete this project if I want the promotion."

I look around and see the office chair shoved to one side. A handful of plastic sleeves, container caps and other bits of debris that I can't identify litter the floor. "What's happened here?"

"Karoshi. Exhaustion, malnutrition and heart arrhythmia from overwork has killed this man. The EMTs have just tried to revive him before pronouncing him dead and carrying his body away."

The spirit continues to mutter to itself. "They promised me a promotion if this project is successful..."

"The time for that has passed," the shinigami says.

"No!" The spirit shouts and slams clenched fists on the keyboard. "You don't understand. I have to do this. She won't be satisfied with anything else."

"She will have to be. Your time has come."

"I just need a little more time!" The spirit's head snaps around toward us. He has the face of a quiet dependable man, but only on one side. The other is distorted, with one large eye turned to a predatory slant and half of its mouth twisted into a clenched, sharp-toothed snarl.

"I work twelve-hour days, commuting two hours each way..." The spirit begins to bulge and distort as if internal pressures were inflating him. "...all in order to afford to send our kids to a good school..." The spirit continues to grow in size as it becomes more agitated. The bulges expand and open into fanged mouths, each offering a different complaint. "...kids I hardly ever get to see..." Additional eyes open and glare at me and the shinigami. "...a wife I hardly ever get to see except sometimes on Sunday..."

Long clawed limbs burst out through its body. They turn the bulk towards us, it's salivating mouths opening wide. "I don't even get to spend my own money..."

I feel its growing menace as its eyes narrow on us. I take a step back, prepared to run for my life, but the shinigami stands before it unmoved. The shadows gather behind us and I feel an increasing pressure as the temperature drops.

"But she isn't satisfied. She is never satisfied. It's still not enough!"

I hear the rip of the dark portal opening behind us.

The yokai rears back as if to strike, the last of its humanity distorted out of any recognition. "I have to work longer! Work harder! I have to do more so that she will understand! So that she will be satisfied!" His mouths all shout the last line in unison.

Tendrils of darkness shoot forward, wrapping around the spirit. The shinigami steps to one side and the darkness snaps back, launching the yokai through the portal.

For a moment, I just stand in the sudden silence trying to grasp what happened. I catch the shinigami's eye and we look at each other. "So...that was a yokai, ne?"

"Yes."

"Is somebody over there?"

I hear the policeman call out to us and start to walk over. The shinigami and I exchange glances and race for the dark portal. Yomi swallows us up and the portal closes behind us just as the police man shouts behind us. "Hey there!"

Once again I am standing on a bridge in Yomi. I am panting, trying to catch my breath, but the air I have to work with isn't very pleasant. I chuckle slightly at our close escape. This would almost be funny if... I look up at the emotionless face of the shinigami and all amusement dies. "What just happened there?"

"Though the policeman couldn't see the spirit or the portal, he would have seen us and tried to detain us for questioning."

"No. The spirit of the dead man, why did he change like that?"

"Why did he become a yokai?"

"Yes."

"The spirit of those who die with a strong desire or need—especially those who die violently—may remain attached to this world. Free of the body, the spirit usually transforms, becoming externally what it has been only internally."

The thought that such monsters might be lurking within ordinary people sends a shiver down my back. "So is everyone like that...on the inside?"

"They do not always take the same form, but those who remain behind do so because of a need or hunger. It is never pleasant."

A strong desire or need... I think of the bus accident and Kioko-chan lying dead on the over-turned ceiling and wonder how I would have looked if I had died and refused to move on. "Has anyone remained behind because of love? What does love look like?"

"No. No one has ever remained behind because of love, because love does not exist."

And then I remember why the shinigami brought me here. "I suppose you are going to say that the man dying because he could not please his wife was another example of how love does not exist."

"Yes. Many would say the man died because of his love for his wife. But his love was really no more than a need for acceptance. Much of what mortals call love is little more than that."

I want to argue, but I can't find the words. I know it is wrong, or at least I think it is, but what does it mean if I can't say why?

The shinigami continues relentlessly. "Even romance is nothing more than the anxiety of exposing those part of yourself that you normally keep hidden from others. It only seems pleasant because you can convince yourself that those flaws are accepted."

I can't make myself look up into those dark and empty eyes. "I'm pretty sure you're wrong..."

"You have seven more months to prove it."

* * *

"Michi-kun!" Kioko-chan waves at me as she approaches the station where we are to meet. She is stunningly beautiful wearing a stylish dress as if going on a fancy date.

I suddenly feel self-conscious about my own appearance. Thinking we were just shopping, I had thrown on an old pair of jeans, a tattered t-shirt and a hoody.

She pauses and looks me up and down, her smile never faltering though it looks like a bit of a struggle. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

"No. I just got here."

"Good." Kioko-chan gives my clothes a last skeptical side-glance as she grabs my wrist and turns away. "Let's go. We've got a lot of work to do."

Wondering what she meant by that, I follow her into Tokyo. We end up in one of the more fashionable districts. I had prepared myself to follow her around through a few stores until noon where I thought we might find a place to eat and spend some time just hanging out and having fun.

We enter an expensive-looking upscale mall and Kioko-chan heads straight to a store selling trendy clothes for young people. She surveys the displays with a well-practiced eye and swiftly pounces on her target. She holds a shirt up to my chest inspecting it, spreading it across my shoulders. "I think this would look nice on you." She points in the direction of the changing rooms whose location she seemed to know by instinct. "Why don't you try it on?"

"Um. OK." I take the shirt and stagger away.

"Let me see you after you try it on."

I look back, befuddled and nod.

"Oh that does look good," she says hungrily upon my return, as if I were a big ice cream sundae. She then plops more shirts and pants into my arms. "Here are a few more things to try on. Now you can toss those old things."

"My old things?"

"The clothes you were wearing earlier." She waves me away and for the next hour I put on a one-man fashion show for her. Afterward, she steps back and admires her work. "That looks really good."

I check myself in a mirror. My clothes are a fashion model's idea of casual. I look like one of the store mannequins.

She glances at my beat up running shoes. "Now we have to get some new shoes to go with these clothes."

"Shoes?" I echo, realizing that this ordeal is far from over. I sigh and turn back to the changing rooms. "I guess I'll change back."

"Oh don't do that! Forget those old things. You look nice."

She smiles brightly at me and somehow the annoyed tension inside me relaxes. Perhaps having your girlfriend fawning over you isn't so bad.

"OK."

She raises a fist into the air from which a large shopping bag hangs and cheers. "Onto the next store!"

I respond with a three-quarter-hearted cheer and follow behind.

Kioko-chan moves from store to store like a tireless shopping machine. I trail along behind, laden with an increasing number of shopping bags, growing hot, tired and hungry. Several times I suggest we stop and eat something but she doesn't seem to hear me. She clings to my arm as we walk along the storefronts and points out all the people smiling at us because we make such a cute couple. "Maybe we should eat." She turns to me. "Are you hungry?"

It's mid-afternoon and I was too excited this morning to eat anything more than a light breakfast. "Yes." I spy some golden arches and head in that direction only to be brought up short by Kioko-chan's firm grip on my arm.

"Let's not. That isn't really good for you."

"Eh?"

She steers me to a small cafe where we drink overpriced coffee. Even there she suggests the melon bread instead of the sticky sweet cakes. I give in since she has to pay. I had just spent all the money I'd saved up over the last year and a half, intending to buy a laptop. She smiles brightly, scanning the room. I tell myself it was worth it.

I sigh in relief as I sit at a tiny round table, just glad to not be standing for awhile. "I don't think I've ever shopped so much in my life."

Kioko-chan nods while sipping her drink. "We've got a lot accomplished. In fact we're almost done."

"Almost? There's more?"

She reaches up and brushes at my hair. "We just need to get this cut and styled."

I blush even before I hear the woman at the next table say to her husband. "Isn't that cute?"

Kioko-chan looks up and smiles happily, while a pair of older women laugh into their hands. "It's so nice to be young and in love. It reminds me of when..."

I look down at the table wishing I could crawl under it. With her touching me like that, we do look like a pair of intimate lovers.

"It's OK. We are dating." she says. "Would you like the last bite of bread?" She holds the last piece up to my mouth as if I would eat it from her hand. It's just too much lovey-dovey-ness for me. I practically snatch it from her fingers and shove it in my mouth to get rid of it. She just smiles knowingly at me.

I get the feeling that I'm not going to be able to say 'no' to her. Mom has also been bugging me to get it cut. The only reason I've let it grow out this long is because they always have it cut too short.

I sigh. "So where is this place?"

She picks up one of the shopping bags leaving the other half-dozen for me. "I'll show you."