Chapter 10: The Petition

Forty spirits filled the alley.

They stood shoulder to shoulder under the lantern, in coats and hoods and a few umbrellas, all pressed against the shop's open door.

At the front stood Hakuro, in his grey suit, holding a long white paper rolled up with a ribbon.

Haruna came out from behind the curtain with her glasses crooked and her cardigan buttoned wrong.

Kuzunoha walked beside her, tall and unhurried, in her haori, with her silver hair tied back and her face flushed deep red.

She did not look afraid.

"Hakuro," she said. "It's very late for visiting."

"It's midnight, which is your hour," Hakuro said. "And I haven't come alone. These are your clients, Kuzunoha. Every one of them has signed."

He unrolled the paper.

It was covered in names, in ink, in pawprints, and in one smear of what looked like river mud.

"A petition," he said. "They'd like to ask the keeper of the Night Dispensary some questions in front of one another. The answers must be true."

"They always are."

"Yes. That's the delight of it."

Kuzunoha stepped aside from the door.

"Come in," she said. "All of you."

They filed in, awkward and wary, and filled the shop to the walls.

Nurikabe stood in the doorway, wide as a cupboard.

The snow woman sat on the bench with her coat around her, and the kappa pressed himself in beside the tanuki, who was holding a cup of salt water.

Tsukumo stood on the counter with her fists on her hips.

Haruna stood at Kuzunoha's right side.

Hakuro stood at her left, with his paper.

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