When they finally stopped laughing, Kaori and Jiro sat on the grass and caught their breath. Then Jiro watched as Kaori gently lifted Yui and carried her, princess-style, back toward the tent. It was hard to believe that, moments before, he had been unable to move under her weight. Now, in Kaori’s arms, she seemed little more than a slip of fabric.

Jiro changed into a new t-shirt and sat down near the dying embers of the campfire. Kaori soon emerged from the tent and joined him. She was dressed in a silky slip that was almost see-through.

“Yui’s asleep …” Kaori said, “She’s snuggled down next to Aya. It’s a good thing Aya didn’t wake up … we would have had a terrible time explaining things …”

Jiro laughed weakly. It was only coming to him now how close he and Yui had been to tumbling off of the cliff. The absurdity of the situation was palpable.

“I suppose you want an explanation,” said Kaori, poking at the ashes with a stick.

Jiro nodded. “I do. But I’ve worked some things out on my own. Yui … she’s something like a medium, right? And that was a spirit that possessed her. Some kind of vengeful spirit trying to find its lover.” Jiro shuddered. He could almost still hear the words Hiroto … Hiroto … floating over the ocean breeze.

Kaori shook her head. “If only she were a medium. Then there wouldn’t be so much to worry about. But Yui doesn’t have that kind of control yet. She’s … raw. She can’t communicate with spirits or invite them into her body. Instead, she’s more like a sponge. Any spirit that comes along might slip in and take control … She has some resistance now, but when she was younger …” Kaori smiled. “You can imagine how much trouble she was.”

So here was yet another kind of monster aside from the kaiju. “Are they all that … bad? The spirits?”

Kaori shook her head. “Most are harmless. Especially in the bathhouse. Most are just wandering around looking for a bit of sun, or a meal. You can’t imagine the number of times I’ve found Yui in the kitchen stealing things from the fridge. That’s part of the reason our old chef quit.”

“And you …” Jiro said, trying to sort things out in his head. “You got rid of the spirit? Exorcised it?”

Kaori laughed with a swish of brown hair. “No, nothing so grand. That was a simple trick I picked up. My family is part of a long line of shrine maidens, you know. And we run into cases like these.”

“A trick?”

Kaori smiled and shuffled up closer to Jiro. Mixed with her lavender perfume was the musky scent of her sweat. In the moonlight, he could see her nipples poking through the fabric. “Well … maybe technique is a better word,” said Kaori huskily. She crossed her legs and uncrossed them. “Do you want to know?”

Jiro nodded slowly.

Kaori brought a finger to the collar of Jiro’s shirt and slowly ran it down the fabric, tracing a curved trail. “There’s a technique,” said Kaori, “for getting a spirit out of a vessel’s body.”

Jiro shuddered. Kaori’s finger stopped at his chest. Slowly, she began to trace a circle around his nipple with the tip of her finger. “What could that … mnhn … be?”

“Well,” said Kaori, her voice a whisper. “It’s simple. The vessel needs to be … distracted.”

“Distracted …” Jiro closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing.

“There are many ways to distract … but the most effective method is …” Kaori leaned in even closer. He could feel her hot breath on his ear. Slowly, she brought a hand to Jiro’s other nipple and began to trace a circle there as well. “The most effective method,” she whispered, “is pleasure.”

“Pleasure …”

Suddenly, Kaori pinched both of Jiro’s nipples through the fabric. He let out a little yelp and jumped. “What was that for?!”

Kaori threw her head back and laughed, kicking her bare legs up and down. “Thank you for helping me to demonstrate, Jiro. By using pleasure, one can distract the spirit inside the vessel. This gives the vessel’s owner the opportunity to regain control.” She gave Jiro a sly look and make a pinching motion with her hands. “Or I should I say … seize control.”

Jiro blushed. “So … that kiss with Yui. It wasn’t a form of exorcism or secret power? You got rid of the spirit … by pleasing her?”

Kaori crinkled her eyes. “Well there is one secret. To why the kiss worked on Yui. Do you want to know it?”

“S-sure …”

“Here’s the truth, Jiro. It’s simple.” She licked her lips. “I happen to be a really, really, really good kisser.”

Jiro coughed loudly and stood up. He hoped that, in the dark, Kaori could not see how red he was. “I think I’ll go get some sleep.”

Kaori came up alongside him with her hands clasped behind her back. “You want to know something else?” she whispered.

“N-not really.”

“I’m a good kisser, but sometimes kissing isn’t enough. Sometimes Yui needs other kinds of … pleasuring.”

“I said I’m going to sleep!” And with that said, Jiro—his face as red as a pickled Japanese plum—pulled aside the tent flap, and dove in head-first.