Free All the Gates of Hell by Richard Parks

accompanying him. Her normally gruff father was in a surprisingly good mood and he smiled at her.
    "Daughter, come greet our guest."
    As Mariko/Jin and Saburo bowed to each other, for a moment their eyes met. In that moment Jin finally knew what it was like to fall in love because, in the mind and spirit of a girl dead for a thousand years, for the first time and yet again she did fall in love. The sadness was almost more than she could bear. The details came flooding into her, filling in the small gaps that, to Jin, already seemed like a completed picture: Mariko was a girl of good family who fell in love with a scholar visiting her father's house. They spent one blissful night together but he was promised to another and told her so. In a moment Jin knew all this and more beside, no more or less than what she needed to know. When the vision ended Jin knew it was still up to her to put the pieces into place because her previous view of the matter was askew in one very crucial area.
    Jin glanced at the ornate fan in her sash. "That was Saburo-sama's token to you, wasn't it?"
    Mariko tugged her hand free and placed it protectively over the fan. "He will see that I have kept faith. I've waited for him here, he will see -- "
    "The face you have chosen to show him. He will see your death. You didn't always wear this face, even after you came here, did you?"
    "I-I don't remember."
    "Oh, yes you do. Death doesn't come again to one already dead, but time still exists for all who cannot remove themselves from it, and you've waited a long time indeed. You became very angry with Saburo-sama over the years, didn't you? It was then that you started to let the memory of flesh fall away and now you're not waiting for him at all. You're waiting to show Saburo-sama what he did to you!"
    Mariko didn't say anything, but she didn't have to. Jin smiled at her. "Break the fan, Mariko-chan. Let it go."
    Mariko closed both skeletal hands around the precious fan and hugged it to her chest as if to protect it from Jin. "I won't! I will wait..."
    Jin shook her head, slowly. "Did it never occur to you that maybe you misunderstood? You're not waiting on Saburo -- he's waiting on you."
    Mariko just stared at her for a moment. "What are you talking about?"
    "Saburo never understood what he meant to you. He didn't get word of your suicide until he returned to his father's house where his new bride was waiting for him. Because of his obedience to his father he tried to forget you but never managed, and that regret has followed him across the River of Souls numerous times since then."
    "So why has he not come to me here?"
    "Because he can't ! This is not a meeting place. It is only where you wait for what will never happen while Saburo lives out his lives without the potential of settling matters between you, because you hide in this place."
    "That's not true..." Mariko began, but Jin didn't let her finish.
    "Kannon does not lie," Jin repeated. "Either break the fan or I will. Your choice."
    "No you won't," Mariko said in triumph. "You promised!"
    "I promised not to drag you from this place if you didn't really want to go. You do want to go, Mariko."
    "No I don't! I will wait forever!"
    "You don't have forever, Mariko. Sooner or later you will settle matters with Saburo, because you must. You've delayed that long enough. You've punished Saburo enough."
    "No," she said, and that was all.
    "You've got every right to be angry," Jin said gently, "But do you really never want to see Saburo again? If you can honestly say so, Mariko, I will leave you here. Only, for your own sake, tell the truth."
    "I..."
    Mariko's voice trailed off. She seemed puzzled again, and it was only then that Jin saw what she had missed the first time -- Shiro. He was in the fan. In that moment Mariko's manner changed and, for a moment, Jin saw the face in Mariko's memory, her true face and then it was gone again, replaced with something much colder and harder than bone
    "He can rot in