Read Online All the Gates of Hell by Richard Parks - Free Book Online

belong here." Apparently seeing that Jin was about to ask something else he went on, "Even in your mortal form you should know this. Or has your Third Eye never opened?"
    "Oh, right." Jin said. She did not, however, feel an overwhelming urge to open that eye just then and verify absolute reality.
    As they walked along the riverbed Jin saw something very strange. All along the bank on one side were children, piling heavy stones one on top of the other. Some of them were in fact naked. Others wore tattered clothes of an overwhelming variety: kimonos, robes, jeans, dresses, jumpers. Their ages seemed to vary from those barely able to walk to pre-adolescents. All seemed to be working at the stones. Some were piling in groups, others worked alone.
    "What are they doing?"
    "They're too small to wade the river, or the older ones can't swim. They're piling up the stones to try and make a footpath to the other side."
    "I don't understand. What can children so young be guilty of?"
    O-Jizou just shrugged again. "Ask the one who judges them."
    Even as they spoke Jin saw a ragged boy turn away to pick up another heavy stone and in that moment a small demon almost identical to the one on Joyce's shoulder dashed out of nowhere and shoved the pile of stones, scattering them and reducing the pile to nothing. The demon vanished before the child could return with the stone to find all his work gone to nothing.
    "The poor thing -- "
    Jin had started to turn back but without even looking at her O-Jizou had reached back and taken hold of her wrist. "Neither you nor your pity can help him, Kannon. Please concentrate on those who need you."
    As scoldings went this one was very gentle, but it was a scolding none the less. Jin wanted to be angry, but couldn't. "This is what you deal with all the time, isn't it?" she asked.
    "Yes."
    "Can...can you do anything for them?"
    "When the time comes -- and not before -- I help them cross the river."
    "How do you know when the time comes?"
    "How do you free someone from hell?" he returned, mildly. "It is, as Emma-O has taken to saying lately, 'my job,' just as freeing the punished is yours."
    "So I've been reminded. A lot," Jin said dryly.
    "If it were not so, Emma-O would not be doing his job. Granted, he has more than enough to concern him as it is."
    That sounded like a scolding too. Jin sighed. "If it turns out that this incarnation is a mere whim of mine -- and your guess on this is as good as my own -- I'll be sure to apologize for wasting everyone's time. In the meantime can we just drop the subject of my incarnation?"
    He just shrugged. "Your incarnation does not matter."
    "Then why do you keep bringing it up?"
    Somewhat to Jin's surprise, O-Jizou actually seemed to be thinking about her question as they walked. "I don't know," he said finally. "Maybe I'm just angry."
    "Human emotion is an illusion," Jin said, even though she wasn't really convinced of that herself.
    "'Show me someone who's never been bewitched by a pair of beautiful eyes and I'll show you a stone buddha,'" replied O-Jizou, smiling.
    "Is that a real saying, or did you just make it up?"
    "Yes," he said.
    O-Jizou smiled again and Jin started to wonder if she was beginning to like the guy. She really could do without the scolding, though.
    Jin thought of something. "You call me 'Kannon.' That's the Japanese form of Guan Yin, yes?"
    "Yes."
    "Shiro called me that, too. Maybe he's Japanese."
    Jin took a few moments to describe her meeting with the shadow. Jizou listened impassively. He finally shrugged.
    "Over the years I've known many shadows, but none of them spoke to me."
    Jin sighed. She's known asking Jizou was a long shot, but she'd hoped for better. Neither said anything for a time. Jin followed the little monk up a narrow path on the opposite side of the dry river bed from the children. The land on the other side of the river didn't look very different from the river bed itself: it was flat, stony, and dry.
    "What happens when a child