The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant Volume 5

Shino is the complete opposite of Kagiroi. Kagiroi really looks like a nobleman, but his true nature isn’t like that. I sensed something dark, hot and sordid. 

Masamichi is looking forward to spending his first Christmas with Shino, the specter in human form who saved his life and made him his companion/servant. But when Shino goes away on business, Kagiroi, the specter who murdered Shino’s human master, Tokifuyu, and attacked and nearly killed them in Kyoto, strikes again! Kagiroi transforms Masamichi’s body into that of a five-year-old and also binds him with a spell that will extract his chi (life essence) and transfer it to him. He tells Masamichi that he wants him to become his servant so that he can take revenge on Shino. Overwhelmed, Masamichi passes out and comes round to find Shino calling his name. When he tries to reply, his voice is that of a small child: high and weak.

When Shino learns what has happened to Masamichi, he brings a certain Chitaru Hayakawa to the shop to meet him. It seems that Mr. Hayakawa is an agent for a secret organization that ‘deals with cases involving spiritual disturbances.’ He gives Masamichi a brooch to wear in the form of a black cat’s head to counteract the effects of Kagiroi’s spell. Nevertheless, he warns him, it’s going to take a very long while to work out how to break the spell. In that time, Masamichi must stay in Bougyoudou and not go out. But Masamichi is not one to sit around idly and he begins to plan a way to confront Kagiroi and get his adult body back.

In this fifth (and probably final) volume of The Contract Between a Specter and a Servant, Masamichi finds himself in mortal danger again as Kagiroi, Shino’s enemy from centuries ago, is determined to get his revenge after his defeat in Kyoto. Author Michiru Fushino has shown over the volumes that the relationship between Shino, proprietor of Bougyoudou, a very unusual antique shop, and student Masamichi has slowly changed from that of ‘servant’ and master to friendship and, even though Shino professes not to experience human emotions, affection – even love. Masamichi, even in a five-year-old’s body retains his adult’s memories and thoughts, he just has trouble trying to do the things he did without a thought before. Making packet soup is a major challenge and he needs stools and cushions on chairs to help him reach tables and work surfaces.

Thanks to Eriko Sugita’s translation, this is another fluid read, although the few quibbles I have are content-based and arise from some… er… unusual interactions between Masamichi and Shino. It’s become more apparent from volume to volume that Masamichi has feelings for his master/companion. Tokifuyu cast a spell upon Shino which means he can never harm anyone human but Masamichi has noted from the start that the specter doesn’t experience ‘feelings’ the same way that humans do. But Shino does rely on absorbing Masamichi’s chi (it’s part of their contract) so this could be seen as a metaphor for some kind of sexual relationship, even though in earlier volumes, Masamichi refused to enter into anything of that nature with Shino. Now, however, he realizes that his own feelings have deepened.

I really have become attached to Shino. I don’t know if it’s what people call love, but he’s very important to me, we’re very close, and… I really love him.

The story is told from Masamichi’s point of view with only the prologue (as in the earlier novels) affording another glimpse into Shino’s past life in the Heian era with his master, the onmyoji Tokifuyu; one that will have some relevance to events that then occur in the present day.

Even though this feels like a good place to leave Shino and Masamichi, Michiru Fushino has left open one or two plot possibilities for future instalments. But for the time being, this reads like the end of the series. Aki Aoi’s cover art has been superb over all five volumes; it would have been nice if extra interior artwork could have been commissioned as well (although this volume has a black-and-white version of the cover art for Volume 1 without the lettering as a bonus). The series delivers an enjoyably subtle supernatural read with just enough of a shiver or two to intrigue but never anything to tip it into out-and-out horror.

Our review copy was supplied by the publisher Yen On.