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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Keiko tried to reach Ryuichi, but there was some sort of force field around him. Nothing could penetrate it. Not her magic. Not even her wit.

Koichi pounded against the invisible wall. He glanced over to Keiko. “What is he doing?”

She gave him a dry smirk. “Bursting our eardrums.” True, but his scream had also stopped all their attackers. Each one was frozen solid into a terrifying statue of aggression. The students were on their knees, holding their ears in an effort to block out the piercing sound. Each one’s face was a mask of pain.

Keiko glared at Masaru as he finally rejoined them. “Where have you been?”

He turned to show them a body draped over his shoulder. “I went to nab Ryuichi’s shadow while the others were distracted by your clumsy attempts to do whatever it is you were doing. Not an easy task, mind you. So, your tone should be, ‘Thank you, Masaru. You’re amazing.’”

She scowled at the outline of a woman’s body. “That’s not Ryuichi’s shadow.”

“I’m aware,” he said dryly. “His shadow wouldn’t have tried to claw out my eyes.”

Koichi shook his head as he tried to understand this. “I’m so confused. What happened to his shadow?”

Masaru jerked his chin toward their shrieking charge. “Apparently, the shadow went back to him as soon as we crossed over. Like a magnet, the host automatically drew the shadow out of their custody. Who knew? Someone needs to write a friggin’ manual about these things so we don’t make that mistake again. Just like we need to know why he’s screaming like a banshee.”

Keiko gave him a droll stare. “That’s a different pantheon, you know.”

The sarcasm in that tone was quite special. “Having run across a banshee once, I’m not going to forget it anytime soon, or the moron who brought her to our shores. The Celts can keep them.”

Koichi cleared his throat. “Should we ask about the body over your shoulder?”

Masaru gave him an evil grin. “Probably, but it’s not important at the moment.”

Keiko looked past his shoulder as an idea occurred to her.

Yin and yang. As above... below . “Takara?”

Still cupping her ears, the girl’s shadow looked at her as Keiko motioned for her to join them.

“We need you to calm Ryuichi. Can you get him to stop screaming?”

“I can try.”

Koichi scoffed. “How can she calm him? No one can get through that?—”

He stopped speaking abruptly as Takara walked across the barrier.

Apparently, shadows could cross through whatever it was.

Rolling his eyes, he let out a disgusted breath. “The Great Evil’s right. We need a manual to instruct us.”

Keiko didn’t speak as she watched the girl kneel beside Ryuichi, who continued to scream. “Yamero! Yamero! Yamero!”

“Shh...” Takara touched him with a gentle hand. “No one can harm you.”

It took a moment longer before Ryuichi stopped his shrill screaming.

Sadly, in the same heartbeat he stopped, the statues returned to life.

And renewed their attack.

Masaru cursed. “That might have been a mistake.”

No kidding.

“Ryuichi!” the three adults called in unison to get his attention.

“Little help!” Koichi barely caught the first dog right before its jaws clamped down on his arm. He fought back, but it wasn’t easy. The dog kept trying to tear at his throat.

Keiko wasn’t having much luck either. Her dog appeared to be trying to climb her like a fence. What did they feed these things? Souls of oni? Fertilizer?

Everywhere she turned, there seemed to be a new threat.

* * *

Still crouched on the ground with Takara beside him, Ryuichi heard his friends struggling.

Yet the shadow part of him didn’t care.

They deserve it. Let them suffer. What have they really done for me?

Horrible thoughts went through his head. Selfish thoughts.

Dishonorable thoughts.

It would be so easy to forget them. To focus on the pain of his past. To let his hatred overshadow the good and find his father so that he could unleash him and make everyone pay.

He couldn’t allow that. For better or worse, they were his family, and family stood united. Always.

Control your hatred. If you have hate toward another, then they control you.

Honor in all things.

Never regret what is done.

He couldn’t change the past. Only the future.

Only his reaction in the present.

Ryuichi met Keiko’s gaze. She’d always been there, keeping watch over him.

And Takara had never failed to stand up for him when no one else had.

I am samurai.

No. He wasn’t just a servant to his lord.

He was the Kage-Mori. The shadows were his to control. And he was through being a pawn.

Either you take action or action is taken upon you...

Sucking his breath in, he formed a shadow whip and lashed out at the hideous beasts attacking his friends. It cracked in the air, loud and sharp.

The creatures recoiled at the sound, shrinking away.

His friends turned to watch. Their jaws dropped in unison as they realized he was the only one with the ability to save them and send the beasts on their way.

Unsure and afraid of what he was doing, Ryuichi stepped forward and tried again. This time the whiplash was even stronger. Louder. As he gained confidence, he gained power. They needed his protection, and he would be there for them.

Whatever it cost him. No matter how scary.

“Leave my friends alone!”

Masaru stepped toward him as if he intended to bond their powers.

Ryuichi held up a hand to stop him. “Not right now.” He had enough bad thoughts in his head. The last thing he needed was Masaru adding more. It was hard enough to fight off his personal demons.

Masaru was a lot more persuasive and intelligent. He couldn’t risk having the kitsune in his head too. There was no telling where that could lead.

Instead, he turned to the one person he knew wouldn’t turn him down a dark path. “Sensei... what do I do?”

Koichi shrugged. “Looks like you’ve got this one, kid. You’re doing great.”

He appreciated the thought.

Until the ground began to shake and tremble. Everything around them seemed to growl now.

His friends moved to form a circle to protect him.

“ Oni wa soto .”

He turned toward Takara as she spoke those words in a soft whisper that became a quiet chant. Demon, get out.

The others picked it up. “Oni wa soto.”

Takara moved to stand to his right. Kato on his left. Jiro, Pim, and the rest took up positions around them. United, they stood ready to face whatever nightmare was coming for them.

His heart pounding, Ryuichi summoned two shadow swords. “I’m not afraid.”

From the darkness, a huge dragon rose up to tower over all of them. With eyes that glowed fire, it glared at them with disdain. “Who are you to challenge me?”

Ryuichi hesitated.

Masaru placed a hand on his shoulder, reminding him that he was no longer alone.

Reminding him of what all of them had risked for him.

“I am Yorukaze Ryuichi, the Kage-Mori. I’m here to make sure my father does no harm.”

The dragon laughed. “Your father left, little boy. The moment you entered this realm, you unleashed him.”

Masaru cursed. “Guess I’m not the one who really screwed up, huh, Koichi? ‘Bring the kid to the shadow realm.’ Now who had the stupid idea?”

“Shut it, demon!”

Takara cleared her throat. “Would you both stop? We have a much bigger problem at present... like a two-story dragon who’s about to eat us.”

Masaru snorted. “What are you worried about? You’re a shadow. We’re the ones he can metabolize.”

She scowled at him over her shoulder. “I’m feeling pretty fleshy for a shadow.”

Ryuichi ignored them as they continued to chatter and fight. Something wasn’t right.

He sensed it in his gut.

“Stop!”

Everything and everyone froze instantly. Even the dragon. For the first time, Ryuichi actually felt his shadow. Like the way one felt a toe or tingle in the arm. There and yet not.

A phantom limb.

It whispered dark thoughts. Temptation.

He finally recognized what it was, and the source of the shadow’s powers.

Closing his eyes, he turned inward so that he could face that dark side of himself.

“Yorukaze... you are not in control of me.”

Perhaps I should be. I’m stronger than you.

“Cruelty isn’t strength. Besides, Masaru said you whined.”

His shadow scoffed . Keiko called you a brat.

Ryuichi smiled at his darker half. “Then we need each other, don’t we?”

Never!

“Yes, we do. Yin and yang. The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. Without each other, we become dishonorable. Both of us.”

And the reputation of one is worn by all.

Ryuichi nodded at the truth of that statement. As his father’s son, he would carry his father’s dishonor, if they let it continue. “We have to stop our father.”

Cocking his head, Yorukaze listened to the ether around them. That wave of the nether realm that stood between all worlds. The dragon lied.

It didn’t surprise Ryuichi. “You know where our father is?”

Then he felt it too.

Like a warm rush of adrenaline. His entire body reacted to receiving the knowledge he needed.

“Ryuichi...”

He started to not respond to his father’s summons.

But this was why he’d come. He wanted to meet his father. To know the man-demon who’d fathered him. “I’m here.”

The earth below shifted again, shaking all of them.

“Open the gates!”

His heart pounded. It was his father. The one he’d thought was dead.

A father he never thought he’d meet...

But this wasn’t how he wanted to meet him. As much as he wanted to be an obedient son, he shook his head. “No.”

“Disobedience!”

Ryuichi cringed at that mighty roar. It went against everything he’d ever been taught. No son should ever defy his father.

It was wrong. But so was what his father planned to do. “I cannot allow you to harm the world.”

Light flared across the darkness, blinding him as his father appeared in front of him. Huge and dark, he was a mammoth beast. Scary as all get-out. No wonder everyone was terrified of him. He could only imagine facing his father on a battlefield. “It’s the gods I want. I care nothing for the humans.”

Ryuichi shook his head. “I cannot let you tear down the gods.”

His father scoffed at him. “You cannot stop me.”

That certainly depended. “If you need me to open the gates to release you, I can.”

His father laughed in his face. Fire sprang up around them, forming a horrific wall between him and his classmates’ shadows.

“Do you see the human world, Ryuichi?”

His throat tightened as he realized that inside the fire he saw scenes from his school. And while he might have summoned his friends’ shadows to his side, his friends were still at the school, going about their lives. “I do.”

“Then you see what I control.”

That was terrifying. Ryuichi gasped as he saw the demons descending upon the school.

“Hanzō and his students are no match for my spies... or my allies.” His father took a step toward him. “I will kill them all, boy. Make no mistake about that. Release me or see your friends dead. Your choice.”

His certainty that his father would spare him began to crumble. Was Masaru right? Killing a son was a horrible thing.

But then his father was also a horrible thing.

His father laughed at his despair. “Which is it to be? Your sacred principles? Or the lives of the people you care about most?”

Tears swam in his eyes. But he knew what his father had done.

Ryuichi had no choice.

There was no mistaking the determination in his father’s features. The mercilessness. It was true. The Ryukage had no feelings. No humanity. He didn’t care about anyone. Not even his own son.

Heartbroken, he opened the gate.

Ryukage laughed, then vanished.

Still, the school burned inside the flames. “Wait!” Ryuichi cried. “What about your word?”

It was too late. His father was gone, and so were the flames that had surrounded Ryuichi.

And the other monsters were on the move. Coming for the throats of all those he cared about. Everyone who meant anything to him.

His heart pounded as he looked through the flames to see his friends besieged by his father’s monsters, while he was unable to do anything.

I have to stop them!

He had no idea how, but he had to find some way. Ryuichi rushed back to Masaru and the others, who were fighting off the dragon and the dogs. “We have to leave these and get back to the school.”

Koichi scowled at him. “Why? What’s wrong?”

Keiko pointed to the shadow castle on the hill, which was also on fire. “It’s burning. What happened?”

“My father set fire to it. He’s trying to kill my friends. We have to save them!”

Masaru let out a disgusted sound. “Well, that just sucks, doesn’t it?” He retrieved Haruki’s unconscious body from the ground, where he’d placed her during the fight.

“Why were you carrying her?” Koichi asked.

“I don’t know. Stupidity, probably. In my defense, it seemed like a good idea when I knocked her out not to leave her behind to tattle on me. I figure when she wakes up, she might have information about our enemy. If not, we can throw her at them and use her for demon fodder.”

Koichi scoffed. “Sure. Why not? Nothing else has worked out for us. Why wouldn’t this blow up in our faces too? By all means, kidnap the hag and bring her. I can’t imagine how this could work out badly. Her being our enemy, and all.”

Keiko held up her hand. “For the record, I can imagine an infinite number of possibilities where this can end badly for us.”

“Well, at least one of us has a working brain.” Koichi ducked a blow from one of the demons that came out of nowhere to assault him. “Shall we leave the fight unfinished? ’Cause really, we’re just getting slaughtered here.”

Masaru slung the unconscious Haruki over his shoulder. “Yes. Let’s go get slaughtered elsewhere.” He turned to Ryuichi. “Now that you have your shadow... seal the gate behind us.”

“Um... sure.” He loved how they all thought he knew what he was doing.

Granted, he’d opened it for his father, but Ryuichi still wasn’t quite sure how he’d managed to do that.

And yet... now he managed to do it again. The gate opened as if it knew he was its master.

Or so he thought.

As his friends went through, back to the school, he saw the faintest image of his mother smiling at him through the flames. Was that really her, or was Haruki playing a trick?

Unsure if it was really her helping him, he reached out for her.

Ryuichi!

She shimmered into the flames and was gone.

A tear slid down his cheek as he realized that somehow, some way, she really was the one who had controlled the gate.

“ Domo, Mama .”

He felt something against his cheek. Some might have called it a breeze, but to him, it was a caress. Deep in his soul, he knew his mother had touched him. He didn’t know how.

Only that she’d managed to do it.

Wishing he could hold her and really feel her mother’s touch, he sighed. At least this way he knew she cared. That even though she couldn’t be with him physically, she was here in spirit.

It helped.

With a smile, he called out to the shadows of his friends so that they’d follow, and he stepped through the portal to return to the academy.

Yet the image he’d seen through the fire was nothing like the reality they now faced. The heat was searing. The sounds, thunderous.

Chaos and disorder surrounded them.

“Look out!” Keiko cried.

He turned to see that the dragon was trying to follow them from the shadow realm.

Half of it was already through the portal.

Worse, it lunged for Mikito-kage as he was trying to put out the fires. The dragon grabbed his foot and started pulling him back to the nether realm.

Mikito’s shadow cried out for help.

Rushing forward, Takara-kage and Kato-kage held him by the arms. Furious that the dragon would dare go after his friends, Ryuichi manifested his shadow sword, then used it to whack at the dragon’s thrashing claws.

Keiko touched Ryuichi on the arm. “That’s useless. Just imagine the dragon on the other side, and the gate closed.”

That would be better... He really liked the thought of the dragon being on the other side of the gate, far away from them.

But surely it couldn’t be that easy.

Could it?

Hoping her suggestion wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded, Ryuichi took a deep breath and tried.

Nothing happened.

The screams of his friends and others tore through him. He had to do something.

I am worthless.

You are not . A gentle, feminine voice filled his head. He wasn’t sure, but he thought it might be his mother...

Remove the doubt and breathe. Try again!

What did he have to lose? Listening to her this time, he obeyed.

Winds whipped around him, blowing the flames higher. The fighting tengu shrieked. The dragon reared up as the sky above darkened. His stomach pitched.

Something was happening. It might only be that he was losing his lunch, but something was in motion.

He just hoped it was something good. Something that didn’t come back out of that hole to join the others in wanting to eat him.

“Come on,” he whispered to himself. “For once in my life, work !”

To his utter stupefaction, it did.

But not without a fight. The dragon lunged, trying to take him with it.

Masaru dropped Haruki to grab Ryuichi around the waist. Koichi slashed at the dragon with his sword, and Keiko used her powers to send blasts of fire against its chest.

They were helping him.

His friends.

His family.

With a loud, deafening crash, the dragon was sucked back through the portal, out of their world.

Keiko gave him a sad smile. “I’m sorry I locked up your powers when you were little. I was only trying to protect you.”

For once, he wasn’t mad at her. “It’s okay.”

But as he turned away, he smelled the horrid stench of burning timbers and leather. Heard the screams and moans of his other friends.

Where were they?

Was he too late?

Terror returned to him as he ran toward the nightmare his father had started.

“Takara! Kato!”

Keiko caught up to him. “Don’t panic. If their shadows are here, so are they. They’re alive. You can use the shadows to find them.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded.

He looked back to where he’d left the shadow versions of his friends. They weren’t moving. Instead, they remained clustered around Koichi and Masaru.

With a ragged breath, he decided to try and use his fledgling powers again.

Praying he got this right, he commanded those shadows to return to their bodies.

As if they knew what he was doing, they sneered at him before they dispersed.

Ryuichi ran after them, hoping they took him to his friends.

They did. He found Takara first. She was helping her brother, who was wounded, strangely, in the legs, as if Mikito had suffered the same injury as his shadow. “What happened?”

She swallowed hard before she answered. “It was awful. A bunch of monks attacked us.”

He scowled at her words. “Monks?”

“Yes, they...” Her voice trailed off as she met his gaze. “Ryuichi? What happened to your eye?”

“My eye?”

“It’s turned white.”