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CHAPTER EIGHT

Ryuichi awoke with a gasp. He found himself on a futon in a strange room.

An elderly monk sat beside him. Or so he thought.

The moment he met the monk’s gaze, he knew it both from his dreams and real life. “Keiko?”

A slow smile curved her lips as she shifted forms into the young redheaded warrior. “You’re learning. That’s good.”

This time she wore no helmet, and he saw the white stripe in her hair that ran from the middle of her forehead through her braid. “Was the dream real?”

She nodded.

“Where’s Masaru?”

She picked up Ryuichi’s sword. Even though he’d never seen it before, he knew it was his. “Here. Where he will now stay, waiting for you to summon him for battle.” Leaning forward, she lowered her tone. “I suggest you make him wait there as long as possible.”

He couldn’t agree more. “And what he said about shadows...?”

“All true.” She glanced to where his shadow rested against the wall.

Ryuichi turned his head away from something that had once seemed so harmless. Then his gaze went to the other shadows around him. “Do they have the same abilities?”

“Like the tsukumogami, yes.”

He swallowed. The tsukumogami were yōkai that were created out of any object or item. The belief was that the item had to be at least one hundred years old to acquire its own soul, but not always. If the object was used maliciously enough or loved enough, it could become possessed with a soul long before it reached its centennial birthday.

Like the shadows. A seemingly harmless thing that could harbor horrific dangers.

And hatred.

“So those shadows have their own will and abilities?”

Keiko inclined her head to him. “Shadows are there at our darkest times and bear witness to all the evil men do. So long as they are attached to their masters, they’re benevolent and harmless. A vessel for your darkness, and nothing more. But if they are ever severed...” She swallowed hard. “That’s how we get the Kage-Onna.”

The shadow women who were thought to inhabit homes. Late at night, whenever the moon was bright, or a lantern shone just right, the Kage-Onna would appear at the windows or doors of homes where they were said to have lived. Though they never tried to interact with anyone or made any sound, those images could terrify anyone who came across them.

“I thought the Kage-Onna were harmless.”

Keiko scoffed. “You thought your shadow was harmless, too, didn’t you?”

She had a point. And it was one he really didn’t want to cede at the moment.

“The Kage-Onna,” she continued, “come from women who were so upset, abused, or angry that they banished their pain and anguish to their shadows. Pain that grew until it left them behind to dwell in the places that had made them so miserable. A permanent stain on the world that had done them wrong. Anguish and turmoil they could never escape.”

Her words haunted him, and as he watched, she took on the form of the old woman he’d known for all those years. “Remember, Ryuichi-chan, the most harmless things are often the most lethal. Never underestimate anyone or anything. For it’s in those times when you’re not looking that treachery makes itself known.”

“Are you telling me not to trust you?”

“I’m telling you to be careful where you lay that trust. For the deepest cut always comes from the sword of a friend.”

Those words stung all the more as he remembered Kato. What he’d dragged his friend into.

“Then perhaps I don’t deserve any friends.”

She tsked at him. “I’m your friend, Ryuichi. More than that, I’m your protector, and I’ll always be here to help you.”

Grateful for her loyalty, he drew a ragged breath. “May I ask another question?”

“Anything.”

“What are my powers?”

Keiko took his hand into hers and opened it so that his palm faced the ceiling. She traced his lifeline with her long, well-manicured fingernail. “You will have many. The ability to command shadows and the gates to all worlds... and in particular, the Kimon.”

The demon gate that kept the evil at bay.

“I thought that was the job of inari.”

She laughed. “My sister and brother foxes do well, but they are only servants to your mother—and now, to you. As such, you can summon them.”

He was amazed. “Really?”

“Yes. And the niō and koma-inu too.”

His jaw dropped. The niō were temple guardians, and the koma-inu were lion-dogs who, like the inari, kept watch over the gates at shrines to ward off evil. He couldn’t imagine having the ability to summon such things. “What else will I be able to do?”

She closed her hand over his. “More than worrying about what you can do, Ryuichi-chan, you need to be concerned with what you shouldn’t do.”

“Avenge my mother?”

“For starters.”

Those words hurt. “It’s what an honorable son would do.” To make sure those who harmed his noble mother paid for their actions.

Keiko’s grip tightened. “And sometimes the greatest victory comes from not fighting.”

How could that be? It didn’t make any sense to him. “Meaning?”

Keiko released his hand and met his gaze. “Meaning that wisdom must prevail in war. A sword is nothing but a frail instrument that can easily shatter and break. It’s the mind that will always be a warrior’s greatest weapon. It must be kept sharper and clearer than anything else you wield. If you let your emotions override your sense, you’ve already lost. What good will your honor be then?”

He wanted to argue that, too, but she was right. And a part of him hated her for it.

Ryuichi glanced around the small, windowless room as her words and warnings echoed in his mind. So much to think about. To remember.

To forget.

He’d never felt so lost before, which, given his background, said a lot.

His only family had been an old woman who turned out to be a shape-shifting guardian. And the handful of friends he’d made at this school.

If he was still at the school...

“What happened to Koichi-san? How did I get here?” Actually, where was he? The last thing he recalled was being at the merchant’s house.

Keiko handed him a cup of tea. “He brought you here to be cared for after you almost exposed yourself to a very powerful shadow demon.”

“Where’s ‘here’?”

Keiko held up her hand, and the wall in front of him became a window where he could look out and see the school’s infirmary.

Ryuichi gasped as he saw one patient in particular. “Kato!”

As he scrambled from the bed, Keiko caught him and urged him back before he spilled his tea. “He’s fine, child. Like you, he needs his rest.”

“But—”

“No buts. You caused a frightful show tonight, and you’re lucky Haruki didn’t find you because of it. Or one of the other demons your father has out scouring the countryside for you.”

He sat back down. “I don’t understand.”

“There’s a price on your head, child. Steep and heavy. Whoever can deliver you back to the kage-tenchi will be rewarded beyond comprehension. Which I, personally, think means death for whomever returns you, but most demons aren’t that bright.” She snorted at her pun.

Ryuichi wasn’t amused. Mostly because he was still trying to process all of this as he sipped his tea. “What do I need to do?”

“At the moment? Stay hidden.” She indicated the bed where he sat with a gracious gesture. “Rest.”

And with that, she handed him a platter of food she manifested from thin air, then vanished out of the mirror, which returned to a solid wall as soon as she was through it.

It was only then that Ryuichi realized the room had no other door.

There were no windows here either. He was trapped.

Panic rose up inside him. He’d never liked the feeling of being locked in one place. It made him feel as if he were suffocating.

Closing his eyes, he tried to calm down. If Keiko had wanted him dead, he’d already be dead. Still...

He had no way out, and he was at her mercy.

Trust her.

That was easier said than done, when the truth was that he didn’t really know her. She’d been lying to him his entire life. Pretending to be something she wasn’t.

And she’d told him not to trust anyone!

Did she mean herself too?

All these years he’d wanted answers about his parents... and she’d known them. Rather than tell him, she’d stood by and allowed him to be abused and humiliated while knowing he wasn’t some poor, honorless samurai’s son.

I’m the son of a kami . Two of them.

He had outranked the lord who had abused him. All of them, in fact. Instead of humiliating him, they should have been honoring him and his parents.

That put a bitter taste in his mouth and stung deep inside his heart.

“Masaru?”

For once, the tricky little beast manifested in front of him. Too pretty for a man, Masaru stared at him with an interest he’d not shown before.

“Did you know my parents?”

“I knew your mother well. Aye.” Masaru held up his hands and made a small, fiery ball in his palm. Inside, an image formed of a beautiful woman with snow-white skin and ebony hair. Cherry blossoms fell from her comb, and their pink matched the color of her lips and cheeks.

Ryuichi stared in awe. “She’s beautiful.”

“She was indeed. But her heart was frigid... until she met your father.”

He set his tea aside. “How do you mean?”

“Your father was a fierce warrior, Ryuichi. They called him Ryu the Dragon because he moved so fast and deadly that no one could touch him in battle. His legend went all the way to the Imperial Court of China, where even the emperor there feared his name and his sword.”

That caught his attention and made him widen his eyes.

Masaru moved closer to take the rice cake from Ryuichi’s platter. “Like all great men, his enemies were many. They united with the help of the Bureau of Onmyō.”

Ryuichi was surprised by that. The Bureau of Onmyō was a joke. Just a group of diviners who practiced for the emperor. Not even the shōgun believed in their abilities, as they were wrong more often than right. “I don’t understand.”

Masaru swallowed the rice cake, then licked his fingers. “In your father’s time, the bureau was very different from the one you know. Back then they were a force to be reckoned with. Powerful exorcists... great fighters who believed your father had a demon inside him.”

“Like the way I’m supposed to fight using you?”

Masaru shook his head. “Oh no. Wa Jin Sen Ryu is a fighting style where you invoke a god to use you as their tool in battle. That’s what we are, and what you’re training to do here. Possession is an entirely different matter. That’s done against the will of the person they take over. The possessed is enslaved to the demon who has commandeered their body, and they have no say in what the demon says or does. That was what they were convinced your father was. An unwilling host to an inhuman evil.”

“Why?”

“Because of the sword he carried. Zangetsu.”

Moon slayer ? That didn’t make any sense. Most samurai named their swords.

Unless... “Was it a yōkai?”

“They thought it was. Zangetsu had a long, bloody history before your father claimed it in battle. You know how most blades are brittle and break?”

“Of course.” It was why most samurai carried two, and why they relied on their bows and spears more than their swords.

Masaru paused before he spoke again. “Men have wielded Zangetsu in thousands of battles.”

Ryuichi’s eyes widened. Surely Masaru was joking. “How?” No sword had ever lasted so long.

“The stories claim it was forged by the sword god Takemikazuchi.”

“Seriously?”

Masura inclined his head to him. “One and the same. Even better, they say it was a sword Takemikazuchi used when he came down to the Middle Country to subjugate the kunitsukami.”

Ryuichi sucked his breath in. Takemikazuchi had been intent on dominating the terrestrial gods. It’d been a bloodbath, or so the stories claimed. “Do you believe that?”

“I don’t know. Whatever its origins, Zangetsu has powers. There’s no denying that.” He poured himself a cup of tea. “Do I think it possessed your father?” He shrugged. “Doubtful.”

“Then what did?”

“His shadow.” Masaru’s white eyes held an eerie glint. “My theory is that your father’s guilt consumed him so much that it enabled his shadow to take over. That it was able to swallow his decency until nothing remained.”

Ryuichi shook his head. He didn’t buy that. “Not possible. Light destroys the shadows.”

“No, Ryuichi. It doesn’t.” Masaru’s tone sent a chill down his spine. “You need light in order to see the shadow. To reveal it. But it’s always there, whether you see it or not.”

That made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “But what of total darkness? There’s no shadow then.”

Masaru let out a deep, insidious laugh. “Fear the darkness, little one. There, your shadow has no anchor. That’s when it can do the most harm.”

That made his stomach sink with dread. “How do you defeat a shadow, then?”

“You can’t. All you can do is control it... and pray it never controls you.”