Page 46 of The Last Tiger

Seung

Jin writhes on the ground, a blood-red cloud glowing in the air around her, sinking deep into her skin. I can only watch with horror as she thrashes back and forth, unable to free herself.

This…is Tiger ki, for sure.

But it isn’t me—

Behind us, through the opening in the wall, a shadowy figure stands silhouetted against the gray light from the city street. He steps forward, revealing himself—Kenzo Kobayashi.

It takes me a few seconds to recognize the young Dragon scion.

He strides into the clearing, just as the doors close behind him with a heavy thud—his hand extended, his fingers twitching, teeth locked in a grimace.

The bright red cloud is emanating from his fingers, passing through the air to Jin’s body.

It’s unmistakable. Kenzo Kobayashi is using Tiger ki.

The young Dragon scion…has Tiger ki ?!

How is that possible ?

“I said get away from her !”

Kenzo flings his hand again, sending a fresh wave of convulsions rippling through Jin. I feel the panic intensify inside her, blotting out everything else. Her eyes roll back into her head, her teeth bared in a grotesque grimace.

Kenzo gives his hand one last wave before letting go. Jin slumps over, slipping unconscious. I feel her mind go dark.

“K-Kenzo?” Eunji wobbles as she rises from the bloodstained grass. A golden ray of hope shines out from her heart, cutting through the fog in the air. She blinks as Kenzo dashes toward her.

“You’re hurt,” he says urgently.

“It’s okay, I’m fine…”

As Kenzo drops beside Eunji, I stiffen—unwilling to move away, but unable to shake the feeling that I’m somehow intruding on something intimate.

Kenzo’s pale face shifts to Eunji—the blood running down her wrist, smeared over her cheek.

Eunji closes her eyes as her wrist begins to heal itself: The skin reseals, her wound gradually knitting itself back together from the inside out.

I can’t bear to look away. It’s beyond strange to see Eunji wielding Dragon ki.

Kenzo turns back to me, his face livid with anger.

“Did you not hear me, or are you stupid? I said get…away…from…her.”

Kenzo leaps to his feet, and I mirror him.

The Dragon princeling has no idea that I feel just as much pain as he does, seeing Eunji hurt. Knowing I was powerless to stop my own friend from hurting her.

“Listen—” I say through my teeth, holding my ground.

Suddenly Kenzo raises his arm and sends a blast of rust-red anger hurtling through the air toward me.

Just in time, I neutralize it with a flash of my own powers: a sunny beam of hope emerges from my hands, cutting through the cloud of rage.

The stream of color splits around me, falling away to both sides, rendered harmless.

“What are you?” Eunji cries. “ How are you doing that?”

Kenzo frowns, then sends another, stronger blast toward me. I deflect this one just like I did the last.

His brow rises in surprise. “You have Tiger ki?”

“ You have Tiger ki?” I shoot back.

Eunji stares back and forth between us.

“No. Kenzo doesn’t have ki powers,” she says weakly.

“Actually, I never said that I didn’t have ki powers…,” Kenzo mutters. “Just that I didn’t have Dragon ki .”

This is news to me. Meanwhile, a rainbow of emotions passes over Eunji: confusion, relief, betrayal, care. I can practically feel the headache pounding away at her temples.

“Anyways. You’re dead, kid.” Kenzo raises his hands to strike again—

“Kenzo, don’t hurt him!” Eunji rushes forward, grabbing his arm. “Seung is…a friend.”

Kenzo pauses, looking incredulous, his hand still held up in warning.

“A friend ?” He barks out a humorless laugh. “That’s rich. Judging by what we saw over the bridge, seems to me he may have been something more . An old flame, perhaps?”

He’s projecting confidence and apathy now, but I can see the slick slime-green jealousy churning in Kenzo’s stomach, oozing along his jaw.

“What exactly is your relationship with this guy, Eunji?”

Eunji reddens.

“Seung…,” she whispers, and a shiver runs down my neck.

I glance down at her wrist, at the beads of blood still resting there on the surface of her skin, and I feel sick.

“He used to work as a cleaner at my house. I tutored him for the Exam. After studying, he showed me how to sneak out, and we would go on adventures together around town. We had…a deal.”

Eunji looks straight at me when she says that last sentence. Her wounded face contains everything we’ve been through.

Kenzo—who evidently really does have Tiger ki—picks up on it right away. The look of shock and barely concealed disgust coloring his face is unmistakable.

“You…and the cleaner boy ?!”

Cleaner boy. The words rub at me like salt in a wound.

That’s all I am to him. No cleaner boy has ever registered in Kenzo Kobayashi’s world as anything more than background noise.

Kenzo surveys me, seemingly for the first time, not bothering to disguise his revulsion as he takes in my dirt-smudged face, my worn clothes. The contrast with the extravagant Dragon garb he wears is instantly made obvious.

“Eunji, from what I can discern, this guy is no longer in your employment —”

Kenzo suddenly stops dead as the tiger treads back into the clearing.

She takes silent, padded steps, her ears perked up as she stares directly at Kenzo, her head cocked with interest. She doesn’t seem afraid or apprehensive in the slightest. As she steps out of the shadows, looking at him, Kenzo freezes.

I see a sick, ugly gray haze appear in the air around him, sucking the color out of his skin. His hands begin to tremble.

“N-no,” he whispers, backing up. “Stay…you stay away from me…” The young Dragon scion shudders. In front of him, the tiger pads forward, her panting faintly audible in the quiet air.

Behind me, I feel Jin stir. She sits up, brushing herself off.

“My turn,” she says hoarsely.

Kenzo looks over at her, startled.

“That’s it,” she croons. “ Look at me whenever I talk to you , okay?”

Kenzo’s pupils expand to fill his eyes as Jin’s spell takes hold of him. Next to him, Eunji’s jaw also goes slack as she, too, turns obediently to look directly at Jin.

“You took me by surprise.” Jin spits on the ground, then wipes her mouth. “Fair enough. Won’t happen again. Kneel down. ”

The two of them obey automatically. Jin picks up the knife from where she dropped it, advancing toward them. A drop of Eunji’s blood falls from it into the grass.

No.

Not again.

“Jin—” I step forward.

“ Not now , Seung—”

But this time I look away, throwing a hand over my eyes just in time.

“Jin, you’re not thinking straight. Listen to me—”

“They’re working for General Isao, Seung. If we let them live, they’re going to—”

“You can’t just kill them—”

“If we don’t, Seung, then what? She’s seen the tiger. He has Tiger ki. They can lead the Dragon Empire here. Now that they know, they’re dangerous.”

Jin’s voice shakes as she speaks. I’ve never seen her lose her cool like this before.

“You haven’t had someone betray your trust, Seung,” she says darkly. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with. You don’t have any idea. I’m protecting you and me and all of us. That’s what the Tiger spirit asked me to do.”

Suddenly I understand. She’s dead serious about killing Eunji and Kenzo—not because she needs to protect herself. But because she believes they are her enemies.

She’s so consumed with pain that she can no longer see the humanity of the people she thinks she needs to stop.

Maybe I see things differently because Eunji is my friend. Because I care about her more than I’ve ever cared about anyone.

I know that she’s yangban. I know that she’s working hand in hand with the Dragon Army’s Kenzo Kobayashi. That her family is aligned in total lockstep with the empire, working against everything Jin and I are trying to accomplish.

And I know what it feels like to look at her family mansion from the outside and wonder why some people in the world get to live that way, and why I never will.

But I also know a little bit of what it’s like to be her.

I know that she’s human.

Maybe Jin is too consumed with pain to see that now. Maybe there will be time later for us to somehow reconcile and to heal. But right now I don’t have time for that.

If I want to save Eunji, I’d better think fast.

I glance at her. Eunji is frozen in place, locked by Jin’s spell. Little, frantic sparks of panic fly out from her heart. I also see a pained halo of attraction pulling her to Kenzo—and the hazy blot of worry she feels knowing his life is in danger too.

I wince. It’s too much. Kenzo’s heart is shrouded with fear, also, and Jin’s is ink black with a combustive mixture of pain and purpose. Between the three of them, I barely have enough capacity to process what’s happening directly in front of me.

“Jin, we don’t need to kill them. They—could be useful,” I blurt, thinking aloud. “They both have ki powers. We…could make use of them.”

“For what?” Jin coughs, wiping her nose with a sleeve. “We’re practically at the spirit cave now. We don’t need their help.”

“Yeah,” I say, “but what about after—when we have to come back down and face the army of Slayers waiting for us back in the city? We could use someone with strength under our control. We stand more of a chance that way. They can help us fight back. Even Kenzo can, if we make the right use of him.”

A vein throbs in Eunji’s temple as her face turns red with indignation. I look the other way, away from her. I know it sounds like I’m cruelly suggesting using them as pawns. But if this is the only way to keep Eunji alive right now, I’m willing to let her hate me for it.

“Jin, look,” I plead. “We’re nearly there. Let’s finish our mission. Let’s free the colonies. We don’t need to kill anyone if we don’t have to. There will be plenty of time later to make things right.”

Jin pauses, panting heavily. That seems to break through to her. She looks at me, then back at the two prisoners.