6. Something is Off
Chapter six
Something is Off
Hiro
Yoichi would not tell us anything, even after Kenji threatened to kill him and I promised to maim him.
Yoichi simply kept saying that we did not have the time for answers.
“If something is wrong with our Tiger. . .” I pointed to Yoichi. “I will torture you before I let you die.”
“Duly noted, Hiro.” Yoichi continued to drive us along. His hands stayed loose on the wheel and his shoulders remained relaxed as if he were guiding us toward a late dinner instead of some odd ritual in the forest.
The headlights cut a thin yellow road through the trees.
The silver-white moon hung over all of it.
The cart rolled down the gravel path with my brother on one side of me, my mask in my lap, and a fresh lollipop in my mouth.
Pink.
I pulled the lollipop out and stared at it.
“Hmmm.” I looked at Kenji. "What do you think they were having?"
My brother’s gaze remained on the night sky. “Who?”
“Sora and Nao.”
Kenji snapped his gaze to me and frowned. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It does.” I placed the lollipop back in my mouth.
My brother went rigid beside me. His jaw worked once. He looked down at the Wanyūdō mask in his hands, then out at the trees. "Don't do that, Hiro. Not tonight."
“Do what?”
“Take on every death like you personally murdered the person.”
“I only do it if it makes sense.”
“The blood is on Kiko’s hands, not yours.”
“You truly believe that?”
“Of course.”
“Hmm.” I put the lollipop back in my mouth and rolled the pink candy over my tongue.
The island slid past, and all around us, armed men got into position.
A group of Scales dragged a gun belt between them and fed it into a mounted weapon at the tree line. One of them wiped his palms down his thighs before he gripped the handles. His hands shook.
Further up the slope, a man knelt behind a low stone wall and laid his rifle across the top of it. He sighted down the barrel toward the water, then lowered it, then sighted again, hunting for the angle he liked.
Three more men crouched at the mouth of a footpath, passing a single canteen down the line. Each one drank, wiped the rim, and handed it on. No one spoke.
On the right, a young Scale I didn't know stood alone against a tree with his eyes closed and his lips moving. He was probably saying a prayer, a name, or a goodbye.
I looked away before I could decide which.
The whole island was loading itself like a gun.
The path turned. A black wall of forest rose on our right. Salt cut through the smell of gun oil.
The night felt almost peaceful.
For a moment, nothing happened.
The cart hummed beneath us. The tires turned over the gravel in a slow, even crunch. Wind moved through the high branches and let them settle again. Off in the distance, the ocean pushed against the rocks and pulled back.
My brother calmly breathed beside me.
Does the island know what’s coming? Can the trees and soil feel it?
The lollipop went sweet and small against my tongue, and the dark slid by, and for those few seconds the whole island held still around the three of us.
I didn't understand how our Tiger had ended up with the Silent Ones. She was supposed to be gone and far from the blood we were about to spill. All the other women had done so.
Yet, somewhere between the evacuation order and this cart heading her way, she had found the Silent Ones and remained.
Why? And what is this fucking ritual shit Kenji keeps talking about? Have they both lost their minds?
I had carried a lot of fear in my life. Fear of the dead. Fear of my father. Fear of what I might become before the night ended. But this fear for our Tiger was a new type of fear. It was sharp, cold, and came with a deafening scrape against my eardrums.
I can’t lose Nyomi too. . .I can’t. . .
I couldn't even think about the possibility of Nyomi being harmed. Anytime my mind tried, my heart immediately shut the door.
Because if I let myself follow the thought to the end. . .Nyomi as a ghost. . .haunting me. . .her standing in a corner with a wound she shouldn't have, smiling a too-wide smile and waiting for me to notice her.
No.
My hand went to my vest, and I pulled out the locket and squeezed it. “When we get to our Tiger, I’m going to let you do whatever this ritual is and then I’m personally making sure she gets off this island.”
“I’m already steps ahead of you on that thought. I’m making sure she gets off after this.”
“Then, we’ll do it together.”
“No. You will give her a hug, then go off to Reo and I will do the ritual and make sure—”
“We will do everything together. Tonight, brother, I am your shadow. I am the cold breeze against your neck. I am the fucking—”
“Annoying ass little brother that won’t let me think.”
“That too.” I nodded.
Kenji smiled and gazed at the road ahead. “Hurry up, Yoichi. We don’t have much time.”
“Yes, sir.” Yoichi increased the speed.
The cart shook.
Stay alive, my Tiger. Just stay alive, and I'll carry you off this island myself.
I looked over at my brother again.
Kenji watched the road, but I knew he wasn't really seeing the path ahead. His jaw was too tight, and his thumb moved slow along the silver guard of his gun, back and forth.
He’s afraid for her too.
In all the years I had known my brother, through every battle, war, and the piling up of dead bodies, I had never once watched a woman put that look on his face.
Women came and went from the Dragon's life like weather. Most arrived on warm winds and departed with the changing seasons, though each believed herself destined to linger.
Some drifted through like spring rain, gentle, forgettable, and leaving behind little more than the scent of flowers and damp earth.
Others arrived as summer storms, fierce and dazzling, all lightning smiles and thunderous promises, only to vanish before the skies had fully cleared.
There were the small few that struck like typhoons against the shores of his empire, certain they could reshape my brother through force, devotion, or desire.
None ever succeeded.
The Dragon endured.
The weather moved on.
Perhaps our Tiger was a hurricane. Surely, she tore through his carefully ordered world and uprooted so many pieces of him he never intended to surrender.
Shit. She uprooted so many pieces of. . .us.
I slipped my finger along the locket, and suddenly I heard the sound of a loud engine, higher and farther off.
Huh?
I turned that way. “Do you hear that?”
Kenji blinked. “Hear what?”
The noise was a thin metal whine that slid down from the north and climbed over the trees toward us.
Oh fuck.
“I think.” My spine went straight. “A plane is coming.”
Beside me, Kenji's hand drifted to the holster at his hip and rested there. “Don’t worry. The guns will be ready.”
“The war is starting now.”
“Not yet. That’s Akiro’s scout plane. We knew it was on the way.”
“But you didn’t know that Akiro would bomb Tokyo.” I let out a long breath, thinking about all the innocents who were already lost tonight. “Why would he do that? It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s not our focus right now—”
“You control Japan. It needs to be—”
“One thing at a time, brother.” He scowled at me. “I am only one man.”
“No. You are the Dragon. That means you are more than one man.”
Kenji looked away, and. . .for some reason. . .that made my gut twist. I didn’t know why, but he was off.
All of this just felt. . .fucking off.
And for this war, we needed to be fully on.
A minute later, the plane sounds grew louder to the point where Kenji and Yoichi could finally hear it too.
Kenji’s thumb settled on the silver guard of his gun.
I checked the sky and saw the lights. Two red ones and a white one blinked in the black sky over the water, swelling larger by the second.
Fuck you, Father. We will win tonight. No matter what.
The shape behind those lights stayed dark. Seconds later, the moon caught the long line of a wing, then a curved belly, then the thin tail, and the rest of the plane held the same black as the night around it.
The sound rose into a thick drone and began to shape into a hard, flat buzz, filling the sky, crawling down through the trees, and pressing against my chest.
I gripped my mask.
The plane’s engine roared.
Louder.
Closer.
Growling, Yoichi increased the speed on the cart.
Scout or not, we need more time before the battle. And we have to get Nyomi off the goddamn island!
I gripped the locket tighter.
Soon, the antiaircraft gun let out a long, tearing boom that rolled across the water and shook the leaves over our heads.
A second gun answered it.
I turned toward the guns.
Come on. Do your fucking job! We need a win in this night of losses.
The antiaircraft shells streaked into the sky. They were bursts of white flashes that lit the clouds and went dark just as fast.
Come on. Please!
One shell hit the plane.
Fuck yeah.
Kenji let out a long breath.
The plane spasmed in the sky and its engine's roar broke into a high, ragged scream. Metal tore against metal.
Is the plane completely fucked?
My heart slammed against my vest.
I came up out of my seat to get a better look.
Go down, you piece of shit.
Far past the tree line, out over the black water, another shell hit the plane head-on.
There we go.
The scout plane bucked. One wing tore loose. Spun away. End over end. For half a breath the plane remained suspended in the sky, burning from the inside and lighting up the dark around it.
Seconds passed.
It rolled sideways and fell toward the sea. Fast. Raging flames and smoke trailed behind it, and the sea opened and swallowed the plane whole.
For one breath, Kenji and I watched the dark water where the plane had been. The waves rolled across the surface. The current pulled the wreckage beneath the darkness. The sea accepted the offering, and a realization probably settled between us like the final stone placed atop a grave.
We finally got a win.
Beside me, my brother's mouth slightly curved.
Most people would have missed it. I knew Kenji and every version of his silence. That slight curve of his mouth carried relief.
A small amount.
He kept his eyes on the water.