Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Ryuichi took off through the woods, weaving around towering maple trees in search of the source of that bloodcurdling cry. Leaves in every color—from brilliant red to bright orange and even magenta—gently fluttered to the ground, only to be crushed by the fierce pace of his boots.
Ryuichi didn’t need to glance behind him to know the rest of his crew was following close behind. He could hear their footsteps clamoring in the distance. Part of him felt thankful to not be alone, while the other part wished they were somewhere else, safe from whatever awaited them.
Ryuichi reached a clearing in the forest and came to an abrupt halt when he saw his aunt, the goddess Haruki, standing over the body of a collapsed tengu that was clearly from Ryukage’s army.
Her pale white hair and skin were a sharp contrast to the tengu’s ruffled and splayed-out black feathers.
Its bird head was thrown back as if it had broken its neck.
But the slight rise and fall of its chest let Ryuichi know the tengu still lived.
If only barely.
Once the rest of the group made it to the clearing, they formed a circle around Haruki and the fallen tengu. His aunt’s long white hair billowed in the breeze, and her pale skin caught the morning sun in such a way that she almost seemed angelic.
“What happened?” Ryuichi asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but if this thing dies, I say we eat him for breakfast,” Haruki replied, nudging the tengu with her foot to see if it could still move.
This kind of cold, unfeeling reaction was to be expected from his mother’s identical twin. She was pure evil. She hated the world and loved to watch others suffer. The only reason she was a member of Ryuichi’s party was because she was expelled from the spirit realm and had nowhere else to go.
Despite that, Ryuichi desperately wanted to believe there was still some good in Haruki. That she was more like his mother than some vicious yōkai out to annihilate everyone around her.
But at times like this, she tested his hope.
To his knowledge, Haruki was the only blood relative he had left. Ryuichi wanted to make things work with her, but as he’d learned with his father, all the desire in the world couldn’t make people be what you wanted them to be.
Sometimes you had to let them go.
And right now, as she stood over the body of one of his father’s injured tengu, he was doubting the sanity of keeping her around. It might just be too much of a risk.
Ryuichi’s thoughts started racing. Was this dying tengu part of a larger plot against them? When Haruki did Ryukage’s bidding, she had sent these creatures out into the world to hunt Ryuichi, with orders to drag him to his father’s lair and keep him as a prisoner.
Haruki grabbed a stick and poked the mangled bird demon as if she were afraid the thing might be carrying some sort of disease. Apparently, being loyal to his father didn’t mean she had to be kind to his servants if she suspected they might be filthy and contagious.
Ryuichi-kage knelt next to Ryuichi. A curious look spread across his face.
“How is he?” Ryuichi asked.
His shadow shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? I don’t think your aunt kicking and swatting him with a stick helped heal him though.”
That made Ryuichi wonder if the tengu had been unconscious before or after he’d run into Haruki.
His aunt could be rather volatile, and that was putting it mildly.
Koichi crouched at the head of the tengu and pulled out his dagger, pointing it toward the tengu’s throat. “Let’s put him out of his misery. It’s the right thing to do.”
Ryuichi-kage grabbed Koichi’s hand to stop him. “No, please allow me. I deserve the honor.”
The tengu’s eyes suddenly popped open, and he squawked as he saw Koichi holding the dagger above him. Then he quickly rolled away from his attackers.
“Wait! Wait! You can’t kill me. I have an important message for the Ryukage’s son!” he shouted, springing to his feet.
“From who?” Ryuichi and his shadow asked at the same time.
“From one of your father’s most faithful servants.” Then the tengu fell to his knees so he could wrap his feathered arms around Ryuichi’s leg. “I am so glad to have found you, merciful lordling! Master of my heart! May the gods bless all your days from now until the end of time. May they—”
Masaru interrupted by using his yōkai powers to pull the tengu away from Ryuichi. He lifted him in the air, the tengu’s feet wiggling frantically as he was suspended high above the ground.
“He might be merciful, but I’m not patient. Stop with the praising and say what you have to say before we all grow old,” Masaru demanded.
The tengu wheezed and nodded nervously. Not that Ryuichi blamed him. He’d be frightened, too, if Masaru growled and held him hostage with a magical choke hold.
“Could you put him down?” Ryuichi asked.
“Only if he stops groveling.” Masaru dropped him unceremoniously to the ground.
The tengu groaned, then pushed himself up.
“No groveling,” Masaru reminded him. “Otherwise, we eat you for breakfast.”
Haruki snarled. “That was my idea!”
Bowing at them, then Ryuichi, he spoke quickly. “The Ryukage . . . your father . . . has disappeared.”
Ryuichi was confused. The battle with his father had been fierce, and he’d almost died himself. The last thing he remembered was Ryukage being severely wounded and then withdrawing. He assumed he went somewhere to die in shame.
“So he survived our fight?”
“Yes, lordling. He did.”
Ryuichi wasn’t sure if he should be happy or terrified by this news.
“Well, that’s great,” Koichi said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “Our monster is still alive.”
“Yes, but he’s missing,” Haruki pointed out.
“Maybe he’s devising a plan to ruin us,” Masaru said.
Keiko threw her hands up. “Or perhaps he’s just given up. If he’s gone, then we don’t have to worry about more demons breaking into our world. Maybe Lord Hattori will forgive Ryuichi and allow him back into his school.”
The tengu shook his head. “You don’t understand. The gate between the realms isn’t closed, and without the Ryukage, the spirit world has devolved into civil war.”
Masaru went pale. “That’s . . . not good.”
Ryuichi agreed. Demons at war could never be a good thing.
Yet Koichi looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “I completely disagree. How is it bad? Let the yōkai do our job for us. If they decimate each other in their quest for power, then we won’t have to worry about them coming after us or our world.”
Masaru held his hand up as if he wanted to choke Koichi. And for a moment, Ryuichi thought he might.
After a few tense heartbeats, he lowered his arm, then spoke through clenched teeth. “Whoever wins that war will control the entire spirit realm. All the creatures of the nether world.”
“Yes, that is normally what happens. The victor makes the rules.” Koichi was every bit as flustered with Masaru as Masaru was with him.
Keiko rubbed her hands together, a sure sign of panic. “The Ryukage didn’t want to harm Ryuichi. He wanted to control the boy. For better or worse, Ryuichi is his heir. If someone else takes over, they won’t feel that kinship or restraint.”
Masaru gestured toward Haruki. “It would be in our best interest to find out who the warring factions are and where the Ryukage has gone. And most importantly, what he is up to.”
“Why point at me when you say that, traitor?” Haruki asked. “I’m not the one who changed sides.” She tucked her hands into the long sleeves of her kimono, her expression turning crestfallen. “I’ve always been loyal to the Ryukage.”
Ryuichi felt a pang of sadness for Haruki. She had been helplessly in love with his father for so long, but he would never adore anyone but his mother. Ryukage’s rejection had turned her heart to ice, and there was no telling if it would ever melt, no matter how much kindness she was shown.
Masaru snorted at her. “I’ve never once changed sides.”
“True,” Keiko agreed. “He has only looked after himself from the beginning.”
“Enough.” Ryuichi held his hand up to stop their bickering. While it was disrespectful and he felt terrible for doing so, he needed the adults to focus on what was most important.
“So did you serve my father?” he asked the tengu.
Nodding, the tengu bowed to him again. “In a sense. The Ryukage’s last command was to my lord.
He was told to defend the gate and keep the spirits restricted to this realm until his return.
He said that no one should be allowed to go in or out.
But with the gate cracked open, there’s no real way to keep that from happening, and it won’t be long before the human world is overrun by your father’s enemies.
My lord sent me to find and bring back the Ryukage’s heir so that we can rally the forces still loyal to your father and carry out his orders.
You are his blood. The yōkai will follow you. ”
Haruki removed her hand from her sleeve and raised it hopefully. “I, for one, think we should definitely go back to the nether realm.”
“That’s because you’re evil and tried to kill us all. You just want to get home and be among your own kind,” Koichi said.
Haruki scoffed at Koichi. “Go back to your sake and drown in it, you old fool.”
Koichi mocked her words silently before he spoke again. “As if anyone cares what you think, you murder-happy witch.”
“Says the man who has more body hair than brains! Are we sure you’re even human and not some rare breed of small kaiju?”
“Stop it, both of you.” Ryuichi-kage separated the two before approaching Ryuichi. Not with an aura of malice though. In fact, he appeared determined to help, not hurt. “What are we thinking, human half?”
Ryuichi couldn’t get over how strange it was to be able to talk to his duplicate. While they were technically the same, he and his shadow self held two vastly different perspectives on most things.
He saw light and Ryuichi-kage always saw the dark. Ryuichi tried to remain calm and respectful. Typically, his shadow was filled with venom and wrath.
But in this moment, Ryuichi could sense they were united, even if he doubted that would last.
Actually, his mind was cluttered with doubts.
Especially that his intuition would steer him in the wrong direction.
His judgment in the past hadn’t been good.
Under his father’s influence, he made bad choices.
When it counted the most, would he be able to get it right?
Given how often he’d been betrayed, he didn’t trust anyone, including himself.
But then he remembered the cursed urn and how he stood his ground. He made a good choice. Even Masaru said so, though not in words.
His instincts weren’t based on fear. At least, not all the time.
So Ryuichi decided to listen to his inner voice and put his faith in it.
“I think we should go, together,” he said to his shadow self. “We need to find our father. Monster or not, we need his help to keep our world safe.”
Ryuichi-kage nodded. “Agreed.”
“Count me in too,” said Masaru.
“I wouldn’t miss this for all the sake in Japan,” Koichi said.
“Someone has to make sure everyone doesn’t die,” Keiko added. “So, I guess I’ll be coming along.”
Haruki sighed heavily, drawing Ryuichi’s attention back to her.
“I, for one, will be glad to be rid of this world and its meager human accommodations. Imagine a real meal of fresh yōkai guts, seasoned with honey. Eyes of an osaki with red bean paste and rice. A hot, scented bath . . .” She threw a meaningful glare toward Koichi.
“Which some of us need far more than others.”
Giving her a smug snarl, Koichi sniffed his armpit, then grimaced. “She might be on to something,” he mumbled, moving away.
Masaru was also less than pleased. “On behalf of the osaki . . . ew! You’re an animal.”
And coming from a half-feral kitsune, that said it all.