Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Masaru stood in front of the boat, completely aghast. “What do you mean he’s not taking us back?”
“Drink?” the shinigami repeated the single word that was about to make them all lose their minds.
Ryuichi let out a deep groan in frustration. And here he’d thought getting his father on his side would be the hardest part of his mission.
Apparently, the stubborn shinigami had decided to become a bigger obstacle.
Inumagami shook his head. “I’m trying to explain to you. He said he only travels to Kagemura. He won’t go anywhere else.”
Masaru pursed his lips. “How do you understand all that from drink?”
Ryuichi was at his wits’ end. He turned toward Inumagami. “Aren’t you his lord? Can’t you order him to take us wherever we want to go? At this rate, Orochi will have broken through the gate and devoured the entire human world before we got off this stupid island.”
Inumagami shrugged. “He’s a shinigami. I can’t exactly order him around like some common servant. But I will give it a shot.” The little lord growled a bit at their shinigami captain and barked a few times.
Ryuichi turned to Yumi. “What did he say?”
Yumi translated, “‘Excuse me, could you rethink it, Shinigami-san? We really do need a boat.’”
The captain looked right at Ryuichi and said, “Drink?”
Inumagami sighed. “See?”
“Can you at least ask why he can’t go anywhere else?” Ryuichi asked.
“I have, but he has never given me a straight answer. It’s impossible to guess what a shinigami is thinking. They see the world differently than the rest of us.”
Ryuichi couldn’t believe this. Had he lost the war before setting foot on the battlefield?
He and their crew couldn’t contest Orochi’s bid for conquering both worlds if he couldn’t make it to the fight. They were a small threat to the World Eater’s nastiness and his enormous army. But they had Ryukage now, which was a very big advantage.
Still, it was the end of the world, as far as he knew, and they were all about to be a no-show.
Yamaguchi, who had followed them from his father’s palace, came over. “Are we having a problem?”
Ryuichi gestured at the shinigami. “We’re trying to get off the island, and he won’t leave unless we go back to Kagemura.”
Yamaguchi nodded. “That is a problem.”
“Drink?” asked the shinigami.
“Don’t mind if I do.” Yamaguchi reached out to take the cup from the shinigami.
“No!” Masaru and Yumi both shouted.
“But—”
“Don’t do it!” Inumagami said amid a series of yelps.
“Fine.” Yamaguchi put his hands up. “No drinking. Anyway, I was just going to grab my stuff and leave.”
Ryuichi let out an exasperated breath. “How do you plan to leave? The only way off is the shinigami’s boat. And he’s refusing to go anywhere.”
Yamaguchi shrugged. “I was just going to take mine.”
Everyone turned to stare at the oni.
“You. Have. A. Boat?” Masaru asked slowly, as if he were speaking to an overgrown toddler.
“Yes. Did you not hear me?”
Masaru rolled his eyes as Yumi giggled.
“It’s only a small fishing boat. Nothing too fancy. I like to take it out sometimes and catch something to eat.” Yamaguchi proudly slapped at his big belly. “This little war machine can’t live off just rice, you know?”
Little? Ryuichi raised a skeptical eyebrow as he watched the big belly jiggle. He wasn’t so sure of that.
“I’ll go fetch it.” Surprisingly, the red oni was helpful despite having tried to kill them a few hours ago.
He left, leaving the rest of the group in bewilderment as to why an oni would help them.
“You don’t think he has an ulterior motive?” Masaru asked the Ryukage, who had stayed remarkably quiet all this time.
Ryukage shrugged. “We all do, don’t we?”
Well, that was certainly something to think long and hard about.
Ryuichi watched as Yamaguchi wandered off. “What could be the harm?”
His father arched his brow. “You haven’t really met an oni before, have you?”
“Just the ones you ordered to kill me in battle.”
Ryukage at least had the decency to look sheepish at the reminder that he’d done his best to destroy his only son.
“I guess we’ll find out if there’s any harm, won’t we?” Yumi asked.
Masaru snorted. “I suppose we will.”
It wasn’t long before Yamaguchi returned with a big smile on his face.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
The gigantic oni was practically skipping toward them, dragging his “fishing boat” behind him like a plaything. “You’re not going to believe this, but I found it. Just where I left it.”
Much to everyone’s shock, his boat was fit to be a warship. The thing was huge!
Although, Ryuichi supposed it made sense. To an oni of this remarkable size, the boat was smallish.
And he was thankful for it. He’d hate to have to cross the ocean in a small fishing vessel. The last thing any of them needed was to end up drowning at sea.
“Things are usually where you leave them,” Masaru said sarcastically.
Yamaguchi pushed the boat into the water, and after taking a moment to make sure he hadn’t accidentally put a hole in it, he hit it with a confident slap. “She’s ready. Come on board.”
The shinigami looked less than pleased as Yamaguchi helped them board his “fishing boat.” And he tried one last time.
“Drink?”
No one was that stupid.
And once their group was settled, Yamaguchi pushed his boat out to sea and then climbed up on it himself.
Finally, they were off.
Ryuichi felt relieved, even if his father sat across from him with a miserable expression on his face. He assumed it was the man’s natural countenance to look angry and perpetually dour. No doubt it came from the “master of shadows” duties his father had overseen for centuries.
Now it was the World Eater he needed to worry about.
“Do we have a course set?” Yamaguchi asked.
“The portal to the human world,” Yumi answered.
“Why are you doing this?” Ryuichi couldn’t believe the oni was essentially joining their crew.
Yamaguchi appeared confused. “It’s what you do with a boat. You sail it.”
Masaru groaned as if the oni’s words caused him physical pain. “He’s asking you why you’re helping us.”
“Oh.” Yamaguchi counted out his fingers as if he was struggling to list the reasons.
“According to the Ryukage, because I let you all through, I’ve been released from duty.
As he put it, ‘If you don’t get out of here in the next few minutes, you’re going to become intimate with your own insides. ’ Which means it’s the sea for me.”
They all turned to stare at his father, who seemed completely unconcerned by his cruel threat.
“What? He was incompetent,” Ryukage said, in defense of his actions. “Personally, I didn’t want to get on his boat, but we didn’t seem to have any choice, did we?”
“You’re lucky he hasn’t thrown you overboard,” Masaru joked.
His father didn’t flinch. “I dare him to try.”
Yamaguchi grinned. “I know better.”
Even though the oni seemed fine with this twist of fate, Ryuichi felt responsible. If it wasn’t for him, Yamaguchi would still have a job. He seemed like a nice yōkai. It was a shame he had to get him fired.
Yamaguchi took the rudder. “Don’t feel bad.
Job was boring anyway. Back in the day, I used to get visitors from all over who tried to find the master of the pagoda.
There have been many over the years, before your dad came along.
They’d try to bribe me with all sorts of gifts and offers for safe passage. It was great.”
“Did it work?” Ryuichi asked.
“No, but I appreciated the gifts after I ate them. To be honest, I’m not a fan of seafood or fish. But before the Ryukage moved to this island, it was meat every day.” He slid his gaze toward Masaru and Yumi. “Kitsune was always a personal favorite.”
Yumi’s eyes widened.
Masaru’s expression changed to silently say, “Try me.”
After that, Yamaguchi went on a long rant about how good things used to be. Soon Katsu joined in and they started sharing their stories of long ago.
Ryuichi tried not to pay attention to them. He was far more interested in where he was going than where he’d been. His past was an anchor that dragged him down. He didn’t want to think about what had happened, because he couldn’t change any of it.
All that mattered was the future.
He was on a mission to help his friends.
To save the world.
And despite the odds, he believed he would win.
Ryuichi looked at his trusty sword, solid steel.
He was relying on this rugged blade to deliver him victory.
How tiny and insignificant it appeared. Compared to other katanas like it, his sword was nothing, really.
Still, it was an elegant weapon that created nations.
Provided it didn’t break under pressure.
Kind of like a human soul.
It only took one person to make a difference. But only if they were strong enough and held it together.
You can be that person.
Ryuichi listened to the voice inside his head, not knowing if it was his own conscience or his mother guiding him.
This is your destiny as the Son of Shadows.
His father had brought the darkness. It was Ryuichi’s duty to bring the light.
He took a deep breath and accepted a scary truth. The stakes had never been higher than right now.
But at least he wasn’t alone.
Ryuichi glanced around at those who were willing to put their lives on the line to protect the human and spirit realms. He thought of his friends who weren’t with him.
Koichi, the old samurai who had done a great job teaching him. He never gave up on Ryuichi, even when things got hard.
Ryuichi missed the surly warrior. More than he thought was possible.
He remembered Keiko. The kitsune who had risked everything to make sure he was safe. She delivered on her promise to his mother. At a great sacrifice.
Please be all right, he whispered to himself. He wasn’t sure what he would do if something happened to his dear Keiko.
And then there was his shadow. He hadn’t had a chance to really know him yet, and honestly he’d been afraid to. The darkness inside Ryuichi-kage had frightened him more than his father at times.
But now, for some reason, Ryuichi was feeling empty inside, like pieces of his heart were slowly being stripped away. Then he felt lightheaded; his vision became blurry.
He sat down, putting his hand on his chest and closing his eyes.
Yumi saw him struggling and came over to check on him. “Ryuichi, are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
Whatever was happening to him didn’t feel good.
And it couldn’t have come at a worse possible time.