by Jasmine Walt
My heart melted at the sincerity in his tone, and I wanted so badly to tilt my head back and let him kiss me. But the Umigame chose that moment to dive back beneath the ocean, and we were immediately caught up in a gigantic wave.
“Hold your breath, Aika!” Raiden shouted. He ducked beneath the wave, still holding me with one arm, and tried to swim his way out of it. My heart jackhammered in my chest as he pumped his legs, but even though we made it through the initial wave, another, smaller one caught us and flung us straight toward the shore. We crashed into the surf, and Raiden somehow twisted us around so he landed first, putting his body between me and the sand.
“Raiden!” I cried as his head smashed into a rock. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he moaned in pain.
“Shit!” I scrambled to my feet, nearly getting knocked over by another wave, and slid my hands beneath Raiden’s armpits. “Come on,” I groaned, pulling him away from the surf as fast as I could.
I managed to drag him beneath the shade of a tree before I collapsed in the sand next to him, my arms aching. I just wasn’t built to carry a guy nearly twice my weight across any kind of distance. But there was no time to sit back and relax—I needed to make sure Raiden was okay.
“Raiden,” I murmured urgently, grabbing him by the shoulders. I’d propped him up against the tree trunk, but he was already sliding sideways. “Raiden, I need you to open your eyes.”
He was completely unresponsive. Shit. Bracing him against the trunk with one hand, I used my other to find his pulse. It was still there, but weaker than it should be considering he was strong, young, and healthy. Panic began to set in when I realized he wasn’t going to wake up, and I fought against the urge to hyperventilate.
Calm, I ordered myself. Stay calm. I was going to be dealing with this kind of stuff on a regular basis when I graduated. But that was a long way off—I was still only in my second year of pre-med. I didn’t have any experience triaging injured people.
“Okay,” I murmured, straddling Raiden so I could use my legs to keep him upright. I pressed one hand against his chest to keep him against the tree trunk and slid the other behind his head to check for injury. I found a large knot on the back of his head and swallowed hard when my hand came away bloody.
“Dammit!” I figured he had a concussion, but I’d really hoped he’d avoided cutting his head. How bad was the injury? Did I dare move him again to check on it? It wasn’t as if I had anything to stitch it up with, or even a bandage to put around his head.
I knew from my studies that it was best to keep concussion victims upright and not move them too much. Brain bleeding was a serious thing and could result in death if the damage was severe enough.
“Oh God,” I breathed, tears stinging my eyes. Raiden wasn’t going to die, was he? He couldn’t die. I didn’t think I could bear it if he lost his life trying to protect me. Why wasn’t there anything I could do to help him? I could do a reiki healing, but that wouldn’t help much, not for an injury this severe. He needed medical attention, and I was powerless to provide it.
A sudden ache burned in my chest, and I pressed my hand against the pain. Right where I’d been stabbed yesterday. A jolt of excitement hit me as I remembered the furi, and how it had healed me. Was it possible it could help Raiden too?
Trembling, I lifted my wrist and touched the monkey charm dangling from my bracelet. “Maji,” I said, willing the furi to appear with all my might.
The tiny charm flared, and the furi appeared next to me in a swirl of blue light. It blinked its bright red eyes as it took in the scene, its black and yellow spotted tail swishing curiously.
“Am I interrupting something?”
My cheeks flamed as I realized I was still sitting on top of Raiden.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I snapped, pressing my hands against his chest as he began to slump forward again. “He’s hurt. I need you to heal him.”
The furi’s eyes widened in alarm. “I cannot do that,” he protested. “You must get him to a healer.”
“There is no healer around here!” I cried, my frustration boiling over. “You healed me when I was stabbed with that knife. Why can’t you do the same thing for Raiden?”
“I did not heal you,” the furi said patiently. “I simply absorbed the blow in your stead.” He pressed a hand to the dark fur on his chest. “I heal much faster than you, and the knife did not go into your heart, so I was able to survive the blow. Had the knife gone into your heart, or your head, I would have still absorbed the blow, but I would have died. It is not the same thing as healing.”
My stomach sank. “So you don’t have any healing powers?” I asked, my voice sharp with desperation. “Nothing at all that can help me?”
“No, but he does.” The furi glanced down at Raiden. “Check his pockets.”
Frowning, I did as the furi asked. His right pocket held only his wallet and some loose change, but in his left were a few of the yokai charms I’d seen in the lacquered box. “What is he doing with these?”
“I do not know, but—”
Several loud, animalistic shrieks ripped through the still air, sending a bolt of fear through me. The furi shrieked back, jumping in front of me just as a group of monkeys burst from the tree line. They began lobbing stones and hard, green persimmons at us, and I ducked as the furi blocked and caught the projectiles, flinging several of them back at our attackers.
“Run!” the furi cried. “Get out of here!”
I jumped to my feet, then slung Raiden’s arm over my shoulder and tried to drag him to his feet. But he was still out cold, and I could barely move him an inch. “Come on!” I wailed, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Wake up, you big idiot! I can’t leave you here to die!”
A strange scuttling sound came from behind me, and the monkeys’ screeching instantly turned from angry to pained. Whirling around, my mouth dropped open in astonishment as I saw a horde of crabs rushing up the beachside, swiping at the monkeys with their clacking pincers. They were gigantic, each one the size of a Saint Bernard, with purple-orange shells and a strange pattern on their backs that looked like the face of an angry guy.
“Are those...samurai crabs?”
“Raiden!” My heart jumped at the sound of his voice, and I looked over to see he was staring blearily at the monkey-crab battle. “Come on, stay with me now,” I said urgently as his eyelids began to droop again. “You have to get up!” I hated to move him, but it was clear we weren’t safe here.
Two of the crabs scuttled forward, nearly scaring me out of my skin. “Get back!” I cried, holding Raiden tightly against me. But to my surprise, the crabs didn’t cut us into tiny pieces. Instead, they arranged themselves in what looked like a two-crab conga line, stopping right in front of us.
“Put him on our backs,” the first crab said, his voice echoing in the air. “We will carry him to safety.”
I hesitated for a split second. Where was “safety?” How did I know I could trust these crabs? But it was clear that the monkeys were our enemy, and the crabs were fighting the monkeys, so accepting their help was probably a safe bet. The enemy of my enemy and all that.
“Furi!” I screamed, trying to get my own monkey yokai’s attention. He was right in the middle of the fray, bashing two monkeys’ heads together repeatedly. “Help me!”
The furi tossed the two monkeys effortlessly aside, then leapt over the battling animals so he could get to me. Without asking questions, he grabbed Raiden’s legs while I slid my hands beneath his armpits. Together, the two of us lifted him onto the backs of the samurai crabs.
“Hurry!” the lead crab cried, scuttling forward. But three of the monkeys saw us, and they attacked us in earnest. The furi screamed, launching himself at the monkeys, but this only drew the attention of the other monkeys, and more broke away to get to us.
Furious, I grabbed the fox charm on my bracelet. “Kyuubi!” I cried, willing the nine-tailed fox to appear with all my might. She did, but instead of materializing i
n front of me, fully formed, she appeared as a swirling ball of fire with a fox head. A hitodama. Without thinking, I snatched her up and slammed her into my chest, just like Raiden had done.
Power flooded me, so fast and furious it stole my breath. I swayed on my feet for a moment as I was overcome by the heady rush of ki. It scorched my veins, turning my breath to fire, and when I looked down, my entire body was covered in flames.
“No time,” the kyuubi growled in my head, and I realized that the fiery presence scorching my insides was her. “Attack!”
The fire in my veins leapt at her command, and it took everything in me to rein it in. “Watch out!” I yelled, the only warning I gave to the crabs before I unleashed the fox fire burning beneath my skin.
A burst of blue fire exploded from my outstretched hands and slammed into the two closest monkeys. Horrific screams tore from their lips as their flaming bodies were flung backward across the sand.
The rotten-egg stench of burning hair filled the beach, and for a moment the only sounds were the screams of the two dying monkeys. As their cries faded away and their bodies turned to ashen smudges on the beach, the rest of the monkeys pointed and screeched at us, hastily backing toward the forest.
The crabs saw their chance and scuttled quickly in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the flames had taken hold of me, feeding on my rage, and before I knew what was happening, I was sprinting after the retreating monkeys. Each step I took turned the sand beneath my feet to molten glass, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t stop until I burned them all to ashes.
“AIKA, STOP!”
Raiden’s voice, weakened but full of desperation, stopped me in my tracks. I glanced back to see him struggling to lift his head from the impromptu crab stretcher he was lying on. “Don’t…lose control…still…have to get the liver…” he croaked, and then his eyes rolled back in his head.
“No!” Fear gripped me by the throat, and I ran toward Raiden, the murderous monkeys completely forgotten. As I approached, the fire wreathing my body died away, leaving me feeling a lot more like myself.
“Raiden, please wake up!” I smacked his cheek lightly, trying to get him to open his eyes. But it was no good—he was out again.
“Weak human,” the kyuubi said, her voice full of derision. “Not strong enough for you.”
“Shut up,” I snarled at her. To my surprise, she fell silent, her blazing fire reducing to a simmer inside me. The anger coursing through me faded almost completely, and I realized it was connected to the kyuubi’s fire.
Acting on instinct, I pressed my hand against my chest, then curled my fingers into a fist and pulled. The fox’s hitodama popped free of my chest with a loud sizzle, and I flung her away.
As soon as the hitodama hit the sand, it exploded into the kyuubi’s full, over-sized form. “Cover us,” I ordered her. She stared at me for a long moment, her glowing eyes full of annoyance. Then, without a word, she dutifully took up position between us and the forest. Several of the monkeys were still watching from the safety of the trees, but they scrambled away when the kyuubi barked, exposing her wicked-looking fangs.
“You’re learning,” the furi observed from behind me. I turned to see him watching me, something like approval glinting in his eyes. The crabs were already scurrying away, heading up the beach. “Come, let’s not lose our hosts.”
The furi and I hurried after the crabs, who had organized themselves in three single file rows. Pushing myself between them, I found the two carrying Raiden. He was pale as death, and my lungs constricted with anxiety. I didn’t know if his lack of color was from the bleeding or the pain, but it was a really bad sign.
“Where are we going?” I asked the crabs. “Is there a healer there?”
“No healer,” the lead crab said. “Safe haven.”
I swallowed back the tears clogging my throat and focused on keeping pace with them. One problem at a time, Aika, I told myself. Get out of danger. Then figure out what to do about Raiden.
The crabs led us for a mile down the beach, then up a treacherous path that wound up a rocky cliffside. My heart was in my throat the entire time as I worried that Raiden was going to fall off, but strangely, he didn’t budge from the crabs’ backs. Maybe they secreted some kind of sticky substance that kept him stuck there? Or perhaps they had the same kind of magic the Umigame did that kept us from flying off his back while we were hurtling through the water at ridiculous speeds.
As we climbed further up the cliff, I noticed the stones lining the edge of the path gradually turned into walls made of huge chunks of stacked stone, not dissimilar to how Japanese castle battlements were constructed. As the path grew narrower, the crabs reduced themselves to a long, single file line.
We switchbacked several more times along the path before we finally got to our destination—a cave entrance in the face of a rock wall flanked by a huge sanmon gate. Two enormous statues of Fujin and Raijin, the gods of thunder and lightning, had been installed inside the gate, and as we passed through it, I could have sworn their stony eyes were watching me, crackling with hidden power.
Under different circumstances, I would have paused outside the gate to get a better look at the statues. Instead, I hurried on into the dark, cool cavern, following the crabs into a tunnel system. To my surprise, peat torches burned from wall sconces set into the rocky walls, filling the cool air with a scent that could only be described as smoky dirt. The initial cavern entrance split off into several tunnel systems, and many of the crabs dispersed throughout these. But ten or so of them stayed with Raiden, and they led us into a small cave with a single mat lying on the ground and a clay jug filled with water.
“This place is too small for the likes of me,” the kyuubi said, looking around. She’d shrunk herself to the size of a Great Dane, though she still retained her usual shape. “But it is a good place to hide from the monkeys.”
“I’m glad you approve,” I said dryly as the furi and I slowly lowered Raiden to the mat. His skin was clammy, his forehead covered with beads of sweat, and he let out a moan of pain as his head touched down on the mat. My heart twisted at the sight of his suffering, and I remembered the charms I’d taken from his pocket.
“Okay, so what do I do with these?” I asked, pulling them from my own pocket. There were three—a rat, a weasel, and a bird. “I don’t see how any of these are going to help Raiden.”
The furi sat back on his haunches. “Summon the kamaitachi,” he said. “He will be able to heal your friend.”
I frowned, glancing back down at my palm. “Which one is that?”
“The weasel,” the furi said as if that were obvious. “You are not familiar with the kamaitachi’s legend?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “Don’t think my mom told me that one.” I plucked the tiny weasel charm from my hand and shoved the other two charms back in my pocket. “Maji, kamaitachi,” I ordered it.
The familiar swirling blue glow appeared by my elbow, solidifying into a ferret-sized creature. It had dark brown fur and glowing yellow eyes, and instead of forelegs, it sported sickle-like blades that jutted out of its elbow joints. On any other kind of animal, I would have found those incredibly intimidating. But the kamaitachi’s whole body was shivering with delight, its eyes glowing and its nose twitching like crazy. It was so freaking adorable I knew I would have tried to pet him if Raiden wasn’t dying.
“I haven’t been summoned in ages,” he chittered in a high, squeaky voice that instantly reminded me of Alvin and the Chipmunks. The weasel-like yokai turned around in a circle, completely unafraid of the other yokai in the room as it took everything in. But he froze the moment he laid eyes on Raiden, lying prone on the mat. “Did you summon me here to heal him?”
“Y-yes,” I managed to choke out. “Do you think you can?”
“Of course. It’ll take just a minute.”
Quick as a flash, the kamaitachi darted over to Raiden. He raised one of his sickle arms, and before I could so much as blink, slashed Rai
den’s cheek.
“What the hell are you doing?” I screeched, horror-spiked adrenaline rushing through me. I made a grab for the evil little weasel, but the furi pushed me back against the wall.
“It’s all right, Aika! Let the kamaitachi do its job.”
“What are you talking about?” I cried as the kamaitachi leaned over Raiden’s bleeding face. My stomach turned as it began lapping up the blood trickling down Raiden’s cheek. “Are you crazy? That thing is freaking eating him!”
“No, it is not,” one of the crabs said, startling me. I’d totally forgotten they were here, and now that I was paying attention, I noticed three of them were in the room with us. The rest were standing out in the hallway, which the kyuubi was guarding. “This is how the kamaitachi heals. Sit and watch.”
“He heals by injuring people?” I asked incredulously, unable to believe what I was hearing. But then I reminded myself that nothing about this situation was normal. I’d just spent six hours underwater without breathing. Who was to say that a weasel couldn’t heal someone by cutting them open?
Sucking in a shaky breath, I turned to watch the kamaitachi. It was still licking Raiden’s cheek, but to my amazement, the wound had completely disappeared. With each stroke of the weasel’s tongue, a little bit more color oozed back into Raiden’s face, until his pain-pinched features finally relaxed. The furi released his hold on me, and I dropped to my knees beside Raiden again, picking up his hand. The pulse in his wrist was steady and strong, and after a moment, he opened his eyes.
“Aika?” he asked, staring up at me dreamily. The softness in his gaze made my heart soften, but the reaction was eclipsed by relief. “Where are we?”
“We’re on Sarushima,” I said, a little breathlessly. “You got knocked out when we crashed into the surf. How are you feeling?”
“Good,” Raiden said, sounding surprised. He sat up easily. “Fantastic, actually.” He turned, then jolted as he came face to face with the kamaitachi. “Whoa!”
“Whoa!” the kamaitachi squeaked back. His nose twitched, and he leaned back. “You smell like you need a bath.”
