Tokyo Demons Book 1: Chapter 5

The next morning, Jo felt like he’d slept in a cement mixer. Everything hurt.

But he still dragged himself out of bed. He didn’t like skipping school too frequently–even on Saturday half-days. Regular truants drew too much attention.

Looking in a mirror didn’t make him feel any better–he looked almost as terrible as he felt. He grimaced and touched his blackening bruises. Although he was still divided on the topic, he eventually decided to use a little cover-up. What was the point of going to school in order to not draw attention if he would shock everyone he saw? Also, he was vain, something he’d learned to admit to himself. He reached for the make-up.

Two canned coffees and the highest allowable dose of over-the-counter ibuprofen got him to class. To his surprise (and annoyance), he was the only member of Team Trouble to show up that day. Kadoyuki, Ayase, and Sachi were all skipping.

Jo snorted and slumped in his chair. The world was a sad place if he was the closest thing to a model student.

Almost out of spite, he ignored all his lectures that day. When he dragged himself back to his dorm that afternoon, Kiyoshi nearly tackled him the second he stepped through the door.

“Jo!” Kiyoshi cried, his fingers digging into Jo’s shoulders. The eyes hidden behind his bangs filled with uncharacteristic elation. “You were right! You were right!”

Kiyoshi shook Jo hard enough that Jo’s teeth rattled. Jo jerked himself free, plastering himself against the wall.

“Don’t…shake me!” he snapped darkly. “I might have a concussion, dickhead!”

Kiyoshi immediately backed off. “Sorry,” he blurted, bouncing a few steps back. “But…you were right, Jo! About Mai!”

Jo rubbed his spinning head. “What?” he muttered, trying to will the world to stop moving. “What did I say about Mai?”

“She wants to meet up! She came to me!” Kiyoshi grabbed a piece of paper on his bed and shook it in front of Jo. “I should’ve asked her out years ago! All those nights I stayed up thinking about her, all the parties I was too scared to go to…I was so worried she’d turn me down. But look, Jo! Look!”

“Stop yelling,” Jo hissed. He snatched the piece of paper that Kiyoshi whipped through the air. He unfolded it.

Kiyoshi Honda, it read. I’ve been thinking about you for a while, but I didn’t feel confident enough to say something until now. Can we meet up tonight? I have plans first, but I don’t want this to wait. I should be free by 2 am. I’ll be waiting in S. Park near the statue of the bear.

It was signed, neatly, with the name Mai Endou.

Jo frowned. “S. Park?” he read aloud. “At two am?”

“I know–she wants to meet tonight!”

Jo sighed. “That’s not what I mean, Kiyoshi.” Jo edged past Kiyoshi so he could reach his bed. He sat down heavily; his muscles sighed in relief.

“S. Park is a pretty sketchy place at night. And that bear statue’s in the middle of it.” He reached up to hand the note back. “It’s not exactly a hang-out for teenage girls.”

Kiyoshi brushed off the comment. “She’s probably at a party before that. I’m sure someone will walk her there.”

“It’s just weird, Kiyoshi.”

Kiyoshi mouth closed, forming a tight line. He stared at Jo a moment, then turned his head away.

“You don’t think I should go?” he asked very quietly.

Jo fell back on his bed. “I just…I don’t want you to get pulled into a prank or something,” he muttered. “It doesn’t sound legit.”

Kiyoshi clenched his fists. “Right,” he murmured. “Because it’s more likely that someone’s messing with me.”

Jo could hear some great emotion building up behind Kiyoshi’s voice. Too tired to want to deal with it, Jo threw up his hands.

“I’m probably being paranoid, Kiyoshi. Go if you want. It’s just a little weird that she would contact you out of nowhere and ask…”

Jo trailed off, a memory of the night before suddenly replaying in his brain.

“But I can talk up your roommate to Mai for you, you know.”

He paused. “Okay,” he finally murmured. “Maybe she’s not contacting you out of nowhere.”

Kiyoshi jumped at that. “Really?”

Jo rubbed one of his shoulders. “I sorta…name-dropped you last night. With a girl who knows Mai. I guess she could’ve mentioned you.”

Any disappointment vanished from Kiyoshi’s face, immediately replaced with his earlier excitement. “Really?!” he asked, louder.

Jo shrugged.

Kiyoshi laughed and clutched the letter to his chest. “Thank you, Jo!” he cried. “You’re a good guy! A really good guy!”

The room phone suddenly rang. Kiyoshi dove for it, which knocked the receiver to the floor. He frantically fell to his knees for it and shoved it against his face.

“Hello?!” he blurted.

Jo sighed and closed his eyes. He heard Kiyoshi’s voice fall as it mumbled a negative.

“Sure…no, he’s right here.” The receiver touched Jo’s chin. “It’s for you, Jo.”

Jo tiredly tucked the receiver against his ear. “Hello?” he asked.

“I underestimated you, Jo Oda.”

Jo’s eyes snapped open. He pushed himself to a sitting position.

“…I guess you got my number, Mitsuko-senpai,” he said carefully.

“Yeah. Along with that little surprise in your pocket.” He heard a faint jingling on the other side of the line. “The earrings look good on me.”

Jo felt his lips curving slightly. “I knew they would.”

“So…I guess this means you’re on to me.”

Jo looked up from his bed. Kiyoshi was digging through his drawers, shoving an armful of clothes against his chest. He grabbed his towel and shampoo.

Go, Jo willed silently. Give me some privacy.

Like magic, Kiyoshi glanced back at Jo and smiled brightly. He waved awkwardly with his full hands as he left the room and kicked the door shut behind him.

Jo scooted himself up his bed so he could lean against the headboard. He grabbed a free cigarette from his bedside table.

“To be fair,” he murmured as he pushed the stick between his lips, “you were on to me first.”

Mitsuko hummed. “Does this mean we should call a truce?”

Jo lit his cigarette and snapped the flame away. “I can’t wrap my head around you,” he muttered. “You’re obviously pretty enough to get away with murder, but talented enough that you don’t need to. And I looked you up–your parents are loaded.” He let out a long stream of smoke. “Why the hell are you lifting loose change and rotting away at Fukuhashi?”

“I didn’t learn to do that overnight. And I didn’t decide to try the hot girl thing until a year or two ago.” She gave a small snort. “Once you get kicked out of enough middle schools, no high school wants you.”

Jo took a drag. “So you used to get caught,” he clarified.

“Yeah, but I also used to do a lot more than lift a few wallets. But you’re in Byakko now–you probably heard how we used to be.”

Jo stopped at that. “We?” he repeated.

“What, Miki didn’t tell you?” Mitsuko laughed. “Wow, you really do have the wrong impression of me!”

“You…you’re in the Byakko gang?”

“More than in, sweetie. I was head of the Riot Girls.”

Jo puffed on his cigarette for a few seconds. Well, he thought. This is…an interesting development. He didn’t know what the Riot Girls were, but he could guess.

“I left the gang about a year ago. Most of the girls had bailed by that point, since Ban turned the gang into his personal stoned sausage fest.” She sighed. “With Seiryuu gone and Takeshi in hiding, nothing united us anymore. I’m not sure why Miki bothered staying.”

Jo prickled at the mention of the name. His attention was briefly diverted to his recent trouble.

“Speaking of Seiryuu being gone,” Jo said thinly. “Miki needs to update his information. A group of Seriyuu assholes jumped me last night.”

There was a pause. “Are you serious?” Mitsuko asked.

“They saw my white watch. And they mentioned Miki and…whatever his name is, your old leader.”

“Takeshi?”

“Yeah.”

Mitsuko whistled. “That’s crazy,” she murmured. “Nothing like that’s happened in ages.”

“Well, it did happen. And I have the scars to prove it.” He irritably released a drag. “I’m planning to tell Miki via my foot up his ass.”

“Interesting. Maybe they’re trying to pull themselves together.” He heard her shake her head. “Look, I’ll tell Miki for you. If there are Seiryuu stragglers trying to start shit, he needs to know.”

“Damn right he needs to know.”

The sound on the other side of the receiver suddenly went muffled; Jo could barely make out Mitsuko saying a few words. Then the muffler vanished and her voice was clear once more.

“I’ve gotta go,” she said. “We’ll catch up later.”

Jo sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Sure,” he murmured. “Oh, and thanks for talking to Mai last night.”

“Huh?”

“I guess she slid a note under our door this morning.” He took a short drag. “She’s meeting up with Kiyoshi tonight,” he said through the smoke. “He just about lost his shit–you’d think he won the lottery.”

Mitsuko paused. “Actually,” she said carefully, “I forgot to mention him at the party. She was at your place this morning? Her roommate said she never came home last night.”

Jo stopped. “She went home with another guy yesterday?”

“I didn’t see her leave, but maybe. But she’s probably just with a girlfriend if she’s planning to see Kiyoshi tonight.” He heard movement on the other end of the phone. “Just tell him to tell her to call her roommate, will you? I need a break from the problems of these freshmen girls.”

Jo frowned. “Right,” he murmured absently.

“Bye.” There was a click, then the other end of the phone went dead.

Jo slowly hung up the phone receiver. He finished the last few puffs of his cigarette.

So Mai’s note had been random. His earlier unease with the weird letter returned, this time deepened by Mai’s timely disappearance. Why was this bothering him so much?

Kiyoshi returned a few minutes later, his hair wet and his things bundled under his arms. He hummed to himself as he dumped everything on his bed and went to the mirror.

Jo ground out his cigarette. Kiyoshi pulled a comb through his hair with a little difficulty; it kept getting caught in tangles.

“Kiyoshi,” Jo said at last, almost despite himself.

Kiyoshi beamed over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

Jo furrowed his eyebrows. The guy looked so damn happy. And hadn’t Sachi mentioned that Kiyoshi’s crush on Mai wasn’t a secret? From what Jo knew about Kiyoshi’s perpetually obvious intentions, he believed it. Mai could’ve gone home with an old friend the night before. A slumber party that resulted in a letter to that boy who followed her around like a puppy dog.

It was plausible. Right? She just wanted to meet up. Maybe she was bringing her friend for moral support.

…To a sketchy park in the middle of the night.

Jo looked away. “Nothing,” he murmured.

Kiyoshi went back to combing his hair. Jo lay down on his bed and tried to focus on other things.

****************

Ayase was everywhere and nowhere. She relived key points in her life, watching them through muddied space and time.

At first she was a little girl, watching in fascination as she turned a few fingers into insects. Her playmate screamed, so Ayase abruptly reformed the bugs into flesh. The girl tattled on her. When the nun carried the crying girl back and demanded that Ayase hand over her toy bugs, Ayase tried to explain. The nun scolded her for lying. Ayase was too scared of the repercussions, so she didn’t show the nun her ability. The nun told her to stop watching scary movies and upsetting her house sisters.

Then she was seven or eight, rolling around in bed because her stomach hurt. A fever pulled sweat out on her forehead and twisted her blurry vision into hallucinations. The other beds in the room wavered like they were made of rubber. A cross hanging on the wall lengthened and sharpened into a knife. There was a loud bang from outside, and Ayase exploded into fragments, her vision suddenly everywhere and a dull buzzing filling her senses. She yanked herself back into human form, panting, and cried hysterically. When a nun heard her and ran in to find out what was wrong, Ayase couldn’t answer. The nun gently squeezed her hand as Ayase choked on her tears.

She was twelve, experimenting in the bathtub. She knew she could turn her hands into insects, but…she tentatively turned her toes to bugs, then her feet. A pounding at the door shocked her; she reformed her body as the head nun used her master key to get in. She ordered Ayase to get dressed, reiterating the house rule on spending too long in the bathroom. When the nun snapped that “good little girls don’t experiment alone,” Ayase felt fear knot up her stomach.

She was in Blue Light, a hand clapped over her mouth and her body bursting at the seams. Her foreign attacker crammed her into a jar and shook her, making the world blur outside her compound eyes. She filled a church and smothered him, bit him, yet she still felt trapped and vulnerable. Incomplete.

Her roommate smiled and closed Ayase’s fingers around a small canister of mace.

Kadoyuki fell to his knees and grabbed her blouse, tears rolling down his face.

Sachi jumped from his chair on the subway, yelping. He frantically brushed his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Ayase asked.

“Something was crawling on me,” Sachi blurted. He scratched his shoulder nervously as he sat back down. “Not to sound sissy…but bugs really creep me out.”

Someone crushed her under a boot.

 

Ayase jolted awake. She sat up abruptly, tightening her body as she unconsciously gripped the blanket draped over her. She flattened herself against the headboard as her eyes darted around the room.

She didn’t know this place. She was alone in what looked like a scant bedroom, one tiny window letting in a thick shaft of sunlight. There was a crucifix hanging on a wall, which made her think she was locked in some room inside the church. She was naked, but wrapped awkwardly in a sheet below the blanket. Her school uniform was folded neatly on a chair by the bed.

And beside that chair was a table…draped with a sickeningly familiar white sheet. Countless shining insects blotted its surface, some damaged, some crushed into no more than a dark smear. She choked on her terror as her head whipped to her left arm.

It was still gone. She clenched the missing limb in a panic, and most of the insects on the sheet jumped to life. Her heart pounding, she mentally pulled the insects inward. Some of the bugs raced to join her, but most flew crookedly on their half-broken wings. When her left arm reformed, her stomach sank.

Her arm looked like it had been ravaged in a fire. Large patches of skin were stretched so thin they barely contained the blood that pulsed under the surface. Pain radiated out from the throbbing islands of pink flesh.

Ayase slapped a hand over her mouth and looked away. The remains of at least a dozen bugs were squashed into the white sheet, too damaged to return to her. She swallowed down bile.

I’m…I’m gonna be sick.

She gingerly draped the blanket over her wounded arm. She didn’t want to look at it.

Something resting on the floor caught her eye. It looked like it had been placed beside the table–like it had been left for her with the insects and her clothes. She leaned over the bed and stopped.

It was a glass jar. Caging one more bug.

Her dreams of captivity rushed back into her. Her hand trembling, she snatched up the jar and balanced it between her knees so she could open it. She pulled the insect back to her…where it reformed with the rest of her body. A healthy, firm section of skin materialized over a small area of the patchy pink on her hurt arm.

Ayase sucked in a shocked breath as her hands went slack. The jar rolled off the bed and smashed to pieces on the floor.

She suddenly felt whole again. The nagging, the sense of being followed–the panic when she saw the foreigners in her dream staring at her through glass–vanished as the insect rejoined her body. This was it. This was it. She’d been missing a piece of herself and she hadn’t even known. But now…

She was herself again.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

There was movement outside her closed door. Ayase heard footsteps and hushed voices. She rubbed a fist over her eyes and quickly blinked away the tears; she had to focus. She still didn’t know where she was or what was going to happen to her.

She threw her sheet and blanket off and grabbed her clothes. She struggled into them on the bed, trying to keep her feet off the glass-littered floor while also avoiding the painful patches on her left arm. She had to give up on her bra and slide her school blouse on without it. She leaned over the bed and saw her shoes; she flipped them upside-down and shook them to release any glass shards. After sliding her feet into her shoes, she noticed, in surprise, that her cylinder of mace had been placed politely next to them.

She frowned. Was she still in the church? After she’d threatened the standing priest with mace, returning it to her seemed…weirdly trusting.

She crammed the mace back in her pocket.

The voices behind the door had gotten more urgent as she dressed, and now she distinctly heard arguing. One of the voices raised in pitch–which made her recognize it as Priest Daniel’s. Ayase looked around for something to defend herself with, in case the mace had been tampered with. There was a wooden chair nearby. She grabbed it and dragged it in front of her, tilting it on one leg so she could shove it forward as a weapon if she needed to. Her head snapped up as the doorknob turned.

The door creaked open. A confused-looking Sachi, of all people, was shoved inside the room. Then the door slammed shut behind him.

Ayase froze. Sachi stared at her for a moment, panic written across his face, before throwing up his hands in a no-weapons stance.

“I’m sorry!” he blurted. “I-I told them you were mad at me. I don’t mean to smother you when you told me to…I told them you were mad at me!” He wiped his hands on his pants, possibly to wipe away sweat. “But I guess they figured you were less mad at me than you are at them.”

Ayase’s hand tightened on the back of the chair. She felt bubbling frustration building up in her stomach.

This wasn’t some stupid middle school fight. It wasn’t an issue of whom she was more mad at.

Sachi seemed to notice her mood shift, because he held out his hands again. “I’m sorry, Ayase. You’re not in any danger, okay? I know that’s probably hard to believe, but I recognize that foreigner guy from Blue Light, and Daniel-san said he’s under the protection of the church but he wasn’t supposed to be working a drug deal.” Sachi shook his head. “I guess he’s been punished by the police but he’s still free for his own protection, and Daniel-san says the whole thing is complicated but we’re not in any danger. And I know he’s not lying because–”

Ayase shoved the chair aside with a loud scrape. It toppled over to crash on the floor.

“Why are you doing this, Sachi?!” she screamed.

Sachi went silent.

Ayase felt her anger, her panic, spilling over the confines of her resolve. Her mind desperately grasped for meaning as her problem-solving capacity drowned in fear. She had too many questions she was too scared to voice.

And she kept seeing her diagram in her head. The world closing in on her…and Sachi’s name in the center. Circled over and over.

Ayase opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat. She choked as her hands clenched into fists.

“Wh-what are they going to do to me?” she pushed through gritted teeth. “And you, Sachi…why are you defending them?”

Sachi’s face fell. He chewed on his lip for a few seconds before looking away.

“I’m sure you don’t remember this, but you bumped into me on the first day of school. In the morning, outside our homeroom.” His voice was very quiet. “I knew from the second you touched me that you were different. That you were hiding something that was tearing you apart.”

Ayase stopped at that. What? she thought.

“I wanted to help you. I admit, part of it was curiosity, but I honestly did feel bad for you. Every time I touched you I could feel how complicated your emotions were–even when we were doing stupid things, like riding the subway or talking about lunch. It reminded me of meeting Kado in middle school. I thought having a friend would make things easier on you, that maybe I could help you keep from rotting away on the inside because of something you could never tell anyone.”

Sachi’s gaze returned to Ayase, resolve building up behind his dark eyes. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without Daniel-san. I hated myself for being different. He taught me to cherish what I can do, to stop being afraid. I want to…help other people the way he helped me.”

Ayase stared at Sachi with wide eyes. Was this…a confession?

But of what? What was Sachi confessing?

“Different?” she repeated.

Sachi took a few steps toward her. Ayase cringed, so he stopped.

“I can show you, if that’s easier.” He tentatively held out a hand. “I can only do it when I touch people, though. May I…touch you?”

Ayase could only stare. Sachi took a few steps closer, and her confusion compelled her to let him. He finally reached out and gently took her right hand.

His skin was hot. He rested his thumb, damp with sweat, on the back of her hand.

Sachi frowned. “You’re confused,” he said quietly. “That makes sense. And you’re mad, but that’s fading…like now, you’re not mad, just surprised. You’re scared behind all of that, but it’s not a clear fear–it’s more like a muddy panic, a familiar kind of panic. Like something terrible happened to you and you’re afraid it’s happening again.”

Ayase jerked her hand free in shock. “What…what are you doing?” she breathed. Was he reading her palm? He hadn’t even looked at it. Was she hearing things?

How had he pinpointed her feelings so exactly?

With unusual forcefulness, Sachi reached out and gripped Ayase’s hand again. He pulled it closer to his body.

“And now you’re not mad at all,” he said quietly. “But you feel like you’re going crazy. You’re not, Ayase.” He squeezed her hand. “You can turn into those…insects. I can feel people’s emotions through touch. Daniel-san has an Arabic friend who can do things to people from far away.” He took a step closer. “You’re not crazy. And you’re not alone.”

Ayase stared up into Sachi’s eyes. Something warm sprouted to life inside her–something new and hesitant, and entirely foreign. It sent tendrils of warmth through her veins, loosening the knots that tied up her heart. But her stomach still clenched, afraid of what she was feeling.

“Don’t be scared, Ayase,” Sachi whispered. “Do you feel that new one? That’s hope. I know you’re probably not used to it, but I went through the same thing. Thinking you’re the only one in the world with your problem…and then hearing that you’re not. And that it’s not a problem at all.”

Ayase felt blood rush to her face. She looked away. She didn’t like this…it was weirdly violating.

Probably sensing that, Sachi released her. He shuffled a step or two backward, assumedly to give her space.

“…I get it,” Ayase murmured after a moment. “And I guess they…told you.”

A pause. “About the bugs?”

Ayase nodded.

Sachi sighed. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I knew you were hiding something, but not something so…major. No wonder you were freaking out so badly.” He shifted his feet. “My power’s invisible, so it’s not really fair to compare it to what you can do.”

Ayase’s mouth formed into a tight line. This whole situation was so surreal. She was talking about her ability. With a classmate. Someone she had met a week ago…someone who could “relate” because he had a supernatural ability of his own.

Her stomach clenched. This definitely hadn’t been how she’d imagined high school.

Hope. Sachi clearly had a deeper understanding of emotion than she did. Maybe he was right–she certainly didn’t have a name for what she was feeling right now.

It wasn’t particularly pleasant. That new warmth inside her was coiled with fresh anxiety, a tightening fear of the unknown. It didn’t make her feel better.

But it’s different.

Considering her mental state of the past few days, any change was probably a good thing. Ayase swallowed down the bile in her throat.

Someone knocked on the door. Ayase was grateful for the distraction.

“Hello?” Priest Daniel called through the wood. “Is everything okay in there?” He opened the door just enough for his head to poke through. From that distance, his face looked a bit puffy. He raised his light-colored eyebrows at Ayase, a silent repetition of the question.

Ayase sighed. “I won’t attack you again,” she said quietly.

That seemed to be all he needed. Daniel stepped through the door, confident.

“Excellent. Oh, and I see your arm is all…sorted out.” He gestured vaguely to her left arm. “We assumed it was because you couldn’t recall all your insects, so we recovered them all, but some were crushed beyond recognition.” His blue eyes flitted to the white sheet draped on the table. “And I see they’re still there. What happens to you when some of them are actually destroyed?”

Ayase jaw tightened. She could feel anger and distrust bubbling up from her stomach again.

“No one ever destroyed any before.”

Daniel threw up his hands. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “He was attacking you in self-defense, my dear, and I begged him to stop. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to ease the pain he’s put you through.” The priest sighed. “Nick has been in great danger for a very long time, and he foolishly accepted a job last week that started this whole mess. I can’t ask you to forgive him for what he’s done, but I would like to explain everything to you.” His eyebrows rose again. “If you’ll allow me?”

Sachi turned to Ayase. “Do you want me here?” he asked gently. “If I’m smothering you, I’ll go.”

Ayase shook her head quickly. She was still conflicted over Sachi, but she trusted him much more than these strangers. Compared to them, Sachi’s presence was practically comforting.

“Don’t go,” she said. “I want you to stay.”

To her surprise, he colored a little. He averted his eyes.

Daniel opened the door and gestured through it. “This way,” he announced. “I’ll fetch the tea.”

****************

Jo was antsy that night. He couldn’t shake his nagging sense of foreboding. Since he’d decided to stay in and take it easy, he did everything he could think of to ease his senses–playing Seiya’s video games, attempting a nap, smoking an entire pack of cigarettes. But nothing helped. Every time he looked up from his bed or his desk, he saw the ghostly image of Kiyoshi after dinner. He stood with one hand on the doorknob, smiling at Jo over his shoulder.

“I’m going out with some friends, then I’m gonna go meet Mai.” He flashed a V with his fingers. “Wish me luck!”

Jo growled and ground out his final cigarette. His eyes flicked to his bedside clock.

1:37.

Jo mentally debated, one last time, whether or not he should try to go to sleep. Then he angrily pushed his legs over the side of his bed.

Dammit, he thought in distaste. I’m getting soft.

He got dressed and called a cab. Once he was outside the dorm, he had to pick his way through dozens of students who loitered around the entrance, smoking and laughing and passing around a container of orange juice. He didn’t need to smell it to know what was inside.

“Hey!” someone called to him as he passed. “You got a cigarette, Jo Oda?”

Jo resisted the urge to punch that one in the face. His cab pulled up moments later; he escaped his rowdy classmates by ducking inside and slamming the door shut behind him. He heard muffled laughter from outside.

“Where to?” the driver asked.

Jo unbuckled his white watch from his wrist. “S. Park,” he answered as he shoved the watch in his pocket. “And make it quick, will you?”

Jo decided, during the short drive, that he wasn’t going to justify this to himself. He was tired of planning things, tired of plotting out his tumultuous relationships with the dangerous and annoying people that kept crowding into his life. He was done thinking. He’d gotten his ass kicked multiple times despite all his plans–it wasn’t like taking a break from it all could make things much worse.

He was just listening to his instinct now. And that instinct had been burning in his brain since the minute he read that letter from Mai.

Something was wrong. This was a set-up.

Jo didn’t know what kind of set-up it was–if he had to guess, Mai already had a jealous man in her life and he was calling Kiyoshi in for a warning or a beating. Jo hoped it was nothing more than a scare tactic, maybe one or two guys ganging up on Kiyoshi and threatening him so he’d give up on Mai. Maybe they didn’t plan to actually hurt Kiyoshi. Maybe it was less dangerous than that, and Mai and some giggling school friends were just planning to humiliate Kiyoshi by standing him up in such a ridiculous location.

Jo didn’t know. And in a way, Jo didn’t care. He just had to be there. Just in case.

The taxi dropped him off with only minutes to spare. Jo pulled up the hood on his dark hoodie and headed into the park. Jo didn’t know the place very well and the only light shone from a crescent moon, so he had trouble navigating where he was. He nearly tripped over a sleeping homeless man and pointedly avoided a picnic area where he heard grunting noises and saw moving shadows. When he finally noticed the outline of a bear statue from behind some trees, Jo slowed down and kept his head low.

His eyes adjusted to the darkness. The statue stood in a clearing in the center of a relatively thick clump of trees. Jo could make out a figure standing by the statue; when he neared, he recognized it as Kiyoshi. Jo squatted behind a tree just outside the clearing–it gave him a clear view while still hiding him from obvious sight. He pulled out his watch and tried to catch some of the moonlight.

Just after 2 am. He pushed his watch back into his pocket and leveled his eyes on Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi’s body language gave away his nerves; he kept shifting his feet, biting on a thumbnail, darting his head around. An unusual pang of sympathy shot off in Jo’s gut. He ignored it and focused on the task at hand.

A few minutes later, another figure stepped into the clearing. She was petite but unrecognizable in the darkness.

“Excuse me,” she called quietly at Kiyoshi. “Are you Kiyoshi Honda?”

She didn’t sound like a teenager. Jo could see Kiyoshi’s eyebrows furrow in concern.

“Um, yeah,” he called back. “Did…did Mai Endou send you?”

FWOOM

A large, dark shape dropped out of a tree and landed directly on Kiyoshi.

Jo jerked back in surprise so fast that he fell on his ass. He heard a loud thump, then the sounds of struggling and muffled yells. Jo quickly righted himself to see Kiyoshi grappling on the ground with a figure wearing a large, black trench coat.

Jo was about to jump to his feet when several more figures, all tall and broad, emerged from behind the trees. Jo ducked back down as the new arrivals closed in on the struggling figures.

“I’ve got it,” called the attacker in the trench coat. The voice was female.

“Just shut him up,” one of the other shadows hissed.

The woman in the trench coat pinned Kiyoshi onto his stomach, shoving his face into the ground. Kiyoshi’s cries were cut off by a mouthful of dirt.

Jo tried to stay still as his heart thundered in his ears. What the hell was going on? All the voices he heard sounded far too old to be teenagers; with the exception of the woman in the trench coat, they even sounded too old for university. There was no way this coordinated attack by a group of adults was just a prank.

This was very bad.

In a flash of insight, Jo remembered the Gaijin Timebomb. Him grabbing Kiyoshi in the club had set off disaster that night. Was he related to this? Was that night in Blue Light a failed kidnapping attempt?

But Sachi had said the guy was in police custody. Jo quickly scanned the figures in the clearing–the four new arrivals were definitely big, but none were as big as the Timebomb. He couldn’t tell if any were foreigners, either.

The girl/woman who had first called out to Kiyoshi flipped open a cell phone. “We got him,” she said into it. “Bring the car around.”

Shit. Jo’s hands began to shake. What the hell was he supposed to do? He didn’t stand a chance if he ran in there, and he didn’t have a cell phone to call for help…he shrunk down as much as he could and tried to memorize details off of Kiyoshi’s attackers. One of them had a scar over his right eye. Another had a tattoo on his chest that peeked out from under his tee-shirt collar.

And the woman in the trench coat. She gripped Kiyoshi’s wrists behind his back and dragged him to his feet, several fingers shoved so deep into Kiyoshi’s mouth that Kiyoshi audibly choked. When she nudged Kiyoshi in front of her, Jo could see that the woman was Kiyoshi’s height but rail-thin.

“Keep it down,” she hummed at Kiyoshi. “We don’t want to hurt your little girlfriend.” She slowly pulled her fingers from Kiyoshi’s mouth. Kiyoshi coughed, trembling, but said nothing.

The other woman murmured something else into her phone. As she gestured to the others, the woman in the trench coat gripped Kiyoshi’s throat with long, skeletal fingers. One fingernail scraped suddenly across the flesh and Kiyoshi winced; a trail of blood dribbled down his neck.

The woman murmured something–the only word Jo could make out was “taste”–and ran a tongue along the trail of blood.

Jo’s stomach lurched. He covered his mouth as the moonlight caught the edge of her teeth.

And fangs.

The hand dropped from Jo’s mouth. He stared, dumbfounded, as one of the other men barked at Trench Coat to stop.

I…didn’t just see that, Jo thought in disbelief. I didn’t just see…a lady with fangs lick Kiyoshi’s blood.

“Stop fucking around,” another man snapped as he dragged Kiyoshi out of Trench Coat’s clutches. He shoved Kiyoshi forward, one hand gripped tightly around Kiyoshi’s bicep, and jammed him into an awkward walk. The group dispersed slightly as Kiyoshi was forced to march out of their park at their lead.

Jo scrambled to follow. He hung back as far as he could while still keeping them in his sight; it was difficult, considering how the group spread out and obviously patrolled for witnesses. He barely saw Kiyoshi being shoved into a black car waiting on the street by the park. Once the entire group slipped into the car, Jo ran the distance gap.

He was nowhere near the street when they sped off–he knew they would be on alert as they fled–but he strained his eyes at the make and plate of the car. It looked like a Toyota, but he couldn’t be sure. He caught the four numerals on the license plate, but not the Hiragana or any accompanying labels. They took an almost immediate turn off the main road and disappeared behind a dark office building.

For a few seconds, Jo just panted to catch his breath. He swallowed acid and gripped the back of a nearby bench. It wasn’t until he stopped moving that he realized how badly his knees shook. He gritted his teeth and fought to remain calm.

“I’m probably being paranoid, Kiyoshi. Go if you want.”

Jo squeezed shut his eyes. His mind replayed the image of Kiyoshi screaming into the dirt. Of a tongue dragging along his skin and fangs glinting near his neck.

“Fuck,” Jo wheezed, his voice cracking. “Fuck…fuck!”

Beads of sweat rolled down his neck. He rubbed at them in a panic, his blood running cold.

Proceed to Chapter 5, page 3–>
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