Tokyo Demons Book 1: Chapter 8

“It’s okay. Don’t feel bad.”

Ayase struggled to breathe. His weight pressed down on her, pushing her into a futon mattress she didn’t recognize. Cool sheets ran across her skin as she twisted in the strange bed.

“It’s okay,” he said again, sliding his fingers up her palms. His calloused fingers entwined with her own. “There’s nothing to feel bad about.”

She could barely think in the white haze. Terror squeezed her heart as he ran his lips up her neck, his soft hair dragging ahead of his trail. She felt a warm ache between her legs send fire through her veins. Her knees bent unconsciously, folding up on either side of his hips.

Where was she? She felt out of place, dropped in a life that wasn’t her own. A thousand conflicted feelings pulled her in every direction. Something drove her forward–an instinct, a desire in another body. When he ran his wet mouth up her throat, she tilted her chin up to give him better access. A chill ran down her spine as she writhed.

She couldn’t be here.

She couldn’t do this.

But why? When she tried to ask him, it came out as a moan.

“Don’t feel bad,” he repeated. “Don’t feel bad, Ayase.”

But she did feel bad. This was wrong.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Kiyoshi covered it with his own.

“…Ngh!”

Ayase woke so suddenly that the breath whooshed out of her lungs. She gasped, fighting for air as her knees slammed together. She grabbed at the sheet draped over her and curled into a defensive position.

She was alone. Her eyes darted around the empty room, taking in the two empty futons and the open floor that had once hosted many more. Her clothes were folded beside her mattress. Her breathing evened out as her heart raced. She carefully peeked under her sheets, not sure what she was looking for.

She was in the robe Daniel had given her. She was still wearing her bra and underwear. There was no sign that…anyone had been in there with her.

Ayase swallowed hard. After the week of surveillence in Core, she no longer trusted that her dreams were only dreams–too often were they observations through different eyes, haunting her when she thought she was asleep. She pushed down the panic welling in her stomach; she didn’t feel the nagging pull of a bug trapped outside her body. She was in one piece.

The ghostly sensation of lips throbbed on her collarbone. She craned her head down…but there was no mark on the flesh. It wasn’t even pink.

Ayase let out a heavy breath. It’s okay, she told herself. Nothing actually happened. She rubbed her hands over her face, trying to dispel the residual guilt entwined with her heart.

It was only a dream. She hadn’t done anything.

It was only a dream.

Ayase grimaced. A sex dream, she acknowledged with extreme distaste. A sex dream now, the night after fighting her way through a rescue mission.

She was starting to think her subconscious was plotting against her. Ayase had read somewhere that high periods of stress led to unusual dreams, but the twist with Kiyoshi was particularly cruel. She’d gone through something similar after he’d kissed her in Blue Light. Why did these things always happen with him? Why was she always stuck in some sort of…awkward position with him that her brain would latch onto for days?

Her mind wandered back to Zayd’s car in Kabukichou. Kiyoshi wrapping his hard arms around her, his lips burying in her hair….

Ayase shivered. She wished he hadn’t done that. He hadn’t meant anything by it, right? He’d just been relieved to be back with friends. But her subconscious, traitor that it was, was going to torture her with it.

“Don’t feel bad.”

Ayase clenched her hands into fists. Part of her knew why her mind would throw a line like that into a fantasy. She pushed the analysis aside, instead turning her attention to getting dressed.

She wasn’t sure what to do with the futon, so she left it out with her folded robe. She heard a voice from the hallway–someone male, but his conversation sounded one-sided. Ayase wondered what time it was. Careful not to surprise whomever stood outside, Ayase slowly pushed open the door.

“…She let all the Byakko guys go? Or just you?”

It was Jo Oda. He stood with his back to her, facing the dead end of the hallway as he spoke into a cell phone. He glanced back at her once, then turned his eyes back to the floor.

“Look, I’ll just come to you,” he said into the phone. “T. Hospital, right? What room?”

Ayase stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her. She recognized the navy blue phone strap dangling off of Jo’s phone.

Jo ended the call and snapped the phone shut. Before she could ask him anything, he pushed the cell phone into her hands.

“Give this back to Sachi,” he said. “And if anybody asks, I had somewhere to be. I’ll check in later to see how Kiyoshi’s doing.”

Ayase frowned. Jo was pale and disheveled, a far cry from his usual groomed confidence. A few beads of sweat shone on his temple. He looked distracted and…haunted, like something loomed over his shoulder. Paranoid.

“Somewhere to be?” Ayase repeated after a moment. “T. Hospital?”

“Don’t tell them that! I mean…shit.” Jo angrily ran his hands through his hair. “Just…don’t advertise that, okay? I don’t want anyone chasing me down. And I won’t be there for long.”

Ayase paused. Jo hadn’t been at “debriefing” the night before, so maybe he didn’t know that nobody was supposed to leave the church. Unless things had changed that morning? Ayase didn’t know how long she’d been asleep.

Jo seemed to notice something in her expression, because his face hardened.

“I came here last night because I didn’t know where to go,” he said darkly. “I never planned on staying.”

Ayase closed her fingers over the phone. “Okay,” she murmured. “But…is it safe to leave?”

“You think this place is safe?” Jo snorted. “Maybe Kiyoshi has to stay, but I don’t trust that asshole Nick. I’d rather take my chances with someone…I-I’d rather take my chances outside.” Jo pointed down the hallway. “Is the back door down there?”

Ayase nodded. As he brushed past her, Ayase opened her mouth.

I should say something, she thought. He shouldn’t leave like this.

But no words came to her. She always felt a blank wall between herself and Jo, a force blocking them from each other before things got too personal. Based on what Sachi said about him, Ayase wasn’t the only one who felt locked out.

But unlike Sachi, Ayase didn’t feel the need to knock the wall down. It seemed…natural, in a weird way. Jo’s business was his, her business was hers. Did they really belong in each other’s lives?

The compulsion to say something faded as Jo pushed his way out the back door. She slid the phone into her pocket, the strange sense of detachment calming her.

Voices from the kitchen snapped her out of her thoughts. She glanced at a clock in the hallway and saw, to her surprise, that it was past ten in the morning. She’d slept over 12 hours again. She hurried to the kitchen, suddenly embarrassed by her absence.

The voices buzzed out of an old TV propped on the kitchen counter. Priest Daniel watched it gravely from the back of the kitchen, Sachi and Kiyoshi by his side. It took Ayase a moment to recognize the fourth figure sitting near them as Detective Nakajima, a baseball cap fitted snugly over her salt-and-pepper hair. On the far end of the table, Emi leaned in to whisper at Kadoyuki, who slumped in a chair in front of an untouched sandwich.

Sachi noticed Ayase immediately. He snuck over, pressing a finger to his lips as he gripped her wrist and pulled her into the kitchen. Ayase turned to the TV as she stepped inside.

“…the violence ended a relatively peaceful period in Kabukichou, where police say crime was at all-time low since the year began. There is no official statement yet on the source of the explosives that caused the blaze, but roads and businesses around the area are closed until further notice.” The fiery graphic behind the newscaster’s head vanished, replaced instead by footage of a pub surrounded by police tape. “In other news, an outbreak of youth violence at a local bar has left four dead and at least eight wounded, including two men under twenty who are in critical condition.”

Kiyoshi quickly gestured to the TV. “That’s where Jo was!” he exclaimed. “Turn it up!”

Daniel murmured something to himself as he turned up the volume with a remote. The newscaster described the attack on Kiseki as photographs of deceased teenagers filled the screen. Ayase’s stomach dropped as she recognized at least one of them from Fukuhashi.

Sachi’s hand slid from her wrist to her palm. She looked up; he frowned sympathetically at her and squeezed her hand.

The newscast switched to a commercial. Daniel sighed and muted the TV as he rubbed at his sinuses.

“Good morning, Ayase-kun,” he said absently. “How are you feeling?”

Ayase cleared her throat. “Fine,” she replied. “I’m…sorry I slept so long.”

“Is it because you became a full swarm yesterday? You slept like this the last time you fully transformed.”

Instinctual paranoia clenched Ayase’s stomach, but a quick scan reaffirmed that everyone in the room knew what she could do. She noticed Kadoyuki at the table again, trying to deflect Emi as she pressured him to eat something. Ayase’s gaze wandered to Kiyoshi as he grabbed a sandwich from a pile on the table. He looked up and his eyes caught hers.

He smiled.

“Don’t feel bad, Ayase.”

The lingering dream of his touch snaked back into her mind. Her mind screamed in protest as she suddenly remembered his hands running up her body, his hot mouth opening against hers. She jerked her eyes away as color drained from her face and something tingled below her waist.

Ayase swallowed hard. Stop it, she ordered her mind. That dream didn’t mean anything.

She felt Sachi’s hand stiffen in her own. Ayase realized, in sudden horror, that she was still touching him.

Dammit!

Ayase instinctively yanked her hand free. She snapped her head up to meet Sachi’s wide eyes.

He stared at her a minute, then closed his open mouth. He smiled weakly as his eyes flicked to Kiyoshi.

No.

No.

Ayase wanted to scream. She wanted to say something, anything, but her throat closed up. The kitchen was suddenly too full–there were too many eyes on her. They had seen her pull from Sachi’s touch. And the way Sachi’s eyebrows creased ever so slightly as he looked away…it clenched a choking vise in Ayase’s chest.

“Ayase?” she heard Kiyoshi ask from somewhere. “Are you okay?”

grooooooooooo

The low rumble of Ayase’s stomach cut through the room. Ayase slapped her hands over her stomach as Daniel chuckled.

“She’s just hungry,” he said as he reached for the plate of sandwiches. He held it out to her. “Here.”

Ayase was grateful for the distraction. She grabbed a sandwich and bit into it, suddenly realizing how ravenous she was. Sachi offered her a chair, but she awkwardly shook her head.

“B-but thank you,” she mumbled through a full mouth, feeling the need to acknowledge him somehow. She swallowed and looked up. “Thank you.”

Sachi flashed her a small smile. It was tired, but genuine.

Detective Nakajima leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Priest-san has been telling me about your adventure yesterday,” she said. “I was with the force all night, but it was illuminating to hear the church’s side of the story. The police were mostly occupied with the gun fight in Kabukichou.”

Ayase swallowed another mouthful of bread and tuna. She suddenly remembered Kiyoshi’s intended sniper target from the day before.

Nakajima smiled coolly at Ayase. “Thank you,” she murmured. “It seems you saved my life.”

Ayase frowned. “Not really,” she replied quietly. “We couldn’t get there in time. The one who really stopped the shot was…Touya-senpai.”

Nakajima licked her teeth. “Touya Kamishita,” she said thinly. “That one took us by surprise, I’m afraid. Soldier-san thought he’d passed along all the information from his days with Zero, but he claims he forgot about the child Zero was interested in.”  Nakajima shrugged. “And any details he remembers now are too vague to be of use.”

“Zero?” Ayase repeated.

Sachi sat in an empty chair. “The head of Core,” he explained. “That’s our code name for him. Nick-san says it’s safer if we don’t use any of his real aliases.”

Ayase was still confused. Sachi seemed to notice the look on her face. “Oh,” he said after a second. “Did we tell you yet? We found out some stuff through Jo. It looks like Touya is Zero’s adopted son.”

Ayase stopped. “What?” she blurted.

“The records are buried under pseudonyms and destroyed documents, but yes, it seems Zero adopted Touya a few years ago.” Nakajima sighed. “And Touya likely has some sort of supernatural ability. We’re not yet sure if he’s on Pitch, but since no one has seen him in anything less than long sleeves and gloves, he may be.”

Ayase put down her unfinished sandwich, her mind processing the new information. She struggled to remember the few times she’d run into Touya. Had he always worn long sleeves? She’d been distracted by the gloves and the cologne he wore. They’d spoken briefly on the school roof and she’d seem him once or twice in the hallways…

The hospital bathroom.

The day Kadoyuki had begged Ayase for help. Touya had come to that bathroom looking for Kadoyuki. Ayase jerked her head up.

Kadoyuki, on the other side of the table, was white as a sheet. He sunk lower in his chair, his eyes locked on the table.

Emi looked up from trying to force a bottle of tea on him. “Everybody keeps bringing up those gloves,” she commented. “I wonder if there’s any significance to them.”

Daniel shrugged. “Possibly. It may have to do with his ability–for example, Sachi’s empathy is trigged by touch.”

“But I don’t need skin,” Sachi pointed out. “It’s better when it’s skin-to-skin, but I can still feel things through clothes.”

“Every ability is different, so it’s hard to speculate.” Nakajima picked up the remote to unmute the TV as the news returned. She lowered the volume. “But it might have more to do with identification. His records have been doctored so heavily that he might want to keep his fingerprints off of anything…or he might have had his fingerprints removed, which he would also want to keep hidden. Zero is a trained physician–he might have modified or destroyed his son’s fingertips to protect them both.”

The word destroyed made Ayase’s stomach lurch slightly. How did someone destroy fingerprints? With fire? A chemical burn? If Touya had been adopted a few years earlier, he’d probably been in middle school or early high school when “Zero” had taken him in.

She shuddered. She suddenly didn’t want to know why Touya wore gloves.

Kadoyuki remained silent, his lips a tight line. Ayase wondered if she should say something. But…she’d already told Daniel about Touya and the bathroom, right? Maybe he’d already talked to Kadoyuki about it?

Another photograph on the news caught Ayase’s eye. She turned to hear the end of the newscaster’s report.

“…eleven years old. His body was found near the playground of his elementary school less than an hour ago.” The school photo of a boy, darkness haunting his young features, disappeared behind a graphic of the words BREAKING NEWS. “Based on the condition of his clothing, the police suspect he was abducted by a pedophile who may have been caught while trying to move, prompting him to kill the boy near the abduction site yesterday. Police don’t yet know if the kidnapping was random. A reward has been offered for any information that could lead to an arrest…”

Ayase’s stomach lurched again. Kiyoshi let out a breath from the back of the room. “So much happened yesterday,” he murmured.

“Yes. And we should go through the details now that Ayase-kun is here.” Daniel gestured to Nakajima. “Detective?”

But Nakajima was focused on the TV. She glared at the screen, her dark eyes hard, as something unreadable flickered across her face.

Daniel leaned over her. “Detective Nakajima?” he repeated. “Are you all right?”

Nakajima blinked once before looking up. “Excuse me?”

Daniel glanced at the screen. Nakajima lifted the remote and abruptly turned off the TV.

Sachi looked around. “Where’s Jo?” he suddenly asked. “He left to make that phone call ages ago.”

Ayase remembered the phone in her pocket. She pulled it out and offered it to Sachi.

“He gave this to me,” she said. “He…left, actually.”

“He what?!”

Daniel threw up his hands. “God give me strength!” he exclaimed. “After everything we went through this morning?! We told him to stay on church grounds!”

Ayase noticed Kiyoshi wilt. He slumped against the back wall of the kitchen.

“Nick-san telling him about Touya seemed to really freak him out,” Kiyoshi said quietly. “And Jo’s…kinda a loner, anyway.”

“We still needed to talk to him, Kiyoshi-kun. He’s the only one acquainted with Touya!”

“But I don’t think he is. Not really.” Kiyoshi frowned. “Jo said he told us everything he knew.”

Daniel opened his mouth to retort, but Nakajima cut him off with a hand. She slowly stood from her chair.

“From a safety perspective,” she said, “Oda-kun sounded like a bystander in all this, so he’s probably in the least danger outside. But I would recommend that the rest of you stay in the church until further notice. We think yesterday’s attack was a coordinated effort by Core to cripple any threats against it–now is the most dangerous time for anyone with information to wander around unprotected.”

The room went quiet. Daniel sighed, his expression grave.

“Touya not withstanding,” he explained, “it seems like Core is preparing itself for a major transformation. We’ve been tracking Core with Nick for several years–their behavior lately is very different from how they normally operate. The most obvious is kidnapping new recruits, including Kiyoshi-kun. A few of their business fronts have been buying and selling large quantities of stock for no clear reason. And then yesterday.” Daniel took a breath. “Core sent operatives in disguise to attack various groups that pose any threat to them. The disguises were good enough to fool the public, but not good enough to fool the targets. So Core was probably trying to cripple its opposition while sending along a subtle message of dominance.”

Subtle. Ayase swallowed. The word didn’t seem right for what had happened the day before.

“Dominance?” Sachi asked. “What do you mean by that?”

Nakajima smiled darkly. “Have you ever seen a dog mark a fire hydrant?” she asked. “Imagine that fire hydrant is Tokyo.”

Sachi grimaced. “Ew. But…why?”

“Probably as a threat. Core wanted to scare off the opposition while keeping the public ignorant.” Daniel starting ticking off numbers with his fingers. “We told you Core is aligned with certain factions of Yakuza, right? The club in Kabukichou they attacked is run by other factions–rival Yakuza. We’re not sure of the significance of the street gang Jo was with, but Jo said their leadership knows about Core; Core might consider them some sort of leak, especially since they were looking for a leader who disappeared. The operatives with Kiyoshi tried to assassinate Detective Nakajima, so they clearly know her role in the police investigations.

“The one place they didn’t attack,” Daniel continued, “is here. Which means Core either doesn’t know about the church, or they don’t consider us a threat.”

Kiyoshi suddenly straightened. “But…Touya-senpai mentioned the church,” he blurted. “He said…I mean…” He trailed off, his eyes lowering to the floor.

Emi finished the sentence for him. “He said we would take you in.”

Nakajima angrily let a breath out through her nose. “Touya may have been sending us a message,” she said thinly. “Maybe he wanted us to know, through Kiyoshi-kun, that the church is safe from Core. What we don’t know is how he’s aware of us when Core isn’t.”

Sachi frowned and gripped his temples. “Whose side is Touya-senpai on?” he wondered aloud. “Do you think he’s working against Core from the inside? Against his dad?”

“Not necessarily. Helping Kiyoshi-kun may have been at odds with Core’s goals, but it doesn’t mean Touya is trying to hurt Core. And there was something both Ayase-kun and Kiyoshi-kun said–a line from when Touya called off the hit on me.” Nakajima furrowed her brow. “He said things would go badly for them if they went through with the assassination. Maybe he was afraid keeping Kiyoshi-kun and killing me would make Core vulnerable somehow.”

Emi gripped her elbows in thought. “Nick-san said that Zero considered Touya too good for Core–whatever that means. Do you think there could be a disconnect between Touya and the rest of Core? That…I don’t know, Zero has separate orders for Touya that sometimes conflict with the other operatives? We already know how fragmented and secretive the organization is.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “And we know Zero is extremely paranoid,” he added. “Actually, having conflicting orders in Core leadership would hide his true plans from lower operatives.”

“It’s too early to tell. Touya may be an ally, or he may be more loyal to Core than anyone. Or he may be working for a third party with its own agenda.” Nakajima shook her head. “But he knows about us and he’s getting his information from somewhere. So we have to be extremely careful with him.”

Sachi chewed on his lower lip. “If he’s working for someone else,” he said after a moment, “would it be one of the groups Core attacked? One of Core’s enemies? Although I guess he would’ve tried to stop the attack…wait, that might blow his cover.” Sachi ran a hand through his hair. “This is all so confusing. I guess…if he was working for someone else, it would have to be a group that would benefit from Kiyoshi and Detective Nakajima being saved, right?”

“Like the church,” Emi said quietly. “If we didn’t know better, everything points to him being a secret agent for us. But we’d literally never heard of him before he let Kiyoshi go.”

There was a long silence in the room. Ayase took the reprieve to try and settle her reeling mind.

“What about Kiri?”

Ayase blinked. The mumbled words had come from Kadoyuki, still hunched in his chair. Daniel and Nakajima stared at him in shock.

“Wh-what?” Daniel blurted. “What did you just say?”

Kadoyuki curled defensively. His eyes darted around the room, his lips trembling slightly.

“Y-you didn’t talk about them yet. Right? Could he be working for them?” He glanced at the TV. “The news said that elementary school boy died…”

Daniel frowned, clearly confused.

But something severe overcame Nakajima. She was on her feet and across the room in a blur. With one fluid motion, she grabbed Kadoyuki by the jacket and threw him into a wall.

Emi cried out her surprise as Kadoyuki’s chair fell against her and a plate smashed on the floor. Nakajima rammed her forearm under Kadoyuki’s chin, pinning him to the wall by his throat. Daniel spluttered something as Sachi and Kiyoshi ran at them, but Nakajima threw out a hand to stop the room.

“No.” Her clipped voice was clear and very, very dangerous. “Stay back.”

Kadoyuki, his terrified eyes locked on Nakajima, trembled under her grip as his lips fumbled for words.

“I…I-I didn’t–”

“Where.” Nakajima leaned in close to him, her voice ice. “Where did you hear that word?”

Ayase’s heart raced. She felt every nerve of hers on edge, aching to transform. What word? What was it Kadoyuki had said?

Kiri?

Kadoyuki choked. “S-somebody mentioned it earlier. I heard talking–”

“Nobody mentioned it earlier. You’re lying.” She narrowed her eyes. “Especially about the boy.”

Kadoyuki opened his mouth, but all he vocalized was a sob. Tears filled his eyes.

Daniel ran over. “Wait!” he pleaded. “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation here!”

Nakajima glared daggers at him. Daniel swallowed.

“Kadoyuki-kun has been in and out of the church lately. Nick and I have had to discuss a lot of things since Kiyoshi was taken.”

Kadoyuki squeezed shut his eyes. “I-I heard it through a door,” he breathed desperately.

Nakajima scowled. “We can blame a lot of things on your loose tongue,” she snapped at Daniel. “But not this. He’s lying.”

Ayase started to panic. Seeing a police detective choking her sobbing classmate scared her–enough to throw her hard-won sense of safety into question. What was wrong with Nakajima? What was she implying about Kadoyuki?

“Stop!” Sachi begged, his voice as panicked as Ayase felt. “Don’t hurt him! It’s probably his ability!”

Nakajima paused. Kadoyuki’s wide eyes flew to Sachi, betrayel written across his face.

Nakajima grunted. “Don’t look so surprised,” she said lowly. “We got the debriefing on you when Shouri’s bodyguard dragged you in here yesterday. Oda-kun had some interesting things to say about your behavior before the attack on Kiseki.” She leaned in closer to Kadoyuki’s face. “Were you using your power then? Or are you working for Core?”

“Hey!” Kiyoshi shouted, suddenly joining the defensive. “That’s kind of a stretch, isn’t it? Let him breathe!”

Kadoyuki sobbed. Nakajima loosened her grip, but didn’t release him.

“You can cry all you want,” she hissed. “We still haven’t heard you contribute a single thing to our discussion on Touya. You were spotted with him a few weeks ago in a hospital; by my reckoning, you’re the only one in this room who knows anything about him.” She scoffed. “And you haven’t said a word. You didn’t earn the benefit of the doubt.”

Guilt squeezed in Ayase’s chest. But Kadoyuki didn’t even look at her–he just frantically shook his head and gripped Nakajima’s arm with both hands.

“He…he’s a student advisor!” he blurted. “Touya used to advise me! H-he was trying to…he…”

Kadoyuki struggled through his frantic sobs. He squeezed shut his eyes and choked, “He was my roommate! He brought me to the hospital because I was sick!”

Sachi blinked. “Roommate?” he repeated in disbelief. “In the Fukuhashi dorm?”

A chill ran down Ayase’s spine. Kadoyuki nodded desperately.

Nakajima’s eyes hardened. “What kind of sick?” she asked.

Kadoyuki broke down into tears again. Nakajima’s gaze slowly trailed over his body–his mussed jacket and school uniform sagged off his slight frame, wrinkled badly enough that he’d probably slept in it the night before. She suddenly looked out at the rest of the room.

“Has anyone seen him in short sleeves?”

Ayase froze. When no one said anything, Nakajima flipped Kadoyuki around and gripped the back of his neck to slam him against the wall. She grabbed the collar of his jacket as he cried out.

“No!” he cried as he struggled. “Don’t!”

Nakajima yanked downward, pulling the jacket off his flailing arms in one movement. Ayase’s heart dropped when she saw the long sleeves of the winter uniform cuffed around Kadoyuki’s wrists. Nakajima stepped back, her grip still forcing Kadoyuki’s cheek against the wall.

“Roll up your sleeves,” she ordered. “Now.”

Sachi finally ran up to Nakajima and grabbed her arm. “STOP IT!” he shouted.

Nakajima didn’t move. When Kiyoshi made to grab Nakajima’s other arm, the look she threw him stopped him in his tracks. She turned back to Kadoyuki.

“If he rolls up his sleeves,” she said evenly, “I’ll let him go.”

Emi covered her mouth. Daniel gently pulled Sachi off Nakajima.

“Kadoyuki-kun,” Daniel said quietly. “Please do as she says.”

Kadoyuki spluttered some not-words as he broke down into hysteric sobs. He clutched at the wall with scraping fingers.

“Don’t!” he begged. “Please!”

Nakajima reached to the front of his throat and slid two fingers under his collar. With one downward swoop, she tore through the buttons on his school shirt.

Something snapped in Ayase. The look of terror on Kadoyuki’s face dropped her, crashing, right back into that hospital bathroom.

“Help me!”

Her vision blurred. As her body screamed for release, she pulled herself inward and clamped herself into one piece as she ran, unthinking, at Nakajima. She braced her forearms and slammed into the woman as hard as she could.

The two of them crashed to the floor. Ayase heard mixed shouting around them as Nakajima forced Ayase against the wood, twisting Ayase’s arm behind her so fiercely that pain shot through her shoulder. Nakajima grunted.

“Don’t try to be a hero,” she snapped.

Anger coursed through Ayase’s body, spilling white rage into her mind. She exploded her trapped arm into insects. She took advantage of Nakajima’s surprise to roll away from the older woman, reforming her arm as she crouched into a defensive position. Ayase panted and glared daggers and she braced her arms in front of her.

“Then stop treating us like criminals!” Ayase shouted before she realized she was speaking. “We’re not here because we want to be!”

Nakajima narrowed her eyes. Kadoyuki’s soft sobbing broke the sudden silence in the room. Ayase, the blood rushing in her ears, turned back to him.

Kadoyuki was curled in a ball, his hands clapped over his head as he recoiled from Daniel’s touch. His torn shirt dangled off his frame, revealing enough of his forearms to prove that the inside of his elbows were free of bloated black veins.

But his pale body was emaciated. Ribs strained against the yellowing skin; Ayase could count the vertebrae on the sliver of his spine that poked out from the tatters of his shirt. His skin was scattered with cuts and bruises, but nothing serious enough to distract from the wasted condition of his body.

Sick. He looked worse than sick.

Sachi dropped to his knees by Kadoyuki. “Kado?” he said gently as he reached out. “We’re sorry, okay? We’re sorry!”

Kadoyuki’s eyes snapped open. “Don’t touch me!” he screamed as he pulled from Sachi’s fingers. He slid back on the floor, scrambling to his knees in a panic. He started choking. As Sachi stared at him in shock, Kadoyuki fell onto his hands and knees and started dry heaving.

“Lord deliver us,” Daniel breathed as he grabbed a plastic bag off the counter. “Emi!”

Emi ran to Kadoyuki’s side, ordering Sachi to move back. Daniel barely got the bag under Kadoyuki’s mouth before he started vomiting. For all his choking, very little came out of him; all Ayase saw was a disturbingly bright yellow fluid spilling down his lips. Her stomach lurched.

Emi shook her head quickly. “I caught him vomiting more than once last night,” she murmured. “And he won’t eat or drink anything…he’s getting dangerously dehydrated.”

“Can you put him on an I.V.?!”

“I’ll have to at this point. Maybe Adam-san is stable enough to give up his spot in the sick room.” Emi draped an arm over Kadoyuki’s shoulders, leaning in as he recoiled from her. She lifted her arm, instead pulling back to leave some space between them. She held up her hands where he could see them.

“Kadoyuki-kun?” she said quickly as he retched again. “We’re not going to hurt you, but I need to put you on an I.V. You’re bringing up bile and you need fluids if you can’t eat.”

Kadoyuki dry heaved a few more breaths, then squeezed shut his eyes. He sobbed and covered his mouth.

Nakajima finally stood. She brushed off her pants and adjusted her hat, which had been knocked askew. Ayase slowly rose to her feet, her body still tight.

Nakajima glared at her so coldly that ice crackled through Ayase. The older woman lowered her eyebrows.

“You’ve been extremely useful to this mission,” she said flatly. “But these are unfamiliar waters you’re swimming in. Your teenage sentiment could jeopardize the safety of everyone on this team.”

Kadoyuki whimpered on the floor as Sachi watched helplessly. The look on Sachi’s face stoked the fading fires of Ayase’s rage.

Ayase clenched her fists. “If you’d spent your life trying to deal with a terrible power,” she told the detective lowly, “you wouldn’t assume he was acting suspicious.”

Nakajima suddenly smiled. It was a dangerous smile–small and unkind. Something dark flitted through her eyes.

“Are you implying I don’t understand what that’s like?” she asked quietly. “Don’t you dare speak to your elders that way. And believe me.” She glanced coolly at Kadoyuki. “There are far worse things than whatever he’s going through.”

Ayase swallowed. She watched Kadoyuki struggle to his feet, shunning the help of Emi as he stood on quaking knees. Emi was careful not to touch him as she gently guided him to the sick room.

Ayase’s chest hurt. There was something about Kadoyuki’s behavior that struck a terrible chord in her. It wasn’t just that he’d reached out to her once. It wasn’t just that his pathetic condition was easy to pity.

He reminded her of herself.

Sachi had told her about trying and failing to reach out to Kadoyuki in middle school–how the guilt over Kadoyuki had driven Sachi, in part, to reach out to Ayase on the first day of school. Sachi knew what an unwanted ability could do to someone. Despite the rough route, he’d gotten through to Ayase eventually–but not until after she’d hit a new, desperate low in her paranoia after Blue Light. A paranoia that had resulted in her exploding into a swarm in the church and trying to kill Nick and Daniel.

There was something the nuns used to tell Ayase during the lectures on charity. There but for the grace of God go we, they would say. That tragedy deserved sympathy because nobody was immune. Ayase had understood the need for charity, but sympathy was harder to grasp…it had been too hard to see outside her own fear and confusion. She hadn’t been secure enough to pity anyone else.

But things were different now. She’d watched Kiyoshi through insect eyes as he cried himself to sleep in the Core compound. She’d seen Sachi whisper through his terror in the back of a car trapped in a firefight. The swarm, once a liability, now filled her with a strange calm when things were at their worst. She was strong. She had strength. She’d gone from fearing everything to watching people fear her.

Ayase was finally starting to see that she could have a purpose. Sachi had gripped her from her cliff’s edge and pulled her to safety, empowering her to climb to new heights she’d never dreamed of. But it had been so close. His hand hadn’t reached hers until she’d started hurtling over the edge.

Kadoyuki and Emi disappeared through the door. Sachi glanced back at Ayase once, his lips a tight line, before running behind them. Daniel raised his hand as if to stop him, then pulled back. When Kiyoshi made to follow, Daniel gently gripped his arm and murmured for him to leave them alone.

Kiyoshi frowned. “Is that Kado guy gonna be okay?” he asked. “He looked…half dead.”

Ayase took a deep breath.

There, she thought as she stared at the empty doorway. She blinked her burning eyes.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Proceed to Chapter 8, page 3–>