“I think we’ll have to fight there.”
“Fight? Why? Fight against who?” Yoshi asked, panic edging into his voice. “Each other? I can’t fight.”
“If that’s true, why didn’t they take all of us and show us the arena?” Haru cut in, sharp with doubt. “You sure you’re not leaving something out?”
“She’s holding out because they promised her a golden chariot,” Daiki said, laying the sarcasm on thick.
I stepped up to the bars, gripping them tight. “Do I look like someone who knows how to fight? Do I look like a samurai warrior? I’m not lying. I’m telling you what I saw. There are others. They’re called Blades, and they look like… like…”
“Like what?” Haru pressed.
“Like gladiators. Fighting machines.”
“Gladiators?” Yoshi’s voice went shrill. “Why are we fighting gladiators? That’s it. I’m dying a painful death, probably get gutted in front of all those people.”
Sora caught my eye. He sat slumped in his cell, head against the bars. I couldn’t help wondering if he’d completely lost it. Why would they even think to put him through anything? Why bring him here at all?
“Has anyone talked to Sora?” I asked.
“He’s a goner,” Daiki said flatly. “He’ll be the first to go, no doubt.”
“Don’t say that,” I snapped, turning toward him. “None of us know what’ll happen. Writing him off now doesn’t help anyone. Don’t you all remember the apprenticeship? We need to help each other if we want to survive. Or have you all forgotten?”
A heavy silence followed.
“She’s right,” Kai said at last. “We need to watch out for each other. If we don’t, it’ll be easy to pick us off one by one.”
Daiki snorted. “That’s easy to say, Kai. But look at Yoshi—he’s afraid of his own shadow. I’m supposed to trust him to watch my back? And Sora?” He jerked his chin toward the slumped figure. “Like I said earlier, he’s deadweight. I’m just calling it like it is.”
“This all sounds like a nice group hug, but aren’t we forgetting something?” Haru cut in. “They took Akiko to the arena, not us. Maybe we’re not in trouble like she is.”
For someone so eager to form an alliance, Haru sure kept flip-flopping on whether I was the one to form it with. He wasn’t trustworthy, and I thought about telling the others about his little plan to cut them out. But that would only fracture us more. Haru might be a conniving coward, but the tighter we were as a group, the better our chances.
“I don’t know why they only took me,” I said. “Maybe my fate’s already sealed. I didn’t have to tell you any of this. I did because I know what’s at stake and because I know that alone, none of us stand a chance. Together, maybe we do.”
The cellblock went quiet.
Again Kai spoke up. “She’s right. I’m in. The question is—are the rest of you?”
44
The dream came to me again.
I was back on the boardwalk, a little girl in my favorite dress, searching for my father in the crowd. He was just out of reach, beckoning me to catch up. My short legs pumped, arms swinging, breath coming hard. And every time, he glanced back with that same smile—just before slipping into the alley and out of sight.
“Papa!” I cried, weaving through people, shoving past them. “Papa!”
I rounded the corner into the alley. There he was, at the far end, waving me closer. He opened a door and disappeared inside.
I ran as fast as I could, reaching for the door before it closed—but this time, instead of locking like it always did, the handle gave way. The door swung open onto a blazing kitchen.
Heat blasted my face like an oven. Men in white uniforms manned fiery woks, their backs to me as flames leaped high, licking the ceiling. They gripped huge iron spatulas shaped like double-bladed axes.
A sharp thud cracked the air. At the counter, a man slammed an oversize cleaver into a massive cut of tuna, halving it with terrifying ease. My eyes fixed on him as he lifted the cleaver again. Orange flames danced across its edge, glinting off the steel. Blood dripped from the blade.
And then his head snapped up.
For a split second I saw it—an oni mask. Only it wasn’t a mask at all. The skin, the horns, the leering mouth… they looked real.
