“How many are there?” Hana said.
“Too many.” Keishin bolted the paper door. “We need to get out of here. They’ll rip through these walls.”
“My paper is stronger than you think,” Haruto said. “And they will not have to rip through any walls if you let them in. Open the door, Keishin.”
“Open the door? Have you lost your mind?” Keishin said.
“When I give you the signal, run through that door,” Haruto said.
“What door?” Keishin said.
Haruto waved his hand at the wall facing the cliff. The paper ripped and folded into a door. “That one.”
“There’s a hundred-foot drop behind that door,” Keishin said.
“Trust me,” Haruto said. “You won’t fall.”
“You?”Hana said. “Aren’t you coming with us?”
Haruto took her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Neither of you belongs in this world. You should not have to die here.”
“What are you saying?” Hana pulled away from him.
“I’m saying that I changed my mind. Dying while I remember you is better than living a day without knowing your name.” Haruto pulled the front door open.
Seven Shiikuin burst into his home.
“Now, Hana!” Haruto flicked his wrist at the door facing the cliff. It folded open, revealing a sheer drop.
“No!” Hana screamed as the Shiikuin closed in.
Keishin tackled her by the waist, hurling them through the door and into thin air.
—
A sea of cranes broke their fall. They carried Keishin and Hana on their backs past the cliff’s edge and up to the sky. Hana scrambled to the edge of the cranes, scanning the ground for Haruto’s home. The paper house shook and began to fold itself. The Shiikuin shrieked from inside it.
“No!” Hana screamed as the house shrank with every fold. “What is he doing?”
Keishin pulled her back from the edge. “Keeping you safe.”
Hana trembled as she watched the house fold, over and over again, until all that remained was an empty cliff and the memory of the paper home and the man who used to live in it.
Chapter Fifty-nine
A Thousand Water Moons
One crane lingered, pecking at a pebble by Hana’s feet. Hana crouched to pick it up, but it flew away before she could catch it. It flapped its paper wings and climbed up to the sky, joining the other cranes as they disappeared behind the clouds.
“They’re gone.” Hana stared down the road Haruto’s cranes had delivered them to. The pawnshop was a few steps away, but she could not find the strength nor the will to move her feet. “He’s gone. I have no one left.”
“Come with me,” Keishin said.
“What?”
“Come with me to my world…ourworld.”
“I don’t belong there.”
