“You don’t belong here either. There’s nothing left for you here, Hana. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life running from the Shiikuin?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“You have more choices than you’ve ever had in your life. Left. Right. Up. Down. You can go anywhere. Be anyone. All you have to do is walk through a door. With me.”
“It is not that simple.”
“Why not?”
“Because we will never let you go.” A chorus of shrill voicesspilled out of the mouths of the two Shiikuin standing at the end of the road.
—
Hana and Keishin raced through the pawnshop as the Shiikuin’s shrieks grew louder behind them. Hana yanked the front door open. Blinding rain blew through the doorway, soaking the pawnshop’s floor.
“Go!” Hana yelled over the storm.
Rain lashed at Keishin. He held out his hand to her. “Come with me.”
A Shiikuin’s talons closed around Hana’s arm. Keishin threw himself at the Shiikuin and wrestled it to the floor. The Shiikuin slashed at his face, slicing his cheek open.
“Kei!” Hana ran to him.
A door slammed over her voice. A lock clicked shut.
Hana twisted around. The second Shiikuin turned from the locked door, an illusion of a sneer curling over its mask.
The other Shiikuin broke away from Keishin and stood next to the Shiikuin blocking the door. “There is no way out,” they chorused.
“But there is a way down.” Hana grabbed Keishin by the hand and dove into the rain puddle on the pawnshop’s floor.
—
Golden moons shimmered above the water. Hana and Keishin swam up to them. They broke through the surface and found a rubber raft floating close by. Keishin clambered onto the raft and helped Hana climb on board. They lay back, completely dry. Keishin stared up at the sky of golden moons. The light detectors were much closer to the water’s surface than in the memory he had borrowed from his colleague. TheSuper-Kamiokande’s water tank was nearly full, and if he stood on his toes, he could touch the glass bulbs.
“How did we get here? I thought that puddles could only take you to places in your—” Keishin caught himself. “In the other world.”
“The puddle we dove into was not from that world. It was from this one. I was not sure that it was going to work. I just prayed that it would understand me when I told it to take us to someplace safe.”
Panic flashed in Keishin’s eyes. “Does this mean the Shiikuin can use the puddle too?”
“I’m counting on it.”
“Youwantthe Shiikuin to follow us? Why?”
“Because I am tired of running. I told you when you first took me here that this was a beautiful trap.” Hana grabbed an oar and handed it to Keishin. “Now we get to use it.”
Talons broke through the water on both sides of the boat. Hana shoved a Shiikuin with the oar, keeping it from surfacing. Keishin slammed his oar into the Shiikuin on his side. The Shiikuin shrieked, their voices garbled by the water. Each time they clawed at the surface, Keishin and Hana beat them down.
“How long can they keep this up?” Keishin panted, striking the Shiikuin on the head. Its mask cracked, revealing the face decaying beneath it. Scraps of metal covered a hole where a nose should have been. “Why haven’t they drowned yet?”
“Because they can’t.”
“The Shiikuin can’t die…” Keishin said, remembering what Toshio had told them. “They just change parts when they wear down.”
“Metal parts.” Hana struck the Shiikuin’s shoulder.
“If you’re hoping that the water will dissolve them like that wrench I told you about, it’s not going to happen.” Keishin shoved the Shiikuin from the raft. “At least not before our arms give out.”
