After summoning somany bouquets of flowers I felt like we’d booked a room in a flower shop, the three of us packed up and caught a cab to the Nezu Shrine in Bunkyo. I was a little disappointed that we hadn’t had time for me to learn how to actually makeofudas, but it was what it was. I knew enough that I was confident I could use Ryujin’s spell on Kai, and that was whatmattered.
By the time we arrived at the shrine it was early afternoon, so there weren’t many visitors. Even so, I found myself glancing around nervously as we approached thesuzuhanging from the shrine’seaves.
“Aren’t people going to notice if we suddenly disappear?” I hissed as Raiden clapped his hands. He’d taken the sword out of his bag and strapped it to his belt, and we were already getting weird looks frompeople.
“No,” Shota said as Raiden grasped the rope. “They’re Muggles, so they won’t see anything out of the ordinary. They’ll forget they ever sawus.”
“Did you just make a Harry Po—” I began, but Raiden cut me off with a mighty tug of the bell. It rang once, twice, and we joined arms just in time for the flash of light to engulf us. Like before, the light twisted into a psychedelic spread of colors, and this time I closed my eyes against it. Maybe if I couldn’t see it, I wouldn’t feel sick to my stomach when wearrived.
A few seconds later, my feet slammed into hard ground, and I stumbled into Raiden. He grasped my arms, steadying me, and even though I could only see blackness when I opened my eyes, the feel of his arms around me and his incense-laced scent reassured me that everything was fine. Taking in slow breaths, I waited for my vision toclear.
“Hey!” a male voice shouted. I turned toward the sound of footsteps crunching against rocky ground, and the fog from my vision finally lifted to reveal a lushly wooded mountain forest. A man about thirty years of age, dressed in a black and white gi decorated withkanji, was running toward us. “Who areyou?”
“I’m Takaoka Raiden. This is Hayakawa Shota, my cousin, and Fujiwara Aika, our friend,” Raiden said, stepping between me and the irate shaman. “We’re here to enter thetomb.”
“Raiden?” the shaman exclaimed. “You can’t go in there. Your parents have expresslyordered—”
Raiden whirled around, drawing the dragon blade in one smooth motion. He slammed thekatanainto the temporary shrine we’d used to teleport here, and a bolt of lightning burst from the cloudless sky and slammed into the shrine in a flash of light andsound.
“Shit!” Shota tackled me to the ground, covering my body with his as debris flew everywhere. The smell of ozone filled my nose as power crackled in the air from the lightning strike. As the smoke cleared, a chunk of rock bounced off my shoulder blade, sending a small but sharp burst of pain throughme.
“A little warning would have been nice!” I snapped, peering up at Raiden from beneath Shota’sarm.
“Sorry.” Raiden blushed. “I’ve never actually used this thingbefore.”
“Are you all right?” Shota asked, rolling me onto my back beneath him. His worried gaze searched my face. “Did you get hitanywhere?”
“No.” I pushed myself up into a sitting position so I could take stock of myself. I was a bit dusty, and covered in snow, but fine otherwise. “I’mokay.”
“Good.” Shota offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet. For once, he didn’t attempt to pull away, but wrapped his fingers a bit tighter around mine. Normally I would have been annoyed, but his face was pale, and there was a cut on his forehead from where a piece of shrapnel had hithim.
Discreetly, I sent a bit of healing energy into Shota to ease the pain from the wound. His eyes flew wide as color returned to his face, and I grinned up at him as his shocked gaze metmine.
You’re not the only one with tricks up yoursleeve.
“Why did you do that!” the shaman shrieked, interrupting our moment. He scrambled to his feet, his face deathly pale now. “You’ve ruined our only way out ofhere!”
“I’m sure there are other ways to get down this mountain,” Raiden said dryly, sheathing the sword. “I just didn’t want you forcing us back out. Besides, the shrine-maker can make another one, can’the?”
“Our shrine-maker is inside the tomb,” the shaman said sharply, jabbing a finger behind him. A path had been cleared through the trees. It led to a cavern entrance flanked by two enormous stone statues of a man and a woman. A strange, shimmery haze hung in front of the entrance that reminded me of an oil slick on pavement, and I assumed that was the barrier keeping Kai inside. “As is every other shaman who has attempted to go in there. They all went in, and never came out. I heard some terrible screams, but…” His voice shook a little, and he swallowed. “We have no idea whether or not they’re stillalive.”
“How many people went in?” Raiden demanded as my stomach turned leaden. “Were my parents amongstthem?”
The shaman shook his head. “Your parents are safely back at headquarters. We’ve retreated for now, until we can figure out how to safely reseal Kai without gettingkilled.”
Raiden nodded curtly. “Very well. Is there a path that leads to thewater?”
The shaman blinked. “There is, just through there.” He pointed to a path to our left. “But why would you gothere?”
“There’s a way to get into the tomb,” Raiden said. He stalked in the direction the shaman had pointed. “Come on,guys.”
“You can’t go in there!” the shaman protested as we started toward the path. “You’ll die, just like theothers!”
“We’re going to rescue the others,” Raiden called, not bothering to look back. “Stay here and guard the entrance. Don’t let anyone else through. We’ll be backsoon.”
He stalked through the trees, leaving the shaman gaping afterhim.
Shota and I hurried to catch up with Raiden. “You sound pretty confident,” I said as I came abreast of Raiden. “Considering that we have no idea what we’redoing.”
