“I’ll walk you up,” he said, scooting forward. “It’s too dark out for you to be on the street byyourself.”
“It’s only a few feet away,” I protested as he got out of the cab, but my words were half-hearted. I’d seen some freaky stuff today, and it was nice to have someone at my back who looked like he could actually beat someone in a fight. I was a mean volleyball server, and I’d excelled in dance competitions back in high school. But put a pair of boxing gloves on me, and suddenly I was allthumbs.
Good thing I don’t have any samurai in my family tree,I thought as I climbed the stairs.And that I’m not a man.I’d be a realdisappointment.
“Don’t be too long,” the cabbie called as Raiden slammed the door behind us. “I can’t sit here forever, youknow!”
Raiden ignored the driver as he followed me up the steps. I turned around, and stifled a gasp when I nearly smooshed my nose into his chest. “W-what are you doing?” I asked as he came to a stop. He was so close I could feel his body heat, and I was struck by the desire to lean in and wrap him around me like a furcoat.
That doesn’t sound creepy atall.
Cheeks flaming, I backed up against the door. “I appreciate your concern, but you don’t need to come in withme.”
“Yes, I do.” Raiden’s gaze darkened as he lifted his head. A bad feeling settled into my chest as his eyes zeroed in on the second-floor window of my apartment. “There’s a strongyokipresence in this place. And it’s coming from thatroom.”
4
“Yoki?”I echoed in disbelief. “You’re trying to tell me there’s a monster in my apartment?”Yokiwas the Japanese word for the dark energy generated by monsters—known asyokai.Kiwas the Japanese word for energy. Hence,yoki.
“That’s your place?” Raiden’s eyes widened. “Is anyonehome?”
“My mother!” Fear slammed into my chest as I flung the door open. I dashed down the hall to the front door of our two-story home, Raiden on my heels, and skidded to a stop in front of my apartmentdoor.
“Okaa-san!”I called, fumbling with my key ring. “Mom, are youthere?”
I managed to get the key into the lock on the second try and shouldered the door open. The stench of something awful, like swamp rot, filled my lungs, and I gagged. Some kind of faint, smoky rainbow haze hung in the air, and I instantly began to feel lightheaded. I clutched at the wall as the room started swaying even though I wasn’tmoving.
“Here.” Raiden slapped a kitchen towel into my hand—one of my own, I dimly realized. “Breathe throughthis.”
I did as he asked, and the sensation lessened almost immediately. A weird croaking sound echoed from upstairs, and the hair on my arms stood straight up. “What the hell isthat?”
“Stay behind me,” Raiden ordered, stepping past me. I followed him up the stairs, my heart pounding with every step. The stairway was narrow, and there was no banister up to the upper floor, so I had no idea what was waiting forus.
Raiden reached the upper landing and immediately began to swear. That croakingsound echoed against the walls, and I dashed forward despite my better judgment. My eyes bugged out at the sight of a gigantic toad with anaginataclutched in its…hand? Paw? Webbing? I didn’t know, but it was insane. The thing stood on two legs and was dressed in a white Japanese-style coat and pants, with a tall matching hat perched on its slimy, brownish-greenhead.
“Anogama!” Raiden cried, flinging an arm out to block my way. “Get back, Aika!” He unhooked his keychain from one of his belt loops and held up a tiny stone tablet the size of my index finger. But before he could do anything with it, the toadyokaiopened his mouth wide and belched out a cloud of rainbowsmoke.
“Gah!” I ducked my head, pressing the cloth firmly against my face. But the rainbow smoke—which smelled like rotten eggs, a decidedlyun-rainbow-like stench—engulfedus.
The cotton rag Raiden had given me was flimsy protection against theogama’srainbow burp. Even with it clutched over my nose and mouth, my head began to spin, and I stumbled backward, landing hard on the carpet. Raiden swayed on his feet, shouting something I should have been able to hear. Except his voice was warped, and suddenly I was seeing three ofhim…
“Whoa,” I mumbled as the walls around me turned purple and began to melt. Red and white spotted mushrooms with bulging, veiny eyes burst out of the walls, and I screamed as they leapt on me, crawling all over my body while giggling maniacally. I tried to fight them off, but they stuck to my arms and legs, and began multiplying, burying me in a mountain of sticky, ickyshrooms…
“Aika!” Raiden shouted, sounding very far away. “It’s just an illusion! Fightit!”
That’s easy for you to say!I wanted to shout, but a mushroom was stuck to my mouth, and I couldn’t do more than squeak. I lifted my hand to try and pry it off, but my fingers were covered in tiny versions of the bastards, and I couldn’t get agrip.
They are not real,a voice murmured in my head, and I stilled.Calm yourself, child. And stop breathing so hard. You are only drawing more of the poison smoke intoyourself.
I didn’t know where the voice came from, but I nodded. Warmth stole through me, like someone had injected a ray of sunlight straight into my veins. The mushrooms vanished, the walls stopped melting, and suddenly I could see Raiden again. He was facing off against the giant toad, a broomstick in his hand. It would have looked silly, except that he was dodging the toad’s strikes with inhuman speed, and there was a strange, fiery aura around him. A strange feeling washed through me, and suddenly the aura coalesced into the silhouette of asamurai.
The toad croaked in anger as Raiden dodged one of his strikes, then landed, cat-footed, on the spear’s handle. He brought the broomstick down hard in an overhead swing, smashing it into the top of the toad’s head with a sickeningsquelchthat flattened its hat. The toad’s yellow eyes bulged, and it let out a horrible sound as it stumbledsideways.
“Filthyyokai,” Raiden spat in Japanese, jumping off the spear before it clattered to the ground. His voice was deeper, more guttural than normal, and his eyes blazed with the same fire as his aura. He snatched up the spear and pointed it at the toad’shead.
“No!” I sprang forward, closing my fingers around his forearm. “Don’t!”
Those fiery eyes met mine.“Back away, foolish girl,”he growled, and I was gripped by an intense urge to obey his command. But the flames flickered away for just a moment, and Raiden’s dark eyes locked withmine.
