Ryuichi nudged his horse closer to Masa, wanting a real answer. “What exactly is the point of this?”
Masa smirked at Taka. “Not to die,” he repeated, as if that was their unofficial motto.
“Or get lost,” Shigeru added.
Masa snorted, then laughed. “Of course, everyone gets lost. It’s why we’re all here.”
Ichiro nodded. “True.” He jerked his head in the direction of Taka. “He’s the longest-surviving member of the Kai-dan.”
“Which is how long?” Ryuichi asked.
Ichiro shrugged. “He won’t say, but it’s longer than any of the rest of us.”
That was interesting. But it wasn’t what Ryuichi wanted to know. “How many students make it back to—” He didn’t get to finish his sentence before the others broke into laughter.
Except Taka.
Toru turned around in his saddle to give Ryuichi a sad, withering glare. “No one returns from the Kai-dan. You either die or go missing. Those are your only two options now.”
“I’m not staying,” he said resolutely. “I’ll be the first to go back.”
Koichi raised his bottle of sake in a toast. “Good to have dreams, Ryota! Aspirations are always important. Pretty sure I had some once. But I seem to have lost them.”
Along with his mind. Maybe it was taking up residence with Ryuichi’s, wherever it had gone.
What am I doing here?It was redundant, he knew, but he just kept circling back to that one haunting question.
While he’d always felt as if he didn’t belong, hedefinitelydidn’t belong with this group. Nor did he want to.
And that was a first.
Now that he thought about it, Toshi didn’t seem so bad. Maybe they could make up and be friends. Ryuichi would gladly go back and kiss the ground at the dirtbag’s feet if he could just reset this catastrophe and get out of this mess.
Be there for Kato as he healed.
But there was no way to go back and undo what had happened.Think ahead, Ryuichi. That was what Yoshi-sensei had tried his best to teach him. He wished he’d been a better student.
Sadly, the only path was forward.Wake from death and return to life...
As they made their way through the woods, Ryuichi couldn’t shake the feeling that someone—or something—was watching them. He could feel it like a cold breath on his skin. Like a snake slithering around his bare feet. Wet. Cold. Scary.
He sensed it.
Every part of him was sure something had them in its sights, waiting for them...
Still, he saw nothing.
Only the creepy darkness.
Everything was quiet, except for the sounds of the horses’ hooves and the pounding of his heart.
Maybe what he felt was Masaru watching them. It would make sense for Masaru to be there. He was supposed to be with Ryuichi, to protect him.
Instead, Masaru had abandoned him and vanished. Ryuichi had heard nothing from his snotty companion, and he was mad about it. Leave it to him to have the one and only yokai he couldn’t depend on in a fight.
Worse, Masaru had fought against him and aided his enemy.
So much for “choosing him.” It seemed Masaru had more important things to do than take charge of his charge.
