Page 87 of Son of Shadows

Masaru shook his head. This story couldn’t be any more tragic. Yet there were things that didn’t add up to him. “Then why did you try to conquer the spirit realm instead of searching for your son?”

“At that point, I had lost everything. Everything except this burning anger inside me,” Ryukage explained. “This sole desire to burn down the world because nothing could ease the pain. And so I did. I rained havoc on everyone for all the injustice I’d been served. I wanted nothing more than to open the gates and spread this hatred as far as I could. To give them a taste of the agony I’d endured. Let them suffer just as much as I had.”

Ryukage’s hands clenched into tight fists. Masaru could tell the anguish was still coursing through him.

“But when I saw my son, on the battlefield across from me, with the face of his mother and his blade pointed at my heart. What was I supposed to do? I thought I felt nothing but wrath and ruin. That I was incapable of the love I once knew. But when I saw him, I couldn’t hurt him. Not again.”

“So, you retreated?”

“Yes,” the Ryukage said. “And you’re wrong. I did look for my boy. For years.”

Not to reunite, but to capture and control him. But Masaru wasn’t dumb enough to say that out loud.

“Understood,” he said instead. “So what now? Are you committed to fighting Orochi? To really standing by your son?”

The Ryukage stood up quickly, like he wanted to retreat again, but he was surrounded by the sea. There was no escape from this reckoning.

“Every last bit of this was my fault,” he said. “It wasn’t the gods. It wasn’t fate. It wasn’t destiny. I alone destroyed my happiness, and I alone can get it back.”

What a fitting realization for a tortured creature like him.

“Now we are getting somewhere,” Masaru said.

“There is only one thing in my way,” said Ryukage. He puffed out his chest and brought his shoulders back, standing tall. “Orochi.”

“We can beat him. Can’t we?” Masaru didn’t want to sound skeptical, but crushing the World Eater like the worm he was would be an almost impossible feat.

Ryukage looked Masaru directly in the eyes. “We won’t lose. My son and I will make sure of it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Koichi awoke in the middle of the night to the frantic beat of Haruki’s heart. It was still hidden away under his shirt, but he could feel the organ’s fast rhythm, right against his chest.

It was as if she were afraid.

He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew it wasn’t anything good.

“Haruki,” Koichi whispered. In the darkness of the boat’s cabin, he couldn’t really see anything or anyone. “Haruki, are you okay?”

When she didn’t respond, a shot of fear traveled through Koichi’s body.

Had Haru done something to harm her? Koichi hadn’t figured out what the wolf yōkai was doing with all that gunpowder, so who knew if she was somehow a part of his dubious plan.

Or was it much worse? Had Haruki done something to harm herself?

Koichi couldn’t waste another minute worrying, so he sneaked off to search for her. Everyone was still fast asleep, even the yōkai standing guard at the dock.

If Haruki had gone off on her own, she couldn’t have gone far. But if Haru had her in his clutches, who knew what awful discovery awaited him.

Koichi went back to the caves, since that was where he and Haruki had last spoken. He’d spent so long hauling gunpowder barrels in each of these winding passages that he knew the tunnel system intimately now. Unfortunately, she wasn’t down any of the tunnels.

The heart in his pouch was beating faster now. Something terrible was going to happen, he just knew it. He wanted to shout for her, but the last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself and get caught.

Suddenly, he heard her sobbing. It echoed through the cavern. A sad, hollow sound that made his pulse quicken.

Following her cries, he hoped Haru wasn’t torturing her.

He didn’t want to admit it, but if something happened to Haruki, he swore he’d bring this whole cave down upon whoever dared to hurt her.