Covered in blood and shivering, Touko looked around and tried to still herself. Fire Fiend blood and guts coated her clothes and skin. She smelled awful and felt worse. Kanata growled somewhere ahead of her, keeping watch. His loud howls had reached Koushi and the others as they’d headed toward the city’s industrial area.
Kanata was happy to see Koushi again. His exuberant demeanor was completely at odds with his attitude while facing down Dr. Takimi. He was as content as he’d been at Haijuu’s side—before his master’s death.
Akira was injured. Touko had the presence of mind to remember that. She tried to tell Koushi, but her voice came out very quiet. She clutched a Fire Hunter’s sickle in her right hand. It had belonged to Koushi’s father. Koushi hadn’t taken it back from her because he’d worried about Yuoshichi finding it. The sickle’s blade was black and sticky with Fire Fiend blood.
She had killed Fire Fiends with this sickle.
Impossible.
Kun was pulling at her, calling her name, but she barely heard him. She let Kun pull her where he wanted to go. Her legs were like rubber; her head lolled.
They were close to the tunnel. She could see Fire Fiends stumbling out of it, appearing as confused and lost as she was. They stepped over the corpses of their fellow Fire Fiends, red eyes glowing, and surged toward the city in a terrible black wave.
Roroku, Mizore, Akira and Temari were waiting to welcome the horde of monsters. Their only advantage was that the Fire Fiends were disoriented and sick with madness, poison or disease. They couldn’t move as fast or as well as they usually could. Still, they came in overwhelming numbers, and there weren’t enough Fire Hunters here to halt their advance.
“We’ll be okay,” Koushi said. “Kanata’s howl alerted the other Fire Hunters and their dogs. They should be here soon.”
Touko nodded dumbly, then remembered Hinako. Was she safe? Where was she? She spun slowly and saw Hinako there, still in her nightgown. Her feet were covered in mud, but she didn’t appear to be sick. Fine scratches marked the bare skin of her arms.
Shuyu’s body lay at Hinako’s feet. Touko knew the child: he was a Tree Person that Touko had followed into the city’s quarantined area. The leaves that grew from his limbs had withered when he died. His neck tilted back at an unnatural angle. His eyes were closed. There was a deep gash through his neck: a Fire Fiend’s claws had torn it open. Fine scratches covered his remaining visible skin. He’d been dead for quite some time.
Hinako stood over him, her back against the wall of a building. Koushi beckoned to her, but she refused to come any closer.
Koushi glared at his sister for the first time in his life. Hinako’s slim shoulders slumped, but her expression remained fixed and determined. Her eyes moved in an unreadable way, as if she were looking at another world.
Koushi frowned, glanced up, then shook his head. “Hinako, don’t go anywhere alone like that again.” Koushi gritted his teeth. Whenever Hinako had a fever or was scared of something, it was her habit to cling to Koushi’s legs. What had changed? She was standing so far away and wouldn’t come any closer. They’d finally been reunited, but Hinako hadn’t called out to him even once.
Shuyu’s death was a shock to Touko, but she couldn’t stay frozen in this moment forever. Kun twitched in her arms. She, Hinako, Kun and Koushi needed to get to safety while they still could.
“Can you walk? You can let go of that now,” Koushi said to Touko. She was gripping her borrowed sickle tight. “All the Fire Hunters from the capital are coming. Touko, you won’t need to use that anymore.” He sounded like he was begging her to drop the weapon.
A heavy weight of regret weighed on Koushi’s shoulders. He should have just accepted the weapon back when it was first offered and hidden it somewhere. Touko had left her home village, crossed the forest, and finally delivered it to him. She had fought Fire Fiends because of his refusal to accept the sickle.
“Um… Was there a girl there just now?” Touko asked, pointing upward with the trembling fingers of her left hand.
“Huh? There’s no one there. Let’s go. It’s dangerous here,” Koushi said.
“What about Miss Akira?”
Koushi frowned. Touko was acting strange. Her body was no longer shaking, but her knuckles were white where she gripped the sickle. She held out one hand to Koushi and missed his hand when he offered it. Her eyes were cast down, not looking at anything in particular.
“Are you hurt?” Koushi asked. He stepped forward and took Touko by the sleeve to steady her.
Touko shook her head, but leaned on him slightly.
Koushi supported her shoulders and tried to look her in the eye. Her head dropped down as if she lacked the strength to support it.
“Miss Akira? Is Kanata here? I can’t see… I can’t see anything.” There was something wrong with her eyes. She reached up to her face and felt no injury, but all she could see in front of her was darkness. Sweat beaded on her forehead.
Still supporting Touko so that she could stand, Koushi looked toward the tunnel. Roroku and Mizore were hunting down Fire Fiends large and small with great efficiency. Akira fought alongside them, wielding her golden sickle. Her movements were stilted and jerky; she was badly hurt, just as Touko had said.
“We have to leave now,” Koushi said. “It isn’t safe.” He tugged at Touko’s hand, then glanced back at Hinako.
Hinako wasn’t looking at Koushi. She was staring down at Shuyu’s body, her gaze shadowed. Her expression made Koushi anxious. Was Hinako preparing to run off again? Would she run and escape, or would she fight again?
At that moment, Akira fell backward, barely managing to stay in a defensive position. Her blood splattered everywhere. Her curly red hair stuck to her cheek.
“What are you doing?! You’ve gotta move!” Akira cried out. She stood up quickly, shaking off blood from her weapon. Her shout was so loud that it was difficult to believe that she was so badly hurt. Her small white dog ran after her, panting.
Koushi strained his eyes to determine how many Fire Fiends had crossed the barrier. Many of them were motionless—dead or incapacitated. Even so, more and more of them continued to surge forward, so much so that it seemed that they would break the gate that stood in front of the tunnel.
“Who’s hurt?” Roroku asked. “Keep back from the thick of it. The Millennium Comet is coming. If you die here, your brother’s spirit will never know peace.”
Akira bit her lip at what Roroku said. Her breathing came in ragged gasps. She stood straighter with great effort.
“Leave this to me and hurry to the shrine,” Roroku said. “You don’t want the Spiders to get there first.”
Roroku’s voice cut over the sounds of the city’s factories in operation and the rabid howls of the Fire Fiends. He sliced through the neck of a wolf-shaped Fire Fiend, then used a severed goat’s horn as a claw to jump up and chop its shinbone. Flying squirrels, foxes, and other small creatures went down so quickly that even Mizore couldn’t track them all with her eyes.
“But…” Akira tried to protest, but couldn’t make herself heard over the screams of battle and rattling factory machinery.
A few factories were still operating. The rest of the city was practically deserted aside from Fire Hunters and their dogs rushing into battle. Earlier, Koushi had left his house by the sea and met with various teachers from the Academy. He’d mobilized them to begin an evacuation of the city, including the factories. The teachers and many other people had witnessed the Millennium Comet when it had first appeared. Professor Hitou had used his own clout and that of the Okibi family to take charge of the evacuations in the city.
The other teachers didn’t sit idle, either. Everyone had sprung into action.
“Come with me,” Koushi said to Akira.
Akira turned to face him, her breathing ragged.
“The capital’s Fire Hunters will soon be gathering here. Touko can’t see. We need to get her someplace safe, and then I have to head to the place where they’re detonating the lightning fuel. If you’re going to get to the shrine, you’ll have to hurry.”
Even as he called out to Akira, Koushi realized there was no way she could make it to the shrine in her condition. It was hard to believe that she had been killing Fire Fiends alongside Roroku a moment ago. Blood flowed from her forehead down to her chin, with deep cuts covering her shoulders, back, arms and neck. She was losing blood at a rapid pace.
Koushi cast his gaze over to the slums beside the tunnel. All the lights were out, but the residents there might not have evacuated yet. Even if there was no one there, they should be able to get water and cloth for bandages. He had to get Touko and the others to safety and treat Akira…
“What do you mean, Touko can’t see?” Akira asked.
Temari, Akira’s white dog, looked up at her master, then at Koushi. She let out a mournful howl.
Where are the other Fire Hunters? Koushi asked himself. They should be here… unless the Guardian Gods’ spies and guards are getting in the way?
Akira’s eyes fixed on the approaching Fire Fiend horde coming through the tunnel. If they couldn’t stop the Fire Fiends here, it wouldn’t matter if the city’s factories were evacuated or not. The city would be destroyed—and destroyed so easily.
Roroku slipped in a pool of blood as he slaughtered a small monkey-shaped Fire Fiend that was about to bite him. Roroku couldn’t defend this place on his own… but he had to. The Fire Fiends were still coming.
Koushi, numb to terror, lifted Touko up over his shoulders and then moved next to Hinako. Hinako stiffened as he approached and grasped her wrist. She tried to pull her hand away, and he said, “Don’t run off. We need to stay together.”
Hinako flinched, then stopped moving. Even Touko flinched at the sound of Koushi’s voice, though she could see nothing. Yelling at his younger sister, who had always been sick and a crybaby, made Koushi feel small to himself. He’d never wanted to frighten his sister. He’d never even imagined himself capable of such a thing.
Touko’s blood felt hot as she sweated, random patterns burning themselves onto her lack of vision. She was terrified of not being able to see. She’d never ever thought she would be so terrified. What was Koushi thinking, being so cruel to his little sister like that?
The sound of heavy rain made Koushi look up. Ferocious growls of Fire Fiends melded with the pounding of the rain, creating a wall of sound.
“Urgh…” Kun groaned from between clenched teeth.
Kanata turned around, thinking that more Fire Fiends were approaching.
Kun pushed past the dog, his whole body shaking as strange cries escaped his throat. His gaze settled on the tunnel and the horde of monsters spilling out of it.
The same primal fear he’d felt when he’d faced down Hibari bubbled up in Koushi’s gut.
Lights from the factories that were still running lit the sky, creating a kind of mottled darkness. Shadows wriggled and crawled at Kun’s feet. They were insects—hundreds, thousands—countless. They crawled on Kun, under his clothes and all around him,. Then, as a single mass, the insects headed toward the Fire Fiends with their antennae waving in the air and their legs creeping over the ground. Some insects flew in a great dark cloud.
Kun was a Spider. This was his power.
Koushi remembered what Kun was as the insects crawled over the boy. He wasn’t human.
Touko called out to him in a voice tinged with worry, but Kun did not respond. The insects advanced in droves toward the Fire Fiends.
Kun’s groans took on a frenzied cast as his voice grew louder and more and more insects answered his call. It didn’t look like he wasn’t even breathing.
“Kun!” Touko cried out.
Touko, who Koushi was carrying, trembled and shifted. The insects reached the Fire Fiends and slipped into their midst. The black-furred beasts and the small insects blended together in the night. It was hard to tell where one started and the other ended. The Fire Fiends suddenly fell, flopping about on the ground as the insects’ venom made them go mad from pain. In moments, the insects claimed the lives of dozens of the ferocious beasts.
The bottom fell out of Koushi’s stomach as he took in this sight. He felt Touko’s fear in the stiffness of her grip. Koushi himself was afraid, though he tried not to show it in front of Touko and Hinako.
Kanata’s ear twitched. He’d been keeping an eye on the Fire Fiends and showed no fear toward the insects at all.
Akira quickly turned around. From the other side of the industrial area, she heard dogs barking. The other Fire Hunters were finally here, holding bright lanterns aloft. The light shone on the insects crawling along the ground and flying through the air.
Koushi let out a sigh of relief… but then he saw a Fire Fiend leap at Kun.
Squinting, Koushi saw that it wasn’t a Fire Fiend that was attacking the boy, but a small, short-furred hunting dog. The dog pounced on the child, growling, even as Kun continued his onslaught against the Fire Fiends.
Koushi heard Roroku click his tongue. The Fire Hunters from the capital rushed over. The initial relief he’d felt was replaced by a fear he couldn’t shake.
“Spider!” someone yelled.
“How irksome,” Roroku complained. “Just when we were turning the tide…”
The hunting dog leaped on Kun’s back and dragged him down. The dog moved to bite Kun’s neck, as they’d been trained.
Before the dog could bite Kun, Akira kicked the dog off of him. The dog shrieked in outraged dismay as it fell to the ground a foot or so away from Kun.
“Oi!” Roroku shouted at the dog. “The Fire Fiends are that way! Attack them!”
The majority of the Fire Hunters stepped over Fire Fiend corpses and headed down the cliff toward the tunnel. Their golden sickles shone and their dogs followed fast on their heels. The Fire Hunters ran toward their targets, and their dogs ran with them.
Touko twisted on Koushi’s back. She was still holding a sickle and was careful when she moved so that she wouldn’t injure Koushi with the weapon. She still couldn’t see anything.
Kun fell and didn’t rise. Akira stood over him protectively, moving with a grace that belied her injuries. But then a Fire Hunter kicked her in the temple, spattering her blood on the ground, and Akira lost her balance. Another Fire Hunter kicked her in the gut, and she doubled over. Temari bared her tiny fangs to threaten the attacking Fire Hunters, but none of them backed off. The ten or so Fire Hunters who hadn’t gone after the Fire Fiends moved around Akira and Kun in a loose circle. Koushi could only watch, frozen to the spot.
Koushi saw someone grab the little Spider by the upper arms and drag him to his feet. Dogs barked furiously. The Fire Hunters beat Kun, their heavy blows sounding like a bag full of water being slammed against a wall.
It all happened in moments. Well-trained Fire Hunters and their dogs found it no trouble at all to maul a small child.
What on earth were these Fire Hunters doing? True, Kun was a Spider, but he was helping. Kun was preventing more Fire Fiends from reaching the capital by using his control over insects.
The Fire Hunters rushing toward the tunnel fell upon the Fire Fiends and overwhelmed them. Their compatriots, meanwhile, hung back from the battle and were about to torture Kun to death.
“…Didn’t you hear? The Fire Fiends are over there!” Koushi cried out. He put Touko down without letting go of Hinako’s hand. With his free hand, he searched for the bottle of lightning fuel in his bag. He wanted to use it to distract the Fire Hunters who were attacking Kun, destroying their concentration with a flash of light.
At that moment, Koushi’s body lurched violently as Hinako shook him off. He thought his shoulders would give way as Hinako freed herself from his grasp with incredible strength. She kicked the pavement, jumped high into the air and landed in the middle of the group of Fire Hunters.
Clouds hanging low in the sky poured down rain on the devastation of the ground. The rain swept violently through the air, digging sharply into Koushi’s skin.
“Stop!” Hinako stood in the middle of the Fire Hunters. Kun was in their grasp, still being beaten. Rain splashed Hinako’s feet as she stepped forward. Hunting dogs bared their fangs, slightly confused by her sudden appearance. Kun hung limp, suspended in midair.
Akira struggled to rise. She shouted—Koushi realized that she was shouting to Hinako—but her words were drowned out by the rain.
Hinako looked up at the Fire Hunter who held Kun, then thrust her hand into his groin with great force like a child who’d found some sweets in his pocket and had become determined to get at them. The Fire Hunter fell backwards, screaming, even though Koushi didn’t see an obvious wound. It didn’t seem like Hinako had been particularly violent.
Koushi blinked, then saw blood pooling under the man’s clothes and dripping down his leg. Hinako’s small hands were stained with blood.
Koushi had no words.
Kanata glanced back at Koushi, who was holding his breath. Even the dog appeared concerned.
Hinako picked up Kun, who’d fallen at the same time as the Fire Hunter. The other Fire Hunters were still nearby, reacting to what had happened slowly. They seemed as shocked as Koushi.
The first Fire Hunter to regain his wits yelled, “You’re a Spider, too!” at Hinako.
The thread that had been holding Koushi’s thoughts and movements in place snapped. Rain poured over him, soaking him in seconds.
Koushi raised the bottle of lightning fuel in one hand. He threw the protective cloth that wrapped over the bottle into the rain and raised his arm to throw it. The golden liquid trapped in the glass rippled in his hand.
Someone grabbed his wrist tight and didn’t let go.
“Hi there, mole. If you set that off right now, it’ll just cause more chaos.”
There were Tree People standing behind Koushi. The cloying, sickly-sweet scent of the chemicals that Tree People used to ward off Fire Fiends hit Koushi full-force as he turned to look at them.
The Tree Person who’d stopped him was a woman with a gruff voice and hair sticking to her tattooed cheek. The thin branches growing from her left arm danced in the rain.
It was Kiri, the Tree Person that Koushi and Touko had met underground in the Well of the Old Tree.
Kiri looked away from Koushi when she noticed Shuyu lying motionless. She frowned down at the dead Tree Person. “He must have followed the birds, I guess.” She wasn’t speaking to Koushi. Perhaps she wasn’t speaking to anyone, not even herself. Her words were difficult to hear over the rain.
Touko sat against the wall behind Shuyu, clutching her borrowed sickle to her. She could hear the Tree People, but she had no idea where they were. Her eyes roved aimlessly, searching for things she’d never be able to find.
A dark, cold wave swept over Koushi: all his anger, impulses, and thoughts were crushed by the weight of the wave. Children were being cruelly beaten down and killed, and there was no one to save them. His heart pounded wildly in his chest. He was a child: a child who didn’t know anything and couldn’t do anything. He should have realized that before.
No. Koushi accepted his ignorance of many things, but there had to be something he could do. Hinako was ahead of him. Touko was behind him. Kun lay still. Akira was hurt. How could he save everyone? The loudness of the rain irritated him, interrupting his concentration.
Akira knelt on one knee and looked up. The rain didn’t seem to bother her at all as she called out, “The Millennium Comet…. the Millennium Comet has come! It must be hunted, so that the King of the Fire Hunters can rule over all the people. The time has come. It is time to wield our sickles and attempt to become the King!”
The Fire Hunters exchanged uneasy glances, intimidated by Akira’s words.
Temari jumped up and barked.
Bleeding profusely from the top of his legs, the Fire Hunter that Hinako had injured writhed on the ground in pain. Kun lay within reach of him.
Hinako knelt down to protect Kun from any other attacks, glaring intently at all the men and dogs around her.
A single Fire Fiend broke through the pack and ran at Koushi and the others. Its hooves kicked impatiently at the smooth, man-made pavement, dislodging mud and stones as the creature ran. Its red, burning eyes had long since lost their sanity. Koushi saw terror there, not rage.
A deer-shaped Fire Fiend fought against the onslaught of Fire Hunters in front of the tunnel.
The hooved Fire Fiend leaped high over the Fire Hunters’ heads and landed among Koushi and the others. Before the Fire Hunters had time to put up any resistance, one of the hunting dogs was trampled under the monster’s front paws. Undeterred by the instant death of its comrade, the short-furred dog was the first to pounce on the Fire Fiend’s throat. It clung to the black neck of the beast and didn’t let go even as it was swung around with overwhelming force.
The Fire Hunters took this opportunity to prepare for battle. Brandishing their golden sickles, they finally faced the foes they were meant to face. More Fire Fiends rushed in after the first one, fangs and claws targeting the Fire Hunters.
“Hinako!” Akira called out.
Koushi didn’t immediately realize that it wasn’t him who had called his sister’s name.
Hinako turned slightly towards Akira, who was reaching out to her. Akira’s bloody arms wrapped around Hinako, shielding her protectively.
Hinako tilted her head, then looked closely at Kun to make sure that he was safe.
With the roar of the rainstorm in his ears, Koushi lowered his right hand. Kiri was holding it in hers. Kiri clicked her tongue, irritated by Koushi’s slow reactions. Her voice echoed in the cold gray rain, making her presence feel preternaturally close and immediate.
The Fire Hunters killed several Fire Fiends, then headed toward the tunnel where the rest of their comrades were fighting. Those who had lost their dogs ran off with only their sickles in their hands.
After confirming that Kanata was next to Touko, Koushi put the bottle of lightning fuel he held back in his bag. He approached Akira, Hinako, and Kun, who were still on the street. Hinako was sitting down, held stiffly in Akira’s arms.
Koushi bent down next to Kun, who had collapsed on his side. When Koushi touched the boy, he found him warm; his chest rose and fell slowly. Kun was still alive. His eyelids were swollen like lumps. His lips were similarly swollen and misshapen, but he was still breathing. We need to move him inside, Koushi thought. It wasn’t safe here.
The rain by itself was a hazard. If Kun and Touko stayed out here in the freezing rain, injured as they were, their body temperatures would drop. They’d become sick as well as injured. Koushi gave Kun a closer examination and found bruises and cuts, but no broken bones. There was no way to see what was going on with Kun’s internal organs, which troubled Koushi greatly.
Koushi looked back at the industrial area, trying to gauge the distance to the hangar that black carts would depart from. There should be two black carts there. The tanks storing fire fuel were lined up close to the hangar, towering over their surroundings. Next to the tanks was a box-shaped building, almost cube-shaped: the hangar. In the industrial area, most complex structures were intertwined with their neighbors. The plain appearance of the hangar stuck out like a sore thumb. Two black carts stood inside the hangar, waiting silently for the time when they would depart for the forest. The walls around the vehicles showed marks from erosion and sun damage.
“Kun!” Hinako cried out.
Akira looked up. “Don’t worry too much about him. He’s a Spider, so he won’t die just from being hit by people.” Akira took a deep breath, then patted Hinako on the head.
Akira stood up slowly and staggered toward the Fire Hunter that Hinako had injured. Akira removed her tattered jacket. She placed it around the top of the Fire Hunter’s still-bleeding thigh, and then shoved the cloth halfway into the wound. She used the sleeve as a bandage and tied it off tightly. The Fire Hunter convulsed and twitched, groaning in pain.
“Tree People. Can you treat this guy?” Akira asked.
Koushi’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why help him?” Koushi asked.
The Fire Hunter had attacked and beaten Kun. Koushi didn’t know Akira and Touko’s relationship with the boy, but they seemed to be close. To him, it would make more sense for Akira to treat Kun’s injuries first.
Akira turned around to look at Koushi. “If we leave him alone, he’ll bleed to death. And then Hinako will suffer for the rest of her life.” Her voice was firm and determined.
A shiver went down Koushi’s spine. He wasn’t quite sure why. He nodded to Akira. A nervous tic jumped near his jaw, making his whole face twitch.
Fire Fiends swarmed the area in front of the tunnel. Fire Hunters fought with their sickles as dark shadows the color of blood moss encroached upon them. Koushi rubbed his eyes. What were these shadows? Where had they come from? No one in the fight had witnessed their arrival.
The camouflaged shadows gained definition: they wore robes in earth colors, making them blend into the background. An aura of power emanated from them.
The Guardian Gods. The Guardian Gods had joined the fight. Koushi counted eight of them moving together, creating a bow-shaped formation that cupped around the Fire Hunters and the Fire Fiends they were fighting. Their appearance caused unrest among the Fire Hunters. Some even lost control of their hands and feet, tripping over themselves to get away from the shadows.
“The Spiders will invade after all the Fire Fiends pass through the tunnel,” a Guardian God said. “Prepare for the Spiders to make use of natural fire.”
One of the Guardian Gods chanted in a low voice like a call to the depths of the earth. Awakened by the voice, the topsoil on the cliff far above shook loose. Fire Hunters screamed, and their dogs fled.
The roots of nearby trees came out of the earth and stretched up into the sky, bursting from the ground with great violence. The top of the cliff swelled and curved, then collapsed into the forest. The white-painted gate in front of the tunnel was torn apart, and the tunnel itself was filled with earth and sand.
Akira surveyed the Fire Fiends being crushed under the rubble with a critical stare. She moved the injured Fire Hunter out of the way of some falling rubble, dragging him by the armpits over to the hangar.
“I need help,” Akira said. “Help me.” Her breathing was so irregular that it wasn’t clear who she was requesting assistance from. Her wounds bled as she moved. “You could have handled this easily,” Akira gasped out. “If you were going to come, you should have come earlier.”
Kiri grimaced at the Guardian Gods that were standing in front of the collapsed cliff. Then she faced Akira. “They aren’t likely to help us out of the goodness of their hearts. You look to be about dead on your feet, girl. I don’t know much about medicine, but I’ll help as best I can.”
With a sour look, Kiri pulled a short sword from the belt of the injured Fire Hunter. She chopped off the wooden branches growing from her left arm in one swift motion. The branches and leaves fell heavily, scattering raindrops. With her body one arm lighter, Kiri moved to help Akira.
Koushi remembered that Kiri had told him that the branches growing off her arm always hurt, back when they’d met at the Well of the Old Tree.
The tunnel’s collapse had killed many Fire Fiends, but not all. The Fire Hunters who hadn’t fled prepared to track down the stragglers. Shuyu’s body lay on the battlefield, untouched like an abandoned wallet. Kiri didn’t so much as glance at her dead friend as she treated Akira’s injuries.
Leaving Shuyu’s corpse where it was, Kiri and Akira carried the still-living injured Fire Hunter toward the hangar where the black carts were. Temari followed behind, moving busily on all fours. The white dog had a cloth wrapped around her neck, stained thickly with blood. The dog did not appear to be injured.
The air was full of sound: screams, roars, factory machines clanging as they operated. Koushi couldn’t pick out individual sounds from the overwhelming auditory tapestry all around him. The pounding rain underpinned it all, numbing Koushi’s mind.
Hinako lifted Kun onto her back and carried him toward Kiri and Akira. She didn’t look at Koushi as she passed him, running in the rain.
Koushi had never seen Hinako getting drenched in the rain before. Whenever the weather was bad, she would always get a terrible dizzying headache, and she’d never leave the house—no, she’d never even leave her bed. He had never seen Hinako carrying anyone else, either, because she’d always been too weak. Weak since birth. Clearly, something important had changed in her.
A thin cry that reminded Koushi of a hungry child reached him through the rain. Startled, Koushi turned around. Kanata was sitting near Touko and whining pitifully at Koushi.
Alarmed, Koushi ran to Touko. She’d told him that she couldn’t see. Her hand was clenched around the handle of her borrowed sickle, her knuckles white. Her shoulders trembled.
“Touko… let’s go. Please. You don’t have to fight the Fire Fiends anymore,” Koushi said. To his own ears, he sounded like a child pleading with a parent. He touched Touko’s hand, trying to get her to let go of the sickle.
Touko deflated, her shoulders collapsing inward and then tensing up. Koushi called her by name, but she didn’t respond and made no attempt to move.
Kanata carefully took hold of the sickle’s blade in his mouth and gave it a gentle pull. Touko blinked in surprise and loosened her grip on the weapon. Kanata had managed to reach her even when Koushi couldn’t. Kanata tugged again, removing the sickle from Touko’s grasp.
Kanata ran ahead of Koushi. Koushi picked up Touko and carried her so they wouldn’t fall too far behind the dog. Her skin was cold and clammy.
Touko tried to say something, but formed no words. Koushi listened as Touko cleared her throat and choked back sobs.
Koushi’s throat felt tight.
The Fire Fiend horde was slowing down. There were a lot fewer of the monsters than before. Koushi looked toward the Fire Hunters, but saw no sign of Roroku or Mizore. Piles of corpses, human, monster and dog, littered the battlefield.
Koushi closed his eyes.
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