As Touko slipped into unconsciousness, Akira let out a huge sigh of relief. Her red hair hung in damp curls down her back. She was dressed in her undershirt, having shed her armor after the battle. Temari, Akira’s dog, busied herself by licking Touko’s hand, and then Akira’s. Her little white tail wagged from anxiety and she made whining growls. Kanata sat beside Temari, watching the much smaller dog with a bemused expression.
Koushi pet the dogs for a brief moment and said a silent thanks to the Fire Hunters who had arrived to turn the tide of the battle. Now that he was safe, he felt like he had no strength left.
Kiri frowned, her eyes downcast, and turned her face away. Her sand-colored hair hid her expression.
Akira lifted her head, sniffling. She scrubbed her face with her bandaged hand.
Rain still fell, though the sound of it was muffled by the roof of the hangar. Koushi caught stray sounds from outside if he concentrated. People and animals milled about aimlessly, their steps wet and splashing. Sometimes Koushi heard screams or cries of pain from the injured.
The barking of dogs was nearly constant. The battle was still going on for at least a few Fire Hunters and their dogs. All the Fire Fiends that had crossed the barrier would soon be hunted down.
But there was still no sign of the Spiders.
Koushi didn’t think the Spiders would allow their advance to be blocked so easily. They’d find some way to get into the city after the Fire Fiends stopped swarming through the tunnel.
The sound of Koushi’s own breathing was loud in his ears. There were footlights and emergency lights embedded in the walls of the hangar, but they weren’t very bright and he couldn’t see well. The high ceiling vanished in the gloom. There were lights up there, Koushi knew, but they weren’t functioning at the moment. A wide garage door faced the tunnel. The black carts would pass through that door in order to get on the main road. Rain pushed against the thick, iron-segmented door, which was currently closed.
Kun, the Spider boy, sat flat on the floor, gazing up in silence at the two black carts that stood before him in all their majesty. One of his eyelids was horribly swollen and there was a bite wound on his arm. His body was similar to those of the Guardian Gods, as Akira had said, so he’d woken up while people were treating his wounds. He didn’t feel like he was hurt all that badly and kept moving around as if nothing had happened to him.
Kiri stitched up Akira’s wounds and sealed them with disinfectant. Kun stayed out of the way, silent, and watched.
Near Kun, beside the wheels of the nearest black cart, lay the injured Fire Hunter. He was still bleeding from between his legs. He’d gone pale and haggard since being dragged in here from the battle. He took deep, panting breaths that sounded painful. Blood oozed from his injury, staining his clothes. A wet cloth rested on his forehead.
Kiri grimaced down at the Fire Hunter. His skin and flesh had been forcibly torn away along with his clothes. If Hinako had inflicted a wound that was even a quarter of an inch deeper, she would have ruptured a major artery and he would already be dead.
Hinako was nowhere to be seen. She’d disappeared while Koushi had been helping treat Akira’s injuries.
Kanata lingered near Touko and twitched an ear when he heard Hinako’s footsteps in the middle distance. He tracked Hinako to the rear entrance of the hangar.
Koushi pressed his hand against Akira’s worst cut, which was still bleeding.
“I couldn’t let him die,” Akira said. She stared at Hinako for a long moment. Something wordless passed between them.
Hinako didn’t say a word. She clutched her father’s weapon in both hands, standing tall and confident. Then she spun on her heel and left. Kanata didn’t follow.
Between the black carts there were boxes of goods that hadn’t been loaded yet. The black carts were supposed to leave the capital tomorrow morning, but the preparations for their departure had been interrupted by the Fire Fiend attack. The tanks of each black cart were topped up with fire fuel and routine maintenance on parts was complete. There were only a few small boxes left to be loaded for each cart. The cloth covering the boxes was like a shroud.
Akira asked what they were going to do next.
Koushi choked on words before he could say them, trying to ward off the sinking feeling gnawing at his heart. “We… we’ll go to the Ibushi factories. They plant seeds and grow crops. I buried a lot of lightning fuel bottles at the edges of that place. We can use it to create a protective barrier that should help protect us from the Spiders and the Guardian Gods. The personnel tasked with maintaining the barrier should still be in the factories, probably hiding. They weren’t supposed to evacuate.”
Koushi found it hard to believe his own words. How had it all come to this? Why had he ever agreed to go to the Okibi Estate with his sister? Was Kira all right? Thinking about her made him feel cold through. So many Fire Hunters were hurt, and hurt badly. Akira was severely injured. He wanted to throw up and didn’t know why he hadn’t already. His stomach simmered with bitter memories and premonitions of a worse future.
Akira kept herself busy by distributing food, bandages and disinfectant to the best of her ability. Touko was still and unresponsive. Akira tucked some supplies into Touko’s pocket.
“Akira,” Koushi said, “I don’t want to interrupt you, but… take a look at this.” He spread out a map on the ground. He’d marked the places where Roroku had buried lightning fuel on it. After the lightning fuel was activated by the cannon, moving through the barrier would be extremely dangerous. Navigating a safe path would be like threading the eye of a needle. There was very little room for error. Koushi thought that the sooner they moved inside the barrier, the less danger there would be. If they waited until the barrier was fully activated, they would be stuck outside it, and then all of his and Roroku’s preparations to protect everyone would be worthless.
If Akira wanted to visit the Guardian Gods’ shrine with her petition, she had to do it now. Otherwise she would be trapped outside the barrier and killed.
“Looks like it’s time for you to put on a show,” Akira said as she looked over the map. “Make it good, or I’ll punish you later.” She grinned to show she wasn’t serious. “If there are still people in the Ibushi factories, they might be able to help Touko and other noncombatants evacuate. I’ll go now and deliver my petition to the shrine. I’ll ask them to protect the factories and the people still in the city.”
“That’s dangerous,” Koushi said. “Didn’t your brother try to deliver a petition, too?” This was a hard question for him to ask, but he wanted to know for sure that Akira understood what she was doing.
Akira glanced over at Touko, whose eyes were still closed. She smiled a little. “My brother was killed at the shrine. I know it’s a risk. He warned them about the Millennium Comet, and the Guardian Gods took that as treason. But he didn’t have blessed paper. I think I have a better chance of success than he did of being heard.” Her eyes flicked to her hunting dog. She sighed.
“I’ll stay here and help,” Kiri said. “When things outside calm down, I’ll go out and retrieve Shuyu’s body.” She sounded exhausted.
Temari bared her fangs and growled. Kanata stood up.
As Koushi turned around to investigate the commotion, a strange sound reverberated from the entrance of the hangar. The sound was coming from the other side of the iron door. It was a keening, grating, scratching sound like metal grinding against metal.
Something was trying to get in.
Akira reached for the hilt of her short sword.
Koushi tensed and froze, standing up straighter.
Only Kun remained seated, appearing completely at ease.
The scratching and scrabbling at the iron door grew louder. It had to be a Fire Fiend that had escaped the Fire Hunters’ sickles. Before Akira could grab her short sword and head for the door, Kanata bounded ahead of her. The dog stood in front of the door and sniffed through the gap between the door and the floor. He growled low in his throat.
Just as suddenly as it had started, the scratching stopped.
Akira nodded down at Kanata, then opened the door. There was a hunting dog outside. The dog was smaller than Kanata, short-furred and shaking. There were no Fire Hunters or other dogs nearby. The dog looked up at Kanata and Akira in turn, then sniffed the interior of the hangar from the doorway. The light brown dog slipped inside, having found a safe place to shelter. Temari growled at the newcomer.
The new dog sat down near the wounded Fire Hunter, sniffed him all over, and then licked his hand. He pushed the Fire Hunter’s cheek with his nose, but the Fire Hunter was unresponsive. He whined and growled and jumped around excitedly, tail wagging.
“You’re a clever boy,” Akira said. “I’m glad you found your Fire Hunter. Keep a close watch over him, now.” Akira sat down on a box that rested between two black carts. She sliced her short sword through a length of relatively clean cloth, then used the resulting strips to bind the wounds on her chest. Kiri watched her work, grimacing.
“We shouldn’t move that guy yet,” Akira said. “His wounds will open and he’ll bleed to death.” She phrased this as a suggestion, but her tone was one of command. She faced Kiri, her loose red hair spilling over one shoulder.
Kiri lowered her head, lips pursed, as if to avoid her gaze.
“Thanks for helping me,” Akira said to Kiri. “I won’t forget it. I promise I’ll escort you to someplace safer. "
“Never mind that,” Kiri said. “We need to get back to the quarantine zone. We’ll take Shuyu with us.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Akira said. “The quarantine zone is still in the city, and the city is a battlefield right now. If you can get your people into the forest beyond the tunnel, you’ll all be better off.”
Kiri stared at Akira, her jade-colored eyes wide open. The tattoo on her cheek distorted and her eyes took on a stern, unhappy cast. “Relocating everyone isn’t possible now. And anyway, they’ll be waiting for us. You need to get going, and I need to go home.”
Akira didn’t argue further. She took Kun by the hand. Koushi carried Touko on his back. The unnamed dog sat next to the injured Fire Hunter, twitching its thick ears.
Accompanied by a trailing Kanata and Temari, Koushi and the others left the hangar. Kiri remained behind in the dimness of the rain-sheltered building.
***
Koushi wasn’t sure how long it had been since the Fire Fiends had broken through the capital’s barrier. Without knowing that, he had no way to figure out if the rest of his and Yuoshichi’s plans were still feasible. Had all the factories been evacuated? Was he too late to protect people with the lightning fuel?
Kanata had howled to alert Koushi and the others to danger, and then they’d taken shelter in the hangar to treat injuries and regroup. How long had that taken? An hour? More?
Koushi and the others used an underground tunnel to travel to the Ibushi factories. Such tunnels connected each factory and were mainly used for transporting goods. Normally, only workers could access them, but the guards and fail-safes were gone now that the factories were mostly evacuated. They didn’t encounter any resistance.
Akira looked straight ahead and walked, still holding Kun’s hand. Touko had gone still, her body limp. Koushi didn’t say a word. Only the sound of the dogs’ footsteps felt real.
Staircases and iron doors connected rooms to one another, but there was no one else here. There was a narrow ditch that stank of sewage in the center of the passageway.
Koushi barely noticed the smell. At some point during the battle, his senses had gone numb. Seeing the injured people covered in blood taking shelter inside the hangar had rattled him. It was impossible for him to think that Hinako had inflicted a terrible bloody wound on the Fire Hunter—even though that was true. Ever since Kira’s collapse after being poisoned by her mother, Hinako had been like an entirely different person. Or perhaps she had changed before then—after the Fire Hunters had tortured the Spider in the forest.
Koushi’s worry for Hinako was an ingrained thing. She fought for so long, and she ran around everywhere… won’t she come down with a fever? Will she be able to escape before more Fire Fiends find her?
Hinako’s new strength was a comfort of a sort. Koushi wanted to know just how strong and healthy she was now so that he’d know her limits. She was still a child and needed to be cared for.
Koushi and the others climbed a staircase up to a deserted factory floor. Some of the machines were still running, but the people who usually attended to them were gone. Factories were never empty like this except for during the annual Boat Festival.
Koushi thought of this place as the next battlefield. The Academy teachers had helped save innocent non-combatants that had been working here, but that didn’t mean the battle was over.
Koushi lifted Touko higher on his back so that she wouldn’t slip down too far and fall off. Touko was limp and relaxed, perhaps asleep. She was lighter than she looked. Koushi didn’t like to think about what that meant. Hinako had taken the sickle that Touko had been holding, so it was gone. Kanata glanced up at Touko sometimes, then looked back at Koushi. The dog didn’t look worried, but determined.
Kanata had grown to trust Touko during their long journey to the capital.
“Koushi. I’m sure you’ve thought about this for a while now, but you don’t have to obey the Okibi family anymore,” Akira said. She walked closer to him, holding a fire fuel lantern aloft. Her voice echoed in the confined space.
Koushi blinked in surprise. He looked away from Akira as color rose to his cheeks.
“I don’t know what happened to Hinako, but she’s healthier now. She can move faster than most Fire Hunters and the Guardian Gods’ spies, so you don’t need to worry about her, either,” Akira added. “There’s nothing that the Okibi family has that you need. We can follow this passage into the heart of the city. I’ll take Touko and Kun with me—”
Suddenly, Koushi remembered the glass-like crystal that Kaho had given him. His will had been close to crumbling under the pressure of recent events, but he felt steadier now.
“We’re not escaping yet,” Koushi said.
“Huh?”
“The weapon I came up with is meant to prevent the Spiders and the Guardian Gods from fighting anyone but one another. I didn’t design that for Yuoshichi—it’s something I came up with to help protect people in the capital. I wish I could go back home, but…”
But there wasn’t any time. Neither Koushi nor Akira could go home before the fighting started again in earnest.
“The Spiders can’t get in right away because of the landslide. So we won’t need to use the cannon or your other contraptions right away. I think you should take Touko and Kun to Shouzou’s place where they’ll be safe,” Koushi said.
Touko was breathing hard. It sounded like she was in pain. Looking at her made Koushi feel uncomfortable. He was angry at whoever had injured Touko so badly.
“I’d be happy to do that… but I’m not sure it’s the best idea. I don’t think the landslide is going to hold the Spiders back for long,” Akira said.
“We need to stick to the plan,” Koushi said. “Yuoshichi should be heading to the steelworks soon. There are two black carts that are ready to send out. If the Spiders or the Guardian Gods make their move inside the industrial area, they’ll be hit with a lightning fuel explosion. Please try to avoid the areas marked on the blueprints I showed you earlier as much as possible. Everything should work out, I think.”
Koushi’s lantern illuminated the walls of the corridor, revealing countless signs, scratches, and scribbles of unknown origin. Koushi thought he saw misshapen insect shapes repeated at irregular intervals, but the thin light from his portable lantern was not enough to make the shapes clear.
“I wonder if your father was like you,” Akira said. “He probably was.”
“Huh?”
Akira glanced back at Koushi, grinning in the half-darkness. “He was going to Touko’s village for blessed paper, but he took a detour to save a little girl and got himself killed. He left his whole family behind and died far from home.” Her hair had spilled loose over her shoulders during the battle and shone dimly in the low light. Koushi stared at her as if she were a light in the darkness: a determined flame standing bravely in the shadows. “In other words, he was an idiot.” She laughed quietly. She didn’t face Koushi while she was talking. She kept going, straight ahead.
“You and Hinako must have had a hard time with such foolish parents,” Akira said. “If your father hadn’t saved Touko—if he’d just picked up some blessed paper and come home—then he would have delivered his petition to the Guardian Gods to hunt the Millennium Comet. He might have become the King of the Fire Hunters. Or he might have been killed like my brother. Did he want to shake up the system? Change what the Guardian Gods can do?” She shrugged. “I’ve never thought about changing things on that scale. Getting to be King of the Fire Hunters would be enough for me.”
Akira’s voice echoed quietly in the underground passageway. Exposed pipes ran along the ceiling. There were no lights on. Akira’s voice served as a way to navigate in the dark. It was like she was trying to offer succor to the darkness so that it wouldn’t swallow them all whole.
“Most Fire Hunters are idiots,” Akira said. “You have to be a special kind of idiot to rush headlong into danger. Your father managed to save other people, and himself, so often because he had Kanata with him. Fire Hunters who go hunting in the Black Forest entrust their lives—and their souls—to their dogs. Dogs are a grounding influence. They help Fire Hunters stay sane, so that they don’t lose themselves to violence and blood.”
Koushi’s gaze flicked to Kanata. The dog walked steadily beside him. Kanata seemed to know that he was being discussed; his ears pricked up and he turned his nose partway toward Koushi. The dog snorted.
“I never heard anything about the King of the Fire Hunters from my father,” Koushi said. “The Tree People living in the city’s quarantine zone told me that Princess Tokohana created the first sickle that could be used to kill Fire Fiends and harvest fire fuel. I found that same information in the Central Archives in a handwritten book that your brother wrote, Akira. But is it true? What are the Guardian Gods doing? I always thought that they watched over us with their power, and that they were always in the right, but I’m not sure about that anymore.”
Akira paused, then turned to look at Koushi. Her face was nearly invisible in the darkness of the tunnel. Her voice shook, as did her shadow. She was holding in her emotions. “The story is old,” Akira said. “Very old. There were tales about Princess Tokohana a hundred years ago and more. Stories of the King of the Fire Hunters are just as old. People lived in terror of the Fire Fiends for a long time, but the instant they could fight back, they did, and the stories spread. I think about those first Fire Hunters sometimes—how much hope they must have had after living in the dark for so long. You could argue that the first Fire Hunters created the stories, so they might not be true. But even if they’re not, we can make the stories true. We have to. So many people spend their entire lives trapped in villages, imprisoned as much as they’re protected by the Guardian Gods’ barrier magic. The King of the Fire Hunters could free those people. That’s what the stories are for. They’re encouragement for us to find a way to free ourselves.”
Temari sniffed dismissively at Akira’s feet.
“Think about what being a king would mean,” Akira said. “Kings need to think about the well-being of their subjects, or they won’t remain king for very long. Kings spend their lives thinking about the needs of others. They can’t mistreat people too much or too often, or a better king will take their place. We lost that when our world fell into the control of the Guardian Gods. Imagine if we could have rulers like that again, like we did in the old world. I think the world would be a better place.”
Akira’s voice echoed in the tunnel. Koushi watched her turn and start walking again. She was weak and moving slowly. It looked like even Touko might be able to knock her over at the moment.
Koushi reflected on the precariousness of Akira’s existence. Touko had begged him and Akira for help, and she’d gotten it. Who could Akira go to for help? No one.
“If that’s what you think,” Koushi said, “well… I’m not sure what to believe.” He adjusted Touko’s dead weight on his back and kept following Akira. “Even if you’re right, not just anyone can become a Fire Hunter, never mind the King of the Fire Hunters. Touko seemed worried about you hunting the Millennium Comet.”
Akira said nothing in reply. Temari spun to face Koushi, then walked next to Akira, grumbling in displeasure.
***
“We’re here.” Akira shone her lantern on an iron-barred elevator door. This elevator led up to one of the agricultural factories. A sign next to the elevator indicated that there was a black cart above them, too.
“You, Touko and Kun should go into the city and hide,” Akira said. “If you can get to a black cart, you can flee to the villages. That might be better.”
Koushi shook his head, and Akira slumped.
“I suppose you can’t do that,” Akira said. “You need to get your sister home, and I’m sure your sister wants to protect you, too—like Kanata protecting your father.” She flicked her red ponytail over one shoulder. She was tired—that was obvious in the light of the lantern—but her voice was steady. Kun clung to one of her hands and wouldn’t let go.
Another light shone behind them: someone else was carrying a lantern. They were factory workers. They’d used a different elevator to descend to this level and were all pouring out from between the open elevator doors. Koushi tried to count them and lost track at a dozen workers. Almost all of them were children, but the supervisor carrying the lantern was an adult.
The factory workers noticed Koushi, Akira and the others and came closer. Akira pulled Kun behind her to hide him.
“Oi! Are you evacuating, too?” the supervisor called out. He took in Akira’s appearance and frowned. She was obviously not a fellow worker. The children behind him flinched and stepped back when they realized that Akira and the others were strangers.
“Are you headed into the city?” Akira asked, forcing a friendly tone.
These workers were among the youngest in the capital. Some were Koushi’s age, but most were under ten. The youngest were only four and terrified. Their clothes were covered in lint and dust, so they’d almost certainly fled from a textile factory. Koushi hated the idea that the factory had chosen to evacuate these young kids last and not first.
Temari barked loudly at the strangers.
“Who are you?” the supervisor asked. “Where did you come from? And where are you going?”
Akira’s gaze flicked to Touko, and then she exchanged glances with Koushi. Koushi knew that she was planning something, but he didn’t know what.
“We had to evacuate late,” Akira said smoothly. “This girl was injured in the factory today, and that slowed us down a bit.” She gestured to Touko.
“You and your companions are injured?” the supervisor asked. He noticed Akira’s short sword and sickle and frowned deeply. “Is the child sick? Will it spread to the other children?”
“She isn’t sick,” Akira said. “But you don’t have to stay with us. We’ll rest here, then continue evacuating.”
The supervisor saw Kun sneaking a peek at him and said, “What about that child there?”
“He’s my son,” Akira said quickly. Kun was a Spider. If normal people knew it, who knew what they would try to do to him.
The supervisor nodded cautiously. “We’ll assist you as much as we can, since we’re evacuating, too.” He ordered several of the older children to help carry Touko. A boy with a bad cough glared at Koushi from under the brim of his black hat.
Koushi was reluctant to let others carry Touko, but he knew he couldn’t carry her forever. He lowered Touko carefully to the ground. The older children picked her up.
Akira went ahead of the others, saying, “I still have business in the city, but I’ll rejoin you all soon. There’s a couple who does laundry work and welding not far from here—they’re my son’s grandparents and will take you in for a little while.”
Touko’s breathing was ragged. Her eyes were closed. It seemed like she was unconscious, but her face showed agitation. It was almost like she knew what was going on, but wasn’t able to speak or move on her own.
The older children had no trouble carrying Touko. Koushi watched over her, hoping that she would wake. If she didn’t, he would feel ungrateful. He hadn’t thanked her enough for returning Kanata and the sickle to the capital. If she never woke up, he’d never get a chance to do that. Touko was young and weak and small, and she might die.
Koushi and the others wove their way through the underground tunnels. Kanata stayed beside Touko, sniffing the air and giving Touko worried looks. Koushi wished he knew what to do or say to reassure the dog.
At the end of a passage, Akira faced the factory supervisor and gave him a slight bow. “Thank you for your help,” she said. “I’ll be leaving you here. Hopefully I’ll be back soon.”
Kanata watched Akira go, panting with anxiety.
Akira took a few small steps forward, then half-turned to Koushi. “Will you be all right?”
Koushi felt lighter—and not just because he wasn’t carrying Touko anymore. He shouldn’t tell Touko that. He didn’t want her to think of herself as a burden.
“Touko will be mad that I left,” Akira said. “Apologize to her for me. She has a lot of rage, believe it or not. She should know that I already know that I’m being selfish.” She sighed. “Take care of Kun.” She handed over her lantern to Koushi.
Kun stared fixedly at the lantern light and didn’t say a word.
Akira knelt down to Kun’s eye level and set her hands on his shoulders. “I’m not leaving you, Kun,” she said. “I promise I’ll come back for you, all right? If I can. I can’t guarantee I’ll come back because the city is dangerous, but it’s even more dangerous for you than it is for me. I’d never forgive myself if something terrible happened to you. If I survive what happens at the shrine, I swear that I’ll return to you.”
Kun nodded dully.
Koushi wasn’t sure how much of the situation Kun actually understood.
Akira gave Kun a hug that Kun didn’t return, and then stood up and walked away.
“Akira,” Koushi called after her, “be safe.”
Akira scratched the back of her head—a clear sign of annoyance—and didn’t face him. “Yeah. You too, kid.”
Kun took one awkward step forward as if he were going to follow Akira, but then he just stood there, motionless and silent as a statue.
Akira fiddled with a control panel and managed to summon an elevator from above. She stepped to the side so that Kun, Koushi and Kanata could enter the elevator. Kanata got on last, and then the iron grate of the elevator closed. Kanata sniffed Temari’s nose through the grate. Temari turned her face away with a smug expression, then hid in the shadow of her master’s legs.
The elevator ascended. Akira waved, but was soon lost to view. Koushi felt himself go weightless as floors passed by in a rush of air. He was suddenly full of questions. What time was it now? Where were they? What would happen to Akira? His head felt waterlogged; it was difficult to organize his thoughts. He felt the whirring hum of the elevator beneath his feet and let the machine noise steady him somewhat.
The elevator opened out on another dark hallway at the edge of an agricultural factory. They were still underground, but closer to the surface of the city now. They came to a few abandoned vehicles that were usually used to transport seeds, soil and waste. The vehicles weren’t accessible: they’d been sealed off behind an iron grate. The factory floor was clear of debris and quite tidy. The workers here must have had plenty of warning before evacuating. Eight metal platforms carried planters, some full of soil and some full of growing plants. There was a hole in one wall with a metal lid over it where workers could discard more waste or excess soil. There were red emergency footlights on at the edges of the factory floor. Most of the area was dark.
Koushi felt like he was walking in an unreal world as he looked around the empty factory floor. He encouraged Kun to move toward one of the metal platforms carrying planters. There was enough space underneath for Kun to hide. Koushi pointed under the nearest platform, then said, “Get under there with Kanata and stay quiet. Don’t come out no matter what you hear.”
Kun made a hissing noise of disapproval in the back of his throat. One of his eyes was still swollen shut because of the beating he’d taken. His single open eye was fixed on Koushi.
There was a distant sound like thunder, loud enough to alarm Koushi. Kun’s gaze didn’t waver. What they were hearing was the detonation of the weapons that Koushi had designed and hidden all over the city.
Kun showed no inclination to obey Koushi.
Koushi bit his lip, then called out to Kanata. Kanata plucked Kun up by his clothes and slid beneath the metal platform, gripping Kun to his stomach with all of his paws. His tail thunked against the factory floor once.
Koushi didn’t look Kun in the eye as he removed a bottle of lightning fuel from his pack and unwrapped it. Dim light illuminated the factory floor. Kanata’s eyes tracked the light. Koushi discovered rain gear hanging from pegs along one wall and a small lantern that was full of fuel. Koushi collected the rain gear and the lantern. Then he packed away the bottle of lightning fuel again.
Leaving Kanata and Kun behind on the relative safety of the factory floor, Koushi lifted his borrowed lantern high and entered the next area by himself. He found a long workbench with empty pots on it that was probably used to plant vegetables and the other planters he’d seen. There were metal boxes stacked up to the ceiling along one wall. There weren’t even emergency lights here; Koushi was completely dependent on the lantern to find his way.
All was quiet and still. Koushi hadn’t expected this. The city was in a state of emergency, wasn’t it? The Fire Fiends were attacking. Where was everyone? Why had he seen so few people? He understood that this area had been evacuated, but he hadn’t seen that happen. From his perspective, it was like all the people who’d worked here had been suddenly erased.
Was this normal? Koushi didn’t think so. He had an unsettled feeling in his gut as he took in the sight of the deserted factory. There should be people here—not many, but enough to detonate the bottles of lightning fuel that Roroku had buried just in case the Spiders attacked nearby. Evacuating everyone wasn’t the right call here, because the Fire Fiends and the Spiders could easily reach this place.
Instead of using an elevator, Koushi climbed stairs and a ladder to get to the roof. This factory had five floors. There were no steel towers or smokestacks like many other factories had, but the building was still taller than those around it.
Koushi’s lantern fuel was low by the time he reached the top floor. His light sputtered and dimmed with every step forward.
Touko said she couldn’t see, Koushi thought. Is she blind? Will she ever see again?
He thought about such things to distract himself. Things were quiet right now, but he could step back onto a battlefield at any time. Hinako was in danger. He had to assume that she knew where all the bottles of lightning fuel were buried in the city. He hadn’t shown her his diagram of all the locations, but Hinako had access to Yuoshichi’s basement laboratory. He guessed that she knew most of what he knew.
But was that really a safe guess? Could Hinako read the notations on the diagrams and know which places would be safe? He doubted it.
Koushi’s best hope was that Akira would reach the Guardian Gods’ shrine before the Spiders entered the city.
Koushi encountered no one as he traveled through the factory’s dark and and empty halls. He calmed himself by act of will, keeping his breathing even as he climbed up stairs and walked down corridors. He put on his rain gear in one stairwell that was lit with dim red emergency lighting. Not every stairwell or hallway had emergency lights, but many did.
It was raining when Koushi reached the roof. Searchlights from other factories played over him as he looked out at the city, leaving him half-blind.
“You took forever,” Hibari complained. “And after I went to all that trouble to clear people out of the factory, too.”
There was an escape pod parked atop the roof, hidden in the shadow of a huge tank of water. A black tarp had concealed the pod even more, but the tarp had been removed, folded and placed near a wall. Rain splattered off the pod’s metal frame.
There was a cannon that could be used to detonate lightning fuel on the roof, too, and that was where Hibari sat. The Guardian God perched on the barrel of the cannon, looking down at Koushi in his rain gear with clear irritation in her gaze. Hibari wore no rain gear, but she was completely dry from head to toe.
“The Water Clan have outdone themselves,” Hibari said, folding her arms. “In the past, they used rain like this to put out fires before they could spread. But this is too much. It’s hard to move when the water makes everything so damn heavy.”
The burrowing unease in Koushi’s gut grew worse. He should have guessed that the Guardian Gods were behind this unnatural torrential rain. He shuddered. He knew what Hibari was talking about—he’d heard about fires that had nearly destroyed the capital before. He felt very small and powerless in the face of the Guardian Gods’ distant, superior might.
Koushi’s ears were ringing. He gathered all his courage and faced the Guardian God. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“What I said I did. I sent away all the other humans. There’s no one left to operate this machine—everyone ran away.” She laughed in Koushi’s general direction, mocking him for either his question or his humanity or perhaps both. “Shouldn’t you flee? It isn’t safe here. Fire Fiends might attack this place.”
Koushi’s back tensed. He remembered bearing witness to a Spider being tortured in the Black Forest.
Hibari leaped from the cannon barrel over to the escape pod in a rush of air that scattered raindrops in all directions. Her hair fluttered as she moved. She was still bone-dry.
Koushi felt like Hibari had just run him through with a sharp blade. Water stung his eyes. He didn’t have time to close them before the fast-moving droplets hit him. The wind that followed felt sharp enough to chop his head open as if it were a melon.
Koushi blinked and found himself somewhere else. He was indoors—the rain was either gone or so distant that he couldn’t hear it. Pipes of various widths ran along the walls and ceiling. In the middle distance, he saw a half-open door with rusted hinges. He was back in an underground passage—but he’d just been on the roof! How had he gotten here so fast without remembering?
Maybe this wasn’t real? The Guardian Gods could probably show him an illusion if they wanted. He tried to focus—to figure out what was real—and heard Hibari’s voice echo in the passage.
“The Earth Clan and the Wood Clan have blocked off many passages to try and stop the Spiders,” Hibari said. “Such violent, indiscriminate work is unlikely to hold the Spiders back for long.” Koushi couldn’t see Hibari, but her haughty tone hadn’t changed. He got the sense that she was sneering at him.
“Ah, here they come,” Hibari said. “The Spiders are in the capital. It was inevitable.”
The passage that Koushi stood in became alive with sound—not rain, and not the rushing footsteps of people, but a similar sound. Crawling. Shifting earth.
Insects. They were swarming!
Of course. This made sense. If the passages were blocked off, then the Spiders wouldn’t be able to get through—but insects under their control would. Some Spiders, like Kun, could take control of insects.
There was an underground passage in the Black Forest close to the city that curved sharply away from the cliff and then narrowed, cutting across the factory area to obfuscate any invaders. It narrowed in many places to help protect against Fire Fiends.
But that passage was always going to be a weakness in the city’s defenses. As Koushi watched the insect swarm advance with horror in his eyes, he saw people moving through the passage. Not Fire Hunters, though some were armed like Fire Hunters. They wore Fire Fiend hide instead of ordinary clothes. All of them wore black masks over their faces.
Koushi counted them—one, two, three, four—so few. Perhaps these were the Spiders that had been tortured in the forest. They’d been spies, and now they were the vanguard of the attacking force.
The half-open rusted door in front of Koushi opened completely as the Spiders shoved it open. This passage connected to the industrial area. It was likely that workers had evacuated the city from this passage not too long ago.
The rusted door was graffitied—there were doodles, symbols, and crude poems written all over it. One strange symbol caught Koushi’s eye. There was a small, crude drawing of an insect near the door handle. He’d seen that symbol in a few other places while wandering underground with Kun and Akira, but he hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
But what did the signal mean? Was it a sign the Spiders had made, or had the city’s defenders marked places vulnerable to the Spiders’ attacks?
“That sign is the Spiders’ creation,” Hibari said dismissively. “They use it to send signals to one another.”
The first Spider came through the door and approached Koushi. Koushi didn’t move. He knew he should run, but no place was safe to run to. His only hope was that all of this wasn’t real—that he wasn’t actually here. Hibari had supernatural powers. If she wanted him to believe that he was stuck in this passage, she could weave a very realistic illusion to help that belief along.
As if to prove Koushi’s point, the scene shifted; Koushi was still in the same passage, but he was looking at the different door. The scene shifted again and again, showing Spiders breaking through doors and traveling deeper into the city underground.
“The Spiders have been planning this for an age,” Hibari said. “Since the city was destroyed and rebuilt the first time. They have the blueprints, the floor plans. Some things might be out of date, but they know most of the city’s layout. It was never possible to keep them out. They have too many secret ways in.”
“Secret ways?” Koushi asked. His voice didn’t echo in the passage—not like Hibari’s did. That meant Hibari’s voice was real, and that he was speaking within the illusion. He didn’t understand the Spiders knowing secrets about the city that the Guardian Gods didn’t know. That didn’t seem possible, yet Hibari thought this was so.
“Yes, secret ways,” Hibari said. “Though not so secret that they can’t be sensed, now that they’re here.”
The Spiders infiltrated the underground tunnels and entered the capital. Had Touko made it into the city with the supervisor and the children from the factory? Was there anyone left in the city to help her, or was the evacuation complete? Who would sound the alarm? Did anyone else know the Spiders were already in the city?
The illusion surrounding Koushi melted away, and he was back on the factory roof once more. His rain gear shed the torrential rain falling from above. Hibari stood on top of the escape pod, gazing down at him with vague contempt as usual.
For a split second, Koushi hoped that the Guardian God had used the illusion to deceive him, and that the Spiders weren’t truly in the city yet. He couldn’t prove what he’d seen one way or the other. The only problem was that he didn’t understand what Hibari would get out of lying to him. The illusion he’d seen was probably a depiction of the truth.
“So,” Hibari said, gesturing sloppily toward the cannon. “Can this pathetic thing really fight off the Spiders?” Her voice was incongruously light and girlish.
“Have you told the other Guardian Gods about this machine?” Koushi asked.
A smile tugged at the corner of Hibari’s mouth. “Now why would I do that? My family despises me. I haven’t told them anything. It’s not exactly a secret that the Guardian Gods don’t much care about humans. You all can crawl around in mud and filth for all they care. I don’t really care, either. I’ll leave you all alone as long as you don’t try to hunt the Millennium Comet. I hate blood and will not see it spilled.”
Hibari’s eyes narrowed. “Well, we’ll see what this machine can do, I suppose. I’m overdue to check in on your foster parents. They’ve been causing trouble again, so don’t be too surprised if I wind up turning my sword on them. They might disappear, and then you won’t have a place to live. Ah, well.”
Hibari soared into the air, twirling and then flying away like a large white bird. The night swallowed her whole, leaving Koushi alone on the roof in the rain.
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