Divine Comedy (29)
Jane
By the end of the day, after several train rides and a nightly stroll through Shinjuku, I returned to the hotel with the cloying smell of incense clinging to me like a burr.
"Does it bother you?" I asked Seth, and I made a small tug at my shirt.
He shook his head. "Not one bit. I actually kind of like it."
Still, when we returned to our hotel room, I changed into new clothes anyway. I let the ones I had worn hang over a chair at the balcony, to air out the stubborn smell. While I went about doing that, Seth had changed into pajamas and jumped into bed. Shock crossed his face as I slipped under the sheets beside him.
"Mind if I join you?" I asked.
"Not at all," he exclaimed. "It's just that..." His face reddened. "What about last night...?"
"I'll be fine," I assured him. I reinforced my assurance with a peck on his forehead. "I can settle for this, for...what do you call it? Snuggling?"
"Yeah, snuggling." Seth wiggled further into the bedsheets and held my hand. "We sure can snuggle. This is nice."
I inched closer to him, so I rested my cheek against his chest and the top of my head fit snugly under his chin. Before Japan, before training with Goro, I could never dare to be this close to Seth. His blood still smelled heavenly, like a fragrance tailor made for me, and his heart pounding against my eardrum beat a pleasant, steady rhythm. But gone were my days of being tempted to tear into him. By now I trusted myself to keep my composure, and from the looks of it, he trusted me too.
His scent was less of a temptation and more of a soothing presence. Sleeping was impossible for me, but the simple act of lying beside him, being draped in his warmth, made me content.
Seth scrunched his eyes and thinned his lips around a suppressed yawn. "G'night, babe," he mumbled. "Love you."
"I love you too, darling," I murmured back. "I'll see you in the morning."
All the sightseeing and time spent with Kimi's family earlier today had him soon slipping into the land of dreams, into a land whose path was lost to me for over a thousand years.
He drifted off to leave me staring up at him, and smiling at the way he continued to hold my hand as he slept. He breathed quietly and evenly through his nose. The stillness of his shut eyelids gave him the look of innocent tranquility. My gaze traveled down his face to settle on his neck, where I had bitten him. My teeth had left two pale, uneven crescent moons along his skin. Even the memory of how his blood tasted didn't tempt me to sink my teeth into him again. I loved him too much to do that.
I propped myself up on one elbow to drop a quick, gentle kiss on the scars. Seth didn't blink open his eyes and flinch away. His eyelids didn't even twitch. Must be up to his neck in whatever he dreamed about. That made me crack half a smirk.
As someone who forgot what sleeping looked and felt like, I was fascinated by Seth. With the steady rise and fall of his chest, the slight flare of his nostrils, the in and out of breathing like clockwork, like waves of a tide, it didn't look and sound too different from meditation. Sleeping, however, came with a certain sense of vulnerability that meditation lacked. At least I could snap out of that meditating trance at will, but sleeping, the body's demand to be still and rest, left a human prone and helpless.
The way he was now, with his guard completely let down, Seth must be placing a great deal of trust in my control. He fell asleep right next to me, which in most cases, would be one of the stupidest things to do around my kind. That was just asking to throw your life away and get your blood drained. Instead of scoffing at his foolishness, however, I was touched that he felt safe and comfortable around me.
Shortly following that was a twinge of guilt over my reaction from last night. The cold spike of fear had hit me faster than I could think. Seth had the courtesy to ask if he could kiss me. He would've asked if I'd like to take things further. I should've known that before I had practically pushed him away. It wasn't his fault that his body had acted against his heart.
The mere mention of how the village boys had broken me had sent Seth on the verge of tears. How could I not love someone so good?
He would never hurt me, and I would never hurt him.
Halfway through the night, his mouth hinged open. Through it, he snored softly and drooled a bit on the pillow. I had to stifle a giggle. Amusing as it was, I'd spare him the embarrassment by not bringing it up later.
Around five in the morning, my phone rang. Only because of that, I pulled my hand away from Seth's to roll over in bed and pluck off my phone off the nightstand. Roland was calling. But why this early?
I picked up, and I was right—something was wrong. Very wrong.
Roland's panic filled my ear. "Koji was choking and turning blue in his sleep. We're taking him to the hospital."
"I'll be right there," I promised him, but when my rationale caught up, I backpedaled. "But only if you want me there."
"Of course you're welcome. You're family."
He sent me the address of the hospital, and I shook Seth awake to tell him the bad news. He sat up wide-eyed, with all traces of sleep banished from his face.
"I'll go with you," he said, then he frowned. "Wait, the hospital...there'll be lots of hurt people, and lots of blood..."
"Don't worry, I've been through rigorous training to tolerate it. You can say that I have Carlisle level of control now."
"Really? That's amazing." His awe was short-lived as an unusual somberness overtook him. "We'll go see Koji together, then."
The youngest of the Parkers had to be rushed to the Keio University Hospital, where he was born. Seth and I passed by the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden along the way, where we had just been yesterday. Under the gathering pile of clouds, and an incoming storm, the garden didn't look so scenic anymore.
I paused at the hospital entrance. I had meditated outside one with Goro on many occasions, but this would be the first time I would step inside. With an assuring squeeze from Seth's hand, I followed him through the sliding double doors.
In the event of an emergency, humans worked remarkably fast. Under a team of doctors and nurses who had cared for him at birth, Koji was quickly admitted to the ICU and placed on a ventilator.
Seth and I followed the family from the emergency room to the ICU. They seemed to know the route well; they didn't ask for directions nor an escort from a nurse. Every inch of this place smelled of life and death thickly sandwiched together. Sweet blood, sour pus, unsavory decay, cloying disinfectant—all of it weighed heavily on my tongue. The smell of blood only grew as we neared the ICU, where the sickest patients were kept. Still, it didn't reduce me into a mindless, thirsty monster. It helped to think of the people behind the blood, whether it was being shed or received.
Unlike the brightly lit clamor of the emergency room, the sights and sounds of the ICU were more subdued. Doctors and nurses talked in hushed tones, so that the only things outranking them in volume were the monotonous beeps from monitors and the steady drips of saline.
At Koji's room, Seth and I stood outside to let the family see him first. A physician had been waiting for them inside. We hung back to be polite, but our sharp hearing let us overhear the entire conversation.
The family may have made frequent trips to the hospital, due to Koji's condition, but this time was different. This time he was the sickest he had ever been since his birth. The machines and tubes were only prolonging the inevitable. Koji would not be leaving this hospital alive.
The doctor's solemn declaration gutted me.
Muffled sobs from Erika and the children drifted past the room's curtain. My grip on Seth's hand would have crushed it if he was an ordinary human. I looked up to see him blinking back tears.
The physician left the room in somber silence, his shoulders freed of the weight of bad news, but still burdened with many more. Kimi, meanwhile, burst out from behind the curtain to nearly run into me.
"Jane, you can save him," she cried out.
"Shh, Kimi, not so loud," I said softly. Her declaration of hope pierced through the muted air of the ICU, through my ears, and most of all through my heart.
Kimi lowered her voice and, after looking around for anyone who might've overheard, she switched from Japanese to English. "You're a vampire, you live forever and can't get sick. You can make Koji like that, too. Isn't that what you came here for?"
I had to look away from her wet, wide-eyed begging. "No, I didn't come here for that. I came to say good-bye to him."
She balled her hands into fists at her sides. "What are you talking about? You have to save Koji."
Roland emerged from the room to rest a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Sweetheart, that's...that's not what she came here to do." His voice was somehow both tight as a taut string and trembling like a dead leaf about to fall. "Please come back inside."
Kimi resisted his gentle urging and stood her ground to clutch at my sleeve. "If the doctors can't save him, you can," she insisted to me. "Make him like you. No more breathing problems, no more trips to the hospital, no more pain and suffering..."
I gritted my teeth. "Kimi, stop. I won't do it."
"Why not?"
"Because—" I had to pause and suck in a quiet breath. "Because I can't give a baby, a child, the life of a vampire. That is a life worse than death."
"She's right," Seth said quietly. "I know that's what you don't want to hear, but it's the truth." He knelt down at Kimi's level to give her the full brunt of his sympathy, but she wouldn't meet his eyes.
"What could be worse than dying?" she shot back.
"An immortal child," I snapped. "A baby that can't grow. A boy who will never know right from wrong, and will thirst for blood for eternity, and would slaughter anyone in his way to get it. Is that what you want your brother to become?"
Kimi's face turned white. Centuries of experience, of witnessing horrors wrought by immortal children, justified my reasoning. Despite all that, guilt speared through me. I had tried to stretch my patience with Kimi, but for her, a ten year-old girl carrying false hope, I just couldn't stretch it far enough. Her stubbornness, her refusal to look at reality in the eye, forced my hand.
"Better that he dies a human than lives on as something like me."
Kimi flinched, as if I had slapped her across the face.
I thought that by now, she'd finally accept the harsh but necessary truth.
Instead she turned away and said, "I wish I never met you." She brushed past Roland to disappear behind the curtain.
He remained standing near me, and rubbed the back of his head with a great sigh. "I'm so sorry about that, Jane. She doesn't mean it."
"I know," I replied. Grief was a cruel thing that can twist people's thoughts and words. It mangled children most of all. I would know. Still, her words were a dagger through my chest.
Seth wrapped his arm around my waist, no doubt sensing my distress.
"You were just trying to talk sense into her," Roland said.
"I wish so much that I could tell you all otherwise," I murmured.
He attempted a small smile, as if to show appreciation for the thought. "Give us some time with Koji, and you can come in to see him too."
"Take all the time you need," I insisted.
An hour later, the family stepped out. Red-rimmed eyes and deep-set frowns made Roland and Erika look several years older. Kenta pulled away from his mother to throw his arms around me and cry into my shirt. I rested my hands on his shaking shoulders. I didn't want a well-meaning hug to crush him by accident.
As for Kimi, she kept her distance from me and fixed her glare to the linoleum floor. "I'm going to the bathroom," she mumbled to her parents, then ran off before anyone could reply.
When Kenta finally pulled away from me to blow his running nose, Erika motioned to me and Seth. "Go on in, you two."
We nodded thanks to her and quietly slipped through the parting of the curtain. The sight awaiting us made me tighten my grip on Seth's hand. A machine breathed for Koji, since he could no longer breathe on his own. Part of it was strapped to his nose, covering up half of his little face. A tangle of tubes criss-crossed over his body. The only sliver of resemblance to home was the blanket of cartoon animals underneath him. A cap had been fitted over his head to keep him warm.
Seth and I edged around the tubes to peer over the baby's bedside.
"Hey, little guy," Seth whispered.
I reached out to rest my fingers on Koji's cap, not quite touching him. I didn't want my ice-cold skin to make him uncomfortable.
"I'm so sorry," I murmured. The curse of immortality was not mine to give, especially to one so young and small like Koji. The best I could do for him was to let him pass on. But why did death have to come for him so soon? For all my years on earth, I had no answer to that. After the draw of a shaky breath, I forced myself to go on. "You'll be seeing my family soon. My mother, my father, and my son Connor. They'll take good care of you. Tell them...tell them that I said hello."
I had nothing more for Koji after that. I pulled back my hand from his bed and let it fall against my side. I leaned against Seth for support. His warm hand rubbed up and down my arm.
"I'd like to step outside," I said, and Seth nodded.
We left Koji's room to head down to the first floor. Walking at a human pace, down the maze of corridors and riding glacial elevators, felt long and torturous. Only after exiting the hospital did my composure break. I sank into a bench and buried my face into my hands. Immediately Seth pulled me into a warm, tight embrace. The storm had begun in earnest and rain fell hard all around us, battering the red awning of the emergency department. Rainfall masked the sound of my sobbing.
There was something just so bloody unfair about outliving a child born centuries after me. Koji would never get to say his first words or take his first steps. He would be missing out on a lot of firsts. I wished I could trade years of my long life to let Koji have a chance at it. If only the world worked that way. And the last words I had for Kimi...the stricken look on her face...it seemed that I still had my talent for hurting people. Was that all I was good for? I trembled with anger at myself.
Seth didn't say anything all the while, but his presence was all I needed. I pulled away my hands to bury my face into his chest, and let him rub soothing strokes along my back. I wasn't sure how long we stayed like that, wrapped up in each other's arms. Finally, when the rain slackened somewhat, we pulled ourselves off the bench and headed back inside.
I expected no turn of events for the better upon our return to the ICU. Still, the ashen looks on the family's faces made my heart wrench.
Kenta could barely get the words out. "Koji's gone."
I couldn't keep him from the hug he deserved this time. I folded my arms over him as gently as I could, while he squeezed my torso with tearful abandon. Though I stood very still, I felt the world tilt around me.
After several dabs of tissue at her wet face, Erika collected herself and said, "I need to tell Kimi." She headed off for where I assumed the bathroom would be.
Minutes later she came back with wide-eyed panic. "She's not in there."
"She didn't tell you she'd be anywhere else?" Seth asked.
Roland shook his head, and like being dunked into ice-cold water, we snapped out of grief as we looked around frantically.
"Where else could she have gone?" Erika wrung the tissues in her hands now, some of it fluttering to the floor in white clumps.
"Seth and I can track her scent," I said.
We closed our eyes, drew in deep breaths, and honed our focus, tuning out the peripheral comings and goings of the hospital to zero in only on Kimi's scent. At first I headed into the ladies bathroom, but her scent was stale. She hadn't been there for almost an hour now. Seth and I followed a fresher trail elsewhere, down to the first floor of the hospital, and to our alarm, out through the double doors.
"She left," I breathed. "She's not in the hospital anymore."
"She's out there? In the rain?" Roland's voice rang with disbelief and worry.
Erika pulled out her phone. "I'm calling the police."
"Stay here, in case Kimi comes back," I said. "Seth and I will go on ahead to find her."
Kenta tugged at my sleeve. "Can I come with you?"
I had to shake my head at him. "You have to stay with your parents. Out there it's—" A violent shiver surged down my spine. A dreadful cold filled my body, despite thick humidity from the storm. I swore under my breath.
Seth tipped his nose to the air and stiffened. "Jane, what's that?" He sensed it too, but he didn't know it like I did.
I spun on my heel to lash out a warning at the Parkers. "Stay right where you are. Do not leave the hospital, no matter what." My harsh command took them aback, and I took off before they could ask why.
Seth sprinted away as well, keeping pace beside me. We went at such breakneck speed that we had no time to talk. Grim, unspoken understanding of great danger ahead coursed between us.
The cold dread roiling in my gut led me to the national garden, to the scent of jinrō. And with it, Kimi's scent.
"No, please, no..." I said. God help me if I was too late.
Seth and I vaulted over the stone walls with ease and landed on manicured grass. We wove past a cluster of sakura trees, darted over a curved wooden bridge, and skidded to a halt.
There, standing in upturned gravel of the zen garden, was the jinrō. Its hair, dark as midnight, made it almost invisible in the gloom. The storm raged on, and the rain kept on pouring, though the clouds directly overhead thinned out before the light of a full moon. Even hunched over, the jinrō stood at twice Seth's height. It bore down on Kimi, who pressed against a rock with petrified fear.
The jinrō didn't even get a chance to bare its teeth at her. Seth and I lunged forward to tackle it off its hindpaws. We landed and rolled in a great spray of fine gravel. Seth and I found our footing first and immediately leapt back to guard Kimi.
"Are you hurt?" I demanded. "Did it bite you?"
Too terrified to speak, the girl furiously shook her head. She shrank further against the rock, shaking under the rain like a wet leaf.
At her response, I blew out a sigh of relief. I hadn't been too late, after all.
The jinrō staggered to its paws and shook its coat, but rain made gravel cling to its black fur. Its single yellow eye pierced through the dark, and a long red tongue snaked out between jaws dripping with saliva.
Seth's voice trembled. "That's...that's a real werewolf, isn't it?"
I made a grave nod.
"Hey, back off," he called out. "It's two against one now. You're outnumbered. Leave the girl alone."
"No use talking sense into it, Seth," I said. "Once under the full moon, they're mindless killing machines. They think like rabid dogs." But where fighting was concerned, Children of the Moon were a thousand times more dangerous than rabid dogs.
"So what do we do?"
I clenched my jaw and slipped into a fighting stance. "Survive the night."
The jinrō issued a challenging howl. I answered with a hiss through bared teeth. Goro was supposed to find a jinrō overseas for me to face during my trial. What the hell was one doing here? I thought that Japan was rid of them all. I didn't expect to face one now. Panic threatened to overwhelm me, but my tactician's mind raced to take over.
I gestured to Seth with a jerk of my head. "Take Kimi under that pagoda over there. Keep her dry and warm, or she'll get sick. Don't call Roland and Erika, or the police. No one needs to know the jinrō's here. I'll take it on alone."
"But Jane, let me help—"
"Do as I say," I snapped. "I'm the only one trained to defeat it."
Seth didn't object anymore, and scooped up Kimi to retreat under the shelter of the pagoda nearby. The jinrō's gaze tracked them with a slide of its remaining eye, and it leapt after Seth.
"Oh no you don't," I snarled. I jumped after it and aimed a hard-knuckled blow into its back, right where its kidney would be.
The jinrō tumbled over the edge of the zen garden and into the grass, but not before lashing out a backhand faster than I could duck. Its forearm slammed into my torso. I sailed into the trunk of a fir tree. The impact made the wood crack and groan. I regained my balance with a crouched landing.
The jinrō curled its black lip as it faced me. I demanded its full attention now. For getting in the way of its prey, it meant to tear me into bloody shreds. I darted a glance over my shoulder, to where Kimi peered at me from Seth's arms.
"Jane," was all she could get out.
"Be careful," Seth pleaded.
This was no mere test. Someone's life was at stake here. Two lives, if I counted Seth. Never mind lopping off the jinrō's fangs and claws as a prize. I wouldn't let that mangy monster leave this garden alive, period.
I tried to center energy into my smarting torso. "Come on, Jane, focus," I muttered to myself. All my training under Goro led up to this moment. It was time to put it to good use.
Casting aside my instinct to flee, I threw myself at the jinrō. It swung its clawed hands with the graceless savagery of an angered beast. The deft, sweeping counters of crane style techniques let me bat aside the jinrō's swings. I drove my fists into soft spots under its sternum, between the ribcage.
Right spots, but not hard enough. The jinrō staggered back, but not flat on its back. It recovered faster than I could have imagined. Before I could jump away, it plunged its claws into my back and chest. I cried out in pain and it flung me to the ground.
I twisted in its grip, biting back another scream from the agony. I aimed a kick straight into the remains of a missing eye. The jinrō released me then. I rolled away gasping for breath. Blood spurted from my wounds. Rain washed them down my clothes to stain the fabric in dark red.
"Harder, stronger," I could hear Goro almost say from the back of my mind. "Break your enemy before it breaks you."
"Harder, stronger," I repeated, this time out loud and in between pants.
The jinrō's fangs and claws gleamed under the moonlight. I wanted to shrink away from the things that had given me the worst torture imaginable. Then I thought of Kimi and Seth, and I stood my ground.
Iron body training hadn't come easily to me. The trauma inflicted on me in Volterra stood as the greatest obstacle in my way, in my strive to mastering Goro's techniques. Back in Iya Valley, when Goro had dug up jinrō spears from his cave, he had made me and Alec imitate the Chinese monks during their iron throat feat. We had to lean our entire weight against the spear tips, with only our throats as the point of contact. Alec could muster enough calm and focus to pull it off just fine. As for me? I had struggled, to say the least. I had taken twice as long to accept a spear's dig into my throat, without the crippling fear of it stabbing through me.
Getting the iron throat down made me think that I had mastered the training. How wrong I was. I anticipated the jinrō's attack pattern. I knew where it would strike. I knew how to angle my arms and legs in such a way to make the blows connect. Still, the claws dug into me without breaking. Blood spilled from long, ragged slashes into my flesh.
"Come on, damn it," I berated myself through gritted teeth.
Seth cried out my name.
I spat out a wad of blood and planted my feet further into the ground. "I'm fine," I called back to him. "I can still fight."
But for how long? I looked up at the full moon and my heart sunk. Could I last through the night? I shook my head and glared at the jinrō. No, that shouldn't be a question. I had to survive the night. That was the only acceptable outcome.
I flashed the jinrō a cocky grin. "What are you waiting for? I'm up for more. I'm just getting started."
It didn't seem to take my arrogance well. It hurtled at me on four legs, as a snarling black whirlwind that cut into me with no mercy. One or two claws broke off from the onslaught. As for my hands and forearms, they were pounded and shredded to a bloody pulp. I had dull, white bony knobs for knuckles. I curled them into useless fists anyway, out of defiance.
The jinrō went for me again, and I turned to kicking. When my shins snapped and my feet were shredded into ribbons too, I resorted to biting. The pretenses of a civil fight, at least from my end, fell away. The jinrō and I rolled and tumbled in the garden as monsters flashing teeth and spitting venom. We sank fangs into each other and tore out chunks of flesh by the mouthful. The jinrō had bigger jaws, longer teeth. It snapped its mouth over my midriff, its fangs crunching into my back and stomach, and like a giant dog, lifted me high into the air and wrenched me back and forth, side to side. Then it dropped me into the grass, which was more red than green by now. It rolled me over on my back with a bat of its paw and slashed its claws down my face.
Had the claws not been blunted from past blows, the slash would have dug in much deeper. Maybe even take my head off. Instead the claws had gouged four red trails from my forehead, over my eyes, and across the bridge of my nose. The jinrō leered over me, its lips curled up almost in a grin of savage triumph.
I had the sense then that the jinrō had been toying with me, playing a sick game of turning me into a bloody, chewed up mess before it'd do the same to Kimi and Seth.
Their cries of distress made the jinrō turn its snout at them and perk its pointed ears. It slid its one-eyed gaze from mine, apparently deciding it was done with me.
With a groan, I rolled over on my torn belly. "Hey...you ugly wanker...I'm not...done with you yet." My insult came out weak and dribbling, like the blood from my mouth.
It stalked toward the pagoda as if it hadn't heard me, or as if it ignored me. I blinked through filmy red to make out the jinrō looming high over two huddled figures under the pagoda.
"Kimi, get behind me," I heard Seth say, and there came a wolfish growl from deep in his throat.
The jinrō's blows had drained almost all the blood from my last meal. I shouldn't have had energy to crawl on my belly, let alone to get up and run. Yet, as the jinrō lifted its arm to tear at Seth, something else drove me to move.
"Harder, stronger," I said through red teeth, "like iron."
Pushing forward on ruined feet, I closed in and threw myself between the jinrō and Seth to catch the blow. I surprised myself as much as I surprised everyone else. My back had always been a point of weakness in iron body training. Directing energy to the front was much easier than the back. Yet somehow I steeled myself enough to snag the claws of the jinrō, keeping it from tearing any further. With my hands clutching the pagoda's curved roof, and my feet braced on the railing, I formed a shield for the people I'd been fighting so hard to protect.
The jinrō growled and clawed at me with its free paw, trying to pry its trapped one free, but I wouldn't budge. More blood spurted from my wounds. Flecks of red dotted Seth and Kimi's horrified faces.
Kimi had clasped both hands over her mouth. "Jane, why?"
I blinked hard through more filmy red that threatened to block out my vision. "Kimi, I'm so sorry about your little brother," I rasped. "I couldn't save him, but I can save you."
Tears ran down her cheeks. "All this...for me...?"
I shut my eyes from the exertion and pain. Years ago, I couldn't save my mother, brother, and son from intolerant villagers. I was powerless then. Now I had the power to save my descendent. I had a second chance. I'd seize that chance by the throat.
I opened my eyes and managed a small smile at Kimi. "You ask why? Because you and I are family. You said so yourself." Maybe she still wished she had never met me, but I felt blessed to have met her. Knowing I had family in the world besides Alec gave me hope I hadn't known before.
Using the pagoda for support, I twisted around to lash out with a roundhouse kick to the jinrō's face. That sent the jinrō sailing across the garden, plowing down several trees in the process.
Seth helped me down the railing, not caring that more blood got onto his clothes. "Jane, don't keep fighting this werewolf alone. Let's do it together."
I looked aghast. "You've seen what that bastard did to me. I'm not going to let it tear you up too."
Seth knitted his brow. "You may be trained to take on a werewolf, but let me help you in the only way I know how."
"And what is that?"
He pulled off his shirt and crouched on the railing. "I'm about to phase. I won't attack, I'll just duck and dodge. Drink my blood while I'm a wolf. I bet that'll give you the strength to beat that thing."
I remembered how quickly I had recovered after feeding on him in Volterra. What would come of drinking blood from his wolf body? Only one way to find out.
With the support of his one-handed grip, I joined him on the railing. I nodded. "All right. Let's do it."
Seth made a great leap and landed on the grass with four paws. I leapt right after him and climbed onto his back. The jinrō pushed aside a fallen sakura tree, snarling at the new opponent on the field.
Seth pulled back his ears, and my belly felt the ripple of his growl. I gripped onto his sand-colored nape, both for support and to part his fur, and sunk my teeth into the exposed part of his neck.
The taste of heaven flooded into my mouth, washing over my tongue and down my throat. My kind were most vulnerable to attack during feeding, but I trusted Seth to protect me as he ducked and darted away from the jinrō's blows. His evasive maneuvers were buying me valuable time. As I drank, I felt strength return to my broken body, and felt my torn limbs knitting themselves back together.
Then, suddenly, a wild sense of dominance and euphoria overtook me. The power of the wolf surged through my veins. I felt like standing at the top of the food chain, like I could bring down anything. Even a jinrō.
Having had my fill, I launched myself from Seth's back to tackle the jinrō head-on, faster than it could fend me off. With my healed fist, I unleashed a punch into its stomach. The blow sent it flying so far across the garden that it sailed right over the lake. With a burst of speed like never before, I closed in to outrun its tumbling flight. I let the jinrō slam into the stone wall, and I lashed out a hand to pin its muzzle to the stone.
The jinrō's one eye rolled wildly at me from between my fingers, and it bared its teeth. I taunted it with the same snarl. With my grip still on its face, I took off running along the length of the wall, dragging its muzzle along the stone. I heard the crack of teeth, and a wet smear of blood was painted across the wall. What should have been a howl of pain came out muffled and gurgled.
Finally, I wrenched the jinrō's ruined face from the wall and flung it down into the dirt. Blood for blood—about time that I paid it back for all the blows it so generously gave me.
I wouldn't let the jinrō pick itself up from the ground. I stomped on its torso to sink its large body farther into the dirt. It lashed out with both front paws, but I caught them with ease. The wrestling lock between us was brief. Seth's blood gave me the strength to crush the jinrō's paws in my grip. Flashes of lightning overhead punctuated each satisfying snap of broken bones. The jinrō howled through a bloodied, toothless mouth.
The claws dug into my hands, but didn't pierce them. Wolfish energy formed its own wild storm within me, and with it, my body became invincible, unbreakable. With another crushing squeeze, I broke off all the claws.
I flung aside the jinrō's useless paws and rained down punches onto its chest and face. Each blow made my fists redder and redder, though not from my blood. A murderous urge overcame all other thoughts. Turn that jinrō into a bloody pulp on the dirt. Harder, stronger, more and more—
A huge hand caught my arm and held it back. "That's enough, little one."
That stern voice tinged with concern, perhaps even a bit of pride, hit me like a splash of cold water. It snapped me from my berserk-like trance. I looked up to see who restrained me. "Goro!"
Someone else stepped up to collect the broken, blood-stained teeth and claws from the ground with a glove. Someone very familiar. "Alec," I breathed.
"Sister," he replied, "thank goodness we came in time."
As I blinked away the blood and rain from my eyes, I stared at him in disbelief. He was familiar yet unrecognizable all at once. Claw marks ran down his right cheek and neck. A sword's hilt stuck out from behind his shoulder.
I staggered back in a daze. "Where did you two come from? How did you..."
"We came back from China three days ago," Goro said. "We were in Iya Valley when we caught wind of a jinrō lurking in Shinjuku. We came running and we found you here."
Alec reached out to brush away strands of hair plastered to my face. "Jane, your wounds...so many of them..." His fingers rested on the ones cutting across my forehead. "You'll have plenty of scars."
At his deep concern for me, I managed a tiny smile. "I'll be fine." I cared about the people I tried to protect, not how I will look.
The rainfall eased into a shower, and took the wild power of Seth's blood with it. I began to tremble violently, and I struggled to stay on my feet. Seth, still in his wolf form, bounded up and thrust his head under my armpit. I looped my arm around his neck and leaned against him for support. With my other hand I stroked his fur.
Meanwhile Goro pinned down the jinrō to keep it from moving.
"You're not going to kill it?" I asked.
"Goro provides medicine for jinrō," Alec said. "He waits for dawn, so the jinrō can come to its senses and understand what it's being given."
"I won't be giving medicine for this one." Goro glared down at the struggling jinrō. "One eye, black fur...I have a feeling I know who this is. His name is Kurojaki, and he's not a first-time offender."
Alec stiffened beside me. "Then he..."
"Yes. Kurojaki ignored my therapy from the first time and chose to return to his savage ways." Goro cast a glance at the pagoda, where Kimi still huddled underneath it. "He likes to target children, and lusts after the sweet taste of their flesh and blood. He targets lone, unsupervised children, stalks them, and waits for the full moon to transform and consume them." He shook his head. "I should have known better than to grant mercy to a sick, twisted mind like that."
Alec followed the direction of Goro's gaze. "Who is that, Jane? You know her?"
I nodded and took his hand. "She's someone I need you to meet."
Seth, Alec, and I made our way to the pagoda while Goro kept watch over the jinrō. As I held hands with my brother, I shared memories of recent events with him, and by the time we joined Kimi under the roof of the pagoda, he understood.
"So you are our family..." Alec said to her.
The girl wiped away her tears on a sleeve and nodded. "I see the red thread connecting you and me. You're the twin brother I've heard so much about."
He gave her a small smile. "Yes, and I'm glad you're all right." He glanced at me. "It looks like my sister had fought very hard to protect you."
Kimi had just wiped her face dry, but at what Alec said, and as she took in the sight of my wounds, tears filled her eyes again. She sobbed into my torn, bloody shirt, unable to articulate an apology and gratitude in any other way. I wrapped an arm around her back and rested my other hand on her dark head.
I rested my hand next on Seth's furry cheek. "I couldn't have done that without you. Thank you, Seth."
He brushed his wet muzzle against my palm. Kimi threw her arms around Seth next, burying her face into his rain-soaked fur.
I kept my hand on Seth to stay upright and steady. "I need to return Kimi to her parents. They're back at the hospital just across from this garden, worried out of their minds over her, no doubt."
Seth fixed me a pointed look.
"You want to come with me?"
He affirmed my guess with a nod.
"I'll stay behind with Goro to keep an eye on the jinrō," Alec said, "and clean up the place a little. Although..." He peered over the railing. "It looks like the rain washed away most of the blood. It'll be as if a storm had tossed up a few things here."
Seth salvaged the shirt he had tossed aside before fighting, but as for pants, I had to break into the garden's gift shop to fetch him a pair. He would have to make do without underwear.
Kimi, Seth, and I slipped out of the garden and back to the hospital under the cover of the night's small hours. It turned out that Roland had been quite vigilant, standing at the hospital entrance ever since Seth and I had taken off. Erika and Kenta must be inside, sleeping in the waiting room. His bleary eyes went wide at the sight of us.
"Dad," Kimi cried out, and ran up to him as fast as she could.
He scooped up his daughter into a fierce hug. "Sweetheart, thank goodness you're okay. Where have you been?" Then his gaze fell on me, and he said, "Jane, what on earth happened to you?"
I owed Roland the truth. I told him about the jinrō. He took the news with above average composure for a human.
His frown at me was filled with concern. "It sure roughed you up. Let's get you inside—"
"No thank you, I'll be fine," I replied. "My wounds have already healed on their own. These are just the scars. I don't need treatment at a human hospital."
"O-okay, if you say so." Roland pulled out his phone. "I need to get Erika and Kenta out here."
The rest of the family burst through the hospital doors as quickly as humanly possible. Erika and Kenta enveloped Kimi in a tight hug, and they wept in each other's arms. Once they've gathered themselves and wiped their faces dry, Erika bowed deeply at me and Seth.
"Thank you both for saving Kimi. We could have lost another child today. We are deeply in your debt."
Seth put up his hands. "No, you don't owe us anything. We're just so relieved that she's back with you safe and sound."
"Please don't be too hard on her," I said. "She's been through enough tonight."
Kimi pulled away from the embrace of her family to meet my eyes. "Jane, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I'm glad that we met you. I'm glad that we're family."
I smiled down at her. "I'm glad, too." I cast my gaze to the gloom past the hospital. "My teacher and brother have reunited with me to help deal with the jinrō. After that, most likely we will return to training. And besides..." I took a step back and went on softly, "You need time to yourselves, to mourn for Koji. I don't want to intrude on that."
"You won't be intruding on anything," Roland said, "but if your teacher needs you back, then this is where we say goodbye for now."
Kenta's eyes were wide and round behind his even wider, rounder glasses. "Will you come see us again?"
I rested a hand briefly on his head. "I'd be happy to."
"Feel free to bring along Alec and Seth, too." Erika said. "The more, the merrier."
Seth grinned widely at that. While the morning was still very young, we made our farewells, then I accompanied Seth back to the garden, to tie up loose ends.
The jinrō was still sprawled on upturned dirt and grass, with Goro and Alec poised over him. When the rosy fingers of dawn crept across the sky, the jinrō reverted to human form—a tall, wiry man with unkempt dark hair and his single eye glaring up at us.
Goro glared back with equal intensity. "Well, it's Kurojaki, after all. You thought you could slink back to your wolf self without me knowing it?"
Kurojaki curled up a cracked lip to bare what little teeth he had left. "Didn't think you'd show up so soon," he rasped in Japanese. His glance at me and Alec was filled with disdain. "Looks like you've brought up two whelps."
"And one of them will be using your fangs and claws." Goro smirked. "She earned the right."
I blinked at him, startled. "You mean..."
"Yes. You fought a jinrō and you won. This was your trial, and you passed it."
Seth, who was unable to understand Japanese, looked lost through the entire dialogue. As I lapsed into silence, to let the reeling news sink in, he spoke up. "Um, Jane, what's going on?"
I smiled at him. "I'm getting my sword."
He beamed. "That's so awesome!"
"You've done well, little one. Very well," Goro said. "Kurojaki is an experienced fighter. Even in his full moon form, he knows to strike at our weak spots. The fact that you came out alive and defeated him alone, without my supervision, is quite a feat."
"Not alone," Kurojaki sneered. "She had help."
"It's true," I admitted to Goro. "Seth gave me his blood, and that made me strong enough to last through the fight."
"A good warrior knows to rely on help that's offered." Goro clapped a large hand on Seth's shoulder and addressed him in English. "Well done for fighting alongside her, young changeling. We're glad you came to Japan."
Unsure of how to respond, Seth made a slight bow. Then he looked around and said, "Um, it's almost morning. People will be coming into the garden. What do we do with the werewolf now?"
Goro unsheathed a blade from his bag of fishing poles. "Kurojaki isn't willing to suppress his thirst for blood. We must ensure that he doesn't harm anyone ever again."
Alec also drew out his sword, and with a knowing glance between him and Goro, they plunged their blades through Kurojaki's chest. The man gave a single great shudder. His eye rolled back and a death rattle issued from his throat. Seth and I had watched on with somber silence. Alec and Goro wiped off blood from their blades on grass, then returned the swords to their sheaths. Goro pulled off his keikogi, which was large enough to use as an improvised body bag. We'd deal with the body elsewhere.
"If we're all done here, let's head for Mount Tai," Goro said, then he aimed a grin of unabashed pride at me. "It's time to make your sword."
This is the high point of the Japan arc, the chapter I was most excited about writing. So many important, pivotal moments for Jane crammed into one chapter. I had a blast writing this.
Kurojaki literally translates to "black demon" in English. The name is a wink and nod to Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, an 80s anime about hunting dogs fighting evil bears (yes, it's as badass as it sounds). In that anime, Kurojaki is a one-eyed ninja dog who ate other dogs. For a show about cartoon dogs, it's actually quite bloody and violent. I tried to capture that same gritty intensity in this chapter's fight scene.