Episode 2: Map of the Gods – Part 3

Ethan felt much better the next day, although semi-humiliated by how raw his emotions had been the day before. As it was a Saturday, Kaitlin had picked it as the perfect opportunity to go to the museum. As Kaela, Ethan, and Jess scooped rice in bowls for breakfast, Kaitlin typed away on her laptop. "Well, it seems we may have a slight hiccup," she said nervously tapping at the screen, "The map hasn't been on display for a couple of years due to some incidents with kids trying to follow it. We may have to get our way into the forbidden special archives."

Jess, Kaela, and Ethan exchanged knowing glances and smiled. "That is not a problem for us," Jess said with a smile. After the four of them chowed down on rice, they placed the bowls in the sink and headed out. Jess, Kaela, and Ethan wore long trench coats again, hoods up to keep themselves disguised. Some people gave them a double take – but they simply ducked their heads and kept moving. The train was the hardest portion of the trip. A young college student just stared at them from the seat across from them while the train rocked back and forth and back and forth and Ethan did his best to just keep his head down.

Once the train stopped and the doors slid open, the Japanese voice greeting them, they followed Kaitlin out. After getting past the ticket booths and shoving their little blue pieces of paper into the machine, they stepped out into the light. "Maybe we should move quickly," Kaela said, a pair of kids looking up into her hood.

"Good idea," Jess agreed, looking back at the kids who were now chattering away in Japanese with their Mom who glanced back at them worriedly.

The library was huge – four floors at least and solid gray concrete slabs with a glittering glass roof that domed over the top like a hat.

"Just follow me and don't look at anyone," Kaitlin turned back and with her long, dark ponytails whipping behind her she gave them a wink.

Ethan grimaced, wishing that he didn't have to hide everywhere he went and wished again he was a regular kid. But he didn't have time to think about it much because then they were moving through swinging brass doors and into long, floor to ceiling bookshelves covered with books – most of them in Japanese.

The librarian, a stern looking lady with her black hair done up in a bun and her face oddly youthful, looked up and raised an eyebrow at their long coats and hoods up, but Kaitlin gave a quick wave and she nervously looked back down at a book spread out on her mahogany desk. Ethan watched her from the corner of his eye as she glanced at them again and then picked up the phone. "Is she calling the police on us?"

"Let's hope not," Kaitlin said with pep in her voice, the smile not fading from her face. The bookshelves around them were like the hedges of endless literature mazes, weaving in straight patterns around them. The stairs were a white and black speckled marble that reminded Ethan of cookies and cream chocolate. But rather than going upstairs, Kaitlin ducked right under the red velvet cords without even looking around.

"Kaitlin!" Kaela hissed after her, but she was already walking down the dark staircase to the forbidden library basement.

She glanced back up. "What? Did you think we had permission to go into the archives? I mean – I don't have to be a ninja to sneak in."

Before her voice could get any louder, Ethan, Jess, and Kaela slipped over the barrier and fast walked down to Kaitlin. Ethan glanced back nervously, but the library was mostly empty. The woman at the desk was gone now and the people that were there were absorbed in reading at desks or leafing through volumes.

The lower basement was dark and cooler than the upper floor. The pillars here looked more like ones you would see in a parking garage than the fancy marble ones above them. Ethan's tail trailed on the ground behind him as he stepped down the stairs, the ceiling low. Rather than shelves, a series of glass cases were set up on tables from one end to the other, along with bolted black filing cabinets along both walls.

With a flip of a switch, bright white light shone through under the glass, blocked only by old documents. Kaitlin thumbed her fingers across the glass leaving streaks. "It's gotta be somewhere over here."

"And now any police officer can find you really easily," Jess commented, leaning herself against one of the glass panes and pointing to the long streak.

"It's okay," Ethan said with a coy smile, "They probably already saw us on the camera going underneath the ropes."

"Hush your faces, fishes," Kaitlin said, her eyes tracing each table before she moved onto the next one, and then the next one.

"Fishes?"

"It's one of the things she says." Kaela replied.

"Here, here!" Kaitlin pointed eagerly, tapping her finger like a drum on the glass. "Heck yeah!"

Ethan, Jess, and Kaela gathered around the glass and looked at where Kaitlin's finger rested.

The parchment looked like an old, tanned piece of animal skin – brown and crumbled with odd creases across it. The ink in it was red and faded in places and none of it looked recognizable to Ethan at all – especially not the kanji. "So, I'm concerned," He said slowly, "one, that if I touch it, the thing will disintegrate. And two, I can't read it. Like at all."

Kaitlin was on her knees already, pulling at the lip of the glass with grunts of effort while Jess and Kaela just stared at her. "I mean – we have cellphones, we can take a picture…" Kaela pulled out her phone and snapped a picture with a flash.

"You have more than one problem now."

Ethan knew that voice anywhere and whirled around; he hadn't heard that voice in a year.

By the stairs stood Bloodmaw. His old ear that had been ripped off was now overgrown with fur as to disguise that much was wrong with it. New scars riddled his face and folded arms and the spots on the hyena were a pale green like his eyes. His fingers were tipped with black claws that gripped the wood handles of his signature tonfa and he grinned with pointed teeth. "Missed me Hamato dorks?"

"Kinda." Ethan said back, flipping his naginata out in front of him with a grin. And oddly he found that he wasn't lying. "Did you come alone for once or did you bring more of your Shinotomo friends with you?"

"Oh yeah, I always have friends to hang out with."

Three figures joined from the stairwell that looked uncomfortably familiar in their white garb, long claws coming from metal guards clutched in their palms. Bloodmaw tapped at the wall with the edge of his tonfa. "Lemme guess, you guys are here to still some old map. Tough luck for you – Kurohana wants us to get it first."

"You still playing lacky then?" Jess snapped.

Bloodmaw glared at her, "I do what I want."

Jess snorted, "Do you even know what the map is?"

Bloodmaw gritted his teeth, spinning his tonfa more aggressively then was necessary. "I'm dumb talking to you idiots." He jumped forward and with a swing of his tonfa and a wild look in his eyes, he shattered one of the nearby glass desks. Pieces flew like glittering snow into the air before bouncing off the cement ground and, like a bell ringing, the fight began.

The three rushed forward, but they didn't seem interested in fighting, but rather went for the glass cases, smashing a second before Ethan could even react. Bloodmaw ducked past a solid swing from Jess' kamas, throwing himself under another glass case that he kicked out of the way.

It fell to the ground and smashed to bits.

Another second and Bloodmaw and popped up behind Kaitlin, his tonfa ready, his mouth split into a grin. "No ice skates to help you this time, midget."

"You did not just call me midget."

Kaitlin dove into Bloodmaw's middle. His tonfas flew out of his hands and scattered across the ground in both directions, bouncing off the concrete pillars. "What is wrong with you!" Bloodmaw roared, the two rolling on the ground.

"Let's move before the rest of these are destroyed!" Ethan cried.

Jess jumped into action, swinging her kamas in a solid crescent formation, forcing the ninjas to jump back from a fourth table, three already broken in their wake and on the floor. Kaela jumped in front of the sixth one, the one with the map on it, swinging her ribbon dart around her to fend off shurikans thrown her way.

Ethan flung himself forward, throwing his naginata out expertly, throwing one of the white ninjas off their footing and they backward into a pile of glass. The other two had waited for their opening – and they found it.

Scissoring in on him from either side, Ethan felt their fists pound into his chest and he fell back into the fourth table, knocking it off its legs and shattering it across the floor. Old documents and papers flew in every direction as Jess moved in, forcing them back again.

Kaitlin flew across the ground, rolling with the hyena who snapped at her, pushing with grunts, "Get OFF!" He pounded at her until at last she relented and released him. He stood and with a solid slam from his tonfa the sixth table crumbled.

With the sound of breaking glass, Kaela swung back with her ribbon dart, not expecting the attack from behind, but Bloodmaw had ducked and with his fingers moving through glass he pulled the map from the pile and tucked it into his baggy pant pocket.

"We gotta get out of here!" Jess called, "I think we have company coming! By company I mean police by the way."

Bloodmaw swung himself forward and with a holler of effort, threw Kaela off her footing and she fell to the ground with a sharp yelp. Bloodmaw snatched a piece of glass from the floor, quick as lightning, the edges of the glass digging into his fur.

Kaela tried to right herself but he stepped on her chest, holding her down and raised the piece of glass above him.

Kaela's eyes grew wide and Bloodmaw stood there, everyone watching him in silence as he breathed heavily.

"Bloodmaw!" Ethan yelled, "Don't do it!"

His breath seemed to be coming out more shallowly.

His eyes were wild.

Then like the calming of a great storm, he let his hand fall, the glass slipping through his fingers.

"Now!"

Jess threw smoke pellets down against the ground and with an explosion of gray, they ran for it.

By the time the smoke cleared, only Bloodmaw and his two standing companions could be seen. The third was somewhere on the ground amongst broken tables. One of them approached him. "Bloodmaw, what was that?" They hissed in a low, Japanese voice. Bloodmaw just stared at the broken bits – the shattered portions of what once was around him and clenched his fists, the blood matting his fur. He could feel the weight of the paper in his pocket.

"You had the opportunity to kill one of the Hamato clan members – and you didn't take it!"

Bloodmaw looked up angrily, his eyes stinging, "Shut up!" he snapped. "I know what I did."

"Kurohana will not be pleased."

Bloodmaw shoved past the two, bumping shoulders as he did. He made it to the to stairs and then looked back at them. "Screw Kurohana, then." He said and he walked up the stairs, not wanting to look at anymore broken things. As they moved out of the library before any of the cops showed up he couldn't help but feel like it wasn't just that he didn't want to look at broken things anymore. He didn't want to live a life of broken things anymore.