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  “But, Dad—”

  “Go!” He dialed 911.

  I grabbed Amy and put my lips to hers, trying to ignore my dying father and the dead guy. Kissing her was great, but having to kiss her for powers wasn’t so awesome. As much as I didn’t want to leave him, he was right. If we didn’t go, Mom could be in danger. This wasn’t a random Akuma attack. They really did want Dad gone.

  Only a few seconds of kissing worked up a good glow. The more time we spent together—the more in sync we were—the faster the powers came. Mom explained that someday we wouldn’t have to kiss at all; we’d be that connected.

  Not even half a minute had passed when Amy and I landed in the alley, but it was long enough to lose sight of them. We ran to the street, hoping to see something.

  “There!” Amy pointed to a house a few buildings down. A flash of green disappeared over a steep roof.

  “C’mon.” I sprinted for the nearest stoplight. We were faster after we kissed. Not inhumanly fast, but faster. I could run at top speed and my lungs didn’t burn and my muscles didn’t get tired like they should have.

  The street wasn’t abandoned, but we had to take the risk of being seen. I climbed the stoplight, ran across the beam, hopped to the light on the other side of the street, and then jumped for the nearest building. Amy was right behind, even injured.

  I scaled the building and leapt for the neighboring roof. Hopping roofs had never been hard, but it was even easier with boosted strength and speed. The Akuma was on the horizon, her veiny green skin lighting our way. Mom was on the trail, but losing ground.

  We caught up fast. Mom smiled when she saw us. “Restrain her—don’t kill. She can’t take your kami with me close behind.”

  I nodded. Amy and I ran hard, jumping roofs so fast I lost track of where we were in the city. I didn’t have time to get oriented now that I realized how important this Akuma was. They wouldn’t stop hunting Dad. We had no information, and she could provide it. I needed the answers—I had to protect my father.

  We were right behind her, so I grabbed Amy’s hand in hopes of making the most of our connection. We glowed more intensely, united by our goal. The Akuma stopped on a flat roof and turned.

  “I can taste what you are!” she yelled in a voice that sounded part human, part jackal. She raised her sword.

  We dodged her wide swing. I had her sword arm, and this time it wasn’t hard to rip the blade from her grasp. Amy had the Akuma’s other arm behind her back. She writhed, trying to get free, but we were too strong.

  Mom caught up, a wicked smile on her face. She pulled a rope from her baggy shirt and bound the Akuma, then pushed her down to the roof. From what I could see, I thought we were up near Marina. Downtown’s glittering lights were definitely south of us.

  Mom pulled out a dagger and put it to the Akuma’s throat. “Spill it, before I spill your guts.”

  “You’re not getting anything,” she growled.

  “We’ll see.” My mother ripped off the Akuma’s facemask, revealing a mess of black hair. She barely looked human, the stolen kami pulsing through her skin. “How long have you been here?”

  She stared at Mom defiantly, hair moving with her heavy breathing.

  “Come now, we already know it was some time around November when your activity increased in San Francisco.” My mom studied her face. “Ah, sooner.”

  The Akuma didn’t stand a chance. My dad taught me all about reading body language, and Mom knew the same things. She would get all she needed just from how the woman reacted.

  “How did you find Ken?”

  The Akuma growled.

  “Do we have a Saburau leak?” No reaction. “All right, a spy?” The Akuma’s lip curled for a split second. Mom smiled. “I see, so an outside spy it is. How many Akuma?”

  She held strong on that one. Mom asked specific numbers, but she wouldn’t give it up. She’d closed her eyes like she’d gone into a meditative state. Then Mom changed tactics. “I’ve been told the hunger burns like acid. Is that true?”

  The Akuma’s breath caught for a moment, and mine did as well. I realized where Mom was going with this. I didn’t like it. She would ask—more like demand—something I couldn’t give.

  Mom came close to her face, pressed the dagger harder so blood ran. I’d never seen her so heartless and angry. The woman I knew was long gone. “How much do you think it would hurt if there were hundreds of kami here? Would it incinerate your insides?”

  The Akuma had to know she wouldn’t live. Her pupils slowly receded, terror saturating her face as she looked at Amy and me. “Please don’t.”

  “I’ll make you a deal. You tell us how many are in the search party, and I’ll kill you quickly.” Mom folded her arms, betraying only the smallest twinge of regret.

  Silence.

  “Fine, we can do it the hard way.” My mom looked at Amy and me. “Kiss.”

  “Mom …” I backed up a few paces, wanting to run and knowing Mom would kill me next if I did. Amy and I cared about each other. Our kisses were personal, not for making Akuma talk.

  “Toshiro, that’s an order.” Her voice was steel, like her eyes.

  “No. It’s not right.” I couldn’t manage more than a whisper. I needed to be strong, but I couldn’t find it through all the shaking.

  “Not right? And what this demon did was?” Mom hissed. “She almost killed your father! She would kill you right now if she wasn’t bound!”

  “But—”

  “Kiss now. That is an order.”

  I looked down to Amy, whose lower lip quivered. She didn’t want to either, but we’d been ordered. Twice. So I reluctantly leaned in.

  It was the worst kiss ever.

  I didn’t even feel like I was kissing her. The kami came, but I felt sick inside when the Akuma wailed.

  She screamed and screamed. We stopped several times—I was sure someone had heard her and cops were on the way—but Mom told us to kiss again. Amy shook in my arms, her lips barely moving over mine. The Akuma’s cries burned my ears, drowning out the gentle resonating sound that came with our glow.

  “Four! There’s four left! They’re searching the city for Ken right now!” she finally screamed.

  We stopped kissing, and Amy buried her face in my chest. I pulled her away from the Akuma and sat on the roof. Holding her, pushing back my tears, I decided my mother would never make us do that again. I felt dark, evil, ashamed of what we could do. Fighting the Akuma was one thing, but I couldn’t use what we had for torture. We wouldn’t be Saburau, not if this was how they worked. No ninja was “good,” but this was out of my ethics comfort zone by about four hundred miles.

  “Thank you for cooperating. Toshiro, Amy, you may leave if you’d like.” I only pulled Amy up because I didn’t want to see what Mom would do to the Akuma.

  We waited on the street, but I didn’t hear anything else from the roof. The cold air barely registered because I was already numb from what we’d done. Mom came around the corner a few minutes later as if nothing had happened. Amy tensed like she was scared of my mother. I didn’t blame her. The woman who looked back at me was foreign.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “It’ll look suspicious if we were all at the house. The police must be there by now. We’ll go to the mall, get food, and act as if we’re just arriving home. Pretend you have no idea what happened, okay?”

  We nodded. She headed to the main road. There was a bus stop a few streets down. While we waited, I couldn’t stop shaking.

  26

  When we got back over an hour later, three cop cars were out front. I was pretty sure some of the officers recognized Amy and me. The tall, skinny one in the doorway had questioned me at the hospital. The big one had taken our statements when we found that girl in the park. I tried not to make eye contact.

  “Are you Mrs. Ito?” a policewoman said.

  “Yes, yes. What happen?” She put on her Japanese accent, brewing up some serious tears.

  “It ap
pears to be a break-in. We don’t know intent at this moment.”

  “My husband? He okay?” She dropped the fast food bags and grabbed me around the waist. We didn’t technically know if he was okay, but I wasn’t sure if she was truly scared or faking.

  The policewoman looked down. Not good. The oxygen in the air disappeared, and all I could think was that the paramedics didn’t make it in time. I was too young to assume his Clan responsibilities, to live without his quiet yet strong influence.

  Finally the officer said, “He’s alive; he’s been taken to the hospital. The intruder stabbed him, but it seems your husband managed to kill the man.”

  My mom broke down. If it was an act, it was flawless. I let out a huge sigh of relief. He was alive.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.” The officer put a hand on my mother’s shoulder. “I understand this is hard, but we have to ask you to find alternative lodging. The intruder’s body is still inside, and we’ll need to investigate the crime scene. Do you have a place to stay?”

  “Yes. Can we get things?”

  “Not until we’ve done a full sweep and questioned the victim. We’ll need a contact number for you,” the officer said. Mom gave her cell phone number. “All right, I think that’s all the information we need from you now. We’ll be in touch.”

  “Thank you.” My mom bowed several times, wiping her tears with her shawl. You’d never guess she was torturing someone an hour ago.

  When we got to the bus stop, her tears dried up. She pulled out her phone. “Courtney, I need a pick-up at the bus stop nearest the Wado Karate Dojo. We have an emergency. You must be silent about this matter, understand?”

  After that, Mom made several more calls. The way she gave out commands formed a pit in my stomach—it reminded me of what Amy and I did to that Akuma. The screaming. I shuddered, worried kissing her would never be the same. I couldn’t even do more than hold her hand at the moment.

  Courtney took us to the hospital. That place was too familiar. First Todd, and then I’d spent days listening to the beeping monitors and staring at Amy’s weakened body. Now my dad was in that bed with four stab wounds. He looked old, way older than he was. His wiry eyebrows furrowed even in his sleep.

  Mom sat on his bed, her strong features crumbling into real panic. She put her hand on his arm. “Toshiro, do you sense any kami?”

  “What? No!” I didn’t even think of that. He could have easily taken kami from that Akuma, but he didn’t. No matter what he’d done in his past, my dad was an incredible man.

  She sighed in relief and shook his arm. “Ken, Ken.”

  “Uhnn.” He moved his head back and forth, fighting his way out of sleep. Then he opened his eyes. “Hisako, I didn’t …”

  “Shh, I know.” She kissed him on the forehead. “We took care of it, but our cover’s been breeched. Even if the other four Akuma in the city didn’t know about the dojo, they will now. Cops are everywhere.”

  He heaved a sigh. “Disaster.”

  “What do we do?” My mom seemed to have all the answers. It surprised me that she asked Dad for help.

  “I’m not sure they’re on Clan business. I knew them—Taro and Satsuki. They trained with me in Japan. We joined about the same time. Most Akuma work in packs, fight for rights over areas. They’ve probably contracted with the city’s Akuma to leave once I’m gone.”

  “Do you think they’ve alerted others?”

  “If there are still four in the city, doubtful. They’ll want the kami for themselves. If we could kill them all at once, it would buy us time before the Akuma realize who we have now.” He flinched, grabbing his side.

  Mom nodded methodically. “Okay, we’ll stay there, pretend we don’t know what’s going on. I’ll have the Saburau rotate watching the dojo and guarding the city. We can’t have them getting stronger by stuffing themselves with kami.”

  “They’ll tread lightly until the press dies down, but they won’t give up.” He closed his eyes, overcome with fatigue.

  “The one we caught implied there’s a spy,” Mom said. The thought of having an Akuma close enough to gather information chilled my blood. “Toshiro would sense that, wouldn’t he?”

  Dad shook his head. “Not if the spy is suppressing his urge to consume kami like I am. They wouldn’t eat. They would appear as a normal human. It could be anyone, possibly someone very close to us if they were able to point out the dojo.”

  I couldn’t think of anyone that stood out as a spy. Dad never went anywhere, which made sense now. Mom was fairly solitary as well and probably only had Saburau connections. Maybe a dojo student or one of their parents? Unlikely. My stomach turned. The spy could have come through me. I’d been too reckless these past months. Simon was at school. What if someone else saw?

  “Even if we can’t see the spy, we should be able to preempt the killers.” Mom smiled at Amy and me.

  I cringed. Maybe I didn’t mind pointing them out, but what might happen after we found them made me sick. I had to tell her we wouldn’t torture people, and it scared me that she might not listen.

  “Courtney, take Amy and Toshiro to Amy’s house. Guard them until someone comes to replace you,” my mom said after a while.

  Amy was almost passed out on my shoulder from all that fighting. She wasn’t fully healed and occasionally winced in pain, though she tried to hide it.

  Courtney headed for the door. We followed her, but could barely keep up since she was on the verge of running. We got in her car and she barreled down the road. “You don’t know anything about Saburau, huh?”

  I let go of Amy, leaning toward the front seat. “Hey, I wasn’t lying. If you asked me a month ago what my mother did for a living, I’d have told you she was an amateur game show critic. I swear.”

  “Bullshit. You lied about how you found Simon, too. Hisako asked you if you sensed kami in your dad. I know what that means—you have high spiritual energy, and your dear daddy is ex-Akuma.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I did lie about Simon, and I wasn’t excited about her knowing everything. Sitting back, I sighed. Hopefully she hadn’t picked up on the fact that Amy could see them as well. Mom didn’t want the Inyo thing getting out.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Courtney straightened in her seat, smug as ever. It didn’t matter what she thought. My dad was in the hospital, the Akuma were on our trail, and it was looking like I’d be the resident torture master. Courtney’s feelings were at the bottom of the totem pole. No, more like smashed underneath.

  She pulled in front of Amy’s house. “I’m dropping off my car at home and coming back. Try not to die.”

  Amy glared at her. “We won’t beat any Akuma while you’re powdering your nose.”

  If looks could kill, Courtney would have taken Amy out right then.

  I opened the car door before a catfight broke out. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing that, but I just wanted to make sure Amy was nice and healed before they fought. Almost before Amy shut the car door, the wheels screeched as Courtney floored it.

  “Ugh! Why does she think she’s so superior?” Amy said as she plopped down on her couch.

  I was ready to crash, but it was my turn to be the calm one. “I guess pretending to be a bratty cheerleader leeches into everything.”

  She laughed. “Do you think she’s really like that?”

  “I don’t know.” I sat down and pulled her close. She hugged me tight but didn’t even try to kiss me. I had a feeling we wouldn’t kiss for days, maybe weeks.

  “I feel like I can’t trust anyone.”

  People kept changing left and right. Mom had gone from a crazy game show lady to a ruthless kunoichi Master. My dad had gone from a quiet sensei to a tortured ex-Akuma. Even Marty, who was always a goofy ladies’ man, wasn’t what he seemed. I thought I was on the inside of the ninja world, but there was no such thing.

  The only person I could trust was sitting right next to me, so I squeezed her tight. “At least we have each other.” I
took a deep breath, wishing we didn’t have to think anymore. “So, a spy.”

  Amy’s nails dug into my back. “I bet it’s Courtney. She’s all rage.”

  “But we’ve seen her fight them. And she’s had plenty of openings to sense the Inyo thing like the other Akuma seem to. Wouldn’t she have captured or killed us?”

  She frowned. “I hate that you’re right.”

  We went over several people we knew—even her own parents—but nobody seemed right. Everyone sounded like a ninja if you thought hard enough. And we were thinking way too hard.

  “Do you think the spy could be Eddie?” Amy asked.

  I busted up laughing. “Are you kidding? No way.”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. He tried to keep us apart like your dad said they would. And he’s so pissed off at you. Like, disproportionally pissed off.”

  I shook my head, hating to think about it. Eddie couldn’t be the Akuma spy. I’d known him forever, but things had changed so much recently. My breathing quickened as I thought through everything that had happened—the questions, the intervention, even the Scrabble incident. He wasn’t stupid. He could have figured it out.

  But Eddie wouldn’t do that…or would he? He’d always wanted to be strong like the characters in our games. I thought back to his cold face, how he’d told me to break up with Amy. Did he know what we were? Maybe he could sense it like my dad.

  I put my head in my hands. How could I trust myself after I’d been wrong about so many people? Eddie could have fooled me like everyone else. “Maybe.”

  Amy rubbed my back and was quiet for a while. “Should we follow him? See if things seem suspicious?”

  “I guess so, but we can’t bring it up to my mom without knowing for sure. Who knows what the Saburau would do to him.” I couldn’t bear the thought of torturing Eddie for my mom.

  She nodded. “Tosh, what happened tonight—”

  “Will never happen again.” I looked into her eyes. “We’re not going to be Saburau. I won’t take orders like that.”