jerked her hands out of reach, shrinking from Kenny’s touch. ‘We have to go to Inari,’ she said, turning towards the door. ‘Right now.’
‘What? No way!’ Kenny declared.
‘Why not?’ Kiyomi paused in the hallway.
‘Because she’ll try to stop me.’
‘Good. Someone has to.’
‘And then what happens to you?’ Kenny blinked, trying to stem the tears suddenly brimming in his eyes. ‘And me? I won’t be able to survive here without you.’
Kiyomi bit her lip and stepped back into the living room. She placed a hand on Kenny’s arm. ‘It’s for the best.’
He pulled back. ‘Says who? What’s the big deal anyway?’
‘Kenny . . .’ Kiyomi’s voice was low, the warning tone unmistakable. ‘You have no idea who you are messing with, or how much trouble we’re all in.’
‘No, I don’t, so tell me.’ Kenny stared at her defiantly.
‘That mirror isn’t just any old relic, like the ones your grandad used to recover. It’s sacred. It holds some of the essence of the Sun Goddess herself, but – more importantly than that – it’s also one of the Three Sacred Treasures, the Imperial Regalia.’
‘Which means what?’
Kiyomi grabbed Kenny’s shoulders and fought the urge to throttle him. ‘Do you have any idea how dangerous, cunning, unpredictable, manipulative and plain old psycho Susano-wo is? He was crazy enough to start with, but thousands of years in Hell have hardly helped. He’ll trick you, first chance he gets.’
‘No, he won’t,’ Kenny said. ‘He’s kept his word so far – including healing you, I should add – and, if he does try anything . . . then me and Kusanagi will be ready for him.’
‘Yeah, right.’ Kiyomi released her grip and lowered her head, a curtain of black hair surrounding her face. ‘So, you did a deal to restore my soul? You went to the Lord of the Underworld . . . just for me?’
Kenny smiled. ‘Yeah.’
Kiyomi stroked his cheek. ‘Aw. That was sooo sweet –’ Kenny closed his eyes and relaxed a little ‘– and so stupid!’
WHACK! The slap was so hard it rattled Kenny’s teeth and made his ears ring. Spots flickered before his eyes.
‘Don’t you know I’d be better off dead than have you help that filthy, treacherous, lying, slimy piece of –’
‘No, you wouldn’t!’ Kenny fired back, rubbing his jaw. ‘You can’t fool me. I remember how you were before . . . You didn’t want to die. You wanted to live. To be normal, to hang out, to have friends, to laugh and play. You even wanted to be kissed.’ He wiped his swelling lip with the back of his hand. ‘Somehow, I don’t think being stuck in Yomi with a thousand oni lining up to torture you forever is a better option.’
Tears glittered in Kiyomi’s eyes and her voice was little more than a murmur. ‘But still . . . you should never have done this.’
Kenny slipped his arms over Kiyomi’s shoulders and drew her closer. ‘It was worth it,’ he whispered.
BRRAAPPP!
Startled by the sudden noise, they glanced round to see Poyo squatting on top of the counter. He waved a paw to clear the pungent air, then held out two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
‘Great. Talk about a mood-killer,’ Kenny grumbled, taking one of the cups.
Kiyomi joined Kenny at the counter and they sipped their drinks.
‘I didn’t figure everything out,’ Kiyomi said. ‘I made Poyo tell me the rest, about your little trip to Matsue.’
Kenny glowered at the tanuki. ‘Thanks for nothing. Some partner you turned out to be.’
Poyo ignored him, rolled on to his back and aimed the nozzle of a can of whipped cream into his open muzzle. FW-AAAWSH! A cloud of surplus cream clung to Poyo’s whiskers, making him look like Santa Claus.
‘Well, I am not going to see Inari, I can tell you that,’ Kenny said, eyeing Kiyomi. ‘Besides, you heard what Susie said in your dream. He’s giving me four days to find this precious stone for him, or you’re going full oni.’
Kiyomi flinched and stared down into her Newcastle United mug.
Kenny leaned closer. ‘Kiyomi, I need your help. That’s why Susie summoned you in the dream. He knows I can’t fetch this jewel on my own, so he’s brought you in to help me.’
‘This is wrong,’ Kiyomi insisted.
Kenny’s grip tightened on his mug, his knuckles whitening. ‘What choice do we have? Go to Inari? Beg for forgiveness?’
‘You can do your duty, as she commands.’
‘Not if it means losing you.’
He slid off the stool and went to the desk, where he scooped up the map printout. After studying it, he returned to the computer screen and adjusted the map scale.
‘According to your dream,’ Kenny said, ‘the mirror showed that this stone he’s after is at the bottom of the East China Sea. If I’m reading this correctly, it’s somewhere off the coast of Taiwan, about a hundred kilometres east. Man, why is this never easy?’
‘Because if it was, Susano-wo wouldn’t need us,’ Kiyomi said, coming over to examine the map.
‘Does anyone mind if I have a look?’ Kenny’s father said from the hall. He yawned and closed his bedroom door. ‘I was trying not to listen, but you two hardly keep the noise down. As for you . . .’ He fixed Poyo with a glare. ‘You’d better clean up this mess. I’m tired of picking tanuki hair out of my food. Got it?’
Poyo straightened up, snapped a salute and fell into the sink.
‘Dad . . .’ Kenny began.
‘I know, I know,’ Charles said. ‘I’ve heard it all before. Not my concern. It’s for my own good. Blah-blah-blah.’ He held out his hand for the map. ‘Well, not this time. Last month, you pulled that routine on me and look where it got you. Lost in the mountains before ending up in orbit of all places. If not for me, you’d both be space dust by now, so I think I’ve earned the right to know what’s happening. Besides, if there’s any treasure hunting going on, I don’t see why you and my father get to have all the fun.’ He winked.
Kiyomi plucked the map from Kenny’s grasp and handed it to Charles with a winning smile and a small bow. Charles collected his reading glasses from the desk and scanned the map.
‘This isn’t so bad,’ he said. ‘Technically, these are still Japanese waters. The tiny island is Yonaguni. It’s the westernmost of the Ryukyu Islands and it’s accessible by plane. I can make the arrangements.’
‘Whoa,’
