Yoichi snorted up ahead. “Do not be scared, Nyomi. The boys may be annoying and her odd, but they are friends."
"More like protectors." The old woman pointed her katana at the boys. "Go. Help the others evacuate."
The boys answered her in one voice. "Yes, Shigo-sha."
Then they jumped off the moving cart and blurred. The space where their bodies had been streaked sideways into a long smear of motion and then they were gone. Just gone. Into the trees in two directions at speeds no human child should have been able to move.
What the fuck?
I stared at the place where they had been. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. "Y-your name is Shigo-sha?"
"It is my title."
Terrified, I looked at her. "What does that mean?"
She turned her face fully toward me and her eyes were not the eyes I had looked into outside the mansion. Those eyes had been wet with desperation and fear. These eyes were ancient and held power. “It means Death Guardian."
“Well. . .” I stiffened. “That sounds important.”
“It is the most important of all.”
Yoichi snorted.
She frowned at him. “You’ve failed on your watch.”
Yoichi sighed. “Everything was out of my control.”
“They won’t be able to do the Burial Ritual.”
Yoichi growled. “Why didn’t you tell me they were going to do the ritual in the first place?”
“Because you would have tried to stop it—”
“It’s too dangerous and they have just begun for such a huge commitment—”
“It’s been enough time for them to decide—”
“No time at all—”
“You see time differently, old man. They’ve had quite an adventure already—”
“The Burial Ritual binds their souls. This is a decision that one takes years to decide—”
“The Dragon needs his spirit animal tonight for victory—”
“He couldwinwithout it.”
“He willdiewithout it.”
Oh shit.
I thought back to when I’d been on that Scooby Doo mission with Hiro and the twins and spotted paintings from Kenji’s mother.
I had looked at Hiro. “The people in the paintings were Kenji’s mother’s family?”
“Yes. Her bloodline. Her clan. They gifted my brother with this island and people.”
“People?”
