Eight Million Gods-eARC (41 page)

So, follow and protect him until Susanoo took back the spear? When would that be? After the parade? Tonight when the
mikoshi
were carried to the center of the city? When they were returned to the shrine at the end of the festival? Next year when another celestial child was chosen?

She couldn’t spend a year of her life protecting Haru. She couldn’t even stay in the country legally for more than thirty days.

And she needed to find Leo. Tell Shiva what she knew. Get him out of the cage. Get him some water. Tell him that she loved him. Then flee the country before Shiva or her mother could nail her down.

“Three o’clock.” Pixii picked up her pace.

Nikki frowned. No, it wasn’t even noon yet. Then she saw the dark knot of men pushing their way through the crowd to the right. There seemed to be a never-ending wave of men coming up from the subway station. “Oh shit!”

She started to trot, closing the gap, though she didn’t want to get into a sword fight in front of half of Kyoto.

The cart that been proceeding at a snail’s pace decided at that moment to stop. The pulling crew started preparations for the elaborate turn. The musicians were still ringing their bells and playing flutes. No one on the float seemed to be aware of the oncoming attack.

“Game plan?” Pixii pulled two short batons from the back of her obi.

Like she had one. “Protect Haru. Don’t get killed.”

“That’s it, I’m stripping,” Miriam muttered.

“Wait.” Atsumori checked Miriam with a wave of the hand, and suddenly they were all wearing different clothing. Miriam and Pixii were in shrine maiden uniforms of red
hakama
pants and short white kimono tops. Nikki was in red
kamishimo
over a black kimono. Atsumori drew his
katana
and faced off against the wave of dark-suited males.

The watching crowd burst into applause.

Half of the oncoming men faltered. Obviously they were human
yakuza
and hadn’t been warned about needing to face an angry boy god.

“Halt!” Atsumori thundered, and his shout rolled over the crowd and echoed off the distant hills.

“No, we won’t,” the largest of the
tanuki
snarled. He flicked his hand, and an unsheathed
katana
appeared in it. It reminded Nikki that they weren’t true creatures of flesh and blood. Their bodies were only solid illusions. “Humans aren’t willing to share this world. They’ve grown powerful enough to hunt us down, one by one. They kill us for no other reason than we’re not one of them. We’ve had enough. It’s time for a change. Stand aside. This is not your fight,
kami
.”

“You made it my fight when you murdered my people and burned my shrine!” Atsumori charged. Power surged into them, like they’d drunk down the sun. Nikki shouted in surprise and fear.

“When they grow strong enough,” the leader
tanuki
yelled. “They’ll turn on you!”

Atsumori’s
katana
struck the
tanuki
’s sword and sheered through it with an impact that Nikki felt up her arms. The leader’s howl of pain was cut short as the blade continued, slicing through the male. There was no impact this time. The
katana
cut through him like paper. He shredded into pieces and blew away on a rising storm wind.

The crowd clapped again.

The rest of the
tanuki
surged forward. Pixii flicked her batons, and they extended out into long clubs. Miriam shifted into a defensive position. Nikki leapt to meet the
yokai
, determined to take the brunt of the attack. Out the corner of her eye, she saw three cops rushing into the fray, and then all she could see and think about was the
tanuki
she was fighting. They were trying to overwhelm her with sheer numbers.

The escort for the
yama
float, all in the light blue
kamishimos,
reached the edge of the fight and waded into the
tanuki
.

“Nikki!” Miriam’s shout caught Nikki’s attention. “The float!”

Nikki whirled, slicing through the
tanuki,
and looked to the
Naginata Hoko
. The men on the cart were ignoring the fight, or maybe just trying to get the cart away from the growing mob of fighters. The
hoko
’s team was focused on the front axle as they worked to slide the cart sideways on the wet bamboo slats. Two
tanuki
had mounted the rear axle. A long red tapestry fringed with bright blue tassels hung down from the roofline to nearly the massive wheels. The
tanuki
scrambled up the back as if the edge of the tapestry were a rope.

“I do not know how we’re going to get up there with just one hand,” Nikki shouted at Atsumori as they raced toward the float. “Unless you’re suddenly able to make us fly.”

He held out his
katana,
and the sheath leaped from the pavement to slide onto the blade. The sheath then tied itself to their belt.

“Or we could do that,” Nikki said.

The music grew erratic as the
tanuki
reached the top. All the musicians sat facing inward, the loud chimes drowning out the fight. Now they suddenly had a stranger in their midst.

Nikki scrambled up the spokes of the back wheels, trying to think only of Haru and not the fact she was about to climb up the outside of a mobile three-story structure. As she grabbed the edge of the tapestry, the entire cart suddenly jerked and swayed hard to the left. They’d made the turn! She squeaked in terror as she dangled from the tapestry and the right-side wheels lifted off the ground. For a sickening moment, she thought the cart was going to keep falling to the left, crushing her.

“Get right!” someone shouted overhead. “Right!”

She glanced upwards to see the men on the roof scrambling to the right side. The wheels thudded back to pavement, and the cart shook hard.

The music stopped altogether, and one of the musicians suddenly went flying down to land heavily on the ground. Haru started to scream, a thin and panicky sound.
     

Nikki swallowed hard on her fear and scrambled up into the cart.

One of the
tanuki
was holding a gun on the remaining musicians while the other held Haru pinned to the ground.

“Stop the
kami!
” the one pinning the boy growled.

The one with the gun opened fire.

Nikki flinched out of instinct. The bullets flared and became butterflies.

“That doesn’t work!” Nikki shouted and leapt at him.

The
yokai
had height and weight on her. As they grappled, the other covered Haru’s face with one hand and pulled. The shaft of a spear appeared, and the
tanuki
grasped it tight and yanked upwards. Haru wailed in fear and pain.

Lightning suddenly whitewashed Nikki’s vision. She was vaguely aware of flying backwards out of the cart. She landed hard and lay for a moment on the hot cement. Black clouds boiled in the previously clear sky.

“Nikki-chan?” Atsumori shimmered within her.

“Oh, I think he knows.”

“He definitely knows.”

There was a flare of brilliance and an immediate crack and boom as another bolt of lightning struck feet from Nikki. A
tanuki
vanished in the flare of brilliance.

“Nikki-chan, I do not think I can protect you from him. Leave me and go.”

“No,” Nikki snapped and scrambled to her feet. She needed him too much. She couldn’t hope to save everyone by herself. People were running in all directions. Ten thousand people trying to get away with no idea which direction “away” lay. The
tanuki
with the spear was nowhere in sight.

“Damn it. Which way did he go?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sensing the spear.”

“Shit!” Another bolt of lightning struck a nearby tanuki that been grappling with five men in pale blue parade
kamishimos.
The
tanuki
vanished, instantly dissipated, and the men were flung back, dazed.

The effect on the crowd was amazing,—instantly everyone fled away from the float, and Nikki found herself nearly alone in the intersection.

36

Mother Dearest

Leo heard her coming. High Heels. Strong stride. The angry walk of a well-dressed woman. He sat up, trying to wet his mouth. He was so damn thirsty that it was hard to think. The need for water was making his head pound in time with her footsteps. It was nearly nine again, but he still didn’t know if that was morning or night.

The far door boomed open, and a woman marched up to the cage. She was dressed in an expensive business suit and highlighted with diamonds. She had three-inch heels that looked like they could be classified as lethal weapons. Leo stared at her in confusion. Who was this? Certainly he’d never heard of anyone in Shiva like her.

Williams ghosted in behind her and hid in the shadows, probably out of habit.

The woman glared at him. “Where is my daughter? What have you done with her?”

“Daughter?”

“Nikki Delany. You checked into an
onsen
in Izushi with a woman matching her description. Where is she? What did you do with her?”

He could see the family resemblance now. He had thought Nikki had gotten the chin from her father; it had seemed too strong for a woman. When she was angry, like this woman was now, she stuck it out, almost daring the world to take a swing. The same honey gold hair but bobbed short. The same striking blue eyes, but in her mother, they were laser cutting beams.

All his senses were telling him that this was Nikki’s mother, but it warred with the knowledge that he was still in a cage in one of Shiva’s strongholds. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m looking for my daughter. Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” he was able to say truthfully enough. Nikki would have left the love hotel long ago. Maybe days ago. He’d lost track of time. “How did you get here?”

“I’m asking the questions.”

“I don’t know.” He realized he’d already said that. He scrubbed at his face.

“You were supposed to bring her in.”

Obviously it didn’t occur to her that he might have good reason not to trust Shiva with anyone’s freedom. “I was focused on finding my father. He’s dying. I need to save him.”

The woman started to pace, her footsteps loud on the cement floor.

“The staff at the
onsen
said you had a
katana
with you. Is that the one from the Kyoto shrine?”

How much did this woman know about what her daughter had been plunged into? Normally Shiva operated on a strict need-to-know policy. He’d been far more up-front with Nikki than most operatives would have been.

“Answer me!” the woman shouted. “Was the
katana
at the
onsen
a
shintai
for a
kami?
Your sensitive rating is high enough that even as a half-blood you would be able to tell.”

She knew what he was? How did she know all this when Nikki been so naïve?

“What are you?” Leo sniffed deeply. She had wrapped herself with Chanel No. 5, but her scent was wholly human.

“Senator Delany is head of the United States branch of Shiva,” Williams murmured in the shadows.

Leo stared at the woman. Nikki had been wholly ignorant of everything that dealt with the supernatural. She hadn’t even been aware of her own power. What was this woman thinking, keeping such basic information from someone who was so helpless against possession? Such things ran in family lines; surely her mother knew what Nikki was—or did she?

“Does the
katana
have a
kami?
”

“Answer her.” Williams moved forward. He had a cattle prod in hand; he had left the shadows so Leo would see that he had it.

Leo considered the woman and Nikki’s wall of privacy. It was obvious now that Nikki had been hiding from her mother. But why? If Nikki didn’t know what she was, then it wasn’t to stay out of Shiva’s control.

“Yes,” he growled out. If Shiva thought that the
kami
was in control, they wouldn’t be expecting Nikki to take off for Hawaii.

“And the
kami
is possessing my daughter?”

“Yes,” he growled, hating himself. “The
kami
wants revenge for the destruction of its shrine.”

“You left my daughter possessed by it?”

“The
kami
was helping me find my father.” He couldn’t save Simon, but he could at least shield Nikki. “It’s probably taken her to a shrine somewhere in Izushi. I got a lead on my father; I was going to Dontonbori to find him.”

“It took her to Kyoto. Why?”

“What?”

“A small religious war broke out during the parade. Susanoo got involved. There are a dozen people dead and a score more in the hospital. What is the
kami
planning?”

“Is Nikki alright?”

“What is it planning?”

“What happened to Nikki?” Leo roared.

She stared at him.

“I don’t know,” Leo rumbled. “Please tell me. What happened to Nikki?”

Coldness went over her face as she realized why he was desperate to know. She leaned in close and whispered, “You know what she is, don’t you?”

Did her mother know what Nikki was? Talent ran in family lines. But surely, if she shared Nikki’s ability, Nikki would have known what she was.

Nikki stared openedmouthed at her notebook. Pixii was helping with the wounded and Miriam was translating for some poor American tourist caught up in the confusion. Her hypergraphia, of course, had dragged her to a quiet corner to write.

She’d opened a window to Leo but had seen more than she could ever imagine.

Nikki had known that her mother was treating her unfairly, but that injustice paled in reality to the truth. How could she subject Nikki to drugs and hospitals again and again, all the while knowing that she wasn’t insane? Tied up. Helpless. Half-convinced that what the quack doctors said was true.

Her whole life unwove itself, leaving her in free fall. Her mother knew that all this strangeness existed—the
kami,
the
tanuki
and everything—and yet considered her insane? For not being able to stop writing?

“That bitch,” Nikki whispered. “That motherfucking bitch. She knew. She knew—and she never told me. She just locked me up, told everyone I was crazy.”