“I think you’re right.” Jordan said, frowning.
“I wish there was a phonebooth around here.” Rai muttered as they made their way into the room.
“What are you talking about?” Jordan asked. “You can call nine-one-one on your cell phone.”
“Never mind,” Rai said, shaking his head. “I was thinking out loud again.”
“Might want to work on that,” Jordan suggested not for the first time. He was about to add something about Rai’s tendency to babble when he spotted Kendra standing in front of a steaming, ruined lunch table and looking confused. Sarah and Ashley were slowly crawling away, while Jade was using the wall as leverage to struggle back to her feet. Emma lay in a crumpled heap several feet away—dark blood matted her hair and covered half her face.
“Oh, no!” Rai cried. “Help Em! I’ll handle Kendra.”
“Emma!” Jordan shouted and vaulted over the wreckage to get to her.
***
Rai Aoi saw rage, furious fiery rage, when he looked at Kendra Radcliff. The flowing aura was similar to what he saw around Amber Walker when he was near her. But this one felt dangerous. It danced across her skin and flowed through her long coppery hair like a thing alive. Rai wasn’t sure what it meant, but he could somehow tell that she barely had it under control.
“Kendra, you need to try and stay calm.” He said as soothingly as he could manage.
“I was trying to be nice,” Kendra was saying to herself. Her eyes closed tightly, and she only barely acknowledged Rai at all. “I didn’t mean to—”
“I know. I know,” Rai said softly. “Take a breath. Just breathe.” He put his hands on her shoulders, which were painfully warm to the touch. But he held on, staying with her until the moment passed. When she opened her eyes, they were filled with tears.
“Am I a monster?” She whispered looking around, taking in the damage.
“I don’t know,” Rai answered honestly. He immediately regretted his words as Kendra turned and ran from the room. He watched her go, feeling very conflicted. Alarm bells were going off and Rai turned back to see Emma. Jade was standing two feet from him and scowling.
“You’re like her, aren’t you?” It wasn’t really a question.
“Maybe,” Rai answered. “Did you cause this?”
“Yeah, you’re like her.” Jade said and brushed past Rai without looking back. Her words felt like a threat, but he didn’t care at the moment.
The school security, teachers, and staff ran into the room. Emma laid motionless on the ground, Jordan leaning over her.
***
Emma stood in the lunchroom, not sure what had happened to her. The lighting was all wrong. It seemed dim with no color to anything. Figures moved in the darkness around her, indistinct and unrecognizable. Then someone moved toward her, growing clearer, and she recognized him.
“Sean?” she tried to ask but her voice sounded strange, as if it coming from far away. He stepped near, and Emma felt colder the closer he came. She saw a darkness stretching out behind him that was so absolute it terrified her and tried to move away from him—to run and be anywhere else.
Then Emma found herself standing in the grotto from her dream. A massive oak tree bordered the edge of the pond and the meadow, its wide-spreading branches shading her from the slate grey sky. She grinned. “I’m dreaming again, aren’t I?” Her voice still sounding weird and distant, but she ignored that for the moment. There was some color in the otherwise grey on grey landscape of a dream.
It was faint and sickly green, pulsing across the ground under her feet like some sort of diseased circulatory system. Emma kneeled down and placed her hand to the ground, she could feel it too. It seemed to be spreading out from the small tumble of rocks that made up the waterfall. She stepped near and could see a hollow behind the water. Emma walked past the water and into the cave without hesitation.
***
“Emma!” Jordan hollered again. The jock cradled the still form of Emma Vanora in his arms. Things looked bad.
Rai already called 911 emergency and after that didn’t know what else to do. School security arrived next to Jordan, and two more cleared the room of remaining students. Rai could hear Olivia arguing with one of them to let her in, while Sean Arrens hovered nearby for some reason. Jordan muttered and sobbed, rocking Emma in his arms.
Rai was sure he heard the jock say, “I’m not going to let you die!” just before he felt something, a warmth like sunlight, pass across his skin. He looked up in time to be blinded by brilliant light.
***
Emma made her way down the winding crevasse, following the traces of green illumination. Much of the tunnel was far too narrow for her to reasonably pass through but, since it was a dream, she wasn’t going to be slowed by something like spatial physics. Emma wasn’t sure what she would find when she reached the source, but a sleeping young woman was not something she had considered. At least it looked like a woman. Emma could see her bones, dirty and ancient-looking beneath translucent ghostly skin. She didn’t appear to be breathing but shimmered with the same green light that had drawn Emma here. Hundreds of tiny roots spread out from her, all attached to her still beating heart.
“Hello?” Emma asked, reaching out to touch her. “Are you okay?” The woman’s eyes opened wide to regard Emma. They were dark and filled with madness. Shaking wildly and struggling to rise, she tried to pull free from the bones that were bound to the countless roots and tendrils. But they held her down.
The woman began to scream, and Emma backed away, trying to cover her ears but couldn’t drown out the terrible sound. Suddenly, Emma felt strong warm arms wrap around her. She couldn’t see them but knew somehow that they belonged to Jordan as they pulled her out of the tunnel and away from this horror.
***
“Em?” The voice was gentle and soft. It was next to her ear, calling her name. When she heard it again, she tried to turn toward the voice. “You okay, Em?” It was Rai.
“Rai?” Emma’s eyes fluttered open. The light inside the room hurt her eyes, and she had to tilt her head away from it.
“What happened?” Emma whispered groggily and saw the silhouette of her friend loom over her. She was in a hospital room. Olivia and Jordan were there, too.
“She’s awake!” Olivia called loudly from behind Rai, and a nurse hustled into the room.
Emma spent the next twenty minutes being poked, prodded, and having lights shown in her eyes while her friends waited outside.
Her mom got there during the examination looking frantic but quickly calmed down when the doctor explained that Emma seemed free of any signs of injury or concussion. She had been unconscious for over an hour, so they planned to keep her overnight.
***
Emma sat up that evening with Olivia in her hospital room. Everyone else had eventually gone home, even her mom had relented after Emma assured her she felt fine and would call immediately if anything happened.
“Have you heard from Jade?” Emma asked.
“No, and I’m a little worried—and a lot mad —about it.” Olivia said, re-checking her phone.
“Why mad?”
“—Because she isn’t answering my texts!” Olivia said.
“She’s probably on lockdown again,” Emma replied. “There’s no way she’s not going to be suspended for getting in a fight her first day back.”
“True,” Olivia agreed. “Tell me what happened. Everyone is saying there was a bomb under the table.”
“I don’t know what happened,” Emma said, frowning, and thinking back. “I mean, I saw the table getting knocked around, first by Jade and then Kendra. I kind of remember it breaking apart. Then, I think something hit me in the head.”
“You’re lucky,” Olivia sighed, looking relieved. “I was way over by the vendors, but I swear it looked like you were lying there with blood all over your face.”
“Scary—” Emma nodded “—but don’t worry. I feel great. Seriously, they didn’t find a scra
tch on me.”
“Are you sure?” Olivia looked doubtful.
“Not even a hangnail, I swear,” Emma assured her. “Go ahead and go home, Livs. They’re about to kick you out of here anyway.”
***
24
FOLLOWING MONDAY
On the following Monday, Emma leaned on her hands in history class and struggled to pay attention. There had been no word from Jade all weekend, not even a sympathy text to see how she was doing. It ticked her off. Still, Olivia spent all day Sunday at Emma’s house and somehow found out that everyone had been suspended for the week. “Everyone” being Jade, Kendra, Ashley, and Sarah. So, it was shaping up to be a pretty quiet week at school—at least, Emma hoped so.
Mr. Monroe was a relatively young teacher and very cute. Typically, Emma didn’t have to work at staying engaged, but she had a lot on her mind right now. Jordan was being amazingly supportive yet seemed distracted this morning for some reason. Rai had been weirdly quiet on the ride to school, too. Maybe it was about her getting hurt on Friday, but she couldn’t help thinking they were hiding something. She’d ask Olivia about it at lunch.
***
“I don’t know where to sit,” Emma complained. She hadn’t considered that their lunch table being destroyed on Friday would mean there would be no table. Sure, it made sense now that she was looking at the empty spot in the lunchroom where their table should have been—but, still.
“We could go sit in the quad,” Olivia offered.
“Outside?” Emma visibly shuddered. “The sun is out there.”
“Sorry,” Olivia said with a laugh. “I forgot you were a creature of the night.”
“Har har.” Emma replied. “I burn, okay.”
“So where do you want to sit?” Olivia asked. “All the other tables are full.”
“We might as well try outside,” Emma sighed. “—under a tree.” They head for the door when Connor waved them over.
“‘Lo, Em! We’ve got room here,” Connor said as he shoved a group of sophomores and first year students over, causing one of them to fall off the end of the long bench seat.
Emma looked to Connor, who was still waving, and then back to Olivia. “What do you think, Livs?”
“It beats watching you turn into a giant freckle.”
“Agreed.”
25
POWER
Jade returned to school the following week, but it became immediately clear that she didn’t want to speak to any of her friends. Emma saw her by the lockers her first day back, but Jade shook her head at Emma and waved her away. Jade didn’t look angry either. If anything, her expression toward Emma looked worried, a look that was weird and concerning. Jade also carried a guitar case, holding it tightly as she turned away.
Emma didn’t know she even played. Maybe her father made her take up a new hobby?
***
By the end of the week, Emma believed Mr. Jones was blaming her and her friends for Jade getting into trouble, and that’s why she couldn’t talk to them. That seemed most likely. It infuriated Emma, but she decided to wait it out for now.
Olivia was talking with Ryan in the quad, so Emma leaned against Flower waiting for her friend after school when she noticed Jade walking on the far edge of the parking lot.
Jade headed for a small section of woods that bordered the baseball field. That was definitely not the way home for her.
It was the second time this week Emma saw Jade going there. Too curious not to follow this time, Emma texted Olivia not to wait for her, and hurried to catch up to Jade, who disappeared into the trees. The undergrowth was thick, and most of it sharp, so it was slow going. Emma couldn’t see her friend, but eventually broke through onto a tramped-down path and followed it.
After what seemed like a mile of trudging, Emma was about to turn back when the trail opened into a small clearing. Jade sat on her knees in the middle of it, looking as if meditating with the guitar case laid open next to her in the low grass. As she began slowly standing, Jade reached into the case and pulled a slender object from it. It was a sword.
Emma crouched down in the scratchy brush, hiding, and watching. Jade went through a slow practice routine with the sword, doing little half turns and thrusts. It was all very graceful and beautiful to watch. Jade never took it from the fancy scabbard, so Emma couldn’t be sure if it was even a real sword or some sort of practice weapon. But the handle looked too ornate for just a practice sword, and she hoped Jade wasn’t bringing a real sword to school with her.
Several minutes passed and Emma’s legs were numb, but she didn’t dare move. Jade eventually finished just before sunset, leaving Emma sitting in the dark with even more questions than before she came out here.
***
Emma spent another evening reviewing the Aoi ledger. It was painstaking work and she had to be careful her mother didn’t catch her at it. There were detailed notes and subfiles for everything stored that even included estimated values. Emma was determined to read through them all. Then she tried to open a folder labeled “Susanoo” and received a “Password Required” message. She opened the password document Rai had included but didn’t find one specifically for this folder, so she tried the first one.
“Password Incorrect. You have four more attempts before your account will be locked out.”
“Rai, give me a call or text when you get this message.” Emma complained to Rai’s voicemail. “I’m working on the inventory, and a folder is asking for a special password. I’m kind of annoyed but kind of excited about it too.”
She set her phone down and frowned at the screen. There was no immediate reply from Rai, so she did a search on the word “Susanoo.” Emma found that the name referenced a Japanese Shinto god of storms. There were several stories detailing his deeds and adventures with the most notable being a battle with a giant multi-headed dragon. The god tricked and defeated the dragon, recovering a magic sword that was either made out of its tail or found inside it. The legends weren’t specific on that point. What they were specific about was that the magic sword from the story was handed down and eventually became part of the Imperial Regalia of Japan. There were countless other art objects and precious scrolls from history that could have been stored in the warehouse related to Susanoo or any number of related Shinto texts. Maybe even something Mr. Radcliff had heard about and wanted. Emma studied a few more articles on Shinto deities before she closed her search, opened the inventory again, and went right to the Susanoo folder. She frowned at the “Password Required” message and typed in, “Izanagi.”
“Password Incorrect. You have three more attempts before your account will be locked out.”
“Hmm,” Emma nodded thoughtfully and typed in, “Amaterasu.”
“Password Incorrect. You have two more attempts before your account will be locked out.”
“Meh.” She chewed on the inside of her cheek and mentally reviewed the list of characters and objects associated with Susanoo. One of the other gods or the dragon, maybe? The name of the sword? And would they have used the Japanese spelling or the English translation? She might be completely off base, and the password not have anything to do with Susanoo. She only had two more tries to find out.
She typed in, “Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.”
The folder opened. It contained a single jpeg file, and Emma excitedly double-clicked the icon. Then stared at it with her mouth hanging agape. It was a simple low-resolution photograph of a sword. A sword that looked all too familiar to her.
“Jade, what have you done?” Emma asked aloud.
***
Emma didn’t know how long she sat in her room staring at the photograph on the laptop, considering all the reasons that object should not be the actual Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi or "Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven.” It was insane to consider an artifact like this was hidden away in a warehouse in Wimberley, Texas for who knows how many years. It had to be a replica. It had to be. But if it wasn’t a replica, Emma allowed h
erself to consider, it would definitely be an object so valuable, she could easily imagine someone burning down a warehouse to steal it. Or worse. Was Jade that person? And if she was, why was she carrying it around in an old guitar case instead of selling it and buying an island or something? Emma remembered her mother’s emotional reaction when she saw the ledger files on the computer. How much did her mom know? Why would she know anything about it? Jason Jones, he was the reason. These were his inventory files, so he had to have known the sword was in the warehouse.
Emma called Rai again. It went straight to voicemail and Emma hung up. She texted him to let him know it was urgent. She closed the laptop and pocketed her phone before going downstairs. Her mom’s door was open, but the bedroom empty so she was working late again. Emma made her way out onto the back patio and curled up on the long couch. The sky was clear, and the weather crisp tonight. She grabbed a plush blanket, wrapped it around her shoulders, and waited.
Emma checked her phone. She wanted to talk to Rai about what she’d found. It was too important. She frowned at her cell again, no return message from Rai. She closed her eyes and tried to relax and had just started to nod off when a tap on her shoulder startled her.
“Em?” A familiar voice whispered near her.
“Jeeze! You scared the heck out of me, Rai!”
“Sorry, I was about to climb up, but I saw you out here,” Rai said and took a seat on the edge of the small side-table. “I got your text, Em,” He said. “All nine of them.”
Emma pulled the blanket closed as she got up from the couch. “Yeah, sorry about blowing up your phone. I had big news.”
“Should I assume you Emma’d your way into the super-secret folder and found something tasty?” He asked.
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