1.37: The Giving of One’s LifeWhen Akuchi cast his vanishing spell, he appeared to me the same way the rest of the world did. He was faintly outlined, half-transparent, like smoke taking the form of a human. I reasoned that it meant he was just as invisible as we.

  Rui popped back into view immediately after he tagged me with the second leaf. She didn’t say a word. Instead, she resorted to deranged military hand signs, the kind that looked like a mashup of SWAT signals and sentai poses. I had no idea what each gesture meant individually, but together they screamed…

  MOVE IN. NOW.

  So I followed.

  We rushed down the station stairs again. This was the same station we’d turned into an active warzone earlier. Thankfully, that meant the crowds were thinner now. Or maybe it was because of the time. Or maybe because people sensed death lingering in the air. It was hard to bme them. The air was thick with dread.

  We weaved through the passageway. None of the people going up or down had any idea that three invisible idiots were barreling past them carefully. We slipped between bodies, over gaps, and around confused pedestrians.

  When we reached the magnetic gates, Rui vaulted over them like an Olympic gymnast. Akuchi vaulted after her like a ninja. I attempted the same and…

  … I tripped.

  I smmed down each stair step with catastrophic precision.

  BAMBAMBAMBAMSNAP

  My helmet… my loyal, indestructible, stupid, embarrassing helmet finally cracked open. The st shard cttered to the floor.

  My noh-face was fully visible.

  For the first time… I was truly uncovered.

  Policemen whipped around towards the sound, their faces twisting with both dread and fury. They had been waiting for something like this. The return of the earlier perpetrators. As usual, rumor-fed paranoia radiated off them.

  Then something spped my forehead.

  A second ter, Akuchi’s smoke-like magic burst around me.The world faded to a translucent haze again. They couldn’t see me. They only saw the shards of red pstic on the steps, gleaming like blood in the fluorescent lights.

  I scrambled to my feet and dashed into the station ptform. We rushed through it, dodging through easier at this point until we reached where we were caught earlier. The tunnel. We hurried inside, even knowing that a train could be hurtling through any time. Akuchi sprinted alongside me, and Rui’s faint footfalls echoed just ahead. As I ran, I tore the st shards of the helmet off and let them scatter on the ground behind me.

  We ran for a long stretch before…

  Headlights appeared.

  As expected.

  BAD. TIMING.

  Not that we had any choice.

  I fttened myself against the wall, sucking in a sharp noh-gasp. The rush of dispced air hammered my body like a physical force. Passengers pressed against the windows, wide-eyed, hunting for monsters. Some were terrified. Some… disturbingly eager.

  People actually wanted to see the Noh-face now.

  The rumors had turned everyone into eager spectators, hoping to encounter it.

  They had no idea what that might mean for them.

  The final car passed.

  The rush of air in its wake tore the leaf on my forehead free.

  My bare noh-face appeared in the darkness.

  The passengers screamed. Some pointed at me. One even cheered like I was some kind of a celebrity. The train hurtled around a corner, out of sight, leaving the tunnel dark and quiet.

  The police would flood into this tunnel any moment.

  Panic jolted through me and I ran all the harder.

  Up ahead, Rui and Akuchi flickered back into view as their own spells weakened.

  The tunnel was pitch-dark. Every ceiling light had been shattered by the Noh-face. I was somehow sure of that. Yet… also somehow… I could see every detail. Rui. Akuchi. The tunnel walls. The tracks. Darkness didn’t exist for me again.

  I was almost one with it.

  “If you’re caught, Master,” Akuchi decred solemnly into the darkness, “I will follow you into death!”

  “IDIOTS!” Rui snapped, not even bothering to gnce back as we hustled. “No one is dying today! If you two utter a single more dramatic death fg, I swear I’ll punch you through the next train!”

  “I don’t have much energy left after that invisibility spell,” Akuchi murmured, sweating. “But I’ll give you everything I have.”

  “Ehhhh? No worries, Akuchi!” Rui shouted without slowing. “Our big baka here has more power than he realizes! He just hasn’t used it right yet!”

  “Rui… I’m tired… I’ve been running literally all day… I don’t think that…” I wheezed.

  “Don’t you dare raise that fg right now moron!” Rui barked. “This is the st stretch! If you fail here, you lose your humanity. Your mind. EVERYTHING. Now move your ass!”

  We pounded along the tunnel floor. The walls hummed with residual vibrations. Far behind us, I could already hear the shouts of police entering the tunnel.

  I was running toward my death.

  … or toward my salvation.

  Maybe both.

  I yanked my phone from my fanny pack and almost dropped it.

  Ten minutes.

  Ten. Minutes. Left.

  It was twenty-three fifty hours.

  Midnight was breathing down my neck.

  “Rui! We only have ten minutes! TEN!” I shrieked.

  “I know!!” Rui panted, skidding along the tracks. “Damn it—! It’s too close! Akuchi! Motorcycle! NOW! We need to reach it in time, but there’s no guarantee the damn noh-face will actually appear before us. There’s a certain alcove in this tunnel. It’s the only pce we can look.”

  “I hope it wasn’t lying when it said it’d be waiting for me…” I panted.

  She spun towards Akuchi mid-run.

  “I-I…” Akuchi gasped, swaying. “I’m not sure I can manage to transform again. My body… augh… my spirit… I’m too drained…”

  “I’m going to die!” I bawled. “My MIND is going to die! I’ll DIE down here!”

  “M-Master…” Akuchi rasped, trembling. “I will not let you down…”

  “DON’T call me that!” I choked. “Call me by my name! If I die, at least remember who I was! I’m Susumu!”

  Akuchi’s eyes widened as though he’d been struck.

  “…Susumu,” he whispered. “You have such a gentle name. Yes… I will not let you die.”

  Akuchi’s shadow quivered, rippling like heat haze.

  Then he abruptly changed.

  Rui yelped into the darkness. “I-I can’t see anything! I wonder… did he transform yet?! Wait… that that sound—?!”

  “Y-yes! He’s turned into a motorcycle! Come on!” I rushed to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder to guide her. She stiffened, then exhaled softly and nodded.

  “Thank you, Susu… but—how are you managing to see in here?! You were blind in Rickey’s room earlier, I’m sure of that!”

  “The Cinderel Deadline. I don’t have much time. Anyway, it doesn’t matter! Everyone, move your ass!” I snapped back, throwing her own command at her.

  I lifted her onto Akuchi’s seat. She settled in, trembling but determined. I hopped on behind her and put my hands firmly on Akuchi’s handlebars. It was time for me to step up and fight for my humanity.

  “I… I’m so tired…” Akuchi groaned weakly through the metal frame. “I’m so out of shape right now…”

  I pulled hard on the handlebar, cranking up the throttle.

  VROOOOOOOMMMM…

  Akuchi surged forward, roaring through the darkness as his headlight ignited. The tunnel lit up around us in a narrow streak of white.

  “Susumu… you’re really something else…” Rui murmured, gripping my legs for stability. Her breath hitched. “But… I’m not that happy… You really are undergoing the final irreversible stage of permanently becoming a yokai. You’re becoming the real thing.”

  My heart clenched and I nodded.

  “I don’t want to drag you down. You have to do this Susu!”

  “I know,” I whispered. “I might not come out of this with my mind intact… or my body… or anything… but I’ll give it my all.”

  “You have to hold yourself together, Susumu! Deadlines are more of a suggestion.” Rui shouted. “Tell that deadline fuck you. Stay a human no matter what. Just hold on!”

  “I will.” I nodded, my eyes wet, my noh-teeth clenched.

  “I want you to know that you’re my friend now, Susu! ... Forever. I’ll still be your friend to the end!”

  “…Reiko-chan…” I whispered, my throat closing. The weight of her, the weight of her words hit me like a moving train. I had never truly healed. I wasn’t sure if I ever would… but I would work for it.

  The motorcycle shuddered violently under us.

  …

  …

  SCREEEEEEEEEE….

  We skidded to a halt at the base of a small stairway leading up into an alcove alongside the tracks.

  “I… I can’t continue…” Akuchi’s motorcycle frame cracked apart with a painful sound. His body colpsed back into a human form and he hit the ground while we were still on him. “I’ve done… as much as I could… Susumu… your fate… is yours now…”

  His body slumped.

  Still.

  Motionless.

  He was…

  “H-He died! NOOOOOOO!” I wailed, filing in frantic circles before dropping to my knees beside him. My hands shook violently as I touched his shoulder. “He died to get us here, Rui! If only…. Only…”

  I clenched my fists and pounded the ground next to Akuchi. Even though he was weird and scared me to death, someone going this far for my sake… I couldn’t ignore nor forget his sacrifice.

  Everything inside me hurt.

  And the clock was still ticking. How much time was really left? How much time did I have?

  Relwing