The human and the shadows.

Either the darkness serves me, or I serve it. Even now, he saw the shadows in a way he never had before. Could hear them whispering their secrets to him.

Even his own.

Ryuichi-kage. His best friend.

His worst enemy. Because he knew his shadow was hungry now. Salivating. Having tasted its freedom, it liked it.

And it wanted more.

It was a scary proposition. Terrifying, really. How had he come to this?

Oh, that’s right. He remembered. Bad guys chasing him. World in chaos.

Parents fighting.

Masaru being stupid.

Keiko hiding him in the human world when he didn’t belong here. But this was the only home he’d ever known.

It was the world he was willing to die for, no matter how it treated him.

“Ryuichi?”

He turned to look over his shoulder to find Takara and Koichi staring at him.

Takara bit her lip. “Have you heard what’s being said about the school?”

He shook his head.

Koichi clenched his teeth so hard that a tic started in his jaw. “They’re blaming everything your father’s minions did on the monks here. Nobunaga’s planning to retaliate and attack.”

Ryuichi’s jaw dropped as shock ripped through him. “What?” Well, technically it was monks who’d burned the school and ravaged the countryside, just not the monks they thought.

He nodded. “Your father’s plan—divide and conquer. It’s working. Nobunaga has Kato’s father leading their forces to head off your father’s shadow tengu.”

And Sir Walter had no idea what he was about to face, since he would assume they were regular humans.

“Kato plans to ride out and stop them.”

Takara’s words burned through Ryuichi. “Then I will go with him.”

Koichi smirked. “We’re all planning to go.”

“My father’s already assembled his men.” Takara gave him a sad smile. “What’s left of them after our battle.”

That stung. But he knew she hadn’t meant for it to—her shadow had spoken to him, telling him so.

How weird that now he could tell everyone’s shame. All the things they struggled so hard to hide. That they attempted to banish from their thoughts.

The shadows were his friends, too, and they kept no secrets.

At times, he felt as if he stood on a precipice where he could see the world.

And nothing at all. Just a thick, impenetrable fog that seemed to want to consume him. In a way, he wished he could go back to living in ignorance. To know nothing of what had been forced on him by a birthright he didn’t ask for.

Until his brain reminded him of just how cool his powers actually were.

No one could hide from him now. There were no secrets.