And as he followed Koichi outside the infirmary, he froze as he finally understood what Koichi had been talking about. It was as if he’d had an awakening.

A birth.

Or maybe a rebirth . . .

“You okay?” Koichi asked.

Not really. He felt the shadows now. As if they were a part of him. Or coming for him, more to the point. Like they wanted something. “Can you control the shadows, Koichi-sama?”

Koichi laughed bitterly. “No, child. No one can control the shadows. Not even your father.”

There was no missing the dark note in his sensei’s voice. It sent a chill over him. “What about Masaru?”

“He’s a little different. As a servant for the moon god, he can interact with shadows on a superficial level. Not the same as what you can do.”

“How do you know he serves Tsukuyomi?” He’d never seen anything on Masaru that marked him as a servant of the moon god.

“The color of his eyes. All of Tsukuyomi’s servants have white eyes.”

Oh . . . he’d wondered about that with Masaru but hadn’t realized that it’d come from the moon god.

“Is there a reason for it?”

“They say that, when you stare at the god, it drains the color from your eyes. The longer you look, the whiter they become. If you stare long enough, you’ll lose all color and never be able to walk in daylight again.”

That was terrifying.

Not wanting to think about it, Ryuichi looked over his shoulder, and he saw the shadows following after them. They seemed to be leaning toward him, as if reaching.

He felt them now.

It was really beginning to mess with his head.

“You spoke of Shadowlings earlier. What exactly do they do?”

“They can talk to the shadows and learn their secrets. Find out what others keep hidden. Learn the darkest shames and sins of a human heart.” Koichi paused to give him a piercing stare. “However, you, my young Ryuichi, are something far more powerful than that.”

His heart began to pound. “What could be more powerful?”

“The Kage-Mori.”

Shadow Guardian? “I don’t understand.”

“Everything in life is balance, yes?”

Ryuichi nodded. Everyone knew that. Amaterasu was the goddess of the sun, forever pursued by her husband Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon. They split the day in half, a perfect balance that was eternally maintained.

“Your mother was a goddess of light who protected the worlds with her gates, and your father was the right hand of Tsukuyomi, until he fell to the darkness that corrupted him. You, my little friend, are born of your father’s total darkness and your mother’s light and supreme need to protect this world. Do you understand?”

Not really.