“Could use the fur? Make an extra blanket?”

She shook her head with amusement.

Ryuichi went still as if he sensed something in the air, and that, too, added to his apprehension as he made his way through the thronging crowd. While Masaru and Keiko might have been used to moon festivals and their preternatural weirdness, Koichi was mortal.

Unlike them, he was a creature of light. He needed the warm embrace of Amaterasu’s sun. And that was nowhere to be felt.

The dark left him cold. Abandoned.

Koichi had a rare moment of doubt. “Are we sure about this?” he asked quietly.

Masaru laughed in that mocking, sinister way. “Your idea, buddy. You didn’t like my plan.” Turning around, he walked backward through the crowd with a taunting grin.

Never had Koichi wanted to slug him more.

Keiko was far kinder. “It’s the only way.”

Koichi nodded and steeled himself, but not before giving Ryuichi a solid smack for good measure.

“Ow!”

It didn’t help, but smacking the shadow brat who had caused this mess did wonders for his mood.

They neared the painted taiko drums, which grew louder and louder until their thunder was deafening. The drummers seemed possessed and frenzied as they frenetically beat out their rhythms to the gods. It was a furious sound, at war with the beauty and pageantry of the drummers’ elegant movements.

Yet their frantic beat wasn’t the odd part.

This was unlike any festival Koichi had ever seen. There were no kids playing in the streets and no smiling faces. No one shouted out for their wares. Everyone here was as grim as if they attended a funeral.

In a trance.

While being constipated.

It made no sense. And that was what Koichi hated about people. Yōkai he understood. They were predictable. After years of hunting them, he knew their habits as well as he knew his own. Right down to what time of night they picked their noses.

They always acted in similar patterns and did what was expected.

People?

He had never quite gotten the hang of them.

They had their own hidden agendas that only made sense to them.

Worse? They could be extremely irrational and acted with no motivation whatsoever. No one ever knew what fueled their hatred or their hostility.

Or even their love.

Made for all kinds of problems.

Such as the brat he carried.

He’d never understood why Haruka had fallen in love with Ryu. Why she’d been so determined to have him, no matter the cost. Why she’d been willing to risk the fate of all the worlds for one man.

Humans and gods made no sense to whatsoever.

And to make matters worse, these people were like nothing he’d ever seen before. There was no light in their eyes. It was as if their souls had been taken.

Just like there was no sun in their village.