Jack tried to calm himself. He had to think straight if he was going to survive. He had no intention of dying here. That wasn’t his fate. He hadn’t got this far on his journey simply to end up a victim of the mountain. He was determined to return home to his sister, Jess, in England.

Jack kept burrowing.

He lost all sense of time, his strength ebbing away as the cold gnawed at his bones. Then his fingers came across something hard. A red handle. His katana! Digging furiously around it, he managed to get a good grip. Hoping to find the surface, he levered his sword upwards with all his might. The razor-sharp blade sliced through the snow. He pushed for freedom …

But met resistance every inch of the way.

He was buried deep. Too deep.

He would die … never to be found.

Despair gripped him. After all his struggles against Dragon Eye, Kazuki and the Shogun, it was to be Mother Nature herself who proved his executioner.

Jack tried to turn his mind to happier thoughts. He pictured Akiko, the time they’d sat together on the slopes of Mount Hiei to wait for hatsuhinode, the first sunrise of the new year, her head resting on his shoulder, her smile as radiant and warming as a new dawn …

He began to drift into unconsciousness, when the snow over his head parted.

‘I’ve found him!’ cried Miyuki, furiously clearing a hole to pull him out.

Hayato and Neko joined her, hands digging on all sides.

Dragged clear, Jack breathed in a lungful of fresh mountain air. Above him, the stars seemed to shine brighter than ever. He looked around. The gorge was completely blocked, a wall of snow and ice rising upwards. He was lucky to have been so near to the gorge entrance when the avalanche had struck.

‘I can’t believe you found me!’ Jack exclaimed, scanning the vast mounds of snow that surrounded him.

Hayato helped him to his feet and Miyuki handed him his katana.

‘If it wasn’t for the tip of your sword poking out, we never would,’ explained Miyuki. ‘Neko’s got good eyesight!’

Turning to Neko, Jack signed thank you, but this seemed so inadequate for saving his life. On an impulse, he embraced her as a friend. Neko smiled shyly at the unexpected affection and gave a humble bow in response.

The four of them carefully headed over to where the rescued girls and horses waited.

‘At least the avalanche has stopped Akuma,’ said Jack.

‘I’m afraid not,’ replied Sora. ‘My daughter says there’s another way out of the valley. It’ll take him an extra day or so. But Black Moon will come.’

‘Then we’d best get moving,’ said Hayato, mounting his horse.

Jack clambered on to his, relieved to take the strain off his injured leg.