Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I came back to my body and trembled so hard the cot creaked. "What the fuck?"
Yoichi got to his feet. "Did you see something else?"
"Yes."
"What?"
I whispered. "Rin and Deja were having sex."
"Oh." He blinked. “Well. . .”
Deja was still walking toward me, and only halfway across the room. Thank God because I needed a goddamn minute before she got here.
“Well that at least gives us more information.” Yoichi lowered back into his seat. “I thought you would need to touch the person or object to see a vision. Perhaps, you only need to focus on it in some way.”
I trembled. “But are these visions happening? Like okay. . .the doctor confirmed it.”
“And we can assume Reo does pray to his pin.”
“Or maybe my mind created that.”
“No. I think it happens.”
“And Rin and Deja having sex the way I saw it.”
“Let’s ask.”
“I don’t know about that. Deja keeps shit close to the chest.” I turned my head and studied him.
And made my second mistake.
I looked at Yoichi.
The basement disappeared again.
A forest rose. Sunlight spilled through tall pines in pale green columns. The smell of pine resin and damp earth filled my nostrils.
A woman stood in a clearing in robes of layered silk, deep red over white. Her black hair was pinned with an ivory comb. Her face was painted white with red along her lips.
A massive fox sat in front of the woman, yet towered over her. It must have been a good ten feet tall with coiled muscle under the orange fur. There were these gold squiggly lines over the fox’s eyes, which were gold too.
Two long bushy white tails fanned behind the creature.
The woman inched away. “Turn back. It scares me when you take that form.”
The fox growled and then stood up on its huge back legs.
The creature’s whole body rippled. Then, the fur turned to skin. The limbs lengthened and then shortened. The face stretched and reformed.
Long black hair fell down a bare back.
A man stood where the fox had been.
I shrieked, and he turned my way.
Yoichi.
I came back and gasped.
Yoichi's eyebrows rose. "What's wrong, Tora?"
"N-nothing."
He held my gaze. "What did you see?"
That wasn’t real. . .right? He. . .shifted into a man. . .
I blinked.
"Be careful, Tora." And suddenly, Yoichi’s voice had an edge that hadn't been there before. "Find a way to control your visions. I would not want you to see things that could get you killed."
My bottom lip quivered. I looked away. "How am I supposed to control it?"
"You'll learn." He paused. "Until then, perhaps. . .don't look my way too much. . .it might be dangerous."
I didn't push that conversation because I knew that I’d just seen the most dangerous secret in this room. And I couldn’t explain how I knew, but I knew that I shouldn’t tell him I saw that vision just like I'd known the doctor's father was dead and I was on the East side of the island and even that Deja had put a silk bag over Rin’s head.
I felt this truth beating in my heart that there was some old law older than yakuza and even older than Tokyo where. . .Yoichi would have to kill anyone who witnessed his other shape.
And I just knew this the way I knew my own name.
Kitsune. That’s what Yoichi is. . .a fucking kitsune. And. . .he’s old. That vision was. . .so long ago. . .
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Or now I’m crazy.
Fear ran up the inside of my arms in a hot wave.
Deja was three steps away.
I made myself smile.
"Hey, sis." She slowed and stopped at the side of my bed. "How do you feel?”
“Good.”
“You looked like shit and no one would tell me what happened? Who attacked you? I’ve got my gun and nothing but time.”
I gave her a weak smile. “Oh yeah. About that. Why did you bring your gun?”
“Betty Boop doesn’t ever leave my side, so she had to come to Japan.”
“Well. . .no need to bring Betty out right now. I’m good.”
“What happened?”
“A lot but I can’t explain.”
“Yakuza shit?”
“Yeah.”
Deja nodded. “I’m starting to see that being here on this island and around. . .these men. . .requires a healthy dose of going with the flow."
“Yeah.”
"But you’re truly okay?"
"I'm okay." Another shiver ran through me due to what I’d seen about Yoichi. I swallowed. “Where’s Nika?”
“Shoot. Nika and her new slave left for their flight probably ten minutes before we realized everyone had to evacuate. She’s lucky as hell.”
“I’m glad Nika is safe.” I gestured to the women who were now putting the chairs and cots away. “So you were over there holding a Bad Bitch seminar?”
“One woman asked about how I had Rin on a leash and I answered. Next thing you know more and more women brought over their chairs and kept asking me shit.” She shrugged. “They think I’m some sort of guru.”