Storm by Amanda Sun Read Free Book Online

he was dangerous. I had to protect Tomo. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It was stupid to go.”
    He shook his head and ran a hand through his copper spikes. “I just... I hate to be trapped in here, not knowing what’s going on. I don’t want to see your life destroyed because of what I am.”
    “It’s not just you,” I said. “This affects me, too.”
    “And me,” Ishikawa said. We both looked at him. “What?” he said, putting his soup can on the coffee table with a clank. “I may not be a Kami, but I am Yuuto’s best friend. And I have an objective view of what’s going on.”
    Tomo leaned back against the wall. “That’s a big word for you.”
    “Uruse.”
Ishikawa flipped him the finger. “Here’s the thing. It’s not just about you lovebirds anymore. Jun’s going to set the world on fire, one tree at a time.” He rose from the couch and approached Tomo, resting a hand on his arm. “This affects everybody. It’s everyone’s problem. He’s more screwed up than I am, man. He said he wanted to ‘purge you from the world.’ Who says that?”
    Tomo gasped and doubled over like the air had been knocked out of him.
    “Tomo!” Ishikawa and I each grabbed one of his arms as he keeled backward toward the hardwood floor. Gravity pulled him down as we tried to keep him upright. We lowered him gently as he shook.
    Whispers gathered on the air, a cacophony of voices that grew louder as Tomo writhed on the floor. I’d heard these voices before, and I checked Tomo’s eyes, frightened. His pupils flooded with black, large and vacant.
    “
Oi
, Yuuto! Snap out of it.” Ishikawa tapped Tomo’s cheek, trying to wake him from the nightmare overtaking him. “We’re right here. Come on, man.”
    “Tomo,” I said again. “Don’t let it win. Find yourself.” Tomo let out a cry, and ink welled up underneath his shirt. It poured down his arms, dripping onto the floor.
    Ishikawa leaned back, his eyes wide.
“Kuse!”
he swore. “What
is
that?”
    He could see the ink, too. Oh god. This was bad.
    Tomo yelled, but his voice didn’t sound right. It echoed like the voices on the wind. He curled his hands into fists, his fingers slippery from the greasy black ink.
    I grabbed his hand, the ink warm on my fingers as I wrapped them around his. “Tomo, it’s okay,” I said. “It’s okay.”
    He looked at me with those large eyes; he shook with fear. “No,” he said. “No!”
    Ishikawa looked at me with panicked eyes. “No what?”
    I knew then. Not me, but something inside me knew. Tomo and I spoke the words together, as if I’d said them a hundred times.
    “No escape.”
    The ink lifted into the air in a dust of fluttering gold, and Tomo closed his eyes, falling into a heavy sleep.

“You guys are freaking me out with your synchronized weirdness,” Ishikawa murmured. We were sitting on the couch, watching Tomo sleep on the floor. We’d discussed carrying him up to his room, but figured it was better to put a blanket over him and watch him for now.
    I sat with my feet pulled up, my toes curled over the edge of the cushion. “It’s the Kami blood,” I said. “Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi warring in him for control.”
    “Creepy,” Ishikawa said. “Like, real
kami
? As in he’s possessed or something?”
    “I don’t think so. More like awakening to the destiny he can’t escape. He’s Kami
and
human. He’ll become the whole person he really is.”
    Ishikawa sneered. “Don’t be an idiot. I know who he is. He’s Yuuto. That’s all.”
    I blinked. I’d never thought of it like that, but he was right. Tomo had spent his whole life creating his own identity, becoming who he was. To suggest he was some other person, some time bomb that would destroy the world...that wasn’t him.
    I must have stared into space too long, because Ishikawa frowned as he looked at me. “What, Greene?”
    “I was just thinking that you haven’t bleached all the brain cells out of your head.”
    “Hidoi,” he