If I didn’t find a ride fast I would be stranded on campus. The bell rang, sunlight faded, and my stomach churned.

  Is Frog-Eater coming back? Is she here now? She’s already appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of school, and murdered someone in broad daylight!

  With everyone leaving and the sky dark I was easy pickings.

  No, she already took what she came for. Don’t be stupid.

  I shivered and pulled my jacket tighter around me.

  Why did she leave me alive though? What did she mean by repaying me? What is this mark? I rubbed my wrist sleeve.

  If the woman in fur wasn’t here, she was still in the city. My heart jumped as I crept past bushes and concrete blocks of deserted halls. Wind whistled. I strained to hear any tinkling of bells. Nothing yet but a twisting in my gut mounted further. She could be by that lamp. Or outside walking the streets at 16th and Folsom.

  Or by my house.

  Or worse. What if she wasn’t the only one lurking this town? Alicia sprang to mind.

  Alicia is a girl. Alicia can talk. Gods I feel stupid petting her, and all those times I talked to her like she was five—stupid, stupid!

  Focus. I flipped up my hood. It tunneled my vision and blocked out distractions.

  I have two choices to get home. One is Emma and Devin. They don’t exactly feel safe.

  Emma would mark a lift as another favor she can cash in. Plus, I’d seen Emma with Devin and she had a tendency to get lost in her own sauce. Sauce being herself.

  I didn’t have the strength to deal with that tonight. I just wanna go to bed.

  That left me with one choice which was hardly good but at least he knew what was up.

  I skirted the edge of campus, a side of cement square, to stake out Sven’s car. Whatever he said to me, no way would he have replaced his car to hide himself. He’d leave it at a new spot, sure, but he needed to go to class too.

  There! My throat clenched. Sedan, cheap-o, a trusty gray Subaru, parked parallel by a curb. Two cars squeezed behind it. From where I peeked out, hands pressing against a cold, speckled pillar, a fir pine and a trash bin threw shade over my position. Decent cover. The air was moist and damp. It wasn’t comfortable but I didn’t plan on staying out long.

  Shoes thudded on asphalt. Sven was coming.

  He wasn’t alone. Shrouded in mist, left of me and the car, he and two more figures emerged from a distance.

  I willed my feet to move. They refused. I was rooted to my hiding place.

  Hey, aren’t those two from Sven’s study group? What’re they wearing?

  Mariko, the super-athlete, and Zane, the math hippie, were striding together five paces behind Sven.

  Alicia the cat was there too. Dang it. I’d missed her because she was nearly invisible in darkness. She slunk between their legs and wound to Sven’s side.

  I could tell Mariko by her baseball cap and Zane by his beanie, but they had katanas strapped to their waists. They were also dressed in black, blending into shade with jackets, long sleeves, long pants, and a belt to hold their sheathed swords.

  Since when do police trainees go to the dojo? We did have martial arts clubs, in school and scattered in the city, but what struck me was how everyone moved. They were comfortable in their getup, but tense, on edge.

  Mariko had a hand to her scabbard, fingers wrapped tight around the metal, as if she was going to whip the blade out in a duel at any second. Her mouth was drawn in a thin line and her gaze concentrated, sweeping from the sidewalk, to tinted car windows, to street corners, traffic lights, and the barred entrance of a liquor store.

  She murmured to Sven in the lead. “I can’t believe Tommy’s gone. It would be easier if we had a shred of evidence. Let’s check the pool again.”

  Next to her, Zane clapped her on the back. “We’d be going in circles. Don’t be hard on yourself. It’s like he and this woman vanished off the face of the earth.”

  Waiiiit a minute. Sven told those two about Frog-Eater? I recoiled, feeling I had been stabbed through my rib cage.

  Sven gave a noncommittal grunt. “Tommy was a traitor. This isn’t your fault, Mariko. I don’t like what happened to him, but he took advantage of our trust. He was working under his Master. He stole Uji Shui Monogatari. He was going to pass it off to someone in SJ, his Master or someone familiar to them, and probably get paid well for that too. You saw the messages on his phone.”

  He was tucking his hands in the folds of his jacket, grim, concealing what I guessed was a weapon of his own. A gun? A knife?

  “Don’t say that!” Mariko’s shout pierced the mist. Her sword grip trembled. I opted not to interrupt as I didn’t relish being accidentally shish-kebabbed.

  She quickened her pace at Sven’s back. “You wouldn’t think that way if he was on your team. I was his leader. I was responsible. Maybe none of us knew him well, but I should have been more careful.”

  Zane muttered, “Chill, Mariko. I feel the same.” He was amiable but his own searching was becoming frantic, fingers twitching at his sword hilt.

  I broke off my observations and focused on their shoes. If you looked at a person’s face too long they could notice. This is insane. There’s a whole investigation going down, plus a costume party, and I’m being left out?

  Does Sven have a katana too? So. Unfair. It wasn’t like those three were much older than me.

  Sven huffed. “I know this is hard. Let’s keep our heads together. We have two criminals seeking the treasures. The first is Tommy’s Master. The second is the woman.”

  Mariko brushed back her ponytail, steadying her composure, thinking aloud. “No signs of a struggle. Any footprints were contaminated by other students in the pool. We have one witness description, and no sightings by anyone else matching that description. All we have are Tommy’s phone and his backpack. Nothing from the suspect. Which tells us two things.”

  “What?” Sven’s gaze hovered near the trash bin shielding me.

  Alicia sniffed the air. She meowed.

  The cat was looking my direction. As Sven followed her gaze, Alicia’s green irises swept sideways and stopped momentarily at the pillar I wedged myself against.

  I didn’t dare move a muscle. I held my breath.

  One second felt like an eternity. Alicia glanced past and resumed her inspection elsewhere.

  Sven apparently thought nothing of it. He had been pondering Mariko’s statement. He grimaced. “She covered her tracks, you mean.”

  “Affirmative. The suspect is a yokai and a highly trained killer. She’s done this before. I would place her as a yondan.”

  There’s that name again. Yokai.

  Zane snapped his head to her. “A 4th Dan artist? Seriously? Stronger than Officer Irwin?”

  Sven clawed at his hair with one hand. He grunted. “Makes sense. The crime scene was too clean. The fact she could invade our school easily speaks volumes. She was able to stroll right past the guards and evade attention from Irwin taicho.”

  I’d heard “taicho” used in shows though I forgot what it meant. “Commander” or “captain”, based on how they were addressing Irwin. Wait, didn’t Dad say Irwin was the head of the police explorers program? If I wasn’t totally off that’d make sense if he was supervising everyone.

  Holy moly. There’s a class where people learn about yokai? Why didn’t Sven ever tell me? It's only for high-achievers, is that it? I seethed. Perhaps I was being petty but the idea had me grinding my teeth. Did he think that I’m dead weight? That stung.

  Zane scratched the wool of his beanie, pupils dilating. “Dude. I’d ask Officer Irwin if we could add more members to our squad, but given what happened to our newest recruit—”

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  “I’m against it.” Sven took out a small black radio and spoke into it. A crackle and buzz reminding me of a garbled man’s voice responded. He muttered, disgruntled, “Irwin taicho is roping in those two numbskulls again.”

  “Numbskulls?” Mariko’s lips quirked up. “That’s not a word you use much. Have you been talking with Cecelia lately?”

  I almost jumped at the mention of my name.

  “Yes. Not for much longer.” Sven was curt.

  Mariko sighed. The ends of her jacket billowed as she adjusted her sheath. Her features were clouded, and I could tell she wanted to slash someone then and there. “Poor Cecelia. She didn’t deserve being dragged into this. I bet she’s traumatized.”

  Sven snorted. “Worse. When Alicia and I talked to her it was clear she knew almost nothing at all. Let's keep it that way.”

  “Where is Alicia?” Mariko whipped her head side to side. “She was with us a minute ago.”

  I covered my mouth to muffle a gasp. In the blink of an eye, Alicia had disappeared. Without a sound.

  “Sh*t!” Sven spoke sharply into the radio. “Shadow-2 to Shadow-1, come back to the meeting spot. Now.”

  The radio fizzled. I wasn’t close enough to discern the reply, but Sven’s face tinged with relief. “False alarm. She’s on her way.” To the radio, he growled. “You know more than to run off.”

  He walked past my observation post and approached his car. “I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

  Mariko fidgeted with her belt. “Are you sure you two want to head back alone? We should go with you.”

  Sven pulled up the front of his jacket. “Don’t be too scared. No one’s invincible. I’ve been thinking, this woman must have an advanced version of the Vanishing Alicia has. There’s an explanation for this.”

  Zane snickered in spite of his own trembling. “Don’t let Alicia hear you say that.”

  Sven grimaced. “The point is we can understand the killer’s methods and respond accordingly.”

  “You’re right.” Mariko loosened up her grasp on her sword, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. “Overestimating our suspects won’t help. Someone trained that monster, and training implies a relationship. A relationship we can pin down. Alicia should give us pointers too. Anything to let us close in. What’s our next step? You should interview Cecelia for more details—”

  “No.” Sven’s voice was firm. Brewing with barely suppressed frustration. “You guys meet up with Officer Irwin, bring Tommy’s belongings, and track down what Tommy was planning and exactly who Tommy’s Master is. At least with that suspect, we have a proper paper trail. We can’t move on with our mystery woman until we have a good lead.”

  Zane shuffled his feet and cleared his throat, not quite meeting Sven’s eyes. “I really think we should talk to Cecelia. We’re totally missing a piece, man. I don’t know what.”

  He nudged Mariko with an elbow. She caught on and nodded in support. “Zane and I could try, but we don’t know Cecelia as much as you do. It would be awkward. She trusts you the most.”

  “No.” Sven clenched his teeth. “No one talks to Cecelia. Leave. We’ve got work to do.”

  Zane shrugged. “All right, man. It was just a suggestion. You’re in charge.”

  Mariko patted Sven on the shoulder. “Stay safe.”

  The two departed as one. Finally, I grumbled, as Sven trekked the sidewalk to his vehicle. My back was getting sore.

  I bounded from the pillar and snuck from cover to cover. No point giving him a chance to run. I alternated between playing peek-a-boo from a tree and cramped against a car, spy-thriller style.

  Sven must’ve sensed me because he walked faster.

  I broke into a sprint, any pretense at hiding discarded. “Sven!”

  My target was staring straight ahead. He didn’t stop.

  The guy was ignoring me! My blood boiled. “Hey! I need a ride!”

  I pumped my legs, overtaking him, and skittered to a halt to block the driver’s door of his car.

  Sven stopped. His brows knitted together. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m not moving until you give me a lift.”

  “What kind of logic is that? Find another friend.”

  “I…” I don’t have any other friends, I finished in my head.

  My face burned. Sven shook his head in disappointment. He walked closer.

  “Okay, that’s it!” Part of me knew it wasn’t a good idea antagonizing someone much bigger and stronger than me, and carrying a hidden weapon on top of that. The rest of me didn’t care.

  I’d had a long day being chained to a table and being knocked out and no one talking to me and I owed a literal fortune to a foreign government and not even my stupid circus-trick with spoons had survived the morning. “Don’t take another step! You owe me an explanation and an apology!”

  “I don’t owe you anything.” His face and tone was frigid as Arctic snow.

  “C’mon, man! Put your dukes up!” I raised my arms in my best karate stance. “Gimme your best shot. If you wanna ignore me you have to fight me for it!”

  Sven snorted.

  “I’m warning you, I’m ranked! I got a yellow belt! When I was eight!” A pause. “Okay, that sounded more intimidating in my head.”

  With the tiredness of a parent helping an overexcited five-year old, Sven dug into a pocket and produced a wallet. He took out three dollar bills.

  I was flustered into silence. “What’s that?” I broke my pose and snatched the bills.

  “For your ride. Call a cab.”

  I counted the greenbacks. “But—this is like half the cab fare.” It was barely enough to BART. Or bus. Both would require walking too.

  “I’m not your babysitter. Go get a job. You need to take responsibility for your life.”

  “Ouch.” Being punched in the stomach would’ve been preferable. I sagged and quivered out, “I thought you were my friend.”

  He winced. With a tad gentler tone, he said, “Finding work will be easier once you conform. Trust me on this. You may be a yokai, but hundreds of yokai learn who they are and then live ordinary lives like any other person. Don’t you have a debt to pay and a family to care for?”

  I might as well have been smashed over the skull by a brick. I bowed my head and studied the ground as an ant would search for breadcrumbs.

  I was a tiny ant. That’s who I was.

  Sven sighed. “Look, Cecelia. Alicia and I are on a path you’re not meant to walk. I do my best to keep Alicia on a leash, but I can’t stop you from her. Do you understand?”

  I nodded. My vision hazed. Something he told me before echoed in my mind. Hiding your true self and pretending is important to getting along with people. It makes your life easier.

  “I suggest you turn around now. It’s getting dark.” Sven pushed me aside as if I was an oversized doll.

  I stuffed the bills in a pocket and whirled away. My shoes felt heavy on the pavement. Mist fogged ahead and cold was biting through my jacket. A driver honked as I walked onto the street and I got blasted by the wind of a speeding truck. Like a scared rat I scurried down a corner of brick shops, all broken-down, scrawled in graffiti.

  After a minute my misery changed to embarrassment which changed to stomping and grumbling under my breath. “Freaking Sven. What does he know? Why does he and Alicia get a free pass on everything? I swear if I find that cat again I’ll pick her up and slap her—”

  “You can try.”

  A familiar female voice growled from behind. A black glove clamped over my mouth and my back was shoved against Alicia, the girl, who held a knife to my throat.

  My heart hammered. I couldn’t breathe. Where’d she come from? I didn’t even hear her!

  Alicia hissed in my ear. “What part of stay away don’t you understand? Were you born stupid, or does that just come naturally to you?”

  The pounding in my rib cage was so hard I was afraid it would burst. I could hear the thump, thump, thump like a clock ticking. A cold drop of sweat trickled as I fixated on her blade at my neck. From what little I could glimpse it was bare metal, curved, with an ornate sharkskin hilt.

  “I’m f*cking tired of you.” The knife pressed against my skin. A searing pain flitted across the front of my neck and I gasped.

  Blood trickled down from a thin, long cut.

  Oh gods. I shut my eyes. I was hyperventilating, shaking, ragged inhales and exhales. I whimpered. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  The girl’s voice was barely a whisper. “I can make you disappear. They can find your body by a tree hanging from a rope. Or under a ledge where you walked too far. Or maybe you’ll be floating in a river where bad men are walking by.”

  She’s crazy! I choked out, “Why do you hate me so much?”

  Alicia hissed exactly like cat Alicia. “Are you mocking me? I always sensed you were one of us. There’s no place for another yokai and another girl in Sven’s life.”

  A puzzle piece clicked in my mind. Are you serious? That’s why? I sputtered, “I don’t care about you being with Sven. I won’t get in your way.”

  She spat out, “Don’t talk to him. Don’t come close to us. He’s going to finish high school and leave. You won’t see him again. Understand? I won’t give you another warning.”

  The knife retracted from my neck. I stood paralyzed as Alicia shifted her weight off me, moving without a sound.

  I blinked, eyes misting, and glimpsed Alicia walking with her back towards me, blending into darkness in her black bodysuit. She had not only her knife sheathed at her waist but also a black katana.

  Another blink and the girl was gone.

  I slumped against the brick wall and curled up on my knees. Bile rose in my throat. I shook and couldn’t stop. A sprinkling of rain pattered down on my head and shoulders. I was freezing and wet and the concrete was awful.

  A hand pressed against my neck and came back smeared in red. Stars. I fumbled in a pocket and took out my wallet to thumb through dollar bills.

  A card caught my eye. Kuro Cleaning Services.

  On automatic I slipped out the card.

  Free Trial Home Cleaning! Perfect for Shut-Ins! Ask about our Protection Services too!

  I dialed the number. An automated voice sang from my phone speaker. Welcome to Kuro! What service would you like today?

  “Protection services,” I whispered. “A cat girl wants to kill me.”

  Certainly! Please state your time and address if possible.

  “Right now. I don’t know where I am, I don’t—don’t know. Please come. I need help.” My mind was blank panic.

  The cheery voice continued. You have requested: Protection Services at your current location. We will arrive as soon as possible!

  The line clicked.