The crowd roared. Kuro pinned his ears back, losing Yumi’s response. As if he couldn’t guess.

His head prickled like a dozen electric zaps as the samurai held him in place. The white crinkling in the corners of his eyes didn’t hide the red streaming to the mat.

Nor did it block Ren swaying like a dead man that hadn’t yet fallen. He stared at the red-soaked earth, if he saw anything at all.

Ren parted his lips. Kuro flicked his ears, but it wasn’t his words that filled the gap between the crowd and the Shogun.

“I needed to attract the Shogun’s attention,” Yusuke said. “We’re special. We were born special. We were born to be better than a farm boy and a farmer’s wife. But because we were born in that rank, if I hadn’t, the Shogun never would have looked at us. And it worked. The Shogun brought us into his home. I’m outranked only by a few nobles and samurai. I can take care of you.”

“But our mother, our father—” If squashing down feeling had an audible sound, Kuro heard it then. “And Yuki and Oseki and—”

“Would have died hip-deep in filth and mud, backs bent from a lifetime of bending over. They had to die for us to flourish. And soon, we’ll destroy the Night Parade.”

Kuro heard a thud and a gasp as the onmyouji dragged Yumi into an embrace.

“You’ll never have to worry about demons again.”

She couldn’t respond. She could only accept what Yusuke forced her to. Just like when that human servant had held Kuro under the water as a kit. He hadn’t fought for the first minute, too stunned to do anything. But his body needed to breathe, and only that had broke through his paralysis.

Kuro had warned her. He’d tried to impart his hundred years of wisdom. Even an idolised big brother would murder his own family to improve his lot.

If only Ren and Yumi had listened to him. He squeezed his eyes shut. If only he’d listened to himself, and fled the Capital as soon as he had the passes. Then neither would have been crushed by the truth.

“You lowered the Western Barrier,” Yumi said. “You allowed demons to sneak through.”

“For the greater good,” he said. “If not for the prince’s death, if not for a new, strong emperor, humans would have rebelled at the necessary slaughter. We’ve been planning this for years.”

But they couldn’t have. Not all of this. If Kuro hadn’t accidentally revealed himself in the first place… If he’d left Yumi to deal with the samurai reprisal in the beginning…

“Why are you doing this?” Yumi demanded.

“We deserved more,” Yusuke said. “I deserved more.”

“Then why not me? Why not throw me to the demons too?”

“You’re my precious little sister,” Yusuke said. “All those peasant boys picked on you. They made up excuses about how you attracted spirits to them. But that was never the truth. They knew you were special and they wanted to crush you under their feet. But here, you’re my sister. You’re better than everyone in this crowd. You don’t have to struggle to talk to anyone you don’t want to. You only need to talk to me.”

“Big Brother.” She choked out the words.

“Our lives are better. I’m second only to the Shogun. It was all worth it.”

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“But—”

“Stop acting ungrateful,” he ordered. “I did this for us. Now do as you’re told, like a good girl.”

“Yes, Big Brother.”

With his shadow falling over Ren, the Shogun wound up his speech. “We won’t let the Tendo destroy us anymore. I won’t let the Tendo plead and condone those dirty, ungrateful Undesirables, who sneak demons into our city. No more Tendo. No more Undesirables. No more demons. I washed away the filth of those demons. I will cleanse us of the Undesirable stain, starting with the last Tendo.”

He held the Kusanagi aloft. Not even the Shogun could kill ideas. But the Shogun meant to kill Ren. And Ren would do nothing to stop him.

The Shogun stepped toward Ren. The crowd held its collective breath, and the sound of his footsteps seemed to ring like a temple bell.

Ringing for everyone but Ren. Ren’s eyes remained cast down, not even flicking up his eyes up when the Shogun’s shadow encroached Ren’s space.

Kuro needed to yell. He needed to snap Ren out of his daze. But exhaustion and blood loss tugged him down. He couldn’t have even yelled if the samurai pinning him down snapped his bones.

Then two new feet hit the mat behind him, lighter than the samurai’s.

“Yumi!” Yusuke yelled.

The samurai on Kuro’s right cried out. He released Kuro, jumping on one foot, holding onto his other, as if someone had ground their sandal into the top of his foot.

“Oi, little girl,” the other samurai warned, holding onto Kuro even harder.

Little girl? Wait… Yumi had kicked the samurai? But why?

The ropes binding his ankles tugged. A weight lifted off him, as if more than little pieces of paper had been moved. Yumi had removed the barrier.

The samurai held onto him and he had no leaves, but he had one form he could take regardless. He found the real him in his mind, and let it take over his flesh. Smoke blossomed around him. The samurai yelled for reinforcements. But it was too late. Kuro was himself, his fox self. Bigger than the samurai, and with far more powerful muscles.

The transformation revitalised him. The fuzz lifted from his mind, and his neck wound trickled as it began to scab over. He pushed himself up onto all four. The samurai wrapped an arm around his neck, but couldn’t pin him to the ground. He shook himself, and like so much water on a rainy day, the samurai went flying.

He was free, and a fox. The humans, no longer hushed in reverence for their Shogun but cowed into silence by a real Dark Kitsune, backed away. If he ran into them, they’d buckle and run. If he darted between them, he could use them as a barrier to slow the samurai down in their pursuit. To use chaos against the Shogun. He’d make the bridge before they could even alert the guards.

It was smart. They’d kill him if he stayed. They’d release the dogs.

But Yumi had released him. And Ren…

The Shogun hadn’t turned. A swordsman like him must have noticed the riot behind him as surely as a fox would have. Ren hadn’t distracted him that much. But the Shogun raised the Kusanagi. He’d kill Ren before Ren even noticed he was there.

He didn’t care about Kuro. He assumed Kuro would run. That Kuro would have learned by now not to risk his neck.

Kuro tackled the Shogun.

Surprised, the Shogun offered no resistance, even if Kuro hadn’t been bringing several time the Shogun’s weight down on his shoulders. The Shogun crashed to the ground, his arm moving his sword out of the way by muscle memory more than conscious decision. Kuro shifted his weight on his hindquarters on the Shogun’s thighs, so he wouldn’t bounce off.

His fangs went around the Shogun’s neck. The Shogun stilled. He felt the Shogun’s pulse. Not erratic like any other human’s would be inside a demon’s mouth. The surrounding samurai panicked more than the Shogun, but they held back in deference to their leader’s life.

If Kuro just crunched down, if he broke the Shogun’s neck or tore out his spine…

Yumi slapped a hand on Kuro’s shoulder as she ran by. She grabbed Ren by the shoulders and hauled him unresisting toward the crowd.

Kuro couldn’t kill a human, not even the Shogun. He had to get Ren safe. He released the Shogun and leapt off, making sure to drive his hind feet into the Shogun’s kidneys. The Shogun yelled under him, but Kuro was already scampering away.

He paused next to Yumi and Ren, bending his front legs.

“What?” Yumi stumbled a second to the side.

Kuro jerked his muzzle to his back. They had to hurry.

“You want…” she trailed off.

“Get on!” he yelled in his mind.

Yumi jerked. She had enough spiritual power she could hear his fox voice.

“Quick, or I leave you both behind.”

His threat was empty, but it spurred Yumi into action. She dragged her hem above her knees and mounted him, pulling Ren to dangle over his back. Yumi clutched Kuro’s fur and Ren’s back.

Good enough. He hoped.

He carefully stood, Yumi and Ren swaying. He barrelled through the crowd and out the gates, galloping across the wastelands. The severed heads gaped at their escape.

He followed the river. If Kuro could still find a safe den, he’d find it in the Riverbank Settlement. The samurai had never broached the tainted threshold.

Until now.