Raiju: A Kaiju Hunter Novel (The Kaiju Hunter) (21 page)

I shrugged, like whatever.

“
I knew wherever Qilin was I’d probably find Aimi…and you.” He nodded at the others. “As for them, after I phoned around they decided they wanted to help find you. Apparently they like you or something.” He rolled his eyes dramatically.

This was just a little too creepy for me. “You know about Aimi, don’t you? You know what she is…” I looked around, afraid I had said too much and would come off as Kevin the Crazy Boy.

“
A Keeper, yeah,” Snowman said around the cigarette clamped in his teeth, trying to light it. “Aimi told me a long time ago. It was my secret to keep…at least, until
you
came along.”

“
What’s a Keeper?” Michelle interrupted, getting me a bottle of water to wash my mouth out with.

“
I wasn’t a Keeper before I met her.
She
made me one,” I said.

Snowman gave a derisive snort. “Nobody
made
you a Keeper, hothead. It’s not freakin’ vampirism. The
ofuda
makes you a Keeper.”

“
Yeah, well, I didn’t know that until
after
I met Aimi.”

“
What’s ofuda?” Michelle said.

I thought about what Mr. Serizawa had said, about telling the secret to only those you trusted with your life. I glanced up at Snowman, trying to figure him out. “Aimi must really like you to have told you what she was.”

“
I told you—she’s my best girlfriend. Aimi protected me from creeps like Troy when I first came to this school.”

That bothered me more than a little, but I set my current feelings aside. “And did she tell you about me? About our Kami being at war?”

“
What’s a Kami?” Michelle demanded to know, getting annoyed now.

Snowman grimaced around the smoke. “Nah. I put that together on my own. Aimi figured it was up to you who you told.”

I finally trusted myself not to fall down so I climbed, swaying, to my feet. But I leaned against a cold stone wall just to be on the safe side. “It’s funny. I thought
you
were the Keeper. I didn’t even know it was
Aimi
until last night.”

Snowman’s pale frosty eyebrows bobbed up at that revelation. “You thought
I
was a Keeper. I thought
you
were a jerk. No…wait. You are a jerk.”

“
Hello?” said Michelle waving her hands in front of our faces. “
Atencion
. Information required over here. Could you break up your little lovefest long enough to inform us poor mere mortals what the hell you two are talking about?”

“
Is this like WOW?” Rex asked, looking interested.

I wished. I looked at Michelle and Rex, then at Snowman. I could hardly believe all three of them had managed to set aside their differences in order to organize this little rescue mission. Nobody at my last school had ever done
anything
like this for me, and I felt an unfamiliar sting in my nose and behind my eyes. I didn’t even know how I felt about it all until I realized I was sucking back the snot in my nose.

Screw it, I thought. I was just tired.

But I felt I couldn’t lie after all they had done. They deserved to know the score.

Michelle seemed to sense the fission in the air. “What happened to Aimi?” she said. “Is she all right?”

“
She’s gone. It took her,” I said. “Qilin took her.” Michelle stared at me like I was insane. I glanced over at Snowman. He nodded, then shrugged as if to say
go on
. I figured if Aimi trusted Snowman with her worst possible secret, and if he approved of Michelle and Rex knowing, then the decision was already made.

I started telling them about Aimi, about MuraTech, and what Aimi was mixed up in—and, ultimately, what she was. It didn’t take long, but there was a deep silence after I had finished.

“
How do you know so much about this stuff?” Michelle said, looking both pale and piqued at the same time. “I mean, is it a Japanese thing?”

“
It’s a Keeper thing,” I said. Taking a deep breath, I went on to tell them about the Keepers, and about the War of the Kami.

I wouldn’t have blamed them at all if they wanted to bale on the crazy guy who thought a bunch of teen wizards could control gods, but they surprised me. After I finished, they just crouched there, staring at me with bemused but open faces. Nobody ran off screaming into the night the way I had expected they would.

Snowman lit a new cigarette. After a thoughtful few seconds of contemplation, he sighed, shooting clove smoke out of his nose. “Do you think Aimi’s dead?” he asked. “I mean, did Qilin kill her?”

I thought about the scream I had heard. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think if he killed her, he might die, too. It’s more like he’s…keeping her.”

He nodded thoughtfully at that. “Well, if she’s alive, then there has to be a way we can help her. There has to be a way for her to take back control. That or this whole city is going to go the way of San Francisco, you know?”

“
I know,” I said, sinking down against the wall. “And believe me, I’m open for suggestions.”

4

The four of us sat around in a semi-circle on the asphalt and smoked. I found out that no one in our little circle had parents who knew where they were; that didn’t make me feel any better. If someone got hurt—or worse, dead—you could add that to my already arm-length list of offenses. But no matter what I said, how I reasoned, how I warned, or even threatened them, nobody seemed motivated to run away.

The clove Snowman gave me tasted like the bottom of a shoe, but I was seriously jonesing for a smoke. I mean, it had been
that
kind of day. Meanwhile, Rex flicked open his trusty Notebook so we could catch the latest live KTV feed without needing to crowd into the van. Together we smoked and watched Qilin staggering around in an almost drunken circle in the middle of downtown Manhattan, kicking cars and slicking streets and buildings with its caustic black acid, confused by all the smoke that hung in the air like heavy wet veils.

“
I wonder how long he’ll take before he just leaves,” I said.

“
Give it enough time, man, he’ll eventually have to go back to the water.” Snowman frowned at me. “I can’t believe Aimi thought you were smart or something.”

“
I’m having a bad day.”

“
Look up in the sky, it’s Captain Obvious!”

I looked at him keenly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
You look like crap,” Snowman snapped, stabbing out his clove on the asphalt. “Not that that’s anything new with
you
, the Goodwill fashion refugee.”

“
I don’t look like crap,” I said. I let out a cough, but it wasn’t the clove doing it. Heavy grey smoke from various fires on the street was beginning to leak into the garage in choking tendrils. “At least I don’t dress like freakin’ David Bowie playing the Goblin King. And what kind of stage name is Snowman, anyway?”

“
Guys, cut it,” ordered Michelle, looking like she wanted to smack us both. “We’re supposed to be figuring out how to help Aimi, remember?”

Snowman got up and moved deeper into the shadows of the garage.

Michelle sighed. “I think you hurt his feelings with the Bowie comment.”

I swore and got up. This was about the last thing I needed right now—Snowman and his fragile musician’s ego having a hissy fit.

When I caught up with him he was halfway across the parking garage, standing in the shadows, his back to me, lighting a fresh cigarette. Before I could say anything, he said, “I’m really worried about Aimi.” He sounded like he might burst into tears. He took a deep breath and let it out before saying, “This is it. This is all real. And we’re all going to die tonight, aren’t we?”

It took me a moment to speak. “Yeah, it’s real,” I said softly. “But you’re not going to die, and neither is Aimi.” I sighed and leaned against the wall beside him. “Look, I know you and Aimi are close. I’m really happy about that. Seriously.” Slowly I let out my breath. I felt an enormous burden melt off my shoulders. I was giving up, giving in. “And I won’t mess up what you guys have together—whatever it is.”

I listened to the silence ticking between us. I felt like I owed him that, at least, for saving my life—even if he was a huge jerk. “I’ll bring her back. I promise.” I sounded more confident and knight-erranty than I felt in that moment. Actually, I was feeling pretty shitty. I was going to bring the handsome hero and beautiful heroine together, and wind up alone in the end. Story of my life.

Snowman’s linebacker shoulders lifted and fell. “Ah…fuck it,” he said, like he had come to some decision. He turned around and threw down the cigarette. I thought he was going to punch me again and instinctively balled my fists up, readying myself for the assault, but instead he set both hands on the wall to either side of me. Then he leaned in and looped an arm around my neck and steadied me as his mouth came down hard on mine. And I mean
hard
, like he was ravenous. I reached up to clench his shoulders, to detach him from me, but he was way stronger than I had anticipated and I wound up just hanging there, stuck between the wall and his body, as he kissed me, his tongue sliding effortlessly into my mouth.

A lot of stuff suddenly made a lot more sense to me in that moment, particularly Snowman’s relationship with Aimi—and with me. Snowman and Aimi weren’t the hero and heroine of this little tale, and they weren’t going to wind up together. That was the good news. The bad news was, I had been a kissing virgin until now, until Snowman.

Sure, I’d had a bunch of dates back in San Francisco, but always with the fat outcast girls, and always, it seemed, at the local library. Believe me, nothing very interesting had ever happened between the stacks. I had never even made it to first base with a girl—though I had secretly hoped that Aimi would change all that for me.

Was I ever wrong…

Snowman could have done about a million things to me in that moment, things that I could have handled.
This
I couldn’t handle. After some breathy moments that reminded me of those embarrassing scenes in movies where the hero and heroine are doing some serious tonsil diving and you’re stuck watching it sitting beside your parents, he finally let go and I fell back against the wall. He stared at me so fiercely I felt like he was x-raying me with his eyes. “Sorry,” he whispered. He sounded hoarse, not sorry at all, and way more breathless than I was comfortable with. “I mean…we
could
die tonight. And if we did…well, I wanted to know what it was like with you…oh, you know.”

“
Um…” I said, my patented response to all things that baffled me to the soul. “Okay.” It’s hard to get angry with a guy who’s that worked up. Plus, Snowman is a really good kisser, just in the event you ever end up dating him.

I really, really wished I hadn’t just written that.

Snowman eyed me, not with malice for a change but with curiosity, as if he were waiting for a reaction from me. But I didn’t know what to say, and I sure as hell didn’t know how to react, so he ruffled my hair in a brotherly way, then stood back and casually lit a new smoke, like nothing had happened. “There has to be
something
we can do. Some way we can help Aimi.”

I stood there, slumped against the wall, doing my best to recover from everything. I didn’t even know where to begin. Between the sirens and police ban and the choppers passing overhead, the evacuation in full swing, it sounded like the end of the world was going on outside. And all I could do was stand here, listening to it all, helpless and useless, and realize I had just had my kissing-cherry popped for the first time in my life. By a
guy
.

Snowman wasn’t the least bit embarrassed, of course. He just stood there, pale and icy, looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to have some revelation as to how to help Aimi, his best girlfriend. A typical performer, I suppose.

Then it hit me. I didn’t think
I
could help her at this point. But maybe
Snowman
could.

5
 

I told the others my idea in detail.

I started out thinking it was a terrific plan, but as I went on, self-doubt started to nibble around the edges of my self-confidence and soon I was worried that it was all useless, a fantastic waste of breath. Finally, I just stopped speaking and stared down at the chewed nubs of my fingernails and the clove burning fitfully between my first and second finger. The others were utterly quiet like they didn’t know what to make of it. Not a good sign. I expected Snowman to be the first to shoot me down, so imagine my surprise when I glanced up and saw him staring long and hard at me like he thought it might actually work.

“
Some crazy shit,” he said at last. “Do you think you’re up for it?”

“
Yeah,” I said. “I could do it.” Not knowing if I could do it at all. “I think if she really heard you—you and your music—I think she might have a chance to take back control of her Kami. At least, I hope so.” I looked around at the faces watching me, totally out of ideas.