He pointed a knobby, thick, sausage finger at us. "That's right! It's Obie the Bitter Dwarf, and I've got a bone ta pick with ya! Hmph! Yer out there, dancin' around me hemlock grove with yer fancy raccoon magic, and all of ya are leavin' yer sake bottles everywhere!"

Azuki gasped. "Oh no!"

Obie stopped about a foot away.

I could practically see the fumes coming from his body. He smelled like a gin mill had consumed an entire rum distillery, walked into a greasy kitchen, and farted.

Azuki scrunched her nose up straight away.

"Now, I wouldn't mind so much if ye'd bothered to've left some sake in the bottles instead of toss'en 'em about the lawn! But since they pay me as groundskeeper, I gotta keep the grounds better than I keep meself."

Azuki's eyes grew wide with fear as Obie shoved his finger towards her like it was a fireplace poker.

"Oh, geez, Obie-san, I can tell you that wasn't me! I'm too young to drink sake, and I can't stand the way it tastes anyways. Er, I mean, not that I know what it tastes like, since I'm too young…" Azuki trailed off as she muttered nervously.

Obie crossed his arms, unimpressed. "Neh, I don't care if it t'was you or not. Yer one o'em raccoon… things, so yer as guilty as the rest of 'em. Clean up yer mess or you'll be havin' one bitter dwarf's boot up yer hind end!"

His beard twitched in anger, or maybe drunken bravado, before he turned and stormed off.

"The nerve of some people is simply beyond me," Yuki said flatly.

Azuki turned towards me. "Ryu-sama, I've got a feeling that I'll be reaching out to you sooner than later. Thank you for offering! Hey, quick question: do they still offer money for recycling bottles, like, sake bottles? I bet you'll find out soon enough. Ta-ta for now!"

I sighed, watching her skip towards her first class.

"Why didn't you ask the others? They could've helped you," said Yuki.

I thought I was prepared for her question until the moment she asked. And it just hung there, in the open, like a dirty gym sock on a ballet stage.

"I don't know," I lied.

"Because you're ashamed," Yuki said. "You don't have to be, Ryu. Ask Inego for help. He'll understand."

I snorted out my nose. "Yeah right. Yesterday he made such a big deal about me copying his homework."

Yuki floated in front of me, between me and the tall, black cherry doors of Black Withers Hall. "Just stop it. You know this is different. That was your homework, but this is about money. Don't expect Inego to share his homework with you, but he'll gladly loan you money. That's the kind of friend he is, and you know it."

I stepped past Yuki and put my hand on the doorknob, but her words crawled in behind my ribs and sat there like they paid rent.

And she floated beside me.

Usually, the cold she emits makes me feel comfortable. Today, it felt like guilt.

I took a breath, then pushed the door open like it owed me an apology.

"Please say something," she said as I stepped inside. "I just want to know what you're thinking. Did I say something wrong? I overstepped myself. I'm sorry."

And I stopped where I was in the foyer and turned to Yuki.

Her hands were clasped, nervously wringing like she was trying to twist the air into knots. Her eyes flickered, still glowing beautiful, eerie, ice-blue, but dimmer now. Like she'd turned the brightness down so I wouldn't flinch.

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"You didn't say anything wrong," I said quietly. "That's the problem."

She blinked.

I rubbed the back of my neck, staring at the floor like it had the answers I didn't. "You're right. I just—"

I let the words trail off, and for a second, I thought that was all I had. "I just don't want to owe anyone else right now. I—"

I suddenly felt my eyes sting.

Oh hell no. Not here. Not now.

But it was too late. The dam that had been cracking since I'd woken up suddenly burst.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, over my fingers and onto the floor. I was glad most students had already made it to class, so Yuki and I were alone. I kept waiting for the tears to end, but they kept coming.

I reached out to grab the wall, and I dropped to my knees on the grungy tiled floor. I felt my lip trembling and my eyes burned.

And a second later, I felt like I was standing outside on a frozen winter morning.

I opened my eyes, and Yuki was swirling all around me, her arms trying to wrap around me, and failing, and trying again.

I wish I could describe it better than saying it was beautiful.

She became a snowstorm given form and set to spin. Frost and ice shifted in a kaleidoscope of her blue eyes and sorrow.

"It's okay, Ryu. I'm here. I've got you. Oh. Wait. I've got you," she muttered over and over again.

She reached out, and her arms fell through me, sending a shiver through my body, but I didn't need her to hold me.

I just needed her to try.

I took a few deep breaths, feeling her cold enveloping me, and when I breathed out I saw my breath turn to mist. My tears stopped, frozen to my face, and I could feel the tips of my eyelashes clinging to each other from the cold.

Yuki stopped and I saw her eyes floating in front of mine.

"Are you okay now?" she asked.

I nodded, wiping my frozen tears from my face. "Yeah. I am." And I looked into her eyes for a moment. "I'm going to be okay, Yuki. You're here with me."

Inwardly, though, I felt something sick and alive slither against my soul, like a snake wrapping around everything good inside me.

She nodded slowly. "Of course. You do a lot for your friends, Ryu. You're only human. Well… mostly human. Maybe a little dragon too. We'll figure that out together."

I didn't respond. Didn't have to.

"You ready to see Suiren-sensei?" she asked. "I'm going with you, but those things of her give me the willies."

My throat tightened. I knew exactly what she meant.

We stepped into the Black Withers Hall office, and I didn't see Kinezuka Hisame, the rokurokubi secretary. The usual rows of flickering, monochrome computers were there. Along with whirring copying machines, the smell of day-old burnt coffee, and the eldritch filing cabinets that moved on their own like they came from Kubrick's furniture store.

Instead, sitting by the office desk, curled up with her knees to her chest and her arms around her legs, was Natsumi. Her twin tails began to twitch irritably when she saw me.

"Oh! There you are, Natsumi. I'm not surprised to see you in the office. It's your own fault, you know, for skipping school so much," Yuki said.

Natsumi said nothing. She only watched, following everything I did with her golden eyes.

Yuki sniffed. "Plus you shouldn't have come into Ryu's room like that in the first place. You're lucky he didn't call your mother. You'd be in much bigger trouble for going into a boy's room like that. You're much too bold."

I took a seat across the room from Natsumi and waited for the secretary to return. A phone began to ring. No one bothered to pick it up.

Natsumi stared, her eyes narrowed into angry slits. Her tails twitched, and I could tell she was irritated, but she ignored Yuki.

Then I remembered I had something for her in my bookbag.

"Hey, Natsumi, I got something for you," I said, pulling out a bag of random konbini snacks.

She didn't even acknowledge the bag.

I reached inside and grabbed one of the raindrop cakes I'd seen her eat. "See? Check it out. I know you like these."

I was expecting some type of acknowledgement. Instead, her eyes narrowed even more, and her tail twitching increased. I felt like throwing the rainbow cake at her.

Until I remembered she was a cat.

If I tried to give something to my mom's cat, even something that I knew the cat wanted, it never took it.

Unless I wasn't around.

I put the raindrop cake back in the plastic bag and put the bag on the office floor, hoping it wouldn't spill onto the ceiling or something stupid like that.

Then I slid the bag between me and Natsumi. She never took her golden eyes off me for a second. She didn't even blink.

"I don't know what you're trying to prove, Ryu. Natsumi practically ambushed you last time she was in your room," Yuki said.

I looked away from Natsumi and the bag. Instead, I focused my gaze on the back wall of the office, hoping I wouldn't get nauseous as the windows and chairs at the edges of my vision started shifting and rearranging themselves.

"I'm sure Natsumi had a perfectly good reason for doing that," I said, giving Natsumi a huge benefit of the doubt.

Then I felt a series of weird vibrations through the office floor. I sensed them in my spine. A beautiful, haunting, fluid whooshing vibration, far too smooth for clumsy human feet.

But perfect for a graceful feline.

And before I could look—

"Natsumi likes when the American-jin buys her snacks," I heard the nekomata's grating feline voice.

Only it wasn't coming from across the room anymore.

I turned around, and Natsumi was right there, smiling like I was the slow kid at recess.

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