The Shield of Kuromori. Jason Rohan
is all your fault,’ Kiyomi grumbled as they waded into the chamber.
‘What have I done now?’ Kenny said, his teeth clenched to keep them from chattering.
‘If you hadn’t sent Papa’s men down here, looking for Namazu, then they wouldn’t have found the . . . you know? Leftovers.’
‘How does that make it my fault?’ Kenny protested. ‘It’s not like I knew this was here.’ Annoyed, he changed the subject. ‘What’s the point of this place, anyway? It’s just a drain.’
‘What do you mean, “just a drain”? Do you have any idea how important this facility is?’
Kenny switched on the hand-held motion tracker, which resembled a satnav. ‘Uh, actually, no.’
‘You know what a typhoon is? A hurricane with wind speeds of at least a hundred and twenty kilometres an hour and up to a metre of rain in a day. Tokyo used to flood regularly and thousands drowned, so this was built. The five giant cans take the extra water out of five rivers, like a massive storm drain. This tank we’re in now is the final overflow. From here, the floodwater gets pumped into the Edo River. Without it, parts of Tokyo are underwater, so it does matter.’
‘Fine, OK, I get it,’ Kenny said, stooping to sniff the shimmering surface. ‘So this is basically just rainwater, right? No sewage or floating poo to worry about?’
‘No, not unless you get so scared – YAAAAAHH!’
Kenny jumped so hard, he nearly dropped the motion tracker. Kiyomi’s torch picked out a furry lump disappearing back into the fog.
‘What the heck was that about?’ Kenny gasped.
‘A rat,’ Kiyomi said, shivering in disgust. ‘Ugh. A big one too.’
‘So why didn’t it show up on this thing?’ Kenny held up the tracker. ‘Is it broken?’
‘No, it’s calibrated for large objects only, otherwise every rat and roach would set it off.’
‘Big things? What, like this blue blob here?’
‘Let me see that.’ Kiyomi snatched the tracker from Kenny’s grasp. ‘You’ve got to be kidding! Kenny, we’re out in the open. Get back – fast!’
‘Why? What is it?’
From out of the mist, a shallow surge rippled forward. Behind it came the frantic squeaking of hundreds of rats.
‘Oh my God.’ Kiyomi threw herself into the water and was gone.
Kenny spun on his heel, ducked down and felt tiny feet and claws scramble over his back, shoulders and head as the wave of screeching rodents broke over him. Still cradling the motion tracker, he opened one eye and squinted at it while the rats dispersed and swam away in all directions, leaving a large blue blob closing in on him from behind.
Kenny whirled round as the water exploded before him. With a thunderous roar, a huge white shape launched itself out of the mist, its cavernous jaws edged with long jutting teeth.
Time froze as Kenny’s brain recognised what he was seeing, but simultaneously refused to accept it. The effect was paralysing and the shadow of a giant albino crocodile slid over him as its jaws snapped at his chest.
Leaping from the water, Kiyomi flung herself at Kenny, barging him aside. The shock of cold water snapped Kenny back into the moment. He kicked out frantically and swept his arms in long strokes to put distance between himself and the monster reptile, stopping only when he reached the nearest pillar.
‘Kiyomi!’ he yelled into the void.
‘Over here,’ she responded, flashing her torch from behind another support.
‘What do we do?’ Kenny shivered in the cold, eyes searching the dark waters. ‘Where is it?’
‘Probably circling for another att– Look out!’
Kenny reacted without thinking. Leaping backwards, like an Olympic gymnast, he launched himself six metres into the air. The giant reptile thrashed beneath, pushing out a great bow wave, and vanished again.
With an ungainly splash, Kenny sprawled in the water. His mind’s eye had captured a snapshot of the monster, white as bone, with dead eyes and rows of tiny ivory pyramids along its back.
‘A plan would be good right about now,’ Kenny said, summoning forth Kusanagi, the sacred sword. The blade felt good in his hands.
‘OK. You keep it busy. I’ll do the rest.’ Kiyomi flicked off the torch, vanishing into the gloom.
‘What kind of plan is that?’ Kenny yelled. ‘Why don’t you keep it busy while I . . .?’ He waved the sword in front of him. ‘Kiyomi? Oh, great.’ He peered into the darkness, scanning for telltale bubbles or ripples. ‘Here, fishy fishy. Come to Kenny. I’ve got a surprise for you.’
The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and Kenny spun round, pushing away from the massive column. The crocodile surged past, but a swipe of its powerful tail whacked Kenny off his feet. Instinctively, he let go of the sword as he fell into the water. The monster cruised around a pillar and churned towards him again. Kenny scrabbled for the sword in the black water. The crocodile’s jaws gaped wide and it almost seemed to smile as it homed in.
‘Kenny, now!’ Kiyomi cried, leaping from a support to land on the creature’s back, tanto in hand. She raised the short sword to strike a killing blow.
In the same instant, Kenny abandoned his search and channelled his inner spirit – his ki – into his right hand. Ribbons of energy laced his knuckles. The crocodile was so close he could feel its rank breath.
‘Chikara!’ Kenny cried. He sidestepped the onrushing jaws and slammed his fist down, punching a crater clean through the crocodile’s skull. It stopped as suddenly as a car hitting a wall and its body somersaulted, pitching Kiyomi across the chamber.
Kenny grimaced, extracted his arm, shook off the greasy brain tissue and went in search of Kiyomi. He needn’t have bothered.
‘You idiot!’ she screamed, rising from the water. ‘I had it! I was about to kill it and then you – you went and did that!’
‘I dropped the sword. What else could I do?’ Kenny said, holding his hands out in apology.
‘And you’re lucky I dropped mine, otherwise I’d gut you right now,’ Kiyomi snarled, shoving him aside as she headed for the stairs.
‘Jeez, what’s all that about?’ Kenny muttered under his breath. ‘And since when can you see in the dark?’
‘That was a trap!’ Kiyomi railed, thumping her fist on the table for emphasis.
‘What makes you so sure?’ Harashima asked. ‘I’m confident that our information was good.’
‘Oh, come on, Papa, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for that whole crocodile-in-the-sewer urban myth?’
They were back at the Harashima residence, in the main room, two hours after leaving Kasukabe. Kenny was sitting in a bathrobe, sipping a hot chocolate, and trying to keep up with the exchange.
‘One, crocodiles are cold-blooded. There’s no way it could live for long in that water. Two, it would need a lot more food than it could find in the river.’ Kiyomi held up her hand while counting off the reasons. ‘Three, how would homeless guys find their way into the G-Cans Project to end up as dinner? And, four, what are the odds of us finding the ugly sucker when no one else could? It was definitely a set-up.’
Harashima turned to Kenny. ‘Kuromori-san,