Free The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon

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    ‘Whoa! I am awake!’ Ren cried, pushing the sword point away.
    The girl standing over him was about twelve or thirteen. She had long, wavy dark brown hair, black eyes and was dressed in a faded woollen shirt that crossed over the front and tied up at the sides, and a pair of patched woollen trousers that had known better days. She didn’t seem to be entirely Japanese, although that was the language she spoke. Ren climbed cautiously to his feet, keeping a wary eye on the katana the girl carried. ‘Be careful with that thing, will you? Somebody might get hurt.’
    ‘Are you the Youkai they’re searching for?’ she asked, studying him with a frown.
    ‘You gonna run me through with that thing if I say yes?’ he asked in English. When she responded with little more than a blank look, he repeated the question in Japanese.
    To his surprise, she shook her head and hefted the sword until the flat of the blade rested on her shoulder and then smiled at him. ‘Of course not. I’m to take you back to the Ikushima compound.’
    ‘Thanks,’ Ren said, looking around to see if the child had companions nearby who might be a little more keen to spill his blood than she was. ‘But I just left the compound, mostly because they were trying to slit my throat. Not too keen on going back to that, I have to confess.’
    ‘Not the Tanabe compound,’ she said, a little impatiently. ‘The Tanabe are kusobaka .’ Ren smiled. He thought the people who tried to kill him and Trása were stupid shits, too. He was warming rapidly to this young lady.

    ‘I’m going to take you back to Shin Bungo .’ She turned and pointed to her right. ‘Over there.’
    ‘You’re not friends with the Tanabe … people, then?’
    She spat on the ground in disgust. ‘I would fall on my sword before I called any Tanabe dog a friend.’
    ‘Fair enough. What’s your name?’
    ‘Kazusa.’
    ‘Tell me, Kazusa,’ Ren asked, climbing to his feet. ‘Are you familiar with the theory of my enemy’s enemy is my friend , by any chance?’
    Kazusa pursed her lips for a moment and then shook her head. ‘I am not. But it seems a reasonable assumption. Will you come with me of your own free will, or must I make you?’
    Ren bit back a smile. Now he was on his feet, he was pretty sure he could take down a twelve-year-old girl, even one armed with a katana , but she seemed fairly certain of herself. Maybe she was some sort of kiddie ninja and could slice him into sushi in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t likely, but Ren was quickly learning that what seemed likely was no longer a safe way to anticipate danger.
    ‘I’ll come voluntarily. For now.’ This girl was offering him somewhere else to go that wasn’t the compound of Chishihero and her henchmen. That had to count for something.
    ‘Empty your pockets.’
    ‘Excuse me?’
    ‘I must check that you are not carrying any washi ,’ she explained. ‘Namito was very firm on that. “If you find the Youkai , be certain he cannot bewitch us with ori mahou ”, he said. He was quite adamant about it.’
    Ren shook his head, a little confused, but did as she asked, turning his pockets out to prove he had no paper in them. Ori and maho , in the Japanese Ren spoke, roughly translated as folding and magic. Chishihero’s truth spell with the little origami heartalmost made sense, if that’s what Kazusa was worried about. He decided not to tell her he had no idea how to make anything out of folding magic, or that he didn’t need it. He needed to discover what was going on here first. He needed to find out if Kazusa was offering him help or just a different type of trouble.
    ‘Good enough?’ he asked, as she inspected his pockets closely, disinterested in the other contents. Apparently, all she cared about was paper.
    ‘Good enough,’ she agreed. ‘Walk ahead of me.’
    Suspicious little thing, aren’t you? he said to himself, as he returned his pockets to their previous state. ‘Where are we