The Wolf said nothing. In truth, he had forgotten about her in the battle, counting her among the casualties. She had been lost in the swarm and lain still among the bodies.

“Wait,” she said again. She was dressed in another man’s coat and covered in blood.

Rudy and his twin readied their sabers, but Christoff was quick to subdue them.

“Rudy, Abram! Lower your swords, this is the soon to be empress of Japan!”

“No, she’s not.” The Wolf eyed her curiously.

“She has to be! Our secret informant said perhaps there would be a girl among the thieves, and she would be of the Royal family!”

“Akamine Suki, that’s the name you’re looking for, Christoff. And that’s not you, is it?”

The girl looked up at his mask with big, misty eyes. “No.”

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

Christoff shouted at the question, but the Wolf raised a hand to silence him. The girl was quiet. She blinked once and nodded.

“Okay. I’ll need you to come with me now. Can you walk?”

She nodded again.

“Now hold on…” Christoff called over his shoulder, but they were already moving. They walked past the white-cloaked hero and neared his friends. “Just a minute! I say, as a favor for saving your life, the girl should come with us. She’d be in safe hands, I swear by our Lord in Heaven! O-or…” He danced his way in front of the Wolf and the girl. “We all go together!”

“No,” the girl said. She looked up at the Wolf.

There was a spasm in his head. Something hurt briefly, so quick to surface and pass it made the Ghost Wolf of Hokkaido question whether it had happened at all. It was something intangible—a memory—that had surfaced with this sensation. A painful memory he hardly allowed to surface to his thoughts if he’d had the choice. Iron-shod hooves churned the earth, women screamed and wailed in the distance. The sound of a soldier’s armor clattered just beyond the wooden door that kept the bad men out, or at least that’s what she told the boy. The candles were blown out and the moon shone through the cracks in the slatted roof. Footsteps squelched softly at the entrance. Someone pushed against the door.

The boy held his breath; he was afraid.

The door burst open—

“I’d prefer to be with Ryo instead.”

The Wolf snapped out of the memory in time to see the look of confusion on Christoff’s face. Recognition began to dawn and alight in his eyes.

“Ryo? But… no, that’s not…”

The Wolf took off his mask and stared expressionless at the peculiar girl.

“I am impressed you know my name,” Ryo said dispassionately, “yet I have not had the pleasure to know yours.”

The girl smiled unexpectedly, and her appearance was quite transformed: from melancholy, anguish and frailty arose the radiance of warmth, confidence, and a fierce sense of beauty that was certainly difficult to ignore.

“My name…” The girl scrunched her brow in thought. “My name is Akane.”