Mister Caterpillar’s moustache wormed over his lip as his eyes travelled from Ren’s unplucked head to the sword in his hands. He burst out laughing. “Drop the blade, boy. We wouldn’t want you to cut yourself before your execution.”

“She’s human, not a fox,” Ren repeated as he skirted closer. He held the sword loosely in one hand, the point directed to the ground. Unlike the retainers’ stomping feet, his footsteps whispered over the dirt.

Ren had a sword and was threatening samurai with it. The surrounding humans went silent. The blood drained away from Kuro’s face.

“Don’t bother with the arrest,” Mister Squash said. “Just kill him.”

Mister Caterpillar leapt toward Ren. If Kuro shifted into his real form, he’d be fast enough to knock the samurai away. Even if Kuro jumped forward as a human, he could shoulder the samurai hard enough to miss Ren. But in the instant those two thoughts crossed his mind, his feet remained planted.

Ren grasped the sword hilt in both hands and raised his sword in one elegant movement. The retainer’s blade crashed against his, a brash axe compared to Ren’s gilded lily of a movement. But Ren’s sword held, and the Mister Caterpillar’s blade slid off. Ren stepped forward and sliced his blade toward Mister Caterpillar’s unguarded side. Mister Caterpillar gasped, but brought his sword up in time to block.

But only to block. Kuro knew very little about sword fights, and had always been clever enough to avoid situations where samurai waved their swords around, but even he could see Ren held the advantage.

Ren pressed forward, his blade dancing as he forced Mister Caterpillar to block and lose ground. Mister Caterpillar moved slower than Ren, and his movements grew more clumsy as Ren sped up.

Where had Ren stolen a sword from? He wasn’t from a samurai family, or he would have had a top knot like the two retainers and the boy-samurai. That sign of rank was impossible to hide, especially since long strands of hair grew from the crown of Ren’s head. Where would a commoner learn to fight?

Ren darted forward, sword raised above his head. Mister Caterpillar was too slow, only able to widen his eyes in fear. But when Ren brought down his sword, he brought it down hilt first — directly onto Mister Caterpillar’s wrist. His hand jerked open. His sword dropped to the dirt. Ren stepped in, forcing the retainer to stumble back, while Ren kicked the blade away.

Mister Squash released the girl and charged into the space his fellow samurai had abandoned, but he fared no better. Ren disarmed him too. The surrounding humans gasped as one.

Ren stepped between the retainers and the girl, who cautiously rose to her hands and knees. “Leave, now.”

“You’ll regret this,” Mister Caterpillar said.

Ren smiled in return. “You couldn’t have stolen a better line from an epic?”

The retainer snarled, but they picked up their swords and fled through the crowd.

Ren puffed up his chest and sheathed his sword. The humans shifted away, eager to avoid any semblance of eye-contact with Ren, but he didn’t seem to notice. He extended a hand to the girl. “Are you all right?”

The girl’s bottom lip trembled.

“It’s all right. They’re gone,” he told her. “No thanks are necessary.”

Was Ren a complete and utter fool? “Idiot!” Kuro strode into the empty circle.

“Oh, Kuro,” Ren said. “You don’t need to thank me either.”

“Idiot,” Kuro repeated. “Do you think you actually won? Those retainers ran to summon reinforcements.”

Ren stared placidly at him.

“Didn’t you hear me? Reinforcements. Worse than that, they’ll bring their hounds.”

“It’ll be fine,” he said.

“Hounds,” Kuro repeated. But silly humans didn’t know enough to be afraid of dogs. “Your sword is illegal and they think she’s a fox.”

“Well, when they return—”

“They’ll kill you!”

“Now, now—”

“Don’t ‘now, now’ me.” Kuro shoved Ren toward the edge of the crowd. “We have to get out of here before they come back.”

“I’ll just explain—”

“Explain what? That you stole a sword to help a fox escape them?” Kuro snorted.

Ren flicked his eyes to the girl. “We can’t leave her here.”

Kuro groaned. They could and should. If the girl wasn’t clever enough to dash back to the safety of the Shogun’s Palace, than she’d only get them caught with her. But even if the girl was that clever, Ren wasn’t. Kuro shoved Ren, but the human dug in his heels, and twisted at the waist to move around Kuro.

Kuro grabbed Ren’s shoulders and pulled him back to the girl. “Well? Get up.”

The girl pushed herself up to kneeling, staring wide-eyed at the two of them. The retainers couldn’t have picked a better target to pick on.

“Come with us,” Ren said. “I promise you’ll be safe.”

Kuro growled. They didn’t have time for this. He grabbed her shoulder to pull her to her feet.

She slammed the palm of her hand on Kuro’s wrist. “Let me go!”

“No, you stupid—” Kuro’s words cut off as he felt the sizzle of pure, spiritual power running through his skin. The kind that wafted off the gods and their shrines. The kind that human priests and priestesses used to maintain barriers to drive away demons.

But this power, so raw, didn’t force him away. It sliced through Kuro’s human disguise. Smoke enveloped him.

His throat rasped in a silent scream as he clawed at his stomach and chest, as if he could clutch the disguise evaporating around him.

His human ears went up in smoke, replaced by fox ears. His eyes turned golden as the world around him exploded into detail. His tail waved behind his thighs.

Caught between fox and human, it wasn’t disguise enough. The whole street saw his black fur.

“Demon.”