"KATASHI'S OFFICE IS HERE—" CHRIS EXPLAINED TO ALLISON AND APRIL, pointing to spots on his map of the building when he was cut off by Isaac poking head head out from behind the car.

"Guys, this isn't going to work. I look ridiculous. I mean, I look like I just stepped out of the last period of a Catholic prep school," the Lahey boy informed them, looking down at the index cards that Chris had told him to memorize for the dea. "And there's no way that I'm going to be able to remember all of this. I mean, what does this even mean? 'Revolving over and under barrels?'"

Argent sighed, trying to calm him down. "All you have to do is keep them talking long enough to allow us to get inside and find Katashi. He may not be there for the buy in person, but he won't be far."

"You look great," the blonde girl told him once he stepped out to show them what the suit looked like when it was on.

The boy was clearly very anxious because he was fanning himself and trying to wipe the sweat that was dripping down in his face as they all looked at him pitifully. "I am sweating all the way through my jacket! I didn't even know that I could sweat this much!"

"Give me a second?" the Sharpe girl questioned, raising her eyebrows at the two Argents. They nodded and stepped to the side to keep discussing the plan. She probably would not understand that anyway. She walked over to Isaac who was looking terrified about what he was trying to do. She looked him in the eye to let him know what she was being serious as she tucked his shirt into his pants. "You can do this. You're not a boy if you walk in there acting like a man, okay? Go in there with confidence, and all they'll see is a very handsome young man."

"Handsome?" he mused, a smile coming onto his lips as she said the word.

For some reason, she was feeling very confident that day, and she really needed him to be confident for the task that he was about to do. Plus...it was true. She nodded and confirmed, "Very handsome."

"Or what if they see a stupid teenager pretending to be a man," he continued to freak out after smirking at her. "I'm going to get my head blown off by a bunch of Japanese fingerless mobsters—"

He was cut off by her grabbing the back of his neck with her right hand and pulling him to her. She crashed her lips to his. He was shocked for a second, but then he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back. She grabbed one of his hands with her other one and brought it down to below her hips. She pulled away, and his eyes were wide. He had a silly grin on his face as she giggled at him. "How are you feeling now?"

"I'm ready!" he yelled to Allison and her dad, causing the blonde girl in front of him to laugh.

Chris explained to him what was going to happen and how to keep the plan on track before sending him in. The brunette girl leaned over to her friend with a spurious expression. "What did you say to him?"

"I just boosted his confidence a little bit," April answered with a shrug and a smirk as Chris worked on finding a spot where they could hide and still tell what was going on without being caught.

"Did you get him drunk?" the Argent girl asked, causing the Sharpe girl to scoff and shake her head immediately. They went back to waiting in silence when, all of a sudden, she spoke up again. "Did you guys do it in my dad's car? Because that is really disgusting."

She started laughing when April hit her in the shoulder and rolled her eyes. The blonde muttered through a smile, "You're so weird."

"Girls, we need to get moving," Chris called to them, and they nodded and headed over to them.

He had found a side door to the warehouse, but it would be foolish of them to assume that it was not heavily guarded. The hunters told the girl to stay behind them and gave her a gun just in case anyone came at her while they took out the guards standing in between them and the room that Isaac was in. They also told her to break any cameras that she sees.

Chris, who had found the room that Katashi was hiding out in, took out the person guarding the door and pointed the gun straight at the man. April stepped inside, scanning the room for anyone else that might be hiding and keeping the gun in her hand despite the fact that she had no idea how to use it. Chris informed the man standing with a gun also in his hand, "All I want to do is talk.'

"Taking out my security is not what I call a good conversation starter," Katashi responded to him, not sparing a glance at the girl because he had probably already figured out that she was not a threat whatsoever.

The Argent man raised his eyebrows at him. "You don't remember me, do you? Allison, take the man's gun." Allison, who had come through the back door, took her little chain lasso thing — April had no idea what it was called or how it worked — and swung it so that it wrapped around Katashi's gun and flung it to the side. He turned back to Chris with a glare as the man quizzed, "Now, can we talk?"

"Guys?" a voice called from behind them, and they all turned around to see Isaac standing there with a man holding claws to his neck. "They have a Werewolf, too."

"That's nice," April mumbled, causing all of them to glare at her for her unnecessary comment.

《❀》

CHRIS UNWRAPPED THE PIECES OF THE MASK IN FRONT OF KATASHI. A face of recognition crossed the man's face at the sight of the shards, remembering that fateful night when the dark figures came for him. The hunter asked, "Starting to remember? It was twenty-four years ago. You know what they are, don't you?"

"They're called Oni. They are demons, and they are unstoppable," Katashi informed them after gesturing to his guard to let Isaac go. The boy moved to the side a little bit to stand next to the Sharpe girl. "Nothing. Or, at least, no man-made weapon will work on them. The Oni are a force of nature. You don't fight a tsunami — you endure it, and you hope that you are not destroyed in its path."

"Then how do we endure it?" Allison asked. It was what they were all wondering, but April was not brave enough to say anything at that moment. She tried to maintain her 'tough' exterior, though.

Katashi walked over to Isaac and pointed to the side of his ear where the symbol brand thing was. "One of you already has. This is Japanese kanji for 'self.' This means he is still himself. The Oni are looking for one who is no longer themselves."

Argent furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean, 'no longer themselves?'"

"Possessed...by a dark spirit," the other man clarified, and that was pretty scary. They had dealt with people not knowing that they were supernatural or having another side to them — Jackson, for instance — but they had never had someone possessed or anything having to do with a dark spirit. "There are thirteen kinds of Kitsune: celestial, wild, ocean, thunder... But there is one, a dark Kitsune. They call it void, or Nogitsune."

"A kumicho."

Katashi nodded in response to Chris's words. "That's right. He was possessed by a Nogitsune. It's what helped him rise through the ranks of our Yakuza family. Nogitsune draws its power from pain and tragedy, strife and chaos."

"Wait, so, the Oni are trying to get rid of the Nogitsune?" April asked, speaking up for the first time since they entered the building. If the ghost ninjas — Oni — were trying to get rid of the evil spirit, why did they keep harming people in the process? Who did they think was the Nogitsune? They could narrow it down to everyone that had not been marked yet, but that did not really do anything since there could be more supernaturals in town that they did not know about.

"Yes," he confirmed, and she could not help but feel proud that she got something right. He held out his hand to show them that he only had four fingers on it and one metallic prosthetic one. April finally got why they called him 'Silverfinger.' "Do you know why I'm missing this finger?"

Chris guessed, "Penance."

"There's a ritual called yubitsume," Katashi explained to them while staring down at his hand as if he were remembering what it was like to have all his fingers, remembering the sword in his hands. "Removing the joints of the little finger weakens your grip on a sword. When a katana is gripped properly, the little finger is the strongest."

"Why did they take your finger?" Isaac questioned, a little confused since Katashi was not the one that had been possessed by the evil spirit. That seemed like something that they would only do to the person that was the biggest threat instead of wasting time on the little people.

"They didn't take it — a Yakuza performs the ritual himself and offers it to his superior. It was penance for a mistake. And it wasn't my only one. I don't know what it was about the way I moved or stood that suggested to them that I was going to take them on because actually, I was preparing to run for my life. That shot you fired saved me from looking like a coward before the survivors. For that humiliation, I wouldn't have to have given up my finger — I would've had to give up my head. I wish I could give you the answer you need, Mr. Argent. I owe you more than my life — I owe you my honor. I will tell you one thing, however. If there is a Nogitsune among you, let the Oni destroy it. Even if it is your own daughter."