Chapter Text
For someone who usually went ham for the holidays, Mikey sure had a way of forgetting the lyrics of pretty famous songs. But it wasn’t all bad — he was a creative soul according to Leo, and creative souls were great at making up new lyrics.
“Deck the halls with halls of haaalls, halls halls halls halls haaalls, halls halls halls haaaaaaaaaaalls.”
Uncontrollable snorts followed Mikey’s song, ringing out through the crisp air and gently drifting snowflakes of late December. Stepping away from his mound of snow that in some ways resembled a cat, Mikey took a great bow, dipping his imaginary hat and mouthing an emotional ‘thank you’ to the snickering crowd.
Despite the Eastman Community Park being filled with people — all of whom were participating in the snow sculpting competition coordinated by the local homeless shelter charity donation — Mikey’s ‘crowd’ only actually consisted of his friends Renet Tilley, Lita Chandra, and Woody Dirkins.
“Beautiful,” said Renet, clapping her mittens together and shaking her head in wonder. “That was something else. Amazing.”
Mikey grinned, crouching down to sit in the snow next to her. Like his friends, he was decked out in all the waterproof cold weather gear — snow pants, snow boots, a thick winter coat, a fuzzy hat, and warm gloves. Most of his gear was bright orange. Lita’s winter coat and snow pants were a really cool checkered pink, and she wore a dark pink winter cap that made her white hair underneath pop. Woody was wearing a black coat and green camouflage snow pants. Renet was sporting a light blue coat and dark blue snow pants, but her scarf, mittens, and earmuffs were a sparkly turquoise blue. With the way her honey-blond hair was braided into pigtails, Mikey thought she looked like the prettiest person in the world.
“I know one,” Lita piped up, bringing Mikey’s attention back. She cleared her throat. “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…”
Mikey and Renet joined the song together, wonderfully in sync, horribly out of tune.
Christmas season was upon them, and for once in Mikey’s schedule, everything was great. Everything. He wasn’t worrying his older brothers’ heads off or getting stuck in friendship fights. Even Woody, who normally scowled at him, wasn’t scowling. Mikey watched as his newest friend — and ex-enemy — gently sheared off some snow from his snow pile, which was starting to look like a piece of furniture. As Woody leaned back in critical observance, his blue eye squinted slightly harder than his green. When Woody caught Mikey staring, he raised an eyebrow.
Mikey offered an embarrassed smile, then pointed. “Your snow chair is turning out great, Woody.”
Woody made a ‘tsk’ noise. “It’s a throne,” he corrected. After a second, he added, “But thanks.”
That was nice, Mikey thought, impressed. Sometimes Woody seemed to have trouble with remembering how to talk to people without glaring or snapping at them. Recently, he’d gotten nicer to Mikey and Renet, going as far as apologizing for how he’d used to treat them. Which was a lot, considering that on Thanksgiving Woody had nearly killed Mikey.
Long story, but it was mostly water under the bridge.
And hey, now they were all making snow sculptures together!
Everything was great.
Mikey’s heart felt as light as the powdery snowflakes falling.
“Hey, we sort of match,” Lita said to Woody, and pointed to her sculpture, a myriad of small cylindrical-shaped mounds that turned into a point at the top. Details lined the sides of them, rough little windows and bricks. “I’m building a castle.”
Mikey’s eyebrows jumped up at the intricacy of it all. And was that a snow moat outside the snow castle walls? “Whoa.”
“And you two match, too,” Woody said, looking over his snow throne to lift an eyebrow at Mikey and Renet knowingly.
Mikey and Renet exchanged looks, then looked at their own sculptures. They hadn’t discussed it beforehand, but both of them had started making cats out of the snow. Renet’s cats were small and chaotic-looking, and she’d made a whole slew of them on the ground, piling them up into a pyramid. Mikey had made one big cat. And between the two of them, all their snow cats also had a pair of wings and horns.
Woody ‘tsked’ again, but this time there was humor in his eyes. Humor. Like he was capable of smiling! “So unoriginal.”
Mikey opened his mouth to argue, but then he shut it. Okay, fine. Maybe it was unoriginal. Renet looked at her own snow cat and patted its head contentedly.
“Sometimes it’s like the two of you share a brain,” Lita joked.
Renet met Mikey’s eyes over their snow cats, and Mikey knew what she was thinking, just the same as him.
Or just the same muse. Namely a super awesome cat-yokai named Klunk.
But there was no way Lita would buy that. Because she couldn’t see that there, rolling around in the snow a few feet away from their group, was a very fluffy cat with large horns behind his ears, and a pair of beautiful feathery wings on his back.
Klunk.
Only Mikey, Renet, and Woody could see the horned and winged cat. On the contrary, Lita and everyone else in the Eastman Community Park totally couldn’t.
Because here was the thing: Klunk was a yokai, the Japanese word for a spirit, or a supernatural entity. And call it whatever, but most people in the world couldn’t see supernatural stuff. Not even Mikey’s awesome older bros could, and they were usually tons better than him at pretty much everything. (Well, except cracking jokes. And singing silly songs. And smiling. And making pancakes. Mikey was sort of the master at pancakes in the Hamato household.)
Mikey had only found out that yokai existed last year after a few classmates accidentally summoned one in the middle of his classroom. He’d lived in Eastman his whole life, and surrounding the small city was an invisible yokai barrier, keeping most supernaturals out. So seeing one for the first time at the tender age of thirteen had scared the lasagna out of him.
But then he’d learned that not all yokai were bad! Some totally were, but others, like Klunk, weren’t! And Mikey did not at all mind seeing their sweet, cuddly cat-yokai friend on the daily. He was a sweetheart. Could do no wrong.
Woody stepped away from his snow throne, tilting his head in careful consideration. He didn’t see where he was going, however, and when he was a step too close to Klunk, the cat-yokai hissed loudly and popped out of vision, completely disappearing and reappearing on Woody’s throne. Woody jumped, letting out a squeak, eyes widening as Klunk hissed at him again.
Yep, Mikey thought as he considered the angry cat-yokai and the frightened boy staring at his snow sculpture. A total sweetheart.
“What’s wrong, Woody?” Lita asked, her voice nearly drowned out by Klunk’s hissing.
“The dumb ca—uh…” Woody blanked out, looking at Lita dubiously, as if remembering she couldn’t see Klunk. “No…thing?”
He glared at Klunk with wary distaste before turning towards Mikey and Renet. His eyes clearly read, Do something about YOUR cat!
Mikey just looked back at him. How was a person supposed to remove a cat from a throne? Wasn’t that, like, their natural habitat? He shrugged, and Woody’s face contorted in rage. Lifting a gloved hand, he pointed at Mikey, then at Klunk.
Mikey smiled. Pointed at Klunk. Then gave Woody a thumbs-up.
Woody's return gaze was scathing.
Renet quietly buried her face into one of her snow cats. To Mikey’s delight, he could see her failed attempt to hide her laughter. But Lita didn’t seem to notice anything unusual, too engrossed in her snow castle to be paying attention to the three of them making faces at each other.
Even though it was cold enough outside to see his breath fog up, Mikey felt warmth edge all around his heart. It had been a good year. Lots of ups and downs, but a good year nonetheless. And as Christmas approached, things were looking better than ever.
“I think I’m done,” Woody announced grumpily.
“Great, me too,” Renet chirped. “But I don’t think my snow kittens have a shot at winning the competition.”
“I think they’re great, girl,” Lita said. “Besides, you don’t know if the judges won’t choose yours. I mean, they could be cat people!”
Mikey stepped away from his cat sculpture. “I think I might offend some cat people with mine,” he said cheerfully. Then he looked at his friends. “But thanks for hanging out today.”
“Of course,” Lita and Renet chimed together.
Woody shrugged. “It’s not like we have school.”
“And I love how this event’s much more chill than an actual cut-throat competition,” Lita added, standing up and stretching her arms over her head. “When did they say the judging would happen?”
Renet pulled out her phone to check the details. “In an hour or so,” she said. She looked at Mikey. “And you’re not going to offend the cat people, Mikey. You don’t offend me.”
“Uh-huh! That’s ‘cause you’re nice.”
“Yeah, well,” Renet sputtered, cheeks tinging pink. “You’re way nicer, y’know.”
“No, you —!” Mikey began, and Renet’s eyes lit up to begin their match of out-complimenting the other, but Woody interrupted.
“What are we going to do with a whole hour?” he asked.
“Go home, get lunch?” Lita suggested. “My folks told me they’d be here to pick me up.”
“Same here,” Mikey said. Plus, his stomach was growling. He pulled out his phone and checked his text messages. Then he saw he had a new notification from his group chat with his brothers, a picture attached.
When he opened it up, he grinned. It was a picture of an older teen with a reddish brown buzzcut standing by their Christmas tree, decked out with fairy lights and an ugly Christmas sweater, looking as grumpy as the reindeer on his chest. Underneath that, a text from Leo saying he’d be there in a few minutes to take Mikey out to lunch.
Way to get into the holiday spirit, Raphie, Mikey thought, his eyes still glued on the picture.
Lita giggled, and that’s when Mikey realized she was looking over his shoulder.
“Cute brother. Is he taken?” she teased.
The words made Mikey’s brain stop working and all he could do was gag. His brothers were awesome, but about as cute as a stinky sewer. Raph’s farts alone were a weapon against mankind. Totally not boyfriend material to anyone, except somehow, Mona, the cool girl who worked at the bike repair shop downtown.
“Very. But please, dudette. You can do so much better,” Mikey told her. “He’s grosser than gross.”
Lita wagged her eyebrows mischievously — not at all concerning — before adding, “On another note, is that your Christmas tree in the background? It’s so pretty and shiny.”
“Yep!” Mikey said, thinking about how he and Leo had spent the evening decorating it a couple weeks ago. They used a fake tree that they’d bought second-hand online, but it was as tall as their ceiling and it was cheaper than getting a fresh tree, as good-smelling as they were. “What about you dudes? Do you celebrate Christmas?”
“Not really,” Woody said with a noncommittal shrug.
“We celebrated Hanukkah already, but Mom and I have a few Christmas traditions, too,” Renet piped up.
They all turned to Lita, and the shorter girl smiled hesitantly. “We celebrate Christmas. Also Diwali, so all our holiday lights have been up since November.” Then a dark cloud falls over her eyes. “But my parents are pretty… uh, low-key around the holidays. It always gets them emotional about the past, I guess.”
Suddenly Mikey’s heart felt fragile for her.
Here’s something Mikey had learned: Talking to friends was easy when they only talked about surface-level stuff. Like the current weather, or favorite foods, or the weirdest yokai any of them had ever seen. When things got real, like this, it made Mikey feel like he was on a tightrope. With no net below. And if you lost your balance, you’d end up falling down, where all the bad feelings were. Where all the bad memories were tied to. A place where Mikey did not want to go.
It was easier to pretend that everything was great.
So when Lita lifted her head with forced clearness in her eyes, a smile pressed on her face, Mikey felt relief.
Relief that they wouldn’t be falling off a tightrope. Because if Lita fell, Mikey would have no choice but to jump after her, because he didn’t want her to be alone down there, but he would hate every second of it, surrounded by feelings that he didn’t want to revisit, like grief and aloneness and powerlessness and life goes on, you have to just suck it up and keep going.
He was a pretty lousy friend in that way.
“Oh. My parents are here!”
They all looked up to see a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chandra, walking towards them. Lita broke away from Mikey’s side into a jog. She turned around once to wave to him, Renet, and Woody, and Mikey raised his hand back. Then she was turning back to her folks, who greeted her with heart-heavy smiles.
That was… odd. Mikey turned away to give them privacy.
Everything’s great, he convinced himself. It’s not any of my business. Everything’s absolutely, totally, fantastically, splendidly —
“Is it just me, or is her mom crying?” Woody blurted.
Mikey winced. Way to be subtle, Woody.
He turned and cast a hopefully-not-staring-rudely eye at the Chandras. They were too far away to hear, but Mikey watched as Mrs. Chandra blew her nose into a tissue, nodding at something Lita was saying. Mr. Chandra lifted his hand, and for a moment Mikey thought it was to comfort his wife, but he merely wiped away a tear of his own. Then Lita leaned into them, wrapping her arms around their waists in a reassuring hug.
Woody’s jaw had dropped open, much to Mikey’s alarm. He was not trying to be polite at all! Leo would have been appalled.
“Why are they both crying?” Woody asked, scandalized and still totally staring. “Aren’t they supposed to be the grown-ups?”
Grown-ups cry too, sometimes, Mikey thought somberly, thinking of the way Leo sometimes got so tired from juggling classes and TA work and their family’s finances that he’d get teary-eyed, hiding his face into Raph’s shoulder late at night at the dining table when he thought Mikey wasn’t around to see.
Mikey rubbed the side of his face. He didn’t want to think about that. He just wanted to make his silly little snow cats and sing his silly little songs.
"They’ve, um, been that way the whole year.”
Mikey and Woody both looked at Renet in surprise.
Renet lifted her shoulders in hesitance, fiddling with her mittens. “So like, the first time I went to Lita’s house was last December, right? Her parents looked fine. But after that, like, all the times I’ve been over to her house this year for like, homework or whatever, they’ve been crying. Mr. Chandra and Mrs. Chandra, in their kitchen, or in their offices, or in the laundry room…”
“And Lita hasn’t told you why?” Woody asked, all judgmental.
“Well, I didn’t want to be rude and ask,” Renet bristled. “For example, when my parents got divorced, I didn’t want to tell anyone.”
“I thought you guys were her friends,” Woody said, raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t friends supposed to know things like that about each other?”
“Friendships mean, like, respecting each other and stuff,” Renet told him sagely. “Not solving mysteries about each other’s backstories.”
Woody looked at her as if she were speaking another language. “Solving mysteries about each other’s backstories — isn’t that exactly what friendship is?”
“What? No!”
Despite Lita’s parents’ situation, Mikey bit back a laugh at his friends’ antics. His phone lit up with a new notification, and he caught a text from his brother. Looking up, he spotted their family’s dusty sedan outside the park gates.
“Leo’s here,” he said to Woody and Renet, who were still arguing. “I should go. See you guys in an hour?”
“Sure. See you then!” Renet said, eyes going to him and reaching forward with her mittened hands to give him a hug.
Mikey melted into it, feeling warm fuzzies in his chest, and just as they pulled away, Klunk popped out of the snow throne and in between them. Renet hardly batted an eyelash, apparently very used to the cat-yokai’s teleporting as she took his weight in her arms. Klunk leaned forward to lick Mikey’s nose. Aw. Mikey gave him a nuzzle behind his ears.
“Bye, Klunkie,” he whispered.
“But we’re not not respecting her,” Woody muttered, still clearly confused about their earlier conversation.
“Woody, it’s called minding your own business,” Renet said.
“You and Mikey got into my business. Remember Mother’s Day?”
“Hey, you were like, trying to kill us.”
“Irrelevant!”
“Irrelevant?”
And that was probably Mikey’s cue to make like a snowflake and drift away.
Warm air was blasting pleasantly from the HVAC when Mikey crawled into the passenger’s seat. Behind the steering wheel was his eldest brother, all blue eyes and exuding responsibility in a way that made Mikey want to fix his posture in front of him. But instead of that, he chirped out, “Leo!” and proceeded to crawl over the gear stick to get closer.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Leo said, moving over in the driver’s seat so Mikey could wriggle into his side, plastering himself there. “I can see I was missed.”
“You’re warm,” Mikey told him seriously as his brother held him. “I’m stealing your body warmth, via snuggles. You can’t do anything.”
“Oh no, someone call the snuggle police,” Leo joked, pressing a kiss on Mikey’s forehead. There was a frown in his voice when he pulled back. “You’re so cold.”
“It’s not that cold. I was moving around and talking. Singing. Making snow cats.”
“We’re going to need to get you a car soon,” Leo said thoughtfully, his eyes drifting somewhere ahead through the windshield like he could map out the future for them. “When you learn how to drive. So you don’t have to hang around in the cold when you’re hanging out with your friends in the winter. You’d have the option to warm up in the car.”
Mikey liked the idea of having his own car. “Get me a taco truck. It’ll be a dream come true.”
According to Raph and sometimes Donnie, most of the things that came out of Mikey’s mouth were utter nonsense. But it was all worth it if every once in a while, Mikey managed to say something that could make Leo laugh like he was now. Shoulders shaking, teeth on display, cheeks rounded under his mirthful blue eyes.
After Mikey got back in his own seat, Leo was driving down the road and parking by a diner for lunch. They ordered their subs and Mikey picked out the booth in the corner, in the back.
“Raph’s having lunch at Mona’s,” Leo explained, “And I made sure to pull Donnie out of his studies to feed him, so all that’s left is feeding you.”
“And you,” Mikey chirped.
Leo raised his sub off his tray, and Mikey raised his, and they booped their subs together.
“High sandwich,” Mikey said.
“So,” Leo started, before taking a big bite of his BLT. “What have you been up to?”
Mikey happily took a munch out of his cheesy pizza-flavored sub. “Lita made a snow castle. She’s crazy good at sculpting. I guess that makes sense, since she sort of dominated the pottery unit in art class. Oh! And I made Klunk!”
“You sure do love that cat,” Leo said with a smile.
“I do. Wish you could see him,” Mikey said, looking up and feeling a little bad.
But Leo didn’t look offended. He shook his head and grinned at Mikey. “Oh, I don’t think I’m missing out, what with your artistic renderings of the little guy.”
Mikey beamed. It was true — their refrigerator at home was covered in tons of important stuff, like their family schedule and grocery lists and coupons, but also, Mikey’s art. Leo always made room. It had been a huge deal to Mikey when he was younger, seeing his father put up a Michelangelo-not-the-Renaissance-one original up on the fridge with pride, but Leo continuing it gave Mikey a warm feeling inside.
“Yeah, but,” Mikey said modestly, “I don’t think I capture his awesomeness. Or cuddliness.”
“Nonsense. All your drawings are amazing. You’re talented, kiddo.”
Mikey pretended that didn’t make him preen as much as it did, but he was pretty sure he failed. Leo was always good at reading him. So Mikey just focused on his sub instead, taking sips of his water along with it. They both ate their lunches in an amicable quietness (the only time Mikey was every truly quiet was when he was eating, after all) that lasted ten more minutes. And then Leo said something that made Mikey almost swallow his bite down the wrong pipe.
“So. You want to talk about what’s really been bothering you for the past few weeks?”
After taking a second to unchoke — which consisted of dropping his sub on his tray and reaching for the water like a madman deprived of hydration — Mikey raised his eyes to look at Leo. “Huhwha?”
Mikey, master of eloquence.
Leo raised his eyebrows. “The guys and I have been talking.”
Mikey nodded amicably, then realized what Leo meant. The guys and I have been talking never amounted to something good — Mikey could already see his three brothers sitting at a table in his minds’ eye, coming up with ways to smother him with their overprotectiveness. Dread pooled in his chest. “What, about me?”
“About you.”
Mikey stared at Leo, trying to puzzle out his older brother’s mind via his face. What in the name of pickles did he do now? He couldn’t think of anything recent. He’d been occupied with school, and tests that the teachers had all thrown at them, and studying with Renet, and he hadn’t done anything that would call for a triple-brother-lecture. Those were the worst.
“This isn’t about me pouring glitter in Raph’s underwear drawer, is it?” Mikey finally squeaked out. “Because that wasn’t a prank, Leo. That was art.”
“No. This is not about that. But I’ll let Raph know,” Leo said, and his twinkling, mischievous eyes made Mikey realize his mistake. That Leo would be telling Raph, and Raph would be coming after Mikey with his favorite word. Revenge. Before Mikey could beg for his eldest brother’s cooperation, Leo’s expression dropped its playfulness. “Seriously though, Mikey. I’ve noticed that something’s been on your mind recently. And I just wanted to check in. Has anything been going on?”
“No,” Mikey said in surprise. “Everything’s totally great, Leo.”
Leo tilted his head. “Then why is your eye twitching?”
Mikey realized, at that moment, that his eye was twitching.
“Holy bananas, I don’t know,” he laughed, rubbing his face. “Not enough… potassium?”
Leo took a bite out of his sub, swiped the napkin over his lips to wipe off the crumbs, and remained quiet. His eyes flickered up to Mikey and did that thing they always did. That older brother thing Leo had only been getting better at with age. The trick with an effectiveness that was unparalleled by any buddy cop movie interrogation scene.
The I’m-listening look.
Mikey should have been stuffing his face with his sub, too. Now it was too late to stop the avalanche of words that were spilling out of him.
“I mean… there’s nothing I should be worried about,” Mikey started, very aware of Leo’s eyes on him. “So I’m trying really, really hard to not worry about anything. Like, yeah, maybe everything that happened on Thanksgiving freaked me out a little, but we resolved all of that. We’re not in a fussy yokai situation. We’re not in any yokai situation. Which is good, right?”
His voice came out a little too high at the end there, but all Leo did was nod in agreement.
“Right,” he said, echoing Mikey as he took another bite.
“But it doesn’t erase the fact that Yuuki Miyamoto is still the leader of a yokai-hunting clan that basically tortures or kills yokai. That’s still a whole thing that exists, and it’s scary enough that he has a mask — well, half of one — that gives him superpowers but not in the cool way, but he’s also the mayor of our city, like, what? But also, like, we can’t do anything,” Mikey said. “We met some nice yokai in the pocket dimension around Mother’s Day that don’t deserve to be locked up and used in fighting rings. But there’s nothing I can do. And what about Klunk? I love Klunk. It would be so awkward if Miyamoto went after Klunk.”
Awkward didn’t really cover it, but Mikey couldn’t think of a better word. Klunk was about the only yokai Mikey felt like he could protect.
“Aw, kiddo,” Leo murmured, regarding Mikey with gentle, watchful eyes, ready to catch Mikey as he fell off the tightrope, where everything was great, down to where everything wasn’t. “You have such a big heart, Mikey. It makes sense that you want to help people — and yokai — who need it.”
“But I can’t do anything. I don’t want to think about it,” Mikey admitted in a guilty little whisper, staring at the fallen vegetables on the paper the sub came wrapped in. “Am I a bad person?”
Leo shook his head. “No. Feeling things doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“No, Leo, you don’t get it. I don’t want to feel things. I just want everything—,” Mikey took a deep breath. “I want everything to be okay. And if it isn’t, I think I’m okay with pretending.”
It sounded pretty bad coming out of Mikey’s mouth. Probably what a very selfish person would say.
“You’re fourteen, Mikey,” Leo said with a gentle nudge of his knee against Mikey’s. “You discovered a world. That world’s a lot bigger than you. It’s okay to not know what to do. Especially if things are dangerous. I don’t want you doing anything if things get that risky. It’s okay to just be a kid.”
Mikey wasn’t so sure. Because if it was okay to just be a kid, Lord Simultaneous wouldn’t have tricked Woody into getting possessed by a ghost on Thanksgiving, putting him in danger and risking his life to get Miyamoto’s half of a mask — and for what? Was the evil alchemist planning on going to half a masquerade ball or something?
But Mikey didn’t say that. He didn’t even say the name Lord Simultaneous, or better yet — Simon Savanti.
Because if there was one thing that he really didn’t have to worry about, it was that man. The father of his class’s bully, the man Renet’s mom was dating. He really did not have to worry that there was a potentially dangerous man who had been watching him and Renet, because after all, what could he do, even? Bribe them with a deal, like he had with Woody?
“What do you mean, my mom’s boyfriend has been watching us this whole time? What does that even — like, watching, as in through a crystal ball or something? Like those villains in the movies?” Renet had screeched when Woody had told them a month ago.
“No,” Woody had said, eyes wide. “Just relax, okay? I didn’t mean it like that.”
Panic had rolled through Mikey. “Lord Simultaneous — Simon — what does he want with us?”
“I don’t know,” Woody had said with a shrug. “But I guess he’s a scientist. Alchemist, if you can believe it. He experiments on supernatural creatures, but when he was part of the Miyamoto clan, he was the guy who made sure every supernatural was… erm… subdued.”
Renet had buried her face into her hands. “What are the odds,” she’d bemoaned. “He can’t ever meet Klunk.”
Mikey had only been able to stare in disbelief.
But Simon hadn’t bothered them ever. Renet had reported to Mikey that even on dinner dates when he came to pick up Renet’s mom, he didn’t talk to Renet about anything supernatural-related. And at some point Mikey had started to doubt that the infamous, nefarious, yokai-torturing alchemist Lord Simultaneous was the same as Simon Savanti.
So there was nothing to worry about there.
Nothing at all to worry Leo with, either. Not because Mikey didn’t want to upset Leo — they’d talked about the whole sharing-feelings deal before. But this wasn’t a problem, so it wasn’t even applicable.
“You’re right,” Mikey finally said to his older brother. “I should focus on being a kid. So… can I have a cookie?”
Leo ordered a jumbo chocolate chip for him. Awesome sauce.
Leo parked the car in front of the Eastman Community Park, where people were already gathering to hear the snow sculpture competition winners. Mikey spotted Renet and Woody, and popped open the car door, but not before turning to melt his head into Leo’s shoulder for a hug.
“Thanks for the talk, Leo. You’re the best.”
“Of course, Mikey,” Leo murmured into his air. “Man. And here I was thinking you had a girl problem or something.”
“I don’t have a problem with Renet!”
Leo attempted to hide away a teasing smile, but Mikey’s ninja sharp eyes caught onto it as they pulled away. “I didn’t say Renet’s name.”
Embarrassment flooded Mikey, so he automatically brightened into a smile to cover it up, squeezed Leo hard enough to make him wheeze, then hopped out of the car into the cold snow and wind.
“See you later today!” Mikey said with extra sugar in his tone. Maybe Leo would enjoy a bottle of glitter in his underwear drawer.
“See you, kiddo,” Leo called, rolling the window down as Mikey shut the door. “And I’ll try to curb the ambush from the guys tonight, since you were so cooperative.”
Mikey gave him two thumbs up, relieved at the notion. He watched Leo drive away, then headed to meet with his friends. He wanted to know who would win. He had eyed a snow shark that looked pretty impressive earlier. But Lita’s snow castle had a pretty strong fighting chance. Maybe she’d —
Something was wrong.
Mikey caught the panic in Renet’s stance even before her head turned to meet his gaze, her brown eyes blown wide. Mikey, she mouthed, and that was all Mikey needed to break into a run, because Renet didn’t look that scared unless she was going to give a presentation, but they weren’t even in school so it had to be something else.
And then Mikey saw the something else.
He couldn’t miss the something else even if he tried.
Because before Renet and Woody was a tall man in a black coat, with sharp, piercing features.
Simon Savanti.
Mikey didn’t see the man as often as Renet probably had to, but he’d recognize the man anywhere. An angular jaw. A dagger-like smile. A long pointed nose. A pair of cunning eyes. Most concerning of all, though, were the silver glowing threads netting out from his hand, trapping a certain cat-yokai — Klunk — under the strands like the supernatural magic was merely an extension of his arm. The cat-yokai mewed miserably.
“Klunk!” Mikey gasped as he reached Renet’s side. Her hand immediately found his, and when they were clasped, Renet squeezed her fingers. Mikey squeezed back, his heart racing as he took in the scene in front of him.
Simon Savanti, a.k.a. Lord Simultaneous, holding Klunk prisoner. Woody, glaring aggressively at Simon, ready to pounce. Renet, shaking, too scared to move. What had happened in the time that Mikey had been at lunch? Where had Simon even come from?
“Good. There’s most of you. No tall boy, dark hair?” Simon asked curiously. “Hockey player…?”
Was he talking about Casey? Mikey shook his head, feeling nothing but animosity for the man currently strangling their cat-yokai.
“Oh, well. I supposed it was a long shot. I only needed the two of you.”
What? Mikey stared at the man, befuddled. He turned his head to look at Woody, whose frown grew deeper in confusion.
“Leave my cat alone, Simon,” Renet said, her voice wavering. “Give him back, you can’t do that!”
“Can’t I?” Simon asked lazily, and curled his fingers.
The silver threads tightened. Klunk yowled.
“Klunk!” Renet cried, earning some weird looks.
“Stop it, you’re hurting him!” Mikey yelled, earning more weird looks. Someone a few feet away muttered something about how this wasn’t a LARP arena.
“Relax. He’s hurting himself by fighting back. Look, he’s realized,” Simon said all too casually as Klunk stopped fighting under the silver net. The cat-yokai breathed hard, but didn’t try to struggle. He simply sat there, eyes wide as he looked at Mikey and Renet in a pitiful panic.
Mikey felt his heart breaking. Why was Simon doing this?
“You see, training these beasts is simple. You get better results, faster results, from pain,” Simon told them, as if they were in some kind of messed up Torture 101 class, and he was some kind of totally messed up teacher.
“I-I’m going to tell Mom,” Renet said, her eyes wide. She glared at Simon. “I’m going to tell her!”
Simon’s eyes softened. “Sweetie. Come on. Tell her what? That I’ve trapped your invisible friend with my invisible powers?” he asked gently, his tone kind. Mikey held tight to Renet’s hand. She held on tightly back. Her entire arm was shaking, Mikey realized, and he pressed closer to her. Simon’s eyes darted to him, and their hands, and something like a smile passed his mouth. “Come on, kids. I am not the bad guy here. I know it looks that way, but let’s just forget —”
“You got me possessed and almost killed!” Woody accused darkly, pointing his finger through the falling snow.
Simon ignored him. “Let’s just forget about the fact that I have your little cat friend contained for a moment, okay? Think of it as a security measure.”
“Security measure?” Mikey repeated.
“Yes. Don’t want to get attacked by such a creature. And they can attack, you know. The cuddly ones are the ones you have to look out for.”
Then Simon straightened, peering down at them with a smile that Mikey could have believed was genuine if not for the creepiness factor of the whole thing, with Klunk pliant and scared under the silver threads.
“Children — that is, Renet and Michelangelo — I don’t believe I’ve properly introduced myself,” Simon said. “My name is Lord Simultaneous, though Renet knows me as Simon.”
Mikey’s heart thundered in his ears. Here it was. The thing he thought he didn’t have to worry about, happening. He felt Renet stiffen, pulling her shoulders back. He could hear Woody’s inhale sharply.
It was happening. All this time of ignoring what was right in front of them had finally caught up to them.
Part of Mikey wanted to turn around right now and march off in the other direction. But his legs stayed glued to the ground, Renet besides him, Woody on his other side. He didn’t move an inch, even though the smart part of his brain was telling him to, to quit while he was ahead, because Klunk was trapped under the netting, some of his fur shed onto the snow. And if one person was falling off the tightrope, especially in a bad way like this, he was going after them.
“We know who you are,” Mikey heard himself saying. “We know you’re Lord Simultaneous.”
“Yeah,” Renet said, sticking her chin out bravely. In a mutter she added, “It was so totally awkward knowing that whenever you and Mom went on dates.”
Simon smiled. “Brilliant. The two of you are brilliant, just as I’d hoped. Back when I first realized, I pretended not to see you in your house, Renet dear, as you and Michelangelo and your taller friend were turning into supernatural creatures yourself. I thought I’d sit back and observe where it went. And lo and behold. You were able to dupe Yuuki. Capable of escaping the clutches of the Miyamoto Clan and saving the parasites that meant to consume you.”
Mother Tree, Mikey thought. He’s talking about Mother Tree’s yokai plants we rescued. He’s known about us since back then?
“Most hunters cannot do half as much after being given the knowledge, but the three of you figured it out on your own. And look, had a teleporting creature tamed to your bidding, more or less. I’m impressed. Really, very impressed. The two of you remind me of myself and Yuuki, in our youth.”
“Yuuki Miyamoto, the mayor,” Renet said quietly. “You keep bringing him up.”
“He used to be a braver man,” Simon said with a wave of his hand. “Now he is just… a scared little boy. It’s not important. What’s important is you two. You, sweetie, and Michelangelo. As much as I love my Romero, that child of mine was not blessed with common sense, much less a supernatural sense. Finding out that my Rose’s daughter had the Sight, as well as a close friend of hers, was quite a discovery. Quite a utility. And to know that we’ve been keeping tabs on each other all this time — makes me feel like less of a stalker, to be honest. I’ll thank you for that.”
No need, ew, Mikey thought. Not that they were even that brilliant. After all, Woody had been the one to tell him and Renet that Simon and Lord Simultaneous were the same person. Before that, Lord Simultaneous had just felt like some evil figurehead in a story they’d barely knew of.
“You’ve been obsessed with them for half the year.” Woody said, his eyes narrowed. “What do you want with them?”
Simon didn’t even look in Woody’s direction.
“So. Right now, I have your cat. I know you care quite a bit about him. And I don’t mean to scare you, sweetie,” Simon said to Renet, his tone once again going from creepy to fatherly, which frankly, made the whole thing even more wacko. “But even with humans, pain is good at producing results.”
Mikey wanted to run. He so desperately wanted to put as much space between him and this man as possible. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t move, and he wasn’t sure if it was from some sense of justice or just fear. Besides him, Renet opened her mouth, then closed it, swallowed, then opened it again. But nothing was coming out.
“What do you want?” Mikey asked for her.
Simon smiled. “It’s simple. You bring me something I need, and then and only then will I give you your precious cat friend back, safe and unharmed. If you don’t,” Simon paused. “I keep him for my experiments, where he will not be safe and unharmed, I assure you.”
Mikey’s blood chilled as Simon chuckled. What the cheese whiz?
“What?” Woody asked, horrified. “You can’t do that. I mean, he’s just a cat and he’s super annoying and I don’t like him, but you can’t just — ”
“If you do not stop speaking to me, I will thread your mouth shut,” Simon snapped at Woody. “Painfully.”
Woody drew back, face paling.
“Don’t talk to him like that!” Mikey exclaimed, with no basis of knowledge that Simon wouldn’t use him as an example.
But Simon didn’t grow angry. He merely sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Apologies, Michelangelo. You must understand I do not talk to failures. Only those who succeed. And time and time again, you two have succeeded. And he” — Simon pointed at Woody with his index finger in a way so brutal that made Woody flinch and take another step back — “has done nothing but fail time and time again.”
Mikey didn’t know that much. He didn’t know Lord Simultaneous’s entire story. He didn’t know Yuuki Miyamoto’s entire story. He didn’t even know why these two men seemed to hate yokai so much. But he did know one thing, and that one thing was screaming this truth from his gut.
There was something very, very dangerous about Simon Savanti.
They needed to be careful.
“What… do you need?” Mikey asked warily. “In exchange for Klunk?”
“Just a small thing, really,” Simon said with a shrug. “You know that dreadful broken mask Yuuki wears sometimes? The one Woody failed to retrieve last month?”
Woody’s eyes narrowed.
“I want the other half of that mask. A certain yokai has it in her possession. Her name,” Simon said, “is Kitsune. You have until Christmas to meet my terms.”
Then he flexed his fingers, and somehow, the silver threads gleamed and glistened, harnessing something from Klunk on demand. Something Mikey and Renet had never forced Klunk to do against his will.
Then, using Klunk’s power, Simon teleported away.
Nothing but snow was left behind in Simon Savanti and Klunk’s wake. Mikey, Renet, and Woody stared at the blank space in shock. In horror. Mikey stumbled backwards, feeling the cold settling into his bones. Renet sank down to her knees with a hysterical laugh that she choked off. Woody took a worried step towards them, but faltered, uncertain.
And then Lita was running up to them, completely oblivious to what had just taken place.
“Guys, did you hear? I got third place!” the girl cheered, holding up a ribbon.
I guess, Mikey thought with a dry gulp, We’re in a fussy yokai situation after all.