Page 116 of Dragon 7

He fell backward off the staircase, and the air snatched his white body into the dark below.

The twins fired back into the plane, hopefully taking out whoever killed Rin, but the damage was already done.

"No!" The scream tore from my throat.

Hiro shook his head. “Not Rin! That didn’t happen! Right?!”

“Just keep going!” Yoichi moved in a blur, tore his kitsune mask, and threw it to the metal stairs where it clanged once and spun. He ripped his shirt over his head and his bare chest hit the wind. “I’ve got him!”

“What do you mean?!” Reo headed down. “Yoichi, calm down! What are you doing? We need you!”

I was still too shattered to think.

“Stay there, Roar! Protect the Dragon!” Yoichi’s eyes went wild in a way I had never seen from him—the poet, the gambler, the man who recited haikus while reloading sniper rifles.

That man was gone.

What stood on the staircase was older than him.

Older than this island.

Older than the masks we wore.

Goryū hit my mind. The kitsune may save him.

My head was still rattled from Rin’s loss.

What kitsune?

To everyone’s horror, Yoichi climbed over the railing.

Reo held the ribs on his right and took another step down. “Yoichi, what the fuck are you doing?!”

Hiro headed down. “Yoichi!”

“Focus!!” Yoichi planted one foot on the railing and launched himself off the staircase into the open sky.

GODDAMN IT!!!!!

The wind took Yoichi!

And then—a flash of gold shot up.

Bright.

Blinding.

I screamed. "Yoichi!"

“No!” Hiro trembled. “No more ghosts. N-no more.”

The gold vanished into the canopy. The trees swallowed it the way they had swallowed Rin's white body seconds before. The dark closed behind both of them as if neither had ever existed.

Gone.

Both of them.

Hiro grabbed my arm. "Kenji!"