Page 142 of Dragon 7

Can I live with this? Is it enough?

I shut my eyes and tears spilled from me.

Kenji rubbed my back. “Goddamn it.”

I would have kept on drowning if not for the baby ghost.

She giggled, and it was this melodic sound of joy in this horrible moment of suffering. That giggle had no business existing around me.

Too bright.

Too cute.

Too certain.

She giggled again, luring me from the bottom of the ocean like a distorted siren's call.

Don’t laugh, little one. I just want to be sad.

Kenji rubbed my back again. "I'm with you, Hiro, and I'm never going to let you go."

The baby giggled some more.

What is so funny to her?

I opened my eyes and looked at the baby ghost. The view was blurry with tears, but the baby girl was on Kenji's back, watching me with wide eyes and pure delight on her face. She giggled again, and her chubby cheeks crinkled with the sound.

Why are you here?

The twins' ghosts gazed at her.

Yuki frowned. "Our Tiger has sacrificed a lot."

Aki nodded. "Too much."

I blinked. "What do you mean?"

Aki pointed. "The baby."

Yuki nodded. "The Little Tiger."

I shivered. "Little Tiger?"

Kenji gazed at me. "Who are you talking to, Hiro?"

Little Tiger? What do they mean by that?

I studied the baby girl, leaning all the way forward until my nose was barely an inch from hers, and the world went small, close, and clear.

Kenji had no idea what I was looking at right behind him. “Hiro?”

Her skin was a warm brown.

She’s Japanese, but she’s also from African descent too.

I’d known her hair was curly, but this close I could see all the tiny corkscrew curls. Her brown cheeks were full. Her mouth was a little open in that gummy way babies have when something delighted them.

And her eyes.