Chapter Five

May 2, 2004

Dear Gloom Journal,

Okay, so I didn’t kill Trevor Hitchcock. But not for lack of trying.

After I finished writing last night, I started the breathing exercises Professor Tanaka taught me. I reached out with my mind, to contact Ryuki. I got his emotional state immediately, but that wasn’t enough. Not anymore. So I kept pushing, and finally we touched minds. Ryuki’s alien mind reached out and grabbed mine in a predatory embrace. I felt my pupils starting to stretch again, but this time I didn’t run. Instead, I willed them to stretch more. I pushed harder, returning the embrace of Ryuki’s mind and doubling it, tripling it. I was so aggressive that Ryuki himself almost recoiled. But then, everything just snapped into place.

I had attained Dragon Mind, and was able to communicate with Ryuki. He told me that Vito had snuck up and drugged him. He was able to remember just enough of the kidnapping to direct me to where they had taken him: a small, hidden cave just off the main grounds of the Institute. When I got there, most of the cultists had left to take care of me. I took out the one kid they left on guard duty with some fighting moves Kiki taught me, and had Ryuki free in the blink of an eye.

I found the rest of the kidnappers outside my dorm. They were all first-years, the same age as me, but without the advanced training I’d received. So when I came rushing down at them, eyes glowing yellow, with a fire-breathing dragon on my shoulder, half of them ran. We were in the middle of fighting the other half when the grounds crew came along and broke up the fight. In all the confusion, I hadn’t even realized that the sun had come up.

I was taken immediately to Professor Miyazaki’s house, and that’s where I stayed for most of the day. I told the Professor everything, including all the stuff I hadn’t told him before about Trevor and the Cult of the Olde Ones. He listened to the whole story, nodding in all the right places. Then he asked me a question that changed my whole life: “How much of it can you prove?”

And that’s why I didn’t kill Trevor Hitchcock. Trevor, Professor Miyazaki told me, had sent flowers and a heart-rending letter of apology to Kiki’s hospital room. In spite of everything, he managed to come off looking like a very brave young man wrestling with a demon. While I, on the other hand, have been cast in the role of the out-of-control boyfriend, found beating up on a group of first-years while his girl languishes in a coma.