I should have died at least six times today, I think. I lie on the deck for a minute, grateful for the blue sky, the faces of my friends and family. The fact that I’m still breathing.

Then Inu nudges my cheek, and I stroke him between the eyes and scratch his woolly chest until he drools all over me. “Inu!” I chastise, but not really, because I’m so happy we’re here.

“Xander.” My father helps me sit up, hugs me, Inu leaning against both of us at once. Now Dad feels warmer, more normal. “Thank you.”

I hug him back hard. “Dad, I’m mad at you.”

He rocks me back and forth like I’m a little kid. For once, I don’t mind. “Why’s that?”

“You didn’t tell me about any of this stuff before! For the first time in my life, you had something I wanted to learn.” I let go of him to give him my best mock-glare.

He laughs, tries to push up his nonexistent glasses. “Xander, I don’t know if you know this, but you happen to be very stubborn. I gave you stories. You enjoyed them when you were younger—like when you made the comic. These days, though, you tell me you’d rather play video games. I offer to teach, and you wander off into your own daydream world. I can only force-feed a person so much. You have to want to learn.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” It’s true. Of course it’s true. And honestly, even though I’m rolling my eyes, it feels really good to be lectured again. I hug my dad again.

He touches my hair with one too-thin hand. “And I see your Momotaro hair has come in.”

“Oh yeah. At the sides.” My hand goes up to my temple self-consciously.

“No. Look.” Dad takes my sword and holds the polished blade before my face, like a mirror.

All of my hair is as shiny silver as a brand-new quarter, gleaming in the sun.

I wrinkle my nose. “Great. Now I look old, like you.”

“Thanks a lot.” Dad pretends to be huffy. “It is a mark of honor.”

I touch it—it feels the same as always. “If you say so…”

“You’ll get used to it.” Dad smiles at me.

Peyton’s reflection appears behind my head. “Hey. I can see myself in your hair, dude! I’ll never need a mirror again!”

“Guess that means you’ll be spending most of your time staring at it.” I turn and Peyton gives me a fist bump. “Everything all in one piece?”

He pats his torso. “Eh. It feels like I might have left a piece of my liver back there, but other than that, I’m good.”

Peyton sits down on the deck, directly in front of me. “Ahhhhhh. Never thought a wooden floor would feel like a featherbed. It’s just good to sit down.” He smiles at me, leaning back on his palms. He looks like he just emerged from a coal mine; he’s completely covered in black soot.

I probably don’t look much better. “Are your wings okay?” I ask him. I touch one. They look broken, or smaller.

Dad bends a wing gently. “They’re disappearing.”

Peyton widens his eyes. “Disappearing? No! I like having wings! And flying. Oh man—I’d be so the king of basketball.”

Dad shrugs. “Sorry, Peyton. No wings in our mortal home.”

“Where’s home?” Jinx’s voice pipes up from the other side of the deck. If Peyton looks bad, she looks worse. Even worse than she did before. Her arms are crisscrossed with deep scratches and cuts that might need stitches. One of her eyes is totally swollen shut.

“I’d hate to see the other guy.” I point to her wounds.

She laughs shortly and then puts on her tough-girl expression. “Yeah, that oni bird might be missing a couple of eyes. Oh well, that’s what happens when you hold me against my will. It’s not pretty.”

“Jinx.” Dad’s face breaks into another grin. “My girl.” He hurries across the deck. “Are you all right?”

“You know her?” I ask. My girl? What?

Jinx shrinks away from him, holding up her hands like a boxer. “Don’t touch me! I don’t know you.”

Dad takes a step back. “Jinx,” he says slowly, “you are the daughter of my wife’s best friend. Your mother was maid-of-honor at our wedding.”

“That must’ve been before she met my father,” Jinx says shortly.

I say to Dad, “You know her father’s an oni.”

“It’s not her fault who her father is. Remember how these oni can disguise themselves.”

I think about Lovey and Mr. Stedman. Are they real people, or oni? Maybe they won’t be at school after break! A guy can always hope.

But I seriously doubt my life is going to be any easier now. As Jinx said, I’m Momotaro. I’m never going to be normal again.

Dad bends toward Jinx. “You look just like your mother. Except your hair’s lighter.”

“My mother thought my father was the lead singer of her favorite cover band.” Jinx points at her Misfits T-shirt as she walks in my direction. “After she married him she discovered he had, like, a slight anger-management issue.”

“Understatement of the year.” I grin.

Jinx grimaces slightly. “Well, my mother has her own problems. She ended up leaving me with him. She still doesn’t know the truth about him. Heck, I didn’t know the truth, either, until two years ago.”

Now she’s next to me, blinking hard. “I’m sorry, Xander. I really thought Gozu would keep his promise this time.” Her face is as twisted as a wax paper wrapper on a piece of saltwater taffy.

I can’t be too mad at her. Who knows what horrible things her oni dad did to her? Making her live in oni country would be bad enough. He probably also made her hang out with the stinky carrion oni.

Besides, she helped us. A lot. She led us out of the cave. Healed my arm. Took us to the river. Found us the plane to sleep in. Saved Inu. Cut Peyton and Inu down from the tree. Told me to use the fire.

She’s not that easy to get along with, but maybe that’s okay sometimes. In her own awkward, bitter way, Jinx pushed me to be better. To try harder. To not give up, all so I could prove her wrong.

I hold out my hand to her. “No hard feelings?”

Her face breaks into a grin. I swear, she either looks as mad as a Disney villain, or her smile makes you smile. “None.” She shakes my hand firmly.

“Uh, I have some hard feelings,” Peyton calls. “Right over here.”

“Dude. You’ll get over them.” I wave him off.

Dad gives me a friendly slap on the back. “You’re a good man, Xander. Just like I knew.”

A warm feeling washes over me. Pride, I guess.

“You’ll come home with us,” Dad tells Jinx. “We will take care of you until we find your mother.”

Jinx shrugs. “Good luck with that. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to be found.”

He touches her shoulder. “You never know, Jinx. You never know.”

Peyton stands up. “They’re gone. They’re really, really gone.” He turns around, his whole body slumping, to show us. Yes, his wings have disappeared.

“But you’re still super buff,” I point out. “At least you have that. And big muscles are a lot cooler than silver hair.”

Peyton straightens his spine. The hair on his head sticks up even bigger now, as if it grew a couple of inches, too. “That’s right. Call me Unstoppable now. Can that be my nickname?”

“I thought Birdbrain was your nickname.” Jinx offers him a little smile, like an olive branch.

Peyton snorts. “Birdbrain, Monkey Girl, and Peach Boy. Yes. Lamest superhero names ever!” He holds out his hand for a fist bump, and Jinx returns it. Inu lets out a happy bark, and at that moment, I know we’re all going to be okay.

“Now I have to do one more thing. I hope it won’t scare you. Though I doubt, at this point, anything will.” Dad unbuttons one of the side pockets in his cargo pants. He takes out a small ivory whistle, shaped like a catfish, with whiskers and all. He jerks his head toward the galley. “Pull up anchor and go down below.”

“Why?” I ask.

“You’ll see.” He wraps a length of rope around his waist and secures it to the cabin. “Xander, you can stay here if you like.”

The others go below, and Jinx closes the hatch. The ship drifts out toward the open ocean. Away from volcanoes and snow women and oni.

Dad wraps rope around my waist, too, and then he hands me the whistle.

I blow it.

It sounds like I’m blowing it underwater, or it’s filled with water. I try it again. “Is it working?”

Dad nods and takes it back. “Careful. Not too much.”

“Nothing happened.” I look over the ship’s rail.

Something big and white swims up under the water. Bigger than the biggest whale I’ve ever seen or imagined.

A round O of a mouth peeks out, surrounded by whiskers as long as Christmas trees. It’s a giant catfish.

“Namazu,” Dad whispers.

It looks at Dad with its great rolling eyes. It seems to be waiting. Dad nods at it. “Saki ni ike.” Go ahead.

It dives under and then begins swimming around us.

Faster and faster and faster, in circles that start out big and then get gradually smaller.

The ship spins.

We’re being pulled into a whirlpool.

Dad grips my hand and smiles at me. Oddly. I’m not scared at all. Not with Dad by my side.

“Tadaima,” I say softly. Because we’re going home.