Rowan → Ethan Nakamura ✔

Chinatown

When a shadow fell across her, and the sun was replaced by fluorescent lightbulbs, Rowan was astonished to find that they had already switched trains.

The New York subway was dirty. Plastic the color of ancient bedsheets littered the space beneath the seats. Rowan watched as a few careless passengers added to the pile. The cabins were crowded, and Rowan was forced to stand next to Nico, Will and Billie.

Now that she was aware of the people she was pressed up against, it was uncomfortable. The flashes of color that streaked across her mind's eye disappeared entirely – visions of times she couldn't remember, and some that she could. She had been seeing them all through the train ride, silent while the others talked, but now they vanished. Only the woman's voice she had heard before battling the manticore remained.

Your weapon is an instrument of your heart and soul. Treat it as such.

Rowan's brows knitted together. She couldn't remember the woman's name, her face, or how she knew her. It wasn't her mother, whose birdlike yet loving snaps Rowan could recognize anywhere. She doubted it was any of her relatives either, all of whom she could recall.

Someone tapped on her the shoulder. Her arm almost shot up to jab violently at their neck. Rowan only just managed to suppress the reflex.

"It's our stop." Nico said, as loud as he possibly could be over the crowd's noise. Rowan nodded curtly.

The train doors shook as they parted, and the four exited the cabin. They melded into the crowd, appearing to be students backpacking over the summer. They went up the stairs and returned to street-level. Beneath natural light, Rowan could see that the dark shadows beneath Nico's eyes were no longer there.

"Chinatown!" Billie shouted, hands towards the sky as if the streets welcomed her home. Rowan didn't blame her; when she looked up herself, Rowan thought she was back in her city.

Colorful neon signs with Chinese characters hung from tall buildings, advertising restaurants to barber shops. People who looked like her roamed the streets, shouts of English mixed with different dialects. Somehow, Rowan could understand everything. One man was talking to his daughter in Hokkien, which Rowan had never learned:

"You already had one cup of ice-cream today."

"I want another!"

The man sighed. "Look, if Mom says 'yes', I'll buy you some."

It reminded Rowan painfully of her father with her youngest brother, who would eat the sun if he could. Another surge of homesickness washed over her, and she suddenly felt very tired.

"Woah, acupuncture!" Will said excitedly, eyes scanning a poster showcasing a diagram of feet. Different parts of the sole were labeled and colored in greens, pinks and blues. "It's supposed to relieve pain!"

"Like an anesthetic?" Nico asked.

"No," Billie shook her head. "Getting heart surgery with needles stuck in your skin won't help. It's just for stuff like muscles being sore."

"Does it work?"

"Only one way to find out," Will said. He was about to step into the store when Nico grabbed the back of his shirt collar.

"We have to stay focused." Nico said sternly. Rowan was glad she wasn't the one who had to say it – Will's spirits would have been considerably dampened. "If we have time later, we can come back."

Will pouted. Rowan spoke up before Nico gave into his boyfriend's excellent puppy-dog eyes. "We need to find a temple."

"The Mahayana's a pretty big temple," Billie proposed. "It's got this giant golden Buddha sitting in the middle of a bunch of red curtains – it's awesome."