Kensei crouched at the corner of the rooftop and peered below. A few pedestrians walked past, but the streets were mostly empty. Even the usual wannabes were missing from the front of Tobacco Mart. A chill autumn wind rose off of the Puckwudgie River and crept through every possible gap in her shinobi shozoku and the sweat-soaked thermal underwear she wore underneath.

A sense of vertigo hit, reminding her of how little sleep she'd gotten the last couple nights. She'd hoped to take tonight off, catch up on homework and get to bed early. But the spirit of the neighborhood had warned her something bad was coming and, as much as she hated to admit it, he was usually right. The only sign of villainy she'd found, though, was the cracking, slurred voice of a drunk man singing karaoke in Kosta's Sports Bar and Greek Grill. And that was only a crime against music. Even the spirits of the darkest alleys seemed relaxed, as if no violence would mar their domains.

Chatter streamed through her left earbud from the police scanner. Superheroes Huntsman and Libertine had apprehended a mugger in Quayside. Something eight feet tall and hairy had just broken into Cobalt City First National Bank downtown, and cops yelled back and forth about what to do. As if in response, Kensei saw a golden streak of light shoot from Starcom Tower. Jaccob Stevens, tech mogul and publicly known as the superhero Stardust, must be responding. At least a few other superheroes were out on the street.

"Go get 'em, Stardust," Kensei whispered to the distant superhero.

She wished more heroes still called Cobalt City their home, but things had gotten bad the last several years. If the bank wasn't on the other side of town, she might have gone to help. But she still hadn't taken the time to practice driving, which meant no license for her. And there was the whole threat to the neighborhood. But it was tempting to have something actually happen.

"This is very bad, Miss Hattori," said a familiar male voice behind her, referring to her by her birth name.

"Jeez, Karl," she said through gritted teeth, her heart pounding in her chest. "When are you going to stop trying to scare the crap out of me?"

She turned and looked back at the spirit, who seemed oblivious to her comment, staring off into the night. Kensei had one superpower: the ability to see and talk with spirits of places and things like Karl. Though he appeared to stand next to her, it was clear he wasn't a physical thing. Instead, he stood superimposed in her line of vision, like a smudge on a pair of sunglasses. If she wasn't so sure she was the only one around who could see or hear him, she might object to being referred to by her real name. But Karl was old-fashioned and did not care much for assumed names.

"I think you're worrying about nothing," Kensei said. "All the bad guys must be taking the night off. Even the O'Reillys are taking a break from screaming at each other."

Karl shook his head. "No, there is badness here. I feel it in my gut. Something tearing and biting inside."

Karlsburg was a neighborhood of immigrants, and Karl was the manifestation of that neighborhood. He almost always looked male with gray hair and a thick moustache, dressed in a suit that was probably fashionable fifty years ago in the old country. Otherwise, his appearance could have belonged to any of dozens of distant countries. Some days he looked Greek, other days Russian, and sometimes Ethiopian. Kensei always felt weird when he used a non-human shape. Apparently, not all the immigrants in Karlsburg came from this planet.

"And you're sure it isn't something you ate?" Kensei said with a sigh.

"I told you before, I don't eat."

"I know. That was a joke. Again." Kensei scratched at an itch between her dreadlocks under the tenugui she had wrapped around her head for a mask. Her usual banter with the spirit felt forced and meaner than usual. She chalked it up to exhaustion. "But this little superhero is half asleep, failing algebra and this is a school night. If something doesn't happen soon, I'll need to go to bed and hope that some other masked avenger is around to bust it up."

"This is nothing to joke about," Karl said.

"I'm not joking," Kensei said. "If looks could kill, I would have been a dead girl when my mom saw my progress report. My dad is cool with the superheroics, but Mom doesn't know about it at all. And she can't know. Dad can only run interference for so long before she insists on me finishing my senior year in a boarding school. And then you'll need to look for someone else to help out. Seriously, Stardust is in the freaking phone book. I can leave a message at Starcom's reception desk and then go to bed."

"You are the protector of this neighborhood," Karl growled. "You have a duty—"

"You know how my mom feels about super-heroes! It's hard to maintain my lie when I'm spending all night running around with a stolen katana and dressed like a ninja!"

"Hey!" a man's voice yelled from a nearby apartment building. "Shut up and go back to your padded cell at Fermi!"

Kensei froze, not realizing she'd been yelling.

"If not you, who?" Karl asked, ignoring the other voice.

"And if not now, when?" she said. As exhausted as she felt, she thought she might cry soon.  "Thanks, John F. Kennedy. I've traveled this guilt trip before."

"You finally found out who said that?" Karl asked. "How many years—"

A woman's scream cut off anything further from Karl. Kensei turned and ran in the direction of the sound, ignoring the "I told you so" that Karl called out after her.