"Now that you can change and fly," Renko said to Akira, "wouldn't you like to go visit your parents? They must be worried about you!"

"You would take me?" the Eagle-boy replied. "I didn't like to ask! You are all doing so much for me, and I know you're busy with other things."

Renko laughed it off with a shrug. "Please do ask! Any time you want to go. Everyone else does. For a while I felt like a jinrikisha driver, at everyone's beck and call, but it's truly not a bother. I ...