by Nikita Thorn
His health, however, appeared to have decreased only by a little.
Kagenoannaisha looked up, his red eyes locked onto Seiki. “Eager to die, aren’t you?”
Ippei winced. “You can’t survive that.”
Seiki let out an uneasy breath. “I know.” A portion of the damage would be cancelled, considering he was already a sufficient distance away, but the pending bit was still nearly twice more than he could handle.
Ippei suddenly thrust something into his hand. It was his Charm, with 8% maximum health. “Probably still won’t be enough.”
Seiki slotted it in, and Mairin did not wait to fill up his missing health with her Spirit Mend.
“I’ll Shout when it hits and time your heal then, Foxy,” said Ippei. “Give me a countdown.”
Seiki nodded, despite knowing that even with all the additional measures, there was no cheating the incoming damage intended for someone much higher-level, but they might as well try their best. “Four. Three.”
Ippei let out a Shout, and Seiki felt his health leap up by a little more as Mairin gave him his extra little bit. It was still nowhere enough as the looming cloud of damage prepared to break.
“Two.”
“I’ll teach you something.” A shadow flashed, and Tsukuda was suddenly beside him. “Focused Strike,” he said calmly as he grabbed Seiki’s right hand and lifted it up into the pose.
“And this is how you help him.” Tsukuda caught Ippei’s hand and clasped it onto Seiki’s other arm.
There was no time to think as the damage hit, a broken floodgate of black ice that consumed his world. Seiki had no idea what was happening as he reached for energy as instructed, letting it flow through the Focused Strike contact points.
His surroundings dimmed as the damage crashed down, a weight on his shoulders, his mind, his soul, threatening to crush his heart to a stop, but then a flow of energy rose against the incoming rush, guiding it outward through his arm. At the tip of his hand, he felt relief as the damage leaked out into the air.
It was still not fast enough. He thought he heard Ippei shouting as his knees gave, and he could still feel his friend’s firm grip on his arm as he collapsed. He had no air in his lungs, and his ears were filled with the deafening roar of the wave of damage that was trying to swallow him whole.
Then it was over, with a sharp impact on his body, as if the wave had thrown him ashore. Seiki opened his eyes, and found half his world the pale cream color of the high-class tatami mat, splatted with something dark red. It took him a second to realize he was still lying on the floor of the Banquet Hall. His mind cleared as Strength of Will automatically kicked in at four percent health, returning his consciousness to full, and he gasped for air.
Ippei was on the ground beside him, half-conscious and struggling to move, but they were both alive. Seiki had no idea how he had survived the damage, and something flashed in his mind, but he could spare it no attention, as he saw that they would not be alive for much longer. A pool of hungry kegachimushi had gathered in front of them, as large as a pillow. Its health was more than five digits.
Seiki did not have anything left in him to even raise his head from the floor, and he winced when the blob of ooze launched. A white form flashed in front of it, as Mairin in fox form Dashed past, cancelling its attack and dispersing it into four smaller patches.
“I’m almost out,” said Mairin as she turned back into a human girl. “Not enough for Spirit Mend.”
She crouched down between them and grabbed their arms, trying to drag them further away from the kegachimushi patches, but her strength did not allow it. Grunting, she raised her hand, spending the last of her energy on Fox Dust to disperse the slime further before it could attack again.
Tsukuda was back against the demon, but his attacks were weaker, and much less precise. A few patches of slime were clinging to his legs, letting out acidic sizzles, but it seemed the man no longer cared. Next to them, Lieutenant Kato was on the ground, one hand clasping the wound on his side that was bleeding profusely.
“We can call for reinforcements, right?” Mairin whispered. The situation was indeed desperate.
“Can’t win this one,” said Ippei through gritted teeth. “He’s just… toying with us.”
“Did I hear someone talk about reinforcements?” Kagenoannaisha looked amused as he sidestepped Tsukuda’s sword, grabbed hold of his arm and swept his foot from under him. “Yes, why not reinforcements?” he laughed as he casually grabbed another of the sake bottles and tossed it into the midst of the tables at the side of the hall, letting it break three more along the way. “Why not widen our pool of potential hosts, eh?”
Lieutenant Kato clenched his hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes fixed on the demon’s back. Laboriously, he pushed himself up to one knee. The demon paused, threw him a quick glance, and looked back at Mairin. “What were you saying about reinforcements again, little foxling?”
Mairin gritted her teeth, clenching her hands as if trying to decide what her tiny bit of recovered energy would allow her to do right now. Lieutenant Kato took his chance to lunge at the demon’s back, but Kagenoannaisha simply whirled around and kicked the sword out of his hand. The young lieutenant staggered and fell back onto the floor, panting heavily.
The demon had already picked up another bottle, and this one, he carefully and deliberately unwrapped, before removing the lid with his hands. “You’re just delaying the inevitable, Tsukuda, you do realize it.”
Kato looked up at his executioner as the demon slowly tilted the bottle.
“Stop,” said Tsukuda.
Kagenoannaishi paused. “Oh?”
Tsukuda let his sword drop and instead drew his dagger. The look on his face as he stared at the demon was that of someone looking down an endless pit of doom. Then he held out his left arm.
“No!” gasped Lieutenant Kato.
“Finally taking a hint, Captain Tsukuda?” said the demon.
Tsukuda gritted his teeth as he drew the dagger across his own arm, leaving a bleeding cut. “A willing host.”
For a split second, everything in the Banquet Hall stood perfectly still, and all the kegachimushi on the floor stopped moving as if listening to something. Then they all launched off the floor, sprung from overturned tables, detached the wall panels, burst out from the remaining unopened sake bottles upward, like a swarm of hungry locusts descending on a single green stalk in the middle of a desert.
Lieutenant Kato screamed as he tried to reach for his sword, but the demon pinned him to the ground with his foot. “Just watch, Lieutenant.”
The kegachimushi combined into a single mass in the air and shot toward the cut on Tsukuda’s arm. Seiki watched in horror as they disappeared into the wound, like a swirl of dust being sucked away by a vacuum.
Another second of terrible silence followed. Tsukuda did not even cry out, and he stood panting, right hand clutching his left, just above the cut, his brows drenched with sweat.
The man suddenly gasped, his body convulsing as if an electric shock had gone through him and he dropped onto all fours.
“Too late to have a change of heart, Tsukuda,” said the demon. “The faster you give in, the sooner it’s over.” He casually cast off blood from his dagger and sheathed it. “But, of course, for a man of your caliber, it’s going to take a while for the kegachimushi to take possession of your talents.”
The demon lifted his foot off Lieutenant Kato, allowing him to struggle toward his friend. “Tsuku—”
“Stay away, Kato!” Tsukada snarled.
Kato froze.
“It’s too late, Lieutenant,” the demon laughed. “Like I said before, once it finds a willing host, it binds the host to its will. There is no escaping it.”
Tsukuda closed his eyes, opened them again, and shook his head, his breaths quickening.
“You see,” said the demon. “I was planning this to snare the whole clan of powerful warriors during
the Oath Ceremony. What an irony that would be.” He laughed. “But since you stumbled into this, perhaps you would make a better prize after all. I’m sure our Lord would be quite pleased with your excellent weapon skills and grasp of the arcane arts. Former Captain Tsukuda of the Shinshioka Army, you might prove quite a valuable asset.” He walked a little closer. “Once the process is over, of course.”
Tsukuda was trembling, his muscles taut, his eyes staring down at the tatami floor, unseeing, too preoccupied with the internal battle to even notice the demon kneeling down beside him. “The kegachimushi does not take kindly to being resisted. Although, I’m glad you’re putting up a fight. It just heightens my enjoyment to see you break.”
A twisted smile on his face, the demon raised his hand, almost gently, toward Tsukuda, when Kato lunged at him and grabbed hold of his arm. “Don’t you dare touch him!”
With an annoyed scoff, the Kagenoannaisha lifted his other hand to strike the young lieutenant. Tsukuda’s arm suddenly shot out and grabbed the demon on his wrist, even without looking at him. For a second, Tsukuda glanced up, and Seiki saw a red glow flicker in his eyes. Then the man blinked, and it was gone, and he turned toward the struggling demon and forced him closer to the floor.
“You should know, annaisha.” Tsukuda’s lips twisted into a deadly smirk. “Some men don’t break.”
His other hand closed around the dagger he had let drop earlier. With a sharp swish, the blade flashed across the demon’s torso, spraying dark purplish blood onto the mat.
Kagenoannaisha gasped in pain, struggled free and staggered backward, clutching his gaping wound.
Tsukuda took that moment to turn the short blade inward and plunge it deep in his own chest.
No sound escaped his gritted teeth. The anguished cry that followed was Lieutenant Kato’s as he scrambled over to catch his friend and ease him onto the floor.
“No,” cried the young lieutenant as he saw that the dagger was hilt-deep.
“What a waste,” Kagenoannaisha snarled. The demon took a step forward, his hand raised, to vent his frustration on either of the injured men. The movement aggravated the wound and fresh blood spilled onto the floor, causing him to reconsider. With a furious hiss, he waved his hand and disappeared in a column of gray smoke.
“What do I do?” cried Lieutenant Kato. “Tell me what to do.”
“Nothing, Kato.” Tsukuda finally let out a gasp. “Nothing you can do. It’s… it’s part of me now. I have to kill it.”
“No,” Kato shook his head. “No, there must be—”
“Listen, Kato.” Tsukuda firmly grabbed his hand to keep the young lieutenant from frantically trying to stop the bleeding. “I don’t have long. This has put us all on dangerous grounds. The Demonic Clan…” His breathing started to become ragged and he abandoned his attempt to explain. “No one can know about this. No one can know the Demonic Clan was here. Do you understand?”
Lieutenant Kato had a confusing look on his face, but he nodded.
“You don’t understand this game, but you have to play now. Innocent lives are at stake, including your own. No mention of the demons, and you have to walk away clean from this. Understood?” Tsukuda paused to gasp for another breath. “You can trust… Chamberlain Giichi. Follow his lead. Give this to him.” The man produced a letter that looked like post paper from his pocket. “He’ll know what to do.”
The young lieutenant stared.
“You’ll have questions…” said Tsukuda. “Wait. Once things die down, write to… Commander Yajima. Take it. Take it!”
In a daze, Lieutenant Kato grabbed the piece of blood-stained paper.
“Swear, Kato.” Tsukuda’s voice harshened. “Swear you’ll do whatever it takes. It won’t be easy.”
“I—”
“On your father’s grave,” said Tsukuda. His expression was grim, and the lieutenant’s eyes widened at the gravity of the oath. Tsukuda gripped the young man’s arm and looked into his eyes. “And mine.”
Lieutenant Kato started trembling. “I swear,” he said, as tears streamed down his cheeks. “I swear it.”
Tsukuda afforded a weak smile. “Good,” he said in almost a sigh. He closed his eyes, and then moved no more.
Lieutenant Kato froze in a moment of dreadful silence. Then he let out a single cry as if he had been the one stabbed in the heart. For a long while, nothing moved, and the Banquet Hall returned to an almost peaceful state of stillness.
A gentle burst of white smoke eventually went off next to Seiki as Mairin turned into a white fox, trotted up next to the young lieutenant and silently sat by him. Seiki suddenly remembered where he was and what he was doing, and he found he had no will to move.
Eventually, footsteps and muffled voices sounded, and the door at the far end of the hall slid open. A man poked his head in. He was labeled Chamberlain Giichi [Level Unknown], and, while Seiki did not recognize the name, he now recognized the face as one of the people who handed out reward boxes and sometimes Civil Missions in the Shogun’s Court.
The man turned pale as he saw Lieutenant Kato sitting beside his friend. “Oh dear,” said the Chamberlain, quietly. He rushed over as if to see if anything could be done, but then realized that it was too late. “Oh, poor boy. Poor boy,” he muttered as he crouched down beside the lieutenant. “What happened?”
Kato made no response. He had stopped crying, and was now staring blankly at Tsukuda.
Chamberlain Giichi laid a gentle hand on the young lieutenant’s shoulder, which went unacknowledged. The Chamberlain then noticed the piece of paper in the lieutenant’s hand, and he gently removed it, with some difficulty, from his grip. His eyes widened as he read its content.
Before the Chamberlain could say anything, the door opened again, admitting a flurry of people in court uniform, who let out gasps at the scene of destruction in front of them. Seiki only now noticed the full extent of the damage to the Banquet Hall. No tables were left intact, and broken bottles lay everywhere, as if it had been through a fresh hurricane.
“Look what they’ve done!” came Chamberlain Mazutomo’s shrill cry. “I’ve told you, they planned to sabotage the Oath Ceremony, and… they’ve succeeded! We were too late. Arrest them!”
The man’s words implied more plot than Seiki cared to try to understand at the moment. The hint of triumph in the man’s smile, however, told him all he needed to know.
The three Palace Guards behind the man moved forward, and Chamberlain Giichi straightened up. He slowly rose to his feet and cleared his throat, causing them to pause. The guards shifted uneasily as they looked back and forth between the two Chamberlains.
“Giichi!” scoffed Chamberlain Mazutomo.
Chamberlain Giichi gave a slight, formal nod. “Chamberlain Mazutomo.”
Before a contention of will and rank could ensue, the group of people crowding the doorway parted, dropping into low bows to make way as the Lord of Shinshioka, the Shogun himself, emerged.
The nobleman appeared as he usually was, slim, pale, dressed in his black embroidered silk robe.
“What is this?” cried the nobleman, his face paling even more at the sight as his eyes darted around the Banquet Hall.
“Lord Shogun!” Chamberlain Mazutomo bowed deeply. “There were ill-intentioned parties seeking to defile the ceremony hall, my lord, just as I have reported. Luckily the perpetrators have been caught in the act. I have ordered their arrest.”
“Oh, good,” said the Shogun, before taking a step back as he noticed the two figures in the middle of the hall. “Lieutenant… Kato?”
“And his accomplice Captain Tsukuda, my lord,” said Chamberlain Mazutomo. “Neither of them had permission to enter the Banquet Hall, especially after the auspicious cleansing ritual had been performed to prepare for the Oath Ceremony. Yet they came in armed, and, worse, spilled blood. I’m sure an argument broke out between them, leading to this extremely unfortunate situation. If my lord would put me in ch
arge of the investigation, I would get to the bottom of this and provide a full report.”
The Shogun looked a bit uncertain, and Chamberlain Mazutomo turned to the middle of the Banquet Hall. “Lieutenant Kato. Do you have anything to say in your own defense?” He smiled. “Perhaps… there was another reason that caused you to enter the Banquet Hall without permission?”
Despite not fully understanding where it was going, Seiki could sense a slow trap being laid around the young lieutenant. There was no way Lieutenant Kato could defend himself without breaking his oath, and whatever reason Tsukuda had for keeping the Demonic Clan’s presence a secret, it seemed Mazutomo had the opposite intention.
“Lieutenant Kato,” said Mazutomo. “Do you have nothing to say? Do you admit to your guilt, then, of seeking to defile the Oath Ceremony? You entered the Banquet Hall without permission and left it in a stage of total wreckage. I just asked you if you had a good reason.”
Lieutenant Kato finally looked up at the man, perhaps starting to become aware of what was happening.
“Because I asked him to,” said Chamberlain Giichi calmly. “Earlier today, I received word from Commander Yajima, warning me of Captain Tsukuda’s ill intentions toward the Oath Ceremony.”
“What?” cried Seiki.
Lieutenant Kato gave a start at the Chamberlain’s words and looked up at him.
“So I asked Lieutenant Kato to investigate,” continued Chamberlain Giichi. “I was hoping that their personal relationship would allow him to persuade Tsukuda to abandon his reckless plan, but it seemed he was unsuccessful, and so he had no choice but to end it by force.”
Lieutenant Kato simply stared at the Chamberlain.
“Nonsense!” cried Chamberlain Mazutomo.
“I have the letter from Commander Yajima right here, if you care to check?” said Chamberlain Giichi.
“Let me see,” said the Shogun. With a bow, Chamberlain Giichi handed it to the nobleman, while Mazutomo glared at him.