by M. H. Bonham
Tenko continued to look for Kasumi in the forest surrounding the harbor town. The trees grew dark, and still he looked for her. The sun had long since passed the hills to the west, and the stars began to shine above when at last he caught a fresh whiff of cat after all the other trails had faded. He crossed a stream and came to deadfall where at last he saw Kasumi’s unconscious cat form.
Tenko nudged her still body. Had he arrived too late? She slowly took a shallow breath then another. Tenko turned into a human and gently picked up the little cat’s body. She was light and cold in his hands as he slowly made his way back to his hut.
Once inside his hut, Tenko laid her down by the smoldering fire and slipped on his clothing. He then added more wood to the fire and stoked it carefully to warm her. He put a pot of water over the fire and added herbs to it. Then, sitting down on the ground beside her, he took a cloth, dipped it into the water, and gently wiped the foam from her lips. He murmured the healing incantations he had learned from the priests of Kuan Yin.
Kasumi stiffened and cried out. Tenko frowned. The demon-sickness was terrible and would soon take her life if he didn’t find a way to stop it. He closed his eyes and spoke the incantation yet again. Kasumi screamed, raking her paws against the air.
Tenko shook his head. He could do nothing for her. Her only chance for life lay with the very people who exiled him so many years before. He gathered her in a threadbare blanket and left the hut.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Tenko stood outside the Kuan Yin temple. He held the little cat wrapped in a blanket gently in his arms as he stared at the massive red gate that marked the entrance to the temple. He looked down at the little cat, who had stiffened from demon poison, and ran his fingers through her cold fur. If he didn’t bring her to the priests of Kuan Yin, she would die.
“Tenko?”
The voice made the kitsune turn around. Tenko was old but nowhere near as ancient as the man who stood before him. The bald priest bent over a staff, his gray beard twisting like a rope down to his belt. His well-worn and plain clothing was brown, in the custom of the priest. His dark eyes rested on the bundle in Tenko’s hands. “Tenko, what are you doing here? I thought it was clear that you were not to enter Kuan Yin’s shrine again.”
“Satoshi,” Tenko said softly. “I come to you not for myself, but for another. It is an urgent mission; I would not violate the law had it not been for this.”
Satoshi frowned. “What do you have?”
Tenko unwrapped the cat. “This is—”
Satoshi backed away. “This creature has been tainted by demons.”
“I know,” the kitsune whispered. “Her name is Naotaka Kasumi Neko. She is a member of the Neko. Can you help her?”
Satoshi frowned. “I don’t know, Tenko. The cat’s fate may be in Kuan Yin’s hands.”
“Could you bring her to the temple and ask the goddess?”
“I cannot…but you can.”
Tenko frowned. “I can’t….”
Satoshi shook his head. “Then she will die.” The priest turned to walk away.
Tenko looked down at the cat then back at the priest. “Wait.”
Satoshi stopped.
“I’ll do it. Not because I am sorry for what I have done, but because this Neko needs my help.”
Satoshi turned around and raised an eyebrow. “You would ask Kuan Yin for help?”
Tenko nodded and bowed. “If you would lead me to her.”
#
Tenko carried the bundle with the cat safely ensconced within it. He followed Satoshi, stepping slowly through the courtyard surrounding the temple. He didn’t need to look to the left or right to know the other priests and monks were staring at him. He knew that they could see him for what he truly was beneath his human guise.
“Satoshi!” A monk of maybe forty years or so stepped forward. Next to the older monk, he looked very young. “Why is that creature here?”
Satoshi smiled. “This is Tenko. He is here to see Kuan Yin and ask for her help.”
The monk stared at the kitsune. “But he is—”
“I know what he is,” the priest said. “Kuan Yin will see him.”
They walked up the steps. Satoshi stopped just outside the entrance to the shrine and turned to Tenko. “You must go on from here, my tricky kitsune,” he said. “Kuan Yin will be expecting you.”
“You will not enter?” Tenko felt panic well up inside of him.
“This is not my request.” He bowed at Tenko.
Tenko gave a hesitant bow back and then stepped inside.
The temple was dark, its only light from the oil lamps lit along the walls and the standing lamps where the statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy, stood. The air tasted of smoke and incense; the heady perfume of sandalwood and cedar filled the kitsune’s nostrils. He blinked, his eyes watering from the smoke as he stepped forward.
Why am I here? he asked himself. Why is this Neko special? He couldn’t explain why he must save Kasumi, only that he must. He had a feeling she was destined for greater things than transcended even the kitsune’s need for deceit and trickery.
He looked around the temple. It was much as he remembered it. The murals were faded from years of soot and grime, the floors lacked their luster, and even the statue of Kuan Yin was no longer white, but it was essentially unchanged. As he walked forward, he unwrapped the cat and laid her before the statue.
Kuan Yin, he whispered. This Neko is special. Her name is Naotaka Kasumi Neko. Demons have poisoned her.
As he mindspoke, a small breeze blew through the shrine, and he sensed a presence. Tenko turned and saw a woman with an ageless face of great beauty in a white kimono standing beside him. Tenko took a step backward and bowed low.
At that moment, his human form disappeared, and he became a fox with ten tails. He lowered his head to the goddess.
“Tenko,” Kuan Yin said. “Why have you come to my temple, trickster? Are you planning on making more mischief?”
No, great one, Tenko said. I have not come to make trouble. I have come to beseech your aid.
Much to his chagrin, the goddess laughed. “You seek my aid, kitsune?”
I humbly beg…
“Why?”
Tenko looked down at the cat’s body, unable to come up with the proper words to explain her importance. He looked up at the goddess. I don’t understand it, but I believe that this one will be important in the fight against the demons.
“You wish me to heal her?” Kuan Yin knelt down beside the little cat. “She is a brave thing.”
Yes, she is, Tenko said.
“She doesn’t like you much.” Kuan Yin touched the cat’s fur and petted her gently. “You will not change her opinion of you.”
Her opinion doesn’t matter. She can change into a big tiger; few Neko have that ability anymore.
“She is also half human,” the goddess said. “She is especially vulnerable to demons because she is not full Neko.”
Will you heal her?
“What price will you pay?”
Tenko looked down at the cat. Is she the one who was prophesized?
The goddess smiled and shook her head. “I do not know. I don’t believe anyone knows.”
If she is, then it would be worth saving her, wouldn’t it? The kitsune looked up at the goddess. I am an old fox, lady; I do not know what price I could pay.
“What about your tails?”
Tenko drew in a quick breath. You want my tails?
“Yes,” she said.
Lady, the tails are my rank, my status among kitsune.
“I know.” Kuan Yin smiled. “Without your tails, you would be an ordinary kitsune again.”
Less than that! Without a tail, I would be powerless. Tenko drew in a breath. How about one tail? One tail would be plenty for you.
“One tail? That seems so little,” said the goddess. “I will tell you what I will do. Give me your tail, trickster, and I will take the cat with me and keep her alive. Com
e back here next week, and we will talk about her progress.”
Tenko frowned. He didn’t like Kuan Yin’s proposition, but he could do nothing to the goddess. He turned and grasped one of the tails in his paws and yanked. Sharp pain stabbed through his backside as he separated the tail from the others. He laid the tail at her feet.
Kuan Yin picked up the tail then drew the cat into her arms.
Next week? he asked.
“Next week at the same time,” she said. “Do not be late.”
With that, she disappeared in a puff of perfumed smoke. Tenko turned back into a man, gathered his clothes, and put them on. He wondered what else the goddess would want from him.
#
For the next several days, each morning, the sun woke Akira from the bed he had made from pine boughs. He would find food waiting for him, and after that, the Tengu would come to train him. Most of the time it was Windcatcher, but sometimes it would be other Tengu. If he had thought Windcatcher was aloof, the other Tengu seemed doubly so. Three days after he had promised Windcatcher he would train as a Tengu to defeat oni, a strange Tengu appeared after he had eaten breakfast. He was a large creature with dark brown plumage and several scars that crisscrossed his chest.
Stormhammer, the Tengu said. Here is your bokken. He held out a dark wooden stick.
Akira had just finished his green tea. He stood up. “I have a bokken.”
Use mindspeak.
“Why? You understand me well enough.” Akira pulled out his own bokken. “See? I have one already.”
The Tengu looked unimpressed. Get in your ready stance.
“Aren’t you going to tell me who you are and what I’m going to learn?”
The Tengu blinked at him. Get in your ready stance. We will begin the drills. Follow my lead.
With that, the Tengu stepped and made a low cut, followed by a block and a final cut. Akira followed the Tengu the best he could, but he was clumsy by comparison.
Again, the Tengu said.
Hour after hour, the Tengu forced him to train until the sun crept toward afternoon. Akira was hungry and thirsty, but he did not complain. He wanted the no-dachi, and he wanted to be able to slay demons. After Akira performed the movements the Tengu taught him, the creature nodded once and disappeared. Food and drink appeared on a stone not far from him.
For a moment Akira simply stood there, uncertain if the Tengu was coming back. After a few minutes, he decided the creature was gone for the day and walked over to the food. He sat down and drank the tea, which was lukewarm by this time. He drank from the flask of water and looked at the fish and rice. He was hungry but also sore and felt his legs and arms stiffening up with each small movement. He needed to stretch.
He stood up and, in horse stance, slowly brought his head to one knee then to the other. Even though he had claws instead of feet, they ached like his normal feet. He stretched his arms and slowly stretched the wings.
Akira heard the cry of a hawk overhead and looked up. The red hawk landed in the trees nearby and preened its feathers before looking at him with its large yellow eyes. Akira shook his head and went back to eating his food. No doubt another Tengu spy. But the hawk reminded him of Ikumi. But it couldn’t be Ikumi, he told himself. He would know her even in hawk form.
Despite himself, he felt hot tears well up in his eyes. He finished his food and walked over to his bed within the branches. He threw himself on the boughs and wept.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
After a week’s passage, Tenko walked up the stairs that led to Kuan Yin’s temple. He had dreaded this day and spent many sleepless nights worrying about Kasumi and the next price Kuan Yin would demand from him. He frowned as he thought of one of his tails gone. It had taken him centuries to grow each tail; the price of Kuan Yin’s help was high.
But the girl was a demon killer. That Tenko was sure of. Few Neko had the ability to change into tigers; those who did often became great demon killers. And this one might be the one of the prophecy, Tenko thought. If so, then even Tenko had a duty to save her.
He stepped into the temple, and immediately his nose twitched as he caught the scent of cedar and sandalwood. Tenko’s form shifted to his fox body, and he walked up to the goddess. Kuan Yin was waiting for him.
How is the girl? Tenko asked, not bothering with formalities.
If the goddess was affronted, she did not show it. She smiled. “The girl is doing better under my care, but it will take a while for her to heal. If you wish me to continue, I must have another one of your tails, kitsune.”
Tenko snarled. I gave you a tail.
“It is not enough.”
Have mercy on me, Kuan Yin, the fox replied. I need my tails if I am to help her.
“Certainly a powerful kitsune such as yourself can spare one tail?” Kuan Yin chided.
Tenko turned and grasped one of his tails and yanked. He wanted to cry out as he tore it from himself but clamped his jaws tightly. He laid the tail before her. I give you my tail, he said, but I need to know how she is doing. May I see her?
Kuan Yin waved her hand. Within the air her hand touched was a portal that opened to another place. Within the portal, he could see Kasumi, now in her human form, lying on a pallet with blankets covering her. She appeared to be in a deep sleep.
Will she recover? Tenko looked hard at the goddess.
Kuan Yin smiled gently. “Her recovery will take time, kitsune. The demon that followed her was very powerful.”
How long? She needs to find the boy named Akira.
Kuan Yin shrugged. “It will take as long as necessary. Come back in a week’s time.” With that, she vanished, taking his tail along with her.
Tenko frowned. He didn’t quite trust the goddess, but he felt he had no choice. He shook himself and sat for a while, staring at the statue of Kuan Yin, before slipping over to the altar and gobbling down the rice cakes and fish left by visitors. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, he thought before leaving the temple.
#
The days passed into weeks while Akira trained with the Tengu. Every morning, the Tengu had food prepared for him before he trained, and every afternoon, he came back to the boughs he now called his home.
The training was mostly martial arts with occasional magic. He quickly learned to control the winds with his voice and call up waterspouts, lightning, and storms. As his magic talent grew, he learned to see the Tengu and other kami, even when they were in their invisible forms. Then he learned how to shape change. That had been the most fun of all as he learned to take the forms of a hawk, a tree, and even another person.
Usually by the end of the day, he was so exhausted that he could do little except eat and fall asleep. Occasionally a female Tengu would join him in the evening when he was not too tired. By then, he hadn’t the will to send her away. Akira found that even a Tengu companion was better than nothing against the unremitting loneliness he felt. But even their love was cold, and he felt used when he woke up alone in the morning.
One morning Akira woke before dawn to the rough cry of a hawk nearby. The sky was lightening, but the stars still shone overhead. The Tengu woman he had had sex with the night before had left as the others had done, and he was cold and alone under the blankets. He thought about turning over and going back to sleep, but he heard the hawk’s cry again. Something within the bird’s cry—a sense of urgency that he couldn’t reconcile easily—echoed in his soul. He sat up and looked in the predawn sky. Hawks were creatures of the day, not night, and they didn’t hunt this early.
He could just see the hawk’s darker outline against the lighter sky. The same hawk had been following him again. Akira had thought it was a Tengu spy, but now he wasn’t so certain. The Tengu had other ways of spying on him, and with his compliance, they had given him some freedom, albeit not much.
The hawk reminded him of Ikumi. He wondered what became of her and whether the Tengu would ever free her from being a hawk. It was tempting to think the hawk above him was Ik
umi, but he knew the chance of it was slim. Ikumi was long gone, and the Tengu had forced him to become one of them.
But was he truly one of them? In the past weeks, he had become indifferent to his plight, allowing his emotions to well up only during times such as these. He felt alone, like an outcast because he could never truly be what they were. The Tengu didn’t feel the emotions he felt; they didn’t seem to even desire contact, except perhaps sex. Even then, after the novelty wore off, sex wasn’t satisfying either.
“I’m not Tengu,” he whispered. “I am the son of a samurai.” But he was also the son of a Tengu. Deep within his mind, he knew he couldn’t be what the Tengu wanted him to be.
The hawk called again, and this time Akira answered it. He took two steps before springing into the air and changing his form into a hawk. He beat his wings and flew up into the predawn sky.
The stars had already winked out. To the east, the sky lightened with the approaching dawn. The air cooled as he climbed, and he had to work to keep aloft without the thermals to provide buoyancy. The other hawk cried and turned toward the mountains, away from the coast.
He followed her—for the hawk was female—and headed west. The hawk led him inland, over rice paddies and tea terraces where the farmers tended their crops. The sun’s rays lit the eastern sky and turned the rice paddies crimson. A warm, gentle updraft came from the ground, and the two hawks hovered over the fields.
The female hawk turned her head and circled once before flying toward a village near a walled compound. Akira followed her, wondering what the hawk would show him. As she flew toward the village, his heart quickened. This was Yutsui, the town near his father’s home. That meant that the walled home beyond was his own. The hawk had showed him the way home.