by C. J. Anaya
“I’m not hurting,” I said a little too forcefully. “That woman means nothing to me.”
Tie nodded as if he understood my denial and pulled me into a hug, rubbing his hand along the length of my back.
“You ready for me to kick your trash?” he asked.
“As I recall, I did a fairly good job of keeping up with you in my first life.”
Tie laughed like I’d just told him one of the best jokes he’d ever heard.
No matter what I’d learned in my first life, I was seriously out of practice. To say that Tie schooled me for the duration of our training was an embarrassing understatement.
I couldn’t say my father fared any better. We both hobbled our way back to the resort. His hobbling was understandable. My soreness was disturbing. A sign that my ki wasn’t healing me properly.
Angie didn’t even look winded.
I tried not to let that annoy me.
“You shouldn’t have turned me down all those times I invited you to do Pilates and Piyo with me.”
“My body perpetually heals itself and my metabolism is on fire, Angie. I had no idea sword fighting and a compromised ki lay in the very near future, but thanks for rubbing it in.”
“You betcha.” She gave me a squeeze and then apologized when I winced in pain.
“Well, I don’t think I did too bad,” Kirby said as he placed a hand in Ms. Mori’s
She looked down at him with a patient smile. “You have great strength within you. You’ll make a fine samurai warrior yet.”
He looked up at her with unabashed love in his eyes and then ran ahead with a whoop, waving his sword over his head. I watched her gaze follow him with a sadness so profound I literally had to catch my breath and blink back the tears. She didn’t want him to have to fight. She didn’t want him to die, and she knew, just as I did, that death was part of his destiny. Yet if the time came, would she save him no matter what? I didn’t think so. It was partly why I hated her. Duty above all else. Even above the safety of her children.
Some things never changed.
I dreamed fitfully that night and awakened in a pissy mood every time Tie shook my arm to inform me I was “flickering” again.
“Tie, I know you’re trying to be helpful, but this is the fifth time you’ve jarred my shoulder out of its socket.”
“Hope, get up now. This isn’t about Amatsu. Someone is trying to get into our room.”
That woke me up like a shot of adrenaline to the chest. I jumped out of bed as the crash of something heavy splintered the side of the door.
“What the hell are you two doing in here?” Angie said in a sleepy voice as she came out of the other bedroom and flicked on the light. Her eyes widened when the door nearly shook off its hinges.
“They’ve found us,” Tie said. “We’re going to have to fight them off.”
Tie was right. There was no way out, unless we were interested in a three-story drop into a bed of flowers, and none of us were going to leave the rest of the group to fend for themselves.
Not a chance.
The door splintered at its hinges. One more blow sent it flying open and two nekomata stepped in.
Only two.
I would have preferred more. I had no idea how many my father and Kirby were dealing with even though Ms. Mori was with them, and I hoped the majority of their numbers hadn’t gone to the other room. The thought spurred me forward. I wanted these two dealt with as quickly as possible so I could go check on the rest of my family.
“Hope,” Tie yelled as I hurtled over my bed and ducked under a hairy paw.
I was still trying to wake up so my reaction time was a little off. Its claws ripped some of my hair out, causing my eyes to tear up, but I quickly elbowed it in the stomach and spun out of the beast’s reach as I caught Tie taking on the second nekomata out of the corner of my eye. He sent a swift punch to the nekomata’s neck and came back with a bloody hand holding a tiny knife.
I’d allowed myself to get sidetracked clocking Tie’s movements and wasn’t prepared for my legs to be swept out from underneath me. I went down hard and twisted my leg. I heard a popping sound and then pain tore through my knee.
Crap. I was pretty sure I’d just torn my ACL.
I flicked my gaze up to the nekomata, wondering how I was going to get enough momentum to bring it down with one lame leg. It gave me a wicked grin and bent low to reach for me.
“Amatsu never said you couldn’t be injured,” the beast growled. “He simply said you couldn’t be killed.”
Its eyes widened in pain and then its back arched as he let out a loud howl.
Angie ducked out from under its muscley arm and jabbed her fingers in its eye-sockets. It brought its hands to its face with a cat-like screech that made me wish for temporary deafness. Angie flipped her wrist, gripped the hilt of a dark dagger, and quickly plunged it into the beast’s chest. It staggered back, howling in anguish and then dropped to the floor.
I stared at the nekomata in shock and then swiveled my gaze to Angie who stood over the thing with righteous indignation etched across her features. With her wild, red hair in total disarray and an angry glint in her eye she looked like a fierce Amazon warrior. One you best not mess with.
“That’s what you get for hurting my best friend,” she muttered. Then she turned to me with a half-grin on her face. “Can you believe it wasted time talking while I was sneaking up on it? Somewhere, some remote village is missing its idiot.”
I let out a chuckle which quickly turned into a pained hiss when I tried to put some pressure on my knee.
Tie was already at my side, having dispatched his nekomata and a third one who had tried to come in.
“Did it stab you with a weapon?” he asked in a panic.
“No,” I said, feeling extremely annoyed. “I tore my ACL and tried to stand up too soon. My ki is almost finished fixing it, though. No worries.”
He sank down in relief and rested his head against my shoulder.
“I thought you’d been stabbed by a weapon from the Underworld again.”
“These guys may be stupid, but they know they can’t kill me, Tie.”
“I know, I just…” he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he gathered me to his chest. “I know.”
I wrapped my arms around him and let him hold me close even though I was impatient to get to the others, but his need for me was stronger than I could ignore, and after his distant behavior I found I needed the attention as well.
“Dammit, Hope, you are only supposed to engage with them as a last resort. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking we needed to get to the rest of the group as soon as possible. Who knows how many hellcats they’re dealing with right now?”
Fortunately, my dad entered the room, followed by Kirby, Ms. Mori, and Victor.
“We need to get out of here, now,” Victor said. Then his face morphed into a look of dismay as he took me in, his face draining of color. “Was she injured?
“I’m fine,” I said, feeling foolish. I really was in desperate need of more practice. Such a rookie move to get distracted like that. Tie helped me to my feet as the group moved through the door.
“Where is Bishu?” Angie asked, concern evident in her tone.
I picked up a hint of irritation from Victor, but he kept his voice neutral as he said, “Bishu is checking the perimeter to see how many are left. We’re going to take the stairs to the ground floor and deal with any remaining nekomata on the way there.” He looked left then right and motioned us to follow.
I gingerly put some weight on my leg and only felt a tiny twinge. By the time I stepped again, my knee had completely healed. We followed Victor, with Kirby, Angie, and myself in the middle. Tie, Dad, and Ms. Mori brought up the rear. Our assembly line probably looked a little strange. I hoped the other patrons on the floor were heavy sleepers and didn’t open their doors to see what was going on. I didn’t think we had time to protect any curious civili
ans.
Then again, we wouldn’t know whether they were actually civilians or nekomata in disguise. The thought made me sick to my stomach.
Victor opened the door to the stairs and slowly entered the stairwell. He looked up and down.
“I think it’s clear, but who knows how long that will last.” He motioned us to follow and we gingerly made our way down the first flight of stairs. It felt like we were going much slower than necessary, but Victor seemed to think that being quiet was better than stomping down at an accelerated pace.
I honestly didn’t know which course of action was the wisest, but I couldn’t help worrying that we were boxing ourselves in. Not that the elevator would have been a better choice. I had terrible luck with elevators. Just as we reached the second flight of stairs I heard a faint sound that brought me up short.
Click click.
Click click.
My gaze shot up the stairs and locked with the slanted green eyes and black slitted pupils of a nasty looking nekomata with one crazy scar that ran the length of its snout. I opened my mouth to scream a warning, but the creature’s own mouth grew wide, elongating its slimy fangs. A deep growl vibrated in its chest and suddenly a fireball shot straight at my head.
Tie pulled me out of the way just as it went sailing past me. I stumbled into his arms and scooted back as the creature jumped on the railing and launched himself down the side toward me and Tie. Ms. Mori lifted her hand and produced a thin sword that glinted a cruel black in the stairwell lighting. She jumped in front of me and thrust it upward as the nekomata came down, taking advantage of his momentum to plunge the wicked blade into its chest. It howled in pain and then crumpled to the stairs, one arm hanging on the railing and the other limp at its side. Its green eyes lost their focus and dimmed completely.
“Ms. Mori,” Angie said. “You sometimes scare the crap out of me.”
She gave Angie a tiny nod, like she felt flattered by the comment.
Strange woman.
Yet this strange woman had just saved my life. I was pretty sure that nekomata had not been interested in delivering me to Amatsu.
“Thank you,” I said as I watched her thin knife retract in her hand and disappear from sight. I was never going to get used to that strange trick.
Ms. Mori studied me for a moment and merely nodded again. “We need to keep moving. That beast made us lose precious time.”
Just as she said it, the stairwell above us exploded in noise. I had no idea how many nekomata followed us now, but we were all taking the stairs down two at a time with no thought of what might be facing us at the bottom.
We hit the ground floor running and launched ourselves through the door and out into the cool night air, immediately coming upon Bishu who was engaged with two other minions. Victor jumped into the fray, lifting his sword high in the air and swinging down, severing the head of one while Bishu quickly dispatched with the other. The rest of us kept moving, knowing what followed right behind us.
“We’re going to have to deal with them, Victor,” Tie shouted. “Otherwise, they’ll just keep tracking us.”
“We don’t know how many there are,” my father said.
“Time to find out,” Bishu shouted. “Angie, you get Hope, Kirby, and Dr. Fairmont to the vehicles. Don’t come back for anything.”
“Not happening,” I shouted. I turned around to face the stairwell entrance, pulling Kirby behind me. “Getting separated is what they want us to do. We’re stronger if we stick together.”
Tie opened his mouth to argue, but it was too late. Nekomata poured out of the entrance like a swarm of vicious locusts. I swallowed down the bile rising up my throat and steadied my breathing. There was no time to assess just how many there were before the fighting began.
“Kirby, do you have anything to defend yourself with?” I asked.
“I’ve got a gun,” he said, pulling out a shiny object from his back pocket. I wasn’t about to waste time asking him where he’d managed to get a weapon like that.
“Use it,” I shouted just as two nekomata came at us from different directions. We put our backs against each other and faced our opponents. Kirby got off a shot right away producing a cat-like shriek from his assailant. I dodged a swing from a clawed paw, but took a small knife to the shoulder when I lost my balance. The nekomata grabbed my other shoulder and grinned, showing me his fanged teeth.
These stupid animals didn’t seem to realize that contact with me was a death sentence. I connected with its ki and made his nerve endings produce a burning sensation in his brain. He howled and jerked to the ground writhing in pain and eventually dying from it even though he wasn’t actually being burned alive. I didn’t have time to pull the knife from my shoulder before another nekomata attacked. I continued to hear a few shots go off behind me, which let me know Kirby was still okay and defending my flank. I just had to make sure I did as good a job defending his.
I didn’t wait for the nekomata to get the jump on me this time. As he thrust with his sword, I stepped to the side and brought his sword arm down, spinning to my left and pulling his wrist backward until it cracked. It grunted at the pain, but locked its other arm around my waist. I connected with this beast and simply stopped his heart. I really didn’t have time to torture the thing even though I was pretty sure the process would have been very satisfying.
The ki from his body released a green mist, flooding me with a shock of power. I honestly hadn’t been seeking to absorb it. I’d just been too close to avoid it. I felt the circle of black within my heart expand ever so slightly, but I had little time to worry about that as I dealt with another nekomata. One went for my thigh and sliced it open, but I dove forward and wrapped my arms around its torso, instructing its ki to fill its lungs with fluid. We both collapsed on the ground, and I rolled over to avoid the green substance its body released as it drowned in its own blood. My arm was killing me, and my thigh was taking its sweet time to heal.
With the knife still embedded in my arm, a healing in that location would be impossible. I reached to pull it out and got tackled to the ground as a huge ball of fire went sailing over my head only to smash into the golf course several yards away.
Tie flipped me over, saw the knife and nearly tore my arm in two trying to get it out.
“No,” he repeated over and over. “Not like this. Not again.”
I was dimly aware of Kirby sitting next to me, burying his head in my neck and sobbing. I looked up to see my father spin to the side avoiding a charging hellcat while simultaneously slicing the thing through with a wicked sword. It was impressive to say the least. His head snapped up at Kirby’s cries and his eyes locked with mine. The terror that filled them made me want to reassure him I was fine. Honestly, it was just a knife wound and my body was already healing it now that the knife was out, but he ran over and knelt beside me, cupping my face in his hands like he was never going to see me again.
I pushed him back and pulled my sleeve up to expose my shoulder.
“Guys, why are you acting like I can’t handle a flesh wound? It’s already closed up.”
Tie leaned forward and smoothed his hands over the area, shaking his head in disbelief, then he looked at the knife on the ground and snatched it up.
“It’s not a weapon from the Underworld,” he stated, nearly choking on his relief. “They’re using man-made weapons on Hope.” He buried his face in his hands and took in a deep breath. I still had Kirby clinging to me, but at least he’d stopped sobbing.
“She isn’t going to die?” he asked.
I hugged him to me and then pulled back, showing him my arm.
“Nope. It’s already healed.” I took a look at my thigh. Lots of blood, but no more damage was visible.
“What happened?” Victor shouted running toward us.
Ms. Mori was sparring with one last nekomata. It almost looked like she was playing with it before she leaped forward, brought her sword up high, and came down, separating its head from its shoulders.<
br />
That woman was both amazing and freaking crazy.
I searched for the other two people in our group and grew alarmed when I saw Bishu carrying Angie in a cradle hold. My heart lurched at the sight of my best friend carried like an invalid. I tried to force my way to a standing position, but my dad pushed me back down.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he shouted.
“To heal Angie,” I said.
He glanced over his shoulder and then quickly moved out of the way as Bishu reached us and then knelt on the ground, still holding Angie in his arms.
I didn’t bother wasting time asking questions. Angie’s face and chest were covered in blood. I grabbed either side of her head, connected with her ki, and nearly vomited at the pain that tore through my body. Her insides had been skewered. There wasn’t a single organ that hadn’t been torn in some way after multiple stabbings. I began repairing the damage as her heart fluttered and stuttered, fighting to keep what little blood she had left pumping throughout her body.
Healing Angie in this condition was going to haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. I decided that multi-tasking was a better solution rather than healing the organs one by one. She’d be dead before even one of them had fully regenerated. I launched a full-body recoup, instructing the intelligences within her ki to repair the tissue damage for each organ all at once. Better to have organs functioning half-way than to have any of them stop altogether.
There was a chest wound I repaired immediately by healing the right atrium and aorta while the other intelligences went to work on her kidneys, liver, and lungs.
It was one of the longest, most nerve-racking healings of my life, although in reality it probably only lasted fifteen minutes.
It was Angie, though. I never wanted to see my best friend in this condition ever again.
As the last of the internal damage healed, I released her and opened my eyes. She was conscious and coughing up some residual blood, but after she finally cleared her throat and took in a deep breath she offered me a half smile.