by C. J. Anaya
“Says who?” Angie asked. “Do we actually know how nekomata are able to see things? What if your dad is right? What if they hone in on their prey based on the presence of an actual energy signature.”
“Then how do they maneuver around inanimate objects?” Kirby asked.
“Good point,” I said.
“Hope, you’ve said many times that everything emits a certain level of frequency.” My dad stood and walked over to the opening of the cave. He lifted his hand and allowed the water to cover it completely. “We have no idea exactly how their eyesight works, but I’m willing to take the chance on the idea that the wetter we are the more invisible we are.”
There was certainly no harm in testing his theory since there was no way we could move five kami to an entirely different area. The best we could do was slide them all to the back of the cave where they would be out of harm’s way and stand guard in front of them.
Which is exactly what we did.
Once we made them as comfortable as we possibly could, my father grabbed one of the empty canteens and filled it with the tainted water. He doused every single kami from head to toe and made us step into it, soaking us all the way through.
For the next few hours we stayed relatively soaked due to the lack of sunlight and the damp moisture in the air.
Unpleasant, but necessary.
At least we hoped it was necessary. We also hoped we wouldn’t have to find out.
Unfortunately, it was just going to be one of those days. Three hours later, that hauntingly familiar click click of nekomata’s claws on the stone ledge near the other side of the small waterfall bled through the rocky cave’s entrance and echoed all the way to the back.
Like nails on a chalk board, I cringed at the jarring sound.
Two nekomata stepped through the water and into the entrance of the cave. They hovered there for a few seconds, sniffing the damp air while their ears twitched and flicked upward as if searching for something out of place.
“I don’t understand,” Yang said. “The smell is the strongest in this area, but they aren’t here.”
“Maybe there are tunnels at the back of this cave that lead to other places of refuge.”
“Our comrades spent years searching this cave and the surrounding areas for lone rebels after Amatsu overthrew Fukurokuju. They never found any tunnels.”
“Then how do you explain the trail they’ve left behind? It clearly leads further into the cave. There must be some type of false wall or hidden chasm.”
The nekomata took several steps forward, inching closer to our location. I was almost certain there were only these two to worry about at the moment, but that didn’t mean others were unaware of their location. If we disposed of them here, more nekomata would come looking for them. We needed our kami to wake up and we needed it now.
“Let’s just scrape our swords against the walls and see if we find something telling,” Yang suggested.
Great. A confrontation with these hellcats was inevitable.
Angie tensed at my side, and my father took hold of Kirby’s hand on my right as the two beasts walked straight toward us without seeing their prey standing right in front of them.
I signaled for Angie to take the cat on the right. We sprang forward before they made it halfway through the cave. I didn’t want them any closer to our slumbering group.
I spun in the air and brought my left leg around kicking the neokmata square in the head, sending it snapping back. He let out a muffled grunt of surprise laced with pain and hit the ground hard. Angie was already on top of her quarry. The nekomata couldn’t see her, but had adjusted to this new threat by reaching out and grasping her around the neck in a choke-hold. I rushed to help her but had my feet kicked out from under me. I went down, slamming my knee, but ignored the pain and instinctively brought my right foot up, hitting the nekomata squarely in the chest when it dove forward with its jaws open. The force of my kick sent it back a few paces, but it quickly rallied, crouched on all fours, and sprang forward with its jaws gaping open, ready to sink its gnarly fangs into me.
I reached my hand high and waited, deciding the moment I made contact with its chest I would connect with it and cause it an excruciatingly painful death. I never got the chance. A black knife circled in front of the cat’s neck and sliced it clean through. The rest of the body’s momentum carried it forward, landing on my legs. I scrambled backward and gave my dad an incredulous look.
“I am never going to get used to seeing you wield a sword like that,” I said.
He appeared super irritated.
“You and Angie need to quit doing this silent communication thing. I had no idea you were planning on charging these beasts. That should have been my job.”
“But, Dad—”
“I’m not kidding, Hope. You may be the savior of the world, but I am still your father and you need to ask permission before you go off attacking hellcats, delivering roundhouse kicks, and using your powers to cause strokes and heart attacks.” He stuck the end of his bloody sword on the stone floor and rested the other hand on his hip. “I can still ground you, you know.”
“We totally had this, Dr. Fairmont,” Angie said. “Not that Squirt over here didn’t help.” She mussed up Kirby’s hair a little and stepped away from the nekomata lying dead at her feet.
“We need to do something with the bodies,” Kirby said. “Their scent will probably bring other nekomata straight to us.”
Soft moans came from the back of the room. I turned around and nearly wept in relief at the sight of Tie struggling to get himself into a seated position. He wiped the sleep from his weary eyes.
“I feel like I’ve been run over by a meteorite,” he croaked out. “What time is it?”
“Probably one in the morning,” Kirby said.
Tie’s eyes took in the nekomata at our feet and suddenly he was at my side, looking me over and checking for injuries.
“What the hell happened?”
Kirby and my father took turns detailing our most recent events as the other kami slowly came to themselves.
“Bishu, is their theory correct?” Tie asked. “Do nekomata see based on energy signatures?”
“Yes,” Bishu said as he came to stand next to Angie. I noticed him anxiously take her in and assessing her injuries or the lack thereof. “That is how Amatsu described it to me.”
“You never experienced sight that way as a nekomata?” Angie asked.
“I never chose to be evil. I never chose to live in the Underworld. My vision was never skewed, my eyes never blinded.”
“Interesting,” Victor said. “If your theory is correct, it would make reaching the palace a much faster endeavor. There are going to be hundreds of sentries from here on out. Pausing to hide ourselves and our trail will waste time we don’t have. If this green substance makes us invisible, we should take as much as we can with us and use it as we approach the palace.”
“Everyone empty their canteens and pack as much of the tainted liquid as you can,” Hachiman instructed.
I walked over to my pack, ready to do exactly as he instructed when a fissure the length and breadth of my body ripped open before me.
“Hope,” Tie screamed. His arms grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back, but the force of the Underworld jerked me forward and I nearly fell through the gap.
More hands grabbed me and hauled me backward, everyone fighting against the bitter pull of the evil realm. A second fissure opened up to our left, lifting Ms. Mori off her feet and sucking her nearly halfway through. Kirby grabbed her hands and pulled her back while Victor went to help them. Our two different groups fought for supremacy over the powerful tug that emanated from the world of the dead. A deafening boom shook within the cavern, crumbling dirt and rocks showered down around us.
“We have to get out of this place,” I shouted.
I was slowly dragged back and pulled from the mouth of the fissure, but the walls of the cavern still shook. Kirby and Victor ma
naged to release Ms. Mori from the Underworld’s grip, but the cave floor became wobbly, shaking and undulating from an enormous amount of pressure. We charged through the waterfall and out onto the bank of the river, getting way from the cave as swiftly as possible. Our group stood in awe as the cave folded in on itself and tumbled into a fissure that spanned the breadth and width of the actual waterfall.
A dark abyss the size of a two-story building broke up the otherwise beautiful landscape of the riverbank, and the waterfall and cave were swallowed up in its darkness.
“We must leave now,” Hachiman said in a whisper. “The veil is failing. We’re running out of time.”
We didn’t bother to move quietly since time was not on our side and there was a good chance we’d be easy to spot once we dried off. We had to get to the palace, find the prophecy, rescue the goddess held prisoner there—if she really was there—have her translate said prophecy, and save the world before the veil was completely destroyed.
Tall order.
It wasn’t like our plan was foolproof.
In fact, we had no plan once we actually got to the palace. Flying by the seat of our pants. Oh, how a rebel army would have come in handy right about now.
No matter how quickly we moved, there were still moments of waiting as we stumbled across different sentries and did our best to remain as still as possible. For the most part, the nekomata passed us without incident, but a few who actually paid attention to their snouts would pause and come closer to investigate our unique aroma. I was happy that Bishu and Victor were so eager to get in some head slicing because I was sick to death of killing these creatures.
The first real problem we ran into happened when we were about a mile out from the palace. We ran into sentries made up of reformed kami. There were six of them spread out around a small camping ground that appeared to be more of a look-out zone. They may have been restored to their god-like state, but their ki still remained tainted by the evil they had embraced. Unfortunately for us, the substance that blocked our ki made very little difference to these particular minions. The group saw us right away and barely had time to bring their swords to bare before our kami were on them like the NYPD on a bomb threat.
On the one hand, it was good to know there was a chink in our otherwise perfect camo. Reformed kami could see us. On the other hand, watching these soldiers get cut down right before our eyes was not an image I would soon be rid of. The killings were beginning to weigh heavily upon me, and maybe that sorrow was a good thing.
Things really began to look familiar when we arrived at the rear of the palace, especially the large hedges that circled around the expansive gardens in back.
They were heavily overgrown, and if I were being honest with myself, scared the living daylights out of me. They looked malevolent and evil, much like the Vampers. I wasn’t even sure if my kami blood would work to part them as it had so many hundreds of years ago. I had no way of knowing if that spell was still in force.
I reached my hand up, pulled my dagger from my waist, and brought it to the palm of my hand. I hesitated as memories of what happened the last time I entered the palace like this invaded my thoughts. I had let Musubi and Akane go. They entered the palace to find the gods of fortune, just as we were entering to find at least one if not more. I’d entered to save them all once I discovered Aiko’s betrayal, and my father had been there waiting to greet me within the gardens.
I had this perverse fear that even now he waited for me on the other side of this hedge, ready to strike me down if I so much as set foot on the palace grounds.
Tie slid an arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him. I relaxed into his hold and rested my head against his shoulder.
“I know this is probably bringing back memories you would rather forget, but I’m right here. We’re all right here, Hope. We’re gonna be able to do this.”
I nodded, took in a fortifying breath and quickly made a small cut in my palm before I could change my mind.
The sting of the movement brought some much needed clarity. I dripped my blood on the spindly branches and leaves of the tall hedges and watched in awe as they shook ever so slightly and then folded in on themselves, creating a space wide and tall enough for us to enter one-by-one.
As I walked through the brush and into the garden, I sucked in a shocked breath and did my best to take in the unfamiliar terrain. The garden was nothing like I remembered. In fact, there were no snow blossoms, statues, or cherry trees. Instead, large bushes rose to over ten feet in height on either side, branching out down different paths. It looked a lot like some of the mazes described in my mythology class, and just as creepy. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that the garden we just entered was very much alive and pulsing with malice.
Tie insisted on taking up the lead. I could hardly object since I had absolutely no idea how to get to the back of the palace where the entrance to Saigo’s rooms had been. I didn’t even know if there still was an entrance after all these years. This plan had been so stupid. Did I truly believe the palace had stayed exactly the same for over a millennium? The emperor had to have remodeled more than just the gardens, although I thought this had more to do with the evil from the Underworld.
Tie took us down a few left turns and then a right, his strategy always seeming to be that of taking the path that drew us in as much of a straight line as possible toward the palace. After about fifteen minutes of this, I was beginning to feel as if the maze was enchanted and leading us away from the palace even though we kept the turrets in sight.
“Stop,” I whispered. “We need to figure out how to beat this maze because its obvious we’re being led astray by it.”
“Maybe you guys can give me a boost and let me climb on top of one of these walls,” Kirby said.
“It’s not a bad idea, but I would feel better if someone else volunteered for the position,” Victor said.
“Naturally, that volunteer should be me since I’m the next lightest person in the group. No offense, Hope,” Angie said, then she turned to Chinatsu. “Feel free to take serious offense, Ms. Mori.”
“Angie, I was not suggesting you should—”
She ignored him, backed up a few paces, ran at the leafy wall and jumped up high, making it about halfway up before she was forced to climb. I was impressed with her upper body strength and the way she scaled the wall like a monkey in search of a ripe banana. She hated tight spaces, which gave her lots of motivation.
Our plan backfired once she reached the top. The wall trembled and shook, swayed to the left, and then launched her off the wall. She let out an undignified shriek and would have landed flat on her back if Bishu hadn’t sped directly under her and caught her around the waist. The force of her momentum sent them flying back into the hedge behind us which broke their fall, but I felt bad for Bishu since he took the brunt of the impact. I had to hand it to him, though. He never once dropped Angie. He kept her body cushioned against his chest.
Chivalrous.
Victor was probably pissed that he hadn’t made the assist.
Bishu: 3
Victor: Seriously, was he even trying anymore?
We hovered around them to help them up, but Bishu already had them in a standing position with Angie’s back pressed against his chest, holding her upright around the waist. She looked too shaken from her fall to recognize the compromising position he held her in, and you better believe Bishu was taking full advantage of that, complete with a competitive wink in Victor’s direction. He added insult to injury by placing an affectionate kiss on top of her head.
Victor visibly bristled.
“Are you all right, Angela?” Bishu asked in a sultry voice just next to her ear.
Have mercy!
Someone fan me.
I had a soul mate….two apparently…and I was still swooning on Angie’s behalf.
At the sound of his voice next to her ear she scrambled away from him and adjusted her clothing, refusing to make eye contact.
“
Yep. Fine. Obviously, wall climbing will no longer be a part of today’s activities.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “So we can’t go over the blasted shrubs, and we probably don’t want to risk going under them. I’d hate to have any of us experience death by hedgerow asphyxiation.”
“Can we hack our way through it?” Tie asked.
“I’m willing to test that theory,” Victor said.
He carefully unsheathed his sword and encouraged us to give him some room. He then began cutting away at the leafy layers of the wall at shoulder level, creating a large hole the breadth and width of a full sized bookcase within seconds.
“There,” he said. He studied his handiwork and stepped back. “We should be able to walk through that.”
Before we were able to walk through anything, the leaves surrounding the opening violently shook and then slammed into each other with so much force it made me shudder to think what would have happened if any of us had been caught in the crossfire.
“So we’ve gone from being launched like a football to getting eaten alive” Angie said in a strained voice. “I hate to be high maintenance here, but I will begin to scream hysterically if I don’t escape this killer maze within the next few minutes.”
Bishu moved to her side with a look of concern. His questioning gaze flicked to me.
“Angie doesn’t do small spaces like this.”
“The walls are closing in on us,” she said.
Bishu placed a comforting arm around her shoulder.
“Just breathe. I know it seems like that right now, but it’s only fear getting in the way of your perception.”
“No, I’m dead serious. I’m pretty sure the walls just moved in like half an inch.”
I looked at the spacing of the two walls trapping us and realized she was absolutely right. They were slowly moving toward each other.
“Run,” I said, shoving Tie and Kirby in front of me as the walls made a groaning noise and the leaves began to rustle with menacing intensity.