“I know. It’s going to be tough having to deal with him every day, though everyone else seemed to like him,” David said.
“That’s just because they think he’s handsome and haven’t the training we do,” Natsuki answered from alongside Takumi. “Though it was nice to see Mizuki’s face.”
“When he shut her up!” Rie laughed with Natsuki as the boys shared a look of concern.
Over the next few days, Nakano Junior High settled into new routines as the first years and new teachers adjusted. With Takaeishi always seeming to be around whenever they had a chance to talk, David and the other samurai had to be even more careful than usual in their conversations. They had all grown so close that it was difficult to winnow out the life they led on the Estate. Kou despised having to hide so much within David. On the Estate, he spoke freely with the others, and had his own relationships with each. Even at school, he sometimes inserted his own opinions when no one else could hear, but with the new teacher, they dared not risk revealing themselves to such an unknown.
‘I guess I know how the flying dinner feels. Since Takumi is not a Jitsugen Samurai, she is unable to speak even when there are no Takaeishis around to hear. It is no wonder Reimi is so insistent that Takumi let her fly.’
Class 3B received a shock greater than the strange personality of their new teacher in their second week of class. Mizuki was disposed from her long running role as class representative. With a surprise nomination from Miu, the class elected Rie as their new representative. The other classes held their own elections and the new student council made Rie the new Student Body President, with Kenta as her vice president and Mizuki as a junior secretary.
On the Estate, David continued his morning practices with Yukiko, and alternated evening practices between working with his Seikaku, Kou, and sword making with Rie. David had felt Kou’s annoyance growing, until Kou’s restraint failed. In the middle of a breathing exercise with Yukiko, Kou asserted himself and made David transform into their animal form. Kou growled, pacing in agitation, his head taller than Yukiko’s waist.
“David trains with his body and yes, sometimes we practice with me in charge, but you do not train us to fight with this body,” he said in his growling voice as he sniffed at Yukiko. “In the past, we have had to rely on instinct, and nearly failed to beat the ōkami that attacked us. Even the sparring with Takumi is limited.”
“I told Masao you were getting… annoyed,” Yukiko said with a smile. “You are correct, Kou, we have been stalling. You can, of course, train with Takumi, and he can heal if your claws get inside his armor, but it is painful for him, and the scars are permanent. You could study the kata as David does, and you will, but until you have a proper sparring partner, there is no way to put them into practice. We were hoping that Rie would gain control over her power.”
“Why would Rie’s power matter?” David asked as Kou sat back to better look up at Yukiko.
“If she can master herself, she will be able to summon animals for you to fight, and over time, she may even summon more powerful ones that will allow you and Kou to improve your skills in both forms. For now, her inability to summon a target hobbles us. It has always been a difficult aspect of a Jitsugen Samurai’s training. In the ancient past, well, human life was not viewed the same as it is today.
“In any case, you and Rie seem more comfortable together than you were, but there still seems to be something between you. You haven’t spoken about the cultural festival yet, have you?”
Yukiko’s lilting laugh rang through the garden as Kou’s body struggled to give an animalistic approximation for David’s embarrassment. It was not a reaction Kou’s body was used to, and resulted in Kou’s fur standing on end while his paw covered his nose.
Reluctant as he was to disturb the return of his relationship with Rie to normalcy, he promised to talk to her.
“Soon.”
The next morning, Masao met the students behind the Dojo after their morning run.
“Instead of our normal practice, we’re going to try another sparring match between Kou and Takumi,” he said. “I want to do it now in case Takumi needs to heal before school. If there’s time we can still do regular basics after.”
Since Kou usually kept his armor on, he waited alone outside while the rest ran to the main house or Dojo to fetch theirs. Though Kou was eager to take over, David took the time to stretch a bit more after the run.
‘I hate popping back into existence all sore,’ he complained, as Kou’s will playfully jabbed at his mind.
It was not until David had worked through every stretch he knew that he realized it was far too quiet. Distracted by a Zodiac dream, Kou growled. They shifted into Kou’s tiger so that they would have access to his heightened animal senses. Kou noticed the irregularity as soon as his ears started functioning. Four hearts were beating far slower than they should be. The tiger kami recognized the flavor of the aura permeating the area as soon as he jumped to the veranda on the side.
“Obake.”
Wrapped in his leather and plate armor, Kou entered the Dojo with every sense alert. Masao, Takumi, Tsubasa, and Rie were sprawled around the building. Yukiko had returned to the main house, leaving two obake in the center of the room, their ghostly aura keeping David’s friends asleep, just as the obake had knocked Natsuki out among the castle ruins.
‘She is going to be either a wreck, or really, really pissed off when she wakes up,’ David thought as he spotted his old partner. Kou growled a challenge and tensed to charge.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” one of the ghosts asked. He was thin and ragged, but with a twitch that made David wary. “My friend here can keep them under, or he can feed on them. We aren’t supposed to kill them. Just you. He said all we need to do is kill one pesky tiger shape-shifter and we get all the souls we want. Let me kill you and we’ll only drain your friends to the brink of death.”
“Yeah,” the other said. The fat old ghost kept opening and shutting its mouth as if heaving in some great effort. “A. Present. He told us. To tell you. From your old friend.” With each motion the ghost made, Kou felt another wave of the obake’s aura.
“Quiet Ritsu,” the first ghost said. “I’ll do the talking.”
Kou lunged, his long body stretching out. Sharp claws snicked out to impale the unwary ghost. Kou snarled as he latched teeth around the thin ghost’s neck. Behind the fat one, Kou just caught the outline of another ghost seep through the wall as a jerk of his powerful neck sent him and the obake spinning through the air.
Enraged, Ryohei stuck two translucent fists through Ritsu’s head. His gasps turned to choking coughs and the samurai began to stir. Natsuki’s eyes, filled with rage, flew open. Her hand slapped the floor in a convulsion knocking against Tsubasa’s bag. From within came the faint but familiar hum of electricity. Her hand closed around a strap, and although the rest of her body seemed paralyzed, she heaved it at the thin ghost.
Tsubasa’s mirror sailed out of the bag and slammed into the ghost. He shrieked, sending all of them reeling from the mental and physical blows. Kou fell away, blood pouring from his sensitive ears. David transformed, his world silent as the ghost tried to shake the mirror from his body. With strong will, he summoned his Seikaku and plunged it into the evil spirit before him. Careful to keep his sword away from Ryohei, he dispatched the other obake before turning back into Kou. Together they dashed out of the Dojo to check on Yukiko and the rest of the Estate.
Aside from David, all the samurai were so ill that Yukiko excused them from school. David, however, healed in time to go. Takaeishi seemed very interested the samurai’s absence, but, since Yukiko was a nurse, said nothing. When David returned to the Estate, he once again had to record the incident in his diary.
“I’m going to have to practice that technique,” Ryohei said as David wrote. “It might be useful to learn how to put you humans to sleep.”
“Yeah, well, just don’t ask Natsuki to help you practice. I don’t thin
k Tsubasa wants any more prototypes destroyed.”
When they finished, Masao sent them all searching along every inch of the wall. He had explained that such attacks should not have been possible given the ancient nature and sacred protection from hundreds of years of visits by so many kami. Sure enough, they found an odd metal tablet wedged between two rocks that formed the foundation of the wall. Masao refused to let anyone touch it until after he had donned his full priestly garb and produced two long chopsticks with intricate carvings. They were all banished from the Estate during the extraction.
Kou and Takumi got their chance to spar a week later. It went so horribly that Takumi ended up with two jagged scars on either side of his throat. Kou remained unapologetic, and retreated whenever David tried to talk about the match.
“I bet he has more than just a headache,” Tsubasa whispered when they were back at school and Takumi was once again absent. Takaeishi’s glare and his knowledge of what his host-brother was going through kept David from turning to answer. Knowing from experience how painful the accelerated healing process was for the possessed, made him want to let Kou bite their newest member for just the barest instant. By the time they returned, Takumi was fine and was eager for a re-match, which Kou smugly accepted.
Due to the dangers of exposing Takumi’s healing abilities, and without any way to explain the scars that even high collars could not hide, Masao forbade them from sparring again. Kou had to sit through a long speech from Masao for not working with David during the fight. Instead of sparing, Masao took a greater hand in their weekend training. He worked with both Kou and Takumi so that they could better practice the various techniques that would keep them alive someday, without scaring Takumi past all recognition.
The next time Reimi appeared, she complained that they had not included her as well. Masao’s explanation that the fact she was still only slightly larger than a pigeon made sparing that impossible for her, did not console her. Instead, Masao set her tasks to help hone her flying skills. Soon Reimi and Kou were spending their evenings playing hide and seek with various objects throughout the Matsumoto Estate. Their favorite version was for Kou to hide a rat, so that Reimi could search for it from above the trees and then dive and retrieve it before Kou could find and tackle her. The games were so entertaining that Natsuki and Tsubasa began betting on the outcome.
Between school, badminton practice, nights with Rie in the forge, and all the training, April flew by faster than Reimi at her fastest dive. Things seemed to be going so well, even with the random “presents” from the Jeongs that David did not want to ruin things by bringing up old issues. Despite the fact that Rie had yet to summon anything else, and his promise, David shied away from discussing anything with Rie more substantive than their latest project in the forge.
A WEEK’S VACATION
Family can be annoying, especially when they are not really your family at all, except maybe by the loosest definition. There are always too many questions and they feel entitled to answers. They expect to know your business just because they share a bit of history. But then, how could they know we were so different? Chul Soon with his need for revenge, and me, well, I have always been a bit different…
Due to the way the holidays lined up, Golden Week, Japan’s spring break, gave Nakano Junior High a full week off from school starting May 1. While most students spent the break going on trips or playing with their friends, the Matsumotos used the time for extended training in the mountains around the Estate. David had to admit he now looked back on the difficulties of his first trip with fondness, despite how exhausting trekking through the forests and attempting to remain quiet had been.
The value of the yearly trips was not lost on him after familiarization with the mountains and forests made it far easier to stop the ōkami that had later threatened the Nakano Festival. He was beginning to realize just how important the Estate was.
With at least an idea of what to expect, and with Kou and Reimi along to help, David anticipated an exciting week. The plan was for David, Rie, Takumi, and Natsuki to go out into the wilds while Masao, Yukiko, and Tsubasa hunted, attempting to keep them from reaching the Estate’s Shrine. Everyone had agreed Tsubasa was a bit too new to the Matsumoto training to be effective alone, and that five versus two would defeat the point of the exercise. In preparation for their outing, David, Takumi, and Kou had all donned their armor. Although Kou had wanted to run, David forced himself to sleep instead. In full armor, he laid down on his new futon.
The Estate was quiet when David awoke with a sense something was wrong. Thanks to Kou, he was able to wake almost instantly, yet remain unmoving and quiet. Takumi still complained about the hours he had lost trying to wake David up the first couple of months that he had lived there. As he smiled at the stray thought, David and Kou tried to understand why they had awoken.
Though the house was silent, Kou insisted they at least take a stroll through the hallways. David padded through the corridor around the sliding doors. As usual, the tatami room doors were closed since the Matsumotos slept behind them. He worked his way around toward the kitchen side of the house. As he passed behind the main hall to the tatami rooms in the back, David felt a light breeze blow against his ankles. While Japanese houses were often drafty, designed to catch cooling breezes, the Matsumoto shut back of the house at night to keep out the insects that came from the Japanese garden.
‘There should be no northern wind.’
‘At least not at night.’
David quickened his pace, but strove to keep silent. His armor made the task more difficult as the metal and Kevlar plates tried to swish together. At the back of the main house, his internal alarm bells rang louder as he found one of the outside sliding doors was open. It took three long strides to confirm that Rie’s door was open and her room empty. A flash of movement in the trees beside the Dojo caught his attention. A sudden burst of adrenaline pumped through his system as Kou’s instincts awoke within him. Remembering one of Grandpa’s admonitions to them before he died, David and Kou breathed to calm the rush of impulse and focus on merging their separate personalities. They needed both of their strengths, but as one.
In the distance, Kou caught the movement again, furtive, but not like an animal. With a quick look back into Rie’s room, David jumped to the ground, feeling the hard gravel of a path beneath his bare feet. He picked up a trail of kicked stones and scuffmarks in the dirt that had him stalking ever faster toward the movement. The trail separated, one branch leading from the wall, another curved for the front gate.
‘The gate trail is clearer. Heavier paws.’
‘What about the movement. Shouldn’t we go after that?’
David looked back to the trees, but could spot nothing else in the darkness. With a quick decision, they turned, following the trail as it led to the front of the Estate.
At the main gate, they found the doors disengaged from the inside. David felt exposed, out in the middle of the road with no idea what he was hunting. It took another second to realize he had not seen Ryohei floating above the pond, another disturbing sign. David dashed across the road into the trees. Crouching, he wove through the underbrush until he picked up the trail again. David followed the discreet tracks back along the Estate perimeter, past the stream, and toward the wilderness of the mountains.
‘Is this part of the golden week challenge? Did they change it at the last minute?’
‘Those were not Matsumoto tracks, I can tell the difference even with your pathetic senses. Be careful. I think the others in the Estate are still asleep.’
As the trail wove away into the woods, David began to catch more details in the tracks as they grew less confused by other feet. He was able to employ more of Rie’s training in tracking. The first thing he caught was that there were several people.
‘Kidnappers?’
‘It looks like they took Rie. These tracks are human, but they do not walk like the humans I’ve seen before.’
‘I don’t
like how there are fresh tracks over even more that are a few hours old.’
David hurried forward. He was far into the woods when he noticed another set of tracks merge with the older ones. Like the first, these too showed at least one person had a much heavier load than the others.
“You’ll want to stop there,” a voice said from ahead in the darkness. David sped up. A splash of reflected moonlight caught his attention as David recognized the movement from earlier at the Estate. “Stop or I shoot.”
David halted. His gaze locked on a dark shadow that he was sure was the source of the voice.
“Where is she?” David asked, his voice low.
“I don’t know,” said a voice with an exaggerated tone, like a lawyer. David caught an undercurrent that warned him the whininess was only an affectation. The man was a killer. “But my employer invites you to come alone and find them. He has a use for you. Of course, if you try to get help, they will die.”
“I’m already coming alone aren’t I?” David asked stepping forward again.
“None of that,” he said. “You’ll stay right where you are until I’m gone.”
“Bull,” David surged forward. He heard a click, and then felt impacts on his chest. Hard rubber bullets bounced off his armor. David laughed and pumped his legs. Another gleam of moonlight and this time white-hot pain shot through him as a real bullet found a mark between his shoulder and arm fittings. Kou roared within at David’s pain and the fiery smell of blood. David’s vision shifted, and Kou’s advanced senses caught the movement of their assailant, even in the minimal light.
Kou pounded after, their quick transformation, catching David off balance. Slug after slug exploded in the dirt around Kou’s minimal armor. As he faltered under the assault of bullets, he roared in rage, his voice echoing in the forest around them. Shaking himself, Kou moved faster, fed by the rare fire of pain. The man seemed to hesitate, to panic, and then stopped just long enough to unload an entire clip on semi auto at the advancing tiger’s legs. Kou’s muscles gave out as too much connective tissue was torn to hold his weight. The man turned and stalked back toward them, fitting a new clip in the gun’s grip.
Revenge of the Akuma Clan Page 15