The legendary sword reeled backwards with fluid grace. Noaki fought like a dancer, controlled and precise. Each strike, however, was evaded as if they disappeared from one place and appeared in another. They buzzed around him - never engaging, only evading. Noaki's gaze was of intense focus, then without warning he spun around and sliced one of the black figures through the middle, severing him in half. But instead of blood and guts, the apparition burst apart in a puff of smoke.
Suzume frowned, wondering if she had been seeing things. At that same moment, the stalker lunged again for them. Rin anticipated his move and clamped down on his shoulder but as her teeth sunk in, he also burst into a puff of smoke.
"It's an illusion!" Rin roared to the others.
Noaki was already swinging his sword, clouds of smoke hallowing his head as the illusions were destroyed one by one. For each one he destroyed two more came out of the shadows to crowd around them. There were perhaps three times as many as when they had first been attacked. Kaito was fighting like a wild animal slashing at his opponents, lunging for jugulars and tearing out imaginary throats with his sharp jaws.
"How is this possible?" Suzume asked not really expecting an answer.
It was difficult to see anything through the smoke. The clang of metal rang out along with the sounds of shouts and grunts. Out of sight, Kaito growled like a wild beast. That same wordless warning rang through Suzume. She spun in time to see two more illusions were stalking around them now, going counter clockwise to each other in a slow circle. Rin's golden eyes traced each step they took, but she couldn't keep her eyes on both of them at all times. Suzume's fingertips itched, as sparks danced along her flesh her power was returning. A barrier would be rather convenient but she wasn't sure she had enough energy for that. Akira had taught her how to control it. Even if she could make one now, it would likely take all her energy.
Kaito slashed at a copy with his claws. Smoke spilled from the wound across it's chest before it burst into a puff of smoke. The illusions kept on coming. Whatever was making them seemed to have an endless supply.
"We have to find the source," Kaito roared his voice carrying through the haze of smoke.
Five more illusions dropped down from the tree tops, above Suzume and Rin. One landed on Rin's back and the other four closed in around them, joining the original two. The kitsune reared backwards, large paws swiped at the illusions who were closing in on her, while the other on her back held onto the scruff of her neck, and rode her like she was a unbroken horse. Her numerous flaming tails flickered back and forth as she writhed beneath the rider. Suzume leapt backwards to avoid being hit by one her tails.
The five other illusions stepped between Rin and Suzume, blocking her from her defender. They closed around Suzume in a circle and she held her staff in front of her. Though she had little offensive training, Suzume attacked the nearest illusion. The others were distracted fighting their own battles, and she couldn't just keep standing by doing nothing any longer. Even though her body ached and her limbs screamed in protest, Suzume swung her staff with uncoordinated abandon. Her staff collided with the torso of a nearby black-clad figure and it turned on her, and for a moment she thought she had felt flesh but when the fire energy from her body traveled down the staff and hit the copy it burst into a puff of smoke.
Something hit her shoulder and pain seared through her flesh. A dagger stuck to a tree behind her, edged in her blood. The graze on her shoulder burned, and stoked the fire in her gut.
She clutched her bleeding shoulder. "That hurt!"
"They can hurt you even if they're not real," Tsuki said. He'd broken from his own fight to help her and Rin. He made a diagonal cut down the body of another copy. The two halves separated before dissipating.
Suzume swore under her breath as another copy came barreling towards her. The illusions around them had swelled, and it was impossible to say where one skirmish started and another ended. Rin was more focused on her own battle to worry about Suzume and she was free to join the fighting. With a twist of her staff, she smacked it upside the head of a nearby illusion and nearly knocked it off its shoulders.
"Nothing like the real thing to teach." Tsuki smiled before lunging with a forward thrust to impale another illusion nearby.
He wouldn't stand by and defend her. He wanted her to fight. The prospect had her flying high and adrenaline pumped through her body, giving her a second wind. She was drunk off a previously untapped well of spiritual power that coursed through her body, burning her up inside and demanding to be unleashed. It coursed through her body, moving her limbs and guiding her actions. She ran towards the apparitions, slamming into them with her staff. Fighting was a great way to work out your frustrations.
Then once more she felt that electric feeling, it ran up her spine and to the top of her head. She shivered and looked around for the source. This had to be the person who was making the illusions. The copies were acting the same as before, fighting without regard for their own safety, and everyone had at least four copies to contend with. Everyone but Suzume that was. She tried engaging with a few, but found them easily defeated and then two more would pop up in their place. They never attacked her, just surrounded her.
Whoever it was that was pulling the strings here was after her. Well if you want me, come and get me. She scanned the battle ground and noticed one copy that stood out from the group. Instead of fighting like a mindless drone, it was moving through the crowd, slipping between fights, heading straight towards her. She assumed the defensive stance and prepared for it to attack. But this one moved differently than the others: it was subtle, a certain ease to the movements that when compared to the others made them look jerky and predictable. This had to be the original. It swung a short blade at her and she raised her staff to block, but when their weapons locked an unseen copy crept up behind her and grabbed her around the middle. It hoisted her over his shoulder and leapt away from the fight, the original following after.
Suzume jabbed the end of the staff into the back of the illusion and it burst into a puff of smoke. Before she could hit the ground, the original caught her in his arms, cradling her. For a second their eyes met, Suzume squinted. Something about those dark eyes seemed very familiar.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
He did not answer and instead ran through the forest, weaving around trees, and leaping over brush.
She wished she could create a ball of fire at will. Luckily her hands were covered in sparks, which were sure to burn him. She placed both hands on his chest and the flames burned through his black clothing to the tan flesh beneath. But as she hit him, the fire ricocheted back at her and she cried out just as he let her go and she fell. Contorting mid air, she landed on her back. The black clad stranger stood in front of her, his black clothes torn. Suzume reached for her staff but she had dropped it after she had destroyed the last copy. Instead she jumped to her feet, holding her flaming hands in front of her, staring down at her would be kidnapper. The stone in the band of her hakama pulsed faintly.
They stared at one another as Suzume matched his stance. Her back throbbed from landing on it, and her front burned in the same place she had grabbed onto her captor. The stranger held a blade in hand which he lowered to his side.
"I know it's you Hisato. Enough games." Suzume touched the place where her attack had been burned into her own skin. She could not attack Hisato without harming herself.
"Who is Hisato?" His voice rang of familiarity. But that was how Hisato worked, he like to play games.
Suzume forced a laugh, "I'm not falling for that. I know it's you."
"You know me? Who am I?" There was a desperation in his tone, so much unlike Hisato that for a moment she was willing to fall for it. But only for a moment.
"This isn't like you to pretend this long," Suzume said but she felt less certain now.
"Is that why you summoned me? Because you recognized me?"
"I didn't summon you. You're the one who attacked us!" she sn
apped.
The man took a step closer to her. "I felt a pain, in my chest. Like something had a hold of my heart. I thought you were attacking me..." he said. His eyes were glued to her like a starving man.
This wasn't Hisato, which could only mean one other thing.
"Do you have a piece of Kazue's soul as well?"
8
She felt like her insides were going to be switched with her outsides. That feeling like something was trying to escape from inside her was overwhelming. And each step he took closer to her, it only got stronger. The man's face was covered in a black mask, just a slit in the fabric revealed his dark, unknowable eyes. Even with so little, Suzume was overcome by this feeling of nostalgia as if she was looking into the eyes of someone she had known her entire life. I fell for that once with the spider, she shuddered remembering, I'm not falling for it again. If one creature could convince her of a past that didn't exist, she was certain this thing could trick her into thinking he was like her.
She shook her head to break eye contact and took a step back, hands held up between them, a paltry defense. Even her fire barely flickered to protect her, as if hesitant to do so. But her head was spinning. Which way was up and which way was down?
"What are you doing to me?" She snapped.
He sheathed his blade and held up his hands in surrender. That didn't matter if he could make a hundred copies of himself. He might have one sneaking up behind her right now. She didn't want to look away from him, just in case he attacked.
"Who is Kazue? And what does it mean to have her soul inside me? Was that my past life?" he asked.
He kept coming towards her and the closer her got, the more Suzume felt as if her chest was being squeezed by a giant's fist.
"I feel like I'm going to vomit." Her mind was racing. She stumbled backwards away from him. What was this feeling? Who was this man? She needed her staff. Chaotic energy was racing all up and down her body, escaping wherever it could along the strands of her hair, along her fingertips and toes.
"What are you?" He stood so still it was eerie. If he stepped back into the shadow of the tree behind him he would have disappeared entirely. Maybe that was the reason for the black mask, it was some sort of camouflage.
There was only one explanation for his strange powers and his odd behavior.
"I'm Princess Suzume, daughter of Izume and the emperor." Her old identity is what came to her quickest, but was that really who she was any longer?
"That is not possible, she was sent to the mountain shrine." His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. Then his gaze flickered away from her. Suzume followed his gaze turning her head before snapping it back to him. No copies surrounded her, no army of darkness. Just the two of them in the middle of the forest, and the wind rustling through the trees was the only sound.
The man reached up as if he was going to throw something. Suzume lifted up her hands as if that would save her. But instead, he pulled down his mask, revealing a handsome face but not one she recognized. He was young, close to her own age. That didn't prove he wasn't Hisato. The darkness of Kazue's soul was a master of disguise, able to shift into any form he chose. He had used the ability before to trick her into thinking he was a priest.
"Do you recognize me?" he asked.
Suzume squinted at him. Clearly this man felt like she should know him but she had never seen him in her life. "If you are trying to trick me, then you should have used a face I do recognize." She looked him up and down once again, just in case. But he looked like just another face in the crowd.
His head jerked to the side, and he reached for a sword at his belt.
Suzume tightened her muscles prepared for the attack. While they were talking she'd been growing a small ball of fire, not much, but enough that if she got close enough it could incapacitate him long enough for her to run. As his attention was elsewhere, she tossed the tiny ball of fire towards him. It sailed right past him. Suzume turned to run, but he gave chase.
She hadn't even gone a few feet before he caught up to her, blocking her path with arms held out.
"Why did you bring me here if you refuse to answer my questions?" he said.
"You're the one who kidnapped me!"
She was certain he wasn't Hisato now. Hisato loved to taunt her with double speak and promises of glory. It didn't make this man any less dangerous though.
He stared at her as if she had just declared herself a tree that was in love with the moon.
"I felt you call, I thought..." he trailed off. Then he grabbed Suzume by the wrist and pushed her behind him.
"What are you doing!" She shouted.
A barrier of glimmering green light erupted around them. The man in black stared up at the trees.
"What is going on? Let me out of here," Suzume hissed behind him.
"He's coming," the man whispered.
Suzume felt Kaito's spiritual energy before she saw him, the force of it weighing upon her, the temperature dropping to freezing. Her breath came out in puffs of smoke. And then the trees overhead were pushed back and torn from their roots. The crack of the trunks of snapping in half thundered around her, followed by the roar of the dragon.
Kaito had shifted into his dragon form. His large muzzle pushed through the trees, his mouth full of teeth the size of Suzume's fore-arm that tore the treetops off, exposing a cloudy, gray sky. Lightning flashed behind him as Kaito spit out the branches, and used massive claws to bend back more trees, which groaned before giving way to the force of his anger.
The stupid man. He probably thought he was protecting her from the dragon.
Kaito laughed, his voice like thunder. "You dare take what's mine," he bellowed.
From his pocket the man extracted a piece of paper, on it was a series of markings. When he drew it out, he held it between his palms and chanted under his breath. Though Suzume didn't know the words, the power from them drew the gooseflesh along her arms. The man was imbuing the paper with spiritual power. It was the only thing that could harm Kaito.
She had to stop him before he unleashed it on Kaito. Suzume lunged for his middle, knocking him over, and blast of green energy was shot off into the forest.
Kaito countered the attempted attack with a spray of ice shot from his open mouth. The tiny shards rained over the pair of them. Lucky for Suzume the man's barrier held and she was not impaled by the razor sharp fragments.
"I'm down here too, you know," Suzume shouted up to Kaito.
The man grabbed Suzume by the wrist. Fire leapt up to defend her and burned the man's hand. She felt it burning in her own skin and pain radiated outward as if was coming from inside her.
"We must flee," he said, ignoring the pain he must have been feeling.
Suzume dug in her heels and leaned back to use her weight to keep him from dragging her away.
"I'm not going anywhere," she protested.
Overhead, Kaito was smashing through the branches of the trees, laughing like he was half mad.
"He's about to break through. Come with me before it's too late." It was like he didn't hear anything she was saying. That or he was just ignoring her, thinking she was too stupid to see the danger in front of her.
High above them, Kaito roared. Icicles dangled from nearby trees as he approached them. The man drew another slip of paper out and started to chance once more. Suzume grabbed onto his arm breaking his concentration.
"What are you doing? If you try killing him he's really going to kill you!" she shouted.
"That yokai is one of the most dangerous around, and it is my duty to exterminate him before he wreaks more havoc."
"Let me go and he'll forget all about you."
The man stared at her brows furrowed. "Are you one of them?"
Before she could explain, Kaito's hail of ice sent them both scattering in opposite directions. Suzume leapt for the cover of the trees, and fell hard on her shoulder, and jarred her elbow. Pain shot up down her arm as she rolled over to her side.
Kaito desce
nded from the sky, caught somewhere between man and dragon. Blue light flickered all around his body and Suzume felt the full weight of his spiritual energy like a stone on her chest. She gasped for a breath, and remembered the training Akira had taught her. She tried to refocus her energy and keep Kaito's from overwhelming her. With a lot of effort, she was able to create a barrier between her and the out-pouring of Kaito's energy and she was able to breathe once again.
The man drew his weapon, seemingly unaffected by Kaito's approach, or so she had thought at first. Until she saw the way his hand trembled and his knees shook.
"Let us go. We don't wish you any harm, dragon."
Kaito threw back his head and laughed. His eyes were an icy blue full of intense rage: something she had never seen before in him, not unleashed like this.
"It's too late for that now."
The man looked to Kaito and looked back at Suzume. He took a step back in Suzume's direction, clearly intending to grab her and make a run for it. Suzume's barrier was not stable and it flickered around her, prepared to collapse under the weight of Kaito's energy at any moment.
Just as he made a dash for her, sword glowing with green energy, Kaito moved in front of him, blocking his attack with a swipe of his clawed hand. The sword was knocked from the man's hand and sent flying into the forest.
The only weapon that remained was his spiritual energy, but Suzume was not certain he could wield it while Kaito was bashing his brains in. Kaito stood between the man and Suzume. It would have been wiser if he ran, but he stood his ground.
The Dragon Saga Box Set Page 43