by Fuyumi Ono
Gankyuu looked up at her and said with a faint smile, “Even you, eh?”
“The way you swung that sword reminded me of nothing so much as chopping a limb off a tree. You really are an accomplished swordsman.”
Gankyuu got a bamboo flask and small bag out of the satchel. He was clearly taken aback by Shushou’s compliment.
Shushou explained, “I’ve reconsidered my opinion of you.”
“I appreciate it. Though you should thank Rikou. If he hadn’t taken off the harpy’s arm, that cute face of yours would be decorating the side of that rock right now.”
Gankyuu emptied the contents of the bamboo flask into the wound and grimaced fiercely. From the smell, it must be alcohol. The small bag contained what looked like ash, which he next applied.
“Rikou did? I didn’t expect that.”
“Seems our bad boy here has a few aces up his sleeve. He did a good job hitting that harpy and missing you.”
Rikou smiled. “We’d be in a world of hurt if I didn’t have at least one such redeeming feature. A good thing that youma was a harpy. We heard the two of you talking. Weren’t so sure we’d arrive in time when you screamed, but those markers you laid down made the difference. Pointed us right to where you were. That was pretty clever of you.”
“I told you I was smart.” Shushou smiled, then cocked her head to the side. “I’d never guess from looking at you, Rikou, but were you ever a soldier?”
“Well, a long time ago I did make a living at it.”
“So that’s why you have a suugu.”
“Had would be the better word. I swapped Gankyuu for his haku.”
Shushou gaped at him. “You did what?”
“I have suugu other than Seisai but not a single haku.”
“You are an odd one, Rikou.”
Gankyuu said, “Shushou, get me the water bag.”
Shushou ran over to Seisai, got the water bag and hurried back. Gankyuu took it from her and said to Rikou, “What kind of packs are you carrying?”
“I had a goushi put them together for me in Ken. Pretty much the same as yours.”
“Good. Get going.”
“Gankyuu!” It wasn’t Rikou raising his voice in protest, but Shushou.
“The little beasties will be smelling the blood and flocking here. I’ll make do with that I’ve got here. I’m giving the suugu back to you.”
“This isn’t funny!”
“I agree,” Gankyuu answered bluntly. “It very definitely isn’t.”
He applied a strip of foul smelling leather to the wound and wrapped an old cloth around it. Above Gankyuu’s knee, not touching the wound, Rikou tied the section of rope he’d cut around the tip of the scabbard to hold it in place.
“Tell me the truth. Do you prefer the suugu or the haku?”
“I’d appreciate you leaving the haku.”
“Understood.”
“Wait a second!” Shushou raised her voice again. “What are you talking about? You’re going to leave him behind? Don’t be ridiculous! I won’t stand for it!”
“Don’t take this the wrong way. If I thought for a second that my number was up, I wouldn’t be trying to get rid of you. Believe me, koushu aren’t the self-sacrificing type.” Gankyuu took a piece of bark or tree root out of the bag and popped it into his mouth. “Get out of here. I prefer being left to my own devices.”
“No!
“Keep your voice down. Seisai is skittish enough already. We’re going to have company pretty soon. I’m telling you, I’m fine. A wound like this is all in a day’s work for me.”
Despite the darkness of the night, Shushou could see the beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. His was hardly the condition of a man who was fine.”
“Rikou, you pick him up. If Gankyuu can’t ride Seisai then you can get Seisai to carry him.”
Shushou grabbed his arm. He jerked it free. “You really don’t get it, do you? Go. My odds are that much better without you here. I’m not making a gallant sacrifice for you. Like I said, you’d be free to stay if I thought otherwise.”
Gankyuu tucked in his torn leggings and refastened his chaps. Shushou stood her ground. “And as I said, I’m not going to. I will either depart with you or stay here like an albatross hanging around your neck, hardly to be shook off. You choose.”
“I refuse both. Rikou, tie her up and haul her off with you.”
“No! I won’t allow you to treat me that way!”
Startled by her outburst, Seisai and the haku turned their heads and then looked up at the starry night.
“Ah. Our guests are taking their time. But they’re coming.”
Seisai raised his muzzle to the sky and growled softly.
Rikou asked, “What do you want me to do, Gankyuu?”
Gankyuu didn’t hesitate in the slightest. “Take her with you and leave.”
“What about you, Shushou?”
“I am not budging from this spot. If you want to run away, go right ahead.”
“Fine, then.” Rikou smiled. “What do you say we split the difference?”
Before Shushou could call him back or Gankyuu’s curses could reach him, Rikou jumped onto Seisai’s back and soared into the air.
“You two hold down the fort here,” he called down to them. “I’ll fetch the goushi.”
Chapter 37
[5-6] “That son of a bitch!”
Shushou said, “I don’t think this is splitting the difference so much as calling it a draw due to injury.”
Gankyuu raged at her, “What are you so calm about?”
“I’m here because I chose to be here. I’m not going anywhere. I’m perfectly happy to lie in a bed of my own making.”
“That’s why I—”
“You don’t know when to give up. Rikou is already gone. Factoring in the speed of a suugu at a full run, he should catch up with the goushi soon enough. We only have to hold out until then.”
“Do you think we can hold out until then?”
Shushou smiled. “We’ll be okay. I’m sure my good luck will hold.”
“It’s running out faster than you think.” Gankyuu held onto the boulder and hauled himself to his feet. “Bring me the haku.”
“That’s what you should have done from the start!” Shushou shouted back at him.
She grabbed the lead rope and pulled the haku to the boulder. The haku hesitated at first, stared at the sky and shook its head. When she handed the reins to Gankyuu, he mounted up, not quickly but still with a fair amount of skill. He reached down to her.
“Doesn’t your leg hurt?”
“I told you before. This isn’t that big a deal.”
So he said, though his right foot didn’t rest in the stirrup and there was no tension in his knee. The painkillers that kept most of the torment at bay left his leg numb and unresponsive. He pulled Shushou into the saddle and slapped the haku three times on the side of its neck.
Follow your instincts, the gesture meant.
The haku raised its head and set off at a gallop. Following a youjuu’s inborn instincts, it sprinted from approaching danger. It still had room to flee. Were a youma attack imminent, a haku would freeze in place instead.
The haku ran and glided off the ground. A slight tug on the reins brought it back to earth, where it was again once again given free rein. Unlike a horse, any kijuu worth its salt, even one the size and disposition of a donkey, had a knowledge of the Yellow Sea bred into its brain. That made all the difference in the world. They instinctually knew the best way to protect themselves from youma.
The flapping of wings behind them made Shushou start. Gankyuu clamped his hand over her mouth and quieted her down. Perched on the saddle in front of him, she twisted her head, looked up at him, and nodded.
The haku followed the contours of the land, soaring over the low-lying areas. This flying style was not in its nature and was exhausting even for a haku. But this was the best way to stifle the sound of its footsteps.
Again came the flapping
of wings, accompanied by menacing shrieks mingling high and low. Youchou were fighting each other over the prey.
The haku flew along the path taken by Rikou and the suugu, until it darted between an outcropping of boulders and veered off on a separate course. Cutting through a wide-open field and diving low over a brush-covered basin, they plunged into a rocky forest.
This is not good, Gankyuu said to himself.
The haku was trying to make its way to safety, the same as Gankyuu. That’s why he’d wanted Rikou and Shushou to leave him behind. Except with Shushou with him, he couldn’t very well bring her there too.
He had no choice but to pull back on the reins. Beneath the forest canopy, he calmed the balking haku and turned it in the opposite direction. Of course the haku was bewildered. The safe haven was right ahead and they were heading away from it. Gankyuu did his best to pacify the youjuu as they raced through the forest.
The haku made a flying leap. Gankyuu pressed Shushou flat against the haku’s neck as the haku broke through the canopy into open sky. Beneath them, black shadows disturbed the branches.
“There’s something down there.”
“It can’t fly.”
The purple sky was growing lighter along the horizon. Flying was the worse possible option at this point but they couldn’t set down now.
“Lie down,” Gankyuu said, but he was too late.
Shushou said softly, “Gankyuu—look—” She raised her arm. “Wait. There are lights down there!”
She pointed. Beyond the forest, the dark shadows of the forest revealed the outlines of an encircling woods. The center of the woods rose up forming a small, double-crested mountain, the tops of which glimmered in the moonlight, bare as a monk’s head. A light glowed at its base.
Not just one. There were at least three.
The haku ignored her and flew away from the grove. Shushou grabbed the reins and tried to halt the haku.
“Shushou!”
“Wait! There are buildings!”
Gankyuu clucked. “You’re imagining things.”
“I’m not imagining things. There’s definitely—”
The haku sailed through the skies. The buildings at the foot of the mountain disappeared from view, but not the points of lights.
“You didn’t see anything.” When Shushou glanced over her shoulder at him, he added, “There was nothing there, okay?”
“Why?”
“Because if you insist that you did, I’m going to push you right off.”
Shushou looked down despite herself. Here and there in the thinning forest, the tops of the slender trees shook back and forth. Something was tracking them along the ground. Even if they were safely alone, the fall alone would kill her.
“Then go ahead and push.”
“Shushou.”
“Coming meekly to heel after only being warned of the consequences is the behavior of a barnyard animal. As long as you’re treating somebody like an animal, what difference does it make whether you push them off or toss them into the mouth of a youma?”
No sooner had Shushou shouted back at him but something flickered across his field of view. The haku neighed, an octave lower than a horse.
“What the—”
Searching the indigo sky, he caught a glimpse of wings streaking through the air practically within arm’s reach.
The haku dropped like a rock, faster than Shushou had time to scream. The forest canopy rose up beneath them. At the same time, a sound like a rusty metal hinge screeched above them.
A raptor-like bird with two heads dove at the haku. Both mouths shrieked. The haku dodged to the side. The youchou cut through the air like an arrow, swooped around and rose toward them—only to meet the edge of Gankyuu’s sword.
The haku neighed. Another shadow appeared in the early dawn sky. It had no wings but was galloping through the air.
“Damn.”
Gankyuu swore aloud. He guided the haku over the hill below. Past a ragged promontory covered with boulders and underbrush, he set down middle of a grove of trees.
He dug a coil of black rope out of the saddle pack. The haku was carrying Rikou’s packs. Grouping around by touch alone took him a long minute. A goushi would have stuck the rope in the shoulder bag.
“Undo the shoulder bags. The water too.”
As soon as they touched ground, Gankyuu laid the haku down. Favoring his leg, he rolled off its back. He tied the black rope to the reins, hopped on one foot to a nearby tree, and tied the rope around the trunk.
“Gankyuu? I removed the packs.”
Gankyuu hopped back to the haku, took the packs from her. He glanced over his shoulder at the haku, stroked its neck and gave it a sympathetic pat.
“Got the water?”
“Yes.” Shushou nodded.
Gankyuu threw his arm around her shoulders. Using her as a crutch and dragging his leg behind him, they hurried along at a half-run, leaving the haku behind.
“Gankyuu—the haku.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it?”
Shushou looked back at where Gankyuu had tied the haku to the tree.
“Quit dawdling.”
“But—!”
It was a long, thin rope but was tied fast. The haku was still lying down as Gankyuu had ordered it to. Now it followed Gankyuu and Shushou with its eyes as they came to the bottom of the hill and grew further away.
“Gankyuu, the haku can’t run away. Whatever is after us—with it tied up like that—”
“It’s fine where it is.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Remember how you said you were going to give the haku a name?”
She did, back when they first entered the Yellow Sea.
Gankyuu said, “Koushu don’t give their kijuu names. This is why.”
Chapter 38
[5-7] Gankyuu and Shushou ran as best they could, weaving among the rocks and underbrush, following the contours of the hill. Stumbling along, warily rushing from one shadow to the next, they still managed to maintain steady progress.
I hate this, Shushou thought.
She could hear the haku neighing far behind them and shook her head. If she could avert her eyes, couldn’t she avert her ears too? She might as well try. This was less about going forward than running away from the haku.
“Don’t cry, girl.”
“Leave me alone,” Shushou grumbled. The sight of that haku watching them run away was going to stick with her the rest of her life.
“Give things names and you start developing feelings for them. So koushu don’t give kijuu names.” But his own voice was hoarse.
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Go ahead and rail at me for being cold and heartless.”
Shushou glared at him. “Idiot. Nobody’s saying that.” She shifted her stance to give his arm a better hold around her shoulders. “It’s inevitable, right? We had to get away and that meant sacrificing the haku. If the sun rises by the time it takes for the youma to close in, we’ll be mostly in the clear. Staying with the haku and feeling sorry for him might make us feel better, but then we’d all end up dead.”
“So you do understand.”
“Don’t treat me like a fool.”
Shushou mopped her brow with her free hand. She picked up the pace as best she could. The sooner they were too far away to hear the haku’s cries the better.
“If anybody’s a fool, it’s the koushu. Not giving a kijuu a name kind of misses the point, doesn’t it?”
Answering the dubious expression on Gankyuu’s face, Shushou glanced up at him and said, “I mean, referring to your haku as you or him is more intimate than giving him a name.”
Gankyuu stared back at the tearful child. But with his mind focused on the more important task of flight, he didn’t answer.
In any case, he couldn’t tell her she was wrong. This made the ninth kijuu he’d lost. He couldn’t forget the number or the kijuu. A glimpse of anoth
er one like them brought all those memories to the fore. There were plenty of shushi who insisted on riding the same species of kijuu, no matter what. Gankyuu never owned the same kijuu twice.
Shushou said, “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”
“What is?”
“You had to sacrifice the haku because of me. If I wasn’t here, the two of you would have made a beeline for those buildings. That’s why you wanted Rikou and me to leave the haku and go on without you, isn’t it?”
Gankyuu stared in surprise at his human walking stick.
“What wasn’t I supposed to see? I know you couldn’t go there because of me.”
Gankyuu remained mum. The truth was, he was breathing hard by now and trying to carry on a conversation was more bother than it was worth.
“If I took off, that is where you’d go, right? Do you think you could make it there on your own?”
Gankyuu stopped in his tracks. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you think you can make it there, then let’s go our separate ways.”
“Listen, you—”
Gankyuu slumped to the ground. There was a hollow beneath the ledge of stone. He rolled himself into it.
“Can you make it there? Then go ahead. I’ll raise a ruckus to draw the youma towards me while I’m waiting for Rikou to return. It’s worth a try.”
Gankyuu looked at the girl kneeling there, a strange feeling welling up inside him. “What in the world are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I should take responsibility for having to sacrifice the haku. Just to be clear, you bear some responsibility too. You could have said something, like you had a safe haven where Rikou and I weren’t welcome. I certainly would have given an explanation like that all due consideration.”
Gankyuu couldn’t help a wry grin. “All due consideration, eh?”
“You weren’t honest with us. You keep your true intention so bottled up it’s hard to tell when you’re really speaking from the heart. I still might have believed you were only putting on a brave front. Those would be your chickens coming home to roost.”
“I see.”
“But I do believe I was in the wrong to insist on staying with you. The haku had to be sacrificed as a result. You both suffered because me. So to make up for it, I’ll be the decoy while you’re making your way there. Well, that’s what I was thinking, though right now you don’t look like you could make it.”