Ghosts and Grudges

by Jasmine Walt

  I grabbed hold of the kyuubi’s spirit and slammed it into me. Fire came to my call as I sprinted forward and threw a handful of it at the nuribotoke. The blast caught it full in the face, tearing it free of Raiden and flinging it backward across the room.

  “Little help here!” Shota called, and as I swung my eyes back toward him, the nuribotoke grabbed hold of the chain with its hands and jerked on it. Shota instinctively released the weapon, and as it left his hands, the creature fell on its ass.

  “Get the shrine—that’s the source of its power!” Raiden cried, scrambling toward his dropped katana as the tengu rushed in to help Shota, leaving me a precious moment to act.

  “On it!” I yelled as the nuribotoke I’d blasted leapt to its feet like it was some kind of kung fu god.

  It snarled, spraying spittle in every direction, but before it could do much, the tengu was between us, throwing the monster backward with his powerful muscles. The other nuribotoke was in pieces on the ground, torn apart by the tengu’s powerful claws. To my horror, I saw that the pieces were slowly inching back toward each other, like some kind of zombie trying to reform.

  “I’ll hold it,” he said, and I nodded, calling upon the kyuubi’s flames. Her fire surged through my veins and coalesced in my hands as I flung it forward at the shrine.

  The fireball slammed into the wooden shrine like a nuclear blast, blowing it to pieces and charring the stone beneath it. The nuribotoke screamed in agony, staggering backward as its skin began to catch fire. The smell of burning flesh hit my nose as it fell to the ground, writhing next to the flaming pieces of his brethren, and I had to swallow back a wave of bile as my stomach heaved.

  A moment later, I felt Raiden’s hand on my shoulder. “Good job,” he said, steering me away from the burning yokai. “Now let’s get out of here.”

  “I agree,” the tengu said, loping over to us, and somehow its creepy smile seemed a little sadder than it had before. “We still have much darkness to face.”

  “Yeah, all right,” I said, nodding as I released the kyuubi back to her charm. She went without a word, and as her power left me, I felt a little bit worse. We’d barely stepped into the place and had nearly been undone by a pretty weak monster. What would happen if we found something way worse?

  Either way, I couldn’t focus on it. I had to keep moving forward.

  “Mom?” I called, walking into the room. It was completely unlit. Faint, pained moans filled the air, sending a shiver down my spine. Oh God, was she hurt? I lifted my torch to try to see better, and nearly dropped it at the sight of a badger hanging from a rope attached to the ceiling.

  “What the hell is that thing doing here?” I squeaked as Raiden and Shota came up beside me.

  “Help me!” the badger squeaked. Its back feet were tied together by the rope, and it spun in a slow circle in the center of the room. All along the walls were steel cages, with humans curled up inside them in various states of unconsciousness. The smell of old blood marred the air, and my heart twisted in sympathy. How many of them were wounded? “I’ve been stuck up here forever. You have to get me down!”

  “Ignore it,” Raiden said, edging warily toward the cages. “Badgers are tricksters. They can’t be trusted. The moment we take him down, he’s going to attack us.”

  “Okay…” I said dubiously as Raiden crouched down in front of one of the cages. He reached in to touch the forehead of the unconscious man inside.

  “These shamans have all been drained of their ki,” he growled. “That bastard Kai has been taking their power.”

  “What?” My stomach twisted in horror and disgust. I dropped to my knees in front of one of the other cages, where a woman with a blood-stained bandage wrapped around her head lay prone. Her face was deathly pale, her skin icy to the touch, and she was barely breathing. “How are they still alive?”

  “He didn’t take it all,” Shota said, circling the room so he could study the prisoners. “These shamans have all been left with just enough to stay alive. I imagine that Kai is waiting for them to regain their strength so he can take more power from them. That is why he kept them alive.”

  “That asshole.” Anger burned hot in my veins as I shot to my feet. “We have to get them out of here. Where is my mother?” I whirled around, scanning all the cages, but I didn’t see her. “Mom, are you in here?”

  “Kai must be keeping her somewhere else,” Raiden said, his voice brimming with frustration as he glanced through the other cages. “And there are no key holes on any of these cages for us to pick. I don’t know how to get them out without accidentally hurting the people inside.”

  “If you let me down, I can free them,” the badger said in a sing-song tone. We glanced up to see him swinging back and forth gaily from his rope. “I know how to get the humans out of their cages.”

  Raiden crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. Then why don’t you tell us how to do it? If it works, we’ll release you.”

  The badger shook his head. “It’s not something a human like you can do,” he scoffed. “I have to do it myself. You have to let me down.” His whiskers twitched, and he gave me the most adorable puppy dog look. “Please. My ankles are in so much pain!”

  “I can tell you’re lying,” Raiden growled, glancing from the badger to the cages and back again. “But I’m going to trust you anyway. If you fail me, I will cut out your liver and feed it to a sea dragon.”

  “He’ll do it. My friend is crazy that way,” Shota added, drawing his thumb over his throat and making a skkrt noise.

  “That’s just a myth. Sea dragons don’t eat livers,” the badger replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he hung there. “Now let me down. I’ll do a great job, you’ll see. You’ll be so impressed with my work you won’t know what to do. Greatly impressed. I’m a really great badger, you’ll see.”

  “Amazing,” Raiden muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re like a politician.”

  “I guess we need to try,” I said, glancing at Raiden. “But if he does anything silly, gut him like a fish.”

  “Works for me,” Raiden said as he lifted the dragon blade. He swung it, slicing through the rope in one smooth motion. The badger plummeted to the ground, striking the dungeon floor with a thwack. He lay there dazed for a moment before hopping to his feet and scowling.

  “Well, that was quite rude!” the badger snapped, shrugging out of the ropes and moving forward. “Still, because I have promised to help you, I won’t smite you from the face of the Earth. Instead, I will perform a great feat of magnificence the likes of which you have never seen before.” He clapped his paws together as he sauntered toward the nearest cage. “Prepare to be amazed.”

  He flicked the cage with his paw.

  Nothing happened.

  The badger tried again.

  Still, nothing happened.

  “I’m starting to think you don’t know how to open the cages,” Raiden said, taking a step forward. The badger scurried backward and threw his paws up in response.

  “You don’t understand. That should have worked.” The badger nodded furiously before hopping from foot to foot anxiously. Then he smacked himself on the head. “Oh, I know. I forgot the magic words… It was, um… orangutan? No… orange?” He shook his head.

  “Don’t tell me you forgot the magic word,” I said, unable to keep the exasperation out of my voice. It was hard to believe this was really our only hope.

  “I didn’t!” the badger cried, touching his tongue with one hand. “It’s right here, right on the tip of my tongue. I promise.”

  “Well, we don’t have all day—” Raiden started.

  “Akeru!” the badger shouted. Scintillating magic surrounded the cages, making them flare like the sun, and for a moment, I thought they were going to burst open. But after a moment, the glow faded, and the cages remained stubbornly closed, as if nothing had happened.

  “That was supposed to work!” the badger cried, wringing his paws anxiously. His big eyes dar
ted back and forth between Raiden and the tengu, and I couldn’t blame him—they both looked like they wanted to murder him.

  “It doesn’t seem like it did,” I said, shaking my head. Part of me wondered if I was going to just have to give up and try to melt the cages away. I was betting the kyuubi could do it, but I didn’t want to risk barbecuing everyone inside. Much as I hated to admit it, the badger was our best bet.

  “I think we just kill the badger and be done with it,” the tengu said, nodding furiously. “He’ll taste great in a soup.”

  “I agree—”

  “That’s it!” the badger said, cutting off Raiden. “I know the magic words.” His lips settled into a mischievous smile. “You should count yourselves lucky.”

  “Is this where you betray us?” Raiden asked, gripping his sword. “Because if it is…”

  “Look, let’s assume I betray you,” the badger said, holding his paws out in front of himself. “We’ll fight, and the pretty shaman lady”—he pointed at me—“will summon her kyuubi to burn me. That will hurt so much, I’ll beg for help in exchange for opening the cages, and you’ll agree because that’s what you want anyway. With all due respect, I’d rather just skip to the part where I help you and save all of us, but mostly me, some pain and anguish.”

  “That sounds like a great idea,” I said, before Raiden could argue. I was tired of standing around in here—we needed to free these people and get to Kai.

  “Excellent.” A cold smile flitted across the badger’s face. “I hope cold doesn’t bother you, ’cause it’s about to get downright frozen in here.”

  As the badger lifted his paws into the air, snow and sleet began to rain down from the sky and hoarfrost snaked over the cage bars. I was just about to ask him how this was supposed to help open the cages when he brought his paws down sharply. An earsplitting crack rent the air as a flurry of ice slammed into the cage bars. I shrieked as they shattered into a billion frozen fractals, instinctively flinching away as shards of glass and metal went flying.

  The badger folded his arms across his chest and smirked. “See? I just had to let it go.”

  Raiden groaned. “I thought you guys were supposed to be tricksters.”

  “Like I said, just let it go,” the badger said, shaking his head. “That was a long time ago. The past is in the past, right?”

  And with that, the creature vanished in a flurry of frozen wind, leaving the three of us standing there amidst a bunch of unconscious shamans.

  22

  With the badger gone, there was no one to stop us from taking those poor shamans out of the cages. There were about fifteen people total, and we laid them out on the floor and triaged them as best as we could.

  “It doesn’t seem like any of them have serious wounds,” Shota said. “A couple of flesh wounds here and there, and it looks like one got a hard knock on the head. The rest of them are just unconscious.”

  “So, what, do you think we should just leave them here?” I asked. “I mean, there isn’t anywhere we can really take them, but still…”

  Raiden’s eyes lit up. “Why don’t you see if your kamaitachi can heal them?”

  “Oh! I hadn’t thought of that.” I glanced down at the charm hanging from my wrist. “Do you think it can?”

  “The kamaitachi won’t be able to replenish their ki,” the tengu said. “But he should be able to heal any physical wounds.”

  Nodding, I summoned the kamaitachi. The weasel-like yokai appeared at my elbow in a flash of blue fire.

  “More healing, mistress?” he asked, his nose twitching excitedly.

  “Yes, please.” I stroked the top of his head, unable to help myself. He was just so damned cute, and if not for those scythe-like forelegs, I’d be tempted to cuddle him. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to help them all, but please try.”

  Raiden and the others stood guard at the entrance while the kamaitachi and I went around and healed each of the shamans. Many of them didn’t wake up, even after I’d flowed my ki into them, but a few groaned and stirred a little before rolling over and snoring again. My heart sank—I strongly suspected that most of them were too weak.

  But just when I was about to give up hope, one man groaned louder than the others. “W-where am I?” he asked, his voice weak. He opened bleary eyes that widened when he saw the kamaitachi licking his arm. “Hey, get away!” He flung his arm out, and the kamaitachi scurried back.

  “Be nice!” I scolded the shaman. The kamaitachi chittered angrily at him, then disappeared in another flash of light. I felt bad—I hadn’t even gotten a chance to say thank you—but I didn’t see any point in calling him back. Instead, I touched the charm and said a silent prayer of thanks, hoping the yokai would hear it.

  “He was helping you,” I said, kneeling next to the shaman. He was a middle-aged man, in his late fifties, with weathered skin and salt-and-pepper hair.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, relaxing back onto the ground. “It’s just…I was startled. Were you controlling that yokai?”

  I nodded, checking his temperature with my hand. His forehead was a little cooler than I’d have liked, but it was much improved from the icy skin I’d felt earlier when we’d first found the prisoners.

  “But how is that possible…” The old man trailed off, eyes drifting to the charms hanging from my wrist.

  My shoulders tensed. “I’m a yokai shaman. We’re here to defeat Kai.”

  The man’s eyes widened in alarm. “You must not confront him. He is too powerful. We tried to defeat him, and he…he…”

  “He drained you of your ki,” Raiden finished, coming over. He knelt by the old man’s other side and took his hand. “I know it’s dangerous, elder, but we have to do this. Aika and I have the means to stop him. “What is your name?”

  “I am Watanabe Sojiro,” he said, attempting to sit up. Raiden immediately slid his arm beneath the shaman’s back to assist him. “The shrine-maker.”

  “Thank the gods,” Shota said. “Do you think you can get the rest of our people out of here?”

  The shrine-maker’s eyes narrowed as he looked around the room. “I believe I can construct another shrine and get these shamans out, but I will need help to gather the right materials.” He pulled in a long breath. “I am much too weak to manage it on my own.”

  I nodded, then rose and went over to where the tengu was standing guard. “Tengu, stay here and assist Sojiro-san while we go ahead. I want you to help him, then guard the shrine once he’s taken everyone through.”

  “But mistress,” the tengu protested, “I want to come with you to fight Kai! He must be punished for his actions!”

  “I understand,” I said, laying a hand on the yokai’s huge forearm. “But I am worried Kai may send someone to destroy the shrine, and we will need it to escape this place. It’s very important that you stay behind and guard it.”

  The glower cleared from the tengu’s face, and he nodded. “I will guard it with my life,” he said solemnly.

  “Good.” I patted him one more time, then turned to Raiden and Shota. “Come on. We need to go.”

  We bid the shrine-maker farewell, then exited the dungeon and continued along the path. My senses were on high alert as we walked, ears and eyes straining for any sign of an approaching enemy, and I knew Raiden and Shota were doing the same. The two men had their weapons out, and I fingered my bracelet, ready to summon a yokai. But the seconds turned to minutes as we made our way forward through the darkened hallways, and even though the flickering torchlight caused shadows to dance along the walls, no monsters jumped out at us. The only sound accompanying our footsteps was the drip, drip of water from the cavern walls and the hissing of torches.

  Finally, after about fifteen minutes, the path flowed into a steep staircase. The three of us climbed to the top and found ourselves standing at the threshold of a huge room with another mural of the Kai-Haruki-Kaga-Fumiko story painted on the walls. In the center were four kofun—megalithic Japanese tombs made of rectang
ular slabs of stone and stacked on top of the deceased’s cremated remains. A tori gate and shrine, about the size of a tool shack, stood just behind the kofun—the first tomb was completely unadorned, the second one covered in flowers, and the third one broken into several pieces. A ragged crater sat on the ground beneath it, and from the look of things, it seemed like someone or something had torn its way out of it.

  “This must have been Kai’s,” I said, wandering over to it. Sure enough, a large black stone box was buried in the ground, its broken lid flung to the ground beside it. “And these other three…?”

  “Fumiko, Haruki, and Kaga,” Raiden said tightly, crouching to look at the kanji characters written in the stone. “This one is Fumiko’s,” he said, pointing to the tombstone with the flowers on it. “And this shrine…” He trailed off and stepped past the tombs toward it.

  “What is it?” I asked, hurrying beneath the tori gate with him. There was a small purification trough and a pair of lion-dogs guarding the entrance, but to my surprise, Raiden ignored them both. He ducked beneath the eaves of the shrine itself, where the statue of a female goddess sat, and knelt before her. She was cordoned off by a shimenawa, the sacred straw rope that marked holy spaces, and her pedestal was surrounded by piles of flowers and small bags of rice.

  “It’s Amaterasu,” Shota said in a hushed voice filled with awe. We knelt in front of the shrine next to Raiden. “Someone built a shrine to her here.”

  I stared up into the face of the sun goddess who had joined forces with Himiko to seal Kai away all those years ago. And an epiphany struck me. “Do you think Kai built this shrine? And that these offerings are to her?”

  Raiden frowned. “How would Kai have been able to build this while trapped in here? It’s been less than two days since he was freed. Besides, I don’t see why he’d worship the goddess who locked him away.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe he’s been praying for forgiveness from her. And maybe he got the yokai he’s been using to help him. After all, he built those dungeons somehow, didn’t he?”