Samurai Awakening Page 28
Rie was splayed on a pile of cushions, tended by Chul Soon. At the Matsumotos’ entrance, every pair of eyes snapped to them, all save Rie’s. David recognized Jahangir, Chul Moo, and Chul Soon, a fourth pair of eyes blazed from the darkest corner of the room. Seeing David, those unfamiliar orbs went mad with rage. A young male ōkami made it two steps before a bark from Jahangir stopped it cold. Yuka was slumped, a shadow next to Jahangir.
No one moved. Both sides watched the other warily, and then with a sigh, what used to be Rie stood. The being looked as if it might have once been David’s friend, except now its skin was nearly translucent. Black shining orbs had replaced Rie’s soft brown eyes, the once easy going and friendly face had become a mask of boredom and cruelty. The lips were bloody and broken, the fingers curved into long claws. When it spoke, its voice was otherworldly and sharp, a harsh edge that was only barely reminiscent of Rie’s.
“Oh look, my family has come to play with me! I was so bored. And they even brought dinner. Boys, Natsuki is all yours, but leave Takumi and David to me, we can use them. Kill the old man… just as you killed his father.”
With her last word, the yūrei rose off the ground, her hands rising away from her sides in an evil imitation of a Seikaku summoning.
“Stop her!” Masao shouted, springing forward.
Without hesitation, David lunged, changing into Kou on the way. The hallway was too long, David still too slow for anything less than Kou’s speed. Jahangir left Yuka limp on the ground. Growling, all but one ōkami ran forward.
Kou easily outstripped Masao, leaving the other three behind. Side slipping Jahangir and Chul Moo, Kou continued straight for Rie. He used the crazed little ōkami as a springboard going airborne towards the yūrei.
The black and white wolf smashed into Kou’s side midair, sending them both flying in a tumble of claws and fur. Rolling, they separated with Kou on the far side of the raised platform, Chul Soon between him and Rie. Kou circled, trying to get to her.
Masao ran toward Jahangir while Takumi veered towards Chul Moo. Natsuki’s new sword clanged against the young ōkami’s gauntlets. Only Chul Soon was in his wolf form, the others were in loose clothing and their familiar gauntlets. As Chul Moo and Jahangir approached, they pulled pairs of short swords from sheaths at their backs to complement their gauntlets. The black blades were barely visible in the darkness between the entrance and the platform.
On the platform, Chul Soon and Kou growled and bit at each other. Before the yūrei, a dark swirling pit began to form. At first, smaller than a pinprick, the dark abyss began to stretch out and grow, its edge ringed in fire. Kou’s fur bristled in frustration, as he was unable to slide past Chul Soon.
“All those days I sat with you in class. Playing games and confiding in you like you were my friend. I should have ripped out your throat right there,” David’s voice growled out of Kou as they attempted to find a way to Rie.
“Yes, you probably should have,” Chul Soon said in his familiar voice. “It was very amusing sitting there, having complete control over Rie without you even knowing. You spent so much time focused on Chul Moo and that fool Koji, you never suspected me! To think my brother was actually trying to help her escape.”
Despite keeping so much of his attention on his foe, David and Kou’s training allowed them to keep a nearly unconscious record of the rest of the basement. With Kou’s extra senses, it was as if they could watch what the others were doing, even as they exerted all of their energy in attempting to get past Chul Soon. At the other end of the basement, Masao and Jahangir met with a clash of steel.
“Your blade won’t harm me,” Jahangir said, his tone light as his blades connected with Masao’s single curve of steel. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that a fully grown ōkami is nearly indestructible? That’s the mistake the old man made.”
Masao twirled, cutting off Jahangir’s taunts with a swipe of his katana across Jahangir’s arm. The sound was like metal against concrete. Jahangir held aloft his uninjured arm and smiled. To their side, Natsuki sent a flurry of blows at the young ōkami. Masao drew back his sword then drove it forward. He struck Jahangir in the side, sending him flying back ten feet.
“You’ll have to do better than that, you didn’t even bruise me,” Jahangir said, laughing as he stood. “Let me show you our new toys. Rie made them, you know.” Jahangir attacked with his sweeping short swords.
“You and your boyfriend are going to pay for what you did to Atash,” shouted the young ōkami to Natsuki. “We’ve been together almost twenty years. I didn’t survive the old deserts to have her taken away by a few brats.”
The crazed ōkami punctuated each sentence with a blow from one of his metal claws. Calm and collected, Natsuki was able to parry each strike, becoming comfortable with his fighting style.
“Twenty years? You can’t be over ten,” Natsuki said laughing, attempting to make the ōkami angry enough to make a mistake.
“With ōkami, nothing is as it seems.” Howling, the young ōkami strengthened his attack.
On the other side of Masao, Takumi fought with Chul Moo, both duelists skilled and fit. The two former classmates created a cloud of dust with the quickness of their blows. Neither spoke a word. Although Takumi’s skill was slightly better, Chul Moo’s skin protected him from the majority of strikes Takumi was able to make.
While the fights continued in the darkness, ferocious in their own right, the growling spitting slamming mayhem on the platform was the most violent in the basement. Kou did everything he could think of to get past Chul Soon, but it all came for naught. Although slightly smaller than his brother, Chul Soon was far more quick minded and crafty. Kou was also at a disadvantage size wise, though he did have the armor to protect him. All the while, the void grew below the yūrei.
A sudden howl was quickly silenced as Natsuki dragged her blade up through the unknown ōkami. Distracted when Masao finally succeeded in drawing blood from Jahangir, Natsuki was able to drive her point through the ōkami’s chest. Slicing upward Natsuki soon had the ōkami in sections, which she kicked aside to keep them from reforming before David could change him to a statue. Turning she ran to join with Masao, barely able to keep the suddenly enraged Jahangir at bay.
Chul Soon cocked his head at Kou after they disengaged from their most recent tumble.
“It’s too bad you know? I wanted Natsuki too, but only Rie came running in her little fit of jealousy.” Chul Soon’s wolven lips curved into a vicious smile, his long white fangs glimmering in the low light. “I should thank you for that. You let enough slip about her in our conversations that it made it almost child’s play for me to control her completely. Her one night of weakness, all for a stupid little gaijin. Her soul was delicious.”
Under David’s power, Kou lashed out with a clawed paw in a forward punch fit more for a boxing match rather than struggle to the death. The punch connected, hitting Chul Soon in the snout, sending him clawing at his own nose in discomfort. Kou used the chance to flip back on his recoil. Halfway through the flip David changed midair. Landing, his armor rustled slightly as David summoned his Seikaku.
“No more games,” David said, his hands gripping the handle of the Seikaku more tightly. “This ends now. You end now.”
David and Chul Soon leapt forward at the same instant. David as a Jitsugen Samurai, Chul Soon as a monstrous wolf, they attacked each other with a single minded, deadly intent. David raised his Seikaku high, ready to bring everything he had down onto the snarling ōkami before him.
‘Just knock him out of the way long enough to get to Rie!’ Kou thought, trying to break through David’s single-minded desire to kill Chul Soon. Brought on by the sense of betrayal, and his own inability to see him for what he was when it could have mattered, David was acutely focused on Chul Soon’s destruction.
Millimeters apart, David and Chul Soon were both blown apart like leaves in the wind as an explosion rocked through the basement.
Devil’s Doorway
Even with two minds, we were blank in that instant. Flying across the room, despair almost became a coherent thought before the wall drove out it…
‘David… David get up.’
David slowly opened his eyes. He groaned from the pain coursing through his body. Impacting the basement wall and and landing on something hard and jagged was not a fun experience. His Seikaku gone, David looked around, dazed. The pile of bones he had ended up in sent shivers down his spine. Remembering where he was as the dust settled around him, David jumped up. He re-summoned his Seikaku, seeking Chul Soon and trying to avoid thinking about who he had been laying on. The ōkami laid unconscious, blood seeping from a pile of rubble on top of him.
‘Leave him for later, we have bigger problems.’
David looked over to where the yūrei had stood before a ring of fire only moments earlier. Rie lay slumped on the raised platform. With the hideous orbs covered by her hair, she seemed almost peaceful. The portal was gone, in its place stood a red bodied, ferocious looking horned demon. David almost laughed at the sight of it.
‘It’s so small. It might make it up to my waist at best.’
‘Don’t underestimate it. It’s pure evil. Stupid, especially without Rie awake to control it, and weak since the yūrei is still weak, but still extremely dangerous.’
The oni looked around curiously, a gleam in its eyes as it took in the destruction around it and the fights still going at the other end of the basement.
“David! Use the elemental form… It’s small and confused, kill it quickly,” Masao yelled, glancing away from his own fight to check on David.
Takumi yelled, receiving a slashed arm from one of Chul Moo’s gauntlets. While he tried to recover, Chul Moo took the chance to push Takumi away from the others, further into the darkness.
“Natsuki, go help Takumi, I’ll take care of the mongrel.” Masao threw a side-glance at Natsuki, battling against Jahangir next to him.
With a quick, uncertain glance, Natsuki obeyed, leaving Masao to fend for himself. Masao smiled, changing his stance and grip on his sword, displaying a technique of which none of the other Matsumotos was aware.
On the platform, David approached the oni with his Seikaku at the ready. Catching a gleam off the blade, the oni turned to face him, a confused look crossing its sharp face. The Seikaku seemed to focus the oni, it small eyes narrowed. Roaring, a flaming sword suddenly erupted in its bright red hand. Running forward, David changed his sword to its elemental form, a growl erupting from his throat to match the oni’s roar. Wood and fire met in a furious clash of sound and light as the oni and David collided.
Distracted by David and the oni, Natsuki missed the incoming blow. Chul Moo caught her in the temple with a hilt, knocking her to the ground. His killing blow was stopped inches from Natsuki’s neck by Takumi’s blade. He had thrown himself forward to protect Natsuki. Catching the blade left him exposed and Chul Moo took full advantage of it. Taking his other short sword, Chul Moo raked it along Takumi’s back. With a look of horror, pain, and fear, Takumi fell.
In the middle of the room, Jahangir’s rage at the loss of the young ōkami was far from abated. Still raining furious blows that would have killed Masao if he had not switched techniques, Jahangir snarled and spat, trying to make a blow connect. In return, Masao was a twirling torrent of steel, his features blurring, his blade flashing around him too fast to see. With deadly determination, Masao began to drive Jahangir back, moving towards the oni in case David needed help.
On the platform, David threw his own heavy blows at the oni using his height and reach as much as possible. The oni, like something from an old cartoon, roared and raged at David. Every time his Seikaku connected with the oni’s sword, David felt as if someone had dropped a ball of molten lead in his chest. He staggered from the pain, but determined to end the contest quickly fought through it. Passing an old wooden crate David halted his attack, plunging his wooden Seikaku in to the wood. The box exploded in a directed shower of splinters, driving themselves into the oni. As the wooden splinters connected with the demon’s scaly hide, they lit aflame, sending the oni running in circles screaming in pain and outrage. David drove forward, his Seikaku held high for the killing blow.
Takumi, covered in darkness and in mortal peril, disappeared in a puff of smoke and flame. In his place, a small grey haired baby bird tried to flap its wings. Wildly trying to escape, the baby Phoenix was hampered by its injury. Chul Moo, howling in triumph swung with both blades. From his side, Natsuki loomed up, slicing completely through one, and halfway through the other of Chul Moo’s arms with the force of her blow.
Chul Moo stared first at his missing arm as his swords clattered to the ground around the flapping bird, then to Natsuki. Their eyes met and Natsuki almost hesitated, as if remembering she had once wanted to be held by the very arm she had just severed. With a tear Natsuki pivoted, her blade slicing up, then severing him across his chest.
At the same instant, David’s Seikaku cleaved a straight line through the center of the oni. Jumping back, David watched as the oni’s sword extinguished. The oni looked stupidly at its empty hand. Suddenly, the Devil’s Doorway, the portal of dark abyss and fire reappeared beneath it. With a great rush of wind, the oni was drawn back into the pit, leaving a sudden stillness and silence broken only by Takumi’s flapping wings and Masao’s flying steel.
Looking back from the platform, David watched as Masao seemed to grow in power and size, his features hazy in the dark distance. Jahangir’s body betrayed his fear as Masao moved his sword faster and faster. With a crash like glass, Masao thrust his sword forward, where, just as the old crate had exploded in splinters, Masao’s sword, the best of the Matsumotos’ craftsmanship, splintered into a million gleaming bits of metal. Jahangir fell, the tip of the once proud sword protruding from the back of his neck.
With all the ōkami disabled, Natsuki reached down to pick up the bird. Still fluttering around with premature wings, its back injured from Chul Moo’s attack it squawked weakly in panic. Pulling the bird into her arms, Natsuki suddenly stood erect, a surge flying through her. David’s head snapped around to her as he felt for the first time, as if it were a real and physical rope, his connection to her. Instantly the rope tightened and snapped.
“David, hurry…” Masao called. The first to recover his wits in the aftermath of the fighting, the ragged looking elder Matsumoto managed only short gasps. “Take care of the ōkami… We need to grab Rie and get her back to the Estate… before she can wake.”
Staggering from the force of the emotional blow, David moved forward, plunging his wooden Seikaku into each of the ōkami he could find. By the time he got to the young ōkami, it had nearly reformed. His Seikaku drew the last piece in as it turned the ōkami into a statue. In under a minute, David had statues of Chul Moo, Jahangir, and the young ōkami piled in the center of the warehouse.
“Where is Chul Soon?” Kou asked, unable to find him. After another look around the basement, Masao met David near the pile of statues.
“David, quickly bind the yūrei, we need to get her back to the shrine if we are going to save her. Natsuki, get Takumi out of here. I will dispose of the ōkami.”
David moved forward, binding Rie as Masao began adding small bricks and canisters from a bag to the statues. Carrying Rie, David followed Natsuki up the stairs. Masao followed close behind with Yuka. She was unconscious and limp in his arms. Just after Masao cleared the exit, an inferno exploded from the uncovered hole. Yukiko, alerted by a call from Natsuki, brought the van around to the loading dock. Masao and David deposited their loads before David ran back for Yuuto. They left as flickers of flame reached the first floor, Masao already calling the fire department via a disposable phone.
Back at the Matsumoto Estate, the van raced through a small forest road to the Matsumoto Shrine. During the ride, Masao had bound Yuka, covering her eyes in case she woke. Though she seemed frail, the Matsumotos could not risk letting her
go to the hospital until the yūrei was destroyed.
At the Matsumoto shrine, David placed the yūrei gently on the altar. To the side, Natsuki and Takumi, the latter wrapped in a blanket and healing quickly spoke in quick, hushed voices as Masao finished the preparations for the ceremony. Donning the ceremonial garb of Shinto priests, both David and Masao stood before the shrine.
With all prepared, a midnight bell tolled from Nakano as Masao began to chant. Similar to the summoning chants David had heard before, the chant awakened Kou within him. David could feel Kou take notice and caught Takumi jerk in surprise from the corner of his eye. Masao’s voice was deeper than Grandpa’s had been, more musical than the harsh edge Jahangir had used. Then as if Grandpa’s voice had joined him, the chant held a second haunting harmony that seemed to come from Masao, yet could not have. David noticed that, as with the fight in the basement, Masao’s features seemed to blur.
Noting a slight nod from Masao, David closed his eyes, concentrating, his arms subconsciously rising from his sides as he summoned the Seikaku. Catching it with his practiced hand, David changed it to its wood form and stood ready for his part in the ceremony. Masao’s brow furrowed in concentration, sweat glistening along his forehead. Suddenly rising, Masao’s voice and the strange harmony sped up, driving forward with insistent force.
The yūrei awoke violently, thrashing yet locked in place by invisible bonds. David raised his sword above his head, ready to strike. As he watched Rie seemed to blur, two images of her, flashing between her old self and the corrupted yūrei she had become. With two images before him, David had to choose. He held her life in his hands.