Samurai Awakening Page 29

  “I… I can’t do it.” David stared into the eyes before him, now dark brown, now evil pits of murder and despair. “I’d rather let this evil walk the land than accidentally destroy you Rie.”

  David lowered his arm, his eyes never leaving her face. Masao nearly faltered in his chant, his voice breaking, the harmony stuttering. Beside him, Natsuki and Takumi raged words that never met his ears.

  Returns

  October,

  Even being in the same body, I was so surprised I nearly took over and transformed. Though we had talked at length about what to do, we were still too separate, our ideas still too alien for me to comprehend…

  The Seikaku’s tip fell below David’s waist. Then he struck. As he drove the wooden Seikaku into the yūrei, the night was rent with the yūrei’s piercing scream followed close behind by an explosion of energy that obliterated the Matsumoto shrine. The closest, David was tossed back into the clearing, leaving only the crumbling foundation of the shrine in his place.

  David opened his eyes warily, prompted awake by Kou’s urgent pressing. As his eyes cleared, David muttered to himself.

  “I’m waking up like this far too often.”

  Kou’s chuckle did nothing to temper the pain in his back. Looking around, he saw Masao, Takumi, and Natsuki all getting up. Rie lay in the rubble of what had been the shrine. David clawed himself to his knees, and then staggered, trying to make his way to Rie.

  ‘Careful, I think you broke… a lot.’

  David ignored the pain that seemed to come from his entire body. Oddly, as things began to heal at their faster than normal pace, some parts hurt more than they had only moments before. He could almost envision his twisted nerves and muscles knitting themselves back together.

  Although every step was an agony, David made it to what had been the stone steps leading up to the shrine. Pulling himself up, he was just able to catch a glance of Rie’s face. Her skin once again whole and real, the dark orbs covered by long lashed lids. She was calm and almost too serene. A deep fear materialized in his mind before Kou pointed out the soft thump of blood through her veins and the gentle pull of her lungs. Then as if the relief broke a dam within him, pain shot through his body, and David slid back down the steps.

  It took hours. Unlike his previous experiences, he was conscious through the entire healing process. Unable to speak, think, or hear even Kou through the pain he was only dimly aware that Masao had carried him to the main house and laid him in his own bed. It was nearly as excruciating as the bare memories of his first death, every second worse than the previous.

  When he was finally able to move, he rose, stretching gingerly. A few tendrils of pain lanced through his body, but he was whole enough. David made his way through the house and found the Matsumotos sitting around the table, just starting breakfast.

  “It never fails… you are always up in time for food,”Yukiko said. She smiled broadly and set a place for him. Takumi had a gleam in his eye, and Masao, though he looked exhausted overflowed with a buoyant energy.

  “Well?” growled Kou before David could sit. “How is she?”

  “We… you… did it.” Masao smiled widely, gesturing to a nearby seat. “Rie is alive and the yūrei is gone. We have not been able to talk to her yet, but whatever you were thinking at the shrine, it was the right thing. She is sleeping in her room. Her injuries, while not physical, may take more time to heal than yours, even if yours had healed naturally, which is saying something.”

  “You should have seen yourself after the explosion,” Takumi said around a mouthful of rice. “You had rock shards riddling your body, I think your leg and arm were broken though you walked on it, and your back had a gash nearly the size of Kou taken out when you landed on a rock in the clearing.”

  “I do not know how you made it back to the shrine before you fell back. I assume your injuries are mostly healed now?” Masao asked.

  “Yeah, I think so. My back is a bit stiff. I didn’t realize… I just had to make sure I got the right one.” David’s eyes glazed as he drifted back over the events in his mind.

  Although Rie finally came around later in the day, every time she tried to talk she burst into tears. It was worse when David came to see her. One glimpse of him sent her into near hysteria, so that David stayed as far away from her as he could. Kou’s new freedom made it far easier. During the fight at the warehouse, Natsuki bonded with Takumi’s Kami. Their long history and feelings for each other were so much stronger than Kou and Natsuki’s that the old bond had broken.

  David and Kou were on their own, and while free to change at will, they could not but help feel a twinge of regret at the loss. In the last instant before the bond was broken, David had been able to glimpse just how important it could be. With Rie unable to be in the same room as David, they found solace among the forests and mountains as Kou.

  David spent the day off from school on Monday in the mountains, returning to the Estate on Tuesday. At school, the students were awash with the rumors and news of the big fire in town. The rumors only spread further in the coming weeks when fire investigators discovered DNA from Enya and his father. Since the fire was so intense, few remains were left. The firefighters were also baffled when they found a wooden wolf statue completely unharmed by the fire, yet missing a piece as if someone had cut a part of a paw away.

  Naoto was sure it was arson, Shou an accident. Yuka and Yuuto returned to school with only a shaky memory of their time as thralls. Both rejoined their respective teams, and even started dating.

  It was the third night after David destroyed the yūrei that Rie found him, coming back from the outer forests among the trees at night as Kou. She stood waiting, and although Kou was aware of her far before she could have seen him, he approached slowly. Finally seeing him slink out of the shadows of a tree, Rie shuddered then took a hesitant step forward. Kou and Rie walked together through the forests of the Matsumoto Estate, Rie’s hand absently running through Kou’s fur where it stuck out of his armor. They walked without speaking, Kou letting her think in peace.

  ‘At least she’s not crying right?’

  Turning past an especially large tree, the largest in the Matsumoto forest, Rie turned on Kou.

  “What did you mean you’d let a yūrei run amok in Japan just to save me?” Rie yelled. Her voice was surprisingly strong with a new edge. “Are you insane? What kind of Jitsugen Samurai are you?”

  David was so surprised that Kou’s mouth hung open in shock as his body reacted without David’s explicit instructions.

  “So you remember that do you?” Kou chuckled as he recovered from being over ridden by David’s emotions. His growling laugh echoed off the trees. “David needed a way to find out if you were still in there. It was not until he saw your tear at his words that he could strike down the yūrei. It took all our concentration to ensure you would not be banished along with the spirit.”

  Rie’s strength left her then, and she shrank, sitting against the tree. Kou sat with her waiting, until finally the words flowed out of her, the dam of silence exploding with nearly as much force as the destruction of the corrupted Kami that had held her.

  “It was terrible, far beyond my worst nightmares, worse than I thought possible. I remember everything.” Rie stared into the forest, her eyes lost in the past.

  “I ran into Chul Moo almost immediately after I left that night… I had run into the mountains, almost right to their new lair. I wasn’t thinking, I was just so angry that Natsuki had… well Chul Moo had always been so nice, he always listened even though everyone else thought he was strange. I poured out all my frustrations, and then I started getting really tired. Chul Moo noticed, he realized he was already feeding off my soul, and tried to stop but right before I passed out, I remember Chul Soon’s voice say, ‘Nice catch brother,’ and then I was gone. I woke up in the cave. It felt like the ōkami were literally eating my memories. I was still there, aware, yet I wasn’t there either. It was the most horrible…”


  Kou peered up at Rie’s face, her eyes turned towards him but instead of looking at him, her eyes still bored into the darkness of her memories.

  “All those months, I felt myself get weaker and weaker. Every time David came, I wanted to scream out for help. I saw the suspicion in his eyes, but I couldn’t do anything. It killed me, yet what would I have done if Takumi and I had been in opposite positions? The ōkami had me completely, but since I was so useful, they decided to snack on Misaki and use me to make their weapons and learn more about you.

  “I wanted you to run, to leave me, yet there you were always willing to help. When you came, I almost broke through. Chul Soon kept a very close eye on me from then on.” Rie sagged again, her face dropping into her hands. Her words seeping out, almost against her will.

  “Chul Moo was going to let me go that first night, if it hadn’t been for his brother… He kept worrying about me, keeping an eye on me. I guess he had feelings for me. He even refused to feed from me.”

  Rie’s voice faded out and she sat quietly for a long time. Kou watched the trees around him, the life that he never would have noticed months before scurrying around the trees.

  “Then they made me a yūrei. That was the single most painful thing I’ve ever felt in my life. It was as if my eyes had been ripped out and dirty oil had been poured in their place. I could feel it seep through my body taking control, warping my thoughts, dragging out my memories, and trying to seduce me with power. Every emotion I had ever felt was intensified. The scariest thing was when I began to agree with the yūrei’s decisions.” Rie finally looked up again, the fear she had felt etched in every facet of her face. “I couldn’t remember why I shouldn’t agree with it.

  “And then I felt like I was myself again, only powerful. I had complete control over the ōkami and I wanted that control. I made them pay a thousand fold for the time they had spent feeding on my soul. Enya and his father were an accident. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I was weak, and we took them both. I was able to leave the snack pack. By then I had enough control that the ōkami did what I wanted. I think I convinced the yūrei part of me that I was gloating, letting Takumi know I had been there. I wanted to destroy you and everyone else, make you quake at the sight of me. I would have, too. The Kami didn’t have enough time, was still too unfamiliar with my body, and hadn’t merged completely with my mind. It was so strange to be annoyed at my own body for being so confusing.”

  Rie finally turned and looked at Kou, sitting next to her in the darkness.

  “I couldn’t bear to face David, to face you, having felt like I wanted to kill you, having summoned an oni to do it. You never gave up on me, but I betrayed you, I was ready to kill you. And then, looking into your eyes, I wanted nothing but for you to kill us both, but you said… you.”

  Finally drained of words, Rie buried herself in her arms. David changed, his rough armor the only barrier between them as she leaned into him, taking comfort in his arms.

  “After seeing the pain in your face the first night we changed, I promised myself I’d never be the cause of that pain again,” David said gently. “I broke that promise because we had to be sure before I struck. Without you, it was like a hole had opened and swallowed a part of them. You’re back now, only Grandpa is missing. Everything will be all right. You’ll see.”

  Recovery

  October,

  Free to run, free to stalk the Nakano valley, yet still, there was that oh so foreign, bitter taste, of regret…

  Within days of their talk, David began to overhear Rie asking Masao and Yukiko to let her return to practice. While concerned for her health and mind, she was so insistent that they finally relented at the end of the week. David made a point of cutting his morning run short to ensure he made it back to the house before Natsuki showed. The two girls had yet to see each other since the night at the warehouse, and David was worried. Rie made it back first. Aside from a permanent discoloration of her eyes that she had to hide with contacts, Rie was physically just as fit as she had been before Kou first appeared. The corrupted Kami had healed whatever damage was done by the ōkami feeding off her.

  David suspected that part of her desire to return to practice was to get her mind off the memories. She had watched one of her best friends die at the hands of the same monsters that had held her. She had been there when Enya and his father had been devoured.

  Rie entered the dojo gasping. She had pushed herself, as if trying to out run the demons that still plagued her. She went to him with a surprised smile after toweling off. If she noticed his eyes constantly flick to the door as they talked, she showed no sign. When she came back from changing, Natsuki was there in the doorway, fresh from her own run. David tensed as the girls stood on opposite sides of the room staring at each other with blank but wary faces. Then Natsuki gave the barest tilt of her head, and the smallest flick of her eyes. Without a word, the two girls left the dojo and disappeared into the depths of the Estate.

  Natsuki became a surprise pillar in Rie’s life. The girls were able to put aside their old squabbles and pick up their friendship, stronger for having lived on the opposite side of such strange events. David caught the two ex-friends ex-enemies, talking late into the night. Natsuki filled Rie in on all the things Takumi and David did not think to tell her. Yukiko often sat with them late into the evenings.

  Despite the end of her Partnership with David and Kou, Natsuki was still as much a part of the secret happenings on the estate as ever before. Although not a Jitsugen Samurai, and thus unable to speak directly to his Phoenix Kami, Takumi had bonded with Natsuki in the ōkami’s lair. The baby bird occasionally fluttered around the Matsumoto Estate when Takumi surrendered to its will. Unfortunately, it never stayed to talk. The little bird seemed just as paranoid of the ground as Takumi had felt, and would fly away at the first chance it got.

  At her insistence, Rie returned to school the next week, causing a stir among the gossip hounds. Though her story about how cold it was in Hokkaido seemed to explain away her return, many students were still confused over her departure. Although it took time, she was able to reintegrate with her old friends, much as Natsuki had done earlier in the year.

  At morning practice, in class, and even with training at night, Rie threw herself at every problem with new determination. Where she had been competing with Takumi before David had ever come, it now seemed as if she battled the dark memories within her. They drove her, and it was the odd person out that did not notice the change in her.

  In November, David finally got a chance to compete with the badminton team. As with everything else, Rie practiced with a ferocity that surprised the rest of the team. The team watched ecstatically as she scored third at the Himeji competition. David and Takumi also took spots in the top eight, much to David’s surprise.

  “You really are getting better,” Takumi said after David received his certificate. “By next year you will be giving me a run for first.”

  “It’s just so much easier to move than it was before,” David said. “I can put myself where I want rather than flailing around the court and hoping I hit something.”

  “I don’t know,” Naoto said coming up from behind him. “I think there was definitely some flailing.”

  “You’re just mad he beat you,” Shou added, laughing.

  As usual, David shot an email off to Jessica about the competition. As usual, she sent standard congratulations. She no longer bothered asking questions, since David could so rarely answer her truthfully. Surprisingly, she did not even go into a long bit about her latest school gossip or her newest friend.

  ‘Maybe you should look into having her visit. I’m sure the Matsumotos-’

  ‘She’s too inquisitive, she wouldn’t stop until she found out what was really up here. To invite her would be to welcome her into the Matsumotos’ secrets. It’s better for her to be off in her own world with my Dad, than bring her into all of this with no protection.’

  Rie won over t
he last holdouts from their friends when she won the one hundred meter dash for their class at the yearly school sports festival. Despite their smaller size, Class 2B won more races than any other class. Their morning runs also got all four a place on the relay marathon team, giving them all a trip to Himeji and then Kobe for the regional competitions.

  David and Kou prowled the valley and surrounding mountains around Nakano late into the early mornings. They slept at most an hour or two a night, sometimes as a tiger, sometimes as a human. Although they enjoyed themselves immensely, it was not without regret. David had seen what a Partner could be. An extension of one’s self, another person who could grow to know you nearly as closely as David was learning to know Kou.

  ‘There is still so much to learn though,’ David thought as their tail swung beneath the tree branch.’

  ‘We have a lifetime to learn,’

  ‘You might have a lifetime, but Koji is still going to try and kill me.’

  If other students had been happy about David’s successes, David’s growing popularity seemed to only annoy his greatest rival at school. Although he had helped defeat two ōkami packs, ghosts, and saved Rie, at school he could not use any of his training or powers. If Koji came for him, he would have little but his own wits and Kou’s advice to help him.

  ‘And no, I can’t ambush him from a tree,’ David thought as the all too satisfying image played through his mind at the tiger’s bidding.

  Weeks later, Rie sat under the same tree where David had held her while her grief and pain ebbed away. She was the first to every practice, and although darkness occasionally clouded her soft features, she was happy. She had also taken it upon herself to deal with the Koji issue. Slowly, she had begun working on his friends, removing his support system so as to remove the greatest of his strength in an attempt to make it all the more unlikely he would be able to bother David again.