City of Demons, page 23
part #2 of The Unseen Series
Fannie said, "Thanks?"
A second Chrome jumped on the Onibi and drove its teeth into the demon’s neck. The two fell onto the first demon's still-warm body.
"He looks busy," Danny said, discretely pulling her away.
They exited the lobby to the snow-blown street. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, but the feeling was temporary at best.
Shade, the leader of the Chromes, stood in their way.
"Not leaving yet, are you?" he asked them.
Danny looked at Fannie, then at Shade. "Yes?"
The Chrome shook his head. "No," he grinned.
***
Staying out of his wide reach, Karen jabbed at Ibaraki again and again. She was hoping to find a weak point in his armored skin, a place where the blade could pierce his body. But each time it bounced off him, doing little more than her hourglass necklace had the first time they met.
Trying for another weak point, she got in too close. Ibaraki grabbed her by the hand, blade and all, and pulled her off her feet. Karen rolled along the hallway floor, sword in hand, squeaking to a stop some fifteen feet later- dizzy, but otherwise alright.
The Killing Stone. It was only a few feet away, resting against the wall where it had landed. She looked to Ibaraki. The Oni bore down on her, footsteps thundering. He looked like he planned to stomp her spine under his shoe like a used cigarette.
Karen stretched, reaching out with her family sword to touch the ancient stone.
Finally, they met.
Karen felt a charge in the air as the stone reacted to the sword’s metal. Voices moved through her bones. Ibaraki, realizing too late what was happening, ran faster, eager to pull her away from the already joining weapons.
The Killing Stone turned to crystalline growth. It climbed the sword, searched it, filling in the spaces between its atoms. The yellow accents darkened and turned to deep red. Just as Messenger said it would, the Killing Stone found its shape in the memories of the blade.
Ibaraki grabbed for Karen's foot, to lift her off the ground the way he had before. But this time, she turned to face him.
With one swift, downward swipe of her new weapon, she cut off Ibaraki's arm cleanly below the elbow.
The Oni stumbled back. He felt for the place where his arm should have been, but his thick fingers found a bloodless stump. He stared at his remaining hand, cold wind blowing at his back from the hole in the shutters. He hadn’t known until that moment that the blood in his old veins dried up long ago.
Karen used the Oni's distracted state to her advantage while it lasted. She got a running start, spun and kicked the demon directly in the sternum, sending him tumbling out the hole in the shutters.
Ibaraki fell into the night, a silent scream on his red lips.
***
"Cassie was right," Shade said with a sick smile. "The waiting does make the hunt sweeter." He walked toward Danny and Fannie, savoring the moment.
"Imagine how sweet it would be if you waited, like, ten more years," Danny said.
Shade laughed. It was a sinister sound. "I think I've waited long enough. It's just too bad Cassie's not here to s-"
Ibaraki hit the street like a meteor, crushing Shade in an instant. Danny and Fannie were thrown backwards, the impact so strong it drilled a ten-foot deep crater into the street and popped the eardrums of everyone nearby.
When the dust and snow settled, all that was left of Ibaraki and Shade was a black hole in a snow-white street.
Danny stood and brushed himself off. He stuck a finger in his ear and shook it until he could hear again. "That was my plan the whole time," he said to Fannie.
"Sure," she laughed.
The few remaining Chromes scattered. Without their leader they had no drive, no direction. They left messy footprints in the snow behind them.
"Where'd that girl go?" Fannie asked, not ready to relax just yet.
"Hopefully," Danny replied, "back to Hell."
-19-
Kasumi peeked her head out the apartment door. After the alarm sounded most of the guards had gone off, their shoes trampling a path to the elevators. At first the two stationed outside the apartment had stayed at their post, but at some point they left to join the fight. Whatever Karen had brought with her must have caused some serious problems for Yori and his men.
The thought made Kasumi happy.
She left the cold apartment behind for the empty hallway, then took the stairs. She headed up, toward the commotion that had ended just a minute earlier, which she was sure must have been Karen fighting the horrible beast that was Ibaraki. With all her heart she hoped Karen was the victor, but she also knew how old and dangerous Ibaraki was. Oni did not make for easy enemies.
Before she was even aware of another presence in the stairwell, she came face-to-face with a figure heading the other way. She let out a panicked cry as the dark figure reached out for her face.
"Shh," Karen quieted her. "It's alright."
Kasumi covered her mouth. "I’m so grateful to see you alive."
"The night's not over yet." Karen sheathed her katana, a dangerous-looking weapon with blood red accents, the likes of which Kasumi had never seen.
"Miku. She will be in the ritual room, on the-"
"Twelfth floor. I know. Where were you going?"
"I heard noises. I thought the Oni was attacking you."
Karen bent down and tightened the laces on her boots. "He was."
"What happened?" Kasumi asked.
Karen stood up. "I showed him the quickest way to the ground floor." Kasumi let a small smile through. "Why didn't you head for Miku?"
Kasumi’s face fell. "I'm not strong like you are. You are her best hope." She thought of how much she had failed to protect her daughter. Karen grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her from it.
"Hey. It's a good idea. Go to the armory and wait for us. If I can’t stop the ritual, I’ll try to lure her there."
"For what?"
Karen said nothing.
The woman's hands came up. "No. No, we can't do that to Miku."
Karen shook her head. "Not Miku. Tamamo. If one is here, the other is gone."
"No…"
Karen gently pushed the woman's hands down. "I swear to you I'll do everything in my power to stop that from happening. But if I can't, if it’s too much for her to handle…" Karen caught herself from acting too emotional in front of the woman. "I won't let Tamamo walk the Earth in Miku's body."
Kasumi nodded, tears pooling in her eyes.
"Now go. We can't waste any more time."
Kasumi wiped her face and resumed her climb up the stairs, toward the armory. Karen checked the sword at her side. Then she took a deep breath and continued her mission.
***
The ritual room was quiet. The door, locked.
Karen drew her new sword and cut the door between the handle and the frame, severing the locking mechanism. With one blow she kicked the door in and prepared for the worst- a roomful of demons with a thirst for death, and at the center Tamamo giving the orders to quench it.
The reality was a nearly empty room, where ghostly silence floated on the air. The throne sat at an odd angle halfway across the room with Miku tied into it. The small girl was unconscious in a bright ceremonial dress. Beside her, the bronze bell sat unattended. Still, Karen entered the room with caution, expecting an ambush in every corner, through every window, from every painting.
She approached Miku, stopping short of arm's length. "Miku," she said. "Wake up."
Miku didn't stir. Karen called her name again, this time louder. The third time, she reached out and touched the girl's bare wrist.
The only warning she got was the sensation of static moving up her arm. Faint electricity that crept up into the back of her neck.
A wave of energy surged from Miku's body. The straps holding her were first to go, tearing like paper from the chair. There was no time to move, to react, and Karen took the full force of the wave head-on.
She was thrown across the room in a slow, twisting tumble through not just that place but somewhere else. Kaleidoscope visions of a realm where hunched creatures licked the dirt. Where dark waters crawled with scaly-skinned children. Where blue-haired spectres beckoned from black fields. She saw temples built to honor dead gods, with legions of demons praying at altars of fire. Waiting for their chance to pass through to the other side.
The pain of impact broke Karen free of the visions. She smashed into the wall, then the floor, feeling her shoulder and knee dislocate. Her skin had gone frigid. When she pulled her hand from the floor, it left a ghost of condensation behind.
Free of her bonds, Miku stood from the chair. Her eyes burned with horizontal flame, her pale body framed by nine tails of fire. Karen manipulated her skeleton back into place and faced the nightmare.
"Miku," Karen said.
The girl shook her burning head. "Not Miku," she said in two voices at once. "If one is here, the other is gone."
The conversation from the stairwell with Miku's mother. Somehow she’d heard it.
"I don't believe you." Karen took a tentative step forward. "I still hear Miku in there. I don't think you can get rid of her that easily."
The fire-ringed girl laughed. It echoed through the long room, the echo louder than the laugh itself. "What gave you such a foolish thought?"
"She's stronger than you realize. She's stronger than even I realized. I was wrong to think it was her who needed my help." Karen took another step. "I need hers, too."
The girl's fire turned blue, then orange again, a flare of impatience. But in that brief second, like a glitch in the corner of her vision, Karen saw a separate figure. An image of Miku standing by the bonsho. It was all the confirmation she needed to push on. To not give up on the girl.
Karen took another step. The girl raised a paper-white hand. "Stop walking, spider-witch."
"So you see me. Well I see you, too. You know what I see? A fool, tricked into waking up before her time. Tricked by a man too blind to the truth. You're not strong enough yet."
Her words struck a nerve. The girl burst into flames, her entire body alive with fire. The room became a heat storm, instantly warming Karen's cold skin. Karen tried to walk, to reach the girl, but the blistering wind held her back.
Still she struggled forward. Even as the room tore apart, the throne smashed against the wall, ancient paintings shredding from their frames, she pushed on. Karen shut her eyes from the heat. With all the strength she had, she took another step, and then, when she didn't think she could, she took another.
Her body burned with pain, mind screaming for her to stop. She'd gone as far as she could go. Only a short distance from Tamamo, the source of power and flame ripping small tears in her clothes, Karen realized she might not complete her mission. That her fight might be over. In that moment, as she accepted the very real possibility of her death, Karen thought of her grandmother. The woman who had given up everything for her.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
"It’s okay," she said calmly. Tamamo's eyes flickered behind the flames, confused. Karen turned to look to where she’d seen the spirit of Miku.
"What are you doing?" Tamamo asked, but Karen didn't answer her. She continued to look at Miku, and she smiled her grandmother’s smile.
"Help me, kichona," she said.
After a moment, Tamamo cackled. "How sad. You're no spider-witch at all. You're just a human with a bit of spider blood." She laughed again, fire billowing from her body.
Then suddenly Tamamo lurched forward. Her face changed, a look of unexpected pain. She hunched over, then threw her head back, her body contorted. Karen could barely just make out a form attacking her. A white energy, stronger than fire, assailing her.
The spirit of Miku struck at Tamamo repeatedly. Tamamo resisted, but her cape of fire dwindled. Karen tasted blood, the energy in the air almost too much for the room to contain. Then, just as it felt as if a bomb was about to detonate, Tamamo let out a final wail, the fire around her snuffed out.
In a screaming flash, the figure of Miku was pulled back into her body. Like waking from a nightmare, Miku came to. Karen rushed forward as Miku’s legs gave out and the girl fell forward. Karen caught her and held her.
"You're safe," she told Miku. The girl's eyes trembled with terror. "You're still here. The ritual was stopped."
Miku shook her head. "No. Not all of it."
Karen didn't know what to make of the girl's fear, but then she picked up on a noise she hadn't noticed. With the flames and wind extinguished, another sound could be heard now, wet and bubbling. Karen scanned the room carefully.
The tranquility pool. The water inside it boiled, a churning, roiling heat. Yori's clothes floated on its surface along with lanterns and petals. His shoes and tie were on the floor nearby, where they’d been thrown without a second thought.
"He took my blood," Miku said weakly.
Karen studied the girl. "What do you mean?"
Yori's face emerged from the tranquility pool, his eyes staring up at the ceiling. But as he rose and faced Karen, the skin around his eyes stretched, as if it were being pushed out from the inside. His face peeled back to unveil a second face beneath, with great, big colorless eyes, and a long, yellow beak. He rose up and up, five times larger than he’d ever been.
"The blood calls to them," Miku said, her eyes barely open.
Yori stepped out of the water with one gnarled claw, then the other. His was body covered in wet, oil-black feathers, arms attached to wings that spanned twenty feet. He snapped at Karen with his razor-sharp beak.
Karen knew of the Tengu, the half-birds of myth, but this one was something more. She thought back to the burnt page from her grandmother's book, of the disgraced ruler of Japan who came back as Ootengu, greater Tengu.
"Emperor Sutoku," she said through her teeth.
-20-
The weather had grown worse. The sky was a blanket of white downfall, the wind so strong it set off car alarms.
Nature, it seemed, was in a bad mood.
On the street in front of Yori Tower, the humans were winning the fight. Any Chrome left standing had long fled the scene, to regroup at the docks and lick their wounds, while the guards and Onibi were down to their last few men. The students made short work of them, separating them from each other and finishing them off.
A terrible screech sounded out above. It came from somewhere inside the tower, like a murder of crows sucked into a jet engine. As soon as it stopped, Danny ran to the tower's front entrance, ready to reenter the building.
"Where are you going?" Fannie called out.
He stopped short in the snow and motioned to the sky. "Didn't you hear that? Karen needs our help."
"Really? What happened to 'It's time to go'?"
"That was before I heard the shriek of doom." He looked from her to the lobby, then back. "Look, I can't leave her alone up there. I can't explain it, I…she wouldn't leave me."
"Wow," she nodded. "I didn't know you were the hero type."
"More like incredibly stupid. So are you coming or not?" He looked to the crowd of students. "Guys?"
They looked around at each other, unsure. Fannie looked back at the bruised and bloody group. "C'mon, ninjas. Time to do ninja stuff."
She followed Danny back inside. Everyone else followed.
***
Karen took a breath as she unsheathed her sword. She turned to face the terrible Ootengu, the massive bird-creature spreading black wings that reached from one wall to the other. In its face she saw hints that Yori was still as much a part of this creature as Emperor Sutoku. Two men, two war-mongering maniacs, sharing one, demonic body.
Yori-Sutoku.
He studied her with the cold eyes of a raven. "You're not much of a Rakni," he croaked.
"Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment."
Looking back, she should have known this was part of the plan. In all the myths her grandmother had told her, there were always what were known as the Three Great Yokai. The first was Shuten-doji, the Oni king who Yori's ancestor had killed long ago. The second was Tamamo no Mae, the fox with nine tails whose spirit she’d recently become acquainted with. But the third, Emperor Sutoku, was a powerful and feared man, who in exile revealed himself to be a monster.
In other words, the kind of man Hayato Yori would look up to.
Fortunately, Miku had begun to come back around, roused by the terrifying screech of the Ootengu. "Listen to me," Karen whispered to the girl. "I need you to run. Hide where we hid before and wait for me."
Miku listened. Yori-Sutoku screeched again and raised on his claws, not wanting to let the girl go, but Karen held him back with the sword. She noted with enjoyment how the creature eyed the sword with caution. Miku ran out the door, heading for the red vent she once swore she would hide in until her next birthday- a thought that still had a chance to come true.
"Qin fan sik," the Ootengu squawk-hissed, "you'll pay for that."
"Then come collect," Karen replied.
He lurched forward and snapped at her face. She side-stepped, attacking overhead. The blade sliced the front half of his beak clean off. As Yori-Sutoku shrieked in pain, Karen felt slightly more confident she might win the fight.
But then, like red and black magma forming new land-mass, the beak grew back. As if it had never been gone, Yori-Sutoku laughed a terrible, cackling laugh. "I'm much too powerful for your pig sticker," he gloated.
"Show me your heart, we'll see how true that is."
He spread his black wings, but instead of attacking Karen again, he struck out at the bonsho with his balled-up claw-fist. The bell rang out, its song reverberating in the walls. Karen flinched from the pounding in her head. Behind the winged beast, in the long serenity pool, the water began to boil once again.
Yori-Sutoku gestured to the pool. "You want to see my heart, Rakni? This is it."
Burnt demons rose from the water. Karen had seen the place where they came from now, the dark realm with darker temples. She’d seen it for a moment, but it was enough to know the creatures rising before her shouldn't be allowed to come and go freely.
