Pilgrim Omnibus 2: (Books 4-6), page 60
As she had been before, Kudzu, who was now in her human form, looked surprised to see the scar-covered former assassin. She quickly hid this surprise by looking to the side, a tray in her hands. “I brought you breakfast.”
“Thank you.”
Kudzu set the tray on the table. The food consisted of a rice porridge and a small loaf of bread that had been toasted on one side. There was also a cup of tea and a small local plum that Danzen had seen people eating in Odval.
“I thought I would join you, but if you would prefer to eat alone...”
“Do you have a tray yourself?”
“I was hoping you would ask.”
Danzen ran his hand along the contours of his head as Kudzu left his room and returned moments later with her meal.
“I set it on the ground in the hallway. You know, I’m not used to being like this,” she said, referring to her human form. While a normal person might have kept both trays with them somehow, Kudzu had clearly taken one at a time, which meant she would have already made the trip up to his room to set the tray outside before returning with food for him.
A part of him found this endearing.
“I can move the table,” Danzen said, already in motion to do so.
He moved the table against the wall in front of his bed, so one of them could sit on the bed allowing them to face one another. He offered Kudzu the bed, since he assumed it was softer, but she took the chair. He was just about to sit himself when he realized he was still shirtless, suddenly feeling self-conscious about this fact.
He wasn’t proud of the scars and their numerous stories, some of them near misses, others merely surface wounds, yet all with the same result, his demons unleashed. He slipped into his robes and went ahead and put his belt on, his swords at his side.
“Imagine two Jelmays.”
“They’re actually up this early?”
“I don’t think they ever went to sleep; Bahjee and him have practically eaten through the nunnery’s winter supplies. I’m exaggerating, but not by much. It’s like they are in a competition with one another to see who can eat the most, or who can hyperbolize the better story. Menya won’t be happy when she finds out. Personally, I can only take a few minutes of it. I like Jelmay well enough. But Elder Bahjee…”
Danzen began to eat some of his rice porridge, which was still warm.
“If what he is saying is true, and we will find out soon enough, then… then…” She shook her head. “They tried to kill you, Danzen. That’s what I’m trying to say here. If what Bahjee said is true…”
“We will confront the Sundiyu Sect.”
“And then what? He may look like an old tanuki, but Kanjen is powerful. You remember the stone golem.”
“I do.”
“What else can he do? He clearly has command over his echo, not to mention Midrah and how fast she can move. Together they could be quite a force.”
“I don’t want it to come to that.”
Kudzu started eating, silent for a moment as she finished her plum. “Neither do I,” she finally said, “but they know that the remnants are here, and they sent Kitazawa to kill you. This has to be addressed. I’m sorry, this isn’t why I wanted to have breakfast with you. I wanted to have breakfast with you to…”
“Get away from Jelmay and Elder Bahjee.”
“That, and I just wanted to spend some time with you. It used to be just us, well, not for very long before Jelmay joined. But you know what I’m saying. And lately I just feel smothered by our company. Not that our company is bad. I like Yato, and Nomin is quiet enough that she doesn’t really bother me. Jelmay is Jelmay, Sansar is also generally quiet, yet I always feel that he knows more than he is letting on, that it’s going to get us in trouble again in the future. Then there are the others, Bawa, who is fine. Galzo, who mostly stays here, Abbot Monpo and Menya…” She sighed. “You see what I mean. Now we are adding Elder Bahjee to this mix? Sunyata forbid.”
“Our party has grown, hasn’t it?”
“It has. I know that’s about to change. I’m assuming that Nomin will likely stay here if we go north to the outer region.”
“Likely.”
“That would leave you, me, Jelmay, Yato, and the two cats. Maybe Bawa will stay as well. He seems to like it here, and the nuns like having him around. He is a bit of a flirt. But what about when we inevitably go back to the northern passage? That is where we will go next, right?”
“I believe Jelmay is right, that we need to speak to Sotgonn. So yes, that would be a good option. Then we can loop around to the valley and from there to Suja Village. Or better, go through the forest to Chutham to meet Soko.”
The look on Kudzu’s face soured. “This is why we will need Nomin again. I don’t trust Soko; at least with Nomin around, there’s someone to keep an eye on her.”
“Maybe we can go to the outer region without her, and then she can join us on the way back. We can send Bahjee to the nunnery as well, if he plans to stay with us.”
Kudzu laughed at the suggestion. “You mean to keep Bahjee here?”
“He can do what he wants, but he can’t come with us through the northern passage and back to the valley. I believe one bakeneko will be enough for our journey.”
“Do you think Menya will like that?”
“He will inevitably get bored and move on. Bahjee doesn’t seem like the type to cause the same trouble as Jelmay.”
Kudzu bobbed her head left and right, halfway agreeing with this. “Maybe he’ll head to Odval and recruit more people to move to Verba. That was what he was already talking about doing with Jelmay. He doesn’t want to give up on the village, but I don’t see why. Who would want to move to a lakeside village in the outer regions right before winter? It’s just not logical.”
“No, it isn’t. But it will give him something to do, and maybe that’s the best we can ask for.”
“Well, you are probably right. Glad we could have this little breakfast, just the two of us. I know you plan to bend your echo…”
Danzen looked at Kudzu, yet again taken off guard by seeing her in her human form, her white hair swept behind her slightly pointed ears. She wore green robes, and it seemed like she had tried to freshen herself up, to look presentable to him. Her cheeks were just a little redder than they should have been, as were her lips. She looked beautiful.
“Bending can come later, after I deal with the statues in the courtyard.”
“The villagers, I don’t know what Menya is going to want to do with them.”
“That is for her to decide. We should try to leave well before noon, however, especially if we hope to reach Kanjen’s cave. It’s getting darker earlier now.”
“And I don’t want to have to camp overnight with two bakeneko.” Kudzu smiled at Danzen. “I guess I really don’t have a choice, do I?”
He returned her smile. “You aren’t the only one.”
.Chapter Three.
Danzen’s and Yato’s blades met.
Klank!
He started off wanting to bend his echo in a calmer way that morning, but something about the young assassin when she joined him told Danzen that this wasn’t going to be the case. No warm-up, and no real indication of what she was thinking as she moved in with her gauntleted blades, Danzen drawing his sword at the very last second.
Klank!
He didn’t say anything about her aggressive behavior as he began focusing on the power deep within him, summoning the same inner strength that had helped him in his fight against Kitazawa, a Sunyatic energy source he had shunned for nearly his entire life. Yato’s footwork was quick, enhanced by her talismans, the young woman moving like a sudden outburst of wind as she came in yet again.
She retreated, a wry smile on her face.
Was she upset about something? What was the meaning behind her sudden aggression?
Rather than ask, Danzen waited for her to try yet again. She came forward and he swept her legs out from beneath her. Yato’s back struck the stone, the wind knocked out of her. His two lion dogs were on the periphery, both looking concerned at what was happening.
“Take off your talismans.”
After she caught her breath, Yato pushed herself up and did as Danzen had told her.
As he had suspected, talismans had been helping her to some degree, especially with the fact that she had been injured just a day or so ago at the Penumbra fortress.
“Ready,” she told him.
Using gauntleted blades required different leg positioning. There was a melee-style stance that was commonly taught, which allowed the user to move more like a fighter and less like a trained swordsman. Yato took the stance, her training evident in how loose her knees were, both of them doing small circles, something he had noticed in her form before.
She came at him at a much slower pace, yet she still had force behind her movement. Danzen was not able to shake the feeling that Yato was actually trying to land a strike rather than bend her echo.
Finally, he decided to address it. “Is something the matter?”
“What? No,” she said quickly. “This is not what you wanted?”
“Do you wish to spar with me?” he asked carefully.
The assassins who had grown up with the Diyu Brotherhood could be competitive. While he didn’t normally spar with someone due to the chance of drawing blood, if Yato was looking for a challenge, Danzen would provide it. Both of them had already loosened up for the morning by moving the stone statues from the courtyard to a side shed at the far side of the nunnery, one which backed up to a wall of rock. The sun had borne down on them the entire time, and Danzen’s muscles were nice and warm. The former assassin was prepared to see this to its natural conclusion if it was what she wanted. He wouldn’t kill her, and he would do his best not to injure her, but this was the energy that she was giving off, and in a way, it was contagious.
Danzen suddenly wanted to spar.
Yet he knew that this was neither the time nor place. He stepped back and returned the Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds to its porous scabbard. This wasn’t a feeling he normally had with Yato, nor was he a person that was overly competitive, not like Soko or some of the others he had grown up with. Did it have something to do with his echo, the way that it was communicating with hers? Danzen suspected as much, and it was best for them to stop for the day and move on.
After all, they needed to head to the Outer Regions.
“We’re done?”
“For now.”
“But I was ready…”
Danzen merely motioned for her to follow him. Her gauntleted blades returned to their coverings, the younger assassin making a noise of disappointment she followed Danzen to the nunnery’s kitchen, where they found Jelmay and Elder Bahjee seated at a table in the back, a loaf of bread between them, jam smeared across Jelmay’s whiskers.
“We need to go.”
Jelmay looked up at Danzen and puffed his cheeks out. “So soon? They’re just going to serve us another meal.”
Danzen saw some of the nuns frantically working in the kitchen to cook additional food for the two bakeneko. Shimaru was missing, and Danzen assumed that the blind man from Odval, whom he had helped relocate to the nunnery, had been tasked with something else.
“Prepare their meals to go,” he told the nuns, summoning his Demon Speak power so Bahjee and Jelmay wouldn’t distort his message.
“How rude.” Bahjee pressed back in his chair, his belly swelling. “And you are sure I can’t stay?”
Danzen shook his head. “You are the one that told us that the Sundiyu Sect formed a pact with Kitazawa. I want you to be there when we discuss it with them.”
Bahjee seemed to cower away to some degree, and even though he didn’t break his human form, his mustache drooped like Jelmay’s whiskers did from time to time. “They are powerful.”
“Eh, so are we,” Jelmay told him. “Pilgrim here can jump at least a mile high, summon demons, and do some pretty wild stuff with his echo. And then there’s me.”
“You?”
“I’m a pretty good fighter myself, isn’t that right?” Jelmay asked, looking from Danzen to Yato, who stood behind the former assassin.
“That remains to be seen.” Danzen turned away from the two bakeneko. “Meet us at the front of the monastery in ten minutes. The quicker we reach the Outer Regions, the quicker we can finish what we need to do there and head back to the northern passage.”
“You’re going with my idea?” Jelmay asked.
“I am. I believe we should speak to Sotgonn.”
“In that case, I’ll pack my tatsu pieces as well. I still need to unload those at a fence.”
“You’re a smart bakeneko, Jelmay.”
“Takes one to know one, Bahj.”
Elder Bahjee started to say something about Jelmay’s good looks, but by this point Danzen was already stepping out of the dining area, where he found Kudzu helping some of the nuns clean up. Still in her human form, the kitsune looked up at Danzen and offered him a soft smile.
“We’re leaving in ten minutes,” Yato told her.
“Should I go as a human or fox?” Kudzu looked down at her hands and flexed her fingers, which were red from cleaning. “I suppose I can start the journey as a human. We’ll see how it goes from there.”
****
They set off later than Danzen would have liked, mostly because of the bakeneko, but also because of the conversation he ended up having with Abbot Monpo, who decided to go along with them in the end to confront the Sundiyu Sect. It was midday by the time they reached the floor of the valley outside of the nunnery, where they would head over a ridge line, not far from the wooded area where Danzen had once taken on Shutendorji.
Aside from the normal group, they were also joined by Elder Bahjee, who had thus far spent most of his time trying to convince Abbot Monpo that what he said was true.
“I will believe it when I hear it for myself,” the leader of the fox shrine finally told the bakeneko once he’d heard enough.
Traveling with a party this large meant they had to keep a slower pace, and Danzen realized as it reached late afternoon that they would likely need to camp for the night, unless they wanted to confront the Sect in the evening. He was just about to suggest they find a place when Elder Bahjee spoke: “I’m not sleeping in the forest. I’ll tell you that much. We can go to Verba, which shouldn’t be much further now if we take a shortcut I know. Yes, it is a little strange staying in a deserted village, but there are still some food supplies that I know of, and if anyone is good at fishing…”
Kudzu immediately looked at Danzen. She glanced away, a hint of bashfulness to her behavior. Danzen knew she liked fish, and it made sense to camp in Verba, where the others could be comfortable. What he didn’t like about staying in the village was how exposed it left them. At least with Sansar, they would have an eye in the sky.
They followed Elder Bahjee through the woods, the heavyset bakeneko leading them down an embankment and through a stream of crystal-clear water. Rather than cross it, they traveled along the shoreline, the stream fed by the glacial lake. The water was fresh and cold, but wasn’t deep enough for there to be fish. Not until they reached a series of small ponds did Danzen sense movement beneath the surface.
Once again, he fixed his gaze on Yato as she joined Bahjee at the front.
He still felt that something was off about her, but he couldn’t quite place it, and there didn’t seem to be anything different about her when he closed his eyes and briefly got a glimpse of her echo. It was time to consult Nomin. Now at the back of the group, the blind assassin walked by herself, silently at that, careful not to leave markings even if both bakeneko, Abbot Monpo, and Kudzu didn’t seem as concerned about their tracks.
“Have you noticed anything about Yato?” Danzen asked quietly after the others had gone ahead.
“Aside from the injury she sustained recently? She seems to be getting better.”
“Aside from that. She was agitated this morning.”
“After what happened last night, it is surprising that she was able to get any rest at all. I wouldn’t worry. But…” Nomin tilted her chin to Danzen and nodded. “I will keep an eye on her.” She offered him a rare smile, her lips parting as she regained her normal demeanor.
It was forty or fifty minutes later once Danzen reached the end of the tree line, the former assassin coming to a sandy beach. They headed east from here, once again following the shoreline, and it wasn’t long before Danzen started to see the telltale signs of civilization, from an abandoned boat with a sail jutting out of the sand to wooden barrels that had been smashed. Stacked crates, the start to the dock, a pair of fishing huts with thatched roofs—civilization apparent.
Elder Bahjee took a big sniff of the air inside. “It’s a wonderful place, truly. And I will repopulate it.”
“I’ve already told you how to do that,” Jelmay said.
“I’m not turning it into a bloody resort! This isn’t a village for people to vacation; it is a village for people to… for people to…”
“Serve you?” Kudzu asked him as strands of her white hair fell into her face. She swept them back and tucked them behind her ear, the kitsune’s movement always just a little off from how a normal person behaved.
“Sure, serving me would be nice, but I meant more along the lines of living a quaint life, with fresh fish and… and…” Elder Bahjee clenched his teeth. “Ugh, I’m terribly starved.”
“You and Jelmay just ate,” Yato said, a smirk forming on her face.
“And we will eat again,” Jelmay told her. “Bahj, show me to the food. I will help you cook it. Pilgrim, there are fish out there and I know a pair of foxes who would love to have fish, not to mention a blind Pilgrim who doesn’t eat, and a Lady Pilgrim. Go catch some fish for us, will you? The bigger the better.”
Elder Bahjee licked his lips. “There are some truly large fish in there. You know, there is an old legend that a fish the size of a horse cart lives at the bottom of that lake. Some of the villagers claimed to have seen it, but they are mostly drunk. It’s probably just a yokai. Either way, if you can catch that thing, then we will truly have a feast.”
