“Well,” Shizuka said, raising her voice as she strutted over to the Kappa. And with every step she took I felt like the air got drier. Almost as if we were being slow cooked in an oven. “Are you going to speak or just keep silent?”
The red haired woman’s voice seemed to reach my ears at the same volume despite the distance increasing. It was mesmerizing in a way. Everything about her just seemed to draw me in. Bare feet stepped lightly over the dirt as her long, white legs passed through slits in her dress-like clothing. Despite that, her feet seemed as if they were immune to the touch of dirt and filth, holding nary a stain on their surface.
I swallowed heavily as I could see glimpses of her body through her long mane of red hair. My eyes bounced with her movement, focusing on her slender hands that poked out from her long, baggy sleeves. Some sort of sash embroidered with symbols similar to those I found on Shikigami was tied on her waist, hugging her dress closer to her body.
Her figure seemed to draw me in, trapping me in its lull. It was like she was suddenly the only thing that existed in the world, and I had to pay attention to her every movement.
That was when my sixth sense snapped me out of it. Because for a second, I could see a large burning ball of white-hot fire. From it fell countless bleeding bodies that smashed into the ground and formed some sort of road that led up to her. The bodies twitched, and a wave of pure terror came over me as I saw them all lock with my eyes for a second. They all mouthed the same phrase that I somehow understood.
Burn for me.
I ripped my gaze from her, realizing that no one strong in this world wasn’t some sort of crazy. My heart beat faster than the time I had been fighting the yokai, and momentarily, I had forgotten the pain of my injured hand. In fact, it seemed like whatever effect I had been in had helped to alleviate pain. Still, my wariness only grew. The strong were monsters in my eyes. First, Minamoto had some terrifying, sentient tree in his soul and now this supposed Queen had a sun that air-dropped bodies to form a road. If this was what I was looking forward to, then I really wanted to redo my subscription.
However, looking at what seemed like her soul had broken me from whatever trance I had been in. It was terrifying, realizing that I had been drawn in without ever knowing. My mind spurred as I tried to figure it out. Was it touch? Maybe just something as simple as looking at her triggered it. In any case, I now tried to look everywhere but her direction.
Which let me focus on the Kappa. The creature still had the rippling water ball above its head, but instead of being some mysterious, dangerous threat, I saw it in more of a pitiful light. Still, that didn’t stop me from cheering for the scary sun lady. Both of them were pretty dangerous in my eyes, but Shizuka had directly wiped out the enemies, so she should be on my side, right?
I… shouldn’t jinx myself.
“Not answering?” Not paying attention to my inner turmoil, Shizuka had walked right up to the dry riverbank and a smirk splayed over her rosy cheeks at the Kappa. “I heard the newest Jiraiya trains his little covert units to not spill everything, but come on, don’t you feel… like talking?”
“I-” Surprisingly, the Kappa started to speak before snapping its mouth closed. A stream of water extended down from the water sphere and wrapped around its beak, locking it. The maybe yokai glared at the Queen who just smiled back.
Shizuka just raised one, well-manicured hand into the air. A long red nail shaped like a claw pointed at the Kappa, and suddenly, the water around its beak flash boiled. Steam blasted out from its face as it screamed. Its hands went up to its head, covering the disgusting boils that were forming under its scales.
“How dare you!” The Kappa exclaimed. “How can you even be here?!”
The creature looked absolutely distraught over its outburst, but I could see Shizuka just gave a reassuring smile. “See, was that so hard?”
Then, like a flip of a switch, her entire demeanor changed. Where there was once an almost irresistible enticement to her, there was only an unending rage. It was like staring into an ocean storm only to find a massive beast staring at you from the depths.
I stiffened immediately, feeling overwhelmed as the sheer presence she radiated. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see the villagers straight up collapsed, foaming at the mouths. Even Miyasaki and the Oni stopped trying to kill each other for a moment.
“How dare I, you said.” She started, voice level. “How dare you mess with my subjects! We have a hands off approach to villages in the border regions, but when you pull shit like this in so many places do you think we can’t recognize a pattern? Do the Three Unmoving Sages think they can handle the anger of everyone under the Inverse Ocean? Do you really believe yourselves so infallible?”
“Y- you are just a new Queen… H- how can you-” The Kappa forced out with eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
“Is that what this is about?”
The Kappa grabbed its neck, trying to stop itself from shaking its head negative. I couldn’t help but feel a chill down my spine as the interrogation continued. The Queen of Toshiki was someone who I felt an insane amount of dread towards. Was anything able to be kept a secret from her? Compared to the overhyped Oni who seemed to struggle against almost everyone, she seemed almost untouchable.
“I- I- My life for-” The Kappa pointed its hands at the ball of roots where Minamoto was still containing the Nurarihyon. The mercury-like liquid on the top of its concave skull evaporated into silver smoke as suddenly a scream was heard from inside the mass of oscillating roots.
A trace of anxiety flashed through me as I worried about Minamoto. However, I couldn’t pay too much attention to him as the giant ball of water above the Kappa’s head began falling as if whatever force held it in the air had been cut. I could feel Shizuka’s annoyance as she simply waved her hand in its general direction and it exploded into steam.
At the same time, I heard a strangled scream from the Kappa. I froze as I saw its eyes explode as a red flame burst out from behind them. Its mouth opened as its scream slowly cut off when more fire spilled out from its throat. Spasms wracked its body as an orange glow shone beneath the scales on its chest, and soon, that spread through its body like a disease until it disappeared behind the steam.
“Minamoto, buddy, you okay?” I said to my armor, hoping he was still okay.
“Don’t worry, Mister David.” I breathed a sigh of relief as he responded. “I am unharmed.”
“Old man!” Shizuka yelled in Minamoto’s direction.
“I’m okay.” Minamoto’s voice echoed out from the ball of wood. I stared incredulously as his features appeared on the outer surface of the white branches almost like he had merged with the trees. Lazily, he pulled himself out from the white plant life, ripping out from the wooden surface in the process. “It is nice to see the little fox I had met before all grown up.”
Shizuka laughed, placing her hands on her hips. “Of course, you’re the bastard that taught me after all!”
I was speechless at the interaction. Did this mean that I would end up with some scary soul thingy now that I was trained by Minamoto, too? I felt stressed as this was a very pressing problem.
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An aggrieved yell broke me from my musing as I watched Miyasaki continue to choke out the Oni like she had been doing for a while now. Honestly, it seemed more like it refused to die at this point. Based on the building headache, my Life Energy might run out before she was able to actually strangle it to death. However, her persistence to continue through with it won my respect.
She was one crazy… woman.
In the end, the Oni gave out long before I did. It finally slumped over as its head lolled to one side and a large red tongue spilled from between the yellowed teeth in its mouth. Miyasaki gave another yell kicking the Oni repeatedly before one of the nearby Samurai pulled her away.
Oddly, I found Minamoto and Shizuka hadn’t even intervened. They just walked over to the side of the group to converse amongst themselves while glancing at Miyasaki every couple seconds. I caught Shizuku’s crimson lips smiling at the crazy woman every now and then.
Finally, I let the Oni Mask slip from my grasp, feeling as the constant strain on my reserves disappeared. For once, I happily let myself get pulled into a blissful sleep.
----------------------------------------
I woke up being jostled around like a sack of potatoes. A massive bruise was forming on my stomach as I bounced on someone’s shoulder, and I gasped in pain as there was no longer any adrenaline to keep my mind off my injuries. The worst was my right hand. It felt like I had dipped it in acid after I had spent several hours slapping a bed of nails.
“Arg. Ow. Ow.” I eloquently added as I tried to close my hand, and frowned as it refused to do some from all the medical bandages wrapped around it. I looked over to see who was carrying me and found Yasuda staring at me like I was an idiot.
“Leader, you’re awake.” Yasuda’s voice met my ears, but there was something different about it. Where he had normally been upbeat about teasing me with the title, he felt quieter. More withdrawn. It was hard to tell since he wasn’t normally the most expressive of individuals, but I always knew him as someone who just bluntly stated his feelings.
“How, ow, are you?” I winced as I felt a bruise on my shoulder. Was that always there? Did I get that from tackling that yokai? “How long was I out?”
“You were…” Yasuda paused, looking over at the four swords on his hip. I paused as I looked over them, recognizing them. “You were out for a while, leader. We have been traveling for two days already.”
“I hope I wasn’t too heavy.” I said, trying to force a smile.
“I think you need to eat less, leader.”
I chuckled, but groaned when that action caused my body to hurt. “Maybe. Maybe. I don’t suppose you know any good diets? All the ones I have found here is running away from Oni and yokai.”
He halted suddenly at my joke. “Can you walk, leader?”
“I certainly don’t want you carrying me forever.” I said, feeling the mood getting odd. I felt like someone punched me in the gut as I realized I had screwed something up with that statement.
Carefully, Yasuda set me down on the ground, letting me see where we were. We had traveled pretty slowly, but that was probably due to the injured. Over apparently two days we had reached the outskirts of the village. I caught several signs of ruined shacks that were built a little ways out from the main area.
However, I stopped as I reached the people. Of the fifty Samurai that had once been in the group, I counted twelve, including Yasuda. Shinohara had seen me, but he quickly averted his gaze, refusing to look me in the eyes now. The Exorcists were also being lugged by Samurai with stares that focused on some point in the distance. Their chests seemed to rise and fall, so I hoped it was just Life Energy exhaustion that occurred from straining themselves against the Oni. At the back were Minamoto and Shizuka who just somberly surveyed the area without saying anything. It said something when both of them wore clear frowns.
I didn’t see Wakao or Matsumura. Wordlessly, I looked down at the swords on Yasuda’s hip. He silently nodded, taking a single sword from his waist and handing it to me. I knew whose it was. I had broken the other one.
“He… he didn’t know many other people. He said to give it to you.”
Tenderly, I took it, trying hard to grasp it with my dominant hand. My right hand shook constantly, and pain spiked through my arm as I couldn’t completely close my fist around it. For some reason, that hit me harder than them dying.
“Dammit…” I cursed, trying again but failing to close my hand around it. When it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to do that any time soon, I focused on the sword in my hand.
Matsumura and Wakao. They were… the people who I wanted to consider friends. We hadn’t known each other for very long, and I can’t quite say that Wakao was the nicest of people, but they had been a part of my life if only briefly.
I wanted to scream that this was unfair. Just when I promised myself to start treating this world more seriously, some of the only people I knew were ripped away from me. It felt suffocating, and I couldn’t help but feel that all my interactions with them were artificial. That I had treated them as just characters in a game.
“Dammit…” And I felt horrible when I couldn’t even cry for them. Did I even deserve to call them friends?
I was so focused on the villagers and the yokai that I hadn’t thought that there would be casualties when fighting the Oni. That was just me being naïve. Guilt wormed its way into my heart as I realized that I probably could have helped them if I just abandoned the villagers. If I hadn’t decided to play a hero and just stayed put, I might have been able to at least try to stop them from dying.
“Leader,” Yasuda tapped my shoulder. He motioned to the rest of the group who were continuing without us. I nodded as we followed. “Shinohara took Wakao’s death the hardest; he thinks you abandoned us.”
And I did. “I see.”
Yasuda shook his head. “He is just- don’t worry about him too much. We all lost something in this. He just wants someone to blame.”
I wanted to speak. Yet, my mouth refused to open. My tongue grew dry and heavy as lead, stopping any words from coming out. However, Yasuda didn’t comment on it, either. We were both too busy looking at the ruins of the village that suddenly came in front of us.
There were only a couple of structures still standing while the rest was burnt to the ground with charred bodies littering various places. I could see several holes dug around the village with the burnt corpses stacked like macabre sardines inside them. The air felt heavy, stagnant. A tragedy had happened here, and there was nothing that could change that. It was a sobering reality that our conflict didn’t have the happy end that I wanted.
We had been too out matched. Schemed against at every corner, and caught off guard too many times. I was a fool to think there could be a way for everyone to get through safely.
The wails and cries of the surviving villagers was the only thing that dared to speak out. At one point, several Samurai stumbled forwards, falling to their knees as they surrounded a mutilated body that was covered by armor. Yasuda joined them as tears began digging lines down his grime-covered face.
My sixth sense triggered as I saw deeper into the carnage. Human figures were stitched together, mouths open in a rictus of screams. Their faces were held in constant pain as fires continued to eat at them from different parts of their bodies.
With this many people, I could feel it. A heavy warmth filled the air, but it didn’t seem physically here. I recognized it as it felt similar to when the same energy flowed through me. It was Life Energy being extracted from their souls and converted to something else. I swallowed back the vomit that threatened to come out as I realized one horrifying fact.
They were still alive.
Somehow, someway, they were still alive despite their bodies being dead. Instead, they were tortured for their Life Energy until that too ran out. It was no wonder other Gaijin had a hard time; the first one who had done shit like this was some damn psychopath.
My stomach turned. I felt beyond sick. My headache pounded full force as I took in those facts, and was given a glimpse as just what was happening. Everything felt so far out of reach.
The image disappeared right as I saw ethereal branches extending from Minamoto, ripping the bodies free from their bonds. I had no idea what Minamoto did, but all I could do was watch.
Once again, I felt useless. I just stood there, doing nothing. All I could do was watch.
Out of the corner of my eye, I found Miyasaki. She attracted my attention, but not because she was pretty. No, it was the ugly tears that spilled from her eyes. The strong woman who let my Oni mask tear her apart without uttering a single sound while she fought a nigh impossible foe just… broke down. She crouched over the mutilated body of the Samurai that they all surrounded, and screamed and cried till her voice grew horse.
As I watched, a selfish thought came into the back of my head. I should have ignored it like most of them, but this one stuck and stained the rest of my mind. It was an infectious thought that took root deep in me, and for once, I don’t think I wanted an answer to something more than this.
My memories traced back to a featureless room where I always woke up. I remembered getting up for the day, but not leaving my bed. It was like I was stuck in a mire, waiting desperately for someone to open my door and pull me out. Yet, my door always remained closed. There would be the occasional knock followed by concerned voices that always said the same things over and over. I always didn’t move. I just didn’t feel like doing much of anything back in that room.
Because, in this world or my previous one, would anyone cry like that if the one dead was me?