Furyo can feel his whole body ache. His astral form watches the Hell Priests in the dark corners of the room chanting, only light in the temple is a rectangle of candles surrounding his corpse. He closes his eyes and feels like he can see the spiritual winds at work around him. Luminescent gusts of light stifled by darkness, mournful voices of his ancestors screaming not to leave them, his victims clawing for vengeance and the song of the Monks washing away the Rhakshas and Asuras of the spirit realm feel far off, like violent bells of a sinking cathedral claimed by a monstrous tidal wave. Healing energy fills his heart, he can feel his lungs bursting with white light that energizes his blood and starting his heart. Old stab wounds, bullets in his body from teenage crimes, bruises in his brain and staples holding it all together radiate a coldness that is washing away in a holy ritual of regeneration.
He opens his eyes naturally, like coming out of a restful sleep. His injuries and pain seem far off as a soothing warmth goes from his toes to pelvis, up his spine into his mind. A sits up and knocks over candles, as his body wasn’t ready to tense up and rest on his own knees. The Monks rush forward to clear the candles knocked over. Helping him onto his hands and knees and up to his feet. They walk him a short ways to the outside garden where a centuries old Yew tree guards over the temple grounds with its 300 foot canopy and roots as tall as a standing man. They sit him down in a pool at the base of the roots where lotus flowers grow in warm sunlight. His eyes feel delirious, like golden reflections from the water and sounds of a waterfall bend in his mind. Feeling etherial and otherworldly. He remembers the story of Buddha sitting under a tree and attacked by Mara with temptation and hordes of demons.
Wearing the Sapphron robe of the Monks, he feels like Buddha. A strange calm takes him, the Monks leave him in this pool that feels all the warmth and energy of a womb. The morning is too bright, the sounds of bells and charms in the tree branches make him want to sleep but the experience of being alive is too overwhelming. Daylight, wind, slight rain all make tears come to his eyes. The smell of flowers and distant waves breaking make him remember what it is to be alive. All memories of his childhood flood over him. Walking along train tracks to a secret swimming hole in the mountains, watching ships pass in the bay with his father, free outdoor concerts in Golden Gate park, walking among the Redwoods and running along the riptide in Ocean Beach. Moments of stillness as a baby watching the light of swaying tree branches, skate boarding down hills and not being able to stop as traffic zooms past.
To his surprise he sees Angelina, the gothic girl he met for only one night in Harajuku on a rooftop. She has 12 angel wings and a golden spear. She is a Tenshin Tengu? She grabs his hand, lifting him to his feet and into the air. Before he knows what is happening, they are hundreds of feet high looking down on the ruined fortress and golden temple. He sees the coastline and maybe even the coast of Korea. She takes him to a dark place shrouded in an endless void of lost souls. There is a fallen temple on an island, surrounded by flooded graves falling into the sea, dead trees house hundreds of black birds that fill him with dread. He feels like these birds eat souls crawling from drowning graves. He tries to ask “What is this place…” but the injuries and mortician filling his body with poison after his autopsy made his voice die in his throat. She leaves him on a black shore, smelling of moss and dead fish.
Crawling on his hands and knees over sharp rocks, an Oldman with wild eyes and a ornate ceremonial kimono picks him up and helps him walk to a cliff over looking a dark courtyard of the fallen temple. Wolves howl and bitter cold wind whips Furyo’s face raw. The Oldman’s hands and face white fur, his kimono has a design of a great wold attacking the sun, causing it to bleed onto the Earth, spreading flowers from a field of bones. Furyo cant make his voice cry out, the Oldman’s blind eyes and cruel face make him panic. Looking into the shadowed courtyard he sees a Black Wolf with the bristling muscles of man. The Black Wolf is practicing Karate, each movement with such sudden violence and power if makes Furyo feel like the sky its self is cowering, each strike causes thunder and lightning, violent winds and deep bells in the distance. Sounds of screaming, ribcages busted open and teeth scattering across the ground are shocking to his new life and uncontaminated Holy Spirit.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Furyo has never felt such fear, around him on the roofs and walls fearsome Tennin Tengu watch with black eyes, so still they could be made of stone but their kimonos and scarves fight the wind. The Oldman holds a walking stick a with one hand and lantern with he other. Furyo cant believe his eyes and along with the Black Wolf, dozens of Angry Ghosts practice 獣流空手 Kemono-ryū Karate, each holding a lantern and swinging hooked chain weapon like a mace. Furyo is in the heart of his enemies camp, seeing the White Wolf and The Black Wolf among the Plague Clan, Possessed Man and Evil Ghost Clan fill him with terror. These are the foes stalking to assassinate the Devil Clan. The Oldman pushes him down a path, kicking him and hitting him with a stick until he is at the feet of The Black Wolf. The Oldman’s voice is like a snarling wolf, he says. “Go! Learn!” As The Black Wolf effortlessly tears out beating hearts and collapses lungs with punches and kicks that hit like bullets.
Furyo is stuck in this hellish place, practicing the esoteric movements of the Beast Style of Karate. Surrounded by his enemies for what feels like centuries. Suffering violent full contact matches against the warriors of the Possessed Men, Plague Clan and Ghost Clan. His body absorbing each kick and punch, making his skin like wood and his bones like iron. Every impact from a throw or weapon strike makes him feel like a burning sun is flowing in his heart, filling his knuckles with energy. A divine rage manifests as his fists and kicks land on the demonic foes, ghosts and shapeshifters. Breaking open faces, splintering jaws and igniting corpses in blue spiritual fire. As he learns the movements, an ultraviolet spectrum of light becomes visible, showing more and more spirits around him. Skeletons, swooping phantoms and disguised Yokai in the skin of humans draw forth a world only hinted at in the half light of drunken hallucinations. This is the Beast Clan, Assassination Style of warfare.
Having seen enough the Ten no-Tsukai Tengu swoop down, making a parameter with their spears. Blocking his enemies and taking him up into the sky. These Bird-Demon-Angels are beyond good and evil, raw forces of nature and the universe. Heads of hawks and long nosed demons, dozens of wings and weapons meant to guard the goddess Amaterasu as she travels across space and time. The crawling terror he felt in the fallen temple leaves him as he returns to the Golden Temple of the Hell Priests. His hopeful feeling leave him right away as the Tengu bring him to their own martial arts staging ground, making a circle around him. He falls to his knees, head pressed to the stone ground, begging for a rest. There will be none, the Tennin Tengu take turns attacking and defeating him.
In another training that feels like decades he learns weapon based combat of the Avian Demon Angels of the Ten no-Tsukai Tengu. Angelina is there, watching and smiling. Her eyes hold a reassurance that fills him with a new energy to put his all into surviving this new ordeal. Before long he is able to grasp the movements and concepts of using sword, spear and spiritual light he is able to condense in his fists to bursts of light. Exorcising evil spirits and guiding innocent souls to Heaven. Furyo far from feeling like a corpse newly awakened to a far out reality, is channeling cosmic forces of rival polarities, cycling energy of light and dark, good and evil, water and fire, earth and spirit. Harmonizing the suffering of his life and his ancestors like a dagger into the heart of the predatory and unclean. He is a diamond tearing into the souls of the Kami, maximizing their intrinsic power and radiating it with the help of the sun goddess Amaterasu.