Cuppy was dozing soundly, out like a light within twenty minutes of Richie’s own lapse into sleep. The wind outside howled, rattling the shingles of the roof violently, and little white cap waves crested in the reservoir as the trees shook, leaves blowing loose and soaring under the pale light of the moon.
Little tapping sounds, like the rapping of small hands on the walls from within them, echoed all throughout the apartment, and Richie stirred restlessly a moment, brows creased, sound sleep on the verge of birthing nightmares. The outlines of dark handprints appeared in the walls, trying to push shadowy fingers through the drywall and into the living room where the boys sprawled on their bedrolls.
The talismans stretched out all across the apartment surfaces held fast against the pressure. From them came, variously, sounds like gongs, church bells, and mystic chants to banish evil and impurity. The pressing hands receded and vanished into the flatness of the walls once again.
At Richie’s head where it lay on its pillow, beside him lay the page on which the kanji for moonlight was written - 月光
‘Gekko’.
The page drifted closer to Richie as if moved by a nonexistent breeze, and draped itself over his chest. His azure dragons roused, sniffing the air, and rose from Richie’s arms, looking over the sheet that lay on their master and charge. The kanji too began to glow a deep, ghostly azure blue, and the joined lights of both enveloped Richie within a radiant sphere.
The boy’s eyes popped open with a start, and he saw that he was looking down on a concrete walkway running through a recreational park, a mid-sized square of area encircled by mesh fence, and adjoining a public access bathroom building. In the same square was some kind of storage shed, locked up tight. Far off into the distance, the grass of the surrounding fields were whipped and torn from the ground by the storm, which announced the arrival of a downpour of chilling rain with a vivid streak of lightning and a booming thunderclap.
Where am I, what’s going on? Richie thought, hearing the words echo inside his headspace.
His clothes were being soaked through by the bitter rain and sleet. He wanted nothing better than to hug his arms to his chest and curl up into a ball for some semblance of warmth against the raging storm, but found that his arms were held fixed, splayed out to either side of his body. He was suspended in midair, as if nailed to an invisible crucifix, and could only look around helplessly and wonder at his fate.
Elsewhere, in the unmarked building of the Institute, the monitoring interactive screens flashed to life, and an alert went out to the agents. The twin female computer workers were up to bat, and took their stations upon the crane-elevated seats. The director barged into the room with one fist clenched around his cell phone, pressed up to his ear.
“I don’t care what you have to tell the supervisors, it’s not like the old bastards would understand any of what we do here anyway. You just keep their proper channels and ordinance crap out of my way while I work, I’ve got to take this. Don’t tell me how to do my job.” he growled, and slammed the flip-style phone shut with a snap. “What have we got?” he asked up at his subordinates.
“High Ether Fog concentrations condensing in the west block district!” bobcut said.
“Deploy Telescope Dragonflies. Any Foreign Bodies detected?” the director said coolly.
“Yes, and it looks like a Feral. He’s about to breach!” longhair said.
“Well put a damn Tracer on it then!” the director barked.
“No can do, it won’t lock on in time, he’s coming in hot.” bobcut said.
The director grit his teeth. “Damn monsters thinking they can just punch through into our world without consequence.” he muttered, clenching his fists.
Richie saw everything the Institute had been tracking unfold in real time, and would have recoiled from the sudden plume of fog leaking up out of the ground itself had he not been frozen stuck in his crucified position. As such, he could only stifle a breath and mentally prepare to see what came next.
The fog swirled and hissed, drawing rain and scattered leaves and grass blades into itself, and the very air seemed to be distorted as high lampposts began to flicker and spark, their very light being drawn out of the bulbs and into the twisting vaporal vortex. The fog compressed itself into a form that was almost solid, and was lit by scarlet hellfire from within as a burst of raging flame erupted from the ground as well. As the flames pushed back the fog, they began to take shape, forming a towering, slightly-hunched humanoid figure whose shoulders and chest were extraordinarily broad, rippling muscles barely contained by a leopard-print leotard that joined to a matching loincloth of fabric by a rope belt. Massive biceps flexed, and feet the size of an elephant’s stomped down and cracked the walkway. Brutish features spread across a black bearded face, and a prominent pair of spike-like horns bulged from the creature’s forehead, curving to point up straight to the sky. The behemoth was crimson-skinned, and looked about the new world it had emerged into with eyes that glowed like burning coals. Thick, slobbery lips pulled back as the brute gave a low growl from a mouthful of fangs completed by prominent upturned tusks.
Richie recognized the creature for what it was all too well - he was looking upon an oni, a hulking demonic ogre straight out of Japanese folklore. A necklace of prayer beads was about its thick, corded neck, and its wrists and ankles were all clenched by spiked black bands. It withdrew a massive kanabō - a long, angular club covered in raised knob-like spikes used in feudal times - from the closing portal of fog beneath its feet, and slung it effortlessly over its shoulder. Rather than the traditional wood base, the club appeared to be composed of pure solid iron, and was half as tall as the oni himself, who stood easily sixteen feet.
That thing must weigh a ton. There’s no way I’m looking at this, a monster like that can’t exist, not in the real world. This all has to be a dream. Richie thought desperately.
The oni’s glowing eyes panned back and forth as he observed his new surroundings.
A drift of clouds parted overhead, and the blue moon poured its light over the area. The oni sniffed the air with flaring nostrils set in a sunken pig-like nose, and turned to a corner of the enclosure where someone had tapped down, standing atop the fence, framed in the moonlight. Richie’s dragons sniffed the air as well, locking onto the scent and sight of the newcomer.
Perched on the fence was a slender Japanese woman in a denim skirt and a white t shirt emblazoned with the insignia of a black crescent moon. Her eyes were an icy blue, matched by unreal blue hair that hung straight past her shoulders.
Richie saw those pitiless eyes narrow at the oni, giving him the impression of reticles tightening on a target. The woman dropped into the area, tapping lightly upon the concrete, and put a hand to her waist, where a black lacquered katana was sashed.
The oni stomped toward her, growling, as the fog at his feet began to taper off and disperse to the fenced edges of the locked area.
"The fog cover won't stay much longer to hide us. We'll have to fight quickly." the woman said to the huge oni.
That's the same fog from before, I'm sure of it. Is it like those tunnels? A way into other worlds? Richie wondered.
The oni issued a thunderous lion's roar at the woman, and charged toward her, spinning his club fast enough to blur like helicopter blades with one hand. Richie could feel the gale-force winds fanning out from the whirling bludgeon all the way where he hung in the air, some twenty feet up.
The woman crouched and sprung as the oni brought down his club like a giant sledgehammer, crushing concrete to rubble. A silver flash was accentuated by the moonlight as the woman drew her blade in the blink of an eye, and slashed at the achilles heel. Another gust of wind blew forth as the beast swung his club to catch the woman, who jumped above the swing and hitched a ride on the monster's weapon, crouched low to balance herself against the centrifugal force. She slashed a glancing blow at the oni's chest, leaving nary a scratch, before she was thrown off the club.
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What good is a sword against his leathery skin and super-thick muscles? Richie thought.
The woman leaped back three or four times in quick bursts to put distance between herself and the brute. Her eyes drifted to the fields beyond the gate, where Telescope Dragonflies began to fly toward the battle to observe the combatants. She clicked, and slashed a blue streak across the fence linkage, cutting it cleanly, and displacing what looked like an edged current of compressed air, tinted whitish-blue. It was hard to tell from here through the rain and a partially-obscuring fence, but it seemed like the wind had somehow frozen the drones solid, and shattered them to bits in one stroke. The dismembered wings and segments of maybe six or seven spy bugs fell to the grass with so much sleet.
Look out! Richie thought toward the distracted woman.
She turned her eyes back toward the beast, nimbly backflipping away from the point of impact of another devastating blow that caved the fence in, sparks spurting wildly from the friction of metal on metal. Before the woman could finish sticking her landing though, the beast was already upon her, sprinting with tiger-like speed despite his mass and bulk. The woman's eyes went wide as the club swung up at her in an underhand swing, and she spun her katana into a guard position that helped little.
Richie winced as the woman was knocked several yards into the air by the sheer brute strength of the blow, which rattled through her slender katana and blew her away with ease. Flecks of blood flew from where her palms were torn by the force, clutching the katana's grooved grip, and from her forehead where a vein ruptured above her right eye. Her arc hit its peak right next to where Richie floated.
In that moment Richie was sure that their eyes met. He had gathered from the lack of commentary on his presence by either combatant, and from the fact that the red ogre had not tried to swat him with his massive club like a fly, that they could not see him. But, perhaps the woman could still sense his presence.
That moment frozen in time didn't last long. The oni's massive gorilla hand shot up from under them and clutched the woman around the chest, pinning her arms at her sides in his steel grip. Her feet dangled uselessly outside of the giant vice like a toddler in a baby swing.
The beast began squeezing the woman like a tube of toothpaste, and she screamed as her lungs were compressed, and her ribs began to crack.
The oni lifted his club with his other hand and raised it high, preparing to bring it directly down on the woman's head while she was bound.
She's a goner. Richie wanted to close his eyes, but couldn't.
The woman, grimacing, looked up at the club whose shadow was draped over her like a death shroud. Her blue eyes glowed brighter, like Richie's dragons, and mist began to rise from her body. She spat what looked like a blue stream at the club, and it was flash-frozen over in an instant, turning a cool blue. The biting cold spread through the handle, and the oni grunted as frost spread over his hand. The freezer-burn forced the huge ogre to drop his club, and it crushed the ground with its sheer weight where it landed.
Enraged, the oni joined both hands over the woman to squeeze the life out of her. Icy vapor began to rise from the insides of his hands instead. The beast struggled to maintain his grip through a pained rictus, but it was futile. Seconds later, icicles pierced clean through his loosened hands from within, like stakes. He shrieked and dropped the woman.
So she can use magic too, like Cuppy and me? Richie realized.
The woman slashed at the oni's front, and a blue wave traveled up diagonally across his chest and shoulder, from which splashed a gout of hot blood. The beast roared again, and stomped at the woman. His foot was pierced by a glacier, and stuck frozen in place. The woman returned to a resting iaijutsu quick-draw stance, but the oni retaliated unexpectedly. His parted fangs revealed flecks of flame seeping through, and he opened his jaws wide to launch a red-hot fireball from his gullet.
The flame washed over the penetrating glacier, shattering it in a rapid explosion of steam and freeing the oni's foot. The woman stumbled backward, and the oni took advantage, hiking back his leg and punting the woman like a football. Richie saw the brute's knobby toes sink into the woman's stomach, folding her over his foot for a moment, practically felt the crushing blow knock the wind out of her. Her eyes went wide as she was thrown back-first into the fence, leaving an imprint in the mesh, and fell face-down on the walkway.
Yet, at the same time, Richie heard the snapping of bone from the oni's foot as well, weakened where the ice spikes had pierced it, and the brute grunted as he clutched his foot.
The woman, coughing, was shaking as she tried to force herself to stand again, legs looking ready to give out any moment.
The wound she gave his foot saved her by halving his kick's attack power. A full-force blow like that would be nothing less than the same thing as getting hit by a truck. She can't take another blow and get up again, not at this rate. Come on, hang in there! Richie silently spectated.
The beast's eyes lost their pupils and went blank, and he gave a huge roar skyward to the heavens that Richie could feel in his gut, vibrating his bones. If he wasn't supernaturally paralyzed, he might have fainted and collapsed from sheer overwhelming animal terror. Humans weren't meant to fight these kinds of things. Monsters are monsters because they are superior to humans - bigger, stronger, deadlier. Fear was the warning signal response to turn and run with your tail between your legs. Trying to stand your ground was suicidal idiocy. And yet…
Her eyes don't look scared. They look pissed off. She hasn't lost the will to fight. What am I looking at? This is one wild dream.
The woman was standing, leaning into her katana stabbed into the ground, propping her up like a crutch.
The oni roared at her again, flinging spittle that sizzled like hot grease on impact. He inhaled a huge breath of air that bulged his chest outward, engorged enough to tear his spotted leotard to ribbons of fluttering fabric, then exhaled a massive volley of destructive fireballs, firing off dozens upon dozens at the woman.
Get out of there! Richie thought.
It was all the woman could do to dodge, each blast blowing through concrete and flinging burning stone shrapnel, massive shockwaves spreading spidery cracks further through the walk, and throwing the woman around like a rag doll caught in a hurricane. Each movement was visibly taking a toll on her, and her movements were growing slower. She was forced to tuck and roll from the impact of a blast behind her, flame licking her back, and stumbled from the momentum of her own somersault where she tried to stand.
The brute threw his head back and launched a much larger fireball sky-high, whistling like a rising firework.
Not good. Richie mentally gulped.
The woman looked up at the climbing fireball, craning her neck, the blood from the cut above her eye rolling down her face like a streak of red paint.
The fireball exploded into a scattershot rain of smaller fireballs that came down cataclysmically on the area, shattering through the ground like bunker busters. The woman was practically blown around by the shockwaves again, but this time her efforts to dodge were undercut by a detail she had neglected to factor in - the changing landscape of the battleground. The concrete floor was practically entirely in pieces of rubble now, and the deformed topography robbed the woman of solid, even footing. Her shin banged rock where her leg was caught in a shallow impact crater, and she stumbled onto one knee.
Four or five fireballs crashed down on top of her, exploding and kicking up waves of dust and burning particulate matter. The oni folded his arms and nodded assertively with a grunt.
Richie could only gawk in awe as the dust cleared, and standing erect in the smoldering crater was a sizable spiky iceberg. Steam rose off of it as the glacier began to dissolve from the top-down, revealing the woman standing alive and intact. The oni growled in disbelieving frustration.
"I'll suck the marrow from your snapped bones." he promised her.
But the woman wasn't in the mood to talk. Another dark cloud rolled overhead and partially shrouded the moon, making it resemble the crescent marking the woman's t shirt. She held her katana out in her right hand, and twirled its sheath into her left. An icy sheen traveled up the scabbard, freezing it over into another katana edge. The woman parted her teeth as a third katana, composed entirely of solid blue glacial ice, formed out of the moisture in the air horizontally in her mouth, and she bit down on it firmly, clenching the blade at its handle in her jaws.
It's over. She's the victor. Richie suddenly knew in his gut.
The woman crossed her swords in an x in front of her chest, and lunged all the way across the square in a flash of streaking blue. She appeared on the other side of the oni at his back, her swords splayed out to either side of her, arms stretched as far as they could go. Blood sprayed from her gum line from the force of the ice blade's synergistic third strike, and the frozen construct shattered in her jaws.
The oni had three slashes across his torso - two diagonal cuts in an x configuration across his stomach, and one straight cut running across his chest. All three sprayed huge torrents of blood a second later, and the brute collapsed to his knees, clutching at his grievous wounds.
"Impossible, I can't be beaten by a mere human!" he screamed raging denial.
As the oni began to sway, lightheaded from blood loss, and fall over backward, the woman backflipped up and above him, holding aloft against the crescent moon for a moment. She sheathed and replaced her katana at her sash, and crossed her arms.
Dozens of icicles formed in front of the woman, points gleaming sharply. She spread her arms to give the signal to fire, and the stakes rained down on the oni in a hail of piercing power. Richie heard the sickening sound of each icicle lodging itself in bone and organs, finally able to turn his head to look away. He didn't need his eyes to recognize that the fatal blow had been a stake straight through the monster's skull.