Pilgrim 3, p.13
Pilgrim 3, page 13
There was a chance it would be a rough ride, at least for the first few hours.
Their premium room was as Danzen expected it would be, absolutely immaculate, even better than the one that they had previously stayed in while traveling to Arsi. Before they could get comfortable an attendant appeared, asking if they would prefer dinner or a late-night snack.
“Both. We would prefer both,” Jelmay said. “And make it snappy.”
The room was separated by a couple partitions that could be moved into place, and while it was large, the space didn’t provide much privacy. There was also Yato’s presence, another thing that they would have to address. As much as she wasn’t their prisoner, she technically was, and they would need to keep an eye on her. Danzen didn’t mind staying up during the night to make sure she didn’t attempt something, but he would have to rest at some point, this role likely falling to Kudzu and Jelmay.
“We have two large beds, and a place to sleep right over here,” Jelmay said as he motioned toward a long bench with cushions on it. “Obviously, I’m getting one of the beds.”
“You can take the other bed,” Danzen told Kudzu, “and you can take the bench,” he told Yato.
“And where will you sleep?” the young assassin asked.
“I won’t. Not tonight, anyway.”
“I just wish the food would hurry up and get here,” Kudzu said as she paced for a moment. “Not that I’m hungry or anything, I’m just tired of…” She gestured toward her body.
“Just transform. If they come, you can hide in the corner,” Jelmay told her. “Be sure to tuck your tail.”
“Maybe you’re right…” Her robes cascaded to the ground and Kudzu emerged from her robes in her white fox form. “Can you help me with that?” she asked Danzen, nodding toward the clothing she wore just seconds ago.
“Look at you,” Jelmay said, cackling. “You really have become a diva, haven’t you, fox? You could have changed in the washroom area and folded your clothes yourself. You know that, right?”
“You’re right, I could have. But I was in a hurry to prove something to someone.” Kudzu turned to Yato, who had her hand over her mouth, the young assassin barely able to hide the shock on her face.
“Huh? Ah! I get it now,” Jelmay said. “She didn’t believe you. In that case, feast your eyes upon this, milady.” Without missing a beat, Jelmay began to transform into the spitting image of Yato. “Now do you believe we are yokai?” he asked in her voice.
Yato’s eyes appeared to be twice the size they were just moments ago, her voice quivering as she spoke. “I can’t believe yokai exist.”
“We most certainly do,” Jelmay told her. “Now, I’m going to take my human form again for the food delivery. Kudzu, get behind something. I don’t know the fox policy on this ship.”
****
Danzen stayed awake through the night, ignoring Jelmay’s snores, his focus entirely on Yato, who rested on the cushioned bench with her back to him. He remembered being around her age, introduced to the world through his first mark, who turned out to be a local governor who owed over a hundred and fifty thousand kip to a group of unionized pleasure houses in Sainshand. The contract had been simple: kill the man no matter what, even if he offered to pay the sum with interest.
Looking back now, Danzen realized how easy of a mark the governor had been, the man without any security, and suffering from a drinking problem that saw him moving from tavern to tavern late into the night. Watching him from a rooftop, Danzen simply dropped down behind the man and drove his blade into his back. What happened next took Danzen by surprise.
“You… You stabbed me,” the drunken governor said, Danzen’s blade still jutting out of the front of his torso. “I’ve… I’ve been stabbed! Help! Stabbed!”
The man cried again and again, Danzen’s instinctual reaction being to bring his hand over the man’s mouth and pull him into the shadows. He withdrew his sword and sent it in again, the man moaning in pain this time, Danzen cursing himself for not going for a main artery like he’d been trained. It wasn’t the first time Danzen had been forced to rely on his Demon Speak ability early on in his career, but it was the first, and only time, he had made a mistake not to kill immediately when given the chance with one of his targets. Later, it would be a point of order to move as quickly as he could, relying on his knowledge of anatomy. The only reason he had faltered at the very end of his career, with his last contract against Sumi’s father, Palmo, had been sheer exhaustion with the trade, and his desire to move on.
It was odd in that way, Danzen’s first and last official kill were both marred with error.
He withdrew his blade about the same time the door of the tavern opened and several men stepped out, the local governor crying for them. Danzen acted swiftly. “Kill yourself,” he told the man. He slipped back into the shadows, and from there, onto a porch where he’d be able to watch what happened next.
The men that had just come out of the tavern rushed to the governor’s aid. On his knees now, the governor grabbed a knife from one of the men’s boots with both hands. Exhibiting a superhuman strength inspired by Danzen’s command, he drove the dagger into his heart. More people had arrived in the scene by the time his body hit the ground, the knife sticking out of his chest as he rolled to the side. It was certainly a botched attempt, but Danzen had completed the task. He was never reprimanded for his sloppy performance, protected, as always, by his former teacher Biren Yeshe.
****
Time passed, and soon the interior of their room on the ship began to change color.
Sitting in the early morning light and keeping his eye on the young assassin brought with it more memories, fleeting images of death, a past worth forgetting.
Danzen decided it was time to bend his echo. Now with Nomin’s basket-hilted short sword held before him, he went through the motions carefully and quietly. As he did so, Danzen began to notice the energy moving within him, spreading down his legs and through to his fingertips. He closed his eyes. He could see the glow of the remnants within his bloodstream, a glow which strengthened every time he came forward with his weapon. Once again, he sensed that there was something unique about the sword that Nomin had wielded aside from the life it had extinguished, something powerful, something hidden.
Had the blind assassin’s blade been forged by blacksmiths familiar with remnants? Had remnants somehow been hammered into the blade itself, similar to Astra?
Danzen wished he could ask Nomin about it, and using her weapon once again reminded him of the impact she’d had on his life, the final fight at the nunnery, one that brought forth demons amongst flowers, a juxtaposition that made the terrifying scene tragic.
He continued to the point that he felt as if he were having a breakthrough, the energy of Sunyata spiraling all around him, a corona of light just a few feet ahead, Danzen close to reaching it.
His spirit shifted forward; it felt as if he were tethered to his body by a great weight that pushed himself even further, a purple whiteness radiating all around him, his heart beating so hard in his chest that he could hear it in his ears. From a visual standpoint, it was if he were several yards away from his body now, a silent observer.
Everything snapped back together. Danzen opened his eyes and let out a deep breath. Yato was watching him, the young woman now seated on the bench with her legs crossed beneath her body.
“Sorry to disturb you,” Danzen told her as he quickly put the blade away.
“You were bending your echo, weren’t you?”
Danzen nodded. The light now coming into the room cast a pillar of orange onto the floorboard, which reflected off a series of polished tacks. The ship was suddenly alive, Danzen sensing movement out in the hallway and on the deck above, hearing it through the walls.
“I would like to see the water,” Yato said. “It’s always beautiful in the morning.”
“I’ll join you.”
Danzen stood by the door as Yato slipped her feet into the slippers she wore. He was familiar with the design; assassins that relied heavily on stealth wore them, and they were stitched in a way to provide ultimate movement for one’s feet, with thick soles for long treks that had extra cushioning for sudden drops.
The two made their way to the top deck, Danzen with his swords, his Blade of Darkness, and gauntleted blades in the room below with the yokai. There were a few others on deck observing the morning sun ripple wavelengths of peach-colored light across the river while the ship’s staff set out tables where people would be able to have breakfast. Seagulls circled in the air above squawking, and one of the crewmen was in the process of batting them away with a long pole when Danzen and Yato stepped up to the railing.
Rather than look out at the water, Yato turned and leaned against the railing, her hollow dark eyes focused on Danzen.
“I thought you wanted to see the river.”
“I can see it from here too.” Yato gestured to the opposite side of the deck with her chin. “I need to process everything I learned yesterday. It’s hard to believe that you’re an echo-bending half-demon, half-man who was once one of the most renowned assassins in the kingdom, yet who has now resorted to a life of tranquility amongst two curious yokai companions.”
Danzen almost mentioned his desire to do something with whatever was left of his life, be it rebuilding Sunyata, or transitioning more to the life of a hermit, something to avoid the kinds of situations he had found himself experiencing in the past.
But he didn’t say anything. As usual, he merely nodded.
“Is there anything I’m missing?” Yato asked, pressing him again.
“How is your wound?”
“You mean the one that you gave me?”
She lifted the corner of her dark tunic to show Danzen the scar. It was red around the edges, but there was no infection, and it appeared that she had already put on some of the ointment that Dalan had given her.
“I hope it doesn’t bring you too much pain.”
“The back side has bruised up more than the front.” She swiveled, showing Danzen the exit wound. “Whatever the hermit has me putting on it seems to be working. It’s numb, but not in a bad way.”
“That’s good to know.”
“I suppose it will one day be something to be proud of.”
“Why?”
“The scar was given to me by an infamous half-demon assassin. Maybe one day I’ll be able to brag about it, just another scar with a story.” Yato smirked, but Danzen didn’t return her grin.
“You still plan to continue this life after what has happened? After what will happen over the next few days?”
“I haven’t decided,” she said, Danzen recognizing a hint of honesty in her voice. “I guess you could always tell me to do differently using your power.”
“That’s not my place.”
She shrugged. “To be honest, I’m still trying to understand your place in all this. It seems to me, someone as strong as you are would likely be rich by this point, and be in the position where you could cherry pick your assignments, or simply take over the Brotherhood and semi-retire. Yet you chose to leap off the edge of the world instead. According to some of the conversations I overheard last night between you and the yokai, you live in an abandoned monastery with your mother. It seems almost like a fall from grace.”
“More like a fall to grace,” Danzen said. “I’m happier now. Kip doesn’t mean anything to me, nor does power.”
“I guess a person who can control the minds of others would say something like that. I’m still trying to process all this, is what I’m trying to tell you. It doesn’t make sense to me. If I were strong as you, I would be calling the shots.”
“I wish it were that easy.”
“It could be. Soko told us how you attacked the Brotherhood. You could have taken it over if you had wanted, and changed how they operated. There are so many things you could have done, yet you only went after your teacher, and even though another instructor and a few deaf students died, there was little collateral damage. I’m just trying to understand it all.”
“You are young,” Danzen said after a long pause. “And I hope you never understand what it feels like to reach the pinnacle of power, how empty it is, and how empty it feels once you’ve gained that status. I realize now that two years ago, when I retreated to the Valley, that there was no escaping my past. Not only that, I had done enough damage for it to keep hunting me for the rest of my life, that isn’t to mention my… my blood.”
“You said you were in line to the throne, and you clearly want some kind of change,” Yato said carefully. “Why don’t you just take the Diyu throne and use it for change? Couldn’t the ruler of Diyu do something like that?”
“My mother believes so, yes.”
“And that’s why she has joined you?”
“Likely so, yes. That is the reason. She wants to rebuild Sunyata, and thinks that there is a possibility to do so, but it would involve me killing my father and taking his throne. And that’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to be the ruler of Diyu; I just want to rule my own life.”
“That’s what I don’t understand about you,” Yato said. “Why not do both? Become the ruler of Diyu to use its power, or whatever power you would be granted by taking the role, and rebuild Sunyata. Then disappear for good.”
“The person at the top is always a target,” Danzen said. “I’m assuming Thane taught you that. I don’t want to have a target on my head, at least no more than I already do.”
“What about your brother?”
“Nomtoi is a perfect example of this. I’m not even at the top and yet I’m his target. As soon as I take that role, I will have more enemies than I already do. I know for some people it comes off as odd not to want power, especially when they have the propensity for it. We need to discuss Arsi, what happens when we get there,” Danzen said, hoping to move away from the topic that defined his life. “We will need to move quickly and under the guise of day. As you know, Soko is most active at night.”
“I know where they were staying last,” Yato said carefully, “but they may have… they may have changed locations.”
“True, and they may not even be in the city. If that’s the case, and we can’t find them, we will try to lure them out. It’s time to be honest with me. I do not want to have to force honesty.”
“What do you mean?”
“Surely you and your group had a plan if one of you got separated and not killed. What was that plan?”
Yato turned away from Danzen, and stared out at the water. “There is a temple near the fairgrounds with a giant wooden statue in front of it. If one of us got away, we agreed to shoot the head of the statue with an arrow wrapped in a red or blue flag. If it is a red flag, it indicates that we will be in a safe house near an armory. If it is a blue flag, we will be in a room above a brewery. We also agreed to wait a day once we see the signal, so that will give us a little extra time if we have to pull out for some reason.”
“Which of these two locations would provide a better ambush spot?”
“The brewery. The armory has guards nearby. This location was chosen if we sensed we were being followed.”
“I see. In that case, we will rely on that for a backup plan, the brewery.”
“You aren’t going to use your Demon Speak ability to test if I’m being honest?” Yato asked.
“No. I prefer not to use my powers; every time I use it, it reminds me that I am not quite human.”
“And you would prefer to be human, right?”
“I would.”
Yato shook her head and finally turned back to him. “The more I learn about you, the less I understand.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
.Chapter Three.
The day passed relatively quickly. Danzen slept for a few hours while Kudzu and Jelmay looked after Yato, the three quiet for the most part aside from an argument between the two yokai about Jelmay’s urge to gamble. Danzen awoke in the late afternoon, their cabin warm even with the breeze coming through the open windows.
While Yato had grown used to their yokai forms, it seemed that the way Jelmay looked in his cat form entertained her to some degree, the young assassin occasionally chuckling at the things he said and how he gestured. He picked up on this, and soon he went out of his way to make exaggerated faces or gestures, much to Kudzu’s chagrin.
By the time Danzen was up and moving again, he could tell that Kudzu was ready for him to arrive in Arsi already, evident in how she quickly called for room service requesting an herb to help her sleep. It came a few minutes later, she took it, and retreated to one of the beds.
“Such a sleepy fox,” Jelmay joked. The bakeneko had been seated at the table, but he now stood with his hands on his sides, the cabin filling with the garlicky smell of his last accidental belch. “Sorry about that.”
“You are a despicable creature,” Kudzu said.
“But you still love me. Come on, Pilgrim, New Pilgrim. What? No? The nickname isn’t going to work? I’m trying to find another name for you,” he told Yato.
“You could just call me Yato.”
“I know I could, but I like giving people nicknames. Let’s head up to the top deck and see if there’s any gambling to be had. If it’s not there, it’s happening somewhere on the ship.” His nostrils flared open. “I’ll find it, wherever it is.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent tailing the bakeneko, Danzen realizing only after they had stood behind him for a while that Yato and Danzen looked like Jelmay’s security. Either way, it made the time pass, and as Danzen watched the card games that Jelmay found himself a part of, he noticed that the bakeneko did less cheating than he had originally assumed. Sure, there were a few things he did when calling an opponent’s bluff, and Danzen could have sworn that one time Jelmay pulled a spare card from the front of his vest to make his hand stronger, but for the most part, he didn’t cheat.
