Pilgrim 2, p.15
Pilgrim 2, page 15
Danzen never experienced much guilt for the things he did.
But he had changed over the last two years, and in that moment, he regretted slaughtering Yuna’s students, even if they were trained to kill him and he had no way to prevent them from doing so. He had to remind himself that leaving any of them alive would have created the perfect scenario for revenge. Yuna had thrust this upon him; those deaths were on her. He was merely the messenger.
He let this thought leave his mind. There was no point dwelling on anything now but reaching his target and neutralizing it. Anything else was a distraction, anything else would get in the way.
He knew where Biren Yeshe would be; he could practically sense his instructor’s presence a few floors below.
Danzen cleared the hallway and made it to the stairwell, circling down, prepared for a surprise attack from either direction. He was even ready for Soko to appear out of the blue, Danzen aware that her abuse of remnants had given her the ability to teleport.
He reached the room in question, the largest hall in the instructor’s complex which spanned two stories, the walls decorated with art depicting the fall of Sunyata and the rise of Diyu, the smell of incense in the air, the space barely lit by hanging paper lanterns.
Everything on the periphery was a blur as Danzen’s eyes fell upon a man seated at the center of the room.
What was left of his hair was tied into a tight bun wrapped in blue silk. The man wore elegant robes, Danzen recognizing it as something worn for formal combat. Even though the man was alerted to Danzen’s presence in the room, he kept his back to him.
“You have returned home,” Biren Yeshe said, an eloquence to his voice.
Danzen had the notion to loose his sword in his former instructor’s direction, but he knew that the man was able to easily block it; he had seen him do it before. He was also aware of the way that Biren Yeshe liked to spar, no weapons.
Danzen removed his scabbard and his Blade of Darkness, just about the time that Biren Yeshe stood and turned to him.
“Ah, so you remember.”
“Where is everyone?”
“They have been told to stay locked in their rooms. There is no need for senseless death.”
“Yuna felt otherwise.”
“And is she dead now?”
Danzen nodded.
“She was warned and she earned her fate. Her students?”
Danzen nodded.
“They died bravely, loyal to their instructor, to their master, a warrior’s death. You know, Danzen Ravja, you could learn a thing or two from them. Perhaps it’s too late now, perhaps you have run out of time for a final lesson.” Biren Yeshe slowly set one foot behind the other, and lifted his fists into the air.
“I am ready to end this.”
“Are you? Whether you care to admit it or not, you have a natural bloodlust that must be satiated. Your whore of a mother…”
“My mother was a nun. My father raped her. I would choose my next words wisely, if I were you.”
“So you have discovered what you believe to be the truth? You have finally come to understand, to admit to yourself that you are half-demon?” Biren Yeshe smiled, wrinkles appearing at the corners of his cheeks. “I was wondering if you would ever come to this realization. How did it happen? Who told you?”
“I know what I am, and I also know what I don’t want to be.”
“It is strange when a creature goes against their natural instinct, yet here we are, a man born from the seed of a demon who hopes to give up a life of bloodshed. Not ironically, this same man has killed over twenty people to reach me, and hundreds more in his past. Do you not see what you are? Can you not understand what you are meant to be? This is your last chance, Danzen Ravja. Return to the Diyu Brotherhood, or face extinction.”
Danzen shot forward with a kick, which Biren Yeshe managed to swat away.
He retaliated with a quick fist, Danzen stepping around it, but just barely, not used to someone moving as quickly as his former instructor. A master in the melee arts, Biren Yeshe had remnants embedded in his knuckles; his punches were said to be able to shatter every bone in a person’s body.
Danzen also knew that if he used one of his weapons that Biren Yeshe would be able to block them. He had tried this before, at least with Astra, Biren Yeshe challenging him once he acquired the famed blade.
No, the only way to do this would be to beat Biren Yeshe at his own game, one of intimidation and sheer strength, the latter of which Danzen had an abundance of.
He actually caught Biren Yeshe’s next strike, Danzen feeling the strain in his arm as an energy moved from his instructor into his bone marrow. But Danzen’s bones held strong, the former assassin able to counter with a knee to the chest.
“And what will beating me give you?” Biren Yeshe asked, baring his teeth down at Danzen. He lifted his fists again. “You’ve come all the way from your hiding spot to do what? To kill me?”
“That is the only way to end the contract you have put on my head. You would never rescind the contract.”
“You are right about that, but I’m not the only person with a contract with your name on it.”
“What do you mean?” Danzen asked, his eyes going wide.
“There is someone else who wants you dead, and she is quite powerful.”
“Soko?”
“You and your love affair with that woman,” Biren Yeshe said with disgust. “I was against it then, and I am against it now. She doesn’t want you dead, you fool. Soko wants you alive, to herself. She is nothing but a ghoul now; Soko will kill herself with her addiction to remnants and that will be the end of that. She always was impulsive, wasn’t she? Couldn’t take enough just to grow to a certain level of strength, had to push it.”
“Nomin?”
“The blind assassin? She is still searching for you using her own methods, which have clearly failed. Last I heard, she was in the north, in Bahlingar.”
“Then who?” Danzen asked, growling now. His voice almost shifted in the same tone it took when he used his Demon Speak power, but he knew that this was useless against his instructor.
He had tried before.
“You recall your last contract, the man you killed named Palmo Mipham.”
Danzen swallowed hard, knowing what Biren Yeshe was about to say next.
“His daughter, Sumi Mipham, inherited a significant amount of wealth along with the Sunyata talisman you gave her as his only heir. She will stop at nothing to find you. So even if you win today, there will still be someone paying to have you hunted. And that’s not to mention your brother.”
“My brother?”
“You didn’t know you had a brother, did you?”
Danzen brought his fists up again. “I knew.”
“He stopped by not long ago, a rather spooky fellow, something quite devious about him. He didn’t put a contract out on you or anything; but he was curious about you, and your past and abilities. We had a very good conversation, seated just here.” Biren Yeshe motioned to a small table closer to the wall. “He is a rather forceful man.”
“You are the first to put a contract out on me,” Danzen said, momentarily forgetting what he had just learned. “You lied to me. You betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you? I saved you,” Biren Yeshe hissed. “You may have found a place to hide in the Far East, but you are a demon at heart, a freak of nature, someone that no one could love, someone no one could care for. You do not have a role or place in the world outside these walls.”
Overcome with rage, Danzen burst forward with his fist, which Biren Yeshe managed to block with his forearms. But his bones weren’t as strong as Danzen’s, and the former assassin was able to shatter his radius, Biren Yeshe making a surprised noise with his throat.
He tapped his heel against the ground, a blade popping out of the tip of his shoe. Biren Yeshe kicked his foot at Danzen, hoping to draw blood, but the former assassin was faster than his teacher and managed to step away.
“I thought there would be no weapons,” Danzen said, seething now, ready to end this.
“You thought wrong.”
Biren Yeshe reached into the front of his robes and returned with a pair of throwing knives.
He launched the weapons at Danzen, one of them blocked by his armor, the other flying just over his shoulder. It was a desperate attempt, and his next move was even more desperate, Biren Yeshe crying out as he charged forward.
He swung his fist at Danzen, who sidestepped his attack, Biren Yeshe trying to follow up with the chop.
But he was too late.
Danzen was already behind him by this point, his arm wrapping around his neck, his hand on his head.
“Goodbye,” Danzen said as he snapped his teacher's neck, Biren Yeshe’s body instantly going limp.
The older man fell to the ground, Danzen standing over him for a moment just to make sure he was dead.
He had done it.
And in the process, he had learned that there were others looking for him, that this was far from over.
With one chapter finished, another began.
Danzen returned to his weapons; once he had his sword at his side, his glaive on his back, he headed toward the nearest window.
Part Three
.Chapter One.
Danzen, Kudzu, and Jelmay traveled through the woods that circled around Sainshand, the three constantly on alert, expecting for there to be search parties.
But they never came, and once they were close to the eastern entrance of the city, Jelmay began to morph into the form of a woman with long hair and tight blue robes. “I need to get us a carriage. Overnight, the same way we came in. We hit Arsi, and we’ll hopefully be able to relax a little from there on our way back to Genshin Valley.” He placed his shield and his sword on the ground.
Danzen started to say something but stopped himself. He could explain on their way to Arsi. He wasn’t going back to the Valley; he was going north to Bahlingar, in search of the blind assassin known as Nomin.
And he would be going alone.
Kudzu, who was still in her human form, crouched as Jelmay turned toward the town. “Just stay here. I promise I’ll be back and I will hurry,” the bakeneko told them, his female voice sounding a bit like Kudzu’s. “With the amount of money I’m prepared to wave around, I expect that we will be able to do this discreetly.”
Jelmay took off, and Danzen crouched as well, reliving what had just happened, and what he had learned. Not only had his full-demon brother paid Biren Yeshe a visit, but there was someone else with a contract on his head, Sumi, the pink-robed teenage girl whom he had once saved.
The second part made sense. He was also responsible for the death of her father and perhaps her younger sister, Danzen recalling that he found a dead child in one of the rooms when he swept through her father’s manor. He tried to recall what she looked like, but everything that had happened that fateful night two years ago was a blur to him, including much of his fight with the now-dead assassin known as Norwin Dawa.
“You still haven’t told me what happened,” Kudzu said as she looked over to him.
She was seated fully on the ground now, her legs in front of her, arm wrapped around her knees. Her sword, which was in its scabbard, was next to her.
“We spoke, we fought, I won.”
She chuckled. “I figured that much. What did he tell you?”
“He said that there was someone else trying to kill me, someone I had a brief interaction with a few years back.” Danzen told her about Sumi, and how he had saved her from his own demons on his final mission to assassinate her father.
“So they will still be looking for you.”
“They will.” He then explained what Biren Yeshe had said about his brother.
“That sounds…” Kudzu cleared her throat.
“Exactly. I don’t know what he wants.”
The two were quiet for a spell, completely comfortable with each other’s presence, neither bothered at all by stretches of silence.
Danzen still felt like it had been too easy.
After years of building up pressure, to simply go to the Diyu Brotherhood and handle things so swiftly seemed anti-climactic. He was lucky that it had gone smoothly enough, even if the hotel owner had given them up. But there still seemed to be something off about it.
Jelmay returned after another twenty minutes or so, still in his female form, and motioned for them to follow him after gathering his shield and sword. As they pressed through the brush, the bakeneko told Danzen to prepare to use his power.
“We can’t have the carriage drivers knowing who we are, or what we look like,” he reminded the former assassin.
They came to a narrow road and found a smaller carriage waiting for them, the driver already seated and eager to go. The goateed man was just turning to greet them when Danzen summoned his power. “Take us to Arsi as quickly as you can. Do not remember any of this afterward. Tell us through three knocks if you encounter any trouble on the road.”
“By Sunyata, I wish I had that power,” Jelmay said as he opened the door for Kudzu, who stepped in. He went in next, Danzen moving into the cabin last, once again seated next to Kudzu.
“You would abuse it,” the white fox told him.
“Yeah, yeah… Let’s go!” Jelmay called aloud, the carriage instantly picking up speed. He took his cat form, yawned, and smiled over to Danzen and Kudzu. “Well, that was a success, if I do say so myself.”
Kudzu and Danzen exchanged glances. Figuring now was as good of a time as any, Danzen spoke: “We will part ways in Arsi. I need to travel north to Bahlingar to handle something. You two should continue on to Genshin Valley, unless you have other business.”
“You are going out alone?” Kudzu asked.
“What’s wrong with that?” Jelmay asked her. “He’s a full-grown assassin clearly capable of taking on an army of kids. Sorry, Pilgrim, had to say it.” When Danzen didn’t reply to his comment, the bakeneko continued: “He doesn’t need our help.”
“It’s not that,” Danzen said, not sure if Jelmay was being facetious or not. He quickly caught the bakeneko up on what had happened back at the Diyu Brotherhood, the contract still on his head, his brother’s visit, and a few loose ends he needed to tie up, most notably Nomin, the blind assassin who he knew would stop at nothing to kill him.
“What about this ex-girlfriend of yours? The ghost one?”
“Biren Yeshe didn’t know where she was. Soko hasn’t returned since the incident,” he said, referring to her joint attack alongside Norwin Dawa.
“And forgive me for asking, but why do you need to find and kill Nomin?” Jelmay asked.
“Because she doesn’t care about the contracts. She is trying to find me for the challenge. We have a mutual respect.”
“Is that what they call it? One of you walks out alive, the other dies, and that is a mutual respect?” Kudzu asked, a hint of disgust in her voice.
“Unfortunately, yes. I don’t wish Nomin dead,” Danzen said in all honesty. “But she is meticulous, and she will eventually come to Genshin Valley in search of me. There is another thing that I need to see to up north as well.”
“What’s that?” Jelmay asked.
“My mother. She is supposedly at a nunnery there. I would like to find her if possible, to learn more about what happened between her and my father.”
“I hate to say that there’s probably not much more to the story than a demon, who is now the ruler of Diyu, raped her. But maybe there is,” the bakeneko said with a shrug. “I just wouldn’t get my hopes up, if I were you. Also, you do realize that showing up after forty years is going to be a bit awkward, right? Talk about a mother-son reunion…”
“Likely.”
“In that case, it makes sense that you want to do this alone. I wouldn’t want to have two incredibly interesting and loyal companions like the fox and myself getting in the way of a family reunion or a duel to the death.”
“You should let us come with you,” Kudzu said, a hint of desperation in her voice. “Or at least me. Let me come with you. Nomin may try to trick you.”
“No,” Danzen said, registering the concern in her eyes, “she won’t. She’s not one to delve in trickery; she’s quite dedicated to cultivating her echo. This is something I have to do alone. And once I return to the Valley, which shouldn’t be more than a week from now, you and I can visit the fox shrine. I would like to begin the next leg of my own journey.”
“To think our dear Pilgrim is now wanting to bend his echo,” Jelmay said as he licked his lips. “I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing for humanity, but it will definitely be interesting to watch. And just in case you are curious, I did not see this part coming.”
****
Not much was said over the next several hours, Jelmay drifting off to sleep while Kudzu simply stared out the window. Danzen sensed that she was angry at him for not inviting her to join him on his side trip to Bahlingar, but he knew better. Danzen needed to handle his encounter with Nomin alone, and if he was able to locate his mother…
There really was no telling how things would check out, and for that matter, there was always the chance that Nomin would kill him. He didn’t want Kudzu to be there for that.
“You should at least stay the night in Arsi,” she said at one point. Her voice briefly woke Jelmay, who snorted and turned to the other side, an annoyed look on his whiskered face. “There’s blood all over your robes, you have fought hard today, and I’m guessing you barely got any sleep last night.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“No, you will relax for one night,” she said firmly. “I don’t want to see…”
She never finished that statement, Kudzu looking out the window again, the landscape one of long stretches of grass and twisted trees.
“I will stay for the night,” Danzen told her over an hour later.
Kudzu chuckled to herself. “Sunyata’s blessings.”
On their previous trip from Arsi to Sainshand, the carriage had stopped at an outpost to switch out the drivers and some of the horses. This trip was no different, and it was late into the night that it reached the location, Jelmay up by this point.
