Pilgrim 3, p.18
Pilgrim 3, page 18
“Jelmay…” Yato said.
“Not now.”
“Pilgrim is here.”
“That’s why…” Jelmay quickly turned to Danzen. “I was on a winning streak, and then soon as you step up…” The dice struck the other side of the table again and Jelmay whipped around to see that they added up to the number thirteen.
“Yes,” he said, a big smile taking shape on his face as a few of the other patrons frowned. “Yes!”
“Something has come up,” Danzen said again.
“Is it Kudzu? Is she all right? I meant to find her a healer. I’ll find one, later,” Jelmay said as he looked back to the dealer. “Again.”
“She will be fine; I’m searching for someone else, a man named Toku.”
Mention of this name caused everyone at the table to stop what they were doing and look up to Danzen. There wasn’t music playing, but if there had been it would have stopped as well, the name Toku practically echoing around the two-story chamber and eliciting gasps.
“Why did you have to go and do that,” Jelmay said with a sigh.
“What’s happening?” Yato asked.
“Danzen just volunteered us for a fight.” Jelmay shook his head and withdrew his sword, several other men doing the same. “Well, you asked for it. I’ll see you all in Diyu.”
“No one is going to fight,” Danzen said, summoning his Demon Speak ability. “Put your weapons away, now.”
“Awww…” Jelmay returned his sword to its scabbard. “I’m not going to lie, I was looking forward to clobbering a few of these goons, especially after they cheated me. You saw that they were cheating, right? I swear, you should have heard some of the things they said to Lady Pilgrim when I was up about fifteen thousand kip.”
“You’re the one that told them I was your mistress,” Yato said, “and that I was ‘very friendly,’ as you put it.”
“You are friendly,” Jelmay told her. “You’re friendlier than Kudzu, that’s for sure.”
“That’s not how they took it.”
The bakeneko considered this. “Maybe you’re right, and if that’s the case, I apologize. Well, now that you have everyone’s attention, I suppose we better find this man you’re searching for, although I don’t know why you are searching for him. I’m sure you have your reasons.” Jelmay cleared his throat. “All right, someone point us in the direction of Toku, and hopefully, it involves another secret passage or something. You know, just to keep things interesting.”
.Chapter Two.
Danzen’s eyes scanned the room, moving from the first floor to the second, waiting for someone to speak up. He didn’t want to rely on his Demon Speak ability again; asking for Toku was a simple request, one that should have been relatively easy for him to get an answer to.
“Well?” Jelmay asked aloud. “Is someone going to tell us or not?”
“Why do you want to meet Toku?” a woman standing near the dice table asked. She was dressed like a pillower in her form-fitting robes made of silk, but there was something hardened about her as well, a difference between her and the pillowers Danzen had seen in Chutham and Tudan. It was clear that people this far out lived a rough life, whether it be from the extreme weather or the fact that goods and services were harder to reach, all of which went to chiseling their character to some degree.
“Pilgrim, can we just wrap this up?” Jelmay asked.
“Why do you want to meet Toku?” the woman asked again.
Danzen narrowed his eyes on the woman. “You will lead us to Toku,” he said, summoning his power at the exact moment that Yato was plugging her ears. “Everyone else: forget that you saw us. In three minutes you will go back to doing whatever it was you planned to do for the evening.”
That was all it took.
The patrons stopped staring at them, Danzen, Jelmay, and Yato virtually ghosts as the woman guided them toward the exit, and from there to the front room of the tavern. The bartender started to say something, but looked away instead, clearly not wanting to get involved with whatever was about to go down. Out the door they went, straight to the establishment next door, a darkened building that looked to be void of any activity.
The woman knocked on the wooden door, and was greeted by voice a few seconds later.
“I was hoping it would be something like this,” Jelmay said excitedly. “I always like how humans try to squirrel themselves away with their own sin, coming up with secret codes and locations and whatnot. All of it. What fascinating creatures!”
“I think humans would say the same for you,” Yato told him.
“That I’m fascinating?” Jelmay considered this. “I suppose that is something I will take as a compliment. When the bards…”
The door opened and a man with broad shoulders stepped out, his face obscured by a black mask. He crossed his thick arms over his chest, Danzen noticing in the glint of light coming from a hanging lantern that his forearms were covered in scars and tattoos.
“They want to see Toku.”
“I would love to see you fight this guy,” Jelmay said under his breath. “Just look at him, thinks he’s so tough…”
“What was that?” asked the masked doorman in a low voice.
“Take us to Toku,” Danzen said, ignoring Jelmay.
Danzen’s Demon Speak power worked again, and he came to the conclusion as they were led inside, to a dark room and up a flight of stairs lit by candles, that he was probably going to have to rely on the power for the rest of the night.
“I swear,” Jelmay said with a hint of glee, “if I had your power, this entire world would belong to me. Every part of the kingdom. Lady Pilgrim? What about you?”
The young assassin didn’t respond, which was probably a good thing because there was an eerie quiet to the space they were now in, Yato likely sensing the same thing as Danzen, to be ready for anything.
They reached the top of the stairs and came to a short hallway, the wood floor polished, Danzen stopping once he heard a whimpering.
“What is that?” Jelmay asked the towering door guard.
“Toku’s guests.”
Danzen heard laughing at the end of the hallway; his arms tensed and his hand went to the grip of his boomerang sword, popping it out of its scabbard. He stopped and turned his head to Yato. They made eye contact; Danzen nodded at her.
Skrrict!
Yato produced just one of her gauntleted blades. Also getting a sense that something was awry, the bakeneko found a place behind both of them with his sword drawn. No words were exchanged between the three as they moved down the hall. Jelmay had been around Danzen enough to know when he was prepared to act, and Yato had had enough training to recognize this as well. Whatever they were getting into could very well require bloodshed.
Another laugh. More whimpering.
They stopped at the door at the end of the hallway and the guard knocked once, the sound ricocheting down the corridor.
“What is it now?” a man called out from the other side, his voice with an edge to it, but not one that made him sound aged anyway. He sounded youthful.
“Visitors.”
“Who?”
“Step aside,” Danzen told the guard, “and don’t interfere with what you hear next.”
“Yes,” Jelmay said, “that’s the Pilgrim I’m talking about!”
“I am not expecting any visitors!” the voice called from the other room.
Rather than reply, Toku’s brute stepped aside and Danzen shouldered into the room, Yato quickly moving to his right, Jelmay to his left. What he found flashed to mind the demons that were called forth when he broke skin.
Toku was nude and seated on a man’s back, the man on all fours, also nude. There were two women with their wrists tied to the ceiling, both hanging their heads, their bodies covered in lacerations. There was also a man in a mask near Toku who was crouched, and as soon as Danzen entered, he shot forward to attack. The former assassin caught him by the neck and slammed him into the ground, Toku letting out a yelp of surprise.
“No one move.”
“What in the name of Diyu is going on in here?” Jelmay asked.
“Sexual deviant,” Yato said as she called forth her other gauntleted blade.
Skrrict!
“What have you done to me?” Toku asked, the young man wild eyed and grinding his teeth, not able to move from where he was seated on the man’s back. Toku’s body covered in dozens of poorly drawn tattoos, everything from demon faces to naked women and swords, ancient characters. Rail-thin with sinewy muscles, he had an air about him that made it clear Toku was used to getting his way.
“You won’t make it out of Odval alive,” he growled.
The women strung from the ceilings whimpered again. Yato immediately made her way over to them and removed their binds, both falling limp to the floor when she was done, their heads hung in shame. She crouched before one of them, her weapon still drawn, her eyes still focused on the nude man seated on the back of another in the center of the room.
“Well, I think I figured out what’s going on here,” Jelmay said matter-of-factly. “I’ve seen it before in Sainshand. Our boy Toku is clearly some kind of low-level thug who has reached a higher status than someone like him should probably have, and he also is, as Lady Pilgrim hinted at, some sort of sexual deviant. Now, I should say, I have always been of the philosophy that as long as all parties are consenting, whatever goes, goes. We really haven’t had a sex talk before, have we, Pilgrim?”
“Not now, Jelmay.”
“Let me finish; I’m going somewhere with this. My money, and believe me, I have plenty of kip, tells me that Toku here gets off on torturing people, specifically people who have upset him. These women? The masked fellow?” Jelmay motioned toward the man lying on the ground, still recovering from Danzen’s chokeslam. “And the one he is sitting on is probably one of his underlings who have upset him in some way.”
“Whatever you have done to me, you will pay tenfold,” Toku said through gritted teeth.
Danzen approached him and placed his foot on the man who was on all fours beneath Toku. He nudged the man out of the way, causing Toku to fall to the ground, still frozen stiff. Danzen crouched in front of him. “I’m looking for someone.”
He had seen enough angry glares to not be fazed by the way the young thug was looking at him. Even if Danzen had been initially startled by what he saw when coming into the room, it wasn’t the first time that he had witnessed something like this before either, people growing more and more devious with the power they were able to obtain. He didn’t think much about it, but what he had thought in the past could be summarized in a single sentence: Danzen knew that those with evil in their hearts would do anything to get power, and usually this power came from great expanses of wealth, which they would slowly get their fill of and force them to shift their thirst elsewhere, a thirst that was unquenchable.
They were hungry ghosts.
“He will be the last person you look for,” Toku said.
“Ha! I seriously doubt that,” said Jelmay. “Am I the only one that’s glad that Kudzu isn’t here? She would absolutely hate to see something like this.”
Danzen didn’t reply to the bakeneko. He kept his focus on Toku. “I’m looking for Shimaru. Where is he?”
“I don’t have to tell you anything. You will be dead before you reach Bahlingar.”
“Where is he?”
“Monkurenji Temple,” Toku said, his lips suddenly trembling.
“And he is alive?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“He… he wanted to prove himself, to join the organization I have formed here. But he’s not… Shimaru is not cut out for something like this. We… we were childhood friends. He doesn’t need to be part of this.”
“And you sent him to this temple, the Monkurenji Temple? Why?”
“It’s abandoned, toward the Outer Regions. They say if you can last a single night there, you will come out a stronger man than you went in. I promised that I would let Shimaru join if he went there and returned.”
“And he actually went?”
“I had someone follow him. Yes. He went there and according to my scout, he entered the temple.”
“But he hasn’t come out yet, has he?” Jelmay asked.
“No, and I don’t think he will. No one has ever survived a night in that temple,” Toku said, something changing about his voice, a hint of fear behind it.
Danzen stood. He turned his companions, his head lowered to some degree.
“We’re going to this temple, aren’t we?” Jelmay asked, the bakeneko clearly holding back a groan.
“We are.”
“What about these people?” Yato’s blades slowly retracted back into her gauntlets as she stepped toward Danzen, a dark look on her face. It was clear that what she’d witnessed in the room had affected her to some degree, and Danzen couldn’t blame her. It was vile, an image of depravity, the whimpering and crude behavior, warped power on display.
“Everyone that is injured will seek medical treatment,” Danzen began, his Demon Speak scratching at his throat. “Toku, whatever pleasure you get from doing this will cease to exist. You will no longer torture people. All of you will forget this night, and you will forget ever seeing us.”
“That’s it?” Jelmay asked. “You aren’t going to make him suffer like he’s made others suffer?”
While Danzen had done this before, he wasn’t in the mood to pursue this any further. What was done, was done.
“Let’s return to Kudzu,” Danzen finally told his companions. “We will leave for this temple in the morning.”
****
Danzen, Jelmay, and Yato reached the inn and were greeted by Oiwa’s husband, Yudono. He wore an apron now, and was cleaning the floors when they came in, the older man looking up to them as he spoke. “Welcome back. My wife has seen to your companion.”
“And what did she say?” Danzen asked.
“Oiwa would like for her to rest for the next twenty-four hours or so, maybe a little longer. Her wounds seem to be healing rapidly, but she still needs sleep. I assumed you are planning on leaving tomorrow, but…” Yudono slowly pressed himself off the floor using a chair for support. “She also has told me about her request, how she is seeking information for Shimaru. He’s her son, you know, but he accepts me to some degree.” He lowered his gaze, as if in shame. “I would fetch her now, but she has retired for the night. She gets tired healing with her hands, but she’ll be able to speak to you in the morning.”
“That’s how she healed Kudzu?” asked Jelmay.
“The nuns outside of town taught her how to do it using her own echo, believe it or not. Some people don’t think it’s possible, but I’ve seen her work miracles. I guess I won’t keep you any longer. I can get her if you’d like…”
“That’s fine,” Danzen said. “We can give her an update in the morning.”
Yudono paused, an eyebrow raising as he looked at Danzen. “So there is an update.”
Danzen nodded.
“Good, wonderful. I had no idea what to expect, to be honest, especially with Toku involved, but I’m glad to hear it. We will have breakfast ready in the morning, and please let us know if there’s anything extra that you would like to eat, anything local, that sort of thing. We will do what we can to honor your request.”
“Actually,” Jelmay said, his hand naturally coming to his waist. He retrieved the stack of kip from his front pocket and began counting out bills. “We want the works, everything and then some. Pretend like it’s a celebration, like it’s morning of the Floating Candle Festival, something like that. And we’re going to need to stay here for a few more days, if that’s what it takes to heal her. So go ahead and charge us for that as well. Tomorrow…” Jelmay placed the money on the counter. “We’ll be gone most of tomorrow, but we’ll be back either that night, or the following morning. Just a guess. She can rest here while we are out.”
“Yes, thank you.” Yudono ran his hand over the few strands of hair on his head and offered them a toothy grin. “I suppose I shouldn’t keep you any longer…”
“Just make sure there’s plenty of good stuff for breakfast,” Jelmay said as he waltzed by the man, and from there to the hallway to his room. Danzen and Yato followed, and after Danzen checked on Kudzu, who was resting peacefully, he joined Jelmay and Yato in the other room to find the bakeneko already sprawled out on the bed, in his cat form, staring up at the ceiling.
“You came too soon earlier,” Jelmay said without looking at Danzen. “I was just about to hit my winning streak there at the Golden Knuckle. Ask Lady Pilgrim, she knows.”
Yato bobbed her head left and right, Danzen not sure if she was agreeing, or disagreeing with the bakeneko.
“I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Jelmay lamented. “Tomorrow, we have to go to some twisted temple and see if we can find this kid’s dead body.”
“You think he’s dead?” Yato asked.
“Why else wouldn’t he return? He has to be dead. But, I guess we will find out for ourselves once we get there. Poor Kudzu, she doesn’t get to go to a haunted temple with us.”
“What makes you think it’s haunted?” Yato asked, her tone of voice indicating that she believed the bakeneko, that she was giving weight to his words.
“Abandoned temple in the middle of nowhere? Bah. Definitely haunted. If it’s not haunted, then I don’t know what it is. Probably cursed. Haunted and cursed, likely. But, we got Pilgrim with us, and he’s half-demon and his father is the ruler of Diyu, so I don’t expect anybody will give us too many problems. What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Danzen said.
“All I’m saying is to get ready for some spooky stuff. And we should leave early enough in the morning, after a big breakfast, of course, so we can get there while there is still daylight.” He yawned. “I don’t know which one of you is sleeping in this room tonight, but you better try to fall asleep fast, because I’ll be snoring soon enough.”
“I’ll stay with Kudzu,” Danzen said.
“Not now.”
“Pilgrim is here.”
“That’s why…” Jelmay quickly turned to Danzen. “I was on a winning streak, and then soon as you step up…” The dice struck the other side of the table again and Jelmay whipped around to see that they added up to the number thirteen.
“Yes,” he said, a big smile taking shape on his face as a few of the other patrons frowned. “Yes!”
“Something has come up,” Danzen said again.
“Is it Kudzu? Is she all right? I meant to find her a healer. I’ll find one, later,” Jelmay said as he looked back to the dealer. “Again.”
“She will be fine; I’m searching for someone else, a man named Toku.”
Mention of this name caused everyone at the table to stop what they were doing and look up to Danzen. There wasn’t music playing, but if there had been it would have stopped as well, the name Toku practically echoing around the two-story chamber and eliciting gasps.
“Why did you have to go and do that,” Jelmay said with a sigh.
“What’s happening?” Yato asked.
“Danzen just volunteered us for a fight.” Jelmay shook his head and withdrew his sword, several other men doing the same. “Well, you asked for it. I’ll see you all in Diyu.”
“No one is going to fight,” Danzen said, summoning his Demon Speak ability. “Put your weapons away, now.”
“Awww…” Jelmay returned his sword to its scabbard. “I’m not going to lie, I was looking forward to clobbering a few of these goons, especially after they cheated me. You saw that they were cheating, right? I swear, you should have heard some of the things they said to Lady Pilgrim when I was up about fifteen thousand kip.”
“You’re the one that told them I was your mistress,” Yato said, “and that I was ‘very friendly,’ as you put it.”
“You are friendly,” Jelmay told her. “You’re friendlier than Kudzu, that’s for sure.”
“That’s not how they took it.”
The bakeneko considered this. “Maybe you’re right, and if that’s the case, I apologize. Well, now that you have everyone’s attention, I suppose we better find this man you’re searching for, although I don’t know why you are searching for him. I’m sure you have your reasons.” Jelmay cleared his throat. “All right, someone point us in the direction of Toku, and hopefully, it involves another secret passage or something. You know, just to keep things interesting.”
.Chapter Two.
Danzen’s eyes scanned the room, moving from the first floor to the second, waiting for someone to speak up. He didn’t want to rely on his Demon Speak ability again; asking for Toku was a simple request, one that should have been relatively easy for him to get an answer to.
“Well?” Jelmay asked aloud. “Is someone going to tell us or not?”
“Why do you want to meet Toku?” a woman standing near the dice table asked. She was dressed like a pillower in her form-fitting robes made of silk, but there was something hardened about her as well, a difference between her and the pillowers Danzen had seen in Chutham and Tudan. It was clear that people this far out lived a rough life, whether it be from the extreme weather or the fact that goods and services were harder to reach, all of which went to chiseling their character to some degree.
“Pilgrim, can we just wrap this up?” Jelmay asked.
“Why do you want to meet Toku?” the woman asked again.
Danzen narrowed his eyes on the woman. “You will lead us to Toku,” he said, summoning his power at the exact moment that Yato was plugging her ears. “Everyone else: forget that you saw us. In three minutes you will go back to doing whatever it was you planned to do for the evening.”
That was all it took.
The patrons stopped staring at them, Danzen, Jelmay, and Yato virtually ghosts as the woman guided them toward the exit, and from there to the front room of the tavern. The bartender started to say something, but looked away instead, clearly not wanting to get involved with whatever was about to go down. Out the door they went, straight to the establishment next door, a darkened building that looked to be void of any activity.
The woman knocked on the wooden door, and was greeted by voice a few seconds later.
“I was hoping it would be something like this,” Jelmay said excitedly. “I always like how humans try to squirrel themselves away with their own sin, coming up with secret codes and locations and whatnot. All of it. What fascinating creatures!”
“I think humans would say the same for you,” Yato told him.
“That I’m fascinating?” Jelmay considered this. “I suppose that is something I will take as a compliment. When the bards…”
The door opened and a man with broad shoulders stepped out, his face obscured by a black mask. He crossed his thick arms over his chest, Danzen noticing in the glint of light coming from a hanging lantern that his forearms were covered in scars and tattoos.
“They want to see Toku.”
“I would love to see you fight this guy,” Jelmay said under his breath. “Just look at him, thinks he’s so tough…”
“What was that?” asked the masked doorman in a low voice.
“Take us to Toku,” Danzen said, ignoring Jelmay.
Danzen’s Demon Speak power worked again, and he came to the conclusion as they were led inside, to a dark room and up a flight of stairs lit by candles, that he was probably going to have to rely on the power for the rest of the night.
“I swear,” Jelmay said with a hint of glee, “if I had your power, this entire world would belong to me. Every part of the kingdom. Lady Pilgrim? What about you?”
The young assassin didn’t respond, which was probably a good thing because there was an eerie quiet to the space they were now in, Yato likely sensing the same thing as Danzen, to be ready for anything.
They reached the top of the stairs and came to a short hallway, the wood floor polished, Danzen stopping once he heard a whimpering.
“What is that?” Jelmay asked the towering door guard.
“Toku’s guests.”
Danzen heard laughing at the end of the hallway; his arms tensed and his hand went to the grip of his boomerang sword, popping it out of its scabbard. He stopped and turned his head to Yato. They made eye contact; Danzen nodded at her.
Skrrict!
Yato produced just one of her gauntleted blades. Also getting a sense that something was awry, the bakeneko found a place behind both of them with his sword drawn. No words were exchanged between the three as they moved down the hall. Jelmay had been around Danzen enough to know when he was prepared to act, and Yato had had enough training to recognize this as well. Whatever they were getting into could very well require bloodshed.
Another laugh. More whimpering.
They stopped at the door at the end of the hallway and the guard knocked once, the sound ricocheting down the corridor.
“What is it now?” a man called out from the other side, his voice with an edge to it, but not one that made him sound aged anyway. He sounded youthful.
“Visitors.”
“Who?”
“Step aside,” Danzen told the guard, “and don’t interfere with what you hear next.”
“Yes,” Jelmay said, “that’s the Pilgrim I’m talking about!”
“I am not expecting any visitors!” the voice called from the other room.
Rather than reply, Toku’s brute stepped aside and Danzen shouldered into the room, Yato quickly moving to his right, Jelmay to his left. What he found flashed to mind the demons that were called forth when he broke skin.
Toku was nude and seated on a man’s back, the man on all fours, also nude. There were two women with their wrists tied to the ceiling, both hanging their heads, their bodies covered in lacerations. There was also a man in a mask near Toku who was crouched, and as soon as Danzen entered, he shot forward to attack. The former assassin caught him by the neck and slammed him into the ground, Toku letting out a yelp of surprise.
“No one move.”
“What in the name of Diyu is going on in here?” Jelmay asked.
“Sexual deviant,” Yato said as she called forth her other gauntleted blade.
Skrrict!
“What have you done to me?” Toku asked, the young man wild eyed and grinding his teeth, not able to move from where he was seated on the man’s back. Toku’s body covered in dozens of poorly drawn tattoos, everything from demon faces to naked women and swords, ancient characters. Rail-thin with sinewy muscles, he had an air about him that made it clear Toku was used to getting his way.
“You won’t make it out of Odval alive,” he growled.
The women strung from the ceilings whimpered again. Yato immediately made her way over to them and removed their binds, both falling limp to the floor when she was done, their heads hung in shame. She crouched before one of them, her weapon still drawn, her eyes still focused on the nude man seated on the back of another in the center of the room.
“Well, I think I figured out what’s going on here,” Jelmay said matter-of-factly. “I’ve seen it before in Sainshand. Our boy Toku is clearly some kind of low-level thug who has reached a higher status than someone like him should probably have, and he also is, as Lady Pilgrim hinted at, some sort of sexual deviant. Now, I should say, I have always been of the philosophy that as long as all parties are consenting, whatever goes, goes. We really haven’t had a sex talk before, have we, Pilgrim?”
“Not now, Jelmay.”
“Let me finish; I’m going somewhere with this. My money, and believe me, I have plenty of kip, tells me that Toku here gets off on torturing people, specifically people who have upset him. These women? The masked fellow?” Jelmay motioned toward the man lying on the ground, still recovering from Danzen’s chokeslam. “And the one he is sitting on is probably one of his underlings who have upset him in some way.”
“Whatever you have done to me, you will pay tenfold,” Toku said through gritted teeth.
Danzen approached him and placed his foot on the man who was on all fours beneath Toku. He nudged the man out of the way, causing Toku to fall to the ground, still frozen stiff. Danzen crouched in front of him. “I’m looking for someone.”
He had seen enough angry glares to not be fazed by the way the young thug was looking at him. Even if Danzen had been initially startled by what he saw when coming into the room, it wasn’t the first time that he had witnessed something like this before either, people growing more and more devious with the power they were able to obtain. He didn’t think much about it, but what he had thought in the past could be summarized in a single sentence: Danzen knew that those with evil in their hearts would do anything to get power, and usually this power came from great expanses of wealth, which they would slowly get their fill of and force them to shift their thirst elsewhere, a thirst that was unquenchable.
They were hungry ghosts.
“He will be the last person you look for,” Toku said.
“Ha! I seriously doubt that,” said Jelmay. “Am I the only one that’s glad that Kudzu isn’t here? She would absolutely hate to see something like this.”
Danzen didn’t reply to the bakeneko. He kept his focus on Toku. “I’m looking for Shimaru. Where is he?”
“I don’t have to tell you anything. You will be dead before you reach Bahlingar.”
“Where is he?”
“Monkurenji Temple,” Toku said, his lips suddenly trembling.
“And he is alive?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“He… he wanted to prove himself, to join the organization I have formed here. But he’s not… Shimaru is not cut out for something like this. We… we were childhood friends. He doesn’t need to be part of this.”
“And you sent him to this temple, the Monkurenji Temple? Why?”
“It’s abandoned, toward the Outer Regions. They say if you can last a single night there, you will come out a stronger man than you went in. I promised that I would let Shimaru join if he went there and returned.”
“And he actually went?”
“I had someone follow him. Yes. He went there and according to my scout, he entered the temple.”
“But he hasn’t come out yet, has he?” Jelmay asked.
“No, and I don’t think he will. No one has ever survived a night in that temple,” Toku said, something changing about his voice, a hint of fear behind it.
Danzen stood. He turned his companions, his head lowered to some degree.
“We’re going to this temple, aren’t we?” Jelmay asked, the bakeneko clearly holding back a groan.
“We are.”
“What about these people?” Yato’s blades slowly retracted back into her gauntlets as she stepped toward Danzen, a dark look on her face. It was clear that what she’d witnessed in the room had affected her to some degree, and Danzen couldn’t blame her. It was vile, an image of depravity, the whimpering and crude behavior, warped power on display.
“Everyone that is injured will seek medical treatment,” Danzen began, his Demon Speak scratching at his throat. “Toku, whatever pleasure you get from doing this will cease to exist. You will no longer torture people. All of you will forget this night, and you will forget ever seeing us.”
“That’s it?” Jelmay asked. “You aren’t going to make him suffer like he’s made others suffer?”
While Danzen had done this before, he wasn’t in the mood to pursue this any further. What was done, was done.
“Let’s return to Kudzu,” Danzen finally told his companions. “We will leave for this temple in the morning.”
****
Danzen, Jelmay, and Yato reached the inn and were greeted by Oiwa’s husband, Yudono. He wore an apron now, and was cleaning the floors when they came in, the older man looking up to them as he spoke. “Welcome back. My wife has seen to your companion.”
“And what did she say?” Danzen asked.
“Oiwa would like for her to rest for the next twenty-four hours or so, maybe a little longer. Her wounds seem to be healing rapidly, but she still needs sleep. I assumed you are planning on leaving tomorrow, but…” Yudono slowly pressed himself off the floor using a chair for support. “She also has told me about her request, how she is seeking information for Shimaru. He’s her son, you know, but he accepts me to some degree.” He lowered his gaze, as if in shame. “I would fetch her now, but she has retired for the night. She gets tired healing with her hands, but she’ll be able to speak to you in the morning.”
“That’s how she healed Kudzu?” asked Jelmay.
“The nuns outside of town taught her how to do it using her own echo, believe it or not. Some people don’t think it’s possible, but I’ve seen her work miracles. I guess I won’t keep you any longer. I can get her if you’d like…”
“That’s fine,” Danzen said. “We can give her an update in the morning.”
Yudono paused, an eyebrow raising as he looked at Danzen. “So there is an update.”
Danzen nodded.
“Good, wonderful. I had no idea what to expect, to be honest, especially with Toku involved, but I’m glad to hear it. We will have breakfast ready in the morning, and please let us know if there’s anything extra that you would like to eat, anything local, that sort of thing. We will do what we can to honor your request.”
“Actually,” Jelmay said, his hand naturally coming to his waist. He retrieved the stack of kip from his front pocket and began counting out bills. “We want the works, everything and then some. Pretend like it’s a celebration, like it’s morning of the Floating Candle Festival, something like that. And we’re going to need to stay here for a few more days, if that’s what it takes to heal her. So go ahead and charge us for that as well. Tomorrow…” Jelmay placed the money on the counter. “We’ll be gone most of tomorrow, but we’ll be back either that night, or the following morning. Just a guess. She can rest here while we are out.”
“Yes, thank you.” Yudono ran his hand over the few strands of hair on his head and offered them a toothy grin. “I suppose I shouldn’t keep you any longer…”
“Just make sure there’s plenty of good stuff for breakfast,” Jelmay said as he waltzed by the man, and from there to the hallway to his room. Danzen and Yato followed, and after Danzen checked on Kudzu, who was resting peacefully, he joined Jelmay and Yato in the other room to find the bakeneko already sprawled out on the bed, in his cat form, staring up at the ceiling.
“You came too soon earlier,” Jelmay said without looking at Danzen. “I was just about to hit my winning streak there at the Golden Knuckle. Ask Lady Pilgrim, she knows.”
Yato bobbed her head left and right, Danzen not sure if she was agreeing, or disagreeing with the bakeneko.
“I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Jelmay lamented. “Tomorrow, we have to go to some twisted temple and see if we can find this kid’s dead body.”
“You think he’s dead?” Yato asked.
“Why else wouldn’t he return? He has to be dead. But, I guess we will find out for ourselves once we get there. Poor Kudzu, she doesn’t get to go to a haunted temple with us.”
“What makes you think it’s haunted?” Yato asked, her tone of voice indicating that she believed the bakeneko, that she was giving weight to his words.
“Abandoned temple in the middle of nowhere? Bah. Definitely haunted. If it’s not haunted, then I don’t know what it is. Probably cursed. Haunted and cursed, likely. But, we got Pilgrim with us, and he’s half-demon and his father is the ruler of Diyu, so I don’t expect anybody will give us too many problems. What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Danzen said.
“All I’m saying is to get ready for some spooky stuff. And we should leave early enough in the morning, after a big breakfast, of course, so we can get there while there is still daylight.” He yawned. “I don’t know which one of you is sleeping in this room tonight, but you better try to fall asleep fast, because I’ll be snoring soon enough.”
“I’ll stay with Kudzu,” Danzen said.
