Pilgrim, p.19
Pilgrim, page 19
She started to back away and stopped, returning to the baby and kissing the child once again.
The woman finally turned, Danzen startled when he saw that she too was faceless, and that she held a long staff with a bolt of energy glowing at its tip.
The woman struck Danzen with a bolt of energy, which sent him flying backward.
Danzen gasped as the ground started to bubble at his feet, as he looked to his forearm to see that there was a cut, that a line of blood was slowly moving down his arm toward his elbow.
Clawed hands moved out of the opening portal in the ground and reached for Danzen, the claws digging into his flesh as he struggled to get to his feet.
This wasn’t real, it wasn’t actually happening.
He wasn’t at the Diyu Brotherhood.
He was in the Genshin Valley, in the Asura Forest.
Trickery.
But as he saw the mangled faces of the demons that came coupled with his laceration, Danzen discarded this thought.
It was real.
His first reaction was to save the baby; that was, until he looked up to the woman to see that she was now floating before him, her robes hanging down to the ground as demons crawled toward her, staff still in her hand.
Danzen’s natural response was to try to run, but there was a rock wall directly behind him, one that had seemingly sprouted from nowhere.
He flipped back around to find the faceless woman even closer to him now, her robe starting to extend toward him.
Sending power into his legs, power that he assumed was enhanced due to his demons being unleashed, Danzen sprung into the air. As he did, everything flashed away and he was suddenly back in the Genshin Valley, just above the glade.
Sucking in a deep breath, he started to fall forward, toward the canopy again.
He managed to land and spring back into the air again, Danzen not looking back as he moved from tree to tree, feeling like the faceless woman was just on his tail.
It had all been an illusion, he knew that now, but he couldn’t shake the fear he was experiencing as a woman’s voice sounded off in his head.
Come back, my child…
He ignored the voice as he twisted through the wind, Danzen flinging himself from treetop to treetop.
He continued at this breakneck pace until he was sure that he was far enough away from the robed woman to gather his thoughts.
Danzen stopped at the top of the last tree and made it to a limb below. From there, he swung to another limb and finally reached the forest floor.
He turned around and withdrew his blade, which he didn’t remember sheathing. The former assassin held it with both hands as he waited for something to come in.
But nothing came.
Still with his eyes on the forest, Danzen quickly checked his arm to see that he hadn’t been cut, that it had indeed been an illusion.
His pulse still racing, Danzen once again leaped to the top of the nearest tree and started moving in a southwesterly direction, to his monastery.
He was going to need to research how to slay this particular yokai.
He only hoped that Enkhmaa, wherever she was, would last another day.
****
Danzen arrived at his monastery just as the sun started to set.
Hopping down from this pedestal, Yama greeted Danzen, the former assassin placing his hand on the stone lion dog’s head. Before moving inside his monastery, he stepped around the back, Yama following him, to check on Basan.
The chicken clucked, and let loose a burst of fire, which caused Yama to snort and growl. Basan flapped her wings a little, Danzen shaking his head at the noise. Hungry after his rapid travel to his monastery, he grabbed a pail of water from the well.
Once he was back inside, he brought the water to boil on the stove. Danzen added some wild onions, dried meat, and a fat carrot that he quickly sliced up.
As it boiled, he moved to his bedroom and turned the lantern on.
He sat, his field diary in his hands as he flipped through the pages. There had to be over a hundred entries, Danzen quickly scanning each of them, looking for something that described what he had encountered.
He kept skimming through the text, coming up short in the end.
Nothing mentioned a faceless woman in robes, nor did he see anything about a demonic, one-eyed child.
The smell of the boiling soup reaching his nostrils, Danzen closed the field diary and went to the kitchen, using a ladle to scoop the soup into a bowl. He sipped from this as he returned to his place before the lamp.
As he sipped from the bowl of soup, he continued to flip through the diary, hoping he had missed something.
But from what he could tell, he hadn’t.
Was it perhaps a new yokai?
This thought troubled him.
Of all the times to encounter one that hadn’t been cataloged…
Danzen finished the rest of the soup and made the split-second decision to go to the village. He would start with Elder Sonders, Danzen having this feeling that the older man would certainly know if any additional yokai texts existed.
For a moment he thought about stopping at Sarnai’s place, but her knowledge of these creatures seemed to be based more in lore and old wives' tales than they did reality. He would probably need to stop by Pancha’s as well, to assure the former stableman that he was working on the case.
Even though there was no set deadline, Danzen knew he didn’t have a lot of time.
Grabbing his satchel, Danzen stuffed his diary in it, his fingers grazing against the mask he’d made back at Maral’s home.
Once he was outside, he locked up, Yama coming to him.
“Take care of the place,” he told the lion dog as he headed toward the main road.
Stars began appearing in the sky above Danzen as he made his way to town, his hood down so he could keep an eye on his periphery.
Danzen couldn’t suppress the feeling of anxiety that he was experiencing.
Not only had the being he encountered done something to his mind, but he was certain the faceless woman, or perhaps her underling, had done something to the young girl.
Once again, Danzen recalled Enkhmaa riding a horse the last time he’d seen her. He hadn’t seen any other children in yellow robes, most people in the village preferring darker clothing.
No, it was definitely her robes, and he could only hope that she was still alive by the time he understood what he was up against.
There wasn’t a single part of Danzen that questioned his concern for her well-being. Perhaps two years ago, a voice at the back of his head would have reminded him that he could always move on, that lives were always at stake anywhere in the world.
But no longer.
Danzen was still an outsider to many in the community, but he was increasingly coming to understand his role here, that the little good he could do to help a troubled world was a cure for his own regret.
The former assassin reached the outskirts of Suja Village and moved into the residential area behind the main street. He hadn’t been to the Elder’s home before, but it wasn’t very hard to find: Danzen simply located the largest house, one easily two or three times the size of any of the homes he’d seen thus far, including Temur and Maral’s large home.
Although the man’s yard was dark, Danzen could smell the flowers as soon as he stepped through the open gate. He could see the outline of dark bushes as he made his way up a stone walkway, which had been freshly swept.
He knocked on the door, and expected a servant to answer it only to be surprised when Elder Sonders came to greet him.
“Pilgrim,” the older man said instead of hello. He leaned onto a cane with the head of a wolf, a purple stone in its mouth. Elder Sonders wore a sleep hat that matched his dark-purple silk robes, a pair of leather sandals on his feet. “You are aware that I don’t normally see people this late, right?”
“I need help.”
“Oh?”
“I’m trying to help Pancha recover his daughter.”
“His granddaughter, I’m aware.” The Elder nodded for Danzen to come inside. “Please, let’s talk about this somewhere else, somewhere I can sit down.”
Danzen followed the man in and took off his boots at the front door.
He pressed his feet into a pair of house slippers designated for guests, only then looking up to the foyer, noticing just how expansive the place was, everything immaculate including a polished stone floor unlike anything he’d seen thus far in the valley, which mostly utilized the wood from the Asura Forest for construction.
The Elder motioned Danzen into the study, and from there to a chair which sat facing a fireplace that had a pair of bull horns above the mantle. At least that’s what Danzen thought they were. He’d actually never seen horns that large before.
Elder Sonders took the second seat, casting his gaze onto the fire, which was slowly dying down.
“I like to be cold when I sleep,” he told Danzen, “so I usually let it warm the house up as much as it can before I head to bed.”
Danzen nodded, not that interested in discussing the older man’s domestic affairs.
But he could tell by the Elder’s relaxed body posture that this was going to be part of their conversation, so rather than jumping right into it, Danzen figured he would feign some concern.
“And what about Shedrup? How is he?”
“He’s detoxing right now,” the Elder said, the corners of his lips tightening, dragging the shadows down with them. “In the basement.”
“In the basement?”
“I’ve had to do it before.”
Danzen waited for him to say something more, and when Elder Sonders didn’t, he started speaking again. “I went after Enkhmaa, as you know. I encountered a child-like yokai with a single eye who was wearing her robes and fought it. Rather than kill it, I let it get away,” Danzen said, fudging the truth just a bit, “and followed it. I came to an opening in the forest, where I encountered a faceless woman in robes.”
“A faceless woman, huh?” The Elder nodded, considering this for a moment as he stared at the slowly dying fire. If he was surprised by what Danzen told him, he didn’t let on. “Please, continue.”
“She did something to my mind.”
“Really? What’s that?”
“She forced me to have a flashback, a memory that I don’t even remember having. Something about my childhood. I don’t even know if it’s true. I managed to get out of there.”
“And that’s it?”
Danzen nodded. “I checked the diary that the Abbot left behind,” he said, going for the leather-bound book.
He handed it to Elder Sonders.
“I see, so he was keeping track of yokai,” said the older man as he perused the pages, occasionally licking his lips.
“He did, but I can’t find the two I encountered.”
“This is a very rudimentary description of some of these beings,” the Elder finally told him as he handed the field diary back to Danzen.
“I figured as much. But everything I have encountered thus far has been in this book.”
“I see,” said the man as he inhaled deeply. “Then it is time for you to expand your research capabilities.” Elder Sonders gestured toward the library in the next room. “Have at it. There are two books in particular that I believe would be of great benefit to you. When you grow tired, there’s also a guest room attached to the study as well. This home used to belong to a researcher, believe it or not. A wealthy one at that. He fell asleep so often in his library that his family had an additional room added where he could rest. There’s still a cot in there, and I’ve kept the room up. The sheets should be fresh, and the cot is quite comfortable. Have at it. And good luck tomorrow,” the older man said as he started to stand. “I’ve got to get to bed.”
“I think I will have to go back tonight.”
“I would advise you not to travel through the forest at night. Whatever it is you’re going to face, may be easier to deal with during the daylight.” Elder Sonders stopped halfway across the room. “And one more thing.”
“Yes?” Danzen asked.
“If you hear any sounds from the basement below, ignore them. Shedrup’s getting better, but he still has night terrors.”
.Chapter Three.
The library was fairly expansive, Danzen Ravja eventually finding a section at the bottom of one of the shelves that contained books that were bound much more crudely than the other books. While their bindings were barely hanging on by threads, their leather covers brittle and blackened, the pages inside were intact.
He started with the book titled The Night Parade of Genshin Valley Yokai.
He was seated at a table in the study now, a lantern near him, his field diary opened along with the book, Danzen cross-referencing the information and finding that the verbiage was almost exactly the same.
It seemed that Abbot Mergen had copied many of the descriptions directly. He wondered then why the man had taken the time to write all the information down, unless…
Danzen glanced at the binding again and nodded, something telling him that these books were quite rare, that copies may not have existed.
Maybe the Abbot was planning to publish his own volume at some point, but he never got around to it.
Danzen pushed the field diary to the side and started back in on the first volume, carefully skimming through the pages and looking for a few keywords as he did so. The information was bountiful, Danzen letting the written word pass over him as he continued his hunt over the course of the next two hours.
He moved to the second volume, occasionally stopping when a strange description caught his attention, Danzen ultimately moving on.
There would be a day in which he would be able to dig deeper into these books, but now wasn’t the time.
He had to find what he was looking for.
It was in the middle of the second book that he came to a description that fit what he had encountered.
Mu-Onna is a type of vengeful mother spirit whose child died from miscarriage, famine, or war. Because they no longer have a child of their own, they are known for kidnapping other people’s children, which she then turns to her own child through mental trickery. This results in the kidnapped child becoming feral and deformed, and never growing past the age of seven in appearance, their bodies slowly deteriorating within.
The Mu-Onna is faceless, but looking upon her triggers one's own childhood memories that she is able to warp to suit her needs, which is how she prevents people from rescuing their children. Those that come under her spell also are said to become warriors that she can exploit. However, there has only been one documented case of this happening.
Mu-Onna are unable to gaze upon their own reflection, which is why they avoid streams and other bodies of water. It is nearly impossible to combat one, but they exist in such low numbers that encounters are quite rare.
If a person has had their child abducted by a Mu-Onna, one option for retrieval would be a blind warrior. But be aware, they are able to take multiple children, and any of the children they have already turned will fight for them.
Flipping to the first blank page of the field diary, Danzen began copying down the information verbatim, and as he reread the passage about the Mu-Onna, an idea came to him.
He knew what he needed to do now, how he would kill the yokai and rescue Enkhmaa, if she was still alive.
Danzen had once trained with a blind assassin named Nomin, who also used a boomerang sword. She had been brought up at a different branch of the Brotherhood.
In his twenties, the two had been assigned several assassinations together, and she insisted upon observing his skills before they set out. Nomin was already advanced at that time when it came to bending her echo, the rumor being that she had made it all the way to the Crystal Mancer level.
As Danzen retired to the small bedroom that had been built off the study, he remembered Nomin and how fond of her he’d become in such a short amount of time.
The petite woman had a sense of humor about her that seemed off-putting at first, but this quickly became one of her best features. She could be quite morbid, and especially vulgar, but when it came time to killing, she was one of the best that the Brotherhood had.
This was why they generally sent her to the unexplored lands in the north, looking for marks who had hoped to escape to some of the outer colonies there.
She was unsuspecting, and she knew how to play up her handicap, the frail, blind woman easily able to turn people to her side once they got to know her.
But Nomin was also ruthless, her training sessions with Danzen a constant reminder that there was someone who was better than him.
She knew not to draw blood, but had she done so, he was sure that she was one of only a few people who would have been able to slay the demons he unleashed and continue to fight him at the same time.
And that was ten or fifteen years ago.
Danzen hoped she wasn’t hunting him. There was no telling how strong Nomin was now.
At least his time with her would play to his advantage when dealing with the Mu-Onna.
****
“Pilgrim?” Elder Sonders asked as Danzen stepped into the dining room.
It was morning now, the light entering the home reflecting off particles of dust in the air.
“What are you doing?” the older man asked as Danzen located his voice and turned to him. “Why are you wearing that thing over your face?”
Danzen had his mask on backward. As if everything was normal, he took a seat at the table, tilting his head as he looked at the man.
“You are mad…”
“No, I’m practicing,” Danzen finally told him.
“To be a blind man?”
Danzen nodded. “I’ve got to get used to this again.”
“You plan to leave town this way, just walking out with your eyes covered?” the Elder asked, not knowing how to interpret the strange man who sat before him, his mask made of a patchwork of fabrics.
