Pilgrim 4, p.20
Pilgrim 4, page 20
“Is Jinkai alive? Answer me.”
“Y-yes…”
“Is he here?”
“He was… a day ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
Astra hit the man’s body with so much force that it slammed him into the back wall, the Penumbra clansman instinctively dropping both hands to the grip of the weapon, and trying to rip it out.
He opened his mouth to scream, but by this point Danzen had reached in and placed his hand over his mouth, feeling a sickness inside of himself as he finished what he had started, watching as the man’s life left his body, yet another soldier sent to Diyu.
After cleaning his blade on his enemy’s robes, Danzen exited in the way he had come.
He didn’t bother to hide the bodies this time as he leaped over the outer wall and slipped into the woods. He heard the flutter of a pair of wings, and began following the sound until he saw Sansar, the three-legged raven landing on a branch closer to Danzen so they could speak.
“Did you find out what you needed to find out?”
Danzen nodded.
“And what now?”
“Now, I lay low until tomorrow night, then we leave for Arsi. It is time to deal with Ginza.”
“And what of the Penumbra?”
“Perhaps…” Danzen looked back in the direction of the outpost. “I will see to them when we return.”
****
There was a time when Danzen would have left that very same night, before the Penumbra clansmen could begin the search for the person that had infiltrated the outpost on the outskirts of Bahlingar. It would have made sense to move quickly, especially with Ginza waiting for him in the mountains outside of Arsi, but Danzen had changed over the last several years, especially since meeting his yokai companions.
And he knew it was important to rest.
The recently crafted inn was a stark contrast to the old outpost, everything smelling of new construction, nothing like the forest he had just gone through, the cold night, and the thick mist he had used as cover on his way back to Bahlingar.
It wasn’t hard for him to fall asleep, and after cleaning off the charred wood that he had painted across his face, Danzen changed out of his robes and relaxed onto the bed, Astra at his side as always. He kept the window open so Sansar could make patrols, the three-legged raven coming and going as he pleased, Danzen ignoring the ruffling of his feathers. The yokai was a quiet companion, which Danzen appreciated, he was also inconspicuous, able to depart as he pleased and surveil villages and towns, anywhere that they traveled together.
The morning brought what Danzen would have expected, thugs suddenly appearing in Bahlingar with the Penumbra markings, not all of them keeping a low profile. Danzen would deal with the bandit organization at some point, but he also had a feeling that if they kept this sort of behavior up, so brazenly parading around town, someone else would see to them.
This was why the Diyu Brotherhood had been tasked with thinning their numbers years ago, and Danzen wouldn’t at all be surprised to see them doing this again at some point. Perhaps it was best to just let things run their natural course, but he knew that Jinkai would be a powerful player if he could get more remnants, and it was clear in what he had seen last night that Penumbra wasn’t going to stop in their pursuit of Sunyata talismans.
Danzen would act soon enough.
He had used his Demon Speak on the employees of the inn the previous night, telling them to act as if he wasn’t there unless they were spoken to. This was for their own safety, and it was one of the reasons no one came to his door that morning with tea, or to offer him breakfast. This also meant that he wasn’t disturbed.
He would stay in the room for the rest of the day and simply relax, moving in between bending his echo and resting, preparing for the night to come. His opportunity to leave Bahlingar in secret had left with the rising sun, not that he wasn’t able to blend in, or simply use his powers to charter a carriage.
It was safer, especially with the villagers out, and it would make what he had done yesterday at the Penumbra outpost even harder for the bandits to process. Who had killed these four men? Could it have been the Diyu Brotherhood?
He could only imagine the thoughts running through their heads that morning, especially once they entered the room with the paper walls splattered with blood, which would lead to an investigation into the forest around the outpost, where they would find two additional bodies, one with his throat torn out.
It would put fear in them, that was for sure, and hopefully it would draw Jinkai out so by the time Danzen returned, he could cut the head off the snake.
It came to him again that morning as he began slowly bending his echo, Astra gripped tightly in his hands, his head bent forward as he felt the power rippling through him, that in a way, Danzen was still working for the Brotherhood.
This would have been the type of mission they would have sent him on, likely partnering with someone like Soko or Nomin, or perhaps Norwin Dawa, Nayaga, or any of the other top-tier assassins that Danzen hadn’t heard from in years, such as Kaysim.
He continued bending his echo, a part of him wishing that Yato was there, noticing that his practice felt stronger when they were doing it together, a synergy of two people seeking improvement.
But it was best to be alone; it was best to find out what Ginza was capable of on his own, the man half-blooded like Danzen, and likely filled with rage after wasting away for hundreds of years in the depths of Diyu. What would he be capable of? What kind of weapon would he have? If only Nomtoi had told Danzen more, if only his brother hadn’t threatened to kill Kudzu…
Both Nomtoi and Tengir Gantulga were too strong for Danzen to try to take on, as much as he hated to admit this to himself. This allowed them to toy with him, to hold carrots over his head and threaten those he cared for.
There was a solution in bending his echo, but it was a long game, even with the improvements Danzen had made in a short amount of time. This brought a thought to the surface he’d had the previous day. What was he missing when it came to using his echo? Was there more to the power?
Once he reached the nunnery, he would have a serious conversation with Abbot Monpo about this, Danzen sensing that the leader of the fox shrine knew more than he was letting on. If he could utilize the power he already had from his demon blood, plus the weapons he had curated over the years, Danzen would be unstoppable.
His blood, in this regard, was already unlocked. He didn’t need his father’s aid.
There would come a time in which he would be able to hold his own with his brother, he could feel it. He had already battled with him before; he knew it would happen again, even if Nomtoi continued to thwart Danzen in any way he could until that day came.
He finally felt hungry around noon, Danzen slipping into his robes, hood over his head as he stepped downstairs to find the inn empty. The portly innkeeper seemed to look right through him, as per Danzen’s command, and it was only once he spoke to her that she responded.
“I need a meal. And I also need a meal to take with me tonight. I will be leaving later.”
“Yes, my lord.”
He returned to his room and sat onto a cushion on the ground, legs crossed beneath him. Sansar landed on the windowsill yet again, the three-legged raven bobbing his head left and right as he looked at Danzen with dark eyes.
“More have come to the city.”
Danzen nodded.
“Have you decided how you will leave tonight? You may need to do the same thing you did last night.”
“I will join a carriage once we are several miles away from the city. I may end up having to walk most of the way. The people downstairs are making a meal for me now.”
“I see…” The raven dipped his head. “And what will you do once you arrive in Arsi? We head straight to the mountains from there?”
“Perhaps. I may stop by a blacksmith I know named Kunta to have him look at my blades. I don’t believe they need sharpening, but it is always good to get a second opinion.”
There was a knock at the door. Danzen answered it to find the teenage barmaid with a cup of tea, a bewitched look on her face when she saw him, as if she recognized him, yet also felt that she had never seen him before.
“My lord.”
Danzen took the tea from her and returned to his seated position. After his meal, he would bend his echo more, and then he would likely look through his field diary of yokai.
Anything to kill time before the inevitable.
.Chapter Three.
Traveling at night allowed Danzen to move much more quickly than he could during the day, when people could easily spot him. Once he was outside of Bahlingar, the former assassin transitioned into his top speed as he bolted through the forest, occasionally flinging himself into the air, using tree limbs to send himself forward, branch to branch, always wary of his surroundings, yet less worried than he had been in the past.
If he drew blood, he would be able to do something about it now, even though he hadn’t practiced summoning his demons in a few days. He had to reach Arsi by morning, giving him the time he needed to meet with the blacksmith, rest once again, and prepare for the altercation that was to come.
Danzen had no doubt in his mind that he would end up having to fight Ginza.
Nomtoi had promised the demonic man his freedom, just as he had Onuma and Mayji, and after being locked away for so long, it was no wonder that these entities readily agreed to the stipulation. This also told Danzen something about these Seven Evils—they clearly didn’t know enough about Nomtoi to realize that he was tricking them. There wasn’t a single part of Danzen that believed that his half-brother would live up to his promise. He would try to use this as a reason not to fight Ginza, but he doubted this would work out on his behalf.
Life around Danzen became a swell on the periphery, leaves blowing in the wind, the air that came with the incoming harvest moon crisp, the sky free of clouds. There was no mist as there had been last night, yet Danzen was still obscured by the dark, the stars above the only audience to his superhuman movements. That, and the creatures likely watching him from the surrounding forest.
Were there yokai here? From what Danzen had now learned and experienced, they only lived in Genshin Valley and the Outer Regions. Up until his arrival in the valley, he had questioned their existence, even with the illicit yokai trade that went on, Danzen assuming that the hides and bones and other items were from normal animals, that people had given them power in an effort simply to believe in something. But then, on his trip between Suja Village and Chutham, he encountered the nozuchi, opening up an entirely new world, Danzen now seeing the influence of yokai in most places he had traveled since.
Just like him, these beings existed in the dark. And just like him, there was more than met the eye.
Sansar kept up with Danzen’s pace, the three-legged raven flapping his large black wings and sailing forward, giving him something to track. He ran along the shoreline of a stream for a spell, Danzen crossing the stream once it became a river, carefully hopping from wet stone to wet stone, a fish or two jumping out of the water almost as if they were greeting him. Had Kudzu been there, Danzen would have sent his sword through one of the fish and prepared it for her. Had Jelmay been there, Danzen would have likely done the same, only capturing more fish.
It was an odd feeling that Danzen had noticed over the last day, even if he hadn’t exactly been bored in his room at the inn.
He wasn’t one to normally miss people.
This feeling confused the former assassin to some degree. He often felt alone, even when surrounded by others, and had gone weeks without seeing a single person during his two-year sojourn before finally arriving in Genshin Valley. Yet it had only been a little over a day and he was already starting to feel a longing to see his companions again.
And he would.
His teeth gritted, the former assassin moved up the side of a steep cliff rock to rock, Danzen’s precision like no mortal man. He reminded himself that he would deal with Ginza and return to them. He would never let them know how much he missed them, but he knew that at least one of his companions would feel it, Danzen still wishing that he had been able to leave Kudzu on better terms.
Standing on the top of a rock gave him visual of a carriage traveling about a quarter of a mile away, Danzen quickly shifting back down, ledge to ledge, never missing his mark. The field grew thicker and thicker around him as he pressed forward, the blades of grass whispering against his arms, cold. He picked up speed until he reached the carriage, Danzen calling for the driver.
“Halt.”
The carriage driver did as instructed, the man clearly spooked but also not able to stop himself from following Danzen’s orders. After using his Demon Speak power one more time, Danzen let himself inside the carriage, where he found a couple sleeping on the bench across from them.
The woman stirred.
“Do not worry. I’m merely joining you on the way to Arsi. I want the two of you to sleep until we get there.”
And just like that, the couple dozed off, Danzen glancing out the shuttered window on the carriage to see Sansar flying in the air above.
He shut his eyes and tried to get some rest as well.
By the time he opened them, they had arrived in the city split by the Sakai River. They were on the northern side, which had a smattering of industries mixed in with neighborhoods, hotels and restaurants along the outer rooms. On the other side of the river, the southside, was the fairground where he had once fought Soko, Danzen recalling how she had attacked him during the lantern festival, his demons unleashed, more souls sent to Diyu.
This reminded him that he needed to be on guard.
Soko could be anywhere in the world, but the odds she was looking for him were high, and there was a potential that she would now have been boosted by what she had learned from the Witch of Diyu, now that she finally had access to the dead woman’s lair.
This made it even more risky to travel through a larger city like Arsi, Danzen well-aware that something like a poison dart tipped in moonfall could affect even someone like him. With this in mind, he kept his hood on his head as he moved forward as quickly as possible over one of the grand bridges that crossed the Sakai River, Danzen heading straight for the blacksmith.
He’d had issues with Kunta in the past, but the last time he had seen him, which had been on his way to the Diyu Brotherhood to deal with Birin Yeshe, Danzen had more or less made amends. He reached the smith early, Kunta already up and working on something evident in the sound of metal on metal, the scent of burning wood in the air. A pair of goats crossed Danzen’s path, the two chasing after one another as he approached the door and let himself in.
“My lord?” A redheaded boy, who had been seated on a stool and mopping up some milk with a slice of bread, looked up at Danzen. “It’s… it’s you.”
Danzen offered the youth his version of a smile. “Do not be alarmed. Please, grab your father for me.”
The boy immediately set the items down and disappeared into a side room, Danzen not bothering to look at the armor and weapons on display. It wasn’t long before Kunta joined him, the blacksmith in a dark-gray apron, his head recently shaved, the scar on his face red from the heat.
“I would like you to take a look at my weapons,” Danzen said before Kunta could speak.
“Yes…” Kunta relaxed to some degree as he came to the realization that Danzen wasn’t there to harm him or his son. “Of course.”
“I also need a room to stay in until tonight. I won’t bother you for any longer than that.” Danzen procured some of the kip that Jelmay had given him and placed it on the counter. Kunta looked from the money to Danzen’s basket-hilted sword.
“You have a new weapon?”
Danzen lifted the sleeves of his robes and showed Kunta the two gauntleted blades. “I’m more interested in making sure these are up to par. I don’t think there will be anything you can do to this one,” he said, referring to Astra, “or my glaive.”
“But your other sword…”
“Yes, I hadn’t considered that…” Danzen removed the replica of Nomin’s blade and respectfully placed it on the countertop. Kunta’s son joined him as the blacksmith examined the weapon.
“There is something off about this piece.”
“What do you mean? The weight?”
“Nothing like that. It isn’t…” The blacksmith looked up at Danzen. “This wasn’t forged here in the kingdom, or anywhere in our world that I’m familiar with.” He lifted the blade and looked down its tip. “It’s remarkable.”
“It was made in Diyu.”
Naturally, Danzen didn’t explain how Nomin had returned with the blade once his father brought her back to life, and that he had given the blind assassin her original weapon, taking the replica for himself. Truth be told, he hadn’t used it that much, although he always had the blade nearby.
“I would like to take a look at it too, if you don’t mind.”
“By all means.” Danzen removed his two gauntleted blades and placed them on the countertop. He then remembered that he had to use his echo to summon the weapons, which he did one at a time, Kunta’s son jumping back.
“Yes,” said the blacksmith, clearly having seen a weapon like this before. “Remarkable pieces.”
“They belonged to a teacher of mine, I inherited them when he passed.”
Once again, the blacksmith offered him an uneasy look. “I think I will be able to do something here. But I don’t know about this other sword. But I would like to examine it, as I told you. Anyhow, I should get to it. My son will lead you to one of our spare rooms. You can rest there unless…” Kunta glanced at some of the armor he had on display. “Unless there was something else you needed.”
“We can discuss armor later. It generally gets in the way of what I need to do.”
“I understand. I will…” The blacksmith gritted his teeth into a smile. “I will see what I can do here. I don’t know if I can say it’s nice seeing you, but I am glad to see that you are alive and well.”
