Pilgrim 2, p.25
Pilgrim 2, page 25
Still, he persisted, Danzen practicing for thirty minutes by himself before Kudzu joined him.
“We should leave soon,” she said, her voice breaking the silence. It had been so quiet for a moment there that Danzen had started to feel as if he were simply part of the scenery, a fallen blue flower petal.
“Right,” Danzen said as he slowly lowered his hands.
He felt good, rejuvenated, but he couldn’t tell if it was from getting a proper night of rest or the time spent bending his echo. At least he thought that was what he had been doing; it was still too subtle of a sensation for him to truly know the authenticity of what he was experiencing.
“Are you hungry?”
“I’m fine,” he told her.
“Let’s go handle this, and we can finish the fish when we get back.”
“Just let me grab my things.”
Once Danzen had his satchel and his three blades, he followed the white fox out of the village. They came to the same stream they had visited yesterday, footprints along the shore indicating that others had been there. It was muggy out, and as they made their way down the path next to the waterfall, a soft rain picked up, the sky gray, everything slick.
“Do they do the Floating Lantern Festival back west?” Kudzu asked. “They always do it here at the end of monsoon season, generally two to three weeks before the rain completely stops. I always wondered why the humans didn’t wait till the end of monsoon season to celebrate its passing. The sky looks absolutely stunning when they release all the paper lanterns with the candles inside, though; it’s quite powerful.”
“There are some that believe the Floating Lantern Festival expedites the passing of the monsoon season,” Danzen explained. “And yes, it is something that they do in the west.”
Several birds swooped over their heads, one of them diving into the water and coming out with a small fish.
“It seems like everyone likes fish around here,” Kudzu said.
Danzen nodded, recalling the last time he had actively taken part in a Floating Lantern Festival, in a southern field outside the city of Arsi. The former assassin stopped dead in his tracks.
“What is it?” Kudzu asked, looking back at him, much of the fox’s fur beaded with droplets of water.
“I know where she is,” Danzen said.
“Who?”
“Soko.”
Soko had always been fascinated by the Floating Lantern Festival, the female assassin actively taking part in it every year at the Diyu Brotherhood. She had even snuck out to Sainshand when the Brotherhood clamped down on celebrations.
In the later years that he had known her, her favorite place to view the festival was Arsi. She went out of her way to not take a contract or take a contract only in that area during monsoon season.
Soko would be there; he was certain of this.
“I have to head back to Arsi once we return,” Danzen said as he continued on, Kudzu quickly catching up with him.
“Why? I thought you were done with the west.”
“I wish that were the case. Soko will be there for the Floating Lantern Festival. I just know it.”
“Then…” Kudzu huffed. “I will join you. I still have the robes Jelmay bought for me, as well as the sword. You saw them in your room, right?”
“I did, and there is no reason for you to join me. This is something I have to handle on my own.”
“I don’t want…” Kudzu shook her head. “I don’t want something to happen to you. I was worried when you went after Nomin. You have allies, and besides, we could check on Jelmay along the way. Or better, grab him by the ear and bring him back here once we are done with Soko.”
“I need to handle this alone,” he told her.
“I’m not taking no for an answer this time,” Kudzu said as she came around and sat in front of him, blocking his path. “I’m coming with you.”
Danzen tried to move around her, and every time he did, Kudzu blocked him from progressing.
“I’m serious, Danzen,” Kudzu said. “You are not doing this alone.”
“You can join me on my trip, but when the time comes—”
“When the time comes, I will be there to fight alongside you.”
“That’s not how assassins operate,” Danzen said.
“You are no longer an assassin.” The white fox paused for a moment and lifted her snout into the air, her nostrils flaring open.
“What is it?”
“Someone has a fire going in a cave near here. Maybe it would be a good place to stop and ask about this hasamidachi. Hopefully, we will get lucky, and he will have simply forgotten to give his shears to Usagi.”
“Something tells me we should be prepared for anything,” said Danzen.
“You are likely right. I don’t know what it is about dealing with yokai, but there is always a chance of things turning sour. Be ready.”
****
Danzen and Kudzu approached the cave, the former assassin cautiously withdrawing his sword.
“Someone is definitely in there.” Kudzu crouched low to the ground as she went ahead, her lips curled a bit now, the white fox prepared to pounce. She looked back to Danzen, nodding him forward.
Danzen came around the other side of the entrance of the cave, Astra now drawn, Kudzu slowly moving in to announce herself.
“Hello?” she called out. “I am here on behalf of Usagi of the village of Osul, and I’m looking for someone named Monobake.”
“Usagi?” a gruff voice asked. There was some shuffling around the cave for a moment, which gave Kudzu time to step back, Danzen ready to engage as soon as he was given the signal.
He had no idea what the hasamidachi would look like, and was by no means surprised to see that the creature that stepped out of the cave had a pair of shears on its forehead. The yokai’s skin was salmon-colored and he had a beak, which was also a shade of pink. The creature was shirtless and wearing a loincloth, three toes on each of his feet, the hasamidachi a couple heads shorter than Danzen.
“Yes, Usagi,” Kudzu said. It was then that the hasamidachi noticed Danzen standing with his blade drawn.
“What is the meaning of this?” he asked, stumbling backward, his eyes bulging with fear.
“I’ll ask once again: are you Monobake?”
“Yes, yes, I am,” he said.
Danzen quickly returned Astra to its scabbard.
“We are here to collect your shears,” Kudzu told him.
The yokai slowly raised his hand to his head. “You mean to kill me?”
“No,” Danzen told him. “Usagi said that your shears are shed every ten years or so, and that you should have a pair that you have saved for him.”
“Of course,” Monobake said. “Please, come in. I’ll explain everything.”
He motioned for them to follow him into the cave. Monobake gestured toward a pair of pillows on the ground which weren’t far from a small fire, a cutting board and a pot next to it, which led Danzen to believe that the hasamidachi had been preparing breakfast.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“No,” said Danzen.
“What are you cooking?” Kudzu asked.
“I boiled some meat last night from a deer that I killed. I was going to warm it up. It’s always better the next day, the meat drips right off the bones with the recipe that I use. A cave is not exactly a great place to live, so I have to keep myself happy with food, and to do that I need good recipes.”
Monobake glanced up to the ceiling, which had been blackened from years of burning wood inside the closed confines of the cave. Danzen noticed scribble marks in the ash, script the former assassin wasn’t familiar with.
“I would love to have some,” Kudzu told him. “But if you are trying to trick us or change the subject in some way, it will not work. We are not leaving here without these shears,” she said, once again glancing to the centerpiece on his forehead.
“You can’t have these ones,” Monobake told her. “If you took them, I would die.”
“Then what happened to the shears that you shed?” Kudzu asked. Monobake placed the pot of boiling water over the stove and added a few wild onions to the water.
Danzen was still prepared to draw his blade. He saw that there was a knife on the cutting board, and the fire itself or the hot water could prove to be an obstacle.
“I was attacked,” Monobake explained. “And I no longer have the shears.”
“For some reason, I don’t think that Usagi is going to believe us if we tell him that.”
“To Diyu with Usagi,” the yokai said bitterly. “I can’t believe he has the gall to send someone to collect, after all these years…”
“What happened between you two?” Kudzu asked.
“It’s a long story, and it involves scamming some of the villagers in Chutham. We actually pulled off the scam,” Monobake said, a smile lifting his beak, “and were able to get ourselves enough livestock to get us through the winter. But afterwards, we started drinking, and some bets were made, and one of those bets involved my shears. I’ll admit,” he grimaced as he added the meat to the water, “Usagi won them fair and square, but we were both drunk, and I didn’t think it was something that he would remember, especially ten years later, especially after the falling out we had.”
“You don’t happen to know someone known as Jelmay, do you?” the fox asked carefully.
A fire flared up behind the hasamidachi’s eyes. “Don’t you… don’t you dare say his name in my presence! While we were drunk and placing bets, Jelmay was stealing the livestock we had stolen for himself, which he sold that very night, and then he disappeared to the west where he spent the winter at a sauna that doubled as a pleasure house. Curse him!”
Kudzu started to laugh.
“Why do you laugh at my misfortunes?” the yokai asked, pain in his eyes.
“We are quite familiar with Jelmay, and…” Kudzu licked her lips. “He can be a handful.”
“A handful? Not only did he steal all the food that we had stolen, but he got to spend the winter in relative warmth and in the arms of various pillowers. And that’s not all: the village was depending on the food that we were supposed to bring back, which led to us having to figure out another way to get some livestock from Chutham. It might not sound so bad now, but we had worked on that scheme for well over a month, tracking the family, preparing a distraction. All of it was all for nothing! We had to start over.”
“And you lost your shears?” Danzen said, which made Kudzu laugh even harder.
“I do not see what is so funny about this!”
“There’s nothing funny, it’s just that we have learned to, um, not trust Jelmay,” Kudzu said, but the tone of her voice told Danzen something different. They both more or less trusted Jelmay, and something in her tone made Danzen think that she was starting to question this decision.
“You and me both,” Monobake said as he stirred the pot. “Never trust a bakeneko, especially that bakeneko.”
“Where are the shears now?” Danzen asked.
“They were stolen from me by a damn orochi.”
Kudzu gasped. “You aren’t serious.”
“Why would I lie about that? The river isn’t too far from here, and if you continue up it, you’ll come to a lake. I was there camping out along the shore after a long day of fishing when the orochi attacked.”
“And what is an orochi?” Danzen asked.
“You know, I haven’t said anything about a human such as yourself being so deep in the woods, and I guess that warrants a comment now: humans don’t usually come this far in. I hope you are prepared to face whatever it is you’re going to have to face, then again, judging by the weapons you are carrying and something about your overall demeanor…” Monobake trailed off. “I digress. An orochi is a gigantic serpent large enough that trees can grow from its back. It has eight heads with bright-red eyes, a red belly, and eight tails as well. According to legend, they used to be the distance of eight valleys, but this one is considerably small compared to that insane measurement. But hey, it’s large enough to pretty much rule over the lake to the north.”
“And this creature has the shears?” Danzen asked.
“Orochi, it’s called an orochi, and yes, it has the shears I shed. They are known to keep a little stash of items that they find, which it has conveniently placed on a small island in the center of the lake. I wouldn’t say it’s all my fault, but I should have known better than to take a snooze along the shoreline there. That… was a mistake.”
Kudzu shook her head. “I was hoping that we weren’t going to need to journey to the lake. That orochi has been there for years. You should have known about it.”
“I did know about it,” he told her as his soup started boiling. “But there are really good fish in that lake.”
“Everyone knows that, but no one goes there to get the fish because of the orochi,” Kudzu scolded him.
“Have you ever had any of those fish?” he asked. “They are worth the risk,” he said before she could answer. “I’ve been able to fish there multiple times without disturbing the serpent. I didn’t disturb it this time, I just happened to fall asleep and it noticed me.”
“So you believe your shears are on an island in the center of this lake, correct?” Danzen asked.
“Definitely, they were reaching their maturity by the time the orochi came for me, and they fell off.” He brought his hands up to the shears that he was currently growing. “You should have seen them.”
“We will see them,” Kudzu told him. “We’re going to get these shears and bring them back to Usagi, and you are going to take us there.”
“Do you plan to kill the orochi?” Monobake asked, tilting his head as he looked from the white fox to the former assassin.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that,” said Danzen.
Monobake shrugged. “Well, you two are officially crazy. I’ll take you there, sure, but I am keeping as far away from that thing as I can, so don’t expect me to help you fight it. I did mention it had eight heads, right?”
Danzen nodded.
“And that doesn’t bother you any? It sure bothers everyone else that has seen it.”
“We will figure everything out,” Kudzu said. “But first, we will eat.”
The hasamidachi slowly started to nod. “Yes, that is something we can all agree on, the power and potency of a good meal. What were your names again?”
“Kudzu, and you can call him Pilgrim.”
“Pilgrim, huh? Sure, I’ll call you that. Now, I got a few extra bowls over there that need to be washed out. Since you are the only one with free hands,” he told Danzen as he stirred the soup, “I’m going to leave that to you. Bring one for yourself as well. You’re going to want some of the soup.”
.Chapter Four.
After they ate, Monobake led Kudzu and Danzen along the banks of the river, the water spinning into a few whirlpools as they neared the lake, stray branches and flower petals floating on its surface.
The rain had since gone, but it was misty, Danzen noticing the moisture on his clothing, forced to wipe his brow every so often. As they walked, Monobake continued to speak poorly of Jelmay and Usagi, the hasamidachi clearly not a fan.
Danzen more or less tuned him out. He focused now on his surroundings and what they were about to face. He had battled a number of strange things since coming to the Valley, from a filthy giant to a faceless ghost-like yokai, and now he was going to have to add an enormous serpent to that list.
Danzen had fought around bodies of water, but he had never engaged in combat with something actually in the water, and he only hoped that he would be able to use his blade of darkness and Astra to their full potential; the odds of him getting close to the thing were slim to none.
It was another thirty minutes before the river started to open up, the water rushing even faster. Danzen saw a few fish hop out, catch insects, and dive back beneath the water.
“This is where I get greedy,” said Monobake. “I could just fish for these ones here, but the really big ones, the fifteen to twenty-pounders, those ones are in the lake. You can almost see them beneath the surface too, with their golden scales.”
Kudzu licked her lips. “I’ve had them before.”
“Then you know,” was all the hasamidachi said as they scrambled over a couple branches that had been knocked over. The foliage opened up to reveal a beautiful lake surrounded by trees, an island in its center. There was an eerie calm about the water, absolutely no movement, no indication that a gigantic serpent lived in the lake.
Danzen’s eyes fell upon the island at the center of the body of water which consisted of a small beach and several large rocks, the glint of something on their surface telling him that this was where the beast of a yokai stored items it had found.
“And you think that the shears are there?” Danzen asked, nodding his chin toward the island.
“They have to be.”
“Perhaps you could make a distraction and I could swim out there,” Kudzu offered. “I don’t know if we will be able to kill it, and I don’t know if it is worth killing. There are no other yokai like the orochi in the forest; it would be a shame to play a part in extincting a species.”
“I’m going to have to disagree,” Monobake said after a short pause. “That thing has been terrorizing anyone who comes to this lake my entire life. Imagine what this lake would be like if that damn creature wasn’t here. I’m all for preserving yokai life, but that thing…” The hasamidachi peered out over the lake, a scowl forming on his face. “That thing deserves to die.”
“I will provide a distraction,” Danzen told Kudzu. “That should give you the time that you need to swim out there and grab the shears. We will meet…” Danzen spotted a small whirlpool caused by a few rocks jutting out of the water of the river, far enough from the lake that the serpent would have difficulty reaching the location. “There. And you,” he said, looking at Monobake, “will be the one who tells me when it is time to go.”
