Pilgrim, p.31
Pilgrim, page 31
He moved into his bedroom and retrieved the Blade of Darkness, removing it from its sheath. Danzen strapped the sheath on his back.
“We’re leaving that quickly, huh?” Kudzu asked.
“Did you want to stay?”
Danzen placed a few items in his satchel including his sewing kit, his firestarter, a clean enough set of robes, and his field diary. He caught a glimmer on the two-drawer dresser that Khamdo had crafted him, Danzen’s eyes falling upon the mask he’d made with circular mirrors sewn into its backside.
“No, it’s fine,” said Kudzu. “I suppose it’s better for us to get on our way, especially where I’m taking you.”
“You never really mentioned where you were taking me,” he said as he sheathed his Blade of Darkness.
“Let’s keep it a surprise.” Kudzu trotted out of his room, her white tail bouncing behind her.
“Should I bring food?” he called after her.
He still had some grain left that he could cook up into flat patties, which they could eat later.
He was pretty sure they would just eat along the way as well, or when they got hungry, his assumptions confirmed when Kudzu told him not to bother preparing any food for their journey.
Danzen brought an additional bag in his satchel, one he’d made for some of the material that Khamdo had used to lug items up to the monastery.
This bag was for collection purposes.
If Danzen did encounter any yokai that needed to be dealt with, and there were parts of them he could harvest after, he would do so.
Meeting the seller in Chutham really had turned out to be a blessing, and as long as he was buying, Danzen would have another way to make money in the valley.
He joined Kudzu at the front of his monastery and the two stepped out, Danzen locking up behind him.
From there they traveled down the hill, Yama coming halfway with them and finally stopping once he’d gone too far.
“Be sure to keep an eye on Basan,” Danzen told the lion dog, who grunted a response.
With Kudzu in the lead, the two made their way straight into the Asura Forest, the fox keeping a leisurely pace until they were deep in the foliage.
She started moving faster, Danzen keeping on her tail, constantly aware of the additional weight put on his shoulder due to his Blade of Darkness and its added height.
Glaives were two-handed weapons with the blade on one end and the grip on the other, not quite a poleax, but somewhat similar in usage. The glaives Danzen had used previously had longer poles and smaller tips on the end, much more like a staff than the Blade of Darkness, which only had a pole running up about a third of the weapon’s length, the rest a blackened blade.
It was a killer weapon, and if putting a gemstone in it would allow Danzen to command shadows, it would be monstrously useful.
There had once been an assassin who stopped by the Diyu Brotherhood for a demonstration on shadow-fighting. The man wore several necklaces with Sunyata remnants on them, which began glowing with energy as soon as he called upon them.
It was quite an impressive display of power, the man able to cut through solid stone with his shadowy tendrils, which at times draped from his wrists like loosened silk.
Danzen could no longer remember his name.
It had been one of many demonstrations he had been part of in his youth, the Brotherhood encouraging the young assassins to utilize remnants in any way that they could, all aside from Danzen.
He had been told several times by Biren Yeshe that his power would be tainted if he went that route. So he never did, Danzen never questioning the wisdom of his former instructor.
Danzen and Kudzu came to a small river, which he assumed was an offshoot of the rock outcropping he had discovered in the forest when he’d gone to rescue Enkhmaa. Kudzu stopped to drink, her eyes immediately darting to a space just a few feet in front of her.
She turned to Danzen.
No words were exchanged as he loosed Astra, his blade slicing into the water and returning immediately with two fish on its end. Danzen let them flop on a rock until they died, and strung them up on the leather string he always had with him.
He returned his focus to the water and caught a few more.
He hadn’t seen fish this color before, pink with blue diamonds across their gills, yellow fins, and orange eyes. They each weighed over a pound, Danzen hoisting them over his other shoulder once they continued deeper into the woods.
The two were silent as they came to an area where the canopies of the trees above them were fifty feet or higher, the two much deeper in the forest than Danzen had ever been before, more so than when he faced off against the bear-like creature.
He noticed something in the air now, a light sparkle every now and then from a ray of light that happened to press through the leaves overhead. This feature made the place feel ethereal, as if he were walking through a living shrine.
“Where are we going exactly?” he asked as the color of the trees began to change, their trunks now a shade of orange, the leaves above red, like some of the trees that bloomed in the early spring west of Arsi.
Danzen had been quiet for some time; something about the place was making him feel uneasy, as if he were stepping into another world.
“We’re going to ask a friend of mine about your gemstone,” said Kudzu.
“I thought you already knew where it was.”
“She does, but she said she wanted something before she told me.”
“And what was that? What did she want?” Danzen asked, his hand not far from the hilt of his blade now, the hairs on the back of his neck standing as Kudzu continued forward, as the colors of the forest framed her in a strange vibrancy.
“Relax. She wants to meet you. And as to your question about where we're going, we’re going to Ogul.”
“Ogul?”
“It’s a yokai gathering place, a village, if you will. Come, it’s not much farther now.”
.Chapter Two.
The trees soon opened up into a rather expansive glade with monumental stones, many of which had overhangs that provided shelter. Vines ran down the rocks, some of them tied off, others lumped together to conceal the front entrances of caves.
There was some movement, but the yokai village known as Ogul was completely silent now. As he took another look at his surroundings, Danzen got the feeling that he was being watched by more than one pair of eyes.
“Like I said,” Kudzu told him, “you are the first human that has been here in a while.”
“And they live here?” Danzen asked, noticing the tail of a creature slipping into one of the outward-facing caves.
“Some do, most just visit when they are in need of something. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there are different kinds of yokai,” she said as they passed a series of stones jutting out of the ground that almost resembled a long table, a flat rock balanced on top of the stones.
As they moved deeper into the yokai village, a large, three-legged raven landed on an oval-shaped rock next to a trickling source of water.
The raven observed them and took off, heading in a westerly direction.
“You are going to be the talk of the forest,” Kudzu said, a hint of pride in her voice.
“And you are sure it’s all right for me to be here?” he asked her as they came to a series of enormous trees, their orange trunks easily the size of carriages. There were entryways carved into the trunks, some with actual doors, others completely open, an occasional flash of eyes catching Danzen’s attention.
“I am sure,” the white fox told him. “I have been part of this community for many years, and anyone that would question my decisions has long since passed.”
As they weaved through the lane of trees, a small white creature with yellow eyes and nostrils like that of a snake peeked out from one of the entryways. It made a startled sound with its throat, and slipped back to the entryway.
“Hajiki, go get your mother,” Kudzu called after.
Hajiki soon returned with a larger version of himself, his mother several times the size. Akin to a raccoon, these yokai had five tapered fingers, and appeared to lack thumbs.
“Kikikaki,” Kudzu said with a slight bow of her head.
“So this is the man,” said the larger yokai, her gruff voice not matching the inviting smile on her face.
Danzen nodded.
“Ah, you said he was a silent one, didn’t you?” Kikikaki asked, her nostrils flaring as she took Danzen in. Something flashed across her eyes, and in that moment, he felt naked in front of her, as if she could see something that others couldn’t. “It doesn’t matter now,” was all she said regarding the premonition she’d had. “It doesn’t matter now. Welcome to Ogul. Pilgrim, is it?”
“Yes, Pilgrim. Thank you,” said Danzen as he took a look around, seeing that she was going to be the only yokai that welcomed him. Aside from the three-legged raven and her son, Hajiki, it seemed like most the inhabitants of Ogul had disappeared.
“Don’t mind them,” Kikikaki told him as she gestured toward the rest of the village. “They’ll warm up to you on your next visit, or perhaps your next, or your next. How many times do you plan to bring him?” she asked Kudzu playfully.
“As many times as it takes,” said Kudzu, Danzen not certain what she meant by this.
“I know you’ve come a long way and you still have a journey ahead of you. I won’t take too much of your time. Night is coming,” said Kikikaki, her yellow eyes looking up to the sky, “so you will have to stay here for the night.”
“In your tree?”
“There’s plenty of room.” She motioned him in. “See for yourself.”
Danzen ducked his head down and slipped into the entryway that had been carved into the tree trunk, finding the space inside even more expansive than he thought it would be. Standing up meant he would have to crouch just a little, but sitting down or relaxing gave him plenty of space to stretch out. It appeared that their hosts were the burrowing type, Danzen confirming this once he saw a hole in the ground that had a set of stairs that led down.
“Please, sit.” Kikikaki motioned for her son to head down the stairs.
Kudzu aimed her snout at the fish Danzen had strung over his shoulder. “We brought this.”
“Wonderful,” said Kikikaki, her hands outstretched as she waited for Danzen to hand the fish to her. She called her son again and he came lumbering up the stairs with a grouchy look on his face. Once she handed him the string of fish, he quickly exited.
“Now, I suppose that I will just get down to it. You are looking for a particular gemstone, are you not?”
“That’s right,” said Danzen as he removed his Blade of Darkness. He carefully showed her where the stone went.
“I believe it will fit. Yes, it’s certainly a match. There was a curious gemstone dropped off here by a bird a number of years back. Well, not here exactly, but in the Asura Forest. But it’s not going to be easy retrieving it because the gemstone was dropped near a jubokko tree. Do you know what that is?”
Danzen shook his head.
“It is a yokai that grows at the site of a battle, its roots drinking from the blood of the people that have died there. These trees are quite powerful, and they can summon the bones of the dead to defend it. Are you still interested in retrieving the gemstone?”
Danzen looked down at the indentation in his weapon, recalling yet again the demonstration he’d seen at the Diyu Brotherhood.
Going after the Sunyata gemstone was worth it. Members of the Brotherhood would come for Danzen eventually, and when they finally found him, the weapon would give him another line of defense.
“Yes, I am,” he finally told her.
“I had a feeling you’d say that,” she said as she waddled to her feet. “Dinner won’t be long. Until then, please relax.”
****
Kudzu joined Kikikaki downstairs, leaving Danzen to flip through his field diary. He came to one of the Abbot's sketchings that resembled their host, her species known, oddly enough, as a hajikkaki.
Danzen read the description, confirming that they had white, hairless bodies, the yokai plump with yellow eyes and fangs. Abbot Mergen wrote that they were pathetic-looking, and that they frequently placed their hands over their heads in the display of embarrassment.
If that was the case, Danzen hadn’t seen either Kikikaki or her son, Hajiki, make this gesture, which he took to mean that he would probably need to add an additional note to the diary about these particular yokai.
There was also an explanation for why they were shy, which claimed that this behavior was due to the fact that they spent most of their lives buried underground. The Abbot warned against digging one up, as it would bring great shame to a person.
Danzen doubted that Abbot Mergen had actually gotten to know one of these particular yokai. This made him wonder how many of the interpretations in his field diary were simply bits of information he had jotted down from the Elder’s library, or things he had heard along the way, rather than true accounts.
He’d already discovered some discrepancies.
Danzen next located the jubokko tree, which also came with a picture that showed a cross-section of a tree, its roots surrounded by skeletons, veins of blood moving through its trunk.
Danzen read the description, which was accurate to what Kikikaki had told him: The jubokko tree grows on the sites of battles or massacres, in places where there has been enough bloodshed to saturate the ground. They begin as normal trees that are turned into yokai after absorbing blood through their roots. Once they have had a taste for blood it is all they thirst for, the tree known for using its branches to kill animals so it can quench its thirst. They are also able to animate the bones of those whose blood they have drained.
Kudzu came up the steps, joined by Kikikaki and her son, who once again carried a gloomy expression on his face.
They ate, and as they did so Danzen listened to their conversations about the Asura Forest, and how the outskirts of Chutham were beginning to encroach upon the boundaries that had been set long ago, through treaties that humans no longer remembered.
They were concerned about this, but there was little they could do aside from attack humans, which only exacerbated things.
The fish was good, the fillet rubbed in an herb that was surprisingly spicy, Danzen glad that Kikikaki’s son had fetched water from a nearby cold spring to soothe the burning sensation in his mouth.
After dinner, Kikikaki and her son headed downstairs, which left Danzen with Kudzu.
“How dangerous is this tree?” he asked, once he was sure that the woman wasn’t coming up again, so it would be just the two of them.
“A jubokko tree is exceptionally dangerous,” Kudzu told him. “One of the nastier yokai that lurk in these woods. I hope you’re prepared to fight to get this gemstone; I’m afraid I won’t be of much use against the armored skeletons the tree will be able to summon.”
“So I’ve read,” said Danzen, showing her his field diary.
“But as always, I will do my best to help you.”
Danzen nodded. “There’s something…”
“Yes?”
He swallowed hard, deciding at that moment it was important to tell her at least a few things about himself, just so she knew what to do if something happened.
“I have a condition,” Danzen explained after a long pause. “You have seen some of my condition, my ability to command people with my voice,” he said, referring to his interactions with Shedrup in the Chutham Mountains. “You’ve also seen my enhanced strength, speed, and stamina. But there is another side of my power. I can’t get cut; I can’t bleed. If I do, if I shed even a single drop of blood, demons come out of me. Not from me, but from the ground beneath me. Their numbers increase depending on the amount of blood I’ve shed…” He bit his lip.
“Remind me again what you call this vocal ability of yours?” she asked carefully.
“Demon Speak,” he said. “It’s what my teacher called it.”
“And when you bleed, you unleash demons as well, correct?”
Danzen exhaled audibly.
It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, the confession a long time coming. He also had a feeling that he knew what she was hinting at here, something he never dwelled on about his past, about who he was. “The last time it happened was two years ago…”
“And who did you say your mother and father were?”
“I was an orphan,” Danzen told her. “I don’t know who they were.”
“I could smell something was different about you, something off about your blood. I’m sure the others, at least those with heightened senses of smell, have noticed it as well. I’ve smelled it before, when I was in the Panchen Mountains, too close to Diyu. I don’t know what this means, but it is something to think about,” she said, not giving voice to what they both knew she was hinting at, that some part of him was different than other people in their world.
“I’ve thought a lot about it. If I never bleed again, I’ll be content.”
“Everyone bleeds.”
“I go to great lengths not to. Something small, like a pinprick, won’t really do much, especially if I suck it up quickly. But once we move past the size of a minor scratch, that’s when things turn ugly for me,” Danzen locked eyes with her, “and for anyone around me. If this is what happens tomorrow, you need to leave. I have every intention not to let it happen, but if it does, I don’t want you to see what happens next.”
“What happens next?” Kudzu asked, her voice quivering.
“They come. And if I’m able to, I kill them.”
.Chapter Three.
The yokai village of Ogul came alive after the two went down for the night, Kudzu sleeping on one side of the room, and Danzen stretched out on the other, resting on his spare robes as usual. Sounds he’d never heard before met his ears and the occasional flash of light managed to sneak in through the gap in the bottom of the door, the commotion keeping him awake.
