Pilgrim, p.33
Pilgrim, page 33
“I’m fine,” Danzen said as he returned to Kudzu, who still eyed the cat with suspicion. They transitioned to the small stream near the tree, Danzen crouching to wash the mud off his face.
“I feel like he’s planning something,” she said under her breath, once the mud was gone. “Do you get that feeling?”
Danzen wiped his face against his sleeve once more. “Yes,” he told her.
In his years as an assassin, he had encountered all sorts of characters. The type of informants he generally dealt with varied, some quiet and discreet, others boisterous and proud, almost daring someone to interfere with their affairs. The latter may not have been Danzen’s target on those fateful days, but they were certainly dead by now. The Diyu Brotherhood was known to fatally handle these kinds of informants, usually allowing younger assassins to cut their teeth on these individuals.
The Brotherhood ran quite an extensive informant operation, with eyes and ears in most of the cities of the west. Running from Sainshand to Arsi, these informants were one reason Danzen had taken the long way around, heading south and bypassing most of the larger cities.
Fortuitously enough, the Diyu Brotherhood’s reach stopped at an outpost known as Tudan, which, because of its proximity to Chutham, was known as the Door to the Valley.
“He may get in the way when dealing with the jubokko tree, you know,” Kudzu whispered as the bakeneko dove back into the berry bush. “Now that I’m aware of your condition, I am a bit more worried than I had been before learning of what happens if you break skin.”
“My condition,” said Danzen, his voice just above a murmur.
Soko had called it this as well, and in the time it took for Kudzu to continue speaking, and for Jelmay to move to another bush in search of berries, Danzen once again remembered the beautiful assassin, her obsession with Sunyata remnants and what it had done to her, and how she was actively looking for him alongside Norwin Dawa, at least according to what the late Shunta told him.
“You have something else you prefer to call it?” Kudzu asked.
“No, calling it that is fine. I don’t ever speak about it to anyone, and I suppose that that’s what it is, a condition.”
“Some would call it a power.”
“It comes with an unthinkable amount of power,” Danzen told her, “but is not a power I like to use, especially with the strain it puts on me and dealing with what I inevitably unleash.”
“Are we talking about your demons?” Jelmay asked as he approached, his face and whiskers covered in purple berry juice. “Because I have a theory about that. Actually, it’s not really a theory, it’s the truth. Or truth as it has been revealed to me.”
“Do you?” Kudzu asked, her eyes narrowing on the garrulous yokai.
“Let’s continue, I’ll tell you of my prediction along the way. I did promise you that, after all,” said the cat as he nodded them forward.
“Back in Suja Village?” Danzen asked.
“So you do remember now! I was wondering when you would bring it up, and I’m surprised it wasn’t the first thing that you asked me. Who was the man with white robes and red hair, am I right? I’m sure you’ve been wondering this.”
Danzen shrugged. At the time, there was no telling if the cat was speaking the truth, and he didn’t know if he would ever see the bakeneko again anyway.
“Well?” Jelmay asked after Danzen didn’t take the bait.
“Well, what?”
“Aren’t you going to ask me who he is?”
“Who is he?” Danzen asked, annoyed that he was going to have to play along.
“That, my dear Pilgrim, was your half-brother.”
Danzen stopped. “I don’t have a half-brother. I was an orphan.”
“Just because you were an orphan doesn’t mean you didn’t have a sibling,” Jelmay said with a chuckle. “I don’t know his name, I’m not the type to get those kinds of details, but I do know he is related to you, that you two share the same blood. And I also know that he is a demon, if that makes you feel any better. He’s not one like you, though; you’re just a half-demon.”
.Chapter Four.
Danzen didn’t want to believe what Jelmay had told him. It wasn’t the first time there had been a suggestion that he was a half-demon, but it had been since his encounter with Norwin Dawa that he had heard the words voiced.
While there was certainly some indication that this was indeed what he was, Danzen also didn’t trust the cat, even with his supposed ability to interpret the future.
And the part about his brother?
Danzen was certain the man with red hair whom he had faced off against was a figment of Jelmay’s imagination, or perhaps a terror dream that Danzen had, which the bakeneko had picked up on.
The cat continued to speak, Danzen tuning him out as they moved deeper into the forest. It seemed that Kudzu had stopped listening as well, the white fox merely making affirmations with her throat from time to time as Jelmay told her of his exploits, Danzen listening back in once he finally arrived at Uncle Gempachi.
“Like I said earlier, it wasn’t my intention to become so, ahem, possessed,” Jelmay told Kudzu. “I got caught up with something in the west, as far as Arsi, if you can believe that, and I ran into this man who was coming back here and I figured I would hitch a ride. I can do that, you know. It’s one of the advantages of my power,” he said in an arrogant tone. “But I got carried away, and I wasn’t even planning to make it to Suja Village. Really, I wasn’t. My goal was to reach Chutham and, maybe after a quick stop at the pleasure house, slip back into the forest, leaving someone else to cover my bill. Not great, I know. But like I said, things got a little out of hand.”
“Glad to see that you enjoy exploiting people,” said Kudzu. She was in front of Danzen and Jelmay now, her shimmering tail held high in the air like a plume, her ears flitted back in agitation.
“Since when did you have a distaste for me?” Jelmay asked, stopping in his tracks.
“You have caused us a lot of trouble, and I get the feeling that you will cause us more.”
“Nonsense, I am part of the story now, part of this epic journey, if you will,” he said in an almost theatrical way. “Yes, I once was a swindler, I’ll give you that. But I changed my ways, I’ve seen the light.”
“Have you?” Kudzu stopped as well, the fox lifting her chin into the air.
“You can smell it too?” asked Jelmay. “It’s about time. I’ve been smelling it for the last five minutes now. Pilgrim?”
Danzen shook his head. The only thing he could smell was the forest, a hint of soil, perhaps a bit of pine.
“I would hate to be a human and have such a pitiful sense of smell,” Jelmay said. “You’re missing out on so much.”
“A quarter of a mile ahead,” said Kudzu.
“A bit less than that,” Jelmay corrected her. “I would get my weapons out now, if I were you.”
And as these words left the yokai’s lips, Danzen heard the rattle of metal and bone, two skeletons in armor coming around the tree ahead of them, both with swords much larger than Danzen’s.
Realizing his Blade of Darkness would be of service, especially as it was almost usable like a poleaxe, Danzen unsheathed the weapon and brought it forward just in time to parry one of the skeletons’ thrusts.
The second skeletal being blocked his first strike with its shield, Danzen using the pole end of his weapon to knock the shield aside. He pressed forward and drove the tip of his weapon into the skeleton's rib cage and twisted it. Hooking his weapon in the skeleton’s chest cavity, he lifted his opponent and drove it into the ground, Jelmay hopping out of the way just in time and letting out a wild yelp.
The skeleton crumbled once it hit the ground, Danzen knocking the life out of it.
The first one came at him again with its sword at the ready, its shield close to its body.
Danzen loosed his other blade, Astra firing at the skeleton’s head and sinking into its eye socket.
This caused the skeleton to let its guard down, its human instincts oddly triggered as it stumbled backward.
Danzen thrust his Blade of Darkness forward and knocked the shield aside, coming back around and cutting the skeleton down, Astra returning to its scabbard.
He stood over the pile of bones, waiting for them to reanimate. When they didn’t, he slowly relaxed his shoulders.
“Did you see that?” Kudzu asked, Danzen knowing exactly what she was referring to.
“They still have their human instincts.”
“Precisely. Your sword should have done nothing to it; it can’t see you, yet the sword in his eye threw it off guard. There are going to be many more of these where we’re going.”
“Time to get me a weapon,” said Jelmay as he went for one of the skeleton’s swords. He jabbed at the air a few times and flourished his blade, Danzen giving him a skeptical look. “What? I can fight with a sword,” said the bakeneko as he showed Danzen his claws, which definitely weren’t something Danzen would describe as a normal human hand. “I believe I’ll take a shield as well. Anything for you, Kudzu?”
A grimace on her face, the white fox turned away from him and carried her head high as she trotted ahead.
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,” he called after her.
****
It wasn’t long before a line of skeletal warriors loomed into view. They were of varying size and were equipped with different weapons, from swords to staffs, one with a club that looked as if it were made from a giant’s femur.
Calling on his strength and speed, Danzen bolted toward them, addressing the first one to raise his sword, Danzen’s famed blade flitting through his skeletal opponent's ribs and taking it down. He swung his Blade of Darkness at another, and was surprised to see Jelmay come forward as well, the yokai blocking an attack with his borrowed shield.
He noticed the ground shift off to his left as another warrior dug his way out, more tearing out of the soil.
Kudzu snapped her jaw around one of the skeleton’s legs.
She began tugging it to the side, which distracted it long enough for Danzen to cut it down with his Blade of Darkness.
Astra returned to its scabbard, Danzen flinging it again at another skeleton, his sword once again going through its rib cage and pinning the skeleton to the trunk of a tree.
He swung the glaive into another skeleton, Danzen now with both weapons drawn. Leaping into the air, he shot forward and came down just over Jelmay’s head, startling the bakeneko.
“That’s some fighting!” Jelmay called to Danzen as he addressed another opponent, this one missing an arm, yet still able to swing a large sword. Danzen blocked its first attack, and jumped back just in time to avoid another skeleton coming from his right.
As if they were on the same wavelength, something dawned on Danzen and Kudzu at seemingly the same time.
He landed and quickly glanced to the fox, who was now trying to disturb the footing of the one-armed skeleton. She jumped to avoid a swipe, her eyes locking on his.
“We have to take the tree down,” he said, just as an arrow came flying past his face, so close that Danzen thought for a moment that it had cut into his cheek.
Fear ballooned within him, his heart crawling its way up to his throat, Danzen quickly dipping to the side, his hand on his face.
“No, no…” he started to say as he pulled his hand back, relief rolling down his shoulders as he saw that there wasn’t any blood, that it was only sweat mixed with a bit of mud from earlier.
Had the arrow been just an inch to his left…
He saw the archer and flung the sword at the skeleton’s hands, dislodging its bow. The bow hit the ground. Astra returned, and Danzen charged forward and cut the skeletal archer down with his Blade of Darkness, the sound of metal on bones not one Danzen was familiar with.
Normally, there was always flesh protecting the bone, which dampened the sound in a way.
Every strike he made now was like chipping away at a rock, Danzen finding it hard not to cringe as he considered the damage he was doing to his sword.
But Astra was no ordinary weapon, and in the years he’d had it, Danzen had never had to do anything to the blade aside from polish it.
Sure enough, one glance down and he saw that the blade was as perfect as ever, Danzen refocusing on reaching the jubokko tree.
While he couldn’t yet see it, he had an idea of its location. It was clear to him now that the tree could continually bring forth skeletons to defend it, and likely the bones of the ones that had already fallen.
He shot into the air, landing on a large branch above him. He pressed up from there, sailing out of the canopy. It was quite easy to spot the jubokko tree from a higher vantage point, a ring around it, its trunk black, pulsing, red leaves hanging from its limbs.
Danzen landed before the jubokko tree, moving just in time to avoid being cut down by one of its branches, which it wielded like a whip. It snapped another branch at him, Danzen managing to slice it away, the air misting with a blood-like sap.
The branch drooped off to the side of the tree, more blood seeping from where he had struck it.
Kudzu reached Danzen, the fox panting as she looked up to the tree, which was now starting to twist its branches together, the red leaves falling on the ground as it formed several tentacle-like appendages, creating a sound almost like knuckles cracking.
“Where do you think it is?” Danzen asked as he quickly caught his breath.
“There.”
As if the single word that came out of the fox’s mouth had also come with directions, Danzen located the spot just above what would be the center of the trunk. A purple gemstone was lodged in the surface of the darkened trunk, red veins reaching out from it, the veins pulsing.
Snap!
The tree brought one of its limbs down, Danzen hopping out of the way to avoid its attack. Another conjoined tendril struck the ground, tearing up the soil.
Danzen beat back some of the branches with his Blade of Darkness, the former assassin focused on getting just a bit closer to the tree before he tried to dislodge the gemstone.
He was subsequently swept off his feet, the wind knocked out of him momentarily as he rolled back. Danzen flipped up just in time to avoid a sharpened branch that came down like a mallet, the ground shaking around him.
Some of the skeletal warriors joined the fray, none of them concerned with the tree’s flailing limbs. Its tendril limbs tore through a few of them as it tried to reach Danzen, who continued to hack away at it, the former assassin covered in blood by the time he reached a point that he felt would be his best shot.
Without any further hesitation, he flung Astra at the gemstone, aiming just beneath the jewel. The tree’s limbs lashed at the air as Danzen sunk his blade a quarter of the way into its trunk.
“You got it!” Kudzu cried as she circled back around, narrowly avoiding an attack from one of the skeletons.
The jubokko tree’s bloody sap made it easy for Astra to pry itself from the tree trunk. As soon as the blade was out, the gemstone fell to the ground, Astra returning to Danzen’s hand.
“I’ve got it!” cried Jelmay, who had just appeared on the scene, the cat tossing his shield and sword away as he charged toward the gemstone.
Kudzu advanced on the gemstone as well while Danzen refocused on cutting some of the limbs out of the air, and engaging any of the skeletal warriors that reached him.
There was a split second that he didn’t trust Jelmay, a second in which he prepared to kill the bakeneko once and for all if he tried to steal the gemstone.
But that moment didn’t come.
The cat grabbed the remnant, skidded to a halt, and turned back to Danzen, Kudzu doing the same.
They ran toward him as the tree tried to swat both of them down, Danzen advancing forward with both blades drawn to protect his companions.
He cut through limb after limb, the air misty with red sap as the two yokai bolted past him, his companions moving farther and farther away from the skeletal warriors.
Once he saw that they were clear, Danzen pressed off his feet, bulleting into the air in a backward arc. He righted himself just in time to reach the canopy, where he landed lightly on a limb.
Switching his trajectory, he turned to the fleeing yokai and sprang toward them.
He touched down on the forest floor a few paces ahead of the two.
“Sunyata’s blessings,” Kudzu said, panting heavily.
Jelmay leaned against a tree for a moment, his whiskers fanning in and out as he sucked in deep breaths. Without a word he turned his open palm to Danzen, handing him the purple gemstone.
“What?” the cat asked, baring his teeth as he continued to breathe heavily. “Did you think I was going to steal it?”
Danzen merely took the gemstone, and returned his focus to his Blade of Darkness.
****
“You’re going to leave us hanging, aren’t you?” Jelmay asked. “After all this, you really aren’t going to pop the gemstone in there so we can see what it does?”
They weren’t as far away from the jubokko tree as Danzen thought they were, close enough for the bakeneko to already have located one of the skeletal warriors’ swords and shields.
“Maybe it’s best if we don’t do that here,” Kudzu said, “considering the force itself, the yokai that could be watching us, and how close we are to our opponents.”
“We also don’t know if it will need to be looked at by a blacksmith or not,” Danzen said as he pocketed the gemstone.
“Fine,” Jelmay said with a playful huff. “You two really aren’t as much fun as I thought you would be.”
“How long are you going to be following us again?” Kudzu asked.
“Following you? I was under the impression that I had joined you,” said the bakeneko. “I helped back there, remember?” He swung the sword he’d picked off a skeleton as evidence of his fighting prowess.
