Pilgrim 2, p.35
Pilgrim 2, page 35
It was then that Danzen got a glimpse of Shedrup, the former town drunk with his fists at the ready.
Nomtoi started to laugh.
His speed was unmatched as he bolted forward, and struck Shedrup twice in the abdomen. The demonic man grabbed Shedrup by the front of his robes and threw him into another building, the ceiling collapsing on top of him, boards creaking and more debris filling the air.
“You care so much about these villagers, don’t you?” Nomtoi asked as he returned to Danzen. He crouched in front of his sibling and grabbed the back of his hair. He lifted Danzen’s head, exposing the former assassin’s throat. “Answer me!”
Danzen had never felt so beaten in his life. He tried in earnest to summon his power, but it drained him of all of his energy, his brother’s superior strength unmatched in any opponent he had ever faced before.
“Leave, I don’t care… about Diyu…” Danzen whispered. “It’s yours.”
“Yet Diyu cares about you. Hmmm… I have an idea that you may like, brother. Maybe I will bring some of your friends there with me. Yes, that would make things interesting, I believe. If you want them back, you know where to find me. I’ll see you in a week or so.”
“A… week?”
“This is going to hurt, brother.” Nomtoi took an even larger handful of Danzen’s hair and slammed Danzen’s face into the dirt. Everything went dark; the former assassin was out cold.
.Chapter Two.
The steps of the Diyu Brotherhood materialized, Danzen watching as a faceless mu-onna stood at the entrance, hunched over, waiting for him.
The macabre image flashed away and he was in a room somewhere, in a bed, tucked in, safe, the voices of people standing over him indecipherable. A fevered sweat came in the middle of the night, Danzen not quite certain as to where he was.
He fell into a deep and troubled slumber, one that was coupled with flashes of light, the sounds of a death march beating in his head, every muscle aching, demonic cries, his bones feeling as if they’d been shattered and grafted back together by callous hands.
On the second day he felt a little better, Danzen finally recognizing that he was at Elder Sonders’ mansion, in the quaint room off the study.
Danzen had no chance to wonder how he had gotten there.
Everything came to him in a wave of violent flashes, his brother in his wolf form, the powerful demon smashing through buildings, sending waves of energy all around him, taunting Danzen, slamming his head into the ground repeatedly until all he saw was black.
The images flashed all at once, then one after another, and it only made him panic, his heart thrumming in his chest until he heard a familiar voice.
“Danzen?”
He glanced to see Kudzu in her human form, the fox woman immediately coming to his side. His vision blurred into existence and he saw tears well up in her gray eyes. “I thought… I thought you would never wake up.”
“Please… tell me everyone is alive…”
“They are all gone,” another familiar voice said. Danzen found Usagi seated on a pillow near his face, the jade rabbit with an annoyed look on his face.
“Where’s… Jelmay?” Then it dawned on Danzen what Usagi had just said. “What… what do you mean they are all gone?”
“One thing at a time,” Kudzu told him. “Jelmay’s here; he was in the other room talking to Elder Sonders. Usagi as well is here to aid in your recovery.”
“I mean, really, how could I miss something like this?” asked the jade rabbit in a snide tone. “The demon shows up in the streets of Suja Village and nearly kills you? This one is one for the record books.”
“Quiet,” Kudzu hissed to the jade rabbit. She returned her focus to Danzen. “Anyone that was around the main street at the time of the attack is gone.”
“Who?” Danzen asked Kudzu. “Who exactly?”
“Khamdo and Temur; Yeni and her father, Mansukh; Oktai, Chuluun, Naran; the people at the tavern, the people at the Sarten’s…”
“Nomtoi took them?” Danzen asked, tasting blood. “He took them!?”
“He did,” said Usagi, “and in your current state, there’s not a lot that you can do about it.”
“Is he awake?” came Jelmay’s voice from the doorway. “Is our Pilgrim back?”
“He is,” said Kudzu.
“Whew! That’s the last time I let you two head to town alone,” the bakeneko said as he came to his bedside. Jelmay looked down at Danzen, big eyes bloodshot, whiskers drooping. “You all right there, pal?”
“Where are my weapons?”
“Relax, Pilgrim, they’re here,” said Jelmay, motioning his paw toward the right. Danzen saw his Blade of Darkness, as well as Nomin’s short sword and Astra, his heart settling just a little.
At least he had his blades.
Danzen tried to get out of bed. At first, he felt some strain in his legs, but eventually he was able to move, the former assassin placing his feet on the floor.
“You need to rest more,” said Usagi. “At least another day…”
“So he is awake,” said Shedrup. Elder Sonders’ nephew now stood in the doorway, his long brown hair with streaks of white in it pulled up into a bun, his sunken eyes glaring down at Danzen. “I told you what would happen if you brought harm to this village…”
“Shedrup, relax,” Elder Sonders said from the study. “I think there’s a difference between bringing trouble, and trouble following someone. He didn’t ask for his brother to show up. We’ve been over this.”
“You, me, outside,” said Shedrup, ignoring his uncle.
“Are you insane?” Kudzu asked as she went to address the man. She got right up in his face, and it looked for a moment like she was going to shove him.
“This man is in no condition to fight you, you fool,” Usagi told the cultivator with disdain. “Why don’t you go punch a stone wall for a little bit and get it out of your system? Better yet, why don’t you head up to the monastery and wrestle the two lion dogs out front?”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Danzen asked Shedrup, surprising the three yokai in the room.
“You are serious,” Jelmay said.
Shedrup settled his gaze on the former assassin. “You were warned.”
“Fine.” Danzen got to his feet, feeling a bit of vertigo for a moment before finally finding his balance.
“Brutes,” Usagi groaned.
“Aren’t you going to bring your weapons?” Shedrup asked him.
“They aren’t necessary.” Still barefoot, Danzen followed Shedrup out of the study and into the foyer, the smell of incense coming to him. Kudzu quickly caught up with the former assassin.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she looped her hand around his arm, which caused Danzen to stumble.
“What I’ve been trained to do,” Danzen said, his vision blurring again for just a moment. He stopped, shook his head, and was just about to step out the door when he paused.
What was he doing? His brother had just appeared out of nowhere, assaulted the village, and taken the villagers with them. Danzen had been beaten worse than he ever had before, and for some reason, his wounds weren’t healing as quickly as they normally did, which he thought may be related to the sheer power of his brother’s strikes. He had been bedridden for at least a couple days. He was dehydrated, hungry.
Why, then was he going outside to face Shedrup? Why was he taking a few steps away from him and preparing to engage the man?
Because Danzen felt savage in that moment, he felt the bloodlust of revenge, he wanted to take his anger and his anguish out on somebody, and Shedrup had presented himself as a low-hanging fruit, an easy target.
“I’m ready,” Danzen said as he brought his fists up, his arms shaking.
Shedrup sprang into action, his first punch forcing the former assassin to the ground.
“This isn’t a fair fight,” Jelmay said, coming forward, ready to engage the cultivator.
Danzen looked at the bakeneko, his vision blurring once again. “I will handle this.”
“I told you… I told you what would happen.” Shedrup dropped down to deliver a fist to Danzen’s stomach, the former assassin realizing now that Shedrup wasn’t going to draw blood, that he was only going to pummel him to death.
He was able to push Shedrup away, and once he was back on his feet, Danzen came in for a punch that missed. Shedrup used his shoulder to slam him back down.
Everything flashed red and black.
Danzen could feel a pain in his bones now, sounds oscillating from his left to his right ear. Shedrup delivered another blow and then turned away, leaving Danzen in the courtyard, the former assassin lying on his back staring up at the sky.
It looked like it was cloudy, but he couldn’t quite tell, and with the wind knocked out of him he found himself gasping for air, colors flashing, the world oscillating. A numbing sense of ennui started to come over him, Danzen feeling like the air was starting to thin.
Once again, for the second time in less than forty-eight hours, Danzen passed out.
.Chapter Three.
Danzen Ravja had no concept of the time that passed. His delirium brought him flashes of his past, some of the marks he had handled, demonic faces, the confrontations he’d avoided through his power, scars that told a history, and his Demon Speak ability.
He was perched on a rooftop staring down onto an open balcony, watching as a man received pleasure from a woman. She never would know what happened to him, the man suddenly lurching forward, a sword blooming out of his chest and disappearing as quickly as it came. Danzen’s mark hunched over, dead.
Fast kills.
Slow, more calculated kills as well, Danzen stalking his mark for weeks, waiting for her bodyguards to finally make a mistake.
With its various buildings, and the way people seemingly built on top of one another, Arsi had been one of the easier places to track his prey. But it presented other challenges; there was always something happening in the city split by the Sakai River, people always about, witnesses rampant.
It was here that Danzen relived another one of his kills, one in which the bodyguards were members of the Brotherhood.
It was one of the stranger contracts he had taken, a request for no blood, no trace of poison, simply death. Make it seem like an accident.
In his years as an assassin, he had learned that stalking people at night was generally to his benefit, but this was precisely when his mark was most guarded, her assassin bodyguards well aware that if someone wanted to kill the woman, they would do so after dusk.
Danzen hadn’t read the details of the contract for this one, only knowing that she had screwed over a business partner, and ordered the death of his children. He also got a sense that she knew she was being tracked as well, at least for the first two weeks.
But then, as they always did, his target let up her guard, sneaking out for a walk early one morning, Danzen finally able to get a private moment with her.
“Kill yourself tonight,” he told his mark, summoning his ability. “Make it quick; do not hesitate.”
It wasn’t Danzen’s preferred way of handling one of his contracts, but it would work, and it would adhere to the instructions he had been given.
He watched that night as the woman threw herself off her balcony. She didn’t die upon impact, Danzen cursing himself as she struggled, as she screamed out in pain. Her bodyguards came, and as one of them tried to help her, she grabbed the dagger sheathed at his boot and used both arms to drive it into her heart.
It was memories like this that told Danzen he didn’t deserve a second chance, and he certainly didn’t deserve a peaceful retirement living in a monastery.
Even though he didn’t currently know whose bed he rested in, Danzen got the urge to leave, to hide away for the remainder of his life, not able to repent for his sins.
But then a new feeling came to him, one with a glimmer of hope, Danzen reminding himself that he was trying to get better. He was learning to bend his echo and growing in power. Most importantly, he needed to save the villagers that had been taken by his demon brother.
He awoke with a gasp, Kudzu by his side as always, Jelmay in the room as well, the bakeneko’s eyes going wide once he heard Danzen gasp.
“Where… Where am I?”
“You are at Eva Yin’s place,” Kudzu said.
Danzen recognized the smell, one of the light perfumes that he associated with pillowers.
His vision wavering into focus, Danzen saw that the room was painted red, everything about the place oozing sensuality, from the curves of the furniture to the various items used to freshen up, available on a dresser.
“How about trying to heal up before you fight Shedrup?” Jelmay asked. “I know you can take him, but not in the condition you were in yesterday.”
“Heal?” Danzen placed his hand on his ribcage, wincing, noticing that he was still hurting.
He’d never had pain like this in his life; every wound he’d ever received, no matter how deep, only hurt initially. There never was anything left of the wound aside from a scar, Danzen entirely unfamiliar with the concept of living with pain.
“It’s your brother,” Jelmay told him. “His attacks had a way of… we don’t really know how to describe it other than penetrating your healing ability. You still seem to be getting better, but you are recovering more slowly than normal.”
“And your stupid fight with Shedrup only exacerbated the situation,” Kudzu chided him.
“Where is he?” Danzen asked. “Where’s Shedrup?”
“He’s at his uncle’s place, back in the basement where he belongs,” Jelmay told him.
“And we are in… Chutham?”
“No, Suja Village, the First District. Eva wanted to bring you here in the beginning, but Elder Sonders stepped in,” Kudzu told him.
“And Usagi?”
“He got tired of waiting around and headed back to the forest,” Jelmay said, a hint of disdain in his voice. “Not a moment too soon. I was this close to eating him, Pilgrim,” said the bakeneko, making a gesture with his fingers. “This close. Besides, his power doesn’t seem to have an effect on you anyway. At least you have an herbalist here. Dalan is quite good. Speaking of which…”
Kudzu reached for a circular pill made of grain. She handed it to Danzen, and fetched him a small bowl of water as well.
“And what does this do?” he asked as he examined the pill.
“It’s a kind of pain medication made from some of the roots that grow in the mountains. I’ve been giving you one every two hours since you got here.”
“Right,” Danzen said as he washed the pill down with water. “I need to go back to my monastery and prepare.”
Jelmay shook his head. “You just now swallowed pain medication, and the first thing you want to do is go back to your monastery and prepare? Prepare for what?”
“I need to go to Diyu. Is there… Is there still time?” he asked, not able to hide the hint of desperation in his voice.
“Time for what?” asked Jelmay.
“Time to save their souls at the Tavern. That’s where they are, right?”
“Ah, I see what you’re thinking. I guess you could say I have good news, and I have bad news. Your brother didn’t kill the villagers,” Kudzu told the former assassin, “he took them with him. If you couldn’t figure it out already, that second part is the bad news.”
“I… I remember,” Danzen said, recalling Nomtoi’s last words to him, challenging him to come to Diyu to save the villagers. “What happened to you? Were you injured?” he asked Kudzu. It was clear that she had no injuries, but he remembered her being tossed aside by his brother.
“I morphed back into my fox form as soon as I could and escaped,” she said, a look of shame coming across her face. “I ran to Eva, figuring she would be able to intervene.”
“You should have come to me,” said Jelmay, in a tone that told Danzen he had already said this to her a few times. “I’m the one that predicted this would happen, remember? I’m not going to say I am the most prescient bakeneko this side of Osul, but I did predict he would show up, and if you recall, our first fight was in those very streets,” he reminded the two of them. “So in a way, I gave you sort of a taste of what was to come. I wouldn’t have let him do that to you, trust me, Pilgrim.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. Eva Yin was the closest person I knew who had power, but she was asleep as a result of her treatment. Dalan and I, along with one of her bodyguards, returned to the Third District, but by this point Shedrup was already helping you to his uncle’s place.”
“Shedrup helped me?”
“Elder Sonders saw to that.”
Danzen was quiet as he put all the pieces together.
His brother had attacked him, Kudzu had escaped to get help, but by this point Danzen had been beaten down, the villagers taken.
“I’m glad to see you are awake.”
He looked up once he saw Eva Yin step into the room, the madame in teal robes, two bows in her hair, the woman as young as ever, her skin vibrant and the makeup around her eyes and lips elaborate.
“Have you told him?” Eva Yin asked.
Kudzu hesitated.
“Told me what?” Danzen asked, expecting even worse news.
“A couple things,” she said as she came to his bedside and placed her small hand on his arm. Danzen felt a tingling sensation, one of apprehension as he took in the woman. “I am assuming by now that you desire to go to Diyu to save the villagers.”
“Yes.”
“Kudzu said as much, and it would be against my nature to warn you against your nature. Instead, and because I’m feeling charitable, I’m here to offer you my help.”
“Your help?” Danzen asked.
Eva Yin sighed in a peaceful way. “I’m feeling much stronger with my ongoing treatment, and a power such as mine may be useful to you.”
“You would go there with me?” he asked. “To Diyu?”
