Pilgrim 3, p.40
Pilgrim 3, page 40
The morning sun became his inspiration as he carefully moved his blade forward, the tension running from his core letting him know that Sunyata was alive and well within him. He withdrew Astra, and got into a common wide-legged stance utilized by people wielding two swords. He practiced cross slashing with his eyes closed, imagining he was cutting into a wall of light-purple energy that drained into the tip of his blades every time he reset his stance. His environment outlined on the inside of his eyelids, Danzen turned in Tenan and Oyuun’s direction, where he noticed a darkness hovering over them.
He opened his eyes and sheathed his blades.
The two appeared to be resting along the shoreline, but something was off, and with his eyes shut he saw it once again, a darkness hovering over them.
Danzen quietly made his way over to the two, his hand on the grip of his famed boomerang sword as he approached, where he noticed a pool of blood seeping into the sand around them. The glint of metal caught his eye, Jelmay’s sword.
Danzen turned and whistled, knowing that it would wake Yato and Kudzu. By the time they reached him, he had already come to understand what had happened here.
“No,” Kudzu said, the white fox several paces ahead of Yato. “By Sunyata…”
Oyuun and Tenan had committed suicide.
They had made their decision, and Danzen couldn’t help but feel that he had some part in this. After all, he had been the one to tell them that it was up to the two of them to decide how they would go forward, and it was within his power to stop them from doing something like this using his Demon Speak ability.
Once again, Danzen found himself in the position that he had been in not so long ago, after his father had called for Minjin to come to him. Danzen was yet again going to be responsible for delivering a carcass, but this time there would be two of them.
And even worse, his father had won yet again, Diyu growing stronger by two more souls.
****
Danzen clenched his fists together, remembering that Oyuun had been pregnant.
He tuned Kudzu and Yato out for a moment as he took note of what happened, several scenarios running through his head. It became clear to him through his examination that Tenan had killed himself first, Oyuun second. He based this on the fact that the pillower still was gripping the weapon, and he wondered how much she had suffered in the end. It wasn’t unheard of for someone to commit suicide by driving a sword into their stomach, but it wasn’t easy, and not only did one have to fight the will to live, but they also needed to know how to do it to die quickly, rather than simply rupturing an organ and dying slowly with excruciating pain. Whenever it happened, it had been several hours ago, when everyone had been asleep.
One of them had known the technique for ending one’s life through suicide, and looking at the two, Danzen knew it had been Oyuun. It was something Eva Yin would have likely taught her pillowers, at least the ones she’d raised, just in case it was something they needed to do. Strange as it was, there was a certain level of control of one’s life that they gave up in the sex trade, and being the ultimate decider of one’s own death would have been a reward to some, a path Danzen knew many had taken before.
Live fast, die young at your own hand.
“This is for you,” Danzen said as he reached his hand to the front of his robes and retrieved the bracelet that Tenan had worn, the Sunyata talisman that had given the man his incredible speed.
“Are you sure?” Yato asked.
“Because of your gauntlets, you should affix it somewhere else, perhaps around your ankle, which will also allow you to hide it to some degree. Tenan no longer has a need for it, and his father will never know the difference.”
“What the hell? Argh, by the grace of Sunyata…” Jelmay came to them, his shoulders dropping, ears flattening.
“They did it with your sword,” Kudzu scolded him. “You should have taken better care of it!”
“I didn’t think…” Jelmay crouched down before the bodies, shook his head, and then retrieved his weapon and its scabbard. “I didn’t think it was something they would do, at least not Tenan. Oyuun, sure, but he had a future already set for him with money to back it up.” The bakeneko shook his head. “Humans.”
Kudzu didn’t press him any further, and after Jelmay cleaned his sword, he turned back to the three of them, hanging his head to some degree. “Well? What now?” he asked.
“We take the bodies to Chutham,” Danzen said. “We will have Eva Yin deal with them from there, and I will stop by Luran’s place before we finally head home.”
Danzen saw Idzuma approaching out of the corner of his eye, her child behind her. She lowered all eight of her heads once she reached the shoreline, the gargantuan yokai intuiting what had happened. While cooking last night, she had learned of their story, what they were running away from. Now, Tenan and Oyuun’s running had come to a dead end.
“You may bury them here if you’d like,” one of her heads said.
“Thank you,” Danzen told her, “but I believe we will take them back to Chutham, to their families.”
Like Danzen, Oyuun didn’t really have a family, just Eva Yin, and the pillowers she worked alongside. But as Danzen had learned in his time with Jelmay and Kudzu, and now with Yato, family didn’t always mean blood relatives. It was important that she be with her people.
“Very well,” Idzuma said. “I look forward to your return.”
Danzen was going to be the one responsible for carrying the bodies, and to make it easier, he gave Yato his Blade of Darkness, which she strapped to her back. They left the lake after Jelmay kicked away the ash of the campfire, Danzen with Oyuun on one shoulder, and Tenan on the other. To prevent too much blood from seeping from the wound on their stomachs, Danzen had used Kudzu’s robes to wrap around their bodies, which worked to some degree. But this didn’t completely prevent seepage, especially as their bodies ground into Danzen’s muscled trapezius.
This didn’t bother him. He could always replace his robes, and he was certain that Eva Yin would have a spare set, aside from the ones that he had in the things that were currently being stored at her pleasure house.
As he walked, Kudzu at his side, Jelmay behind her, and Yato at the front, the young assassin occasionally tested the speed that the Sunyata talisman had given her. While she did so, Danzen thought about the choice that Tenan and Oyuun had made. Should he have told them something different? Having known what they had in store for them, was the path they had chosen actually better? After all, they could be united for good in Diyu, although, Danzen didn’t know if that was the kind of place one would like to unite with a loved one. This got him thinking further, to the point that he wondered if his father had somehow played a role in any of this. Surely, Tengir Gantulga knew what was happening to some degree, and this then begged the question as to if he knew what Danzen was planning, that he wanted to rebuild Sunyata.
While Tengir Gantulga seemed omnipotent, was he able to perceive everything that happened? Everything that was said? For the time being, Danzen assumed that he wasn’t. He felt as if his father would have surely made his opinion known to him by now regarding the choices he was making. Still, he couldn’t put it past Tengir Gantulga to simply appear on the shoreline and encourage the two, or for that matter, instruct them to kill themselves.
It wasn’t the first time Danzen shook his head during the walk back to Chutham, his thoughts poisonous bubbles in his head that popped from time to time.
Another thing he could have done to smooth things out for the two of them would have been to offer his services, to Pilgrim-wash people like Tenan’s father. He knew his power wouldn’t work on Eva Yin, but she wasn’t the one who would have called for Oyuun’s death. This got him thinking what would have happened if they had returned and things had played out the way that the two lovers apparently thought they would, that Luran would have had Oyuun killed. A turf war would be in order from that point forward, one that may have had a ripple effect through Chutham, forcing people to choose sides, the aftermath of a forbidden love.
Killing themselves wasn’t the answer, especially if they could have headed west, but Danzen understood why the two considered it the easiest solution. He only wished that there was something he could have done or said to ease their suffering, even if it involved Danzen having to kill them himself. He knew the pain of an abdominal wound, having been stabbed several times in the past.
He had the scars to prove it.
****
Danzen was always prepared for encounters, but he was still surprised to see a dozen or so hainu suddenly step out of the forest, more coming down from the trees above, their wings flapping as they settled. He didn’t know how many there were in total, but it was clear that they were now surrounded, the winged dogs salivating, ready for a fight.
He saw the two that had gotten away, including the one he stabbed front and center, but there was a different hainu with him, one with tufts of gray hair across his body, and a tail that had been nipped off.
The true leader of the pack.
The alpha dog stepped forward, just as Jelmay withdrew his sword, and Yato went for Danzen’s Blade of Darkness. It made sense that she would know how to yield it considering she had trained with the spearman known as Sonin.
“As we told your pooches last time,” Jelmay said, which may not have been the best way to start this conversation, “we’re just passing through.”
Kudzu began to growl. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Yet you’ve killed two of my children,” the older dog said, which inspired a series of barks and howls from the rest of his pack. “And apparently, two of your own. What is the meaning of this? Why are you carrying two human bodies?” He sniffed the air. “Why does the female smell familiar?”
“As we were telling your guard pups,” Jelmay said, “we were searching for these two. And the smell is the oil, or makeup, or whatever she uses. Or used. She’s dead now.”
“And she was with child,” the older hainu said. He lowered his eyes to some degree, and Danzen saw from that gesture that the alpha hainu was more intelligent than the winged dogs around him, especially the two that had escaped the previous day, both itching for a fight.
“It’s really not as crazy as it looks,” Jelmay explained. “Well, maybe it is. Basically, these two were star-crossed lovers, or whatever—you know how humans are—and they tried to disappear together. Rather than go back to civilization and face their families, they decide to take their own lives instead.”
“How do we know you didn’t kill them?” the black dog next to the leader of the pack asked. This elicited more barks from those that had gathered around him, a few flapping their wings and lifting several feet into the air.
Danzen still hadn’t withdrawn his blade. With a body over each shoulder, to do so would force him to place them both on the ground, something he wasn’t ready to do yet. But he could summon his gauntleted weapons if necessary, especially if one of the hainu decided to come at him from the sky.
“We have no reason to kill these humans,” Kudzu said. “We are simply doing a friend a favor.”
“With a pack as large as that, at least a few of you must be friends, you must understand where we’re coming from, you know, what it’s like to help a friend,” Jelmay said. “And really, doesn’t anyone know Usagi around here? That name used to mean something in this forest! It used to carry weight behind it.”
“Usagi?” the lead dog asked.
“So, you do know him. Wait, do you like him, or do you dislike the rabbit? Because I can go either way here. You just tell me how you want to do this, Lord of the Dogs.”
“You may call me Galzo.” One of the dogs next to Galzo tried to say something, but he quickly snapped his jaw at him, silencing the other canine.
“I’ll call you anything you want as long as things don’t get uglier. And you never answered my question about Usagi: what are your thoughts on our little jade rabbit friend?”
“What are your thoughts?”
Jelmay smiled. “I have plenty of thoughts, but I asked you first.”
“I would like to know your thoughts as well.”
“But I asked you first,” Jelmay repeated. “Come on, Galzo, throw me a bone here. Or, maybe I could throw you a bone, ha! Pilgrim? Care to hack one of their arms off? I’m kidding, that’s gruesome, uncalled for, please don’t do that. Stop glaring at me like that, fox. I’m finding it hard to handle their deaths and I’m trying to do so through dark comedy, which isn’t working when you don’t laugh.”
Kudzu took a step forward, her tail slightly arched in the air. “We have a… working relationship with Usagi. Sometimes it works for us, sometimes it works against us.”
Galzo stared long and hard at the white fox, and for a moment Danzen was on the verge of summoning his blades, not able to interpret the way the alpha hainu was looking at her. But then Galzo started to laugh, and as he started to laugh, the rest of his pack started to laugh, which was loud and a bit jarring, Danzen not yet sure if this was a kind of surprise attack or not.
“Usagi, Usagi, the damn rabbit,” Galzo finally said.
“If I had a thousand kip for every time I said something along those lines…” Jelmay began counting his claws. “I don’t know what it would add up to, but I’d be a lot richer than I already am. Speaking of which, if we need to, ahem, buy our passage, that could be arranged. Although, I don’t know what a bunch of winged dogs would do with money. I’m sure there’s something. You can’t morph into humans, can you?”
“Not all of us,” Galzo said, which Danzen found intriguing. Some yokai, like Kudzu and Jelmay, seemed to morph with little or no trouble. Others stayed in their base forms, and still others could perhaps morph, yet he hadn’t seen them do so, like Bawa the fox, and maybe Kikikaki. “But yes, I share the same feelings of Usagi as you. A necessary evil.”
“I don’t even know how necessary of an evil he is these days,” Jelmay said. “You know, if you think about it, it is surprising that such a little punk of a rabbit wielded so much power in the Asura Forest. I mean, it’s like someone is trying to force a lesson on us about size not mattering, something like that. But yes, fine, a necessary evil, I can halfway agree with that. We’re still a little angry about what happened the last time we interacted with him.”
“Which was?”
“He asked us to handle a demon bear,” Kudzu said quickly, “which we did by killing it. Usagi didn’t tell us that by ‘handle’ he merely wanted us to drive it away. He then blasted us for killing it, only to work with us later to clear out a hive of yamachichi.”
“That was you? I was wondering who had decided to deal with the yamachichi that had appeared,” said the alpha dog. “Regarding Usagi: he had spoken to me about the demon bear as well and asked me to handle it too, claiming he could give me something that would be within my, within our, best interest. I declined. The rabbit is full of trickery, and he likely wanted the onikuma dead, but preferred that the four of you take the blame.”
“There were only three of us at the time,” Jelmay chimed in, “but you are probably right. Here’s a thought: how about all of you aim your anger at Usagi? Give the little rabbit hell courtesy of your favorite bakeneko.”
“Hainu don’t traditionally associate with bakeneko,” Galzo said.
“And bakeneko don’t traditionally associate with demon-blooded assassins on a redemption quest the likes of which the world has never known leading to a scenario in which we could see Sunyata being rebuilt in the end. Yet here I am.”
“Rebuild Sunyata?” Galzo asked, his tone of voice telling Danzen that the statement had piqued his interest.
“Someone has to do it,” Jelmay nodded toward Danzen, “and you are looking at the man, the myth, the legend, the former assassin, the… well, he used to have long-hair so ‘long-haired demon spawner’ doesn’t quite apply, but you get the point. Pilgrim, meet Galzo.”
The dog shifted his gaze to Danzen. “You do have demon blood.”
“I do. My father is Tengir Gantulga.”
Some of the other dogs murmured at the mention of this name.
“And my mother is a nun named Shodren Ravja, who has recently joined me here in the valley.”
“Yes, at the monastery. It has grown quite lively.”
“Are we talking about the same place?” Jelmay asked Galzo. “The abandoned monastery on the hill?”
“Yes, the monastery at the start of the Panchen Mountains. People have started to attend services there.”
“That totally makes sense; Mother Pilgrim would certainly like to turn it into what it is actually supposed to be,” Jelmay said after thinking it through. “You really shouldn’t have given her the keys to that place, Pilgrim. It’s going to be crawling with villagers.”
“And it is your goal to rebuild Sunyata?” Galzo asked, ignoring Jelmay for the time being.
“It is,” Danzen said. “We have already collected two rather large remnants, which are being held at the nunnery outside of Odval.”
“Yes, I know the place.”
“And we have come back here to meet with Abbot Monpo, and ask him how we should go about collecting more, and where we should store them. I believe he will tell us to store them here, somewhere in Genshin Valley, perhaps at the fox shrine. But then we have to figure out how to transport them here, and where to find more.”
“There are always ways, and Abbot Monpo would know them, sure,” Galzo told him. “I may know of some as well, so once you have spoken to him, come find me.”
“Does this mean you’re letting us go?” Jelmay asked, his whiskers lifting with the light. “Not that I’m not enjoying this conversation or anything, but I just thought you were being friendly before you inevitably attacked us. To be brutally honest with you, I’m hungry, I haven’t had breakfast, I saw some dead bodies this morning, and I’m definitely not in the mood to fight. I’d rather just get back to Chutham—”
“—Quiet,” Kudzu said, who had had enough of Jelmay’s nervous chatter.
