Pilgrim 5, p.5
Pilgrim 5, page 5
“Should there be fire?” Nomin asked, which was the first thing she had said in a while.
“What exactly do you think a maikubi is?”
Nomin didn’t answer this question.
“Fine, since no one is taking a guess, Boldknot here generally has fire blazing out of each of his mouths. It was that fire, which has a divine nature—ask the raven—that I was going to use to separate the strings of energy connecting you to the fallen angel that your demented sibling has summoned from the depths of Diyu.”
“Would that actually work?” asked Kudzu.
“Would it actually work?” Usagi asked, mocking her. “Of course it would work! Have I led you astray thus far? Do I look like a dimwitted kawa tengu to you? You just need to get some herbs for Boldknot here, something to clear up that cough.”
“I know somewhere we can go,” said Danzen. “I was meaning to head back there anyway. And then we can return to the monastery and continue from there.”
“Where is it exactly that you want to take me?” Usagi asked.
“Because if it is anywhere outside of the Asura Forest, one of you is carrying me.”
“The Panchen Mountains.”
Usagi grumbled at Danzen’s suggestion. “Fine, but there better be room for me in that little satchel that you have there. Say…” He raised an eyebrow at the bag that Jelmay had given Danzen. “Is that a new bag?”
“Made from ogama skin, thank-you-very-much,” Jelmay said, pride in his voice. “We killed it, you know, in the northern passage.”
“You killed an ogama?”
“We did.”
Usagi offered Jelmay a grunt. “And you didn’t bring me anything?”
“We weren’t friends at the time,” Jelmay said with a playful shrug.
“We still aren’t friends now, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bring me something!”
“What would I even bring you?”
“I don’t know, maybe a belt, or a little leather vest so I can dress up as you and annoy the yokai of Osul. Pilgrim, open your bag and let me get inside. This better be a quick trip to the mountains.” Usagi kicked up a little dust as he spoke again: “Boldknot. You’re coming with us. And no complaining. We’re going to get that cough settled, and you’re going to do a little energy work.”
“And then we’re even?” asked Boldknot.
“We’re even when I say we’re even, dammit! Now, let’s go. Hrm.
We’re probably going to have to spend the night there, and I’d rather get there in time for a nice, quiet meal. In that case, I’m assuming one of you assassins can hunt for us.”
Danzen, Nomin, and Yato exchanged glances.
“Well? I don’t do well with silent types. Yes or no?”
Danzen nodded.
****
A dry riverbed demarcated the Asura Forest and the Panchen Mountains, some of the stones along the riverbed sparkly and granulated like sand. Jelmay scooped up some of these tiny rocks and tossed them into the air behind him. “For good luck,” he assured Kudzu.
“I thought you were already lucky.”
“Just like how Pilgrim has to bend his echo, a bakeneko has to bend his luck. Similar thing, believe me.”
“Oh, bother,” said Usagi, peeking his head out of Danzen’s bag.
“How did I end up with your group again? Every time I think I am done with the half-blooded moper and his merrily demented friends, somehow you end up on my doorstep.”
Yato laughed quietly under her breath at this statement, her tolerance for yokai bickering extending well beyond just the normal conversations between Jelmay and Kudzu.
“And lucky for us, now we owe you a favor,” Jelmay reminded him with a sneer.
“Yes, a favor I plan to collect on, as I’m doing here with Boldknot.”
The three-headed floating yokai didn’t seem to appreciate this statement, his thick eyebrows arcing, nostrils flaring as he spoke.
“After this, we’re even, Usagi.”
“I’m the one that decides when we’re even!” And with that, Usagi flipped himself around and shot his rear up, revealing his puffy little tail. He remained like this for the next half hour, while Danzen and his group climbed small hills, keeping away from some of the more trying paths through the mountains. Danzen recognized the general area, and knew that he could easily take to the air and arrive at the hermitage early, yet he remained with the group.
Sometimes, it was nice to simply feel normal.
As they continued on, he recalled a few of the times that he had slipped out of his role as an assassin. Every now and then, Danzen would accept a contract, complete it, and take his time turning in the contract, which was the standard practice for Diyu Brotherhood assassins. He wouldn’t take too long—news of certain deaths would reach the Brotherhood anyway—just a day or so.
These accumulated days over the course of his career were one of the reasons he’d made the decision he made two years ago, to retire, to give up the blood trade. To be able to disappear, to be anonymous, without a care in the world. It truly was priceless.
It was a part of himself that he’d never spoken to anyone about, aside from Soko, who’d happened to run into him on one of those extended trips. She was often trying to get away too, even if she’d never admit it.
This was one of the things he recognized in her every time they met, that regardless of how she looked or what she had done to herself, she was human, she was the girl he’d grown up with, and they were more alike than not.
Danzen had already told his group that they would head toward the northern passage next, that he would bring Nama and Yama along, but part of him wanted to head west, to begin the hunt that he knew was inevitable.
Soko was willing to go the distance with Danzen when it came to the Seven Evils.
She’d been clear about this, and her fierceness, desire to win, and dedication to a cause once she got started would be an incredible asset. Paired with Nomin, and perhaps with Yato, they would make quite a force, especially if Sansar was there for surveillance and to provide the occasional assist. The raven had, after all, attacked Tengir Gantulga directly. Danzen hadn’t forgotten about that, nor had he forgotten how Sansar had saved him from Ginza’s cave. There was more to the yokai from Sunyata than met his eye. Danzen would need to press him for more info soon.
“Don’t you do it,” Jelmay said as he pointed a claw at the sky.
Thunder rolled yet again, the dark clouds from earlier signaling an early fall rain that promised a bitter cold. Danzen hadn’t sensed this earlier, but it was clear now, in the crisp breeze lightly rolling in coupled with the climb in altitude.
They needed to hurry.
The group picked up their pace once Kudzu announced that they had less than an hour to go. A few cold drops of rain hastened their
journey, Jelmay switching to his nondescript human form so he could walk faster.
“His legs are longer,” he told anyone who would listen.
Sansar, who had flown ahead to tell Dalan they were coming, returned once they were nearing the waterfalls around the hermit’s home. As if he had summoned the rain himself, the sky opened up, the downpour that followed making Danzen glad they’d reached the hermitage, where they were greeted by a semi-surprised Dalan.
“It really is coming in strong,” Yato said once they were in safety of the hermitage, all of them sopping wet by this point. Kudzu shook her coat out, and Jelmay did the same once he was back in his bakeneko form. Danzen placed his leather satchel against a wall, allowing Usagi to hop out.
“What did I miss?” he asked in a sly way, aware that he was the only one aside from Dalan who wasn’t sopping wet.
“Such a rain!” said the hermit, his orange eyes filling with wonder.
He’d started a fire, which crackled now, Yato already standing beside it to warm up.
Nomin didn’t seem to mind that her robes were wet, and was standing guard as always near the entrance of the cave. Boldknot hovered near her, watching the rain, all six of his eyes containing a hint of melancholy to them.
“I don’t like rain,” the maikubi told Nomin.
She didn’t respond, which caused Jelmay to crack up. “See?
That’s why I call her Blind Pilgrim. It’s like the Diyu Brotherhood raised you all to be stubbornly quiet.”
“She nodded at me,” Boldknot told him.
“Did she now? Whatever becomes of this, I mean, after we’ve saved the world and rebuilt heaven—speaking of which, we really need to get remnant hunting—I’ll know an assassin when I see one
by the way they nod. I’ll be able to read a book on it. It’s too easy to spot your kind!”
“I don’t nod, do I?” Yato asked.
“No, you’re different. You’re a young bakeneko cub raised by assassins, yokai, and sheer adventure. You’re a special one, Lady Pilgrim, and don’t let the fact that you nearly died by the hands of that arse-faced yamachichi Ginza get you down.”
“I’m not down.”
“Bah! We’re all down.” Jelmay swept his hand toward the rain outside, which was thick enough that it looked like it was coming in vertical bars. “Rainy days can do that. Bird, once we rebuild Sunyata, will you return there?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because if you could make it rain less frequently, or I don’t know, only at night, I’d appreciate that. I mean, Sunyata is heaven, right?
I’m assuming you have some say on how the weather operates.”
Sansar shook his head. “You know that’s not how it works.”
“For the love of what is left of Sunyata to be squandered away by humankind, can you shut up for a minute so we can eat?” Usagi asked after he’d hopped over to the fire. “I was promised a quiet meal, and I intend to take you up on that promise.”
Dalan cleared his throat. “Yes, we do have some of the goat left and, if you can’t smell it already, I am boiling a stew.”
Usagi rolled his eyes. “I can see that, and clearly I can smell it.
I’m more interested in useless conversations being kept to a minimum. We are here for a reason, you know. He needs his fire back.”
“Ah, yes.” The hermit turned to Boldknot, who still floated idly next to Nomin. He wasn’t put off at all by the yokai’s appearance.
“And I know exactly what you need to reignite your fire. It’s called sparkleaf, and grows just before the tavern at the edge of the world.”
“So we have to nearly go to Diyu to get it?” Kudzu asked.
“I’m afraid so, and once you do have it, the sparkleaf won’t be potent for long. You’ll need to rush it back here so I can make the medicine.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Sansar.
“I suppose it shouldn’t,” Dalan said after a long, thoughtful pause.
“But it can be difficult to transport. The plant is very finicky.”
“I can move pretty quickly.”
He turned to Yato. “I’m sure you can, as can you,” Dalan told Danzen. “The good news is that there should be plenty of sparkleaf there near Diyu; you can try a variety of ways to bring it back here, just as long as I get it.”
Jelmay yawned. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you all, but all this walking, being controlled by a fallen angel, and arguing with Usagi has me feeling tired. Stew, rest, and regroup? Who’s with me?”
.Chapter Four.
The morning mist had a biting cold to it, the wind whipping up tufts of snow on the higher peaks of the Panchen Mountains. Yato ground her teeth as she prepared to bend her echo, the young assassin trying to mirror Danzen’s resolve, how little the temperature seemed to affect him.
He appreciated this about her, yet he knew it would be best if she tried to stay warm rather than practice, especially with the lighter robes that she currently wore.
“Return to the others.”
“I want to bend my echo,” she told him, defiance in her voice.
Danzen recognized the stubborn determination in her eyes and body language; it was something he too possessed, which had caused obstacles for him in the past. Had he been less stubborn, Danzen could have begun bending his echo at Yato’s age, which would have made him so much stronger by now, light-years more powerful.
“I’m ready,” Yato said, her cheeks red, her breath visible, and her teeth chattering.
“Return to the others.”
The young assassin lowered her arms, a few strands of her long dark hair flickering across her face. “I think… I think I’ll return to the others.”
Yato left, leaving Danzen with Nomin, who had been standing on the periphery the entire time.
“Probably for the best,” she said once Yato was gone.
“I don’t like using my power on her.”
Nomin tilted her head toward the sky, which was dimpled in clouds. One of the higher peaks was currently blocking the sun, yet its light could be seen across some of the boulders and ledges that surrounded them, a warm, orange glow to it all.
“Do you feel cold?” he asked the blind assassin.
“I don’t feel anything.”
Danzen wondered yet again if Nomin could actually die. She didn’t sleep, when she ate she had only a little, and the weather and other environmental occurrences didn’t seem to bother her.
It would remain a mystery.
The power of Sunyata swelled within him as he lifted his sword again. Akin to the purple strings of energy he’d seen attached to his companions and tied to Uchi, Danzen now saw energy between himself and the stones he had levitated. There were six in total, all of which swirled around him as he moved into position. Using projectiles would be a new form of attack, a new way for him to engage enemies that he’d been working on.
And it didn’t have to just be stones.
It could be anything in his environment, from other weapons to wooden planks, anything he could come by.
Swiiick!
Danzen sent one of the stones into an old tree stump nearby.
There were other trees in the area, but they were much smaller, this one clearly growing to an unmanageable size.
“Are you ready to try your sword again?” Nomin asked. Danzen nodded, invigorated. There was an addictive aspect in bending one’s echo, one of the reasons that people like Soko became dependent on deriving power from remnants. It was a way to get in touch with what was once heaven, something that existed within everyone.
The former assassin thought about the fall of Sunyata as he raised his sword in the same way he would Astra, the blade that had been destroyed by Ginza. He’d wondered what Ginza had done with the sword; part of Danzen just wanted a piece of it to carry with him, to honor those the weapon had killed along with Astra’s impact on his life. He had even contemplated heading toward the mountains outside Arsi in search of it. It was an area he was intimately familiar with, considering it had been where he had lived in the two years of his worldly disappearance. But there were other tasks that needed to be handled to accomplish his overall goal of rebuilding Sunyata.
What was left of Astra, if it even existed, could wait.
Thunk!
Danzen’s Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds struck the tree trunk in the same spot he’d sent it just a few days ago. It was becoming even more precise, just two entry points on the trunk.
The blade began to shake as he summoned it back.
It whisked through the air, aimed right at him. Danzen stepped aside at the last moment as Nomin struck it down with her weapon.
Clank!
This was another thing they’d started doing when Danzen practiced throwing his weapon: Nomin standing behind him to stop the weapon from going any further. Yato had offered to do it, but Danzen felt that would be risky.
“You must catch it; you must make it yield to your power.”
Danzen grunted at Nomin as he retrieved his weapon.
She’d been the one that had trained him to see the world with his eyes closed, the woman just about a decade older than him. He respected the white-robed blind assassin like he would a teacher, which was why the fight they’d once had in which he took her life had been so hard for him to process.
Nomin meant a lot to him.
Taking what inspiration he could from her words, Danzen got into position, his eyes falling onto the tree trunk yet again. He sent his sword forward and struck his target.
“You must return to me,” he said, surprised that he’d summoned his Demon Speak in this way. It had come almost naturally to him, and as the sword began to shake, he said it again.
“You must.”
“Catch it. Do not be afraid.”
Nomin’s voice broke through his concentration in a good way, and Danzen’s eyes fell onto the sword in a new way just as it started to yank out of the stump. It blazed past him, his hand naturally reaching out to it and grabbing it by the grip.
He had done it.
Danzen kept his arm outstretched for a moment, exuberant, all but expecting the sword to burst out of his hand. But it never did. His determination, his power, and his practice had finally converged into teaching the remnant weapon to operate as a boomerang sword.
“You… you trained it,” Nomin said, stunned in her own way.
Danzen let out a deep breath, his shoulders sinking back. The Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds vibrated in his hand, thrumming in what felt like satisfaction. It had been the breakthrough he desperately needed, the reintroduction to his preferred style of combat.
Danzen returned his gaze to the tree trunk.
It was time to try again.
****
The morning mist had faded, the sky pushing toward an amber teal once Danzen and Nomin returned to the hermitage. He carried with him several fish that he’d caught, mostly for Kudzu.
“It worked?” the kitsune asked as she came to the mouth of the hermitage, surprise in her gray eyes. Her white coat sparkled as always, and the fox licked her lips as Danzen handed off the fish to Jelmay. “You can throw your sword again?”
“That, or he has suddenly learned to fish.” Jelmay dropped to a cutting board to handle the fish. “Either way, we win.”
