War priest the complete.., p.64
War Priest: The Complete Series, page 64
“They have both seen your father,” Arik said, referring to his warrior pilgrimages against Istvan and Nyoko.
“Be that as it may, they don’t need to know who I am.”
“And you intend to keep that mask on throughout our entire time with them, shinobi-ess?”
Tayaura nodded at Meosa. “My father may have shown the two of you some things—”
“There isn’t much a supposed illusionist like your father can show a kami as old as me, but go on.”
“But there are many things he hasn’t shown you or told you, for that matter. Want an example? The Mask of the Fallen that you have is an example of the lengths an illusionist will go to disguise themselves. Most true illusionists never show their full faces if they can help it, which is why my father wears the hat that he wears.”
“Sengum didn’t seem to have the same style.”
“Your encounter with him was private,” Tayaura told Meosa as she crouched in front of a tree trunk. She produced a throwing knife and carved something into the bark. It looked almost like an animal had done it, but upon further inspection, it was clearly human. “Had you seen him in a more public setting, you’d see Sengum covers his face as well. Last I saw, he wore a hat similar to my father, although his is black.”
Arik remembered Sengum Minamoto and his black robes with white stitching. He would look rather intimidating with a black conical hat, but he wouldn’t be very hidden. Was there a flashiness to the master illusionist that was to his detriment? He did, after all, try to kill them with kunai-triggered explosives.
Another thought came to him as Tayaura began following Arik toward their camp. She clearly knew about Chimaura, but how much did she know? Did she know about Hojo’s replicating skill?
He figured he would give it a shot. “Hojo did something against Sengum that I never asked him about. I just figured it was Chimaura.”
Tayaura dropped before another tree and made her mark, which Arik interpreted she was leaving for Hojo. “What did he do?” she asked without looking up at him.
“He created replicants of himself, enough to completely surround Sengum.”
Tayaura turned to him, this gesture made stranger by her kitsune mask. He could see her eyes beneath the mask, and sensed that they’d widened to some degree. “He… he replicated himself?”
“It’s Chimaura, right?”
“It’s…” Tayaura looked away. “Let’s keep moving.”
“Not so fast,” Meosa said as he came into existence. “We get the runaround from your father all the time. You’re going to tell us something.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What do you know about that power? His replicating ability?”
“I know that it was something he was working on back before… back before our falling out. It’s a ‘forgotten technique,’ as it is known at the School of Illusion. There are techniques that Hidden Warriors of the past were rumored to have worked out, and that is one of them. The other forgotten technique that he mentioned to me once was leaving a double behind.”
“Leaving a double behind? He told me a story about that,” Arik said. “About some Hidden Warrior visiting his brother after he died.”
“Yes, Johmar de Avarga. I’ve heard that story numerous times, variations of it as well.”
“Do you think the two skills are related?”
“Of course they are. If one can create multiple replicants of themselves, they should be able to leave a double behind. The problem, I believe, in accomplishing that skill is pulling it off after someone has died. It requires forethought—and I’m likely saying things that I know nothing about—leaving a Chimauric imprint at the location in question. Johmar and his brother go to a beach, right? Johmar must have left an imprint there.”
“So… you don’t know how to do something like that?” asked Arik.
Tayaura scoffed at this question. “If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Meosa laughed. “Which means you don’t.”
“You’ve got quite the mouth on you, kami.”
“No, I’m just smart enough to call someone’s bluff.”
“I never said I was bluffing.”
“There’s no sense in arguing,” Arik told both of them. “If you can do it, that’s great, but I think… my guess would be that only someone at the Hidden Warrior level could do that, and only if they truly studied the technique and worked it out.”
“And you are saying that isn’t me?”
“I’m not saying anything.”
Tayaura turned away from the disciple. “You should take the make-up off your face. You look like an idiot.”
Arik paused, remembering his face was painted and his hair was in three tight ponytails. “I… I need to find some water.”
“Please, just say the word, disciple. I’ll slap that make-up right off your face.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” he told Meosa.
“I’ll help you,” Tayaura said, the shift in her tone telling Arik that she may have felt bad about calling him an idiot. Soon, the two came to what was left of a stream that would normally be dedicated to mountain runoff, just about six inches of water now, mucky at that.
“Wait, before you do…” Meosa’s watery form appeared, his hand growing in size. “Are you sure I can’t help?”
“No,” both Tayaura and Arik said at the same time.
“How do you put up with this kami?” Tayaura asked as if Meosa wasn’t there. “I would have taken him high into the mountains and sent him to an early, frozen death by this point.”
“Would you, now? It would be beneath me to ever join forces with an illusionist, so you’d never have that chance, shinobi-ess.”
How do I put up with Meosa? Arik thought as he glanced over to the aqueous kami. “We get along well enough,” he finally said.
“Well enough? We’re practically best friends at this point. You’d be dead without me.”
Maybe… Arik began washing the paint away from his face, the water with an earthy smell to it. He ignored the smell, and once he was done, he let his hair down and pulled it back into one ponytail. “Better?”
“More presentable, yes. Follow me.”
Arik did as Tayaura had instructed, the disciple not at all surprised that she led him to the exact point where they’d branched off, the illusionist yet again marking a tree.
“Do you think he’ll come tonight?” Arik asked, well-aware that Istvan was ready to move into action. Not only that, they were hiding out with a giant skeleton yokai. If there were patrols, the odds of them being discovered were high.
“I don’t know.”
“What did he say last?”
“You’ve traveled with my father. When does he actually reveal the details of his plan? He just told me to wait for him and mark trees if I leave my post. So it could be tonight, it could be tomorrow, it could be a week.”
“For all of our sakes, let’s hope it’s not a week. The less camping we’re forced to do, the better.”
“What do you care about camping?” Tayaura asked Meosa.
“What do I care? Even if I was stuck in a cave for half a millennium, I require, no, I demand, the finer things in life. If not for me, for my host.”
“You two are truly an odd couple.”
“And you and your father aren’t?”
Yet again, Tayaura crouched to make an etching. “You aren’t wrong there. If we’re lucky, he’ll join us within the next day. If not, then I may need to seek him out.”
“In that case, we’re going with you,” Arik said.
“Into a camp of several thousand Crimsonian blades, Nobunaga, and for all I know, Sengum Minamoto? Not to mention whatever kami Nobunaga has with him. Are you insane?”
Meosa laughed. “Says the woman wearing a kitsune mask. Shut up. Of course we’re in this for the long haul, just like you. And while he may seem useless when you first meet him, there’s a reason I have joined forces with the disciple here. You wouldn’t consider me a kami that makes poor choices, would you?”
Tayaura didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought. Keep marking the trees like some sort of horned-up hainu, and hopefully, your father will join us shortly and tell us what he’s been planning all along.”
****
Tayaura and Arik reached the others, Istvan immediately greeting the female illusionist. “Anyway, it’s nice to meet you,” he said, when the masked woman didn’t respond to his initial hello. “This is Nyoko, and I’m Istvan.”
“I’m Basha,” said the giant skeletal yokai in his low, kind voice.
Tayaura, who had already told Arik that she wouldn’t speak to anyone but him, merely looked up at Basha and nodded, her mask hiding any surprise she may have had in meeting the giant skeleton, who now peered down at her.
“So this is the illusionist’s daughter. Where’s the father?”
“Still there,” Arik told Istvan.
A quick look around told the disciple that Nyoko had been busy hunting and gathering, a skill that Arik had a growing fondness for. It was something that Hojo had shown him in a limited capacity, and it was truly helpful in the field.
Laid out on a circle of flat rocks were several dead rabbits, large fibrous seeds, twigs with red bark, and orange berries. Nyoko had also used a hollowed-out piece of wood to collect water.
The mountain woman seemed highly suspicious of Tayaura, to the point that she took a step away from her, ready to spring into action by the look of her stance. This made sense to Arik. A Jadean citizen would be much more wary of an illusionist over a northern man like Istvan, someone who hadn’t grown up with all the shinobi lore. Up until its demise, the School of Illusion had been a very real part of Jadean lives.
Tayaura removed her sword and sat with her legs crossed beneath her, the female illusionist seemingly ignoring everyone. She began stripping the meat from the rabbits.
“So… she’s mute?” Istvan asked.
Meosa came alive, spikes of water lifting off his back and settling. “Hardly. To be honest, the two—three, of you,” he corrected, glancing up to Basha, “are lucky she’s not talking. She’s combative, and her voice is that of an old hag. Very grinding.”
Fwitt!
Tayaura loosed a kunai in Meosa’s direction, the throwing knife passing through where the center of his forehead would have been. It struck a tree and stayed there until she got up to retrieve it.
Meosa laughed. “See what I mean? Nasty shinobi-ess, this one. Short temper, too. You’re lucky not to have to hear her nonsense.”
“Lay off,” Arik told Meosa, wishing in that moment that he could elbow the aqueous kami. While Tayaura was a little standoffish, Meosa seemed to enjoy provoking her, which only made things worse.
“What did it look like down there?” Istvan asked as Nyoko approached Tayaura. She crouched, and joined the female illusionist in preparing the meat. “Was the first camp pretty packed?”
“It’s busy, way too busy for someone in the government, local or otherwise, not to know about it. The fog obscures a lot, but there are thousands of people down there.”
“You saw thousands?”
“Not exactly. This is what she’s seen,” Arik said, motioning to Tayaura. “Crimsonian blades and mercenaries, false shinobi.”
“They aren’t that difficult to beat if you know their weaknesses.”
“Their weaknesses?” Arik recalled what it had been like to see true blades in action, the air electric all around him, their whip-fast movement and skill. The double sword fighters moved through a whirlwind of blades, not unlike the Whispering Sword at its full capacity. He seriously doubted at that moment that Istvan knew what he was talking about, yet Istvan had done pilgrimages in Iga for quite some time, and he surely had challenged his fair share of Crimsonians.
“Their biggest weakness is their speed. Figure out a way to slow them down, which is easy enough with a flaming hammer, and they lose their mettle. I don’t have as much experience fighting the other chi-users, but I’m sure every type has a disadvantage.”
“You mean people like me?”
Istvan nodded to Tayaura. “Or like her.”
“What would be the weak spot for someone who uses Revivaura?” Arik asked, generally intrigued by this line of dialogue.
“I suppose the disadvantage would be their training to help those around them.”
It was through this statement that Arik recognized Istvan’s cunning, which put the northern man closer to an illusionist than a former disciple. He was right; the urge to heal others was something Arik had to constantly suppress during a fight.
“Not only that, most disciples aren’t really trained in combat. You are an exception, as am I. Most are weak.”
“I was trained by a Crimsonian, a man named Master Nankai.”
“Makes sense. My mother was from the Crimson Realm and she trained me from a young age. They all train down there, even the lower-caste citizens. She taught me, and then my uncle trained me too later on. What about my assessment on Revivaura and those who use it? Do you agree with me?”
Arik didn’t answer. “What about illusionists? What do you think their disadvantages would be?”
“This I’ve got to hear,” said Meosa, who seemed to just be tuning back into the conversation.
“I have only fought false shinobi, so I may be going out on a limb here, but they’re not as strong as Crimsonians, and they can’t heal, meaning they’re pretty much useless unless we’re talking about the mind games they are able to play.”
Tayaura locked eyes with Arik and he nodded, both aware that there was so much more to illusionists. “That sounds about right,” Arik said, “although their power can surprise you, if you’re not careful.”
“I’d love to see Chimaura in use, to be honest, but I’ve only ever heard rumors and fairy tales about it. Have you experienced it?”
“Me? No.”
“Liar,” Meosa whispered so only Arik could hear.
“Really? Even training with a master illusionist?”
“We haven’t really done anything that involves Chimaura, mostly because it isn’t something a true illusionist uses all that much,” Arik said, which was partially true.
“So he’s never done something like make a double of himself, or change his features? I heard stories about illusionists doing that.”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Heh. Maybe he’s been here all along, disguised as Basha here,” Meosa said.
The three looked up at the giant yokai, who was seated, and had been listening to their conversation even as Nyoko and Tayaura prepared food. Basha spoke. “Illusionists are illusionists for a reason. I don’t think you’ll be able to get an answer from one, nor would I think you’d be able to get an answer from an illusionist’s student. It is just the way things are here in the Jade Realm.”
“So you haven’t seen Chimaura in action either?” Istvan asked the gashadokuro.
Basha tilted his head up to the trees, his jaw twitching left and right as he considered the question. “Not that I can recall, but I don’t have a great memory.” He tapped a finger on his skull. “I don’t even have a brain, remember?”
Meosa cackled at this statement. Istvan didn’t seem convinced, but he didn’t say anything else about it. Soon, the food was ready, cutting the conversation short.
****
Istvan and Nyoko were the first to rest for the night, Arik staying up with Tayaura to watch for Hojo. The two sat in silence for what felt like hours.
“He’ll be here in the morning,” she said at some point that night so only Arik could hear. “Get some rest.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded, her kitsune mask still on her face. She was serious when she said that she wouldn’t let the others see her, which led to Tayaura eating in a different location than them earlier. “I can sense these things. It’s the same reason I was able to stay ahead of him.”
Chimaura, Arik thought, recognizing it yet again in the way Tayaura was able to get a glimpse of her father’s actions before he did them. Arik only hoped she was right. As he looked out at the military installations, he couldn’t shake this feeling that Nobunaga was close by. He didn’t know if his sister was there, but if she was…
“Maybe I will get some rest,” he told Tayaura.
“Sleep well, disciple.”
****
Arik decided to join Tayaura that next morning, before the others were up. Meosa didn’t sleep, and neither did Basha, the two conversing quietly about the past as Arik circled around them. He found the female illusionist away from the group, sitting on the low-hanging tree limb. Tayaura stared off toward the direction of the military installations, hardly registering the fact that Arik was there.
Her mask was in her lap.
“Anything?”
“He’ll be here.” Tayaura finally looked down at Arik, and as she did, he noticed something different in her eyes, a flash of sorrow. “Disciple…”
“Yes?”
“There’s something you need to know, something that I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
Arik didn’t say anything. Instead, he motioned for Tayaura to come down from the tree, to join him on the ground. He sat with his legs crossed beneath his body, Tayaura doing the same once she was in front of him.
