Pilgrim 4, p.8
Pilgrim 4, page 8
“You would say that, fox!”
Danzen put an end to the impending argument. “We will continue through the night and will rest come morning. If you get tired, I can carry the hide for you.”
“It is getting a little heavy…”
Galzo shook his head at Jelmay. “I would think that the nue is going to be doubly mad that you took the ogama’s skin.”
Jelmay shrugged this statement off. “Not when it sees the clothing I’m going to have made out of it. Look, everyone needs to relax. We made it out of the fog, and our journey is only looking up from here. If we have to walk until morning, if that will make you all happy, then so be it. But let’s go before I change my mind. And someone better find me some food along the way.”
The bakeneko turned to the north and took his first step, the others following suit.
It was going to be a long night.
Part Two
.Chapter One.
Their blades almost met. Danzen twisted around Yato at the very last moment and pointed the tip of his sword at the back of her head. He immediately pulled his hand back, realizing his natural aggression and skill had overcome his intent in bending with the younger assassin, which was to continue to build and strengthen his echo.
“Reset.” Danzen stepped away from her, the two about fifty yards away from the camp they had made.
Yato sucked the breath through her teeth and lowered her arms, her shoulders moving up and down as she took in a deep breath. She wasn’t scared of him, even though she knew what he was capable of, yet Danzen could tell that she was aware how close he had come.
“You were distracted again, weren’t you?”
This voice belonged to Nomin, who stood along the outer edge of their morning session, observing their echoes. Her shoulders pressed back, the blind assassin had a bandanna tied around her head, the knot in the front, a cold look on her face as she observed them.
“It won’t happen again,” said Danzen.
For some reason, he’d been so focused on his echo that it triggered a memory of his last encounter with his half-brother, how Danzen had taken out some of his numerous eyes once Nomtoi had morphed into his demonic, wolf-like form. It had been a battle that Danzen likely wouldn’t have won had it not been for the intervention of his mother, and just a few moments ago, as he prepared to repel Yato’s incoming strength, he saw Nomtoi’s face.
What did his brother have planned for him? What kind of demonic beings had he freed from the depths of Diyu? Who were the Seven Evils, what were they capable of?
Danzen could sense that their excursion was coming to a close. They had made it through the northern passage and had reached the Outer Regions, leaving only the yokai causing the fog to deal with at some point, and contact with Menya the nun at his mother’s former nunnery.
Part of him was glad that they’d had a break of sorts, the trip keeping them away from the general public. The only thing that kept them on edge was the knowledge that Nomtoi could appear wherever he wanted; Danzen sensed that his half-brother knew where he was at all times, meaning he could ambush him at any time, and put the others at risk.
Harkening back to his assassin days, Danzen had done what little he could do to prepare for the inevitable, keeping a night watch by exchanging time slots with Nomin and Yato, and paying extra close attention to his surroundings, looking for any signs of a trap, or animals fleeing.
He tried not to be too jumpy, but it was impossible. And perhaps that was why he had nearly taken it too far just moments ago with Yato.
Danzen brought his sword up, feeling his echo ripple through him, noticing that it felt different than it had before, even a week ago.
He was growing stronger.
He stepped aside as Yato flitted by like lightning, the young assassin like a sugawara as she threw in his direction, spinning on the ball of her right foot and gracefully returning with her gauntleted blades, her lethal dance one that would have impressed most anyone in Kishu Kingdom. But Danzen wasn’t anyone, and he had fought against opponents with unthinkable powers, which allowed him to immediately point out the flaws in her attack.
With all the weight distributed on one foot, he would have easily been able to sweep it out from beneath her. Yet he didn’t say anything about this, Danzen recognizing that the student was enjoying herself, that she had, perhaps, sensed a different aspect of utilizing her echo.
Sunyata had fallen, and its remnants had been consumed and turned into weapons, sprinkled like stardust into each person born over the last three hundred years, everyone alive including yokai, a product of their environment. This meant that there were different interpretations of the power inherent in all things, from the darker aspects that had consumed Soko, to the joy that Yato seemed to be experiencing in that moment as she spun again.
Or maybe it was youth.
“Focus on your echo,” Nomin said, Danzen not knowing who the statement was for.
Perhaps it was for both of them.
They reset and moved into action again, Danzen the aggressor this time as he swung his blade forward with both hands on the grip, Yato moving around in slow motion, the bracelet she was wearing actually making it difficult for her to move in such a gradual way. This was good as well; he didn’t need to tell her that it was important not to rely completely on Sunyata remnants, Danzen remembering what it had been like to consume one in an attempt to grow stronger. That all felt so long ago now, the former assassin suddenly remembering everyone back in Genshin Valley, from Khamdo the carpenter to Eva Yin the madam, all the people in Suja Village’s Third District that he had come to know.
He didn’t quite miss them, but he was fond of all of the villagers and looked forward to seeing them again.
In a way, he felt like a ghost, one who had simply moved on, leaving Suja Village behind as he looked for another haunt. But he knew that he would return one day soon. Once the northern passage was opened, and the remnant transportation began, he would be spending more time in the Valley. It wasn’t a place that he would ever abandon; it was his home, where Danzen, after forty years, had finally become himself, where most people had come to accept him.
Horizontal crosscut, traversing cadence into an upper stance, a pause—Danzen held Astra as if his fingers were floating on the hilt before bringing his blade down. These were the ways of a warrior like Danzen, a lethal instrument holding a lethal instrument, one soon to be interrupted by floating light on the horizon, a globe that changed color attached to the tip of a fox tail.
“It’s Bawa,” Danzen said as he lowered his weapon, Yato doing the same. Her blades slipped back to their sleeves, the younger assassin turning to see what Danzen was staring at.
Bawa was the kitsune they had once encountered in the Outer Regions, the one who had led them to a remnant being investigated by a bandit group known as Penumbra. Jovial as ever, Bawa hopped along as he made his way toward them, the glowing tip at the end of his tail changing color twice before he finally reached their group.
“I heard the call,” Bawa said, sitting on his haunches and panting for a spell.
The kitsune was referring to the noises that Kudzu had made the previous night, which she said other foxes like her would recognize. It was also the agreed-upon way for her to contact Bawa, but they had traveled through an entire night and most of the following day before she attempted it.
Danzen sheathed his boomerang sword. “I believe we have decided what we will do next.”
“Oh?” the fox asked, tilting his head at the former assassin.
“You spoke previously of settlements in the Outer Regions. I would like you to take us to one of the settlements. The others—Nomin, Galzo, and Abbot Monpo, whom you will meet at the campsite—will continue on to the nunnery to begin preparations. Once we have made contact with the first settlement, we will also come back to the nunnery. We still need to deal with the yokai causing the fog.”
“Yes…” Bawa said. “Not a pleasant fellow, is he, this nue?”
“We will deal with him later,” said Kudzu as she approached. “I am assuming Pilgrim has already told you what we plan to do.”
Bawa smiled at her. “Yes, he is quite to the point, isn’t he?”
“He can be.”
Their group headed back to the campsite, where they found Jelmay picking at a bone and listening to a conversation between Sansar and Abbot Monpo, Galzo resting nearby. All of the bakeneko’s things were stacked near him, and as Danzen had promised, he had begun helping Jelmay carry them.
Once Bawa was introduced to the others, the group gathered their belongings and headed out.
It wasn’t quite a forest, but there was a splattering of trees that they had to move through, Bawa keeping at the front, the color-changing sphere at the tip of his tail lighting the way. The location reminded Danzen of some of the areas he had visited in the two years between his last contract and eventually arriving in Genshin Valley, the landscape to the south of Arsi. The environment felt so familiar that it was almost uncanny, yet the altitude was higher, and there were less signs of an impending desert.
They eventually came to a meadow, one dotted with blue-winged butterflies, Danzen relaxing his guard to some degree. There was always Nomin, the blind assassin graceful in hiding that she too was suspicious of their surroundings, evident in the way she moved along in her white robes. It was something that Danzen barely sensed, and he wondered if it was tied to the enhancements he had made to his echo through sheer training.
“Has anyone ever heard the story of the Butterflies of Arsi?” Jelmay asked as he tried to cover a belch.
Sansar, who had been circling in the air above, lowered to a tree on the outer rim of the meadow.
When no one answered Jelmay, he continued: “The Butterflies of Arsi were a dance troupe operating a decade or so before the fall of Sunyata. You assassins should know about this, at least two of you,” he said, nodding toward Nomin. “Lady Pilgrim probably wouldn’t have heard of them considering she wasn’t professionally trained. Not that that means you aren’t talented,” he said, walking back his comment. “Take no offense to that.”
Yato offered Jelmay a playful scowl. Had it been a day ago, she likely would have jerked him toward her, but they were no longer tethered together.
“I know who they are,” Nomin told him.
“I figured you would. For those of us not in the know, like the foxes, they were a dance troupe that doubled as a group of highly trained assassins. They toured some of the larger cities, and held residencies sometimes, hunting when they were given contracts. I can’t believe you haven’t heard of these people, Pilgrim.”
“He never said he hadn’t heard of them,” Kudzu told him. “Why are you telling us this anyway? Why have we stopped here?”
“Isn’t this meadow nice?” Jelmay asked. “Can’t we enjoy our trip to some degree? The reason I’m telling you this is because it has me thinking about Nomtoi and what he is planning with these demonic individuals that he has unleashed.”
This statement surprised Danzen. Jelmay hadn’t said much about what Danzen’s father had told him, Nomtoi’s plan to continually disrupt Danzen’s life.
“It was always a distraction, the dance aspect of it,” Jelmay said. “I should know. They tried to kill me once!”
“I’m surprised they didn’t succeed,” Kudzu told him.
“They didn’t know about yokai, or at least, not one like me who can…” Jelmay dropped his bag onto the ground and began to transform into a spitting image of Danzen. Rather than take the former assassin’s voice, Jelmay continued speaking in his own voice, which was an odd visual considering he was now a muscled assassin with his head shaved, scars crisscrossing his forearms. “You see what I’m hinting at?”
“Why did they want to kill you?” Kudzu asked. “And please, change your form.”
“That’s not the point of the story.”
“What did you do to have a contract put out on you?”
“If you must know, fox, there was a shipment of cheese that was supposed to come from Sainshand. This was the fall, mind you, so they really weren’t worried about the cheese melting or anything. Well, I got paid for the shipment, and instead of loading the crates up with cheese, I only put cheese on the top and stuffed the bottom with burlap sacks full of sawdust and stones. You know, so it had some weight to it. I even weighed it to make sure it was right. Then, I sent the cheese and was planning to disappear, but these butterflies decided to come for me. Like I said, I was at one of their shows when they did.”
“You never said that part,” Kudzu told him.
“I swear to you all, a dagger came this close to taking my head off,” Jelmay said, making an exaggerated gesture. “I ducked down, chaos ensued, as it normally would in a situation like this, and people started screaming. Meanwhile, I had already transformed into a woman and was screaming, blending in with the crowd. The Butterflies of Arsi never killed me.”
“Obviously,” Galzo said, the winged wolf with a growl to his voice. He had yet to bicker with Jelmay, but it was clear that he wasn’t too fond of the bakeneko after traveling with him for so many days. “What point are you trying to make regarding Pilgrim’s brother?”
“I’m getting to that, but the fox keeps interrupting me. Where was I? That’s right. The point I’m trying to make is they were looking to kill me and did so in a very brash way. Perhaps I would be dead if they’d waited until after their performance to use the small dagger, or perhaps they were so good at what they did that they’d grown cocky, confident that they would accomplish their task. I found out later that they had killed others this way, during the middle of their dance performance. The others would normally move about and distract the audience while one of them quickly tossed a small kunai blade into their mark’s head, no one in the audience knowing because it was dark. Not until after, or someone slumped forward. They thought they had the upper hand, but they didn’t, because of an unknown variable. Even more fascinating, at least to me anyway because of how lucky I am, they were killed not long after their encounter with me. All I’m saying here is…”
“Yes?” Kudzu asked once Jelmay paused, likely for dramatic effect.
“Figure out variables. Don’t ask me, I don’t see into the future in that way. Sure, I know that Pilgrim here is destined to rebuild Sunyata, but his brother is going to do everything in his power to stop him. In this case, what he doesn’t know can hurt him. We’re going to encounter whatever it is he has sicced after us sooner rather than later. What can we do once that happens? How can we counter his maneuvering in a way that is unexpected? That’s my point in telling the story.”
“So… you don’t have an answer?” Kudzu asked.
Jelmay shrugged and continued walking in the direction they had already been heading. “One of us will think of something when the time comes. I’m sure of it.”
****
Danzen could see an almost hook-shaped butte in the distance, one surrounded by trees moving outward in a V-pattern. Red flowers grew beneath the trees, their stems long and covered in thorns, a light, floral scent in the air.
“I believe this is where we part ways,” said Abbot Monpo, the leader of the fox shrine turning to them. His clothing gleamed in the afternoon, his white hair swept back into several ponytails, the ends of his robes hanging well past his hands. “We will see you at the nunnery. By then, we should have a strategy together to deal with the nue, and I will also be able to examine some of the books in the library there. Perhaps there is something that has been missed. You never know.”
“How long do you think it is going to take for us to reach wherever it is you intend to take us?” Jelmay asked Bawa.
“Verba is the easiest village to reach from here. It is near a rather large lake that is fed by a waterfall.”
“You still didn’t tell us how long it would take us to get there.”
“Perhaps we will arrive by nightfall if we hurry.”
“Give our best to Menya,” Danzen told Abbot Monpo and Nomin, who were now joined by Galzo.
The winged wolf offered Danzen a curt nod. “Good luck, and may you return with a remnant.”
“Hopefully, we will return with more than one,” said Jelmay.
“Yes, hopefully.”
The group split at that point, Danzen, Jelmay, Yato, Sansar, and Kudzu following Bawa further to the northeast while the other three headed southwest. As they walked along the outer rim of the trees, Jelmay plucked one of the red flowers and turned to Kudzu. “For you, my lady.”
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
Jelmay sniffed it. “I sure wish it was edible.”
“There may be food along the way,” Bawa told them. “And you may have your first remnant by the time we get to Verba, if we’re lucky.”
“What do you mean?” Danzen asked the smaller kitsune.
“I keep an eye out for these things, you know, sort of a hobby of mine. I don’t need the remnants, but I do remember what Sunyata was like, and knowing where the pieces are brings me some joy. We are going to pass through a canyon along the way to Verba, one that is quite deep. There is a remnant in an old nest that is no longer in use. I would have retrieved it for you, but it would have forced me to take my human form, and as you’ll see, it isn’t the place for humans.”
“So we will send Sansar up,” Kudzu said.
“I would gladly help.”
Bawa looked up at the three-legged raven. “I don’t believe he is strong enough to carry it, and he will need his wings to get down.”
“You would be surprised at how strong I am…”
“I will get it,” Danzen volunteered.
Bawa nodded. “Probably for the best. Your group is going to be the talk of the town once you arrive in Verba, even if it may be a little tricky at first. We should all be ready for the locals to be standoffish. It is not often that they encounter an outsider.”
“I suppose I will have to take my human form,” said Kudzu.
