Chương 15: A race against time
(Chi)
We remained occupied at the bridge as I waited for instruction on the plan Ama was to impose. As we stood, I noticed her sadness. And as her sadness grew, the ever-present light in this divide began to shrink and dwindle. I felt her anguish and was anxious to find the princess as well. Finally, she spoke up.
"You will have your work cut out for you. You will have to travel to and through the many layers of Yomi to retrieve what was stolen from us."
"Yomi…the underworld. I haven't the slightest idea how to get to Yomi! No right-minded living thing would!"
She smiled only slightly as she turned to face me, but as she did, she was the goddess I had seen in paintings and statues. The beautiful woman with ivory skin and eyes… like Misaki's! only now did I see the similarities between the two. Misaki and the goddess had the same jade tinted eyes. Her beauty was unmatched, just as Ama's was.
The goddess gazed at me with her red lips parted in firm concentration.
"I will assist you in this, not to worry."
And as she spoke to reassure me her delicate hand found my arm. Her hands were soft and cool like porcelain as they gripped my wrist. Suddenly, I winced as a pain in my chest quickly festered and began to spread. I hissed and yanked my arm away, clawing at the front of my robes as if pests ran rampant across my skin. Tearing my black robes open I looked down to find what looked like some sort of map carved into my chest. The skin around the elaborate lines were red and irritated. I could make put a thin road, trees, mountain terrain, and the symbol for Yomi, still red and irritated around the edges, fit between two of the mountain's sides.
"I apologize for the pain my dear, but this is the sole way to ensure that someone does not steal this from you along the way. My brothers must believe that I am in mourning over their actions, otherwise they will know you have come to me and accepted my words. You must make them believe that I have cast you away." "And if they knew I'd come to side with you?"
Her eyes shone brightly. "Your descent into hell would be much more difficult than it already will be. You must be careful beloved warrior. The demons that reside in the underworld will almost certainly be on alert and guarding the pathway to the princess, if my mother has anything to do with this."
"Izanami? Why would your own mother go against you?"
She looked to the horizon. "Our familial ties are not like that of yours. My mother resented me when my father's resentment grew. She does not accept how I have broken our family apart. So, if my father resided in Yomi, she would guard him with her eternal soul."
This story grew much more twisted than I thought possible. "You will have to fight many things you have never encountered in order to reach your destination. Can you do it?"
Honestly, I was not sure if I could do this. Human men made of flesh, blood and bone was one thing. Slaying demons was something entirely different. I hadn't the slightest clue as to what a demon even looked like. Yet still, I nodded surely. I had no choice in the matter. I needed to return Misaki home.
"What will you do?"
She fixed her steal gaze straight out onto the water. "I must keep the sun from rising. I must publicly display my grief. They will both need to think that I will return to hiding. They must not think that I will retaliate in this. If I do, they will surely try to kill me more hastily."
"I am sorry I cannot be of much more help." She glances down momentarily. "if my brothers succeed in my demise… the world will fall into eternal darkness. Demons will roam the earth freely. There will be no one to govern the heavens. The world would fall into chaos just as it did a millennium ago. I cannot give them what they want, or all of this will be for nothing. So, I will retreat into the clouds and bring rain. Susanoo and Tsukuyomi will believe it to be my shedding of tears."
Her smile did not reach her eyes, but it was every bit sincere.
"You must go. There is not much time. You will need to find a blade forged for demon slaying within your journey. You will not get past any demon without it."
She took steps away before turning back to me, her black hair moving like calm sea waves. "I am only able to cloud the skies with rain for two days before they will come for me. You must enter Yomi before the light of the third days dawn. You are in my thoughts Chisan. Now go."
With the conclusion of her words my body was yanked back, and my vision clouded as air whistled briskly past my ears. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the shrine, still kneeling in front of the statue. The sky still dark and as I caught my breath and got used to the weight of my armor again, I rose to my feet and took one last look at the shrine. I grabbed the hilt of my dagger and turned, taking the thin steps quickly back to Okami. His ears pricked up as he heard my heavy breath. I untied the knot quickly and climbed atop him.
Two days. I had two days.
As I steered him down the dirt road leading past the shrine and out of town the skies burst forth in a sound of rolling thunder and dark heavy clouds. They quickly set in just as Ama had said. Before any drop could fall, I dug my heels in Okami and we flew forward the constant ache in my chest telling me that we were traveling the right way.
I took the main road out of Hiroshima's city and onto the roads between the immense rice and wheat fields. There were many women trudging through the low shallow water soaking the plants. The women carried woven bamboo baskets on their heads until finding whatever it was, they were looking for and lowering themselves to pick the grain. There was a narrow rest stop town a few miles ahead and we would need to stop so that I could assess the map the goddess so graciously left on my body, and figure out where the hell I was supposed to obtain a demon blade from.
I stopped short at a public bathhouse along the dismal and small town. Its doors were propped open and steam rolled out in waves as men laughed and threw conversation around that bounced off the open walls. I climbed down quickly and tied Okami loosely to a tall thin pole outside the establishment. I walked up the steps, pulling a
few gold yen coins from my leather change purse. I dropped them without any words to the attendant near the door and kept moving. Their smile of greed left no room for words of rebuttal. I found an empty room and shut the doors quickly behind me. I removed my armor as hastily as possible, lying it on the floor as I pulled my robes apart at the chest. And there it was. It already looked as if it had healed. It left only faint black scars. With my eyes cast down I see I am on the right road by the irritated red skin around the line but that as I neared the dense forest separating civilization from wilderness I would need to branch off to my right and head down a traders road towards the peak of the mountains. The entrance was marked with a black dot between the two mountain passes. Sighing, I looked up and pushed my unkempt hair from my face. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would be traveling to the underworld to retrieve a princess who was not only royalty but a goddess in her own divine right. A goddess who had no idea that our world was so much larger than we thought it to be. And that I…that I was someone unknown to himself anymore.
Overlapping my robes once again in a secure fashion I exited the room and stepped out into the unforgiving steam. There were people littered everywhere, most of the makeup being men. The women were workers constantly carrying large pails of hot water and pouring them into the shallow baths. Many lay in the water with their eyes closed, while others talked amongst their small groups. I listened hard while strolling down the walkways lining two large tubs. I kept moving idly as I kept my ear low for any talk of myths. There was always one person enthralled in the stories of the gods. Not long ago I was one of those people. One who considered the tales told to just be imaginings of the gods and what we wanted them to do. Oh, how I'd been wrong.
Luck sprang as I entered a new bathroom with less people. An obese man sat surrounded by servants and other patrons alike., they hung on every woke he spoke. I could quickly see why. His story telling was full of emotion and detail.
I lowered myself into the water and walked quietly to a far corner where I rested my arms on the outer rims of the baths.
"My brother once held a blade made of fire!"
"He must have been quite brave," one of the women proclaimed.
The robust man nodded his agreement. "He was. But
ultimately it killed him. Possessed by a demon it was!" he shouted.
His yelling did the job as mouths hung open and eyes went without blinking. He had them all listening now, including me.
"What would a sword like that even be used for?!" a man somewhere in the room called out.
"For killing the things we cannot see. The shadow demons that creep along dark hallways and invade the dreams of children!" he replied heartily, smiling mischievously.
"How did the blade kill him my lord?"
His shrug was nonchalant and passive. "No one is entirely sure. His body was just brought back to our family home completely disfigured and warped. I'd never seen anything like it in my years. We burned his body at dawn."
The earnest reply was in addition to my seemingly relaxed posture. "And the blade?"
The storyteller sat up straighter, the water sloshing about the others. His eyebrows drew together and even in the fog filled air I saw the raw flash of undiluted fear in his eyes as he gave his answer.
"That blade…it whispered to you in lone rooms, in your
dreams. If left with a servant, they often tried to kill themselves with it. It was almost as if they were compelled to do so. It was almost as if…the blade told them to harm themselves. In the end, my father sold it to a trader further into town. After that, I haven't the slightest idea. And I do not want to know. I never want to see that cursed blade again!"
He swore a few more times before quieting and closing his eyes contentedly.
One of the attendants of the bath house, a frail woman with thick hair wound into a knot and held in place by a long glass pin, dressed in cream robes, knelt to offer everyone new cups of Sake. I declined the offer and waited until she wandered off to find other patrons. I listened hard and could still hear the rain pounding outside. I only had one more day to reach Yomi and retrieve Misaki.
But maybe one stolen moment, one moment with her…if I could just close my eyes and think back to one of the many days together. I missed her.
I'd only been with the royal family for a few short weeks but Misaki and I were just settling into our routine around one another. Small conversation on the way to breakfast, and the lighthearted banter we shared, uncommon between guard and royalty.
The steam drifting around the open space swarmed my face and the heat made mem lightheaded. Rising from the warm water I grab my towel and knot it around my waist. As I walked back to my room the woman who had been selling Sake to the others suddenly appeared behind me. Her expression was stoic and emotionless. Her eyes were a very dark brown and she stared intently at me with them. She spoke quickly and quietly. I had to concentrate on her words as she spit them out like vomit.
"You seek a cursed vessel. I know where to obtain such an instrument."
I quickly grew weary, instinctively reaching for my weapon and then realizing that I did not carry it and that I was in nothing but a cloth towel.
There was something off about this woman. The air around her was electric and almost uncomfortable. I rolled my shoulders trying to relieve some of my immediate discomfort. How did this woman know that I was looking for a cursed blade? I'd said nothing to anyone.
"How do you come to know this information?" my voice was losing the battle between my instinct as my body began to tense up. There was no time to play games here. Even the woman's smile held a devious tint to it. I knew I could not trust her, but I forced myself to remain in place and continue to let her blunder on.
A lazy shrug of her shoulders. "A man on the very outskirts of town sells cursed vessels…"
My ears would not deceive me. The woman whose wide
bottomless eyes had not moved an inch from taking in my face, she had ended the word vessels with a drawn-out hiss.
"Why are you trying to aid me? Who are you?"
She crossed her arms across her chest before stepping forward. "I can spot a Minimoto with a hidden agenda from quite far. It has been a long time though since I have come across one of you. You were listening to Lin as he worked to scare everyone with the story of his blades. As for who I am, consider me an…opportunist."
I shook my head clean of her nonsense. Her hand grabbed a hold of my arm. Her strength was not natural. It was harder than I thought to yank my arm free of her grasp.
"And why would I trust you? You know information I disclosed to no one. How do I know you are not a spy from something larger?"
Her cackle was almost sickening and didn't fit her face. "I would have killed you already if I were a spy sent by the brothers. Even I am too lowly to be called upon by them."
I drew wakizashi quickly as I grabbed hold of the demon. "I never told you about any brothers. Do you think me foolish?"
Even as I had the demonic woman raised to her tip toes with a fistful of her front collar in my hand, she showed no concern. Just those same large dark eyes with their unwavering stare, and the smile too wide and narrow for her face.
"come now boy, the entire sacred realm is aware of such a scandal. Word travels just as quickly beyond your sad world. I know you travel to gain back what you've lost. I know that you have spoken to the selfish woman beyond the sun. I know that you are one of the six deities of Susanoo,"
Her breath turned to a gasp and a laugh as I tightened my grip. "and I know that Japans most beloved and revered princess, is one of the four deities of Amaterasu. It is now common knowledge Samurai.
However, I have my own agenda. One I have let sit like aged wine for too long. It is time to collect."
I shoved her quickly away and her back hit the side wall. She righted herself and cracked her neck. I took a step forward.
"If you are lying to me, I will kill you."
"I would not mislead you Samurai. Not when I have so much to gain. Gather your belongings and meet me outside. Try not to keep me waiting."
And just like that, the woman was gone. I sighed deeply and tried to right my thoughts as I quickly dressed back in my robes and armor. Once my leather boots were on, I was back out the door of the bath house.
Okami was uncomfortable as he tugged at his ropes, the woman standing close beside him. I took the few steps down and walked over to untie Okami's ropes.
"You've kept me waiting," she scolded.
"I do not abide by the rules of a person I do not trust."
She shrugged and watched as I swung my leg over Okami's back, settling in the saddle. I looked down to see the woman a few paces ahead of me. Okami's ears went back as my eyes met the woman's and there were no whites in her eyes any longer. Only black desolate orbs. I fought the urge to shutter. Shaking my head, I made a mental note to never let this demon out of my sight.
"Follow mee…" it hissed, fleeting forward.
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