Kojyou: The Five Passions

Part I: Joy

Chapter 1: Hammer of Faith

Droplets of water slide between his fingers and flow down from the bottle in his left hand to pool in his right. From somewhere in the fabric of his being, a song rings in tune with the melody of driblets of holy water hitting the soft grass beneath his feet. Some part of him feels every slippery journey of water down the blades of grass and into the earth. All is harmony, all is in place.

"Hikari!"

A name? His name. Grass fades away, replaced by a vast darkness. He begins to fall.

"Hikari! Please, don't be dead! Hikari!"

That voice, it feels so good to hear. Hear? He has ears to listen with? Yes, ears.

"Hikari, it's Sean! Please…Oh God, please come back to me!"

Weeping? Tears fall down from another hand to pool inside his. First he begins to hear sound, and then touch returns to him. A hand, rough like unsanded wood, grasps his. It is wet. Another beats against his chest softly. Dry, cracked lips force air between his. All over his body there is a coldness, an emptiness. He falls.

"He's not breathing on his own? Sean, quick, let Liss take a look at him! Dammit, man, get out of the way!"

A light, warm and welcoming, touch the sides of his head and begins to flow all throughout his body.

"I think I'm reaching him." Says a voice, soft but beautiful. "Come, Hikari. It is not time for you to leave this world yet." A strange scent fills nostrils he had not known he'd had. A flower?

"Liss, you can heal him, right?" Asks that familiar, deep, wonderful voice. He remembers that voice, and the scent. Scents, now. Flowers mixed with boiled leather and oiled metal and sweat.

"First, we have to get him to breathe, Sean."

More sounds, the sounds of people screaming and fighting for their lives. The screams call to him, and he struggles to help the light penetrate his cold, darkened form.

"He has a heartbeat!" announces another voice, this one high-pitched and a bit squeaky. The voice smells like animals.

"Good, then we can still catch him." Replies the soft voice, the one that smells like flowers. He wants to help, to tell the voice that he wants to come back, but he cannot make his lips move. "Jenna, you have those blue gems I gave you to keep, right?" The voice turns away from him, and he is forlorn.

"Waaaay ahead of you." This voice feels like steel and hammers.

"Good. Sean, Kayley, keep him stabilized. From here on out, it's up to Hikari and God. There's nothing more we can do."

I want to come back, Liss… He says, but the voice that smells like flowers. As he falls, he realizes that the flower is honeysuckle.

Breathe rushed into his lungs all at once, and he tried to sit up, but strong hands pushed him back down to the floor. "What the hell happened to me?" he croaked, and someone laughed.

"He's all right. If he can curse, he's all right! Glory and hallelujah, he's alive!"

Hikari snorted, and immediately regretted it when blood came up through his mouth as a result. "Sean, I wasn't going to die. Who'd keep you alive while you hunt demons then, eh?"

"I told you so." Said the girl who was holding him down. A bow was strapped across her back, and she still had on her thimble. The bow was strung. "Sean, you gotta believe in us more!"

"Never said I didn't believe you." Muttered Sean, who was currently standing a bit aside from Hikari, back turned. Hikari couldn't see his head, because it was obscured by heavy armor, and Sean was a very tall man.

"Sean…" Hikari said, and he tried to lift his arm. Gently, but firmly, the huntress kept him from doing it. Foiled, he lolled his head in the crusader and let tears fall from his eyes. "Sean, I love you. I could never leave you behind. Please, try to remember that."

The only answer was the shifting of metal plates as Sean swept out of the room. Kayley looked down worriedly at Hikari. Her blinkers were pushed up onto her forehead to reveal brilliantly green eyes, red from recent weeping. "He…I…we were all so worried about you, Hikari. Liss and Michael told Sean that he wasn't allowed to touch you, or even come near you, so don't be afraid. I don't know why they told him that, but it isn't because he doesn't love you." She paused to shift his head so that it was in her lap. Hikari noted that she smelled of leather and animal sweat. "I'll never forget the way that he looked when he carried you here. He thought you were dead."

She paused again, stroking his hair and waiting a long time before saying anything else. "He looked like he was dead, too."

Far off in the distance, explosions he recognized as coming from the Lord of Vermillion rang out. "What's that, Kayley?" He asked. Kayley blinked a few times, wondering if he'd heard her, but decided not to press.

"I don't know, Hikari."

"You're lying." He retorted, and she glared down at him. "You should be out there, helping with whatever it is, not in here babying me."

"Babying you?" she said incredulously. "You took an assault from Baphomet himself head on, and you say we're babying you? Who are you, Sean? Honestly. If I were you, I'd be asleep right now."

She looked away, out toward the source of light that flowed into the church. Hikari leaned back against her lap and scowled. "What do you see?"

"It's nothing, Hikari, stop worrying."

"It's a horde of the undead, isn't it?"

"Shut up! Why don't you just go to sleep?"

"It might help if I was in a bed, hon."

"I can't get you to a bed right now!"

"Uh-huh, and why might that be?"

"Yamato Hikari, you almost died! Shut up and go to sleep!"

I can't sleep when people I love out there are getting themselves hurt. He thought to himself. I should be out there, helping Liss and Etansel heal the wounded. Instead, I'm stuck in here with crybaby Kayley…

"Kayley?"

The door to the sanctuary slid open slowly, an obvious attempt (and failure) at keeping quiet to avoid waking Hikari. The big wooden door creaked so badly it made Hikari wince.

"He's awake, Jenna. What is it? Is everyone all right? They won't tell me anything!"

Kayley's voice acquired a slightly hysterical quality. Jenna rushed into the room and knelt beside Hikari.

"He's really all right?" asked the burly blacksmith. Her voice was a pleasant, deep alto, slightly raspy like a bellows.

"I wouldn't say having a gaping wound in my chest was all right, but I'm not dead." Hikari interjected tartly. Jenna frowned down at him.

"Don't speak, Hikari. Kayley, I came to take over for you. They need you in the sewers."

"The sewers?" Kayley asked as she pulled down her blinkers and shifted Hikari over to Jenna's keeping. "But I thought…"

Jenna shook her head. "I know. Penos got into the aqueduct somehow, they're wreaking havoc. The clergy is keeping up a Pneuma wall, but they need all the help they can get. I'm no good against those things, so Hale sent me for you. Get going, they need you!"

Kayley wasted no time; she snatched up her bow and quiver, and then bolted from the room. The big door slammed behind her.

"I should be out there helping."

"Shut up, you."

Prontera Cemetery

One of Sean's hands stayed clasped around the rosary that hung about his throat, while the other used his sword to cut down the undead. They came in numbers like he had never seen, not even in his long forays in the bowels of the forsaken city, Glastheim.

"Where are they coming from?" he shouted as another wave of the hideous facsimiles of human life fell to his blade. Nearby, his friend Michael leaped and sprang and dispatched the undead with powerful blows from gloved fists and booted feet.

No idea. Came the coarse reply, via a curious contraption invented by their guild wizards. A tiny gem, carried somewhere on each member's person, allowed them to communicate with each other mentally. Terradi had explained the system to Sean once, saying that each gem was a fragment of the Emperium held deep inside the guild's castle. Folklore said that the Emperium held all the hopes and dreams of its guild's members, and in a way, it was true. The massive crystal was warm to the touch, as were all of the communication jewels, and Sean always felt better when he was around it. No one knew exactly how the Emperium and its shards were related, only that a guild's Emperium would provide enough shards for all of its members, and only just enough. Michael wore his shard as a stud in his left ear. Sean's was attached to his rosary.

Will they ever stop coming? Sean asked in the same way. Aloud, he shouted, "Holy Cross!" and wide shafts of pure, white light erupted from his blade to slash through the ghoul that was shambling toward him. Michael finished off a skeleton with a punch before back flipping lightly over to stand by Sean.

You know as much as I do, Sean. Michael told him. Does it matter if they end? We're fresh, and Hikari and Jenna are inside. We will fight for as long as we need to. He did another skeleton in with a kick. Sean slashed open the body of a zombie that got too close to the sanctuary's back entrance.

So it is a horde of the undead. Said a new voice. Sean stopped in the midst of bashing in the head of another corpse.

Hikari He asked. One of the properties of the guild's jewel network was that everyone in the guild who was conscious could hear messages sent along it. You're supposed to be asleep!

And let the two of you screw this up? Not a chance. Have you tried the graves? Hikari's mental voice was shaky, but came with a flood of determination behind it.

Of course. Michael retorted. I've slain as many of these as you, don't patronize me. What are your thoughts?

Mike! He should be asleep! Sean snapped. Hikari ignored him.

Did you try pouring holy water around the edges of the graveyard? Have any of the undead even left the graves?

Sean looked around. More and more undead filled the confines of the graveyard constantly, but none of them actually left. Damn, you're right. What do we do?

Hikari gave the mental equivalent of a snort. It'd be easy if I was there, but I can't move my legs, so you'll have to improvise. Michael, use your Spirit Spheres to mark the edges of a cross that spans the entire graveyard. Then, have Sean focus his Grand Cross along the points you define. Together, the two of you should be able to consecrate the defiled holy ground. It'd be easier with holy water, but…

Enough.Michael interrupted. I understand. Sleep.

Hikari fell silent immediately, and Sean exhaled gustily. "Mike, I…"

The monk was engulfed by blue light, chanting in the ancient tongue with eyes closed. Sean kept back any stray undead who tried to take out a piece of Michael for dinner. Soon the monk had the requisite four spheres. "Just be ready to perform the Grand Cross." He told Sean, eyes narrowed seriously. Then, he was crashing through the milling ranks of undead to lay down the cross. Sean waited at the center of the graveyard, covering Michael with pillars of healing light, until the monk had finished laying down the last sphere. Sean sheathed his sword and raised his right hand, closed his eyes, and gripped his rosary tightly with his left hand. Time slowed down, the undead seemed to move even more slowly.

"Light of thy holy Father, form a hammer of faith to strike down these sinful children of hell. Grand Cross!"

White light enveloped the graveyard. When it dissipated, the hordes of undead were gone.