Episode 1: The Vanishing Blade

ONE

Slender, delicate fingers slowly wrapped around the hilt of the sword. The blade, immersed in a brilliant blue-white glow, made the faint sound of whispering winds as it was drawn. In the moment the blade was fully clear of the sheath, it vanished into thin air.

"What on earth are you doing in here?"

The swordsmith's daughter did not hear her brother's voice as she stared up at the vapors surrounding the empty space where the blade should have been. Her jaw hung open in wonder at the magical trinket she held before her. She knew her father produced the finest weapons in the land, but she thought it unfathomable to craft a sword that could turn invisible. In fact, if she hadn't known better, she would have thought there was no blade attached to the hilt, that the light she had seen when she drew the blade had never existed. Amazing!

"Kuu!" A stern, heavy hand clamped onto her shoulder, and the girl let out a gasp as the sword slipped from her fingers.

The weapon clattered hilt first to the floor, but the blade itself, if it struck the floor at all, made no sound.

"This isn't a playroom, Kuu."

Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him. She hadn't heard him enter the workshop after her, which was unusual in and of itself. Her brother was a big man, and not at all light on his feet. Had she been so distracted by the weapon in the red sheath that she had all but neglected her surroundings? It was unusual for her to be caught off guard.

Even more unusual was that she had found herself attracted to a weapon in the first place. Kuu detested war and everything about it. She hated the swords her father made with a passion, and had never thought for even a moment to take one in her hand, to draw it from its sheath, to inspect its blade. And yet she had drawn one. She had even admired it!

"I… I wasn't playing."

"Then what did you intend to do? Chop some wood for tonight's fire? Or perhaps carve tonight's roast boar? We both know you wouldn't use a sword for its true intentions. Just the mere thought of blood makes you go weak in the knees."

"Stop it, big brother," Kuu muttered, turning away from him.

"This is father's storeroom. What else did you expect to find in here besides swords and metalworking tools?"

"I came in to clean," she mumbled. "I just got distracted, that's all."

"Distracted? By a sword?" He arched a brow as he studied her and then gave a shake of his head. "Come on, sis. You're not a child, and this isn't your playroom. Now out."

He gave her back a gentle shove in the direction of the door, and then he scooped up the invisible sword. Kuu paused momentarily, watching him over her shoulder. The trail of vapor remained, the only hint of the existence of the weapon's blade. The siblings could not have been more different. While Kuu's older brother was destined to be a great samurai, Kuu had no inclination of her own future. Despite that, she felt drawn to the weapon even more now than she had been a moment before. Her green eyes sparkled as she watched the blue-white glow return to the blade as he sheathed the weapon. He then returned the sword to its place on the wall.

"I'm sorry, big brother."

He smiled. "It's no big deal. Father doesn't have to know." He gave her back another gentle shove, and this time she went easily as he escorted her from the storeroom.

"Big brother?"

"What is it, Kuu?"

"Just… what kind of sword is that?"

"A sword is just a tool, Kuu."

She cast him a sidelong glance. "That doesn't really answer my question."

"It's the only answer I can give you," he replied with a smile. "I'm a soldier of war. I wield weapons. I don't forge them. I'm afraid if you want to know the answer to that question, you'll have to ask the master swordsmith himself."

Kuu cringed. "He would never tell me."

"And you would never even bother to ask."

She sighed and looked away. He was certainly right about that much of it. Long ago she had learned that her father would never take her as an apprentice swordsmith. He insisted that a swordsmith's workplace was intended for men alone. Unfortunately he had never had two sons.

"Your commander is coming to order weapons tonight?"

He nodded. "He'll be here in a few hours. Which means you should prepare yourself to receive company. He is a lord's son and the ranking officer in his father's army. I expect you to put your best foot forward."

"Yes, big brother. Of course I will."

TWO

Kuu was no apprentice swordsmith. Nor had she ever received any instruction on hosting a dinner for a samurai prince. Even so, she resigned herself to prepare a modest meal for the evening. She also dressed in her finest indigo kimono, the color of the banner of the noble's family. She prayed she could at least play the role of the humble hostess convincingly. After all, her father was counting on her to help him impress a wealthy young samurai.

When the time finally came, Kuu was a nervous wreck. Thankfully she hadn't been expected to meet face-to-face with the prince upon his arrival. She would first see him when she was asked to bring dinner. While he and her father and big brother talked business in the swordsmith's shop, Kuu was alone in another part of the house, tying her raven hair up in buns in order to cover her pointed ears.

As she awaited word to join the meeting, Kuu thought about the amazing sword she had discovered in the storeroom. She wondered just what manner of power it possessed, and whether or not her father would consider selling it to the prince. She knew that her father's weapons drew a considerable price. They were very difficult and time consuming to forge, but they were also the finest weapons that money could buy. Only the highest ranking officers would ever carry them into battle.

If the finest samurai sword could attract such a tremendous price, she wondered how much he could get for a sword with an invisible blade.

More than an hour after the samurai prince arrived, Kuu was called to join the small gathering, which included one other samurai besides the lord's son, her father, and her brother. She brought the meal—a fine fish stew, rice, melon, and two more full jugs of sake—into the primary chambers of her father's house. Kuu had never considered herself to be the best cook, but she was very relieved to see the young samurai and the elder officer who accompanied him eat without complaint.

She poured sake for each of the men in turn and took a seat beside her father.

It was irregular for her to dine with the men when her father had visitors, but her brother had insisted she attend. She didn't understand why, but she didn't ask questions. Her father's rules still applied: she was expected to eat her meal in silence and speak only when spoken to.

Near the end of the meal, the elder samurai spoke. "Five blades, then. One for each of Lord Hanabishi's five daughters."

Kuu looked up in surprise. "Daughters?"

She flushed with embarrassment at her own outburst when her father shot her a glare, but before he could reprimand her or she could mutter an apology, the young samurai chuckled softly. "My sisters," he explained. "They are not samurai, but each has had a champion named in her honor. The swords we have commissioned your father to forge are intended for those men."

"Each will bring this house a small fortune," her brother added. "Enough that Father will be able to bring on an apprentice or two of his own choosing."

"That's incredible!" Kuu murmured. She gazed to the samurai prince and obediently bowed her head. "Your father is quiet generous, my lord."

"Nonsense, little lady," he replied. "We came to your father not out of generosity or any sense of charity. We came because he is the greatest swordsmith in all of Japan. His weapons are without match. If they were not the finest in the land we would have gone elsewhere. So please do not thank us for our business. Your father has earned this on his own merit."

Kuu flushed and looked somberly at ground. "I see. My apologies. I spoke out of place."

"More nonsense," the samurai said gently. "Yours is a voice worthy of any nobleman's ear. Please, speak freely. I consider your brother to be one of my very dearest friends. More than a comrade. We are brothers merged in the thickest of blood on the darkest of battlefields. That makes you my sister, Kuu-chan."

She flushed a deeper shade of red. He knew her name.

"Yes, my lord," she mumbled.

"Now, about this stew."

She looked up. "Yes? Is it not to your liking?"

He showed her a dazzling smile. "Might I have some more, please?"

"A-ah… Of course!"

THREE

Even the faintest sliver of power can attract a pest, Shippo reminded himself as he slipped silently through the forest. The thick scent of demon clung to the trees. Not a great demon by any stretch. He expected to find a rather small, weak creature, a mere pest. Enough to frighten an unsuspecting village, but nothing a fox demon of his fortitude and experience couldn't handle.

Shippo had visited this village before, but that had been more than twenty years ago, during his youth, long before he had decided to set off on his own. He doubted anyone remembered who he was. His companions at the time were far more likely to leave a lasting impression. He found it more important that he get the job done and move on. At least, that's what he had come to believe in the days following the end of his training.

"Answer a question for me, Master Shippo."

Speaking of pests… Shippo smiled to himself and continued to move forward silently. He took another quick whiff of the cool forest air. Despite the stillness of the night he knew the target was close.

"Master Shippo, are you even listening to me?"

"Hush, Tsume," Shippo whispered. "We aren't alone."

"What are you– Mmmrrmph!"

Shippo's fingers wrapped around the hilt of the dagger sheathed at his hip. He pulled it free without a second thought and dipped quickly and silently into the cover of a nearby bush. There he waited, silent, eyes closed and pointed ears perked up in an attempt to hone in on the target.

He counted off the seconds in his head.

Ten…

Twenty…

Thirty…

A minute passed before he realized he was wasting time. He drew a breath and stepped back out onto the path. He scanned the area around him once more before sheathing the dagger.

"Please, Master Shippo! A little warning next time!"

"Quiet, Tsume. Let me think."

There was no question that his quarry had been here, but now Shippo began to consider another possibility: that the demon had moved on. Perhaps the demonic aura he had been tracking was stronger than he had first assumed, so much so that it lingered long after the demon moved on. He would have to check with the villagers to be certain just how long it had been since their last encounter with the troublemaker. Raking his slender, clawed fingers through his thick head of red hair, the young fox demon drew a breath.

"It seems you were mistaken, Master Shippo. The only demons for miles would be the two of us."

"Yeah. Maybe you're right."

Even so, Shippo kept his fingers close to the hilt of his dagger.

"It's late. Perhaps we should be returning to the village."

"The village. I don't know, Tsume. I can't say that I felt very welcome there."

"Well, perhaps it is just as well. We're demons, after all, Master. We weren't exactly meant to mingle with humans."

That much was indeed true. Shippo hadn't felt comfortable around humans for a very long time. Not since… "Dinner," he said after a long moment.

"A splendid idea, Master Shippo!"

FOUR

The smell of roasting fish wafting up from the campsite below was overpowering, almost intoxicating. It took every ounce of Maika's willpower to keep her concentration. She couldn't afford single misstep, else she would risk going hungry for yet another night. Determined, she moved another inch forward.

Dangling upside down from a tree about forty feet above the small, open fire might be risky, but Maika was not entirely out of her element. She had grown up in this forest. While the traveler below might possess the strength she lacked, this was still her home and she held the element of surprise.

Maika studied the traveler. He seemed tall and lanky, with fiery red hair and a plush, bushy tail. A fox demon. She wasn't an expert in identifying demons by any stretch, but this one was easy enough.

Even from this high up, Maika's sharp eye caught the somber look of reflection on his face as he stared into the fire. His was a handsome face, still soft with youth and innocence and good humor. Not yet hardened by experience in this unforgiving age.

She gave herself a mental shake in order to focus on the task at hand. He didn't even try to conceal himself in any way. There was a human village nearby, yet he kept an open flame, albeit a small one. Even so, Maika knew even a small fire could potentially alert the villagers of unwelcome company lurking in the forest. Either he was confident or foolish, likely both considering the nature of a fox demon.

No matter. His overconfidence would be to her benefit.

Already her scales began to glow as she ignited the power within. The heat spread violently through her body. She drew in a breath of the cool night air and let loose an inhuman shriek. With a push of her short yet powerful legs, Maika fell clear of the branches and into open air, and then, she unfurled her wings in a rush. She shrieked again as the ground rushed toward her, spinning violently in an attempt to make her appear larger than she actually was.

By the look of surprise on the fox demon's face, she knew she'd gotten the drop on him.

Dinner was served.

FIVE

She'd been wrong before, of course. Her father had called her his clumsy gem. The moment she'd dropped "unexpectedly" into his camp—the very moment that she thought he registered a look of surprise—he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Woah!" Maika cried as the ground rushed up to break her fall.

She never reached it. Rather, she felt a jolt rush up her spine from the point where something snagged her tail. She thought her eyes might burst from their sockets… if her head didn't pop right off her neck.

For a moment there was nothing but the sound of the crackling fire. She felt the heat very close to her. Given her nature she had no fear of being roasted. However, being torn apart like a chicken at the dinner table was a real possibility.

Tears stung her eyes as she stared at the ground.

"Kinda puny for a dragon, aren't you?"

The voice was gentler than Maika had anticipated. She hadn't actually anticipated a voice at all. She'd expected only the brief yet excruciating pain as he disemboweled her on the spot, either with that dagger at his hip or with his bare claws.

She saw the ground moving away from her.

And then she caught sight of his face as he calmly inspected her.

She curled her long neck up so that she looked back at him. His face seemed as gentle as his tone. Most striking were the eyes, a deep, penetrating blue that seemed to sink deep into her core, the same color, she realized, as her father's scales. He wore a small grin as he inspected her.

"I'm going to let you down now, and we're going to have a chat, you and I."

"Ch-ch-chat?"

"Yep. Just you and me. No one else."

"Well played, Master Shippo!"

"Shut up, Tsume."

The dragon's eyes widened. She glanced this way and that, snaking her long neck about in every direction, looking for signs of the fox demon's companion, but she saw nothing. There was no one else in the small clearing.

"Forgive my friend," Shippo said. "He has a fast tongue in the strictest sense. Sometimes his wit lags behind. Most times, in fact."

"Master!"

Shippo gave the dagger at his hip a whap across the hilt with his free paw.

"Hey, now! Haven't I served you well through your journeys, Master?"

"You'd be serving me well right now by keeping that yap closed."

"Y… Yes Master…"

Maika's eyes opened wide. "That knife t-t-talks!"

"The real miracle is when it doesn't," Shippo said with a roll of his eyes. He released the small dragon, and with a hand to her belly, helped her to land with some dignity, on her feet. He then studied her snakelike body. "I've never seen a dragon quite like you before."

"Uh… I'm a peh-peh-pygmy."

"You look like a dragon," the knife announced. "Or at the very least a very fat snake."

"Not a pig, Tsume," Shippo chuckled. "Pygmy. A dwarf. I'd hazard a guess that a couple millennia ago dragons like our little friend were still great beasts, but the world changed when man became the dominant species. Dragons became insignificant and nature adjusted."

"Yeh-yeh-yes," Maika said in wonder. "Exactly."

"A dragon like you would only attack a demon's campsite with one thing in mind."

Shippo turned then, his back to Maika. He was reaching for something. Some small fear in the back of her mind whispered warnings. It was time to get out. Time to flee. However, her legs refused to work. She found herself transfixed by her captor.

She felt more than a little silly. She'd thought she'd gotten the drop on him, but instead it felt as if he'd actually set some sort of a trap. When he turned back to her, his arm extended, she realized that it actually had been a trap.

In his fist he held a stick. Skewered to one end was one of the fish he'd been roasting for his dinner. But it hadn't been his dinner, Maika realized, by the small, triumphant smirk he wore. Rather it had been bait.

She hung her head, dejected, her still unfurled wings limp at her sides.

"And I th-th-thought you the fool."

"I have a trick or two up my sleeve," Shippo said proudly. "But that's not why you're here. Just eat. I have some questions for you."

SIX

Not a single lantern, or even a candle, burned in the swordsmith's hut. Even the shop across the narrow road was black as pitch.

In the still, silent darkness, a single soul sat motionless in a tiny room, her small hands folded in her lap as she stared out her window and up into a sky filled with a thousand twinkling stars. She thought about her father's recent gain. Things were going to change very soon. The future looked bright.

Still, Kuu fretted over what the prince had come to do. He had ordered swords forged for the samurai charged with defending his five sisters. Did that mean the five were somehow in danger? That was not the worst of it, however.

After supper she had learned that her brother was about to go away yet again. He had only just returned home a few weeks ago, after being away at war for more than a year. He was set to leave at dawn the day after tomorrow.

Time was heart achingly short.

An unusual spot of light drifted slowly into view, as if wandering amidst the stars. Kuu rubbed her eyes and gawked at the light. She knew she couldn't be seeing what she was seeing. Could it be some sort of a demon or possibly even a spirit? She couldn't even decide what color it was. It hovered high in the sky, up beyond the distant treetops, so high that it was impossible to judge not only its size but also its distance.

Without warning it stopped. After a moment or two it moved off in another direction, only to stop and alter paths again. It stopped for yet a third time, and then, as Kuu watched, it began to swell in size.

No, Kuu realized. The light wasn't getting bigger. It was moving closer, and quickly.

As she watched the glowing orb at last descended into the trees, somewhere beyond the village. Kuu, staring out into the forest from her seat by the window, put a hand to the windowsill and slowly pushed herself to her feet.

Before she could think better of it, Kuu put a leg through the window and stepped out into the dark of night.

She started off toward the forest as quickly as her two skinny legs could carry her.

Before she got far, however, something inside her made her pause. She stood limply in the road for a long time, staring into the forest. It was dark there, pitch black for as far as the eye could see. Beneath the cover of the trees she wouldn't even have the light of the stars to guide her. She put her hands to her face and drew them down slowly, letting a soft moan escape through her slightly parted lips. Just what had gotten into her?

She started to turn back to the house.

[Giving up so quickly?]

She paused, and closed her eyes. She drew a breath and started back.

[No guts.]

She was just about to crawl back through the window into her room when she caught sight of a flash of light from the corner of her eye. She froze. For a time she did not move, not even to turn her head in the direction of the flash of light, Kuu waited. There was a warmth in the air, like a flood of power emanating off to her right, from the direction of her father's shop.

Finally, she turned in that direction.

There was no sign of the flash of light she thought she had seen.

The warmth, however, still lingered. It felt almost as if she was standing before a raging fire, but there were no flames, only empty darkness. Kuu hooked some of her flowing hair behind a pointed ear and stared at the shop.

She drew a breath, and then started forward. It was a short walk across the road. She pushed the bar up and let the door swing open. Inside there was only more darkness. Kuu lifted a lantern from its place on a nearby shelf and exposed the wick. The tiny flame still burned, and soon bathed the workshop in a dim, golden glow. The warmth from before still lingered, though its strength had faded. She turned in the direction of the source, and paused when she saw the dim blue glow that seeped through in through the crack beneath the door to her father's storeroom. Kuu stared in disbelief.

It was the same color, the same eerie, wondrous energy she had felt when she had unsheathed her father's strange sword.

[Go on. Can't you feel it? Calling you?]

Kuu felt herself drawn to the door. She moved easily, sidestepping a workbench in the center of the workshop. She placed the lantern there and reached for the door. She slid it open. The blue glow seemed to vanish even as she stepped inside.

The weapon still hung in its place on the wall.

[Take it, Kuu. Take it!]

She reached for it, eyes wide.

There was a flash of pain as something slammed violently into the back of her head. Kuu felt herself lurch forward.

Her eyes grew wide with shock even as her control over her body began to fade.

[Gotcha.]

She was dimly aware of her own fingers as they wrapped around the hilt of the mysterious sword. The blade glowed brilliantly as it was drawn from its sheath.

Her sight left her in that moment, just as the blade began to fade from sight. She couldn't help the one last thought lingering in some distant corner of her mind.

It was the realization that she was not in control of her own body.

There was something else.

Something dangerous.

Something undeniably evil.

It had her.

And the worst of it: she had given it her father's magic sword.

SEVEN

"At last! Yosue is mine!"

Osuhi raised the sword and then brought it down slowly. The blade itself was invisible, but the vapors surrounding the blade gave off a distinctive blue glow similar, though not nearly so vivid, as the light that shone when it was drawn. The power of the sword, which had crackled intensely as the blade cleared the sheath, now emanated slowly, somehow diminished.

Osuhi scowled at the poor results. The connection was weak. With a flick of the vessel's wrist, he slashed at the air again. The vapors surrounding the blade glowed a bit brighter than before, but it was no indication of the power he knew the sword possessed.

Of course he had only just acquired the blade. He would have to be patient and adjust to its powers. The vessel too was alien to him. He'd never possessed a half demon before. It was something of a surprise that the body moved at all upon his command. Even so, he expected more from his new quarry. He'd spent a lot of time searching for the daughter of Saya, and the sword of power bequeathed her.

Saya's decision to leave the sword in the hands of humans humored Osuhi. Even better: she had left her own daughter in the very same village. Abandoned, this half demon wretch faced, at the very best, a dark future amidst the prejudices of mankind.

He had little doubt that Saya would never seek her daughter again. After all, the dead seldom bothered with the past.

Osuhi, in the body of the half demon Kuu, stepped out of the swordsmith's shop and into the road. He peered through her eyes to the dark house. He lifted the sword again, placing the blade—if there was a blade—between his eyes and the house. The vapors shimmered faintly.

That's when the thought occurred to him. He brought his free hand up and took the hilt of the sword in both hands.

"Fox fire!"

The girl's voice rang clear and true over the silent night. Osuhi could feel the power rush through him.

And in that moment, as blue power erupted ferociously precisely where the blade of Yosue should be, he brought the sword back and gave it a mighty swing, slashing the air.

"FOX FIRE!" Osuhi bellowed. Again Kuu's voice shattered all that remained of the night's peace. He could feel the power raging through her as terrible blue flames scorched the midnight air.

He saw all with Kuu's eyes. The intense blast that struck the house, incinerating much at the point of impact. The debris that still burned, falling from the sky like a rain of fire. The raging blue flames that mercilessly devoured all that remained.

Osuhi gave a nod of satisfaction. He sheathed Yosue, and turned. "This will do."

As he started for the forest he turned again. The blade slashed the night air.

"Fox fire!"

The shop, just like the swordsmith's hut, exploded as the sword's magic slammed into it. Osuhi watched for only a moment. Then, as he sheathed the sword, he smiled and he turned the vessel toward the forest.

"Yes. This will do quite nicely," he said.

And then his latest prizes, the sword and the half demon Kuu, vanished into the night.

NEXT EPISODE: Maika's Somber Pledge