Author's Notes: The name Kaguya will be explained.

Chapter Three: Carnal

Cye cursed the sting of salt with the water lapping at his sores. Cold swells left beads dripping from the hair of his torso as they broke against his hips. Before him, fish rolled and taunted through the veil of the waves.

His breath had instinctually been racking in and out through deep pulls since he'd started from the house. When he felt his blood was bright with oxygen he took one last draw and dove, kicking so fiercely his ankles thrashed in the air.

For the first time in weeks he felt no pain. The pressure ache exerted on his body was soothed here. In these muscles that should be withered, he felt a reservoir of power waiting to be tapped. The taste of brine filtered in through the stretches of a smile. He channeled the energy into splitting the water and propulsion after the saury swimming curiously in the distance, each fiber pushing him further into a newfound speed.

A curious thing. Sea creatures had always swum about him as though he belonged among them. Now they seemed to feel his intention, for they flickered out of his reach. Some shied away merely at a glance. Gone was the joy. His appetite won out and his mind let go of control. The animal came down.

In his frustration he felt himself gain a burst of speed. It was enough for a near miss. He arched and turned and swiped a fish from its school. Its companions jumped at the sound of spine snapping in Cye's fist and foolishly settled around him, thinking only one would appease him. His left hand lashed to catch another.

All his might was driven into swimming up with these two fish. The moment he tore through the surface the live fish was already at his mouth. He pulled his lip back to tear off the silver skin and drink the innards. The blood was cold. Cartilaginous bones crunched and scratched at his throat. Shock-struck flesh writhed all the way down, his own guts squirming against the barely-dead thing.

Yet his jaws never stopped working and once the live saury was consumed he turned his focus on the one whose life had already been crushed. When they were both gone he floated contently in the bobs.

A radius of water danced dark and clear around him. The fish kept their distance, fearfully curious as they melded with the slow currents. New energy or not, the hunt had sapped much of it. He would have to go for another or head back to shore. Suddenly he quite liked the challenge. One more breath and he went under.


The five made a line along the walkway descending the cliff. Sayoko, who knew these boards, made a gap between herself and the Ronin. The others trailed behind so as to keep their footing. Sage caught up to her on the shore, his eyes tearing at the gleams and spaces of ocean before them.

"Are you sure he's down here?" Ryo, following close behind, sidled up to Sayoko's elbow.

"Yes. He wouldn't go anywhere else." Her eyes didn't leave the water. She cupped her hands to her mouth and screamed. "Cye!"


The saury were getting beyond him. He'd chased them down until the rays of blue moonlight barely touched the floor. They no longer gleamed; their silhouettes shrank away as his body slowed. The excessive hair carried great weight in his element.

Here his energy abandoned him. He drifted, looking around for anything to go after, and felt his lungs begin to burn. It didn't make sense, he thought. He was perfectly capable of holding his breath ten times longer. Perhaps this sickness really was affecting him more than he realized. He decided to kick up for air. On the initial motion the burn bloomed into a desperate need.

It was a long way up. Between his fatigued muscles and dwindling oxygen, fear overran his nerves.

Breath began to escape as he surfaced between the waves. The first take of air was sweet relief. The second began to curl his joints. He wondered, what…? just before pain locked his bones.

His proximity to the cliffs lighted upon him only as a swell rocked him forward. The waterline dropped so sharply he bounced off a stone and wedged his arm into a crevice.

Gravity intensified the heat in the angles of his body. Hanging stretched between the rocks, he could hardly pull in enough breath to let out a lone howl of misery.


On shore Sayoko began to double back. There had been a song on the sea wind, faint and pained and undeniably her brother.

"What is it?" Kento treaded over the wet stones behind her. He looked back and saw Ryo following. Sage and Rowen were checking the far shore and the tree line.

"I heard Cye," came the answer over the crests. With a surefooted drop the elder Mouri disappeared from sight. Then her voice shrieked, "He's down here! Kento, help! He's trapped!"


All Cye could do was ride and breath with the sea's rhythym that sent him flopping against the boulders. Just as he wondered how long he had until his shoulder gave out, hands closed around his elbow. An exhausted moan escaped his lips.

Sayoko and Kento tenderly lifted him into the hands of Wildfire, Halo and Strata. The weight of his body hanging free between their arms instantly sent his nerves into shock- especially his shoulder. Cye let his head drop back on Ryo's arm to protest, "Put me back… Put me back in the water…"

"Sorry buddy. We're not gonna do that." Rowen glanced over his shoulder, unable to turn with a forearm under his locked knees.

At this Cye thought about a kneecap to the temple, make Strata see stars. But his taut body was nothing against three Ronin. Then he wondered how he direct such a malignant thought at his comrade. His body, his mind, and now his own will were going beyond him as they carried him from the shoreline.

The world jostled upside-down in his vision. Nothing, nothing was his anymore. And then his eyes caught the moon, her shadows still familiar. Yet she was cruel to him. She pulled at him. It was her, he was sure of it.

"What have I done?" he shrieked, feeling the Ronin tighten their grip. "I've served you! I worship you, Kaguya! What have I done wrong?"

They set him down in the sand. Sage and Ryo backed up toward Kento and Sayoko who had been close at their heels. Only the bearer of Strata knelt over him, taking in the bent joints and unsettled muscles.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Sayoko barked.

"It looks like decompression sickness," was Rowen's diagnosis. "But I thought that only happened with scuba diving…?"

Sayoko merely shrugged, more concerned with her brother who continued to scream and writhe.

Cye heard none of this. Inside his head there was nothing between the ringing in his ears and washes of furious pain.

"What have I done? What have I done?" With a cry he strained his head back into the sand. Around him everyone shrank back from the moon mirrored green in his eyes.