Chapter 6 – Jisei for Faith
Note: Apologies to anyone who was interested in this story. I planned out a good chunk of the story, but got writer's block. I've written a bunch of what I'd planned out, but as you'll see, there are chunks of this story that are still essentially outline. I've never had the motivation to finish, but wanted to post so that if anyone was still interested, they'd have some idea where this all went.
I've noted where the story shifts from regular narrative to my outline.
"Like dew drops
on a lotus leaf
I vanish."
Shinsui, died September 9, 1769
On the plane to Japan, Faith kept wondering how she'd let Giles talk her into this. She didn't speak Japanese. She didn't even like sushi.
Giles's brilliant plan to bring Lee's contingent of slayers into the fold was an exchange program of sorts. One of the Contingent's more experienced slayers stayed behind with the New Council to teach a few classes. Faith, meanwhile, would act as an instructor to the Japanese slayers. Somehow, everyone would appreciate everyone else so much after this instructor exchange thing that the New Council and the Contingent would be friends and waltz happily into the sunset holding hands.
Right.
When Giles initially proposed the exchange to Faith, she'd laughed. But Giles said he'd heard from Robin about how well she'd trained the new slayers in Cleveland. Robin told Giles she was a gifted teacher. That was how Giles got her, Faith thought. She was so surprised by the compliment that she'd been struck momentarily stupid. If she survived the next few months, she'd have to keep an eye on Giles. He was way craftier than someone who got hit on the head so often should be.
Still, in the privacy of her own head, Faith was pleased that both Robin and Giles appreciated her contributions to the Cleveland slayers. Training the new slayers had been fun. And at least in Japan, she'd get away from the other watchers at the New Council, most of whom wanted to send Faith to remedial slayer training. Not her fault she'd hadn't had a steady watcher since her first. Well, some of it was her fault. Alright, so her prison time was entirely her fault, but she'd always taken the DIY approach to slayer stuff anyway. What was a watcher going to teach her at this point?
Faith glanced across the aisle at Lee and the slayers who'd visited the New Council. They'd been polite, but pretty standoffish so far. Of course, the language barrier didn't help. But she was determined to channel Angel. Make a difference, and all that. It wasn't going to be easy, but fuck all if they thought she'd give up.
Back in England, another group of people expressed a similar sentiment.
"Just because Giles sent Faith to Tokyo doesn't mean our original plan won't work. I think we should continue."
"Yes, this move could work to our advantage. If Faith, a personal agent of Giles, goes rogue, kills Lee, and causes a further rift between the New Council and the slayers in Japan, Giles's position will be greatly weakened."
"And if we're lucky, the slayers there will slaughter Faith. Easy clean up."
"Could we arrange such a thing?"
"We have an old colleague in Tokyo, Mr. Hiroshimo. I believe he runs an antique book store now."
"Is it agreed, then?"
At the unanimous agreement, Mr. Crawford, as he was known, continued, "Smith, contact our colleague in Tokyo. I want a plan on how he will frame Faith for the murder of Ji Lee by the end of the week."
Miles away, unaware of those plotting his downfall, Giles sat in thought, a small glass of brandy in his hand. Several things about the rise of the contingent of slayers in Japan was troublesome. Oh, he wasn't worried about Faith …well, he wasn't too worried about Faith. She'd demonstrated a maturity and patience with the younger slayers when training them that even Buffy didn't. And if she wasn't always the most diplomatic of people, well, the language barrier would help there.
But how had this rival Council risen without any word of it getting to the New Council? If Xander hadn't stumbled on it by accident, they still wouldn't have any idea. Rather fortunately, news of the Council's reorganization had spread through the supernatural community like wildfire. Upon hearing that this Council wasn't made up of blow-hard bastards, Giles thought generously, several Watchers who had previously split ways with the Old Council had reached out to Giles about returning. Similarly, they should have heard of the Japanese Contingent as well.
Had Mr. Lee really kept such a tight lid on his organization, or was there something else at work in Tokyo?
Hopefully, Faith would be able to glean some information while on her trip. Giles lifted his brandy in salute to Faith, took a sip, and turned back to the reports on his desk.
"The perfect place to die." - Wataru Tsurumui, The Complete Manual of Suicide.
Yoko wasn't sure how long she'd been walking or where she was. It didn't matter really. She didn't need to find her way out of the forest again anyway. The trees grew dense and thick together, making the eerie forest dark and quiet. It was silent but for her slow footsteps. Weak light filtered from above. No life but the trees that choked everything else to death. She felt like the forest.
She passed by another sign. This one said, "Please reconsider." There were many such signs posted around the forest. They said things like "Please consult the police before you decide to die!" If Yoko had any smidgen of energy or interest, she would have laughed. What were the police going to do for her now?
Her boyfriend left her when he found out she was pregnant. She was so upset that she'd failed the most recent batch of educational tests. Not that she could have continued her education with a baby. Just as she began to accept her new situation, even becoming excited about the prospect of being a mother, she lost the baby. It would have been a boy. A little boy. She named him Takumi before they took him away. It was her fault. She knew it was.
Yoko continued walking. As she made her way deeper in the forest, her movements slowed. Her thoughts struggled. Her life felt like a suffocating, inescapable weight. Even breathing hurt. The darkness of the forest pressed into her until she was the darkness of the forest.
There, she thought. That tree is the one.
Yoko slowly unwound the rope she'd brought with her. The snarled tree branch above her would be the perfect height, she thought.
Yoko tried to swing the rope over the branch. It missed. As she bent to pick the rope up, Yoko saw a white glimmer, some movement, from the corner of her eye. She turned and saw nothing.
This time she got the rope over the branch. Her fingers struggled to tie the noose.
There. She definitely saw something this time. "Hello?" Yoko spoke hoarsely, "Is someone there?" She hadn't said much of anything in days, not since little Takumi went away.
A sound behind her. As though struggling out of drugged state, Yoko swirled clumsily around. Another from her left. Yoko felt more aware than she had in days. Her lethargy replaced by fear. She couldn't get a good look at whatever was out there. Pale forms churning in the forest around her.
Wide-eyed and awake, Yoko began backing away from her tree. "Please, is someone there?"
A howl of unimaginable suffering broke through the silence. Yoko ran.
Branches whipped at her face. She stumbled over moss-covered stone. Yoko didn't recognize anything. How did she get out? The gnarled depths of the forest all looked the same, a maze of dark wood and hills.
Choking for breath, Yoko backed against a tree, trying to keep an eye on everything around at once. Something clutched her shoulder. She screamed.
Locals from the town of Kawaguchiko, just outside the Aokigahara forest, took little note that the girl from Tokyo who never came back. People went into the Suicide Forest all the time and never came out. Some people just weren't very strong.
Faith stood baffled in front of the vending machine. Pedestrians passed her, taking no notice of the vending machine or foreign girl. She'd seen some different things in the weeks she'd been in Japan. Sea urchins on dinner plates. Pajamas as fashion statements. Cuddle bars. But this. She'd have to ask Miyu when she got back to base. Faith gave the vending machine selling individually wrapped underwear one last glance and walked away.
The team was preparing for an investigation into some disappearances. A friend of Mr. Lee's has shown up and literally begged Mr. Lee to investigate his daughter's disappearance. The police hadn't been interested, and surprisingly, no one at the Contingent seemed very interested in investigating either. Faith hadn't seen what the hang up was until Miyu told her about Aokigahara, the Suicide Forest.
Apparently, the forest was the Golden Gate Bridge for suicides in Japan. The girl, Yoko, had been depressed, so the others assumed that since she went to the forest, she wasn't missing, but dead by her own hand.
The father's desperation convinced Mr. Lee to send a small team to check out the forest. After all, according to Miyu, Aokigahara is considered the most haunted location in all of Japan. It's supposed to be haunted by yurei, ghosts who had been unnaturally torn from their lives. Even the trees are supposed to be evil, tricking people into getting lost and preventing those who entered from ever leaving. Maybe all those suicides weren't suicides? Or maybe there was something in the forest making people kill themselves?
Naturally, Faith was sent to get snacks for the trip. It wasn't that the Contingent was rude or mean to her, but with the exception of Miyu, most of the other slayers ignored her. Mr. Lee included her in meetings, but assigned her to somewhat menial tasks, like getting snacks. Miyu tried convincing the others that Faith was a good slayer and teacher, but Faith was an outsider. Story of her life. Still, Faith was sort of enjoying herself. She was used to being alone, and here, at least she made friends with Miyu.
Growing up in Boston, she'd never dreamed of getting out of Southie, much less making it to Tokyo. The place was wild with color and lights and new, interesting things. Even the demons and vampires were a little bit different from the same old crowd that showed up to be slayed in the United States. Miyu even taught her some Japanese slaying puns to hurl out while slaying. While Faith didn't think Giles' exchange program idea was working exactly liked he'd planned, at least no one was dead.
Seeing three of the Contigent's slayers packing up the car, Faith jogged the rest of the way to the base with her bag of Wasabeef, Choco Balls, Pocki, Umaibo, and other snacks. Miyu just finished putting her and Faith's bags into the trunk. After a brief conversation in Japanese that Faith didn't understand – she assumed the lead slayer Natsumi was making sure they'd packed everything – the four women were off.
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On the bus, Miyu explains to Faith the legend of the forest. History shows that the forest had been a popular spot for ritual suicides since the beginning. Research didn't turn up anything suggesting that the suicides were supernaturally influenced. But suicides weren't the only dark happening in the forest. The legend goes that families abandoned children and others in the forest when there wasn't enough food to go around. Those abandoned in the forest died long, horrible deaths due to starvation. Because of the cruelty of their families and horrible deaths, the Abandoned haunted the forests.
The Contingent and Faith arrive in Kawaguchiko, the town neighboring the forest. As they speak with the locals, the consensus is that Yoko was a suicide. Mr. Lee calls from Tokyo to inform them that over the years, several people, including those searching the forest for the bodies of the suicides, who didn't seem likely suicides disappeared in or near the forest.
The Contingent enter the forest.
As they make their way deeper into the forest, it gets darker and quieter. Faith notices they're all moving slower and slower as they continue to enter. It's almost as if a mental fog comes over them. The slayers realize Faith is right, and decide to head back to wait for magical support. But it's too late. Though they carefully mapped their route as they entered, the map no longer lines up with the forest. One or the other has changed.
The slayer taking rear-guard is missing all of a sudden. Faith sees white forms dart around out of the corner of her eyes. They try calling for the missing slayer. No sound. No footprints. The slayers see things in the dark woods. Then a howl and two and a cacophony of howls and massing white forms in the darkness. In the chaos, Faith and Miyu get separated from the lead slayer Natsumi.
Faith and Miyu hear screams and follow. They see Natsumi being dragged away through the brush by … they save the slayer, but neither get a good look at what was doing the dragging. It clambers up into the trees.
Still missing the fourth slayer, the trio continues. They notice the trees almost open up in a path as if they are being lead. Once they realize this, the third slayer wants to try turning around, but Faith notices the path is sun lite. Maybe the trees aren't malevolent guardians of the forest? Maybe the trees are showing the way to the problem. They continue to an opening at the bottom of Mt. Fugi.
As they enter the meadow, they see an altar, stained dark with layers of blood and surrounded with bones and decaying bodies. The evil in the forest had been brought their with the sacrifices. Miyu thinks that if they destroy the altar, then the dark force will dissipate. But as they move to destroy the altar, the things haunting the forest set upon them.
The white forms they'd seen were twisted human-spider looking hybrids. Larger than most men. Albino. Their legs and arms ended in spiked claws. Mouths are gashes of fangs. The three desperately try to fend off the beasts. Faith clears the way for Miyu to smash the altar, going down under a mass of monsters. Miyu succeeds though, and the creatures scream and dissolve to dark nothingness.
After burying the bodies of the sacrificed, the three make their way out of the forest. They find the missing slayer, conked on the head at the edge of the forest.
When they get to Tokyo, Lee is able to Yoko's father what happened to her. He congratulates everyone on a job well done, and having been told of Faith's skill and instincts, acknowledges her contributions.
Faith should be happy. She's finally getting along with the slayers and Mr. Lee wants her to teach some classes to the other slayers. But something about the altar bothers her. In fact, it sort of reminds her a little of the sacrifices the Mayor used to make back in Sunnydale. Who made these sacrifices and why?
Mr. Hiroshimo gets a phone call from the Old Guard ordering him to kill Lee and frame Faith.
Little do the Old Guard or the New Council know that one of the reasons they had no information on the Japanese contingent is because much of the Japanese supernatural community, including crime, is being run by an organization headed by the Kingpin. Kingpin is, of course, Mr. Hiroshimo, formerly of the Old Watchers Council. It was his plan to keep the Japanese slayers isolated and eventually corrupt or kill them. So the Old Guard's plan to kill Lee could work in Kingpin's advantage.
While the Kingpin has no problem killing Lee or framing Faith, he does have a problem with orders. He has no plans of taking the Old Guard's orders. He works for himself now. The Kingpin knows that the Old Guard could expose him to the New Council though.
The Kingpin plans to frame Faith for the death of Lee, which would kill any chance the New Council and the Contingent have of getting together, and double-crossing the Old Guard by framing them for hiring Faith to kill Lee. Faith would be killed by the Japanese slayers enraged at Lee's death, and the New Council would hunt down the Old Guard, leaving the Kingpin safe in his empire.
While these machinations are beginning, Faith and the team of slayers she's training stumble upon some human trafficking, and it's not the usual kind. Faith and team run across vampires cleaning out a "nest" of homeless people and putting them in a van. The team kills the vamps, but collecting homeless people isn't something the average group of vamps would do. Upon further investigation, the Contingent realizes that other vulnerable groups of people are going missing as well – prostitutes, run away kids, transient workers, even older people with no relations. Faith and the team get tipped off by a street kid that the vans of people go into an abandon building at the edge of town, but the vans leave empty.
Lee puts his trust in Faith, and she leads the Contingent into battle. They find an elaborate operation of human harvesting. Some of the healthier, attractive victims are cleaned up and sold as slaves, while the rest are killed, drained of blood, and valuable body parts taken to be sold on the black market. The raid is successful. Almost all the vampires are staked, and the kidnapped people saved. No one is hurt.
In the fighting, however, one of the vampires escapes with the St. Ignatius pendant Faith always wears. Faith thinks it fell off, no big deal.
Lee congratulates Faith on a job well done, but Faith thinks there is more going on than just one human factory. Faith thinks this is connected to the sacrifices at the Suicide forest. She tells Lee that there could be a pattern of criminal activity going on – she compares what's going on to how the Mayor ran things back in the day. It all points to some sort of organized crime. So while the Kingpin is working to set her up, Faith and team are on his trail, and it's just a matter of who gets to the finish line first.
After the investigation of the Suicide Forest and the successful raid, Faith gets along much better with everyone at the Contingent. She spends more time with the slayers outside of training. Fortunately, when an unknown dark haired woman with supernatural abilities attacks Lee and leaves behind Faith's purloined pendant to frame her, Faith is actually with the slayers. The slayers know there's a third party responsible. Lee lives, though badly injured. Everyone agrees to pretend the assassination attempt and frame job work. Lee goes into hiding, and Faith pretends to go on the run from the Contingent.
Things seem to working out for the Kingpin, but before he can place blame on the Old Guard, he gets careless. The Contingent and Faith track down the would-be assassin. They follow her to meet the Kingpin for payment. The dark-haired assassin is actually an international hit demon.
The Contingent raids the payoff. The demon assassin thinks she's been set up by the Kingpin. She kills the Kingpin, and then, in turn, is killed by the slayers. But since all the baddies are dead, the Old Guard's plotting remains unknown.