Magic

Chapter Ten: The Sea of Trees

A heavy mist gripped the trees as it flowed across the thicket. Clouds parted and small specks of moonlight penetrated the prehistoric branches, revealing the rocky ground covered in moss. Roots from the old trees rose out of the ground, clamming it as its own, only to be subject to the green moss. A light breeze moved between the trees making a sound from deep within the forest.

The breeze here never sang. It screamed.

The breeze screamed for what had been done there. Voices from old ages and present times carried themselves on the wind. With those voices came the scent of death.

As the breeze passed a tree something dangled from a rope and swayed in the breeze.

"Ah look at that." A disembodied voice said. "Sometimes I wonder why law enforcement bother putting up those signs."

A raspy voice answered. "Can you blame them? They hope those signs will help. I have seen a few turn back. Heh well a few."

"Can they truly blame us?" Came a younger voice. "It's so lovely here why not use it? If we did they'd turn it into apartments."

"Not for long they wouldn't." All three began laughing.

Clouds covered the moon and three figures began to glow with their own light.

One was a middle-aged man from the early Kamakura Period. His Kimikoono was tattered and strange marks shown on his wrists and neck. His face was sunken in but his eyes gleamed. "It can't be helped. Death may not solve all problems but it doesn't give you anymore."

A child with a wound to the head laughed. "Yeah and all the pain goes away." The young boy looked to be from the Meiji time. "Without our bodies we can't be harmed." He was not so sunken in as the other two but he was not a pretty sight.

The last chuckled deep from his chest. "Yes. We must all embrace death at one point." His face was nearly all bone. He was an old man with only a few teeth remaining. In his raspy voice he said, "But unless we see what we did as foolish we are stuck here."

"At least we can greet new friends." The child sang.

"Or visitors." A bony hand pointed to a far off path. "She is not from our forest."

She floated quickly through the Sea of Trees. Time was of the essence here and there was not much time to be had. He had to be found and fast before he moved deeper into the forest.

This place was rugged and foreign to her. It was almost like timed had stopped here just long enough for the beauty of this forest to be admired. Only to be ruined again when the sound of a neck breaking pierced the trees.

Evidence of the crimes committed here could be seen everywhere with her eyes. But the trees had suffered the most. Old trees and young trees had the marks left on their branches from the ropes of the victims of sorrow.

Did no one understand that in the grand scheme of things it rarely mattered why you took your own life? Shame, honor, love, failures, defeat, pain, fear… none of them mattered. That was not why she was here. No. She had come to this dark forest of death for another reason. A far more important and honorable reason, Not that many would call finding a shamed warrior an honorable cause.

"Come on where are you?" She whispered softly to herself.

The moonlight shown through the branches again, unlike the others here she did not vanish but the moonlight illuminated her. Almost like it gave her more power.

She ran faster.

Where was he? He was here. There was nowhere else. No one else could do this. Nor would they.

Please show yourself to me! She demanded.

"You look lost." A smooth voice said.

She stopped. No one had spoken to her since she entered the forest. "If I were to say I see a treasure in a marked chest..."

"I'd answer you seek a tool of war." The moonlight faded and a figure leaned against a tree. A rope dangled from his neck and his eyes gleamed as she did. "What do you want here?"

"I came looking for you, Keitaro." The female answered. "I have a job for you."

"I pass." He answered. "I'd rather romaine in this forest of death than go out chasing young boys."

"I'll ensure your path out of here if you do."

"Tempting. But you have no power to do that."

"Then what will it take?" She gave him a pleading look. "You are all that's left."

Keitaro floated over to her until he was inches from her. "Your daughter gave them the armors. Have her help them."

"Suzunagi found peace. By spiritual law she cannot help them." There was a hint of regret in the ladies voice.

"How is any of this my problem?"

"It's not. But… Haytie is returning."

"Haytie?" Now this woman had his undivided attention. "Why? He reaped Japan of its strong magic's centuries ago."

"And now five sets of magic are being restored. Keitaro they need guidance worse now than ever before. One of them is even descended from you! Be a good ancestor and guide him."

Keitaro closed his eyes and folded his arms over his chest.

Suzunagi's mother grabbed the sleeve of his Kimikoono refusing to let him try to escape. She never took her eyes off him as she patiently waited for his reply.

Screams filled the air as a rush of a harsh wind blew past them. It sent chills down the ladies spirit body. "Such cries…" It broke her heart.

"Very well."

She snapped her head to him. "You'll help them?"

"On my own terms yes," Keitaro looked down at her. "I'm hardly doing this because I want to. So if I am to be pushed into this I will not let them see me as a good guy."

"Keitaro…"

"Leave." He stated. Keitaro turned and faded into a tree.

"Thank you. Keitaro." The mother faded into a sparkling mist and floated away.

Keitaro appeared on the branch of the tree. Gazing around the forest he saw the sights he had always seen. Heard things he had always heard. Felt things he had always felt. Now it was time to leave this beautiful forest of death that had been his home since his own death.

Even in death he was not free.