Chapter 9:

Ryo heard Jun's desperate cry and watched in horror as the great tentacle connected, knocking him unconscious on impact, and sent him flying with deadly force into the wall. Jun's back hit the stone with a sickening crack and he crumpled to the floor and lay very, very still.

Terrified, Ryo unleashed his sure-kill and eliminated two more of the dangerous limbs while Toma fired the heaven's shockwave twice into the deep. As the arrows cut through the water they illuminated the way and Toma watched satisfied as both shots landed, piercing the creature's bulbous, fleshy head. Blood issued forth from the gaping wounds left by the explosive shots and Ryo and Shu turned their attention downward.

The three warriors launched their ultimate moves at the head of the beast and as the final blow fell the last remaining limb, still thrashing aimlessly about, dropped lifeless into the water. The creature's bloody, mangled body drifted down into the dark.

Shu, Ryo, and Toma were still for a while after the monster fell and the room hung thick with silence. The three warriors dismissed their armors, satisfied that the immediate threat was gone, and searched for any signs of Shin. A short wait later the ronin of torrent surfaced, coughing and gasping as if he'd been drowning.

When Shin collected himself he peered up at his companions, shocked and confused, and pulled himself out of the water and onto the platform. "Where are we?" he said. "What happened?

Byakuen whined then, loud and long, and drew the four warriors' attention back toward the room's demolished entrance. The tiger stepped gingerly around Jun's lifeless body, pawing at his arms and nudging him gently with its head. It licked his face several times then turned, defeated, and stared sadly at Ryo. The tiger continued to cry.

"Oh no," Ryo said quietly. He took a step toward the edge of the platform, looked hard at the fallen boy, and was overwhelmed with cold dread. "Oh, no," he said once more and rushed to help, the other four following close behind.

Ryo waved Byakuen away, kneeled down beside Jun, and shook him gently. Ryo called for him to wake up, but Jun did not move.

Toma sat down beside Ryo and watched for a moment. "Don't shake him like that," he said, and then regarded the frantic expression smeared on Ryo's face. "He's not dead," Toma said, as much reassurance as he could offer.

Shin stepped forward then and looked between Jun, surrounded as he was by Ryo and Toma, and Seiji, who lay against the wall where he had been placed and was protected only by Byakuen. He was quite confused. "Can one of you please tell me what is going on here? What happened to Seiji, and who is he?" Shin pointed absently at Jun and looked to Shu for some response.

Shu opened his mouth to speak but was cut short by a thunderous crack. The walls shook and the sharp sounds of splitting stones echoed throughout the great space. The warriors turned to look and watched as mammoth chunks of the walls and ceiling fell and splashed into the water. It was as if the whole place was crumbling apart.

"We have to go," Toma said urgently and stood. He looked to Shu and placed his hands on the sturdy man's shoulders, looking quite grave. "You need to carry the kid as gently as you possibly can. We don't know the extent of his injury except that it's really bad." Then he turned to Ryo and pulled him to his feet. "Ryo, you take Seiji on Byakuen. I still don't trust your strength after your own injury and I know that Byakuen can keep both of you safe." When Ryo nodded Toma turned to Shin and shrugged. "We'll explain everything later. For now, we have to run."

The warriors did as they were instructed with as much calm and order as they could. Ryo collected Seiji and situated the two of them on atop Byakuen while Shu collected the fallen Jun. The room continued to shake as an endless earthquake and the disintegration grew more total every minute.

"Which way is out?" Shin said and looked at Toma.

Toma looked around the room, then back at the entrance. The small hallway that they had passed through had since collapsed entirely and was now completely impassible. So he turned his attention to the watery expanse and the platforms from which they fought. The main platform remained intact and a long line of similar stones ran the length of the room for as long as the eye could see. Toma pointed to the left and hoped genuinely that it was the correct decision.

"That way," he said and did not try to hide his uncertainty. He understood well that the others knew he had no idea where to go, and he was not about to offer any kind of false hope.

The warriors rushed off then, jumping deftly from platform to platform as the world crashed around them. As they moved the platforms grew shorter and shorter until they joined as wide tiles that led into a great gray hall at the room's distant end.

Toma felt a wave of relief as he led the group on, turning sharply to the left as this new corridor stretched on. The place still shook and stones cracked and crumbled with the motion. Dust flew and tiny stone chips buffeted the party as they ran. No one said a word.

Shin sprinted alongside Byakuen and kept a close watch on Ryo and Seiji. He did not know what Toma had meant when he said Ryo had been injured, but he felt that it was his duty to ensure both of his friends' safety in such a dangerous place.

Behind them all ran Shu, clutching tightly to Jun and contemplating exactly what it was that was happening around him. He ran with as gentle of steps as he could and, rather than draping Jun over his shoulder as he might otherwise have done, he cradled the boy in his arms as a father a child. He looked down frequently, as much to make certain that the boy remained as unmoved as possible as out of sheer curiosity.

Shu wondered how such a fragile looking person could have fought so fiercely, how someone so young could have such an iron will and a cold stare. He wondered how such a young person could best the korin armor in a sword fight, how he could anticipate Seiji's moves as if he had the foresight to know what was coming and when.

Shu remembered Ryo's sentiment of dislike and regretted it thoroughly. He thought more than once that such a personality could fit in well with the well-seasoned group and that perhaps it would do some good for the warriors to invite a fresh face in. Seiji and Toma had always argued in favor of many perspectives and Shu could not imagine why they would be opposed to another one now.

Jun stirred then and Shu felt him begin to tremble. He looked and watched the boy's face twist in agony. He thought to offer an apology for what must have been a rough ride but instead tightened his grip, pulled Jun in close, and slowed his pace slightly. "Don't worry about it, kid, we'll be out of here soon," he said at length and looked down.

Jun groaned quietly and pressed his sweat soaked forehead into the cold plate of Shu's under gear. He opened his eyes once, briefly, but relented to the blinding light and squinted them shut immediately. Shu felt a hard shudder course through Jun's body and he looked down again, unsure how much harder Jun could press his face into his unyielding plate. Shu wished very much that the boy had remained unconscious. He trembled more fiercely every minute.

Jun shifted slightly, gasped for air, and Shu became keenly aware that the boy was scarcely breathing at all, that even the natural motion of respiration was causing him tremendous pain. Shu loosened his grip and Jun clung tightly to him.

"I don't want to die, Shu niichan," Jun said quietly. "I've got clinic on Tuesday."

Shu skidded to a halt and looked down, wide eyed with surprise and panic. "What did you just say?"

Jun did not open his eyes, did not even acknowledge that Shu had stopped. "I have to study," he said. "And I've got a mountain of paperwork, and filing."

Shu stared hard at Jun and rolled the affectionate term over and over in his mind. There were few people who ever called Shu niichan and he understood immediately what that meant. He was holding Jun, and Jun was badly wounded and utterly delirious.

Up ahead Shin stopped and turned, confused by Shu's sudden halt. "Shu!" he called. "We've got to keep moving."

Shin's voice pulled the stunned warrior back to reality immediately and Shu sprinted forward. Shin fell into step beside him and Shu looked at him desperately.

"What happened?" Shin said urgently. "Is he okay?"

Shu shook his head and looked down the way. "Have I ever mentioned to you that our lives would make a really awesome episode of the Twilight Zone?"

Shin shot Shu a look that bordered somewhere between confusion and amusement but offered no reply to the odd statement. Shu said nothing else so consumed was he by worry and fear. Even if he had wanted to tell Shin what he knew he would never be able to articulate it.

The warriors ran on through the crumbling tunnel for so long that Toma, still at the point position, worried that he had erred in his decision to go left. But eventually the tunnel darkened and the smooth forged brick gave way to natural gray stone and the way opened suddenly into the massive stalactite cavern that Toma had woke in hours before. The strata felt relief and was bolstered by the familiar territory.

"We're almost there," Ryo cried and pointed to the north wall. "That way. There's only one path out from here."

"Thank god," Shu grumbled and looked at Jun again. The boy had drifted back into unconsciousness yet continued to shiver and breathe in short labored gasps.

It took only a few more minutes for the group to pass through the wide coliseum in which Ryo had been trapped. They looked up as they passed through and the air hung so thick with the haze that they could not see the sky as they passed underneath. But when they passed through the long entrance hall and passed out of the temple the haze dissipated, revealing the dark night. As they ran the paired columns crumbled and toppled over and the moment the last man stepped off of the last stone stair the whole structure fell instantly into dust.

Toma stopped at the front of the group and turned to watch the spectacle, and the others stopped with him, glad for the rest. "Well, we're out anyway," he said between deep breaths.

"And not a moment too soon," Shin remarked.

"What do we do now?" Ryo said after a moment. "We're out but we don't know where we're at. And without the kid we've got nothing, no directions, no idea where we're going."

Toma shook his head and turned around. The ground around was desolate and broken, but some distance away began a thick forest that stretched down a slight hill. Toma looked closely at the ground at his feet and followed a path toward the trees. "I think we should go that way," he said. "The kid left some prints on the ground, we'll need to follow them and maybe they'll lead us to Kayura."

Ryo looked at Toma confusedly. "To Kayura?"

Toma nodded, began walking toward the woods, and motioned for his companions to follow. "When we were separated he said that Kayura sent him," he explained as he walked and the others crowded close around him, except for Shu who remained a respectful distance behind. "He said that she's the one that ordered him to conceal himself and that once he was done rescuing us that he was going back home."

"What else did he say?" Shin said and was genuinely curious. Between Toma and Ryo's discussion and concern with the boy and Shu's odd reaction to him, Shin was still uncertain what to think.

"Not a whole lot," Toma replied and looked at Shin with sudden realization. "I forgot, I told you that we'd explain."

Shin gestured for Toma to continue his explanation.

"We don't know who he is, except that he's been given some kind of armor and the only reason we know that is because he was wearing black under gear beneath his clothes. He told me that he's from Toyama but I can't verify anything about that, and he knows pretty much everything about us that there is to know," Toma paused for a moment, thoughtfully. "And I'm pretty sure he despises me."

Shin quirked an eyebrow. "So he came in here, rescued all of us, and he hates you," he said and paused. "Only you?"

Toma shrugged and looked at Ryo. "He was hostile toward me. Verbally aggressive, he talked down to me. He didn't act that way toward Ryo or Shu or Seiji, though his interaction with Seiji has been obviously limited."

Shu piped up from behind suddenly. "Maybe we should wait to discuss all of this until he's awake," he said. "I'm sure he's got a good reason for acting the way he's been."

Ж

Kayura was the first to notice the break in the haze as she and Nasté sat quietly in front of Nasté's computer. They had been working since Jun had left that morning to compile information on the mysterious armor and the appearance of the haze that continued to spread from the mountains. By evening the mist had engulfed the shrine entirely and when the two women exited the house at dusk the unnatural darkness hung thick in the air.

They broke from work once at dusk and walked from the house to the shrine, where they sat in silence until well after sunset, waiting for the return of the warriors and Jun. When they did not return Nasté looked worriedly at Kayura, who simply smiled in reply, and led her back to the house.

When Nasté sat at her laptop she looked at Kayura once again and sighed. "Do you think they're all right?"

"Of course," Kayura said. "I would never have sent him if I didn't think that he was capable of protecting himself."

Nasté nodded and turned her attention to the laptop. She had searched every term and key word she could think of, every element and ever virtue, and every time had come up empty handed. So now she sat, frustrated and worried, and stared blankly at the screen.

At length Kayura stood, walked to the door, and peered out into the darkness. Nasté watched her as she peered outside, still and silent, and then Kayura turned. "They're free," she said. "Should we go meet them?"

Nasté stood, shocked, and rushed to the window. The world outside was bright and vivid and Nasté could see the moon and stars hanging in the sky. She jumped and clapped with delight. "They did it!" she cried. "Let's go!"

She grabbed Kayura by the wrist and rushed outside, across the courtyard, and down the path toward the shrine. When the two women reached the end of the path they stopped and watched and waited. At length they heard quiet voices and as they grew louder Nasté rushed toward the edge of the woods.

When the warriors emerged from the woods they stopped and stared, and Nasté shrieked happily. She rushed forward and threw her arms around Toma's neck in celebration. Then she stepped back and looked at the disheveled group and she looked suddenly very grim.

"What happened?" she said.

"We were hoping to ask you the same thing," Toma said with a sigh and looked at Kayura, who stood smug on the path. "We need some expert healing," he said. "Seiji and," he paused and looked back to Shu, motioning absently toward Jun. "He's wounded and Seiji has been unconscious for a while now."

Nasté looked over Toma's shoulder, suddenly terrified. "Jun!" she cried and rushed over. "What happened? Is he okay?"

Shu backed away from the frantic woman and looked at his companions, who turned and stared at him with the same incredulous expression the he wore himself. Nasté laid her hand gently on Jun's forehead.

Toma gaped at Jun for a long moment and then turned to Kayura. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

Kayura smiled genuinely and motioned for the collectively stunned warriors to follow.