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Silent as the grave

Chapter Ten

"You fear humans?" the minstrel scoffed however Mia did not hear his words.

His words were lost to Mia as the world seemed to stop at the strum of a shamisen. It felt like something shot through her and she could only stare in horror as her world seemed to bleed away into crimson. She was there again. A man stood over her with a smirk, katana gleaming in his hand.

"Cat got your tongue?" he asked, his eyes hidden.

His blade slashed across her throat, blood splattering across the ground. And then he was gone but it was not over. Several men she recalled as the ones who had entered the kitchens one day towered over her, grins on their faces.

"Shame she's scarred but I bet she's pretty good down there."

Mia couldn't breathe, her throat slashed once again, she couldn't even struggle as they dove on her. They vanished and for a moment she believed she was alone, holding her throat in an attempt to stop the blood. However numerous other people suddenly appeared around her, all wearing robes, people she recognised from her home village.

"A perfect sacrifice, a girl touched by a demon will surely bring us peace!" her eyes widened as a dagger flashed in one, no, they all were holding daggers.

And within seconds they had all plunged into her body.

Then she was back on the ship. Mia had fallen to her knees, holding her throat as she hyperventilated, struggling to breath in her panic. Byakko was suddenly in front of her, hissing at the Ayakashi with burning amber eyes, stood protectively in front of her. A hand appeared close to her but she did not recognise the pale hand as she slapped it away, scrambling backwards fearfully, still struggling to breath. Someone else was closing in on her, another person, she didn't even take in the female form or kimono as Mia continued to scramble away until her back hit the banisters.

"Mia," a voice, a voice somewhat familiar, was it one of her tormentors returning to continue their torture?

"Mia, you need to calm down and breath slowly."

No, she couldn't. Did they not see the blood that had poured from her slit throat? Could they not see that she was dying?

"Mia!" the voice was now somewhat harsh, a hand grasping her own hand that held her throat, "it was an illusion. There is no bleeding. You are not hurt."

However this did nothing to ease her. She could still see it, her hands coated in her own blood as she tried to stem the flow. However she snapped to attention when a small white creature was held in front of her face.

Amber eyes met her own, worry somehow shining in them, and slowly she began to calm. Letting go of her throat, Mia's breathing began to calm, taking shuddering breaths as she reached out to Byakko who licked her finger before allowing himself to be cradled to her chest as she held him, tears sliding down her face. A familiar hand rested on top of her head almost soothingly before it was removed. Looking up from Byakko's fur as she finally calmed, she looked up to see the Kusuriuri turn to the Ayakashi. Immediately Kayo was at her side worriedly.

"Oh my kami-sama, are you okay Mia-chan?" she asked, checking her friend over worriedly, "what did you see? Was it...was it what happened in the past?" she asked knowingly as Mia slowly nodded.

It was true. She feared humans more than anything because humans were the cause of her pain. Although most had been men that had tormented her, the people from her village, both men and women, had willingly offered to have her sacrificed for their own protection. Mia did not dare to think what might have happened had the Kusuriuri not shoved Byakko into her face, her hyperventilation most likely ending with her not breathing at all. She really could have died.

As the Ayakashi spoke up once again, Mia was surprised to see the Kusuriuri its next target.

"What is it you fear?"

"What I fear most is the knowledge that at the edge of the world exists without form, truth and reason.

Mia watched in shock as he too was struck by the Ayakashi's shamisen sound...however there seemed little change in his demeanour as to what he may have seen, only she seemed to notice that his hands had now curled into fists. Instead he calmly asked why they had been taken to the Ayakashi Sea as the Ayakashi asked the younger monk to what he feared. His answer surprised them all.

"Genkei-sama!"

He explained that Genkei had to have been the only one who could have changed the compass by placing a magnetic pole under the table, leading them to the Ayakashi Sea. And then the Ayakashi turned on the older monk, somehow it seemed that everything had lead up to this point as it asked.

"What is it you fear the most?"

The thing that had created the Ayakashi Sea.

"The Utsurobune on which my sister sailed, fifty years ago."

Silence fell once again before slowly the Ayakashi floated away taking its strange fog with it however once again it seemed there was no end. Despite the wind that had returned, the sky had darkened further before a huge eye cracked open above them. Fish chains shot down into the pond in front of them turning the water crimson as the ship began to shake as the chains hauled something up. Mia stumbled to her feet finally, her body feeling exhausted but able to stand at least. They all watched as an Utsurobune was hauled from the crimson water, covered in sea life and faded paintings, but what was most eerie were the scratching sounds coming from it.

"A person?" the minstrel almost cried out, "there's a person in there!"

"She's been in here for fifty years! That's impossible!" Kayo almost stuttered.

Once again the Kusuriuri had his katana drawn, held in front of her him, "what is this Mononoke's truth and reason? Let me ask you that."

Genkei let his hands drop from his prayers, "forgive me, Oyou. I have not forgotten you once these last fifty years. You went into the Utsurobune in my place of your own accord and were taken to the Dragon's Triangle. Why? Why do you harbour such hatred to turn this place into the Ayakashi Sea? Why is it?"

By this point he had tears rolling down his face while Mia looked on in shock. His sister had gone in his place...as a sacrifice?

"The Mononoke's form has arrived," the Kusuriuri added as his katana clicked in approval.

Watching silently with Byakko in her arms, Mia watched as the others tried to open the Utsurobune to no avail, Genkei endlessly muttering prayers in front of it. It wasn't until the Kusuriuri threw seals at the opening of the Utsurobune that there seemed to be some progress, other than scaring the hell out of those who had been trying to open it. She was curious that the seals remained black as they somehow managed to open the Utsurobune, however just as it was about to open they burned crimson. Was the Mononoke waiting beyond it?

'No...the Mononoke is not there.'

Blinking, Mia couldn't understand how she had come to that thought, however it was deemed correct when they found inside empty and hollow, no sign of Genkei's sister anywhere. Slowly a scale moved from the Kusuriuri's finger, landing gently between Genkei's hands.

"This will let the truth come to light."

Sat below deck once more it almost looked like they were sat in the aquarium, fish swimming around them and yet there was no water, only a blue light that mimicked it. Beneath them where they sat a dark shadow of something monstrous swam by. They all listened silently as Genkei began his story of how he and his orphaned sister had grown together on a small island before he had left to join the monks.

"The Buddhist path strays far from the path of the flesh. How I dreamed of being together with Oyou, even so I chose to continue with my training."

"What then?" the Kusuriuri asked.

"I know not if it was to purify myself or merely to escape the source of my impure thoughts..."

"Surely that was the reason!" the young monk Sougen almost pleaded.

"I was afraid," Genkei answered much to the monk's dismay, "I wanted to be with Oyou even though we could never be married.

"But why did Oyou-san board the Utsurobune?" Kayo finally asked as the bells on the scale tinkled lightly.

"You see..."

As he continued to explain how he had loved his sister and that he would be a sacrifice to appease the seas, Mia's eyes began to narrow at him, her hands curling to fists.

'Liar.'

On an on he spoke of how he had been weak and afraid, how he had wept when Oyou had offered to go in his place after she too admitted her feelings for him, and how she had suggested they go together only for him to flee.

'Liar.'

He spoke of wishing to end his life but he couldn't and how for fifty years he had thought of nothing but her.

"Wrong."

Looking up at the Kusuriuri as he stood, katana in his hand.

"It was not Oyou-san's malice that brought forth the Mononoke of this sea. The truth, that eye you are hiding Genkei-dono. It has been watching us all this time. You feared Oyou-san, you feared your own heart. Fear gave rise to fear, and soon they became a shadow, dark beyond human understanding. It separated from you and wandered the seas," he held up his katana, "the Umi Bozu is part of you that you kept hidden all this time."

They watched horrified as something seemed to grow from Genkei's eye, a huge bulging mass that screamed ethereally before suddenly vanishing as if never there.

"Separate."

A huge black shadow rose up from Genkei, a single eye glaring at them however it was still tethered to his body that seemed to have split in half.

"Genkei-dono," the Kusuriuri spoke louder, "to kill this Mononoke would mean killing your very soul. It would mean the return of those feelings, those which caused your soul to split in two, those which you have denied. I ask you this, do you still wish it?"

For a moment Genkei seemed to have gone back to his past, thinking back with real hurt in his eyes as he came to an understanding. While he waited, the Kusuriuri narrowed his eyes up at the shadow but found himself suddenly needing to glance back. As he did he found Mia looking back at him, worry and a hint of fear in her bright blue eyes, her thoughts loud and clear to him.

'What if I became like that?'

He stared at her in shock for a moment but he could say nothing. What could he say? There was always the possibility of a human becoming a Mononoke, and with a past like her own the likelihood became greater. How could he tell her there was a high chance that she would indeed turn into a Mononoke either after death, or like the man before him, while she was still living?