Chapter 20
After three hours of psychically traversing a good majority of Ransei, Aya's head felt somewhere on the same level as Avia's castle.
The troubled faces of Lady Rei and Oichi warped before her as she and Kanetsugu stepped back into the crystal that they had confirmed lead to Aurora's castle. The throne room of Illusio materialized around them a moment later, the wild blur of color that was the teleportation magic diffusing into the softer shades of the crystals which made up the castle.
A less-than-majestic fall onto the floor had followed their first return, and Kanetsugu had afterwards come up with the solution of having Kadabra set up a psychic field that stabilized the re-entry area. It was jarring to go immediately from the pull of the teleportation to hovering in midair, but Aya preferred it to the alternative of winding up in a heap on the floor with Kanetsugu again. The dignified warlord and guard captain, indeed.
Kadabra's power lowered her and Kanetsugu onto their feet, and Aya looked back over her shoulder to see the pink stone of the crystal that they had just exited, now shot with pale gray veins similar to the ones that had appeared on the other five crystals which Aya had activated thus far. Gold marked Violight, sandy brown for Terrera, azure for Fontaine, and smoky black and dark amethyst for what Aya had reason to suspect were Yaksha and Dragnor. It was these last two that troubled her the most.
In the meeting before the battle, it had been impossible to conceal the existence of the Violight crystal from the other warlords, but Aya and Kenshin hadn't disclosed the fact that it wasn't the only one of its kind. While Shingen, Lady Rei, and Lord Motochika had all been open to further discussion within the past hours of what possessing direct lines to Illusio could entail, Aya didn't place quite as much trust in Kotaro. Certainly not Nobunaga.
"What would be the worse thing to do, Kanetsugu?" Aya asked. "Making someone like Lord Kotaro aware that he's sitting on top of a gateway to Illusio, or only hoping that he never finds out?"
After a moment's thought, Kanetsugu admitted, "I don't know, Lady Aya. It's difficult enough to believe that whenever this network was established, Illusio was on friendly enough terms with Yaksha to include them."
Brushing her hand over the next crystal, Aya said, "For all we know, that's why the effort was abandoned. All it would have taken was one warlord shifting their alliance with Illusio, or the other way around. I doubt any of the kingdoms involved with the network would have trusted each other afterwards."
Yes, when one got down to it, the same ever-ongoing war had always been what shifted the tides of Ransei's history until now. When even was the last time that a unification attempt had gotten as far as twelve kingdoms, before the campaigns of Nobunaga and Lady Rei?
That could be a starting point for further research, Aya thought. If she could make room for that between piecing back together the remnants of Illusio's army, while also keeping her kingdom safe from another attack.
"Do you two have the energy for one more?" she asked Froslass and Beartic. Drawing from her partners as well as herself was what had enabled Aya to activate as many crystals as she had within one day, but working all three of themselves to exhaustion wasn't something that they could do anymore. Both Pokemon responded with their affirmations though, with the familiar vibration of their wavelengths heightening until Aya felt the resonance within her chest.
"On to the next?" she asked Kanetsugu. He nodded, rejoining her side as they faced the next crystal.
It grew easier with each one. While Aya had been quite literally fumbling in the dark the first time that she had activated the Violight crystal, she had learned how to feel for the heart of each pillar within the throne room, to tap into the power lying dormant.
Aya placed both hands onto the crystal, almost brushing her cheek against the stone. She could feel Kanetsugu watching over her shoulder, still just as enthralled by the process as he had been the first time.
The voice hadn't called out to Aya again since Violight, but there was a soft noise that filled her ears when she narrowed her focus to just the crystal in front of her. She wouldn't have called it whispering, but Aya wondered if it was a language nonetheless - one of the plane that she and Kanetsugu traveled through every time they used these portals. It swelled in her ears as she pinpointed the heart of the crystal, a sleek silver that hummed beneath her palms and rippled down her wavelength in the same way that a well-made sword could slice through air.
A relieved sigh came from Aya's mouth. This kingdom, she knew.
The look on her father's face when Ina showed him the arrow was so unlike Tadakatsu Honda, Ina couldn't help but feel remorse. She had always thought that when they would finally breach the subject of Asahi in depth, it would be in a manner more delicate than this. But even if spirits weren't Ina's realm of expertise, she knew to not ignore a direct warning from one.
Yet repeating the details of her dream now that she was in the waking world did leave Ina with a feeling of childishness, despite the evidence that was the arrow. After all, things like this weren't supposed to happen to warriors like her.
Ina was hardly a medium, and she hadn't felt even an affinity for Ghost Pokemon during her time in Spectra. Which, now that she thought about it, made Asahi's warning about the state of the spirit world much more ominous.
Tadakatsu too looked out of his element. "Asahi, what are you doing?" he said, looking down at the arrow before sharing his own exchange with Metagross. Ina gave him the moment, even though her mind had been asking that same question since she had woken up.
Her father didn't hand the arrow back right away. "Ina," he began, in the voice that he had started to use with her after her first battle. "I believe you, don't doubt that. I would know one of your mother's arrows anywhere." He frowned, some of the warrior coming back. "But there were things she wouldn't tell even me about her life before we met. She made it clear that was all behind her, and you weren't to have a part in it. I have to wonder how badly things have changed if she wants to send you back now - and if that means it would be any safer, or the opposite."
They walked down the entry hall, Ina realizing by the metallic echoes of their footsteps how quiet the castle was. She could only hope that the usual warriors and servants who filled it were safe with their loved ones in the aftermath of the attack, as opposed to the alternative.
"We'll confer with Lord Ieyasu before proceeding any further," Tadakatsu concluded. The thought of guidance from the Steel warlord would have normally been a comfort to Ina, but now… Tadakatsu must have noticed her hesitation, for he stopped before they reached the throne room doors. "What is it?"
Recalling Asahi's warning, Ina blurted out, "Do you think Lord Ieyasu will understand, though?" She had never possessed any reason to doubt her lord in the past, not even in her mind, and it felt doubly strange to put that unfamiliar concern into her voice. But Ina felt that it had to be said.
Tadakatsu looked her over, eyebrows coming together on his forehead. "Why do you think he wouldn't?" he pressed. "Your mother was one of Lord Ieyasu's finest retainers. She knew she could place her trust in him, as much as he did her."
"It's just-" Ina tried to begin, although she wasn't certain how to make her father understand. He simply hadn't been there. If all he knew of Asahi's past was that she had wished to leave it behind while she had been living, Ina supposed that he had good reason to doubt a spirit he himself hadn't met.
She breathed in, trying to will her reluctance into words, but before she could speak again the sound of voices coming from the throne room caught both her and Tadakatsu's attention. Lord Ieyasu, she recognized immediately, for that was to be expected. But then a deep female voice answered him, and Ina looked to her father for confirmation that he was hearing it as well. What was Lady Aya doing in Valora?
Tadakatsu entered the throne room first, the combined presences of him and Metagross always enough to draw attention. Ina edged in behind him, barely remembering to bow to both warlords. In her defense, it was difficult to tear her eyes away from the glowing silver crystal - having replaced a panel in the wall - that Ina was certain hadn't been there before.
The throne room was a large one by the standards of other castles, but for Valora's, anything smaller would have been dwarfed by the rest of the fortress. Seventeen years had given Ina plenty of time to grow accustomed to the mirrored glare of its polished steel walls and floor, but many visitors tended to squint their eyes on their first entry. Several ceremonial weapons decorated the backdrop of Lord Ieyasu's rather plain-by-comparison throne, although Ina knew that all the truly dangerous ones rested in the vault that had once housed Asahi's bow.
"Apologies for the intrusion, my lord. My lady," Tadakatsu said, bowing to them as well. "Has there been more trouble in Illusio, for such a visit?"
Lady Aya looked to where Kanetsugu stood at her side, and despite the circumstances, Ina had to fight the instinctual urge to say hello. Not the right moment, she reminded herself. Besides, something about Kanetsugu looked different, going beyond just the ornamental-looking dagger sheathed at his side.
"Not exactly," Lady Aya settled on. "Although there have been developments."
As it turned out, the crystal and Lady Aya had only just made their presences known when Tadakatsu and Ina had interrupted the start of her discussion with Lord Ieyasu. Lady Aya was therefore able to bring all three of them up to speed rather quickly. Lord Ieyasu and Tadakatsu had reasonable interjections (how long had Lady Aya known of this, could the connection run from both ways, was she certain that the enemy couldn't harness it), but Ina's mind focused on a different detail.
"You said there were others," she spoke up before her nerves could get the better of her. The other four inhabitants of the room all turned towards her, and much of Ina's focus suddenly went to keeping her face from turning scarlet. "Where - where did they lead?" she asked.
Lady Aya nodded. "I was getting to that. So far, we've confirmed the existence of crystals in Aurora, Fontaine, Violight, Terrera, and Valora. There are two more I believe lead to Yaksha and Dragnor, but you can understand my reluctance to reach out to those particular kingdoms."
"Of course," Lord Ieyasu said. Even Ina had been able to tell that Lord Kotaro wasn't popular among Lord Nobunaga's former lieutenants, and Valora's alliance with Dragnor had always been out of military practicality more than a hope for friendship. Relations with the Dragon kingdom were still cordial, but their original purpose had been rendered bygone with the end of the war.
As for the additional information which Lady Aya had provided, it was all that Ina needed for an idea to take shape in her head. "Fontaine?" she confirmed. "Have you already spoken with Lord Motochika, my lady?"
Tadakatsu frowned, clearly having realized what his daughter was leading into. "Ina," he began, but at that moment Lord Ieyasu noticed the arrow in his lieutenant's hand. The Steel warlord's face darkened as he too seemed to recognize it.
"Is there something else happening in this castle I should know about?" he inquired. Left without much choice, Ina took the arrow back from her father and recounted her dream of Asahi, despite the unexpected additional audience of Lady Aya and Kanetsugu.
She wasn't sure whether to be reassured or even more concerned by the look on Lady Aya's face when Ina finished. "I do remember Asahi," Lady Aya said. "She died shortly before Kenshin became warlord." Ina noticed the slight catch that Lady Aya's voice gave on her brother's name - judging by the concerned glance that Kanetsugu turned his lady's way, so had he.
But Lady Aya continued, "A warning such as that does fall in line with everything else that's been happening. Therefore, I would say the rest of your mother's words should be heeded as well. None of us have to be from Spectra to know final requests from the dead are not matters to be trifled with."
Ina tried not to get her hopes up too high as she looked back to Lord Ieyasu and her father, though the rush of excitement from Prinplup down their link made that difficult. "So… you think I should go to Fontaine, my lady?" she braved. This was still new to Ina, running where her own ideas took her instead of simple deference to Lord Ieyasu. It was uncharted waters… but she couldn't lie and say that it wasn't exhilarating.
"Wait one moment, Ina," Lord Ieyasu cut in. "I'm sure this is a lot for you to be experiencing. I would like to honor Asahi, but blimp travel to even a neighboring kingdom is dangerous right now, never mind Fontaine. And Lady Aya is not here to be a taxi service." Tadakatsu nodded beside him.
That was it, then. Ina's grip tightened on the arrow, although she fought to keep her disappointment from showing on her face. Why did everything else have to happening now? She was certain that was the only reason why her father and Lord Ieyasu were so resistant to this – not that Ina blamed them, of course.
Except that some small part of her was angry. And Ina didn't think that she wanted to hold it down.
"I know it's dangerous," she said, her voice shaking. "But I think that, even if Quagsire and Prinplup and I need to find our own way, we have to go. This is happening all at once for a reason, it must be!" Ina tried her last reasoning. "Besides, if even the spirit world isn't safe anymore, what is?"
Tadakatsu shared another troubled look with Metagross. Lord Ieyasu remained silent as well, and Ina's desperation threatened to overwhelm. It couldn't end here, not when Ina had her mother's arrow in her hand and voice in her head.
And then, Lady Aya spoke. "I'm willing to take her."
Ina's head shot back up. "You are?" she asked.
Lady Aya nodded. Turning to Lord Ieyasu, she said, "I feel your lieutenant is right. I won't go over your head, of course. However..." She looked back at Ina, and Ina could have sworn that there was the tiniest of smiles in Lady Aya's blue eyes. "She seems old enough to be making her own judgments. This could be a test of all she has learned."
Lord Ieyasu looked more thoughtful as he turned that reasoning over in his head, but Tadakatsu's face remained hard-set. Ina didn't have to ask what was wrong, yet she couldn't make the promise that her father wanted her to make. She walked to his side, taking his hand.
"Father," she sighed. "We both know I can't stay confined to the castle forever. I can't be a true warrior if I don't know what I'm fighting to protect. I'll always be grateful for you and Lord Ieyasu. But I'm also starting to see a world beyond Valora, one that wants to see me as well. And if you had never left Valora, you never would have met my mother, would you?"
Tadakatsu was silent, but his grip on Ina's hand tightened as he looked to Lord Ieyasu for the final verdict. The Steel warlord looked both of them over. "If Lady Aya is in agreement, I think you need to let her go," he said. "Ina, is there anything you need?"
Ina bit down on her lip, shaking her head. "I don't think so. Just my partners." Quagsire and Prinplup joined her side, their wavelengths gently pulsing in time with Ina's own. "Whatever my mother wants me to face, I have to trust they'll be enough to help me through it." She smiled at her father. "Them, and my training from the best."
The goodbyes were quick after that. Ina bowed to Lord Ieyasu one final time, then to Lady Aya as she thanked her for her help. Tadakatsu was more difficult, but Ina had already said everything that she could.
"We'll see each other again, Father," she finally settled on. One way or another, she had to hope that would be true.
Ina tied Asahi's arrow to her belt, then stood beside Lady Aya and Kanetsugu in front of the crystal. "I won't have the energy left in my wavelength to send you back, if you change your mind," Lady Aya whispered to her. "Are you absolutely certain?" Ina swallowed down the anxiety that was fluttering in her stomach, nodding her confirmation.
"Then brace yourself," Lady Aya warned. She ran her palm down one of the crystal's silver veins, eyelids fluttering as she did so. Ina saw the worry flash across Kanetsugu's face, but Lady Aya held resolute. "Place your hand on the crystal," she instructed Ina.
Telling herself not to look back, Ina followed Lady Aya's directions. As it turned out, Ina needn't have bothered. The effect was instantaneous, and she clung onto Quagsire and Prinplup's wavelengths like her life depended on it as the crystal pulled the five of them in. Dizzying silver light swirled in front of Ina's eyes, almost reminding her of the dancing the night before the battle in Illusio. She held the memory close as a phantom force crept over her body, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose when the throne room of Illusio took shape before her.
It was as though they were climbing through a window, if the window was also underwater. Ina felt a need to catch her breath as the air around them changed, and only when her feet touched definitively solid ground did she realize that they had been floating. Sure enough, Kanetsugu's Kadabra was waiting to greet them, and Ina checked to make sure that her own partners had made it through alright. She felt some disorientation in both of their wavelengths, but then, Ina supposed that her own was of a similar state as well.
When Ina looked back over at Lady Aya, she was clutching a hand to her head, and let out a soft groan. It caught Kanetsugu's attention as well, and he hovered at Lady Aya's side, not seeming to be sure how close he should get. His gaze shifting to Ina, he warned, "Are you certain you need to be in Fontaine right away?"
Ina caught the hint. She was impatient, but seeing that she was already halfway there, she didn't want Lady Aya to hurt herself when the woman had already been more than generous. Even as Lady Aya tried to say, "I'm fine, it's only one more trip," Ina shook her head.
"Really, my lady, take the time you need. If it's only until morning," Ina said, giving a questioning raise of her eyebrows at Kanetsugu, who silently nodded back in a manner that closed the discussion. "I have no problem with spending the night here."
It was late in the afternoon, and Ina supposed that a better night's rest than the one she was currently running on couldn't hurt. Besides, she doubted that anything could go worse than her first night in Spectra. Ina conferred with her partners, and while she had been expecting Prinplup to agree, she was surprised to find that Quagsire didn't seem to mind this last delay either.
In fact, Ina felt something strange in Quagsire's wavelength, and had been feeling it ever since waking from her dream of Asahi. Quagsire had been Asahi's partner first, maybe that was it. But this didn't feel like nostalgia to Ina. It was almost… fearful.
And as Ina looked out to the cloudy December sky, she had to wonder if she should be feeling the same.
No's head clamored tonight.
She supposed that was her own fault. It hadn't been this bad since those last few days in Dragnor, before Lady Rei had shown up to end it all. But those circumstances had at least been partially out of No's control – she was never fully herself when she had to leave Spectra for too long.
The blame for this night rested solely on No. Her magic reserves hadn't been truly emptied in years, and her sealing the vow with Okuni that morning had gone right through what little she had managed to recover within those few hours of fitful sleep beforehand. Performing an exorcism was still out of the question, much as No loathed the sight of the dagger resting by her bed.
Everything had a price. No spared one distasteful glare at the fractured reflection that her mirror showed her, at the angry red gash that still marred her shoulder. There was no chance that Okuni hadn't seen it, even though she had been considerate enough to not ask after it.
No hated everything about that scar. She hated that she had let her guard down six years ago, just long enough to have nearly lost everything. She hated the way that even its shape seemed to mirror her tattoo, violet curling over her left shoulder blade and crimson slicing through her right. Most of all, she hated that without the glamour, she had no control over the story that these two marks on her body told.
Her fingers curled over the scar's edge, and the roaring in her mind grew louder. It almost made her wish for another one of those cursed demons, if only so that she could have something to unleash herself upon.
But that was, of course, out of the question. And so there was only one option left to No in order to restore the quiet.
She lay on her bed, closing her eyes and calling the image of the wisteria grove to mind. When was the last time that she had sought it out in her dreams? It had been months. And to think that she had spent so much time beneath the canopies of ghostly flowers when she had first come into her powers. There had come a point where No had simply stopped needing a halfway point when she sought communication with a spirit.
True sleep called to her, its hands reaching up from her bed to pull her into the silk sheets that pressed against her back. But No ignored it for now. Within the span of another breath, she crossed over, the boundaries of the grove taking shape from the shadows around her.
It was not uncommon for the spirits of previous matriarchs to be present when she came here, and indeed, No saw the silhouettes of several young women flitting among the wisterias as the noise in her head gratefully diminished. The grove was tied to Spectra as much as it was the spirit world, No had discerned that much. The handful of times that she had tried to access it in Dragnor, Nixtorm, or anywhere else, it had been as though her consciousness met a wall.
No felt it, though – the shifting, just beyond the boundaries of the grove. A sea of shadows, churning against the border marked by the wisterias. She had never thought of it as something so thin before. Even the dark castle that she could always see on the horizon above the trees seemed more foreboding.
It would be best not to linger here tonight, No decided. That she could feel unease even here was what caused her the most of it – the grove always whispered, the same as the rest of the spirit world. But what reached her through the trees now felt more akin to the hushed chattering of beneath the castle.
Still, she needed to charge her magic, and the grove was the place to do it. Leaving without going about that much would grant her nothing but another empty night's sleep.
Although no true wind blew here, the wisterias swayed ever so lightly around No. She breathed them in, eyeing the shadows between the canopies, and waited.
There was already a weight of finality in Okuni's chest as she drew the circle. It had to be done, though. Waiting wasn't going to make the answers any more satisfying.
The oath she had sworn to Lady No that morning still rang in her ears. For it had truly felt that way this time – an oath. A promise. Not simply an outline of terms. And Okuni had felt that sincerity from Lady No's end as well. Perhaps that was why what Okuni was doing now pricked at her with every character she sketched across the floor.
Was this lying? True, the only magic that Okuni felt humming on the air was her own. But in case something went wrong tonight – well, Okuni didn't want to believe things would go that badly.
Then again, Yoko had hung her out to dry before. If it did come to that, Okuni didn't want to think about how Lady No might find out as much.
For the present though, Okuni wasn't waiting on an escort. The circle was only to act as her portal. She stood up, looking over her shoulder at Volcarona and nodding.
Her partner lifted its head, and the characters that made up the circle began to glow, small flames licking at their outlines. Okuni's own magic combined with Volcarona's fire, and Okuni felt the tether along their wavelength solidify. So far, so good.
She lifted her hands, trying to remember the patterns that the magic separating the realms had taken on when Setsuna had brought her to meet Tsukiyama. Now that Okuni was the one initiating the cross, rather than being taken along, she was forced to be more aware of the way that the boundaries between the worlds were marked. But if there was one thing that Spectra was known for…
"There." Okuni folded her hands through the gap, and she shuddered from something other than the magic that slithered up her arms. The gap was far too wide, as though something else had already torn it open. Okuni wanted to hope that it was only left over from Setsuna or Yoko, but her intuition told her otherwise.
Before stepping through, she sent a gentle smile down her links with Volcarona and Scolipede. "I'll be back."
She had thought about trying to find a way to bring her partners with her for this, but her Pokemon had linked with the warrior, not the shinigami. Okuni needed to be strong enough to do this without them.
She closed her eyes, parting her hands once more as though through a curtain. The soft glow of Volcarona's flames filtered through her eyelids for the briefest moment.
Then – silence. The kind that gave weight to the very air.
When Okuni looked up, she stood before the scarlet gate that marked the entrance to the castle of the shinigami. It was the only interruption of the black wall that encircled the grounds on their other three sides, and it stood open for Okuni. As though it had been waiting for her.
Okuni ensured that the portal she had stepped through was rooted to this spot, her back door to Spectra. Then she squared her shoulders and passed beneath the gate's shadow.
She felt the softest exhale of magic against her body as she did so, likely some kind of ward to ensure that only a shinigami could enter. If that was the case, Yoko would certainly know that Okuni was here. Possibly even the others, if Yoko was in the mind to set an example.
Not for the first time, Okuni wondered what could have hardened Yoko so mercilessly into the woman-shaped shadow that she had more often seemed to Okuni than spirit. The darkened courtyard offered her no answers to that question, only the bloodred sky that hung above her head.
Yet when Okuni pushed open the doors, all that greeted her was emptiness. The castle seemed poised on a final breath, and while Okuni could see the outlines of Spectra in the entry hall's corners and staircases, it was her home exsanguinated. Even Tsukiyama's rooms, one replicated pocket of Illusio, had been missing the gleam that the true crystals held within.
One thing did inhabit the entry hall, though: orbs of light, almost like Hoshiko's; countless memories reaped from countless souls. They were tiny lanterns petrified in midair, moving only to part around Okuni. The memories wouldn't show any contents unless she or another shinigami charged them, but Okuni wondered if the ones that she had seen within Lord Kenshin were among them now.
She peered into one that floated level with her face. Okuni recognized the eyes reflected at her – first her own brown, before the image within the orb sparked emerald. She felt an echo upon her lips.
Okuni made for the throne room doors, every step she took absorbed by the silence of centuries that filled these halls. The presence of memory was a force that refused to be denied, and Okuni felt it seeping into her bones. Wasn't that what each of them did with every escort – sealing another story away, confining the truth of them to only the spirit in the afterlife, and the shinigami who would return to this place with it?
The doors matched Okuni's stare as she drew upwards, until there was no more time for wondering. Without letting herself hesitate, she pressed her hand to the dark wood and pushed inwards.
Some part of her had already known the figures who would greet her. Yoko, of course, in the middle. The regent of the shinigami needed no throne, and her shadow slanted across the floor. Halfway within it was Setsuna, her eyes downcast. And to Yoko's other side, Tsukiyama. Her face was eerily still now, compared to the fury that Okuni had shrank from the glow of last time.
Yoko – she looked her part now more than ever. So much an extension of everything in this castle was she, Okuni wasn't certain where the shadows ended and where Yoko's silhouette began. They unfurled with her cloak, seeped from where she stood, drew everything that breathed into the dark hollow of her eyepatch.
Her gaze had been trained on the doors, waiting for this. For Okuni.
Okuni didn't bow. She drew closer to the other shinigami, stopping halfway to where Yoko stood. "Whatever this is, it's not worth convening the whole order for?" Okuni asked.
"Aina is standing guard at the Gates. Hatsuko is recovering from her wounds. The rest have never been concerned with you." If Yoko would express malice in that statement, Okuni could write the words off as spite. But the delivery was the Yoko who Okuni had known that she would be confronting – matter-of-fact to the very end. Disdainful, yes, but Yoko never did anything simply because she could.
Willing the same edge that lived in the other woman's voice to sharpen her own, Okuni said, "Who is Izumi?"
She saw Setsuna start, but Yoko responded first. "A failure. Her loss is the only reason you possess the ability to stand in this hall."
Setsuna's first apprentice? If that was the case, Okuni had to admit that she couldn't judge Izumi's grudge against Yoko too harshly, hearing the way that she was so easily dismissed by the one-eyed shinigami. "But who was she?" Okuni pressed.
"Why should that matter to you?" Yoko questioned back. "From what I understand, she very nearly rid us of you."
"She was almost a ninja," Setsuna said softly, drawing Okuni's attention. The memories hovered about the four of them in here as well, and Setsuna drew one into her hands, illuminating it with the silhouette of a girl.
"Izumi was talented. Not just in the magic she needed to be a shinigami. She could have done just about anything with her life, yet she wanted to be one of us instead." Her eyes softened. "She loved what it gave her – she thought herself the truest ninja of all, walking between light and shadow, life and death. And I loved how proud she was. I don't think caution ever even occurred to her."
"You never taught her it," Yoko snapped, and Setsuna shrunk back once more. "A common thread between your two charges, it seems."
"I didn't want to leave her," Setsuna choked out, but Yoko silenced her with a glare.
The same dynamic between them, even after a hundred and fifty years. While Okuni wasn't sure she could forgive Setsuna for leaving her in that forest… she knew well enough the way that Yoko could silence any murmur of dissidence.
"Did you know what happened to her?" Okuni asked. "Is it the same as what almost happened to me?"
"It could have happened to any of us," Tsukiyama said. She glanced over at Yoko, whose eye had narrowed upon one of her companions once again speaking out of turn, and sighed. "I know my magic, Yoko. Why summon me to this if you didn't want me to explain it to her?"
Okuni recognized it properly in that moment – there was some sort of history between the regent of the shinigami and the princess of Illusio. Not just from the way that Yoko only scowled at the coldness in Tsukiyama's voice, when she might have claimed the head of anyone else for it. The tension between the two women reminded Okuni of the warlords who she had watched bow before Lord Nobunaga, one after another throughout his conquest. Except both shinigami seemed to act now as though they were the Dragon warlord.
"Very well," Yoko said, her tone implying that the matter was anything but. Tsukiyama ignored her.
"When each of us takes on our duties," Tsukiyama began, "a contract is forged. In exchange for our powers and immortality, we agree to follow through on a certain payment in order to keep the spirit world in balance. And in exchange for an increased soul debt, additional conditions can be added – such as your freedom. You traveled here tonight from the human world, yes?"
Okuni nodded, already aware of these details. She was still working to fulfill her soul debt. Yoko's breaking of Okuni's first contract had required a steep amount of magic.
"The magic you used to walk between the realms isn't quite the same as ours," Tsukiyama continued. "Think of your current state as a transitory one between human and spirit. For now, the magic allows you to go in either direction while you reap souls. Our payment isn't owed until the time comes for us to take up residence within this castle. While our humanity never goes away, we surrender ties to it when we assume the role of guardians here and pass the mantle of reaper onto a successor." Okuni heard the same weight from before creeping into Tsukiyama's airy voice. "So, if a shinigami who has not done so experiences death… the spirit magic considers that a betrayal. And it will turn volatile in its efforts to gain what you promised it."
The black smoke that had risen from her skin. Okuni had sensed its nature, but hearing the confirmation behind Tsukiyama's words still sent a chill down her spine. "It turns us into demons instead."
Tsukiyama's gaze remained level, but her eyes darkened. "We could have gone either way," was the former princess' only response.
"Except you didn't," Yoko cut in, her attention remaining on Okuni throughout the explanation. Hostility spiked her voice, Okuni the unexpected thorn in her side. "For some reason, second chances seem to favor you. And Setsuna claims to have played no role in your fortune. So, just how is it you manage to keep escaping the dark hand of fate?" The orbs flickered as they floated around her, projecting images of Okuni in the forest, the garden, the temple.
Although Yoko wore her eyepatch, Okuni knew what lay beneath it. There was a scar from whatever blade had ripped into her face, ruining its cruel symmetry. But within that hollow, carved however many centuries ago, magic sparked dark and raw. In a flash of red and black and violet, it had rewritten Okuni's fate within that infernal garden.
And even though Okuni had never seen it since, she felt it yearning to break free from Yoko's restraint as Okuni found herself smiling. "Why," she said to Yoko, to that supernova. "I simply learned I didn't have to take it."
Setsuna breathed in nervously. Tsukiyama's hands clenched within the white fabric of her robes. And it was Yoko's turn for the orbs around her to hum.
The images flashed through them so quickly, Okuni suspected that Yoko hadn't meant for them to. She saw the dark mass of an army gathered on a beach, a figure with a familiar tall frame at its head.
She saw a pair of eyes widening as they faced, too late, the hungry point of an obsidian blade. One was the black that focused its rage on Okuni now. But to Okuni's surprise, she knew the other one as well – an almost otherworldly violet, cut out as the sword found its mark.
Although the memory carried no sound, Okuni swore that she heard a scream.
When Yoko spoke now, she was still. "How wonderful for you," in her rasp of a voice, with all the warmth of a glacier in Nixtorm. "You've made your choice, then."
Yoko forcefully breathed out, scattering the memories around her before they could betray her again. "I cannot strip you of your position as reaper. But if you wish to live among humans, so be it." She spread her hands outward, the judge and her sentence. "Consider tonight your last sight of this castle. You will walk the mortal realm, fight among its armies – and fall alongside them. We shall see if mercy finds you a third time."
So, there was to be no outward mention of what Okuni had done to her the last time that they had spoken. It didn't matter, Okuni heard the truth louder than the words. Yoko had given up on her.
And Okuni had already suspected as much. So why did it still leave her feeling as though Yoko had dropped her into a chasm with no end?
It wasn't that Yoko was condemning her, Okuni realized – it was the rest of Ransei. Yoko had been the first of them all to battle the enemy that they faced now. Did she really think that the castle of the shinigami would be safe if Ransei was consumed, that this demon would turn a blind eye to the spirit world? What kind of guardian refused to move against an enemy whom they knew how to defeat?
A guardian who had something to fear.
Okuni's jaw clenched, but she knew now where that haughty pride of Yoko's came from. The women of Spectra weren't oft to let dread command their features, as unlikely as they were to be swayed from a course once they had set upon it. Okuni knew that much well enough.
When she spoke, then, it was to the room more than Yoko. Two could call a lost cause. "At least I will fight," Okuni responded. "And my allies and I will find this enemy's weakness, with or without your help. Anything that falls once can fall again."
She turned back to the throne room doors without waiting for a response. Okuni wouldn't miss this hollow castle one bit.
Her steps floated through the entry hall, the courtyard, all the way through the gate. But when she reached the spot where her magic should have been keeping the way back to Spectra open, Okuni felt nothing.
That couldn't be right. She had passed the boundary right here, in front of the gate. Okuni looked back over her shoulder to make sure – and her gut lurched. The gate, and the castle with it, had vanished from her sight.
She quickly reached for her links, first to Volcarona and Scolipede, then to Hoshiko's power, then finally to the wellspring of magic that had opened inside her with the inking of the peach blossom into her shoulder. All were still there, although her partners felt more distant than they should have. Almost as though Okuni was in a separate world from them, she scolded herself. And the portal that she had opened there was gone with the rest of the shinigami castle's grounds.
"Think, Okuni." It wasn't opportune for even a shinigami to be alone and unguarded at a crossroads in the spirit world, and Okuni could feel what darkness had now been allowed to lurk beyond this place. She closed her eyes, desperately trying to summon the magic that she knew wouldn't be enough to tear open a second seam between the realms. And then she heard it.
It was… whispering? Perhaps more like the sound of chimes, although that didn't make sense either, since there was no wind here. Okuni felt something like the brush of silk against the back of her neck, and her eyes snapped open as she gasped. She whirled around, only to find that she was not in the same place.
Okuni's eyes widened at the grove that stood before her. Wisteria trees, there was no doubt about that, but there was also no doubt that they were of the spirit world. Their blossoms gently shifted between all hues of purple, their canopies hanging to both envelop and beckon Okuni forward. She gained the sense that this sort of entry was not an honor the grove typically granted.
What was there to do but for her to step into its embrace? As Okuni did so, she thought that she saw a humanoid shape silhouetted through the copse of flowers, and she realized at once what this place was. A sanctuary for the spirits of fallen warriors, ones who even in death held strong ties to the kingdoms they called home.
While Okuni could sense that the grove had removed her from immediate danger, she still wasn't sure how she was supposed to find her way home from this place. None of the spirits seemed interested in showing themselves directly. All that Okuni could do was walk deeper into the flowers, hoping that it was towards something.
When she caught her first sight of a violet-clad figure standing among the wisterias, Okuni froze. "Lady No?"
The Ghost warlord was perhaps the most at rest amidst these flowers that Okuni had ever seen her. But as though she had sensed Okuni's gaze landing upon her, Lady No breathed in, her head snapping in the direction of where Okuni stood. Their eyes met through the curtain of blossoms that hung between them, and Okuni's heart wasn't sure whether to stop or soar.
"You're here," Lady No said. It was more a confirmation than a question.
Okuni moved towards her, and she swore that the grove moved with her, because they were face-to-face with only one step of her foot. "Yes," she breathed. "How long have you-"
"Known?" Lady No asked, giving a slight laugh. "Since the first moment I took your hand in Spectra's square three summers ago. You didn't really think it would have been just anyone? Mediums call to each other without even realizing it."
Shaking her head, Okuni said, "Not... exactly a medium. A shinigami." The trees seemed to bend closer to the two women with Okuni's speaking of the truth.
Well, she could count on Lady No to not be overly fazed by that. The Ghost warlord raised her eyebrows, and an "Ah," escaped her mouth, but she took the knowledge in stride. "A shinigami. That… would explain a thing or two."
"Yes," Okuni nodded, suspecting that they were both remembering her timely appearance at the temple. "But I was going to ask why you were here, my lady. I mean, you're not dead, are you?"
Lady No's laugh was louder this time, more like the one that Okuni had never quite grown accustomed to the sound of - while still finding that there was a place in her heart for it. "That depends entirely on who you ask."
Definitely Lady No. Lady No, who now once more held her hand out to Okuni. "Am I mistaken in believing it's time for both of us to leave this place?" she asked.
"Not one bit," Okuni answered. She clasped her hand around Lady No's, and the shadows of the grove blurred, almost seeming to form a crown around the Ghost warlord's head. Then Okuni felt something soft against her back, and the light of the real moon upon her face.
It took her a moment to realize where exactly the magic had let go of her and Lady No. Well, Okuni supposed it would make sense that Lady No would do this sort of thing from her bed – except that Okuni was now lying beside her in it.
Lady No was slower to come out of the magic's hold than Okuni. And in the moment hovering between realization and panic, Okuni couldn't help but follow the way that Lady No's dark hair fell around her face, trace the curl of her lashes against the Ghost warlord's pale skin. Then, as Lady No stirred, Okuni jumped up and willed what that image had stirred in her to quiet.
"I wasn't expecting company," Lady No acknowledged, tilting her head towards the other side of the bed as she sat up. "You needn't worry about me, it's nothing I haven't done before." Almost as though it was an afterthought, she added, "You are dismissed."
Okuni nodded, grateful for the excuse to make her way to the door. "Good night, then, my lady," she said. It almost sounded natural. For all seventeen kingdoms, why wasn't she one of those actors blessed off the stage as well as on it?
She saw to Scolipede and Volcarona, apologizing to them for the upset. "That's the last time I go anywhere without you two," Okuni promised her partners before collapsing into her own bed. But although she was exhausted, trouble had room to invade her mind once more.
The light inside her chest that was Hoshiko burned, not in a painful way, but still pounding against Okuni's ribs. It wanted to be let out, used once more – Okuni wasn't sure how to explain to it she wasn't sure that was a good idea.
Obviously, the time would come for her to harness it again. But it was also what had drawn Izumi to her, and that had nearly gotten both Okuni and Lady No killed. And Okuni had a sinking suspicion that her transformation in the temple had only made its call stronger.
The story that Lady Rei had told them following her descent from the Infinite Tower echoed in Okuni's ears. "That kind of power isn't meant for any one human, even if you're chosen for it and accept it," she had said, shaking her head upon being questioned by Lord Masamune on where it had gone. "The Legendary Pokemon was sharing it with me, and even then, only barely."
And suddenly, Okuni knew what had to be done.
She tentatively tapped on her own chest, where the light begged to be drawn out. "I know you can hear me," Okuni whispered to it. "So hear me out now."