Chapter twenty-six: Falling appart
Rin yelled as he threw his body against the doors trying to get them to open. Loud bangs echoed in the room as he did this over and over again. He swore as he punched the doors, flaring up. Nothing seemed to catch on fire, not even the doors.
"Shit! ...Shit…" Rin punched the door and leaned his head against it. He felt his eyes sting as tears came and rolled down his cheek. How could he be so stupid!?
Rin felt a gentle tug at his shirt. Looking down he saw Rika. She was doing her best to look calm and confident but was shaking. In her hands was the book Izumo had been caring around. Rin felt himself feel worse. If this kid could get her shit together, then why couldn't he? He sniffed and wiped the tears away with the back of his hand.
"W-we have time to save Izumo a-and stop that fox," Rika said. She stuttered as she shook. "The fox can't do anything until midnight."
Frowning and turning to the girl the boy listened. "Why's that?"
"That was when he cursed the Kamiki family," Rika sat down as did Rin. She flipped through the book and came to a page. "Sometime in the early 1800's a fox married a woman named Yae Kamiki. The family didn't know he was a demon so they gladly took him in as family. He even took the Kamiki family name as they had no sons apparently. But an ex-suitor of Yae discovered his linage and decided to kill him with the help of a priest. After that he married the fox's child a few years later and took the Kamiki family name. This is all I could out of that part. It's so damaged I can't read the rest."
"There has to be something else," Rin said. He took the book and flipped through it.
"There was, but Izumo ripped it out," she turned the pages to the back and showed Rin the ripped pages. "Whatever was written there, she didn't want us to see."
"Damn it Izumo!" Rin groaned. He rubbed his forehead. "Okay, explain to me what happened after I blacked out."
Rika shifted, clearly not wanting to remember. "I dunno. I was knocked out by the fox too…when I woke up you were still out."
"That's not much help…" Rin groaned.
"B-but I know how to open the doors!" Rika said brightly.
"Really!? How do ya do it?" Rin asked. His tail was waving happily behind him.
"We need some keys to open the lock," Rika said. She stood up and went to the door. Rin followed and watched her point to the two locks. "They should be somewhere around here right?"
The boy nodded, before remembering the key he'd gotten from the cell. He pulled it out quickly and tried it on one of the locks. It clicked unlocking one lock. Rin found himself cheering.
"Alright! Now we just need one more key and we'll be set!" Rin said. He grinned at Rika who nodded.
"…I think I'll stay here," Rika said. "There's a few more pages here that are sort of readable, I just need to sit and stare at them for a little bit."
Rin frowned. He didn't like the idea of leaving her alone. "I think we should stick together. Remember all the ghosts and stuff?"
"I'll be okay. The lanterns will keep the ghost away," she pointed to one. "I recognize the characters on them. They're for protection against spirits and junk. No ghost can enter here. Besides, I'll just extra weight you don't need."
"Seriously?" Rin asked. He looked at all the lanterns. He himself couldn't tell, but Rika had been pretty spot on with this kind of stuff. Despite still not liking the idea of leaving Rika alone, he did have to admit it would be easier if he was just alone."Wait, what about the fox?"
"I'll just hide if he comes. There are a lot of places around here," Rika said nodding.
"…Alright. I guess I'm going out then," Rin said. He sighed as he headed for the door.
"Be careful."
Over the last hour it Rin felt like he was getting the hang of the house….sort of. He knew the hall that led to the lantern room also led to the foyer. So that was where he went. In the foyer he noticed that there was a large piece of beam of wood covering a door. Rin pushed the wood away slowly, fearing the roof would cave in on him. He opened the door and stepped inside. He was in a large hearth room.
It looked to be quite old, and unused even when no one was dead. Hell the floor leading to the room was dirt. The old pot that once hung over coals was discarded across the room and burnt lumber was all over. The wooden floor was burnt from the house fire. As he moved his flashlight around the room it began to blink out. He swore and hit the thing trying his best to get it to work.
"Damn it work!" he yelled at the thing. Finally a steady beam of light came; he sort of wished it had stayed off.
The room was filled with corpses, all slashed to bits. Standing in the middle of the room was the masked demon. Rin felt himself flare up in anger and stepped over the dead bodies.
"Where's Izumo!?" he yelled at the demon.
It just stared down at him and held out a hand. Rin stared at the hand.
"Why do you want everyone dead?" he asked. "I need to know what happened!"
Despite his common sense yelling not to take the demon's hand Rin did. He grabbed it roughly and waited for the pain to come like the last two times. It never did. Instead his lungs seemed to be burning as he ran through the house. Fear gripped him as he knew something was wrong. The family had been too quite today. They had been avoiding him.
The fox found himself throwing doors open and finally came to Yae's bedroom. He stopped himself to breath and smelled the familiar scent of blood. The fox shook his head. She had to have just cut herself. Yes that was why he could smell her blood. The fox took hold of the door shakily and slid it open closing his eyes.
"Y-Yae?" he asked taking a step inside. The smell of blood became stronger causing him to open his eyes.
The fox felt his world tumble apart and fell to his knees. Yae's body lay before him covered in blood and missing her head. He found it a few feet away and crawled to it. The fox held the head to his chest and cried softly. His mind reeled at what was happening. No this couldn't be real! Yae wasn't-who would do this!?
He gently put the head down after kissing its forehead. He let his energy flare and spark as he headed out of the room covered in blood. The fox knew who exactly had done this. Yes he did. He'd been getting threats from him for years. Now he was finally acting.
No one approached him as he headed for his daughter's room. The halls were empty, but the fox knew the house was full. They were all hiding in their rooms, not wanting to acknowledge the demon's rage. The fox needed to find his daughter and run. If they could do this to Yae who knew what would they do to the child?
He quickly came to his daughter's room to find it empty. The demon felt his stomach drop. His daughter should be in bed by now. It was nearly midnight! He turned and ran down the halls trying to think of where she could be.
The fox stepped into the courtyard and felt a sigh of relief when he saw Yako playing with her ball. She still had that silly fox mask on her. It had been a gift from a family member. The fox knew she loved it the minute she saw it. He looked down at his clothing and knew he'd probably scare the child. But that wasn't important. They had to leave.
"Yako come here," he called.
The little girl turned to look at him and froze. "F-father? Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" she asked running over to him.
"No I'm fine, we have to-"
Searing pain came from his stomach. He coughed blood and looked down seeing a sword stabbed through his gut. The fox fell as it was slowly pulled out. He heard Yako scream and run towards him but someone grabbed her. The fox pushed himself up and looked around. A young man in priest clothing held onto Yako who was crying. Holding his stomach and looking behind him he saw Maki holding the sword that stabbed him. Yae's father was behind him looking shocked.
The fox growled low letting a few of his tails appear. He'd slice this idiot to pieces now.
"I was going to let you live Maki," he growled. "Foolish child…"
"What is the meaning of this?" Yae's father demanded. "What are you?"
"He's a kitsune just as I told you sir," Maki said. "He tricked you and wed Yae so he could harm your family and yourself."
The fox tried to stand, but his legs felt like jelly. He coughed up more blood realizing he should have healed by now. What was going on!? The sword must have been blessed…
"You're a fool to listen to that boy," he growled. "What have I done other than help your business flourish and give you a grandchild?"
"He's lying. He killed Yae just a few minutes ago. He was coming to kill you next," Maki told him.
The fox found himself in blind rage. He tried to charge at the boy, letting his ears come out along with a few more of his tails. Yes he'd murder every Kamiki family member including this boy and priest. Then he'd run off somewhere with Yako. They'd be safe, it'd be perfect.
Before he could even turn the boy stabbed him through his neck. Blood splattered out and hit the priest and Yako. The little girl cried and reached out for her father, as did he. Things seemed to get dark as he barely touched her small finger tips. The fox collapsed on the ground. In that moment he cursed everything he could think of. The Kamiki family, Maki, the priest. They all deserved to die and disappear from this world.
All he wanted was to be with Yae…
Rin found himself waking up staring at a ceiling. His head seemed to spin as he pushed himself up. He was still in the hearth room, except he was alone and there were no bodies. Rin touched his cheek feeling a bit of wetness there. He'd been crying, just a little. No wonder the fox was so vengeful. If Rin had seen that…It wouldn't' have been pretty.
He stood up slowly and scanned the room and saw another door at the end. Rin walked through it taking slow steps. The fox had every right to be angry. But Izumo and Rika had nothing to do with what happened to him. Hundreds of years separated them and the family members that did wrong to the fox. Besides, Rin wasn't going to let him kill Izumo, not when he still had something to tell her.
The hallway Rin found himself in was very old and each step he took the floor boards creaked. This must have been the old part of the house. Some rooms had no door, while others were just barely hanging on the hinges. A yell caught Rin's attention. He stopped and looked into a room. A woman was trying to push a man away and was sobbing, telling him to stop.
"No, please…I don't want this! Please stop!" she yelled.
"Stop fighting Yako," the man ordered. He was much older than the young woman.
Rin recognized the older man as Maki. He went to run in and stop what was happening, but it disappeared. Rin felt sick to his stomach thinking of what may have happened. He stepped inside of the old room scanning the area with his eyes. It was a large and unused bedroom. In the middle lay an old tattered book. Rin picked up and was sort of thankful he could read it once he opened it. He flipped through it and realized it was a sort of family record. The years were smudged as were a few names, but at the bottom of one page, he recognized two names. Yako Kamiki and Akira Kamiki were written clearly.
"Did he marry her?" Rin said aloud. "Ugh gross….he was old enough to be her dad!"
A strangled cry came from behind him. Rin turned and watched a body drop to the floor. The face was missing, scratched off by whatever killed him. A piercing maniacal laughter filled the room. Rin slowly lifted the flashlight to illuminate the woman he'd seen before. Covered in blood she stood there laughing and holding her face. It was covered by the oh so familiar mask Rin had seen may times before.
"I said you were a foolish boy," she cackled.
Rin heard yelling and watched the woman fade away. He felt his stomach drop and shook his head. Rin needed to find that key and his sword fast. Checking his wristwatch Rin saw he had about an hour left. Swearing he stood up and started to run down the hall. He didn't have time to sit there and wonder. He had to save Izumo!
At the end of the hall Rin found a door, opening it he found himself back in the courtyard. He almost laughed at this. Everything seemed to happen here. He stepped down and quickly jumped to the side. A sword came swing down right where he stood. Rin had felt the presence of another person and had quickly moved. The masked demon slowly stood up watching him.
"So you've shown me all ya want now you want me dead!?" Rin growled. "Not happening. We're all getting out of here."
The demon swung its sword at Rin who rolled out the way. It hit one of the cherry trees getting stuck.
"Listen, I understand why you're pissed!" Rin yelled. "I would be just as mad but Izumo has nothing to do with this! Neither does Rika! They are too far down the line for this to matter!"
The fox growled and pulled the sword out of the tree. It started to swing and swipe at Rin in a crazed frenzy. It wanted him dead, to have him stop talking. Rin growled wishing he had his sword. Damn it how could he have been so stupid to lose it!?
Rin quickly climbed up a tree, and jumped to another branch just before the fox sliced it in half. He looked up at the old observatory and decided to jump up there. He did and made it up to the observatory. He grabbed into the railing to heave himself up and over, but it broke. He was free falling for a moment before landing on the ground. The wind was knocked out of him as he tried to breath. The fox loomed over him and raised the sword above its head.
"W-wait!" Rin yelled. He tried his best to move and closed his eyes.
A clanging noise echoed out through the courtyard. Peaking one eye open Rin saw another sword between him and the fox's. He scrambled out of the way and to his feet. The person holding the sword that saved him had a fox mask over its face, but Rin recognized her despite this.
It was Makoto Himuro.
So not happy with this chapter. I tried to fix it and everything I did just didn't work and I'm too lazy to rewrite it (and I promised to have it up today). Sorry folks. I got really busy so I had to try something new with how I write chapters. Usually I hand write every chapter, so if I want to add stuff I can add it while I'm typing. This time I just wrote down a short outline and typed up the chapter instead of writing it down like I usually do. While it was a little quicker I didn't like it. But for the next few chapters that's how I'm going to work. I'm super busy as of late. Next chapter will be posted on Tuesday.
Other than me whining(I apologize for that) there isn't much to say about this chapter. I mean I did have a little fun with it, especially the end. I've been planning for that part for quite some time. I hoped you all enjoyed it regardless!
Like I always say thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I'm so happy you all like where this is going. This part is wrapping up pretty quick. Only three or two chapters left(depending on whether I want two separate small chapters for the finale or just one big giant chapter). I'm actually looking forward to writing it. It's something I've had planned for a while as I always say(lol I repeat this a lot). But once again thank you for all the reviews, favs, and follows! It's really amazing guys!
As always I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and have a fantastic day! Please don't forget to review!