CHAPTER 28: Shuten Doji

Tarun groaned in his sleep, rolling over very slightly in his "bed", enduring a vague, unhappy dream where he struggled through an endless city filled with destruction and killing. Everywhere he looked were the Dynasty soldiers, bigger and more powerful than ever, and Talpa's warlords pursued him endlessly. Not even with his armor could Tarun ever outrun them.

He woke with a gasp, opening his eyes and blinking for several moments as reality slowly superimposed itself on his last dream image, shutting it out. A sharp pang from his side made Tarun clench his teeth, forgetting the dream in the face of his more immediate problems. He remembered the battle very well; it had been his first really big one, and he'd not come away from it unscathed. It was the worst he'd ever been wounded in battle.

It was very scary, but Tarun kind of liked the idea, also. He was proud of himself, and though he thought he probably could have been a lot braver, at least he hadn't been a total coward. Still, it wasn't any fun having pain, and he hoped that as he went through the abandoned cars on the highway, he would find a first-aid kit like Amaya said.

The boy sat slowly up, looking down at his shirt, which he had used to bandage his injury. It was reddened and sort of stiff with blood, which scared Tarun. But he didn't think he was bleeding any more. It hurt.

At least it was daytime again, and Tarun had gotten several hours' worth of deep sleep. The sun, even behind the clouds as it was, was invigorating him, and a can of Mountain Dew Ultra would be perfect. He reached down for the six-pack he'd snagged the night before from a car, but gasped as his movement caused his injury to twinge him badly. Grimacing, he moved far more slowly as he bent, picking up the six-pack and wrenching one of the cans out of its plastic holder. He checked in with Amaya and Xander while he drank it, and said he was going to search the cars once he was done drinking his Ultra.

No one had attacked Tarun in the night, of course, and the highway was as deserted as always, which put him far more at ease than he had been the night before. Finishing off his soda, he set the can on the floor and slipped out of the back seat, standing on the floor and peering behind the seat to see if the van had any food or other useful supplies. He didn't think he'd get lucky and find anything so quickly, but it didn't hurt to try.

The day outside was chillier than it should be, and Tarun wasn't sure why. It was the middle of spring in California; it should have been far warmer, clouds or not, and the Nether World wasn't all that chilly, either. He wondered if Kale had anything to do with it, wondering if he was able to make a whole city cold somehow. His black lightning slash certain was cold. Tarun took a moment to summon his riot gear, cutting off the chill wind, and even easing the pain of his injury, making it a little easier to move around. Tarun wondered why holding a wound made it hurt less. It didn't make sense to him. He noted vaguely that the burn lines were gone from his armor, and wished that Tarun's injuries could be so easily fixed!

Before beginning his search, Tarun glanced into the side-view mirror of the van he'd slept in, blinking in surprise. He had a large bruise on his left cheek, the eye blackened on that side also, and he thought someone must have hit him during the fight, but he didn't remember it. It could have been when Kale first attacked him, or maybe when Tarun had run into the building while fleeing from Jin Tanaka.

A deep, wide, ugly-looking burn line seemed to almost shine on the other side of his face, cutting a swath through his hair towards the back of his head. Tarun grimaced as he looked at it, shaking a little as he remembered getting it. Scowling, he fervently hoped that Moral Sullivan was still sore (or worse) from being knocked out by Tarun, and that he never found his stupid laser pistol again!

Finally he left the van, looking down at the highway and its endless litter of abandoned and wrecked cars. Sighing quietly, the boy began peering into windows and searching the open cars.

Tarun spent the next few hours methodically searching the vehicles along the highway, going through the trunks and looking under the seats. In one car's trunk he found a baby stroller, and with difficulty, lugged it out and opened it up. It was one of those cool ones with three wheels, and an open seat area inside, covered in netting. It was certainly a lot easier to use than lugging plastic grocery bags around all morning! And by that point he's found several bottles or cans of soda, two six-packs of bottled water, a lot of snack-type foods, and a whole bag full of tab-lid cans. He paused briefly to make a meal out of cold, canned ravioli, which wasn't entirely tasty, but at least it was food. Tarun was hungry enough that he didn't much care.

It was midmorning when he found it; a bright orange case about the size of a lunch box, with a red cross on the outside. Tarun let a shout of glee, pulling it out from beneath the seat of a Toyota that looked a lot like Suisei's. I found a first aid! he shouted into the mind link, feeling three startled reactions from the others.

Oh good! said Xan, though I'd bet by this point your injury's probably not bleeding anymore, is it?

Nope! said Tarun.

He should still clean it, though, said Amaya, and he'll be able to bandage it properly. Not to mention the painkillers.

Yeah, good point.

Tarun was too intent on investigating the contents of his find to notice that there was one more person in the mind link than there should have been until a very taken-aback sounding mental voice spoke: Um...Tarun, that's you?

Tarun blinked, dropping the package of gauze he was holding, utterly shocked to hear Kento's voice in his head. Holy cow! Kento, how'd you get in our link?

I'm not entirely sure, said Kento. I heard you say you'd found the first-aid kit—hold on a sec. Tarun forgot about the kit in front of him as he listened, wondering how the heck he'd managed to get his gleeful declaration into Kento's head, too. Kento was obviously puzzled, too, but when he came back he was laughing in amazement. Tarun I think you've made a link with me. Cye says that when someone's feeling something strongly, its more likely to connect mentally, and that we do all have a Ronin spirit connection...Ryo and Nohano linked, too.

Tarun giggled, grinning widely, at the idea. He liked having Kento in the link, too, and wondered if they could get Cye into it, also. Can the others hear?

We hear something, came Xander's puzzled voice. The hell's going on, anyway?

Tarun explained to him that he and Kento had apparently formed a mind link, and that they should try to get everyone connected together. He remembered that Nohano and Killian had been the first to really link in their group, but once they had, it wasn't difficult to get everyone else linked, also.

Going back to investigating the contents of the first aid kit, he joined the others in trying to connect everyone into the same link. Kento and Cye could talk, and Tarun could talk with Amaya and Xan. With Kento and Tarun's new connection, they began drawing the others into their link. It was strange; at first all Tarun could hear was a strange sort of echo of Cye's voice, channeled through Kento, but the echo got stronger and stronger. It was all of a sudden when the link was made, and Cye's voice came through loud and clear.

That's cool! exclaimed Xander. It's certainly a lot easier than trying to relay messages all the time.

Neat! said Tarun. Hi, Cye!

Cye's mind felt a lot like Killian's, though more gentle, and maybe just a little shy. There definitely wasn't anyone in Tarun's group that was shy, unless you counted Amaya, and she wasn't shy all that often. Kento's was open and honest, and Tarun liked it as much as he liked Kento himself.

Hello, Tarun, said Cye with a chuckle. You've found a kit then, have you?

Yes! Can you tell me what to do with it?

Well, first of all, find a packet of painkillers. It'll make the whole thing a little less unpleasant.

Good idea! Tarun carefully read all of the packets, finding one that said it was for pain, and carefully "sounded" out the words to Cye, asking if it was the right one. On Cye's confirmation that it was, Tarun took both of them. It had said that children under twelve should only take one, but Tarun knew this was going to hurt, and a double dose wasn't going to kill him. There were prescription things that were loads stronger than kids sometimes took!

While the others listened interestedly, Cye took Tarun through the instructions of cleaning and bandaging his injury. It hurt, but with the pills, it didn't hurt as much as it could have, and it felt a whole lot better afterward! There was even a little packet of burn ointment that Tarun found and put on the burns he'd gotten from the lasers, including the one that had his left arm sore as heck, even now.

Tarun sighed in relief, leaning back against the car he'd found the kit in, and slumping down.

Better, kid? asked Kento.

Yeah! Lots better. Thanks, Cye!

You're welcome. I'm just glad you found it.

Tarun was, too! He spent several minutes (a huge stretch of time for Tarun) just sitting and enjoying this new level of comfort. He was still sore, but overall it was a large improvement. Feeling far happier now, Tarun packed the supplies back into the orange container and put it in the stroller. Tarun wished the stroller were self-powered; he could fit in it if he scrunched, and it would be loads faster than walking, and it wouldn't use any armor power. Unfortunately, even if it had been one of the self-powered ones, it wouldn't work. Stupid Dynasty.

The next few hours were spent among the five youths strengthening their new mind link and talking with one another to pass the time. Tarun, Cye, and Xander were alarmed when Amaya and Kento were surprised by a squadron of Dynasty soldiers, but it was only a small scout group, and they were able to defeat them quickly enough. But they had to vacate the area quickly, worried that the fight might attract the warlords' attention. The warlords were going to be furious about their failure to capture the group of rogue Ronin, and no one wanted to see them again if they could possibly help it.

Sometime in the afternoon, Tarun stopped to eat the contents of another can, this one of corn, which tasted pretty decent when it was cold. He'd also found a coloring book and some crayons in one of the cars, and almost added them to his stash, but ended up changing his mind. Food was one thing, but taking a coloring book just seemed wrong, even if it was half torn. Tarun stared at it for a good long time, wondering what had happened to the child it had belonged to, and murmured a little prayer for him or her to the gods. Tarun didn't think much about religion, but he had been taught at the orphanage under Hinduism, and when he did pray, it was to those gods.

He moved on feeling far more somber.

When the sun began to set, the whole area got windy and chilly, and Tarun wasn't thrilled about it. The riot gear kept his body warm enough (though he bet if it got really cold, it wouldn't do much good) but his head was still cold, and he didn't like it. Cold springtimes just weren't right. He asked the others about it, and Amaya said that the constant cloud cover was probably doing it. She said it was like something called a "nuclear winter" – something that could happen if they ever had a nuclear war. Dust and other crap would get blown into the atmosphere, blanketing large areas in perpetual clouds, which would block out the sun's rays. When the sun was blocked for so long at a stretch, it made things cold on Earth. It was a frightening thought.

Tarun made his supper sitting in the grass next to an exit sign (when he reported the number to Amaya and Xander, they were surprised at how far away he was—he was nearly twenty miles away) and wished that he was with the others. He didn't much like being alone. Aside from the fact that it was dangerous, and that if anything were to happen, he would have no backup, it was just plain lonely! If he hadn't had the mind link, he would have been completely miserable.

Tarun was staring morosely at a nearby motorcycle, not really seeing it, when a sort of chill blew across his neck, raising the hairs there and sending goosebumps down his limbs. He frowned, eyes searching the immediate area, bringing his mind back into focus. Someone was watching him, a feeling that had Tarun very nervous; he stood, ready to armor up in a second if he had to, remembering how Kale had caught him without even his riot gear on. (And had he been just two minutes earlier, he'd have caught Tarun with his pants around his ankles, peeing! That would have been really embarrassing.)

At first Tarun didn't see anything, looking across the desolate stretch of highway, and the long fields of grass on either side of it, dotted here and there with half-ruined rest stops and travelers' gas stations. He blocked the others out of the mind link a little, not wanting them to catch his nervousness and worry, especially since they wouldn't be able to help if Tarun got into trouble. But then movement caught Tarun's attention and his eyes widened as they focused on a figured some distance away, a figure standing next to the road. Just standing.

Shivering, Tarun grasped the handles of the stroller, keeping his eyes on the newcomer, and heading slowly towards one of the nearby open cars. He wasn't sure if he wanted to run, to take cover, or to fight, but standing right there out in the open was making him feel very unsafe.

It did not look like a dark warlord or a Dynasty soldier, which eased Tarun's preoccupation a little, but that still did not mean the person was an ally. With some difficulty, Tarun began wrestling his stroller into the car, wanting it to be somewhere safe where he could come back and retrieve his supplies if he had to, then simply watched the figure. His heart gave a painful leap as the figure began to approach.

Tarun's first instinct was to run, but he quashed it, forcing himself to be calm, and to see how things played out first. He swallowed hard, bouncing a little on his heels, the desire to do something almost maddening. The approaching figure was not coming fast, nor did he seem like he wanted to fight. As he neared, Tarun could see he was wearing a weird robe, or kimono, and carried what he at first thought was a yari. It was soon clear that it was a staff of some kind, though, and though it could probably be used for a weapon (most things could be used for a weapon if someone wanted to), Tarun didn't think it was supposed to be one.

The man—Tarun could tell now that it was a man—had dark red hair that was almost as long as Suisei's, and a weird, basket-like hat on his head. As he got close enough for Tarun to make out his blue-green eyes and smooth, narrow face, he began hearing an eerie, low chiming sound he realized was coming from the staff. The metal top of the staff had rings hanging from the bottom that made a sound like a wind chime, except that this sound made Tarun shiver; it was creepy!

The man did not come very close to Tarun, though Tarun took a couple of steps back, anyway. He was about to ask the man what he wanted, but the man spoke first.

"Good afternoon, Tarun Narayan."

Tarun gaped, any nervousness gone for the moment in astonishment. How did he know? "Um." There were some things that happened that a person just didn't know how to reply to, and this was one of them! "Uh, hi...how come you know my name, anyway?"

The man chuckled, a grim sort of creepy sound that had Tarun wondering if he wasn't an enemy, after all. He sort of had the same kind of feeling the warlords did when Tarun got around them. Not the evil taint of the Dynasty, but the general demeanor, the quiet, formal graveness that Tarun associated with people like Kale and Dais. Still, the man had made no move against Tarun, and if he had an armor orb, Tarun couldn't sense it. "I know much about the Ronin Warriors, young one," said the man. "And I have come to help you in your battles."

"But who are you?"

"I am an ancestor to one of your number. My name is Shuten Doji...though you may know of me as Anubis."