Wheel of Yamanote

by Lady Librarian

They say the worlds are like a great wheel that turns and turns, until at the close, you find yourself at the beginning once more. Take care, lest you be crushed. Book three of the Kamikakushi Saga.

38. Chapter 38

HAKU

Haku fell so fast he scarcely felt himself fall. The glowing gold lattices of the verandas rushed past him so close but so far. He briefly glimpsed the red ribbon of the bridge as it hurl by. Then something hit him hard from the side so hard his teeth snapped. At first he thought it might be the ground and that startled him awake. But he was still falling even as invisible arms tightened across his torso. With a bone jarring lurch they snapped out of free fall so firmly Haku bit his tongue.

Suddenly he was no longer falling. He was swinging, gathering such speed his insides lurched and protested. His eyes watered as they arced through the thick misty dark. He watched in silent awe as the cliffs and the bath house foundation ghosted by. The ground unfolded beneath them only for a moment. His heart fluttered as he saw the gleaming lines of the train tracks. A massive boulder sat in the middle of the raised rock foundation just outside the tunnel. He lost sight of Seki no Taro as up and down became confused. No longer caught by gravity's pull they surged upward with singing velocity. Higher and higher his heart rose in his throat as at once they were flying again. Haku blinked rapidly as they sailed up into the light pouring out of Aburaya's windows. Locking her legs around his waist and gripping his arms with hers Kuromi squeeze firmly.

"Hold on!" She shouted in his ear.

Something akin to a squeak issued from his lips as silk furled above them. Again he jerked in her grip as a parachute billowed over their heads. But the long line of silk stretched taut beneath them humming as it vibrated.

"How!?" He choked over and over insensibly as they drifted in the empty air.

"You fell," She explained thinly, "I caught you."

Leaving her parachute to pull the line tight hand over hand the spider climbed down slowly. As he dangled beneath her Haku could see the bridge clearly. Suzume was hauling on another long rope of white silk as he fought to tow his wife from the sky. Pulling as if his life depended on it the God hauled on the line with tremendous heaves. Spinning like a top Lin clung to the crook of his umbrella drifting down like a kite. She did not let go even as Suzume caught her by the waist and pulled her into his embrace. As he anchored her to the bridge with his body all the color and vitality returned to him. Bright crimsons and flashing gold erupted across the once sickly sallow canvas of his robes. Haku's heart swelled in his burning aching chest until it felt as though it had burst. Bittersweet pain spread through his tiny brittle body as he heaved and gasped.

Then another flash of red gold attracted his attention. Looking down he found Sen leaned over the bridge's banister where he first saw her that day. Bristled from head to toe Okesa had Sen by the belt pulling back as she leaned forward further. Sen's arms were open as she reached and reached for him. As she caught him, yanking and pulling insistently, Kuromi released him. Backwards they tumbled, making the cat scramble aside with a hiss as they landed hard. His ears were ringing as he lay gasping, drowning all over again as adrenaline left him feeble.

"I cannot breathe!" Haku gasped in a panic. "I cannot…! I cannot…!"

Spinning and light-headed he sagged as white sparklers filled his graying vision. His head throbbed and hammered as tremendous pressure claws at the inside of his skull. Again that thin rasping squeak issued from his dry lips as he tore at his throat.

"Give him room, child! Back! All of you, back! Especially you cat!"

Haku heard distantly as the fox barked with commanding ingratitude. Someone was yanking at his armor. Haku did not have the strength to fight as they pulled his gorget and breastplate free. He was drowning; sinking even as the boards beneath his back dissolved. Falling and falling as he dwindled on the knife's edge of unconsciousness.

"Breathe, Kohaku!"

Haku's eyes flew wide as a burning hand slapped against the bare skin of his chest. Heaving in a great shuddering breath he arched against the boards. It felt as if a stone had been lifted from his aching ribs. Cool sweet air rushed in to soothe and sate his suffering lungs. He held it in for fear he might never take another. Then Suzume slapped him hard with his other hand even as his first continue to burn. Roughly the fox grabbed his chin with charcoal scented fingers, forcing Haku to look at him.

"I said breathe!"

Stunned, Haku stared up through the ink black curtain of the God's ragged hair. The fox's face tight with concern and his gold eyes pale with fear. Doing as the God bade him he let the breath out in a rush and dragged in another.

"Again!" Suzume commanded. "And again!"

In and out Haku breathed each sobbing breath until the fox yanked back his hands. Then the God bared his teeth and he leaned over him as if to bite.

"Idiot! After all this talk of waiting and being patient! You are no good to any of us dead!"

Tense against the boards Haku stared from the corners of his eyes and frowned stubbornly. He rasped the words without apology as a weak breeze stirred his hair.

"We would have fallen..."

"Suzume!"

Haku's insides went perfectly still as he recognized the flinty voice. The fox flinched, at once contrite even as he turned toward the admonishing voice reaching with his blackened hands. Haku stared as Lin folded up beside him. At once he was staring, drawing his eyes across the puckered scar skin of the terrible burns on her temple and neck. She was thin; far, far too thin. Her long narrow face was gaunt and bruised with suffering. She scowled at him making her brow tight and etched with anger. But her large autumn-colored eyes were soft and bright. She turned her face into his touch as he lifted a hand to touch her wild wind hair. Haku's mouth trembled as her true name slipped from his lips in the barest whisper.

"Hayashimi!"

Lin crushed of him with the hard bar of her only arm as she bent to hug him. Then Haku startled as something between them gave a squawk of protest. As she jerked back he stared at her belly as the bundles bound there in spider silk wriggled vigorously. He lurched up onto his elbows staring at them askance not knowing what they were. With her only hand Lin peeled back the edge of the swaddling. Haku froze in awe, sucking in and holding a breath at the tiny lives hidden within. He had never seen such tiny noses, such tiny hands with such tiny fingernails. As she gazed down at her kits Lin's stony face softened in ways Haku never thought possible.

"This is our daughter Kokoro. She was born first."

She whispered softly while folding back another edge of silk.

"And this is our son Makoto. He is bigger because he's greedy."

As he stared at the newborn God children the pain was back in his heart. It welled in his chest in the place where the hole that had killed Kubi and Karasu had been. Grief and joy stained him simultaneously as the conflicting emotions soaked him through. Life and death; they were an unending circle in which they were all trapped. God and human alike; none could escape. That truth did nothing to ease the suffering echoing inside the hole in his heart. Haku barely heard as Lin introduced their children. He barely saw as the fox seized his wife in a rough embrace. At once Lin was annoyed and embarrassed as her wan cheeks went pink. She, however, did not protest. Staring off over the crown of Lin's wind tussled head the fox wore a wild expression of affection. Suzume choked on each word as his gold eyes glimmered with withheld tears.

"You…! You have my gratitude, Nigihayami Kohaku!"

It took him a moment to realize the God had spoken his name. It took him a moment longer to realize that Suzume had thanked him. Never had he heard the fox thank anyone, not even Reika. Closing his eyes Haku sagged as white cold sweet relief of absolution washed through him. He was thief no more. But all the good things died in his heart as Ikiri spoke in a shredded whisper.

"They're coming."

Ripping his eyes open Haku shrank from the haggard human female as his skin crawled. There was something wrong with her; something very, very wrong. So wrong he almost forgot the spiders.

"We need to get Lin and Haku inside," Sen urged hurriedly.

Strong hands had him. Kuromi was hoisting him upright as if he weighed nothing. Hooking one of his arms over her shoulder as other hands claimed his armor and his umbrella. Dutifully the spider followed in Sen's shadow and Haku had no choice but to follow. Kuromi carried him through the billowing blue curtains and across the empty shining expanse of the main floor. Blinking against the glaring light pouring down from the large lanterns Haku found the front and back stairs missing. But the balconies remained high above ringing the room with their now thick reinforced balustrades. The paper sliders had been replaced by thick shutters of blackened iron that stood stolidly as if awaiting an impending fight. Back Kuromi carried him, back to the gleaming gold and green murals of mossy pines that stretched up the distant walls. Springing ahead of them of them Sen skidded to a stop at a seeming random board only to pound the surface.

It popped open revealing the stairwell inside. Darkness drowned his sight in shivering black as they tromped up the narrow stair. The smell of musty tatami and paper glue swirled around him as sliders snicked open. Gently Kuromi lowered him onto a futon only to jerk back as Sen roughly replaced her. Her face was lost to him as her head eclipsed the hanging lantern. The phoenix face perched on her brown gleam red-gold in the glancing light. As if she already knew what was there she had his right hand and had ripped the bloody glove. She stared at the stain of black on his finger and her bright pale eyes went blank.

At once Haku hurriedly yanked his hand away to hide his tightly curled fist. But she had seen! She knew and she also knew he had lied! As she hung there Sen stared through him seeing something he could not begin to fathom. Haku cringed in anticipation of her anger only to be met with silence. That, however, was far worse than her fury. He jerked again as shadows suddenly rushed up to fill the doorway.

"Lady Sen, come at once! You must see this!"

As if forgetting him and the curse he now carried, she was on her feet standing over him looking away with that terrible iron expression. Dressed in sturdy dull black-red plates of iron silk armor, wearing the strange flame quilted indigo garb, she produced her bow and ringing quiver like magic from the humming air. Slinging them across her back with practiced moves, she shoved Sengen's knife through the belt at her waist. He hardly knew this embattled woman who tied back her quicksilver hair with a frayed and sweat-stained cloth. Haku watched the stranger he loved so dearly disappear behind the gleaming red-gold face of a phoenix. She sprinted off in the wake of a ghost ringing and ringing until even the sound of her bells disappeared.

"Please, beloved!" Suzume entreated in exasperation, "I must go with the child!"

Throwing his attention sideways he stared mutely at Suzume and Lin. Squatting on the tatami, the fox's wife had seized him by the hand. She was anchoring him in place with an obdurate expression as he leaned away pulling uselessly. Blue-green with anxiety Suzume threw his other hand at Ikiri.

"Watch the human, Hayashimi. I do not know what to make of her."

Haku jolted as he found the sickly former shrine maiden slumped in the corner behind him. Her face was lost in the short hanging curtain of her salt-and-pepper hair as he bowed over the blood stained length of gold silk wadded up in her tightly clutched hands. All the shadows in the room seemed to pool and clamber behind her making the small hairs on his arms stand up. His insides scrambled about in instinctive horror. Skittering sideways away to climb up onto the wall with the fluttering flock of her free hands, Kuromi hissed a terrible name between her clenched needled teeth.

"Tatarigami!"

Lin surged to her feet and whirled toward the spider throwing something. A squat dagger sank to the hilt in the wall itself inches from Kuromi's nose. The spider fell with a gasp dropping his armor and retreating to the doorway as Lin shouted.

"Don't call her that!"

As Lin released him to throw the knife Suzume bolted. Hesitating in the doorway paling with dismay the fox threw his piercing gold eyes to him.

"Deal with this, dragon!"

Then the blasted fox turned and ran before his wife could catch him again leaving him to tender the mess he had left behind. Momentarily crestfallen, Lin whirled to look after him reaching with her only hand. She drew herself up into flinty stillness then she turned for her knife. Forcing himself upright, Haku lurched against the wall and scrambled to jerk the knife from the pulpy boards, withholding it as he stopped Lin with a quelling hand. Fury smoldered in her maple eyes as she came up short. But she wheeled away, never losing momentum. She retreated to the opposite side of the room pacing and patting her kits as they began to cry, startled awake by her earlier shouting. All the while her eyes remained fixed on the knife in his hands with predatorial concentration making him break out in a cold sweat.

"Give it back. It was Ume's."

Haku blinked, sparing a glance at the short blade in his hand. Then he recognized the dead yuna's blade. It was all that remained of her. Solemnly he placed the knife on the table between them sparing a harried glance at Kuromi. He found her she peering anxiously around the slider. Then the blade of Lin's feral stare wheeled round to the spider making her flinch.

"I remember you, spider. You and your sister."

Kuromi bowed as if suddenly bent by a weight of sorrow, carefully creeping forward so she could help him back into his armor. Silently Lin sank to a seat on one of the cushion watching them with her flinty unwavering gaze. No longer feeling naked, Haku shoved his umbrella back into the hidden folds of his tatter cloak only to stumble and catch himself on the frame of the sliding doors. Throwing his harried gaze back over his shoulder he stare long and hard at Lin as she sat in the dark staring after him with solemn silent twilight eyes. She was cradling her only arm around her kits patting and the bulges beneath the wide bands of silk crisscrossed across her stomach.

He wanted to say something. But what could he say? Instead Haku turned and ran.

Like a silent shadow Kuromi followed in his wake. Again she had to take his arm and pull him up the remaining stairs as he winded quickly. His blood and flesh and bone did not rebound easily. Haku did not like to be reminded of how brittle his small mortal body had become. Leaning on the spider heavily he lurched through the shadow chocked empty sitting rooms staring at the line of figures gathered ahead. They stood at the rail of the highest balcony the front of the bath house had to offer. Okesa's baffled yowl echoed back as he drew close. Craning and bobbing her head she stood on her toes to peer off into the dark pricking and swiveling her velvet black ears as her tail lashed and flicked.

"What's they doin', neh? It don' make no sense!"

Suzume growled at her in exasperation.

"Cat! You waste your breath! I know no more than you!"

Silently Sen and Tomoe stared without comment. Stumbling up to the bar panting and gasping Haku threw his eyes out into the dark. His insides went cold and sick as found the restaurant district crawling with spiders. But something was amiss. This became clear as the enraged shouts and flinty clashes of battle filtered from afar. He breathed the obvious in a hushed rush as confusion tightened his burning chest.

"They are fighting each other!"

Haku startled and cringed as a thicket of spiders clambered and spilled up over the lip of the stairs illuminated by the tall sentry lantern at the opposite side of the bridge. They broke and shuffled back from the warring figures that clashed and smashed against each other at the heart of their scuttling shifting host. Haku recognized the massive lobed dome of Shurui's helm as it caught and glimmered in the lantern light like the wet hull of some monstrous insect. But the spider queen had gone on the offensive faced with the ferocious attack of another tall spider who matched her in height, speed, and strength. Even with one limp arm trussed to her side the warrior was more than formidable.

"Shimizu-sempai!"

Kuromi breathed in terror beside him. White faced and shaking she climbed up to perch on the banister for a better view. Haku did not know why Shurui's captain had forsaken her. He did not care. All he knew was the soldier's limbs and body became a deadly blur of slashing hacking white winking spider silk. Silk bombs exploded in puffs of billowing filaments as errant shards shattered against stone sending up sprays of splinters as they tore through the nearby ruined buildings. The other soldier spiders scrambled and ducked; throwing themselves away from the collateral damage of the fight but for some reason they did not flee. Hard pressed to escape herself, Shurui sprinted up the trunk of the pine tree defying gravity as she whipped her long lithe body through the air hurling down lance after lance at the offending soldier. Only to land and perch atop the sentry lantern making the ground dissolve into plumes of shattering rock as she threw lance after lance at her former guard.

Leaning father and farther over the rail Haku stared madly into the dark. He watched Shimizu produce hand over hand a massive scythe of silk. With it she hewed the lantern off at its base with a single stroke. The lantern gave a violent lurch then it shivered sideways. Wobbling with a strangled cry Shurui sprang sideways into the pine tree. Again Shimizu's sickle screamed as it cut through the thick trunk. With a great moan the pine and the lantern smashed against each other only to trundle over. Shurui launched herself onto the cobbles at the foot of the bridge as they came crashing down. Light fizzled and crackled as it caught the paper and wood. Bright blue tongues of flame and curling smoke erupted in the dark. Illuminated by the feral godfire even from a distance he could clearly see the terror clearly. Women's shrieks echoed as the blue light caught the white faces beneath their flared visors. The walls behind them crawled with the massive shadows of bulbous spiders as the unlucky vanguard scattered onto the bridge forming another ragged uneven ring around Shurui as out of the smoke Shimizu charged still wielding the wicked black of her scythe.

As Shurui back peddled her black fan flashed and rang. Haku jolted bolt upright at the hideous ring of the black iron bell. Spiders lurched and jerked into her wake with shrieks of terror as they moved against their will. But they put up a pitiful defense against Shimizu's bloodlust. Shimizu knocked one over the banister with a savage back sweep. Her free hands caught and hurled another. But she had only so many hands to guard against them. The former captain was forced to cut down two of her sisters lest they stab her with blades! As she did she howled in enraged and beleaguered misery.

Bile rose in his throat as he realized in horror the other spiders could not flee. Shurui held them with her bells, sending her daughters to slaughter at the hands of their sister. Staggered by the unexpected display of brutality Haku looked away out over the sea of black. Sen had her bow as she made for the interior balustrade calling quietly to the other Gods.

"Inside, everyone."

At a loss for what else to do they followed her to the long hall hidden behind the iron shutters. The fox came up short as Kuromi appeared at his feet bowing and holding up the finished flute.

"For you, Suzume-san!"

He stared between the spider and the instrument in mute amazement before snatching it from her fingers. Planting a hand on her head in a gentle gesture, he wove around Kuromi following in Sen's wake. Catching one of Kuromi's arms Haku pulled the spider up and towed her after him. Distant shouts and screams were filtering in from the main door. Sen had crept out onto the south facing balcony and was whispering as she pointed with one tine of her bow at the bottom of the atrium.

"Tomoe. Wait till Shurui is inside then shut the doors. Keep the spiders off the walls."

He nodded twice in silence then poured over the lip of the balcony like running water.

"W-wot!?" Okesa stammered in protest. "Why's y'sendin' Tommie down, neh!?"

Sen bore down on the cat with quiet calm. The cat shrank down onto her heels folding her eyes.

"Because they can't hurt him like they can hurt us, which is why we're up here."

She pointed at the opposite sides of the balcony that circled the rafters.

"Cinna. You and Kohaku and Suzume take one side each. No matter what, one of you should always be working to pin Shurui in place while the others take down whoever she's currently got ensnared in her bellsong. Wait for me. I don't want Shurui to know where here until the last moment. If we're lucky that other spider will take care of her before we have to. If not…"

Sen trailed off grimly. As she did Okesa's red pupils shrank to slits. She whispered worriedly.

"W-wotcha gonna do, kiddo?!"

Sen did not answer. Instead she turned away. As she slunk by Okesa slipped two red fans into a gap in his armor. The cat, however, kept a red and a black fan for herself.

"Kuromi."

The little spider snapped to attention like a good soldier as Sen turned with orders.

"If any of us get taken by bells use those sheets of silk. Got it?"

The spider nodded silently, silently skirting out onto the balcony to choose a favorable position. Haku realized Sen had given her duties that would not ask her to act against her sisters. As she swept her eyes once more over the atrium Haku caught the tremor in her mouth. He saw the bright glint in her eyes. For a moment he saw a flash of the frightened little girl he had saved years ago. And the tense knot in his heart eased at the proof that she was not made entirely of iron. Then the fox opened his mouth as if to argue. His teeth snapped together audibly as she rounded on him with her frigid stare. Gritting his teeth, anger kindled across his robes in curling plumes of sooty black and red. But he remained silent.

Sen turned away. Slipping into a hiding place behind an iron shutter, she pulled on her mask waving them urgently to their places. As scuttling shadows surged through the archway and Haku and Suzume darted through the hidden hallway behind thick planks of steel. Hastily Haku pulled on his dragon face pulling the fans from his side and clutched the bells in his clammy hands. With his heart hammering and throbbing in his ears he peered around the edge of the shutter and stared over the lip of the balcony at the thinning flood of spiders that clambered around the banzai station. They spilled back into the room only to mill around in confusion realizing there was nowhere to go. At once he was sick with the deafening hush of their scuttling arms and legs. But a strange twist of pity wrung its hands around his heart as he found that only ten remained of the forty or so he had glimpsed on the bridge earlier. But as they climbed the walls the boards exploded into bristling gouts of splintering wood.

Lances ricocheted in from outside in sweeping strafe patterns.

They shattered the glass and pierced the thin pulpy walls of the welcome station.

With tremulous gasps the spiders pressed huddling and clinging to the floor boards.

"You killed her!" Shimizu bellowed from the outside, "You killed Fumiko!"

Shurui's taunting voice was winded as she laughed scornfully.

"You killed Fumiko, Shimizu, just like you killed dozens of your sisters."

The spider queen continued to jibe ruthlessly.

"Will you kill them all just to get to me?"

The other spider snarled as the muffled sounds of hacking echoed in the front door.

"They'll be waiting for you in hell, mother!"

She spat the word dripping with bitter rancor.

"I'm going to send you to join them!

The banzai station smashed inward as the spiders punched through the wall. Their sisters surged up the wall screaming in terror as Shurui and Shimizu expelled burning venom in each other's faces, screeching and grappling with their bare hands. Bloodlust threw off the ruse of their women's faces to reveal the lustrous hard black beneath. It was a hideous sight to see those long spindly legs scrambling as they knocked divots into the boards with their distended abdomens. But as they shredded wood and clawed and kicked deep gouges in each other's hulls they came up short and scrambled apart wearing their white faces again as a heavy sheet of iron dropped behind the welcome station to block the front exit.

At once fleeing spiders crawled the walls only to be plucked and hurled to the ground. More shrill and sobbing cries echoed off the high ceiling as they scrambled uselessly. Both Shimizu and Shurui produced lances of silk as they shrank from a darting flickering shadow. Undaunted the spider queen harried it with blades until she pinned it in place. Haku gasped, creeping forward to peer down into the atrium grinding his teeth. Slowly Tomoe faded into existence lifting his pale white face. Haku's heart lurched in his throat as he heard an angry hiss from the opposite balconies. A cat and a phoenix face flashed briefly around a blacks shutter. The eyes within the masks were distraught as this obviously was not part of the plan. What was Tomoe playing at!? None of them knew! As Shurui's wide ruby eyes widened in incredulous recognition she snarled in outrage.

"Ghost! You swore not to follow me!"

"This one was human once. This one lied."

He spoke with archaic formality so soft Haku barely heard him. Here Tomoe placed hands on his stomach. As he did a terrible mouth split him horizontally spilling gouts of drool. Haku's insides scrambled in horror as he recognized the quivering maw immediately.

"But the other cannot lie. He very much wants to eat you. And this one will happily oblige."

With thin black fingers the ghost wrenched the lance from the lip of his filmy cloak. Tossing it aside the ghost turned to burn the spider with empty eyes both hollow and hungry. At once Tomoe was gone and Kaonashi remained. All around the ghost the shadowed thickened and writhed. Gnashing the massive rows of his yellow teethed, the gaki he stretched tall and monstrous. Shivering from side to side on his spindly thicket of limbs he stained the boards with his hate. Uttering a bass gurgling roar Kaonashi dove into a tattered twist of shadows.

Shurui gasped and skittered backwards with a wild expression of terror as it rushed her. White and grim with panic, the spider vaulted high tossing lines of silk to keep herself aloft. She stabbed at the blot of black with the thick blades clutched in her other hands. All the while she kept ringing and ringing her bell expertly warding off Suzume's efforts. Just as deftly the staining shade careened around the razor edges until the boards were black. The lances snapped and broke as grabbing hands erupted from the sooty gloom. Viciously they crunched as if the gripping fingers wished they could be arms and legs. Equally harried Shimizu scrambled away in horror hacking at the reaching shadows. She scrambled back urging her sisters up the walls away from the milling wraiths. But they were ripped down and hurled against the boards with stunning swiftness. They landed in stunned piles that did not rise.

Shurui, however, escaped the reach of the seeking arms. Swinging sideways and launching off an adjacent wall Shurui hammered the boards with silk. Woodchips and splinters erupted into the air as the floor suddenly bristled with shining lances. Ensnared, the writhing shadows roared as they surfaced in a spout of spasming arms. Darting out onto the ledge between slim shreds of a second, Okesa produced a flashing dagger. Hurling it with all her strength the cat severed the line in a burst of sticky billowing filaments. Catching the edge of the balcony he forsake his hiding place to watch.

Shurui shrieked, rowing at the air with her free hands as she fell. As she plunged toward the floor the black behemoth surfaced. Hauling himself out of the shadows, Kaonashi split open his gaping maw as he rose. Gleaming white flashed as the burning lanterns above caught the hard white edge. Shurui's screech became a shout of belligerence as she heaved her newly forged halberd down. It cunning blade divided Kaonashi in two, shattering and splitting his mask. More silk flashed as blades sank into the dividing halves of his spectral body. Dissonant chords twanged and screeched as the pole axe found what lay in the ghost's stomach. Astonished and confused, Shurui stared mutely at the shamisen.

Hewn in half, the broken instrument bled red blood against the blackened boards. Like the pinned wings of a sooty butterfly shadows heaved and quivered. Scrambling mindlessly they plucked weakly at the javelins with wiggling writhing fingers. Again bile rose in his throat as Haku watched the splintered shares of the ghost's mask spin. Around and around they spun, grinding out soft skittering sounds in the sudden silence.

"TOMOE!" Okesa wailed in desolation so loud Haku slapped his hands over his ears.

The cat rushed out onto her balcony as if making ready to jump down into the atrium. Horrified anew, Haku lunged with his fan. His bells caught the cat and flung her back against the iron shutters. As they fluttered in protest Shurui wheeled on the sound with her black fan. Then Sen darted out with her bow and bell fletched arrow held high. The shaft hummed as it whipped through the air at the gleaming string. Filling the pause in the foxsong, string and bells buzzed like a hive of angry bees. Shurui screamed clutching her head. She flailed wildly, pelting the balcony with sheets and lances of silk. Sen ducked for cover behind the sheet of iron and it buckled and pitted under the onslaught.

On his feet, Haku furled his fans and whirled out of his hiding place. Tossing the bells side to side in a brisk tempo, he stared below gritting his teeth in dread. His heart skipped a beat in terror as lacquered black flashed in the bright lantern lights. Then a flute flooded in over the fading belligerence of the buzz. Shurui cut the air with her fan, shredding the foxsong to ribbons with her bell instead of him. At once she paced mirroring his every step glaring with red eyes widening with understanding. But as she reeled back other hands to cast a blades of silk at his exposed flank more bells rang.

Across from him Okesa had recovered enough to lurch upright in the opposite gallery. Yanking her off balance and waylaying her attack, the rhythm of the black bell broke. Again Suzume's strident song thickened crushing Shurui to her knees. With a gasp Shurui rolled aside fleeing the fiery bolts that set the boards ablaze in her wake. Startled by the exploding sparks of fire Haku knocked back against the wall. Through a gap in his up-thrown arms he watched Sen tail the spider's every move with her bow. The blades of her cold eyes were utterly devoid of feeling as they fixed on Shurui . The humming string was drawn to her chin as she waited patiently for her shot.

At once Haku was sick with horror as he realized she meant to kill the spider! What had he expected? Did he really think that Sen only meant to capture the spider? There was no doubt in him that Shurui deserved death. But he knew all too well the burden of murder. He carried the weight of Jouma's death as if the forsaken spider perched on his very back. How many of her faceless sisters perched along beside her? With each life he had taken a hole bored itself through the fabric of his soul. They hollowed him just as viciously as grief and suffering. How long until he was empty and echoing inside?

Could he let the ghost of the sweet brown haired child hidden within her suffer such a fate?

Could he really sit by and let Sen kill this spider?

Could he, after her had stopped Suzume from killed the fujo in the Oni Caves?

Haku jerked back to the present as blades of silk ripped up over the lip of his ledge. He barely escaped them by diving forward into a roll rising with hurried flips of his fans. Cringing behind the splintering balcony rail he glimpsed between gaps in the wood down to the atrium below. Moving in a blur of black Shurui was spinning from foot to foot and endlessly ringing and ringing her iron bell to drown Suzume's foxsong even as she threw an endless volley of sharp white with her other hands. Flying fire abated as bellsong found Sen. She jerked forward against the adjacent balcony rail with a startled yelp. But even as terror set Haku scrambling and he reaching for her with his fans Kuromi caught her, hauling her back with the tremulous flock of her hands. Shurui yanked the bow from her fingers instead and it fell to clatter on the boards below. All the while Okesa cursed and spat as she dove and danced between shards of silk struggling to break the spider's drowning rhythm.

Springing from the floor between the whizzing blade under a propelling gust of wind, Haku punched his fans forward making the lines on his bells snap. Ringing them furiously, slashing and slapping and hauling with song, he strove to catch Shurui's busy, busy hands. Haku caught and held two pulling with all his might as he lurched to stillness against the balcony rail. Bracing his foot there and hauling backwards with all his might he loosed an shout of defiance all the while ringing and ringing his bells. From across the room Okesa found two more of Shurui's hands and hindered them to stillness jinging and jangling her bells. Crushing to splinters the lances grasped in her stymied hands Shurui snarled in frustrated fury as she fought and railed against their hold only to stagger and collapse over her knees. Suzume's flute screeched and keened over her head, reverberating off the atrium walls and compelling her to sit on her heels.

Then movement at the back of the floor caught Haku's beleaguered attention. Forcing herself upright, the former captain of the spider guard shook her head. Shimizu called to the God women at her back.

"To me! To me, sisters!"

Haku stared wildly from the corner of his eyes as the thicket of soldiers rallied. Standing with blades in hand and hate in their eyes they turned on their mother. Shurui caught from the corners of her eyes a glimpse of the black guard advancing on her back. If she had been afraid before now true terror transformed the spider queen's face. Triumph surged in Haku's heart as his movements took on a crisp confident cadence. They almost had her. But she had one hand remaining and it bore the black iron bell. That single bell was their undoing.

In a moment of abject panic the spider queen ensnared not the bearer but the sound of their bells. Haku knew not that such a thing was possible! Perhaps Shurui did not either. One way or the other she whirled and wheeled pulling with all her might. Dragged forward over the lip of the balcony Haku cried out as he fell. The wind knocked out of him as he landed hard. The fans yanked right from his fingers! He knew Okesa had been disarmed similarly as she yowled woefully and the shredding sounds of claws on wood echoed from afar. Through his blurring vision Haku watched helplessly as Shurui caught the four fans and snapped them back to her hands with whizzing snares of silk.

With all six arms armed by bells Shurui lashed out with deafening song.

The chorus of bells swelled and throbbed inside his head in a symphony of agony.

Suzume's song silenced, swallowed by the shrieking cacophony of their bronze and iron voices.

Somewhere above Sen lurched to her feet holding her head screaming behind her phoenix face, ripped forward to the edge of what remained of her balcony. Moving jerkily like some kind of puppet she lobbed fizzling handfuls of fire down on Shimizu rank. Blazing projectiles smashed between the beatle black bodies as they disappeared into gouts of black smoke. Ringing and jingling her bells, Shurui mowed her way through the fleeing bodies hurling spiders against the opposite walls, painting over the gold and green murals of cool and calm pines with wide splashes of red. Sprayed with burning snapping embers as white hot flame continued to rain from above, Haku scrambled to right himself only to topple over hissing air between his teeth as his left ankle screamed. Lances of pain sharp as spider silk sliced and stabbed their way up his shin. Whirling on him as if hearing his cry, Shurui challenged him in dark fury as the bat had called him out in the caverns beneath Uguisudana Station.

"I see you, dragon!"

Her black bells rang sadistically once again clawing at the inside of his head. On high Sen shouted in consternation spinning toward him wreathed in fire. Haku froze against the floor as she reeled back her fists and they burst into dripping flame. There was nowhere for him to go. There was nowhere for him to hide. Wind would only fan her flames. There was no water here to douse her fire. He had only his bow and his blade but he could not raise his hands against her! He would not! He would sooner die! In that moment as they stared at each other through smoke and fire Haku felt strangely calm. Then Sen slammed back against an iron shutter as a sheet of silk smothered her and her fire. Hands had him from behind as Kuromi caught him. The ground dissolved beneath him as they sprang upward on whizzing tow lines of silk. Baring her needled teeth hissing and spitting in ire Shurui barked in shock.

"You! You should be crushed by stones!"

She scrambled to catch them with bells. But Kuromi was too fast and the little spider was too good at hiding. Secreting him behind the iron shutters she pinned him to the floor with her many hands. Thick clouds of obscuring smoke were filling the rafters of the atrium. The black haze crawled across the ceiling above them seeking a way out. They both scrambled and skittered in surprise as Suzume appeared like a white ghost. Robbed of all color the fox took one look at him then dropped burning eyes to his injured foot. Looking down Haku stared at the splintered blade of white jutting through the bloody fabric. He stared at his broken bone stupidly as his head swam with a faint.

Clutching him tightly in her many, many arms Kuromi shoved a bar of silk between his teeth. Haku nearly passed out as the fox set the broken bone. Thrashing in the in the blinding white black gray of agony that swelled, he did not make a sound. As the worst passed he sagged in the little spider's grip. She hushed in his ear soothingly, pushing up his mask to smooth his sweat drenched brow. All the while her hands patted and rubbed his shoulders as she did her silk steel. If only those anxious hands could make him stronger. He continued to squirm and quake as more pain surged up his leg while the fox worked. Mercilessly the God's charcoal hands forced his brittle bones to join and his weak flesh to knit. Until like his shattered wrist naught remained of the pain but a dull throbbing ache. A squeak issued from his mouth as Kuromi squeezed him tightly. From below Shurui bellowed distantly.

"Come out and fight, coward! Or watch your sister die as you did before!"

Yanking him upright out of the fox's grip, Kuromi's hands kept their hold as she peered around the iron shutters through the densely rolling smoke. Choking on the acrid air, Haku stared from afar in abject dismay as Shurui plucked Shimizu out of the crackling plumes of white red fire. Badly burned and missing her helmet, the spider dropped to her knees beside the spider queen. Shurui tucked one of her fans into her armor only to produce a blade of silk that she rested on the stymied spider's shoulder. But as ringing silence filled the burning atrium and her challenge went unanswered Shurui's face fell. Then her red eyes turned cunning. Again her husky voice swelled over her bells filling the cavernous room.

"That's right, you're a traitor now! Perhaps I should kill one of your new friends instead?"

Stupidly Haku watched Shurui rip Sen free of her cocoon with a resounding flick of one fan. Shurui hauled her stunned and stumbling and gasping for air to the edge of the splintered balcony. Haku's tremulous heart surged into his throat as she skidded to a stop on the ledge teetering there. He teetered with her, reaching uselessly even as Kuromi held both he and the fox back. Kuromi knew better than to let them reveal themselves. Still pinning Shimizu in place with one of her other bells, the spider queen pointed her blade right at Sen as she held up an iron bells. Haku and Kuromi flinched in unison at what she shouted next.

"I can snap her neck the same way I can snap an arm!"

The black fans flicked and swooped in opposite directions tolling clamorously. Shimizu bellowed in agony as one of her arms broke like a brittle twig. Shrinking with sympathetic horror, Haku clamped a hand over his mouth against a gasp. As the soldier writhed at her feet Shurui thundered over the bells and the crackling fires.

"Here are my terms! All I want is the human and the gold kimono! Bring them to me and I'll leave and you'll never see me again! If you don't…"

As she trailed off her black bells pealed sonorously. Shimizu screeched and thrashed as another of her arms snapped. The sound broke something in Haku. It narrowed his world to light and dark as sound and feeling fled him. There was a bow in his hand and an arrow in his fingers. And he no longer cared about what they would cost him. He no longer had the luxury of kindness. All the malice in the two worlds had stolen from him this last shred of resistant goodness. He would carry this burden even if it dragged him to hell as long as this madness ended here.

There was a wind at his back; it blew through his hollow insides cold and cruel. It surged along his arm to the place where the arrow knocked the string. Carrying all his rage and his pain and his sorrow and his regret he let it fly. As the string hummed against his cheek the bolt shrieked as his bitter wind caught it. It sliced through the air in a blinding flash too fast for Shurui to counter. Shurui knocked backwards falling to her knees as the impact nearly threw her over. Her fans and blade clattered to the ground as she bent clutching her face. Blood ran down her fingers as she snapped off the fletching protruding from her eye. Blood spattered the blistered broken boards at her feet. Then she laughed, low at first until she laughed louder and louder.

Crestfallen, Haku could only stare with his bow humming in his hand. He truly was a fool to think a single arrow could kill this monster. As he scrambled for another arrow Shurui's empty hands furled. Several small somethings went bouncing throughout the room. One glanced off the ceiling and ricocheted onto the balcony at his feet. Stumbling back from it Haku stared in confusion at the tiny gray canister of human metal. It beeped twice then clicked.

"Gernades!"

Sen screamed at the top of her lungs from across the atrium as the world exploded.