Good morning, everyone.
Enjoy the chapter. Must be the longest one as of yet. Sorry for the late updates.
Disclaimers: Gintama doesn't belong to me.
Shuyo let go of Takasugi's unresponsive hand and stood, closing her eyes for a moment and deep in thought, steeling herself for the fight that was to happen. She wasn't planning to die, like she promised, but she couldn't guarantee to keep that promise this time with this opponent. All she could do was go forward with the sword in her hand and live like the samurai she was.
"So you're taking his place in this fight, Yoshida Shuyo? Are you sure that you can-," the Noragami was cut off when Shuyo ran at him, arriving right at her objective and slamming the hilt of the katana into the man's stomach. The enormous strength she rammed into the connection made him fly backwards for only ten feet, after which he twisted in the air and landed again about twenty feet across from her, lightly staggering.
I told Yamyra this before, and I will tell this to you. I will repeat it as many times as needed. If you underestimate us samurai, you are going to get hurt. She thought aloud, her grey eyes hard and firm. She knew full well from seeing that if the master of the Noragami had truly possessed Yamyra's body, he was also capable of putting all of Yamyra's abilities to use as well as that of his original ones. But curiously enough, none of it scared her in the slightest bit.
"So you think that you can kill me in your current status… how interesting. Yamyra told me, with all of his memories when I absorbed him," the Noragami held out his hands, and dark smoke arose, this time, morphing into a katana… that mirrored exactly the weapon Shuyo held in her own hands. "That you were of a peculiar kind. Not just you, but that of samurai as well. That you held a strong soul which did not sway or bend to anyone's wishes nor succumb to the endless Hell your destiny led you to whilst living for hundreds of years."
Shuyo braced herself for the incoming first blow, her feet digging into the ground firmly and her fingers clasping Takasugi's katana more firmly. She prayed that she would last long enough in this fight to accomplish what must be done.
"But why… why struggle against your pitiless, wretched self in this world by trying to pursue a path that can only give you more pain? Why take the hard way, one that will eventually kill you in a shorter amount of time when you can take the easier way and accept what you are?"
She shuddered at the first clanging of metal against metal, and felt herself being pushed back. Shoyou's haunting face came close to her own, though he had no trace of what even resembled her brother Shoyou, or anything that was left of her former student Yamyra. "He told me that you made a promise to yourself after you tried to kill yourself, of how you wouldn't dare to take away a life. That your mind was unconsciously wary of shedding blood again after killing my first generation of Noragami hundreds of years ago. And about how it would drive you to the brink of madness if it happened again. So what kind of samurai does that make you, and as a woman, no less?"
He was mocking her identity, criticizing her for calling her what she was because she was a woman... and everyone else's calling as samurai. Fury arose in her at that thought, but she was careful not to let it blind her in the fight.
Shuyo bit into her lip at his remark and jumped back, then using the broken rocks as leverage, leaped back at her opponent, her sword coming down in a straight slash. All she did was to nick the edge of the kimono sleeve he had on, but she held her ground again when he returned her gesture with a series of death blows.
He was on par with her strength, speed and skill, but his eyes held no emotion of trying to cut down an opponent honorably by sending them to the other world. All this man was doing was trying to murder because of his bloodlust and prey on what was left over. And the fact sickened her to the very core.
"Had Yamyra not let you go when you were young, perhaps you would be my vessel by now instead." The Noragami's voice echoed around her, and she turned to meet the next blow, her arms quivering as she struggled to go against the steadily increasing skills she faced with. He twisted his hold on the katana while it was still against hers, whipping it around then spun to kick her in the stomach. "But Yamyra betrayed me from the very beginning by keeping you from me and went against my orders, and continued to do so when he left a part of himself behind by becoming your disciple a hundred years ago. That was one element of surprise that I did not expect."
She cradled one arm around her stomach, using her weapons as a crutch to stand on the rocks, a frown marring her usually calm expression. Her mental voice was agitated when she said, Yamyra, and any of your soldiers you resurrected were never any of your puppets or toys. You should have long known that when you—
He interrupted as he slashed at her, lightly grazing her shoulder and shedding the first exchange of blood as he did, "Started using them? But people, my dear child, become such things when they have already lost their identity, their name –their very soul. All I did was give such things to them. And thus, I owned them. And who is to say that how I deal with my own possessions is wrong?"
She recoiled from the leering gleam in his eye and those words coming from his mouth more so than the wound he inflicted on her physically. She was deeply disgusted by his way of treating a living creature, but more so at the lack of morality in this monster.
The man snorted, glancing at the trickle of her blood shining on his own blade. "Even your own little samurai over there never upheld morals when he went on his rampage for revenge. He and I are not so different from each other."
Takasugi was ripped apart, grieved and treated like he was below everyone and anyone when he chose to go on a path different than what others might have expected of him. It hardened him – twisted him horribly, and the years that came after he lost that which he cared for were not forgiving. He's changed, I do admit, but the most important aspect of him… has not changed at all. He knows who he really is, what he always has been, but you have already lost your own identity and forgotten what you were in the beginning when you started living a shell of a life. He is different from you.
"True, true, I've lived a long time – too long a time to be held down by such fickle creeds made by creatures who try to uphold such ethics and rules in order to live. But I know too well that such things are useless as times pass and generations change, Shuyo. Hasn't your own country's history and this wretched world taught you that?"
Pride comes before the fall. Perhaps you are not as old as you claim to be, if you forget such things. He laughed at her warning, dodging the second hit from her katana, and turned to plunge his fist into her arm, trying to make her drop her weapon.
Shuyo made no sound when she heard the cracking of a bone in her right arm and only fisted her fingers around the katana more, refusing to acknowledge the pain and concentrating on the person in front of her. But she did almost lose her footing when the ground shifted under her in a turbulent shake, so she drew back to come and rest on a large boulder instead of lunging again. Even the Noragami stepped back, using the battlefield he created to his advantage.
The ground under them was still cracking, so either of them were being careful not to land in the emerging molten Earth, and brought their battle to resume on the columns of igneous rocks and boulders that had managed to go out of the way of being shattered.
The fight engaged for a while, and blood decorated the walls every so often with small splats. As time passed, it seemed as if Shuyo was being pushed back while her opponent was increasingly growing stronger. She dodged and attacked well, but never did go for the killing blow. And that might have been slowing her down.
"Or perhaps it's just the fact that you're holding back, chaining down your full potential because you refuse to kill me." He said, swinging his blade and merrily bringing it to smack the back of her torso and knocking her against a rock. "How curious. That other child, Jorugumo, was a Yato who was scared of his own abilities and didn't want to kill others. I snapped that chain for him when he became one of us... and a wonderfully working Noragami he became. And here I am now, watching another potential child I could raise… so, shall I leave you alone to rot, or shall I kill you and make you one of us?"
Shuyo staggered, leaning on the katana as a staff and glared up at him. The day when I die is when my body returns to the Earth from which I came from and when my soul leaves for the next world for good. In life or death, you will have no hold over me nor anyone else, Noragami.
"So you're refusing my offer. Then there's only one choice left-," with that, Shuyo was slammed into the ceiling of the cavern, the katana running through her chest. "—you die."
Shuyo's eyes widened as she felt that blade slicing through layer by layer – into her skin, her muscles and passing bones. A red stream dribbled from her lips as her lungs filled with blood. Her body screamed as its weight pressed her down even further on the katana piercing her.
A bubbling stream of laughter came from the Noragami as he pressed the katana further into her body, opening his mouth to drink each drop of blood flowing from her wound in greedy gulps. She stared into the seemingly bottomless pits he had for eyes, and that expression on his face. She couldn't stand to see his body being used like this.
With all that was left of her energy, and while he was distracted with the sight of her blood, she swung the katana in her own hand and brought it straight down in a vehement strike, lopping off his arms and slashing his torso. Then she threw it across to a place where it would reach its goal.
That let the grip on her go, and she tumbled from the ceiling, the katana's sharp edge pulling from her body when it clashed against the ground. Gripping the black hilt of the Noragami's katana, she pulled it out slowly. She groaned to herself as the sharp agony in her chest blossomed, opening further from the impact of her fall, and she struggled to get back up on her legs. Because she had predicted it to happen, she'd managed to land without injuring anything else.
But as to what would happen next… well…
"You weren't able to kill me. You couldn't even kill me with your last breath, and yet you think of the next thing to do? Or, is that just wishful thinking because you promised a dead man something you won't be able to carry out?" a mocking voice made her draw her eyes to the armless man in black. Her blood splattered his clothes, his skin and his face, reminding her of her brother from when he shed others' blood to protect her. What a sight that was. What a sight this was.
Samurai don't make promises they don't keep… and it is the same with me, as well. She said, smiling wearily. She watched as a shadow crept from behind the man laughing, bringing a silver bloodstained sword down in a vicious blow.
Black blood flicked on her face as Takasugi yanked out his katana and raised it, finally slicing off the Noragami's head before he could retaliate.
Armless, and nearly headless, the corpse of the Noragami's master and of his past subordinate dropped to the ground in a bloody heap. It was over.
She sighed as she leaned against the steaming ground back again, feeling the blood seep into her kimono and staining it bright red. She was so tired already, so that if she closed her eyes, she felt that she would fall into a deep sleep immediately. But that would be unforgiveable, given the circumstances. Shuyo heard the hurried footsteps and then the clanging of metal hitting the ground as two hands lifted her, cradling her.
"Shuyo." She blinked, looking up at Takasugi's bloodied face with a smile. His eye was wide and his voice slightly wavering, almost insecure as he called out her name again.
I'm not dead yet. Like I promised.
Silent at her happy expression, and ignoring what she tried to relay to him, she felt his frantic movements, his hands moving to rip his kimono sleeve and begin bandaging her bleeding torso.
He didn't seem to realize that she was tugging at his clothes insistently with a hand, fervently intent on trying to stem the blood from spreading. She sighed when that didn't work, and impatiently smacked his chest, which finally got his attention.
There was one last trick I had to use. My heart is on the right side of my body, and not my left. I was born with these reversed organs, while Onii-sama's internal structures were normal. The Noragami didn't hit my heart, Takasugi. I'm alright.
When he seemed to properly comprehend what she had said, she felt his muscles relax under her touch and breathed out a sigh. His stricken face quickly turned into a deep frown as his eyebrows wrinkled, and she knew that he was upset with her for scaring him like that. It was no surprise. He must have seen her get impaled at the last moment, seen her fall with the katana in her chest – in the place where her heart was supposed to be – and thought that he'd lost her for good.
But instead of saying anything to her, he said aloud, "It's over."
Then the mountainside promptly exploded.
Shuyo thought her eardrums would burst from the loud sound of something going off over her head. Rocks, pebbles – the entire mountain caved in at that moment, and when the shaking stopped, she saw the hovering ships of the Kiheitai and of the Harusame right above them.
By the looks of it, they had been on standby all along, waiting for Takasugi's order.
She scooted out from Takasugi's arms and stood on her feet, instead hoisting him up (he was in a worse condition than she was, after all). They looked at each other for a long moment, then turned to look at the dark sky, filled with numerous stars. How strange it was. No one but them would remember, recollect and know what had gone on for these few months, and only they would know of the supernatural existence that had been living within the country for a long, long time.
Shuyo sighted familiar faces of the Kiheitai, waving from the board of the ship, and smiled as three other faces appeared in front of her, running from up the mountain slope and slipping into the heating cavern.
"Shinsuke, Yoshida-dono, you're-," Bansai started, when he was interrupted by Matako, who ran past him to stand in front of Shuyo, a huge grin on her half bloodied face.
"Thank goodness that you're alright!" Looking over the blonde girl's shoulder, Shuyo spotted another familiar face, who had a blank expression and stood stiffly to the side, almost as if she didn't belong.
She held out a hand to her newest student, smiling warmly, trying to reassure her that she was not unwelcome and Shizuko stepped forward, pushing Matako out of the way to grab that hand almost reverently and sank to her knees, squeezing Shuyo's fingers in response.
"By the looks of it, she is the only one who survived this ordeal," Bansai said, stopping in front of Takasugi and explained, "Everything, and everyone else in the Noragami are gone now-gozaru. A little before Shinsuke told us that it was over, every soldier started melting and ended up as either a pile of bones or slime. Odd, but, that was that-gozaru. We brought her here so you could decide what to do with-,"
"Leave it to Shuyo." Takasugi said from Shuyo's side, and she gave him a grateful smile, mouthing, She has nothing more holding her down or back in this place, so the least we can do is let her decide on her own what she wants to do.
"I—I want to go with you, Shuyo… sensei. I'm fine with going anywhere with you." That sudden declaration raised eyebrows and gave sighs, but Shuyo could see how expectant the young Noragami – no, the former Noragami – was, and slowly nodded.
"And – and I want you to give me a new name. Shizuko was the name I was given as a Noragami, but I am not even that any longer. I want you to name me… sensei."
The significance of Shuyo giving her a name was the same as being given the duty of a parent who named their child so that they would grow to be so. The act of doing so was the same as signifying that Shizuko was going to begin living in a renewed manner... and also belong to Shuyo, in one way.
Because the young one was willing, Shuyo would teach her and lead her alongside her other wards for a long time.
How would you like the name Hiou?
"Scarlet cherry blossoms. How suitable for one such as she." Shuyo lightly patted Takasugi's head when he muttered under his breath, and she asked him, Would you like me to make a name for you too, Taka-chin?
"You seem to be awfully fond of that nickname already." He retorted, and she laughed softly while the others looked confused. It was like they were all in the calm that came after the storm, when the clouds parted and the sun hit the Earth.
Everything was going to go well.
It was – had she not felt a cold, creeping presence emanating from the heap of rocks behind them. Her entire frame stilled on the walk up to the opening, stiffening as her head turned to stare back at the ruins. The spiraling waves of heat rose in the air, along with the thickening smoke, obscuring her vision. But there was no mistaking that frigid aura.
As if sensing her uneasiness, Takasugi touched her shoulder, asking what was wrong. She couldn't answer. He hadn't noticed anything, just like the others. Her heart pounded in her chest, the uneasy feeling rising within her with every second she stopped to look back.
Her grey eyes met his green one in the split of a second, and she mouthed, I'm sorry before quickly shoving Takasugi out of the way, throwing him into the others so that they all fell from the opening.
There was no last trick or weapon at hand she could use to protect him or herself with at that moment. There was only her, and the pain she felt seizing every part of her senses. It was only because of what he was to her that she had chosen to given her own life instead to save his.
This time, instead of a katana piercing her chest, what looked like black vines embedded with thorns ran through her entire body and stained the rocks with her scarlet blood.
She tasted thickness of blood in her mouth, felt it trickle down her limbs and smelled the burning sulfur mixing with her blood and knew for a fact that she was going to die. She heard the others' voices chorusing together to scream her name.
But all that she could see was Takasugi's moving body, his face overflowing and alive with his usual emotion and everyone else she cared for safely, far away from the unforeseen event. She was going to die, but he was going to live.
And that's… enough, isn't it, Onii-sama?
He heard the screaming after he saw what had happened. It had taken him a moment to realize that the screaming did not belong to him. All he could do, all that his own body had done was to stare in horror, his mind and his entire being going blank as she—
No. He didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to know.
He saw everything happen as Shuyo was impaled in front of his eyes and the blood had sprayed all around her, then slump forward and fall. He didn't realize consciously that his body was already moving, his feet running up the mountain slope and back to the opening from which he fell from. There was pain, and he was also battered out from the many battles he'd fought, so his pace was slow and his body almost clumsy as it made its way up.
He saw her body lying still on the ground, the red coating her completely. No.
He saw her long hair soaked with the same color and dripping from her face. No. He didn't want to know.
He fell on his knees, and his hands were shaking when he gathered her into his arms. That red liquid was still pouring from her body, and he couldn't do anything to stop it. No… this couldn't be happening.
Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving at all. Blood was flowing in waves from her mouth, covering everything. Besides the red soaking everything in front of his eyes, a deeper, hazy dark crimson bled into his vision as hatred welled up. He didn't… didn't… he couldn't… lose…
Just then, he felt a hand touch his face, grazing the skin of his cheek, reaching out and touching him through that thin layer of hatred and grief.
He almost cried out, his eye widening, and he quickly grabbed her hand, squeezing it softly. "S-Shuy-," his lips could barely form her name, but he saw that she was smiling.
She must have been in so much pain, but she was smiling. For him.
He saw her lips move and tried to concentrate on what she was saying. What was she saying…?
-sugi. Takasugi. She was calling out for him. His hand was trembling as he held her hand against his face, but he could say nothing.
Shinsuke. She was smiling softly, her expression reaching out in the midst of his shock and hatred, and her hand was slippery with blood but warm. Shinsuke. Thank you…
She gave him her usual warm smile – the smile that lit up her entire face, no matter how bloodied it was; the smile that always made his eyes soften in fondness and in memory of his teacher; the smile that belonged to her, which made his entire being feel at peace – and closed her grey eyes.
Takasugi couldn't do anything as he felt her hand slacken in his hold and slip from his face because of the blood, and her arm fall down with a limp against her red chest.
After ten years, he had gained strength, power and allies powerful enough to topple a nation. He'd waited, bid his time, played all the right moves and nursed his anger and hatred. He could do so, so much, but he could do nothing now.
He couldn't bring him back. And he couldn't bring her back.
He wasn't able to have protected him. And he wasn't able to protect her.
In the end, he and the others were only protected and left to live, though from the very beginning, he should not have lived.
In the end, he was protected and left to die. A life without her was as good as being dead.
But if he was going to die, he might as well as bring everything else around him… and destroy.
"Shinsuke…" he heard Bansai call out for him beside him. It wasn't a call for him to stop from going on, but a call to wait. Takasugi turned silently, and handed Shuyo to him. He saw her body and the hatred rose in him. She didn't have to die, but she did.
He saw the woman Shuyo left to live start sobbing, and saw a fraction of himself in her. A child who was crying for their beloved salvation and teacher who was no more.
His own body was not going to last this time, and he didn't need for it to. Unsheathing his katana, Takasugi looked at the blood staining its sharp side and thought of Shuyo. And then he turned to see the monstrous shadow in the deeper center of the mountain.
Bansai watched as his leader walk towards the monster and begin the final fight.
The only reason as to why he'd let Takasugi go and fight with his last breath was because he knew that it was something that had to be done.
Even though he knew that Shuyo had protected him at the cost of her own life, for him to live and not die, he couldn't tell Takasugi something that his leader had already known. Takasugi was acting even though he knew what Shuyo had done, and not out of the sake of the Kiheitai or for his goal of destroying the Bakufu.
Bansai, the second in command of the Kiheitai and Takasugi's subordinate, had no interests beyond that of fulfilling the same goal as Takasugi. He had no reason to interfere with his personal fights, and had no right to do so. And that, was why he had let him be.
He looked down through his broken shades at the bloody woman in his arms, who had a faint smile on her face. Her body was still warm, but also soaked with blood and wet with it.
"So you planned further on for your own death, Yoshida-dono, and wore such funeral clothes-gozaru…" he murmured, recalling that she was still wearing the white and black from the festival. "And I wasn't able to hear the very last song you had to offer. What a shame-gozaru-,"
"Don't speak of her that way." He lifted his head up at the sharp remark. "She's... Shuyo-san's not… she… can't be…"
"Matako, I understand your emotional status, but Yoshida-dono-,"
"Shut up for a moment." The crude tone quieted him and Matako, who stared at the person in shock. He watched the Noragami woman, who was now Hiou, reach out and touch the dead woman's chest, her palms glowing red.
"What is it now?"
"It would be an understatement to say this with all that's been happening. But… sensei is-,"
Cut, slash, dodge and stab.
Cut, slash, dodge and stab.
It was like an endless array of patterns in his moves that kept him going. His anger served as feed for that process.
Black blood spurted into his face and soaked into his skin, and those thorns cut through his flesh and clothes, mingling red with the ink black like a canvas of two colors.
Whatever the Noragami had been, he had lost his human features and limbs for good. Black spider-like limbs were sprouting from the back of the creature, stretching long and versatile like rose vines, and two new arms, akin to that of an Amanto monster had replaced his former human limbs. It appeared as if he had reattached his head, though Takasugi could see a thin red line where his neck had been sliced.
"How many times do I have to kill you and that woman for you to stay dead?" the monster said, and Takasugi stabbed into its chest and stepped back, dodging the endless wave of vines coming to pierce him. The chest wound healed immediately, and Takasugi went in for the second lunge, hearing the echo of the Noragami's raucous laughter.
But it was different this time. When his katana had sunk into the Noragami's flesh, it had stayed there, and the mad laughter had ebbed away. Takasugi lifted his head and peered into two familiar red eyes, blinking in surprise.
"Taka… sugi… Shinsuke…" the voice that came from him was not of the previous monster's voice. "Hurry… up and kill me."
He yanked his sword out, and kicked the Noragami in the chest, pushing him back. The Noragami sank down to the ground, his hands clutching his head, and shaking. The vines shook in reflection of that same unrest in their owner.
"That meddlesome insect…" when he snarled again, it was back to the deep, rumbling voice of the Noragami's master. "He still… resists…?!"
Takasugi stopped, watching as the vines coming from the man's body convulsed, writhed and started shrinking. The Noragami snapped his head up, his eyes black, and those shrinking vines suddenly moved, whipping madly around.
Raising his sword, he sliced them off, earning a bellowing scream. He stepped closer to the man, calmly cutting those vines whenever they went at him. The cut black pieces dropped to the ground and turned to ash, blowing away in the heat coming from the cracked lava.
So, it appeared as if Yamyra had not completely disappeared yet from his own body.
"Hurry… and… kill… silence, Yamyra! I won't have you opposing me… no, kill me now. Hurry, before I-,"
It was like watching a play go on, one in which one person played two opposing actors in a monologue. If it wasn't so odd, he might have continued watching him struggle. But he didn't.
Takasugi mercilessly sliced off the Noragami's left arm, and the force of his katana also nicked off his ankle, and it went flying, then plopped into the lava, where it bubbled and burned. The smell of burning flesh added to the heat and aroma of blood in the air.
"No… you—no, hurry up… and…" he wheezed, trying to stay in one place, but also trying to move forward and attack.
"I can't cut you down if you keep moving like this, Noragami." Takasugi commented, and sliced off the left arm which was growing back again. He repeated the process three times, and the limb came back each time, though it regenerated a little slowly each time.
"This body… has already absorbed all the remaining energy and lives of the other Noragami… it may take a little longer to destroy it than Kuso's…" Yamyra gasped, groaning as Takasugi sliced off his right arm, which grew back again. That explained why Bansai had said that the Noragami all suddenly reverted back to their dead forms. The master and his minions were connected, and when he didn't need the skills or lives of his soldiers, he had brought their lives and used them to sustain his own.
"Did killing your own teacher finally lead you to opening your eyes, Noragami?"
The Noragami let out a wheezing laugh, which was swallowed up with a cry of pain when his right arm was cut off, this time. "When I… felt these vines… enter her body… yes. I realized I had nothing left… but to die."
Takasugi waved his katana, and two more arms went flying into the air. When the Noragami spoke up, this time, it was the of the second voice that called out, "You… may join me if you wish, Takasugi Shinsuke. I can grant your heart-felt wish, but you have to let me live…"
"Shuyo wouldn't want to come back as a mere ghost." He said, ignoring the Noragami's master's plea and sliced off a newly regenerated foot, and a few of the black vines. This wasn't even a proper fight anymore. It was just another execution.
"Then is it the destruction of the Bakufu-,"
Slash.
"Or the death of your enemy—that Gin-,"
Slash.
"Or is it to see your old teacher once again in this world?" at that, Takasugi paused in his stride, looking down at the Noragami who was crawling on the ground. The creature sounded almost desperate in his last deal, "I can do it, with the remaining power I wield. If your teacher's soul still resides in that body of his sister, then I can bring him back with her body as a vessel-,"
Slash.
"No one can bring back the dead into the world of the living. What you're doing and what you've already done is doing puppetry with mindless, soulless corpses. You never had any kind of power to bring back someone from the dead. And you won't be bringing sensei back. The dead should stay dead, and the living should stay living." Takasugi raised his katana over his head, and swung it down…
And was stopped when the Noragami grabbed the blade of his katana with his fingers, sneering up at him. "Pity. A real pity."
Takasugi was able to switch the angle on his katana so that those fingers got sliced off. With his weapon free, he jumped back, waiting for his next chance to lunge.
His worn down patience had been fed up when the other creature opened his mouth and said, "This useless fight has gone on long enough. After I kill you, I will devour your soul and regain my former glory, then rule the human world. You will regret the day you were born when I use your soul to kill everyone else-,"
But before he could go in for the kill like he thought, the Noragami jerked, as if being controlled by strings like a puppet, and fell to the ground, trembling.
Red eyes looked up at him, scrunched with pain and grievous effort. "Living for a thousand years doesn't just come with nothing… I've restrained him… but not for long. Go for… my heart… and it will end." He coughed once. "All he has now… is this body and a shell of a soul. He will have nothing on this Earth to hold him down if I… the vessel, die."
When his eyes had turned black again, Takasugi had taken his chance and stabbed his sword into the man's chest where his heart was down to the hilt, as blood bubbled from the wound and spilled over onto the ground. A piercing screech came from the man's mouth, his black eyes turning red, then black, then red and rolling around like mad.
The air in the cavern suddenly turned dark, as if smoke was filling it, then froze as something like air pressure exploded. The steam arose from the cracks and lava burst forth like small fountains now that the power holding it back from certain explosion was gone.
But Takasugi kept his knee on the body until it stopped moving around at all before pulling his sword out, then pushing it back in just in case. Something told him that it wasn't quite over yet.
When the body beneath him opened its eyes, he saw that the owner was that of Yamyra.
How funny this situation was. The two had been enemies, but had one objective now which had made them allies. They both had that connection to Shuyo and acted on her behalf.
He stared down at the one who had used the illusion to create a body to look like his teacher and Shuyo. He wanted to pity him, to hate him, but realized that he couldn't.
This man was akin to Gintoki, but was not him.
Yamyra… was almost like himself.
Putting in all his efforts for something, for someone, but failing when another had interrupted the process… losing everything, in addition to the one who had been his everything and destroying that with his own weakness… and now, dying, with nothing more to lose.
This person's death foreshadowed what would lay ahead of his own path. Merely a death that would never come easily, and a life that would never be like living.
"But Shuyo… sensei… believed differently… she saw something in you that I lacked… and believed that you would be able to find something else after… you pursued that path."
Takasugi's eye dropped to the man, who was trying to get up, his deformed hands clutching his fatal wound. Blood gushed forth from it, but Yamyra ignored it, staggering up and leaning against a rock to gain his balance.
"What are you trying to do?"
"Shuyo… sensei… was my purpose for living. She… still is. If I can do anything with this life that remains for now… I will do it." Takasugi watched as the man tried to walk, but collapse to the ground. He watched as that man started crawling on all his limbs to go forth.
He murmured, "Trying to do something more for the person you've killed with your own hands… how ironic."
When Yamyra answered him, it was like that of a knowing, mocking guffaw. "Shuyo… isn't dead… yet, Takasugi Shinsuke."
Those words stopped him.
"What Master said before… wasn't a… lie. He… could have brought Shoyou back… since Shuyo holds his half of a soul…"
Takasugi dropped his sword and pulled up Yamyra by his torn kimono, glaring into his bloodied face. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Those red eyes stared back at him through barely opened slits, "I… can bring Shuyo back… but you will… have to… choose, and quickly, for my time… is short here. Takasugi Shinsuke… will you choose to bring back Shuyo… or resurrect… the teacher… you swore to avenge…?"
His heart thumped inside with exhilaration and dread at this given chance. But was it one he was willing to take?
The ground was rumbling, clearly showing that the volcano was about to erupt. Most of the Kiheitai and the Harusame had gotten back on their ships and were preparing to take off, save for one ship that lingered on the slope of the volcano, waiting for its leader to return.
"Damn it, what the hell are you doing, you bitch? We have to go and rescue Shinsuke-sama before this thing explodes!" Matako shouted to the black haired woman standing at the entrance of the volcano, with Shuyo's body in her arms.
"He's already coming. You don't have to do anything." Hiou answered with her blank, dead stare a mask on her face. It was as if she'd grown to be emotionless and stiff like a doll, the grief of her teacher's death casting her into a person who was affected as such.
But that new look in her black eyes told Bansai that it was different.
She was waiting for the others to come back and help Shuyo. How, why or who would, she didn't say, and Bansai didn't know. But if she said it was going to happen despite the circumstances, then something told him that it would happen.
"Bansai-senpai, there-," Matako suddenly cried out, pointing to two figures walking up from out of the cavern aglow with the heat and light of the rising lava. "Shinsuke-sama!"
Bansai stopped Matako from running forward to help Takasugi when he saw the Noragami leader, Yamyra, on Takasugi's right side, limping with a red hole in his chest. He whipped out his katana from it's sheathe, but when he saw that Takasugi was supporting the Noragami so that he could walk, he had to lower his sword in confusion.
He watched as the woman walked forward to them, as if she had been expecting them to come back side by side like this and kneel down with Shuyo still in her arms. She said something he couldn't hear, and the two answered in return.
Shuyo's body was transferred from the woman to Takasugi, who held her as the Noragami reached out a hand and touched the center of her chest, and a dull light started glowing from his skin. It was like a pulsing fire whose light grew stronger with every passing second, and enveloped all three of them in a hazy red aura.
What happened next was a bit of a blur – even Bansai couldn't understand what was going on.
At the next moment, the Noragami had seized that light in his palm and started drawing it towards him with a snarl, and Takasugi had his dagger out to stab into the Noragami's face, making him stagger back.
"You bastard-!" the Noragami snarled, and this time, Bansai and Matako each raised their weapons to attack, but not before they saw something appear before them all like a small misty figure that arose from Shuyo's body and reach out a hand to flick away the offender.
Apparently, one simple touch was all it took. The man fell as if being struck by something and spiraled backwards, his body starting to fall apart to what looked like ashes and bones. It was the final deterioration of a body that should not have existed, and the dispersion of a soul that was not living.
Simple, short, and final was that last death.
They all didn't have time to even register what exactly occurred or cheer for their victory – after being suppressed for a millennia or so, the centuries old mountain was finally venting.
The story is ending.
About two more chapters left, I'd say.