.
All of the Pieces
[Episode Twenty]
Suspicious Minds
Wherein wading through the much and mire is best done with boots.
It stood up straight, all broad shoulders and smoking skin as the internal heat of the beast outdid the embers underfoot. Muscle and sinew stretched over an angular scaffolding, delicate spikes protruding from its shoulders and hands like quills. Its head stood with the tops of the trees, its face resembling a decaying bull with bone as black as coal and covered in patches of dangling blue skin. Its eyes were a void, swallowing in any light that touched them, and reflecting nothing. Atop its head sat black ox horns, wide, sharp, and curved like scythes reaching into the sky.
The ground in the clearing began to shift, dirt and ash slowly melting into a pool of dark, oxidized blood that seeped up to cover ankles. The orb of rainbow of light that had formed in front of Kuwabara pulled away from him, Kannon forming her ethereal body out of the energy. Her inky hair flowed about her like a shimmering cloak, and she placed a gentle hand on her host's forehead. His eyes regained their color, and his mind regained its agency, the spell of her apparition complete.
"Oh... eww," were the first sounds from Kuwabara's mouth as he became conscious of the sticky mess he was kneeling in. He couldn't hold back a gag as the blood slopped down his shins when he stood.
"You must all flee, your power will be useless against him," Kannon spoke gravely, turning to face the giant that loomed over them all.
"The hell it is, lady! We've been fighting our asses off to get what we need to kick Enma to the curb, and this ugly bastard ain't on Enma's level," Yusuke proclaimed, stepping past Kannon and firing his spirit gun toward the beast's head.
The giant made no move to avoid the attack. Instead, it leaned in, opening its mouth wide as the energy hurdled towards him. The ball of light passed between the beast's teeth and he closed its mouth around it, seemingly swallowing the attack with a satisfied gulp. A low rumble rattled through his chest and the air around him.
Laughter.
"You are right, boy," the monstrous being chuckled, his voice loud enough to make the charred wood of the surrounding trees groan. "I am not on my little brother's level. I am well above it."
"L-little brother?" Yusuke stammered a bit in his shock.
"This creature has no weakness, Yusuke," Kurama cautioned, the second sight of Daikoku showing him absolutely nothing to work with.
The Mazoku's shoulders dropped. "Oh fuck."
The giant slammed his hand into the pool of blood at his feet, the ground beneath spewing out lengths of heavy chain. The chains shot out in all directions, and no matter how quickly anyone moved to dodge them, they all found their targets. Links of metal wound around ankles, arms, and necks, pulling everyone in the clearing down to kneel in the coagulated sludge.
They struggled. Chains clinking and rattling as each fighter battled against their own bonds, but no matter how hard they pulled, or how much energy they tried to call upon, they all felt weak under the weight.
"What is this?!" Hiei demanded as he tried and failed to summon his fire.
"These chains contain the same blessed material as the shackles of Reikai's prison. No demon or human energy can break through them." Though he had no lips, a smile was evident in the beast's voice. "Tell me, cursed child," he hummed with satisfaction, "how does it feel to be caught in the same bonds for a third time?"
Hiei's face contorted in a mix of rage and bewilderment. What was this disgusting creature even talking about? Hiei had only seen the prisons of Reikai once before.
"Let them go Yamantaka!" Kannon beseeched, her incorporeal form unaffected by the chains.
"Oh, shut up you little flea," Yamantaka hissed as he hoisted his clawed hand high to swat the life out of the worthless bugs below him. As his arm dropped to sweep across the entire group and kill them in one blow, the beast froze in time, like a horrendous statue.
Kannon stood before them, her hands brought together at her chest in a prayer. Her form quaked as she struggled to hold whatever spell she had cast into place, the silver light of her body flickering in and out of existence. She stumbled to the person nearest her, her feet barely finding themselves, before collapsing to her knees in front of Kurama. She reached out, touching the chain that had wound around him, but frowned when the magic did not respond to her.
She crawled further, her spirit body shaking more and more under the weight of the magic she was trying to hold fast. She was before Touya next, but her attempts at moving the chains around him failed as well. She struggled over to Lyra, a hopeful smile on her strained face. "Perhaps, since we have been so close..."
The chains didn't budge. Kannon's eyes welled with tears and she held her hand out to Lyra's chest, her weightless fingers covering the human's heart. "My sweet girl, I'm so sorry."
Lyra looked the goddess in the eyes, her face pleading. "Stop this! This magic is killing you! If we don't make it out of this, you have to be there to try again."
"Perhaps you would have made a stronger goddess of compassion than I, dear Lyra," Kannon said with a weak smile. A shadow passed over her silver eyes, but she shook her head, banishing the thought that had plagued her. She crawled onward, her white robes staining in the shallow pool of sick muck.
When she finally made it to Kuwabara her pale skin had become ashen. Her hand trembled as she brought it to the chain around his neck, any spark of hope she had left was well hidden.
Until she heard a click.
Her eyes widened as the chains began to crackle and whine beneath her hand. Kuwabara shared her look of surprise, his chest swelling with the prospect of breaking free and saving his friends.
"Help me, Kazuma! Focus all of your will," she said, a bit of strength returning to her voice.
He did as she asked, his eyes closing as he allowed himself to freefall into the internal stillness at his core. Years of meditation practice, the lessons of Genkai and Kurama, were paying off as he was quickly able to push past the pain and worry in his body. In a moment, all that existed in his mind were the chains. He gathered his will as organically as he would gather his reiki, pushing it into the bonds he'd envisioned. The real chains on his body responded, cracks forming in the metal before finally breaking clean through.
"Hell yeah!" he hollered in triumph as he shot to his feet and the chains fell limp into the blood. He paused for a beat, looking at his hands as he tried to summon his spirit sword, but his energy continued to fail him. "So... what am I supposed to do to fix this if I don't have any energy?"
With great effort, Kannon pushed herself to stand. "You do have energy, a very powerful energy within you, but you are blocked from it by that horrible poison," she lamented, her black hair beginning to turn to gray as her life energy continued to fade. Her body collapsed once more into the muck as her light flickered again.
Kuwabara knelt down to her, his eyes shaded with worry. "There must be a way."
She looked up at him and moved to speak, but turned her head away just as quickly, the tremble of a sob wracking her form. "I... I know only one way, but it is... it is shameful."
"Just tell me! Everyone is about to die if I don't do something!" Kuwabara shouted in frustration.
"Yeah, lady. I've died enough already, it's getting boring," Yusuke added, growing irritated at still being chained up.
Kannon swallowed the lump in her throat and pinned Kuwabara with eyes that had gone from silver to steel. "I could heal you from within, join my powers with yours like Daikoku has done with Kurama," at his name, she spared him a glance, "but in order for me to be effective, I'd have to be at my full strength."
In the depths of his mind, Kurama heard an echo, something that felt like a voice, but no matter how hard he focused he could not make out a word. The chains were binding something back, something very angry.
"Then how do we do that?" Kuwabara asked eagerly.
She stuttered as she began, her usual eloquence crippled by emotion. "T-the reason I could not speak to you when you were younger was because I had split myself into eleven pieces, pieces small enough to try and remain hidden. These small pieces were very weak. As the psychics I had inhabited began to die..." she choked back another sob, "those pieces of myself that they held diffused into the remaining psychics, my power beginning to grow as I got closer to becoming one. My consciousness can only inhabit one of these pieces at a time..."
"So you're running on half power," Lyra said quietly, her lungs beginning to burn from the realization building in her chest.
Kannon's tears fell freely as she looked to Lyra, her restraint gone. "Yes, and the strength I have now is not enough to untangle myself from the symbiotic web your energy has woven into mine."
"I have to die."
Lyra said it so simply, so easily, that no one was quite sure if she had really spoken.
Kuwabara's heart skipped a beat, then another, and the tip of his nose began to tingle with the threat of passing out. He was a strong fighter, a man that had endured trials and horrors that would destroy most people, but in this moment, with a pool of blood lapping at his ankles, he felt the weakest he'd ever been. "No, we'll figure something else out."
Kannon cried out as her control of her magic wavered, the arm of the beast freeing from its frozen pose for a split second, stopping within inches of Hiei and Jin. Her gray hair faded to a stark white as the glow of her skin finally went out for good. "Kazuma, please. This is your only chance," she begged, eyeing the sword that hung on Hiei's hip.
Kuwabara followed her gaze and his stomach dropped at the sight of the blade. How could he be expected to draw the blood of an innocent? Of a friend? His heart skipped again, the taste of bile rising in his throat.
(Always remember where your heart is, no matter the cost...) Kuwabara found himself remembering the last words he'd heard from his sister, a couple of sleepless and battle weary days before. "I won't do it," he proclaimed, his spine straightening in assurance. "I don't sacrifice my friends."
"In making this choice you are sacrificing them all!" Kannon warned.
"No, I'm not," Kuwabara said simply as he looked down at the bloodstained goddess. "I will find another way. I will–"
A deep, aching thump rattled within Kuwabara's ribs. This wasn't right. None of this was right.
"Wait," he said abruptly, "if you're in spirit form, why the hell are you covered in this blood? Ghosts don't get dirty!"
Kannon's expression of strain faltered, her lips narrowing to a thin line. She scuttled back as Kuwabara marched toward her, his hand outstretched to grab hold of her arm, but it passed through her with no resistance. His voice came out straight and piercing as an arrow, "the chains passed through you, my hand passed through you, but the blood touches you. Why?"
The goddess looked around at the suspicious eyes that began to fall on her, her mouth curling into a sneer, an ugly crack across her porcelain face. She cupped her hands into the blood as she rose to her feet, pouring the thick liquid from her palms as she stood, all previous signs of distress fading away. Her hair darkened to its proper onyx, her skin regaining its moon-like glow. "Because chivalrous fools like you make stupid decisions when they see a pretty girl in peril. Blood creates an involuntary, visceral reaction in humans... makes them feel the hot breath of mortality on their necks."
The wind came back, the crackling of the smoldering trees becoming audible again. Kuwabara's chest rose with a determined breath and he stomped up to the leg of the giant that towered over the clearing. His knuckles cracked as he balled up his fist, swinging at the beast with an angry right hook. His attack passed right through, just as he had suspected, and he rounded on the goddess. Words failed to come as his teeth clinched.
"That explains why it had no weaknesses, it was never there," Kurama said, his voice colder than any ice Touya could summon.
Kannon smirked, shrugging her shoulders in nonchalant acceptance. With the illusion revealed she saw no point in wasting the energy, the pool of blood and the shadowy monster fading into wisps of gray smoke. Behind where the beasts head once loomed was a round swath cut through the tree tops where the spirit gun had passed clean through. The chains remained, however, metal pythons curling around their next meal.
"I tried to make this easier for you, Kazuma. I jumped through so many hoops to weaken the two of you enough to siphon off your energy. All so I could create this beautiful waking dream for you, so you could be the reluctant hero," Kannon sighed. "I never expected my idiot husband to hand me the perfect opportunity by unleashing the Spirit Cannon and taking out much of my potential competition."
"Hold on now, am I the only one who's confused?" Jin asked, his ears twitching as he tried to calculate what was happening.
"Be silent!" the goddess spat. "You killed two of my precious tengu today, and as soon as I have control of Kazuma's body I'll use it to rip those ears off and feed them to you!"
Kuwabara balked at Kannon. "Why the hell do you want my body?" he asked, feeling a bit disgusted.
"Because you have the key that will get me through any barrier Enma could throw at me, and your energy is stout enough to handle me at my full strength, unlike the other weaklings I got stuck with. No offense, dear Lyra," she offered an almost sympathetic smile to the woman, "you were close. I didn't protect you from Enma's eye as long as I did for no reason... but I do not suffer second rate."
Lyra arched a single brow at the goddess, the corners of her mouth curling up in a humorless smile. It was physically impossible for her to fit anymore fuck off into her expression.
"You're not getting anything today, Kannon. I'd never kill Lyra, and if you were capable of it, you would have done it yourself by now," Kuwabara said smugly.
The chains that had bound the psychic came to life with a flick of Kannon's wrist, striking at him with impossible speed and wrapping him up tightly. They pulled him down, dragging him across the clearing to kneel a few inches away from Lyra.
"Fortunate circumstances have made it possible without your hand, it seems," Kannon smiled, looking to Lieutenant Marsh as she stirred beneath the vines that pinned her down. "I'm not sure why the madness left in the real Yamantaka's footsteps has hyper-focused this human on our little bard, but she seems eager to finish the job."
Marsh howled in anger as she reached out in Lyra's direction, her eyes still glassy and dead. The vines creaked as she thrashed, their normal strength waning at being cut off from their power source for too long. Kurama's energy could not break past the magic in the chains to reinforce them. They would soon shrivel back into an innocuous seed.
"You could have made her end a merciful one, Kazuma. Now it looks like she'll have to settle for being slowly beaten to death," the goddess said casually. "And you'll be close enough to taste it."
Kuwabara couldn't get his arms to budge, but there was just enough leeway in his chains to crane his head down and press his forehead to Lyra's. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice too small for his frame.
"Oh," Kannon breathed as she watched the exchange, a hand rising to her mouth in appreciation. "So poignant... I should have made arrangements to record this event."
(God, I hope this works.)
Lyra's face scrunched up in confusion. That had definitely been Kuwabara's voice, but his mouth never moved.
(You heard me, didn't you?) came his voice again. (Don't answer out loud!)
(Yes?) she thought tentatively, unsure of how exactly to not answer 'out loud.'
(Good, finally! I've been screaming at you in my head for the last ten minutes,) Kuwabara's thoughts were brightened by relief.
(How are you–)
(Talk later, plan now. This is starting to look suspicious! Say something to me with your mouth,) he directed hastily.
Lyra's eyes darted around in a mild panic as she scrambled to remember what Kuwabara had last said out loud. How in the world did anyone keep their conversations straight when using telepathy? It made her mind twist. "I uh... you don't have to be sorry," she assured, trying to sound authentic. "I'm just happy I had the opportunity to know you guys."
"This is better than television!" Kannon cooed, loving it as the drama built.
(Creepy porcelain doll lookin' ass–)
(Focus!) Kuwabara ordered. (Now, I need to summon my dimension sword. If it can cut through anything, I should be able to summon it through anything. In theory, anyway. I'm going to have to tap into my life energy to do it, but I need a lot. Enough to kill me without your help. I need you to access your life energy as well, and use it to jump start your amplifier.)
(I don't know how to access my life energy,) Lyra admitted.
Kuwabara angled himself closer, as far as the slack in his chain would allow. (It's like drawing on your reiki, but you have to find the bottom of that well and punch through it. Lean into me as close as you can, feel the vibration of what I do and try to copy it.)
Lyra indulged in his plan, letting her forehead slip from his and settling her head in the crook of his neck in an armless hug. It was actually a moment of comfort she hadn't known she had needed, so she relaxed into him as far as she could with the metal links pinching at her skin.
(This might kill both of us,) he cautioned.
(Probably better than being mauled to death by someone's bare hands.)
(Probably.)
Kannon swooned at the delicate display of affection between her hosts, her fingers lacing together in delight. "Isn't it just so cute?"
"You're really getting off on this, aren't you?" Yusuke growled as he gave another ineffectual tug on his chains.
The goddess smoothed her hair in a completely unnecessary motion, as the wind had no effect on her ethereal form. "Of course I do. I put in my time as a compassionate sucker, listening to the lamentations of the world, day in and day out. If I hadn't learned to enjoy the sound I would have gone insane!"
"Would have," the Mazoku mumbled.
"Oh hush," Kannon hissed. The vines had shrunken down enough for Marsh to start snapping her arms free, her fervor growing as she drew closer to freedom. "It's just about to get good."
Kurama spotted it before anyone else, the flash of gold and green. His lips curled into a smirk. "You are right about that."
[A/N] My updates are getting a little better... kinda. Crazy life stuff on top of crazy world stuff is ripping me a new one, but I'm hanging in there. I got a puppy, so that's helping a lot! Puppy cuddles make everything better.
Thank you to Baoh joestar for your review!