The Crimson Idol
I thank you for comiiing...
Into my theater of fearrr.
From the opposite side of their arbored semicircle, swaying willow branches themselves, emerged… him.
Welcommme to the shooow.
You're all wit-nes-ses, you'll seeee...
They all knew it was him. He'd made that crimson hood and robe notorious. The cut of the hood and sleeves hung so low, they completely enveloped his face and hands. Even his feet were invisible, the bottom skimming along the blades of grass.
"A privileged invitation, to the," he sang, in harmony, "last rights of thee."
The brainwashed Sekirei didn't react to him. There was no violence, nothing, as he swayed towards the crowd. They continued to mill about like a herd of sheep, oblivious to the wolf in their midst. Minato would've felt hurt, if he didn't know better.
"'Re-emember me.
You can't sa-ave meee…'"
The wheels in everyone's heads were turning: Minato's, Tsukiumi's, Kusano's, even Musubi was trying to figure out this song. They knew it was the last one. Uzume had confirmed it herself. Was this… a confession? Could Kagedansu really…
Mama, you never nee-eeded me...
Okay, now that wasn't about Kagedansu. The Shadow Sekirei had never spoken at length about his adjuster, and the few words he'd spared for her made it clear they hadn't been close. Even so, Minato couldn't shake the sinking feeling in his gut.
No crimson king,
Look in my-y eyes… You'll see…
"How can I, coward?" Tsukiumi scoffed. Credit to her, she was being patient, letting Hametsu play out his little production.
Mama, I'm lonely, it's o-only me...
It's only-y me…
The figure stopped in the center of the shifting Sekirei. His hood swung towards Minato. "Rather, it's only you."
That sinking feeling got worse. Minato pointed at himself. "Me?"
"Indeed."
I don't want to be…
His hood started nodding in time with the music.
I don't wanna be…
"It's always been you." Hametsu's tone made it seem like something obvious.
I don't wanna beee
The crimsonnn iiiiidol of a million-
Minato threw up his hands. "Okay, I've played your game long enough! I have had it with your musical hints and your DVDs and all these cryptic messages you keep leaving! I'm here, we're here-" He gestured to his Sekirei. "-so either get to the point or... Or I don't care what, I'm taking back my Sekirei, and I dare you to try and stop me!"
I don't wanna be
The crimsonnn iiiiidol of a million eyes...
"My dear boy," chuckled the demon, "why do you think I brought you here?"
Oo-oooo… Of a million….
"It was always about the revelation, boy!" said Hametsu, the guitar chords winding up as he spread his arms, forming red angelic wings with his robe. "The final clue, the dissolution of the great misconception! You thought it was your friend, Sixty-Seven, who lay at the heart of this tragedy, but it was never about him! It was never even about me! All this time, all of these clues, everything I did…"
Hametsu leveled a finger at Minato, who stood stoic under its gaze. "...was about you, Jonathan Steel."
Minato was flabbergasted. "Jonathan what?!"
"But it's too late now. The suicide will unfold as written!"
Minato felt a grip on his arms, as Tsukiumi, Ku, and Musubi huddled protectively around him.
Ku spoke up. "Big Brother would never-"
"Hush!" Hametsu snapped, gesturing to the air. "Jonathan speaks…
'I am the priiisoner, of the paradise I dreamed.
The idol of a miiillion lonely fa-ces, look a-at meee!
Behind the mask of sorrow, four dooms of doom behind my-y eyes!
I-IIII've got their footprints all across my crimso-on miiind.'"
"Get to the point!" Minato shouted.
Hametsu tapped his hood. "Think, boy! You, too, ran away from home that night, to a pleasure dome of your own! Your road to ruin started there, did it not? Except, no, it started before that, before I put on this robe and hood!"
Hametsu howled with the music, whirling in his crimson robes at the center of the Sekirei. "'Only looo-ooo-ooo-o-ove! Looove set me free!' Hear that, boy?!"
He swept a hand at his captured Sekirei. "Oh, how they tried, but you were too far gone to listen!"
Only looo-ooo-ooo-o-ove!
Looove set me freeee!
Minato was about to speak, to object, but he didn't. Had… Had the songs been warnings from Hametsu, about his own plans?
I was the waaarrior, with an anthem in myyy soul!
The idol of a THOUSAND lonely days of rage ago…
Minato's cheek twitched.
"Husband?" Tsukiumi inquired, clinging tighter to him.
And remember me, when it comes your time to choose…
"'AAAAOH! CARE-FUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!'" Hametsu screamed alongside Blackie Lawless. "It may cooome true…"
What he wished for? Minato had only wanted his Sekirei to be happy. What did-... No… What he'd wanted… from the moment he met them, all those days of frustrated meekness ago…
Long live...
"You sold your soul…"
Long live-!
"-to a maniac in a high tower, did you not?!" Hametsu said, pointing at MBI.
Long live the kiiing of mercy!
"You sought a doctor…"
Long live…
"-to rearrange your mind!"
Long live-!
"'Therrre iiis… nooo looooooove!'" sang Hametsu, whirling frenziedly among the Sekirei throng. "'To shelter thee-eeeeee… Only looo-ooo-ooo-o-ove! Looove set thee free!' It could've set them free, too!"
Minato's cheek twitched again.
Hametsu gestured at his Sekirei again. "A better compromise, a peck on the lips, and all of this would've fallen apart! You made it far too easy to avoid that."
Hametsu whirled on the other Ashikabi. "YOU ALL DID, BOYS! COULDN'T HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT YOU!"
RED!
CRIM-SON RED!
AM IIIIII THE INVISIBLE BOY
WITH THE STRAPS
ON MY BACK?!
Minato's head was starting to spin. He… He couldn't have. Hametsu was behind all of this. Minato would never-... He wasn't…
Tsukiumi glowered at the gathering, perplexed as she looped an arm to prop up her husband. "That their faith in Minato could be so obliterated. What tricks didst thou enact, creature?! Explain thyself!"
"'Tricks'?! HA!" Hametsu threw his head back and laughed. Beneath the hood wasn't his face, but some kind of black fabric contorted around it. He'd thought ahead. "It never mattered who believed what, so long as you disagreed!"
RED!
CRIM-SON RED!
NO IIIIII WAS NEVER TO BE
ONLY ONE
CRIM-SON SON...
Hametsu threw back his head and howled, "'NA-AAAAAH, IT NEVER WAS ME!'"
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Kazehana crossed her arms, anxiously looking over the treetops for any signs of Minato. What was taking him so long? Was this his way of getting back at them for something? Or, in his puffed-up tomcat state of mind, did he think he was calling a bluff?
She idly looked at Matsu and Homura. Either way, Minato needed to get here soon, or she'd never forgive him. What could possibly take priority over his hot Sekirei wife?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"It was the corruption of your love and trust. Slowly, to the tune of ideological subversion." Hametsu gestured to the other Ashikabi. "The others needed no such help. They were selfish, neglectful, more than perfect. But you…"
His gloved finger wagged at Minato; the ex-ronin barely noticed.
"You were too considerate, too practical, too receptive." Hametsu shook his robed head. "That wouldn't do. I needed a way inside your mind, inside their minds… and Sixty-Seven opened the door."
Tsukiumi's eyes shot venom. Her anger rose, frothing and boiling, as if the crescendo of drums and keyboards accompanied the ritual that powered her rage.
"No…"
"Nyeee-es!"
"Thou…"
"No no, thou, Tsukiumi!" Hametsu jeered. "For it was your idea! 'Hunger takes many forms', remember?!"
Hametsu's hood shivered atop his head as he giddily nodded. "Moh yeees, I certainly do. In fact, the moment you began to object…"
Musubi said something that neither Tsukiumi nor her downward-spiralling husband heard.
"...was the moment my teachings began!"
"WATER DRAGON!"
The crystalline sea serpent coiled to life from behind Tsukiumi's back. It shot alongside Tsukiumi's outstretched arm, roaring to where she pointed. Hametsu merely swayed behind Kazehana, putting her between himself and the attack, singing,
"'Living in the limelight…'
The dragon banked upward, rearing its head as it snarled down at the crimson being.
'Little did I know…'
The dragon opened its mouth and out lanced a mouthful of liquid spears.
'I was dying in the SHADOW…'
Hametsu orbited Kazehana, each spear falling a millisecond behind him.
'And the mirror was myyy soul.'"
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Kazehana blinked. Was it raining? She looked up; the sky was still the clear, rich purple as when they'd arrived. Not a cloud in sight.
She ran a finger along her arm, then rubbed it with her thumb. It was definitely water, and more than an idle drop, but where had it come from?
Something didn't seem right.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"'It was all I ever wanted…'
"Now, Akitsu!" Mikogami shouted.
'Everything I dreeeamed.'
The Ice Sekirei swept a hand and sent a trio of jagged icicles Hametsu's way.
'But the dream became my nightmare…'
Hametsu simply bobbed around behind Taki, the most fragile of Mikogami's Sekirei. Kazehana remained adjacent to him.
'No one could hear me screeeam.'"
"Why'd you stop, Akitsu?!"
Tsukiumi had stopped as well. Hametsu was standing between Kazehana and Taki, close enough so that Tsukiumi couldn't possibly strike him without injuring Kazehana. Without awareness to brace, a direct hit from Tsukiumi's attack would surely cripple her, or worse. Their rivalry for the title of wife could not end in such a way.
With these six strings, I'll make a noose,
To take my life, it's time to choose!
"Husband," Tsukiumi said, "a kiss to focus my power!"
Headlines read of my demise…
No response came to her. "Minato?"
MYYYYYY SUICIDE
"'Of... thy suicide…'"
The Ashikabi of the North… Under no influence but mere words, his legs gave out beneath him. All reality seemed to swirl around like a cyclone, touching down in a needle-thin point at Minato's cerebellum to forcibly inject his mind with knowledge. This revelation was like a cosmic event: no amount of human denial would hold it back, its terrible clarity summed up in a single cry from its human vertex.
"What have I done?!"
It really was his fault. No one else, just him. Though Kagedansu had let Hametsu in, it was Minato who let him stay. Past the warnings of his twin wives, his strategist, his resident cynic, and even Yume in that dream he had of her, Hametsu's poison had lived rent-free inside Minato's head. Minato had swallowed it all and asked for seconds. In the end, all Hametsu had done was turn a solution into an overcorrection.
Minato's lower body went limp in Tsukiumi and now Musubi's arms. The thought repeated in his mind, forcing him to accept penance for not seeing things. He did this. Him. Only Minato could've inspired such anxiety in his Sekirei that, after several cries for help, after trying again and again to make him realize their concern for him, they'd part ways with him as a wake-up call. Credit to them, it had worked, in a roundabout way. But what now? They didn't even believe he was present. Would they believe him when he said he'd re-learned how to actually listen?
The fact he'd been right, the fact he'd correctly guessed that Hametsu had gotten to them, had been sinking his claws into their brains while overfilling Minato with ego, only made it worse. That was one more thing Minato could've done, but didn't, because he'd paradoxically been too cock-sure to listen, but too considerate of his Sekirei to force himself upon them. Doing so would've disgusted him; this disgusted him more. He'd really gotten the worst of both worlds through this unspoken deal with the crimson devil before him.
Hametsu folded his arms. "So, you've accepted your role in this. And now," he said, a finger brushing the lip of his hood, "for the clue de grace..."
What followed was a serene, smooth sound. It reminded Hametsu's audience of a church organ, quietly intoning worship and reverence towards the Abrahamic deity of Christ. A string orchestra held the notes now, violins and violas accompanying Jonathan Steel's last lament.
Ooooh sweet silence…
Where is the sting?
I am no idol,
No-ooo crimso-on kiiing…
"But I am the higher power," Hametsu stated, "for there's been no greater force in your life than I."
I'm the imposter.
The world has seen.
"Thy father was the idol," quoth Hametsu, softly shaking his head. "It... was never thee."
I don't wanna be…
"Now ponder, child," Hametsu said, reaching towards his blacked-out face.
I don't wanna be…
"Ponder well, on everything you've seen."
I don't wanna be
The crimsonnn iiiiidol of a million
I don't wanna be…
"Everything we've done." His voice… was almost soothing. It was calm, that silky masculine texture devoid of its sneering sting or maniacal cackle. It was, much like the quiet mourning of the song, a voice that one could send one drifting off into a pleasant slumber. In fact, Minato started to emerge from his self-flagellating stupor at its call. He obeyed, that shred of comfort driving him on, in the implication that maybe, just maybe, he could glean something from all of this madness.
I don't wanna be…
The Crimson Idol steepled his gloved hands. His head tilted forward a little, the way one might while sighing, softly. But then he jolted up and sneered, "Who's your daddaayy?"
I don't wanna be-
A memory surfaced in Minato's mind: the email Kagedansu had sent him from Hametsu. If the "finest piece of overrated cinema" was The Thing, which Hametsu had made pretty obvious, then the clue in the email itself must've been 'Tulsa Doom'. Minato had done his research on the name, but since Hametsu didn't strike him as much of a reader, he'd focused on the character's movie role in Conan the Barbarian. He'd made a case for being Conan's surrogate father, how he'd indirectly pushed Conan to be the best he could possibly be, driving him on with the fire of single-minded revenge, becoming Conan's whole world by the end.
-The crimsonnn iiiiidol of a million eyes…
Minato never had a father. He never knew who his mother had conceived him with, and she'd never really spoken about him, always changing the subject or telling him to drop it. Tsukiumi had broached the subject to Takami as well, to similar reception, as had Musubi, Kusano, Homura, all of them. Be it phone calls or in person, Takami had remained mum on Minato's parentage.
Nevertheless, despite receiving no answer, The Idol leaned forward, far enough to where his hood concealed everything. With a slow, arduous tug, the black mask stretched and snapped into Hametsu's gloved hand. Letting it fall to the ground, Hametsu's fingers straightened and began drumming the air, seizing and twitching randomly. Then they stopped, tentatively reaching for the lip of its crimson hood.
Hametsu played with the fabric for a moment, pulling it further down, bringing it taught over the top of his skull. With one quick lurch, he threw back his hood to reveal-
"IT'S ME, AUSTIN!"
...Minato's deepest, darkest, most clawing, gnawing fear, made manifest with a microphone held to his lips.
"IT'S ME, AUSTIN!" Kagedansu bellowed again. "IT WAS ME…"
He turned towards his protégé, so there would be no mistaking that smile, those eyes, or the leering look within them.
"ALL A-LONG, AUSTIN!"