A Truce of Moons
Chapter 3
By Ysabet
So quiet. It was so very quiet.
Ushio stood facing his audience, the Kemono No Yari held point-up before him; he could feel the weight of many unfriendly gazes..... big surprise there. After all, what was he to the bakemonotachi around him? Judge, jury and executioner, that was what. Coming here had NOT been a good idea.....
This really sucked.
Directly behind him he could hear Tora's claws crunching in the gravel underfoot. The monster stood only a few feet back; every now and then tendrils of burnt-orange mane blew forward in the bonfire's heat, wrapping the Spearbearer in a thin, glittering veil. Ushio could hear him breathing, could smell the dark, musky scent of the bakemono behind him.
Tora liked challenges; a confrontation like this was probably second nature to him. But he was a centuries-old monster-beast, not a fifteen-year-old boy..... So many eyes, watching them: green and golden, scarlet glows, thin slits, burning coals on tentacles, tiny gleams in twos and threes----- Ushio could feel the sweat running down his back. So he stood quietly, staring back.
Let the monsters think what they wanted; the Spearbearer wasn't going to show his fear if he could help it. But this *still* really sucked.
Tora spoke then, so close behind him that his breath disturbed the hairs on the back of Ushio's neck. "I have not been among you for some time now, so I will give you my name. I am Nagatobimaru-dono, and I hold the region which contains the human city of Tokyo." This caused a faint stir among the creatures before them, but no-one said anything yet. The ancient bakemono began to walk slowly around the bonfire as he spoke, his claws scattering pebbles; every now and then a tiny spark of lightning would crackle from talon to talon, bright in the shadows.
Ushio stood very still, waiting; his black cloak of hair drifted around him in the bonfire's hot breath. The small of his back itched, and he concentrated on not squirming; that would be..... uncool. He had to keep calm, had to keep still.
"I have been away for some time from my domain; it pleases me that none have tried to take it while I was gone." Tora/Nagatobimaru looked coolly around the clearing as he paced, cold silver eyes expressionless. "... Or so I understand. Will any dispute this with me?" He smiled, and there was a deadly promise in that smile; it widened a little as the silence continued. The monster's tail lashed as he padded forward, circling the fire.
"Well; I am back. To those within my domain, I say this: It matters to me not at all how you live, what you do; live as humans for all I care, or live as bakemono. That is nothing to me." He spat abruptly on the sand and several creatures jumped. "Why should I give a damn? Your lives are your own, as is mine..... Do as you will. I am no magistrate, to count your numbers or collect fealty from any of you."
Now there were murmurs from among the crowd, seemingly of approval; The Spearbearer shifted his weight very slightly, wondering where this was going. Tora/Nagatobimaru was moving towards him now, his path circling the flames as if closing in on prey; the Spearbearer felt him pad softly past, felt him pause.....
"But I have heard a thing this night that is..... incorrect. You---" and the ancient bakemono looked steadily at the previous speaker, still standing to one side of the clearing with its arms folded; "--- you have said that the Spearbearer is something that concerns us all." The scarlet and black creature gave a curt nod of agreement; Tora/Nagatobimaru stared it down, eyes slitted. He stepped forward heavily to stand beside Ushio, who gripped the Spear a little tighter.
"Not so. It is MY concern. The Spearbearer is *mine* to deal with!"
THAT got results; growls and hisses all around the clearing. Several of the creatures in the shadows further back moved a little closer in; Ushio could see them a little better now. *These* were some of the more frightening bakemonotachi, ones with more talons than hands and more mouths than eyes..... They shuffled in, watching, watching. One of the smaller ones, a thing composed almost completely of eyes, rasped out: "Why yours only? It hunts us, we kill it!" It drifted in place, long tendrils twitching where they hung beneath in its shadow. Ushio could feel his muscles tensing, his lips beginning to draw back from his teeth; keeping still was a harder battle than fighting could ever be.....
Beside him Tora/Nagatobimaru shrugged nonchalantly; "Well enough. But-----" and Ushio could feel the force of Tora's baleful gaze as the monster turned to look down on him--- " this one is responsible for my return; he is mine to deal with.... That is also among our few rules, is it not? Bakemonotachi within a territory are dealt with by those who hold the territory--- why the hell else do such as *we* have territories at all?" Tora sat back on his haunches and crossed his arms; now he was looking out over the crowd.
There were stirrings and a few disgruntled murmurs from the edges, as well as grunts of agreement; Ushio could hear small arguments breaking out here and there between some of the entities. He could also see Rikone; her brothers were sitting beside her now, their eyes huge in the firelight.... and, yes, there were her parents, one on either side of their children.
A little to the left of the kitsune family a skeletal Samurai-type spoke up in hollow, distant tones that sounded like they had been dredged up from the bottom of a well. "Bakemonotachi...... Nagatobimaru-dono, Honored Sir, you speak of the Spearbearer as one of us; but he is *human*, is he not?" And it turned empty sockets to stare at Ushio; the temple boy returned its gaze in silence as the mutterings from the crowd grew louder. He'd wondered when this would come up; *Great,* thought the boy glumly. *I'm something's dinner for certain now. This REALLY sucks.* Well, he wouldn't go down easily. He stood up a little straighter, slit-pupiled eyes narrowing.
The arguments were beginning to grow louder and things were getting ugly; to one side, the magistrate in charge of the moon-truce clapped his hands sharply. "Be still! Lord Nagatobimaru is speaking now; those who wish to silence him or speak in his place must challenge him--- Do any choose to do so?" As the hubub quieted a little, he nodded to Tora/Nagatobimaru, who had been simply sitting back, watching with an exasperated scowl on his firelit face. The monster gave a short laugh and spoke again:
"Human? Hehh..... Look at him, you. Does he *look* human?!? And do you truly believe--- any of you!--- that *I* would allow a human with power like *that* to remain alive in MY territory?!?" The bakemono snorted briefly, teeth flashing white. The noise of the crowd died back bit by bit to near-silence; the crackle of the bonfire was clearly audible. After a moment the skeletal samurai spoke once more, its hollow tones echoing against the rocks. "Honored Sir, you have spoken; we have spoken. But the Spearbearer has not spoken; has he anything to say to us?"
Ushio rocked back a little onto his heels, his face paling; *he* had to talk?!? Great..... but he supposed it was better than being torn to bits. Beside him Tora/Nagatobimaru stepped back somewhat, a sardonic look in his silver eyes. He grunted briefly in approval, but his tail lashed back and forth a time or two. "RRrrrrrrhhrrrrrrr...... You have a point. Speak then, Spearbearer; what have you to say in this manner? Are you human or bakemono?" And he looked Ushio full in the face.
Just what could be read in those silver eyes? They were *so* very inhuman sometimes, full of things that 15-year-old boys had no experience with or empathy for; but right now..... What were they telling him now? Fear? Hatred? Concern? What? The huge striped face was impassive, as terrible as ever; but Ushio saw something there that he would almost call *entreaty*. Tora.... wanted something from him.
Ushio thought hard for a moment, sweating, then drew himself up to his full height and tried see himself as the watching bakemonotachi were seeing him: a figure out of their legends, dressed in dark garments and cloaked with black, black hair, with shining eyes and sharp teeth----- and then there was that terrible Spear.....
From the way things sounded, little bakemonotachi went to bed at night and had bad dreams about the Kemono No Yari. Did monster mothers tell their young ones "Do what I say or the Spearbearer will come and get you"?
Ushio drew a deep breath and looked out again over the audience, gripping the Spear with damp palms. For a moment, it seemed that his voice had caught in his throat like a fishbone; but then something loosened, and he began. "I am Aotsuki Ushio-dono, and I'm the bearer of the Kemono No Yari. And, yes, I was born human." Silence, punctuated by a single barely-audible growl from somewhere out in the darkness.
"Whatever I am now--- well; I don't think any human would recognize me as one of theirs. So..... Maybe I am one of you, in a way. Right now, at least; most humans would think so. Nagatobimaru-dono---" and Ushio glanced sideways at Tora, "--- told me earlier that, to you, *I* am a monster. I don't know--- it's hard to say where 'human' ends and 'Spearbearer' begins." He shifted the Spear so that it lay crosswise in front of him, gripped tightly in each hand. The red streamers fluttered as a cool wind passed across the bonfire, sweeping sparks up in a sheet of stars; more than one set of eyes followed their flight.
"Tonight I came with Lord Nagatobimaru willingly, as a guest; he didn't force me to come, and he told me your rules. I've obeyed them just as you have-----"
There was a clacking hiss from across the clearing from the red and black creature that had spoken previously; its coils shifted and slithered, bright scales reflecting the firelight as it reared up, arms crossed. "----You are NOT one of us, human! You are *food* to many of us!!" It hissed again, showing its mandibles. "We-do-NOT-accept-you!! We--------- !!"
It froze; the Spear had shifted of its own accord in Ushio's hands and was pointing directly at it. Mouth still open, the creature swallowed its words and sank back on its coils a little, still glaring.
After a possibly-polite pause, Ushio continued rather mildly. "..... As I said, I have obeyed your rules..... And so has the Kemono No Yari." He shifted the Spear to his right hand so that it stood between himself and Tora/Nagatobimaru, who was watching very calmly. "Don't think that just because I'm the Spearbearer the Spear will always do what I want; it's got its own ideas." As if in answer, the Kemono No Yari rang softly; the warning tones throbbed above the bonfire's crackle like a moan of protest, and Ushio knew that (for once) every being there could hear them.
The tones died away, and silence returned. The skeletal Samurai who had spoken before cleared its throat (Ushio found himself wondering just what with) and sighed like a rattle of dead leaves. "AAhhhhhhh...... Then there are *three* here who should speak; what then would the Kemono No Yari have to say?" And tiny cold lights shown in the darkened pits of its eye-sockets..... Around the circle there was a drawing back, a movement full of fear and dread (from monsters! With the tiny bit of his mind that wasn't concentrating on keeping calm, Ushio marveled at this); a faint wailing rose from something small and wispy cradled in a barely-visible wraith's arms as it fled away in terror.
All eyes were on the Spear, and it responded with its own voice: at first a soft, shivering moan like before, then a deep, rising hum like God's own base guitar---- growing, growing, crackling with energy-----
----- crackling indeed; a corona of lightning began to coruscate around the Spear's blade, filling the air with miniature thunder and the scent of ozone. Creatures along the edge of the clearing were panicking and scrambling back away from the terrible thing by the bonfire; even Tora/Nagatobimaru was drawing away, his mane throwing back its own sparks in answer to the Spear's lightning. His eyes were very wide, great silver mirrors reflecting what he and all the other bakemonotachi saw: the Spearbearer, still holding the Kemono No Yari, wreathed in a brilliant tangle of thin threads of power that grounded themselves all around him in a scatter of blue fire-----
----- and then Ushio ran his hands along the shaft of the Spear, stroking it soothingly, holding it in both hands; he swept one palm across the blade through the curtain of lightning as if calming an angry beast, and the storm and outcry lessened, lowered, calmed, died......
Quiet again, broken by harsh breathing in the darkness, and by the faint crackle of cooling glass where the power had earthed around Ushio; the scents of ozone and scorched earth hung thick in the air.
The Spearbearer held the Spear before him; it was silent now, but there was a definite feeling in the air of barely-suppressed thunder; every creature there could sense it. He drew a deep breath. "As I said..... It's got its own ideas. If I wasn't its bearer--- if it could do what it liked--- you'd all be dead."
Ushio gave his audience a moment to allow that to sink in, and then spoke again very calmly. "Now..... If I am *not* one of you, and if I'm just a human, by your rules you could kill me tonight. Or you could try, anyway....." And he smiled, or maybe just bared his sharp teeth; it was hard to tell, even to himself.
"On the other hand..... If I'm something like one of *you*, at least while I'm the Spearbearer, then I can't kill any of YOU tonight. That's from your own rules, right?" And he stared directly at the scarlet and black snake-man as he spoke, who glowered back a little less defiantly than before.
"One thing you had better understand: I don't belong to Nagatobimaru-dono, and he doesn't belong to me. I'm not his, his *subject*, or anything like that. We live in the same territory--- and if anything comes looking to take over, I'll defend it. Come to think of it, we'd better make something else clear: Humans are *my* territory!! Try to kill them or do anything else to them while I'm around, and you'll have to deal with me." Ushio crossed his arms, glaring and baring his teeth a little. Mutters from the crowd were more subdued than he would have expected, but there were still quite a number of defiant looks from creatures here and there.....
And yet..... He saw approving nods and definite looks of relief; some of the entities seemed *glad* that he had cleared that little matter up.
Ushio sighed; the rush of adrenaline was beginning to fade, and with it the crazy moment of strength that had gotten him through his ordeal (he would decide later that speaking in front of class would never be quite as traumatic as it had been). He thumped the butt of the Spear a bit impatiently on the ground before him, making a few bakemonotachi jump. "Well? Which is it? What am I to you?"
The silence that followed was broken by a deep, harsh chuckle. Tora/Nagatobimaru was laughing softly, his white teeth reflecting the light of the fire. He stretched cat-limber there on the sands, great claws working; then, tossing his mane back from his face, he turned to the original magistrate-in-charge and said calmly:
"Well?"
The many-eyed creature walked slowly out onto the sands, carefully positioning itself at a good distance from both Ushio and Tora--- and from the Spear. With appreciable dignity it spoke. "I speak only for myself, but I must agree--- you have bided by our laws, Spearbearer, and you seem very little like a human to this personage just now." The fire was beginning to burn low, and the red embers reflected in the eyes on the backs of its hands as it spread them wide before it. "Will any others speak in this matter?"
After a pause, the skeletal Samurai climbed to its feet with a rattle of ancient armor. "Honored ones, it seems to me that all here are bakemonotachi, and all must abide by our laws." The hollow tones echoed through the clearing, cold as windchimes in the dark; but the empty sockets that looked out at the Spearbearer weren't really so unkind, just very black.
Silence then for a few moments; then a soft voice spoke from not too far from Ushio. "I have seen, I have listened; and it is my belief that he is as much one of us at least as he is a human." It was Rikone's mother--- Ushio was startled to hear a woman's voice pass from the jaws of a fox; her husband was giving her a startled look, and Rikone and her brothers were frozen in place. The kitsune leaned forward as she spoke, her golden eyes intent on Ushio's face. "And, my Lords and Ladies and others, from what we have just seen--- is it not a good thing to have one who has at least *something* in common with us bearing the Kemono No Yari? You---" and she pointed with one long-fingered paw at Ushio; "--- you seem to have no hatred of us, ne?"
The Spearbearer shrugged; "No, I don't hate you--- and I've no reason to harm *any* of you unless you tresspass on MY territory: human lives. Leave humans alone, and I'll leave you all alone. Hell, that's pretty simple, isn't it?"
She stared him down sternly, and Ushio immediately regretted his rudeness (mothers never forgot that sort of thing, did they?) The kitsune shook her head; "I doubt that *all* here intend to forego human prey; you'll have to deal with that as it happens..... as bakemono always deal with trespasses on their territory....."
Ushio shrugged again. "Fine." The kitsune woman sat back, satisfied; her husband gave her a single scandalized glance and then turned to stare at Rikone. The foxgirl spread her dark-furred hands wide in an 'I-don't-get-it-either' gesture and shook her head.
Another moment's pause, then a deep, rumbling voice spoke from over most of the entities' heads: "Well, Lords and Ladies and all, I suppose I should speak my piece." The language was reasonably understandable (with the occasional odd slang), but the accent made Ushio blink; it sounded like the american actor John Wayne, of all the unbelievable---- Who in the world was THAT? Then he looked up----- Oh. The giant leaned on his pillar of stone and adjusted the set of his baseball cap before he spoke again. "I'm a visitor here from the 'States, and I've been having a pretty good time tonight; this has been real entertaining! But I've got a question for you guys." He poked a large thumb at Tora.
"From what I hear, you two should be mortal enemies; but you're living in the same territory? How the sam-hell are you handling *that*? Why aren't you trying to kill each other?" He cocked an interested eyebrow at them both; his gold earring glinted in the light of the bonfire's dying embers.
Ushio looked at Tora, raising one eyebrow; Tora looked at Ushio, then at the Spear; several options seemed to pass through his mind before he spoke.
"How we deal with it is our own concern. If anyone tries to eat the Spearbearer before *I* get to him, they will deal with me....." The bakemono lifted his head and looked upwards a little distantly, following the flight of sparks towards the heavens as if the question was no great matter.
The Spearbearer snorted then, crossing his arms defiantly. He looked out over the creatures in the darkness, frowning; "And T-- I mean, Nagatobimaru-dono's MY problem----- I released him, and I'll handle him..... It's really nobody's business but ours, right? Right."
The giant grinned down with broad, white teeth; he seemed pleased. Less pleased was the scarlet-and-black figure that reared up, coils twitching and fists clenching. It clacked its jaws angrily and began an invective-laden tirade which sputtered into incoherency when the magistrate in charge turned to stare coldly down at it (and with that many eyes, he had staring down pat). It finally wound down like a broken toy, muttering angrily as it pushed off into the crowd.
Resting the Spear on his shoulder, Ushio shook his head with a gesture of finality and looked at Tora; the ancient bakemono shrugged once and began pacing back towards his seat on the sands; Rikone's brothers hurriedly made room for him there. The Spearbearer nodded once to himself, then followed. With dignity he took his place back on his boulder..... and then hugged his arms to keep himself from trembling. Adrenaline was a thing of the past now and reaction was setting in.
But he was alive.....
Ushio sat back silently, savoring that fact as another bakemono took its place before the dying fire and began to speak.
******************************************
It was near moonset now, and dawn wasn't too far away. The crowd had diminished; quite a number of monsters had come to speak before the bonfire before wandering off afterwards. The firewood had been replenished once but the flames were flickering back down into a bed of embers once again, and the sweet smell of pine woodsmoke hung in the pre-dawn air. On his boulder, Ushio stretched and considered the kinks in his back and legs; being the Spearbearer might give you a tough hide and tougher muscles, but you still could get a stiff neck if you sat still too long. And he thought his butt had gone to sleep, too.
Rikone and her family had been rather quiet after all the fuss had been over; the foxgirl had silently passed him another soda eventually, but she seemed quite subdued. Her two brothers had stared at Ushio, their eyes large, their ears back (but their mother.... she had just smiled a little at him, the very tip of her tail twitching slightly).
Tora lay like a great orange statue on the sands, eyes half-slitted and distant; every now and then he had made a comment to one of the speakers (who had seemed rather nervous around him; imagine that), but otherwise he had been silent. At last, when the moon had lost half its width below the treetops, the bonfire suddenly went out--- totally. Ushio started a bit, but around him the remaining creatures seemed to take this as a matter of course and a certain sign that the night was over. Beside him Tora yawned; the ancient bakemono stretched a long, long stretch and stood silently. Still rubbing at the kinks in the small of his back, Ushio followed suit; God, what a long night it had been.....
Shouldering the Spear, he turned to the kitsune family; the two boys were gathering up their belongings (and the litter of soda-cans), supervised by their watchful parents; Ushio grinned a little in sympathy as one of the foxboys (Yukio, he thought; they looked a lot alike) rolled his eyes at a barked parental command. The kitsune boy caught this and smiled back hesitantly, but his eyes still strayed to the weapon on the Spearbearer's shoulder. Oh well..... Ushio sighed a little sadly and gave the family his best bow before turning away. Then a soft voice said: ".... Ushio-dono....." and he looked back.
Rikone was standing there, her russet-and-white fur catching the grey light of false dawn; in the faint glow she looked less real, more wraith-like than she had in the darkness of full night. But she was smiling shyly, and as he watched her figure seemed to shimmer, to shift and reform until a very young woman with slanted golden eyes and deep red hair stood before Ushio, still smiling. "..... Take care, Spearbearer..... and I'll see you next year." She bowed formally, her features blurring and melting back into the foxface that was her true countenance. Then she turned to walk silently away with her family, never once looking back.
Ushio just stood there, feeling his heart thumping a little harder. What----?!? Huh. That had been.... nice. Maybe he *would* see her at the next year's moon-truce..... if he was still alive. With the eternal optimism of any 15-year-old, he grinned to himself as he began thinking about it.....
His thoughts were broken by a rough chuckle and the familiar prickle of sharp claws on one shoulder; Tora was standing directly behind him, laughing at his discomfort. "Heh..... So you've made a conquest, have you, Lord Brat? Better watch it....." said the bakemono, grinning widely. Ushio snorted. "Butt out, jerk. I don't know what the hell you're talking about." He could feel his ears beginning to burn. Tora just laughed again, sounding remarkably pleased with himself.
Side by side they each began to walk towards the woods beyond the clearing; around them the crowd was more than half dispersed, creatures leaving on foot or in flight or simply fading like morning mist. The Spearbearer lifted his head to see the same scarlet-and-blue bat things that he had seen when arriving wing past; well damn, he had never gotten around to asking about those, had he?
Ushio rubbed a hand across his face; his eyes felt dry and gritty, and the effort of keeping them open was almost too much to bother with. He dragged his feet a little as they walked, nearly bumping into a departing something-or-other with tattered, many-layered robes (they were probably robes.... or maybe just skin; who knew?). The whatever-it-was muttered something that might have been an apology and shuffled past, intent on its own departure.
The sky was beginning to lighten; already the charcoal of predawn was beginning to shade into the golden white of sunrise. Ushio shouldered the Spear a little more securely as they stepped into the shadows of the trees, following the streambed back the way they had come. *Huh* he thought tiredly; *That seems more like a year ago, not just a single night. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess.* Behind them the last stragglers seemed to be leaving--- he wondered how Rikone and her family would travel back to their home (*and dammit, that was one *more* thing I never got around to asking: Where she lived! Shit!*)--- on two feet, or four? Or otherwise? Ushio concentrated on his own movements, sweeping the lengths of his hair around so he could bundle it in his arms--- it had a tendancy to catch on branches or get walked on if he didn't watch out.
*God, what a night* he thought, wobbling as he stepped from one boulder to another. Ushio glanced up at Tora; the bakemono was a little ahead of him, padding softly along the streambed with hardly any sound. The Spearbearer frowned to himself thoughtfully; there had been this little matter in the back of his mind all night that they needed to discuss.......
"Hey, Tora. Got something I've been wanting to ask you about." The monster did not turn around. "What is is?" he answered back rather absently.
Ushio brought the Spear around to hold in both hands, using it to keep his balance on a particularly tricky bit of boulder-hopping. "Well..... Why'd we do this? I mean, I understand about seeing what was what, and who holds what territory and all that---- but......" He shoved his hair back irritably, concentrating on his footing. "..... You could've probably found out about that sort of thing some other way, couldn't you?" The bakemono made no answer, but looked sideways back at Ushio; his silver eyes gleamed with something like amusement in the shadows.
".....And--- why bring me? You had to know there'd be some sort of fight, what with me being the Spearbearer. What the hell was with that, anyway? Trying to get me killed?" The boy scowled at the monster, who stopped in his tracks and turned, pointing a sharp-taloned finger straight at Ushio's face.
He growled out: "I TOLD them, boy, and I told YOU: *No-one kills you before me!!*" Tora glared down into the Spearbearer's angry eyes----- then flinched back and snarled as the Spearbearer swatted the flat of his weapon against the side of his huge head, THWACK!!!
For a moment they glared each other there in the streambed, the bakemono and the temple boy; then, as if the confrontation had never happened, the two turned at one accord to continue side-by-side on their way. Looking straight ahead, Tora continued: "..... Hhhraahhhhrrrr..... there *was* another reason---" and he shrugged. "There are many among the bakemonotachi who know of me, and of that damned Spear----- and of the Spearbearer. Trying to hold a territory while *allowing you both to exist in it unchallenged*...... Not possible. No bakemono would do that. So......." he trailed off, sounding a little embarrassed.
Ushio picked it up, feeling angrier than ever. ".....so you brought me here to get the bakemonotachi to see me as one of them? So you wouldn't look like an asshole in front of them?!? So you wouldn't *lose face*?!?" He aimed another blow at the monster, a harder one this time. "GodDAMN it, Tora!!"
The bakemono ducked, shoving him away. "Idiot!! What else could I do?...... Well, besides eat you, that is? You had to be seen as one of us, or others would come to kill us both!!! You, because you are the Spearbearer; and me, because they would see me as weak enough to let you live!!!" He growled in the back of his throat as he continued walking; the growl had words in it that were probably best unheard.
Ushio growled back a little, but his anger was dying; he supposed Tora had a point. As he trudged along the streambed, he thought about the things that had *not* been said, not by either of them: That Tora could've probably killed him..... That Tora hadn't killed him..... That, maybe, it was better not to talk about this out loud. There were some things better left unsaid, some confrontations that should never happen.
Otherwise..... Well. Best to let it go at that.
They walked on, and the Spearbearer finally allowed himself a moment to shift back to his human self (he guessed they were far enough away for it to be safe). This was the longest that he had stayed in his other form; it felt wierd being just..... Ushio. As the lengths of black hair slid towards the ground and faded into ash, he shivered a bit--- All in all, everything that he had said before the bonfire had been the truth: he wasn't really *completely* human, not while he was like that, sharp-toothed and slit-eyed..... The temple boy ran a single strand of disintegrating black hair through his fingers as it crackled into dust (convenient, that; better than leaving heaps of hair all over the place).
Being human..... it wasn't really so different, he supposed. Rikone and her family, for instance; despite all their fur and tails and shapechanging, were they really that unlike the human beings he had known all his life? Different upbringings and ancestry, sure, but beyond that..... Rikone had been pretty cute, too--- human-faced *and* fox-faced. For a moment Ushio considered that thought, grinning a little; then a vision of Asako crept before his mind's eye and he flinched, imagining her reaction to his, well, his 'flirting' the previous night. Knowing Asako, she would probably beat the snot out of him and then become the best of friends with the kitsune, and then the two of them would walk off arm-in-arm discussing how horrible boys were..... Ouch.
They had reached the spot where they had landed the night before, and Ushio slid up onto Tora's back without a word (he never said anything--- Tora would probably dump him from a fatally-high altitude if he did). As they lifted slowly above the treetops, the temple boy looked over his shoulder; there was the clearing, there was the spire the giant had leaned against (*... and how the HELL did *that* guy manage to arrive in Japan unnoticed?*), there was the ring of the bonfire, black against the sand..... Huh. What a night.
The wind was rising with the sun; as Ushio settled himself on the bakemono's back it sent a storm of Tora's mane up to flutter wildly around him, wrapping him once more in a cloak of fine, amber hair. He brushed it from his face and eased himself down against the warm fur a little more comfortably, trying to keep from digging his heels in (Tora usually ignored him while they flew, but no use taking chances after all). As he settled back, he heard: ".....And what did you think of the bakemonotachi, ehh?"
The Spearbearer hesitated a moment, thinking. Then, resting his chin on the haft of the Spear lying crosswise before him, he said softly: "Mostly, I think they were pretty much..... people. Not very *nice* people, some of them--- and I think there were quite a few that're just too, well, *alien* to be really something I'd understand--- but lots of them were pretty much like the people I know back home. I mean, that kitsune family--- I go to school with guys just like Yukio and Hayaiko, and Rikone reminded me of Asako a bit....." Beneath him the monster chuckled; he turned his head a little to one side so he could look back at Ushio from one silver eye. "The sharp-voiced girl would make a good bakemono" he said rather mildly; the boy pointedly ignored this and continued.
"I think..... good or bad or whatever, they weren't *that* different. Most of them, anyway. They all just wanted to live..... Though I did wonder about a few of them, that skeleton-samurai, for instance. What was up with him?" Ushio looked down at Tora's back; it shrugged at him.
"Ahhhhhrrr. That one..... A hungry ghost, one who died in battle and could not leave off his warring----- I remember him from about six or seven hundred years ago....." Ushio shivered; he had been raised on stories of the terrible hungry ghosts that lurked outside in the darkness--- and now he had seen one. Of course, he had also seen a giant, and fox-spirits, and a kuma, and any amount of unnameable things with too many mouths..... Not to mention a stupid orange ass of a bakemono who was too full of himself.
The bakemono in question stretched his arms wide, rising up higher above the green sea of treetops; the sun was beginning to warm the air, and he wanted to reach the cooler heights before the day got too hot. He glanced back idly at the Spearbearer, who lay looking thoughtfully off into the distance. "Want to go again next year, Lord Brat?"
"Sure. But next time I'm bringing something to eat with me." The Spearbearer's stomach growled painfully; a night without food was *not* on his list of favorite things..... He almost regretted not trying the fried mice that Rikone and her brothers had offered him. Almost----- but not quite.
Beneath him the bakemono laughed; he increased his speed, their combined shadow flicking across the landscape below like a water droplet sliding across glass. Ushio gripped the tawny fur a little tighter, ducking his head and allowing the wind to sheet across him; he closed his eyes, enjoying the wild rush of flight.
Humans and bakemonotachi..... It was like he had said earlier: they all just wanted to live. He could understand their fear of the Kemono No Yari--- it was *their* nightmare, as he himself was *their* monster. Who could tell? Perhaps they could manage to ignore their fears enough to allow them *all* to live..... And if not--- he would just have to deal with that when it happened. No compromises there.
If he and Tora could do it, well, maybe the others could too.
The Spearbearer settled himself down on Tora's back, watching the new day unfold before his eyes.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
YSABET'S NOTES: This one was a bit harder to write than the others--- no big fight scenes, LOTS of talking, lots of wierd critters to think up (though that was fun)...... I just got to wondering: How would you deal with your neighbors if you were a bakemono or an akuma or oni or whatever? What kind of structure would've evolved down the ages? When you get reading the manga, you find out that they have territories set up and suchlike. Interesting..... So I had fun with the idea. Hope you liked it--- please review! But no sending me fried mice; they give me heartburn. Chocolate would be nice, though..... : P
Chapter 3
By Ysabet
So quiet. It was so very quiet.
Ushio stood facing his audience, the Kemono No Yari held point-up before him; he could feel the weight of many unfriendly gazes..... big surprise there. After all, what was he to the bakemonotachi around him? Judge, jury and executioner, that was what. Coming here had NOT been a good idea.....
This really sucked.
Directly behind him he could hear Tora's claws crunching in the gravel underfoot. The monster stood only a few feet back; every now and then tendrils of burnt-orange mane blew forward in the bonfire's heat, wrapping the Spearbearer in a thin, glittering veil. Ushio could hear him breathing, could smell the dark, musky scent of the bakemono behind him.
Tora liked challenges; a confrontation like this was probably second nature to him. But he was a centuries-old monster-beast, not a fifteen-year-old boy..... So many eyes, watching them: green and golden, scarlet glows, thin slits, burning coals on tentacles, tiny gleams in twos and threes----- Ushio could feel the sweat running down his back. So he stood quietly, staring back.
Let the monsters think what they wanted; the Spearbearer wasn't going to show his fear if he could help it. But this *still* really sucked.
Tora spoke then, so close behind him that his breath disturbed the hairs on the back of Ushio's neck. "I have not been among you for some time now, so I will give you my name. I am Nagatobimaru-dono, and I hold the region which contains the human city of Tokyo." This caused a faint stir among the creatures before them, but no-one said anything yet. The ancient bakemono began to walk slowly around the bonfire as he spoke, his claws scattering pebbles; every now and then a tiny spark of lightning would crackle from talon to talon, bright in the shadows.
Ushio stood very still, waiting; his black cloak of hair drifted around him in the bonfire's hot breath. The small of his back itched, and he concentrated on not squirming; that would be..... uncool. He had to keep calm, had to keep still.
"I have been away for some time from my domain; it pleases me that none have tried to take it while I was gone." Tora/Nagatobimaru looked coolly around the clearing as he paced, cold silver eyes expressionless. "... Or so I understand. Will any dispute this with me?" He smiled, and there was a deadly promise in that smile; it widened a little as the silence continued. The monster's tail lashed as he padded forward, circling the fire.
"Well; I am back. To those within my domain, I say this: It matters to me not at all how you live, what you do; live as humans for all I care, or live as bakemono. That is nothing to me." He spat abruptly on the sand and several creatures jumped. "Why should I give a damn? Your lives are your own, as is mine..... Do as you will. I am no magistrate, to count your numbers or collect fealty from any of you."
Now there were murmurs from among the crowd, seemingly of approval; The Spearbearer shifted his weight very slightly, wondering where this was going. Tora/Nagatobimaru was moving towards him now, his path circling the flames as if closing in on prey; the Spearbearer felt him pad softly past, felt him pause.....
"But I have heard a thing this night that is..... incorrect. You---" and the ancient bakemono looked steadily at the previous speaker, still standing to one side of the clearing with its arms folded; "--- you have said that the Spearbearer is something that concerns us all." The scarlet and black creature gave a curt nod of agreement; Tora/Nagatobimaru stared it down, eyes slitted. He stepped forward heavily to stand beside Ushio, who gripped the Spear a little tighter.
"Not so. It is MY concern. The Spearbearer is *mine* to deal with!"
THAT got results; growls and hisses all around the clearing. Several of the creatures in the shadows further back moved a little closer in; Ushio could see them a little better now. *These* were some of the more frightening bakemonotachi, ones with more talons than hands and more mouths than eyes..... They shuffled in, watching, watching. One of the smaller ones, a thing composed almost completely of eyes, rasped out: "Why yours only? It hunts us, we kill it!" It drifted in place, long tendrils twitching where they hung beneath in its shadow. Ushio could feel his muscles tensing, his lips beginning to draw back from his teeth; keeping still was a harder battle than fighting could ever be.....
Beside him Tora/Nagatobimaru shrugged nonchalantly; "Well enough. But-----" and Ushio could feel the force of Tora's baleful gaze as the monster turned to look down on him--- " this one is responsible for my return; he is mine to deal with.... That is also among our few rules, is it not? Bakemonotachi within a territory are dealt with by those who hold the territory--- why the hell else do such as *we* have territories at all?" Tora sat back on his haunches and crossed his arms; now he was looking out over the crowd.
There were stirrings and a few disgruntled murmurs from the edges, as well as grunts of agreement; Ushio could hear small arguments breaking out here and there between some of the entities. He could also see Rikone; her brothers were sitting beside her now, their eyes huge in the firelight.... and, yes, there were her parents, one on either side of their children.
A little to the left of the kitsune family a skeletal Samurai-type spoke up in hollow, distant tones that sounded like they had been dredged up from the bottom of a well. "Bakemonotachi...... Nagatobimaru-dono, Honored Sir, you speak of the Spearbearer as one of us; but he is *human*, is he not?" And it turned empty sockets to stare at Ushio; the temple boy returned its gaze in silence as the mutterings from the crowd grew louder. He'd wondered when this would come up; *Great,* thought the boy glumly. *I'm something's dinner for certain now. This REALLY sucks.* Well, he wouldn't go down easily. He stood up a little straighter, slit-pupiled eyes narrowing.
The arguments were beginning to grow louder and things were getting ugly; to one side, the magistrate in charge of the moon-truce clapped his hands sharply. "Be still! Lord Nagatobimaru is speaking now; those who wish to silence him or speak in his place must challenge him--- Do any choose to do so?" As the hubub quieted a little, he nodded to Tora/Nagatobimaru, who had been simply sitting back, watching with an exasperated scowl on his firelit face. The monster gave a short laugh and spoke again:
"Human? Hehh..... Look at him, you. Does he *look* human?!? And do you truly believe--- any of you!--- that *I* would allow a human with power like *that* to remain alive in MY territory?!?" The bakemono snorted briefly, teeth flashing white. The noise of the crowd died back bit by bit to near-silence; the crackle of the bonfire was clearly audible. After a moment the skeletal samurai spoke once more, its hollow tones echoing against the rocks. "Honored Sir, you have spoken; we have spoken. But the Spearbearer has not spoken; has he anything to say to us?"
Ushio rocked back a little onto his heels, his face paling; *he* had to talk?!? Great..... but he supposed it was better than being torn to bits. Beside him Tora/Nagatobimaru stepped back somewhat, a sardonic look in his silver eyes. He grunted briefly in approval, but his tail lashed back and forth a time or two. "RRrrrrrrhhrrrrrrr...... You have a point. Speak then, Spearbearer; what have you to say in this manner? Are you human or bakemono?" And he looked Ushio full in the face.
Just what could be read in those silver eyes? They were *so* very inhuman sometimes, full of things that 15-year-old boys had no experience with or empathy for; but right now..... What were they telling him now? Fear? Hatred? Concern? What? The huge striped face was impassive, as terrible as ever; but Ushio saw something there that he would almost call *entreaty*. Tora.... wanted something from him.
Ushio thought hard for a moment, sweating, then drew himself up to his full height and tried see himself as the watching bakemonotachi were seeing him: a figure out of their legends, dressed in dark garments and cloaked with black, black hair, with shining eyes and sharp teeth----- and then there was that terrible Spear.....
From the way things sounded, little bakemonotachi went to bed at night and had bad dreams about the Kemono No Yari. Did monster mothers tell their young ones "Do what I say or the Spearbearer will come and get you"?
Ushio drew a deep breath and looked out again over the audience, gripping the Spear with damp palms. For a moment, it seemed that his voice had caught in his throat like a fishbone; but then something loosened, and he began. "I am Aotsuki Ushio-dono, and I'm the bearer of the Kemono No Yari. And, yes, I was born human." Silence, punctuated by a single barely-audible growl from somewhere out in the darkness.
"Whatever I am now--- well; I don't think any human would recognize me as one of theirs. So..... Maybe I am one of you, in a way. Right now, at least; most humans would think so. Nagatobimaru-dono---" and Ushio glanced sideways at Tora, "--- told me earlier that, to you, *I* am a monster. I don't know--- it's hard to say where 'human' ends and 'Spearbearer' begins." He shifted the Spear so that it lay crosswise in front of him, gripped tightly in each hand. The red streamers fluttered as a cool wind passed across the bonfire, sweeping sparks up in a sheet of stars; more than one set of eyes followed their flight.
"Tonight I came with Lord Nagatobimaru willingly, as a guest; he didn't force me to come, and he told me your rules. I've obeyed them just as you have-----"
There was a clacking hiss from across the clearing from the red and black creature that had spoken previously; its coils shifted and slithered, bright scales reflecting the firelight as it reared up, arms crossed. "----You are NOT one of us, human! You are *food* to many of us!!" It hissed again, showing its mandibles. "We-do-NOT-accept-you!! We--------- !!"
It froze; the Spear had shifted of its own accord in Ushio's hands and was pointing directly at it. Mouth still open, the creature swallowed its words and sank back on its coils a little, still glaring.
After a possibly-polite pause, Ushio continued rather mildly. "..... As I said, I have obeyed your rules..... And so has the Kemono No Yari." He shifted the Spear to his right hand so that it stood between himself and Tora/Nagatobimaru, who was watching very calmly. "Don't think that just because I'm the Spearbearer the Spear will always do what I want; it's got its own ideas." As if in answer, the Kemono No Yari rang softly; the warning tones throbbed above the bonfire's crackle like a moan of protest, and Ushio knew that (for once) every being there could hear them.
The tones died away, and silence returned. The skeletal Samurai who had spoken before cleared its throat (Ushio found himself wondering just what with) and sighed like a rattle of dead leaves. "AAhhhhhhh...... Then there are *three* here who should speak; what then would the Kemono No Yari have to say?" And tiny cold lights shown in the darkened pits of its eye-sockets..... Around the circle there was a drawing back, a movement full of fear and dread (from monsters! With the tiny bit of his mind that wasn't concentrating on keeping calm, Ushio marveled at this); a faint wailing rose from something small and wispy cradled in a barely-visible wraith's arms as it fled away in terror.
All eyes were on the Spear, and it responded with its own voice: at first a soft, shivering moan like before, then a deep, rising hum like God's own base guitar---- growing, growing, crackling with energy-----
----- crackling indeed; a corona of lightning began to coruscate around the Spear's blade, filling the air with miniature thunder and the scent of ozone. Creatures along the edge of the clearing were panicking and scrambling back away from the terrible thing by the bonfire; even Tora/Nagatobimaru was drawing away, his mane throwing back its own sparks in answer to the Spear's lightning. His eyes were very wide, great silver mirrors reflecting what he and all the other bakemonotachi saw: the Spearbearer, still holding the Kemono No Yari, wreathed in a brilliant tangle of thin threads of power that grounded themselves all around him in a scatter of blue fire-----
----- and then Ushio ran his hands along the shaft of the Spear, stroking it soothingly, holding it in both hands; he swept one palm across the blade through the curtain of lightning as if calming an angry beast, and the storm and outcry lessened, lowered, calmed, died......
Quiet again, broken by harsh breathing in the darkness, and by the faint crackle of cooling glass where the power had earthed around Ushio; the scents of ozone and scorched earth hung thick in the air.
The Spearbearer held the Spear before him; it was silent now, but there was a definite feeling in the air of barely-suppressed thunder; every creature there could sense it. He drew a deep breath. "As I said..... It's got its own ideas. If I wasn't its bearer--- if it could do what it liked--- you'd all be dead."
Ushio gave his audience a moment to allow that to sink in, and then spoke again very calmly. "Now..... If I am *not* one of you, and if I'm just a human, by your rules you could kill me tonight. Or you could try, anyway....." And he smiled, or maybe just bared his sharp teeth; it was hard to tell, even to himself.
"On the other hand..... If I'm something like one of *you*, at least while I'm the Spearbearer, then I can't kill any of YOU tonight. That's from your own rules, right?" And he stared directly at the scarlet and black snake-man as he spoke, who glowered back a little less defiantly than before.
"One thing you had better understand: I don't belong to Nagatobimaru-dono, and he doesn't belong to me. I'm not his, his *subject*, or anything like that. We live in the same territory--- and if anything comes looking to take over, I'll defend it. Come to think of it, we'd better make something else clear: Humans are *my* territory!! Try to kill them or do anything else to them while I'm around, and you'll have to deal with me." Ushio crossed his arms, glaring and baring his teeth a little. Mutters from the crowd were more subdued than he would have expected, but there were still quite a number of defiant looks from creatures here and there.....
And yet..... He saw approving nods and definite looks of relief; some of the entities seemed *glad* that he had cleared that little matter up.
Ushio sighed; the rush of adrenaline was beginning to fade, and with it the crazy moment of strength that had gotten him through his ordeal (he would decide later that speaking in front of class would never be quite as traumatic as it had been). He thumped the butt of the Spear a bit impatiently on the ground before him, making a few bakemonotachi jump. "Well? Which is it? What am I to you?"
The silence that followed was broken by a deep, harsh chuckle. Tora/Nagatobimaru was laughing softly, his white teeth reflecting the light of the fire. He stretched cat-limber there on the sands, great claws working; then, tossing his mane back from his face, he turned to the original magistrate-in-charge and said calmly:
"Well?"
The many-eyed creature walked slowly out onto the sands, carefully positioning itself at a good distance from both Ushio and Tora--- and from the Spear. With appreciable dignity it spoke. "I speak only for myself, but I must agree--- you have bided by our laws, Spearbearer, and you seem very little like a human to this personage just now." The fire was beginning to burn low, and the red embers reflected in the eyes on the backs of its hands as it spread them wide before it. "Will any others speak in this matter?"
After a pause, the skeletal Samurai climbed to its feet with a rattle of ancient armor. "Honored ones, it seems to me that all here are bakemonotachi, and all must abide by our laws." The hollow tones echoed through the clearing, cold as windchimes in the dark; but the empty sockets that looked out at the Spearbearer weren't really so unkind, just very black.
Silence then for a few moments; then a soft voice spoke from not too far from Ushio. "I have seen, I have listened; and it is my belief that he is as much one of us at least as he is a human." It was Rikone's mother--- Ushio was startled to hear a woman's voice pass from the jaws of a fox; her husband was giving her a startled look, and Rikone and her brothers were frozen in place. The kitsune leaned forward as she spoke, her golden eyes intent on Ushio's face. "And, my Lords and Ladies and others, from what we have just seen--- is it not a good thing to have one who has at least *something* in common with us bearing the Kemono No Yari? You---" and she pointed with one long-fingered paw at Ushio; "--- you seem to have no hatred of us, ne?"
The Spearbearer shrugged; "No, I don't hate you--- and I've no reason to harm *any* of you unless you tresspass on MY territory: human lives. Leave humans alone, and I'll leave you all alone. Hell, that's pretty simple, isn't it?"
She stared him down sternly, and Ushio immediately regretted his rudeness (mothers never forgot that sort of thing, did they?) The kitsune shook her head; "I doubt that *all* here intend to forego human prey; you'll have to deal with that as it happens..... as bakemono always deal with trespasses on their territory....."
Ushio shrugged again. "Fine." The kitsune woman sat back, satisfied; her husband gave her a single scandalized glance and then turned to stare at Rikone. The foxgirl spread her dark-furred hands wide in an 'I-don't-get-it-either' gesture and shook her head.
Another moment's pause, then a deep, rumbling voice spoke from over most of the entities' heads: "Well, Lords and Ladies and all, I suppose I should speak my piece." The language was reasonably understandable (with the occasional odd slang), but the accent made Ushio blink; it sounded like the american actor John Wayne, of all the unbelievable---- Who in the world was THAT? Then he looked up----- Oh. The giant leaned on his pillar of stone and adjusted the set of his baseball cap before he spoke again. "I'm a visitor here from the 'States, and I've been having a pretty good time tonight; this has been real entertaining! But I've got a question for you guys." He poked a large thumb at Tora.
"From what I hear, you two should be mortal enemies; but you're living in the same territory? How the sam-hell are you handling *that*? Why aren't you trying to kill each other?" He cocked an interested eyebrow at them both; his gold earring glinted in the light of the bonfire's dying embers.
Ushio looked at Tora, raising one eyebrow; Tora looked at Ushio, then at the Spear; several options seemed to pass through his mind before he spoke.
"How we deal with it is our own concern. If anyone tries to eat the Spearbearer before *I* get to him, they will deal with me....." The bakemono lifted his head and looked upwards a little distantly, following the flight of sparks towards the heavens as if the question was no great matter.
The Spearbearer snorted then, crossing his arms defiantly. He looked out over the creatures in the darkness, frowning; "And T-- I mean, Nagatobimaru-dono's MY problem----- I released him, and I'll handle him..... It's really nobody's business but ours, right? Right."
The giant grinned down with broad, white teeth; he seemed pleased. Less pleased was the scarlet-and-black figure that reared up, coils twitching and fists clenching. It clacked its jaws angrily and began an invective-laden tirade which sputtered into incoherency when the magistrate in charge turned to stare coldly down at it (and with that many eyes, he had staring down pat). It finally wound down like a broken toy, muttering angrily as it pushed off into the crowd.
Resting the Spear on his shoulder, Ushio shook his head with a gesture of finality and looked at Tora; the ancient bakemono shrugged once and began pacing back towards his seat on the sands; Rikone's brothers hurriedly made room for him there. The Spearbearer nodded once to himself, then followed. With dignity he took his place back on his boulder..... and then hugged his arms to keep himself from trembling. Adrenaline was a thing of the past now and reaction was setting in.
But he was alive.....
Ushio sat back silently, savoring that fact as another bakemono took its place before the dying fire and began to speak.
******************************************
It was near moonset now, and dawn wasn't too far away. The crowd had diminished; quite a number of monsters had come to speak before the bonfire before wandering off afterwards. The firewood had been replenished once but the flames were flickering back down into a bed of embers once again, and the sweet smell of pine woodsmoke hung in the pre-dawn air. On his boulder, Ushio stretched and considered the kinks in his back and legs; being the Spearbearer might give you a tough hide and tougher muscles, but you still could get a stiff neck if you sat still too long. And he thought his butt had gone to sleep, too.
Rikone and her family had been rather quiet after all the fuss had been over; the foxgirl had silently passed him another soda eventually, but she seemed quite subdued. Her two brothers had stared at Ushio, their eyes large, their ears back (but their mother.... she had just smiled a little at him, the very tip of her tail twitching slightly).
Tora lay like a great orange statue on the sands, eyes half-slitted and distant; every now and then he had made a comment to one of the speakers (who had seemed rather nervous around him; imagine that), but otherwise he had been silent. At last, when the moon had lost half its width below the treetops, the bonfire suddenly went out--- totally. Ushio started a bit, but around him the remaining creatures seemed to take this as a matter of course and a certain sign that the night was over. Beside him Tora yawned; the ancient bakemono stretched a long, long stretch and stood silently. Still rubbing at the kinks in the small of his back, Ushio followed suit; God, what a long night it had been.....
Shouldering the Spear, he turned to the kitsune family; the two boys were gathering up their belongings (and the litter of soda-cans), supervised by their watchful parents; Ushio grinned a little in sympathy as one of the foxboys (Yukio, he thought; they looked a lot alike) rolled his eyes at a barked parental command. The kitsune boy caught this and smiled back hesitantly, but his eyes still strayed to the weapon on the Spearbearer's shoulder. Oh well..... Ushio sighed a little sadly and gave the family his best bow before turning away. Then a soft voice said: ".... Ushio-dono....." and he looked back.
Rikone was standing there, her russet-and-white fur catching the grey light of false dawn; in the faint glow she looked less real, more wraith-like than she had in the darkness of full night. But she was smiling shyly, and as he watched her figure seemed to shimmer, to shift and reform until a very young woman with slanted golden eyes and deep red hair stood before Ushio, still smiling. "..... Take care, Spearbearer..... and I'll see you next year." She bowed formally, her features blurring and melting back into the foxface that was her true countenance. Then she turned to walk silently away with her family, never once looking back.
Ushio just stood there, feeling his heart thumping a little harder. What----?!? Huh. That had been.... nice. Maybe he *would* see her at the next year's moon-truce..... if he was still alive. With the eternal optimism of any 15-year-old, he grinned to himself as he began thinking about it.....
His thoughts were broken by a rough chuckle and the familiar prickle of sharp claws on one shoulder; Tora was standing directly behind him, laughing at his discomfort. "Heh..... So you've made a conquest, have you, Lord Brat? Better watch it....." said the bakemono, grinning widely. Ushio snorted. "Butt out, jerk. I don't know what the hell you're talking about." He could feel his ears beginning to burn. Tora just laughed again, sounding remarkably pleased with himself.
Side by side they each began to walk towards the woods beyond the clearing; around them the crowd was more than half dispersed, creatures leaving on foot or in flight or simply fading like morning mist. The Spearbearer lifted his head to see the same scarlet-and-blue bat things that he had seen when arriving wing past; well damn, he had never gotten around to asking about those, had he?
Ushio rubbed a hand across his face; his eyes felt dry and gritty, and the effort of keeping them open was almost too much to bother with. He dragged his feet a little as they walked, nearly bumping into a departing something-or-other with tattered, many-layered robes (they were probably robes.... or maybe just skin; who knew?). The whatever-it-was muttered something that might have been an apology and shuffled past, intent on its own departure.
The sky was beginning to lighten; already the charcoal of predawn was beginning to shade into the golden white of sunrise. Ushio shouldered the Spear a little more securely as they stepped into the shadows of the trees, following the streambed back the way they had come. *Huh* he thought tiredly; *That seems more like a year ago, not just a single night. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess.* Behind them the last stragglers seemed to be leaving--- he wondered how Rikone and her family would travel back to their home (*and dammit, that was one *more* thing I never got around to asking: Where she lived! Shit!*)--- on two feet, or four? Or otherwise? Ushio concentrated on his own movements, sweeping the lengths of his hair around so he could bundle it in his arms--- it had a tendancy to catch on branches or get walked on if he didn't watch out.
*God, what a night* he thought, wobbling as he stepped from one boulder to another. Ushio glanced up at Tora; the bakemono was a little ahead of him, padding softly along the streambed with hardly any sound. The Spearbearer frowned to himself thoughtfully; there had been this little matter in the back of his mind all night that they needed to discuss.......
"Hey, Tora. Got something I've been wanting to ask you about." The monster did not turn around. "What is is?" he answered back rather absently.
Ushio brought the Spear around to hold in both hands, using it to keep his balance on a particularly tricky bit of boulder-hopping. "Well..... Why'd we do this? I mean, I understand about seeing what was what, and who holds what territory and all that---- but......" He shoved his hair back irritably, concentrating on his footing. "..... You could've probably found out about that sort of thing some other way, couldn't you?" The bakemono made no answer, but looked sideways back at Ushio; his silver eyes gleamed with something like amusement in the shadows.
".....And--- why bring me? You had to know there'd be some sort of fight, what with me being the Spearbearer. What the hell was with that, anyway? Trying to get me killed?" The boy scowled at the monster, who stopped in his tracks and turned, pointing a sharp-taloned finger straight at Ushio's face.
He growled out: "I TOLD them, boy, and I told YOU: *No-one kills you before me!!*" Tora glared down into the Spearbearer's angry eyes----- then flinched back and snarled as the Spearbearer swatted the flat of his weapon against the side of his huge head, THWACK!!!
For a moment they glared each other there in the streambed, the bakemono and the temple boy; then, as if the confrontation had never happened, the two turned at one accord to continue side-by-side on their way. Looking straight ahead, Tora continued: "..... Hhhraahhhhrrrr..... there *was* another reason---" and he shrugged. "There are many among the bakemonotachi who know of me, and of that damned Spear----- and of the Spearbearer. Trying to hold a territory while *allowing you both to exist in it unchallenged*...... Not possible. No bakemono would do that. So......." he trailed off, sounding a little embarrassed.
Ushio picked it up, feeling angrier than ever. ".....so you brought me here to get the bakemonotachi to see me as one of them? So you wouldn't look like an asshole in front of them?!? So you wouldn't *lose face*?!?" He aimed another blow at the monster, a harder one this time. "GodDAMN it, Tora!!"
The bakemono ducked, shoving him away. "Idiot!! What else could I do?...... Well, besides eat you, that is? You had to be seen as one of us, or others would come to kill us both!!! You, because you are the Spearbearer; and me, because they would see me as weak enough to let you live!!!" He growled in the back of his throat as he continued walking; the growl had words in it that were probably best unheard.
Ushio growled back a little, but his anger was dying; he supposed Tora had a point. As he trudged along the streambed, he thought about the things that had *not* been said, not by either of them: That Tora could've probably killed him..... That Tora hadn't killed him..... That, maybe, it was better not to talk about this out loud. There were some things better left unsaid, some confrontations that should never happen.
Otherwise..... Well. Best to let it go at that.
They walked on, and the Spearbearer finally allowed himself a moment to shift back to his human self (he guessed they were far enough away for it to be safe). This was the longest that he had stayed in his other form; it felt wierd being just..... Ushio. As the lengths of black hair slid towards the ground and faded into ash, he shivered a bit--- All in all, everything that he had said before the bonfire had been the truth: he wasn't really *completely* human, not while he was like that, sharp-toothed and slit-eyed..... The temple boy ran a single strand of disintegrating black hair through his fingers as it crackled into dust (convenient, that; better than leaving heaps of hair all over the place).
Being human..... it wasn't really so different, he supposed. Rikone and her family, for instance; despite all their fur and tails and shapechanging, were they really that unlike the human beings he had known all his life? Different upbringings and ancestry, sure, but beyond that..... Rikone had been pretty cute, too--- human-faced *and* fox-faced. For a moment Ushio considered that thought, grinning a little; then a vision of Asako crept before his mind's eye and he flinched, imagining her reaction to his, well, his 'flirting' the previous night. Knowing Asako, she would probably beat the snot out of him and then become the best of friends with the kitsune, and then the two of them would walk off arm-in-arm discussing how horrible boys were..... Ouch.
They had reached the spot where they had landed the night before, and Ushio slid up onto Tora's back without a word (he never said anything--- Tora would probably dump him from a fatally-high altitude if he did). As they lifted slowly above the treetops, the temple boy looked over his shoulder; there was the clearing, there was the spire the giant had leaned against (*... and how the HELL did *that* guy manage to arrive in Japan unnoticed?*), there was the ring of the bonfire, black against the sand..... Huh. What a night.
The wind was rising with the sun; as Ushio settled himself on the bakemono's back it sent a storm of Tora's mane up to flutter wildly around him, wrapping him once more in a cloak of fine, amber hair. He brushed it from his face and eased himself down against the warm fur a little more comfortably, trying to keep from digging his heels in (Tora usually ignored him while they flew, but no use taking chances after all). As he settled back, he heard: ".....And what did you think of the bakemonotachi, ehh?"
The Spearbearer hesitated a moment, thinking. Then, resting his chin on the haft of the Spear lying crosswise before him, he said softly: "Mostly, I think they were pretty much..... people. Not very *nice* people, some of them--- and I think there were quite a few that're just too, well, *alien* to be really something I'd understand--- but lots of them were pretty much like the people I know back home. I mean, that kitsune family--- I go to school with guys just like Yukio and Hayaiko, and Rikone reminded me of Asako a bit....." Beneath him the monster chuckled; he turned his head a little to one side so he could look back at Ushio from one silver eye. "The sharp-voiced girl would make a good bakemono" he said rather mildly; the boy pointedly ignored this and continued.
"I think..... good or bad or whatever, they weren't *that* different. Most of them, anyway. They all just wanted to live..... Though I did wonder about a few of them, that skeleton-samurai, for instance. What was up with him?" Ushio looked down at Tora's back; it shrugged at him.
"Ahhhhhrrr. That one..... A hungry ghost, one who died in battle and could not leave off his warring----- I remember him from about six or seven hundred years ago....." Ushio shivered; he had been raised on stories of the terrible hungry ghosts that lurked outside in the darkness--- and now he had seen one. Of course, he had also seen a giant, and fox-spirits, and a kuma, and any amount of unnameable things with too many mouths..... Not to mention a stupid orange ass of a bakemono who was too full of himself.
The bakemono in question stretched his arms wide, rising up higher above the green sea of treetops; the sun was beginning to warm the air, and he wanted to reach the cooler heights before the day got too hot. He glanced back idly at the Spearbearer, who lay looking thoughtfully off into the distance. "Want to go again next year, Lord Brat?"
"Sure. But next time I'm bringing something to eat with me." The Spearbearer's stomach growled painfully; a night without food was *not* on his list of favorite things..... He almost regretted not trying the fried mice that Rikone and her brothers had offered him. Almost----- but not quite.
Beneath him the bakemono laughed; he increased his speed, their combined shadow flicking across the landscape below like a water droplet sliding across glass. Ushio gripped the tawny fur a little tighter, ducking his head and allowing the wind to sheet across him; he closed his eyes, enjoying the wild rush of flight.
Humans and bakemonotachi..... It was like he had said earlier: they all just wanted to live. He could understand their fear of the Kemono No Yari--- it was *their* nightmare, as he himself was *their* monster. Who could tell? Perhaps they could manage to ignore their fears enough to allow them *all* to live..... And if not--- he would just have to deal with that when it happened. No compromises there.
If he and Tora could do it, well, maybe the others could too.
The Spearbearer settled himself down on Tora's back, watching the new day unfold before his eyes.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
YSABET'S NOTES: This one was a bit harder to write than the others--- no big fight scenes, LOTS of talking, lots of wierd critters to think up (though that was fun)...... I just got to wondering: How would you deal with your neighbors if you were a bakemono or an akuma or oni or whatever? What kind of structure would've evolved down the ages? When you get reading the manga, you find out that they have territories set up and suchlike. Interesting..... So I had fun with the idea. Hope you liked it--- please review! But no sending me fried mice; they give me heartburn. Chocolate would be nice, though..... : P