DISCLAIMER: This Story is Co-Written between me and Alejandro Melchior. Just don't want anyone to think otherwise. :) Now, have fun!
WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC
PROLOGUE
Night befell the streets of Edo, once mighty capital of an empire, now nothing more than the corpses of great manors that still clung to former glories. The full moon cast its light through the windows of a small mansion, home to Shoji Nakamura, an exiled general.
A disembodied foot appeared in the patch of moonlight and soon disappeared again; Unseen Chuckling Wind honored his name and chuckled softly, remembering that Tsukiyomi gifted him with invisibility, as long as he didn't step on Luna's light. He refocused and charted a path through the castle. He was ninja, and he was here to kill Nakamura.
Hikari was prowling the Manor as she always did at nighttime. Her senses on full alert, her mind on the pleasures of the hunt. Her eyes, as black as the night, searched the corridors, piercing the darkness. She was silent, quiet death.
The ninja paused; his nose picked a scent ahead. Kaze, for that was his name, never went inside a building in a mission in other forms except the half-fox. He was kitsune, and a warrior for his race. He climbed the wall and perched on a beam, still cloaked in the Moon Dance.
She had always trusted her instincts and the tickling sensation in her belly told her something was wrong. She rounded a corner, activating her chi sight and searched the corridor.
Kaze caught his breath as the most exquisite woman he'd ever laid eyes upon stepped into the moonlight. He remained motionless, feasting his eyes with the vision before him; it took him a couple of seconds to remember his purpose, and notice the woman's... no, the young girl's stance. She was a sentry; possibly kunoichi herself.
Her keen and supernatural chi sight traveled over the intruder but kept moving as if she hadn't noticed him. Then withot warning, she activated the Black wind and leapt up into the rafters, poised for a strike!
She felt the voice of her P'o as the Demon Chi fueled her frame, but she forced herself to ignore it; she had a duty here, and she was about to cut down the intruder when he dropped to the floor.
Kaze cursed as he evaded an attack that was inhumanly fast; he called upon the blessings of the gods, for he knew this was a battle that'd be hard to avoid. His Rage coursed through his body, promising to sustain him, and the spirits advised him of where his opponent now lay. He drew his opaque wakizashi and held it at the ready, summoning the spirit of the fray to strike down the sentry, lovely as she might be, before she had a chance to attack again.
Hikari grinned predatorily. The intruder was a fox and that promised to be interesting. "Anything to say before you die?"
Kaze fixed all of his senses on her. He grinned. "Only that it's a pity that the Yang in your body will be corrupted by Nakamura's master, Kuei-jin."
Hikari narrowed her eyes as he said this. "Your trickster tactics won't work here, Kitsune!"
"No, really." His guard didn't lower, but his voice had taken a tone of joviality. He was following on a hunch here; though he could sense the Centipede on her, it was reined. "I can see your Chi; it's very pretty; I'd hate to see it darkened by the Yama Kings."
"You're trying to gain time." she whispered, but her voice was not as sure as before. The Kitsune had touched a weak spot. She had always persued life, and corruption of her Yang would destroy that.
"You haven't killed me, have you?" Kaze smiled, secure that the spirits of war he'd prayed to would let him act first if the vampire attacked; still acting on a hunch, he sheathed his sword. "You are not Nakamura's... you're not tainted enough."
"I am here to protect him against the likes of you." She watched him sheath his blade. The time to act would have been now, but she remained motionless.
"Kuei-jin bodyguard?" Kaze shifted slowly to his human form, his orange fur changing to his black messy hair. "Only strong money'd buy that; money from Yama-infested sweatshops to buy European steel and steam."
"Che money!" she spat. "As if that was my reason. It's the thrill off hunting trespassers like you." Her er eyes gleamed dangerously in the darkness. But she had doubts. "How would you know about my employee being Yama infested?" Apart from her beauty, her charisma radiated with every move.
Kaze smiled wider, if that was even possible. His common sense advised to dispose of this creature as soon as possible, but he just couldn't bring himself to destroy such beauty. If he could gain an ally for Gaia...
"I can show you." He offered his open palms. "Nakamura is a bakemono, and his work only advances the goals of demons. Until the next dusk, I won't come close to him, if you will come and see without attempting against my life. If you're not convinced, we can start fighting tomorrow."
She narrowed her eyes, watching the fox closely. A long silence followed, almost uncomfortably long. Finally though Hikari spoke: "Agreed, but don't think I would hesitate to kill you should you try something funny!"
The kitsune relaxed. "You are cruel... would you kill a fox for trying something funny?" He shifted back towards half-fox form, and winked. "Follow, if you can."
A smirk, one which would have made her look cute had the situation been different spread over her lips. "Go ahead, you couldn't lose me!"
"My name is Kaze Kuromori." He said, while slowly pulling out a small knife from the insde of his vest. He stared at the blade... and slowly vanished.
A grin came to her lips as she watched him disappear from plain sight. Again she activated her chi sight, confident she would be able to follow him. "Hikari Kyusenko." she replied. But she worried when her Chi sight wouldn't locate his presence, as if he wasn't in this world anymore.
"Ah great, he's using the Tapestry." She groaned. Hengeyokai always were the same and this one sadly no different. Closing her eyes, she activated and tapped her chi reservoir, crossing the barrier only a moment later. Reopening her eyes, she looked for the fox.
"I'm impressed." He said when she opened her eyes. "This saves us time, come." He signaled to her and walked. The mansion's corridors looked strange beyond the Wall; many of them were choked with cobwebs, and the wood appeared to be warped by time and rot.
She looked around estranged. In the future she'd always check this side off the wall, too. With swift steps she followed the Kitsune.
"Now..." He said... "It should be over here... You see, I had the plans for the physical castle only, it's spirit half is not quite the same, Hikari-chan."
"And who gave you the permission to call me chan?" Her eyes narrowed considerably, beautiful features definately tainted with anger after his words. "Do I look cute to you, eh?" she snarled slightly and the aura of the predator grew very strong indeed.
"Hengeyokai find cute the oddest things." He winked. "I don't know how much time you've walked the land as you are, but I've been around for quite some time, and I can recognize beauty when I see it, even in the form of danger."
He then shrugged as he poked his vulpine head into a door, then turned back to her. "But I can call you Kyusenko-dono if you prefer formalities."
"Refrain from using chan...if you want to see the next day that is." she snarled slightly and turned to look away.
She waited for him to find and show her whatever it was that he had in store for her.
"Tsk, tsk... such temper..." The trickster warrior chuckled and signaled her to look into the same room he had peeked inside moments ago.
She didn't see anything special. Just a room, covered in webs and built of rotten wood, like the rest of the castle's spirit reflecion. She was about to turn to the fox, but she noticed at the last moment how several webs ran to the center of the room.
"Why is it such an offence to find you cute?" The kitsune asked behind her, his comment totally out of place with the strangeness of the room, or maybe just adding to it.
Following the webs to the center of the room with her gaze, she didn't answer the Kitsune's question, but instead tried to figure out what he found so interesting in the room.
"Don't touch the webs." He warned; Hikari suppressed her warrior response to the movement beneath her; it was a fox; the small animal winked at her and hopped with ease among the web strands, standing near the center of the room and sniffing.
She watched silently at what the fox was doing. Her fingers trembled slightly as she stood there, poised, ready to attack the shapechanger if he played a foul trick at any time. Her senses were on full alert and only a slight wrong movement would tick her off.
Kaze snapped to attention suddenly, and Hikari's own senses warned her of incoming danger from above. The fox barked something, but the vampire didn't pay enough attention; she was by far too busy dodging the pony-sized spider that was dropping on her from the ceiling.
It was a hideous beast; its legs were covered with spine-like hair, and it bore a gruesome humanoid face with multiple eyes on the forehead, and a wild tangle of hair flowing like spiderwebs in the wind.
Hikari dodged backwards and snarled furiously, dropping a bit down into a ready position. Her features were now drawn into a mask of anger, but a slight glint in her eyes told a different story. It was a maddening gleam of fun of fighting.
This was more proof than she had cared for, but now her former employer would pay for this.
A soft movement and she suddenly she started a Martial Arts move, fluid motions making her stand up, turn feintly and then with her eyes narrowed, her fist shot forward while she activated her Distant Death Kata.
The spider-demon reared as an unseen Chi force struck it; it was now standing between the two shen. It reared on four of its legs, and tried to hit Hikari, but the vampire was swift, and none of the attacks found its target, however, it put her right in the way of a stream of webbing shooting from the monster's mouth. The sticky substance burned at the touch, and glued her to the ground and wall beside her.
Her gaze would have been enough to kill a mortal, or so any on-looker would have judged as she tried for a second, in vain to get free of the web.
But she wasn't about to give up that easily. Again, she closed her eyes a short moment and then reopened them wide, her muscles tensing, a cry of rage echoing from her lips as she activated another of her vampiric powers. With a spectacular blinding flash, she turned into a living flame of Chi Energy, a corona of blueish fire burning around her suddenly.
The demon screamed in pain, and skittered back a few steps; however, Hikari's flame extinguished too fast; with shocked frustration and rage, she could see the spider regenerating the burns of her Chi fire, and felt her own Chi being drained.
The kitsune suddenly stepped into the picture, rolling between the monster's legs and, supported on his back, kicking the thing's underbelly with both legs.
"Falling Touch!" The kitsune yelled, and the giant spider was knocked over, an incredible stunt for a creature as slight and graceful-looking as the fox-man. Rolling again, he was on her side, cutting her loose from the stinging webstrands. Behind him, the demon was righting itself.
"Don't waste your Chi, Kyusenko-dono!" the fox grunted as he freed her arms.
"You talk! You weren't looking into the mouth of that thing!" she growled back and ripped apart the rest of the webbing, dropping to her feet again and taking on a fighting stance. Her eyes were still narrowed as she gazed at the demon in front of them.
"So...we should probably finish your job together, hm?"
"Its belly is soft." He said as an answer. "Save your Chi; reinforcements should be here soon."
As the spider finally got on its eight legs, the fox added with a chuckle. "-His- reinforcements, I mean."
"I got the point all right. I think I'm underdressed for this occassion."
She smirked and closed her eyes again, reaching within herself, to the darkest pit of her soul, drawing out what she knew was her other part.
Viewed from outside, she suddenly began to shiver slightly and lumps started to form on her body, flesh being poked outwards. A moment later, two large leathery wings with talons at the tips sprang from Hikari's back, claws sprouting from her hands, glinting in the feint light and on all parts of her body, shimmering white spikes sprang from her skin, creating an armor of spikes.
As she now reopened her eyes, they glowed a fierce red.
"Now -that- is uncute." Kaze hid the wave of nausea that washed over him behind the laughter of his race. She now reeked of the Wyrm of Corruption, and he hoped her higher soul prevailed over her shadow nature, or he'd have to resort to much meaner tricks. "I'll distract it."
The kitsune stood straight and gestured in sharp and precise movements, chanting shintoist prayers; around him, a cloud of debris rose, lifted by unseen hands, and shot at the spider demon, dancing around its head and attracting its attention. Never once did the ninja stopped chanting, but instead gave a soft kick to Hikari's monstruous leg as a signal.
Nodding feintly, Demon-Hikari suddenly dashed forward at the signal, claws glinting in the light as she jumped, pounced towards the beast in front of her, aiming her claws and spikes at the monster's head.
The pieces of broken wood fell at her passing, and the spider covered its demonic face with four of its legs. Hikari's demon form tore at them, making huge gashes in the monster's extreminites. Out of the corner of her eyes, a black and orange blur slid benath both of them, and the spider screamed in pain. It tried to push Hikari back, but the spikes from her body dealt more damage. Again, the spider was tossed upside down by an unbelievable force.
Jumping high up, Hikari completed a slow sault and then fell directly towards the spidery thing, feet, forward, elongated claws shimmering with the blood of the monster as she raced downwards, with lethal precision.
Her feet sank into the monster's soft underbelly, covering her with foul-smelling ichor, but the thrashings of the thing were a clear indication that she'd dealt a killing blow. The kitsune got there and decapitated the spider monster with one swift slash of his opaque blade.
The eight-legged carcass began rotting around Hikari, and the head the kitsune ninja held aloft took on the features of a woman she'd seen at her employer's court. One of Nakamura's concubines, she realized.
Looking around quietly for a moment, she shook her head feintly.
"He shouldn't have lied to me." she said with a deep, dangerous voice that was completely unlike her normal voice.
Her eyes searched the immediate area for threats. Out of respect, she didn't step closer to the Kitsune, knowing he wouldn't like it, at least not in this form.
"I feel -so- grateful about honesty right now..." He smiled at her as he tossed the head aside. "We should cross the Wall back; I didn't want to come to the Tapestry until it was aboslutely necessary; that way, we'll only face Nakamura's human and bakemono guards, not any of these ladies."
She nodded feintly and slowly reverted back to her normal form, feeling much better this way in any case. Though still the monster's slime clung to her body and she grumbled something almost inaudible as she prepared to return to the real world.
The room was dark and stale, and the ninja again wore his human guise. In a corner of the room, a woman lay bleeding, red pools staining an ellaborate kimono. It was headless.
"I'll pay your next visit to a bathhouse." Kaze grinned again, as sounds of alarm and shouting were heard in the distance.
"Knowing you foxes, you would only try and sneak in with me." she smirked lightly and looked around the real world, figuring out from where the alarmed shouts came.
"Well, let's get going, shall we?"
"What do you mean 'sneak'?" Kaze flashed her another one of his smiles as he walked to the center of the room, where several webstrands converged in the spirit world. "I would have walked right in!"
His words had a double edge, as he kicked down and shattered a trapdoor.
Another smirk sent his way as she eyed the trapdoor and shrugged her shoulders feintly.
"Just like you boys, not to know what's good for you and not." She brushed back a strand of hair and then motioned to the door.
"After you..."
"You don't trust me yet?" He sounded hurt, but was leaning down already. He dropped down and she heard a splash of water; then the kitsune's jesting voice. "Come on down, the water's great!"
"Yeah, just what I need, more muck and slime on me." she murmured to herself, but eventually dropped down through the door herself.
When she landed, she made sure to check in all directions at once, weary as always, careful as always. She wouldn't have survived this long if she hadn't been careful.
It was pitch black down there, a sewer system of sorts. The darkness was only pierced by two green-glowing eyes. When they winked at her, Hikari realized it was the kitsune.
"Jester..." she smirked and shook her head, activating her chi sight in order to look around herself, not caring for unpleasant surprises. "Are you always in such a good mood?"
"Only when I'm not happy." He answered. They were standing in a long corridor that stretched in both directions. The kitsune spat on his palm and then slapped with his other hand. "That way." He pointed at his right after a few seconds' contemplation of his spread spit. He then started walking close to one of the walls.
Shrugging her shoulders, Hikari followed quietly. So far the little fox had given her more truth than her employee and thus she tendended towards trusting him, at least for now.
But still, she was weary, knowing it could just be a trick to lure her into an ambush, to kill her finally. Hikari liked her life, even if it was just an unlife. She didn't want to die just yet. There were things she needed to do, things which needed to be completed.
They walked for a few minutes, turning corners and making their way into a non-labyrinth: the corridor never branched off, nor it split, yet it twisted and turned around in a senseless pattern. At one point, Hikari noticed the three bushy tails that swayed softly from his guide's romp.
On his part, Kaze was delighted. His hunch had paid off, and he'd gained an invaluable ally, for the night at least. Even if the vampire later turned on him, he'd gotten out of worse scraps in his long and exciting life, and it would add to his repertoire of tales to share at the Courts. And she was -very- cute; had he been a Kataribe bard instead of an Eji warrior, he'd be composing masterful haikus to praise her beauty to her face, just to tick her off. Instead, he just turned his head once in a while to take a peek at her and feast his eyes.
Walking behind the fox, Hikari quietly eyed the three tails for a moment. She wasn't all too well versed on what the tails meant exactly, but she knew for a fact that the more tails, the stronger they were and the older they could get. Three tails was nothing incredible, but not to be underestimated either. She judged him to be the equivalent to herself in experience.
She did note the looks this fox gave her. His head turning slightly when he looked backwards, gazing at her through the darkness and she grinned faintly.
An ally was an ally and if this little fox was interested in her, it could only be good for her.
The turns were sharper and more frequent now, and the walls, which had been stone, now were the natural rock of a cave; there was noise on the way they had come from.
"They won't dare follow." Kaze said. "We must be closer to the Kumo's nesting grounds, and then to Nakamura's chamber. The arrogant bastard must be trusting his spider allies to stop us. Kyusenko-dono... or he may be trusting -you- to stop me."
The human-shaped fox winked, and showed his fingers in the 'victory' sign.
"Don't get cocky, foxboy; I might still consider taking you as a snack later on." She smirked and moved onwards.
Much to her surprise, she indeed found this contiuing happiness, easy-going way of the Kitsune appealing somehow. It made her feel a bit better in such a situation, but she wouldn't tell him that, or else he would never leave her side again.
"If Nakamura's dead by then, it won't matter; I'll have succeeded." The ninja stared straight ahead as he spoke. "At least, it won't matter -much-; I mean, I'm not afraid to die, but it would put a very big obstacle in my plans."
She raised her eyebrows slightly and turned to look at him a moment, then a light grin played over her lips.
"I didn't say I'd kill you, just take a snack from you. Have you ever experienced that?"
"Hmm." He scratched the back of his head. "My father used to chew on me when I was a kit... then there's that time when the crocodile munched on me... ugh... and that dragon-spirit who thought I was tasty and took a bite... No; I don't particularly enjoy being a morsel."
"Heh, I could promise you that all of those things are not quite like being bitten by me." She winked slightly and indicated for him to go on.
"Most assuredly so. Hush." His form shifted to that of the half-fox; he wasn't much bigger nor stronger, but his suppleness was evident in every single movement. He unsheathed his sword and raised three fingers at Hikari, then pointed to the darkness beyond, where the last turn of the corridor led to a huge cavern, half a meter deep in water and with several rock outcroppings. They were on the physical side of the Wall now, which meant that the webs stretching from side to side of the cave were very, very real.
Hikri nodded lightly and edged forward slowly, careful not to make a sound, which she did very well. Her gentle moves were fluid and graceful deadly.
But as this was the kitsune's show, she left it to him to make the first move.
To her utter surprise, he walked right in! His feet splashed loudly until he reached one of the outcroppings.
In the ceiling, something stirred, and was echoed by movement in the water. A huge spider dropped in front of the kitsune, and around him, a bubbling mass coalesced into an abomination with the torso of a man and the lower body of a spider.
"SSssss!!!!" The man-spider hissed in defiance, but the ninja just leaned on the rock and covered a yawn nonchalantly.
She watched the fox quietly, stepping through the entrance now as well, her eyess shifting from the monster to the Kitsune, wondering what the boy was playing at or if he was playing at all.
"Yes, yes, yes." Kaze waved, looking bored. "Now you'll say something about punishing me for trespassing, or about meeting a slow and painful death, but wouldn't you want to hear about Lord Nakamura's orders?"
"Ssshut up, Kitsune!" The giant spider's voice grated on the walls.
"Great... the human hires me to kill you, I come to warn you, and this is the way you treat me? Really..."
The two Kumo paused and looked at each other; a third one appeared out of nowhere, wearing human shape.
"He comesss with the Kuei-jin..."
"Ah, yes.. Kyusenko-dono!" The kitsune called over to the entrance. "Do you mind telling these gentlemen how Lord Nakamura tired of his contract with them and hired us to kill them?"
A slight, cruel smirk crept over the lips of the Kuei-jin Femme Fatale as she licked her lips and walked to the side of Kaze.
"He's quite correct, you fools. You were considered worthless and tossed away. The tossing is our job."
The three werespiders stood quietly, surrounding vampire and kitsune.
"You're wondering why we just didn't kill you." Kaze broke the silence.
"We do, foxman." Now, the three of them had changed to human form.
"Can I conjure up some sake?" He answered. "This might be long."
"Ssssorcer ass well?" The man who had discovered Hikari spoke. "Go ahead; try anything and we'll kill you both."
"Can you stand a little fire?" Kaze whispered to his newfound ally as he stood straight.
"Sure I can..." she whispered quietly, though the thought of the fire didn't make her look all too happy.
She looked at him a moment and then shrugged, making a sweeping gesture for him to begin with whatever he wanted to do.
He showed his hands to the spiders, and turned around to reassure them that he wasn't trying anything. Again, he twisted his fingers in complicated signs and patterns and, without any kind of noise or pyritechnics, a large bottle was lying in front of him. The kitsune picked up the container and uncorked it, smelling the mouth and sighing dreamily.
"Great sake... but you're our hosts, you should have the honor." He extended his arms in offering, but the bottle seemed too much for him and he stumbled ahead; the bottle slipped and flew forward, shatering in one of the rock outcroppings.
"Ready..." He whispered; the smell of oil reached Hikari's nose.
She nodded softly and closed her eyes, summoning up her courage and strength to withstand what was about to come.
She hated fire, especially when she was the attention of it, but she would have to go through it this time.
"Gods, I'm so clumsy!" He pulled out a piece of paper; the side he was hiding from the spiders bore several kanji.
The spiders were suspicious now; one of them shifted to the terrifying half-man form the hengeyokai assumed in their respective species.
"Elemental child, I call thee forth, Fire!" The slip of paper sailed through the air and burst into flame, igniting the oil in the water.
And so it started. The inferno broke out suddenly, flames licking through the room, fueled by the oil her little fox-helper had dropped into the water.
Hikari gritted her teeth and fought against losing control, fought to remain herself and not to run away. She felt the heat, but forced herself to remain where she was.
She heard the scream of the spider closer to the conflagration, saw it dissolve into hundreds of little normal-sized spiders, but there was no escape from the flames. She saw the fox gesture again, and two fiery tongues jumped from the blaze and struck the remaining two, who were too shocked by surprise, anger and fear to dodge. They too began to burn.
She felt a furred hand grab her lower arm, transfixed as she was by the luminous death inflicted on the Kumo.
"Move, girl! Move or we die too!" The system of webs was catching on fire too.
With an effort of will, she tore her gaze away and resumed control over her body, following the little Kitsune quickly, not looking back.
A job well done?
She didn't know, she couldn't even think clearly at the moment. While she ran she tried to calm herself as quickly as possible.
But they were running deeper into the cavern; lit strands of webbing fell around them, hissing as they hit the water in the floor. Kaze stopped, looking around desperately.
"Damnation! It was supposed to be here! The secret door was supposed to be here!"
"And who told you that?" Hikari uttered through gritted teeth, having more and more problems to calm herself and stay controlled.
She glanced around quickly, trying to find what the fox couldn't. She used all senses at her disposal to locate anything like a door.
"Damn, damn, damn." The fox muttered as the flames closed on them and turned around himself, looking up and down.
Hikari could only see rock and burning webs; at a corner of the cave, there were cocoon-like shapes dangling from the ceiling.
Hikari slowly started to feel the fear gripping her heart. She was still able to control herself, but the Wave Soul crept closer and closer, dangerous and stalking her.
"I don't want to panick or anything, but I would remind you that should we stay here any longer, I will freak out and start attacking things at random, including you and I DON'T know if that is part of your plan, but I doubt it, so could you please HURRY!"
She had said the most of the sentence with a sickly sweet voice, but the last word was shouted, making clear her anxiety from what was to come should they stay here any longer.
"You don't need to breathe, right?" The fox turned around, his eyes turned to steel.
"No, I don't need to breathe...why?"
Again, she found herself wondering what he was hinting at, or what his plan was, but she needed a way out and fast!
"Then down!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to push her down into the knee-deep water.
She hissed at first, but it was indeed the only option left. The fire was closing in on them and she needed to be elsewehere or she would not need to worry about doing anything anytime soon.
So she gave in and tried to get under the water, though it wasn't really deep.
Kaze took a hollow reed from one of his hidden pockets and put it to his mouth; he could've easily traveled to the Umbra, or shifted into fox form and darted off with his astounding agility, but he wasn't in the practice of abandoning allies, and he remained in half-fox when he dropped into the water on top of Hikari, shielding her from the burning webs that started to drop around them.
Hikari couldn't see the flames as the kitsune's body blocked the view; he was breathing through the protruding end of his reed, and more than once she felt his body stiffen and shake, but he never moved enought to expose her to the inferno above water level. They spent several minutes like this, and the water became warm. She had lost track of time when the ninja finally rose.
Slowly, she rose along with him, blinking water from her eyes, looking around the cavern in which the inferno had erupted and destroyed.
Her eyes then slowly traveled to Kaze.
There was an unspoken question in her eyes.
Though open hostilities between the shapeshifters and the kindred were rare, there was usually no love left between them.
Certainly not enough to save one when in danger.
The fox offered a sorry spectacle, his fur pasted to his skull and snout, his normally perky ears were down; he turned his back on her.
"Tell me, my vest is ruined, right?" He stretched his arms as if trying to scratch his back. There were indeed holes in the black vest, through which Hikari could se singed fur. "Damn! I liked this vest!"
"Why?" She simply asked.
She couldn't understand, not right now. Too much was happening at the moment.
She was old enough to know that any normal Hengeyokai would have abandoned her. Work together, maybe. Rescue each other, no way!
"Because it's got all these neat pockets inside." Kaze shifted to human form, answering the wrong question, but his eyes said that he knew, and he was just lightening the mood.
She chuckled lightly, though it was a rather dry chuckle as it had been a rather dry joke.
Again, she looked around, and again, she asked.
"Why did you do this?"
"Want to know the practical or the unpractical reasons?" He asked in return as he removed the vest, leaving him with only the sleeves to cover his upper body. He turned the garment around, and oogled at her through one of the holes in the fabric.
She shrugged her delicate shoulders slightly, the water glistening on perfect skin. Her ruffly hair was all wet, a tangly mess, but it somehow only served to make her look more appealing.
Draping her arms across her chest, she gazed at him quietly.
"Both."
"Okay." He squeezed the vest dry. "Practical: I don't catch on fire as easily, and Luna has gifted those kitsune who travel the path of the warrior with the ability to heal quickly. Also, I don't abandon allies; even one-night partners. Unpractical: I kinda like you." He shot her one of the smiles that looked the same in all of his forms.
She raised a delicate brow and watched him a moment longer before she chuckled feintly and nodded.
"So, where to go now, partner?"
"Nakamura's chamber." He answered, donning again the vest and all the secret pockets sewn into it. "Though I'm afraid this little fire already alerted him that something is wrong. Hmmmm...." He looked at a point in the ceiling. "Those didn't burn..."
The cocoons Hikari had noticed earlier still hanged from the ceiling Though charred and covered in soot, there was not much noticeable damage on them.
"Yeah. Seems like they are somehow resistant against fire." she said quietly, walking a few steps, watching the things hanging from the ceiling. "And where is the chamber? You seemed to be searching for it earlier."
"According to my information, there's a corridor that starts somewhere around here and comes out in his chamber. But after this little surprise I'm not so sure anymore. Ewww... those things stink."
"Oh come on, don't get girlish tendencies down here." she muttered and looked around the chamber again.
"I checked this room earlier with all my senses, but there was NO passageway whatsoever. The information must be faulty or there's a passageway I haven't heard of yet."
"Wait... look at the smoke." He pointed at the rising smoke, twirling and dancing up... towards the cocoons. "You know... I've been working under the assumption that Nakamura is human..."
She followed his pointing, gazing at the smoke quietly.
"And you think he isn't. You think he might be a shen of some sort? If that is true, then you may indeed have a lead, though I'm not sure how we could follow it that easily."
"Could you throw a small, cute little fox all the way up there?" He grinned.
"Oh of course, with the utmost pleasure." she grinned slightly and looked up once more. "No problem I would say though you must worry about how to catch a hold."
"I'll think of something." He answered. "Aim at the fat one there."
And he transformed. The small animal held in his eyes all the wisdom and humor he expressed when wearing his other shapes, and his fur was almost healed completely. He stood on his rear legs in front of Hikari.
She grinned lightly and lifted the little fox up into her arms, holding it lightly.
"Now don't get used to this Mr., or I shall see to it personally that you will not be able to hold onto anything anymore. And keep your snout where it belongs."
The fox cocked his head and perked his ears. Even then, the cute innocent look seemed faked.
"Yeah, right." Hikari muttered and shook her head.
"Just remember what I told you when you find yourself between my fangs."
Then she walked beneath the cocoons and looked up. She closed her eyes and directed the chi-flow in her body, strengthening her muscles as she aimed...
And then she threw the little furry thing, judging the distance and using about the right amount of strength.
At the cusp of his flight, Kaze shifted into half-fox and tore at the cocoon; not willing to use his mouth to grab at the sticky substance.He climbed, strands of webbing sticking to his fur. The cocoon, like all the others, was attached to the ceiling not by a web, but by a chain, nailed into the rock on one ended and covered in webbing in the other.
His curiosity took over, and he began scratching at the bloated thing.
"Want to know something funny?" He yelled at Hikari once he'd uncovered what was chained to the ceiling.
"You're about to tell me anyway, so go ahead." she called back, looking up to waht he did quietly, once and then gazing around the room wearily, knowing they might still be surprised if she let down her guard.
"I found Nakamura."
The ninja jumped to a second cocoon and cut at the webbings with his dagger. Hikari wasn't informed of what he found there; he just jumped to a third.
In uncharacteristic silence, the fox returned to the biggest cocoon and examined the ceiling.
"Dead?" She asked with a quiet, serious voice.
"For a month. maybe more, with the webs." He answered seriously.
He poked at the ceiling, and in an instant a bolt of purplish lightning coursed through his frame. Without a sound, he began the long drop down.
It wasn't a conscious reaction, much more that of instinct. She saw an ally drop, she hastened forward and extended her arms, channeling her strength so she might be able to catch him without breaking anything in her own body.
The air smelled of ozone, and his body was smoking and stiff. His heart was still beating, though, and his eyelids flickered.
"Hng... ow..." he said weakly.
"I knew you'd ignore my warning and continue to try and get yourself in situations in which I carry you in my arms." she whispered and an incredibly beautiful smile lit her features for a moment.
"Are you going to be all right?" she whispered.
"G-give me... a few... minutes..." His body slowly relaxed, and Hikari could feel the strange sensation of a hengeyokai's regeneration. It wasn't the channeling of stolen ki to repair damage to a dead body; it was a natural process.
She nodded quietly and held the shapeshifter in her arms a few more minutes, delicate fingers curling around the sides of the hengeyokai, seemingly small and weak arms having no problem to hold him all the while without even trembling.
"I'd say... I can stand now..." He spoke hoarsely, but smiling. "But it feels nice here." He winked at her.
"I knew you'd say that." she replied and then gently lowered the fox in the form of man onto the ground, shifting a bit to look up to the ceiling again.
"So what do you suppose? The Kumo's must have taken over the entire place and have run it in his stead, eh?"
Kaze kneeled, his legs still a bit shaky and looked up.
"That's one, but those things are suspended by chains, a Kumo would have used their own webs." He looked grim. "The other cocoons are children."
"Children?"
Hikari looked up again, wondering why in all Yomi worlds someone would hang him and children on the ceiling of a cave, put him into thick spider's webbing, but use a chain for the hanging.
"Say, has this guy had children?"
"All grown up." He answered. "All of them already in the emperor's army. There's a grill on hinges up there; I was trying to push it open when I must have activated some sort of trap."
"You sure they're all still alive and not replaced? I mean what if the somebastard saw it fit to murder the children and replace them with doubles to have more connections in the family?"
She shrugged quietly.
"But anyway, maybe that grill leads us somewhere. You think it's safe to open now?"
"No idea." He answered. "It didn't look like anything I've seen.... in our lands." He frowned. "Chains... metal... I think we're dealing with Western Chin'ta..."
A look of revulsion came onto those beautiful features for a moment.
"You don't think that the Kin-jin have anything to do with this, do you? Although i would believe them to be able to do something like this."
"If the Kumo are willing to ally with them." He finally stood up. "But I don't know. Let's go up there again." He added as an afterthought. "But carefully this time."
"Carefully, eh?"
She grinned lightly.
"That word doesn't fit you, little fox." she said quietly and grinned.
Then she stood a moment, looking up at the ceiling, apparently trying to decide how to best approach the problem.
"Throw me again." He said. "I think I can make some rope out of that gooey stuff."
"Ewww...you're sick." she murmured, but nodded and waited until he had shifted, picking the little fox up again, cradling him in her arms until she was in a good position to throw.
Again she took together her strength and then aimed.
Then she let lose the furry projectile, throwing the fox high into the air.
"Oh come on, don't get girlish tendencies down here." He yelled when he recovered his human form, with a soft laughter.
He began to slice the fattest cocoon, and weaved a rope out of the strands. He lowered it as he was making it, and soon it reached a height Hikari could jump to.
Hikari grumbled something which Kaze couldn't understand and leapt high into the air.
With a graceful sault, added for fun, she caught a hold of the rope made from spider's webbing.
Then she crawled upwards, quickly reaching Kaze and perching herself next to him.
"Hi." He grinned and took the makeshift rope back. Now Hikari could see the chains supporting the cocoons, what she also saw was the Yin energy that permeated the cold metal.
"I tested the web." He added. "It's lightning proof."
"Well, these chains are full of Yin energy. That COULD be due to the dead bodies, but there might be other reasons, don't you think?"
She looked around quietly a moment and then gazed to the grill quietly.
"Huh?" He squinted hard at the chains. "You're right... Well, if this stuff wasn't so gross it'd make for a great toy." His comment was due to his molding of the rope into a pair of coverings for his hands. "Here I go again."
Before Hikari could react, he put his hands to the grill... and nothing happened. With a wide grin of satisfaction, he pushed up, and the grill clanked loose. It was almost dead center above the cocoon and, once Kaze pushed it all the way open, there was a slight wiff of cold air.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Hikari muttered as she glanced upwards again and shook her head.
She locked her gaze on the little fox and raised a brow.
He winked at her and produced a small mirror. He unknotted his short sword's scabbard from the back of his waist and attached the mirror at its end, slowly raising it up the open grill. The reflection revealed massive shapes with all sort of blinking lights in them, none of them moving.
"Looks safe." Kaze whispered.
"Whatever you say." she murmured.
This time it was her who reacted before he could react. With an agility beyond anything human and a speed to match she slipped up through the hole, not touching the dangerous areas once.
Then she looked around herself, ready for any kind of attack.
Her sight adapted to the shadows as she scanned the room. It was the size of a small barn, and there were all sorts of whirring noises all around her. She stopped at the only shape that looked like it was alive: a crouched man, maybe; he moved as if he was breathing, yet her Chi sight revealed no signs of life. Next to her, she felt the presence of the kitsune, and his eyes were once more glowing green.
"Nakamura?" He murmured when hea also came across the crouching man.
She looked at the hunched figure, trying to make out who it was definately.
The room was strange, filled with things she hadn't seen here before, and she idly wondered what this room was all about.
The kitsune walked about slowly, until he came to a point in the wall. Slowly, light shone in the room, revealing all sorts of strange metal machinery, and the ninja was manipulating something.
"Seems Lord Nakamura was fond of the Westerners' gaslight system. We should ask him."
Hikari followed his gaze and there, indeed, sat Sakamura.
"I have not sent for you". This living lord said, moving and speaking despite Hikari being sure that no Chi ran through his body.
"What's this? There's no Chi in his body, how come he moves and speaks as if he were alive?"
She gazed at the Kitsune, then back to Nakamura. Then an idea formed in her mind and she looked back to the Kitsune.
"You mean Nakamura was... a..."
"What is your business." The Nakamura in front of them spoke again. The whirring was there again, and now Hikari could see the chains from below run into several of the machines, and now under the gaslight she could also see that the chains were not entirely iron, but laced with a copperish cast and a letter in the shape of a rune inscribed on each link.
"That's a bit too much, don't you think?"
Hikari gazed at the thing that was Nakamura and rounded it slowly, carefully, wondering what to expect from it.
She was puzzled at what she found: all sort of cables and hoses coming from his back, connected to one of the machines against the wall.
"A clockwork man?" Kaze was suddenly at her side, peering from behind her shoulder.
"Ummm...a damn machine as it seems." she replied, not quite sure what to say.
Had she really been in service to THIS?
Kaze left her side, strangely warm for a vampire, yet he remembered that her Yang was strong. He didn't know much about the Kuei-jin, but he knew that some of them were closer to being alive by their embrace of the energies of life. He found the chains that went down to the other cocoons and followed them up; all of them ended at one of the machines, and he peered closer to read the gauges.
"Dear gods..." He snapped upright."The children... Nakamura himself." Hikari found the look of rage across the kitsune's feature frightening for its unusualness. "They're power sources!"
Hikari spun around and eyed Kaze a moment, then followed his gaze and found that he was absolutely right.
"Batteries..." she whispered.
It was something that she didn't find entertaining at all. Yes, she used other people's energies to survive, but she didn't kill and keep them in cocoons as slaves. this was something far more...cruel and evil.
Kaze leaned down on the grill and pulled it open on a second panel, he began pulling one of the chains.
"The children might still be alive! Help me!"
Wasting no further words, Hikari nodded and came to Kaze's side quickly, adding her undead strength to his own, easily pulling the chain upwards.
"I'll free them." He said grimly as they let the cocoon rest on the floor. "Get the others."
Nodding again, Hikari began working tirelessy, pulling up the other cocoons quickly with her supernatural strength and placing them next to the first they had pulled up.
Then she began tearing at the webbing, though her claws were not extended, since she feared to harm the children.
Both shen worked frantically, finding to their mutual horror desicated corpses next to comatose children, all lumped together and all of them connected to the chain by manacles. Kaze picked the locks of all of them, but the final tally was only seven children still living, among nearly 20, and three of them died in their arms.
The kitsune sat crosslegged, his head buried in his chest.
Hikari looked down quietly.
Death was in the air and she leaned back against a wall, not daring to say a word. She had seen death in many ways, she remembered death, remembered hell and she could only hope these children would not suffer the same thing.
Slowly, she walked over to the Hengeyokai, who sat with an empty gaze on his features. As a creature of the night, a creature of death, Hikari could cope with the situation at hand much better of course.
A gentle hand slowly slid on the shoulder of the fox-warrior.
"We should get the children some help." He said, staring at the morbid landscape of mummified flesh and foreign machines. "And bury the dead."
Hikari nodded lightly, but didn't react yet.
"Are you going to be all right?" she whispered quietly.
Sometimes she hated herself for waht she was and this was one of these moments. She indeed felt saddened about all the death in here, but she could never feel the same intensity of such a thing as Kaze did.
"Yes." He smiled weakly at her. "I've seen worse."
There was no lie in his words, but Hikari suspected that each time had affected him the same way.
"Just let me do one last thing." He stood up before the dead children, and began muttering something, rubbing his hands together. He slowly shifted to the half-fox, and didn's stop until his animal shape barked silently. The room felt less depressing, somehow, and even Hikari felt the voice of her P'o quiet.
"Great Mother." Kaze returned to human form to finish the ritual. "Grant these children your mercy, save their spirits from the clutches of darkness and bless with your hand their remains so that they can walk free by your side."
"Let's destroy this place. Whoever built it is long gone now." He turned to her.
Hikari nodded quietly and in agreement.
She watched the Kitsune a moment, inclining her head and trying to see what all of this was leading to. But as life had it with her, she wouldn't know until it happened.
So she set out to destroy the place.
Hours later, soldiers and peasants were hurrying to the burning mansion of Shoji Nakamura; answeres were not fothcoming as to the cause to the fire; the only important thing was to keep the flames from leaping to other buildings. The appearance of four emaciated children at a couple of local temples' doors would not even be noticed by investigators, much less connected.
Two lone figures walked the streets of Edo, heading away from the last temple they had deposited a child at. Kaze was quiet, but his walk was brisk. And when Kaze next turned to look at the beautiful Kuei-jin he had encountered during this night, she was gone, whisked away into nothingness. He halted, perplexed, for not even his supernatural senses had told him that she was changing paths.
But she was gone...
WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC
PROLOGUE
Night befell the streets of Edo, once mighty capital of an empire, now nothing more than the corpses of great manors that still clung to former glories. The full moon cast its light through the windows of a small mansion, home to Shoji Nakamura, an exiled general.
A disembodied foot appeared in the patch of moonlight and soon disappeared again; Unseen Chuckling Wind honored his name and chuckled softly, remembering that Tsukiyomi gifted him with invisibility, as long as he didn't step on Luna's light. He refocused and charted a path through the castle. He was ninja, and he was here to kill Nakamura.
Hikari was prowling the Manor as she always did at nighttime. Her senses on full alert, her mind on the pleasures of the hunt. Her eyes, as black as the night, searched the corridors, piercing the darkness. She was silent, quiet death.
The ninja paused; his nose picked a scent ahead. Kaze, for that was his name, never went inside a building in a mission in other forms except the half-fox. He was kitsune, and a warrior for his race. He climbed the wall and perched on a beam, still cloaked in the Moon Dance.
She had always trusted her instincts and the tickling sensation in her belly told her something was wrong. She rounded a corner, activating her chi sight and searched the corridor.
Kaze caught his breath as the most exquisite woman he'd ever laid eyes upon stepped into the moonlight. He remained motionless, feasting his eyes with the vision before him; it took him a couple of seconds to remember his purpose, and notice the woman's... no, the young girl's stance. She was a sentry; possibly kunoichi herself.
Her keen and supernatural chi sight traveled over the intruder but kept moving as if she hadn't noticed him. Then withot warning, she activated the Black wind and leapt up into the rafters, poised for a strike!
She felt the voice of her P'o as the Demon Chi fueled her frame, but she forced herself to ignore it; she had a duty here, and she was about to cut down the intruder when he dropped to the floor.
Kaze cursed as he evaded an attack that was inhumanly fast; he called upon the blessings of the gods, for he knew this was a battle that'd be hard to avoid. His Rage coursed through his body, promising to sustain him, and the spirits advised him of where his opponent now lay. He drew his opaque wakizashi and held it at the ready, summoning the spirit of the fray to strike down the sentry, lovely as she might be, before she had a chance to attack again.
Hikari grinned predatorily. The intruder was a fox and that promised to be interesting. "Anything to say before you die?"
Kaze fixed all of his senses on her. He grinned. "Only that it's a pity that the Yang in your body will be corrupted by Nakamura's master, Kuei-jin."
Hikari narrowed her eyes as he said this. "Your trickster tactics won't work here, Kitsune!"
"No, really." His guard didn't lower, but his voice had taken a tone of joviality. He was following on a hunch here; though he could sense the Centipede on her, it was reined. "I can see your Chi; it's very pretty; I'd hate to see it darkened by the Yama Kings."
"You're trying to gain time." she whispered, but her voice was not as sure as before. The Kitsune had touched a weak spot. She had always persued life, and corruption of her Yang would destroy that.
"You haven't killed me, have you?" Kaze smiled, secure that the spirits of war he'd prayed to would let him act first if the vampire attacked; still acting on a hunch, he sheathed his sword. "You are not Nakamura's... you're not tainted enough."
"I am here to protect him against the likes of you." She watched him sheath his blade. The time to act would have been now, but she remained motionless.
"Kuei-jin bodyguard?" Kaze shifted slowly to his human form, his orange fur changing to his black messy hair. "Only strong money'd buy that; money from Yama-infested sweatshops to buy European steel and steam."
"Che money!" she spat. "As if that was my reason. It's the thrill off hunting trespassers like you." Her er eyes gleamed dangerously in the darkness. But she had doubts. "How would you know about my employee being Yama infested?" Apart from her beauty, her charisma radiated with every move.
Kaze smiled wider, if that was even possible. His common sense advised to dispose of this creature as soon as possible, but he just couldn't bring himself to destroy such beauty. If he could gain an ally for Gaia...
"I can show you." He offered his open palms. "Nakamura is a bakemono, and his work only advances the goals of demons. Until the next dusk, I won't come close to him, if you will come and see without attempting against my life. If you're not convinced, we can start fighting tomorrow."
She narrowed her eyes, watching the fox closely. A long silence followed, almost uncomfortably long. Finally though Hikari spoke: "Agreed, but don't think I would hesitate to kill you should you try something funny!"
The kitsune relaxed. "You are cruel... would you kill a fox for trying something funny?" He shifted back towards half-fox form, and winked. "Follow, if you can."
A smirk, one which would have made her look cute had the situation been different spread over her lips. "Go ahead, you couldn't lose me!"
"My name is Kaze Kuromori." He said, while slowly pulling out a small knife from the insde of his vest. He stared at the blade... and slowly vanished.
A grin came to her lips as she watched him disappear from plain sight. Again she activated her chi sight, confident she would be able to follow him. "Hikari Kyusenko." she replied. But she worried when her Chi sight wouldn't locate his presence, as if he wasn't in this world anymore.
"Ah great, he's using the Tapestry." She groaned. Hengeyokai always were the same and this one sadly no different. Closing her eyes, she activated and tapped her chi reservoir, crossing the barrier only a moment later. Reopening her eyes, she looked for the fox.
"I'm impressed." He said when she opened her eyes. "This saves us time, come." He signaled to her and walked. The mansion's corridors looked strange beyond the Wall; many of them were choked with cobwebs, and the wood appeared to be warped by time and rot.
She looked around estranged. In the future she'd always check this side off the wall, too. With swift steps she followed the Kitsune.
"Now..." He said... "It should be over here... You see, I had the plans for the physical castle only, it's spirit half is not quite the same, Hikari-chan."
"And who gave you the permission to call me chan?" Her eyes narrowed considerably, beautiful features definately tainted with anger after his words. "Do I look cute to you, eh?" she snarled slightly and the aura of the predator grew very strong indeed.
"Hengeyokai find cute the oddest things." He winked. "I don't know how much time you've walked the land as you are, but I've been around for quite some time, and I can recognize beauty when I see it, even in the form of danger."
He then shrugged as he poked his vulpine head into a door, then turned back to her. "But I can call you Kyusenko-dono if you prefer formalities."
"Refrain from using chan...if you want to see the next day that is." she snarled slightly and turned to look away.
She waited for him to find and show her whatever it was that he had in store for her.
"Tsk, tsk... such temper..." The trickster warrior chuckled and signaled her to look into the same room he had peeked inside moments ago.
She didn't see anything special. Just a room, covered in webs and built of rotten wood, like the rest of the castle's spirit reflecion. She was about to turn to the fox, but she noticed at the last moment how several webs ran to the center of the room.
"Why is it such an offence to find you cute?" The kitsune asked behind her, his comment totally out of place with the strangeness of the room, or maybe just adding to it.
Following the webs to the center of the room with her gaze, she didn't answer the Kitsune's question, but instead tried to figure out what he found so interesting in the room.
"Don't touch the webs." He warned; Hikari suppressed her warrior response to the movement beneath her; it was a fox; the small animal winked at her and hopped with ease among the web strands, standing near the center of the room and sniffing.
She watched silently at what the fox was doing. Her fingers trembled slightly as she stood there, poised, ready to attack the shapechanger if he played a foul trick at any time. Her senses were on full alert and only a slight wrong movement would tick her off.
Kaze snapped to attention suddenly, and Hikari's own senses warned her of incoming danger from above. The fox barked something, but the vampire didn't pay enough attention; she was by far too busy dodging the pony-sized spider that was dropping on her from the ceiling.
It was a hideous beast; its legs were covered with spine-like hair, and it bore a gruesome humanoid face with multiple eyes on the forehead, and a wild tangle of hair flowing like spiderwebs in the wind.
Hikari dodged backwards and snarled furiously, dropping a bit down into a ready position. Her features were now drawn into a mask of anger, but a slight glint in her eyes told a different story. It was a maddening gleam of fun of fighting.
This was more proof than she had cared for, but now her former employer would pay for this.
A soft movement and she suddenly she started a Martial Arts move, fluid motions making her stand up, turn feintly and then with her eyes narrowed, her fist shot forward while she activated her Distant Death Kata.
The spider-demon reared as an unseen Chi force struck it; it was now standing between the two shen. It reared on four of its legs, and tried to hit Hikari, but the vampire was swift, and none of the attacks found its target, however, it put her right in the way of a stream of webbing shooting from the monster's mouth. The sticky substance burned at the touch, and glued her to the ground and wall beside her.
Her gaze would have been enough to kill a mortal, or so any on-looker would have judged as she tried for a second, in vain to get free of the web.
But she wasn't about to give up that easily. Again, she closed her eyes a short moment and then reopened them wide, her muscles tensing, a cry of rage echoing from her lips as she activated another of her vampiric powers. With a spectacular blinding flash, she turned into a living flame of Chi Energy, a corona of blueish fire burning around her suddenly.
The demon screamed in pain, and skittered back a few steps; however, Hikari's flame extinguished too fast; with shocked frustration and rage, she could see the spider regenerating the burns of her Chi fire, and felt her own Chi being drained.
The kitsune suddenly stepped into the picture, rolling between the monster's legs and, supported on his back, kicking the thing's underbelly with both legs.
"Falling Touch!" The kitsune yelled, and the giant spider was knocked over, an incredible stunt for a creature as slight and graceful-looking as the fox-man. Rolling again, he was on her side, cutting her loose from the stinging webstrands. Behind him, the demon was righting itself.
"Don't waste your Chi, Kyusenko-dono!" the fox grunted as he freed her arms.
"You talk! You weren't looking into the mouth of that thing!" she growled back and ripped apart the rest of the webbing, dropping to her feet again and taking on a fighting stance. Her eyes were still narrowed as she gazed at the demon in front of them.
"So...we should probably finish your job together, hm?"
"Its belly is soft." He said as an answer. "Save your Chi; reinforcements should be here soon."
As the spider finally got on its eight legs, the fox added with a chuckle. "-His- reinforcements, I mean."
"I got the point all right. I think I'm underdressed for this occassion."
She smirked and closed her eyes again, reaching within herself, to the darkest pit of her soul, drawing out what she knew was her other part.
Viewed from outside, she suddenly began to shiver slightly and lumps started to form on her body, flesh being poked outwards. A moment later, two large leathery wings with talons at the tips sprang from Hikari's back, claws sprouting from her hands, glinting in the feint light and on all parts of her body, shimmering white spikes sprang from her skin, creating an armor of spikes.
As she now reopened her eyes, they glowed a fierce red.
"Now -that- is uncute." Kaze hid the wave of nausea that washed over him behind the laughter of his race. She now reeked of the Wyrm of Corruption, and he hoped her higher soul prevailed over her shadow nature, or he'd have to resort to much meaner tricks. "I'll distract it."
The kitsune stood straight and gestured in sharp and precise movements, chanting shintoist prayers; around him, a cloud of debris rose, lifted by unseen hands, and shot at the spider demon, dancing around its head and attracting its attention. Never once did the ninja stopped chanting, but instead gave a soft kick to Hikari's monstruous leg as a signal.
Nodding feintly, Demon-Hikari suddenly dashed forward at the signal, claws glinting in the light as she jumped, pounced towards the beast in front of her, aiming her claws and spikes at the monster's head.
The pieces of broken wood fell at her passing, and the spider covered its demonic face with four of its legs. Hikari's demon form tore at them, making huge gashes in the monster's extreminites. Out of the corner of her eyes, a black and orange blur slid benath both of them, and the spider screamed in pain. It tried to push Hikari back, but the spikes from her body dealt more damage. Again, the spider was tossed upside down by an unbelievable force.
Jumping high up, Hikari completed a slow sault and then fell directly towards the spidery thing, feet, forward, elongated claws shimmering with the blood of the monster as she raced downwards, with lethal precision.
Her feet sank into the monster's soft underbelly, covering her with foul-smelling ichor, but the thrashings of the thing were a clear indication that she'd dealt a killing blow. The kitsune got there and decapitated the spider monster with one swift slash of his opaque blade.
The eight-legged carcass began rotting around Hikari, and the head the kitsune ninja held aloft took on the features of a woman she'd seen at her employer's court. One of Nakamura's concubines, she realized.
Looking around quietly for a moment, she shook her head feintly.
"He shouldn't have lied to me." she said with a deep, dangerous voice that was completely unlike her normal voice.
Her eyes searched the immediate area for threats. Out of respect, she didn't step closer to the Kitsune, knowing he wouldn't like it, at least not in this form.
"I feel -so- grateful about honesty right now..." He smiled at her as he tossed the head aside. "We should cross the Wall back; I didn't want to come to the Tapestry until it was aboslutely necessary; that way, we'll only face Nakamura's human and bakemono guards, not any of these ladies."
She nodded feintly and slowly reverted back to her normal form, feeling much better this way in any case. Though still the monster's slime clung to her body and she grumbled something almost inaudible as she prepared to return to the real world.
The room was dark and stale, and the ninja again wore his human guise. In a corner of the room, a woman lay bleeding, red pools staining an ellaborate kimono. It was headless.
"I'll pay your next visit to a bathhouse." Kaze grinned again, as sounds of alarm and shouting were heard in the distance.
"Knowing you foxes, you would only try and sneak in with me." she smirked lightly and looked around the real world, figuring out from where the alarmed shouts came.
"Well, let's get going, shall we?"
"What do you mean 'sneak'?" Kaze flashed her another one of his smiles as he walked to the center of the room, where several webstrands converged in the spirit world. "I would have walked right in!"
His words had a double edge, as he kicked down and shattered a trapdoor.
Another smirk sent his way as she eyed the trapdoor and shrugged her shoulders feintly.
"Just like you boys, not to know what's good for you and not." She brushed back a strand of hair and then motioned to the door.
"After you..."
"You don't trust me yet?" He sounded hurt, but was leaning down already. He dropped down and she heard a splash of water; then the kitsune's jesting voice. "Come on down, the water's great!"
"Yeah, just what I need, more muck and slime on me." she murmured to herself, but eventually dropped down through the door herself.
When she landed, she made sure to check in all directions at once, weary as always, careful as always. She wouldn't have survived this long if she hadn't been careful.
It was pitch black down there, a sewer system of sorts. The darkness was only pierced by two green-glowing eyes. When they winked at her, Hikari realized it was the kitsune.
"Jester..." she smirked and shook her head, activating her chi sight in order to look around herself, not caring for unpleasant surprises. "Are you always in such a good mood?"
"Only when I'm not happy." He answered. They were standing in a long corridor that stretched in both directions. The kitsune spat on his palm and then slapped with his other hand. "That way." He pointed at his right after a few seconds' contemplation of his spread spit. He then started walking close to one of the walls.
Shrugging her shoulders, Hikari followed quietly. So far the little fox had given her more truth than her employee and thus she tendended towards trusting him, at least for now.
But still, she was weary, knowing it could just be a trick to lure her into an ambush, to kill her finally. Hikari liked her life, even if it was just an unlife. She didn't want to die just yet. There were things she needed to do, things which needed to be completed.
They walked for a few minutes, turning corners and making their way into a non-labyrinth: the corridor never branched off, nor it split, yet it twisted and turned around in a senseless pattern. At one point, Hikari noticed the three bushy tails that swayed softly from his guide's romp.
On his part, Kaze was delighted. His hunch had paid off, and he'd gained an invaluable ally, for the night at least. Even if the vampire later turned on him, he'd gotten out of worse scraps in his long and exciting life, and it would add to his repertoire of tales to share at the Courts. And she was -very- cute; had he been a Kataribe bard instead of an Eji warrior, he'd be composing masterful haikus to praise her beauty to her face, just to tick her off. Instead, he just turned his head once in a while to take a peek at her and feast his eyes.
Walking behind the fox, Hikari quietly eyed the three tails for a moment. She wasn't all too well versed on what the tails meant exactly, but she knew for a fact that the more tails, the stronger they were and the older they could get. Three tails was nothing incredible, but not to be underestimated either. She judged him to be the equivalent to herself in experience.
She did note the looks this fox gave her. His head turning slightly when he looked backwards, gazing at her through the darkness and she grinned faintly.
An ally was an ally and if this little fox was interested in her, it could only be good for her.
The turns were sharper and more frequent now, and the walls, which had been stone, now were the natural rock of a cave; there was noise on the way they had come from.
"They won't dare follow." Kaze said. "We must be closer to the Kumo's nesting grounds, and then to Nakamura's chamber. The arrogant bastard must be trusting his spider allies to stop us. Kyusenko-dono... or he may be trusting -you- to stop me."
The human-shaped fox winked, and showed his fingers in the 'victory' sign.
"Don't get cocky, foxboy; I might still consider taking you as a snack later on." She smirked and moved onwards.
Much to her surprise, she indeed found this contiuing happiness, easy-going way of the Kitsune appealing somehow. It made her feel a bit better in such a situation, but she wouldn't tell him that, or else he would never leave her side again.
"If Nakamura's dead by then, it won't matter; I'll have succeeded." The ninja stared straight ahead as he spoke. "At least, it won't matter -much-; I mean, I'm not afraid to die, but it would put a very big obstacle in my plans."
She raised her eyebrows slightly and turned to look at him a moment, then a light grin played over her lips.
"I didn't say I'd kill you, just take a snack from you. Have you ever experienced that?"
"Hmm." He scratched the back of his head. "My father used to chew on me when I was a kit... then there's that time when the crocodile munched on me... ugh... and that dragon-spirit who thought I was tasty and took a bite... No; I don't particularly enjoy being a morsel."
"Heh, I could promise you that all of those things are not quite like being bitten by me." She winked slightly and indicated for him to go on.
"Most assuredly so. Hush." His form shifted to that of the half-fox; he wasn't much bigger nor stronger, but his suppleness was evident in every single movement. He unsheathed his sword and raised three fingers at Hikari, then pointed to the darkness beyond, where the last turn of the corridor led to a huge cavern, half a meter deep in water and with several rock outcroppings. They were on the physical side of the Wall now, which meant that the webs stretching from side to side of the cave were very, very real.
Hikri nodded lightly and edged forward slowly, careful not to make a sound, which she did very well. Her gentle moves were fluid and graceful deadly.
But as this was the kitsune's show, she left it to him to make the first move.
To her utter surprise, he walked right in! His feet splashed loudly until he reached one of the outcroppings.
In the ceiling, something stirred, and was echoed by movement in the water. A huge spider dropped in front of the kitsune, and around him, a bubbling mass coalesced into an abomination with the torso of a man and the lower body of a spider.
"SSssss!!!!" The man-spider hissed in defiance, but the ninja just leaned on the rock and covered a yawn nonchalantly.
She watched the fox quietly, stepping through the entrance now as well, her eyess shifting from the monster to the Kitsune, wondering what the boy was playing at or if he was playing at all.
"Yes, yes, yes." Kaze waved, looking bored. "Now you'll say something about punishing me for trespassing, or about meeting a slow and painful death, but wouldn't you want to hear about Lord Nakamura's orders?"
"Ssshut up, Kitsune!" The giant spider's voice grated on the walls.
"Great... the human hires me to kill you, I come to warn you, and this is the way you treat me? Really..."
The two Kumo paused and looked at each other; a third one appeared out of nowhere, wearing human shape.
"He comesss with the Kuei-jin..."
"Ah, yes.. Kyusenko-dono!" The kitsune called over to the entrance. "Do you mind telling these gentlemen how Lord Nakamura tired of his contract with them and hired us to kill them?"
A slight, cruel smirk crept over the lips of the Kuei-jin Femme Fatale as she licked her lips and walked to the side of Kaze.
"He's quite correct, you fools. You were considered worthless and tossed away. The tossing is our job."
The three werespiders stood quietly, surrounding vampire and kitsune.
"You're wondering why we just didn't kill you." Kaze broke the silence.
"We do, foxman." Now, the three of them had changed to human form.
"Can I conjure up some sake?" He answered. "This might be long."
"Ssssorcer ass well?" The man who had discovered Hikari spoke. "Go ahead; try anything and we'll kill you both."
"Can you stand a little fire?" Kaze whispered to his newfound ally as he stood straight.
"Sure I can..." she whispered quietly, though the thought of the fire didn't make her look all too happy.
She looked at him a moment and then shrugged, making a sweeping gesture for him to begin with whatever he wanted to do.
He showed his hands to the spiders, and turned around to reassure them that he wasn't trying anything. Again, he twisted his fingers in complicated signs and patterns and, without any kind of noise or pyritechnics, a large bottle was lying in front of him. The kitsune picked up the container and uncorked it, smelling the mouth and sighing dreamily.
"Great sake... but you're our hosts, you should have the honor." He extended his arms in offering, but the bottle seemed too much for him and he stumbled ahead; the bottle slipped and flew forward, shatering in one of the rock outcroppings.
"Ready..." He whispered; the smell of oil reached Hikari's nose.
She nodded softly and closed her eyes, summoning up her courage and strength to withstand what was about to come.
She hated fire, especially when she was the attention of it, but she would have to go through it this time.
"Gods, I'm so clumsy!" He pulled out a piece of paper; the side he was hiding from the spiders bore several kanji.
The spiders were suspicious now; one of them shifted to the terrifying half-man form the hengeyokai assumed in their respective species.
"Elemental child, I call thee forth, Fire!" The slip of paper sailed through the air and burst into flame, igniting the oil in the water.
And so it started. The inferno broke out suddenly, flames licking through the room, fueled by the oil her little fox-helper had dropped into the water.
Hikari gritted her teeth and fought against losing control, fought to remain herself and not to run away. She felt the heat, but forced herself to remain where she was.
She heard the scream of the spider closer to the conflagration, saw it dissolve into hundreds of little normal-sized spiders, but there was no escape from the flames. She saw the fox gesture again, and two fiery tongues jumped from the blaze and struck the remaining two, who were too shocked by surprise, anger and fear to dodge. They too began to burn.
She felt a furred hand grab her lower arm, transfixed as she was by the luminous death inflicted on the Kumo.
"Move, girl! Move or we die too!" The system of webs was catching on fire too.
With an effort of will, she tore her gaze away and resumed control over her body, following the little Kitsune quickly, not looking back.
A job well done?
She didn't know, she couldn't even think clearly at the moment. While she ran she tried to calm herself as quickly as possible.
But they were running deeper into the cavern; lit strands of webbing fell around them, hissing as they hit the water in the floor. Kaze stopped, looking around desperately.
"Damnation! It was supposed to be here! The secret door was supposed to be here!"
"And who told you that?" Hikari uttered through gritted teeth, having more and more problems to calm herself and stay controlled.
She glanced around quickly, trying to find what the fox couldn't. She used all senses at her disposal to locate anything like a door.
"Damn, damn, damn." The fox muttered as the flames closed on them and turned around himself, looking up and down.
Hikari could only see rock and burning webs; at a corner of the cave, there were cocoon-like shapes dangling from the ceiling.
Hikari slowly started to feel the fear gripping her heart. She was still able to control herself, but the Wave Soul crept closer and closer, dangerous and stalking her.
"I don't want to panick or anything, but I would remind you that should we stay here any longer, I will freak out and start attacking things at random, including you and I DON'T know if that is part of your plan, but I doubt it, so could you please HURRY!"
She had said the most of the sentence with a sickly sweet voice, but the last word was shouted, making clear her anxiety from what was to come should they stay here any longer.
"You don't need to breathe, right?" The fox turned around, his eyes turned to steel.
"No, I don't need to breathe...why?"
Again, she found herself wondering what he was hinting at, or what his plan was, but she needed a way out and fast!
"Then down!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to push her down into the knee-deep water.
She hissed at first, but it was indeed the only option left. The fire was closing in on them and she needed to be elsewehere or she would not need to worry about doing anything anytime soon.
So she gave in and tried to get under the water, though it wasn't really deep.
Kaze took a hollow reed from one of his hidden pockets and put it to his mouth; he could've easily traveled to the Umbra, or shifted into fox form and darted off with his astounding agility, but he wasn't in the practice of abandoning allies, and he remained in half-fox when he dropped into the water on top of Hikari, shielding her from the burning webs that started to drop around them.
Hikari couldn't see the flames as the kitsune's body blocked the view; he was breathing through the protruding end of his reed, and more than once she felt his body stiffen and shake, but he never moved enought to expose her to the inferno above water level. They spent several minutes like this, and the water became warm. She had lost track of time when the ninja finally rose.
Slowly, she rose along with him, blinking water from her eyes, looking around the cavern in which the inferno had erupted and destroyed.
Her eyes then slowly traveled to Kaze.
There was an unspoken question in her eyes.
Though open hostilities between the shapeshifters and the kindred were rare, there was usually no love left between them.
Certainly not enough to save one when in danger.
The fox offered a sorry spectacle, his fur pasted to his skull and snout, his normally perky ears were down; he turned his back on her.
"Tell me, my vest is ruined, right?" He stretched his arms as if trying to scratch his back. There were indeed holes in the black vest, through which Hikari could se singed fur. "Damn! I liked this vest!"
"Why?" She simply asked.
She couldn't understand, not right now. Too much was happening at the moment.
She was old enough to know that any normal Hengeyokai would have abandoned her. Work together, maybe. Rescue each other, no way!
"Because it's got all these neat pockets inside." Kaze shifted to human form, answering the wrong question, but his eyes said that he knew, and he was just lightening the mood.
She chuckled lightly, though it was a rather dry chuckle as it had been a rather dry joke.
Again, she looked around, and again, she asked.
"Why did you do this?"
"Want to know the practical or the unpractical reasons?" He asked in return as he removed the vest, leaving him with only the sleeves to cover his upper body. He turned the garment around, and oogled at her through one of the holes in the fabric.
She shrugged her delicate shoulders slightly, the water glistening on perfect skin. Her ruffly hair was all wet, a tangly mess, but it somehow only served to make her look more appealing.
Draping her arms across her chest, she gazed at him quietly.
"Both."
"Okay." He squeezed the vest dry. "Practical: I don't catch on fire as easily, and Luna has gifted those kitsune who travel the path of the warrior with the ability to heal quickly. Also, I don't abandon allies; even one-night partners. Unpractical: I kinda like you." He shot her one of the smiles that looked the same in all of his forms.
She raised a delicate brow and watched him a moment longer before she chuckled feintly and nodded.
"So, where to go now, partner?"
"Nakamura's chamber." He answered, donning again the vest and all the secret pockets sewn into it. "Though I'm afraid this little fire already alerted him that something is wrong. Hmmmm...." He looked at a point in the ceiling. "Those didn't burn..."
The cocoons Hikari had noticed earlier still hanged from the ceiling Though charred and covered in soot, there was not much noticeable damage on them.
"Yeah. Seems like they are somehow resistant against fire." she said quietly, walking a few steps, watching the things hanging from the ceiling. "And where is the chamber? You seemed to be searching for it earlier."
"According to my information, there's a corridor that starts somewhere around here and comes out in his chamber. But after this little surprise I'm not so sure anymore. Ewww... those things stink."
"Oh come on, don't get girlish tendencies down here." she muttered and looked around the chamber again.
"I checked this room earlier with all my senses, but there was NO passageway whatsoever. The information must be faulty or there's a passageway I haven't heard of yet."
"Wait... look at the smoke." He pointed at the rising smoke, twirling and dancing up... towards the cocoons. "You know... I've been working under the assumption that Nakamura is human..."
She followed his pointing, gazing at the smoke quietly.
"And you think he isn't. You think he might be a shen of some sort? If that is true, then you may indeed have a lead, though I'm not sure how we could follow it that easily."
"Could you throw a small, cute little fox all the way up there?" He grinned.
"Oh of course, with the utmost pleasure." she grinned slightly and looked up once more. "No problem I would say though you must worry about how to catch a hold."
"I'll think of something." He answered. "Aim at the fat one there."
And he transformed. The small animal held in his eyes all the wisdom and humor he expressed when wearing his other shapes, and his fur was almost healed completely. He stood on his rear legs in front of Hikari.
She grinned lightly and lifted the little fox up into her arms, holding it lightly.
"Now don't get used to this Mr., or I shall see to it personally that you will not be able to hold onto anything anymore. And keep your snout where it belongs."
The fox cocked his head and perked his ears. Even then, the cute innocent look seemed faked.
"Yeah, right." Hikari muttered and shook her head.
"Just remember what I told you when you find yourself between my fangs."
Then she walked beneath the cocoons and looked up. She closed her eyes and directed the chi-flow in her body, strengthening her muscles as she aimed...
And then she threw the little furry thing, judging the distance and using about the right amount of strength.
At the cusp of his flight, Kaze shifted into half-fox and tore at the cocoon; not willing to use his mouth to grab at the sticky substance.He climbed, strands of webbing sticking to his fur. The cocoon, like all the others, was attached to the ceiling not by a web, but by a chain, nailed into the rock on one ended and covered in webbing in the other.
His curiosity took over, and he began scratching at the bloated thing.
"Want to know something funny?" He yelled at Hikari once he'd uncovered what was chained to the ceiling.
"You're about to tell me anyway, so go ahead." she called back, looking up to waht he did quietly, once and then gazing around the room wearily, knowing they might still be surprised if she let down her guard.
"I found Nakamura."
The ninja jumped to a second cocoon and cut at the webbings with his dagger. Hikari wasn't informed of what he found there; he just jumped to a third.
In uncharacteristic silence, the fox returned to the biggest cocoon and examined the ceiling.
"Dead?" She asked with a quiet, serious voice.
"For a month. maybe more, with the webs." He answered seriously.
He poked at the ceiling, and in an instant a bolt of purplish lightning coursed through his frame. Without a sound, he began the long drop down.
It wasn't a conscious reaction, much more that of instinct. She saw an ally drop, she hastened forward and extended her arms, channeling her strength so she might be able to catch him without breaking anything in her own body.
The air smelled of ozone, and his body was smoking and stiff. His heart was still beating, though, and his eyelids flickered.
"Hng... ow..." he said weakly.
"I knew you'd ignore my warning and continue to try and get yourself in situations in which I carry you in my arms." she whispered and an incredibly beautiful smile lit her features for a moment.
"Are you going to be all right?" she whispered.
"G-give me... a few... minutes..." His body slowly relaxed, and Hikari could feel the strange sensation of a hengeyokai's regeneration. It wasn't the channeling of stolen ki to repair damage to a dead body; it was a natural process.
She nodded quietly and held the shapeshifter in her arms a few more minutes, delicate fingers curling around the sides of the hengeyokai, seemingly small and weak arms having no problem to hold him all the while without even trembling.
"I'd say... I can stand now..." He spoke hoarsely, but smiling. "But it feels nice here." He winked at her.
"I knew you'd say that." she replied and then gently lowered the fox in the form of man onto the ground, shifting a bit to look up to the ceiling again.
"So what do you suppose? The Kumo's must have taken over the entire place and have run it in his stead, eh?"
Kaze kneeled, his legs still a bit shaky and looked up.
"That's one, but those things are suspended by chains, a Kumo would have used their own webs." He looked grim. "The other cocoons are children."
"Children?"
Hikari looked up again, wondering why in all Yomi worlds someone would hang him and children on the ceiling of a cave, put him into thick spider's webbing, but use a chain for the hanging.
"Say, has this guy had children?"
"All grown up." He answered. "All of them already in the emperor's army. There's a grill on hinges up there; I was trying to push it open when I must have activated some sort of trap."
"You sure they're all still alive and not replaced? I mean what if the somebastard saw it fit to murder the children and replace them with doubles to have more connections in the family?"
She shrugged quietly.
"But anyway, maybe that grill leads us somewhere. You think it's safe to open now?"
"No idea." He answered. "It didn't look like anything I've seen.... in our lands." He frowned. "Chains... metal... I think we're dealing with Western Chin'ta..."
A look of revulsion came onto those beautiful features for a moment.
"You don't think that the Kin-jin have anything to do with this, do you? Although i would believe them to be able to do something like this."
"If the Kumo are willing to ally with them." He finally stood up. "But I don't know. Let's go up there again." He added as an afterthought. "But carefully this time."
"Carefully, eh?"
She grinned lightly.
"That word doesn't fit you, little fox." she said quietly and grinned.
Then she stood a moment, looking up at the ceiling, apparently trying to decide how to best approach the problem.
"Throw me again." He said. "I think I can make some rope out of that gooey stuff."
"Ewww...you're sick." she murmured, but nodded and waited until he had shifted, picking the little fox up again, cradling him in her arms until she was in a good position to throw.
Again she took together her strength and then aimed.
Then she let lose the furry projectile, throwing the fox high into the air.
"Oh come on, don't get girlish tendencies down here." He yelled when he recovered his human form, with a soft laughter.
He began to slice the fattest cocoon, and weaved a rope out of the strands. He lowered it as he was making it, and soon it reached a height Hikari could jump to.
Hikari grumbled something which Kaze couldn't understand and leapt high into the air.
With a graceful sault, added for fun, she caught a hold of the rope made from spider's webbing.
Then she crawled upwards, quickly reaching Kaze and perching herself next to him.
"Hi." He grinned and took the makeshift rope back. Now Hikari could see the chains supporting the cocoons, what she also saw was the Yin energy that permeated the cold metal.
"I tested the web." He added. "It's lightning proof."
"Well, these chains are full of Yin energy. That COULD be due to the dead bodies, but there might be other reasons, don't you think?"
She looked around quietly a moment and then gazed to the grill quietly.
"Huh?" He squinted hard at the chains. "You're right... Well, if this stuff wasn't so gross it'd make for a great toy." His comment was due to his molding of the rope into a pair of coverings for his hands. "Here I go again."
Before Hikari could react, he put his hands to the grill... and nothing happened. With a wide grin of satisfaction, he pushed up, and the grill clanked loose. It was almost dead center above the cocoon and, once Kaze pushed it all the way open, there was a slight wiff of cold air.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Hikari muttered as she glanced upwards again and shook her head.
She locked her gaze on the little fox and raised a brow.
He winked at her and produced a small mirror. He unknotted his short sword's scabbard from the back of his waist and attached the mirror at its end, slowly raising it up the open grill. The reflection revealed massive shapes with all sort of blinking lights in them, none of them moving.
"Looks safe." Kaze whispered.
"Whatever you say." she murmured.
This time it was her who reacted before he could react. With an agility beyond anything human and a speed to match she slipped up through the hole, not touching the dangerous areas once.
Then she looked around herself, ready for any kind of attack.
Her sight adapted to the shadows as she scanned the room. It was the size of a small barn, and there were all sorts of whirring noises all around her. She stopped at the only shape that looked like it was alive: a crouched man, maybe; he moved as if he was breathing, yet her Chi sight revealed no signs of life. Next to her, she felt the presence of the kitsune, and his eyes were once more glowing green.
"Nakamura?" He murmured when hea also came across the crouching man.
She looked at the hunched figure, trying to make out who it was definately.
The room was strange, filled with things she hadn't seen here before, and she idly wondered what this room was all about.
The kitsune walked about slowly, until he came to a point in the wall. Slowly, light shone in the room, revealing all sorts of strange metal machinery, and the ninja was manipulating something.
"Seems Lord Nakamura was fond of the Westerners' gaslight system. We should ask him."
Hikari followed his gaze and there, indeed, sat Sakamura.
"I have not sent for you". This living lord said, moving and speaking despite Hikari being sure that no Chi ran through his body.
"What's this? There's no Chi in his body, how come he moves and speaks as if he were alive?"
She gazed at the Kitsune, then back to Nakamura. Then an idea formed in her mind and she looked back to the Kitsune.
"You mean Nakamura was... a..."
"What is your business." The Nakamura in front of them spoke again. The whirring was there again, and now Hikari could see the chains from below run into several of the machines, and now under the gaslight she could also see that the chains were not entirely iron, but laced with a copperish cast and a letter in the shape of a rune inscribed on each link.
"That's a bit too much, don't you think?"
Hikari gazed at the thing that was Nakamura and rounded it slowly, carefully, wondering what to expect from it.
She was puzzled at what she found: all sort of cables and hoses coming from his back, connected to one of the machines against the wall.
"A clockwork man?" Kaze was suddenly at her side, peering from behind her shoulder.
"Ummm...a damn machine as it seems." she replied, not quite sure what to say.
Had she really been in service to THIS?
Kaze left her side, strangely warm for a vampire, yet he remembered that her Yang was strong. He didn't know much about the Kuei-jin, but he knew that some of them were closer to being alive by their embrace of the energies of life. He found the chains that went down to the other cocoons and followed them up; all of them ended at one of the machines, and he peered closer to read the gauges.
"Dear gods..." He snapped upright."The children... Nakamura himself." Hikari found the look of rage across the kitsune's feature frightening for its unusualness. "They're power sources!"
Hikari spun around and eyed Kaze a moment, then followed his gaze and found that he was absolutely right.
"Batteries..." she whispered.
It was something that she didn't find entertaining at all. Yes, she used other people's energies to survive, but she didn't kill and keep them in cocoons as slaves. this was something far more...cruel and evil.
Kaze leaned down on the grill and pulled it open on a second panel, he began pulling one of the chains.
"The children might still be alive! Help me!"
Wasting no further words, Hikari nodded and came to Kaze's side quickly, adding her undead strength to his own, easily pulling the chain upwards.
"I'll free them." He said grimly as they let the cocoon rest on the floor. "Get the others."
Nodding again, Hikari began working tirelessy, pulling up the other cocoons quickly with her supernatural strength and placing them next to the first they had pulled up.
Then she began tearing at the webbing, though her claws were not extended, since she feared to harm the children.
Both shen worked frantically, finding to their mutual horror desicated corpses next to comatose children, all lumped together and all of them connected to the chain by manacles. Kaze picked the locks of all of them, but the final tally was only seven children still living, among nearly 20, and three of them died in their arms.
The kitsune sat crosslegged, his head buried in his chest.
Hikari looked down quietly.
Death was in the air and she leaned back against a wall, not daring to say a word. She had seen death in many ways, she remembered death, remembered hell and she could only hope these children would not suffer the same thing.
Slowly, she walked over to the Hengeyokai, who sat with an empty gaze on his features. As a creature of the night, a creature of death, Hikari could cope with the situation at hand much better of course.
A gentle hand slowly slid on the shoulder of the fox-warrior.
"We should get the children some help." He said, staring at the morbid landscape of mummified flesh and foreign machines. "And bury the dead."
Hikari nodded lightly, but didn't react yet.
"Are you going to be all right?" she whispered quietly.
Sometimes she hated herself for waht she was and this was one of these moments. She indeed felt saddened about all the death in here, but she could never feel the same intensity of such a thing as Kaze did.
"Yes." He smiled weakly at her. "I've seen worse."
There was no lie in his words, but Hikari suspected that each time had affected him the same way.
"Just let me do one last thing." He stood up before the dead children, and began muttering something, rubbing his hands together. He slowly shifted to the half-fox, and didn's stop until his animal shape barked silently. The room felt less depressing, somehow, and even Hikari felt the voice of her P'o quiet.
"Great Mother." Kaze returned to human form to finish the ritual. "Grant these children your mercy, save their spirits from the clutches of darkness and bless with your hand their remains so that they can walk free by your side."
"Let's destroy this place. Whoever built it is long gone now." He turned to her.
Hikari nodded quietly and in agreement.
She watched the Kitsune a moment, inclining her head and trying to see what all of this was leading to. But as life had it with her, she wouldn't know until it happened.
So she set out to destroy the place.
Hours later, soldiers and peasants were hurrying to the burning mansion of Shoji Nakamura; answeres were not fothcoming as to the cause to the fire; the only important thing was to keep the flames from leaping to other buildings. The appearance of four emaciated children at a couple of local temples' doors would not even be noticed by investigators, much less connected.
Two lone figures walked the streets of Edo, heading away from the last temple they had deposited a child at. Kaze was quiet, but his walk was brisk. And when Kaze next turned to look at the beautiful Kuei-jin he had encountered during this night, she was gone, whisked away into nothingness. He halted, perplexed, for not even his supernatural senses had told him that she was changing paths.
But she was gone...