WORLD OF DARKNESS: THE SECOND AGE OF MAGIC
SECOND SCROLL
RUNNING LIKE CLOCKWORK
The busy capital city of Kyoto bustled day and night. At the center of Japan, it received the traffic of all the corners of the empire, and was also the center from which all the innovations of the Meiji emperors spread to the rest of their domains. It was a strange city, where ronin mage-swordsmen tested their skills agains the machines of immigrant chinese artificers.
The gaslight lamps that dotted the streets sported dragons at their top, their metal jaws holding the orbs from which the light emanated, banishing the darkness while the sun rested from its task of doing so.
In one of the few dark alleys, a young girl leaned against a wall; her kimono slit in imitation of chinese fashion, and showing an indiscriminate amoung of perfect skin. Her eyes were hunting, however. She watched with disdain the few passerbys that eyed her with appreciation.
"Lookee here..." A weasel-looking man approached her. He didn't look like a samurai, not even a ronin, but he wore an ornate scabbard on his side. Hikari Kyusenko didn't care much for the laws of the land, but the artwork was the kind only rich wizard-warriors could afford, or rightfully use. The man drew the blade, and Hikari's senses felt the crackling of magical energy as it did so. However, its wielder was numb to it; he probably stole it after killing its true owner.
"Leave." She ordered succintly; she didn't have time for this.
"You think you can work the streets in my boss' area?"
The kuei-jin rolled her eyes. She knew it'd be a bad idea to stand like this, like a brothel-less prostitute; but Kaze said it was the perfect bait for their target. Would this be the man they were looking for?
"Don't try my patience, little man..." She summoned the goblin flame to her, and her eyes and mouth began burning with greenish fire.
"A... a..." The man peeled his eyes, and would have screamed if the shadows hadn't come alive and put a knife to his throat.
"Speak and you die, make a sound and you die, speak of this to anyone, and you die. Understood?" The shadow spoke. The man nodded and hastily make his exit when the blade stopped touching his skin.
"I told you this was a bad idea." Hikari extinguished her fire.
"Yes, but it's the better option." Kaze removed his black mask and revealed his fox head; he preferred to be in action in his natural form. "Besides; I like to see the light play upon your figure."
"I'm sure you do." She smiled with irony. It had been almost a month since she had accepted being his companion, and he had never stopped blanketing her with good-natured compliments.
"You look... succulent." He winked. "That's why I'm sure our man will stop long enough for us to catch him."
Hikari was almost shamed when the kitsune revealed to her the vast network of informants under his command, showing what can be done with two centuries well-employed interacting with people. It was this network, fed with the information gleaned by other hengeyokai, that the man they were hunting tonight would lead them in the path of the one who had pulled on Nakamura's strings.
"Kaze... -everyone- is stopping to look at me..."
"Ah... but this one will stop with a clinical eye; he builds clockworks dolls, and you make a perfect model. He could be chinese or Westerner, so keep your eyes open. And be careful, we don't know what he can do." He leaned close to her, almost touching his cold and wet nose to hers. His fox-face was very expressive, and she had learned to recognize the gestures in a snout as well as on human lips. His eyes remained the same, however.
He took a lick of her nose and jumped back before she could respond with anything, he shifted into his fox form and hid again, making absolutely no noise.
She resumed her vigilance. Her supernatural senses picked up a strange noise... one like she had heard when talking to the fake Nakamura in that machinery room; whirring, clicking... on the end of the street came three figures; she couldn't make their features in this light and distance, but the one in the middle, the shortest, should be the one they were looking for, if his companions or bodyguards were what she feared they were.
Hikari gazed at the trio approaching and tried to make out their features, but in the end it really wasn't that important. From the presence of the two machines, she knew this was the man Kaze and her had been looking for.
A moment, she simply leaned back against the wall, enjoying the thought about Kaze, enjoying the fact that she was now his companion and enjoying the prospect of working with him. A while ago, she wouldn't have thought it possible to connect so quickly to a person, least of all a Hengeyokai, but here she was, fighting alongside him and getting deep into trouble with him.
The two bodyguards were covered by long westerner coats, hiding their metal skin and muffling their clocwork muscles, but their stiff movements told them off; the clothing was just a nod to propriety.
As Kaze had predicted, the man stopped to look at her, but his gaze wasn't full of lust or envy, like other people's. Hikari felt... scanned.
The little fox hiding behind a post studied the new arrivals in return. This would be hard if the man resisted. He'd hoped to nab an unprepared Chin'ta, just to ask whom he had built the mechanical Nakamura for, but with the two automatons behind him, he would surely resist, and things would surely get ugly. He trusted Hikari to fish out as much as she could before they had to engage the machines.
"Interested?" Hikari said with a quiet, lusty voice, opening her eyes and gazing at the people in front of her.
She played her part as one of the prostitutes trying to get people to come with her for some fun and for some money for her.
A prostitute wouldn't be able to tell that she was looking at two machines which could tear apart the wall against which she was leaning in no time.
So she acted as if she didn't notice, too and tried to seduce all three of them instead.
For now.
"I may, I may..." The small man said, his japanese thick with chinese accent. "Would you fulfill some, ah... excentricities?"
Some would describe the predatory smile the man gave her as a 'fox-smile', but she had seen the real thing, and the man's pathetic attempt at congratiation had nothing on the rich and honest laughter of the kitsune.
She raised a brow and inclined her head, much like a real prostitute would. She knew how they behaved, since she had often enough posed as one. It was easy to hunt that way.
"Excentricities? What kind?" she asked with a low, very emotional voice.
She knew that her seducing him like that wouldn't have much effect, but she wanted to play her part right so he didn't blow her cover.
"You'd be paid handsomely... such a perfect body..." He looked her up and down. "Enough for you to live in luxury for years."
From his hideout, Kaze suppressed a growl. He only wanted information, but if his suspicions were right, he and Hikari might have to dispense Gaia's justice again. Out of precaution, he shifted his gaze to the contemplation of magic. The machines readiated strongly, running their small engines with the mystical power-source that allowed the Chinese mechanicals to compete against the head-start the more mundanely-minded Westerners had on machine building.
Again, Hikari inclined her head and looked at the strange man quietly, not seeming to notice the two others anymore. SHe put a slight gleam in her eyes when he spoke of riches, since that was the real reason why most of the prostitutes worked. For money.
"I still need to ask. What kind of excenticities." She asked again, though putting a slight bit of uncertainity into her voice.
The man chuckled. "Why such apprehension, my dear?" He fished inside his jacket and brought out a string of gold coins. "If you're so afraid, you'll be missing this and more... just play to be my doll for tonight..."
Kaze's ear twitched. The cursed mage was using magic on her! It was the magic of words and currency, but he could feel the flows of the Tapestry conform to his wishes, trying to tie Hikari's mind into his promise of riches. Damn the Namebreakers! He tensed, ready to jump and gut the man if he saw the girl he had just commited his life to was in danger she couldn't handle by herself.
Hikari closed her eyes a moment and decided that they wouldn't be able to get to the information they wanted without getting into a mess. She also decided that this mess was NOT going to be her playing that man's doll!
Using her own willpower, she resisted the man's magic and instead activated her own: that of the Black Wind. Accelerated beyond any normal human's comprehension, she completed a strike at the empty air towards the first of the machines and used her Distant Death Kata. At almost the same moment, the second machine raised his arms.
Hikari's senses seemed to slow down time, the bodies of the machines and the man acting as though they were stuck in a slow-forward phase. Just after she had completed her strike, she already whirled around, barely avoiding the two fists of the second automaton which he had shot in her direction.
The kitsune had barely enough time to act himself; opening the furnace of rage Luna granted him, he also moved as lightning, shifting to his half-fox form, aiming to tackle the arm that was aiming towards Hikari.
The little man jumped back with a scream, shouting something in chinese.
The first machine bulged under Hikari's intangible strike, sounding like a broken bell.
As time slowed down in her perception, she saw Kaze racing from the shadows and to her help. She still whirled out of the way of the attacks of the second machine, she activated her Storm Shintai powers, calling forth sizzling lightning on her hands and aimed for a full contact strike at the first machine now, using her incredible speed and agility as an advantage.
Something whistled next to Hikari, a metal fist flew from the second metal man's arm, connected by a chain. She closed in on the first, ready to discharge the fury of the storms on it. But then she was enveloped in a cloud of searing steam. There was no way to dodge it this close to it's source.
Kaze saw the steam, and saw the second automaton close; they were inhumanly fast, but so where Hikari and himself. Leaping gracefully over the first attacker with a prayer on his lips for Hikari's safety, he landed squarely on the sholders of the second clockwork man.
The chinese man was producing something from his pocket, but kitsune and kuei-jin were much too busy at the moment to notice.
Instinctively, she ducked, but used her momentum forward to complete the movement towards the first machine.
With her superhuman strength, she planted her feet on the ground and propelled herself forward towards the machine, her fist extended forward, aiming for the direction she knew th machine to be using her chi-senses to direct her instead of her eyes.
She ignored the burning pain the steam inflicted on her skin, and felt her fist impact, crackling with lightning.
Another chained fist flew, but this time towards Kaze. The fox bent back in time and used the momentum back to wedge his short sword between the automaton's head and shoulders.
Hikari's opponent made a grab for her, but fast as it was, he couldn't catch her ghostly form.
She dodged around his advance and whirled again, this time sending her foot flying towards her opponent while twisting.
She was immersed in the fight and didn't pay much attention to anything else.
But for the first time in combat, she caught herself sending a glance to Kaze now and then, making sure he could handle himself.
The fox was making do; his sword wasn't much use so he let himself drop back with a flip, weaving his body in nearly impossible ways to evade the machine's attack.
But they had forgotten the chinese man...
"Use lightning against the Lightning People?" He said, hitting a switch in the small metal box he had taken out. The essence of creation, the Chi that fed Hikari's body and Kaze's spirit, suddenly exploded, arcs of supernatural lightning leaping between the two automatons and extending to hit the two shen time and again.
Hikari cried out in horror and got thrown backwards by the force of lightning, but she snarled, trying to get to her feet again.
The onslaught continued and the P'o in her cried for release as the burning hatred seethed and was fueled by her pain.
But she wouldn't let it have control over herself, not just this easily.
And she had a way of getting out of this mess.
"Never...mess...with your superior...." she uttered beneath her breath and suddenly let her voice reach such unbelievable heights it was all but painful, enacting the Cry of Blood on the little chinese man. The sound was so loud, that everyone in the near vicintiy would not go temprorarily unharmed and the chinese got the full attention of her shout of rage and power.
The man never stood a chance. While able to twist the flowing of Creation to his whim, he was still a mortal man caught unprepared. The monster inside Hikari saw how blood began to flow from the chinese's ears, nostrils and even his eyes. He fell with a sickening thud, his innards smashed into pulp inside his skin by the force of Hikari's demonic cry.
But behind her, another fell victim. Kaze hadn't had time to ask the spirits to grant him the power of regeneration, as the fox-changers didn't share that power with the rest of their Hengeyokai kin except in their warriors' magic. Weakened as he was by the magical lighning, he felt his vision blur as Hikari's once sweet voice pressed on his head like a vise.
Between them, the metal men were unaffected.
Hikari recovered and got up, not yet having noticed that Kaze had fallen to her demonic cry as well.
She believed that all shapeshifters had healing powers and thus thought Kaze could manage and her concentration refocussed on the two metal-men.
The demon inside her revelled in the bloodshed and took control of her more and more. But she was still able to focus her thoughts and she channeled the flow of chi inside her body to her hands, creating the Goblin sword in her hands infusing it with Yang energy and then leapt at the two metal creatures.
The machines moved more sluggishly, now unguided by the will of their creator but still able to work on their own. Hikari had a hard time penetrating the metal casings, but now dodging their attacks was like child's play, even unaugmented by the Black Wind. The demon had begun to get bored when whatever had been powering the things finally exhausted, and they slumped in their place, battered and broken in some part, but still in good condition. They just were now empty caskets.
She stood over her work in satisfaction and turned around, only now realizing that Kaze hadn't joined in the last part of the fight... and saw him sprawled on the ground, trickles of blood coming out from his ears, and badly burned where the Artificer's lightning had struck.
The rage fell from her as if it had never been there. The sword vanished from her hand and the realization came.
"No..." she whispered.
She saw the blood and where it leaked from and instinctively knew what had happened. She stumbled over the debris from the fight and to Kaze's side, shaking her head.
"No!" she murmured. "You are a shapeshifter, you can regenarate...you shouldn't...no!" she whispered.
A sudden grief tore at her heart as she looked down to the fox-warrior.
With shaking hands, she reached for her companion and tried to feel for life, too disturbed to even realizs she could simply check by using her chi-sight.
His heart was beating still, faintly but surely, turning him around, she saw the bloody trickles coming from his mouth, nose and eyes too. He was breathing, but he wasn't moving, and the wounds didn't show any sign of supernatural healing.
"Why... why are you not healing?" she whispered, totally stricken by what she had done.
If he had been a Kuei-jin, she could have given him her blood, but she didn't dare to use any of her powers on him.
She had no idea what to do. Feeling the sadness and grief, she ripped her clothing apart, using what little she knew of first aid to bandage the wounds the lightning had created.
She gazed down at his unmoving form and shivered violently, leaning down and cradling his form to herself.
"No...no..."
As she wrapped his body in her desperate attempts to save him, little lights began to glow around her, dancing as if suspended by invisible wires. Fireflies... the little insects some mortals believe to be the souls of the departed...
And then she realized what she had to do.
With a jolt, she sat up and picked up the form of the unmoving Kitsune.
They were quite a sight as she started to hurry along the streets. A beautiful woman with halfway ripped clothing carrying a young man in her arms, hurrying through the streets.
She couldn't run out of breath and she didn't feel tired, she never did and thus carried Kaze with ease through the streets, heading for the bath house she knew could infuse him with new energy and heal him again.
But she WAS drained of strength. The bond between them had gotten so strong that his hurt was her hurt in mind and she felt like she was about to lose a part of herself as she stumbled through the streets and at last came to the gates of the bath house.
She felt like crying out of desperation when she was forced to stop dead just past the outer gate; she couldn't take another step, it was as if her mind just couldn't control her body when it came to entering the garden. The fireflies caught up with her, some settling on the fox's burned flesh.
She knew she was being watched, and she knew she was being tested.
"Let me in..." she whispered.
"For heavens sake, please let me in. He's dying and it's MY fault!" she said, louder now, trembling. She felt weak all over, unable to hold back the grief.
She tried. She didn't know how shapeshifters metabolism's functioned and didn't know if the Kitsune indeed would die, but she dreaded the thought and it was the only thing he could think of.
The grief and sadness pushed her onwards, trying to struggle past the barrier...
"Please..."
It didn't matter to her anymore what the spirit of the place would do to her when she told her story, told her that she had inflicted this wound.
It didn't matter.
She had to get in...
"You are back." Hikari hadn't noticed when Kim materialized, but the girlish water nymph now stood in front of her, a short distance from where the invisible ward denied the kuei-jin entry. "I told you you'd need to earn your passage. He can't vouch for you this time."
Kim's words were cold as ice, but her eyes reflected the sorrow of ages.
"He can't vouch for me because I did this to him!" she said quietly.
Her voice wasn't controlled, emotions of grief and sorrow flowing through it deeply.
"I am not important...if you can take him in and heal him, that shall be enough...I don't need to get in...just him! Please!!"
"Take him in and heal him, please, I beg of you...I'll do anything..."
The deceiver was quiet, quieted out by the honest feelings she felt flowing through her. The P'o couldn't even start to take onto her as the full impact of true feelings shook her from her core.
The nymph stepped forward and took Kaze from Hikari's arms.
"Stay here." She said. "You will not leave until he can walk out by his own foot. That is the price."
Hikari nodded and stood where she had given Kaze into the care of the spirit of this place. She stood and waited.
Slowly, she sank down to her knees and sat down on the ground, burying her delicate features in her hands.
Waiting...
Hoping...
Praying...
Kim watched the kuei-jin from one of the small ponds in the garden; she stared at her for hours on end, with the patience of one of the bureaucrats of Heaven's Mandate. She wondered, asking herself if she had been fair to exact such a payment onto one of the Fallen, when the desperation in her voice would've been enough to move Kim's heart into removing the wards.
But still... she was a servant of Heaven, in charge of her little part of the Ten Thousand Things, and the kuei-jin had betrayed Heaven once. They'd have to prove worthy of Heaven's favor.
Dawn broke, with neither supernatural female moving from their positions. The first rays of the sun announced a new day over the horizon.
Hikari shivered with fear of what was to come. She had infused her body with Yang at the beginning of the night, but still, the day would spell her doom and she knew it.
She was still exhausted from the fight and she didn't know how long she could withstand the powers of the sun.
The P'o got stronger now, clawing at its cage and wanting to flee from this place, cast the Kitsune to oblivion and never return.
But her Hun soul analyzed the situation completely different.
It had been Kaze who had brought her closer to being alive, to advancing on the path she had chosen. It had been Kaze who had stayed with her even though she was a damned. It was Kaze who had looked beyond the demon and seen the other side of her.
She couldn't leave...
The first rays of sun fell on her perfect skin and where it struck, she felt searing pain reek through her body as the heavenly forces did their work on her undead body, rotting the flesh slowly.
She would survive for an hour or two, she knew, especially with Yang in her body, but it would be pain...
Endless pain...
But she remained and willed herself to be silent...
The nymph stopped herself from jumping out of her hiding place, but she remained dutiful and stood watch as the sun's rays slowly rotted the vampire's skin. She had to wait until the last moment. The August Personage of Jade would not allow for any less time... and Kaze wouldn't forgive her if she waited a second longer.
The sky was cloudless, glowing azure blue as the sun made it's way in its daily travel, and the girl who would have caused the heartbreak of many with just a glance was now a stinking pile of putrescent flesh and bones.
Kim jumped into action, feeling the last drop of Chi drain from Hikari's body. There was only a soft sprinkle of water where the nymph grabbed the decaying living corpse and plunged into the secret depths of the bathhouse's waters.
Hikari felt herself floating in nothingness, aware of her being but of little else. She was alone.
Alone...
Again alone to herself and always, never to end her existance, but never to share it with someone either. She loathed the loneliness...
She had always been alone...
From her birth on, she had been alone and on her own, relying on her own strengths and skills to survive and go on...
It hadn't been enough once...
But Heaven had decided that she had to suffer on...for whatever crime she had comitted, whatever she had done, she had to remain in this world forever and she bore the curse alone...
With no one to help, with no one to feel with her...
And just when she had found someone...
She was already dead and her own death didn't matter...
Kaze...
She didn't want the only one who had ever showed true pity towards her to die...
The only one who had cared...
"Ssssss... pitiful." She heard herself speak, but not with her mouth. Next to her, the winged, clawed, spiked demon that shared her body appeared, as if it had taken on an existence of its own. "I told you we should have used him before he died, like all the lesser mortal things do."
"He's not dead!" she replied, turning to look at what she was on her other side.
"And even if it is pitiful, it is him who gave me emotions, feelings and truth for the time I spent with him. It is him who helped me get along my path faster than I had hoped I could."
"Bah! You saw how that little squirt-bitch looked at you, the other day. She let him die, and then she let you rot in the sun." The demon spat in her face and chuckled disdainfully. "You're hopeless. And you think that his feelings were true as well? He'd grown bored of you and your constant and pathetic whining."
"I'm NOT whining..." she said with a growl in her throat.
"And Kim didn't let him die!!!! I saw it in her eyes, I saw what she felt and I believe her that she tried her best to save him. Why wouldn't she? He's a shapeshifter and they are friends. Friendship is something you can't even comprehend and it makes me stronger than you'll ever be!"
She wiped the spit from her face and glared at the demon in defiance. She wouldn't let him win!
"Fine... tell me then how many friends you have so I can gauge how stronger you've become."
"I've gained one friend...one true friend and that is more than I need to keep you at bay. I cannot defeat you, not yet, but you cannot defeat ME either, because I've got support and you have not!"
She called up the images of Kaze's smile, his laughter and his jokes, remembering the moments of friendliness he had granted her and concentrated on them as hard as she could.
"Nice memories." The demon whispered with venom. "That is all that will remain; after all, you killed him."
"No..." She tried to convince herself, but the demon licked it's loathsome fangs as it found a wedge.
"I bet that under normal conditions, he'd have survived your Kiai..." It hissed. "But the living are ih-so fragile; after being hit with that lightning, you delivered the killing blow."
"He was still alive."
"'Was'... interesting choice of words." The monster circled around her in the nothingness. "You attacked without any consideration, and you call yourself a Thrashing Dragon... life is the last item in your agenda! And I know! I wrote it!"
Hikari shut her eyes and covered her ears, but the obscene cackling of her darker half cut right into her soul.
"Did you notice the street urchin hiding around the corner?" The demon closed in. "It certainly didn't have the stamina of your pet dog, so he must have died right on the spot."
"There wasn't anybody!" Hikari retorted. "Kaze checked it; he chose the place and time!"
"What will it be next time?" Her dark half insisted. "Will you burn a family's house with goblin fire? Will you explode somebody's head off with a blast of Yang? Or merely do what you've always done and suck people dry of their dreams and hopes? It doesn't matter if you drink of their blood or of their breath; you're just stealing their life."
"Kaze..." Hikari, whispered, hopeful.
"HIkari!" The fox woke up in the middle of the forest; it was dead quiet; no birds, no insects; only plants. He stretched his limbs and tried to shift to any of his biped forms, but found himself unable to.
"OK." He yipped. "What spirit did I offend this time?"
He was answered with silence.
"Waaaaait." He sniffed around. "Oh, great... now I remember... is Death supposed to be so boring?"
No answer yet.
"Anyway, I have business back with the living, and rising up as someone's past life is just not going to work out."
Again, silence.
"I guess nobody's going to answer, right?"
Definitely not.
"Riiiiiight." Kaze looked around suspiciously. There were no scents in the air, and while the sun shone high above the sky, there was no warmth, and neither cold. He trotted around for a while more, picking directions at random, until he came upon a lake. No wind blew, and the surface was like a perfectly polished mirror. From its waters, he heard someone cry.
"Huh?" He poked closer and peered into the lake. He only saw his reflection.
The sobs and moans were filling the shore, worrying the kitsune. He curled his vulpine lips in a knowing grin and stared back into the water, but this time unfocusing on his image and trying to look beyond, as if he was crossing into the Umbra. He felt cold and numb when he pierced his own image and saw Hikari chained to the shallow bottom of the lake.
"No... no..." He circled around the lake, knowing his fox form was not strong enough to help Hikari... hell, his half-fox was not particularly strong either, but at least it had better leverage.
"Jump in." The water spoke.
"It's a trap." The fox answered, used to speak with the oddest of things.
"It's the only way to save her."
"Hmmm... there are always other ways."
"Not this time, little one."
"Bet you there is." Kaze muttered, looking around. He exploded into orange lightning when he charged against a tree, but deftly bounced himself off to another trunk, and slowly made his way up. Foxes are not arboreal creatures, and he was having a difficult time not falling off the branch he ended up on while recovering his breath. Even in fox shape, he was ninja, and he ran expertly until the end of the branch, catching the tip of a lower and younger tree with his snout. His own weight lowered the trunk, and he swung himself to make sure he came down at the right spot. A bit more, and if Hikari could take hold of his tail, this dream-trap they found themselves in would surely dissipate.
His gums ached, but he was getting closer.
"No tricks, fox." The water spoke again, and suddenly the bottom deepened.
Kaze muttered something about one-track minds.
"She won't drown, but she won't die either; she'll go mad chained to the bottom for eternity." And then the rock she was chained moved towards the center of the lake. So he swung back to the shore, landing gracefully but flexing his overtaxed jaws.
"Hikari..." He looked at the lake with a frown.
"Kaze." Hikari repeated his name like a mantra of hope.
"Stop doing that." The demon said." It's useless; he's dead, and by your hand. It was an accident, yes, but born of your own disregard for life."
"What do you want of me?" She asked.
"Just for you to take some vacations and let -me- wear the skin. You will feel better." The demon began to shrink. As it talked, the spines disappeared, the wings collapsed and the claws retracted, until it was a perfect copy of Hikari, except that her eyes where red. "No more pain, no more loneliness."
"No... even if only in my memories, I will always have him..."
Kaze was getting tired, sitting on his romp for hours, contemplating his problem. Anxiety began to gnaw on him; seeing Hikari's petite form unmoving in the lake.
"Have it your way, little fox." The lake said finally. "She's now mine forever."
"No! Wait!"
"You can go back to the waking world, kitsune."
"Give her back!"
"Why?"
"She's not yours to have!"
"Oh, and she's yours?"
Kaze was struck speechless; so soon and already he thought of her as his own?"
"She... she is herself's; I'm only helping her find the way."
"Why?"
"I..."
"Say your farewell."
"No! Hikari!"
---
Hikari woke up with a start, the memory of the sun's curse and her demon's torment still fresh. Then came the cold dread of losing Kaze; her only link to life. He stared at the wooden ceiling and slowly came to notice her surroundings. She was lying on a futon, covered by a thick blanket. Her body was whole, as she could see when looking at her arms.
And she wasn't alone. Kaze's human form slept beside her. She let out an exclamation of joy and surprise; he was whole as well. She stared at him, relief washing all over her like a calming drug. She extended her hand to touch him, to make sure this wasn't another cruel trick of her P'o.
"Go ahead." Kim had been sitting on the other side of the room the whole time. "Touch him; he's real."
Hikari nodded at the chinese girl and passed her hand over his features, feeling his warmth. "Thank you..." She whispered. "Thank you... if my soul means anything to you, I thank you from its deepest corner."
"I should have seen it before." Kim smiled strangely. "You brought him back."
"I... me? But..." Hikari was confused now.
"The waters in this house can replenish his spiritual strength, but not his life. I had to show him something that would make him call upon his rage, so the spirits would start healing his body. I showed him losing you."
Hikari stared incomprehensibly at the Suijen, then back at Kaze's sleeping form. If she had tears, she'd be crying now.
"I will leave you alone now." Kim stood up and slid the door to the sparse guest room she had placed both overemotional shen. She knew Kaze, and how the kitsune would commit his heart. She didn't knew the kuei-jin, but then again, not many undead had that sparkle in their eyes. She suppressed a pang of jealousy, the vampire girl needed the kitsune's heart much more than she ever did, and that may be why Kaze was so willing to present it. She slid the door shut.
Hikari couldn't keep her hand from brushing Kaze's hair out of his face, studying every little wrinkle in his skin, and hypnotized by the slow rise and fall of his respiration. She pushed closer to him, as they were covered by the same blanket. She let her wearied head rest on his chest, her arms around him, his heartbeat a lullaby. She closed her eyes and smiled contentedly when he twitched, her eyes giving his a welcome back to the world. When he smiled back, Hikari didn't need the sun to remember what being alive felt like; she just pressed herself around him and felt the warmth of his own embrace.
SECOND SCROLL
RUNNING LIKE CLOCKWORK
The busy capital city of Kyoto bustled day and night. At the center of Japan, it received the traffic of all the corners of the empire, and was also the center from which all the innovations of the Meiji emperors spread to the rest of their domains. It was a strange city, where ronin mage-swordsmen tested their skills agains the machines of immigrant chinese artificers.
The gaslight lamps that dotted the streets sported dragons at their top, their metal jaws holding the orbs from which the light emanated, banishing the darkness while the sun rested from its task of doing so.
In one of the few dark alleys, a young girl leaned against a wall; her kimono slit in imitation of chinese fashion, and showing an indiscriminate amoung of perfect skin. Her eyes were hunting, however. She watched with disdain the few passerbys that eyed her with appreciation.
"Lookee here..." A weasel-looking man approached her. He didn't look like a samurai, not even a ronin, but he wore an ornate scabbard on his side. Hikari Kyusenko didn't care much for the laws of the land, but the artwork was the kind only rich wizard-warriors could afford, or rightfully use. The man drew the blade, and Hikari's senses felt the crackling of magical energy as it did so. However, its wielder was numb to it; he probably stole it after killing its true owner.
"Leave." She ordered succintly; she didn't have time for this.
"You think you can work the streets in my boss' area?"
The kuei-jin rolled her eyes. She knew it'd be a bad idea to stand like this, like a brothel-less prostitute; but Kaze said it was the perfect bait for their target. Would this be the man they were looking for?
"Don't try my patience, little man..." She summoned the goblin flame to her, and her eyes and mouth began burning with greenish fire.
"A... a..." The man peeled his eyes, and would have screamed if the shadows hadn't come alive and put a knife to his throat.
"Speak and you die, make a sound and you die, speak of this to anyone, and you die. Understood?" The shadow spoke. The man nodded and hastily make his exit when the blade stopped touching his skin.
"I told you this was a bad idea." Hikari extinguished her fire.
"Yes, but it's the better option." Kaze removed his black mask and revealed his fox head; he preferred to be in action in his natural form. "Besides; I like to see the light play upon your figure."
"I'm sure you do." She smiled with irony. It had been almost a month since she had accepted being his companion, and he had never stopped blanketing her with good-natured compliments.
"You look... succulent." He winked. "That's why I'm sure our man will stop long enough for us to catch him."
Hikari was almost shamed when the kitsune revealed to her the vast network of informants under his command, showing what can be done with two centuries well-employed interacting with people. It was this network, fed with the information gleaned by other hengeyokai, that the man they were hunting tonight would lead them in the path of the one who had pulled on Nakamura's strings.
"Kaze... -everyone- is stopping to look at me..."
"Ah... but this one will stop with a clinical eye; he builds clockworks dolls, and you make a perfect model. He could be chinese or Westerner, so keep your eyes open. And be careful, we don't know what he can do." He leaned close to her, almost touching his cold and wet nose to hers. His fox-face was very expressive, and she had learned to recognize the gestures in a snout as well as on human lips. His eyes remained the same, however.
He took a lick of her nose and jumped back before she could respond with anything, he shifted into his fox form and hid again, making absolutely no noise.
She resumed her vigilance. Her supernatural senses picked up a strange noise... one like she had heard when talking to the fake Nakamura in that machinery room; whirring, clicking... on the end of the street came three figures; she couldn't make their features in this light and distance, but the one in the middle, the shortest, should be the one they were looking for, if his companions or bodyguards were what she feared they were.
Hikari gazed at the trio approaching and tried to make out their features, but in the end it really wasn't that important. From the presence of the two machines, she knew this was the man Kaze and her had been looking for.
A moment, she simply leaned back against the wall, enjoying the thought about Kaze, enjoying the fact that she was now his companion and enjoying the prospect of working with him. A while ago, she wouldn't have thought it possible to connect so quickly to a person, least of all a Hengeyokai, but here she was, fighting alongside him and getting deep into trouble with him.
The two bodyguards were covered by long westerner coats, hiding their metal skin and muffling their clocwork muscles, but their stiff movements told them off; the clothing was just a nod to propriety.
As Kaze had predicted, the man stopped to look at her, but his gaze wasn't full of lust or envy, like other people's. Hikari felt... scanned.
The little fox hiding behind a post studied the new arrivals in return. This would be hard if the man resisted. He'd hoped to nab an unprepared Chin'ta, just to ask whom he had built the mechanical Nakamura for, but with the two automatons behind him, he would surely resist, and things would surely get ugly. He trusted Hikari to fish out as much as she could before they had to engage the machines.
"Interested?" Hikari said with a quiet, lusty voice, opening her eyes and gazing at the people in front of her.
She played her part as one of the prostitutes trying to get people to come with her for some fun and for some money for her.
A prostitute wouldn't be able to tell that she was looking at two machines which could tear apart the wall against which she was leaning in no time.
So she acted as if she didn't notice, too and tried to seduce all three of them instead.
For now.
"I may, I may..." The small man said, his japanese thick with chinese accent. "Would you fulfill some, ah... excentricities?"
Some would describe the predatory smile the man gave her as a 'fox-smile', but she had seen the real thing, and the man's pathetic attempt at congratiation had nothing on the rich and honest laughter of the kitsune.
She raised a brow and inclined her head, much like a real prostitute would. She knew how they behaved, since she had often enough posed as one. It was easy to hunt that way.
"Excentricities? What kind?" she asked with a low, very emotional voice.
She knew that her seducing him like that wouldn't have much effect, but she wanted to play her part right so he didn't blow her cover.
"You'd be paid handsomely... such a perfect body..." He looked her up and down. "Enough for you to live in luxury for years."
From his hideout, Kaze suppressed a growl. He only wanted information, but if his suspicions were right, he and Hikari might have to dispense Gaia's justice again. Out of precaution, he shifted his gaze to the contemplation of magic. The machines readiated strongly, running their small engines with the mystical power-source that allowed the Chinese mechanicals to compete against the head-start the more mundanely-minded Westerners had on machine building.
Again, Hikari inclined her head and looked at the strange man quietly, not seeming to notice the two others anymore. SHe put a slight gleam in her eyes when he spoke of riches, since that was the real reason why most of the prostitutes worked. For money.
"I still need to ask. What kind of excenticities." She asked again, though putting a slight bit of uncertainity into her voice.
The man chuckled. "Why such apprehension, my dear?" He fished inside his jacket and brought out a string of gold coins. "If you're so afraid, you'll be missing this and more... just play to be my doll for tonight..."
Kaze's ear twitched. The cursed mage was using magic on her! It was the magic of words and currency, but he could feel the flows of the Tapestry conform to his wishes, trying to tie Hikari's mind into his promise of riches. Damn the Namebreakers! He tensed, ready to jump and gut the man if he saw the girl he had just commited his life to was in danger she couldn't handle by herself.
Hikari closed her eyes a moment and decided that they wouldn't be able to get to the information they wanted without getting into a mess. She also decided that this mess was NOT going to be her playing that man's doll!
Using her own willpower, she resisted the man's magic and instead activated her own: that of the Black Wind. Accelerated beyond any normal human's comprehension, she completed a strike at the empty air towards the first of the machines and used her Distant Death Kata. At almost the same moment, the second machine raised his arms.
Hikari's senses seemed to slow down time, the bodies of the machines and the man acting as though they were stuck in a slow-forward phase. Just after she had completed her strike, she already whirled around, barely avoiding the two fists of the second automaton which he had shot in her direction.
The kitsune had barely enough time to act himself; opening the furnace of rage Luna granted him, he also moved as lightning, shifting to his half-fox form, aiming to tackle the arm that was aiming towards Hikari.
The little man jumped back with a scream, shouting something in chinese.
The first machine bulged under Hikari's intangible strike, sounding like a broken bell.
As time slowed down in her perception, she saw Kaze racing from the shadows and to her help. She still whirled out of the way of the attacks of the second machine, she activated her Storm Shintai powers, calling forth sizzling lightning on her hands and aimed for a full contact strike at the first machine now, using her incredible speed and agility as an advantage.
Something whistled next to Hikari, a metal fist flew from the second metal man's arm, connected by a chain. She closed in on the first, ready to discharge the fury of the storms on it. But then she was enveloped in a cloud of searing steam. There was no way to dodge it this close to it's source.
Kaze saw the steam, and saw the second automaton close; they were inhumanly fast, but so where Hikari and himself. Leaping gracefully over the first attacker with a prayer on his lips for Hikari's safety, he landed squarely on the sholders of the second clockwork man.
The chinese man was producing something from his pocket, but kitsune and kuei-jin were much too busy at the moment to notice.
Instinctively, she ducked, but used her momentum forward to complete the movement towards the first machine.
With her superhuman strength, she planted her feet on the ground and propelled herself forward towards the machine, her fist extended forward, aiming for the direction she knew th machine to be using her chi-senses to direct her instead of her eyes.
She ignored the burning pain the steam inflicted on her skin, and felt her fist impact, crackling with lightning.
Another chained fist flew, but this time towards Kaze. The fox bent back in time and used the momentum back to wedge his short sword between the automaton's head and shoulders.
Hikari's opponent made a grab for her, but fast as it was, he couldn't catch her ghostly form.
She dodged around his advance and whirled again, this time sending her foot flying towards her opponent while twisting.
She was immersed in the fight and didn't pay much attention to anything else.
But for the first time in combat, she caught herself sending a glance to Kaze now and then, making sure he could handle himself.
The fox was making do; his sword wasn't much use so he let himself drop back with a flip, weaving his body in nearly impossible ways to evade the machine's attack.
But they had forgotten the chinese man...
"Use lightning against the Lightning People?" He said, hitting a switch in the small metal box he had taken out. The essence of creation, the Chi that fed Hikari's body and Kaze's spirit, suddenly exploded, arcs of supernatural lightning leaping between the two automatons and extending to hit the two shen time and again.
Hikari cried out in horror and got thrown backwards by the force of lightning, but she snarled, trying to get to her feet again.
The onslaught continued and the P'o in her cried for release as the burning hatred seethed and was fueled by her pain.
But she wouldn't let it have control over herself, not just this easily.
And she had a way of getting out of this mess.
"Never...mess...with your superior...." she uttered beneath her breath and suddenly let her voice reach such unbelievable heights it was all but painful, enacting the Cry of Blood on the little chinese man. The sound was so loud, that everyone in the near vicintiy would not go temprorarily unharmed and the chinese got the full attention of her shout of rage and power.
The man never stood a chance. While able to twist the flowing of Creation to his whim, he was still a mortal man caught unprepared. The monster inside Hikari saw how blood began to flow from the chinese's ears, nostrils and even his eyes. He fell with a sickening thud, his innards smashed into pulp inside his skin by the force of Hikari's demonic cry.
But behind her, another fell victim. Kaze hadn't had time to ask the spirits to grant him the power of regeneration, as the fox-changers didn't share that power with the rest of their Hengeyokai kin except in their warriors' magic. Weakened as he was by the magical lighning, he felt his vision blur as Hikari's once sweet voice pressed on his head like a vise.
Between them, the metal men were unaffected.
Hikari recovered and got up, not yet having noticed that Kaze had fallen to her demonic cry as well.
She believed that all shapeshifters had healing powers and thus thought Kaze could manage and her concentration refocussed on the two metal-men.
The demon inside her revelled in the bloodshed and took control of her more and more. But she was still able to focus her thoughts and she channeled the flow of chi inside her body to her hands, creating the Goblin sword in her hands infusing it with Yang energy and then leapt at the two metal creatures.
The machines moved more sluggishly, now unguided by the will of their creator but still able to work on their own. Hikari had a hard time penetrating the metal casings, but now dodging their attacks was like child's play, even unaugmented by the Black Wind. The demon had begun to get bored when whatever had been powering the things finally exhausted, and they slumped in their place, battered and broken in some part, but still in good condition. They just were now empty caskets.
She stood over her work in satisfaction and turned around, only now realizing that Kaze hadn't joined in the last part of the fight... and saw him sprawled on the ground, trickles of blood coming out from his ears, and badly burned where the Artificer's lightning had struck.
The rage fell from her as if it had never been there. The sword vanished from her hand and the realization came.
"No..." she whispered.
She saw the blood and where it leaked from and instinctively knew what had happened. She stumbled over the debris from the fight and to Kaze's side, shaking her head.
"No!" she murmured. "You are a shapeshifter, you can regenarate...you shouldn't...no!" she whispered.
A sudden grief tore at her heart as she looked down to the fox-warrior.
With shaking hands, she reached for her companion and tried to feel for life, too disturbed to even realizs she could simply check by using her chi-sight.
His heart was beating still, faintly but surely, turning him around, she saw the bloody trickles coming from his mouth, nose and eyes too. He was breathing, but he wasn't moving, and the wounds didn't show any sign of supernatural healing.
"Why... why are you not healing?" she whispered, totally stricken by what she had done.
If he had been a Kuei-jin, she could have given him her blood, but she didn't dare to use any of her powers on him.
She had no idea what to do. Feeling the sadness and grief, she ripped her clothing apart, using what little she knew of first aid to bandage the wounds the lightning had created.
She gazed down at his unmoving form and shivered violently, leaning down and cradling his form to herself.
"No...no..."
As she wrapped his body in her desperate attempts to save him, little lights began to glow around her, dancing as if suspended by invisible wires. Fireflies... the little insects some mortals believe to be the souls of the departed...
And then she realized what she had to do.
With a jolt, she sat up and picked up the form of the unmoving Kitsune.
They were quite a sight as she started to hurry along the streets. A beautiful woman with halfway ripped clothing carrying a young man in her arms, hurrying through the streets.
She couldn't run out of breath and she didn't feel tired, she never did and thus carried Kaze with ease through the streets, heading for the bath house she knew could infuse him with new energy and heal him again.
But she WAS drained of strength. The bond between them had gotten so strong that his hurt was her hurt in mind and she felt like she was about to lose a part of herself as she stumbled through the streets and at last came to the gates of the bath house.
She felt like crying out of desperation when she was forced to stop dead just past the outer gate; she couldn't take another step, it was as if her mind just couldn't control her body when it came to entering the garden. The fireflies caught up with her, some settling on the fox's burned flesh.
She knew she was being watched, and she knew she was being tested.
"Let me in..." she whispered.
"For heavens sake, please let me in. He's dying and it's MY fault!" she said, louder now, trembling. She felt weak all over, unable to hold back the grief.
She tried. She didn't know how shapeshifters metabolism's functioned and didn't know if the Kitsune indeed would die, but she dreaded the thought and it was the only thing he could think of.
The grief and sadness pushed her onwards, trying to struggle past the barrier...
"Please..."
It didn't matter to her anymore what the spirit of the place would do to her when she told her story, told her that she had inflicted this wound.
It didn't matter.
She had to get in...
"You are back." Hikari hadn't noticed when Kim materialized, but the girlish water nymph now stood in front of her, a short distance from where the invisible ward denied the kuei-jin entry. "I told you you'd need to earn your passage. He can't vouch for you this time."
Kim's words were cold as ice, but her eyes reflected the sorrow of ages.
"He can't vouch for me because I did this to him!" she said quietly.
Her voice wasn't controlled, emotions of grief and sorrow flowing through it deeply.
"I am not important...if you can take him in and heal him, that shall be enough...I don't need to get in...just him! Please!!"
"Take him in and heal him, please, I beg of you...I'll do anything..."
The deceiver was quiet, quieted out by the honest feelings she felt flowing through her. The P'o couldn't even start to take onto her as the full impact of true feelings shook her from her core.
The nymph stepped forward and took Kaze from Hikari's arms.
"Stay here." She said. "You will not leave until he can walk out by his own foot. That is the price."
Hikari nodded and stood where she had given Kaze into the care of the spirit of this place. She stood and waited.
Slowly, she sank down to her knees and sat down on the ground, burying her delicate features in her hands.
Waiting...
Hoping...
Praying...
Kim watched the kuei-jin from one of the small ponds in the garden; she stared at her for hours on end, with the patience of one of the bureaucrats of Heaven's Mandate. She wondered, asking herself if she had been fair to exact such a payment onto one of the Fallen, when the desperation in her voice would've been enough to move Kim's heart into removing the wards.
But still... she was a servant of Heaven, in charge of her little part of the Ten Thousand Things, and the kuei-jin had betrayed Heaven once. They'd have to prove worthy of Heaven's favor.
Dawn broke, with neither supernatural female moving from their positions. The first rays of the sun announced a new day over the horizon.
Hikari shivered with fear of what was to come. She had infused her body with Yang at the beginning of the night, but still, the day would spell her doom and she knew it.
She was still exhausted from the fight and she didn't know how long she could withstand the powers of the sun.
The P'o got stronger now, clawing at its cage and wanting to flee from this place, cast the Kitsune to oblivion and never return.
But her Hun soul analyzed the situation completely different.
It had been Kaze who had brought her closer to being alive, to advancing on the path she had chosen. It had been Kaze who had stayed with her even though she was a damned. It was Kaze who had looked beyond the demon and seen the other side of her.
She couldn't leave...
The first rays of sun fell on her perfect skin and where it struck, she felt searing pain reek through her body as the heavenly forces did their work on her undead body, rotting the flesh slowly.
She would survive for an hour or two, she knew, especially with Yang in her body, but it would be pain...
Endless pain...
But she remained and willed herself to be silent...
The nymph stopped herself from jumping out of her hiding place, but she remained dutiful and stood watch as the sun's rays slowly rotted the vampire's skin. She had to wait until the last moment. The August Personage of Jade would not allow for any less time... and Kaze wouldn't forgive her if she waited a second longer.
The sky was cloudless, glowing azure blue as the sun made it's way in its daily travel, and the girl who would have caused the heartbreak of many with just a glance was now a stinking pile of putrescent flesh and bones.
Kim jumped into action, feeling the last drop of Chi drain from Hikari's body. There was only a soft sprinkle of water where the nymph grabbed the decaying living corpse and plunged into the secret depths of the bathhouse's waters.
Hikari felt herself floating in nothingness, aware of her being but of little else. She was alone.
Alone...
Again alone to herself and always, never to end her existance, but never to share it with someone either. She loathed the loneliness...
She had always been alone...
From her birth on, she had been alone and on her own, relying on her own strengths and skills to survive and go on...
It hadn't been enough once...
But Heaven had decided that she had to suffer on...for whatever crime she had comitted, whatever she had done, she had to remain in this world forever and she bore the curse alone...
With no one to help, with no one to feel with her...
And just when she had found someone...
She was already dead and her own death didn't matter...
Kaze...
She didn't want the only one who had ever showed true pity towards her to die...
The only one who had cared...
"Ssssss... pitiful." She heard herself speak, but not with her mouth. Next to her, the winged, clawed, spiked demon that shared her body appeared, as if it had taken on an existence of its own. "I told you we should have used him before he died, like all the lesser mortal things do."
"He's not dead!" she replied, turning to look at what she was on her other side.
"And even if it is pitiful, it is him who gave me emotions, feelings and truth for the time I spent with him. It is him who helped me get along my path faster than I had hoped I could."
"Bah! You saw how that little squirt-bitch looked at you, the other day. She let him die, and then she let you rot in the sun." The demon spat in her face and chuckled disdainfully. "You're hopeless. And you think that his feelings were true as well? He'd grown bored of you and your constant and pathetic whining."
"I'm NOT whining..." she said with a growl in her throat.
"And Kim didn't let him die!!!! I saw it in her eyes, I saw what she felt and I believe her that she tried her best to save him. Why wouldn't she? He's a shapeshifter and they are friends. Friendship is something you can't even comprehend and it makes me stronger than you'll ever be!"
She wiped the spit from her face and glared at the demon in defiance. She wouldn't let him win!
"Fine... tell me then how many friends you have so I can gauge how stronger you've become."
"I've gained one friend...one true friend and that is more than I need to keep you at bay. I cannot defeat you, not yet, but you cannot defeat ME either, because I've got support and you have not!"
She called up the images of Kaze's smile, his laughter and his jokes, remembering the moments of friendliness he had granted her and concentrated on them as hard as she could.
"Nice memories." The demon whispered with venom. "That is all that will remain; after all, you killed him."
"No..." She tried to convince herself, but the demon licked it's loathsome fangs as it found a wedge.
"I bet that under normal conditions, he'd have survived your Kiai..." It hissed. "But the living are ih-so fragile; after being hit with that lightning, you delivered the killing blow."
"He was still alive."
"'Was'... interesting choice of words." The monster circled around her in the nothingness. "You attacked without any consideration, and you call yourself a Thrashing Dragon... life is the last item in your agenda! And I know! I wrote it!"
Hikari shut her eyes and covered her ears, but the obscene cackling of her darker half cut right into her soul.
"Did you notice the street urchin hiding around the corner?" The demon closed in. "It certainly didn't have the stamina of your pet dog, so he must have died right on the spot."
"There wasn't anybody!" Hikari retorted. "Kaze checked it; he chose the place and time!"
"What will it be next time?" Her dark half insisted. "Will you burn a family's house with goblin fire? Will you explode somebody's head off with a blast of Yang? Or merely do what you've always done and suck people dry of their dreams and hopes? It doesn't matter if you drink of their blood or of their breath; you're just stealing their life."
"Kaze..." Hikari, whispered, hopeful.
"HIkari!" The fox woke up in the middle of the forest; it was dead quiet; no birds, no insects; only plants. He stretched his limbs and tried to shift to any of his biped forms, but found himself unable to.
"OK." He yipped. "What spirit did I offend this time?"
He was answered with silence.
"Waaaaait." He sniffed around. "Oh, great... now I remember... is Death supposed to be so boring?"
No answer yet.
"Anyway, I have business back with the living, and rising up as someone's past life is just not going to work out."
Again, silence.
"I guess nobody's going to answer, right?"
Definitely not.
"Riiiiiight." Kaze looked around suspiciously. There were no scents in the air, and while the sun shone high above the sky, there was no warmth, and neither cold. He trotted around for a while more, picking directions at random, until he came upon a lake. No wind blew, and the surface was like a perfectly polished mirror. From its waters, he heard someone cry.
"Huh?" He poked closer and peered into the lake. He only saw his reflection.
The sobs and moans were filling the shore, worrying the kitsune. He curled his vulpine lips in a knowing grin and stared back into the water, but this time unfocusing on his image and trying to look beyond, as if he was crossing into the Umbra. He felt cold and numb when he pierced his own image and saw Hikari chained to the shallow bottom of the lake.
"No... no..." He circled around the lake, knowing his fox form was not strong enough to help Hikari... hell, his half-fox was not particularly strong either, but at least it had better leverage.
"Jump in." The water spoke.
"It's a trap." The fox answered, used to speak with the oddest of things.
"It's the only way to save her."
"Hmmm... there are always other ways."
"Not this time, little one."
"Bet you there is." Kaze muttered, looking around. He exploded into orange lightning when he charged against a tree, but deftly bounced himself off to another trunk, and slowly made his way up. Foxes are not arboreal creatures, and he was having a difficult time not falling off the branch he ended up on while recovering his breath. Even in fox shape, he was ninja, and he ran expertly until the end of the branch, catching the tip of a lower and younger tree with his snout. His own weight lowered the trunk, and he swung himself to make sure he came down at the right spot. A bit more, and if Hikari could take hold of his tail, this dream-trap they found themselves in would surely dissipate.
His gums ached, but he was getting closer.
"No tricks, fox." The water spoke again, and suddenly the bottom deepened.
Kaze muttered something about one-track minds.
"She won't drown, but she won't die either; she'll go mad chained to the bottom for eternity." And then the rock she was chained moved towards the center of the lake. So he swung back to the shore, landing gracefully but flexing his overtaxed jaws.
"Hikari..." He looked at the lake with a frown.
"Kaze." Hikari repeated his name like a mantra of hope.
"Stop doing that." The demon said." It's useless; he's dead, and by your hand. It was an accident, yes, but born of your own disregard for life."
"What do you want of me?" She asked.
"Just for you to take some vacations and let -me- wear the skin. You will feel better." The demon began to shrink. As it talked, the spines disappeared, the wings collapsed and the claws retracted, until it was a perfect copy of Hikari, except that her eyes where red. "No more pain, no more loneliness."
"No... even if only in my memories, I will always have him..."
Kaze was getting tired, sitting on his romp for hours, contemplating his problem. Anxiety began to gnaw on him; seeing Hikari's petite form unmoving in the lake.
"Have it your way, little fox." The lake said finally. "She's now mine forever."
"No! Wait!"
"You can go back to the waking world, kitsune."
"Give her back!"
"Why?"
"She's not yours to have!"
"Oh, and she's yours?"
Kaze was struck speechless; so soon and already he thought of her as his own?"
"She... she is herself's; I'm only helping her find the way."
"Why?"
"I..."
"Say your farewell."
"No! Hikari!"
---
Hikari woke up with a start, the memory of the sun's curse and her demon's torment still fresh. Then came the cold dread of losing Kaze; her only link to life. He stared at the wooden ceiling and slowly came to notice her surroundings. She was lying on a futon, covered by a thick blanket. Her body was whole, as she could see when looking at her arms.
And she wasn't alone. Kaze's human form slept beside her. She let out an exclamation of joy and surprise; he was whole as well. She stared at him, relief washing all over her like a calming drug. She extended her hand to touch him, to make sure this wasn't another cruel trick of her P'o.
"Go ahead." Kim had been sitting on the other side of the room the whole time. "Touch him; he's real."
Hikari nodded at the chinese girl and passed her hand over his features, feeling his warmth. "Thank you..." She whispered. "Thank you... if my soul means anything to you, I thank you from its deepest corner."
"I should have seen it before." Kim smiled strangely. "You brought him back."
"I... me? But..." Hikari was confused now.
"The waters in this house can replenish his spiritual strength, but not his life. I had to show him something that would make him call upon his rage, so the spirits would start healing his body. I showed him losing you."
Hikari stared incomprehensibly at the Suijen, then back at Kaze's sleeping form. If she had tears, she'd be crying now.
"I will leave you alone now." Kim stood up and slid the door to the sparse guest room she had placed both overemotional shen. She knew Kaze, and how the kitsune would commit his heart. She didn't knew the kuei-jin, but then again, not many undead had that sparkle in their eyes. She suppressed a pang of jealousy, the vampire girl needed the kitsune's heart much more than she ever did, and that may be why Kaze was so willing to present it. She slid the door shut.
Hikari couldn't keep her hand from brushing Kaze's hair out of his face, studying every little wrinkle in his skin, and hypnotized by the slow rise and fall of his respiration. She pushed closer to him, as they were covered by the same blanket. She let her wearied head rest on his chest, her arms around him, his heartbeat a lullaby. She closed her eyes and smiled contentedly when he twitched, her eyes giving his a welcome back to the world. When he smiled back, Hikari didn't need the sun to remember what being alive felt like; she just pressed herself around him and felt the warmth of his own embrace.