Slam Dunk most obviously does not belong to me.
Lalala…we're nearly there~
Chapter 12: Confronting Your Worst Fear
As Mitsui read the name aloud, all their faces, hooded by shadows from the light of the torches, turned to stare with utmost shock and disbelief at Rukawa's own pale face.
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"HIDETO RUKAWA," read Mitsui. There was a very abrupt silence at this. Nobody gasped or gave horrified or shocked exclamations like they had been doing so often for the past few days. The only sound audible was their breathing laced with the wind whispering in the shadowy darkness.
"It – it could be another person sharing the same surname as Rukawa. Doesn't necessarily have to be related to the Rukawa Kaede over here," Fujima's teeth chattered with cold.
"Yeah," the others agreed fervently. It had to be, right? Rukawa kept silent. He knew that whatever they were saying was total garbage, all a lame attempt to make him feel better. He remembered the look of amazement the creature had given him using Jin's helpless body. But who could tell? There wasn't any real proof right? And maybe he along with the rest of them had imagined the whole incident. Maybe they had imagined this whole series of happenings and horrors as well. Maybe Jin, Miyagi and the others who had been murdered were not really dead after all, and once this dream was over they would wake up and live again. Maybe…
"We have to start the ritual now," said Yoshiko suddenly, her thin voice cutting the silence like an extremely keen-edged knife.
"Ritual? What ritual?" asked Kogure sharply. "The same rigmarole your mother did?"
"No, this is to send the shadow back to eternal slumber."
"Err…what do we need? A fire?" asked Fujima.
"I think just the crystals, an incantation and the soul's name."
"Good, we have all three of those," said Sendoh sounding relieved. "I was worried we'd have to go on another long search for nothing while that thing goes on a killing spree."
"Do we have to form a circle round the grave and start muttering spells or something? Or maybe drawing a pentagram on the ground and shedding some blood?" asked Mitsui. "You know, like those goofy horror movies where people call up demons to do their bidding or something?"
"No," said Yoshiko. "This is not a movie."
"Well, begin," said all of them looking at her impatiently. The discovery of the creature's name and grave seemed to be lost with their fierce eagerness to purge the terror and shadow which had been stalking the streets, their sleep and their lives.
"All right," came the reply. "But first I'll have to call the shadow here to where we are."
"WHAT!" cried all of them in unison. "No way!"
"I'm not having that thing near to me!"
"Are you out of your mind?"
"We'll all be killed!"
"Forget it!"
The stream of shocked reactions to Yoshiko's startling statement lashed out like distorted wails amid the hissing wind, which had grown stronger, through the night's sleepy quiet. "Then forget having a safe night of sleep for the rest of your lives," Yoshiko countered icily. "And Mitsui, I remembered that you once said that we have nothing to fear but Fear Itself. And we are about to face it now. Are we going to run for the rest of our lives? It's worth a try confronting our fear now, by approaching it face to face."
"Can't we just send it back from wherever it is now?" asked Ayako almost pleadingly.
"Not possible. The creature has to come here to its grave because it's the only open door back to the spirit world."
"All right," Mitsui took a deep breath. "We're all ready. Begin."
There was a dead silence. Every face was turned to Yoshiko, eyeing her carefully and fearfully. Yoshiko shut her eyes and took a deep breath, as if in serious meditation, shutting out the world before her; all their pale faces, and the lone upright gravestone glaring coldly at her. She tried to ease her restless mind and began to think back about the incantation used to summon the spirit back to her. She found herself floating half-aware, half in a dream, in a fathomless void, which was her mind. Everything was dark, and the words to the incantation were clouded. She could not see. She stirred in desperation, she had to find the words, had to help her friends, had to undo the evil….
Then, there was a blinding flash of light and the whole void of her mind was illuminated for a split second, then the darkness together with the void was completely obliterated. The surreal feeling she had felt was suddenly shattered as she was jerked back to the real world. Her eyes snapped open and a stream of words in a language she herself did not understand flowed out continuously and fluently from her trembling lips. Meanwhile, the others who had gathered around her watching had not been able to see what she was going through. They had only seen her close her eyes and mutter something so soft that they could have mistaken it for the wind hissing spitefully in their ears. Mitsui leaned forward to catch what she was saying, then his eyes widened when he realized that she was speaking in a language he could not understand. She was muttering an incantation. Her voice steadily rose louder until it became high-pitched, with a hint of an almost-desperate note in it.
Chills were running up and down Mitsui's spine. He remembered that spell. It was the one Soruko Minaki had used to summon the spirit out from the spirit world. The spell had backfired; causing the evil that was maliciously hounding them now to be awoken from its slumber. Silently, he prayed that everything would go all right and smoothly. Then he realized the changes that were occurring in the night. Above them, a cloud of blackness, darker than the darkness of the night was crawling almost lazily, blotting out the weak light of the street lamps and the stars above. It was the shadow. And it was huge. Not like the time when they had seen it kill Soruko. It was several times larger, and its darkness seemed to spread wider and wider, until they were enveloped by an inky expanse of blackness. And they saw its eyes. Burning slits carved on its empty dark face. And behind those slits, fiery abysses yawned hungrily. It had pinpointed its prey. It was the first time they had ever seen it face to face. The other times and close encounters with it, they had merely felt its cold, devilish presence.
Yoshiko looking up, saw that her summoning incantation had worked, and immediately began chanting another spell. This one was to send the creature and its malicious presence back to where it belonged, where enchantments that should not have been tampered with, would encase it in eternal slumber. This time, her voice began loud and powerful, as if she was voicing out a command in a language that did not exist in the world of the living. The shadow that engulfed them seemed to flicker, and they could feel a wave of its fury bearing down on them. Yoshiko, with unwavering courage continued her spell. She had the upper hand now. A black wind screamed ferociously in their ears, lashing out at them with an icy whip of malice. The air was suddenly full of wails and snarls, as if a dozen rabid animals had been caged in together.
"Yoshiko!" cried Mitsui warningly, but she did not pay any attention to him. She continued to recite the spell, which now flew out of her easily, as if she had practiced it over and over again. The air in front of the gravestone began to waver and transparent ripples began to pulse in the air, like it was an invisible wall. Then the ripples began to cease and move inward, forming a circle that rapidly shrunk. This continued until the air was shivering on one concentrated spot right in front of the gravestone. Meanwhile, the creature screamed in helpless wrath, the power of the spirit world drawing it back was beyond its wavering strength. Mitsui noticed that the great shadow had somehow begun to diminish; its hold of evil on them was loosening slowly but surely.
The spot of quivering air suddenly exploded outward into a circle of blue flame and beyond the circle was nothingness, from which a dreadful magnetic power was opening its arms to reclaim the lost soul back. All of them huddled in terror and edged as far away as possible from the flaming circle, which burned suspended in midair right above the gravestone.
"Go back to where you came from, Hideto Rukawa!" cried Yoshiko commandingly. Then she reached for her pouch of crystals and flung the whole bagful into the open air. Each glittering fragment glimmered with a light of its own, and they did not fall to the ground, but flew higher into the air engulfing the shadow in a silvery shroud. Like a sparkling twister of shadow and crystal, the whirling mass of light and dark was sucked right into the circle. Then the circle, blue fire and all vanished. There was a loud explosion as the gravestone burst into a thousand shards of stone. The evil was forever sealed in slumber.
The night now seemed cheery and lighter. The lashing wind had died down to a faint murmur, which caressed their frozen faces gently. Neither of them spoke a word, they were still recovering from the shock they had all received as a result of confronting their worst fear. But now, even the darkness of the night seemed dazzling, compared to the inkiness of the shadow. They gazed at each other's pale faces and realized, that somehow this was not a dream. The shadow had passed.
Tbc.
Stay tuned for the last chapter! Don't just vanish now the interesting part has been done with. And to those who found this awfully long-winded, sorry!