Chapter 5: Hunters in the Shadows
I stroll silently down the dark forest path. Above me, a twinkling explosion of stars shines down from a silken sky. All around me are the standard twitterings, trills, and cries of the woodlands. The only other sounds are that of the wind and my own beaten down shoes impacting the soft dirt. The breeze, sweeter than the most expensive perfume, blows cool on my sweat-soaked skin, and on it I sense nothing dangerous nearby. I walk on, not sure exactly where I am or where I'm heading, but content in the fact that right now my life is my own: no one is making decisions for it except me.
That's true. I realize suddenly that I won't be going to school tomorrow, or waking up to a blaring alarm clock, or sitting in lunch listening to the same inane conversation about fags, ass-ramming, and masturbation, which seem to be standard fare in high school cafeterias. I won't hear from my Dad, or my step mom, or my Mom, or any of my teachers. I'm alone.
Now I don't have a home, and thus nowhere to sleep, which means I'll have to find a place somewhere. Well, so far I've slept in the mud, in a tree, on the ground and in a bush, so accommodations shouldn't be that much of a problem.
Yikes! The real problem is me! The wind blows again, and I scent the deadliest poison known to all organic creatures: me after three days without a shower. Makes sense; I've been plowed into the ground, nearly crushed by a toppling vulture, and following Kikyo across half of Japan. That makes for quite a disgusting combination. I'm covered in three different types of mud, bits of vegetation, and, oh yes, let's not forget Dragon guts. I need a shower.
Unfortunately, running water won't be invented for another couple of centuries, leaving me to figure out something else. I don't have to look far when the stream catches my eye. I may as well, since Kagome had to do it a few times herself when she first arrived. I'll have to meet up with her sometime. Anyways, the stream looks like my best option.
I begin to strip my clothes off, one by one. First my black Disturbed t-shirt which isn't quite black anymore due to the volume of mud clinging to every stitch, then my jeans, which are ripped in the seat and the knees and are barely covering my…well, you know. I fold up the tattered remnants of a once-beautiful outfit and lay them high on the bank. Then I remove my shorts and socks, and begin wading into the shallow waters. The moon reflects on the gently lapping current and it seems as if I'm walking into moonlight itself.
Jesus Christ! Damn that water's cold! My skin breaks out in goose bumps and goes numb a few seconds later. First ankles, then knees, hips, stomach, and chest. I stand there like a friggin ice statue, then plunge myself under the surface. I rush back up, flinging my long mane out of my eyes.
This hair is going to become a problem. I mean, it's long, black, and kinda silky, but it's really getting in the way! I grip it with both hands to wring out the water, which is browner than the mop bucket water at my old job, and let it fall back to my neck where it rests heavily on my skin. Oh boy, I need to cut this crap off. I wish I had a sword or something sharp.
Once my hair is somewhat better, I begin to work on the rest of my body, rubbing off all the grease and grime that has accumulated over the past couple of days. It takes a few minutes, more like half an hour, but soon I'm somewhat able to walk in public again, though far from presentable. My clothes are still dirty and torn, and there's nothing else I can wear. I walk out, grab my clothes, then soak them in the river as the mess all over them washes off, then wring them out and lay them over a branch to drip-dry. I sprawl out on the bank and look up at an alien moon.
Not all that alien really. I can recognize the patterns of ancient lava flows, or the Man-in-the-Moon as most refer to them. The night is incredibly clear, or maybe it just seems that way since the entire country is devoid of glaring, halogen streetlamps. In fact, they too haven't been invented yet. I continue to watch the sky, wondering if there are any constellations out tonight. Actually, there is a very strong chance that they don't even exist here. I haven't really seen anything yet that resembles what I'm used to seeing, and a lack of celestial familiarity wouldn't surprise me one bit.
I keep staring upward, until I see the Big Dipper. Hope swelling, I look to where Orion's Belt should be, but don't find it. I stare again at the spot where Sagittarius should be. Nothing. Oh well, at least something is familiar around here. Following the Dipper, I see Polaris, shining high in the sky. So that's North. Now I have the basics of navigation down, and can travel with some idea of where I'm going, but I still don't know where anything is.
The breeze continues to drift over my bare skin and I'm dry in no time, except for the dew on my back. My clothes are still wet, but I pull them on anyway and soon weigh ten pounds more than usual. Once I'm dressed, I set my feet back on the trail and continue onward. The night is silent now, for some reason, and all I hear is the sigh of the wind, my padding feet, and my slowly beating heart.
Then a whistling noise breaks the night; close and coming closer…really fast! Before I know what I'm doing, I'm up above the treetops as something speeds through the spot I was just standing in. I hear trees snap and fall to the ground, vegetation ripping, and the sound of animals scurrying for cover. I continue up into the starlight, turn around, and it's almost on top of me.
It's a boomerang. A very large boomerang, and its locked into a collision course with me. Since I'm completely up in the air, I can't maneuver or get out of its way. It's going to hit me. With the size of it, the rate of spin, and its approach speed, it will probably rip right through me. Of course, maybe my body will be able to handle it? No matter what, I have only one option. I put my hands out and prepare to block.
The thing comes closer until it strikes my outstretched palms, and very nearly breaking every bone in them. My wrists are wrenched back from the impact, and my arms draw in to absorb the shock. Then I'm thrown aside, and I coast back to the ground after crashing through the canopy and a few tree limbs. Coincidentally, the biggest I could have hit.
Now that that's over, my clothes are all dirty again and my body throbs with pain like a light on top of a radio tower. Nothing's broken though. Now what the hell was that all about?
Footsteps! Right behind me! I turn and jump back, just as a sword nearly decapitates me. Not fast enough, as the sword cuts through my t-shirt and leaves a shallow gash in my skin. The sword darts forward again, trying to run me through, but I stumble sideways at the last second and escape another painful scratch. I jump back one more time as the attacker tries another decapitating blow.
I jump again into the treetops and land on a branch to catch my breath. Who the hell is this? And why couldn't I smell him coming? I can barely smell him now! My nostrils dilate as I scent the air again, only to find that he's a she! I'm getting my ass kicked by a girl! And a human one no less.
Whoever this is, she's pissed and wants me dead. I won't even ask why, since the answer's pretty obvious: I'm a youkai, she's a human. Human kill youkai, capice? Makes sense to me anyway. Wait! Boomerang, sword, extraordinary fighting ability, female…No, it can't be. I call into the night:
"Hey Sango, cut it out, wouldja!"
"How do you know my name?" She stops her charge on my position, and now I see her clearly: long black hair tied back with bangs hanging on either side, sword in hands, pink and black tight-fitting suit with an ornate flower design on the chest, eye shadow…Yup, it's her all right.
"I know a lot about you!" I call back. "Put your weapon down! I just want to talk!"
"Of course… youkai!" She spits back, and then slices through the base of my tree with one swing. The branch I'm on, twenty feet in the air, dips toward the ground and the whole thing topples over, throwing me to the ground again. I try to get up, only to receive a boot to the head and a sword to the throat. Now I'm sprawled out, with the blade on my neck and a taiyja on top of me. Hey, hey, this ain't so bad, he he…Snap out of it! This girl's trying to kill me and I'm thinking about laying her! Something tells me that the feeling is not mutual.
"You wish to speak, then speak before I remove your ability to do so."
"Ummm…okay. I, like, have a problem, and I was wondering if you could help me out?" Her eyes flash dangerously in response, and the sword pushes further into my skin.
"Okay, okay! I know how this looks, me being youkai and all, but I'm not what I seem. I'm not from around here, and I don't want to cause trouble. I just want to get home. I'm not even really a youkai! I was human up until a few days ago, when I ended up here! I don't know where I am or where I'm going, but I just want some answers. Like why I changed, for starters."
"Are you telling me the truth?"
"Of course! Why would I lie, except to save my scrawny neck from being made into chop suey, or mummified, or ground into hamburger, or sliced up…"
"Silence, youkai!"
"Whoa! No problem! If you let me up, I promise I won't do anything. I'll stand in one spot and won't make a sound! Pleaaaasssse?" Oh my God, I'm begging like a two year old. I guess that's what happens when you beg for your life. It must work, because the Taiyja eases her body off of me, but does not remove the sword.
"On your feet, youkai. We're going to see my father." She then deftly grabs my arm, wrenches it around until my back is turned, and finally sticks the sword back in my neck. Oh great, a chicken wing! A female scream rips the night. Oh, wait, that's me. "Now walk."
"Yeah, no problem! Do you mind loosening up a little? I said I wasn't…" I receive as reward a much tighter hold. I scream again.
"I said, walk!" She hisses.
"Okay! Geez, I hope you don't treat Kohaku like this." I wish I'd just keep my big mouth shut. I am thrown roughly to the ground again and this time the blade nicks my neck and draws blood.
"How do you know of Kohaku?! How do you know of me?! Answer youkai!" Okay…does this mean she's pissed or something?
"C'mon…I'm not the only one who knows of you. There are millions of people who have heard of you where I come from. In fact, you're pretty well loved. I'd love to explain, but this isn't really the time or the place! Can we please just get to your father? If he knows stuff about youkai, then he can probably help me."
"I highly doubt that my father would help a youkai, especially one stalking around our village."
"Wait, is the Taiyja village nearby? Gee, I didn't know it was that close. I guess my sniffer's not that good yet."
"Yet? Haven't you had several decades to figure out the workings of your own body? You have to be almost a century old."
"Century. Man, have you got it wrong. I'm only 18, probably not much older than you."
"Impossible. You would be little more than a pup. You are clearly almost an adult."
"You're still not listening! I was human up until a few days ago, when a storm brought me from my world to this world. Puh-leeze don't ask me to explain that! Next thing I know…
"Wait! Storm, three days ago? It occurred several miles away, but we could feel it as if it were happening right above us! It is a miracle that you survived."
"Well, I almost didn't. In fact, it was a miko that saved me. Getting back to what I was saying before, after I woke up, I was a youkai, when minutes before I was human."
"Pure human, to pure youkai…?" She said this softly, more to herself than to me. She seemed to be deep in thought. Everyone seems to have that reaction. Suddenly her pace quickens. "Hurry, we must meet my father at once!"
………
After 20 minutes, the Bataan Death March* is over. We reach the gates of the village, and with a nod from Sango to the guards, and walk quickly through. We continue down the main path through the center to a large house on the other side. As expected, everyone on either side is staring at me like a carnival freak show. They look like normal villagers, but everyone, even the women, are carrying weapons. Some are swords, some daggers, some curved blades. The funny thing is that they're emitting some kind of energy that makes me feel really strange. I see that each is glowing with a kind of bloody light, and I realize that I know where each came from. I know that one taiyja's sword came from the leg bone of a lizard youkai, and that a woman's dagger came from the rib of an inu youkai. All these images swarm in my brain, making me dizzy. I start to slump over.
"What are you doing!" Sango hisses to me, then yells "On your feet!" She half carries, half drags me the rest of the distance to her home. Once inside the simple wood hut, she drops me to the floor with a heavy thud. "What's wrong?" She asks, as I lay on the ground with my head in my hands.
"Something…weird…head hurts…weapons…"
"Weapons?"
"Villager's…weapons…bloody light…"
"Oh…I see, the youki from the Taiyja weapons bothers you?" The vertigo subsides enough for me to manage a coherent response.
"I thought you cleansed the weapons of youki when you forged them?"
"Not for the villagers, since the weapons never go very far outside the village. Only soldiers have purified weapons, like mine." It's true, I sense nothing coming from Sango at all. That's good, now I can get up.
"Everyone is a Taiyja?"
"Not exactly. What you refer to as Taiyja are really the soldiers. However, everyone here is capable of killing youkai. We are trained for such a purpose from the time we are young."
"Wow. I've got to hand it to you, you guys are tough." But deep in my heart, a sadness is brewing. In a matter of days, this entire place will be devastated by a youkai assault, and Sango will begin the darkest period of her life. Everything she knows will be lost in a night. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do this time, but I can warn them of the trap awaiting them, and of the coming attack.
"Sango! What is the meaning of this…youkai!" Standing in the doorway is Sango's father, the leader of the village. He steps from his room, though I don't think he was sleeping.
"Father, this youkai wishes to speak with you."
"Hi…" I wave one clawed hand weakly.
"Why did you bring it back to the village?"
"I was going to kill it, but it made no move to attack. In fact, it is really quite weak and harmless." Weak and harmless?! Why I oughta…
"Still, it might be traveling with a pack, and now the pack will come here!"
"Father, he was alone, I'm sure of it."
"Well then, I trust your intuition. Where did you find it?"
"On a footpath a couple miles west of the village." Finally, the father turns to address me. Actually, he grabs me by the throat and yanks me up to eye level. I'm glad my dad wasn't like this!
"What were you doing near our village!? Answer, youkai!" I respond, gagging.
"I…really didn't…know it was your village, honest!"
"You are lying…"
"No…not lying…can't breathe…" I begin to black out when I am dropped to the floor with a thud. Owie.
"You are right, daughter, he is extremely weak."
"Yes, and he seems to have no mastery of his bodily functions at all. I was barely masking my scent and he still couldn't detect me."
"Hey! Do you mind!?" I call from the floor. Daddy responds by stamping my face into the floor before continuing. "uther…ucker" I gasp weakly through his boot.
"Why did you not merely kill it? It's too weak to live." Bastard.
"It had some…interesting things to say, and I thought I should seek your counsel."
"Like what?"
"He knows all about the Taiyja, as well as my name and Kohaku's."
"How does he know of us?"
"He said that millions of people know of us where he comes from." He has removed his boot from my face, and I am able to look up at him. His slightly bored expression has changed to one of intense curiosity.
"Daughter, there are not millions of people in all of Japan. That many could not possibly know our secrets."
"He said something else, too. He says he was human up until three days ago, when he arrived in the storm." His gaze intensifies.
"He came in that storm? That was unusually powerful. Where does he come from?"
"He hasn't said yet."
"He doesn't have to. I already know."
"Father…?"
"Youkai, speak your name, and nothing else."
"My name is Eric."
"Just as I thought. Outlandish, just like your clothes." His calculating gaze falters, and he slips into wonder. "It just can't be true…"
"Father? What is it?" The room is suddenly very quiet.
"Be still, both of you. I will recount the most ancient legend of the Taiyja: The Origins of Youkai. Eric, listen well."
*Bataan Death March- an event from World War II where thousands of American prisoners of war were forced to march for a long period of time without food or water. Many died. Eric makes reference to this to reflect the grueling pace that Sango sets for him back to the village.