Chapter Three:  the Search for Dante

"How the hell are we going to find Dante in this place?" It's been three hours and Suiken's already pissed off.  Apparently, Taint makes her very irritable- and this from a water sword!  "Damned castle's big enough to hold Kounoshima and Gairyu with room to spare!"

I know what she means.  Three hours of going from room to room and scrambling from my weapons at the slightest sound will start to fray anyone's nerves.  It doesn't help that whoever happens to be in charge of this damned (literally) castle has put a nasty hex on me.  Chi's working on the curse, but it's taking a while and until it breaks, I'm not going to have any real fun.

I've gotten used to powerful demons and devils putting some pretty rude hexes on me, but this is by far the worst of anything I've ever experienced.  The best way to describe it being falling-down drunk mixed with a bad blood hangover and utter disorientation.  I can barely keep my balance, I want to barf, and my senses are so badly distorted that the columns around me seem to be waving obscenely and even the marionettes seem like a major threat until I'm actually fighting them.    Even if I could communicate with Dante, I'd have a snowball's chance of finding him by aura.

The only thing that keeps me from having a freakout when I sense them is the telltale noise they make when they appear. It's not something I like hearing, mind you, but it's a huge relief to hear what seriously resembles the initial tuning up of a violinist coupled with the clicking or wooden puppet wrists and the metallic shing! of blades being drawn.  When I get my hands on the bastard in charge around here . . .

Violin being tuned up, clicking wooden wrists, and a sound I've known for as long as I can remember.  And Chi has a (possible) solution to the hex. 

"They are immune to Nelo Angelo's curse by virtue of their Taint."  Chi's been around a lot longer than Suiken and knows how to handle almost anything. "If you drink some of their blood, the curse may break.  Although it'll taste absolutely awful and your fangs may hate you for a while." Now I've got another reason to throttle the hell-spawned bastard!

Fortunately, marionettes aren't what you'd call bright.  Their main strength is the numbers they come at you in.  They won't see it coming –especially if  you appear weak and helpless.

Bloody maris have more of the vital curse-breaker I need.  And here comes one right now, stupid as hell and eager to dye its clothes with my vampire's blood.  Hope biting it's not gonna be like the Shinai (kendo stick) Incident. I don't remember much of the match -thanks to my busted fangs and the knot on my head afterwards - but I've seen the video Highwayman shot.  My mouth is wide open as I go in to give Utamaru a bout-ending whack.  He freaks out and I eat kendo stick before I hit the floor, in full K.O.  A cry of horrified dismay from Kaun and something in Gaelic as Highwayman drops the camera.

My knees "buckle" as the stupid puppet dives in for the kill. Bite the shinai and get the blood out of it. . . 

I'm on my feet in an eyeblink and hauling it up with me as I rip into its throat from behind.  Blood.  Lots of it.  And not a drop worth drinking otherwise.

The puppet starts dying as soon as I rake my fangs into it.  Apparently, the bite of a good (? -I'm not sure if my alignment has anything to do with it.) vampire is instantly fatal.  It takes serious strength to hold it still as it jerks and twitches, let alone use it to block the flying daggers that would have gone right through my lungs.

Drop the puppet, senses clearing rapidly, and draw Chi and my right-hand gun. 

"Oh, so I'm second-class!" Suiken's distinctly pissed at me.  "Now I see how you are!"

Can it.  I'm not in the mood to deal with a water sprite with a bad case of PMS right now.  Especially not with the aftertaste of what I just drank reminding me that I'm a discriminating (very picky) blood-drinker for very good reasons.  I would rather drink from a week-old corpse (which would kill me on the spot) than do that again!  Sour, rotting, sulfuric, ass-tasting  . . .!  YUCK!

I slaughter all three dozen marionettes in record time as I run to find the nearest ralphing area or a tall glass of holy water and anything that will wash that out of my mouth. And Suiken's enjoying my reaction to that godawful shit!  Remind me to stick her right above the stove for a week when I get back home, Chi.

Looks like a room to recover in through the next door.  At least I'm not feeling the immediate need to throw up anymore, thanks to a certain angelic sword.   Wonder if she can summon holy water.  I've got about two dozen bottles of heavily sugared blood (the equivalent of Code Red and sold in certain shops as Vampire's Pop) to take the taste out of my mouth and make it leave me alone.  

Sure enough, Chi summons up some very high-quality holy water and I happily take it with the sugary blood.  The taste leaves – something that seems like a blessed event.  

The room has a vintage plane in it that looks like it hasn't flown in a while.  It doesn't look like it'll fly anytime soon, either.  Which is a wicked shame, because I might need it to find Dante in here.   I should have paid more attention to that American bush pilot from about the same era as the plane when he invited me to watch him fix his baby.  Wonder if it's his plane?  Throughout points in Shainto's history, a grandmaster's gotten the bright idea to clean up the castle that time forgot.    And there are more than enough demonslayers – young and old- eager to prove that they're the best.  Which entails cleaning up Mallet Island. 

Stay focused on the task at hand.  Focus in on Dante . . . More specifically, the trail his aura leaves behind.  Everyone, especially the most powerful of demonslayers, leaves an aura trail behind.  In Dante's case, it's a very powerful, distinct, and mesmerizing trail that seems to tease you by begging you to come and get its source.  To tell the truth, it's part of why I'm hot for him- just a small part, but a part nonetheless.

There it is!  That brilliant dragonfly trail has the fade that marks it as being a few hours old.  To the alcove where broken and slashed suits of armor lie nearby.  Then, heavy on the rune marker that bellows Taint so loudly it should be affecting the air in this room, but it doesn't.

If someone as logical as Kaun tried to analyze the quirks of this castle- even the ones I've seen so far-  they'd go nuts.  After sitting neglected (by humans) for a few hundred years, anything organic should be a rotted mess and there shouldn't be much of a castle to run through.   When Hell decide to claim the castle, time, physics and whatever else happened to be here at that point had decided to leave.

One option- obviously.  Whack the living shit out of the runic dial and go down into the pit full of something-probably marionettes- that I won't really break a sweat on.  Suiken, if you can take these boys, consider yourself back in my good graces.

More marionettes and bloody maris in the lower level.  Not a challenge in their usual numbers, but there looks to be at least a hundred of them coming through their trademark red portals.  Chi, Suiken, we're gonna get a workout!

I jump off the platform as soon as it lowers enough for me to perform a marionette-thrashing diving strike.  Better to start it off with a bang than do it like a normal and suffer the same fate when they close in all around you.   I'm not scared, but there's always the voice in the back of my mind that tells me what could happen if one of them gets a hit on me. Especially in these numbers.

Slashing, ripping, diving, narrowly avoiding flying blades and shotgun pellets, I kill twenty of the things before they start to group up around me. 

"Behind!"  Chi's voice sounds inside my head as a marionette goes in for my unprotected back.   Ringing crash and a

Let's try a little something new, girls.  I've certainly got enough blood-dripping red orbs to do it. Suiken, you and me are both water and Chi's ice.  Why don't we freeze these bastards, then make some ice sculptures?

Chi and Suiken give etheric nods, grinning wickedly. 

Carve, slash, rip! Three of the demonic puppets fall dead. Chi and Suiken are revving up to use the plan we've come up with.   

Whoa! Time to blow off some heads if I want to keep breathing!  These boys are getting too close!  The blades go back into their sheaths as the Berettas leave their holsters. 

Bullets chew their way through bleeding wooden skulls.  You ready?  I ask.

"Not yet."  Suiken is still working on the charge she needs. "I wanna typhoon these bastards!"

"Save that for when we really need it."  Four millennia older, Chi knows when to hold back and when to go all out.  "I'm ready when you are, Sakura." 

Leave it to Chimaburesakura to be able to calm down the hotheaded Suiken. (Gotta wonder if that girl's got a firestorm sprite somewhere in the family tree!) 

Blam!  The bloody mari I assumed to be their leader has its head explode in a cloud of red mist and flying splinters form a well-placed shot.  Oh, shit!  That did it!  They're pissed!

Now would be a good time!  My back touches the wall.   I think I'm gonna die here . . .

Next thing I know, I've replaced my guns and my blades have taken their places.  Every last one of the fifty or so marionettes is a puppet-shaped block of solid ice.  The floor and the walls of the pit-trap sport an icy coat to eye level, and the girls are whooping and cheering. 

"Let's do some ice carving!" Suiken's all about the ass-whooping and wants to have some fun.

Chi's in agreement- but for different reasons.  "The quicker we finish this, the quicker we can find Dante."

We tear through the demonic popsicles with ease, grabbing red orbs on the way as we dart towards the platform that takes us back up. 

Dante's close – but something's wrong.  Seriously wrong. 

I smell his blood- and a lot of it.  Don't let me find a silvery-haired corpse at the other end of this corridor. . .

"Dante!"  I call, praying that he's still alive somewhere and he can hear me.   If I can find him, it may be all right. . .

I nearly slip in the pool of blood near the carving of the Judge of Death.  Dante's . . .

"Be calm." Chi senses me on the verge of freaking out.  "Focus on the aura trail again."

It looks like the Judge should be holding something- or held something.

Then the aura-memories plow into me – series of images and fragments of sound.

The sculpture is different – a woman in agony with a sword piercing her chest – a devil sword with a dragon hilt.

It speaks in a voice similar to Kaun's, but infinitely icier and more malevolent. "I am Alastor.  The weak will give their hearts to me."

The blade flies out at Dante's chest spearing him directly through the heart.

No . . .

A missing spot –it's only a few seconds, but it seems like an eternity. Somehow, Dante survives and claims the electrical sword for his own.

I snap back to reality, where I've rudely dropped both my swords and Chi's speaking to me again. "Follow the aura trail." 

Right! Back down the corridor- to the yellow door standing roughly at the halfway point.   Dante went through it. 

"Let's go." I pick up my weapons and dart off up the corridor.

Okay, guys- your choice.  Do I keep you in suspense with another Shainto chapter and wait for input on how awkwardly Sakura and Dante should meet or do Sakura Chapter Three:  An Awkward Meeting?  It's all up to you!