Chapter Twenty-Two
Breaking Point
>>>Evening - May 8, 1583
"Hey." a voice called out from the trees.
Jiro stopped in his tracks and turned to face the one who had addressed him. It was hard to see details in the fading light, but he felt that he knew this voice by heart.
"Jeffy?" the Yaen Master questioned.
"Exactly right." Anakouji Jeffery commented as he hobbled forward on his trademark crutches. "Thought I might not catch you before you hit the summit."
Jiro raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Did Noriko tell you what I'm about to do?"
Jeffy simply nodded.
Jiro smiled and placed a fond grip on the handle of his katana. "Never thought it would come to this, really. All I wanted was to find out what our old master was up to. Didn't occur to me that I might have to force it out of him."
"He hasn't told even his followers of his plans?" Jeffy questioned.
Jiro shook his head with a hint of exasperation. "He redefines the term 'brick wall'. Always keeps himself busy talking about the 'salvation of Japan' and the 'coming glory of the Ryuketsu', but I have no idea what he's talking about." The sword master looked wistfully toward the sky. "We both know Raijin, though; the man doesn't act without a plan."
Jeffy nodded once in agreement. "That is most true. Raijin would not follow a path unless it not only made perfect sense to do so, but was also completely necessary."
"He never seemed the religious type to me," Jiro continued. "So I ruled that out early on. Still, this Ryuketsu stuff scares me. Having seen what it does to people, I could never believe that it has anything to do with the word 'salvation'." He sighed heavily. "To be honest, I wish you could come up there with me. Together, I'm sure we could handle whatever he dishes out."
Jeffy smiled weakly. "I too wish that I could join you. However, your pal Hideaki did a fine job of preventing me from participating in this conflict. If I were to come, I would be no more than a hindrance. I'm afraid that you will simply have to fight twice as well in my stead."
Jiro laughed. "Oh boy, like I didn't expect to hear that. You were always the slacker, Jeffy."
Jeffy hoisted himself forward on his crutches, a look of worry crossing his old face. "I couldn't have picked a worse time to get injured either. I don't know what is causing me to feel this way, but it seems as if this conflict is more than one of simple interest. There are things moving in the shadows, Jiro, things that you or I may not yet be able to imagine." He placed a hand on his one-time partner's shoulder. "Be careful up there."
Jiro grinned. "Come on, you know me."
Jeffy returned the friendly expression. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of."
>>>
Noriko and Kumo were an even match, parrying each others' thrusts and dodging slashes like clockwork. It seemed as if their battle had come to everything but a standstill. Nevertheless, Noriko pressed onward, fueled by the fact that she had finally found the one responsible, the man who killed her father. Even so, there were still questions in her mind.
"Why'd you do it?" she gasped between strokes and clashes of blades. "Why kill my father? What would the Iga want with him?"
Kumo's haunting eyes gleamed at Noriko from beneath his dark mask. "The Iga? Who said that the clan had anything to do with your father's death?"
"Why then!" Noriko yelled, for the first time breaking Kumo's block and rushing in. "Why did you kill my father!"
The blade of the Amatsuotome leapt forward, barely an inch away from Kumo's face when the spear almost literally materialized in front of it. Noriko's eyes widened as the spear miraculously deflected her strike. She knew that movement to be impossible; it had been done far too quickly for any human to accomplish.
This time, when Kumo looked at her, his eyes literally glowed yellow. "There is more going on here than you realize, young swordswoman. The Iga are simply along for the ride."
"What the hell?" Noriko breathed at the haunting yellow gaze and dark voice emanating from the ninja. "Just what the hell are you anyway!"
Fuji, in the meantime, was having serious problems of his own. Megumi nearly threw herself at him with each attack, constantly throwing the apprentice's guard off balance. Her orange tantos moved like showers of flaming arrows, nearly impossible to defend against. Somehow, Fuji was still holding on, doing his best to follow the movements of the trained ninja in this hectic dance of death.
"So, it seems that Jeffy did indeed teach you something," Megumi conceded. "You at least know how to run!"
The kunoichi dashed forward again, cleanly missing this time as Fuji rolled backward and unleashed the light from the Fan of Uzume. To the apprentice's dismay, Megumi blinked just in time.
The kunoichi laughed ridiculously. "Don't you think I have the timing of that thing down pat by now? You only use it in every confrontation."
"You're too different," Fuji breathed. "You're too different from the Megumi I know. What happened?"
"How naive," Megumi scoffed. "Do you really think the blundering fool I acted like around you people could have possibly succeeded as an Iga ninja? The only thing to blame here is your own ignorance!"
"Still doesn't make sense," Fuji replied, taking a different defensive stance. "You could have killed any one of us at any time. Why wait until now?"
Megumi raised her tantos dangerously. "I didn't realize you were in such a hurry to die. In that case!"
The kunoichi again rushed forward. Fuji locked his joints to withstand the onslaught, but it did not arrive. Megumi yelped in surprise as the raccoon dog dove out of nowhere and latched its teeth onto her left hand. The tanto hit the ground with a clank as Megumi cursed wildly, giving every effort into removing the offending animal. Confused, but not willing to miss this chance, Fuji made a headlong dash toward the kunoichi, using the blades of his fan to knock the other tanto clean away from her grasp. Megumi, however, was dangerous even without weapons. She forcibly flung Tanuki aside and rose up like a tidal wave less than an inch from Fuji's face. A sharp-palmed uppercut knocked Fuji's teeth against his skull, followed seconds later by a roundhouse kick to the abdomen that sent the apprentice sprawling on all fours.
The kunoichi recovered her blades spitting viciously at the raccoon dog. "Filthy animal! I should never have used you to get close to them!"
Megumi dove to finish Tanuki off, tantos raised high. Fuji, however, displayed a moment of combative clarity, allowing him to intercept and block the strike with surprising deftness. The apprentice stood between the kunoichi and the raccoon dog, breathing heavily, half from exhaustion and half from surprise.
"What are you talking about?" Fuji questioned. "Why would anyone 'use' a raccoon dog? That doesn't even make sense!"
It was then that Fuji first began to notice the powerful aura flowing between Megumi and the raccoon dog. Something was seriously off about this, but what? What possible connection could these two have anyway?
>>>
A chain of the Ikazuchi's size and constitution would be a difficult obstacle to any katana-user. However, when coupled with Hideaki's extreme strength and the ability to change direction without regard for the everyday rule of inertia, it was proving to be an impossible opponent. Yuki's convulsions had calmed by now, but every time that Takashi tried to get near her, the Hideaki and the Ikazuchi were all over him, constantly whipping left and right.
"Let me go to her!" the ronin yelled, furiously blocking as sparks flew from his blade. "Can't you see what's happening to Yuki! She's your sister!"
Hideaki withdrew the massive chain in a flash, whirling it about his head with such force that it actually pulled the air toward him with an overwhelming rush of noise caused by wind resistance. "Why would I let you anywhere near her, ronin? You're the one who caused this, after all!"
Takashi responded by rushing straight toward his opponent. The Ikazuchi leapt forward in an effort to halt his advance, but the ronin feinted right and launched himself into the air, right over Hideaki's head. The chain snapped back around, regardless of its original direction and whipped about as if it weighed nothing at all. It took everything Takashi had just to defend himself from the metallic beast, his katana moving back and forth with such alacrity that even Hideaki's demon senses had trouble keeping up. However, it was clear that the raiju had more endurance in this regard. As the ronin landed and continued a backward motion to get away from the Ikazuchi, the chain continued its rapid flurry of attacks. Takashi was getting slower, but it took absolutely no effort on Hideaki's part to keep up the assault.
Suddenly, the chain whipped downwards, sweeping Takashi off his feet. The ronin attempted to recover by widening his limbs, but the Ikazuchi reacted immediately, wrapping itself around The Greatness and pulling with great ferocity. Takashi resisted the force of the chain for a moment before drawing his wakizashi and striking the suspended Ikazuchi in a futile effort to break its hold.
"What do you mean, 'I caused this'!" the ronin shot back at his opponent as he attempted to wedge the short sword into the chain to loosen its hold.
Hideaki raised a skeptical eyebrow, pulling ever harder on the straining katana blade. "What do I mean? Are you saying that you don't remember what you did to Yuki?"
"Of course I remember!" Takashi claimed. "I nearly killed her!"
"Wrong!" Hideaki responded with undisguised glee. "You did kill her!"
"What?" Takashi exclaimed, his surprise nearly costing him the deadly tug-of-war.
"You heard me!" Hideaki shouted back. "Did you think that someone could honestly survive a blow like that? If it weren't for the healing arts that I learned from our parents, she would not even be here!" The male raiju pulled even tighter upon seeing Yuki begin to recover consciousness, his latest effort bringing Takashi to his knees. "Thing is though, it only works if she remains at the same age as when it happened! If she stays in that adult form, she'll die!"
Hideaki gave one final pull, causing the katana's blade to snap and then shatter into several fragments. Takashi, still holding onto the Ikazuchi as it was pulled, was thrown into the air, once again clear over Hideaki and landing right next to Yuki's struggling form.
Fighting against the pains of his bruised body, he tried to comprehend what had just been said. "That can't be right . . . Why would you change your form if you knew what would happen, Yuki!"
"Easy!" Hideaki laughed, again whirling the chain in a high arc. "You obviously forced her to do it! You've always done things like that, haven't you!"
"Don't . . ." Yuki gasped weakly. "Don't assume . . . such things. I changed . . . because of my own choice."
"Why?" Takashi questioned, distress present in his tone. "Why would you do that if you knew!"
Yuki smiled. "I wouldn't have survived much longer anyway, Taka-kun. And besides, it's not like I can change back."
The Ikazuchi shot forth and locked around Takashi's wrists, dragging the ronin backwards and causing him to lose his grip on the wakizashi.
Hideaki hoisted the ronin up and stared straight into his eyes. "First you take away my town, then my life, and now my sister? You have a lot to make amends for, Taka-kun!" He smiled with evil delight. "I heard that you even killed your master, Nobunaga with that cursed sword of yours. You really are worthless, aren't you?"
The Ikazuchi whipped upward, casting the ronin sky-high, wrapping again around his legs, and launching him straight through a crumbling building. Takashi's body burst through the wooden walls back onto the main path, ash choking his breath and pain lacing through every fiber of his being.
"Taka-kun!" Yuki cried out, struggling to regain her feet.
Honestly, the ronin didn't even feel like moving anymore. What was it worth, anyway? Everything he and Yuki had talked about seemed so far away now, as if it resided somewhere other than reality. In truth, it seemed that he was indeed as much of a monster as he had supposed. Nothing Hideaki said was untrue, not even the part about how worthless Takashi was.
"No point anymore . . ." Takashi gasped. "Just end it; I don't deserve anything else . . ."
"Oh, you're right, Taka-kun," Hideaki grinned, readying the Ikazuchi for a final strike. "You're so unbelievably right!"
The chain had just started to descend when two words rent the evening air.
"Kamikaze Awake!"
A powerful blast of wind forced the Ikazuchi and Hideaki several feet backwards; it was everything the male raiju could do just to stay on his feet against such a blast.
"What is the meaning of this!" Hideaki exclaimed. "Why side with this ronin, Yuki! He has only brought ruin to everyone around him! It is I who saved you, and it is I who must continue to save you from his menace!"
"No!" Yuki almost screamed. Silence reigned for a few moments as Yuki lowered the Kamikaze-ken. "You're wrong, brother." she stated in a much calmer voice. "Did Raijin convince you of all that? Is that how he warped your mind to what it is now?"
"What do you mean?" Hideaki returned. "My memory is as clear as day; Takashi is the one responsible for our sorrow!"
"All right," Yuki responded. "If you're so certain, then you won't mind this."
The raiju's eyes began to glow with an extremely faint blue light. At first, it was disturbing to look at, but Takashi soon felt a great sense of comfort wash over him, as if he were passing out of reality.
"Do not use this power, Yuki!" Hideaki shouted. "I have forbidden you to do this!"
"Sorry, brother." the female raiju replied. "Both of you need to see this: the truth of eight years ago!"
>>>
"It's incredible," Kumo stated as he effortlessly deflected another of Noriko's attacks.
"What?" the swordswoman inquired, reversing her direction only to arrive at a grapple with her sword pinned to the ground by the ninja's spear.
"You, I mean." Kumo replied, a sly smile creeping its way across his darkened features underneath the cold black mask. "You're so different from your comrades, if you still even call them that."
"Of course I do!" Noriko shot back. "Why would they be anything else!"
Kumo leaned forward, his weight putting both their weapons under serious strain. "I'm no stranger to the way you've acted toward them; Megumi never left any details out of her stories. Why don't you stop pretending to care about these fools? It's only too obvious that you're using them just to get to me; Takashi is useful for finding me since I've been ordered to kill him, that boy over there is useful for his Shinto prowess . . ." The yellow eyes flared once again at the swordswoman. "Need I go on?"
Noriko heaved mightily on the Amatsuotome, breaking the standoff and propelling herself backward with a shower of sparks. Kumo immediately reacted by bringing his spear blade up in a rising arc, but the effort was quickly deflected by Noriko's katana as it whistled through the air with a dangerous hum.
"It's not like that!" she protested. "They're not just tools!"
"Then what is it like?" Kumo replied, resting in a defensive pose with the spear tip nearing the ground. "What are they to you? Are they more important than your revenge, or simply a passing part of your life that you'll forget one day when you hang up your sword?" The ninja twirled his spear in a rapid spin and planted the tip in the ground. "I'll tell you what; don't even answer that. I'll stop right here if you want to help your pal Fuji over there."
"Stop?" Noriko questioned cautiously. "What are you talking about? You can't seriously expect me to turn my back on a ninja."
"Truthfully," Kumo answered with unusual brevity. "I don't expect anything. I'm simply giving you a chance to prove me wrong. If the young apprentice over there really means something to you, then you ought to help him out; Megumi will surely finish him if you don't."
Noriko smiled ruefully. "And what about you? What will you be doing?"
The ninja shrugged. "Well, I certainly don't feel like hanging around here; not too friendly an atmosphere if you take my meaning." Noting that Noriko was beginning to take him seriously by the rapid movement of her eyes between his position and Fuji's struggle. He leaned forward, arms crossed akimbo. "So, what will it be?"
Fuji, at the moment, was beginning to slip. Megumi was simply too fast for him, and that aura he had picked up on was constantly distracting him. Even as the kunoichi's tantos made grazing cuts on clothing and skin alike, the apprentice couldn't stop his mind from racing through different possibilities.
"Some form on ninjitsu . . ." he muttered. "But which one? What could be of any use . . ."
"Your mind needs to be on more important matters!" Megumi shouted, bringing the orange blades together in a well-placed attempt to break Fuji's defenses.
The apprentice dove to the left, forcing the kunoichi to alter the direction of her attack and making it substantially weaker in the process. As he brought up his fan blades to block the kunoichi's motions, a single word rose up from the depths of memory.
"Dominus . . ." Fuji uttered.
Megumi's eyes went wide as she brought both tantos to bear once again. "Shut up!"
Fuji backpedaled, casting the kunoichi's wild strikes aside like clockwork as he delved deeper into studies long since past. "Dominus Ninjitsu, I read about this. It's a manipulation art of some sort, though I don't recall any record of a successful execution . . ."
"Get off it!" the kunoichi yelled. "Your death is at hand!"
In her rage, Megumi became sloppy. Fuji read her next move like a book, easily catching both the kunoichi's weapons in the folds of his fan and holding them to the ground.
Looking directly into the assassin's angry eyes, the apprentice continued. "Why are you so desperate? What's so important to . . . hide . . ." Fuji couldn't keep his eyes from wandering to the raccoon dog perched nearby. Suddenly, it hit him. "Spirit exchange? Isn't that what the Dominus Ninjitsu is good for?" The apprentice's expression contorted as the fullness of this information became clear as day. "You switched spirits with a tanuki! It's not possible! Human spirits can't possibly dwell inside the body of an animal!"
Megumi made a dexterous recovery, wheeling the tantos out of the Fan of Uzume in a movement so fast that Fuji failed to respond in time. Both tantos rushed toward the defenseless boy, threatening to end his life in a mere second.
"To hell with you!" the kunoichi screamed.
The next sound was a sharp clang as the auburn tantos met the grooved steel of the Amatsuotome. Noriko easily cast aside the smaller blades, forcing Megumi backwards several feet.
Keeping the katana leveled at the kunoichi, Noriko called out, "Let's hear the rest of this. What did you pull with that raccoon dog?"
"Kumo!" Megumi ranted. "What are you doing! Help me out here!"
The addressed ninja simply waved his hand with exasperation. "What's the big deal? You might as well tell them."
Only Megumi could have noticed the distinct hand signal made by her partner. The kunoichi smiled strangely at Fuji and Noriko as she spoke.
"That curious, eh?" Megumi pointed directly at the apprentice. "Actually, you already figured it out, Fuji. Why would I act the way I did around you people? Why didn't I murder each and every one of you fools in your sleep?" The kunoichi threw her hair back arrogantly. "There are two answers. First of all, I wasn't me. The Megumi that you knew was too clumsy, too foolish. In fact, she was inhumanly clumsy and foolish, wasn't she?"
"That explains it . . ." Noriko responded. "No one could have created another personality so flawlessly." The swordswoman looked oddly at Tanuki. "Is this the Megumi that we knew?"
"Precisely," Megumi leered. "How such a worthless animal managed to fool you people into thinking she was an Iga ninja is beyond me, but nevertheless, it allowed me to memorize every one of your attack patterns from the sidelines. Just like earlier, Fuji, when I proved how useless your fan is against me."
"That was your plan, eh?" Noriko stated with near-admiration. "Instead of trying to separate Takashi from the group, you planned to kill the whole lot of us."
The kunoichi shook her head. "That animal didn't make things easy, though. Every time I would try to get back into my own body, she would resist me. Eventually, I just had to take it back for good." She smiled devilishly. "I don't know what that pitiful creature hoped to achieve, really."
Fuji was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate. Something about what was being said called images to his mind, images that became more and more familiar as the haze of reality began to fall away. There was that little girl again, laughing and smiling, her sharp orange eyes and stark crimson hair standing out in the apprentice's mind as she ran toward him. Fuji knelt down and opened his arms to receive her, but she faded out of existence just out of his reach.
"Two answers . . ." Fuji mumbled. "You said that there were two answers. What is the other?"
"Oh, that?" Megumi nearly laughed. "Well, if I had killed you back then, I wouldn't get to enjoy it from the perspective that I have now. Meet your fate, knowing that the Iga have bested you! Do it now, Kumo!"
Kumo's spear swung upwards from behind Noriko, severing the swordswoman's head from her neck with one clean sweep. At least, this would have happened had Megumi not made her untimely statement.
Noriko's katana had never moved so fast. It was instantly across her back, narrowly blocking the surgical strike with a sharp clang. Kumo canceled his attack, whirling the spear back around and going straight for the center of Noriko's back. Rather than stand still and allow the ninja's weapon to end the battle, the swordswoman turned on her opponent, sweeping the spear blade aside once again in a graceful movement.
"That's funny," she commented dryly. "I thought you weren't going to hang around."
"I wasn't," Kumo responded with his usual nonchalant attitude. "But things suddenly got more interesting around here." His eyes narrowed as he readied the next attack. "Besides, not many people know it, but I made a promise to her sister. As long as I live, no one will take this girl's life."
"It's certainly nice of you to say so," Megumi responded, prepping her tantos for a final strike against Fuji. "But you know that I don't hold to that. In this world, depending on others is a weakness." She suddenly dashed forward, both orange blades poised for the kill. "Silly feelings for people and animals will be the death of you!"
Megumi was literally inches from the apprentice when there was a near-blinding flash of bluish light. When Kumo glanced over to see what had happened, the kunoichi hung in midair suspended by blue waves of energy, her arms attempting to grasp the o-fude charm that had attached itself to her forehead but failing to break the invisible chains that held her in place.
"What the hell!" Kumo attempted to question before his concentration was broken by an oddly-timed strike from Noriko.
"What are you doing?" Megumi inquired, her voice strained by the force of the o-fude. "What can you hope to accomplish with your silly charms, boy? There's no charm in existence that can kill a human being."
"You're right about that," Fuji smiled ruefully. "But in certain cases, even a simple seal like Truth can be deadly."
The blue light that surrounded Megumi extended its reach to envelop Tanuki as well. A transparent copy of the kunoichi appeared in front of the limp animal, identical to Megumi in every way and surprised even at its own existence.
"Now we'll see," Fuji threatened. "Which one of you deserves to live in this body!"
(End Chapter Twenty-Two)
