Chapter Twenty-Three
For Every Action

>>>Afternoon - ?

It had been nighttime. Takashi was sure of that. He had been fighting with Hideaki under the rising moonlight, but now he was alone, and the sun was just beginning to set. Looking around, the ronin could see that he was standing on a grassy knoll, overlooking a small town nestled in the valleys created by the Suzuka Mountain Range. Takashi knew this place.

"Komo Town . . ." he breathed. "This isn't possible . . ."

As the ronin began to walk toward the village, his heart and mind raced. He knew this day by heart. He knew every cloud and its position in the sky. He knew every wisp of smoke that trailed above the simple buildings. As he entered the town boundaries, Takashi realized that he knew something else in the depths of his mind. He knew every word of what was being said by the children in the town square before they said it.

"Get up, Takashi! Don't let that dirty raiju beat you!"

"Shut up, man! You want that demon to come after you next?"

"Look at him! He hasn't even got a sword!"

"What's the matter, demon lover? Your pet turn against you?"

Takashi rounded the corner slowly, afraid of what he might see, afraid that it might be exactly as he imagined. In the reddened light caused by the setting sun, a group of village children danced around two distinct figures. One, a teenage male raiju wielded the Ikazuchi-ken and taunted the other.

"Come on, Taka-kun!" the young Hideaki leered. "If you want to take my sister away from me, you'll have to do better than that!"

"What are you talking about?" a 12-year-old Takashi shot back, blood seeping from a slash on his arm. "I never said anything like that!"

Hideaki twirled the blue-tinted short sword in his hand effortlessly, stalking the boy in the same manner as one would a cornered animal. "Call for your weapon, Taka-kun. Yuki won't come with me because of you! You want her all for yourself, don't you?"

The raiju swung his blade at the young Takashi, barely missing and scaring the boy into yelling out the fateful words. "Shinryo-ken!"

Nothing happened. Hideaki laughed in the boy's face. "Look at that! Even your own sword doesn't respect you, not even enough to come when it's called! You're pathetic!"

The raiju delivered a sharp kick to the boyhood Takashi, causing a whoop to arise from the spectators. Even some of the adults had gathered to the scene, not daring to interfere due to the demon's presence.

Hideaki swept his white hair back and raised his chin arrogantly at the crying Takashi. "You think you can protect my sister like that? You're worthless, Taka-kun. You're not even worth your own life."

"Stop it . . ." the young Takashi sobbed. "Stop it, Hide . . ."

"Go ahead!" the raiju taunted, kicking the boy again and again. "Call for help! Call for your sword! See if it'll help you now! I'll even call it for you!" Hideaki adopted an odd singsong voice as he kicked Takashi even harder. "Shinryo-ken! Shinryo-ken! Come help me! I'm too weak and pathetic to save myself! Why won't anyone help me when I cheat on my friends? Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!"

"Shinryo-ken . . ." Takashi muttered, his voice broken by the raiju's attacks. "Shinryo-ken . . ."

"Listen to him!" Hideaki jeered, ceasing his kicks for the moment. "Come on, Taka-kun; tell us the name of that sword again."

Normally, some sort of bodily movement is involved when raising oneself up off of the ground. This, however, was not the case as the young Takashi literally materialized mere inches in front of Hideaki's face. His tear-stained eyes glowed bright red from behind a bruised face as the boy spoke loudly in a guttural voice that sounded as if it had echoed throughout the caverns of the underworld.

"Kusanagi, you son of a bitch."

The setting sun blinked out in an instant, and the sky went pitch black. As the townspeople ran screaming, a massive fireball shot out from the forests and rocketed toward the town. Takashi could feel the intense heat as the summoned blade barreled its way through buildings and people alike, setting both aflame in a massive conflagration. Streams of fire shot all over the town like descending dragons as the massive broadsword came to rest in the arms of the child. The demonic voice that had consumed the young Takashi laughed at the fear-stricken Hideaki.

"Don't toy with that which is beyond your imagination, foolish subcreature!"

Flame shot out of the broadsword, detonating on the ground and blowing the screaming Hideaki backward through several buildings. The young Takashi continued to laugh and jest in the impossibly deep voice as he cast fire about in every direction, flaying anyone who came close enough into shreds.

As the older Takashi watched in horror, he noticed the presence of the adult Hideaki across the square holding his head in terror.

"No more, Yuki!" the raiju screamed. "No more, please! I beg you!"

>>>Night - May 8, 1583

"Raijin-sama?"

The elderly raiju turned toward the voice coming from the hill leading to the cliff on which he stood. "Jiro? Where have you been?"

The sword master nodded toward Raijin. "It is I, sensei. I have dealt permanently with Anakouji Jeffery. He won't be bothering us anymore."

"Ah," the raiju responded, turning his bone mask-covered face back toward the battle some distance below. "First the teacher and soon his apprentice. It seems the 'Jeffy-Yaen' style will fade into nothingness this very night."

Jiro looked over the cliff to see the battle between Takashi, Yuki, and Hideaki in the ruined shrine. "Indeed, many things shall end on this night, and move this world closer to glorious salvation."

As Raijin continued to witness the confrontation, Jiro stared straight at him. Not yet . . . soon, but not yet . . .

>>>

"No!" Hideaki shouted, ramming his head into a nearby building, nearly breaking through the rotted material. "No, it isn't possible!"

"No way . . ." Takashi gasped as he got up from the prone position in which he had received Yuki's vision. "Hideaki started it?"

Yuki nodded slowly, still rubbing her eyes; they had become quite irritated after using the mysterious power she had locked away in her early childhood. "Remember when Hideaki said he would be leaving the town? On that day, I told him that I didn't want to leave; that what I wanted in life was right there in Komo Town. He didn't want to listen, and the more I tried to explain it, the worse it got. Eventually, he left for town to confront you. By the time I got there . . ." She placed a hand to her chest and lowered her head. "It was already too late."

"This cannot be!" Hideaki continued to exclaim. "I am the one in the right! I am backed by righteousness!"

"I wonder," Yuki commented. "How many years of Raijin's torture did you endure before you began to think like that? Is there anything of my brother left in you at all?"

"Do not question Master Raijin!" Hideaki demanded. "He alone possesses wisdom in an era of fools! He alone is concerned with the good of the entire world! Together, we shall purge such reckless killers as Ueda Takashi!"

The raiju took up the Ikazuchi in a fit of rage and began to whirl it about his head faster than ever before. "Ikazuchi Awake!"

Lightning shot down from the clouds overhead, striking the chain and imbuing it with electrical energy that began to fly in all directions. The bolts struck the fallen buildings, setting fires that began to burn high into the night sky. Takashi seemed frozen stiff. Without his katana, he stood little chance against such an onslaught, but this was not what caused him to react in such a manner.

"This is familiar . . ." he mumbled. "Just like eight years ago . . . just like . . ." The final shroud departed from the ronin's memory. "Just like the Honnoji no Hen."

Yuki placed herself alongside Takashi, facing her maddened brother. "You see, Taka-kun? Hideaki was there on that night eight years ago, and he was there when your master died. I'm sorry to say it, but the monster you've been looking for is right in front of you."

"Stop lying!" Hideaki screamed. "Stop lying to my sister, Taka-kun! Stop turning her against me! Draw your sword, and we'll see just how much of a monster you are! FACE ME!"

Takashi bowed his head. "Yuki, even if Hideaki did start our confrontation eight years ago, I am still the one responsible for causing the destruction."

Alarm crossed the female raiju's face. "No, Taka-kun! You can't think like that, you can't-"

Wordlessly, the ronin began to walk forward toward the torrential whirlwind of lightning wielded by Hideaki.

"Come on, Taka-kun." the raiju jeered. "Come on, you monster. You devil!"

Slowly, with unsteady hands, Takashi began to unlatch the monstrous broadsword from its scabbard. "So, Hide," he seethed through gritted teeth. "I'm a monster, and you're a monster. We're two of a kind, born of our hatred and insecurities."

"Yes, Taka-kun," Hideaki growled. "Don't hold anything back! Don't you dare hold anything back!"

"Don't worry about it," Takashi responded, drawing the Shinryo-kin from its holster, its stark white blade and golden-bronze crosshilt already beginning to glow red with flame. "All monsters should go to hell. If that's my fate . . ." His eyes again glowed with the red light of eight years ago, and the guttural voice returned. "Then I'll drag you down with me!"

The two opponents literally flew at each other, lightning and fire crossing and colliding across the air in showers of sparks and brimstone. Staring at the ghastly scene, Yuki clenched her fists tighter than she ever had before. If it had been up to her, the dream would have lasted for at least a little while longer. However, the time for dreams was over, and choice was now at hand.

Yuki gazed upward into the night sky, faint words making their way past her lips. "Wind guides lightning across the sky and lightning strikes the earth. Lightning, opposed as it is to wood, creates the fire. . ." She bowed her head. "That consumes them both . . ."

>>>

"No, Hideaki," Raijin muttered, putting a hand to his mask. "First the sword, then your vengeance. Do not forget your priorities, my student . . ."

The ancient raiju barely turned in time to draw his katana and deflect a sudden attack from Jiro with a sharp clang.

"Dammit!" the sword master cursed, already feeling the High Yaen Master's strength beginning to push him back.

"What is this?" Raijin questioned rather calmly. "You dare to bite the hand that feeds you?" The eyes of the mask glowed with orange light. "Surrender to the covenant within your blood."

Jiro showed nary a hint of compliance, repelling Raijin's blade and making another strike that, to his dismay, was also blocked.

"I hadn't noticed it before," the High Yaen Master commented. "But I cannot sense you as I do Hideaki and Wild Card. You never drank of the Ryuketsu, did you?"

"Bingo." Jiro responded matter-of-factly. "Sure doesn't take much to act like one of your mindless cronies, you know?"

Raijin shook his masked head in exasperation, his mane of white hair swaying left and right. "This is pointless, my student. You are only allowing the delicate situation below to spiral even further out of control."

"Delicate?" Jiro questioned, fighting against his sensei's impressive strength. "What exactly is delicate about Jeffy's student and yours butting heads?"

"I never told you, did I?" Raijin responded. "Do you have any idea what is really going on here?"

"Enlighten me, and I might not finish you for a few more minutes." Jiro growled.

Raijin again shook his head. "Doesn't anything about this situation seem strange to you: people going berserk when they take hold of that broadsword, my mask controlling this liquid that in turn controls whoever drinks of it?"

Jiro glanced to the side for a moment. "Well, to be completely honest, it does rank a little higher than most of the weird shit I've seen in my lifetime, and few things get stranger than being taught in the way of the sword by a guy with cat ears, believe you me."

Raijin smiled underneath his mask. "Maybe it would help to know that Ueda Takashi's broadsword is the Kusanagi."

"Is that so?" Jiro remarked sarcastically. "Well, I hope for sure that someone enters that in the annual 'Cool Sword Names Contest', even if it isn't all that original." It took more than a few moments of silence for the gears in Jiro's head to turn once more. "Wait, you mean the Kusanagi?"

Raijin nodded. "The very same blade taken from the tailbone of the Ancient Death Dragon by Susano himself." He waited for that to sink in before continuing. "The Kusanagi is the dragon's tail, the Ryuketsu is its blood, and this mask is made from its skull."

"Oh man," Jiro commented. "You have got to be kidding . . ."

"They were quite hard to collect," Raijin continued. "But now, the revival of that most ancient power is at hand!"

"Takashi," Jiro realized. "He can't control the Kusanagi because of the dragon's spirit, can he?"

"If only he'd realized that sooner," the High Yaen Master responded. "He just might have lived through tonight."

>>>

Kumo had been in control of the confrontation up until now. Presently, however, he found himself driven to the point of desperation. The ninja fought with every bit of his strength, his eyes glowing yellow with effort, but each attempt to get past Itagaki Noriko proved more futile than the last.

"Megumi!" he cried out as Noriko again pushed him back toward the woods. "Hold on!"

Noriko smiled upon nearly relieving Kumo of his weapon. "You should worry about yourself, you yellow-eyed freak show."

Fuji, in the meantime, was using all of his concentration to keep the Truth Seal in place. As Megumi and Tanuki's spirit began to move closer together, the kunoichi fought against the o-fude magic as if her life were at stake.

"Stop it!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Don't do this to me! You can't! How could you do this to another human being? That raccoon dog is just an animal!"

"Oh yeah?" Fuji returned, sweat pouring from his brow as he held his hand out at the o-fude. "And just what was my mother to you? Another notch on the old tanto?"

"I'll kill you!" Megumi screeched wildly. "I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!"

"Oh," Fuji replied. "So my mother was an animal to you too."

Megumi's spirit collided with that of the raccoon dog in yet another blinding flash of light. It was all Fuji could do just to keep the spirit energy from flying everywhere.

"Megu!" Kumo shouted, again leaping forward. This time, it was a terrible mistake.

Another flash of light occurred, this one much brighter than the last since it was from the Fan of Uzume. The ninja clutched wildly at his face, a constant stream of curses uttering from his mouth.

"Damn you!" he cried. "Damn you, apprentice! Damn you to hell!"

Noriko raised the Amatsuotome for the finishing blow mere seconds before the ninja detonated every smoke bomb in his possession. The swordswoman slashed wildly at the deluge, but Kumo was already gone.

"Damn," Noriko muttered. "Completely vanished." She stared at the strange confrontation between spirits taking place in front of the apprentice for a moment before making an offer. "You, uh, need any help there, Fuji?"

"No thanks," Fuji replied, retracting the Fan of Uzume and pointing toward the red glow at the shrine that cast light over the entire area. "You should go see what's going on up there. It looks like Takashi may need more help than I could possibly offer."

"You sure?" Noriko questioned.

"Don't worry about it," the apprentice smiled. "As our favorite ronin would say, I've got this bitch."

Noriko smiled in return and began to make her way up the long stairway to the shrine grounds. That Fuji had changed a lot in such a short time. One day, the swordswoman thought to herself. He could be a great warrior.

>>>

The powers of the Kusanagi and Ikazuchi were unreal. The great broadsword propelled Takashi across the sky like a puppet enveloped in fire. The massive spherical hellstorm that the ronin had become barreled across the ruins, casting both lightning and flame aside in its wake as it sought after Hideaki's life. The raiju himself laughed like a madman, repelling Takashi away with the tornado-like Ikazuchi and striking with extreme ferocity.

"Yes!" Hideaki shouted at the top of his lungs. "This is the monster! This is what destroyed my life all those years ago! How do you like me now? How do you like it now that I can fight back, eh? Eh? Ha-ha!"

The raiju launched himself upward, colliding with the fireball in a thundering cascade of energy and sparks. The two opposing titans fell to the center of the ruins, their impact obliterating everything in the area.

"Motto!" Hideaki cried. "Motto motto!"

Yuki observed the battle from a distance, tears streaming down her cheeks, both hands resting comfortably on the handle of the Kamikaze-ken. Huge clouds of dust and debris flew by as she kept her eyes locked on the epic confrontation. Soon enough, the moment would come.

The Ikazuchi swung out in a wide arc across the ruins, electricity still crackling and launching from the weapon. Takashi blocked the strike with the Kusanagi, but the force of the blow still propelled him backward several meters as the Ikazuchi continued onward, demolishing entire buildings in its wake. Hideaki used the momentum of the massive chain to launch himself once again into the air. Raising both hands above his head, he readied himself to counter Takashi's next assault. Sure enough, flames again enveloped the ronin and he flew straight at the airborne raiju, broadsword pointed down in preparation for an upward swipe.

"Now, Taka-kun," Hideaki cried. "You see your death! The soul of Komo Town shall be avenged!"

It was more than obvious that the raiju's chain would run Takashi through on his current trajectory, but the ronin was not in his right mind. After what seemed like an eternity, he came within range of the Ikazuchi. Hideaki launched the weapon forward with an ecstatic shout of unadulterated glee.

There was a sickening impact noise, wet and soppy in nature, followed by complete and utter silence. Both flame and lightning dissipated from the air as Takashi and Hideaki slowly returned to the ground, frozen in position. The red light had left the ronin's eyes, and the raiju's face had contorted in sheer horror. Takashi breathed only one word.

"Yuki?"

Hideaki withdrew his chain from the center of his sister's body with another sickening squelch, screaming like a feral beast and clawing at his own head, ripping out large tufts of hair in the process. Takashi caught Yuki's body as it fell, a gaping hole in her midsection bleeding profusely.

"It hurts," the catgirl whispered, blood seeping from her mouth. "It hurts a lot more . . . than I thought it would . . ."

Tears sprang forth unbidden from Takashi's eyes as he cradled her broken form. "Why, Yuki? Why?"

Yuki touched a delicate hand to the ronin's cheek. "You would have died, Taka-kun. The spirit in that blade would have consumed you, and you would have disappeared from this world." Just seeing the sadness in Takashi's face caused tears to well in her own eyes. "I wasn't destined to live past this day, Taka-kun, but you were meant for so much more, I know it."

The ronin broke into fitful sobs, unable to restrain his grief.

"Don't cry," Yuki pleaded. "I'm not sad. I got to experience such wonderful things with you, Taka-kun. My dreams came true, even if only for a short while." The warmest smile Takashi had ever witnessed spread its way across Yuki's face. "If you need to feel happy again, just remember those moments." Despite the pain, she leaned forward and kissed the ronin on the cheek, whispering her last words close to his ear.

"I love you, Taka-kun. You made this life . . . worth all the pain . . . it ever . . . held . . ."

>>>

To Fuji's great surprise, Megumi's face again emerged from the whirlwind of light that had enveloped both the kunoichi and the tanuki.

"Onegai!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Don't! Please!"

Fuji grimaced. "Consider this my farewell."

The apprentice lunged forward, forcing all of his concentration into the o-fude spell. Megumi gave one final cry before the light-storm exploded outward, throwing all three participants in different directions.

After a time, the dust began to settle, and Fuji picked his sore and tired body up off the ground. Obeying his very first instinct, the apprentice turned toward the prone body of Tanizaki Megumi. Tentatively, he shook her by the shoulder.

"Hey, which one of you is this?"

The kunoichi's body turned toward the apprentice and smiled. "You did it, Fuji."

Wiping sweat from his forehead, Fuji sighed with relief. "Oh man, I can't believe that actually worked. So, what do I call you now?"

The kunoichi's hand shot up like lightning, grasping the apprentice's throat in a choke hold and bringing him close. "You can call me 'One Pissed-Off Ninja', you lousy spell-casting bastard!"

Throwing Fuji aside like a rag doll, Megumi retrieved one of her tantos, twirling it expertly and with great relish. "You really had me worried for a moment there," she admitted. "But that was only because I forgot for a moment just what a screw-up you really are." The kunoichi smiled widely. "The time for conversation is over, though. Prepare to die a fool's death, apprentice."

The shocked Fuji attempted to draw the Fan of Uzume in time to block, only to realize that the weapon was missing from his obi, having dropped off at some point during his struggle with the o-fude charm. All the apprentice could do was stare in horror as Megumi raised the glinting orange tanto to administer the final blow.

The kunoichi's eyes gleamed with madness. "Consider this my farewell, Yamamoto Fuji. Both from me, and from my sister!"

>>>

Though soft as she always had been, Takashi could feel the cold chill of death as it made its way through every vein in Yuki's body. He carefully laid the girl's body on the ground and faced the unstable Hideaki, who had begun to absorb himself in nonsensical chants of combined grief and panic.

"Hideaki."

The raiju looked up toward Takashi with guilt in his eyes. "Taka-kun? What have I done?" However, the guilt left as quickly as it had appeared, replaced again by madness. "No, no, what have you done? It's your fault, Taka-kun! What did you do to my sister!" Hideaki picked up the Ikazuchi once again, leveling the arm it was stationed on at the ronin. "I'll make you pay! You'll pay for taking everything from me!"

Takashi simply shook his head. He was about to respond when he felt the handle of the Kusanagi edging its way into his grip. At first, he tried to pull back, but an overwhelming aura of calmness overtook him. Somehow, Takashi thought he could still hear Yuki's voice.

"This is my gift to you, Taka-kun. One spirit is not enough to quell the Kusanagi's fury, but I will protect you, now and always."

Understanding fully, Takashi raised the gigantic Kusanagi single-handedly and aimed the blade straight at the insane Hideaki.

"Come," the ronin challenged. "Let us dance once more for the girl we both loved."

(End Chapter Twenty-Three)