Chapter IV:

In the Dungeon

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For the second time in the same day, Hiromitsu awoke to darkness. This time, however, he was standing upright - or, rather, being held upright by a pair of steel manacles with strange writing etched into them. As his eyes regained focus, Hiro saw that the room he was now in was different from Sounga's throne room. This place had a floor, ceiling, and three walls of solid stone, as though the room had been hewn right out of a mountainside, with a heavy wooden door set into the wall directly facing him. The only light came from a single barred window in the wall behind him; from the dim white quality of the light that was coming in, he guessed that it was now after dark, and the full moon was shining through, though he couldn't walk over to the window and check. The cell was large, and in the poor light, Hiromitsu couldn't see the walls on either side of him. There was at least one set of empty manacles to his left, so he supposed that this room was meant to hold several prisoners at a time. While the reek of Sounga's rage and evil was less intense down here, there was another, equally unpleasant odor: the smell of despair, of the hopelessness of centuries of prisoners chained down here and left to waste away in darkness.

Hiromitsu sagged against the wall. Two times in the same day, he had been beaten up - first by Onigumo, then by his master, the badly misnamed "Great Demon", Sounga. For years, Hiro had been the protector of his small group of orphaned children, fending off wild animals and bandits and finding food for them all to eat. Now, he found himself alone in a strange place, his friends probably lost and hungry in the middle of nowhere. He had been reduced to a bruised, aching wreck by two inhuman creeps with less than half a conscience between them. He was injured, insulted, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

Hiromitsu couldn't help it. He began sobbing.

"Oh, quit yer blubbering," scolded a dry, scratchy voice from the shadows, "you're not the only one Sounga's laid flat. Just be glad he decided not to recruit you into his undead army just yet."

Hiro's head snapped toward the voice, his golden eyes shining in the darkness. "Who's that?" he asked.

He could make out a human-like shape several feet away, chained to the wall just as he was. "The name's Totosai," the figure said, and Hiromitsu could just make out a pair of eyes as it turned toward him. "Totosai" looked like an old, emaciated man, but as Hiro looked closer, he noticed that his fellow prisoner also had a pair of long, pointed ears, rather than the normal circular lobes that most people had.

"Hey!" Hiro exclaimed, "you've got long ears like mine!"

"'Course I do. It's a common trait among demons like us."

"What are you talking about? I'm not a demon like that creep Sounga!"

Totosai laughed softly, a sound like sand pouring through a dry, rusted pipe, and Hiro wondered just how long the old man had been stuck down here. "Boy, have you been wearing blinders all your life? Didn't it ever occur to you that most humans aren't as strong or as fast as you? Didn't you ever wonder why none of your little friends had purple stripes on their faces?"

"They're blue," Hiro said numbly, still reeling from this sudden revelation. How could he possibly have anything in common with a monster like Sounga? He wasn't cruel or evil; he had friends and responsibilities. He couldn't be a demon!

And yet, Totosai's words made too much sense for him to just ignore them. He was faster than most humans, even grown-ups. He had knocked the tar out of Onigumo's undead minions, and they weren't much tougher than the average human - other than the fact that they didn't die when you killed them, but at least they weren't much stronger. He had seen Midoriko dressing wounds on the other children that Hiro's body would have healed instantly. Midoriko...

And then it hit him, the ultimate denial. "Wait! Everyone knows that demons can't love or care about people, but I do! If I love somebody, doesn't that mean that I'm not a demon?"

Totosai gave another dry, rasping laugh. "Boy, that's just a myth created by humans! Some evil demons like Sounga may be downright heartless, but most of us just act tough to scare off trouble."

Hiro's sudden relief imploded like an untied balloon. "Oh," he said.

"Don't worry about it, boy. Just 'cause you're a demon, that doesn't make you evil like that GUTLESS WORM, SOUNGA!" Totosai shouted up at the ceiling, as though Sounga could hear him from however many floors up he was.

"So, how did you get sent down here?" asked Hiromitsu.

"I used to work as a blacksmith," Totosai replied. "I made swords and weapons for a clan of demon-slayers up north." The old demon sighed, closing his eyes. "We always thought that, one day, we'd be strong enough to beat Sounga, free the people of the eastern islands. Then he sent an army of those dead soldiers of his, and they carted me off, along with some of the villagers. I hear that the others managed to beat him back in the end, but that didn't help me much, as you can probably tell." Totosai jingled his chains for emphasis. "Sounga killed the others and made their bodies into soldiers for his army. Then he beat me within an inch of my life and stuck me down here, just so he could bat me around every fifty years or so when he gets bored. That old monster may be a dragon underneath, but he likes to play with his enemies like a dang cat."

"A dragon?"

"Yes," Totosai said, "though Sounga most often stays in his human form, he was originally a demon dragon from the netherworld. Rumor has it that he used one of his own fangs to make that sword of his, then opened a gateway to our world and started taking over."

"You mean that his sword is just a big tooth?"

"Swords that contain a part of their owner's essence are the most powerful of all weapons," Totosai replied. "Because Sounga's sword is made from a part of him, he can channel his full power through it, even when his body is in human form. He can use that sword to open gateways to his home in the underworld, resurrect a hundred dead men with one sweep, and even channel his demon strength into blasts of pure destructive power."

"Whoa," Hiro said, wide-eyed, "that's amazing. If he didn't use it to hurt people, it might even be kind of neat."

Totosai exhaled deeply. "I tried for years to make a sword that could beat it, but I could never find the fang of a demon powerful enough to match Sounga when he's at full strength. He's a Great Demon, and since he slaughtered all the other Great Demons living in these lands when he first arrived, there's just no way to duplicate his kind of power anymore."

They both hung in silence for a while. Finally, an idea hit Hiromitsu. "Hey, Totosai," he said, "I just remembered something. Sounga sai-- YEOW!" Suddenly, Hiro felt a sharp pain in his neck, like a mosquito bite, and pressed his neck into his shoulder reflexively.

"Mmph! Smushed!" a tiny voice cried out, and Hiromitsu pulled his head back up, blinking in surprise. Pressed into his shoulder was a tiny, now-flattened figure with four arms, two legs, and a pointed proboscis for a mouth. As he watched, the miniscule creature seemed to reinflate, becoming a small, round, human-like being, complete with a tiny cloth shirt and pants. The little creature regained its shape with an audible pop, then sat up, shaking its head. "Oof!" it said, "Mind who you're squishing, young man! If I were any ordinary flea, I'd have been killed just now!"

"Ah, Myoga!" Totosai called out, "What's the word from upstairs?"

"The same as always, I'm afraid," the little flea demon said, brushing himself off. "There's a madman running the castle, people are being killed by the dozen, and there's nobody who seems able to stop him."

"And? How's Miss Saeko doing?"

"Actually, that's what I came down to talk to you about. She asked me to see if this young flea-smusher--" Myoga shot Hiromitsu a sour look "--was awake. Since he very clearly is, I shall go up and tell her. She said she should be down in a few minutes."

"Ooh, good! Tell her to bring down those little fried wontons she made last time."

"My apologies, Totosai," Myoga said, "but I'm afraid tonight's entree was beef and broccoli with soy sauce." With that, the tiny flea-demon hopped from Hiro's shoulder to the window, then began climbing up the stone walls of the citadel, disappearing from sight.

Totosai gave a resigned-sounding sigh. "Ah, well," he said philosophically, "beggars can't be choosers, I suppose."

"Who's Miss Saeko?" Hiromitsu asked, now thoroughly bewildered.

"Saeko was brought to the castle just two weeks ago, the poor thing. Sounga killed her, then brought her body back to life, trapping her soul inside it. She may be one of the living dead, but she's still a very nice girl. She's been sneaking me leftovers from Sounga's meals ever since she came here."

Hiromitsu felt his head start spinning again - a nice, charitable, undead girl? He could barely even imagine such a creature - but his confusion melted away like a morning fog when the door opened. Into the cell walked the most eerily beautiful young woman Hiro had ever seen. Since the door of the cell was directly opposite its single window, the moonlight struck her face full-on. He could see the faint outline of her fine cheekbones through her pale, almost translucent skin. Her green eyes shone with reflected light, and Hiromitsu realized that Saeko was blind. Her long black hair billowed out behind her as though immune to the pull of gravity. She wore a beautiful burgundy kimono of shimmering silk, with gold Kanji script tastefully embroidered on it. Even though Hiromitsu could smell her strange, undead flesh, Saeko didn't stink of the grave the way Sounga's minions did; she must have been resurrected very soon after her death, without being given time to decompose.

Saeko walked straight forward, carrying a small tray of food in front of her. When the edge of the tray hit the wall, she backed up a step and tapped on the iron bars over the window, producing a long, resonant ringing sound like a set of chimes. Then she smiled, and turned straight toward Hiromitsu, as though the sound of the ringing bars somehow allowed her to see him. "It's you, isn't it!" she said, beaming. "You're Hiromitsu!" Her brow furrowed slightly. "Aren't you?"

"Um ... yeah, but how do you know my name?"

"I saw you in my dreams!" Saeko said, her face positively radiating happiness. She reached out with her free hand and felt the contours of Hiro's face. "You're the one who's going to fight Sounga and make everything all right!"

"Been there, tried that, got my butt kicked. Sorry."

Saeko's face froze in shock. "What?" she asked, her voice little more than a whisper.

Hiro groaned. "Look, Sounga just beat me upstairs, then he sent me down here. I tried to fight him, but I was in bad shape after Onigumo caught me, so Sounga ended up stomping me like a bug. Is that enough detail for you?"

Saeko put her free hand over her mouth, her eyes widening with horror. "Oh no," she said, "Oh no, oh no, oh no..."

"What is it?" Hiromitsu asked.

"I ... I told him your name. I thought that, if he went out looking for you, you would fight with Sounga and defeat him. That's what happened in my dream!"

Hiromitsu felt anger welling up in him. "So, you're saying that it was you who told Sounga about me? You told him my name!"

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen! I thought that you were going to defeat him!"

It was a good thing Hiromitsu's wrists were chained to the wall; if they had been free, he might have grabbed Saeko and tried to strangle her. "YOU TOLD SOUNGA TO COME AND FIND ME?" he roared, his face twisted into a snarl.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know ... I'm so sorry!" Saeko took several stumbling steps backward, her unseeing eyes wide with terror.

"What about my friends? Did you tell him about them? Is he going to kill them, too?"

"No! I swear, I don't even know anything about your friends! I never told Sounga about them! Please don't be angry with me!"

Saeko's words struck a chord deep within Hiromitsu, and suddenly he saw himself as she must see him: a snarling monster as full of rage as Sounga, barking angrily at her to ease his own frustration. He slumped back against the stone wall, ashamed of himself. "Um, look, Miss Saeko," he began, "I'm ... sorry I yelled at you."

The girl looked at him again, no longer cringing. Hiro took a deep breath and went on with his apology. "I've had a lousy day, and I know you didn't mean to get me into trouble, so I'm sorry I shouted at you like that."

"R-really?"

"Yeah, really."

Before Hiromitsu knew what was happening, she had wrapped her arms around his neck, and was holding on tight. "I'm so sorry I caused you all this trouble, Hiromitsu," she said, and he felt cold tears on his neck. "This was all because of my stupid dreams. I wish I hadn't been born this way!"

"What way?"

Saeko let go, stepping back and fixing Hiromitsu with her sightless yet direct gaze. "Ever since I was little, I've seen the future in my dreams. It's the only time I can see, really, and for a long time, people treated me like some kind of fortuneteller, asking me all kinds of things. When I said that I'd dreamed that someone would kill Sounga, the Great Demon must have heard about it, and he had me brought here so that he could find out who was going to finally defeat him." Saeko looked away, remembering the last terrifying moments of her mortal life. "I tried to make him think that I really couldn't see the future, but he didn't believe me, so I told him your name. I thought that, if I could get Sounga to go out and look for you, I could speed things up and you would defeat him sooner."

A few more tears trickled down her pale cheeks. "All of this has happened because I thought that I could control fate. I thought that, because I was the only one who could see visions, I could make them happen by myself." The cold, undead girl began sobbing. "And now I've ruined everything! You're trapped here with us, I'm not even real anymore, and hundreds of people will die!" She wrapped herself around him again, still crying like a child. "Oh, Hiromitsu, can you forgive me for what I've done?"

Hiro's eyes darted around as he blushed. "Um ... sure. I mean, you were just trying to do what you thought was best, right? It's not your fault that I was too weak to beat Sounga; it's mine."

Saeko held him tighter. For several long minutes, they stayed that way, with Saeko holding onto Hiromitsu, trembling, as Hiromitsu hung from his wrists, a million different emotions running around in his mind. Was he really the one who was supposed to beat Sounga? If he was, then how could Sounga have thrashed him so completely just a few minutes ago? And should he be disgusted by the cold embrace of this pale, bloodless blind woman, or should he let her keep holding him?

In the end, Hiromitsu craned his neck and began rubbing his cheek against Saeko's soft, silky hair, murmuring reassuring words to the trembling young girl.

"Look, I hate to break up you two lovebirds, but could you bring those leftovers this way? I haven't eaten all day!" Totosai complained from way back in the shadows. Saeko broke off immediately, and despite her unnaturally pale complexion, Hiromitsu saw that she was blushing just as fiercely as he was. Then she fixed a cheerful smile on her face and turned in the direction of the old demon's voice. "Just a moment!" she called, and brought the tray of beef and broccoli over to him. Since Totosai was chained much as Hiromitsu was, Saeko had to feed him herself with a pair of chopsticks. After a few minutes, Totosai gave a satisfied belch, and Saeko came back over to Hiromitsu and fed him the rest of Sounga's leftover dinner. After a lifetime of bread, fish, and the occasional wild animal, it was the best thing Hiro had ever tasted, and despite the aches and pains all throughout his body, he suddenly felt better than he had in a long while.

When the plate had been completely cleaned off, Saeko smiled at Hiromitsu, then tapped the iron bars of the window again and walked toward the door. As she went through, Hiro saw that the door itself had only a pair of metal brackets on the other side, probably meant to hold a wood or iron bar. Saeko could come and go as she pleased, but as long as he and Totosai were stuck to the wall with their enchanted manacles, even she could not bring them out with her. Before she left, she turned back toward Hiromitsu, and Hiro knew that, if he weren't being held up, his legs would have turned to jelly in the light of Saeko's brilliant smile.

"Good night," she said.

"G'night," Hiro mumbled, and Saeko shut the door, replacing the bar - from the sound of it, it was made of metal. For a moment, Hiro could only hang there and breathe, the memory of Saeko's face burned into his vision. Then a tiny spasm in his lower back reminded him that he was still hurting, he was still a prisoner, and he was bone-tired.

"So, Hiromitsu," Totosai asked conversationally, "what was it you were going to say when Myoga came in?"

Hiro struggled to remember his earlier thought; it felt like that had been a lifetime ago. Finally, he said, "I heard Sounga say that, in the prophecy, I was supposed to beat him with two magic swords. If all you need is a tooth, then maybe you could use two of mine to make them for me. Maybe we can make the prophecy happen on our own!"

"Keh!" Totosai gave a snort. "We'll be lucky if we ever escape from this place, let alone if I get the chance to make swords again. Besides, you saw what playing Buddha did to Saeko." The old demon sighed wearily."Still, if we do make it out of here, I promise that the first thing I'll do is to make you a pair of swords that could split the whole world in two. How's that for a deal?"

Though he knew Totosai was just being sarcastic, Hiromitsu felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Suddenly, he had something to hope for.

In minutes, sleep overtook him, and Hiromitsu fell asleep on the wall, dreaming of Sounga's rage-filled grimace ... and of a giant, snow-white dog standing over him, shining with light and power.

Weeks went by. Sometimes, Sounga would send Onigumo or some other minion to rough up Hiromitsu, and the young man had a feeling that the sadistic Great Demon could see everything they did, watching through their eyes and savoring the defenseless youth's agony like a fine wine.

Every night, Saeko would come down while Sounga meditated after his evening meal, and Hiromitsu found that, rather than weakening, Saeko's delicious meals were helping him to maintain what strength he had.

Little Myoga, the flea-demon, would pass messages back and forth between the prisoners and Saeko, who Sounga used as a serving-girl on the upper levels of the citadel, and Hiromitsu did his best to let the tiny creature drink his fill of fresh blood, rather than trying to squash him.

Totosai helped a lot, too; his stories and his jokes helped make the aching time between beatings almost bearable, and every now and then, they would talk about what they would do if they ever got free: the places they would go, the things they would do. Totosai longed to going back to his old village, meeting the descendants of his human friends from long ago, maybe working as a blacksmith for a while before going off on his own and exploring the countryside.

Hiromitsu, for his part, dreamed of finding the children who had been his only family for so long; of running in the forests with them, watching over them and keeping them safe as they all grew up together.

And sometimes, as though Saeko's visions were contagious, he also dreamed of the day that he would face Sounga again, standing tall, Totosai's powerful swords in hand, making his stand between the Great Demon and the people he cared about.

And, in his dreams, he always won.

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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Plot Development

This chapter is basically one long, complicated piece of exposition. It was perhaps the hardest chapter for me to write, because the trick with exposition is to keep it interesting, so that it doesn't get preachy and slow down the action too much. So, while Hiro is learning about Saeko's prophecy, Totosai's backstory and Sounga's true nature, he's also meeting three new characters, getting in a shouting match, dealing with his troubled conscience, and experiencing a little romantic tension.

Aside from giving Hiro (and the reader) some necessary information, this chapter also re-introduces Saeko, this time as Sounga's hostage and a minor love interest (remember, Hiro's already got Midoriko out there waiting for him). We also meet little Myoga and Totosai, the latter of which will play a key part very soon. It's also the first mention of the village of demon-slayers that will become the site for the story's climax.

-Character Design

While Hiromitsu's girlfriend, Midoriko, has already been introduced, I decided to add Saeko back into the story as a "damsel in distress". She's really a tragic character; if Hiro wins, she'll die right along with Sounga, but if he loses, she faces an eternity as the Great Demon's slave. Her appearance marks her as one of Sounga's minions - her body is bloodless and cold, and her kimono is Sounga's favorite color: red (well, technically burgundy, but close enough...). Still, by her actions, she proves that she is basically a good character. And because Hiro is more concerned with people's actions than with appearances, that also makes her someone for him to care about.

Myoga, of course, is still the smushable little guy we'll know and love four hundred years from now, and Totosai is already his crotchety old self, albiet long-haired and malnourished. As we already know from watching the anime, he's also the one who will eventually forge Hiromitsu's famous swords, though this chapter gives his backstory some fleshing-out.

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