Chapter X:
Hiromitsu, the Great Dog-Demon
-----
"Midoriko ..."
"What was that, runt?" Sounga sneered at Hiromitsu, bearing down inexorably on the boy's throat, his own demon blade glowing with dark energy as he pushed against the Tenseiga. "Perhaps you worry about one of your pet humans? Don't worry; she'll be joining you in Hell soon enough!"
At that moment, something seemed to snap within Hiromitsu. His golden eyes flew open. If he died now, this grinning monster would win, and Midoriko, Totosai ... everyone he cared about would be killed.
"You're not ... going to ... hurt ... her ..." he growled through clenched teeth, "because I ... won't ... LET YOU!"
Suddenly, Sounga became aware of a change in the air around them. It was as though a hurricane were forming around them, with himself and the boy right in the eye of it. The wind itself seemed charged with energy, and the boy...
Hiromitsu was pushing him back.
Slowly at first, then picking up speed, Sounga's mystic sword seemed to be rising up and away from the boy's throat, driven back by the Tenseiga, which was now glowing with a blue-white light so intense that Sounga had to squint.
The Great Demon blinked. What?
With a roar of fury, Hiromitsu leaped to his feet, pushing Sounga back another step, then another, until finally Sounga found himself not just giving ground, but racing backward, using his demon sword to parry what seemed like a hailstorm of flashing steel. Despite his wounds, Hiromitsu was wielding both of his swords, even the heavy Tetsusaiga, striking faster than any human eye could follow, forcing Sounga to go on the defensive. In desperation, Sounga let go of his sword with his right hand, crossing it in front of his chest.
Then he uncrossed it.
Freed by the force of his swinging arm, the sharpened red spikes of his forearm guard separated, hitting Hiromitsu at point-blank range, burying themselves in his chest. The boy cried out, dropping the Tenseiga and clutching at his wounds, trying to draw the spikes out. No longer having to block Hiromitsu's attacks, Sounga took this opportunity to perform a backflip, landing about fifty feet away. Straightening up, he observed Hiromitsu, wounded, stricken with over a dozen deep stab wounds. As he watched, the young demon pulled out the last of the spikes, then brought his eyes up to meet Sounga's, glaring fiercely. Even in his weakened condition, the boy actually picked up the Tetsusaiga, holding it straight out in front of him.
Sounga had to smile. "Impressive, boy. I must admit, this little fracas has given me a bit of exercise." Then his face hardened, and he lifted his sword up into the air. "But now, it is time to end it." Sounga's blade blazed with a sudden influx of its master's negative life energy. At its tip, a ball of even brighter energy appeared like an intense dark star, an evil sun shining right there on the battlefield.
"DRAGON TWISTER!" he cried.
Sounga swung the blade down, striking the ground. Dirt and air were sucked into the heart of the ball, creating a powerful vortex. Then the Dragon Twister blasted forward, shredding earth and sky, headed straight toward Hiromitsu. At the last possible moment, Hiro drew back his heavy sword, lifting it high over his head. "BACKLASH WAVE!" he exclaimed, creating his own whirling cyclone of golden energy in an attempt to redirect Sounga's attack. The Backlash Wave hit Sounga's Dragon Twister head-on ...
And was ripped apart by the oncoming whirlwind.
Hiromitsu had time for one last thought: Uh-oh ...
And then there was only pain.
Suddenly, a whirling cloud of dirt and debris appeared over the battlefield, with a fierce pink light at the center of it. As Midoriko watched in horror from the town gate, the cloud expanded to nearly a thousand feet wide, an unnatural hurricane of pure destructive force.
That's where Hiro was fighting! she realized.
Hiro, please be safe ...
Sounga sheathed his sword, smiling wickedly, gazing at the still-smoking crater that now marked the spot where Hiromitsu had been standing. "Foolish boy," he said aloud. "You should have known that no living being can possibly defeat me." So saying, Sounga shifted his gaze upward toward the fortress-town where the last of the demon-slayers were struggling to keep his legion of living dead. Just looking at the battle, its outcome was obvious: however skilled they might be, the demon-slayers numbered only about three hundred, and Sounga's army was over ten thousand strong. Now that he no longer had to split his focus between two fronts, Sounga would be able to concentrate solely on exterminating the lot of them.
"Time to finish it," Sounga said to himself, redirecting his perceptions, preparing to crush the humans with the full force of his armies.
"You can say that again!" came an angry snarl.
Sounga's crimson eyes went wide, and the Great Demon spun about, facing once again the smoldering hole in the ground that he had just created.
And there, standing right in the middle of it, was Hiromitsu!
Sounga goggled at him. This simply wasn't possible; not even another Great Demon had ever withstood the power of his Dragon Twister! Yet somehow, this seventeen-year-old demon boy had not only survived, but was actually standing under his own power, swords in hand, ready and willing to keep fighting! And there was another thing, as well ...
As the dust and smoke cleared, Sounga could see that the boy was glowing.
The light surrounding Hiromitsu was not the blue-white glow of the Tenseiga, nor was it the golden light of the Tetsusaiga. Clearly, this was the boy's own aura, shining with incredible power.
The words of Saeko suddenly flashed through Sounga's mind: "I saw a man. He was tall, and he had long hair. He carried two swords. There was a bright, white light shining out of him, like he was made of it." She had been describing the being who, in her vision, would be responsible for Sounga's destruction. Now, suddenly, here was that very being, radiating light and energy like a supernova. Against all odds, despite Sounga's best efforts to thwart it, the blind girl's prophecy was coming to pass!
"Is that the best you've got?" Hiro said mockingly. "Well, have some of this! WIND SCAR!" The blast of golden energy erupted from the Tetsusaiga's blade so fast that Sounga had no time to generate his Dragon Twister. Before he had even withdrawn his focus back from his troops, Sounga fould himself knocked bodily into the air, spinning head over heels, then landed in a rather undignified position on his rump. Sounga picked himself up, still staring at Hiromitsu as the boy stepped out of the crater and back onto green grass.
"You killed Saeko," Hiro growled. "You tried to kill my friends, and you tried to kill me. I'm not letting you hurt anyone else!" Then Hiromitsu threw back his head and howled, and while Sounga stood by in shock and awe, Hiro began to change. Feet and hands became huge paws. His white fur cloak seemed to melt into his body, becoming a full-body covering of shining white fur. The irises of Hiromitsu's golden eyes became a pale blue, surrounded by a sea of red. Mouth and nose stretched forward into a canine muzzle. Finally, the creature that had been Hiromitsu went from an upright position to a four-legged stance, enormous teeth bared. Hiromitsu had taken on his true form: a snow-white dog nearly sixty feet from nose to tail, a canine Great Demon.
He had become a Great Dog-Demon.
-----
For Hiromitsu, the change didn't feel strange or uncomfortable. It wasn't much more difficult than channeling his life energy through the Tetsusaiga or the Tenseiga. The main difference, of course, was that all that power was being directed into his own body now, and that it didn't require any special spells from Totosai. It was as though this new form had been tucked away inside him all along; he just hadn't had a reason to unlock it until now.
Hiro shook his enormous canine head, trying to get used to his new body. Okaaaay, he thought to himself. Now, how the heck do I walk like thi--
"DRAGON TWISTER!" Suddenly, Hiro felt himself lifted off the ground by an incredible concussive force. While he had been distracted with his new form, Sounga had taken the opportunity to launch his most powerful attack. As gale-force winds and debris whirled around him, Hiromitsu struggled to regain his breath, get control of his new limbs and right himself in midair. As the Dragon Twister started to dissipate, Hiro finally managed to get all four paws under him and land more-or-less upright. His side still ached from where Sounga's attack had initially hit him, but Hiromitsu barely felt it now. He was much bigger and more powerful than he had been.
And now, he was really pissed off...
-----
Sounga's jaw went slack. Again, the words of Saeko rose up from the bowels of his memory: "I'm not sure he was really a man. He felt like he was so much more; he was as bright as you are dark, and he kept changing into a dog in my dream."
"NO!" Sounga cried, backing away from the enormous apparition before him. "Stay back! Don't touch me!" In response, Hiromitsu only growled, then charged toward Sounga, head down, preparing to ram him.
Desperately, Sounga raised his sword into the air once again. "DRAGON TWISTER!" he exclaimed, pouring as much power into the blade as he could and releasing it straight at Hiromitsu. The blast hit the dog-demon on the top of his head, but rather than slowing down, Hiro batted the whirling ball of dark energy aside with a jerk of his head, then continued right on course.
Sounga's face was still frozen in shock as Hiro slammed into him like a freight train on four legs, knocking the Great Demon off his feet and into the air. Then, like a dog playing fetch, Hiromitsu caught Sounga in the middle of his flightpath...
And then he bit down.
Sounga let out a shrill scream as canine teeth the size of steak knives tore into his body, cracking his heavy plate armor like a nutshell. For Hiro, having a mouthful of Sounga was no picnic, either; the sharp metal spikes of the Great Demon's armor lodged in his gums, his tongue and the roof of his mouth, and the Great Dog-Demon tasted his own blood. Still, he hung on, shaking Sounga from side to side, doing as much damage as he could before finally dropping Sounga to the ground like a dead rat, the Great Demon's left leg bent at an unnatural angle, molten-brimstone blood seeping from dozens of deep wounds.
Sounga tried to at least bring himself up into a sitting position, but even while leaning on his sword for support, his much abused back seemed to have gone on strike. Gasping with pain, he struggled to face his opponent. Meanwhile, Hiromitsu, sensing that his enemy was no longer in any shape to keep fighting, had reverted to his human form. Hiro drew the Tetsusaiga and walked over to the Great Demon. Helpless, Sounga could only watch as Hiromitsu brought the tip of his enormous sword to within an inch of his throat.
"You know," Hiro said, a trickle of blood running down his cheek from his torn gums, "you've probably got no idea how much I'd like to cut your head off right now." The young man kneeled down, so that he and Sounga were looking directly at each other along the length of the Tetsusaiga. "But, unlike some folks, I don't kill defenseless people - not even scum like you." Hiro stood up, still keeping his sword at Sounga's throat, the young man now towering over the Great Demon. "Call off your living dead and free every last soul you've sent to the underworld, and I'll bring you to the village elders to stand trial. Maybe, if you're lucky, they'll just seal you away in some tree for a thousand years."
"How very ... generous of you, boy," Sounga rasped. "It seems that you really are a fair, compassionate being. I, on the other hand, have no need for such stupidity!" Too late, Hiro noticed that the blade of Sounga's sword was glowing faintly - just before a tremendous explosion blasted both combatants into the air in opposite directions. While Hiro tried to keep from landing on his head, Sounga - whose injuries suddenly seemed much less severe - used the force of the blast to put some distance between himself and his opponent, landing cat-footed, sword drawn, a feral grin on his face. As Hiro touched down, the Great Demon raised his sword high into the air. While he would have preferred to let his troops slaughter the humans at a distance while he crushed Hiromitsu, it seemed that killing the boy would require more effort than Sounga had anticipated. Closing his eyes, Sounga focused on his sword - not to channel power into it this time, but to draw energy back into himself ...
-----
"Hold the gate! Don't let them through!" Old Kaoru's voice called above the din of battle, but the villagers had no way of following through on the elder's command. Their defense was faltering under the relentless pressure of Sounga's army. While the undead never tired, human beings could only do so much before exhaustion set in. After nearly an hour of nonstop fighting, Midoriko's arms were burning from muscle fatigue, her skin was covered with slashes of varying severity, and it was all she could do to keep Sounga's living dead from ripping her to pieces. She had given up trying to do any damage; now, she was entirely on the defensive, unable to strike back but unwilling to give in.
While Midoriko managed to parry three strikes simultaneously, one of her fellow defenders wasn't so lucky; she heard a scream, then a heavy thump as one more corpse hit the ground, to be raised up only moments later as one of the undead.
Gritting her teeth, Midoriko tried to find the old fire-demon Totosai. "Hey, old man!" she called. "You were saving your fire power for a real emergency? Well, guess what: now would be a really good time!"
With a sigh of resignation, Totosai gave one last sweep with his hammer, then took a deep breath. A moment later, the old fire-demon blew a jet of red-hot flame at the legion of living dead. While not quite as effective as one of Hiro's Dragon Strike attacks, Totosai's fire still wiped out several dozen undead, giving the demon-slayers some much-needed breathing space. While Sounga's minions stood patiently behind the flames, waiting for an opportunity to move forward, the defenders reorganized their battle lines, preparing for one last stand against the army of monsters.
When the fire finally subsided, the living dead stepped forward in perfect unison, swords and spears out and ready...
And then crumbled into dust.
As the demon-slayers watched in stunned silence, Sounga's entire army simply disintegrated right in front of them. Nearly ten thousand walking corpses suddenly fell apart for no apparent reason, blanketing the already snow-covered ground with a layer of fine dust.
Midoriko could hardly believe her eyes. "T-t-Totosai," she stammered, "was that you?"
"Sounga is gone!" somebody shouted, "Hiromitsu finally destroyed the Great Demon!"
"No, it isn't over yet," Totosai said, pointing to where Hiro had been. "Look!"
Midoriko followed the old demon's gaze. There was Hiro ... and about twenty feet away, holding his sword high in the air, was Sounga. As she watched, Midoriko felt a strong wind from behind her, carrying the dust off of the ground and toward the Great Demon, forming a whirling spiral around Sounga.
"Oh, my," she heard Totosai say, "This is not good. Sounga is drawing all his power back into himself. He intends to finish off Hiromitsu!"
"Oh no!" Midoriko looked from Sounga to Hiromitsu and back again. Please, she thought, praying silently to whatever gods might be listening, Please keep him safe. Please let Hiro win!
-----
Sounga stood tall, grinning wickedly at Hiromitsu as power flooded back into him. The Great Demon's red-and-black armor, cracked only minutes before by Hiromitsu's fangs, seemed to heal in seconds - even the sharpened spikes he had thrown to injure Hiro regenerated, as though the armor was actually part of his body. Sounga's wounds closed up. Even his black cloak seemed to regenerate, rippling in the sudden, unnatural breeze, whole and intact.
"Now do you see the futility of fighting me, boy?" he said. "Prophecy or not, you were never a match for me!"
Hiro bared his teeth Damn! he thought to himself, Now I've got to beat him all over again!
As the whirlwind blew around him, Sounga sheathed his sword, spreading his arms wide, drawing in energy through every pore and laughing like a madman. "Now, runt," he cried, "taste the wrath of a Great Demon!"
And then he began to change.
Sounga's black cloak spread wide, seeming to merge with his arms, becoming a huge pair of leathery wings. Armor plates became glistening red scales, a diamond-hard, full-body sheath interrupted only by sharp, wickedly curved spines. Sounga's heavy boots split into three-toed talons. The Great Demon's crimson face stretched forward into a reptilian set of jaws filled with murderous sharp teeth, his neck elongating into a serpentine spiked appendage, thick as a tree trunk and nearly a hundred feet long. A long, muscular tail appeared at the back of Sounga's rapidly growing torso, ending with a bladed tip. Finally, sprouting from his shoulders like some grotesque pair of tumors, two smaller secondary heads emerged on their own long, thin necks, screeching with bloodlust.
Now in his true form, Sounga towered over Hiromitsu, a demonic dragon with a wingspan so wide that it blocked out the sun. Though his elongated jaws could no longer form words, the Great Demon's voice seemed to boom within Hiro's own head, hugely amplified. BEHOLD! I AM SOUNGA, THE GREAT DEMON, GOD OF DARKNESS, RULER OF THE EASTERN ISLANDS, AND I AM INVINCIBLE!
"No," Hiro snarled, not intimidated in the least, "you're just full of yourself!"
Sounga roared with fury, then unleashed streams of fire from all three of his heads. The blast was like nothing Hiro had ever felt before: an incredible, concentrated burst of heat that made him think of the fires in Totosai's blacksmithing shop, incinerating anything it touched. Hiro barely managed to leap out of the way, but even ten feet away from the flames, the heat was powerful enough to singe his fur cloak.
Hiro turned to face his enormous adversary, clutching the Tetsusaiga tightly as Sounga's heads reared back on their necks, readying themselves for another barrage. This time, Hiro stood his ground as Sounga launched another attack. "You want to play with fire, huh? Well, fine by me! BACKLASH WAVE!" Hiro countered the oncoming fireball with his own vortex of concentrated emotional energy in an attempt to redirect the attack back at Sounga. The plan only worked halfway; though his Backlash Wave managed to intercept Sounga's blast before it could roast Hiromitsu, the Great Demon's attack was simply too strong to be rerouted. The two forces canceled each other out in a massive midair explosion, spewing weaker gobs fire in all directions.
Dammit! he thought, My Backlash Wave might be good for self-defense, but I need some way to hurt him! "WIND SCAR!" He yelled, sending forth an energy bolt straight toward Sounga's center head. His attack hit Sounga between the eyes - and bounced right off, without leaving so much as a scratch on the Great Demon's armored hide. Instead of injuring Sounga, Hiro's attack only seemed to enrage the monster even more, prompting another three-headed blast. Instead of wasting more energy on another Backlash Wave, Hiro chose to dodge this time, letting Sounga reduce a patch of snow-covered ground to blackened cinders.
Come on! Think! In desperation, Hiromitsu shape-shifted into his giant canine form. If Sounga was more powerful in his larger form, maybe the only way to destroy him was by matching his tactics. Howling, Hiro sprang at Sounga, jaws wide open, trying to attack one of the Great Demon's writhing throats. As he launched himself into the air, however, Hiro realized that his plan wasn't very well thought-out; even as a Great Dog-Demon, he was barely even one twentieth Sounga's size. Still, when his flightpath brought him to the neck of one of Sounga's secondary heads, he bit down hard - nearly breaking half his teeth as he encountered the Great Demon's incredibly hard scales. Holding back a yowl of pain from his already-injured gums, Hiro hung on for dear life as the head whipped around, trying to shake him off. Though his grip was secure, Hiro just couldn't pierce Sounga's tough hide.
With another mighty roar, Sounga flapped his enormous wings and lifted off, heading up into the sky. DO YOU WISH TO RIDE ME, DOG-DEMON? Sounga's mental voice inquired. THEN I SUGGEST YOU HOLD ON TIGHTLY - IT'S A VERY, VERY LONG WAY DOWN! Cruel laughter echoed in Hiro's head as Sounga rise higher and higher. If he lost his grip now, a fall from such heights would shatter every bone in his body; unlike Sounga, Hiro's canine form lacked wings. The fact that the neck he had grabbed hold of was now twisting and jerking like a scale-covered bullwhip wasn't helping matters, either.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hiro saw Sounga's other secondary head lunge toward him, jaws wide, intending to physically pluck him off its comrade. Before it could reach him, Hiro jerked his whole body, letting go of the neck he had been clinging to, tumbling in midair. For one heart-stopping moment, Hiro was in free-fall; if he hadn't timed his leap right, or if Sounga's head pulled away, he would drop to his death.
Then he landed on Sounga's other secondary head, staring straight into its enormous crimson eyes. Before the dragon head could realize what had happened and try shaking him off, Hiro scrambled over its scale-covered face and stuck his left paw in between its right eye and its eyelid, using his claws to dig into the sensitive, unprotected flesh inside the lid. Once he had secured his foothold, Hiro reached up with his remaining front paw and slashed the eye open right across the huge black slit of its pupil. The dragon head let out a high-pitched shriek of agony, thrashing wildly as blood and foul-smelling jelly poured out of its ruined right eye. AAAARRRRGGGHHH! Sounga howled. YOU FOOL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?
You think this hurts? Hiro said wordlessly. Well, you ain't seen nothing yet! So saying, he took another swipe with his right paw, slicing open the head's second eye. The creature's screams rose in pitch and volume, and its jerking increased to a spasmodic frenzy of pain and anger.
With a mental yowl like nails on a chalkboard, Sounga's main head reared up, glaring at the tiny dog-demon clinging to his wounded subordinate. I'LL USE YOUR BLACKENED BONES FOR TOOTHPICKS! Sounga cried, his cavernous mouth glowing with fire from his own inner inferno. As a ball of red-hot flame shot toward him, Hiro let go of his temporary "host", letting its wild motion fling him toward Sounga's broad, scale-covered back. Meanwhile, Sounga's fire blast hit his injured secondary head, and the wounded appendage wailed as its crimson scales were charred black and its bleeding eye sockets were painfully cauterized. In retaliation, the blind head attacked the source of its latest injury - which just happened to be Sounga's main head. As it bit down on his throat, Sounga shouted, OWWW! LET GO OF ME,YOU NITWIT!
Man! Hiro thought to himself, And I thought he had issues before he became a three-headed iguana!
Shape-shifting back to his human form, Hiro caught hold of one of a row of curved spines sticking up from Sounga's backbone. The razor-sharp dorsal spine cut into his palm like the blade of a scimitar, but Hiro kept his grip, ignoring the pain and drawing the Tenseiga with his free hand. Though he knew that he could never pierce Sounga's armored scales, he realized that he wouldn't have to; bending down, he stuck his sword in at an angle, pushing it in between the overlapping scutes and, at long last, penetrating Sounga's defense. "DRAGON STRIKE!" he shouted, and a blast of his own positive energy zapped straight into Sounga's vulnerable reptilian flesh. Blue-white energy crackled over and through the Great Demon's enormous length as though Sounga had just been struck by lightning. The combined screams of all three of Sounga's heads were deafening. The giant beast bucked in midair as his wing muscles misfired, and Hiro clung tightly to the Tenseiga's handle, still stuck in Sounga's hide, to keep from falling off.
Sounga managed to get himself back under control. As one, all three of his heads swiveled back on their long necks. The two heads that still had eyes glared at Hiromitsu with murderous rage, and their burnt, blind companion had its jaws open, eager to exact its revenge. ENOUGH OF THIS! the Great Demon exclaimed. A dull red glow appeared in all three of his mouths, like triple pilot lights, growing brighter and brighter as they all targeted Hiro. The eyes of Sounga's main head narrowed to angry slits as he roared, BURN IN HELL, DOG-DEMON! Then, in perfect unison, Sounga unleashed his full power in a barrage of raw heat and concussive force.
Still hanging onto the Tenseiga, Hiro pulled out the Tetsusaiga as Sounga's attack surged toward him. "You first!" he retorted. "BACKLASH WAVE!" The two opposing forces met in midair, but this time, weakened by his injuries and the lingering effects of Hiro's Dragon Strike, Sounga's attack was far weaker than before. The Backlash Wave sucked up the oncoming fireball , combining its power with Hiro's own, redirecting the blast ...
Straight back into the still-open maw of Sounga's center head.
Sounga's main head jerked back, instinctively snapping his jaws shut on the ball of flame now trapped inside. When he looked back to face Hiromitsu, his crimson eyes were wide in shock, and his reptilian cheeks bulged almost comically as they tried to contain the force of the blast.
In a final moment of crystal clarity, he recalled the words Saeko, the blind seer, had said to him only hours before. "Sooner or later, your own cruelty is going to come right back on your head."
And, in so many ways, it just had; he was about to be destroyed, not just by Hiromitsu, but by his very own attack.
As the fireball in his mouth finally loosed its explosive power within his center head, vaporizing soft tissue, blackening bone, hard-boiling Sounga's once-powerful brain inside his own skull, the Great Demon threw back his main head in one final scream of profound anguish.
NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!
And then Sounga was no more.
-----
As Hiromitsu watched, Sounga's middle head exploded in a burst of fire, scorched scales and bone fragments. The Great Demon's last mental howl felt like sharp claws digging into his brain, and Hiro clutched at his throbbing head until the last echoes of it had died away. Meanwhile, the explosion of Sounga's main head started a chain reaction of smaller detonations along the Great Demon's flame-spewing windpipe. While his remaining heads, now cut off from their more intelligent leader, shrieked in pain, terror and utter confusion, the trail of destruction finally reached his main body.
Sounga's chest exploded in a white-hot nova as whatever internal furnace he had used suddenly erupted with the force of a small atomic bomb. In seconds, the blast ripped the Great Demon's gigantic body apart from the inside out. Skin, muscle and organs were vaporized. Sounga's gaudy red scales exploded outward in all directions like shrapnel, now just blackened debris. Even the bones of his enormous skeleton were seared, becoming nothing more than so much charcoal.
As the Great Demon's self-destructing corpse began to fall, Hiromitsu yanked the Tenseiga out of its dead flesh and made his way back toward Sounga's wings, sliding both of his swords into their sheathes as he ran. Just as the explosion reached the spot on which he was standing, Hiro jumped off Sounga's back and grabbed hold of one of the Great Demon's giant wings, hanging from the middle of the leathery appendage. When Sounga's torso exploded, both wings were torn free at the shoulder. Holding on for dear life, Hiromitsu rode the wind on Sounga's dismembered wing, shifting his weight to steer.
As the rest of Sounga's body plummetted to earth, trailing smoke and flame, Hiro soared off like a hang glider, whooping with victory and pure, unfettered adrenaline.
-----
From the ground, Midoriko watched with the other demon-slayers as the dark speck that had been Sounga suddenly erupted in a burst of white light. Immediately, every man, woman and child began cheering, realizing that that flash of light spelled the end of the Great Demon, and the freedom of every being east of the Asian continent.
Only Midoriko could not join them. She realized that, while Sounga's defeat meant freedom and victory, it also meant the end of her best friend in the entire world. Hiromitsu had been her protector, her companion, a big brother to her and the rest of the band of homeless orphans that they had once led through the wilderness. Though she had always known that he was somehow different - that he was faster, stronger and tougher than any human could be - she had always seen him as a person, as someone that she could trust and depend on when she needed him. And now he was gone ...
"Over there!" someone shouted. "Look at that! It must be one of Sounga's wings!" Searching the sky, Midoriko caught sight of the batlike glider coming down. Then she saw the white, man-sized object dangling from it, and Midoriko felt her heart leap in her chest. "Hiromitsu!" While the other villagers cheered, Midoriko pushed through the throng, racing downhill toward where she thought Hiromitsu might come down.
-----
While Hiromitsu might have made a very impressive spectacle flying on a dragon's wing, thirty seconds of holding onto a big, leathery glider that smelled like fried lizard made Hiro want to throw up. As he struggled to keep himself from gliding too far from the village, his flightpath formed a tightening spiral around the site where the rest of Sounga's body had crashed. At long last, Hiro let go about ten feet above the ground. Rolling to absorb the impact of landing, he came to a stop in the middle of a field of smoldering debris.
As Hiromitsu stood, he looked around at what was left of Sounga. The air was filled with foul-smelling ash that fell like black snow. Here and there, he could see large bones that had somehow managed to escape cremation, but even these were charred black from the heat of Sounga's fiery demise. Small burnt scales, like roof tiles, littered the ground. One of Sounga's secondary heads also remained, but every ounce of flesh had been blasted off it, and the blackened skull lay on its side, its long, tooth-lined jaws frozen open.
And there, standing in the center of the ruins like some ornate grave marker, was Sounga's own sword. As it had fallen, the tip of its blade had stuck in the ground. Even now, Hiro could see that the large crystal ball mounted in its pommel still glowed with dark energy, as though some malignant ember of its master's life force were still locked inside. Gritting his teeth, Hiromitsu walked toward toward the weapon.
There was one last thing he needed to take care of.
As he approached, the Great Demon's evil aura was almost palpable. It felt as though he was walking through a thick fog of raw anger and insanity, clouding his thoughts as well as his vision. The sword itself was trying to drive Hiromitsu away. When he finally laid his hands on it, the posessed blade quivered at his touch. Without warning, it leaped up into the air, as though intending to fly away and wreak havoc elsewhere, but Hiro's reflexes were faster. He caught the sword, holding it back.
Hiro bared his teeth. "Nice try, Sounga," he growled, "but now, you're going to free every single soul you've ever sent to the underworld!"
At this, the sword shook in his grasp, but Hiro held on, willing the demon sword to obey him. Finally, its feeble energies exhausted, the sword stilled in his hands, and its crystal ball went dark. Then, as though the crystal had become a portal into some other world, a flood of white light poured out of it. Suddenly, Hiromitsu found himself standing in the midst of a huge multitude of spectral figures: the souls of all the people that Sounga had killed since he had first begun his reign of terror.
Hiro fell back onto his seat, spellbound, as the liberated spirits floated about him, as though dancing to celebrate their long-overdue release.
Then he saw one of the figures approach him, and his face lit up with joy. "Saeko!"
The young woman smiled at Hiromitsu as she came closer, her spectral form rippling like smoke. Suddenly, Hiro noticed another major difference from when he had last seen her: the formerly blind seer's eyes had lost their strange reflective shine, revealing deep, beautiful emerald eyes.
"Hey!" exclaimed Hiro, "You're not blind anymore!"
Saeko nodded. "Actually, I never really was; it was only my physical eyes that couldn't see. I guess that's why I could glimpse the future in my dreams. I was seeing with my inner eyes instead of my outer ones."
"Well, whatever. I'm just glad you're not stuck in the underworld anymore." He gestured to the other spirits, who now seemed to be fading away. "Where are they all going?"
"Where we belong," replied Saeko. "I'd like to see if I can visit Mama and Papa one last time, just to let them know I'm all right." She gave Hiromitsu another one of her warm, beautiful smiles. "Thank you so much, Hiromitsu! You've done more good than you know."
Hiro tried to reach out to embrace Saeko, but his hands passed right through her. Then a thought struck him. "Hey, wait a sec! I've got Sounga's sword now! If you want, I could bring back your body for you, and you and all these other people could be alive again!"
Saeko's smile faded. "No, Hiro," she said. "We don't belong in this world anymore. Every person has to cross over eventually, and that time is here for us."
Saeko looked Hiromitsu straight in the eyes. "Hiro, please be careful with your power. Believe me, I know how tempting it can be to use your gifts for selfish reasons, but if you let it, your power might end up controlling you. That's what made Sounga such a monster; he used his powers to get the things he wanted, not caring what he did to other people in the process.
"Hiro, promise me you'll only use your gifts for good? Not for yourself?"
Hiromitsu answered immediately. "I promise you, Saeko. I'll only use the powers I've been given to help other people." He put a hand to her pale, beautiful face, brushing her cheek. "And I promise I'll always remember you."
Saeko smiled again, bringing her own hand up to - and through - Hiromitsu's. "Thanks, Hiro," she said. "You're a very good friend."
"Same to you, Saeko."
As Hiro brought his hand back, Saeko floated up into the air. "Goodbye!" she called back to him, then soared away on the afternoon breeze, fading away into the distance.
Hiromitsu stood there while the rest of the ghostly figures disappeared, until, at last, he was alone, surrounded by the blackened wreckage that had once been Sounga, a so-called Great Demon, a selfish creature who had wasted his entire life chasing after power.
Then he felt the demon sword in his hand begin to stir once more. Hiro looked down to see the crystal ball in its pommel glowing with dark light, shining like a baleful pink eye. As he looked, it seemed that he could almost see the shape of the future: himself, the sword of Sounga held in his hand, standing before a multitude of devoted followers, a ruler with matchless power, a warrior beyond compare, with strength and ferocity enough to conquer whole worlds...
All this could be yours...
I promise you, Saeko ...
Hiro shook the image from his head, baring his teeth at the cursed sword. "You think you can make me into a monster like you, Sounga? Well, think again!"
He raised the Sounga high into the air, pointing its tip toward the earth. "You want to rule so much?" he said. "For all I care, you can go rule in Hell!"
Then he threw down the sword with all of his might. Like a hot knife through butter, the demon blade sliced through soil and rock, burying itself so deep in the ground that even Hiro's sharp eyes could no longer see the glow of its infernal power.
Hiro stood over the tiny hole left by the sword's passage, breathing heavily.
Finally, it's over.
"Hiro!"
Hiromitsu looked toward the sound, and saw Midoriko running out to meet him, her arms open wide. The temptation of Sounga forgotten, Hiro rushed over to his girlfriend, wrapping her in a huge bear hug. As they pulled apart, tears of joy were streaming down both their faces. "Oh, Hiro, you did it! You beat Sounga! You saved everyone!" Midoriko exclaimed.
"Maybe," he said, "but I couldn't have done it on my own." He ran a hand through Midoriko's disheveled hair. "When Sounga was trying to kill me, the only thing that kept me from giving up was thinking of you. You're the reason I'm alive right now, Midoriko."
Hiro took Midoriko in his arms once again, giving her a peck on her forehead. Then Midoriko brought her lips up to his and gave him a long, passionate kiss.
"I love you, Hiromitsu," she said softly.
Hiro closed his eyes and smiled, drinking in Midoriko's warmth and rich, fresh scent. "Yeah, Midoriko" he said, "I love you too."
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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"
-Fight Choreography
The second half of Hiro and Sounga's fight features a major role-reversal. Whereas before, Sounga was the one using more and more and more powerful attacks and forcing Hiromitsu on the defensive, this time, Hiro is the one pushing Sounga's power further and further toward its limit. Once Sounga threatens his friends, Hiromitsu is fighting for more than just his own survival, and so he stops holding back.
When Sounga finally pulls out all the stops, transforming into a giant armored dreadnought, Hiro finds himself outmatched once again ... but this time, he doesn't fold under pressure. Since Sounga is too powerful to confront head-on, Hiro uses his head, chipping away at Sounga until he's weak enough to be beaten with a well-placed Dragon Strike and a Backlash Wave.
-Character Design
Finally, we see Hiromitsu and Sounga in their true forms! Hiro's, of course, isn't much different from how we see him in "Swords of an Honorable Ruler". He's big, he's white, he's fluffy, and he's bigger and stronger than just about anything else.
Sounga's three-headed dragon form is inspired by the three phantom dragon heads that appear when he makes his Dragon Twister attack. He's twenty times bigger than Hiromitsu's dog form, which makes for a "David and Goliath" kind of fight.
-Plot Development
This chapter contains both the climax and denouement (falling action) of the story. The climax comes when Hiro finally destroys Sounga in a fiery explosion. We get closure for Saeko and all of Sounga's other victims when Hiro frees them from the underworld.
Hiro's promise to Saeko - that he will never use his powers for selfish reasons - will, of course, shape much of the rest of the saga, as Hiro struggles to figure out how best to use his unique talents without crossing the line.
And, of course, like any epic hero, Hiromitsu gets the girl in the end. Lucky guy ...
This tenth chapter wraps up the story, while leaving a few loose ends to be dealt with in the next four stories. What's next for Hiromitsu? Will his relationship with Midoriko blossom? How and when do Sesshomaru and Inuyasha come in?
For the answers to these questions - and, of course, four more entertaining action-adventure stories - just keep your eyes open for the next four Tales of the Great Dog-Demon!
And, check out the Epilogue ...
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