Chapter 9: Katoma Toyuki Returns
Hiryuu woke up. He looked around. He was chained to the floor of a large cement room. The only things in it were the barred windows high above him and a steel door and some folding tables off to one side. He couldn't figure out what this was. Whatever it was he had to get out.
"It's awake!" he heard someone above him yell. He looked and saw the light from one of the windows was partially blocked by the figure of a man. There were footsteps and a few other men looked in from other windows. One of the men looked down into the cell, poking his head between the bars.
"Quicker you die, quicker you make everyone happy," the man said. "You're gonna make the four of us very rich."
"Who says I'm caught?" Hiryuu said casually. He looked at the large chains pinning down his legs and wings. It had obviously been a very rushed job, probably because whoever tied him down didn't want to be there when he woke up. Hiryuu pulled at the chains one at a time pulling the bolts out of the cement. He stood up to rip out the chains that were fastened between the bases of his wings and used his claws to break the ones holding him down at the middle of each wing. He then stretched, yawned (showing his rather toothy jaws), and sat down. He could see the men looking very fearfully at him and each other.
"So how long have I been lying in here?" he asked the ceiling. It took a few seconds for the man to answer.
"Two days."
Hiryuu was suddenly tense. If he didn't get out and track someone down in the next two days he would be responsible for a lot more innocent deaths. He had to get to October fast. He stared up at the ceiling. It was steel framed with a tin roof, but it probably couldn't hold five tons. He spread his wings and jumped up doing half a back flip and grabbing onto the steel rafters. They creaked threateningly and Hiryuu could see he was moving slowly toward the floor.
"Get off a there!", "What are you doing!", "You'll destroy the whole building!" the men shouted at him.
The ceiling finally caved and Hiryuu rode it down landing hard on his back as it swung open like a giant door. There was a gaping hole in the roof of the room and Hiryuu quickly jumped up and flew out of the room. The four men on the roof shot at him in vain as he escaped. He could hear people below in the town of Texas screaming as they saw him flying across the afternoon sky. He gained enough altitude so the only thing he could hear was the wind as he tore through the air. He loved flying but rarely got the chance ever before. Now that it really didn't matter if people saw him or not, he didn't care if they saw him soaring across the suns. The colder air of the high altitude was overwhelmingly pleasant in comparison to the squelching heat of the sandy planets surface.
The city of October loomed on the horizon and he dropped into the desert. He didn't feel like making his presence in October known too quickly, he just wanted to get there and do what he needed to do. He still wasn't even sure if she would even be there. He hoped she would be and he could get vengeance for what she had done to him. That or she would kill him in the fight, either way he would no longer have to kill anyone anymore.
Hiryuu became human as he walked toward the big city across the evening desert. He took his coat and flipped it inside out so the dark blue fabric of the inside showed. He also took his knife and trimmed his hair until it was short and stuck up in uneven black spikes. He walked onward through the desert as the wind picked up throwing the sand at him. He looked up at the city of October as dust started to obscure it and put on his sunglasses, walking onward.
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Kristyn drove toward October, wondering whether it would stop there or continue westward. She and Myra were given a new assignment by their boss. They were to exterminate the monster known as Hiryuu the Flame. Myra had not been herself. She sat in the passenger side of the jeep and looked out at the dust storm they had headed south around. She was slouching and, worst of all, she was not smiling. Kristyn looked over at her. She had never seen her like this. What had happened to her at the saloon? What had she seen? Kristyn didn't feel like stirring her. She looked ahead at the big city to the northwest. She had never been this far west before.
They arrived in October to find it nearly completely empty. No one was out in the streets save a homeless man huddled in the door of the sheriff's office. Every window was bolted shut and every door was locked and had signs saying things like "no vacancy" or "do not enter". They got out of the car and strode down the street.
"Someone's here!" a far off voice shouted a warning.
"They're women, you idiot," an old woman's voice said, scolding the first. "Where are you from young ladies?"
Myra looked up from the ground toward the window the woman was hanging out of.
"We are waiting for him," she said, her voice very sturdy and low-toned, unlike her usual giddy pitchy self. Kristyn looked over at Myra as cracked open window shutters slammed shut up and down the street. She looked back to the dust storm in the east that would be bearing down on them very soon.
"Myra, I don't think anyone is going to let us ride the storm out in any shelter now," Kristyn said, though not accusingly. "We'll have to find a way to hide from the storm."
They went back to the jeep and parked it in a narrow alley and started putting up the canvas top. The wind started to pick up and the dust started to fog up the area. Kristyn watched the windshield suddenly become covered in sand. She looked over at Myra again.
"Are you alright?" she asked. Myra continued to stare at the dashboard. Kristyn didn't pressure her any further than she already had. She watched as even the light from the side and rear vinyl windows faded to darkness in the raging sandstorm. Darkness enveloped them.
"Did you see him?"
Kristyn looked towards her right in the complete darkness, surprised.
"Did you?" Kristyn asked in return.
"It was the most terrible thing I had ever seen," she said. "He was just a monster. Kristyn, if we hadn't gotten out I think he might have eaten us."
"Oh, come on, now. He wouldn't have hurt us. The only people he killed were people I myself would have done in if--"
"He scares me, Kristyn."
The only sound was the dying win around them. The darkness started to clear enough that they could see it was still very dusty. The car was covered in sand. The light revealed the fright on Myra's face and the surprise in Kristyn's eyes.
"If you want to head back and have someone more professional do this…" Kristyn started to say.
"No! No," Myra said. "But we're not going to kill him. We can't and we can't let anyone else try either."
Kristyn was puzzled by the sudden resolve Myra had.
"Well, we need to get this show on the road," she said getting ready to start the vehicle. She stopped staring straight forward her head cocked slightly to the side.
Myra wondered why Kristyn hesitated than saw why. There was an old woman in the middle of the road directly in front of the entrance to their alley. She was not facing them, but facing eastward toward the exit of the town.
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"Katoma Toyuki. Long time, no see," the hag said as though he were her grandchild.
Hiryuu gave the woman a look of disgust.
"That's no longer my name. Nice to see you survived long enough to board the exodus as well, though, it's hard to exact revenge on something light-years away on a dead planet."
"Earth didn't take my fancy, either," the woman cackled. "But seeing as all you want to do is hunt me down while I'm here, I don't plan on staying long."
"Before we finish this the hard way, I want to know why you did this to me and would you undo it."
"I'm surprised you remember this dead language at all, last time I heard Japanese was over a century and a half ago. Not that that's any significant amount of time to me"
"Answer my questions."
"Because I could, and no, I won't."
"You spiteful wench, when I'm through with you, you'll wish you never met Katoma Toyuki in Kyoto."
"I thought you were Hiryuu. Hmm, I wonder why you have that name."
"Because of you," Hiryuu said in an icy voice.
----
The woman continued speaking to the unknown person in the unusual language. The hidden male voice exploded in just as unintelligible words that indicated an oncoming fight. The woman walked forward and out of site of the girls. As the sand storms remaining dust cleared the silhouettes of two giant creatures facing each other fell on the facades of the buildings on the other side of the street. Within a few seconds there was a sudden rush of air and a deep roar and dust clouded the street again. Kristyn started the car. The building to their right suddenly exploded into the alleyway as they shot the jeep backwards in reverse. Kristyn scraped the buildings on either side and came out in a small street. She turned slightly causing the jeep to skid through the sand and face into the city. She gunned the jeep's already complaining engine and watched the rear view mirror.
"Why are we running away?" Myra said.
"I didn't feel like being crushed by the building falling."
She stopped the car a good 200 yards away from the building that collapsed. She thought about the people who had been inside. Then as she watched the dust settle she saw two giant beasts, one red, one black, equivalent in size and shape. It was Hiryuu and the old woman, but they were now ungodly beasts, the black easily eluding the reds angered attacks. The black monster easily hurled the red across a few buildings, destroying them completely. The red shot fire at the black and the two of them stopped and remained in a ready stance. They seemed to be awaiting the other to move.
Instantaneously the two shot up into the air and the black chased the red. The two giant monsters locked together trying to drive the other lower in a head first dive back towards the city. They landed in front of the jeep and shot sand and pavestones into the air. When the dust cleared there was a large crater stretching from the faces of the buildings on either side of the street. The sand that was thrown into the air settled on everything again renewing the layer of sand the storm had left on the buildings.
The two girls in the jeep looked around to find the two dragons gone. There was no sign of them anywhere. Myra stuck her head out the window to search the sky.
They were gone.
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Hiryuu tried vainly to flap his wings only to realize they were no longer there. The ground seemed so far away. His vision prospective had changed. He was human again. But he hadn't converted himself, especially not a few thousand yards in the air. He tried, again in vain, to revert to his dragon form. He could not do it. Had the hag returned him to his human self completely, and at this altitude. He searched above for her. She was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm down here," the voice cackled.
Hiryuu tried to turn through the air to see the woman. She seemed to be falling as though she was inside an invisible shield saving her from the wind. Hiryuu looked at the ground again but it seemed no closer than before. Were they that high? He could see passed Texas in the east and October was a speck below them. He even thought he saw April on the far horizon. He looked at the ground again. He must have fallen two miles, now. The wind ripped through him in a fury.
"Is it over then?" his words were lost in the ripping current of air. He realized that there was no current in the air. Everything is relative. He was falling that fast.
The ground grew closer. The wind in his ears shrill. The hag smiled. He smiled back. Her face contorted with hate and her image disintegrated. Hiryuu watched the ground coming closer. The city of October grew before him faster and faster. He watched himself approaching the city's central square. He was aimed straight for the center of the sand covered pavestones. He watched the city suddenly engulf him then …
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The sound of a bomb going off echoed through the city. Myra saw a shaft of sand shoot high into the air. It fell slowly trailing in the wind. Kristyn gunned the sputtering jeep across an alleyway onto the main road. The city square was fuming dust. The jeep skid through the sand and halted fifty feet from the dust billowing out of the new crater in the center of the square.
Myra fanned at the dust as though her hand could clear the thirty foot wide crater in a few sweeps. After a few minutes it had cleared enough that they could see a dark object at the bottom.
The object coughed several times. It moved. It took the shape of a man as it stood up. It was Hiryuu.
He climbed out of the hole in the ground dusty with a surprised look on his face. Myra looked at him. She scrutinized him. His face especially.
"Something's different," she whispered to Kristyn.
Hiryuu brushed himself of and then seemed to be expressing some effort to do something. He looked as though he had failed and walked towards the jeep which finally stalled. Kristyn tried to start it again to no avail.
"Oh!" Myra said in her usual pleasantly surprised voice.
"What?"
She smiled and pointed at Hiryuu. Hiryuu paused confused as well. Kristyn then saw it also.
"Oh!" she said, her face crack a small smile as well.
"What is it?" Hiryuu asked the two girls. He thought they would have been frightened of him by now.
Myra seemed suddenly lost in what she saw. Hiryuu couldn't figure out what was going on.
"You're really handsome without bright red eyes," Myra said.
Hiryuu suddenly froze. His eyes weren't red? Did that mean that the hag had returned him to normal? The look of hate she had had in her eyes as he fell argued against it. Before he knew it he had rushed to the jeep's side view mirror. Dark blue eyes stared back.
Like his mother's eyes.
Next, Chapter 10: Dissapointment