Summary:
Lord Daigo Kagemitsu meets Nimuru... It starts to get pretty dark.
Night had fallen on the forest, the frogs, the crickets and the fireflies, all began their nightly routine, just like any other night, indifferent to the boy lying on the forest floor, immobilized by pain.
"Your brother will not come back for you you know?" Jō chastised, "and if he does," he said now leaning closer to Hyakkimaru, and whispering in his ear, "I'll kill him slowly, and make you watch"
Hyakkimaru now no longer even had the energy to respond.
Jō pulled out a large sack which he opened up and began to reach for the boy's ponytail. "Okay now, here we go…"
Perhaps his brain had been rattled around from all those blows, perhaps he really was seeing a ghost, but from his special eyes, he thought he could see the shape and color, of a familiar soul, now looking into him as though she could understand what he was about to suffer through better than anyone else…
"Mi… o" he managed to whisper…. That face of hers and its true color, which he would never be able to see; seemed to be telling him that although he was going to be put through a hell that he couldn't have imagined, he would not be going through it alone, and that was the last thing he saw, before Chijoku no Jō's large hand yanked him up by his hair, and stuffed him into the sack where he would see nothing but darkness…
When Dororo and the rest of the party had returned with Hibukoro's treasure; they had not been expecting a parade, but at least to Dororo expected something closer to a hero's welcome than the solemn scene which she saw upon her arrival. The news of Hyakkimaru's kidnapping was among the very last things she had been hoping to hear.
Lady Nui had broken the news as softly as she could but still could not stop the feeling of dread that filled Dororo as the two of them sat on the porch, recounting and hearing of that terrible news.
And the name "Chijoku no Jō" which even a child like Dororo knew about, made the situation many times more stressful.
"But… that can't be!..." Dororo protested "Lady Nui! If Aniki has really been taken by that monster Jō then we have to do something now!"
"I'm afraid we are already doing all that we can" she replied sadly, as she recounted the details of what happened the night before, but her voice began to break;
"As soon as Tahomaru returned in such a rush, our servants knew something was wrong, they ran to attend to him, but he could only get out the words to describe the incident that occurred before he fainted due to his wounds… we sent whatever Calvary we had in every direction but we found no trace of them! They have disappeared! We organized a search party as quickly as possible, but Daigo's Army is currently too weakened to do anything more!"
Lady Nui put her face in her hands and began to cry, "and Tahomaru, my poor Tahomaru! He's suffering so much! He blames himself for what happened!"
"Does Dr. Jukai know about this?" Dororo asked after a few minutes, once Lady Nui had collected herself.
"I'm afraid not," she said "we haven't been able to reach Dr. Jukai, not yet"
"This is terrible," thought Dororo, "not only has Aniki lost his eyes for good and been kidnapped by these monsters, but it's Chijoku no Jō… that scumbag is notorious for his cruelty"
Next, Dororo went to see her bro's brother, with Lady Nui right behind her, although the latter had already informed her; of the state Tahomaru was in.
He was bedridden from his wounds and racked with guilt, so he did nothing but lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, and this is how Dororo found him upon entering his room.
"Tahomaru?" She whispered to him.
No response…
"I just wanted to let you know," she said as she entered the room "that we are going to get back Aniki! Definitely!..."
He still lay there.
"... We're definitely going to save him! And you should know he doesn't blame you for what happened! Not one bit! Aniki is not that type of person!"
Tahomaru began to mumble something…
"What is it bro?!.."
"They were demons…" he said "the two of them, they were demons and human flesh…. And I, Tahomaru… couldn't do anything against them, I was saved by my brother so many times… and now I can't save him…"
Lady Nui walked over to the bed and sat down beside her son, to caressed his head and told him that everything was going to be all right.
Dororo could only watch… despite her usual tomboyish confidence; this time she wasn't sure if it really would be.
Daigo Kagemitsu walked into a field at the end of a forest, his past dealings with the demonic world had made them almost as detectable to him as they were to Hyakkimaru.
Nimuru came from the other side of the field, meeting him in the middle.
"My my Lord Daigo" Nimuru commented, "you're looking rather down… but at least that x on your forehead has stopped bleeding, does this mean the twelve demons are no longer punishing you?"
"This mark on my head" replied Kagemitsu pointing to it, "began to bleed once I realized that I no longer had any intention; of feeding Hyakkimaru to the twelve a second time"
"Nufufufufu" Nimuru chuckled crossing his arms, "well you'll be happy to hear that I am not like the twelve, I do not Mark humans when I make my deals with them, I always trust them enough to know that they will do what, when they know that they are going to get what they want"
"That is reassuring," said Kagemitsu, "because I have indeed come to you with a request"
"Oh ho then… let's hear it"
Kagemitsu now fell to his knees and bowed to the demon; "I ask… that you release Lady Nui's son… Tahomaru's brother… my Son, Hyakkimaru!"
Nimuru did not react.
"In return!" Continued Kagemitsu "I offer you my own body! Nay! You can have my life! my very soul! Just please, let Hyakkimaru come home so that Nui no Kato… and Tahomaru can be at peace!"
Nimuru began to chuckle, and that chuckle turned into a cackle! How derisively he laughed at the once proud lord of Daigo!
"Lord Daigo! I overestimated you!" He said harshly, "what could I possibly want with anything that a washed-up old man like you has to offer me!"
"There must be something I can do" he implored.
"No," said Nimuru plainly, "and you would not want me to free the boy either"
"What do you mean?" Kagemitsu asked.
"You know what I am talking about Lord Daigo, you never loved that boy and you know it, the only regret you had after reneging on your will to feed him to the twelve demons again; was one of disappointment that it hadn't worked the first time, and you felt that maybe had you raised this child as your own; he could have restored your name by the strength of his own character, do not act as though you suddenly care for that girly-boy's well being!"
Kagemitsu felt a pang at how deeply Nimuru had read him. "If not for me" he pleaded "then for the sake of my wife and other son!"
"Now now there," said Nimuru, "you sound like you've given up"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I know you Lord Daigo, more than anything you still want to reach the glory that your ambitions lead you to" he now approached Kagemitsu.
"You are a Samurai Lord after all, you seek nothing short of total rule, and I was going to help you with that without you even asking me"
"What do you mean!" Demanded Kagemitsu.
Nimuru grinned devilishly as he approached him. "Let me show you..." he said, raising his hand to Kagemitsu's face, covering his eyes, and soon, Daigo Kagemitsu was seeing a vision of everything that Nimuru wanted him to see….
Hyakkimaru would be left to the mercy of Chijoku no Jō. Hyakkimaru already innocent, and Jō would take advantage of that, elevating his pleasure as he stripped his chew-toy of his innocence in the cruelest ways he knew how, he would beat, and torture the boy, make him cry and beg for mercy… he would sodomize him, and violate him as he had violated so many women in the past, earning him his disgraceful reputation, and Nimuru would observe all of this.
After a few days or weeks of this, Nimuru would take a letter he had written to Dr. Jukai. Nimuru would play the messenger, and hand to Jukai a letter describing in graphic detail, and mocking language, everything that was being done to his precious adoptive son, and it would be signed with Chijoku no Jō's name, and the location of his hideout would be hinted to.
After this, Nimuru would turn on Jō. he would first, kill all of his men who were posted outside of the hideout, and then wait for Jukai to find the off-guard Jō, standing over the beaten, bruised and broken body of Hyakkimaru.
Jukai who had feared his son becoming a demon on his path to regain his human body; would now see what a fool he had been, as the lines between human and demon began to blur.
It would be at this point that Nimuru would abandon the worthless Jō, allowing Jukai to beat him, but then in his rage, Jukai would drag Jō out of his hideout, and in a fit of justified fury; break his bones, flay his skin, cut off body parts, and nail him to a cross. Jukai who had been on his path of atonement for decades now; would be dragged back to the barbarism which he had tried so desperately to escape.
Hyakkimaru would be returned; a broken shell of his former self, suicide would of course be the suggested route, and his body; would be returned to the Demons.
Daigo Kagemitsu would retake his position, and his lands would prosper once again; Tahomaru having now been shown the cruelty of this world, would become just as cold and calculating as his father, his mind would develop to one programmed for victory, and domination; and Kakemitsu would have an heir who was just like he was, to inherit his prosperous lands…
When the Vision ended, lord Daigo Kakemitsu was shaking.
"Do you see now my lord?" asked Nimuru. "My plans are going to benefit you, and I don't ask for a thing in return"
"Your a monster" rasped Kagemitsu
"I suppose so" agreed Nimuru. "I like to break things, if I see a termite-ridden hole in the wall, I want to make the hole bigger, if I see a tree that is rotting, I want to kick it down, and If I see a broken man or a crying child, I want to see how much more I can break him down, I want to hear and see that child crying more, the suffering of Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru, the cruel fate that awaits Jukai…. I feed on things like that, at least your motives are noble in comparison to mine my lord, but motives aside..." he said darkly kneeling down to Kagemitsu's level.
"You still did some pretty horrible things, even worse than what I plan on doing, you still sold your own son's organs to the twelve demons in the hall of hell... " He stood back up and opened his arms "so why not do it again!? Sell your son down the river, to me this time, I won't even come back to claim anything from you, I'll just leave this country with your land's more prosperous than ever before, think about it lord Daigo… or don't, I'm doing you a favor anyways"
And he walked away, leaving Kagemitsu behind with his words… Nimuru had just offered him everything that he wanted, and at no cost to him, only to the son he had already forsaken...