Chapter 30 – The End of the Road

He woke up after some time to the feeling that the wagon stopped. He had no idea how long he's been sleeping, but as he wiped his eyes, he could see that the wagon still wasn't in the Human Village. He curiously turned his face to one of the merchants sitting on the wagon, who looked back with the same confused face.

"Where are we?" asked Kyouichi and yawned. "Why have we stopped?"

The merchants were all quiet and all were curiously staring ahead. Kyouichi also peeked out of the wagon and saw that the four Ryuuken guards were all standing in ready stances with their hands on the hilts of their swords. Lieutenant Takamori held something in his palm and stared at it with uncertainty. Kyouichi guessed that it was a magic detector, although much more effective and precise than the one he was given by Kirisame-san. Everyone was disturbingly quiet. It looked like the Ryuuken were expecting some kind of ambush. And it was exactly so…

In another second, a humming sound could be heard from the distance and it was quickly getting louder and louder. Lieutenant Takamori immediately let his eyes off the detector and vigilantly looked from left to right. In the next second, he shouted: "Incomiiiiiing~!" and hit the deck. The other warriors did the same just in time to evade a truly massive barrage of bright red missile-shaped danmaku shots that came from a further thicket of trees, distanced approximately 150 meters from the wagon. Each of the shots exploded upon impact and scattered smaller red shrapnel. One of the Ryuuken was holding his thigh with a painful grimace on his face. One of the shrapnel shots hit him. Everyone else was still okay, but the merchants began panicking, and one after another they jumped out of the wagon to take whatever shelter possible. The horses were neighing in terror as they were standing on their hind legs and dangerously kicking with their front ones. They too were frightened by this sudden danmaku assault. Kyouichi was still on the wagon, trying to figure if it was better to stay where he was or to follow suit and jump out like the merchants. By now the Ryuuken were all back on their feet, including the one who got hit and clutching their weapons. Another humming sound came from between the trees, signaling another incoming salvo of red missiles. This time, the Ryuuken evaded the shots completely and even managed to deflect the shrapnel with their swords. Two of the stray shots, however, hit the wagon's cover, easily ripping a hole through and missing Kyouichi's head by mere centimeters. He didn't need another millisecond to decide what to do now.

"Okay, the merchants knew what they were doing. I'm outta here!" he shouted and abandoned the merchant wagon. As he got out, he already saw one of the Ryuuken drawing his Spell Card for a counterattack against their unseen foe.

"Sharpness Sign "Grandmaster's Shuriken"!" he shouted as he activated his spell. The card dispersed into several dozen purple stars which instantly turned into actual razor-sharp throwing stars and jetted off at an incredible speed towards the thicket of trees where the attacks were coming from. Each of the shuriken left behind a bright purple trail of light. This attack seemed quite fast and accurate. As it hit the tree thicket, some of the tree branches fell down from this counterattack. Now they could all see a single figure ascend above the tree line and flying towards the Ryuuken. The guards raised their swords and pointed their tips at the oncoming enemy. Without any words, incantations or declarations they shot bright-blue laser-like bolts right from the tips of their blades. However, this unknown enemy evaded most of them without much effort and the rest of them he deflected with his own weapons. Yes, the attacker was a male, dressed in dark-red and black clothes similar to a monk's robe. He was almost bald except for the back of his head, where he had a really long strand of black hair tied into a ponytail. In each of his hands he held a kama – a traditional sickle-like weapon which was more generally used as a farming implement. Although Kyouichi never saw this man before, he was almost certain that he's a youkai. A quick glance at him through his magic detector revealed a considerable magical presence in his body. Even more than any of the Ryuuken possessed. He was now hovering in midair only about 20 meters away from the ambushed wagon. For a moment, the warriors ceased their attacks and waited for what this man had to say to them.

"If you surrender one of the humans to me, I'm willing to let the rest of you pass." said the man with ice-cold voice and overconfident look in his dark eyes.

"Oh, it's just you, Otoya…" murmured Lieutenant Takamori with an unamused voice. "Look, I'm really not in a mood for this today. Why don't you just turn back now and try your luck later when the odds are a bit better for you?"

Apparently these two knew each other well, although Kyouichi wasn't too sure if they were exactly friendly with each other.

"Hahahahaha~!" laughed the floating man, whom Takamori addressed as Otoya. "I could take on twice as many of you pitiful Ryuuken whelps, Akiyoshi-kun. But for now, I'll settle with just kicking your butt in a formal duel."

The young Ryuuken snorted and smiled. "Fine, but since I don't have much time to enjoy beating the crap out of you, we'll just have a quick 2 Spell Card fight."

"Oh, come on, Akiyoshi-kun. Where are the times when we had 6 card matches? This will barely be enjoyable."

"Hey, maybe next time…" said Lieutenant Takamori and readied his sword, "…when you can prove that you are even worthy of such an honor as being wiped out by six of my Spell Cards."

"Hmph… Sometimes I wonder why I haven't cut that arrogant tongue off of your mouth yet." mumbled Otoya and descended to the ground.

Akiyoshi looked at his Ryuuken comrades and gestured for them to stand back. They grudgingly obeyed their superior's order and sheathed their swords. The young lieutenant took a few steps towards his opponent and smiled. "I hope you've got a spare change of clothes after I rip yours to shreds and stain them with your blood."

"I like your sense of humor, Akiyoshi-kun. Now, try not to fall too early and spoil my fun." replied Otoya calmly and made some flashy spins with the kama in his hands.

"A ground-based duel, huh?" thought Kyouichi who was hiding behind the wagon and peeking on the scene of this upcoming fight.

The two rivals were standing in fighting stances and glaring intensely into each other's eyes for almost one entire minute. Then, as if prompted by some unheard signal, they each lashed out with their weapons to strike their opponent down. Kyouichi inadvertently held his breath as he watched the showdown. Both Akiyoshi and Otoya were formidably skilled with their weapons. While the Ryuuken was performing fast slashes, Otoya managed to block them all effectively with his kama. Then they switched their roles and Akiyoshi was on the defensive, trying to parry his opponent's lightning-quick jabs and cuts accompanied by a series of kicks. It was like watching a martial-arts action movie, only better. Clinking metal sounds echoed throughout the field as their weapons clashed. Finally, Otoya hooked Akiyoshi's blade with one of his sickles and moved it out of the way for his second kama to strike the Ryuuken's vulnerable body.

"Aaaah!" yelled Lieutenant Takamori as the claw of the weapon dove into his shoulder. His scream was immediately silenced by a kick in the stomach that knocked him down. However, the young Ryuuken was far from being defeated. In an instant he sprung up from the ground, evading Otoya's axe kick that just left a small hole in the rain-soaked soil. He didn't waste a second to draw out his first Spell Card and declared it: "Warrior Sign "Seven Virtues of Bushido"!"

Suddenly, seven orbs of light, each of different color appeared above Akiyoshi and spread into a wide line. At first, this spell was very similar to Reimu's Fantasy Seal, but the light orbs that were summoned by Akiyoshi's card each began forming into some sort of symbol. In a few seconds, these symbols were molded into words: Rectitude, Courage, Benevolence, Respect, Honesty, Honor and Loyalty. Then, each of the words began blasting its own stream of danmaku in different patterns and directions. Even Kyouichi, who hasn't yet seen too many duels could tell that this card was a powerful one - very confusing and hard to dodge. Even someone as agile as Otoya had apparent problems. While he was dodging and parrying the shots for almost 15 seconds without getting hit, the danmaku streams were gradually becoming more and more intense as the spell was fading. Otoya tried some really impressive dodging maneuvers, rolls and even a backflip, all the while he deflected the shots coming directly at him with his weapons, but this was simply too much even for him. He was struck in midair during a star flip by several of the shots and fell down to the ground face down. A few additional shots landed on his back before the Spell Card ran out of steam.

"Had enough yet, Otoya?!" Akiyoshi taunted him.

Otoya's laughter came as an immediate response. "No, Akiyoshi-kun. Your attacks are just so boring that I managed to have a little nap while dodging that last spell of yours."

He sprung up like a frog and he was back on his feet. "I won't even need a single card to take you out."

"You won't even get to using them." retorted the Ryuuken and charged him with his sword. Again, a scene of two weapon masters trying to land a blow against their opponent repeated itself. This time, however, Akiyoshi used Otoya's aggressiveness against him. As the man with kama began one of his dazzling combos, Lieutenant Takamori just leapt out of the way each time Otoya got too close. He didn't even block his attacks; he just evaded them altogether, holding his sword in a ready-to-lunge position, making it difficult for Otoya to surprise him by kicks. After more than a minute of dodging, Akiyoshi found an opening in his opponent's combo and launched a counterattack. He slashed his chest, thigh, right arm and even managed to strike his head with the hilt of his katana, knocking Otoya off balance.

"Not bad…" he grinned at Akiyoshi from the ground. "But to beat a youkai, you'll have to do better than that."

Otoya stood up and dusted off his robe. "Well, I suppose I'll use one after all…" he said and raised his hand with a Spell Card already between his fingers. "Rage Sign "Berserk Torrent"!"

An ominously looking dark-red cloud appeared above the scene of battle, blocking out the sun. It was large enough to shade even the three other Ryuuken who were watching the duel from a safe distance and even Kyouichi, who was still hiding behind the merchant wagon.

"It's a small miracle those two horses haven't fled in terror along with this wagon…" mused the outsider as he noticed the red gaseous mass forming overhead.

Suddenly a bright red flash came from the above, and soon after, another one, all accompanied by the sounds of thunder. It looked like Otoya summoned some kind of localized magic storm. After the few initial lightning bolts and thunders, all hell broke loose. Down from the cloud like a hailstorm came a shower of small red diamond-shaped shots and occasionally a few large red ball-lightnings came flying chaotically and made dangerously distracting and unpredictable movements. Lieutenant Takamori had a really hard time trying to fend off all of the projectiles. Surprisingly, he was doing a really good job. Until the storm intensified and the red diamond-shaped shots turned into brightly shining energy spheres which were not just falling, but literally shooting down from the red cloud. Takamori was now in a state of panic. His arms tried to make coordinate movements to move his blade just in time to deflect the next shot coming at him. Then as he made a step backwards, he tripped and fell on his back. His sword deflected another of the incoming spheres, which changed its heading in a very dangerous way. Kyouichi was still cowering behind the wagon when he suddenly heard a silent humming sound getting quickly louder…

A loud crash…

A bright red flash…

Flying chunks of wood…

And a strong hit in the head were the last things Kyouichi experienced before he stopped perceiving the world.