Chapter 12: Brotherly Love
(One week, Six Days Post Incident)
"You look like crap," commented Narichiro, giving Kane a look over.
"Nice to see you again too," Kane joked. "Can I come in?" Narichiro's brown eyes stared at his younger brother for what felt like minutes, but it was merely seconds.
"No."
"Really? How hospitable of you," Kane chided.
"Narichiro, dear, who is it?" called out an older female voice from another room deeper in the house.
"Just one of the workers, Ma!" Narichiro called back. Kane cocked an eyebrow at his elder brother, and Narichiro shot him a glance demanding he keep quiet. "He just needs to discuss some stuff with me!"
"Oh, do invite him in!" Su-Ling responded.
"It's alright Ma, we can talk outside. Just play on without me, I'll be back in a bit!"
"Okay son, don't stay out too late!"
Granted permission for a clandestine meeting, Narichiro walked out of the house, forcing Kane to step back to make room for him and shut the door. Kane always considered himself a good, average size for a man at 5' 7" but Narichiro was easily six feet tall, and a life of farm labor alongside his farmhands kept him muscled. Narichiro looked down at his brother with the sternness Kane remembered from their father.
"Five years, Kanukata," Narichiro growled softly, "without anything more than the occasional letter. And yet you think you can just strut into this house, my house, covered in blood and bandages?"
"Will you let me explain?" Kane proposed calmly, violet eyes locked on his brother's.
"Oh you'll explain everything, Kanukata, but it'll be in the rice fields. I don't want Ma catching any of what you have to say." Without waiting for Kane to agree, Narichiro started walking down the raised dirt paths between the sodden rice patches, lit only by the silver light of the moon. Kane sighed and followed, knowing exactly where they were headed; the secret field.
It was a square of rice patch that sat at the bottom of a gently sloped hill near the back of the farm, and if one stood by the far edge of the pond, the hill obscured the family home from view. They loved going there as kids to hide from Ma, or Mu-Ling, or just to be alone.
Now they were using the secret field once more to hide from mother. Some things never change, thought Kane as they slipped out of sight of the house. Narichiro abruptly turned around, shoulders squared and hands clenched, to stare at Kane.
"Look, Kanukata…" He began, the sternness wavering in his eyes. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you alive and… well, healing," he grimaced. "But for Ma," he motioned to the house beyond the hill, "she's only started to not worry about you for the last couple years. She doesn't need to see this," he turned to gesture towards Kane, "not now."
"I agree. Truthfully, I didn't even want to come home until my wounds were healed," Kane concurred, dropping his bag on the ground beside him. "Didn't think Ma would ever stop worrying about me though."
"Oh, she still worries. Just not as often or as severely now," Narichiro corrected, "and I've been doing everything I can to keep it that way."
"Well that's good, because I have some unpleasant news," Kane proclaimed, and Narichiro crossed his arms.
"Your wounds certainly spoke of ill tidings with little subtlety," he responded dryly.
"I bet they did. This," Kane patted his shoulder, "was the work of a Reaper's scythe. Death wants my soul and sent a Reaper to retrieve it on my journey here."
"When you say Reaper," Narichiro narrowed his eyes, brow furrowing. "You mean like the legends associated with the Death Oni?" When Kane nodded, Narichiro's entire body tensed and anxious anger flushed over his face. "And you came here?" he growled, almost ready to slug his brother. "You are being hunted by the Death Oni and you came here?!"
"It's not that simple Nari!" Kane shot back.
"Yes, it is!" Narichiro advanced on Kane and pointed a finger in his face, brown eyes burning scornfully into Kane's gaze. "You finally went in too deep, got into something too dangerous, and now the consequences of your foolishness are upon you. And you're so incredibly childish that your first reaction is to come home to mommy!" He turned and stepped away from Kane, looking into the night towards his home.
"But not this time…" he said sternly. He squared his shoulders and prepared himself for the task at hand. There was no question; if Kane thought he was being hunted by death, then –no matter how much it pained him- it had to be done. His decision was made, his priorities set.
"Brother-"
"You will not endanger this family with your ventures!" Narichiro slashed the air as if slaying an enemy. "You have hurt this family enough already. It is my duty, placed on me by our father, to protect this family, and to accomplish that I can no longer allow you on our estate, in light of your predicament."
"Hey, imbecile, I am your family," Kane retorted, and the response was swift and furious. Kane didn't see it coming, but it came with meteoric force, sending the younger brother backwards into the rice pond. Kane sputtered and groaned as he pulled himself from the muddy water, Narichiro lording over him from the shore.
"You forfeit that claim when you broke communication with us for three years. When you ran off to fight some delirious necromancer without ever informing us we may never see you again; when we never saw you again despite your continued wellbeing. You forfeit your claim to this family when you gallivanted around the Spiral with no thought as to the consequences for the ones you love." Narichiro clenched his jaw and raised his chin. "You love only yourself, think only of yourself, and such a person cannot be part of a family."
Kane spat out more than a harsh tone, wiping mud off his face, "are you finished?"
"Leave, and don't come back here until you are free of this curse, and ready to be part of a family again." Narichiro turned away from Kane and walked back up the hill.
"I died on my birthday," Kane announced, causing his brother to pause at the crest of the hill, "when I came into the world, I was too sickly to survive, and I died in the arms of the goat monk who delivered me." Narichiro turned to look at his brother again.
"What are you saying?" In response, Kane explained what Tan Keng had told him about their grandmother and her curse, and how Ma had rejected her necromancy when she didn't save their father.
"I didn't come here for a pity party," Kane finished, rising to his feet. "I came here to warn you. If Death is serious about reclaiming what was lost, about punishment for my rebirth, then you could be in danger as much as me. All of you." Kane pointed at his brother, and then thrust his finger at the abode beyond the hilltop.
"That is the most ridiculous bull crap I've ever heard, and I live in Mooshu," Narichiro had his arms folded, completely unamused. "Even if your story is true, why would the Death Oni wait so long? Why now? And why bother coming after us?"
"I don't have answers, regretfully," Kane admitted, "but you need to be on your guard. I want to set up wards to keep potential minions of the Oni at bay."
"Leave," Narichiro frowned.
"Did you just hear me, or am I a ghost? I said-"
"And I said you are no longer welcome in this household. I doubt your magic, or your presence, could assist us in surviving if the Death Oni was truly intent on us," Narichiro declared, waving towards the bamboo forest. "Now go."
"Fine, you insufferable prick," Kane snarled, and whistled for his gryphon. When the beast materialized from a spark of golden light, Kane grabbed his gear and mounted. "I hope you're right though, and that nothing happens to make you regret this."
"We've survived without you for this long," said Narichiro factually, "I'm sure we can carry on doing so."
"Whatever," Kane snapped. He patted the gryphon's neck twice, and the majestic mount launched into the night, leaving Narichiro behind. The towering young man watched his younger brother leave with the solemn eyes of one who made a hard decision.
"Take care of yourself, Kanukata," he whispered to the moon before turning back.