'Mononoke! Mononoke! Sir, get back, now!'.
Scarred skin turned to glassy scales, like droplets of ice. A grotesque pattern of a limb, like something dead, held up by the man's arm like a prize. Enormous platelets with a featherlike design, but with the sharpness of daggers. This was all Ashitaka could make sense of the thing hanging out of the creature's back. He tripped backwards as the figure looked on with an indifferent expression.
'Aren't you going to kill me now? Or are you too stunned to move?' The tone was mocking but with a genuinely confused, perhaps even pitiful air.
He dropped the growth and it hung limply behind him. It was hard for Ashitaka to hide his disgust as it was clearly attached to him.
Ashitaka could only form words that immediately came to him, forgetting the surrounding context in shock.
'...Are you a spirit of the forest? Have you come to take revenge on this village and this boy?'
The figure walked towards him as Ashitaka regained his footing. The cries of the townspeople and the supposed mononoke's murmurs were muffled. The figure stopped abruptly in front of him.
'I'm just like you, aside from our countless differences. But I am human. I was. You twist my words. Like I said, Saburo is the enemy. I'm trying to protect you. Before long, my fate will be entwined with everyone in your precious town. So I beg you. Let me show you proof, and let me do what I will with him. That's all'.
'But…what? Saburo…he's just a boy, he hasn't done anything wrong'.
'A boy he may appear to be, but he's a fraud, just like the rest of his clan. I'm sure he has already cursed many of your people, just as he has done to me'.
'Curse?' Ashitaka's mind felt like it was tumbling away from him. All these strangers, the state of Tataraba, the ongoing conflict between modernity and nature, his relationship with San, his curse, his village. It was too much. Now was the worst possible time to fade out. But the body seldom listens to reason.
…
The young man's head slumped against the ground. Rauru could already tell he had lost consciousness. He rolled his eyes. 'Brilliant' he thought.
'Sir, sir, sir-!'
The incessant chanting of the crowd brought Rauru's attention to the squealing people above him. He thought the man on this side of the shore would make it easier for him to prove his case, especially since he seemed of a different kind to these ramblers from the lower world. But he just had to give into cowardice and put him into an even more precarious position.
His head swam with the enlightening poison of alcohol, making it easier to care less about this. He shouted up to the concerned voices.
'Shut your mouths. Bring me the leader of your town, and Saburo'.
The bodies leaned over the edge of the precipices of the town, shouting down at him with accusatory malice at what he had done to 'Ashitaka', especially the women. 'Impressive'.
Perhaps the compromisation of the man, Ashitaka or whatever his name was, could play into his hands after all. He stared up at them with a smile.
'This is quite a reasonable thing I ask, friends. Remember this man is here with me'. It was an empty threat, but they didn't have to know that. It might help to cure their stubborness and that could only be a good thing.
The hate in the villager's demeanours only grew stronger, but Rauru noticed others running off in fear. Surely this commotion would bring the leader to the forefront. Perhaps Saburo too, if he wasn't still being pampered by these foolish people. The heckling of the remaining crowd, crying 'Mononoke!', 'Villain!' seemed to fly right past him. Nothing he hadn't heard before.
Finally, two new figures came over to the forefront of the balcony, the crowd parting to make way. A man and a woman, the former lingering behind her as if to show a deference to his rank. A town led by a woman? How delightful!
Both stared down in anger and shock, especially the tall man, who looked ready to shoot him into smithereens using an unusual-looking musket. So those gun rumours were true about this place.
'You', the woman began, 'step away from the young man immediately'. Her words were sharp, commanding authority, and Rauru was already more than willing to listen to her.
She stared at him in silence a while longer, before turning to the man behind her and saying something incomprehensible. His response was far clearer, but she seemed to have some power of insistence over him, and they both disappeared from view. The command was revealed to him as he heard the creak of the makeshift gate rising. This woman was smarter than she looked if she could insinuate his intentions just from a glance. Besides, the crowd surrounding her, revealed as the gate rose to its full height, could easily kill him should he put one foot out of line. He glanced at the metal eyes ready to pierce his skin. Now that she was closer, Rauru could see that this woman was missing her right arm, as well as wearing the costume of a shirabyoshi. It was as if she were trying to show off the unlikeliness of her position as a leader, conveying herself like that. He almost respected her more for it. The woman stood her ground.
'I hope you have a good reason for this show, young one. Try to threaten anyone in my town again and we'll truly have scores to settle'.
Rauru's charisma rekindled itself as spoke his soft turn of phrase that had often gotten him out of trouble in the past (usually via misdirection, but hey, worth a shot).
'You see, my good lady, I don't want any trouble with your people. In fact I wish to enlighten them on the mistake they are making protecting this kid. I told Ashitaka just the same'. He gestured at the collapsed Ashitaka, who was now being hauled up by a few men, casting him dirty, fearful glances as they did so.
He addressed them unexpectedly, as well as the leader. 'You stare at my growth? I understand, it is quite unsightly after all', He carelessly waved it around a bit, and it flopped to and fro in a limp, grotesque mess of mottled flesh and feathers, ' But by no means did I intend to frighten you with it, no, no, in fact showing you this is the only way to convince you that I'm right'.
'Make sense, you beast!' The man with the musket blurted out in horror. Much of the crowd had begun to retreat from the conflict, fearing the worst and wanting to arm themselves and protect their loved ones. Through the dissipation, Rauru could make out a very familiar figure running towards him, his eye covered in white bandages and the other wild with fear. Rauru smiled and his heart sped in anticipation.
'Of course that's how he hid it' he thought. 'Makes my job far easier'.
'W-wait, Lady Eboshi, I'm here! What's going-
…
It's you?'
'How did you find me?' He whispered.
The world darkened and it was only him and Saburo standing apart from each other, all sounds but their own rushing blood in the atmosphere. Saburo felt like he was drowning, stumbled forward.
'No..'
The crashing waves of blood became louder, deafening him, before separating into the sounds of scraping gravel and the quiet murmur of the lapping lake.
'HE…did this to me. He gave me this curse of the flesh. You call me the mononoke, but it is only I who is brave enough to show you my shame. If you do not protect yourselves, my fate will become your own'.
The people became nothing but voices, losing individuality, only eyes and ears to provide grave acceptance of the truth.
'No…Rauru, that's not-that can't be'.
'No more lying Saburo'. He spread his arms like a Messiah. 'Everyone, I am not the only one whose sins lie on his skin'. He rushed forward with a wild energy, pinning Saburo down with his awakened wing. He struggled only momentarily before succumbing to his own misfortune. The crumpled white bandage was torn from him. His eye opened to the cold air and the metamorphosis was complete.