Balance

I barely had the time to register that it was the very same medallion I had given Aia on the day he died before the Mononoke gave a collective hiss and surged forward in an attack. "Kutsuriuri! Aia!" I called, fiercely defending myself but panicking over the sudden return of a boy I had thought dead for nearly twelve years. Without even missing a beat, I quickly slaughtered two of the Mononoke rushing me, the dragon's maw opening hungrily to feast upon their remnants.

Even though I had seen Kutsuriuri prove himself time and time again during our battles with the Mononoke, the fear and paranoia I possessed over protecting Aia had resurfaced and was blotting out all other thoughts. My fighting was growing increasingly frantic as my prerogative became to get to where Kutsuriuri was fighting instead of actually trying to kill the Mononoke. All of the effort Kutsuriuri had put into allowing me to give him some space and some room to fight and grow was swept away. Once again, I was obsessed with protecting that little boy from so long ago.

Roaring, I charged the Mononoke surrounding Kutsuriuri. With a mighty slash, I drove the girls back into a semi-circle, keeping myself and my sword between them and Kutsuriuri, their numbers decreased to seven from Kutsuriuri's and my efforts. "Ahai! Ahai! Leyma yahuro aiaha semach'tha!" I shouted at them. Back! Back! Do not dare come closer!

With that, the girls gave one final malicious hiss before gathering their speed and deserting us, flying on nimble feet towards the town. I panted for a moment before growling that they'd gotten away. I made as if to follow them, but a heavy hand on my shoulder spun me to face Kutsuriuri.

Kutsuriuri's pale face was red with anger. "Why did you do that? If you hadn't jumped in front of me, we could have destroyed all of them! I was not in any danger! As it is, they're now going to wreck the town!" he shouted at me.

"Do not test me, human," I snarled back at him, my golden eyes shining from the fight and my own wrath.

"No! I have had enough of this! You had finally allowed me some space to breathe, to fight on my own, to trust that I can take care of myself! How could that accumulation of trust be so easily broken?"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

Silence.

My shoulders were shaking; too many emotions were coursing through me…anger at Kutsuriuri for not telling me, joy and relief that Aia was alive, sorrow that Kutsuriuri and I were fighting like this, desperation at trying to ward off the Mononoke…it was all too much. A single tear slipped from my closed eyes, and my shoulders tightened and my fists clenched.

"Why didn't you tell me you were Aia?" I whispered to him. "I saw the medallion, the very same one I gave Aia for his twelfth birthday, in your possession just now. All of our time together, you lied to me. You told me a story about your background that was a twisting of the truth. You saw that I was in pain over what I wrongly presumed to be your death, and yet you kept me in darkness."

Kutsuriuri was taken aback. "You saw?" he asked, his hand ghosting over his chest where the medallion lay hidden beneath his colorful clothes. I nodded. Kutsuriuri gave a sigh.

"All those years ago, I nearly saw you killed by the Mononoke, and I tried to save you. I remember pain, excruciating pain, and then blackness. When I woke up, I was in the healer's house in the town, and the priests at the Warrior's Temple were beside me. They told me that you had left me, that you didn't want me anymore. I was crushed…Occasionally I encountered Mononoke after that, though they were normally weak and alone and just happening to catch my scent. I learned how to fight them, and though I defeated them, I was not able to channel them back into the afterlife. During this time, I finally broke from the Warrior's Temple, angering the Father so that he banished me from the town. I took up my trades as a medicine seller, and during that time, I came across you. From the lies that the priests told me, I thought that you would not want Aia back, and so I was Kutsuriuri to you. Then we exchanged our stories over a year ago, and I found out that you had not left me voluntarily, but that you had presumed me to be dead." Here Kutsuriuri hung his head a bit, the red of his anger finally receding from his features.

"I didn't tell you the truth then because you had finally begun to start trusting me. If I had told you that Aia was back, you would have gone back to sheltering me and keeping me from ever helping you in your never-ending battle against the Mononoke, a suspicion which you proved to me today to be true. Why can you not accept that you are not the only one capable of fighting the Mononoke?" he pleaded with me, his icy blue eyes boring straight through me.

"You always tell me that you are the balance to the Mononoke, that you are just like them except good. If the Mononoke are a result of the human being, does that not also make you just like us?" Kutsuriuri asked.

I was struck. Long had I held myself above humans, considering myself to be incapable of succumbing to what I considered human weakness. But what Kutsuriuri said was right; I really was just like them. Though I was stronger, faster, and more capable of lasting without sustenance, I had proven myself, time and again, to think and act like humans. Oftentimes, it was not brawn that won a battle for me; it was strategy. What if I really did think like humans? What if that meant that humans such as Kutsuriuri could kill Mononoke, too? What if?...

I was brought out of my reverie by Kutsuriuri's hand on my arm. "Please," he begged. "Let me show you that I can fight them. If it looks as though I cannot handle them, then you may step in. But first, please let me try to fight them by myself. I fought off Mononoke by myself for thirteen years after you left me. Please let me show you that I can do this…"

Closing my eyes resignedly, I let the words slip past my tongue with only the slightest amount of dread. "Yes, Kutsuriuri. I will watch only until your life is in more danger than it already is."

With that, I once again picked him up on my back, and together, we raced towards the village to kill off these Mononoke once and for all.