ISHIKOZUME by Kondoru
Part Two-The Torture of the Pit.
Standard disclaimers
Thanks to JP for Betaing.
It was dark in the forest. The night was starry, with a waning moon hatched by scudding clouds. It was early autumn, and the sound of crickets filled the air. The bamboos creaked thoughtfully in the wind.
Some way up the track was a glade, once quiet, now the centre of mysterious and mystical activity.
There was a sacred space marked by four posts on which were paper shide strung on rope, they fluttered in the slight breeze.
Unusually in this space was a round boulder, one as big as a horse. It was propped up by two thick logs. While his samurai companion was searching for the Onikui tengu, Ichinomiya Kiri had scouted though the woods at the back of Lord Edogawas estate. "What are you looking for?" said the Lord, one day when the exorcist came in late, covered in mud and bramble scratches.
"I'm looking for a boulder suitable for a god body..." Kiri had replied over a hot cup of tea.
"Setting up a shrine to pray for success?" Ryosukai, Lord Edogawas white haired advisor asked.
Kiri shook his white haired head sadly. "No, not at all." He looked into his half full cup as if scrying. "I need a suitable vessel for binding the Onikui as soon as we catch him."
"Bind him? Can you do that?" Lord Edogawa was curious. "I thought our youkai busting hero is going to kill that monster."
Kiri inspected a nasty thorn gouge upon the back of his hand. "Minamoto Raikato wants to defeat the tengu, if that involves killing him..." He thoughtfully peeled off a snippet of dead skin. "I won't stop him, but I want to see justice done. So we are going to try to bring him in alive."
Lord Edogawa went pale. "Can you hold him?"
"I think I can for a while..." Kiri went back to his tea bowl. "I'm going to prepare a cell for him. My spells are strong."
"Would it be safer just to kill him and take his head?" asked Ryosukai.
"I'm the one who is working to see justice done...I'll do it my way."
Lord Edogawa backed down though not without any good cheer. People like Ichinomiya Akai Kiri you simply do not argue with.
"Think of how I feel." Kiri sighed. "My parents abandoned me because of my strange looks. They called me a youkai!" He sobbed. "I grew up with youkai as my only friends. Youkai do not judge by appearances, they can see the inner you. Many are of quite uncomely looks. When I was an adult I was cast out of my village and sent into exile. So I learned magic." He looked down at his scratched hands. "I live by my powers...They are the only thing I possess in this world. They gained me a wife, I have two sons and I pray in thankfulness every day that they were born normal!" He rubbed a cut thoughtfully. "Whenever I go into a village people stare at me, they pull their children away from me lest I curse them with my red eyes." he fixed his gaze upon Lord Edogawa. "The Onikui Tengu is also an exile from his people. He is an outcast from the Tengudo. He lives alone."
So Ichinomiya Kiri had found a boulder, it looked like just any moss grown rock in the forest, but to the otherworldly red eyes of the master Exorcist, it was just ready to receive a kami.
Shame the kami did not want to enter an Iwarasaka.
That wasn't Ichinomiya Kiris problem, he prayed over the boulder, strung it with gohei, and burned incense before it.
"You will do," he said firmly to the rock.
This had been two weeks before. Three days after that the Onikui tengu had been carried in unconscious on a shutter.
Ichinomiya Kiri had chosen an auspicious day for his version of the Ishikozume rite.
It was midnight on a calm starry night in late summer. The glade was brightly lit by a sacred bonfire and torches stuck in the ground.
And there was the boulder.
The boulder was heavy. It had taken twenty strong men and a lot of levers and pulleys to get the thing into the position Ichinomiya Kiri wanted it in.
Underneath the boulder was a hole, neatly walled by white stones. Inside was a plain reed mat.
Somebody was going to be buried alive. But that was the justice of the Shugendo. Rough Justice.
There were the sound of footsteps and twenty yamabushi filed smoothly into the glade, in their best (i.e. least scruffy) regalia, the pillbox hats, pompoms, and swords of their esoteric order. Each of these items had mystical significance.
They were all senior yamabushi, of several mountain retreats experience.
These were followed by Lord Edogawa in his best formal outfit, eboshi on head, fan in hand. He was followed by Ryosukai, his grim looking wife, who still bore her naginata as if she was never going to part with it.
The centre of all this attention was a tall young man, who strode along, surrounded by a guard of six fully armed and armoured samurai.
He was dressed simply in a long white robe, -the colour of death and of one who is about to die.
this individual had shaggy roughly cropped hair, and a pleasing face, somewhat offset by the untameable fierceness in his red rimmed eyes, eyes that in spite of the darkness, were fully dilated. Most interestingly he had a pair of black feathered wings folded upon his back. But then, he was in fact a tengu.
The Onikui Tengu looked around him, at the cherries and bamboos, the fire, the impassive faces of the yamabushi. So this was the end, was it?
The tengu had expected to go down fighting. He was a tengu and expected nothing less of the Tengudo.
But this was the Ningyo. Things were different here.
Close behind was Minamoto Raikato, the hardened monster hunter. He bore a big bundle of fresh ofuda and a pensive look on his face. Minamoto Raikato was no magician, beyond the most simple that any experienced martial arts practitioners would know. However he was fully aware of the capabilities of many common youkai, including the tengu. He did not like to doubt the competency of his exorcist friend, but he was wondering if Ichinomiya Kiri had bit off more than he could chew.
Ichinomiya Kiri came up, supported by two monks, the exorcist had weakened visibly over the last few days, he had worked almost constantly to keep the powerful Onikui tengu from breaking the wards that held him paralysed. For the captive was down, but not broken.
Ichinomiya Kiri stepped free of his escort, taking his sacred shakuju, off of a senior. He drew in his breath several times, mentally preparing himself for the rite.
Ichinomiya Kiri was not even sure if it would be a success. No one had ever tried anything remotely like this before.
But he was confident in his abilities. He had kept the Onikui tengu bound this long. Now to make it permanent.
He pointed his shakuju at the tengu. "You are the dread Onikui Tengu, a monster among monsters!" his powerful voice belied his frail appearance; "you kill and eat oni...Not just oni, but possessed humans and even your own kind! You live on the flesh of sentient beings! You are the lowest form of life!"
The Onikui grinned at that, sharp canines glinting in the firelight. He was used to being cursed for his misdemeanours.
"Not even your own rulers, the Dai tengu, rulers of many mountains wish to see you spared. Lord Edogawa has received several messages from Dai tengu who wish to remain nameless, requesting we turn you over to them for justice." Ichinomiya Kiri planted his staff firmly on the ground. "I for one do not wish to imagine what discipline on the Tengudo might mean." He gave an evil smile. "I imagine such powerful beings have a way of caging evildoers for several human lifespans, if not millennia."
The Onikui was pale. All knew he had hated the cage his captors had incarcerated him in.
"Or something suitably cruel and unusual." Ichinomiya Kiri shook his white haired head. "I'm not a tengu!" He shouted to the horizon, "But I, Ichinomiya Kiri, am going to give you a second chance! I made a vow, once, that in return for great spiritual power, enough to defeat any ikiryo, gaki, yurei, ...Indeed even you, the strongest of all tengu, I would show mercy, I would listen to what the youkai had to say, for I have compassion, I would not banish, since I myself was banished for my abilities and appearance, I would not judge, for that is not my job, above all, I would not kill, because I myself am mortal."
All were silent.
"No, Onikui tengu, you thought your sentence would be to be executed by Ishikozume rite, did you not?" Ichinomiya Kiri gave the smile of one who knows his enemy is completely in their power.
The Onikui was silent.
"It's not. I for one would not pollute the land with the blood of one who has fallen on the Tengudo, one who is a known dealer in heterodox ritual, one who cannot control their lust for blood, one who eats the flesh of men, oni and tengu, one who belongs neither to heaven, though you are a powerful kami or hell even though you are a demon, or the world of beasts, though you may be a bird, or the world of asuras, despite your prowess in martial arts, or the world of men, despite your formidable intellect, or that of gaki, though your appetites are monstrous and unappeasable." He paused, "No, you are a tengu, born a tengu, reborn a tengu, incapable of salvation."
The Onikui glared around him with bloodshot eyes, was he going to get a lecture on his own spiritual deficiencies as opposed to the innate superiority of these weakling mortals. Mentally he prepared a spell.
"Let us pray we never fall to the sin of pride, for we see before us, the face of one who is a monster beyond redemption because he listened to himself before the kami, and had the devil of ego in his heart. Let us spend a million years in the avici hell before we fall to one day on the Tengudo. One day will be enough to damn us."
...If he could break these ofuda, he would be able to overpower one of these yamabushi, grab the guys sword...The Onikui smiled, his canines jutting as he mentally tested the wards, there would be a bloodbath here.
The Onikui tengu liked bloodbaths...
...He leapt catlike out from his surprised escort, one had the reactions to turn and thrust a naginata at him, the swordlike blade missed its target and slashed empty air.
Minamoto Raikato leapt forwards, if Ichinomiya Kiri was preoccupied with the rite, Minamoto Raikato was still alert and watching his prisoner for any mischief. Several times a day he had to pounce on his charge and stick new ofuda on him, for the dratted things had only a finite life, and the tengu fought against them constantly. Minamoto Raikato was sad, who could blame him? Tengu had a strong will to live; it was pitiful that this one's near immortal life should be brought to an end by humans.
in two bounds he was behind the Onikui, who mercifully was not making a sudden break for the sky...Minamoto Raikato could not follow him there, but bearing down on the leading yamabushi...And their swords.
Kamisama, no, not their swords...
Minamoto Raikato leapt like a tiger, bowling down the Onikui and scattering the startled yamabushi like dolls. He sat up, slapping a tengu paralysing ofuda on his now rather squashed victims back. The samurai and yamabushi crowded round, pointing various weapons at the aspirant runaway.
Minamoto Raikato got off him and yanked the Onikui to his feet by his hair. "Don't even think about it, tengu," he advised. Minamoto Raikato turned to the others. "It's a shame you misused your strength, I have known many tengu, one thing you must remember is...Tengu are not evil." Minamoto Raikato had to take his chance to lecture his victim.
"So I'm not going to kill you." Ichinomiya Kiri nodded to all, "what would that achieve? You will only be reborn as yet another tengu, won't you? Instead I plan to bind you in this rock, there you will remain, be it years, centuries or millennia, until one who is as strong as me will set you free, you will sleep, and you will not dream." The assembled yamabushi gasped. They had prepared themselves mentally for the Ishikozume rite, one of the most spiritually demanding in their faith, and one fearfully close to heterodoxy. Though it meant the pollution, -and guilt, of death, it also purified their community by the just execution of a wrongdoer, and offender against their faith.
All knew that if the Onikui had been captured while in the realms of the Tengudo, this would be his fate. They were doing nothing wrong.
The Onikui was lost in thought, he bowed his head submissively. He hadn't expected to be spared. He had no real concept of mercy.
"No, this is not your punishment from me, my chastisement is," Ichinomiya Kiri gave a grim smile, his red eyes glinting in the firelight, "to take your name off of you, leave you nameless."
The tengu, who all though the ritual had remained as stony faced as the yamabushi, burst out into tears. "Do what you will with me, but don't leave me to die without a name!" He squalled.
Ichinomiya Kiri was also weeping. "I'm doing you a big favour...Do you want to be called `Demon killer` for the rest of your life?"
"It's my name, the only name I own." was the plaintive reply. "Don't do it, master, please!"
"They who will release you will give you a name, so you can turn over a new leaf, I'm sure. And you will answer to it, petty or embarrassing it might be, as they will take no risks with such a powerful monster as you, but will bind you to it."
"I'll be no mans slave!" Snarled the Onikui, He fought against the ofuda.
"You will obey them...It's part of the condition of your eventual release." Ichinomiya Kiri said sadly, "did you think I was going to turn you loose on an unsuspecting world? A world which will have forgotten what a monster among monsters the Onikui Tengu is?" He looked sad. "I'm no liberal and nor am I foolish."
He made no mention that such a long period in statis would render the Onikui without his memories...That way he would be forced to reform.
Ichinomiya Kiri nodded to the two of Lord Edogawas men, they grabbed the helpless creature by the arms, the unfortunate tengu was marched up to the boulder and seated firmly on the straw mat, his eyes were full of apprehension as if he couldn't quite believe that he was in this situation. He snuffed the air, cocked his ears and looked around; trying to take in the world he was going to be locked away for finally from.
"Have you any final requests?" Ichinomiya Kiri asked, "We have food, sake...I know you like sake. I don't want you to hate me."
"I'll hate you until the end of the world!" shouted Onikui with all his strength. A sleeping bird woke in fright and flew away.
"Be calm, I have spared your life."
"My life's not worth anything!" growled the tengu, his eyes following the flying bird longingly.
Lord Edogawa stepped forwards, "do you think it might be better if he was just beheaded?"
Ichinomiya Kiri shook his head. "What sort of ikiryu would a powerful soul like Onikuis become? Merciful is the better way, I assure you."
"Mercy?! You call being raped repeatedly by a `human` mercy?" All started at that.
Lord Edogawa pulled his hands out of his sleeves, "if anyone has hurt you while you were in my custody tell me now! I will see to it justice is done before you are bound."
Minamoto Raikato and Ichinomiya Kiri looked at each other. Both had remained with Onikui day and night for the days since his capture. They had not been responsible for any harm done to the creature, and would have known if anyone else had.
Onikui began to laugh, the fey laugh of one doomed, "Thank you for your kindness my lord, I was not violated while in your care no, I speak of my master to come, who will own my body, soul and mind...I've lived with humans, I know full well what vile creatures humans are, what unspeakable lust driven gaki even the seemingly most virtuous ones are." He caught all of their eyes in turn. "I've known what it's like to be flying free like a bird, to be called by my mistress, stripped of my clothing, and ordered to pleasure her." He paused, lost in dark memories, "I'm a tengu, we do not mate, except to breed, and that we do seldom...How can I be expected to do the job of a lustful human male? Her needs were insatiable and ten men could not keep her happy!" He wailed in genuine agony. "But it was me who would be beaten black and blue, (for she was an oni who took pleasure in hurting others) it was me who was hammered with ofuda until I could not stand, it was me who had an ofuda that prevented me from flying bound about my neck." He burst into tears, "and it was me who was given to other people to use for their lusts in return for both political favours and money!" He howled.
All were silent.
"It's the humans who are the real monsters! Kill me, if, for the love of all that's decent, kill me...I promise not to haunt you." Onikui sobbed, "I'll become a protective deity." The Onikui was in real distress.
"Minamoto Raikato?" Lord Edogawa nodded to him.
Minamoto Raikato shuffled his feet; he rubbed his sword hilt thoughtfully. "I won't do it," the samurai said irritably.
"Why not?"
"I won't kill him while he is helpless. I want to fight and defeat the `real` Onikui, strongest of all! To do so now would be an act unworthy of me, my sword, my family and my honour."
Ichinomiya Kiri sighed, "Thanks, Minamoto Raikato" It was obvious he would back the Youkai hunter up fully.
The Youkai hunter shook his head. "You are not my lord so I cannot follow your orders beyond reason. I would willingly die defending my country from youkai; I have often been injured near to death by them. But like Ichinomiya Kiri here, I like to think my powers and prowess derive from the fact that I have standards...I don't oppress the weak; I won't harm a defeated enemy. And the Onikui has been fully defeated."
"We can end the rite now," Ichinomiya Kiri said. "...But at most I can hold him only a few days longer." He groaned "...After that..."
Minamoto Raikato looked hopeful. (So did the Onikui.)
"If you call for a proper official public executioner to behead him, I won't oppose you. I won't like it but I won't stop you." Minamoto Raikato shook his head. "But don't ask me to do it. I'm satisfied with this rite; it will rid the world of something awful, and the Onikuis given a chance at redemption."
Ichinomiya Kiri leaned upon his staff, eyes shut, and he opened them. He pointed to Onikui. "If I and Minamoto Raikato were to take you to the Tengudo, hand you over to your superiors for judgement, would you object? Would you fight my ofuda still?" He asked suddenly.
"I do not agree." The Onikui frowned. He looked thoughtfully into the flickering flames for a minute. The Onikui shook his head as if trying to wake from a nightmare. "I have been your captive now for over ten days. During that time I have been caged and bound with ofuda...Not a pleasant experience for a bird, I tell you that." He sighed deeply. "But during that time Minamoto Raikato and Ichinomiya Kiri here have treated me with decency, indeed, kindness. I have known very little kindness in my life. My mother died birthing me, the other tengu including my father shunned me for that. I came to the Ningyo...As I said, that experience was very unpleasant. I then became the Onikui, venting my anger on any youkai that came near." He smiled, "We tengu are supposed to possess people. I have been possessed by demons of my own making." He gave the harsh laughter of a bird. "Minamoto Raikato and Ichinomiya Kiri have shown me the other side of life, one that even a brute such as me craves. If it would not impinge on your honour, I'd like to call you my friends." He began to cry again.
Minamoto Raikato was weeping; he knelt by the Onikui and stroked his long black wings, "I wish we could have met in better circumstances. You're not such a bad sort after all; you can see where you went wrong." He bowed his head, "the Onikui is right, humans can be monsters too."
Ichinomiya Kiri groaned again, the yamabushi shuffled their feat uneasily, all knew he was near to death. "I'm sorry about the ofuda," he blew his nose, "I'm glad I made you happy."
The Onikui wriggled his wings as much as the hole he was in would permit, which wasn't much. "If our roles were reversed, I wouldn't be ashamed to use such Ofuda, -and I wouldn't show kindness." He shut his eyes slowly, as if seeing something. Then he blinked. "And for this reason I could not allow you to take me to the Tengudo I wouldn't want you to take the risk. Stay away from the Tengudo...Tengu are not nice, not nice at all." He winced. "No, I'll be stone seated; I'll gamble that my future master is as decent as you too. I have finally known love...I promise to try to become a better person because of you."
Minamoto Raikato was serene, "I'll pass my sword onto my son, and I'll retire to a monastery, and pray for a happy future for you...I'll even take up exorcism."
Ichinomiya Kiri caught his breath, he wheezed. "I don't think I'll survive this." He smiled happily. "But I'll go out with a bang!"
The Onikui grinned, though this time his fangs were concealed. "I'll go out with a bang too! We tengu like explosions. I'm sure when word of my fate reaches the ears of the Dai tengu...We will no longer regard humans as pathetic weaklings any more. That's something worthy of me, I think." He rubbed his untengulike nose. "I'm honoured to be bested by such formidable opponents. And for this reason I renounce the name of Onikui." He smiled wanly at Lord Edogawa "I don't want to be a monster anymore." He looked expectantly at the yamabushi, Ichinomiya Kiri, Minamoto Raikato and Lord Edogawa.
Lord Edogawa gestured with his fan, "continue."
"Can I have some sake please?" Came a plaintive voice from the hole.
Lord Edogawa sighed though he was relieved that his captive was becoming reasonably tractable. "I rephrase that, Ichinomiya Akai Kiri; continue the rite just as soon as the Onikui has his drink."
"Ready now?" Ichinomiya Kiri took the empty bottle the Onikui Tengu handed him. He passed it to one of the yamabushi.
"Ready as I will ever be" nodded the centre of their rite.
Ichinomiya Akai Kiri drew himself up to his full height, which really was not much. "Bring forth the guardian deities."
A senior yamabushi stepped forwards, holding a bundle of wooden slats. These were carved with the names of the Shitenno (Four Heavenly Kings) and Godai myo-o.(Five Wisdom Kings.) Ichinomiya Kiri took them, and began to move around the boulder.
"Bishamon-ten! " Ichinomiya Kiri placed the first stake.
"Gonzanze myo! " He paused to consult a divinatory compass.
"Jikoku-ten!" The exorcist moved around to the other side and placed the next marker.
"Kongo yaksha myo!" Was the next guardian deity.
"Komoku-ten!" Ichinomiya Kiri began the next boundary.
"Gundari myo!" He consulted the compass again.
"Dai-itokou myo!" Then to the next station.
"Zocho-ten!" He completed the diagram, except for the centre.
"Fudo!" Ichinomiya Kiri stepped forwards to stick the stake bearing that inscription right in front of the now quiescent Onikui.
He stepped back and regarded his handwork with satisfaction.
The exorcist was marking out a mandala of the guardians around the rock, these corresponded to his kuji, but Ichinomiya Kiri was using the same magical principle at a much more advanced level.
He pulled off his outer robe and handed it to a silent yamabushi, the exorcist wiped sweat out of his eyes with a towel. This was the hardest rite he had ever attempted.
"I call upon the tengu, Dai tengu and Sho tengu, to witness my rites..." He continued, his voice resounding to the horizon.
"I call upon the Sun and the Moon, and the impetuous male with his long hair."
"I call upon the Red Sparrow God, and the Nameless ones, whom the earth trembles at the thought of."
"I call upon the seven stars, and my Ancestors, who have been both blessed and cursed with gantsu and mimitsu (Clairvoyant vision and hearing.)"
"I call upon my descendant, who one day may break these wards...But only if he is worthy."
"And lastly on Fudo Myoo, he who is as immovable as a rock. May he hold this sinner in bonds until he is absolved from all his crimes!"
"You will one day awake in the future, cleansed of all your sins, farewell Onikui Tengu!"
The subject of all this magic had so far sat as still as a statue in his hole. "Farewell white rat!" He cried cheerily. "Farewell Youkai buster! Farewell grumpy Lord!"
Ichinomiya Kiri stepped forwards, sweat running in torrents down his face. He threw down his shakuju and began his mudra with untrembling hands.
He began by making the mudra `Seal of the Thunderbolt. `
"RIN! On baishiramantaya sowaka." (All hail the Vajra (diamond thunderbolt) of glory and sacrifice, Om!)
Clouds drifted across the moon.
Next came the `Seal of the Great Thunderbolt. `
"PYO! On ishanaya intaraya sowaka." (All hail the instrument of divine righteousness, Om!)
The bamboos squeaked agonisingly.
Followed by `Seal of the Outer Lion. `
"TOU! On jiterashi itara jibaratanō sowaka. "(All hail the exultant and glorious celestial jewel, Om!)
Rain rattled the trees, dispersing as rapidly as it had begun.
Then `Seal of the Inner Lion. `
"SHAI! On hayabaishiramantaya sowaka." (All hail the swift thunderbolt of exalted strength, virtue, and glory! Om!)
A fox barked in the forest.
He clenched his hands together `Seal of the Outer Bonds. `
"KAI! On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan. "(Homage to all-pervading diamond thunderbolts. Utterly crush and devour! Om!)
A flock of crows took panicked flight.
`Seal of the Inner Bonds` came after.
"JIN! On aganaya in maya sowaka. "(All hail the glory of Agni (God of the Sacred Fire). Om!)
Lightning played across the northern horizon, though there was no storm.
Rapidly moving into `Seal of the Interpretation of the Two Realms. `
"RETSU! On irotahi chanoga jiba tai sowaka." (All hail the radiant divine all-illuminating light, bursting and streaming forth in all directions, Om!)
The bamboos began to rattle like the spears of an army.
He spread his hands in `Seal of the Ring of the Sun. `
"ZAI! On chirichi iba rotaya sowaka." (Glory to Divine perfection, Om)
The wind gusted, whipping up leaves and dust.
Kiri finished with `Seal of the Hidden Form. `
"ZEN! On a ra ba sha nō sowaka" (All hail! A ra pa ca na. Om!)
The kuji-in was finished. The earth shook as in a tremor.
There was a jarring thump as the huge boulder broke free of its ropes and slammed down into its original position.
All was silent for what seemed like hours, but must have only been seconds.
Ichinomiya Kiri seemed to have aged decades during the rite. He stood, hands limp by his side, head lolling. Minamoto Raikato came out of his astonishment to step forwards and take his brave friend in his armoured grasp.
"Hold me up, my friend," the exorcist sobbed, "let me check."
Minamoto Raikato walked slowly to the rock, half carrying, half supporting his stricken companion.
Ichinomiya Kiri placed his hands upon the rock. He turned to the silent Lord Edogawa, tears of relief in his eyes. "It is over." He said weakly, leaning against the rock, "Onikui sleeps."
And Ichinomiya Akai Kiri fell as if made from stone. He did not get up.