Chapter 9

The moment Jun's feet touched ground there was an enormous crack and a pressure in his chest that felt as though he had been slammed by a major league batter. He fell back, breathless and senseless, and it was not until he opened his eyes that the pain hit. His body felt on fire, he gasped for air, his hearing returned, and the sound of screaming drowned out his rasping breath.

He heard the Arbiter's irate yelling, though the words were almost completely unintelligible, and ringing out from behind Jun's back came terrified wails from what sounded like a woman. At first Jun thought that perhaps the two were arguing but as he closed his eyes and listened closely he understood that they were yelling against each other and their words were directed at him.

"How dare you defy me?" Screamed the Arbiter, and as Jun looked at him from his place on the floor the spirit had raised his hand as to strike him again. "Do these peoples' lives mean nothing to you, boy? I warned you!"

Jun followed with his eyes as the Arbiter turned his palm to the left, redirecting his attack to where the four men who had accompanied Jun on his mission stood perfectly still and expressionless. Jun knew at once that the four remained under the Arbiter's control; even as the spirit unleashed a bright hot bolt of energy from his hand they did not move. As one they fell into a stinking, blistered heap onto the ground where their bodies lay smoldering and bloody and quite dead.

The wailing behind Jun stopped for a moment, stunned, before it erupted again as a terrified scream followed by choked sobs and incoherent pleading. It was at this point that Jun understood that whoever stood behind him was not under the spirit's control, she was lucid and very well aware of the danger, she was mortified, and judging by the way the Arbiter glared over Jun's prostrate body at her she knew that death was imminent.

Jun pushed himself up against the searing pain in his chest, shook the dizziness out of his head, and rolled onto his side to get a look at the woman behind him. He stared at her for a long moment as if his mind was incapable of processing the tear-stained, dirt streaked face, and when at last he recognized her he caught his breath and reeled, disappointed and angry. It was Chiharu, his distant classmate and perhaps the last person that he had hoped to see, and it seemed that she was bound and restrained by two massive black spirits.

"Jun!" she screamed. "Help me!"

Jun breathed deep, got to his feet, and though he could feel his knees shaking he stood tall and defiant against the Arbiter. His body was in full rebellion and breath would not come to him as easily as he would have liked, but all the same as he stared the Arbiter down his mind was working frantically to formulate some kind of plan.

"Do you want her to die as well? Grovel! Beg my forgiveness for your insolence, whelp!"

Jun knelt at once, turned his face to the ground, and kept his eyes up to gather information. The Arbiter was not wearing the armor, they were on the same platform where the Arbiter had called him twice before. The box containing Jun's yoroi orb was nowhere near the place where the spirit stood.

"What have you to say for yourself?" roared the Arbiter.

Jun bowed despite his disgust, bending low at the waist and staying in the position for a long time. But as he bowed he glanced behind him, looking once to Chiharu and then past her to where the pedestal stood, unguarded but for the two holding Chiharu back, and his heart leapt with hope.

He tried to plot an escape route. If he could move quickly enough to release Chiharu, grab the orb, and find the exit before the Arbiter could react then he could be home free. But Jun knew at once that such a plan would be futile; the Arbiter could move anywhere in the tower in the blink of an eye, and even if Jun could find the way down from the platform he did not know the way out of the tower as a whole. They were many stories above the ground; Jun recalled the long drop to the ground below.

"I didn't realize I was out of line," Jun said slowly, as much to buy some time as to try and placate the enraged spirit. "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to take the five of them at once, I wanted the men you sent with me to wear them out."

Jun grimaced as the words left his mouth but he kept talking all the same, working to distract the Arbiter while he thought. The prospect of jumping from the tower was terrifying but it seemed the only reasonable way to escape, and if Jun could get the yoroi ball he would be able to summon his armor and withstand the long fall. Even if the Arbiter still inhabited the armor the move would get Chiharu out of the place and she could run, perhaps she could get help.

"My emotions got the better of me and I—"

Jun was interrupted by another strike, and this time he felt the pain acutely. He sprawled unceremoniously across the floor and felt his back collide with what must have been Chiharu's legs because she let out a squeal more becoming of an animal than a girl. Jun laid there for a long time and played his desperate, stupid plan over in his mind. He would jump up, wrench Chiharu away from the spirits that held her, break for the yoroi orb, dive over the side of the balcony, and hope that the landing was soft.

But he was hurt and he could not tell how badly, he could not be sure that the spirits would relinquish their hold on Chiharu regardless of how hard he pulled at her, and there was no way he could know whether the kanji orb was in the box or if the Arbiter had it on his person. Doubt rolled through Jun's mind and his stomach fluttered with uncertainty.

With a deep breath Jun pushed the thoughts from his mind. Another breath forced relaxation.

In a flash the young warrior was on his feet, though immediately he regretted the sudden explosive movement. As he turned to grab Chiharu his vision swam and at least two blurry, frightened girls were screaming incoherently at him. She sounded far away, like she was yelling in a long tunnel, and even as he reached out for her tiny black specks began floating through his field of view.

It was with little grace that Jun lurched forward and grasped her around the waist in a move that was as much a body check as it was a heroic sweep, lifted her off of her feet, and pivoted toward the pedestal. Behind him he could hear the Arbiter burst into action and as he rushed forward a thousand bolts of white light streaked past, blowing holes in the floor and the bannister where they connected. The two spirits who had been holding on to Chiharu gave chase. Chiharu continued to wail.

Two long running strides brought Jun to the pedestal where he tore the box from its stand without so much as looking inside. Then, frantic and nauseous, he turned toward the nearest banner and bolted. A step from the banner with his spirits high with thoughts of escape, Jun felt a sudden searing pain in his back. He fell as much as jumped from the building with the Arbiter's screams echoing after.

The stunned trooper barely recalled that he held the small wooden box. Between Chiharu's terrified screaming, the wind rushing past as they fell, and the numbness of his body he could scarcely concentrate at all. He felt numb all over and his mind was utterly blank. It was without thought that he opened the box clumsily and breathed a sigh of relief that the orb was safely inside, glowing bright in the face of danger.

Chiharu continued to cry and scream though by now there was no telling what she was saying. When Jun heard her begin repeating that she did not want to die he clamped his free hand over her mouth and held it tight, and she looked at him mutinously.

"It's going to be okay," Jun said, as much to reassure himself as to comfort her.

Jun clutched his yoroi ball tightly and began to summon his armor, but he was not fast enough. A sudden sting in his feet and legs let him know that they made contact and then a sensation of bone chilling cold washed over him. For a moment it felt that they were still falling but their speed slowed rapidly.

When Jun opened his eyes he knew that they had hit water.

It was murky, green tinted stuff that reminded Jun strikingly of swimming in a dirty lake. But it was cold and crisp and had had a similar effect on his fuzzy mind as jumping into a vat of ice, and when he finally broke the surface his head was clear and sharp and the world seemed overcome with thoughtful silence.

Chiharu wailed.

"They're dead! They're dead! He killed them! They're dead, oh God, oh God! Where are we? Who was he? Why did he kill them? They're dead! You could have killed me! Where are we? What is going on?"

Nasté was never so hysterical, Jun thought dryly as he looked around. They had entered the water in a narrow channel that ran between two squat structures, a lucky break by any measure, and there was no life to be seen anywhere in the immediate vicinity. From the tower, however, poured a mob of black spirits like ants fleeing their hill, and Jun understood that they needed to move.

"Chiharu, we have to go," he said, his eyes still locked on the swarming spirits.

"They're dead! He killed those people, they didn't do anything! Did you see it? Did you see them? They were bloody heaps! They were just piles of meat! Didn't you see them? Don't you care?"

"Chiharu!" Jun yelled, perhaps more angrily than he had meant, and Chiharu's voice stopped mid-cry. Then she stared at him and looked as though she was about to burst into tears. "We have to get out of here," Jun continued, taking care to speak softly. "I know they died, I saw them die, but they're gone now and we have to worry about ourselves. We have to find somewhere to hide otherwise we're going to end up in the same mess as those people. Do you understand me?"

She nodded frantically.

"Good."

The two made their way to the lip of the channel, climbed out of the water, and ran aimlessly through the corridors between buildings. Jun's mind was set on finding a defensible place to hide until he could think of a better plan, but once in a while he felt Chiharu pulling against his left hand as she stumbled or slowed. In his right hand the yoroi ball burned hot against his closed palm.

Jun knew that the situation was far more serious than he had ever dreamed. Every time he blinked he saw the bloodied mess that had been his four accomplices and he felt certain that more were dying every minute. Chiharu had somehow stumbled into the nether realm, apparently completely unaware of what kind of danger she was in and clueless about Jun's identity as an armor bearer. The troopers had seemed more angry than sympathetic and Jun could not be certain whether they would come to find him. And perhaps the worst thing of all was that Jun felt helpless and remained unable to call his armor for fear that the Arbiter might still control him through it.

"Here!"

Jun barely heard the words come out of his mouth and he dove to the right, through a small hole in the foundation of a particularly dilapidated building, and into a dark room. Chiharu stumbled behind him still clinging to his arm and Jun could hear her whimpering quietly as he moved around the space.

"Sit down," he said. "I'm going to go make sure this place is safe, we don't want to hide somewhere that's already occupied." Then, in an undertone, he muttered, "But by the looks of it I think we're good."

The search of the dark building was promising; the place was completely void of any life and, in fact, was empty of anything at all. So he returned to Chiharu's side with tentatively high spirits, sat on the ground before her with a long sigh of relief, and felt the sudden overwhelming urge to sleep.

"Those people," Chiharu said, "those people didn't do anything wrong."

Her voice had changed completely since the last time she spoke. It was quiet, almost inaudible, and did not waver at all. She stared at a spot on the ground in front of her with unblinking eyes, her hands lay limp in her lap, and her shoulders were slightly slumped.

"I know," Jun said, but he did not look at her.

But Chiharu looked at him, quite suddenly and with anger in her eyes. Jun was startled by the change in mood and jumped slightly before forcing himself to relax. He was still anxious, his body was ready to run, and every unexpected movement was a threat.

"Where are we?" she asked sternly. "And why? What did that man, thing, what did he want?"

Jun furrowed his brow and rested his chin on his hand. "I think a better question might be 'what the hell are you doing here?" he said and matched Chiharu's tone. "Because you should never have been brought here, and I can't help but think you did something to provoke someone or said something that someone didn't like. So what? What happened?"

Chiharu looked away and seemed almost embarrassed. "I don't remember."

"I don't believe that for a second," Jun snapped. "I'll tell you what, we're in a lot of trouble here and if you don't tell me how you ended up in this mess then I can't help you get out of it."

"I don't remember how I got here," Chiharu repeated quietly. "But the last thing that I do remember were these two men, they were dressed in police uniforms and they were looking for you. They approached me, God it must have been a couple of days ago, and asked if I knew you, they said that you were missing and that they needed to ask a few questions."

"And you told them?"

She slumped forward, planted her face firmly in her hands, and remained very silent.

"What did you tell them?" Jun said again.

"I told them that I knew you really well," she said and swallowed hard. "I told them that we were going steady."

Jun covered his face with his palm and heaved a sigh. It was not so much that he had not expected the answer as he had expected her to be more tactful about who she lied to. There was little question among her closest friends that she had, in fact, wanted to comply with Jun's months-ago request for an irresponsible evening out and that she had only declined his request because he refused to commit to any kind of relationship with her. He refused to commit to any kind of relationship with anyone, and it was no secret that Chiharu still wanted in.

"You really are a damned idiot, you know that?"

"I'm sorry!" she cried. "I just thought that I could help, you know? Like maybe they had some information on where you were. You didn't show up for work at all last week and I was worried that maybe you—"

"I was on vacation, Chiharu," Jun replied venomously. "On holiday. Scheduled. Time off. It does happen once in a while. Those goons weren't police officers they were representatives of the asshole that just tried to kill the both of us. If you had given any thought to what you say to people you might not have ended up in this stupid situation and I wouldn't have to deal with bailing you out."

Chiharu said nothing for a while. She knew that she had made a mistake and understood, even expected Jun's reaction. If anything she thought that he might have been angrier. So when she finally spoke again she did so very quietly, passively, and did not honestly expect him to answer.

"Where are we?"

"We're in youja-kai," Jun said flatly, and it seemed that he had all but forgotten his anger.

Jun was distracted, and quite obviously so. He stared hard at the yoroi ball now lying on the ground before him and occasionally rolled it between his fingers looking like he was studying a difficult text. He looked vaguely worried.

"What is youja-kai?" Chiharu continued, though hesitantly.

"The place that spirits go when their bodies are gone," Jun replied automatically.

Chiharu watched him rolling the ball around and leaned forward curiously. She could not understand why he might be paying more attention to such an odd little trinket than he was to her, especially given that their circumstances were completely unknown to her.

"What's with the marble?" she asked, and pointed at the yoroi ball. "And why is it glowing?"

Jun stared at the orb for a long time. He was already preoccupied by the situation, with dealing with Chiharu and the numbness and pain creeping back over his body, and now his yoroi ball was apparently broken.

He had not noticed in the excitement of the escape, but now that he was looking closely there was an unmistakable crack in the orb. It was small, thin, and radiated out from the sphere's center like tiny bolts of forked lightning. The character of fortitude was blurred and distorted by the lines. Jun had never seen this before. He had never heard the other troopers as much as mention the possibility of a fractured orb.

"Jun?"

"I can't tell you that," he said and scooped the orb into his hand.

"Why not?" Chiharu replied, offended.

"You're already in over your head," Jun said and stuffed the orb into the pocket of his jumper. Then he stood and began to pace restlessly around the room.

Chiharu watched this with curiosity. She had never seen Jun so emotional before and had never imagined that he could be so upset about anything. Certainly he made it clear to her that she should keep away from him, but he had never seemed so angry at her persistence.

"You saved me," she said after a while and Jun stopped walking as soon as the words were spoken. He stared at her, his eyes slightly wide and his mouth open with curiosity.

"Don't worry about it," he said flatly.

Chiharu stood then and approached Jun with some degree of caution, then stopped a yard or two away with a long sigh. Her expression was severe, though not altogether angry, and when she spoke again she seemed full of authority.

"You jumped off of that building like it was nothing," she said. "How did you know we wouldn't be killed?"

"I didn't," Jun said automatically.

"And when you got me away from those things you moved like you've done this sort of thing before."

Jun stared at her, stone faced. Clearly she was going somewhere with her statements though Jun could not be sure where. All he knew was that the less she knew about him and the armor the safer she would be, and the less he would have to deal with her.

"You're all secretive all the time," Chiharu said and now she began to pace in a line before Jun. She looked and sounded like a television detective during an investigation, working to her point with confidence in her evidence. "You don't talk about your life outside of work. You don't have close friends. You refuse to enter into relationships with girls, you turned me down. But you think on your feet and you always act like nothing is ever wrong, even when things are terrible. Then you rescue me and jump off a building higher than any in Shinjuku. Now you're acting like it's no big deal, like it was some every day thing. You don't even seem worried about it. Just, 'oh I jumped off a building, let me stare at this marble for a while but I won't tell you about it;' never mind that we're apparently not even on Earth anymore!"

"Well," Jun said sheepishly, "technically we are still on Earth."

Chiharu looked mutinous.

"Look, we can't stay here for long so I think you ought to get some rest, okay?"

Chiharu did not look away.

"I'll explain later."

"So what are you going to do, then?" she said.

Jun shrugged, sat against the wall, and crossed his arms over his increasingly uncomfortable chest. He wondered how badly he had been wounded but dared not check himself while Chiharu was watching.

"I'm going to keep watch and try to think of a plan," Jun said. "Go to sleep, Chiharu."

The girl sighed and sat down on the ground where she stood. Her eyes never left Jun as she lay down, and she watched him for a long while as she began to doze. He poked absently at his chest and snuck occasional peeks down the front of his jumper, and once he glanced at her as if trying to make certain that his movements were secret. The last thing Chiharu recalled before she fell asleep was Jun producing the orb from his jumper, laying it delicately on the ground, and staring at it with his chin on his palm.

Ϫ

The night passed in a flurry of activity as the troopers prepared to leave for Tokyo. There had been little talk since Jun's appearance. They had been startled by his behavior, by his words, and by his body language that had seemed so unlike him. He was rigid and passive and seemed without thought of his own, at least until the point at which he seemed to break completely free just before his disappearance.

It was decided shortly after that that the troopers would go to Tokyo Station if only to investigate the area for signs of youja activity. If it was true that Jun had been taken at that spot then there should be some kind of portal. Perhaps if they could locate that place they could go through as well, and once in the nether realm they could use their yoroi orbs to locate their missing friend.

Perhaps the most visibly upset of the group was Seiji, who rushed around in his own right while pushing the others to move faster. He would not say what was so troubling about the situation and kept largely to himself, and even as the party crowded into Nasté's car for the long drive he seemed tense and anxious.

It was only after entering Shinjuku that anyone spoke.

"I just don't understand it," Nasté said, and the troopers looked at her with startled and curious expressions. "I don't understand why it was that he acted so strangely."

"He was being controlled," Seiji said darkly. "His body was not his own, and if the process was anything like that which happened to me, his mind was probably going as well."

"What do you mean?" asked Nasté.

"He was losing control of his armor, it's the only thing that makes any sense," Seiji replied.

"Agreed," said Toma. "He was terrified when he stormed out of your house, Nasté, absolutely terrified. Can you imagine how one of us might feel if our armor was suddenly working against us? I don't think I'd know how to handle it, I'd probably try and get away, too."

"We just have to hope that it's actually a problem with him and not a problem with the armor," Ryo added. "Because we can fix problems with Jun, but we can't do anything if there's something seriously wrong with the armor."

"I'd venture to say that it's almost certainly a problem with him," Shu said hastily. "Because if what Nasté told us about his seeing things is right then he must have a couple of screws loose, right? If that's the case he could think lots of stuff is going on and that could be causing him to act weird."

"I think it was a plant," said Shin, and Seiji nodded curtly his agreement. "That spirit we defeated last year must have been angry, must still have wanted Jun's armor, and so he must have put thoughts into Jun's head that would make him vulnerable and cause him to isolate himself from us. We all saw that Jun couldn't handle that guy on his own so I wouldn't be surprised if the spirit waited for the right moment, when Jun was alone and too upset to think straight, to take him."

"And if the bearer of an armor lacks confidence and faith in his virtue then his armor won't act according to his will," Seiji added smartly.

When Nasté parked a block from Tokyo Station the troopers could find no sign of a struggle. Everything was as it should be; construction barriers surrounded the perimeter of the site, heavy building equipment sat around a half-erect building, and piles of supplies were locked and chained to secure posts. There was no one around except for the six of them, but even still they felt uncomfortable as they began scouring the area for clues.

After a while Toma sat against a portion of wall that faced into the city and looked up. He knew that they would find nothing if they continued looking where they were, though he did not want to distract the others from their search if he could not suggest a different idea. So he thought and stared at the sky, then let his eyes wander for a while until at length they fell on a multi-story apartment building across the street and at a diagonal from the front of the station. There was a fire escape in the alley.

"Hey!" Toma cried as he stood and rounded on the still searching troopers. "Hey, I've got an idea!"

The others gathered round looking tired and frustrated with their fruitless search.

"What makes us think that Jun would be satisfied looking at this place from the ground?" Toma said excitedly and the pointed to the structure across the way. "I bet you anything that he was on top of that apartment building looking down. He loves high places, places where he can see everything around him. Why don't we go check up there?"

The troopers shrugged and shot glances between each other. It seemed that they all shared the same sentiment; they knew they would find nothing where they looked and Toma's suggestion seemed as logical as any that they could come up with. So the troupe sneaked across the street and into the space between buildings, climbed as quietly as they could up the fire escape, and congregated on the rooftop.

"It's got a good view," Nasté said as she walked the perimeter. "I see what Toma meant."

When the group peered over the sides of the building they knew that Nasté was right. The place afforded them a panoramic view of Shinjuku and it seemed as though they could see for miles in any direction all around. Jun could have sat here for hours watching the reconstruction of the train station or counting the cars that passed by and no one would ever have known that he was there. It was a place of solitude and quiet.

"Here!" Cried Shin at length, and as the others gathered round he pointed to a small spot near the roof's edge. "It's a burn mark, like there was a little fire here."

"You think that's where he was taken?" asked Ryo skeptically.

Shin shrugged. When Jun had disappeared last time there seemed to be no fire, no burning of any kind, only a flash of black mist as he blurred into nothingness. But all the same the mark on the roof was unnatural and dark.

"It's the best guess we have, right now," Shin said. "Now let's find our way in."

Ϫ

Jun woke with a start to the sound of a thousand slow beating drums. The noise was distant, even, and low in its tone like a bass. As it beat its quick time the sound seemed not to move at all, it did not grow louder and did not grow softer, but still somehow Jun knew that its source was moving.

As he peered out of the crack in the shelter's siding he saw that the sky was bright with daylight and he wondered how long he had been asleep. He had not meant to doze and, in fact, did not recall doing so. Last he remembered he had been awake waiting for some time for Chiharu to drift off and after she grew quiet and still he began assessing the wounds that he had sustained from his encounter with the Arbiter.

There had been nothing of any particular severity; small localized blistering where the white hot bolts had struck, a bouquet of dark blue and brown bloomed over his chest and stomach, and his legs ached like he had run a marathon after a month away from the sport. He was tired by the time he had completed his initial check, had laid his head against the wall, and stared at his yoroi ball while pondering its sudden fracture. It must have been then that he fell asleep.

He poked his head out of the crack in the wall and looked both ways down the corridor between buildings. The space was empty but the drumming sound seemed to echo in it, sounding louder and clearer in the outdoors.

It was the dull clunk of metal on stone, Jun recognized almost at once, and what had seemed like a single long-held tone inside the building now sounded like footsteps marching in time; synchronized enough to pass as one entity but separate still. It was the sound of an army on the move.

Jun wondered about this for a long while as he leaned against the wall. The noise was so reminiscent of Arago's youja foot soldiers that he felt a nervous shiver in his gut, but rationally there could be no way that such spirits would still be around, could there? Jun supposed that it was possible for the Arbiter to dress his spirits in some kind of armor but he could not be afraid of them; those spirits were too inept and incapable, especially without a strong commander at their head.

With his head full of thoughts Jun stepped out of the building and made his way tentatively down the path. He did not recall the path down which he had led Chiharu the evening prior but hoped that he might be able to catch a glimpse of what was making such an awful racket. He walked slowly and with deliberate steps, taking great care to stay as quiet as he could, and poked his head around the corner stealthily before turning down another corridor.

He repeated the process, walking carefully down the path until he reached a four-way intersection. There was nothing directly across the way, an empty alley that ended at the back of a dark building, and nothing down the left path either. But when Jun turned his head to the right his heart jumped to his throat and he fought the sudden weakness in his knees.

Two youja foot soldiers clad in anciently styled olive green armor marched down the way with their backs toward Jun. One held a long staff tipped with a sharp thin blade while the other was armed with a kusarigama, a chain sickle with a heavy iron weight on its end, which was bound and hanging at its hip. The two marched on with purpose down the path, their metal boots clanking against the stone path with a noise eerily similar to that in the distance.

As Jun pressed his back to the wall, his breath burning in his lungs, he realized that the distant noise was in fact youja foot soldiers and that they were more than likely searching for Chiharu and him. So he turned and bolted back down the way, back toward the shelter with little care for how much noise he made, and as soon as he passed through the door he dove to Chiharu's side and shook her violently.

"Chiharu, wake up! Wake up now!" he cried, and shook her again. "Damn it, you lazy woman, wake up!"

Chiharu's eyes fluttered open and she stared at Jun as if confused by his presence. "Jun? Did we have a sleepover?"

"No! Get up!" Jun replied urgently despite Chiharu's continued naivety. It seemed in the moment that she did not remember their predicament: perhaps she was still too tired. "There are foot soldiers outside, they're going to find us if we don't get out of here. We have to move right now."

Chiharu sat up suddenly with wide eyes and stared at Jun with realization. Then she jumped to her feet and looked around with clear panic. "Where are they? Who? What are foot soldiers? Where are we going to go?"

Jun grasped her by the wrist and yanked her from the space. If he was honest with himself he had no idea where he would lead them. The only thing that he could be certain about was that they had to get as far away from that place as they could and he did not want to alarm Chiharu any more than he already had, lest she become hysterical again.

He wondered vaguely as he ran if the soldiers were tracking them somehow, if perhaps the yoroi ball was sending some kind of signal to them which they could follow back to him. Or maybe the Arbiter was able to track Jun himself, or maybe Jun's course of action and subsequent hiding place had been predictable.

"Where are we going?" Chiharu yelled.

"Be quiet!"

Chiharu clenched her jaw and continued running behind Jun. They were moving fast enough that the buildings surrounding them passed by in a blur, and at intersections she could see tall dark figures who seemed more like shadows than armor-clad sentinels. Some of these figures stared at them dumbly as they passed, some of them gave pursuit, and some of them cried out, a sound that seemed more like a grunt than any actual language, and brandished their weapons.

After a while and with a significant number of armed guards on their heels, Jun and Chiharu broke free of the block of structures through which they had been running and into a wide open space. Some hundred yards or so away sat another block of buildings and bisecting the empty space was a long narrow channel.

Jun stopped. Over the tops of the buildings and some way in the distance rose the black spire, half built and enormous. The progress made on the thing was astounding; in a matter of days the spire had completely transformed from a pile of broken rubble.

"So much for going that way," Jun grumbled, and took off to the right.

They ran for a long time, following the path of the channel, and as they went a host of foot soldiers collected at their backs. Chiharu wondered whether Jun knew where he was going, how he knew where to run, and how he could remain so composed when faced with such a strange and apparently dangerous situation. She knew that if he was not there she would have fallen apart a long time ago.

At last they came to a tall wooden gate surrounding a building that seemed to have fallen apart from the top down. An enormous hole had been torn in its roof, a number of walls were completely missing; the only part of the building that seemed intact was the bottom level. When Jun stopped here and looked back his expression read of sudden calm.

"What's going on?" Chiharu asked.

"They'll be too afraid to come into this compound," Jun said, and he pulled Chiharu closer to the gate. As he did so he pushed the thing open and beckoned for her to enter. "This place is old, really old, and I can virtually guarantee that none of the spirits in this world will get close to that building. Go there and find a defensible place to hide."

Chiharu stepped into the gate and rounded back on Jun, who had yet to step through. She watched as he stared down the path they had just run and then looked to the ground as he produced the yoroi ball from his pocket. Then he held it out to her and looked at her gravely.

"You need to hold on to this," he said.

"What?"

"They're looking for me, those spirits, they don't care about you. I don't mean to sound rude or arrogant, but that's just how it is, and I know that if I stay with you then I'll be putting you in a lot of danger. Plus I can't do what I need to do with you tagging along; you'll just hold me back."

"You're leaving me?"

Jun nodded and glanced behind again. "I've got someone here that I need to find. In the meantime, you stay here. There are people who are coming to look for me, good people, and strong people. They'll be able to track you through this orb, and once they find you then you'll be safe. You'll know it's them because they'll have matching orbs."

Chiharu looked angry but took the orb from Jun all the same. "Who are you going to find?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Jun said, then turned as though ready to rush off. He stopped short when Chiharu spoke again.

"Jun," she said, "this is going to sound really stupid, but are you some kind of superhero or something?"

His face screwed up with confusion and, even in the tense moment, he could have laughed. "No," he said flatly, and turned again to leave. Two steps down the road he turned back, though, and seemed thoughtful. "But if it helps you feel better, yes."

With that, Jun took off down the path in search of the Guardian of Souls, the white and benevolent spirit who had helped him in his last encounter with the Arbiter. Jun had seen the Guardian's servant spirits mingling amongst the mortals prior to his ill-fated mission to the mortal world and if the spirits were still around then certainly the Guardian must be near.

Jun understood that if answers were to be had the Guardian would have them, but still he did not even know where to begin looking. He reasoned that if he could find one of the servant spirits again he could convince it to lead him to the Guardian proper, and then perhaps he could figure out what had led him to this point. After all, the Guardian seemed to know a lot about Jun's armor, and he seemed not to like it at all.