So sorry for making you guys wait! I refuse to give up on a story once I start it, so I can at least promise you that I will finish this one (hopefully this semester, but now I know better than to promise . Life tends to happen. I know, I know leaving you in suspense is cruel. I am forcing myself to write faster!
On the plus side, in the interim I've been writing other Tactics drabbles so I might post them in between chapters…there just aren't enough Tactics fanfics. Thanks for all of the reviews guys! They are super appreciated-I feel loved.
Oh…although I wasn't smart enough to write this in a clearer way, from this chapter on (thankfully not many chapters with multiple randomviewpoints) Haruka and the older version of Kantarou's viewpoints are italized, with their thoughts in bold.
The column of priests moved through the forest slowly in the dark. The few torches they carried seemed to dim the further in they moved, casting long shadows across the men's faces instead of chasing away the dark.
None of the priests spoke, but the younger Kantarou could sense that they were being constantly tracked as they walked. The forest was unnaturally silent, their footfalls sounding very loud and clumsy to his ears in the absence of the natural sounds of the trees. Only a soft shivering whispering accompanied their progress as the trees leaned and brushed limbs high overhead.
He felt like he was going to go insane if this oppressive silence continued. Not even the normal forest youkai he was used to encountering when he came here alone were stirring tonight. He couldn't even control his own body to look upwards through the canopy to see if the moon was turning to red yet.
The older Kantarou knew enough to assume the moon hadn't had time to change completely yet-things would get much louder once the full blood moon rose high in the sky. The silence was unnerving but he preferred it to the coming squall.
Haruka felt uneasy and disturbed at the strange silence and the overpowering feeling that something was going to happen. His tengu instincts were rising up with the negative energy increasing as the moon rose higher in the night sky, still unseen through the screen of trees. He wondered if he would even remember what happened if he was also affected by the blood moon.
The walk through the trees seemed to stretch on, and if Kantarou had been able to look behind him it would have looked eerily like they were walking into a black void. There was only black behind them as well, adding to the effect of isolation.
The bells on the youth's wrist kept their steady chiming, and he wished that he could at least move his hand over them to keep them silent. He had often wondered what they were for, but figuring out that they seemed to respond to the presence of spirits and youkai was not in the least comforting tonight. Now he had the unpleasant knowledge that whatever was lurking in the forest was surrounding them with its presence, tracking them until….when? He had no idea what it was waiting for.
The tension rose until the silence seemed to be humming with negative energy. The younger Kantarou had no idea how the other priests seemed oblivious to the increasing pressure of the air around them, but he was starting to feel exhausted and drained from the malevolence directed at them. They seemed to crawl through the forest like insects. He had never felt quite so small before.
The priests neared the abandoned temple that his former mentor had lived in, likely not even knowing it had existed. Surprisingly enough, the negative pressure eased and the boy's breathing eased a little as they came along the trail that passed in front of the hidden dwelling. He was shocked to see several pairs of eyes gleam at him from the side path to get to the temple-a huddle of small forest youkai were crowded into the small area, watching him as he went past. They were usually shy creatures, not inclined to move in groups. Whatever had invaded this forest was strong enough to drive away or silence the original inhabitants.
The old monk who had lived in the temple must have left residual protections on the small place. It was the only thing he could think of that would leave a pocket of calm in the rising negative energy of the forest. Although he couldn't turn his head to look as they passed his former mentor's home, he wished the little youkai well. He hoped he would be able to protect them and the villagers….and he wanted to survive himself.
The heaviness returned as soon as they passed the boundaries of the old man's protection barriers. It was a mark of how powerful he had been that they still persisted after his death. The chills he had been feeling since they entered the forest suddenly increased until he felt like his insides were coated with ice as the group found itself at the fringes of the trees as they walked out onto the cliff top.
The younger man gasped internally as he finally saw the moon. It rode high in the sky, highlighting the ground on the cliff top with a sullen red glare. It was completely full, and even as they continued to walk towards the edge of the rocky ground he could see the color darkening from rusting silver to a deepening blood red.
The negative energy kept increasing, and someone as sensitive as he was could feel it swirling around them, attracted to the spiritual energy held by the priests….and by him. He wanted to close his eyes and bring up mental shields to block it out, but he was still bound by the head priest-his own uncle.
The group of priests broke from their lines once Kantarou's figure reached an open rocky patch of ground near the edge of the cliff, and they formed a large circle with the silver-haired youth at the center. The head priest quickly and carefully drew a circle of summoning in the ground with a ceremonial staff, and then he imperiously gestured with his fingers at Kantarou. With the gesture his feet drew him unwillingly into the circle, and then the priest gripped the boy's arm once more, holding it from his position safely outside of the circle.
He raised it skyward, then without any warning jabbed the palm of young Kantarou's hand with the sharpened edge of a piece of bright metal. He couldn't see exactly what it was. Blood welled up once again, and the priest held his hand over the summoning circle's lines until the fat droplets of red fell onto them.
The outline of the circle blazed suddenly into golden light once Kantarou's blood sank into the ground, forming a circle-shaped beacon of light that glowed under the ripening blood moon.
The older Kantarou had managed to put most of the pieces of what had happened together, and was now just waiting for the end. He would at least know what exactly had happened to him-and what he had done.
Haruka thought uneasily to himself that to any powerful and evil youkai, it would serve exceptionally well as an all-you-can-eat sign. The negative energy of the blood moon and the surrounding youkai presence made him feel uneasy…and agitated.
The head priest had released the youth's hand as the first drops of blood fell, leaving Kantarou effectively trapped within the circle as his spiritual energy flared up and separated him from the larger outer circle of priests ringing him in. And, with the awakening of the energy, his uncle snapped his fingers and finally released his body from the forced control it had been under.
"It's up to you now, boy. You need to make sure that the youkai possesses you completely. We do not want to destroy it, not just yet, if we can capture it and subjugate it. If it succeeds, you will be a credit to the Ichinomiya family name. If not…well, there will always be other children." The head priest stared at him with stone-hard eyes before turning his back and stalking to his place in the outer circle.
As if by signal, once he took his place all of the priests knelt and they began to whisper a chant to strengthen their collective mental defenses and erect a limited barrier around themselves for protection. Only Kantarou was to be the actual bait for this ceremony-if his part went well, then they would move in. For the time being, they waited.
The chills the boy had been feeling throughout increased into stabbing waves of negative energy, making it harder to breathe and remain upright. He knelt down to give himself more support, since he doubted his legs would be able to hold him up much longer. Now that he could move his own body again, he turned his eyes upwards just in time to see the moon at its peak. The color had shifted to a full crimson the shade of newly spilled blood on snow, and as his eyes stared upwards the wind in the trees suddenly screamed with an almost human voice and raked itself across the forest fringes, sending gravel and dirt against the priests' barrier.
The wind howled again and picked up speed, seeming to gain a mind of its own as it swirled closer to the cliff edge and to the small figure whose fine robes shone in the red light of the moon. It picked up energy and as it whirled the air within the area of the cliff top grew darker and harder to see through, as though it were slowly taking solid form. If any of the priests had been sensitive to it, they might have heard a growling whisper so deep it seemed to vibrate in the stones of the cliff itself as the wind spun.
The young Kantarou couldn't control a shudder as the wind seemed to playfully curl around the edges of the summoning circle, tasting the golden energy that had sprung from his blood and sending black flickers through the bright curtain of light. He could no longer see the outer circle of priests-the blackness had given a rough shape to the winds, and he realized he could hear something trying to speak to him.
The winds picked up speed and formed a black cyclone around the summoning circle, a storm of black swallowing the beacon of Kantarou's spiritual energy, and he knew that whatever it was, it was coming for him. Fast. His fingers clenched in his robes for a moment, and then he steeled himself, clearing his thoughts until nothing was left except an empty (forced) calm.
And then, he opened his mind completely, offering himself as an available vessel for any creature strong enough to try and take it over. As soon as his mental shields dropped and he threw himself open, the beacon of energy surrounding him hissed and crackled as it wavered and then disappeared into a churning blackness as the winds moved inside the circle.
Haruka's hackles would have gone up if he had been in his own body at the sheer strength of the evil energy contained in the black mass of winds. It didn't feel like any youkai he had encountered before…he didn't know what it was. He just felt a sudden surge of want and need coming from the blackness as the winds surged inwards towards their young host. He suddenly didn't want to finish watching what happened…but he felt a tug of familiarity at the same time as he watched the black mass coalesce and advance. Why does this power feel somewhat familiar?
As Haruka dug at his own thoughts, his attention snapped back to what had happened before he had passed out and found himself buried in this memory. The pillar! Kantarou's scar and the pillar had both glowed a malignant black….very similar to the mass of darkness growling and streaming towards him.
The older Kantarou himself simply felt resignation at this point. There was no stopping past events-but maybe he would at least learn something that could help them out of their current situation back in the manor their actual bodies were still trapped in. Seeing the black winds screaming towards them made him think there was some link between this youkai and their current real life predicament. He steeled himself to find out as the winds shredded through the last bright curtains of his younger self's own spiritual light and spiraled tightly inwards.
Kantarou felt the air around him grow close and stifling, but somehow it grew even colder until it felt as if it were freezing inside of his chest. He watched the darkness stream inwards towards him and tighten its rotation, growing smaller and denser around his thin body. The icy voice of the winds snarled and rumbled around him, making his bones vibrate with the intensity directed at him.
Just before he could make out physical words, the violent mass of wind and blackness seemed to stop and rear up for a single moment. He had enough time to look upwards and see the moon one last time, glistening red in a heavy dull sky. There were no stars. The black winds wrapped around him in a tight vortex he could not see through-it was as solid as the cliff he was standing on, and raged upwards into a column so high it blocked his views of the forest and village on either side. There was only the spinning black, its snarling resonating voice, and the red moon.
As he looked up, the mass seemed to throb violently, like a heartbeat, and then it twisted and fell down towards him in a vicious torrent of nothingness-just a solid dark given mass. He tried to keep his eyes open until the last, but his heart faltered as the sky was blotted out and there was no light left-just a writhing, squirming, howling darkness. If a furious madness had a physical form, this was as close as it could get. His eyes slipped shut as he tried to force calm into himself before it hit. His nerves struggled briefly before he recovered himself, but it was enough to create a minute of weakness. The darkness struck the instant he wavered.
Burning, freezing pain wrapped itself around him in the next heartbeat, thick and cloying. Instead of being hit and torn apart by a raging whirlwind of vicious energies, he felt like he was slowly falling into icy quicksand. His senses were completely assaulted as his limbs lost their strength. He didn't know if his eyes were open or not-there was only squirming twisting blackness against his eyes, and he couldn't tell if it was his eyelids or not. Thick tendrils of the energy forced their way through his nose, his throat; he was breathing darkness, tasting it. It felt like slimy velvet and tasted like…soil, rotting leaves, and ash. A thousand other sensations and tastes and sounds invaded him as he started to struggle to maintain himself, feeling his mind beginning to fragment and scatter. He couldn't even tell if his body was still in one piece.
Wait…I'm supposed to let go completely. I'm supposed to let this happen...God I don't want to! I don't want to lose myself! Kantarou cried out to himself inwardly, trying to force his body to listen, his mind to refocus even as he realized that he was supposed to let this happen to him-it was to help the other villagers and the Ichinomiya family. It could help him, if he succeeded. What was the worst that could happen?
I'd cease to exist…although that probably isn't the worst thing that can happen to the household or the village…hell, it's probably not the worst thing that could happen to me in this world, with powers like these. Kantarou settled his thoughts back to where they needed to be to finish the ritual of possession. Calming, calming…he brutally squashed the thoughts screaming at him to fight back or flee, anything to just survive and live, back into a canvas of blank mind. He lowered the mental defenses he had accidentally brought up with his wave of fear and opened his mind back to the blackness that already had him encased in its icy grip.
Don't let go! Kantarou and Haruka's thoughts overlapped this time as they felt the same horror creep over them with the encroaching darkness, the younger boy's thoughts dimming and being scattered with the sensory assault. It was like feeling him begin to disappear-both had been briefly relieved when he fought back. Now he was deliberately inviting the youkai in deeper to take him over completely-to the point where he might be lost beyond redemption. It was small comfort to the now-older Kantarou that he knew full well he survived. If it was bad enough for him to forget this experience completely, it must have been hellish.
Haruka just felt acute unease at the thought of a youkai this powerful possessing his master, regardless of whether it was in the past or not. He wasn't able to do anything here, which meant that both the younger version of the man and his current master would have to go through it alone.
Kantarou didn't know what he was expecting to happen when he opened his mind again-all of his previous channeling and possession experiences were nothing like this. He had always been in control, permitting the interaction but managing it. This was a complete submission, giving up all control to tempt the youkai into the helpless human vessel.
The pressure around his body, against his senses continued its relentless assault. This time with his mind open to the touch of the youkai's, he felt rather than heard the words that the darkness was snarling and rumbling through the earth, the wind, his very bones. The cold intensified even more than he thought possible, to the point he felt even his bones were burning with a frozen fire that paralyzed him even more.
With a sudden stab of exquisitely cold pain, he felt the youkai touch his mind, stretch out its tendrils of energy to explore what he had to offer it. Although he felt himself slipping, there was enough of him left to feel surprised when the darkness actually spoke to him directly.
Boyy….what do you feaarr? It spoke in his mind, its voice resonant and painful, and so cold-like rocks grinding against each other slowly in frozen earth. He felt another stab of that icy pain in his chest, his heart, as the darkness explored him.
Ahhhhh…..it sighed with venomous pleasure. I need a body, child. I'm going to take yours…..you are a powerful child, for being so young. I hunger so much….and have grown too weak to directly take what I need….until you came here.
Kantarou felt it probing through his mind, his memories-all of him as it continued to speak. Through the pain of the dark voice he managed still to wonder why it couldn't directly attack. Hadn't it taken an entire family?
The dark youkai sensed his questioning thought towards it. He flinched as it gave the equivalent of a chuckle, dark pain scraping through his mind again as it did so.
Ahh…normally I do not have a form. I am winds, wings, tendrils of pure madness. I can amplify the madness and darkness and rage within living things. I feed on blood and flesh for strength, but to get these I must drive my prey to utter madness first. That family….those were humans? So much darkness buried inside of them, begging to be opened.….all I did was explore them, much as I am exploring you. They killed themselves….unfortunately…and here Kantarou caught a flash of alien regret….I cannot directly kill without a body to inhabit. With fresh blood or flesh I can take on the form of divine winds…black and powerful…but it isn't enough. Driving lives to madness, murder, ruin, darkness…I want more. I want to become stronger and darker…so much more so. I want to turn the world black. It chuckled again, sending pain through his head again. Since you are going to help me do this so very willingly…..sitting here dressed like a gift, mind and powers open to anything strong enough to consume you….I shall give you a gift.
Kantarou gasped as the dark pain stabbed through his heart and mind once more. He couldn't feel anything else in his body anymore-the darkness had invaded every part of him and the cold numbed everything. The pain bit deep, and he would have gladly lost consciousness if he had had the option-but his mind was not in his own control anymore. The creeping dark of the youkai was slowly, meticulously taking over heartbeat by heartbeat. The pain flashed once more and then lifted, and he felt a brief moment of relief.
I know what is buried in your heart too….shall I give you a gift? I will take your body regardless…but so you know that even madness can be fair….I will give to you what is in your heart. You may not even know it was there, but I hear every black whisper, every dark thought born of rage and hate, pain and fear. Everyone is so cruel to those with power….they can sense your difference from them, oh yesss. Fear gives birth to darkness and cruelty as well…I know very well because I bring the darkness to life. For the gift of your body and powers, I will remove those who have been cruel to you….and it will be your hands that I use. They will know at the last a dark and cruel punishment by this form, and madness and fear will steal their strength, their hope, as their blood spills and feeds me more power.
Kantarou felt so numbed and frozen at this point he had trouble understanding the words that scraped and thrummed through his mind-but a blinding horror crept over him as he realized what the youkai intended to do with his body.
"God, no! Just kill me, but don't do this….please….I don't want anything.." he screamed in his mind, hoping to get a different response. The dark presence around him, within him seemed to throb briefly before he felt the answering sting of its reply.
You may not even be aware of your own darkness, child…but it is there, and I have tasted it. I will bring it out and use this body to make it rain blood if that will give me more strength….you have so much power that you are not even aware of, little human. Your own darkness, your hate and pain have stunted you. I will use everything. You are not like other humans….you should understand the respect I pay you by speaking to you this way. But I am wasting time while the moon grows ripe and bleeds….enough of these small courtesies. And now….it is time for you to disappear.
Kantarou felt numb and stupid, terror for what might happen filling what was left of his mind. He knew he should try to fight back at this point, somehow try to stop the dark youkai from taking him over completely. As he struggled out of his cold-hazed shock and strained towards clearer thoughts, an explosion of darkness ripped through him. He tried to fight and felt the sliding, writhing black squirm through his mind, leaving behind nothing where it went. His memories faded, knowledge, all that made him Kantarou slipped away like as the dark washed over it. His senses were full of the violent dark, his body held in it, filled by it, engulfed completely. With his last failing thoughts, he prayed that his family could stop him. Everything went black for the last time, and then he knew no more.
Stunned and horrified, Kantarou and Haruka watched and listened as the youkai of madness finished speaking to the younger exorcist, and the living darkness exploded. Their sight went black, senses full of the taste and smell and feel of solid dark as the young Kantarou's mind disappeared. He was gone-but somehow they were still observing, still feeling sensations through his body.
God no, I don't want to watch this anymore…please just let it end here…Kantarou pleaded to himself although he knew it was useless. It was obvious now that this wasn't going to end until the entire tragedy played itself out. They were going to be stuck watching through the youkai's eyes as it used Kantarou's body…and they had no way of knowing if the priests could stop him or not.