Chapter 10 - A Price to be Paid
The Judge of the Dead surveyed his courtroom. Lord Emma-O was not fond of dealing with yokai, although he had many of them in his employ. Generally, human souls were much more cooperative when it came to facing their final judgment. Eying Nurarihyon and his grandson warily, he hoped he would not have to incinerate someone for contempt of court. Trials always took longer if the witnesses refused to cooperate, and he was a busy deity.
He rapped his gavel. "Nurarihyon, former Lord of Pandemonium. The charges against you are as numerous as the very hells. The offense listed most often listed is..."
Lord Emma-O hesitated. "Explain what this means," he ordered the ghost nearest to him. The ghost whispered an answer in his ear and he frowned. "Dining and dashing," he finished coldly, as if it were a serious crime.
Karasu Tengu groaned, and Rikuo glanced at his grandfather, smiling slightly. When he was younger, he'd thought that free lunch was the old man's best trick.
"But there are other charges," Lord Emma-O continued. "You kidnapped a princess. You've killed countless other yokai... and you've caused a great deal of mischief. How do you plead?"
Nurarihyon grinned very broadly. "Guilty," he said.
"Supreme Commander!" Karasu Tengu protested.
"Well, that's no surprise," Yura rolled her eyes. Kana glanced at Rikuo fearfully. Rikuo watched his grandfather's old friends. Although Karasu Tengu was fretting and almost in tears, Gyuki and Inugamigyobu were whispering to each other. They seemed to have a plan.
"Lord Emma-O, may I please address the court?" Gyuki stood.
The Judge of the Dead nodded.
"In my experience, the Supreme Commander never killed anyone who was not deserving of death. He also spared some of us who had earned a swift stroke from a sword. Myself included," Gyuki finished.
"True," Lord Emma-O nodded. "What say you, onmyoji?" He asked Yura. "Do you think this yokai is truly merciful?"
Yura hesitated. "I've never seen him kill anyone, although he has had opportunity. In fact... though it pains me to admit this, he was quite un-yokai-like when he assisted the Keikain Clan against Hagamore Gitsune. He helped people he had no reason to help."
The Judge of the Dead glanced at Kana.
"I don't have anything to say," she admitted. "I've always thought he was just a harmless old man."
"The Supreme Commander has been kind to many yokai," Tsurara explained. "Including those who are not powerful. The Nura Clan is our family. It means everything to us," she finished.
Gyuki nodded solemnly.
Lord Emma-O sighed. "Very well. The next charge then. The kidnapping of Princess Yo."
"Permission to address the court?" Inugamigyobu cleared his throat.
The Judge of the Dead nodded.
"Honored Judge, it could also be argued that Nurarihyon did not kidnap Princess Yo," Inugamigyobu paused. "There are mortals who would willingly go with a yokai into the night. We do have certain assets," he smirked, leering at Yura, Kana, and Tsurara as he spoke.
Yura paled. She clenched a shikigami paper tightly in her hands, but did not respond to the yokai's taunt.
"And do you women have anything to say?" Lord Emma-O asked.
"If that filthy tanuki touches me, I'm setting Tanro on him!" Yura declared, pointing at Inugamigyobu with the paper she used to summon her wolf shikigami.
Ice blossomed around Tsurara's fingertips, and she nodded in agreement.
"There will be no violence in this courtroom," the tenshi declared. Her voice was very beautiful and rang out like a bell. No one could avoid listening to her, and all that were present were reminded that a representative of heaven was witnessing the trial.
Kana paused. Although she still looked afraid to speak, it was obvious that the Judge of the Dead was waiting for her answer.
"As I understand the story, Princess Yo wasn't taken against her will. She was a pawn, moved from the hands of one powerful man to the next, all because of her powerful gift. The yokai gave her something she never had before. A choice," Kana finished.
"Nurarihyon remained with his princess until her death," a ghost clerk added. "It is in the records, Lord Emma-O."
The Judge of the Dead considered what he had heard. He looked annoyed.
"Lastly, you accuse the Supreme Commander of causing mischief," Karasu Tengu joined Gyuki and Inugamigyobu. "But such is the duty of yokai! The Supreme Commander should not be on trial, he should be commended!"
"There are different kinds of mischief," Tsurara added. "Some yokai do terrible things. But no leader of the Nura Clan has ever been cruel. In fact, Rikuo-sama specifically forbids his subordinates from ever harming humans. Most yokai wouldn't even think about that."
"All that may be so, but your "Supreme Commander" also refused to report to Jigoku when he was last ordered to. And evading death, I'm afraid, is a far more serious offense than any of the others which have been brought to the attention of this court," Lord Emma-O paused.
Rikuo cleared his throat. "If I may ask, Lord Emma-O. When was my grandfather supposed to die?"
The Judge of the Dead peered down at his book. He flipped several pages, and motioned for one of his ghostly clerks to bring him another volume from an enormous shelf in the far back to the courtroom.
The clerks closed in around Lord Emma-O, and one of them whispered something into his ear.
"Are you quite certain?" He hissed.
The ghost nodded. "It is our consensus that Nurarihyon has evaded his fated death, not once, but at least eleven times," he announced.
Inugamigyobu smiled. "You had to make this difficult for us, didn't you, oh Lord of Pandemonium? I suppose there is no chance of a postponed trial? To give us on the defense some time to prepare our case?"
"That may be how it is done in the mortal world, but not in this court," Lord Emma-O replied. "I must have a soul to balance my accounts. It does not matter to me whether Nurarihyon goes to heaven or to one of the hells, but I will not make the mistake of letting him out of my sight again."
"Again?" Rikuo eyed his grandfather warily.
"I was in this courtroom before," he admitted. "It was no fun. It's never any fun, dealing with stodgy old gods. I try to make it more interesting, but then everyone gets upset."
Nurarihyon winked at the tenshi, who took a few steps away from him as if she feared that he would pluck out another of her feathers if she got too close.
"You should probably take this more seriously, old man," Rikuo warned.
"Why?" Nurarihyon demanded. "You heard the judge. I'm dead or I'm dead. If I go to heaven, I'm bound to be thrown out. If I go to a hell, I'll simply have to escape. That's all there is to it."
"But what if you can't escape? Rikuo pressed, voicing his fears. "What will happen to the Nura Clan?"
"How should I know? I have no idea what the Nura Clan is doing presently. You've been doing all the real work for years," Nurarihyon reminded him.
Rikuo sighed. "I wish you cared more about this."
"Rikuo, if I cared about anything, I wouldn't be me," Nurarihyon replied. "I would be you."
Rikuo sighed and shook his head heavily. He was the only "witness" that had not spoken in defense of his grandfather, and it was obvious that the Judge of the Dead expected him to say something. His heart skipped a beat as he realized something. Lord Emma-O had said that he was owed a soul, but he had not specified that the soul had to be Nurarihyon's. He'd also said that it did not matter to him whether the Supreme Commander of the Nura Clan went to heaven or to a hell. With the way he poured over his books of records, Rikuo realized that the Judge of the Dead was only really interested in making his accounts balance.
"You said you were owed a soul," Rikuo turned to Lord Emma-O. "If my grandfather gives you a soul, can we drop this case and allow everyone to go home?"
Lord Emma-O considered his proposition.
"Rikuo, where am I supposed to get another soul on such short notice?" Nurarihyon demanded. "I only have one right now, and that's the one I'm presently using!"
Rikuo glanced at Kana, and then at Tsurara.
"I have two souls," he said. "Because I'm both human and yokai. You could take one of mine."
"Rikuo-sama!" Tsurara protested. "You can't!"
"A dangerous proposition," Inugamigyobu observed. "Can they even be separated? And have you considered how this might... affect you?"
"The Baku gave me a taste of that," Rikuo nodded. "I'm prepared."
The Judge of the Dead consulted his books, and then he nodded solemnly. "It seems that this trade would be... acceptable. But which soul do you wish to give?"
Rikuo hesitated. He turned away from Kana and Tsurara, who were both clearly afraid that he'd lost his mind.
"You shouldn't do this for me," Nurarihyon whispered. "I'm old. I've lived my life. Several times, in fact."
"I can't just leave you here," Rikuo shook his head. "Nothing would be the same without you."
"Life is change," Nurarihyon replied. "If it wasn't, it would be insufferably boring."
Rikuo smiled slightly. He glanced at Kana. It was obvious what she was thinking. He considered what she had said about his grandmother Princess Yo's choice. If he became completely human, he would have a choice himself. He could go on to college. Maybe he could even go to America? All of the danger he'd become so accustomed to would become a distant memory, and the barrier that had always existed between him and Kana would be gone. He wasn't sure what that meant, but it seemed like it could mean something.
"Please, Rikuo-sama," Tsurara whispered. "Please, don't. I love the Supreme Commander too, but..."
Tsurara fell silent, biting down on her lip. Rikuo stared at her. She would never presume to tell him what to do. He was always her master, whether he wanted to be or not. He'd expected that she would approve of him getting rid of his unnecessary human side, the thing that made her job as his bodyguard so much more difficult... but she didn't look pleased. She looked terrified. She knew that he'd considered leaving the Night World behind before, and she was afraid that he was considering it again. He had been considering it.
One way or another, a sacrifice would have to be made. The thought of coming home without his grandfather was too difficult for him to bear. Nurarihyon was the backbone of the clan. He was the rock that the whole Night Parade had been built on, and Rikuo could not put himself before his family.
Wiping crystalline tears from her eyes with her sleeve, Tsurara pushed through the crowd of spirits. Both Gyuki and Yura tried to stop her, but she slipped past them, jumped off of the witness podium and threw her arms around Rikuo. Her weight was only slight, so he caught her easily.
Tsurara clung to him and sobbed on his shoulder, leaving marks of winter frost on his clothing.
Rikuo held her for a long moment, surprised at how natural it felt. They'd never been so close before, not when one of them wasn't on the verge of death. He had carried Tsurara numerous times before when she was injured or unconscious, and although she couldn't pick him up, Rikuo also knew that Tsurara had drug him to safety more than once. They'd fought together in more battles than he could remember. Although he wanted to say that everything would be all right, he wasn't sure if that was true. Tsurara would protect him even if he was human and helpless, that would put her in more danger than he could stomach.
"I'm sorry," Rikuo whispered. He wasn't sure who his apology was meant for, but he felt as though he needed to say something.
Rikuo stepped forward and stared up at the Judge of the Dead.
"Promise me that no one will be harmed, and I will give you whatever you need to make this right," he said.
The tenshi approached the judge's bench and several ghost clerks consulted Lord Emma-O's books.
"Nurarihyon, come forward," Lord Emma-O ordered.
The courtroom, which had been a flurry of whispers since Rikuo's arrival was suddenly as quiet as a tomb.
"A verdict has been reached," the Judge of the Dead announced.