Chapter Ninety-Eight
The demon's claws shredded through Syaoran's shirt and buried themselves six inches in his chest. His spell scattered, electricity shooting in every direction as the primary branch fried the monster that had injured him. He would've healed enough to move within a minute if the contact hadn't sent the lightning back through his own heart.
Syaoran was no stranger to pain—he'd endured plenty of physical and emotional agony before. But the combined impact of the stab wound and the electric shock immobilized him. It was all he could do to nudge the dead monster's pincer away from him before the weight of the corpse drove it deeper into his chest.
After that, he just laid there, feeling as if his lungs had imploded. I'll be fine, he thought numbly. I'm a vampire now. I'll be fine . . .
His adrenaline began to wear off, and the pain spiked. Every raindrop burned like the acid rain in Tokyo.
He started calling for help.
"Kurogane-san! Fai-san!" He choked on the words as they stole what little air he had. His chest shook with a brutal cough, and he spent another minute lying helpless on the ground.
Above him, the branches shifted and writhed. At first, he assumed it was the rain beating them down, just as it had been doing all day. But the movements weren't constant. Instead, the branches moved sporadically, in meandering patterns.
As if there was something moving through them.
The hole in his chest was slowly closing, but when he tried to move away from where he'd been lying, a wave of pain knocked him down again. He whimpered quietly. "Somebody . . . Somebody, please find me."
Shadows writhed amidst the drenched leaves. After several minutes, he dismissed the movements as hallucinations. He didn't know much of the demons in this country, but if they were more powerful than the oni of Outo, maybe they had different habits, too. Maybe they didn't swarm together to attack.
Besides, he'd had so many hallucinations lately. As long as it wasn't the Other . . .
That stirred a little tendril of curiosity in him. Why did the Other appear to me right before I was attacked? Was he controlling the demons somehow? Surely he has enough power, as many feathers as he has. Like Seishirou— He stopped the thought cold, wincing at the lash of pain that name caused him.
Evidently, burying the last relic of his old mentor hadn't been enough to rid himself of the guilt.
He took another breath, feeling the movements pull painfully at his wound, but not quite as harshly as before. After the blood he'd had, his body was recuperating quickly.
A few more minutes passed, and he almost forgot the shadows shifting in the trees. He rolled onto his side, testing his resilience. When that only left him gasping for a few minutes, he rolled onto his hands and knees. There, he thought. I can start crawling back to the castle, at least. He moved one hand forward, letting it sink into the mud before moving again. He crawled a few feet, then spent twice as long resting. Repeated the process a few times, always resting until the pain was tolerable again.
Another pause. Another few feet.
The shadows slid through the trees, following his every movement.
They galloped toward the source of the lightning bolt as fast as their horses would travel. Mud and loose stones flew free of the ground as they passed over them.
Sakura had gotten used to the rapid gallop, and the constant bounce was no more than a distant discomfort now. Her weeks of sword practice had left her body toned and more muscular than it had ever been. She could handle the stresses of horse riding.
"Demons," Kurogane muttered, tugging on his horse's reins and bringing it to a stop. Sakura did the same, her mare pushing past his and circling around with a whinny. The ninja dismounted and drew his sword. "Stay close and don't get killed."
Sakura blinked, then moved her sword so it pointed away from her, so that if she fell, she wouldn't stab herself. Just as she'd been taught.
"Stay on your guard," the ninja said, the words almost inaudible over the pouring rain. Sensing the need for stealth, she only nodded.
They moved into the dripping forest, leaving their horses behind. Sakura wondered if the animals would flee when they sensed danger, then figured Kurogane wouldn't have left them if they were likely to wander far.
They'd been walking for several minutes when Kurogane's body went rigid. Suddenly, he turned, his eyes darting to a dozen different spots in the trees within a second. "Shit.
"What?"
"They're everywhere."
She tensed, looking for the threat. But Kurogane hadn't taught her to sense unseen enemies as he'd taught Syaoran. She had no idea where the attack would come from, when it came.
And until it came, she had no idea how lethal the demons could be.
A dozen black figures ripped from the trees, descending on them like a pack of wolves. Sakura lifted her sword to fend them off, heart squeezing with panic. She heard Kurogane yell out one of his attacks, heard the subsequent explosion. Her new sword cut through empty air, the tip inches short of the demon's head. Close as she was, she could see the monster's hairy limbs twitching. Its body was like that of a spider, grown to impossible size.
Its hairy limbs snaked out to attack her, each leg tipped with a needle-like barb. She leapt back to avoid the first, her crippled leg coming down hard on the mud. She braced herself there, gritting her teeth against the impact. When another limb shot forward to stab her, she brought her sword around and cut it off.
Kurogane had been right about the steel. The blade cleaved through the demon's flesh as if it was made of ribbons and tissue paper. The monster reeled back, an inhuman screech tearing free of its maw.
Don't hesitate, she thought, lunging forward to bury the tip of her sword between two of the creature's six eyes. Black fluid poured from the wound, too dark to be blood, but with the same viscous quality. She removed her blade, nauseated, and the creature collapsed.
It took her a moment to realize that, while she'd been occupied with a single demon, Kurogane had slain the rest. Black body parts, some recognizable, some not, littered the forest floor, oozing black fluid.
He was wearing that bloodthirsty grin he sometimes got during a fight.
Sakura closed her eyes, feeling her body sway slightly. I'm really not cut out for this. "Was that all of them?"
"For now. Tomoyo-hime said there were more."
She nodded, kneeling down before she could faint. It took her a moment to put her thoughts back in order. "These demons . . . They're not like regular animals, are they?"
"No. They feed on humans. That's why we kill them."
So really, I'm doing everyone a favor by killing them. Especially Syaoran, since he's out here somewhere. She took a deep breath, then let it out, slowly.
"You'll want to wipe the blood off that sword," Kurogane said as he rubbed a piece of cloth over Souhi. "Demon blood erodes metal."
She nodded, pulling a black piece of cloth from her pocket. Syaoran's blindfold, she thought. From his training in Infinity.
But Syaoran was back. At least, this Syaoran was back. And the blindfold was already stained. He's here with me. That's better than a piece of cloth.
She ran the cloth down the blade, wiping the sticky black fluid off the metal. It clung to the steel, the texture becoming more like caramel as it dried. But eventually, she wiped it all away. "Can we go back to looking for Syaoran now?"
Kurogane let out a sigh. It wasn't his usual exasperated sigh, or a pitying sigh. It was contented. Relaxed.
It was strange to realize just how different she was from her teacher.
They returned to their horses. The animals had stayed in the clearing where they'd been left, though she could tell from the occasional snorts that the demons had made them anxious. "Will they be okay in the woods?" she asked.
"They're the best horses in Edo. They'll be fine."
She climbed onto the mare and waited for the ninja to take the lead. He moved into the woods, falling silent again as they rode. They traveled almost half an hour before Kurogane called his gelding to a stop.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, dismounting. "More demons?"
"Not this time." Kurogane stooped down and pulled something from the mud. At first, Sakura thought it was a fallen branch. Then she saw it was connected to something. A low moan reached her ears.
"I knew you guys would come," Syaoran murmured, just before passing out.