Act III


spider disasters


"I can't believe I'm doing this," Yura-chan muttered depressed. Sundown had passed and yokai were out and about, though none had become visible enough to invite extermination, yoki fairly polluting the air.

"Not as much as me," said her brother, deadpan. "We're onmyoji. This is humiliating."

"Don't be so stiff," Hidemoto encouraged. "Have some fun. Yokai are a lot more entertaining than humans. Besided, what they fight you don't have to. It's a win-win situation."

His efforts reaped him twin disgusted stares.

"I can't believe that is the honoured 13th Hidemoto everyone speaks about," grumbled Ryuji-chan. "Let's just get this over with."

Yura-chan muttered something and pulled out one of these funny little communication devices that were entirely without magic and still fit in a pocket. "What's taking you? No, I don't want to know – shut up. Can't you just – oh, forget it!" Enraged, she stuffed the thing away.

It seemed the young Nurarihyon from last night saw it as his hobby to make Yura-chan lose her temper as often as possible. Always living on the edge of a blade – so much like his grandfather.

Speaking of which, Hidemoto hoped he was going to come too. He was always so interesting.

"Hyakkiyako is coming. Ryuji, will we eliminate them?" Questioned poor Mamiru who was a victim of circumstances and curses.

Ryuji-chan clicked his tongue in irritation as ghostly mist gathered and eerie laughter teased just at the edge of perception. "No. We're just here to take advantage of them."

Yura-chan crossed her arms and dug her fingers into them. Really, you'd think she'd be much more at ease given her obvious familiarity with at least some of the yokai. How cute.

The mist moved, revealing a tall yokai with glowing gold eyes at the head of parade that had lots of familiar faces and plenty of new ones and wow, talk about lookalike. "You're Hidemoto, huh?"

Hidemoto smiled widely. "That's right. And you must be Nura-chan and Yo-hime's son. Shame we never met when I was alive."

"Nura Rihan," the Nurarihyon confirmed, smiling broadly. "Now which one is the first of tonight's yokai we can have some fun with? It sounds very exciting, powerful old yokai sealed away and stuff."

Hidemoto pointed at an omokaruishi.

"That's a stone," the grandson observed flatly.

"That omokaruishi is a trigger, yokai brat. The yokai is a spirit away type, a Nijunanamen Senju Mukade." Ryuji-chan grunted, apparently very disgusted he had to explain it in the first place.

"The danger with it is that you must take it on in its own territory, a forest of thousand torii. Or so my information goes." Hidemoto added.

"Hmm -" said Nura-chan's son.

"- interesting." Said Nura-chan's grandson, who had somehow in the interim where Hidemoto's full attention wasn't on him slipped over to the stone. Without any hesitation whatsoever he lifted it.

"Rikuo-sama!" Half the parade shouted in appalled shock.

"It's light," the grandson observed thoughtfully, tossing it from one hand to the other. He glanced around. "And I'm still here. Are you sure this thing isn't broken?"

"Let me try," a female ayakashi demanded, taking it from his hands. "Of! It's heavy! What the hell."

Hidemoto clapped his hands. "There you have it. You, blond ayakashi, will be spirited away soon."

An eyebrow rose up. "Really?" A broad smile split her face. "Haha! You hear that? I'll be the first! In your face guys!" She stuck her tongue out.

"No you don't Awashima!" An entire bunch of yokai darted forward and tore the stone from her hands. A monkey like yokai and a variation of a kappa were the only ones who also got a heavy response.

"What? The thing picks and chooses?" Nura-chan's grandson questioned. He seemed quite irritated by that fact.

"Sure it does," Hidemoto confirmed. "After all, why would it want a Nurarihyon if it can't even notice you lifted it's stone up? I'm sure it has preferences on who it wishes to fight."

The grandson pulled a face.

"Those Toono guys," muttered a monk, annoyed, from Nura-chan's son's side. "Rihan-sama, may we...?"

Nura Rihan waved a hand dismissively. "Sure, go ahead. Everyone who wants to try, have a go." He took a few steps back and sat down on the head of a flying snake. "It won't invite me, how disappointing..." he lamented as the Night Parade lined up to lift that stone.

Hidemoto sweat dropped. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Rihan-chan. Nijunanamen Senju Mukade has been known to tear Hyakkiyakos apart."

A gold eye slid lazily to him. "It hasn't tried ours."

Well. That was true. But still, Hidemoto wondered where on the fine line between confidence and overconfidence Rihan-chan stood.

"Hey," Rikuo-chan spoke up. "Awashima's gone."

The yokai stirred and murmured and looked around.

"So are Amezo and Dohiko," a comparatively short yokai observed, arms crossed. That one had a lot of intensity. "And the others the stone picked."

"So we've got nothing to do but wait for them to beat the yokai?" Rikuo-chan said, displeased. "Oi, Hidemoto, are the yokai at the other seals also like this?"

"Hmmm? Oh, no." Hidemoto assured. "At the next location, Hashira Imperial Villa, there's an entire group of Konnyaku Bozu for example. A lot of variety was put into the seal."

Rikuo-chan eyed him. "You make it sound like cooking." But he shrugged in easy dismissal and turned to hyakkiyako. "Hey, you lot, while we're waiting, who wants to see how many small time kyoto yokai we can get a good scream out of around here?"

Except for the lot that seemed to be tied to Rikuo-chan primarily, all of the yokai looked at Rihan-chan for permission again. Who gave it casually. "Stay on the temple grounds." As leader he couldn't just leave while some of his people were caught in a sub-world, but apparently that didn't mean his following couldn't.

The yokai cheered.

"Wanna come along, Yura?" Rikuo-chan had the gall to ask Yura-chan. She was adorably caught left footed and managed to convey her refusal through gestures and swears rather than coherent words.

Hidemoto thought it very promising for the future that it seemed to be a habitual refusal more than real dislike at the idea of going yokai hunting with yokai.

Ryuji-chan made a noise of utter disgust. "He's corrupting her."

"Isn't it great?" Hidemoto agreed, smiling, but found his attention as usual quickly straying back to the most interesting thing around, which happened to be Rihan-chan.

He had to be near four hundred years old at this point, but obviously didn't look it. Didn't carry himself like it either, though he seemed to be past the phase of unstoppable impatient restless wildness that so rolled of his child and that had been very much at its climax in Nura-chan four hundred years ago.

His Fear was hard to perceive of course, but it was there to a degree that Hidemoto could not detect a difference to Nura-chan's even though Rihan-chan was only half. It was promising in terms of odds for this conflict. Still, there was something…

Hidemoto approached the split hyakkiyako and had to be waved through by a funny yokai without neck to even get within comfortable speaking distance of their leader. "Say, Rihan-chan," Hidemoto began, voice lowered a bit more than probably warranted and didn't he just feel Ryuji-chan's suspicious stare? "I couldn't help but notice Harogomo Kitsune behaved very odd yesterday. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Rihan-chan's sole open eye looked directly at him. "You mean when she encountered Rikuo?" He seemed to want to know solely for clarification. "I don't have any familiarity with her when she's not 'odd' and the old man hasn't seen her in person yet. What do you mean 'odd' precisely?"

"A number of things. That she didn't seem to have any recollection of any Nurarihyon at first despite Rikuo-chan's near mirror image and the fact that for her it has been a decade at most since Nura-chan cut her in half. I heard that you had an encounter with her very recently, yet she did not recall that either. She seemed in fact rather...fond of Rikuo-chan at first despite the first impression he made."

Hidemoto could go on, like how she hadn't noticed him at all despite the grudge she bore him, but as he didn't seem to be telling Rihan-chan anything new, he just finished with his point. "There was peculiar yokai in her following that wasn't there the last time and that your son seemed to take more exception to than the fox herself. What is the Hyaku Monogatari? What hand does it have in Harogomo Kitsune's revival?"

Rihan-chan looked at him for a long time. His bodyguard, the neckless one, had tensed at the mention of Minagoroshi Jizou.

"It's a rather complicated issue," Rihan-chan voiced at long last, taping a finger against his knee. "We're still figuring things out ourselves, but the Hyaku Monogatari is a Clan I destroyed a few centuries ago. Started out as a human gathering and turned into yokai more or less. That giant eyeball is a member."

"His specialty is hypnosis," the body guard added, scowling darkly. "Very strong but not impossible to resist."

Hypnosis. Really.

"As for what a hand they have in this..." Rihan-chan shrugged. "I'm tending towards puppet masters at the moment for a number of reasons. Which reminds me. You wouldn't happen to know if there are any ways of creating a human of the likes that Harogomo Kitsune needs for host, would you?"

Hidemoto felt his eyes sharpen. Onmyoji claimed to be all 'white', pure and without fault, but Hidemoto had had access to information in his times that was blacker than most yokai and that had been inherited from his predecessors. "If there were, why would you be interested?"

Rihan-chan was quiet for a long time, the silence around him growing heavy. The floating snake shifted uneasily. "I'm disinclined to believe that a girl who looks exactly like my late wife and who plays with my son happily can turn into Harogomo Kitsune by coincidence upon hearing a certain phrase that she had no reason to know."

Hidemoto hid his mouth behind his sleeves. "That would be the attempted murder thing that Rikuo-chan referred to, yes? Which the old fox also didn't remember."

"That, yes." Rihan-chan said it fairly indifferently, but the closest yokai guards all got very ominous expressions, the one without neck in particular.

Hidemoto hummed, his mind shifting through the possibilities. "Generally creating humans from nothing isn't possible. Not real ones anyway, not the kind that have to last beyond an illusion. Certainly not the kind that have to house an old fox lady and her yokai powers." He smiled brightly. "I'll look it up, we seem to gather up quite a debt in this mess after all."

Snorting, Rihan-chan said, "I have a feeling that whatever debt the onmyoji will owe us, Rikuo will use up quickly. He always has so much fun dragging Yura-chan around. But enough of that. Seems like Nijunanamen Senju Mukade has been taken care of."

Hidemoto stretched his ghostly senses. Being dead was strange, but there were tremors of Fear lapping like waves against his perception.

"Ha!" A shout of triumph disturbed the quiet of the temple grounds. "Take that you stupid thing! That's what you get for messing with Toono!"

From the long line of toriis, the blond female yokai emerged, bloodied but triumphant, spear in one hand, dragging the Nijunanamen Senju Mukade together with the lizard kappa down the steps.

She was grinning widely, her fellow spirited away victims less so, but they all seems to be not much worse for the wear. The smallest and weakest of the night parade all but came running to their commander swearing it was them who single-handedly defeated the infamous ayakashi. Rihan-chan humored them as Hidemoto withdrew to Yura-chan's side.

"Here ya go, onmyoji." The yokai girl tossed their defeated opponent at the onmyoji's feet. "Now lets see that seal thingy that you're so proud of."

Ryuji-chan clicked his tongue in disgust. "Stand back unless you want to be sealed as well. Watch and learn Yura." Starting to murmur words under his breath, the blessed wooden spike that had lasted for four hundred years lifted into the air.

The yokai oh-ed and ah-ed like watching fireworks.

It rammed into the yokai and into the ground. Like a cork to a flask, the stream of dark energy that had streamed from the spot cut off.

Someone whistled lowly. "Impressive."

"We're done here now? Where was the next location?" Natto Kozo wondered. "If we're done that quickly with all the places, we'll finish by tonight, Supreme Commander."

Rihan-chan slipped off his snake, grinning, just as the rest of the parade returned from their roaming, Rikuo-chan included.

"Oi, Rikuo, you really missed a fight," the blond yokai told him. Swinging an arm around his shoulder, she started boasting of her fight not unlike the little yokai did to Rihan-chan.

"Good job everyone."Rihan-chan announced. "Next local attraction is Hashira Imperial Villa. Let's go."

The parade cheered. Rihan-chan tossed the onmyoji a look that glinted very, very impishly. "Do you need a ride?"

Hidemoto had to hide a snort that was anything but dignified. How outrageous!

Yura-chan grit her teeth so hard, it was a wonder she didn't break them. "No, thank you." She got out. "Nura-san."

Rikuo-chan snorted. The glint in his eyes spoke of great delight, but he impressively resisted further poking as he instead took comfortable steps to fade away with the rising demonic mist.

Rihan-chan halted his steps before they could disappear entirely. Rikuo-chan turned around a heartbeat later, sight focusing on something in the sky. "Wha…?"

It was then that Hidemoto sensed it. "Yura-chan -!"

The hyakkiyako moved on some unspoken sign. Ryuji-chan drove for his sister.

A lard shadow fell, the earth shook and broke, dust and debris blew around. As a more or less incorporeal spirit, Hidemoto was untouched by the devastation the mere arrival of this ayakashi brought.

Tsuchigumo.

A catastrophe on two legs.

"Strong ones! Aren't there any strong ones!" Fists punched around and hit some stray ayakashi. "Come out! Come out wherever you are! I heard your're supposed to be strong. Fight me!"

The entire temple grounds were devastated within seconds. It was only after Tsuchigumo rampaged for minutes, that he calmed down enough to let dust settle.

Yura-chan had survived, protected by her brother and Mamiru-chan.

Further away, pieces of the broken earth had been caught and set up like a wall as a shield against more debris. But it had not protected all of the night parade. Rikuo-chan for example, who had been too far away, had blood running down his temples and a yukionna was collapsed in his arms.

Tsuchigumo puffed a smoke. "So there are some strong ones. It's been so long!"

The stones were shoved to the side by one of Rihan-chan's big bodyguards.

Rihan-chan stepped forward. His single eye drifted over the devastation caused, the yokai that had been hit and were dead, dying or buried alive. His attention stalled at his son's figure who was barely hurt, closest followers included, but who seemed to be in staring at the injured snow woman in a state of shock. Shock that was steadily growing into rage.

Survey finished, his entire demeanour changed as he set his gaze on Tsuchigumo. Darkness rose visibly from his skin, but it in turn only made it harder to sense him. "Take the wounded and withdraw to a safe distance," he said in a voice that carried but was from its timbre anything but human anymore.

"Hoh, what kind of yokai are you?" Tsuchigumo's voice thundered, travelling down into bones. The fact alone that he was still able to look at Rihan-chan spoke of his power. "Are you strong? If you're strong, entertain me! Let's have some fun!"

"Fun?"

It took Hidemoto longer than he liked to admit to place that distorted voice. Yura-chan caught on first. "Nura...kun…?"

Hidemoto couldn't blame her for her confusion. He didn't recognize the boy at first glance either.

The sclera of his eyes was entirely soaked with blackness, pupils pools of sulphur. Most distorting was the Fear. It was nothing like what Hidemoto was used to from Nurarihyons. It was abrasive, aggressive and consumed everything around it, even having an effect on Rikuo-chan's appearance.

The yukionna he had handed off to be tended to by another of her kind. Even from here Hidemoto could see red colouring her robes.

"Just for a fight, you didn't have to hurt anyone." Rikuo-chan growled. The blade he pulled from its sheath immediately turned pitch black as he moved forward. Hidemoto could tell it was a spirit sword, if not as great a one as Nuekirimaru – getting charged with that kind of Fear, it would not hold long.

It was fascinating to observe. While visual senses were transfixed on Rikuo-chan and the energy rolling off him, all other senses were drawn in by Rihan-chan even though or precisely because he was at the very edge of disappearing from them all.

"What sort of yokai turns down a good fight?" Rihan-chan took slow steps, drawing his sword at an equally still pace. 'Still' - That was the right word. Like water at night. Depth impossible to be judged. "Attack like this and no one is interested in a fight."

Even Hidemoto almost didn't notice how yokai spread out and surrounded Tsuchigumo from all sides, at a reasonable distance.

Rikuo-chan charged head on. Hidemoto couldn't tell if it was foolheartly or if he was still calm enough to notice the preparations his father took. Nonetheless it was thoughtless move that got him Tsuchigumo's fist straight on.

Hidemoto had to look twice. It wasn't Rikuo-chan who took the damage, his sword cutting like a finger through water through whatever natural protection usually kept Tsuchigumo reasonably unhurt. Rikuo-chan's Fear devoured it all.

In the mean time, Rihan-chan had disappeared. He became visible again together with a fountain of blood sprouting from where an arm had been attached to the body.

Rihan-chan landed on the ground easily and slashed Nuekirimaru. Blood pained a half moon on the stone.

A breeze of wind blew strands of hair out of Rihan-chan's face, revealing his eyes which locked on to Tsuchigumo's glowing red ones.

Nothing was remotely human about Rihan-chan anymore. Rihan-chan was still, empty, his mind clear and void of all those things that marked mortal beings, humans and ayakashi alike.

It was a bit like looking at an ashura. Mortals had no business laying eyes on them, for their own sanity's sake.

Yura-chan trembled, Hidemoto felt her mind strain under the pressure.

Rikuo-chan was difficult too, but while power looped in visible ways from him, he was still very much...mortal. The emotions, the expressions on his face, the anger made it so.

Tsuchigumo grunted and tried to move, but blood red strings kept his mobility to a minimum. He kept putting more force behind the arm Rikuo-chan's blade was piercing, all but splitting the limb on it himself.

Rikuo-chan's Fear ate into the flesh, tendrils reaching. Swallowing, erasing. Whatever technique Rikuo-chan utilized to turn his Fear so thoroughly aggressive made him reckless, wild. Hidemoto became uneasy, thinking about what something like that turned the already unpredictable and wild Nurarihyon nature into.

Only when Tsuchigumo pushing more of his arm into the sword did Rikuo-chan withdraw, repositioning himself for a new attack. Energy marked by the absence of light concentrated on a blade which was returned to its sheath for an iai.

Of four arms, down to two within minutes.

The hyakkiyako cheered and roared, further thickening the web of interwoven Fear in the air.

It was this resonance between the Fear of the close knit members of the Clan that really made it count, that made a hyakkiyako more than just a gathering of strong demons. Not that it seemed to matter in this case. Hidemoto found that to be as exciting as it was frightening.

At the other end of the makeshift battlefield, opposite of Rikuo-cahn and with Tsuchigumo between them, Fear engulfed Rihan-chan's form, but is was not his own Fear. The Gyuki demon from Nura-chan's time dissolved around him, adapting, changing, becoming a weapon.

Tsuchigumo froze and stared. "Ah," he said, not afraid.

"No one wants to fight you if you harm one of ours – we want to destroy you. Remember that for the next time. If you survive." Rihan-chan attacked.

Rikuo-chan's sword flashed. And scattered.

It was over.

A rain of blood followed. Hidemoto heard his summoner's breath stutter with shock and awe. "How-"

How indeed. Before this day, Hidemoto would not have considered that it might be possible to meet Harogomo Kitsune on equal terms.

Clearly, sometime in the last four hundred years the Nura Clan had evolved, and was growing still.


TBC

(That AU factor that I mentioned in the beginning? It's starting to matter from now on.)