Chapter 35 Wei's Message
"Even in these times, such a display of savagery is beyond the pale and I am forced to live as a witness to this butchery," The Korean rasped in a voice a voice that quavered on the edge of the blackest despair.
Listening to the voice, Sesshoumaru knew the man's mind was on the precipice of an abyss where the dark allure of madness offered a sweet release from the bloodstained memories of the horrors perpetrated here.
Through his bond with Kagome, Sesshoumaru gently nudged her, silently expressing the need for a soft voice and a gentle touch.
"Would the gentleman please tell me his name?" Kagome asked in a soothing voice while she simultaneously let her spiritual powers wash over his tormented soul and calm his disturbed mind.
"Daesung Kang," returned the other softy, as he averted his gaze to the ground; the only place where one could turn their vision to avoid the grisly work of Wei. "You know why Wei spared me? He almost didn't. I was wearing my kimono at the time and two of them dressed in the samurai armor of the lord's retinue seized me and were about to rip out my arms; I could feel the muscles about to tear and I might have even heard a popping sound. My sons though, they screamed "appa" and I thought that would be the last thing I ever heard."
Daesung sucked in an unsteady breath. "It saved my life and theirs. No more than 8 and 10 and with a single word they bought us our lives and all the nightmares that will haunt us forever."
Daesung's accent was heavier than Wei's, but Sesshoumaru understood him well enough. Kouga, Kagome, Sango and Miroku had drawn closer; keeping quiet as the man related his survival tale. "One of them put me in a headlock and the other moved faster than any man could and grabbed my two sons; one in each hand. I felt my heart stop and begged the Gods to not force me to watch the atrocity I knew must be coming; it was happening all around me and my sons were next. Instead, the one holding me tilted my head towards his lips and asked, in my language, where I came from."
"I stammered out Hanseong and the madman smiled at me like we were old friends. Wei was murdering everyone around me and the streets were filled with screams of agony and body parts were flying through the air, but he acted as though everything was right in the world. He released me and introduced himself; told me that although I didn't know it he was doing my people a great favor, as when he was finished our countries would never have to fear this island."
Kagome, who was still using her spiritual abilities to act as a balm for Daesung, suddenly felt a black spike of dread drive into his heart.
"Come, I need to show you something," Daesung's voice cracked slightly on the word "something" and he motioned for them to follow him to a nearby warehouse for sake barrels. Its heavy wooden doors had been torn off their hinges and lay on the ground before the entrance. "There is an obscenity that Wei created from which you may be able to glean meaning. I don't understand it and Wei said explaining it would upset him so much he might accidentally kill me in a rage, which he would find regrettable."
Sesshoumaru and Kouga exchanged a meaningful look. Whatever was in there gave off a stench that made the foulest of sewers smell like roses by comparison.
We have both been in battlefields aplenty, but this is not a battlefield, this is a slaughterhouse and that warehouse shelters some vile depravity Wei left as his calling card.
At the entrance to the foul darkness of the warehouse, Daesung stopped and addressed the assembled youkai and humans "I have seen it, stared at it, looked for meaning in it but cannot understand it."
Daesung stepped aside from the entrance and allowed them to enter. Sesshoumaru made sure to enter first; he didn't trust that the place was safe even if Daesung had safely observed whatever Wei had left behind. After all, it wasn't Koreans Wei wanted to kill.
The air within the warehouse immediately assaulted his nose with the coppery scent of blood and the loathsome malodor of excrement. Beneath those Sesshoumaru could detect the acrid smell of pain and fear and there was no mystery as for the cause.
Glistening ropes of human intestines were carefully arranged on the eastern wall of the warehouse, nailed into place, while the broken but no doubt still living bodies of Wei's victims looked on helplessly as he had used their entrails to spell out the reason for his genocidal fury.
"What does it say?" Kouga asked. He had not received the benefits of a formal education, but he knew his fellow youkai could make sense of it.
Sesshoumaru, feeling another piece of the puzzle fall into place with a heavy and ominous sound, answered.
"It says, 'Nanking remembers'."
