Walk me through the Valley
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Legacy of Suspicion
Shima glanced across the train station to where Sheimi was waiting for him to get their tickets. Her feet were carefully tucked up under her on the bench. She looked tiny, cute and helpless, which Shima found ironic since she was holding back enough power to bring down the entire station around their ears. They'd avoided populated places at first, tried to stay hidden, but Shiemi's powers were still growing and they'd decided speed was more important than discretion.
Sheimi also looked sad. Shima quickly finished making his purchase and hurried back. "My lady, your knight is here!" he declared with an outrageous bow. "Although I seem to be more of a noble steed at the moment."
Shiemi gave him a smile for his efforts but it didn't reach her eyes.
"I'll get you to Mount Fuji, no worries," Shima told her a bit desperately.
"I'm not worried," Shiemi insisted. "I shouldn't... It's just-" She looked at her feet unhappily. "I feel like I'm moving backwards."
"The demon that gave you your temptaint, you couldn't walk then," Shima recalled. "I guess this brings back bad memories?"
Shiemi nodded.
"What exactly did you promise?" Shima asked.
"Nothing bad," Shiemi replied quickly. "Gaia lent me her power to save that little boy and the other victims. I'm lending her my body to save her daughter. Really all she had to do was ask. After all, Gaia's daughter is Amaimon's sister, I would have helped anyway."
"You're nicer than you should be," Shima said. "More trusting."
Shiemi closed her eyes for a moment, listening to an internal voice, "Mount Fuji isn't our final destination, but it's a world seed; a place where the creation of Assiah once began. The seeds aren't just the start, they're also the strongest point of the world, the part most likely to survive when Assiah is destroyed. As the new Assiah grows from a fresh seed it incorporates the surviving seeds from former Assiahs. With Gaia's help we can travel from one seed to another."
"So we're going on a bit more than a field trip here?" Shima asked.
Shiemi nodded.
Rin hung on to his composure as they left the Kyoto Field Office by staring at Bon's back, looking neither left nor right as they made their way through the crowd of Exorcists. But once they were outside in the cool night air and it was just his friends around the threads of control he'd managed to hang on to snapped. His heart raced and he gasped for air. Black spots appeared before his eyes and his knees gave out.
Izumo and Bon both jumped for him as Rin fell. For a moment they supported him between them. But after a few seconds under Izumo's furious glare Bon let Konekomaru slide into his place and help Izumo support Rin back to the ryokan. "In here," Bon said, "No one should bug us in my mom's office."
Izumo eased Rin onto the small couch, letting him curl up half in her lap. "What were you thinking dragging him up there like that?" she demanded furiously. To Rin her voice sounded distant, as if he were hearing it from under water. But her fingers were warm as they combed through his hair.
"What was I supposed to do?" Bon asked, sounding angry and helpless. "I always thought it started with my dad but I guess it goes back further: Lies on top of secrets on top of lies. Bits and pieces coming out and making it even worse. That's why Mamushi betrayed us: Because Todo told her a bunch of partial truths to show her a big picture that was nothing but a lie.
"She thinks my dad and Mephisto are both part of some conspiracy to- to serve Satan and resurrect the Impure King or something. All the liars involved in one big evil plot; that'd be simple, sensible!" Bon ranted. "Of course she bought it. But no, they've got dozens of different plots and maybe they don't even know or care about the other plots. And they're actually the good guys but that doesn't stop them from lying to everyone; won't even tell the truth to his own damn kid!"
Bon took a deep breath and sighed. "I had to tell 'em the truth about Rin or other people were going to do like Mamushi and put together him having Kurikara and Satan being his father all wrong. I had to make 'em understand that Rin's on our side."
"You didn't have to drag him up there in front of everyone!" Izumo accused. "The last thing Rin needed was to be put on trial by a bunch of morons for things he has no control over again!"
Rin heard soft foot-falls then the air was filled with with a rich herbal scent. "Rin, remember to breathe," Konekomaru instructed as he rested his hand on Rin's shoulder. Rin took a deep breath and was swept away.
"I borrowed a sedative from the one of the sick-rooms," Konekomaru said as he capped the vial he'd been holding beneath Rin's nose. "He's out now."
"I had to do something," Bon repeated. "With my dad acting shifty and not telling anyone anything people were coming to the worst conclusions."
"Bon, I know you're frustrated with your father," Konekomaru said quietly. "And I know you didn't lie, precisely, but you certainly presented things to paint a particular picture…"
"I've got responsibilities to both the Myohda and to Rin," Bon protested. "I had to make them see that there's no conflict between the two."
"Maybe Ossama has his reason too," Konekomaru suggested.
A small girl poked her head in the room. "Juu-ni's back with Mamushi. She's all hurted."
Bon leapt up and ran after the girl.
"With what I gave him, Rin's going to be out for hours," Konekomaru told Izumo as he rose to follow Bon.
Izumo continued petting Rin's hair.
"Take care of him," Konekomaru said.
Bon and Konekomaru slipped into the back of the crowd listening as Mamushi relayed the Impure King's history, her betrayal and the solo battle Tatsuma was waging against both Todo and the reawakening Impure King.
When she finished Yaozo stood up and looked around the room at the shaken Exorcists, "One hundred and fifty years ago when the Myodha last defeated the Impure King, Kyoto was all but devastated: 40,000 dead. You do not want to think about what the casualties would be today. So it is not going to get that far. We won't allow it. We stop the Impure King NOW, before he get started. We have a duty to the people of Kyoto. We have protected this city and this land for generations. We will not fail today."
"The Impure King is of the Kingdom of Rot. Dragoons, break out the flame-throwers. Senior Tamers with me. Everyone get ready. We're going to take the fight to him, you've got twenty minutes to get ready to take down a demon the size of a castle," Yaozo finished. He turned and walked outside.
As the group split up Juuzo picked up Mamushi and started carrying her to the sickroom. As he passed Bon and Konekomaru he paused. "Bon, you guys stay at the inn."
Rather than going back as Juuzo had said Konekomaru and Bon hung back and watched as Yaozo organized a bonfire. "What do we do now? Wait at the inn like we were told?" Konekomaru asked
Bon shook his head. "I think my dad knew something. I think this is what he was planning for. We're going after him. This time I'm going to make him let me help."
As the Senior Tamers gathered around the bonfire and began a summoning chant Bon and Konekomaru snuck away and started up the path to the abandoned Myodha Temple.
The bonfire roared high and out of the flames a fire-bird arose. "I am Ucchusma. A demon who serves ten Myo-o-dharani Archpriests. If you would use my flames prove your blood!"
Yaozo held up a scroll. "The bloodline of the Archpriests recorded on this scroll has suffered many losses over the last 150 years," he admitted. "Five are here now. We wish to borrow your flames with-"
"Five is insufficient!" Ucchusma declared and burned the scroll to ashes. Then the powerful flame demon hesitated. "However I do not wish the Impure King to corrupt this land. So I will lend my flames to the degree of five Archpriests."
Shima stood over Shiemi as the train rocked and swayed. Minute by minute they drew closer to Kawaguchiko Station.
"You could probably stretch your legs a little while we're on the train," Shima suggested. "The train's a lot more protection than your shoes and even your shoes lasted few minutes."
Shiemi shook her head. "If we're wrong I could crash the whole train."
After that they sunk into silence for a few uncomfortable minutes. Then Shiemi decided to change the subject and asked the question Shima had been dreading since he'd used his familiar's flames to knock out their Order escorts: "Why didn't you ever tell anyone that you were a Tamer?"
"Ahh, Yamantaka isn't the sort of guy you bug for a class assignment," Shima deflected. "He's not cute like your Nee-chan."
"Did you have to promise him something?" Shiemi asked guiltily.
"Oh no. No, no," Shima assured her. "It's just, I can only call him in certain situations. Lucky for you, thwacking Order guys is one of those things he's happy to do for me. Actually he was a little miffed that I didn't let him do more."
"He wanted to hurt those people?" Shiemi frowned. "But they were just trying to take care of us."
"First, they weren't," Shima said seriously. "They wanted to put you under observations. Which is a pretty way of saying you freak them out so they were going to lock you up and throw away the key. After what you did back there… The Order is going to look at you like they look at Rin. You can channel Gaia's power, if anything that's scarier than Rin inheriting Satan's flames. They aren't on your side and you can't trust them anymore."
Shiemi's chin came up and she assumed a stubborn expression that Shima instantly decided suited her better than meekness.
"Second," he continued. "Yamantaka is Kin of Iblis. Iblis hates humanity. You remember the Academy's Peg Lanterns?"
Shiemi's eyes widened, "You think Iblis murdered them?" she asked.
Shima shook his head. "Naw, that'd be beneath him. But when Mephisto opened holes in his defenses to trap Astaroth it might have been too good an opportunity to miss. Taking out the Academy's source of sacred ashes would have been a damn good way of making points with Iblis for any Flame Demon strong enough to take advantage of the moment. Iblis despises that demons give aid to humans but- Well, you're in Mephisto's class, you know how hard it is for a demon to get out of a contract. Even their King can't just order them to leave a contract unfulfilled, but if the demon's dead the contract is moot now isn't it?"
"That's terrible," Shiemi declared.
Shima shrugged. "Salamanders like Sis' familiar and Peg Lanterns- Well, tamed salamanders aren't too different from a big old dog; they're loyal to whoever tamed them. Iblis is too remote for them to notice or care what he thinks. So they go about their business and if a stronger fire demon thinks they're being too helpful to us humans they get killed.
"The more human-thinking Kin of Iblis tend to try to play both sides of the street. They make contracts as they need, but when they do they put in nasty little clauses, basically throwing Iblis a bone so they don't end up on his hit-list."
"Amaimon said Iblis wouldn't like Rin," Shiemi worried.
"Yeah, no kidding," Shima agreed. "Rin and Iblis are going be butting heads sometime, probably sooner rather than later. I gather Rin's pretty strong, too strong for Iblis to ignore without losing face and Rin's too thick-headed to play the game."
"But I wouldn't worry about it," Shima patted Shiemi's shoulder reassuringly. "Mephisto's probably counting on Iblis going after Rin. He did say we've got to take down or subvert all eight Hell Kings."
Rin stirred uneasily in his sleep. His forehead creased, his hand clenched. For a moment his eyes fluttered open, unfocused but burning blue.
A few hundred feet up the mountain Bon and Konekomaru hurried onward skirting outcroppings of fungal growth. Every now and then they couldn't help but stop to stare at the massive demon forming around them.
Even half formed, the Impure King dominated the mountain; a towering mass of sickly greyish-white swelling up like mushroom caps the size of buildings and it's growth showed no sign of slowing. Occasionally one of the caps would pop, sending up a cloud of spores. Once an errant breeze swept a mass of spores pass the two boys. Bon and Konekomaru buried their mouths and noses in their sleeves and pushed on.
As they neared their destination the path up to Goma Hall became unnaturally quiet. Quiet enough that they could hear the sound of the Impure King growing: The woosh of displaced air and the creaking and groaning as it's body expanded.
There was no sound of an on-going battle. It was clear that while Tatsuma had managed to guard Juuzo and Mamushi's retreat, his fight had been lost. Bon pushed on grimly, scanning the ground for traces of his father's passage.
"Ossama!" Konekomaru exclaimed. The two boys ran over to the fallen monk.
A small phoenix stood guard over Tatsuma, "I am Karura, servant of teh Myo-o-Dharani head priests."
"Dad's familiar?" Bon exclaimed in disbelief.
"I was but the secret was revealed and the agreement broken. Now I am bound to him by a personal agreement," Karura clarified.
Tatsuma levered himself up slightly, he looked around. "Your knight didn't come," he said in a defeated tone.
Bon's worry for his father warred with his anger over Tatsuma's failure to come clean about his secrets earlier that night. "Rin had a panic attack after I told the Myodha about his connection to Kurikara," he accused. "I wouldn't have had to put him on the spot like that if you'd told us what was really going on. If you'd told your secret we could have kept Rin's a bit longer. I know you weren't part of stealing the sword."
Tatsuma chuckled weakly. "But I was," he replied. "Fujimoto Shiro told me he needed the sword to murder an infant but he didn't understand what Kurikara truly was. He didn't need the sword to commit murder, Kurikara would only be needed if the child were to be saved. I let Shiro take the sword so that he'd have a path forward when found he couldn't follow his orders any longer." Then he sagged back to the ground. "I'd only hoped that the child raised by the man I met then would be here to aid me today."
"Then there's nothing we can do?" Konekomaru asked despairingly.
Bon felt his stomach twist at the thought of Fujimoto Shiro not being able to hide an infant Rin from the Vatican sixteen years ago. "You probably didn't even tell Rin's dad how the sword was supposed to work. Just left him to figure it out." he exclaimed. "Do people just sit around thinking up convoluted ways of doing things instead of simply asking for help? I mean I know Mephisto does, but how common is it really?"
"What good would it have done to tell Shiro that day?" Tatsuma asked. "He still believed that he was going to carry out his orders, as distasteful as he found them. I know you don't believe this Ryuji, but sometimes the truth has to come in it's own time." He glanced over at Kararu. "Sometimes there are more important considerations."
With a grimace Tatsuma forced himself upright. "The only thing I can do now is put up the barrier and hold it as long as I can. You boys need to get back to Yaozo, tell him to evacuate Kyoto."
"You must not, Tatsuma" Kuraru objected. "You have lost too much blood. I healed your wounds but you nearly bled to death. If you attempt a barrier spell now… You will surely die."
"Dad, I came all this way up here to help," Bon said. "Don't try to send me home now."
Notes: Summoning Ucchusma is a direct quoting from Vol 7, chapter 27