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-Nine: Burn Brightly
Notes: Since Yukio isn't around to peak his interest Todo took off shortly after getting a hold of Kuraru's power.
Tatsuma collapsed just as he finished showing Bon the last of the signs needed to cast the barrier. Bon caught him as he fell and gently lowered him to the ground.
For a moment Bon's face twisted with agonized indecision then he stood and turned to Konekomaru. "I'm going to get as close to the Impure King as I can. Then I'll cast the barrier. You need to tell Yaozo-san what I'm doing. Maybe he'll have some way of destroying the spores. Failing that he needs as much time as possible to evacuate."
Konekomaru glanced at Tatsuma but didn't say anything. He knew as well as Bon that they couldn't spare the time to try to save him. Konekomaru also knew that Bon would hold the barrier as long as humanly possible, long past the point where he'd have any strength left to save himself.
Bon reached out to Konekomaru. For a moment they clasped arms. "Goodbye," Bon said quietly and turned up the mountain again.
A pained sound escaped Konekomaru as he turned and fled down the mountain.
Still drugged unconscious Rin bared his fangs in a pained grimace, his fingers dug into the couch cushions below him until they ripped through the fabric.
"It's okay, shh, shh, it's okay," Izumo tried to sooth him.
Bon was surrounded on all sides by the Impure King's outcroppings. He used a holy water grenade to clear the path ahead of him. Holy water was far from the most effective weapon against Rot but it still won him another ten feet of progress.
A tendril separated itself from the mass of fungus crowding the path and reached for Bon. He spun and fired at it.
Through his bond with Bon Rin felt an affinity for the ashes packed inside the bullets and lent them his power. When the bullet hit it's target it exploded into a fire-ball of blue flames, burning away the tendril and a good bit of what it was attached to..
Bon stared at the gun in surprised gratitude. Then he glanced over his shoulder. "I don't know how you did that Rin, but thanks. Hate to come all this way and then die before I manage to accomplish anything."
Rin arched off the couch, his eyes sprung open as blue flames erupted around him, burning the drug out of his system.
"Bon's in a mess," Rin stated as he rolled off the couch and grabbed Kurikara. "And he didn't bring me!"
Rin paused at the door leaving Torako's office. The Inn's lobby was full of people preparing for the inevitable casualties, Rin shivered at the sight of them then went to the window instead. He jerked up the sash and climbed out.
"Wait for me," Izumo called softly.
"No time," Rin insisted as he kept going.
With a frustrated growl Izumo chased after him.
In a few short minutes they were away from the hamlet housing the ryokan and Kyoto field office and climbing up the mountain. Superstitiously they made their way through the battle field. Around them the Exorcists' lines illuminated the night with their flames. Rows of Myodha Tamers with their Salamanders, Dragoons armed with flamethrowers, and the Myodha Knights, their staffs alight with the flames lent to them by Ucchusma advanced in long lines up the mountain burning every trace of Rot that they encountered.
Then, from three quarters of the way up the mountain a blazing bolt rose high into the sky. It opened to form an immense dome over the Impure King. For a moment the everyone battle paused while all eyes turned to the shimmering wall of flame enclosing the battle field and the better part of the mountain.
"Bon," Rin breathed. He pressed on with renewed urgency, leaving Izumo behind.
Scowling fiercely and cursing under her breath Izumo forged after him, assembling her naginata as she ran. As the fungus grew thicker around her she summoned Uke, Mike and a small host of their kin. "That idiot isn't thinking at all," she told them. "We have to catch up."
Mike's lips curled back from his teeth in disgust. "Ugh, you couldn't have picked a worse thing to ask us to fight," he declared as he gingerly edged around an outcropping of fungus.
"I know but we have to try," Izumo admitted, she used her blade to slice off a probing tentacle.
As she began to fight back against the fungus her naginata gained a mantle of flames and in the back of her head Izumo heard a deep voice intone, "Welcome defender of life. Use what power I am allowed to lend you well."
"Little sister, I have your aria's scent," Uke announced. "And a blood trail from the old monk."
Izumo glanced after Rin, but as much as she wanted to go after him Konekomaru was her partner. Even if her byakko were severely limited against the kingdom of Rot she was still better equipped for this battle than a lone aria and from what Uke had said Bon's father was hurt. "Uke, lead me to Konekomaru," Izumo ordered. "Mike, take everyone else. Try to get Suguro's father to safety."
The two Byakko nodded. Mike flashed a quick grin, "Grab the old guy and get away from this disgusting crap as quick as I can? Consider it done."
The giant pillar of flames was almost superfluous to Rin's mind; he knew were Bon was. Rin could sense the few bullets left in his clip and feel Bon's dwindling strength and his determination to hold the barrier in spite of it. Every moment the barrier held was another moment that Kyoto could still be saved.
Rin didn't bother to try to draw Kurikara, he simply pulled his flames past the seal and wrapped them around the sheathed blade. The fungal outcroppings, his inability to draw his sword, they didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was getting to Bon before his aria's strength failed.
The crack of a bullet split the air and Rin knew it was Bon's last. The fungal grows recoiled from him as his flames intensified. Rin charged up the path, he turned a corner and saw Bon kneeling on top of a small boulder, one of his hand touching the earth and his now useless gun falling from the other. Karura hovered over him as the fungus swelled to engulf them and Rin was still ten meters from his side.
Without pausing for thought, Rin drew Kurikara, a wave of flames sprung from the blade and swept across the intervening distance. Bon sighed in relief as the flames washed over him, burning away the Impure King's outcroppings. "Rin, you drew your sword!" he exclaimed.
"You left me behind!" Rin accused. "You, of all people, went and got in a fight without me!"
"Well you looked like shit the last time I saw you," Bon said defensively. "What was I supposed to do?"
Rin glared furiously as he ran to Bon's side. "This is my sort of fight, not that. There was nothing I could do there, that's the only reason I freaked out," he complained. "Even if it's you it's a little scary putting my life in someone else's hands."
"You didn't have a problem with it last winter," Bon said.
"Last winter I didn't care if I died," Rin admitted. "It's different now."
Bon grinned. "Then we better get on with this. I'm just holding off the inevitable here but my dad though you could end this," he said.
"So what do I do?" Rin asked.
"You must destroy the Impure King's heart before Ryuji's barrier falls," Karura instructed, gesturing to the spore sac.
Rin glanced up at the Impure King's heart, then he looked back at Bon.
Bon shook his head. "I can't move. As soon as my hand leaves the earth the barrier will fall."
Uke kept close to Izumo's side, letting the dark haired girl fend off the fungal growths with her fire-tipped weapon while he guided her to her aria.
One of the blobs swelled up just inches from Uke's paw. The byakko cringed away. Izumo spun her blade and sliced the offending blob in half.
"Izumo!" Konekomaru exclaimed. Izumo looked up and saw Konekomaru cornered in a tree, fending off the Impure King's growths with a burning branch. "Bon's making a suicide stand. We had to leave Ossama. But I couldn't get past these things, and it's all going to be for nothing!" he babbled.
"Miwa!" Izumo said sharply. "Rin woke up and went after Suguro. Mike is going to try to get Suguro's dad to safety. And I'm here, so calm down." She glanced to the side. "I shouldn't have let a couple of arias go into battle alone, teamwork right?"
Konekomaru took a deep breath. "One of us should have offered to stay with Rin." He looked at the flames wreathing Izumo's weapon. "Those are Ucchusma's flames, I can enhance them with chants."
"Good!" Uke exclaimed. "Keep these nasty things away from me!"
Konekomaru looked startled at the Byakko's vehemence.
"They're Kin of Azazel," Izumo explained. "Weak against Rot. Let's go, before anything else happens."
There was a muted boom from up the mountain. A powerful gust of wind swept down the slope tearing branches off the trees. Then a fog of spores so thick that Konekomaru couldn't see his hand at the end of his arm filled the air. "You had to say it," he said.
Further down the slope, choking on the spore cloud, Yaozo ordered the Exorcists to fall back and regroup outside of the barrier.
Through a thick fog of spores the Impure King's true body loomed up behind Bon. He coughed harshly, trying to expel the poisonous spores from his lungs. Thanks to Rin's flames the air around them was clear again but they'd both been caught off guard by the spore sac's sudden rupture.
"Rin, I can't hold the barrier forever," Bon said. "Everyone inside it is already dead. If you don't go my mom, everyone at the ryokan, and the whole of Kyoto will die as well. Once the heart is destroyed the drifting spores will begin to lose their potency. So the sooner you destroy the heart, the more lives we can save."
Rin looked around at the fungal masses that were already crowding close again, at the spore choked air outside of the reach of his flames. He slashed at the masses with his sword, burning them back again, giving himself and Bon a bit more breathing room. Even though he knew Bon was right his impulse was still to stay, to protect Bon from the immediate, obvious danger.
Bon started coughing again, flecks of blood stained his lips. His eyes met Rin's, 'Everyone inside the barrier is already dead.' Rin felt the bond between them fray as the knowledge that he'd already failed ate at it's foundation.
"Go!" Bon ordered.
A piece of the bond snapped, like a bow-string drawn too tight, the backlash flailed Rin's soul like whip. Rin screamed. He turned to face the Impure King and charged.
The decision made, the Impure King had no chance of stopping Rin or even slowing him down. The spores burned before they could get close to him, he side-stepped attacks as if they were standing still, when the Impure King's massive body served as armor blocking Rin from it's heart, Rin simply cut through the obstacle and pressed on.
Tears ran down Rin's face unheeded as he stood before the Impure King's heart. Bon, Izumo and Konekomaru had all been on the mountain when the spore sac burst; destroying the heart would save Kyoto but not the people who mattered most to him. "I hate you," Rin informed the mindless creature as he drew back his sword. His flames blazed brightly as he cleaved the heart in two.
Rin walked over and drove his sword into the first of the two pieces, "I hate you! I hate you!" he repeated as his flames consumed the Impure King's remains. After the second half of the heart was nothing but ash Rin collapsed to his knees sobbing. "You could have at least killed me too," he said as the bonds he stared with his friends continued to disintegrate, each piece tearing strips out of his soul as they gave way.
Suddenly Rin became aware of a second presence. He looked up and saw a fire-bird towering above him. "Are you a demon?" he asked dully as he climbed back to his feet.
"Demon, angel, myo-o, those are all human terms. I am Ucchusma, the Impurity Kongo. As long as I have existed the Impure King has been my antithesis and most loathed foe and yet I stood by for fear of Iblis' petty pride. I gave aid to those who fought for my cause, but only stingily and too late."
The regret in the fire-bird's voice was the only thing that kept Rin from attacking him on the spot. "You let my friends die," he accused.
"The battle is not yet done," Ucchusma continued. "The Impure King can return from even the smallest remnant." The fire-bird cast his gaze on the ashes that had been the Impure King's heart. "My hesitation in acting may have allowed the other half of your bond to be infected with the Impure King's corruption but it is the Impure King's presence which is killing him. Is it not your wish to destroy him down to the last atom? Is it not the last wish of your bonded to see this plague on his people finally ended?"
"Yeah," Rin said, his head bowed, tears dripping off his nose and chin. "Yeah. I suppose you know what I need to do to finish this?"
"Fire Life Samadhi burns everything in the material world. With your flames of Satan it will purify the Impure King and the whole mountain with fire."
Rin felt a sudden, wild surge of hope. How many time had his friends proved that his flames didn't harm them? He'd even managed to burn the Masked Man's webbing off the Order's Exam Proctors without hurting them much. Then he remembered Bon coughing up blood after breathing in the spores and shivered. This wasn't burning a rope without touching the skin bound by it, he was going to have to send his flames clean through Bon, Izumo, Konekomaru and everyone else on the mountain, burn all traces of the Impure King out of their bodies while leaving them whole. But what other choice did he have?
"Repeat after me," Ucchusma instructed.
"Shuri shuri mamari mari shushuri on kurodanou un jaku!" Rin repeated as a glowing ball of fire formed behind his sword. "Fire Life Samadhi!" the fire exploded from his sword and raced across the mountain side.
At the heart of the fire Rin felt his flesh becoming flame. He remembered months of scrubbing himself with holy water to try to purify himself of the taint of his flames, of wanting to claw his own skin off, because after seeing the blue flames that had consumed Shiro dancing on it, he always felt unbearably dirtied, a filthy disgusting thing, a demon. Now he was the fire and it was him and the only thing that mattered was that by embracing his flames he could better control them.
The flames washed over the mountain, taking Rin's consciousness with it. He felt the flames find Bon, Izumo, her familiars, Konekomaru, Tatsuma and the rest of the Kyoto Exorcists. Rin sent his flames through them, chasing down every last particle of the Impure King, consuming it so thoroughly not even ashes were left.
When he could sense nothing more of the Kingdom of Rot, Rin allowed his flames to collapse back in on themselves. He felt his bonds to Bon and his other friends pulling him back to himself. Slowly his body reformed from the flames and found himself standing in front of Bon again. Rin smiled, exhausted but triumphant. "I think you can let the barrier go now." he said. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.
"The purification is complete," Ucchusma intoned, hovering above Bon. "I will leave now. But when he is recovered bring him to the temple. There is more he should learn about his flames before the coming storm descends. The Kingdom of Flames wars against itself, but with this young prince perhaps there is yet hope of victory."
Bon just stared, too shocked to take in much more than that the Impure King was defeated and they'd somehow come out alive. After Ucchusma disappeared he stumbled over to Rin and shook him lightly. "Hey, wake up." He sat down heavily. "If I try to carry you right now we'll both end up falling down."
Rin giggled weakly. "You get to be Jill," he said.
"You're delirious," Bon informed him. He pulled Rin's arm over his shoulder and the two of them starting stumbling toward the path down the mountain.
They turned a corner and saw a group led by Konekomaru and Izumo coming up the path. The other two Exwires broke into a run at the sight of Rin and Bon. "You're alright!" Konekomaru exclaimed. "We were so worried.
Izumo hesitated briefly then threw herself into Rin's arms. He promptly fell over with Izumo on top of him. After they'd blushingly extracted themselves. Izumo ordered, "Don't scare me like that again."
Yaozo step forward from the group that had followed Izumo and Konekomaru. "That blue flame purified me and everyone else who encountered the gas. Such power, I can't thank you enough." From the looks the other Exorcists were giving Rin, it seemed Yaozo spoke for all of them.
Rin crowded close to Bon, almost hiding behind the larger boy in a sudden, unexpected bout shyness. He couldn't ever remember receiving so much positive recognition. "You're welcome?" Rin murmured uncertainly.
Desert stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction. The Middle East was far from Mephisto's seat of power and Gates were few and far between. Angel's team had traveled from Japan to Yemen in a heartbeat, but once there they'd been reduced to mundane means of travel. For the last few days that had meant a caravan of camels. They crested a final dune and looked down on the reawakened Impure Princess.
Angel unsheathed Caliburn and plucked a single hair from his head. He sacrificed the strand to the blade and prepared to wipe out the abomination before him in a single blow. But before he could strike a pack of jackals appeared. They fell on the Impure Princess with ravenous abandon, gulping down great chunks of the castle sized demon and sucking her spores out of the air until nothing was left of her.
"So we came all this way to watch an eating contest?" Lightning asked, chuckling.
"Humph," Angel lowered his sword but remained wary as one of the jackals broke away from the pack and approached them. "Soldier of the Cross," the Jackal addressed Angel. "Let it be know that Anubis has reclaimed his throne. There will be no more unrest in this sliver that remains of the once great Kingdom of the Dead."
"Tell your new king that I take that as a promise," Angel replied.
"I state it as a fact," the jackal sneered.
Lightning stepped forward, "Now that the Kingdom of Rot is pacified, what are Anubis' intentions?" he asked respectfully.
The Jackal considered them for a time. "As always Anubis acknowledges the Fallen Samuel as his honored ancestor. Despite Samuel's reduced conditions he will not lower himself to quarreling with one such as he. However Anubis has no wish to be entangled in Samuel's quarrel with his own father."
Lightning nodded, apparently satisfied with the Jackal's response.
Angel turned to his unit. "We're done here," he declared and started back at a pace no less urgent than the one that had brought them there.
Notes: I'm assigning Uke and Mike to the Spirit Kingdom. To the best of my knowledge they haven't been assigned to one of the Eight Kingdoms in the manga/anime but with the way I'm playing with the rules the all the demons on Assiah are at least nominally claimed by a kingdom. The exceptions being Satan and Gaia who are above the Hell Kings.
Unlike Yamantaka whose black flames make him a shoo in for the Fire Kingdom, there's nothing about Byakko that screams one particular kingdom. The harvest association makes me lean toward Earth but Shiemi's got that arena covered. Water, Insects, Fire and Rot are obvious no's. Which leave Time, Spirit or Light. Spirit seemed as good as any and with the way I assigned strengths and weaknesses for the kingdoms not yet addressed by cannon that makes them weak against Rot, which seems like reasonable fit given how little they did to help Izumo when she was grabbed by the fungal mass in the cannon Kyoto arc.