Vortex World,
Okinawa Prefecture, Naha Wharf Terminal
Kagatsuchi 6/8 Waxing
She looked around, and found her surroundings strange, rudimentary, and gray. It stank heavily of seawater, kelp, and old, rotting fish, and as she climbed to her feet, a whimper rose unbidden in her throat.
"Ayeka…?" The child called out. Silence met her ears. "Azaka?" Her voice echoed against concrete walls, and distress, the youth called out, "Kamidake?"
Yet no one replied to her calls.
The girl shivered, wrapping her hands around herself in a hug. "Tsu…nam…i?" She whimpered, yet even that voice remained absent.
Sasami shivered, staring around her with large, pink eyes. "Tsunami, is this you?" She whispered. "Did you send me here? Is this a dream?" She bit her lower lip. "If it is, let me wake up. I want to wake up Tsunami! I'm scared!"
Nothing.
Nothing but silence.
The little girl felt a small, hysteric cry rise in the back of her throat, and unbidden, tears formed in the corner of her eyes. The child grimaced, swallowing back the hysteria and scrubbing at her eyes with the sleeve of her heavy Jurain robes. "Now's not the time." She said, and though her voice wavered, there was an edge of steel to it. "I can't-I won't panic. I'll figure out where I am and…and…I'll find a way back to Ayeka. Or-or Tsunami." She sniffed. "It's okay. Mommy trained you for a situation like this. Auntie Funaho too." She sucked in a deep breath, held it, and released it slowly, taking her time to gather herself when it grew apparent that there was nothing else in the vicinity. "I'll be okay." She said. "I am okay. I will sneak out of this room and figure out where I am. If I've been kidnapped, than I will learn who my kidnappers are and why they took me. If they mean me no harm, than I am to cooperate with them until help arrives. If they intend to harm me, I am to defend myself, escape, and evade capture until I can find help." She took another long breath, closing her eyes. "I am not defenseless, but Mommy says that people are more willing to drop their guard if you are super nice and sweet to them, Auntie Funaho says you can take advantage of that…" The child opened her eyes, and they were firm and determined. "And Gran Gran Seto says to strike them when they least expect it."
She paused, then rubbed the back of her head. "And Tsunami says all life is valuable…ah who am I kidding, I couldn't do what Gran Gran and Auntie would tell me to do anyways."
She felt better now. Talking it out to herself, even if only Tsunami was there to listen, eased her nerves.
Feeling a bit more like herself, the girl looked around her with fresh eyes, spying several windows-the glass had been blown out-facing her towards one wall. Sand, golden and fine like dust, sat compressed in a huge dune against the windows, and the granules had leaked inside, forming smaller, miniature dunes beneath each window. A long line of gray lockers rested against the wall adjoining it, and when Sasami looked to the parallel wall she found similar lockers, some of which were open, others which looked to have been crushed and warped by time and nature.
A single door rested against the remaining wall, and grimly, Sasami moved towards it. It's locked. She thought, certain beyond all reason of a doubt that her captors had locked and barred the room to prevent her escape.
Yet as her fingers found the odd grooves in the frame, the door slide open like a well oiled machine, and Sasami stared at the empty hallway, finding herself, if anything, even more alarmed than she would have had the door been either closed or the hallway filled with one of the Pirate Guilds.
"Oh…I do not like this." Sasami whispered.
Gingerly, the child crept down the hallway, ears straining for any sign of activity or life around her. While quiet, the place was not dead. She could hear skittering. Slithering. Growling.
None of it was human, and with every new sound, the young princess found herself pressed up against a wall, frozen, waiting with baited breath for whatever creatures were in the building to show themselves.
At one point she thought she even heard a voice, distant, muted, and vaguely female.
She sucked in a shuddering breath, and found the hallway expanding into a small lobby. She heard grunts, and leaned back against the wall, lying low to the ground and wishing for the first time in her life that she had her father's deep, almost black, violet hair, or even Auntie's true black hair-an exotic color on Jurai; Tsunami had gifted her children with hair of all shades of the rainbow to symbolize her children's brilliance, and those with black hair were known for their exotic origins or heritage.
But black hair-or even the uncommon brown would have done wonders for her now. Anything other than the vibrant bright blue pigtails which she wore even now, as flamboyant and bright as the sky on a cloudless day. For as the young Princess Sasami Jurai peeked around the corner, her body low to the ground to avoid drawing undue attention, she saw those creatures which went bump in the night. One stood tall on its toes, but haunched over; had it been straight, surely it would have crested ten feet in height. It's body was tan and sand-like, its flesh a strange and wretched goop which seemed to trail down its arms, its legs, where it gathered and swayed in thick, tumorous boils. It had no hair which she could see, but instead two strange, long stalks sprouted from its forehead like horns. Its back was to her, but the child was all too aware of the wretched hiss emanating from it.
Its companion was equally, if not more, horrendous.
Perhaps at one time it had been human. One who's skin was now dark with soil, the skin earthy and wood-like with something that at first resembled hair, but a second glance showed some kind of strange, fleshy tube instead. A man, perhaps even a woman. It was almost enough to imagine it beautiful once.
Yet what stood before her…what stood before the Corpse-Eating Corpse, Pisaca, was a standing eviscerated body.
Its body had been split and flayed open from the upper jaw down to the base of the groin, its ribs broken open and splayed out like wings as if in poor mimicry of the ancient torture practice of the Viking's Blood Eagle. Yet its insides were a red, hollow hole, empty of organs or muscle or tissue.
Sasami swallowed, feeling tears of panic rise to bead in her eyes. I can see its spine. She thought. I can see the whiteness of its spine, and he's standing unbothered by any of this! And, and-he's missing his jaw!
A small, hysterical squeak slipped through her throat, and the Hollow Man, the Vetali turned its golden, hollow eyes her way. So too did the strange stalks of the Sand Man, and Sasami scrambled backwards when she saw the snail-like eyes resting on the end of the stalks.
She heard a scream-from the Hollow Man, the Sand Man, or herself she didn't know, and scrambled to her feet, turning and bolting back down the way she'd come as bare feet slapped after her.
Tsunami, help! Please, let this be a nightmare! I want to wake up! She was too frightened to cry out, her teeth clamped down so tightly on her lower lip that the child tasted blood. Pain exploded in her lip, and as the copper taste struck her, so too did intimate knowledge that her life was in danger, she was no longer on her sister's massive tree ship Ryu-oh, and Tsunami, the great Jurain goddess which had once granted her life anew, was eerily absent.
An explosion before her.
A crow of victory.
And Sasami fell backwards with a scream as a fresh, raw terror emerged from the destroyed wall before her. A creature of terror, a vicious beast of destruction. A harbinger of chaos. An acolyte to extermination.
A Daughter of the being known only as the Daitenkaicho Himself.
Third of her name, Norn of the Future. Prime Debugger of the Yggdrasil World Tree Mainframe.
Skuld Tyrdotter.
A hand reached out to Sasami, and the princess stared at the offered limb as if it were a snake. "Let's go!" The girl looked up, and pink eyes met vibrant brown in a face not much older than herself. Her hair was long and black, pulled back in a ponytail akin to her sister's, though her clothing was distinctly foreign to the Juraian; dark blue overalls, a white shirt covered in grease and oil stains, a pair of maintenance gloves which had seen better days, a pair of steel-toed boots more at home in a mechanic's garage over an adolescent girl. A toolman's belt, loaded with wrenches, screwdrivers, and what looked distinctly like some kind of grenade or bomb. A sledgehammer, or something close to it, resting comfortably on her left shoulder.
Sasami grabbed the stranger's hand, and found a mad, vicious smile slide across the black-haired girl's face. The Princess was pulled to her feet with unprecedented ease, only for the stranger to release her in favor for one of the small black death orbs on her belt. "Get bent!" She screamed, ripping it off her person and tossing what Sasami now confirmed was an explosive device at the two monsters shuffling slowly after the blue-haired child.
Sasami had just enough time to turn and watch the item sail into the vacant, teeth-lined cavity of the Sand monster's torso, and then a hand was on hers and she was being dragged away again, racing down another hallway as an explosion-loud, powerful, and awful-collapsed the ceiling and closed the hallway behind them.
"Thank you!" Sasami cried between breaths.
"Don't mention it!" The dark-haired stranger said. "I'm Skuld, who are you?" They paused at a T-Intersection, and from the left Sasami could hear soft growls as several somethings began to shuffle towards them. Taking the lead, her hand staying tight around Skuld's, Sasami pointed to the right and pulled, and the two took off in another sprint.
"I'm Sasami." The hallway expanded once more into a room, and the two paused, both quickly glancing around before Skuld spied a pile of debris. It was a collapsed wall to an adjoining room, blocking off almost everything outside of a small gap, maybe two feet in width, which was just wide enough for something small to slip through.
"Nice to meet you, C'mon." The two rushed to the gap, and Skuld roughly shoved Sasami forward, turning with one hand resting on another bomb as Sasami slipped inside.
"I'm in! Hurry!" Sasami called back in a loud whisper, and in a few more moments Skuld was inside too. "Let's block the entrance so they don't get any ideas." She recommended.
Skuld snorted. "Don't think they have the brains for that, but okay."
They found the wreckage of an old hardwood table that had been thrown to its side, and with a child on either end, they began to push it forward. Skuld had better luck than Sasami, yet the Princess was not about to let her new friend do all the work herself. Straining, the duo moved the two hundred and fifty pound table to the small gap, blocking anything else from entering, and then collapsed against it, panting and heaving. Her pulse thrumming in her neck and in her ears, Sasami glanced over to her new companion. She opened her mouth to speak, and instead found a hand clamped over her mouth as Skuld brought a finger to her lips.
On the other side of the debris pile, they could hear low gurgles, grumbles, and mutters. Something clawed at the table, as if testing its weight, and Sasami stiffened, eyes going wide. Skuld shook her head, re-emphasizing the need for silence.
A piece of debris moved.
Something was climbing on it.
A series of high-pitched screams, almost like barks from whatever lay behind the debris.
The children cringed.
And then slowly-agonizingly so-the monstrosities moved on, their prey fled and hidden in a place they could not access.
The steps faded away, and with it, the grumbles and murmurs died down.
It was not until five minutes of silence passed that Skuld finally dropped her hand, heaving a long breath of relief.
Sasami looked at the girl, and for the first time saw how shook up her companion was. "I think we're safe for the moment." Sasami whispered, and watched Skuld start, then send a cool and confident look towards her.
"Of course we are." Skuld replied. "And if anything does break through, I'll just blow them away again with my Skuld Bombs." A hand moved to graze one of the black bombs with something almost like affection. "And failing that, I still have this wonderful hammer that I found in one of the other rooms. It's not as good as my hammer, but it'll do in a pinch."
Folding her legs beneath her, the girl scooted to face Sasami. "So, now that the Spooksters are gone, let's get some proper introductions. I'm Skuld Tyrdotter, Norn of the Future and Yggdrasil Mainframe Debugger. I'm looking for my sisters and my stupid brother-in-law after waking up on a beached cargo ship. You?"
"I am Princess Sasami Jurai of Planet Jurai." She paused, then added in, "I'm also looking for my sister-and prior to waking up here, I was also looking for my half-brother with my sister. You were separated too?"
Skuld nodded. "Yep. Was on Earth's Assiah plane when this big ball of light suddenly appeared. My sisters and Keiichi-that's my brother-in-law," Her voice dropped an octave, "were visiting Okinawa, Japan as part of a summer motorcycle promotion event for the Whirlwind. His boss was trying to expand out to Okinawa and Belldandy and Keiichi were promoting the business with one of their custom builds." She shook her head, a soft, perturbed frown on her face. "I had left to go and get some ice cream from a nearby vendor and…well…" She shrugged, rubbing her left arm uncomfortably.
"…How about you?" the youth said instead, changing the subject. "How did you even get here? Jurai is a planet like…several thousand light years from Earth. Like…Earth is in the boonies compared to where you're from. What are you doing here of all places?"
"Well…" Sasami said, having understood maybe one in every two words Skuld had said. "I was searching for my half-brother, Yosho, with my older sister Ayeka. Yosho and Ayeka are engaged, you see, but an evil space pirate attacked Jurai, and Yosho left in pursuit of her. When Ayeka grew of age to have her own treeship, she left to chase after him when he never returned." Sasami smiled mischievously and ducked her head. "I slipped on board when no one was watching." She whispered. "It wasn't until we were past Juraian airspace that Ayeka found out. She was so mad!" She youth giggled, and was delighted when Skuld giggled alongside her. "But we'd been searching for him ever since. We went into stasis sleep until Ryu-oh found the space pirate's ships' signature, and had just started to wake up due to a possible lead when…" She paused, scrunching her brows together. "When…"
"There had been a light." Sasami murmured. "A big, bright light. I thought I heard Tsunami's voice and then…then I woke up here." She shook her head, sending light blue pigtails flying as she shook off the feeling of alarm. Tsunami sounded distressed. Scared even.
"Hey, it's okay." Sasami looked up, finding Skuld staring at her with a comforting smile. "That just means we share a common goal."
"We do?"
"Yeah!" Skuld nodded. "Finding our knuckleheaded sisters and idiot brothers!" In a softer voice she whispered, "Though Belldandy is the epitome of perfection-sorry Bell."
Sasami stared at her, then laughed. After a moment, Skuld laughed too. The duo shared a warm and friendly smile. "Want to go and find our Knuckleheads and Idiots together?" Sasami asked.
"Ha! I thought you'd never ask!" Skuld replied, and held out her right hand. Skuld stared at it, first in surprise, then in confusion, then reached out to grab it. Skuld pumped it up and down, causing the Princess's shoulder to jostle wildly. The girl was almost abnormally strong, even to a Juraian such as herself. "Then its a deal! We stick together until we're re-united with our siblings!"
"And hopefully we don't find evil space pirates along the way!" Sasami agreed.
"Bet if we did it'd be ugly." Said Skuld.
"Bet it'd be ogreish." Said Sasami.
"With nasty fangs."
"And big long claws!"
"And messy dirty hair!"
"And scales! Oh! And a tail!"
The two collapsed into a fit of giggles once more. "C'mon." Said Skuld, climbing to her feet. "Let's get outta here before some kind of 'evil space pirate' really does come down on us."
Vortex World,
Okinawa Prefecture, Naha City
Kagatsuchi 7/8 Waxing
Ryoko sneezed and looked around.
Next to her, Tenchi paused to look up at her. "What is it?" He asked, and Ryoko could hear the edge of alarm and caution sweep into his voice.
The space pirate looked around, golden eyes suspicious as they surveyed the bland, golden wasteland around them. Yet the demons in this region had learned early on the dangers of attacking the duo, and since then hand steered clear of the duo. "…Nothing." She growled.
The woman had been growing more and more irritable since leaving the school and venturing in the direction Tenchi claimed led to home. At first she'd brushed it off; it was the adrenaline wearing off, or it was because of the insurmountable amount of demons-avian Zhens with the vibrant, poisonous rainbow feathers, gremlins which lept at them from discarded and wrecked vehicles in an attempt to take them off guard, strange and wretched slimes-malevolent entities too weak to take on the form of a demon-which stole their strength and sapped their power bit by bit like mosquitoes.
Then she chalked it up to the new landscape which surrounded them; a wasteland of abandoned and trashed vehicles intermingled with great dunes of golden sand where once oceans of vibrant blue water danced off the coast line. Great, multistory skyscrapers which had collapsed with the stress of the world's end, and with which great, billowing beasts whose strengths were unparalleled glowered in the buildings' shadowy skeletons.
And yet…
She glowered up at the bright orb of brilliant blue light in the sky. The new sun. The new moon. Kagatsuchi.
She growled.
She could feel Kagatsuchi's gaze digging into her, bit by bit, growing ever stronger as it tore through the layers of her being, dissecting her like a corpse, digging ever further, ever deeper into her being in a slow, parasitic crawl. She could feel it penetrate her flesh, gliding beneath the flesh, pull through the muscle and pick at the fibers like the strings of a violin, dig into the bone and beat into the marrow, then travel through her nervous system and into her heart, her brain, searching, seeking, prying…
"Ryoko."
The woman snarled, lips pulled back in a savage grimace of rage and, below that, fear. Beside her Tenchi jumped, yanking his hand back as if fearful she might bite him. The golden eyed woman froze, eyes wide, and a wave of regret washed over her. She bowed her head, a hand running across her face. "Sorry…" She grumbled, squeezing her eyes shut against the glare of the Thing in the Sky.
"It's okay." Tenchi murmured. "Is it…"
The space pirate drew in a long, slow breath. She felt exposed. Vulnerable. Worse than that, she felt naked beneath its glow. "I can't stand it…" She said, and the growl remained in her voice. "It just keeps…" She shivered, then snarled back up at the orb above them. "I'll kill you." She hissed towards it. "Mark my words…if I do nothing else in this land, I will kill you. I will bring you down, I will crush you, I will leave you in pieces, and crush those until they are finer than the grains of sand around you!" The woman howled.
Kagatsuchi, its all it bright Nothingness, did nothing but Stare.
"Hey…" Tenchi's voice was a soothing familiarness that Ryoko homed in on, and though it pained her, she broke her gaze on Kagatsuchi, turning to face him as she fought off the snarl on her face. The teen raised his hands to his chest in a gesture of peace. "Let's keep going." He said. "We're…we're almost home."
He pointed to a small neighborhood district, not all of which looked to have been decimated by the world's end. "We reached my neighborhood…or what's left of it. We'll go inside, get some food and water, and hunker down for awhile. Everything's going to be okay, right?"
Ryoko stared at him, one hand still clutching her head. No Tenchi, everything is not going to be okay. She thought. I feel like I'm on a knife's edge again, and that any moment I'm going to break, because I can't…I don't know how long I can endure the pressure of this gaze. She smiled at him. It was strained. "Right." She said, her voice tight and stressed. "…Let's go." I can't keep this up. I need to hide. I need to find someplace safe. I can't….I can't…
They traveled onwards for another mile. The demons which had made their homes in the residential district were strong and aggressive, yet with each one she took down, Ryoko became increasingly aware of the fear and anxiety in their actions, in their movements, in their eyes.
These were not demons attacking out of rage or hunger.
These were victims.
Victims driven to a fear-born madness, incapable of maintaining their composer beneath the rising gaze of Kagatsuchi. All driven to their deaths by their own terror invoked madness.
The house still stood, but not much of it. For a long time, Tenchi stared at the decrepit two story house, once his father's pride and joy and the only home he'd ever known. Ryoko watched him carefully, valiantly shoving down her own anxiety as she watched the wide array of expressions pass across the young man's face. Elation, joy, shock, sadness, and grief all moved across his face in an elaborate dance, each taking their turn before melting into the next. And then only the grief remained, his eyes roaming across the half-destroyed entrance to his home with slow, methodical, precision. His lips grew tight, pursed so strongly that they began to whiten against his already pallid face. His hands tightened into fists so tense that they trembled, and Ryoko could see where the muscles in his necks bulged and strained from internalized tension.
The teen swallowed, and his throat clicked. A simple glance was enough to read his mind: We shouldn't have come here.
The teen closed his eyes and took several long, shuddering breaths. When he opened them, and his eyes were clear. "….Let's go."
Together they entered, picking their way through destroyed wooden beams and furniture. Through luck the staircase remained whole and stable, and the youth looked up at it. He turned back to Ryoko. "I…want to check upstairs. Can you stay here?"
"I can't guarantee anything right now." Ryoko winced, her voice harsh and ragged with tension. "I'll try, but whatever you're doing, either hurry it up or hide. I don't know how much time I have left."
"Okay." The youth was quiet a moment. "I'll-I'll be right back."
With an urgency that was reckless in a half-collapsed building, the teen raced upstairs, disappearing down the upper corridor and into one of the adjoining rooms.
Ryoko ignored it, moving to sit on the bottom steps of the staircase and curling into a ball. At some point, she'd begun to shake, and without Tenchi's presence near her, the brutality of Kagatsuchi's gaze hit her that much harder. She could feel her heart racing in her chest, the pulse so rapid she feared it might burst; she'd seen it happen once before-a rabbit chased by a wolf in a storm, it had been chased towards the cave, yet a burst of thunder and lightning which had struck near it had caused it to drop, motionless, in front of her. She remembered seeing a small bit of blood trickle from its nose and mouth before the wolf had snatched it up. A Kurama Tengu had needed to explain what had happened to it for her, and the image had stayed with her for months on end, wondering how any creature could literally die of fright.
Now she understood.
I wish I could be 'unsummoned' like High P and Paperball. She thought. That must be an escape. Some way of protecting themselves from all of this.
Footsteps above her, and she listened with one ear-if for no other reason than to distract herself-following Tenchi's path as he stumbled around first in one room, then raced back into another room. It sounded like he was looking for something. I should leave before he comes back downstairs. Succumb to the madness and join up with him when its over.
"Ryoko." Tenchi whispered loudly from atop the staircase, and the space pirate looked over her shoulder, finding the teen now dressed in a tight, long-sleeved sports shirt which covered his brands, and over that, a brown haori jacket. His pants were swapped out as well, no longer the school uniform pants but instead a pair of looser black slacks drawn up to waist by a belt. He held a bundle of fabric in one arm, and as their eyes met, he gave her a confident smile, slipping down the staircase with ease. "Here." He offered a similar navy blue hanten winter coat to her, and the woman noticed the kanji for 'Masaki' embroided on on slide. "Put this on."
Too overwhelmed to question him, the woman slipped the garment over her shoulders. It felt large and warm, and unconsciously she burrowed into it, taking a deep breath and smelling…
Achika. Achika and Tenchi.
I promised Achika I'd watch over him like I did her...I need to leave before I hurt them. I before I hurt him.
She blinked and opened her eyes with a start. Tenchi smiled comfortingly. "Come on." His voice was soft. Gentle. Coaxing even, like he was speaking to terrified animal. "Let's get off the stairs and go upstairs. I have an idea."
Wordlessly, Ryoko reluctantly followed the teen upstairs, down the corridor and to a room on the left. The youth slid the door open and stepped inside, gesturing for the pirate to follow. A simple futon bed rested off to the left hand side, piled high with blankets, and posters hung of everything from bands to poster girls to movies. It was spartan and neat, and smelled overwhelmingly like Tenchi.
Ryoko looked at the teen in a mixture of confusion and suspicion.
"I hung some sheets up against the window to block out the light." Tenchi said, missing the glance. "I don't know if it'll help block out Kagatsuchi, but at least it'll prevent any avian demons from seeing us up here." The teen moved to the bed, fussing with the pile of blankets.
For her part, Ryoko drew the hanten closer to her person. There was a comforting weight to the material, and the scents were familiar and soothing. Yet still…she felt her gaze drawn to the window, covered as it was by a black sheet. "I can still feel it." She whispered, and shuddered. "I need to go. Tenchi, I can't-"
"Just hang on, okay? A little longer?"
The woman growled the unmistakable sound of a scared and cornered animal. She could feel it now, feel the ticking of the clock as her resilience neared its end, as Kagatsuchi's eyes widened bit-by excruciating-bit, and the looming insanity pushing at the edge of her consciousness. The woman was hyperventilating now, though she seemed unaware of it, her eyes glued on the sheet, as if expecting something-that thing which watched her-to come bursting through the window at any moment.
"-ko. Ryoko!"
She turned to Tenchi with a snarl, igniting a plasma sword on instinct as she wheeled to face him. She could feel the red seeping into her eyes-the madness normally attributed to what she'd only known as a bloodrage now returning in this…this frenzy state of being.
Tenchi froze.
Two pairs of golden eyes met and held each other for an eternity.
IneedtogoIneedtogoleaveleaveleaveleavegogogogogostopstopstopstopstopSTOP.
And with all her will, Ryoko pushed back…and succeeded.
She would not succeed again.
The sword vanished, and in its place the Demon Lord clutched her head, the breaths coming in short, fast heaves now as sweat dotted her forehead. "Leave." She hissed, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Later." Tenchi murmured, and after a moment's hesitation approached, gently wrapping the hanten back over her shoulders. "C'mon, little longer." He urged, and at his tug, Ryoko allowed the demi-fiend to pull her along.
One eye opened and had enough time to register some kind of…draping, the inside dark and quiet, and then Tenchi pulled her inside, pressing down on her shoulders in a small gesture to sit. She did, and the teen moved to sit next to her, grabbing the large, heavy, winter comforter he'd pulled into the tiny shelter over Ryoko's and his heads and wrapping the both of them together in it.
Ryoko grunted, and in the darkness of the…tent, fort, whatever kind of shelter they were in, she could see Tenchi's eyes and brands glowing softly, illuminating his face.
"Mom and dad used to do this with me whenever there was a storm or a hurricane." Tenchi whispered, and like a drowning woman lost at sea, she clung to it, wrapping her focus around his voice like it was a life preserver.
Perhaps in some ways, it was.
"Okinawa is a small island, and so even inland like we were, we still suffered the brunt of any storms which made landfall." Tenchi continued. "The wind would howl, the thunder would rumble, and the lightning would blind me, showing me scenes of rain coming at the house horizontally and small, light objects swept up by the storm moving as if possessed by Youkai.
"So Dad would build me a fort, wrap me up in Mom's hanten, and we'd crawl inside together. 'This is our fort.' Mom would say, 'And nothing can harm us in here.' Dad would tell us funny stories and Mom would tell us stories of youkai or sing softly. We had flashlights and books, and Mom and Dad would take turns reading them out loud, and you know what? It was almost enough to make a five year old boy forget about the scary noises and lights happening outside his window."
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Control yourself, you have this, just teleport away, get away from Tenchi before Kagatsuchi bears down on you. Hide him. Keep him safe. The woman grimaced. "H…Hide…"
"I am." Tenchi said simply. "And so are you. It's just another storm outside. But we're in here, safe and sound, and nothing is going to get us, okay?"
"Tenchi, would you-" Her voice rose-not in anger, but in raw fear.
Tenchi ignored her. "Hold still."
"What-"
The teen slipped a pair of headphones over the space pirate's ears and hit play on the small Walkman.
The gentle strum of a guitar hit her ears, and for a brief, magical moment any other thought left her mind.
The woman froze, the words dying in her throat as an easy, gentle melody began to play across an acoustic guitar. For that brief, infinate moment, Ryoko forgot about where she was. She forgot about what she had been doing. She forgot about the Vortex World, the half-destroyed house, the demons edging towards madness outside and even her own dwindling sanity. For one pure, brief instant outside of time, Ryoko forgot her anxiety, forgot Kagatsuchi's eyes, and forgot the world.
The Demon Lord turned slowly to regard Tenchi, and in her face was an expression of absolute, raw shock and awe that in that small span of time the fearsome, demonic space pirate looked childlike and innocent.
"What…is this?" Her words came out a whisper, and as the melody continued another guitar was added to it, accompanied by the soft song of Humanity's voice.
"Do you like it?" Tenchi whispered. "It's a Western band. I don't know their name, but sometimes Dad comes back from business trips with new music and these were one of them.
"Music." Ryoko said. "This is—this is music?" She could feel the encroaching tide of insanity returning, the tide come back in even as the music washed it back into the sea of madness, the gentle granuals of her consciousness ebbing and flowing with the encroaching waves.
Tenchi smiled at her brightly. "Yeah. The songs they have are really gently and harmonious, and, I don't know…they take you away, you know?"
Take you away. Go away. You need to go away. I need to go away. I-I can go away.
The woman continued to stare at him, the awe on her face palatable. "I…" She could feel tears rising in her eyes as the music continued, heard the easy hum of mens voices intermingling in a wordless song to the acoustic hum of their instruments. Leave. A voice reminded her. You can't stay here, You'll hurt Tenchi.
The smile began to fade on Tenchi's face as he stared at her. "What's…what's the matter?"
Ryoko shook her head, her soul torn and aching as it tried to remain in the state of bliss brought on by the sounds penetrating her ears. Please, just a bit longer…just let me know this-let me enjoy this moment a small bit longer...
How long?
How long had she existed under Kagato's thumb? Two-thousand years? Three-thousand? Five?
Five-thousand years of indentured servitude; of slavery. All to a man who had kept her mind dumb and empty outside of what he deemed as viable. How to kill. How to loot. How to pillage. How to destroy. All to the sound of screams. Of madness. Of Chaos. Of Discord. All to the sound of her own laughter, empty of emotion or depth or understanding. All to the howls of Ryo-oh-ki, driven to the same bloodlust as herself, the only release she felt when they were free of the Soja. Of Kagato's voice, cold and commanding, and the infernal pipe organ he played whenever she returned from her missions, beaten and bloody, unsuccessful and dreading the consequences which awaited her when that pipe organ's sound died down.
Kagato only played where she could hear in the event her missions ended in failure.
How she hated the sound of that pipe organ and what Kagato claimed was music.
I left myself when the punishments came.
Ryoko had never stayed long on a planet to understand the noises around her as anything other than noise; the racket of Civilization and all its disharmony. Even visits to bars had left her unaware and incapable of identifying the noise around her as anything but a racket. It was all the same; a trivial din which echoed and warbled in and out of pitch.
"What else was I…" The woman lapsed into silence as the song ended, only to immediately pick up into a fresh melody.
I left myself. I can leave myeslf. I can leave my body. Her eyes widened. Astral project. Like in the cave. Leave your body behind so it can't lash out at Tenchi.
But would it work? What would happen to her soul if she departed in the height of Kagatsuchi? Would she lose ties to her body? Would she become like the disembodied spirits they'd fought in the high school, roaming as formless ethereal wisps, attacking everything which came near?
I can't stay here though. I don't know what I might do to him.
Keep the music playing. If the music keeps playing I can find my way back. Like Ryo-oh-ki whenever we crashed. I could always hear her voice guiding me to her reincarnation.
But what will happen to me when I'm gone?
"Hey…Ryoko, what's wrong? You're crying." Tenchi stared at her in mounting concern, and for a long time Ryoko remained quiet, not trusting her voice to speak her thoughts aloud. Instead, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders-she could still feel the heat of the brands even now through his clothes-and drew him against her in a tight, one-armed embrace. For a moment it grew tight. Uncomfortably so for the one next to her, and she relaxed her grip as Tenchi grunted in discomfort. "I'm leaving now." She murmured, and took a long, shuddering breath.
Tenchi turned to face the woman more directly. "What do you-what do you mean?" He stammered. "You can't leave! Kagatsuchi is-"
"Watch my body."
"What?!" Tenchi exclaimed, "Ryoko, wait-"
The Demon Lord closed her eyes.
"Wait!"
And pushed herself out of her body, and saw Tenchi follow her spirit with wide, scared golden eyes. She wanted to smile at him, to comfort him, but couldn't muster the nerve.
She was scared too. Moreso than the Hitoshura.
The spirit slipped out of the room and out of the house.
Kagatsuchi's eyes opened wide, and its full gaze struck the denizens of the Vortex World. Outside the derelict house demons of all shapes and sizes began their endless slaughter, falling to frenzy as they sought their escape from the Ever Watchful Eyes.
Inside the house, a lone demi-fiend gripped his companion tightly, leaning into the empty shell of his closest companion as Something Wicked Prowled Outside.
Vortex World,
Okinawa Prefecture, Naha City
Kagatsuchi 7/8 Waning
It had grown quiet again.
Tenchi could just hear the gentle sound of music coming from the old headphones he'd given Ryoko as the audio CD looped again, and outside the room-outside the house- the sounds of screams, roars, and howls had finally ceased.
A relief. The sounds outside had begun to make him anxious as well. It wasn't Kagatsuchi; he still couldn't feel whatever these 'eyes' were that drove Ryoko and the others mad-but the sounds of carnage so close to his window-even right outside the door to his room-had scared him in a way that not even the fight against Forneus had.
Now it was quiet once more.
The teen sighed, feeling some of the tension ease from his body, and looked over at Ryoko. The woman's head was bowed, her eyes closed as if in sleep. She'd stopped crying some time ago, though the lad was uncertain if she simply had no more tears to shed or if her body had ceased to produce tears with the departure of her spirit. He could feel her breath against his cheek though. Could feel her heartbeat-rapid but slowing-against his own. While her spirit was gone, her grip around him remained tight and steadfast, and while the youth had not moved against her, he could feel where his legs and arms had fallen asleep in their time together.
Yet Tenchi couldn't find the nerve to move.
Though he knew Kagatsuchi's affect had stolen her spirit, she looked almost peaceful in the gentle glow beneath the make-shift tent.
His right hand tingled uncomfortably. So too did both of his feet.
I really need to move. He thought, and sighed.
Ryoko jolted to awake against him, and her eyes flew open as she jerked her head up to look at him. For a moment he saw the edge of a red glow rise in her eyes, only for it to fall back away as the woman seemed to remember herself.
"Are you okay?" Tenchi whispered.
For a long moment the space pirate stared in incomprehension, then blinked and released him, giving the teen space as she slowly looked around. "It's over, I guess." Tenchi said, lifting his sleeping hand and wincing as pins and needles attacked it. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I want to vomit." Ryoko's voice was coarse with suppressed emotion. She grimaced and removed the headphones, staring at them as if they were a mystic item before covering her face. "This helped though." She whispered. "I…" She fell quiet, pursed her lips, then tried again. "I came back because of this."
"What do you mean?" Tenchi asked, flexing his fingers and preparing himself for the hurdle of standing on two sleeping legs. Shifting his weight, he moved over and clicked first 'stop' then 'off' on the Walkman.
"I…don't know.." Ryoko murmured, and with a grimace scrubbed at her eyes. "The music, I…had never heard anything like that before. I…didn't really know where I was when I came to. I think I was in the city or something. Nothing looked familiar. But I could hear the music and…it was like a link. A link back to my body." The woman blinked, leaning forward, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her arms on them as she buried her face in both hands. The space pirate took a long, deep breath. "…What is that instrument?"
"You mean the guitars?" Tenchi stared at her in curiosity.
"What is 'guitars'?"
"Guitars are the instrument that first started playing on the track." Tenchi explained. "You've never heard a guitar before?"
Ryoko stared at him with an alien expression, then bowed her head, shaking it slowly. "Tenchi…prior to this, the only music I ever heard was a pipe organ. One which played whenever I returned to the man who was my master following a failed mission. It was his way of focusing. Focusing on what to do regarding my failure. Focusing on what to do despite my failure." She lapsed into silence, and Tenchi stared at her in mounting dread. "What accompanied that…that sound was always pain. Grievous pain." The space pirate offered the youth the headphones. "I did not know any other type of music…any other type of instrument existed up until now. It-it brought me back." There was a level of reverence in her voice as she spoke. "I had been lost but…I could hear them. They brought me back to my body…" Another long pause, and then softly, so gently Tenchi had to strain to catch it, "It's beautiful."
"Where did you go?" Tenchi asked.
Ryoko looked at him, then shook her head. "I don't-I don't know. I forced my astral body out of my physical body, I remember that, and pushed myself outside of the house, but afterwards…The woman grew quiet. "….When I came to, I was in some portion of the city. There were demons…some-no, many-were dead, others were coming to their own senses like me. I thought…I thought I saw a human slip past us all…a girl I think. She fled into a nearby building…it looked like it had some kind of rail system attached to it.
Tenchi's heart skipped a beat. "The monorail?" Tenchi guessed. "The Yui Rail?
Ryoko grunted, then nodded her head.
"Did you see any names?" Tenchi asked, and felt his pulse quicken in excitement. He leaned forward, staring at the woman earnestly. "Did you recognize anything? Any sort of landmarks?"
The woman frowned, running a hand through her hair as she closed her eyes in remembrance. Tenchi leaned forward silently, waiting with baited breath as the woman thought, and almost falling over when the woman's eyes flew open and she looked at him.
"Miebashi!" She exclaimed. "I saw the sign! Miebashi!"
Tenchi smiled broadly. "Yes!" He cried, "Miebashi! That's only a few miles away! We can get there in a couple hours and track her down!"
Ryoko grinned, the residual anxiety fading somewhat in the youth's own exuberance. "Guess we know where we're heading next then?" She asked.
Tenchi nodded. "I want to regroup with any other humans that might be around." He explained. "I mean…we-they-humans are…they aren't that strong with demons running around, right? I need to do my part and help them out-you know, find some place safe for them where other demons won't prey on them."
The smile on Ryoko's face visibly fell, and the woman's gaze grew thoughtful as she stared at him. "Is that so…" She murmured.
Tenchi was unaware of the sudden shift in tone. He nodded eagerly. "Yeah. We gotta regroup and make sure everyone that's left can find some place safe. You know-a camp or something."
The space pirate fell silent, then sighed, offering the headphones back to Tenchi. "…Guess we better pack up and head out." She mumbled.
"Keep it."
Ryoko started. "What?"
"Keep it." Tenchi nodded to the headphones, picking up the Walkman and offering it to her. "You should have it. Especially if-like you said-you've never heard anything else like it before." He smiled wanly at her. "I'm pretty sure there are some spare batteries around here somewhere, and I bet we can find more of them around the city when those old ones die. I have more CD's too-not just this one-and believe me, you haven't even scraped the surface with this track."
Ryoko gingerly took the Walkman from him, staring down at the headphones and music player with the same level of esteem as if he'd just gifted her an engagement ring. She looked to him and back down at the items, then back to Tenchi again. Her expression was one of first shock, which as he watched melted away into warm joy. "Tenchi…" She murmured, "Thank you."
And despite himself, Tenchi felt a little warm too. A warmth in his chest unlike anything he'd felt before, it oozed through him like warm honey, coating his insides and sticking to him like glue. Like the sun on a cool autumn day, he basked in it, and smiled back at her in genuine happiness. "Your welcome, Ryoko."
They swept through the room, rummaging through drawers in search of supplies to take with them. They found more batteries, as promised, and Tenchi slipped them into the small gym bag he'd left in the room.
"Let's check the attic real fast." He said, and when they slipped up into the hot rafters, found boxes marked and piled high.
He looked at several of them and winced. Some were labeled as Achika.
The teen deliberately ignored them. Instead he found a couple other boxes labeled camping and opened them, rifling through them and smiling when he came across a two large hiking bags-one an olive green and the other a smaller gray. Two sleeping bags were stored with them, some aluminum cooking ware for camping on the trail, flashlights, a camping torch, bug spray which looked out of date, and a small tent. He removed the hiking bags, sleeping bags, flashlight and torch, and after some consideration the cooking gear as well.
Off to the side, Ryoko was looking at the other boxes in curiosity, her eyes falling on the boxes labeled with his mother's name in quiet regard.
To her credit though, the space pirate didn't touch them, though Tenchi could see her warring with the temptation.
He was grateful when she turned to move towards him instead. Though Achika's parting was long since gone, her departure was still an ugly scar neither Tenchi nor his father had ever fully come to terms with; Nobuyuki had silently packed up his mother's possessions and stored them away in the boxes up here, packing her life with them up as if she hadn't even existed and storing her away, out of sight, out of mind…yet unable to fully let her go.
Tenchi wasn't certain how he'd react if any of those boxes were ever opened in front of him. It was hard enough seeing Ryoko with his mother's old hanten-something his father had let him keep following Achika's departure from their lives.
The lad wasn't about to ask for it back, however.
Instead, he offered Ryoko the smaller gray backpack, one of the sleeping bags, and one of the flashlights. "Here. Store the sleeping bag at the bottom, and we'll start loading up with what we need. See the external pockets? You can store the batteries in there and the pockets should be big enough to store the Walkman if you want."
"Got it." Ryoko said, and once the duo gathered their supplies, shouldered the backpacks before heading towards the attic stairs. "Hold still." Ryoko said, and when Tenchi glanced at her the space pirate rested a hand on him. The world dissipated nauseatingly for a moment, and Tenchi left his stomach somewhere in the attic as the two of them reappeared on the remains of the ground floor.
The teen leaned haphazardly against the staircase banister. "Next time warn a guy." His voice was rough as he sucked in a deep breath. "I think…" He swallowed back nausea, breathing through his nose as saliva welled up in his mouth. The teen grimaced. "I think next time I'll take the stairs."
"You get used to it after a while." Ryoko said.
"What, so I need to earn my sea legs?" Tenchi joked weakly. "Or is it…'teleport legs'?" He asked.
"Either or, likely." Ryoko said. "You good?"
Tenchi nodded and straightened, taking a deep, cleansing breath. "Let's see what else we can find."
The kitchen was in decent condition; they found canned goods, a can opener, and some bags of pre-packaged food which Tenchi divided equally between their two bags. The water by some miracle was still working, the the teen filled two thermos' each with as much water as they could manage, grabbing several powdered packets of miso soup mixtures and dried fish to add to them. There was still an unopened container of miso, which Tenchi tossed into his bag, dried vegetables which he threw into Ryoko's, and, against his better judgment, one of the larger bottles of sake that his dad kept for special occasions.
He kept that one in his bag, stowing it away when Ryoko's back was turned.
It'd be a surprise for later.
He raided his father's study and found half of it collapsed, but still found a notebook with some of his father's sketches, pens, pencils, a tape ruler, and duct tape. He stowed them in his own pack, being careful with the sketchbook, then raided the bathroom for a first aide kit, rubbing alcohol, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap and shampoo. Part of him was even tempted to try and see if he could take a shower right then and there, but as the floor groaned beneath him, he thought better of it. The second floor had held their weight despite the house's deteriorating structure, and he didn't want to push his luck.
Instead he threw several pairs of socks in his bag, a couple spare pairs of shirts and pants, the tenchi-ken, wrapped and ready into one of the larger front pockets, and the remaining items they'd picked up from the school then slipped back down the stairs.
Ryoko was waiting for him. She was examining something—a picture, one that had fallen in the initial destruction of the house and whose frame was cracked. "You about ready?" She asked, and set the picture on a piece of dusty furniture. Tenchi saw the picture and winced, his heart aching at the sight. It was one of him and his parents-Nobuyuki and Achika both looking young and exuberant as a four-year old little boy sat on his father's shoulders.
Tenchi looked around him, examining his surroundings with regret as he compared it to his memories. "We…aren't coming back here." He said.
"No." Ryoko agreed, regarding him. "I suppose we aren't." She said.
The teen nodded. "I—is it wrong if I think I shouldn't have come here?"
"No." Ryoko said. "Do you regret it?"
The teen pursed his lips. "Part of me does." He admitted. "I…had thought that…I don't know. That I'd find the house like how I'd left it this morning, whole, undamaged and unchanged. I guess I thought…" He stopped himself, swallowed, then tried again. "I guess I thought Dad would be here." He said quietly, a pit of disquiet forming in his stomach. "It was childish but…part of me really believed this house would be whole and he'd be here, sitting at his desk and drawing some new design and greeting me as I came home." The teen shook his head, laughing bitterly. "Guess I really am just a dumb kid still…" He sniffed, swallowing a lump in his throat as he looked back at the space pirate.
Ryoko watched him in silence, then approached him. "Come on." She said. "Let's go." She wrapped an arm around his shoulders-like she had back at the school, like she had upstairs, and Tenchi found himself leaning into it, comforted by the familiar gesture.
As they left the house, the space pirate looked at him. "It wasn't a wasted effort." She said. "And you aren't a dumb kid for hoping against hope."
Tenchi nodded after a moment's hesitation. "…Right." He mumbled, and looked back at the house. Now that he was looking at it again, a part of him wondered how he'd ever seen his family house in it. The wreckage was just that; a skeleton, a worn out corpse of a world long since past, a thing which had not survived the world's destruction and which now stood as a relic of what once was, unrecognizable from what it had once been.
Yet for a second he saw it as it was before, with not only Nobuyuki but also Achika standing in the doorframe, waiting for him to get off the schoolbus as he rushed into his mother's expecting arms.
He blinked and the image, the memory, was gone, like the house, like his family, and like everything else in it.
"I guess you really can't go home again, can you?" Tenchi asked.
"In some manners, yes." Ryoko said. "But in other manners…it really just depends on what you do. If I'm honest, I never had a home until I came here. Don't get me wrong, I hated that damn cave and the imprisonment that came with it but…I came to love the beings who visited me. Much as I hate your grandpa, Tenchi, I also have to admit that the mountain is more my home than anything else I've ever had." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Guess sometimes you have to make your home with the ones you surround yourself with."
"That so?" Tenchi asked.
"That's what I think, anyways." Ryoko replied.
The teen looked at her, then nodded, moving to wrap his own arm around the pirate's shoulders with some effort.
Ryoko looked at him with a start.
"Guess I gotta find a new home with the Heavenly Demon Lord of the Masaki Shrine." Tenchi said, and while his smile was strained, there was a level of ease and comfort in his actions that made the gesture feel natural.
"…Guess so." Ryoko said.
Together they left the house, arm-in-arm, a pair of backpacks each on their person as they marched over the threshold and out of the house.
Together they both froze, staring in shock at the wasteland of slaughter before them.
An ocean of sand lay decorated with the empty remains of bodies torn to shreds.
Tenchi looked down, and stared at the remains of a great avian wing, longer than he was tall, which had been ripped from the body at the shoulder joint, red Magatsuhi still rising in thin red trails from the dissipating energy that remained. Beyond it, atop a neighboring roof, laid the body of a massive raptor, its flesh a matte purple that seemed to incorporate equal human and avian physiology into its being. Its head had been ripped off and lay resting at an angle in the front yard.
Other bodies and their eviscerated parts rested elsewhere, shewn about like a child's playthings and broken by careless hands.
Magatsuhi, the life blood of those spiritual creatures residing within the Vortex World, rose in gentle, soft trickles from them all before dissipating altogether.
"What…what did this?" Tenchi whispered, stepping away from the wing before him in horror. "Was this…Ryoko, was this because of Kagatsuchi? From everyone…everyone going mad?"
Yet Ryoko was silent, staring at the large avian body lying before them in horror.
With it came a knowledge, cold, dark, and foreboding.
I did this. She thought. I did all of this.
They had been lucky this time.
Luckier than either of them had realized.
"Come on Tenchi." Ryoko's voice was a breathless whisper. "Lets get moving before scavengers come to pick at what remains."
They rushed through the small neighborhood, dodging corpses and bodyparts as they left the sanctuary that had housed them through Kagatsuchi's Wide Eyes. And as they passed the large violet raptor, a memory, a dream, a nightmare rose unbidden for the Demon Lord. One of screams. One of violence. One of Magatsuchi, pure energy, pure power, and the terrible lust it brought with it in the heart of Frenzy.
Comments of a Madwoman: Something Wicked This Way Comes...Thy name is Skuld Tyrdotter, destroyer of Men, Lady of Machines, Mother to Androids and Cyborgs. And thus the Spiritual World Did Tremble
Catherdral of Shadows
Pisaca: The Corpse Eater Corpse of Hindu mythology. They enjoy human meat, especially corpses, and are covered in filth. They have the ability to turn invisible and possess men. They are often given offerings during festivals to prevent their interference and to placate them.
Vetala: Evil spirits from Hindu folklore with varying shapes and forms who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession or control of corpses. They are constantly plotting their return to the realm of the living and enjoy mauling living humans. Their eyes glow with a dull light.