Okinawa Prefecture,
Ryoko's Cave, Japan
Weeks passed.
Summer break neared its end.
Ryoko did not appear again within the Masaki Shrine.
Though Tenchi visited the cave daily and presented offerings frequently, he saw neither hide nor hair of the Devil Caller or her allied youkai. The cave remained empty and abandoned, the gate swinging empty and forlorn on its rusted hinges, the lock which had held it shut now only a hunk of mangled steel. The offerings themselves remained untouched-spirit or animal, nothing approached them, and even when Tenchi took the time to silence his Inner Voice and concentrate on the spiritual world, he found the area abandoned. Not even kodama floated around the cave, as once was so habitual for them. It was as if the area had lost its sense of safety with Ryoko's release, and with her abandonment came an unspoken signal to the other entities to flee as well.
No kitsune barking or taking offerings, even when Tenchi, with his grandfather's and Raidou's assistance, went out of his way to make inari-zushi for them. Instead, Tenchi watched by the day as the fried tofu packets dried out in the summer sun, as the rice hardened into condensed, inedible bricks, and then finally until they were overtaken by mold and the youth was forced to remove them for sanitation purposes.
No tengu followed him around. The forest was alive with gentle, clear birdsong, and though he often gazed to the forest canopy, not once did he spy the black wing of a crow-thought at one time, he caught a enormous raven resting on the shrine rooftop. Its attention had been focused on Raidou and Gouto-Douji, however, and even when it caught sight of Tenchi, did not respond to him in any supernatural way.
No kodama bounced through the forest. The mountainside had fallen quiet with their passing, and Tenchi found he missed the innocent giggles of the playful spirits. He saw them only once more that summer-and that was at the Holy Tree, Funaho, where they swayed back and forth like leaves on a branch, whispering in hushed voices as they seemed to commune with the great tree.
No jorogumo.
Perhaps the only thing Tenchi was grateful for, though the webs of her old nest remained. The storms had eroded it to almost nothing, and when Tenchi grew bold enough, he was alarmed but unsurprised to find not just one, but several human remains in the most decrepit part of the nest.
He made a small grave for them, presented offerings, and prayed for the spirits, though he doubted any remained. Youkai victims were preyed upon in all aspects; physical, astral, and spiritual, and there was rarely anything left to pass on.
He prayed anyways, if only for his own ease. He spoke nothing of it to his grandfather.
Now, only a week remained before Tenchi was due to return to Naha City, and through it all, the forest remained quiet and empty. Sighing, the youth rose from where he'd knelt in front of Ryoko's cave, a trail of incense smoke wafting around him and filling the air with the scent of evergreens. The last of the Okinawa Awamori sat in two sake cups in front of the incense, and not for the first time Tenchi wondered if he'd have to throw it out come tomorrow, where it would sit through the night and remain untouched by anything.
The youth heaved a sigh, gathering the now empty bottle and stowing it in the small plastic bag he'd brought with him from the shrine. Straightening, the teen clapped his hands and prayed, silencing his inner voice with an ease that had not existed his first night there-days of repeated practice, all with a desperate teen thinking he'd sensed something, that a sign had shown, that Ryoko had left him a message-anything-had left him proficient at tuning into the spiritual world.
Too bad there was nothing to tune in to.
Even now, its empty. Tenchi thought, staring blankly at the incense smoke and wondering if maybe it was him; maybe that demon had done something to him in the cave. Maybe he'd…seen too much with the two-faced demon and had closed down his own abilities.
Or maybe Ryoko's just…gone. Tenchi thought, and felt a lump in his chest. "Please come back." He whispered. "I'm sorry I ran away. Justplease…Please come back!"
Yet the cave ignored his plea, and heaving a sigh, Tenchi turned to trudge back towards the Shrine.
Raidou Kuzunoha was watching him from beneath a tree. Tenchi stopped, and the teen smirked at him, fingers drumming on a bokken that rested against one shoulder.
Tenchi sighed. "Maybe she just doesn't want to deal with your bullshit." He muttered.
Kuzunoha and Gouto-Douji had made themselves regular visitors to the Masaki shrine since their first meeting with the Masaki clan. Gouto to track down leads and better understand the complicated history of the Masaki shrine. Kuzunoha at Yosho's request. "You need a sparring partner outside of me." Yosho confessed, "Our training, while done without padding, can become scripted if we aren't careful. We have both seen all that the other has to give, and young Kuzunoha-kun has no official training. I expect you both will benefit from facing each other."
Ever since, the bancho punk had gone out of his way to hunt down Tenchi, thrice, sometimes four times a week. The Devil Summoner craved violence, Tenchi found, and had a mean streak a mile wide and a savagery twice as long. He fights dirty too. Tenchi thought, narrowing his eyes at the teen. He hasn't summoned any demons on me, but at his heart he's a brawler with a stick-I get too close and he abandons the bokken to pummel me.
Now, the teen jerked his head back towards the trail, a silent demand for more violence.
Tenchi had grown quite adept at learning the teen's non-verbal cues.
"Screw you. I'm not in the mood." Tenchi grumbled.
The bancho snorted. When are you ever.
"Yeah? Well maybe if you weren't such a bully I'd be more up to it."
Raidou shrugged, then mimed crying. Crybaby.
"That's not what I remember when I kicked you in the nuts."
Raidou scowled.
Tenchi flipped him off. It was becoming a bad habit. One he'd learned from Ryoko but had never actually gotten around to using until this asshat had invaded his life.
The scowl darkened, and Raidou threw the bokken at Tenchi. Tenchi caught it, to the teen's frustration, and mimed Raidou, resting it on his shoulder. "What, you want me to beat your ass in front of Ryoko's cave?"
The Devil Summoner smirked, and before Tenchi could react rushed at the teen, forcing the Masaki on guard. Raidou was fast-his years challenging demons and working in the field made him fast, but Tenchi's reactions were almost as sharp as his grandfather's, drilled into him since childhood. He parried the strike without thought, then ducked a punch as Raidou swung at him. In turn, Tenchi stepped on the teen's foot, angled the bokken to force Raidou's weapon into a slide away from him, and tried to smash the butt end of the wooden weapon into the Kuzunoha's face.
A foot slammed into the side of his left knee, and the leg supporting it gave way as Tenchi cried out. He dropped to one leg, but not before thrusting the bokken into his opponent's gut. Raidou grunted, and the wooden sword came down at him at an angle with vicious intent. Tenchi blocked it reactively, only to yelp when Raido's weapon came down hard on the teen's fingers.
He glared at the youth. "Fuck you!" He snarled, and almost bit his tongue off when Raidou's knee smashed up into his chin. Stars exploded across Tenchi's gaze, bright and dazzling, and dazed, it was pure instinct which allowed Tenchi to avoid a strike to the head. The teen stumbled backwards and almost fell into a bush, shaking his head in a vain effort to clear his vision. He sensed more than saw Raidou rush towards him, and snarling, Tenchi dug his heels into the earth, twisting his body as he swung up in a diagonal slash. He felt the bokken hit something soft, heard a pained and voiceless grunt, then felt something impact his bruised cheek.
Fucker's gonna knock a tooth loose. Tenchi thought, then dropped the bokken, grabbed Raido by the arm, and rolled him over his shoulder. The Devil Summoner hit the earth hard, and straightening, Tenchi turned, leaping on the fallen teen with a fist raised high.
Instead, Raido bucked, sending Tenchi forward, and the youth brought his head up, slamming it against his opponent's. Their heads came together with an audible thunk, and with two hands Raidou grabbed Tenchi and threw him to the side, unsteadily climbing to his feet and dropping to one knee.
Tenchi rolled onto his back, clutching his head as he grimaced, watching the bancho with one brown eye. "Draw."
Raidou flipped him off and tried to climb to his feet again. He fell over instead.
"Draw." Tenchi growled out.
With a resigned sigh, Raidou flipped him off but nodded.
Fifteen minutes found the two teens back at Ryoko's cave, one leaned against the stone, the other sitting in the threshold of the iron gate. Both had a pair of water bottles. Tenchi drank deeply from his, then dumped what remained over his head, sighing as the cool water struck his stinging injuries. His bokken rested against the wall the iron gate was drilled into, looking chipped and damaged; it wouldn't last another match without splintering. He stared distantly out into the woods, his eyes focusing on no one thing as his body pulsed and ached from the impromptu match.
A small distance away, Raidou took a long sip of his water, swished, and spat. Tenchi wanted to punch him; this was Ryoko's home, damn it, and the fucker was spitting on her doorstep.
Instead, the youth sighed. He had no energy left to fight; the heat, the fading adrenaline, the pain of his already aching body, and Ryoko's continued absence had sapped the aggression out of him. What was left in its wake was a hollow ache that left him down and out. It just wasn't worth it right now.
Raidou dug into a pocket and withdrew a carton of Marlow cigarettes. He smacked the bottom, and one of the cancer sticks popped up. Grabbing it, he brought it to his lips, then tapped the bottom again and turned to Tenchi, offering the pacakge with a jut of his chin.
Tenchi looked at him in mild surprise, then held a hand up and shook his head. "Mom died of cancer." He said, and didn't elaborate further. The youth had a taste for cigarettes about as strong as his taste for alcohol, but he found it was easier to use the excuse of a dead family member to prevent peer pressure.
Raidou shrugged and tapped the white stick back inside, pocketing the packet and replacing it with a small lighter. Lighting the stick, the youth took a long draw and released it in a sigh, some of the tension leaving him as he relaxed against the stone.
They stayed like that for some time, and the scent of Marlows slowly overtook the smell of forest greenery.
Something floated in front of Tenchi's face, and the teen blinked, startled to see a small kodama drift in front of him. It dipped and danced back and forth around him, as if observing him like a curious hummingbird, then drifted off towards Raidou. He looked at the teen, and was startled to see the Devil Summoner surrounded by the tiny spirits, as if drawn by the smoke of his cigarette. A soft, gentle smile aligned the Kuzunoha's face, a hand held out in front of him where the little forest spirits latched onto fingers, giggled, and lept off again. Others sat on his head, more on his shoulders, and dozens more on the boulder, and laughing with childlike glee at the stranger in their midst.
The longer Tenchi watched, the more spirits appeared; sudama, long, lengthy, and child like, their heads swirling in a constant slow motion as they drifted on the breeze. Youkai Tenchi had never seen before-humanoid and female, dressed in tiny kimonos made of leaves, feathers, and scraps of cloth, flitted through the air on wings ranging from dragonfly to butterfly and everything in between.
All of them hovered and played atop the Devil Summoner's body, using him as a resting perch, hanging from his hair and earlobes, dangling from his uniform, even dancing in the smoke of his cigarette. Yet rather than annoyed, the teen looked like a man at peace; a monk who had found his quiet inner space, and with it was unbothered by the world around him.
Tenchi watched him in awe and a small amount of envy. While he'd grown sensitive to spirits in his years, the youth had never been able to make the claim that youkai were attracted to him. No spirit had ever gone out of its way to be near him; to them, he was merely an object-a piece of the environment which they were native to, and about as interesting to them as a rock was to him.
They see him though. Tenchi thought. Not as they do me. They see him as one of their own. No wonder he can call them. The boy had heard of such people before. Not from Ryoko, but from Kokonotsu-humans who were more a part of the spirit world than they were the physical world, and to whom spirits, youkai, kami, and demons were drawn to like moths to a flame.
"They're a special people." Kokonotsu had told him, sitting in front of him as his human shade, his latest litter of kits surrounding a young Tenchi, all eight of them sitting attentively as they listened to the elder kitsune. "They speak the language of spirits, and broker deals with gods, demons, and everything in between. This allows them to rise to the greatest hights of humaity, placing them on equal footing with the strongest of kami…or letting them plummet to the deepest hells, ruling over oni as a creature so feared even oni tremble in their wake. One must always be wary of such people, for they are capable of great good, great evil, and hold the spirits to move the world around them."
Raidou caught him staring, and flicked a kodama over at Tenchi, the action empty of malice as the tiny creature sumersaulted towards the teen like a tiny green ball of gleeful laughter. Tenchi raised his hand and concentrated, and the tiny entity bounced off his palm, laughing hystarically. Gently, he cupped it with both hands, and the laughter died down to a soft coo before he released it once more.
Tenchi looked back at the Devil Summoner in a new light. "You're more at home with spirits than you are with people, aren't you?" He asked.
Raidou shrugged. It looked uncomfortable.
Tenchi nodded. "I…think I understand." He said, looking up at the rock overhang of Ryoko's cave. "I grew up with them too. Maybe not to your extent, but…I get it." He heaved a sigh. "I don't know where they went. Ryoko and the others. They aren't here, they aren't anywhere else I've been…I don't know if they're hiding or of they've straight up abandoned this place." He pursed his lips. "I feel like she should have appeared by now. Her or one of her-her servants. But she hasn't and…" The teen threw his hands up in frustration. "I don't know."
Raidou sent him an open-handed gesture. No idea either, then mouthed a word to Tenchi. "Patience."
"Patience?"
The teen nodded, then frowned, for a moment at a loss on how to communicate his thoughts. He looked around, then his eyes lit up as he searched through the pockets of his jacket before finally withdrawing something. A piece of chalk. Shooing away the spirits surrounding him, the teen moved to the stone, writing something out in hirogana. There was no kanji, and a part of Tenchi wondered if the teen had ever learned the more complex symbols, or if his…career…had taken priority over his education.
Tenchi was willing to bet the latter.
Raidou didn't seem to care.
The hirogana was a messy scrawl against the uneven texture of the rocks. Be patient. Your girlfriend's hurt and probably needs to heel.
"Ryoko's not my girlfriend." Tenchi decided not to point out the misspelling.
Raidou arched an eyebrow.
"Dude, no. She's like…family to me. One who I've only ever known as a spirit-that fight at the tree was the first time I'd seen her with a physical body."
Raidou crossed his arms. His eyebrow arched higher.
"Could you please stop?" Tenchi demanded.
Raidou rolled his eyes and shrugged, then erased the hirogana on the rock with his arm. He looked back at Tenchi and waved his hand over his face. "It's hot. Lets go."
"Yeah, yeah." The teen retrieved his bokken, then turned and joined the Devil summoner, who'd slid his own into the leather belt around his waist. "You know you'd be a lot cooler if you took that stupid jacket off."
Raidou, as preordained by the fates, flipped him off.
Tenchi returned it.
Single file, the two retreated from the cave, leaving it empty, silent, and dead.
All but for the lone pair of vulpine eyes which watched from the underbrush.
Okinawa Prefecture,
Masaki Shrine Mountains, Japan
The kitsune trotted back through the forest, slipping deeper into land yet untouched by Man. The forest, once so bright and welcoming, grew darker with the creeping tree canopy, and as she headed down the mountainside Nanatsu crossed small creeks which expanded into a swamp. Here the kitsune splashed through the water, letting it cool her and chase off the insects, treading water as she paddled across the deep areas and being careful to avoid the mud banks which could swallow her.
She ducked beneath fallen trees, crawled between boulders, and felt the air gradually cool as she continued her descent, until the temperature grew almost comfortable for the small creature. Here, all manner of unpleasant beast passed her-a large habu, not dissimilar to the habu corpse she'd seen weeks ago, and great brown toads that sat larger than a wolf, glaring at her with dead amphibian eyes. All she gave a wide berth, her instincts warning her of the danger they presented-poison, predation, or both.
One of the toads was watching her a bit too much, and as she trotted off it followed her, hopping along and matching her speed as she began to pick up the pace. Both ears swiveled back to follow the creature, and the trot became a run as she darted into the underbrush and shadows, the foliage growing too thick for the massive amphibian to follow.
She heard its croaks with her retreat, deep, angry, and hungry, but growing more distant by the second. She heaved a breath, slowing her pace, but aware now of the many more animals who dwelt within this part of the Masaki forest.
She heard a bark and stopped, ears twisting upwards towards the trees. A racoon dog sat on a large tree branch, watching her with deep black eyes. She yipped at it, and the creature vanished into the canopy, the branches swaying with its weight. Another bark, and she dashed after it, allowing it to lead her towards Sanctuary.
The forest began to clear before ending all together at a small but steep canyon. A small tree had fallen over the gorge, creating an ominous bridge, and as she slowed the tankuki appeared once more. "Can you transform?" He asked.
"Not yet. I'm still several hundred years young for that."
The racoon dog's ears went back, and he huffed with regret. His tail bristled as he looked at the gap. "I think I can carry you…"
"Let's not risk it." Nanatsu interrupted. "Fly across and I will follow. Can you shift to something large enough to hold the log steady?"
"I am the best shapeshifter in my pack." He said with pride. "I will hold it steady."
"If you don't and I fall, you will have to deal with Ryoko-sama's wrath." Nanatsu warned.
The tanuki's fur puffed up in alarm, making him look twice his size. "I'll make sure you cross safely." He assured.
Nanatsu laid down, cooling herself against the damp soil as she watched the raccoon dog race off, returning with a small leaf. Holding it gently in his mouth, the creature scurried back up a tree whose branches overhung the cliff, and with a running start lept off it towards the cliff. It's body seemed to disappear in a sudden gray smoke, and in its place a crow soared, a leaf dangling from its beak. It glided with ease to the other side, its wings splaying as it moved to land and instead once more being enveloped in smoke. A tanuki once more, it trotted to the fallen tree, tilting its head as it looked at the kitsune on the other side.
The tanuki barked.
The kitsune yipped back.
Gray smoke once more appeared, and Nanatsu flinched as it cleared, leaving in its wake a great, red, ox-headed oni. The beast was massive, standing at close to ten feet tall, with a build capable of crushing boulders. The gozu snorted, and as watery red eyes met vulpine gold, the creature bore its teeth in a terrible mockery of a smile with human teeth. Nanatsu's seven tails puffed up in alarm, and for a moment she crept down, frozen, unable to overcome her instincts as terror gripped her.
Yet the gozu did little other than lumber down to one knee, gripping either side of the tree with two massive, taloned red hands. "Let's GO!" The beast roared, and Nanatsu ran as fast as her legs could carry her-her logical mind forcing her forwards even as her bestial nature shrieked.
The tree did not so much as budge beneath her, and she raced across the trunk and between the creature's legs, slipping around a sack that was resting there and diving into the bushes behind it. A large grunt-less like an animal's grunt and more like a roar-and then a tanuki barked at her once more.
Nanatsu peeked out of her hiding place, finding the raccoon dog panting with laughter. "I told you!" He beamed. "No one in my pack can transform better than I!"
"So you are. I understand now why it was you who came to guard and guide us to the Sanctuary." Nanatsu replied, her fur standing on end. "Foes must tremble in your wake with such a magical aptitude."
The tanuki's tail twitched, yet he did not reply, instead trotting past the bushes Nanatsu sat in and down a small animal trail. The kitsune followed after him.
Gradually, the land began to open up, the terrain growing flat as they reached a small clearing. A large, grassy plain filled with wildflowers. The spirits were thick here, ranging everywhere from youkai-tengu, kodama, tanuki, ookami, and more, and to other spirits; elementals such as gnomes made of rock and earth, sylphs made of air and which danced on the breeze, and even the rare salamander and undyne, each as close to their base elements-a fire made by Hiji, a small pool of water that had formed during the last monsoon-as possible. A familiar yip met Nanatsu's ears, and the fox perked up, watching the grass move as Kokonotsu raced towards her. She ran to him, meeting the elder kitsune half-way, and the two screamed in happiness at their reunion, as excited to see each other in the single day apart as they were if they had been separated for months or years. The two yipped and nipped, rubbing against each other as the tanuki wandered off. Then Kokonotsu bolted away, letting the smaller kitsune chase him down as he led Nanatsu to their small camp.
Hiji was waiting for them, tending to a small fire as fish, berries, sweet potatoes, and a rabbit cooked over its flames. The salamander rested curled inside it, sleeping, and at the two kitsune's approach the tengu removed a stick of fish, tearing a small bit off and feeding it to the fire before breaking off what remained for the two foxes. He placed the food on two large leaves sitting a small distance away, and as Nanatsu greeted him with a scream of laughter, he croaked at her. "What have you learned?"
The kitsune sniffed the meat and tried a cautious bite, only to let it drop from her jaws as the meat burnt her tongue. "The strangers who harmed Ryoko are still present at the Shrine. They seem to have made an uneasy truce with Tenchi."
Hiji's wings bristled, then settled. "Typical. They are Human. Human's find camaraderie against anything nonhuman which threatens them." The tengu grabbed a stick of berries, using a fresh leaf to wrap around the stick and pulling the tiny items onto the makeshift plate. Rolling the leaf into a funnel, he folded the open end and slipped the makeshift spout under his mask, tilting his head back as he consumed his own meal.
"Tenchi and the devil summoner fought." Nanatsu replied. "They do not seem to like each other much. Tenchi is worried about Ryoko-sama." Kokonotsu leaned over to lick her muzzle. "How is Ryoko-sama, Hiji?"
"Resting." Hiji sounded uneasy. "The pain is too distracting for her to sleep, and so she struggles to leave her physical shell. I don't know what magic was used against her, but it devastated her, Nanatsu. She should have recovered already."
"It's partially mental." Kokonotsu spoke for the first time. "I spoke with Kashi. She claims that the injury is as much mental as it is physical; the injury's properties-the fact that it is formed by the cold-tear at old scars, and Kashi says that Ryoko-saman's healing aptitude is slowed because of that barrier. If it had been a burn or even a loss of limb, she would have already recovered."
"But because it's the cold…"
Hiji nodded. "And because of her time locked inside the cave." He paused. "…But also because of what The Stranger did to her. Whatever he fed her left Ryoko-sama with terrible withdrawals. Kashi claims not even alcohol holds her interest.
Nanatsu whined. "Is there anything we can do?"
Hiji shrugged helplessly. "Be there for her. Comfort her. I know of no medicine which can heal her, and the kodama spells do little to aid her. It is as though she has been cursed by not only The Stranger, but the Masaki-Yosho was it?-as well." Nanatsu drooped, and Hiji leaned over, his left hand-free of talons and more human than avian-scratched behind her ears. It was a familiar gesture, one Ryoko was oft to do in times when her spirit was strong enough to operate on the physical plane. "Worry not. She is strong, and though it is slow, she is recovering. We must all be patient and wait, and until she is well we keep our heads down and out of sight, that neither Yosho nor that Devil Summoner catch wind of us."
Nanatsu leaned into the fingers, tails swaying lightly. "Is Kashi with her now?"
"Yes. She's used her own silk to bind the wound with herbs the tanuki brought. It seems to ease the pain."
"Then I will see her." The brown kitsune straightened, headbutting first Hiji, then Kokonotsu.
"We both will." Kokonotsu replied. "Hiji, will you…?"
"I will tend to the flames." Hiji replied. "The salamander sleeps now, but if one does not watch the flames, he will awaken and try to consume all which surrounds him. I will tend to Ryoko-sama when the tanuki come to take over.
"Thank you Hiji." Kokonotsu licked the tengu's hand in solidarity, knowing the youkai was sacrificing his own wants for the safety of the sanctuary. "If she rouses, one of us will come to relive you."
The tengu said nothing, but for a moment drew the silver fox near him in a single armed embrace. Kokonotsu tolerated it patiently, and when released, trotted off, Nanatsu close on his heels.
A shelter, small but cozy, had been constructed of fallen tree trunk. Thick, white web held them together, and a mass of foliage had been placed atop the outcrop to provide better shade and protection form the elements. A wind shield had been created from the bows of young trees, and the inside had been cleaned of grass and debris, leaving cool earth within. A burrowing animal-many burrowing animals-the badgers, Nanatsu thought-had dug into the soft earth and cleared it of stones, lining the inside with the soil extracted from the ground to provide darkness inside. The temperature dropped a good ten degrees as they entered, and as the two trailed down they came across a mat weaved of sweetgrass and spider's silk; a pseudo-tatami mat which even now, Kashi rested upon, observing the two kitsune with cool dark eyes.
Curled up on her side, her head resting on the body of a sleeping Ookami, laid Ryoko.
The woman was drawn and pale, even in the darkness, and sweat beaded her forehead as she rested, panting, against the wolf spirit. Another had come to brace itself against her back, preventing her from moving too much, and on occasions it raised its head, licking the woman's face in a vain attempt to ease her suffering. It did little aside from muster a moan from the woman, who would grimace before tucking herself into a tighter ball.
"Has there been any improvement?" Nanatsu asked, tentatively approaching the fallen woman.
"Little." Kashi replied. "The fever broke, and she recognizes us now-I no longer need to bind her if she grows violent-but the pain remains. Have caution if you approach."
The fox's ear flicked, and Nanatsu paused, observing the demon woman carefully. Then she crept forward, body low to the ground as she entered Ryoko's line of sight. The space pirate smelled the kitsune before seeing her, and two bleary eyes opened to look at her. "'S Kag'to dea…?" She mumbled, and her eyelids fluttered as Nanatsu whined and crept closer.
"…Natsu…" The pirate muttered, and the seven tails swayed in uneasy joy.
"You recognize me." Nanatsu whispered, and the ever so slight nod of a head met her response. Carefully, the kitsune pressed up against the woman's stomach, crawling onto one of Ryoko's arms and feeling the limb wrap around her, drawing her closer against the demon lord. Ryoko's body felt hot and damp, and the fox could feel the demon's heart racing inside her chest. "How are you feeling?"
Ryoko grunted, and laid an arm over her eyes. "Bad dreams." She grumbled. "Dreamt I died. Dreamt Tenchi died." She licked her lips, and Kashi leaned over, holding a small teacup made from horn. One long and spindly leg moved to gently stroke the woman's shoulder. The space pirate started, then relaxed, letting the arm drop from her eyes. "Kashi."
"Can you drink?" The youkai's voice was soft and gentle. "It's water."
The woman seemed to pale, then buried her face in the crook of her arm once more. "Not yet." She mumbled. "Can't drink. My body feels…wrong. I need something but I don't know what. It wants…something. Not water." She curled a little more around Nanatsu, who licked her cheek. "Not water…" She drifted off for a time, and for a time her breathing eased as sleep, light though it was, claimed her.
Kashi sighed, sitting back on her haunches as she looked down at Nanatsu with a worried frown. "She has been like this since the fever broke. Despite my best efforts, she will not eat or drink. I fear for her; she has returned to her physical body, but if she is unable to eat or drink, it will waste away again and she'll become a spirit once more."
Ryoko sighed, eyes dancing beneath her eyelids. "Ryo…ki…Soja…Kag…" The woman stirred with a start, eyes flying open and looking lost and scared. Kashi and Kokonotsu leaned forward, entering her line of sight, and the fear gradually faded as recognition replaced it. "Is Kagato coming?" She whispered, and Nanatsu felt her fur stand on end.
Ryoko sounded scared.
Kokonotsu was the one to act, moving forward on silent paws to rest his forehead against hers. A moment later, and a man replaced the kitsune, first kneeling on hands and knees, then moving to lie beside her as he kept his forehead pressed against Ryoko's. "No one is coming." He whispered. "No Kagato, no Yosho, no devil summoners, no devils. We made sure of that, Big Sister." His hand found and entwined with hers, and he brought it to rest on Nanatsu. "You're hurt and sick because you're alive again and have already survived a battle that would have devastated us all. You've done the hard part and fought off the danger. Now let us do our share and ensure you recover."
Lucidness returned to the woman's feline eyes, and she sighed. "I was dreaming again."
"You've been dreaming since we brought you here." Kokonotsu admitted.
"The dreams feel real." The woman sounded tired. "I feel like I'm walking out of my body and out of this reality, substituting it for something else. A future yet to come. A present walked by a different me. A past which never occurred…" She trailed off and closed her eyes once more, and Nanatsu's ears perked up, worried Ryoko might drift away again.
"Is the silver-haired demon real?" Ryoko instead asked. "What world does she walk? Or does she walk all of them?"
"I don't know." Kokonotsu answered honestly. "There are many silver-haired demons in this realm and in others."
"Reminds me of Kagato…" Ryoko muttered. "Eyes are cruel….calculating…is she the Devil's master?" Her eyes fluttered, and the space pirate closed them once more with a soft moan. "Kagatsuchi is the yolk of the egg of Conception…we pierce it to germinate a new world…" She sighed. "Silver-eared cat…He's the sun looking for his moon…both alive and dead, male and female…Rebis." She was gone again.
Nanatsu looked up at her mate, ears pressed tightly against her forehead. "Did you understand any of that?" She asked, "Who is Kagato?"
Kokonotsu frowned and shook his head. "Ryoko-sama spoke to me of Kagato before…in the first years we met. He is a demon in the flesh in the truest sense; a being which can capture Ryoko-sama's mind and body and force her to do his bidding. It was on his wishes that she invaded Yosho's homeland, and he chased her through the stars in vengeance to our land. She said that when Yosho stole her gems, Kagato's voice was stolen with it. Though the gems are all she's ever known, it was also her first experience of freedom." The fox-man pursed his lips, gently stroking Ryoko's entwined hand with his thumb. "She described him as a silver-haired demon man. One with cold and dead green eyes, like a serpent, which always hungered for arcane knowledge."
"Do you think that was the silver-haired demon she mentioned?" Kashi asked.
"No." Kokonotsu mumbled. "I don't know who its in reference to, or what any of her other words meant." He looked at the jurogumo and shrugged helplessly. "For all any of us know, they were more fever dreams."
Kashi looked doubtful, but digressed. "She seems to have calmed in your proximity, Kokonotsu."
"I wish I could say I was surprised." The fox murmured.
"Were you not the first to brave her cave?" Kashi asked.
"No. Just the first to stay around." He said. "The first were the Elder Tengu. I showed at her cave out of curiosity when I noticed the tengu gathering at her cave, and by then they had been around her prison for close to a century. They were teaching her how to astral project. From what I understand, they had heard her soul crying from the highest point of the mountain, and though they could not free her, had sought to ease her suffering another way. I had spied on them for some time before investigating the cave myself. I remember them speaking among themselves as they were departing one day, and one of the things they said always struck me as strange."
"What was that?" It was rare for Kokonotsu to speak so openly about his relationship with Ryoko; the kitsune oftentimes became tight-lipped when the subject came up, and often fought off prodding attempts for more information. Even Nanatsu rarely heard the vulpine speak more than a word or two of the time prior to their own relationship.
"One of the tengu-the eldest of the flock, a Kurama so old his hair was white-claimed that he was an 'Ancient Newborn'."
"What does that mean?" Kashi asked.
"That she was undeveloped," Kokonotsu revealed, "in mind and spirit. That she was a 'new soul' who had never reincarnated yet had lived for mellennia, but in that time had not been allowed to grow or develop, as should have been her nature." The fox shook his head. "She did not understand emotions, nor what it meant to experience them. She could not comprehend the fact that they were living beings, like her, nor even the concept of death or her own imprisonment. She was a demon of war and combat-that much they could all agree on-for she knew how to destroy, and she knew how to kill. But everything else was just…absent. As if…" He paused, and his eyes widened.
"I see. So that is the true monster which is Kagato." Kokonotsu murmured, and edged a little closer to the resting pirate.
"What is it?" Nanatsu looked up at her mate, and Kokonotsu smiled sadly.
"Some things which Ryoko told me and what I saw of the Elder Tengu just…clicked." He said. "Kagato was a creature which saw little use for Ryoko-sama other than a tool, and so… stripped…what was not needed to prevent distractions. The Elders were unaware of that, but pitied her regardless, taking the time-though she had nothing to give-to educate Ryoko while she was locked away." The fox sucked in a deep breath. "Bless those damn crows." He breathed. "I can't believe…a flock of old bird brains, through a moment of simple morality, have done more good for Ryoko-sama and this mountain top than I think any of us have realized."
He sighed, looking strained, and at last abandoned his human form, returning to his natural state once more. The fox moved to the Ookami Ryoko was resting her head against, and curled himself up near the space pirate's nose. "The tengu educated her during the day, and would then depart further up the mountain to rest at dusk. On one of those days, I grew bold and chose to investigate for myself as night fell. What I found was a creature of immense power and child-like curiosity. Indeed, she was as curious of me as I was of her, yet rather than allow her aggression-that…killing instinct which must have been honed by this Kagato-to take hold, she instead treated me with a discipline that ran contrary to what I had been led to believe up unto that point.
"She had never seen a kitsune before. I had never seen a…space…pirate…before. And she was bored. The Tengu would come and lecture her and teach her something about morality, dignity, and humility, which she thought was boring enough already, and then leave her to meditate on the subjects, which she hated. I think she was lonely too. She claimed she could no longer hear her sister's voice, or even Kagato's, and the silence scared her."
"So you stayed with her during the nights while the Elder Tengu taught her during the days?" Kashi asked.
"Yes." Kokonotsu said. "We had much to share between the two of us. I had just acquired my ninth tail and was learning how to use the transformation magic that came with it. Ryoko-sama was testing her own boundaries with magic, but needed vessels which could safely house her spiritual energy where the tree that bound her could not sap it away. We brokered and agreement at first-one for another-and yet I found myself returning by the night, fascinated by stories of lands within the stars and battles fought on such a massive scale that it makes Man's wars look like kits play-fighting.
"You grew close." Kashi surmised.
"We did." Kokonotsu agreed.
Nanatsu yawned. "Ryoko-sama was the first being you brought me to when we bonded." Her tails wiggled fondly at the memory, and with a soft sigh she stretched her legs out, growing comfortable in the resting pirate's arms. "We've weaned…sixteen litters in her cave?"
"Seventeen." Kokonotsu corrected. "With plans for an eighteenth if we can get the Intruders away from her cave. That's become more our den than Yosho's prison."
"That is quite the story." Kashi sounded impressed, a rarety for the Jurogumo. "Is that why you refer to her as 'Big Sister'?"
"Yes." Kokonotsusaid. "And Ryoko-sama is protective-even you know this Kashi. We can raise our litter in her cave in peace, and know that Ryoko will look out not just for Nanatsu while she's nursing and I'm hunting, but also the kits as they grow more rambunctious. She is no more kitsune than she is tengu, yet we've found it matter's little. Ryoko-sama is as much kin as she is Lord."
"So I have noticed." Kashi murmured then sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "With how many youkai are relying on her, it has become a necessity that she recover."
"I will…" Ryoko muttered, and all three youkai jumped. "You all…talk enough…to wake the dead." The demon sighed. "'Preciate the words…now shut up so I can rest…I ain't dead yet."
"We know." Kokonotsu headbutted her, and Ryoko shifted her head to bury her face in his fur, sighing deeply against the nine tails. "We know."
The voices of her closest allies-one might even call them kin-around her, and feeling a degree of safety that was alien to her, Ryoko sighed, inhaling the sharp, musky scent of fox and feeling her consciousness once more slip away from her. Their voices grew soft and distant as her waking mind abandoned them and her unconscious mind roused once more, and-
She drifted outside the Womb of Creation, surrounded by circular worlds, each unto themselves a vortex, a new Egg yet fertilized, their masses swirling beneath the shell of the greater Amala Universe she traversed.
A figure, distant and female, led her onward. "Gentle now." The Silver Haired Demon spoke. "Gentle and gentle still; have the Tengu taught you nothing?"
She followed after the Demon, unable to shorten nor lengthen the distance which separated them; the demon would move faster if she tried to shorten it, and when she stopped the demon paused to wait for her. "You are the Serpent which Entwines around the Egg, Child." The Demon lectured. "And so you must be gentle. Patient."
The passed a world, black and smoldering. "Squeeze the egg to tightly within your coils, and it will shatter, destroyed like so many other eggs you've found." The woman gestured to the dying world and clenched her hand. With a dying sigh, the world imploded, sagging in on itself before exploding outward, sending its mass and materia to other worlds whose fate yet remained undecided.
"I don't know how to be gentle." Ryoko said. "That was taken from me by Kagato centuries ago."
Laughter, deep and ringing, like deep, rich bells. "What was stolen can be reacquired. What was lost can be found. What was forgotten can be relearned, but only by one who possess the Will for it."
"I have no Will." Ryoko murmured. "Kagato ensured that."
"Ah, but you do." The Demon had rich, tan skin. Her hair was spiky and long, like Ryoko's own. "You do, Sweetling, you just never learned the discipline to properly enforce it. It was what that man you called 'Master' relied on; a slave which thought it held no will, which was a prisoner to its own thoughts by the experiences it was subjected to." She smiled, flashing brilliant white teeth with a hint of fang. "An ox that is whipped enough will pull the plow when the whip is gone, for it is a prisoner of its own mind. A dog will tremble and cower when its master passes, though the Human's throat could be ripped out if the dog so chose.
"I'm not an animal." Ryoko said.
"I never said you were." A hint of amusement sat in the woman's voice. "You are only a Prisoner."
"I'm not. I'm finally free."
"Are you?" The woman stared at her with brilliant violet eyes. Slit like a serpent's. Slit like a cat's. Slit like her own.
Ryoko was unsure.
"You are the Serpent which entwines itself around the Egg. And you are the Egg by which the Serpent entwines itself around. If you can withstand your own nature-to destroy, to consume, to feast upon the egg and the being within, you will be rewarded by what emerges."
"And what will that be?" Ryoko asked, "A me that is better than who I currently am? Or something else?"
"You'll have to see for yourself." The woman replied, laughing. "Just be gentle. Nice and gentle. You cannot always force things your way."
"Who are you?"
And the White Haired Demon only laughed. "Seek me out in the Amala Network. There is much to do, and much for you to learn Sweetling, Student of Tengu, Kin to Kitsune, and Child of Chousin and Materia. Seek out the Boy you so cherish. Watch him, guide him, mentor him as the Tengu mentored you; he is young, destined for great power, and will soon be alone in a world much crueler than anything he has known. A King, a Conqueror, a Destroyer…or perhaps a Priest, a Monk, a Healer, or even a Scholar. How you guide him will lead him to his fate, for he is a blank sheet, and Magatsuhi is the pen which will inscribe his story upon the encroaching Vortex World."
Around them, the worlds began to darken and die, imploding one by one with a whisper, with sigh, until all but one remained. It drifted before them, a sandy egg of the wasteland of Okinawa, and at its heart Kagatsuchi burned with blue-white intensity. She looked at it, her eyes drifting across the desert landscape of fallen skyscrapers, collapsed cities, and repurposed constructs-all now inhabited not by man, but by Spirit, by Demon, by God. Above her head, a Man and a Woman, one familiar, the other not, raced through a forest inhabited by Fae, a monstrous canine at the Woman's side and an equally monstrous demon at the Man's side. Further off, in a great Obelisk, a man sat in the heart of his Tower of Silence, his Maiden standing at its top and questioning her decisions. A girl, not even fully grown, found sanctuary in the arms of a demon which looked half her age-a Demonic Sponsor, a False God born of a Shadow Vortex-an Egg which failed to form and was left to rot. A child who ran arm and arm with another child, neither of which were all that they seemed. A teen at home in the world of nonhuman entities and who bargained and threatened, coerced and incentivised, growing stronger with every ally he brought to his team as a cat which cast the shadow of a man watched on in silence.
And finally, a boy, his body branded with the mark of demons, ran side-by-side with a demon like herself, surviving in a hostile world which did not understand the new creature born into it.
Comments of a Madwoman: With great forces at play draws the attention of great powers. Man is forever a pawn against the Will of Greater Powers That Be, until Man discovers his own Will and takes back what is his...