Time... reversed. That is the only way to describe it. One moment I am dodging out of the room as a giant explosion rocks it and watching in horror as the shrapnel rips Una apart and the flames incinerate Rei and the next... everything stops, then reverses. The next thing I know we are standing in front of the First Mind again and he is saying something about not having to track us down. We all seem stunned except High Dive. Somehow she is behind this, but... how? Rei decides not to wait around for a repeat performance and teleports us away. For a moment I am tempted to remain behind to cover their retreat but I realize that there is always the chance that it would simply ignore me and go after the others anyway so I allow myself to be taken away with the rest.
We arrive in the middle of a battlefield. Gogajin are striding about like invincible titans smashing tanks, soldiers, and Hei Shi alike. It is a slaughter and for once our side has the advantage. Then, predictably, the First Mind catches up with us. Una was waiting for it however and it is immediately greeted by a giant blast of destructive energy that sends it flying back into the building from whence it came. That was not enough to finish it of course and a hard fight ensued. Rei finished things off by doing her eclipse-causing super telekinesis thing again, this time combining both the building smashing and the waves of fire. It was true catastrophe; for the other side of course. The First Mind was defeated (though strangely we heard no announcement of a new Oni at its death) and the Goshi army as far as we could see was destroyed.
No sooner had the smoke cleared than we received reports that the Enemy had routed our forces in Starbreeze Canyon with the help of a giant Oni. That the enemy dead were raising as Eyeless and overrunning the front lines. And that the forces advancing from the former location were threatening to cut off the retreat of the latter. No rest for the wicked it seems; we called the Sennin in and hastily made our way to Starbreeze Canyon to give our main forces enough time to retreat from the relentless onslaught. Balder chose to remain behind with his fellow Gogajin, something for which I cannot blame him.
It was fully night by the time we reached the canyon and there before us was the most massive Oni we had encountered yet. It was easily three hundred meters long, two hundred meters tall, and one hundred meters wide. It strode through and over the canyon on six giant segmented legs with two enormous pincers before it. Goshi troops swarmed before, under, and behind it and both they and the very face of Karia showed signs of the proximity: festering boils and cancerous growths seemed to bloom up from the ground where the Oni stepped and magically, sickeningly, grow from the bodies of the nearby soldiers. We knew what we had to do: we swooped down to introduce ourselves.
When we got close we heard the characteristic partially-internal voice of an Oni. It boomed, "I am Kyansu Oni the One Who Corrupts." Oh. Fun. I also noticed the feeling of absolute wrongness as we approached and activated one of my Katas that protects my purity of body. A good thing too because I then saw everyone else start to grow the horrific tumors and boils that were affecting the troops below.
I shouted at Moses that I was the only one who could approach it safely so I should be dropped onto its back alone while the rest of them dealt with saving the last remnants of our forces fleeing before the vile horde. He ignored me of course. Logic does not count for much when it means leaving your friends in danger; I would have done the same. Thankfully Una activated a Kata that healed the corruption as fast as it spread. Barely.
The crew was scared so I yelled a bit and whipped them into shape. I may not be a soldier but I know a good deal about getting reluctant underlings to do their job. I commanded them to drop us off on the back of the beast and get out of its range. That they did and we dropped one by one onto the massive bulk. Just before we jumped I told Moses "Dig me a way to its heart." I am not sure if he heard me or not but when he landed he actually punched through its hide and ichor started spurting out. So I aimed for that area and when I landed I unleashed all of my hatred and revulsion for the Enemy into it. I guess I overdid it somewhat because the next thing I knew I was coming out the other side with nothing but air between me and a horde of Goshi soldiers a hundred meters below. Thankfully Keibatsu had drank deeply and I was easily able to survive the fall.
The Oni was slain and now all we had to deal with was a couple million Goshi soldiers. Things were frantic for a short time and then Rei cut off part of the battlefield by lacing one of her walls of fiery death across the width of the canyon. It was almost comical watching the soldiers pushed through by their comrades behind to heap up in front of the thing. We quickly dispatched the rest of the soldiers on our side and met up with our own troops. They were being commanded by Matthew, the giant Mechified we had met back in the Griolsa village. All of them were heavily wounded, exhausted, dispirited. And who could blame them? Rei tried her own strange version of cheering them up and I promptly took over before she said something that had them committing suicide. Then Moses decided he had not had enough and he showed us what a giant Mechified really looks like. Striding forth he casually walked through Rei's wall that had caused the deaths of so many Goshi soldiers and we heard the sounds of death and destruction from the other side. After a few minutes he came back and shrank back to his normal, albeit still rather large, size. The wall flickered and went away. And as far as the eye could see down Starbreeze Canyon there were dead Goshi soldiers and smashed tanks. It was about this time that things went bad.
The Goshi dead started to rise, their eyeballs bursting in the sockets. And we heard voices and saw towering forms rise up above them a few hundred yards away. "I am Suraisu Oni the One Who Tears" and "I am Rensu Oni the One Who Binds". Hurriedly I told Matthew to get his men and flee as far and as fast as they could. They needed little encouragement. As the Eyeless horde rushed us Moses encompassed us in another of his impenetrable domes. I looked around at the state of my companions. Moses was hurt a little, High Dive seemed tired, Rei was fine as far as I could tell, and Una was unconscious, probably from over-exertion as I saw no visible wounds on her. I told Moses to call the Sennin back and use it to get everyone out of here. I told him that I would hold back the Eyeless so that our troops had the chance to get away. I could do it. Keibatsu hungered.
He partially listened to me. He lowered the dome when we heard Aimi chime in that she was hovering over us and High Dive snatched up Una and hopped aboard. Moses said he was staying with me and so did Rei. I told her that if she was going to stay I needed her to deal with the Eyeless who had passed us by when we were holed up, the ones who were even now running down our fleeing men. She nodded and started after them. I did not have time to muse over the fact that I had just sent a teenage girl alone after a few hundred Eyeless. Instead I rushed forward as fast as I could, calling on the power of my Kata and Keibatsu to clear the way. Hundreds of Eyeless fell like grain before the scythe and in moments we had reached the pair of Oni. I immediately launched an all-out attack upon Rensu Oni and Moses tackled Suraisu Oni.
The fighting was fast and hectic. I am not entirely sure what happened, but suddenly my arm, along with Keibatsu, simply was no longer there. My mouth opened in a silent scream of horror as I fell to my knees in shock, blood pumping unabated from my shoulder. "So easily unmanned?" the Oni mocked me. "We are coming for you. Tomorrow we will bombard you and wipe your pitiful race from the face of the planet." Before it could finish me off High Dive appeared and attacked viciously. I grabbed a nearby discarded rifle and fired wildly at the thing, missing completely. Then High Dive cried out. Her legs had been removed at the knees. Dropping the useless gun I stepped over her, guarding her tiny, whimpering form with my own as best I could. And I did the only thing I could think of: I reached my remaining arm out and I fell as deeply into the Void as I could. I concentrated. I meditated on Keibatsu and our oneness. Wherever the Oni had sent it I called it back to me. Nothing happened.
I distantly heard a scream and a raptor's cry then I felt myself being lifted by a grip around my waist. It did not last long and I vaguely noted Una crashing to the ground missing a wing. She and High Dive lay bleeding in a heap. I glanced over to see Rei laying on the ground a ways away convulsing uncontrollably. A landslide on the side of the canyon marked where Moses and Suraisu Oni were presumably now buried. Rensu Oni laughed. "And so it ends." I knew that I was our last hope. It was my duty to save us, all of us. And Keibatsu came. Silver light and runes raced up my left arm as the blade that was part of me sprang forth once more. The Oni seemed mildly surprised and said "That will not help you." Then I attacked. With everything I had, my most powerful forms with no thought, only one purpose: cut. Do not give the enemy a chance to breathe, to think: cut. Do not hesitate, do not allow weakness to creep in: cut. Cut them down utterly, cut where they are weakest, cut finally, and decisively, and without mercy. I owed it to the rest of them. Cut.
The howls of rage faded as Rensu Oni disappeared. I breathed. "Wanna bet?"
* * *
We recovered the next day as best we could. The front lines had all been overrun. The refugee camps were being shelled by Goshi artillery. Eyeless were everywhere and the Oni made regular forays, presumably to lure us out. We had all survived though, if barely. Una had been able to restore our missing limbs with her miraculous healing. Jin Kalys still insisted that a greater sacrifice was needed and several ideas were put forth. Moses had the Surgeon cut out what he called the Machine God: a First Mind artifact that had been fused to his body all this time, that had given him much of his power it seemed. They cut it out and Jin Kalys studied it to see if it would be a proper sacrifice. Moses looked somehow... diminished... without it.
I could see that we were losing. We needed something, something big, some master stroke or this war would end with our inevitable defeat. It was just like a game of Go. Our opponents had us where they wanted us and were simply going through the motions until they finished us. Who knew when the bombardment would begin? We needed a gambit. Something on which we could stake everything; our last chance. If Jin Kalys' calculations could not do it then I had an idea: attack the Wandering Star. Foolish, yes, but maybe our last hope.
Then the radio blared. The Oni were attacking the last lines of defense. All of them. We left to face our salvation or our doom.
Showing posts with label Kiyoshi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiyoshi. Show all posts
Episode 32: The Very Long Night of Daitokuji Kiyoshi
I was running down a dark hallway with grey metal walls. (That's still new for me. Before I came to Geneva Prime, my dreams never had long dark hallways.) A loud booming noise followed me, metal footsteps. They came closer, closer, closer....*gasp* I sat up in bed with a sheen of sweat on my forehead. I was about to lay back down when I realized that the booming noise was real, and going down the hallway past my room.
High Dive had already left our room, so I peeked my head out and ran towards the source of commotion. To my surprise Aimi was in Kiyoshi's room - naked. I could tell by his face that he was in the Void now. And whatever came before, just now Kiyoshi seemed to be trying to capture his pink-haired (it's apparently natural by the way) charity case. Interestingly enough, Aimi said that she didn't want to fight any of us. But that didn't stop High Dive from running crazy circles around her to try and bind her. Some progress was finally made in that regard, when Rei stepped up to touch her sister. We stopped that little idea pretty quick. All of us had waited waaay too long to get our hands on Aimi.
As High Dive tied the last knot, Rei mentioned that Moses was fighting mecca by himself out on the street. What?? I glance at Kiyoshi, who glances at Aimi. "We must go help Moses," he says. We all agree and run out the door, leaving Aimi alone with knots and a dubious fate ahead of her.
I shifted into Vorax form and reach Moses just after High Dive. We are lucky enough to gather that Moses is badly hurt, just before seven more mecca come to join the fight - and not on our side. While I healed our mechified friend, and did wicked damage to a mecca trying to beat him down, two more mecca appeared as well as Rei and Kiyoshi. Luckily the two new mecca were fighting with us and Rei learned some nasty new trick that turned several mecca into rag dolls. It was rather unnerving, but as is her way, she was quite proud of herself. Certainly none of us were complaining at the moment! We made short order of the last of them, and Moses x4 molded a mecca pilot cage out of rebar.
He carried the enemy pilots back to our lodgings, and Kiyoshi, Rei, and myself each carried the inert body of the pilots who had helped us. Part of the walk back I was by myself strolling down an alley, when I heard someone say my name. Not knowing whether to expect friend or foe I set down the mecca pilot against a wall. I stepped forward a bit, "Who's there?" Quite suddenly Aimi appeared in front of me. Yes. The Aimi who I just found out had escaped. Griever twitched. "What do you want?" I heard myself ask.
"Kiyoshi isn't listening. Give this to him," and she handed me a sealed envelope. So now I'm a messenger for a teenage assassin's angsty, misguided farewell letter to Kiyoshi?? I tucked the letter bitterly under my armor, and she turned to walk away. Catch her! Finish her off! My mind cried to me. Why aren't you moving? Why indeed...
The look on Rei's face when she found out about the death of Sever and Stitch still haunted me, even though they deserved the death that High Dive and I dished out. What would happen when I told her Aimi was dead too? Also, Kiyoshi had captured her for judgment. My dear brother thought she deserved a trial, but the execution seemed inevitable - she admitted to killing Amuro Naimi. Not to mention all the other lives she's ruined. If I was just willing to kill some unknown mecca in a street brawl, why in the hell am I hesitating?
I feel energy begin to thrum. I am full of it. I know I can obliterate her, right now. But every step she takes from me feels like a pain in my heart. Speaking of, I shout out, "You broke Kiyoshi's heart you know." I thought she should know that Kiyoshi wanted to love her, before I killed her. She is laughing and crying as she takes another step. Right now Una! Let the power of Karia turn her to ash! Then I remember:
Karia wants Forgiveness. I scream inside my head. Nooo! Countless people have died in these last few weeks for far lesser crimes than hers! Another step. I remember Rei when we first met her, and how hard it had been for her to learn to respond to emotions with something other than violence. Step. Why in Karia am I letting her go?!? Step...Step. Moses is going to kill me. Rei will thank me. Kiyoshi will judge me. Step...Step...Step.
Time turns to sludge as she nears the corner of a building. This is my last chance. I can finish off the bane of Aimi once and for all. I begin to raise my hand as part of my brain knows what it should be doing, but my will evaporates...and so does Aimi. I stand trembling in the middle of the alley. What have I done???
After some painful number of heartbeats I remember my task. I gather up the mecca pilot just in time to hear sounds of battle from ahead. Did I let Aimi go just so she could immediately destroy us all? How could I have been so horrible and so stupid? Oh Karia, I hope you know what you're doing. I arrive at the next plaza just after some loud explosion went off. The pilot is set on the ground once again as I see that Rei is there, grievously wounded by shrapnel. I take the energy that would have atomized her sibling, and use it to force bits of rubble from her and heal her body.
There's no time to dally; there's obviously plenty of people left out there who want us dead, in a bad way. I'm told the final explosion was a suicide bomber of all things. We return to our lodgings. I remain in an agonized stupor while the others discuss tactics and plans. Something has been agreed upon, and people are about to depart for bed. "Wait," I say. I turn towards Rei while drawing forth the envelope, and poke her chest with each word, "Don't ever say I don't love you!" My voice nearly cracks with strain at every syllable. So I simply hand the note to Kiyoshi, and glance fearfully at Moses. "Goodnight," I manage to say and high-tail it to my room.
The next hour I spent with Griever, furiously attacking the rail of my bed. All the violence and anger that I should have showed to Aimi was visited upon that poor little bed. Why did I have to feel forgiving at that moment in the alley? Now I feel fear that she will kill many more people in her life, and that Moses will hate me for it. Heck, I'll hate myself for it. Why did she have to look so damn hurt and sad in the alley? And after she had just been completely non-violent with us! Can't I just enjoy getting back at someone, even once? With no pang of guilt? Please??
I sighed, and slumped exhausted against my shredded bed. I dozed for who knows how long, when once again my name was called out. But this time it was Rei calling my name. Oh Great Sages, what could be wrong now? I ran down the hallway (with Moses close behind) and saw Rei with Kiyoshi carrying a body.
It's Aimi.
I screamed in horror and jumped back. My head shook a negation. This can't be happening. They couldn't be asking me to heal her. I could see that she was very nearly dead. "She didn't kill Amuro Naimi, she saved her. Please help her," Kiyoshi said very seriously. He looked like he hadn't slept at all, and there was a pain in his voice that tells me that she really is more than his charity case. Moses was still furious that she was there and slammed his door shut. I was too confused to hold her body as I normally do, so I placed a ginger hand on her chest. I trust my brother, and I truly hoped he wasn't mislead.
Glowing blue tears mingled with salty tears of agony as Aimi's life is restored. I was this close to killing her. I would have destroyed someone trying to make a noble change, someone who my brother loves. If this was supposed to be a brutal lesson about the power of Forgiveness, Karia, consider the message recieved.
High Dive had already left our room, so I peeked my head out and ran towards the source of commotion. To my surprise Aimi was in Kiyoshi's room - naked. I could tell by his face that he was in the Void now. And whatever came before, just now Kiyoshi seemed to be trying to capture his pink-haired (it's apparently natural by the way) charity case. Interestingly enough, Aimi said that she didn't want to fight any of us. But that didn't stop High Dive from running crazy circles around her to try and bind her. Some progress was finally made in that regard, when Rei stepped up to touch her sister. We stopped that little idea pretty quick. All of us had waited waaay too long to get our hands on Aimi.
As High Dive tied the last knot, Rei mentioned that Moses was fighting mecca by himself out on the street. What?? I glance at Kiyoshi, who glances at Aimi. "We must go help Moses," he says. We all agree and run out the door, leaving Aimi alone with knots and a dubious fate ahead of her.
I shifted into Vorax form and reach Moses just after High Dive. We are lucky enough to gather that Moses is badly hurt, just before seven more mecca come to join the fight - and not on our side. While I healed our mechified friend, and did wicked damage to a mecca trying to beat him down, two more mecca appeared as well as Rei and Kiyoshi. Luckily the two new mecca were fighting with us and Rei learned some nasty new trick that turned several mecca into rag dolls. It was rather unnerving, but as is her way, she was quite proud of herself. Certainly none of us were complaining at the moment! We made short order of the last of them, and Moses x4 molded a mecca pilot cage out of rebar.
He carried the enemy pilots back to our lodgings, and Kiyoshi, Rei, and myself each carried the inert body of the pilots who had helped us. Part of the walk back I was by myself strolling down an alley, when I heard someone say my name. Not knowing whether to expect friend or foe I set down the mecca pilot against a wall. I stepped forward a bit, "Who's there?" Quite suddenly Aimi appeared in front of me. Yes. The Aimi who I just found out had escaped. Griever twitched. "What do you want?" I heard myself ask.
"Kiyoshi isn't listening. Give this to him," and she handed me a sealed envelope. So now I'm a messenger for a teenage assassin's angsty, misguided farewell letter to Kiyoshi?? I tucked the letter bitterly under my armor, and she turned to walk away. Catch her! Finish her off! My mind cried to me. Why aren't you moving? Why indeed...
The look on Rei's face when she found out about the death of Sever and Stitch still haunted me, even though they deserved the death that High Dive and I dished out. What would happen when I told her Aimi was dead too? Also, Kiyoshi had captured her for judgment. My dear brother thought she deserved a trial, but the execution seemed inevitable - she admitted to killing Amuro Naimi. Not to mention all the other lives she's ruined. If I was just willing to kill some unknown mecca in a street brawl, why in the hell am I hesitating?
I feel energy begin to thrum. I am full of it. I know I can obliterate her, right now. But every step she takes from me feels like a pain in my heart. Speaking of, I shout out, "You broke Kiyoshi's heart you know." I thought she should know that Kiyoshi wanted to love her, before I killed her. She is laughing and crying as she takes another step. Right now Una! Let the power of Karia turn her to ash! Then I remember:
Karia wants Forgiveness. I scream inside my head. Nooo! Countless people have died in these last few weeks for far lesser crimes than hers! Another step. I remember Rei when we first met her, and how hard it had been for her to learn to respond to emotions with something other than violence. Step. Why in Karia am I letting her go?!? Step...Step. Moses is going to kill me. Rei will thank me. Kiyoshi will judge me. Step...Step...Step.
Time turns to sludge as she nears the corner of a building. This is my last chance. I can finish off the bane of Aimi once and for all. I begin to raise my hand as part of my brain knows what it should be doing, but my will evaporates...and so does Aimi. I stand trembling in the middle of the alley. What have I done???
After some painful number of heartbeats I remember my task. I gather up the mecca pilot just in time to hear sounds of battle from ahead. Did I let Aimi go just so she could immediately destroy us all? How could I have been so horrible and so stupid? Oh Karia, I hope you know what you're doing. I arrive at the next plaza just after some loud explosion went off. The pilot is set on the ground once again as I see that Rei is there, grievously wounded by shrapnel. I take the energy that would have atomized her sibling, and use it to force bits of rubble from her and heal her body.
There's no time to dally; there's obviously plenty of people left out there who want us dead, in a bad way. I'm told the final explosion was a suicide bomber of all things. We return to our lodgings. I remain in an agonized stupor while the others discuss tactics and plans. Something has been agreed upon, and people are about to depart for bed. "Wait," I say. I turn towards Rei while drawing forth the envelope, and poke her chest with each word, "Don't ever say I don't love you!" My voice nearly cracks with strain at every syllable. So I simply hand the note to Kiyoshi, and glance fearfully at Moses. "Goodnight," I manage to say and high-tail it to my room.
The next hour I spent with Griever, furiously attacking the rail of my bed. All the violence and anger that I should have showed to Aimi was visited upon that poor little bed. Why did I have to feel forgiving at that moment in the alley? Now I feel fear that she will kill many more people in her life, and that Moses will hate me for it. Heck, I'll hate myself for it. Why did she have to look so damn hurt and sad in the alley? And after she had just been completely non-violent with us! Can't I just enjoy getting back at someone, even once? With no pang of guilt? Please??
I sighed, and slumped exhausted against my shredded bed. I dozed for who knows how long, when once again my name was called out. But this time it was Rei calling my name. Oh Great Sages, what could be wrong now? I ran down the hallway (with Moses close behind) and saw Rei with Kiyoshi carrying a body.
It's Aimi.
I screamed in horror and jumped back. My head shook a negation. This can't be happening. They couldn't be asking me to heal her. I could see that she was very nearly dead. "She didn't kill Amuro Naimi, she saved her. Please help her," Kiyoshi said very seriously. He looked like he hadn't slept at all, and there was a pain in his voice that tells me that she really is more than his charity case. Moses was still furious that she was there and slammed his door shut. I was too confused to hold her body as I normally do, so I placed a ginger hand on her chest. I trust my brother, and I truly hoped he wasn't mislead.
Glowing blue tears mingled with salty tears of agony as Aimi's life is restored. I was this close to killing her. I would have destroyed someone trying to make a noble change, someone who my brother loves. If this was supposed to be a brutal lesson about the power of Forgiveness, Karia, consider the message recieved.
Episode 31: From the Ruins
My home was being destroyed and all I could do was watch. I knew it was necessary and for all the right reasons but seeing Geneva Prime fall (and knowing that the same was likely happening in every Cheldrun city on the continent with the possible exception of StarDown) was still a hard thing for me.
We set down on a plateau above the city to await Blade's inevitable counterattack. Quickly we made ready as best we could, preparing the battlefield where possible. We had no idea how he was going to come for us or what he was capable of so we tried to prepare for every eventuality we could think of. In this our imaginations failed us. With a tortured groan so loud we could hear it clearly from where we were standing, the remains of Goshi Tower twisted and writhed as we watched. It reformed itself until it rose into the air in the form of a massive airship, easily as big as the Rodan had been. This was certainly unexpected.
I knew that we did not stand a chance if we simply stood there and waited for this behemoth to strafe us so I yelled for everyone to return to the ship. Once aboard I strapped myself into the pilot's chair and we prepared to take off to try to face the Enemy, a gnat attacking a bear. That is when things went wrong.
The door leading into the interior of the Sennin opened and out strode Katashi Blade, his face a mask of fury. I immediately felt the weight of an unstoppable mind upon my own, trying to crush all resistance. It was even stronger than I had feared it would be. I managed to hold him off for the first few moments, barely. Luckily it seemed my guess that he would not be able to affect Karians in the same way that Cheldrun telepaths could not proved true as Highdive launched herself at him and attacked, her movements so fast that she was literally a blur. Unfortunately her blows seemed to be stopped by a force field of some kind no matter how fast they came.
Meanwhile my fellow Cheldrun who had not had the years of training in mental defense that I had found themselves helpless before the First Mind's power. Moses, Julian, and Trencher started attacking Una and Balder, as well as each other. Rei launched herself in my direction and I thought I might have to defend myself against her, but instead she quickly dispatched the Sennin's main control panel. It seemed Blade wanted us to be sitting ducks when his airship arrived.
For my part I harnessed the anger, the hatred, the aggression, and righteous fury that was bubbling through me and I launched myself at the Executor, trying desperately to bring his defensive field down. It seemed to work as Keibatsu sliced into his clothes over and over again, inflicting what would have been mortal blows to any normal man. Blade staggered back, his glasses broken, staring hatred at me with his glowing white eyes and then I felt the mental assault renewed and... things become blurry from there.
I vaguely remember the overwhelming thought that Una was a traitor. I remember Blade fleeing inside the ship and the Karians chasing him. I remember Moses trying to hurt me, or stop me... I do not know which and I cannot remember how I got away from him. I remember being filled with a feeling of vindication and then my mind cleared. And I remember wishing it had not, because there I stood within a corridor of the Sennin, standing over the still form of Una, Keibatsu in her heart.
I screamed with primal anger. I was beyond reason and my memories are just as foggy about this point as they are about the time during which Blade was manipulating me. I ran through the ship's interior intent on finding Blade at any cost. I would have cut down anyone or anything that stood in my way at that point without a second thought. Thankfully nothing did and I reached a chamber where Highdive was continuing her relentless assault on the angry First Mind, moving too fast for him to effectively counter. I struck then with all my might, and again, and... I probably would have kept mindlessly attacking, barely heeding the overwhelming pressure of Blade's mind against mine, but even my all-consuming anger was not enough to block him for long and I was overtaken by the urge to kill myself.
This thought was not one foreign to me after having killed my dear companion. I had dishonored myself after all. But I had a job to finish. Unable to stop myself from committing suicide I decided my course of action immediately. No thought, no mind. Just action. I summoned forth Tsukuyomi and spun around toward him and Blade. I reversed my grip on Keibatsu and plunged it into myself, through my own torse, through the stunned Kyo Tee Shee, through The glowing form of the Executor of Goshi Corp. I suppose that is one way to deliver your resignation.
I could feel Keibatsu feeding on the Enemy's body and suffusing me with energy, trying to counteract the damage it was simultaneously afflicting. Tsukuyomi just looked at my quizzically and stepped aside as if the blade did not exist, contenting himself to stand and watch. Blade on the other hand grimaced and pushed himself further down Keibatsu until he was standing directly behind me and whispered exultantly "Do it again." Unable to resist Blade's command I twisted the sword in my bloody hands causing more pain than my body could handle and I momentarily passed out.
When I opened my eyes I was lying on the floor, my mind clear once more, though I knew I was probably dying. I looked up and saw Blade stumbling and wounded and thought to try to get up and finish him even if it was the last thing I did. I had forgotten that at least one of my allies was still in the fight however as Highdive appeared out of nowhere and fell upon the wounded Executor, biting and stabbing faster than the eye could follow. Blade tried ineffectually to swat her away as he stumbled and jerked from the blows raining down upon him. Still intent on making sure he paid for all the deaths he had caused I continued to try to force my body to respond to my will. I had gotten mostly to my knees by the time Highdive's assault finally proved too much for even a First Mind and Blade's form dissolved in a blinding flash of rainbow colored lights. The next instant a voice spoke in a manner that it seemed to echo from within my own skull. "I am Rensu Oni, the One Who Binds." And then everything went black.
* * *
I awoke to find myself alone, lying on the cold floor of the Sennin, covered in blood. I was surprised and almost disappointed to be alive. Struggling to my feet I started looking for any of my companions that had survived. I found the spot where I had last seen Una. All that remained was dried blood. I heard voices and followed them where I found my friends. All of them, alive. My eyes filled with tears of joy and Una and I hugged for some time.
***
Julian and Trencher had died and we buried them up on the plateau overlooking the ruins of Geneva Prime. Goshi had retreated, leaving the city in our hands. Moses spoke only of leading his people now to safety. And I was bound and determined to help him succeed.
We set down on a plateau above the city to await Blade's inevitable counterattack. Quickly we made ready as best we could, preparing the battlefield where possible. We had no idea how he was going to come for us or what he was capable of so we tried to prepare for every eventuality we could think of. In this our imaginations failed us. With a tortured groan so loud we could hear it clearly from where we were standing, the remains of Goshi Tower twisted and writhed as we watched. It reformed itself until it rose into the air in the form of a massive airship, easily as big as the Rodan had been. This was certainly unexpected.
I knew that we did not stand a chance if we simply stood there and waited for this behemoth to strafe us so I yelled for everyone to return to the ship. Once aboard I strapped myself into the pilot's chair and we prepared to take off to try to face the Enemy, a gnat attacking a bear. That is when things went wrong.
The door leading into the interior of the Sennin opened and out strode Katashi Blade, his face a mask of fury. I immediately felt the weight of an unstoppable mind upon my own, trying to crush all resistance. It was even stronger than I had feared it would be. I managed to hold him off for the first few moments, barely. Luckily it seemed my guess that he would not be able to affect Karians in the same way that Cheldrun telepaths could not proved true as Highdive launched herself at him and attacked, her movements so fast that she was literally a blur. Unfortunately her blows seemed to be stopped by a force field of some kind no matter how fast they came.
Meanwhile my fellow Cheldrun who had not had the years of training in mental defense that I had found themselves helpless before the First Mind's power. Moses, Julian, and Trencher started attacking Una and Balder, as well as each other. Rei launched herself in my direction and I thought I might have to defend myself against her, but instead she quickly dispatched the Sennin's main control panel. It seemed Blade wanted us to be sitting ducks when his airship arrived.
For my part I harnessed the anger, the hatred, the aggression, and righteous fury that was bubbling through me and I launched myself at the Executor, trying desperately to bring his defensive field down. It seemed to work as Keibatsu sliced into his clothes over and over again, inflicting what would have been mortal blows to any normal man. Blade staggered back, his glasses broken, staring hatred at me with his glowing white eyes and then I felt the mental assault renewed and... things become blurry from there.
I vaguely remember the overwhelming thought that Una was a traitor. I remember Blade fleeing inside the ship and the Karians chasing him. I remember Moses trying to hurt me, or stop me... I do not know which and I cannot remember how I got away from him. I remember being filled with a feeling of vindication and then my mind cleared. And I remember wishing it had not, because there I stood within a corridor of the Sennin, standing over the still form of Una, Keibatsu in her heart.
I screamed with primal anger. I was beyond reason and my memories are just as foggy about this point as they are about the time during which Blade was manipulating me. I ran through the ship's interior intent on finding Blade at any cost. I would have cut down anyone or anything that stood in my way at that point without a second thought. Thankfully nothing did and I reached a chamber where Highdive was continuing her relentless assault on the angry First Mind, moving too fast for him to effectively counter. I struck then with all my might, and again, and... I probably would have kept mindlessly attacking, barely heeding the overwhelming pressure of Blade's mind against mine, but even my all-consuming anger was not enough to block him for long and I was overtaken by the urge to kill myself.
This thought was not one foreign to me after having killed my dear companion. I had dishonored myself after all. But I had a job to finish. Unable to stop myself from committing suicide I decided my course of action immediately. No thought, no mind. Just action. I summoned forth Tsukuyomi and spun around toward him and Blade. I reversed my grip on Keibatsu and plunged it into myself, through my own torse, through the stunned Kyo Tee Shee, through The glowing form of the Executor of Goshi Corp. I suppose that is one way to deliver your resignation.
I could feel Keibatsu feeding on the Enemy's body and suffusing me with energy, trying to counteract the damage it was simultaneously afflicting. Tsukuyomi just looked at my quizzically and stepped aside as if the blade did not exist, contenting himself to stand and watch. Blade on the other hand grimaced and pushed himself further down Keibatsu until he was standing directly behind me and whispered exultantly "Do it again." Unable to resist Blade's command I twisted the sword in my bloody hands causing more pain than my body could handle and I momentarily passed out.
When I opened my eyes I was lying on the floor, my mind clear once more, though I knew I was probably dying. I looked up and saw Blade stumbling and wounded and thought to try to get up and finish him even if it was the last thing I did. I had forgotten that at least one of my allies was still in the fight however as Highdive appeared out of nowhere and fell upon the wounded Executor, biting and stabbing faster than the eye could follow. Blade tried ineffectually to swat her away as he stumbled and jerked from the blows raining down upon him. Still intent on making sure he paid for all the deaths he had caused I continued to try to force my body to respond to my will. I had gotten mostly to my knees by the time Highdive's assault finally proved too much for even a First Mind and Blade's form dissolved in a blinding flash of rainbow colored lights. The next instant a voice spoke in a manner that it seemed to echo from within my own skull. "I am Rensu Oni, the One Who Binds." And then everything went black.
* * *
I awoke to find myself alone, lying on the cold floor of the Sennin, covered in blood. I was surprised and almost disappointed to be alive. Struggling to my feet I started looking for any of my companions that had survived. I found the spot where I had last seen Una. All that remained was dried blood. I heard voices and followed them where I found my friends. All of them, alive. My eyes filled with tears of joy and Una and I hugged for some time.
***
Julian and Trencher had died and we buried them up on the plateau overlooking the ruins of Geneva Prime. Goshi had retreated, leaving the city in our hands. Moses spoke only of leading his people now to safety. And I was bound and determined to help him succeed.
Kiyoshi and Kijuuki
With a grip like a vice Kiyoshi pulled the ephemeral purple crane by the neck until the two of them hung eye to eye, floating in zero gravity. Blind with rage he leveled an ultimatum at the bird and proceeded to attempt the binding...
A Kyo-Tee-Shee can be bound to a soul if certain conditions are met. The soul must be an appropriately large vessel. Most people are unequipped for the task. The soul must be familiar with the metaphysics of the transfer of mana. Those who remain deaf and dumb to the effects of mana are like shallow puddles in which nothing can be immersed, least of all a Kyo-Tee-Shee. And of course, the Kyo-Tee-Shee in question must be intoxicated on a recent consumption of mana, but not just any mana. Like rivers, some streams of mana are purer than others.
When Kijuuki consumed Suraisu-Oni's mana she was indeed drunk for a few moments, but it was like being drunk on Schlitz Malt Liquor. The searing headache which rushed upon her woke her from her stupor in time to realize what was happening and to know that she was in no danger. You see, Kiyoshi already had one Kyo-Tee-Shee bound to his soul and no soul, no matter how great, can accommodate more than that.
So he thrust himself upon her intending that they should be united, intending to entrap her like he had trapped her brother... but she smiled.
In a split instant a look passed between them and in that look there was a great deal of information. Kiyoshi saw that what he was doing was impossible. He saw, also, that he had gotten himself into great danger - for he held a free Kyo-Tee-Shee about the neck. One with a large quantity of mana, and no god-question-answer-manifestation left to serve. Kijuuki had become a powerful and arbitrary force of nature, bound by no laws - especially not the law of death.
I cannot be destroyed. The look said. I cannot be controlled. I am free at last to consume mana to my heart's content and you and your friends will pay for imprisoning me.
Had this all taken longer than a flash of lightning to occur, Kiyoshi would have done a hundred different things to stop Kijuuki, but it was all over in an instant. Kijuuki blazed with purple light, searing his hand and blinding his eyes. She evaporated amidst that light sending Kiyoshi one last image before his brain shut down from overload dragging him into a coma.
Kiyoshi drifted into a deep sleep with that image replaying over and over in his mind. It was a picture of the place she was going next. Going to gorge herself on mana. The Emerald Isle.
A Kyo-Tee-Shee can be bound to a soul if certain conditions are met. The soul must be an appropriately large vessel. Most people are unequipped for the task. The soul must be familiar with the metaphysics of the transfer of mana. Those who remain deaf and dumb to the effects of mana are like shallow puddles in which nothing can be immersed, least of all a Kyo-Tee-Shee. And of course, the Kyo-Tee-Shee in question must be intoxicated on a recent consumption of mana, but not just any mana. Like rivers, some streams of mana are purer than others.
When Kijuuki consumed Suraisu-Oni's mana she was indeed drunk for a few moments, but it was like being drunk on Schlitz Malt Liquor. The searing headache which rushed upon her woke her from her stupor in time to realize what was happening and to know that she was in no danger. You see, Kiyoshi already had one Kyo-Tee-Shee bound to his soul and no soul, no matter how great, can accommodate more than that.
So he thrust himself upon her intending that they should be united, intending to entrap her like he had trapped her brother... but she smiled.
In a split instant a look passed between them and in that look there was a great deal of information. Kiyoshi saw that what he was doing was impossible. He saw, also, that he had gotten himself into great danger - for he held a free Kyo-Tee-Shee about the neck. One with a large quantity of mana, and no god-question-answer-manifestation left to serve. Kijuuki had become a powerful and arbitrary force of nature, bound by no laws - especially not the law of death.
I cannot be destroyed. The look said. I cannot be controlled. I am free at last to consume mana to my heart's content and you and your friends will pay for imprisoning me.
Had this all taken longer than a flash of lightning to occur, Kiyoshi would have done a hundred different things to stop Kijuuki, but it was all over in an instant. Kijuuki blazed with purple light, searing his hand and blinding his eyes. She evaporated amidst that light sending Kiyoshi one last image before his brain shut down from overload dragging him into a coma.
Kiyoshi drifted into a deep sleep with that image replaying over and over in his mind. It was a picture of the place she was going next. Going to gorge herself on mana. The Emerald Isle.
Episode 26: The Wandering Star
It is a bit disconcerting to suddenly know how to use something that you have no idea how it works. It is like suddenly finding yourself a consummate rider without having the slightest clue what a horse was or whether or not it was going to eat you. There were some strange similarities to Mecha piloting actually. Should I ever find myself in one of those again I think I might do much better than I used to.
The... 'flight' I guess is the term... took longer than I would have supposed. Once we left the planet things became interesting: we lost all gravity and everything that was not strapped down started floating about. After several hours we finally reached our destination. It was... immense. It made the Rodan seem a pigeon. We found a docking-hole that was open and I maneuvered the Sennin inside. Unfortunately said hole was open to space and our ancestors had passed down that space was much like the deepest part of the ocean: no air to breathe, deadly cold, and deadly pressure. Thankfully Moses had somehow become equipped to deal with these things and Rei used an old deep sea suit to accompany him into the ship to find a way to close the massive outer doors. It turned out that brute force was the answer as Moses simply pulled them shut. The problem was that there was still no air within the dock so they flailed and cartwheeled around a bit until they finally broke open an inner door letting in air... and Eyeless. Rei teleported them back into the ship (And she had better be telling the truth about that being one of her katas. If I find out she has been using a disLocator and potentially endangering us all...) and I unleashed Sennin's guns upon the Enemy. Easy enough.
That was when the tricky part began. I knew from the vision I had when I touched the Flame that we were looking for a room on level Z. We started in and found ourselves confronting hordes of Eyeless. Most of them were dressed in archaic Allskin clothing. A good many of them even bore the mon of the Silver Phoenix Clan. Some were even more disturbing however: some wore the armor of Hei Shi. How had they gotten here? No, obviously they teleported. The real question was how Katashi Blade found out about this place and what he was sending them here for.
We reached a lift eventually and as Moses started to open the doors he was attacked by giant tentacles of light that reached through the doors themselves, passing through without damaging them. I was not about to let an Enemy attack us with impunity so I cut an opening in the door and we hurtled into the shaft to do battle with... Garandou Oni? Apparently it had not died back in Geneva Prime after all. The fighting was fierce but we had all gained in skill since our last encounter with the demon and things were a lot more one-sided this time around. I decided to summon Tsukuyomi and send him against the Oni figuring that it did not much matter to me which of them killed the other. Despite looking rather impressive as he descended upon Garandou Oni in the form of a roiling maelstrom, he did not manage to do much until after the battle when he returned to me and brought with him a portion of the fallen demon's manna. I felt invigorated, but also, considering the source, nauseated. At least now we could be pretty sure it was dead for good after being eaten by a Kyo Tee Shee.
After licking our wounds we continued along, still wading through an army of Eyeless. After a couple false starts we finally found the correct room, the one that was named to me in my vision. Even if it had not been I would have known it was correct; from the symbol on the door it was a Temple to the First Minds. Not wanting to desecrate the temple doors we tried to find a simple way in. Una summoned Susanoo and he used his mastery of electricity to power the long-defunct keypad which Rei then used her knowledge of electronics to bypass and open the door.
Inside there was a temple where I lit incense and made proper observances. This was also supposed to be a repository of knowledge however so I paid attention to the one thing that seemed out of place: six bells placed equidistantly about the room. Each bell had a First Mind rune for a familiar concept: Freedom, Justice, Peace, Forgiveness, Temperance, Hope. Elder Moon had applied each of these concepts to one of us so I decided to try something similar to what we did at Ben Hamor. We each stood at the appropriate bell and rang them at the same time. Nothing happened. Unfortunately the noise seemed to disturb something as we heard hideous noises outside right after. Rei closed the doors to give us more time and I thought. Each of us was associated with a concept, each with a Kyo Tee Shee, each with a color. I remembered the Hierarchy of Colors and we rang our bells in order of Highest to Lowest Color.
That seemed to do the trick. With a grinding noise the altar moved aside revealing a passage to another room. Meanwhile something huge was pounding on the outer door which was starting to buckle. We quickly ducked into the new room and while someone hit the bells in the reverse order which caused the hidden door to close behind us.
Within we found a strange room. There was a screen on the wall and a keypad like a computer but the keys were all First Mind runes. There were also six small recesses, three in each wall, that seemed to open into darkness. Once again utilizing Susanoo as a battery, much to his annoyance (which made it even more satisfying of course) we managed to get the ancient computer working and from it we learned a horrible tale.
The ancient Cheldrun Empire had been based on the properties of white rock. They used its abilities to draw on seemingly unlimited energy and to transport both energy and matter to create a civilization that spanned across the stars. The Cheldrun who recorded the information was obviously crazed however; he was under the impression that the energy white rock summoned was taken directly from the First Minds themselves and that the Enemy was none other than They come to punish us! I had always thought of the First Minds as more of a metaphor for Cheldrun potential but... perhaps they were physical beings akin to the Dusk Sages. And perhaps the Oni were another version of Kyo Tee Shee created when we siphoned manna from the First Minds... (It had not escaped me that the naming conventions for the Dusk Sages and the Oni were so similar.)
Enough speculation. We discovered a few important facts. White rock does indeed attract the Enemy, as does any strong concentration of manna, including ourselves, but only when it is activated. Goshi's recent experiments with the substance must be what drew their attention. More though, the Enemy can use white rock to come here from... wherever they come from and perhaps to go back again. It is a conduit for them. Also, the great flight almost succeeded until the Biomade rebelled and activated the engine of the Wandering Star; an engine made around a gigantic core of white rock. Because of that act the Enemy have been aware of our presence here this entire time.
We did not have time to sit and digest this information as whatever had broken into the Temple was now battering down the secret door. I told the computer to make its information portable and each of the recesses extruded a metallic arm holding a disk. I quickly gathered the disks and tucked them safely in my belt pouch. Just in time too; the wall collapsed to reveal several Eyeless and Asamu Oni. We quickly became embattled but moments later the back wall collapsed to reveal a towering metallic form with giant drills instead of hands. I tried not to make any comparisons to Moses as it boomed "I am Suraisu Oni, the One Who Tears!"
Things got extremely hectic at this point. Moses was enveloped by Asamu Oni and Rei was desperately trying to pull him out. High Dive attacked Suraisu Oni full bore and only managed to scratch its metallic hide. Mokuzai flattened the Eyeless with a clap of thunder and Una blasted Suraisu Oni through dozens of walls with a gigantic kata; something that did not seem to faze it much. Remembering my thoughts during the previous fight that maybe having the Kyo Tee Shee eat them was the only way to finish them off I summoned Tsukuyomi once again and prepared to attack.
All the way from where she had blasted it, more than a hundred meters away, Suraisu Oni somehow launched one of its drill hands at Una, its arms stretching impossibly long to gore her chest. She fell back with a cry, slumping to the floor and clutching her bleeding chest. It then charged back into the room we were in and started spinning like a child's top, its arms stretching out and cutting Highdive, Mokuzai, and myself. All this time I had been studying the demon, watching its movements, and now I was certain precisely where to strike. I did so and felt Keibatsu's keen edge and hunger for the flesh of the Enemy cut deeply. I felt the blade giving me energy to keep fighting its hated foe...
This got Suraisu Oni's attention. It bellowed in rage and pain and turned toward me, staring burning malevolence. "I will deal with you next" it intoned. I had seen what a direct hit from those drills could do to a body; I knew this could be trouble. It started to point its weapons at me and I prepared a desperate defense. At this point it was strangely quiet for a battlefield. Mokuzai had stopped singing when he was hurt and now I thought I heard him mutter something about "fool boy" and "fool promise" and most emphatically "fool old man". Then he did something, a kata I guess, that drew the demon's attention squarely away from me. Based on the rainbow light that burst from it and flowed to him I would say he was stealing its manna, something that seemed to piss it off to no end and it started for him instead.
I quickly moved to cut it off, to keep it from hurting the old Prill who still held it at bay, but just then Moses came hurtling out of the ruined Temple, Asamu-Oni no more than a quivering puddle at this point, and started grappling his demonic counterpart. I looked for an opening to strike but they moved too much! Moses thought he was keeping it away from us, but he had not seen how far its arms could stretch. Indeed, even as it grappled with Moses I saw its gaze remain on Mokuzai. "Steal my manna will you?" it bellowed. And then it struck.
In the last instant things seemed to slow down. Mokuzai gave me a look that seemed exasperated. It seemed to say "Go on boy, get on with it!" Then his expression softened, became one of... peace. And then the drills tore into his fragile old body, shredding it like so much wet paper, tossing blood and viscera in every direction to float eerily about like macabre snowflakes.
I do not know who was louder in the next moment: Suraisu Oni's howl of triumph, Moses' cry of effort and concern for his friend, or my scream of pure rage and hatred. I leaped forward and Moses saw me coming. He wrenched himself into a position that pinned the demon and gave me a clear shot, though I would have to go through him to do so, and gave me a look that somehow mimicked the one Mokuzai had given me moments before. This time I did not hesitate: I drove Keibatsu through Moses' shoulder and deep into Suraisu Oni's face, through its head, into the deck. I felt Keibatsu feeding on its twisted life along with the Kyo Tee Shee and saw its form break apart and fade away. Once it was gone I retracted the blade and floated away from Moses' bleeding form.
And just that suddenly it is over. I take stock of the situation. Una is still, floating in the air, maybe dead. Rei is floating in from the direction of the Temple, a look of satisfaction on her face. Moses looked wounded and woozy, but solid as ever. Highdive looked like... well, like she always does. And Mokuzai... his head floated by, a look of serenity on his wrinkled old face, his ears sticking up and making him look alert. If I had not been within the void I might have vomited or cried or even laughed at the dark irony that we finally found information only to lose our wisdom.
Then I saw her: Kijuuki. Mokuzai's Kyo Tee Shee had escaped and assumed her crane form and was greedily sucking up the last remnants of manna from the fallen Oni. Rage suffused me at the fact that my friend had died and this abomination had benefited. I reached out and grasped the startled spirit around the throat. Staring into its eyes I promised it that its freedom would be short lived. And then my world exploded into pain. Again. I hate it when that happens...
The... 'flight' I guess is the term... took longer than I would have supposed. Once we left the planet things became interesting: we lost all gravity and everything that was not strapped down started floating about. After several hours we finally reached our destination. It was... immense. It made the Rodan seem a pigeon. We found a docking-hole that was open and I maneuvered the Sennin inside. Unfortunately said hole was open to space and our ancestors had passed down that space was much like the deepest part of the ocean: no air to breathe, deadly cold, and deadly pressure. Thankfully Moses had somehow become equipped to deal with these things and Rei used an old deep sea suit to accompany him into the ship to find a way to close the massive outer doors. It turned out that brute force was the answer as Moses simply pulled them shut. The problem was that there was still no air within the dock so they flailed and cartwheeled around a bit until they finally broke open an inner door letting in air... and Eyeless. Rei teleported them back into the ship (And she had better be telling the truth about that being one of her katas. If I find out she has been using a disLocator and potentially endangering us all...) and I unleashed Sennin's guns upon the Enemy. Easy enough.
That was when the tricky part began. I knew from the vision I had when I touched the Flame that we were looking for a room on level Z. We started in and found ourselves confronting hordes of Eyeless. Most of them were dressed in archaic Allskin clothing. A good many of them even bore the mon of the Silver Phoenix Clan. Some were even more disturbing however: some wore the armor of Hei Shi. How had they gotten here? No, obviously they teleported. The real question was how Katashi Blade found out about this place and what he was sending them here for.
We reached a lift eventually and as Moses started to open the doors he was attacked by giant tentacles of light that reached through the doors themselves, passing through without damaging them. I was not about to let an Enemy attack us with impunity so I cut an opening in the door and we hurtled into the shaft to do battle with... Garandou Oni? Apparently it had not died back in Geneva Prime after all. The fighting was fierce but we had all gained in skill since our last encounter with the demon and things were a lot more one-sided this time around. I decided to summon Tsukuyomi and send him against the Oni figuring that it did not much matter to me which of them killed the other. Despite looking rather impressive as he descended upon Garandou Oni in the form of a roiling maelstrom, he did not manage to do much until after the battle when he returned to me and brought with him a portion of the fallen demon's manna. I felt invigorated, but also, considering the source, nauseated. At least now we could be pretty sure it was dead for good after being eaten by a Kyo Tee Shee.
After licking our wounds we continued along, still wading through an army of Eyeless. After a couple false starts we finally found the correct room, the one that was named to me in my vision. Even if it had not been I would have known it was correct; from the symbol on the door it was a Temple to the First Minds. Not wanting to desecrate the temple doors we tried to find a simple way in. Una summoned Susanoo and he used his mastery of electricity to power the long-defunct keypad which Rei then used her knowledge of electronics to bypass and open the door.
Inside there was a temple where I lit incense and made proper observances. This was also supposed to be a repository of knowledge however so I paid attention to the one thing that seemed out of place: six bells placed equidistantly about the room. Each bell had a First Mind rune for a familiar concept: Freedom, Justice, Peace, Forgiveness, Temperance, Hope. Elder Moon had applied each of these concepts to one of us so I decided to try something similar to what we did at Ben Hamor. We each stood at the appropriate bell and rang them at the same time. Nothing happened. Unfortunately the noise seemed to disturb something as we heard hideous noises outside right after. Rei closed the doors to give us more time and I thought. Each of us was associated with a concept, each with a Kyo Tee Shee, each with a color. I remembered the Hierarchy of Colors and we rang our bells in order of Highest to Lowest Color.
That seemed to do the trick. With a grinding noise the altar moved aside revealing a passage to another room. Meanwhile something huge was pounding on the outer door which was starting to buckle. We quickly ducked into the new room and while someone hit the bells in the reverse order which caused the hidden door to close behind us.
Within we found a strange room. There was a screen on the wall and a keypad like a computer but the keys were all First Mind runes. There were also six small recesses, three in each wall, that seemed to open into darkness. Once again utilizing Susanoo as a battery, much to his annoyance (which made it even more satisfying of course) we managed to get the ancient computer working and from it we learned a horrible tale.
The ancient Cheldrun Empire had been based on the properties of white rock. They used its abilities to draw on seemingly unlimited energy and to transport both energy and matter to create a civilization that spanned across the stars. The Cheldrun who recorded the information was obviously crazed however; he was under the impression that the energy white rock summoned was taken directly from the First Minds themselves and that the Enemy was none other than They come to punish us! I had always thought of the First Minds as more of a metaphor for Cheldrun potential but... perhaps they were physical beings akin to the Dusk Sages. And perhaps the Oni were another version of Kyo Tee Shee created when we siphoned manna from the First Minds... (It had not escaped me that the naming conventions for the Dusk Sages and the Oni were so similar.)
Enough speculation. We discovered a few important facts. White rock does indeed attract the Enemy, as does any strong concentration of manna, including ourselves, but only when it is activated. Goshi's recent experiments with the substance must be what drew their attention. More though, the Enemy can use white rock to come here from... wherever they come from and perhaps to go back again. It is a conduit for them. Also, the great flight almost succeeded until the Biomade rebelled and activated the engine of the Wandering Star; an engine made around a gigantic core of white rock. Because of that act the Enemy have been aware of our presence here this entire time.
We did not have time to sit and digest this information as whatever had broken into the Temple was now battering down the secret door. I told the computer to make its information portable and each of the recesses extruded a metallic arm holding a disk. I quickly gathered the disks and tucked them safely in my belt pouch. Just in time too; the wall collapsed to reveal several Eyeless and Asamu Oni. We quickly became embattled but moments later the back wall collapsed to reveal a towering metallic form with giant drills instead of hands. I tried not to make any comparisons to Moses as it boomed "I am Suraisu Oni, the One Who Tears!"
Things got extremely hectic at this point. Moses was enveloped by Asamu Oni and Rei was desperately trying to pull him out. High Dive attacked Suraisu Oni full bore and only managed to scratch its metallic hide. Mokuzai flattened the Eyeless with a clap of thunder and Una blasted Suraisu Oni through dozens of walls with a gigantic kata; something that did not seem to faze it much. Remembering my thoughts during the previous fight that maybe having the Kyo Tee Shee eat them was the only way to finish them off I summoned Tsukuyomi once again and prepared to attack.
All the way from where she had blasted it, more than a hundred meters away, Suraisu Oni somehow launched one of its drill hands at Una, its arms stretching impossibly long to gore her chest. She fell back with a cry, slumping to the floor and clutching her bleeding chest. It then charged back into the room we were in and started spinning like a child's top, its arms stretching out and cutting Highdive, Mokuzai, and myself. All this time I had been studying the demon, watching its movements, and now I was certain precisely where to strike. I did so and felt Keibatsu's keen edge and hunger for the flesh of the Enemy cut deeply. I felt the blade giving me energy to keep fighting its hated foe...
This got Suraisu Oni's attention. It bellowed in rage and pain and turned toward me, staring burning malevolence. "I will deal with you next" it intoned. I had seen what a direct hit from those drills could do to a body; I knew this could be trouble. It started to point its weapons at me and I prepared a desperate defense. At this point it was strangely quiet for a battlefield. Mokuzai had stopped singing when he was hurt and now I thought I heard him mutter something about "fool boy" and "fool promise" and most emphatically "fool old man". Then he did something, a kata I guess, that drew the demon's attention squarely away from me. Based on the rainbow light that burst from it and flowed to him I would say he was stealing its manna, something that seemed to piss it off to no end and it started for him instead.
I quickly moved to cut it off, to keep it from hurting the old Prill who still held it at bay, but just then Moses came hurtling out of the ruined Temple, Asamu-Oni no more than a quivering puddle at this point, and started grappling his demonic counterpart. I looked for an opening to strike but they moved too much! Moses thought he was keeping it away from us, but he had not seen how far its arms could stretch. Indeed, even as it grappled with Moses I saw its gaze remain on Mokuzai. "Steal my manna will you?" it bellowed. And then it struck.
In the last instant things seemed to slow down. Mokuzai gave me a look that seemed exasperated. It seemed to say "Go on boy, get on with it!" Then his expression softened, became one of... peace. And then the drills tore into his fragile old body, shredding it like so much wet paper, tossing blood and viscera in every direction to float eerily about like macabre snowflakes.
I do not know who was louder in the next moment: Suraisu Oni's howl of triumph, Moses' cry of effort and concern for his friend, or my scream of pure rage and hatred. I leaped forward and Moses saw me coming. He wrenched himself into a position that pinned the demon and gave me a clear shot, though I would have to go through him to do so, and gave me a look that somehow mimicked the one Mokuzai had given me moments before. This time I did not hesitate: I drove Keibatsu through Moses' shoulder and deep into Suraisu Oni's face, through its head, into the deck. I felt Keibatsu feeding on its twisted life along with the Kyo Tee Shee and saw its form break apart and fade away. Once it was gone I retracted the blade and floated away from Moses' bleeding form.
And just that suddenly it is over. I take stock of the situation. Una is still, floating in the air, maybe dead. Rei is floating in from the direction of the Temple, a look of satisfaction on her face. Moses looked wounded and woozy, but solid as ever. Highdive looked like... well, like she always does. And Mokuzai... his head floated by, a look of serenity on his wrinkled old face, his ears sticking up and making him look alert. If I had not been within the void I might have vomited or cried or even laughed at the dark irony that we finally found information only to lose our wisdom.
Then I saw her: Kijuuki. Mokuzai's Kyo Tee Shee had escaped and assumed her crane form and was greedily sucking up the last remnants of manna from the fallen Oni. Rage suffused me at the fact that my friend had died and this abomination had benefited. I reached out and grasped the startled spirit around the throat. Staring into its eyes I promised it that its freedom would be short lived. And then my world exploded into pain. Again. I hate it when that happens...
Metal on Metal
Sparks erupt as Moses slams into Suraisu Oni, their metal plating grinding together, dragged down together in a tangle of rage and limbs. The Oni is frighteningly strong. Blackrock is still boiling Moses' blood and he rolls with the Oni, trying to avoid the grinding limbs still spinning, the image of them grinding through Mokuzai's helpless body burned into Moses' mind.
He hears Kyoshi coming. The Oni twists in his grasp like a coiled spring, shuddering with effort. Through its metal skin Moses can hear gear-teeth tearing at one another, levers straining and snapping. He grits his teeth and clenches harder, white spots appearing in his vision, straining, until he hears the Oni's body begin to buckle and cave.
Kyoshi is sailing gracefully through the air. The Oni makes a last thrashing effort to get free. Moses feels his grip slipping, trying to avoid Keibatsu's shining blade -
A fragment of Gogajin field-hat floats past lazily, its edge soaked in blood.
Moses chokes back a strangled sob and shifts his weight unexpectedly, twisting the body of the Oni so that it is on top of him, gripped in his straining arms. He slides up his mechanical hand and clenches down on the Oni's neck, ratcheting its head to the side so that it rests on his shoulder, immobilized.
He looks up to catch the ferocious silver gleam in Kyoshi's eyes, light lightening burning in a storm-cloud. A white-hot bar of agony sears through Suraisu Oni's head, shears it apart, continues down through Moses' shoulder, cutting down into the mix of altered flesh and machinery that is beneath it. He feels it grind out through the other side of his body, pinning him to the floor.
Everything goes black.
He sees Mokuzai, seated, his back to him, hunched as if exhausted. He is in a dark room, alone, preparing a cup of tea, singing softly as if to himself in a low, clear voice. The light in the room is fading. Moses tries to call out but there is no breath here. As the light is snuffed out, the last thing is the gleam of the edge of a worn, battered hat, its curve like a slow, grim smile.
Goodbye.
He hears Kyoshi coming. The Oni twists in his grasp like a coiled spring, shuddering with effort. Through its metal skin Moses can hear gear-teeth tearing at one another, levers straining and snapping. He grits his teeth and clenches harder, white spots appearing in his vision, straining, until he hears the Oni's body begin to buckle and cave.
Kyoshi is sailing gracefully through the air. The Oni makes a last thrashing effort to get free. Moses feels his grip slipping, trying to avoid Keibatsu's shining blade -
A fragment of Gogajin field-hat floats past lazily, its edge soaked in blood.
Moses chokes back a strangled sob and shifts his weight unexpectedly, twisting the body of the Oni so that it is on top of him, gripped in his straining arms. He slides up his mechanical hand and clenches down on the Oni's neck, ratcheting its head to the side so that it rests on his shoulder, immobilized.
He looks up to catch the ferocious silver gleam in Kyoshi's eyes, light lightening burning in a storm-cloud. A white-hot bar of agony sears through Suraisu Oni's head, shears it apart, continues down through Moses' shoulder, cutting down into the mix of altered flesh and machinery that is beneath it. He feels it grind out through the other side of his body, pinning him to the floor.
Everything goes black.
He sees Mokuzai, seated, his back to him, hunched as if exhausted. He is in a dark room, alone, preparing a cup of tea, singing softly as if to himself in a low, clear voice. The light in the room is fading. Moses tries to call out but there is no breath here. As the light is snuffed out, the last thing is the gleam of the edge of a worn, battered hat, its curve like a slow, grim smile.
Goodbye.
A Train Full of Memories
The landscape rattled by her window in a rhythmic, undulating fashion. She knew her duty to her father and to her clan and she intended to fulfill it, but it made her sick to her stomach to see the unfamiliar hills rolling past and know that she would probably never see her home again. The orchards the train was passing by just now seemed serene, unaffected by the turmoil of the world. It was practically insulting for her life to be in such upheaval while these trees remained ignorant and unchanged."Assassins, Namie. They will send Assassins after you."
"But why?" she had insisted naively. She could be such a child sometimes. The reason would be her father's resistance to Goshi, of course. No one who opposed Goshi these days was safe. With the war on Goshi rarely bothered with threats, censures and trials. It was swifter and easier to eliminate any and all opposition with violence.
Thus Namie and her family had been snuck onto different trains, bound in opposite directions, under assumed identities. Even still, Namie's uncle had chided her, "You must trust no one but members of our clan. They may turn you in. And never forget that the Hei-Shi can show up anywhere at anytime..."
Not exactly words of comfort.
Nothing made sense anymore. Once she had been Amuro Namie, a mischievous little girl with a fondness for the oily men and women her parents called the Mechified. She had begged and pleaded with her father, using her doe eyes, the ones mother said to reserve only for matters of importance, until he relented and adopted a young Mechified boy. Moses, he'd been called, and she used to get into such trouble with him. He loved her and would do almost anything she told him to (father said he was simple). So she told him to do things like chisel her name into the walls of the family shrine. She had such a whipping for that.
The worst time had been when she stole a dusty old artifact from the clan vault and helped him screw it into place on his shoulder. The Difference Engine, it was called. A relic of the First Minds from the age of space empires and even earlier. They had tried and tried to get it back from Moses, but the Engine had somehow become so entrenched in his machinery that removing it would jeopardize his very life. Even father was not cruel enough to kill the boy to recover the artifact. "The will of the First Minds is inscrutable," he intoned in his sacred voice and then swore everyone to secrecy on the matter. Namie did not get off so easy. She had no sweet rice for a year after that.
Yet somehow her childhood companion had grown up to become one of the most dangerous men alive. She still remembers the almost physical shock she felt the day she read in the papers that Moses was wanted for the murder of a foreman on the job. Her own gentle Moses? She'd protested to her father that it was impossible. She begged her father to go to the court and have Moses exonerated. She'd used her doe eyes. It was no use. Father had already been questioned by investigators and the evidence he'd seen was overwhelming. Moses was indeed guilty of murder.
It was worse the morning that Moses broke into the Goshi Corp tower and that photo was taken of him hurling the hunk of concrete that caused the explosion. Namie wept and wept until she had no more tears and though the horrible news kept coming it got easier after that.
It had been a dark time of her life, because just two weeks prior to the explosion in the tower her fiance, a son of the respected Master of Washi San Academy had been fired from his position as a director at Goshi Corp. Daitokuji Kiyoshi. Even saying that name aloud now would get you interrogated. The man she once was sworn to wed was now worth 35years Dead or Alive. 35years!
And his case made as little sense as the case of Moses. If ever there was a man who was more rigid in defense of his honor, more scrupulous in his actions and more certain in his loyalties than Daitokuji Kiyoshi she'd never met him. She recalled with some mortification how upon first meeting him and being allowed a brief time alone, as per custom, in the tea garden, she had hoped to steal a kiss. Improper it certainly was, but Namie had been excited by the prospect of breaking this taboo and imagined (since she'd always heard that men were lusty) that it would pleasantly surprise her husband to be. Instead, he had avoided her awkward attempts and maintained a steely courtesy that shamed her and made her feel small.
Could such a man really be a traitor? She couldn't fathom it.
And worst of all she had heard rumors that these two men from her past had somehow made common cause. It tied her stomach in knots even thinking about it. Kiyoshi had as much reason as anyone to hate Moses, his own father had died in the blast Moses caused. Kiyoshi had been a loyal employee, a Director for goodness sake, of Goshi Corp and he would never work together with the violent anarchists of the UMA... would he?
The door to her cabin opened silently, but the motion caught her eye and she turned to see a young woman in black leather with a hot pink bob striding aggressively into the space. A pink blade of psychic energy flickered to life around her fist.
Namie, sighed. "You've read my thoughts, haven't you. Uncle said not even to think of Moses or Kiyoshi lest they find me."
The woman nodded.
"Then there's no point, my protesting that you have the wrong person. I could show you my tickets and my identification that says my name is Sakura of the Ruby Hawk Clan, but you wouldn't believe me."
The woman shook her head.
"Why wait then?"
She seemed to consider her answer for a moment and then said, "You're less beautiful than I expected."
Namie had no idea what to make of that and the sudden disconnect made her laugh, a light airy sound. "I suppose I'm not genetically perfect like you. Is that what you mean?"
"No. I knew you were an Allskin, but I guess... I guess I just imagined that the woman he would marry would be more beautiful than me."
Where could this possibly be leading? "Do you mean Daitokuji Kiyoshi? We were betrothed because it suited our families, not... not because of our qualities. But that is over now. He is a traitor and my clan does not ally with traitors." She had practiced saying those words over and over, but they still hurt.
The silence between them was extraordinarily awkward, but when Namie thought about it the flickering blade did not really frighten her. In fact, it seemed... like a relief.
"Listen," Namie spoke up since the assassin was silent, "I'd rather not sit here wondering whether you're going to kill me forever. Do you suppose..."
She never saw the pink-haired girl move, but she felt the blade slide under her chin and the world went black...
That Which Will Not Bend...
Kiyoshi looked up from the charts he had been studying. Not that they did any good; no charts showed where they were going except as uncharted territory. "I was expecting you sooner."
Aimi flushed angrily. "What, am I your serving girl now to come when the Captain calls? I don't need you to defend me from your friends!"
Kiyoshi shook his head. "That is certainly something I never wish to test. But no, I simply meant that I thought you might have more to say to me, and was surprised you did not do so sooner."
"Why the hell are you doing this? Your friends are right! I am your enemy! I work for your enemy and if he ordered me to I would kill you!"
Kiyoshi stood and strode up to her. Close. He slipped his kimono over his shoulders, baring his chest. "Then do it." He tapped his breast. "Strike, now. You say that you are my enemy, so I must be yours. You strike down your enemies. Or do you prefer the throat?" He lifted his head, exposing his neck to her. "Kill me and be done with it if that is how you feel."
With a snarl Aimi's hand sped toward Kiyoshi's throat and stopped a millimeter from crushing the life from him. Kiyoshi had not twitched in the slightest. She hesitated, then said in a voice barely more than a whisper "Is it true?"
There was only one thing she could be referring to. Moses' message upon his door. "Can you not simply look inside my head to find that answer?"
She shook her head, looking close to tears. "Won't. I want to hear you say it. Or... not."
"What if I told you that I have a fiance? Do you expect me to set that aside for you?"
Her eyes flared and her fists clenched. "What! Who is it?"
"A nice respectable Allskin girl from a family with ties to Goshi. Amuro Namie. You might have heard of her... no matter. Now that my Clan is in disgrace I am sure the betrothal has been dissolved. It is probably for the best anyway. I had only met her three times in my life, as it was our families that set it all up." Kiyoshi directed a raptor's glare at Aimi. "It is none of her fault and I expect that she will live a long and healthy life. Understood?"
Aimi took a half step back and swallowed a lump in her throat before she realized what she was doing. Stopping herself she shook her head. "It's weird. I know I can take you, but sometimes when you look at me like that it scares the hell out of me." She shuddered slightly. "I think I like it." She looked back up at him. "But you said it's over right? So you're free again?"
Kiyoshi shook his head. "It is not that simple. I am twenty seven years old and a fugitive... I will probably never marry. But if I do, it will be to another Allskin. Every generation more Allskins die in duels or through accident or disease. Each generation more of us choose to forsake our heritage, our place in the plan of the First Minds and get genetic or mechafied enhancements, forever removing themselves and their offspring from the Allskin families. Every generation more Allskins fall in love and marry a Biomade or a Mechafied and their children are no longer pure, no longer Allskin. Just as surely as the Vorax, my people have been dying." He looked up and there were tears in his eyes. "Aimi, I know you do not care because you think we are obsolete, but I do. My people are disappearing and I will do my part to fight that in any way I can."
She looked up at him with a wry smile. "You big idiot, is that what you're worried about? I'm not asking to be your wife! I just want to..." Her smile changed to a scowl lightning quick. "Hey, no tricking me into saying things!" This was the mercurial girl he had first met in his office so long ago. Her emotions flitting about just as quickly as the subject...
Kiyoshi sighed. "Look Aimi, I like you for some reason I cannot possibly fathom. But do you really expect me to love you? I do not even know you! And despite what you may think I do not believe you know me either! We are practically strangers, and ones who have been on opposite sides as long as we have known each other. I cannot deny that there is... something... between us, which makes me feel like a dirty old man..." He shook his head. "You confuse me so much it is hard to think sometimes."
"Don't pull the age card on me! I may be younger but I've seen and done things that would make your hair curly." She paused and bit her lip. "If you don't love me then why did Moses write that? Why did you threaten your friends for me?"
Kiyoshi pounded his fist on the wall in frustration. "Damn it, I did not...!" He took a deep breath. "It was not supposed to be me threatening them. It was supposed to be me standing up for you. I know, you want to know why." He looked deep into her large, red eyes. "It is because of the potential I see in you. Your entire life you have been told what to do, bred and trained and forced into doing it. You have done many things that are dishonorable, maybe even evil, but... you have a chance to change that now. You can be free, and you can start making the right choices if you only come to realize that the choice is yours. No one is controlling you anymore unless you let them."
Her lip trembled. "Is that why you didn't tell me you wanted me to stay? Because you didn't want to tell me what to do?"
He hesitated a moment, then nodded. "You know something of what we face. We could use your help." He held up a hand to forestall an outburst. "Also, when you are not trying to kill, capture, or sabotage me or my friends I actually enjoy your company. Keep in mind that I have experienced very little of that thus far." That last was said rather wryly. "If... if I forced you either way, to stay or to go, then I would be just as bad as all the others. I would be making your decisions for you, forcing you one way or another... I have to give you the chance to make your own decisions, to live for yourself, to make the right choices for once in your life. My friends don't trust you, and with good reason, because of your earlier crimes. I just put my life in your hands and you made the right decision. I am giving you one more chance to do that again. I am trusting you. Make of that what you will. Just know that I could never love someone who would forsake honor when given the choice."
Aimi stepped up to him, very close. He was so much taller than her she had to peer up. She placed a hand on his bare chest and felt his heartbeat. Fast. Like hers. She was breathing quickly too. The light reflected in his eyes in such a way that they looked completely silver as he gazed down on her. "I can always change my mind and kill you later. For now though... I'm not saying I'm staying or going, and I'm not saying I agree with you. I've always done what I want; no one controls me! But you said you wanted me to be free to make my own choices so I've made one. There is something I've been wanting to try. I don't know if an old man like you will be able to help me with it though. Maybe I should go visit that Raul guy..." She was unable to finish her sentence as Kiyoshi's mouth found hers.
Aimi flushed angrily. "What, am I your serving girl now to come when the Captain calls? I don't need you to defend me from your friends!"
Kiyoshi shook his head. "That is certainly something I never wish to test. But no, I simply meant that I thought you might have more to say to me, and was surprised you did not do so sooner."
"Why the hell are you doing this? Your friends are right! I am your enemy! I work for your enemy and if he ordered me to I would kill you!"
Kiyoshi stood and strode up to her. Close. He slipped his kimono over his shoulders, baring his chest. "Then do it." He tapped his breast. "Strike, now. You say that you are my enemy, so I must be yours. You strike down your enemies. Or do you prefer the throat?" He lifted his head, exposing his neck to her. "Kill me and be done with it if that is how you feel."
With a snarl Aimi's hand sped toward Kiyoshi's throat and stopped a millimeter from crushing the life from him. Kiyoshi had not twitched in the slightest. She hesitated, then said in a voice barely more than a whisper "Is it true?"
There was only one thing she could be referring to. Moses' message upon his door. "Can you not simply look inside my head to find that answer?"
She shook her head, looking close to tears. "Won't. I want to hear you say it. Or... not."
"What if I told you that I have a fiance? Do you expect me to set that aside for you?"
Her eyes flared and her fists clenched. "What! Who is it?"
"A nice respectable Allskin girl from a family with ties to Goshi. Amuro Namie. You might have heard of her... no matter. Now that my Clan is in disgrace I am sure the betrothal has been dissolved. It is probably for the best anyway. I had only met her three times in my life, as it was our families that set it all up." Kiyoshi directed a raptor's glare at Aimi. "It is none of her fault and I expect that she will live a long and healthy life. Understood?"
Aimi took a half step back and swallowed a lump in her throat before she realized what she was doing. Stopping herself she shook her head. "It's weird. I know I can take you, but sometimes when you look at me like that it scares the hell out of me." She shuddered slightly. "I think I like it." She looked back up at him. "But you said it's over right? So you're free again?"
Kiyoshi shook his head. "It is not that simple. I am twenty seven years old and a fugitive... I will probably never marry. But if I do, it will be to another Allskin. Every generation more Allskins die in duels or through accident or disease. Each generation more of us choose to forsake our heritage, our place in the plan of the First Minds and get genetic or mechafied enhancements, forever removing themselves and their offspring from the Allskin families. Every generation more Allskins fall in love and marry a Biomade or a Mechafied and their children are no longer pure, no longer Allskin. Just as surely as the Vorax, my people have been dying." He looked up and there were tears in his eyes. "Aimi, I know you do not care because you think we are obsolete, but I do. My people are disappearing and I will do my part to fight that in any way I can."
She looked up at him with a wry smile. "You big idiot, is that what you're worried about? I'm not asking to be your wife! I just want to..." Her smile changed to a scowl lightning quick. "Hey, no tricking me into saying things!" This was the mercurial girl he had first met in his office so long ago. Her emotions flitting about just as quickly as the subject...
Kiyoshi sighed. "Look Aimi, I like you for some reason I cannot possibly fathom. But do you really expect me to love you? I do not even know you! And despite what you may think I do not believe you know me either! We are practically strangers, and ones who have been on opposite sides as long as we have known each other. I cannot deny that there is... something... between us, which makes me feel like a dirty old man..." He shook his head. "You confuse me so much it is hard to think sometimes."
"Don't pull the age card on me! I may be younger but I've seen and done things that would make your hair curly." She paused and bit her lip. "If you don't love me then why did Moses write that? Why did you threaten your friends for me?"
Kiyoshi pounded his fist on the wall in frustration. "Damn it, I did not...!" He took a deep breath. "It was not supposed to be me threatening them. It was supposed to be me standing up for you. I know, you want to know why." He looked deep into her large, red eyes. "It is because of the potential I see in you. Your entire life you have been told what to do, bred and trained and forced into doing it. You have done many things that are dishonorable, maybe even evil, but... you have a chance to change that now. You can be free, and you can start making the right choices if you only come to realize that the choice is yours. No one is controlling you anymore unless you let them."
Her lip trembled. "Is that why you didn't tell me you wanted me to stay? Because you didn't want to tell me what to do?"
He hesitated a moment, then nodded. "You know something of what we face. We could use your help." He held up a hand to forestall an outburst. "Also, when you are not trying to kill, capture, or sabotage me or my friends I actually enjoy your company. Keep in mind that I have experienced very little of that thus far." That last was said rather wryly. "If... if I forced you either way, to stay or to go, then I would be just as bad as all the others. I would be making your decisions for you, forcing you one way or another... I have to give you the chance to make your own decisions, to live for yourself, to make the right choices for once in your life. My friends don't trust you, and with good reason, because of your earlier crimes. I just put my life in your hands and you made the right decision. I am giving you one more chance to do that again. I am trusting you. Make of that what you will. Just know that I could never love someone who would forsake honor when given the choice."
Aimi stepped up to him, very close. He was so much taller than her she had to peer up. She placed a hand on his bare chest and felt his heartbeat. Fast. Like hers. She was breathing quickly too. The light reflected in his eyes in such a way that they looked completely silver as he gazed down on her. "I can always change my mind and kill you later. For now though... I'm not saying I'm staying or going, and I'm not saying I agree with you. I've always done what I want; no one controls me! But you said you wanted me to be free to make my own choices so I've made one. There is something I've been wanting to try. I don't know if an old man like you will be able to help me with it though. Maybe I should go visit that Raul guy..." She was unable to finish her sentence as Kiyoshi's mouth found hers.
To Set a Course
At some point during our sea voyage, at night, Rei speaks up to the rest of the group. She looks thoughtful, and somewhat troubled. What she says is as follows:
"I think we need to talk. All of us. We've gone too long without explaining anything about what we're doing or where we're going. I know we're heading west, but why? Because the Dusk Sages live there? These 'Dusk Sages' haven't been helpful to us so far. They're extremely dangerous at best, and they may be actively hostile towards us. Why are we going to their retreat? Do we want their assistance? Are they likely to give it? Are we going there to kill them if what we saw is correct and they really are causing this Cataclysm?"
"Are we just following an arrow in the sky? But who put it there, and why? Are arrows in the sky trustworthy forms of guidance? And then there's the Enemy to think about. Almost every place we've visited has been attacked by the Oni. Does it advance our cause to bring the same fate down on the Dusk Sages?"
"I don't know how traveling west will help us deal with Katashi Blade and his DisLocators. He's summoning Oni, using the Enemy to gain power, isn't he? Provoking war between the Cheldrun cities? There's Nero to think about, too. He's out there, planning something. I think of the two he's the more dangerous." Rei looks at Una. "And he hasn't forgotten what you did to his arm." She waits a beat. "... Before we met up again, I gained access to the computer core of the Bosphorous. I used the ship's sensors to scan the planet and its immediate surroundings for Enemy signatures. There are now Enemy signatures in most of the Cheldrun cities, some scattered across the wilderness, some in the wilderness surrounding the Grand Chantry. But those aren't what worry me. What worries me is the source of Enemy signatures in orbit of the planet, where they're clustered so thickly that the ship's sensors could not distinguish individual signatures."
Rei looks up at the sky and points to the wandering star. "There they are now," she murmurs.
"And if they're sitting there in orbit, what are they waiting for? If I had a position in orbit of a world capable of resisting my invasion, and my goal was the destruction of everything, I would bombard the planet with asteroids until it had suffered so many Extinction Level Events that there was no chance of anything surviving. Why haven't they done that? What do they want if not our deaths?"
"The point is, we're flying blind, unless one of you knows far more about the situation than I do. We have to deal with the Enemy somehow. How are we going to do that? We aren't exactly an army ourselves. I'd like our odds a lot better if we had more people under our command, but we can't do anything about that right now. What are we doing? Why are we sailing west? What do we intend to do when we get there?"
Rei looks at each party member in turn, waiting for an answer.
"I think we need to talk. All of us. We've gone too long without explaining anything about what we're doing or where we're going. I know we're heading west, but why? Because the Dusk Sages live there? These 'Dusk Sages' haven't been helpful to us so far. They're extremely dangerous at best, and they may be actively hostile towards us. Why are we going to their retreat? Do we want their assistance? Are they likely to give it? Are we going there to kill them if what we saw is correct and they really are causing this Cataclysm?"
"Are we just following an arrow in the sky? But who put it there, and why? Are arrows in the sky trustworthy forms of guidance? And then there's the Enemy to think about. Almost every place we've visited has been attacked by the Oni. Does it advance our cause to bring the same fate down on the Dusk Sages?"
"I don't know how traveling west will help us deal with Katashi Blade and his DisLocators. He's summoning Oni, using the Enemy to gain power, isn't he? Provoking war between the Cheldrun cities? There's Nero to think about, too. He's out there, planning something. I think of the two he's the more dangerous." Rei looks at Una. "And he hasn't forgotten what you did to his arm." She waits a beat. "... Before we met up again, I gained access to the computer core of the Bosphorous. I used the ship's sensors to scan the planet and its immediate surroundings for Enemy signatures. There are now Enemy signatures in most of the Cheldrun cities, some scattered across the wilderness, some in the wilderness surrounding the Grand Chantry. But those aren't what worry me. What worries me is the source of Enemy signatures in orbit of the planet, where they're clustered so thickly that the ship's sensors could not distinguish individual signatures."
Rei looks up at the sky and points to the wandering star. "There they are now," she murmurs.
"And if they're sitting there in orbit, what are they waiting for? If I had a position in orbit of a world capable of resisting my invasion, and my goal was the destruction of everything, I would bombard the planet with asteroids until it had suffered so many Extinction Level Events that there was no chance of anything surviving. Why haven't they done that? What do they want if not our deaths?"
"The point is, we're flying blind, unless one of you knows far more about the situation than I do. We have to deal with the Enemy somehow. How are we going to do that? We aren't exactly an army ourselves. I'd like our odds a lot better if we had more people under our command, but we can't do anything about that right now. What are we doing? Why are we sailing west? What do we intend to do when we get there?"
Rei looks at each party member in turn, waiting for an answer.
Episode 22: Burnination
Nothing is ever easy. With yet another giant Oni wheeling about the sky above I knew that I would be needed so I ordered Trencher to take the wheel and stepped outside. The hideous thing above was raining destruction upon Omexon while its minions swooped down to pluck unsuspecting citizens from the ground and hurl them to their deaths. For a moment the Void wavered, struck by revulsion and sorrow. Poor Una! It was momentary however. We could mourn the dead after the Enemy was dealt with.
I summoned the fire within myself, within Keibatsu, and unleashed it upon the Oni. That certainly got its attention. Unfortunately it then attacked us with some sort of unbelievable heat wave that blistered flesh and set cloth and hair aflame. We threw everything we had at the beast with seemingly little effect. Half of the time it simply sent a flock of the Eyeless Vorax to intercept the attack with their bodies. Clearly something more had to be done. I rushed over to where Aimi was bound and cut the cables holding her in place. In retrospect, not the wisest thing I have ever done, but it seemed the thing to do at the time. I pulled her to her feet and asked her if she knew how to use the ship's guns. With a disgusted snort she indicated that she did. So I squeezed her arm, kissed her forehead, and pushed her toward one of the gun emplacements. I am not sure why I did that either. It was instinctual; I was in the Void.
Next thing I knew giant lasers were streaking toward me from the sky. I was already exhausted but I called upon the kata and used Keibatsu to deflect the lasers back at the Oni, infusing them with the cold of the Void. Unfortunately this act took the last of my strength and I slumped to the deck afterward, unconscious.
I awoke what was probably only moments later to some vile-tasting concoction Zippora was pouring down my throat. I sat up... fast. Everything was moving in slow-motion except a strange green comet in the sky which was proabably Highdive. The Oni looked... smaller. But it was surrounded by a halo of energy that seemed menacing, pregnant. Explosive. Recalling the end of Garandu Oni I decided to take a risk and called upon the Kyo Tee Shee that seems to have attached itself to me, Tsukiyomi. I ordered it to eat Karaku Oni; if it wanted me to be prideful it would damn well do as I say. It seemed to respond as I heard the faint sound of hoof beats somewhere in the distance.
Then came Moses. He flew through the air at incredible speed. At least, it would have been incredible if I too had not been going that fast, and Una flying through the sky, and Rei, and... Mokuzai? Am I the only one of us who does not fly now? Anyhow, Moses hit the thing at full force and took its head with him as he went by. Unfortunately, that seemed to accelerate what seemed to be a building of some sort of explosive energy. I could tell we did not have much time left.
Mokuzai landed, and Rei with Aimi. Mokuzai called all of us together along with the other Prill, and Una joined us then, changing form faster than I had ever seen her do before and depositing a dripping Highdive. Everyone but Moses... he seemed to be going up still, not even having reached the apex of his flight. At the last moment I realized what Mokuzai's plan was and moved away. I approved of getting the others to safety, but I would not leave Moses behind. Surprisingly, Rei stayed behind as well, and Aimi, though she probably simply did not trust the old Prill. Una gave me one disgusted look then changed into bird form more swiftly than I had ever before seen her make the transformation, gripped Mokuzai's staff, and took off. Between us Rei and I worked out about where we thought Moses would land and I was about to direct Trencher to go there when the mass that had been building burst.
A gigantic explosion rocked the ship and sent us all flying into the railing. Enormous lasers lashed out and blasted holes in the city, the Rodan, the docks... everything. It is a good thing that we were farther away and a smaller target besides or we would have suffered more than a glancing blast to one of the ship's wings. Once the light cleared and we were able to see again the devastation was total. Giant swathes of destruction had been carved into Omexon for as far as the eye could see, buildings toppled, burning, in some cases completely obliterated. The Rodan, the mightiest battleship that had ever been built on Karia, was obviously in the process of sinking with gaping holes through its hull. I frantically scanned the sky for some sign of either Moses or Una. They were both much smaller than the ship and so unlikely to have been hit by one of the lasers, but the force of the blast could have sent them flying for kilometers... there was no sign of them, but I thought I saw the distinct form of a silvery horse feasting on the remains of the Oni. Typical.
Trusting that Una had had time to fly far enough distant to be safe, and that she would find her way back to us after, I decided that finding Moses was our first priority. Again Rei and I did some calculations and I made my way to the bridge and started directing the remaining Rogues. I directed one to start operating the sonar while Trencher piloted us in the most likely direction that Moses could have been blown. It was tense for a time until one of the Rogues announced a metallic object in the water not far away, about the size of our companion. I directed a couple of men to the deck with cable and winches, made sure we were on the correct course, and went up myself to see if he was still alive. I should have known better; Moses will outlive us all most likely. He did not even seem to be winded, at least not at first. Moments after he was dragged aboard however he passed out. I was about to call for some men to take him to the medical bay when I had the most peculiar feeling and darkness reached up to swallow me as well.
Some time later after Moses and I had recovered from our exhaustion we found ourselves with decisions to make. Una had found us and brought with her the staff, out of which popped Mokuzai, Highdive, and the other Prill. All together again we now had a ship, one that, with luck, might be able to get us to the western continent where the Dusk Sages disappeared hundreds of years ago. The Rogues seemed lost and confused and wanted to know who the captain was. Moses said that I was, with Mokuzai as my check. I eyed my mechafied friend and thought his choices well made. I had the most leadership experience of us but could not hope to match the Prill's wisdom. Still, I half suspected that Moses had so quickly named me captain simply so that he himself would not be asked to do it.
We decided that we needed to make port to gather supplies for the trip west. Many of the Rogues wanted all sorts of questions answered about procedure and rationing and... some guy named Raul wanted permission to cook oysters? These were the strangest bunch of sailors I had ever encountered. The former captain, Julian, wanted a word with me. He seemed despondent until I enticed him with promises of adventure and intimated that he could have the ship once we no longer had use for it. It also helped when I offered to send Una down to care for his girlfriend who had been hurt in the taking of the Rodan.
Then there was Aimi. I told her that I would not hold her as prisoner; that I did not think I would succeed even if I tried. I told her that once we reached port she was free to go, and in the meantime she was free to move about the ship. She seemed confused and angry. I am not sure why I found myself wishing that she would smile at me like she used to, like she was a cat and I the canary. I think this whole journey is starting to affect my sanity...
Unfortunately the others did not agree with me. Well, Rei did, unsurprisingly, and Mokuzai seemed mostly ambivalent. High Dive seemed intent on getting her off the ship anywhere, anyhow. Most surprising though was Moses and Una. Both of them looked at Aimi with what I would have called hatred in any other people and talked about keeping her prisoner or abandoning her on a deserted island somewhere to starve to death all alone. Things were starting to get ugly when I stepped in. I told them that I had given my word; she was not a prisoner and was free to stay and help us or to go as she chose. Moses said that he would stop her from leaving. I nearly shouted at him. He had just named me captain and then turned around and tried to countermand my first decision? Worse yet, something about which I had given my word of honor? Did they not understand why things had to be this way? Instead I simply told him that I would stop anyone who tried to interfere with her. Una then piped in saying that I would try to do so. I looked at her aghast. Now she was threatening me? Una of all people?
I shook my head. A third giant Oni lays waste to an entire city and sinks a the greatest battleship in the world. Goshi attacking its supposed allies with teleporting soldiers and starting a war between Cheldrun nations. Thousands dead, countless injured, an entire species of Karian all but extinct... and they want to fight over keeping a single unarmed Biomade prisoner. I will not allow anyone to kill her, and leaving her to die would be just as bad. Having to transport, take care of, and guard a prisoner would be an unfeasible drain on our time and resources when we are going into unknown danger. And if she decides to help us she could be extremely useful. And those are my only reasons for doing what I am doing, damn it! They have to be.
I summoned the fire within myself, within Keibatsu, and unleashed it upon the Oni. That certainly got its attention. Unfortunately it then attacked us with some sort of unbelievable heat wave that blistered flesh and set cloth and hair aflame. We threw everything we had at the beast with seemingly little effect. Half of the time it simply sent a flock of the Eyeless Vorax to intercept the attack with their bodies. Clearly something more had to be done. I rushed over to where Aimi was bound and cut the cables holding her in place. In retrospect, not the wisest thing I have ever done, but it seemed the thing to do at the time. I pulled her to her feet and asked her if she knew how to use the ship's guns. With a disgusted snort she indicated that she did. So I squeezed her arm, kissed her forehead, and pushed her toward one of the gun emplacements. I am not sure why I did that either. It was instinctual; I was in the Void.
Next thing I knew giant lasers were streaking toward me from the sky. I was already exhausted but I called upon the kata and used Keibatsu to deflect the lasers back at the Oni, infusing them with the cold of the Void. Unfortunately this act took the last of my strength and I slumped to the deck afterward, unconscious.
I awoke what was probably only moments later to some vile-tasting concoction Zippora was pouring down my throat. I sat up... fast. Everything was moving in slow-motion except a strange green comet in the sky which was proabably Highdive. The Oni looked... smaller. But it was surrounded by a halo of energy that seemed menacing, pregnant. Explosive. Recalling the end of Garandu Oni I decided to take a risk and called upon the Kyo Tee Shee that seems to have attached itself to me, Tsukiyomi. I ordered it to eat Karaku Oni; if it wanted me to be prideful it would damn well do as I say. It seemed to respond as I heard the faint sound of hoof beats somewhere in the distance.
Then came Moses. He flew through the air at incredible speed. At least, it would have been incredible if I too had not been going that fast, and Una flying through the sky, and Rei, and... Mokuzai? Am I the only one of us who does not fly now? Anyhow, Moses hit the thing at full force and took its head with him as he went by. Unfortunately, that seemed to accelerate what seemed to be a building of some sort of explosive energy. I could tell we did not have much time left.
Mokuzai landed, and Rei with Aimi. Mokuzai called all of us together along with the other Prill, and Una joined us then, changing form faster than I had ever seen her do before and depositing a dripping Highdive. Everyone but Moses... he seemed to be going up still, not even having reached the apex of his flight. At the last moment I realized what Mokuzai's plan was and moved away. I approved of getting the others to safety, but I would not leave Moses behind. Surprisingly, Rei stayed behind as well, and Aimi, though she probably simply did not trust the old Prill. Una gave me one disgusted look then changed into bird form more swiftly than I had ever before seen her make the transformation, gripped Mokuzai's staff, and took off. Between us Rei and I worked out about where we thought Moses would land and I was about to direct Trencher to go there when the mass that had been building burst.
A gigantic explosion rocked the ship and sent us all flying into the railing. Enormous lasers lashed out and blasted holes in the city, the Rodan, the docks... everything. It is a good thing that we were farther away and a smaller target besides or we would have suffered more than a glancing blast to one of the ship's wings. Once the light cleared and we were able to see again the devastation was total. Giant swathes of destruction had been carved into Omexon for as far as the eye could see, buildings toppled, burning, in some cases completely obliterated. The Rodan, the mightiest battleship that had ever been built on Karia, was obviously in the process of sinking with gaping holes through its hull. I frantically scanned the sky for some sign of either Moses or Una. They were both much smaller than the ship and so unlikely to have been hit by one of the lasers, but the force of the blast could have sent them flying for kilometers... there was no sign of them, but I thought I saw the distinct form of a silvery horse feasting on the remains of the Oni. Typical.
Trusting that Una had had time to fly far enough distant to be safe, and that she would find her way back to us after, I decided that finding Moses was our first priority. Again Rei and I did some calculations and I made my way to the bridge and started directing the remaining Rogues. I directed one to start operating the sonar while Trencher piloted us in the most likely direction that Moses could have been blown. It was tense for a time until one of the Rogues announced a metallic object in the water not far away, about the size of our companion. I directed a couple of men to the deck with cable and winches, made sure we were on the correct course, and went up myself to see if he was still alive. I should have known better; Moses will outlive us all most likely. He did not even seem to be winded, at least not at first. Moments after he was dragged aboard however he passed out. I was about to call for some men to take him to the medical bay when I had the most peculiar feeling and darkness reached up to swallow me as well.
Some time later after Moses and I had recovered from our exhaustion we found ourselves with decisions to make. Una had found us and brought with her the staff, out of which popped Mokuzai, Highdive, and the other Prill. All together again we now had a ship, one that, with luck, might be able to get us to the western continent where the Dusk Sages disappeared hundreds of years ago. The Rogues seemed lost and confused and wanted to know who the captain was. Moses said that I was, with Mokuzai as my check. I eyed my mechafied friend and thought his choices well made. I had the most leadership experience of us but could not hope to match the Prill's wisdom. Still, I half suspected that Moses had so quickly named me captain simply so that he himself would not be asked to do it.
We decided that we needed to make port to gather supplies for the trip west. Many of the Rogues wanted all sorts of questions answered about procedure and rationing and... some guy named Raul wanted permission to cook oysters? These were the strangest bunch of sailors I had ever encountered. The former captain, Julian, wanted a word with me. He seemed despondent until I enticed him with promises of adventure and intimated that he could have the ship once we no longer had use for it. It also helped when I offered to send Una down to care for his girlfriend who had been hurt in the taking of the Rodan.
Then there was Aimi. I told her that I would not hold her as prisoner; that I did not think I would succeed even if I tried. I told her that once we reached port she was free to go, and in the meantime she was free to move about the ship. She seemed confused and angry. I am not sure why I found myself wishing that she would smile at me like she used to, like she was a cat and I the canary. I think this whole journey is starting to affect my sanity...
Unfortunately the others did not agree with me. Well, Rei did, unsurprisingly, and Mokuzai seemed mostly ambivalent. High Dive seemed intent on getting her off the ship anywhere, anyhow. Most surprising though was Moses and Una. Both of them looked at Aimi with what I would have called hatred in any other people and talked about keeping her prisoner or abandoning her on a deserted island somewhere to starve to death all alone. Things were starting to get ugly when I stepped in. I told them that I had given my word; she was not a prisoner and was free to stay and help us or to go as she chose. Moses said that he would stop her from leaving. I nearly shouted at him. He had just named me captain and then turned around and tried to countermand my first decision? Worse yet, something about which I had given my word of honor? Did they not understand why things had to be this way? Instead I simply told him that I would stop anyone who tried to interfere with her. Una then piped in saying that I would try to do so. I looked at her aghast. Now she was threatening me? Una of all people?
I shook my head. A third giant Oni lays waste to an entire city and sinks a the greatest battleship in the world. Goshi attacking its supposed allies with teleporting soldiers and starting a war between Cheldrun nations. Thousands dead, countless injured, an entire species of Karian all but extinct... and they want to fight over keeping a single unarmed Biomade prisoner. I will not allow anyone to kill her, and leaving her to die would be just as bad. Having to transport, take care of, and guard a prisoner would be an unfeasible drain on our time and resources when we are going into unknown danger. And if she decides to help us she could be extremely useful. And those are my only reasons for doing what I am doing, damn it! They have to be.
Uncomfortable Conversations
It is early morning; the sun has not yet risen, and the Sennin's running lights do little to illuminate the gloom. The salty smell of the sea is all-pervading, and the deck is wet with the spray. The moon sinks behind the clouds, and all around the ship, the waters fade from silver to pitch black. Rei's red eyes seem faintly luminous in the darkness. She stands at the top of the stairs, waiting for Kiyoshi to notice her.
Well, 'notice' is the wrong word. Her senses skitter off of the surface of the Void, and she knows that he knows she's there. 'Acknowledge' is a better term. More accurate.
He's practicing with Keibatsu. Sword forms. Flowing smoothly from one to the other with the skill of a master. Rei watches with an analytical eye, and is quickly forced to conclude that so long as he held Keibatsu, Kiyoshi could dispatch her without much trouble if he put his mind to it.
Not a pleasant thought, but then, not many of Rei's thoughts were pleasant. When Kiyoshi's exercises finally wind to a close, she steps out onto the deck and speaks. "So," she says, and that is all. She waits, then, watching for his response. Waiting for the beginning of an uncomfortable conversation. And her hand aches where Keibatsu cut into her.
Well, 'notice' is the wrong word. Her senses skitter off of the surface of the Void, and she knows that he knows she's there. 'Acknowledge' is a better term. More accurate.
He's practicing with Keibatsu. Sword forms. Flowing smoothly from one to the other with the skill of a master. Rei watches with an analytical eye, and is quickly forced to conclude that so long as he held Keibatsu, Kiyoshi could dispatch her without much trouble if he put his mind to it.
Not a pleasant thought, but then, not many of Rei's thoughts were pleasant. When Kiyoshi's exercises finally wind to a close, she steps out onto the deck and speaks. "So," she says, and that is all. She waits, then, watching for his response. Waiting for the beginning of an uncomfortable conversation. And her hand aches where Keibatsu cut into her.
The Writing on the...Um...Door.
Slowly, the rain and the wind serve to cool Moses off. But it takes a long while.
Then Zipporah is next to him, leaning into him, singing softly. Rain hasn’t hit him for some time now, simply landing elsewhere in response to her. He leans into her as well – carefully.
“We know she’s going to betray us. Or, even if she doesn’t, Goshi will find her and get the information out of her. They’ll know where we’re going, and they’ll follow us. They’ll find…wherever it is we’re going, and then…it’ll be like here. For whatever Karians live there. It’ll be like here.” He can’t look at her. She watches him, looks out into the night and the quieting storm, looks back now and then.
Around them, at various points on the ship, are the sparking remains of ruined communications gear. Now it's just an embarrassment, and Moses can’t look at it either.
“I understand Rei. She’s messed up, and Aimi is her sister, and she…does stupid things sometimes because her thinking is all wrong. Well, maybe sister isn’t the right word. Test-tube-mate, or something like that. And…well, I know Rei will stick up for her. Whatever. But Kyoshi? He’s…he doesn’t…I thought he was, I dunno, changing.” Moses glances at Zipporah out of the corner of his eye, and she’s not looking but listening with all of her self, trying to seem casual. “I guess some people sort of…don’t. But…dammit. I dunno. He threatens us like…like an asshole, that’s what. Like an asshole.” Moses doesn’t go on to say what else he’s thinking, but he glares into the night and his armored fist clenches.
“I’m glad I took her glove, whatever it is, and smashed it. If you’d met her before, you’d see – she’s a lot less cocky without it. Kyoshi is probably like that. Take that sword, and what’s left? A skinny guy in a kimono with a stick up his ass.” Zipporah lays a cool hand on his shoulder. Without noticing, he relaxes slightly.
“Aimi, she’s just being who she is. Nasty, tempermental, cocky – well, not as much now – selfish. I wish…” he trails off. “I wish a lot of things.”
They stand, swaying with the motion of the ship, for a long while.
“It feels like a long time ago, when this all started. What…well, what ruined my life...at the time. Killed a lot of people. It started lots of places, but one place it started was with me, down in the mines. I told you about those” she nods slightly, now watching him, unreadable, “and a little about what happened. Someone…someone pushed me, pushed us, too far. He – they – treated us like we were tools. Like we didn’t matter. And if we didn’t do what they said, they’d threaten, and then they’d…they’d hurt us. Our families. Telling us what we had to do, what we had to risk so they could get rich. Threatening.” He pauses.
“I’m not going to live like that ever again.” After a while, “But if I talk to him now, and he does it again, I…I don’t know if I’ll be able to just hit the door. And he’s – dammit! – he’s acting like an idiot! Can’t he see? Its so obvious!”
Zipporah smirks despite herself. “What’s obvious? Moses. Listen. He’s not…he’s not thinking very clearly. He’s…Moses, he’s in love.”
A long pause. “I know.” He sighs. “I just don’t get it. She’s…Zip, she’s such a bitch. I mean, she’s like Rei, but without the redeeming qualities.” Zipporah raises an eyebrow. “Exactly. And Kyoshi’s family is pretty rich, and, you know, they didn’t come from vats or anything. Allskins are made…uh…the old-fashioned way” they share a little smile at that, at the new and strange thing – them together, over a month now “and they’re all about tradition and honor. Honor! The thing that Aimi is, like, the opposite of. I mean, compared to her, Rei is honorable. I mean, come on. Rei.”
Zipporah smiles more broadly. “Oh yes, Moses, that’s a very good point. They are quite different, aren’t they?” She brushes his thigh with her tail, then laughs at him and looks away. It’s a bit infectious, and Moses, far from laughing, grins and pulls her closer. “Imagine that – two people so different…falling in love.”
Moses quiets, becomes more still.
In Prill now, “Zipporah, you know –“
“Yes.”
It’s still hard for him to say it out loud.
In the dark, their silhouettes meld for a few moments, then separate again, still standing close.
“Well, I’ve still got some metal. And since I won’t get to bolt Aimi to the deck – and I was really looking forward to that – I’ll put it to another use.”
They are out on the deck for a long while yet, until Zipporah has to go to sleep or she’ll fall over. Moses walks her to their room, sits with her until she’s asleep, then locks it behind him.
***
With a gasp, Kyoshi wakes up to the sound of something being spot-welded to his door. There is a bright, red spot that is slowly growing on the inside surface of the door, and when he rushes to get close, he can already feel heat radiating from it. The handle burns his hand slightly as he pulls it open –
And Moses is outside, his right arm ending in a welding torch. He nods at his handiwork, then walks off down the corridor, silent.
Welded to Kyoshi’s door is a hunk of metal, and burned into the surface of it, beneath the fresh, cooling weld, is (in careful, surprisingly smooth script):
Keeoshi. I get it that you love Aymee. But if you want to be my friend, if you want me to stick up for you and fight next to you and trust you, then you never threaten me again. Or our friends. And you never tell me what’s going to happen. Ever. You respect me, or you fight alone. And I’ll fix the other door.
When we let Aimi off the ship, Moses isn’t there. He makes himself busy repairing the ship, with the help of a few of the Rogues who know more about how it works technically. Zipporah is sitting nearby, and suggests that no one talk to him until Aimi is gone.
Episode 19: Separated
There was no choice involved really. It was a matter of duty. My companions had fallen in battle and been captured, perhaps killed. It was my duty to find them, to rescue them if they needed it and avenge them if necessary. The Prill argued that we should not place ourselves in danger, that the world needs us. I could not stay however, not and remain who I am. Besides, they were more than simply my companions in arms. It was my friends who were missing. Yes, even Rei in a strange way.
The soldiers were obviously Hei Shi so the logical place to look was Geneva Prime. After a few days of rest Mokuzai, Highdive, and I headed north into the jungle. Elder Moon obviously did not want her mate to leave again; I left them alone to make their goodbyes in peace. It was a long journey, more than a month. I took the time to converse with Mokuzai as much as possible, to discuss with him what had been going on and what to do after we had reunited with the others. That old man is a store of vast wisdom, surprising insight, and a very wry, biting sense of irony. Highdive... well, we tolerated her as best we could. Thankfully she thought we were boring and went off on her own much of the time.
At one point we came across a Zipsum messenger. He had news of impending war, earthquakes, pirates, and other dark occurrences. One thing stood out to me: Washisan Academy had lost a duel, the first one in generations. I was proud and yet unsurprised to find out who had handed them this defeat. I quietly noted that my Clan had apparently moved to Matamos. Perhaps I would even get to see them again some day. Still, none of this affected our current mission so I thanked the messenger and we continued on our way.
It proved no difficulty to sneak into Geneva Prime. And no reason it should; nothing short of an army or a monster the size of Garandu Oni was going to be able to cause trouble to the massive numbers of Goshi troops patrolling the streets. Highdive said she would make contact with her brother and infiltrate the Goshi Tower to see if she could find anything out. I was pleased and surprised by this seemingly intelligent plan until I thought about what her form of reconnaissance would entail. Maybe I would get lucky and she would manage to bring the whole Tower tumbling down like she did with Inari's Grandmother.
For myself I decided to try to get in contact with an old contact I had in Goshi. There were a few men of honor left in the company, a few who believed in something more than just making more hours, and I know most of them. I had a message delivered to him asking him to meet me in a tea house I know. I did not say who I was in the message of course, except that I was an old friend and colleague.
Leaving Mokuzai in a flophouse in a slummy Mechified district I made my way to the tea house. I had used some berries that Highdive found to color my hair purple and used some soot to darken my face and eyebrows. It was a flimsy disguise but the best I could think of at the time; I have not exactly had much cause to learn how to disguise myself in the past after all.
The tea house was relatively empty and I spotted my contact right away, sitting at a table in the back. I made my way to him and sat down. He was surprised at first, not knowing who I was, but I did not give him time to hedge. I immediately laid out what I wanted from him, information on the Goshi raid on the Grand Chantry, specifically on where the prisoners that were taken were being held. He was so flustered that he let slip that he had been transferred out of Security and so did not have direct access to that information. All he knew were the rumors, that the raid had gone horribly both during and after. Then he finally recognized me and went pale. "Go!" he said. "Go now! I didn't know it was you! There's a bounty of 28 years on your head! Goshi won't stop in trying to get you!"
I should have known. Suddenly the other 'patrons' doffed their kimonos and baggy workman's clothes to reveal Hei Shi armor. Six of them and I was all alone with the exit on the other side. I summoned Keibatsu and rushed toward the nearest two as they were drawing guns, dispatching them before they could fire. Another one grabbed me from behind and a third kicked me in the gut and I knew that I was in trouble. I could not fail here; too much was at stake. My friends needed me. I felt something well up inside of me, a righteous fury laced with what I had come to recognize as the Kyo Tee Shee's precious 'mana' and I unleashed it upon my assailants. There was... very little of them left that was recognizable. They had known. I was relieved it had not been Aimi who had come to capture me again. Relieved and, I was slightly disturbed to find, also a bit disappointed. Quickly I fled the tea house to reunite with Mokuzai and Highdive.
Highdive had been more successful than I had. I decided it was best not to ask details about how she had acquired the information, but it turned out that a Goshi facility had been leveled just after the raid, somewhere in the vicinity of Omexon. If I knew my friends, that had to be at least one of them. The quickest and safest way to get there would be via ship, but with a bounty of 28 years on my head (and maybe more after my encounter in the tea house) I did not wish to risk our safety to my flimsy skills of obfuscation again. I determined that the best way to go about things would be to stow away. A small bribe was all it took to get access to the port registry and a likely candidate presented itself. A colorfully named black rock freighter was bound for Omexon within the next couple of days and I meant us to be on it.
I put together a small amount of supplies and another bribe saw us within the warehouse that stored the cargo containers that were to be loaded on our chosen freighter. It was quick work to load ourselves in one of the containers, digging out a small, uncomfortable nest in the black rock. Unfortunately I was going to be there for a good long while.
I lost track of time. The journey was to take about a month; weeks at least passed by. Mokuzai spent most of his time inside the strange world that he reaches through his staff, only coming out to eat a drink once in a while. I spent my time in a state of deep meditation, almost hibernation, slowing my pulse and breathing down until I was barely alive, conserving energy. Highdive... well thankfully she managed not to be seen during her many excursions out onto the freighter. I am still surprised that I did not awaken to find that she had eaten all of our supplies in a matter of days. If not for the fact that she despises Cheldrun food she probably would have.
I was eventually broken out of my reverie by an attack of some sort. There were loud crashes and the sounds of gunfire from outside; definitely a battle. Peeking out into the outside world for the first time since my journey began, I thanked the First Minds that it was night. Even the moon and stars and the ship's lights seemed too bright after so long spent in darkness. Ragged looking Cheldrun were attacking the freighter, and a giant sea serpent of some sort seemed to be helping them! In the distance I thought I heard the faint sound of Prill song, which I would have discounted as imagination if not for the leviathan before me. Quickly reaching the decision that whatever was going on it was not my affair, I lowered a lifeboat and Highdive and I made quick our escape. (Mokuzai was still in his staff which I had tucked firmly in my sash.)
Hoping against hope that the sea monster would not decide to attack the little motorboat I piloted us toward shore. There was definitely the sound of a Prill singing on the attacking boat and some great shining Mechified standing at the prow. Ignoring all of this I made for the beach, thinking that we must be close enough that it would be easy enough to make the rest of the journey on foot. Suddenly the boat lurched and then a woman appeared beside me. Not just any woman though: Una! I gawked and Highdive fell off with a little splash.
Before she could speak I gasped "Una?"
She looked at me quizzically. "Do I know you..."
"Kiyoshi," I rasped. My voice had gone some time without use and despite my best efforts I had inhaled a great deal of black rock dust over the course of the voyage.
Una's eyes turned suspicious and then widened in wonder. "Kiyoshi!" she cried and sprang forward to hug me. Just at that moment the serpent caused a huge wave that capsized us. Quickly I grabbed hold of the boat and saw that Una had done the same. We both came up spluttering and shivering, and then the strangest sight of all appeared. The shining Mechified was Moses, and he seemed to be partly swimming and partly gliding atop the water with the help of a small outboard motor attached to his back.
"Moses?!" Una and I cried out almost simultaneously. I glanced about for a moment fully expecting Rei to come out of nowhere, perhaps riding the sea serpent. I looked back to see Moses notice us and a look of startlement that must mirror my own appear on his face. For a moment our eyes met, staring in amazement. Then, his momentum halted, he sank beneath the waves.
I put together a small amount of supplies and another bribe saw us within the warehouse that stored the cargo containers that were to be loaded on our chosen freighter. It was quick work to load ourselves in one of the containers, digging out a small, uncomfortable nest in the black rock. Unfortunately I was going to be there for a good long while.
I lost track of time. The journey was to take about a month; weeks at least passed by. Mokuzai spent most of his time inside the strange world that he reaches through his staff, only coming out to eat a drink once in a while. I spent my time in a state of deep meditation, almost hibernation, slowing my pulse and breathing down until I was barely alive, conserving energy. Highdive... well thankfully she managed not to be seen during her many excursions out onto the freighter. I am still surprised that I did not awaken to find that she had eaten all of our supplies in a matter of days. If not for the fact that she despises Cheldrun food she probably would have.
I was eventually broken out of my reverie by an attack of some sort. There were loud crashes and the sounds of gunfire from outside; definitely a battle. Peeking out into the outside world for the first time since my journey began, I thanked the First Minds that it was night. Even the moon and stars and the ship's lights seemed too bright after so long spent in darkness. Ragged looking Cheldrun were attacking the freighter, and a giant sea serpent of some sort seemed to be helping them! In the distance I thought I heard the faint sound of Prill song, which I would have discounted as imagination if not for the leviathan before me. Quickly reaching the decision that whatever was going on it was not my affair, I lowered a lifeboat and Highdive and I made quick our escape. (Mokuzai was still in his staff which I had tucked firmly in my sash.)
Hoping against hope that the sea monster would not decide to attack the little motorboat I piloted us toward shore. There was definitely the sound of a Prill singing on the attacking boat and some great shining Mechified standing at the prow. Ignoring all of this I made for the beach, thinking that we must be close enough that it would be easy enough to make the rest of the journey on foot. Suddenly the boat lurched and then a woman appeared beside me. Not just any woman though: Una! I gawked and Highdive fell off with a little splash.
Before she could speak I gasped "Una?"
She looked at me quizzically. "Do I know you..."
"Kiyoshi," I rasped. My voice had gone some time without use and despite my best efforts I had inhaled a great deal of black rock dust over the course of the voyage.
Una's eyes turned suspicious and then widened in wonder. "Kiyoshi!" she cried and sprang forward to hug me. Just at that moment the serpent caused a huge wave that capsized us. Quickly I grabbed hold of the boat and saw that Una had done the same. We both came up spluttering and shivering, and then the strangest sight of all appeared. The shining Mechified was Moses, and he seemed to be partly swimming and partly gliding atop the water with the help of a small outboard motor attached to his back.
"Moses?!" Una and I cried out almost simultaneously. I glanced about for a moment fully expecting Rei to come out of nowhere, perhaps riding the sea serpent. I looked back to see Moses notice us and a look of startlement that must mirror my own appear on his face. For a moment our eyes met, staring in amazement. Then, his momentum halted, he sank beneath the waves.
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