117

 

117.  Female Trouble

 

Kamo took a minute to catch his breath and size up the situation.

 

He currently stood in a cramped alley in the middle of an ancient city overrun by monsters, blocked from the rest of his allies by a strange green beast that seemed impossible to kill. From the other side of the barrier, the sound of hulking creatures devouring smaller, crunchier creatures echoed out. Next to him, huddled up and whispering, were three of the women who were risking their lives to try and save this place.

 

They had thrown off their ruined black cloaks and were ready for combat. To his immediate left stood Ota Tomoyo and Ota Hanayo, sisters with big brown eyes and small, dainty noses. Tomoyo, the short-haired elder of the two, was clad in a white robe and equipped with a large bow. Her younger sibling, Hanayo, wore a dark blue and black tunic with a small blade tied to her hip. The third woman, Arashima Yayoi, had curly hair and a green-and-orange kimono that cut off at her shins.

 

Kamo scanned the dark cityscape. "Where the hell did Caleb and Sabine go?"

 

"We've been here less than two hours, and we're already scattered." Yayoi bit her lip and shot glances at everyone. "This is bad!"

 

"Guess it's up to Cap'n Metro to save the day again!" Sensing the uneasiness, Kamo folded his arms and gave his companions a wide grin. "You ladies ready to hit the road?"

 

But the sisters were focused on something else, farther down the street. Slowly, Tomoyo raised a hand and pointed down to a dim alcove.

 

Barely visible in the darkness was an older woman with long black hair dressed in a ghostly white kimono, swaying toward the quartet. Kamo quickly stepped out in front and flicked a few psynergy arrows into his hands.

 

The spectre floated into the moonlight. She looked beautiful, with ivory skin and crimson lips. Gazing deep into Kamo's eyes, she opened her mouth.

 

"Watashi, kirei?"

 

"What's she saying?!" Kamo called back frantically.

 

"She's asking you if she looks beautiful," Hanayo replied shakily.

 

The archer raised an eyebrow. "Fishing for compliments, are we? Alright then. Yeah, sure, you're pretty!"

Slowly, the woman's lips tore up her face until they reached her ears, revealing a line of sharp, yellow fangs. "Kore demo?"

 

A second later, three psynergy arrows pierced the yokai's neck, drawing black

 

*************

 

blood was all Ravi saw as she fought desperately for her life. No matter where the woman turned, no matter how many tengu bodies she skewered, there seemed to be no escape from the crowd of souls and demons. Heads rolled, guts exploded, and with every step the yoga master took, she seemed to only lead herself deeper and deeper into the massacre.

 

On her left, a long-nosed tengu soldier wielding an eight-foot spear got ripped in half by a chain mail-clad spirit. The yokai's remains fell into an inky black puddle of blood, bones trampled and crushed within moments.

 

As Reijiro and his dead allies pushed back the army of tengu, they gradually spread out to the east and west. Corpses shot through buildings as they were blown outwards by explosions of psynergy. The flying, crow-beaked tengu blindly continued to fire their arrows, hitting anything and everything that moved. There was no rhyme or reason, only unrelenting murder.

 

At the front of it all stood Reijiro, fangs bared like a wild animal. The once stoic commander tore a bulging, muscular arm off one tengu, taking half the torso with it, then bludgeoned another with it. Laughing with malicious glee, he shoved his other arm through the creature's neck and ripped out its vocal cords. The captain of the Royal Guard burst through the scraps, grabbed the head of another and slammed it into the ground repeatedly, snickering at each splurt of blood. A tengu moved to stab him from behind, and the minute the spear touched the fabric of Reijiro's uniform, he released a roar of psynergy, vaporizing everything in the vicinity.

 

Reijiro was on his next victim instantly. A tengu cried in agony as he wrenched open its chest and snapped its ribs one by one. Fueled by the anger of all his fallen brethren, the violence continued.

 

This putrid mixture of sweat, blood, and entrails was so overwhelming that even the battle-hardened Ravi couldn't restrain herself. Her entrapment within the crowd left her without any breath of fresh air, and finally the woman could take it no longer. Letting out a moan of anguish, the fish and rice she had eaten before entering Kyo exploded from her mouth, splattering over her clothes and the bodies beneath her feet.

 

Indignant at her weakness, Ravi continued to charge through the monsters. There was not enough room to spread her wings and take flight; the only thing she could hope for was some kind of opening in the mob. Several minutes and fifteen dead tengu later, she finally saw an opening to the dark night. Ravi dashed toward it with all her might and charged her hand up as another tengu raised its spear. Her palm connected with the beast, a crack resounded, and the tengu's long nose shot back into its skull.

 

Ravi fell out from the crowd and tripped over a cobblestone ridge that led to a river basin below. The water was flecked with red and black, swirling together with a grotesque green as Ravi went splashing into it. The Ima River was a kilometer wide, and had several banks further on down upon which the spirits continued their slaughter. In most places, the riverbed slanted diagonally upwards, fortified with stones to prevent collapsing, but many of its bridges hid steep, unforgiving drops.

 

The current's strong, Ravi thought, as she materialized several extra arms and began a supercharged breaststroke upstream. Hopefully it'll keep me from being followed.

 

Batting body parts out of her way, Ravi continued up the dirtied stream until she found herself in clearer water. Freezing for a moment in the wide pit, she surveyed the river under the dim moonlight. Ahead, the river branched off into a tributary to the east. Upon closer inspection, she realized the current was much calmer and cleaner in this section, so she waded through the refreshingly cool water until she could lean up against a grassy bank and have a rest.

 

No more than two breaths had entered the woman's breast before she felt jaws clamp down on her leg. With a spark of psynergy, Ravi kicked whatever was attempting to eat her upwards. Out of the water flew what looked like a mixture between a turtle and a duck. It had slimy green skin and a yellow beak, with some tufts of fur peeking out from its gnarled shell. Scraggly hair lined the sides of the creature's head, which was bald and fleshy in the middle, slick with some kind of translucent fluid.

 

Kappa. Ravi recalled the instruction on different kinds of yokai she'd received from Chiaki on their way to Kyo. The bald spot on its head is its weak spot...

 

Ravi heard a bubbling sound coming from deeper down the tributary. Moving her eyes from the kappa, she saw a group of bobbing heads with beady

 

*************

 

eyeballs buried Caleb up to his head, but he refused to let go of his ally's hand. He wasn't even sure who he was reaching out to anymore – whether it was Sabine or one of the other Yamatoan women, it was the only way he had of stabilizing himself in the warped hallway. Caleb felt as if he was being dragged backwards, but fought against the strange force and tried to keep his body upright midst the grisly flood.

 

The hallway swirled as eyeballs poured out from all sides, even through the ceiling, somehow. Caleb kept his fingers interlocked with someone else's and pushed forward, until he felt a sharp pain on his head.

 

Closing his eyes and wincing in pain, Caleb re-opened them to find himself in empty darkness. After inspecting his body, he found that he was gripping the hand of Sakakibara Ban, the short, stocky member of the group. She had short, spiky hair, and her face was round and soft. She tossed and turned on the ground, eyes closed, as if she was fighting some sort of nightmare. Confused, Caleb lit up the space with his trident to see Muro Kyokuran on the other side of him, also writhing in panic.

 

"Wake up!"

 

Caleb knelt down and shook the bodies of the young women. He hesitated a moment, and then slapped them both cleanly across their faces. A few blinks, and the two awoke.

 

"Wh-what happened?" Kyokuran's black bangs swung with her head. "Where are we?"

 

"Beats me." Caleb shrugged. "We must have been seeing some kind of group hallucination."

 

Ban looked around. "But where are Bara and Sabine?"

 

Caleb tried to sense something, but his mind remained blank. "They must be close by. C'mon, let's get out of here."

 

The chamber was lined with tatami mats, clean compared to what the three had seen so far. At the far end sat a black altar with a self inside, decorated with gold, while sliding paper screens of varying sizes lined the walls. The clay ceiling and walls were all supported by flimsy-looking wooden beams.

 

Caleb moved over to the largest screen and yanked it open to reveal another identical-looking room. Sighing, he stepped over to another panel. This one looked more like a window, but just like the previous panel, it opened up to another identical room.

 

"What's going on with this place?" Caleb spun around in frustration.

 

"Maybe we should sit and think before going anywhere," Kyokuran suggested.

 

"I'm scared..." Ban sat frozen on the floor. "I'm really scared. I don't want to go any further."

 

Kyokuran looked over to the older girl, and then to Caleb, unsure of what to do.

 

"Just relax, you two," he said, then sat down cross-legged in front of them. "Let's try to retrace our steps and figure out what happened."

 

Caleb stared at the two with worry. Kyokuran was wearing a flashy kimono dashed with pink and green, while Ban was dressed in a breezy-looking tunic with fishnet leggings. Despite Kyokuran's young age, she seemed to be holding up well.

 

"Alright, so we saw Captain Azuka fall into this house and went in after her, right?" Caleb pondered. "When we stepped inside the house, she was gone. And that's where stuff started getting weird."

 

Kyokuran nodded. "I was holding Ban's hand, and you were holding her hand. That must have been why we stayed together."

 

"Right," Caleb said. "So the hallucination can only trick our eyes. It can't physically pry us apart. Does that mean Kiriko left on her own, then?"

 

"Kiriko?" Kyokuran echoed.

 

"What's the deal with her, anyway?" Caleb asked. "She's been acting weird ever since we got here."

 

"You want to know about Kiriko?" Kyokuran shifted her eyes around uncomfortably.

 

"Yes," Caleb said with a powerful nod. "She's rubbed me the wrong way ever since I first met her."

 

"Don't tell her I told you this," Kyokuran said, "but Kiriko was sold into prostitution by her parents. I know, because I worked down the street from her."

 

"What?" Caleb croaked. "Aren't you only 17?"

 

As she spoke, Kyokuran's young eyes grew clouded. "I worked as a geisha since I was 14. After Koga rose to power, he started raising taxes to help fund the army. A lot of families had to sell their children to survive. It wasn't that bad, you know. We had food, a place to sleep, and I felt pretty safe. I definitely got more money than any other job a 14-year old girl could do."

 

Caleb was beside himself in shock, but didn't miss seeing Ban squirm in discomfort as she listened. "You...too?"

 

"No," Ban muttered. "They said I wasn't feminine enough. I worked in the fields with my parents."

 

Caleb shook his head slowly. "I-I can't imagine what you must have gone through."

 

"Like I said, it wasn't that bad." Kyokuran shrugged. "I got used to it pretty quickly. Not Kiriko, though. She didn't have very good luck."

"What happened?"

"Well, first she got pregnant after seeing her first client. He was 68. One of the court elders."

 

Caleb gaped. "How can people be okay with this?!"

 

"What do you mean?" Kyokuran asked with confused eyes. "Okay with what?"

 

Stunned into silence, Caleb could do nothing but shake his head again.

 

"Anyway," Kyokuran continued, "about three or four months after she started working with us, she showed up for work barefoot, in a white slip. Her long black hair was all down, you know, like now. She told us there was something evil inside her, then pulled out a farm scythe and stabbed it into her own stomach."

 

"Stop!" Ban put her hands over her ears. "Stop it, Kyokuran! How can you say all that with such a straight face?! It's cruel! Poor Kiriko..."

 

"Well, I started, so I have to finish now," Kyokuran said, keeping her face stiff as she went on. "Kiriko twisted and turned the scythe around in her stomach. It was horrible, but we were all just too frightened to move. Then, she found it and pulled it out."

 

Caleb felt his stomach tighten into a knot. "Pulled out what?"

 

"The fetus," Kyokuran said, lower lip trembling. "Now no one can never hurt me again, she said. Then Kiriko put the fetus into her mouth and chewed it up."

 

A long silence followed. After a while, Caleb opened his mouth, then abruptly closed it.

 

"You don't know what to say." Kyokuran said plainly. "I don't blame you. Kiriko was never like the rest of us. If you ask me, I think there had always been something wrong with her. I don't know what, but her pregnancy changed her forever."

 

"Well, now I really wish she hadn't run away from us," Caleb sighed.

 

"Shun..." Ban suddenly rose to her feet and began yearning for something unseen. "Shun..."

 

A wave of fear rushed over Caleb's body, and his heart began pumping rapidly. The story about Kiriko had already creeped him out, and the ghostly moans coming from Ban's mouth were only making things worse.

 

"What are you seeing? Another hallucination?!" Caleb shouted.

 

Kyokuran pointed to one of the sliding windows, which had shifted over to reveal the bloodied face of Sakakibara Shun, peering inside toward his sister. His face was listless, chin down and eyes up, which made the scene all the more horrifying.

 

"Shun?" Kyokuran chattered. "That's Ban's brother! He got killed in the Akeogi Forest!"

 

"Shun," Ban echoed, gliding forward. "You're alive!"

 

Horror bubbled up within Caleb's throat. He tried to calm himself, but the apparition combined with the aftershock of hearing Kiriko's story had shaken him more than he'd realized.

 

"That's right, Ban..." Shun spoke without emotion. "I survived and came here to help you. Now come on, jump into your brother's arms. I'll protect you!"

 

Ban reached for the wall.

 

"No, Ban!" Kyokuran dashed over. "It's an illusion! A ghost! That isn't your brother!"

 

"Kyokuran..." A withered female voice drifted in from the other side of the room. Crawling out from underneath the black altar was a shriveled-up old woman.

 

"Mother?" Muro Kyokuran spun around in shock.

 

Shun's head extended out from the window, followed by an elongating neck. His hands extended as well. "If only you had been stronger..."

 

"I'm sorry!" Ban cried and gripped her brother's hands with all her might. His pinky finger snapped off.

 

"If only you had been stronger...I wouldn't have died!" Shun roared.

 

His snake-like head swirled around, then swooped down, bearing a mouth full of yellowed fangs. The demon's teeth met with golden æsotech as Caleb plunged his trident into the beast's face and ripped it off. Ban screamed as black blood spilled down onto her.

 

"Kyokuran..." The old woman's head also began to extend from its rubbery neck. "You didn't send us half of your earnings like you promised, did you? No...you hardly sent us any. You wanted your family to starve to death!"

 

"Kyokuran!" Caleb called out. "Come on, you're smarter than this! Snap out of it!"

 

"You wanted to punish us for selling you, didn't you?!" The woman's face warped and twisted as the head shot forward. "I know you did! Tell the truth!"

 

Kyokuran shrieked as Caleb plunged all three prongs of his trident through the eyes, nose, and mouth of her mother. Beside them, Ban sat weeping over the remains of her brother's doppelganger, which had now shriveled up into a brown husk.

 

Caleb let Kyokuran's assailant's fall to the floor and caught his breath. "It's alright now..."

 

"Oh, come on, Caleb," a gruff voice echoed into the room. "Surely you know that's not true."

 

Caleb's eyes widened and his heart leapt into his throat.

 

"Scared?" the voice continued. "Of course you are."

 

The pounding in his heart drowned out everything else in the room as Caleb turned to face the hanging screen behind the altar, which unraveled itself from the wall and dropped to the floor.

 

Standing on the other side was a tall man with short blue hair that was parted on the side. He was dressed in an olive suit and had his arm folded around a gnarled, pointed helmet.

 

"Cyril..." Caleb paled.

 

With a wan smile on his face, the man bowed lightly. "Good evening, brother."

Next: Chimerical Black Echoes