120

 

120.  Eumycotapalooza

 

The sky flashed with blue lightning as the rest of Reijiro's spirit army flung themselves fruitlessly against their foe. With every killing, the grotesque nurarihyon sucked up the miasma of its prey with delight, energizing its aura. Behind the death feast stood Chiaki and Satoka, watching from the shadows.

 

"It has some kind of barrier up," Chiaki said. "And they're all far too berserk to get around it."

 

"I'll take care of this." Satoka touched a blade attached to the black bandages around her thigh. "You need to conserve your power for later."

 

"Wait," Chiaki hesitated. "I can't let you go all alone!"

 

But Satoka only gave her a dutiful smile before departing. Chiaki watched the girl as she darted over rooftops then finally leapt to a high roof that was only a leap away from the monster.

 

Chiaki bit her lip and trusted in her comrade. We've come so far, and we've been through so much... A bloody sword stabbing in and out of a man's body resurfaced in her mind. And in the end, our story will probably never be told.

 

Perched on the edge of the roof, Satoka loosened her kimono and slid some bandages off from her right shoulder to reveal pale skin painted in black calligraphy. The characters glowed, and she stepped off from the branch, floating in mid-air just like her foe. As long as she continued to pour psynergy into the script, it would allow her to walk on air.

 

The nurarihyon gradually shifted his attention from the few demon-faced soldiers that remained to the pale girl in the air and growled something under its breath. Satoka slid her bandages down below her elbow to reveal another set of characters that symbolized a concentrated attack. Psynergy began to charge up around the characters written just above her breasts, but the nurarihyon would have none of it. With a roar, the yokai redirected its psynergy from its barrier to its claws and shot toward the girl, who had already secretly revealed a separate text on the back of her right hip, activating a powerful barrier.

 

The nurarihyon tackled Satoka to the ground and prepared to rip her apart, but the woman only chuckled. As her bandages were ripped apart, she dipped a finger into her mouth and used her saliva to draw a single sign on the nurarihyon's withered forehead.

 

As her finger left the Nurarihyon's gnarled skin, scrambled viscera exploded out from its detonated head. The glowing calligraphy repelled the guts and brain, causing them to slide right off her body.

 

All was silent, save for Onizawa Reijiro, as he coughed up blood and his exhausted body fell to the bloodstained road. Chiaki was at her brother's side in an instant, covering up his wounds and cradling his limp head.

 

As Satoka joined Chiaki, her eyes drifted along the bloody path toward the dark horizon, squinting to find the silhouette of the Royal Palace. She traced back the path of events with her mind, replacing the gored, desolate images of Kyo with pictures of a bustling city. Citizens filled the roads, from cart-pulling merchants with pointy straw hats to solemn-faced monks meditating on street-corners.

 

From all sides of the city, aristocrats clad in heavy, colorful robes looked down on their land, and next to one stood a 13-year old Chiaki. Her eyes were wide with wonder, taking in all the beauty her city had to offer. Even at such a young age, the daughter of the commander of the Royal Guard already knew that her life path had been secured through her birthright.

 

But mere security was not enough to satisfy the curiosity of such a young, spirited girl, so she would sneak out time to time with Satoka, the daughter of another aristocrat who followed her more out of admiration than adventure. Ducking and skittering through the dirty city streets, they constantly searched out and remembered faces of the only people they could trust – other young girls just like themselves, such as Miyako Bara, the daughter of an Onmyoji, and Muro Kyokuran, a young prostitute who was wise beyond her years.

 

Gradually, other girls from around the city began to join Chiaki in her adventures: the Ota sisters, two daughters of martial arts instructors who taught the way of the bow and the way of the sword, Sakakibara Ban, the daughter of a family of farmers who were saved from poverty when their son proved strong enough to fight alongside Reijiro, and Arashima Yayoi, the young daughter of one of the royal family's midwives.

 

With the late additions of Yakushiji Chigusa and Inugami Kiriko, who both kept to themselves in their own unique ways, Chiaki's friends totaled in at nine. This city had given her so many good memories and joys, and all it took was one day to change it all into a nightmare.

 

Chiaki stared down at her dying brother. "We need Chigusa. We need to find

 

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

 

the son of a bitch who did this..."

 

Gritting his teeth, Kamo Metro scanned the abandoned restaurant, noting two windows that faced the street, and then looked to his remaining companions. Ota Hanayo sobbed on the ground, and Arashima Yayoi stood over to the side, looking unsure as to what to do. On the table lay Hanayo's older sister Tomoyo, dead with a fungal bullet lodged in her skull.

 

"I need to you both to be very quiet," Kamo said carefully. "We're dealing with a sniper here."

 

Yayoi crept over to Hanayo and patted the muscular girl on her shoulders. "I know how you feel, Hanayo. My brother died back at Kurogaya. It hurts, but you have to be quiet, or else we'll all die."

 

Another loud crack sounded out, and Kamo dove over the two girls. There were sounds of ricocheting, followed by clinking as the second bullet fell somewhere in the corner. Moonlight slipped softly through a tiny hole in the restaurant's western wall.

 

He didn't even bother to aim that one, Kamo thought. He's just trying to see if we scatter, like a cat playing with mice. That first shot with Tomoyo was not a fluke. He spent a long time preparing that trick, and he won't be able to use it again, so he's resorting to other tactics.

 

As silence overcame the room, Kamo shut his eyes and tried to pinpoint the moldy yellow aura that matched the traces in Tomoyo's wound. Instantly, static from a hundred different auras filled his mind. Whether they were blips coming from the inhuman monsters roaming the city, their captains, or his own allies, Kamo desperately tried to filter it all out and search for that moldy glow. Gradually, he found it, but noticed that it was emanating from multiple locations.

 

Another crack rang out through the Captain's ears, and splinters of wood popped out from the vibrating walls of the restaurant.

 

"He's missing us!" Yayoi shouted. "Shouldn't we take this chance to run?!"

 

"No no no." Kamo shook his head. "That's exactly what he wants us to do. Trust me. I know my snipers."

 

"What should we do, then?" Yayoi asked with wide eyes.

 

"From what I can sense, his aura is spread all over this area," Kamo went on. "He must have created decoys somehow, making it impossible to pinpoint his real location."

 

Hanayo raised her head suddenly. "I can go find him!"

 

Kamo held his hand up. "No! I don't expect you to listen to me, but trust me, Hanayo, it's better for all of us if you stay in here!"

 

Hanayo took one look to Yayoi, then back to Kamo. There was only another moment of silence before the girl broke into a mad dash to the door. In a flash, Kamo dove out from cover and tackled her to the floor, locking his hands around her shoulders to keep her still.

 

"You aren't throwing your life away," he said carefully. "When I drag that sack of shit out, you get first dibs, okay?"

 

Hanayo clamped her mouth shut, trying to hold back more tears. "B-but..."

 

"Save it." Kamo grimaced as he embraced the young girl. "Save all your anger and rage for when the time is right."

 

"That's easy for you to say!" Hanayo shouted, periwinkle-colored psynergy leapt up from her shoulders. "You haven't lost anything! How would you know how I feel?!"

 

Kamo slid his hand down the neck of his robes and pulled out a golden locket. Within it was a photograph of a small girl with big brown eyes.

 

"This is my daughter, Lucia." Kamo wrenched out each word from his throat. "She died because I lost myself in my emotions."

 

Hanayo stared at the foreigner for a few more moments, then let out a soft grumble. "Fine. Just let me go."

 

"Hanayo?" A parched, fourth voice echoed through the room. "Aren't you going to apologize?"

 

Tomoyo's corpse sat up. Stretching out from her wound were root-like veins, mushrooms and lichen that continued down along the girl's body and discolored her blackened skin.

 

"Tomoyo!" Hanayo screamed. "You're alive?!"

 

"The earth is calling me..." Tomoyo slid off the table as misty, spore-filled breath escaped her lips. "And you're coming too!"

 

"Hanayo!" Kamo screamed and notched three arrows into a psynergy bow. "That is not your sister!"

 

Before he could fire, a swarm of cicadas exploded through a hole in the wall and converged on the undead girl. Kamo swerved to his side to see Yayoi with her sword drawn and a light brown, filmy aura inching out from the tip. She summoned them?!

 

Hanayo screeched and flared her own aura. Above her head materialized a glowing blade that slowly grew as she poured her aura into it.

 

A sludgy cackle sounded from within the mound of cicadas. "You fools are all going to–"

 

The insects scattered as Kamo's arrows plunged through Tomoyo's body, pulverizing what remained of the girl. Through the blood and necrotic skin, green spores exploded into the air.

 

"Don't breathe that in!" the archer frantically cried.

 

In the next moment, Kamo surged his aura through the room, knocking wooden panels off the walls and blowing the spores and everything else in the vicinity out into the night. While the fresh air saved them from possible contamination, they were now wide open.

 

Kamo glanced from Yayoi to Hanayo, and then it hit him. From the darkness beyond the remains of the west wall came that moldy yellow aura again, this time in full force. There was only one blip, but it was massive, swallowing up everything in its path.

 

He charged up both hands and stood his ground. No more will die tonight.

 

Then, a figure appeared in the doorway: a tall man with his arms folded in a dark blue top and a black-and-white hakama. With long blonde hair and blue eyes, he looked anything but Yamatoan.

 

"Enjoying my Ballistospores, I see?" The sniper broke into a sadistic smile. "I'm impressed. You reacted with almost record-breaking speed."

 

"Who the hell are you?!" Hanayo shouted. "Are you the one who did this?!"

 

"Silence, heathen," he spat with disgust. "This is what you get for polluting your homeland with this foreign filth!"

 

"Foreign filth?" Kamo raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but you don't look a native to me, buddy."

 

The blonde man scoffed. "You would say that, wouldn't you? Coming in here and trying to save a land you know nothing about – a place you have no attachment to! Just how conceited are you barbarians?!"

 

Kamo scratched his head. "Even the foreigners here hate foreigners?!"

 

"You outsiders are all the same," the killer growled. "You come here proud and haughty, and in only a few days you assume you've somehow figured out everything about this culture. You know nothing! I am the only foreign man to ever perfectly assimilate into Yamatoan culture! I am the ultimate gaijin – understand?!"

 

Kamo raised an eyebrow and glanced at Yayoi and Hanayo.

 

"I've lived in this country for my entire adult life," he went on. "Do not judge me by how I look – I am Yamatoan, through and through! I love this land, and I love its people! And they love me!"

 

"Woah, woah, hold on a second," Kamo interrupted. "You think we care about any of that shit? You just murdered an innocent girl in cold blood!"

 

"Do not interrupt me, barbarian! I am working together now with the strongest, smartest men of the nation in order to unify this great land once and for all, and there is one thing I refuse to tolerate: conceited, ignorant foreigners contaminating my land with their disgusting bodies!"

 

With that, the Shinsengumi pulled both arms out from his robe and revealed a gnarled gun-shaped fungus that was grafted to his left hand.

 

"I am Suzuki Mikisaburo, 9^th Captain of the Shinsengumi, and I will eradicate all foreigners and their supporters!"

 

Daddy...

 

Lucia's voice reverberated in his mind as Kamo stared down his new opponent.    

 

I know you can do it this time. I know you can do the right thing.

 

Don't let any more of them die.

Next: Harakiri Rock 'n' Roll