121

 121.  Harakiri Rock 'n' Roll

 

Caleb watched in disbelief as Harada Sanosuke's psynergy rippled through the skeleton-filled hall, shattering his golden trident to pieces.

 

How? Caleb slowly backed up. How can he be this strong?!

 

"What's the long face for, nosebleed?" Sanosuke's black sunglasses gleamed as he grinned. "It's like you already know you're gonna get creamed or something."

 

As the skeletons spread out into a wide arc around Caleb, Ban inched up to his left, while Kyokuran unsheathed her blade on his right. Her sword was no longer than a kitchen knife, which made Caleb wonder what kind of ability she had up her sleeve.

 

I can't sense the Shinsengumi's aura at all, but there's a pasty aura slathered all over those skeletons. He must be controlling them...

 

"Two D-classes and a C-class." Sanosuke fiddled with a watch-like mechanism on his wrist. "It is unreal that you chumps managed to even make it this far!"

 

"You know what? You're right," Caleb said, sweating. "And I'm sorry that we intruded on you like this and interrupted your merrymaking. If you would please direct us to the exit, we'll be right on our way!"

 

The Shinsengumi dropped his microphone. "Did you just say what I think you said?" His pompadour wavered as he turned to his guitarist. "Did he just say what I think he said?"

 

The skeleton nodded.

 

"You actually think I'm gonna let you goobers live?!" A hollow laugh escaped his throat. "You aren't just weak then, you're dumb as rocks too!"

 

Caleb kept his eyes and body as still as possible. That's it...keep talking... Then, he let ounces of his aura seep out into the atmosphere, slowly lowering the temperature.

 

"It looks like you need more of a proper introduction to realize what you ladies have truly walked into." Harada picked his microphone back up and repositioned himself in front of the stand. "Now, lucky for you, I just happen to feel a song coming on."

 

The backbone of the guitarist skeleton arched as he slid his bony fingers across strings. The bass followed, and then the drums, and soon the band was in full gear once again.

 

The Yamatoan twisted and turned as he performed.

           

"My name is Harada Sanosuke, and I got a yarn to spin,

was but an itty bitty baby boy when I first learned how to sin,

Yeah, that's right, my old man was good at only one thang,

he liked to beat me and my sweet momma till our bodies sang.

           

Well it took me six years till I couldn't take no more dread,

and so I bored a hole through my poor daddy's head.

Now I made sure to keep that poor sap alive, yeah,

and then I strapped him to a chair,

pulled out some kitchenware,

and had my old daddy do the one action that would tell me

just how black the guts were of the evil man who made me,

and that's a little somethin' I like to call..."

 

The music stopped abruptly, and Harada leaned in deeper toward his audience.

 

"Ha-ra-kiriiiii..." he crooned. "That's right, boys, they call it harakiri. When a man cuts out his own guts, picks out his festerin' intestines, scrapes the very blood from his bones and displays it for all to see. That's harakiri, and I can feel it! I can feel it comin', oh lawd, the red rush, the bloodlust...give it to me, gimme that..."

 

The pace of the song picked up, and the guitarist began to shred.

 

"Harakiri Rock 'n' Roll!" Harada's voice boomed through the room as he flailed around wildly, repeating the line over and over again. "Harakiri Rock 'n' Roll!"

 

"Now it didn't take long before they found out my daddy was dead,

so they slapped a death warrant right on my head,

but that, my friends, is when my true life began,

because I made sure to gut each and every man.

They came after me a-one-after-a-one,

And I had to show 'em all a-just how it's done.

That's right! I'm talkin' about a little of that..."

 

"Harakiri Rock 'n' Roll!" Harada jumped high into the air. In the background, the raspy voices of skeletons filled in his chorus. "Harakiri Rock 'n' Roll!"

 

"Mayhem is my name, and killin' is my game.

We spooks crave destruction, to us it's all the same!

And so, dear guests, you better get ready to cry.

Because here's the honest truth: you're all gonna die..."

 

The band stopped playing, but Harada went on. "It just isn't your day... because you suckers have just run into the meanest sumbitch you all've ever seen."

 

"Nice to know," Caleb said, as he activated the heavy aura that now caked the room and materialized numerous fragments of ice from the underground moisture. Icicles snaked out from the ceiling and glacial chunks slammed to the floor, splintering skeletons to pieces.

 

Harada's jaw dropped. "Get 'im!"

 

Skeletons converged on the trio, a mass of hands and chattering teeth that grabbed and snapped at their bodies. Caleb protected his team with an arctic shield, but the hardened bone was powerful enough to crack through Caleb's azure creations, and Ban was the first to shriek when the barrier crumbled.

 

"Nooooo!" she screamed, as she ducked her head down in fright. But as she guarded herself, a whirlwind spun out from the center of her body and knocked both ice and skeletons away.

 

Caleb stared at Ban in surprise. "Why didn't you do that earlier?!"

 

"Because!" Ban screamed out from within the tornado. "I don't know how to do it! It just sort of...happens!"

 

More skeletons leapt at the frightened girl, but they were helpless against the powerful element. Caleb smacked them away as best he could with his bare hands while Kyokuran darted around, parrying their strikes with her small knife.

 

"Not bad, not bad..." Harada watched calmly from above. "But how will you fare against something like...this?" He looked to a corner of the room where some biker skeletons were playing pool. "Alright, let's hit it, misfits!"

 

Clad in a leather jacket with a crimson skull on the back, the leader of the pack whistled to the others. Parked next to the stage were ten shiny motorcycles.

 

"Caleb?" Kyokuran backed up against her ally. "I'm afraid that my ability won't be as useful as Ban's in this battle."

 

"What do you mean?!" Caleb shouted over the revving engines.

 

"My power only works on living, breathing human bodies." She kept her voice low. "Which means that if I'm going to do anything, I need to get up close to the Shinsengumi."

 

Caleb sent an ice fist through the elbow joint of one skeleton, then sculpted a knife around his other hand and split the apparition's pelvis in two. "We still don't even know what he's capable of."

 

"It's obvious that he's controlling these things!" Kyokuran screamed. "If we could immobilize him, then–"

 

Her voice was cut off as the engines in the distance gradually became much closer and a motorcycle carrying a skeleton exploded over the crowd. Caleb leapt up, formed a disc-shaped shield of ice over his crossed arms and slammed them into the bottom of the motorcycle. Luckily, the machine had not begun a full descent, so it slid up along the smooth surface and continued farther over the crowd than its driver had intended. Caleb crashed down onto a pile of skeletons. As bones flew up, Ban continued powering the high-speed tornado that surrounded her body and dashed around the room. Skeletons were swallowed up by the wind and crushed into each other, leaving nothing but splintered bones in her wake.

 

"We need to use Ban!" Kyokuran shouted from within the horde. "She'll be able to protect us while we attack!"

 

"You're right!" Caleb rocketed up and pierced a zombie's skull with an icicle. "Let's go!"

 

The motorcycle was now behind them, revving its engine once more. This time, Caleb picked up Kyokuran and let her kick off his shoulders. With agile finesse, she kneed the mohawked driver straight in the head, knocking it off the machine. Kyokuran's dagger flashed as she promptly diced up the rest of its body.

 

As the bike skidded across the floor, Kyokuran hopped across the bone-littered room. Ban reached the left corner of the room, and the nine remaining Misfits shot straight for her.

 

Ban froze, unsure of what to do. Caleb, now free from the mob, sent out a carefully calculated stream of cold psynergy. As his psynergy merged with Ban's, small icicles erupted from within her tornado, while Kyokuran leapt onto the back of another motorcycle and offed its driver like a seasoned assassin. In desperation, the remaining Misfits drove straight into the center of Ban's tornado, hoping to squash the surprisingly destructive woman. A mess of skeletons, motorcycles, and the occasional icicle crushed skulls and sent bodies flying.

 

"Well, well." Harada chuckled. "This sure is a hoot, but I think it's about time we end the tomfooleries."

 

Caleb watched as a spear of bone ripped out from the singer's palm. It extended out from the man's arm, a colossal javelin, and shot straight through Ban's shield of wind. A shriek followed, and drops of blood flew up into her vortex. The tornado disappeared, tossing a Kyokuran across the room in a storm of bones as the young woman squirmed in pain.

 

Caleb focused on the Shinsengumi's wildly fluctuating aura and furrowed his brow. Something's not

 

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

 

right here... Satoka thought, as she and Chiaki carefully carried the unconscious body of Reijiro into the northern section of Kyo. From the moment they neared the palace, they had both begun to feel an eerie, dark aura lingering on the edge of their senses.

 

They had grown up in these streets, but the city of Kyo was now nothing but a twisted phantom of a memory. Through the inky black clouds that surrounded the gnarled capital the first glimmers of dawn could be seen, barely peeking over the twisted mountains. The walled-off city was cleaved by the Ima River, which opened up to a V shape in the north. In the center of that V sat the wall that guarded the Royal Palace. Now littered with mountains upon mountains of demon corpses, the bridge to the citadel retained none of its former resonance – a wooden plank leading down into further darkness.

 

Chiaki and Satoka sensed the aura draw nearer. It felt coagulated and smelled of blood.

 

Out of the black mess stepped a human figure. Reflexively, Satoka jumped out in order to protect her leader. Then, as their visitor moved into a thin sliver of light which had somehow escaped the black clouds, both Satoka and Chiaki caught a glimpse of something, and realized the shape was someone they knew.

 

She had scraggly black hair, and her black kimono dripped with blood and entrails. In fact, she was so smothered in gore that had Satoka not seen the wide eye peeking out from beneath the mess, she almost certainly would have attacked the strange creature.

 

But Satoka knew this person well. "Kiriko," she said. "What are you doing on your own?"

 

"Things." Kiriko pushed locks heavy with sweat and carnage away to reveal her pallid face and hooked nose. "All the other girls are tied up in battles right now, except for Chigusa, who seemingly went to chase after Ravi for some reason. I've been busy taking out the excess trash."

 

Chiaki narrowed her eyes. "Go on."

 

"There were 10 high-level yokai stationed in strategic locations around the Imperial Palace," Kiriko explained. "I was planning to exterminate them all one by one, but I see your flunkie got to the nurarihyon before I could. Either way, the path to the palace is clear now, so I can finally deliver my cargo."

 

"Cargo?"

 

Kiriko smirked and stepped to the side. Behind her, bundled up with a bloody umbilical cord was the body of Azuka Ingram.

 

Chiaki's eyes widened, and her gamboge aura flared. "You...you took the Empress hostage?"

 

"That's right," Kiriko said matter-of-factly. "Mine to use as I see fit."

 

"What's going on here?!" Chiaki suddenly shouted. "What possible reason could you have to attack the Empress?! I know you have issues with me, but–"

 

"Wait, wait wait." Kiriko held up a bloodstained hand. "Some issues? Let's cut the shit here, Chiaki. You know exactly why I hate you."

 

Chiaki took a deep breath, checked once to make sure her brother was still sound asleep, then replied. "Because I killed the court elder named Hori Yoshichika."

 

Satoka looked to her leader with eyes of disbelief.

 

"Oh, so you kept it secret from your secret admirer. How cute," Kiriko muttered.

 

"But Elder Hori was assassinated," Satoka insisted. "Honestly, I thought it was Kiriko the whole time."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Satoka," Chiaki said. "We agreed never to tell anyone."

 

Kiriko scoffed. "Yes. You, Yayoi, Hanayo, Tomoyo, and Kyokuran."

 

"What?" Satoka's eyes widened. "You took all of them, but you couldn't trust me?"

 

Chiaki let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm sorry, Satoka. I just wanted to protect you. You were still so innocent at the time, and I needed people who I knew could kill a man, people who wouldn't falter when the time came. That's why I chose to leave out people like Ban, Chigusa, and–"

 

"And me?" Satoka pressed. "You can't count on me?!"

"Stop it, Satoka!" Chiaki shouted. "This is something of the past. It doesn't matter right now!"

 

"But I don't get it." Satoka shook her head. "Why did you kill him?!"

 

"Because he was a beast," Chiaki declared. "I felt your pain as if it were my own, Kiriko, and when I saw what he had done, how he gloated, how he used you and didn't even step up to take a modicum of responsibility, I could no longer contain myself. I thought I'd done what you would have wanted."

 

Kiriko's purple lips warped into a grimace. "Yes, you always seem to think you know what's best for other people. And yet you're so ignorant! Hori was mine to kill, Chiaki. I spent every moment of every waking hour plotting his death. I watched him constantly, until I saw you stomp into his personal quarters with your four soldiers and steal my prey from me."

 

Chiaki grit her teeth. "Well then, I apologize. Are we good now?"

 

"Who cares?" Kiriko scoffed. "Either way, I doubt we'll ever see each other again. This world is on its deathbed, you know. I heard diabolical rumors drifting around the capital before it got attacked. The corruption running through this land goes deeper than you know...it transcends dimensions. The Shinsengumi may think they're untouchable, but they're no match for what's coming. This entire planet will burn, Chiaki. But not me. I'm going to grab all I can and jump ship before it's too late."

 

"You're raving." Chiaki shot a glance to Satoka and put a hand on her blade. "You said you got what you needed from the empress, correct? Then hand her over to us already."

 

"Oh, I'll be removing her from my custody soon." Kiriko glanced over at the unconscious body of Azuka. "But I'm not going to give her up for free. I'm going to trade her to the Shinsengumi."

 

Chiaki tightened her fingers around her sword's hilt. "You wouldn't dare."

 

"She's my ticket out of this dump. Just imagine what they'll give me as a reward! I could probably pick whatever I want. Maybe I'll even ask for my own castle..."

 

"You won't even make it out of this city," Chiaki growled.

 

"Oh?" Kiriko raised a thin eyebrow. "And why is that?"

 

"Because I'm going to cut you down right here," Chiaki declared. "You need to be

 

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

 

stopped," Ravi said. "You aren't saving people. You're murdering innocents in cold blood!"

 

Matsubara Chuuji finished the last of his meal and looked across to Ravi with lamenting eyes. "I always accept change. But alas, Ravi, you do not have what it takes to change me."

 

Ravi grasped her head in frustration. "All I knew...my whole world, sacrificed for an insane man..."

 

"I see you are still submerged in ignorance." Matsubara sighed. "But the more you speak, the more I am convinced that my suggestion is correct."

 

"Your madness ends here." Ravi locked her tear-filled eyes on the murderer. "Right here and now."

 

In a flash, Ravi kicked the dinner table into the man's face. A ghostly blue psynergy aura crackled, and the objects bounced away. He didn't move.

 

"Muladhara... I release you!" she screamed and darted forward – but she never reached her foe.

 

With a single outstretched finger, Matsubara countered Ravi's force and sent the woman somersaulting backwards into the wall of the temple, taking half the wall with her.

 

Matsubara Chuji remained still.

 

For a few moments, Ravi lay in the rubble, too shocked to actually get up. As memories of her homeland's destruction ran through her mind, the truth of her situation began to sink in for the first time.

 

This man has destroyed an entire world.

 

The Shinsengumi gazed down at Ravi with half-opened eyes. "Do you even know what the true purpose of those chakra seals are?"

 

Ravi stumbled up from the remains of the wall. "The seven chakra seals are vital points along the body that, once released, open up latent potential and abilities."

 

"Incorrect," Matsubara responded. "The system of chakra seals is an outdated technique that was originally used to assist the ancient ones in their training and discipline. By simplifying the body's intricacies to only seven points, the path toward enlightenment would seem more attainable, and less people would despair. Do you really believe that in such an advanced organism as the human body, there are only seven points from which greater power can be summoned?"

 

Ravi seethed with frustration. "The chakra seals are real! By training in them and following their vital structure, I was able to open my third eye!"

 

"Your belief in the chakra seals is what led you to greater power, but in truth, there are no such seals in the body. Your third eye was nothing more than a mutation that you, a master of body manipulation, subconsciously created out of your profound desire to achieve enlightenment. But do not fear, Ravi. I shall help you more than any of those things ever could."

 

"Liar!" Ravi screamed. "Seal #2...Svadhisthana...I release you!"

 

An orange light exploded from just below Ravi's navel, which she grasped and channeled into her hands to create a scorching ray of psynergy. It sliced across the floor, ripping the temple in two as it closed in on the monk.

 

Matsubara spread a line of blue psynergy vertically in front of him. On contact, it swallowed up Ravi's psynergy like a vacuum. "Nothing but death awaits you. But I will minimize your suffering."

 

"Upon death, your soul will burn in a lake of fire for all eternity, so that you can fully reflect on your crimes against humanity," Ravi announced. "That is all that awaits you."

 

"You know nothing about my soul." Matsubara shook his head once more. "Allow me to show you."

 

The monk locked his hands together, closed his eyes, and quickly chanted something indecipherable. After a loud snap, as if the very tendons of space had been manipulated, a transparent Matsubara projected out from the center of his body, rising and growing larger around his vessel.

 

The psynergy soul expanded throughout the room, and the man's face warped as it grew larger. Soon, the monk's spirit lost all form, reverting to nothing more than a blue cloud.

 

Matsubara Chuji's body was completely still as he uttered two words:

 

"Yutai Ridatsu."

Next: Blood-Splattered Bodhisattva