122

 

122.  Blood-Splattered Bodhisattva

 

Sabine lifted herself out of the caved-in wall and heaved. Drops of blood followed a deep cough, informing her that the red liquid dripping from her charred robes was from no minor wound. Stumbling onto her feet, she traced back the last few seconds in her mind.

 

When my first attack got parried, it was like a bomb went off. Did that Shinsengumi's psynergy explode?

 

The green-haired woman ran a hand down to her waist, only to discover the absence of something that made her shriek in horror. Instead of Volundr, all she felt was the charred husk of the mechanism that had never left her side. Scattered along the floor were golden-brown pieces of Volundr's sheath, mixed in with that of her hilt and blade. Robbed of her weapon, Sabine felt naked and powerless.

 

Across the mid-sized guardhouse stood her enemy: a hulking, blue-and-white robed warrior wearing a strange basket-like helmet. This Shinsengumi was aware of none of Sabine's concerns, and simply marched forward like a security drone.

 

"Rokujin Shikiban!" Miyako Bara suddenly shouted from the rear.

 

The tails of her heavy robes flew upwards as dark power pulsed out from the girl's body. Between her and the Shinsengumi, six columns of psynergy erupted up from the floor, tattooed with an intricate mess of characters, symbols, and numbers connected by circles and lines. Into the center of the zone, Bara tossed a single folded piece of triangular paper, which floated softly in place.

 

Sabine had been told much about Onmyoji and the art of Onmyodo during the journey to Kyo. It was an art that amplified psynergy through mundane objects and diagrams, but she had yet to actually see it in person.

 

"Rin-Myo-To-Sha-Kai-Jin-Retsu-Zai-Sen." As the girl closed her eyes, folded her hands and chanted, her triangular paper familiar began to flutter violently. "This six-pointed dial will absorb psynergy, Sabine. It can protect us."

 

The Shinsengumi flinched, then leapt forward and attempted to cut through one of the pillars as the ritual continued. The pillar glowed, and the pristine katana was easily deflected.

 

"Hmph..." the masked warrior rasped. "Then I'll just destroy it!"

 

With a frustrated grunt, the Shinsengumi reached a hand into the column and summoned up another explosion that rocked the guardhouse. Nothing happened, and the paper triangle continued to dance around the symbols. Bara followed its movements closely, adjusting the intensity and aim of her psynergy in order to balance out the psynergy.

 

With crackling hands curled, the Shinsengumi sheathed the katana and held both hands out, readying a massive blast. In the next moment, the pillars resonated, releasing a heavy gust of psynergy that knocked the Yamatoan and the explosion backwards.

 

The blast swallowed up the northern half of the room, gulping down the Shinsengumi and the rest of the fortified walls that made up the guardhouse. Clouds of neon smoke wafted up one after another, blooming like flowers as they rose up into the dark sky. Once the smoke cleared, Sabine and Bara could see the outer palace wall and the volatile Shinsengumi who stood in front of it.

 

Much of the warrior's wardrobe had been cut away, including the basket-like helmet. Sabine and Bara were surprised at what they saw: their enemy's face possessed stunning feminine beauty. The rest of the Shinsengumi's body was athletic and muscular, covered in many places by tight white bandages.

 

"Looks like fortune's on our side..." Bara stood triumphantly behind her creation.

 

"Oh, I don't think so," the stern warrior growled. "You've just enraged Todo Heisuke, 8^th Captain of the Shinsengumi...and you're no match

 

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

 

for what I'm capable of." Chuji's words floated through Ravi's consciousness. "Through astral projection I can abandon my body, allowing me to exist beyond mere flesh. You may be even panicking, asking yourself how it is possible to kill something that has no physical form."

 

Ravi Katjagaarda gazed up at the strange blue cloud in the temple, then dashed forward and fastened both hands around the neck of Matsubara Chuji's body.

 

"A primitive answer, but expected. Don't you understand, Ravi? Our spirits are separate from our bodies, merely vessels that shape us – tools. People become too attached to their bodies and think it is their truth, and that is why many do not achieve enlightenment. If we all understood the truth of our souls, then everyone could project themselves into spiritual forms like this. By killing you–"

 

"Shut up!" Ravi shouted, as she squeezed her hands tighter and tighter around Chuji's robust neck. Her fingers dug into the flesh, causing the man's small eyes to slowly pop out from his circular head.

 

"Please stop." Chuji's aura flickered. "While I am not afraid for my body to go, it will be an inconvenience to find another capable of housing my enlightened soul."

 

"You're scared." Ravi shivered, horrified by the joy that the man's fear was giving her. "Admit it!"

 

"You are worse off than I imagined." The Shinsengumi's blue aura began to swirl around the gargantuan Buddha at the northern wall. "I believe it is time, Ravi Katjagaarda."

 

The aura slipped inside the construct's mouth, and it began to glow with psynergy. Flesh meshed through gold, and the smooth material grew more and more sinewy. Slowly, the hundred-armed giant stood up, eyes glowing with power, and opened its mouth to release a wide beam of energy aimed straight for Ravi.

 

"Seal #3...Manipura...I release you!"

 

After dashing out of the way of the beam at the last second, Ravi sprouted three arms on each side of her torso and used them to spring off the wall toward the colossus. All at once, arms as wide as automobiles came flying at her. Ignoring her attempts at defense, they swatted her around like a pinball and let her go crashing down through the floor.

 

"Seal #4..." Ravi's muffled voice trailed out from below. "Anhata...I release you!"

 

The woman was back within seconds, this time with dozens more arms. She noticed as she climbed out from the floor that the monk had cleverly used one of the statue's lower arms to move his previous body into a safe corner behind the Buddhist war machine. This time, Ravi took a wide look at her enemy's conditions before leaping, noting every one of his active arms and their positions. When they collided with her, she was ready, and brought three psynergy-charged fists down onto a single golden stalk, rupturing it with little effort.

 

Ravi was shocked to see golden blood mixed with bronzed viscera splatter from the wound. She kicked off the hands below her and destroyed as many as she could, filling her vision with gilded gore. Suddenly, Ravi felt two monstrous hands clamp down on two of her additional arms, which were promptly yanked out of her body like roots from the earth.

 

The woman screamed in pain and fell to the ground. "Why?! Why must you destroy everything you see?! Religion is about peace!"

 

"Don't you see?" Chuji's patronizing voice echoed from the statue. "Destroying is creating! The Yamatoan symbol for Mu – nothingness – symbolizes fire underneath a tree. When one burns down a tree in a forest, its remains fertilize the ground to bring new life. Nothing is everywhere, and yet it is nowhere. Thus I kill, creating death and furthering the natural cycle of our lives. You mustn't reject it!"

 

"I reject you and all that you represent!" Ravi stood back up. "Seal #5...Visuddha...I release you!"

 

Ravi's eyes glazed over as metapsynergy rushed through her veins, bringing her body closer to the inner workings of space and time.

 

In these five seconds of enlightenment, I will end him!

As she leapt up toward Chuji, she saw his body pulsate. Metallic wings sprouted from his back, and a third eye appeared over the buddha's puffy eyelids. At once, every remaining arm on the creature's body locked into a poised position, and his fingers arched upwards to form the shape of a lotus.

 

"Namu Myoho Rengekyo."

A single palm emerged from Chuji's shining forehead, and suddenly Ravi could feel numerous hands converging on her body, coming from nowhere yet whittling her down to nothing. Ravi crumpled onto the ground once more as the hallucinogenic effects of Chuji's aural energies debilitated her.

 

"How?" she croaked. "In one movement, you enlightened yourself?"         

 

"No, ignorant one." Chuji stomped toward her. "I merely morphed this vessel and created wings and a third eye to simulate the same mutation you unconsciously did to trick yourself. Don't you see? What you have achieved can be accomplished by anyone. You're eons from enlightenment. All you have been taught are lies."

 

Despite the voice in her heart that screamed no, Ravi found herself overtaken, swayed by the monk's almighty voice. It was as if his bombastic words were the only things capable of penetrating the waves of pain that racked her body.

 

Her mind skipped back to her days, months, and years of pouring over holy texts in Sapta Sindhu. Was it all a waste?

 

"Goodbye, Ravi Katjagaarda." Matsubara raised a foot and prepared to stamp the woman out of existence. "We shall surely meet again someday."

 

A white wave passed out from Ravi's body, and she felt her heart grow overcast, body and soul dwarfed by the power from which she had just removed the final chains. Aural bliss encompassed her, and she was beyond space and time.

 

"Chidakasa..." Ravi whispered slowly, as her glowing body phased across the room. Psynergy gushed out from her forehead, once more igniting and opening the third eye that the Apostle named Zeigfried had once burned shut.

 

"You mock yourself." Matsubara's radiance still eclipsed hers. "There is but–"

 

Ravi ignored him and sliced her arm through air, as if she was attacking space itself. From her body burst a blinding arc of energy, which chainsawed its way horizontally through the temple. Matsubara stomped and raised all 100 hundred arms in a defense formation, but he could not dissipate her energy this time. Instead, her concentration shattered on impact and exploded through the room, wreaking havoc.

 

Floating in the center of it all, Ravi let her aura rage, ripping through every floorboard, crushing every piece of furniture, and blowing out every window. Matsubara was so focused on protecting his own body through the destruction that he had no choice but to give her free reign.

 

"Now, it is time for me to teach you something, Tandavan!" Ravi exclaimed. "I have only begun to fight!"

 

Despite Ravi's brilliance, Matsubara continued to gaze upon her with eyes of

 

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

 

contempt. The blond-haired Suzuki Mikisaburo grinned arrogantly as he studied his prey within the ruined restaurant. "You filth will all die here. You were wrong to ever step foot in our land!"

 

Kamo's face was grim. In the back of his mind, he could hear the screams of a woman he knew better than any other, reverberating as he argued with her.

 

The dreadlocked man shook himself out from the past and refocused his eyes on the gloating foreigner. Whether it was the memories or the reminder that he now had one more death on his conscience, the sniper had lost his jovial countenance.

           

"Keep talking while you still can," he muttered.

 

"You've already stepped into my domain." Suzuki raised the gnarled fungus gun protruding from his left arm. "It's too late now."

 

Suddenly, a moan slipped out from Hanayo. There had been a massive transparent psynergy blade enlarging over her head for several minutes now, and Kamo had kept it in his peripheral vision, waiting for the moment when she would inevitably snap.

 

"You killed my sister!" Hanayo screeched, then reached up a hand to grasp the glowing hilt.

 

At that moment, a tower of a blade materialized, crushing the roof and walls that stood in its way as it arched over her back. She spun the blade around, clipping straight through houses and sheds, swinging the giant katana toward her sister's killer.

 

"Yayoi!" Kamo shouted.

 

The second girl came to his aid with another cloud of psynergized locusts, while Kamo fired a psynergy arrow to deter Suzuki. Once Yayoi and Kamo regrouped, they both leapt up onto an awning, evacuating the area just as Hanayo's weapon went slicing into the earth. 

 

With lightning fast footwork, Suzuki moved out of the way of all the incoming attacks and slid behind the heaving, exhausted Hanayo. As soon as Kamo saw this, he let loose another quick arrow and struck the Shinsengumi in the toe before he could attack her. The Shinsengumi yelled, more out of frustration than pain, and Hanayo instantly swerved her blade around, swinging the staggering mass as if it was a piece of paper. With a frustrated grunt, Suzuki quickly retreated into the shadows of a nearby alleyway.

 

Back to hide-and-seek? Kamo scanned the rubble-stricken city. I'm game. I just need to be careful, watch the girls, and use my trick only when the time is absolutely right. It'll only work once.

 

Next, it was Yayoi's turn to shriek. She pointed into the distance, and Kamo scanned the horizon. Marching down from the western hills, burning with moldy psynergy, was what looked like a mountain of humanoid fungus.

 

"So..." Kamo sighed. "That's what happened to the citizens of Kyo."

 

"I'm going to kill them..." Hanayo seethed, as she began to lumber toward the crowd. "Every last one of them!"

 

"Hanayo!" Kamo shouted down to the shivering girl. "Hanayo, please, please stay with us. We need you to be strong until we finish this guy, and then we'll give your sister a proper burial–"

 

"No!" Hanayo screamed. "I don't want to bury Tomoyo! I want her back alive!"

 

"If you don't work together with us, we're all going to be dead!" Yayoi added. "I know you're in pain, Hanayo, but you have to pull it together!"

 

Hanayo shook her head slowly. "No! You don't know how I feel. Tomoyo and I didn't want to be part of this! You even made us help you kill Ho–"

 

"Shut up!" Yayoi dove down on to her friend and put a hand over her mouth. "Hanayo! Don't you say another word about that!"

 

Although this piqued Kamo's curiosity, he decided to put it on the back burner. If we waste any more time here, we're going to be caught between a killer and a horde of fungus people. This'll be easier if I take care of this myself.

 

Leaving the girls to their quarrel, Kamo rocketed out into the night. A boom sounded in the distance, and the adept sniper rolled to the right just as a speeding bullet whizzed by his cheek. Tracking Suzuki with his mind let him know exactly where the shots were coming from and exactly where they were heading, so evasion was simple.

 

Kamo rolled a second time, wincing as the edge of a spore nicked his calf. Peering down, he found that traces of the spore were already digging into his skin.

 

A blade of psynergy and two thin slices of flesh later, Kamo was up and running again. The myriad thoughts running through his head blocked out all sense of pain. With each shot, he gets better and better at calculating my movements. This next one will be it. It's time for my one-trick pony.

 

Quickly, Kamo armed himself with his special ability. So much has been sacrificed so far. In his mind, he could see Lucia slipping off the windowsill. Too much.

 

A third crack came from far ahead and above. Leaping up over a house, Kamo lined himself up perfectly with the diagonal trajectory of the bullet. There was now nothing between Kamo and Suzuki except dark air and a psynergy-laced globule of fungus. Kamo brandished nothing but his flourescent yellow right hand.

 

Kamo thought of his ex-wife, then remembered when he heard Lucia scream during the argument. He put his hands out, just like he had once reached out to his falling child, then spawned a psynergy bow and fired a single arrow containing the bulk of his psynergy in an attempt to reflect Suzuki's killing strike.

 

Kamo watched the bullet zoom back towards Suzuki. "We reap what we sow, gaijin."

Next: In the Noxious Noise