Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Koichi had killed so many men and yōkai over the years that he thought he’d be used to it.
He wasn’t.
As Orochi’s soldiers diverted their attack away from the fortress, leaving a wake of murdered tengu behind them, Koichi fell to his knees, exhausted from battle.
It seemed like hours ago that he, Keiko, Ryuichi-kage, and Haruki were separated from Ryuichi and Masaru as they made a mad dash for the stables. Maybe it was only minutes.
Time had stopped existing when Koichi took his sword and slayed their enemy’s tribe, one by one.
But that didn’t mean he enjoyed any of it.
“Where are they going?” asked Ryuichi’s shadow. He had been right next to Koichi, gleefully thrashing as many yōkai as he could. “We aren’t done with them yet!”
Keiko gasped when she realized their true intentions. “They’re heading toward the gate!”
Haruki smirked. “Finally! I was hoping this little skirmish would end soon.”
“I need to get help,” Keiko said, closing her eyes and bowing her head. A portal formed in front of her. To where, Koichi had no idea.
“Help from who?” he asked the worried kitsune.
“I’ll explain later.” Keiko patted Koichi on the arm. “Find Ryuichi. Keep him safe until my return. Promise me.”
“Wait, Keiko, don’t do this,” he protested. “We should stick together.”
It was too late. She took a running leap into the portal she created and it instantly vanished.
As he stood there, with his mouth hanging open, the first thought that ran through his mind:
I am too sober for this.
Ryuichi-kage nudged him with his elbow. “Keep Ryuichi safe? How are you supposed to do that if you don’t even know where he is?”
Koichi didn’t have any answers. He turned toward Haruki and Ryuichi-kage, completely stone-faced. They stared at him expectantly, as if they were looking for leadership.
This was why he liked his sake so much. It didn’t depend on him.
Koichi wasn’t a leader. He was a sword that others ordered to battle. Nobody ever seemed to truly listen to him anyway.
Maybe Keiko was convinced he couldn’t figure out what to do—that’s why she left to find reinforcements the first chance she got.
Wherever she went, Koichi hoped she’d come back soon and safely.
His student would be gutted if anything happened to the closest thing he had to a mother. And if he couldn’t protect Ryuichi, well, Keiko would strangle him herself.
“What’s the plan, Koichi?” Ryuichi-kage asked. “Should we go toward the gate? I’m eager to fight.”
Koichi shook his head. “We can’t fight a number this large.”
“The size of that army was pathetic. I’ve fought even greater numbers,” Haruki reminded him.
“With legions of demons on your side,” Koichi shot back. “I thought you would have made yourself more useful in this realm, but you haven’t done anything but whine and complain. Why not use your powers to fix this mess, oh mighty goddess?”
Haruki gave him an evil glare but didn’t say anything more. Koichi was surprised. He couldn’t believe he actually shut her up.
Maybe he was leadership material after all.
“Let’s head into the woods,” Koichi suggested. “The survivors and wounded are congregating there. There’s a chance Ryuichi and Masaru are too.”
“No,” said Ryuichi-kage. “My brother is at the gate. I can sense it.”
Koichi wasn’t sure he could trust Ryuichi-kage. He knew the shadowling had been intent on severing as many yōkai limbs as he could. He would walk through fire if it meant getting more blood on his hands.
“Going toward the gate is a suicide mission. Ryuichi has more sense than to try and stop that army on his own,” Koichi replied.
“He’s not alone. He has that pompous kami with him,” Haruki said.
“Masaru wouldn’t risk Ryuichi’s life,” Koichi said. “We’ll go to the woods.”
“Coward,” Ryuichi-kage muttered, and Haruka laughed at his cruel remark.
Sighing, Koichi pictured a nice bottle of sake in his hand and gave himself an imaginary toast.
Closing his eyes, he imagined the warm liquid going down his throat. The way his body would relax after a few more sips. Fantasizing wasn’t any substitute for the real deal, but it would have to do.
With a deep breath, he gave himself fully to the illusion, and for a split second, the world went still.
Then he opened his eyes and imagined something better for himself. He wanted to be a man worthy of all the responsibilities bestowed on him. Someone worthy of Keiko and Ryuichi’s trust.
He wasn’t that man.
But maybe, just for a little bit, he could pretend to be.
“Let’s move out,” Koichi said. Then he started walking in the direction of the woods.
Ryuichi-kage and Haruki dragged their feet behind him. Koichi tried not to listen as they whispered to each other, but he couldn’t help himself.
“This isn’t going to work,” the shadow twin said.
“If it doesn’t, we’ll go our own way,” said Haruki.
Koichi sighed again. How could there be dissent already? Did no one have any faith in him?
When they reached the forest, it seemed as though Ryuichi-kage was right. None of the tengu who were in hiding had seen Ryuichi or Masaru. Katsu and Hayasaka were also unaccounted for.
Koichi feared the worst. That all of them had perished.
But then the messenger crow they had seen when this whole disaster started came into view. It screeched a couple of times, like it was trying to speak.
“Ryuichi closed the gate,” Haruki said, disappointed.
Koichi was so relieved. But he also couldn’t believe it. Ryuichi managed to achieve something that miraculous with only Masaru’s help?
Impressive.
Then he smirked at Haruki.
“I didn’t know you spoke crow,” he said.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” she replied, raising an eyebrow.
The crow cawed again.
“He escaped with Hayasaka,” Haruki continued. “Masaru and Katsu too.”
Koichi picked up the crow and looked into its black, beady eyes. “Where are they now?”
The crow’s head tipped back and forth, considering the question. Then it flapped its wings, leaped out of his hands, and flew away.
Ryuichi-kage chuckled. “That is one rude crow.”
Koichi swore under his breath. He was so close and yet so far from knowing where to go next in search of his charge.
And then it dawned on him.
“Gentleman and demon,” he declared to his companions. “I have an idea.”
“Lady,” Haruki corrected. “The term is lady.”
He would allow her to keep her delusions. After the battle they’d just survived, they all needed them.
“It better be good,” Ryuichi-kage said.
Koichi looked at Haruki. “Where’s the dirtiest, slummiest, roughest part of the spirit world? The last place any of us should be?”
Shrugging, Haruki answered without hesitation. “Kagemura.”
“It’s not too far from here,” Koichi said. “Maybe that’s where Ryuichi and the others have regrouped.”
“What’s Kagemura?” Ryuichi-kage asked Haruki.
“It’s a sinister city, home to the seediest underbelly of creatures you could imagine. They specialize in stealing and selling novelties from the human world,” she explained.
“Why would Ryuichi go there?” the shadow twin wondered.
“Because a city of crooks is the best place to figure out where the Ryukage is,” said Koichi. “That was our mission. Even if it’s true Ryuichi somehow managed to close the gate, he would continue on that path nonetheless. Masaru would surely lead him there. It’s practically his second home.”
Haruki ran her fingers through her hair. “I swear, Koichi, if you bring me into some dingy bar just so you can get a drink, I’ll burn the miserable place to the ground, with you in it.”
“Don’t tempt me, woman.”
Haruki arched her brow. “You want me to kill you?”
“At least that way I’d be free of you.”
Ryuichi-kage still seemed puzzled. “The Ryukage is a demon-god, not a criminal. He would never socialize among lowly scum like that.”
“Of course not. But that’s where his minions would go. And if I made them an interesting financial proposition, they might tell us where they last saw the beast.”
Haruki laughed. “A human in Kagemura? Once they sniff you out, those diabolical yōkai will gut you on sight.”
It was a risk he was willing to take.
Especially if the reward for surviving was a bottle of sake.
* * *
As they loaded up their horses, Haruki quietly cursed herself.
She wondered when someone in their party would notice that ever since she went through the portal to the nether world, Haruki was unable to access her powers.
For as long as she could remember, she served her beloved Ryukage with nothing but obedience and loyalty. Now she was a shell of her former self.
Haruki was used to using her venom and rage to channel dark magic and wield it with precision and cruelty.
While her master depended on her, he never loved Haruki. Her sister, Haruka, was the one who captured his heart.
Too bad that had gotten her killed.
“Do you really think we’ll be able to find Ryukage?” Ryuichi’s shadow asked as he mounted his horse.
She narrowed her gaze on him. “I doubt it. He is the most intelligent and deceptive demon I have ever encountered. If he doesn’t want to be discovered, he knows how to evade any yōkai who tries to track him.”
“Can’t you tap into his mind with your magic?” Koichi asked. “You two have a bond that no one else shares.”
Haruki’s cheeks flushed red.
That was true. While Ryukage never saw her as anything more than a partner in all things evil, they had a connection that others could never duplicate.
Still, her powers had vanished. Hopefully, temporarily.
But she couldn’t let Koichi and Ryuichi-kage know this. It would make her too vulnerable. Too exposed.
She had to come up with an excuse. Something they’d both believe.
“If you think I’m going to betray his confidence like that, you couldn’t be more mistaken”—she raked Koichi with a look of disdain—“and pitiful.”
Hopefully, that would do the trick.
“Why are you like this?” Koichi asked.
“Like what?”
“Impossible and mean.”
“You’d be impossible and mean, too, if you walked in my shoes,” she said.
When she’d first seen the man who would become the Ryukage, Haruki had fallen instantly in love with him.
He’d been noble and charming. More handsome than any creature had a right to be.
And he’d looked right through her, as if she were invisible. Because she wasn’t her sister.
And for that, she hated Haruka with every single piece of her being.
Haruka had been perfect. Haruki was shy and melancholic. Most of all, she was scared.
She knew why he didn’t like her.
Haruki didn’t even like herself. It was as if her twin had stolen all the good parts and selfishly kept them for herself, leaving Haruki with the leftover part Haruka hadn’t wanted.
When Haruka had died, Haruki felt nothing. She refused to feel anything other than relief.
While her loving sister had always been kind to her, Haruki had wanted nothing more than to have the Ryukage’s love.
She buried those feelings deep, praying she’d never need them again.
As he turned more and more evil, Haruki had become everything he needed. Unlike her sister, she’d dedicated her life to learning all she could about the Ryukage. To molding herself into his perfect handmaiden.
So much so that nothing of the real her remained.
To serve the one she loved, she’d become outgoing, loud, brash, and whatever else she needed to be to stand out.
For him.
It had gained her nothing. At best, he ignored her; at worst, he abused her.
But he needed her.
And that was good enough.
With her powers gone, she would be useless. Discarded. Thrown away.
Koichi and Ryuichi-kage might even do the same.
And where would that leave her?
“We should stop somewhere and stock up on supplies,” Koichi said as he got on his horse and took the reins.
“I know a shop that sells kimonos,” Haruki replied.
It seemed like a trivial thing to mention, but there was a part of her that wondered if she changed her torn and tattered clothes, some of her magic might return. It was a shot in the dark, but she might as well try.
“That’s not what he meant,” the shadow responded. “We need more weapons.”
“The lady can have her kimono,” Koichi said. “Maybe it will cheer her up.”
Haruki was shocked.
“Are you being serious?” Haruki asked.
Koichi grinned. “Yes. I’d do anything to get you out of this never-ending foul mood.”
When Haruki mounted her horse, she felt a strange, peculiar feeling in her chest. One she’d never known before.
She had no words to describe it, and yet it reminded her of the girl she used to be.
The quiet and shy Haruki.
“Fine. We’ll go shopping. As long as there will be more fighting later,” said Ryuichi-kage.
Koichi snorted. “That is almost guaranteed, my favorite little monster.”
The shadow rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“To Kagemura! May we bathe in blood.”
Rolling his eyes, Koichi turned around in his saddle to look at Haruki. “Don’t lag behind. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I won’t.” Haruki kicked her horse forward with a smile on her face.
Huh, smiling. How very strange. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done that.
* * *
Orochi let out a gruesome roar that shook the ground, the trees, and even the locked gate that stood before him.
“How did this happen?” he screamed. “I thought you had that boy cornered!”
All of Orochi’s yōkai underlings slinked back in terror.
They had every right to be afraid. He was furious, and seven of his brothers were starving after that raucous battle.
Venom lashed out and bit the oni closest to them.
That caused several to flee, and Venom spat at them, killing them off with his poisonous saliva.
“Stop!” Orochi commanded.
“Why? We don’t need these fools to fight for us,” Venom said.
“Yes. We are getting stronger every day,” Earth agreed.
Orochi growled. “We cannot rule both realms alone. Our dominion requires the loyalty of subjects who will serve us.”
That explanation seemed to satisfy the rest for the moment.
Orochi turned back to his soldiers.
“Find me that boy and your rewards will be greater than anything you can imagine.”
“Do you think his shadow can open the gate?” Darkness whispered in his ear.
His brother had a valid point. “I will also reward anyone who brings me his shadow.”
Either way, Orochi was determined to get everything he wanted.
It was only a matter of patience.