Guardian, Saviors of Kamigawa

CHAPTER 3

Outside Shinka, Toshi still stood where he had started. He had not moved at all while the battle raged behind him, and he didn’t move now as Hidetsugu began to heap mangled and headless corpses in front of the ochimusha. He was barely willing to adjust his eyes, but Toshi did see the parchment with the paralysis kanji hanging from the back of Hidetsugu’s clothing. He had slipped it onto the ogre’s wrap just as Hidetsugu leaped away from him. Now the parchment fluttered as the ogre went about his grisly work, its symbol whole, complete, and utterly without effect.

If he dared to move at all, Toshi would have shrugged. He had warned One-Eye it wouldn’t work.

Judging from the remains, One-Eye and the rest of the magic-using reckoners had all been burned to death in the ambush’s opening seconds. The heavyset assassin’s eye patch was still in place, but the thick wooden square was smoking and seared into his blackened flesh, the cursed eye forever closed behind it.

Much later, Hidetsugu ambled up to Toshi and sat facing the last of Uramon’s reckoners. He seemed calmer but still dangerous, like a bear after a huge meal. He inspected Toshi standing there with something quite like amusement, and then Hidetsugu gestured at the mark on Toshi’s face.

“Little kanji mage,” he said, “why did you put that symbol on your face where I could see it? Did you think I wouldn’t recognize it and attack you anyway?”

Toshi fought to keep his voice calm and his body from trembling. “It was a calculated risk. I don’t really feel the need to die for Uramon, but I wasn’t in a position to refuse her, either. I figured this was the safest way to make you understand: I can’t hurt you, I don’t even want to hurt you … but I will if you hurt me. I just hoped that you’d recognize the reflection kanji and leave me be. It’s not as if there weren’t plenty of other targets, plenty of other reckoners who were actually out to get you.”

“And if I didn’t recognize it,” Hidetsugu said, “whatever I tried to do to you would come straight back to me. Either way, you win.” The ogre grinned, displaying bloodstained teeth. “In the short term.”

“Uh, yes,” Toshi said uncomfortably. “I’d be lying if I said that hadn’t crossed my mind.”

Hidetsugu reached around and plucked the parchment from his wrap. “And this?”

“That … was his idea.” He gestured to One-Eye near the bottom of the corpse pile. “I advised against it.”

“But you did it anyway.”

“I did. You see, I’m nothing if not loyal.”

The o-bakemono laughed loudly. “That’s the biggest lie you’ve told me yet,” he said. “And yet somehow, I believe it.” The light in Hidetsugu’s eyes darkened, becoming more ominous. “But what am I to do with you now, little reckoner?”

“Well, I’ve given that some thought, too. I can’t go back home-Uramon will demand to know what happened, and why I was the only survivor. I’m still indentured to her, so technically she owns me.”

The ogre nodded as he considered Toshi’s position. “Might as well let me devour you now,” he offered.

“Or,” Toshi said smoothly, “we could come to an arrangement. I’m bound to Uramon, but I don’t want to be. You’re going to keep getting visits from the boss until she’s satisfied, and I bet you don’t want that. I don’t think you’re in any danger,” he nodded toward the corpse pile, “but it could become quite a nuisance.”

Hidetsugu perched his chin on his clenched fist, hanging on Toshi’s every word. He seemed honestly and thoroughly amused.

“I’ve been looking into forming my own gang of reckoners,” Toshi said. “The idea came to me when I realized that there’s no way to break a reckoner oath, but you can swear a new one. I figure, why should I put my life on the line for someone just because they own me? If I could get some … serious fellows like yourself to join me, we could get out from under the bosses altogether.”

“A reckoner gang,” Hidetsugu mused. “Without a boss? That’s almost novel.”

“Thank you. I figure we’d look out for each other rather than some crimelord’s reputation. And if we were demonstrably … serious, all of the bosses would soon see the value of leaving us alone. They’re all businessmen in the end, and they don’t do things without some form of profit. If it were ruinously expensive to cross us, eventually they wouldn’t bother.”

“This is an admirable idea you’ve had. What is your name?”

“Toshi Umezawa,” he said.

“An admirable idea, Toshi Umezawa. But I see several flaws.”

The ochimusha swallowed. “Fatal flaws?”

“Perhaps. First, you are not … serious enough on your own to make the kind of impression a new reckoner gang needs. And more, I doubt someone so young has learned the fine art of a truly binding blood oath.”

Toshi smiled his most winning smile. “That’s where you come in, noble o-bakemono.”

Hidetsugu’s nostrils flared. “That’s another flaw. You interest me, ochimusha, but as soon as I no longer feel full, I’m going to bite off your head and swallow it whole.” The ogre’s eyes sparkled and cast out tiny sparks.

“Oh.” Toshi sagged where he stood. “That’s not good for me.”

“No. It is not.” Hidetsugu rocked back and placed his hands palm-up on his knees. He closed his eyes and fell totally still as if meditating.

Toshi decided to stake everything on one last throw of the dice. “All right,” he said. “What if you take me on as your pupil? I know the o-bakemono train apprentices to maintain their influence. Ogre magic is some of the strongest and most feared in all Kamigawa, but it’s worthless if no one practices it. Teach me, and your name will still be spoken in fearful whispers for generations after you’re dead.”

Hidetsugu’s eyes remained closed, but he smiled. “You are not as well-informed as you think, my friend. That would also kill you, only it would be much more protracted and painful. None of my last four would-be apprentices survived more than a month.”

Toshi decided to risk a bit of bravado, hoping it would impress the ogre. “Give me a try. You won’t be disappointed.”

The o-bakemono’s lids snapped open and he fixed Toshi with a withering stare. “No, ochimusha,” he said. “You are too clever, too independent to be a proper student. And I already have my next two apprentices selected. No, I can save myself a lot of time by killing you now.”

He extended his hand as if to grab Toshi, but the ochimusha yelled, “Wait! Make me an offer. There must be something that you need or want. Put me to work and we’ll both profit.”

The ogre’s hand stopped just a few feet from Toshi. He could not see Hidetsugu behind the rough palm and thick, clawed fingers, but he heard the ogre’s voice clearly.

“You seem remarkably dedicated to striking a bargain with me. Do you appreciate how dangerous that is?”

“Maybe I don’t,” Toshi said. “But I don’t have many options, do I?”

Hidetsugu lowered his hand. “All right, ochimusha. I will set a task for you, something to prove yourself useful. In ten days I go collect my next student. It will take me years to train him.”

“If he survives.”

“If he survives. I would prefer not to be disturbed by any more of Uramon’s lackeys while I test him. It only draws the process out.

“Convince Uramon to leave me be until next spring. I will know by then if I have a new apprentice or another failure. In return, I will join your gang of freelance reckoners.” The ogre’s eyes flared bright red. “I may even help you craft the spell that binds us.”

“Deal,” Toshi said instantly. “Though I would be stunned if you simply let me walk away with only my word to bring me back.”

“That is because you are a quick thinker. No, Toshi Umezawa, I am not willing to trust your good nature. But I do trust blood magic.”

Hidetsugu lashed out and lifted Toshi into the air. Before he could scream, Toshi felt his arm disappear into the ogre’s mouth up past the elbow. Hidetsugu simultaneously bit down and squeezed with his hand, crushing the air from Toshi’s lungs as the ochimusha’s blood dripped from the ogre’s jaw.

Hidetsugu dropped Toshi and licked his chops. Toshi quickly touch-inspected his wound, which was shallow but bleeding freely.

“Blood,” Hidetsugu said through crimson-stained lips. “Blood is the key to all ogre rituals. Now I have tasted yours, ochimusha. I can find you anywhere. And if more of Uramon’s reckoners come here before spring to interrupt my student’s training, I will blame you. After I mount their heads on stakes I will come and find you in your bed. I will drag you back here and take sublime joy in your suffering for as long as I care to before feeding you to the All-Consuming Oni of Chaos.”

Toshi tore off the bottom of his sleeve and wrapped it tightly around his wounded arm. The pain felt far away, and he almost swooned as his stomach knotted and unknotted.

“Done,” Toshi said again, though he could barely hear his own voice.

“Good,” Hidetsugu replied. He stood and turned his back on his guest.

“I am becoming hungry again. Go now, ochimusha, before I change my mind.”

Still dazed, Toshi turned and woodenly began to run. The last thing he saw was Hidetsugu bending over the pile of corpses, sinking his arms into the mound to gather as many as possible in his broad, powerful arms.

“Put me down, oath-brother,” Toshi said. “We have been bound for too long to squabble.”

Hidetsugu shook Toshi in his fist like a child’s rattle. “The bond between us is stretched too thin at present, Toshi. Find a more compelling argument.”

Toshi was ready. “There is a stone disk hidden in a chamber deep within the academy. The same creature that almost leveled the daimyo’s tower will follow wherever that disk goes and will crush anything that stands in its way. Let me take the disk to where the soratami are. Let them die in battle with the great spirit beast, and we will have engineered a fine reckoning for your lost apprentice.”

Hidetsugu seemed impressed, but he shook his head. “An intriguing idea,” he said. “But if the daimyo’s prize is here, my oni has already laid claim to it. Only a fool would try to take something off the All-Consuming’s plate.

“But more to the point, Toshi, I’ve had my fill of your bargains and plans. What I need now is a straight declaration of your loyalties. Are you working for the hyozan? The Myojin of Night’s Reach? Or are you merely doing what you’ve always done, playing both ends against each other so you can capitalize in the confusion?”

“My loyalties are unchanged,” Toshi said sharply.

“And that is what concerns me.” Hidetsugu placed two fingers in his wide mouth and blew a piercing whistle. “I cannot harm you, Toshi, because of the oath we share. But I can have you monitored. I can keep you in check.” He glanced down into the quadrangle. “Behold, ochimusha. Your newest companion has arrived.”

The massive, four-legged brute was unlike the other bipedal oni, but it had the same three eyes and the same curved horns. It was covered in tough leathery skin and thick plates of bony armor. It walked on all fours, and its head was as broad as a man’s chest.

Toshi’s throat almost closed when he recognized the demon dog-it was the same oni that Kobo had summoned in the forest weeks ago, the same one Toshi himself had released to run rampant on the streets of Oboro. Earlier, Hidetsugu had insisted he carry the dog’s summoning token, promising it would fade after a few hours of blood frenzy. Yet here the same dog was, almost a week after Toshi had released it.

“Wherever you go,” Hidetsugu said, leering, “the dog of bloodlust and slaughter will accompany you. If you run, it will chase you down. If you hide, it will sniff you out. If you fight, it will cripple you and drag your broken body to me. Our oath prevents us from harming each other directly, or causing each other harm, but you summoned this demon. Whatever it does to you now is your burden, not mine.”

Toshi was surprised to find himself growing angry. Hidetsugu had tricked him, had connived to get Toshi to place himself in danger so that the ogre could threaten him without risking the hyozan oath’s retribution. If Toshi hadn’t already planned something similar for Hidetsugu, he would have been truly offended by the ogre’s lack of trust.

Toshi decided to take his leave. The trip to Minamo had been a complete failure: he hadn’t secured the Taken One, he was once more on bad terms with Hidetsugu, and he had not determined if the ogre knew his secret-that Toshi had already found a way out of the hyozan oath. The tattoo on Toshi’s arm was a decoy, one that looked and felt like a real reckoner’s mark but had absolutely no connection to the oath they had sworn almost ten years ago.

Toshi turned his thoughts inward, focusing on the power of his myojin. Night’s Reach had bestowed many blessings upon him, but one that he had manufactured for himself was the killing power of intense cold. He had bested an elemental spirit and bound her power to his own, and he called upon that power now as he hung from the ogre’s fist.

Ice formed across Hidetsugu’s fist, and Toshi felt the pressure on his torso ease. His breath blew out in great white clouds of fog and he felt a cold, tingling shape emerge on his forehead. The glowing, purple-white kanji was the symbol for the yuki-onna, the snow woman of legend who lured the unwary to a frozen doom in the darkest hours of winter.

The yamabushi sensed their master was under attack and converged on Toshi. Below, the oni dog howled and sprang into the air, bounding from wall to wall on his own path to the platform.

Toshi summoned another of Night’s blessings and began to fade from sight. With the myojin’s help, he could become formless, weightless, and intangible. So far nothing had been able to interfere with him in this state, not the most powerful spirit or the keenest animal instinct.

As he disappeared from Hidetsugu’s frozen fist, Toshi locked eyes with his former oath-brother. There was anger in the ogre’s face, and grim determination. But most of all, Toshi saw sadness, disappointment, even if it were only because they had come so far without turning on each other. But now they had, as they had always known they would.

Toshi recognized the complicated emotions on Hidetsugu’s face because he shared them. For many reasons, he had sincerely hoped either he or the ogre would die before they had to face each other. But now that hope was dead and Toshi had to find a way to overcome the single most terrifying creature he had ever known.

Toshi nodded as he faded away. To his lasting joy and eternal regret, Hidetsugu nodded back. For one final time, they were partners, peers, warriors with a common bond.

And then Toshi was gone, leaving Hidetsugu to stoke his anger for the inevitable day when one of them would destroy the other.

Toshi drifted down from Oboro until he fell under the shadow of the cloud city itself. Like a sinking ship, Toshi slid into the great patch of black until he was completely engulfed by it. After a moment’s disorientation he turned toward the palpable presence of the Taken One and urged himself toward Minamo Academy.

It was still here. Toshi could feel it. Between the giant serpent in the sky and the mad, immortal daimyo, there was no shortage of very powerful entities who were willing to kill to recover the prize.

Then, Toshi had hoped they would destroy each other, the academy, and the soratami city overhead in the process. Now, he had to find some way of removing it before they arrived and then keep it from their continued pursuit.

Toshi’s phantom body emerged in the deepest recesses of the academy. He had been to this space before, though he did not know what the room was for. It was some administrator’s office or private library with walls covered by scroll racks. Scattered around the room were a series of glass display cases featuring strange, arcane objects that Toshi couldn’t recognize and didn’t care about. He glanced around to verify he was in the right place and nodded, satisfied.

The Taken One was lying faceup where he left it. The disk was roughly six feet across and about a foot thick. It gave off a constant pale white glow and a steady flow of wispy steam as if it had just been taken from a boiling pot. He knew from experience that it was cool to the touch, but it somehow delivered a jolt of strange, unnerving force to anyone who made bare-skin contact.

Toshi peered at the Taken One’s face. It was as he remembered it, with the etched serpent facing right and its tail circled under it. Somehow it also looked different, more detailed and substantial.

He shook his head and blinked. The stone was hypnotic, he reminded himself. He had seen how crazy it had made Konda. Toshi forced himself to look away from the Taken One so that it could not enthrall him as it had the daimyo, and that’s when he noticed the people.

They crouched behind tables and across chairs, they slumped against naked walls, and they slept fitfully in clusters on the cold stone floor. Shaking his head in disbelief, Toshi counted almost thirty live bodies in the room, breathing softly and barely moving. There were students in blue robes, Konda’s soldiers in full uniform, and even a handful of kitsune fox-warriors. Most appeared to be asleep or at least resting while four alert guardians watched over them from the far corners of the room.

Toshi wanted to shout, “What in the cold gray hell are you people doing here?” but he could imagine the answer. When Hidetsugu and his yamabushi came to the academy, they came for slaughter. It was hard to believe that the ogre or his patron oni hadn’t sniffed them out in their hiding place, even this far down.

Hard to believe but not impossible. Somehow, they had managed to stay alive and remain undiscovered for almost a week. From the looks of things, they wouldn’t last much longer.

A sentry hissed at the far end of the room, raising an urgent but understated warning. To Toshi’s growing horror, a pair of black, razor-toothed jaws materialized near the opposite wall. The disembodied teeth snapped lightly, testing the air like a snake’s tongue. A second pair of jaws appeared and the sentry backed away with his sword drawn.

Toshi fought back a wave of dread and panic. This was Hidetsugu’s oni manifest, the All-Consuming Oni of Chaos. Toshi recognized the voracious mouths as part of the great demonic spirit’s body, like the scales of a fish or the hairs on a spider’s leg. From what he had seen, the All-Consuming was nothing but a thick cloud of hungry mouths and snapping teeth crowned by gigantic oni horns and three malevolent eyes.

The other guardians quietly crossed the room, nudging and shaking people awake as they went. Weary and resigned, the survivors quickly withdrew from the now growing number of jaws floating and snapping at the other end of the room.

Safely hidden and immaterial, Toshi watched as he pondered his next move.

The warriors all waited with their hands on their weapons, watching the jaws. The flying teeth drifted deeper into the room, but they never strayed far from the interior wall where they appeared. After a long, agonizing minute, the jaws turned and began to fade. If they were searching for something good to eat, they hadn’t found it here. Toshi wondered if the oni had missed the Taken One, or if it just didn’t recognize the disk as a gourmet meal.

Moments later, the library was completely still and silent once more, though now everyone in it was wide awake. Toshi watched the group until he sorted out who was in charge, then silently approached a sturdy-looking officer wearing the daimyo’s standard. One step away from the soldier, Toshi faded in and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Captain?” Toshi read the man’s rank from his shoulder insignia. “How much longer can we last?”

The officer looked Toshi over suspiciously. “As long as it takes.”

“Oh, good. Very good, thanks for that. But you know what? That’s not really an answer, is it?”

The captain scowled. “Who are you? I don’t recognize you.”

Toshi leaned in and hissed, “I’m the guy who can get you out of here if you keep your wits about you.” He faded from sight, maneuvered around the captain, and reappeared behind the soldier. “Interested?”

The officer slowly turned and faced Toshi. “Keep talking,” he said, his own voice pitched low. “I’m Nagao.” He gestured over Toshi’s shoulder. “That’s Silver-Foot.”

Toshi croaked as a huge gray kitsune samurai startled him. The fox-warrior nodded his short muzzle to acknowledge Toshi then stood by with his hand on his sword.

Nagao, the human captain, leaned closer to Toshi. “I’ll ask you again, friend. Who are you?”

“Call me Toshi.” Thinking quickly, Toshi said, “I’m a thief. I’m here to loot the place. But I’m good at getting in and out of places, so I might be able to help you. How often does that thing come sniffing around?” He pointed to the wall where the oni mouths had appeared.

Nagao still looked suspicious, but Silver-Foot said, “Tell him, Captain. I don’t believe him either, but he wasn’t here an hour ago and he is here now. He might know something that we can use.”

Nagao nodded. “It comes about once a day. Its visits are growing more frequent.”

“Has it gotten anyone?”

“Not yet. Tonight was typical … it shows up, then suddenly seems to lose interest. But it’ll be back.”

“Good,” Toshi said. “That’s good.”

Nagao glowered. “I don’t see how that’s good, friend.”

Toshi smiled. “That’s because you’re not me. Listen, if that thing were going to eat you, it would have by now. I think you’re safe in here for the time being.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Nagao said dryly. “But if you can’t offer us anything more than that, I think you’ve wasted enough of my time.”

Toshi cocked his head. “Just stay here. And don’t let anyone touch that big stone disk. It’s dangerous.”

“I needed you to tell me that,” Nagao muttered. Then, slightly louder, he said, “And where will you be? If you can leave, you’re taking at least one of us with you.”

Toshi smiled and winked. “Sorry, Captain. I refuse. But do as I say and I’ll be back in a day or two.”

Silver-Foot’s sword slid out of its sheath like a whisper. The blade gleamed in the dim light and the kitsune said, “Don’t move, Toshi. Nagao is quite right-you must take someone with you if you can.”

Still smiling, Toshi faded from sight. Both officers grabbed for him as he went, but their hands passed through him.

“Trust me,” he said, his voice hollow and distant. “I just need to call in a few favors. Two days, three at the most-I’ll be back with help.”

The good captains continued to search their immediate surroundings for any sign of the stranger. Toshi maneuvered himself into the nearby shadows, already planning a series of jaunts through the shadow realm that would eventually allow him to return to Minamo and collect his prize.

Though the hyozan reckoners were broken and in turmoil, there was one last job they needed to do together.