by Rick Scott
“Night sea sponge, dried ancient carp liver, and mandrake root,” he recited the list.
“Shinoto, get the items and take them to Elder Xian Lu.” He then looked to Chet Fai. “Summon the other elders and sound the alarm. I’ll get Chief Wu.” He then gave a final instruction to Shinoto, almost in a whisper. “Make sure he doesn’t enter the store.”
With that he and Chet Fai left and sprinted down the street.
Ben Fai’s last words hit him like a slap to the face. Even in such a crisis, he went the extra step of making his displeasure of him known by saying such a thing. Perhaps Ben Fai was more like his son than Kenji realized. He hid his contempt as Shinoto hung her head with perhaps shame and opened the store. He did as instructed and stayed outside the doorway as Shinoto busied herself within to collect the ingredients. She collected two of the three, but found herself hopping atop a stool to reach the third.
“By the heavens!” she said, still trying to reach for it. “The curse of being this age again.”
She finally stopped hopping and began to descend the stool. “I’ll need to get my mother.”
This was ridiculous. Kenji huffed out a sigh.
He entered the store and Shinoto looked at him, shocked. “Kenji, no! My father said—”
“I don’t care what your father said.” Kenji easily grabbed the sack she’d been reaching for and handed it to her. “The woman who saved my life is dying.”
She again bowed her head shamefully as she removed the dried sea sponge from within the sack and placed it in another. “Thank you,” she said and then she added, almost like an apology, “I’m still my father’s daughter, Kenji… I have to respect what he—”
“There’s no need to explain,” he said, cutting her off. “I understand.”
He didn’t really, but he didn’t have time to care about that now. “Come quickly. We have a mystic warrior to save.”
Chapter 9 - Interrogation
The village bell was tolling and half the village itself had crowded around his home by the time Kenji arrived with Shinoto following close behind him. Chief Wu and Ben Fai were already there, perhaps having used their Qinggong skills to travel the distance much faster than he or Shinoto could.
The crowd made way for them as they approached. Olja was still lying on her side outside the house, both Xian Lu and Chief Wu hovering over her.
“Elder,” Shinoto said with a short bow and handed the sack of ingredients to Xian Lu.
Kenji stood back as his father went to work. Never before had he seen him perform glyph script so quickly. Using a brush and white parchment, he scrawled glyphs pertaining to cleansing and water. It made sense now why he had asked for the items he did. Qi cultivated from the sea and rivers held such properties. Chief Wu placed the mandrake root and powdered carp liver into a small black cauldron filled with water before adding the dried sea sponge. After Xian Lu placed the glyphs on the cauldron, the two elders then worked in tandem to infuse the pot with their Qi. Power radiated from them with a soft white glow as sweat beaded upon their brows. The glyphs began to glow and after a few moments they flashed and dissolved into white ash.
“It’s ready,” Xian Lu said.
Removing the now wet and pliable sea sponge, Xian Lu placed it over Olja’s wound while Chief Wu took hold of the spider-demon’s leg from the opposite side. The two nodded to one another and then in one swift motion, Chief Wu pulled the entire length through Olja’s torso.
Olja’s eyes flashed open as she bolted upright with a horrific scream. Xian Lu rushed to pack the gaping wound with the sponge, now hissing with dark Qi. Olja’s eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the ground again. Kenji edged forward, fearful they had killed her. But then the Xjian woman took a huge breath and with an exhale of black smoke, seemed to fall into a peaceful sleep.
“It is done,” Xian Lu said. “The dark Qi caused much damage. Her state will not worsen, but her recovery will be long.”
“Thank the heavens for that!” a loud voice shouted. “She’s a looker! Tall and handsome, just like I like ‘em.”
Before he even looked, Kenji knew who had spoken. Old Man Waru wobbled on shaky legs, making his way through the crowd. “Come on now, show’s over. Get back to work.”
“You get back to work! You lazy drunk!” a farmer’s wife shouted at him. “A demon just attacked us, don’t you even know?”
Waru belched, looking unconcerned. “A demon? Is that right?”
“Where is it now?” someone else called out. “Will it return?”
“I heard they killed it.”
“It nearly killed a mystic warrior! Who could possibly have killed it?”
“Are we not safe then?”
“Maybe we should call for the government!”
“Everyone quiet!” Chief Wu shouted.
The remarkably young but authoritative voice of Chief Wu brought the crowd to silence. The twelve-year-old boy with multiple stripes on gold upon his robes flew to the rooftop with a single leap and then addressed the people below him.
“The elders are still assessing the attack,” he said. “Until then the village shall be under martial law. I have sent sparrows to the capital and the neighboring village of Amatsu, warning them of the attack. With luck, a cadre of mystic artists from the capital will be deployed by noon and reach us via Windwalking by tomorrow morning. Until then, Master Yushiro has called together the militia. All able-bodied practitioners of 5th tier and above should report to him now.”
Master Yushiro, Kenji thought. Young Shiro’s father.
At any other time Kenji would be almost dismissive of Master Yushiro’s skills, but that was admittedly, mostly due to the spiteful disposition of his son. But even Kenji had to admit that under the circumstances, he was grateful to have an 8th-Dan mystic artist in their village as protection.
“Until further notice, all activities beyond the village boundary is prohibited. Now go at once and prepare.”
The crowd reacted swiftly to the chief’s commands and began to disperse. Chief Wu then pointed right at Kenji. “Inside. Now. Your father and I wish to speak with you.”
* * *
Kenji sat within the kitchen of his home with Chief Wu and his father. In the living room behind them, Olja snored like an ox. He had just finished recounting what had happened to him in the orchard in extreme detail, including the portion where Olja said the demon had come for him.
“Anything else?” Chief Wu asked. His expression had remained neutral the entire time he’d told the story and Kenji wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or bad.
“That is as much as I can recall, Chief Wu,” Kenji said honestly. He then dared to speak further. “May I ask a question?”
Xian Lu addressed him now. “What is it?”
“If it turns out to be true. If I was the one that brought that demon here. What will become of me?”
The question hung heavy in the room.
Finally Chief Wu spoke. “There is no need to concern yourself with such things. We know not who this woman is. By what she said, she could be a Tsu spy or defector. Either way, until we question her, I would not give much heed to what she says.”
The words comforted Kenji a little, but perhaps only because they were coming from Chief Wu.
“Please leave us now, Kenji,” Chief Wu said. “And send in Waru when you go.”
Kenji paused in the midst of his rise. …Waru?
But he dared not question the chief further and left the house hastily. He found Waru sitting outside the house and relayed the message.
“Good on yah, lad,” Waru said, slapping his shoulder. “Now go wash yourself. You smell like chicken coop!”
He stumbled into the house then and Kenji stared, perplexed.
“Kenji.”
Kenji glanced about at the whisper of his name. He finally spotted Shinoto waving to him from behind the rope shed. “Shinoto?”
He trotted over to her, inadvertently looking over his shoulde
r, expecting to see her father or brother emerge at any moment.
“What are you doing here?” he asked once he reached her.
“I told my father that I would stay to help dress the warrior’s wounds.”
“Ah…” he said, still somewhat confused.
“Well you wouldn’t expect a bunch of men to do it, now would you?”
“Right!” he said. “That makes sense.”
She then rolled her eyes. “It was an excuse, silly. I stayed here because I wanted to talk to you.”
Kenji was about to say ‘ah’ again but was beginning to feel like the dullard everyone claimed he was. He need not have worried however, because in that brief pause, Shinoto bombarded him with a thousand questions: “Are you alright? What happened? What did they say to you? Was it a real demon? How did you fight it? Did she use her Qi?”
Kenji was overwhelmed.
“Come on,” she coaxed him. “It’s not every day my best friend is attacked by a demon and gets rescued by a mystic warrior. Tell me what happened!”
Her mention of best friend was the only thing he heard and it warmed his heart. “It was terrifying,” Kenji began. “But also the most amazing experience I’ve ever had in my life.”
Now that he could reflect upon it in retrospect, watching Olja fight that demon was like living in one of the legendary stories they’d read as children. Kenji recounted the events for Shinoto in detail and by the time he’d finished her jaw was nearly on the ground. He’d left out the part about the Tsu and Olja claiming the demon had come for him, however. But even as he held it back, he considered whether he should tell her or not. His father said not to, but if Shinoto was indeed his best friend…
“Can you keep a secret?”
Shinoto blinked at him. “Sure.”
Kenji told her and Shinoto’s jaw scraped the ground for a second time.
“That can’t be right,” she said.
Kenji shrugged. “I hope it isn’t.”
She glanced over his shoulder towards the house. “Do you think that’s what they’re discussing right now?”
“I suppose,” Kenji said. “They even asked Waru to join them.”
Shinoto wrinkled her nose like she smelled something bad. “Old Waru?”
“Yes. I thought it was strange as well.”
“Strange? It’s outright bizarre.” She glanced at the house again. “We should listen in on what they’re saying.”
“What?”
“Doesn’t your house have a roof attic like mine?”
“Yes, but…”
“But what? Am I the only one of us to be forced to go against their parents’ authority?”
She grinned at him. Shinoto had him there. “All right, but if we get caught...”
“We won’t. Now come on.”
Shinoto channeled her Qi and with a wave of her hands, evoked her Qinggong technique. The slender seven-year old scaled up the side of the house like a monkey and flipped through the attic window. For Kenji it was a much different affair. Using the strength of his arms only, he narrowly gripped the edge of the roof and then pulled his way up, flipping through the attic window with a roll.
Shinoto stared at him, wide-eyed. “By the heavens… you really are strong.”
Kenji raised a finger to his lips and then whispered. “They’re in the kitchen.”
They crept forward through the house and reached the opening for the stove pipe. It was narrowly wider than the pipe itself, which continued on through the low roof above their heads. By leaning closely, they had a scant view of the three men below and a clear window into their conversation. Currently his father was speaking.
“It would take her weeks to recover here and by that time, it could be too late. We need to interrogate her now and find out exactly how much she knows.”
“So what do you suggest?” Chief Wu asked.
“The healing stones in Amatsu Village,” he said. “With their concentrated essence she could recover in hours.”
“Is she well enough to travel?”
“It’s a day or so by river,” Xian Lu said. “She can rest just as easily in a boat as a bed.”
Chief Wu looked to Waru. “What are your thoughts, General?”
General? Both Kenji and Shinoto shared a glance in silence.
At the mention of the title, Kenji somehow expected Waru to speak differently, as if he’d been perhaps putting on a charade the entire time. But he responded with the same slurred and sloppy speech as always. “The separatists are always hatching schemes, but I agree with Xian Lu. A Tsu offensive finding its way past the wall and this deep into Zhou territory is next to impossible. Not unless they had a 30th-Dan mystic warrior traveling with them. But even then, word of that would have spread like wildfire.”
“Why else would she mention the Tsu then?” Chief Wu asked.
Waru shrugged and belched. “Only the sleeping angel over there would know. Hells, it could have been someone’s name she mentioned. Sure there ain’t no other way to wake her up?”
“Not with what we have here,” Xian Lu said. “It will be weeks before she regains consciousness and is able to regenerate her body with her own Qi again.”
“So it leads us back to the first option then,” Chief Wu said. “A journey to Amatsu Village.”
“Easily done,” Waru said. “I could transport both her and the lad. If there is some kind of threat out there, then it’s best we relocate him from the village. Quietly though. None of the other villagers need to know. He’d be good help on the boat too. His body is as strong as an ox.”
The lad...? Was Waru talking about him?
“Best to let him know now then,” Xian Lu said. “He can help prepare the boat. You should leave before nightfall.”
Nightfall? Kenji and Shinoto shared another glance. Why so sudden?
“What about the demon?” Chief Wu asked. “It was a bloodskull fiend, was it not?”
“It should not be able to cross water easily,” Xian Lu said. “And it’s much diminished in strength now. If they travel via the river, they should be fine.”
“And the village?” Waru asked.
“Reinforcements should soon be on their way,” Chief Wu said. “I sent a message directly to General Amikazu himself. Mystic artists from the capital will still take time to Windwalk here, but between the two of us and the militia, we should be fine until they arrive.”
“I suppose that settles it then,” Waru said. “What will we tell the lad?”
“Leave that to me,” Xian Lu said. “I’ll come up with something.”
Waru then nodded. “I’ll go fetch him then.”
Kenji’s heart slammed into his chest. They needed to go now! Shinoto was already ahead of him, climbing though the attic and leaping out the window with her Qinggong. Kenji followed as best he could, tumbling out of the window and landing heavily onto his feet.
Please don’t let them have heard me…
A moment later he heard Waru’s voice. “Kenji!”
Kenji rounded the house, trying to catch his breath and look natural. “Yes, Waru.”
The old man thumbed towards the door. “Your father wants you.” He then looked at something behind him. “Shinoto?”
The small girl bounced to Kenji’s side. “Are you all finished in there? I’m waiting to dress the warrior’s wounds.”
“Oh,” Waru said, looking surprised. “Well… perhaps you should go ahead then. We can discuss out here.”
Kenji wasn’t sure if the outcome was what Shinoto had planned, but it had served the purpose of masking any trace of their recent eavesdropping. In a few minutes his father and Chief Wu emerged from the house and Shinoto went inside.
“There’s been a change in the warrior’s condition,” Xian Lu said. “The dark Qi has penetrated her doma. She’ll need to be seen by the healers in Amatsu Village.”
Kenji did his best to feign surprise…or concern, but he had no idea which appeared on his face. “That’s terrible news
. Will they be able to help her there?”
“We hope so, lad,” Waru said. “Your father has instructed me to take her upriver and I’ll need your help.”
Kenji bowed to his father. “I’d be happy to help.”
Echoes of their recent conversation played in his mind. These were all people he trusted and respected. And while he could sense no malice towards him when they’d spoken of him earlier, he could not say that he trusted them entirely anymore. They knew a secret he didn’t. And Kenji almost wished he hadn’t eavesdropped on them now.
Perhaps not knowing would have been better.
“You’ll aid Waru in preparing the boat and gathering supplies,” Xian Lu said. “You depart before sundown.”
“I see,” Kenji said dispassionately.
“Is something wrong, Kenji?” Chief Wu suddenly asked, his eyes piercing him.
His spine stiffened. He should have reacted far more surprised than that. Not resignedly. Like someone who already knew his own fate. A sweat broke upon his brow as the three of them stared at him for an answer. He felt trapped. No different than being stuck a dullard with a damaged doma. Why would a demon be looking for a useless dullard like him anyway?
Then he felt it. That subtle insolence again.
If this was to be his last day in Han Village, then perhaps he could take the one thing he truly cared for with him. “I think it would make sense for Shinoto to come as well.”
They all blinked at him.
“What?” his father said. “Shinoto?”
Waru, however, merely grinned.
Kenji then used the same reasoning that Shinoto used upon him. “Look at what Shinoto is doing now. You can’t expect us, two men, to do that, would you?”
Chief Wu chuckled. “No… I suppose not.” He then shared a smile with Xian Lu. “Leave it to a youth to ponder upon such things.”
The two old men made boys laughed.
Kenji didn’t care. If he was leaving before sundown, then at least now it would be with Shinoto.
Chapter 10 - Repercussions
