Midnite's Daughter

by Rick Gualtieri

  A cacophony of shots rang out, near deafening as they echoed through the street. Crag was hit over and over again, the barrage finally driving him to his knees.

  “They’re doing it!” she cried, hugging Shitoro tightly.

  “Let me go, child,” he complained.

  She did, giving him a chance to change back to his humanoid form. “Good idea,” she said, getting back to her feet. “There’s still plenty more to take care of.”

  “No!” he hissed. “You don’t understand. We still have Crag to deal with.”

  “What do you...?”

  But Kisaki’s question was answered once Crag began to glow. A dark blue light suffused him even as he continued to be peppered by bullets.

  “We need to grab hold of something, quick!” Shitoro cried.

  “Why?”

  The skies above them began to darken, clouds forming where there had been nothing but clear sky before. And then those clouds began to spin, slow at first, but rapidly picking up speed.

  “Oh my!” Kisaki gasped as a funnel cloud began to form high in the sky, slowly reaching down to where the wounded mazoku now stood, his arms held out above him and a cackle of laughter upon his lips.

  “What is he doing?” she shouted over the rising wind.

  “His people,” Shitoro replied, grabbing hold of her leg as a heavy gust almost took him off his feet. “They were known in the past as storm giants!”

  32

  For once, Kisaki wished she’d been a better student. She remembered seeing mention of such creatures in various scrolls but couldn’t remember many details. She’d been fascinated by tales of Earth, so seemingly mundane lessons, such as youkai physiology, were often ignored in favor of daydreaming.

  If we survive this, I’m going to re-read every single one of them all over again, she vowed to herself as the wind intensified. Kisaki found her newfound strength formidable, but she was still a relatively petite girl. The wind whipping around Crag, leaving him untouched in the center of it all, was already peeling pieces off the nearby buildings and sending garbage and debris flying all around. It was all she could do to hold her ground against it.

  Worst of all, the gunshots had ceased, as those firing upon Crag no doubt took shelter from the rising winds.

  Shitoro lost his grip and was swept away, his claws scraping uselessly against the ground as he futilely sought to find purchase.

  “Shitor...” Her words were cut short as a garbage can flew into her, knocking her off balance. The wind did the rest. Kisaki went tumbling head over heels and still the wind continued to increase. She slammed into something, a tree ... no, what Tamiko had called a telephone pole, knocking the breath from her. Nevertheless, she managed to wrap her arms around it before she could be torn away.

  She and the townsfolk weren’t the only ones being affected. A wolf went flying past her, only to slam into the side of a building. A hawk youkai in humanoid form had been caught in the swirling maelstrom surrounding Crag. Its attempts to escape were futile, as first its feathers were stripped from its body, then it was torn limb from limb by the onslaught.

  Though it was impossible to tell, Kisaki could have sworn Crag’s cruel laughter carried on the roaring wind.

  I have to stop this!

  Unfortunately, she had no idea how. Magic, offensive or otherwise, was something she had little talent at. She could barely conjure smoke, much less a gout of fire. She had no gun, not even a bow and arrow ... not that any such weapon would be particularly effective at that moment. In fact, she could think of nothing that would help against…

  What the?!

  There came a throbbing of heat from her side. She looked down to find her jacket had flown open, revealing the quill that had once been a sword. As her eyes locked on it, it seemed to pulse again.

  She didn’t know what it meant. A quill was useless as a weapon, regardless of circumstance. In the face of this monsoon, it would do nothing. Neither would a sword, for that matter, Kisaki mused, feeling her grip start to slip. Soon enough, one of two things would happen: either she’d let go, or the pole would be ripped from the ground.

  She realized that she had nothing to lose either way.

  Fine, let’s see what this thing can do!

  She let go with one hand, barely holding on by her fingernails with the other, then reached for the quill.

  Almost...

  The wind caught the plumes of the feather and ripped it from her grasp. Her cries of despair were lost in the fury of the storm. She watched, helpless, as the Taiyosori flew through the air. It did not tumble as she expected. Instead it flew straight, as if shot from a crossbow, to become embedded in the wood of a bench half a block away where it held true, despite the wind continuing to buffet it.

  Sadly, there was no way for her to get to it, not without being swept away. All hope seemed lost as...

  A horn blared from somewhere close by, followed by a siren, its sound distorted by the wind. Kisaki looked up to see a police car. No, something larger. Tamiko had called them SUVs. One was racing down the street toward Crag, its weight keeping it on the ground and its powerful engine driving it forward.

  The storm giant turned and saw it coming a moment too late. He roared in defiance and the glow around him intensified. The vehicle slowed in speed but did not stop.

  It slammed into Crag at greater than running pace with an audible crunch of metal. Something white expanded in the cabin, obscuring the driver from view, while Crag was sent stumbling.

  He went down to one knee, catching himself before he could fall, but the glow around him ceased. As if in response, the wind immediately began to die down. Within seconds, she no longer needed to grasp the telephone pole to hold her ground.

  Kisaki didn’t waste any time. She knew Crag couldn’t be allowed to cast his spell again. She raced forward, pushing against the remnant wind with everything she had, fighting to gain speed and gradually winning the battle.

  Crag looked up with a snarl just in time to catch her knee to his face. Powerful as he was, there came the crunch of bone breaking, and he fell onto his backside clutching his bloodied nose.

  It was a good blow, but far from a fatal one. Kisaki would need to remedy that.

  Before she could follow through, though, the doors to the crashed SUV opened and out stepped her friends – Tamiko from the passenger side and Stephen from the driver’s seat.

  “Oh, yeah! Bite me, bitch,” Stephen said, pointing at the downed mazoku for a moment before rubbing his forehead. “Wow, those airbags really hurt.”

  “How?” Kisaki asked, stunned at their arrival.

  “Someone left the keys,” Tamiko said a bit shakily, her hair still whipping from the dying wind. “And he does have his permit, after all.”

  “You didn’t really think we’d let you face this thing alone, did you?” Stephen replied with a laugh. He opened the back door of the vehicle and pulled out a weapon – another shotgun, from the looks of it. “Hope the boys in blue don’t mind me borrowing this too.”

  They all turned at the sound of a low growl. Crag was already getting back to his feet.

  Kisaki didn’t relish fighting with her friends in the midst of potential jeopardy, but then she realized what they had just done for her. She didn’t want them in danger, but neither did they want her to be in it. That’s what friends did. They cared for one another like that.

  Besides, she mused, it had been arrogant for her to presume she could win this fight alone. That was more the style of a beast such as Crag, who’d casually sacrificed his own troops as fodder. As much damage as had been wrought by his spell, the youkai bodies in the street greatly outnumbered the human casualties.

  Speaking of which…

  “Shitoro!” Kisaki shouted.

  “Dead like the rodent he is,” Crag snarled, standing up. He was nearly covered head to toe in bullet wounds but was still very much alive.

  “You lie.”
/>   “Do I? Even if not, then he soon shall be, just like you, little hanyou.”

  Though his spell had savaged the youkai he’d brought with him, it had also served to scatter the human resistance. The gunfire had all but stopped save for stray shots here or there sounding out, no doubt against any youkai who’d survived the storm. That wasn’t good. If the humans were scared, they were unlikely to distinguish friend from foe. Kisaki turned to Tamiko.

  Her friend seemingly read her mind. “I’ll find him. You take care of ugly here.”

  Kisaki flashed her a smile, then again faced Crag.

  The beast had stumbled several steps to the side. He now stood between her and the Taiyosori, still firmly embedded in the wood of the now overturned bench several dozen yards behind him. She glanced past him, debating how best to reach it.

  So far as she could tell, the best way to get it was to go through Crag.

  So be it.

  “Go. We’ll hold him,” Kisaki said to her friend.

  Tamiko backed up, then turned and took off. Crag watched her go with mild disinterest in his eyes. “You think she will survive? That any here will? Today is a glorious day, little hanyou, for we begin our march back to dominance on this world. And if the daimao do not agree, then perhaps it is time for them to be swept aside as well.”

  “By you?” Kisaki asked. “Do not make me laugh.”

  “Very well. Then perhaps I shall make you scream instead.” The wall of flesh and muscle that was Crag charged forward. Big as he was, he soon filled up most of her field of vision, and he had reach to match.

  Kisaki shoved Stephen to the side, away from the mazoku’s grasp, leaving her flank vulnerable to Crag for a second, but it was all he needed to fall upon her. One massive arm wrapped around her with frightening strength.

  Kisaki had counted on that, though, remembering the lesson shown to her in the vision by her father. She bent and twisted, hoping she possessed enough strength to do what she’d planned.

  For a moment, she feared she wasn’t strong enough, but then Crag was pulled off his feet and sent flying over her shoulder. He landed on his back with a heavy grunt.

  “Whoa. Remind me not to piss you off,” Stephen said before breaking out in a trot toward Crag.

  “What are you doing?” Kisaki called after him, but he was already outside of her reach.

  “Repaying you for Robbie,” he yelled back, lifting the gun to his shoulder.

  Crag sat up and slammed a fist into the asphalt, obviously more angry than injured. He rose to one knee and turned, only to find himself face to face with the barrel of Stephen’s gun.

  “Smile for the birdie.”

  He pulled the trigger, emptying the weapon point blank in Crag’s face.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  After their previous battle, Kisaki thought she would never welcome the demise of another living being. But she hadn’t counted on ever meeting a creature as reprehensible as the one they now fought. She cried out a cheer and raised her fist as Crag’s face seemed to disappear in a mist of blood and smoke.

  He fell back and lay unmoving as more voices rose to accompany hers.

  She turned to find the police, some on the rooftop and others on the street, clapping. At the sound of celebration, other townsfolk came out from behind closed doors to do the same.

  One of the police officers, a man with more authority about him than the sergeant, approached Stephen, who was still standing with the gun pointed, as if unsure that what he’d done had actually worked.

  “Maybe you should give that to me, son,” the officer said, resting a gentle hand on Stephen’s shoulder.

  That seemed to shake her friend from his daze. “Oh, um yeah. Sorry about ... well, y’know.”

  “We can talk about it later, but considering the weird-ass circumstances, I think we’ll write this one up as a wash.” He turned toward Kisaki. “As for you. How in hell did you manage to...”

  The sound of an approaching engine caught their attention and they turned to see another vehicle round a corner and approach them, swerving to avoid debris and unmoving youkai alike.

  Kisaki was confused. Was someone else trying to help them? If so, they were a little late.

  “Oh no, not now,” the officer said. He grabbed hold of something by his side, a box of sorts. It was larger than Tamiko’s phone, but he spoke into it much the same. “Coulson, you there?”

  A voice spoke back, clearly audible. “Yes, Captain.”

  “Get down here with Finchberg and cordon off this area ASAP. I want a blanket over everything weird, especially the big guy, and I want it done before our guests can start shooting.”

  “Roger, Captain.”

  Shooting? Kisaki turned toward the vehicle, even larger than the SUV Stephen had driven. WGXP NEWS was printed on the side in large letters. Were these more enemies come to challenge them?

  If so, the captain, as he was called, appeared to be far more annoyed than alarmed. He turned to Stephen. “Get your friend and find someplace out of sight. I don’t want you talking to...”

  He wasn’t given a chance to finish as a snarl of pure rage rent the air.

  Crag was still alive.

  33

  One moment, there had been no sign of life from his body. The next, Crag sat up with a growl of anger. Half his face was in ruins from the shotgun blast. He was missing an eye, and parts of his skull could be seen.

  Grievous as his injuries seemed to be, they didn’t appear to slow him as he leapt to his feet and descended upon the unwary captain.

  He pulled in the officer, still futilely trying to draw his own gun, and wrapped his massive hands around the man’s head.

  There came the sickening crunch of bone, and then Crag threw him to the side, discarding him as if he were one of the dolls Kisaki had once played with as a small child. The captain flew into the side of the battered SUV, then slid off onto the ground where he lay unmoving.

  As this happened, the second vehicle’s brakes screeched and it came to a halt not twenty feet away.

  A door on the side flew open and two people, a man and a woman, came charging out. The man was holding something over his shoulder, a black device not quite as long as Stephen’s gun, but bulkier.

  Please be a weapon, Kisaki thought as she raced forward and grabbed hold of her friend’s arm, dragging Stephen back as the man and woman approached them.

  “Please tell me you’re getting all of this,” the woman said.

  “Oh yeah. This is going to be the top headline for weeks.”

  The man pointed the device toward Kisaki. “Not us!” she cried to him. “Fire it at Crag!”

  “Fire?”

  “That’s not a gun,” Stephen said. “It’s a camera.”

  “A camera? Why are they using that here?”

  “Probably because they’re insane.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Murder shone in Crag’s remaining eye, but he seemed unfocused, as if he were still dazed from the blast. Kisaki realized she needed to get to the Taiyosori before he cleared his head and...

  And then what? She and Stephen continued to back away from the furious mazoku, but the truth was, she had no idea what to do once she retrieved the quill.

  Everyone seemed to think it was an all-powerful weapon, but she hadn’t seen it do anything but turn into a feather and give out the occasional shock. It had stunned Shitoro when he’d touched it, but no more. What hope would it be against a monster like Crag?

  “Get out of the way!”

  The warning came from the police officers still on the rooftop of their building, again taking aim at the massive demon. However, the man with the camera and his female companion were too close, continuing on whatever mad quest possessed them.

  “Run!” Kisaki screamed at them.

  They only moved back once Crag got dangerously near, their only salvation being that the monster still appeared to be confused. He snarled at th
em as he passed, then charged the vehicle they’d come in.

  With a roar of rage, he slammed into it, tipping it over onto its side. He drove his fists into it, denting the metal like it was paper, but then he abruptly stopped. He raised one hand to his injured head and gave it a shake.

  When he looked up again, the grogginess was gone from his face. He turned, surveying the scene, and then saw Kisaki and her friend. “You!”

  “Come with me!” Kisaki cried. She grabbed hold of Stephen’s arm and pulled him in the direction where the Taiyosori lay. Unfortunately, his foot caught on a broken piece of asphalt and he stumbled into her, knocking her off balance.

  “Sorry,” he said, helping her back to her feet.

  “Come on!”

  He nodded. “Did you see what he did to that van?”

  “Yes,” Kisaki replied. “It’s the same thing he will do to us if...” She trailed off. Crag was gone. He’d just been standing next to the van. But now, all she saw was the clearly insane human couple. The woman was speaking into a stubby black object while the man pointed the camera their way.

  “Going somewhere?”

  Kisaki spun to find Crag blocking her way again. For something so large, he moved disturbingly fast.

  “I am going to enjoy killing you. I will rip your screaming head from your body and throw it down at your mother’s feet. She will know the pain of loss before I cut her down. Now where is...”

  Unfortunately for them, Crag was seemingly not as stupid as Shitoro had made him out to be. He inclined his head, then turned to follow her gaze.

  “Something of interest behind me, little hanyou? Something you lost in the storm, perhaps.” He smiled, showing cracked and bloodied teeth. “Maybe a friend of yours ... a certain tiger youkai who has been living on borrowed time for far too long? Or maybe a weapon.”

  “It is not yours,” she warned.

  “Oh? And you claim it? You, a hanyou, lowest of the low. Bastard child of two worlds, yet belonging to neither. I think not. It is time the Taiyosori was possessed by one both worthy of its power and not afraid to use it.”