Midnite's Daughter

by Rick Gualtieri

  Hinode (hin-noh-day) – Twin sister of Midnite, daimao, and member of the celestial court. Hinode appears as almost a mirror opposite of Midnite, possessing stark white hair and preferring to dress in light colors.

  Ito (ee-toh) – A ferret youkai who serves Ichitiro. Ito is disliked among the other servants of the celestial palace due to his penchant for stealing objects that don’t belong to him.

  Tanaki (tah-nah-key) – A badger youkai in the service of Midnite. What she lacks in humor, she more than makes up for in efficiency.

  Rokusan (roh-koo-sahn) – One of the daimao and a member of the celestial court.

  Kaokatta (kay-oh-kah-tah) – A sword forged and wielded by Ichitiro. The Kaokatta resembles a large notched scimitar seemingly made of black flame. It burns hot enough to melt through most metals like butter.

  Sensuru (sen-sue-rue) – One of the most feared of the Taiyosori’s powers. When activated, the thousand “stars” visible within the Taiyosori’s blade leap forth and form projectiles made of pure divine energy.

  Ishigachi (ee-she-ga-chee) – Also known as Ishigaki. A Japanese island west of Okinawa. Considered by the daimao to be one of the “blessed isles”.

  Sata Andagi (sah-tah an-dah-ghee) – Sweet deep fried buns of dough, native to the island of Okinawa.

  BONUS CHAPTER

  MIDNITE’S LEGACY

  Kisaki concentrated with everything she had left, putting every ounce of her remaining focus to work. Deep down, though, she knew it wouldn’t be nearly enough. She’d done the impossible, defeated one of the daimao, but she had a feeling the foe before her would not be so easily bested.

  “Well, young miss?” Shitoro asked. “I’m waiting.”

  “Um, the Carnoterians revolted against their Janjanbi masters because ... they wished for self-rule and freedom of expression?”

  Shitoro narrowed his eyes and began tapping his clawed fingers upon the desk at which Kisaki sat. “Freedom of expression? Need I remind you that the Carnoterians are an insectoid race with a hive mind? They rose up because the Janjanbi accidentally exterminated their queen, a fact you would know if you put your feeble intellect to work studying instead of staring out the window.”

  Kisaki threw her arms up in frustration. “I know, and I’m sorry, Shitoro. It’s just that we’ve been at it for seven hours and I’m bored.”

  The tiger demon let out a sigh. “Tell me, child, what did you think would happen when your mother left us on this backwater world?”

  “That we’d work together to protect the people of this fine planet.”

  “I see.” Shitoro continued to tap on her desk. “And how, may I ask, do you plan to protect anything if you are ignorant of even the most basic facts of the multiverse?”

  “Basic facts? Those creatures don’t even exist in this dimension!”

  “A flimsy excuse if ever I’ve heard one.”

  Kisaki leaned back and stretched. The dual nature of her relationship with Shitoro could be maddening at times. On the field of battle she was firmly in charge ... mostly anyway. But the moment it came time to stand down, his thoughts immediately turned back to her studies. The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that her mother’s chief servant, Tanaki, had recently paid them a visit, delivering to Shitoro a small mountain of lesson scrolls.

  Wasn’t this half the reason she’d fled the palace to begin with? Now, here she was, on Earth, but once more relegated to being a veritable prisoner. Her only solace was that she’d made friends here. If only she could have seen them more often than she was allowed. Speaking of which... “Can I please have my iPad back when we are finished?”

  “And what use could you possibly have for that contraption?”

  “I want to Facetime Tamiko later. See how she’s doing?”

  Shitoro raised an eyebrow. “Why you feel the need to view that human’s face is beyond me. Personally, I don’t see the appeal.”

  Kisaki blew out a pained breath. Some things never seemed to change.

  Following the massive cleanup effort in Cartersville, Tamiko’s father had requested that she return home. She had her own studies to get back to and, as he pointed out, technically she was in the United States illegally. He wanted her home to continue her schooling, and also so he could work on ensuring that when next she visited Kisaki she wouldn’t necessarily need to use magic to cross the border.

  All of this had been confusing at first, but gradually Kisaki had come to learn that the myriad nations of this planet were in many ways like the rooms she’d been confined to in the celestial palace. If one did not possess the proper permission, then one was not permitted to leave. Of course, an entire country was a bit different than a mere wing of a palace. Nevertheless, once the shock of their existence had worn off, others began to bring up that same point regarding Kisaki and Shitoro.

  Thankfully, they’d had no shortage of supporters in the days following Ichitiro’s defeat. Even now, one of them, a purveyor of the law, was elsewhere fighting for what he called their “God-given rights”.

  Kisaki wasn’t sure which of the elder gods he represented, but she could only hope his battle was more interesting than today’s history lesson.

  She and the tiger demon locked eyes in a silent test of wills until finally Shitoro appeared to relent. “Very well.”

  “Yes!”

  “We will continue for only three more hours today, then you may have a small break.”

  “Three hours?!”

  “Yes, unless you would prefer I send a communique to your mother asking her opinion on the matter.” Kisaki’s crestfallen face was apparently all the answer he needed. “Oh, do stop pouting, child. Once we are finished, you are free to converse with your pet human. See if she has learned any new tricks.”

  It was better than nothing.

  Kisaki had just resigned herself to a slow death by boredom when the door to the small apartment flew open and her friend Stephen stepped in.

  Shitoro glared at him, no doubt annoyed that his lesson was being interrupted, but Stephen ignored him. He walked past them both, to the window looking down onto the street below, closed the blinds, then opened them again a crack to peek out.

  “We have discussed this before, human. Kisaki’s lessons are not to be disturbed.”

  “Shh,” Stephen hissed. He looked out again, then turned back to them. “Okay. I don’t think he followed me.”

  “Who?” Kisaki stood up from her desk, grateful that he was there. “What’s wrong?”

  Stephen paused for a moment, as if considering what to say, then replied, “I don’t know. I’m probably just being stupid.”

  “If you’re expecting me to be surprised by that confession, you’re in for disappointment,” Shitoro muttered.

  Kisaki approached her friend and looked out the window, too, seeing nothing but an empty street.

  Stephen inclined his head and shrugged. “Like I said, probably me just being paranoid. You remember how there were tons of reporters converging on this place after you kicked that Ichitiro guy’s ass?”

  “They made the cleanup effort more difficult than it needed to be.”

  “Exactly,” he replied. “Well, we still get them on occasion. Usually they’ll snoop around, see if they can find anyone who’s willing to talk about you, and then leave once they get bored.”

  Kisaki nodded. “Captain Coulson has been most generous in keeping us from being overly inundated.”

  “Yeah, well, usually they’re easy to spot. But today some guy approached me who I hadn’t seen before. At first, I thought maybe he was from my high school, someone I just didn’t recognize, but he immediately started in on me.”

  “How so?” Shitoro asked, having apparently accepted that his lesson was over for now.

  “He walked right up to me and said, ‘I saw you on the news. You know where to find her’.”

  Shitoro made a dismissive sound. “Probably another one of those ... what did
you call them ... ah yes, fanboys.”

  Stephen shook his head. “That’s what I thought at first. So I played dumb.” He noticed the way Shitoro was smirking. “Don’t start with me, fleabag. I told him I didn’t know who he was talking about, so he said and I quote, ‘tell me where I can find the hanyou called Midnight Girl’.”

  Kisaki perked up at that. It wasn’t a term she’d heard many humans use. “He said that word, hanyou?”

  “Yep. And that’s not all. Maybe it’s just me, but there was something off about him. It’s weird, he looked like a regular guy, nothing intimidating about him, but he was putting off this vibe that was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “Told him again that I didn’t know what he was talking about, then I walked away. Waited until he was out of sight, then I hightailed it back here. Cut across a bunch of lawns and hopped a few fences to make sure he didn’t follow me.”

  “And yet you still managed to do a piss poor job of it,” a voice coolly replied from just outside the apartment door.

  All eyes turned that way as a teenaged boy, roughly Stephen’s age in appearance stepped uninvited through the doorway. By all appearances he was dressed rather unremarkably – wearing jeans, a button down shirt, and a light jacket. Short black hair sat atop a tanned face. Then Kisaki saw his eyes. They had a slight cant to them, hinting at perhaps a mixed heritage, but it was both their color and intensity which froze her in her tracks. Appearing a muddy brown in the shadow of the doorway, once he stepped inside into the light, the dark red color of his irises became evident. They reminded Kisaki of the color of blood.

  Whatever hold his gaze had over her apparently didn’t affect Shitoro. He stepped right up and pointed a clawed finger at the stranger. “I will warn you, human, crossing our threshold unbidden can result in nothing save your immediate...”

  “Step aside, youkai. My business is not with you.”

  Yellow sparks of energy began to gather around Shitoro, his attempt at being intimidating. “You arrogant lout, I will...” His words trailed off as Kisaki watched his nose working. “What the? You...”

  “Are not your concern.” He placed a hand atop Shitoro’s head, ignoring the magical energy crackling off the little youkai’s body, and pushed him to the side.

  Stephen balled his fist and made to step in front of Kisaki, but she put out a hand to stay him. “You say you have business with me. Speak it now.”

  The newcomer stared into Kisaki’s eyes and simply stated, “You’re the hanyou they call Midnight Girl.”

  “My name is Kisaki.”

  The stranger’s neutral expression instantly changed into a grin. “Thank goodness, because that other name ... no offence, but it’s pretty fucking bad.”

  Kisaki wasn’t sure what to think. This wasn’t how a foe typically acted, but his blunt nature didn’t exactly suggest friend either. “It was not a title of my choosing.”

  He nodded. “I know how that is. I’ve been saddled with my fair share of stupid nicknames over the years. Amazing what people will come up with, isn’t it? Well, that’s neither here nor there. What matters is you’ve managed to become quite famous in a very short time, Kisaki.”

  “Also not my choice.”

  “Hey, pal,” Stephen said, “if you’re looking for an autograph you could have just asked.”

  “You mistake my motivation, child, I ... I would not do that if I were you.” He pointed a finger toward Shitoro who was preparing another spell. “This jacket is aniline leather and I would much prefer to not get it wet.”

  Shitoro glanced toward Kisaki and she gave him a single nod of her head. She had no idea what this person wanted, but she preferred they not be the ones to initiate hostilities.

  “Thank you,” the teen said to her. “As I was saying, I’m not here for an autograph or a picture. If anything, I’m already quite famous enough myself.”

  “Really?” Stephen asked with a quick laugh. “Sorry, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard of you.”

  “Haven’t you? I had thought the Bible was quite popular in this area of the world. It makes prominent mention of me and the unfortunate fate met by my brother, albeit it greatly bastardized the details.”

  “Are you shitting us?”

  “What’s a Bible?” Shitoro asked. “And what has it got to do with you, hanyou?”

  Kisaki turned to him, eyes wide. “He’s a hanyou, too?”

  “I could smell it on him, my lady.”

  The teen ignored Shitoro as he took a step closer to Kisaki. “I’m not just any hanyou. They call me Cain – the forever cursed, the marked, the first son of man. I have walked this Earth for over four-thousand years, tasked with but one duty by my father – to hunt down and exterminate others like me.”

  MIDNITE’S LEGACY

  Coming Soon!