by Lynn Francis
“This doesn’t feel right” Ishikawa replied. He looked around. It felt to him as the sea itself was watching them, judging their every move.
“You are not a sailor. It is natural to be nervous at sea” was Riku’s answer. And yet, they were not so far out that they could not see land. This went beyond nerves at being afloat. Something was not right and Ishikawa could feel it in his bones. And yet he refused to show fear beyond voicing his concern that something was wrong.
The Taira ships had formed a unified line that suggested they were able to hold the boats perfectly in line. As they approached they had just enough time to see that they had in fact tied together planks between the ships holding them together. Before they could consider what that meant for them a shower of arrows fell upon them.
Cursing Ishikiawa turned to begin giving commands to his men and saw that Riku was pierced with an arrow and was staring directly into the sea, a growling sound coming from deep within his throat. He went to join Riku again, but the next volley of arrows hit causing complete panic among the men. If he had any chance of staying alive he had to concentrate on the now.
“Riku is more than capable to taking care of himself and I hope that he starts taking care of this fight” he thought to himself as he raised his own shield to move into a defensive line with his men.
Riku did not feel the arrow that pierced through his armor and into his shoulder. He was staring down into the eyes of the water dragon God. Ryūjin’s eyes were aflame as he spoke:
“You have asked too much hanyo. You have played with the natural balance and you reek of corruption. I will not allow you to tip the balance anymore. You have come into my terrority. My natural habitat and you do so to attack Antoku. This is my chosen emperor we are talking about. I will protect him. You have meddled with the natural balance and the way of this land and it ends here!”
“Protecting the emperor” spat Riku. “He is no longer a descendant of the sun Goddess. You know that. He is the result of never ending corruption and swapping one powerful family for another. This emperor could be anyone. He has just as much peasant in him as God!”
“He has my sword and my blessing” hissed Ryūjin. “I will not allow you to come in here, you corrupted version of human flesh and destroy it.”
“I have, and I will” Riku cried before he launched himself from the ship’s prow at the dragon god, pulling his sword and his mouth open and his teeth bared.
Landing on the dragons back he sunk his fangs in deep as the dragon roared and reared back to snap at his head. Riku felt the rich blood of the dragon enter his mouth and a calm came over him before a sense of immense power.
“This is what power tastes like” he thought to himself.It was one of the last conscious thoughts he had. The ecstasy that flowed through his body completely overwhelmed him and he had had no preparation against it.
As he floated off on a wave of bliss the part of him that was still Sutoku raged in his blood cells, it was this raging and that rage alone that caused Riku to become aware of his surroundings as if through a fog. It was enough for him to see the dragon god’s jaws open ready to snap upon him but not enough to jolt him into action to stop it.
Men riddled with arrows fell into the sea around them and in the confusion Riku mistook the humanoid who splashed into the water next to him as one of the dead or dying. His mind finally began to clear the edges of bliss as claws dug into both his shoulders and heaved him out of the water just as Ryūjin’s mouth snapped shut around the space that used to contain him.
The Tengu heaved Riku onto the ship and the serpent’s body rose out of the sea and he bellowed as he crashed onto the ship cracking it in half.
Riku finally cleared the bliss from his veins and felt only the power that drinking the dragon god’s blood gave him. Looking around he saw that his ship was moments from sinking. The Tengu once again latched onto his shoulder and flew with him to shore, his claws creating an agony in his shoulder in sharp contrast to the bliss he had felt moments before.
Dropped onto land he pulled the arrow from his shoulder and sent the Tengu back for Lord Ishikawa should the man still live.
His first defeat since turning into a blood drinker turned sour in his mouth even as the newfound god’s blood coursed through his veins.
Chapter 12
“Defeated?” Yoshinaka roared. He flung his arms across the desk knocking all scrolls onto the floor. “How is that even possible? The man is a demon! And he was overcome by the Taira???”
The messenger bowed lower before replying “There are rumors that the dragon God Ryūjin himself arrived to fight. Tengus flew the sky but retreated after the first boats were destroyed Ryūjin.”
“Leave” Yoshinaka hissed. “Leave and go straight to Lord Ishikawa’s castle. Demand to see Takiyasha-hime. Tell her I want an explanation and I want one now!”
The man’s head touched the floor before be hurried out of the room. His departure was followed by his commander Yukie entering.
“I told you not to trust her” Yukie said after he sent the remaining men in the room away.
Yoshinaka looked at the man who had joined his side in not just the fight against the Taira, but also in supporting him as the new head of the Minamoto clan.
“You were not there when they ambushed me with the Tengu, and you did not see how the demon Riku during the battle of Kurikara. He almost single handedly destroyed the Taira. Because of him the tide of war has turned in our favor. Because of him I am sitting here today, in Kyoto, while Yoritomo is still in the North, wishing he was here where I am now.”
Yukie shook his head. “I agree that you are the best person to lead our clan. I have betrayed Yoritomo for you. I will continue to work with you, but I do not like nor do I trust this demon nor his witch.”
The light in Yoshinaka’s eyes changed. “It is because I have failed them. I am sure of it. This is a warning to me that they can also leave me.”
“What are you talking about?” Yukie demanded.
“They want Go-Shirakawa. That has been the only demand they have made of me. That when the time comes I stand aside to give him to them. If they want the cloistered emperor so bad then I will give him to them.”
Yukie’s confusion was written clearly on his face. “What do you mean?”
“Riku himself said to me to bring him Emperor Go-Shirakawa and he would ensure that I am the next emperor in all but name of Japan.”
Yoshinaka was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he did not see the look of horror that crossed Yukie’s face.
“What are you suggesting?” Yukie asked.
Yoshinaka looked again at Yukie. “I will take Go-Shirakawa, by force, to the demon.”
Yukie no Minamoto returned to his own rooms refusing to speak to anyone. His stomach rolled at both the memory of the look in Yoshinaka’s eyes and at the words that escaped his mouth. He sent for the Onmyōji.
When Abe no Tanetadai arrived they gave each curt bows.
Yukie offered the Onmyōji tea before they sat together.
“I find myself in a most awkward situation and unsure how to proceed” Yukie announced.
Abe no Tanetadai choose to remain silent and so Yukie continued.
“I understand that you are committed to the emperor and to Go-Shirakawa.”
At this Abe no Tanetadai nodded but he continued to remain silent.
“I will confess that I have not been loyal to our clan leader, but that is only because I truly believed Yoshinaka was the best man to lead us forward. However, my loyalty to our emperor was never in question. And my loyalty to Yoshinaka does not trump my loyalty to our present or the cloistered emperor. It is for this reason I turn to you. I trust you in this. Yoshinaka intends to kidnap Go-Shirakawa from Hōjūji Palace and deliver him directly into the demons hands.”
Finally Abe no Tanetadai spoke. His tone did not reveal his emotions. “Are you sure about this?”
When Yukie nodded Abe no Tanetadai stood up and bow
ed to him, much deeper this time than when he had entered. “Thank you for this information. I will dispatch people now to both the emperor and Yoritomo.”
Yukie stood up too, “there is no one here we can trust outside of each other. The men are all Yoshinaka’s.”
Abe no Tanetadai shook his head. “I have only this morning been given the information and the means of those who can help us directly. Have no fear.”
Chapter 13
Takeshima-hime was pacing the floor while Lord Ishikawa stared out the window completely ignoring her.
Lord Ishikawa’s voice came out even. “You can be defeated Riku. Perhaps you are not as insurmountable as we originally believed.”
Takiyasha-hime stopped her pacing and turned on him. “He was up against the water god himself. And he still lives. I think that makes him insurmountable.”
Riku interrupted, his voice tight with control “Thank you Takiyasha-hime, but my living is strictly thanks to the Tengu that retrieved me. That blood, as soon as I tasted it, I went into a kind of ecstasy. I no longer cared about anything. Never before has anything like that occured before.”
Takiyasha-hime spun on him. “But you did live, and now you are even stronger. Do you understand? The blood of a god runs through your veins now.”
“And it mingles with that of Sutoku’s essence within him” Ishikawa said. “We have no idea what we can expect from you.”
“It is a little late to be worried about what Riku can or can not do” Takiyasha-hime broke in. “He has proven time and time again to be stronger than that within him.”
“And I it has brought me to doubt my own sanity” Riku said. “I want this finished. And soon. We gather our people and we march.”
“Do you trust the tengu?” Ishikawa asked.
“No, of course not. But right now we need them. And I can keep them under control. They may feel that I am weak, but Takiyasha-hime is right about being stronger. Ryūjin flows through these veins now, no matter if that is what he wanted or not.”
Riku closed his eyes and clutched at his temples. “The pain is getting stronger” he thought to himself. A sliver of icy fear wove it’s way through his stomach and up into his heart.
“How long can I control this?” he wondered as a craving for blood seized him.
Ishikawa’s eyes narrowed “Riku what is it?”
Riku felt his teeth sharpen and the need rose urgently.
“It’s the bloodlust” Takiyasha-hime said. She turned to Riku. “Run now. Go out and hunt, come back when you have it under control. Go find out how much you have the Tengu under control.”
And without another word Riku fled to the forest, ready to satiate himself with deer but knowing that it would not be enough.
Chapter 14
Yoshitsune no Minamoto stood before the blazing Hōjūji Palace and swore. He turned to the three that rode beside him, his trust did not extend to them and he wondered now if this was in fact a trap.
The man and the woman had appeared before him as he rode with his small contingent of men towards Kyoto to put an end to his traitorous cousin attempted reign. They had appeared out of the woods blocking his path. His instinct had been to cut them down, but as one was a monk he had hesitated and chose to give them the benefit of allowing them to speak first.
Yoshitsune still shivered at the memory of that meeting. The monk had said they were “aligned” in their quest and when Yoshitsune had scorned them and moved to strike them down for their delaying of his mission the woman had transformed before his eyes. One moment she had been human and the next she towered above the trees as a snarling nine tailed fox. It had been horrifying and he had submitted instantaneously. The samurai who stood up to everyone and everything since he was a small child. He who backed away from no one and up until a few days ago nothing, had cowered before her.
He had not forgiven her for it, not even as they relayed that they had been sent by the third man now with them, Yukie no Minamoto, with news that Yoshinaka planned to kidnap Go Shirakawa and give him to the demon he was in league with.
And now their rescue mission may already have been in vain.
“Convenient” Yoshitsune said turning to Yukie, but before he could say anything else the fox spirit spoke.
“He is not far, he has fled over the Uji and now tears the bridge up to stop us from crossing. We must go now if we are to catch him. We still can!”
Yoshitsune hesitated only a moment as he weighed the chances of it being a trap.
“And yet if it is I go in to strike rather than turn and hide now. I will send for Noriyori to meet us, I will not go down lightly” he decided. “Send for Noriyori, tell him I need his men now. Full mobilization” he said to his messenger before he urged his men onward.
“We will not let the traitor Yoshinaka escape with our emperor, cloistered or not! Down with the traitors who did not allow our former ruler live out his days in peace but rather have shattered his right to a life of worship” he cried to the men to spur them on.
They rode on to the river and sure enough the bridge had been destroyed.
“Into the water!” Yoshitsune cried to his men and they hesitated as Yukie spoke up.
“What about the current?” Yukie asked him.
“Damn the current!” Yoshitsune cried. “That is the least of our worries at the moment. We have horses, they can swim! Into the water or be treated like I will treat Yoshinaka when we come upon him!”
The men followed Yoshitsune into the water, the cold water pulling at their bodies as the horses began to swim. The current was not strong and Yoshitsune suspected they feared encountering Kappa more than the river itself.
“In fact, that is probably exactly what Yoshinaka hoped, that we would either refuse to cross or be dragged under by Kappa” he thought to himself. “And yet not even Kappa will dare to attack us with a nine tail among our ranks.”
And sure enough, each and every man who crossed the river was accounted for on the other side.
The samurai Yoshinaka had left to watch on the other side of the river came thundering up on his horse.
“Yoshitsune has crossed the river with the horses, he continues to pursue us my Lord.”
Yoshinaka swore loudly and dismissed the man. Yukie had betrayed him and now Yoshitsune was pursuing him. The only one he had left was his milk brother Kanehira, inwardly he felt the blind panic that he had been trying to hold at bay since the flames had taken Hōjūji Palace.
“We must fight” Yoshinaka thought to himself. “If we continue to flee we will be like rats pursued through the night. I will never make it to Riku and help in time. Even if some of Yoshitsune’s men are taken down by Kappa, we will still have a significant amount of men to stand off against and I will lose. I need Kanehira, I hate to bring him into this, but he is my last chance of hope.”
Yoshinaka called back to his messenger samurai and told him to summon his milk brother. The last human on the planet he felt he could still trust. With a black feeling in his stomach Yoshinaka realized he did not even include himself in the list of those he still trusted.
Chapter 15
Takiyasha-hime was waiting in the garden when Riku returned. The crazed look that he had in his eyes when he took off had been replaced by a haunted one.
“I take it you have quenched the blood lust?” she asked him.
“I have it under control if that is what you mean. I am never truly satiated as you well know. Minus the moments after the death of a human.”
