When she turned toward Takeo, she saw he was standing with his eyes closed and his hands palm-up.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Listening,” he said. “Feeling…”
Akari figured this must be a fae thing. She knew fae had a connection to the magical energies of the earth, which was why many humans did not trust them. Some humans considered fae to be more akin to demons than humans. Akari believed all magic in the world was connected, but she did not think all magic was inherently evil. She couldn’t. How else could she explain or accept her own Sword Kissed abilities?
“Do you sense anything?” Akari asked.
“There is something…” he said, his face twitching. “But it is faint. I cannot tell if it is weak, or simply old. Something fading with time…Wait…”
He gasped, suddenly flung to the ground by an unseen force. Akari drew her sword and ran to his side.
“What is it?” she yelled. She swung her gaze left and right but saw nothing. “Where did it go?”
His breath had been knocked out, and he struggled to breathe in. “I…I don’t know,” he gasped.
Akari stood. She ran back to where Takeo had been standing before he was knocked down. “Where are you?” she yelled.
She heard a low rumbling laugh. It sounded like the same voice the zashiki-warashi had after it had transformed into a beast. The sound was coming from deeper into the forest. She bolted after it.
“Akari,” Takeo yelled after her, but she did not wait for him. What could he do anyway? He wasn’t Sword Kissed. He didn’t have a light he could transfer into a weapon to fight the darkness of demons.
Only she could stop this creature—whatever it was.
Akari stopped and listened. The forest was nearly silent, but Akari was not afraid.
“I know you are here,” she said.
“And I know you,” a feminine voice said. Akari moved her head slowly around, but she saw nothing. It was the same voice she heard before. She was sure of it. What was the woman doing here? How did she know Akari would come? It was by pure accident she chose Narita’s flier to follow up on. No one could have known ahead of time she was coming. Whoever this woman was, she was more than any mere demon. She had superior powers. Powers that Akari should be leery of. But Akari couldn’t back down now. She had to attack while she had the chance. She had to find her.
“Show yourself,” Akari said, holding her sword up by her head. “I am Sword Kissed Tanaka, and I will cut you down.”
“Then why would I show myself?” the woman asked.
“You are a coward,” Akari said. “You attack defenseless villagers, children. But you would not dare attack a woman of strength.”
Akari felt a hard blow to her back, which knocked her to the ground. She landed on her knees and palms, hard. She winced in pain, but she was not out. She still held a firm grip on her sword. After she jumped to her feet, she swung her sword behind her as the turned in the direction the blow had come from, but there was nothing there. She held her sword up.
“Another cowardly move,” Akari said. “Attacking me from behind. Where is your honor, beast?”
“I know more of honor than you could imagine,” the voice said, floating around her. Akari tried to follow the sound, but it was both everywhere and nowhere. “I sacrificed everything…” The voice growled and hissed, as if it was struggling with something.
“What did you sacrifice?” Akari asked. “Who are you?”
“Sakura…sakura…” the voice said. “The end is not yet. There is time…” The voice let out a scream.
“Time for what?” Akari asked, turning around frantically. “Who is sakura? Why are you saying that?”
Akari felt a punch to her gut, then to her chin, and she staggered backward. Something large and dark appeared before her.
“It is too late, Sword Kissed,” the darkness rumbled. “The world is at an end.”
Akari tried to stand, but the pain in her abdomen was sharp.
“Whoever you are,” Akari said. “I will stop you.”
The creature laughed. “You? You are nothing.”
An arrow flew through the creature, and it yelped in pain. Takeo ran forward, and then sliced at the darkness with his daggers.
The creature growled at Takeo and took a swipe at him with its claws, but he weaved out of the way. The creature snarled in frustration before dissolving into the air and blowing away.
“Come back, you bastard,” Takeo yelled into the wind.
“What the hell was that?” Akari and Takeo asked at the same time. Akari used her sword to help her get to her feet.
“Damn it, Akari!” Takeo snapped. In angry motions, he collected his arrows that had fallen to the ground or gotten stuck in trees. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”
Akari sheathed her sword. “What the hell were you doing attacking the beast? It was talking. I could have learned something useful!”
“You were flat on your back,” Takeo said. “The beast had the advantage. I was helping you…”
“I don’t need your help,” Akari said. “I can defend myself.”
“We are a team, Akari,” Takeo said. “You should have waited for me. We could have taken the demon down right now before it had a chance to kill anyone else, but you let it get away!”
“I’m Sword Kissed,” Akari said in a huff. “You are not. I don’t need your help. You are just slowing me down.”
Takeo chuckled and rolled his eyes. He sheathed his daggers and gave Akari a curt bow. “Whatever you say, Sword Kissed. What do you think we should do now, Miss High-and-Mighty?”
Akari rolled her eyes and pressed her lips. What was he doing now? Sera would somehow hear of this, and she would have an earful for Akari about it; she was sure of that. But Takeo would take none of the blame, even though he had been less than useless to her. Yeah, he had sent that demon packing, but only for now. He didn’t defeat it. It wasn’t possible. The demon was only biding its time.
“We should head back to the village,” Akari said with a huff. “Let them know the forest is not safe.”
Takeo agreed, but they walked slowly and surely back in case the mysterious entity reappeared.
When they arrived back at the village, Akari went to visit with Narita’s mother while Takeo told the rest of the villagers to avoid the woods at all costs. She pulled out the other missing person fliers, but she was sure to grab Takeo’s picture out of the stack and shove it into her pocket.
“Do any of these people look familiar?” Akari asked her. “I am wondering if there is any connection between them.”
Narita’s mother looked at each picture carefully, but she shook her head over each one. “I do not know any of these people. Oh, this one…” She stopped at the flier for Vesaris. “This man… Is that…?” She nodded toward Takeo with a little hopefulness in her voice.
“Oh, no,” Akari said. “I’m sorry, but it’s not him. It is one of his kin.”
The woman nodded sadly. She probably hoped Takeo had been missing at one point but had been found safe. Akari felt guilty for getting the woman’s hopes up like that. She reminded herself she should probably remove Vesaris’s flier from the stack as well to avoid any confusion in the future.
When the woman came to Narita’s picture, her breath hitched and she put her hand to her mouth. “My beautiful girl,” she said shakily.
“We won’t give up,” Akari said. “We will keep looking for her, for all of them.”
“There is something wrong,” the old woman said. She pulled a pencil out of her pocket. “Who did this drawing? He should be punished.” She drew something on the picture before handing it back to Akari. She had drawn a large wine-stain birthmark over the girl’s left eye and cheek.
Akari gave the mother a kindly smile. “The mark made your daughter unique.” It could also explain why the woman had no lovers. For many old-fashioned people, they would consider a distinct facial mark to be an ill omen.
The
old woman nodded. “She was never ashamed of it. Proud even! She could not hide her strength. It was plain for all to see.”
Akari nodded and hoped she would have a chance to meet this brave woman, but she doubted it.
5
Akari could not help but feel defeated as they made their way back to town. She was no closer to finding an answer or to stopping whatever was causing the disappearances. But she couldn’t let her “partner” know how she felt. It was clear Takeo blamed her for the demon getting away, which galled her. What right did he have to criticize her? She had been training for over a decade to take down demons. What did he know about it? Fae might have some useful skills beyond humans, but nothing like she had. This was her job, her so-called calling. She had been born for it. No one could be harder or more disappointed in her than she could.
Except possibly Sera. She did not look forward to facing her sensei when they returned.
“You have not lost yet,” Takeo said, seemingly able to read her thoughts. His voice sounded tight, as if it was taking a great effort for him to speak to her. “Do not carry defeat like a stone. We have enough to carry already.”
Surprised, she peered at him, and he gave her a slight hint of a smile. She assumed he was trying to be encouraging, so she gave him a nod. She still didn’t fully trust him, or think his presence was particularly useful, but he was here. There was nothing either of them could do about that.
“We will get another chance,” she said. “The creature will strike again.”
“So we wait for it to kill someone else?” he asked. They eyed each other, and Akari wondered which one of them looked angrier.
“We don’t know what we are facing,” she finally said. “Zashiki-warashi. Shadows. Invisible monsters. Whatever this thing is, it could strike anywhere, anytime. In any form! There’s no pattern to the attacks. How am I supposed to predict what its next move will be?”
“Enough people have already died,” he spat. “We have to do more.”
The image of Vesaris Torgwyn crinkled in Akari’s pocket.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” she asked.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, exasperated.
“Something about this case…these cases that you aren’t telling me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “What really made you investigate them?”
A flicker crossed his face before he turned to stare down the road that seemed to stretch endlessly before them. He was quiet for so long, Akari thought he wasn’t going to reply.
“It doesn’t matter,” he finally said. “Someone needed to find the answer. Someone had to give a damn. And if it isn’t going to be the Sword Kissed, why not me?”
“What makes you think I don’t give a damn?” Akari asked, her own annoyance revving up. “I’m doing my best here.”
“Are you?” he asked. “I can see in your eyes you don’t really care about any of these people. This is just a job to you.”
“Okay, you are way out of line here—” she started to say, but he cut her off.
“I think I’m right inside the lines,” he said. “And I can see what’s going on here way more clearly than you.”
“Oh, really?” she asked. “You sure lost your temper back there. And I know you have a more personal connection to these cases than you are letting on, so don’t talk to me about seeing clearly.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked. Frustrated eyes swung to her. He twisted in his saddle to face her full on.
“You know damn well—”
They heard a scream. A woman ran toward them, wild with fright. They jumped off their horses. Takeo took the woman in his arms while Akari drew her sword.
“Help me,” the woman screamed. “It was right behind me!”
“What?” Akari asked. As she looked down the road, she saw nothing but a couple of leaves blowing in the wind.
“The blackness,” the woman said, sobbing into Takeo’s shirt. “I…I can’t explain except it was dark. Just darkness.”
Akari’s eyes shot to Takeo. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t remember what little Elwin had said at dinner the night before.
Shadow, she mouthed. A light went off behind his eyes, and he nodded.
“You could say that what I felt knock me down was a shadow,” he said softly.
“Where are you from?” Akari asked the girl.
“Yahakami, near the sea,” the girl said.
“Elwin’s parents, the entity in the forest, Yahakami village,” Akari said. “All shadows.”
“And you said blackness seeped out of the zashiki-warashi,” Takeo added. “It’s certainly related.”
“Please,” the girl begged. “My village is under attack. The shadow, she has been seen before. I escaped, but it followed me. But you must go there, Sword Kissed! You must help my people!”
“Head to Nasu city,” Takeo told the girl as he held her face comfortingly. “You will be safe there.”
She stared up at him affectionately, then her eyes fell on his ears and she took a step back. She looked at Akari with confusion on her face. Akari said nothing, and the girl eventually continued running toward Nasu. Takeo paused for a moment as he watched her run away. As usual, Akari could not read the expression on his face. Was he hurt? Angry? She wasn’t sure and decided not to try to guess. She got back on her horse.
“If we ride hard, we can be in Yahakami village in a couple of hours,” she said.
“Will we be there before sundown?” he asked. “It would be impossible to try to trap a shadow at night.”
Akari peered up at the sun and saw it was still before noon. “I think so,” she said. “But we won’t have long. We will have to work fast.”
He nodded, and they both urged their horses to run.
When they finally approached the village of Yahakami, Akari and Takeo, and their horses, were exhausted, but they still had a couple hours of daylight left. As they made their way down the main road, they were surprised there were no people outside.
“It’s like a ghost town,” Akari said gloomily.
Takeo nodded and tied his horse to the nearest hitching post. “Is anyone here?” he called.
Akari looked from building to building, finally noticing a few faces peeking out some windows.
“We are here to help,” she said, drawing her katana. “I am Sword Kissed Tanaka, and this is my partner, Takeo Torgwyn. You do not need to fear us.”
She heard the squeak of a door behind her. Turning, she saw a middle-aged man step out onto his porch.
“There is an evil here,” he said.
Akari nodded. “We heard about the shadow demon,” she said. “We have been trying to track it.”
“It is an enenra,” the man said. “A woman of smoke.”
“Of course,” Akari said, turning to Takeo. “An enenra, a smoke demon. That could be mistaken for a shadow.”
Takeo nodded. “Where was the enenra last seen?”
The man’s eyes welled up with tears, but he did his best to control his emotions. “It…it took my wife,” he said. He pointed west. “Toward the old ruins. I tried to grab her, to bring her back. To save her. But the monster…as soon as it touched my wife, Itami, it looked like she became an enenra, too! I couldn’t touch her. My hands went right through her like an illusion!”
Akari shot Takeo a glance, and their faces must have mirrored their concern. Akari had never heard of a demon turning a person into one of their kind before. This was a terrifying development.
“Stay in your homes,” Takeo said, and the man retreated inside, closing the door behind him. Then Takeo and Akari headed in the direction the man had pointed.
“A demon able to turn people into demons,” Takeo mumbled. “Do you know what this means?”
“The demons could be multiplying,” she said. “We need to stop this one before it takes anyone else.”
“Have you fought an enenra before?” Takeo asked.
“No,” Akari admitt
ed. “But my sensei has taught me how.”
Takeo nodded and look up at the sky. “The evening is coming quickly. Too quickly.”
Akari looked up and noticed a few twilight stars could already be seen, but by her calculations, it should only be late afternoon.
“This whole place is cursed,” she said through gritted teeth.
Just then, they heard a scream.
They ran toward the ruins—large metal structures leftover from the days when the world was still in one piece. The dimming sky created long shadows over the place. Akari looked around, but she did not see anything unusual at first.
“Where are you?” she called out.
“Help me,” someone screamed. She and Takeo ran toward the sounds.
They finally glimpsed a woman being dragged by her hair behind one of the structures by a dark creature.
“There,” Akari yelled. Takeo nocked an arrow and then let it fly, but it flew right through the creature like nothing was there. “Come on!”
Akari and Takeo ran toward the woman, but when they got around the corner, all they saw was the smoky shape of a woman. The corporeal form she had been dragging was gone.
Akari held her sword up. “Where is the woman you stole?” Akari asked.
“Sakura…sakura…” the shadow said.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Akari demanded
The creature laughed. “Are you a fairy, sakura of mine…”
“Stop singing that song,” Akari yelled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Takeo shoot her a look, but she didn’t take her eyes off the monster. “Tell me who you are!”
“She is coming…sakura…sakura…” the creature said as she started to drift away on a breeze.
“No, you don’t,” Akari yelled. She sliced her katana across her hand, cutting her hand open and getting her blood on the blade. She gasped in pain, but her katana began to glow with a blue aura. She could feel the flesh of her hand stitching itself back together as she ran toward the enenra and swung her sword.
Sword Kissed Page 5
