Outlaw:Champions of Kamigawa mg-1

by Scott McGough

  The fox-woman turned to Toshi and said, "And you, ochimusha? What will you do now?"

  Toshi had been waiting for this. While he had been pinned by the kitsune, the white-haired wizard had come out of the brush. He had stayed to the rear of the group, saying little. Toshi had not taken his eyes off him.

  "First," he said, pointing at the wizard boy, "I'm going to settle up with your friend there."

  Choryu blinked. "Me? What are you talking about now, you cutthroat?"

  Michiko stepped up to him. "What do you mean by this?"

  Toshi raised his voice, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Kobo… my partner… wasn't killed by the orochi. He was killed by that waste of space right there."

  Choryu's face went slack. "No," he said. "You all saw.

  The snakes tied him up and smothered him."

  "They smothered him enough to subdue him," Toshi agreed. "And they tied him up. But they didn't kill him.

  "Kobo had water in his lungs. He drowned. It would take more than a rainstorm to force liquid down the throat of an ogre's apprentice. It would take a river, or an ocean tide, focused right at his face. The orochi don't conjure powerful streams of water, as a rule, do they? But I know someone who does."

  "It's a lie," Choryu said. He looked pleadingly at the faces all turned toward him. "Why would I kill the big man?"

  "Because you couldn't find me. Because you saw him fight and feared what he could do if he stood against you." Toshi looked from face to face, challenging anyone to refute his accusation. "Because you panicked when you thought you might not lure Michiko to the Academy." Toshi gestured impatiently. "Come on, kitsune forest-folk. Tell me you didn't smell his scent on Kobo's body."

  Sharp-Ear glanced at the brothers. "We don't smell like that. There is no way to be sure."

  "I'm sure. You're a dead man, wizard.

  '"The only way to avoid it is if we can't find you,"' Toshi intoned. His eyes grew cold and hard. "I've already found you."

  "There will be no killing here," Lady Pearl-Ear said. The kitsune foxes formed up behind her, screening Choryu from Toshi.

  Michiko nodded. "Choryu is my friend. If he has done what you say he has, I shall-"

  "Sorry," Toshi said. "But you're the last person who should be in my way. Weren't you there when Mochi told us not to trust anyone who tries to bring you to the Academy? This little stain is from the academy. And he killed Kobo."

  "I mourn the loss of your partner, sincerely. But under no circumstances will I…"

  She went on, but Toshi had stopped listening. He casually reached inside the waistband of his trousers and drew out a kanji formed of woven hay. It was a different character than the one that created the razor birds, one with the hyozan triangle as its central motif. The kanji for "guilty" was contained within the triangle.

  "Sorry," Toshi said again, and tossed the kanji over their heads. All eyes followed its arc as Toshi called, "Kobo is dead. Mark his killer and take him back to the beginning."

  The small folded character shifted in flight, becoming less brittle and acquiring a dull red glow. It maintained its shape, though it squirmed like a living thing.

  The kanji floated for a moment, then streaked down at Choryu. The white-haired wizard yelped and sent a stream of thick blue water surging at the kanji, but the character splashed through almost unhindered.

  It flew straight into Choryu's face and fixed itself to his forehead. Choryu screamed as the symbol burned into his flesh, burrowing down through the layers of skin until it hit bone.

  "Spirits of Minamo," he cried. "Help me!"

  Water shot from his hands as the kanji magic took hold. It lifted him off the ground, rotating him slightly, and Choryu screamed. He clawed at his face, his feet flailing wildly, all the while continuing to ascend.

  "Lady Pearl-Ear, Riko, anybody," he wailed. "Stop him! Save me!"

  The kitsune bore Toshi to the ground again, but he did not resist. He stared at Choryu and Choryu alone.

  "Michiko," the wizard wailed. "Forgive me."

  The wizard held that final syllable as the kanji picked up speed, hauling him high into the sky. His voice became a distant echo on the wind as he vanished into the clouds.

  Toshi exhaled deeply. "That's that, then."

  The foxes tightened their grip. Riko and Lady Pearl-Ear were glaring at him with expressions that changed from shock to horror to murderous intent and back again. The beautiful princess had fixed him with her dazzling eyes, her lips trembling.

  The disappointment on her face raised something like regret in Toshi's mind. Close to regret, but not quite.

  "He murdered my partner," he reminded them all.

  Michiko shook her head and then bowed it low. Riko joined her, and one by one, the others followed her example.

  Praying for a cowardly, murdering worm, Toshi thought. I should be so lucky.

  "Shall we bind him for the trip back to the tower," Sharp-Ear called. "Or should we just hang him here?"

  Toshi barked out a rough laugh. "You know something, boys? Our business here is concluded. Michiko-hime," he called. "You can contact me in any of the Spire's elegant public houses. Send a message or a messenger with the hyozan mark."

  The littlest kitsune's voice growled from right next to Toshi's ear. "And how will you get there, outlaw?"

  Toshi glanced back, but he was unable to see.

  "There's a fresh kanji bleeding on my right arm," Toshi said. "You can't see it, but it's there. Want to see how well it works with a great kami's blessing? All I have to do is pronounce it, like this: Fade."

  "Hold him!" The fox's voice was furious, but it faded like a waking dream as Toshi disappeared.

  He slipped through the kitsune's grip like a ghost: silent, intangible, invisible. He could not be seen nor heard, but he was there, watching as they stamped their feet and cursed his name in frustration.

  Through it all, the tall, elegant form of Michiko stood impassive. When the foxes had worn themselves out and exhausted their vocabularies, the princess strode to the spot where Toshi had escaped them all.

  "I may yet call upon you, reckoner," the princess said severely. "Or I may send soldiers for you in the night. Until then, wait. Wait and worry."

  Without another word, Michiko turned and walked away. She gathered Riko under one arm and Lady Pearl-Ear under the other, and the women supported each other as they went. The three kitsune samurai fell in behind them. The tallest turned, glanced into Toshi's cave, and spat on the ground.

  "See you soon," Toshi called, though his words made no sound that anyone else could hear.

  He watched them go, waiting patiently for the opportunity to move. As an intangible phantom, he was not yet fluent in the basic mechanics of moving around. It was harder with no friction and no ground, and it took him almost an hour to complete a single step.

  He sighed, relaxing for the first time in weeks. He could barely move, so he might as well lie back and rest.

  As the tension drained from his body, Toshi slowly faded back into view. His feet settled back onto the bloody ground, and he quickly withdrew back into the shelter of the cave.

  A breeze stirred the leaves on the trees, and a pair of birds exchanged mating calls. Somewhere in the distance, dog howled. Thunder rumbled overhead, and the powerful vibrations echoed across the ground.

  Toshi looked up. He cleared his throat and said, "Shh."

  The world around him went dead as if his ears had been stuffed with wax. Perfect.

  The Kami War raged on, the soratami were out to get him, and he had made a whole lot of new enemies besides. On the bright side, he had sold his services to a princess and he had honored his debt to Kobo. Toshi pondered for a moment, then decided he would allow Hidetsugu a few days to settle down before returning to the ogre's hut to plan his next move. Until then, he thought, I need to rest.

  The ochimusha headed for the deepest recesses of his cave where he hoped to find solitude to complement the silence.

 
EPILOGUE

  The sun was setting over the hinterlands near the Sokenzan Mountains. The landscape was dull and beige and hard, as always, but a threatening bank of black clouds was gathering overhead. Soon it would rain and the badlands would become a temporary lake, making all travel impossible.

  Hidetsugu the o-bakemono trudged along the path from his hut. He carried a small sack in his great jagged hand.

  It had been days since Toshi's messenger had arrived with the news of Kobo's death. He didn't trust Toshi as such, but he knew that their oath was still in place. The ochimusha could not have caused Kobo's death by action or inaction while the pact was still valid.

  Toshi had been clever not to send more information than he did. The slightest extra detail, the barest hint telling where Kobo fell would have been enough. Nothing would have stopped Hidetsugu from traveling to his apprentice's body and killing every living thing he found there. He might have killed every living thing on his way there and his way back, for good measure, and that's probably why Toshi had kept the message so brief.

  Hidetsugu reached the garden of spikes where he displayed the heads to scare off visitors. He reached into the sack, drew out two akki and one bandit, and arranged them evenly among the empty spikes. The human's head was still fresh, and the smell of blood and brains brought a growl from his stomach.

  The ogre shaman lumbered back to his hut, sticking to the precise center of the path. Just beyond the garden was a vast pile of dust and gravel. Days ago, it had been the great stone block he had set as a test for his apprentice. When Kobo could split the rock down the center with a single blow, he would be ready to leave Hidetsugu's service.

  Hidetsugu looked around until he spotted the smashed and ruined hammer. Under his own fury, the testing stone had proven more durable than the testing hammer. Hidetsugu had been forced to create the rest of the gravel pile with his bare hands. The knuckles on his left hand were still bleeding.

  He came closer to his hut, and then Hidetsugu stopped. He lifted his massive snout and sniffed the air. Visitors? he wondered. Better now than tomorrow, he reasoned. The rain would keep even the most suicidally curious away, and he was swiftly growing hungrier.

  Hidetsugu was patient for an ogre. He simply stood, staring, until the visitor came hurtling down from the clouds. From the screams, Hidetsugu took him for a female, but as the figure drew closer, he saw that it was a human male.

  The white-haired wizard in student's robes sailed in like some unruly bird, slamming hard into the dusty ground at Hidetsugu's feet. Even in his hunger and his lingering rage, Hidetsugu could barely muster the interest to deal with this intruder. He was clearly not in control of his own flight. Maybe the bandits had sent the o-bakemono a gift.

  The mark on Hidetsugu's shoulder throbbed, and the ogre became instantly more alert. It occurred to him that someone else may have sent him this gift.

  Hidetsugu reached out to where the exhausted, coughing youth lay. He pinched the back of the young man's robe between his fingers and lifted him to eye level.

  The student's eyes cleared, and he screamed. He flailed and thrashed in Hidetsugu's hand, clawing and hammering at the ogre's fingers. Hidetsugu stared at the wizard without seeing him, staring only at the mark burned into the flesh below his white shock of hair.

  "I see you know Toshi," Hidetsugu growled. The wizard's wet face froze and his throat hitched. He opened his mouth, but only a wet squeak came out.

  "I also see you are a student. I recently lost my student. But you already know that."

  "Please," the wizard croaked. "In the name of the holiest kami-"

  "You can pray to kami here if you like," Hidetsugu said. "But I know that my oni has eaten them all." He lifted the wizard high over his own head, and the youth screamed. His robe started to tear, and Hidetsugu opened his gaping mouth wide, jagged teeth the size of swords glistening in the dusk.

  The wizard stopped struggling, fearful of tearing loose and falling.

  "No. Please, no."

  "From this point forward, you may call me 'master,' and I will call you 'excrement.' Most of my apprentices don't survive the first week. But you will be more than my apprentice. You will be my hobby."

  The wizard screamed again as Hidetsugu tossed him into the air like a shelled nut. He spun end over end until he came down lengthwise across Hidetsugu's open jaw.

  The ogre chomped down, hard enough to bruise bones but not to break them. Not yet. The wizard shouted, vomited, and went limp, moaning as Hidetsugu's jaws held him fast.

  "Lesson one." Hidetsugu's voice was muffled as he spoke around the human in his mouth. "You will call me 'master."'

  "Master," the wizard moaned.

  "Good." With the semi-conscious wizard in his teeth, Hidetsugu stomped toward the doorway to his hut. With each new step, the wizard winced and wept.

  Hidetsugu ducked his head and disappeared inside his hut. A short time later, the screams began.

  Long, long before they stopped, it began to rain.

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