Shadow of the Fox

by Julie Kagawa

  33

  Yaburama’s Folly

  This was going to be a fight.

  I dove aside as the oni’s tetsubo swept down, smashing into the earth and sending rocks flying. I rolled to my feet, and instantly had to spring back as the huge club raked across the ground, missing me by a thread and hitting several amanjaku who had swarmed down to ambush me. They flew through the air before exploding into writhing tendrils of smoke as they returned to Jigoku, and the oni grunted.

  “Are you just going to bounce around like a cricket, demonslayer?” it challenged, coming at me again, the iron club leaving holes in the rock every time it landed. “Or are you actually going to fight me?”

  I bared my teeth. As the tetsubo descended once more, I darted forward, between Yaburama’s treelike limbs, and slashed the back of his leg. The oni snarled and spun around, crushing the ground with his club as I leaped back. At the same time, the human noble, cutting his way through several amanjaku, sprinted behind the oni and sliced through the back of his other leg.

  Yaburama howled. Whirling, he lashed out with a kick, barely missing the human as he darted past, sending more amanjaku flying. The wounds to his legs didn’t appear to slow him down as he leaped into the air, landing between us with a crash that made the ground tremble like an earthquake. I kept my balance, but the noble staggered, falling to one knee, and the oni raised his club to smear him across the stones.

  An arrow sped through the air, striking the monster in the forehead, causing him to rear back with a snarl. I spared a quick glance over and saw that the ronin had climbed to the top of the watchtower by the gate. He sent another dart at the grimacing oni, who snorted and raised his arm, letting it hit him in the shoulder.

  In that moment of distraction, I whispered a quick incantation and lunged, a shadow Tatsumi appearing to join me. Yaburama saw us coming at the last moment and swung his club—at the wrong one. I dodged beneath his legs, vaulted off a knee and, as I rose toward his face, sliced Kamigoroshi across his neck, cutting open his throat.

  Dark, steaming blood sprayed from the opening beneath the oni’s chin. Instinctively, I threw up my arm to shield my face, but it still burned through my clothes, searing like liquid fire as it reached my skin. Hitting the ground, I staggered back, clenching my jaw against the pain, waiting for the oni to fall.

  Almost too easy.

  Yaburama started to laugh.

  His voice rang out over the courtyard, deep and mocking. “Is that it?” The oni sneered, yanking the arrow from his face, not seeming to notice the second in his arm. “Is that the best you humans can do? Do you think you can defeat one of the demon generals of Jigoku so easily?” He laughed again, shaking his horned head, then turned and picked up a chunk of wall taller than a man, hefting it in one claw. Eyes glowing, he smiled down at us. “Let me show you how very mistaken you are.”

  The noble and I tensed, ready to leap aside, but Yaburama straightened, drew his arm back and hurled the boulder across the yard. It spun end over end and smashed into the base of the watchtower, snapping the legs and causing the structure to collapse with a roar and a cloud of dust.

  “Okame-san!” cried the noble, as the oni bellowed in triumph, raising his club in the air, and the amanjaku cackled.

  As the watchtower remains settled over the likely dead ronin, Yaburama turned, eyes glowing as he glared down at us. “This bores me,” he growled. “I grow weary of fighting insignificant humans. Amanjaku!” he roared, raising his head. “Kill the human noble! Flay him, eat him, wear his skin for a coat, I care not! But get him out of my way. I wish to fight the demonslayer in peace.”

  The minor demons shrieked with excitement and lunged forward, surrounding the noble like ants swarming a grasshopper. The closest demons perished instantly as the former Oni no Mikoto cut them down, his blade moving so fast it was nearly a blur. But there were dozens of amanjaku, a seemingly endless horde, and their numbers began to push him back.

  I started forward, intending to thin the swarm a bit, when the oni’s huge tetsubo smashed into the ground between us. “Where do you think you’re going, demonslayer?” Yaburama rumbled, putting himself between me and the amanjaku swarm. “The fight is here. Or should I remind you?”

  He swung the tetsubo at me with savage force. I dodged as the club crashed into the stones and cut at the hand that held the weapon, severing a clawed finger. Yaburama snorted in annoyance and instead of pulling back, raked the weapon across the ground. I managed to leap aside, but the unexpected move set me off balance, and the second sweep caught me in the shoulder. Pain exploded through my body as I was hurled through the air and struck the ground several yards away then rolled to a painful stop. Kamigoroshi was torn from my grasp and went skidding over the stones in the opposite direction.

  Dazed, I struggled to rise, but the ground trembled, and a clawed foot landed on my chest, shoving me back to the stones. The air whooshed from my body and my ribs bent and threatened to snap, as the huge oni peered down at me, smiling.

  “A disgraceful way to die, demonslayer,” Yaburama mused, as I gritted my teeth in an effort not to gasp for air. Inside, something was building—a rising flood of desperation, rage and hate. “Smashed underfoot like a cockroach, nothing but a smear on the bottom of my toe. How embarrassingly shameful.” He chuckled and leaned his full weight against my chest; bones snapped in blinding bursts of agony, and I couldn’t help the howl of pain that emerged from my throat. “But do not worry,” the oni went on as I gasped in agony. “This will be over soon. And once I kill you, I’m going to tear apart your friends, as well. That little human girl looks especially tasty. I’m going to pull off her head, twist her around so that her insides turn to mush and eat her like a peach.”

  Yumeko. Rational thought disappeared. Something deep inside me snapped, and a flood of darkness rushed in with a howl. I felt a brief stab of terror and despair, and then nothing.

  “Does it hurt, demonslayer?” Yaburama lowered his arm, bringing the end of the tetsubo very close to my face. “I’ll make you a deal. Beg for mercy, and I’ll crush your skull instead of stomping on you like an insect. So, what do you say to that? Ready to beg?”

  “Beg?” I looked up, meeting the oni’s gaze, and smiled. “I have a better idea. How about I send you to Jigoku in pieces?”

  Yaburama bared his fangs. “You first.”

  He raised his foot and stomped down hard, and the world disappeared like a snuffed candle.

  34

  The Destroyer

  I’m free.

  I raised my arms as Yaburama’s foot smashed down at my head, catching the disgusting appendage with both hands. I heard the oni’s grunt of surprise, felt him press down harder, trying to crush me into the ground. Thinking I was still that weakling mortal.

  You always were a fool, Yaburama.

  Sitting up, I threw him off, shoving him back and rising to my feet. Yaburama stumbled backward several paces before catching himself, gazing down at me in shock.

  I grinned, feeling the air on my skin, seeing the world through my own eyes, and not the weak, pathetic eyes of my human host. I breathed deep and let the scent of blood, violence and death fill my lungs, before glancing at the oni towering overhead.

  “What’s the matter, Yaburama? Expecting someone else?”

  He bellowed a laugh, shaking his horned head. “You’ve finally come,” he rumbled, striding forward. “I thought I was going to stomp your host into bean paste before he lost control.” He chuckled, narrowing crimson eyes at me. “How long has it been...Hakaimono?”

  “Too long. Over four hundred years.”

  Yaburama snorted, then crouched down to gaze at me at eye level. “You’re a bit...smaller than I remembered.”

  I smirked, seeing my reflection in the oni’s crimson gaze. Human-sized, because I shared this pathetic body with my host, and Kage Tatsumi was even
smaller than the average human male. At least I still recognized myself; after four hundred years of being a formless voice trapped in a blade, it was good to see a real body again. Onyx skin, white mane, horns, claws, fangs; I’d almost forgotten what I looked like.

  But that wasn’t important. I was free. I was finally out, and there was a whole country to take my revenge on. So much destruction to cause, lives to take and blood to spill. It was going to be beautiful. Let’s see if the fools could drive me back into the sword this time.

  But first...

  Yaburama was still crouched at eye level, a mocking grin twisting his mouth. I clenched my right hand into a fist, drew it back and punched the oni square in his smirking jaw.

  He flew backward, his feet leaving the ground for a moment, before he crashed into the stones with a boom that made the earth shake. I laughed, feeling the power racing through my muscles, my old strength returning to me. Not completely whole yet, but soon.

  “Did you forget who you were speaking to, Yaburama?” I called, as the oni struggled upright, looking dazed. Flinging out a hand, I opened my fingers, and Kamigoroshi flew across the stones into my palm. “Did you forget that I commanded the Four Generals? That the strongest demons ever spawned in Jigoku feared me for a reason?”

  “Damn you,” Yaburama growled, rising to his feet. Blood streamed down his chin from his lips, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. “Those days are gone, Hakaimono. You’ve been away for too long. There’s a war coming, and a new Master of Demons who will lead the land into chaos and destruction.” He raised his tetsubo, baring bloody fangs in a snarl. “Too bad you won’t get to see it.”

  He lunged at me with a roar, swinging the tetsubo in a savage arc. I stepped back from the first blow, ducked under the second and then, as the weapon came straight down at my head, braced myself and threw up my empty hand, catching the end of the club in my palm.

  Yaburama’s eyes bulged. He strained against the club, trying to drive it down into my skull, but neither I nor the tetsubo moved. I smiled at him from the shadow of the weapon, and curled my claws into the wood.

  “I am Hakaimono the Destroyer,” I growled up at him. “The strongest demon Jigoku has ever known. And soon, this entire realm will remember why!”

  Shoving the tetsubo away, I leaped into the air as Yaburama staggered back, flailing and off balance. As he caught himself, swinging his club once more with an angry snarl, I brought Kamigoroshi flashing down. The blade struck the oni’s forearm, shearing through flesh and muscles and bone, continuing out the other side. The tetsubo and part of Yaburama’s arm struck the stones with a thud, and Yaburama’s snarl turned into a howl of pain.

  Hitting the ground, I spun and darted back toward the reeling oni. Maddened with pain and rage, bloody arm stump dripping steaming puddles over the ground, Yaburama roared and swung at me with his other claw. I ducked, rolled beneath it and sliced his leg as I went by. The oni staggered, swayed like an oak in a storm, then toppled over, his body falling one way while his severed knee remained where it was. He hit the ground on his back and lay there a moment, gasping, blood pumping from the stumps of his limbs and spreading over the stones.

  Smiling, I walked casually up to the panting oni and leaped to his chest, pointing the bloody sword in his face. “Well, this was fun,” I said calmly. “Nothing like a good old-fashioned massacre to get the blood pumping. Tatsumi never had it in him for savagery. Oh, I’m sorry, you were saying something, weren’t you? Something about letting me rot in that cursed blade for another four centuries?”

  “Damn you, Hakaimono,” Yaburama rasped. “You’ve been stuck in Kamigoroshi for too long. You don’t know what’s been happening the past few centuries.”

  Smiling, I raised the sword over my head. “I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”

  Yaburama snarled and tried to rise. I brought Kamigoroshi down in a flash of steel, slicing through the burly neck, being sure to sever it from his body this time. The oni’s head toppled backward and rolled several feet before coming to a stop, his jaw clenched in rage.

  Throwing back my head, I filled my lungs and let out a roar of triumph, hearing my voice boom into the air and echo over the castle peaks. Free! There was so much to do; so many lives to take, so much destruction and fear and chaos and death to wreak upon this pathetic realm. I was back, and this world would pay dearly for the centuries I was sealed away.

  A gasp came from the castle entrance, and I smiled.

  Turning on Yaburama’s chest, I spotted the girl at the top of the stairs, the shrine maiden, a pair of dogs and an old human priest behind her.

  35

  The Demon of the Blade

  “Jinkei preserve us.” I heard Reika whisper behind me, in a voice that sent a chill racing up my back.

  I couldn’t answer, staring at the center of the courtyard, at the figure outlined in moonlight. At the jet-black skin and wild mane of white hair, at the horns, fangs and claws. At the demon that still had Tatsumi’s face. Tatsumi, or the thing he had become, turned atop the smoking corpse of the headless Yaburama, Kamigoroshi blazing in his hand, the blade shining red with blood. The oni’s head lay several feet from the body, also letting off coils of smoke as it disappeared, vanishing back to Jigoku. I should have been happy to see Yaburama dead; the oni that had destroyed the Silent Winds temple and killed everyone there was lying headless in the center of the courtyard. I should have felt vindication, or at least some form of relief.

  But right then, gazing at the figure standing atop the corpse, all I felt was terror. Because the oni that had replaced Yaburama, who smiled at me from Tatsumi’s body, was a hundred times more frightening.

  “Ah, there you are, Yumeko-chan.” I jumped at the voice, at the sound of my name coming from the demon’s mouth. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

  He leaped into the air, so high it almost looked like he was flying, before descending toward us. Chu snarled and erupted into his real form, muscles tensing to lunge at the oni, but Master Jiro’s voice cracked into the air.

  “Chu, no! He’s far too powerful. Everyone, stay close.”

  As Tatsumi landed at the edge of the steps with a crash, the priest pulled out a tattered ofuda, the kanji for protection from evil written down the slip. Holding it in two fingers, he brought it to his face and closed his eyes as the demon grinned and began sauntering up the steps, leaving a trail of blood spatters behind him.

  A domed barrier flickered to life, glimmering a faint, almost invisible blue-white in the darkness, encompassing me, Reika, Master Jiro and the two dogs. Chu had quickly shrunk back to his smaller form, but it was still a tight fit. I could see Master Jiro trembling as he concentrated, beads of sweat forming on his brow, as the terrifying form of Tatsumi climbed the steps and stood a few feet away, smiling at us through the barrier.

  “Oh, now you didn’t need to do that,” he said, in a voice that was a deeper, chilling version of Tatsumi’s. “I just wanted to have a few words with Yumeko-chan, here.” His cold red eyes met mine through the wall of magic, and he chuckled. “So, you’re nothing but a shifty fox masquerading as a human,” he mused. “A weak little half-breed—no wonder I couldn’t sense what you really were. How deceitful. What other lies have you told Tatsumi, I wonder?”

  I trembled, but forced myself to meet the monster’s terrible gaze. “Where is he?”

  “Tatsumi? Oh, he’s still in here, somewhere.” The demon tapped his head with a curved black claw. “I imagine he can see and hear everything that’s going on, just like I could. He’s not strong enough to force me out once I’ve taken over, though. No human has been.” His smirk widened as he regarded me, “I did want to thank you personally, little fox,” he said. “After all, it’s because of you that I’m here.”

  A cold chill went through my stomach. “What do you mean?” I whispered.

  “Well, normally, I can�
��t get through Tatsumi’s wall—he keeps himself and his emotions tightly guarded, and doesn’t give me any footholds into his mind. But with you around, he’s been slipping more and more each day. You distract him, make him feel things. Make him question who he is and what he wants. And that’s all the invitation I needed. His last thought tonight, before finally losing himself, was of you.”

  I sank to my knees on the stones, horror and anguish weighing me down as surely as the heavy robes. No, I thought in despair. Tatsumi. You can’t be gone...because of me.

  The demon crouched down, balanced on the balls of his feet, so that we were face-to-face. “If it makes you feel better,” he said in a mock whisper, “he can hear every word we say, but he can’t do anything about it. And, I must tell you, after being trapped in his mind for so long, his pain and despair is a beautiful sensation. Oh, and do you want to know something else?” He bent close, lowering his voice even further. “He was actually starting to trust you, little fox,” he whispered. “Tatsumi never trusted anyone in his life—his clan punished any attachments or weaknesses.” His hand rose, pointed a curved black claw at my forehead. “But he was starting to trust you, a kitsune who lied to him, who has been deceiving him from the very beginning. And now, he sees exactly what you are and how you betrayed him.”

  I shut my eyes as my throat threatened to close up. “Let him go,” I whispered, feeling the oni’s cruel, amused gaze through the barrier.

  “Sorry?” The oni’s voice was mocking. “What was that?”

  Opening my eyes, I looked up, meeting the demon’s crimson stare. “Release him,” I said, and my voice didn’t tremble this time. “Return to the sword, or you’ll see exactly what a kitsune can do.”