by Travis Bughi
She had never before seen dead children.
Takeo let the vines go, and the tragic scene was locked away for a moment. The samurai closed his eyes, pursed his lips tightly, and gave the handle of his katana a squeeze. He took a deep breath and then opened his eyes, calm once more. He parted the vines and stepped out, holding the way open so Emily could follow, but she stayed put, staring, mouth gaping.
“Are you going to be okay?” he whispered.
Tears began to blur her vision, and she blinked to clear them away. She closed her mouth and noted her throat was dry. She took in a deep breath and gave Takeo a quick nod before emerging from the shadows, bow still drawn. Takeo let the vines close behind her and then held his sword at the ready.
“I think they’re gone,” he said, “but stay alert just in case.”
“How can they do this?” Emily blurted out. “How can they kill children?”
“Oni do not see children,” Takeo replied. “They see older humans and younger humans, like how we see animals. Believe it or not, they are actually less cruel than their underlings. You see that one with the spears in him? That was done by akki. They’re like red goblins. Tiny, only come up to your waist, talk in high-pitched voices. They aren’t immortal like the oni, but they are very cruel. Oni kill because they want to get something; akki kill because they like it.”
“The akki follow the oni?” Emily asked.
“Yes,” Takeo said. “All this you see here—there was just one oni, but at least twenty akki with it, maybe more. There would have to be for them to kill so many so quickly.”
Emily looked at the ground, trying to discern what Takeo spoke of, but couldn’t find anything. All she saw was blood and bodies, debris and carnage. She steeled her mind to banish the weight in her chest, yet a shudder ran up her spine, and a lump formed in her throat.
“How can you stay calm?” Emily asked. “Wasn’t this your village?”
“At one time, yes, but I haven’t seen many of these people for years,” Takeo replied. “And also, this is a scene I’m all too familiar with. This is war.”
They shared a glance, and in his eyes, she saw the sadness and regret his face refused to reveal. It was a dulled yet clear pain, one he’d felt before, like an old wound freshly opened, and she felt a stab of shame for mistaking his tone for his feelings.
She should have known better.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be,” he replied. “I know you didn’t mean to offend.”
Takeo looked back toward the ruined village and paced through the carnage. He stepped carefully and lightly, his sword held ready. At each body, he stopped, looked at the face, closed the terror-filled eyes, and said their name aloud.
Bayani, Hai, Cam, Ryuu, Kazuko, Lataree, Siyu. . .
For those faces too scarred or burned to recognize, or for those he did not know, he said nothing. He let silence be a sign of respect, and Emily followed suit. She listened and looked but kept her questions guarded. Between corpses, she scanned the scene for anything of use. She saw pots and pans, benches and stools. Twine, hoes, shovels, rakes, sacks, and barrels of rice and water seemed abundant and plentiful. There were even fish hanging from a line, somehow untouched by the carnage around them. As Emily scanned all of this and took it in, her stomach gave a low rumble, and she began to wonder why any of this was still left. Nothing had been looted.
They also passed by the body of a slain akki among the villagers, and Emily got her first look at a creature she’d never known existed.
It was neither the ugliest, scariest, nor strangest creature she’d ever seen, but it was a top contender for all three. The thing was humanoid with two arms and legs that were long and slim, but its body was a lumpy ball covered in rigid bumps. Each foot and hand had only three digits, and each digit was long and pointy. Its skin was scaly and bright red, but its eyes were a crazed blue that had lost none of their insane look in death. Such eyes matched well with its hooked nose, which extended down below its chin, and overall, Emily guessed it wasn’t any taller than her chest at full height. That face would have scared her two years ago, but in this moment, she felt only disgust and anger at the sight of the dead creature.
They found only four akki corpses among the twenty or so slain villagers. At the end of the search, Takeo turned to Emily and sheathed his sword.
“There might be survivors,” he said. “There should have been more people living here.”
“Where are they?” Emily asked.
“I don’t know. Likely they took off running to a neighboring village. Juatwa is in constant turmoil so most of these people should have been prepared for something like this. It’s a tragedy this many were killed at all.”
“Maybe they thought themselves safe?” Emily suggested, easing the tension on her bow. “Aren’t we in Katsu’s territory? Perhaps they thought his armies would keep away oni and akki. Do those creatures take sides in war?”
Takeo scanned the area around him and frowned.
“No, they normally don’t,” he answered, “at least, not a human side. Maybe they decided to take advantage of what fighting has been happening. They wanted to catch a village unguarded in order to . . . no, that doesn’t make sense either. They didn’t take anything. They didn’t take food, and there was no treasure to steal. You saw that, right?”
Emily nodded.
“What benefit would this have?” Takeo asked.
“Maybe it’s like you said: they’re just cruel.”
“Akki, yes, but there was an oni here. The akki obey the oni, like something between a servant and a slave. If an oni was here, then this was done for a specific reason. Oni are ruthless, but not mindlessly violent.”
Takeo’s speech had quickened with every word, and he stopped now to steady himself again. He touched his fingers to his forehead and closed his eyes. Emily stayed quiet. She wanted to help, but there was little she could do.
“Maybe we need to find the survivors you mentioned,” she said. “Perhaps they can give us some direction. Did you find your friends? Your brother’s widow or your friend, Lei?”
“No.” Takeo shook his head, fingers still on his forehead. “I found my brother’s in-laws, both killed by an oni, but not his widow. My friend is nowhere to be seen, either. They’re not here.”
“Then they must still be alive,” Emily said, “and if they are, we can find them. Where would they go?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, the softest touch of anger in his tone. “I know too little. Likely the nearest village, but I’ve been gone for so long that I don’t know where that would be.”
Takeo’s head hung heavy, and he let his hand fall. Emily glanced down, too. She felt the sudden urge to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but did not do so. Her attention fell to the corpses again. Their mangled bodies caused her stomach to turn, and another shudder ran up her spine when she saw one of the children.
How can they be so cruel? she thought, staring at one dead girl. Takeo had called her Lataree.
The lump in her throat swelled, but her blood ran hot, and her heart beat faster. As her eyes lingered on the dead child, Emily felt an itch at her fingertips. She imagined the akki attacking this poor child, and Emily pictured herself loosing an arrow into the creature’s heart.
“Maybe the oni and akki know,” Emily whispered.
“Hm?” Takeo looked up to her.
“Maybe this isn’t the first village they attacked,” Emily said, eyes still on Lataree, “or it isn’t the last. If the oni and akki moved on to another village, it’d probably be the closest one. Some of these buildings are still smoldering. We can’t be too far behind them.”
Takeo turned and looked at Lataree. His face remained placid, but his eyes darkened. A quiet fury built up within them, and Emily could see the same hatred she felt. When he looked back to Emily, they shared a knowing gaze.
“Can you track them?” she asked.
He nodded.
*
* *
They ran through the woods and marshes as fast as Takeo’s tracking would allow. The wetland held remarkably detailed footprints, ones even Emily could see, but sometimes the roots of trees grew too thick or there was too much water to make things easy. When footprints failed, snapped branches, broken vines, and the occasional bloodstain became their beacons. Emily was surprised to find she was picking up the signs as well. It seemed neither the oni nor the akki were concerned with covering their tracks.
Amongst all the glancing around, Emily finally took in the sight of Juatwa, and she had to admit it had taken her longer than it should have to realize that this land beautiful was truly beautiful.
When she’d first laid eyes on Juatwa, she’d been distracted by the trails of smoke. When she’d first approached it, she’d been concentrating on breathing. When she’d first stepped foot on the soil, the terrible tragedy of war had racked her soul. Now, though, as she and Takeo traveled further inland, Emily’s mind sought a new distraction from the suffering and anger she’d so vehemently pursued. Pushing through vines and passing amongst the trees, Emily found such a distraction in the lush, green foliage.
First, she noticed the trees. Smooth to the touch, their slim trunks twisted in delicate curves upwards to a respectable height that felt protective rather than overbearing. Their branches spanned out in thin trails in all directions, sprouting vines of tiny leaves that hung down around them. They looked rather like a woman’s dress, Emily decided, all the more beautiful because they were in bloom. Bright colors of pink, yellow, red, and purple surprised her at every turn. They enveloped her and drenched the landscape in a beautiful painting of colored bliss. More than once, a bright petal had fallen onto her hair, and Emily had brushed it gently away to watch it float to the ground with not a care in the world.
Beneath the trees, the soil was lush and damp at every touch. Moss, grass, and reeds grew with ease, not at all perturbed by the lack of adequate light, which was blocked out by the dense foliage. Where Emily stepped, tiny imprints of her foot pressed into the soil, and against the green backdrop, seemed a delightful welcome so at odds with everything she had just learned of Juatwa.
For a land so stooped in bloodshed, Emily thought, it sure looked lovely.
It even smelled wonderful. After she and Takeo had left the burning village behind, a sweet scent had assaulted her nostrils, a delicious blend of honey and dew that hung heavily in the air and made her skin tingle. It made her hungry and sleepy at the same time, and it briefly held her in awe.
She thought to ask Takeo if he, too, noticed the beauty of his homeland, but she dashed the notion immediately. As they raced over the landscape, Takeo never glanced back at her. He kept his eyes focused on the tracks and spoke swiftly.
“If we’re lucky,” he shouted back to her as they bounded through the marsh, “we’ll catch them off guard. Take out as many akki as you can with your bow as fast as you can.”
His breathing was staggered, a bit heavy from the brisk pace they kept. The marsh sucked up their feet with each step, making running more difficult than Emily was used to. Her breathing was harsh, as well, and she didn’t acknowledge Takeo’s words.
“I’ll go for the oni,” he said. “If I wound it badly enough, it will leave. If you kill its underlings, it will most certainly leave. While you’re fighting the akki, beware their spears. With their long limbs, they have an unexpected reach—STOP!”
Takeo’s feet splashed in the mud as he dug in his heels, and fresh mud splattered up, bringing new stains to his kimono. Emily came to a screeching halt just a hand’s width from crashing into Takeo.
“What?” she asked.
“Listen.”
She did. For a moment, all she heard was the heavy thuds from her own chest, but then a faint scream echoed ahead of them. Takeo drew his sword and charged in the direction of the scream. Emily readied her bow, nocked two arrows, and followed.
Chapter 5
The smell of smoke and blood slaughtered the scent of flowers and pollen in a quick and merciless battle. The moment Emily saw dark billows of black smoke through the gaps in the leaves above, she also smelled the strong stench of burning wood that almost instantly masked Juatwa’s natural perfume. Emily’s palms grew warm despite the cool morning air.
The screams came and went, occasionally loud, but more often a subtle cry that ended abruptly. With each sound of agony, Emily and Takeo quickened their pace, and they did not hesitate at the tree line that separated them from the village. Takeo broke through first, slashing the vines apart with his katana, which left an impeccable viewing hole for Emily. Through it was revealed the carnage her ears and nose had already foretold.
Just like the previous village, Emily saw a single, short road that was lined on each side with homes and shacks. About a quarter were caught in a raging storm of fire, sending clouds of smoke and wisps of smoldering debris into the air. Scattered about were bleeding bodies, piles of discarded possessions, and two akki corpses. Still standing were eight other akki, divided among the houses in pairs, either spreading fire to new areas or pillaging the homes for hidden residents. They had drug one such man out of his house already—old and crippled with a missing foot hacked off at the ankle—and one akki held him down on his hands and knees while another prepared a spear thrust.
In the center of the village, standing amidst the chaos, was a creature that Emily first thought to be a huge, red ogre, similar in size to a minotaur. Immense bulges of muscle protruded from every exposed area. It was red, like the akki, but with a darker hue. Two white horns stuck out of its head, and a curly black beard sprouted from its chin. It wore only a dirty, yellow loincloth, big enough for Emily to use as a gown, but tiny on the thing’s body. In its hands, it held a spike-covered club that was taller and wider than her and dripping red. Emily held no doubts this was an oni.
As Takeo burst into the open, the oni turned and grinned at him, revealing milky white eyes and a hideous smile of jagged teeth, complete with both fangs and tusks. Had Emily not been fueled by anger and battle lust, she would have balked at its hideousness.
The akki Takeo landed next to didn’t even have time to raise his spear before Takeo cut the thing down. A sweep of his katana, swift enough to reflect the sunlight in a brilliant flash, flung the akki up and back, splitting it open like a piece of fruit. It died before it could cry out, striking the ground in total silence.
“For Gorji,” Takeo whispered.
Emily drew two arrows and released them into the two akki holding the crippled man. Each shaft hit hard, burying halfway in and sending shoots of blood out from where they struck. The two collapsed to the ground, screaming and kicking as they clutched the shafts. The other five akki screeched and whooped, and they charged Takeo in a bold frenzy.
Takeo did not wait for them. He leapt forward to meet their charge, hacking the next two down with only three strokes of his katana.
“Bayani! Lataree!” he shouted.
Emily drew two more arrows and put another two akki down. Their screams made her upper lip curl, and the anger within her bellowed for more. With the opening to the village now cleared, she passed through the vines and into the inferno.
Already, only one akki and one oni remained. Three akki were dead, sliced open by Takeo’s katana. Four more were screaming with arrows in their stomachs or chests, gasping their last breaths away. The last akki quickly surmised his chances and dove out of Takeo’s way before the katana could reach him. The oni, though, grinned wider and gave Takeo a beckoning gesture with a single, clawed fingernail. Takeo charged it down, blood streaming from his readied sword.
Emily pulled an arrow for the last akki, but the creature dove behind the fallen old man for cover. The akki grabbed up the human and put a spear to his neck. The old man’s eyes lolled back into his head, and his body hung limp in the akki’s arms. Emily paused, unsure if he was still alive.
“Back!” the akki shrieked in a high-pitched voice that reminded Em
ily of a kobold’s. “I kill! Back!”
Emily drew the arrow to her bow and placed the end of the shaft to her cheek. With both eyes, she looked down the length of the arrow and aligned it with the akki’s exposed eye.
“BACK!” the akki screamed. “Drop it!”
At the other end of the village, Takeo met the oni at full charge. Neither samurai nor oni bellowed a war cry, yet the sound of their meeting was audible. The oni swung his massive club as if it weighed no more than a toothpick and brought it crashing down into the dirt, barely missing Takeo and causing the ground the vibrate beneath Emily’s feet. Takeo sprinted beyond the club and sliced the oni open at the belly, sending blood—black blood—cascading down to the earth.
Emily had paused just long enough to watch that first clash. Now she focused back on the akki.
“Back!” the akki screamed and then screamed again as Emily’s arrow soared into its one exposed eye.
Both old man and akki fell back and remained motionless. Emily felt a stab of regret, hoping that the man was not already dead, but then gave it no more thought as she turned to Takeo’s fight.
In the moment Emily had looked away, Takeo had made two more cuts along the oni’s body. His katana, once red with akki blood, now slung black streaks in all directions as he readied it for another strike. The oni, deathly silent before, was roaring now in a voice deeper than a rakshasa’s, which made Emily’s throat clench. The creature swung his kanabo in wide, deadly arcs that obliterated any object it touched, reducing barrels to splinters and building walls to sticks. The oni kept swinging because his intended target, Takeo, nimble as ever, dodged and ducked without a single faulty step. The samurai could not press an attack, though, so relentless were the oni’s swings that they came thundering one after the other in quick succession. Emily did a mental count of her remaining arrows—four—and drew two, aimed them close together, and waited for the oni’s next swing to finish before releasing both into its massive neck.
