by Noah Ward
“Don’t worry, Shay,” said Gin from a few strides away.
“Don’t worry!” Shay cried. “Kaz has been gone for ages and this place is going to fall down and kill us all!”
“Er, yes, that probably wasn’t the best thing to say…” he confessed.
“What are we--”
Ahead of them, the krystallis in the chamber shattered, sending up a deafening shriek that clawed at her eardrums. The fact she could not clamp her hands over her ears meant she had to endure the wail, even as it echoed through the space.
Shay squeezed her eyes shut, only opening them when the explosion of sound had dissipated. She discovered that through some miracle, her palms had found themselves stuck to her ears.
The next thing she knew, Gin was by her side and Mei was crouched beside her father.
“We’re getting out of here,” said the kamen, grabbing her hand and hauling her up.
“What about,” she said, waving a hand at her father.
Mei turned to the two of them. “Please, help me take him away from here.”
More krystallis was plummeting from above; the fissures in the ground were expanding. This place was about to collapse. Gin looked from Shay to Mei.
“For her sake,” he said to the other kamen.
Gin took the warrior under the right shoulder while Mei took the other. They began shuffling towards the stairs that would lead them back to the temple.
“What about Kaz?” said Shay. It was evident by the fact the four of them were no longer under Asami’s spell that Kaz had succeeded. Or, at the very least, something had changed.
“We don’t know where she’s gone or if that’s even a way out,” Gin reasoned.
While Shay couldn’t rebuke that, when the rock above the entrance to the stairs crumbled, blocking off their escape, she no longer had to.
“Now we have no damn choice,” he said as they maneuvered Saito around and began dragging him towards the large crystal chamber.
Shay broke off ahead of them. On one hand, she wanted to rush ahead and discover what had become of Kaz. On the other, she wanted to be free of this crumbling prison before it was too late.
Her boots crunched black krystallis underfoot, which shattered into dust like desiccated leaves. There was just so much of it…
Kaz wanted them!
Shay crouched and began scooping up shards, but as soon as her hands encircled their cold, smooth surface, they too crumbled.
“No...no…” she muttered.
“Shay, what are you doing? C’mon!” It was Gin, passing her with Mei and her father.
“But Kaz--”
“We don’t have time!” He was already moving past a pedestal to a set of stairs set into the rock that led upwards.
What was wrong with the krystallis? Was it not real?
The ceiling erupted in sound as a massive, beam-like slab of krystallis broke free and came crashing down beside her, spitting up a wave of dusty fragments. Coughing and spluttering, Shay stumbled out of its path, heart racing.
She couldn’t stay here. She’d tell Kaz she was sorry. That was all she could do.
Shay scrambled after the others and followed them up the winding, narrow staircase as chill air buffeted their faces. There were no signs of conflict above, only silence and the whispering wind.
Gin, Mei, and Saito emerged from the staircase before her. Though her legs burned, she powered forwards and practically flew out of the opening, stumbling in the snow. Mei was by her father’s side, who she had lain on the ground. Gin had his back to them, seeming to stare at the large cherry blossom tree precariously rooted at the end of the dagger-like outcropping they had emerged onto.
“Kaz!” Shay shouted. She hauled herself up from the snowy blanket and jogged towards Gin. He turned towards her, and she spotted the woman’s blade sticking out of…
“Shay,” Gin snapped before grabbing the girl and stopping her from going further.
That body…
“I want to see!” Shay protested. She broke from his grasp and traipsed towards the prone figure. Her heart in throat, she braced for the worst. “Asami…”
It was Kaz’s blade but not her body. In fact, the woman was...gone.
Tears welling in her eyes, she looked to Gin.
“I don’t know where she is, Shay,” he said with a weary shake of his head.
“But she wouldn’t just...leave!”
Gin’s shoulders sunk. “I...I don’t know, Shay.”
“She left her swords; she’d never do that. And there’s blood--a lot. And she wanted the krystallis; she’d said to me right from the beginning that--”
Hands gripped her shoulders. “Shay,” said Gin. “I told you.”
Shay dug her nails into her palms. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
“Shay!” a voice called over. It was Mei. The kamen had her father propped up, that dagger still wedged in his chest. His eyes were barely open, but his mouth seemed to be moving, however imperceptibly.
“I’ll look for Kaz,” said Gin. “You...go speak to Saito. He…” The man patted her on the shoulder and nudged Shay toward her father. She numbly wandered over to his side.
Mei was cradling his head and staring into his glassy eyes. She held him like...a lover or wife? Whatever it was, the scene brought with it a rush of anger. Shay took a deep breath and ignored it, though found she could not cross the small gap to kneel by his side. The man lying there was not the one she had met in Akimaru--the glimmer of someone strong, knowledgeable. Nor was it the heartless sociopath Kaz believed him to be. Nor was it the delusion idealist Asami claimed him to be. He was just...a dying man.
“Shay…” he said, with a small, blood-caked smile on his lips.
“...Yes?”
Saito held out his palm as an offering. She could not decide whether to reject it or not. Instead, she stared at the snow at her feet, too awkward to look to anyone for an answer.
Just go over there, Shay. You travelled across the country for this! People died because of this!
Clenching her fists, she strode forwards and half-collapsed beside him. Saito placed his hand on her knee, and she put her hand atop his. He skin felt papery and cold, like a hide that had been left outside overnight.
“You look...more like your mother,” he croaked.
“That’s what she tells--told me,” Shay said.
He shuddered. “Asami…” Saito attempted to sit up but failed. Mei put her hand on his chest and ushered him down. Whatever he was about to say died on his lips.
“I...came from home, all the way across Zenetia to find you,” said Shay. “If I had known it were you in Akimaru, I would--”
“Just my luck,” he said.
Shay smiled weakly, but it soon faded. “I’m sorry that your friends died because of me. I didn’t mean...Kaz, she was trying to protect me.”
“She was right to do so.” Saito heaved in a scattered breath. “I should have done things differently. Asami...I was worried that...people would attack you to reach me. I was not wrong, in the end.” Saito hacked up blood, which Mei dutifully wiped away.
“Can you help him?” Shay asked the kamen.
Mei looked away.
“No,” Saito answered for her. “I’m very much dead, but I’m not the only one.” His eyes flickered toward Asami’s corpse. “At least I’ll have company.”
Shay gulped the sore lump in her throat.
“It...should have been different,” he said. His hand hand encircled hers. “I owed you that. But...I wanted a better place, not just for you...but for everyone. Now, I have nothing…”
“Don’t...Don’t say that,” Shay croaked.
“Please, don’t remember me as an absent father, but as a man who loved you and mother so much he had to leave. I just wanted...to be better…” His grip vanished. Saito’s hand fell from Shay’s, into the snow. A small pouch sat in her palm.
For several dumb seconds, she stood staring at the pouch like it had jus
t fallen from the sky. She tentatively opened the pouch to find a necklace with a piece of black krystallist hanging from the chain. It was a perfect match to hers. “F--father?” she whispered as she picked up his hand. Shay held it close to her chest. The tears were flowing freely now. “I...I…” She didn’t know what to say. Despite barely knowing the man, she had experienced the many lives he’d touched, inspiring love and hate. All those feelings belonged to others; she had not the time to build her own image of the man. Now she never would. Now, like him, she had nothing.
Shay cried.
60
Funeral
What a fucking mess.
Gin glanced over his shoulder where the girl was busy sobbing. Mei looked distant, and Saito’s fresh corpse appeared as if it had aged a generation with his last exhalation. Meanwhile, Kaz had vanished, leaving only blood and a blade; Asami, at least, had died. That was some good news to take back to Father.
It was time to leave this place. And Daikameda evidently agreed as it loosed a howling rumble that shook the ground and led to the entrance in the mountain collapsing completely. The wooden temple cracked and shattered, splintering lumber and ejecting fists of dust into the night. In just minutes, the entire temple had been devoured and replaced with churned rock and earth.
When the dust and chaos finally settled, he found himself covered in a thin layer of grime. Shay and Mei had thrown themselves over Saito’s body. Gin was on his arse.
What a fucking mess.
At least the blizzard has ceased...
With a huff, Gin shoved himself to stand. He traipsed over to the two women.
“We can’t stay here, Shay,” he said and went to haul her up.
Shay knocked his hand away. “What about him?” She nodded to Saito. “We need to...to bury him.”
“This whole damn mountain could collapse--”
“Then leave, Gin,” Mei spat.
He still believed Shay could be useful in some capacity, and there was an answer he deserved.
“Fine,” he said, and threw up his arms. “We’ll just...use our hands.”
Gin deflated slightly when he saw Shay’s tear-streaked and dust-caked face looking up at him.
“I’ll take his arms…” he said, and maneuvered around him while Mei took his feet.
“By the tree,” said Shay, when the two kamen held him.
Gin and Mei shuffled over to the tree and lay him beside the trunk. He was about to enquire how they planned to dig up the earth, but Mei’s ability to elongate her limbs made short work of the hard soil, not to mention Shay conjured a metal shovel.
There were, thankfully, no more signs of the mountain’s instability as they laid Saito to rest in the earth. No one spoke; Gin supposed it was because everyone felt physically and emotionally spent. He did offer up a prayer to any shogen that would listen that their stalkers were still intact when they finally made the trek up the miraculously stable walkway set into the side of the mountain.
The temple was in ruin. Huge chunks of rock, the remnants of the effigy, were mingled with massive beams of red-painted wood, no sign of the dozen or so corpses that Saito had slain. As far as he could tell, there was no way back into that cavern short of dragging a whole army of workers up here, not to mention that fact the krystallis had strangely begun turning to dust as they fled.
“They’re here…” Gin breathed when he found the krystallis-powered vehicles. He dumped a ball of fur--Asami’s robes--on the ground and took a deep breath.
“One for you and the girl, and one for me,” Mei said to him, approaching one of the stalkers.
Gin’s face fell.
“You thought, what, I’d be coming back with you, Gin?” she continued.
He wandered towards her, but still kept his distance. “I, er…” Gin didn’t know what to think. His mind hadn’t even started to process all that had happened at Daikameda. Forget that--what had happened from the moment this whole ordeal began. “My father--”
Mei shook her head, smiling. “Will simply welcome me back? Your word is all that would be enough? I’m a traitor, Gin.”
“You have valuable--”
“I chose to leave, Gin--”
“WHY?!” he shouted and flung his arms out. “Why the clan. Why...Why me?”
She turned and began checking the stalker. “I didn’t believe in being a pawn for some daimyo who, when you look at it all, was no better than any of the others. He just wanted to be another Retsudan--they all do.”
“Lord Kusanagi--”
Mei whipped around. “Is different, Gin? Don’t be so naive. You’ve eavesdropped on enough people to know everyone thinks their lord is the rightful ruler.”
“So…” Gin loosed a frustrated grunt. “You just go off and follow Saito? How is that different, Mei?”
“Because it was my choice. I chose to believe from what I saw. He is--was--different.”
“And now he’s dead,” said Gin.
Her eyes ignited in fury, and he immediately regretted it. More so when he looked down to Shay.
“I’m...I’m sorry,” he said and bowed his head.
Footsteps crunched in the snow. He looked up to find her standing before him. “It was not you, Gin. You gave me the strength to make that decision. You were there when no one else was. A day doesn’t go by when I’m not grateful for that.” She squeezed his shoulder. “I could’ve killed you twice, remember?”
He rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“You’ve not got much of a choice, Gin.” Mei began walking back towards the stalker.
“You’ve got no leader, where’re you planning to go?”
Mei shrugged. “Wherever I want, I suppose.”
Gin took a few steps before stopping himself. “And...that’s it? I never see you again?”
“I never said that, Gin.” She smiled at him.
Shay stopped in the snow beside him. “Thank you,” she said.
Mei bowed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. Your father was...a great man.” The ex-kamen hopped into the stalker and was already eating up the ground back down the mountainside.
“Will you help me find Kaz, now?” Shay said a moment later.
Gin placed his hands on his hips and surveyed the area. “Honestly, Shay, I wouldn’t know where to start. No tracks, no nothing. It’s like she just...disappeared.”
The girl looked even more heartbroken. Gin approached Asami’s robe, which he’d dumped on the ground, and picked it up. He offered it to Shay.
“I’m not cold,” said the girl.
Gin placed it on the ground and opened it up. It held Kaz’s bonded blades. He’d found the wakizashi in the snow.
“She loved those blades…” said Shay.
“And I’m guessing that when she comes back from wherever it is she’s got to, she’ll want them back. So, why don’t you look after them for her?”
Shay crouched, her fingers dancing over the bloodied weapons. “You...really think she’s alive?”
“Kaz is, well, not human or sworn, that’s all I can say. She isn’t the sort of person to die easily or abandon you, so it’s got to be something else. What that is, only the shogens know. But if she wants to find us, I don’t think it’d be too difficult for her.”
Shay nodded. “I think you’re right.” She rolled the blades back up and stuffed the robes under her arm. “Where do I go now?”
Gin’s eyes hovered over the rubble and destruction. “It’s up to you, Shay. I can take you to anywhere in Zenitia or beyond, give you enough aians to try and have your own life, if that’s what you want.” He held her gaze for a moment. “Or, you can come with me, back to my village.”
She frowned. “And do what? Be a kamen?”
“I think you’ve been alone for too long and you need to...not be like that for at least a while so you can decide what you do want. How does that sound?”
Shay looked towards the finally breaking dawn. “Nice,” she said.
&n
bsp; Epilogue
Rebirth
You’re dead, Kazumi.
Kaz could not doubt that statement. She had been stabbed--twice--in the gut, piercing vital organs. Shock had done her a favour by masking most of the pain. In exchange, it provided her with just enough cognisance to realise what a failure she had become. She had wasted her time in bitterness and fear, had shut herself off from the world, becoming as cold as the environment she called home.
It was too late to make amends, however. The krystallis powering her had shattered. Even now, the dregs of her fading consciousness were being swept away. Kaz just hoped Shay was smart enough to not make the same mistakes when faced with so much sorrow. No, the girl was smarter than that. She was not some brainwashed pawn used as a weapon. Shay would overcome this, and it was that final thought which provided adequate comfort to her as she slipped into the White Wastes.
“You’re dead, Kazumi,” said a voice.
It was not the voice in her head. It sounded old...A man’s gravelly voice.
She opened her eyes and stared down at the bloody pair of hands in her lap. Her wounds were very much there, so the voice had not been wrong, nor did it tell her anything she did not already know.
Except where her blood should have been red, it was a dark black. Kaz raised her head. She was still kneeling on that outcropping of rock to the rear of Daikameda. The snow was whiter than any she had ever seen. Crisp and untouched. The mountain had vanished. A blizzard surrounded her, as if she now existed in a void. Asami’s corpse had disappeared.
The whine of rusted metal filled the air. Kaz kept her lazy gaze focused ahead. A dark blotch materialised behind the swirling white veil. As it gained definition, it was relatively small, though had a strangely angular head. Kaz soon realised that was because, on its head, was a metal box.
The figure shuffled towards her at a leisurely pace, stopping just a few strides away. Its gnarled hands clamped against the box on its head and, with a swift tug, removed the metal, which it tossed soundlessly into the snow.
“Surprised, Kazumi?” said the old man.
