Mirage of Blaze volume 7: The Supreme Conqueror's Demon Mirror 2
Chapter 10: A Glimpse of the Apocalypse
The stars were already fading from the sky.
By the time he finally passed the station at Hakone-Yumoto
, the outlines of the Hakone mountain ridges were becoming visible against the lightning eastern sky. At this hour traffic was light, and National Highway 1 was pleasantly deserted. Despite the limited visibility caused by a light fog, the Windom shot toward Motohakone on the dawning highway.
Naoe’s gaze was focused straight ahead, and he took no notice of the scenery emerging like an ink painting around him as his foot held the accelerator mindlessly to the floor. Yet the view felt familiar somehow: it was only upon taking the corner at Hakone-Kowakien that he recognized it as the Tokyo-Hakone relay marathon race course broadcast every New Year’s.
(Where are you?)
This was where Kagetora wanted him.
Discerning the meaning behind Kagetora’s visit last night had taken a backseat to his more immediate reactions of disbelief and horror. But even after putting together Maiko and Katakura’s stories, his reason told him that the possibility of those reactions being justified was high.
(Then...that means...he was attacked by a tsutsuga?)
Could it be that like Shinya, he had already been tree-bound?
It was clear from his conversation with Ayako that they had not heard from Takaya since his disappearance from Toshimaen Amusement Park that afternoon two days ago. He had called Takaya’s house late last night, but as expected, Takaya had not returned. Takaya’s own message gave them the only other reliable information they had.
(O-DA-WA-RA—...)
Takaya had sent him several images—images of places. One had been of a castle Naoe recognized. He was certain that it had been Odawara.
Another had been the image of a lake: a large, dark, uniquely-shaped lake ringed by thickly-forested mountains. A caldera lake?—with what looked like vermilion Shinto shrine gates rising from it.
Perhaps it was the view Kagetora looked out upon from wherever he was now. Or—no. He shouldn’t make that assumption. It was also possible that Kagetora was relaying those images from someone else’s mind.
(I would not put it past him...)
At least, past a Kagetora who had regained full use of his «powers». In any case—
(Odawara...?)
That one word held a world of significance. His sense of foreboding certainly seemed to have been justified. Ever since learning of Houjou’s involvement during the ‘Tsutsuga Mirror’ incident in Nikkou, that foreboding had coiled around him like black smoke. That was what had caused cold sweat to slide down his back upon Kagetora’s appearance in the mirror.
The Fuuma Clan, the Tsutsuga Mirrors, the tree-bound Shinya, ‘Odawara’, and— the missing Kagetora appearing in the mirror...
When he connected the dots, it was easy to come up with a theory about what had befallen Kagetora.
(The Houjou Clan—) he muttered darkly to himself. He emerged from the curve, scowling at the widening vista ahead. Past the next corner, a beautiful lake came into view, glittering in the morning light: Lake Ashi.
The shrine’s parking lot was locked, barring entrance. Naoe was forced to stop the Windom at the bottom of the shrine path. It was surprisingly difficult to drive with his shoulder wound, and his entire body felt peculiarly heavy—though perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised about that, since no doctor would have allowed him to move around with his injuries. He had force-injected himself with a shot of painkillers, shaken off Maiko’s protests, and driven all night like a madman from Nikkou. All composure had flown out the window for the normally unflappable Naoe. Though he might have arrived at a state of mind ‘free from obstructive thoughts,’ he was running on fumes after a night of almost uninterrupted driving, and the exhaustion abruptly dragged him down like dead weight as soon as he got out of the car. His shoulder oozed pain.
(Should I take a look?)
This was no time to be worrying his own injuries.
The place Naoe had come to was Hakone Shrine, located on the banks of Lake Ashi in Motohakone. Also called the Hakone Avatar, this richly historic shrine had once been held in deep reverence by such luminaries as Minamoto no Yoritomo, Houjou Souun, and even Tokugawa Ieyasu, and under their patronage became the shrine of the tutelary god of the entire Kantou. The famous annual Festival of the Lake Waters was a signature event of the Hakone Lake Ashi summer.
At this early hour, only the chirping of birds disturbed the silence of the grounds.
(Here?)
The image Kagetora had sent him via the mirror. His message of ‘Odawara’ was the basis of Naoe’s belief that the Shinto shrine gates rising from the lake belonged to Hakone Shrine. He had visited it many times in the past, and it was located very near Odawara. Hakone lay at the center of Houjou’s sphere of influence; more than that, it was the territorial base of the Fuuma Clan. If he truly had been waylaid by the Houjou, there was a high probability that this was their base of operations. One might call these precipitous heights a perfect hiding place.
The Houjou... Kagetora’s great-uncle, Houjou Gen‘an, had once been the head of Hakone Shrine. Gen’an, son of Houjou Souun, had later returned to secular life as the Houjou family elder and was known as the greatest man of culture of the Kantou. For a while he had adopted Kagetora as his son and heir, but after Kagetora’s adoption by Uesugi and the dissolution of that previous relationship, Gen’an’s grandson Ujitaka had become his successor. In the old days, Kagetora had often mentioned these events, and from the way he spoke of Gen’an, it was plain that he had greatly loved and honored him. But he hardly ever touched on the thereafter. If he had never been adopted by Uesugi, he would have succeeded Gen’an as his heir and become the master of Kodukue Castle and a pillar of the clan. His life would have been entirely different. But Kagetora, too, must know the futility of looking at the past with a chorus of ’if onlys’ on his lips.
Still, those reminiscences meant that Naoe was well-informed indeed where the Houjou was concerned.
But if this was the Houjou’s base...then he stood right in the middle of the enemy camp. Did they know that Kagetora had sent him a message asking for help? And if so, had they allowed the message to reach him? It was conceivable that they had deliberately turned a blind eye to Kagetora’s SOS in order to lure him in—which meant they had laid a trap for him?
(Not that it matters now...)
He fixed a hard stare on the high tips of a cedar tree.
(What next?)
He had to locate Kagetora immediately. Had he really been devoured by the tsutsuga? Had he been tree-bound? Yet the trail ended here. If that image had been from Kagetora’s vantage point, he was wasting his time here.
He had come to this place despite that knowledge for one reason: for a little while now he had felt someone calling to him. Reaching ceaselessly out to him.
What was it? It prickled at his sixth sense—a type of thought-wave, perhaps. ‘Come,’ it told him. It was not his imagination; it had stopped just as he’d arrived at Hakone Shrine, though it had been his constant companion ever since he’d entered the Hakone mountains. He didn’t know who was summoning him, only that it was not Kagetora.
(A trap it must be, then...?)
He held his breath, seeking an enemy he could not see.
(Who is behind this?)
Nothing moved. Hoping to draw his enemy out into the open, Naoe walked toward the lake.
He descended the flight of stone steps within the forest, then went toward the great shrine gates rising out of the lake until he emerged onto the stone-paved wharf from which the head priest’s boat set out during ceremonial rites.
The surface of the lake was quiet, smooth. His reflection looked back at him from beneath his feet. Then it blurred, and it was Kagetora looking back at him.
(If I had been with him...)
None of this should have happened. Naoe had castigated himself over and over again as the miles passed. What had he been doing? What in the world had he been doing away from Kagetora instead of at his side protecting him? The mistake was his, and ‘mistake’ didn’t even begin to describe the magnitude of it. His own puerility had led to this. What was he doing here if not protecting Kagetora? Did he think he was the victim, the tragic hero of some gods-forsaken soap opera? Was he waiting for someone to show him sympathy? So what if he lived in pain? So what if his life was mired in anguish? His lord was in danger—plunged into mortal peril—and it was his fault. His fault alone. How could he have deserted him...?!
(Kagetora-sama...!)
Suddenly blazing with impatience, Naoe sent a thought-wave out toward the lake. Perhaps it would reach him. Perhaps he would respond.
(Where are you?!)
The lake gave no reply. The dread driving him to the point of self-flagellation was unbearable. If only he at least knew what had happened to him...
“...!”
Naoe whirled as he felt a presence approaching from behind. A man was descending the shrine’s stone steps. Glaring at him, Naoe shifted conspicuously into fighting stance, prepared for an instant attack.
The man stopped in the middle of the stairs, his calm gaze fixed on Naoe. As if he had been waiting for him.
“So you’ve come after all.”
“Who are you?”
“...”
The man was of average height. Though his face was young, his eyes were strangely serene. Imperturbable.
(Was it him...?)
The one who had called him here?
His ‘energy’ felt very similar to the thought-wave that had summoned him.
(Who is he?)
Naoe could not tell his intentions. For a long moment he simply stood there, silent, but Naoe refused to drop his guard for an instant. As if taking pity on him, the man finally spoke.
“I wanted to meet you, to see what kind of a man you are for myself...”
“What?”
“To decide if I should kill you. Or not.”
Naoe’s eyebrows lifted sharply.
“...Yet I find myself irresolute, even at this very moment. I believed that it would be better for Saburou if you were to die.”
(Saburou?...) he started. (Could this man be...?!)
“You came to find Kagetora, did you not?” the man asked in a low voice. “Then come with me. Saburou Kagetora is with us. Let me invite you into our home. We will speak afterwards.”
“You’re one of the Houjou, aren’t you?”
“Here within the Hakone mountains we are protected by our barrier. You must know that an attack would be useless.”
“You bastard. Are you Houjou Ujiyasu?!”
“He is our father,” the man responded sharply, looking straight at Naoe. “You are Saburou’s guardian, are you not? I will emphasize I extend my invitation to you not because you are one of the Uesugi, much less because you are Saburou’s protector.”
“What...?”
“It is because you are the criminal who is the cause of my younger brother’s suffering.”
“!”
The words stabbed like a blade into his chest.
“Come with me,” Ujiteru said, leading the way. Naoe bit his lip hard, glaring at Ujiteru’s back with stony impenetrable eyes.
(This man is his brother...his blood-kin?)
Was it his intention lo let Naoe see Kagetora? What did he want with Naoe, his enemy? If he would call Naoe a ‘criminal’ to his face, why hadn’t he cut Naoe down where he stood?
(What should I do?)
If he would be allowed to see Kagetora, he would go this instant, trap or no trap. He had no fear of that now. Yet...
Naoe faltered at the thought of seeing him again, at the memories of what had happened in Toyama. The image of Takaya’s eyes surfaced again in his mind, those wounded eyes gazing their reproach in place of lips stunned silent by the violent kiss he had forced upon them...
—I am your dog.
He had not thrust those words at Takaya out of any form of masochism. It was precisely the grain of truth therein that had prompted the outraged, trembling denial from Takaya’s kindness.
I must terrify you, unstained innocent that you are. Stay away. Don’t touch me. Your skin must crawl at the sight of this filthy beast.
Even so...
He had to go. Had to be near him.
However much it makes you fear me, I cannot stop this feeling. Even if you should reject me, scorn me, banish me from your sight in disgust, I must go to you now. I must be at your side.
Even if you were the one who laid this trap for me...
His lips tightened and his face hardened into a defiant mask even as he cast up the words like a prayer: (Because you want me with you...)
Lifting his head resolutely, Naoe focused his gaze on the path and began ascending the stone steps toward the road.
At another wharf some small distance away a white cruiser lay in anchor with several men standing by. The Houjou estate lay on the opposite shore and appeared to be inaccessible except by boat. The men surrounded Naoe and came aboard with him.
It took them around ten minutes to cross the lake and reach a small wharf on the other side. They took the narrow path leading from it.
The estate was located halfway up one of the mountains ringing Lake Ashi. The large, Japanese-style house looked like a vacation home or a high-class inn, and the spaciousness of both buildings and grounds, if privately-owned, pointed to significant family assets. There was certainly precedent in the case of Mogami Yoshiaki. The Houjou onshou had likely chosen to possess those with considerable stature in the political and financial worlds as well.
The tall young man waiting at the front entrance bowed toward him.
“This way.”
He showed Naoe inside with all the courtesy befitting a guest, Ujiteru accompanying them.
“...This estate is guarded by the Fuuma. None of your silly tricks will work here, so I hope you will not try anything,” he said.
Rather belatedly, Naoe started a little at the name ‘Fuuma,’ but having already prepared himself for this scenario, it didn’t shake him. Houjou of Sagami, Fuuma of Hakone.
(So it is as I thought...)
The incident with the Tsutsuga Mirror at Nikkou made three, and a common thread tied all of them together. Tsutsuga Mirror, Fuuma, Houjou. And Kagetora appearing in the mirror...
“Please come in.”
He stood before the innermost room, a large, dim space perhaps a hundred tatami in size. Across the entrance lay a ceremonial rope indicating the sanctity of the area beyond. Directly facing the entrance was a household Shinto shrine of plain wood ornamented with sacred evergreen and the nusagushi wooden ritual wand, and enshrined at its exact center was the object of worship: a mirror-like shape covered with a shroud of purple silk.
A white futon was spread across the center of the room, and a boy—no, older, though not yet adult—a young man, then—lay upon it. He wore a snowy white silk kimono within the white sheets, his body so still he did not even appear to be breathing.
His face was white as paper. Lifeless. He looked, in fact, like a doll: unbreathing, unmoving, expressionless, features slack as in death.
(Takaya-san...)
Naoe stood frozen at the entrance, unable to step inside. Unable to speak. Unable to breathe.
He’s dead.
All vital activity had already ceased. The cold flesh lying there had no body heat, no circulation; its marble cheeks were devoid of all color. It was a corpse lying in its death shroud, and its eyelids, hard as celluloid, would never open again.
(Never...?)
“He has become too weak,” Ujiteru murmured next to him, a hint of regret in his voice.
“...!”
Naoe’s spine went rigid at the words.
“He is like a child abandoned in a strange place. He wanders up and down a dark path, crying, until he is snatched away by a passerby. He cannot help despise the parents who left him there, for to be abandoned is little better than being sold...”
Naoe shook his head, teeth gritted, hands clenched into fists. He didn’t want to hear this. He finally took a step forward, gaze fixed on the reality before his eyes, then another and another until he felt the cool air around the still body upon his own skin and sank to his knees next to it.
(Takaya...san...)
Only the dead had skin so pale and eyelids so still; his hair would never feel the caress of the wind again. To touch him would be to shiver with cold...his cheeks, his throat...his flat marble-white chest...
(Could you truly...be...)
Without realizing it, he had gently reached out—to feel that coldness for himself? To somehow coax the warmth back into that still body? To cup those cheeks in his trembling hands once more?
“Do not touch him!” Ujiteru commanded sharply from behind before Naoe could make contact, and he froze in surprise.
“This flesh has undergone ritual purification. It is not dead. It still retains its heat and pulse. It is protected by the divine power of the Hakone Avatar. If you touch it, the pollution from the contact will block the god’s protection from reaching it.”
(He is not dead...?)
Did that mean that he was being kept alive—some semblance of it, at least—by divine intervention?
A body which lost its soul could not live for long. Unless it was sustained, like Shinya, by medical technology, it would last no more than a single day.
Some special spell must have been performed on him to allow the god of Hakone take the place of his life-support system. For this body was just a body now: soulless, empty...
(Where, then, is his soul...?)
He lifted his head. Right before him at the center of the shrine was the sacred mirror in its purple silk shroud. Naoe’s breath caught.
(Could it be—?!)
“I suppose you’ve figured it out.”
“...”
“Saburou Kagetora’s soul has been sealed within the Tsutsuga Mirror there before you. This body is no more than an empty husk, and even a god will not be able to sustain life within the dead forever. It will only be a matter of time before the god leaves him: two or three days, perhaps.”
“!”
“Anything more cannot be guaranteed. This body will die.”
The death of the body: the death of Ougi Takaya. Even if the soul continued to carry his memories, his consciousness, Takaya would be ‘dead.’ Naoe turned a rage-filled glare on Ujiteru. “Bring him back,” he demanded in a low voice that was half growl and half moan.
“...”
“Release his soul from the Tsutsuga Mirror and return it to his body! I won’t allow you to go through with this. I will stop you, whatever it takes!”
“Impossible.”
“It must be possible. Return it right now! Return his soul to this body...!”
“It is impossible,” Ujiteru repeated flatly, coldly. “The release of the entrapped soul requires the male Tsutsuga Mirror. Which is not here. There is no other way. There is no hope for this body.”
“Damn you for a self-serving cold-hearted son of a bitch! Do you actually call yourself his brother?! Do you even care that he’s blood of your blood? How dare you do this to him?!”
“I am elder brother to Saburou Kagetora,” Ujiteru responded with icy calm. “That does not make me brother to this body. All that matters to me is that Saburou’s soul is safe.”
“I’m amazed you can say that with a straight face! He is not just flesh, but seventeen years of a life lived within this body. However short a time that may be, it can never be replaced; those years are fully as important as the four hundred he lived as Uesugi Kagetora! Will you call yourself his brother when you can’t even grasp that much, you bastard?!”
“Curb your insolent tongue, vassal. Do you dare speak thus to he who is elder brother to your lord?”
“I will not allow anyone to trample upon his heart, kin or not. You’re not fit to be called his brother.”
“You certainly talk a good game,” Ujiteru snorted, leaning back against a post. “But it matters not. Flail as you might, you can do nothing as long as the male Tsutsuga Mirror lies beyond your grasp. Now. You are not to set foot outside this estate. You will remain confined here along with this body. This estate lies within a strong barrier which will block any attempt at communication with the outside via a thought-sending. Neither will your «powers» work here.”
“...”
“I summoned you here because Saburou wished to see you. All that remains for you to do is to watch over this body as it dies. Grieve over it as you like, for you alone are responsible for the death of this young man.”
He shook with indignation. What should he do? He could not ever recall feeling such rage. But towards whom was it directed? Towards this man? Or himself?
“Damn you to hell,” he snarled without conscious thought. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you with my own hands!”
“You could. But if you do, you will never know where to find the male Tsutsuga Mirror.”
Naoe choked. Ujiteru glanced at him and smiled.
“Yes. Admit your defeat and do as I say. Bark all you like; as long as you are in this cage, you cannot bite us.”
“...I’ll end you...”
“One day Saburou will return to the Houjou as one of its generals, and he will be given another body. One strong and beautiful enough to be worthy of him, worthy of the ferocious tiger that he is.”
“I will kill you all, you Houjou bastards!” Naoe spat, shaking with rage, but the fierce cry never reached Ujiteru, who had already left the room.
His gaze returned to Takaya. He reached out unthinkingly before recalling that he must not touch him, and helplessly struck the floor with his fists in impotent frustration.
(How did this happen?)
He ground his teeth together so hard that they might well have been in danger of shattering, nails biting into his palms.
(Kagetora-sama!)
Fuuma Kotarou was waiting for him when he left the room.
“Ujiteru-sama. A messenger from Ujimasa-sama has arrived from Nikkou.”
“From my brother? He actually sent a messenger? Huh. He could have just called. Traditionalist as ever.”
“The message appears to be urgent. I left him waiting in another room. This way.”
“Very well. Do not let the Tsutsuga Mirror out of your sight. That man may attempt some trickery,” he said as he proceeded quickly down the long corridor with Kotarou following closely behind.
“Has something roused your anger, Ujiteru-sama?”
“I am not angry.”
“I do not understand your words to him. If it is your intention to give a new body to Saburou-dono, then it would be best to dispose of that empty husk. Why go through the trouble of performing the ‘life-sustaining ritual’ at all?”
“Leave it be!” Kotarou paused at the fierce anger in Ujiteru’s voice. Ujiteru went on for a few more paces before stopping. He turned.
“As long as Saburou refuses to obey us out of his own free will, he must not be set free from the mirror. That is all the more reason why I cannot ignore his wishes. He wanted to see this man called Naoe while he still had breath in his body. Call it the fulfillment of a last wish, if you will. But a ninja such as yourself, who knows neither compassion nor pity, cannot possibly comprehend the kind of affection that exists between brothers.”
Kotarou stood there expressionlessly. Ujiteru turned and quickly headed for the messenger’s room.
Chapter 11: Death on the Banks of Lake Ashi
“What did you say?” Ujiteru demanded of the messenger from his elder brother Houjou Ujimasa who had arrived in Hakone earlier. They were meeting in a room detached from the main building. The messenger seated before him was a short man with small eyes and pale lips named Tooyama Yasuhide, a vassal of the Houjou who had once served as one of their magistrates. He and his father Yasumitsu had also acted in the capacity of diplomats from the Houjou to other daimyo. He now attended on Ujimasa as one of his aides.
“Ujiteru-sama, this is what our lord hath commanded...”
“I asked you to repeat what you just said!”
Quivering, Tooyama prostrated himself before Ujiteru’s enraged growl.
“That Master Saburou should be given as offering to the ‘Yatate Cedar.’”
“What is my brother thinking?!”
Thump. Ujiteru struck his knee hard with his fist as he stood.
“We are putting all our effort into searching Hakone for a suitable offering! Why, then, must Saburou be sacrificed? Does my brother not understand what such a thing would mean?”
“But consider, Ujiteru-sama, that none but Lord Saburou hath strength enough to match the offering at Nikkou. No common existence could hope to contain all the spiritual majesty of Nikkou; I have heard he carries terrifying power,” Tooyama continued, animation in his small frame, “‘Tis my fervent belief that Ujimasa-sama’s course is the right one. Once the Nikkou sacrifice is tree-bound, the binding of the ’Yatate Cedar’ must follow immediately thereafter. At this moment, is there any but Lord Saburou who may take the awesome spiritual majesty of the sacred tree upon himself without being torn apart?”
“But to do so would mean that Saburou will never be able to return as a human being!” Ujiteru shouted, back rigid with anger. “The offering to the ‘Ritual of Unification by Fire’ necessarily loses his humanity as he is enfolded within the spiritual majesty of the sacred tree. The soul itself transforms into a living weapon, to exist forevermore as a mass of spiritual energy. I would never do such a thing to Saburou. How could my brother possibly consider this course with equanimity? How could he command Saburou’s destruction?!”
"’Tis because Lord Saburou is his brother that Ujimasa-sama hath decided he must be sacrificed for the conquest of the Kantou. But even were it not for the Kantou, we face mighty foes in the forms of Takeda and Oda. A single misstep would mean our lives. He hath chosen Lord Saburou that this grand ritual might be completed to perfection and display its awe-inspiring effect in full. All that he does, he does for the Houjou conquest of the «Yami-Sengoku».
“Conquest conquest conquest... Were the sacrifices we demanded of Saburou four hundred years ago not enough? Must we now exploit him still further?”
Tooyama closed his mouth, chastened.
“Moved around like a chess piece by his own flesh and blood for glory, for peace—after all his terrible sacrifices, will we once again use him so shamelessly for the self-serving whims of the clan?”
“Surely, Ujiteru-sama—”
“Let us soar across the battlefield together as brothers. To make of him a mere weapon... I cannot allow it. Does my brother think Saburou, his own younger sibling by blood, is no more than a tool to be used?!” Ujiteru spat, striking his knee. “I am certain he countenances such cruelty because he fears Saburou’s power—that terrible power of «choubuku». What absurdity! What meaning can peace have to our family if we cannot even trust our own brother?”
“Ujiteru-sama, surely you cannot mean these words...”
“Can’t I? It’s the truth. My answer is no. I don’t care if the head of the family commands it, I would never even consider perpetuating such an inhuman act against the brother I have finally found again after so long. Return and tell that to my brother. I will never consent to obeying such an order.”
“But you must, Ujiteru-sama! ’Tis the absolute command of our lord!”
“Absolute command? Toss around these modern terms all you want. It will not change my mind.”
“Ujiteru-sama!” Tooyama insisted forcefully, moving forward on his knees. “This command you must obey!”
“What?”
“Ujimasa-sama hath laid his doom upon me, that if I should return without obtaining your consent, I must commit seppuku to atone for my failure.”
“Seppuku? Even if you did, you could simply possess someone else. It is meaningless.”
“I beg you to listen to me, Ujiteru-sama. This command is not by will of Ujimasa-sama alone.”
“What did you say?”
“The order to make Master Saburou the sacrifice of Hakone came from your honored father, Ujiyasu-sama!”
“What?! From Father—!” Ujiteru’s eyes widened. “What do you mean? Has my brother finally seen him? Does he know where Father is now?!”
Ujiteru’s anger was not unjustified, for their father’s whereabouts had eluded the Houjou brothers until now. All they knew was that he had not been purified, for it was his spirit which had dissuaded Ujimasa and Ujiteru from placing a death-curse upon Hideyoshi, the man who had commanded their deaths by seppuku. It was his counsel which had pacified their onryou four hundred years ago.
They had been searching for their father Ujiyasu since their resurrection. With battle upon them, they had felt a power of unknown origin aiding them like the cocoon of a father’s regard. That was why they believed it to be Ujiyasu’s power. But neither Ujimasa nor Ujiteru had ever felt his presence appear before them. Though they had hoped for the use of his power, that they might conquer the «Yami-Sengoku» together, he did not seem inclined to show himself to them. Telling Kagetora that ‘Father is waiting’ was but an expediency, but...
(Has my brother found our father?)
If it was their father’s will that Saburou be made a sacrifice, Ujiteru would offer no opposition.
Indeed, contact with Ujiyasu was incredibly good news.
“Tooyama, has my brother seen Father, met with him? Did he say?”
“This matter regarding Ujiyasu-sama must be kept absolute secret. You are the only one who knows, my lord.”
“...”
Ujiteru pondered. After long minutes submerged in contemplation, he sighed deeply. “Tell my brother that I would like to think for a little longer on the issue of this sacrifice.”
“But time...”
“...is running short? I know this. I must have time to prepare myself.”
“Might I conclude, then, that this matter regarding Master Saburou is resolved?”
“Does the idea of Saburou as sacrifice bring you joy?” Ujiteru snapped, looking up at the hint of—glee?—in Tooyama’s voice.
“...N-no, not at all...”
“That was not sorrow I heard in your voice. So you and my brother are accomplices. Ah, of course—you are Tooyama Yasumitsu’s son, are you not?”
Tooyama’s face stiffened abruptly.
“Yasumitsu, I believe, was the one who accompanied Saburou to Echigo. And you as well...”
“...”
Averting his eyes slightly, Tooyama confirmed, “Yes...my father and I went with Master Saburou to Echigo...”
Nodding, Ujiteru continued, “I heard that Yasumitsu died in battle during the Otate no Ran. And you...”
“Yes...yes...I, too...”
“You have not seen your master in four hundred years, then, though you fought and died for him. How deeply it must affect you to be near to him once more.”
“Ah...”
“Will you not go to see him before you return to Nikkou? I am sure Saburou would wish it too. Though he can no longer speak to you, he would surely be glad...”
“N...no! I...!” Tooyama exclaimed, his expression changing abruptly. Ujiteru gave him an odd look. “I...I cannot forgive myself for Master Saburou’s death, for failing to protect him. That is my eternal shame and regret. I have not the face to see him.”
“Nay, you laid down your life for Saburou and fought to the death to protect him. How could he bear any ill-will towards you? Surely he would express his gratitude to you instead. Besides, if truly you feel such shame that you are unable to face him, would not that disgrace compel you to render your apology to him?”
“No, oh please... Please grant me this mercy...”
“I see,” Ujiteru finally allowed in the face of Tooyama’s steadfast refusal, which he sympathetically attributed to pained mortification from a hard defeat in the Otate no Ran. “I will speak of you to Saburou. You may return to Nikkou and give my consent to my brother and father.”
Standing in the doorway with Kotarou beside him, looking after Tooyama’s car as it drove away from the estate in the rain, Ujiteru asked, “What do you think? Of the news of my father?”
“What do I think?”
“Has my brother met with him, truly? Has my father appeared before him?” He was not prepared to accept such a claim at face value. “How could my brother, though he is in Nikkou, have known Father’s whereabouts when we have been seeking him so desperately here in Hakone to no avail?”
“...Do you doubt our liege lord’s command?”
“No... No, I do not. But...”
“It is certainly true that at this moment, we have no way of verifying that Ujimasa-dono does indeed speak our lord’s commands. Perhaps it is only a convenient ploy to obtain your consent for the sacrifice of Saburou-dono.”
“Are you saying that my brother’s claims are false?”
“I cannot say... However, I, too, am in favor of Saburou-dono as the tribute. It is unlikely we will find another with such power. He suits perfectly.”
“So you would also urge me to sacrifice Saburou?”
“If your aim is the successful completion of this project, certainly. I support Ujimasa-dono’s decision.”
“I see...” Ujiteru cast his gaze at Lake Ashi, misted now with rain. “I suppose there is no other way...”
“Ujiteru-dono...”
“Leave me. I must think this through,” Ujiteru said, and re-entered the house. Kotarou’s gaze followed him as he disappeared within. Then he turned a fierce glare to the corner around which Tooyama’s car had vanished.
How long had he been sitting there by Takaya’s side?
The day had not brightened with noon’s approach, for a storm was coming. Black clouds gathered overhead, and a light fog rose around Lake Ashi, turning midday as dark as evening. Cars drove through the gloom with their headlights on.
He gazed out at Lake Ashi. Ah yes: he saw now that they were situated directly across the lake from Hakone Shrine, though at a slightly higher elevation. On a clear day he would be able to look out over the Moto-Hakone area.
Naoe was seated in formal pose before the prone Takaya, his fists on his knees. His eyes were wide-open and fixed on Takaya’s face, as they had been for the past several hours, but he no longer saw him.
(He is going to die.)
The weight of his seventeen years—!
(As if I had any right...)
He flinched back from his own towering hypocrisy. Self-disgust overwhelmed him: who was he to spew such moralistic drivel?
Just what did he understand of Takaya’s seventeen years? Did he truly recognize their weight? Was he not also prone to regarding Takaya as if he were someone else entirely? Intellectually, he might accept that Kagetora’s life was Takaya‘s, but could he really treat ’Takaya’ in the exact same way and with the exact same feelings as he had ‘Kagetora?’ He had no choice but to say he could not, not as long as he still entertained the thought that ‘in the worst case, even if he were to lose this body...’
Not true, Naoe declared to himself. How were Takaya and Kagetora two different people? They were the same ‘you’—and to him, at least, the only ‘you.’
(Have I been placed on trial...?)
It seemed increasingly the case as Naoe’s mind grew haggard and blank, crushed by the weight of his thoughts and emotions.
Must he now acknowledge the existence of some great purpose manipulating him?
Was it ‘Heaven’ testing him? Testing for what—his recognition of this man called Takaya?
(How are they different?)
He gave in to the silent scream building in his head: (But he is so precious to me...!)
Must his resolve be tested?
Was Heaven testing his resolution to ‘sever these feelings’ even if it meant the end of his existence? No, not ‘Heaven’...
(You’re the one testing me, aren’t you?)
Had Kagetora contrived all of this, calculated every one of Naoe’s moves and his own? Known that Naoe would end up here—predicted the Houjou targeting him, foreseen even his imprisonment in the mirror? Naoe could not help but imagine Kagetora—Takaya orchestrating this entire situation, voluntarily yet unconsciously.
Was Kagetora testing Naoe’s resolve to sever all feelings for him?
Are you...truly capable of that?
Naoe’s heart skipped a beat as the words played back in his mind. When had he uttered them?
He had meant: Can you stop your feelings for me?
Naoe recalled his cold lofty smile. The arrogant and regal eyes staring at him from within the mirror.
“You’re not capable of it. You cannot escape from your love for me.”
Kagetora, imprisoned and stripped of all ornamentation... It was said that mirrors reflected people’s true essence, and perhaps it was true. Naoe had shivered, for that had been Kagetora’s essence; he, more than anyone should recognize it. Shorn of the artifice called ‘reason,’ what he had seen was the unique cruelty that sometimes surfaced in him.
“You cannot leave me.”
His smile, cold as ice.
“Would you deny it...?”
His silent provocation.
Naoe would be able to deny these thoughts, were they mere dark fantasy. But Kagetora within the mirror had been ‘ruthlessness’ itself, and a hopeless sense of ensnarement had frozen him in place. The truth made manifest and thrust before his eyes had terrified him with its beauty.
(Takaya-san....)
He yearned helplessly for Takaya, his gentleness and vulnerability, the sadness in his expression. I came to save you. That is the reason I’m here; it is the reason I gave myself. If I do not, the dictator within the mirror who turns his cruelty on me alone would be gone, his menace vanished from my life forever.
(Open your eyes—...)
Naoe urged the figure lying there still as death. Open your eyes, and turn that lonely gaze on me once more. Let them glitter with defiance and hostility, so long as they are fixed on only me. Tell me again in your rough and gentle voice: ‘I’m fine,’ ‘Stop worrying.’ Smile at me as you did before, graceless and awkward to conceal a solitary, wounded heart. I miss that smile so much.
(I cannot even touch you...)
Would those cold eyelids flicker open if I could take you in my arms, share my warmth with you?
Takaya’s kindness and vulnerability were so like Kagetora’s. No: they were Kagetora’s, exactly. This new you is still so young, inexperienced...pure. But that, precisely, is what makes you who you are. Your voice, your earnest eyes, the lips that shape your words, your supple back, your chest, your body, all that you form, all of it is you. You are yourself. Each part of you, all unique, all irreplaceable. Priceless treasures. I cannot lose you like this, not so simply.
Call me greedy if you wish. Why must I sever my feelings for you when I love you so?
“You’re not capable of it.”
Naoe looked up at the whisper in his mind. His own reflection gazed back at him from the dark glass.
“I will not let you escape from me.”
Kagetora’s cunning had not yet budded within this being called Takaya, but it must be there somewhere, lurking. Still asleep. And Kagetora’s ruthlessness had already begun to stir without he himself being aware of it, awakening a little more each time they saw each other again, starting with that first meeting.
(Like the beast inside of me...)
The glimpses of that grave majesty hinted at his true nature: a cold, serene, imperious nobility...
(I cannot escape.)
Kagetora stood in his guise as Takaya beside Naoe’s reflection in the glass. With cold, silent laughter in his eyes, he whispered, “I will not let you escape.”
I will drive you mad, you who desire me.
“I will never forgive you.”
(I want you...)
The tiger awaited its prey, the mesmerized fool who knew not how to dam the surging of his desires, and lured it close with temptation.
“You can touch this flesh.”
Place another sin on your towering heap. Press a knife to your wrists against the agony and adorn your hands with your blood. I will allow you to hold me then.
Even in the intoxication of your conquest, know that there is no escape for you. Despair waits to swallow you again. The last laugh will be mine.
“You cannot not win against me...”
You always knew, didn’t you? Knew everything: my feelings, my hate for Minako...you arranged everything, knowing. You foresaw the crimes I would commit out of my love for you. You knew me better than anyone. But you deliberately used ignorance as a mask so that you could hunt down your prey. So you could watch and laugh scornfully as I fell into madness, precisely as you planned.
You alone I shall never forgive for all of eternity!
You will not forgive any attempt at escape: isn’t that what you meant?
(What a selfish man you are...)
All my reproaches glance off your downcast smile, unheard. The loneliness in your eyes, your pain, your vulnerability: all of it a clever trap for the foolish beast.
(Release me...please release me.)
His head was splitting apart, his chest bursting open. How could it hurt so much when he loved so deeply? The pain was unbearable. He wanted an escape. He wanted to hold his tormentor in his arms. I want you. I want to run from you. I want you to be mine. I want your forgiveness...I want to be released from you!
(Kill me!)
I entreat you, the essence of you. Nothing lies before us but the past. The past repeats itself. I will never be able to sever my bonds to you. The fault lies not with the faltering of my will, but the strength of yours.
I don’t want to lose you. That is the reason I keep coming back. To be reincarnated means parting from you. Forgetting. I cannot allow you to belong to someone else, and know nothing.
I can’t endure this any longer.
I want to sever these chains.
But to lose you, to have someone else steal you away, is intolerable.
If only you would disappear, your existence found nowhere in this world. I cannot live if you are gone, but what does that matter?
(I want to disappear from this world with you...)
His hollow eyes fell on the Tsutsuga Mirror within its shrine. Kagetora soul was sealed inside it at this very moment. —Of course.
(This...mirror...)
A chill ran down his spine at the thought that flashed across his mind. Terrified, he tried to wipe it away, but...‘it’ was the perfect solution.
It shook him.
There existed a way: just one way he could disappear from the world forever with him without being reincarnated.
A demon slid into Naoe’s heart.
A way to monopolize him forever...
It existed.
Just one way.
“Lord,” called one of Kotarou’s subordinates, and he turned.
“One of our men has returned from Hakone with his report. It appears the tsutsuga are performing flawlessly. The soul-hunt is eighty percent complete, and only the tree-binding remains. He wishes to make a full report in person.”
“Mm. I will go now. Ask him to await me in my room,” Kotarou instructed, before returning his gaze to Naoe in the dim room.
“Was there something else on your mind...?”
“No, it’s nothing,” he responded, and directed the young subordinate to receive the messenger.
(Do not let him out of your sight.)
Ujiteru had commanded him to guard Naoe and the Tsutsuga Mirror, though there was no need for he himself, head of the Fuuma, to personally guard a prisoner; his subordinates, the Fuuma elite, were more than adequate for such a task.
Yet for some reason he could not clearly articulate to himself, he felt uneasy. He could not help but wonder at Naoe, who sat so motionlessly beside his master for hours on end.
I will kill you all!
(A baffling man,) Kotarou thought as he gazed at Naoe. What need was there for such emotion? What could he be brooding over? Kotarou could not guess.
Ujiteru, too, was an enigma to him. How could they hold such anger and hatred within themselves, agonize to such a degree over another? Why deliberately go to such lengths—such ridiculous and futile lengths—for a moment’s solace?
It was an unsolvable puzzle, Kotarou reflected.
In the old days, he had put villages to the torch, slaughtered men and women and cut down their children as they stood screaming and crying bloody tears—all in service to war.
Even now he wondered what it was he had felt for a split-second, that sensation like his heart freezing over.
He had no understanding of the process by which the heart induced tears. He had always been able to cut off the feeling at will, like a faucet. Was it really emotion, then, which evoked those tears?
“Thou understand’st not.”
Kotarou looked up as he recalled Ujiteru’s words. He would not deny it. He was incapable of analyzing their actions—nor had he any intention of doing so. For the ninja, emotions were unnecessary. Unparalleled machine-like accuracy, discernment, and intellect were what they required to execute their missions. That was all. Adding an element so unstable as emotion would only cause malfunction. He had executed many ninjas for failing to complete their missions. Fools, he had thought, as he’d beheaded them.
(Yes, they are fools.)
What he needed to do was to calculate how emotion factored into the process of accomplishing a strategy. He needed objective data.
(Understanding is impossible,) Kotarou muttered to himself as he quietly left the corridor. In any case, there was no need to feel any interest or sympathy for the enemy’s mental state, he convinced himself. By the time he he climbed the stairs, his usual arrogant confidence was back in place.
Incidents similar to those which had taken place in Nikkou were now a frequent occurrence in Hakone, though on a smaller scale. What appeared to be a face had now appeared on a cedar tree within Hakone Shrine.
The media was in an uproar over the mysterious ongoing phenomenon in Nikkou, and the area around Lake Ashi swarmed with investigators and the like. It presented a huge problem for the Fuumas’ tree-binding.
“If you’re going to complain, you might as well save your breath,” Kotarou informed his subordinates pitilessly. “As long as the tsutsugas’ soul-hunt is proceeding as planned, all else can be dealt with. We can perform the tree-bindings at night. The fact that that we cannot move as freely as we did four hundred years ago is of little import. We are ninjas; we must adapt quickly to our environment.”
They faced his rebukes in silence.
“Keep pace with Nikkou. This ceremony will be performed on a grand scale to tie together Nikkou and Hakone, the two great sacred places of the Kantou. I will accept neither delays nor mistakes. If we are clear, go. There is precious little time.”
“Yes Lord!” The ninjas saluted and disappeared an instant later.
Kotarou stood a little time longer within the rain-misted forest before heading back towards the estate.
What was that man thinking at this moment? The question absorbed him. Brushing damp hair back from his forehead, he turned his gaze to Hakone Shrine on the opposite shore.
The rain continued as evening fell.
It pattered against the roof as Kotarou approached the lightless room and said to the motionless man within, “How does it feel to pass an entire day having accomplished nothing?”
The man was still sitting in front of Takaya in the exact same position as he had several hours before. He gave no sign of having noticed Kotarou’s presence. There was only the sound of the rain outside for a long moment before Naoe broke his silence of many hours to murmur without turning, “How much longer...does he have?”
“... Well. If he so wishes, he can cling to this existence for many years yet.”
Ninjas could see even in darkness. Kotarou was slightly surprised to realize that Naoe had turned to face him.
His eyes were devoid of all emotion.
“... Do you feel no sorrow though your master lies dying before you?”
“Sorrow?” Naoe’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Does a loyal dog feel sorrow at his master’s death?”
“What?”
“Would tears prove me a loyal dog?” Naoe asked carelessly as a smile carved itself onto his haggard cheeks. “If you’re here to commiserate, get lost. If you’re here to sneer, do as you like.”
“Sneer?”
“Your absolute scorn would be preferable to your sympathy. Sympathy is tedious to those who don’t care any longer,” Naoe returned. He laughed hoarsely, derisively at himself, the bark of sound so strange that for a second Kotarou suspected he had gone mad.
“You are utterly incomprehensible to me,” Kotarou replied, baffled. “I thought that your emotions would blaze like a pyre, but you are expressionless as ice. I judged you to be a loyal vassal who would sacrifice his life for his master, but it appears I am wrong.”
“Hah...So I’m not a loyal vassal?”
“I do not understand you at all. Which is the real you? Which just a masquerade?”
“Both are real,” Naoe retorted, glaring at Kotarou. “What do you plan to do with him? You Houjou will never win him over. He’s belonged to Uesugi for four hundred years. I hardly think he would return to his birth clan’s fold at this late date.”
“We shall see. Kagetora-dono was defeated in the intra-clan war: seen another way, he was killed by the Uesugi. It would not surprise me if he hates the Uesugi, in his heart of hearts.”
Naoe’s lips twisted slightly, perhaps at memories of his own role in the assault on Kagetora during the Otate no Ran. He immediately shook them away. “What, then, of the Houjou who offered up their son to the alliance, then abandoned him when it fell apart? ...Still, four hundred years have passed. All of this is ancient history. Any resentment and hatred has long been forgotten.”
“Are you so certain of that?”
“Fear not, I’m the only one he hates,” he answered with a self-mocking smile. Though the words were full of despair, Naoe’s voice was perfectly composed. “What is the Houjou scheming? You were the ones who stole the Tsutsuga Mirror and bound the souls into the trees at Futarasan Shrine, weren’t you? What are you planning to do at Toushou Shrine? Is it envy that drives you—jealousy of Ieyasu, the supreme conqueror?”
“I have no intention of telling our plans to an enemy.”
“To come back now in an attempt to re-enact the wars of the Sengoku...what fools you are. No matter how much you losers flounder...no, I’d say your struggles only add to the glory of the victor.” Naoe snorted a laugh. “Lord Ieyasu must be chuckling with glee at this very moment.”
“—You are an interesting man,” Kotarou mused with his usual indifference. “One such as you would provide an endless amount of data for my empirical observations. You are of great interest to me. I would not be adverse to studying your mental state. It will be of help in my strategies hereafter.”
“Humph. So you’re planning to make me your guinea pig?”
“A sample. The mentality of a vassal.”
“Not interested,” Naoe spat, turning his back on Kotarou. They listened to the rain in silence.
Kotarou broke it to say, “Do you wish to know the location of the male Tsutsuga Mirror?”
“What?”
“Kagetora-dono will soon be bound to the sacred tree at Hakone Shrine. You should value what little time you have left.”
“What did you...?!”
Kotarou departed without further comment. Shaken, Naoe remained frozen in place.
Rain violently struck the windows.
Chapter 12: Laughing Conqueror
Narita Yuzuru had been kidnapped.
Ayako heard the news from Chiaki late that night—after receiving word from Naoe that Takaya was likely being held captive within the Tsutsuga Mirror.
“What? How the hell did that happen?!”
“Sorry. I screwed up. There were too many of them.”
Chiaki was calling from a public telephone outside the . He’d been busy gathering intelligence right up until that moment.
“I had the police check the license plate, but the car was stolen. No surprise there. They’re looking for it, but it’s gonna take time. Narita’s got the Hakku Dharani bracelet on him, though, so we can figure out what direction he’s going with a Bell-Ringing Ritual.”
“Hold on, Nagahide! Start from the beginning! You said someone took him—so he’s been kidnapped? Do you know who did it? You don’t think—”
“One thing I’m sure of: they didn’t kidnap him for money—they were using a spell to strangle me. ...Hmm. Though I guess it could be some onshou short on funds for his war,” Chiaki replied calmly. Cool-headedness under pressure had always been one of his strengths. Takaya, on the other hand, would probably be tearing his hair out by the handful right about now.
“I’m pretty sure it was Date’s younger brother, the one Naoe said saved him in Yamagata a couple of weeks ago. But he was talking about his mother’s enemy or something.”
“Date’s...?” Ayako questioned in surprise. Date? But the Date vassal Katakura Kojuurou was with Naoe right now. “Are you saying that it was the Date who carried him off? That doesn’t sound right. Date is looking for the Tsutsuga Mirrors in Nikkou with Naoe.”
“Tsutsuga Mirrors? What’s that?”
“Huh...? Oh! Right! I haven’t told you about that yet!” Ayako recalled, and relayed the events in Nikkou in detail.
“What?! Kagetora asked Naoe for help from within the mirror?!”
“I got another call earlier from Naoe saying that he was heading for Odawara. Which means I have to go to Nikkou.”
“That idiot, what the hell is he doing?!”
BAM! Chiaki struck the phone box glass. Putting aside Yuzuru’s kidnapping for the moment, he yelled into the receiver, “So what, now Kagetora’s gone and gotten himself eaten by the tsutsuga, and you think this is all the Houjou’s doing?! That stupid moron! This is what he gets for blundering around like that, goddammit!”
“...Anyway, I think we can leave Kagetora to Naoe for now. Locating Yuzuru-kun is our first priority! Listen, I’m going to Nikkou to meet up with Katakura-san. Whether or not they have anything to do with it, I’ll probably be able to at least learn more than we know now. He said Kousaka was in Nikkou, too.”
“Whaaaaat?! That bastard Kousaka is there? What the hell was Naoe doing there alone? Why the fuck hasn’t he been keeping us in the loop about all of this?!”
“Anyhow, I’m heading out for Nikkou now. I got a contact address, so write this down. It’s the Japanese inn Naoe’s been staying at. Katakura-san should be there too.”
After hurriedly relaying the details and asking him to ‘stay in touch,’ Ayako ended the call.
“Fuck!” Fuming, Chiaki banged down the receiver and exited the phone box. “So now we gotta worry about Kagetora too?!”
...One little chink in their armor immediately led to this. Their enemies would certainly not go soft on them; this was an opportunity they would not pass up.
(Not to mention the fact that it’s his birth family this time.)
They were just asking the enemy to take advantage. Chiaki kicked the phone box in his frustration.
Why had Yuzuru been taken? To make use of his power? Whatever the case, they had to find him as soon as possible, or they would end up with a catastrophe on their hands. If anyone made use of that terrible power they saw in Sendai, all hell would break loose.
I shall take that jewel from you.
Chiaki ground his teeth as he recalled Mori Ranmaru’s words.
(Does Date’s younger brother have any connection to the Oda?)
It was not a pleasant thought. But Mogami, who had sheltered Kojirou, had in turn been backed by the Oda. It was not outside the realm of possibility.
“Aargh, fuck fuck fuck! None of this would’ve happened if that blockhead wasn’t such a fucking flake!” Chiaki cursed as he climbed into his Leopard. The car with the Tochigi license plate had taken Yuzuru more or less straight east. The Bell-Ringing Ritual was a type of seeking spell using Mikkyou ritual implements. It was performed by ringing a vajra bell, whose sound (or, in this case, spirit-wave) reverberating from the target gave the seeker a general direction. The process was like activating a submarine’s sonar, with the chime of the vajra bell taking the place of the pinger and the seeker’s own sixth sense in place of the sonar system. Also analogous was the fact that the echo faded with distance; the seeker’s search area was limited by his reisa ability.
In Chiaki’s hand was a vajra bell tuned to the frequency of the Hakku Dharani carved into Yuzuru’s bracelet. It took time despite his preparations, but at last Chiaki heard the echo at the very edges of his range.
The reverberation had come from somewhere due east of Matsumoto...a great distance away. Which probably meant that he was somewhere in Tochigi.
(Nikkou, then?)
He started the engine, violently disengaged the side break, and stepped on the accelerator.
Ayako sped through the night from her home in Yokohama toward Nikkou, arriving at dawn but passing Naoe in the darkness. Her only stop had been at a gas station. After climbing Iroha Hill, she descended to Lake Chuuzenji, where she located Asaoka Inn on a map and immediately set out to meet Katakura. Her body, tempered by several onshou tours, betrayed not a trace of tiredness.
“Katakura-san?” Maiko was there to receive her. The inn’s morning started early, as one might expect. But the real reason for Maiko’s dawn rising was her worry for Naoe, who had suddenly left for Odawara in the middle of the night. She had not slept a wink.
“I’m a friend of Nao...I mean, of Tachibana’s. Please let him know Kakizaki is here.”
“Kakizaki...san?”
Maiko looked Ayako over with open skepticism. She seemed bothered by the fact that Tachibana Yoshiaki’s friend was female.
(What a beautiful person...)
She appeared to be around Maiko’s age, but with her extraordinary and impeccable style gave an air of much greater sophistication. Maiko, who belonged to the class of people somewhat worried about a little plumpness around her lower half, felt herself unable to compare. She was wearing rough jeans at the moment, but even if she were to dress up, Maiko from the Nikkou sticks would hardly register as competition.
In any case, Maiko was already so full of thoughts of Tachibana that her aching heart was ready to burst. Was she the one he had called last night? The person he had described as being ‘too devious to defy’—?
(It probably is.) Maiko scolded herself for the depression threatening to overwhelm her, but it had rather the opposite effect.
“Just a moment,” she said brusquely, and went up to the second floor to call on Katakura.
Boy, that didn’t go well, Ayako thought, scratching her head. Since misunderstandings of this kind were a not-infrequent occurrence around Naoe, she decided to leave it be for the time being.
“Well...! Thank you for coming, Kakizaki-dono,” Katakura called from the top of the stairs, and Ayako looked up.
“Katakura-sa—”
“Huh, here comes another one.” The unexpected interruption came from Kousaka Danjou, who had appeared behind Katakura. He seemed to have just missed Naoe. “So Kagetora’s been eaten by a tsutsuga, and Narita’s been kidnapped? Are the Uesugi just sitting around twiddling their thumbs?”
“Oh, shut up! Why are you here, anyway?”
“Information exchange. Regarding the ones behind the theft of the Tsutsuga Mirrors.”
“Let us talk inside,” Kojuurou interjected. “We must discuss the details. Asaoka-san, may I impose on you for some hot tea or coffee? ...Please bring a cup for Kakizaki-san as well. Let us take on such serious matters with calm in both mind and body.”
Though the inn looked like a Western-style house from the outside, and indeed had started out as such, Maiko’s father had remodeled individual rooms ‘for the hot spring visitors’ with tatami mats laid out in the Japanese style.
Katakura’s room, the innermost room on the second floor, was said to be Asaoka Inn’s best. The windows gazed out on Lake Chuuzenji and Mt. Nantai, and Maiko’s father boasted that no better view could be found in the entire Chuuzenji Hot Springs area. Maiko had apparently commandeered the room for ‘Katakura-san and Tachibana-san.’
Somewhat calmer after a drink of Maiko’s coffee, Ayako related Chiaki’s account of the circumstances around Narita Yuzuru’s kidnapping.
“Was it Lord Kojirou, truly?” Kojuurou looked dazed, disbelief written all over his face as Ayako finished.
“So he claimed, but that’s hardly proof. Nagahide has never seen the spirit vessel possessed by Kojirou-san. If Naoe had been there he would have been able to corroborate, but...”
“...”
Kojuurou frowned, sighing deeply.
“In truth, even we do not know what form Lord Kojirou has taken. As you know, after he and Lady Hoshunin re-awoke in this world, they took shelter with Mogami, who cast a curse on Sendai. We have been unable to find him ever since. My lord, too, is much concerned and dispatched many to search for him, but... We have heard naught but worrying rumors.”
“...Rumors...?”
“That Lord Kojirou has been working with the one called Mori of the Oda.”
“What? Oda?”
“Yes. If you consider that ’twas Oda manipulating Mogami from the shadows, perhaps such rumors are not without basis. Yet if that were the case, why did he not return to my lord? If ’tis not his intention to turn against my lord, why...?” a mortified Kojuurou wondered aloud, and Ayako regarded him with sympathy.
Even so, she had to be certain. “Then the Date truly have had no news of Kojirou-san?”
“’Tis quite true. If we had any knowledge of his whereabouts, we would have returned him to my lord’s side forthwith, for that is an outcome my lord strongly desires. Too, I cannot imagine any reason for Lord Kojirou to kidnap Narita-dono.”
“Can’t you?” Rumors abounded that the Date had set out to conquer the «Yami-Sengoku», and Ayako had her suspicions about how much truth they would be willing to give an enemy.
“The danger here is immense,” Kousaka interjected. “We don’t know what they will do with Narita Yuzuru’s power. What in the world have you people been doing? How many times did I tell you not to take your eyes off him? ...Humph! Like master, like servant. Are the Uesugi a bunch of incompetent idiots?”
“What did you say?!”
“They’ll probably kill a whole bunch of people or blow up a city, and it’ll all be on your head.”
“Wh! Wh-wh-wh...! Don’t you dare put the blame on us! What about you? If you know his true nature, just tell us already!”
“Humph! That’s why I call you incompetent. And you call yourself the best of the Uesugi at spirit-sensing?”
“You’re a monster!”
Kojuurou interrupted before the exchange could escalate into something quite unpleasant. “For the time being, let us do what we can to aid in the search for Narita-dono. If it has anything to do with Lord Kojirou, I must not overlook this incident. I will apprise my lord of these events.”
Still glaring at Kousaka, Ayako nodded sullenly. Kousaka braced both elbows on the table and pointed out, “But it looks like we’ve got a few more problems to deal with now. If Kagetora-dono has fallen victim to the tsutsuga, there is a high probability that his soul will be tree-bound, and his face will appear in a tree as we’ve seen on the sacred trees at Futarasan Shrine. Doesn’t that make it even more imperative for Kakizaki-dono to find the Tsutsuga Mirror?”
“Katakura-san, do you have any ideas for locating the Tsutsuga Mirror?”
“Not yet... However, though Uesugi-dono has been devoured by the tsutsuga, I believe his situation is slightly different.”
“In what way?”
"Last night, when Uesugi-dono’s image appeared to Naoe-dono in the mirror, both Asaoko-san and I were able to see him as well—unlike Asaoka-san’s brother, whom we were unable to see even when he appeared to her. In other words, Shinya-san’s soul had already been bound to the sacred tree, and he was projecting his image before a particular person via the intermediary of the mirror, the source of the tsutsugas’ spiritual power.
In Uesugi-dono’s case, however, the presence in the mirror was remarkably different. Rather than a projection, it felt almost as if he himself were standing on the other side of the mirror. It is likely that someone in possession of greater spirit-sensing would be able to speak with him through the mirror. In fact, Naoe-dono received a telepathic message directly from Uesugi-dono inside the mirror."
“So you’re saying that it’s not Kagetora’s reflection in the mirror, but actually him?”
“That is my guess. The lore regarding the Tsutsuga Mirrors contains a story about a woman whose soul was locked away by the female Tsutsuga Mirror. It is from this tale that one might deduce Futarasan Shrine as the location of the mirror into which Holy Priest Shoudou’s magic transformed the female tsutsuga.”
Kojuurou told them the story:
"A bandit entered the shrine one day and stole the female Tsutsuga Mirror. Not knowing what it was, he gave it to his wife. But the instant his wife’s reflection appeared in the mirror, the mirror sucked away her soul.
The stunned bandit begged anyone he could find for help, but he sought in vain, and was left to spend his days in tears and lamentation. Finally there occurred the strange case of a woman appearing in a mirror in the capital pleading for help, and Holy Priest Shoudou set out to resolve the mystery. He called the woman to his own mirror and learned the course of events from her. Then the holy priest said: ‘If the bandit repents of his actions...’ and placed the female Tsutsuga Mirror facing his own, thereby freeing the woman from the mirror.
In other words, when the woman was imprisoned within the mirror, she was shut away in the mirror world. Mirrors can act as windows to the mirror world, allowing those within to converse with those without."
“So that means Kagetora hasn’t actually been devoured by the tsutsuga? He’s just trapped within the female Tsutsuga Mirror...?!”
“Naoe-dono has gone to verify this hypothesis, using the images of Hakone Shrine at Lake Ashi he received from Kagetora-dono as clues. But if it is true that he is trapped within the female Tsutsuga Mirror...”
“...Then in order to free him, the male Tsutsuga Mirror will be needed?” Kousaka murmured, gazing out the window at Lake Chuuzenji spreading towards the horizon.
“—Naoe said that we must not break the Tsutsuga Mirror.”
“Kousaka-dono. Do you have any ideas regarding the location of the male Tsutsuga Mirror...?”
“As to that—I did use my specialty to perform a search for it. I sensed that the ‘mirror stored at Hakone Shrine’ was likely the male Tsutsuga Mirror formerly kept at Mt. Kunou. It was ceremonially transferred to another shrine in the early years of the Meiji Period, but that shrine was abandoned long ago and no longer exists. What concerns me, however, is the man who performed that transfer.”
“How so?”
“The man was a merchant from Tokyo called Shouji Jin’emon. He belonged to a family which oversaw Yoshiwara, the Edo red-light district. It was said that when Yoshiwara was first established, Shouji Jin’emon used the remnants of the Fuuma to secure its prosperity, and that Jin’emon himself came from the Fuuma.”
“Ah!” Ayako and Kojuurou exclaimed.
“If the Shouji family had a connection to the Fuuma...then the Fuuma was able to get their hands on the male Tsutsuga Mirror on the occasion of its transfer...”
“That sounds plausible, though it doesn’t tell us where the mirror is now. Another problem, that of Mt. Nikkou, faces us as well. Trees other than the holy trees there have had souls bound to them. These souls appear to be the unpurified spirits of Kegon Waterfall; they, too, have been devoured by the tsutsuga.”
“But what happens now that they’ve been tree-bound?” Ayako frowned.
Kojuurou, seated beside her, answered, “The trees within the shrine’s holy ground represent the divine spirits of the gods. Naturally, their spiritual power is quite different from the spiritual power intrinsic to trees. They can easily receive gods who descend to earth and fully manifest the power of their occupying deity... In a place where thousands of these trees grow, the earth itself carries extraordinary spiritual power, which in turn increases the retentive power of its sacred ground.” He concluded with great urgency, “For these past few days, the entire region of Mt. Nikkou has been gathering spiritual energy with terrifying speed: at a rate proportional to the number of tree-bound souls—that is, a rate hundreds—nay, thousands—of times faster than ordinary ground.”
Ayako gasped, face stiffening. Kojuurou clasped his hands together on the low table. “I do not know what they intend. I fear that if Mt. Nikkou continues to gather energy at this rate, even its sacred ground will not be able to support the inrush of power, leading to the destruction of the entire region.”
“Is their aim to destroy Toushou Shrine?”
“Perhaps. But if that is their sole purpose, there is hardly need for such exertion...”
All fell silent for a moment, sunk deep in their own thoughts. Kousaka stood. “Whatever the case may be, we must take immediate action. There have been more cases of unnatural deaths in Nikkou City. My guess is that we’re dealing with multiple tsutsuga—and they’re no longer satisfied with the prey at Kegon Falls.”
“What did you say?!”
“It is likely the Fuuma have created more tsutsuga from the Mirrors. If we don’t act now, they may slaughter the entire population of Nikkou. There must be a way of exterminating them,” Kousaka said. He turned before reaching the door. “If you’re not even capable of that, Uesugi, you might as well take down your ‘Army of Righteousness’ sign.”
Kousaka shot a glance back at Ayako gnashing her teeth before walking out of the room. As the door of honey-brown wood slowly closed behind him, grim expressions settled on the faces of the remaining occupants.
Outside, dawn had brightened to day, and Lake Chuuzenji glittered in the beams of sunlight piercing through gaps in the heavy clouds. When Ayako left the room to move her motorcycle into the parking lot, she saw Maiko standing at the entrance, apparently waiting for her.
“Is something wrong?”
“U...um...”
Maiko looked uneasy. She hadn’t intended to eavesdrop on their conversation, but had unconsciously paused at the mention of ‘Naoe,’ the name by which they referred to Tachibana.
“Can you tell me...what Tachibana-san intends to do with the Tsutsuga Mirror?”
“Eh?”
Maiko lifted her chin resolutely as Ayako hesitated over her answer. “Has Tachibana-san changed his mind about breaking the Tsutsuga Mirror? Is he not going to save my brother?!”
“Tsutsuga Mirror...? So you’re...”
“My brother is dying! He will die soon if the Mirror isn’t broken! Tachibana-san promised to find it and save him—is he going to break his promise instead? Will he let my brother die for the sake of the one who is trapped inside?”
“Wa-wait a minute,” Ayako soothed, attempting to calm an emotional Maiko, “he hasn’t given up on your brother.”
“Then why is he now saying that the Tsutsuga Mirror must not be broken...?!”
“...”
“Does that mean he no longer cares what happens to my brother? What if Shinya dies because of the delay...!”
“That won’t...”
“But he promised me! He promised to save my brother! How could he be so cruel? My brother should come first! His promise to me should come first!”
He had given her his promise.
She could not allow somebody else to take precedence over her brother. How could he be so cruel as to place anything above his promise to her? She had nothing else of him, nothing but this single precious thread stretching between them. She could not bear his simple dismissal of it.
“Asaoka-san.” Ayako could easily sympathize with Maiko, given that her brother’s life was at stake. She even understood the ulterior feelings hidden within Maiko’s desperation; she was coming on so strongly because her feelings for Naoe were genuine.
And yet...
Ayako hid a soft sigh from Maiko.
“Asaoka-san. You...also saw the boy within the mirror, right?”
“Who is he? Someone Tachibana-san knows?”
“I suppose you could say that...” Ayako paused to think for a moment. “...Yes. But Naoe wouldn’t leave anyone trapped within the mirror, which certainly includes your brother. He would look for the best way to save them both. —At least, that’s what I would say if it were anyone but that boy trapped in the mirror...”
“What do you mean?”
“I... in this case, I believe the question of who he’ll save is already moot...” A look of anguish crossed her face, and she covered her mouth with one hand. “...I think Naoe is going to break the Tsutsuga Mirror...”
“What?” Maiko was startled by a response completely contrary to what she had been expecting. Made increasingly uneasy by her own words, Ayako turned to the mirror on the landing as if seeking just a tiny sliver of hope.
After eating breakfast with Katakura, Ayako sat alone in the guest room prepared for her, dazed. Extermination of the tsutsuga needed to begin immediately, but anxiety lay so heavily upon her that she could not get herself to start moving.
(Naoe is going to break the Tsutsuga Mirror.)
Though Ayako could not say why she believed it, she knew it to be true.
(With Kagetora still trapped inside.)
Why was she so convinced?
How could that possibly be right? she asked herself. Surely Naoe would save Kagetora even if it meant giving up on Shinya. Kagetora was the one person he would give anything, sacrifice everything, to save. Why, then, did she feel such unease?
They shouldn’t have allowed Naoe to leave on his own. Though Ayako wanted to believe that he would never go through with it, something in the back of her mind whispered, (Naoe is going to break the Tsutsuga Mirror.)
“What should I do...?!” Ayako muttered at her reflection in the room’s full-length mirror. “I don’t know what to do about Naoe, or about you...”
She stood from the bed and approached the mirror.
“I don’t know anymore. Come out, Kagetora. You can see and hear me, can’t you? Show yourself! Tell me what to do!”
No reflection appeared but her own. Ayako shook the mirror in frustration.
“I can’t do anything without you here! What are you trying to accomplish? What is it you want from Naoe? Don’t you want him to save you? What about Yuzuru-kun? Tell me!”
The mirror remained blank. Ayako shouted, half sobbing, “Come on! Show yourself to me! Please, Kagetora! Is Naoe the only person you’ll allow to see you?!”
The indifferent mirror silently reflected Ayako’s tear-stained face.
“I’m alone here, and I don’t know what to do! What’s happening in Nikkou? What is the Houjou trying to do? Where is the male Tsutsuga Mirror? You can hear me, can’t you?! Please come out! Please answer me, Kagetoraaa!”
Nothing happened. Wiping at her tears, Ayako sighed in defeat and returned to her seat on the bed.
Of course it wouldn’t be that simple.
Kagetora was not omnipotent. If he even was Kagetora as she had known him; more likely, it was ‘Ougi Takaya’ wandering within the mirror.
(I guess we have to give it our best shot with what we have.)
Somehow they had managed while Kagetora had been missing. They had gotten by then, and they could do so now. She knew that intellectually, but it was harder to convince her subconscious not to rely on him now that he was here. His commands were never wrong; his leadership ensured that they accomplished their missions to perfection.
But he was no longer the Kagetora on whom she could depend absolutely. She could not help but think that the old Kagetora no longer existed.
He was ‘Takaya’ now, not ‘Kagetora.’ ‘Takaya’ was still too young for all the responsibility ‘Kagetora’ had borne. ‘Kagetora’ no longer existed in this world. Here, too, they had to find an answer for themselves. That was how she would have to think about it.
But...could they really do this?
(I have to go.)
Pulling herself together by sheer force of will and pushing the uneasiness away, Ayako stood. She didn’t have time to sit around and brood—she needed to act! She needed to assume that there would be no help from Kagetora this time around. Ayako picked up her motorcycle key and helmet and headed for the door. At that moment—
«Haruie.»
The voice came from behind her, and she stopped still. She turned. No one was there.
“...!”
She heard it again, very clearly this time: someone was calling her name.
“Kagetora!” she responded at once. “Is that you? It is you, isn’t it? Kagetora?!”
She rushed up to the mirror, repeating his name over and over again. But the mirror continued to reflect the room, steadfastly mute. Deciding that it was just her imagination, Ayako moved despondently away. That was when a dim silhouette appeared behind her, resolving itself steadily into an upright figure.
“Kageto...”
Her voice trailed off into startled silence before she finished the word.
For it was Takaya standing there and calmly looking out of the mirror at her.
No, the shape was Takaya’s. But this was not the Takaya she knew. His cold gaze speared into her.
(“Kagetora...”)
“Can you hear my voice?” Kagetora asked.
“Ye-yes!” She peered at the mirror, unconsciously straightening. “Kagetora, is that really you?”
Her higher spirit-sensing ability allowed Ayako to hear Kagetora’s voice with more clarity than either Naoe or Chiaki could achieve. To communicate with the outer world, it appeared, Kagetora needed someone of Ayako’s sensitivity.
“Where are you? Are you really trapped within the Tsutsuga Mirror?”
There was no immediate response from Kagetora.
“Did the Houjou do this to you? They’re responsible for everything happening in Nikkou, aren’t they?”
Kagetora nodded in confirmation. He said, “I want you to abide closely by what I tell you now.”
“What?”
Kagetora continued, “A man will come to you tonight. Go to meet him.”
“A man...? What...?”
“One of the Houjou. I will give him no choice but to seek you out. You must see him,” Kagetora explained. “He will give you information about the Houjou. Then he will begin his own course of action. Before he leaves, you must make sure he has a mirror.”
“I can just give him one, right?”
Kagetora nodded, utterly calm. Completely composed, despite the circumstances. But then again, that was what made him Kagetora.
“There is no need for worry. Just follow my instructions,” Kagetora told her.
Quiet acceptance of that statement, however, was beyond Ayako. “No need for worry?! What are you talking about? What are you even thinking? What happened to Naoe? What if he goes and...!”
Kagetora didn’t respond. Something like a faint smile suddenly appeared at the corners of his lips.
“Kagetora, you...” Ayako stammered, dumbfounded.
He only commented: “The man coming to meet you is someone with whom you should be well-acquainted. He will never be able to betray us.”
“Who—”
But his image had disappeared with a flash even before she finished her question.
Just before he vanished completely—
He left Ayako a name.
Chapter 13: Retribution for a Betrayal
Upon his return to Nikkou that evening, Tooyama Yasuhide immediately proceeded to his master Houjou Ujimasa’s chambers to apprise him of Ujiteru’s acquiescence to the sacrifice of Kagetora. Ujimasa thanked him with a ‘well done.’
“And how did you obtain his agreement? Well do I know Ujiteru, and it would surprise me much if he did not object to such a plan with vehemence.”
Ujimasa’s chosen spirit vessel was a tall bespectacled man in his mid-forties whose oval face and narrow eyes bore more than a passing resemblance to the Ujimasa of four hundred years ago.
Houjou Ujimasa’s residence, which doubled as his base in Nikkou, was located in the near Kirifuri Falls. It was a relatively large structure for the area, and might easily be mistaken for a resort hotel. His vessel, already serving as the managing director of the board of a major hotel chain despite his youth, had obtained it about five years ago. The back of the house dropped away slightly into a small valley out of which the soothing murmur of a brook could be heard.
Ujimasa received Tooyama’s report now in the second-floor study.
“And...did you meet Saburou?”
“N-no... I did not think it wise...”
“Hmm...”
In their previous lives, the polar opposite personalities of Ujimasa, eldest of the Houjou brothers, with his brilliant intellect and foresight and Ujiteru, with his hot-blooded belligerence, had combined into a superb partnership in both governance and war.
“I suppose the lie regarding knowledge of Father’s whereabouts was an unfortunate necessity, since Ujiteru would not have given in otherwise,” Ujimasa muttered to himself as he gazed at the woods outside the window. “He, unlike me, still bears ‘brotherly feelings’ for Saburou.”
“Ujimasa-sama, might I inquire about the progress of the ‘Nikkou Offering?’”
“He was successfully acquired through the efforts of our allies, and is now watched o’er with care by my servants. We may make the offering as soon as the drawing out of the ‘great power’ is complete.”
“He is to be bound to the master tree at Futarasan Shrine?”
“Quite so. We do not, however, have enough tree-bound souls at Mt. Nikkou; as I predicted, the massed power of the unpurified spirits in this area is insufficient. We must obtain additional life force from living people. Yet the tsutsuga are already devouring souls as quickly as they can.”
Ujimasa brought a cigarette to his lips, and Tooyama immediately presented him with a lit lighter.
“My brothers are making steady progress with the ‘lightning rods’ at Hakone, Mt. Kunou, and Mt. Tate. But if we cannot complete preparations for the main stage, this play will end a farce. We must move quickly and carefully, for we are surrounded by Takeda and Oda, and we cannot allow our enemies to perceive our plans.”
"What are your commands for me, my lord?
“I have more work for you in the role of messenger: I will entrust you with word toUjinori at Mt. Kunou and Ujikuni at Mt. Tate. Like your father Tooyama Yasumitsu, who was an excellent diplomat, you will act as my emissary. I put every faith in you. You have my thanks for your work.”
“Yes, my lord!” Tooyama responded just as a knock came at the door.
“Enter.”
The door opened to admit one of Ujimasa’s aides. “My lord. Date-dono requests an audience. He awaits in the reception room.”
“It’s all right, show him in. —Tooyama, you may retire.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Tooyama and the aide left the room. Ujimasa turned back to the map of the entire Kantou region spread across his desk. His gaze traced the notes inscribed in red marker. An intricate tapestry of plans was already woven in his mind.
(It must be Saburou.)
The strategist’s eye.
(Our clan is blessed with much talent.)
A smile tilted the corners of Ujimasa’s lips. There was a knock from the door, and at his invitation a short young man who appeared to be around high school age entered.
“Well met, Kojirou-dono.” Ujimasa stood and stepped forward to greet him with a smile. “I trust your accommodations here have been tolerable?”
Kojirou took Ujimasa’s proffered seat on the sofa. “Did I see your messenger to Hakone just now? I trust the question of Kagetora-dono has been satisfactorily resolved?” he inquired, intelligent eyes attentive. “I witnessed Kagetora-dono’s powers of «choubuku» at Sendai. It is as terrible as the rumors suggest. ...I, too, agree that he is most suitable as the Hakone Offering, if for no other purpose than to ensure that his powers can never be turned against us.”
“I am pleased you agree, Kojirou-dono,” Ujimasa responded as he folded the map. “Your offer of aid surprised me, for I never imagined I might receive such an overture from the brother of Masamune-dono himself. Our plans are progressing nicely, with your assistance.”
“...”
“I could only dream of an alliance with Date-dono in the east four hundred years ago. I am much delighted to have the aid of his brother now.” Ujimasa suddenly fixed Kojirou with hawk-like eyes. “...You will be a chief vassal of the Houjou Clan. I honor my promises.”
“...”
Kojirou looked down and nodded once. “May I ask, Ujimasa-dono, if you have ascertained Lord Ujiyasu’s location?”
A hint of wariness entered Ujimasa’s eyes. “Ah, indeed, Ujiteru was told Saburou’s fate is our father’s command, though I do not yet have knowledge of his precise whereabouts. The lie was necessary, for he would not have agreed otherwise.”
“...”
“But I am certain of his existence, of the fact that he watches over us still. He has saved us from crisis many times since we brothers were resurrected into this age. Yet where he might be found...”
“Then Lord Ujiyasu himself does not intend to go to battle in the «Yami-Sengoku»?”
“I know not what Father intends. In our previous lives he stood behind us always, and I believe he is doing the same now. Though he retired and yielded the position of clan head to me when he was yet in his prime, he watched over us in our wars and in the administration of our lands, sometimes offering counsel and guidance. I remember that time...” Ujimasa smiled. “But now he will see the Houjou become the conquers of the Kantou. That is the moment when he will be resurrected—no, when he must be resurrected. I will make make him ruler of the country, for he is worthy to assume the mantle of absolute power...” A light kindled deep in Ujimasa’s intelligent eyes. “If Father had lived, neither the Taikou nor Ieyasu would have taken the country. I will show the world that Houjou Ujiyasu is the true ‘supreme ruler.’”
“... Ujimasa-dono. The Offering has regained consciousness... Do you wish to meet him?”
“Ah, so he is awake? He is in good health, I trust?”
“He is physically unharmed. Will you see him?”
“Very well,” Ujimasa said, rising calmly.
Kojirou’s so-called “Offering” was confined to the basement of the mansion. The estate overlooked a valley, and a small brook could be seen from the basement window. Iron bars had been fitted over those same windows to prevent any chance of escape.
Ujimasa came to the door after walking down a long corridor. Standing in front of it was a young man unfamiliar to him.
“Kojirou-dono, who is this?”
“My vassal. One who knows how to draw out the Offering’s «power».”
“I see...”
The young man, a beautiful, fair-skinned youth with light brown hair and hazel eyes, raised his head slightly and gave Ujimasa a quick sidelong glance. His coloring and the shape of his face declared him a half-blood. His dainty red lips quirked in a smile, but both Ujimasa, who was already entering the room, and his aide missed it. Neither did they notice the look he and Kojirou exchanged.
At first glance, the white-themed interior appeared completely normal, simple yet clean. The only ornamentation consisted of small paintings on the walls. The room held a bed, table, and unit bath. If not for the bars on the windows, it would be a very pleasant and ordinary guest room.
The ‘Offering’ was seated on the bed. As Ujimasa and the others entered, his large eyes fixed on them angrily.
“You look well.”
“...Who are you people?” Narita Yuzuru demanded harshly. He had briefly regained consciousness from the blow he’d received during his kidnapping, only to be immediately drugged into a stupor. He had just re-awoken to realize that he was confined to this room. “What are you planning to do with me? Why are you doing this?”
He spoke in his ordinary low tones, though it was obvious that he was furious. He had every right to be: though he had not been mistreated, his kidnapping was still a crime. Ujimasa only smiled at his angry hostility.
“It appears my younger brother is much in your debt for your care.”
“Younger brother? What’re you talking about?”
“I had heard that you and he are close. Yet Saburou intentionally betrayed the fact of your existence to the warlords.”
“Saburou? You can’t mean...”
Ujimasa folded his arms deliberately, eyes flashing behind his glasses. “My name is Houjou Ujimasa. I am Saburou Kagetora’s elder brother.”
“Kagetora’s...! Then you’re Takaya’s...!”
Yuzuru immediately recognized the name. He might not be a Japanese history buff, but he’d encountered the names of the Houjou brothers in video games and the like. After hearing about Kagetora and the others from Chiaki, he’d started reading up on the warriors of the Sengoku—even more than Takaya, for some reason.
Houjou Ujimasa became the fourth head of the Houjou Clan upon Houjou Ujiyasu’s retirement. Watched over by his father, he had tightened his control of the Kantou and vied for power with the various warlords of the Sengoku. He had stood against the Taikou Hideyoshi to the last, and, defeated in the famous Siege of Odawara, had committed ritual suicide with his younger brother Ujiteru according to Hideyoshi’s command.
Ujimasa was Kagetora’s biological brother, and his command had sent Kagetora to Echigo. Takaya was surely not indifferent to this man.
(But why would he have...)
“Your name is Narita Yuzuru, I believe?” Ujimasa’s voice pulled him back to the conversation. "I have heard that you wielded a ‘great power’ in Sendai—that Daiitoku Myouou and Gouzanze Myouou destroyed Mogami’s ‘Kinrin no Hou’ by your will.
“I’m not really sure what you’re talking about.” Yuzuru was not dissembling, for he had virtually no memory of those events. Though Takaya and others had told him about the part he played in Sendai after the fact, he still found it difficult to believe that he had actually done any of it. “...What does that have to do with anything?”
“We wish to borrow this unearthly power,” Ujimasa answered, approaching. “The power to move the gods.”
“I refuse,” Yuzuru immediately retorted, eyes sharp. “I don’t know anything about this ‘power.’ I certainly don’t know anything about using it. ...But even if I did, I wouldn’t help you.”
“You’re Saburou’s friend. Do you not think it would be to Saburou’s benefit to help us?”
“Takaya’s benefit?” His words agitated Yuzuru. “What do you mean?”
“Saburou has returned to us. He will fight for us as a warrior of the Houjou.”
“You’re lying!” Yuzuru exclaimed, involuntarily raising his voice. “Takaya would never help you!”
“Why do you doubt me? Saburou is our brother. Of course he would help us. As Saburou’s friend, you should understand his feelings.”
“Takaya is Takaya, not Kagetora! Even if Kagetora’s memories did return, even if Takaya remembered everything, he would still be Takaya!”
“And if this ‘Takaya’ should disappear, and he became ‘Kagetora’ completely...?”
“!” Yuzuru’s expression immediately froze. “He couldn’t have...”
“It is the truth. Saburou is wholly ‘Saburou Kagetora’ once more and has agreed to help the Houjou.”
“That...can’t...”
“If your friendship for him is true, you would aid him by lending us your power. You will do so sooner or later in any case.”
“Wait! Are you saying... that Takaya was the one who told you to bring me here?!”
“You may think of it that way. Your stubbornness will not help you here; you will not be harmed if you simply obeyed quietly and allowed these people to draw out your power.”
“Takaya! Where is he? Let me see him! I want to talk to him!”
“I leave him to you,” Ujimasa said to Kojirou, and left the room. The men guarding Yuzuru held him down as he struggled violently.
“Let me see Takaya! I want to see him!”
“Stop this.”
Yuzuru’s eyes narrowed at Kojirou. Kojirou looked back at him expressionlessly.
“There is no escape. If you don’t want anything bad to happen to you, be silent and obey.”
Yuzuru bit his lip. He had never been so frustrated before in his life. Takaya would never deceive him like this: he was certain of it. Yet why did that statement cause him such uneasiness?
It’s not true! he cried out silently. You’re still in there somewhere, aren’t you? Even if you did become Kagetora, you would never do this to me!
(You wouldn’t, would you, Takaya...?)
It was a lie. Please let it be a lie, Yuzuru prayed, biting on his lip hard enough to draw blood.
(Tell me it’s a lie! Takaya!)
After taking his leave of Ujimasa, Tooyama Yasuhide called a car to take him to his hotel in .
Ujimasa had offered him rooms, but the idea of staying under one roof with his master filled him with dread; he had declined and booked a hotel for himself and his underlings.
When the car arrived, Tooyama thanked the driver and alighted, heading straight for the front door.
“Tooyama-sama.” A young woman greeted him in the lobby: his subordinate, Sahei, formerly one of his mounted guards. “Welcome back, my lord. Is Ujiteru-sama well?”
“Yes, and as obstinate as ever.”
Sahei peered at Tooyama’s face uncertainly. “What has happened? You look exhausted.”
Tooyama did indeed look haggard. He couldn’t remember the last time he had not been strung-out with tension. Because of the audience with his master? No, there was something more.
“Tooyama-sama?” Sahei asked worriedly.
“He wanted me to see Saburou-sama...” Abruptly Tooyama’s expression shifted to a fierce glare, and Sahei cringed back. “It doesn’t concern you. We’re feasting tonight! Call everyone here and make arrangements for a banquet!”
“Ye-yes, my lord...”
Bewildered, Sahei looked at Tooyama, wondering what had happened to arouse this strange irritation. Tooyama continued into the glass-sided corridor of the new wing, walking quickly, and Sahei hurried to follow.
“If you are tired, I can have food brought to your room...”
“No need, no need! Call me once everything is ready. Go!” Tooyama snapped, gaze drifting to the glass. He suddenly froze as if he had caught a glimpse of something within the glass. He shook his head and looked again.
“To-Tooyama-sama?”
Just a figment of my imagination, Tooyama thought, relieved. He stiffly began walking again, his eyes wandering restlessly as if something had spooked him. He didn’t hear Sahei’s voice calling after him as he entered his room and closed the door behind him.
Back in his own room, Tooyama nervously latched the door chain before finally drawing in a deep calming breath.
(What is going on?)
He’d been haunted since last night by the feeling of someone watching him. No matter where he was, the gaze followed. His nerves were completely shot.
(Just my imagination?)
He was just tired, he told himself, sinking into the sofa. That was it. There was no one else in the room. He poured himself a glass of ice water and drank it straight down.
(Nothing to worry about.)
He was simply unused to having a body after so long. His skin would stop crawling once he was rested.
(It has nothing to do with Lord Saburou.)
There was no connection. There couldn’t be.
Four hundred years had passed. Too much time to still remember Tooyama, surely. Remember what he had done. Besides, Lord Saburou was asleep, comatose. He knew nothing.
(Why am I even thinking about this?) he asked himself, even as the past re-awakened in the back of his mind.
His father Tooyama Yasumitsu had served the Houjou as a magistrate and a diplomat, participating in strategic negotiations with the Uesugi. The Echigo-Houjou Alliance was one of his triumphs, and he later accompanied Kagetora to Echigo as his vassal. In that alien land he became Kagetora’s support and sole confidante. When the alliance fell apart, it was Yasumitsu’s unwavering loyalty in addition to Kenshin’s deep affection and care which had made it possible for Kagetora to remain in Echigo despite the rancor of the Uesugi vassals. He stayed at Kagetora’s side to the very end, serving and protecting him, until he was cut down by Kagekatsu’s forces in the Otate no Ran.
You must protect Lord Saburou to the last. Understand, Yasuhide?
His father’s last words to him.
(My father was a good man.)
A good man. A brave man who died a heroic death. His father’s last request lingered in Tooyama’s heart, its echoes stirring his guilt and shame again and again. He had failed his father. He had failed his master, Saburou Kagetora.
(It’s all in the past.) Tooyama stood and went into the bathroom.
He turned on the faucet and roughly splashed water on his face before reaching for a towel.
(Lord Saburou is going to be the ‘Hakone Offering.’) He wiped his face and looked into the mirror. (It’s all right. I’ll never have to see him again.)
He had no reason for fear. No one knew. I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine. He repeated the words silently as he shut off the water.
Then—
«...suhide...»
He shuddered at the sound of a voice calling his name. He spun around and around, naked terror on his face, seeking its source. Just as he decided that there was no one there, he heard again:
«Yasuhide.»
He whirled reflexively, and what he saw stopped his heart.
“Aaaaaah!”
Another figure had appeared in the mirror.
Tooyama lost all capacity for speech. He gasped, choking, his mouth opening and closing. He backed away in utter denial of the sight before him until he hit the wall.
“No...no...it can’t be...”
The reflection in the mirror was his former lord, Saburou Kagetora. Looking just as he had four hundred year ago.
«It has been a long time, Tooyama Yasuhide.»
“L-Lord...Sa-Saburou...”
Kagetora regarded the shock and terror twisting his face with a calm, cool gaze.
“Aa...aaaaaaah!” he screamed. He bolted, stumbling out of the bathroom into the main room—and saw Kagetora again in the dresser mirror.
“Aiyeeee!” He backed away, but Kagetora was there again in the hand-mirror behind him. He stared at the dresser mirror, trembling.
Kagetora returned his gaze coolly.
«I have always wished to see you again, to speak with you.»
“I...I-I-I...I...”
«I wanted to ask you: how far were you able to run after deserting me at Samegao Castle?»
“I...I don’t know...what...”
«There is no need for lies. I already know the answer.»
Tooyama froze.
«I know that you colluded with Horie at Samegao Castle. That you informed the enemy of my attempt to cross the mountains. Then you abandoned me and ran. You alone escaped from that place.»
“P-please forgive me—!” Tooyama screamed, prostrating himself on the floor. “Forgive me! I...I...I just...!”
«—Valued your own life above that of your lord?» Kagetora asked coldly, eyes narrowing. «It’s not difficult to understand. Rather than matyring yourself in a strange land for your defeated lord, you chose to survive. You’re a shrewd man. You renunciated a master who had no chance of victory and ran for your life. An exceedingly intelligent choice. How could I fault such wisdom? How could your foolish father, who squandered his life to stand with me to the last, possibly compare?»
The words pierced Tooyama’s heart like bullets. He stood frozen, rooted to the spot. “...Lord Saburou...please forgive me...”
«Forgive? For what possible reason could you need my forgiveness? I offer you only admiration: for your sense of self-preservation, for the cowardice which allowed you to forsake your lord, a feat of which no one would have believed a vassal of the Houjou was capable.»
Kagetora laughed mockingly.
«Yet you were cut down in the mountains of Shinano by bandits without even reaching Odawara. How humiliated you must have been! I do not wonder that you became an onryou.»
Kagetora had seen through him so thoroughly that Tooyama could muster no response at all. He could only tremble in shame and terror.
“I beg you...I beg you to forgive me...”
«You have never known the anguish of those forsaken, have you?» Kagetora’s smile vanished, and hatred filled his eyes. «You have much to atone for.»
“..!”
Tooyama shivered. His teeth clattered together as he stared into the mirror. Kagetora’s razor-sharp eyes seared straight into him like crimson flames.
«You dream so tranquilly of conquest by my brother’s side. I will rip that dream to shreds. I will take my retribution for your betrayal four hundred years ago!»
“Forgive me! Please forgive me!”
«I will not forgive you!» Kagetora stated mercilessly. «Would you dare deny me my revenge? You betrayed me. No retribution would be enough to sate my hatred for you.»
“Lord Saburou...”
«You will atone for your treachery.»
“...”"
«I will extract my vengeance from you.»
His fear was so extreme that he lost control of his bladder. Kagetora continued to look at him, a cruel smile on his handsome face. But what he said next absolutely petrified Tooyama.
«You will pay me back in full, Tooyama,» he whispered malevolently. «You will obey all my commands to the letter from this moment.»
“Lord Saburou...”
«I will make you pay.»
Terror overwhelmed every other feeling. Kagetora’s words snatched his breath away.
“...Lord Saburou, you...you can’t...”
Steal the male Tsutsuga Mirror.
That was Kagetora’s command.
Chapter 14: The Sage Who Holds the Chain
It was fast approaching an entire day since Naoe left for Hakone, but she had had no word from him.
Night had fallen once more. Ayako was awaiting Chiaki’s report at Asaoka Inn when she saw him drive up.
“Nagahide...!” She rushed over to him. “What are you doing here? Have you found Yuzuru-kun?”
“I followed his trail here. Why the hell haven’t I been able to get in touch with you all day?”
“I went hunting tsutsuga. And what do you mean, you followed Yuzuru-kun’s trail here?”
“I’m not sure either.” Chiaki answered, plopping down onto the lobby sofa. “The Bell-Ringing Ritual pointed me here. I’m pretty sure he’s in the area.”
“So Yuzuru-kun’s in Nikkou? Hold on!—do you know where he is right now? We have to go rescue him!”
“When I got here, the noise got so loud that I couldn’t track him anymore. Someone’s putting up interference. There’s so much spiritual energy gathered at Mt. Nikkou that my ears are still ringing. Why don’t you give it a try?” he suggested, handing Ayako the vajra bell.
“I’m not getting through, either. So Yuzuru-kun must be somewhere around Mt. Nikkou—somewhere with strong spiritual energy.”
“Guessing somebody put up a huge barrier here to disrupt spiritual sendings. Anything that hits it gets bounced right back.” Chiaki leaned into the sofa tiredly. “Time for the legging it part, I s’pose. What’s next for you?”
“We-ell...”
Ayako had already spent that day running around Nikkou trying to hunt down the tsutsuga. Though several more people fallen inexplicably into comas had been taken to the hospital during that time, she had seen neither hide or hair of a single beast. Rumors were beginning to incite panic in the community.
At a loss, Ayako had returned to the inn and discussed their plans with Katakura, who had himself returned only a short while before.
“We must take measures,” Katakura said.
“Let’s lay a trap,” Ayako suggested.
“Trap? What’re you gonna do?”
“What High Priest Tenkai did when he hunted the tsutsuga in Edo: lure them out with their favorite food.”
“Favorite food...?”
“The spirits of tigers and panthers and other carnivores. If Katakura-san can summon a couple of strong poisonous beast-spirits to one place, we’ll kill the tsutusga when they come to feed.”
“Will that really work?”
“I don’t know, but I think it’s worth a try. I’m pretty sure the Date are willing to help us.”
“Okay...” Chiaki took a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling. He hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, and he was exhausted. “You haven’t heard anything else from Kagetora?”
“...No.” Ayako shook her head solemnly. Chiaki had been the first person she’d called after receiving Kagetora’s message from the mirror.
“...Hum. Looks like the Houjou and Fuuma were responsible for the theft of the Tsutsuga Mirrors after all, huh? Has Tooyama come to see you yet?”
“No. But Kagetora said that he’d give him no choice. Kagetora’s probably going to contact him through the mirror like he did with me and Naoe.”
Chiaki looked annoyed. “Contact? Humph. It’s usually called ‘threaten,’ geez. Sounds just like him to terrorize a guy who once betrayed him to get the location of the Mirrors from the Houjou. Damn, now he’s showing his true colors. Takes some chutzpah to play the victim card so he can use Tooyama’s guilt against him. Did he transform back to his old self after entering the mirror or something?”
“Maybe? ...At least, I don’t think this kid version of him is capable of something like this,” a puzzled Ayako answered, one finger tapping her lips. “And who would’ve thought that Tooyama Yasuhide is still in the world?”
He was familiar to both Haruie and Nagahide. When the Echigo-Sagami Alliance was formed, Haruie had a great deal of contact with both Yasuhide and his father, the Houjou envoys, during the hostage exchange that resulted in him being sent to Odawara. (Which led to Haruie joining Kagetora’s side as one of his first supporters in the Otate no Ran, and in turn to his death at the hands of Kagekatsu’s followers...) For this reason, though they had fought on the same side, her rage at Yasuhide for abandoning their lord at the end burned even hotter than Kagetora’s.
“If I’d lived, I would never even have thought about leaving him. What kind of feckless coward forgets all the debts of gratitude he owes his lord and tries to run home by himself? His own father, his brothers in arms, they all died honorably at the Otate. Kagetora lost because he had worthless scum like that serving him. And now he dares to come back to serve the Houjou. That gutless toad. I’ll never forgive him.”
“Hah hah... Is that so?” Chiaki responded indifferently, as if were something that concerned him not at all, and Ayako shot him a sharp glare.
“Not that you’d understand, since you fought for Kagekatsu. Humph! I can’t deal with any of you! I don’t have time for this!”
“...Huh, well...I really thought that Kagetora’s forgotten all his old hatreds.”
“No way! And he hasn’t forgiven, either!”
“I’ll bet you’re the only one who believes that. You sure it’s not because you’re the type to carry a grudge?”
“Gyaah! What did you say?!”
“...He doesn’t hate anybody anymore.” Chiaki said. Ayako gave him a look at the sudden serious tone and dropped her raised fist. Chiaki snorted. “He’s just become a good actor. Like a tanuki wearing a tiger’s pelt. You don’t think?”
“Wh...?”
“When he’s seriously into it, I can’t tell if he’s acting or not sometimes. He puts on that expression, like, ‘I’m the victim here, so what’re you complaining about?’ He flaunts weakness to torture people. Most of it isn’t acting. If you fall for it, he’s got you. You’d think he was a demon if he did it to you.”
“You really mean that?”
“He’s a calculating tiger. An incomparable tactician, unconsciously. His conscience never bothers him. That’s the kind of person he is,” Chiaki said, his mouth crooking, defiant. “That’s why I never want to lose to him.”
Ayako’s expression was ambivalent as she studied Chiaki. He had probably stopped thinking of Kagetora as his ‘master’ long ago, if ever he did. But because he saw them both as human beings—and thus equal, he saw Kagetora clearly.
“Humph. So I’m the only one that stupid tiger won’t show himself to, huh? Pisses me off.”
“...Guess he thinks it’d be a waste of time?”
“’Cause he’s too busy running around inside mirrors? Sheesh, he’ll really take advantage of any situation. And you ask why I call him a hardass. Why doesn’t he just go find Narita himself?”
“Ah!” Ayako looked as if a light bulb had suddenly flashed above her head. “That’s right! We should ask Kagetora to help find Yuzuru-kun!”
“Help? How?”
“Kagetora can look for a mirror reflecting Yuzuru-kun and contact him just like he contacted me here.”
“That’s right!” Chiaki clapped his hands together. “But how do we call Kagetora to ask?”
“Uh...well...”
“Yasuda Nagahide. So you’ve come chasing after Narita Yuzuru, hmm?” Kousaka addressed them unexpectedly from behind.
“You again?” Chiaki huffed in disgust.
“I see Kagetora has contacted you, Kakizaki. So it appears Houjou is behind everything after all. It’s no less than I expected of Kagetora-dono to use his misfortune to his advantage. In the mirror world, he must be practically clairvoyant. Maybe he should stay.”
“Don’t come around trying to distract us just because Naoe isn’t here. What are you Takeda bastards hanging around for, anyway? Where is Shingen, now that he’s been sent packing out of Matsumoto?”
“My lord is quite well. However, the fact that Narita is here in Nikkou is an unforgivable blunder. And why do you suppose Date Kojirou is here as well?”
“What?!”
“I have not performed a Bell-Ringing Ritual, but...well, let us just say that unlike the useless Yasha, my servants are capable of such trivial reconnaissance, at least.”
“You callin’ us less useful than your crows, you asshole?”
Kousaka snorted a laugh. “The Houjou onshou appear to have set up their headquarters here on a massive scale. I very much hope Narita’s presence is only coincidence.”
“What?! Are you implying that Date Kojirou is working with the Houjou?”
“I’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions,” Kousaka answered vaguely, heading for the stairs. “But if he is, then you have bungled spectacularly. Perhaps you should think up ways of asking Kagetora-dono’s forgiveness now.”
“...”
“Or better yet, prepare yourselves to commit ritual suicide,” Kousaka suggested sarcastically as he went up to the second floor, leaving Chiaki and Ayako without a rejoinder.
Tooyama-sama is gone—!
Tooyama’s followers were in an uproar back at . Sahei had reported to Tooyama upon finishing preparations for the banquet, only to be angrily and stridently told off, the banquet canceled. Concerned with her master’s strange behavior, she had gone to see him again about thirty minutes later, to find his room empty. Nor could anyone find him anywhere in the hotel. He had always told one of them before he went anywhere; he was a conscientious man. Stranger still, he had left his door ajar and his room an utter mess.
“He went out? Seriously?” Sahei demanded in an inadvertently raised voice. The woman at the front desk looked slightly intimidated.
“Yes. He asked for a taxi a little while ago and left.”
“When was this?!”
“Let’s see... Maybe around an hour ago? He looked very distracted...”
If nothing else, she was certain about his agitated state. He had not mentioned his destination, but she thought the taxi company might know. Sahei’s face paled. Leaning against the front desk, she asked, “Could you please find out?”
Tooyama Yasuhide barely managed to relay the address Kagetora had given him to the driver before hunching over himself, shivering.
(He knows.)
Of Tooyama’s old betrayal. Even of his resurrection into this time.
Every one of Kagetora’s words from the mirror had been knife blades striking into his flesh. The past, no longer quietly laid to rest, rose up to attack him mercilessly. How he wanted to disappear from this place!
When he alone had escaped from Samegao castle four hundred years ago, his guilt for his betrayal, for trying to guarantee his own safety, had not cut into him so deeply as this. Now it flayed him.
(There was nothing else I could do. I was going to die. I didn’t want to die. I had no other choice,) he justified desperately. But before the reality of Kagetora’s righteous hatred, his excuses no longer had any power of conviction.
«I will not forgive you—...!!»
The bottomless loathing in his eyes added:
My hatred for you is without end.
I will send you to Hell with my own hands.
(I...I...Lord Saburou...)
He had felt a terror beyond anything he had ever known before. Kagetora would never forgive him. His old master would rebound upon him all the pain he had caused many times over—of that he was sure. In Kagetora’s grasp, he would be torn limb from limb, tortured to his death.
(Why couldn’t he have just gone to the next world?) Tooyama thought resentfully. (Why couldn’t he just stay dead?)
He looked up, glaring, and saw himself directly reflected in the rear-view mirror. He started badly when Kagetora’s image appeared beside him.
“I-I didn’t mean it!” he gasped, gulping back his scream. He clutched at his head. “I wouldn’t even dare think it! Please believe me!”
“Mister? Hey...”
“Aaaah! I didn’t! Please forgive me!”
The driver shot him a freaked look, likely wondering if he was lugging around a lunatic. Tooyama didn’t lift his head again.
(I...I can’t escape...)
He curled into a ball on the back seat and lay there shivering until he arrived.
His arrival characterized somewhat more by ‘tossed out’ than ‘alighted,’ a haggard Tooyama stood in front of Asaoka Inn at Lake Chuuzenji.
The taxi sped away. The night was silent but for the faint sound of waves. In the darkness, the faint ridges of Mt. Nantai could be seen in the distance.
“Aaaah...” Tooyama sank to the ground in exhaustion. Ayako, who had heard the car, came hurrying from the entrance a moment later.
“Y-you!”
“...!” Tooyama lifted his head.
“You’re Tooyama Yasuhide, aren’t you?” Ayako looked down at him irascibly.
“You are mayhap...Kakizaki-dono...?”
“Mayhap? Mayhap?! Yes, I am Kakizaki! You’ve got some nerve showing your face around here, you shameless traitor! How dare you come crawling back after abandoning your lord and running off by yourself, you filthy disgrace of a samurai!”
Tooyama only stiffened. Beside her, Chiaki said soothingly, “Enough already. He looks like a deer in the headlights. It’s been a while, man.”
Tooyama’s gaze shifted to Chiaki, but there was no recognition in it.
“What, you can’t even be bothered to remember your former colleagues? It’s Yasuda, Yasuda Nagahide. You don’t have to look so terrified. Relax, you idiot, I’m not gonna murder you. Everyone on Kagekatsu’s side’s in Hell now, anyway.”
“S-so it’s Yasuda-dono.”
“Guess Kagetora threatened...or uh, commanded you to come here, huh? And you’re gonna help us?” Chiaki said, eyes flashing. “So now you’re betraying the Houjou?”
“No! I...I...!” Tooyama attempted to deny, when Kagetora’s cruel expression resurfaced in the back of his mind, and he shivered as a chill skittered down his spine. “I...I...yes...”
“Is that so. Why don’t you tell us, then: what is the Houjou scheming? Were you the ones who kidnapped Narita Yuzuru?”
“...!”
“Where is the male Tsutsuga Mirror? Kagetora commanded you to get its location from your master, didn’t he? You’re gonna be our spy.”
Tooyama glared back at them, trembling with with dread and resentment.
“You say no to us, and Kagetora’s never gonna let you go. He’s got a vindictive streak, and he’ll hound you to the ends of Hell.”
“...”
“So why don’t you start talking?”
He could hear the murmur of a small stream from the barred windows.
Held captive in a room somewhere on the Houjou estate, Narita Yuzuru sat on the bed listlessly, concentrating on the sound.
(Where the heck am I anyway?) He sighed, looking at the sky outside the window. (Takaya...)
He hadn’t seen Takaya since Toshima Amusement Park. What had happened to him in that time?
“‘Takaya’ has disappeared—he is wholly ‘Kagetora’ once more...”
“He will fight for us as a warrior of the Houjou.”
(He’s lying, isn’t he?) Yuzuru asked Takaya silently. (Have you really forgotten me?)
Takaya would never set him up like this. ...Once upon a time he would have believed that absolutely, but doubt had taken root in his mind—doubt planted by the widening distance between them. There were times when Takaya looked at him as coldly as if he were a stranger, when he spoke and acted with an arrogance that seemed designed to intimidate everyone around him. Then he would oscillate as quickly back to his normal crude, awkward, unvarnished self. His instability caused Yuzuru much anxiety.
(Which is the real you?) Doubt circled Yuzuru’s disquieted mind. (Is it ‘Kagetora’?)
That couldn’t be. ‘Takaya’ was his true self. Yuzuru wanted to be believe that. Ujimasa’s claims were nothing but a pack of lies. Weren’t they?
(I don’t care anymore—I just want to see you, Takaya!) Yuzuru cried out desperately in the silence of his mind, holding back tears.
That was when—
Yuzuru, a voice said, and he reflexively lifted his head.
“Who’s there? Who called my name just now?!”
He circled the room, searching. He had heard Takaya’s voice—he was sure of it.
“Takaya! Are you here?!”
There it was again—behind him! He whirled. Takaya stood within the mirror hanging on the wall above the ornamental fireplace.
“Taka...ya...?” Yuzuru stared.
That’s impossible, he thought, backing away. It just wasn’t possible. Takaya was in the mirror: in the mirror and nowhere else. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, then repeated the motions. The image of Takaya remained. He could see Takaya so clearly!
“Takaya! Why...!” Yuzuru beseeched his silent friend. “Why are you in there?! What happened?! Takaya, you...!” Yuzuru cried, beginning to panic. “Is it this mirror? Are you in this mirror? What did they do to you? Who did this?!”
A look of anguish crossed Takaya’s face.
“Are you really in there? What should I do? Are you trapped?” Yuzuru clutched desperately at the mirror. “What should I do?! How do I get out of here? How do I get to you? Tell me, Takaya! Did the Houjou do this to you?”
“Why are you shouting?” He started and jerked away from the mirror as Date Kojirou entered the room. “Who were you talking to?”
“...”
Yuzuru stepped in front of the mirror to face Kojirou squarely. Kojirou chuckled softly. “We will begin preparations for the manifestation of your powers now.”
“What?”
“You can simply go quietly go to sleep; we’ll take care of the rest. Mori-dono.”
Mori? he thought, looking toward the door as a young man who had apparently been waiting outside entered. He knew this face: hazel eyes so light they were nearly gold; hair fine as silk thread; red lips curved in a gratingly alluring smile.
“! —Hatayama...!”
“It’s been a while, Narita-senpai.”
Before him stood Hatayama Satoshi, AKA Mori Ranmaru: he who held the «power» of the Oda, who commanded the Oda onshou, who was said to be Nobunaga’s right arm.
“What are you doing here?”
“Is that all you have to say to me after all this time, Narita-senpai? I never imagined I might encounter such dazzling power as you displayed in Sendai. I wanted you more than ever after seeing the glorious sight of the Wisdom Kings raging in the night sky above Sendai.”
Yuzuru glared fiercely at Ranmaru. “You have no right to call me ‘senpai.’”
“You are far too modest. In any case, you belong to me now. Just sit back quietly. I will extract that fearsome power from within you. Is that not a cause for rejoicing, Senpai?” he smiled at Yuzuru darkly, and Yuzuru shivered.
“I don’t really know what you’re all talking about, but...”
“Good. All we need is your power. ...Kojirou-dono.”
Kojirou nimbly intercepted Yuzuru’s dash, pinioning him before he could reach the door. Yuzuru struggled, but Kojirou’s slenderness belied a surprising strength, and Yuzuru couldn’t get free.
“Look into my eyes.” Ranmaru tilted Yuzuru’s chin up and met Yuzuru’s defiant glare. “You can see the flames flickering there, can’t you?”
“...”
Strange, Yuzuru thought. He felt dizzy, as if Ranmaru’s eyes were pulling him in.
He could see the flames. They were purple, eerie and beautiful.
“Can you hear it...?” Ranmaru whispered, sounding as if he were far away. “The voices of the people...telling you to awaken...”
He could hear a babble of voices deep in his ears. Were they singing? No, it was not a song. It gradually drew closer. A crowd chanting. ...An incantation—shingon...?
Yuzuru’s awareness separated from the real world little by little. A languorous, honeyed warmth enfolded him, and all the strength left his body. He fell into a half-hypnotized state.
“...Yes. Entrust your consciousness to me,” Ranmaru murmured, smiling faintly. “Be calm. Quiet. Release that evil power within you—now.”
At the same moment, Ujimasa suddenly felt the presence of another person in his chambers.
“Who’s there?”
He looked around the room, but saw no one. Ascribing it to his imagination, he reached for the closet door for a change of clothing.
His hand dropped at the sight of the door mirror.
“...”
Ujimasa returned Takaya’s gaze, perfectly composed.
“... What is the meaning of this, Saburou?”
Ujimasa recognized his younger brother, though his features belonged to a stranger. Takaya—Saburou Kagetora gazed at him in silence.
“Have you come to offer greetings to your older brother?”
Takaya’s face was expressionless as his cold eyes stared unwaveringly at Ujimasa. Ujimasa, eldest of the Houjou siblings, was unmoved. This was the first time they had laid eyes on each other in four hundred years, but Ujimasa, unlike Ujiteru, felt no overwhelming sentiment. He betrayed no emotion at all.
“You are a Houjou, and you must serve your duty to the clan. You understand that, don’t you, Saburou?” Ujimasa exposited calmly. “That is your fate. You are one of us and always will be: to your death—no, even beyond death. You can never be Uesugi, not completely. We are your family. Your blood. You cannot abandon your own blood.”
«...»
“You are my cherished and beloved brother. Let us win this country together. Join us. We will conquer the Sengoku with Father to lead us. Come, Saburou.”
Crack.
A single long fissure appeared in the mirror with an odd sound. Ujimasa’s eyes widened in surprise. More lines fractured his reflection a split-second later.
Crack crack crack.
“!”
The mirror shattered completely with a loud crash, and the shards flew towards Ujimasa.
“Guh...!”
He instantly shielded himself. His aide dashed into the room at the commotion.
“Are you all right, Tono?! Ah...Tono!” His expression changed as he rushed over to Ujimasa. Broken glass shards large and small lay scattered on the carpet around him. Ujimasa glared at the shattered mirror, panting. “Tono! Are you hurt?”
“—No. I am fine,” he responded, wiping a hand across the blood on his cheek where a fragment had grazed him.
(Damn you, Saburou!)
Chapter 15: Recurrent Sin
It was very late.
The rain had stopped. A light wind still flowed along the banks of Lake Ashi, but the stormed had passed.
Quiet returned to the Houjou estate at Hakone.
Naoe was still seated beside Takaya. His heart was full; though his expression was weary, it was also surpassingly gentle.
The divine power surrounding Takaya seemed to set his pale skin alight with a dim glow in the darkness.
His life force was weakening. Naoe smiled faintly at the thoughts running through his head, Kagetora’s cold amusement drifting through his mind.
You cannot win against me.
You say these words to entrap me. They are oil poured over the flames of my hatred: hatred for having to endure the humiliation of your contempt, your oppression... You say them to provoke me.
(Even though your true desire is to be conquered by me...)
You may disguise yourself with the mask of a proud and haughty dictator, but it only conceals the filthy lust within. A masochistic beast lies at your core.
Naoe closed his eyes. Pressing his lips tightly together, he told the still figure silently, “Curse me if you wish.”
You’re the one who has driven me here—you and you alone... Knowing the depths of your own sins, you must accept the things I am about to do.
Because this is not love; we have lived for far too long, our souls exhausted to the point of insanity or the belief of it.
Because I can believe in no one but you.
His eyes fell.
This is the last time.
Though I know it to be false, I want to tell you with all my heart: I love you...
(Hate me, then, as you will.)
“Isn’t it about time you told me, Kotarou?” Ujiteru said, gazing out at the dark lake from his position by the window. “Why do you conceal the location of the male Tsutsuga Mirror even from us? We are, after all, masters of the Fuuma.”
“That is indeed so, Ujiteru-dono. Nevertheless, our mission is to protect the Tsutsuga Mirrors. The best way to keep a secret is to tell only those who absolutely need to know. It is not a matter of trust; each holder of a secret necessarily increases the danger of its exposure. The walls have ears, as they say. You can never know who is listening, or to whom they may report.”
“Hmm, and that means you can’t even tell your master? So I see—’tis no wonder the Fuuma are the perfect ninja. How many of you know?”
“Only me.”
“What?”
“No other method precludes the possibility of the leakage of this information.”
“You trust no one but yourself, in other words? That is certainly very like you.”
“Yes. It is the only way to ensure perfect secrecy. Would emotion not sway you to disregard Ujimasa-dono’s commands if you knew the location of the male Tsutsuga Mirror?”
“You’re saying that I would let Saburou go?”
“I am saying that I cannot be sure the possibility is nil.”
Ujiteru glared at Kotarou. “Don’t be ridiculous. Let me ask you, then, since you boast of perfection: why have you failed so completely at locating Father? Why was my brother the first to find him?”
“...” Kotarou smiled.
“Does my question amuse you, Kotarou?”
“Hmn. Perhaps our lord has not appeared to his sons because he has reason for wishing to remain unseen?”
“Are you making fun of me, Kotarou? Do you find me diverting?”
A knock sounded behind them. The door opened, and the two men turned to see Naoe standing there.
“Well... What is it, Naoe-uji?”
“... I wish to speak with Ujiteru-dono.”
Kotarou and Ujiteru exchanged a dubious look, but after a pause Ujiteru asked Kotarou to bring coffee and offered Naoe a seat.
“What do you wish to speak to me about?”
“I want to help you deal with Saburou-dono.”
Ujiteru’s eyes went wide, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe. “What did you say?”
“You are planning to bind Lord Saburou Kagetora to the sacred tree at Hakone Shrine, are you not? I wish to bring my powers to bear in the aid of your endeavor.”
“...” Ujiteru stared at Naoe, at a complete loss for words. After a moment he managed, “You mean you wish to change sides? To join the Houjou?”
“You may interpret it in that manner, if you like. I shall give you information on the Uesugi. Though my «choubuku» cannot match the power of Lord Kagetora’s, I am willing to use it for your benefit. In addition, I am the only member of the Uesugi capable of performing kanshou on another. I am also willing to place this ability at the service of yourself and Ujimasa-dono.”
“Truly?” Ujiteru challenged. “What are you scheming?”
“...” Naoe smiled wanly and shook his head.
“Have you given up on Saburou?”
“Alone as I am, my struggles have no chance of achieving victory. Besides, it would be far more advantageous for me if he were not here. I cannot be my true self so long as he remains. So much the better, then, that he will be tree-bound. No one will be able to look at him. No one will be able to love him, nor he, them...”
“If he is sacrificed, Saburou will lose all semblance of humanity.”
“I could not ask for a more desirable outcome. ...If I should stand by and allow my master to die, I will never be able to return to the Uesugi. Without him, nothing holds me to the Uesugi. I have already lived for four hundred years. And I...do believe I would like to try living for myself for once.”
“For yourself, huh? And what do you desire?”
“To be appointed one of the Houjou’s chief vassals.”
“What did you say?” Ujiteru demanded, looking genuinely shocked. “Do you speak in earnest?”
“Hereafter, I will put all my effort towards making the Houjou the supreme conquerors of the «Yami-Sengoku». Though of course I would like one of the provinces for myself once the conquest is complete.”
“...”
Ujiteru studied Naoe with narrowed eyes. Naoe returned his gaze coolly. Surely this man could not be lying. Was he capable of so clever a masquerade?
“... I suppose such an outcome would have pleased Saburou as well.”
Naoe’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.
“Where shall we start? Can you take care of the enemy commanders who are interfering with our plans?”
Naoe took a box of cigarettes out of his breast pocket. Ujiteru gently took it from him.
“...What?”
Ujiteru commented, looking at the packaging, “...So it’s true, what Saburou said.” Naoe didn’t understand the reference, but Ujiteru recalled Takaya carrying this same box with considerable emotion. “Can I ask you a question? About Saburou?”
“Yes?”
“Why did he seal his memories away?”
“...”
Ujiteru added over Naoe’s unvoiced reaction, “When I met him, Saburou wasn’t Saburou—he was a young man with a brittle heart. Why in the world would he have thrown away his memories?”
“I suppose because he hated me,” Naoe offered, and looked down. “I do not believe there was any other reason.”
“... He told me that your kindness towards him was a delusion on his part.”
Naoe’s head jerked up. “Delusion?”
“He does not understand why you are so kind to him. He believes he is a substitute.”
Naoe’s expression changed ever so slightly. “Takaya-san thinks...?”
“Perhaps this is punishment,” Ujiteru murmured, leaning back into his seat. “It is no one’s fault. I believe Saburou is punishing himself for trying to run from a past that he should not have forgotten.”
A sharp pain flared in Naoe’s chest, for he was the one who had driven Takaya into this desperate situation. Ujiteru met Naoe’s eyes unswervingly and shook his head slowly as if in response to his unvoiced confession.
“Saburou would surely have taken everything into account.”
“...”
He thought that he was a substitute for ‘Kagetora’...
And he would have desperately repressed his loneliness and longing, tried with all his might to shut away his heart and keep his distance from Naoe because he thought Naoe’s kindness and love were not meant for ‘Ougi Takaya.’ Would have warned himself that that was the reason Naoe protected him, and that he could not allow himself to think it was anything more. If he flattered himself about Naoe’s actions, he’d be the one to get hurt.
—He couldn’t allow himself to think that it was anything more.
(Takaya-san...)
It was simply the kind of person he was. He would rather hurt himself by accepting the worst possible scenario, accustom himself to the pain, than allow someone to hurt him with the truth. Then, when the blade of a bitter reality pierced him at last, he could at least be somewhat numb.
To allow himself self-serving hope meant that it would be his own fault if he were wounded by betrayal. Because it hurt too much to realize that something that was ‘his’ was really just an ‘illusion.’ Those who, rather than accepting others’ kindness, insisted on a stringent reality in an effort to avoid being hurt might eventually view everyone with suspicion and render themselves incapable of believing in even those few who were entirely sincere—but he was okay with that, Takaya thought. Someone had driven him into convincing himself of that.
“...”
Submerged in silence, Naoe bit his lip and shook his head slowly. (You are so weak,) he told Takaya in his mind. (So weak...I pity you...)
There was a knock at the door, followed by Kotaru’s voice saying, “Excuse me.” He entered the room and set the coffee down on the table.
“Saburou will be bound to the ‘Yagate Cedar’ tomorrow morning,” Ujiteru told him.
“...!”
A tremor ran across Naoe’s shoulders. “Tomorrow?” Kotarou queried, looking at Ujiteru quietly.
Ujiteru nodded. “The earlier the better.”
“... And what of Naoe-dono?” Kotarou’s gaze shifted to him. “He has consented to this final betrayal of his master, then?”
“...”
“Have you, truly?” he asked expressionlessly. Naoe fixed him with a glare. Was this just caution, thoroughly antagonistic though it might be? Was it resentment? As usual, Kotarou revealed not a glimmer of human emotion. He alone would never be caught off guard. Even among allies he remained ever vigilant. He might have been conversing with an enemy just now instead of Ujiteru. He was a robot, Naoe thought.
“...I would like to see proof,” Kotarou said as he poured coffee into a cup.
“Proof? From me?”
“Do you really intend to betray the Uesugi? Anyone can say the words—and much more besides. If I give my trust so easily based on that alone, what is to say you will not run off with both the Mirror and Saburou-dono?”
“...And what should I do to prove myself to you?”
“Well...” Kotarou glanced at Ujiteru. “What of this, Ujiteru-dono. If Saburou-dono is to be tree-bound, his body is redundant. Let Naoe-dono dispose of it.”
Ujiteru shot Kotarou a look full of rebuke, but it was true that once the soul was tree-bound, the body would die in any case. It was certainly better to deal with the body now while the soul was still tenuously connected to it than when it became a worse problem at some point in the future.
“...”
Ujiteru looked at Naoe coldly. “Can you do it, Naoe-uji?”
Naoe closed his eyes. He said tonelessly, with complete resignation, “I have your permission to extinguish its life?”
“...”
“—Then yes, I will deal with it.”
The night wind felt pleasant against his skin. The stars twinkled between drifting clouds.
A tiny path ran through the estate’s wide gardens, continuing to the shore of the lake. Walking alone, Naoe left the estate and followed the path right to the edge of the water. There he slowly bent to pick up a tiny stone lying at his feet and placed it in his palm. Rise, he thought at it.
(As I suspected...)
The pebble didn’t even tremble. So his «telekinesis» didn’t work here—likely due to a blanket barrier enforcing the equilibrium. Within the barrier, minute, delicate threads of «power» stretched around everything and instantly canceled out and scattered any use of will, dissipating it into the earth at various pre-selected points (probably where tokko or other such mikkyou implements were buried).
(So I can’t get anything outside, for the time being.)
He needed to figure out the barrier limits, but he wasn’t sure how he might pierce it.
He would be under surveillance by the Fuuma ninjas every minute, every second. Getting his hands on the Tsutsuga Mirror was impossible.
(So I’ll have to wait until it’s outside?)
In that scenario he would have a chance. With access to his power of «choubuku», he would hold the advantage no matter how many ninjas came after him, as long as they were not kanshousha.
He had one shot: the tree-binding ceremony at the sacred “Yatate Cedar” at Hakone Shrine. He had to get the Tsutsuga Mirror outside the barrier, somehow.
(I won’t allow him to be tree-bound.)
He would not allow his power to be used by the Houjou—he could not allow it, Naoe thought, gazing at Hakone Shrine on the opposite bank.
His second sight showed him a bright light blazing from the shrine like a wavering flame.
The spirits were gathering.
Onryou connected to the Houjou, perhaps? Souls were being bound onto all the trees within the Hakone Shrine grounds, just like at Nikkou. But what would the Houjou be doing with so many?
“Please save my brother...!”
A memory of Maiko suddenly stirred in the back of his head.
Breaking the Tsutsuga Mirror should result in the loss of the tsutsuga’s spiritual power, which should in turn release Shinya and all the bound souls, and crush the ambitions of the Houjou.
If it did not happen soon, Shinya’s life would be lost.
In any case, Kousaka and others were also maneuvering, seeking to find a way to break the Mirrors. Though he didn’t know the whereabouts of the male Tsutsuga Mirror, his first priority should be the acquisition of the female Mirror. Smashing the female Tsutsuga Mirror would in theory destroy the tsutsuga. The female Tsutsuga Mirror, in which Kagetora’s soul was sealed: he would seize it, and then...
(Then...?)
His thoughts faltered.
However many times he told himself to stop thinking about what came after, another part of his mind came awake to whisper: If you break the Mirror, he will never be able to leave.
He would be trapped inside the Mirror forever.
Trapped, he would never be able to either die or truly live. If he could not be reincarnated, he could not be purified...
Trapped, he could never be either obtained or lost. His existence would be without joy, but also without the fear or agony of watching him be stolen by another.
However much he hated Naoe, he would be able to do nothing, reduced to staring with hate-filled eyes at Naoe from the other side of the mirror, helpless. For years, decades, centuries...
(And would I again...) his lips curled in a self-mocking smile, (...be left behind, eternally writhing beneath my mountain of sin...?)
Naoe cast his gaze heavenward.
—Though he already knew the answer, knew that the best path stretched right before his eyes. What virtues could he possibly claim at this late date?
The happiness of others; justice; his mission... He had sacrificed himself for such fine sentiments for four hundred years without a word of complaint. Must he continue? Had he not suffered enough, when the pain had already driven him mad? Was this the price of immortality?
(...Can I not now find my release?) He murmured the question silently to himself. Could he not free himself from his shackles, choose his own destiny and live for his own sake?
Yes: here before his eyes was his every prayer answered, a single glorious path being prepared for him.
The paradise on earth he had always dreamed of was there within the mirror. He would allow no one to interfere... He would make Kagetora his, and they would never be parted—
The possibility was there. His dreams could be made real.
Let the Tsutsuga Mirror hold no reflection but his own.
The mirror would devour his soul: devour it, and seal it with Kagetora’s. The lake’s bottom would make a fitting burial place. It was the only way he could end everything.
Peace like slumber until the end of the world, beyond all reach. Nothing would ever threaten them again. Then...you’ll be mine forever.
Satiated, I’ll disappear from this world with you—
Can I now fling them away, these chains named ‘righteousness?’ Can I set down my burdens? Though I have lived for four hundred years, I could not become the cruel ‘demon’ or the noble ‘man of lofty virtues’ or the ‘beast’ which lives for nothing but its own desires.
...Because in the end I am just a foolish, cowardly ‘man.’
It’s all right if you never forgive me.
No matter how much you hate me, you will never be able to escape from the Mirror in its watery grave. You will resign yourself to living in the Mirror with me for eternity. Trapped inside, I would be incapable of answering your entries to release you. You may tell me you hate me as many times as you wish, for you will always be mine and mine alone.
Trapped in that utopic prison, you will soon begin to dream with me.
—Naoe...
Takaya smiled at him from the backs of his eyelids.
(Takaya-san...)
Naoe smiled faintly. Because I am ‘human,’ I do not want you to die. Yet because I am ‘human,’ this is path I now choose...
Takaya’s smiling face refused to fade. It would not disappear no matter how hard he pushed it away. Unable to bear the sight, he bit down on his lip hard.
(I don’t...want to let you die...)
I am such a fool, he thought. Why am I thinking about this now? It’s much too late. I have no consciousness of sin. I feel nothing at wanting to kill you.
I convinced myself that I feel nothing.
His clashing desires assailed his chest with equal strength.
I don’t want you to die. I want so much for you to be happy. But if I cannot give you happiness with my own two hands, I would rather destroy you than allow you to find it elsewhere. That’s the kind of man I am.
(I...cannot let you die.)
No one could want Takaya’s death more; no one prayed more fervently for his life. He could only mock himself at the absurdity of it. Yet both were profoundly true: soul-deep truths. The contradictions upon contradictions left him unable to remonstrate with himself.
He extracted a string of prayer beads from his coat pocket.
His father—Tachibana Yoshiaki’s father—had given it to him when as a child he had cut his own wrist.
“The Buddha is always with you,” he said. “Please carry it with you always.”
The centerpiece held a tiny, tiny image of the Dainichi Buddha.
How many times had this circle of beads saved him? Without its support of his heart and mind he likely would not have survived to this moment. Could it be a manifestation of the Buddha’s power?
(The Buddha is with me...?)
Surely, then...
Naoe grasped the circle with both hands and tugged sharply. Beads fell from the broken thread, scattering amidst the pebbles. Only the centerpiece bead remained in Naoe’s hand, and he curled his fingers around it gently.
Would the Buddha protect him?
Please protect him.
For that was his simplest, most sincere wish.
Futile though it might be, now that he had made the decision to kill him.
(Though these actions mean nothing...)
He carefully placed the single bead in his inner pocket.
At that moment—
A shadow fell across his feet, and he turned to see a man in a business shirt standing there: a man whose approach and presence he had not sensed at all. How long had the man been watching him?
“...Did you think I was planning to escape?” Naoe asked coolly.
Fuuma Kotarou narrowed his eyes and responded, “I am here merely for the fresh air, not to spy on you. But you—should you not be at Saburou-dono’s side?”
“I’m not the kind of man who has the gall to look upon the face of the master he betrayed.”
Kotarou snorted lightly. “Have you already decided on the method you will use to kill him? There is not much time left until the morning.”
“I have a favor to ask,” Naoe said with his back to Kotarou, picking up one of the beads at his feet and tossing it into the lake.
“What?”
“Allow me to dispose of the remains. He has family. Let me at least return him to them.”
“...Such sentimentality. Did you think we would permit that?”
“...”
“The Fuuma will not recognize the death of your lord unless you present him to us in pieces. If you can do so, we will happily accept you as one of us.”
Naoe glared at Kotarou fiercely. Kotarou met it with a gaze sharp as a knife’s edge.
“Do you not wish to save your master? Do you not intend to even try?”
“...”
“What in the world is Saburou-dono to you?”
Naoe looked away wordlessly.
The wind brushed gently against his cheeks.
(I don’t need to reply to that...do I?)
Kotarou studied the profile of the man standing in there silence, listening to the rustling of trees in the wind. He did not know how long they stood there. The unnatural flickering and rustle of grass broke his contemplation. He turned quickly.
“What is it?”
One of his adjuncts had come with news.
“What? Tooyama-dono?”
(...Tooyama?) Naoe couldn’t hear the rest, but—
“Fine,” Kotarou answered, pivoting. Then, as if reminded, he turned back to Naoe. “I cannot give you an answer regarding Saburou-dono’s body,” he said.
“What?”
"Ujiteru-dono might not be a ‘doting parent,’ but he is a ‘doting older brother.’ He will certainly not order the body chopped to pieces.
With those last words, Kotarou swiftly went back up the narrow path.
“Tooyama-dono is here. He requested a meeting with the head of the Fuuma on urgent business.”
It was almost dawn. Tooyama was here again after returning to Nikkou just last night? And requesting a secret meeting with Kotarou? Kotarou received the news with an odd expression on his face.
“He claims to carry secret orders from Nikkou,” the adjunct relayed, along with the designated meeting place.
“Secret orders for me alone? What sort of orders must be concealed even from Ujiteru-dono?” Kotarou demanded, angry and confused.
“W-well,” his underling stammered timidly, “They appear to have come directly from Lord Ujiyasu himself...”
“What?” Kotarou’s eyes sharpened instantly, and the adjunct gulped nervously.
“Hmm, well then. Commands from Lord Ujiyasu...” And for some reason the corners of Kotarou’s lips quirked in a grin.
“I will see him at once in .”
The place Tooyama Yasuhide had chosen for his meeting with Kotarou was the parking lot at in , close to Hakone Shrine. During the day it was usually filled with sightseeing boats coming and going, and even at night it was typically busy with people out for a drive. At this late hour, however, there was no sign of life.
Kotarou parked and stepped out. Tooyama had told him that due to the absolute secrecy of his orders, he would be coming alone, and asked Kotarou to do the same. Kotarou had complied.
A hired car going in the opposite direction had passed Kotarou’s on the road in front of the suspension bridge, so Tooyama was likely already here.
Kotarou found him standing motionlessly by the lakeside.
“...Thank you for waiting, Tooyama-dono.”
“...”
Tooyama turned. He looked wild, but his face was filled with anger; perhaps the great strain of being the messenger of secret orders was wearing on him.
“I apologize for the necessity of meeting out here.”
“Your business appears serious indeed. As you requested, I have not told even Ujiteru-dono of this meeting. That is what you wished, yes?” Kotarou asked, scrutinizing Tooyama. During his visit yesterday he had been impeccably dressed in a business suit. Now he was wearing neither jacket nor necktie.
“...I was commanded to deliver orders requiring the utmost secrecy to you immediately...” Tooyama told him in a hard voice, his eyebrows trembling minutely. “Kotarou-dono, the male Tsutsuga Mirror currently held in the custody of the Fuuma must be taken to Ujiyasu-sama in Nikkou immediately.”
“...The Tsutsuga Mirror?” Kotarou repeated with an odd expression. “Taken to Ujiyasu-sama?”
“Yes, at once. I am to accompany you.”
“Why? Why is the male Tsutsuga Mirror so suddenly needed?”
“I do not know, but it must play an important role in Ujiyasu-sama’s strategy for the conquest of the Kantou. Our role as vassals is to obey. In any case, we cannot deny that the Tsutsuga Mirrors are essential for our unification of the country, for they will bring together onshou from all over the country. They will become the symbol of the supreme ruler, in whose hands their existence will gain even greater significance.”
Questions of an idealistic nature held no interest for the purely pragmatic Kotarou; only the words ‘Ujiyasu-sama’s command’ moved him.
“Perhaps you will be serving Ujiyasu-sama directly after this, Kotarou-dono.”
“You’re certain this is Ujiyasu-sama’s command?”
“...Perfectly certain.”
“...” Kotarou stared at Tooyama for a moment. Tooyama met Kotarou’s probing gaze with bloodshot eyes, hardly daring to breathe, so tense that he could hear his heart thudding in his chest.
Kotarou abruptly turned his back to the wind from the lake and set his gaze in the direction of the distant .
“Very well,” he said. “I’ll come with the male Tsutsuga Mirror to visit Ujiyasu-sama.”
Chapter 16: Demon Awakening
Small birds sang in the forest.
The overcast Nikkou morning was pleasantly brisk. Fog covered the entire area around Kirifuri Plateau, limiting sight distance. Chiaki stopped his car in the middle of the gravel road and got out to look through his binoculars at the manor in the distance.
“Damn it. Do they really have Narita in there? There’re way too many rooms,” Chiaki said, peering back through the window at Katakura Kagetsuna, who was still inside scowling at a blueprint of the estate.
“This must be the place. If what Tooyama-dono told us was true.”
“If it’s not, I’m gonna beat him up.”
According to Tooyama, Yuzuru was being held prisoner within the Houjou estate, and Chiaki had sallied forth to rescue him. Kojuurou had joined him upon learning that Date Kojirou was with Yuzuru.
“So Kojirou of the Date really is in bed with the Houjou, huh? And there was something about binding Narita to the sacred tree at Futarasan Shrine and setting the Mt. Nikkou forest on fire along with all the souls? Are those idiots planning to go from kidnapping to arson?”
“It appears the Houjou truly are planning to occupy Nikkou.” Kojuurou looked at the beech grove around them. “Nikkou was always endowed with elements of a exceptional sacred site. It was uniquely chosen by Lord Ieyasu as his burial place and supported by the spiritual protection of the Tokugawa Shogunate throughout the years—perhaps that was also a consideration. —Fire has the ability to fuse several distinct types of power into one. By setting fire to Mt. Nikkou, I believe the Houjou are seeking to pare the tree-bound souls down to their nuclei, then fuse this ‘power of souls’ with the ‘power of the sacred trees’ along with the ‘power of the earth’ at their roots. If they can successfully unite these three sources of power, Mt. Nikkou will become the center of a terrifying spiritual energy.”
“—Because Nikkou is the symbol of the supreme conqueror? So what they actually want is victory over the ruler of Japan. They’ve set up their base smack-dab in neutral territory, and they’re planning to conquer the «Yami-Sengoku» from here. Geez, they should think about all the trouble they’re causing the tourists and students on field trip here!” Chiaki quipped, scowling toward the estate. “First step is to get inside, so what’s the plan? They look like they’re swimming in dough over there, so they’ll probably have Dobermans in the garden.”
“They appear to have set up a barrier. They’ll know as soon as we step inside.”
“A security system for your peace of mind, huh? Too bad we don’t know exactly which room Narita’s in,” Chiaki sighed, when—
“...! Yasuda-dono! The rearview mirror!”
“What?!”
Takaya’s reflection had appeared in the rearview mirror—vivid as a true reflection, though he was nowhere in the car.
It didn’t faze Chiaki in the least. So this is what everybody’s been freaking out about, he thought, grinning.
“Finally decided to pay me a visit, Kagetora? About time, you idiot!”
Takaya didn’t bother with a response. Instead, a vague scene like something out of an illusion replaced his image in the center of the mirror.
“Yasuda-dono, that’s—!”
“...”
The inside of a room, apparently. Blurred though it was, they could tell that it had white walls and a single bed. On the bed was a young man:
“Narita...?”
There could be no mistake. Two youths around his age stood close together with their backs to them. If the image were clearer they might be able to identify them, but it was impossible with what they had. Still, Chiaki had the feeling that he’d seen one of them before....
“Hah, guess now we can at least monitor them using the mirror.”
“Then...this is a room within that estate?”
“Probably. I’m guessing Kagetora is showing us the reflection from a mirror somewhere inside. That idiot’s trying to help us from wherever he is.”
Chiaki detached the wide mirror from the car handed it to Katakura.
“Here’s the plan. I create a diversion: break the barrier, make lots of noise, draw the enemy’s attention. You circle to the back, find Yuzuru’s room and get him out. Kagetora will guide you.”
“I understand.”
“Give it twenty minutes. Let’s go,” Chiaki said, and ran for the front door while Katakura set out along the valley.
A thin white fence around two meters 1 in height encircled the estate, and the barrier followed its path. It appeared to be of the underground variety, sustained by spirit stones or orbs buried at regular intervals.
(It’d suck if I had to dig ’em all up one by one.)
Chiaki crouched, extracting a small wooden statue and two cakraratna from his belt pouch.
“These should have more than enough power to deal with a barrier like this.”
He had primed the koppashin to call upon the God of Thunder. The collected power could only be released once, for the impact always broke the container—a weakness of this particular summons. Its destructive potential, however, was in a league of its own. Since the God of Thunder belonged in the retinue of Śakra, Lord of the Devas, their summoning mantras were the same.
Chiaki doused the two cakraratna with holy oil and set them ablaze.
“On asanmagini un hatta on asanmagini un hatta—...”
The flames from the cakraratna turned purple and reached hungrily into the air. Still chanting the mantra of the vajra flame, Chiaki picked them up.
He switched to the mantra of the racing carriage and threw the cakraratna over the fence. The burning wheels broke through the barrier with tremendous momentum and zoomed into the premises at high speed, leaving behind a set of tire tracks.
Chiaki immediately turned to the koppashin and chanted the mantra of Śakra:
“Naumaku sanmanda bodanan indoraya sowaka, naumaku sanmanda bodanan indoraya sowaka—”
Blue light flared from the koppashin with a whoosh. Chiaki quickly grabbed it and threw it into the sky over the barrier with all his strength.
“Naumaku sanmanda bodanan indoraya sowaka!”
He traced a gigantic symbol in midair with his forefinger.
“ (ii)!”
The ground around him shook as an enormous image of the God of Thunder towered in the sky above him. The earth and trees shrieked in torment as they jolted from the god’s booming war cry. His eyes flashed ominously before he spat out a brilliant bolt of lightning, hitting the two burning cakraratna dead-on.
Crack!
There was a blinding flash, followed immediately by an enormous crash and explosion which enveloped the entire area. In the next moment, the curtain of spiritual power forming the barrier vanished as if blown away.
“Yes...!”
Shielding himself from the shock wave, Chiaki destroyed the fence with a burst of will and rushed onto the premises.
“What has happened...?!”
The mansion erupted into pandemonium at the terrific noise and shock. Ujimasa, who had been resting in his room, leapt to his feet in surprise. His aide came running into the room.
“The barrier appears to have been destroyed from the outside. Someone is mounting an assault on the mansion!”
“Who? Who has done this?!”
“I don’t know!”
“Mend it, now! Kill the invaders!”
The Houjou warriors were already converging on the attacker.
Chiaki only licked his lips at the sight of the rattling skeletal warriors. “Been waitin’ for you guys. Looks like you lot’ve got some nerve! All right! Anyone who wants to head off to the next world, come at me!”
Chiaki brought his hands together in Bishamonten’s ritualistic gesture and chanted his mantra.
“Ari nari tonari anaro nabi kunabi!”
The warriors drew their swords and attacked.
“ (Bai)!”
“Reporting!” A Houjou retainer rushed into Ujimasa’s room. “The invader is alone! But our warriors are unable to touch him!”
“What?! What do you mean?”
“Anyone who attempts to kill him disappears! They are unable to approach! The enemy is chanting some sort of strange mantra, and he’s making our warriors vanish without even laying a hand on them!”
“What?! Could it be...?”
(Uesugi’s Yasha-shuu?!)
Ujimasa’s face changed color, and he glared out the window. Something that looked like smoke rose from the forest. He had heard of the Uesugi’s power of «choubuku». He was not surprised that one of the Yasha-shuu had been able to break through the barrier using the God of Thunder. But he was needlessly losing men.
“Tono! You are in danger here! We must prepare to evacuate!”
“Tell our men to draw back. They are no match for him, if he is Yasha-shuu. —The tsutsuga! Release the tsutsuga!”
“The tsutsuga?”
“Yes. Our enemy is a kanshousha. Let him be devoured by a hungry tsutsuga. Release as many as we have.”
“Yes, my lord!”
In the basement, Ranmaru and company had also heard the tumult. A flustered Kojirou paced the room. “Ranmaru-dono...! What in the world—”
There was no reaction from Ranmaru. Even the breaking of the barrier had elicited no more response than a flicker of his eyes upward; he appeared unmoved, completely absorbed in his spell.
“There is no need for panic, Kojirou-dono. My guess is that a thief has entered the premises. It has no impact on us. We need only concern ourselves with the barrier upon this room.”
“But...!”
“Distraction will only weaken it, Kojirou-dono.”
Thus reproved, Kojirou ceased his agitated movements and focused his attention once more, hardening the wall of his will.
The barrier closed, so tightly that even light could not enter. The flames rising from tall candles placed at the bed’s four corners danced in place. An incense burner filled the room with the strong scent of incense from Yuzuru’s bedside. Ranmaru was seated on a small Buddhist prayer platform on the floor.
“Naubou aratannau torayaya naumaku ariya barokitei jinbaraya boujisatobaya makasatobaya—...”
Ranmaru repeated the mantra in a low, flowing chant. On the bed, Yuzuru lay with his eyes half-open, but they were expressionless, vacant, unseeing.
“On maitarei maitarei maitara manausen maitara sanbanbei maitaro dobanbei akasanmaya sowaka.”
Kojirou gazed at both of them, holding his breath. They’d been at this for almost six hours. Kojirou’s face was worn with weariness, but Ranmaru’s looked just the same as it had at the beginning. Whence in that thin frame came the capacity for such willpower and physical endurance? Was he a monster? Kojirou wondered.
(Is he really going to extract that power?)
A chill ran down Kojirou’s spine as he recalled the heroic battle between the Kings of Wisdom and the koko in the skies over Sendai. He remembered, too, the gallant figure of his brother Masamune in the distance—
(Brother...)
He bit his lip, but the clamor of voices down the corridor jerked him back to himself. Bam bam! Someone pounded on the door.
“Date-dono! Date-dono!”
“Do not enter! Just give me your message!”
“The enemy has entered the barrier! You must prepare to evacuate!”
“What?! Who?”
“One who wields the power of «choubuku»—it can only be the Uesugi’s Yasha-shuu!”
(Uesugi?)
Koujirou quickly turned to Ranmaru. Ranmaru continued his ‘spell of awakening’ without any hint of concern.
(Have they come to retrieve Narita Yuzuru?)
Kojirou’s expression turned grim as he commanded, “We’re not moving! You must allow no one to approach! Stop them at any cost!”
Within the manor, chaos reigned.
The shock of a kanshousha of the Uesugi calling upon the God of Thunder to mount a direct attack on the manor had certainly succeeded in gaining the attention of everyone within. Katakura, who had penetrated within using the cover of the confusion caused by the destruction of the barrier, ducked into an out-of-sight corner to assess the situation.
(Where is that room?)
The image reflected by the mirror in his hand had changed without his realizing it. It now showed a stairwell hall with a large window and a door leading to the terrace. It also contained a spiral staircase with a white marble sculpture standing beside it.
(Landmarks?)
Katakura ran. Judging by the blueprint given them by Tooyama, the hall could match one of two locations. The manor was shaped like an square open on its western side, with several detached buildings. In addition to the front entrance hall, there was also a staircase and hall on the eastern ravine-facing side.
But it was difficult to get through with so many people running around—every retainer in the place, it seemed. He was surprised at the sight of little girls among the adults. At least in the chaos no one stopped to question Katakura’s presence.
(Could this be the place?)
Here, deep in the eastern corridor, there were no signs of life. It did connect, however, to a brightly-lit hall hung with an enormous mirror. From this angle, the reflection appeared identical to the image Kagetora had transmitted. But it lead to a dead end.
(So where is the room?)
He looked around uneasily. Kagetora appeared once more, this time in the mirror.
“Uesugi-dono, where do I go from here?”
Kagetora only stared at him. Returning his gaze, Katakura noticed a line of distortion across his image. When he focused on it, he saw a fingerprint against the surface of the mirror.
Maybe—he thought, reaching out to touch the mirror. It didn’t respond to his push, but when he added a little sideways pressure...it moved. The mirror had shifted just the smallest bit.
(This is...!)
A harder push, and the mirror slid aside to reveal dimly-lit stairs leading to the basement.
(This is it...!)
This must be the place where Narita Yuzuru was being held, he thought as he began to descend the hidden staircase without hesitation.
“Heeey! Where’s your love for your brethren? Come at me with a little more conviction here!” Chiaki yelled, not even breathing hard as he finished mopping up all the warriors in the first wave. Waiting for the next batch, he danced lightly in place as if looking for a more strenuous workout. But his opponents didn’t stir at Chiaki’s tauts.
“Hah! Scared now, ya blockheads?!”
In that case, he’d bring the fight to them. He let out a yell—and sensed something approaching at speed from behind. At the same time, the grass around him began to rustle in the still air.
(Huh?)
He tensed. The grass continued to rustle ominously as something emitting an alien and malicious «aura» moved through it.
“You gonna come out and play?”
He spat into his hand and went on guard.
“Come out!”
He didn’t know if whatever it was had heard him, but the grass split apart to reveal the entity whose presence he had sensed.
“...!”
Even Chiaki’s breathing hitched. Before him stood the crimson beast with curled fur, the spirit-beast which looked like the artistic rendition of a lion. —Spirit-beasts, for the grass parted again and again to reveal more tsutsuga. He didn’t know how many the Houjou had bred, but nine of them now stood facing him. Though his fearless grin never faltered, he stiffened slightly.
“Man! You guys thinking ’bout starting a circus or something?”
The tsutsuga padded closer, stalking him with hungry-sounding yowls. Chiaki eyes grew serious, and he shifted into fighting stance as he filled himself with «power».
“Guess I’ll have to be the one to train you bad boys.”
—And the tsutsuga bared their fangs and attacked!
“Come on then!”
He released a burst of will at the tsutsuga leaping toward him, knocking them back with howls of rage, but he couldn’t get them all.
“Guh!”
Sharp claws grazed his back as he narrowly evaded an attacking beast. He fired off several «nenpa» without pause, but the ravenous tsutsuga didn’t even falter as the shots hit home. They seemed almost to sneer at Chiaki as they converged on him despite his protective barrage.
“Grah...!”
Chiaki tumbled to the ground as tsutsuga suddenly attacked him from behind. Two or three of the beasts leapt for him at the same time, their eyes glittering gold.
If you look into their eyes, they’ll devour your soul...!
(Bastards!)
Shutting his eyes tightly, he released all the power he had in him, flinging the tsutsuga back to writhe on the grass. But before he could recover the pride had already rallied around him, a tsutsuga springing for his throat with fangs bared.
(This is endless!)
He couldn’t deliver a fatal blow with «nenpa» alone. «Choubuku» had no effect on spirit-beasts. How was he supposed to break this stalemate?!
“...!”
Chiaki rolled away from savage claws, managed to catch the tsutsuga’s paws by the narrowest margin, and threw it against a tree. The rest of the tsutsuga stalked him patiently. Chiaki shifted back into fighting stance and faced them with a tree at his back. His breaths were coming quicker. He averted his gaze. If he relaxed his guard and looked into those golden eyes, he would be sucked in.
(What now...?)
His heart pounded painfully, and he pressed his right hand over it. He touched something hard, and he suddenly remembered that he had a koppashin of Shoumen Kongou in his shirt pocket.
(Shoumen Kongou repels evil beasts...)
He had a chance, he thought, pulling out the koppanshin. The tsutsuga howled and sprang toward him, their paws kicking at the ground.
“On deibayakisha manda manda kakakaka sowaka!”
He threw it at the tsutsuga with all his might. Drew the shuji in midair—
(Un)!
The wrathful blue-skinned god appeared with a thunderous roar and met the tsutsuga onslaught head-on. He crushed a tsutsuga in his hand as Chiaki joined in with «nenpa». But the pride of tsutsuga slipped through Shoumen Kongou’s defenses to attack Chiaki directly.
“I’m not gonna end up as your chew-toy, you mongrels!”
The hidden staircase descended to a long corridor: a basement not drawn on the blueprint. In all probability even Tooyama didn’t know about it.
It held several rooms, with five or six men standing in front of the innermost door. Which meant—that room.
“Wh...you! Who the hell are you...?!”
Katakura attacked the mind of the speaker with his will. The other men turned as he collapsed in place, only to slump silently to the ground in turn as Katakura focused his attack on them.
(Here, then...?)
He strained to see within, but an extremely strong barrier blocked his sight, and he could see nothing.
(Is Master Kojirou here as well?) Katakura made his decision and knocked on the door.
“Narita-dono! Narita-dono, are you in there? Narita-dono!”
An agitated Kojirou rose at Katakura’s shouting. “Who’s there?”
“Kojirou-sama!”
A shiver ran across Kojirou’s shoulders. Katakura banged on the door violently and yelled, his voice urgent, “Kojirou-sama! You are in there, are you not? It’s me, Katakura! Katakura Kagetsuna! It’s Kojuurou, Kojirou-sama!”
“Katakura...Kojuurou...?”
Kojirou trembled. Why was Kojuurou here, in this place? He couldn’t believe it... Ranmaru, immersed in his art, appeared oblivious.
“Kojirou-sama! Please answer me, Kojirou-sama!”
“Oh...” He staggered to his feet, looked to Ranmaru pleadingly before timidly making his way to the door. Kojuurou, his brother’s right hand, here? It was impossible. And yet—
“I have come for you, Kojirou-sama! Kojirou-sama!”
“Ko...Kojuurou...” Kojirou hovered next to the door, speaking through it, “Is it...really you...? Kojuurou...?”
“Kojirou-sama!” Katakura clung to the door at the sound of his voice. “Kojirou-sama, Katakura Kagetsuna is here for you! Please open this door. Let us return to Sendai together. My lord has been waiting for you!”
“My brother...?” Kojirou pressed close, asking, “Truly? My brother is truly waiting for me?”
"Of course he is! He has waited for you for so long, worried about you... Ever since he heard of your resurrection, that you were with Mogami... No, since the day you died by his hand in your previous lives...!
He remembered that day. His fate had been sealed the moment their mother Hoshunin had tried to assassinate Masamune by serving him food laced with poison. His brother’s face, filled with bitterness and agony beyond words as he drew his sword in the moment before he cut Kojirou down, was seared forever into his memories. He could forget the pain of his death, but even now he could not bear to recall the expression on his brother’s face.
If you want to tell him, then go to him. He recalled Naoe’s words to him. Please tell him from your own lips. You’ve always wanted to, have you not?
“My lord has carried that pain all these years. Nothing has weighed on his mind more; he has worried about you for so long. Please come back to Sendai, Kojirou-sama!”
In his heart he saw again his brother’s face, kind as he had been.
I miss you, Brother...
I want to fight with you for the Date. I want to fight for you, my brother the One-Eyed Dragon, the hero come too late into the world: Date Masamune...!
“My lord is finally the fearless One-Eyed Dragon once again, and this time he will conquer all the land...! Kojirou-sama, please, let us fight together! Kojirou-sama!”
“Kojuurou...I...!”
At that instant, the ground abruptly heaved beneath their feet, and the entire building began to shake.
“What... Uwaugh!”
An enormous explosion of sound deafened both men. No—more accurately, there had been no sound at all; instead, a super-nenpa had collided directly with their souls. Pressing hands against their ears could not block it out, for it beat directly against their minds.
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
Both Kojirou and Katakura writhed against the horrible pressure.
(Wh...what’s happening...?!)
In agony, Kojirou turned to see Yuzuru sitting up on the bed. But there was no trace of Yuzuru in his half-lidded eyes. Something evil glittered in their depths as a breathtaking golden aura surged from him.
Ranmaru was on his knees next to the source of the terrifying tsunami of power. Even he seemed to have been caught unawares by the explosion of will. But he pushed back against it with all his strength, looking at Yuzuru with teeth gritted.
“Good...this is good. It’s perfect, Narita Yuzuru. Now, use that power to crush the Yasha outside...!”
Yuzuru’s eyes opened, glittering gold with divine evil. The space around them twisted. Then a ball of terrible energy flew past them.
Gwaaah...!
It crashed straight into Shoumen Kongou. With an explosion like a bomb going off overhead, Shoumen Kongou vanished.
“What...the...!”
The super-nenpa then turned on Chiaki and the tsutsuga at full intensity. The tsutsuga writhed. Chiaki screamed and pressed his hands against his ears.
(What...the hell...is this?!)
Something had happened, he realized, but that was his last coherent thought. The super-nenpa impacted the mind directly, a violent storm raging through the pysche. This was the first time he had encountered a nenpa on such a level, and he could not guess its nature. He could no longer grasp his own consciousness or sense of self. He could not form any words. He was going insane! The overwhelming power was crushing his mind...!
Chiaki gathered all of himself, calling upon all his «power». He had the strength to resist. He took everything he had, and finally released it in an attack...!
“Aaaaaah—!”
The impact shook the estate.
Enduring the pain of Yuzuru’s super-nenpa, Ujimasa and company looked out the window.
“What is it now? What has happened...?!”
“Tono! Outside—!”
“What?!”
A portion of the forest—the spot where their tsutsuga had been battling the intruder—had been gouged out, and thick smoke rose from the destruction. The ground was caved in as if a bomb had been dropped there.
Yet perhaps Chiaki’s counteroffensive had hit its mark, for the intensity of Yuzuru’s attack seemed to have lessened. Yuzuru was sitting expressionlessly on the bed in the basement as if nothing had happened. Kojirou and Katakura lay comatose on the floor. Only Mori Ranmaru was still conscious. He leaned against the wall, panting heavily with a smile on his lips.
“What glorious power. You have fully met my expectations, Narita Yuzuru—”
Around the crater in the flattened forest, tsutsuga stumbled and collapsed in place. Chiaki lay motionless where he had fallen, pinned by a fallen tree.
A golden glow trailing tiny scatterings of plasmatic light enveloped Yuzuru. Light shone in the shape of an odd Sanskrit character on his forehead.
The ‘threat to the Six-Path Worlds’ that lay within Yuzuru had now revealed its fiendish shape.
Chapter 17: Paradise Shut
Morning dawned at Lake Ashi’s shores in Hakone with such calmness that last night’s storm seemed but a dream.
“...I suppose it’s time we started.”
Houjou Ujimasa’s younger brother gazed out the window at Lake Ashi’s verdant green surface. Naoe stopped still on the sofa at Ujiteru’s muttered words and lifted his eyes from the Houjous’ tactical map.
“...What are your instructions for me?”
“You will act as my aide. From what you have told me, I believe you will make an excellent officer. Be my right hand; advise me as you did earlier.”
“...Of course,” Naoe smiled slightly.
“The other generals will have no choice but to prostrate themselves before the Houjou once the Great Kantou Triangle is complete—there will be no need for trickery then. Indeed, once we have permanently fused the enormous energy gathered in Nikkou, in the sacred precincts of the Supreme Conqueror, with Hakone via the intermediary of the sacred mountain Fuji, they will be brought to their knees by the overwhelming power we will hold.”
Naoe’s eyes fell to the map. A gigantic right triangle was drawn thereon; its sides connected Nikkou, , Kunou-san, and Mt. Tate. He asked, “What will become of this country then? Will you destroy the current administrative and economic systems, take it back to the Edo Period?”
“...You’re quite the cynic, aren’t you?”
“I would not be able to go through with this, if I were not,” Naoe responded, folding the map. “I want this country built up through hardship and overwhelming odds by the spilled blood and sweat of countless billions—countless trillions of people—effortlessly crushed by those who lived four hundred years ago. This so-called great economic power which invaded the world not with military might but business acumen, which has become a world leader with true strength—‘power’ that we could not have imagined four hundred years ago—destroyed by the passions of those already dead. There is no greater thrill, no greater pleasure.”
“...I do not think of what we do as the destruction of the country.”
“It would amount to the same thing. What, after all, is the ‘supreme ruler over all’? The one who wields the most power? That person will soon no longer exist. At best you might become the Prime Minister, become a ‘person in time’—nothing more than a politician within the ruling party who wins the petty game of party rivalry. If that is all you’re looking for, why not try announcing your candidacy for the elections? After all, I’m pretty sure there is no law which says someone who lived four hundred years ago is ineligible.”
Ujiteru went to Naoe and seized his chin, forcing Naoe to look at him. “Leave your cynicism behind; there is something you must do.”
“Send the body of your brother to his death, you mean?” Naoe retorted lowly, disdainfully. “How convenient for me. The flesh is an endless enticement to lust: to touch, to embrace...without it, without the passions it engenders and receives so readily, we would hurt nothing and no one.”
“...”
“Besides, if his pet dog forced him into submission, he would probably kill himself rather than live with the blow to his pride. ...So you see, better that he dies before such a travesty can occur.” Ujiteru stared at Naoe, his face pale. Naoe hid his eyes behind his hand, his shoulders shaking in self-mocking laughter. “A dog cannot betray his master, can he...?”
“...”
Ujiteru lapsed into silence. He could not grasp the true nature of this man who tortured himself so. He appeared to have no reservations about betraying his master—nor about killing Takaya. And yet he could not tell what lay in Naoe’s true heart—not the scheming behind their backs, but Naoe’s true desire, the truth hidden in his heart of hearts.
(He has such talent—I can use a man like him. With his fighting prowess added to ours, we cannot lose. And yet...) Ujiteru thought— (this man is dangerous.)
Naoe stretched himself out on the sofa, lying prone with his face down. A smile like a cold blade rose to his face.
“Naoe, do not deceive yourself that I trust you.”
“...”
“I must be certain of you. Will your prove your loyalty to me?”
Naoe lifted his head, face expressionless once more, his disconsolation nowhere to be seen.
“—Yes.”
Ujiteru left the room with Naoe following behind. He asked the aide beside him, “I have not seen Kotarou. Where is he?”
“My lord. Kotarou-dono left this morning. He has gone ahead to Hakone Shrine.”
Suspicion crossed Naoe’s face. Left? With Tooyama? Tooyama—of Odawara’s Tooyama Clan? Tooyama Yasumitsu had accompanied Kagetora to Echigo, Naoe recalled.
“I will be leaving for Hakone Shrine. Prepare a car,” Ujiteru instructed.
“Yes, my lord!”
Ujiteru motioned to Naoe and led the way to Takaya’s room.
He had wiped all emotion from his heart, and yet it shook beneath the weight of the sin he was about to perform. He was a convict being led to the gallows for crimes committed over four hundred years, and this, the ultimate crime, was his punishment: killing the person he loved most in the world.
If those capable of putting on their masks of goodness wish to condemn him for what they call his mistakes, let them do so. How could those who live for mere decades possibly understand? Let them rage if they wish. Let the strong brandish their righteousness against the weak kneeling in prayer at their feet. Let the whitewashed world convict the sinners who can tell no lies.
(...Surely you, whom I kill, will be the one to judge me.)
Ujiteru walked steadily ahead. What was he thinking? Here stood the one who would enact his punishment, and in a few minutes he would see it for himself.
Naoe slowly lifted the tiny pearl in his hand to his mouth.
(Please protect him—) Naoe murmured in his heart—one final prayer, though he knew it was beyond his power; though he had already resigned himself. Was anyone listening? Was it nothing more than the final hypocrisy of a long-forsaken criminal? Who was he to plead so shamelessly for salvation, when he was standing in such a place?
Oh, please protect him.
Though I have no hope left, please protect him.
He cast the silent prayer to the Buddhas.
(Save him...)
Ujiteru stopped in front of the room and turned to Naoe.
“I will watch from here. This is the rite through which you will become a vassal of the Houjou. ...I trust you understand.”
“...”
Naoe stepped within. Light flowed in through the windows, illuminating Takaya in his white kimono with its gentle brightness. He sank to his knees beside the still figure. Though the ‘life-preserving spell’ alone sustained Takaya’s life, the peace on his face made him appear merely asleep. He looked so terribly pure in the morning light. So long as the power of that purity protected him, Naoe thought, he could live for years—decades—in this state.
(I want you to live...)
Takaya-san... he whispered the name, just once. And almost believed that he would open his eyes and awaken.
Killing him would be such a simple thing. Even the slightest touch of his filthy hand to that pure nimbus would be enough to disrupt the spell and allow the blaze of life to slip naturally away from this soulless body.
It would be a painless death. An easy death—perhaps the easiest of all.
He wanted to do it, wanted desperately to touch Takaya’s clean flesh with his black hand stained by sin and lust. But Takaya in his pride would probably choose death over being sullied. So in the end, it would be Naoe’s obscene desire, his blood-smeared lust, that would kill him.
One touch from a single finger—that was all it would take to end everything. What irony Heaven had bestowed upon him.
If this is destiny, you have no choice but to accept it: you who, in your noble isolation, your spotless ‘whiteness,’ reject all things unclean. Would you not rather perish than live bearing the black stains of disgrace? In death you will be eternal.
(You are my only ‘sanctuary.’)
Takaya slept.
Naoe placed his hands on Takaya’s pillow and leaned over him, looking down at his face. When he closed his eyes, he could hear Takaya’s heart. He would be the one to stop that steady pulsating beat...
Naoe’s brow creased, and his hands clenched into fists.
Are you capable of that?
(Takaya-san...)
You should never have trusted me as you did. If only you had never emerged from your lonely solitude, trusted no one. I have wiped all hesitation from my mind—yet at the last moment your smile still shakes me.
You should never have opened your fragile heart to a man like me. How you must regret that now.
“Would you be happier if I didn’t exist...?”
What did you feel as you said those words to me?—to a man so self-centered that he pretends not to recognize your caring? A man who took pleasure even in Ougi Takaya’s anguish over me, who looked coldly upon your suffering and accepted it as my ‘just recompense?’
(You should have recognized that in me...)
Naoe gazed upon the sleeping Takaya’s quiet face for a moment before finally closing his eyes, etching Takaya’s smile into his heart.
He didn’t want to be asked ‘why?’ He held no answers.
I don’t care if you never forgive me. Here and now you cannot resist me. Therefore hate me, scorn me, pity me—let your beauty turn to ugliness.
Let it be etched into your soul.
You cannot bring peace to a lunatic like me.
Because I no longer have any concept of sin.
(That is why, O Heaven—)
I beg you to protect him. He is pure, and I am a madman and a criminal. Protect him from the sins I now commit against him.
He stretched trembling fingers and slipped his hand beneath Takaya’s collar, shutting his eyes tightly and praying with all his heart as he brushed gently against Takaya’s chest.
He could feel Takaya’s body temperature dropping steeply against his fingertips as the pure spiritual energy surrounding Takaya dissipated with a whisper of sound.
Takaya was dying. Naoe moved his hand up to seize Takaya’s chin, pressing his mouth open before sealing his own lips against Takaya’s.
(Takaya-san...!)
He thrust his tongue into Takaya’s mouth, pushing the pearl across. His hand slid back down as if to chase Takaya’s declining heartbeat to the last palpitation, stopping directly over his heart.
The beat was fading.
Little by little...little by little...dying...
Until finally it stopped.
From Takaya’s soulless body, from beneath his closed eyelids—
Slid a single tiny, faintly gleaming tear—trailing down, down until it fell from his white cheek...
How long had it taken?
Ujiteru approached as Naoe finally tore himself away from Takaya. Staring steadily at Naoe’s face, he touched Takaya’s neck over his carotid artery before taking his left wrist to ascertain that he no longer had a pulse—that his body was ‘dead.’
Naoe sat motionless as a statue.
“... Naoe...”
“...”
Ujiteru returned his gaze to Takaya—Takaya’s corpse, now. The corners of his lips tightened with heartbreak.
Naoe remained frozen in place. He stared at Takaya without blinking.
“The male Tsutsuga Mirror must be taken to Ujiyasu-sama...”
“I will accompany you,” Tooyama said, walking behind Fuuma Kotarou on the path along the lake-shore as the horizon brightened with dawn. Kotarou had not told him their destination. To say that Tooyama was ill at ease was a laughable understatement—yet Kotarou betrayed not a hint of suspicion.
(Where is it hidden?)
The head of the Fuuma, apparently unaware that he had been duped, had undertaken to personally guide him to the male Tsutsuga Mirror. Though neither Ujimasa nor Ujiteru could easily move him to their command, Kotarou regarded Ujiyasu’s will as absolute. The ninja never took a second master, and the sons of his master were no exception. He had but one life, and he would stake it on one person.
(For all our effort, no one yet knows of Ujiyasu-sama’s location.)
In Tooyama’s opinion, Ujiyasu had already moved on to the next world.
Searching for him was an exercise in futility.
The tiny mirror hidden in Tooyama’s hand reflected the passing scenery with unassuming simplicity.
(Lord Saburou...)
The mirror showed Kagetora his current location. With Kagetora acting as intermediary, the images were transmitted onward to Odawara, where Kakizaki Haruie waited on standby. Hakone was the territory of the Fuuma. Exalted as the ‘Eternal Mountain and the Bottomless Ravine’ as well as the ‘Peerless Steeps,’ the mountains of Hakone were the Fuuma’s backyard. They knew everything about this land, and moreover, had covered it with traps; anyone looking to cause trouble without taking due care would find escape a difficult proposition.
(I must extract both the Tsutsuga Mirror and Kotarou.)
Once Kotarou left his own territory, they would hold the advantage. If Haruie could defeat him in an ambush, the male Tsutsuga Mirror would be theirs.
Tense and alert, Tooyama glared at Kotarou’s back. The ninja’s current body was not tempered and honed as it had been in his previous life; perhaps it would not adapt so readily to the ninja arts.
(If it came down to it...)
Tooyama touched the pistol concealed in his bosom, given to him by Ujimasa for self-protection. It had come from the mafia group led by the protégé of Ujimasa’s vessel.
(With this...)
“Tooyama-dono,” Kotarou suddenly addressed him, making Tooyama’s heart practically leap out of his chest. Had he been discovered?
“Y-yes...”
Kotarou had stopped, long hair brushing across his broad back, and was looking over his shoulder at Tooyama.
“Do you know the legend of Lake Ashi?”
“Legend...?”
“Yes. A very long time ago, a nine-headed dragon lived in this lake.” Kotarou looked beyond the cedar trees at its glittering surface. "A poisonous dragon, feral and wild, which sometimes called wind and storm to bring flood and suffering down on the village people here. In order to appease it, the villagers would offer it a yearly sacrifice. One day, Holy Priest Mangan, who had come to this land to practice asceticism, heard the story of the poisonous dragon. He undertook to subdue it to save the villagers.
"The Holy Priest built a stone altar and prayed to the gods and buddhas. It is said that in due time he exorcised the poisonous dragon with the borrowed heavenly might of the great God of Hakone. Thereafter the dragon repented and became the guardian deity of this lake.
This dragon god was enshrined at the Nine-Headed Dragon Shrine, which is subordinate to Hakone Shrine. It appears the famous lake festival of Hakone Shrine was a ritual following the traditions of this legend, and that the red rice offered to the dragon god during the festival stands in for the ‘sacrifice’ of old.
You know, of course, that Holy Priest Mangan was responsible for the revival of Hakone Shrine. But he was also,“ Kotarou smiled at Tooyama, ”the founder of the Fuuma."
“Wh...what did you say?!” Tooyama exclaimed. “Holy Priest Mangan was your founder?! That great and holy man... I don’t believe it...”
“Yes. We are much despised. But that great and holy man’s blood flows our veins, Tooyama-dono.”
“...”
“Do not look down on us because we are mere ninjas.” With those words, he started walking again. Tooyama stood frozen there for a moment longer before managing to take hold of his nerves once more. He hurried to catch up.
The two men resumed their trek along the eastern shore towards the lake-end. The morning mist began to dissipate as they reached Hakone -en at the foot of Mt. Komagatake, and Mt. Fuji appeared beyond the cerulean lake.
“It’s just ahead.”
They took the path through the forest past Hakone-en. A little ways onward, near the part of the lake called , more scattered cottages appeared.
Their destination was the Nine-Headed Dragon Shrine from Kotarou’s legend.
The shrine was not large, and had been built up bit by bit. Its small, humble vermilion peace gates stood within the lake. Dark green foliage covered the area, and the atmosphere was filled with an air of purity. There was no sound but the chirping of birds. From here, Lake Ashi looked so beautiful and serene that one would not have been surprised to see a dragon rising from it.
“Kotarou-dono. This place...is this...?”
“...”
“Is the male Tsutsuga Mirror here?”
Kotarou nodded. “I will retrieve it now. Wait here.”
Tooyama looked after Kotarou anxiously as he headed toward the shrine.
(So this is where it was hidden...?) He had guessed that it would be in Hakone, but the Nine-Headed Dragon Shrine? (A-at least now I can face Lord Saburou.)
Tooyama swept the mirror in his hand around to give it a view of the area. Now he could be forgiven. He just needed to get his hands on the Mirror itself.
Kotarou made his obeisance to the god before unlocking and opening the shrine’s latticed door. It gave way with a heavy creak. Kotarou went into the dim hall.
Tooyama waited.
“Ko-Kotarou-dono...”
Kotarou stepped out of the shrine.
“Ko-Kota...!” Tooyama gasped.
A large, vaguely dog-shaped creature had followed Kotarou out of the shrine. Seen more clearly in the sunlight, the figure resolved itself into...a lion-like beast with red curling fur—
A tsutsuga!
Tooyama let out a scream before he could stop himself. He glared at Kotarou, snarling furiously, “Ko-Kotarou-dono! What...what is the meaning of this...?!”
“That is the question I wish to ask you, traitor.”
“Wh...what did you say?”
“It’s too bad, isn’t it? The Tsutsuga Mirror was almost within your reach. Did you really think I, Fuuma Kotarou, would be taken in by your lies?”
“Lies...? What are you talking about? We don’t have time for your jokes! We are under the command of Ujiyasu-sama himself...!”
“Be silent. The more you say, the more you incriminate yourself.”
Tooyama gulped back his exclamations. Kotarou crossed his arms and stared down at Tooyama from the top of the stairs.
“How much were you bribed? Whose commands are you following? Takeda’s? Oda’s?”
“Kotarou-dono, I...!”
"Tooyama-dono. If I recall correctly, you went with Kagetora-dono to Echigo. As I heard it, you abandoned your master during the battle for succession, leaving him to face his death alone while you ran.
“I would never do such a thing! Are you mocking me?” Tooyama blustered.
Kotarou only sneered. “You were born in the wrong era. To die for your lord was virtuous; to not do so brought dishonor upon your name.”
“...!”
“Yet you are loyal even now. You deserve all the praise in the world.”
Kotarou knew everything! Tooyama thought, inhaling. He gritted his teeth.
“The punishment for traitors, however, is death.”
“Why?! How did you know...?!” The words “I was trying to deceive you” never made it out of his throat.
Kotarou knelt and caressed the tsutsuga’s fur.
“It appears you do not even know what kind of lie it would take to delude me.”
“What?”
“If you had tried ‘Ujimasa-dono’s secret command,’ you could at least have deceived me for a little longer.”
Tooyama flinched back sharply as Kotarou rose to his feet and descended the stairs, the tsutsuga beside him.
“I knew you were lying before I even met with you.”
“...”
“As soon as the words ‘Ujiyasu-sama’s secret command’ left your mouth.”
“!”
The tsutsuga pawed at the ground before leaping straight for Tooyama. He screamed and pulled out his pistol, shooting wildly at the beast. The bullets passed through harmlessly. The tsutsuga slammed Tooyama to the ground, his pistol flying out of his hand and into the shrubs. Tooyama writhed as the beast’s claws violently rent his chest apart.
“Aaaaah...aaaaaaah!”
Kotarou watched the scene dispassionately.
In agony, Tooyama tore the tsutsuga off and began crawling toward the water. The tsutsuga advanced on his prey again, and the man and the spirit-beast grappled on the beach. The tsutsuga sank its fangs into Tooyama’s neck.
“Aaaaah!”
Tooyama’s horrifying screams echoed around the quiet lake-shore. Crippled with terror, he met the tsutsuga’s golden eyes—and the tsutsuga suddenly jerked its head up as if something had startled it.
«The mirror...!»
The voice echoed inside Tooyama’s head. With blind reflex he turned the mirror in his hand and held it up.
“Gyaaah....aaaaaah!” The tsutsuga shrieked as it met its own reflection’s eyes, the sound metallic and grating. A second later, it was sucked into the mirror.
“What...!” Kotarou exclaimed at this unexpected turn of events.
“Aaaah...!” In his shock and panic, Tooyama flung the mirror away and ran. An utterly composed Kotarou nimbly plucked Tooyama’s pistol from the undergrowth and fired it twice, thrice at the other man’s fleeing back.
Tooyama fell soundlessly, dead before he hit the ground.
His spirit extracted itself from its vessel. Kotarou whistled through his fingers, summoning three more tsutsuga from the forest. At his command they streaked after Tooyama’s unmoored spirit.
“Coward.” Kotarou crushed the small hand mirror underfoot in disgust.
He looked towards the lake. The bright air had dimmed without his realizing it, and mist hung over the lake once more. The birds had stopped their chirping. It was, in fact, eerily silent. There was a feeling of expectation—and fear.
In the exact center of the lake, gigantic ripples appeared on its still surface.
(—My lord...)
Chapter 18: Pure Land at the Lake's Bottom
A heavy guard of Fuuma ninjas would convey the female Tsutsuga Mirror to Hakone Shrine. Ujiteru and his vassals climbed aboard the cruiser waiting at the private wharf reserved for the estate’s exclusive use.
“Is this the only boat?” Naoe asked. “I would like to bring the body and give it a burial at sea.”
“Were you not intending to return it to his family?”
“I’ve changed my mind. Returning the body would attract too much attention; society tends to make a fuss over things like this. The police becoming involved would interfere with our plans, which would not be in our best interest.”
“You are heartless.”
“Merely anticipating all possibilities,” Naoe responded expressionlessly, with cold-blooded indifference. “Burials at sea might be stylish, but put plainly, this is no more than the dumping of a corpse—I would prefer something inconspicuous. A small motor boat would be best, I think. Even if I were spotted, I alone would bear the guilt. It would never come back to you, Ujiteru-sama.”
“Hmm... But the fog looks to be coming in.”
Earlier that morning there had been hints of blue in the sky, the air achingly clear, but with the fog rolling in the day had turned dark again.
“Convenient.”
At that moment Ujiteru could not have grasped Naoe’s full meaning. “In that case, you will join up with us later,” Ujiteru responded as he received confirmation that the cruiser was ready.
“... Yes.”
Naoe went inside to retrieve the body as Ujiteru and company set off with the Tsutsuga Mirror across the lake.
Naoe came back out with Takaya cradled in his arms, heading for the motor boat prepared for him at the wharf. As he climbed in, one of Ujiteru’s aides approached.
“Ujiteru-sama told me to accompany you,” the man—a possessing spirit, not kanshousha—said. Naoe smiled slightly, though ‘watch’ might be a better description than ‘accompany.’
“I see. I leave myself to your care.”
A thick fog now covered Lake Ashi, obscuring its center from any observers on the shores. The Houjou vassal, armed with a thorough knowledge of its waters, handled the boat with precision. Near the center, he inquired, “Where do you plan to toss it in?”
“It doesn’t really matter where, with this fog. ...Which direction is Hakone Shrine from here?”
“Where our bow is pointed. At night you can sometimes see the lights of cars along the road on that ridge there. You can use that as a landmark to guide you in and make landfall at .”
“I see. ...Thank you very much.”
“...” The man turned. His eyes widened to see Naoe standing right behind him, expression cold. (Ah!) he thought, an instant before Naoe seized his temples with his right hand. A sound like fireworks exploded in his mind before the world went dark.
Naoe crouched beside the collapsed figure and touched his hand to the man’s forehead.
“On amiritateizei kara un on amiritateizei kara un.”
As he chanted the mantra of Amitābha, his palm began to glow with white light. His fingers sank into the man’s forehead, pulling the possessing spirit out of its vessel without much of a fight. Once wholly extracted, Naoe recognized the spirit as that of an onryou, but one with only a smidgen of power.
Still, even a small, weak spirit could become a mighty onryou depending on how it was used.
“On beishiramandaya sowaka on beishiramandaya sowaka... Namu Tobatsu Bishamonten. Punish and bind this evil spirit. Bestow the demon-subjugating scourge upon me.”
Light glowed from Naoe’s left hand, taking shape as a coiled whip made of spiritual power. Naoe shook it out adroitly and wrapped it around the spirit he held captive.
“Bind.”
The whip instantly wound around the spirit, eliciting a terrible, violent howl of anguish from it. Naoe took his lighter out of his pocket and lit the scourge on fire. Both it and the spirit went up in flames, and when the blaze cleared, a blue stone dropped onto the floor.
Naoe picked it up and put it in his pocket.
(...The Tsutsuga Mirror has left the barrier at last.)
Naoe laid Takaya down on the sheet beside him and took the helm. He fixed his gaze on the shore ahead. I must hurry.
The tree-binding ritual was beginning.
Preparations at Hakone Shrine were complete.
A barrier kept out all outsiders, and the shrine staff were hypnotized and asleep.
A ceremonial site had been constructed in front of Hakone Shrine’s sacred ‘Yatate Cedar,’ the Tsutsuga Mirror placed therein.
Ujiteru stared grimly at the sacred tree, a magnificent cedar 1,200 years old. He would be binding his brother to this tree.
The legend of the ‘Yatate Cedar’ began at the start of the Heian Period. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, appointed the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force sent to subjugate the Emishi people of northern Japan, prayed to the avatar of Hakone for fortune in war when he passed the shrine during his journey. His offering was a bow and arrow. After him came Minamoto no Yoriyoshi on his hunt for a general of the Abe Clan, then brothers Minamoto no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune in the Kamakura Period as they departed for the front, each offering a ‘first arrow’ as an invocation for fate’s favor in battle. Each of their prayers were answered, and so people came to believe that the tree was sacred, and bestowed luck on the battlefield to its supplicants.
It then became the main shaft of Hakone’s ‘United Body’.
(It is a tree befitting Saburou...)
But he realized that the thought brought him no joy.
Once Saburou Kagetora’s tree-binding was complete, the Hakone Shrine forest, like that of Nikkou, would be set ablaze. The ‘Yatate Cedar’, too, would burn with holy fire. Its sacred power would be fused with the power of the earth to become a massive energy of unparalleled might, and Saburou’s soul would become a part of it.
(And his psyche will be annihilated.)
He would be reduced to a mere weapon.
It should have been simple. Pragmatic.
All of it done for the sake of the clan.
But the ache in his chest refused to abate. His little brother was going to be used again, another heartbreaking fate forced upon him.
Saburou is going to become a god of war.
(To my brother it is simple and clear-cut. It can never be so for me.)
But neither could he disobey their father’s commands.
If it was the command of their father, the great Ujiyasu.
(If this is...Father’s command...)
“Tono!” said an aide approaching him on the shrine path.
“What is it? Is Kotarou not yet returned?”
“Aye. We have searched for him, but...”
“Nevermind. We will proceed without Kotarou. Is the escort in place? Are the Fuuma in their assigned positions?”
“Everything is complete. My lord, Naoe-dono has returned.”
“What? Naoe?” He turned to see the just-arrived Naoe standing nearby. “Is the water burial complete?”
“...Yes,” Naoe nodded expressionlessly.
Ujiteru felt that deep fury welling up within him once more. How dare he treat a master he had followed for four hundred years thus? How dare he be so composed? The nerve of this man!
“He wanted to protect me, all of me, from everything.”
When he closed his eyes, he could see Takaya’s slight smile, the pain hidden behind it.
“Wings. Gigantic bird’s wings. ”
(Is this the man you do not want to lose?) Ujiteru shook with rage. (Was this cold-hearted bastard the reason you were destroyed?)
Naoe returned Ujiteru’s gaze as Ujiteru advanced on him. This man, who did not even have the grace to avert his eyes? It inflamed Ujiteru’s hatred.
“My lord!” The aide exclaimed as Ujiteru suddenly struck Naoe across the cheek. Naoe closed his eyes, face still turned. Ujiteru calmed his shortened breaths.
“Begin the ceremony. Bring out the tsutsuga.” He walked away without another look at Naoe.
“...”
Naoe lifted his head, staring at Ujiteru’s back as he walked away.
Watched over by the vassals, Houjou priests began the Shinto ritual in front of of the ‘Yatate Cedar,’ the Tsutsuga Mirror with Kagetora’s sealed soul enshrined before it.
Naoe appeared beside Ujiteru as he stood observing. His composure was certainly befitting that of a hereditary vassal of the Houjou.
The Shinto ritual prayer ended, and a gigantic kettle-like object was carried out from the opposite side. It took three people just to lift the lid, allowing what appeared to be crimson smoke to overflow from it. A hairy animal crawled out.
It was a tsutsuga: the same tsutsuga, in fact, which had attacked Naoe on Iroha Hill. It was as long as a person was tall, easily two or three times the size of the tsutsuga still wandering Nikkou and Hakone. This was the tsutsuga cub brought forth by the Fuuma four hundred years ago and sealed by Tenkai within the very same Tsutsuga Mirror now sitting in front of the ‘Yatate Cedar.’
(...So this is the original?)
The difference in power between this tsutsuga and the cubs produced en-mass by the Fuuma in the modern age was obvious. The tsutsuga were said to take a century to reach maturity, but this tsutsuga, having remained within its mother in the centuries since its birth, appeared not yet weaned though its body was full-grown.
The tsutsuga gave a low growl followed by a whining bark, as if it were calling to its mother, the female Tsutsuga Mirror, sitting nearby. It appeared upset by its abrupt release.
A mother would give her own prey to her hungry child. This tsutsuga, however, had been shaped by human hands. It was a ‘cormorant-trained’ tsutsuga taught to hunt souls instead of catch fish. Like the cormorant which spits its catch into its master the fisherman’s basket, the tsutsuga used the traits inherited from its father to bind its prey to trees rather than devouring them.
Naoe casually slipped a hand into his pocket.
(I have to stop this before he is swallowed by the tsutsuga...)
The beast suddenly grew restive as if something had startled it. Then it began howling wildly.
“What just happened?!” Ujiteru and his aide leapt to their feet. The anguished tsutsuga began violently swiping and lunging at the people standing closest, driving off the vassals who quickly ran up to it.
“Control it, calm it down!”
Some nearby object emitting an unusually strong, abnormal spirit-energy was driving the tsutsuga mad. Teeth bared in rage, the tsutsuga sprang at the source.
“Wah!”
Ujiteru and company dodged aside, leaving Naoe alone in its path.
Naoe threw the blue sphere in his hand at the tsutsuga and clasped his hands together in a ritual gesture. He cried, “Release binding!”
Light flashed from the stone, followed by a torrent of savage hatred as a terrifying onryou appeared.
“Wh...what is that...?!”
The vassals ran about in a panic. The onryou screamed and raged in agony, mowing down everything around it as it writhed within the strangling bindings of the whip of chastisement.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Naoe sprinted for the altar and grabbed the female Tsutsuga Mirror.
“You! Damn you, Naoe!” Naoe’s «nenpa» went off like a bomb in front of the ‘Yatate Cedar.’ Shielding himself from the shockwave, Ujiteru yelled, “Naoe, you bastard!”
“I will not allow you to use him!” Naoe retorted between attacks, “So go to hell!”
“Kill him! Tear him limb from limb!”
Naoe shielded himself with a «protective wall> against the mass of «nenpa» launched simultaneously by several Houjou vassals before counterattacking. Explosions rocked the area around them. His «wall» buckled beneath the ferocity of the concentrated assault aimed at him. A single arrow-like shot of will pierced the wall and struck him.
(Whatever happens, I must not lose this mirror!) Naoe cradled it to his chest as several keen arrows of will grazed him. The onryou cut a swathe through the Houjou vassals, but it did not shake their fierce barrage. Naoe dropped to one knee. (I will not give it up...!)
Naoe gritted his teeth as his clothes were ripped apart, his blood sent splattering to the ground. He clutched hard at the Tsutsuga Mirror even while pain stabbed into his skin, raising his eyes to glare defiantly with all his body and soul.
(I will not give him up to anyone!)
Roaring, he gathered all his strength, concentrating all the «power» he possessed into a single point in his body. There was no longer a human heart within him—no emotion or reason, for he transformed it all into will and energy.
“What...!”
There was an ominous rumble, and Ujiteru and his men involuntarily flinched as the ground around them began to shake. A raging whirlwind born of Naoe’s will scythed through both trees and men, destroying everything in sight.
“Protect yourselves! Attack!” Ujiteru’s shout was swallowed up by the brutal storm.
“Aaaaaah—!” Wrung out of the depths of his soul, the howl tore out of his body and pierced Heaven itself. The storm wavered and Heaven cracked apart. Everyone froze in place, terrified by a presentiment of doom.
Naoe’s body became a sphere of golden light.
Swelling—
The ground shook as if struck by multiple lightning bolts before exploding into a gigantic pillar of fire. He had released every ounce of power he possessed in a single instant.
The energy blast engulfed everyone and everything.
Even after the shock waves faded, none of Ujiteru’s men were capable of a counterattack. All that remained was a scene out of hell itself.
(Kagetora...sama...)
Having used up every iota of power, Naoe dragged himself along the ground with the Tsutsuga Mirror still cradled in his bleeding arms.
(Kagetora...sama...!)
He had no energy left to speak the name out loud. Will alone animated his mind and body as he crawled down the stone stairs.
Only one of the crumbled bodies rose. Steeling his will against the agony, Ujiteru desperately dragged his bloodied and broken body toward the lake-shore after Naoe.
“I won’t let you get away, Naoe...”
Naoe turned at the shrine gates at the sound of Ujiteru’s voice.
’“I won’t let you get away, Naoeeeeeee!” Ujiteru cried, a terrifying expression on his face.
“!”
Ujiteru collapsed to his knees. But he raised himself again, clinging hard to the trunk of a nearby tree. He gritted, “Give the mirror...back to me...”
Naoe glared at Ujiteru.
“Give Saburou back to me—!”
Naoe clutched the mirror harder to himself and closed his eyes. Ujiteru dragged himself forward with blood-covered, trembling arms.
“—Stay back...”
“...”
“I will never give him up...”
“Give him...back...”
“Get away from me!”
In desperation, Naoe formed Bishamonten’s ritual gesture. “ (Bai)!”
“!”
Ujiteru’s paralyzed body shivered—but his force of will was not to be underestimated. He fought against Naoe’s binding with all his might and continued to crawl forward.
Naoe had reached the end of his power. He could no longer perform a proper «choubuku». But he strained for the last drops of energy, his hands clasped together in the ritual symbol by sheer will.
“Noumaku...samanda...bodanan...”
“Give him back,” Ujiteru pleaded desperately, his voice hoarse. Dying. “Give...Saburou back.”
“...”
“Please.”
Naoe stared at Ujiteru, eyes wide.
Ujiteru’s eyes were filled with tears. He was no longer a general, and his pleas had nothing to do with war or tactics. He was just an older brother now.
“Give back...my brother...”
“...”
Naoe turned his face away. His chanting faded. Hands still clasped tightly in Bishamonten’s mudra, he closed his eyes.
“!”
A «nenpa» exploded at Ujiteru’s feet. He slammed into a fallen tree and crumbled to the ground, where he lay unmoving.
“...”
Panting and gasping, Naoe stared at Ujiteru for a second before turning and staggering toward the motor boat anchored at the lake-shore once more. His entire right side ran with jagged spasms of pain from his shoulder wound, and he stumbled and almost fell several times. Even so, his only thought was to protect the mirror.
(Almost...there...)
He dragged himself into the boat and raised Takaya’s body from the seat into his arms, gasping with pain.
(Kagetora-sama...)
He clutched tightly to both Takaya and the Tsutsuga Mirror even as his vision blurred. His mind felt a great distance away. He mustered himself somehow to take hold of the helm, starting the engine and pointing the little boat toward the fog-covered lake.
Everything was about to end...
This, here and now, would be the end of everything.
Soon... Very soon now he would be released from all the foolishness, from the crushing weight of four hundred years. He would be free from all the world’s problems and all the world’s anguish.
No inner voice told him, ‘You can still go back.’ And even if it did, he would not be able to ear it with ears deafened by self-loathing.
!If he turned aside now, the doors to Utopia would never again open for him—
I will not lose you.
I will never love another.
In that world apart we will never again be touched by the pain, anguish, and grief of living.
I will hold you and all that you are in my arms, within a time and space that transcends both life and death.
All my wishes are coming true.
All I ever desired will be mine.
You will never again tremble in loneliness, never again be left behind. We can escape from everything: the disquiet of separation; the deprivation of urgency; the jealousy that burns us to ashes; the frantic, luscious hatred. Our release is at hand.
I have been given the key to that perfect paradise. How can Heaven have bestowed such supreme happiness on me?
His every wish was being granted, here and now. Was this his recompense for four hundred years of anguish? Was it Heaven’s will that he accept this terrifying happiness?
He held the cage called Paradise in his arms.
In his arms...
The center of the lake was shrouded by an even thicker mist.
Naoe cut the engine, allowing the boat to drift into that utter stillness.
They stopped at the exact center. The undulating surface turned flat as a mirror. Fog hid the lush green Hakone mountains surrounding him on all four sides.
He could see no sign of any other living thing.
This, the deepest part of Lake Ashi, was more than 40 meters 1 in depth. It swallowed all sound, leaving behind an almost forlorn, lonely and unworldly silence.
Holding the silk-covered Tsutsuga Mirror, Naoe peered at the lake surface. Its beautiful deep indigo-blue waters stretched into the mist and seemed to spread outward forever.
A chilly, humid wind wrapped around him.
Naoe gazed out with deep emotion at the last scene his eyes would ever see, Takaya’s cold body in his arms.
Legend said that this place was sacred, that these waters were home to a god. At this moment, surrounded by its hallowed air, Naoe believed it. It was a suitable adobe for a god, this lake of mysterious and subtle grace ringed by mountains.
At the bottom of these fathomless waters, surely, he would find the Pure Lands.
Let us sleep embraced by the god’s lake. Let my soul be imprisoned in this demon mirror with you, and let us sink into these watery deeps.
There are no chains around me now.
Naoe gazed at Takaya’s face where it lay slumped against his shoulder. His blood stained one white cheek. With his left hand, Naoe turned it toward him and wiped away the red smear.
Why did he have to long so for the eyes that hid such loneliness in their depths? His weary heart trembled in his breast for the voice that he would never hear again.
“Naoe...”
His mind played back his time with Takaya incessantly against his closed eyelids. Those uneasy eyes and awkward laugh, that tranquil smile and angry tears... His chest ached unbearably. Your voice calling my name...it sears me and refuses to let me go.
Swear to me...
He held Takaya close and pressed his lips to the back of Takaya’s neck. His left hand cradling Takaya’s head to his chest, he pushed Takaya’s kimono softly from his shoulder with the other and branded kiss after kiss into the cool skin.
I want to be at your side for all of eternity.
At your side.
I will...never leave you.
Closing his eyes, Naoe clasped Takaya tightly and moved to the boat’s stern, the mirror which would become their souls’ eternal resting place in his hand...
He could now say a farewell to the unendurable anguish of four hundred years.
(Now...) he thought, lifting his eyes. At that moment—
A small row boat emerged from the deep mist, and Naoe stilled. In it was a man. The boat approached slowly, stopping only when it lay next to the vessel containing Naoe and Takaya. The broad-shouldered man within set down his oars and stood quietly.
Naoe gasped.
It was Fuuma Kotarou.
No one had seen him since he had left for his meeting with Tooyama—but he must have either chased after him or had somehow known to find Naoe here.
He stared in disbelief, speechless.
Kotarou said deliberately, “You don’t have to look so shocked. I am here by my lord’s command.”
“...‘Your lord?’—Houjou Ujiteru, you mean?”
“Ujiteru-dono is not my master. Neither, needless to say, is Ujimasa-dono...”
“Then who?”
“I have no master but Lord Ujiyasu.”
“!” Naoe stared. “Ujiyasu? Houjou Ujiyasu? He’s here? He’s the one pulling the strings? He’s entered the «Yami-Sengoku» hasn’t he?!”
“...Lord Ujiyasu has nothing to do with the actions of his sons.”
“What?”
“But no matter where I am, I will always execute Lord Ujiyasu’s commands.”
“Ujiyasu commanded you to come here?”
Kotarou slowly crossed his arms, ignoring the question. “Is it not your intention to allow that object in your hand to devour your soul?” Kotarou asked in a monotone. “I am not here to stop you from sinking with that mirror to the bottom of the lake. If that’s what you want to do, proceed.”
“Aren’t you a vassal of the Houjou?”
“The Houjou are the masters of the Fuuma—that is why we lend our aid when it is asked. But my master is Lord Ujiyasu alone. What happens to Ujiteru-dono and Ujimasa-dono do not move me.”
“Then you are under orders from Lord Ujiyasu?”
Again ignoring the question, Kotarou returned expressionlessly, “What has compelled you to this point? You wish to abandon everything. Why? Where does that feeling come from?”
Naoe’s eyebrows rose.
“You surrender your mission and your life and kill your master: sin piling on sin. ...What power allows you to let your ego run free, to desert your mission in order to pursue your own desires, battered as you are? How is it possible to become so self-centered? How is it possible for egotism to consume you so completely that you are willing to murder the master you have served loyally for so many years?”
Naoe’s eyes flashed, and he snarled, “Of course you could never understand. You are, after all, the perfect servant. Perfectly without ego.”
“...”
“An emotionless machine is the happiest being on earth,” Naoe sneered. “You can’t even aspire to the hypocrisy of lamentation over the baseness of desire. You might as well become a god...”
For the first time, Kotarou’s eyes widened.
Naoe’s smile vanished. He pressed the body in his arms tightly to his chest and buried his face in Takaya’s hair, eyes fixed on a single point on the lake’s surface as he pushed back against pain.
“I see,” Kotarou responded shortly, and his expression turned cold once more. “My lord Ujiyasu holds the male Tsutsuga Mirror.”
For an instant Naoe’s eyes sharpened. Then his brows drew together, and calm returned to his expression. “...Ah.”
That knowledge was useless to him now. He was too weary to steal it back, too spent to throw down the gauntlet once more. And knowing that, he...
“...”
The surface of the lake swelled upward, causing huge waves to suddenly descend on the boat. Naoe braced himself in surprise as the craft rocked wildly. The lake erupted, and something rose from its depths, up and up until it towered over them, a gigantic shadow in the mist.
“What...!”
The mist cleared away. Knuckles turning white from his grip on the side of the rolling boat, Naoe looked up at the long shadow stretched over the heaving lake.
He gasped, speechless and frozen in place, unable to believe his eyes.
(Dear gods!)
It had risen out of the lake behind Kotarou. Two glowing eyes looked down at them from a height of about 30 meters 2.
—Eyes belonging to a dragon! A shimmering, shining dragon, its colossal torso undulating in midair.
“It can’t be...” he shook his head repeatedly, convinced that it was an illusion. But no: there really was a dragon in the lake facing him.
Kotarou, still with his back to the dragon, told him quietly: “Look well...Naoe.”
“...!”
The dragon held a plate-like object in one of its foreclaws. No, not a plate. It was round, red—shining with reflected light: a mirror?
(The Tsutsuga Mirror?!)
“Is that...?!”
The male Tsutsuga Mirror, transfigured by Holy Priest Shoudou from the male tsutsuga—the father of the tsutsuga cub, and the only object in the world capable of releasing a soul trapped within the female Tsutsuga Mirror...!
“Why...!” Naoe blurted out unthinkingly. “Why? Why would you...what are you trying to do?! That’s...!”
“This being says that he will lend the mirror to you, without conditions. If you wish it.”
“!”
It stunned him yet again. He could neither breathe nor find words for a response. He could only stare at Kotarou with disbelief, motionless.
“What...do you mean...?”
“...”
“What in the world is that creature...?”
The dragon’s eyes glinted gold as it looked down upon the two men. Oh! Naoe gasped and looked up at the dragon. “Is that...! Is the dragon Houjou...”
“Indeed, it is as you surmised,” Kotarou interrupted dispassionately before he could finish speaking the name. “You may use the male Tsutsuga Mirror to release Saburou-dono. Or not. You are free to choose either path. To do exactly what you want.”
“...”
“Naoe. Everything depends on your next words.”
Naoe felt paralyzed.
The dead-end road he had chosen, had thought would be his final destination, had suddenly opened up before him.
He could release Kagetora from the Mirror. The one object capable of doing so was being offered to him freely. He had only to say the word, and he would be able to take it in his hands. He could set Kagetora free. Free to live again.
(He can come back to life.)
And perhaps even restored to this body. If the power of the pearl had been enough, if truly the Buddhas protected him... Naoe had wagered everything on that possibility.
(Takaya-san can be returned to himself.)
Naoe looked down at Takaya’s body in his arms. Those cheeks could be graced once more by his lonely, gentle smile, and the voice he had missed so much could call his name. Speak to him. Those haunted eyes could return his gaze.
He could return this beloved being, this person he loved more than any other, to life!
And yet, in doing so...
Their eternal utopia would be lost.
His impossible wish had been granted in full. He could have Kagetora entirely to himself. They could be together for the rest of eternity. There was no other way: no other method but this one, final and irreversible.
I can never have you in this world. But in the mirror you would be mine and mine alone. No one would be able to touch you, to come between us or steal you away from me... The flow of time would pass us by, and we need never fear the heart’s fickle nature. Neither grief nor hatred could exist in that peaceful paradise.
We could escape all pain.
I would never lose you again.
I have watched you for four hundred years, and this deranged longing...
Is this not the answer to all my prayers?
His chest was being torn apart by two overwhelming desires.
I want to save you...
And yet.
Their perfect happy ending was close enough to touch.
What agony we’ve endured to get to this moment, both of us consumed by it until we know its every nuance, know it so well that it has driven us mad...!
He could bear it no longer. How many times had he thought: ‘I can no longer live with such pain?’ For an unimaginably long time he had wandered in the darkness of despair, his heart crushed by it, capable only of dreaming of such tranquility and happiness.
He wanted to escape.
To have it all be over.
For as long as I have loved you I have thought this: I never want my love for you to change. Agony though it may be, and sin and lunacy and punishment, I am incapable of stopping myself from loving you over and over again...
I crawl through the mud, struggling forward and falling back, again and again. Let me leave this labyrinth.
In this endless despair and madness, I want only to find one moment of truth.
(Am I allowed to end this...?) he asked the silent, lonely dictator in his arms. (Am I allowed happiness?)
Oh my beloved.
Surely you wish it too.
I must reach for happiness for both of us. Grasp it with these hands.
I have loved you longer and deeper than anyone else ever could.
I am the only one who can give you happiness.
No else is capable of it.
(Is this not enough, Kagetora-sama...?) Naoe gazed pleadingly down at Takaya. (Can we not end it now...?)
Please answer me.
Naoe’s eyes widened as Takaya seemed to smile slightly.
He felt as if he had heard Takaya’s voice saying that it was all right...
He saw forgiveness and acceptance in the peace on Takaya’s face.
“...” Naoe stopped breathing, frozen still with his eyes wide.
.
“What is your answer, Naoe-dono?” Naoe slowly turned at the sound of Kotarou’s voice. “Will you take the male Tsutsuga Mirror, or will you sink into this lake?”
“...”
“Would you tell me your decision?”
Naoe quietly bit his lip. Coming to a resolution.
Still holding Takaya with his left arm, he quietly turned his head...
And reached for the female Tsutsuga Mirror lying on the floor of the boat.
TO BE CONTINUED