Vow of a Spiritualist
Jigoku Sensei Nube
by TKHM
Vow of a Spiritualist
Disclaimer: Jigoku Sensei Nube is owned by Sho Makura and
Takeshi Okano. They are responsible for making
this wonderful series.
Contact:
email: tkhm@hotmail.com
ICQ: 16751025
website: http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/pier/878/
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A man was walking in a forest at night. He was carrying a rifle in
his hands, but despite having a weapon, he was still extremely nervous.
He really should not have taken the short cut through the forest, as
everything around him was shouting danger into his ears. A little
frightened, the man picked up his pace. There, he saw the light of
the village, he was almost there.
Suddenly, something leapt to him from the bushes with its claws
extended, the man quickly rolled out of the way and shot the figure
on the head with his rifle. The figure howled in pain and dove back into
the bushes, disappearing from the man's view.
"Ha! That's what you get for messing with me and my baby." The
man said while holding his rifle high up in the air. Then, his danger
sense kicked in again and he turned and shot at the bushes behind him a
few times. Seeing that the movement in the bushes was gone, he walked
closer
and to inspect the victim of the bullets.
A hand shot out of the bushes and grabbed his rifle away. When the
man was cursing loudly, a sound of something large falling was heard.
The man barely had time to look up when something heavy landed on him,
sending him to the ground. He shook his head a little to clear his head
when his eyes rested on the object that fell on him, which was now
sitting
on his chest.
Seeing the head of a monster staring at him in the eyes was not what
he expected. The man tried to scream, but was forestalled when the
monster simply leaned forward and bit deeply into his neck. The sound
of flesh being ripped apart was heard afterwards.
***
A woman in her late-thirties filled a bowl with another spoonful of
rice. She put away the ricecooker and carried the bowls filled with rice
out of the kitchen, just in time to be nearly knocked over by a running
girl. The woman staggered a bit, but regained her balance.
The girl, with her hair tied in buns, was around ten years old.
She was wearing a set of traditional chinese clothes, as this chinese
family
was not very 'modernized', unlike the ones in urban cities like Shan Hai
and
Hong Kong.
"Jin Lin! How many times have I told you not to run around in the
house?" The woman scolded while putting the bowls on the dinner table.
"Sorry, Mother." The girl said, hanging her head. She had almost
knocked down her mother, who had trouble walking as her left leg had
been
injured. The feeling of guilt was quickly swept away, however, when the
girl saw the smiling face of her mother. Then a new feeling of dread
appeared when her mother's eyes started to shift to her left hand.
"What's that in your hand?" The mother asked, pointing at the
object the girl was holding in her left hand.
The girl put the hand behind her back and started giggling nervously.
"T..that's nothing, Mother."
"Let me look at it." The woman said sternly. If the girl had started
stealing, it would be the mother's responsibility to lead her back to
the
right path.
The girl reluctantly showed her mother the object in her hand.
"No! Give that back to me!" A boy, who was slightly older than
the girl, appeared. He made a dive for the object, but missed when
the mother snatched it from the girl. The boy ended up crashing into
the girl, knocking both of them over.
"Big brother Karin, would you please get off?" The girl asked while
trying to push the bigger boy off her.
"Okay, okay." The boy answered while getting up, then he remembered
his reason of being here and looked at his mother, who was looking at
him
with an amused look on her face.
"Did you make this, Karin?" The woman held the object in question
in front of her. It was a piece of paper with some scribbles on it.
"Yes, I did." The boy said, embarrassed. Apparently he was trying
to make a paper talisman to ward off evil spirits, but with the messed
up marks and ugly handwriting, the attempt was a total failure.
"I think that's cute, don't you think so, Jin Lin?" the mother
asked. The girl nodded in agreement. She turned to look at her brother,
who glared at her.
Yan Karin gave his sister an annoyed look, and sighed inwardly at the
situation. He was just trying to make a talisman on his own, and his
sister just had to appear behind him and take it away from him when he
was almost finished with it.
"Mother, would you please give it back to me?" Yan asked.
"Okay, here you go." She handed him the paper. then she added. "Now
let's eat." Yan crumbled the piece of paper in his hand and put it into
his robe.
During lunch, Jin Lin kept on stealing looks at her brother, but Yan
conveniently ignored her. Their mother either did not notice it or she
simply did not think it was important.
After he was finished, Yan excused himself and retreated back into
his room. Jin Lin's dark eyes followed him until he disappeared behind
his room door. So concentrated on her brother, the girl jumped a little
when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to look at her
mother.
"He's angry at you. Aren't you going to do something?"
Jin Lin nodded silently, then she got off her seat and walked towards
her brother's room. She felt a little uneasy with the situation, as her
brother Karin should not have gotten upset over a piece of paper.
Apparently
she was wrong and her brother did valued the 'piece of paper' a lot. She
knocked twice gently on the door, then hearing a 'come in' from her
brother,
she opened the door and walked in.
Her brother was sitting on a chair with his back turned towards her.
"Brother Karin?"
"Why did you do it?" Yan Karin asked, Jin Lin winced a little at this
"I didn't know you would get mad."
"I was trying my best to make a talisman, and you made it into a
joke." Yan said, still not turning towards his sister.
"I...I'm sorry. Brother Karin." The girl was close to tears now, her
brother had never been like this before. She used her sleeve to wipe the
moist off her eyes when she heard a sound.
Was that a laugh?
Jin Lin turned her attention back to her brother, and saw that the
boy was covering his mouth with his hands, trying futile to stop
laughing.
After realising that it was a lost battle, the boy turned and faced his
sister with a grin on his face.
"But I have to forgive my little sister, don't I?" He stood up from
his chair and gave his sister a tissue to blow her nose.
"Hey!" Jin Lin cried indignantly. Yan laughed a little and gave his
sister a light hug, who returned it with a pinch on his arm. The boy
winced
at the pain, but said nothing as he probably deserved it.
"Here, since you want this talisman so much, you can keep it." Yan
handed his sister his hand-made paper talisman.
"T-Thanks."
Jin Lin was glad that her brother was not really mad at her. Then
Yan took her hand and dragged her outside the house.
"Where are we going?" Jin Lin asked. Her brother just grinned at her
and led her into a small route, entering a forest. Finally, the two
stopped
beneath a small tree and Yan pointed at the trunk. Jin Lin leaned
closer,
and saw two names that were on it - Yan Karin and Yan Jin Lin.
"Didn't we made these five years ago?" Jin Lin asked excitedly.
"Yeah. Amazing, isn't it? The tree was only about as tall as me
back then." Yan replied.
A noise from their back caught the children's attention and they
turned abruptly. It was a wild boar, and it did not look too friendly.
"Run!" Yan cried, and they ran, with the boar in hot pursuit.
The boy noticed that the boar was gaining ground and so he reached into
his robes and threw a mass of papers in front of the boar. They were
pieces of papers on which spiritualists wrote their words to make a
talisman. Yan's papers did not have any writing on them, and so they
didn't
have any power, but it did caught the boar's attention and the children
escaped when the animal was wondering what the heck it was that had hit
it
on the face.
"Is it gone?" Jin Lin asked.
"Yeah it is." Her brother replied. "Don't worry, sister, nothing can
harm you when I am around. I will protect you." Yan held up his head
arrogantly when he said this, and dreamed himself to be some kind of
noble knight in shiny armor rescuing a damsel in distress.
His sister, however, did not like being treated like a useless child.
"Don't get cocky, Yan, you just got lucky. Besides, the paper talisman
made
by you is useless!"
"Hey! I've done it just for fun! It's not like I will become a weirdo
spiritualist when I grow up!" Yan replied hotly.
The siblings, after some intense running, arrived home panting
and laughing. The sight of the boar staring blankly at the pieces of
paper
was simply priceless. Then Jin Lin noticed something.
"Oh! I've almost forgot to take the cookies to Jia Mei!" The girl
pointed at the basket on the dinner table.
"Well, we better hurry then. Oh, wait! I can't take you there today,
Can't we go there tomorrow?"
"I can go there by myself."
"Do you know how to get there?"
"Of course! I know how to get there. Oh gosh I am suppose to let
her try my cookies in the morning!"
"Geez, she would have such a fine stomach ache after trying your
poisonous...." Yan started, earning a shove from his sister. "Okay,
okay!
Just remember not to take the small route through the forest okay? The
path through the village is longer, but it's safer.
"Okay." Jin Lin answered. But she wanted to get there as soon as
possible! She wanted Jia Mei to taste her cookies! Besides, it was not
her first time to use the small route.
"Here." Yan handed her sister the basket, then he leaded her to the
front door.
"Mother! I am going to Jia Mei's house right now." Jin Lin announced.
"Aren't your brother going to accompany you?" the mother asked, while
wiping the dinner table with a towel.
"No, I am going alone." Jin Lin said. "I've gone to her house on my
own so many times that it had become my second nature!"
"I see, don't stay too long in her house, okay?" the mother said.
"Okay." the girl said, then she walked out of the door. Yan's eyes
followed the girl until she was out of sight.
Jin Lin pulled out the talisman that his brother had given her,
and held it close to her chest while shutting her eyes. Then she put
it away and continued walking.
She stopped in front of a crossroad, and after pondering a bit,
she walked into the smaller route towards the forest.
***
Yan Karin tried to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach as he
sat on a chair trying not to cry. He had to be strong, for his mother
and sister. The sky had already turned pitch-black, but there was no
sign of his sister. Jin Lin had never returned home from her trip to
her friend's house. She had been gone for eight hours.
His mother was sitting besides the dinner table crying softly. She
had asked some of her neighbors to go to Jia Mei's house to find the
missing girl, but they have all come back without success. Yan had
reminded
them that his sister might have taken the small route through the
forest,
but no one was willing to enter the forest at night, as it was easy to
get
lost. Finally, Yan could not take it anymore. He stood up suddenly and
faced his mother with a stern expression.
"I am going into the forest." he said simply. His mother nodded
silently. Having the permission he needed, Yan got up from his chair
and walked towards the door.
"Wait, Karin."
Yan turned around and saw his mother limping towards him slowly,
all those running earlier asking for help must have been painful for
her.
His mother opened her arms and gave him a hug.
"Be careful, Karin." She whispered, while her right hand put something
under the boy's robe. Yan didn't seem to notice it, as he tried to
comfort
his mother, whom he knew was suffering greatly from the disappearance of
her daughter. "I am not able to accompany you." She pointed at her
injured
left leg.
He didn't know, however, that his mother also had heard that there
were mystical creatures lurking in the shadows in the forest at night,
and
it was very likely that she was sending her own son to his death. Yet
she
had no choice in the matter. It was either this or waiting for the news
of Jin Lin's demise. Her daughter would never survive in the forest
filled
with hostile monsters.
The mother release the boy after the hug, and Yan walked out into
the dark night without another word. It was his own journey, no one
could
help him now.
***
Jin Lin cried out in fear and ran as fast as she could through the
forest as she felt the monsters behind her catching up. She had gotten
lost in this forest after making a wrong turn. Now she was being hunted
by nightmarish creatures, and she had lost any sense of direction long
ago. There was no time to think, or to see where she was going.
Then she heard it. A seemingly insignificant rustling of the bushes
on her right crashed into her eardrums like a thunderbolt, then a pair
of
claws shot out from the bushes and made to grab for the girl. She
pulled
out the talisman that her brother had given her and threw it at the
beast,
but the paper did nothing other than blocking the monster's sight for a
second, and the the obstacle was quickly shredded into pieces by the
monster's claws. Seeing that the talisman was not working, the girl
turned
and ran, but not before one of the claws made a deep scratch on the
girl's
back, a stream of blood flying out from the wound.
Jin Lin screamed in pain as she felt something sharp slashing her
back like a katana. She fell, but picked herself up quickly and
continued
running. Tears started to blur her vision as the intense pain on her
back
was getting worse and worse in each passing second. Suddenly, something
large and solid slammed onto her side and the girl was sent sprawling
on the ground. She got up just in time to be hit on the head by a whip,
which knocked her down again. Sobbing uncontrollably, she dragged
herself
back onto her feet.
***
Where is she? Yan thought in frustration as he was running in the
forest, trying to locate his missing sister. It was all his fault. If
he had gone with his sister instead of letting her travelling by
herself,
this would not have happened. He had told her that he would protect her,
and then he just turned around and abandoned her the moment she needed
him
the most.
Then he stopped suddenly when he felt something landed on him
from above. No! He would not die now! He still needed to save his
sister!
Refusing to die, Yan punched and kicked repeatedly at the monster on him
until it leapt away from him
"Huh?" Yan was slightly puzzled as he crawled away from the monster.
He looked at the it carefully, waiting for the monster to attack.
Instead
of attacking, however, the monster leapt back into the shadows.
Was it a trick? He did not know, but he had to be more careful now.
He could not afford to be surprised like that twice.
It was then he heard a faint female scream. Was it his sister? Or did
him dream it up? He ran towards the general direction of the scream,
silently praying that his sister was still alive. A short moment later,
another scream was heard. This one was clearer and definitely belong to
Jin Lin.
"Sister!" A boy's voice cried out. It was her brother. Jin Lin
quickly wiped the tears away to see if she was hallucinating. She
was not. Her brother was running towards her.
"Brother Karin! Help!"
His sister's heart-wrenching cry broke something in him. He looked
at the crying girl running towards him, and time seemed to stop itself
as the image was burnt into his memory.
He grabbed his sister's hand as she got close and ran, half
dragging his sister along. Then he realized that something was amiss,
his sister was getting slower and slower.
"What's wrong, sister?" he asked anxiously.
"My...back." Jin Lin whispered. Yan slowed down just a bit to see
the gaping wound on his sister's back. He looked back and saw a trail of
blood.
"Sister....." Yan didn't know what to say. His sister was suffering
major blood loss, and he could not just stop and bandage the wound. Then
she saw a piece little piece of paper that got stuck in his sister's
hair.
Stilling running, he inspected the little piece of paper. It looked like
a paper talisman. Then he understood. It was the paper talisman that he
had given to his sister. It had failed to protect his sister. He had
failed
to protect her.
"Hang on, Jin Lin! We are almost out of this forest!" the boy
yelled, noticing that his sister was slowing down even more. It would
only take another ten minutes or so before they would escape from this
cursed forest. They could see the lights of the village now. They were
almost there.
Perhaps it was fate, perhaps the gods above had decided Yan Jin Lin
had to die that day, because the girl tripped on a piece of rock no
larger
than a baseball and fell, almost dragging Yan down with her.
"No!" Yan cried out. He quickly tried to drag his sister back to her
feet, but the effort yielded little success. "We are almost there! We
are
almost....."
An inhuman growl cut him off mid-sentence. Yan slowly raised his head,
fearing the worst, and saw that his sister and he were surrounded by
hideous monsters. He looked at Jin Lin, who was cuddling close to her
brother while visibly shaking in fear. Yan put an arm around her and
looked around him for any ways to escape. There were simply too many of
them, there was no opening, no escape.
"Brother, I am scared. Are we going to die?" Jin Lin whispered.
"Shhhh. Don't worry. I will protect you." Yan answered, trying to
hide the fear in his voice. Suddenly, Yan sensed something lunging for
them from behind.
"Look out!" the boy cried out, then he pushed his sister down onto
the ground and covered her with his own body. Surprisingly, the monster
halted the attack before it could harm the boy. Yan looked up, confusion
written on his face.
After a moment of silence, one of the monsters shot out a vine-like
whip, which wrapped tightly around Jin Lin's waist. Before Yan realized
what was happening, his sister was tore away from him.
"Jin Lin!!!" Yan made a dive for his sister, but missed completely
when the monster simply lifted the screaming girl off the ground just
out
of the boy's reach. Yan crashed roughly onto the ground, earning a few
cuts and bruises for his futile attempt to save his sister. He looked
up, and watched in horror as a whip wrapped around his sister's neck.
Two
more whips wrapped around her wrists while the last two wrapped around
her ankles. The girl was left hanging in the air like a fly caught in
a spider's web.
Jin Lin gave a final death-cry as the whips started to pull in
different directions. The scream echoed throughout the forest, covering
all
the other background noises, and stopping Yan's heart.
The girl was mercilessly ripped into pieces by the whips, and
Yan witnessed the sight with a haunted look in his eyes as drops of his
sister's warm blood landed on his face. The monsters gathered around the
pieces of the former girl and started feeding on them, right in front of
motionless boy. Then, as quickly as they came they retreated back into
the shadows after their feast. There was nothing left of the girl,
nothing
left to bury.
Yan sank down to his knees. He could not cry. He did not have the
energy to cry. He stared at the ground for a moment, barely noticing a
piece of paper falling out of his robe. He picked up the piece of paper
silently, and clinically noted that it was a paper talisman. Apparently
his mother had somehow put it into his robe, as he could not remember
bringing one himself. This paper talisman was the sole reason the
monster
did not kill him along with his sister.
He stared at the paper talisman for a long time, before making
a vow. He would become a spiritualist and wipe the world clean of
creatures
to avenge his sister. His infernal fire of vengeance burnt brilliantly
in
his heart, and nothing could stop him from achieving his goal.
***
"You said you've seen a monster?" A figure standing in the shadow
asked with his back turned.
"Yes! Yes! In the sewer!" A middle age man replied.
"Very well, I will destroy it." The figure in the shadow said.
"But are you sure you don't need any help? It's a......" The older
man started, but the man in shadow turned around and held up his right
hand
to signal the speaking man to stop. The figure then stepped forward into
the
light. He was a young man dressed in a chinese robe.
"I am Spiritualist Yan Karin." the young man said. "And the creature
you've seen will perish before dawn." With that Yan Karin, now in his
twenties, walked out of the room.
Yan Karin was walking in a dirt road towards sewers when he heard
a wail. He turned to the source of the sound and found a young woman
sitting
beneath a tree. The woman looked up when a shadow fell over her, and saw
a young man standing in front of her, his face covered by shadow.
"Can you help me? My leg is injured." The woman pointed at her left
leg, which was in a puddle of her own blood. When the woman noticed that
the young man infront of her was doing nothing but just standing there,
she repeated her request.
"Would you please help...." The woman was cut off when Yan suddenly
threw a paper talisman onto her, which stuck on her shoulder. There was
a blinding flash of light, and when the light faded, there was a pair or
wings on the woman's back.
"You don't need my help, butterfly, you can fly...." Yan said coldly,
then he continued. "but I will not let you live." Then he threw another
talisman on the woman's torso. There was a burst of fire and the woman
screamed. Yan looked on impassively as the fire engulfed her. Moments
later, only a burnt butterfly remained where the woman was. Then he
resumed his journey.
Finally, he came across the place where the monster was spotted. He
jumped into the water, which was blackened and dirtied by various trash
and chemicals from factories. The water was about a feet high and
totally
covered Yan's feet.
Yan ran along the water and started chanting, suddenly a monster with
scales emerged from the water, making a shallow cut on Yan's left arm in
the process because he was too close.
"I've lived here for three hundred years! Look at my eye! Look at my
body! This is the result of the pollution of water in this place by the
humans!" The creature, whose left eye was missing, bellowed.
The monster finished his speech just in time for a paper talisman to
be slapped on its forehead.
"That's why you attacked them?" Yan asked coldly.
Knowing that the spiritualist was going to doing some nasty thing to
it, the creature quickly added. "Wait! I am just scaring them....." At
this moment Yan tore a paper talisman in his hand into two. The creature
was splitted into two at the same moment.
"Don't try to persuade me. All spiritual creatures deserve to die."
Yan Karin said impassively to the corpse. "All of you are evil."
*No....Brother Karin.....you are turning into a monster....* a girl's
voice whispered in the wind, but Yan did not hear it. Instead he began
to make plans to steal the most powerful spiritual weapon - the oni no
te.
With this weapon he could finally achieve his goal of killing all
spiritual
creatures in this world and avenging his deceased sister.
All he needs is the oni no te.
*Brother......*
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Author's Notes:
Yan Karin is a character that appears in Vol. 29 of the manga
'Jigoku Sensei Nube'. This story happens before his entrance of the
manga story. In the manga, he travels to Japan and steals the oni no te
(oni hand, hand of ogre) from Nube. Nube tries to get it back of course,
as Yan starts to attacking spiritual creatures around the place, even
the good ones like the good luck spirit. Finally they have a battle and
Nube shows him that not all spirits are evil. It is his hatred-filled
heart that is evil. Then Yan goes back to China, helping people to get
rid of malevolent spirits. He is not going to be spirit-hunting happy
any more. His last quote in the manga is: "I think my deceased sister
would support me." as he becomes a good spiritualist at the end.
Send comments, flames, C&C to:
tkhm@hotmail.com
-TKHM