The CaliCatCafe is gone, but the fanfics and wonders still live on....

Mata ne,
Rob
"The Love Parade goes on,
Even when you're gone--
It'll go on forever...."
--The Dream Academy
primary: rob@yogipigs.org  secondary: mara@megami.net
AIM: Mitsukai com   ICQ: 45925353
Mitsukai! http://www.mitsukai.com
Sailor Moon AX: http://www.yogipigs.org/sailormoon-ax/ (COMING SOON)
Studio YOGIPIGS: http://www.yogipigs.org (COMING SOON)
A Long Strange Webpage: http://www.yogipigs.org/ALSW/ (COMING SOON)

Hikage
A story by Rob Barba

    It is said in the tales and myths of Japan that one should never go to a
festival alone, for demons lurk about.  It is also said that these demons
have but one wish: to capture a soul and spirit it away to the very depths
of hell, where the person will never be heard from again.  Is it a true
occurrence, or is it nothing but an ancient kaidan legend, something to
scare the children by when the moon is full?

�

    It was a sunny day in the small farm community of Miura, nestled in the
Kanto plain on the island of Honshu in the archipelagic empire known as
Japan.  The sun splashed down on vegetable fields, the nearby horse stables,
the few houses in the quiet community, and on the slightly raised concrete
roads that separated the fields of one farm estate from another.  It was a
beautiful place and centrally located; in a matter of minutes, a person
could arrive at the seaside cliffs where the westerners' black ships came
over a century past; an hour or so worth of travel in the opposite direction
would point to the hustle and bustle of the world's largest metropolis,
Tokyo.  Even ancient and venerable Fujisan, the dormant volcano was a mere
couple of hours away to the southwest.  Miura-shi, in and of itself was a
slice of heaven, a symbol of the serenity that made up the wa of Japan.
    That, however, was not on the mind of young Koketsu.  A young man at the
age of 16, he had much more imperative things on his mind than the fields
and grasslands around him.  At the moment, he rode through the backroads on
his bicycle, the wind blowing through his brown hair and the sunlight
glinting off his expressive brown eyes, the average and everyday young man
might have been just enjoying the ride.  However, one only had to look
behind him to get a clearer picture of where his mind truly was.
    "So, will you go with me to the festival tonight, Koketsu-kun?" Hikari,
seated behind him with her arms around his waist, asked.  "It's the first
time in years that they're having a festival at the old Kaihin-no-mori
temple, and from what my friends tell me, it's supposed to be the best
festival ever!"  Whether intentional or not, Hikari's joyous giggle at the
thought of going to a festival translated into her hugging herself closer to
Koketsu's back, allowing him to feel every contour of her shapely,
attractive figure.
    "Oh, I dunno, Hikari-chan," he answered in what he hoped was his best
attempt at an uninterested voice.  "Festivals aren't always as good as they
say they are.  And I was thinking that maybe we could take a train up to
Yokohama and do something there."  In truth, he had no such intention.  Like
her, he too had heard from his friends that this festival was going to be an
event to remember, and he was very interested in attending, for a number of
reasons.
    The shrine had sat in its sentinel location, in the forest overlooking
the seaside cliffs, for as long as history had been recorded.  In an area of
the seaside that was dotted with torii gates and miniatures shrines and
such, local mythology had it that the temple was one of the gateways that
kept heaven and earth separated from the nine hells.  How true that rang,
was of course the stuff of legends, but the known history of it was that
many of Japan's bloodiest battles of bygone times had occurred in the
vicinity of the temple.  With a history such as that, it was little wonder
why there were never any festivals at the old place; likely the fact that
the usually dour priests that had served there didn't do much to help
things, either.
    But all that had changed three months ago.  When the old, surly priest
had passed away, the replacement priest decided to make the place more
accessible to the public, and that almost always meant a festival; this was
no exception.  Considering the relatively isolated nature of the temple, it
would give the public a wonderful chance to see this historic landmark and
to partake in not only the fun of the festival, but the breathtaking view of
the forest that overlooked the sea escarpment.


     "Can we stop here, please?" Hikari asked, to which Koketsu willingly
complied.  As they got off the bicycle, Koketsu looked around at their
surroundings, until she pointed at the building in the distance.  The edge
of the temple could barely be seen poking out of the forest, and over the
din of the seagulls flying to and fro you could also hear the beginning of
the festivities.  From the sounds already coming from the site, it would
appear that the early word of it being the most interesting festival ever
seemed to hold fast.
    Koketsu knew that he'd attend, and that he'd escort her, with pleasure.
But it was best not to look too interested; let her think that she talked
him into it, he decided.
    The girl tugged at his sleeve.  "Koketsu-kun?  Will you *please* go with
me?"  She looked at him with her soft caramel-brown eyes, her naturally
tea-colored hair streaming down her back like an endless cascade.  To him,
she had always been the most beautiful creature he'd ever laid his eyes on;
in the time he had spent in life, he was completely sure that opinion would
never change.  He and Hikari were so balanced for each other that their
parents were considering an arranged marriage, but decided on letting them
figure out their course together.  He loved her as a friend, and since
puberty had begun to have certain sorts of dreams about her, but time would
tell if they would end up together in that fashion.
    Of course he knew that, Hikari, being a girl, could strike him at his
weakest point.  And as she favored him with her most kawaii look, he knew
that she was about to manipulate him once more, something he'd give in as he
had a few times before.   A distant part of his mind told him that there was
more to it than just that, that this girl that he'd known all his life was
beginning to love him more than just a friend, and she wanted him to know
that.  "Koketsu-kun," she said, in a soft voice, "If you do, I'll give you
something special."
    Trying to fight off a visible interest with minor success, he said with
the most disinterested voice he could muster at the moment, his attempt at
feigning disinterest flagging, "Oh, all right."  Though his face was stoic,
there was no stopping the onslaught of lecherous thoughts that raged through
the hormone-driven brain cells of the young man.
    "Arigato, Koketsu-kun."  Leaning forward, she brushed her lips against
his, the softness of her mouth like a feather against his own.  At first, it
seemed a sloppy, unpracticed attempt, but that attempt was filled with the
promise of possibly more to come, a symbol that there was someday to be a
unity between them that would last a lifetime.
    Koketsu wasn't worried about that, though.  He was just glad to be
getting a chance to be with someone that was becoming more and more
important to him as the days went by.
    Unnoticed save for the presence of the occasional seabird, the two
shared their first kiss in the solitary spread of the fields of Miura, under
the canopy of a bright blue sky and the music of workers setting up what
might be the best festival ever.

�

    Nightfall came on the town, bringing with it the music and velvety sheen
of night.  The stars glistened in the sky as glimmers in an endless pond.
The full moon hung in the sky like a festival lantern itself, the size of it
much larger than normal, as though it drew closer to the Earth in order to
see the goings-on at this time.  Though the majority of the cliffside area
and adjoining forest were drenched in the nocturne colors of the moment,
festive torches and lanterns blazed their glorious light into the air,
lining the main road towards the temple site, fiery escorts for the
festivalgoers.
    Koketsu sat on a park bench outside the grounds of the festival, waiting
for Hikari.  Having changed out of his uniform quite some time ago and
swapping it out for a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, something inside him
stirred.  Maybe it was just the feeling of the festivities--((maybe I
should've wore a yukata for the night))--or perhaps the chance to spend a
night of fun with Hikari.  It would be their first official date--sort of;
after all, she asked him out, not he, so it was more of an outing than a
date, per se.  No matter; that was all rhetoric and technicalities; call a
rose a rose and it would still smell as sweet and perfect, an ideal image
for a night such as thus.  Indeed, after looking to the plump, glowing moon
above, the young man felt that something magical was about to commence, and
the memories after this would etch themselves into his being forever.

{{Koketsu....}}

    The sound of his name was sweet, cheery, and pleasant. He turned around,
looking to see if Hikari had called him, but no one was there.  He sat back
down, thinking himself foolish for imagining that he'd been called, as no
one was there yet.

{{Koketsu-kun....}}

    This time he was sure he heard it.  Not only that, but the voice wasn't
Hikari's.  Getting off the bench, he looked around quietly, wondering who
could have called him.  A quick look in the direction of the forest
indicated nothing, and of the few people strolling in his general vicinity,
he knew none of them.  A confused look momentarily flitted across his
features.  He was sure that he heard someone, and though the voice was
female, it wasn't familiar.  Shrugging his head and chuckling, he thought to
himself, ((Man, maybe it's just nerves or something.))  Yeah, that had to be
it, he decided, just a touch of jitters.
    "There you are!" Spinning around as though he'd been attacked, Koketsu
faced the person who spoke.  "I was worried that the old wives' tales were
true!"  There, standing in a beautiful momji-printed kimono, her light brown
hair cascading down her back, giving her an angelic, ephemeral cast.  She
looked absolutely graceful in the traditional garb, and combined with the
traditional festival lamp that she was carrying on a stick, she appeared to
be very much like a woman who stepped out of ancient legends.
    Koketsu's jaw went slack, his every iota of being worshipping her
beauty.  "I...Hikari-chan...you look beautiful."
    The young woman blushed, the crimson coloring rising to her cheek.
"Thank you, Koketsu-kun.  I don't deserve such kindness."  She sighed in
contented embarrassment, though somehow he thought that she was loving the
attention.
    "But it's the truth, Hikari-chan," he answered.  "You're absolutely
gorgeous!"
    Her cheeks still flush, she merely favored him with a smile.  Moving
slightly away from him, she asked, "Shall we go?"  He in turn offered his
arm, and away the pair went, making their way to the temple grounds.
    However, one thing she said did manage to penetrate his jumble of
emotions at the moment.  "So, what did you mean by your earlier comment?
About that old myth?"
    Hikari gave a cheerful smile.  "Oh, it's just an old kaidan my
grandmother used to tell me.  She always said that you should never go to a
festival alone, because the demons will get you.  Mostly they go after young
girls, she said, but once in a while a female demon will get a young man.
Oba-sama went so far as to say that when she was my age, her best friend's
sister was taken by one, but I think she was just joking."
    Koketsu nodded, though something in the back of his head made every one
of Hikari's words stick there like a soft, cool touch.
    {{Koketsu-kun....}}
    He shivered involuntarily, as though someone had just walked over his
grave, to use the odd Western aphorism he'd heard in English class the other
day.  There was that voice at the back of his mind again, that sweet and
strange siren's voice that was clearly the product of an overactive
imagination and hearing the kaidan that Hikari had just told him.
    ((Then again,)) he admitted to himself, ((I've never heard of it
before....))

�

    For quite some time, the pair enjoyed themselves amongst the gaieties
and entertainments that the festival had to offer.  Koketsu caught a few
goldfish for Hikari, his hands skillfully using the paper net until it could
take no more.  They also shared some hot chestnuts, played a few games of
chance, and attended a few of the attractions present.  However, the largest
draw, the chance to go inside the temple itself, had been cancelled by a
visibly nervous priest, citing fears that "the old building might be too
unsafe for such large crowds as was gathered here."  That was odd in itself,
since the centuries-old temple looked like it could survive anything short
of a direct hit by a tsunami or a typhoon.
    However, that only increased Koketsu's curiosity all the more.  He
wasn't sure why.  Maybe because the temple sat there, dark and inaccessible,
a forbidden fruit that one was to look at, but not to touch.  Maybe it was
because of the history and legends that had sprung up around this secluded
temple by the sea cliffs.  Maybe it was even because of a childish boyhood
desire to go where few, if any people had ever gone.  Regardless of the
reasons, Koketsu had decided that he was determined to go into the temple,
regardless of the cost.  He might get in trouble with the priest, or worse,
the local constabulary, but this might just be a case where it was worth it.
Besides, it wasn't like he was a troublemaker or anything; he could merely
say that his curiosity got the best of him, and they'd likely believe it.
    So as the fireworks began, and the crowd began to be lulled by the
hypnotic spell of visual delight that the streams of fireflowers wove in the
nighttime air, he made his move.  Taking Hikari by the hand, he said,
"C'mon.  There's something I want to see."
    "But Koketsu-kun, the fireworks...." she protested, just as entranced as
others were with the show.  However, Koketsu continued to drag her along,
headed away from the clearing by the cliffs where everyone else was
gathered.  "Koketsu-kun, where are we going?"
    "There's something I want to show you," he said, his voice carrying an
oddly gleeful note.  "I'm sure you'll find it more interesting than the
fireworks."
    With one last, regretful look at the pyrotechnic display, she decided to
follow him as he headed towards the direction of the actual temple. Halfway
there, he stepped into the shady darkness of the forest, pausing only to
turn on the lantern that he'd carried for her during the course of their
evening together.  "C'mon, we're almost there, Hikari-chan."
    A nervous look crossed her face.  "We're going into the forest?"  When
he nodded affirmation, she decided to make her stand.  "Look, I'm not going
to go in there with you until you tell me what it is that you want to show
me!"
    An odd glint shone in his eyes.  "I'm going to show you something that
you thought you'd never see before.  I think it might be interesting,
personally."
    Her eyes opening wide with realization, a furious blush quickly spread
over her face as she retorted, "Koketsu-kun!  You know I'm *not* that kind
of girl!"
    The young man was confused by her statement for a few seconds before the
meaning of her words hit him.  Laughing at the silliness of it all, he
scratched the back of his head, blushing himself as he explained, "That's
not what I meant, Hikari-chan."
    "Oh."  The lone note carried downwards, and for a second, Koketsu
thought he could have heard just the slightest sense of disappointment in
her word.  But she perked right back up as she asked, "Okay then, so what
are we going to go see?"
    "Come with me," he said, taking her hand, "and you'll find out."


    A couple of minutes and a shortcut through the forest later, they
arrived at their destination.
    "Well, Hikari-chan, here we are."  He motioned his arms out, as if to
take in the breadth of the place.  "Isn't it a sight?"
    Hikari glanced at the large structure before her.  It sat there, dark
and foreboding, as though it was a wolf crouched and awaiting prey.  The
door gleamed with a golden sheen, inviting someone to come open up the
Pandora's box within.  All in all, what Hikari saw, she didn't like, and it
filled her with a silent dread.
    On the other hand, Koketsu saw an old wooden temple, dark in color with
some golden highlights here and there.  Nothing special, really, as far as
looks went; he'd seen much grander, not too far from here at Kamakura.  In
any case, he still yearned to go within the temple and plumb its mysteries.
    Mostly hidden by the surrounding forest, no one had bothered to venture
up here so far, and with the priest down the hill watching the fireworks
display, he figured it would be a breeze to get inside.  Emboldening
himself, he walked up to the door, Hikari nervously following behind as he
pushed the door open and entered.
    Once inside, he quickly shut the door, the light of the lantern giving
off as much illumination as it could, though it seemed that the light had
begun to fade.  Were the batteries in the lantern dying off now?
    "The batteries are starting to die out," Hikari noted, wincing at both
the pressing darkness and the fact that she used an ominous word such as
"die" to describe the flagging light.  "C'mon, Koketsu-kun.  We can come
another time."
    "No, the batteries should last long enough for us to explore this
place," he answered.  "On the outside, it didn't look much bigger than your
house, and you know that temples are simply designed, anyway.  Shouldn't
take more than five, maybe ten minutes, tops, and then we can go, okay?"
    "You promise?" she said in a voice that indicated she wasn't really
thrilled about the idea.  "I don't really think we should be here,
Koketsu-kun."
    "I promise we'll leave soon.  What's there to worry about?" he grinned,
hoping that it would make her feel more confident.  Unfortunately, the
fading light cast harsh shadows on his face, making his friendly grin appear
to be a sinister sneer, producing the opposite effect.  Hikari jumped a bit,
but remained at Koketsu's side.


    As they walked down the central hallway of the temple, Hikari asked, "So
why did you want to come in here?"  Each step they took made the floorboards
creak, but there was something about that noise that didn't seem like the
natural sound of unsettled timber.  There was a reverb to it, an echoing
tone that sounded like the chitter of insects...
    ((...or maybe the whispers of lost souls,)) she thought, her flesh
feeling the first effects of chickenskin.
    Not noticing her now-visible fear of the place, he answered in a
nonchalant tone, "Well, my grandfather once told me a tale about this place.
He said that something fearful is kept at the back of this temple.  No one's
supposed to see it, and frankly, that makes me want to see it even more!"
Stopping for a second, he moved the lantern this way and that, searching for
some sort of clue as to where the enigma might be hidden.
    However, all Hikari could see were the shadows growing every time he
moved the light from their presence.  They seemed to her a group of
predators readying for the right moment to strike.  Grabbing his arm and
pulling him closer to her for comfort--not to mention safety--she pleaded,
"Stop scaring me, Koketsu!  Let's just go now, please?"
    "Relax, Hikari--I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay?"
Turning a corner into a large empty room, he shone the lantern's fading
light against the far wall, revealing the other side.  "Hey, look.  We found
it."


    Hikari looked, and shrieked in fright before Koketsu managed to get her
calmed down.  "W-what is that thing?"
    Her companion gave it a critical eye.  "Oh, relax--it's just a wall
statue.  Don't be so afraid."  That having been said, he looked at it again.
Standing a little under five meters tall, the statue was basically a huge
slab of some sort of stone that Koketsu couldn't identify.  Carved partially
out of it in a bas-relief, was the image of an oni of some kind.  With long
hair and horns, it stood in its stone armor, holding some sort of smooth red
crystal in its hands.  The features on the creature's face were a
combination of striking and wary at the same time; while the image didn't
look to be Amatsu Mikaboshi, there was no chance of it being mistaken for an
icon of Binzuru Harada, either.
    Still, there was something compelling about the picture, and that one
thing was the shining orb in the center.  "Cool, isn't it, Hikari-chan?"
    Hikari, on the other hand, found the experience definitely unnerving.
To her, the statue seemed as though it was alive, a stone Venus flytrap
awaiting its prey to make the fatal move.  There was a vitality, a dark
vibrancy about that statue, something very cruel and inhuman and willing to
destroy everyone and thing for nothing more than its own dark pleasures.  In
the every elemental, primal part of Hikari's brain there was one single,
solitary directive: ((get the hell out of there.))  Turning on her heel and
trying to prevent every iota of her being from giving into the instinctive
flight mechanism, she whispered in a shaky voice, "T-take me home right now,
Koketsu-kun.  I want to leave, right now!"
    He didn't answer her, instead, reaching for the orb, wanting to touch
it, grab it and take it home as a souvenir of his adventure.  He had no idea
of how he was going to get it out of the slab, but that didn't matter at the
moment.
    "Koketsu!" she yelped, turning around again.  "Didn't you hear me?  I
said I wanted to go ho...."  Her words trailed off as she suddenly realized
that she was alone in the room.
    Alone with the statue.

    That suddenly seemed to be giving her a knowing, demonic grin.

    The ancient primal instinct of fear immediately kicked in as Hikari
raced out of the room as fast as she could, terror canvassing her every
footfall.  She screamed at the top of her lungs for help from Koketsu, from
anyone, all the while certain that she could feel the hands of the demon on
her back, reaching around to throttle her from behind, if she was lucky.
And if she wasn't, well, as her grandmother told her, the festival demons
spirited young women away, never to be seen again, and those demons had
powerful appetites, both hunger and in other needs.
    Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see vague, flitting shapes.
Butterflies, the souls of the dead, had come to play with her and welcome
her to join them in their eternal dance.  She would be one of them soon,
they seemed to say on the brush of their wings, and they would be glad to
have her join them, even if the reverse wasn't necessarily true.
    *"KOKETSU!!!!!!!!!  TASUKETE!!!!!!!!!"* she screamed, deathly terrified
that she would never see any living thing ever again.
    *"KOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKETTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!"*

�

    At the edge of his mind he heard his name called by someone, someone he
knew and cared about.  With a great reluctance, he turned his eyes away from
the painfully beautiful statue, to face Hikari...
    ...only to find that she was gone.
    Head whipping this way and that, he called out, "Hey, Hikari, where'd
you go?  Hikari?"  It was only then that he realized that he was completely
alone, save for the light and the demon statue.

    In which the orb had begun to pulsate with a bright, bloody red hue.  An
eerie sound began to permeate the area, a shrill, keening moan that sounded
like nothing that Koketsu had ever heard or even believed originated on
earth.  The closest possible sound was that of an ersatz cross between a
shakuhachi and a didgeridoo, but such neither instrument could ever have
produced such alien tones.
    Through all this, the orb continued to occult in sanguine shades, its
strobing beat more akin to a heart than that of a crystal.  Bringing his
hand closer to it, Koketsu could feel the warmth of an organ cascading off
it in waves.  This wasn't just some ordinary item; this thing was completely
and utterly alive.
    And he was here in front of it.  Not to mention the fact that Hikari was
gone.  Missing.
    "What the hell is going on?" he spoke aloud, his voice caught between
the emotional points of fear, curiosity, and anger.
    The answer came as silence immediately crashed down on the room; a
complete, total loss of all sound that would have been better suited to a
perfect vacuum.  But that soon subsided as a massive roar penetrated the
entirety of the room, the onrushing feel of the sound appearing to rip
through every cell in his body.  It was powerful enough to make the young
man drop to his knees, stunned by what he felt.  During this time, the
monolithic stone slab began to rumble and shake for a few seconds as the orb
exploded into an aura of energy, waves of ruby force turning the room into a
one crimson hue of doom.  Koketsu closed his eyes, the sensorial onslaught
too visceral for him to take, but the sound and vision poured in,
regardless, ripping away his hearing and scorching away his ability to see
anything other than an endless sea of red.
    When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the empty room once more.
It was far darker than it had been previously; the extinguished lantern told
the reason.  Checking the power switch, he confirmed that it was still on,
and the batteries had given up the ghost--((what an uncomfortable way to
think that,)) he admitted to himself.  However, there was still a soft light
coming into the room where it hadn't earlier, and that caught his attention.
    Looking up, he discovered that where the slab had been, was now an open
space, out of which the vermilion light poured.  The light was partially
obscured by dark clouds that flittered across the ocean of red, black mists
that partially blocked this new doorway.
    Koketsu looked at the gateway to hell, now understanding that this
wasn't just a rumor, some simple fairy tale to scare children at night.
This was truth, and the cold, hard fact was now staring him in the face.  Or
rather the lack of a cold hard fact, as the barricade--the demon wall-relief
slab--was now nowhere to be found.
    The delayed reaction of terror, having taken so long to anchor in
Koketsu's body, erupted into being.   He began to scramble backwards, eyes
darting to and fro, questing for the door and the way out of here.
Something had happened to Hikari, but no matter what, he had to tell the
priest.  If Hikari was out there and safe, great; if not, he needed help to
get her out of the predicament he'd now placed her in.  His mind now being
taken over by the gripping malaise of dread, he turned and moved to his
feet, determined to see how fast his feet could carry him out of here.


    "Wait.  Don't go."
    At those words, he halted.  That voice was hauntingly familiar, as if
he'd heard it in a dream--or just hours before, in his head.
    The voice sensed that somehow and said, "Please, won't you stay?  It
will make my job easier, and we don't have to go through the unpleasantness
of my job.  I'd prefer that, wouldn't you?"  The whole situation was odd, to
say the least: here he was, at the gateway to hell, and someone was calmly
asking him to stay.  Yet, just because the siren's voice was dulcet, there
was no way to prove the rest of the situation was.
    And yet, something inside Koketsu forced him to turn around.
    The first thing he saw, silhouetted not only by the gateway, but also by
the pair of oni-bi that seemed to ask as escorts, was a flight of
butterflies, with black and coral pink on their wings.  The flitted in
mid-air, encircling him like the aircraft that fly around Fujiyama, or
buzzards hovering over their next meal.  Just from looking, he could count
at least twelve butterflies, and they might have even looked like a
comforting site if it weren't for the legend of their post-earthly origins.
Eventually, though, they left their position above him and headed for the
original position where they came into this world, upon the shoulders of a
new figure.
    That figure walked through the gate, as though stepping free of a
vertical pool of water.  Like a shadow she came through, a darkly
featureless being that could only be discerned by the sickly pale half-light
pouring out of what might have been eyes.  Though there were not a clear
image of what that she might look like, the fact that she appeared to be no
more so far than a moving shade caught Koketsu's heart in a grip of blackest
terror and would not let go.
    Strangely enough, though, there was also something ironically comforting
in all of this.  Though the majority of Koketsu's being was caught up in the
clutches of despair, there was a part of him, a small shard that found her
inky black figure beautiful, the oddly warm gray light of her glowing eyes,
and even the ever-dulcet tones of her voice as she reached out towards him
and said, "Hello, Koketsu-kun."
    His answer was profound: "Aaa, do you mean me?"
    She giggled softly and daintily, raising her hand to cover her mouth in
a gesture of refinement.  "Of course, I meant you.  I wasn't talking to
Pierre, you know," she responded, gesturing to the largest of the
butterflies sitting on her shoulder.  "Besides, you know I meant you.  I
called to you earlier tonight, when you were still outside of the temple,
remember?"
    His eyes widened in shock.  ((So it *wasn't* a dream!))  On one hand,
that was a relief, as it meant that he hadn't been imaging things; but this
also meant that he was now in the classic "out of the frying pan, into the
fire" scenario.  "Who--*what*--are you?" the young man asked, having a
sinking feeling and a rising comfort at once, if such a paradox was possible
to explain.  "W-what are you going to do to me?"
    "Well," she answered in a thoughtful voice, "my name is Hikage, I'm a
hisa-me, and as for what I'm going to do with you...."  The rest of Hikage's
words were faded out as she mumbled the remainder.
    At her introduction, Koketsu's comfort sank even further.  She said her
name was Hikage--"shadow"--and that she was a hisa-me, a demon of the
netherworlds that was better known by the name Westerners used for their
mythological equivalents: succubi.  "What was that?"
    "Aaaaa, idontknow," she mumbled again, slightly clearer but still fairly
unintelligible.
    "Can you say that again?" he pressed, feeling oddly annoyed with a being
from hell, strong enough to probably really, really ruin his day.
    "I said, I don't know!"  Hikage's voice, despite her frustration,
sounded more like an annoyed schoolgirl than a succubus.  "Okay, so I
haven't read the manual yet!  I admit it, I'm a screw-up, are you happy?"
Taking a rather ominous step towards him, the featureless creature looked
ready to kill, the silvery light in her eyes brightening with malicious
intent.  And she seemed to him every bit to live up to what she claimed to
be, right up until the point where she tripped and performed a perfect face
plant, with the butterflies taking to the air only a split-second before she
impacted.
    The shock of Hikage's accident cleared Koketsu's mind enough to take a
few steps back, wondering how many more seconds he would live before she
dealt with him in any manner that would end with his untimely demise. So it
came to a complete surprise when the creature sorrowfully moaned, "Oh, it's
just no use," and sat up, her eyes taking on a sad glow.  "I just can't do
this...."  Hikage snapped her fingers, and shimmering sparks of silver and
ochre began to envelop the shadow being.  Koketsu was equally surprised when
the swirling, dancing riot of colors disappeared a few seconds later,
revealing a beautiful young woman, around his age.
    She turned to look at him, and he couldn't help but gaze, enraptured,
into her face.  A delicate beauty, she had short black hair that enhanced
her face.  In her incredibly cute face were two innocent brown eyes that
showed no sign of being the hellish furnaces that they'd been before.  She
wore a dark gray kimono that was decorated with black butterflies and the
same crimson trim that her pets had, but even that couldn't hide the fact
that she had a trim, cute figure.  She gazed at Koketsu and whispered, "Go."
She turn turned away from him, and started to sob.
    Strangely enough, despite the fact that this was a beast from hell
trying to drag him along with her, Koketsu found himself not wanting to
leave.  "What's wrong?"
    She looked up at him as though he'd just spoken in tongues.  Her gaze
completely confused, she said, "Go, I said!  I...won't take you down to the
underworld with me.  I'm giving up, you win, whatever you want to call it.
Just go.  You don't want to be around a failure like me, anyway."  Sobbing,
she turned away and began crying in earnest, her peals of sadness sounding,
oddly enough, more beautiful than any sound that he'd heard in quite a
while.  Was she working her magic on him?  Was this enchantment that he was
feeling due to her talents?
    He wasn't sure.  And maybe that in itself, was a clue as to how powerful
one of her kind was.

�

    Hikage was suffering the worst humiliation of her life.  She was being
rebuffed by a mortal!  Tears rolled down her cheeks, and all she wanted to
do was to crawl away, back through the dark gateway back to her home.  But
if she did that, her humiliation would be complete.  Every creature of the
nether realms, from the mononoke to the jikitori, would laugh at her
stupidity and hubris, her daring to think that she could do her job, and the
crash and burn that she would suffer instead.  And they would be right.
    After all, wasn't it her older sister Kumori that told her she wasn't
ready for an adult's task?  After all, Hikage was just a little over 6000
years old, not even an adult yet, so where did she get the idea that she was
ready to take on something as challenging and complex as a seduction
capture?  She didn't have the slightest concept of what that meant, Kumori
pointed out.  Nevertheless, Hikage knew that she was cute and that counted
for a lot.  She was absolutely sure she could do a seduction capture.  So
what if she missed a couple of classes at school that taught the technique
and she skipped the day where they tried it out in lab.  She was a smart
girl.  It shouldn't be any problem, no problem at all, if it involved a
mortal.

    Wrong.

    It turned out that was harder than it seemed.   She took one look at
that textbook Kumori had provided her with--Kami Satra, or Kama Zutura, or
something like that--and was...embarrassed by what she saw.  She was
supposed to do what?  *He was supposed to put what, WHERE?!?!?!?!*  The book
was too, too--well, Hikage wasn't sure how to describe it, but whatever it
was, it was something she didn't want to think about.  So, she thought that
simply being nice was going to make that nice mortal guy--and he was cute,
even though she would never let him do...whatever it was the book said she
should let him do--but it didn't work.  He wasn't going to give her his
soul, no matter how nice she was.  She could see that now, she'd wasted both
her time and his.  And like some others she knew, she didn't have the cruel
streak that some of her kind did to forcibly take it.
    Without his soul to claim as hers, she was a failure, total and
complete.  And all she could do was cry about her mistake.  She didn't
deserve to be a hisa-me.  She may as well have been one of those useless
bell-ringing ghosts that haunted abandoned temples or something.  She had no
value to anyone or anything, it seemed.
    So it came to her as a total surprise that she was being handed a tissue
by the mortal in question.  "Here," he said, giving her a small smile.  "I
hate to see girls cry."
    She took it, gratefully.  Wiping her eyes, she felt slightly better.
"Thank you.  You're a very kind man to be nice to someone like me."
    "Don't mention it," he said, feeling a bit uncomfortable by her praise.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, why were you crying?"
    She looked at him, her eyes red from tears.  "I don't know if I can
explain it properly.  You see, I'm not very good at what I do, and you're my
first assignment."
    Koketsu whistled in surprise.  "I'm your first?  I thought hisa-me
were...well, made for this sort of stuff, y'know?"  As he spoke the words,
two things came to mind: one, why the hell was he still here, talking to
this girl who a second ago was going to drag him down to eternal damnation?
Secondly, she was cute.  Very cute.  Maybe not as attractive as Hikari,
maybe more.  Unbidden, the strangest thing popped into his mind, a fragment
from an old movie that he and Hikari had seen a month or two ago: ((the bee,
drawn to the perfect flower.))
    "No, not really.  We have to go to school for that sort of thing.  We
learn that part of the job just before we graduate from middle school.
Normally, we have a lot of other things we have to learn before then."
Without warning, he broke into laughter, an oddly joyful sound that seemed
to warm her otherworldly heart. However, why had he laughed?  She didn't say
anything particularly amusing...
    Somehow, he caught onto that and clarified.  "I have to admit, I never
thought I'd hear a demoness say that.  You guys have to go to school to
learn how to...?"
    She blushed furiously, and it seemed to make her all the more attractive
for it.  "Um, well, yeah.  But to be honest, I sorta skipped out on class
the day they were teaching...well, you know."  She buried her face in her
hands, a massive blush enveloping her.  "To be honest," she admitted, "I
don't like the idea, once I got the chance to really read up about it."
    "Is that normal?  I mean, you are a hisa-me, right?" Koketsu asked.
"Isn't your life supposed to revolve around that sort of thing?"
    "I guess.  I don't know.  I'm only 6342 years old--not old enough, or so
some people think.  But I told them I could do it, and if I didn't, I'd be
the laughing stock of the netherworld."  She gazed at him with sad eyes, as
she breathed the words that he somehow knew she would say: "And it looks
like they were right."
    "I don't understand," he admitted.
    When he said that, the gloomy look on her face seemed as though her
heart would break; a part of him thought that his might as well, to see the
pain that she was going through at the moment.  She sat there, silent for a
couple of minutes, watching as her butterfly familiars left her shoulder and
began to perform aerobatics in the air, trying to cheer their mistress up.
Finally, after torturous minutes, she whispered, "I'm a failure.  In a
little while, I'm going to have to go back home through the hellgate, and
tell my family the truth: that I couldn't take your soul."  She gave him a
sort of soft, cute smile and added, "Besides, you've been nice to me when I
don't deserve it.  I couldn't take your soul now.  It feels...too bright for
me to take.  It wouldn't be proper."
    "Bright?" he asked, unsure of what that meant.
    "Yes, bright," she replied.
    Bidding one of her butterfly familiars to land on top of his head,
Koketsu began to glow with a faint white light, almost the same color as her
eyes had been when he'd seen her initially.  The shimmering light seemed to
come from within, and to be honest, it was rather disorienting for him to be
looking at her through the aura, as though he was staring through a veil of
lapping milk.  A second later, she recalled the butterfly to her side and
the glimmer disappeared.
    "Ano..." she said, the question present on her lips, "there's something
really odd about your soul.  Do you have an ancestor of supernatural power
or something?"  Without waiting for an answer, she snapped her fingers and
before her appeared a rather large, dusty, ancient scroll.  There was
writing on the outer sheath, and from what he could tell, it bore the odd
inscription, HIKAGE'S LAPTOP.
    While he was looking at the writing, she'd unscrolled the parchment, a
bit, turned it on its side, then began to move her fingers across one
portion of it.  It seemed rather odd, until the sounds of keys being tapped
flitted back to the boy.  Paying no attention to him, Hikage continued to
look at another part of the scroll, the "screen" feeding her information.
    Or rather, not.  "Weird."  Closing her laptop, she banished it to
wherever it came from and announced, "Y'know, Koketsu, I think I made a
mistake.  A big one, too."
    "How?" he asked.  He was beginning to feel a bit dense for what she was
talking about.  Granted, he shouldn't have any cause or reason to have an
idea of what she meant, but the whole situation felt like the one time a
nuclear physicist was lecturing at school.  That event had left him
completely bewildered and with a headache, despite the scientist's attempts
to simplify his lectures; somehow, he had the feeling this was going to end
up the same way.
    "According to my readings, you're--and I wouldn't believe it if the
computer hadn't confirmed it--way...aaa, that is, your soul is too...bright.
Too pure, I guess you could say."
    "Me?  Too pure?"  He took that comment with a jaundiced eye.
Admittedly, he wasn't a furyoshonen or anything like that, and if he'd even
thought of it Hikari would likely straighten him out in an instant; but he
didn't see himself likely to become the next Buddha, either.  He imagined it
was something like getting into a good school after taking the test--anyone
who told you might be telling the truth, but it wasn't really believable
until you laid your eyes on the results.
    "Wrong analogy, gomen.  A better way to explain would be...how would I
say it...ah, I've got it!"  There was a cheerful sparkle in her eyes for a
second that reminded him of Hikari, somehow.  "The hisa-me find their
assignments by searching for the reiki of a person, the soul of everybody
who lives.  Once a person's soul gets to a certain...level, I guess you
could say, that person is marked for acquisition.  But your soul seems to
have, aaa, 'flared' as of recent.  It's a little stronger than it should
be--no, I take that back, it's a lot stronger than the information I had at
the beginning."
    "So, let me see if I understand what you're saying: this whole business
is like looking for a particular battery, like an R6, or something, only to
find an R20, right?"
    "No, it's more like searching for an R6, and finding out that it's a car
battery, instead."  There was an odd look on her face, one akin to respect,
maybe?  "That's why I can't take you.  You're too bright for what I can
handle.  But, that also means that because you're my assignment, by our,
aaa, 'hunting' rules, no one is allowed to take you except for me.  And it
could be years before I get strong enough to be able to take you."
    "So, basically, you can't touch me?" Koketsu asked once more,
nonplussed.  This was really, really odd, but he was correct in one thing:
that confusion-born headache was certainly kicking in.
    Hikage could only nod sheepishly, her cheeks burning red from what was
probably shame, embarrassment, and loss of wa.
    Somehow, this much Koketsu understood.  Her nature aside, she was a nice
enough girl, and to grasp more than you could handle was a common human
failing--and apparently, not exclusively a human one, either.  Besides, he
couldn't stand to see a girl cry.  ((Guess I should try to cheer her up a
little.))  Standing up a bit to stretch, he helped her to her feet
afterwards and said, "Look, Hikage-o-hisa-me...."
    "Just Hikage," she corrected.  "After this, I'll never earn the proper
title of hisa-me.  I'll probably end up as a nodera-bo, assigned to some
lonely abandoned temple in the north."
    "Well, for what it's worth, Hikage, if all hisa-me were as nice as you
are, I wouldn't mind giving you my soul, if you could handle it, of course.
You might not be a traditional member of your clan, but you do have, aaa,
spirit?--yeah, that's the best word to describe it.  You've got your heart
in the right place, and you're doing your best, and that's what counts in
the end."
    Her cheeks flushed once more.  "You do me more honor than I deserve,
Koketsu-kun.  You know, it's a shame I wasn't born a mortal--it would be
nice to have a friend like you."  A spirit of a different sort moved within
her, and leaning up on her tiptoes, she planted a soft, chaste kiss on his
cheek.  "Well, I'd better get going.  The sooner I confess to everyone, the
sooner I'll get it over and done."
    He nodded in agreement, slightly reluctant to see her go.  At first part
of him felt that she might have woven a spell over him regardless; either
that, or he was feeling those typical male urges that could be rather
embarrassing in a time like this, despite what Hikage's "profession" was.
He did find her attractive, but also he found her quite friendly, and he
found himself admitting that what she said was true, that it would be nice
to have a friend like her.  Assuming that Hikari would understand that
Hikage was just a friend, admittedly: his would-be girlfriend did tend to
have a slight jealous streak at times.


    It was a shame that he couldn't hear her thoughts as she could his; he
would have found them very, very interesting.  ((Why is he being so nice to
me?  Not only was I going to take his soul, but I've proven myself to be a
screw-up, right in front of him!  But he's still being nice to me, what did
I do to deserve that?))  All she could do was gaze at the boy who she had
once been her potential victim, a boy she was letting go even though she
knew that she would suffer for it.  And yet, it felt so right.  And yet, it
felt so wrong.  She didn't want to let him go, though she wasn't sure why.
    The two stayed like this for quite some time, just looking at one
another, unsure of what to say.  Both would have stayed like this for an
extended period of time if the sound not entirely unlike onrushing air
seemed to pass right by them.  Coming to a normal presence of mind, Hikage
noticed that her butterflies were now moving in circular patterns around the
pair, acting as sentries of sorts.  But they wouldn't have had to do that
unless....
    The sound of rushing air came through again, and at once Hikage knew
that her familiars had been correct to assume a battle formation.
"Uh-oh..." she moaned involuntarily.  She turned and looked at the gate.
    The still open gate.
    The breeze that was blowing in from the gate was in fact the mostly
shielded gales of hell, far stronger on the other side, but reduced to a
pittance on this end.  But that was immaterial; though the mystic winds
couldn't get through the breached barrier, other demons could.  And even she
had to admit, not all of them weren't as good-natured as she was.
    "Uh-oh?" Koketsu inquired.  In the second had occurred, he watched as
Hikage's mood changed from very adorable and cuddly to very worried and
concerned.  She'd also turned away from him and was looking at the gate.
((That doesn't exactly make me feel real comfortable,)) he mused.
    Unaware that she was being watched, she focused her attention on the
barrier, and the sounds that she could hear coming from the other side.
Taking the time to remember which gate this was, a bad feeling passed over
her as she realized the gatekeeper, the demon usually ensorcelled by mortal
exorcists to keep the gates sealed, wasn't present.  "Koketsu-kun," she
said, forcing and not entirely succeeding in keeping her voice calm, "What
happened to the gate that used to be here?"
    "I don't know," he answered, beginning to feel uncomfortable about her
actions.  "There was a red orb embedded in the stone, you see, and well, it
happened to fast, and for a second, it looked like the statue was looking at
me, and...why do you want to know?"
    ((Red orb?  A soultaker stone?  I don't like the sound of that....))
"Koketsu-kun, did the statue have horns or anything like that?"
    "Now that you mention it, yeah, it did.  It also had samurai armor,
too."
    ((Kusottare!))  Hikage turned around and there was no hiding the
nervousness she felt as she said, "Koketsu-kun, you have to get out of here
now.  You have to get out of here before he gets here!"
    "Ah, Hikage, who's 'he'?"
    "Something that you, as a mortal, *can't* fight.  *I'm* not strong to
deal with him," she commented, "but I'll buy you the time to get out of
here.  You know the way you came in, go!  Please!"  She brought her hands in
front of her and between them a glowing, rippling sphere of soft crimson
energies coalesced and came into being.


    {{OH, HOW CUTE.  LOOK WHAT I'VE FOUND.}}  The rumbling of steps came
from behind them and the pair turned around, both feeling a little queasy.
For Koketsu, the voice was the culmination of a thousand nightmares, the
deep death knell of something that told him that he was on the edge of the
end of his life.  For Hikage, the voice was unpleasantly familiar, and
something that she didn't want to deal with under normal circumstances;
certainly not now.
    Under her breath, she spoke a single name, spitting the name out like
the foul curse that it was.  "Great.  A kisei-denma.  Probably Komibo, with
my luck...."  She turned to look in the direction of the oncoming figure,
and sure enough from the outline, she was likely right.
    "K-Komibo?" Koketsu asked, not familiar with the name--and not entirely
sure that he should be, considering the circumstances.
    "It's not his real name," Hikage explained, waiting for the newcomer to
come closer.  "Actually no one knows what his real name is.  What is known
is that others call him 'Komibo'--'Little Amatsu Mikaboshi' because he
thinks he's such a badass.  In reality, he's just a typical kisei-denma."
That was an understatement, she admitted to herself; the kisei-denma were
nothing to trifle with, normally.
    On cue, the demon arrived, and it turned out to be the mirror image of
the one that had been guarding the gate at the beginning.  Looking all too
real, now, he stood at its full height, his black lacquered samurai's armor
being a perfect complement for reddish skin and snow-white hair.  Staring at
Koketsu with eyes of pure hatred, the creature gave a demonic grin once
more, that rictus now even more dangerous.  Nestled underneath a black
helmet, two burning embers of cold yellow burned, dying lights that seemed
to foretell Koketsu's fate.  Without speaking, Komibo addressed the boy in a
scornful, derisive tone: {{LITTLE BOY, YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOUR
ELDERS WHEN THEY SAID NEVER TO COME HERE.  AND NOW YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR
FOLLY WITH YOUR LIFE!}}
    Koketsu looked up into the hellborn face of Komibo, watching sections of
his life fast forward in front of him.  "Aaaa, couldn't we just, aaaaa, play
shogi or something?  My doctor said I'm not supposed to do anything physical
right now, especially the sort of thing that would get me killed!"
    At his side, less frightened, but no less aware of the danger, Hikage
retorted, "I guess I should point out that that's not going to help you
right now.  He's a demon of death--once one sees you, they won't stop until
they kill you.  He usually doesn't kill any of the yomijin, but every once
in a while he does.  And he *always* kills mortals."
    "So you mean he's going to try to kill you, too?" Koketsu squeaked.
    She gave him a helpless look.  "Well, yeah.  It makes it easier for the
hunting laws to be changed if the original hunter, shall we say, no longer
exists to contest any violations."
    "And you're *okay* with this?"
    "Are you kidding?  Of course not, baka!  *RUN!!!!!*"
    In front of them, a towering, imposing and lethal-looking Komibo took
the blood-red orb that he had earlier, placing it in-between his palms.
Like a blob from a science fiction movie, the sphere began to stretch and
elongate; changing shape and dimensions, becoming more metallic.  Within
seconds, the crystal had transfigured into a massive sword, the edge of the
demonic tachi glistening with a dangerous sheen.
    "You could have told me this earlier!" Koketsu yelped, unsure of what to
do in the situation.  He'd been in a couple of fights in his time, but that
was just with the occasional school bully, not a bloodthirsty creature from
hell wielding a four-and-a-half meter sword.
    *"What did you think 'You have to get out of here before he gets here'
means?  It wasn't an invitation to stick around and redecorate the room, you
know!"* she shouted.  "It's too late to run.  *Now* we're going to have to
beat him if we want to survive!"  Before she could explain, though, she
shouted, *"LOOK OUT!!!!"*
    {{DIE, PUNY INSECTS!!!!!}}  Raising his sword over his head, Komibo
brought it down with an air-splitting crash, the blade slicing through the
wooden floor, turning it into so much splinters and aged lacquer flakes.
Laughing all the while with a dark chortle, the kisei-denma raised his blade
once more, sideswiping it, cutting through one of the temple's support poles
in the process.  While the rest of the column toppled, the ceiling sagged,
spewing centuries of dust on both Koketsu and Hikage.
    Having been targets twice already, and now sure that they'd both been
targeted for death by Komibo, the young man didn't waste time at all: he
grabbed Hikage's hand and began running as fast as possible.  However in
doing so, the action inadvertently loosed her spell, the spirit ball
careening wildly out of control and crashing into one of the temple's
treasures. At one time it had been a slab of rock that had sat by the wall,
carved with ancient writing on it; the minute the blast smashed into it, all
that was left of the stone tablet were thousands of microscopic shards.
Hikage only had enough time to say, "Ooops," as the pair of them raced
around the corner, with Komibo shortly following behind.
    As they ran, Koketsu snarled back, "So explain: what did you mean we
have to beat him?!?!"
    "It's like I said," she gasped.  "He's a death demon, and he'll hunt you
for the rest of your life, if you don't beat him!  The fact that I had claim
on your soul first is irrelevant to his sort, and now he thinks I'm just
omake for his trouble!"
    "But I'm your assignment, right?  Why is he hunting both of us?"
    "Weren't you listening?  He's probably hunting you because of your
bright soul.  He's hunting me because I'm hunting you--how does the old
saying go?  'Issekinicho'?  The only way we're going to be able to stop him
is to either destroy him, or to force him back into the gate and seal it!"
    "Um, I think he was the seal, originally," Koketsu confessed.
    "Then we're going to have to beat him together and find a way to seal
the gate otherwise.  We have to," she pointed out while they continued to
barrel their way through the cavernous temple, which had somehow managed to
become far, far more immense than he had remembered it being at the outset
of this nightmarish misadventure.  "It's out only chance!"
    "Okay, you've got magic and those familiars of yours.  How am I going to
beat him?"
    Her lips pursed in a rather cute pout of thought.  "I don't know," she
conceded, "but we'll think of something.  If I'm not going to take your
soul, then it shouldn't be fair to allow him to do so.  We'll get past this,
I promise you."
    "Easy for you to say; you're used to this!"

�

    The action between the trio continued for quite some time, the three
canvassing the oversized dimension of the temple in their battle for
survival.  During the conflict, Hikage determined that the expanded size of
the temple was due to some sort of magic failsafe, a secondary prison meant
to keep escaping demons bottled in until an exorcist could come to dispose
of the problem.  Unfortunately for them, "bottled in" meant that no one was
getting out, until the exorcist arrived on scene.  And to be honest, there
was no way to tell if one knew about what was going on, much less coming to
the rescue.  And so the steeplechase continued, with no visible end in
sight...
    ...until they ran into a dead end room, near the third floor of the
temple (which was unusual, since by all indications on the exterior, the
temple had been a one-floor building).   Although the room had two doors at
one time, one of them had been nailed shut and spell-warded for some reason
that neither of them knew.  Apparently now used as storage, the span of the
room was filled with relics and artifacts of an age long gone by, stuffed
nearly to the rafters with armor, swords, and other items that one would
usually not correlate with a house of worship.  But right now, it was the
best place to hide until they could think of something.  Diving behind the
largest pile that they could find, the two tried to shrink into the dark
corners as much as possible, alternately gasping for air and desperately
trying to stay quiet to avoid detection by the juggernautine force that was
Komibo.
    "How...much longer...is that guy...going to follow...us?" Koketsu
managed to sputter between gasps.  After running for his and Hikage's life
for what felt like hours, he was flagging in his strength and resolve, every
part in him hurting.  And, it seemed, the worst pain was that somehow he
knew that the creature called Komibo was merely playing with them, as a cat
would with its prey only to end the sport when it found the game no longer
interesting.
    ((Is that all I am to these people?  Just a game, a mere sport?)) he
wondered, the very concept disturbing him to the core.  Then it occurred to
him: if it was just a game, why was Hikage still here?   Couldn't she have
just washed her hands of the whole thing?  She could have left long before
the kisei-denma had gotten here.  She didn't have to put herself in harm's
way, so what was she still doing here?
    Unaware of his thoughts, even though they both knew she could read them,
she gasped, "He's going to...follow you until...he catches you.  The
kisei...denma are like what you...would call...bullies."  She gulped down a
breath of fresh air before finishing with, "You have to beat them at their
own game to get them to quit it.  The kisei-denma tend to be bossy in my
plane of the jigoku a lot, at least until someone cuts one down to size."
She sighed.  "But they're so dense, half the time they think they're the
only demons around, and we hisa-me just mortals like you."
    "I don't understand what you mean."  ((What does this have to do with
any of this?)) he wondered.
    "Hisa-me are what we are, because we're part mortal, too.  I'm sure
you've heard the kaidan about festival demons and all that.  Well, it's
true.  My great-grandmother was a mortal, one of the first to be taken down
to the underworld.  So to a degree, I'm as mortal as you are, capable of
friendship, happiness, sadness, love, and all that comes with.  But
nevermind me.  I'm just rambling."
    Koketsu nodded in understanding.  Some people dealt with fear in
different ways, why should demons be any different?  Of course, had he been
asked this question earlier in the day, he would have laughed at the very
reality of demons, instead of wishing that he wasn't being claimed by one
and both of them pursued by another.
    "Maybe if Kumori or some others from my clan were around, we'd stand a
better chance of beating Komibo.  But they're not around, so I guess we're
not likely to get any help.  I'd probably die of embarrassment if my sister
had to save me, anyway."  Looking around, she didn't see her butterflies,
and a wistful look crossed her face.  "I hope Pierre and the gang are safe.
They're more than just pets, they're my friends, too."
    "But aren't they just butterflies?  Just pets?"
    "No, they're a lot smarter than that."  For a brief second, there was a
smile and a note of pride on her face.  "Pierre and his group were given to
me by my mother, and they've been with me since I was a child.  They're not
as strong as my mother's or my sister's familiars, but I think I got the
smartest of the three groups."
    "Shhhh, here he comes!"


     Plodding along as though he was on a merry jaunt, the demon Komibo
didn't even bother to hide his presence.  He knew that he would certainly
kill his opponents; he may as well have them cower in fear, first, as fresh
souls tasted so much better that way.  Even better, it appeared that the
girl was a magic user--there weren't many of them left on the mortal plane
anymore, and to take her soul would only add to his power and prestige.
    For a slight minute, Komibo thought that she might be one of those silly
little women that thought themselves demons...what was their names?
Hisa...hisa-me, that was it--but laughed off that thought when he found out
how weak and useless she was.  A real hisa-me would have stood her ground to
defend her quarry, not acting like some simpering mortal girl.  She might
wield magic, but in comparison to a hisa-me, this girl was nothing, less
than nothing even.
    In any case, both of them, with the boy's unusually potent soul, and the
girl's magic skills, would be his, a worthy endeavor of this hunt, and one
that would make him very powerful amongst his clan.  Maybe then they
wouldn't even call him by that silly name "Komibo", and his true, fearsome
name would shake all beings to their core.
    All the world would tremble at the name "Panjii".
    {{COME OUT, CHILDREN, OR I WILL MAKE YOUR DEATHS AS PAINFUL AS
POSSIBLE!!!  COME TO THINK OF IT,}} Komibo's voice boomed, {{I WILL MAKE
YOUR DEATHS PAINFUL ANYWAYS, SO JUST KEEP HIDING, I'LL GET TO YOU SOON
ENOUGH!}}  The last, he punctuated with a booming, dark laugh that made the
very walls themselves seem to shiver with fear.
    A torturous second later, Komibo stepped into the room, his murderous
tachi held at the ready and with the intent of spitting two on its lengthy
blade, to take two lives and take the souls of the damned victims as his
own.


    For Hikage, that wasn't something that she could live with.  In the
albeit short time she'd spent with Koketsu, there was something special
about him, something that she couldn't put her finger on, nor could she
chalk up to the fact that he had a bright soul.  By all indications, yes, he
was an average mortal, with nothing that no other of his kind couldn't had
offered her, had she chosen one of them vice him.  But that was before she'd
seen his potential...and before she'd made a friend.
    In truth, the situation was rather new to her.  The fact was, she
considered Pierre and his fellow butterfly familiars her friends, because to
be honest, she really didn't have any.  She was the younger sister of the
great Kumori, a legend amongst hisa-me.  And what was Hikage?  A girl who
couldn't even get her classes right in school.  Kumori was celebrated,
idolized, a legend amongst her kind; Hikage had no other choice but to live
in her sister's shadow--an irony, considering that both of their names meant
that.  But being a shadow also meant that she wasn't noticed, and so that
was a truth: in a society where friends were rare and rivalries common, she
had neither.
    At least, not until Koketsu.  He'd been so kind to her, when in reality,
most people would likely have run in terror from a demon, or would have
wanted to do what that book said, when they found out she was a hisa-me.
But he did neither.  Was it because she didn't want to?  Or because he
didn't want to?  It didn't seem so important now in the grand scheme, for it
appeared somewhere along the line that her worldview changed.  She had
something that was different than her friendship with her familiars.  She
had someone who could be a friend, a peer of sorts--if she discounted the
fact that he was a mortal--and she felt that she liked the feeling, very
much.
    Of course, there were a few details that she hadn't told him.  One, she
had hunting rights on him, which meant that she was supposed to capture his
soul, or cut him loose.  Then, there was the fact that he was more powerful
a soul than she was ready for--this was something that was in Kumori's
ballpark, not hers.  Finally, she could get in trouble for just neglecting
an assignment.  If her family found out, she would be in trouble.  Very big
trouble, the kind that might just be worse than having a kisei-denma on her
tail.  Was she willing to risk all of that, over some mortal?
    No, not a mortal, not just a mortal.  A friend, yes--maybe her only
friend, if he would have her as one.  If he would, then she would take that
risk.  Besides, she'd already decided that she couldn't take his soul--no
one had a right to a soul as bright as his was.  And if she couldn't take
it, Komibo had no right to it either, nor for that matter, hers.
    But even a decision like that opened up new problems.  Koketsu was,
despite his bright soul, a mortal.  Only one of demon birth, or the rare
trained mortal, could defeat someone of a kisei-denma's stature.  Koketsu,
barring some unforeseen discovery, fit into neither of those profiles.  Only
one person stood even a remote chance of saving them, and that someone was
Hikage.  And as Komibo stomped into the room, she realized there was no more
time to think about it.
    Hikage, the would-be hisa-me that had once decided to take the soul of
the young man named Koketsu, would now fight to save it, even if it meant
her death.  She would fight to help a friend, even if she didn't know if he
counted her as one.  Rushing out to meet her foe, she called up a spell of
magic in her hands and snarled in as forceful a voice as she could muster,
*"You can't have him!"*
    Racing from her hiding spot, she bolted for the far end of the room and
towards the blocked door.  It was a ruse, and a stupid one at that, but it
was one that she hoped the kisei-denma was too dense to see through.  One
good thing about the death-demons was that for the most part, they were all
talk and action, with nothing in the way of substance.  Hikage had seen
Kumori defeat one by outsmarting him; even though she knew her limits, she
also was aware of theirs.
    ((One of these hulking brutes shouldn't be too hard to beat.  If I can
get him to bump into the wards, that should be enough to drop him.  I
hope.))

�

    Komibo laughed at the mortal's pitiful attempt at misdirection.  Did she
think him so dense as to not see the wards?  How could one not see them?
They were obvious in their power, a glowing neon sign warning spirits away.
{{LITTLE GIRL, YOUR ATTEMPT TO TRICK ME WILL ONLY END IN FOLLY,}} Komibo
said before going into a derisive, booming laugh.  {{SOON I WILL KILL YOU,
THEN THE OTHER WILL JOIN YOU IN THE PAINFUL PLEASURES OF THE DEATH I BRING
TO YOU.}}
    Her answer to that was a desperate ball of magic at him, which missed by
a wide margin, the missile blowing through a sidewall, leaving a smoking
hole and charred wood in its wake.
    In turn, Komibo thrust his tachi towards her.  The blade exploded into a
snarl of serrated bands, all stretching for her like a pack of voracious
wolves.  Tired as she was, there was no way Hikage could avoid the assault.
The sawtoothed tentacles slammed into her with enough force to send her
flying into the wall with a painful-sounding crunch, even as they worked
their way around her.  Sadly, she crashed into the wards, and the jolt of
mystic energy tore into her, making her scream with sudden shock and pain,
dropping her defenses and allowing the cords to bind her further.  Within
seconds, she was firmly caught in the iron grasp of the ribbons, her clothes
and skin being shredded off her body as rivers of red began to make their
way down her sides.  Screaming in agony, the pain was too unbearable,
nothing that she'd ever felt before in her existence.
    Hikage looked at her opponent, gleefully laughing at her as he began to
pull her towards him.  Despite her frantic efforts, she was still being
dragged to Komibo's side and the bands continued to tighten as she
struggled, carving that much more skin away, biting more into her flesh.
Her body growing weak from blood loss and pain, her mind barely able to get
above the red haze of miasma that she suffered, she knew that her life was
soon to end.  She had failed in her first assignment, and not only had she
lost her honor and potential title, but now she would lose her life as well.
    ((I only wish that I could have died successful,)) she mused, ((and
that....))  A tear, likely the last one she would ever shed, was the sole
punctuation and ending to a sentence that, in its incompleteness, seemed to
perfectly echo the unfulfilled promise and the eminent failure of her
existence.  ((I guess I'll never know if a mortal can have a demon for a
friend.
    ((Sayonara, Koketsu-kun....))

�

    ((No, no, no, no, *NO!!!!!!!*)) Koketsu screamed within in the confines
of his mind, gnashing his teeth in order to prevent himself from making that
loud thought into loud words.  ((What is she doing?  Why, Hikage, Why?))
    ((Because she's trying to protect you,)) another part of his conscience
answered in challenge.  ((Because she believes that you're something that
you may not be.  And if a demon can change her mind and protect you against
your own kind, what exactly are you that can cause such a catalysm?))
    ((But it's not like I owe her anything, right?)) he reasoned.  ((After
all, it wasn't that long ago that she was the one hunting me.))  But even
then she knew what the answer would be as his conscious responded with, ((It
was also just now that she began risking her life to protect you.  What does
that tell you?))
    Koketsu heard Hikage's scream and ventured a peek over the crate at what
was happening.  What he saw chilled his heart to the marrow.  Hikage was
being dragged, struggling yet inevitably failing, towards the massive
kisei-denma.  He'd apparently turned his orb-sword into some sort of odd
cat-o'-nine-tails, and was using it to snare the hisa-me.  He also got a
look at Hikage, and discovered that the lashes of the whip had razor edges,
those bladelets boring off her clothing and slicing jagged slashes across
her skin.
    From what remained of her clothing, he could also determine that Hikage,
and likely others of her particular calling, were more than capable of
performing the jobs demanded by the role of a hisa-me.  Very capable indeed.
So much of her kimono had been torn off, it was more a case of what it
didn't cover than what it did, and what it no longer covered very much
indicated that Hikage was a beautiful young woman in every physical aspect
of the word.  Feeling a stirring that he usually associated with certain
magazines, he tamped it down; this was not the time to think hentai.
    And in any case, that pretty young woman would likely be an unpretty
lifeless corpse if he didn't think of something, and soon.  But what could
he do?  The creature they were fighting was a relentless juggernaut of a
monster, giving no quarter and taking no rest until it completed its quest
to slake its thirst on their souls.  It didn't matter that Koketsu was
branded as "special" by Hikage, or that the girl herself was a fellow demon;
the beast she'd called Komibo wanted them both very much dead on the most
base, primal, and elemental level there was.  And it looked like if Koketsu
didn't do something, that would happen to the young demoness.  But how was
he supposed to rescue her, much less defeat a creature such as this?
    ((What do I do now?  This isn't the movies, where some sort of deus ex
machina appears, a mystical sword that can save us all.))


    And that's when he heard it.  Or rather, he didn't.
    The room had gone deathly silent, everything stilled to nothingness as
the whole filled with a blackness so deep that he felt that it would crush
him in an instant.  He could see nothing around him, a huge, vast space that
appeared from nowhere, or he'd been sent to in less than the blink of an
eye--whatever the case, his surroundings had changed, and somehow he'd lost
the ability to see or hear anything around him.
    A mote of light flickered into being in front of him, shortly followed
by a second, then another, and another.  Within a couple of minutes,
handfuls of sparkles danced and swirled around, a Lilliputian version of a
galaxy.  Immediately after, all of space in its deepest glory erupted around
Koketsu, and the boy went agape in trying to comprehend what had just
happened to him.  He didn't know a single thing about astronomy, but he
somehow got the distinct feeling that he was very, very far from home.
    His attention was drawn to the galaxy, as shapes seemed to crawl into
being, a brighter set of objects overlaid on top of the swirling cosmic disc
at his waistline.  And those bright, ephemeral shapes turned into words, the
meaning of which was cryptic, at best:

AMEFUTTEJIKATAMARU.
THIS IS UNDERSTANDING.

    Oddly enough, Koketsu could feel the presence of the words, as if
someone was standing next to him.  It didn't feel like the touch of the
kami, or anything so poetic or overdramatic; rather, it was like old friend,
or a comforting person standing aside and ready to help, even if he wasn't
sure exactly what that help meant.
    As he continued to scan the words, hoping for some understanding, the
stars stretched into lines, becoming a cacophony of light and sound, far too
visceral for the young man as the sensoria continued to pummel him.  He
dropped to his knees in complete shock, closing his eyes in a desperate
attempt to ward away the chaos.


    And when he opened them, he found himself right back where he was, still
staring over the box, still watching Hikage in mortal danger, and with the
brute that would murder her dragging her along as if she were a child's
plaything.  The situation hadn't changed; there was nothing he could do.
    Or so went the conventional wisdom.  The truth of course tended to lean
towards a far clearer axiom, "Even the little things can mean a lot."
    Pausing only to grab a broken plank of wood, Koketsu leapt away from his
bolt-hole, dashing towards Hikage and shouting, "No, Hikage, don't give up!
You can't give up!"

�

    Through the nearly-encompassing fog of pain that enshrouded her mind,
heart, and soul, the would-be hisa-me looked towards the direction where she
heard her name.  And what she saw filled her heart with both an
indescribable joy and a terrifying fear.  "Koketsu-kun!"
    One other noticed the young man's charge as well.  {{SO THE LITTLE MOUSE
HAS RETURNED TO HELP HIS PLAYMATE.  TOO BAD YOU HAVEN'T REALIZED YOU CANNOT
ESCAPE FROM ME.}}  Komibo laughed once more with satisfaction; he was now to
get two birds with one stone.  {{COME, COME LITTLE MOUSE AND PREPARE FOR THE
SWEET STING OF THE CAT'S CLAWS.}}
    Forcing himself to ignore the kisei-denma, ran to Hikage's side.
Sticking the wood between her and the bladed lashes, he desperately tried to
pry the cutting lines off her.  Putting all his strength into it, he grunted
through clenched teeth, "I'm going to get you out of here, and then we're
going to get away!  Just don't give up on me; I need you to stand with me
here and now!"
    "No, run away, far away!" she pleaded, tears rolling down her cheeks as
she looked at him.  "Save your life and your soul!  I'm lost--there is no
hope for me," she sobbed.  "Please go, before it's too late for you, too."
    *"NO!!!"* he barked, with enough ferocity that it took both of them
aback.  "I'm not going to give up, and neither should you!"
    "But I have nothing worthwhile, save to sacrifice myself to save your
soul," she responded in a tone that indicated that she intended to die.
    "Yes you do!  You have my soul!  Didn't you say that as a hisa-me, you
were supposed to take my soul?  You can have it, if we get out of here!
Just, don't give up on me!"
    "But I can't take it!" she moaned.  "I'm not strong enough!"
    "But if you don't, then he'll kill both of us!  This is gonna sound
crazy, but I trust you farther than I can throw him!"
    A tear streamed down Hikage's cheek again, but there was something
different about it.  The tear was somehow brighter, as if it had been not a
drop of water, but a glimmer of hope.  "You can't mean that, can you?"
    "Which part of 'take it!" did you not understand?" he challenged.

    {{PLAYTIME IS OVER, CHILDREN!!!!!}} Komibo boomed, as his sword-whip
grew another set of nine-tails.  With a slight flick of the wrist, the new
lashes raced out like hunters, striking Koketsu and enveloping him in their
folds.  The impact was fierce enough to make him cough up blood as he was
caught in the binding, lacerating grip of the tails.

    *"KOKETSU-KUN!"* she screamed, *"NNOOOOOOO!!!"*  Despite her own pain
and desire for it to all end, she managed to look at him one last time.
"Did you mean what you said?"  His only response was to offer his hand, whic
h she desperately reached out to grab.  With only a couple of meters
separating them from Komibo, she took his hand and whispered the ancient
ritual that would declare her ownership of his soul.  Technically, they
should have immediately consummated the pact, but beggars couldn't be
choosers, and even if she wanted to (which she didn't), performing whatever
contortionist stunts that were in that book was going to be a bit difficult
at the moment.
    As they were dragged within striking range, Komibo unsheathed a dagger
the length of a normal tachi and snarled, {{DIE AND I SHALL CLAIM YOUR SOULS
FOR NOW AND EVER!}}  With a fierce strike, the kisei-denma slammed the blade
downwards, intending to impale both his victims at once.
    Hikage completed her whispering and gave Koketsu a beatific, ironically
angelic smile.  Closing her eyes and putting her hands together, she began
to focus what power she had left into a final spell.  She would free them,
or she would die with her friend.  At least, that's what she expected.  What
she didn't expect was Koketsu suddenly flaring like a roman candle.
    As for Koketsu, he felt something in him heat up, then pop like a
bubble.  He turned to ask her something, but couldn't see anything as his
aura grew brighter and brighter.
    Reality vanished into a world of white.


    At first the light was even more stunning than the cosmic cacophony that
he'd endured, although it was just as incomprehensible.  He blinked once.
Twice.  And found that he was suddenly able to endure it.  Just like that.
A slight distance from him, he could see two figures.  The first, a large
massive shape retreating from him, sparks of bluish-white boiling away from
him like the aftereffects of a large, gaping wound.  Within moments, it was
gone, and he knew that the demon named Komibo would never hasten to bother
him again.
    Once he was gone, he looked at the other dark shape.  She stood,
completely void of clothing, the ragged streamers of her ruined kimono
fluttering away into a breeze that wasn't there, escorted by her butterfly
familiars as she had been in the beginning.  Nothing was revealed, however,
as she stood in her original demonic form, nothing but a black inky shape
and those piercing, telling eyes.  But now, where those eyes had been cold
and demonic at first, there was no way to miss the warmth and affection
contained in them.
    Hikage walked up to Koketsu, and though he couldn't see a mouth, he
somehow knew she was smiling.  Without saying a word, she told him, {{It's
time for me to go, Koketsu-kun.  I....}}  The hisa-me paused in thought,
reluctant to say something, maybe even reluctant to leave.  {{Take care of
yourself, ne?}}  She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, her lips
unnaturally cool, seeming to suck the heat from that part of his face.  She
stepped away from him, and with the warmth in her eyes, she whispered,
{{Mata ne, Koketsu-kun, I hope we'll meet again.}}  Turning away from him,
Hikage walked in the same direction as Komibo had gone.
    As she faded into the distance, he called out a question that he had to
ask, the one that was central to everything.  "Hikage, do you have my soul
with you?"
    A pause for a second, then: {{How could I take the soul of my friend?}}
Before he could ask further, she was gone.  There was the sound of a great
stone being moved into place, and Koketsu knew the gate to hell was closed
once more, not to be opened again for another generation, or so he hoped.  A
brief flicker of blood red and gray--the stone image of Komibo being slid
into place again--confirmed it.
    Words echoed in his head, strong enough to make him shut his eyes in
surprise:

AMEFUTTEJIKATAMARU.
THIS IS UNDERSTANDING.

    When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting outside of the temple,
looking at the ancient structure.  It was daylight, probably noon.  He
blinked his eyes in surprise, both at the fact that he'd been in there for
that long--it had only felt like three or four hours, not like the sixteen
or so that it seemed.  Picking himself off the ground, he looked around and
noticed that the festival had been packed up already and had gone.  That was
no surprise, temple festivals weren't known for extravagant displays and
such.
    He looked back at the temple once more and wondered if everything that
happened to him really happened.  A part of him wanted to go inside and find
out if it was true, if Komibo still served as the barrier to hell, and if
somewhere there was Hikage.  But there was no way of knowing.  The temple
seemed foreboding now, as if it was saying, you have already learned what
you came here for.  And whether it was true or not, he certainly couldn't
argue with what the edifice was hinting at.
    ((Besides, Hikari's going to be worried about me.  I hope she made it
home okay.  And I'll bet my parents'll be wondering why I skipped school
today, too.))  Those thoughts were common to him as he headed down the
walkway, to the roadside, and on the way home.  It was going to be a long
walk, but it would be worth it--it would give him enough time to think of a
valid reason for all this weirdness; he certainly couldn't tell them
something that he wasn't sure happened.


    A quarter-kilometer or so down the road, a familiar-looking bicycle was
coming, the rider even more familiar.  Seeing her, Koketsu began to wave his
hands, calling out Hikari's name.  A couple of meters later, she saw him,
and stopped, crashing the bike.  Struggling to her feet, she stared at him,
her eyes wide open in shock.  "K-K-Koketsu?"
    "Oi, Hikari-chan," he said, before realizing something was wrong.  ((Aw
man, she's probably pissed at me.))  "Aaa, look, I'm sorry that I dragged
you into the temple and--ooof!"  The air was knocked out of him as she
tackled him with a sobbing, shaking hug.  "Hikari-chan?  What's gotten into
you?"
    Tears were rolling down her cheeks.  "Koketsu!  Oh, it really is you, it
really is!"  She wept openly, tears staining his torn and ragged shirt.
"I'm so, so sorry, Koketsu!  I won't leave you again, I promise I won't if
it's really you...."  The whole situation was bizarre, to say the least.
Normally composed and happy Hikari was on the edge of hysterics, acting as
though he was dead or something.  "Don't leave me again, don't leave me.  I
don't want to lose you to the demons again...."  She looked up at him with a
gaze that contained fear, relief, and possessiveness.  She ran a hand down
the side of his cheek, whispering, "I nearly lost you forever, Koketsu-kun,
forever!"
    As much as he appreciated the affection, things were a little too weird
for his tastes.  Moving her hand gently, he said in as gentle a voice as he
could muster, "Hikari-chan?  What's gotten into you?  We were only split up
for a bit, but I'm fine.  Really, I am."
    "The legend's true," she sobbed, "and I almost cost you your life!  I
*did* cost you a lot!  How can you ever forgive me?"  She glomped him,
putting her head against his chest and began to cry uncontrollably once
more.
    "Hikari, I'm fine.  Look!  Yes, the rumor's true, but I made it out
alive."  ((Thanks to Hikage,)) he added mentally.  "See?  I'm no worse for
wear than when we got separated last night."
    "Last night?"  Hikari looked up at him and there was terror in her eyes.
"Koketsu-kun, you haven't been gone for a night--you've been gone for six
weeks!"

�

    It had been a very long day, one overly long one indeed, Koketsu mused
the following morning.  Although he understood their concern and fears, was
there really a need to go *this* much overboard in regards to his safety?
There had been all the surprise and shock--to himself, included--that he'd
been gone so long.  There had been his reunion with his parents, his
bewilderment at the time that had been lost, even though they couldn't
believe their eyes.  There was the immediate questioning by police officers,
with a follow-up to occur after school today.  There was the checkup with
the doctors, who declared that other than the dozen bruises and lacerations
he had, he was in perfectly normal conditions.  By the time evening rolled
around, he'd gotten quite sick of all the attention.
    But the lone interesting one was the temple priest, who had come down to
check on his spiritual situation--he had been involved with demons, after
all, or so the report went (though no one really believed it, that was the
story that both Koketsu and Hikari had given, and as unreal as it was, there
was no reason to believe they were lying).  When inspecting him, there was
the first negative signs of the truth--the priest had explained, after
revealing it through some spiritual means, that "he was now marked by a
demon", the mark being a very small, dark mark that looked oddly like kanji
that read HIKAGE.  Koketsu knew how that got there, since it was in the same
place where the hisa-me had kissed him, but while it didn't bother him, it
was of grave concern to everyone else, who feared possession of Koketsu's
life.  But upon a deeper inspection, the priest was no longer concerned;
indeed, he started laughing in a sort of relief and amusement.  The young
man, despite his encounter with not one but two demons, not only still had
his soul, but had come out of the whole ordeal spiritually stronger than
anyone, the priest included, could have expected.
    Announcing that Koketsu was in no danger at all, the priest ensured
Koketsu's parents that nothing was to come of the mark save that it would
likely be there all his life, a supernatural tattoo as a reminder of the
whole incident.  But just before he departed, the Shinto priest took Koketsu
aside and explained, "I hope you've learned your lesson, young man.  But I
would think that after this, your bright soul has a most unusual ally.  And
remember the old adage is also a curse: may you live in interesting times."
    Something about that answer upset Koketsu.  Angry, he snarled, "Okay, so
where were you when I was fighting for my life in there?"
    The priest eyed him carefully, then gave him a stare that demanded
silence.  Still giving him the flat stare, the priest answered, "Why, young
man, no one was in danger, can't you see that?"
    "What do you mean, 'No one was in danger'?"  Koketsu was livid.  Aside
from the fact that he and Hikage had been running for their lives, what if
the demons had gotten free?  What would have happened to Hikari?  To his
parents, friends and others?  Why didn't the priests do anything about it?
    As if reading his mind, the priest continued.  "Young man, the temple
has been the sentinel against the gate of hell for time beyond time.  Don't
you think that generations of priests would have been prepared for the
chance of the gate opening?  The minute the barrier was breached,
spell-wards on the hill, carved into rocks on the pathway, stepping stones,
and even the holy symbols on the trees, created a barrier--a pocket
dimension, of sorts--to deal with the immediate problem.  Nothing was going
to get in, nothing was going to get out.
    "And as for the demon, well, you and your young lady seemed to have done
quite well for yourselves.  After all, you are still standing there with
your soul intact, are you not?"
    "But how did we win?  Does it have something to do with me?  I have to
know!"
    "I imagine that you'll find the answers to your questions, if you know
where to look.  I also imagine that those answers will come sooner than you
may like them to."  With that, he departed, leaving the young man with far
more questions than he had answers.
    But the most unusual thing that had occurred was the change in Hikari.
When he left, she was a cheerful and easygoing girl, if a bit coy.  Now,
since his return, something fundamental had changed in her.  She refused to
allow anyone close to him, a burning determination to protect him, even
though likely it would be the other way around.  She went so far as to even
sleep outside his door the night of his return; his parents and hers thought
that it was another sign that the two would eventually wed in a day to come.
Even now, she was still serving as his sentinel, warding away some of the
other students who had dozens of questions for the previously missing boy.
Likely he'd give them a couple of answers, but not right now.  Especially
with the fierce looks that Hikari was giving all the other students.
    He felt deeply ashamed for offering his soul to another girl, but Hikari
had explained that she understood, that under the circumstances, he did what
he had to do, especially when faced with a demon that frightening and bold.
He also felt bad about not telling her everything about Hikage, but he was
afraid she wouldn't understand.  He trusted Hikari completely, but he also
knew that people believed what they wanted to believe.  He could have
described Hikage in perfect detail, and all the others would have pictured
in their mind was a female version of Komibo, in heat and willing to take
his soul in exchange for a mindless fling.  In the end, he realized Hikage
wasn't that kind of girl, and to describe her and have them understand that
she was a hisa-me would be awkward at best, a discredit to her at worst.  So
in the end, he felt that silence was the best course.
    It was the least he could do for his friend.


    Fortunately, the teacher took the time to walk into the classroom,
calling everything to a halt.  "Look, I understand that you have questions
for young Koketsu-san, but there's a time and a place for it, and that's
certainly not here and now.  Now class, please take your seats."  The class
did as bidden, the thirty or so students sliding as one into their chairs,
though a few of them began to scribble notes that they would pass during the
course of the class--something else that he expected.
    Seemingly unaware of the notes, the teacher continued.  "First of all, I
would like to welcome back Koketsu after his ordeal.  Regardless of what the
origin of his disappearance was, he has been through a trying time, and I'm
sure he's more than happy to get back to a normal life.  Please bear this in
mind."  Apparently the teacher, noticing Koketsu's discomfort at all the
attention, mentioned that as well to help.  But, there was a look in his eye
that indicated that he wasn't done with his opening words.  Motioning to the
door, he added, "Class, we also have a new student here, as well.  I'd like
you all to meet Miss Aino Hikage."


    It was *her*.  Koketsu couldn't believe his eyes.  There, standing in
the indigo blue fuku that was the school's uniform, was Hikage, a being who
shouldn't be on this plane.  She raised her hand and waved, taking the time
to utter a shy "Hello."  In doing so, she captured a dozen of the boys'
hearts and earned jealous stares from the girls in the class.  To say that
she was going to be the most popular girl in the class, if not the school,
was an understatement.  To also say that she did that intentionally was a
gross overstatement of her abilities, if she hadn't changed since yesterday.
    While the whole of the room stared at her, Koketsu looked at her as
well, his face impassive.
    {{I missed you, Koketsu-kun,}} her voice said in his mind.  To everyone
else, though she said nothing, merely taking the lone empty seat in the
class, conveniently located right next to him.  On the outside, she gave him
a soft smile that hinted that she was calm and eager to experience what was
a new world for her.  Inside, she was trembling.  She wasn't sure how he
felt.  She could read his mind if she wanted, but that wouldn't be fair to
him--he was her friend, not her claim, not to her, anyway.
    But did the same ring true in reverse?  She didn't know how he would
react, and she felt that her heart would break.  Why should he be glad to
see her at all?  Likely, she was associated with the biggest nightmare of
his life, and her reappearance could be a hint that it was beginning all
over again.  Even if he did sort of like her, her presence could be a danger
to him and everyone around, and there was nothing to like about that.  If
she had been paying attention, she would have noticed the oddity of it all:
a failed hisa-me in front of the person whose soul she held claim on, and
she was hoping that he would accept her?
    Her fears were allayed a second later as a cheerful grin crossed his
face.  He *was* glad to see her again!


    Koketsu felt his soul brighten within, though one part of him seemed
warmer than the rest; the mark she left on him seemed to glow with an
incandescence that only he could see.  It had finally come to him when he
saw her again.  She was his friend, someone who he'd stood with at the gate
of hell and escaped relatively unscathed.  They both owed each other their
lives, and in leaving his soul right where it belonged, she'd stated that
she cared more for the promise of friendship than the power it could have
brought her.  Admittedly, she herself said she had no way of getting his
soul, but it was the thought that counted, didn't it?
    As she sat down, the first of a hundred questions came to his lips.
"Hikage-chan?  What are you doing here?"
    Embarrassment adorned her features.  "I, aaa, sorta got punished by my
mother for failing in my first assignment and for angering a kisei-denma in
the process.  I'm not allowed to go home until I get your soul," she
admitted.  "But I like it where it is.  As long as I have a claim on it, no
one else can take it."
    "What about Komibo?  *He* didn't seem to think so."
    Hikage rolled her eyes.  "He's a kisei-denma.  You know they run low on
brain cells.  Besides, you beat him, so he won't ever bother you again.  By
the way, how *did* you beat him?  What you did--I've never seen anything
like it before."


    Hikari spoke up before he could answer with an "I don't know": "*You*
seem to be overly friendly with Koketsu-kun here.  I'd caution you to stay
away.  He's taken!"
    "By whom?" Hikage inquired.
    The other girl thrust a thumb in her direction.  "By me.  Now leave him
alone and go flirt with someone else."
    "Hikari-chan," Koketsu said, trying to interrupt but to no avail.  Both
girls had already fixated on each other as potential rivals and targets.
    "I'm not flirting.  I don't have to.  Koketsu-kun's soul belongs to me.
I marked him, I'll have you know," Hikage announced in what sounded a bit
imperiously.
    Hikari's eyes narrowed, marveled at the nerve of the new girl.  "So you
think you're Koketsu's girlfriend or something?  And what do you mean,
marked him?"
    "Girlfriend?  Me?"  Hikage's cheeks flushed red.  "Well, I'm a girl and
I'm his friend, so yes I am.  And if you'll look at the mark on his cheek,
it says my name.  So there."
    "You expect me to believe that just because he has a mark on his cheek
that looks like the kanji for your name that I'm supposed to believe you put
it there?  Cute joke, but I know better."  Hikari's voice was incredulous;
this new girl had more batsu than brains, that was for sure.  Plus, demons
were nasty and rapacious things; she could see the very image of that Shadow
hisa-me that Koketsu-had been talking about, and it certainly didn't fit
this slip of a girl!  "Listen, Aino-san, Koketsu and I have been together
since childhood.  If there's anyone here who has him body and soul, it's
*me*!"
    Hikage's response was a knowing grin, as though she held a trump card
that Hikari couldn't possibly know about.  And truth be told, she likely
did.  "We'll see," was all she said.
    Looking at the dark stares the two girls were giving each other, Koketsu
groaned.  Bad enough that everyone wanted to bug him about what was going
on, but now he had not only a supernatural problem to deal with and two
girls fighting over him as well!  Maybe other guys would jump at the chance
to have such an event occur to him, but Koketsu had seen enough movies,
anime and manga to know better.  Despite the fact that in those cases
situations got blown out of proportion, it was appearing to be highly
accurate in his case.  And that case, simply stated, was: the more was by no
means merrier, and three was going to make for a very uncomfortable crowd,
indeed.
    As the two spent the whole of the class continuing to give the other
dark stares, Koketsu was reminded of the mysterious apocrypha he'd heard
during his adventure, and the advice the priest gave him:

"AMEFUTTEJIKATAMARU.
THIS IS UNDERSTANDING."

"Remember the old adage is also a curse: may you live in interesting times."

    ((Somehow, I think I'm in *real* trouble,)) Koketsu groaned inwardly.
And he thought the day before was a trial....  ((Well, at least that demon
Komibo won't bother me again.  Now, how to deal with these two?))

�

    Somewhere on another plane, a kisei-denma sneezed.  Thinking dark
thoughts towards kids with unexplained powers, he wrapped his bruised arm.
Those two, whoever they were, were certainly not normal mortals.  In fact,
if it wasn't for the fact that they looked surprised, he would have thought
them to be of the spirit world.
    ((So what did they hit me with?)) he wondered.  Whatever it was, it hurt
like there was no tomorrow, and he had to use a lot of bandages to fix his
arm.  Bad enough that he'd been wounded in battle against creatures that
should by all rights have no way of hurting him, but the humiliation of
being beaten by mortals was barely tolerable.  Even now, his name was spoken
with contempt by his fellow kisei-denma, more of them now calling him by
that awful, spiteful "Komibo" label vice his true name.
    But he wasn't like the other disgraced ones of his kind.  Those usually
gave up and ended-up as nodera-bo.  But not he.  No, he wasn't going to cave
in.  He was going to find another way out of here, and when he did, he would
hunt down those two mortals and show them who was boss.  He was a
kisei-denma, and his destiny--and the right to display his proper
name--would not be abrogated.  No, in the end he would have their souls....


Yugoshu (Glossary):

Aaa - cultural equivalent of the English terms, "Um, "Er", "Uh", etc.
Amatsu Mikaboshi - Roughly, the Shinto kami of evil.  A sort of analog of
Satan, though not exactly like the Judeo-Islamic-Christian concept.
Amefuttejikatamaru - "Adversity builds character."
Binzuru Harada - In Japanese mythology, the assistant to the Buddha,
destined to wander the world and help others as penance for his failings.
He was denied death and nirvana because he strayed from the righteous path.
Furyoshonen - Juvenile delinquent.
Hisa-me - Traditionally, the demonesses of the underworld.   In the old
times they were portrayed simply as female demons, though recent fiction in
Japan casts them more in the light of the Western succubi.
Issekinicho - "Killing two birds with one stone."
Kisei-denma - The Japanese demons of death.  There are many equivalents for
them in the Western world, so I won't really bother to give an example, save
to say that the more gruesome the method of death, the more powerful
spiritually the Kisei-denma is.
Koketsu - This character's name has two meanings, both of which are apt for
the character, I guess.  One reading can be "nobility", while the other can
be "constantly in the jaws of danger."
Nodera-bo - Legend has it that these spirits haunt abandoned temples,
ringing the bells mournfully.  For the most part harmless, the bell-ringing
of the spirits are more of an annoyance than the actual beings themselves.
Panjii - Pansy (as in the flower).
R6 - Common type of dry-cell battery, known in North America as the "AA"
(double-A-size).
R20 - Common type of dry-cell battery, known in North America as the "D"
(D-size).
Tachi - Japanese longsword of a greater length than a katana and thus worn
differently.

Hyochu (Author's Notes):

Well, my first original story in what seems like forever, at least about a
year.  I've written meta-fiction (what we in the anime fanfic world mislabel
"original fanfics") before, but it was more for a personal exercise, or for
classes; certainly not with the intent to "publish" it in the fanfic world.
Regardless, this is a necessary step for me, one that I'm taking in various
degrees as I evolve in my writing style and the subjects at hand.

I'd really like to thank everyone who preread it for me, especially my usual
erstwhile diligent (more like bloodthirsty  ^_^;;;) prereader Matthew
Campbell, who as usual took my request to "tear the hell out of the fic" to
heart.  If any of you heard any tortured screams of agony lately, that's not
the sounds of hell--that's merely Matt reading through my latest fic. ^_-

Does anyone want to see a Hikage II?  If so, let me know!  I'd certainly
like to work with these characters again, and I do have ideas for a few more
stories....

Ja mata,
--Rob
00May31




-- 
                 .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List---.
                 | Administrators - ffml-admins@fanfic.com |
                 | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@fanfic.com |
                 |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject    |
                 `---http://www.fanfic.com/FFML-FAQ.txt ---'