Unseen Shadows
Part 1
By Sarah Rose and Ben Loh
Email: [email protected]
There is a world that is not our own. It exists in the divisions between seconds, and in the breath of shades. It is a world where we are the hunted. What we know of it has been lost to legend to all, save those who live the nightmare, save those who fight this world, for those who have surrendered to it have died in namelessness�
There is a legend from ancient Japan that a thousand years before the Meiji era, when demons freely roamed the night; there was a terrible beast that devoured human flesh with relish. This monster decimated entire villages, so insatiable was its appetite. When all attempts to fight, reason with, or appease this monster had failed and all hope seemed to be lost, a warrior appeared, brandishing a katana and a battle-worn spear of great proportions. Challenging the monster, on the hill overlooking the village, the warrior took up arms against the great evil stalking the land.
For days the sound of their battle rang out through the hills and valleys. The villagers, cowering in fear, heard the sound of steel clashing against claw. It seemed the very elements themselves took part in the battle. On the third day, the warrior�s katana snapped, but it is said that he gripped the spear in both hands and redoubled his efforts, ignoring the grievous wounds that he had received. Calling upon the power hidden within the spear, for it was an artifact of great mystical potential, the warrior plunged it deep into the monster�s shoulder, pinning it to a huge boulder.
Yet the monster did not die. For many days after, it struggled, pinned to its prison of stone. When it had lost all strength, the villagers erected a temple on the site, using the great rock as a foundation. The warrior and his descendents were charged with forever guarding the beast within. To this day, therefore, stands a temple on the hill overlooking this village, which has been inhabited by a family of monks for longer than the memory of still-living humans can recall.
Present day Japan. A country of towering monoliths, monuments to the rapid progress made in the past 40 years. Down below, at street level, humans walk among the shadows never pausing to consider what else might inhabit the dark. Night falls quickly in a place like this, where people fail to notice what goes on around them, concerned only with the hubbub of their own daily lives. The sun sets, and the mayflies close their wings, passing on to eternal rest. Yet there are things which do not sleep. There are things that prey during the night.
Limping, stumbling, and eventually falling, the old man pushed a trashcan out of his way as he got up, strewing the contents like so much offal. He was panting. Gripping his cane as hard as he could, he made his way down the alleyway, all the while looking behind him, as if he expected fate to suddenly stare him in the face. He had the look of the hunted, the look of a deer before, the moment before an arrow pierces its heart. The look of a tiger, the instant before a spear runs it through. He moved with the desperate speed of one determined to survive. His escape was cut off in a dead end. Near-soundless footsteps informed him that two assailants chased him. Two assassins who wanted to cut off the thread of his existence. He was trapped, or was he?
With blinding speed, speed certainly not within the realm of possibilities for an old man, he scaled the wall. Palms adhering to the surface of the wall, he made his way up the side of the building, impossibly agility. From the ledge of the rooftop, he peered down into the unlit alleyway. He could see no one.
The clouds parted and the full, bright moon dispelled all penumbrae, casting shadow only where there was substance. The new illumination revealed, to his distress, a shadow creeping over his own. Stricken, the old man turned around slowly. The moonlight left little room for doubt; a nightmare stood before him. The proportions of the monster were almost alien to human conception. It stood fully two and a half times taller than a normal man. But there, all possible comparison with normalcy ceased.
Two eyes, the yellow of shattered glass, gleamed in the darkness. Claws the size of ice picks were balled in fists and bright blue streams of electric currents ran the length of the monster�s arms, sparking in the cold, night air. Drawing its lips back in a snarl, to reveal teeth sharper than the most seasoned of katanas, the monster spoke.
"So you�re what Ushio sent me after. Trust him to give me all the dirty work. But then� you aren�t just an old man are you? These humans are weak; none of them could have gotten up the wall like that. So what are you, monster?"
The old man kept up his façade for but a moment longer. Pretending to move backward in fear, he gained purchase against the ledge on the building. Pushing off, the old man launched himself with unbelievable speed at the strange monster. To the human eye, it would have been impossible to discern what had occurred. The two beings seemed to wink out of existence. In truth, the speed at which they were moving was phenomenal. An observer would only have seen the old man reappear in the center of the roof, with the monster a few feet behind him. A few drops of black blood dripped to the floor from a gash in the monster�s side.
"Heh� finally revealing your true power. I guess I shouldn�t hold back as well�" the monster growled, "DIE!"
Brilliant blue electricity ripped through the space between the two, filling the air with the acrid scent of ozone. The elderly man, sensing imminent doom, closed his eyes, frowning with concentration, only to suddenly disappear, leaving the brilliant, arc of blue energy to strike the point where once he stood. Two blocks away, on the rooftop of a tenement, the old man materialized, charred from the lightning he had just barely avoided. Not stopping even to examine his wounds, the creature inhabiting the form of an old man turned to escape. He got about two steps before coming up against an immovable barrier. One which had been absent, a moment before.
Though the cold steel of the spear was marred by a myriad of dents and gashes, it still had the look and unmistakable feel of a thing that had shed blood in rivers. The blood of others. The creature in the form of an old man knew this for a certainty, because the blade had passed by his face, a mere inch away, before it suddenly embedded itself in the rooftop in front of him. Looking up, past the intricately carved handle, which was longer than he was tall, the old man saw, balanced on one sneaker-clad foot atop the spear, a youth whose face was too young for the scars it bore. The child wore a trench coat, and though his eyes were human, they seemed to glow with internal fire. His hair however, set him apart from normal children. It was a long, flowing, raven-black mane, with a length that easily equaled the boy�s height. The wind picked it up, blowing it off to one side as the youth spoke.
"You have killed, I sense the blood on you." He said with certainty. "Monster, three people lie dead because of you. The wife, son and daughter of this old man whose form you inhabit."
For the first time the old man didn�t look frightened.
"Th� they were��hahaha! Only�w�waiting for me t�to die� so they Heh, c� could take�take� my money! The�they� deserved� to die� a�all� of� them. N� now� you�w�want to..k�kill me? I�t�think� you�ll have�t�to�go join them then!"
Stepping back, the creature exploded out of the old man. The wrinkled face lengthened and grew fangs. Four hairy appendages burst from the torso while black hair sprouted everywhere, forming a layer of thick bristles. The old man was no more, and what remained was a mockery of the human form. An insect with a humanoid face. Rushing at the youth with the speed evidenced earlier, the insect-creature extended two of its front legs, revealing in place of hands or feet, sharp blades. In a swiping motion meant to disembowel, the creature slashed up and in. His claws found no substance, though.
Leaping in a graceful summersault the boy extended his right hand and commanded, "Beast Spear! To Me!" There was a low humming noise, more felt than heard, and the spear, previously embedded in the ground rose up in the air, straight into the boy�s hand. Thrusting straight at the insect-creature, he managed to bury the spear deep into its right shoulder. Then a curious thing happened, where the spear struck. The flesh of the insect-like creature disintegrated, as if the process of decay was increased a thousandfold. The creature screeched in agony as the spear found its mark. However, just as it seemed that the child had won, the insect-creature opened its mouth, spewing out a rope of black silk, which wrapped around the handle of the spear and the boy�s hands. Reeling the struggling child in like a fish on a hook, the spider-creature looked at him, malicious glee and triumph glinting in each of the thing�s eight eyes.
"Boy," it said in a surprisingly deep and resonant voice, which dripped with mockery and contempt, "you cannot kill me with that toy. I am SHINMA!" with that, he gripped the spear and extended one hairy appendage, kicking the youth in the abdomen, tossing him away and smashing him into one of the roof�s raised ledges. Holding the spear, the insect-creature laughed horribly. "First I am going to kill you, and then that lackey monster of yo�."
The spider creature was unable to finish his statement, for out of the night sky a voice roared, "I AM NOT HIS LACKEY!" Fire leapt from the mouth of the enraged monster, engulfing the insect creature until it could do nothing more than scream its pain, writhing in the flames.
The youth looks relieved and sighed, "Tora, you idiot, what took you so long?"
Unknown to the young man and his strange companion, their actions did not unobserved that night. In the distance, on top of the gateway arch of a temple, stood two figures. The taller of the two was robed and masked. The shorter was a young schoolgirl with long hair twisted off to one side, and wound about with a ribbon. She had odd, golden eyes. On her shoulder sat a creature, which at first glance resembled a rabbit, until an observer noticed the hideous, oversized, evil eye, revealed by its upswept ear.
"Interesting," the girl said softly, in a calm voice. "Human, but not quite, and not Shinma, either. Larva?"
"They are like nothing I have seen," said the robed figure, after a momentary pause. His voice was unobscured by the mask he wore. "The creature with him seems very like a Shinma. Perhaps he is a construct, as Lillith proved to be. I cannot tell from this distance."
"Shiina," the girl asked, directing her question to the rabbit-like creature on her shoulder. "What do you see?"
Widening it's evil eye further, the tiny Shinma responded in a strangely childlike voice, saying, "Not Shinma, not a construct. Hnnn. It glows with energy, like a human."
With any hint of puzzlement washing from her face, the girl said, "It is none of our concern. Let's go home." With that, she turned, stepping off from the temple arch, and vanished from sight, as if she had become invisible.
The robed figure paused for a moment before following her, musing, "Not a Shinma, and yet capable of killing one. This could bode ill for the future." Suddenly turning, as if he heard someone calling him, the robed figure faded from sight.
"Hey, Miyu, wait up!" The shout came from behind her, as a smiling girl with honey-colored brown hair ran to catch up with Miyu at the school gates. "Remember, you said you�d come hang out with us today." Losing her smile at the blank look on Miyu�s face, the girl asked, "What�s wrong?"
Focusing her eyes on the girl, for the first time, Miyu gave a faint smile, "It�s nothing." Quickly changing the subject, she continued, "Where are Yukari and Hisaye?"
"They�re going to meet us at the bus stop. We decided you have to come with us today. You looked so gloomy in class. If we let you go off by yourself when you�re in this kind of mood, what kind of friends would we be?"
"We decided, Chisato?" asked an ironic voice from behind Miyu.
Grinning, unabashed, "So it was mostly my idea, but what are best friends for. Right Miyu?" Chisato pulled a silver charm out of her pocket, briefly, winking.
Miyu�s smile grew a bit warmer, as she pulled out an identical charm for a moment, before pocketing it again.
"Well, let�s go, everyone," declared the taller of the two girls standing behind Miyu. So saying, Yukari tossed her short, blue-black hair out of her eyes, and turned, walking towards the bus stop.
Hisaye, the shorter of the two, who had brown hair, and glasses, nodded to Miyu with a smile. "Cheer up, Yamoto-san. All your being gloomy and morbid does is upset Chisato." A giggle came from the aforementioned girl as Hisaye followed Yukari towards the bus stop.
"Come on," said Chisato, grabbing a startled Miyu by the hand, and dragging her after the other two girls, "We�ll cheer you up yet."
Chisato didn�t see the smile on Miyu�s face, nor did she hear the whisper that accompanied it. "Friends. So this is what friends do."
"You know Ushio, you've gotten really useless lately... what with me having to kill all these monsters for you, heh heh." growled Tora with what would have been a grin had he been human, but in his case it was better described as a way of showing all 150 razor sharp teeth at once, "I betcha what with that stick of yours sucking your soul out... you're real weak aren't you, and if you can't figh..."
Tora's speculation ended with a loud "Thud!" as Ushio, turned around and twirling the beast spear, hit Tora square between the eyes. Tora cringed in pain. "I CAN STILL FIGHT AND DON"T YOU FORGET IT!" shouted Ushio.
Passersby on the sidewalk who were looking in their direction would chance to see a kid waving a long cloth covered pole, apparently at thin air, shouting at a person who wasn�t there.
"Its all these violent computer games..."
"I blame television..."
"What are they teaching them in schools..."
"In my day..."
However hard Ushio had been trying to look inconspicuous, a few moments before, his efforts were mostly negated by the fact that he seemed to wildly stab at thin air while shouting loudly. This, coupled with the fact that he was a sixteen-year-old roaming Japan, when most teenagers were required by law to attend high school, didn't lend to his credibility when dealing with people.
Blushing furiously, Ushio whispered in a low voice, "Pull one more stunt like that and I promise I'm going to kill you!"
Tora holding both paws to his now flattened maw whined piteously, "But your
the one who..."
"SHUT UP!"
Chisato just happened to be looking out the window as well, so she saw the young man as soon as Miyu did, and Chisato could have sworn she saw her mysterious, and rather inscrutable friend twitch, just a little, when he came into view. It was hard to miss him, dress strangely, as he was, in a long coat, and carrying what looked like a cloth-wrapped staff or pole. He was also the only one of the few people on the sidewalk, who was even close to their age, and somehow, seemed to be attracting the attention of everyone else on the sidewalk.
whisper...whisper...whisper... rumors spread quickly through the city... walls have ears, mirrors have eyes
"Ushio..."
"What now! I don't have time for your nons..."
"Shut up and listen dumb human" Tora growled, "Look, to your left, the restaurant across the street..."
Surprised at how serious Tora had become all of a sudden, Ushio turned quickly to look, it wasn't really anything special, just one of those fad restaurants where high school girls liked to hang out. "What..."
"Table, right next to the window."
Ushio focused and sitting at the table, were four girls, a little bit younger than he was. Her age... Going from face to face, he came to the one staring out at him. Her serious expression was odd, for she looked physically younger than her friends did, despite the identical uniform she wore. For a split second he saw her eyes flash golden, and an electric shiver ran down the Beast Spear and through his right hand.
"She�s not..."
"You feel it too, don't you, but that�s not all... she can see me."
"Is she..."
"I don't know. She seems different somehow..."
"I'm going to find out!"
"Wait a sec here, first go in there and buy something."
"... As a diversion?"
"No, as lunch, I haven't eaten since that fight yesterday and I don't feel like instant rame..."
THUD!
"Like what you see, Chisato," asked Yukari, teasingly, causing Chisato to blush. "Perhaps you should think less about boys, and more about studying," added Hisaye.
"I study, I study," said Chisato, her cheeks bright red, "I just don�t remember anything when there�s a test. You�re so mean," she pouted, "Why do you always tease me?"
"Because Miyu wouldn�t blush that way about it!" Yukari declared, with a grin.
"He�s looking this way," said Hisaye, as Chisato buried her face in her hands. "I think he�s coming in here, too. Maybe he wants to talk to you, Chisato"
"Don�t be surprised," drawled Yukari, with a smile, tilting her chair back, "She is the cute one, you know."
"Miyu? Are you okay?" asked Hisaye, suddenly looking worried. Miyu had gone silent and still, like a snake preparing to strike, if need be. �If eyes are the windows to the soul,� though Hisaye, with a shudder, �then Miyu has latched the shutters and pulled the curtains closed.� "Miyu?"
Blinking, Miyu said, "It�s nothing," never taking her attention from the strange young man, who was just entering the restaurant.
"Aww, Miyu, don�t go all creepy on us now," said Chisato. Turning to Yukari, she continued, "he�s probably just hungry. See," she said, as the young man approached to front counter to order, "he�s just here to eat. And besides�"
All conversation at the table stopped for a moment, as Miyu stood up, ignoring her friends� surprise, and walked towards the young man.
Walking up to the front counter, Ushio placed his order. Trying hard not to look to the side where the girls were seated while attempting with equal intensity to watch them out of the corner of his eye. The one with the golden eyes stood up walked up behind him, saying quietly, "Excuse me, I believe we should talk. Outside." While she was talking, she glanced almost unnoticeably at the space a foot above Ushio's head. The space that just so happened to be occupied by a lot of Tora. The back door swung on its hinges and she was gone. Ushio looked at Tora, and Tora looked back puzzled, so far so good...
"Miyu, what�?" but before Yukari could finish her sentence, their friend had stepped outside, followed almost immediately by the young man.
Standing in an alleyway, facing the young man and his invisible companion, Miyu said, "Last night you killed a stray Shinma. Or rather," she continued calmly, "your� companion did. I don�t like others poaching in my territory. Who are you, and why are you here." Her eyes turned bright gold, and fog poured into the alleyway, obscuring the ground.
Out in the alleyway behind the restaurant, the strange girl turned to face Ushio and said," Last night you killed a stray Shinma. Or rather your� companion did. I don't like others poaching in my territory. Who are you, and why are you here?" as she said this, her eyes took on the brilliant golden hue that Ushio had noticed before, and the ground started to swirl with fog.
"My name is Ushio, and this is Tora." said Ushio, fighting the pounding blood lust that flowed through the spear into him, "I... I am travelling Japan to find my mother."
"This is unlike you, Miyu," said Larva, too quietly for the young man to hear, as he appeared behind her. "Why have you approached them?"
"Perhaps," she answered the same way, still looking at the young man and his strange companion, "I wished to protect my human friends. Or perhaps I am cautious about their oddness, and wished to select the battleground." She could see the muscles of the strange creature tense, and its eyes narrow. The youth, on the other hand, seemed to be having some sort of fit. Some of his muscles were jerking slightly. It was barely perceptible, even to her, and there was fine sheen of sweat on his forehead, as if he was fighting an internal battle. So far he was not a threat, and he had answered her questions, so she knelt and picked up Shiina from where he had stood, unnoticed at her feet, asking quietly, "What�s wrong with him?"
The Shinma�s ear lifted, revealing its evil eye. "He is fighting himself. The spear in his hand wants to kill you. It wants to kill everything, even the boy�s companion, eventually." Hopping down and moving behind Miyu�s legs, it continued in a childish whisper, "It scares me."
"I�I have seen weapons like that long ago in Europe, Miyu," said Larva, sounding strangely hesitant. "They can only be created through willing self-sacrifice of a human life. It exists only to kill its chosen prey. But none of those I saw, so long ago were ever so powerful. This one must cost the child greatly somehow, to use it. One this powerful," he concluded, sounding as if he regretted the need for his words, "is death its self."
"And his companion?" asked Miyu, without reacting to his previous statement.
"Seen this close, it seems in some ways similar to certain types of creatures that once lived in Europe. Humans killed them all off long ago, but they too displayed traits of both humans and Shinma. None of them looked like that, however, and none were ever powerful enough, or smart enough to kill any but the most careless Shinma."
"He has not threatened us yet," Miyu said decisively. And then, raising her voice slightly, to a more audible level, she continued to the young man, "Are you well? I will not harm you. Will you put aside your weapon and speak with me?"
"Miyu," Larva cautioned, as she took a step towards the human, hands outstretched in a placating gesture, to reveal her weaponless state.
"He is not a Shinma. As long as he is not threat, I will help him." Her voice grew softer as she continued, "After all, I too know the pain of losing one�s mother."
"Miyu, are you sure your actions are wise?"
Miyu frowned slightly. "You begin to sound like Reiha. Leave us."
The robed figure bowed and faded from sight, saying, "As you wish." The frightened rabbit-like Shinma vanished with him.
On a distant rooftop, in the midst of Saikawa Cemetery, the robed, masked figure, and the small, rabbit-like creature reappeared.
"What�s wrong with Miyu tonight?" asked a very confused Shiina.
It was, perhaps a measure of Larva�s unvoiced agitation that he designed to speak to the creature, responding, "It was the word �mother�. Miyu mourns for the father she never knew, and the mother who lived trapped in insanity for her sake. Although she is older than any human, she still wants for the mother she never really had. That spear, though�" His voice trailing off, looked off into the distance, intently, like a parent who has promised not to interfere until the child asks for help.
Repeating herself, Miyu asked, "Are you well�Ushio?"
All this time, Ushio had remained silent, a strained look of concentration furrowing his brows. In one hand he grasped the Beast Spear in a death-grip. The desire was almost uncontrollable now, and with every breath, something at the core of his being wanted to strike out at the girl with the golden eyes.
Kill her! KILL HER!
NO I WON�T! I will NOT! shouted Ushio back, deep within the recesses of his mind, desperately fighting the pounding bloodlust. The spear was insatiable, forged two thousand years in the inferno of a Chinese smithy; it had from the time of its accursed inception been an object for the killing of all that was not human. The releasing of such an arcane source of power, however, exacted a terrible price, for with every use, a portion of the user's soul was consigned to darkness. To namelessness.
It was no use, he would have to give in. Everyone, I�m sorry� were the last words he thought before�
"Kid, if you go psycho on me, I promise to eat you right here and now, and then that cute girlfriend of yours." Tora whispered almost seductively into his ear.
Ushio exploded, his anger overwhelming totally the dark influences of the spear. He whirled around and landed a powerful backhand on Tora�s muzzle. "YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HE�. I mean�." At this point Ushio�s face turned the most disconcerting shade of crimson. "It�ll be the day when you get to eat me, monster!"
Turning around, the roaring sound of his blood in his ears, his faced flushed further in the realization that the young girl watching them had been privy to the whole exchange. Even though Ushio was intellectually well aware of the fact that Miyu wasn�t just any young girl, emotionally, his mind had the simplicity to trust everything it saw.
"Yeah, I�m okay. If it wasn�t for this huge lummox tagging along... He�s as useless as he is stupid�"
"I�M NOT STUPID!" was the inevitable snarled reply.
"Oh yeah? What about that time�."
And they were off arguing again. As Miyu looked on, odd and rarely felt emotions, stirring within her. Here were two who fought like the bitterest of enemies in the history of mankind, one attempting with claws, teeth and sheer strength to force the other in submission and the other with lightning feints and quick jabs with the spear just managing to keep himself from instantaneous death. And yet� and yet�
Friends. So this is what friends do. Her own words of earlier that day came almost without prompting.
She could see clearly now, that whatever else he was, this Ushio was merely a young, human boy, and that she had been correct in treating him like one. He was so trusting. Clearly he was destined either for greatness or for death, for he seemed to know nothing of evil, for all that he fought it.
And fought with it. What terrible price would that artifact extract from the young man? As if there was anything she could do for him�
"Poor child, I would wish your fate on few people indeed," she murmured, too soft for human ears, "But then," she continued with gallows humor, " I would wish my fate on none."
"Ushio," she said, just loudly enough to attract the attention of the fighting pair, and halt their combat momentarily, "I will help you," she continued in a softer voice, "unless you ask otherwise, by not hindering you. Although you have my sympathies," her voice hardened, "remember: You are not the Guardian, do not be presumptuous."
With that, she turned and began walking away, her figure becoming as transparent as a phantom, gradually fading from site, as the mist which had obscured their conversation from the world, dissipated.