"The monster that was sealed here must have been very powerful. The one we saw yesterday was only a fraction of his strength."
Taiin pressed forth her aura and appeared in the air behind Masahiro as she observed the remnants of the shrine.
Masahiro bent down to paw through the scattered shards of stone on the ground. After a moment, he uncovered a strange white stone embedded in the earth. It was smooth and ivory white, rectangular, and just a little longer than his his hand. A large crack ran down the center of the stone, splitting it neatly in two.
Masahiro carefully removed to stone to find beneath it, a neat round hole in the earth, about three fingers wide. He bent over and squinted but was unable to see much deeper than a few feet into the hole.
"Strange...."
Masahiro picked up a pebble and dropped it down the hole, listening for the sound of the stone hitting the bottom.
Minutes pa.s.sed, but all was silent.
"It"s unexpectedly deep.... "
Placing his hand over the hole, he closed his eyes, feeling for tell tale movements of air.
The ground seem to tremble beneath his hand, vibrating with an alien rhythm once dampened by the stone. The stone had been the seal, stifling the strange silent noise, sealing it within the earth. Though broken in half, there was still some power left in the stone, as it had felt cool to the touch.
With his eyes closed, Masahiro hovered his hand above the stone, seeking to pry out it"s secrets from the movements of air when suddenly, without warning, a flash of light appeared behind his eyelids.
Momentarily startled, Masahiro gasped and fell back.
In that split second, the moment between heartbeats, the flash of light had held within it the silhouettes of monsters. A dark a ma.s.s of claws and teeth writhed against the light. The image of yesterday"s monster burned into his mind, but he was unable the recognize the other dark shape behind it.
"NO!!!..."
... and suddenly, the air around him seemed to sag, weighing down his clothes and pulling at his limbs, as the ever present scent of youkai bore down on him, a malicious choking miasma that seem to rob Masahiro of his breath.
The air before him seem to ripple, and with a start Masahiro realized that the monster was right there, circling in the seemingly empty air before him. It smelled familiar..... the s.h.a.ggy one from before, the one with the strangely human face.
The dangerous aura began to creep ever closer, step by step until suddenly with a rush of air, it zipped off to the side.
" ........ ! " The air grew wild as the creature seem to be engaged in a struggle with another unseen ent.i.ty.
Masahiro watched in alarm and frustration. There was more than one here, but unable to see, he was helpless to defend and could only guess at their positions. His hands clammy with sweat clutched and unclutched as his breathing grew ragged, each breath pulling from his chest with painful force.
His heart pounded in his chest as his pulse roared in his ears, blood racing through his body with a force the seared his veins.
The world blurred as he swayed.
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"Masahiro ?!"
Taiin, who had been watching him examine the stone grew alarmed as he seemed to sway on his knees.
She took hold of his shoulders and pulled him into her arms and peered closely at Masahiro"s pale expressionless face. He had seemed increasingly agitated, on the verge of pa.s.sing out.
"Hey!...Hey!!! Masahiro! Are you okay?...Answer me!.... can you hear me?!... "
Masahiro still knelt on the ground, as still as he was moments ago, his hand against the cool surface of the white stone. He was completely unresponsive.
The light in his behind his eyelids seemed to spread, the blinding white enveloping him as though he were staring into the sun.
In the depth of is heart, the realm of his soul, a flame seemed to flicker, growing in intensity. With each beat of his heart, the cold white flame burned ever brighter.
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"Hey!!! Hey!!!! Masahiro !! Say something !! "
Taiin"s voice took on a desperate air as she continued to scream. Masahiro remained strangely unresponsive, his body stiff and unmoving, as though he couldn"t hear her at all. His eyes were unseeing, unfocused, as though his soul had been spirited away. What had happened to him?
"Rikugou!!"
Rikugou, who had been watching over the children frowned as he heard Taiin"s desperate cries. He glanced at the children before shifting his gaze to Taiin.
"Hey!!! Rikugou!!........ Masahiro"s acting strange!"
Masahiro seemed deaf to Taiin"s cries, he still knelt on the ground, his face expressionless, limbs slack at his sides. In a would beyond his five senses, he watched in rapt attention as the monsters were defeated and once again sealed into the now intact shrine.
....The creature that defeated them was too bright to be seen.....but deep inside him, his heart seemed to pulse in time with it"s aura, as the white flame within flickered with blinding light. .....
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Far away, a white mononoke sleeping on a rough straw roof top awake with a start, nervously twitching it"s tail.
Something was there................... east of this house........... on the far side of the village.........
"What is it ? " He squinted into the distance.
There was a aura there.... a strange one. it was different from that of Youkai..... didnt seem like Mononoke either. It wasnt an Ayakashi, but nor was it human.
It was different from any other aura he had seen before. It was weak, but it permeated his senses, rippling his fur. Perched on his rooftop, he turned to face the sea as the waves grew wild, briney whitecaps crashing down on sh.o.r.e with an otherworldly force.
"Touda..." Kouchin appeared in the air next to him.
The white creature gazed at her before once again pulling his gaze back toward the sea.
"The monster from yesterday is on the move...."
Kouchin nodded before focusing in on the strange aura. Suddenly her eyes widen. "The divine aura is coming from the direction that Masahiro"s party traveled... "
At this revelation, she turned and disappeared in their direction.
At her sudden disappearance, the white mononoke released an exasperated sighed before jumping down from the roof. He hesitated a few moments, staring in the direction that Kouchin dissappeared before turning headlong to dash toward the sea.
Did those monsters hold sway over people"s hearts? If these monsters had power over the thoughts and decisions of others why hadn"t the monster he killed a few days ago used it to stop him?
Though Narachika"s little brother had simply chosen to tag along on their mission, he was in the end, in the same line of work, and it behooved him (Touda) to lend him his strength as well. Speaking of the boy, though he was gifted, he was flying on one wing, his strength halved by his lack of vision. This was why the Seimei had sent the Shinshou to a.s.sist him.
The attacks from the previous days slipped into his thoughts. Between Rikugou and Kouchin"s frantic attach and defense efforts the child could do nothing. The child always looked like he had something to say to Touda, but all waords seem to leave him when their eyes met and the boy was left slack-jawed and speechless.
Touda was a fairly straightforward guy, and had always felt irritated by the boy"s stumbling hesitance. If youre going to say something, out with it.
Kouchin and Taiin had always referred to the boy by name. But no matter how many times he had heard the name, Touda was always unable to recall it. For some reason, the name escaped him as soon has he had heard it, leaving him bewildered at the strange loss. It was like the breeze, he knew it was there, but it was gone as soon as he turned to look.
When he was younger, Abe no Seimei had said to Touda that a name is the shortest of spells. Were names such weak spells that they could be here and gone in an instant? He had never had any trouble remebering Seimei"s and Narachika"s name, it was as if he was under some kind of spell, one that affected only him and him alone. It was as it to him, Yoshimasa had no more than two children.
Strange.