Pilgrim 3, p.10
Pilgrim 3, page 10
“Thank you.”
“I will be here when you return,” she said, “so please don’t worry about me. Khamdo and Temur will be stopping by as well, and I know they care about this place and you, and I suppose as an extension, me. Good luck, son.”
Danzen nodded, and soon, he was heading down the hill with Kudzu and Dalan.
“We could always leave him behind,” Kudzu said as she spotted Jelmay’s home, which was mostly concealed by lush foliage.
“We could,” said Danzen.
“You should always bring a bakeneko with you when you can; I heard they’re lucky.”
Kudzu laughed at Dalan’s suggestion. “That’s one way of putting it.”
Jelmay stepped outside of his home in Dalan’s form. Seeing that the hermit had joined them, he quickly morphed into the nondescript blonde-haired man he seemed to take from time to time. “That is, unless you want to twin,” he told Dalan with a smile on his face.
“I believe one hermit coming from the mountains with a sack full of herbs is enough,” Dalan told him. “I do have to make a stop along the way to Chutham, in the First District. I hope you don’t mind. And please, don’t let me get in the way. You don’t need to accompany me if you don’t want to.”
Jelmay waved his concern away. “We have all the time in the world.”
“Not if we want to leave Tudan tonight,” Kudzu said.
“You worry too much, and to be fair, or rather, to be honest: I need to eat something. Here’s an idea. Perhaps we could stop by Sarnai’s home…”
“Absolutely not,” said Kudzu.
“Ahem, I wouldn’t mind stopping by her place either,” Dalan said quietly.
Jelmay grinned. “See? He gets it. Now wait here, I need to get my sword. We’re going on an adventure, and there’s no telling who or what is going to need a quick stabbing.”
Part Three
.Chapter One.
Danzen Ravja, his yokai companions, and Dalan the hermit shared a meal at Sarnai’s with the woman and her husband, a meal in which a variety of topics were discussed, mostly revolving around the changes happening in the Third District and some disputes with the Second District which had recently arisen. She also told them that Elder Sonders wanted more security, that he was currently recruiting for a militia to be led by Shedrup. Predictably, the new recruits were finding it difficult to work with his nephew, Shedrup very particular when it came to people that would work under him.
“He is trying,” Sarnai said as they neared the completion of their meal. “But he still can’t shake the past. I don’t blame him. He lost his family, you know. That has to be hard, I know because… I was close myself.”
Danzen nodded. He had heard the story before about Shedrup’s wife and child being slaughtered by bandits at his monastery. It was what drove the man to drink, among other things.
In the midst of cleaning up, Sarnai invited the four of them to stay for tea, but Dalan said he had an ill client to visit in the First District, one that required his immediate enough attention. Soon, they were saying their goodbyes, Danzen waiting for the others to catch up with Dalan as he turned to Khamdo.
“Please keep an eye on my mother. I know she says she is fine, but I would appreciate it.”
“I can certainly do that,” the carpenter told him. “I believe by the time you return, she will be quite active in the community. People here are starting to warm up to her.”
“Thank you.”
Danzen caught up to his companions, Dalan and Jelmay having a heated debate on a particular yokai known as a hainu. It was a stupid debate, revolving around if they were winged dogs, or winged wolves, Jelmay claiming they were the latter while Dalan maintained that they were dogs.
Their conversation did give Danzen a moment to pull his field diary out of his satchel and see if the abbot who once inhabited his monastery had written about this particular yokai. Sure enough, he found a passage on the carnivorous being:
Hainu are winged dogs that can be as menacing as wolves. They can also be loyal and tamed. On one fateful spring day in the valley, when an army from Arsi invaded Chutham, a winged dog appeared between Chutham and Suja Village, which only had one district at the time. The dog attacked travelers, livestock disappeared, and soon the hunting party was created to kill the creature, the hunting party all slaughtered in one night. It took a militia from Chutham to subdue the beast. To do so, the militia force trapped it in a ring of fire and struck its wings with arrows so it couldn’t fly away. A mound was erected on its behalf, but has since been forgotten.
Another story tells of that very same group being aided by a hainu once they were attacked by Arsi forces. The men that were alive ran into the Asura Forest, and would have certainly been killed had it not been for a hainu that flew out to distract their pursuers, the yokai circling in the air above them while the militia got away. This hainu was eventually killed by the Arsi archers, and also has a mound erected in its honor between Chutham and Suja Village, which has since been forgotten.
Danzen quietly put his field diary away.
He kept his thoughts to himself as he normally did, once again contemplating just how integrated yokai were in the history of Genshin Valley. It was sad that so much of the old lore had been lost to war and poor record-keeping. A lot of this seemed to be because of the fall of Sunyata, which caused a dark period to befall the Kishu Kingdom, one in which monasteries and shrines were razed to the ground, information being forgotten by both purpose and mistake, their world forever changing. There had to be a history book somewhere about it, and perhaps Elder Sonders’ library was a good place to start. Truth be told, Danzen would visit more often, but Shedrup continued his hostilities, and while he was certain he could take the man if it came down to it, he didn’t want it to come down to it.
There would likely come a time when Danzen would need Shedrup on his side.
They reached the First District and bid farewell to Dalan, who suggested they stop by Eva’s place if they had a moment, that surely she would like to see them. The odds of them having time for a visit were slim: they needed to get to Tudan, and from there, on the next boat to Arsi.
“And you are sure we can’t just go to Arsi on foot?” Kudzu asked as they left Dalan in the First District, the three now moving onto the stretch of road that separated Chutham from Suja Village. Danzen spotted the first garrison up ahead, the guards changing positions as they neared the stronghold.
“On foot? Why would we do something stupid like that?” Jelmay asked her. As they approached the guards in front of the garrison, he waved at them in a cordial way and continued taking apart Kudzu’s question: “We have Pilgrim here to deal with the general public, which means we will get a nice cabin, and obviously, if any funding issues ever arise, I’ll handle it. I can’t see a reason why we would go on foot, or in a carriage, or horseback, for that matter. Doesn’t it make more sense to travel in style? Doesn’t it make more sense to travel in relation to our economic level?” Jelmay drummed his hands against the front of his clothing. “What’s the point in all this kip anyway if we’re not going to spend it?”
“It’s just not my idea of a nice trip.”
Jelmay shrugged. “This isn’t about you, it’s about Pilgrim and his journey. Isn’t that right?” When Danzen didn’t respond, he continued. “Think about it, the sooner we get to the north, the sooner we can check on his mother’s nunnery, perhaps visit some shrines, and escape the heat of the valley. And don’t worry, Pilgrim, I know you have other reasons for going west, but we can handle those later, after some rest. If you ask me, it is a win-win situation for all of us. And hopefully, we will come across a few fools keen on losing their hard-earned kip. That would be ideal.”
“Why do you insist on exploiting people and gambling?”
“I don’t know, why do you insist on running away every night from Pilgrim’s monastery because you don’t like his mother? It’s just who I am.”
“What? That’s not why I leave,” she hissed.
“Could have fooled me. And there’s no need to get embarrassed.”
“I’m not embarrassed.”
“You are in your human form, remember?” Jelmay reminded her. “Your cheeks are red.”
Kudzu touched her face. She narrowed her eyes on the bakeneko and took a few steps forward so they wouldn’t be able to see her face any longer.
Jelmay turned to the former assassin. “We all have our issues, am I right?”
Danzen didn’t reply.
With Kudzu a few feet ahead of them now, Jelmay slowed into a nice leisurely pace at the back of the group, Danzen finding himself between the two of them. He wasn’t planning on saying something about their bickering; by this point he was used to it, and it wasn’t actually that bad for the most part. But he definitely didn’t want them to be at each other’s throats for the entire trip, especially as he didn’t yet know where they would be spending most of their time. Sure, there would be the boat ride to Arsi, and then either carriages or horses to the outskirts of Odval, but there would come a point when they would have to find a place to stay, and he hoped that the two would be able to get along when that time finally came.
He was glad for the silence that fell over the group, Danzen tuning back into his environment, noticing that the dirt road beneath his feet was a little springy, not quite muddy, but not far off, the path marred by wagon wheels. Monsoon season was over, but it didn’t mean there weren’t occasional showers, and unlike the north, where he knew it would be drier, Genshin Valley was fertile for a reason, and that reason came from its frequent rainstorms.
The air smelled of soil, and it was less crisp than it had been in the mountains, where Danzen had encountered his father. There was a subtle glaze of clouds overhead, their forms thin enough for the sunlight to pass through then, Danzen definitely feeling the heat by the time they reached the halfway point, marked by yet another garrison.
He recalled what he had read earlier about the winged dogs known as hainu. He wondered where their mounds were, and how many other relics like them were hidden between Chutham and Suja Village. Maybe this was the reason to hear his mother out, her plan to rebuild Sunyata. Aside from what she had said about Danzen dealing with his father by taking his throne, she had to have some idea of how heaven could be reformed through the collection of remnants. Would this be a way to connect people to the past? Danzen had the sense that if he were actually able to pull it off, it would not only change his world for good, but rebuilding Sunyata perhaps would shed new light on what happened when it fell, which would hopefully prevent something like that from ever happening again.
About an hour before they would reach Chutham, Danzen joined Kudzu, Jelmay still about ten feet behind them. The bakeneko was just calling out to them when the air suddenly filled with smoke. Danzen knew what it was before he could get his blade out.
“Get down!” he told Kudzu, his command also meant for Jelmay, even if his Demon Speak power didn’t work on them. It was instinctual at that point; but since he knew exactly what it was, and the two of them may have been unaware, Danzen had to prepare his companions for whatever was to come.
It was a bold move to try to attack him during broad daylight.
He barely had time to bring Nomin’s sword up as a blade appeared in front of him, another one coming up from the side, Danzen marking this attacker as a swordsman with two weapons. He dared not kick his foot forward, the darkened smoke now to the point that it was filling his lungs, Danzen unable to see more than a few inches in front of his face. A battle cry to his left signaled a female assassin, Danzen instantly recognizing in her action that she was a student.
Someone who had been thoroughly trained wouldn’t have given their position away like that, not under smokescreen, and certainly not against an assassin like Danzen.
To get a better vantage point, he sent a burst of energy into his legs and shot up into the air. For a brief moment, Danzen was able to see that smoke was coming from a series of ceramic barrels along the outer rim of the trail, ceramic barrels all connected by a rope likely pulled by someone behind… a tree.
He spotted a man with a spear as he started to come back down, the assassin hunched over, preparing to strike. The man was clad in dark-blue clothing and had a mask on his face similar to the one that Thane wore, Danzen’s former teacher.
It all made sense to him now: these were Thane’s students, and they had come for revenge.
A whirlwind of attacks followed once Danzen landed back in the smoke, the former assassin blocking every incoming strike with calculated precision. His current assailant was the female; he could tell by the strength of her attacks, the woman wearing gauntleted blades just like Thane had.
Sending Nomin’s sword back to its scabbard, Danzen closed his eyes, grabbed his boomerang sword, and tossed it forward. He lifted his hand and Astra returned, blood on its tip. The smoke wasn’t a distraction for someone who could sense movement through people’s echoes. His eyes still clenched shut, Danzen saw that he had struck his first assailant, the one wielding dual blades. His female assailant was a few feet off to his right, and the assassin with the spear was still holding back, Danzen assuming that they had decided that the spearman would be the final opponent if the first two were cut down.
Three in total, by no means a challenge for someone like Danzen.
It was a pity.
He didn’t know their history or who they were, yet they had decided to risk their lives to kill someone that was half-human and half-demon, a seasoned opponent well out of their league. Surely Thane would have told them about his power; even so, they had made the foolhardy decision to try to kill Danzen. Perhaps that was why the spearman was hanging on the outskirts, for the moment when one of them was finally able to draw blood.
But Danzen wasn’t going to let that happen.
In a quick gesture, he removed his satchel and his burlap sack, lightening the load a little so he could focus on combat. He didn’t know if the smoke had started to clear or not, and he really didn’t care. With his eyes closed, it didn’t matter.
The man with dual swords had been struck by Astra, but his armor had prevented Danzen’s blow from being fatal, Danzen able to see the wound as he zipped forward while gripping Astra with both hands.
His assailant managed to bring both of his swords up at the very last moment to meet his attack, his weapons shaped like a pair of butcher knives but longer, flat on the end. He grunted as he tried for an attack that would have driven both blades across the front of Danzen’s abdomen had he not been incredibly fast. He could tell now why Thane had taken on this particular student—he was ballsy.
Danzen jumped back, and as he did he saw movement to his right, the female assassin shooting toward him with her gauntleted blades. Danzen pivoted around her attack and sent his heel to the top of her back, momentum sending the woman tumbling. He met the dual swordsman again, the brute short in stature, all power as the two shoved each other for a moment, their blades pressed together.
But Thane’s student didn’t have demon blood.
Danzen quickly overwhelmed the dual swordsman, using the oldest trick in the book as he took the man’s feet out from beneath him. A small part of him didn’t want to actually kill the three assassins, not yet. It was clear they weren’t ready to take on someone like him, yet he knew that if he let any of them live, their thirst for revenge would only grow. There was his Demon Speak power, but with their masks he couldn’t yet tell if they were blocking their ears in some way.
It was a conundrum, one Danzen had found himself in before. One not dissimilar to how he felt about Soko.
Unfortunately, this was who he was, and as Danzen parried the female assassin’s next attack, his opening became clearer than ever. She was angry, fighting in a way that left her vulnerable, and while her strikes were precise, she lacked the finesse she needed to actually land them.
More training, and Danzen would have been in for a longer fight. But this wasn’t the case, and it wasn’t a second later that he had blocked her attack and sent his blade into the side of her stomach, the woman letting out a gasp as she realized he had stabbed her.
He swiftly withdrew Astra and she hit the ground.
Danzen opened his eyes to see the smoke had started to clear, the former assassin feeling like he was just getting warmed up. He prepared to address the other two, and was surprised at the true display of cowardice that happened next. The two male assassins were already in the process of retreating, both close to a hundred feet away from Danzen now, the dual swordsman nursing his wound as the other helped him pull back.
“Should we go after them?” Jelmay asked.
The bakeneko stood on the outer perimeter of the battle with Kudzu, both of them with blades drawn, Kudzu with an almost apologetic look on her face. Danzen didn’t expect his companions to join him in this particular fight; it was actually better that they had gotten out of the way, which allowed him full range of motion.
“Who were they?” Kudzu asked, only for the look of realization to splash across her eyes. “I… I know exactly who they are.”
Danzen nodded. “Thane’s students, as he promised.”
“Three of them, yes.”
“And this one is still alive.” Jelmay crouched near the young female assassin, who was trying to hold herself up yet couldn’t because of the wound Danzen had given her. She had black hair pulled back into a ponytail; her mask, completely white like Soko’s, was now off-center.
“Kill me,” the female assassin said, her voice haggard. “Kill me now.”
“You’re asking the wrong guy. I’m not really the killing type, at least not when I don’t have to,” Jelmay told her.
“Stop talking. End this!”
“Stop talking? Ha! You do realize how stupid your little endeavor here was, don’t you?” The female assassin flinched at him, which caused Jelmay to stumble backward. He landed on his rear and pushed himself back up. “Well, ask and you shall receive. Pilgrim, she’s all yours.”
