Pilgrim 3, page 9
“That’s not what that looks like.”
“Made from flowers and dewberries. It has been fermenting for a couple weeks now and is ready.” Jelmay uncapped the jar and took a big whiff of it, the smell of alcohol instantly reaching Danzen. Whatever it was, it smelled incredibly strong.
“I’m not drinking that,” Kudzu said.
“Good, because we all know you’re a terrible drunk.”
“I’m sure you can have a little,” said Shodren. “After all, it is a warm day, and it would be nice to relax with a little liquor. Perhaps we could barbecue the fish in some way, rather than cook them inside the monastery.”
Yama and Nama, who had been seated on their pedestals, dropped down and approached Danzen, Yama rubbing his body against the side of Danzen’s robes.
“I know of an excellent way to cook the fish,” Jelmay said. “We’re going to need a hole. Let’s see… who seems the most likely to dig us a nice, deep hole?” He turned to the former assassin. “Looks like you’re up, Pilgrim. Grab a shovel—pretty sure there’s one out back that Khamdo left—and I’ll show you where to dig it. You look like a day laborer anyway without the top part of your robes. Leave the fish there, and Kudzu, don’t eat any of them.”
“I don’t even know what to say to you,” the white fox huffed.
“No need to talk. We need to get these fish in the ground now if they’re going to be nice and crisp come dinnertime.” Jelmay turned to the back of the monastery, and looked to Yama. “Do you think he would let me ride him? I’ve always wanted to ride a kona inu.”
“I wouldn’t push your luck,” Kudzu told him.
Jelmay shrugged. “Eh, it was worth asking. Pilgrim, you and me, get that shovel and I will show you where to dig the hole. This is going to be so good. Just you wait.”
.Chapter Four.
The afternoon grew into evening, the food ready as the sun was beginning to set. The smoked fish was absolutely phenomenal, as were the vegetables they had placed on top, which had absorbed the steam from the underground oven.
“Time to break out my special elixir,” Jelmay announced to the group once their meal was finished. He stepped into the monastery and returned with a couple polished clay bowls, which Danzen often used as cups. He first poured Shodren a bowl, then Kudzu, which he placed on the ground for her to lap up, one for Danzen, and finally one for himself. The bakeneko raised his paw into the air, the clay saucer held tight by his nails. “Sunyata’s blessings.”
The alcohol was bitter and strong, Kudzu immediately coughing as it hit her gullet.
“Wonderful,” Shodren said, her eyes watering. “I’ve had something like this before, in the north. The yokai there make it.”
“Then those slimy-grimy bastards stole my recipe,” Jelmay said as he went to fill her saucer again. He did so and she readily drank it.
“That’s enough for me.”
“Not me,” Jelmay said as he took a swig from the jar, rather than filling his bowl this time. “Pilgrim? Fox?”
“I’ll have more,” Danzen told him. While it was bitter, there was something interesting about the alcohol’s flavor, something sweet. It also had a warming effect, a wave of relaxation moving down Danzen’s shoulders. The second bowl did the same, calming him even further. There was a blur on his periphery now, the former assassin, who now wore his robes properly, relaxing even further onto the ground, leaning onto the palms of his hands.
As always, his weapons were nearby, Astra resting in its scabbard, Nomin’s short sword still sheathed at his waist. The urge to examine them came to him and he went for Nomin’s sword first. He withdrew it from its scabbard and closed his eyes for a moment, seeing the outline of the blade on the inside of his eyelids. He ran his finger along the smooth part of the short sword, thinking of the blind assassin as he did so.
“And that’s enough for you,” Jelmay said, a hint of both caution and humor to his voice. “Don’t need you stabbing anybody.”
“There is an energy about that blade, isn’t there?” Shodren asked.
Danzen nodded.
“Do you mind if I examine it?”
He returned the weapon to its scabbard and handed it to his mother.
“I don’t like this alcohol,” Kudzu announced.
“Of course you do. And you want some more,” Jelmay told her as he took another drink from the jar. “More!”
“It’s getting late. I should go…”
Danzen wanted to say something, to tell Kudzu that she should stay, but in the end he simply watched her stand, smile at the three of them, and disappear behind the monastery.
“Did she used to stay?” Shodren asked as she continued to examine Nomin’s weapon. Danzen couldn’t see his mother’s face now; her head was tilted forward, a shadow cast over her eyes.
“She used to sleep in the monastery,” Jelmay said once Danzen didn’t respond to her question. “But since you showed up, she’s been sleeping elsewhere.”
“I hope I haven’t put her out in some way,” Shodren said.
“Heh, she’s just being Kudzu.” The bakeneko stood and stretched his arms over his head. “But she’s not wrong. It’s probably best if I get some rest. I’m not going to lie—part of me wants to just roll down this hill to my front door rather than walk. Ho! Can you imagine me doing that?”
“You could get sick,” Shodren said she returned Danzen’s blade to him.
“Probably for the better that I don’t. This alcohol is strong. It will creep up on you. I likely shouldn’t drink anymore but…” Jelmay took another pull from the jar. “Might as well take one for the road.” He hiccupped. “In that case, I’ll see you in the morning, Pilgrim. Good night, Shodren.”
“Be careful,” Shodren called after him. “Are you sure you don’t want one of us to walk down with you?”
Jelmay waved her concern away. “If something kills me between here and there, then that was my fate. Give my regards to the fox, and if Usagi comes to my funeral, make sure he’s turned away at the door!”
At some point on his way down, Jelmay fell, Danzen standing to see that the bakeneko indeed rolled for a few legs of the journey, losing his jar of homemade moonshine in the process.
“You have fascinating friends,” Shodren told him once he rejoined her.
“They are unique.”
The two were silent for a moment, both staring out at the Asura Forest, which was a shade of dark blue now, the sun fully set, just the rim of hellacious pink on the horizon.
“You never answered my question from the other day,” Danzen told her after a long pause.
“And which question was that?”
“Why are you really here? I know you mentioned that I was ready to help rebuild Sunyata, but…” Danzen took a deep breath in, once again noticing the effects of the alcohol, and the way it had distorted his vision to some degree. “I feel as if there’s something more.”
“Do you?”
“And you should know something.”
“What’s that?” Shodren asked carefully.
“Abbot Monpo visited yesterday, as you may recall.”
She nodded, not unlike a common response from her son, short and to the point.
“That wasn’t Abbot Monpo.”
Shodren tilted her head as she looked at him. “Oh? What do you mean?”
“It was my father.”
He noticed a brief twitch in her left eye. “Tengir?”
“Yes. Unbeknownst to me, he disguised himself as Abbot Monpo so he could lure me into the mountains. I thought we were going to bend our echoes, but instead… Instead…”
“He dares show his face here…” Shodren said, her voice no longer her own, something deep and almost gravelly about it, as if it were being raked over smoldering coals. A bitterness came over her eyes, one Danzen hardly recognized. “So it begins.”
“So what begins?”
“He is openly taunting me, son. Reminding me of his power. What did he want? Surely he didn’t want to simply visit his child. He doesn’t care for anything, living or dead.”
“He wanted me to kill yokai for him,” Danzen said, not mentioning the other part of their conversation in which he’d claimed that they’d been lovers, that Shodren asked Tengir to not take part in his son’s life.
“Yokai? Why?”
“Just to prove to him that I could. He is still convinced that I will take his throne. He threatened to disrupt the villagers’ lives if I didn’t do something.”
“And he would, too,” said Shodren. “He would. He is like that, you know, one who likes to test people, hold arbitrary carrots over their heads to see what they will do, how they will react. So you really want to know why I am here, aside from my ultimate goal of rebuilding Sunyata?”
“I do.”
“Then I will tell you the truth. I’m here because of him. Danzen, son, I don’t know of anyone in this world who could bring Tengir Gantulga to his knees, who could kill him, aside from you. It’s…” A vein pulsed on the side of her head. “You may not like knowing this, but as I may have hinted at in the past, it is one of the reasons I offered you to the Diyu Brotherhood. It was the only way for you to become strong enough to eventually take on your father.”
While it should have been clear weeks ago, everything dawned on Danzen in that moment. A new thought came to him, one intermixed with all the things rushing through his mind, fueled by the alcohol Jelmay had brewed. His mother, in her own way, was asking him to do the same thing his father had asked, both sharing a common goal when it came to who Danzen should kill next.
Whatever happened, it would end with Danzen having blood on his hands, as usual, as it had always been.
“I need to think about these things,” he finally said as he pressed himself to his feet and turned away from her.
“Danzen, you must understand, my ultimate goal is to rebuild Sunyata, but to do so your father will likely need to be out of the way. He won’t let me, he won’t let us, rebuild heaven. You do realize that, right? He has total control of the afterlife; if Sunyata were back in the picture, there would be a balance once again. He won’t allow it. You have to understand that.”
Danzen shook his head. He’d been groomed his entire life to kill, and it now became clear as to why, and how young it had actually started. His mother had left him on the steps of the Brotherhood so long ago simply to lead up to this very moment, one in which she told him of his true purpose in life, at least according to the woman who gave birth to him—kill his father, patricide, and likely in the process kill Nomtoi as well, fratricide.
It was a lot to take in, Danzen quiet for a moment as he stared out at Genshin Valley, the trees below hiding the secrets of the forest floor, always something left to be uncovered.
“Speak to me, son. What is going through your mind?”
“I’m leaving for the west tomorrow,” Danzen said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“That’s good, you can continue to strengthen your echo, visit other monasteries. Do not be disturbed by my appearance here. I mean only to help you. The world needs Sunyata, those villagers who you care about so deeply, they need heaven. All of them will go to Diyu unless you do something. And perhaps the only way to do something would be to take control of the afterlife from your father. He won’t go down without a fight, you know that right? And you aren’t strong enough as of yet to do anything about him. Nor is your brother, Nomtoi. I know all this may come as a shock, but trust me, it will all make sense in the end. Together, we will rebuild Sunyata.”
****
Danzen didn’t know whom to believe any longer. It was clear his father and his mother both had something to gain from the relationship with him, and both wanted something that he wasn’t exactly prepared to give them. Did he want to see his father removed from the throne? Danzen hadn’t really thought about this. He had no real qualms with his father up until a day ago.
Now things were different.
His father was going to try to manipulate the trajectory of his life, and Danzen had no idea what their next encounter would be like, or what Tengir Gantulga would ask him to do. There was no telling what he would hold over his head the next time.
And then there was his mother, who thought that killing his father would restore order, create a balance. Again a manipulation. She even left him to become a trained killer for this very reason. If he were able to remove his father from the throne, what would she do? And what about the other way he had heard about when it came to rebuilding Sunyata? Could he simply collect remnants and do something that way?
It wasn’t easy to sleep that night, Danzen choosing to rest outside on a blanket, his two stone lion dogs lying near him. He was anxious to leave Genshin Valley, to have a chance to gather his thoughts. Before his mother had gone inside, they discussed his plans, and she promised he would have a place to stay at her nunnery outside of Odval. She would remain at his monastery, as Shodren had begun integrating herself with the village, and planned to do more of it as she reintroduced the practice of bending one’s echo to this region of the world.
She also admitted that it kept her close to his father, Shodren convinced that she’d be able to keep an eye on him, even though Danzen knew how hard it was to breach the barrier of Diyu. There was more there, he knew it, but he didn’t want to press her any longer about her relationship with Tengir Gantulga, or what had actually happened to her. His father had claimed that their time together was mutual, but Danzen didn’t believe him. Sadly, he was now wary to what his mother was saying as well, not wanting to be a pawn in her game either.
The time in the west would give him a moment of solitude, even if he would likely be joined by Jelmay and Kudzu. He could think about what he would do going forward, perhaps he could eventually tell his two yokai companions the crossroads he had come to. On top of this, Danzen knew he was still being hunted, and it would be wise of him to lure potential assassins away from the valley. He wasn’t worried about his mother in this regard. They’d already spoken about this, and she said that she could protect herself, that she was much better with her echo than she let on.
He didn’t press her any further.
The morning sun offered a glimpse of the day to come, one that would be bright, one that would eradicate the dark until it came creeping back again as it always did. It was inevitable, as was the future clash of not only Danzen’s life choices, but the decisions he would make over the coming weeks.
Better to get away.
He brought fresh water up from the well, and waited until his mother was awake to begin packing. One thing he hoped to do before setting off was to update his field diary, which he did while his mother made a simple breakfast, Danzen adding the description from one of his books about both the kappa and the yamachichi.
Yamachichi are rare yokai known to pay visits to households late at night and steal a person’s breath. Descendants from bats, they resemble monkeys with pointed mouths and large lips. They breed rapidly and are known to create underground hives, which must be eradicated to stop the yamachichi from spreading.
There was more information in The Night Parade of Genshin Valley Yokai book for Danzen to sink his teeth into regarding the kappa:
Kappa are known to reside in and around rivers, lakes, cisterns, and waterways, and have also gone by the name kawako. They are mostly aquatic, a reptilian humanoid yokai that can grow to the size of a child. Aside from beaks, they have strong shells on their backs and webbed hands and feet, allowing them to swim faster. Their skin can range in color from green to red and they are said to have three anuses, which allow them to pass three times as much gas as a normal human. The dish-like depression and top of their skulls contains within it a powerful elixir which they excrete, and many protect this liquid with a customized hat they make out of metal. They are proud and stubborn yokai known to eat almost anything, and they particularly enjoy organ meat.
With his field diary updated, Danzen prepared to leave.
He packed up his burlap sack as well as his satchel, bringing a spare set of robes as well as his sugawara armor. He didn’t bring his helmet, but he did pack a few other loose ends including some items he would need for wilderness survival. Danzen put his gauntleted blades on, and was just retrieving his Blade of Darkness when he heard some commotion at the front of the monastery. He left his bedroom to find Shodren speaking to Dalan the hermit, Danzen suspicious of the older man for a moment. Could it be his father? There really was no way of telling, and even if Dalan showed every sign of being human, including the memories of Danzen’s recent visit, he was still suspicious.
About the time that hermit showed up, Kudzu appeared, and seeing that Danzen was ready to go, she entered the monastery to change into her human form and get her sword as well, Kudzu reemerging in Danzen’s robes, the sleeves rolled up.
“Anyway, it was nice seeing you,” Dalan told Shodren once they had all gathered around him. “I’m off to visit Eva, my sister, in Chutham. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will bring it by on my way back to the mountains.”
“I can’t think of anything at the moment,” Shodren said, “but I’ll probably be reminded of something after you leave. Oh well. I will be going to town today anyway to meet with some of the villagers, and if it comes to me, I will grab it then.” She turned to her son. “Good luck on your journey north. As I told you last night, the nunnery outside of Odval is open to you and your companions.” She retrieved a letter from the inside of her robes. “Give this to the head nun, Menya, and do keep in mind what we have talked about.”
Danzen took the letter from his mother and placed it in his satchel.
“Menya will be able to point you in the right direction if you’re interested in visiting some of the shrines in the mountains outside the nunnery. I’ve left her a note as to what you are hoping to do in the north, your interest in larger remnants. I know we haven’t spoken as much about that as we should, but it is, perhaps another way…”
