Blade's Edge, page 8
part #1 of Chronicles of Gensokai Series
Taka feigned coughing once more, as a sob wracked her body. She didn’t know what would happen to those two children. She could only hope that they were still alive.
Taka stared at the fire. She watched as the wrapped figure within was consumed by flame, along with the wood beneath it. At some point the tears stopped. The pain and anger continued, as did the grief, but she held the fire in her gaze and didn’t move. Part of her longed to throw herself on top of the flames and join Kiko in leaving this place. She had failed to save her friend. She hadn’t fought hard enough, and now perhaps she deserved to join her. Her weight shifted forward slightly, without thinking about it, but before she could even step forward a voice surprised her into stillness.
“You are Taka-chan, ne?”
Taka blinked, through vision hazed by smoke, and saw that the fire had burned low and all the other students and instructors were gone. An old woman that Taka had never seen before stood close by, her gaze never wavering from the pyre before them.
Taka nodded, even though the old woman wasn’t looking at her.
“Kiko-chan spoke kindly of you the last time I was permitted to visit her.”
Visit her? She had never seen a visitor here in the three cycles since her arrival, aside from the families who dropped off their daughters when they were first placed here.
“They are quiet about it,” the old woman said, seemingly answering the question that Taka hadn’t asked aloud, “and I imagine most of the girls aren’t allowed visitors at all, but my family will not be denied.”
Taka took a closer look at the grey haired woman and realized that her kimono, while plain in color and design, was very high quality; nicer than anything Taka had seen before.
“Who are you?”
Taka’s grief must have been making her incautious. Such a question was unthinkable from someone as low ranking as a josanpu in training.
The old woman’s mouth turned up in a smile that wasn’t reflected in her eyes at all.
“I am Kiko’s grandmother.”
Taka bowed low in an attempt to make up for the rudeness of her earlier question. She said quietly, “It is an honor to meet you.”
The woman finally turned towards Taka, allowing Taka to see the embers of rage that burned in her eyes, even as the coals of fire before them shrank in their brightness.
“She left two letters, one for me and one for you, along with this package.”
The older woman placed a small package wrapped in light parchment into Taka’s hands.
“I’m not sure why. I’ve looked through it, and it seems a useless thing to me, but you take it, Taka-chan. It’s obvious that you two were close, and she wanted you to have it.”
Taka tried to form some kind of reply, but her throat seemed to constrict with grief and she couldn’t get the words out.
The old woman turned to go, and Taka was left staring blankly through a veil of salt water at the small package in her hands. As the woman walked away Taka heard her voice, a mere whisper on the wind: “Someday I’ll burn this place to the ground.”
MISHI SAT BY the waterfall and considered what remained of her ascent to Tatsu’s shrine. After over a cycle of training with Tatsu-sama, she was coming to enjoy the journey up the mountain, and not only because of the time she was able to spend with Tatsu once she reached her destination.
What had once been a physically desperate journey was now simply a somewhat challenging hike, and even the small cliff she was forced to scale every time she ascended the mountain had become a pleasant challenge rather than a life threatening grasp for the top. She enjoyed the slight exertion she felt in her calves and ate the onigiri she had prepared for herself; her favorite rice steamed to perfection, filled with a delicious salted salmon, and wrapped in her favorite seaweed.
She considered the mild strain she would feel in her upper body once she reached the top of the cliff, and stretched her arms in anticipation. She had gotten much stronger in the past cycle, a benefit that she noticed in her day to day training with Kuma-sensei, and even in her chores as a servant for the male Kisōshi. The pails of water she carried for cleaning, the barrows she pushed to clean out the stables, all felt lighter to her, and she felt as though she could train for longer than she had been able to previously. Of course, part of the reason for that was also how much she had grown over the past cycle as well.
She finished her onigiri and stretched her back and shoulders before repacking her small sack and positioning it between her shoulder blades in preparation for the short climb next to the waterfall.
She began the climb as she always did. There was a small ledge to the right of the waterfall that provided good purchase, even though it was slightly damp, and that was her preferred starting point. The climb was so routine to her now that she barely paid heed to where she placed her fingers and toes. Holds that had seemed desperate and tiny just a cycle ago now felt large and comfortable. There was even a corner in which the span of her legs alone would hold her, and she could rest her shoulders against the rock and let her arms relax. She made it to that point quickly and smoothly, and barely took advantage of the chance to rest, so confident was she now in her abilities.
She should have expected what happened next. If she had really thought about it, she would have seen it coming, but she hadn’t. She had thought that here on her mountain with Tatsu-sama she would be safe from Kuma-sensei’s propensity for surprising her with tests.
As she moved up and to the right from the pleasant corner where she could rest her arms, the first hold she placed the fingers of her right hand on was wet, and as her fingers slipped helplessly from a hold that normally presented her with little challenge, she realized that someone had covered it in fish oil. Luckily, between her left hand and her strongly placed feet, she was able to keep herself attached to the rock. But as her right hand explored farther, she found hold after hold covered in the greasy substance that allowed her no purchase.
Mishi tried to contain her panic. She was more than halfway to the top of the cliff, and to fall from her current position would be painful at best. At worst she would break something, possibly her neck. Her left hand still clutched a hold that was not slick, and she clung to it desperately as her right hand fumbled to find a hold that would not slip from her grasp. When she finally found a small incision in the rock that she could slide the front pads on three fingers into, she tried to gain control of her breathing. She only hoped that the oil on her hands wouldn’t cause that small hold to prove treacherous as well.
She breathed deeply, trying to still her mind. She had two options: she could climb back down to the bottom and safety, reusing the holds that had been clean on her ascent thus far, or she could climb her way to the top using whatever holds Kuma-sensei had left grease free, and hope that she didn’t slip from the rock entirely.
As usual, she didn’t think Kuma-sensei would try to kill her, but the chance for injury was great and she couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t fall. Still, she didn’t think Kuma-sensei’s goal was to cause her to give up and return to the base of the cliff. She took another deep breath and tried to focus her ki.
Her feet were still in a balanced position, and with solid footholds she could gain height without relying so much on her hand holds. She looked for a place to raise her right foot to that wasn’t covered in oil. Her bare toes sought small crevices in the rock, but she could already tell that anything that might be considered a ledge was well greased. Finally, she found a small pocket no bigger than her large toe, and placed her right foot there. It held, and she shifted her balance to that toe so that she could raise her left foot higher as well, and then use that position to stand up and search for a higher handhold. Eventually, she found another tiny foothold that was ungreased and she placed her left toe there.
She almost laughed as she thought about how she must look from below, like some strange frog plastered to the side of the rock with both of her feet resting near her waist and her backside in between. But the beginning of laughter made her balance shift, and panic quickly caused the laughter to die in her throat.
What she needed to do now was maintain her balance as she stood on those small toe holds and hope that once she was standing she would have access to some hand holds that weren’t covered in oil. She breathed deeply to keep her ki focused and maintain her calm. Keeping her weight as close as she could to the wall, she extended her legs, pulled inward, and then levered upward with her arms, standing up. Her balance held as her legs locked out, and she tried to keep her breathing even as she brought her right arm up—quickly wiping grease and sweat onto her hakama on the way—past her head to find a hold that was free of oil.
Panic started to take her when the best that she could find was a small crevice only wide enough for two of her fingers side by side and only deep enough for a single finger pad. Her legs began to shake against her will as she brought her left arm up, attempting not to disturb the tenuous balance held by three points of her body; cautiously enough that she barely touched her hand to her uwagi in a whisper of an attempt to remove the oil that might ruin everything even if she found a hold that was clear of it.
In and out, in and out, she had to remember to breathe, or her muscles would fail and her balance would collapse. The muscles in her body that held her at tension were all working frantically, probably using more energy than necessary, but there was nothing she could do about that now. She was barely keeping panic at bay as she slowly made her left hand crawl on the surface of the rock. Like a blind spider, it searched cautiously around the space above her, seeking a place that would let it gain purchase, at least for long enough for her to find another foothold. She was so close to the top, so close….
This time, search though she might, there was no small crevice where she could place her fingertips, no tiny incut bit of rock to pull on. The surface was a blank wall, and the only thing that she found ungreased was a small bump: a mound of rock that jutted out from the rest, but provided no flat surface on which to cling. It was simply a rounded blob that had some texture to it.
Mishi’s legs began to tremble in earnest. The exertion, combined with the near panic of balancing on nothing more than her toes and a few fingers, was taking its toll. If her leg shook much more, it would collapse, and then she would fall. Fall, even though her hands were a mere arm span from the top of the cliff. Fall, even though she was sure to break some part of her body from a height like this. Fall, even though she was sure that Kuma-sensei had not meant to cause her injury.
She had to move upward. Upward lay safety, and success, and a lesson with Tatsu-sama, who would be proud of her for succeeding against such odds. Downward lay injury, failure, and disappointing all of the people who cared about her. She took a deep breath and shifted her weight so that she could raise her right toe. Her hands could go no higher if she couldn’t get her feet up, and she needed another single arm span of height to reach the top ledge. She found another small hole, this one slightly deeper than the last, but still not deep enough to hold more than half of her big toe. Now her left leg was shaking uncontrollably and she could feel her fingertips begin to sweat. Since when did her fingertips sweat?
She had to remind herself to breathe again, and she could feel the muscles in her arms locking up. Her forearms felt stiff with exertion and were beginning to shake. Her grip was getting looser, even as she tried to tighten it. She had to push onward, or she would let go of the wall entirely. She tried to lift her left leg.
Her left hand slipped from the small round hold that it had clung to with nothing but the friction of her skin, and she could feel the skin she left behind as she watched the cliff pull away from her in a sequence so slow that it seemed to be taken from one of her own nightmares. She didn’t think to scream, there was no time, even in that long drawn out moment when she felt her left foot and and hand swing wildly away from the cliff, with her right hand and foot following despite their desperate clinging.
The world seemed timeless for a moment, as she realized that nothing held her to the cliff at all and she felt a brief moment of weightlessness before the forces of nature pulled her downward.
Her fall was so short that she shouldn’t have had time to think of anything at all, but somehow, in the midst of all that panic, her brain managed to wonder if death would finally reunite her with Taka. Then she saw the earth surging up to meet her, and in one final moment of defiance she screamed inside her head.
Suddenly, there was a bed of fire between her and the earth.
Fire should not have stopped her from hitting the ground. Fire was not a substance that could cushion her, or protect her from the solid ground that waited to meet her. For some reason, this fire did not seem to care about those rules. It cradled her. She observed, in awe, that it held her and kept her safe. And then blackness welcomed her, and she felt her body shudder as it slammed into the earth below.
MISHI WOKE TO a giant golden orb suspended over her head. She almost jumped when the glowing orb blinked, and then she realized that it was Tatsu-sama’s eye.
“She wakes!” Tatsu’s thundering voice shook the world around her, and her skull felt as though it were trying to pull itself apart at the seams.
“Ow,” was all she managed to say, as she sat up. The effort made her vision darken around the edges and she let her head drop back to the ground. “Everything hurts,” she reported with her eyes closed, while she lay as still as possible.
“That is not surprising,” Tatsu said, his voice as soft as he could make it, but no less skull-splitting because of it. “You did your very best to kill yourself yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Mishi’s eyes flew open, but she didn’t make the mistake of trying to sit up again. “How long have I been asleep?”
Tatsu snorted, but luckily he had turned his head aside before doing so, and the flame that shot from his nostrils did no more than singe a small bush, rather than charring Mishi.
“Sleeping is not what I would call it. You were unconscious, child. You used more of your kisō than you have ever attempted to use before, and the drain could have killed you. Have I not told you before that if you pull too deeply from your fuchi, use too much of the kisō within, you can take away your own life force? I know I’ve encouraged you to practice enough to push your limits, as that is how one deepens one’s fuchi and gains access to more kisō, but I thought you would have more sense than to try to use so much. If I hadn’t been here to heal you…”
Mishi thought about that for a moment.
"Well, I might have died anyway if I hadn’t slowed myself down. What was Kuma-sensei thinking anyway? What kind of test was that?”
Tatsu looked away for a moment and Mishi used her kisō to register his emotions. Was that guilt?
"Tatsu-sama… what do you know?”
If a dragon could look abashed, she thought Tatsu managed it. “It was not Kuma-sensei’s test. It was mine.”
“Yours? Yours! Were you trying to kill me?”
Tatsu shook his giant head.
“Of course not, child. It was only a test.”
“Only a test? What did you expect to have happen?”
“I wanted to see what you would do, given that kind of challenge.”
“Challenge? All the holds were greased with fish oil! Climbing up was nearly impossible! I almost died!”
“Ah, but you could have stopped. You could have climbed back down. You could have used your skill with fire to burn away the oil on the holds and then climbed up normally.…”
Mishi's face was suddenly red with heat and her voice shook as she spoke.
“You expected me to cheat? Or to give up?”
“They were possibilities. I did not expect anything. Instead you used almost enough of your kisō to kill you.”
"But what were trying to get me to do? I didn’t even mean to use kisō. I didn’t even know I could use it that way. You’ve never taught me to do anything like that. I didn’t think my fire could be used to shield. How does fire protect someone from a fall?”
Tatsu looked at her again with just one eye, as though inspecting her thoroughly.
“It doesn’t. You must have hit your head. Fire cannot be used the same way that wind or water can to cushion a fall.”
Mishi touched the back and sides of her head. She could have hit it. It certainly hurt enough for her to have hit it. She didn’t feel any bruises or cuts, though.
Tatsu watched her perform this inspection and then she felt him perform an inspection of his own. His kisō politely sought permission to mingle with her own, and when it was granted he performed a brief scan of her body and mind.
The one eye of Tatsu’s that she could see widened, and he backed his head away from her for a moment.
“What?” she asked, certain that something he had found had troubled him.
“You have not hit your head,” he replied.
"That wouldn’t have you backing away from me. What’s wrong?” she asked again, this time worried that he had uncovered some awful truth about her.
“Nothing is wrong… which is the problem. Your memory is accurate and you have no injuries to your head.”
"So what’s the problem?” she asked, finally sitting up and just barely managing to stay there.
“The problem, child, is that if your memory is accurate, you really did use fire as a cushion to save you from that fall, and if that is true…”
Mishi swallowed. Tatsu looked startled and unsettled, and Mishi did not want to have anything to do with something that could unsettle a dragon a hundred times her size.
“If that is true,” he said, “it means that you have a power that no Kisōshi has possessed for hundreds of cycles.”
MISHI SCREAMED AS her body rushed towards the earth. She desperately tried to create a bed of fire as she had days before, but nothing worked. She slammed into the ground with a force sufficient to shatter bones and woke up.
