Hidetsugu cinched his grip and locked his hands behind Kiku. He forced his head back, opened his mouth, and chomped down on the shadowy substance surrounding her. Kiku opened her jaws in a silent scream of agony as Hidetsugu tore a jagged hunk of darkness free and spit it back over his shoulder.
The nimbus reacted like a living thing, shuddering in what appeared to be pain. Hidetsugu bit again, ripping another piece of the material free, and it instinctively crawled away from his mouth. This left a patch over Kiku’s torso thinner than the rest of the envelope, and Hidetsugu’s next bite sank into the weakened spot.
Inside the cloud of shadow, Kiku suddenly blinked. The black glow that had occluded her eyes faded. She seemed shocked to discover herself in close combat with an ogre, but she remained Kiku of the mahotsukai: tough, smart, and capable.
She cupped her left hand, still pinned to her side by the ogre’s hug. When she turned her hand palm up, it held a delicate purple bloom.
As he had with Marrow, Toshi opened his mouth to warn Kiku that the oath still applied to her but stopped himself. She was in the fight of her life and she needed every tool at her disposal. Hidetsugu was likely to kill her anyway, so why not let her do all that she could to get him first?
He beat back the inner voice that whispered of the other reasons he did not speak when he had the chance. Wasn’t this what he’d brought Kiku and Marrow for? Whether they killed Hidetsugu, or he killed them, the end result was the same: easy access to the Taken One.
As he debated with himself, Toshi saw Kiku flick her wrist, tossing the flower clear of the shadow nimbus. The camellia spun as it arced up over Hidetsugu, gracefully drifting down toward the ogre’s head.
“No,” Toshi said. The purple kanji on his forehead flashed again, and the supple petals of Kiku’s flower went brittle. Instead of writhing and digging in when it touched Hidetsugu, the frozen camellia shattered like a wafer of spun sugar.
Kiku’s face snapped toward Toshi, murder in her eyes. Hidetsugu laughed.
“Thank you, ochimusha.” With a brutal jerk, Hidetsugu twisted his body at the waist and tore Kiku loose from the legs that anchored her to the ceiling. He turned a somersault in the air and, as he completed the rotation, he straightened out his body and hurled Kiku violently against the exterior wall.
The impact blew a great gap in the stone, revealing the orange evening sky beyond. Kiku had the presence of mind to use her long shadow limbs to grip the edges of the hole, which saved her from plowing clear through the wall and falling five hundred feet to the lake below.
Hidetsugu landed heavily on the floor. The wall directly above Kiku collapsed, burying her in a pile of jagged stone. The tremors from the rockfall were still reverberating across the floor when Kiku forced herself up through the rubble.
But Hidetsugu was relentless. A volley of fireballs rained down on Kiku like hailstones, and the instant the last of these slammed home Hidetsugu himself crashed down upon her with both feet. The ogre rained kicks and punches on the shadow envelope, and though Kiku was protected by her masters’ shadow curse Toshi could see the painful effects each blow had on her. The punishment continued, but Kiku did not respond. She was exhausted, and she was dazed. The last of the Numai jushi was beaten.
Standing on a blister of solid shadow, Hidetsugu roared with delight. He plunged his hand through the thick dark mass and clamped thumb and forefinger around Kiku’s throat. The ogre tensed, planted his feet, and yanked Kiku free of the shadow nimbus like a pearl from an oyster.
“You are magnificent, mahotsukai.” Hidetsugu settled to the floor as the shadow nimbus faded beneath his feet.
He held Kiku high over his head and turned toward Toshi. “Isn’t she?”
Light from the windows above cast Kiku’s shadow across Hidetsugu’s ruined eye. He peered around the chamber, searching for Toshi.
“She is, old friend.” Toshi’s voice came from Kiku’s shadow on Hidetsugu’s cheek. “And she’s the last magnificent sight you’ll ever see.”
Hidetsugu dropped the mahotsukai and leaped back, but it was too late. Toshi’s short sword plunged through the surface of Kiku’s shadow and up into Hidetsugu’s remaining eye.
The ogre seemed to explode in pain and fury. Amid the dust, the shattering stones, and the thunderous peals of rage, Toshi backpedaled away from Hidetsugu as quickly as he could.
He took a moment to reorient himself, and then Toshi squeezed through a shadow made by a pile of rocks beside Kiku. The mahotsukai was unconscious but alive. For now. Her best chance of staying that way was for Toshi to concentrate on Hidetsugu.
Toshi stood, careful not to make any noise that would alert the ogre to his location. The o-bakemono may have been blind but he was far from defeated.
But Toshi had a plan for that as well. He silently drew his jitte, dragged the sharp tip across his forearm, and collected a few drops of his own blood.
Hidetsugu’s roar ended as if his throat had been cut. Just as Toshi realized the folly of drawing his own blood in the same room as a keen-nosed o-bakemono, Hidetsugu lashed out with his foot. The rock he kicked broke in half-most of it disintegrated into a cloud of dust and sharp pebbles. The rest shot across the room and hit Toshi full in the chest, pinning him against the far wall and crushing a spray of red blood from his lungs.
The jitte tumbled from his fingers as Toshi sank painfully to the floor a short distance from Kiku. No help there; the mahotsukai was still unconscious.
Hidetsugu sniffed again, grinned savagely, and started toward the fallen ochimusha with careful, unhurried steps. He didn’t taunt or threaten but simply strode with a definite purpose and a terrible, undeniable gravity.
CHAPTER 11
Toshi struggled to breathe, to roll away, to move at all. He failed.
Hidetsugu drew ever closer, unhurried, precise, and deliberate. Unable even to wipe the blood from his lips, Toshi scanned the chamber for some alternative to violent death. Kiku was out cold; Marrow was probably dead or would be shortly. And Toshi himself was no longer protected by the hyozan curse.
O Night, he prayed, your acolyte needs your blessings.
The voice that replied was cold, and distant, but not uncaring.
Nonsense, Toshi Umezawa. You already have all the power you need.
Desperate, Toshi thought, Please, great myojin. I do not have my full wits about me. What must I do?
What you did at the beginning. What you did when you first accepted my gifts.
Hidetsugu was almost close enough to reach down and grab Toshi. The ochimusha searched his memory … what had he done at first with Night’s blessings? Called for silence? That wouldn’t stop Hidetsugu’s nose from locating him. Fade into nothingness? He didn’t have the strength.
Toshi looked out through the massive hole in the exterior wall. Far below, he saw armies of twisted spirits and demonic oni. He saw the All-Consuming Oni of Chaos, looming as large as a small mountain. And across the southern sky, he saw the Great Old Serpent, O-Kagachi. Three of the most powerful entities in all Kamigawa, the rulers of humankind, oni, and spirit alike were all assembled to fight for the prize that lay all but forgotten just a few rooms away.
He had been beset by powerful forces the first time he’d called on Night’s Reach. Then, he’d used her power to subdue the powerful patron of Jukai Forest, the Myojin of Life’s Web. He’d struck at the great spirit through its worshippers, robbing her of strength by silencing her followers in mid-chant. Perhaps he could do the same thing in reverse now, attacking Hidetsugu through the oni he worshiped?