III. Bittersweet and strange

“You can’t just abandon the village, Horohoro! What about your responsibility as a leader?” Ren followed the determined Ainu boy outside.

“What about my responsibility as a friend, Ren?” He whipped his coat on, smacking the Tao boy in the face. “Yoh's my best friend. I can’t just stand around here and let him get eaten by some ugly demon.” He turned around and placed both of his hands on Ren’s shoulders. “I gotta help him. I’m going up there and you can’t stop me.” He marched off.

“This village will be leaderless without you!” Ren called after him.

“Nope, this village has another leader. And a damn good one too.” Horohoro pointed at him. “And, just for kicks, I wanna see how this works out.” He grabbed Pirika who had just come outside. “Ren, be our witness.”

“Wha—”

“As Onsen's village leader, I hereby grant you temporary leadership in my absence. All your authority is to be revoked as soon as I return,” he said in a sing-song voice, grinning like a maniac at his sister.

Pirika’s face lit up and she jumped forward to hug him. “Horohoro! You’re the best.”

The blue haired boy turned towards Ren. “Witness?”

Ren’s eyes bulged out. “Absolutely not.”

“Witness.” Horohoro and Pirika glared menacingly at him.

Ren mumbled out his oath and stormed away. “I’ll be going back and forth between the castle and the village a lot, so I need you to watch over Onsen for me, okay?” Pirika nodded. “And I need you to work with Ren.”

“I can handle it by myself—”

“Work with Ren.” Pirika nodded silently as Horohoro backed away slowly to make sure she wouldn’t go crazy-ninja-killer on Ren once he turned his back on the two of them. “I’m off.”

“Seyram, what happened to me? I almost lost control. And because of a human boy?” Anna closed her eyes as she lay on her bed. Seyram handed her the necklace she had been clutching. “1080 beads.” Anna stared at them, almost every single one of the beads was a dull, tarnished black color. Only one remained that still glowed with a pearly light.

For every year that passes, one of these beads will cease to glow. If you do not learn how to love and be loved by the time all of these beads go out, then you will be trapped in this castle for all of eternity and you will stay in your Oh-Oni form forever.

Anna gripped the necklace in her hands until the black stones dug into the soft skin of her palms. “1080 beads,” she repeated. “1079 years have passed. Seyram, this is the last year that I can break the spell.” The little girl looked at her sadly.

In reality, however, Anna had long grown callous and insensitive to the three servants in the castle so she really had two other chances of forming any kind of relationship that involved love: the previous two times Onsen Village had sent sacrifices. The villagers had gotten jumpy and sent their first maiden sacrifice, a girl named Kanna, before even a hundred years had passed. An uppity, arrogant little thing that had disrespected everyone in the castle. Anna had thought she had done a very good job by tolerating Kanna’s existence for ten years before throwing her off of the cliff. Happily throwing her off of the cliff, Anna thought sadistically. The second sacrifice sent up to the castle five hundred years later was a stick of a girl named Mari, the total antithesis of Kanna. She was quiet, refused to talk, and stayed in her room the entire time, eventually dying alone of old age.

“Oh-Oni, there are intruders on the grounds again.”

Anna nodded without even bothering to open her eyes. “Go. Set the wolves on them if you have to.” She heard the door slam shut. “Seyram, I will break this spell.” The little girl nodded.

Horohoro reached forward to knock again but immediately recoiled as soon as the door opened.

“You are trespassing.”

“Um…yeah. About that…” A girl around his age who was standing in the door frame refused to meet his eyes, opting to keep her gaze glued to the ground. “Hello?” He waved his hands in front of her. “I’m up here.”

“Please leave.” Her empty eyes didn’t move.

“I can’t exactly do that. You see, my friend, he came up here a little while ago and—Hey!” He stuck his foot in the door before it slammed shut. “I was still talking.”

“Please leave,” she repeated. “Or I will set the wolves on you.”

Horohoro snickered. “Like you have wolves here—Aaaaaaah!” He screamed as a pair of snarling, rabid wolves chased after him down the hill.

The girl sighed and returned inside. “Hey! I’m still not done with you yet!” Horohoro panted as he jogged back to the castle entrance.

The girl’s eyes flicked up for a second causing Horohoro to stop breathing. “You—you look like—” She looked exactly like Damuko when she did that. I mean, they might have different hairstyles and heights and stuff but she looked like her… “What’s your name?” She was silent. “What is your name?” Horohoro repeated slowly. Still no response. “If you’re not going to answer, I’m just going to call you Damuko, okay?” Silence. “Okay, Damuko, I have a favor to ask of you—”

“How did you get rid of the wolves?” she asked expressionlessly.

“Er, what? Oh, well I had some meat in my pocket…I’m not weird. I have a snow wolf back at home and I had leftovers I guess. Her name’s Kororo. My snow wolf I mean. She runs way faster than those fat dogs you sent after me so I had no problem outrunning—” The door slammed shut in his face. “Seriously? Again?! Well you know what, Damuko, I’m going to come back here every single day until you look me in the eyes!” he yelled. “Uh, and when you give Yoh back! Yeah! That’s what I meant! Why am I still yelling! I’ll stop yelling now! So I’ll see you tomorrow because I’m coming back every day like I said earlier! Okay, I’m stopping for real now.” He looked around before stuffing his hands in his pocket and shuffling back down the hill.

The girl leaned her back against the door and slowly sat down. Okay, breathe. That wasn’t so bad. I’m sure Oh-Oni didn’t hear. She crawled over to the window and shyly pulled back the drapes to watch her blue haired confronter walk back to the village. Or rather, trip over his feet, scream like a little girl and tumble down. He talks too much. But…he’s funny…and kind of—no, stop it! She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw his head pop back up from under the snow. The girl pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. I hope he comes back every day. And for the first time in over a thousand years, she allowed herself to smile.

“I really hope you have a good reason for me getting all these scrolls and things out. It wasn’t easy taking them out of the archives,” Kalim sighed as he set said scrolls and things on the table in front of Silva.

“Of course, Kalim, when have I ever asked you to do something for me that—”

“That one time when you told me to stand by your illegal booth of ‘authentic, handcrafted’ Patch jewelry that were actually made out of dime store plastic beads. And then it just so happened that Goldva and the others were doing random checks of the village and I got punished instead of you?” Kalim rattled off mechanically. “Or how about—”

“Okay, okay. But seriously this time, you remember how a couple of weeks ago we were discussing other interpretations of the legends? Since it is Oh-Oni season and all, I got to thinking about a recurring…‘motif’ if you will, that only appeared in 500 year intervals.”

Kalim exhaled. “I better sit down for this.”

“So you know who had sent Anna to the castle, right?”

Kalim rolled his eyes. Oh boy, Silva and his conspiracy theories. “Everyone knows that, Silva…the unnamed shaman.”

“Who looks like…” Silva pulled out the one of the two surviving original paintings of the myth. “This.” He pointed to the image of a long, brown haired boy, no older than perhaps eighteen.

“Silva—”

He held up a finger. “No, no, no, no. I have a point. This time it’s not a wild goose chase!”

We’ll see about that. “Okay, what now?”

“Who tore Lyserg and Jeanne apart?”

“A shaman.”

Silva grinned. “Not just any shaman…it’s our unnamed shaman!” He unrolled the little-known scroll of The Iron Maiden. “Jeanne, put under a spell by a group known as the X-Laws, fell into a hundred year slumber.” He tapped the panel that showed a sleeping young girl being placed inside a metal casket. “Then our hero Lyserg comes along who had heard that if the girl is kissed by her true love, then she would wake up.” Kalim looked at the picture of a green haired boy scaling a stone wall. “He did so and they were indeed each other’s true loves and they were about to get married. However, they were brutally separated. Not by disease, not by their families disapproval but by a war.” The next parchment showed two armies beginning to swarm the land, the two young lovers in the middle of it all. “A war started by…”

Kalim’s eyebrows raised. “The unnamed shaman.” In the background of the war scene stood the same long brown haired young man. “So he appears in two legends. That’s hardly anything to gawk over.”

“Hold on.” Kalim internally groaned. “The Ballad of Lilirara." Another scroll was quickly placed on the table. "Who killed her?”

“…A shaman.”

“Who killed her?”

Kalim looked down at the back of the dark haired figure who was walking away from the slain body of Onsen's finest historian. “…The unnamed shaman.”

Silva folded his hands together and looked pointedly at Kalim. “The Ballad of Lilirara took place five hundred years before Anna and Oh-Oni. Now I know you’re going to say something but my theory, before you ask me about it, is that I cross referenced the records that the Patch elders have kept over the centuries and it turns out that these people in the legends are real. Not the events themselves per se but at least the people in them actually lived!”

Kalim nodded. “Go on.”

Silva began talking a bit more excitedly. “So what I’m thinking is that this long haired shaman reappears every five hundred years when something out of the ordinary happens. And from the time frame and the events that are taking place right now, well I’d say that we fit the criteria!”

“So you think…that this unnamed antagonist…is going to show up at any time…and cause some sort of mayhem in the village,” Kalim reiterated slowly. “I’m willing to bet my last buffalo that your crazy theory would never, in a thousand years, ever happen.”

He grinned. “You’re on.”

Seyram poked her head into Yoh’s room. “Er, can you tell Oh-Oni that I won’t be joining her for dinner this night?” The little girl merely stared at him incredulously before stepping away momentarily. She returned with her big brother in tow.

“What is it, Seyram?” Redseb grumbled. “I haven’t started helping with dinner yet.” She roughly thrust a finger in Yoh’s direction.

“I was just telling your sister that I won’t be eating dinner tonight with you guys,” he stated simply.

Redseb’s eyes bugged out. “You what?” He cupped a hand around his ear, unwilling to believe what he just heard.

“I won’t be going to dinner tonight?”

“You…you…you…you…” Redseb shut his eyes and clenched his fists. “You can’t just do that!” he yelled.

Yoh blinked in surprise. “Erm, why not?”

“D-D-D-Do you have…any…idea how mad…Miss Oh-Oni will be?” the little boy managed to splutter out.

“I have a lot on my mind and I’m not feeling very hungry…Redseb? Redseb. What’s wrong?” He reached forward for the young boy’s hand as his eyes began brimming with tears.

“You don’t understand how angry she’ll be. Being with her for…for…a thousand years…it’s—she’s so…so…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Scary.” He sniffed.

Yoh clasped both of Redseb’s hands in his own and looked him in the eye. “Don’t worry, Redseb. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m worried about, Mister. I’m scared that you’re going to get hurt.”

“Don’t you spend any time stressing over me.” Yoh smiled. “I can take care of myself.” He inhaled deeply and sighed. “Truthfully, the reason I don’t want to go is that I’m worried about getting too close to Oh-Oni. I’m not sure that I would be able to remain completely impartial for whatever happens in the future if I have such a personal relationship with her.”

Redseb closed his eyes and covered his ears as he waited for the silence which indicated Oh-Oni was back to normal. Or as normal as she could get. It sounded like she was just about done so he tentatively tapped the door open with his foot. He cringed slightly in pain as he found the entire room in total disarray. It looked as if a tornado, hurricane, and earthquake converged in the small room. He picked his way through the splintered furniture and shattered glass, careful to not step on the oil that had splattered from the broken lamps. He called his sister over to help heave a disfigured shelf that had fallen on top of Oh-Oni. “Miss.” He prodded the unconscious girl in a vain attempt to wake her up. “Miss!”

Her eyes flew open. “Redseb,” she croaked hoarsely. “What happened.” She sat up dizzily and the little boy moved aside to let her survey the damage that she had caused. “This is the worst it’s ever…” she said shakily, trying to keep her voice even. “What triggered it this time.”

“I told you that the sacrifice wouldn’t be coming tonight—” He was cut off by a sharp raising of her hand.

"Bring it to me.” She snapped her fingers and Seyram disappeared for a moment, returning with a handheld mirror. Anna gazed into it until an image, blurry at first, appeared. She saw Yoh lying down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“I can’t go tonight. I know that. I can’t allow myself to get close to her.”

The image faded as she angrily slammed the mirror down onto a table.

“If he doesn’t want to eat,” she growled softly as she proceeded to the door. “Then let him starve.”

“This is the nineteenth time you’ve come back.” The servant girl poked her head outside.

“It’s been more than two weeks! When are you going to let him go?” Horohoro placed his hands behind his head as the two wolves wrestled over the piece of steak he had brought for them.

“Until Oh-Oni says so.” She wanted to close the door before he could see her blushing. “Good-bye.” She was about to end this brief meeting like she had done with every other.

“Wait!” He lunged forward and caught the door. She stepped back instinctively. This was the closest he had ever come to the castle. “Er, sorry about that…” he apologized as she warily lowered her arm. “If you’re going to be like this, won’t you at least tell me why you won’t look at me? Your eyes look so empty all the time.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said innocently, her eyes firmly trained to the floor.

“Damuko, didn’t your parents ever teach you that it’s rude to not look at someone when they’re talking?”

Again with that name. Her fists clenched slightly. “I never knew my parents. Good-bye, sir.” She started pushing the door closed.

“Horohoro.”

She blinked. “What?”

“My name. Horohoro,” he blurted out.

“Okay. Good-bye, Horohoro.”

“I don’t know why I said that. It’s just…I wish you didn’t hate me so much.”

“I never said I hated you!” Her face reddened a bit as she realized the enthusiasm with which she responded. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t.”

“Then why won’t you look at me? And as soon as I come up here you slam the door in my face. And you barely even talk to me and I’ve been visiting you for almost three weeks now.”

She turned away. No. He meant visiting the castle. Not visiting me. Stop being happy! she mentally berated herself but her face grew an even deeper shade of pink.

“I don’t even know your real name, Da—”

Her eye twitched. “Well, it seems that you already have one for me anyways. Good-bye.” And with that, she kicked backwards to slam the door in his face once again.

“Master Hao, have you heard what the villagers have been talking about?”

“Why, yes I have.” The boy looked lazily into the fireplace. “What of it?”

“Don’t you think that maybe you can use it…to…to…” Peyote faltered as he looked at Hao.

“To get revenge on the elders for exiling me to the outskirts of the village? And on my family for disowning me and replacing my spot as heir with that brother of mine?” Hao smiled at him. “Of course I’ve thought about it. I’ve been waiting all this time to do it. And the circumstances are perfect. Yoh is in the castle with that demon. What better way to kill two birds with one stone. We will destroy them and revolt so that I can claim the Asakura fortune and power as my own.”

“Y-You mean our own…right?”

“Sure, Peyote…” Hao stated dryly.

“So what are you going to do, Master?” Peyote’s face lit up.

“What am I going to do?” Peyote nodded excitedly. “I am going to do…nothing.” His face fell.

“What?” Peyote frowned, extremely disappointed.

“You on the other hand…I will need you to go and gather all of my past supporters back in the village. And then we will quietly rally the other villagers, convince them that the only way to make sure that we’re safe is if we kill the demon.” He continued staring at the heath. “With fire.”

Yoh looked around the hallway before he stole out of his room. 1080 beads, 1080 beads, where would those be…

“Obviously, they would be in her room. But this entire castle is not about the obvious. I would try the West Wing of the castle if I were you.”

“Oh, thank you,” Yoh said gratefully. “Wait—what?” He whirled around to find that no one was there. “Wh-Who said that?”

“Down here.” He looked down. “Surprised?” A normal looking orange striped cat stared back up at him. Except the cat was wearing clothes. And was walking upright on two legs. And was smoking a pipe. Besides that, totally normal looking cat.

“You can talk!” Yoh smiled and crouched down to pet it.

The cat swiftly sidestepped Yoh’s hand. “Of course I can talk. This castle is hardly ordinary, boy.”

“Were you imprisoned here along with the others?” The cat nodded sharply. “I’m Yoh.”

“Of the Asakura family, no doubt.”

Yoh cocked his head in surprise. “How did you know that?”

“Let’s just say that you look an awful lot like your brother.” He shook his head and smiled, sticking his paw out. “I am Matamune. I could be what you call Oh-Oni’s servant. But I am more of her caretaker. Would like a guide?”

“That would be great.” He stood back up and followed Matamune. “So if you were sent here the same time as the others…does that mean you’re trapped?”

They turned a corner. “No, I can come and go as I please. I know not why though. Perhaps the shaman didn’t know I was in the castle at the time. Or perhaps he took pity on a poor cat like me. Nonetheless, I was granted the power to speak and think as a human.”

"Huh." Yoh poked at a suit of armor they passed by. “It sure is creepy in here at night.”

“You get used to it…after a hundred years or so. After that, you actually become quite bored with the place.” He came to a stop in front of a room. “Here we are.”

Yoh entered it. Inside, to his surprise, it was a total mess. Dressers and chairs were overturned and the window was smashed in. The furniture was demolished and the refuse scattered the floor. “What’s—” He cut himself off as he saw a replica of the painting of Anna and Oh-Oni leaning against the wall. The entire thing was intact except for a single slash across the girl, her face having been completely scratched off. “Anna…” he breathed as he placed his hand on the top of the only table that was still upright. “Oh!” he lifted his hand up to reveal a simple necklace of fine beads. The only thing that was out of place was one of the beads was glowing.

“Do you see?” Matamune asked somberly as he joined Yoh.

“She’s in so much pain…” Yoh said, dejectedly looking over the destroyed room before his eyes settled on the marred painting once again. “So much.”

“Get out of my chair,” Ren repeated, glaring at the girl who sat at the head of the council table.

“Your chair?” She smiled. “Now that I’m leader as well, it could very well be mine!” She crossed her legs contentedly.

Ren spluttered at the sudden change of fortunes. “I-I-I was leader first!”

Pirika rolled her eyes. “Is that really the best you can come up with? I know you can do better, Pointy-Head.”

“Tao, Usui.” The two leaders snapped to attention as Goldva walked in. “Now that things appear to have settled down a bit,” the elder paused, fully ready for something to smash through the wall and prove him wrong yet again. “You should start making definitive plans since, whether I like it or not,” he stared them straight in the eye. “It looks like you two will be here for the long-term during this time of crisis.” The young leaders nodded. “May the Great Spirit help Onsen,” he muttered as he exited the council’s room.

Ren and Pirika stared at each other for an entire minute before they both dove for the official plan book. “IT’S MINE!” After a heated scuffle that resulted in frayed hair, bruised arms, scratched up legs, pulled faces, and wounded dignities, they both collapsed, panting, Ren’s hand firmly grasping the top of the book and Pirika’s fingers securely clamped on the bottom.

“Pirika, are you—” Kalim stood in the frame as the door swung open. His eyes bugged out and he blanched. “Er, ah, um, am I interrupting…something?” By the end of his inquiry, his voice had reached an incredibly high pitch as he shielded his eyes. “I’m sure your siblings will be…delighted…to hear of your relationship but ah, please try to do this somewhere more private!” He began shuffling out of the room.

Ren dragged himself up. “What are you talking about—” He cut himself off as he realized that the Patch elder had seen that his and Pirika’s clothes were all askew, their hair was more than disheveled, and they were both out of breath, lying down on the floor. “Oh.”

Pirika’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. “Oh.”

Kalim peeked out from behind his hands. “Oh?”

“No! It-it-it’s not like that!” They both jumped to their feet, surprising Kalim. “We were just fighting over the plan book since…since Goldva…” Ren and Pirika turned to each other, color rising to their cheeks and their eyes twitching as disgust began to fill their faces. “Ugh, no! No! Never!”

The Patch man nodded slowly and doubtfully as he walked backwards out of the room. “Uh…huh…well whatever you two say…” He smiled as he closed the door. “Ah, young love.”

Pirika hurled the plan book at the door. “We can still hear you!” They looked at the fallen prize on the ground. Looked at each other. Looked back at the sad pile of bound papers on the floor. And pounced. “THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!”

Pirika was quick on her feet and swiped away the plan book skillfully. “Ah-hah!” She opened it and slammed it onto the table, pulling a freshly inked pen. “Now that I have it, I mandate that we try to get back Yoh and therefore Horohoro and alert Jun and Bailong as soon as possible so all this crazy stuff can finally stop!”

She let her guard down for a mere second as she paused to ponder the wording of her very first order as a leader. Ren snatched it away. “That is the worst line of action I’ve ever heard!” He whipped out his own pen. “I mandate that we forget about them, cut our losses, and focus on defending the village against any attack!”

“Well, I mandate that you’re an idiot!”

“And I mandate that you don’t have a brain!”

“And I mandate that you both should stop arguing.” Silva stepped in from the back room and dusted his hands off. “You’ve been fighting over nothing for the past ten minutes! Can’t you two come to a consensus?”

The leaders bowed their heads in shame and studied each other. After a while: “No.”

Silva sighed and ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. “Why don’t you try compro—” They were all thrown off balance by a deafening explosion.

“What…What was that?” Pirika asked, her voice shaking as they all regained their composure. She threw open a window and looked up. “Guys! Look at the hill!” She pointed at the dark gray smoke that was curling out of Oh-Oni’s castle.

A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! I would love to hear from you guys! Your comments always make my day brighter =) Also, consider checking out my other story Unwritten (hint, hint)