The Busy Water Hashira (Part 1)

Kanzaburo was drawing those circles in the sky again, the ones only he understood.

Giyu Tomioka stopped and looked up.

The branches and leaves of the dense forest formed a net overhead, and the Kasugai Crow appeared and disappeared through the gaps.

"He led me the wrong way again!!!"

He sighed inwardly, his chest rising and falling slightly.

He could hardly call himself angry, and he wasn't even all that surprised.

Kanzaburo was always like this. He was too old, and his sense of direction... really sucked.

"Master Urokodaki said Kasugai Crows are our partners, so we have to be understanding!!!"

He backed up a few steps, took a running start, pushed off the ground and caught a hanging vine. Using it for leverage, he climbed onto the highest branch of the tallest cedar nearby in a few quick movements.

When he found his footing, the branch swayed gently, shaking loose a few drops of rainwater that slipped coldly down the back of his neck.

The view was finally a little better from up here.

A sea of trees stretched beneath him, dark green, deep green, yellow-green, layer upon layer.

He narrowed his eyes and peered hard at the place where the forest met the horizon.

"Found it!"

A wisp of cooking smoke, almost invisible, rose straight into the slowly darkening sky.

Giyu flipped over and leaped down.

By the time he emerged from the forest, little daylight remained.

The rice was fully ripe, its heavy heads drooping as the evening breeze sent gentle waves rippling through it.

A village lay at the foot of the mountain in the distance, the thatched roofs a withered yellow in the gathering dusk.

Kanzaburo circled low over the village, his calls short and urgent.

Giyu walked along the ridge between the fields toward the village.

A man carrying a hoe was walking back toward him.

The man was in his forties, with dark skin and wrinkles as deep as knife cuts.

His eyes first fixed on the long sword at Giyu's waist, his pupils contracting sharply. He quickly glanced over Giyu's conspicuous white haori, and the instant their eyes met, he hurriedly lowered his head and quickened his pace considerably, practically slipping past along the edge of the field ridge.

A woman was hurriedly bringing clothes into her house, moving quickly and anxiously, glancing from time to time at the slowly darkening sky.

Two children were chasing and roughhousing by the roadside when an adult rushed out of a house and sharply shouted at them to stop. The adult dragged them back inside, and the wooden door slammed shut with a bang.

"...How many times have I told you? You're not allowed outside after dark!"

"But, Mom..."

"No buts! What happened to Old Li's family at the east end? Have you forgotten?!"

The scolding came from behind the door, lowered but still shrill.

Giyu retreated to the edge of the forest outside the village, found an old tree with gnarled roots, and sat down with his back against its trunk.

He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.

He suppressed his presence as much as possible, as though trying to become one with the tree behind him.

Kanzaburo landed silently on his bent knee and folded his wings, his black, beadlike eyes darting about alertly.

They waited silently in the darkness.

Waited.

Waited for the greediest mouth hidden in the shadows to come to them of its own accord.

Night deepened.

The mountain wind grew stronger, howling as it passed through the gaps between the village houses.

Giyu's eyes flew open.

"Ah—!"

Almost at the same time, a piercing scream, scarcely human, erupted from the other end of the village!

The scream was frighteningly short, as though someone had seized the screamer by the throat. Then came the thunderous crash of wood smashed apart by tremendous force and collapsing!

"It's here—!"

"At the ancestral hall! The demon's at the ancestral hall!"

The deathly silence was shattered in an instant!

The sound of chaotic footsteps, clashing metal, men's hoarse roars, and women's terrified cries mingled as they poured toward the ancestral hall from every corner of the village.

People grabbed every implement they could find—hoes, pitchforks, rusty cleavers... and charged toward the ancestral hall.

"Fight it! We can't let it eat anyone else!!!"

"Light a fire! Burn down the ancestral hall! Burn it to death!"

Their roars shook the sky, but they could not hide the desperate tremor beneath them.

Giyu vanished from beside the tree. With a light push of his toes, he was already atop a low roof ridge, rising and falling over the rows of rooftops like a silent white shadow.

The faint clatter of roof tiles was quickly drowned out by the uproar below.

The open space in front of the ancestral hall was brightly lit by torches.

The crowd had formed a semicircle, firelight dancing across their faces and revealing alarm, anger, and unfathomable fear.

At the very center stood a young man in his early twenties, dressed in old samurai robes washed pale. He gripped a katana tightly in both hands, its tip pointing straight at the shadows at the edge of the clearing.

His face was deathly pale, his forehead covered in cold sweat. The arms holding his sword shook visibly, and the tip trembled uncontrollably in the air.

From the shadows opposite him, the thing slowly emerged.

It... still roughly maintained a human form, but it was on all fours, its joints bent backward as it crouched in an extremely unnatural posture.

"Meat..."

When it opened its mouth, its voice was hoarse and dry, like two pieces of rusty sheet metal scraping together.

"So much... fresh meat... hungry... so hungry..."

It extended a long, scarlet tongue and licked its fangs, producing a grating scrape that set teeth on edge.

"Die!!!"

The young man stepped forward, raised his sword in both hands, and brought it down toward the demon's neck with all his strength!

There was no technique to the strike, only brute force, and the blade whistled as it cut through the air.

But the demon merely raised its left arm casually across its neck.

"Clang—!!!"

A piercing metallic clash rang out!

The katana struck the demon's forearm squarely, and several bright sparks flew!

The young man felt a tremendous force recoil through the hilt. The skin between his thumb and forefinger split on the spot, and blood welled out, staining the hilt red.

But only a white mark remained on the demon's arm. Its skin had not even been broken.

"Heh... heh heh..."

The demon gave a delighted, eerie chuckle, its blood-red eyes narrowing. It seemed to be enjoying its prey's futile resistance.

It raised its right claw, its five fingers like iron hooks, its black nails long and sharp. With a foul gust, it darted toward the young man's stomach as fast as lightning!

If that claw landed, it would surely tear his belly open!

"My son—!!!"

The village chief let out a heart-rending scream.

The young man wanted to retreat, but his feet seemed nailed to the ground. He could only watch helplessly as the shadow of death rapidly loomed larger.

Bone-chilling terror gripped his heart, nearly stopping its beat.

Just as the demon's claw was about to touch the fabric over his stomach—

The cruel, mocking grin on the demon's face froze with a snap.

Its movement paused for an extremely brief instant, less than the blink of an eye.

The claw it had thrust forward stopped in midair, and its blood-red eyes darted to the side.

Danger! Extreme danger! Run!

The next instant.

A deep blue light.

It appeared without warning beside the demon's neck.

The last thing the demon saw was its own claw hanging in midair. Then its entire world began to spin.

At the edge of his spinning vision, he glimpsed his headless body pitching forward with its remaining momentum.

That... what was that~~~

Before he could make sense of his final thought, his consciousness plunged completely into boundless darkness and dissipated along with it.

"Shick."

The sound was almost inaudible, like a sharp blade cutting through the finest silk.

The head rolled to the ground, its face smeared with dirt, that frozen look of astonishment still fixed on its ashen-blue features.

The headless body swayed and fell forward. The instant it touched the ground, it rapidly blackened, crumbled, and turned to scattering ash.

The young man remained frozen where he stood, still holding his sword in both hands in the posture of a forward slash.

His eyes wide, he stared fixedly at the ring of dust rapidly settling on the ground, then abruptly looked up toward the shadow beneath the ancestral hall's upturned eaves.

Had that... been an illusion?

That flash of blue light, so cold it made his heart tremble?

And the strange expression that had suddenly frozen on the demon's face in that instant?

"It's... gone?"

The young man murmured, his voice dry and hoarse.

"The demon... the demon's gone! The gods have manifested! The gods have blessed us!!!"

The village chief, who had collapsed on the ground, was the first to react. He scrambled over and threw his arms around his son's legs, tears and snot streaming down his face as he kowtowed wildly in every direction.

The crowd fell silent for an instant, then erupted into a tremendous clamor!

Crying, laughter, relieved shouts, and trembling in the aftermath of terror mingled together.

"It's dead! It's really dead!"

"Who was it? Who killed it? I didn't see anything!"

"It was a flash of a blade! I think I saw a blue light!"

"What nonsense! There's nobody there! It must have been the ancestors in the hall showing their power!"

"..."

Giyu stood on the branch of an old locust tree in the distance, his figure completely concealed by its lush foliage.

He watched the disorderly crowd below, in front of the ancestral hall, yet it was as though an invisible membrane lay between them.

The leaping firelight reflected in his ice-blue eyes, but they remained like a deep, still, cold pool, without a ripple.

"Caw."

Kanzaburo had returned to his shoulder at some point and gave a soft call.

"It wasn't the gods."

Giyu spoke quietly, his voice so soft it nearly scattered in the wind.

He took one last look at the firelit uproar, then turned and, after a few leaps, disappeared completely into the deep darkness of the mountain forest outside the village.

He left all those human joys and sorrows, the lamplight and clamor, far behind him.