Search This Blog


The Fall of Daigo - Part 5 - Mental Warfare - Chapter 4

The Fall of Daigo

Book 3 of the Dororo Novel Series

Toriumi Jinzō

Part 5 - Mental Warfare

Chapter 4

    "Dad," Hyakkimaru said, "I want to break into Daima Fortress alone. Please let me."

    "What?" Jukai looked at Hyakkimaru in alarm. There was firm resolve in Hyakkimaru's eyes.

    "I'm the one who should defeat Kagemitsu," Hyakkimaru said.

    "Daigo Kagemitsu is being manipulated by the Hall of Hell demons," Jukai said severely. "They're not only your enemies, you know. They've targeted Hōichi and me, too. Besides, the Hall of Hell demons are a menace to everyone living. They're everyone's enemies, and you can't defeat all of them by yourself."

    News of the Yamagō Clan army's defeat at Daima Fortress had spread all over Noto Province and was spreading further to Kaga and Ezichen. Everyone from here to Kurikara Pass to the far south had heard the tale.

    Jukai had never fought in a battle. He hated war on principle and did his best to avoid fighting at all costs. With the Hateyama Clan and Yamagō Clan army defeated, there was nothing left in Daigo Kagemitsu's way. He could conquer the province easily if he wanted. Jukai would not let that happen.

    "There is no difference between day and night at Daima Fortress," Jukai said. " It exists beyond the restrictions of time. I don't think it's actually possible for us to fight off all of the magically animated soldiers inside. You, me, and Hōichi will go inside to find Daigo Kagemitsu and the Hall of Hell demons. We can't allow anyone else to go inside. It's too dangerous."

    Jukai wanted to fight the demons and Kagemitsu with psychokinesis, since he knew that power was capable of threatening them. Hyakkimaru suspected that Jukai wanted to come along with him to keep him safe. He was always trying to keep him safe.

    "We'll attack to Daima Fortress tomorrow night, together," Jukai said. " Be ready in the morning."

    The next morning, Hyakkimaru, Jukai, Hōichi and the others started working on their final preparations early. Namitarō had transported more than a dozen carts full of gunpowder and explosives. Ochika had assigned her people to travel around and ahead of the remaining party on fast horses as scouts.

    They encountered villagers and survivors from the past two battles at the fortress as they traveled, including people from Unotani Village. These survivors no longer had a roof over their heads; many hadn't had anything to eat in days.

    Ochika stuck close to Dororo during the journey. She suspected that Dororo would go chasing after Hyakkimaru, no matter the danger, and she wanted Dororo to know everything before the end. There was no sense in keeping her secret to herself if both she and Dororo were going to die today.

    The traveling party made camp and set up a perimeter a little ways from the fortress. Namitarō structured the camp's defenders to protect the gunpowder and explosives from external attack or tampering. He also started unpacking and preparing weapons to use in the coming battle.

    Daima Fortress' magical defenders appeared the moment the sun set.

    "Hyakkimaru," Jukai whispered. "We only have one chance to get inside. Be careful."

Hyakkimaru nodded. "I will."

    This was the moment Jukai had been waiting for since he'd picked up Hyakkimaru below Mount Hyōtankuzure the day he was born. Hyakkimaru had been waiting for answers for his entire life. If all went well, he might finally get some.

    Why was Hyakkimaru thrown away? How had he survived? What would happen to them all now?

    "Shall we go?" Hōichi asked softly.

    Jukai nodded.

    Hōichi raised his hands, giving Namitarō and the others the signal. Namitarō barked out, "Now!"

     Takenōchi Tokuzō and the other pirates lit the fuses of their prepared fireworks with pine torches. The fireworks boomed in the stillness of the night, lighting up the sunset sky as bright as day for a few moments. Daima Fortress was clearly visible in the light of the fireworks.

    Then, Namitarō lit the fuse of the General's Cannon.

    The cannonball exploded from the barrel of the cannon and shot into the sky...before plunking back to earth with a soft thump. It was like the cannonball had hit an invisible wall.

    Namitarō cursed and shouted, "Fire! Fire!"

    But no matter what they fired at the fortress, the pirates' projectiles always bounced back at them, sometimes with hazardous speed.

    "All we can do now is pray for luck," Hōichi said.

    "Hm?" Jukai looked askance at Hōichi.

    Namitarō kept shouting, "Fire! Now!"

    The second round of ammunition didn't bounce back, but it scattered harmlessly in the sky without touching Daima Fortress at all.

    "There's a spirit barrier around the fortress," Hōichi said.

    "Spirit barrier?" Hyakkimaru asked.

    "It can't be seen--not by you--but it prevents people and things from getting in."

    Jukai and Hyakkimaru exchanged uneasy glances. They had never encountered this aspect of demon magic before.

    "How do we get past it?" Hyakkimaru asked.

    "We can't," Hōichi said.

    "What?!" Hyakkimaru forgot to keep his voice down. "What do you mean, we can't?" His artificial eyes flashed brightly.

    Jukai was just as stunned as Hyakkimaru, and just as disappointed. He knew that Hōichi's eyes were never wrong.

    Hyakkimaru felt like he'd been overwhelmed by the sudden shock of an attack that he hadn't even had time to feel yet. He nodded once, dejectedly, then started walking away--toward Daima Fortress.

    "Where are you going?" Jukai asked.

    Hyakkimaru stopped walking along a stand of trees close to Daima Fortress and turned back.

    A monstrous metal arm covered in blood and filth burst through the ground at Hyakkimaru's feet and  seized his right leg. Hyakkimaru grunted and braced himself for a bad fall. The arm yanked hard on Hyakkimaru's leg, causing a hideous creak.

    Hyakkimaru drew his Muramasa sword, focused his psychokinetic energy, and narrowly managed to slip free.  The metal arm swiped at Hyakkimaru again, but he jumped over it.

    The earth parted further, revealing the strangest and dirtiest-looking demon--man?--that Hyakkimaru had ever seen. His legs were clad in iron armor that hadn't rusted, for all that it was covered in wet earth. When Hyakkimaru looked closer, he realized that the demon's legs appeared to be made completely of metal. He was at least ten feet tall and wore nothing above the waist. A tiger skin hung from his belt. His features resembled those of an enormous ape. He glowed faintly green in the gathering dark. His eyes, too, glowed green and fixed on Hyakkimaru with threatening menace.

    "That's Jiraiya," Hōichi said.

    "What?" Jukai was briefly speechless. Hōichi had told Jukai a bit about the historical Jiraiya. There was speculation that he'd been born with psychokinesis, like Hōichi and Hyakkimaru. In Jiraiya's current state, he and Hyakkimaru were the same in at least one way: none of their limbs were real.  

    One of the legends about Jiraiya claimed that when he'd achieved immortality, the people he'd terrorized had struck a terrible bargain with cursed spirits to remove all his limbs and seal him away.

    Jiraiya had transformed into an onryō in his rage at being betrayed and sealed away from the world. The Hall of Hell demons had revived him, giving him new and powerful limbs in place of the ones he had lost. Jiraiya called out something in a language Hyakkimaru didn't know and raised his hands to the heavens.

    Long, sharp iron claws sprouted from Jiraiya's fingers. One slash would disembowel a person instantly.

    Hyakkimaru's gathered psychokinetic energy made his skin and limbs glow faintly blue, but he barely noticed. He wanted to fight, but he didn't want to die; he kept his distance as he pondered his next move.

    I get it. Jiraiya must be causing that spirit barrier. The Hall of Hell demons can't do it, or they would have before.

    Jiraiya raised his hands again and attacked. Hyakkimaru dodged, slashing his sword out to maintain some distance between him and his opponent.

    There was a loud sound of metal striking metal as a small bomb exploded on Jiraiya's shoulder.

    "Got him!" Dororo called out. Ochika and Dororo were crouched down near Hōichi and Jukai, observing the battle.

    Jiraiya's left arm fell off, into the dirt. A few seconds later, the arm shot back into place, repairing itself as if it had never been broken.

    Hyakkimaru's eyes widened. Jiraiya was definitely stronger than Hyakkimaru. He had more control over his prosthetic limbs, and he had no need to protect them when he could simply repair them when they were broken.

    Jiraiya gazed down at Hyakkimaru with an expression of clear contempt. The armored plates covering his legs fell away, revealing a large number of bamboo darts sharpened to fine points. Jiraiya leaped over Hyakkimaru's head, planning to release his darts directly at Hyakkimaru's face.

    Hyakkimaru stood his ground, using his sword to deflect the darts that came whooshing at him through the air, then slashed out at Jiraiya with his sword.

    Like Namitarō's ammunition, the sword's force was deflected back at Hyakkimaru.

    "Ah!" Hyakkimaru stepped back in surprise. In the split second that it took Hyakkimaru to react, lightning shot from Jiraiya's eyes, directly at Hyakkimaru's left arm.

    Hyakkimaru's arm shot off, still holding his sword. There was no time to retrieve it before Jiraiya's next strike. Hyakkimaru stood still, stunned, unsure of what to do.

    "Hehehehe..." Jiraiya chuckled. It was an alien sort of sound that sounded wrong in his throat.

    Namitarō stopped urging his men to shoot. He stood still and watched.

    Jiraiya approached Hyakkimaru slowly, in a taunting sort of way. Hyakkimaru crouched down and undid the fastenings that bound his right elbow to his hand, revealing his hand cannon. He aimed the prepared weapon at Jiraiya and fired.

    Jiraiya wasn't ready to deflect the blow from Hyakkimaru, whom he thought weaponless. His entire body burst into flames as he fell and rolled. His right arm blew up, flying off into the darkness.

    But Jiraiya was not yet defeated. His right arm returned and re-molded itself to his body. Both of Hyakkimaru's arms were off. He'd lost his sword and used the only shot he'd prepared in advance. He tried to call his sword back to him, but the battle had exhausted him: he couldn't do it.

    Hyakkimaru stood up slowly. He knew of only one other way to fight. He prayed it didn't end in failure.

    Jiraiya was coming. If Hyakkimaru was hit directly by his lightning eyes, he would die.

    Hyakkimaru spoke the words of Manjushri's mantra. "On abira un kashal..." 

    "Aniki!" Dororo cried out.

    At the same time, Hōichi and Jukai began chanting, "On abira un kashal..."

    The planet Venus flashed in the night sky. A bird wreathed in white fire flew through the darkness. Hyakkimaru couldn't believe his eyes. "Takumaru?" It was the hawk he'd encountered and trained with on Mount Monju.

    The light surrounding Takumaru shot into the Muramasa sword lying on the ground. Hyakkimaru did up the fastenings on his right arm hurriedly and managed to catch the sword as it shot back toward him.

    "Go!" Hyakkimaru hurled the sword at Jiraiya with all his might.

    The Muramasa sword cut through one of Jiraiya's metal arms with a screech. The sword shone brightly with the concentrated force of Hyakkimaru's psychokinesis and Takumaru's added power.

    Jiraiya groaned in pain and reached over with his other arm to pull the Muramasa sword out. When he touched Hyakkimaru's sword, Hyakkimaru could feel Jiraiya's intent in his mind.

    Being reborn like this was wasn't enough for Jiraiya. He wanted a body: a human body. Hyakkimaru's. The knowledge made Hyakkimaru sick to his stomach. He banished the connection Jiraiya had formed with him using psychokinesis, then used his sword to cut through Jiraiya's skull. Jiraiya's body turned to ash and disappeared, like many demons before him. Only his weird green eyes remained intact.

    Hyakkimaru looked up at the sky. Takumaru was gone.

    "Manjushri, worker of miracles, watch over me..."  Part of Hyakkimaru felt a slight twinge of pity for Jiraiya. Few people understood what it was like to have no limbs at all.  In his desire to be strong despite his disabilities and deformities, Jiraiya had allowed his rage to corrupt him.

    "Aniki, look!" Dororo yelled.

    Hyakkimaru snapped out of his melancholy thoughts.

    Daima Fortress started shaking around the edges, like it was surrounded by a heat haze or a mirage.

    Jukai turned to Namitarō. "Now! Shoot now!"

    Namitarō  nodded. "Fire!" He lit the fuse of the General's Cannon for the second time. The shot wasn't deflected by the spirit barrier. The force of the cannonball hitting the fortress caused shrapnel to fly in all directions. The resulting boom was deafening, and the force of it shook the ground beneath Namitar ō's feet.

    Lacking the protection of the spirit barrier, Daima Fortress' outer wall was reduced to rubble in a single hit.

    Namitarō  had his men keep firing the smaller cannons until the General's Cannon was ready to load again. The smaller projectiles peeled the fortress open, revealing the defending soldiers. Without their animating force to guide and support them, they stood still until their cores were pierced by ammunition. Like Jiraiya, they turned to ash and blew away on the wind.

    Namitarō kept firing for half an hour without a break until he was satisfied with the ruin of the fortress. "Stop firing," he commanded.

    Silence fell over the battlefield. In the haze of gunpowder smoke that followed the assault, Daima Fortress was only scarcely visible. As Hyakkimaru and the others watched, Daima Fortress disappeared into the smoke like a hallucination or a dream. Only an ordinary old ruin remained, half-crumbled by time and further damaged by the cannon barrage.

    A long line of crossbowmen stood in the ruins. They were the human soldiers who had escaped Nomitadani Fortress with Daigo Kagemitsu. Their bolts were loaded; they fired at Ochika's bandit army before Ochika could command her people to find cover. Many bandits fell dead, pierced by crossbow bolts.

    "They're human, ain't they?" Saruyoshi all but screamed. "Let's get em!"

    The bandit army's archers fired at the crossbowmen, but the distance was too far for their arrows to reach. But the bandits understood ordinary enemy fire. They knew exactly what to do: run for cover until the enemy came into range.

    Namitarō passed out a new weapon to his crew: hand cannons with barrels that were  about three feet long. This was an improved version of Hyakkimaru's hand cannon.  It had more power and rounds could travel farther. They were invented in China in 1377, and were the first long-range handheld cannons made entirely of metal. 

    Saruyoshi and the other bandits appeared confused by the new weapon. There weren't enough for everyone to get one.

    Once Namitarō  had passed out all the hand cannons, he commanded his crew to fire at the fortress. A deafening boom shook the air as fire erupted from the end of the hand cannons. The cannon rounds reached the crossbowmen, setting them on fire. This effect was achieved by coating the ammunition inside the barrel with oil. When the cannon fire reached its target, the oil spread and ignited. These new and improved hand cannons were devastating weapons.

    "Got ‘em!" Namitarō shouted in triumph. Saruyoshi and the bandits cheered.

    The crossbowmen fanned out to make it harder for the next volley to wipe them all out at once. There were about fifty surviving crossbowmen. Kagemitsu was among them. With the fortress reduced to rubble, he and his defenders had no choice but to take up position outside.

    Hyakkimaru adjusted his grip on his sword with his right hand and charged toward the enemy. He released his sword, sending it flying at his nearest opponents. They were unprepared for such an assault. Most died before they hit the ground.

    While Kagemitsu's defenders shrank back in terror, Hyakkimaru darted through a gap in their line and sprinted toward the ruin of the fortress.

    Namitarō drew his own sword and shouted, "Charge! It's time to avenge our dead on the Hall of Hell demons!"

    The pirates prepared their swords and spears and sent up a roar of approval. Namitarō  was the first of the pirates to engage the enemy, separating a samurai's head from his shoulders in a spray of blood.

    Ochika darted over to Hōichi and Jukai. "Leave this place to us," she said. "Get over there, before Hyakkimaru is surrounded."

    Jukai and Hōichi followed Hyakkimaru while Namitarō, Ochika and their small armies swarmed over Daigo Kagemitsu's protectors. The crossbowmen scattered and fled, decimated and outnumbered.

    It was unclear what was happening behind the ruined walls of the fortress. The battlefield fell quiet as the fighting ceased. The pirates and bandits took up defensive positions and waited.

    A few silent, tense seconds passed. No movement was visible from the fortress.

    Dororo sprang up. "I'm going."

    "Wait!" Ochika ran after Dororo and grabbed his sleeve.

    "Let me go," Dororo said, squirming and trying to get free.

    "Dororo…" There were tears behind Ochika's eyes that didn't fall. She saw Dororo's conviction and understood it, but she didn't want to let Dororo run into danger alone.

    Ochika swallowed, then let go of Dororo's sleeve. "Then go," she said. " Now!"

    "Thanks, mom!" 

    Dororo didn't realize that he'd called Ochika ‘mom' until much later. It had just slipped out.

    Ochika pulled Dororo into a fierce hug. Namitarō rushed up to them and said, " Are you going in there, Dororo? Damn, you're brave. Taifu Jukai ordered us to stay here no matter what, but I don't think he gave those same orders to you. So help Hyakkimaru, yeah? Protect him for all of us who can't be there." He put a hand on Dororo's shoulder.

    "I will," Dororo said. "I wanna kill some demons."  Then Dororo was off like a speeding cannon round.




No comments:

Post a Comment