Dororo: Part Two
Nakamura Masaru
Part 4: At the Border
Chapter 24 - Part 2
In response to the new threat that Ran represented, the Kaneyama Clan warriors threw their heads back and shouted, “Yukino!”
Yukino was a woman’s name. She was an archer with a longbow. As Yuri and Tahōmaru rode away from the hill on a horse, she released an arrow that pierced the horse straight through the eye. The horse screamed, throwing its riders and bucking in pain.
Ran rushed over to Yuri and Tahōmaru. He seized each of them by the arm and encouraged them to flee as fast as they could, but Tahōmaru hung back, pained by his wounds and out of breath. “Leave me,” he said. “Get back to the fortress. Protect my parents.”
Ran hesitated. Yuri kept running; she hadn’t noticed yet that Tahōmaru was choosing to stay behind. Ran looked at Tahōmaru’s ruined eye, then gave the young lord a firm nod. He caught up to Yuri and urged her to run.
Yuri looked behind her. She tried to run back to Tahōmaru, but Ran grabbed her arm and pressed her forward.
“Tahōmaru!” Yuri cried out.
“Protect my mother, no matter what happens!” Tahōmaru shouted after Ran.
Yukino released another arrow. It passed over the heads of Tahōmaru and Hyakkimaru and went flying straight toward Yuri.
“Ran!” Tahōmaru yelled.
There was no time to get out of the way. Ran just barely had time to intercept the arrow. He staggered and fell.
Yuri looked over at Ran, uncomprehending. Her breathing came in ragged gasps. “Ran... ?”
The arrow had pierced his throat from behind. His eyes fixed on her, confirming that she was all right. Then he collapsed in a heap and was still.
The attack on Ran snapped Hyakkimaru out of his mute hatred of the Kaneyama Clan. He didn’t know Ran at all, of course, so his death didn’t have much of an impact, but watching the Kaneyama Clan kill again was just the spur he needed to leap into action. He bared his teeth and faced Kaneyama Takeshige squarely.
Tahōmaru appeared in front of Hyakkimaru to block his way.
“Please,” Tahōmaru gritted out. “Our mother--you have to protect her now. I can’t.”
One of Tahōmaru’s eyes was gone: just a mess of blood and gore. The other shone with tears. His right thigh was cut open and bleeding; he couldn’t run far with a wound like that.
The Kaneyama Clan warriors raised their weapons. Takeshige shouted, “Attack!”
Hyakkimaru’s gaze flicked between the Kaneyama Clan warriors and Yuri.
“I’ll hold them off here,” Tahōmaru said. “Protect mother. Please.”
***
Sae and Yukino stayed behind the main line as archers while the other five warriors advanced, including Takeshige. Dororo broke away from Biwabōshi so that he could assist Hyakkimaru. He heard the beating of a hand drum and noticed one of the Kaneyama Clan warriors striking out a steady rhythm.
Dororo grasped for his own drum and found it gone.
Shit. Bad enough that the Kaneyama Clan were murderers--they’d stolen from the world’s greatest thief! Dororo wasn’t about to let that pass.
What had actually happened was that the drum had flown off while Dororo was getting away from the flying metal projectile, but that was just semantics.
Dororo ran toward Hyakkimaru at the same time that Yukino released her third arrow. As before, it flew over the heads of Tahōmaru and Hyakkimaru, straight at Yuri. This time, Ran wasn’t there to act as a shield, and it pierced her through the stomach. She screamed, and the sound made Hyakkimaru’s hair stand on end. Though it was probably too late now, he sprinted toward Yuri as fast as he could go.
Hyakkimaru ran like he’d lost his mind and all his senses. He knew Yuri as well as he knew Ran; there was no reason for him to do what Tahōmaru had asked of him. No reason at all. And yet...
Yuri stood up. She saw Hyakkimaru running toward her and her eyes went wide. Stumbling into a jog, she shouted, “No! Don’t stay here! Run away!”
Hyakkimaru lost a step and almost fell, but regained his balance and picked up speed again. This, Hyakkimaru thought, was what it meant to have a mother. She didn’t care about her own safety if Tahōmaru was in danger.
And she cared that Hyakkimaru was in danger, too.
“Mother!” Tahōmaru was losing his voice. “Get away from here!”
The wind whistled around a spear thrown by one of the Kaneyama Clan warriors. The weapon whizzed past Tahōmaru toward Yuri, but Hyakkimaru reached her before it did. He seized her white hands and pulled her down, out of the way of the spear.
Yuri thrust Hyakkimaru away from her as if his touch burned her. An instant later, the spear ran her through, pinning her to the ground.
Hyakkimaru froze from shock, staring at the unmoving Yuri.
Mom? he thought, but he said nothing.
Behind him, he heard Tahōmaru lose his footing and the slicing sound of metal cutting bone.
Tahōmaru?
Hyakkimaru turned around and saw Tahōmaru on the ground. Not moving, like Yuri. He was probably dead. Hyakkimaru felt like it was his fault. He hadn’t held the sword that killed Tahōmaru, but Tahōmaru wouldn’t be dead if they hadn’t fought.
I killed my younger brother.
Just like he’d killed Mio, and all those children. They never would have died if he wasn’t there--or if he’d been strong enough to save them.
The Kaneyama Clan warriors called out a rallying cry. “Attack! Take him!”
Hyakkimaru was so surprised by that that he snapped out of his shocked stupor. Take... me? He lifted his sword arm. He was surrounded by enemies like a bird caught in a net, but he wasn’t beaten yet. They wouldn’t take him anywhere while he still lived.
***
“Lady Sae, come with me!” Yukino said as she prepared her bow and arrows for movement. “We need to move farther up the hill!”
Dororo saw them coming. He gripped his new knife--not Claw, but it would have to do--and pounced on the advancing Kaneyama Clan warriors. Before he could reach Sae, Takeshige, or Yukino, the half-demon, half-demon girl jumped out in front of Dororo carrying a naginata.
“You’re getting really annoying,” Dororo said.
Sae and Yukino saw Dororo and the half-demon girl blocking their progress. “What is this? Move!” Sae commanded.
The half-demon girl stood her ground. Dororo gripped his knife, but his arm was injured from previous battles.
The half-demon girl sneered. “Shall we continue where we left off?”
***
Hyakkimaru watched the Kaneyama Clan warriors fan out around him. The devices on their clothes were all shimmering snakes. “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it, kid?” Takeshige called out. “I remember you--we cut you and cut you, and you wouldn’t fucking bleed. Guess you learned how to do that recently.” He laughed. “Who would’ve guessed that you’d be Daigo Kagemitsu’s secret son? I thought you were half-demon or something… is that true?”
Hyakkimaru gave no reply. There was nothing he wanted to say to Takeshige. Words were insufficient to express his hate. He didn’t care about Takeshige’s misconceptions and lies. The world hadn’t understood him from the start; he’d never asked for understanding. He didn’t need to understand his enemies now. It was long past time for him to destroy them.
Another warrior, Isaki, looked Hyakkimaru up and down. “He might bleed, but he ain’t dying. We gotta cut off his head, Lord Takeshige.”
“And pray to the gods that he remains dead after we kill him.”
Hyakkimaru scoffed. He wasn’t half-demon. What power his body possessed came from the skill of Jukai and the potency of the spirits of the dead children that had sustained him this far.
Yukino approached Tahōmaru’s unmoving body and spat in his face. Hyakkimaru tensed, but only Sae noticed. Hyakkimaru was enraged now, and the safest course of action would be to get out of the way until he tired himself out.
“You don’t belong in this world.” Hyakkimaru turned in a slow circle, taking in all of his attackers. “Disappear.”
***
Biwabōshi plucked a string on his lute as he faced the half-demon, half-human girl. Dororo took a step back from him as if he was afraid that Biwabōshi would try to interfere with the battle again.
“How terrible,” Biwabōshi said under his breath. “I never thought to see women fighting in a pointless war, to say nothing of this poor creature manufactured by the demons.” He looked on the half-demon girl with an expression of pity. “What is your name, child?”
The half-demon girl didn’t answer. She glared at him and gripped her naginata tighter.
Biwabōshi sighed. “I cannot see, and you cannot reach past the length of her weapon,” he said to Dororo. He drew a thin sword from his lute and tossed it to Dororo, who caught it. It was easier to block the naginata’s slashes with a longer, stronger weapon.
Takeshige and Isaki led the attack on Hyakkimaru while Sae and Yukino scouted the hill. Dororo fought the half-demon, half-human girl. Hyakkimaru seized a naginata from one of his attackers and used it to cut Isaki’s head clean off. One by one, the Kaneyama Clan warriors fell. A man named Tsukuda took a tumbling fall and smacked his head on a stone. A woman named Takae collapsed to her knees just after. Hyakkimaru didn’t know if she died from her wounds or from the shock of witnessing Tsukuda’s death.
Takeshige kicked the naginata from Hyakkimaru’s hand. Dororo savagely disarmed the half-demon girl, then threw her naginata to Hyakkimaru a split second before Takeshige cut him to pieces.
The half-demon girl, disarmed and surrounded by corpses, froze still. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It wasn’t possible for the Kaneyama Clan warriors to lose. She couldn’t lose--if she lost, she was dead, and her desire for revenge would come to nothing.
Biwabōshi looked at the half-demon girl with his partially blind eyes. “Give up, girl,” he said. “If you stop fighting and simply watch, no one will kill you.”
Yukino was among the last warriors to fall. She came upon Isaki’s severed head and was so distracted for a moment that Hyakkimaru was able to get the jump on her. She scrambled, trying to nock an arrow, but her hands shook too badly. Hyakkimaru’s concentrated hatred washed over her in a wave. She felt the intensity of his rage--not just toward her, but toward the entire Kaneyama Clan.
No ordinary human could transmit their feelings to someone else that way. She felt almost like she was sharing a piece of his mind and experiences as she struggled to move. She had to defend herself, but the grip of Hyakkimaru’s hatred kept her still and silent.
This monster is going to kill me.
Yukino finally managed to shoot an arrow, but it missed. She had just pulled another out of her hip quiver when Hyakkimaru’s sword arm pierced her side.
“I’m down!” she cried out as she fell.
“Rise again!” Takeshige called back. “We will take our nation back!”
But it was obvious, even to Takeshige, that the Kaneyama Clan’s cause was lost. They had too few people to start with, and Hyakkimaru had killed too many.
Takeshige found Sae crouched down in a patch of tall grass and reached for her hand. He squeezed it, then said, “Sae... you must run.” He was prepared to die, but he didn’t want to drag his younger sister down with him.
Sae didn’t move. She looked at her brother and then down the hill in the direction they’d come.
“Run!” Takeshige said. “You must care for our grandmother. There’s no one else to do that, now.”
“I won’t let you get away,” Hyakkimaru said. “How many people have you killed? How much suffering have you caused? I’m going to end all of that now.”
Takeshige frowned deeply. Hyakkimaru’s anger was understandable, but the Daigo Clan was responsible for just as much suffering as the Kaneyama Clan.
***
Akane had stayed behind at the Kaneyama Clan’s camp in the mountains. Her eyes kept being drawn to the Daigo Clan’s fortress. She got sick of being alone and waiting for news, so she left the camp, all the while muttering to herself about Daigo Kagemitsu’s head and what she would do with it once she had it.
Her body was old and withered. What strength she’d had earlier in life had drained away from her bit by bit over the past year in exile. Climbing up and down the mountain slopes tired her out quickly. She fell, struggled to rise, then lay down with her back flat on the ground.
“Daigo... Kagemitsu... I want his head.”
Her heartbeat thumped loud and irregular in her ears. She reached up both hands to the bright blue sky, envisioning Daigo Kagemitsu’s face above her, trying to crush it between her palms.
“Lady Akane!”
Akane heard the voice, but didn’t recognize it. She allowed the voice to stir her to action, however. Her journey wasn’t done yet. She climbed slowly to her feet, then continued walking down the mountain.
***
Takeshige faced off against Hyakkimaru, trying to give Sae time to run. He was exhausted and wounded from battle; Hyakkimaru, still in the grip of his all-consuming rage, made short work of him.
Sae was the last survivor of the Kaneyama Clan warriors. She ran away from Hyakkimaru along the uneven ground, but she wasn’t really expecting to get away. Hyakkimaru followed her at a steady pace.
Stumbling, Sae rolled down the hill. Hyakkimaru kept coming. “Everything my grandmother said was true,” Sae said. “Everything! You’re nothing but a monster! To think that I actually felt sorry for you, you demonic creature!” Shouting hurt her throat. She raised herself on her arms, chin raised in defiance. “We might have lost today, but you’ll never win, never. The gods will come down and punish you for your misdeeds. You might fool some people into thinking you’re human, but you never will be!” Her eyes overflowed with tears.
Dororo pursed his lips. Sae was pathetic. “Do you really need to kill this one?” he asked Hyakkimaru. “Seems harmless, if a little mean.”
Hyakkimaru didn’t look at Dororo. His eyes were fixed on Banmon, which was shaking around the edges. Dororo looked where Hyakkimaru was looking and scowled. “What the hell is going on?”
“Get away from Banmon!” Biwabōshi shouted. He sprinted past Hyakkimaru and kept running. Dororo felt his urgency and followed him away from the hill.
The half-demon girl ran, too, but she was too slow. So was Sae. The earth beneath Banmon shook like mad and split open, swallowing pieces of the shattered fence and throwing dust and dirt in all directions. Sae lost her weapon; the shaking sent it flying through the air. The half-demon girl was already disarmed, and she was close enough to the violent earthquake that she fell and nearly stumbled into the shallow gorge.
When the dust settled, an enormous earth dragon peered out of the gorge, neck curling in an attitude of curiosity. This was the true form of Yaomukade, the demon that had made the deal with Daigo Kagemitsu in the Hall of Hell. He opened his mouth, revealing rows upon rows of sharp fangs. With the agility of a snake, he sprang at Hyakkimaru with his mouth open, thinking to swallow him whole.
Instead of running or dodging, Hyakkimaru leveled his demon-killing sword at the dragon, then ran toward it. He leaped into the dragon’s mouth with his sword upraised and stabbed upward with all his strength.
Dororo saw Hyakkimaru jump willingly into the demon’s mouth and moved to intercept him, but he wasn’t fast enough. “Hyakkimaru!”
Yaomukade staggered. His jaws snapped shut around Hyakkimaru, but the effort of that move caused him intense pain. His head drooped; he spurted fire through his nostrils to keep back any other potential attackers.
Hyakkimaru reappeared in the center of the flames with his bloody sword aloft and all his clothing torn and ragged, leaping frantically away from the dragon and the gorge.
Yaomukade was bleeding heavily from the mouth and neck. Dragon blood spattered the ground near Hyakkimaru.
***
Akane was still on the move, trying to reach Banmon even though she had no strength left. Her hands and feet were red from cold; the only thing keeping her on her feet was the strength of her desire.
“Daigo... Kagemitsu... I... want... his head...”
When Hyakkimaru cut into Yaomukade’s head with the demon-killing sword, Akane took a bad fall and fell several hundred feet down the mountain slope. She didn’t get up. She would never get up again. Her corpse was blown into a shallow cave where the winter preserved it for a time until animals found her and picked at her bones.
Akane died hopeful, but with all of her hopes unfulfilled. The bright blue sky shone over her as if the tragedy of her death meant nothing. Perhaps it didn’t--but it would, in a different kind of world. Hyakkimaru was only one person, after all, but his life had a profound effect on his world. Under other circumstances, Akane might be no different.
***
The Kaneyama Clan met its final end at Banmon. Hyakkimaru staggered, covered in blood, most of it not his own. He felt like he was falling through a sea of blood as he collapsed to his knees.
“Hyakkimaru?” Dororo’s face was pale. He got up and moved toward Hyakkimaru, but before he reached him, a cloud of blood spread out from around Hyakkimaru, completely obscuring him from view.
Dororo ran into the red cloud, searching for Hyakkimaru within it. “Hyakkimaru? Hyakkimaru!”
He was lying prone and unmoving in the center of the cloud of blood. Dororo lifted him him up with a grunt and lurched into motion. “Hey, are you okay? Talk to me.”
Hyakkimaru didn’t say anything. He appeared to be unconscious.
While Dororo supported him, Hyakkimaru’s left ear fell off and disintegrated into dust. A new ear grew in slowly. Hyakkimaru’s shoulders twitched, but he still made no sound.
He was conscious, at least. “Doesn’t it hurt?” he whispered.
Hyakkimaru nodded.
Yet Hyakkimaru wasn’t screaming like he usually did. Had he finally gotten used to the pain? Or was there a reason why he was staying silent--playing dead?
“You got an ear,” Dororo said.
Hyakkimaru nodded again.
“But you ain’t done yet. Not yet. You still got lots of body parts to get back. You can’t die ‘til you do.”
Dororo looked around. The cloud of blood had been formed by Yaomukade as he’d disintegrated; no trace of the demon’s body remained. Yuri’s and Tahōmaru’s bodies remained where they’d fallen, their eyes glassy in death. The Kaneyama Clan warriors were all dead--including Sae, who had died after being thrown back by the dragon’s initial charge.
Hyakkimaru touched his left ear. “I wasn’t planning to die,” he said. “I hoped I’d get back more than one ear from a dragon. It only seems fair to give me both. Guess I’ll have to go demon hunting again.”
Hyakkimaru looked out at the corpses scattered around with a severe expression. The sight reminded him of finding Mio and the children dead. That had happened on the border, too, long ago now, though it felt like it had happened yesterday, sometimes.
The red world that Hyakkimaru had fallen into again made him depressed. This wasn’t how the world was supposed to be, was it?
This… is war. Hyakkimaru’s first spoken word. He’d lived his entire life since Jukai’s death in a world at war, but he still felt like he had no understanding of the concept. He shook all over and would have dropped his sword if it wasn’t stuck in his arm.
“War… has no meaning.” No meaning except the horror that he saw. He lost his balance. Dororo went down to one knee with him, then hauled him up to his feet.
“Now isn’t the time to philosophize or nothin’,” he said. “Don’t go looking for meaning in the world; that’s not where you’ll find it. You’re alive.” He tightened his grip on Hyakkimaru’s shoulders and pulled him all the way in for a hug. “That’s what has meaning, right now.”
Dororo buried her face in Hyakkimaru’s shoulder and dropped her facade of being a man for the first time in her entire life. She cried: wracking sobs that shook her body inside-out and made her feel like a completely different person.
Dororo’s tears mixed with the sheen of blood on Hyakkimaru’s neck and face, forming a curious pattern.
Her tears, and the Daigo Clan’s blood, mixed. That didn’t seem real, but it was. In letting go of her male identity, Dororo also let her revenge melt into so much mist and dream, like a demon’s body disappearing forever.
Hyakkimaru felt Dororo’s arms around him and another heartbeat against his chest, beating strongly but not wildly, and calmed down. Bit by slow bit, he stopped shaking. He felt strong enough to stand on his own, but made no move to break out of the hug.
Dororo…
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