Dororo: Part Two - Chapter 24 - Part 3

Dororo: Part Two

Nakamura Masaru

Part 4: At the Border

Chapter 24 - Part 3

 

    The half-demon girl was injured, but not dead. She crawled uphill and caught sight of Dororo and Hyakkimaru hugging. She made a face.

    “You there--girl,” Biwabōshi called out to the half-demon.

    She didn’t look at him. She had hoped that Yaomukade would finish off Dororo and Hyakkimaru once and for all--or at least weaken them so that she could finish them off. With Yaomukade defeated, she felt alone and lost.

    “It’s time for you to decide.” Biwabōshi’s voice wasn’t unkind. “Will you live as a human now? Or will you embrace your demonic nature?”

    Biwabōshi clutched his lute into his chest as he stared out at Dororo and Hyakkimaru. “What a terrifying morning,” he said under his breath.

    The half-demon girl swallowed heavily. She caught sight of a rider on a black horse in the middle distance. The rider was close, and coming closer. Hyakkimaru heard the horse and started. Dororo released him from the hug and turned around.

    The rider carried a bow across his back. There was an X-shaped raised scar right in the middle of his forehead. The horse he rode was as black as midnight.

    Dororo gasped. He would never forget his mother telling him that Daigo Kagemitsu had that exact same scar. He was face to face with the man who’d murdered his parents.

    “Dororo.” Hyakkimaru took a step away from him. “Stay here.” He approached the rider.

    “What are you going to do?” Dororo asked.

    “I don’t know,” Hyakkimaru said. “I have to face him. I don’t know what will happen after that.”

    Daigo Kagemitsu nocked an arrow and drew it back. Hyakkimaru squinted up at him, appearing unconcerned. He released his arrow straight at Hyakkimaru, then slipped off the horse.

    Hyakkimaru cut down the arrow with his sword arm. The horse screamed and ran off; Kagemitsu kept shooting faster and faster so that Hyakkimaru couldn’t cut down or block them all. Hyakkimaru rolled, removing arrows that hit him as he moved.

    “Don’t just stand there!” Dororo shouted. “Kill him!” An instant later, he understood just how hard that would be for Hyakkimaru. Daigo Kagemitsu was his father, even if they didn’t know each other--even if they hated each other. It wasn’t right for a child to kill a parent, or vice versa.

    “I’ll do it,” Dororo said quietly. “It should be me.”

    Dororo’s rage against Daigo Kagemitsu hadn’t decreased in the slightest, but what he felt now was a different emotion, along with the rage. The idea that Daigo Kagemitsu would attack his own son and force Hyakkimaru to kill him was a different feeling, and he was slow to understand it. It fed his anger and made him break into a sprint toward his family’s enemy.

    “Stay out of this!” Hyakkimaru said, shoving Dororo back when he got in range.

    Dororo identified the new emotion he was feeling as empathy. Not for Kagemitsu, but for Hyakkimaru. This was his father, and he would never have a better one. That idea struck Dororo as profoundly unfair.

    “Like hell I will!” Dororo got to his feet and chased down Kagemitsu again. He’d lost his weapon somewhere, so he ripped Hyakkimaru’s spare sword from the scabbard at his hip and used that.

    Hyakkimaru tried to step in front of Dororo to block him and Daigo from attacking one another, but before he could position himself, an arrow whizzed past his ear. Dodging to avoid it gave Kagemitsu an opening: he slashed across Hyakkimaru’s forehead with his sword. Hyakkimaru jumped back. Another arrow forced him closer to Kagemitsu again.

    As Hyakkimaru searched for the other archer, Kagemitsu managed to make another glancing blow to his head. There was a bleeding X on his forehead now; the wounds bled into his eyes. 

    Dororo took in these injuries with silent dread, for a moment. Then his rage took over again. “We have to kill him now!”

    “No.” Hyakkimaru knocked Dororo in the solar plexus with the hilt of one of his ordinary swords. “I have to.”

    Dororo fell back. Just before he passed out, he said, “Fucking idiot.”

    Kagemitsu was nowhere in sight. Hyakkimaru arranged Dororo carefully on the ground, then pushed his hair gently out of his eyes. He heard hoofbeats behind him and looked up. Daigo Kagemitsu was mounted on his black horse again, towering over Hyakkimaru.

    “You're never going to win,” Hyakkimaru said. “You living means that countless more people will die. Give up and die with some dignity.”

    Hyakkimaru shifted his gaze to the dead bodies of Yuri and Tahōmaru. It seemed like Kagemitsu hadn’t noticed them yet. He looked where Hyakkimaru was looking, then recoiled as if he’d been struck.

    “Who killed him?” Kagemitsu asked. “Who killed my son?”

    Hyakkimaru had never heard Kagemitsu speak before. His voice wasn’t like what he’d imagined. It was lighter, and saddened, and not completely unlike his own.

    “Kaneyama Takeshige killed him.” Hyakkimaru kept his own voice calm and even. “But I was the one who cut his leg. So he couldn’t run.”

    “Are you working with the Kaneyama Clan?”

    Hyakkimaru didn’t reply.

    Kagemitsu walked over to his wife lying dead with the spear stuck in her side. He removed the spear, cast it away, then knelt down next to her with his head bowed. “She was a good woman,” he said. “She deserved better than this.” He smiled--painful, bitter--then said, “If I’d never made a deal with the demons... this probably wouldn’t have happened. Not to her.”

    Hyakkimaru looked his father in the eyes. “Why do you go to war? Why fight and kill?” 

    Hyakkimaru didn’t understand Kagemitsu’s motives at all. He had human eyes and ears, but his perceptions of the man before him didn’t reveal anything about Kagemitsu’s interior state. He’d hoped that when he finally met Kagemitsu face-to-face, he would understand.  

    Kagemitsu and Hyakkimaru faced one another without moving, taking in the idea that they were in the presence of family—shared flesh and blood. Hyakkimaru felt no love at all for his father—not like Dororo, who loved his father down to his soul. But he didn’t want to kill Kagemitsu, either. What he wanted was answers and understanding.  

    Fidgeting from foot to foot, Kagemitsu said, “What? Why are you staring? Aren’t you going to ask me why I sold you?” 

    “No,” Hyakkimaru said. “I don’t want to ask about that. I shouldn’t have to ask my father that.” 

    “I see that someone made you a body. Remarkable.” Kagemitsu took a step closer. “I don’t regret selling you. It got me what I wanted.” 

    “And were you expecting me to die after you sold me? To disappear forever?” 

    “You weren’t a child when you were born. You were a mistake, and you should have disappeared.” 

    Hyakkimaru glanced over at Tahōmaru’s corpse. In his brief moment of distraction, Kagemitsu sprang at him with his sword drawn. Hyakkimaru caught Kagemitsu’s sword on his sword arm; the clang produced sparks. It was a terrible battle: a fight to the death between a father and son. Even in this world torn apart by twenty years of war, a battle like this was a rare occurrence. Their strikes and dodges scarcely appeared human: they moved like shadows, closer and farther away: Hyakkimaru the demon slayer and Kagemitsu, the man whose power came from demons. 

    Kagemitsu’s sacrifice of his son’s body should have given him the power to conquer the world. Hyakkimaru’s continued existence was an obstacle between Kagemitsu and his goals. He had to eliminate Hyakkimaru if he was going to win… but he lacked the strength to overcome Hyakkimaru.  

    He also couldn’t let Hyakkimaru win under any circumstances. 

    For his part, Hyakkimaru had no idea why he bothered to fight. Instinct, perhaps. His desire for answers burned strong in him, but his hatred was gone; the Kaneyama Clan warriors were dead, and he didn’t think about them anymore. He felt like he was riding a shock wave after an earthquake—like he had no choice except to get caught up in his father’s will to see him dead.  

    Winning by killing Kagemitsu wouldn’t satisfy Hyakkimaru’s quest for answers. Losing meant no answers and no hope of them, ever. Hyakkimaru fought in the desperate hope that he would finally get at least a little of what he wanted. 

    As the battle raged on, Kagemitsu’s own purpose for fighting faltered within him. The hated Muroto Clan and Kaneyama Clan were both dead—wiped off the face of the earth. Yuri and Tahōmaru were dead. That was tragic beyond bearing, but Kagemitsu didn’t need to fight to protect them any longer, now that they were gone. Having the world meant little if his wife and son couldn’t share it with him. 

    Kagemitsu fought automatically, blocking and slashing only to defend himself. He was no longer a man who could be satisfied by conquering the world. He wanted something else now, though he was hard-pressed to articulate it. He felt like he’d lost everything worth preserving and that there was no longer any point to his survival. He had no future. 

    The idea didn’t trouble Kagemitsu as much as it would have normally. He and Hyakkimaru circled one another, testing their physical and mental limitations, waiting for one or the other of them to fall. 

    Biwabōshi and the half-demon girl were within sight of the battle. “Who do you want to win?” Biwabōshi asked. 

    “I don’t know,” she said. 

    Biwabōshi snorted. “You want the man who sold his child to demons to win?” 

The girl’s expression set in tight grim lines. Her own father had betrayed her, her mother and her siblings. That was why they were all dead. She was the last one left. 

    “Did you know that the woman you were fighting with your naginata was a victim of Daigo Kagemitsu? He slaughtered her parents in cold blood.” 

    The half-demon girl blinked. No, she hadn’t known that. “But…” Hyakkimaru was Daigo Kagemitsu’s son. Why would the woman hug the son of her enemy, as if she wanted to help or comfort him? That made no sense. 

    “This is how the human world is,” Biwabōshi said gravely. “Hatred burns in all our hearts unless we choose to give it up. So. Who do you want to win? The man who cast aside his own child for power—or that same child, come to confront him?” 

    “Neither,” she said. “If the father wins, he’ll kill his son, and vice versa. I don’t want anyone to be orphaned and have to live without their parents.” 

    Kagemitsu’s sword broke in half. Hyakkimaru didn’t do it; Kagemitsu broke it himself in bringing down a strong strike directly on Hyakkimaru’s demon-killing sword. Hyakkimaru stumbled under the blow and rolled away. By the time he regained his footing, Kagemitsu had picked up Tahōmaru’s bloody sword. 

    Hyakkimaru dripped with sweat from head to toe. He looked into Kagemitsu’s eyes again and said, “You want the world? Why? What would you do with it if you had it?” 

    “I could ask you the same thing. What would you do if you controlled the world?” 

    Hyakkimaru stilled. “My real father hated war more than anything.” 

    “What a coincidence,” Kagemitsu said. “So do I.” 

    “That’s not true,” Hyakkimaru said. “If it was, you wouldn’t be fighting me now.” 

    “What should I do then, run? Surrender?” 

    “Tahōmaru believed that he would help you create a better world,” Hyakkimaru said. “Don’t you know what that world looks like? Do you want the same thing he did, or was all of it a lie?” 

    Kagemitsu’s eyes narrowed. The reason why the idea of conquering the world held no appeal to him was because he could no longer see a good future for himself, his family, or the people he ruled. He clamped down on that thought before it could shake his balance. He attacked Hyakkimaru again with wild abandon—but he no longer considered himself Hyakkimaru’s enemy. 

    It didn’t matter to Kagemitsu if he lived or died: not now. Yaomukade had called him weak, and he now recognized that weakness in himself. He hadn’t killed his son at birth, and he wasn’t strong enough to kill him now. Hyakkimaru was strong—so much stronger than he could ever have anticipated. If Hyakkimaru had been granted the benefits of Tahōmaru’s training and Kagemitsu’s unscrupulousness, Kagemitsu would already be dead. 

    Kagemitsu sensed that Hyakkimaru could defeat him, if the test was solely based on strength. But Hyakkimaru held back from killing him, over and over again. Why? Was Hyakkimaru weak, like he was? 

    Kagemitsu saw only one way to end this battle. He should have either won or lost it conclusively long ago. The sacrifice of his son was the loss of his own humanity, and there was no way to regain that now. Kagemitsu didn’t need his own humanity. He didn’t need his life, either. But someone else needed those things... 

    Take me, Kagemitsu said to the demons in his mind. He didn’t care about having the world for himself anymore. Take me, and give my son back. 

    Kagemitsu’s sword arm dropped. Hyakkimaru jumped back, puzzled. Did I win? he thought. Kagemitsu collapsed to his knees in front of him. He would be so easy to kill. Hyakkimaru hesitated…

    “Kagemitsu.” The voice of the dead mouse demon echoed across the waste. “You give yourself to us? Why? Because you love your dead wife and son?” 

    Tahōmaru’s body twitched. 

    The dead mouse popped out of the earth, then unhinged its jaw. It pulled its lips back into a smile like a rictus. “Did you love that woman so much, then?” 

    Tahōmaru’s head shifted slowly so that he was facing Kagemitsu. “I can restore this brat to life,” the demon said out of Tahōmaru’s mouth. “Give yourself to us entirely, and he will live.” 

    “What do you want, exactly?” Kagemitsu asked. He’d already offered himself to the demons, but his first deal with them had gone wrong. He wanted to be certain about the terms of this deal. 

    “Your body,” the demon said. “Your world.” 

    Kagemitsu appeared stunned. “What would you do with the world?” 

    Hyakkimaru looked up and saw dozens of birds of prey circling above them. They weren’t ordinary birds; several carried human limbs in their talons. They were stripping the battlefield, searching for dead people to eat. The demon wasn’t inside Tahōmaru, even though it was making his mouth move. Hyakkimaru couldn’t locate the demon. It had to be close, but he couldn’t sense its presence anywhere. 

    “I should ask for Yuri to return, too, but a return to life now wouldn’t make her happy.” He stared at Tahōmaru’s corpse. “If she could choose… she would want our son to live.” 

    “Then you wish us to return Tahōmaru to life?” 

    Tahōmaru’s body twisted like a marionette so that he was pointing at himself. 

    “If you restore him,” Kagemitsu said, “and I conquer the world for him to inherit after I’m gone—what will happen to him?” 

    “You will never be gone,” the demon said. “Your body will belong to us forever, and his life will be in our hands.” 

    “No,” Kagemitsu said. “Take me and keep me: I don’t care about that. But do not seek to control my son by any means. If you even try, we have no deal.” 

    Hyakkimaru shook his head in denial. “It’s a demon! Don’t listen to it! Haven’t you learned that much by now?! You’re going to put a demon in charge! You can’t do it!” 

    Dororo groaned and sat up, having finally regained consciousness.  

    “No! If you do this, more children will suffer. More people will die!” Hyakkimaru shouted. 

    Dororo looked back and forth between Hyakkimaru and Kagemitsu. He didn’t know what all he’d missed, but he knew that trying to reason with Kagemitsu was pointless. Men like that couldn’t be argued with.  

    “If you’re going to give them anything, give them me,” Hyakkimaru said. “You’ve done it before; do it again. Just don’t make anyone else suffer at the demons’ hands.” 

    The demon chuckled. “Well, that could work, too.” 

    Kagemitsu blinked. “What? He’s worth my body and the control of the lands I hold?” 

    Hyakkimaru lifted the blade in his arm. “I am. As long as I’m alive, I’m a threat to all of them. I can kill demons with this.” 

    “You can?” Kagemitsu asked. 

    Hyakkimaru nodded. 

    Kagemitsu smiled. He looked Hyakkimaru directly in the eye, then glanced over at Tahōmaru. 

    “Very well,” he said. “You, demon. Take my body and restore Tahōmaru to life.” 

    Hyakkimaru’s mouth dropped open. 

    “Hurry!” Kagemitsu said. “Bring him back now!” 

    Kagemitsu froze as still as a statue for a few seconds. Then he started shaking all over as if he was suffering from a seizure.  

    While Kagemitsu writhed and twisted, Tahōmaru sat up. Kagemitsu dragged himself over to him and flung his arms around him. “I might have been wrong in everything else,” he gasped, “but not this. You’re my son, and you cannot be sold—not to demons, not to anyone.” 

    “Father?” Tahōmaru asked, bewildered. 

    Kagemitsu’s eyes swam with tears. “Live, Tahōmaru. For yourself, and for your brother, too.” 

 

*** 

 

    Hyakkimaru was too shocked to move until he noticed the birds of prey overhead change their course. Some flew higher and dove down—an attack. 

    “They’re coming from above!” Dororo shouted to him. “Get out of the way!” 

    As Hyakkimaru and Dororo ducked and dodged, Kagemitsu extended his arms to the sky. “Take me! Show me some sign that our deal is sealed!” 

    There was a rushing wind, and all of the birds of prey fell out of the sky in a ring around Kagemitsu. Hyakkimaru and Dororo regrouped, taking in the strange sight. The birds stood up and transformed, gaining ape-like limbs and torsos while keeping their wings. At the center of the group was a large demon shaped the same way.

    The large demon swallowed Kagemitsu whole in a toothless beak. A moment later, the demon’s face morphed into Kagemitsu’s.  

    The effect was unsettling. The face was Kagemitsu’s, yet not at the same time. The four demons that protected his castle appeared suddenly and fused into Kagemitsu’s new body, staining his limbs blue-black and swelling them to monstrous size.

    Hyakkimaru and Dororo took a few steps back in terror. Tahōmaru appeared terrified as well, but his confusion outweighed his fear. “Father!” he called out.

    Kagemitsu’s body swayed back and forth, though there was no wind. His eyes shone with the clear light of power or madness. “Now this world is mine!” he said in a tone of exultation and triumph.

    Demon Kagemitsu leaped so high that he was briefly lost from sight. Ten riders on horseback were coming up the hill. Demon Kagemitsu came down to earth, chuckling with glee. “Aha! Here is my army. But it’s not enough for what I need… where are the others?!” He laughed, and the laughter of the five demons possessing him echoed in his throat.

    “Watch yourself, kid.” Demon Kagemitsu grinned, showing all his teeth. “When my full army arrives, you’ll be surrounded. I will permit no one to escape from this place.”

    Demon Kagemitsu performed another impossible leap and landed on the back of his black steed. He pulled up on the reins, then galloped straight at Hyakkimaru. The horse protested under the weight of the demon.

    “Face us yourself, you fucking coward!” Dororo threw a knife at Demon Kagemitsu with true aim; he nearly lost his seat and missed running over Hyakkimaru with the horse.

    The knife passed straight through Demon Kagemitsu’s body, but after a brief reaction of shock, it didn’t seem to bother him. He checked his horse, then turned it back toward Hyakkimaru. The horse lumbered into motion; Demon Kagemitsu ripped the knife from his side in irritation and flung it at Hyakkimaru’s head.

    “Die!” Demon Kagemitsu called out as the horse charged.

    Hyakkimaru didn’t move. He lowered both arms as if he’d already been defeated.

    “Hey!” Dororo shouted. “What are you doing?! Get out of the way!”

    Hyakkimaru side-stepped the incoming horse on instinct, but the thrown knife pierced him right in the gut. He remained upright, stumbling slightly. Then the blade of the knife shattered; each piece moved around Hyakkimaru independently, cutting and swiping at him. When the shards of the knife made contact with the demon-killing sword, they went flying at Demon Kagemitsu. By the time all the pieces had been deflected, Hyakkimaru was covered in shallow cuts. Most of them healed with white bubbles around the edges as Kagemitsu watched.

    “Well. Impressive. To think you would grow up into such a remarkable monster,” Demon Kagemitsu said. Then he fell off his horse, bleeding from half a dozen wounds, his body convulsing violently.

    “Father!” Tahōmaru ran to Demon Kagemitsu and held him up. A cloud of blood emerged from the center of his chest; that blood cloud shot straight for Hyakkimaru. Hyakkimaru choked and gasped; he would have fallen if Dororo hadn’t caught him.

    “Hyakkimaru.” Dororo shifted to hold him up as he coughed out a red, fist-shaped organ. The organ changed to dust and blew away. “Hey! Are you okay?”

    Hyakkimaru had his heart back.

    Through the rents and tears in his clothing, the skin of Hyakkimaru’s chest turned blue-purple as blood vessels attached themselves to the new organ. Hyakkimaru groaned in pain and closed his eyes.

    “Is it always like that?” Kagemitsu said with a gasp. “When you get a piece of your body back?”

    “You’re not allowed to ask that shit,” Dororo snarled, “but yeah. Hurts him like hell every fucking time.”

    “How... many... ?” Kagemitsu asked.

    Hyakkimaru thought for a moment. “Twenty-four.”

    “I... see. Exactly... half.”

    Kagemitsu offered Hyakkimaru a fond smile. “Well... done,” he said, and he seemed to mean it.

    Hyakkimaru tilted his head. He hadn’t expected praise from Kagemitsu at this stage--or ever. He understood that the demon within Kagemitsu was gone, vanquished by the power of the sword in his arm. What would it have been like to have a father who’d praised him?

    He’d never know now. Kagemitsu’s wounds were severe, and he no longer possessed demonic magic to sustain him. Hyakkimaru felt a strange sense of peace as he realized that he had at least one of the answers he’d been looking for. He had fought Kagemitsu, and defeated him--and more demons with him. He knew now that Kagemitsu had been under the influence of the demons for the entire time that Hyakkimaru was alive. Here, in Kagemitsu’s last moments, Hyakkimaru could talk to him as he might have been without that terrible influence. It wasn’t much, but Hyakkimaru felt like he could be content with it. Kagemitsu without the demons manipulating or using him cared about Tahōmaru. He’d chosen to praise Hyakkimaru instead of cursing him, in the end. That meant something.

    Dororo was unsatisfied, though. “You fucking bastard! You don’t just get to up and die without apologizing, fuckwit! You ruined your kid’s life, to say nothing of mine, and I say you don’t die until you say you’re fucking sorry!”

    Kagemitsu faced Dororo squarely, though with great effort. “Who... are you?”

    Dororo frowned at him. “Dororo. What’s it to you?”

    “Dororo.” He looked at Dororo, a long and lingering look, as if he was trying to figure something out. Something important. “Take care of Hyakkimaru.”

    Hyakkimaru stared at him. Kagemitsu had called him by name--the name Jukai had given him, not the one he’d been given at birth. And not "monster," either.

    Kagemitsu shifted so that he could see Tahōmaru. “I trust you,” he said. “Settle... the rest... with your brother.”

    Those were Daigo Kagemitsu’s last words.

    “Father...” Tahōmaru visibly deflated.

    Dororo spat. “Good riddance to bad rubbish.” He poked around the battlefield for a weapon and came up with one of the Kaneyama Clan warriors’ knives. He really had to stop throwing knives carelessly at things.

    Hyakkimaru clutched at his heart. “Strange.” The pain of the organ growing in was past, but his chest still hurt like he was being stabbed. “I’ve never experienced this before.”

    Biwabōshi sat near the half-human girl. “You know, I’ve heard that your father is still alive. You could go and live with him. If you decided to live as a human, that is.”

    “With my father?” she asked.

    The length of Banmon behind Biwabōshi and the girl creaked and fell over. The sound startled the girl, making her leap to her feet. The black-clad riders that made up part of the Daigo Clan’s army surrounded the hill, silent and waiting.

    Biwabōshi looked between the broken wall and the sliced strings of his lute and wondered if the long war was finally over.