The Sorceress' Revolt -
Ko Eiji's Story
Author: Toriumi Jinzō
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
Part Two: Zhengzhou
The guards looked around, hesitant. They knew someone was there, but they couldn’t see anyone except Ou Soku and their comrades.
The shadowy figure of a man appeared near Ou Soku. He gripped a pewter staff in one hand and stood up straight, tall and imposing. He was dressed as a Buddhist monk, though Ou Soku couldn’t determine which religious order he served in the dark. An aura of power radiated around him, making Ou Soku take a step back.
The monk gestured with his staff, encouraging Ou Soku to hide behind him. Then he faced the guards.
Ou Soku went behind the monk, who stood with his staff raised in a prayer pose.
Relieved to see that the monk was just a person and not a sorcerer or a demon, the Imperial Guards moved to threaten him.
“Even a monk is not permitted to interfere with arresting a sorcerer,” a guard said. “Stand aside.”
The monk said nothing.
The guards took the monk’s silence as resistance.
“If you protect a sorcerer, you’re equally guilty.”
The guards, thinking this would be the end of everything, raised their spears. “The monk is a sorcerer, too! Get him!”
They all charged at the monk, who lightly swept his staff out in front of him as easily as if he were swinging a broom. The guards fell to the ground at the same time; it was like they’d been blown over by a gust of wind.
The guards jumped up in rage and readied their spears. But now, they knew that the monk wouldn’t be easy to fight. They didn’t charge at him all at once again.
Ou Soku was overwhelmed by the monk’s power and watched with bated breath.
The monk held his staff in one hand and thrust it away from his body.
“Curse you, monk!” a guard yelled.
The monk didn’t move an inch.
As the guards drew closer, blue lightning crackled at the bottom of the monk’s pewter staff.
“Ah!”
The guards gasped and struggled to hold on to their weapons, which were being inexorably and strongly pulled toward the pewter staff. Their spears flew out of their hands and stuck fast to the staff.
“He’s a monster,” one of the guards said.
All of the guards were unarmed. Two reached for weapons that were no longer there in a comical manner.
Then lightning blossomed from the top of the monk’s pewter staff, striking each guard in the chest. They writhed and convulsed as they were struck. Blue sparks scattered all around them, making hissing, fizzing noises as the guards were cooked alive. When the sparks touched the ground, they vanished like they’d never existed.
Ou Soku gazed on the monk with awe. What was this mysterious magic?
The monk turned his face away from the guards. “Come with me,” he said, then started walking away.
Ou Soku followed the monk with no further prompting. He wanted to follow this monk. He understood that the monk’s magic was very dangerous, but that added to the appeal for him. He wanted to know more about the monk and where his power came from. Even his presence here is a mystery… why did he save me? Ou Soku asked himself.
The monk was silent as he walked with Ou Soku to the bank of the Yellow River. Everything was quiet at this time of night; they were far from the center of the city and few people lived so close to the river shore.
There was a hermitage in the bamboo forest nearby. Most of the locals didn’t know that the hermitage was there, since it was small and mostly concealed by the bamboo. It was also set back quite a distance from the street.
The monk invited Ou Soku into the hermitage building. The smell of incense hung in the air. Cheerful candlelight illuminated the small space.
Ou Soku stood up straight, then got to his knees and bowed, placing his hands and forehead on the ground in a gesture of great respect. “Thank you for saving me, sir.”
“You don’t need to thank me quite that much,” the monk said. “Try to relax. You’ve had quite a scare. If you’re worried about who the next governor of the city will be, well, I can’t blame you for that.”
The monk knew what had happened at the government office that night. Of course he did. It was a significant enough event to spread throughout the whole of Zhengzhou by morning.
“Won’t you get in trouble, sir? You killed those guards.”
“A monk does not kill.”
“What?”
“I harmed those men, yes, to prevent them from killing you. But they won’t die. They will recover.” The monk smiled brightly, seeming much younger all of a sudden. “I imagine that by now they’ll have gotten up and gone to drink away their sorrows. They’ll probably be punished by their superiors in the morning for letting us get away.”
Ou Soku blinked. How could those guards possibly still be alive after being struck by that powerful lightning spell? He bowed his head to the monk again. “I am Ou Soku of Wucheng in Hebei Province. Please tell me your name, sir.”
“My name is Danshi. The ‘dan’ means ‘bullet.’ 1 You saw how fast I can move just now. Quite like a bullet.” He chuckled to himself.
Ou Soku looked at Danshi as if he’d just transformed into a completely different person. There was no aura of power around him now. He looked like any ordinary monk. His cheerful demeanor was completely at odds with his attitude during battle.
Still, there could be no doubt that Danshi was an incredible fighter with control of at least one lightning spell. He was a sorcerer. A sorcerer monk.
But who was Danshi, really?
***
The monk who went by the alias Danshi was actually named Tanshi. Twenty-three years before, he’d climbed the legendary Yunmeng Mountain and entered Hakūn-do Cave in search of the Way of Shattering Earth. The guardian of the cave, En Kō, had cast him out of the cave and into the valley far below. Tanshi should have died then, but he was saved by Ko Biji and managed to return to Hakūn-do Cave to steal a portion of the Heavenly Book.
After that, Tanshi had worked with Ko Biji and her mother, Sei Koko, to translate the Heavenly Book into modern characters and words. They’d done the bulk of this work at an estate on Mt. Hua borrowed from the religious philanthropist Yang Chun. Tanshi had started going by the name Danshi then, since he and Ko Biji had encountered trouble at security checkpoints during their travels. Tanshi was a wanted man, but Danshi was unknown and could move freely.
***
A young nun brought a tray of food and drink into the hermitage and placed it between Danshi and Ou Soku. Her head was covered with a purple cloth, and her hair was probably shaved off. Her face was translucently white. Her body reminded Ou Soku of a white lily swaying in the wind. She appeared to be about sixteen years old. Ou Soku thought that it was a pity that someone so young and beautiful had become a Buddhist nun.
“Please eat,” Danshi said. “You look like you could use it.”
Ou Soku bowed.
“This nun is called Jun Reini,” Danshi said.
“My name is Ou Soku.” Ou Soku bowed his head to the nun. “It is nice to meet you.”
“And you, sir.” Jun Reini returned his bow politely.
Danshi smiled, then said, “Ou Soku is our guest tonight. Please prepare a place for him to sleep.”
“I thank you for your consideration,” Ou Soku said.
Jun Reini bowed slightly and left.
Danshi, a monk who used magic, and Jun Reini, a beautiful Buddhist nun… Ou Soku was intrigued. They might be a monk and nun, but they had human desires like everyone else. Serving the Buddha shouldn’t preclude those desires, right? His imagination got a little ahead of him, and he blushed.
Danshi was oblivious to Ou Soku’s lewd inner imaginings. He picked up a bottle of rice wine and poured some into a bowl for Ou Soku.
“Personally, I like both alcohol and fish,” Danshi said. “Feel free to do as you please here. No one will judge you.”
Ou Soku accepted the offer of a bowl of rice wine. “There’s something I’d like to ask you,” he said after taking a sip of wine.
“I’m not a sorcerer, if that’s what you’re curious about. There is a divine path and a heretical path to magic. True wisdom is born from the union of the mind and the laws of the natural world.”
“The laws of the natural world? Then you summon the power of nature using your knowledge and wisdom?”
“Yes. It is not an easy or shallow path to power, as the heretical path is. Try not to be too charmed by the idea of wielding magic. It gets a lot of people into trouble.”
Having witnessed the sorcerers’ techniques and then Danshi’s terrifying lightning spell, Ou Soku was naturally drawn to the idea of learning how to do magic himself. To him, the sorcerers’ magic and Danshi’s Daoist powers were the same; he saw no difference. He knew that the world was a terrifying place full of danger—he’d nearly died tonight in Zhengzhou—and he wanted power to defend himself and what he cared about.
“You said you were from Wucheng,” Danshi said. “That’s a rather secluded area, isn’t it?”
“My father was a farmer.”
“And is that what you want to be? What is your goal in life?”
Ou Soku stared up at Danshi in surprise and didn’t answer. He had no answer.
“Have you tried taking the civil service exam?” Danshi asked.
“Why would I?”
Danshi simply smiled. He looked into Ou Soku’s face as if he were searching for the answer to a riddle. “I think you should stay here for a while.”
“I would like to, sir. Thank you.”
“Now drink up. Forget all the troubles you had tonight and go get some rest.”
Ou Soku felt strange. The world seemed bigger now that he’d met Danshi. There was a whole wealth of knowledge and power that he’d never even conceived of before tonight. Was all of this really happening?
Ou Soku was more intoxicated by the idea of magical power than he’d ever been drinking rice wine.
***
At dawn, Ou Soku woke up to relieve himself. He was about to go back down the corridor to his guest bedroom when he noticed a light shining in one room. It was the Buddhist altar room. He peeked inside, since the sliding screen door was half-open.
A thick candle was lit on the altar. Danshi and a young man that Ou Soku didn’t recognize sat in front of it. The two of them were meditating.
Ou Soku was a bit surprised to find another person in the hermitage. The newcomer looked less like a monk and more like a merchant. Ou Soku was about to turn and leave when Danshi shifted toward him.
“Ah, Ou Soku. Please come in,” Danshi said, still in a sitting meditation pose. “You can join us.”
“Yes, sir.” Ou Soku took a seat behind Danshi.
The other young man sat in silent meditation. Ou Soku copied him. He’d learned how to meditate properly when he was younger; his mother had taught him quite patiently. He still remembered many of her lessons word-for-word.
“The first thing that a person aiming to take the civil service exam should do is learn to be polite. Etiquette is a form of spiritual training.”
“Yes, mother.”
He’d never done well enough at his studies to please his mother. He remembered just as much scolding as praise, if not more.
“You’re a disgrace to the family. You’ll never amount to anything.”
Ou Soku closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. It had been a long time since he’d remembered his mother’s long years of abuse, and recalling it all now made him angry.
His worst memories moved to the forefront of his mind. He cursed those memories and tried to push them away. He felt as if some alien force was invading his consciousness. He had never experienced this before.
Ou Soku opened his eyes halfway. He saw a light shining from Danshi’s back and realized that his bad memories were retreating. The invading force in his mind faded slowly away. Whatever Danshi’s light was, it worked to suppress Ou Soku’s great rage at the indignities he’d suffered in his past.
Morning light streamed in through the window. Danshi finished his meditation and turned to Ou Soku. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. “We’ll finish things here for the moment.”
Ou Soku shook himself out of his meditation. He felt surprisingly refreshed. Spring sunlight shone on his face. He hadn’t seen many clear and beautiful mornings like this one recently.
The other young man also came out of his meditation pose and stood up. He was probably one or two years younger than Ou Soku. He was short and thin, but looked healthy. His arms were lean, corded muscle.
“Hello,” Ou Soku said to the young man. “We haven’t met yet. I’m Ou Soku.” He bowed.
The young man smiled, showing even white teeth. “You met me last night.”
“What?”
“I’m Jun Reini. Remember me?” His smile grew wider. In a high, feminine voice, he said, “Good morning, Ou Soku.”
Ou Soku was shocked. That was definitely Jun Reini’s voice.
Danshi grinned wryly.
Ou Soku was speechless. Was this also a Daoist technique? Jun Reini’s transformation was magnificent. Who would believe that she and this young man were the same person?
“It’s time to stop teasing our guest, Ri Shun,” Tanshi said to the young man who’d transformed into Jun Reini the previous night. “We have to prepare for tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.” Ri Shun bowed, then left the Buddhist altar quickly.
After Ri Shun was gone, Danshi looked at Ou Soku with a serious expression. “You weren’t concentrating during meditation. Did something disturb your thoughts?”
Ou Soku looked down at his feet. He’d almost been consumed by anger. He’d sworn to himself not to reveal his true feelings to anyone, but he realized that he couldn’t hide anything from Danshi.
It was taught in many sects of Buddhism that when a person achieved a certain state of mind through meditation, that person could acquire supernatural powers. Mind reading was one of the most common powers that diligent meditation practitioners could attain.
Ou Soku wasn’t sure if Danshi had gained his mind-reading powers through meditation, but he was quite certain that Danshi could read his mind as if it were an open book.
For a farmer from Wucheng, Ou Soku had good manners. His speech was that of a man of good sense. A man did not develop good manners or good sense unless he studied hard. For a farmer, traveling during planting and harvesting times would be unthinkable; it was obvious that farming was not for him. He didn’t seem like the sort of man who wanted to pass the civil service exam, either; if he were such a man, he would be traveling toward one of the testing sites. His defiant attitude toward the Imperial Guards in Zhengzhou pointed to a deep dissatisfaction with authority.
As they’d meditated together, Danshi had sensed Ou Soku’s anger and confusion. Ou Soku’s face set in stern lines as he said, “I was briefly overcome by anger, but then I looked up and saw a light shining from your back. It allowed me to regain control of myself.” He scuffed one foot on the floor.
Danshi nodded. “You were lost to anger, but you sought salvation. That is a good thing, Ou Soku, and not something to be ashamed of.”
Ou Soku pressed his palms together. “Please teach me about salvation, Danshi.”
Translator's Note
1 弾子 Danshi means “bullet child” in Chinese and Japanese.↩
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