Dororo: A Novel
Tsuji Masaki
Part Four
The Tale of Nihil, the Demon Sword
Chapter 5
Screams.
A woman fell dead behind Hyakkimaru,
pierced by a spear.
“Out of the way! Get back!”
Hyakkimaru had made his way a little
ahead of the main army. He kept running, warning everyone in his path to
get away from this place before it was too late.
It might already be too late.
Hyakkimaru had only caught up to the army because they were preoccupied
with their slaughter. Hyakkimaru cut down soldiers in the thick of the
fighting, pale as a god of death and just as dangerous. Blood splashed
onto his face and clothes.
Mio... the children...
A spearman tossed his weapon at
Hyakkimaru. Hyakkimaru shifted so that the spear pierced his artificial
right arm, harmless. He didn’t have time to keep fighting here. He had to
get far enough ahead of the main force to save everyone at the
temple.
Hyakkimaru sprinted up a steep mountain
path, gasping for breath. How far was he? He couldn’t tell where he was.
There were trees to either side of the path, blocking his view of the
surrounding area. He smelled blood and smoke to the west of him, and the
clouds above were red-gold from the flames of battle.
The army would burn the temple. He had to
go faster.
“Mio!” Hyakkimaru cried out with the
force of a wounded animal. He wasn’t hurt, but he felt like he’d suffered
a mortal wound.
He couldn’t stop. There were at least
twenty men after him, all armed and running. They believed that Hyakkimaru
was a spy.
“Take him!” the leader of Hyakkimaru’s
pursuers yelled. “But leave him alive!”
The pursuers were closing on him; it was
impossible to escape. Hyakkimaru turned and yanked the spear out of a
warrior’s hand. “If you want to fight that badly,” he said, gasping, “be
my guest.”
Hyakkimaru’s relative politeness was in
sharp contrast to his opponent’s raw rage. He fought for awhile, but when
he realized he was being penned in again, he threw down the spear and
sprinted at terrifying speed down the mountain path.
The grove of trees that grew around the
abandoned temple came into view. Hyakkimaru heard more screaming, vivid
and terrible.
I’m out of time.
The grove was overgrown with underbrush;
Hyakkimaru had to cut his way through. He was glad that he’d gotten rid of
the spear; it would only have slowed him down further here. His pursuers
were lost to distance, but he heard someone else up ahead.
“Bows! Use your arrows! Strike them
down!”
Hyakkimaru gulped, then moved faster. He
couldn’t allow this to happen. He’d already lost so much time—
Hyakkimaru sensed movement behind him:
either his previous pursuers or new ones; it didn’t matter. He tore out
one artificial eye and lobbed it at them. The eye exploded on
impact.
I bet they’ve never seen exploding
eyeballs before,
Hyakkimaru thought.
The screams were getting louder.
Hyakkimaru ran like his life depended on it. The mountain path leveled out
and became flat, which was how he knew he was close. His artificial legs
complained under him. While they were marvels of engineering, they were
heavier than normal legs, and the ball bearings that allowed his knees and
ankles to bend were experiencing a lot of wear and tear.
Exhausted and sweating all over,
Hyakkimaru forced himself to keep going. The screams were all behind him
now.
Maybe the temple is safe, Hyakkimaru thought.
Please let the temple be safe.
As he came closer to the temple itself,
Hyakkimaru sensed nothing amiss. The shape of the temple rose above him,
dim to his eyeless perception but obviously present: reassuring and
solid.
The soldiers didn’t come through here.
It was quiet. Hyakkimaru cast about
with his senses again, just to be safe, and felt the tell-tale aura of a
demon.
An ordinary human wouldn’t have been able
to sense the demon’s presence, but Hyakkimaru wasn’t an ordinary human.
The demon was there, standing in the shadow of a tree.
There was a clanging sound, loud like
bells ringing.
And then the grove of trees around the
temple went up in fire and smoke, burning in sunset colors.
The temple… the temple is burning!
“Mio!” Hyakkimaru shouted at the top of
his lungs. “Don’t die! I’m coming!”
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