Dororo: A Novel
Tsuji Masaki
Part Four
The Tale of Nihil, the Demon Sword
Chapter 6
Hyakkimaru ran.
He was so tired, and his legs were so heavy. He couldn't think about anything except his exhaustion. As he rushed onward, he heard the crackling of a fire, close and getting closer. Horses screamed in terror. He heard men's shouts, angry and loud, and then the temple came into view.
There were samurai standing outside the temple. Some were shouting, but most were laughing with their mouths open wide. Hyakkimaru remained hidden in the shadow of the trees with the firelight flickering over his dark hair.
Mio is inside, Hyakkimaru thought grimly. Where is she? She had to be here. He made his way warily around the samurai and reached the temple's back door. Everything was in flames. He ducked under a smoldering beam and discovered Mio near the doorway. She'd been run through with a samurai sword. Blood streamed from her shoulder wound.
"M-Mio!"
Hyakkimaru stood still for a few moments, shocked, until he caught sight of Dororo crouching behind Mio.
"You idiot!" Dororo hissed. "Where were you?! You're too late!" Tears streamed down his face. "She was an idiot, too. She ran in front of me to save me. See where that got her?!"
"Hyakkimaru..." Mio said softly. She didn't move, and her eyes were closed. "We... waited for you."
Dororo frowned. "We didn't know when you were coming back. Mio decided to send the children away and wait for you. Then we hid. But they found us." He shook his head. "Idiot."
As Dororo spoke, Mio's face drained of blood. Her lips were withered, and her head drooped.
Hyakkimaru knew that her injury was fatal. Whoever had made it had done it expressly to kill her. He turned around, ready to face the samurai outside the temple.
“Be careful,” Mio said softly. “The man who did this... it was Hirukawa Tanosuke.”
A young man stood in the temple entrance. He seemed a bit startled to hear his name, but quickly recovered with a little laugh. Hyakkimaru was overwhelmed by the man’s demonic presence. The demon that had ahold of him craved blood above all else.
Hirukawa Tanosuke approached a puddle of blood from Mio’s wound and placed the tip of his sword in it. The sword drew up the blood into itself, remaining sparkling clean.
The air rippled as if birds had just taken flight, but there were no birds in sight. The wind itself was unsettled by the demon.
Hyakkimaru instructed Dororo to protect Mio. Then he faced Hirukawa Tanosuke squarely.
“Hyakkimaru...” Mio’s eyes were fixed on him.
Hyakkimaru couldn’t spare the time to answer her. Even if he’d had the time, he couldn’t. The moment he’d faced Tanosuke, he was rooted to the spot. He couldn’t move or speak. Fire crackled all around them, and demonic energy pulsed from Tanosuke’s sword.
Tanosuke’s sword slashed through the air and flashed, leaving an X-shaped impression of bright light in the air for a few seconds. The sword brightened as if it were absorbing energy from its surroundings. The flames licking at the temple walls spluttered and went out, leaving the inside of the temple in darkness.
The demonic sword used another power, but it didn’t completely work on Hyakkimaru, who was fortunate in this case not to have eyes. The sword could hypnotize its chosen victims, holding them still, but it used human senses to achieve this. There was a gaping hole where Hyakkimaru’s missing artificial eye would usually be, and of course he couldn’t see with false eyes. He should be able to hear and move, but he felt deaf and clumsy, like he’d lost control of his own body.
The demon sword swooped upward and prepared to cut Hyakkimaru down. Hyakkimaru knew that he should move--he should reveal the swords in his arms and fight back, but all his limbs felt heavy.
“Aniki!” Dororo shouted at him from behind. “What are you doing?”
Dororo’s voice reached Hyakkimaru clearly, though he was deaf to all other sound. He lifted his right arm listlessly, trying to break out of whatever hold the demon sword had over him.
“He’s gonna kill you!” Dororo yelled.
“Hyakkimaru,” Mio said. “You have to win. Move!” Those were Mio’s final words. A moment later, Mio’s soul slipped free from her body. She was dead, but with the last strength of her will, she gave what she could to Hyakkimaru so that he might live.
Hyakkimaru heard Mio’s voice. He heard Dororo’s. His ordinary human ear could hear again--and he could move. Hyakkimaru drew his left sword arm from its prosthetic covering and blocked Tanosuke’s strike. Whatever strange power that the demon sword possessed to hold him still no longer worked. Hyakkimaru was full of energy and ready to fight.
The sun had set behind Hirukawa Tanosuke. There was a flash of light from Hyakkimaru’s demon-killing sword that made Tanosuke take a step back in surprise.
Tanosuke was used to fighting farmers and common soldiers. An opponent of Hyakkimaru’s experience was a challenge for him, and before long, he called for help. “Someone come!” he shouted. “I’m being attacked!”
But no one came. Hyakkimaru pressed his advantage, boxing Tanosuke in. Enraged, Tanosuke yelled, “I’ll kill you!”
Hyakkimaru’s anger burned hotter and brighter than the flames that had burned the temple earlier.
There was a high-pitched metallic sound, and the demon sword left Nuinosuke’s hand. It was pointing straight at Hyakkimaru’s head.
“Demon!” Hyakkimaru gasped out. He protected his head with his left sword arm and felt a bone-rattling blow go all the way through his body when it struck. His shoulder went numb. Any normal person would have screamed from the pain of such a strike.
The demon sword retreated from Hyakkimaru, turning to plunge into Hirukawa Tanosuke’s chest. Blood streamed from the gaping wound. Tanosuke let out a strangled sob as he collapsed to his knees, then crumpled to the floor with the sword sticking out of him. When Hyakkimaru came nearer, he noticed that the blade was broken.
“Dead?” Hyakkimaru asked. The demon sword wasn’t sucking up Tanosuke’s blood, or anyone else's. The blade was in pieces. “Is it...”
This was more proof that anyone could ever need that the sword concealed in Hyakkimaru’s left arm was capable of killing demons.
Hyakkimaru grunted in pain and lowered himself to the temple floor. There was a sharp shooting pain in his head, worse than any headache he’d ever had. He reached for the pain and identified his eye socket.
“My eye,” he said. “My eye, it’s... coming back...” The eye pushed out his false one as it grew in, and he blinked rapidly a few times to clarify his new vision. “Mio, I can see! Where are you? I...”
The world opened out before him. He didn’t recognize even half of what he saw, but he identified Mio easily enough. She lay face-up on the temple floor with her eyes open and a faint smile on her lips. Those were her eyes, and her face, and her mouth.
She wasn’t moving. Dororo was huddled behind her so that Hyakkimaru had barely noticed him. He inhaled sharply and called out, “Mio! Mio, are you all right?”
Mio was already dead. She’d died believing in Hyakkimaru’s victory, which was why she was smiling. Hyakkimaru, Dororo and the other children were saved.
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