Voiced Paths

Kizuna

I watched Eien until he shut the sliding door behind him. After I felt the shaking of the room rising I turned back to Hino. She was walking to the other side of the room. I walked after her with Iroha right beside me.

“Does your path remain the same as it was, Kizuna?” Hino asked as she reached the curved wall. “To return to the roots of your family. To lay to rest your godhood?”

“Yes,” I replied. I let a bit of the strength holding me up inside loosen. I felt the pulse of my godhood pressing in on me. A golden suffocating light that was going to drown me if I allowed it. “I want to be free. I want to live.”

“Many would be envious of your position.” She placed a hand on the wall and the wall pulled back and rippled like water. “Some would say that you are throwing away a gift.”

“If you excuse me for interjecting,” Iroha said, stepping forward. “Humans should never have made the deal to become like gods. Your forms weren't made for it.”

Hino turned and dragged her hand along the wall, the wood further rippling and turning translucent. “Most fail in obtaining godhood, true. But for those that can obtain it, one could say that they are pure.”

“Pure of what?” Iroha countered as we followed behind the seer. “Pure has many different connotations. One could only have pure good intent in their hearts but lack the judgement to truly do good. They would miss the finer details of the meaning of ‘good.’”

“Or they could be pure of rage,” Hino added. “Enough to destroy everything around them. But are the gods not pure of symbolism? Emotions? Meaning?” She flicked the wall and it became water. Roiling like the violent ocean waves. The green light of the lanterns did not pierce far into the gloom of the water.

“Even if that’s what the gods are,” I said. “I want no part of their purity. I want to be myself while I live and when I die.”

Hino turned her head and her black lips spread into a grin. The mouth on the back of her head grinned as well. She tapped her foremost leg on the ground and an orange tree sprouted out of the floor to tower above them. The leaves rapidly grew and its flowers blossomed.

“The orange blossoms for purity,” the mouth at the back of Hino’s head said. It had the same pitch as Hino’s voice but deeper. She continued walking around the chamber.

“Kizuna,” she said with her normal mouth. “Allow me to speak a word of advice before we start. Do not use more of your divinity than you already are. You're close to turning into a god. If you turn, that will jeopardize your goal.”

“What if Eien needs help like he did earlier today?” I assumed she already knew what happened due to knowing the future. “I can not just do nothing.”

“You can and you will. Did he not admonish you already?”

She tapped her foreleg again and a wide ring of small purple flowers sprouted. The flowers formed at the ends of long green stalks. “Statice for success,” the mouth at the back of her head said.

“I agree with the seer Kizuna,” Iroha said as we walked by the flowers. “You are paying us to help and guard you. What would be the point if you are the one protecting us?”

“I’m not protecting you,” I said with more vehemence than I intended. “I’m safeguarding my own interests.”

“The interests are yours to have,” Hino said softly. “But do keep them in mind when I tell and show you of the likely paths you will take.” She waved a hand idly. “Allow them to do their duty and you shall make it to your homeland.”

“I’m not about to watch either of these two die!” I stamped my hoof and the sound echoed throughout the room despite the covering wrapped around it.

“That is a possible future the two have accepted.” She tapped the floor again and tall thin green stalks grew. They were topped by the bright red petals of the poppy.

“Red poppy for sacrifice,” the back of her head said.

“Iroha,” I turned to the child god as we kept walking. “Tell me that you would agree that I should do something if you two are backed into a corner.”

Iroha looked up at me with her fathomless dark eyes. “No, I would rather you be safe. The same feeling is shared by Eien.”

“Why?” I asked, confused.

“You are our client. We agreed to help you and we’ll do so. Even if it means the cost of our lives.” She spoke solemnly. “Eien holds onto the scraps of what little honor he has left and he’ll be damned if he tosses it aside. I won’t allow that to happen to him.”

“He isn’t a samurai with a lord.”

“Honor or you could say a reason for living.” She blinked and looked ahead.

“Holly for foresight,” the back of Hino’s head said. I looked up and there was a large bush with red berries growing from the ends of the stems.

“I could never forgive myself if one of you died,” I said. The mere thought, dropped stones into my stomach.

“In that case, you can cast your worries to the winds,” Iroha said, looking back up at me. “If one of us goes, the other will follow. For one cannot exist without the other.” My face must have looked stricken because she grabbed my hand and held it as we walked together. “Do not worry yourself of our fate. It’ll take much to do us in.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

A peal of laughter echoed from up ahead. Hino wiped her eyes with a small embroidered handkerchief. “Then follow what I show you and you shall be well.”

She tapped the floor and delicate soft pink flowers sprouted. The back of her head said, “Sweet peas for departure.”

Hino began to walk towards the center of the room. She tucked her handkerchief into her obi as she walked. We followed her to stand near the middle of the room.

“I do wish to see you be freed from your heavy yoke Kizuna,” Hino said. “This is part of the reason I wanted to see you again.”

“What was the other reason?” I asked, staring at her in the eyes.

“The other…” She tapped her leg again and a large tree sprouted from the middle. Small pink petals fell to the floor and floated around the room. I looked around and realized that there were six types of plants around the room. Five at equal distances around the room with one in the middle. “I wish to see how your story ends.”

“Cherry blossoms for the transience of life,” the back of her head said.

“Now sit, and I will show the choices you can make to return to your ancestral homeland.” She gestured at a groove in the cherry blossom trunk that was big enough for me to sit on.

I let go of Iroha’s hand and sat against the groove. “I want to make choices that will allow me to live with myself afterwards.”

“Then close your eyes child,” Hino said softly, almost motherly. “I will show you the paths to be taken.” Her chitinous hands cupped my cheeks and I shut my eyes.