An Old Dream, Part 3

RYUUJI’S BODY WAS BLAZING WITH PAIN following the strained teleportation.

By the grace of the gods he completed the jump safely, albeit still a distance away from Hotaru’s position. The magical currents were too tempestuous to get any closer, leaving Ryuuji no choice but to finish the trip on foot.

Alas, that was easier said than done.

Driven by Hotaru’s spell, most of the miasma in the city had concentrated in the Institute of Divine Phenomena, turning the area into a living nightmare. Thankfully, no people seemed to be outside, but the trees and bushes had twisted into dreadful mockeries of their former selves. If Ryuuji walked anywhere close to them, they would attack him in a heartbeat.

That was, of course, if he didn’t go insane first.

The warding sigils on his armor weren’t rated to protect from such a high level of corruption, and no spell in Ryuuji’s arsenal could possibly help him. All he had to go about was sheer determination to reach his beloved.

“What toll… is this…?” Ryuuji asked himself, listening to the bells in the distance.

Teleportation wasn’t instantaneous, so he had no idea how much time he’d lost. Under normal circumstances, the bells would take roughly an hour to complete the ritual, but Hotaru was ringing them quickly. Ryuuji had only a couple of minutes at best.

And so he ran, enduring the gale of miasma whirling around him.

The reason Ryuuji had joined the military in the first place was to protect Hotaru. She had saved his life years before when they were children, and Ryuuji never forgot the feeling of impotence as he couldn’t do anything for her.

But now, despite the grueling years of training and dozens of missions under his belt, the cruel mistress of history was repeating herself. No matter the oaths Ryuuji had pledged to defend her, Hotaru was willing to throw herself away.

On his life, he wouldn’t allow it.

Even if it cost him everything, this time he would save her without fail.

And so he kept running, with the ceaseless toll of the temple bells ringing like the ticking hands of a distant clock.

Ryuuji counted each of them, but no matter how much he urged his legs to press forward, he barely reached the entrance of the Institute at the sound of the fiftieth toll.

He wouldn’t make it on foot.

He had to teleport straight to Hotaru, consequences be damned.

Falling to his knees, Ryuuji began to etch another teleportation circle on the ground. The spell would most definitely kill him, but he had no choice. It was do or die, or he’d never forgive himself for failing Hotaru so close to the finish line.

But then, when he was halfway done crafting the circle, an unexpected voice echoed from the sky. It was Hotaru, issuing a single new command to the world.

“Halt.”

In a split second, everything went quiet.

The wind, the bells, the distant screams of panic… at Hotaru’s order, the entirety of Tokyo came to a standstill, its people and its gods holding their breaths in fear.

Even if they didn’t know Hotaru personally, her voice wasn’t the same as before.

“By the Gods,” said Ryuuji, staring it horror at a woman’s figure in the distance. She stood alone atop the Institute’s roof, her silver hair fluttering in the wind with the full moon shining at her back.

It was the same figure Ryuuji had come to love over the years, but something about her had fundamentally changed. A dreadful aura emanated over her shoulders, and a single horn was protruding from her forehead.

Kisaragi Hotaru, the most powerful spellcaster in Japan, had become an oni.

“Shit!” Ryuuji screamed, turning his attention back to his teleportation circle. He had but a moment left to complete it, to rush to Hotaru’s side before she did something catastrophic.

Alas, before he had the chance to cast his spell, the fallen Hotaru brought forth a new and terrible song into the world.

“Despair, despair, oh feeble souls… Come with me to Hell…”

“Lay your souls, everything bare… Welcome my despair…”

The earth shook upon her wake. Ryuuji’s body was thrashed left and right, up and down, like a marionette at the hands of a dreadful master.

What manner of quake had Hotaru conjured?

For the life of his, Ryuuji wasn’t sure it could be measured. All that he could do was to raise a barrier around him, shielding him from the debris as the Institute of Divine Phenomena collapsed to the ground.

Cries of panic rang throughout the city, as a wave of corrupted energy washed through it anew. It took Ryuuji’s everything not to turn into an oni then and there, taking the brunt of the blast up close.

“Hotaru, don’t do this!” Ryuuji pleaded, struggling to his feet. “I’m here with you! Right here, right now! Face me, damn it!”

To think this would be their first real fight as lovers.

Ryuuji couldn’t curse his luck enough.

“You’re late,” replied Hotaru’s voice, thick with power as she walked up to him. She looked haughty and proud, a far cry from her usually playful demeanor.

“No shit,” he shot back, trying to stand straight despite the terrible shaking.

“Hold still, will you?” said Hotaru, turning her eyes to the ground. With that, the earthquake vanished like a bad dream.

“You said you’d teleport me,” Ryuuji argued, asking why she didn’t call him over.

“You were at work,” Hotaru shrugged. “Last time I did that, you yelled at me.”

“You weren’t trying to kill yourself back then,” Ryuuji pointed out.

“I’m not trying this time either, am I?” Hotaru asked, playing innocent.

“For all intents and purposes, you already have,” Ryuuji replied. “You didn’t plan to survive earlier, did you? You intended to die with the last toll of the bells.”

“Well, that was the idea,” Hotaru admitted, casually twirling her hair. “I had this stupid notion of taking everything upon me and going out with a bang. Thought I would protect you, at least. But then, when I realized I had all this power in my grasp, I began to wonder why I even bothered. If I wanted to be with you forever, all I had to do was to turn you into an Oni and spend all of eternity by your side.”

“At the cost of our humanity,” Ryuuji confronted her.

“Of our mortality, more like,” Hotaru argued. “I may be an Oni, but I’m still sentient, you know? I can still cook your favorite dishes, and whisper sweet lullabies to your ear. But now, I can do it forever. Isn’t that just bliss?”

“It sounds great,” Ryuuji admitted, as Hotaru lovingly wrapped her arms around him. “But if that’s all you want, then why are you torturing everyone else? You probably killed thousands with that earthquake earlier, and Gods know how many more you will corrupt with the renewed miasma.”

“Well, I purified so much cursed energy before I snapped, so I had to replenish it somehow,” Hotaru reasoned. “The Bureau, the JSDF, the Red Thread, the Divine Veil… I’ll have too many enemies to defend myself from, I can’t afford to be weak. So I’ll tax our people for our troubles, and clean up everything before we leave.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” asked Ryuuji, pulling Hotaru away from him to stare deep into her eyes. “This isn’t who you are, Hotaru. It’s the corruption speaking for you.”

“Is it?” she asked back. “I wouldn’t have stopped the purification ritual if this weren’t part of me, you know? You understand corruption, Ryuuji. You know it comes from our own desires, when they grow so strong that they take over our hearts. And my yearning for you was strong enough that it became sinful. When I realized that bearing everyone’s corruption would tear us apart, I thought I’d rather embrace it instead. So that’s exactly what I did, and here I am, ready to be with you for eternity.”

Tears of grief, anger and all sorts of emotions welled on Ryuuji’s eyes.

If only he’d been strong enough to prevent this.

“That kind of eternity is worthless, Hotaru,” he said plainly. “If we exist only through the pain and suffering of others, then we’re no better than parasites. The world will never accept us. We’ll never see a day of peace again.”

“So what, will you have me die here?” Hotaru’s eyes narrowed as she confronted him. “After talking big all these years, saying you’d protect me for sure next time, you’ll turn your blade on me after I bailed you out again?”

Her words cut deep into Ryuuji’s heart.

She was right, every bit of it.

Ryuuji had made a vow, and failed to live up to it. He simply wasn’t of her caliber.

If the two of them had never met, and Hotaru had found it in her to just weather the storm or look for other means for survival, then maybe she wouldn’t have lost her humanity that day.

But she did.

Ryuuji talked big to her, and he wasn’t good enough. That’s all there was to it.

Thus, he only had one way to possibly atone to her.

“Let’s go together, Hotaru,” he said. “Let’s end it here and now, with dignity.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed in surprise.

Then she exhaled, suppressing her laughter.

“Are you being serious with me…?” she asked. “You came all the way here, survived all the corruption around you, just to ask for both of us to die?”

“It’s the right thing do to,” Ryuuji argued. “Look around, Hotaru. The Institute of Divine Phenomena you bragged so much about, what did you turn it into? It’s a pile of rubble now, along with a good half of Tokyo. And your thirst for power, do you think it will end today? You’ll crave for more at some point and cause another disaster. You’ll become the same kind of monster that almost killed us when we were kids. The same kind of monster I swore to protect you from.”

He reached out to her as Hotaru fell silent, holding onto her shoulders.

“Is this the kind of eternity you want us to spend together? Wreaking havoc, sowing death everywhere we go?” Ryuuji asked her, pleading to whatever humanity may remain in her.

“To be honest, Ryuuji…” Hotaru hesitated to reply. “To be honest, I don’t give a damn anymore. I just want to be with you and let everyone else burn for it if I have to. But that isn’t what you want, is it? Even if I used my power and turned you against your will, you’re such a blockhead that you’d keep hating me afterwards.”

“I’d never hate you, Hotaru,” Ryuuji took her into his arms, tears flowing down his face. “I’ll only ever hate myself, for not being here for you tonight. I should’ve ditched my squad and come running right away. You are the whole reason I wanted to fight for in the first place.”

“I think you were right after all,” said Hotaru, trembling as she tearfully returned the embrace. “I’m already dead, aren’t I?”

Ryuuji nodded bitterly.

The person known as Kisaragi Hotaru had ceased to exist. Only a shadow of her former self remained, bearing malice towards everything she had every loved.

“But you’re still alive, Ryuuji,” she continued, letting go of him.

Ryuuji, in turn, kept holding onto her. Whatever scheme she was planning, he wouldn’t let her get away with it.

“I’m not leaving you, Hotaru,” he said bluntly. “We’re going together.”

“No, we’re not,” she replied. “You’re letting go of me, just this one time.”

Ryuuji’s strength was drained from his body, making him drop to his knees.

“Hotaru, wait!” he pleaded. “Don’t do it! Don’t leave me here alone!”

“No can do,” she replied, wearing a faint smile on her lips. “I wanted to marry you and start a family, but you’ll have to live for both of us instead. So please get over me and find yourself a better girlfriend. Build with her a better life.”

“Don’t screw with me!” Ryuuji yelled at her. “I don’t want anyone else!”

Hotaru looked down at him with mixed emotions on her face.

“You stupid man, don’t make me hesitate…” she admonished him. “I’m dying for you today, but if you catch up with me in Hell and didn’t live the life I asked you to, I’ll personally boil you.”

That was no empty threat, and Ryuuji knew it.

“Hotaru, please…” he started, until…

“Shut up,” his girlfriend stifled him with the full might of her Kotodama.

“Ahh, silence truly is godly,” she noted before rubbing her chin in contemplation. “So I have to die now, but I can’t just kill myself. All the corruption in me will spill out if I die, so I have to go somewhere else first. The question is, where can I even go to? I’ve harvested so much energy that I’ll make a mess just about anywhere.”

Hotaru had absorbed the anguish and despair of tens of millions of people, plus a majority of the miasma. Thanks to Ryuuji, she was enjoying a moment of clarity, but her corruption was bound to get the better of her soon.

She had to go quickly, before she changed her mind.

But that was easier said than done. She couldn’t restart the Joya no Kane ritual until next year, given she had already interrupted it. And even if she drowned herself at the bottom of the ocean, odds were she would spawn a sea monster in turn.

Frustratingly short of ideas, Hotaru turned her eyes to the night sky.

There, the full moon shone upon her, undisturbed by her earthly predicaments.

“Right. There’s no one up there...” Hotaru pondered. “Only Tsukuyomi-sama and Kaguya-hime if they’re still around, but they should be able to bear with me.”

The lunar deity might not take kindly upon her visit, but Hotaru couldn’t care less. She’d rather piss her off, instead of laying waste to Tokyo any further.

“Oh beautiful, full moon…” she began, her voice brimming with power. “Will you take me far away? Grant me a place by your side, so that I may not hurt my beloved.”

Ryuuji watched in horror as he realized Hotaru’s ploy.

“Hnng! Hnng!” he tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t formulate. All he could do was to squirm miserably on the ground.

Alas, no matter his struggle against her magic, her spell had already manifested.

The world itself shuddered for a moment, and with a blinding flash of light, a massive summoning circle manifested in the air. From it, a majestic dragon emerged, blue and silver like the full moon in the night sky.

Ryuuji’s heart beat rapidly in his chest as he witnessed the dragon descend from the heavens. It was a greater kami, no doubt about it, and Hotaru had summoned it specifically to end her.

“Well, this is it,” said Hotaru, kneeling next to Ryuuji. “Before I go, I wanted to thank you, Ryuuji. I know I was never a normal person, even when we were kids, but you never saw me that way. To you, I wasn’t a prodigy or some exotic specimen. I was just the girl you liked, and you were adorable trying to show off to me. When you confessed in high school and promised to look after me for the rest of our lives, I was really moved. I fell in love with you all over again, and I wanted to answer your feelings properly. I still do, but...”

Hotaru paused, staring at her own hands.

The fingernails she’d spent so much time painting to show Ryuuji had turned into long claws, blood red and wreathed with cursed energy. She couldn’t even touch her beloved anymore without harming him.

“We’re breaking up,” said Hotaru, her heart hardening in her chest. Her life was already forfeit, as the celestial dragon fast approached from the heavens, but she wanted to at least give her man the closure he deserved.

“I’m leaving you, so be happy without me, okay?” she continued, tears falling from her eyes. “I’ll never forgive you if you die still hung up on me.”

Ryuuji had so much he wanted to say in protest, but as he remained muted and paralyzed by Hotaru’s spell, he was unable to do so.

All he could do was to watch as the celestial dragon floated before his beloved.

“I’m ready,” she said, turning her gaze to the majestic creature.

“You are unusual for an Oni,” said the dragon, staring down at her.

“Oh, I know,” Hotaru replied without a shred of fear. “As it turns out, corruption doesn’t suit me. I was hoping you could help me with that.”

“Hah! It truly doesn’t,” the dragon huffed in amusement. “Tell me, young one. What is your name?”

“I’m Kisaragi Hotaru,” she replied, bowing her head in reverence. “As you can tell, I am a failure of a Kotodama user. And who might you be, venerable dragon?”

“I am Reigetsu, the Spirit of the Moon,” the dragon introduced himself.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Reigetsu-sama,” Hotaru replied. “Alas, though I would love to indulge in pleasantries, I fear it’s getting difficult for me to stay sane. Could you open your mouth for me?”

“If you so insist,” Reigetsu agreed. “I shall take you in, Kisaragi Hotaru.”

Hotaru straightened herself and stood firm.

Ryuuji’s eyes widened in horror.

And in one fell swoop, the dragon swallowed her hole.