Ash and Silk

There. A resounding beat of a taiko drum. Hazama was calm but on guard. Ishigami stood in place, arms crossed.

Hoshino widened his eyes, the grip on his wand wavering. His lips curled into a sad, terrified smile. The plan had been to join Ishigami as the man rushed into battle. Hoshino hadn’t expected much. Maybe some bolts would be thrown. Hazama was there. Maybe she would be cute and wipe the floor with her targets. Ishigami… Ishigami would probably style on them like mobs in a hack-and-slash game.

But… what the fuck was this?

The world had turned upside down. Straight up. Hoshino realized the fact as he looked up, mouth agape, as the taiko drums continued to murmur, building up speed. Yes. Speed. He would have liked to call it that. But not really. Instead of this broken rhythm getting faster, the bangs simply overlapped until the entire song became droning, wrong, and flesh-like. A heartbeat, perhaps. Like that of a maiden. The floor he had been acquainted with thanks to Hazama’s spell had become their ceiling. Beneath their feet was a mirror; it was a surface of water that felt like solid glass to the touch, yet rippled at their weight. Far beneath them lay a bed of stars.

Nagamori Arisa screamed.

Hoshino swallowed, forced to widen his terrified grin. Deep within the malevolent spirit’s flesh, at the surface of her yellowish bones, a bud sprouted. Nagamori Arisa stepped back, almost falling onto one knee and stifling a moan. Her eyes wandered. This gaze of hers… it was confused. Afraid.

There came another beat, this time rippling the water beneath her feet. The buds clinging to her bones had developed into seedlings, chasing the light from below.

A laugh escaped Hoshino’s lips. He gripped his chest.

Nagamori Arisa collapsed backward, her eyes strained and defiant. Her face, which was supposed to be consumed by curiosity, was overcome by rage. But it broke. In mere fucking moments. It was as if she were seeing something only she could see… and at the sight of it, her thirst for blood and revenge was crushed, twisted into a gaze of pure pleasure.

The Butterflies weren’t doing any better. Hajime… Satoru’s spirit was also caught in whatever the fuck this was. Nagamori Arisa had crushed some of Hajime’s shadows right before Ishigami unleashed Ono no Komachi. Hoshino expected them to regenerate as usual, but they stopped; their flesh had become a seedbed, and the more the darkness tried to stitch them back together, the faster these buds grew. The same applied to the Butterflies who found themselves in this place injured.

Then came a louder beat. The seedlings gnawing into the bodies of the affected snapped into full-blown saplings. A blink of an eye. A chorus of terrified moans followed. Then, a number of bodies fell to the "floor." Hoshino couldn’t bear to look around.

Another loud beat. Nagamori Arisa covered her mouth, another moan escaping through her teeth. The saplings snapped into their next stage, spawning smaller branches that either covered her skin or connected one tissue to the next. These branches shifted in color… from green to pink until, like threads of silk, they became thick enough to weave into themselves and turn brown, like bark.

Then, one more resounding beat. The saplings had matured. Without a sound, Nagamori Arisa… and the other Butterflies Hoshino could see in the corner of his eye… virtually had no more injuries. Their bodies were infested with wood. Some tendrils followed the bed of stars by breaking into the glass-like floor, while others spread outward, showing signs that they were about to bloom.

Satoru gave his command way too late. He had Hajime and the rest of his men try to break the wood rooting the others to the ground, but the timber proved indestructible against their bolts. Hajime’s shadows couldn’t rip or bite it off either. Those that injured themselves in the attempt found themselves in the same predicament moments later.

Nagamori Arisa screamed once more. Her voice had become raw, like that of a cornered animal. Hoshino’s heart twisted, even more so when her voice finally dissolved into a sob. It didn’t take long before she broke down.

There she was, rooted in place by the beat of the drum, the tree sprouting from her limbs gripping the rest of her body until her very skin popped like a balloon. Her response was a terrified, pained, and pleasured moan; she looked surprised, broken by her own reaction. Then, the light in her eyes dimmed, leaving her to gaze upward as the trunk that cradled her body bloomed in the brightest pink, its flowers glowing like the stars themselves.

Hoshino grit his teeth. “This is…”

“Ono no Komachi’s first curse,” Hazama answered, grimacing. “Don’t worry, we have proxies in place. You’ll be safe for now.”

Hoshino turned to look at Hazama. His eyes were wide, begging for an explanation. But was he even looking for that in the first place? Probably not. Hoshino could see it in their eyes, too. Nagamori Arisa… whatever the shit was in front of them… was suffering. Regardless of whether that monster had killed a person or two—or three, actually—it didn't mean this…

But then again… was there something he could do about it? If anything, why was he entertaining the thought in the first place? Hazama’s reaction remained professional; her gaze didn't suggest that Nagamori Arisa deserved this. Ishigami was the same, but more respectful, like this was the least he could do. Should he do the same?

Hoshino lowered his head. “How strong is Nagamori Arisa?”

“I’d say C-rank,” Hazama replied.

“This…” Hoshino chuckled. “This is an actual C-rank?”

“You’d be surprised how common instant-death attacks are. If you’re thinking about why the Butterflies don’t use proxies like us, well… they have Hajime. Hajime's broken.”

“And Ono no Komachi?” Hoshino continued, stepping forward. “What’s her rank—”

Another scream. It was Nagamori Arisa.

On the floor rose a ball of white light. For a moment, it seemed that its glow would fade but it snapped to blinding at the next beat. Hoshino covered his eyes by instinct; when he lowered his hand, he found that everything was burning.

The drum roll continued, the sound picking up speed as that glimmer of light pulsed and disappeared into a wave. Then the wind—cold and grating—blew. The wood that marred Nagamori Arisa’s body, Hajime’s shadows, and several other Butterflies broke into a great fire. They screamed first with pleasure, then with a mix of agony, and finally, with pain alone. The blaze forced the trees to grow in tandem with its slow, measured destruction, extending the cross of their torment even more.

Hoshino laughed, his hand barely clinging to his wand. Hell. This was the only way to describe it. These people burned, forced to perceive it as something pleasurable, unable to escape. Satoru and the rest of the Butterflies were caught in the inferno, surviving only because Hajime prevented them from breaking down. The flames were hot enough to break their bones, but the spirit’s ability caught even their ashes and stitched them back together, so long as their will to live remained.

Nagamori Arisa was still crying.

Hoshino’s smile finally wavered. Beyond the great flame that was Nagamori Arisa was the shape of a contorted human, reduced a blackened bundle of sticks, a mockery of its form, and yet forced to endure a nightmare; her teeth cracked under the heat like popcorn, only to be replaced by wood that did nothing but make the fire stronger. A person with burned-out eyelids, forced to watch the stars at her feet and have her dreams be reduced to a yearning to be a puff of ash that will disappear with the wind…

This was fucking unfair.

But then again, what was he supposed to do?

“B-rank… Ono no Komachi is classified as a guardian spirit of the Ishigami clan. Her abilities do not change over time, but…” Hazama continued, keeping her gaze straight. “There’s really nothing you can do about it, can you?”

Hoshino’s eyes welled with tears.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Hoshino-san…” Hazama flashed him a professional, sad smile and raised her staff. “Ishigami-san will pacify Ono no Komachi right before she activates her third curse, or we’ll all die. Yes, even with our proxies. Satoru knows that, too. So, as soon as Ishigami is done, we’ll have to rush in and kill—”

“Sorry, Hazama-san.”

He just had to save her. Hoshino grimaced, his face lined with fear. This was a bad idea, but it was something only he could do. He whipped his wand, conjuring a series of shields to use as stairs. It looked cooler in his head and took longer than he had anticipated, but it didn’t matter. Neither Hazama nor Ishigami were in a position to stop him.

Hoshino rushed toward the ceiling, breaking through the wall of Ono no Komachi’s range of control. He faltered and almost fell when reality snapped back into place, but now was not the time to be a bitch. He was in the sky. He kept his head still, moving forward, becoming speed and ignoring the knee-buckling thought of falling to his death until he could see the silhouette of Hoshikuzu Bridge in the distance.

The thing about bolt spells was that they had little to no air resistance; while they would explode upon impact, they essentially traveled in a perfectly straight line unless the caster forced them to curve. Hoshino had shit aim, but in a situation where he had to hit a bridge kilometers away and technically had unlimited tries, he could afford to miss a few times. Right?

Hoshino smiled helplessly. Maybe this problem he’d create could be solved by a few more bottles of sake. It was a stupid idea, though.

Fuck.

Hoshino rained bolts toward the bridge.