Spiritual Baptism

Where's the house?

He couldn't recognise anything. Didn't have time to as they flew through the drizzle, sniping an oni chasing a pair of unrecognisable people across the fields from afar.

"Team leader? What are we doing?"

He couldn't think. At least Kyubi-sama hadn't tried to deny his request to defend the shore. He shot a flying oni on his way past the besieged town, the thing falling with a spine-grating shriek, and took in an aggressively deep breath. "We need to protect the village—create a perimeter around it if we can. Drake, take the beachhead and catch the oni still coming in. Eden, support him. Ariake and I will take the rest."

They acknowledged him, Drake and Eden shooting ahead. Exhaling, he pushed his throttles to a synced three, runes flaring to life and a grating sense nothing like anything he'd felt before burning into awareness.

Hell, is that the oni? His focus landed on a figure with tusks and burning eyes clawing into a half-collapsed building, the feeling of it tingling at his back teeth. Like something dark breathing on the back of his neck.

Faint screams came from inside, and he wasted no time aiming a burning shot straight through its head, rocketing past to slam feet-first on another chasing after a figure sprinting from the same house. He shot it point-blank, the head blasting apart into dark glitters.

Still crouched, taking precise aim, he went cleanly through another monster in the street, catching a pair of flying bat-like ones dive-bombing people he couldn't see.

"Are you okay?" He turned to the human cowering down in the shadow of what'd once been— that was Inori's house, with the big good-luck charm hanging in the window, now broken on the ground. Which meant the other house—

Past the fear twisting his face, he wished he was surprised to see Taiki, the boy barely managing a nod as he shook like a leaf.

"Good. You need to—"

A shriek interrupted, and he whipped around, a nastier-looking oni with bristles and a lashing tail crunching into the roof of the other house, the one with people still inside. Sangoro-san's house, the TV aerial bent and twisted under a scaled, clawed foot.

He swore, burning a hole in its face, and the thing hissed, turning a toothy maw on him, sparks flashing across its teeth. What the hell?

He threw up a shield just in time to catch a burning torrent of fire-lightning, gritting his teeth. Dammitall this wasn't like the glimmer projections—

The faint scent of burnt flesh caught him by the throat, a cry choking out behind him.

No. He slammed a bubble down behind him, breath abruptly rasping in his ears, Taiki's sense flickering, and how the hell had that—? No, it hadn't. It hadn't, it was just—

The kid clutched his side, curled on the ground. A spark must've hit him. How had it hit him around that shield? He'd made it wide enough—

"Gaijin!"

Dammit. Dammit. He fought to breathe through his mouth, but he couldn't get rid of the stench as he turned back just in time to get flattened by the lightning-spitting bastard.

"Go back to hell!" Stabbing a sharp edge straight into its snapping head, he yelled, throwing it off and summoning a sword, crunching it through the skull, through the dirt, deep enough to pin its twitching body with no hope of escape. Flashing out another, he sliced it straight through the neck and stabbed it in the heart for good measure, hissing through bared teeth as it finally crackled into dust.

Taiki, where was Taiki? He stumbled back, honing in on the still-living sense, still under the bubble. Good.

His hands shook on the throttles. Were the Inoue family in Sangoro's house? It hadn't collapsed fully, but it wouldn't take much to pin a small body. He clenched his eyes shut and forced them open, shoving that image savagely away and clicking up to notch-four, expanding his awareness even as he choked on the surge of Ki. Keep it together, do your job. Focus.

He leapt up, taking an overview and snapping off a shot at another bipedal oni with a jagged sword dashing around the back of a house. Something dripped off the blade.

To hell with all of this. Mist flickered on his arms, and he shoved back against the unpleasant tingle prickling over his skin, grinding his teeth as he shot a black figure in his old improvised and now overgrown shooting range, the cries of the people it'd been chasing ringing in his ears.

Phantom figures jostled him, a hand clamped tight on his shoulder. He couldn't blink, his feet tripping as people fled in front of a menacing black suit. A hand raised, heat rippling in its palm, and the star flashed out, cutting through screams, briefly blinding him.

"Lachlan!"

Not Da's voice. He sucked in a breath, blinking back to the present and spotting Ariake cutting through a few other oni on the outskirts, sniping one just as it slashed off the arm of an old man. Not Oji. Not Oji.

Wasn't sure, but it might've been Ousuke. Another figure lay slumped in the bushes, and it seemed familiar. A woman scrambled away from another oni just as Ariake sliced its head off, and he knew her but he couldn't remember her name. Faceless people running from swords and teeth.

"Lachlan, we have a big one!"

Something impossibly huge and cold drew his gaze like a magnet, rising out of the sea in a cascade of foam, Drake's glowing, horned Samurai hovering in its way with a pair of wicked swords, spiked wings flaring out.

"What the hell is that?" he breathed.

"All teams, possible onikaiju spotted! Junior teams, stay on task, Sixteen fall back to defend the village, providing support to Sakura as needed."

Onikaiju? A massive mouth opened, streaming seawater and billowing steam, the depths of its throat glowing like a furnace.

"But there hasn't been an onikaiju in decades." He couldn't recognise his own voice. "Not here. Not now."

"We'll know if it is once we engage it. It's more likely just a big oni."

The glow flared, and a rain of fire spewed into the sky, streaks sweeping down straight for the village. Oh hell.

"Everyone!" He threw himself into materialising a shield, dragging everything from the depths of his soul into it, covering the village and as far over the edges as he could. "Shield! Now!"

Three more layers burst into existence, the pounding of multiple burning wads slamming straight into them, flaring brightly. A crack tore straight through him, the light blinding, seeping glitter, his hands trembling from the force of clenching around worn grips.

"Gaijin, you need more Ki!"

They didn't stop. Flaring suns burst across the canopy, and he felt every one, clicking the left throttle to five, hints of fur-like mist searing through the runes on his arms. He ground his teeth, flaring more Ki into the cracks tearing across the shield, and it wasn't enough. Clicked it to six, and it wasn't enough, the dissonance digging a buzzsaw into his chest as hellfire rained down.

It wasn't enough.

He felt it breaking apart, a little girl looking up with wide eyes, clutching her younger brother, hell's bloody sword hanging over her head, a Samurai holding up the sky with trembling, burnt hands. Those burnt hands reached for her past the bloodied, slumped body of his mother, too late.

It wasn't enough.

No. He choked on a rough gasp, forced burning eyes open, and took in half a breath. Half a breath, his right hand grasping tight until it clicked, the sound of a trigger resonating up his arm.

And he threw it forward.

Notch-five hit him with the weight of a truck, tearing through his spine and burning into his soul, forcing sharp teeth into the back of his skull, through his gums, biting down.

He bit back.

With a snarl, every fireball burning into his retinas and over his skin, a bright flare burst across his Samurai's body. Mist like fur crackled between runes, sharp claws snapping into solid place, pointed ears lifting from his helmet and glowing bright, an afterglow like a tail streaming behind him.

He snapped his hand up, holding the sun in his claws, and lit up the sky.