First Contact

Chapter 13: First Contact

Kaguya's body fell to the floor with a dull thud.

Her face lay still, an expression of shock frozen on it. She had been totally knocked out.

Streams of blood flowed out from her nostrils, ruining her once delicate and stately appearance.

Ichiji couldn't care less about her now. His mind was only focused on one thing.

Victory. He had won. Right now, anything else was secondary.

Little by little, through victories like this, he could and would step over his memories of that night. So he had to keep winning, no matter what.

He looked at his bloody fist. For as bad as it looked, he had almost no difficulty moving it. He was sure he had suffered some fractures to his fingers. But that wasn't a worry. He had gotten lots of injuries over the years and had a strong idea of his body's recovery time. 

His hand would heal in a day, maybe two, with good rest.

Ichiji turned to his left, seeing the people in the carts. They were basically shivering, eyes shaking in fear. 

It was the polar opposite of the reaction he expected them to have. But then he realised. 

These people had been trampled upon and beaten down for too long. As far as they knew, Ichiji was the latest in a line of powerful oppressors. He shook his head once he fully understood.

Later on, the full light of what he had just done would dawn upon them.

Suddenly, his vision began to blur. He dropped to one knee, holding his head with his right hand.

Exhaustion, he thought. That fight had taken more out of him than he thought.

The sound of hooves and shouts filled the air. They were coming from his right. Ichiji stood back up, composing himself.

He stared at the incoming samurai. They were large in number, which made sense seeing as they were reinforcements directly from the Castle.

They stopped right in front of the scene. The man Ichiji assumed to be in charge paled when he saw Kaguya's unconscious form on the floor.

His eyes trembled in fear as he looked at Ichiji. The other men saw her on the ground too, immediately turning silent once they saw.

And all their eyes bore the same expression. An awkward mix of fear and awe. Ichiji himself wasn't bothered with what the men were feeling. He only wanted to carry out his part of the plan.

It was time. He had to act, convincingly at that.

Ichiji walked forward. The men shifted back in unison, as if he was carrying a deadly disease.

Then, suddenly, in the middle of his walk, he fell to the ground. Face first, with no protection at all to make it more believable.

On the ground, Ichiji heard the curious questions of the men above him.

"Is he dead?"                                       "Dead?! Monsters like him don't die!"   "Tie him up! We'll take him to the Castle!"                                                        "He beat Kaguya, you stupid donkey! What if he wakes up during the journey? He'll pulverise us!"                                 "Bind him with the tightest ropes we have. Use tranquilisers if you have any."

The voice of the man in charge was the last one Ichiji heard clearly. The voices faded away as Ichiji closed his eyes and allowed the tides of sleep to carry him away.

_ _ _ _

Drip...drip...drip

The sound of light drops of water hitting the ground periodically reached the ears of the rousing Ichiji.

He opened his eyes, coming to slowly.

His head had been slumped, so the first thing he saw were his legs bound in iron shackles.

Ichiji slowly raised his head. He felt lethargic. All his senses felt dull, like he was hallucinating. The images of the environment around him blurred in and out of focus.

He seemed to be in a stone cellar. Breathing in and trying his best to resist his drowsiness, he dragged his arms forward.

The sharp clink of a metal chain, followed by pain in his wrists told him all he needed to know.

His arms had been chained to a post somewhere above, the length of the chain forcibly maintaining them in an upward position.

A soft smile showed on his face. He had succeeded. He was in the Castle now.

The four walls of the stone cell were interrupted by the soft moonlight coming from the window high above. Directly opposite him was a strong iron door sealed shut from the outside.

Ichiji yawned slightly. He closed his eyes, meditating and focusing deeply.

The familiar sight of his soul appeared before him. He focused on the stream of silver Musuhi coming from his soul, the one connecting him to the physical world.

He focused on it, strengthening its flow. 

The world was immediately presented to him in another level of clarity. The ridges of the stone below his legs, the iron shackles on his hands, the soft drips of his own sweat as it left his body. All of this sensory information rushed at Ichiji, presented on a silver platter due to his enhanced senses.

He had since learned not to be overwhelmed by this. He focused once again, shifting his gaze from the physical to the spiritual.

On the other side of the door, two souls appeared due to his enhanced vision. Soldiers meant to guard me, Ichiji assumed. Non-shamans, he could tell from their almost nonexistent flow of Kin Musuhi.

Another soldier came and stood near the two. They immediately stood up. Perhaps a superior officer. With his enhanced ears, Ichiji eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Any response?" asked the superior soldier.

"No, sir. Last time we checked, he was sound asleep. How much longer do you think he'll sleep for?"

"Shouldn't be for long. He was able to take down Kaguya after all. He should be sturdy."

"Just remember, whenever he wakes up, alert me. Omake wants to see him," the solitary soldier said, before leaving.

My plan worked. Omake and perhaps Mori are now interested in me. The sooner I meet them, the better...Ichiji thought.

After taking a deep breath, he began to speak.

"Hey! What is this place?! Who did this to me?" Ichiji shouted, acting confused.

He purposely made his speech slower and sound slurred to make it seem like he was still fully drowsy. He had come to the conclusion that they had drugged him when he was asleep.

The guards on the other side looked at each other. One turned to the iron door, opening a slit near the top of the door.

His eyes caught Ichiji's bound figure. Seeing he had caught his attention, Ichiji raised his head weakly, still acting.

"Is it you that did this?" he asked.

With a squint of his eyes, the guard closed the slit. 

"That drug they used is still working. He's weak. Stay here, I'll go tell Yamamura."    "Okay."

The guard who had poked through the slit went away, leaving his partner. He soon returned with the superior officer, who opened the slit to see Ichiji's weak and slumped figure. 

"Bring him out. Let's go."

The iron door slid open. The two guards rushed into the room, removing the shackles that tied him to the wall and putting new ones on his arms.

Their superior, Yamamura was his name, looked at Ichiji with a look of disdain. 

Once the two were done, they helped Ichiji up and out of the cell. Ichiji took the opportunity to look around.

They were in a stone corridor illuminated by torches. Multiple iron doors were set into the walls opposite the torches. Ichiji could hear snores and scraping of walls inside. Omake's prisoners.

Ichiji made sure to drag his feet along the stones, further adding to the look of him being weak and tired.

The soldiers repeatedly hauled him to his feet, holding him as they moved through the corridors.

They reached a flight of stairs carved into the stone. Still feigning weakness, Ichiji struggled, barely getting up the stairs.

The flight of stairs opened at the top into a massive compound. At the center of the compound, two towering castles loomed over the rest of the vicinity. The other smaller buildings lay in specific positions in the compound. The entire place was quiet, evidence of the slumber of the people within.

Ichiji began to think and wonder. Which one was Yuki in? 

The soldiers dragged Ichiji to the largest building in the compound. Omake's lair?...Ichiji thought.

The wooden floors and steps creaked under the weight of the men as they walked upwards in unison. Ichiji kept his head slumped, but his senses ran wild, memorising the layout as best as possible. This would be necessary in the future.

Eventually they reached the top of the building. The soldiers immediately removed their arms, allowing Ichiji to fall to the floor. He looked up. Two wooden panels stood before him.

His heartbeat quickened. Everything, from the air to even his own body, felt off. 

The superior soldier cleared his throat before speaking. "Good evening, sir. This is Yamamura speaking, sir!"

The fear and anxiety in the man came off in waves. Add that to the off feeling about this place, and Ichiji already knew who was behind those doors.

The panel to the left shifted slightly, allowing only a small amount of the darkness inside to be seen. Ichiji's heart began to beat harder.

This wasn't ordinary darkness, the absence of light. The light of the moon seemed to stop just at the opening of the panels, not daring to enter the room. This was true, abnormal darkness.

A great, no, a terrible evil was inside this room. Ichiji began to weigh his chances. If he was at full strength, with full access to all the Kami he had learned to channel originally, would he stand a chance?

Suddenly, a voice appeared in his head, one different from his own. It was deep and reverberating, like thunder during a storm.

"Leave him."

Without any hesitation, all three soldiers left Ichiji at the door without another word.

They ran as fast as they could, Ichiji almost couldn't believe normal humans could run that fast.

His attention focused again on the door. It slid open, fully revealing the impenetrable darkness that cloaked the room.

The voice once again appeared in his head. 

"A shaman. A very powerful one, nonetheless. With such a...unique soul. Who are you, boy? Where are you from?"

Ichiji gulped as he spoke his prepared answer. 

"My name is Sakazuki. I'm a travelling shaman, helping those that I see and cultivating my spirituality. I came because of the stories of Tengoku Village, only to see its people with broken spirits and destroyed hearts because of you."

Ichiji had decided to use a fake name. He still didn't know what happened outside Tengoku District while he was asleep. There was a chance Takeda Shingen and Akagi were still looking for him since he had the Chikaeshi-no-tama. As such, he didn't want to take any chances.

"Oh...a hero, are you?"                                 A laugh suddenly resounded. 

"You can't save these people. No one can. Those without power must be subject to the whims of those who possess it. These people lived in ignorance, they knew of the power their land possessed. But they never sought to fully understand it, to wield it. It is only natural that the more ambitious and capable would eventually seek this power for themselves. It is only the law of nature."

"They were living peaceful and satisfied lives. Not harming or offending anybody. Yet you took their land, took their culture, and took their dreams. 'The law of nature' is only an excuse for you and Mori to be despicable half-wits," Ichiji spat.

His earlier fear and apprehension were now gone. The pain and fear, hunger and despair he had previously seen were being caused by this person here. It was obvious to him now. 

At that moment, a black mist began to pour out of the room. It covered Ichiji, dragging him with force inside the room. He struggled against it, but it was futile. It felt like he had been wrapped in iron.

Ichiji felt his knees slide over the grooves in the floor as he was forcefully dragged into the room.

The crisp sound of the door closing shut behind him echoed. Ichiji was now well and truly afraid.

He didn't feel the floor beneath him anymore. He couldn't feel anything. No air no light, nothing. He was in a void, suspended in nothingness.

A short distance ahead of him, two red lines appeared in the darkness. Then they opened, revealing two large red eyes, with fiery orange dots in the middle.

"Do not take that tone with me again, boy. You are only alive because I took an interest in you. You are a powerful man, but a man nonetheless. Men should understand their place."

The darkness began to grab at Ichiji, squeezing his body.

He began to choke, his entire body fighting in vain.

Ichiji reinforced himself with Kin Musuhi, becoming many times stronger. With inhuman strength, he pushed against the darkness, repelling it.

Once he was free, Ichiji began to cough, not even sure where the air he was breathing was coming from.

"You are strong, boy. Shamans like you are born once in countless lifetimes. You shall serve in the mines from now on, making good use of your strength to further my purpose. This is our first meeting, but certainly not our last. Goodbye."

Before he could say a word, a strong force pushed against him, forcing him out of the room. In a flash, Ichiji was outside the door once again, covered in sweat.

The three soldiers from earlier had jumped in fright as he came out of the room. The door in front of him slid shut, allowing Ichiji to release a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The three soldiers came over to him and escorted him back to his cell.

Tomorrow morning, the mines would be awaiting him.