40 Walking Void

  [Player: Kazuki Arata]

  [Level: 5]

  [Waza: Black Hand, Thread Cutter, Aura Sense, Dark Rider, Eviscerate, Adaptive Survival, Sword of Time]

  [Kegare: 60% → ??%]

  [Status: Ambushed]

  ---

  A crack of gunfire shattered the night. Kazuki felt the bullet's hiss past his ear; branches snapped behind him. Yua cried out - a moment before, her lips had almost brushed his. Now; a thin mist of blood in the air.

  Kazuki whipped his head around, trying to find the direction the shot had come from. Nobody - which meant it wasn’t a handgun. A rifle? Here, in the Yokai Realm that was beyond rare… except… he had seen guns at the seige on Karasu Peak. That blond girl….

  Yumi?

  Kazuki twisted, scanning the moonlit forest.

  [Aura Sense - Active]

  The landscape flared with the faint green reishin of trees and plants but showed no sign of any other humans. Beside him, Yua gasped, clutching her side.

  "Yua - hit?" Kazuki checked her body. Relief hit him, seeing only a tear in her kimono sleeve. Still, her face was pale, fox eyes wide with shock and tears.

  "I... fine," she managed, breath shaky. "Grazed my arm."

  Her arm... that meant that the shot came from uphill, through the evergreens. Moonlight spilled across the leaves. Silence returned.

  "Kazuki, what was that?" Yua whispered.

  “Earth magic. The worst kind.”

  Fleet, in full fox form dashed through the ferns along the forest floor before shifting to a thirteen year old boy, his fox tail and bristling. Even in the darkness Kazuki could see how pale he was. "It’s her, isn’t it? The human that hurt Suzume?"

  "Yes. She's here for me," Kazuki pushed Fleet toward Yua. "Get Yua back to your father's domain. The Fox Kingdom."

  Yua protested, "I can still fight..."

  "No," Kazuki cut her off, hand on her arm. "Go. Now!."

  Fleet's ears flattened. "Then let me help!"

  "No Fleet. You have something more important; Protect Yua. She needs you. Take her to safety. Please." Kazuki squeezed Fleet’s shoulder.

  Fleet looked into Kazuki’s eyes. His eyes narrowed and jaw tensed but he nodded. "Right."

  Yua started to speak but Kazuki didn’t wait. He turned and sprinted deeper into the trees, hating to leave them but knowing he had to. He vanished into the shadows.

  Find Yumi. End this.

  ---

  Night deepened. The moon slowly sank as it cast unreliable light across trunks and brambles. Kazuki moved over logs and between tree trunks, scanning for a rifle muzzle, for movement.

  He didn't see her, but felt her presence - a hunter watching.

  A branch snapped behind him. He whipped around, machetes half-drawn. Just the wind.

  Focus.

  He slid behind a cedar. He looked up, down, everywhere with Aura Sense. He should have been able to see her - he should have been able to see the flickering reishin of any human or yokai as they moved in the forest. But Yumi, she just wasn’t there.

  And the rifle gave her range.

  Crack

  Another shot rang out. Kazuki lunged sideways on instinct. A bullet slammed into the tree behind him with a shuddering thunk. Wood splintered, showering his hair with chips of bark. He hissed, rolling behind a tangled briar. Too close. If he had been half a second slower, that bullet would have torn through his chest.

  He drew Karasuyoku, its Tengu sigils faint on the spine. He didn’t want to rely on kegare's destructive power; killing a human might push his corruption too far. But she was trying to kill him.

  Crouching, he scanned for her… for anything. Then he smelt sulphur and charcoal. Kazuki looked up wind and saw her, about fifteen meters away, behind some large rocks near a stand of young pines. This was his chance; Kazuki bounded forward, weaving between trunks.

  Get close, break the rifle, disarm her.

  Movement. She had heard him. The rifle angled up. Kazuki, vaulting over one of the rocks launched into the air, both machetes drawn, right at her..

  Yumi pivoted. Kazuki saw her bleach blond ponytail whip around and saw the muzzle of her rifle swing up toward him. Kazuki slashed Karasuyoku downward. Steel screamed against steel. Sparks flew. Yumi cursed - kuso! - jerked back and fired too late - the bullet whistled overhead.

  Kazuki crashed into her. They tumbled across leaves, the rifle skidding away. She scrambled back, but Kazuki lunged, bringing Yamikiri down hard on the rifle. The stock shattered; the chamber cracked, barrel bent.

  He faced Yumi. Pinned, weapon broken, she wore a small, unsettling smile.

  "Ka-chan," she said quietly, "you ruined my toy."

  Kazuki advanced. "Done talking."

  She eyed Karasuyoku and Yamikiri. "Aw. New. Did the crows give you those katanas?"

  "Machetes," he growled. Enough.

  [Kegare: 62%]

  Kazuki didn’t want to kill this girl. He didn’t want to hurt anybody. But now, it was beginning to feel like it wasn’t his decision anymore. His kegare, his corruption, was a presence in his body pushing out everything else.

  [Waza Activated - Eviscerate]

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  His free hand flickered black - Eviscerate gathering. Just a touch….

  He lunged. Yumi tried to sidestep; Kazuki dropped his machetes and tore the rifle's remains from her hands. She stumbled.

  Kazuki shoved her down, pinning her, knee on her ribs. Earth and pine filled his nostrils. She grunted but grinned as he pressed his flickering palm to her throat. Eviscerate - the tiny threads of black grew out of his skin, ready to burrow inside her body and let him tear her apart.

  He hesitated - she was human - but the kegare flared, urging him on. He pressed harder.

  Nothing.

  Those little roots of black curled and dropped from his palm like ash.

  He had Yumi pinned, his hands on her smooth neck and collarbone. She wasn’t even struggling - she was smiling up at him. He could smell her breath - strawberry.

  Confusion. He tried again, focusing his swirling darkness into Eviscerate's lethal wires. But nothing happened - like trying to light a match underwater. Beneath his skin, he felt Yumi’s body, but to his kegare it was like she wasn’t there at all. Nothing. A void.

  Yumi laughed, low then bright. "Aww, Ka-chan, sukebe!"

  Rage flashed. He pressed harder against her neck and chest, then...

  ...pain! Blindness!

  Yumi had lashed out, spraying something right ght in his face - bear spray from a small canister. A choking cloud of chemical blasted into Kazuki's eyes, nose, and mouth.

  He had no time to block it. The burn was immediate, savage. His eyes flared with agony, like someone lifting the skin on his face, pouring alcohol on it, then putting the skin back down.t. He recoiled, gagging, reflex forcing him to jerk back.

  Her next move followed smoothly: she snatched up a palm-sized rock from the forest floor. Crack. A deeper pain exploded in Kazuki's left eye as the rock slammed into his face. His vision whited out. Another blow hammered his right brow, sending him reeling onto his back with a strangled grunt. He flailed blindly. Blood and tears trickled down his cheeks.

  He lay there, gasping for air. Each breath stung. It felt like someone had poured molten metal into his eye sockets. He forced them open a fraction, but it was all blurred, watery darkness. No shape, no color, just red haze and scorching pain.

  Distantly, he heard Yumi scramble upright. No laughter this time - just a quiet, satisfied exhale. Her footsteps crunched over leaves. "Let's see if you can walk straight with your eyes busted." She gave him a vicious kick to the ribs. He gasped, flipping onto his side.

  Through the haze of agony, he realized he was blind. He could hardly make out shapes. Everything was a swirl of black and red.

  [Aura Sense - Active]

  A faint swirl of reishin energy shimmered in his mental vision. The Tengu sigils on his machetes flared bright. They looked like glowing runes of white-blue light tracing the shapes of his machetes. To normal sight, they wouldn’t be visible. But to Aura Sense, the reishin scrawled into the steel was a blazing beacon against the emptiness. Enough for him to sense the weapons' location.

  But Yumi… void aura. He searched for her silhouette. Nothing. Invisible to spirit sense.

  A standoff. She'd destroyed his sight. He had a patchy sense of the environment via reishin, but not her. She might as well be a ghost.

  He forced himself to stand, ignoring the throbbing in his ribs, the streaming tears and blood on his cheeks. He groped for his second machete, Yamikiri, guided by the Tengu runes shining in the darkness. The steel's faintly glowing sigils gave him something to orient with. But seeing everything else was a patchwork guess. Half-blind, half-luck.

  Kazuki sprinted into the darkness of the trees away from Yumi. His machetes were like two torches of bright spiritual light that Yumi couldn’t see. She didn’t follow him into, what for her, was pitch black night.

  Focus. Breathe.

  Silence. Wind. His own ragged breathing.

  Her voice, from about six meters away on his left. “You look good with blood in your hair. Maybe you are a 'Cursed Prince'.”

  Kazuki turned his head. She had no aura, no glimmer. Only ghostly tree outlines lost in black.

  Her low, mocking laugh. "Can't see me, can you? How do you like my magic?"

  Silence. He strained to hear her. Nothing but his pounding heart.

  Minutes stretched.

  "Are you mad, Ka-chan?" her voice startled him. "Or confused? Good. I like that."

  He turned again. Behind him now? Right? Lunging was too risky.

  She carried flashlights, guns... maybe optics? Or were they both near-blind in the night?

  "You can't see me, either," he rasped, testing.

  A pause. "Tch. Baka." Frustration edged her tone.

  Standoff in the dark. Both half-blind. Neither had the advantage in the night forest. He clenched his jaw.

  He took a slow step sideways, careful on the leaves. Listened. Silence. Another step, edging behind a thick oak he sensed faintly. Pressing flat against the trunk. His left eye pulsed.

  He slowed his breathing. Where is she?

  No footsteps. She was quiet. Waiting? Circling? If she had another gun, she'd be aiming. He tensed. No bullet came.

  Seconds bled into a minute. Cold wind stung his cuts.

  “Ka-chan? You wanna know where I got that gun?”

  Kazuki tried to move silently towards her voice, looking for a void, a shadow that would be her blocking out the green reishin of the forest.

  But she continued, "You want to guess? It's not like the border between Earth and this realm is some wide-open door. Smuggling is tricky. You need a good guide. Someone who can open a gate. That's not easy, you know?"

  Yumi's tone turned singsong. "Of course, there's a black cat out there who's very good at crossing realms. She's adorable. Nyan-chan, are you listening? I know you're around. You always are."

  A long, tense silence. "We're friends, right?"

  Silence.

  Her voice drifted nearer. "The cat's been doing this a long time. We go back. Had a... spat. Made up." A chilling laugh. "She smuggles me things. Helps me get around."

  He kept silent. Yumi's footsteps scuffed softly. Moving again.

  "Easy to get things from Earth," she continued airily, voice sliding around him. "If you know the right black cat." Pause. "She's probably watching us. Right now."

  Kazuki clutched his machetes, teeth grinding. He wanted to scream for Kuro. Where was she?

  But.

  Survive first.

  He shifted behind another tree, bark scraping his arms. Pepper spray stench lingered. Each blink, agony.

  A final rustle of her feet. Yumi, biding her time, retreating deeper into the forest. Kazuki fought the urge to chase blindly. He pressed his back to the tree, fists shaking.

  ---

  Stillness returned. Kazuki stood hunched, panting, adrenaline still pounding. Every rustle made him flinch. No new attack came.

  He coughed, throat raw. Machetes hung at his sides. Alone. He shut his useless eyes, trying to calm his pulse.

  [Aura Sense - Active]

  The sigils glowed, twin clarities. The forest, a faint, fuzzy tapestry. No Yumi. That he could see..

  He stumbled forward, seeking cover. The spray's worst effects would fade, but for now, he was blind. He wiped sticky tears, hissed at the pain. Dried blood crusted near his brow.

  He found a large pine, sensed its outline. Wide enough. He sank against it, groaning. Alone. Fleet and Yua running for safety. Kuro... watching? Anger surged. Or was it all a lie?

  He pushed it aside. Bigger problems: eyes, Yumi returning. He cleared leaves at the pine's base, sank down, back to the trunk. Trembling. He tested his left eye. Searing agony. He gave up, kept them shut. Aura sense only.

  Time passed. The UI flickered:

  [Kegare: 64%]

  [Condition: Blinded (Temporary, ~45 min.), Eye Lacerations]

  Then, Yumi's voice, faint, distant, beyond a ridge:

  "Kaa-zu-ki," she sing-songed. "Still alive?”

  "Sweet dreams, Ka-chan."

  ---

  [Achievement Unlocked: In the Land of the Blind]

  [Next Chapter: The Ditch]

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  Can Kazuki beat Yumi?

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