Kazue smiled it looked strange coming from someone that was a bright hue of red. Even her teeth were red, it was like looking through colored glass. “I suppose you want an explanation as to why I showed you what I did.” Kazue said in response.
Suzume looked down at the stone in her hand. It was warm. The inside flickered like a flame. It seemed to throb in her hand, as if she were holding a tiny heart. What I really want is to return to the life I had. I want to be revered and cared for, not tossed around and nearly killed at every turn. For some reason, it was difficult to get those words out. She was faced to face with Kazue who was the real life ebodiement of her Suzume’s past life and after seeing what Kazue had gone through just to spend eternity with Kaito it made her own wants look selfish and petty.
“I know you want to return to your former life, but that stone will not do that for you.” Kazue said seemingly reading Suzume’s mind.
Suzume looked up in shock. “How do you know that?” She asked. I should have known Hisato would lie to me. He just wanted me to retrieve this stone.
“Because I am a part of you, Suzume. Or more accurately, you are a part of me.” Kazue explained. She titled her head as she regarded Suzume. Her hands were folded in front of her resting on her stomach.
“Does that mean I can read your thoughts, or I can see your memories because I lived them in a past life?” Suzume stared at Kazue trying to summon the memories of the past, just to prove she could. When nothing happened, she frowned.
Kazue chuckled. It was a delicate sound like the tinkling of bells. “No, you cannot summon the past, just as I cannot divine the future. We are two parts of one greater hole but we are separate.”
Suzume held up her hand. “Please spare me the poetry. I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime. What are you trying to say?”
“That you are not my reincarnation but a broken piece of my soul.”
“What?”
Kazue glided over to Suzume. Her footfalls made no sound. In fact her feet dip not even seem to touch the group. Kazue placed her ruby hand over Suzume’s chest. Suzume’s heart raced. When Kazue touched her she was not so much solid but more like vapor. She was warm like flames but they did not burn Suzume. “Inside you is a part of my soul, broken in my attempt to make myself immortal.” Suzume felt like a part of her was trying to break free, it was reaching for Kazue. She took a step back away from Suzume. The feeling lessened but it remained. Their was an ache in her that she had never felt before, like there was a hole inside her that needed to be filled.
Suzume put her hand over her beating heart. It felt just the same as always, a reliable rhythm that told her she was alive. “Are you saying, I am you? Not just your reincarnation but you-you?”
“No.” Kazue shook her head. “You are Suzume. But a piece of my soul resides in you, more specifically the flame of my soul.”
“So you’re possessing me?”
Kazue laughed, genuinely, it bounced off the walls and surrounded them. Suzume just glowered at her, feeling more confused than ever.
“Perhaps it would be easier if started at the beginning. As you saw in the vision, I wanted more than anything to be immortal so that I could spend an eternity with Kaito. He was content to live our lives as they were but as you have seen, immortals do no live their lives as we do. They have eternity and brief human lives are beyond their comprehension. Twenty years to us is but a summer to them. So I feared, in my own vanity, that Kaito would leave me once time ravaged me and left me old and twisted. I assumed he would just tire of me one day and I had resolved myself to my fate, until I conceived our child. As you can imagine, the immortals forbid the offspring of these unions, they are considered an abomination and often times they are killed in the crib. I refused to let that same fate fall upon our child. And so I resumed my search for a way to gain immortality.”
“And did you find it?” Suzume asked. She was curious. She had never thought about what it would be like to live forever. But the idea of never dying or aging had its appeal.
“I did. There is an old spell that could make a human immortal but it took much power to do it. More than any mortal could hope to have on their own.”
“So you tried to convince Kaito to help you?”
Kazue looked away as if she were looking through time and remembering the things she had seen and done. “I did. We argued about it many times and each time he was adimate that I would not become an immortal. He was convinced he would stay with me, no matter what.” She sighed. It seemed strange for an apparition to do since she had no breath to breath. Maybe she does it out of habit.
“Is that why you sealed him away?” Suzume asked.
Kazue turned to look at Suzume and her expression was pained. “In part, yes. I am ashamed to admit this, but I needed his power to perform the ceremony.”
“And it wasn’t enough.” It was obvious because Kazue was dead, or at least Suzume thought her current state qualified as dead.
“No. Kaito was powerful but he did not have the energy I needed. So I went in search of more power. I fought many immortal. I sealed them away and gathered power from them but still it was not enough. When my pregnancy was well advanced, I stayed at a shrine where I learned as much as I could about immortals until my son was born. Once he was born, I gave him to the priests to watch over him. My quest was not finished and I dared not risk his life during my fight. When I left, I also left the stone which had Kaito trapped inside. I felt his hate for me swirling inside and I could not bear to keep it with me any longer. I swore to come back for both of them, when the time was right. I traveled for many years and met many people, both mortal and immortal, and still the answer eluded me. Until finally I met one of the eight gods by chance. She was beautiful and dangerous. Our battle lasted for days. By this time I had fought and sealed hundreds of immortals, my power had grown beyond imaging. I tricked her into a sealing circle and trapped her inside a stone, like I had done Kaito.” Kazue looked at her hands turning them over. “Finally, finally, I had the power to do what I wanted. However along the way I lost a part of my self. I forgot about my child and I forgot about Kaito who I had sealed away. All I could think about was getting more power. I told myself that if I could defeat the rest of the eight, then I would be prepared, then I would be ready to be immortal. So I went on a quest to seal them all. The eight fell to me one by one. By then I did not just want to be immortal, I wanted to be a god.”
Kazue looked up Suzume her eyes were haunted. Suzume could see images playing in Kazue’s eyes, her opponents falling one by one, Kazue still remembered them all, Suzume could see that. “I was too greedy, and the gods would punish me for my avarice. I went to the top of a mountain, brought with me all the elements that represented the soul: fire, water, earth, air and the void. I mixed them together and —”
Kazye paused. Suzume could see it now, the images playing before her like in her earlier vision. There were on the mountain top, where Suzume had just come from. It was bleak and desolate the wind howled as it pulled at Kazue’s hair and clothes. Kazue knelt down a circle had been drawn onto the ground in white chalk. This place where Kazue performed the ceremony was a holy place, where the eight gods had gathered before Kazue had sealed them. How Suzume knew that, she was not certain, she just did. Kazue arranged the eight stones in a circle around an inner circle of five stones each a different color, red, blue, green, gold, and black. Kazue lifted up the staff above her head and sang the incantation. Her voice deeper than before, resonated through Suzume as it echoed of the surrounding mountains. The ground shifted and shook. Kazue sang the final notes which faded away into the mountains. As the last notes escape, Kazue fell to her knees and she cried out. Suzume felt it to. Her body was being ripped apart thread by thread. Everything burned, like fire, like ice, like she was a stone being ground to powder and then tossed into the window. The spell broke Kazue down to her most basic elements, fracturing her soul to the point of shattering. Then one piece broke out from the rest. A lumped bulged in Kazue’s stomach she pressed her hands to it groaning in pain. She rolled over onto her side as the mass grew. It pushed outward and a black blob burst from Kazue’s stomach and plopped on the ground. It twitched and coalesced as it grew. Kazue watched in horror as the mass transformed and became a man. He uncurled like a butterfly. He spread out his long pale arms and then got to his feet. He his naked body stood out against the gray sky overhead. Kazue knelt in front of him panting and shaking.
“Hello, mother,” Hisato said.
Kazue looked up at him. “What are you?” She gasped.
He laughed. “I am your child, a piece of your soul born of the darkness within you.”
“You are not my son!” She shouted. She had hardly the strength to kneel and she swayed back and forth.
Hisato stepped over to Kazue. He grabbed her chin and titled her head back. “Oh yes I am. Did you think that there would not be a price for immortality? I am that price. You blackened your heart to gain immortality. An immortal can have no darkness, they are not like humans, so you had to cast out the darkness in you but the universe must maintain balance. I am that balance mother, I am the darkness in you. Human incarnate.”
“No. This is not what I wanted. Go back! I did not want this!” Kazue panted. There was blood at the corner of her mouth as if she had been bleeding internally.
“It’s too late. You are immortal now, it cannot be undone.”
Weak and trembling, Kazue reached for her staff. Suzume despaired for Kazue. She had gone to such lengths to become immortal. Now when it was too late she learned the cost. She had lost the man she loved, her child and now she had unleashed darkness unto the world.
“I may not be able to change what I have done, but I can stop you. I will seal you away. I will not unleash you on the world.” She raised her staff and sang a song that was high pitched and desperate. Hisato looked about, his eyes wide but the music rippled over him. He shrank down as he cried out. When Kazue’s song ended nothing remained but a black stone which clanked as it fell to the ground. It fell into the center of the eight stones but the smaller colored stones representing the elements had been split in half.
“I need to seal him,” Kazue said. Suzume did not know who she had been talking to until she saw the guardian approach. “I must render my soul apart, it is the only way to stop this evil from being unleashed upon the world. She turned to the guardian, leaning heavily on her staff. “I leave you in charge of my protection. I am sorry, I promised to release you, and your family but this is for the greater good. She raised her staff and brought it down with a crash and what remained was the staff and five perfect spheres, red, orange, blue, green and gold.
The vision cleared and Suzume was standing once more in the cave with the apparition of Kazue. “I broke my soul to seal away my mistake. But the seal was broken, and he has been unleashed. I have watched helpless and unable to help. Then I found a way to awaken a portion of my soul, in you, but in order to stop him, the rest of my soul must be retrieved and brought back together. I must destroy him before he brings destruction to this land.”
Suzume trembled. It was almost too much to take in. “What am I supposed to do? I never wanted any of this. I’m not brave, I’m selfish and honestly, I would rather be curled up in a ball when the fighting comes.”
Kazue smiled. “I know but he will not leave you be. He wants you and he will do whatever it takes to get you. He needs your piece of my soul, to complete his transformation.”
“What transformation is that?” Suzume’s mouth felt dry.
“He is the evil that was in my soul and now he wants to become a god. He is searching for the eight that I hid. Once he has them, he will have the power to transcend, along with your piece of my soul, he will be unstoppable.’
Suzume chewed her lip. She did not want to be a hero, but if it was life or death, she supposed she would choose life.
“Fine. I’ll stop him. Where do I go from here?”
“First you’ll need to find the remaining pieces of my soul, once you do that, you’ll need the eight trapped gods.”
“Great. Nothing too hard then,” Suzume said sarcastically.
“Well, they’re all hidden, even I do not know where they are.”
Suzume resisted the urge to roll her eyes apparenly Kazue did not understand sarcasm. “And they’re probably warded and guarded by horrible beasts, huh?”
Kazue grinned. “Most definitely.” Ok maybe she does get sarcasm.
Suzume sighed. “I suppose I should get to work.”
“I will help you as much as I can but my power grows faint.” Kazue’s image flickered and disappeared. The stone was warm in Suzume’s hand. The light continued to flicker as if Kazue was watching her from inside. She turned to leave and continued through the twisted trek out of the tunnels. At the top, the clouds were thick and blocked the entrance but everything was eerily quiet. She had expected the guardian and Kaito to be waiting for her but there was no one there. I don’t like the looks of this. The hairs on the back of Suzume’s neck began to prickle.
Something’s wrong. Kazue’s voice spoke in Suzume’s head. She was so surprised she nearly dropped the stone.
“I didn’t know you could talk in my head.” Suzume said aloud.
I forgot to mention that. Well I can. There is something dangerous nearby proceed with caution.
“How do I get out of here, the guardian said this place was full of traps.”
I will guide you, just listen to my instructions.
And so Kazue navigated Suzume through the maze in the clouds. As they neared the end of the maze the sound of fighting met he ears. Suzume hurried her pace, and grabbed for her staff which was strapped to her back.
When she broke through the cloud cover, she saw Kaito fighting off a dark figure with two blades. The guardian, Tsuki and Rin were fighting similar figures.
This is the darkness’ work. I can tell. Kazue said.
Suzume only needed a signal to enter the fray.
“Why Suzume how nice of you to join the party,” Hisato said as he reached around Suzume and grabbed a hold of her waist.
**A/N***
As if I could resist a cliff hanger. ;) Just two more chapters left. I cannot believe its almost done. *sniffles* give me your thoughts. And as an aside, a few people have asked me about publishing P&D and first of all YES I will be publishing this but also how many people would be interested in a paperback version? Just curious. Until next week...