Kaito walked back towards the shrine buildings. His stride was long and full of purpose. Suzume had never seen this level of intensity from him before, at least not without it being directed at her. He really does not like being impersonated --duly noted.
The shrine was in tatters. The dormitory roofs that housed the priests had caved in and shards of wood were left behind like gaping mouths opening up to devour the sky. The gray clouds had not dissipated leaving the air damp and clammy. A breeze rustled across the temple grounds and chilled Suzume. There was an ominous feeling to the temple; something wasn’t right.
“You need to be careful,” Akira murmured in Suzume’s ear.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Suzume replied as they followed after Kaito. He was leading them back to the main temple where Suzume had met up with the priest earlier that day.
How does he know where to go? She wondered.
Rin was keeping pace with Kaito. She had not said much since the attack. Akira was glued to Suzume’s side, which could either be a good or bad thing.
“Do you care to explain about the head priest now?” Suzume asked Akira.
Akira lifted a thin shoulder in a shrug. “We do not know much --only that the priest who was here before changed subtly. The others didn’t seem to notice it, but he’s not the man he was before.”
“How can you tell if no one else can?” Suzume asked.
“It comes with the territory, I suppose you could say. When Kazue bound us together we became more like an immortal, we see things regular humans cannot.”
“Like what?”
Akira was regarding Suzume from the corner of her eye. Her ruby red lips pulled up at the corners and revealed her white teeth. “Like a person’s energy. Everyone has a different signature. For example, yours is red like fire. Kazue’s was the same.”
“Hmm.” Suzume sniffed. She still wasn’t comfortable with being compared to Kazue.
“What about Kaito?” Suzume nodded in the dragon’s direction.
Akira’s dark eyes flickered forward to Kaito. He had stopped at the edge of the steps of a walkway and was glancing up and down the hallway. The priests were scarce and it made sense. In the wake of the attack, they must have all fled. Kaito remained half-transformed and he lifted his muzzle like head towards the sky, sniffing. He looks like a dog when he does that. The thought made her smile but seeing the destruction Kaito could wreak in his true form was enough to wipe the smile right off her face, even if it wasn’t Kaito who had done it.
“Kaito is more blue-green, like the ocean,” Akira whispered in Suzume’s ear. Her breath was hot against Suzume’s skin.
Suzume had never been to the ocean, but she had heard stories as a child. There was a nursemaid that used to tell her all kinds of fantastic tales. It wasn’t until she was much older that she found out that half the stories she told her were made up. Not the ones about immortals, those were true. They’re truer than I like to admit sometimes.
“What about Rin?” Suzume asked. She had gotten an impression of her own spiritual energy and Kaito’s before but she had never really seen Rin’s.
Akira glanced over at Rin she regarded her for a moment before saying, “Orange, like the leaves when they turn in the fall.”
If Suzume wasn’t inclined towards being prideful, she might have told Akira she was impressed. Instead Suzume hurried to keep up with Kaito, who seemed to have caught the scent of something, or had found a trail. She still wasn’t sure how he was tracking or if he was tracking. They could be following him in circles for all she knew.
The group ran down a hallway. The pillars that held the ceiling of the covered walkway had been broken and splintered. There were puddles of water everywhere. Someone had walked through and tracked the water leading into the main temple where Suzume had seen the priests praying earlier in the day. Was that really this morning? I feel like it was ages ago.
Kaito stood at the doorway, his clawed hands curled into fists. His hair was blue and spiny again, his skin scaled and shiny. He slammed a fist against the wood outside the door.
“What are you doing? Go in,” Suzume said.
He snarled and turned a dragon-like face attached to a human body to look at her. “I can’t there’s a barrier.”
Rin was watching Kaito with a concerned expression.
“So whoever made the charm is inside there?” Suzume asked.
“Yeah, but he’s hiding, the coward.”
Suzume stared at the door. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. The sliding doors were pulled back revealing an opening within. There was a shrine at the front of the room. Incense was burning, curling in ribbons and rising up to the ceiling in offering to the gods who presided here. Maybe I awoke the god here, like at the village shrine.
Akira came over and tried to put her hand through the doorway. Her hand pressed against an invisible wall. She looked over at Kaito and Rin. “You both tried to cross over?” She asked.
Rin nodded in response.
“Of course, I’m not a fool.” Kaito snapped.
Akira took the brunt of his anger with good grace. She turned back to Suzume. “You should try.”
“Me? Why?”
“Because I think whoever built this barrier is waiting for you within.”
Suzume scowled at Akira. Suzume hadn’t trusted Akira from the first moment they met. Akira seemed to know too much and reveal too little. Now Akira was trying to convince Suzume to go into the unknown to meet whoever had attempted to frame Kaito. What game is she playing at?
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Rin chimed in for the first time.
Akira fixed her with a cool stare. “Believe me, it is very necessary.”
Suzume felt a shiver wash down her spine. Rin had her auburn brows pulled together but she made no further protest. Kaito was scowling, his features were even more menacing half-transformed.
“What say you, dragon?” Tsuki asked using Akira’s face.
“Let her try. It’s better than sitting here doing nothing.” He waved his hand to the doorway.
Suzume swallowed past a lump in her throat. “Why am I always getting chosen for these dangerous tasks?”
“Because, you’re meant to do them,” Akira said.
Rin nodded her agreement. “She’s right; you should go in there.”
Suzume shook her head. They’ve all lost their mind. Some psychopath is in there waiting to probably kill me and they all want me to waltz right in.
“I’m not doing—“ Before she could complete her sentence, Kaito was hoisting her up by the armpits and dragging her to the doorway.
“In you go, priestess,” he heaved her through the doorway. She felt a slight resistance, like walking through a spider web. The barrier clung to her skin like a sticky residue. She tried to rub it off and it dissolved, evaporating into the air. When she looked up she was standing in the doorway of the shrine.
Everything was silent. It was darker within than she had thought originally. As she walked across the bamboo flooring, her footsteps echoed back at her. She looked over her shoulder once to where her friends stood but they had disappeared along with the door. Oh no, what did he do to me?
Suzume tightened her grip on the staff and walked towards the shrine where the incense was burning. She could see the smoke drifting on the air but she could not smell it. It was as if she was looking at it from beyond a window.
“You found your way in quicker than I thought you would.”
Suzume spun around to see a man leaning against a pillar at the back of the room. He stood in shadow his long dark hair was falling over his shoulder.
“You!”
He pressed his hand to his chest and opened his mouth in mock surprise. “I’m glad you passed my tests.” He pushed off from the pillar and sauntered over to Suzume. She held her staff up in a defensive pose, with the length of it crossing her body at an angle. It wouldn’t do much against this opponent, but it made her feel better.
“Put your toy away; I didn’t come here to fight I just want to talk.”
Suzume scowled at him. “Talk like we did earlier, when you shot me with something?” She snapped. “That really hurt, by the way,” she added as an afterthought.
He chuckled. It was a dark and husky sound. “No, I promise to play fair this time.”
He stepped into a shaft of light that came from a window in the ceiling. Suzume could see his features clearly for the first time, his oval face, narrow nose and wide mouth.
“Where’s the head priest? Were you working together to make the fake dragon?” Suzume pointed her staff at the stranger.
He chuckled and shook his head. His dark eyes were intent on Suzume. “He’s here.” He wiped a hand over his face and it transformed from a young man to the elderly head priest.
Suzume hid her surprise. “Then this was all a trick from the beginning?”
He shrugged and transformed his face back to that of a young man. “More or less. You have to admit it was amusing.”
“Why did you do this?”
He strolled around Suzume in a circle, like a cat batting around a mouse for its own amusement.
“Do I need a reason?”
“I suppose you don’t need one, per se.”
He laughed again. “Oh, I like you, Suzume.” The way he said Suzume’s name was like a caress and it made her skin crawl.
“What do you want with me? There has to be a reason you would only let me through.” She spun in circles to keep her eyes on him as he walked around her.
He stopped and regarded her, his thumbs hooked into the hem of his pants. “I just wanted to have a chat, that’s all. We got off on the wrong foot before.”
She snorted. “Do you make a habit of understatements? I’m pretty sure the dragon you created was trying to decapitate me back there.”
“No, only seriously maim you.” He shrugged as if losing body parts were a day to day affair.
This guy is nuts. “How reassuring.” Suzume rolled her eyes.
He moved closer to her. Before she could back away, his hand darted out and grabbed a few strands of Suzume’s hair. She twisted away and slipped out of his grip. She turned around and tried to hit him with the staff but he moved too quickly for her.
“Don’t touch me!” She shouted.
He only laughed. He had melted into the shadows of the chamber. For a moment all she could see was his white face against the dark before he was gone completely. Suzume spun around trying to figure out where the stranger was.
“Oh, Suzume, you have so much to learn. They will let you believe you are Kazue, but you are so much more than that. Only I see your true potential, see you for who you are.”
She knew better than to be lulled by this psycho’s words but she could not keep from replying. “You told me that you knew me when we first arrived at the shrine, that you and Kazue knew one another in another life.”
“We did,” his voice sounded distant as if he were talking to her through miles and miles.
“What was she to you?”
He did not answer right away.
“An enemy, of sorts,” he said at last.
“And doesn’t that make me your enemy by default?” Suzume asked.
He reemerged from the dark and rushed her. Suzume threw up the staff in a lame defensive move. He wrenched it from her grip, and with one hand pinned her back to his chest and slung the staff over her arms trapping her against him. She could not move and she felt his lips brush against her ear. She brought her shoulders up to try and defend from his offending mouth.
“Oh, no Suzume, you are not my enemy. You don’t have to live Kazue’s life. Your choices are you own --that’s why I showed you the dragon. You could do what Kazue could not do and kill the dragon. You have the power.”
“Who says I want to kill him?”
She couldn’t see his smile but she felt it. With his face pressed against hers, she felt the muscles tighten along his jaw. “I can see it in your soul, Suzume. You have the blood lust. Do it and I will teach you about power you’ve never imagined.”
He moved around to her front, so they were face to face but she remained bound in his arms. Her arms locked against her body. He leaned in to kiss her like he had done in the courtyard. Suzume was mesmerized by his lips his hands which weren’t holding her captive any longer but holding her close their hearts beating together. Could I kill Kaito? I’m not even sure anymore. I thought he would kill me but now that he knows I am Kazue everything is different.
The stranger’s lips were about to brush hers when there was a roar and shudder. The stranger pulled back and Suzume regained her senses.
“It looks like our play time is at an end.” He bowed to her. “Until next time.”
“Who are you?” Suzume called.
He smiled at her and said, “My friends call me Hisato.”
He disappeared into the shadows once more and Suzume was left alone.
The building shuddered and groaned as bits of wood fell down from the ceiling. Then with a rip and the crash of broken beams, the ceiling came loose and Suzume saw, Kaito had transformed and ripped the roof off the temple. He did all that just to help me?
“What have you been doing all this time, you useless priestess?” He roared.
Suzume’s hackles rose. “You’re the one who threw me in here!”
He roared in something that sounded like a laugh. She shook her head. For once she couldn’t bring herself to get mad at him. She laughed as well, not because it was particularly funny but because her life had taken so many strange turns as of late and it only seemed to be getting stranger.
A/N: So what do you all think of Hisato? Any theories as to what is going on here? I'd love to hear them! I also wanted to shout out to a few people who have been making my life just amazing with their comments. @bonbonsanddietcoke @Desiraewallace. Thank you also to everyone who reads silently. I appreciate you so much!