Rubi did not know what it was that woke her, but something eerie stirred her from her sleep. She moved only her eyes, peering over her blankets and looking around for something or someone disturbing the night.
The rest of her crew were sleeping, lumps of blankets in the darkness. Mimi propped up against the wall closest to her, unmoving, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Mimi was always close by.
"Mimi," Rubi whispered.
Her long lashes twitched open.
"What is it, Captain?" she whispered back, her own eyes darting around the room.
"Something is wrong." Rubi insisted. "I just don't know wh..."
"What?" Mimi asked again.
Rubi strained her eyes in the darkness, still adjusting to the gloom. From what she could see, there were no changes to the barn.
What time was it? The fire was still smoldering, a faint glow illuminating only a few feet in front of the brasier. It could be any time in the morning. The gentle flicker of the flames coincided with sharp pops from the smouldering wood. Rubi listened carefully. She could hear nothing unusual.
She felt her heart beat rise with sudden panic - true, utter panic. It suddenly hit her.
She could hear nothing. It was dead silent, besides the steady motions of the fire and the breathing of her sleeping friends.
"Rubi, look at the windows..." Mimi said as quietly as possible.
The windows were as dark as they had been in the middle of the night, not the slightest hint of sunshine broke through the rickety shutters. The hole in the roof was a black, starless abyss.
"...Look under the door."
Rubi turned carefully, trying not to rustle her bedding. The door faced west, a mental note Rubi had taken when they made camp. A thin slither of sunlight creeped over the threshold. All logic told her that the west side of the building should have been more shaded from the sun rising in the east. Now it was the brightest side of the building.
Something was blocking the sun on the brightest side, along with the windows and the hole in the roof. All dark.
Something was very, very wrong.
The roof creaked. The only sound for several torturous moments.
"Wake up Kai and Sama." Rubi mouthed wordlessly. "I'll wake 'Ichi and Kage. Quietly."
Thankfully, Mimi understood and carefully reached out an arm to touch Kai on his shoulder. He awoke, clearly disturbed and confused. Mimi rose her finger to her lips and pointed to the ceiling. His eyes followed her and took in the eerie quiet.
No birds, no wind whistling around the mountain. The air was so still and thick it could be cut with a knife.
Kagemaru was sleeping on his belly, blissfully unaware of the world around him. His wings cocooned him in a feathery embrace. She reached for the tiny bit of exposed hand she could see and gently poked him.
He inhaled sharply as he came to.
Rubi kept her face neutral and tapped her ear. Listen.
Light as a bird he got up, barely making a sound. He eyed the roof suspiciously. Could he hear something.
Rubi leaned over Kagemaru's bed and reached for Take'Ichi. For a gut wrenching second, her elbow slid from her pillow as she shifted her weight and hit the sheepskin with a soft thump. It sounded so loud in the deafening silence. She immediately looked at the roof in terror. Was there any chance that whatever was on the roof heard it?
Everyone had frozen in place, even Sama cowering under Kai's arm. He looked confused. His demon was monitoring the outside of the barn, what could have distracted him? All night, not even an owl had landed on the roof. Something had happened to him.
Unbeknownst to the others, Kai could not even feel him nearby.
Rubi eyed the exit. The light under the door beckoned her over, like it offered safety. It was the only way out. She had not taken that into account when they set up camp inside. She had been so concerned with warmth and shelter.
She should have been more cautious. How could they escape the building, where would they go-
Like a bellow of an angry god, a rush of icy air slammed open the shutters as if a blizzard had hit the barn. It screamed past the wooden frames with an earsplitting, eerie howl and a force like a herd of wild horses. Snow, ice, wind. It knocked Rubi to the floor, shocking her system and leeching any heat from the air.
She covered her face, the gust sharp and cruel on her skin. She heard Sama scream but the white storm blinded her.
"Everybody, out!" Rubi yelled.
She reached out blindly, grabbing for her coat with the hope she could find it and not freeze to death outside. Instead, she found Take'Ichi's arm and grabbed her blanket from her bed. She dragged him to the door, trying to cover them from the blasting wind.
She stepped into the eye of the storm and a moment of clear air washed over her. She saw Kai in the centre, his arms outstretched and face stony. He was pushing back the snow. Of course. It was made of water.
Sama struggled with the door, trying to open it against the wind. Rubi grabbed the handle and pulled, only half sure the door opened into the room rather than outwards. It refused to move. She pushed it firmly. Nothing.
Were they sealed in somehow? Were they being funneled out or trapped in place?
Rubi threw her weight against the door. It was stuck fast.
"Captain, move please." said Mimi from behind her.
Mimi kicked the door full force. The wood split under the pressure, the panels breaking away from the nails. Rubi grabbed a board and yanked it free, trying to widen the hole. It was dimly lit outside, perhaps sunrise. There was a hope of sunlight.
Then, the darkness swept in, like the snuffing of a candle. Rubi's world was engulfed in darkness. Now, it was everywhere. It had worked. They had been drawn to the light like moths, tempted like all people afraid of the unknown dark would be, desperate for its safety.
She reached into the air, thick, rancid and blacker than any night. Her hand met something foreign outside the door. Smooth and hard like ivory or...
Bones. Bones as tall as she was and as thick as her waist were blocking the door, holding it shut.
"Mimi, what-"
Mimi struck the spire of bone with the flat of her hand. It crumbled, bursting dust into the air.
"Everyone, out!" Rubi barked.
"Stay together!" Kai added loudly. "Something got past my demon! I... I don't feel him anymore."
He looked scared, so much more than he ever had before.
Rubi ushered her friends out first. There was no time to grab anything. She squeezed through the break in the door and stumbled out into the open air.
Darkness. The barn was wrapped in an undulating blanket of inky black mist thicker than smoke. The sky was gone. Bones broke through the frozen earth in curving spikes all around them. It was like they were in the teeth of a monster.
Rubi's legs felt weak. Instinctively she pulled Take'Ichi closer. Kagemaru and Mimi immediately fanned out to form a semi-circle, Kai and Sama behind them. At the cusp of the swirling blackness ahead was a man in gleaming white armour. Rubi squinted at him.
The armour. It was made of no metal known to man. It was bone. Plates of smooth, flat bone contoured to his whole skeleton. Shin bones formed into greaves on his legs. The rib cage became a breastplate around his torso. But his face was unlike any helmet she had ever seen.
The plate across his face was more of a mask, a solid ivory visor with two short waves for eye slits. A purplish red stain marred the pristine surface from the forehead to the mouth, followed by two smaller splashes upon one cheek.
He was responsible for this. He had drawn them to the sunlight, gathered them at the door, and then delayed and distracted them by thinly blocking their escape. The bones were no trap, they were a macabre terror tactic.
It was working. This horror was like they had all been swallowed into the black belly of a huge beast, a graveyard of its past victims surrounding them. Echoing their fate.
Two more men rounded from the sides of the barn. They had any exit covered. The first man was young looking but with a shock of white, wavy hair. The smirk on his face could have been attractive, if it was not for the look of sick glee in his golden eyes.
The second man was taller, thinner, with neat brown hair and dark eyes. He wore spectacles on his nose and was armed with three swords on his left hip and a fourth on his right.
They all wore the same white coat with wide sleeves and a black trim.
Kai pushed Sama behind him protectively. His aqua eyes are narrow and scary, even to Rubi.
Were they here for Sama?
The swordsman stepped forward and drew the sword on his right, a metallic scraping from the scabbard cutting the night. He pointed it to his right, the jewels in the hilt starting to glisten.
The length of the blade began to radiate with a toxic green fire. Rubi involuntarily shut her eyes, the unnatural green flame burning behind her eyelids. With a whirl of his wrist, the swordsman painted a perfect jade circle in the air, as if the night were a wall and his sword were a brush.
"A portal," Kai hissed, shielding his eyes from the unworldly green glow. "Don't let Sama be taken! No one, under any circumstances, can go through that gateway!"
"What do we do, Rubi?" Kagemaru asked. He had grabbed a hammer on the way out. Rubi wished she had the crowbar Gaku had made for her.
The man in the spectacles was distracted, staring right through Kai and Rubi. He was looking at Sama. It was unmistakable, he recognised her.
"The youngest Immortal..." the sword master said, looking down his nose. He was struck with disbelief, shaking his head slowly. "And the Migiue Princess, both in the same place. The compass of fate truly has aligned."
"Screw your compass." Kagemaru spat, weighing the tent bolt hammer in his hand.
The man in white was unmoved. Blank like a sheet of paper.
"Princess Rubi Hisai, daughter of King Shuiro and late Queen Imayou, I request you oblige your destiny and follow me through this portal."
"I'm not going anywhere." Rubi hissed.
"Not even," the man tested. "For your cousin?"
Words failed Rubi, dissolving in her mouth. Takumi. He was talking about Takumi.
"You're Nisshoku, aren't you?" Kai said instead.
"We are but a few of Nisshoku." the swordsman replied plainly. "And you must be Kai Sei Tsuki."
Kai refused an answer.
"Hand over the girls." the white haired man said bluntly.
"You all need not die." the swordsman added, extending a rather wilted branch of mercy.
"Kai," Rubi whispered. "Can you take this guy?"
"If he tries to lay a finger Sama, he's dead." Kai answered menacingly.
He twitched suddenly.
"My demon," he said. "He's in the mist. There's someone else in there with him."
"Your demon friend won't be joining us." the white haired man smirked. "We have someone on his level. Someone who can hurt him."
Kai's jaw clenched.
"Pair up." Rubi whispered behind her. "Watch each other's backs, don't let any of these guys get you alone. At the earliest opportunity, you run for it. We can meet back at the ledge we camped on."
She squeezed the sprite's hand reassuringly.
"I got you, bud. And if we get seperated, you run, you hear me?"
Take'Ichi made a small noise.
Rubi dared not say it, but if any of these men followed her and the sprite, she would force the separation. He had so much to live for. She would never let him be taken.
"Kage and l will take the armoured one." Mimi said next. "Kage is quick, I can break bones."
"Then we'll take this white haired guy." Rubi decided. "I'll wipe that stupid smirk off his face."
She wondered about whoever was in the darkness. She hoped the demon could hold them off.
"Alright," the white haired man said with a shrug. This all meant nothing to him, it was clear. "C'mon out, big guy." he called.
The man that emerged from the blackness was hardly a man at all, he was a monster.
Red hair, red irises, stained red with old blood from head to foot. He was tall and broad like a man, but his face was all wrong. His jaws split open too wide and his teeth were too long and needlelike. But his eyes. The madness in his eyes, like a rabid animal looking at a meal.
The asanbosam. The vampire. The one that devoured the town.
"Get ready to break off." Rubi whispered. "In three, two, one-"
She bolted first, dragging Take'Ichi behind her. She maneuvered in a wide arch, willing energy into her free hand. The magenta haze whirled to life, pulsing with her racing heartbeat.
She let it form optimistically large before launching it at the white haired man.
In a flash of white he disappeared behind a rising wall of ice. The orb burned into it, sending steam and frozen shards exploding into the air.
Take'Ichi yelped and stumbled, but Rubi refused to let go. She knew the first buildings of the town limits were tantalisingly close, just through the smoke. They could possibly lose them amongst the buildings and make a break for the treeline.
A ring of metal cut through the darkness.
Sama shrieked in terror.
Rubi dared to turn her head, seeing Kai and the swordsman locked in combat.
Kai's arms were wrapped in sickles of snowmelt, coursing viciously like a river and deflecting the blows from his enemy's sword. They slashed at one other, trying to knock their opponent off balance long enough to strike a blow. The blade master was fast, precise. But Kai was furious.
With a stamp of his foot, three columns of water burst from the frozen earth, sending the bespectacled man back in two calculated, sliding steps.
Rubi turned back to the darkness ahead, bracing herself for whatever lay ahead in the opaque gloom. She raised her forearm over her face and squeezed her eyes closed.
She hit it hard, like jumping into a bath of scalding water. It burned. Her arm blazed with pain. Rubi veered back, running into Take'Ichi. She gripped her arm. Her clothes were unmarked, but her skin felt seared.
They toppled to the floor together. The white haired man had not bothered to chase them, because he knew what the black mist could do to flesh.
Rubi tried to gather herself. The ice on the ground was melted here, the grass blackened and dead with rot. The darkness was sapping the life from it.
It was impenetrable to a living thing. They were trapped.
"Rubi!" Take'Ichi cried. "Rubi he's coming!"
The vampire and the white haired man were following after them at a leisurely pace.
Rubi charged an orb in each hand, trying to focus them together into a beam like she had at the island. Her mind was screaming. Her fear betrayed her.
In a split second decision, she threw the orbs, one at each aggressor. With a flick of his chin, the white haired man commanded a wave of snow across the ground, sweeping the orbs away and dissolving them into nothing.
They had to be hotter. The orbs had to break through the snow.
The monster was so close she could see the gleam of his teeth. It was now or never. Focus.
Blinding heat swelled behind her eyes and swamped her vision in red. Violet burst ahead of her. Rubi swept her head to the side, attempting to strike down both men. Her mind spun wildly with vertigo. Before she knew it, her knees hit the floor and she squeezed her eyes shut to stop the energy surging from her irises.
"NO!" Take'Ichi screamed.
From the floor, Rubi saw his feet scrambled in front of her.
The sound of ripping, splintering wood filled the air. With a gasp, Take'Ichi fell as if in slow motion, and then hit the floor heavily. The vampire loomed over them, his arm extended in the follow through of a mighty slash to the sprite's midsection.
He had jumped in the way. He had protected her from the monster.
Sweet, sensitive Take'Ichi.
Limp on the floor. Oozing green, honey-like liquid through his clothes.
Was he dead?
The vampire kicked Take'Ichi's body to the side. He was thrown across the ground, coming to a stop in a crumpled heap.
The smirking younger man roughly grabbed the collar of Rubi's clothes and slammed her into the floor. Her cheek hit the hard ground painfully, but the tension placed on her left arm as he twisted it behind her back was far greater.
Rubi thrashed more wildly than she ever had before. The grip on her wool sweater shifted. The white haired young man faltered ever so slightly. Wriggling inside her clothes, Rubi found a loose pocket of slack in the fabric to move into and swung a right hook with all her might. Her fist connected with her captor's nose.
Hot, red blood splattered across her face and the next thing she knew, she was falling back to the ground. The white haired man yowled, clutching his face, bleeding down his white jacket.
While he screamed Rubi took her opportunity to roll away. She skidded down the ice on her belly, struggling to get any footing.
Mimi was unleashing a flurry of blows upon the armoured man. Kagemaru weaved and dodged defensively, swinging his hammer at his enemy's legs, chipping away at the bone in tiny fragments.
Through all the sweat and effort, the bone man was immovable. It seemed so useless.
The bloodsucker contemplated Take'Ichi's motionless form for a brief moment, then stepped away from him dismissively. There was no blood in the sprite for him to consume.
There was no way Rubi could get to him, nor would it do any good. She could not fight these two alone. All she could do was try and help the others.
She heard Kai scream in pain.
The swordmaster was overpowering him. Bleeding from both arms, Kai tried to put enough distance between them so he could attack from afar. But he was too fast. He blocked and blocked with raging currents of water, but there was nowhere to go surrounded by this mist.
His foe struck a formidable blow to his thigh and Kai collapsed to one knee with a horrific cry. He threw a powerful jet of water at the man as hard as he could, to force him back with one last attempt. The sword sliced through the torrent and bit into Kai's chest from shoulder to hip.
The young Tsuki fell face down into the churned mud at their feet, spilling crimson across the ground.
"Kai!" Sama screamed, voice high pitched and cracking. "Wake up! KAI!"
The swordsman swiped Sama up under one arm and began to retreat. He was taking her to the portal.
She was screaming. She was screaming for Kai. Her hero, her best friend, was as limp as Take'Ichi on the floor.
"Stop!" Rubi croaked. "Stop, you monster!"
The ice upon the ground began to split and shift with a series of brutal cracks. Rubi looked at her hands on the ground. Was it her? Or was it... Sama?
A crevasse burst open in the earth with the rage of a lightning strike, easily three feet wide, forking this way and that. Steam seeped from the cavernous, gaping maw in the ground, the snow on its borders boiling in an instant. The earth was quaking.
The rough spurs of ice scattered around the break in the ground shifted as one, pointing together in one direction like blades of grass searching for the sun. From them came blurs of splintered white - jumping and lunging towards her.
Rabbits. Ice rabbits, vicious versions of the one she had proudly conjured at the fireplace that night before all of this went to chaos. Their feet thumped against the earth, their teeth gnashing like the rats on Pangea's ship.
"Chikuroshi, grab that сукин!" yelled the white haired man, shaking blood from his drenched hand.
Across the pasture, the swordsman hesitated, his liquid motions interrupted by the tiny attackers hurling themselves into him. Sama screamed and thrashed like a feral cat, red faced and terrified, suspended in his grasp.
"Kai!" she screamed again, tears streaming. "I need you!"
Kai's body stirred.
The Tsukis' gift. The embodiment of the ultimate second chance at life.
He would never stay down when he was needed.
That single moment of uncertainty was all Kai needed to ride the wave of snow to the portal and intercept her kidnapper. The Tsuki flew at him, an unstoppable force, the steely look of determination in his eyes purely and utterly murderous.
He missed directly hitting the bespectacled man, but he was not aiming for him. He dove forward, hooked an arm around Sama and swept her up into his grasp. The snow and water of the wave smashed into the swordsman, knocking him off his feet.
A sickening pop followed. The swordsman lurched to the side as he hit the floor, clutching his left arm. It hung low from the socket, swamped in the wide sleeve.
Kai skated around the building upon the remaining thin rush of water, Sama bundled in his arms, and disappeared into the mist with his eyes squeezed tightly closed. Just like that, he vanished.
It won't kill them, Rubi realised. They can get away. And why shouldn't they survive this horror?
But not the crew. They were trapped. The only solution she could think of was to take out the vampire. He was the source of the swirling nightmare around them after all. Together, they could fight him.
But Take'Ichi was a mere sprint away, lifeless on the floor. She had to get him first. He could still be alive. Somehow. He deserved to be alive.
She could scream for Kagemaru and Mimi to protect him, to carry him to safety. If they scattered once the mist was interrupted, her friends could run the other way and get help for Take'Ichi.
Her mind whirred. Her thoughts were incoherent.
Fight, flight, fight, flight.
If these white-coats were still coming for her after losing Kai and Sama, she knew who they would chase. The swordsman had wanted her too.
Maybe this was goodbye. The adventure was over and the world would eat her alive.
A blur of raging red grabbed her attention away from her loved ones. The vampire. He was running at her.
Rubi scrambled on the ice. Her feet refused to stay under her. So, she rolled to the side in an attempt to dodge the creature charging towards her. As she tumbled, she lost sight of him. She was alright, for now.
Take'Ichi was a few feet closer now. She could see Kagemaru rushing up to the white haired man, who was still staggering towards Mimi, half-heartedly clutching his face. He raised a hand. Kagemaru launched a savage kick into his ribs and the man flew backward.
"Kage, 'Ichi is-" Rubi started to scream.
A hand grabbed a fistful of Rubi's hair and hauled her to her feet. A second hand seized her thigh. Warm, bright flowers of blood bloomed from her leg. The vampire's knife-like nails were digging into her skin through her heavy winter wear.
The monstrous man picked her up and lifted her over his head as if she were a child. Every instinct told her that now, she was barely even human to this man anymore - she was prey. The bloodcurdling horror stole the breath from her lungs. She wished she had the simple freedom of screaming in fear.
He dropped her down. He slammed her full body weight onto his risen knee. Something broke on impact and for a brief moment Rubi was sure her whole body had shattered like a dry twig. Her world went white as a pain like nothing she had ever experienced shot through her like lightning.
She fell to the floor like a stone. Her limbs were so heavy. The pain separated her from her body, like her soul was no longer anchored inside her. She felt like her life energy was leaving her mortal form. Anything to get away from the pain radiating from her back.
Her spine was broken. It was so terrifyingly clear.
Could she move?
She wiggled her feet. Agony flooded down her body, along with a horrific sense of achy numbness in her legs. She clicked her toes together.
Good. Her legs were moving. No matter how much of a relief it was, the pain made her scream.
A new howl dominated Rubi's voice, a primal roar of rage.
A battle cry.
It was Mimi.
Like a vengeful ghost appearing from the blackness engulfing Rubi's vision, her pale face was ethereal, haloed in lilac and smoke. Rubi stared at the tiny young woman charging headon at the biggest, most villainous creature she had ever seen. She was angrier than she had ever been before and she looked fearless.
Mimi swung a bludgeon from behind her, a metal enforced pane from the barn window shutters. She struck the vampire in the face with a malice Rubi had never seen in her before. The wood splintered, the metal railing embedded in it ricocheting from her hands with a cold metallic twang.
She threw strike after strike. Fists, elbows, feet, knees - a hurricane of fury was unleashed upon the monster looming over her. The man's surprise subsided and he began to fight back.
Mimi's size was her advantage. She danced around him, a bee and a bear in combat.
The heavens cracked with light and clamour, a thunderclap so huge and unearthly that even the vampire looked to the skies.
Through the blanket of smoke, a bolt of lightning struck the vampire like an act of an angry God. The black mist recoiled, like it was wounded.
"Fall back!" ordered the bone armoured man. "To the portal!"
He stared up the mountain at something Rubi could not see. She did see the swordsman fall back, his arm still lifeless in his sleeve. The white haired man scoffed, but fell silent when he gazed up the mountainside.
Turning her head hurt too much. Rubi felt her eyes closing.
The vampire retreated to the glowing green aura of the portal. The mist began to falter, sunlight spurring into their isolated pocket of the world. The sunlight felt good on Rubi's face. A small kindness.
With a flash the portal vanished, the men disappearing along with it. Mimi ran to her.
"My back." Rubi wheezed.
"Hush, hush," Mimi said softly, but she could not hide the fear in her voice. "It's going to be alright."
Nothing was alright. They were alone in the snow. Take'Ichi might be dead. Kagemaru was...
Gone.
Rubi had told them to scatter at the soonest safe moment. But Mimi had stayed.
"Take'Ichi," Rubi whispered. "Is he alive?"
Mimi hesitated, glancing over to him - prone and unmoving. She hurried to his side, checking him over.
"He's alive!" she called back.
She picked up his body under his arms and dragged him over to Rubi's side. His chest rose steadily, but it was shallow.
"Who struck that monster?" Rubi asked weakly. "The lightning..."
"I don't know." Mimi said quietly. She was gazing off into the distance, like those white coated men had. "But they're coming this way."