Debts, Sins, Years, and Foes--Chapter 10
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
The color drained from Nikka’s face, “See what you’ve done?!” she cried, punching him again.
He didn’t even notice the punch.“Be-ro-ni-ka…” the same voice toned, “...what...you...have...done...”
The girl had lifted her hand trowel and brandished it like a weapon in front of her, her head darting from place to place to try and catch where the voice was coming from.“This is not amusing,” Saki said, his voice harsh, but his heart thumping in his chest. He put down his spade, and peeled off his other glove. “Scaring the girl in such a way is not--”
“Scaring the girl?” the voice cut Saki off. It was stronger now, more clear, not just carried on the air. “Do I not scare you?”“Voices coming from forests do not scare me,” he spat out. He relaxed his muscles, observed the thoughts going through his mind, and let them pass, and listened.
Nikka’s breath seemed to be almost hyperventilating. The wind moved the leaves of the forest trees about them. The animals made so sound at all, as if they had all disappeared from this place, transported to another.Then, soundlessly, a little creature came out from the forest, It was red, bordering on orange, a squat, muscled thing, with broad shoulders and a wide head. Two tusks jutted out of its mouth, a slit so long that looked like the top half of its head would fall off if it opened it. It wore nothing but a tiger loincloth, and the thatch of black hair on its head shook slightly in thing. “Voices do not scare you, Sa-ki…?” it said, its tongue lolling out of its mouth as it spoke.
The thoughtless space in his mind disappeared, and filled, like a glass with water, with chatter. What the hell was he looking at? It was a demon. They were going to be cursed. He was already cursed, driven from the woman he loved, rejected by the only family had ever known, discovered his birth family had been annihilated by his own father-of-his-heart’s hand, wandered to this estate with a bunch of country bumpkins, only to be cursed again by a demon coming out of the Asakami forest. He heard Nikka take in a breath, and saw her, from the corner of his eyes, open her mouth wide. Action took hold of him, as it always did, as it was trained to do, it was what made him great. He was great, the thought rallied him, pushed the chattering thoughts out of his mind, and this little oni would not get the better of him. He grabbed Nikka around the head, clamping his hand over her mouth, and crushing her against his chest. “Silence,” he hissed in her ear.“Little oni?” the creature said, taking a step forward. As it did so, it began to grow, each step making it at least a foot bigger, until the thing towered over the two of them, at least as tall as Saki himself when the man was standing.
The damned thing could read thoughts? He pulled Nikka into him, and she let out a huff of air, before he realized how hard he was holding her. “Relax your body,” he whispered to her, a reminder to both of them. As he released the tension in his own, he felt her comply against him. He felt her mouth close against his hand, the silent scream she’d been holding in disappaiting. He felt the thoughts of fear, of “How am I going to deal with this thing?” try to rush into his mind, so he saw it, and let it rush out“He holds the mouth of the secret keeper,” said the demon, stopping on the other opposite side of the ornate box, stepping over the little monkey statue, “like he can keep the secrets in.”
He glanced down at Nikka, whose countenance seemed to have calmed considerably. He took his hand from her mouth, and while she did not scream, neither she move from against him. Her back still pressed into his stomach, and her head lay on his chest. A moment later, she leaned up, her head leaving his body, but her back still staying against him. She looked up at the oni, and said with the same calm assurance she had spoken to him on the training field, “I have told no secrets.”“Will you tell secrets, Sa-ki?” it asked, tilting its grotesque head to the side.
Nikka looked around at Saki, in his eyes, and he saw his own face reflected in them. Her blue orbs were filled with fear, that she was trying to cover up, and he saw that his own were no different.The demon laughed.
Saki felt Nikka tense against him, and in a fluid motion, stood up, pulling her with him, his arm about her waist. As he stood, the oni grew in comparison, so that he still had to look up at it, a taunting look on his face, as if to say “Little oni?” once again. “You know nothing of the secrets I must keep,” he said defiantly, hurt frothing in his gut, the heat of the girl in front of him only making him feel it more. He would not be cowed by some forest demon, here in the middle of nowhere.The creature laughed again, and tilted his head to other side. “You know nothing of the secrets I keep,” it said, leaning down as a mother does when speaking to her child. “You can know nothing of the secrets I keep…”
“Then tell us a secret,” Nikka said, stepping away from Saki and toward the creature. “If you are so full of secrets, release one of them.”Its laugh boomed through the clearing, hitting the ruins and bouncing back at them from every direction. She backed up against him, and it took all of his emotional reserves not to grab the girl in front of him and bolt from the place. Saki felt a wave of nausea come over him, as if he were spinning. As the sound of its laugh faded, it disappeared, the sounds of the forest replacing the silence that preceded the creatures coming.
Nikka turned around to look at him, and for a long moment, they were both still, simply staring at each other. Then she ripped off of her gloves, and ran toward the path that lead out of the forest. He was just behind her, and easily overtook her, grabbing her hand, and literally dragging her down the paths until the forest broke to the more structured landscaping of the Estate proper.The girl had fallen to her knees, and was breathing heavily. Once she caught her breath, she looked up at him angrily, “See what you did?!” she threw her arm in the direction of the forest they’d just emerged from. “We have to spend a month in there!”
“It didn’t do anything,” he said sulkily, reaching his hand out to help her up. She took it, and he hauled her to her feet. “All it did was talk.”She glared at him, and then back at the forest. The look on her face contorted to one of despair.
The look stabbed at him. He knew that feeling, it was still so new. It still tugged at him, especially in the dead of night, when everything was quiet, and the darkness could let loose the monsters that she held to her bosom. He had even taken to meditating in the night, alone in the darkness, to keep the despair at bay. Despair at what he would do now. Despair at what he would become. Despair at the lies he’d been told all of his life, that he now had to unravel and do something with. And now, to add to it, despair at an oni in a backwoods forest bragging about secrets.No! No, he would not be cowed by this thing. It may be supernatural, it may be beyond his reach now, but he would not be cowed by it. Heros in the past had defeated them, had brought them to bare, had...he gasped. He looked down at Nikka, who quickly looked toward the forest.
Seeing nothing, she looked back at him, the despair having turned to fear. “What?”Heroes in the past had brought them to their knees, in servitude.
The world seemed to become brighter to Saki at that moment, all the colors around him were an intense shade, shining at him in a new array of tones that needed new names, because the names they were given were not enough to describe them. “Come,” he grabbed Nikka’s arm, and began to drag her toward the Estate proper. “We need to pray.”“Pray?” she asked, trying to wrench her arm away. He let go of her, and she straightened herself up indignantly. “Where? If we go back to the house, Miyabi-shishou will know we aren’t in the forest and will have both of our hides.”
He thought for a moment, “The dojo,” he said. “None of my disciples will tell Miyabi we are there. And they will keep everyone else out.”“What are we going to pray for?” she asked, having to rush to keep up with his quick, long strides. “That we don’t see any others? Two is quite enough for me.”
He stopped and turned on her. She halted quickly so she wouldn’t ram in to him. “What do you mean, two is enough for you? You’ve seen another one?”She, again, turned bright red, starting at her shirt line, and it creeping up to her hairline. How was this girl supposed to be a spy if she couldn’t keep her emotions under control. “That’s the reason all the others were saying those things this morning,” she said. “Because of last year…” The look on her face was filled with shame.
“One came to you last year?” he insisted.She nodded slowly, “Two people died in the forest in the same month,” she said.
He held his hand up for her not to speak anymore.Her shamefaced look turned to anger, and she swatted at his arm. He easily moved it out of the way, so she missed. “Don’t you dismiss me like that,” she almost hissed.
His own look probably reflected her back. He grabbed her arm, and began dragging her in the direction of the dojo. “Hush!” he told her. She resisted, but it was nothing, like a tiny animal on a leash that thought it might have a chance of escape. Even if she used her entire weight, it would not have made any difference, she did not have anywhere near enough strength to break his grasp. Her struggles were not even strong enough to give him a sense of pride in his physical prowess.“Stop it!” her voice rising with each world.
He stopped his forward stride, and bent down his face was in hers. “Silence,” he said calmly, his deep voice penetrating through her resentment at his rough treatment, “until we get to the dojo.”“You don’t have to drag me,” she said, her own voice calming, she leaned a little forward in a display of challenge. ‘I am not afraid of you,’ it said, and Saki knew it was a lie.
He let her go, almost throwing her arm back to her, and began walking again. She kept up with him, at his side, not behind him as if he were leading, and he had to lengthen his strides and quicken his steps to keep her a little behind him.When he got to the dojo, he commanded, “Out!”, and in a moment, the place was empty. He walked, without stopping, to the kamidama, and sank down before it. He thought he was going to have to drag Nikka down with him, he vision of the white girl tricking him for a moment into ignorance. But she sank down beside him, and looked up at it.
“You have seen another one of the yokai in the forest?” he asked again.She nodded, not looking at him. “It was a different one than that one.”
He took her chin in his hand and moved her head toward him, so she had to look at him. Her eyes really were quite blue, he realized, like the sky on a summer day. He was a silent for a moment as he studied her, and he noticed she also studied him. He leaned down, so his face was closer to hers, and said calmly, “It told you a secret.”Her face was impassive for a moment, not showing any emotion whatsoever, not even in her eyes. Few were capable of that with him, his imposing presence drew out what they were feeling. The girl gave no indication of the fear, or anger, or indignation that she had shown only a little while before. Ah, he realized. The little geijutsuka. She slowly nodded, her face still unreadable.
“What did it tell you?” he asked.“I’m not telling you what it told me,” she said in the calm, assertive voice she used on those she was trying to persuade.
“You cannot use The Art on me, girl,” he said. “Even Miyabi cannot use The Art on me.”The inscrutable look in her eyes became thoughtful, “I am not girl,” she said firmly.
He smiled smugly, this young one had a lot of spice to her. “You cannot use The Art on me, Nikka,” he corrected.“I will not tell you what secret it told me,” she said, again, the tone of her guile gone. “I told it I kept my secrets, and I meant it.”
He regarded her for another moment, and then nodded. Yes, that is how it should be. There was no need to breach any growing trust, to put his plan in any kind of danger because he was impatient. She would tell him eventually, he needed only to wait. And he could wait. “What happened?” he took a different tact.“I was walking by myself to the Misty Garden, where I was working, and a yokai came out and began to make fun of me.”
“Make fun of you?” that was not what he expected.
“That frightened you?” he shook his head, confused.
“No,” she said. “What frightened me is when it started throwing things at me, and they hurt! Big things. Like rocks I wouldn’t be able to lift.” He waited for her to continue. “He was taunting me at the same time, and I tried to remember all of the stories about yokai that I could remember, and I remembered one where a beggar boy taunted the yokai back. So that’s what I did.”“While you dodged what it was throwing at you?” he asked suspiciously.
“Yes,” she replied. “Then it laughed at me, and asked me if I wanted to know a secret. So I said yes.”“Why did you say yes?”
“Because an oni was going to tell me a secret!” she said as if he was an idiot. “Who doesn’t want to know what secret one of them has?” After a moment, she pouted. “You would have said yes.”“Indeed, I would have.”
She seemed surprised at his answer, and the pout disappeared. “So, whom are we praying to for protection?”“How do you know it is protection we are praying for?” he asked.
“What else would we be praying for?”Again, he was silent. He wasn’t sure yet, what else to pray for. However, protection would probably not be a bad thing. “I have to meditate on it.”
“Now?” she asked. She didn’t sound happy about it.He wanted bop her on the back of the head, and say, “Yes, now!” But now was not the time to contemplate this in that way. He would do it tonight, alone, to keep the despair at bay, when he would not be disturbed. “No, not now. We will pray for protection and guidance.”
“To whom?”“Koga Takuza.” His ancestor would protect him, it was his ancestor who guided him. He could see, since he’d been here at House Asakami, that he had been guiding him all of his life, down the path of his destiny, an unseen hand always on his shoulder.
“Why him?” she asked. “Shouldn’t we be asking Koga Tamayori? She’s the one whose here.”“He is also,” Saki said assuredly.
“How do you know?” She had a sassy tone to her voice. “Has he visited you?”“Yes,” he ground out.
Her face changed. She raised her eyebrows. “Oh.”“Who else has visited you,” he asked, lead on by her simple answer, “besides yokai of the forest?”
She was quiet a moment, and reached to take a candle. “The ancestors are to good us.” She looked to him again, in the eyes, her face honest, and unsure. “They are good to us.”So they had implored, and lit their candles and incense. “Now,” said Saki, turning to her bodily on his knees. “Tell me everything you know about the yokai in that forest.”
She turned herself toward him, her knees almost touching his, but not quite, and put her hands on her thighs as he did. The movement seemed natural, perhaps Miyabi had her students in a sitting practice.The sun moved through the sky as they talked, exchanging stories of supernatural beings, of how great heroes and heroines had killed them, tricked them, beguiled them, trapped them, and in other ways defeated them. One of his disciples brought them food, and they ate absently as they talked, absorbed in their conversation. He was shocked at the amount of lore the girl knew. His shock was utter at her insight into the characters of the stories the two of them told each other, surmising the thoughts of people who may or may not have even existed with an ease that amazed him. Her interjections into the particular folktale he would be remembering were gentle, not at all like how she spoke to Miyabi, or to her fellow students, or to him when he’d taken her to the training grounds or in the forest. Her eyes and her voice were soft and thoughtful. When she talked, she did not sound like a girl at all. She laughed at one point, a sweet laugh, that grabbed at his throat, she sounded so much like Tang Shen. Her look was the same, not in her features, but rather her mannerisms, she was, attentive and honest, her head tilted to the side, a tender smile on her face. It might have been his lost beloved sitting there, in the body of this white almost-woman, intelligent and gentle and kind. It was that kindness that had allowed Hamato Yoshi to lead her away, to seduce her into his brother and best friend’s arms and out of his own. But Hamato Yoshi was not here to seduce anyone away from him, not his disciples, not his friends, not his patroness, not this almost-woman before him. He was in control of what was around him. What he did not yet control, he would take control of, starting with a ghost in a the forest.
The Shredder let the memory fade, like the light that had faded as they had walked back, over the little bridge crossing the creek from the dojo to the main house for supper. The statues of the oni looked down on him in his meditation chamber here in NYC, each holding their hands out before them in offering. He got up, to go to his dojo, his own dojo, to start his morning practice.
"There are four things that person
has more of than he knows:
sins, debts, years, and foes."
Oroku Saki's past is veiled in mystery. We know only what little is revealed to us by his enemies. But so much more has happened in his life, as he travels his path to fulfill his destiny. This is a look at that path, past and present, as Oroku Saki journeys through fate as The Shredder TMNT2012, through his own eyes, and the eyes of those around him.
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Sins, Debts, Years, and Foes--Chapter 1
