Scott McGough: Outlaw:Champions of Kamigawa

Toshi sniffed. "At the moment, it looks like a sack of something that's been pounded by your hammer out there. But to your question about the kami attacks: yes, they're getting worse. They have been for months now. Everyone knows that."

"You're aware of it," Hidetsugu said, "but you do not 'know' anything about it."

Standing up to his full height, Toshi stretched his arms out and inhaled until the pain made him stop. "Educate me, then."

Hidetsugu turned away. "I already have a student. And if I didn't, I wouldn't choose you." The ogre pointed a thick, clawed finger at the impaled kami. "That came here looking for you, right after you saw symbols that drove you here. Either you've being set up, or you're bluffing me into thinking you've being set up."

Toshi's eyes narrowed. "Well, then," he spat through clenched teeth, "That doesn't really matter, does it? You're obliged to back me up."

"And I shall. But you are being pursued by kami as well as soratami. You need a special kind of assistance, one that I cannot provide myself."

"Since when is battling kami beyond your abilities?" Toshi started to laugh, he still lacked the lung capacity. He coughed, then said, "Pursued by a kami. The others from the swamp were just a few more mindless spirit beasts lashing out at the real world."

Hidetsugu chuckled. "How can you wield such powerful magic with such a dismal understanding of its source? Nothing is coincidental when it comes to kami. There are no 'mindless spirit beasts.' Everything has a purpose, and its spirit exists to fulfill that purpose."

Toshi shrugged. "I accept that." He pointed at the marine kami. "So what is that thing's purpose?"

Hidetsugu's smile revealed a row of sharp teeth. "Right now, to be an appetizer for my oni."

"You know what I mean. Why did he come here? If it was sent by the same spirits that sent me those portents, what do they want? Did you ask the big fish before you put it on the wall?"

Hidetsugu growled in annoyance. "It doesn't speak now. Or perhaps it cannot. It hasn't said anything to me since I pinned it down."

Toshi eyed the motionless kami. "I don't think it's likely to any time soon… or ever again. Here's a better idea. Why don't you ask your oni?"

Hidetsugu's eyes flashed. "Careful, oath-brother. Do not say his name. He is less friendly than I am-and bound by no oaths."

"Well, that's why you should ask him. He knows you, right? He's a spirit, we need information from the spirit world. It's very simple."

Hidetsugu narrowed one eye and his nostrils flared. "Oni and kami are as different as the sea is from the land. Together, they form the shore. Individually, they could not be more distinct." "And that's that? You pray to oni and I don't pray, so we're just out of luck? There must be some ritual you can perform. You're an o-bakemono. You're supposed to be well-informed."

Hidetsugu raised his upper lip. "There are rituals I know. But instead, perhaps you could anoint your jitte with your own blood and inscribe the kanji for 'enlightenment' across your forehead. Then we'd know."

Toshi shook his head and said, "Feh. I'd rather have answers. Enlightenment breeds indolence. Even if the kanji didn't fry my brain, it'd make me all tranquil and contemplative."

"So we are back to not knowing."

"And no way of knowing."

"Not true," the ogre said. He clapped his hands together. The sharp report echoed across the cavern. "Kobo!"

Toshi stepped back as the huge bald youth lumbered forward. The smell of burning flesh was rank and powerful around the ogre's apprentice, and Toshi could see the seared and smoking mark of the fresh brand. Kobo's arm hung stiffly below the blackened mark, and he flexed his fist repeatedly as if trying to reestablish feeling or function. Other than that, a slight twinge when he spoke, and a few drops of sweat on his broad skull, the huge youth showed no outward signs that the ghastly wound was troubling him in the slightest.

Let's see how tough he is when the flies start laying eggs in him, Toshi thought. Then, aloud, he said, "If you're going to read his entrails, give me chance to get clear of the spatter."

"Silence, fool. Kobo is the finest apprentice I've had in decades. I would never waste him on simple augury." As the burly youth approached, Hidetsugu said, "Toshi, what do you know about the budoka fighting monks of Jukai?"

"Nothing. They're in the forest, after all. I never go there."

Hidetsugu waved Kobo closer, into the light from the brazier. "Kobo is originally from Jukai, where the kannushi priests dwell. They are holy men, especially devout in their spirit-worship. They dedicate their lives to honoring the Myojin of Life's Web."

Toshi nodded. "Morons."

Hidetsugu growled. "Some of these priests train the budoka warrior monks, acolytes who practice and perfect the brotherhood's ancient fighting techniques. Kobo is from a long line of budoka, but he sought to be more than his masters, more than his ancestors. He sought to become yamabushi, a slayer of kami. But yamabushi are of the mountains, not the forest, and so he came to the badlands looking for someone to train him.

"Those few yamabushi masters he found would not deign to mentor to a forest monk. Neither would the kannushi in the forest allow his return. They knew of his potential and turned him away. Eventually, he came to me.

"Five years in my service and he's still got all his limbs. He's still obedient, still sane. He's not even very bloodthirsty, but I still have a few years to train that into him. I cannot make him into a yamabushi. But I shall make him into something that can crush yamabushi and kami alike into boneless mush."

Toshi looked the huge bald apprentice over. "Yes, he's quite remarkable. You should be proud."

"Kobo's people in the forest are closely connected to spirits there. And I am on good terms with the local yamabushi."

"Meaning they're terrified of you and won't risk antagonizing you if they can help it."

"Precisely."

Kobo stood, stoic and silent. Toshi glanced from the apprentice to the ogre. "So you think clean-head's tribe might know something?"

"I think it will be easy to enlist the budoka monks' aid against the soratami and their kami. The spirit of the woods always move in opposition to that of the sky-it is the order of things. The warriors will be very interested in your story, Toshi. Their enemy is moving, and they might easily be roused to action.

"Great things are in motion, oath-brother, mystic and military events on a global scale. We must move carefully or be crushed by them. As you saw, the goblins and the bandits are taking their first tentative steps as allies. If you two can incite the forest monks while I bring the yamabushi into play, the moonfolk will have far more to worry about than a lone ochimusha and his freelance reckoners."

Toshi smiled. "So we're going to stir things up to draw the heat off of us? I like it." Then he reflected on what Hidetsugu had just said, and a cold sense of dread welled up in his stomach. '"You two?'" he said. "As in me and this walking slab of rock?"

"That is what I am suggesting."

"Then that is what I am refusing."

"Why? You came to find answers and assistance. Here is both in one sentence: You must seek elsewhere."

"I mean why him, why the forest monks?" Toshi was incredulous. "You said they wouldn't let him back in. What makes you think they'll listen to me if I show up with him in tow?"

Hidetsugu smiled unpleasantly. "They will listen, or he will demonstrate what a mistake they made in turning him away five years ago. Kobo," he suddenly barked at his apprentice. "Make sure to leave at least one of your former masters intact enough to answer Toshi's questions."

"Of course, master."

Toshi shook his head. "I absolutely refuse," he said. "If you want to send your boy on a revenge run, do it without me. Muscling a bunch of monks isn't going to get the soratami off my back."