Mori versus the Oni Part 1 - Chapter 7
A Tired Child, A Fishing Town of Monsters, A Scream in the Night
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The rain hammered them from the west. Sheets of icy rain fell from dark clouds growing darker. Mori clung to the rocks on the inside edge of the sea wall of Niocho Nio trying to gauge how many monsters were in the town. The rain obscured his vision and the lack of lanterns left the town in growing darkness. He clambered back to the top of the wall. Cold rain drenched him through.
‘Can’t see anything anymore,’ he shouted into the sea wind.
‘We can’t stay here,’ Sadatsugu said, his arms folded inside his sodden kimono. Water ran down the bridge of his nose and clung to the tip.
‘Ano’s asleep,’ Kota said sitting beside his sister curled up around her drum.
‘That girl can sleep anywhere,’ Sadatsugu blew air between his lips. ‘Wish I could.’
‘We have to wake her,’ Mori said knowing how grumpy she would be. He scratched his head and knelt beside Ano. ‘Hey, we have to keep moving. You can rest later.’
Ano whinged and her face twisted into a horrid expression. ‘No. I want to sleep.’ She wriggled and set her head on Kota’s knee.
‘Ano, get up.’
She ignored Mori.
‘Carry her,’ Sadatsugu said. ‘We can sneak through the town. Darkness hides us as well as the monsters.’ He began walking the wall.
‘Fine,’ Mori picked Ano up balancing her legs over one arm and her head on the other.
‘Noooo,’ Ano cried.
‘We have to move. I know it’s hard,’ Mori said.
Ano tried to fight Mori’s grip but she was too tired to do much more than wriggle. ‘I can walk,’ she groaned and struggled to be set down. Mori set her down and she crossed her arms as she walked behind Sadatsugu along the sea wall and into Niocho Nio.
Kota hurried past Mori to catch up to their younger sister. He became her silent shadow horrified by his failing on Takamishima.
Mori trailed the others, shoulders curled against the storm, as he continued to search the town. All he saw were monsters; oni. No survivors. The joyous floated in the harbour. Bodies bobbed on the waves bloated and gnawed on by fish and monster alike. A putrid stench rose from the harbour that stung Mori’s nostrils.
Sadatsugu ducked behind a hut near where the wall reached land. He ushered the others to him with a gesture. ‘Right,’ he whispered. ‘We can’t fight all of them. Prefer to fight none of them. We get out the town and into the countryside. That’s it.’
‘Keep to the smaller streets near the edge and we’ll be fine. And keep an eye out for a passage between the buildings out of the town. It will be tight but there must be one,’ Mori said.
‘Why are the homes so close together?’ Kota asked.
Sadatsugu shrugged. ‘Main gate will be teeming with monsters though. If we have to scramble up a little cliff that’s fine.’ His eye scaled the hill behind them, mud sloshed down it from the peak twice as high as the hut. ‘Not that one.’
Ano yawned and mindlessly went to twirl her drum. Mori swatted at her hand, ‘Don’t.’ Ano glowered at him but held the drum still. Dark circles ringed her eyes.
‘I’ll go first. Sadatsugu you last,’ Mori said shuffling towards the side of the hut. Sadatsugu nodded. He peered round the corner. Two oni stalked the street beyond searching with dead eyes and slack jaws. Mori waited for the monsters to pass and then headed out into the street. He stayed close to the buildings on his right and could the wet slap of footsteps behind him. Rain had turned the town into a mud bath. Pools of water gathered in the grooves of cartwheels and well walked paths. The street curled towards the left and the rows of houses on the right where packed together with barely room enough for a blade of grass between the walls.
Ano tugged on Mori’s kimono. He spun around. Sadatsugu pointed over his shoulder while his hand rested on his sword. At least a dozen changed people crowded the street to the harbour. Standing and swaying in the wind unblinking. Mori couldn’t tell if the monsters had seen him or not. He continued on and halted and pressed himself to the nearest building. A fat and bulbous oni stood on the curve of the street with a club of iron in one hand. Within one leg where multiple human legs jammed together into one limb. Bones and muscles flinched and tensed with the strain of weight. The oni’s shoulders rose and fell with a steady rhythm. Mori stared, his heart in his throat. Now was not the time for panic. He checked behind him. A few of the monsters lurched towards him. He focussed on his breathing, slow and deep, and drew his blade slowly. His right hand itched.
The monstrous oni shuddered and lumbered further down the road. Water sluiced from rolls of flesh as it vanished into the wet darkness. Mori gulped down fear and stalked the oni never getting closer than ten metres. The monster lumbered to the crossroads. Its club thudded to the soil and the oni released a deep warbling yawn. Arching its back and opening its mouth wide to the incessant rain. Mori froze watching unblinkingly incase the monster turned around and retraced its steps. Ano pulled at his sleeve. He flicked a look to her. Her eyes drooped and she slipped forward in the mud, her drum rolling in her faint grasp. The stringed beads swished through the air and struck the pigskin drum once. Dum. Mori grasped her hand as the musical sound was dampened by the rain. Ano startled at Mori’s sudden movement. Her eyes opened to the monstrous oni. Ano screamed.
‘Go take both of them!’ Sadatsugu yelled his uchigatana hissing out of the scabbard.
The house sized club wielding oni pivoted slow and ponderous. Three eyes, clustered to one side of its snout blinked one after the other. Maggots wiggled from between thin yellow lips parted with four tusks. The oni roared and charged. Each footstep quaked the earth. Mud and rain splashed in waves.
Mori grabbed Ano and threw her over his shoulder. He sprinted at the oni. Kota followed, keeping behind Mori and close to the buildings on their right. The oni rocked from side to side with each laborious step.
‘Faster! Faster!’ Sadatsugu shouted behind Mori. ‘Through the legs!’
The monstrous oni raised its club high above the roofs of the town. Mori dashed between its legs. The oni drove down the club catching a chimney and the corner of a roof on its way. Tiles and brick rumbled to the ground. Sadatsugu darted underneath the oni slashing left and right. The monster cried out into the storm its pained voice splitting the downpour. The club crashed to the ground from the heavy swing.
Mori slid in the mud as he turned right at the crossroads. Dozens of sets of black glassy eyes followed him from the other roads. The oni stumbled towards him, unable to find good footing in the slick mud. Mori felt himself lose balance. Kota grabbed his arm and dragged him forward. Mori caught himself, with the aid of Kota, and the pair ran for the exit of the town. Ano cried on Mori’s shoulder.
Sadatsugu came up behind screaming and shouting to run faster. No one could. Pools of rainwater gathered knee high and patches of mud sucked at their sandals and feet. Mori threw his free arm in the air as he climbed over the road under the town’s gate. The ground thundered under their feet, the sky cracked overhead. ‘Faster!’ Sadatsugu said. Mori felt his hand on his back pushing him out of the town and towards a copse of trees a short ways up the hill. The cover of the tree created a break in the rain where the mud was less. Mori reached the tree and set Ano down before turning to see what followed. Sadatsugu stood ready at the edge of the tree canopy, feet slipping in the mud. The lumbering ogre stepped under the gate and slipped. Three eyes shot open in peril as the oni fell backwards. Its club ripped the roof off the nearest building as its crushed three smaller oni underneath. The ground shook from the impact. The oni roared.
‘Come on let’s get up the hill!’ Mori said tapping Sadatsugu on the shoulder. The samurai nodded and sprinted as best he could in the mud up the hill. Mori carried Ano and dragged Kota up. He stayed beneath the canopy of trees where he could. His heart raced and he felt bile in his throat. Ano cried into his ear, mumbling about wanting to sleep. Me too, Mori thought as his lungs burned from the cold, wet air he sucked down.
‘Where are we going?’ Kota said between breaths.
Mori paused mid-stride. ‘Unpen Temple.’
‘Unpen?’ Sadatsugu rounded on Mori, his eyebrows furrowed.
‘I’m not taking Ano and Kota to Amagiri. We need food and clean clothing. Unpen first, then Amagiri in the morning,’ Mori said.
Sadatsugu pursed his lips and searched the hills shrouded in rain, ‘Unpen it is.’
Ano snored over Mori’s shoulder. His arm ached and his fingers were numb as he climbed the steps to Unpen Temple. The hundreds of statues watched them, some laughing others crying. A cluster played instruments while others fished in unseen rivers.
Mori reached the heavy circular door to the temple. Closed. Sadatsugu approached and yelled over the wall.
Silence.
Sadatsugu announced himself again.
The door clunked and creaked open inward. Three monks emerged armed with naginata. The monks slung the pole arms over their shoulders, fist sized prayer beads where strung like sashes across their torso. One gestured them inside.
Enki greeted from the steps up to the main hall to the left of the grounds. He bowed at the waist. The door was sealed behind them with a large wooden beam slid through iron fingers. ‘I welcome you back to Unpen. Blessed and protected from the oni that ravage the lands. Come inside, out of the rain and we can talk.’ Enki crossed the temple grounds from the main hall to the eating room. Once inside Enki continued, ‘Why are you here, was the mainland not to your liking?’
‘I am bound to Shikoku until I seal the gate,’ Mori said setting a yawning Ano to the ground. She stood rubbing her eyes and clinging to her drum with one hand.
Enki nodded with knowing. ‘Food? Beds?’
‘And if you would be so kind as to care for my brother and sister while Sadatsugu and I investigate Amagiri Castle?’ Mori said.
‘We can accommodate the young ones. Others have made it to us and are protected. Do not worry the whisper of the oni cannot pierce the barrier we erected,’ Enki laughed, his cheeks red and rounded.
‘Thank you,’ Mori bowed.
‘Baths too,’ Sadatsugu added picking mud from between his fingernails.
‘Of course. And dry clothing. Clean too,’ Enki gestured to the lower half of their clothing sodden with mud.
Mori laughed, embarrassed.
Mori startled awake. A hand covered his mouth. Sadatsugu whispered in his ear, ‘Time to go.’ The cloying dark obscured Mori’s vision. ‘Sun’s up.’
Mori nodded and slid out from his bed. He collected his uchigatana and padded towards the sliding door out of the sleeping rooms. Enki was housing a dozen innocents who snored and slept with the peace of Unpen around them. Sadatsugu opened the door a slither. Light streamed in. The storm had passed. A few voices grumbled but none rose. Mori slipped outside as a hand grabbed his sleeve. He looked back surprised to see Ano. She yawned and gestured for Mori to come closer. Mori knelt beside his sister. She threw her arms around his neck, her plump cheek pressed against his. He parted, kissed her on the forehead and watched her slink back to bed. He slid the door closed and joined Sadatsugu at the circular door.
Enki ordered two armed monks to unbolt the door. The pair lifted the beam off and set it on the ground beside the door. Enki opened one leaf of the door as little as possible. The elder monk pressed his hands together and chanted a prayer over Sadatsugu and Mori. He bowed at the waist. Mori and Sadatsugu replied in kind and stepped out of Unpen Temple. The door clunked shut behind them.
‘Lead the way,’ Mori said to Sadatsugu.
The Kagawa samurai grunted in response and set off across the wooded mountain side in the direction of Amagiri Castle.
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