Chapter Twenty-Nine

The Waifu¹I wondered if the chapter should be called "The Missis" or "The Madame" but both are equally unfitting for what I wanted them to evoke, so sorry I have to use modern otaku jargon for the title. The word "waifu" is only here in the chapter title and is not native to the story itself and won't come up in text ^^.

 

Nekohiko jumped over the metallic rubble to get to Aomi. The girl was slowly pulling herself from beneath the table. Wild bouts of coughing shook her through and her eyes were tearing up. But judging by her overall appearance, she was relatively unharmed. Maybe concussed but nothing worrisome with how quick her reactions were.

"Are you all right?"

Still coughing, she could only nod shakenly.

Since she was fine and within his grasp, Nekohiko's worries flashed to Kataji -- where was he? What happened to him? Not a trace of the young man in the compartment's room. Nekohiko swerved to Aomi, then to the gash in the wall beyond which horrendous ruckus came in waves of raging screams and crashing metals.

"A Line accident?"

Aomi caught his meaning before he could finish.

"Line robbery," she heaved. "Some dumb Ezo bandits decided to rob us!"

Nekohiko frowned.

Ezo tribes along with Ainu tribes were the native people who lived in the north-west of his Empire. When Demonic King Abihiko -- the great ancestor of Abi family -- had been sent to this area, he'd conquered and displaced all these tribes from their territories. Most of them had fled across the gulf to another island. But some remained -- in hiding. In ambushes. In quiet resistance. And they never forgave the Abi family for what it had done to them.

The thing about the bandit attacks from Ezos and Ainus was that they only robbed things with desirable outcomes -- money, fuel, Bound mechanisms they could use. But never the passenger Lines.

So why? Why would the bandits suddenly decide to strike a random passenger Line?

Could it be that... to them, it wasn't random at all?

His heart pounded.

"Where is Kataji?"

Aomi got to her feet and swayed around, looking for something. "He's gone to check on your other parts in the baggage section," she said, then knelt down in the broken scraps to carefully pick Nekohiko's snake body.

His insides squeezed in ache. Kataji had gone to take care of him. The first thing Aomi did after being slammed into a wall was to check if his body was all right...

"You don't have to do this," he told her. "Neither of you. I'm made of wood and I will survive if one, two, or even ten of my bodies break down. Kataji and you, on the other hand..."

He couldn't even finish, so frustrated he felt at the dumb siblings.

He peeked into the hallway behind the door, more than certain that trying to leave through the broken gap in the wall was a terrible idea. The hallway also was a mess but there were no rampaging bandits here compared to the outside. Yet.

"Where is the attendant?!"

"Are there any guards! Call the guards! Make the Binders call for help!"

"We will all be slaughtered!"

The corridor behind the door was buzzing with passengers who were pouring out of the destroyed compartments. Panic brought on chaos and in all this commotion, it would be harder and harder to get anywhere unless they did it early.

"Follow me," Nekohiko told Aomi and slipped into the ebbing crowd, making sure that there were no imminent dangers around.

He had to take Aomi somewhere safe and only then venture out to get Kataji. Spirits, why did the siblings have to split and pose so many difficulties for him? Had they been together, he'd already fled with them. Perhaps fleeing would be devastating in many ways -- he'd have to abandon all his other parts in the captured Line -- but with his Binding, he and the siblings at least would be safe in the wilderness. Regarding their odds with the bandits, he wasn't as sure.

Another thunderous clang quaked through the Line as though something huge from the outside was ramming into it. People shrieked and swayed and toppled. Nekohiko crouched low to keep away from those who lost their footing and could crash on top of him in the tumult.

Even Aomi cried out as she cowered beside the broken compartment door in the middle of the hallway.

Damn it, he had to get her out of here as soon as possible! Another hit on the Line might smash it to pieces!

What were those bandits doing? Lines were terrible for attacking, of course -- their millipede bodies easily curled inward to create an impenetrable wall of metal on all sides. But if the robbers had something enormous and powerful and yet easily concealed so that no Imperial soldiers would be able to find it?

There could only be one such thing in the world.

A Savage Spirit.

Similar to the Cat Sister who Nekohiko had coerced into engaging with humans. As a cat -- he could genuinely connect to her, and she to him. Plus, he was the Emperor. His Binding was attuned to interacting with Spirits in a way no one else's was. But for the majority of people summoning the Spirit in its original, most powerful form was nigh impossible.

Unless they had similar goals. With how different and alien Spirits were compared to people, such a coincidence occurred only rarely. But it could happen. War against the same enemy was one such common goal.

Seeking justice was another.

And grudge -- fury, wrath, resentment -- was the third. From all of these, came Savage Spirits. Nd when the Spirits became so angry and dissatisfied with the state of the world, they united with mortals -- to vent. To fume. And to destroy. Thus, Savage Spirits didn't mind the proximity of people if those people were just as pissed, just as fuming, just as ready to destroy everything in their path -- as them.

Nekohiko extended his Binding aura to get a feel of the outside. No enemy Binder's aura met his as he searched but instead -- almost instantaneously -- his inquiry crashed into a force so furious and eldritch, he rebounded away from it just to keep himself safe.

Not just a Savage Spirit. A damn colossus of one!

The sheer power and animalistic rage its aura was barbed with filled Nekohiko with dread. What was such a thing even doing here? Where had it come from? He'd sensed humans huddled around it, so they had to be the Ezo bandits. How had these people found a Spirit so powerful and so angry?

"Aomi, here!" Nekohiko ran forward, weaving through the legs of all the people who swarmed in the halls, too riled up to keep their reason.

Boots stomped and elbows swung, either endangering him or Aomi as they hurried to the gangway between the Line carriages. Nekohiko empathized with all these panicked people but he also knew that there was no way he, a cat, would manage to calm them down. If anything, he would displace them even more by talking to them or attempting to Bind some minor soothing spell in the midst of all of this.

He could only run forward. How far was the baggage section?

The next carriage was also frothing with hysteria. Aomi couldn't keep going through all these shrieking people -- they had bruised her already and might hurt her even more. Desperate, Nekohiko craned his neck to look through the small rooms in the hallway to find at least one that wasn't filled with agitated people and wasn't destroyed as theirs had been.

"Here!"

It wasn't a room per se. Only a small storage for the dishes that the Line attendants used. Nekohiko tore the shelves off their hinges with his Binding blast and snapped to Aomi.

"Climb in and wait for me!" he roared over the ruckus in the halls.

Aomi glowered incomprehensibly. "I go with you!"

"No, you're no--"

A monstrous rumble swept from the outside. Another hard slam of the Savage Spirit's body shook the land and the Line. But this time, the Line didn't move. The monster hadn't hit the Line itself. Only one of its sections, already separated from the rest with its previous strikes.

And this one, only Nekohiko could feel.

Sharp pain in several of his body parts charged through him. His breath caught from hundreds of small agonies even though they were faint -- coming from too far away.

So many of his bodies were struck... don't tell me...

The Savage Spirit was assaulting his log form! Directly -- all of his log parts! And more than that -- it must have been attracted to his log forms, to begin with! That was why it had come and attacked this specific Line!

Savage Spirits wanted one thing only -- to wreak havoc. Of course it hadn't come here for the money or quick vengeance on some random people. Such a complex purpose wasn't in the manner of the Savage Spirits at all.

It wanted Nekohiko. And only him. But clearly not to eat him like the Lumber-Devouring Spirit had tried to do. This one simply wanted to rage upon him. To punish him.

To enact its revenge.

Arggggghh, out of all things?! This, too?!

In Nekohiko's lifetime, such a nasty thing had happened to him a lot. Spirits hadn't engaged with him a lot back when he was a kid. Most simply ignored him and refused to answer his calls to Bind. For years, that had made him feel inferior to other Binder. Weak. Useless.

But the issue was that the Spirits actively disliked him. Ignoring was their way to punish him, their way to vent their frustration at who he was.

He was the Emperor. And the Emperor who wasn't on the Emerald Throne when the Spirits needed him to be. The Emperor who wasn't doing his job at Binding together the segregated land and pacifying the Spirits across his Empire. Last time, Nekohiko had only discovered the true horrifying scope of the Spirit's frustration at him when he came close to the borders between the Five Great Lordships of his Empire. There, at the borders, the Spirits were going insane with human conflicts, wracked with contradictions...

And now... wasn't this repeating? Had this Line gone toward the border between -- not even Great Lordships but between the separate Kingdoms?

Naturally, on the junction of those two kingdoms, there could be a Spirit driven completely mad with the strife between those Kingdoms...

Another of the Spirit's great strikes landed on the baggage compartment in which Nekohiko's log parts lay. Metals bent and the walls shattered, their jagged contours pressing into his logs and wringing another tide of pain out of him.

...oh yes. It was obvious.

This Spirit had been drawn to the only thing it believed was to blame for the miserable state of the country. To Nekohiko's weak-ass, no-good Emperor body. In dire need of a good punishment for sucking so greatly at the only thing he was born to do.

"Damn," Nekohiko spat, forcing himself to stand up. "You stupid beast...!"

The pounds the Spirit dealt to the Line were ready to overturn it or smash. He couldn't fight with such a monstrosity -- not in the cat form. With his previous human body, defeating even such a colossal Spirit wouldn't be a big deal for him. However, now, he couldn't even dare to try! The tiniest chance he'd ever get was if he found another Spirit nearby who would fight for him or alongside him... Like the Cat Sister or like Suminoe's Fox Spirit that was inherently loyal to the man.

But Nekohiko didn't know the whereabouts of this Line and if there was any Spirit of the equivalent power level to summon. Or what would happen if he attracted even more Savage Spirits to rage upon him so close to the borders!

And then one other thought nearly crashed him when he realized.

Kataji.

Kataji had gone to the baggage compartment to check on Nekohiko and to protect him. 

Nekohiko's spine chilled.

He sprang into action, forgetting about Aomi in a flash. Thoughts roared inside him in desperation.

He had no choice, did he? He had to fight to get to Kataji in time. And in such a life-or-death situation, even revealing his personal Binder's aura to the world was no more off-limits. He could only take a gamble.

Spirits of the Land! he called, reaching out with his Binding across the territory -- to wherever and whoever heard it first. Aid your Emperor!

Come forth and save me!

He leaped into the nearest open room and rushed through it to the collapsed window. No reason to keep himself hidden and safe when he knew Kataji wasn't. He lunged out the window and into the dusky, purpling outside, fragrant with the sea breeze and the road dust. Bound particles of metal, wood, and animal heat rose out of the overturned and shattered Line carriages in multicolored specks of dissolving aspects.

He landed on the dry grass, taking in the sight he could swear had come out of a nightmare.

An enormous metallic millipede of the Line lay on its side, convulsing in the futile attempt to curl inward to protect itself from the damage. Passengers wailed and roared, some hiding within, others trying to flee down the road and the hills. Horse riders in jagged metallic fur coats whooped and laughed, chasing after them as though for sport.

Several parts of the Line's segmented body were already split asunder in the rubble of metal and shattered fuel tanks. Human shapes of dozens of Ezo bandits spilled into them, ready to pillage, all too happy to participate in the disaster the Savage Spirit had unleashed.

The Spirit itself...

It had the form of a gargantuan shrimp²The name of the bandits attacking this Line is Ezo (蝦夷) which is translated literally as "shrimp barbarians" by both Chinese and Japanese. +_+.. Not a scary shape per se. Unless it was the size of a mountain scraping the skies with its disturbing, pale-greenish-grey carapace as though a monster out of eldritch myths. Thousands of smaller shrimp and crabs crawled on top of its form, giving the Spirit shape. As was common with the Savage Spirits that interacted with humans, it was visible to mere mortals. Most such Spirits Bound themselves with metal or with rocks in order to be seen. This Shrimp Spirit was one like that.

Underneath those small shrimp that swarmed over its form, myriads of pebbles covered its shell and claws in a single sheet of Bound stone. Being visible, the Spirit threw a shadow on the ground. A black, horrid shadow that swallowed the empty expanse of the road and the toppled Line before it, bringing on the nightly darkness. The Spirit's antennae each the length of a tall pine swung with such twitchy, mechanistic motion as they searched through the compartment it was destroying as though to find something.

And just how broken-open the compartment already was!

Nekohiko glimpsed the edges of his log parts wrapped in the green fabric the Sai load carriers had covered it with. His body was already out in the open. The Spirit would destroy it in no time!

Its tail tips left ridges in the stony road, so sharp they were. Its enormous jaw-feet had dealt so much damage to the Line -- those bony, hideous things that could crush even rocks with their strength. And the Spirit was raising them at the baggage compartment once again...

"Stop! I command you!" Nekohiko screamed at it in a wild hope that the Spirit would hear.

He bounded toward it, knowing full well he wasn't that fast and wasn't that big to cover so much ground with his tiny body. He wouldn't be in time!

But then, a yell split the air. A roar full of rage.

"Don't you dare touch that!"

A dull clank of a metal scrap hit the stone carapace of the Shrimp Spirit in the abrupt silence. The Shrimp Spirit didn't seem like it would listen but it slowed down its attack nonetheless. Perhaps confused by what was going on and why some tiny, powerless human would be throwing scraps at it.

"Get back! Stay away!" Kataji screamed at it, flinging whatever he could find in the baggage compartment -- jars, books, torn metal, small rocks.

The young man was only a flailing figure inside the ruined compartment but Nekohiko heard and saw him so clearly. Ache stirred within him just from comprehending the sheer difference in size and power between Kataji and the Shrimp Spirit.

And yet, Kataji didn't give a damn about that. He would charge at the Spirit with nothing but a book in his hands the very next moment.

The Shrimp Spirit had no interest in him. That it paused for a second was only because it was confused. But now that it saw how meager and harmless its attacker was, its hulking rocky claw came down on the broken compartment all the same.

With terror pumping his heart, Nekohiko rushed on. A fiery knot of pure emotion condensed inside him. A Binding spell. Just in time. He lashed out with his paws, driving all the essence of rage he had inside to fly at the monstrous Spirit.

Heat surged out of his body along with Binding energy. A mad, barely-restrained ball of fury rushed full speed at the Shrimp Spirit's segmented thorax.

This was the famed Nagare technique. The first Binding method Nekohiko had ever used in his life. And the one he feared the most.

It was a powerful gust -- but also uncontrolled, as likely to hurt its master as it would the enemy. With how lacking the cat's body was for fine-tuning of Binding gestures, most of Nekohiko's rage spilled and splashed as he cast it. And these spatters got him even before it reached the Spirit.

He'd never been hit with his own techniques before... and had never been hit with Nagare technique specifically.

The jolt to his body was shattering -- just from the tiny splash of the spell he'd cast. Something cracked inside him. The metallic taste of blood invaded his mouth.

His Nagare spell lashed at the Spirit Shrimp with the same intensity, only increased tenfold. A dazzling clash clamored at the site of impact.

A heartbeat of hush.

Then a grinding roar rose to the skies as the Spirit reeled from the treacherous strike that had come from below where it hadn't expected it. Its boulder-like legs thundered over the ground as it balanced itself against falling down from the sweeping pain.

Writhing in frustration, it stared down. It searched for the source of the Binding energy ball that had struck it. But it found nothing. No human Binder that could have done it. Not even a hint of one.

Nekohiko had already crested over the pain his own Nagare spell hit him with. He used the Spirit's bafflement as a chance to dash beneath its leg claws and into the baggage compartment. Kataji hadn't bothered to pay attention to what was going on outside -- the young man was busy gathering Nekohiko sawed log blocks that he could find and dragging them outside. What an idiotic, stubborn young man.

"Kataji! Leave them!" Nekohiko hopped over the destroyed walls and ceiling of the compartment. He almost bit Kataji to have him notice him. "Aomi is in danger -- we have to go!"

"One more moment," Kataji mumbled, eyes glazed as he ran through the shelves, looking for another block he remembered being there.

"In there! The enemy's Binder was was in there!"

"Be careful! He's very strong -- he hurt the Savage Spirit!"

From the adjacent carriages, the noises of Ezo riders came as the bandits grouped together to drive the annoying Binder human out of the compartment before he could hurt the Shrimp Spirit again. Judging by their words, Nekohiko knew they'd mistaken him for Kataji and now wanted Kataji punished for what he'd done to the Spirit.

They would beat the young or capture. Or worse, kill.

The Spirit was still too stunned to collect itself for another attack. Yet it clearly wasn't defeated or even pushed back... only delayed. Only distracted for a few moments.

Nekohiko snapped his jaws at Kataji's sleeve and gave him a jerk. "Let's GO!"

Kataji's eyes glinted at him, mad. "We go when I say so."

And he ran deeper into the compartment.

Aaaaaaaa, how frustrating this was!

Nekohiko wouldn't be able to muster another Binding attack with this body's movements so imprecise and crude. Even the smallest attempt would destroy it! They had to run -- before it was too late and the Shrimp Spirit pulled itself together!

The gangway door to the neighboring compartment banged open, flying off its hinges. Behind it, stood a man with a wild, sinister look in his eye. The metallic Bound fur pelt the natives were known for clinked menacingly over his shoulders and back.

An Ezo bandit.

His eyes missed Nekohiko and went straight for Kataji. Beside the man, several others huddled, pushing to enter the compartment. All of them grinned with derision the moment they saw what Kataji looked like.

A crazed, scholarly-looking noble, his hair in disarray, his clothes torn. Desperate to find something amidst the rubble on the floor -- jewelry, books, money -- whatever must be so important to such a materialistic person who didn't care for his life but seemed to care more about his possessions. So absorbed in his search to not even be aware of the bandits closing in on him.

With a yank of his arm, the nearest bandit whipped the bone harpoon off his back. His teeth gritted in a feral smile. Harpoon aiming, he lunged for Kataji.

Nekohiko threw himself before the man. His hackles rose, claws snapped out.

A gargling hiss came out of his throat. "Piss off or I'll make you!"

He couldn't cast anymore. So, um... attempting to baffle people with his speech would have to do.

But the bandit was trained well to not react to random nonsense during the battle. One swipe of his foot, and he kicked Nekohiko sideways. The frail cat body flew into the many packed crates inside the compartment.

Some fine bones inside him cracked like twigs. Nekohiko dashed against the crates, then sagged to the floor, pain blooming in intense patches all over.

"Aaggh!" he coughed a drizzle of blood from his mouth. Something like a rib pierced his purr-box, making him wheeze as he gulped for breaths.

Kataji swung around just like that.

"What the fuck, you asshole!" he bellowed at the bandit. Nekohiko balked at the fact that not only Kataji knew some intensely dirty words but could fling them at people without bother. And then he learned why.

With nothing but a fat tome he found on the floor, Kataji charged at the harpoon-wielding bandit. His fury was blinding him. The book flew an arc through the air. The bandit deftly avoided it but the distraction was enough for Kataji to make a run to Nekohiko's cat form. He cradled him in his arms, kneeling on the floor, and glared at the bandit as though willing to attack him again.

"Is it the Binder who attacked the Spirit?" the bandit rumbled in his heavy accent. He huffed, peering at the skies and the Shrimp Spirit that slowly came back to hover over the Line, its shadow a pure stretch of dusk over the ground. The man nodded to the younger bandits that swarmed out of the gangway and into the compartment. "Drag the lunatic out. The Spirit would take pleasure in ripping him apart. By herself."

The three bandits in the same clinking metal furs and with harpoons on their backs moved through the littered floor to Kataji. Their faces were grim. Their reaction to Kataji trying to escape -- merciless.

A boot flew into Kataji's stomach and another into his shoulder. Kataji splayed on the floor, too stunned to manage even a breath, let alone run.

Far away, beyond the forests and mountains and rivers, a gentle touch prodded Nekohiko in his side.

A brush of warm fingers against his seashell body!

Abihiko -- touching him again -- taking him out of that box and... whispering something at him? He'd been waiting for this for so long, to finally get more information about Abihiko's life, and... now, of all things?!

Why now?!

Oh, how he wanted to follow Kataji's example of swearing!

He struggled weakly against Kataji's hold in the ravenous need to try and Bind something into these oncoming barbarians. Yes, even if it would destroy him. But Kataji only pressed him down tighter, wrapping himself all around him and fumbling to crawl deeper into the compartment to no avail.

The Ezos caught him fast, and none of his strong-tongued curses did a thing to them. He couldn't even swing his fists at them because he had to keep Nekohiko safe -- only his kicks were still available. But those ran out fast when the flurry of hits crushed him from all the sides.

Kataji curled inward around Nekohiko. His arms rang with tension from having to endure pain and his chest rose and fell against the cat body with such ferocity...

The bandits clutched him by the hair and the collar and hauled him to the ravaged gap in the compartment's wall. Nekohiko thrashed, trying to flee -- then switched to his snake form to see if he had a better chance of doing something there. But there was nothing he could do. He had no arms, no paws to try even the simplest Binding techniques, and Aomi was too far, squeezing herself out of the Line doors several carriages away. It was enough for her to see the Shrimp Spirit in its full glory as it loomed over the jagged contours of the toppled baggage compartment. But not enough to see what went on inside it, or what was going to happen to her brother very, very soon.

"Kataji, let go!" Nekohiko snarled from Kataji's arms as the two of them were kicked out of the gash in the wall.

Kataji cushioned the impact of the fall to the grass with his body. A loud crack -- much more painful-sounding than when Nekohiko's wooden parts shattered -- rang within Kataji's legs. A bone, broken. And nevertheless, only when Kataji stopped tumbling and came to a halt in front of the giant leg of the Spirit Shrimp, did his arms open and let Nekohiko out.

The young man's body shook with pain but he didn't let a sound out, grinding his teeth against his shuddering breaths. He glared at Nekohiko when Nekohiko bit his shirt to try and drag him away from the Spirit.

With a strike, he swept Nekohiko away and spat out, "Get those and take them to safety!"

His bloodied finger was pointing somewhere behind Nekohiko. There was no need to even look. Nekohiko could guess fairly well what "those" referred to. The log parts Kataji had been trying to save so desperately and in vain. The log parts he was willing to sacrifice his very life to save!

What a stubborn, irksome person!

Above them, the Shrimp Spirit straightened to his full height. Chunks of soil, road grit, and tufts of grass cascaded down from its massive claws as it prepared to dig its claws into Kataji on its way to the baggage compartment. Kataji, or Nekohiko -- no longer mattered. The Spirit no doubt felt wronged at being attacked so treacherously earlier. It wouldn't care who did it as long as it could trample -- anyone.

Nekohiko rounded toward the Spirit, eyes burning, every last part of him electrified with rage.

Even if he destroyed this body, if he could save Kataji this once --

-- worth it.

All of his emotions flowed into another tight knot of Nagare power inside him. A thunder clashed through the dark skies and the wind rose as though in an agreement with the turmoil he felt.

He bent low to the ground to fully gather his Binding powers and throw them at the enemy when--

The lightning more luminous and blinding than any he'd seen in his life. A beautiful, spidery arc of it came down from the nightly skies, burrowing into the Shrimp Spirit through its core.

Searing, it wrung a roar out of the Shrimp Spirit's alien body.

But it wasn't enough. There only came more thunder, and more lightning beating unceasingly into the Spirit -- through and through.

Nekohiko knew in an instant what it meant.

It wasn't his answer from the heavens when the thunder had rolled through the land a moment ago. It was the one and only person who had full command of both the thunder and the lightning themselves.

In the fiery glow of the blue-and-violet electricity, a slender, petite figure sprang down from the skies. A long arc of a curved black bow in her hands, and another lightning, sizzling and untamed, ready at the nock of that bow. The wind's rising gusts flapped the folds of her clothes and the chin-long ends of her dark hair...

Her eyes glowed with the exact same deadly glow of lightning as her arrows.

Forget Abihiko touching him somewhere far away at Nara Palace. Forget Kataji's obnoxious behavior right here right now. The third person Nekohiko was both reluctant and resentful to interact with, had appeared.

An almost-madame Nekohiko once. One of the two future brides of his.

Kasuga. The Queen of the Skies.