Content Warning:

some gore in the last segment

 

Chapter Forty-Three

"The Most Epic Battle Against the Cat"

(feat. the Snake)

 

Nekohiko's hackles rose. He recoiled from the advancing officers, sprang off the sill and skittered away.

He took no pride in running and leaving Kataji behind. But he knew that he had no chance against this well-trained group of soldiers. If they took him for a threat, they would dispose of him instantly, and his original position on the sill was incredibly weak for fighting them off.

However, who would ever take him seriously? Last time he'd tried to defend Kataji with his frail cat body, the Ezo barbarian simply kicked Nekohiko aside, crushing his bones in the process. And that was essentially it.

So now, because he behaved exactly like a spooked kitty, nobody paid him heed. He slunk out of the way and shot through the soldiers' feet to the doors.

Two burly men grabbed Kataji by the arms and jerked him out of his wheelchair no harder than they would a rag doll.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!" Kataji tried to slap one of the men away with his usual aristocratic scorn, but it was clear Kataji felt scared.

His voice quavered. Indignation could not hide that fact.

"What are you doing?! Do you know who I am? Do you know who my brother is?!"

Nobody spoke as they wrestled him off his feet and to the table in the middle of the room. Other soldiers already swept all flower pots and reading scrolls off the surface, so the table was empty. Kataji was pushed toward it, one man holding him on the back and over his right arm. But it was Kataji's left arm that the other man stretched out in a rigid and vulnerable position, pinning it to the table's surface no matter how Kataji flailed and writhed under the hold.

"I'm talking to you!" Kataji roared at the men, then at Etsuko.

By this point, his teeth began chattering, so all of his pomposity had melted away.

Only the exposed gut fear remained. Kataji tried to push the man off his back, but the man pressed his hand into Kataji's head, crushing it into the table to immobilize him.

"Hnnnnng! Argh! You-- scums!"

A couple of other soldiers came over to help because Kataji tried to kick the table away -- Nekohiko couldn't endure this horrible scene. His heart pounded and his ears throbbed with pain from the rage inside him.

To hurt Kataji like this...!

Another soldier took a small splitting knife out of her toolbox and methodically checked the blade and how it started rotating when she applied Binding aspects of speed to it.

But the scariest thing wasn't even the cruelty and the coldness of the people gathered.

It was their silence. They were less like humans and more like Bound dummies -- all movements perfect and precise. All orders shared only within their inner communication systems, whatever those were.

Nekohiko didn't know what they wanted to do, and they weren't talking to each other about it, no doubt having discussed all of this hours prior. But he guessed it was what Etsuko had promised to do.

Cut off Kataji's hand to prove to the Emperor -- or to the Towa officers in case the Emperor wasn't around -- at which lengths the Nagare forces would go to make their enemies yield to their demands. Bitter, Nekohiko slowly stepped around Etsuko, inching his way into the hall while keeping his eye on Kataji and his torturers to not miss his chance to strike.

Just a little bit, Kataji.

Don't worry. I would not let anyone hurt you.

His head cocked to the side, so cold and enraged he felt. His eyes locked in on the abominable woman in front of him, memories of having been followed by her to "protect him" flooding his mind. This bitch. This harsh, ruthless hag.

She had never thought about protection. Only about preventative attacks that rivaled any potential cruelty of the enemy's before they even had the opportunity to strike.

Nekohiko's assassination would be right on her spectrum of behaviors. If Daichi had believed Nekohiko was a monster that deserved to be killed, no doubt Etsuko believed the same.

No doubt she was one of the first to jump on the opportunity to remove him. Preemptively.

The woman with the knife threw a glance at Etsuko, and Etsuko nodded.

It was time.

"Commander Etsuko! Is this how you always treat people you swore to protect?" Nekohiko said loudly and clearly.

A jolt of dark glee speared him when Nekohiko saw Etsuko's shoulders tense up.

She recognized.

She knew his voice well enough. And judging by how blood rushed off her face, her reaction would be exactly like that of Daichi's.

Panic. Confusion.

Disbelief.

Nekohiko didn't flinch when she swung around or when the other soldiers looked up in sudden fear. Of course they weren't supposed to be here, torturing Kasuga's prisoners. What they were doing was treason and everyone's nerves were twitchy.

But when they searched for the sight of the person who could expose them...

They found no one. Only a tiny cat in the doors.

"Itsuki! Run!" Kataji whelped only to be silenced by the soldiers who pressed down on him.

"Shut this man up and do your job!" Etsuko told the knife woman. Then she turned toward the soldiers who stood by the doors and motioned for them to grab the stupid cat out of the way.

Orders were orders. However bizarre things were, the soldiers could focus on the things straight ahead and ignore everything else. Both young men steppe up to the cat, arms open.

Nekohiko's loathing swelled. He didn't even need to cast a Nagare technique out of his anger -- even the barest hint of it was enough.

His Binder's aura sparked up. Its edges reached Etsuko and the others just before the woman with the knife bent down to groaning, struggling Kataji.

And the feel of his Emperor's aura powers spoke louder than any words.

A collective gasp escaped the soldiers' mouths as they snapped toward him. They might not know who he was, but the sheer levels of his Binding powers were fated to shock anyone.

Etsuko's eyes at last fixed on the small cat form on the floor. No disbelief or doubt in them now. She recognized him.

Recognized him fully.

Her gaze flicked to his backside and the torn-off black tail. Understanding flashed like lightning. No doubt she knew about Daichi's death and its circumstances. Which only meant one thing --

"Everyone. Destroy this fucking cat. Now!" she snarled, shoving the closest young soldier between herself and Nekohiko as a meat shield.

Oh. Wow.

Very brave, Etsuko. Such an epic fight... against a small kitty.

 

---

 

***

The soldiers sprang into action. Two or three took care to dispose of Kataji, throwing him back into his room and sealing all the walls to keep him inside without means of escaping while they fought. Nekohiko only glimpsed that partly -- he was already on the run to the hallway, short legs slipping on the slick glass floors.

"I want this cat disintegrated!" 

...by now, his pulse began pumping up, too. And not just from the panicked running.

This crazy woman wasn't joking! She was really prepared to keep herself away from him while her subordinates dealt with him in her stead!

There was an actual battle going on below Suzumegara -- yet this was how the Nagare's garrison Commander chose to win her epic battles here?

By a squad of soldiers obliterating a small fluffy animal?

Like a giant hand made of black liquid, the wall before him snapped up and around to catch him in the hold. He bounced his feet off it and hopped backward. Heavy boots stomped at him and flashes of electric energy zoomed past him, frying his fur and whiskers in sizzling flames when they snipped at him.

No time to swivel out of the way of the soldiers! He Bound a Nagare bolt big enough to whip it at the nearest door in the hall and rammed himself through the hole it made.

But even that wasn't going to help. A small kitty fighting against so many capable soldiers who already Bound together a formation to seal the entire section of this castle into a glassy prison!

Arrgh!

"Etsuko! You are willing to sacrifice all these people to pay for your treason?!" he roared, caught in the corner of the hallway at last. "Because all these people will die unless you come and talk to me on your own!"

"Talk to you?!" Etsuko gestured for her soldiers to go on without even entertaining the idea.

Good.

Wonderful. He wouldn't feel guilty for fighting all these people to their deaths, then. They had their orders and he had his.

And his biggest order was to survive and bring his Empire back to glory. He was only following the will of the Spirits. And the Spirits were his greatest allies in this, weren't they?

"Yes. Talk to me," Nekohiko spat at her. "Something you owe me. And something you owe the Spirits for betraying their will!"

Before anyone could act with their spinning Nagare bolts or the walls of glassy stone curling in around Nekohiko to trap him -- he called for help.

The only Spirit whose presence mattered. And one that had gladly helped him once before.

Suzumegara.

The rush of silence in the hall was like a slam through the gathering. Why? Because all at once, everyone's Binding spells fizzled out. All of the soldiers' electric blades, or their energy bolts, or their attempts to melt and fuse the glass of the walls. All of it stopped.

And nobody could do anything to counteract that. Everyone's Binding here simply died out.

Like one, the soldiers threw lost glances at each other, then at Etsuko.

But herself, Etsuko never let her eyes off Nekohiko.

Her lined, old face was growing gaunter and more hideous by the minute as the realization settled in.

Suzumegara had sealed off their Nagare powers by refusing to aid them with their Binding.

...

How sweet, this feeling of redemption.

"See?" Nekohiko tilted his head. "And all I wanted was to talk. We don't need your stupid Binding to do that, do we?"

But even lost, Etsuko was as tight-lipped as always. If he'd had at least some chance with Daichi, then with this woman, it would be nigh impossible to make her spill with how disciplined she was. Unless, of course, something important to her was threatened. Or mocked.

"Kasuga is going to be defeated in this fight," Nekohiko said so that everyone could hear. The soldiers around him grew hushed. "Someone else is coming to this battle," Nekohiko added. "And you won't like it when he's here. Trust me."

"The Emperor?" Etsuko took the bait, and it was clear just how much she hated Abihiko in that one word she said like it was the gravest insult. "Let him come. We'll give him his brother back in chunks as a welcoming gift," Etsuko taunted him back in her usual, impassive manner.

You bitch.

"Well, Abihiko isn't the only one who's coming," he went on. "The Izumo Head Priest would be here soon as well. And what will happen to your precious Kasuga if all those enemies unite against--"

Oh yes, threatening Kasuga worked like magic.

Even from beyond the wall of agitated Nagare soldiers, Etsuko's face looked especially pallid with rage.

"What are you so gleeful about, wretch!" she gritted out. "The Head Priest and the Emperor are coming?! Wonderful. The man who killed you and the man who'd planned your assassination in the first place?!"

...no. No, wait...

What?

The man who killed him and the man who...

...did what?

"Maybe they'll finish the job of destroying you if we can't! Kill the cat! NOW!"

He could swear his heart had almost stopped from what he had just heard. It couldn't connect with the reality that he had known all his life...

The Head Priest... Suminoe... had planned his assassination with Abihiko?

"What did you just say?!" he cried, lost. "Repeat that--!"

He didn't get to finish.

The floor suddenly tilted.¹I will use the word "gravity" throughout this fight scene, but obviously these people call it something different since they do not know the concept of gravity yet. Like "weight", "mass", "weight centering", etc -- were all so clunky that I felt they would disrupt whatever flow this scene had.

And so did the walls and the ceiling. And the entire hallway.

The warnings of the sudden shifts in the gravity of the Nagare castle still flashed through the building, but Nekohiko hadn't expected this to happen so soon!

Everyone who stood in the hallway began slipping to the side until they would crash into the wall which was now where the weight fell.

Why--!? was Nekohiko's first thought, but then it became impossible to think even that.

Because the tilting never stopped!

The castle was slowly changing its rotation like a barrel that was tumbling down a slope.

"Stabilize! Regroup! Retreat!"

"Aaaaaaah!" a couple of younger soldiers yelped, failing to grab onto anything as they tumbled down the walls.

Someone's bones cracked audibly when that person crashed into the column from so high up. All the furniture in the hall flew up and down and to the sides in utter chaos. Chunks of wood and stone and shards of glass rained on them as the tilting went on.

Almost nobody could hold on well with Binding either because Suzumegara had cut off their connection to the Spirits that aided Nagare techniques. Only Etsuko and the other experienced soldiers quickly switched their techniques to Hira or Hisome or Towa to Bind themselves secure to the walls and the columns.

But like all Binders specializing only in their native Kingdom's techniques, they weren't very good at using other Kingdoms' magic. Just competent enough to not lose face when they used them.

The panic still wracked them.

"Forget about gravity! Destroy the cat!" Etsuko ordered. "Use weapons instead of Binding -- but kill that damn cat no matter what!"

One of the closest soldiers swung his boot at Nekohiko, and Nekohiko barely avoided him.

Then, from the side, a strike of someone's crushing club sliced air at him.

Shit!

His claws had been sharp enough to latch into wood of the ceiling in Daichi's inn -- but on such slick glass as here, Nekohiko couldn't do a thing. He was sliding along with everyone else and dodging attacks wasn't getting easier!

A hammer whooshed at him and he recoiled.

To the side.

Backward!

He rolled and jumped and let himself freefall till he landed on the ceiling which was now slowly tilting to become the wall.

His butt dashed into the wall sconce lights and the gaping maws of doors under him as he ran. Tables and vases and random trinkets plummeted out of the wide-open room doors. The sounds of shattering ceramics and glass filled the castle, but nothing could drown out the screams and shrieks of people all through the halls.

The entire castle was tumbling -- Nekohiko could bet the city was tumbling, too. Which probably meant that Suzumegara was swooping through the sky with no regard to the Nagare citizens on top of it.

What the hell was happening out there to make Suzumegara do this?!

He Bound some baseline Imperial spells to make his paws sticky as he ran down the rotating corridors and toward the nearest window. But everyone who was after him had the same idea. They made their boots suck up to any surface they touched -- and rushed after Nekohiko just as ready to catch or kill him as before.

Angrier, even. Because Etsuko's orders were only getting more enraged by the seconds.

Like an arrow, he shot to the nearest window, shattering the transparent crystal with a small Nagare blast. Shards and crystals exploded around him as he fell out of the castle and into the blizzard-ridden outside.

 

---

 

***

And Spirits, he fell upward.

The ground-sky gravity was the opposite of what went in the castle. Nekohiko barely managed to cling to the window's frame with his paw to not plummet into the snow-filled sky.

The world outside was white with sleet and ice and the bright splashes of electric lights further away -- so harsh the battle between Towas and Nagares must be down below! But Nekohiko couldn't spare thought to it.

He was fighting his own death battle here.

Outside, running became easier because at least now he knew where the up and down were supposed to be. Suzumegara broke through the blizzard, and the visibility was very low. But this was only to his advantage.

He dashed through the snowy courtyard toward the Bizarre Beast's enormous thorax. The arch at Suzumegara's head junction was the black glass sky gate on which he'd seen Kasuga and Etsuko "talk" to their troops earlier. He had taken note of that spot precisely because it was so close to Suzumegara's head. It had to be the easiest place to communicate with the Spirit, which would be the sole reason Kasuga had previously held her briefing there.

Perfect.

But Nekohiko didn't go there yet. Instead, he jumped onto the porch steps and waited till his pursuers came after him.

Now that they were outside, they felt much more comfortable daring to use non-Nagare Binding techniques to jump higher or run faster to catch up to him. On one such obvious technique, Etsuko sprang up in the air past Nekohiko's cat form while her soldiers surrounded him. As before, Etsuko avoided confronting him directly.

Very smart, for someone who knew her limits.

One of the soldiers after Nekohiko brandished the fiery Hira spell in his hands, the other leaned into the Towa snow flying around, trying to muster up an attacking spell of his own. All those who couldn't use the other Kingdoms' spells wielded weapons.

Nekohiko was ready either way.

He bent low, in his paws -- a growing, destructive Nagare bolt that he knew he wasn't allowed to cast at others with the intent to kill. Wouldn't even be able to -- by Kataji's murder-proofing order.

But he could make a small diversion with it, couldn't he?

Etsuko reacted immediately upon seeing him cast. As he'd expected -- she fled to stay as far away from him as possible while still being able to see what was going on. Clever enough to know to keep away. But not enough to know he could predict most of her actions.

There was a very good reason Nekohiko had allowed her and the others to abuse Kataji for so long before he stopped them. He had been readying his trap for catching Etsuko. And had led her here precisely to push her deeper into that trap.

The woman stood a bit far from the arch, but that didn't matter. Nekohiko couldn't kill, but he could fling his spell to scare her and make her retreat in a specific direction.

He released the destructive Nagare charge toward the hateful woman, and she jumped aside just in time.

She jumped out of the way of his spell and right toward the empty arch that opened above her.

"You moron, Etsuko!" Nekohiko couldn't help but laugh even though his cat body was now completely defenseless and exposed to attacks.

Not that he cared.

Some stupid Nagare soldier rushed at his cat form, crashing into it to catch. Nekohiko's mind escaped it already. And woke up inside the snake that was twined around the arch's highest beam, waiting patiently all this time for the cat to lead Etsuko right to this spot. Right underneath the arch and the snake hidden on it.

The snake sprang down at the woman.

The twisting rope of his body lashed in an arc. He landed on Etsuko's forearm, and before she could gather her wits, he grabbed hold, twining his tail around her armored bicep.

He struck.

Her stunned eyes flashed in a fast flicker of fear. As though in tiny mirrors, in her eyes, he saw himself lunging at her face, his jaws wide open, his bronze fangs gleaming in the sun.

Etsuko recoiled, her second hand grabbing at his head to stop him -- but too late.

Her mouth had been open a crack for a scream.

That scream never came out.

Instead, Nekohiko's fangs slammed hard into her nose and upper lip. His metal teeth pierced flesh and the heat of blood invaded his nostrils and tongue.

He had no other means to attack her or to wound her. What was he? A mere snake without any ways to Bind or to fight. The only advantage he had was this --

-- trying to kill her fast.

Fast, before she recuperated or someone else helped her.

He had to choke her.

A pained grunt escaped her. Her fingers clutched his body on both sides of her head, trying to pry him away even if it ripped half of her face in the process.

But he was slick and swift and slippery. He broke out of her nasal cavity, then smashed his small viper head into her mouth.  One hard twist of his fangs strained her jaws as he pushed himself deeper inside, blocking all air, writhing and squiggling to avoid her fingers.

Her nails crushed into his wooden body, prying him apart. But he never stopped. He couldn't. He hated this person. He hated everything she stood for.

This woman... her cruelty... her lies and her treachery!

She crashed down and rolled on the ground, struggling to get him off herself. But all that made no difference. He was already inside her throat, pushing lower and deeper into the contracting gullet. He didn't need to do anything else. Just waiting would do its job.

Just waiting till she could breathe no more.

But as she lost the last of her wits in the agony, so she lost control of her Binding magic. Her body stopped clinging to the surfaces around her.

And Suzumegara's haphazard tumbling in the air did it. Weightlessness ripped Etsuko off the courtyard tiles after Suzumegara turned in the air again. And both Etsuko and Nekohiko trapped inside her throat -- plunged into the blizzard winds down below.

All of a sudden, from all sides, Nekohiko heard screaming and alarms.

"Commander Etsuko!"

"Protect the Commander!"

"She fell!"

Swift, he switched his consciousness to the cat to see what was going on. With dismay, he found himself clutched in several strands of Towa ice shackles as Etsuko's soldiers held him tight.

And one or two knobs of heavy clubs and hammers were pressed against his body, trying to squish its frail wooden parts into mulch.

Even though most of them were distraught by their Commander's plight, a few were still trying to follow Etsuko's orders to the end.

Pain exploded through him as the soldiers made their best to destroy him, Binding or no Binding.

He screamed, unable to stand the torture.

In his side-eye, he saw dozens of darkly-dressed Nagare soldiers as they swooped off the arches and towers to catch Etsuko's tumbling body with its train of red blood cascading out of her in the snowy winds. The few soldiers who wanted to crush him stayed behind, but that wouldn't save them, really.

Had all these people not realized their Nagare magic wasn't working because Suzumegara was not on their side?

Did they truly believe Suzumegara would allow them to hurt Nekohiko at all?

And to hurt him here? Outside in the skies?

When its Suzumegara's control over the winds was at its strongest?

Like a deafening clamor of a mountain being split, Suzumegara came to life. It swung around harshly. A powerful hurricane of a wind swooshed over its thorax, trapping all the panicked soldiers gathered there. And then -- with a lashing whip of thunder, the wind brushed all these people off Suzumegara.

And after Etsuko's plummeting body.

Just like that. All the people who had seen Nekohiko fight with Etsuko were thrown off it no harder than garbage. And knowing that Suzumegara had denied them access to the Nagare techniques -- including that of floating or of the Featherfall -- these people were as good as dead. Nothing could save the human body from splattering over the ground from the height like this.

The thought was vicious.

Nekohiko felt dizzy just imagining it. Although his other body was with all these people, too. The snake was also falling -- so he felt every last second of this terrifying fall into the abyss.

In the last effort to keep his secret hidden from anyone who would find Etsuko's ravaged body later, his snake form retracted from her throat. Just long enough for the winds to catch him and tear him away from her.

The blood his fangs had ripped in her throat trailed after his body in a bright red ribbon. This vivid splash of red was the last thing his snake eyes saw before the kaleidoscope of snow, jagged ice, and battling Nagares and Towas shattered his snake body into bits with an explosion of Nagare electricity and Towa coldsnap.

...

"Aaaaaaarghhh!" he whelped, shuddering back into his cat body from the sheer amount of pain the destruction had done to is snake form.

That poor snake body would never have the chance to be restored now. The damage was simply too huge.

And that battle down below...

Hells. What was even going on in there?!

But here, high above, it wasn't much better.

The echoes of cries and pleas tided over him as the last of Etsuko's soldiers tumbled into the snowy storm. Shaken and dizzy, Nekohiko's cat form withstood the rampage of the wind even though all the people who had held him moments ago were swept away.

A fuzzy ball of air wrapped around him gently, preserving him against the lashing of the storm. In this sphere made by Suzumegara to keep him from harm, he floated, caught in a breeze that pulled him directly toward Suzumegara's haggard, alien face.

Only when the last shrieks of pain and fear were lost to the howling winds, did Suzumegara's turning in the air stop.

Damn it...

Ah.

Ahhhh, what a gruesome day...

He felt like blacking out from all the pain and misery he had seen just now. He had never felt so tired or so lost...

Nekohiko slowly opened his eyes. Tentatively, he raised his head and met the gaze of the creature before him.

Suzumegara.

It wasn't his ally per se. It hadn't wanted to help him. Perhaps, It didn't even agree with his methods or his goals. But It didn't want him to be dead or endangered or defeated.

In its odd, incomprehensible way, Suzumegara cared. It didn't think Nekohiko was in the wrong.

Its eyes were like giant craters of pure electricity, dimmed by the blurry Spirit essence like faint clouds. What these eyes saw and what they perceived when they peered at him so blindly and mutely, was impossible to tell. Nekohiko didn't even know if Suzumegara could see him, or if It used some other way to sense him.

But a feeling of gratitude still filled him to the brim. A sharp moment of connectedness and of being appreciated for who he was. This alien, chthonic monster... understood him. It was on his side.

He leaned his forehead to one of Suzumegara's giant antennae. Tears filled his eyes as he let himself push into Suzumegara's caress as though it was a hug. A hug he so desperately needed.

Only a person who knew true betrayal could appreciate loyalty like this.

What had Etsuko said?

Abihiko. And then... Suminoe...?

No. No. Too harsh... too cruel. No. He couldn't even begin to think about this.

Not Suminoe. Everyone but Suminoe! Not a person who was the closest thing Nekohiko had ever had to a father!

He needed to cool down and absorb what had happened to him. Yet the battle didn't let him. He had never intended to be part of it, but Suzumegara did not have the same luxury of choice.

A Binder's call for help pierced through Nekohiko's body like a startling chill in his bones.

"Suzumegara! Attack!" the voice commanded.

Kasuga?

Suzumegara had no choice but to follow that command. Only one person had the right to order Suzumegara, and judging by the anguish in her Binder's call -- Kasuga was in grave danger.

He gaped as the colossal Moth Spirit spread its league-long wings in the brightest of blue Spirit essence. Suzumegara was really intending to attack the Towa Binders down below?!

The Bizarre Beast who was the size of a mountain would attack an army of people underneath?

His heart spurred into a frenzy once again even though it hadn't calmed down after the previous shock.

Because if Suzumegara attacked another Lord's army -- what stopped all the other four Bizarre Beasts from retaliating? His whole damn Empire would come undone if all the Lords' Bizarre Beasts began in-fighting!

Ah, what were all these people doing to him?

He had to do something to stop this stupid battle, and fast, or he would have no Empire left to save whatsoever.