Episode 28 The Four Naraku—Assembled!

A third gleam and crash of metal suddenly separates Lily from Iris, just as their weapons are about to meet. Acting as the partition between the two colliding weapons is the point of a Blue Screamer.

“My, my, Iris. We can’t have you killing the Third Phoneme now,” Lord Kimura says softly.

“Lord Kimura!” Kunai gasps, stricken by surprise. “Where did he come from?!”

“Ah,” Lord Kimura mutters softly, his dark strands of hair overlapping over a pair of green traveling goggles. He removes them, the better to see Kunai. “Kunai. I am pleased to see that you are still alive and well.”

‘Still?’ Ivy wonders worriedly, clutching the handle of her Thorns tightly.

“I wish I could say the same for you, Kimura!” Kunai growls angrily, drawing two Steelys. He launches himself at Kimura, attempting to throttle him with the two throwing knives.

However, Kunai is met with the opposition of a gigantic Avenger. Kunai is pushed backwards with the recoil, and skids a couple feet on the dirt ground before he comes to a halt in Ivy’s arms.

“Shuriken?!”

The grim form of Shuriken stands in the space between Lord Kimura and Kunai, blocking Kunai’s attack with his own Avenger. Shuriken stares at the half-hunched Kunai with great distaste. “As always you are a nuisance.”

“Lord Kimura’s here,” Ayame mutters weakly, having finally gained the strength to stand up. She turns hurriedly to Ivy. “Ivy, open up your Mystic Door and get us all out of here!”

“I—” Ivy stutters, before an actual Mystic Door opens up in the space between she and Ayame. The gracefully robed figure of Zack exits from the door, yawning widely. He leans on his Kage and stares serenely around at the scene before him.

“Yo, Mr. Lord Kimura!” Zack says brightly, “I’m here.”

“Zack’s here too?!” Kunai cries, turning to Zack.

“Long time no see, huh,” Zack mutters softly.

“You…” Ryuu growls, grabbing Zack by the collar, “you killed Mayor Stan! How can you just stand around there smiling satisfactorily to yourself? Do you think we won’t do anything about it? Huh?!”

Zack merely smiles, pulling himself gently free from Ryuu’s grasp. “Calm down. I’m nicer than you look. It’s not like they’re dead. They escaped before I could actually kill ‘em.”

“What?!” Kunai gasps, “If you didn’t kill them, then why go through all the trouble of appearing to kill them? Why did you even spare them, in the first place? I thought you had to kill them.”

“Now I couldn’t have you all going about knowing where the Third Phoneme was now, could I?” Zack answers offhandedly, “Besides, I couldn’t bring m’self to kill that kid.”

“And why not?” Ivy asks, with a rather accusing tone in her voice.

“Kid reminded me of my little bro, s’all,” Zack replies. He indifferently stalks over to join Lord Kimura, Shuriken, and Iris, commenting as he passes, “Sorry ‘bout that, Mr. Kimura.”

“No matter,” Lord Kimura sneers as Zack joins him, “that doesn’t matter anymore.” Arayu hops down from the rooftop of the temple to join the group as Kimura speaks.

“We are complete,” Lord Kimura mutters softly, “the four Naraku…are assembled!”

“Wait a minute,” Bishop Calburn cries, forgotten amidst all the commotion, “th-this can’t be! The Myougun are the ones who are actually trying to steal the Phoneme?”

“Yes,” Sasha mutters in reply, briefly turning to face the bishop.

“What are you gonna do now, Lord Kimura?” Kunai snarls at him, “Steal the Third Phoneme? If you try, we won’t let you! I’ll kill you myself right here, right now, if I have to!”

A smirk appears on Lord Kimura’s face at Kunai’s threat. “My, my, patience, Kunai. You really must learn to have patience, such as I have patience for you.”

“‘Patience for me?’ What the hell are you talking about?” Kunai retorts.

“Lord Kimura,” Ryuu interrupts, “I want to know how we got here before you, if you supposedly left for this place weeks before we did.”

“The answer is simple,” Lord Kimura replies, “patience and nonchalance. I am in no rush to reach the Third Phoneme. Are you?”

“What…what kind of answer is that?” Ryuu growls back, slightly unnerved.

“My, you have to excuse yourself,” Lord Kimura replies, a sly smile on his lips, “you seem to be under the impression that everything I do concerns you. I must say, you are terribly wrong.”

“Then what were you doing?!” Kunai cries.

Lord Kimura’s eyes lazily flick over to the direction of some structure far behind the backs of the priests standing in front of the temple.

Following his gaze, everyone in the vicinity turns to their backs and gasps as one in surprise, for the only structure seen rising over the temple are the Gates of Hell.

“The Gates of Hell?” Sasha questions, her eyes narrowing, “What do you want with the gates?”

“Do you recall the gate hovering over Gamma Precinct in Maple World? Or perhaps the Door of Dimensions scattered across Victoria Island?” Lord Kimura returns with another question.

“Of course,” Ryuu answers, “they’re gates into the Rift and Night Worlds.”

“Correct,” Lord Kimura replies, “however, there is another thing you must know about the nature of the worlds. They are connected via gates in a constant cycle. Meaning, you cannot hop gates. For example, the Maple World is only connected directly to two worlds; Night and Rift. The fourth cannot be accessed from Maple. Knowing that, what do you suppose is the other gate that the Night World is connected to?”

“The Underworld,” Ryuu growls.

“Correct again,” Lord Kimura retorts, this time clapping without much celebration. “The Gates of Hell are those gates that lead into the Underworld. The Underworld, inversely, is the world in which souls without a body live. Plainly speaking, it is the world of the dead.”

The ghostly call of another train whistling off in the distance rings, strangely augmenting the ensuing silence after Lord Kimura’s speech.

“Yes,” Bishop Calburn interrupts, “we all know that! Almost anyone with a decent education in the Night World knows of that! You speak only of facts learned ages ago!”

“The trains that pass by this region of Night World,” Lord Kimura continues, deaf to Calburn’s accusations, “are trains that carry the souls to purgatory, where they will await entrance to the Underworld.”

“What?” Sasha gasps, stricken by surprise. “I had no idea…”

‘So Arai rode one of these trains, huh?’ Ryuu wonders, watching the distant lights of a passing train. ‘I thought it was weird that all the lights in the windows were on, but I couldn’t see the figure of a single person.’

“Yes, that is true,” Bishop Calburn says to the silence, “the trains that pass by here are all trains that carry the dead. Not one carries a living soul. The Gates of Hell are opened only to these trains. No other traffic is allowed to pass.”

“Until now, that is,” Lord Kimura replies, his voice strangely grave, rather than malicious.

“You’re gonna open it?” Ryuu cries, clutching the hilt of his sheathed sword.

“Do not be ridiculous,” Lord Kimura laughs, “that is the last thing I want. No, other enemies of yours, of mine, will presently come here to open it. Did you not find it strange that I myself appeared seemingly to just merely capture the Third Phoneme?”

“What are you talking about?” Bishop Calburn objects stubbornly, “No one can open the Gates of Hell save for the trains carrying dead souls, trains that were created by the Gods of Life and Death themselves!”

“You are incorrect old man,” Lord Kimura replies softly, “there are other such beings that can open the Gates of Hell. Do you know what dwells within the Underworld?”

“You can’t…you can’t be referring to—to…” Sasha stutters, unable to complete the sentence.

“Lilith, the name of the great beast that remains locked in the fiery bowels of the Underworld,” Lord Kimura finishes for Sasha.

“Lilith cannot open the Gates of Hell,” Bishop Calburn replies. “They were created in such a way that Lilith herself could not open them.”

“Your words do not lie,” Lord Kimura retorts. “While Lilith herself cannot open the Gates of Hell, her children and servants may. How do you suppose that Paradoxes run rampant in this world? I did not create the Paradoxes in the Night World. They are the children of Lilith.”

“The Paradoxes are incapable of opening the Night World,” Calburn returns, “while they possess the ability to, they have not enough human intellect to realize they can release their mother that way.”

“However,” Lord Kimura replies as his eyes glint a dangerous red, “there are three that roam your world that possess both the ability and intellect to.”

“The Soul Eaters!” Ayame gasps, coming to realization. “You mean to say that the Soul Eaters are coming to open the Gates of Hell?”

“And thus release their mother, Lilith of the Abyss,” Lord Kimura completes. “Yes, that is their purpose. I have come here to stop them, by sealing shut the Gates of Hell. However, the only power that may permanently seal those gates is the power of the Third Phoneme. Thus, we return to the subject of capturing her.”

Lord Kimura’s eyes stray over to rest on Lily, as she stands defiantly facing him, her axe still clutched in her bloody hands.

“We won’t let you take her!” Kunai shouts, coming between Kimura and his sister.

“Do you mean to say that you will allow the Soul Eaters to release Lilith?” Lord Kimura mutters in a threateningly cold whisper.

“We’ll…we’ll beat them too!” Kunai cries. “We’ll beat them as well as you, and that’ll be the end of it!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lord Kimura replies, “you do not have the strength to defeat all three Soul Eaters. You may have been able to thwart one of them once before, but that is no reason to believe you may defeat all three.”

“I’ll try anyway,” Kunai answers, “I won’t let you take Lily away! Knowing you, you’ll probably use her power to make things even worse than if the Soul Eaters were to release Lilith!”

“Very well,” Lord Kimura smirks, drawing his agonizingly glowing Blue Screamer, “are you prepared to fight for her?”

“Of course,” Kunai snarls back, drawing two Steelys. “I’ll beat you!”

At these words, Myou grows brightly red, and begins to glow with a dull gray light. A faint whistling escapes from it as well, in tune with Kunai’s rising anger. Lord Kimura’s eyes stray delicately over to the seal written on it. ‘I see. He still does not have control over it.’

“You do not stand a chance,” Lord Kimura says out loud to Kunai. He draws his sword, and cuts the air, apparently missing as Kunai sidesteps the attack.

“Ha! You missed!” Kunai celebrates, as he launches his drawn Steelys straight for Kimura.

“Not quite,” Lord Kimura answers. Suddenly, Kunai feels the long blade of a sword slice through his back, and watches as it slides cleanly through the front of his armor.

The impact throws Kunai onto his knees, as he turns and sees behind him a shadow copy of Lord Kimura, even as it withdraws its Blue Screamer from Kunai’s abdomen.

Meanwhile, the two Steelys pierce through Lord Kimura’s armor, which is nothing but a cloth shirt. The Steelys pry themselves into his skin, but without reaction, Lord Kimura merely pulls them out, and throws them to the floor.

An icy layer of rock hard ice falls to the floor, shattering as Kimura removes the Steelys from himself. “You are still no match for me, Kunai. And now you have sustained a fatal injury. You will die, Kunai. You will die unless you cling to life with the sole wish of killing me.”

“Kunai!” Ivy cries, rushing over to Kunai’s side. Kunai fails to reply, only able to gasp incoherently as streams of his own blood pours out in pints. A pool of thick, red blood has already formed around his knees.

Putting on a resolute face, Ivy determinedly drowns Kunai in a glowing, bright green light. “Don’t die, Kunai!” Ivy cries, throwing her face into Kunai’s shoulder as she does so. She clutches her Thorns in one trembling hand, maintaining a constant flow of green energy through it.

“Damn you!” Ryuu shouts, drawing his sword. In an instant it erupts into a flowing river of fire, ice, and lightning. In the dim light of the dark valley, Ryuu’s sword glows fiercely.

“Do not point your weapon at me,” Lord Kimura replies grimly.

Without warning, Lord Kimura throws himself at Ryuu, swinging his sword lightly. Ryuu parries the blow, countering it with his sword.

A victorious smirk appears on Ryuu’s face. “I’m afraid it’s gonna be a little more difficult to deal me a fatal blow, Lord Kimura. You’re gonna have to try better than that!”

“I’m afraid you misunderstand me,” Lord Kimura replies, causing Ryuu’s grip to grow a degree weaker, “I mean to say that they have arrived.”

“They?” Ryuu grunts, confused.

He glances up, and sees a deathly sight in the sky. Three malevolent, black figures circle high in the sky, flying overhead and screeching loudly the sound of death.

Next Time: Episode 29 The Return of the Soul Eaters

Ryuu: What is this, a party? Everyone’s arrived.

Ezekiel: I have brought the chips.

Ryuu: …

Lord Kimura: Let us boogie like when Grendel was still alive.

Ryuu: …

Zack: Can I have some dip?

Ryuu: …

Episode 29 The Return of the Soul Eaters
—
Don’t forget to vote! link