Chapter 40: Until We Meet Again, Nippon

  (Perspective of Ling Gu - Time Unknown)

  Time... a fragile concept that does not apply to me. In my mind, there is no noise, but a masterful symphony of information. The sounds of the universe resonate in my head; I hear what I want, when I want, and ignore what is worthless. I see the threads of fate before they are woven, and my ears that hear the crawling of ants alongside my eyes that pierce the horizon, told me with one voice: "Move." For the time has come for the god to ascend his throne.

  I was sitting, drinking sake on the balcony of my ship overlooking the storm. The fierce winds tearing at the sails would bow and fade as they approached my face, as if the storm itself was afraid to touch me. My giant ship, with its black iron, was moving steadily toward its inevitable doom, and I was steering it like one driving a hearse.

  The trembling voice of my servant came from behind me, drowning amidst the roar of the waves: "Lord Gu... we are close to arriving. The storm... it has begun to calm!" He asked fearfully: "What now, my lord?" I answered without turning around, my voice piercing the thunder with absolute clarity: "We wait." "???"

  One of the sailors shouted, pointing to the gray horizon: "Look! That is Nippon! It is... it is as massive as a continent!" Then another screamed, terror filling his throat: "My lord! There is... a man on the shore... looking at us."

  Step by step. I walked with royal slowness to the edge of the ship. I know who is waiting for us before I even look. I know the number of his breaths, and the type of metal in his sword. I stood at the edge, and looked down. There he was. A Samurai standing like a statue of ancient bronze, motionless, his aura piercing the fog. I know, before his foot even touches the water, what he will say.

  He touched the water. He stood on the surface of the raging ocean. And he spoke in words not of human languages, but in an ancient tongue, sounding like the grinding of fire deep within the earth.

  Zzzzzzzzzzzzooom.

  The ocean trembled beneath my feet. The giant ship swayed like a child's toy. And once again, I know what awaits me beneath my feet.

  Then... the sea moved. The water itself took shape, gathered, and rose. From around the ships, and from the abyssal depths, it ascended toward the sky. A living entity of dark blue scales, and eyes like two suns burning underwater. (Ryujin). The ruler of the endless ocean.

  The Samurai stepped onto the dragon's head calmly, as if climbing a step on a staircase. He drew his sword. Then he shouted again in that commanding language. The dragon's mouth opened. And it unleashed liquid fire, a beam of pure energy the color of lapis lazuli, incinerating water before wood. The beam shot forward. The fire arrived. I saw the escort ships vaporize in an instant. I saw my men and swords turn into silver ash scattering in the air before they could even scream.

  Then... it reached me. I did not move. I did not defend myself. I opened my arms to embrace it. The ship exploded beneath me. Wood and iron flew through the air, and I fell into the ocean. The cold water and heavy blue darkness surrounded me. The immense pressure crushed my body, but I did not resist. And once again... I know what awaits me beneath this blue. I know that this drowning is not death. It is rather the shortcut... to my true throne at the bottom.

  (Perspective of the Ugly)

  I ran. I ran and ran, stumbling in the flowers, my small feet unable to carry me fast enough. I want to escape from this monster. But... the Ryu was like a demon.

  The air suddenly vanished. A steel hand clamped around the back of my neck. He lifted me into the air like a broken doll.

  "It hurts... it hurts!" I cannot breathe. My chest aches from his previous strike, my heart burns like an ember, and his fingers tighten on my life, slowly squeezing my soul. Blackness began to creep into the edges of my vision. "No... I don't want to die."

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  He said in a cold voice, echoing in my skull: "It seems no matter how many times I kill you... you will return? The curse of ugliness does not die easily." "How shall we solve this problem, I wonder?"

  I started crying. My hot tears falling onto his cold hand. I moved my blue lips, wanting him to understand that he was hurting me. I placed my small hands over his massive one, trying to pry it away. "Please... understand... I am in pain... please." "Please..."

  Finally, it seems he understood, or was disgusted by me. He let me go. I fell to the ground, coughing and panting, drawing air into my burning lungs with painful gasps. I looked at him. Those eyes... the eyes of a Ryu that know no fear, looking at me with contempt as if I were an insect. I realized the terrifying truth: I cannot escape. There is nowhere anyone can hide from a Ryu.

  "Am I going to die? No... dying hurts. I don't want to be in pain." I crawled toward him, kneeled, and pressed my beautiful forehead against the dirt stained with my blood: "I will never appear before you again! I swear to you!" "I am sorry... I am sorry..." "It hurts... I am in pain... please." "I am sorry."

  He looked down at me from above, like a god looking at a freak: "How ugly you are... you Oni." "Despite your beautiful face... you are the ugliest thing my eyes have ever seen." "How I wish to never see you appear before me again."

  Then he smiled a terrifying smile: "But... I have a solution to this problem. A solution you will love." He grabbed me by the neck again. "No! No! Not again! It hurts! It hurts!"

  Suddenly. The air changed. It was no longer normal air. It became heavier, as if I were breathing ground-up dust. Breathing became exponentially harder. And the place... was cold. So cold that my blood froze in my veins in a single second. I opened my eyes.

  We were no longer in the flower field. I was on the highest peak in Nippon. Above the clouds. Blue snow covered everything. And there... slept a mountain of living ice. (Kura-Okami). The Blue Dragon, ruler of the snows. The dragon opened its lazy eye; its pupil was the size of a sea, as blue as the depths of a frozen ocean. It looked at Morito, focused its gaze on him for a moment, then exhaled an icy mist and decided to resume its sleep, completely ignoring our presence.

  I looked around, shivering violently. There were dilapidated, rotting wooden houses, covered in a thick layer of ice. As if people used to live here in this frozen hell and had frozen to death. The place reeked of rot and bygone centuries.

  Morito dropped me on the snow, and said: "Follow me. And if you try to escape, I will make you taste something worse than death." I said in a trembling voice, my teeth chattering madly: "Yes."

  I started walking behind him. Breathing was heavy. I felt like I was dying here. With every step I took, I felt needles of ice piercing my bare feet. The blood that was on my chest had frozen, becoming a hard, painful crust. The pain worsened; the cold made every wound scream.

  We walked amidst the deadly silence, until we reached one of the houses. Morito opened the frozen door. Creeeeak. And we entered. The house was empty. No furniture, no carpets, nothing. Only emptiness. And the smell of old, dead wood. As if someone had decided to remove every trace of life from here.

  We reached the center of the room. Morito kicked aside a loose wooden plank from the floorboards. A dark hole appeared. A stone staircase leading down. He grabbed me by the arm, and we jumped down.

  We landed in pitch blackness. When we reached the bottom... The first thing my eyes (which can see in the dark like an Oni) saw was a single stone in the middle of the empty room. A flat, ancient stone, with circles and symbols carved into it with terrifying precision. Other than that... nothing. Just cold stone, and emptiness, like the house above us.

  Morito pointed to the stone: "Step onto the stone." "What?" He looked at me, glaring with eyes that gleamed in the dark: "Do you want me to repeat myself?" "No!" I jumped quickly, terrified, onto the stone. I stood in its center, hugging myself from the cold.

  The moment I jumped on it... Morito brought his hands together in a strange stance. And he spoke some words in a strange language, a language that sounded like ice cracking on a winter night.

  Wooooom.

  A pale blue light appeared from beneath me. The symbols began to glow. I felt my body becoming light, as if it were breaking down into data. I looked at Morito for the last time. He was looking at me with a strange look. Not hatred, but... like closing a file. And he said in a calm voice: "I hope I never see you again... Dream."

  I froze. Not from the cold this time. "Dream"? Did he know? Did he know my real name from the very beginning?

  Before I could scream, before I could ask... The light pulled me away. Morito vanished. The room vanished. The cold vanished. Then I vanished... just as I had come to Nippon.

  Until we meet again... Nippon, island of eternal spring.