Page 60 of Night of the Dragon

“What will happen if it’s not closed?” I asked in a small voice. Knowing, dreading, that I already knew the answer. Tatsumi was quiet a moment before answering.

“The demons and spirits will continue to pour out,” he said slowly. “The island won’t be able to contain them. After they kill everything here, they’ll move on to the mainland of the empire. As long as that gate is open, not only will the demons keep emerging, Jigoku’s taint will corrupt this entire land. The kami will die, living things will become twisted and the humans that aren’t killed will turn into demons themselves. Eventually, Ningen-kai will become another Jigoku, and O-Hakumon will likely rule them both.”

“No, Hakaimono. That is incorrect.”

A blast of frigid wind tugged at my sleeves and hair, as the voice echoed all around us, tangled with the storm itself. A cold, familiar voice that chilled my blood and made all the hairs on my arms stand up.

“If O-Hakumon tries to rule this realm,”the voice continued,“he will find that it has already been claimed. This is my empire now. I will purge this land of human strife and weakness, and all will bow before their new god!”

An enormous streak of blue-white lightning descended from the clouds, smashing into the top of the mountain overhead. I gasped, and Tatsumi pulled me close again, hunching his body over mine, as the ground shook and stones fell all around us. When the rumbles ceased, I blinked dust from my eyes and looked up, and my heart froze in terror.

Something massive sat atop the mountain, shining against the night with an eerie glow all around it. An enormous fox, a thousand times larger than a normal kitsune, with pale fur and blazing yellow eyes. Nine huge, sweeping tails framed its lithe body, the ends tipped with crackling foxfire, swaying and writhing against the night.

“This world,”the Great Ninetail said, his voice echoing all around us,“is corrupted. Even before the gates of Jigoku opened, humankind infested the land that once belonged to us. I have seen nothing but war, greed, bloodshed, death. Time and time again, season after season. An endless cycle. Four thousand years ago, the Harbinger granted mortals the power to change their world, and what did they wish for? Immortality. Destruction. Vengeance.”The huge Ninetail raised his face to the sky.“No longer. There will be no more wishes, no more Dragon scroll, no more humans claiming the power of a god. I will be their Harbinger. Let the new age begin.”

“Seigetsu-sama!” I rose on trembling legs and took two steps toward the ancient kitsune, who didn’t turn his head or even twitch an ear in my direction. “Please,” I called, wondering if he would hear me, if the tiny, impassioned words of a mere fox would even register, “I’m begging you—close the gates of Jigoku. Don’t let everyone here die. Why would you want to rule a land overrun with demons?”

His muzzle lowered, and I was suddenly pinned in the terrible gaze of a god, who stared at me a moment before throwing back his head with a laugh. The terrible sound made the clouds swirl overhead and caused lightning to flicker all around us, as the Ninetail’s voice shivered through the storm.

“Even if I could,”he said at last, giving me a hard stare.“I would not. Do you think I am the Dragon, who will grant whatever you wish if called upon?”His lip curled, showing a flash of shining fangs.“Mortals brought this catastrophe upon themselves. Let them reap the consequences of their greed. I am a god—demons and the spawn of Jigoku are of no importance to me now. Except for one.”

His eyes shifted, the burning golden gaze landing on Tatsumi, who had leaped to his feet beside me. “It is time, Hakaimono,” he growled. “Time for you to return to the sword for eternity. I will not allow the Godslayer to claim one more life. If I must bury it in the deepest ocean or in the center of the earth, Kamigoroshi’s shadow will never darken this realm again!”

The Ninetail’s expression changed, becoming savage and terrifying. A lethal madness entered his eyes as his muzzle curled back from his fangs, and the inside of his mouth began to glow a brilliant blue-white.

A huge fireball shot toward us, streaking like a comet from the Ninetail’s jaws, searing the air and growing larger with every second. Tatsumi grabbed me and leaped off the ledge as the flaming sphere struck the ground behind us and exploded with a roar of kitsune-bi. We plummeted down the mountain, Tatsumi springing off ledges and jutting rocks, until we landed atop a lower cliff overlooking the valley. Around us, the land was flat and rocky, a large semicircle of open ground seemingly carved out of the mountain, with clusters of pine and bramble growing along the edge of the walls, forming a ring of shadows and vegetation. The center area seemed frighteningly open, not a lot of cover to fight an enormous, fire-breathing fox god. But if we hid in the shelter of the trees, would he just set the whole forest ablaze?

Tatsumi released me and drew Kamigoroshi, gazing up at the rising cliffs behind us. “Hide,” he told me, eyes narrowed to glowing slits. “Get out of sight, Yumeko. He’s coming.”

I glanced desperately around and spotted the nearest cluster of pine in the shadow of the mountain, the branches thick and cloaked in darkness. “I’m not leaving,” I told him, taking a step back. “I’m fighting, too. But...”

“I know.” Tatsumi nodded. “Work your fox magic. I’ll keep him distracted for as long as I can. Maybe it will be enough to fool a kitsune who thinks he’s a god.”

Fear knotted my insides, but I refused to think on it. “Be careful, Tatsumi,” I whispered.

I started to draw away, but Tatsumi pulled me close and kissed me, quick and fierce, making my senses stand straight up. “In case I meet Daisuke’s glorious death,” he murmured as we pulled back. And though he still wore a faint smile, his eyes were shadowed. Resigned. “Thank you, Yumeko. For everything.”

I swallowed the sob in my throat. “We’ll win this,” I whispered. “We have to beat him, Tatsumi. For Kiyomi-sama. For the Dragon, the kami and all our friends who brought us this far. This ends tonight.”

“One way or another,” Tatsumi agreed.

A chilling howl echoed over the storm, and dozens of lightning strands seared the sky, flickering over the valley. I broke from Tatsumi and sprinted toward the trees, darting behind a trunk as with a roar, an enormous ninetailed fox landed at the edge of the cliff and turned toward us, cold triumph in its golden eyes.

27

The Fox Who Would Be a God

TATSUMI

Idrew Kamigoroshi and faced the creature looming over me. A ninetailed fox, the most dangerous of yokai, imbued with the power of a god. Its tails writhed behind it, snapping with foxfire, and its yellow gaze was fixed on me as it took one terrifying step forward, jaws open to reveal a maw of shining fangs.

My blood surged, and I raised Kamigoroshi, backing away from the huge creature. I knew why it wanted me dead. The reason lay curled around the pit to Jigoku: the immortal Kami that had been slain. If Kamigoroshi could kill the Great Dragon, it could also slay a ninetail, even one who was immortal.

It had already killed one god tonight. I would just have to kill another.

The Ninetail didn’t bother with words. There was no mocking laughter or announcements that I was doomed. The kitsune’s open jaws released a blast of blistering foxfire that scorched the air as it surged toward me. I dodged the first wave, dove away from the second and ducked behind a rock as fire seared the boulder and caused the nearby trees to crumble to ash. I felt the intense heat in the rock behind me, saw tongues of blue flame curl around the edges of the boulder and gripped my sword as the Ninetail came forward, its steps making the earth tremble.

I felt a presence beside me and glanced back into the face of a second Tatsumi, who gave a grim smile and raised his weapon. For just a moment I was startled, until I realized Yumeko was working her magic. I nodded, and the false Tatsumi darted from cover, dodging the blast of fire that ignited the trees behind him.

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