Ushio & Tora Fan Fiction ❯ The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch ❯ Chapter 2

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Ushio & Tora: The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch

Chapter 2 of 5

Ushio awoke (amazed that he was waking at all) on the edge of the
shore, legs still half in the water. His head was resting on something
painful; it took Ushio a moment or two to realize that the `something
painful' was the large lump on the back of his skull. Staring dizzily
at the sky, he wondered if his brains were leaking out.... Somehow
that didn't seem to be really important, not nearly as important as
not moving so that the rest of his aches and pains wouldn't quite
catch up. Oh damn... too late. He groaned; it came out as a growl.
Somewhat surprised, he raised a muddy hand to explore his teeth; still
sharp-? Was he still holding the Spear? Maybe his brains *had* leaked
out; testing, testing, this is Ushio trying to think..... Well, that
seemed to work. He sat up groggily in the weeds and sedge, pushing a
tangle of black hair and mud from his eyes, and cradled his throbbing
head in his hands. The Spear lay next to him: not touching him, not at
all..... Despite the recent battle, his enemy's escape, and his own
rather surprising survival, the fact that he was still sharp-toothed,
long-haired and slit-eyed seemed to be the most important thing in
Ushio's world right now. Better think about it later, though-that
bitch of a river-monster might still be around. Wincing with the pain
of his lacerated legs, he staggered to his feet and looked wildly
about: nothing, just the river and the shoreline and the large,
silver-eyed bakemono crouched among the bushes to his left......

"Tora? Where'd it go? Where'd she go?" Ushio wheeled towards his
partner and almost lost his balance, leaning against a boulder and
panting. "Did you stop her?" Shakily he reached down to pick the
Kemono No Yari up from the mud.

The bakemono growled long, low and frustrated, and snapped "IDIOT. I
could barely keep her from drowning *you*. Should I have gone chasing
her instead?" He licked at a gash along the side of one wet forearm,
then shook water from his mane and sprayed it in a wide arc over the
clearing; Tora hated getting wet. Still growling, he stared off across
the water. "Stupid Brat. Since when do you go hunting on your own?
Getting jealous of my kills?" He hated to be left out of a fight even
more. "I could've had that foreigner's throat in my teeth without even
getting wet, instead of bleeding all over the place!" He padded down
to the shoreline to sniff at the mud, placing his claws fastidiously
to avoid the damp. Ushio slumped down onto the boulder and examined
his injuries; though deep, the marks weren't bleeding excessively and
would heal with their usual rapidity. The worst wound was to his
pride-he had fought much more terrible creatures than this one;
dammit, to get his ass kicked by a slimy river-hag! "Goddam bitch" he
muttered in frustration and looked up to meet Tora's eyes. The
bakemono was staring at him with his teeth slightly bared and a wary
look on his striped face. "...... What's the problem?" Ushio snarled,
shifting his weight from a bruise on his backside. In answer the
monster reached out and yanked a soggy lock of his long black hair
painfully. Swearing, the Spearbearer jerked away; he pushed his hair
once more out of his face and bared his teeth unthinkingly at the
bakemono beside him, who only growled and bared *much* larger teeth in
response. Startled, he sat back; what was he doing? He raised a hand
again and ran it across his face.

"Change" hissed Tora. "We're not fighting now; don't show your fangs
to ME, little hunter-mine are sharper. Now *change!*" Ushio blinked at
the monster-what the fuck was his problem?!? For that matter, why
HADN'T he changed back? Tora was right; the battle had ended, the need
for the Spear was over. Frowning, he closed his eyes. The change back
was more of a release, slipping from the grip of the Spear like
relaxing a muscle. It had always happened on its own; why was it
taking an effort this time? Ahhhh, there: he felt the moment of
absolute stillness coming on, when the Shape and the rush of
adrenaline that came with it dropped away like a shadow, like a
garment falling to the ground. It hurt, a little; it always did.....
and this time it hurt more than usual; an edged, hollow pain that made
Ushio clutch at his chest and draw in a hiss of breath. What the hell
was this shit? But after a moment the pain lessened, and he shakily
ran a muddy hand across his shortened hair. Whew. Breathing hard, he
looked up at Tora. "Something's wrong-the Spear didn't want to let me
go this time...." He heard Tora mutter something to himself in a
rumbling growl. "C'mon, Tora-you know something about this, I can
tell. What the HELL is happening to me?!?" The bakemono shook himself
like a great cat; Ushio couldn't tell if it was in denial or simply
discomfort. Lightning crackled briefly from his white forelock, a sure
sign of his agitation. When Tora spoke there was a rough bitterness in
his words that Ushio had never heard before. "Shit... You *belong* to
the Kemono No Yari, and you're SURPRISED, Brat? Doesn't that bastard
Spear tell you things? This is what HAPPENS to Spearbearers!" and the
monster simply leaped upwards and away, streaking off across the sky
like an orange bolt of lightning.

Stunned, Ushio watched him go, and wondered just what Tora was running
away from.

Soggy and aching, he looked around the clearing one last time and then
began the walk home with the Spear across one shoulder. With any luck,
it was still early enough that he wouldn't be picked up by the police
as a gang member or transient. As a weary Ushio trudged up the path to
the escarpment, a single unseen eye watched him from the river weeds
hatefully and vowed bloody revenge.

*************

The temple boy sat on a stone ledge beside the temple gate and
brooded, the Kemono No Yari leaning against the wall beside him.
Wounds bandaged, Ushio was ready to go hunting the slimy thing that
had so damaged his pride (as well as his hide) earlier, but first.....
he needed Tora. The bakemono had not put in an appearance since the
riverside fight, and the temple boy could feel a prickling itch of
guilt-the monster had saved his life, surely, and he hadn't said a
word of thanks. Besides....... he liked the look of puzzlement that
wrinkled Tora's face every time his partner said anything nice to
him....... The bakemono loved praise, but still hadn't quite figured
out how to handle it (kindness was not exactly something that he had
much experience of, after all).

As a warm afternoon breeze flickered through the almond trees beside
the gate, Ushio considered: How could he ask Tora about his problem
with the Spear? And there were the dreams, too. He wasn't quite ready
to deal with those yet. The river-hag, the Spear, and the dreams---
that was enough for anybody's plate. Way too much for him, anyway.....
Wasn't this supposed to be summer vacation? Hell, yeah; he should've
been out doing something fun, or goofing off, or damn near *anything*
besides getting the shit beaten out of him by some water-oni. He
watched the shadows shifting on the ground before him; swallows
swooped past like little feathered comets, chasing the gentle
afternoon breeze across the rooftops. Another shadow caught his
attention: something large, just above him in the nearest almond tree.
Good-- he knew *that* silhouette, even if the shape that the shadow
belonged to was invisible. "Tora" he said reluctantly; "Ummmm-- Thanks
for the help with that water-thing earlier. How'd you know I needed
it?"

He heard a raspy chuckle above him. "Followed you" said the bakemono
in a self-satisfied voice, pleased at having pried thanks from his
partner. "You always go down by the river when you want to think, and
I've smelled bakemonotachi there. Besides..... I watch you sometimes."
Ushio craned his head back to look up into the leaves above him; the
monster was draped across a branch like a huge, carnivorous Cheshire
Cat. Tora smirked down at the look on his face as the temple boy
stared up; "You.... *watch* me? Why?" In reply his partner only
shrugged. "Why not? You've got the Spear. I like knowing where it
is....." and he looked slantwise down at the Kemono No Yari with his
silver eyes. Ushio frowned; it irritated him to know that Tora had
been near him without his knowing. Tora was watching him now, the
great striped face patterned with leaf-shadow and flickers of
sunlight. He looked almost peaceful, sprawled across the branch for
all the world like an oversized housecat; his tail twitched gently,
fur riffling across his back in the slight wind. Now seemed like a
good time to ask the bakemono about the Spear......

"Uh, Tora. What you said earlier about what happens to
Spearbearers...... What'd you mean?" He waited for the expected
explosion.

It did not come. "That's what happens" said the bakemono
matter-of-factly. "The Spear takes you for good. It happens a little
at a time at first, then forever. That bastard Samurai was taken so."
He growled a bit and flexed his claws at the memory of his former foe
and Ushio's ancestor. "You didn't know? Stupid..... You belong to the
Spear now anyway; the more you use it, the sooner it happens. I've
been watching to see how long it would take-you lasted longer than the
Samurai did." The monster chuckled nastily.

Ushio sat very still.

Taken-for good? Did he mean `changed for good'? He did, didn't he?
Sharp-toothed, slit-eyed and long-haired..... He didn't mind it while
he fought; the tougher muscles and hide that went with that shape had
saved his life many times; but--- that way, ALWAYS?!? No way! Shit, no
way.....

Tora continued on. "I saw that you were getting close-- the Spear goes
with you now, everywhere, even without touching. That's how it begins.
I thought---" and he paused for a moment; "--- that you knew, and
that.... when it happened.... we would fight again." A little of the
bakemono's earlier bitterness crept back into his deep voice. "We
are--- not-enemies now." The ancient monster could never quite seem to
say `friends'. He hissed softly. "I have fought the Spearbearer before
and gotten the shit kicked out of me; I thought that would happen
again." Now he looked down at Ushio. The temple boy saw the faint
crackle of lightning around Tora's brow as he grew more agitated; was
the bakemono actually that upset? "I-- do not want to spend five
hundred years in the dark again." Now the lightning crackled more
brightly and the monster leaped down from the branch to land heavily
in front of the frozen boy. Tora snarled a little, shaking his mane
from his face. "I would kill you first, Brat. If I could." He began to
pace back and forth, his claws scoring the earth, lightning tracing
blue patterns around him in the shivering air. The afternoon breeze
now carried the scents of musk and ozone. "What will you do,
Ushio-Brat, when the Spear takes you forever?"

Ushio shot to his feet, breathing hard and holding the Kemono No Yari
crosswise before him. The peace of the afternoon was broken. He felt
the familiar beginning rush of the Change-- and, for the first time:
resisted it. The Spear fell with a clatter to the ground before him
and he faced the monster down empty-handed. "Tora! I don't want to
fight you, you idiot! Wait, wait..... You mean I'll stay - like I am
when I fight - all the time? Hell, I don't want that!" The bakemono
laughed harshly. "Who the fuck cares what you want?!? The SPEAR has
you! Did you think you could play with lightning without being
burned?" The air crackled and seethed around him; birds took flight in
fright. Ushio realized he was shaking, and he slumped back against the
wall behind him, eyes fixed on the weapon at his feet. Slowly he bent
down to pick it up-- it felt the same, felt no different........ So
why did it seem so heavy all of a sudden? He ran his fingers across
the shaft and along the edged spearhead, and a sudden pain made him
blink as a trickle of blood ran across his fingers from the resultant
cut. Blood on his hands-there was always blood on his hands, bakemono
blood..... He was a killer of monsters. Would being one make life any
different?

Blindly he pushed past Tora and ran out the temple gate, heading
anywhere, anywhere at all away from what he had heard. Behind him, a
warm wind blew through the empty yard where the monster had paced. The
birds settled back into the trees.

*************

At first, as the things that Tora had told him began to sink in, Ushio
paid little attention to where he was walking..... Or, for that
matter, the fact that he had taken the Kemono No Yari with him, after
all. But that seemed so natural by now......

The slanting afternoon sunlight brought him little peace, but the
sheer normalcy of the streets beyond the temple gate began to allow
his heart and nerves to settle down a little; he began to think again.
Panic wasn't going to help..... Ushio found that his steps had led
towards a small park that he had been visiting since childhood, a good
place to relax, and if there was anything he needed now....... But
there was to be no respite; as if in answer to his thoughts, he felt a
familiar weight settling not-quite-gently onto his shoulders as Tora's
enormous claws gripped. Oddly enough, the temple boy felt a certain
anxiety easing.... Without quite saying anything about it, the two
mismatched partners had always considered moments like this to be
automatic times of truce. Tora could have easily taken Ushio's head
off in a single bite, and Ushio could have nearly as easily impaled
the bakemono with the Spear-but somehow it just never became an
issue.... He acknowledged his passenger's presence with a sigh and a
silent adjustment of balance (fortunately, Tora only rested a fraction
of his weight on his shoulders) and continued on into the park.

It seemed a little quieter than usual. Only a few children ran and
screamed or splashed each other at the fountains, and the noise of the
vendors selling okinomiyaki and other items was more subdued than
seemed normal. Even Tora said nothing, resting quietly on his
shoulders like a great furred thundercloud; he shifted faintly as they
passed the takoyaki stall, and Ushio stopped to buy a double portion.
He had learned long ago that Tora considered half his food to belong
to the bakemono--- a substitute Ushio-snack, perhaps. His stomach
growled at the scent of the fried octopus, and he sat for a few
moments on a handy bench to eat his late lunch. An observant passer-by
might've possibly noticed that the fried food seemed to vanish rather
more quickly than one would have thought.....

Ushio could hear Tora crunching the last of the octopus-balls as he
licked his own fingers. The simple, prosaic act of eating lunch had
calmed him considerably, and he actually felt strangely grateful for
the monster's company (not that he would tell this to Tora, of
course). He glanced at his partner; the bakemono was watching the
children running past with much the same expression that a hungry man
might view a bowl of rice; it made Ushio a little nervous.... He
cleared his throat, and said softly "Tora. There's something else I
wanted to ask you about. Uhhhh.... I've been.... having some odd
dreams lately---- " and he heard Tora's rather rude snigger
("....that'll make you go blind, you know...."); "--- not like that,
you shithead!" He flushed; a bakemono was *not* the kind of companion
to share adolescent hormonal male dreams with! "I mean..... I keep
dreaming about..... Ahhhh, never mind. Let's just hunt." He just
couldn't do it. The dreams were too hard to talk about. Restlessly he
got to his feet and, Spear on his shoulder, trudged towards the nearby
riverbank. A few parkgoers gave the weapon rather dubious looks, but
at the sight of Ushio's set, grim young face, found other things to do
than bother him. As he walked, the grass beside him shifted under the
weight of something large and unseen that smelled vaguely of takoyaki.

Ushio kicked at a scrap of paper on the pavement before him; some kind
of "lost child" notice..... There seemed to be a lot more of them
around than usual, didn't there? Maybe that was why the park seemed so
much quieter today. He glanced about: there on that wall, there was
another one; and there, on that lamp-post, two of them.... And back
behind him, on a vendor's stall, *four* notices.... He stopped for a
moment. Huh. The missing children were all recent losses, and all from
the river region. Frowning, he glanced at Tora. The bakemono looked
restless and ill-at-ease, watching the water with the tips of his
teeth just showing; he licked a last crumb of takoyaki away from his
whiskers and moved quietly along the escarpment and away from the
park. Ushio gripped the Spear more tightly and followed, and the two
began doing what had come naturally: hunting.

*************

Tora sniffed at the sedge along the river and then lifted his head to
catch the scents on the warm afternoon breeze; he wrinkled his striped
face and growled softly. "Jin-ni Griin-tiith" he said aloud, forming
the foreign words with some difficulty. "What?" said his preoccupied
partner. "Jenny What?" Ushio nervously parted the weeds at the edge of
the shore with the Spear's point. "That's that slimy thing we're
hunting, stupid.... She's a yokai from the Green Isle and a
child-eater; I wonder why? Maybe she just likes tender meat.... She
likes to drown them first, and then she crunches them right up." The
monster sighed wistfully, possibly at the memory of past tasty meals.
A bit sickened, Ushio smacked him lightly upside the head with the
Spear. "Pay attention, bakemono. She's been eating those missing
children, then...." The temple boy had spent his early life playing
along the riverbank; it was all too easy to imagine being yanked in
and........ Urrrgh.

He shivered. "So why'd she grab me, then? I'm not a kid" he said, with
all of a seventeen-year-old's hauteur. The monster snickered. "Who
cares? Maybe you looked good. Maybe you were just convenient, sitting
on that rock all alone..... Easy to snatch up and crunch." The
bakemono smiled to himself, a terrible smile with sharp teeth in it.
Hunting always brought out old memories of his man-eating days; Ushio
wondered just *how* much he missed them.

"Tora..." he said experimentally; "Ummm, about those dreams I've been
having---" and he hesitated again. "In them, I keep seeing this
bakemono with black fur.... And sometimes, I---"; he stopped again.

".... And sometimes *you* are the bakemono, hmmmmmm?" said the monster
softly.

Whoa. Full stop. He wavered to a halt knee-deep in riverweeds. "What
the--- ? How the hell did you know *that*? Does this---- have anything
to do with what you told me about the Spear?" He had been shying off
from thinking too hard about the subject, and it didn't look like he
could actually DO anything about it, anyway.....

The bakemono sighed, deep and rumbling; he glanced back over one
shoulder, and Ushio could have sworn that he looked almost
embarrassed. THAT was new. When Tora spoke, it was in an unusually
quiet tone.

"I dream, sometimes..... Your dreams are too loud, Brat, and I dream
them too. Or maybe you dream my dreams. I... don't know. Sometimes a
bakemono's dreams are of things to come--- we do that, so to live.....
I dreamed of a bakemono like myself, but with your scars." He bent his
head to sniff at a clump of brush and driftwood; his eyes would not
meet Ushio's.

"'..... That'll be white....'" said the temple boy, softly,
remembering. He lifted his free hand to trace the ridge of scar on his
forehead and shivered. "But I'm NOT a bakemono, Tora. Even--- if what
you told me about the Spear--- happens, that won't make me----"

The monster cut him off with a curt gesture. "I know, I know, I know!
Making a human into a bakemono is a difficult thing. You need death,
lightning and blood.... Power, too. They were just dreams. Who can say
what to make of dreams?!? I HATE them!" Ushio frowned, curious; "So
how come you hate them? Most humans like to dream." He pushed through
the weeds and stooped to check out a faint track in the river-mud;
nothing, just a dog-print.

Tora growled: "I hate them because..... most of my dreams are bad."
And the ancient bakemono moved on ahead, slipping through the brush
like the ghost of a tiger.

*************

It was getting dark now. Several hours of fruitless hunting had
resulted in nothing more than one hungry, frustrated teenager and an
equally hungry, frustrated monster who had been taking his annoyance
out on the local vegetation. Several trees once green and alive were
now no more than smoking, lightning-scoured stumps. Ushio sat on his
favorite stone, once more back in the clearing where he had fought the
water-yokai. Ostensibly he was examining a soggy hole in his
tennishoe, but his senses were focused on his surroundings, combing
the clearing for sounds. Tora had slipped off to a perch in a
convenient tree; it had taken quite a bit of hard arguing by the
bakemono to persuade Ushio to act as bait, but there he was. Tora had
said approvingly that he looked "nice and young and tasty", which did
not help at *all*......

So far there had been nothing save the occasional fish-splash, the
chirra-chirra of insects in the bushes, and the brief, squeaking
scream of an unfortunate rabbit that had ventured too close to Tora's
tree. Bored, Ushio sighed and drew a design in the dirt before him
with the toe of his shoe. He added a few dots and squiggles with the
butt of the Spear, and finally gave in: he knew what he was doing. He
was trying (with little success) to Avoid Thinking About Things.
Things like being permanently bonded with the Kemono No Yari; or maybe
things like dreams, especially ones shared with monsters. He could,
with some difficulty, handle imagining life as a long-haired,
sharp-fanged, slit-pupiled almost-bakemono..... But that was about it.
The dreams didn't even bear thinking of. But as for the other--- the
obvious answer was to lay down the Spear forever.

And he couldn't do it. He knew he couldn't.

It wasn't that Tora might finally decide to make an Ushio-entrée out
of his `nice and young and tasty' body-it wasn't the excitement
(though, he had to admit, there was something.... essential.... in
that, something that his spirit thrived on). It was just--- the Spear
WAS part of him now. Life without the hunt, the victory..... the
kill.... Was unthinkable. Unlivable. He was Aotsuki Ushio the Bearer
of the Beast Spear, and that was that.

That he killed living creatures and it bothered him so little was
disturbing; shouldn't he feel more regret? Or even grief, that things
died at his hand? Sometimes, lying in bed at night and aching from his
wounds, he wondered what kind of darkness he had marked his soul with
by having become a killer so young. He might be only seventeen, but he
wasn't stupid. *We're always taught that killing is wrong* thought
Ushio sadly, *and then we have to go and do it anyway.*

He looked down at the ground again and drew another line with the butt
of the Spear. He and Tora had become so very good at what they did;
when he had asked Tora why the monster was willing to hunt beside the
Spearbearer, the bakemono had looked at him like he was brain-damaged
and had said simply "Territory." Youkai and oni were territorial,
Ushio knew that. More exotic creatures like Tora seemed to be less so,
perhaps because they seldom felt like settling down in one place,
unless they took a mate...... But Tora had a place, a `territory' now.
Who could say? Perhaps he felt that he had *earned* it with five
hundred years of pain in the dark. But, oh, God forbid that he ever
should decide to take a MATE-----

The very thought of little `Toras' running around, eating the
neighbors and (eventually) himself gave Ushio severe heartburn.
Hurriedly he turned his thoughts to something else.... the quiet water
lapping at the shore, the sleepy chirping of birds settling down for
the night, the sweep of clouds above him. Faint thunder muttered a
little distance away and the first camera-flash of sheet lightning
glittered off of the wet rivergrass. Rain coming. He stretched his
stiff back-it had been a very long day, and his eyes closed for a
moment against another lightning-flash as his shoulders began to
relax......

A quiet splash a little down the shoreline brought his attention back
with a jerk: What was that? Eyes still closed, he strained to identify
what he heard: the lapping of water, the slight rustling of weeds-
whatever was making the sounds was getting closer. He gripped the
Spear tightly: he was going to have to Change, and he knew it. This---
was probably the last time, too. *Goodbye, humanity* thought Ushio, as
a wave of terror and regret washed through him..... Goodbye to so many
things- to the life he was living, to school (how could he go back
like that?), to the friends who knew an Aotsuki Ushio who was just
another guy. Goodbye---

----- And then there was no more time for goodbyes, as green-skinned
one-eyed death erupted from the dark river before him and leaped with
a roar, claws extended for his throat!! Water splashed in all
directions as Ushio brought the Spear around two-handed to block the
leap, already feeling the rush of the Change coming on, like the slow
advance of anesthesia but immeasurably swifter:

***cold sweep of fire dancing through his veins and burning gladly, oh
at last! from crown to sole/knife-edged golden honing of tooth and
muscle/night-eyed clarity of vision sharp as a slice of the moon/and
fitting close as skin the aspect and attributes of the Spearbearer
wrapping round, never letting go, never, ever..... ***

......and it was over now, over forever maybe. He could hear Tora's
roar of fury ("BAKEYARO!!! My river, MY place!!!
HRRRRAAAAAHHHHRRRR!!!") and his own anger ignited: Bitch, child-eating
monster!! Ushio screamed his own battlecry into the face of the slimy
water-hag that was now scrabbling for a hold past the haft of the
Spear; she shrieked in return and got a clawed hand past his defenses,
raking it across his cheek. With a shout of pain, the Spearbearer
wheeled in place and shoved the creature hard! towards Tora, who was
rushing through the air like doom personified. With outstretched claws
and open jaws, the bakemono closed in--- the water-hag ducked,
throwing herself backwards into Ushio with a splatter of slimy hair
and cold, cold skin. Swearing, he lost his balance and, falling, raked
the Spear's point upwards and across the naked back before him. The
thing screamed again as greenish ichor bloomed across the wound;
faster than a striking snake it spun about to rake painful claws down
the length of Ushio's forearm, trading blood for blood. Two things
struck the Spearbearer then: first, that while the hag was slower on
land than in the water, she wasn't *that* much slower; and second,
Tora and the hag-creature both as the bakemono plowed into her from
behind!! With a profound SPLASH!! the three struggling beings struck
far out into the dark waters--- and Ushio found himself in a very bad
position......

Blackness, wet and cold, closed in on his vision; only another who has
fallen into deep water at night can know how black..... Silver froth
bubbled past, faint even to his vision; hot pain from his chest told
him that the creature had landed at least one blow there! A momentary
flash of clarity as he fought his way to the surface showed him Tora,
leaping impossibly from one splashing surface to another in defiance
of gravity as he slashed downwards..... Darkness closed over Ushio's
head again as he was yanked downwards in a floating tangle of Spear
and swirling hair--- he jabbed at a green flash of skin, only to be
rewarded with another knife-edge of pain across his heart as the
creature grabbed him with both hands.... *Shit, nothing to brace
against--- I can't fight like this!* he thought, desperate for air; as
if in answer, he felt himself torn from her grip by one of Tora's huge
hands and ripped upwards to the surface to be flung into the air!
Brief flight and confusion, THUD!!, and a blackness again, this time
of pain, pain.......

....... and then he was aware again, conscious of his momentary
unconsciousness; aware, and fighting to breath...... *Breathe,
breathe,* he thought fiercely, choking; *what's wrong, what did she do
to me, WHY can't I BREATHE?!?* Hot rivers of pain across his chest
told his panicked mind part of the problem: the water-hag had hung on
with claws embedded deeply, far too deeply when Tora had jerked him
back. *God, no, it hurts--- I'm dying, I CAN'T BREATHE----*

Ushio coughed and choked on the fire that scorched his lungs; blood
filled his mouth with a taste of hot copper, and he thrashed against
the wet ground.... Tora was suddenly in his view, backlit against the
sky like a vision of Hell with silver eyes flashing cat-luminous
against his fierce face--- he seemed to be shouting something.....
Ushio could see his mouth moving, teeth flashing white, but against
the roaring in the Spearbearer's ears the words were lost. And
everything else was narrowing in--- the sky, the blowing clouds above
Tora, all of it beginning to fade into darkness, darkness.... In
horror, Ushio fought the loss of awareness, his mind howling *No, I
won't die, I WON'T DIE*, but even the pain was going now. He could
still see the bakemono-- he could swear that there was a look of...
anguish?... on his terrible, familiar face, as the monster threw back
his head to scream unheard words at the blackening sky above.
Lightning crackled all around them both, momentarily illuminating the
clearing...... Everything was greying out, getting distant now--- only
Tora, fire on his brow, seemed real.... Oh, GOD, he didn't want to die
yet-

.......He was only seventeen...... But it was so dark..... there was
only the lightning......

--- and then he saw Tora reach up with both bloody hands to claw the
lightning down from the sky in a single shattering bolt!! and then
bring one SHARP, wicked talon stabbing downwards like a sword--- *God,
NO Tora, I'm not dead yet, don't eat me YET, wait!!-----* to plunge,
crackling......

....... into the Spearbearer's heart........

*************

There are some pains too great for screams; the only mercy shown with
this one was that it was brief, and soon ended.

*************

Waking. He was awake. Eyes closed, Ushio lay where he was, afraid to
open those eyes...... afraid to see what lay before him. The pain was
gone, and that was good, he could breath now..... long, deep breaths,
tasting life in each one.

Life?

He had been DYING..... No doubt about that. And Tora had---- his mind
shied away from that moment (*Tora had been going to eat you at last,*
a little whisper said softly; *you were dying, after all...*), and he
tried hazily to remember what his father the priest had taught
him........ Uhhhhm. There was this guy, Enma-Dai, who would judge his
soul and decide where he was to go..... He felt numb. Ushio was aware,
distantly, that he should be terrified, horrified, he was DEAD---
wasn't he? But all he really felt was a profound relief that the pain
and loss of breath were gone. He didn't hurt anymore; in fact, he felt
good, actually kind of strange, but *really* good. Well..... That
should be proof enough that he had actually died--- as far as he could
tell, his chest had been torn open (*and Tora struck at me with bloody
claws and lightning....... Don't think about that, not yet, it hurt
too much*). No-one could live through that and just suddenly be OK,
not like this. Oh God..... Being numb was better than being afraid, he
thought; he could handle things if he just stayed numb.......

He wondered if Tora was still alive. He wondered if Tora had
really......... No. *Open your eyes, idiot; face this instead. It
hurts less.* And he opened his eyes.

Darkness, with rolling clouds above. Was he in Heaven? He felt
cheated; he had always wondered what Enma-Dai looked like...... He was
lying on his side with his head propped against something soft.

He shifted a little to lie on his back; where---? He could smell
water, green things, and something salty-sweet--- so many scents they
were overwhelming. THAT hadn't been in his dad's theology lessons-that
Heaven smelled strong?!? His hair was in his eyes, thick and black-and
long.... WHAT the hell? He was..... still in Spearbearer form? He
lifted a hand to brush his hair back---- and froze:

His hand was black-furred and clawed.

*************

End of Chapter 2 of 5