Her face swam before me, smiling, cheerful, hopeful in the face of everything. I’m sorry, I thought, as my vision went blurry and something hot slid down my cheek. It was getting hard to breathe, and blackness crawled along the edge of my vision. No time left. This would be my final act. Forgive me, Yumeko. I wanted to protect you. I wanted to save you and everything you cared for. I’m so sorry. I won’t...see the end with you, but... I will give you this one last thing.
“What say you, Hakaimono?” It was no longer Seigetsu’s voice whispering in my ear, but Yumeko’s. “The fight is done. Just close your eyes and let go. Listen to my voice, the voice of your kitsune, as you drift off into oblivion.”
I raised Kamigoroshi, flipped the blade around, and drove it into my chest, sinking it to the hilt. Behind me, Seigetsu jerked, letting out a startled, strangled gasp, and the world seemed to slow.
Something gripped my shoulder, fingers digging into my skin. I could feel the sword through my body like a strip of light, but I was beyond pain now. Images flickered through my consciousness, thoughts and feelings that weren’t mine. Memories that I had never made. A world that was younger, where kami and yokai roamed freely and without fear. A world free of war and hate, where everything knew its place and was content. Until the rise of the humans, with their armies and weapons and consuming appetites that were never sated. I saw image after image of destruction, forests burning, cities in flames, fields of bodies and blood and death. The memory of a woman, tall and beautiful, with long black hair and eyes the color of jade. A pair of children scampered around her, laughing. Only the images flickered like the beats of a moth wing, and sometimes the two boys were fox kits and the woman was a kitsune with bright green eyes. Another flash, and I saw a human with a pair of dogs at his feet lift a dead fox up by the tail, smiling grimly. Horror, grief, a burning all-consuming rage, and then nothing.
I blinked. The world around me blurred, then came into focus. I still held Kamigoroshi’s hilt to my chest, and could feel warmth spreading across my back, soaking through my haori. The weight behind me staggered, long fingers still digging into my shoulder, and a shudder went through us both.
“Damn you, Hakaimono.” The choked whisper rasped in my ear. “Is nothing sacred to you? Those memories weren’t for anyone else.”
I yanked the blade free, drawing it from us both in a spray of blood, and Seigetsu gasped. Numb, I half turned, watching the Ninetail stagger back, clutching his chest. Blood soaked the front of his white haori, staining his sleeves, his hair, even his multiple tails. Though the fire dancing on the ends had gone out, and the glow surrounding him had faded.
Something glimmered through the blood on his fingers, shining briefly like a firefly. Lowering his hand, the Ninetail stared down at the pearl in his bloody palm, watching the light flicker and die, and smiled in weary resignation.
“Congratulations, Hakaimono,” he murmured, as if we had just finished a long game of shogi. “Well played. It appears...the game is yours.”
Stiffly, he walked a few paces away, then lowered himself to sit against a boulder, as if he was just taking a break. Blood ran from one corner of his mouth, and he gave a shaky sigh, tilting his head back.
“How unkind destiny is,” he whispered, gazing up at the clouds. “A thousand years of planning, of calculating, of playing the game with no mistakes, to have my dream ruined by a demon and a girl.”
His hand dropped to his lap, the Dragon jewel glinting dully in his palm, as the Ninetail who would become a god lost his hold on immortality and didn’t move again.
Stumbling back a step, Kamigoroshi dropping limply from my hand, I swayed on my feet, then collapsed into the real Yumeko’s arms.
28
The Plane of Jigoku
Yumeko
“Tatsumi!”
I sank to my knees, cradling his head in my arms. He was drenched in blood; it soaked the front of his