Chapter Forty-Nine: Labyrinth:
Panting.
Circles.
Nobu gritted his
teeth as he looked around. He could hear her voice.
“Where are
you?!” the old man shouted. “Come out and show yourself!” Nobu saw a flash out
white out of the corner of his eye. He turned at sound of giggling. He thrusted
out his knife. Nothing but thin air. The former professor clicked his tongue. A
warm pressure formed on his head.
“My, my, my,”
the Mother said. “Look at you. What happened, my son?”
“Shut up,
whore!” Nobu shouted. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” He thrust his knife
forward in the darkness.
“Why?” she
asked. Her puppet growled.
“You did this!”
Nobu shouted. “You killed my family!”
“Only your
doormat wife,” the Mother said.
“Murderer!” he
shouted. Her laughter ripped through the darkness.
“You’re one to
talk,” the Mother said. “How people have you killed? Hundreds? Thousands?”
“We had no
choice!” His voice ripped through the air. Warm fluid flooded at his feet. Nobu
slowly looked down. His frail body broke into trembling. Screaming jumped up to
his ears. The former professor stumbled backwards.
“Why so afraid?”
the Mother asked. “This was your handy work. Don’t turn away from it. You did
this!”
The screaming
grew louder.
“Why did you
kill me?”
“Please spare my
life!”
“Stop!”
“No, I don’t
want to die!”
“Please don’t
kill me!”
“Stop it, it
hurts!”
Nobu trembled as
he shook his head. “It’s not my fault! I had no choice! I had no choice!” The
Mother scanned Nobu’s back with her eyes. Where was it? Haruka drained most of
his power already. The weak chain couldn’t be that hard to find now.
Where are you?
“I can’t let you
have it,” a voice said. The Mother froze.
“Hm?” she asked.
She looked and saw a pair of golden eyes staring back at her.
“Ah,” she said,
smirking. “I was wondering when you show up.” Nobu’s kitsune leapt out of the
shadowed veil. The Mother pushed back her hair.
“It’s pointless
to hang onto him like this,” she said. “He’s as good as dead now, sweetheart.”
“I know,” Yayoi
said.
“So why do you
stay?”
“I don’t know. I
don’t have anything else.”
“Then let go
already. What’s the point if you have nothing else?”
“The clan’s
still alive.”
“But that will
be dead too.”
“I know.”
“So… why?” The
air began to ripple at her back. The Mother clenched her teeth.
I don’t have much time.
Looks like she
would have to get violent.
“You leave me no
choice, my son,” the Mother said. She reached behind her back and drew out a
fuda. Tsuzuki’s words for the spell echoed in her head.
Only one chance to get it right, she thought.
Yayoi raised his
eyebrow. His six tails stood on end. The Mother softly chanted the spell.
In a flash, she disappeared. Yayoi felt like everything was moving in
slow motion around him. He only had a half-second to look into the Mother’s
amber eyes.
“Farewell,” she
mouthed. She pressed the fuda against Yayoi’s forehead. The other kitsune didn’t
get time to scream. His body exploded into black dust. The Mother didn’t blink
as Nobu fell backwards with his eyes open. She placed her hand under his nose
and mouth.
“That’s done,”
the kitsune said. Airi closed her eyes.
“Okay, I’m
done,” she said. “Take me up now.” The Mother disappeared as if she was a doll
snatched up from a toybox.
----------
Tsuzuki leaned
against the torii, panting. His wife sat on the ground with her back to her
beloved shinigami.
“Is it over?”
Tsuzuki asked.
“Yes,” Anna said. “For now.” Inches away lay Nobu’s body covered in black ash.