Chapter 4: 白虎: White Tiger
Chapter Text
The forest is dark and eerie, tall trees stand imposingly with a sea of flora swimming amongst the roots. The air is heavy and humid. It would be beautiful if not for the sense of danger the place exudes. At the edge of my awareness is an all-pervasive sense that at any time something could jump out and attack me. I see flickers of movement through the brush as I walk, searching for someplace to set up a base.
This is a forest situated near the village of Oni, used as training. As such I can expect it to be full of threats. The only things I know are in here are tigers, beyond that there could be other predators, poisonous plants, and I can't discount supernatural obstacles either. Then there are the other Oni. Ten beasts for me to put down in this forest, with no consequences, lovely. At that thought, I hit my stride once more, a pep in my step.
Focusing my hearing I listen to my environment. The forest is suspiciously quiet but I do hear a river nearby so I head in that direction. Knowing I will likely find an animal near the river I draw my odachi from its sheath. The gorgeous piece of steel gleams in the dim light of the forest giving it an ethereal quality. I swing it a couple of times marveling in the wind whistling around the edge before I remember that a Japanese sword is meant to be gripped with two hands and adjust.
Almost to the river I silence myself as much as possible and brush the bushes aside. At the bank of the river is a massive white tiger, far larger than a tiger from my past life. Sensing movement the tiger stops drinking and glances up at me ears up and tail high. It glances at the sword in my hands then draws its ears down and lips back.
My body tenses and I position my sword above my head ready to swing downwards. The tiger grunts and turns, heading back into the bushes, tail swishing lazily behind it. I relax slightly and watch the tiger go. When it reaches the edge of the clearing it sends me one more glance then disappears.
Sheathing my sword I head to the stream and drink. The best-case scenario is that the tiger was the strongest thing here. Hopefully, that ends up being true as I doubt I'd be able to kill that one, let alone something stronger.
The first night in the forest I slept in the trees. The larger predators are less likely to climb up high, even tigers while able to climb trees don't often do so. I dreamt of the tiger from yesterday its movements were so powerful and dynamic yet it was silent. Maybe the meeting with the tiger was auspicious. I had never been a devout believer in God but in this life as an Oni perhaps a Kami was watching over me. I may be reaching to make myself feel better, even still the tiger's movements were seared in my mind.
Glancing down at my own claws I think that we are alike in a way. The two of us represent the fiercest predators, both thrown into a life of endless carnage. If it stands at the top here I know that I will do the same. Making a paw with my hand I experimentally slash and thrust applying the tiger's movements to my body. Over the next few hours, I experiment with this new economy of motion, pouncing through the trees with powerful leaps, claws ripping through trees with wide swipes, hooking grips tearing chunks out of trunks.
In my elation at my new technique, I didn't notice I had a spectator till I hear a loud roar. The tiger from before is eyeing me in what looks like amusement, surprised I miss my jump and take a rough fall from the tree I was in. Getting up I growl at the tiger which chuffs in amusement. The tiger begins to leave again but this time I follow.
The rest of my day is spent following Byakko as I've taken to calling him in my mind. I watch him move, hunt, strike, eat; every small detail is taken in as I apply them to myself. By nightfall, I can move through the forest with precision, without sound, and with power in every twitch of my muscles. The form of the tiger brings together all the brutal training I've been through into an actual technique. Lost in my revelry I lose track of Byakko, as though he was never there he's disappeared. So ends my second day.
In the middle of the night, I am awoken. Jolting awake I hear the snapping of branches and the crunching of leaves beneath me. Digging my claws into the bark of the tree I flip upside down on my branch and look below. Searching below me is two adolescent Oni. They seem to be cooperating to find me, in a surprising display of teamwork, twins perhaps? It matters not, they'll be dead soon anyway. Analyzing my opponents I note that the one carries a heavy kanabo and the other dual kama.
After a moment of thought, I peg the kama user as a larger threat. The kanabo while having the potential to kill me in a single hit is much slower to wield. Decision made I pounce. I knock the Oni I collide with to the ground, thrusting my hand into his throat I close my fist around his Larynx and pull back ripping it out in a spray of gore.
His brother- oops sister screams in rage and swings the kanabo she carries. I flip sideways over the horizontal swing. Landing in a crouch I move to pounce again but her kanabo is already moving towards me. I reach down and scoop up some soil. Flinging it at her face I blind her before fading back into the undergrowth. She wildly swings pouring in her rage in an effort to push out more power yet she is swinging at nothing but air.
Wiping the dirt from her eyes she looks around for me, "Where are you, coward! Come and fight!" My laughter echoes throughout the clearing as she fumes.
"Coward? I'm right behind you." As she spins I rip the tendons from the back of her legs causing her to fall over. Kicking her weapon away I catch a wild swing of her arm and crush her hand. Walking along her back I dig my claws into her flesh, rivulets of blood welling up covering my toes. I reach down and grab her horns pulling her head backward and look down into her eyes. "There's no such thing as a coward, only the winner and the dead, remember that." With that, I pull, separating her head from her body.
"Oh wait, never mind~" Chucking her head over to her brother's body I cackle, three days, eight left.
The next three I find are solo, I decide to use my sword to kill them. The first two lose their heads before they realize I'm there. The third senses my approach. He's older than the others so far, an adult. He sniffs as I approach a wide smile on his face. "That's Oni blood on you, you've met some others I see. How many have died by your hand?"
"Five, well four but there's one in front of me." My bloodlust pours out as I give him a toothy smile. Birds erupt from the trees, their instincts telling them they'll die if they stay here. I draw my blade staring down my opponent. He laughs at my display and releases his own. It cuts through mine like a sharp blade.
He rolls up his sleeves revealing two heavy bracers. Rolling his shoulders he begins walking forward. When he nears I leap sending the edge of my blade at his neck. He raises an armored limb which my sword clangs off harshly. His other arm comes flying into my side. I get fired off into the distance crashing through a thick tree trunk.
Hacking blood onto the forest floor I look to my adversary. I want to rip that smug look off his fucking face. Standing back up I charge once more when I'm a couple of meters away I fling my sheath at his face and slide. He raises his arms to block and I thrust my sword into his pelvis. He lets out a surprised wail which turns to an agonized scream as I grab the protruding blade it pull it through until the hilt touches flesh at his front.
He falls backward but the sword keeps him upright. I climb up to his face. While smiling I work my claws under the side of his face and after getting a grip I pull across. The flesh rips instead of pulling his face off, pity. Instead, I break both his horns off and shove them through his eye sockets. Pulling my sword out I wipe the viscera off onto his clothes. Catching the sky in my vision I realize it's night already. Only two days and five to go.
Over the course of the second to last day, I managed to kill all but one of the Oni in the forest. I made sure to duel them with my sword so I could get some proper practice in. Once I realized this was the final day I scrambled to find a tiger to kill while heading back to the entrance. To my dismay, I couldn't find any. Tired I marched back to the beginning of the forest soaked in the blood of my species from head to toe.
When I was within a kilometer or so from the entrance I found the final Oni. He was an absolute mountain of a man; eight feet tall, massive hands, arms like barrels and muscles carved out of iron. His horns were short and thick arranged in a crown around his head and his teeth stuck out like tusks. He sat in the clearing just waiting for me, even sitting he was larger than me. Snarling at the taunt that this was I stepped into the clearing.
Once in view, he cracked an eye open. Smirking a burst of rumbling laughter rings out across the clearing. "You fool. You've just doomed yourself, Little Ancestor. Did you think the Elder wouldn't give you someone you couldn't beat? He had hoped you had been humbled from his constant thrashings, it appears he was wrong."
As he speaks a thin white aura spread across his body, "This is Touki it will be the last thing you see. Since I'm kind I'll give you a minute to kill me, once that is done I will rip you apart and eat you. Does this sound fair Ibaraki?"
Between that disgusting smile and the leering eyes, this monster has earned death hundreds of times over. Sword in hand I cross the distance between us, I anchor myself and put all my strength into a slash that will slide through his torso splitting him in two. Just before the blade makes contact I think of how arrogant this thing in front of me is. I may be small but I am strong.
My blade connects with his aura… and snaps. My arms shake as the steel rings. The majority of the blade is flung off into the woods. I'm left holding a hilt while staring dumbly at the enemy in front of me. He looks down at me smiling, "Thirty seconds."
I run, I run, and don't look back. I leap through the forest trying desperately to put distance between myself and the demon behind me. Branches snap, rock cracks and the ground detonates below me as I pour everything I have, everything I am into running. What the hell was that? A magical energy field that is strong enough to block a sword? Dammit.
The laughing is getting louder. He's gaining on me. I can hear wood exploding, glancing back I see him running bodily through the trees without flinching. Fuck it can't end here. I won't let it. Spinning around I launch myself at him. The distance closes quickly as both of us are heading towards each other. I swing at his leg with my claws but abort as he reaches down to grab me.
He barely misses me even with my smaller stature. How fast is he? I continue past and scramble up a tree before pushing off. I'm just in time as a fist flies through where I had been sending bits of bark exploding outward. I spin in mid-air and rake my claws along one of his eyes, finally drawing blood. With speed belying his size he grabs my foot and rips it off with a single hand.
Landing I roll despite the pain in my leg. Turning I see him tilt his head back and drop my foot down into his gullet. Bile surges into my mouth as I realize he was serious about eating me. He doesn't even have the decency to wait till I'm dead. "You'll pay for the eye brat, you taste good though, the young always do."
I make to build up momentum except my new impediment causes me to stumble, unused to three limbs. I feel a meaty paw wrap around my torso and haul me up into the air. He lifts me up to head height smiling and laughing the whole time. His other hand comes up and he starts to relieve me of my other leg. His grip slackening slightly as he does so.
Powering through the pain I slip an arm out of his grip even as my leg comes off. I muffle a scream. Mockingly he exaggeratedly tips his head back to drop my second leg in his mouth. As he's doing so I reach up to my head and break off a horn. Over his euphoric moans I focus, I center myself and push out all thoughts but my goal. As his head moves back to look at me I fling my broken horn with all my strength into his other eye.
The barrier slows the horn but not enough as it penetrates his eye in a wet squelch. He flings me away and pulls the horn out but the damage is done. I lie there manically laughing as he stumbles around blind bellowing in pain. I start to cough from the laughter and feel hot blood leaking out the side of my mouth.
"Where are you! You thought it was painful before? You shall suffer more than you could ever dream!" Soon he stills, quieting suddenly. He sniffs the air and my heart goes still. "There you are." His disgusting smile comes back as he lumbers toward me.
I realize I can barely even move now. As this sets in tears begin to leak from my eyes despair setting in. All that pain and suffering to die like an animal in this forest. Eaten alive, slowly, intimately. What was the point in killing all those people if I die here?
That thought strikes me harder than the others, eyes drying suddenly. All those lives, where will their hatred go? How will they get vengeance if I die here? Who will carry their grievances into the world? Who will bring ruin to their enemies? NO! I refuse to die here! As long as there is breath in my body I will fight, I will rip, tear, and slaughter till their revenge, my revenge is complete!
At that moment a spark was lit in my soul. For the first time in centuries, the cursed flames of the great grudge manifested in the world. The grey Onibi swallowed the Demon in front of me burning away everything under the weight of my grudges. When they went out all that was left were the body parts he swallowed.
I drag my body through the forest a trail of blood flowing behind me. I can't stop or I fail yet I've no tiger to bring back. So consumed am I in thoughts of failure that I don't notice Byakko until he buts his nose on the side of my face. Looking in his eyes I see resolve, compassion, a profound sadness. I hope he sees something similar in mine. Instead of devouring me as is his right he grabs my arm in his teeth and throws me on his back. I pass out.
When I awake, I'm back in the entrance clearing. I can feel Byakko's fur on the back of my neck. In front of me are my mother and the Elder. My mother's expression is of joy, the Elders unreadable. Glancing between myself and Byakko he speaks, "How many did you kill?"
My voice cracks as I try to speak so dry is my throat, "All of them. They all died by my hand or my sword."
"Even Taichi?" He raises a brow.
"Big guy, Touki?" He nods. "Dead."
The Elder pauses then nods decisively. Turning to walk away he makes it a few meters before stopping. Without turning around he points a palm at Byakko, "Food is meant to be eaten." A ball of energy similar to the Touki from before flies toward Byakko and detonates at his head. As I sit, gore from my only real teacher raining down on me, I add another grudge to the pile.