Dragon Island (23 page)

At first, I thought it might have simply been Ishiro being a jerk again. If that was the case, I’d simply ignore him and tell Kitsune to do the same.

That would be a lot easier to do if Ishiro was merely the dumb jock-type I figured him for when we first met. But, the truth is, he is much more than that. I’ve even come to like the big knuckle-dragger!

Besides, he’s been nothing but nice since we returned. So whatever this ugly elephant in the room is, it must have nothing to do with him.

That’s somewhat of a relief, I guess. But it doesn’t change the fact that my best friend on the island is eaten up with sadness.

If only my plane hadn’t crashed-landed on this island! I wouldn’t have to worry about these things.

How I long for Mom and Bear and my simple, relatively problem-free life back home.

But, short of setting out alone on the open sea, there isn’t a thing I can do in regard to getting back to the States right now.

But enough doom and gloom for the moment.

Back to the royal treatment.

When we returned to the village, several women took my clothes and burned them. Or at least, what was left of them. By that time, the shirt and jeans I was wearing amounted to little more than rags.

In their place, the Toho gave me a luxurious, golden robe full of other bright colors and intricate patterns. It’s a modified, ceremonial version of the short robes worn by the Toho warriors. Mujina tells me the garment is based on the kimono worn by the legendary Kintaro himself!

But best of all the extravagances the Toho have showered me with is the constant influx of white peaches!

Every time I return to Tanuki’s house after taking a stroll, I find a fresh basket of them awaiting me. And that’s a good thing, because I can’t get enough of them.

I’m munching on an especially succulent morsel now as I sit inside Tanuki’s reed house awaiting my escort to tonight’s celebration.

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that the Toho are having a festival tonight. There’s going to be a banquet, dancing, and best of all, a play in my honor.

Is that great or what?

“Momotaro-sai.”

I turn and see Kitsune standing in the open doorway, her comely silhouette framed by the evening twilight.

A smile spreads across my face.

“Just can’t stay away, can you?”

She mirrors my grin.

I’m glad to see she’s in one of her better moods.

“Come. Sit. Have a peach.”

Kitsune walks over and kneels beside me on the floor.

“You and those peaches! We are already calling you peach boy, Momotaro-sai. If you keep eating them, you are really going to turn into one!”

“And what a delicious peach I’d be!”

Kitsune laughs and the sound is like music.

“I bet you yourself would eat me whole and not think twice about it!” I laugh.

Kitsune’s laughter quiets and her face becomes solemn. It’s the same expression she’s been trying to hide from me and everyone else over the past few days.

“Kitsune, what’s the matter?”

Kitsune’s gaze locks onto the floor.

“Please, talk to me.

“Is it something I said? Something I’ve done? Is it Ishiro—?”

Kitsune cuts me off. “I’m tired, Raymond-sai. All I want to do is lie down and sleep and let the world turn beneath me.”

I stare at her a moment, not knowing what to say. Then I realize there’s nothing to be said.

I open my arms.

“Then rest.”

Kitsune leans into me and nuzzles her head against my shoulder. I wrap my arms around her, pulling her snug against me.

I hold my friend until night falls. We are both completely surprised when Ishiro and his fellow warriors burst into the house.

“Momotaro-sai!” Ishiro shouts. The grin he is wearing fades from his face when he sees Kitsune lying in my arms.

Mindless of their leader’s displeasure, Ishiro’s accompanying militiamen stampede past him into the room, cheering as they pull me away from Kitsune and carry me outside.

They hoist me onto their shoulders, their shouts of “Momotaro!” joining those of the villagers already gathered outside and, for this moment, at least, I forget about Kitsune, Ishiro, and everything else plaguing me and simply revel in their praise.

We parade around and through the village, making several laps before settling down to an outdoor banquet of fresh fish and vegetables dripping with the sweet sauces of hand-picked berries. Along with this main course comes bowl after bowl of fried dumplings, rice, and a plethora of other delectable treats I can’t even name.

Dessert comes last and, predictably, it’s my favorite. My eyes become twin boiled eggs in their sockets as wooden plates filled with sliced white peaches soaking in piles of fluffy cream are set before us.

The Toho giggle as they wait for me to take the first bite. I do and it’s delicious! I smile despite my mouth being crammed full of peaches and cream and the Toho roar in approval.

After dinner, everyone turns to face the new wooden stage erected especially to showcase this evening’s play. It stands before the long house.

The performance starts and I shriek, laugh, and cry along with the Toho as I see my own story being played out before me through the use of homemade props and costumes.

The play begins with the plane-crash, then moves to my fleeing of the dragon. From there, the story unfolds with the actor playing me discovering Kusanagi, meeting up with Kitsune, and then descending into the deep labyrinth to discover the de facto Xenomians.

The village elder Bakeneko excuses herself at this point, making a big enough show of it to momentarily disrupt the play.

What her problem is these days, I just can’t figure. She and Kitsune just need to chill out!

The actors resume their production. The man portraying Ningai Ura is holding aloft a mock-up of
Kusanagi
and screaming for Hebira when I feel the hair on my arms stand on end.

An ear-splitting sonic boom sounds and the long house behind the stage explodes.

The resulting shockwave blasts the actors off stage, saving them from being impaled by the mass of reed shrapnel trailing after.

Arcs of electricity slice the air and a rotating, Xenomian saucer-ship appears in the space formally occupied by the long house. The deafening whine of its engine swallows the crowd’s screams. Many of the Toho run, but most remain where they are, frozen with fear.

The ship’s flat disc of a belly detaches and floats to the ground. When it touches down, the army of robot samurai atop it march out and surround the remaining clansmen, the clanking of their movements a din in my ears.

Then my worst nightmare comes true.

The ship lands and powers down. Ningai Ura, alive and whole, emerges from the craft’s now quiet, still hull, on a disc of floating chrome metal.

The gold-studded hand-grip of Kusanagi is unmistakable where it rises out of the sashes of his dark kimono.

Ningai removes his sunglasses, exposing his fiery red eyes.

“Bring me the heir of Kintaro,” he shouts. “The boy and I have unfinished business!”

Many believe that Raiju, the companion beast of Raijin, the Shinto god of lighting and thunder, is thought to have been based on a much older and more malevolent daikaiju...

—Excerpt from
From Kami to Kaiju: Japanese Myths and Monsters
, by Shigeru Kayama and Takeo Murata (1957)

O
h, boy!

Here I was living it up as the hero returned, thinking the worst
Dragon
Island
had to offer was long behind me. Then the mad, would-be world conqueror Ningai Ura—who, based on what I saw back in the deep labyrinth, should be very, very dead—shows up here in the Toho village with an army of robot samurai to take the clansmen hostage!

Worst of all, he is apparently come back from the grave to seek revenge upon me for placing him there in the first place!

Can you say, yikes?

I hear Ishiro’s battle cry and then see him leaving the crowd at a dead sprint, his new sword held high, hordes of his fellow warriors running behind him.

Shokun Mujina’s powerful voice cuts through the night air, halting them in their tracks a few feet short of the ring of androids encircling us.

“Stop!”

I guess, like any good battle commander, Mujina has no wish to fight a battle he knows will only result in the slaughter of his people.

He rises to his feet and approaches Ningai where he hovers above the crowd.

He reaches up and points an accusing finger.

“You are trespassing here, Ura. Leave this instant, or—!”

Ningai Ura roars with mocking laughter. The sound echoes off the bamboo and grass walls of the village houses.

“Or you will what, old man?

“You may have once banished me from the village, but now it is I who hold all the power here.”

To demonstrate, he unsheathes Kusanagi and holds it aloft for all to see. The crowd takes in a collective horrified gasp.

Mujina speaks through clenched teeth.

“How dare you touch the sword of Ryuu!”

Ura’s levitating disc drifts earthward.

“I dare that and more, Mujina-sage. Much, much more, as you will soon see.

“Besides, I’m only taking what always should have been mine from the start.”

Tanuki steps forward. “The god-dragon sword belongs only to Kintaro and his heirs.”

Ura grins. “Yes. What a coincidence for one of them to come along after all this time and bring it outside the protective spells of your twin witches where I could lay proper claim to it.

“One might even say this was more than mere coincidence. That perhaps divine providence itself was at work, hmmm?”

Ningai Ura’s smile widens and his immaculate teeth become a half-moon inside his mouth.

“Personally, Tanuki-sage, I think one makes his or her own luck!”

Any doubt I had that Ningai caused my plane to crash vanishes. It was all an elaborate plot. He killed all those people and drove me to a place where I was sure to find Kusanagi and bring it out.

Suddenly, I feel sick.

Ningai scans the crowd with his bloody eyes.

“But speaking of Kintaro’s heir, where is the little—?

“Ah.

“There you are.”

Ningai Ura’s disc lifts him heavenward. He flies above the heads of the Toho and the crowd parts as he comes to rest directly before me.

I cringe, wishing I could disappear.

He raises Kusanagi to strike.

“I know just what to do with you!”

I feel waves of invisible energy surge by on either side of me like passing blasts of wind. They connect with Ningai Ura and knock him from his perch, disc going one way, rider the other.

He scrambles to his feet, using Kusanagi as a crutch, more embarrassed and enraged than hurt—unfortunately for me.

“Who dares—?” he spits.

That’s when the shobijin step in front of me.

“You still have—” Mosura says.

“Much to learn, Ura-sage,” Momoko finishes.

His composure regained, Ningai Ura laughs.

“Sisters Momoko and Mosura. I’ve been looking forward to seeing you both again. I just did not expect it to happen so soon.”

Ningai lowers his voice.

“Or for you to be in such good health.”

Moving with complete calm, the two elderly women turn in opposite directions of one another. They place the palms of their hands together as though each where gripping a transparent ball and then thrust their arms outward. Some invisible but palpable force rockets out of their hands, stirring up dust along the ground as it goes. The energy races between the Toho until it reaches the robot samurai. The force hits the androids and, one by one, they jerk, spark, and drop until they all lie jumbled on the ground like a set of toppled dominoes.

The shobijin have just wiped out Ura’s entire army with a flick of their wrists!

It’s all I can do not to shout and jump for joy!

As serene as ever, the shobijin fold their arms within their robes and turn to face Ningai Ura.

“You will leave now,” Momoko says.

“Or face the consequences.” Mosura says.

Ningai Ura’s gaze narrows.

“You think you scare me?”

He raises Kusanagi before him.

“Let me show you two witches what true power is!”

I hear a distant clap of thunder. I look up and see that black, swirling storm clouds have gathered directly above us.

Well, not above us.

Above Ningai Ura.

Abruptly, he thrusts Kusanagi into the air. The sword flashes and thunder booms. A scorching bolt of crimson lightning snakes out of the thunderhead to land along Kusanagi’s tip.