Princess Mononoke Fan Fiction ❯ The Chronicles of Princess Mononoke ❯ The Call of Immortals ( Chapter 16 )

The Call of Immortals

 

The third was near its end; Ashitaka was near the highest mountain in the North-West. It's strange; for an average rate, the normal duration from the West to the North-West is a week, but with Ashitaka, three days was all it took. Three days. Was it just the theory of bending time? Or was it that he was slowly beginning to realize how unique his supernatural powers can be? The prince wasn't sure, but he was bound to find out.

The dusk was drawing nearer and nearer with every half hour. The sun's times was near to it's death point as the sunflower glow began to fade into the lilac substance within the sky, when then the heavens decided to merge ocean cool colors in with the carbon black of the glossy night.

 

The Hunter's Moon is returning.

 

The prince was tired but still active; energetic enough to hike his legs up onto the highest peak of the mountain, with Kaya's elk heaving its body up the edge by the boy holding onto its reins, as it then nibbled on Ashitaka's hair as a sign of annoyance.

“We're nearly there now.” The prince replied softly as he patted on her head. “I bet you miss Kaya now don't you?” The elk snorted abruptly with a bit of saliva drooling out from its lips. “It's okay, I'm afraid for her as well. But San will find her. I know she will. She's as headstrong as the day I first saw her; she won't fail.”

They then reached up to the peak; it was exactly as Ashitaka had dreamed all those nights. The carbon black sky, the silver stars, the long blades of jade, the abnormally large moon.

“What am I to do now? Sasuke…what am I to do now?” He muttered to himself, as he stood in silence and confusion. He then released the grip on the elk's reins and whispered in his ear `stay here'. As then he slowly placed his first foot on the grass. It felt; light, feathery, almost as if…he was floating. He was on the ground, but the gravity felt like it didn't want to pull him down. So then, he began to make further walk to the moon, feeling as if he was ice-skating on the summer floor. His eyes drew closer and closer to the moon, feeling its creamy presence lingering closer to the boy's sense on his lips. It was a weird place to feeling something unnatural, but it was there.

The feeling was rising closer to him; he could sense that something eerie was at work here; there's was something working within that gigantic moon that seemed to be drawing Ashitaka nearer and nearer to it. He was spellbound; he didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it, he was just walking at it with ease. He stopped walking with a single footstep when he reached the peak of the mountain. The moon was at large; he could almost…touch it. The prince then decided to gradually let out his hand; his fingertips were at a showing point, his eyes were mesmerized by the glowing shimmer of the moonshine. But then he couldn't believe it.

 

He was actually touching the moon.

 

Ashitaka gasped at the moment his senses felt the rough crater texture of the surface; it was dust and dry, with creamy shimmers flickering off with every move his hand made. Until, a soft, sticky substance invaded his fingertips, this unusual oozy gist took over his hand. He begin to panic a little; he tried to scrub away the creamy leach from his skin before it then trickled it's way over to his sleeve. Sweat began to moist, and his eyes began to widen with a small sense of fear rushing through his blood. His breathing enhanced and his teeth gritted bare from his lips. He looked at the moon once more, when then, from it velvety centre, came out…a hand. Dripping with the same ooze that was covering his hand. It then gripped onto Ashitaka's sleeve. The grasp was too strong for him to break off, especially with the substance continuing to run its way through the course of his clothes' marking and opaquely covering his color with nothing but tainted white. The hand suddenly pulled Ashitaka in. His heavy breaths became moderate screams for freedom. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know this obscuring surreal moment was drawing him in into…something else. What could it be? He wondered. But then time descended away from him, as the cream then lingering through his lips and down his throat; clogging up his quick breaths until he could breathe no more. The hand ferociously pulled him into the moon, and only left the mark of his footsteps on the ground. Kaya's elk was quite distraught, and then began to run away from the moon.

 

The boy's sense began to linger away from him, his nerves came to a numb shutdown, and his eyes couldn't see the carbon glossed night sky as the leak poured the hole of the only air he could breathe in. He couldn't scream. He couldn't whisper. He couldn't breathe. Not. One. Bit. The light faded away from his eyes, as his lids slowly began to close the vision away from his sight as his lungs began to fill up with this unnatural substance that blocked up his heart pumping. Could he die? Could his lungs crush his heart? He didn't know. He wasn't conscious enough to realize what was going to happen to him. So he just waited. Waited until his aberrant death came with ease.

 

You failed Ashitaka. You didn't save Kaya. You didn't save anyone. You failed…

 

Silent, serene moments filled the black air with alleviation. The atmosphere seemed untouchable to disrupt. A sleeping mode eased Ashitaka's eyes as his body laid at peace on a platted wooden floor. His wavy dark hair calmed down and his lips made no sudden movement whilst his chest was breathing normally as usual. Normally as usual? What happened? He was supposed to die…was he?
Ashitaka gradually woke up with a quiet moan from his throat. His eyes finally lit up, but only unhurriedly as the he still felt a deep pain inside him from that mysterious incident with the Hunter's moon. And that hand. What was that all about? It couldn't have pulled him in for nothing. Anyway, Ashitaka slowly rose from his side, with his neck aching quite badly as he squint his eyes and rubbed the side of his collar. He then looked around; staring at what appeared to be a room. His attention span grew stronger, as then he turned his notice to the floor. And what appeared to be lying there, was another man. About the same age as he was, only with pitch black hair, just as wavy as his was. He had a scar on his nose, and his clothes were all ragged and more traditional than his were. He was asleep too. They probably have been asleep for some time. Ashitaka then knelt down onto the floor and tried to wake him up by shrugging his shoulder.

“Hey…wake up.” He whispered, but no reply came. He then turned around, and saw a woman unconscious by his side as well. Her hair was long and sleek as well as black. And all she was dressed in a grey robe with her hands covered by the long sleeves that overtook them. Ashitaka tried shaking her. But still; no reply. “Wake up. Wake up!” His utterances were too muted to be heard. He then looked up. There was the moonlight shining out through a window from the right side. Ashitaka rose to his feet, and then saw, what appeared to be, another woman, but she was awake.

Her shoulders were hunched and her back was crooked with one arm leaning on her knee as she was put in a sitting position on top of a shelf near the window. Her hair was feathery layered and shoulder length, whilst she was spotted wearing a short light purple kimono with her sleeves just tipping over her shoulders, but her dark violet inner sleeves, like the ones Ashitaka were wearing, slicked over her arms like they loved the attachment of her skin. He slowly looked down to her skinny fatigue, as she saw her legs wrapped in black cotton tights with thick-pelt boots that covered all the way up to her shins. He looked back up, he noticed that her kimono was quite…withered, but her cleavage was covered with another form of cloth, as if it was a sign of `no way your perverted eyes will look at me'. He then spotted something on her neck, more like a white bandage covering it. Was she hurt? She didn't look like she was aching. But carrying on, he noticed that from the white moonshine, the top layer of her hair was milk chocolate cocoa, but her tips were a mixture of carbon black and metallic wild violet with hints of dark pink on them.
But then, she moved, only to lean her back on the edge. She stared at Ashitaka, and he stared back. To also see, her dark coffee…eye. Not eyes. Just the left one, the right one was covered with a black patch with a thin thread stretching over on side of her face diagonally. She might have lost an eye. Ashitaka thought, but he could be wrong. They shown no sudden movement or emotion towards each other, almost like the first eye contact he received from San once opposite the river. Only with this girl, she showed off a haze of mystery within herself.

The prince's sense then spotted something else opposite from the girl. Another one to be precise, so he turned to her.

The other girl had long luscious locks of brunette hair, with streaks of electric blue and fierce pinkish crimson, it wasn't bound or tied in any way, just the extensive strands of fringe similar to Sasuke's that reached down to the tip of her nose. Her short kimono was traced with very dark cherry pink, with the fabric reflecting away the light as if it was pure silk. He legs were drawn bare with another set of boots reaching up to her shins. Then Ashitaka distinctively took a notice of her cleavage, to be honest he preferred her to cover herself up; no woman in the world who gave him the signal to `enter' would ever turn him on, those with true respect and independence were the ones who he would get close to. But she was covered; nonetheless, at least she didn't look like a brothel girl. She was then sitting the other girl, all hunched and crooked, but her distinction gave off the mist of darkness in her pink eyes, sweet, yet disturbingly bitter. Ashitaka looked at her. Her face was so parallel to the other girl, maybe they could be twins. She glanced at him. A sense of disruption entered the prince, as then she turned her head away from him.

Ashitaka then gasped as he looked down at the ground; there were about twelve people all unconscious, except for him and the two girls. But then, one by one, they rose up, all aching and tired like he was when he first woken up, with their necks stiff and felt as if they were swollen. The prince became more curious and bewildered by what was going on. Men and women with suspicious scars upon themselves brought him to one thought, could it be what he thought it was?

Suddenly, when Ashitaka hardly noticed, a wave of candles lit up with dancing flames encircled around the room as it exposed an orange haze across the atmosphere. The prince was quite startled as he looked around the room with dark excitement. All of the people except for the two girls reach up onto their feet, as then they all heard the door sliding to one side. But no one came out; it was just a black shadow thickly obscuring the other side. Then heavy clonks were peering in through the black mist. Ashitaka took a small shake within his skin; he didn't want to take any chances, it could be anything. He let his fingertips slowly slide onto the handle of his sword. The girl with the patch looked at him closely in silence; staring at the sword that he held, it intrigued her.

The footsteps came closer and closer with every heavy clonk it made. When then, out from the shadows, came yet another man. Only…shorter, dressed like a monk, with a unique red hazy nose. No…fucking…way!

“Hello natives.”

“What?!” Ashitaka stood distraught as he saw the monk walking over to a desk at the front of the room.

“It's nice to see you all again; it's been a very long while.”

“Jigo?!”

“Nice to see YOU too Ashitaka; I always knew one day you will join this unique group.” Ashitaka stuttered at the moment when then he saw everyone staring at him. He blushed a little from the fact it looked like he stood out oddly from the crowd. The long-hair girl smiled strangely at him, the other with the patch bit her bottom lip. “Now, lets all kneel.” The group then knelt down in a circle, with Jigo reaching up into the middle. Ashitaka still didn't trust him, not for one bit really, but he knelt, just like he was told.

“Girls please join us.” They both showed reluctance when they stared at him at the same time.

“Fine.” Jigo chuckled nervously, he knew he shouldn't mess with them, it was something they exhaled that made Ashitaka's spine tingled a little, something deeper that he should corrupt.

“Now, some of you know why you are called here tonight, some of you don't. And to some of you that don't know, we're in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” The girl in robes questioned in an n innocent voice.

“Demons.” The word spurred and scattered whispers of intrusion among the group. Ashitaka felt odd; kept silent through the conversations, feeling like there was no-one he could talk to. If only Sasuke was here.

“Jigo, that's impossible. I thought we dealt with them 400 years ago.”
400 years?! This only meant one thing; they WERE immortals.

“Yes we have dealt with them before and won, but there is something we haven't come in contact with yet. It appeared that some of them had tried to weave into the human world through humans, and sadly killed off 200 of them, with only a few groups to spare, that what I know, had settled in the ruins of Irontown.”
“Nanahara!” Ashitaka gasped with shock.

“What was that Ashitaka?” The group stared at him once more.

“Uh-h, nothing.” He cooled down with cold humiliation showing off once more, when then the crowd turned to Jigo again.

“Right, well it must be clear that there are still demons lurking around the human world.”

“But how did these demons find their way out?” The man with the scar on his nose asked with curiosity.

“One of us had opened the gate.”

“One of us? Speaking of which, where's Keirtoro?” Ashitaka's eyes lit up with guilt that began to churn in his stomach, he gulped deeply and clenched his fists.

“I-I…I killed him.” The whole group gasped and stared at him with shock.

“You killed him?! Why?!” The man growled at him ferociously.

“You must understand-

“Understand what?! I guess you're here because you need to take his place! You seem too human to be down here! So I'll ask you again; why did you kill him?!”

“Because Keirtoro deserved his fate.” A strong feminine voice came from the girl with the eye patch. Ashitaka sharply turned his eyes to her as her jump off her backside and stood stiffly as she looked down at the man with the scar on his nose with danger.

“He made a trade with the demons that they can grant him the power of eternity as long as he kills off the human race. As much as I can say, I too hate humans, but they take care of their world as much as we take care of our own. He was a traitor, so to be fair, you should be THANKING this man rather than insulting him. So if I were you, you better watch your tongue!”

The firm speech from the girl with the patch silenced that man with little fear, as he then turned to Ashitaka with disgust, and then turned away. The prince didn't mean to hurt his feelings, he did what he thought was right, but then he looked at the girl standing above him with curiosity.

“Okay…since Rhyolite cleared the air for us, thank you (!) We must come up with a plan to sort this out. Even the easiest targets can turn into something more severe that we can hardly handle. So I'm splitting you all up into groups, if we weren't one person short.”

The girl with the grey robes looked her face to the door as she heard something creak, and then gasped as she then pointed her finger at something.

“Kira!” She gaped out, which made Ashitaka take in a deep breath to finally see someone he knew.

Sasuke was found leaning his back against the pane of the door slide; his back was curved with his fringe covering his face. The girl with long strands of blue and crimson licked her upper lip when she saw him; all low and dark with an attitude. Maybe it looked like she began a small interest in the dark horse; it seemed it was how she liked her men. Dark.

“Why should I help any of you?” Sasuke's chilling voice entered the room.

“Well, well, well, it's the Kira everyone (!)” Jigo's cynical comment left him standing near him. “I thought you were reluctant to come, but I might think that you're just too scared to go back there.”
“Shut up Jigo.” His cold quick voice made the crowd wonder slightly. “Of course I don't want to go back there. Of course I don't want to be here. But I have no choice have I?”

“You!” The man with the scarred nose then rose to his feet and raised his fist at him. “You don't deserve immortality, go back to killing humans! Or does not mortal blood satisfy your thirst?” Sasuke's pale insipid blue eyes sharply looked up at the man, his teeth were gritting and his fists clenched. He then stiffly walked over to him and tugged his collar bone and crushed it intensely, as he then harshly pushed him back against the wall. The crowd rose from their feet and back away from the Kira, as they knew what get's in his way, ends up dead on the floor.

“Watch your tongue, swine! I already bled serving this community, I lost my first life to save Ashitaka so that he could save the humans; he was the one who gave me second life! So you keep your fucking mouth shut!” Ashitaka then gripped onto his dark grey sleeve as he then looked deep into his dark grey eyes.

“He's not worth Sasuke, you can let him go. Let go.” He spoke in a calm voice, which made Sasuke slowly release his grip on the man.

“Sasuke! Testsuo! Calm yourselves! This is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. Now, like I said before you will be put into teams, now there are 16 of you, will be put into groups of four.”

Then suddenly, the man with the scarred nose quickly jerked away from Ashitaka. “No way am I going into a team with HIM!”
“Fine, be stubborn Tetsuo. There will now be two groups of four, one group of five and one group of three.” Jigo then held out a sheet of rice paper and place on the table, with a small bottle of opened ink and a feather, he made a few scribbles on it just to make sure what he wanted was correct. “Right, I will now call you in your groups. Group number 1: Tendo, Oki, Keichii and Satoshi.” The four people, including the girl with the grey robes, stood up as they flushed away the dust from their clothes, as then Jigo handed one of them a piece of paper, a task set for them, as they wondered out from the room an into the black mist fog. “Group number 2: Mion, Kei, Li, and Rena” Three girls and one boy stood up and did the same; take a piece and disappeared.

“Group number 3: Shinji, Noriko, Keita, Tetsuo and…Mitsuko.” The girl with the dark overbearing pink kimono lit up her eyes from her dangling fringe. The girl with the patch looked at her, as the other stared back. The long-haired girl then slowly drew herself off her ass, and then purred her slinky walking over to the girl with the patch.

“Don't worry, sister, I'll be sure to come running to you when you cry out for me.” She slipped her fingers through the other girl's short fringe to show off her patch, but then the patched girl the clutched onto her wrist sharply and moved it away from her face.

“Caution…Mitsuko. Do not forget if you cross me like before, you WILL regret it. So don't tamper with me…sister.” Mitsuko then harshly drew her wrist away from her hand as the patched girl let go. They stared at each other for a moment, as their saccharine smiles slowly ripped away from their faces to reveal angry silent scorns at each other. Mitsuko then rapidly walked away from her, and rushed pass away from her, until she nearly tripped near Sasuke, as he quickly gripped onto her arm.

“Careful.” He pointed out, as then Mitsuko stared deeply into his eyes. She saw, what he once saw; she saw Motoko wrapped in his arms, the caressing of when she nearly committed suicide, she just saw quickly flashing images of her, with him. She then stopped and sewn a sardonic smile upon her.

“Thanks.” She replied lowly, as then Sasuke let her go to retrieve back to her group and enter into the blackness.

Ashitaka witnessed what just happened between the two girls. How can be sisters yet they hold so much hatred between themselves? It was only him, Sasuke, and the patched girl left now.

“Right that then leaves group number 4: Ashitaka, Sasuke, and Rhyolite.”

The patched girl covered her piece with her fringe and walked over to the last two men and stared at Ashitaka as she walked pass. Her eye watched Ashitaka's as he too stared back; she must have grown a silent interest at the new immortal, she lowered her pace as she brushed pass his body, but then hurried it up again to receive their mission. She then stopped and looked at the two men looking back at her.

“Well?” Her leadership startled the men a little as it intimidated them slightly.

“Let's go then.” Ashitaka replied back at her. Sasuke and the girl then entered into the blackness, with only Ashitaka left to commence.

“Boy?” Jigo's voice stopped him to make him look behind him. “I'm sorry…about before…you can't win against fools.” The apology slowly made Ashitaka smile.

“It's okay; I trust you now.” He then entered into the shadow, when then came in front of him Sasuke and the eye-patched girl in a hallway of candles lit on the side of the wooden walls.

“You're slow.” Sasuke muttered.

“I'm ready.” Ashitaka replied with a small sense of annoyance. When then he noticed the girl walking away from her.

“Excuse me…uh…”

“My name is Rhyolite.”

“Rhyolite…its-.” The girl then sharply turned around and stared at him.

“I know it's not a Japanese name, but my father gave me that name and I like it. Because it's different. Not like my sister's or anyone else.”

“It's rare and unique.” Ashitaka decided to end it, with Rhyolite's face softening.

“Oh. Well, I don't need your compliment!” She then turned away and carried on walking. With Sasuke looking at Ashitaka as he stared at Rhyolite.

“She's intimidating.”
“Yes…” Ashitaka's voice trailed off, when then he looked at Sasuke. “How did you escape?” The Kira then sighed.

“Long story short…”

 

Sasuke lay dead and unconscious but still alive within himself. The remaining bandits created a fire with smoke encircling around the navy night sky. One of them then knelt down near him, as he moved away the fringe from his eyes. Slowly, but he thought he was dead. But then, by the flick of a wrist, Sasuke's pale eye's shot open, with his pupils all slit and reptilian, that only meant one thing…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!”