7th Moon

Sunrise and rice cakes, the morning routine was getting fairly predictable. It was everything after that concerned them. On the horizon they saw the Kanmon Bridge, and when they got across it, they would be on the island of Kyushu. This would be good and bad, good because they would be that much closer to Nagasaki and the other mecha, bad because they would also have to deal with the mutants that had been reported in the area, which meant the last leg would also be the most dangerous.

As they approached the bridge they thought about all the possible threats. Scavengers from Honshu, mutants from Kyushu, and those were just what Zokushou and Sora could think of. Hidariude and Kichiku knew the soldiers they had trained with and could think of about ninety specific soldiers that they hadn’t already eliminated, any of whom could be backed up by slashers or other robots. They were all on high alert.

The one drawback of the particular brand of extrasensory perception the travelers had was that it tended to be vaguer when not in battle. They could sense people’s emotions and intents, but only in battle could they get a specific enough idea to really work with. If someone was careful enough to set up an ambush that relied on traps, they could sense the residual threat the ambusher had left when he set the trap but knowing what the trap was, where it was located, or how to avoid it was not within the extent of their current skillset.

It was because they lacked the ability to sense a specific threat that they didn’t know about the explosives that blew up the bridge behind them making sure they could not retreat to safer ground. They were very aware of the threat when they heard the explosion, but it was during this moment of distraction that two soldiers ambushed them. Gozu, a strong bulky soldier with a hornlike haircut, landed on the truck and Mezu, a slender speedy soldier with a Mohawk, landed between the truck and the motorcycle to divide the group in two. These two were named after gods of death for a reason, they were the elite assassination squad, their purpose was not to let anyone leave alive. Both were equipped with chained sickles that doubled as weapons and tools for moving around the bridge or preventing movement. Mezu threw his sickles across the bridge spreading the chain in Hidariude’s path so that he could have him all to himself. Gozu used one hand to strike out at Kichiku while grabbing Douji with the other hand. So far the mission was a success.

Kichiku grabbed the sickle from Gozu and attempted to hold him back to prevent him from getting away. Gozu let go of the sickle and allowed Kichiku to have the weapon while he took Douji and jumped over the side of the bridge to climb underneath. At the same time, slashers came out and attacked Kichiku. Using the sickle he took from Gozu, Kichiku parried the slashers and tore them apart. Despite Kichiku’s best efforts to prevent Gozu’s escape, he did get away with Douji.

Meanwhile Hidariude tried to jump Mezu’s barricade, but Mezu’s speed allowed him to jump into the air and grab Keisei off of the bike. Mezu attempted to kill Keisei quickly but she bit his hand, elbowed him in the gut and kicked him away. Hidariude pulled a U-turn and drove straight into Mezu. Mezu would have been hit, but he had quick enough reflexes to catch the bike coming at him and throw himself into a back flip over the bike head-butting Hidariude as he did so, forcing him off the bike as it crashed into the chain across the bridge. Keisei pounced on Mezu who was quick enough to react, blocking and turning to face Hidariude who was trying to slice him with his sword. Mezu grabbed the sword between his hands and kicked back at Keisei at the same time. Hidariude let go of the sword with his left hand to let out his cyber blade to strike at Mezu. Mezu let go of the sword with his right hand to catch the cyber blade and redirected them both away from himself. Without breaking his momentum, Mezu let go of Hidariude’s blades, dodged Keisei, and dashed back to the chained sickles, pulling them out of place and preparing to fight. He started swinging the sickles in the air so he could throw them at Hidariude and Keisei. Hidariude tried to parry the sickle with his sword, but the chain wrapped around the sword and Mezu pulled it out of his grasp. Keisei caught the sickle thrown at her and pulled the chain in. Mezu let the chain slip through his hand so that he could grab the far end with the sword. Mezu held the chain in one hand and the sword in the other and let Keisei pull him in with the blade pointed directly at her.

Hidariude could sense the danger and blocked the sword with his cyber blade. Mezu pulled back on the chain to bring Keisei next to Hidariude then jumped and kicked out at both of them at the same time. Keisei lost her grip on the chain and Mezu was now in possession of both the chained sickles and the Shinryuu Masamune. He laughed victoriously, but Keisei just put up two fingers and said “Kayakujutsu, ignite!” Mezu just noticed out of the corner of his eye that Keisei had managed to stick a paper bomb in the chain in the few seconds she had it in her hands and now it exploded in his face. He was stunned for a moment and Hidariude took advantage of the moment to punch Mezu with the claws on top of his hand extended, then use his finger claws to tear up Mezu’s arm and finally use his long blade to slice Mezu’s arm, severing his tendons with surgical precision, forcing Mezu to let go of the sword so Hidariude could reclaim it.

Now Mezu was in a bind; one arm was sliced up, and the other was burned by the explosion, which meant he had lost the use of both arms. However, he was not ready to give up yet as his best trait had always been his legs. He bum-rushed his enemies and kicked at both of them with all the fury he could muster. They both blocked, though with his adrenaline rush, Mezu was fighting harder than they could defend against, and both got knocked back. Mezu laughed maniacally and prepared for a second round. Keisei feinted into the attack to draw it away from Hidariude and he came in with both blades out to cut Mezu’s Achilles tendons in mid-leap.

Now Mezu was done for, he had lost the use of all four limbs. He braced for the killing blow he was sure was coming. But it did not come. Despite all of the time they had trained to be killers, how much of their lives had been dedicated to this single task, Hidariude had lost his thirst for blood and simply passed over Mezu. Hidariude picked up his motorcycle, which was still operable, and got back on it with Keisei. They had no time for death because they had other lives to save, they set off to reunite with the others. The entire concept that someone’s life could be more important than finishing the battle to the death was lost on the assassin who lay paralyzed and on the verge of death on the ground, watching his former comrade drive away.

Kichiku was still standing on the edge of the bridge trying to locate Douji. “Douji!” Kichiku cried out several times hoping he would respond. When there was no response, he closed his eyes and tried to sense his presence. Fortunately, Douji’s fear caused a strong projection of energy for Kichiku to focus on. Once Kichiku had a lock on Douji’s location he opened his eyes and at the same moment, Hidariude and Keisei pulled up on their motorcycle. All three jumped over the edge of the bridge and started climbing along the underside of the bridge. Up ahead was Gozu running at a good pace considering he was weighed down by the boy and wasn’t as fast as Mezu to begin with. However, he did have some familiarity with the bridge as well as a head start. Kichiku considered using his geokinesis, but it was too risky, the bridge was too unstable. Hidariude and Keisei’s powers were no good either because there was too much of a risk that Douji would get hurt in the cross-fire. There was no way around it, this battle was going to be a melee.

“Kichiku, help me!” Douji cried from under Gozu’s arm.

“Quiet brat!” Gozu tried to hush him. “You’re just lucky the boss wants you alive. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up!”

Kichiku homed in on the child’s voice. He led the way as the others followed. As they closed in on him, Gozu realized he would be at a disadvantage, he needed to hold onto the bridge with one hand and Douji with the other, which meant he did not have a hand free to fight, so he desperately jumped up to the topside of the bridge so he could at least have one hand free. The others followed and soon the battle began. They had met at the far end of the bridge, which they now realized had been destroyed as well to prevent them from escaping at either end. They did not yet know how Gozu planned to get away, but he had no intention of letting them live to find out.

Gozu immediately took a defensive stance, which now looked to the espers like a rudimentary form of Kichiku’s more disciplined stance. Kichiku took the first strike against Gozu, who blocked the attack, though he was surprised to find how much more force Kichiku’s punch had since the last time the two had sparred back when they were soldiers in training on the Seventh Moon. Hidariude followed up with his triple strike cyber arm combo that Gozu was familiar enough with to know how to block, but he was not prepared for the finisher from Hidariude’s sword. Keisei then followed up with her war fans out which distracted him from the paper bombs she was sticking to him. As she put her fingers up to detonate her paper bombs, he scrambled to pull off all of them, except, one that he couldn’t quite reach in the middle of his back. “Kayakujutsu ignite!” The slips of ornate flash paper exploded, mostly in midair, but the one still stuck to him burned his back and threw him to the ground. He had been warned the espers were stronger now since leaving Seventh Moon, but only now did he realize how true this was.

While Gozu was on the ground, Hidariude grabbed Douji and handed him off to Keisei while Sora’s truck ran over Gozu and at the same time Kichiku used his geokinesis to bend the end of the bridge into a ramp so that the truck could leap the gap. Kichiku quickly grabbed Douji and leaped into the air to land on the back of the truck as it safely landed on the far side. This left Hidariude and Keisei to go back and get their bike to follow after their friends. As they returned they found Gozu pulling himself up. The tough soldier had taken a lot of punishment but he had survived being run over. Hidariude drove his bike around Gozu while drawing his sword and cutting him down for good as he went by. Before Gozu hit the ground, Hidariude and Keisei were already safely off the bridge and reunited with the others.

Everyone was so afraid that someone could still be following them that they just kept going at full speed. As they traveled Kyushu Island towards Nagasaki, they found that there seemed to be a massive forest on one side of the highway. None of them had any idea what was going on with that forest, but it didn’t take ESP to know that there was something ominous about it. Every now and then they noticed someone among the trees, and when they did, they pushed on the gas a little harder, terrified of who could be watching them. They didn’t stop for anything, not even the dark of night, pushing on by pure adrenaline in spite of exhaustion. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they made it to Nagasaki.

Nagasaki seemed to be a lot like its sister city Hiroshima. The entire city was underground, the entrance being an old parking garage on the edge of the city where they parked the truck and the bike. They walked the streets, Zokushou calling all members of the resistance to meet them at the World War II museum where the mecha was being kept. Along the way, Sora pointed out the old Suwa Shrine where the espers could stay while he worked on the mecha. When they got to the museum, a few dozen people had gathered, the entire Nagasaki contingent of the resistance.

Zokushou addressed the group. “First and foremost, I must inform all of you that Ijirimawasu Sora has managed to get the Hiroshima mecha operational and using it, the resistance has secured the Sakuma Dam, restoring power to rural Japan.” Everyone cheered. “Second, we have come here to restore the Nagasaki Mecha so that we can double the strength of the resistance against Seventh Moon.” Again, more cheers. “Third, though not at all unimportant, we have added three new operatives to the resistance, Hidariude, Kichiku and Keisei. These three are espers, their skills are not to be underestimated. They are to thank for securing Sakuma Dam as well as escorting Ijirimawasu and myself here safely. They have defeated a dozen New Wave Elite by themselves, four of which I have witnessed with my own eyes. They are a valuable asset, and we should be very thankful for their assistance in our struggle.” The espers noticed how she did not mention that they were from Seventh Moon. They understood that there was no need to make these people angry over their origins when all that mattered now was that they were on the same side.

“Now that I have stated our progress, I must ask, what has been happening in Kyushu?” Zokushou continued speaking to her troops. “We are already aware that some sort of mutant group has appeared in the area. It also seems that there is a forest growing out of control. Something doesn’t seem right about this situation, I would like to know any and all intelligence on this matter.”

One man stepped forward. “Lieutenant Burumba ma’am. It is called the Jinmenji. It started in Kagoshima in the southern part of the island. No one knew where the tree came from, but a stranger brought the fruit to market when there was no other food. It was hailed as a miracle fruit and everybody began to eat it. At first they were simply hungry and glad that the food was available, but soon the fruit lived up to its claims, the sick became healthy, the healthy became superhuman. There was no fear that it would run out because the more people ate it, the more the trees grew. At first it was just Kagoshima, but the rate that it’s growing has increased exponentially. In less than three years, it expanded across the island, the area you drove through to Nagasaki is the last stretch that has not yet been overgrown.”

“I have no doubt that Seventh Moon is behind this somehow.” Zokushou surmised. “Who was the stranger that first brought the fruit to Kagoshima?”

“His name is Kodama. He still lives in Kagoshima and has claimed himself overlord of Kyushu. Though nobody knew it until he already had half the island under his control, he is indeed from Seventh Moon.”

Zokushou glanced at the espers, then paused for thought. “I will need some time to plan our next move. Until then you are all dismissed.” Everyone left except Sora and the espers. Zokushou turned on the espers. “What do you know about Kodama?”

Hidariude did not hesitate to answer. “Not much. We know Kodama was one of the soldiers created by Seventh Moon, but he was different. We received some training from him, but we know very little about his specific abilities. We don’t know much about Jinmenji either. However, I doubt that there is any coincidence in their arrival, they are definitely connected. The properties of the Jinmenji’s fruit sounds like something that Seventh Moon would come up with, but exactly how they are using this to their advantage other than making Kodama the prefect of Kyushu, I have no idea.”

Zokushou sighed. “Well, we are all exhausted, we are in no shape to fight right now. Go to the Suwa Shrine to recuperate. Tomorrow we’ll meet back here to work on the mecha and our battle plans.”

Sora took the espers to the Suwa Shrine. “This Shrine was erected hundreds of years ago by Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa to preserve Shinto in a time when it was being forgotten. When the bomb fell during World War II, this was one of the few structures that actually survived the destruction. Some say that it represents the unshakable faith of the people of Japan; that we will survive no matter what. I suppose it’s appropriate that the heroes of our time would stay here and represent hope and faith in the face of adversity.” They paused for a moment to take in the significance of the sacred shrine. After a moment, Sora broke the silence. “Good night everybody, see you tomorrow.” Sora waved and left for the museum where he would stay until the mecha was fixed. They were all so exhausted from their journey, all they could do was eat one rice cake a piece and then they collapsed into sleep.

The next morning they found themselves slipping into the same routine they had in Hiroshima. Kichiku and Hidariude hauled spare parts from Sora’s truck to his worksite while Keisei helped him with tools and Douji sort of just sat around watching and folding origami. Keisei took notice of how Douji was folding his origami since she saw the thousand cranes during the ceremony surrounding the mecha at Hiroshima. Most had just assumed it was the wind that swept them up, but with her experience in the mystical aspects of kayakujutsu, she had realized that the cranes were actually flapping their wings. There had been no wind, the cranes were flying of their own accord. The question was, how did that happen? They knew Douji had incredible power, but he had not exhibited any ability to actually control it. Keisei decided to see if she could learn something from Douji about his origami. “Are you going to fold a thousand paper cranes like you did in Hiroshima?”

“Yes.” Douji responded while continuing to fold another paper crane.

“Where did you learn to do this?” Keisei continued.

“Master Ryu taught me. He also taught me how to fold a turtle, a kitty and a bunny.” He pulled out three pieces of paper that had been folded and flattened. He unfolded them a little and set them out. “Do you wanna see a neat trick? I can make them jump!” He clapped his hands together and focused his sight on the three origami animals and suddenly they began to move as if they were alive. The turtle crawled, the bunny hopped, and the cat walked over to Keisei and started rubbing it’s head against her. “They’re my shikigami.”

Keisei was impressed, but then she remembered what they discussed with Sora, about keeping Douji’s powers a secret. “This was how the flock of cranes flew the other night wasn’t it?” Douji nodded. Keisei cupped her hands around the cat and corralled it together with the other two. “How about we keep this our little secret, just you, me, Kichiku and Hidariude? We’ll tell them you can do this, but don’t show this little shikigami trick around anyone else okay?”

“Why not?” Douji asked with genuine innocence.

“Well, this is a special ability, like when I make fire, Kichiku makes earthquakes, or Hidariude makes electricity. When we do it we fight and we’re determined to do that to protect you, but you’re little and if someone finds out that you have special powers they’ll make you fight too.”

“They’ll make me fight with origami?” Douji asked, clearly confused.

Keisei couldn’t help laughing a little. “If you have enough of them, or if you can make one large enough, you’re shikigami can be as dangerous as any of our powers, especially if you make them from my paper bombs.”

A look of understanding dawned on Douji’s face. “Oh. Okay, it’ll be our little secret.” He took his hands apart and the shikigami went limp. He picked them up, flattened them out and put them back into his pocket before going back to folding cranes.

Now that the matter of Douji’s shikigami was settled, the espers returned their attention to the mecha. It seemed to be the same as the one in Hiroshima, a giant mechanical samurai. Sora was trying to repair damage that had been done during its last use in World War III as well as installing a nuclear energy cell using radioactive isotopes that had been collected from the local area. It wasn’t quite as impressive the second time, after Hiroshima, it was getting pretty routine. Still, Sora was working just as fervently, this mecha was needed for the resistance and he felt the need to get it ready before Kodama and his mutants caught up with them.

While Sora was working on the mecha, Zokushou continued to gather intelligence on the situation with Kodama and the Jinmenji forest. She took her time trying to map out the forest as best as she could and make a plan to get to Kagoshima and Kodama. Kodama seemed to be in a different league than the other New Wave Elite, and she wasn’t sure where the espers stood in relation to Kodama. He couldn’t be allowed to keep control over Kyushu with Nagasaki and the mecha so close to being within his reach, but at the same time the espers were a valuable resource in their own right and she couldn’t afford to lose them either. This would be an important operation and they would only get one shot, so they would need to get it right.

Only a few days after they had arrived in Nagasaki, the battle came to them. A group of three outsiders arrived, two men and a woman, each one appearing to be pure muscle. They began a rampage through town, the security guards were hardly prepared for the fight and were dispatched quickly. Once word got to the espers, they knew that it was up to them. They approached the attackers carefully, trying not to draw attention to themselves so they could get the first strike. Keisei signaled the attack by throwing a paper bomb at the woman and setting it off. “Kayakujutsu, ignite!” At the exact same time, Kichiku punched the ground to create a fissure trapping one of the men, while Hidariude used an electric attack on the other one.

At first the onlookers cheered thinking the invaders were stopped, but then they all just got back up. The one Kichiku had trapped punched straight up through the ground and pulled himself out. The other two just seemed to shake off the burns, bulged their muscles some more and made another go at the espers. The espers fought back with everything they had and held their own, but even they were surprised to find that the invaders were still fighting, their initial attacks should have done the trick.

The man fighting Hidariude, apparently their leader, gloated as he fought; proving that he could take on his opponent without even losing his breath. “You must be the ones from Seventh Moon the boss was telling us about. To be honest, we thought you’d be stronger, but clearly you are no match for the power of Jinmenji fruit! It’s the ultimate super fruit and it makes us super strong. Maybe if you try some of the fruit you’d stand a chance too!”

The espers pulled back, trying to find a tactical advantage from different terrain inside the city, but just as they were starting to get away the invaders attacked them with vines that actually grew right out of their bodies. “Nothing can beat the power of Jinmenji!” The invaders boasted again.

Hidariude sliced through the vines, Keisei burned them, and Kichiku tore them apart with his bare hands. The invaders threw more vines at the espers, but the espers kept one step ahead and kept cutting back the vines as they approached the source and attacked the invaders directly.

Suddenly something happened that shocked both the espers and the invaders. The wounds that the espers had caused to the invaders started growing over with bark, and then the growths continued growing and spreading across their bodies. The vines they had been trying to use as weapons started growing around them and drawing them together. Within minutes, they had actually become a tree.

“Well, there’s a new piece of intel we didn’t have before.” Sora commented on the bizarre turn of events.

Zokushou looked at the tree. “This is bad, they know where we are and how to get to us. But it appears they do have some weakness, we just don’t know what this is. Espers, go back to the shrine and get some rest, as soon as we have this analyzed, you’re going to Kagoshima and putting an end to this.”