A hawk perched on the limb of a cherry tree, its talons firmly gripping a branch that seemed too thin to support its weight. In the deep shadows, all of its feathers looked as black as pitch, the only sparks of color about it seeming to come from the depths of its eyes. Below it, spreading out on the hillside, was a stretch that had been cleared and flattened by human hands for their use. From there lights gleamed: the blue frost-lights of illumination, the cruel brilliance of amethyst, and a pale gold that seemed as cold and remote as the moon.
The hawk sat. And watched. And waited.
-X X X-
Reiko slashed the black sword down in a sharp motion as if cutting down an enemy. At the moment when the tip pointed towards Tsukuyo, a blast of violet-tinted energy launched itself towards her. The Lunar Priestess had swept her sword from its sheath in an iai draw, though, and the blade pulled the attack to itself, parrying the bolt and sending fragments shattering.
"I'm not going to run this time," Tsukuyo said. She extended her hand, pointing the blade at Reiko in a gesture that seemed like a formal challenge. "If you think that you can defeat me, then come at me now."
"That sword...it's not just--"
"I am a shrine maiden of the God of Swords. This blade is as much a part of me as the Shadow of Take no Sukunazuchi is of you, Orochi."
Her gaze was cold and unmoving as it fixed on Reiko. The First Neck tried to match the intensity of it, but found herself starting to tremble, her will evaporating.
It's just like always, she thought. Just like how everyone thinks she's the princess and I'm the hanger-on if they meet us together. If anyone was watching us, they'd think she was the Orochi come to destroy me! Even at this...Even at this, she...
"No!" she screamed. "No, damn it, you are not doing this to me again! I am going to carve you out of my life forever, Lunar Priestess, and when you die, the world dies with you!"
Tsukuyo's expression did not change. It was cold and inhuman; she might have been carved from granite, the way she did not move. She wouldn't, Reiko knew. The Lunar Priestess was too strong to be pushed aside by mere words.
She would not break, and so she would have to be broken.
With a scream, Reiko leapt into the air. She released one hand from her sword and swept it along the flat of the blade, as if scooping up the energies that ran along it. She hurled violet fire down on Tsukuyo, the assault preceding her descent, sword swinging down to cleave the Lunar Priestess while she was coping with the first attack.
Only it didn't happen that way.
Tsukuyo sidestepped the hail of fire, then swept her sword across the edge of Reiko's. Pale gold light wreathed the blade, matching the dark energies of Reiko's black sword. With the supernatural forces canceling one another, Tsukuyo's precise stroke turned aside Reiko's wild one, and in the instant Reiko's feet touched the ground and she was adjusting her balance from the landing, Tsukuyo pivoted, carrying Reiko's sword out and away while simultaneously letting her deliver a crushing kick to the Orochi's ribs, left exposed while her sword arm was engaged. Reiko went over, crashing into the pavement with jarring force, but she rolled and came back to her feet.
The power of her dark god surged into her, soothing the pain of the blow just as it had healed her nose, which Tsukuyo had broken in the first fight. A bruise or two wouldn't even hamper her. She'd come off second-best in the exchange but it meant nothing for the outcome.
Didn't it?
The First Neck brought her sword up into a guard position. Tsukuyo faced her, again waiting for Reiko to make the first move. She did, lunging once, twice, both times having her attacks blocked with contemptuous ease, but the third time rather than finish the stroke she unleashed another blast of energy from the sword's tip--
--Only, Tsukuyo wasn't in front of it. The blast seared through empty air and struck a parked car, detonating it in a ball of flame. Tsukuyo had stepped in past her outstretched arm and drove the hilt of her sword into Reiko's belly. The Orochi gagged and choked, and Tsukuyo whipped the swordhilt up to crunch into her nose, breaking it again and knocking Reiko over.
The Lunar Priestess cracked her foot into Reiko's wrist, sending the Shadow-sword skittering away across the parking lot. The First Neck could feel the blood streaming down over her lips and chin as she looked up at the girl she'd idolized nearly all her life. The car she'd blasted had turned into a cloud of billowing orange flame cradled in a metal shell, and the ruddy light painted Tsukuyp's face in golden-bronze. The tip of her sword pressed against Reiko's throat.
"Himeko has always felt sorry for you," Tsukuyo said, "so I'm going to tell you something that may give you some understanding. As one of the Necks of Orochi and heiress of the Himemiya family, are you aware of the legend of the Solar and Lunar Priestesses?"
"Of course!" Reiko spat back. "You fight against us, to summon Ame no Murakumo and prevent Yamata no Orochi from bringing destruction!"
"And that we are born into this world over and over again, reliving this fight through many lives every time your god rises?"
"Y-yes. What difference does it make? In the end, this life is all that matters. We'll end your lives here and finish that cycle forever."
Tsukuyo smiled at her then, lips twisting up thinly, cruelly.
"Would it make a difference if I told you that in my previous life, my name was Chikane Himemiya?"
"No!" Reiko screamed in protest. Her hand whipped around, her palm cracking against the flat of Tsukuyo's sword to knock it away from her throat. She rolled in the opposite direction, heard the point strike off the asphalt, and rolled to her feet. The black sword manifested in her hand again--not flying to it, but just appearing, for it wasn't a physical object but a manifestation of a god's power--and came back at Tsukuyo. She swung wildly but furiously, infusing her power into every stroke so that the parries jarred the Lunar Priestess, making her give ground.
Reiko's advantage lasted only seconds, though, as Tsukuyo ducked a stroke, came up, grabbed Reiko's arm and spun her past, slamming the Orochi face-first into a minivan.
"Yes. I was the Himemiya heiress."
She torqued Reiko's arm until it broke; the sound of the bone snapping was audible. Reiko screamed.
"Of course you aspired to be me. I was raised to be what you sought after."
She hooked her foot around Reiko's ankle and slammed her to the ground.
"I am not that stupid fool any more! I am Orochi!" Reiko cried out. The blood had stopped; her nose was knitting itself back together. If she could only get a moment to gather herself...
Tsukuyo--no, Chikane--wouldn't give her that moment. She grabbed Reiko by the hair, hauled her to her feet, and drove her into the van again.
"So."
Slam.
"Was."
Slam.
"I."
Reiko's mind reeled, unable to comprehend.
"I was the Eighth Neck."
Reiko called her sword back to her left hand, tried to swing it, but the blow was clumsy and Chikane slashed her shoulder, disarming her again.
"You can't mean it..." Reiko forced out, her voice shaking.
"Don't I?"
Chikane glared at her contemptuously.
"I destroyed my family, my friends, people I had known since childhood."
The tip of her sword flashed out, slashing Reiko's other shoulder.
"I summoned the Gattai Orochi itself."
She slashed Reiko's left cheek.
"I drowned the cities of the world in wave and fire, storm and earthquake."
Next was Reiko's right cheek, but she barely even noticed the pain. Hot, wet tears clouded her vision, but they were tears of despair, not pain.
"You have spent every moment of your life, including this one now, trying--and failing--to become me."
"No! Nooooo!" Reiko wailed, and she hurled herself wildly at Chikane. She didn't even think of her weapon, but just flailed at her with her fists, wanting her to stop, to take it back. The Lunar Priestess an Orochi? It was unthinkable! And yet, this casual cruelty, a side she'd never before shown Reiko...
Because I didn't matter enough to show it.
She fended Reiko off easily, flinging her back against the van, still with that faint smile on her lips, damn her! It was almost a bad joke. Reiko had challenged her with the accusation that she'd gone through life without a single real friend, no connections at all besides her sister. She'd accused Chikane of being a failure because of it.
But that wasn't true at all. The face she showed Reiko now was the face of a girl who liked things that way. The face of someone who could have become more of a monster than any of the Necks.
Idly, almost as an afterthought, Reiko wondered what it was that had held her in check.
Then, the Lunar Priestess Blade slashed across her belly and agony engulfed her. She cried out, dropping to her hands and knees.
"You should have figured out how to be a genuine Reiko instead of a fourth-rate, imitation Chikane."
Chikane kicked Reiko over onto her back, then raised the sword for what might have been the final strike. The blade swept down, and in terror Reiko let the black fire of Orochi consume her, her god carrying her away to the shrine of eight gates.
-X X X-
The hawk watched as the victorious Lunar Priestess slowly turned away from where her victim had fallen and slowly, deliberately walked back towards the hospital. Billowing smoke spat up from the shell of the burning car, the orange and black colors the aftermath of violence and savagery.
It dipped its head once, as if nodding in satisfaction, and then spread its wings to leap into the night sky, its dark plumage vanishing against the blackness.
-X X X-
"Chikane! Are you all right? What happened?" Himeko gasped out the moment her sister came into her room.
"Happened?" Chikane said.
"The blood on your vestments is kind of a clue," Marika observed.
Chikane glanced down, seeing the stains. They weren't particularly large, but the red stood out against the white fabric like an alarm sign.
"It's not mine," she hastily told Himeko. "I didn't get hurt."
"But what was it?"
"...Reiko."
Marika got to her feet.
"And that would be my cue to leave. Don't yell at her too much, Himeko; remember that the doctor said you need rest."
"Reiko was here? You went out and fought her? That's why you let Marika come in first!"
Chikane nodded.
"I felt her...well, felt something outside. I'm not exactly sure how, but it seems that since my full powers were unsealed my perceptions are stronger."
"And you just went out there?"
"If I had let her come in after me, people could have been hurt like they were at the college."
Himeko flinched, because it was her own point thrown back at her. She'd been the one to insist that people mattered--and she still believed it; they did matter.
"Out there," Chikane added, "the fight was as far away from you as I could make it."
"But why didn't you tell me?"
"It would have just worried you," she dismissed it.
"But I want to worry about you!"
Chikane gave her a strange, confused look. Thinking about it, Himeko realized that her word choice hadn't exactly been clear.
"I mean, I know that as I am, I can't fight alongside you. All I'll do is get in your way and make you take chances to keep me safe."
"That isn't what happened when the Orochi attacked yesterday. She'd have killed me if you hadn't been there."
Himeko smiled.
"I'm really glad I was able to help, but even so that was really a fluke. But even so it just makes my point stronger! I don't want to be left alone in the dark, not knowing what's happening. I...I know it's silly, but I feel like if I can at least cheer you on, then some part of me can be standing with you while you fight."
Chikane blinked in surprise as the words sank in, then bent her head and sighed.
"Himeko..." She shook her head ruefully. "All I wanted was to protect you."
"You're not supposed to protect me, Chikane. We're supposed to be partners, right? Okay, maybe not as priestesses any more, yes, so you're going to be doing the actual fighting when it's necessary. But emotionally at least...I love you, Chikane, and I don't want us to be apart."
She extended a hand to the other girl, and Chikane came over and took it. With a heavy sigh, she sat down in the visitor's chair placed next to the head of the bed.
"I'm sorry, Himeko."
"That's all right. I know you do it because you care; you just take it too far sometimes."
Chikane looked at her, then flicked her sapphire gaze around the room and her face fell.
"And sometimes not far enough."
"Chikane..."
"You're lying in a hospital bed, Himeko! You're here because I insisted, I all but begged you to carry out the ritual with me. You might have been seriously hurt, or even killed! It's only luck that I...that I..." Tears began to well up in her eyes, and Himeko's heart skipped a beat.
"Chikane...Chikane, no, that isn't right. I went along with you because I wanted to!"
"But you didn't want to. I had to all but force you into it."
"Yeah, but...that's not because I was afraid of getting hurt. I just thought it wouldn't work, that having me along would ruin it. If you'd said that you knew it would work but that I'd be risking myself doing it I'd have gone along at once."
They stared at each other for a long instant, then as one burst into sheepish, embarrassed smiles.
"Listen to us," Chikane said. "We sound like the couple from 'The Gift of the Magi.'"
"First Marika, now you? Why is everybody comparing me to foreign books today?"
"Maybe because you're blonde?" Chikane giggled, her happy face making Himeko grin.
"Okay, so what's this one?"
"It's about a married couple who love each other very much but are poor. They want to get each other special Christmas gifts, so the wife sells her hair to a wig-maker so she can buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch, while he sells his watch so he can buy combs for her to wear in her hair."
"Oh, that's so sweet!" Himeko exclaimed. "They loved each other so much..."
"That's the 'gift' in the story's title, the tangible proof of how much they cared for each other. But it's like us, too--we'd sacrifice for each other without a second thought and the only thing that holds us back sometimes is that we know the other one wouldn't be happy at all without us."
Himeko smiled warmly at that.
"I'm glad you know it now, though."
Chikane blushed.
"I wish I'd been better at believing it before; it would have saved us a lot of trouble last time."
"Well, I'm not really so good at explaining things, and I was pretty confused myself, but we're together and that's what counts. So, no more sneaking off to do dangerous things without telling me?"
Chikane sighed.
"All right. I promise."
"Good! So what happened?"
Chikane flinched, and the reaction made Himeko glance down at the bloodstains on the Lunar Priestess's vestments.
"Chikane...Did you kill her?"
"No; she ran away before I could finish her off." She looked her sister in the eyes, her expression angry. "I'm not going to apologize for it, Himeko! She's an Orochi now, whatever she was before, and this has to be settled. In the end the Necks will either kill us or we'll kill them. There's no other way."
"Did I ask for an apology?" Himeko snapped back. The sudden flare of anger made Chikane flinch back again, and it even surprised Himeko, but she didn't run from the feeling. "I'm not made of spun glass, Chikane. I know I'm naive sometimes and I know I can be silly, but I'm not stupid. I've been a priestess of Ame no Murakumo for as long as you have, after all. I know what it means, and that there are things we...you, I guess, now...have to do. I'm not afraid of that."
For a second it looked as if Chikane was going to give in to her urging, but then she looked aside, shaking her head.
"It's...it's not that."
"Then what?"
Chikane clenched her fists in her lap.
"You'd be ashamed of me."
Himeko sighed, shaking her head.
"Chikane...Chikane, look at me."
Reluctantly, the dark-haired girl obeyed.
"Do you honestly believe there is anything you can do that will make me hate you? Anything?"
Slowly, Chikane shook her head.
"No. No, I don't. I tried so hard to make it happen last time, did so many awful things, and I couldn't break your love for me."
"Then talk to me. I know that as long as we're together we can bear anything, no matter how awful." Even to Himeko it sounded trite, but...she meant it, really meant it, and there was no other way to express it than the plain truth.
Chikane nodded.
"I...tried my hardest to destroy her. Our powers were closely matched, I might even have had an advantage as an unsealed priestess against a sealed Orochi. In fighting ability, though, there was no comparison. Reiko isn't like the Sixth Neck; she's just...Reiko. She was in the kendo club in high school for a year, probably because I was, and she was awful, so bad that she essentially washed out."
"She didn't stand a chance?"
Chikane shook her head.
"Not unless I got careless. Her Shadow is a sword, and her power flows out of that. She can use it in other ways, but her ability to fight with it as a sword is the core of that power, and since she can't fight, it's hollow. I've spent my last two lives at least training in combat arts, and who knows how many before that." She shook her head. "But that's not it. I...talked with her while we fought."
Himeko didn't quite understand.
"I told her about my past life as Chikane Himemiya, including the fact that I was an Orochi."
"You told her that?" Himeko was a little bit hurt. They'd discussed it together before telling the Ohgamis.
"Becoming an Orochi seemed to have given her confidence and willpower that she'd never had. I thought that if she knew that even in that she was still just tagging along after my past life it would break down her will." Chikane smiled wanly. "It...worked."
"Eh?" Himeko didn't get it at once, but then caught on to what her twin meant. Reiko had spent her whole life idolizing Chikane. Knowing that she was still firmly in Chikane's shadow even as an Orochi, and having that knowledge driven home during a battle in which Chikane was demonstrating her physical and supernatural superiority...
Some of her thoughts must have been plain on her face, not that she was any good at hiding her emotions, because Chikane's expression became sad.
"You understand, don't you?"
-X X X-
It had all been so easy, Chikane thought. The instant that she'd recognized Reiko's newfound and dangerous confidence, she'd realized how she could shatter it. She'd proceeded to do so, drawing out the physical punishment so she could better inflict mental damage. It had been viciously, deliberately cruel, and at least in the short term highly effective. By their next meeting Reiko would likely be hounded by despair or consumed with rage, either condition making her highly vulnerable.
And it hadn't bothered Chikane in the slightest.
Not until she came through the door into Himeko's room.
It was almost as if she was "borrowing" Himeko's conscience while in her presence. Things that she was capable of doing in an eyeblink suddenly became troublesome when around her lover. It was a strange feeling, which she didn't entirely understand. She couldn't even tell if it was a strength or a weakness--did Himeko take away the dispassionate control she needed to be an effective fighter, or did she lend her emotion that made her better able to function as the Lunar Priestess?
It's no different, really, than the ritual we performed. Should she feel guilty for making Himeko take part and risk herself? Or was it her insistence that Himeko help that had insured it worked, giving her the power that she'd used to defeat Reiko?
"Was it..." Himeko said, then paused, swallowing nervously. "Was it very bad?"
Chikane nodded.
"I...wouldn't have wanted you to see it," she said very softly. Was that right? "No, to see me doing such things," she corrected her statement.
Himeko squeezed her hand.
"I'm glad I didn't have to," the blonde admitted, "but that's because I don't have the strength to do those things."
"Strength? I'd hardly call it that."
"But it is! The Chikane I know is a wonderful and kind person, even when you don't want to be. I mean...I know Reiko always annoyed you, the way she was your fan instead of being herself. It sort of hurt your pride as a Himemiya even though you're not one anymore, right? But you never brushed her off or said nasty things or were mean to her until now, since she's become an Orochi."
"That's not kindness, Himeko. You have to care about other people to be kind to them."
"But if you didn't care, you'd have just swatted her away like an irritating fly. Maybe that's not 'kindness,' but it's something," Himeko insisted. It almost made Chikane want to laugh, the way Himeko relentlessly looked for the good in her. At times it felt like her beloved didn't so much find that goodness as actively created it within her. "So that's why it's 'strength' to be able to do awful things when it's necessary. I don't think that I could bring myself to, even if I thought of them, which I don't. So you end up having to bear that burden for both of us."
"You have a unique way of looking at things," Chikane said, halfway laughing.
"Did it not come out right?" Himeko asked with a cute little pout.
"No, I think you said it perfectly."
"Because I do mean it, Chikane. I know how hard it is on you to always be the one who ends up with bloody hands. So...that's why I want to share those burdens with you, all right?"
Chikane nodded hesitantly.
"All right."
Telling her was one thing, but knowing how strongly Himeko felt about being there to protect Chikane's heart made Chikane all the more determined to shield Himeko herself. If she wasn't the Solar Priestess, then the least Chikane could do for the girl she loved was to stop forcing the burdens of that role upon her, and to insure that she was able to live a happy life. There must be no more leaving her alone, unprotected in the open where the Orochi could get at her, and certainly no more requesting that she assist in Chikane's actual duties.
Chikane's free hand, the one not holding Himeko's, gripped the sheath of her sword more tightly as she made the vow to herself. But it was feeling the blade beneath her hand, the incongruity of being allowed to bring it into a hospital room, that made her think of something else.
How was it that Marika had noticed the Lunar Priestess Blade at first glance?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A/N: It was really fun to get to write Chikane being evil in this chapter! Yet another significant difference between the manga and the anime (as these author's notes continue to highlight incessantly) is how separate the two versions of Chikane really are (as opposed to the Himekos, who are essentially the same person, though I'd argue that the manga Himeko is more consumed with her dedication to Chikane than the anime one is). The anime Chikane isn't anywhere near as damaged as the manga one is--she's essentially, as the final episode highlights, a 16-year-old girl who was pushed beyond endurance, forced to do terrible things for the sake of her beloved.
It's significant that exchange is missing in the manga.
Manga Chikane is, above all, more scheming than her counterpart. Every one of her actions has multiple purposes, multiple agendas to fulfill. I've gone into it a bit in the course of the story itself, already, but it's an important difference to highlight. She plans ahead, thinks geometrically. Anime Chikane might well have done the same thing to Reiko in this chapter, but she'd have done it because she was pushed to it by Reiko's attacks and her fears over Himeko and her own self-doubts. Manga Chikane deliberately chose to assault Reiko's self-esteem as well as her body as a tactical combat decision.
I've wondered just how it was possible that someone with Manga Chikane's personality has the capacity to feel the selfless love for Himeko that she so obviously does (even to the point of being willing to condemn her soul to eternal imprisonment to get Himeko permanently out of the cycle of death and rebirth!). The best explanation I can come up with is that Chikane was originally a loving, kind girl, and the centuries have basically broken her down until the only part of her core humanity that remains is the part that loves Himeko--it's the strongest connection she feels to another, and therefore it's the last to go. Whether or not she's capable of recovering in future years, now that she's managed to "find" Himeko's love is an open question.
It's particularly open since the cycle of this story is nowhere near to being resolved.
Incidentally, just for the record, I absolutely loathe "The Gift of the Magi." While I understand how most people seem to see it--indeed, how Himeko sees it!--I look at that story and I see a perfect example of how a lack of communication and a selfish desire for the "grand gesture" can damage a relationship. The "gift" is superfluous because they ought to be affirming their love for one another every day, without need for Absurdly Epic Sacrifices--in short, that learning that they'd sacrificed for one another should tell them nothing that they don't already know! My wife agrees in part; she thinks it's sweet, but she also thinks it's "a total waste; both of them were stupid."
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