Revenge of the Akuma Clan Read online

  REVENGE

  OF THE

  AKUMA CLAN

  April 15th,

  Jess:

  I know you hate my advice, but this time try to take it: Never get on a plane. There’s no way to know where you’ll REALLY end up…

  —David

  An excerpt from an unsent letter to his sister, later added to the Matsumoto archives

  REVENGE

  OF THE

  AKUMA CLAN

  BENJAMIN MARTIN

  TUTTLE Publishing

  Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

  To The People of Kumejima

  Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

  www.tuttlepublishing.com

  Copyright © 2013

  Benjamin Martin

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  The following is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people or events is coincidental. Names belonging to people, real or otherwise, do not indicate implied or actual similarities.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data in process

  ISBN: 978-1-4629-1350-3 (ebook)

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  CONTENTS

  Somewhere in Japan

  1 New Year’s Eve

  2 Back to School

  3 A Trip to Kyushu

  4 Nagasaki Ghosts and Kastella Cake

  5 Amusements and History

  6 Ski Patrol

  7 Fog Bridges and Studious Shrines

  8 Debriefing a Sorceress

  9 Rebirth

  10 Momotaro Fights

  11 Valentine’s in Japan

  12 Homemade Chocolates

  13 An Old Man’s House

  14 Another New Year

  15 A Week’s Vacation

  16 The Man with the Gun

  17 Deer Friends

  18 Invitations

  19 Third Year

  20 Mothers’ Day

  21 Fitness and Falls

  22 Fire and Water(melon)

  23 Revenge of the Akuma Clan

  24 The Poster Child

  25 The Emperor’s Grandson

  26 The Dangers of Cliff Diving

  27 The Entire Third Year Class is Poisoned

  28 Among the Trees of Nakano Valley

  29 A Girl and a Tiger

  SOMEWHERE IN JAPAN

  With the setting sun’s final rays blocked by layers of rock, the only illumination in the slimy cavern came from the green moss on the ceiling. Insects scurried along the few bits of ground free of mud as the sole occupant stared intently at a wooden statue. He perched on a fallen stalactite, his black hair nearly as dirty as the ripped black jacket hanging loosely on his shoulders.

  “I should have left you to rot in the police warehouse,” the boy said, crouched in a corner, his once proud arms wrapped around emaciated legs. Weeks alone had turned beautiful and often superficially cheery features into a drawn and haggard scowl. Weeks of skulking in barely habitable holes had made his injuries fester. Weeks of plotting had given him an air of intensity that neared the brink of sanity. His wild eyes peered past his tangled hair to the lifeless wooden statue, as if his intensity alone could coax an answer.

  The little wolf statue remained still, despite the fact it was no longer missing a paw. Chul Soon had replaced the missing piece, yet his brother still sat there, looking pathetic. Unlike the others—their statues destroyed in the fire—Natsuki had cut off Chul Moo’s arm before he was turned. When the fires raged he had not been whole. Without all the pieces, the fire could not consume him as it had the pack. Yet there was no triumph in the statue’s survival. The wooden featuresbetrayed his brothers’ thoughts. There was no rage, no thirst in them. Instead, some pitiful emotion stared back at him.

  “Weeks of trying to find out where they put the statue. All the work to get you out. And still nothing. You are as useless as ever. The one beneficial thing you ever did for us turned out to be the destruction of everything. You led us to the… to him.”

  With a sudden smile that did nothing to soften his hard features, Chul Soon jerked closer to the small statue. The wood looked nearly alive in the garish moss-light. Greasy hair swayed as sharp teeth moved to the statue’s pointed ears.

  “Oh, I know,” he whispered. “You still want her. And I want him, if in a different way. We will have them together. But first, a new spirit. We need to go hunting, brother.”

  Chul Soon had escaped the warehouse basement behind the Nakano supermarket. The storm drain he had found when he first scouted the new lair had saved him.

  ‘I was right to keep it from Jahangir,’ he thought, compulsively checking his surroundings. The thought of his mentor sent new pangs of rage through him. ‘I will find someone stronger. Someone I can use to destroy him.’

  With night deep around them, Chul Soon slipped silently through the dark Japanese forests. His goals clear, he became a shadow with a statue, unseen by even the most observant creatures.

  After the destruction of his pack, Chul Soon had fled. Thinking himself the only survivor, he had run like a dog, his tail between his legs. It had taken him days in Himeji to realize it had not been his fault—that Jahangir had been the weak one. He had let them down. It took even longer to realize the blame also belonged to Chul Moo. He had brought them Rie. His obsession with the girl had brought them to the attention of the Matsumotos.

  By all rights, he knew he should have run straight to the others. He should have gone and told them all that had happened. He should have shouted to all who would listen that there was a new Jitsugen Samurai. But no. The gaijin would be his. Chul Soon would be the one to end that problem, and the only way he could guarantee that was if the others only found out about it after.

  Many painful days before in Himeji, Chul Soon had found a newspaper about the fire in Nakano while stalking a stray cat. He recognized the opportunity at once and began searching for more information. A member of his pack was still alive. One of the other ōkami had escaped the Matsumotos’ fire at the warehouse. Though he was recognizable as a foreigner, Chul Soon remained hidden among the city’s many tourists. Safe, he formed his plans.


  It took him days to sneak back into Nakano. David and Takumi were observant. With their lackey ghost, they patrolled every night. Since he disappeared around the time of the fire, Chul Soon could not show up during the day as a human. He knew the policeman Yonamine and special investigators were still looking for the animals that had attacked Masao Matsumoto and Misaki so he could not rely on his wolf form for cover. He grew so hungry trying to sneak into town that he almost let his hunting instincts overwhelm him. Luckily, his rage was stronger than his stomach. Chul Soon waited until he could place all the Matsumotos, Yonamine, and even the two overly observant strangers that were supposed to be under-cover investigators. He crept into town, often sliding through muddy rainwater troughs next to rural roadways, until he was back at his old haunt. It took him three days to find the wooden shard in the burnt out basement. It was such a tiny sliver, but by its absence, the missing piece had kept the wooden statue from burning to dust.

  Of course, the wooden bit turned out to be the severed paw of the pack member he had hoped for least. Chul Soon had made it out of Nakano nearly starved. A few mice and a nature photographer came along at just the right time. The mice fed his body. The man fed his spirit. He was annoyed circumstances forced him to leave the man alive. His disappearance might lead to suspicions that would only make his upcoming task all the more difficult.

  Back in Himeji, it took Chul Soon all his self-control to keep from over indulging. The large city offered him enough cover to feed, and for the first time in his life, he was free of observation. Direct observation, he had to remind himself. Without Jahangir, his resources were limited. He could not access his accounts without tipping off certain other relatives. If he spent too much time on the streets, someone would notice and report him. Japan was a safe place. Everyone followed the rules.

  Chul Soon waited and read. The local papers told of the remarkable wooden statue that survived the fire. They covered the single missing piece and the fire investigation. Oddly, the newpapers never published a picture, and they dropped the story soon after.

  Despite stealing papers and watching café televisions for news, it was the Matsumotos who finally led him to the statue. A few contacts he had with the local obake tipped him off that Ryohei was back in town, watching a specific police warehouse. With more than a little help from the same obake, Chul Soon was able to lure Ryohei away just long enough to slip in, grab the statue, and get out.

  Seeing his brother sitting on a shelf had shocked Chul Soon. He had almost left him there, alone with his sad eyes. After running from hole to hole for another three days to make sure no one followed him, his initial surprise had turned to annoyance, and then anger. The statue drew back the missing piece from Chul Soon’s bag on the second day. His brother’s statue was whole. He could bring him back, but should he?

  “I’ll at least have some help…” Chul Soon mused as he stepped back into the dank cave. “You will right your wrongs, brother, even if it kills you.”

  It was easy. All he had to do was get his brother a new spirit. In the meantime, he would figure out the much larger problem of manipulating Chul Moo into helping to kill all the Matsumotos. Chul Soon let go of his hold on humanity, giving himself over to the primal instincts at his core. Yellow fangs enclosed the statue.

  “Time to go see some old friends,” the black-haired wolf growled around the wood. Together, they ran through dark and secret places.

  NEW YEAR’S EVE

  No one chooses how they come into the world. I was certain there was nothing I could do, no choice, no control. I was so angry. Angry all the time. It was not in my nature to internalize, and so anger became hate…

  The soft winter moonlight reflected off the small white hills around David Matthews as he walked along a familiar path through the Matsumoto Forest. He paused to brush a flake of snow from his blond hair, his hard blue eyes carefully observing every detail of a familiar pine. His bare feet moved quickly through the cold slush between the trees. He had recently turned fourteen, but his height and western features made him appear several years older to his Japanese friends.

  David was more than a Junior High student in a foreign land. He was the inheritor of a tradition thousands of years in the making, yet he felt himself to be much the same as when he had arrived in Japan just months before. Of course, the excess childhood fat that had defined so much of his previous life had melted away in face of the tough Matsumoto training. Even without them, the life of a normal student would have eventually gotten him into better shape. Maybe. David smiled as his path curved around a thick tree. Most of his classmates were not under threat of constant sword duels, as he was whenever he stepped outside his room. One four-walled room and school, the only places he could truly relax, not that school was very relaxing. He also had to admit that his other half would probably scare the pants off just about anyone at Nakano Junior High, that is if he did not cute them to death first.

  Kou, the tiger god within him had also grown in the last two months. Since helping to wipe out the ōkami lair in downtown Nakano, Kou had grown to nearly six feet long from tail to snout. He had refined an air of fierceness that allowed him to convert his usual kitten-like personality and big eyes into something far more dangerous.

  The kami was as much a part of David as his own thoughts, as much as any part of his body. Transforming, David left a thick winter kimono behind and let Kou paw through the soft new snow. One of the benefits of having a kami within him was that as long as they had paws and fur, they could stay quite comfortable in the falling snow.

  Above, an unintended squawk alerted them to a small gray bird hurtling from among the white tipped tree branches. Kou sat back and looked up, his tongue slid out with an unconscious movement he had picked up from David. His black tongue licked his furry lips as the little missile dived un-steadily at him. The baby phoenix spread its small wings in an attempt to airbrake. Veering off, the unstable bird flopped into a pile of snow in front of Kou.

  “Still having trouble landing?” the tiger asked aloud in his purring Japanese. “What if you break your wing again? Injured animals do not stay off predators’ menus for long.” David chided Kou as the tiger’s mind conjured visions of the little gray-feathered bird becoming their next meal. Around them, the snow melted from the heat Reimi radiated.

  “I don’t get to fly as much as you run. And Takumi isn’t around to help me,” the phoenix said, her voice high and lilting.

  “Speaking of Takumi, he asks that you try to stop running into trees. He keeps coming back sore.” David’s blue twinkled in Kou’s eyes as the tiger’s mouth and throat formed his own voice. Ever since that day at the Matsumoto Shrine, David had gained the ability to speak and understand Japanese perfectly. It was a necessity—while most Japanese studied some English, few spoke it fluently.

  “He never lets me change,” she pouted. “You two are lucky. You can speak with each other, while I am cut off from Takumi. Anyway, Happy Birthday. Natsu and Rie should be on their way.”

  “Everyone will be on their way,” Kou said. “The New Year’s Shrine ceremony will start soon.”

  “And my birthday was two weeks ago,” David added.

  “Reimi!” Natsuki’s voice floated along the path behind them.

  “Oops. Looks like I’m in trouble. She doesn’t like it when I fly off. I’m harder to follow than you are,” she said sulkily.

  The little phoenix sprang out of the puddle and pumped her wings. She flew just high enough to clear Kou’s head and land between his shoulders. Reimi wobbled precariously as she tucked her wings in. Kou grudgingly allowed her to wait there for the girls. Although he was not cold, he could easily feel the warmth that spread out from where Reimi sat on his back. The phoenix exuded a heat that changed with her mood. Happy as she was, Reimi would have burned a lesser being than a tiger god.

  The two kami were far from being completely comfortable with each other, but David insisted Kou try to be nice—despite the tiger’s instincts to go
for a taste of the little bird.

  ‘Remember the last bird you ate? You still had feathers stuck in your teeth when you transformed,’ David thought. Kou replied by reliving the memory of the hunt, which made keeping Kou from slinking off for a snack even more difficult.

  Natsuki and Rie appeared from behind a stand of trees, the pair huddled together against the cold. Natsuki was the tallest girl in their class, yet was still shorter than David. Her newly-cut short black hair hung around her ears, glowing with moonlight reflected off bits of snow. Her features were so much softer than the hard angry lines David had remembered when they first met, but that only served to hide the strength of her will. Rie had kept her long black hair and it shone faintly in the moonlight. More willowy than ever, she still radiated a kind of graceful power, albeit tinged with an occasional shadow.

  “I can’t believe you two aren’t cold. It’s freezing out here,” Natsuki frowned, pulling her coat tighter as they approached the adolescent tiger and gray bird. “Your sister says ‘Happy New Years’ by the way. Just got her email.”

  “I feel like my contacts are freezing,” Rie said, stamping her feet. David cringed at the reminder of his failure. Though Rie never seemed to blame him, David still felt responsible for her abduction by the Jeong brothers. Chul Soon, and perhaps even Chul Moo, were still out there somewhere. His only condolence was the certainty he would see them again.

  Reimi took the opportunity to jump onto Kou’s head, interrupting his thoughts as she opened her wings to fly the last few meters to Natsuki. Kou snapped at her tail feathers as they flew by, just out of reach of his fangs. His tail twitched in annoyance and a low rumble began in his throat. Catching her as easily as she caught thrown swords during practice, Natsuki pulled Reimi into her jacket, sighing at the extra heat.

  “How come I don’t have a personal heater for a partner?” Rie asked, smiling at Kou. The tiger shook a bit of snow from his fur and blinked.