The Blade, Sourusutīrā (Inktober, Monday, October 5)

For Inktober, Monday, October 5, 2020. Prompt word: "blade." Tuckerization: Riley Parks 

A reminder that volunteering for tuckerization only means a character in the story shares the participant's name. Other than that, there are no other similar characteristics implied. 

The Blade, Sourusutīrā 

by Alan Loewen 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Riley had started out with a team of four. Now it was just down to him. Mount Tanigawa had a reputation for being the most unforgiving mountain in Japan. Since its initial exploration in the early 1930s, 805 people have died on its slopes. Four of Riley's team had now joined that number. 

Fortunately, Riley had no desire to summit the mountain. Somewhere on the side that overlooked the Niigata Prefecture, a shrine stood on a narrow ledge, a shrine that served as Riley's objective and goal. 

Resting for a moment, Riley looked up to see his goal just 50 feet away. Carefully, he surveyed it for holds, some so small as to provide only minimal purchase for fingers and shoes. Taking a deep breath, Riley grunted with exertion as he leaped up to grab at a gap in the rock, just large enough for his fingers. 

With care and exertion, ignoring his growing exhaustion, Riley free climbed the rock wall reaching his goal twenty long minutes later. 

The torii, the traditional Shinto gate representing the division between the mundane and the sacred, stood weathered and cracked only feet away from the cliff Riley had just climbed. Just inside the shrine grounds stood the chōzuya, a well where ritual cleaning took place before approaching the haiden with its altar and religious accouterments. 

Though not a devotee of Shinto, Riley performed chōzu, rinsing his hands and mouth in a symbolic ritual of cleansing. No sense in offending the priest he was sure to encounter in the haiden. 

Riley approached the double doors of the haiden and slowly swung them open. Inside stood the altar where worshipers would invoke the kami that resided in the sacred object carefully sealed away in the honden. 

From behind a sizeable tri-folded screen with detailed pictures of Japanese spirits of legend, a young woman appeared in the traditional dress of a Miko, a shrine maiden who attended to the shrine's daily needs and occasionally performed the sacred kagura dance. 

"How may I help you?" she asked. Her Japanese was archaic, its pronunciation and accent hundreds of years old. "We so seldom receive visitors here." 

Riley bowed low. "My name is Parks Riley," he answered, giving his name in the Japanese tradition. His English-accented Japanese caused no reaction from the Miko. "I have come to ask a favor." 

The maiden cocked an eyebrow. 

"My first request is that you show me your true form. You are a human as much as I am Japanese." 

The young woman smiled, and the air around her shimmered momentarily. In her place, a pure white fox stood in human form. Behind her, she sported nine large, pure white tails that came from behind her dress that had remained unchanged. Her eyes were the color of blue ice. 

"You are an interesting human," she said. "How did you know I was a kitsune?" 

Riley shook his head. "Not important at the moment. My next request is that you destroy something you made centuries ago." He slid his backpack off onto the ground and, undoing the ties, reached in and pulled out a wakizashi, a smaller blade that served as a companion to a katana. 

The fox's muzzle curled up in a parody of a human grin. "Ah, you have Sourusutīrā. I have not seen that particular blade since I sold her over 400 years ago.

"And it lives up to its name," Riley said. He popped the sword just a few inches out of its scabbard. 

The air was immediately pierced by the sound of many voices crying out in agony and horror, a cacophony of the damned.

"Ah," the kitsune said. "The sword sings! I sense almost 300 souls trapped in that sword. My Sourusutīrā has been thirsty."

Riley scowled in response. "One of those voices is my best friend. Another is the sorcerer I took the sword from who murdered my friend with it." He shut the sword back into its scabbard with a click. Immediately the voices stopped. "I want you to destroy the sword and release the souls. As payment, I allow you to keep the soul of the sorcerer."

The kitsune pouted. "But what if I do not wish to destroy such beautiful handiwork? I had it made from a star that fell from the sky. It is the purest iron that does not rust. I labored for hours over its beauty."

Riley whipped out the wakizashi, the point just an inch away from the kitsune's nosepad. "Then I believe your soul will sing with all the others trapped within."

The kitsune scowled. "Well, since you make such a persuasive argument. Come then. The sooner we achieve your goal, the more quickly you can leave my shrine."

Riley followed the Miko outside to the rear of the haiden where a small shed contained a forge

She reached into the large sleeve of her white kosode robe and pulled out a circle of clay beads on a hempen cord. "I trust you will try no trickery," Riley said. "I'll be watching you."

The creature shrugged, her ice-blue eyes betraying her fury at being bested by a human. "The forge requires supernatural strength to create heat to destroy Sourusutīrā," she said. "I must summon assistance."

Riley nodded. "Just remember that I'm watching."

The kitsune began performing elaborate mudras with her furred hands, the beads twining about her fingers as she manipulated the cord about her hands in fantastic patterns. As she muttered words underneath her breath, the clay beads began to glow indigo.

A creature began to emerge from thin air, a Japanese oni composed of nothing but blue light and whose head brushed the thick bamboo poles that formed the roof of the forge. "My assistant is here," she said and slipped the beads back into her sleeve.

The Miko pointed at Riley. "Light the forge. My dæmon will work the bellows."

It was the work of moments for Riley to get a small flame going. The oni immediately began pumping the massive bellows until the coals in the forge glowed with a white heat.

The kitsune directed Riley to take tongs and place a large crucible in the center of the glowing coals.

Riley watched her standing at a safe distance from the white-hot forge, carefully watching the coals, her nose sniffing the heat as it poured from the crucible.

Moments later, the Miko nodded, satisfaction on her face. "Take the sword and place it blade first in the crucible," she ordered.

Riley whipped the blade from its sheath, the cries of the trapped souls competing with the hiss of the forge as the oni aggressively worked the bellows.

For a few minutes, Sourusutīrā held its form, but then, as if finally surrendering to the heat, the blade began to run and melt.

Glowing balls of light poured out of the crucible, the screaming of souls within the sword becoming less as more of them escaped.

The kitsune, watching eagerly, reached out suddenly with her furred hand and grabbed one of the lights before it could ascend and dissipate. She popped the light into her mouth and swallowed, a look of satisfaction on her face.

Riley watched the lights, their number diminishing as they escaped the melting sword. He had no idea which one was his friend, but he felt a sense of gratitude from the stream of souls, and Riley was content.

"We have both kept our sides of the bargain," the kitsune said. "Sourusutīrā has been destroyed, the souls released, and I have claimed a wizard's essence to join with my own." She pointed to the door of the forge. "Now leave."

Riley studied her for a few moments, then gave a slight bow, and backed out the door, disappearing from the entrance.

After a few minutes, the kitsune spun about the face the forge, studying the molten metal in the crucible.

"Dæmon," she said, her voice gravid with fury, "keep the forge going. We shall remake Sourusutīrā, and when we are done, you shall take my sword and be my arm of vengeance."

She turned once again to where Riley had walked away from the shrine, a grim smirk on her muzzle.

(Author's note: This story borrows many elements from my current work in progress, The Shrine War.)