Pilgrim 2, p.1
Pilgrim 2, page 1
PILGRIM
(Book Two)
By Harmon Cooper
Copyright © 2020 Harmon Cooper
Copyright © 2020 Boycott Books
Edited by Celestian Rince
Proofed by Adam Luopa
Art by Jason Yao
Font by Shawn King
Audiobook produced by Podium Audio and narrated by Mikael Naramore
www.harmoncooper.com
writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com
Twitter: @_HarmonCooper
Harmon Cooper’s Patreon
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Part One
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Two
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Three
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Four
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Five
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Six
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Seven
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Eight
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Nine
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
Part Ten
.Chapter One.
.Chapter Two.
.Chapter Three.
.Chapter Four.
.Back of the book.
Part One
.Chapter One.
The thunderstorm appeared seemingly at random.
The day had been mostly warm, Danzen Ravja keeping to himself and not going into the village, not yet ready to witness the destruction at Suja Raksi Hall.
He knew he had been forgiven by the villagers, that he had never actually been blamed for what the assassins Norwin Dawa and Soko had done; but he also knew that everyone in Suja Village was still vulnerable.
Especially with Soko still alive.
The thunderstorm had started late in the afternoon, ominous clouds rolling in over the Asura Forest, bringing with them a sticky moisture which Kudzu said signaled the change from spring to summer.
It was inevitable, the flowering trees losing their petals, the sun growing increasingly hotter by the day, monsoon season on the horizon.
“It always starts like this,” the white fox said as they sat in front of Danzen’s monastery. They had gone fishing earlier, Danzen traveling with Kudzu into the mountains, to a deep pool brimming with plump fish. He had caught more than he normally did, his famed blade slipping into the water and returning to his hand each time with an even bigger fish, Astra always reaching its target.
The two had enjoyed quite the meal, and his monastery now smelled like fried fish, which was one of the reasons they sat out front.
While Danzen could feel the moisture in the air, the rain hadn’t started up yet, the pair watching bolts of lightning cascade across the sky, the terrible thunder causing Kudzu to rest her head between her front paws at one point, her bushy tail curling around her body.
Danzen wanted to say something, to tell her that she had nothing to worry about, but that really wasn’t his place, nor did he normally give voice to thoughts like that.
Instead, he remained reticent as always, his thoughts settling on the same thing that they had continued to settle on since the attack.
Without a doubt, he needed to make his way to the west, to the Diyu Brotherhood’s compound outside the city of Sainshand.
The only way to prevent the people he cared for from ever being hurt again was to cut off the head of the snake, Biren Yeshe, his former teacher. He would also have to deal with Soko, and would eventually need to go after the blind assassin named Nomin, who he knew would stop at nothing to complete her task of slaying him, regardless of the reward.
But there were other things he needed to handle as well…
The sky grew darker, the stars blotted out by the black clouds above. Danzen felt peaceful in this environment, like he was in the eye of the hurricane, everything around him still and calm, the bolts of lightning continuing to light up the horizon.
He was so comfortable that he began to yawn, the former assassin just about to drift off to sleep when lightning struck just a few feet away from him, an armored, electric yokai known as a sugawara taking shape.
Yama leaped from his pedestal and collided with the enemy yokai, the stone lion dog bringing the sugawara to the ground.
Kudzu was just pressing off the ground when lightning struck a few more times, several more sugawara appearing.
The sugawara didn’t need to speak for Danzen to know what this was.
This was revenge for what he had done to one of their own, something Danzen had seen all too many times. Rather than loose Astra in the direction of one of his combatants, he took off toward the entrance of the monastery, going for his Blade of Darkness.
The glaive was propped up against the wall, and as soon as he grabbed it, a dark pool of razor-sharp shadow appeared at the tip of his weapon. He swung it toward the nearest sugawara, the shadow swelling even larger as it tore the yokai’s arm off.
This didn’t stop his assailant’s charge, the enemy yokai fueled solely by fury and some kind of divine madness as it tried to cut the former assassin down.
Danzen’s shadow blade was all-encompassing in its sweep, the darkness of his surroundings only amplifying its potential for violence. He quickly cut the approaching sugawara in half, boiling black blood misting the air. The first sugawara down, Danzen advanced on the next one, who chased after Kudzu, trying to strike the white fox with a bolt of lightning.
Danzen sent both a wave of shadow and his boomerang sword forward, his famed blade reaching its target and blooming out of the skull of one of the electric yokai.
Astra was back in Danzen’s hand just as he was flung backward by a bolt of lightning, the former assassin flying into the outer wall of the monastery, everything flashing black. As soon as he regained consciousness, his first thoughts were in regards to his hellspawns, the demons that were summoned when he bled.
He knew what it felt like when he broke skin.
This was not that.
Muscles twitching due to the electricity, Danzen was able to get to his feet, his eyes narrowing on the sugawara who had shocked him.
He didn’t have a chance to send his blade forward again.
Yama collided with the electric yokai, the two starting to tumble down the hill as the stone lion dog mauled his opponent to death.
This left one more sugawara, who was hunched over, its body covered in a unique armor, waves of electricity flickering off its form as it began to condense its power into a single shot.
Danzen sheathed Astra and leaped into the air, calling on his incredible strength to propel him upward as he held his Blade of Darkness with both hands. He landed on the rooftop of his monastery, a whirlwind of shadow swirling behind him.
He gathered as much cutting power as he could, and with both hands overhead, Danzen leaped off the rooftop and brought the blade down, splitting the sugawara in half.
“That’s all of them,” Kudzu said, slightly out of breath. Yama dragged the final sugawara up the hill and presented it to the former assassin, this one still alive, twitching with electricity.
“We will kill you one day…” the enemy yokai hissed.
Danzen brought his Blade of Darkness down one final time, severing the sugawara’s head.
“It looks like you’ve made them angry,” Kudzu said, thunder sounding off in the distance.
Danzen nodded, recalling that all the sugawara came from a single demonic yokai that was able to spawn replicants.
He once again rested his glaive against the wall, glad that he hadn’t resheathed the weapon earlier. Danzen still needed a weapon rack; this was something he could talk to Khamdo about next time they spoke.
“Their armor is worth something,” the former assassin told Kudzu as he moved to the nearest sugawara. He didn’t know what he would get for the one who had been cut in half completely, but the others had armor that was still salvageable.
Before removing the first sugawara’s rubbery armor, Danzen slowly pushed Astra through the creature’s throat, making sure it was dead. It was dark now, and he couldn’t quite make out its features. He remembered what they looked like, however, their faces not far from the demons he was capable of unleashing.
“Do you have to do it tonight?” Kudzu asked.
“I don’t want to see these things in the morning.”
“Fair enough.”
The white fox sat next to him, watching as he removed the armor. He folded it and dropped it on the ground, moving to the next sugawara. He did the same here, confi
For the third one, he didn’t need to confirm its death considering it had been decapitated. He simply removed the armor, and put it in the stack.
Finally, there was the yokai he had split in half.
Danzen let out a deep breath as he gathered what he could of the material, which he once again noticed had a buoyancy to it, not like any armor he had ever encountered before.
“Why don’t you wear armor?” Kudzu asked Danzen as he grabbed the first sugawara by the legs. He started dragging this one off to the side of the monastery, the white fox following after him. “I’ve been meaning to ask you that, considering your condition.”
“It constricts my movement,” Danzen said as he went for the next one, taking it to the same place as the last. He did this with the third, Kudzu once again trotting alongside him.
Once the bodies were away from the front of the property, Danzen grabbed a shovel. Even though the night had cooled off some, he could still feel the heat of day as he began digging a grave.
Yama joined them as well, the lion dog seated a few feet behind them, Kudzu continuing to observe Danzen as he dug.
“You were serious about handling this tonight, weren’t you?” she asked, lightning occasionally illuminating the plot he was digging.
“I need a fresh start.”
****
Danzen awoke the next morning in his bedroom. His room was sticky and moist; he wished that whoever had built the monastery had installed windows. He could tell that the space was going to get unbearably muggy during the summer, and he would probably have to take to sleeping outside on some of the warmer days. But that was doable. In the two years it took him to wander his way to the Genshin Valley, he had grown used to sleeping out in the open.
Once he changed into his lighter robes, Danzen headed out the back door to collect an egg from Basan, the fire chicken not bothered by his presence in the least bit.
“Good,” he told her as he returned to his kitchen and made something out of grain, one of the fish fillets, and the egg.
The smell woke Kudzu up, the white fox coming to the door of the kitchen.
“I should cook for you sometime,” she said as she watched him.
“You don’t have to.”
“You always cook for me.”
“You don’t like being human.”
“It’s not as bad as I make it out to be.”
Danzen made a bowl for Kudzu, and scraped the rest of what he had prepared onto a plate for himself. They both made their way to the front of the monastery, where they sat. He could see the freshly covered graves off to the side of the monastery, Danzen glad that he had handled it the previous night.
“You know, you never said if you were going to stay or not. Have you made a decision?” the fox asked at some point during their meal.
“I have.”
Kudzu didn’t press him as he finished his breakfast, the two simply enjoying each other’s company, no words exchanged between them as the sun continued to rise.
Eventually, Danzen gathered up the sugawara armor and placed the pieces in a burlap sack. “I’m going to Chutham to sell these. Would you like to come? You don’t have to,” he told her once she didn’t respond. “I’ll sell them, gather some supplies, then I’ll return.”
“I think I would prefer to stay here. But you know what? One of these days, we should go down to the village and have an ale. It has been ages since I did anything like that.”
Danzen nodded. He went for his Blade of Darkness, which he sheathed on his back, Astra in its porous scabbard at his side.
“On second thought, maybe I should go with you…” Kudzu said once she saw him with his weapons. “Just in case they come. I wasn’t there for you last time.”
“It’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Danzen looked down the hill to see Jelmay waving up to them, the pudgy cat in his little vest with both hands on his waist. “I’m sure.”
“Look who decides to show up,” Kudzu said with a bit of a growl. “I guess you’ll have company after all.”
.Chapter Two.
Jelmay smiled as Danzen approached, the bakeneko’s grin lifting his droopy whiskers. Danzen didn’t say anything as he passed him, Jelmay quickly catching up to the former assassin.
“Not even a good morning?”
“It was a bad night.”
“What are you talking about? It was a wonderful night. There was a little bit of thunder, but…” Jelmay yawned. “I must have slept through the worst of it.”
“I was attacked by four sugawara.”
Jelmay batted a fly away. “Weren’t you attacked by one of them recently?”
“I was, and now I’m going to Chutham to sell their armor.”
“It sounds like someone is unhappy with you.”
Danzen nodded and began walking away. The bakeneko quickly caught up with him.
“Well, it looks like you could use some company, so I’ll come with you,” Jelmay said as he morphed into Dalan the hermit, the bakeneko inviting himself as he normally did. Soon, he was in the form of an older man, spry even though he was a bit hunched over, his eyes orange, arms sinewy.
“I can go alone.”
“Yet you continue to allow me to walk alongside you, Pilgrim,” Jelmay said now using Dalan’s voice.
“Just try not to cause any trouble.”
Jelmay laughed. “Do I look like the kind of bakeneko that causes trouble?”
Danzen didn’t answer this question. He remembered his first encounter with Jelmay, who at that time had taken the form of a man known as Uncle Gempachi. A pretty terrible fight had ensued, Jelmay also morphing into Danzen’s demon half-brother.
Over the last day, Danzen hadn’t given much thought much to the fact that he was demon-born.
While his father may have been the ruler of Diyu, of hell itself, he had much more worldly matters. It may take them some time, but the assassin’s guild known as the Diyu Brotherhood would come after Danzen again, sooner rather than later. Soko was still alive and she could apparently teleport, although how she did this was something that he still hadn’t figured out.
Could she really have consumed enough Sunyata remnants to transcend space and time?
“I have a question for you,” Danzen said after a few more minutes of silence in which he searched his thoughts.
“And here I thought you were going to be quiet the entire time,” said Jelmay. “By the way, this should go without saying, but we are stopping by someone’s place for breakfast. I’m not saying that we should pay Sarnai and Khamdo a visit, but…”
“We shouldn’t take advantage of their hospitality.”
“Take advantage? We journeyed to the gates of Diyu, to the Tavern at the Edge of the World, to save Khamdo’s soul. The least he could do is provide breakfast for us.” Jelmay’s stomach made a rumbling noise. “See? That’s how hungry I am. Now, you said you had a question…”
“It is regarding the incident at Suja Raksi Hall.”
“Oh, you mean the time when you were attacked by two assassins and managed to unleash your demons on the village but everyone forgave you anyway because they didn’t realize the demons came from you?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your question?”
“The female we were fighting, Soko, she disappeared. How is that possible?”
“You mentioned before that she abused remnants, right?”
Danzen nodded. They were approaching the outskirts of the village’s Third District now, and as usual he sought anonymity through the usage of his hood, which he pulled over his head after sweeping back a few strands of his long hair.
“Abusing remnants would explain it. I mean, I’ve haven’t personally heard of someone abusing remnants to the point that they were able to teleport, but she was barely there as it was, if I recall.”
Danzen remembered that Soko now had to float everywhere, no longer enjoying the usage of her legs.
“I’m sure she’s still haunting some of the villagers’ dreams,” Jelmay said. “But that’s my thoughts on the matter: she did it because of the power she has gained from remnants, probably from grinding up talismans.”
“That’s what I figured.”
“Speaking of questions… I’ve often wondered what would make a person more powerful: learning to bend their echo, or simply gaining power through a remnant. Over the years, I’ve gone from the remnant camp, to the echo camp, and now I’m back in the remnant camp. I have seen some pretty interesting things when it comes to people bending their echo, but I haven’t seen someone simply disappear. I also haven’t seen someone use arm bindings as weapons,” he said, referring to the deceased Norwin Dawa. “You assassins are weird folk.”
