"Well, if you're worried about transporting them or messing, up then just don't go," Shiisan told Terra. "Bug dude didn't say all of us had to go." Shiisan then turned to look at the Dragonfly. "Hey, man...we're tired, most of us agreed to this, so...just give us the maps and the files, so we can look over this, alright?"
The Dragonfly beastman shrugged and complied, handing the map over to the guild as well as several scrolls, which contained the files on the three possible safehouses. The insectoid beastman then pointed to the right where all the beds lay. "They're not much for comfort, but we have plenty of 'em. Take your pick. Next toy your bed are some crates. Those contain all are tools of the trade, so to speak. Have a look if you want, you might need 'em tomorrow."
Walking towards the beds, Shiisan unfolded the scrolls and placed them on a small table. "Let's see, we've got the auction house. The Guards Barracks, and...the Slaughterhouse? Really?! That doesn't bode well...Either way...tomorrow? We should break into teams and decide who goes where. But tonight? I dunno about you guys, but sleep is definitely sounding good right about now." And with that Shiisan fell onto one of the beds, soon falling fast asleep.
"Sleep does sound good," Suiken yawned. Sitting on a bed of his own, glancing over to the crates beside the bed.
Then, in a short amount of time...night fell.
***
While most of the other guild members slept, Suiken could barely bring himself to sleep. He lay wide awake, eyes glaring up at the rocky ceiling of the thieves den. The bed was creaky and uncomfortable and despite the width of the hideout, Suiken couldn't help but feel cramped knowing that above this stone ceiling was another one, covering all of Gangamai. It was less a city and more of a massive tomb.
And no matter how many times he tossed and turned, Suiken couldn't help but hear the screaming. Slaves. Children screaming, begging not be beaten. And he wasn't sure if sounds were just through from the outside or if this place was really beginning to remind him too much of the a certain someone back home, in Onium. "That's does it..." Suiken sighed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, more out of habit than anything as he wasn't remotely tired in the slightest.
The old oni stood up and walked over to the crate, carefully and quietly glancing over it's contents until he saw what he'd wanted. A simple hooded cloak and what appeared to be papers,documentations of freedom to be exact. Forged ones of a free oni. It was all he needed as he draped it over himself and made his way out the door to the hideout. He could find it again, retracing his steps was something he was fairly good at. He then made his way to town, walking at a brisk pace until he reached the streets of Gangamai. Not much different from when the guild first arrived there. Lepers and beggars. Orphans and the crippled. All of the surrounded the city streets, begging, pleading, crying.
Then there were the slaves. Still being put to work, still being rounded and threaten and beaten. Suiken pulled his hood over his head. Even with the forged documents in his hands, he still didn't feel any safer. Slavery was much more prevalent in Yune than in Onium, which...was insane to him, he'd thought it had been horrific enough back home. The ideals he'd always fought for had been turned on their head in Onium that day, when he saw those slaves, those children...put to work, made to suffer. No one deserved such a fate. And given how much worse it was here...Suiken couldn't help but have a prickling feeling a hopelessness creep up on him. How could you change a world that thinks this is acceptable...? He thought he'd had the answer long ago...he thought through traveling he'd gain better answer. But in truth he just still didn't know.
"Move it oni! Stop stallin'! And get! Back! To! Work!" the angered voice of a human slaver spat, enunciating each word with a crack of his whip. Suiken turned around to see the oni in question and his eyes widened at what he saw. A snow oni, like himself although younger, sporting ragged, weather worn clothing, and long slicked back hair. A familiar face to Suiken, one he hadn't expected to see in Yune if ever again, since he departed Onium. The expression on the oni's face was one made of pure, stubborn anger. Each strike of the whip did nothing to make him change the look of pure hatred on his light green face he was giving to the slavers. Every time they told him to hurry up he slowed down. Every time they'd told him to move, he'd stop for a few seconds.
If this act of defiance was just intended to get under the slavers skin, then it succeeded and more. "You're a lucky one, you know that, boy..." the slaver spoke in a quiet menacing tone. "We're running out of slaves for watermill, and you're just about strong enough to work the whole damn thing yourself, aren't you? But even so I'm not gonna just stand here and be mocked!" the slaver hollered, grabbing the shackles on the oni's hands and pulling them forward, causing the oni to collapse on the ground.
"Not by a gods damned oni slave!" the slaver shouted madly digging his heel into the still fresh wounds that the whip carved into the oni's back. As he finished, his eyes turned to Suiken. "You...elder Oni. Papers?" he said, a mad look in his eyes, almost gleeful. Overjoyed at the prospect of enslaving another oni perhaps.
Suiken raised his forged papers and the slaver immediately grew disappointed as he saw them. "I was getting my hopes up that you were a loose one..." the slaver mumbled. "Well you must be an slave catcher or something then, eh? Most of the oni that work here are. Guess they don't have it in 'em to be slavers."
Suiken sighed heavily. 'If only that were the case...' he thought. Luckily, the slaver didn't seem to read his discontent as he walked back over to the oni slave. "Here, you can take this one back to his pen. It's near the boneyard. I'm tired and I think I'm about due an early rest, don't you?" he asked,half threateningly.
Suiken contemplating punching the man in the jaw, but the Guild had already garnered enough unwanted attention in this unsavory place..."I'd say so..." Suiken muttered. The slaver gave a disingenuous smile and handed the oni slave off to Suiken. It was a good thing that Suiken had looked over Saaklemore's map prior, so he could at least make it look convincing when he pretended to go to the boneyard.
After Suiken and the snow oni slave managed to get a fair distance away form the obnoxious slaver, Suiken began to speak, "Tora...it's been a while."
"Fuck you," the other Oni, Tora, spat as they continued to walk, this time slowing down.
"Ah, so you did recognize me," Suiken sighed.
"It's not hard to remember the face of a traitor," Tora growled. "...Even if you have gained weight, Seinaru."
"Hmm," Suiken chuckled, though he didn't sound all to amused. "I know....I betrayed the trust of the Empress, the empire. But after what I saw, how could I not? I doubt my absence would damn the Empire in such a radical way as you seem to think..."
"You think...you think this is about the slaves? You think this is about the Empress?! Dammit Seinaru...," Tora mumbled, his voice raising slightly. He then quickly glanced around, appearing a bit nervous, weary. "We can't talk here, she could hear us..." Tora wheezed, his voice dropping to a very low whisper. "Find the old quarry, the abandoned one. It's one of the few safe places... " The two oni made their way towards the quarry in question. Two looming signs hung over it's gate, barring anyone from slavers to slaves from entering it. No patrols seemed to be making rounds around this area.
Tora took the time to examine the ground, leaning over and placing an ear to it, sighing a breath of relief. "No hollow ground here, mostly rock. We're safe..." Tora leaned against one of the boulders, propping his whip-scarred back against the stone.
Suiken sat down upon a flat-ish boulder and asked Tora, "You're certain you don't wish to sit down? Your wounds..."
"I'm fine," Tora snapped, shaking his head. "What business do you have here in Gangamai of all places? Couldn't have been to find me, you seemed just as surprised as I did when I spotted you."
Suiken leaned forward, resting a hand on his knee. "You first, kid. You're the one who managed to get himself enslaved. Hard to imagine someone captured you of all people."
"It wasn't an easy task for them...but I was outnumbered and outclassed. I thought I could outfight them, but I payed the price for my brashness, it seems," Tora grumbled. "Just another tragedy to sprout up after you abandoned Onium. Though I was the least of them..." Tora shook his head and stared at the sky...what little of it could be seen through the cracks in Gangamai's stony ceiling. There was a brief silence before Tora spoke again, "The Empress sent me after you, you know. News had been making the rounds in Onium, that an Oni of your description was spotted around Yune."
"Hmm, spies are everywhere it seems," Suiken noted,resting his hand on his chin.
"Everywhere? Ha!" Tora coughed a dry laugh. "So few of them we have now...their time could be better spent spying on the enemies encroaching on our borders, than tracking you down. She wanted me to find you on your birthday, you know? Said she wanted me to give you an leg of yak since she figured you hadn't eaten any in so long being in Yune."
"Oh!" Suiken stated, his eyes widening in surprise. Shock, really. "That's...unexpectedly kind of her after all we'd been through."
"Then after you'd eaten, she wanted me to kill you," Tora admitted, unable to help himself from chuckling slightly.
"Now, that's the Empress I know," Suiken grimaced. "Though, this doesn't explain how you landed in here."
"By the spirits, old man, I'm getting to it!" Seinaru growled. "I think I deserve a bit of rest, right?" Seinaru asked,to which Suiken nodded in agreement. "Now, as I was tracking you, I ended up getting lost. Bought a damned phony map from a human merchant called Ris-Ki. Ended up near the Ganga Desert. I caught wind of some minor demon plaguing the forest and thought to myself, 'Why not give the humans a hand and purify the forest?', so I was taking a detour towards the desert when I ran into one a massive slave caravan.
"Seinaru, this place is a fortress of hell. Barely any of it's secrets escape it's wall and neither do it's prisoners. What you saw and revolted against in Onium is nothing compared to this! There is an army of slavers within these walls and they aren't jokes or pushovers. For every one of the fat bastard who you just saw whip my back to shreds, there are over five hundred slavers here who could level the Ganga mountains to rubble. It was just my misfortune that the slave caravan I ran into was run by the worst of them."
"They're the couple form hell, Vyasana and Kupiga. Vyasana is an ashura and not just any ashura. He was a former general in the Ashuran's army. Led the ashura to defend against that massive navy of pirates that stormed the seas ten years ago? He won that battle for them, no doubt. Some say he did it all by himself. Even so, he was dishonorably discharged and banished. Why...? Well, that's a mystery. As is what he did prior to arriving here, climbing his way up the ranks to become one of the top slavers," Tora continued.
"General Vyasana..." Suiken muttered. "I've heard the name. Didn't know he'd ended up here or had been discharged, but I have heard...unsettling rumors."
"About how he bares the blackened blood of demonspawn? Or how he is no longer mortal...?" Tora grinned,somberly. "I can't say. Maybe that's why he was banished. He certainly acts like am monster. And he's not to hard to spot. The ashura with the golden helm. Front and back covered in nothing but scars. Eyes blood red as a pool of magma. Another rumor says he's never been scratched in battle. All those scars he gave to himself, the spirits damned sadist..."
Tora spat upon the ground. "Doesn't waste those six arms either. Usually has a whip in all six...and uses 'em on one slave. And then there's his wife," Tora closed his eyes, recollecting a painful memory. "She's a centipede beastwoman. They say she terrorized Askia for years before arriving here. She was warden before Vyasana even stepped foot in here. You always loved tall tales....you ever hear the legend of the worm that prowls beneath the Ganga desert, dragging lost travelers beneath the sand and devouring them whole?"
"...I've told the tale myself," Suiken commented. It was one of those he thought had no ring of truth to it. "Just a cautionary tale for traveling alone in the wilderness, I thought."
"Well, in all likelihood, it was probably Kupiga," Tora sighed, cradling his head in his hands. "If I'd never seen a demon before coming here, I'd certainly confuse her with one. In the day, she waits in her lair for any 'problematic' slaves. One that defy their masters one too many times and got away alive. They bring the to her and she rips them apart, sometimes sharing bits with Vyasana."
"That's disgusting..." Suiken nearly vomited.
"Oh, it can get worse..." Tora assured. "Sometimes it's a public display. And at night? She prowls underneath the soft ground, waiting...hoping for a slave to speak of revolting, hoping she catches wind of an uprising. She'll appear without warning, ripping open the ground and dragging any one unlucky enough to be remotely near her down. Only a few among us know how to avoid her then. Mostly it's the criminals of the town and their secret passageways, but I've noticed that she only treads near the soft ground. Rock, like this quarry? Safe ground. Weird how they'd barred it off though, nothing seems unstable about it..."
"And you suffer all this all to search for me? I...have no words I can say to apologize enough, my old student," Suiken sighed somberly. To see an oni he trained himself since childhood end up undergoing such suffering on a quest to kill him? It ate at him worse than Kupiga ever could.
"I should've expected a non-answer like that from you," Tora sneered, though his expression did soften a little as he sighed. "Though, I finally realize what angered you all those years ago in Onium, Seinaru. When you saw the slaves? My way of thinking back then was that you were a fool, for sympathizing with them. The humans do the same to us, I thought. So why have the same done to them? I didn't even give a second thought to the beastmen or the goblins we'd enslaved...But when I arrived here...to see not just my people, but all people under chains, even children and meant to live and die like this? I understood. Shame it took so long."
"But," Tora continued, interrupting Suiken before he could speak. "While, I understood why you left, I do not condone it. You did a just thing when you spoke out against your betrothed, the Empress. Your intentions were noble when you left to live with that Fire Oni tribeswoman...When you returned, there was talk that maybe you'd lead a militia against the Empress...But instead, you tried and failed. You messed up and messed up bad, but that isn't why I no longer respect you. It's because after that for all of your speeches, for all of your idealism...you gave up."
"Gave up to become a bard, to wander free and to give up responsibility, only teaching heroism through song and not through action. You became Suiken, which, might I add, is a laughable name. 'The Drunken Fist'? Really? That's your pseudonym?," Tora paused to mock. "But I digress...you abandoned us and in doing so, doomed Onium, Koru and the entire world to die."
"W-what do you mean?" Suiken asked, after a moment, perplexed. He couldn't answer as his fellow oni's words stung him. He was receiving information he'd already known, but didn't want to hear from someone else's mouth, much less someone he once considered a friend and pupil. He could only wonder what his other, more hot blooded, former students thought of him. But what Tora said near the end....of him dooming Onium and Koru and the world. He didn't quite understand.
"When you left Onium, you didn't just abandon your country you abandoned your post," Tora sighed exasperated. "You were the chief among all of the Demon Hunters and the only one who knew anything about the Midnight Gate and the horrors that lay within it. Imagine the rest of us, four months ago. Still lacking complete training, spiritual awareness, and other patience, when and eclipse washes over Onium. The sun being covered by a blood-red moon. The light of energy beaming down from the heavens and into Hiehana Canyon."
"The gate opened?!" Suiken cried, standing up from his seat upon the boulder. The Midnight Gate. A sacred landmark in Onium, especially to it's famed Demon Hunters. A millenia ago the first Snow Oni demon hunter was said to have sealed a shroud of darkness, containing a million captured demons behind it's iron bars. Ever since the Demon Hunters had been among the most prestigious group in Onium. Until apparently, Suiken, the only snow oni heir to the original Demon Hunter's bloodline had abandoned them. By all means to seal the gate again should be Suiken's birthright. But if it's opened and all it's charges are loose, he's failed even at that. Tora nodded grimly. Suiken stuttered, "I-I would've never thought..."
"No, damn you! You didn't think!" Tora howled back, pointing an accusing finger at Suiken. "We have all of the armies of Yune right on our borders, at our doorstep and we're failing at fending them off. All because all of our greatest warriors, the Demon Hunters, and the empress herself are all busy protecting ourselves and the whole world, by keeping the demons at bay in the canyon. They're not small fry like the pitiful creature that claims the Ganga Desert, these are monstrocities beyond description."
"And this is a serious problem, Seinaru," Tora gritted, staring angrily at the ground below. "Demi-gods have been to aid us, Seinaru, but even they aren't enough to stop a crafty fiend from sneaking out of the canyon!"
"What do they want?" Suiken asked. "Something so simple as to destroy the world."
"Some certainly want to demolish Onium..." Tora informed. "But all of them have a purpose...They seek something. What that is, we don't know...but it's drawing them beyond Onium. They have a goal...but I'm not even sure they know what it is...The Empress doesn't even want them to escape, and you know how she feels about the Onium's enemies. Something's happening to the world, something's changing for the worst, sense-Seinaru," Tora cried out, almost slipping and referring to Suiken as a teacher once more. "Even in the lands of the humans, where the realms beyond those of mortals rarely show themselves, strange things are beginning to erupt all across Yune, Onium, Koru, Tengala, everywhere!"
"Sensei! Fix your mistake! Regain your honor and return to Onium!" Tora pleaded. "With your knowledge we could excorcise these monsters for good! Please! Even if that's not the case, at least learn to try again!"
"I cannot...I've taken a vow to give up such abilities..." Suiken said, simply, looking away.
"You really have lost your spine, haven't you..." Tora sighed. "You really are one fat piece of shit now, Seinaru. Just wanted you to know...What are you doing in Gangamai, anyway?"
"I'm traveling with a Guild. The Great guild Fortune. They...not me, but some of them, purified the desert of the Crane Demon's influence. And now we've traveled here to get some rest. A mistake on our part, it seems. We seek to free the slaves, you know. you could be the first," Suiken informed Tora, reaching over and snapping the shackles off of his hands in a display of force. Tora quickly snapped the ones off of his feet into bits.
"Your guild fights for a good cause...makes one wonder what you're doing on it," Tora quipped. "But it is a fight that will end in disaster. This isn't any ordinary cesspool, it's like I said. A damned fortress. With strong guardsmen. It's suicidal unless you have the strength and the army to back it up. But...I will say thank you for freeing me. You've done that much."
"Will you return to Onium? Or complete the task the Empress had sent you for?" Suiken asked.
"I wasn't necessary to hold the demons back in Onium. It's why the Empress could afford to send me after you. You're one of the few things that still gets under her skin more than the demons, I suppose. You should feel honored...I will head back to Onium, eventually. I'm going to be stopping in Yuna-Yae first...Though I have to tread carefully now. When I sneak out, it's perhaps best for you to go into hiding until you and your guild decide to leave...They'll look for a fat oni having freed me and let's be honest...you are the most obese oni anyone's ever seen."
Suiken would've roared with laughter, if he didn't have the sense to hold it in. Tora breathed a sigh of relief as he looked upon his hands. Free hands once more. "I will hide among the criminals for a time until I can sneak out and go to Yuna-Yae and I will not be caught this time. People must learn of the atrocities here...And as for your guild...they managed to purge the Crane Demon from the desert? Without your assistance?"
"Well, yes," Suiken shrugged. "We met a former desert...or forest bandit, rather, who joined our guild and aided us. Perhaps he knew something of how to get rid of the Crane Demon. He said he and his old crew had lived in the forest prior to it's arrival.
"...Seinaru," Tora frowned, as he scratched is chin in thought. "No bandits would be remotely insane enough to take up residence just outside the slavery capital of the world. Hell, the criminals within Gangamai's walls can barely go a day without one of their own getting captured or ending up dead. Just...be wary, old man."
Suiken nodded,remembering that Shiisan didn't seem to know much at all about Gangamai for a bandit that had lived near it and would've certainly seen slaves being transported form there, much less one that had been captured a pinned to a tree for months. "I will heed your words...Anything else you need to tell me, before you go?"
"Not much I can think of..." Tora shrugged...before suddenly recalling one more thing. "Actually...there is one thing. I did travel to Koru. I was almost barred access if not for your wife remembering my face. It seems your son has followed in your footsteps and made a bit of a mistake...but unlike you, it seems he has resolved to atone for it. He walks a deadly path, Seinaru. And so do you. Return to the oni you once were. The one that needs to rectify his mistake that would doom the world..."
And with that, Tora had run off. Sprinting without the heavy chains and shackles weighing him down. Sprinting through the night and out of sight. Suiken left as quickly as he could, returning to Saaklemore's hideout. He had much to think about.
***
"Quiet or we'll put ya in da grindeeeeeeeer!" The gecko beastman slobbered, whacking Orion on the head with the flat of his blade.