![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And was confronted with an entire unit of soldiers huddled in the dark of the barrack's interior, nervous but at the ready. The door shut behind him as his two companions entered, and he found that he didn't know what to say. He'd been expecting ten or fifteen, not an entire goddamn unit.
Kenren had always considered himself a decent General, as far as those things went. He wasn't stick-up-the-ass about the rules, and he didn't throw his rank around. Of course, aside from their potential to provide regular drinking company, he hadn't really been interested in most of the men under his command – Tempou had taken up the majority of his time when he wasn't in the field, and Gokuu and Konzen the rest.
Kenren's overall take on being a general had been of the 'leave me alone unless there's a major problem and don't break any rules that will be brought to my attention' school of leadership. He'd thought his men had merely tolerated it because they didn't exactly have a choice, once you got down to it. Apparently, if numbers were anything by which to judge, they'd appreciated him more than he'd thought.
And here he was, standing in front of them as if he were about to command them as their General, which...he was. He looked at them, trying to remember who they all were, and found that he was seeing individual faces this time, not just a mass of men under his command. They were doing this because they'd been asked to do it, for him, because when you got down to it, it wasn't as if any of them gave a flying damn about Gokuu or Nataku.
As he looked at their faces, he realised that he was genuinely grateful. It was a strange sensation. He leaned against the closed door, lit a cigarette and hit it. "All right," he said in a conversational tone of voice. "I'd love to scream at you bastards like a real general, but I can't because the last fucking thing we want is some asshole crashing the party to see what all the noise is about. So you'll have to make do with me giving orders like one of those pansy courtiers in the Floating Pavilion."
It didn't matter that he wasn't screaming. You could have cut the silence with a knife, it was so thick. Every eye was riveted on him. "I don't know why you're here," he said, because he didn't know what else to follow with and it was the foremost thought on his mind, so it seemed as good a choice as any. "Maybe you're bored. Maybe you hate Litouten. Maybe the Field Marshall has something really bad on you. Each of 'em seems as likely to me as the others—" This elicited a scattering of low chuckles.
"So we're going to go and steal something pretty damn important from that asshole Li tonight. And then..." After Gokuu and Nataku were healed, what exactly? Tempou obviously had that bit worked out, but he didn't, and there hadn't been time for explanations.
"...It makes his day real shitty, I guess," he finished, and punctuated it with a cloud of cigarette smoke.
Silence, and then, from somewhere in the back of the room, "Works for me."
That set one person off and then the laughter caught like wildfire and it was some time before they had it under control. Kenren let it run its course, would have done the same even if he hadn't fallen as badly under its effects as the others. Soldiers did all sorts of things to relieve the tension before a battle, and you had to let them do it, or you ended up with a bunch of men that were too scared to fight.
He was back on familiar ground. Fuck the pomp and the status and the bureaucracy. This is what he loved about being a general – that feeling of camaraderie before the fight, the way everyone came together, they way the world got really clear and suddenly you knew what you had to do and then you went out and did it.
"Okay," he continued. "We can't all go waltzing out of here at once, 'cause there's a lot of us - and I'm thankful for that - but there's still a lot more of them.
"Now, I'm assuming you know where this shit of Litouten's is...because I sure the fuck don't."
More laughter again, but it wasn't hysterical any longer, and it stopped on cue when he raised his hand to speak again. "So here's what's gonna happen. Since you knew enough to be here, I imagine the Field Marshall's already figured out more or less what you're each gonna do." Several people nodded.
"Good. So whoever's job it is to make sure it's safe to get started, go do it now."
On his order a squad of four men rose and slipped out the rear entrance.
Kenren concentrated. He knew Tempou, so he should know what Tempou intended everyone to do. But more importantly, he'd done this sort of thing before, countless times, and he was good at it, dammit. Fuck Tempou. He knew what they should do.
And then his mind clicked into battle mode as if there'd never been three weeks of besiegement for it to get rusty.
There was a slight disturbance at the back of the barracks as a door opened and someone was admitted inside. Men backed out of his way as he approached Kenren.
He bowed. "It's clear, sir."
Kenren nodded. "All right. I want those of you whose job it is to go somewhere and be obnoxious to go do that now." He turned to the messenger at his side. "Tempou did want people to go be obnoxious, didn't he?"
The man smiled. "Well, he didn't quite put it along those lines, sir..."
Several squads slipped out of the building. "'Creating a diversion' is just a polite term for raising hell, Lieutenant," he said.
The barracks slowly emptied as each squad sneaked out to complete their individual missions. Kenren spoke for a few minutes to each to get an idea of where they'd be and what they were doing, then made his way over to the six or so men who would be heading out with him personally.
They made room for him on the bench at the table they were crowded around, and he took it. They spent the next hour talking about girls, drinking, brawling, all the things soldiers talk about to pretend like they aren't about to go risk their lives. Kenren listened more than he spoke, and it wasn't long before he had names to put with their faces – Nakajou, Saitou, Takamura, two Takedas, Hatake.
And then it was time.
They rose and filed through the door into the darkened streets beyond. It was still several hours until morning – late enough that no one would look too closely at a few stray soldiers on the road this far inside the territory Litouten controlled, and aside from the military, no one else would be about. Celestials had a remarkable sense of self-preservation, and anyone Litouten hadn't been able to press into his service would be sticking low to the ground until they could see for themselves which way the chips were going to fall.
The dash through the city was a blur to Kenren. He treated it like every soldier was trained to treat these things – focus on getting to your destination, and not what might happen to you before you do. Or once you got there. Just get there, and then get the next bit taken care of, and the one after that.
They'd been on the move for a good half hour now. The villas kept getting steadily larger, the walls surrounding them higher, the gates more ornate. This was the city quarter of the highest higher-ups, the people who didn't yet work in the Emperor's court but were only a bit of unrealised ambition away.
They rounded a corner and then they were there. Kenren had had occasion to pass by Litouten's compound before, when he'd had official business in this part of the city. Its outer walls were larger and showier than those of almost all other estates in this, the showiest part of the city. Even these walls, which surrounded the servants' quarters at the back of the estate, were larger than the front facades of most others.
Kenren set his hand against the low gate and pushed before he lost his nerve. It swung open as he'd known it would, but a massive adrenaline tide of relief washed over him all the same. It wouldn't be long now before they'd have Gokuu all fixed up, and then on to whatever Tempou had in store for them next.
He crouched for a moment in the gate's shadow and scanned the courtyard - no one home - and motioned his men in after him. Their numbers were down to five now – one of the soldiers would remain hidden outside the gate, and one more inside.
They bent double and dashed across the narrow servants courtyard into the kitchens, and from there down the service hallways into the heart of Litouten's quarters, Lieutenant Nakajou leading the way. Kenren was sickly fascinated with the interior of Litouten's estate. He'd never seen anything like it, aside from the Emperor's official court buildings. It was vast, for one thing, and so densely packed with gold and jade and silk that the overall effect was more cheap than impressive.
They crept along the myriad hallways, bent double, moving as fast as they dared through the shadows. Like a tomb, Kenren thought, all dead stale air and piles of expensive things no one will ever use. He had the vague sensation that they were moving downward, as the condensation curling the edges of the hanging scrolls and silk draperies worsened.
Then came the barriers. Door after door of them, each fitted with a progressively less decorative and more complicated lock. One of the Kenren's men had the keys to them all. Kenren had heard the rumors, of course – standard servant's stock that Litouten kept untold treasures locked behind a million doors in the heart of his estate. Apparently, there was some truth to the stories after all.
Those same rumors also claimed that no one save Litouten had the power to unlock these doors. Kenren wondered how long it must have taken Tempou to get copies of all those keys, and then marveled at the fact that he'd been able to do it at all while trapped inside his own apartments.
Or maybe he'd always had them. Kenren wouldn't put it past the Field Marshall.
The silence was thick and deafening this deep under Litouten's estate. Kenren's breath sounded thunderous to his own ears, and every step he took echoed eerily down the empty corridors.
"This is it, sir," said Nakajou.
"Last door?"
The man gave a shaky grin. "That we have a key for, sir."
"Alright then. Why don't we open it and see what the big deal is?"
Nakajou put the key in the lock, turned it and pushed. Kenren tensed; could feel the soldiers behind him tensing as well, and then the door swung open.
One of the men swore softly. "What the fuck is that?"
It was massive, for one thing, a huge tangle of wires and tubes pulsing with oddly colored liquids. It gave off a constant low hum and the air around it crackled with ozone like a storm before the lightening strikes. It radiated malignancy.
Well of course it was malignant, Kenren told himself. It had the power to bring people back from the threshold of death. That sort of thing wasn't right. It was the very worst perversion of Celestial order, perversion on such a huge scale that mere proximity to it could make Celestials ill, even Celestials like Kenren, who didn't normally give a shit about Divine law.
There was no question that this was Litouten's resurrection technology, the thing in all those diagrams Tempou had spent the last few weeks pouring over. Kenren had to admit that it was sickly fascinating. He took a few steps into the chamber, almost despite himself, and then when nothing happened went to inspect it more closely.
Its bulk stretched up into the shadows near the domed ceiling, from which the wires and tubes descended like a jungle of metallic hanging vine. Kenren's eyes followed them to the chair at their epicenter, dozens of leather restraints and intravenous drip lines hanging from its framework.
He turned and found that he was the only one in the room. The others hung back at the door, peering into the room with expressions of revulsion. Their earlier curiosity about the contents of Litouten's secret vault had vanished into thin air; it was all to obvious that every last one of them was regretting having ever agreed to help in the first place. Kenren thought back to their dash through the city. They'd made good time; surely no more than two hours had passed. Assuming Tempou had arranged for others outside to help transport Gokuu and Nataku to the machine, Kenren reckoned he could reasonably expect them to appear within the hour.
But what was Tempou planning next? Most likely to revive Gokuu and Natakuu, then spirit themselves and the machine away before Litouten was any the wiser. But would he want their escort accompanying them to wherever that was? Kenren didn't think so, and more importantly, he didn't think it would be doing right by these men to involve them further. They'd done enough tonight as it was.
Well, that settled that.
He turned to the Lieutenant. "I think," he said, "that this is the part where us renegades disappear without a trace. Which implies that the lot of you don't know anything more than anyone else."
The men turned as one toward the hall, then turned back just as quickly, soldiers to the core. They wanted – badly – to go, but weren't about to abandon their commanding officer.
So be it. He would command them. Only, he thought, it would have been so much easier if they'd all just gone. "Dismissed," he whispered. And then, in a surer tone of voice, "Get the hell back to your families or girls or whoever you've got waiting for you."
A quick glance passed between the unit, and then Lieutenant Nakajou stepped forward. "Good luck, General," he said. The men saluted, and then turned as a unit and hurried back down the corridor. They didn't break formation, but they didn't take their time either. Their footsteps echoed softly for a minute before fading into silence.
And then it was just him and the machine. He circled its perimeter a few times, staring at its workings, but try as he might he could not bring himself to touch it. Another hour passed, maybe. The adrenaline was wearing off now that he knew he was on the home stretch and he was yawning uncontrollably now, although still painfully alert.
He thought he was imagining it at first. Soldiers often heard boogeymen in the dark, and Kenren was experienced enough to know when his own nerves were on the edge. He froze, held his own breath, and heard nothing for long moments.
But he wasn't imagining things after all.
Rapid footsteps echoed down the corridor. Kenren dropped to a crouch, put the machine between himself door. His gun was out and trained on the approach to the room.
There was only one of them, but the uncamoflauged approach meant more were probably on the way. But that didn't make any sense – any decent soldier knew better than to give himself away so blatantly, and Litouten wasn't likely to entrust the security of his estate to men without any experience. And if they knew he was here, why not come in force?
Unless... Konzen. Konzen was idiot enough to come barreling down to the room with no thought to the noise he was making. Konzen would be frantic enough not to bother with things like caution. Maybe, Kenren allowed himself to hope, the footsteps belonged to an ally.
They did. Only it was Private Hatake, not Konzen, who burst through the door into the room. Kenren took in the Private's flushed face and wild eyes, and began to panic.
"Litouten's men, sir. They're coming."
The words took a moment to sink in, and then Kenren burst into action. "How many?" he demanded and felt a detached sense of pride in the fact that his voice was so even.
Hatake shook his head, sending the sweat beading on his temples flying from them like a dog shaking itself dry. "Four, maybe five," he gasped. "They know, sir. That you've escaped. They're searching the front lines now..."
But it would only be a matter of time before Litouten sent a detachment to his own estate.
But he hadn't yet, which would explain how the private had been able to return to warn Kenren. Kenren was torn between an overpowering sense of gratitude and the desire to beat the man to a pulp for his idiotic bravery, but that could wait. He had a split second in which to make his decision, and he made it. "Won't take Litouten long to realise Tempou means to come here. He'll send full unit but it'll take time to deploy one and Tempou has the head start. I'll hold off anyone Li sends against us until they get here."
Hatake shook his head, eyes rolling like an animal's. "Sir--"
"Don't waste time arguing with me, Private. Now get the fuck out of here while you still can."
Hatake's throat worked. "I'm staying. You'll need my gun."
The last thing he wanted was a hero. Kenren advanced on him, eyes blazing. "Don't be a fucking idiot."
"I'm not. My chances are better here with you than they'll be if they catch me in the corridor on my own." He was sweating rivers.
It was true, of course, and Kenren was going to need all the extra firepower he could get. "No more of this damn playing the hero business," he said.
Hatake only nodded. He looked as if he might vomit were he to open his mouth.
Kenren raised a hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead. New beads immediately rose to replace it. "If we're lucky, they'll send scouts down first. If we're really lucky, we can pick 'em off one by one," he said.
Then he shrugged and gave the kid a smile he didn't feel. "No use sitting around waiting." Hatake nodded, and they slipped out of the door, keeping the wall to their backs.
They edged along the corridor for some distance, Kenren's heartbeat roaring in his ears. Their strangled breathing came in short gunfire bursts.
The fourteenth door, the thirteenth door, clear, no sign of anyone...Kenren almost began to hope that he'd been wrong, that Litouten didn't realise Tempou knew of his machine, that he hadn't realised the renegades were congregating in the heart of his home territory. And then the first soldier rounded the corner.
Kenren didn't even pause to think. He raised his gun, aimed, and fired.
There was a flash of light and a retort so loud Kenren couldn't hear anything for moments afterward. And even when he could hear again, silence. The soldier lay slumped against the wall, headless.
Kenren couldn't breathe.
Hatake was staring in horror. "You killed him!" He backed slowly away from the blood inching its way across the floor toward his boots. "You fucking killed him, you fucking killed him!"
Kenren opened his mouth to say – what? That no he hadn't? That that wasn't possible? The guy was dead.
But it was not possible. You couldn't kill people in Heaven. No Celestial had deadly weapons. Weapons that could stun and tranquilize, immobilise, bind, banish, dispel, yeah, you had those, but nothing that could blow a fucker's head clean off his shoulders.
The only person who would ever be permitted to own a weapon capable of doing that was the Toushin Taishi, and Nataku had never favored firearms. And even if he had, this gun wasn't it, because it was Kenren's own. Tempou had handed it to him himself...
"You fucking killed him! Oh, man, oh fuck, oh—"
There had to be some fucking mistake. Someone – one of the spies, one of the messengers – must have switched his gun for this one at some point during the evening. There was no other possible explanation. Tempou had handed him his gun. Tempou would never have given him a deadly weapon.
Tempou just might, whispered a voice in his head. Give someone a deadly weapon and not say a word about it until it was too late. It was just the sort of thing Tempou might do.
"NO!" Kenren said and jumped at the sound of his own voice. Tempou was sly, but he was loyal to the people he cared about. Kenren knew that better than anyone.
There was a lot of blood left over when you blew off someone's head.
Hatake was quivering, backed against the wall. "Aw, man what the fuck did you just do? Fuck! He's fucking dead!"
Kenren stared at him for another shocked moment. Then he turned and charged back down the corridor to the machine room.
"Hey!" Hatake shrieked to his receding back. "Where the fuck are you going?"
"You think a gunshot isn't going to bring the entire Army of Heaven down onto our heads?" he bellowed over his shoulder. It was a question that didn't warrant a spoken reply; of course it would. He'd killed a man. The entire army would be out after his ass with orders to bind first and ask later, but with luck not until they had gathered sufficient numbers to risk cornering a criminal with a deadly weapon.
Killer. Killer. Killer. His head chanted the word in time with his footfalls, but he was still too shocked to pay it much attention. He was a killer, and no matter what he did now he didn't have much time left, which made it all the more important that he get back to the machine and get it to the safe place Tempou had arranged for before Heaven's Armies gunned him down and threw him into a kekkai.
Hatake's footfalls pounded along behind him. But what the hell else could the kid do? Flee back to the mansion straight into the fire of the soldiers coming after Kenren? Hatake didn't have a choice.
They burst through the final door into the machine room "Stay where you are and shoot down anyone who gets near," Kenren barked at Hatake, who stopped in his tracks as if bound and raised his gun to the door. Kenren was being ruthless, but he had no choice. He was not going to fuck things up any more than he already had (and why hadn't he thought to check his gun?). Tempou, Gokuu, Konzen, Nataku - he was not going to let them down.
He pulled Tempou's scroll from his duster and tried to steady himself to the point where he could manage an incantation. Like all Celestials, he had a basic knowledge of these things – demon, youkai, saint, angel, immortal – the world was jam-packed with every imaginable type of magic user from more heavens than you could count. Since it wasn't politic to mistake an emissary from some other god's Heaven for a garden-variety Terrestrial, most Celestials in the Emperor's court were educated in the basics of non-Buddhist magic, just in case.
But only the basics, because it was forbidden for Celestials to use divine magic from any of the other Heavens. Not that that mattered to Kenren now.
Kenren withdrew the scroll, fumbled it in sweaty hands, then tore the seal off with his teeth. The paper unrolled toward his feet as he began chanting the incantation, throat forming the sounds of unfamiliar characters. A strange burning metallic taste filled his mouth as the incantation took hold.
The air filled with ozone. Static electricity danced across his clothes, lifted his sodden hair from the back of his neck, jumped crackling and spitting along the wires and tubes. Kenren's throat was on fire, his voice was cracking, he wasn't going to make it to the end of the incantation, he was choking out the final character. There was a flash of blinding light, the air stank of sulfur and singed hair, and he was suddenly standing in a cavernously empty room, staring through a Gate at the machine.
It was not where they were. Kenren took a step toward the Gate, the way out, and then stumbled back, repelled. He could not, could not go in there.
The Gate shimmered, then evaporated.
Hatake was on his knees at Kenren's feet, face a sickly greenish-white. "No," he whispered, swaying from side to side. "No, you didn't."
Kenren stared at him. "You know where that was." And then, "Where the hell is it? If we can get there..." It was more important than anything now to find out where that was, so that he could send word, somehow, to Tempou, that he'd sent the machine safely beyond Litouten's clutches; that there was still hope for Gokuu and Nataku.
Hatake was staring at the place where the Gate had been, face so twisted Kenren no longer recognised it. "I've been there," he said thickly. "That's there. That's the castle where they imprisoned Gyuumaoh." He turned hate-filled eyes on Kenren and laughed. "You're not gonna get there. Ain't no one gonna get in there after we sealed him in."
A wave of nausea rolled over Kenren as if the floor had suddenly dropped away from his feet. What the hell, what the fucking hell, was happening?
Hatake was still on his knees at Kenren's side, swaying back and forth. Kenren raised his gun, aimed and fired before he lost the nerve. Hatake screamed; blood fountained from his shoulder. The hot smell of piss filled the air.
The kid had been knocked onto his back. Kenren grabbed him roughly by his good shoulder and hauled him to his feet. And then he slugged him in the face to make him shut up.
Hatake stared at him in terror, whimpering, face smeared with blood, snot and tears. Kenren slapped him this time, his hand raising a red mark on the kid's cheek. "Get the fuck out of here!" he bawled. "Go!"
"Go?" Hatake shrieked. "Back? You want me to go back? Into Litouten's house? They'll kill me!" He laughed hysterically.
"You wanna get caught here with me instead?"
But Hatake was too frantic to make any sense of the words. Kenren swore viciously and rammed the butt of his pistol into Hatake's temple; the kid crumpled to the ground. At least like this, battered, with a gunshot wound to the shoulder and his own piss staining his uniform the kid might look as though he'd tried to take Kenren on one-on-one. There was a chance they'd let him go unpunished. Kenren swore again and jammed a new round of ammo into the pistol.
And then the Imperial Guard broke down the door.
He had expected to awake to find himself magically bound and imprisoned in a kekkai for all eternity, but it seemed they'd only chained him. Still, he didn't need to open his eyes to know he'd been beaten to within an inch of death.
"Ah, fuck," he whispered. Wounds on his lips cracked open and bled. He never wanted to open his eyes again.
"You're awake." The words were delivered evenly, devoid of warmth or any other emotion.
He did open his eyes then, although he had to shut them and try again several times before he could focus them without waves of nausea washing over him.
Konzen was sitting across from him in the other corner of the cell, leaning against the wall. His perpetually flawlessly clothing was soiled and torn, and his hair had come free from its bindings to tangle about his face and back, but he was otherwise unharmed.
It was a few moments before he could speak. "Where are the others?"
Konzen looked him straight in the eye and shrugged. Eventually he spoke. "Litouten's guard has reclaimed Nataku. I do not know where they've imprisoned Gokuu."
"Tempou?" he whispered. A sudden upsurge of adrenaline flowed through his body and he slowly dragged himself upright to face Konzen.
Konzen shrugged again. "He has evaded capture to the best of my knowledge."
Kenren shut his eyes; gave a cracked whoop that left his lips and throat throbbing. Tempou had evaded capture. Tempou had evidence against Litouten. Tempou would intervene on their behalf.
He opened his eyes and met Konzen's empty gaze. "Hey," he said. "Tempou'll get us out of this. He'll figure it out somehow." Tempou still had the scrolls detailing just what Litouten had created in the basements beneath his estate, and that information would be as good as damning. There was no way Tempou would leave them here when he could use it to get them out.
Konzen was looking at Kenren as though he pitied him.
"What?' he snapped. "What are you getting that I'm not?"
"Tempou will most likely not intervene on our behalf," Konzen said finally, and the pity in his voice, so uncharacteristic of him, set Kenren's teeth on edge. "Since he intended for more of this to happen than you think."
It was the last response Kenren could have expected. Sudden rage rose in his throat. "What the hell are you saying?" Chains grated angrily across the flagstones as he made an abrupt, staccato lunge toward Konzen, then lurched back to the floor as half-healed wounds burst open from the sudden movement, oozing blood like fresh tears.
Konzen looked away and said nothing. There was silence for several minutes.
"Take it back," Kenren said finally.
"I said nothing," Konzen answered mildly.
"The hell you didn't! You didn't have to say it; it's all over your face, Konzen. Take it back. Tempou wouldn't betray me-- us. We..."
"Wouldn't betray you why?" said Konzen. "Because you were...fucking?" He enunciated the word with clear distaste, as though even discussing behavior so rooted in the physical body was beneath him.
"Yes," said Kenren, threat clear in his voice. "Because we were...'fucking.'" Another agitated movement as he saw that he had failed to convince Konzen. "What the hell does that have to do with anything anyway? What Tempou and I do in bed has nothing to do with what we do out of it!"
"Doesn't it?" said Konzen slowly. "Tell me, whose idea was it that the two of you become lovers? Certainly not yours."
And because Kenren knew that it would be clear from his face that it hadn't been his idea, he said again, "What does that have to do with it?"
"Heaven is filled with Celestials who plot and scheme to overthrow the Emperor, or at the very least circumvent his decrees. Those in charge know this. And so those who are both intelligent and prudent know that it is in their best interests to be unremarkable, or failing that, unthreatening."
"Tempou," said Kenren heatedly, "was never one of those men."
"Wasn't he?" Konzen demanded. "Tell me, General, who is as unthreatening as a man who enjoys being sodomised by his subordinates?"
"You son of a..."
"Do you think it's accidental that you and your aide were the gossip of the whole Celestial Realm? Do you think that someone like Tempou could have gotten away with half of what he did if there hadn't been something about him that told people that despite all appearances to the contrary, he really was nothing but a..."
Bitch. The word hung in the air more loudly than if it had been spoken aloud.
Kenren wanted so desperately to deny it, but it was suddenly there, had been there, in front of his face the whole time. Don't thank me for this, Tempou had said after informing him that he had been reinstated as General. I do the things I have to do. And Kenren had thought at the time that it had been selflessness, or at least friendship, that had compelled Tempou to treat with Goujun on his behalf. Now, now, he saw it differently. Don't thank me...
He spent the next few days, thankfully, in something of a haze, moving in and out of consciousness, occasionally waking to drink some of the stale water they left for him and Konzen. Konzen, as far as Kenren was aware, never stirred from his corner, just stared at the ceiling, stared at the walls. Maybe he was thinking about Gokuu, maybe he was thinking about nothing at all; Kenren couldn't tell and didn't truly care. He slept as much as he could, and tried not to think about anything himself.
It had to happen sometime, he knew, and he told himself he was beyond caring, would be beyond caring by the time it happened, but when they finally came and unlocked the doors, rusted hinges screeching in protest, he thought, No, too soon...
They had to drag him in, he had been beaten so badly. Blood oozed from his eyes, his nose, his ears, his scalp, caking in his brown hair so that it looked almost black. His face was swollen, riddled with bruises in shades of purple, maroon, sickening yellow. His legs, twisted. And, Kenren noticed, his fingers. Those long, clever fingers...
But no, he didn't care. Not about that. Not any more. He turned his head to the wall, rested it against the cold, sweating stones. None of this mattered now.
The chains shrieked as they were dragged across the floor to manacle him, as though he could have moved in the state he was in. Heaven, he had said once, to Kenren, is not kind to heretics. Or to traitors. And then came the screech of the door being wrestled back into place on unwilling hinges. And then silence.
"I was wondering," said Konzen in that deep placid voice he had adopted ever since Kenren had awoke to find them sharing the cell together, "if you might make it out after all."
A noise, something which might have been a laugh struggling up from a battered throat. "And did you think it likely?"
"Knowing you, I thought you had an equal chance either way."
"For a while, it looked as though my role might be overlooked in the general uproar. But as it turns out, too many people wanted too passionately to see me fall for it to escape notice." His voice evinced nothing but mild disappointment. "They were quite industrious. I hadn't thought anyone in Heaven's bureaucracy actually had it in them."
Konzen snorted, whether in commiseration, amusement, or disgust, Kenren couldn't tell.
"And yet--" Tempou began at the same moment Konzen started, "So--" There was a brief silence as each waited for the other to speak.
"Please, continue," said Tempou solicitously.
"So, seeing as you've been free several weeks," Several weeks? thought Kenren, "longer than we have, I was wondering whether you might have some idea about what is to become of us."
"Yes, I do have 'some idea' about what is to become of us," said Tempou carefully. "Or by 'us' do you really mean Gokuu?"
Without opening his eyes, Kenren felt the subtle shift in Konzen's aura, a sudden suppressed alertness. Konzen wasn't going to admit it, but he truly had been asking specifically about Gokuu.
"You will be happy to know that his sentence is, shockingly enough, rather merciful. If my information is current, he'll most likely be placed within a kekkai on some mountain Down There. I believe," a pause, "that they were rather awed by the havoc he managed to wrack on the Emperor's elite troops."
"Idiot monkey," Konzen said, but the relief was naked in his voice. "And as for us?"
"We," Tempou paused, "are a different story entirely. I believe we are to be executed."
Konzen snorted. "In that case, I would not trust your information. Such a thing would never be permitted to occur in the Celestial Realm. And besides, Nataku is still comatose, is he not? Certainly, the Toushin Taishi is the only Celestial permitted to draw blood, anywhere."
"I do not believe that they want for a Toushin Taishi at the moment," said Tempou.
"But Nataku...in the condition he is in," said Konzen, "How..."
Tempou laughed. "I think, Konzen, that you underestimate what a priority we have become."
Kenren did not know which was worse - the days when Tempou had not been there, the fact that Tempou was now here, or the fact that he was ignoring Kenren so completely. As if the Field Marshall could read minds, he said, "Kenren." And then, "Please, open your eyes."
"Why the fuck should I?"
"Because this may be the last chance we'll have to look at one another."
"Just looking at you, Tempou," he said, "is like digging fingers into an open wound." And he did open his eyes, but it was Konzen that he looked at, and felt the weight of their previous conversation settle like lead in his stomach. And then he dropped his head into his hands and spoke aloud the first lucid thought he had managed in days.
"I need a fucking cigarette."
"Kenren..." That gentle, solicitous voice, the same as it always was, if one listened past the bruised vocal cords.
"Why?" he said finally. "What the hell for? Pretty much everyone in all four corners of Heaven was trying to get themselves into the Emperor's throne. Why did it matter if one man and not another held it?"
"Because," Tempou said evenly, and it was the evenness of that voice, the utter surety of purpose it expressed, that finally broke him. "Because the current Emperor is at least incompetent. He hands down orders and edicts and rules with perfect royal arrogance and as long as you bow at his feet when his eyes fall on you, you can do as you please when they don't. Litouten, however, would not have been so easily fooled. For my sake, your sake, the sake of our men, our sake," and his tone embraced all of Heaven, "I couldn't allow someone who wasn't incompetent to take the throne."
He gasped into his hands. "Yes, you fucking could have," he snarled. It was hard to find enough air to speak. "Everyone else was willing to.
"You used us."
"Ah," said Tempou. "And now we come to the true objection. Had I prevailed, it wouldn't have been a problem."
"You didn't prevail," Kenren spat at the floor. "And then you tried to escape."
"Only to keep fighting. Had I managed to--"
"Yeah, well, guess what? You didn't manage."
And now they were all going to die. He supposed it was better, in a way, than being bound. Slap someone in a kekkai and that was it. They were there forever. No rebirth for them, because they hadn't died in the first place.
So it was better, he supposed. The cycle of rebirth at least meant they were getting a second chance, of sorts. Be virtuous enough over the lifetimes and they might just make it back up to Heaven. But then he thought about how many hundreds of deaths and rebirths it took for humans to pay off their karmic debts and break free of the cycle. How many hundreds more for fallen Celestials?
"This was not for nothing, Kenren," Tempou said into the silence. His voice was firm, harder than Kenren had ever heard it before, even on the field of battle. "I swear before Heaven, I will prove that to you, not matter how long it may take."
Kenren said nothing in response. He did not look at Tempou again.
It was perhaps another two weeks before they'd regenerated to the point where they could walk to the execution grounds under their own power. The pure light of Heaven's sun was blinding after so long spent in the dungeons. Kenren's eyes watered mercilessly and he couldn't keep them open for long periods, which was a blessing, because the entire surviving population of Heaven had turned out, compelled by Divine edict if not their own curiosity, to see the first executions in the history of Heaven.
They walked the entire length of the ceremonial processional from the Gates of Heaven to the main hall of its grandest temple. And when we reach the end, thought Kenren, we're all going to die.
It was such a foreign concept it held no real weight at all. After all, no one ever died in Heaven. Not Konzen, not Tempou, not himself, not the man he'd killed in the dungeons beneath Litouten's mansion.
He allowed himself to be marched up the stairs of the main hall, and waited docilely while first Tempou and then Konzen were led to the lip of its patio. And then it was his turn. He raised his head and looked, for the last time, at the sea of courtiers assembled on the grounds before the main hall; at the cherry trees beyond the temple gates, perpetually in bloom; and at the blue sky beyond all of that.
"...ren Taishou of the Western Army," a distant voice was saying through the roaring in his ears, "know that you are to be executed for crimes of high treason against Heaven and against the order of the Emperor of the Celestial Land, in accordance with Divine law. Step forward." A strange hush, a strange frission descended over the assembled masses below, and Kenren felt a hand against the small of his back as he was pushed roughly to his knees. The stink of fresh blood assailed his nostrils as his eyes traveled down the length of the stairs to the crumpled, empty bodies of Konzen and Tempou below him.
This was not for nothing, Tempou had said. I swear I will prove that to you, no matter how long it may take. Kenren caught the swish of a flame-colored robe from the corner of his eye, heard the clink of a chain and a slight susurration of air, and then the sword descended, slicing through his neck.
So remember how in 2003 I wrote a ficlet called Silver Lining? That ficlet was actually part of this fic, back when I still thought that this fic was going to be told in two points of view. Still makes for a nice epilogue, though.
これで以上です。
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
And you're right, it is a nice epilogue.
From:
no subject
::reads them. is ded::
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
After reading the epilogue, I'm just.. reading/typing this through a curtain of tears. Beautifully tragic.
I don't know whether I really believe that, though. Your Tenpou is sufficiently manipulative to be able to have done that all, including his relationship with Kenren, for the sake of power/denying Litouten power. I would love to believe that that's not so, but I guess there isn't really enough evidence to prove otherwise. On the other hand, when they've been reincarnated, Hakkai and Gojyo fit together perfectly, and the depth of their relationship is without doubt.
Other reactions to the fic:
Oh my god that's a great plot twist!!! (with regards to the reincarnation machine) Cool. ^__^
I absolutely love your Kenren, by the way. His body language, his actions, his words and reactions are just so true to my mental!Gojyo.
Could go on, but... It all boils down to this: Love your writing!
From:
no subject
My take is that Tempou found out about Li and the machine all of a sudden, right about when things were coming to a head with Gokuu, and made do with all the pieces he had to hand. In fact, I originally started this fic to answer the question, why does Hakkai owe so much, karmically, to Gojyou? and then the bit with where did Gyokumen get the technology to revive Gyumaoh? just slipped into place. (I've got another bit of spec about Li, but that'll have to wait till another fic to see the light of day.)
But anyway, thanksomuchforreading!
From:
no subject
It's an interesting read and I'm interested in reading more of Tenpou's side of the story. That man is just too intelligent and resourceful for words.
In any case. great job ^_^
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject