Chapter Six - Through the Tunnels

The team makes their way through the twisting tunnels and forgotten cities that lie beneath Disbakao.

It would be sometime later until the three shinobis decided to wake up. Kaname and Orochi woke up at nearly the same exact time. Orochi sighed when he saw Kaname’s sleepy eyes. She only rolled them out of ignorance.

 

Shinji woke up nearly afterwards. He could move, which surprised him considering his prior situation. Not realizing his left eye was patched, his hand scrambled to try to find out what was covering it.

 

“You do that, and you’ll tear off both the patch and the eye I worked to heal,” Orochi said. “And if you do that, I’ll make sure you’re dead.”

 

“Okay…”

 

Shinji rose up. He looked down at his arm.

 

“You can take that off.” Shinji proceeded to do so.

 

“Let’s move.” The three pairs of eyes turned to Izumi. No one complained. Kaname and Orochi followed him. Shinji picked up Shinkasai, was surprised to see that it didn’t nearly tear out his spine like before, and was quick to follow.

 

Kaname was the one to open the cave wall. She took in a deep breath, allowing herself to get as much air as possible. She moved her left leg in front of her, and her right to the rear. The left arm was raised so as to act as a balance, and her right hand was curled into a tight fist.

 

The fist went slamming into the wall of ice, shattering it.. The shards of ice that rolled down into the tunnel echoed off the wall and into the forest.

 

Kaname clapped her hands in a motion of brilliance. “Nothing a Uzuki can’t handle.

 

“Good for you.”

 

“Now move.”

 

The two boys pushed Kaname out of the way as they moved into the cave. Shinji walked past her as well. But before he could enter, she grabbed him by the collar of his neck and pulled him back. “Ladies first!” She sent him to the ground and proceeded to enter the cave.

 

“B***h…” Shinji muttered. He rose up. When he did, he heard somebody falling down, and cries of anguish. He was quick to run into the cave…

 

And found that it was indeed pitch black.

 

“Get off of me!” It was Kaname.

 

“I’m not on you, madam.”

 

“Shut up Hebi!”

 

“Quiet,” said Izumi in his typical cold tone.

 

Shinji slapped his forehead in annoyance. Knowing he would have to do it sooner than later, he lit his right hand in kounen, lighting the dark cave. Indeed, what Orochi said was true – he was not on Kaname. In fact, it was the other way around.

 

Seeing the embarrassing situation for what it was, she was quick to get off of him. Orochi rose up slowly, swiping dirt and pebbles off. He looked at Shinji’s kounen.

 

“Now, that is interesting.”

 

“I specialize in Fyuujin-Ru.”

 

“That explains it.”

 

“Great! Not only is he an idiot, but he’s an idiot that can become the human bomb at any minute.”

 

“I can control it.”

 

“Enough.” Izumi’s command was all that was needed to end the argument. “We need to move. His slumber took too much precious time.”

 

Orochi sighed. “Let’s go everyone. Balking at Shinji’s new found ability won’t help us get to sensei on time.”

 

The party began their march; the march through the dripping walls, their journey into the misty cavern halls, and their search for the other end. Shinji led the way, his bright fire lighting the path. Orochi came in second, to separate the two. Kaname was the third in place, and Izumi trailed behind, observing his three teammates with the gaze of an owl.

 

The frequency the walls closed on the group was as unpredictable as when they would find a large opening. The flow of water and the beating of waterfall echoed off of the wet walls.

 

Walls were common, but so were ledges that were within climbing distance. Shinji was the first to go, since if he would fall, the others would catch him, and thus preserve their human torch. The rest would be quick to follow.

 

“You’d best be careful,” Orochi advised Shinji after he had nearly fallen. Luckily, Orochi was beneath him, and outreaching his hand, managed to catch Shinji by his hand. Shinji was quick to climb back onto the wall. “If you break your neck, we’re all good as dead.”

 

“I’ll be fine.”

 

“Not with that attitude. We are a team, although half of us don’t act like it.” Orochi kept a thing smile on his face, and Shinji despised him all the more for it.

 

“I don’t need your help”.

 

“Our loss then.”

 

For the most part, their journey after that was mostly uneventful. The cavern ceiling did not collapse on top of them, although Kaname feared that they would. The cavern path twisted and turned, and Kaname would ask Shinji if he was leading them in the right direction, and Orochi would answer in his place that there was only one path to follow. Not once was there a fork in the road.

 

But then, they encountered something that was not in their good fortune: a blocked passage. A slab of rock was the culprit, bisecting them from the other side.

 

“Shinji! You got us lost!”

 

“I didn’t do anything! I just followed the path.”

 

“He’s telling the truth, madam. Like I said –“

 

“Enough with your bullshit, you damn Hebi!”

 

Shinji pulled down on his collar, giving him some extra room to breath. Kaname and Orochi quickly found themselves in a large fight; Shinji found it wise to back away from the quarrel.

 

The argument went back and forth; Kaname would yell back, and Orochi would retort a comment in his calm and peaceful voice, always ending it with ‘madam’ when he could, which would only anger Kaname even more, much to Orochi’s amusement.

 

“Why are you always protecting that outsider, Hebi?”

 

“He’s part of the team, madam.”

 

“But he’s an outsider, you damn snakeskin! He’s almost as low as you?”

 

“I disagree, madam.”

 

“Stop calling me that!”

 

“Certainly, mistress.”

 

Izumi stayed out of their quarrel; he could care less of their opinions of each other. It was none of his business how much they cared for each other; just as long as they got the mission accomplished, that was all that mattered in the end.

 

‘All they do is fight!’ Shinji said to himself. ‘They fight over me, over where to go, how to go about it; if it’s in front of them, they’ll fight over it! I’d bet that if there was just a crumb of a dumpling left, and one of them wanted it, the other would fight tooth and claw to get it, just for the sake of arguing!  They’re just like brother and sister…’

 

In his self examination, Shinji was slowly taking steps backwards, his fingers balancing his chin. As he was walking backwards, the weight of Shinkasai made him unsteady, and he fell…right into the slab of rock.

 

Shinji didn’t know how, wherever it was by the weight of his enormous wasuka or that it was just weak altogether, but the slab of rock fell apart. The path was opened!

 

Everyone turned to face Shinji and the opened path. Kaname had a look of utter surprise on her face, Izumi didn’t seem like he cared at all, whereas Orochi had a look of congratulations.

 

“Now that’s using your head. How did you know it was so weak?”

 

“Well, uh,” Shinji’s mind wandered, looking for an explanation. He didn’t find a good one. “It was better than nothing.”

 

“Or tripping backwards,” Izumi said.

 

“Who cares? We have a path now! Let’s go!”

 

No one wanted to complain with Kaname. Getting back to his feet, Shinji raised his kounen enflamed arm, and led the party.

 

As they continued their journey through the cavern, Shinji noticed that the passageway was getting tighter and smaller with every turn. It was reaching the point where the hilt of his blade was screeching across the wall, creating a noise that was more than just annoying. He couldn’t even lift his arm all the way up like he would before; it was bent now, or else he’d start to hit the ceiling.

 

There was one passageway that so narrow that Shinji could not continue with Shinkasai.

 

“What now?,” Kaname asked.

 

“I can’t leave it behind.”

 

Izumi came up with the solution: “You go through first. We’ll follow, passing your wasuka between us. We’ll have to rotate it so that it will fit, but it should be fine.”

 

They did as Izumi instructed. Shinji went all the way to the end, his kounen lighting the tight passageway. Kaname followed, then Orochi, with Izumi the last to enter. Izumi passed Shinkasai to Orochi; Orochi walked a good portion through with the heavy blade, him having to twist it and jiggle it through many tight spots before he passed it to Kaname. If it wouldn’t squeeze through, Kaname would force it through, the heavy blade biting through rock and stone. She didn’t have the patience to nudge it through the tight spots.

 

Shinji frowned when he saw the way Kaname handled his wasuka. “What’s that for?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

“Whatever.”

 

They continued, back in formation. Soon, they had found themselves in a place they thought would be spun in old epics: it was a lost ruin city. The roofs seemed to reach for the heavens, or as close as an underground city could. Giant statues of stone led the way, their raised arms creating arches. Old symbols decorated the polished stone walls. Everything down here was made of stone; nothing had the breath of life. It was cold, dark, and absolutely breathe taking.

 

Orochi’s pale hand slid across the toe of a Buddha statue. “Amazing.”

 

“I wonder why sensei wants us down here…”

 

“It’s just a path,” Izumi answered, but Kaname wasn’t satisfied.

 

“Its one thing to bring us to places where traps are. But what’s the reason to bring us to an old city like this?”

 

It was Shinji who answered. “So we see our ancestors; those that have come before us. Before we had Feudal Lords, men with divine rights to lead us, there were the God-Kings, the true gods, who ruled man. This is one of their great cities.”

 

Izumi sighed. “It’s only a path. Let’s move. We can admire history at a later date; preferably when our careers aren’t on the line.”

 

Orochi walked past Shinji, but not before patting him on the shoulder. “Let’s move, Shinji.” Shinji shook out the shivers that ran up his spine.

 

They didn’t walk in formation this time. There was no need; there was so much space, the caverns didn’t constrain them. It felt good not to have someone breathing down on your neck. It was a nice place to stretch their legs.

 

Even though its residents were long dead, the city still had a sense of being alive. Many flags that were hung on the structures were in one piece. Fountains has water running into them, and Orochi even drank some to his satisfaction. Benches and chairs were not shattered, although not exactly the most comfortable pieces of furniture Shinji and Kaname had ever sat on.

 

Izumi wasn’t pleased by how much his team mates were slacking, but the others gave him no heed. They had no way to track the time underground, but they were pretty sure they’ve been out on this test for a day and then some. They in need a break was an understatement.

“We can rest above ground.” No one was willing to wait that long.

They found what looked like an inn. It was two stories tall; it was built to keep the cold cavern air outside. There was no fireplace, and Orochi questioned how that was possible. Kaname didn’t care; it was warm, and that’s all that counted. Izumi remained silent out of anger, and Shinji stayed out of it because he was too exhausted to care.

They each found their own beds. Most of the beds have broken apart, a major contrast from the other furniture. The few that were in one piece, however, were surprisingly comfortable. They quickly fell asleep; even Izumi allowed his dreams to take control of him.