Pirates of the Makai

Pirates of the Makai
Part Eight
Hiei matched the sign drawn over the door to the one on his piece of the map. “The Vaults of Stone,” he read aloud, “The first of four stages. This is the domain of the First Saint.”

“Saint?” Yusuke asked.

“The highest members of the cult were awarded the title ‘Saint’,” Kurama informed him, “Each one had their own territory inside the castle. This must be the first of them.”

“Do we just go in?” Yusuke asked, “What else does that thing say, Hiei?”

“The Master is one with the very stone. Beware all that is stone.”

“Is that like a riddle or something?” Kuwabara bayed, “Come on, let’s quit yapping and go in. He door don’t look booby-trapped and the map don’t say we shouldn’t.” He pushed the doors open. Everyone braced themselves for some calamity to fall on them, but it didn’t come.

They strolled through the doors. Yusuke lit one of the torches they’d brought. The light flared, illuminating a row of figures directly in front of him. He jumped, nearly losing the torch. He nearly reached for his pistol, until he realized the figures weren’t moving.

“Statues, Yusuke,” Kurama placed a claiming hand on his shoulder.

Yusuke laughed nervously to himself as he held the torch high, throwing dim amber light out over the room. “It’s big,” he said, “I can’t see the other side.” He looked around some more and found the room was filled with rows upon rows of granite statues, standing on short pedestals.

“This place is sort of freaky,” Kuwabara muttered, “And what’s with these statues? Their faces look… miserable.”

“Maybe the models were really constipated?” Yusuke shrugged.

“Did you hear that?” Kurama suddenly interrupted them.

They listened. There it was; a sound like stone dragging on stone, but only for an instant.

“Could be our foe’s,” Hiei whispered, “They might be somewhere in this room.”

“Quick put out the torch!” Kuwabara hissed urgently.

“No don’t,” Kurama stayed Yusuke’s hand, “If they’re here, they already know where we are. No point in blinding ourselves.” They heard the sound again, a quick shuffling.

“There,” Hiei pointed, but when Yusuke shined his light, all they found was a bunch of statues.

“Uh guys?” Kuwabara’s wobbly voice called to them. They turned. He was staring wide eyed at a set of empty pedestals. Then they realized as he already had, that there were statues standing there a minute ago.

“Ah!” Kurama cried out all of the sudden as something hard clubbed him in the middle of his back. Hiei dashed to catch him at the same time as Yusuke was whirling round to catch his assailant in the light.

His light fell on a gaunt, grey stone figure. It opened its mouth and made a sound like sand blowing over rough stone as it raised its fists to strike again. Kurama and Hiei dashed one way, while Yusuke jumped the other to avoid the swing-back. That was when another stone faced figure shambled into the light, taking a swing at him. And then another appeared and another. The room was filled with them and they were all after him!

“Yusuke, they’re attracted to the light,” Hiei called to him. Yusuke could barely see his three companions standing just outside the edge of the firelight. The statues were ignoring them and going him. Hiei yelled, “Put out the light!”

Yusuke protested, “If I do that, we’ll never find the exit!”

“I know!” Kurama ran into the darkness beyond Yusuke. “Yusuke, throw it over here!”

Biting his lip, Yusuke hurled the burning torch into the dark, praying that he’d aimed his so that the redhead could catch it without getting burned. Kurama caught it. Instantly the statues lost interest in Yusuke and turned on Kurama. By the time Hiei and Kuwabara had caught on to Kurama’s ploy and likewise ran deeper into the dark room. Kuwabara called, just as the shambling statues were reaching Kurama’s glowing circle of light. He tossed the torch to Kuwabara, who passed it on to Hiei, before the statues could reach him and tear him apart. Hiei, in turn, threw the thing to Yusuke.

The flame sputtered as it soared through the air. It flared back to life once he’d caught it, but the flame leaned to one side as if it were burning sideways. Yusuke held up his hand and felt a breeze! He cried, “The way out; it’s over there!”

The others ran in that direction. Then Kurama’s voice called back to him, “Yes, we found the door. Hurry Yusuke!”

Yusuke hurled the torch as far as he could into the room. The stone figures followed the light, while Yusuke bolted for the door.
* * *
The next room wasn’t nearly as large as the first, or as dark. And there were refreshingly no statues-- or anything else for that matter. The room empty, bare stone floor and only the occasional torch burning in its sconce hung on the bare stone walls.

“Ha, if that‘s the best this place has got, there’s no stopping us,” Kuwabara brayed, but his voice cracked, slightly spoiling his bravado.

“So, you made it past the Dark Room,” a deep gravely voice rumbled through the room.

Kurama recognized it at once. “Genbu!” He shouted and looked around. He could see every inch of the empty room, but could not see his former first mate. Kurama demanded, “Genbu, show yourself!”

Genbu chuckled. When he did so it seemed that the whole room vibrated with the sound. “You can see me, for all that you see is me!”

“What are you--” Kurama was cut off by a room jarring chuckle. Then the ground in front of them shifted as if the stone was melting. A great bubble welled up from the floor. Arm and legs sprouted from it, shortly followed by a head and a tail. Suddenly standing before them was a great ape-like creature made of stone. Kurama peered at the face under its protruding spike covered brow. It was Genbu’s face.

“Genbu?” Kurama gasped in horror, “What’s happened to you?”

“Power,” the stone monster that was once Genbu growled, “I have been granted strength, immortality, and the power to finally crush you! Rrrrrrr!!!!” He roared and swung one giant fist at Kurama, who gracefully fainted out of the way. The giant paw continued down to crash into the floor-- no, it didn’t crash. It sunk right into the stone as if he’d plunged his hand in a pool of water.

“Kurama, look out!” Yusuke shouted just in the nick of time. Genbu’s mighty fist sprung up, inexplicably behind Kurama. If not for Yusuke’s warning Kurama would not have make it out in time.

“Kurama you got to get out of his reach!” Kuwabara yelled.

“I can’t,” Kurama gasped back as he narrowly avoided another blow from those great fists.

Hiei clinched his teeth and hissed, “Beware ALL that is stone. Everything here is stone.”

“That’s right,” Genbu chuckled as he melted into the floor. His voice seemed to come from everywhere at one, “I can be anywhere-- and everywhere!”

He suddenly sprang from the ceiling, lunging right for Kurama. A knee-jerk reaction, Kurama uncoiled his whip and sent it flying for Genbu’s throat. He side stepped the monster and hurled hard on the whip. Genbu’s neck broke away. His head tumbled from his shoulders and rolled across the floor. Meanwhile Genbu’s body crumbled into a pile of rubble that soon melted into the floor.

“Well that was scary,” Kuwabara‘s inane statement broke the tense post-battle silence.

“Indeed,” Kurama panted looking down at the severed head, “But it‘s over now. We should move on.”

No sooner did the words leave his mouth did the severed stone head open its eyes and grin up at him. “Got cha!” He bellowed as a hale of jagged rocks shot from the walls, right for Kurama. Kurama couldn’t dodge all of them.

“We’ve got to help him!” Yusuke started to charge into the fray, but Hiei’s hand stopped him.

“If you go in there you’ll be stoned to death instantly,” he murmured. “Kurama can handle this. Just give him a chance.”

“Is… is this what you wanted?” Kurama grunted and gasped each time a stone slipped past his defenses and struck him. “Is this why you betrayed our ship and our company, to become a cowardly monster?”

“I wanted to be captain, to have the power I was denied went that lecherous youko gave you the Rose-Lash Fury to you-- a little bed warmer! It should have been mine! Ah but, Suzaku promised to help me claim it-- and more! He promised we’d be kings, But we got so much more than that,” the sneering stone head floated off the floor and hovered in front of him, “We are GODS!”

With that the head broke apart and joined the other stones circling round Kurama, spinning faster and faster, getting ready for that one final crush. Extraordinarily, Kurama didn’t look frightened in the least. He gripped his whip and stood waiting and ready, sniffing the air like a hound dog finding a scent.

“Kurama get out of there!” Yusuke howled. “Is he crazy?”

“Crazy like a fox,” Hiei gripped his arm.

Then the stones all flew inward to encase the redhead and crush the life out of him, but just then Kurama snapped his wrist and sent his whip flying to catch one particular rock. A flick of the wrist and it was in his hand. He squeezed it.

“AHHH!“ A loud roar of pain came from Genbu as his parts rushed away from Kurama and reassembled.

“Just as I thought,” Kurama said coldly, “Your new body can disassemble, reassemble and merge with solid rock, yet no matter what your mind seems to stay whole and undiluted. Thus I figured there must be one center from which your thoughts and functions regulated.”

“W-what?” Genbu stammered dumbly.

“This is your brain,” Kurama said simply, holding up the stone, “This is the center of your being. It is you. All else is but extension. Genbu, you should have taken the time to study your new monstrous body more closely. If you had, you would have known to keep this in a safe place at all times. Ah, but you know what they say; hind-sight is twenty-twenty.” He grasped the whip near where it was wrapped around the stone. Genbu gapped. Kurama gave the whip a sharp tug. It tightened around the stone. The stone split with a deafening crack and a slow trickle of blood dribbled to the floor.

“NOOOO!!!!” Genbu roared as his body slowly degraded into sand.

After a long moment of shocked paralyzes, Yusuke jogged over to Kurama, “That was awesome man!”

“Yeah,” Kuwabara agreed, “But hey, how did you know which of those stone thingies would kill him?”

“Oh, that. It was the smell. The rest of the stone just smelled like stone, but that one smelled notably like Genbu,” Kurama gave a wary smile, “He was never much for personal hygiene. Gyh!”

“Kurama, are you all right?” Hiei tensed when he noticed the red stain expanding over the redhead’s side.

“I’ll be fine,” Kurama assured them, “It’s just a minor flesh wound, no where near fatal.”

Hiei scowled and looked at the other two, “This is going to be a lot harder with Kurama injured.”

“Hey I can handle--,” Kuwabara started to boast but was cut off by a deafening roar. It came from somewhere beyond the next door.
* * *
Through the next door they followed a short corridor that ended in a set of stairs that seemed to spiral up and up forever. They climbed the stairs undeterred, stopping only once and a while when that monstrous roar sounded and watched anxiously as fine sand trickled out from between stone blocks. Finally they reached the top and came face to face with yet another door. This one had a sign over the top of it.

“This is the Aerie of the Beast. Home of the Second Saint,” Hiei read from his torn piece of parchment, “Beware the cry of the Beast. And tread not on his path.”

“Dang it Hiei, that things not very useful, you know!” Kuwabara grouched. The room shook with another earth rattling roar. “And what the hell is doing that?”

“Maybe it’s the ocean currents outside, buffering against the towers,” Kurama offered.

“It’s pretty rough,” Yusuke put in, “You think this place is gonna hold up?”

“It’s held up all these years. Why should it give out now?” Kurama shrugged.

“I don’t think we need to worry about currents,” Hiei said from where he stood looking out through the door he just opened.

“No way!” Kuwabara blurted as they passed through the doorway.

They were outside! There was blue sky above them, the sound of the ocean in the distance. They couldn’t see the ground below for the misty fog that gathered down there.

“How is this possible?” Kurama whispered.

“You just fought a living rock that used to be your first mate and this boggles your mind?” Hiei pointed.

“So you got past Genbu?” A monstrous roar interrupted their conversation. “But you won’t get past me!” A roar, louder than any that they’d heard before shook the Castel causing parts of it to break off and fall down into the misted depths below. The four men stepped back close to the tower they’d just emerged from to avoid sharing same fate. By the time the roar had subsided, only a narrow causeway was left leading to the next tower. There on the next tower they saw him; the thing that was once Byakko.

He was a big man to begin with, but now his body was twice as big. It was entirely covered in white fur, streaked with pale blue stripes. His face had elongated. Long fangs protruded from his black shriveled lips. He was a man no more, but a giant cat-- a tiger-- barely identifiable from his previous form, if not for his rumbling voice and the spreads of clothes that still clung to him.

“Grr. I don’t care how big and loud you get,” Kuwabara shouted, running across the narrow strip of stone, “you mutinous coward! I’ll kick your ass!”

“That’s right, run to your doom, you little whelp,” Byakko leapt forward to meet him, “I’m going to enjoy tearing you limb from limb.”

Kuwabara drew his cutlass, gripping it with two hands like club, and swung it as hard as he could at the beast’s mid-section. It was a hard enough swing to cut through almost anything, but Byakko blocked it with his hand, to Kuwabara’s surprise. The thing didn’t even cut him. He gripped the blade and then flung it away, sending Kuwabara soaring backward. Then he advanced on Kuwabara, while the human was still stunned on the ground, with the intent to rip him apart.

“Kuwabara, stay down,” Yusuke shouted cocking his pistol.

“Don’t you dare!” Kuwabara warned him, “This is my fight. I’ll beat him by myself or die trying. Only cowards gang up on people.” He sneered the last remark to Byakko.

“So you want to die with honor,” Byakko laughed at him.

He didn’t make a move to stop Kuwabara as he stood up and gripped his weapon. Nor did he move when Kuwabara charged him. Kuwabara slashed at him but he still didn’t move. Kuwabara shouted and raged as he slashed at the great white tiger again and again, until he grew tired and backed off panting.

“Unbelievable,” he gasped out. For all his efforts, Byakko didn’t have a scratch on him.

“You think that little toy could hurt me? No blade can pierce my fur,” Byakko boasted. “Ha, but I see the way you look at me now. You think I must have some weakness that you can exploit. That you can maybe fool me, like you fooled Genbu. Sorry, you’re out of luck. Unlike Genbu, I bothered to explore my new being. I know my abilities. In fact I show you one that you might enjoy.” He wrapped his hands around his throat and made a low gagging noise.

“What’s wrong, fur-ball?” Kuwabara sneered.

Byakko didn’t reply, he didn’t have to because in the next second a ball of intensely glowing blue light swelled up from the back of the big cat’s throat and shot out of his mouth.

“Kuwabara get out of the way!” Kurama yelled from the sidelines. It was hardly necessary. Kuwabara dove out of the way.

The blue ball of cracking blue light hit the floor with a tremendous boom. The stone there didn’t just explode, it absolutely vaporized! Kuwabara shouted some incomprehensible expletive as Byakko laughed and proceeded to cough up another one of his deadly fur-balls.

Meanwhile at the side, Yusuke said, “We gotta get him out of there. Kuwabara can’t bear that. Maybe we can find another way around.”

“There is no other way,” Hiei told him between clenched teeth.

“You should have let your friends help you, Kuwabara,” Byakko gloated, “Ha who am I trying to kid? Nothing can hold up to my Tiger’s Scream! If I wanted to I could rip apart this very castle out from under our feet!”

“He’s right,” Kuwabara muttered wide-eyed, “he could rip apart this very castle out from under our feet!” He took off running toward the tower where his three companions stood watching. He leapt over a gap left by one of Byakko’s previous attacks and landed on the narrow path that was still attached to the tower.

Byakko pursued him laughing, “Haha! After all that big talk, you‘re running away?”

Almost back to his friends, Kuwabara spun on his heel and spat, “Not a chance!” He chocked up on his sword and charged straight for Byakko.

The tiger choked out a laugh as he spit another ball of cracking energy right at Kuwabara. But this time the human didn’t dive out of the way. He didn’t even slow down as the thing crashed into the flagstones in front of him and he was eclipsed in the bright explosion. Byakko nearly laughed thinking that the foolish human had run to his death, but then out of the smoking air sprang Kuwabara. Byakko was momentarily stunned. Kuwabara had leapt over the attack just as it hit. And the moment his feet found the floor he was running again right for the large cat.

Kuwabara was nearly on his toes now. In a moment of panicked reaction, Byakko spit another ball of devastating energy right between them. This time Kuwabara leap back from the explosion. He landed in a crotch and chuckled to himself.

“What’s so funny?” Byakko demanded.

Kuwabara grinned, “Don’t look down.”

Byakko looked down. He saw the hole left by his attack, how the floor he was standing on was barely attached to the rest. He glanced behind to find the breach he’d created earlier. Then there was a crunch. He whimpered and the floor collapsed beneath him. He fell screaming down into the misted depths below.

“Brilliant,” Kurama praised, “You knew you couldn’t beat him with normal conventions, so you lured him to a precarious piece of floor and then tricked him into blasting the floor out from under himself.

“Way to go,” Yusuke jogged over to meet him, “Hey you think it’s true what they say about cats landing on there feet?”

“I’m sure he’s hoping its true now,” Kuwabara laughed.

Then there was a shutter underfoot. Hiei said, “This place isn’t stable lets move.”

There wasn’t any argument. The four rushed across the broken bridge, barely made it to the door on the opposite tower before it started to crumble.
* * *
They defeated the master of the Aerie of the Beast-- one less thing to worry about-- but they still had to contend with the traps of that domain. The room they were now in was one big undisguised trap. It was like a giant cave inside, rough. The walls had giant sculptures of tiger’s heads mounted on them and the floor was one big lava pit. There was a rambling skipping stone path of stone platforms that was supported above lava on tall columns. That was the only visible way to cross the room and get to the door on the other side.

Kurama held his hand to the side, stopping any of them from leaping out onto the suspended stone blocks. He picked up a couple of handy rocks. He tossed each onto a stone platform. When the second one landed a tremendous whoosh sound shook the room as a great wind shot from one of the stone tiger’s open mouths and blew across the block.

“That one has a picture of a tiger’s paw print on it,” Kurama indicated the platform that triggered the gust. “The other one didn’t. Remember the warning on Hiei’s piece of the map? ‘Beware the cry of the Beast. And tread not on his path.’ The ones with the print on it is his path.”

“So don’t walk on it.” Yusuke drawled, “Got it.”

In a short time the group bounced their way across the room, only jumping on blocks without paw prints on them. They’d almost made it to the door on the other side when, “RAAAAOOORRR!”

They spun and there was Byakko, standing in the middle of the room, outrage painted on his feral face. “You whelps, you will rue the day you invaded my territory!”

“Hey, you’re standing on one of the paw print thingies!” Kuwabara pointed, “How come it’s not triggering nothing?”

Byakko pulled a face, “It’s my path, fool, the path of the Second Saint, the tiger. It doesn’t go off when I stand on it.”

“But that other one got set off by a rock,” Kuwabara persisted.

“Yes, anything but me will set it off,” Byakko huffed impatiently, “Men, animals, bugs, even rocks.”

“God to know,” Kuwabara shrugged, picked up a rock and lobbed it over to land at Byakko’s feet.

Byakko had a second to look dumbfounded before the tiger statue’s mouth blew a gust of wind hard enough to knock Byakko off his platform and into the bubbling lava below.

After a moment of silence Hiei said, “Well, thank god that’s over with. Can we go now?”
* * *
TBC…
A/N: Hope you liked it. Next chapter will be completed soon as I finish editing it. Leave a review and make me smile! Oh and if you’d like to see the cover art for the all six Unmarked Videotape stories look on the AdultFanFictionNet facebook page. See you next time!