Jin: In a Flash of Blades

He walked through the fields in the night. The full moon cast its light on the grounds with the evening winds that blew and curved the grass in their dance. He gripped his tattered cloak tightly around him and adjusted the katana in its sheath. He looked on, seeing only grass as far as he could. His sandals crunched the soil beneath. The wind blew around him for a second time, and he stopped. All grew silent with the wind’s passing.

The dark clouds drifted in great gatherings in the sky near the moon.

“Jiiiin!” An eerie voice called in a whisper. The swordsman titled the kasa on his head back and focused his blue eyes in the distance. “Jiiiin!” The voice called out again, louder than before.

The swordsman tightened his grip on his sword and looked into the sky. He saw the clouds close in under the moon. Inch by inch, the fields around him became enveloped in the crawling shadows. The clouds eclipsed the moon from his sight, and darkness swallowed the land.

Another wind gusted, whistling out the silence. As it ceased, a red dot flashed in midair in the darkness.

“Zezezezeze! Did you think you could escape me, little swordsman?” The voice cackled. “You knew I would find you, Jin!”

The clouds parted from under the moon, and color returned in its light. The light shined over the red dot in its actual appearance: a single large red eye on the face of a creature. It gave color to the creature’s coal gray skin and spiked black hair, beaming on the curved sickle attached to its gauntlet. Its dark cape rested around its form.

Jin turned around, adjusting his kasa as he said, “Kitetsu, the Shadow Slayer.”

Kitetsu flashed a grin. “You didn’t forget about me, did you?” its voice rasped, its long, black forked tongue brushing against its serrated teeth.

“How could I forget something as heinous as you?”

Kitetsu’s pointed ears flickered at the comment. It hissed at Jin with a hoarse chuckle and raised its weapon. With another laugh, it licked at its sickle. It dragged its tongue along its edge. Black saliva drew from the beast’s tongue and ran down the blade.

“Such biting comments!” Kitetsu laughed. It slid its tongue back into its mouth. “But not as biting as my blade, I assure you!” With a step, it narrowed its eye at Jin. “You have what I want. Now, give it to me!

Jin reached into his tunic and pulled out a curved gem secured around his neck with a string. It glistened under the moon with light waves moving around its surface like water.

“The Magatama of Genma,” Jin said.

“Yes. In the hands of a human, it can bring great fortune. While in the hands of demon…” Kitetsu snickered.

“It can bolster their power.”

“Indeed! It’s something far too precious to be in the hands of a mere boy. Give it to me!”

“Hmph.” Jin looked at the gem, rolling into between his fingers. With a sigh, he placed it under his tunic. “Following me out here sealed your fate, demon! We are miles away from the village. There is no one around for you to harm and no distractions for me to deal with.” Jin widened his stance and lowered his body. He brought his free hand down and gripped the handle of his sword.

Kitetsu grinned, and it erupted in an open-mouthed cackle. Its vicious tongue wriggled in the air with its laughter. It grew quiet and slithered its tongue back into its mouth.

“Zezezeze! A mere dream within a dream; the idea that you, a simple boy, can take on a demon.” Kitetsu sneer. It looked Jin in his blue eyes. They didn’t move, only brighten in the moonlight.

Another wind blew the Kitetsu’s dark cape, and Jin’s cloak lifted in its draft. The wind settled, and Jin stood in place, clutching his sword tight.

“Zezeze! I see.” Kitetsu adjusted its stance and brandished its sickle at Jin. “But, know this: When this is over, I will have the gem in my hand and your heart on my blade!”

Jin flexed his fingers around his sword’s handle and glared at the demon, scanning its sickle. The moon’s light reflected from the blade. Returning his attention to Kitetsu, Jin exhaled. He relaxed his stance but steadied himself.

 “Come and get me!” He said.

Kitetsu’s eye lit up, and it drew back its sickle. It stepped and vanished with a dash.

Jin gritted his teeth and drew his sword from its sheath. He swung, and their blades clashed in sparks of light. His arm buckled, and his feet scraped the dirt. He looked up to find Kitetsu grinning with its sickle scraping against his sword. With a grunt, Jin stepped and forced Kitetsu away.

Kitetsu flew back and skidded its feet against the ground. It set its eye on Jin and screeched. It charged and swung its sickle, missing Jin’s head as he evaded. It slashed again, and Jin guarded with his sword against the creature’s blade. Sparks of chipped metal scattered everywhere, and Jin forced Kitetsu back.

Jin drew back his sword and charged at Kitetsu. He swung at Kitetsu, but it weaved its head. He ran for Kitetsu as it readied its blade. Kitetsu lunged with his sickle, but Jin ducked under the swing, kicked his foot on Kitetsu’s chest, and ran up his body. He stomped down hard on Kitetsu’s shoulders and jumped into the air. Raising his sword, Jin’s eyes flared as he descended fast and slashed the beast at its shoulder.

Globs of green blood spurted from the wound, and Kitetsu cried out. It staggered back, snarling as it clutched its bleeding shoulder, and it lashed Jin with another swing. Jin stepped back out of range and slashed Kitetsu’s chest. The creature’s blood sprayed from the cut on its body, and it thrashed with another screeching cry. Pulling back his sword, Jin stepped with a turn and kicked Kitetsu’s in his chest, sending it flying and crashing down hard on his back.

Hot pants breaths left Jin’s body as he panted. His chest heaved with every breath, and a bead of sweat ran down his head. He peered at the creature on the grass, clutching at its chest with its tongue rolled out.

“Filthy beast…” Jin said. His heart thumped in his chest. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and exhaled. Opening his eyes, Jin turned his attention to his sword. He watched as the blood ran down the blade and dripped off its edge.

He raised his sword and swung down, swinging the blood clean from the blade.

Kitetsu squirmed on the ground. Blood trickled from the cuts on its shoulder and chest. It raised its body with a vicious hiss as black slime oozed from its monstrous jaw, only to find itself inches away from the point of the blade. It followed the edge to see Jin drawing it to its face.

“You’re beaten, demon!” Jin said. He brought the sword closer to Kitetsu’s eye, and it backed away.

Kitetsu bared its teeth with a huff of breath. It inched itself higher and coughed small drops of blood. Its glaring eye bugged with fury at Jin.

The clouds passed by under the moon, and shadows crawled across the area around them. Kitetsu watched the darkness spread, and his lips twisted into a grin.

“Beaten? Not yet! Zezezeze!” It said. It looked at the darkness of the creeping shadow as it washed over Jin’s body.

The shadow reached Kitetsus’s feet, and its body was enveloped, its entire form covered as if draped in the dark.

Jin’s eyes flexed, and he jumped back. “What?”

Kitetsu moved and slithered to the blackness. It sounded with its laugh as its eye disappeared within. Jin lowered his stand and held his sword in his hands. He looked around to see, but the darkness covered almost everything. The fields would’ve been an abyss if it weren’t for the small hole in the clouds.

Jin breathed in cold air through his nose and a bead of sweat down his face. A fiendish laugh echoed in the shadows, and he turned to the noise but saw nothing.

“What trickery is this?” Jin whispered under his breath. His eye flicked from left to right, only seeing nothing.

He turned around, and a flash caught his eye. The light shaped into a blade and slashed his upper arm. He shouted out and stumbled, holding the wound. A sharp, burning sting throbbed in his arm, and he moved to hand and looked. The cut flesh ran red with the drops of blood and trickled out down his arm.

“Dammit!”  Jin cursed.

“Zezezezeze! There is a reason why I am called the Shadow Slayer. I can move through them as I please. And with darkness all around us, your fate is sealed.”

Jin turned around at the voice, catching only darkness again. His teeth clicked together, and his heart thumped in his ear, drowning out the wind in the night.

Behind him, shadows of the clouds twisted, and dark tendrils snaked out of the ground in an aura—a red eye formed, with a cackle sounding through the emerged serrated teeth. Kitetsu spawned from the shadow with his lower hand, staying tailed to darkness. It lunged with its blade at Jin, slashing his back.

Jin cried out and collapsed to the ground. Blood trickled down his back, and Jin sucked air through his teeth at the searing pain. He stabbed his sword into the soil and flipped himself over. His legs trembling put him up as he held the blade for balance.

“You’re mine!” Kitetsu’s voice shouted.

 Jin’s eyes snapped open. He saw only a flash of the creature’s eye spring at him.

Time slowed to a crawl. Kitetsu jumped from the shadows with its blade drawn to kill. Baring his teeth, Jin pulled his sword out of the ground to guard. The magatama swung out from under his tunic onto his chest in his movement.

Above, a break formed in the passing clouds, allowing moonlight to beam through. The beam shinned down around Jin. It struck the magatama and erupted in a burst of light. The great flash stopped Kitetsu in its tracks. It shouted as the light enveloped his body and cast out the shadows from under him. Jin jumped and opened his at the cry.

The clouds drifted under the moon, and the light faded. Jin jumped back with haste as Kitetsu swayed back into the formed shadows. His eyes narrowed in the wake of the light, opening enough to see the demon paralyzed. He swung his sword, slashing Kitetsu’s body. It shrieked with a terrible scream, blood gushing from the wound.

“That light!” He said. “What was…?”

“Wretched swordsman!” Kitetsus snarled. “You’ve cut me for the last time. I do not know what trick you used, but the light will not save you again!”

“Light…?” Jin blinked. A sudden brightened under his face, and his eyes flinched. He looked down and saw the jewel brim with a shimmering aura. “The Magatama of Genma!” He said. “It saved me. But how?”

He took it in his fingers. He looked to the field but saw no great light that saved. He saw the slim streams of light coming downward. He looked into the sky at the cloud and saw breaches in their gathering.

“The moonlight!” His gaze switched from the clouds to the gem. His brow creased, and he grasped the gem in his hand. He pulled with force, snapping the jewel free from his neck, and turned his sword so the pommel faced up. Jin looked at the small grove within the pommel and held the gem. “If it is this one chance…” Jin fitted the gem into the sword’s hilt, turning it to its ends.

The blade shone with a great blue light, shimmering with waves of light as if from water. Jin held the sword, his eyes not flinching but peering at its shining beauty. He brandished it with both hands and looked to the sky again. He looked around, and more light broke through the clouds onto the fields.

“This next strike will be the last, swordsman!” Kitetsus’s voice hissed.

Jin watched more light breach through the clouds and said, “Indeed. It will.”

Jin widened his stance, and his ears tuned to the quietness of the night. He sucked in air through his nose. His eyes softened as he exhaled. Around him, moonlight grew closer as the clouds parted from the moon, and the shadows around him drew back.

The moonlight crept up Jin’s feet, and the shadow moved behind him. A black spot swarmed through the remaining shadows, and cackled sounded with its passing. Jin clutched his sword tight with the laughter drawing closer.

Kitetsu emerged, springing up from the moving darkness, and swung his sickle at Jin’s head. The moonlight reached Jin’s feet. His eyes lit up, and he clashed his blade against Kitetsu’s. The moon’s light hit the glowing sword, and its edge shone brighter.

The light flashed shrouded Jin and Kitetsu, and Kitetsu hissed at the consuming brightness. Jin placed his weight on his sword and forced Kitetsu back. With a shout, Jin turned. He dug his heel into the dirt and thrust his sword.

The clouds moved, and the moon shone its light on the fields with the winds blowing through the area, grass dancing in its breeze. The horrible sound of a blade piercing into flesh scratched the air. A gargled cry echoed into the night, dying with a gasp.

A cough met with the wind’s whistle. In the center of two shadows, blood dripped from above.

Jin stood with his sword in his hand. Green blood dripped down the length, oozing from the gash in Kitetsu’s shuddering body. Its blood rand down through its clenched teeth. The beast looked down at the blade impaled in its chest and through its back. Its eye looked to Jin, trembling.

“D-d-damn… you….” Kitetsu gasped. Blood filled its shaking voice. Its arms fell limp to its side.

With a sigh, Jin pulled his sword out, and more blood jetted out from the demon’s chest. Kitetsu’s legs quaked. Green blood was pouring out of its body, and it walked past Jin. Step by step, its legs grew slower. Kitetsu’s eye rolled up with a final step, and it stopped walking. Its body dropped to its knees and collapsed to the ground.

Jin’s chest heaved with air in his pants. His body relaxed, and his chest settled as he caught his breath. His breathing calmed, and he adjusted the position of his kasa. He swung his sword and flung the blood off its blade, straightening his posture. The night wind passed the lands, breezing around Jin, and he housed his sword back into its sheath. He looked at the hilt of his sword and focused on the gem in the pommel.

“Huh. It turns out the magatama did bring me great fortune after all.” He then wrapped his cloak around his body and turned as he began to walk. He passed Kitetsu’s corpse, looking back down at the body. He turned his head as he said, “If it can aid in fending off demons such as Kitetsu, I wonder what other powers this gem might have.”

Jin’s mouth formed a slight grin, and a soft chuckle left him. He continued to walk through the fields until he became obscured by the horizon and disappeared into the night.

• Kasa (笠): A term used for any one of several traditional straw-woven Japanese hats.

• Magatama (勾玉): Curved, comma-shaped beads or jewels made in prehistoric Japan.

• Kitetsu (鬼徹): (鬼 Ki = Demon/Oni/Orge) and (徹 Tetsu = Cut/Pierce/Penetrate/Split/Stab, can also mean Iron.)