19 The Golden Fox

  [Player: Kazuki Arata]

  [Level: 4]

  [Waza: Black Hand, Thread Cutter, Aura Sense, Dark Rider, Retribution, Eviscerate

  [Kegare: 34%]

  [Objective: Ascend to the Grand Shrine]

  ---

  Fleet and Kazuki sprinted - or hobbled, in Kazuki's case - toward a small opening barely visible on the opposite side of the arena. His leg was screaming and could barely put weight on it, but each time he had to, fresh spikes of black kegare spread along the break, reinforcing tendons and sealing muscle. It was horrifyingly painful, like being sewn up from the inside… but it kept him moving.

  Fleet darted ahead, nimble, weaving around the smaller Sarugami. The monkeys clawed and bit at him, but he twisted aside with grace and fear. Kazuki forced himself to follow, one step at a time.

  A ring of taller, older monkeys dropped from the stands in front of them. Fleet yelped, skidding to a stop. There were too many. He couldn't fight a whole colosseum.

  Before they could close in, a chunk of the battered arena wall collapsed behind the monkeys with a deafening crash. The giant Sarugami's final rampage had cracked the colosseum's structure, and it was now giving way. The elders scattered, screeching in panic.

  "Fleet, let's—!"

  "Go! Go! Go! Go!"

  Together, they ran through the gap in the ring, slipping into a broken hallway behind the colosseum. It was dark, the floor littered with broken blocks of stone. But it was a way out.

  The monkey riot thundered behind them as the Sarugami poured through, howls echoing off the stone. Kazuki and Fleet wove through the corridors, following any path that led uphill.

  At last, they stumbled into open air. They emerged from a small exit behind the colosseum, stepping into dense forest. Early afternoon daylight slanted through the canopy, the thick trunk of a towering cedar blocking the worst of the glare.

  Kazuki's injured leg nearly gave out beneath him. He leaned against the cedar, breathing in raspy gulps.

  "I can't believe Konkon did this to us!" Fleet said, hurt more by the betrayal than the violence.

  Kazuki risked a glance behind them. The colosseum entrance was overshadowed by thick vegetation, but from the echo of screeching behind them, it was clear the Sarugami were not far away.

  They ran and limped deeper into the forest. Monkeys by the dozens crashed through the undergrowth, howling and searching for them. Kazuki and Fleet scrambled over mossy logs, jumped small ravines, and dodged gnarled roots that sought to trip them.

  As they fled, the thunder of Sarugami pursuit only grew louder. More and more monkeys emerged from the surrounding trees, forming waves of snarls and teeth, quick hands lashing out at any chance to grab or strike.

  Kazuki's vision started tunneling. The kegare in his body fought to keep him going, but the cost was steep. He half-crashed into a massive trunk, pushing away just as a primitive spear whistled past him.

  Fleet guided him as best he could, pointing out the clearer paths. But the forest shadow deepened, and the monkeys seemed to be everywhere.

  Until, abruptly, the trees thinned. They reached a clearing with canopies so high it almost looked like a natural dome overhead.

  "Where… do we go now?" Kazuki panted, chest heaving.

  Fleet stared upward. Kazuki followed his gaze and saw a network of wooden platforms perched at the highest branches. They looked like huge nests, woven from branches and vines.

  "What—?"

  "That's it!" Fleet pointed up. The Sky Road!"

  Kazuki squinted. They looked so high and precarious, suspended tens of meters above the ground. Wind rustled the canopy.

  "Like Suzume's brother—for the bird people." Fleet said breathlessly.

  Kazuki's thoughts whirled. They'd come here hoping for a secret path. The "Sky Road" was clearly it. If they could follow those platforms, maybe they'd slip into the Grand Shrine from behind, bypassing Karaba.

  Monkeys crashed into the clearing behind them, brandishing weapons and raw fury. The wave of fur and gnashing teeth advanced swiftly, cutting off all ground-level escape routes.

  "But Kazuki… we can't climb that. We can't fly." Fleet's voice, excited a moment before at the sight of the platforms overhead, was now filled with dread.

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  The nearest platform was maybe twenty meters up, well out of reach. And even if they did climb the trunk, how would they jump from platform to platform like a winged tengu?

  More Sarugami burst from the foliage. They bounded across logs, drool flicking from their fangs. One brandished a rusted iron blade. Another flung sharpened sticks like javelins.

  Kazuki's body shook with both terror and unstoppable, black energy. But then he realized... There was another way.

  He swallowed and turned to Fleet. The little fox's face was pale. Kazuki remembered that moment when Kazuki and Kuro had been about to die at the hand of the Inugami, when she had asked him: Do you trust me?

  His lips cracked in a dry smile. "Hey, Fleet…"

  The fox's ears perked. "Yeah?"

  "Do you trust me?"

  Fleet blinked. When Kuro had asked him that, he had hesitated. But there was something else in Fleet's eyes—love, faith and desperation.

  "I do," Fleet whispered. He stepped closer to Kazuki, small hand reaching out to touch Kazuki's hand. "Whatever you're thinking... is it fun?"

  Kazuki's breath caught in his throat. He placed his other hand on Fleet's shoulder, feeling the Kegare swirl within him, recalling the Dark Rider technique. Their combined shape. That monstrous fusion.

  But… this was different. Fleet's golden threads of reishin was different from Kuro's. Where the cat yokai's energy had been midnight and shadow, Fleet's spirit radiated a warmth like sunlight through a forest canopy.

  "Super fun!"

  [Dark Rider - Active]

  A wave of darkness erupted from his body, swirling around both him and Fleet. The monkeys in front skidded to a stop, startled by the sudden swirl of power.

  Kazuki's mind flickered with half-formed images: At first, a black catlike shape… then, instead of Kuro's presence, he felt Fleet's fox aura melding with his. The color of the swirling power changed from pitch black to molten gold streaked with midnight veins.

  "Kazuki—!" Fleet gasped as a luminous glow suffused his small frame.

  Don't be scared, Kazuki's thoughts whispered to the fox. I'm with you.

  They pressed closer, the swirling energies wrapping around them both. Kazuki felt his injuries protest, but Fleet's fox spirit poured back into him, bridging the gap. It felt like racing wildfire and pure sunlight all at once.

  In the next heartbeat, their bodies merged. Where two once stood, now a single being coalesced: a Golden Fox the size of a horse, wreathed in a sunlight glow. The fox's fur was a radiant mix of gold and black, tendrils of spiritual flame dancing across each hair. Its ears were tall and sharp, its eyes fierce, shaped by Kazuki's resolute glare and Fleet's bright innocence.

  [Kegare: 31%]

  Inside the merged consciousness, Kazuki felt Fleet's presence—scared but exhilarated—and he heard the fox's voice in his head: We can run!

  Kazuki's own voice replied silently: Let's go—

  The Sarugami erupted into renewed shrieking. A handful of braver ones rushed forward, spears ready. The Golden Fox bared its teeth, and a ripple of orange flames ran the length of its body.

  Sprinting on powerful limbs, the Golden Fox bounded at the nearest tree, claws sinking into bark as though it were soft clay. Together, they ran up the trunk, ignoring gravity. Kazuki's sense of pain receded behind the euphoric sensation of running on a beam of light.

  In not even a second they were halfway up the trunk, powerful legs launching from branch to branch with unstoppable momentum.

  Below, the monkey horde roared in frustration, hurling sticks and stones that clattered harmlessly off the trunk or flew wide.

  Kazuki, within this merged mind, couldn't help but grin. The swirling mixture of Fleet's exuberance and his own desperation carried them upward. The topmost branches parted, revealing the first platform of the Sky Road, nestled like a hidden nest.

  They landed on the planks and branches with the poise of a dancer.

  Far below, the monkeys were trying to scramble up the trunk.

  We can't stay here, Kazuki's voice echoed inside the fused consciousness.

  Ahead, he could see the next station: A wide nest-platform. The distance between them was easily ten meters across a dizzying drop.

  The Golden Fox inhaled. They leapt.

  Sunlight glinted through the canopy, dancing across the Golden Fox's fur, making them shimmer in a halo of gold and red. Wind whistled in their ears.

  They soared, clearing the gap as leaves rustled around them in a swirl of parted greenery. This time the platform shuddered upon impact, but it held.

  A savage sense of triumph. We made it.

  [Kegare: 28%]

  The next station was in front of them, requiring an even bigger leap. The branches there were more widely spaced. The vertical drop beneath them was easily enough to kill but the synergy of power in the Golden Fox form was unstoppable, swift as a wildfire.

  Fleet—hang on! Kazuki's mental voice called. They crouched low, coiling their powerful leg muscles, then sprang.

  For a breathless instant, they flew. Sunlight gleamed off the leaves and the wind carried them in a near weightless arc. Kazuki felt adrenaline flood his veins, mixing with Fleet's exhilaration, merging into a single exultant sense of escape.

  [Kegare: 27%]

  They hung suspended in the air, ablaze with golden light, hearts pounding as one. The back entrance of the Grand Shrine was so close—though still several strations away. But for this one moment they soared, joined by the vow to keep running, no matter what.

  ---

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  [Next Chapter: To Fall Together]

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