It’s terribly awkward coming down stairs and having a grown man slumped over your couch like he’s known you for years. Yet, that’s what greeted me upon the morn when I woke, and Hiruko was there in his crumpled cream shirt curled around the arm of my beaten old lounge.

“..morning..” He grumbled as I greeted him, wandering into the kitchen to fix us both breakfast. I decided slowly to use the remaining tea leaves on us both and hoped there was no shortage in the markets.

It was a special blend – it smelt lovely – and had only a soft bite and a calming aura, but tea was rare in the Borders; a simple luxury to be enjoyed upon rare occasion, and so I found myself shocked at the fact I was offering the remains of it to the man before me.

Sluggishly, his eyes popped open and his hand reached out to take the steaming mug which he then lowered to the ground. He looked at me for a moment, lying on his arm, the other clinging desperately to the vinyl before he murmured, “I hate waking up”, and sat up sighing, raising his calloused right hand to his forehead.

“Before we resume our conversation, I’d like to test your abilities with the sword.”

“The sword?” I asked, bemused. “I have none.”

“No skills or no sword?”

“Neither.”

“Ah”, he whispered into his tea, shrugging quietly. “I had a feeling. I’d still like to see what you can do. I’ll have my Lieutenant bring down my own, and another I had forged for you.”

“You had one forged for me?”

“Yes, from your measurements which were recorded in the last census.” He smiled up at me. “Judging from your pathetic, skinny form, I had it lightened so it is easier to swing.”

I glared at him over the tea, grumbling a quick, “How thoughtful”, before taking a sip.

Part of me could not fully pin point the reason I had yet to kick him out. I could have, if I wanted to, forcefully removed the man from my presence, sent him yelling as he was pushed onto the streets, into the endless flow of scum that lined the walls of the market place. I looked at him and he looked at me. He was talking about sword fighting and the skill I should learn to handle a blade, and I looked at him blankly because I’d been dead for two years and had done nothing but sip tea and steal shit.

As leader of the 2nd Division, it seemed his Lieutenant was on call at all hours, for it was still early morning when a fair-faced, spotted girl no taller than my shoulder appeared, soft red curls brought high above her head to rest in a tight nest of auburn. Her eyes were a light green and more alive than a dead girl’s should be. Her garb was simple; a shirt with boisterous shoulders and dark, plain pants with only the patch on her arm to signify who she was. She looked to be the sweetest of girls as I opened the door, though upon meeting the gaze of her General behind me, my initial impression was darkened substantially as she shunted past me without so little as a brief acknowledgement.

“Where were you?”

“Keira, my dear”, Hiruko murmured, turning away slightly as the girl stormed up to him. She fidgeted briefly with her hair and clothes with flaring nostrils before shoving a long brown parcel into his arms.

“Can I eat something? I’m starved, didn’t have breakfast”, she pointed to the kitchen, rose her eyebrows and smiled before moving through the lounge room to the fridge. I could hear her tutting as she moved aside empty containers and mouldy cheese, and part of me moved to stop her before Hiruko passed me the parcel before setting the empty glass on the nearest available surface.

“Open it”, he said, “A thing of beauty, it is – and I promise I didn’t make it so perfect to bribe you into helping me out”, he grinned and moved to join Keira.

Sighing, I followed, dropping the thing on the couch. It was greeted with a soft sigh as the peeling vinyl curled around its form.

“Can I just say that nothing since the time I’ve met you has made any sense?”

Keira scoffed, rinsing a half-eaten apple under a trickle of water. She turned to me and murmured, “Tell me abou’ it”, before biting into the soft core. She rubbed away the juice from her chin and hit Hiruko on the shoulder twice.

“A message or something would have been nice, y’know”.

“I sent you a message this morning”, Hiruko grunted, leaning back against the bench, “And here you are”.

Keira glared at him briefly, swallowing a large chunk of apple before turning to me, glowering. And then, in a matter of moments, the core was dropped in the bin, the girl had wiped her hands all over her pants and was then, very suddenly, was in my face.

“So you found the little bugger”. She plucked at my hair, and grabbed my chin towards her face, eyes surveying every crease and wrinkle. Her fingers moved from my chin to my cheeks and she smiled as the sticky apple juice set over my face.

I swiped the hand away as she giggled.

She turned back to Hiruko and snickered out, “What does he know?”

Hiruko contemplated her for a moment before saying, “As much as I’ve told him”.

She gave him a look, rolling her eyes. Hiruko gave a quick smile before it faded again. “He thinks I’m crazy”.

“Can’t say I blame him”, she said, turning to me for a slight second. “He’s just a boy. Who’d want this on them?”

The light in his eyes seemed to fade then and he opened his mouth as if to speak; the awkwardness crept up his spine and he shook his head slightly before sighing.

Keira looked at him again; a different look this time, softer. I saw the beginnings of friendliness in her. She made as if to touch him, but pulled away instead and spun to me.

I leant against the door frame and murmured, “If you don’t mind me asking, girl, how’d you die?”

She paled visibly and turned to me. “How direct o’you”.

I closed my eyes and shrugged, “If it’s too much--”

“Rape n’ murder”. She whispered. I bit my lip and turned away. Not that I heard any less from others, but it was in that moment that I knew I shouldn’t have bothered. But what conversation could spring from a dead man’s lips but for the topic of his own demise?

“I was walking – I had this job as a nurse and it was, what, 1820s?” She asked, turning to Hiruko. He nodded briskly. “England. So I never had much of an education anyway, ‘part from being all lady-like which” she gestured up and down herself, “you can see has stuck with me o’er the years.” She sniffed and sighed before continuing. “Anyway, I was walkin’ down this street – which I now know wasn’t terribly intelligent, ‘cause it should have been busy, but the fair over in the next block had excited everyone and they’d all flocked over”, at this point Hiruko moved as if to stop her from continuing but she thrust her hand out to stop him and he complied, resting back on the bench top, “and there was this man on the other side o’ the road, puffing away on this fat cigar with this flat hat over his eyes. And I was just walking along when he calls out, “Miss!” and I turn to ask him if he’s a’right, ‘cause I have the nurse’s outfit on and he might be needin’ some help. O‘ cause”, she said, “the help he needed wasn’t one I was so willin’ to offer. I think I could’ve just kept on walking if he’s mate hadn’t come up behind my like he did and felt up my backside all casual-like, as if it was his for the taking. When the other one come round the way I’d come, I started runnin’ and they” she bit her lip, “they just laughed and laughed and laughed and then started calling out all manner o’ things, like “Where you goin’, miss?”” For a second, I’d thought she’d stop there, but she wiped away a stray tear before saying, “And then I’d gone and run into a one-way alley and they all came up behind me, and pulled my legs open. I bet if you tried really hard to listen at the fair, you could have heard me screaming.” She looked at me, and then to Hiruko and said, “Get him trained and ready”, she turned to me and said, “I don’t care if you believe him, but people are going to die, proper. Lots of them. You’re the one that stops him, we’ll show you the tapestry. But first you need to learn.”

I stared at her and she turned away. “Message me when I’m needed”, she said to Hiruko. And then she was gone.

****

An excellent way to start the day was to anger Hiruko to the point he no longer took my bullshit.

“The only reason I’m doing this”, I said, holding the end of the wooden cane, “Is because of that girl back there. Ok?”

Hiruko glared at me. “She’s the only reason I do anything, either. But she’s not one to eat up your pity, so don’t bother. You’re only going to embarrass her, and then you’ll embarrass me.”

I rubbed my eyes and looked away. Clearly, Keira having to re-live her death made Hiruko particularly prickly. He was silent for a moment, looking at me thoughtfully.

“I…” I stumbled and looked away. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“No one does, not ever. Don’t be fooled by anyone who says they do.”

I swallowed. “Why do you need me?” He closed his eyes, and I stammered out, “No, but really. Why me, truly?”

He shrugged. “It’s in the tapestry?”

“So it’s true?”

“Has to be.” He sighed a familiar sigh. “Really, it’s never shown something that has never come to pass, one way or another.”

“Well, I don’t want this.” I placed the stick to the side, and shrugged at him. “I don’t want any of this.”

“Aaron, come on.”

“No.” A snort, a giggle. “I mean it, I’m not. I’m not interested. I don’t give a damn.”

“You will.”

“I won’t. You know why?”

He did nothing, stared at me. I saw him drop the bamboo, let it slide from his hands.

“I can’t care. I can’t. So much fucked up shit happened when I had a beating heart, and now it’s just death. There’s nothing but death.”

He looked at me and did nothing. I wish he had done something right then, but he just looked and looked.

“I feel disjointed. Like, like there’s a prison in my mind and inside the cells are bits of me and they can’t join together, so I’m not even connected to myself. Ho-how can you possibly expect me to connect with anyone else?”

“Stop, now. You’re tired.”

“Yes.” I nodded, quickly. “Yes, I am.” We looked at each other for a short while, before he closed his eyes and walked over to the wall. I watched him slump against it, saw the shoulder blades jut out as they skidded through the material, rested on against the structure. The Greek ivy had sprouted from the cracks and held on, screeching, darting out all over and digging in.

“You’re dead. We’re both dead. So be it. But it’s just going to get worse, ‘cause there’s just fire down there. No one’s reached heaven, no one will. The happiness we’re promised is a lie”, he looked at me, directly at me. I saw the twinge in his mind as he second guessed himself. “You and me, we have the chance to stop fucked up shit happening here. If you just trust me-“

“This is crazy. You’re crazy.”

“I’m not, we’re not, please, Aaron, I need you to focus.”

“Oh, God.”

“Just come with me, and I’ll show you-“

“Why”, the sigh floated out of my lungs. I watched it drift out and over, up into the sky. “Tell me why it doesn’t end.”

Ah.

“Why wasn’t there just black, why did it have to happen again.”

There was a silence. It was long and thoughtful and we stood and he looked at me. I saw him smile and he walked over. “God is cruel. Humans suffer. And that’s the way it is. It’s only going to get worse. There’s no way you can stop it.” The smile became a grin. “Unless you trust me”.

A sigh escaped my lips. “Of course”, my eyes darted up, and he was looking at me with concern. “Only, I have a feeling that’s not a very good idea.”

He chuckled, “Oh, whatever. I’m crashing at your place until I can take you up to the prophecy.”

“Fuck, are you kidding me?”

“And if you’re refusing to learn how to use that pretty little sword I got you, at least agree to learn how to block.”

I smiled. “I just don’t see the reasoning behind learning to destroy a soul when you want me to save them.”

“They’re not souls.” He murmured quietly.

“What?” I paused, about to pick up the bamboo. “What do you mean, not souls?” He refused to answer. “Like what…? Do you know who they are?”

He looked up at me and shrugged.

“I mean”, I said, grabbing the stick, “Do you know what they are?”

He was still staring at me when I held the stick to his face.

“Relax your shoulders, you’re too tense. Drop it down lower, it’s making you too rigid.” He scoffed, “I’m serious, relax, relax.” He pushed the stick down until it was in front of my stomach, and pushed my shoulders back and down. “If you’re stiff, you can’t react well. You’ll be predictable, and then you’ll be dead.”

“Far enough”, I murmured.

Hiruko glanced up, and grinned, and I felt his hand on my arm, shaking it until it was loose. “Good. Put your weight in your right foot, and draw your left leg just a bit behind, yes! Good. Good.” He was nodding. “Alright, that’s your stance. Always stand like you’re about to move forward; it literally keeps you on your toes.”

I stared at him and sighed. “No.”

“Aaron-”

“I don’t want to learn how to kill, I don’t. I refuse.”

He closed his eyes, and I thought he’d be angry, but when he opened them I saw the hint of the smile, and he gave a shrug and nodded.

“Then learn to defend, at least. Not with your hands, with the sword. I swear, if you end up not using that beauty in there, I will cry.”

“That’s more incentive not to use it”, I muttered, and he smirked, pointing out that it was better to block higher up so there was time to fight back. “You will fight back” he whispered. “You’ll have to”.

After a while, I was persuaded to bring the sword from inside and sat against the wall unwrapping it whilst Hiruko looked on, smiling. “I told you it was a thing of beauty”, he muttered when he saw my face. And it was.

The blade itself was Damascus steel. Hiruko said something about having to find one of the original forgers from some ancient era; the living world had never been able to reproduce the beauty of the originals, he murmured. The patterns were exquisite, but simple. The folds of the steel ran down the curved blade to the cross guard that would fold down around the palm like two crescent moons. Metal thread and leather was spun around the grip to the simple pommel. Practical, but beautiful.

I held it, and I felt its power run through me, like a shiver. I could kill with it, if I wanted. I could send a thousand souls to hell. I looked up to find Hiruko with furrowed brows.

“W-what?”

“Nothing”, he said, “Only…They say a sword holds the user’s ability. It’s your partner and it’s your power. So use it well.”

I smiled and looked away. “It’s beautiful.”

And Hiruko grinned when I met his eyes, bending down to look at me. He cupped my cheek and said, “Now will you fight?”

I looked away. “Thought you said you weren’t trying to bribe me.”

“I lied”, he snorted, shooting up. “I do that a lot.” He reached for my hand and I took it, pulling myself up.

“Let’s have another go. You just block, then, if you don’t want to fight me.” He walked to his stick, leaving his own sword in his scabbard. I replaced mine and turned to the stick beside me. “And sure, I’ll go easy on you.”

I’ll spare the boring details. I was destroyed, beaten, shamed, as you would probably have gathered. But I learnt. I learnt what not do, which was, perhaps, just as helpful as understanding what to do in a situation such as that. And by the end of the day I was far better than I had been at the beginning.

“It’s all about instinct”, Hiruko muttered. “You really have to trust yourself.” That was impossible for me, to trust myself, but I would have to.

That night was when the rain started. Hiruko stayed for dinner, as he promised he would. He built the fire, polished both blades, talked about the Soul Tower and how inefficient meetings were. He tried really hard to make a connection with me, I could see it in his eyes. I smiled and nodded every so often, but the conversation fizzled. It had been inevitable. The one thing I noticed, though, was that the silence shared between us was not awkward. Hiruko removed a packet of tea from his coat (he’d sent for it, apparently, when I was bathing), and we sipped it slowly as the night settled on us. And when I rose to slip off to bed, Hiruko looked up and smiled, and I smiled back, genuinely.

“Good night”, he said, “You did well today.” He looked down before I could reply and, so I sighed out a ‘thanks’ and went up the stairs to bed.

From then on, I felt desperate, though for what I’m not entirely sure. What I am sure of, at this point, is your ability to tell what sort of man I am – if it’s got nothing to do with me, I’ll stick my neck well away from it.

All I could think about was Hiruko smiling at me, simply because he had that look like he knew it all and there was still that doubt in me. I could feel it, like an old strong oak, with roots deep in my veins and unwilling, unmoving.

On the other hand, I was, after all, dead. I was dead, in purgatory, scraping by on rations, so why not? Why not there be some clichéd Hollywood-style end to it all? But then, the only reason I was so pissed was my involvement in it all.

Fuck him, I thought, be he kept looking at me and grinning and then it was Nada I was looking at as she sipped her tea and I shot out of bed. I heard him downstairs, some scuttling and whispered conversation. The rain came down like drums. The rhythm was constant; it beat down like horses advancing, like troops, like war.

“Who are you talking to?” I bellowed down.

“Kiera!” He called back. “About none of your goddamn business!”

I sighed, walking down the stairs. “If it’s in my house, I’d say it was my business.”

“Damn shame”, Hiruko chuckled, “She’s not in your house. I was recording a message, I need a few of my things.”

“Can’t sleep?” I muttered as he walked to the door.

“Never can; I’ll be back in a sec”, he waved the small beacon above his head and darted out into the rain. The transportation stream was on the other side of town. It was a device consisting of capsule pipelines that would propel messages and reports from officials in the Borders to the central Tower by compressed air. There were several stations in each Border, and each had the same mechanical lock requiring the user to turn it some which way for the tube to open and the package to be deposited. There had been talks of building an extensive hydraulic system that would wipe out a quarter of the Boarders to get officials around faster than walking. The protesting had not stopped since the idea was pitched.

I stood there for a while in my door frame with my eyes closed. The water fell and I breathed the smell of it in. Finally, when I decided to crawl back into bed, I opened my eyes and considered leaving Hiruko a note or something; because I was sure he wanted some form of conversation and I was nervous the silence would set in again. But I opened my eyes, and stared out across the plaza, and saw him standing in the distance, unmoving.

My brow furrowed. I could barely make out the man’s outline, but I called out, “Hiruko!”

The figure spun around and I paused. Two others moved up to flank the man and I saw them exchange whispered words. And then, for some god awful reason, I started to walk forward.

The three paid me no mind, and I am certain they would have left me well alone had it not been for the, “Hey!” that fell from my mouth as they began to walk away.

Before I had a chance to register the flurry of movement, I was lying on the pavement and staring up at the rain. Hiruko was above me, screaming frantically. I don’t remember hearing much of what he said. I looked down to my hands to see them covered in blood. That’s when the throbbing started, like slight tingling until the pain registered in my brain and I started screaming. I’d been stabbed. The fear coursed around my stomach, my body started shaking, and all that while Hiruko was staring at me, yelling, with his hands on the wound. I closed my eyes and, once again, thought I would die. But when I woke it was in my room, and Keira was propped against the wall with her eyes closed.

When I started coughing, Keira called for him and Hiruko burst through, cursing at me, yelling gibberish.

“What the fuck did you do to get stabbed? I was gone two minutes. Two minutes.”

I sighed out a cough. “Well”, I began, and then the coughing started again and I clutched my side where the bandages were wrapped around.

Hiruko came to my side. “Honestly, boy.” He shook his head and said, “So, you’ve dealt with the enemy. What do you think of them?”

I coughed out, “Mean”, and the two chuckled softly. “And fast. Very fast.”

Hiruko’s brows came to together, and he nodded slowly. “I have no idea where they went, Aaron. I didn’t see them leave, I didn’t even see them hit you.”

“So I was almost ganked by an inter-dimensional bald guy, is that what you’re saying?”

“You’re sure he was bald?”

I frowned, nodding slowly. “With-”

“With weird tribal tattoos?” Keira finished.

I rose an eyebrow. “I take it you’ve dealt with this man before.”

“Oh, the fool”, Hiruko chuckled, but I noticed him shaking silently, and Keira noticed, too, going to his side and taking him from the room. They muttered incessantly outside until Keira popped her head in and nodded goodbye.

“She’s gone to the Government”, Hiruko murmured. “I think I need a drink, do you have anything strong?”

“I can barely afford tea, man, you think I have the good stuff?”

He stared at me, long and hard, before I sighed out, “Bottom left cupboard near the door”, and he grinned widely.

“Can you just promise me you’ll heal quickly?” He called halfway down the stairs. “We needed you ready in a matter of weeks and I’m not sure that’s possible, now.”

I looked around the room and sniffed. He came back upstairs and handed me a small glass, and I nearly threw up taking it down.

“God”, I choked, “What’s in this?”

“Just a little something to keep you asleep and not ripping apart those delicate stitches.”

I pulled up my shirt to find crudely patterned sutures across my skin, intertwined with strange herbs.

“A little necromancer’s magic”, he murmured through the glass, “Arabic style.”

“You like the Middle East, don’t you?”

“I like to keep in touch with my heritage. My father grew up somewhere in the Arab world. He never specified.” He paused, taking another swig. “My mother was Japanese and I was raised there. She never took his name and they never married which, amongst the Japanese… it’s very honour bound. But they both had honour.”

“How’d he end up in Japan, anyway?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “This was in the time of Muhammad, and so the Bedouin tribes were at war when this new god was brought to them. He was part of a nomadic tribe but I…” He closed his eyes. “Perhaps later, Aaron, you need to rest. But I think he ended up in Japan after some freak accident. We were freaks, our little family.” He smiled sadly until it faded away and he rose his eyebrows as I looked at him.

“Now, sleep. We’ll see what a little necromancer’s magic can do.”

****

Late into the night, I awoke, startled by the heavy drumming of rain outside. I peered out of the window to find that the rain had stopped hours ago and the drumming was coming from the empty market place below.

Hiruko seemed undaunted as I screamed maniacally in his face to wake up. He strode silently to my bedroom and lent against the door frame, completely unimpressed as I tried to get him to look outside the window.

“If you need someone to check your wardrobe for some monster, I’m not the guy.” Hiruko yawned and turned to me as I clenched my fists hard against my sides. I had learnt well from attacking ruthlessly a General of the Soul Tower.

“Just get up here, you damn cat!” Hiruko turned serious and leaped up to the window sill and peered down to the commotion outside.

Hiruko scowled and stepped backwards at the sight below the window. “Damn fool…you came back?” I looked at him sideways, but now was clearly not the time for him to explain. He soared down the stairs to the side door where we had been training earlier. Placing both paws on the pavement outside, he whispered an incantation, as he had done for my sword. “Vice-General of the 2nd Division appear before me now!” He yowled at the sky.

I stood, anxious and confused by what was happening around me but said nothing to Hiruko, for I could hear low growls emerging from his mouth every time he breathed in and out.

After a moment, there was a blur across the night sky and a slender figure gracefully dropped down to face Hiruko on the pavement.

She was a tall girl, of no older than sixteen (although, her death might have been centuries ago). Her hair was reasonably long and was tied up high upon her head, so only spurs of it were visible.

“General?” The girl looked alarmed as she tested her new environment. “What’s happening?” She stared directly at me as she spoke, her voice slowing and eyes widening. “Hiruko?!” She lent in to him and whispered something about freaky-looking hair as silver as the moon. “Is he…?” She paused as I gritted my teeth and turned to stare at Hiruko as he sighed deeply.

“Alright! Introduction time!” Hiruko yelled, completely unenthusiastically, wanting to get on with the matter at hand. “Keira, meet Funny Hair, real name Aaron and vice versa, everyone is friends, now can we just get on with it?!” Hiruko snarled aggressively and Keira, obviously used to this, smiled and waved to me as she scratched the back of her head.

I was ready to throw Hiruko as far away as possible for my newly acquired nickname, though I did not know what we faced in the current situation.

“Hiruko, who is that guy outside?”

“He’s a coward, a fool and a powerful, powerful man.” Hiruko looked away to Keira. He muttered something to her and she nodded every few seconds.

“Go!” He yelled and she dipped her head and jumped back into the sky.

“Aaron, remember when I said that something was coming?” I stared at Hiruko, remembering the black cat that had scurried past me nights ago, as well as the ‘prophecy’ that I was in. “Well that something… he’s literally outside your doorstep.” Hiruko left it at that and strode back into the house.

I gulped and focused on the image of what had been outside my window.

A figure in a cloak with peculiar light hair and deep, hungry eyes standing in the shadows, a young boy who looked dazed lying on the pavement and a man with no hair and an evil looking face, all of whom were carrying swords and all of whom had stepped through a door that matched perfectly the gate Nada had been talking about…

I gasped.

Could he be…?