Hoshimi Mana : Tower of Boundaries

Hoshimi Mana: Tower of Boundaries

I stood there, expressionless, staring up at the Tower of Boundaries; the gate to the six other realms that exist for Delzira, not that it matters much to me; I’ve been to them all as well as the unknown eighth realm. I don’t partically like the place due to all the traps, danger, and how it takes away all power and abilities upon entering; that is a trial that comes with the place, you have to prove yourself fit without your powers to be able to access the other realms. Well the reason I am here is to help Isamu Jin get through so he can freely travel without danger. Oh here he comes now.

“That is the great tower to the west of Amai, the Tower of Boundaries. Look at the way the walls are sculpted, the intricate designs that pepper the archways of the paths and bridges, and the pillars that aid in holding up the suspended walkways.” Wow, all that for a measly tower; ok it may look quite impressive because it extends up to the heavens. “Hoshimi, you realize what it means to be able to overcome its dangers and reach one of the gates to another realm?” I just sigh and look off towards the second smallest tower of this chain of five; that one has the only outside entrance and connects to the others with various pathways leading off in a mazelike manner.

“You will be able to guide me to the realm where the blade smiths of legend forged their blades?” I nod while yawning, stretching my left arm in the sky, and walking off towards the second smallest tower. The entrance is underwater at the lake floor; about sixty feet under in this lake where this tower is located. “You’re not talking much, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I reply crossing my arms; I get annoyed when people ask that, it is none of their business, but really nothing is wrong, I am just not wanting to talk much for the meantime.

“Was it the judge dressed in white from six days ago? Did he do something to you?” Jin asks as I glance at him, he looked quite concerned, I decided to tell him what happened at the time in a few sentences.

“No, he lost against my power,” I sigh again; I really don’t like talking about my successes, “like I said he would, blew him straight off a Cliffside to the craggy bottom of the sea below. He survived due to his shikigami.”

“Oh… how about I forge two new short blades for you when we finish this?” That brought me to the blades that I carried, I removed one from the hidden scabbard in my sleeve; it could fit in my sleeve because it was an extendable blade forged by Jin to be compatible with my lightning based abilities.

“Sure,” I say, “the ones you previously forged for me are getting worn out.” I was glancing at the cracks and dents in the blade before replacing it back in its scabbard.

“What have you been using the blades I forged for?” He seemed quite surprised about the condition that the blades that he forged were in. I have just been using them for protection against youkai in the forests of Delzira.

“Protection,” I reply before pausing to glance at the lake, we were exactly in the closest spot to dive and enter the first tower. I dived into the lake and heard Jin follow in turn. After about twelve seconds of swimming I reach the iron doors of the entrance. I flipped the lever to the side of the tower and sunk my legs to the bottom of the lake and leaned against the tower waiting for Jin; mostly because I don’t want him to get lost underwater, it was quite murky down here and even with that my insignia on the collar of my outfit shined brightly.

It took Jin twelve more seconds to reach me, after which I stopped leaning there and passed through the doors where air stood; a barrier against water and corrosion lay between the walls and entrance of the tower; hence why it could stand tens of thousands of years without getting a single crack in its structure. I brush my long black hair from my face and stared through the darkness.

“Which tower is this?” Jin asks walking around, what an idiot; you’re not supposed to walk around in complete darkness, especially when the place is one giant trap.

“The tower of darkness,” I reply grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back before he triggered a pressure trap and impale himself with spikes due to it; I could see him just fine with my eyesight on these first few floors, its floors twenty through twenty-four that I have problems with, as they are in complete darkness that no being’s eyes can see through. The gate he is looking for is in a small cavern located under this tower.

“Why did you pull me back? I was trying to examine the surroundings.” He complains looking at me questionably.

“There was a trap in front of you that was almost triggered by your foot.” I said looking back at the slightly raised pressure plate on the ground; I really would not like to lose a great blade smith who forges my weapons for free due to the magic device I gave him; it was a late ally of my past life that owned that device. “Anyway, just stay close.” I took a route around the trap and lead him through the mazelike corridors of the first floor.

“You sure know your way around here.” He says towards me with a gleeful smile. “How come you never mentioned about this place.” I stayed silent; no need to tell him about my reincarnation from a great hero from the past. “No answer, well it doesn’t matter how you know the way, as long as it gets me to the gate.”

It was eerie for some reason; I could not help but think that something was lurking in here outside my field of night vision. “I just noticed that your eyes are shining a nearly invisible blue in this darkness.” Jin says looking me in the eyes through the darkness and I just sigh at his comment; this is going to get tiresome really soon with all his comments.

We made it to the third floor after Jin having several close calls with pressure, tripwire, fake floor, and switch traps; these ones are quite bothersome as you need to use the switches to open doors further up the tower; the main tower has five switches that are required to be flipped on floors seven and thirteen in order to pass floor one-hundred-seven, and floor negative fifty-four. I hit the side wall with my fist and with a shudder of movement from the wall moving, rumbling the entire tower in the process, the wall shifts and moves showing a stairway that leads up to floor ten. One good thing about me overcoming the tower is that even while bringing friends who have not overcome it you can still use various shortcuts to reach the gate quicker, although without friends you can just whisper the gate’s name and be directly teleported to it.

“Wow, how did you… never mind. Let’s be off.” He walks up the stairs but I quickly get ahead of him mainly because there is an odd feeling in the air that normally would have led me to leave the area at once. “You seem a bit paranoid judging by your actions.” He says and I quickly react by sighing again and crossing my arms while still facing forward; it does no good to be paranoid over an event such as being trailed by an unknown entity, I know we are being trailed because of the shadow I noticed in the stairway’s torchlight. I am not going to mention anything of it to Jin; he would be too reckless towards such an event.

“I think you’ve may have noticed Hoshimi, yet you haven’t spoken about it, but we are being followed.” What a surprise, he knew it as well but has yet to do anything reckless such as go over to hunt it down while in this tower, perhaps he is smarter than the average common folk. Well by now we have crossed three more corners avoided a trap room and walked through a fake wall towards the next floor. The being still seemed to be in full pursuit of us, it is kind-of agitating.

I took a deep breath and sigh again looking unintimidated towards the stairway to floor ten, “Why don’t you show yourself, whoever or whatever you are. I mean if I wanted to I could stalk you and hunt you down myself if it wasn’t for Jin here.” My voice sounded a bit too cold and when the being walked out from behind the wall I wanted to take back my words. The being was a nine-tailed Inari in human form; it is never a great idea to talk down to youkai such as these, beings that do so are rarely heard of or seen again.

“You talk to me as if I am some normal youkai of your realm. I happen to be one of the guardians of the Celestial Palace, home of the Celestial King.” She snaps back; ouch that is a double fist to the face, a nine-tailed Inari that is also a guardian of the Celestial Palace in the realm that’s gate is at the top of the Tower of Boundaries.

“I never knew such a powerful and noble guardian of the Celestial Palace would roam the towers around the Tower of Boundaries. Forgive me humble Inari.” I say bowing in its presence, anything to get back on neutral terms with such a powerful being, although I could just cut its throat and be done with this one, but then I would have to face its allies once I leave the tower, which at that point their magic would be fully accessible; Inari of the nine-tailed status are considered deities, and are said to be able to level entire castles with a burst of magic.

“Well, look at you… you’re praising a d…” Jin starts but I quickly grab his throat and force him to bow to the Inari; I can’t have him disrespect this youkai, it would either be the end of me or my blade smith, and I really like the quality of blades that he forges.

“Forgive Jin, noble Inari; he is ignorant of what exactly an Inari is.” I said; my face slightly turning red from all this praising of a youkai, it is also making me feel quite sick but as long as it keeps me alive I’ll do it.

“A human who walks the tower but has not heard of Inari, then what about our cousin the Youko?” The moment she said Youko, Jin quickly cowered in its presence like I am currently, but in a rather different fashion. The Inari saw his face turn pale. “Oh, so you’ve heard of Youko foxes, good. They are our closest youkai relative but are relatively evil and will attack a human on sight. We Inari on the other hand are nothing like them, except for the massive magical potency we both carry.” The Inari was looking high and noble in front of us; I was becoming quite tiresome of its presence. “Which gate are you humans heading for?”

“One of the underground ones, Nexus.” I reply. She merely just gazes at me and Jin, in a way I did not like; it was as if she was getting ready to spirit us away to the Celestial Palace, which is done to a lot of wanderers in Delzira.

“Nexus, the gate to the magical crystalline world.” The Inari looked at me with some interest and walked over to me and placed a hand under my chin and urging me to stand by lifting its palm. “I always wanted to go there myself, but I can never get past the trap it has” She was eyeing me face to face when she said this, her eyes had a golden gleam to them, her hair was short and golden, her petite nose twitched every so often, and her fragrance was rosemary from the Celestial Garden. “You’ve have gotten past it before, correct” I simply nodded “Then how about you make room for three in your little party, and get me past the trap also.” The trap in particular was a magic based; yeah the tower cheats, using magic against you when you are not allowed to use magic back. It was simple enough, the gate got its name from this nexus that surrounds it; a sphere-like barrier of magical energy that twists reality within it; you’ve just have to watch the fluctuations and time your entrance right.

“The trap is quite easy once you get an understanding of the nexus type of magic. I would have no difficulty in taking a being as great as you along with me to the Nexus.” My pride was somewhat hurt as I forced myself to help this Inari reach the gate but I feared some of the alternative consequences, hopefully she would leave us after we get to the crystalline realm of the Nexus.

She hugged me; I really did not expect that from any youkai, good or evil. “Thank you human. I never had any courage to ask the other Inari in case of lowering myself in their eyes.” She said and backed off as I stared blankly at her; I had no idea whether to just walk on or laugh, although laughing would most likely get me wounded by any reprisal this Inari had. “Stop standing there and lead me to the Nexus. I have very little time before another Inari comes to take my shift.” I quickly started leading it to the bridge that leads to the Tower of Boundaries, i.e. which is the central tower if you haven’t guessed yet. The bridge is a shortcut for those who made it past the four outer towers before.

I paid close attention to the Inari with every step she took, her claim sounded legit but with a Celestial Guardian Inari walking behind your back you can’t help but feel uneasy. She was in the traditional blue, red, and gold Kimono that the Celestial Palace has for all of its occupants; most of the fabric was blue with a red outline all around it in a flare of intricate designs, and the gold formed the winged symbols on the arms, torso, and back. She was in no doubt a high class youkai, what I have gotten myself into, I can only question. I was still walking when the Inari stopped me.

“I’ve forgotten to ask you, what are your names?” She asks, this is what I dreaded, with our full names the Inari can summon us to their realm in the Celestial Palace, my face turned white. The Inari notices this. “You seem at quite unease in my presence. Do you fear youkai as powerful as the Inari, one of them having your full name? No need to worry about that spiriting away by summoning with me. I just want your names unless you think yourself higher than me, mine is Mitsue Izumi.” No, now I have to give mine in order to be polite and not get massacred later on; most importantly to not be massacred later on.

“I am Hoshimi Mana and this is Isamu Jin.” I reply against my better or worse judgment.

“I heard of you before Hoshimi.” Mitsue Izumi starts and Jin face is pale due to the fact I just gave both of our names and I feel weak in the legs after hearing the Inari saying it knows me. “You put Yamaxanadu in his place.” I stared blankly at her still quivering but not as much. “That self proclaimed judge thinks of himself higher than all youkai. One of us Inari were going to put him in his place before the two assigned saw you blast him off the cliff with holy lightning. Great job Hoshimi Mana, you saved us the trouble of having to clean up any mess we were going to make.” Ok, now I am completely confused, I know it just congratulated me, but really, never-mind I am getting tired of all this thinking.

“Thanks Mitsue Izumi.” I say as we finally start walking across the final half of the bridge. We were eerily silent as we entered the Tower of Boundaries. Jin just kept messing with his black hair and checking his magic device; it had the form of a watch, although the device turned off upon getting to the beach around the lake like Changing Tides did.

“Is that a magic device?” Mitsue Izumi says staring at the watch. “I have not seen one of those since the war of youkai and humans.” I hope she does not show any spite against us for holding one considering what these devices did in great number. “Quite powerful in groups but useless in one on one situations against my kind. Why would you be carrying one?”

“I got it from Hoshimi Mana.” Jin says looking at me with some fright. I caught Mitsue’s glance towards me and I looked away leading them down the steps of the next floor down.

“Where exactly did you get it Hoshimi?” She asks walking in front of me and glaring at me; her arms were crossed and hidden in her kimono, I can only imagine what is formulating in her mind right now.

“I’ve found it a long while back. I had no need for it so I gave it to Jin and in return he makes blades for me. I knew exactly what it was and its value.” I said as Mitsue raised an eyebrow.

“Really, is that true.” I just nod as Mitsue stares straight forward again… “If I remember correctly all the devices were accounted for in the human King of Delzira’s vault.” She glared at me again, if she found out I was the reincarnation of the hero who faced the Celestial Knights after felling the Inari she’ll tear me apart.

“Maybe his men missed or overlooked it. They probably thought it was destroyed in that war.” I quickly say trying to think of the next sentence to further back it up.

“Ok, that is quite possible especially when I saw the original owner of that particular device Jin has be vaporized by my mother, I was quite young and only had three tails back then.” She is at least a few thousand years old to have seen that, around three thousand to be exact, wait her mother killed the previous owner, that’s really bad. “I was killed shortly after, by a yellow haired soldier wielding a device called Changing Tides, but reincarnated thanks to the Celestial King; he reincarnated all his youkai servants over the next three thousand years after that.” Ok, now I have no clue on her actual age, but the person who killed her and her mother was me in my past life, so I better keep really down on my device magic abilities as in not use them at all.

We were now one floor negative fifteen, look at how things fly by when you’re not paying attention to time. Mitsue stops us again and activates a shortcut I did not know about. “This leads to two floors below the Nexus gate floor”; so basically it goes down thirty floors. It was rather short looking going down the stairs to be thirty floors but sure enough the engraved wall said floor negative forty-five. Mitsue is still leading us and takes another shortcut that goes up three floors leading to another that leads to the Nexus cavern.

“How come I did not know of those shortcuts?” I ask moving my hair away from me face as we had to jog to keep up with Mitsue’s pace and had to suddenly make a stop.

“We Inari wander around this tower, it is only natural that we picked up secrets of the tower over time and pass it down to the next generation. Have your kind been mapping the tower?” She had a point, Inari have been wandering through this tower for about seven thousand years of its ten thousand year life span, and they would at least pass the information down.

I took the lead from that point walking straight toward the nexus barrier. It was still as powerful looking as it has been since last time I passed it; the purple magical energy forming a bubble around the gate, white holy lightning flickering through, shadows creeping around hungrily waiting for some being to make a false step and consume them, and the green aura or mist that what strip you to the bone. The nexus pulsed in and out with the dangers within flowing rapidly, Mitsue was just watching with a slightly pale face; I wouldn’t blame her because I used a nexus against her mother and her in my past life when I slew them.

“Nexuses have patterns in their motion. It is quite easy to get past once you realize that pattern.” I said watching and waiting for my chance to dash past. There, just when the first part of lightning and shadow crossed each other an opening was seen. I dashed straight through at first then jumped spinning to the side up and over a vortex of mist before landing on hands and feet and roll under a passing bolt of lightning before launching myself forward and landing in a safe zone within the nexus to see the next opening to the gate. “You followed all that?”

“Yes, all those moves are quite easy to follow. I could do that but you have to tell me when because I don’t see the pattern yet.” Mitsue says scratching her head and giving a false smile; that kind-of says it is hopeless for her to actually see the pattern.

“I also am capable but require the same aid in timing.” Jin says wide eyed in how easy the motions were; only a guess, I could have took the longer route and had fifteen more motions to go through, but I have to use the simpler  route for them.

The shadow and lightning pass again, “Go Mitsue.” I say and she darts through at the same speed and motion I did eventually landing next to me. Thirty seconds later the same pattern repeats and Jin gets past.

“This next pattern is extremely easy; you just have to flip through it to get past.” I say waiting for the mist to pass in front of the gate and the lightning bolt to disappear behind the gate and there was the opening. I ran jumping forward, legs passing over a shadow, arms catching the ground guiding my body gracefully over into a flip, before pushing off and going back into the air just in time to avoid the lightning passing underneath; quite impressive looking judging by Mitsue’s and Jin’s faces. I landed on my legs before spinning left with a flip; to guide myself in that direction before landing right at the gates base, narrowing avoiding another shadow and bolt.

I get the others through after some waiting because that pattern does not repeat until three minutes. They followed it to perfection; it is quite a good thing that Jin also trains with his son in the art of battle and magic, otherwise he would not have been able to mimic my acrobatics. I lead them through the gate and in a flash of light we were in a crystalline world.

“Thanks a lot for aiding me in getting past that nexus.” Mitsue grabs hold of me again hugging me. Hoshimi what is going on why is an Inari holding you. Changing Tides asks in my mind. Never-mind I see in your memory why. I am going into standby mode. Good I hope that Mitsue did not pick up that magical energy. My eyes glace back into reality and see her glaring at my face. “That energy that I sensed, what was it?”

“I really don’t know. I lost my line of thought upon sensing it myself.” I lied to save myself from the wrath of an Inari who has all her magical powers back; we are no longer in the Tower of Boundaries.

“Well, if it caught your attention too, maybe it isn’t what I thought.” She looked at me quizzically.

“What exactly was it?” I say knowing full well what she was going to say.

“The device of my mother’s and mine own murderer of my past life, Changing Tides.” She glared even more angrily, my face turned pale from the look of it, and I have to come up with a lie and quickly, ah I know.

“Please tell me you’re not going to use your power with us still near you to destroy it Mitsue. Jin and I don’t want to get in the cross-fire of a high level magical battle. We’ll be dead in seconds if you were to do so.” She took it. She looked at us with a little regret for the glare she gave me and likely what she was planning on doing.

“I am sorry Hoshimi and Jin,” She says looking at Jin and then faces me again and gently puts me down; she was holding me a few inches off the ground during that little scenario. “I thought you had Changing Tides on yourself, but even if the device was powered off I would have been able to detect its location. Thing is it is completely gone now, which makes it improbable for you to be carrying it.”; So very true yet completely incorrect, like I have explained to some of my allies, Changing Tides and I are one and has been since six years after my reincarnation, um… minus that reincarnation part to my friends.

“It is ok; we’ll forgive this since it was Changing Tides that killed you and your mother in the past.” I really won’t forgive her for a while but it is completely understandable reaction to sensing Changing Tides.

“Yeah… I do feel like summoning you to my chambers in the Celestial Palace for sightseeing of later on, I might even get you a job at the place in return for aiding me, it is the less I could do for my actions just now.” I don’t know how she would react if I didn’t agree so I guess I would have to; to my utter distaste.

“Ok, maybe later on. You are quite kind,” My mouth needs to be washed after saying that. I never wanted to be associated with any youkai, even if is something powerful like an Inari. “Well until then Mitsue.” I start walking away grabbing Jin’s arm to drag him at my pace. I could feel that the Inari was still staring at me with interest; don’t ask how I got to this conclusion, I just know it. It is going to become quite troublesome now with an Inari with my name; there is no protection against summoning magic.

Chapter Ended

Next up Hoshimi Mana: The Nexus.