RYUHIKO - 05

Ryuhiko-05-20150128

It was everything Shinmasa's brain could do to comprehend what had just happened. He was struggling. He was struggling to stand. He was struggling to think, to know what to do. She was falling. Falling. What could he do? She had said 'you won't let me die'. He had already failed because he was helpless. She had jumped. Why did she jump? She was falling. Falling. If he had had some warning he might have held her and kept her away from the edge, but he had no warning. Time was moving in slow motion. Why was it moving in slow motion? He could see her face looking up at him, her arms outstretched. She was looking for him to save her. She was falling. Falling. She believed in him and now she was going to die because she believed in him. He cursed himself. Then he heard his Mother calling him - “Akai Ryu”. She believed in him. Moru believed in him.

Why was he doing this? What was happening? He must save her. Shinmasa took one step and lept into space. As he fell he could see that he was getting closer to Moru. He could see her face smiling up at him. How could she smile? They were going to die. As he got closer to her he reached out to take hold of her. That's when he noticed his hands or what should have been his hands. Instead of hands he saw claws. What? There was no time. If he was going to die he wanted to die holding her. The claws gently wraped around Moru's body. He felt a powerful upward thrust. Their descent stopped and slowly they began to rise.

Smiling, Moru put her arms around Shin's neck. With her head close to his she said, “You are my akai ryu. You are my red dragon.”

* * *

“What is happening?” Shinmasa demanded after gently setting Moru on the ground. “This isn't delusion. It is hallucination. What is happening?”

“You're okay,” Moru tried to comfort Shin. “You became akai ryu to save me.”

“This is impossible,” Shin insisted. “I can't be a dragon. Dragons don't exist. This must an hallucination.”

“It is not an hallucination.” Moru realized that she was not going to convince Shinmasa that what had happened was real. “Here,” she offered him what appeared to be small yellow berries, “this will help you relax and you can go to sleep.”

“What is it?”

“It's just soybean kernals. They are rich in niacin and can help you relax.”

Shinmasa ate a handful as Moru stroked his head between his eyes. He could feel himself relaxing.

“Don't worry,” Moru said softly, “we'll work through this together.” He nodded agreement as she continued to stroke his head. “You can go to sleep and we can talk when you wake up.” She continued to stroke. Soon he was asleep.

She looked around the mountain peak upon which they had landed. She needed to rest too but she was afraid of Bafu Nama. There really was no easy way to sneak up on them and they were hopefully far away from where Bafu Nama might be looking. She had to rest. Holding out her hand a blanket of green covered the sleeping dragon. She curled up against his chest and fell asleep.

* * *

Moru sat up as the world was turning that ethereal blue that can only be seen moments before the spender of dawn. Shinmasa was still in his dragon form and sleeping peacefully. She reached out and stroked Shinmasa's head. He stirred.

“Good morning,” she said as she saw an eye open.

“Good morning,” replied Shinmasa. “Where are we?”

“I don't know,” Moru responded truthfully.

Shinmasa started to get up. That's when he realized that he was still a dragon.

“Before you get upset again,” Moru pleaded, “please try to stay calm. I can explain and I will answer all your questions.”

Shinmasa didn't say anything but paced the mountain peak like a caged animal except instead of bars there were steep cliffs in every direction. “I guess I don't have any choice,” Shinmasa said somewhat reluctantly.

“First of all you are not hallucinating. This is real, and I really wish that there had been some other way for you to find out, but you and the entire world are in grave danger and I had to make you believe.”

“Didn't work, did it?” snapped Shinmasa.

“Well, partially. You did take on the form of a dragon and save me. Now I just have to convince you that it is real. What questions can I answer? What will convince you?”

“Am I stuck like this now?”

“No. There are many breeds of dragons and there are two groups within each breed. There are those who are born as dragons and will remain in their dragon form their entire lives. Then there are those who are born as humans with the ability to change forms between dragon and human known as kawizate dragons. The kawizate dragons developed many centuries ago when a man of magic successfully transformed himself into a dragon. You are a kawizate dragon. All you have to do is focus on the form you want to take.”

Shinmasa closed his eyes for a few moments. Opening them he looked at himself. “Didn't work.”

“It's going to take some practice,” laughed Muro.

“So while I'm trying to turn back into a human, tell me who you are. Tell me about this guy Lefu, and why the hell he wants to destroy the world. And definitely tell me how a nerdy geophysicist like me is going to stop him even if I can become a dragon.” Shinmasa still had a bit of a pout in his voice.

“Anything else?” Muro teased.

“Yes,” Shinmasa smiled, “you can tell me why am I here?”

“Last night . . . .” Muro started.

“No,” Shinmasa interrupted, “not why am I here, but why am I here? The ultimate philosophical question. I might as well throw that in while I'm asking the impossible.” He smiled and tried again to return to his human form. No luck.

“I can't answer that last one, but I can answer the rest of your questions,” said Muro. “This guy, as you call Lefu Sefefo, is a spirit. His name means 'death storm'. Me Tlhaho, the spirit of all nature and queen of the spirits, had made Lefu the spirit of death. It was not a punishment or demeaning. She felt it was a very important spirit role and meant for him to help all living creatures to understand and accept death as a part of the cycle of life. Unfortunately Lefu Sefefo became jealous of the other spirits who got to deal with beautiful things like mountains and oceans. He himself saw death as ugly and mean instead of a peaceful transition, so that's how he became. He was soon absorbing the fear and anger of all creatures and turning that to his power. Then he realized that the human animal has a unique ability and propensity toward hatred, cruelty and evil. Fear and anger are very natural. Fear is the basis of the primitive brain's fight-or-flight mechanism for all creatures and anger is a part of that response even though it is more prevelent in higher order of animals. But hatred, cruelty and evil are not a part of fight-or-flight. Even though the lioness is seen as a 'killing machine' does not make her cruel or evil. She hunts and kills to feed the pride. Nothing more. Nothing less. Humans, however, kill because they enjoy killing, hate the one they kill or they are simply being malevolent. Only humans hate. One of the higher order primates may have a violent reaction toward another but it is not hatred. It is based upon instinct or learned behavior not an emotion.”

“Yes, I understand all that.”

“Well, Lefu Sefefo takes all that anger, hatred, cruelty and evil and turns it into power. The more anger, hatred and cruelty he can create among the humans, the more powerful he becomes.”

“I understand how tyrants, terrorist and even your everyday politicians can create emotional power through anger, hatred, and cruelty, but how does he turn it into physical power?”

“He's a spirit.”

“A spirit?”

“Yes, a non-physical entity that is made up of the spirit, essence or energy of that to which it is associated.”

“That was clear as mud,” Shinmasa grunted, trying again to change into a human.

“I am Moru. That actually means 'forest'. I am a spirit.” Moru paused. “I am the second daughter of Me Tlhaho. I draw my energy and magic, my very being, from the oneness of all plants and the reason for my existence is to protect plants and maintain the unity of their spirit with the spirit of all living things - Me Tlhaho. Each of my sisters draws their being from that to which they are one - Metsia from water, Thabeng from the earth itself, Phoofolo from animals, and Moea from the air. We exist because of and for that to which we are one. By maintaining the unity of our spirit with Me Tlhaho we maintain the oneness of all things, including our oneness with the universe.”

“Wow,” said Shinmasa. “So Lefu Sefefo is one of these spirits gone bad.”

“Yes. I guess that just about sums him up.”

“Can spirits die?”

“I guess so,” Moru pondered the question for a while before answering. During her pause Shinmasa tried again to transform without success. “If that to which we owe our existence and for which we exist were to perish, then we would perish.”

“Why doesn't Me Tlhaho just take away his powers, or why don't you all gang up on him and stop him?”

“I wish it were that simple. Me Tlhaho can't take away his powers. It comes from his oneness with the essence of hatred, cruelty and evil. To take away his power Me Tlhaho would have to take away all hatred, cruelty and evil in the world, or at least most of it. And don't think we haven't tried. There have been many, many people like Shakyamuni, Joshua bar Joseph, Francis, Tenzin Gyatso, Mahatma Gahdhi, Aung San Suu Kyi, Betty Williams, Mother Theresa, Thich Naht Hanh, and, right in your own country, Martin Luther King. Literally hundred and hundreds of marvelous humans over the millennium. We thought we had something going when we had an entire generation of North American humans working for peace, harmony, and love. But it seems that Lefu can always get a war or riot going because humans have such a strong belief that all wrong requires retaliation of equal or greater force.”

Shinmasa was thinking about his own humanity which he now shared with a dragon. He was fragile compared to his dragon form, but he did share his sense of kindness, peace and harmony with the dragon. Shinmasa had never believed that dragons were real but thought of them as a symbol. To Shinmasa the dragon had always represented strength, courage and protection of others. He had always admired that and wished . . . . that was it. Shinmasa relaxed, shut his eyes and in a moment he was sitting there butt naked in his human form.

Moru could not help but to laugh. Shinmasa gave her an angry look. “I'm sorry,” Moru said as she laughed, “your clothes are lying in shreds where you transformed.”

“This has got to be hard on the clothing budget.”

“Most kawizate dragons have worn an outer garment that could be removed quickly and they'd go back and get it when possible.” Moru was still laughing. “I can give you a fig leaf.”

“Very funny.” Shinmasa wasn't laughing.

“I'm sorry. Transform into a dragon, we'll go back to your truck, and you can get some clothes to put on when you transform back to your human form.”

“Won't people see me?”

“Not very likely. You will as invisible as you can possibly be.”

“How's that?”

“You will take advantage of the fact that the human brain receives one hundred million internal and external signals every second. The brain has to filter all that. What you remember and how you react to a particular signal is dependent upon your previous experience and how your brain interpreted that experience. If you never experienced a dragon, never saw a dragon and don't believe that they exist, you will not see the dragon fly over.”

“There are those who say that the natives who first encountered Columbus never saw his ships because they could not comprehend such a thing," said Shinmasa. "Evidently a shaman finally notice the movement of the water around the ships. I don't know if that's true, but it sounds like what you're saying.”

“Exactly.”

It took Shinmasa only two tries to transform into akai ryu. Moru decided to stay in human form and ride on his back to help guide the way. Once at the truck and changed both into human form and clothes Shinmasa asked, “now what?”

“I think we need to get your camping gear packed into the truck, find a place to leave the truck that won't trigger a nation-wide search for you, and then find a place where we can hold up while you learn to be a dragon. My sister, Thabeng, can help with that.”

“What's her specialty?”

“She the mountain spirit.”

They arrived at the base camp. There was a large group. There were two university groups and a half dozen regulars.

“Oh, God, man, where've you been?” demanded Trevor. “I was worried about you when you didn't come back last night and then this place has been a madehouse with all these undergrads. And. . . .”

Shin interrupted him, “I'm sorry I worried you. We got a little too far away and it wasn't safe to travel at night, so . . . .”

“Sure,” this time Trevor interrupted Shin. Grinning, he looked back and forth at Shin and Moru, “I understand.”

“It wasn't . . .” Shin stopped when he saw Moru shake her head and just returned Trevor's grin.

Trevor was constantly under foot as Shinmasa and Moru tried to pack up his camping equipment, and a number of the undergraduate students had to stop by and pay homage to the acclaimed Dr. Takeyo. But finally the two were headed back down the trail toward the truck. They had honestly told Trevor that they were pushing farther into the wilderness. Shinmasa had said that it was to get as physically far away from human developments as possible.

When they were well out of sight of the camp Moru took one last look around and said rather loudly, “Thabeng Moea, ka kopo tla. Ke hloka Tou.”

Shinmasa looked at her. She said, “I just asked my sister, Thabeng, to join us.”

They hadn't gone far when there was a swirl of vapor replaced by a tall woman who was the color of a red clay. Her hair almost matched her skin but her eyes were black as coal. She was dressed like a hiker in the 1920s - nickers, high boots that laced all the way up to the nickers, a quarter-zip pullover over a plain cotton blouse, topped with a cloche style hat. It was all in earth colors.

“Thabeng, it's the twenty-first century not the 1920s,” Moru shook her head, laughed and then stepped forward to embrace her sister. Then making introductions, “Thabeng, this is Takeyo Shinmasa the akai ryu. Shinmasa, this is my sister, Thabeng.” As he had been programmed from childhood, Shinmasa put his hands together and bowed from the waist. Thabeng likewise put her hands together and bowed smiling broadly. 

“He's gorgeous,” exclaimed Thabeng. Shinmasa blushed deeply.

Moru again stood shaking her head and laughing at her sister. “He can hear you, Thabeng.”

“Oh, wasn't I speaking moea lefatshe?”

“No, you were speaking English.”

“Should I speak Japanese?”

“No, you should speak English. Just don't talk about someone in front of them as though they aren't there.”

“Did I do that?”

Moru gave up and hugged her sister again.

“Shinmasa is the one,” said Moru. “He is the one of whom Mahotsukai no Ryunake spoke.”

“You are Ryuhiko,” Thabeng turned to Shinmasa and bowed again. “I am so happy Moru found you. The entire world is dependent upon you.”

“Thank you,” Shinmasa replied. “I am very pleased to meet the spirit of the mountains I love so much.”

Thabeng just grinned and did a little dance. 

“Thabeng, we need a place where we can avoid Lefu Sefefo until Shinmasa has had a chance to learn how to be a dragon.”

“Oh, a dragon's lair,” said Thabeng clapping with glee. “I haven't made a dragon's lair for such a long time. I'll go and make you a place. I'll let you know where it is.”

“Thank you so much,” Moru said.

“Yes, thank you,” Shinmasa bowed.

Shinmasa and Moru threw his things in the back of the truck and headed down the mountain to find a safe place to leave his truck. The first town of any size was Salmon, Idaho. They found a U-Haul storage company and left the truck. They stopped by the local Good Will store and bought Shinmasa some extra clothes. A bathrobe and kimono on display gave Shinmasa the idea to buy the kimono and some robes which he could wear like a kimono and remove quickly when he wanted to become akai ryu. He also bought some material from which he could make fundoshi, traditional Japanese underwear that is wrapped around like a loincloth. This would give him some respectability since it can be worn in public and wouldn't shred but would fall off as Shinmasa changed, therefore it could be reused, assuming he remembered where he left it. 

As they walked toward the mountains, Shinmasa called his Mother and some colleagues to tell them that he was pushing farther into the wilderness to get some new readings well away from any direct human contact.

When he spoke with his Mother he ended the conversation with “I know who I am, Mother.”

“I'm so glad,” replied his Mother. “we must sit down and talk.”

“Yes,” Shinmasa promised. “As soon as I'm done with this project. It shouldn't take long.”

Moru and Shinmasa walked silently toward the mountains. They ended up on a road called Brady Street and about a quarter of a mile outside of town they found a nice knoll a few hundred feet off the road over looking the town of Salmon. They sat down to wait for Thabeng.

* * *

As they sat looking out over the Salmon River valley Muro noticed a storm cloud. It moved erratically and was exceptionally dark and menacing.

“I'm afraid that Lefu Sefefo has found us,” Muro said softly, as though she was afraid he might hear.

“What?”

“Storms around here don't tend to come from the north and they definitely don't move back and forth as though they're looking for something . . . or more specifically someone.”

“What should we do? Should we hide?”

“Hiding isn't going to do us any good at this point.”

“But I don't know what to do,” Shinmasa was seriously frightened.

“Give me a moment,” said Moru. She stood staring at the approaching storm for what, to Shinmasa, seemed like an eternity. “Okay. There's no way he's going to pass without spotting us, so I'm going to have you transform into Akai Ryu. If he tries to turn his storm on us, I want you to fly straight up. Don't worry about me. I'll be okay. You just go straight up until you are above his storm. Turn west and fly as fast as you can. You can move a lot faster than his storm. Go west and find a place to hide. I'll find you.” Moru paused and looked back at the storm then back at Shinmasa, “Got it?”

“Yes,” said Shinmasa, “I've got it. Go up, turn west, and run like hell.”

The storm came right to them. Shinmasa transformed into Ryuhiko and stood waiting with Moru. As the heart of the storm grew nearer he could begin to make out the distorted and grotesque features of a face. It had to be Lefu Sefefo. Ryuhiko did his best to stand tall and look confident even though inside he was terrified. He had never encountered such a violent storm in his life.

The grotesque face gave a sardonic smile. “Well, if it isn't my sister, Moru.” the voice was acrimonious. “How's Mother?” Lefu Sefefo laughed, or at least Ryohiko figured that was what that terrifying sound was. “And this must be the boy prince. Ryuhiko, Dragon Prince.”

Ryuhiko tried to look as strong and menacing as he could but this spirit was so terrifying, so totally evil, that it was all Ryuhiko could do to stand there without moving.

“Lefu Sefefo,” Moru shouted in a loud voice. “don't be so smug. The dragons always were the only ones who could stop you, and Ryuhiko is our means to bringing your reign of terror to an end.”

Lefu Sefefo laughed even louder. “You pompous little ass. I don't give a damn if he is the son of Morena Ryu. Look what I did to him.” The hideous face grew close to Moru. “Your days are numbered big sister.”

The Lefu Sefefo turned toward Ryuhiko. “Awe, Ryuhiko, Prince of the Dragons, or should I say, last of the dragons.”

'What does he mean?” Ryuhiko asked Moru.

“Oh,” said Lefu Sefefo, “Moru didn't tell you. Oh, my. It must have slipped her mind. She didn't think to tell you when she recruited you into this nasty little business.” Lefu Sefefo paused a moment for effect - to let reality do his dirty work, “Tell him, sis. Tell him about his father, sister, brother and the rest of the dragons.”

The face of Lefu Sefefo backed away and looked down on the two. Sneering he said, “I'm not going to kill you now. I'm going to save you so you can see my awesome power and know the pain. On the right day I am going to rain down death on this continent which will be the beginning of the end for this pathetic, self-righteous little planet.”

With that the face disappeared and the storm abruptly ended.