Heaven's Golden Finger - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Shirong's expression might have been hilarious if it'd been a bit less terrified. Real Shirong would have tried to pretend to be calm, would have tried to convince Shun that he'd fully expected the attack and considered it nothing. After all, he was Heaven's Chosen and nothing could kill him.
The fake, however, didn't trust his blessing, didn't want it and wasn't at all sure what would happen to him, now he'd set himself to protecting Shun from his inevitable fall. Shun hated admitting it, but he liked the fake a great deal better than he liked anyone else. Well, except anyone but their Shizun, that was.
"Let him go," he said calmly, building a Lake array and holding the fire back. Demons had elemental powers and could generally withstand anything a mere mortal might throw at them. His grandfather could handle such a fight. Shun, who'd not quite awakened his nascent soul, could not.
The demoness rose to her feet. Examined Shirong's face thoughtfully. "Such a pretty pretty human. And he thinks he can control me? Does he have a clue how?" Turning her attention on Shun, she smiled delightedly. "Mistress! You've returned to the world?"
Ordinarily Shun would be enraged. He was tired of fools calling him a woman just because he was small, slight and pretty. He'd no objections to women as such, but he knew most did so to denigrate him. This time, though, a thrill of fear went up his spine. It wasn't the mistaken gender, but the mistaken identity that terrified him.
Still, he'd take advantage of whatever small chance he got. "I order you to put him down." He tried to soften his voice the way Shirong had earlier. Instead, it cracked and came out deeper instead.
The demon's eyes widened. "Not the mistress. The young master. At long last I've found you."
Now all he could feel was total and utter terror. His array shattered, his fire flared and he stared wildly at the demon, stepping backwards. He shouldn't have even set his hand to that damned ring. He should have known his fate would fall on him whatever he touched.
Something slammed into the demon, sent her flying straight up into the air. A tree, growing tall, taller than any tree he'd ever seen. Its trunk was broad, covered in red bark, and its needles spread far and wide, filling the air with a piney scent. Shirong plucked him up, held him close and set off running as fast as he possibly could. "My luck. My luck. My luck," he chanted. "Heaven and Earth my witness, I share your fate."
Really, fake Shirong was terribly ridiculous. Shun laughed helplessly, clinging to his Shidi tightly. "It's more likely to kill us both than help, you doing that."
"Then let it. I won't let them have you."
Shun doubted the boy could win against the will of Heaven itself, but he admitted - to himself, at least - that he was desperately grateful for the attempt.
They were soon entirely lost in the forest. Lost and stumbling through twilight shadows. "We have to find a place to stop," Shun insisted at last. "You can't keep this up."
"She'll follow us."
"Yes. But by the time she reaches us, we'll be ready for her." At least Shun hoped they'd be ready for her. He had a feeling he knew who she was. He certainly knew who she thought, who she knew, he was. Was this how he'd turn demon, then? Dragged unwilling into the Demon World to take his mother's place?
Fake Shirong slowed. He was coughing, struggling to keep moving. "There," he managed to whisper. "A cave." He rushed up a set of poorly maintained steps and into a dimly lit passage, then further back into a grotto lit by soft blue light. A shrine to some unknown god stood over a rushing brook, its blue-white pillars covered in delicate white flowers. A statue stood in the center of the shrine. Carved from blue-white marble, it stood tall, a white robed figure holding a mortar and pestle.
Set down at last, Shun looked straight into fake Shirong's eyes. One positive from the idiot exhausting himself like he had. He had to crouch down to get his breath, which put his head on the same level as Shun's. As calmly as he could, he said, "Whatever else happens, no matter what sort of trouble we're in, unless I'm incapacitated.... Stop. Carrying. Me. Around. Like. A. Baby!"
To his credit, fake Shirong flushed bright red. "Sorry, Shixiong."
"Now. We have to think and we have to think fast. Can you manage to keep up?"
"I'll... try?"
Shun hoped so, because they didn't have time to waste on fake Shirong's ignorance. "Let me see that ring. No, don't take it off. Don't give it to me. Just hold it up."
Obediently holding his hand out, fake Shirong slowly let his breath come back to normal. At least he seemed to remember the breathing techniques. Either that or his body's instincts were handling things for him. Shun shoved that thought aside to focus on the ring.
It was carved jade. Expensive stuff, too. Crisp and clear green, the sort they called Imperial jade. Its smooth band and delicately carved bezel were all one piece. Who was mad enough to make such a thing into a spatial ring? That just drew attention to the thing.
"Examine the carving," Shun told fake Shirong. "That snake demoness acted like you ought to be her master. Likely there's something you have to do beyond blooding the ring."
Obediently, fake Shirong explored the surface. "It's a snake."
No surprise that. Shun wondered how his aunt had managed to get herself bound to the thing. "Right. Blooding it made it possible for you to bring her out. Binding her, though, probably needs you to be stronger than she is." That was going to be interesting. Real Shirong had been spoiled and lazy, with no particular desire to put effort into anything. Fake Shirong seemed to be none of those things, but all he knew of Leifeng Sect's cultivation came from real Shirong's memories. Which probably meant he didn't know very much at all.
There was one thing, though. "I couldn't watch your fight closely, earlier, but I noticed you weren't using Leifeng Sect's style."
A bright flush covered fake Shirong's face, making Shun feel oddly kind towards the younger boy. "Before I got sick I was in competitive martial arts. That style was...," he paused, clearly thinking about his words. "In Chinese it'd be gather steam art, but I don't think that means the same thing here. It's called ai ki ji tsu in Sun Root, or it will be. If this is even the same world."
"Sun Root?"
"What do you call the islands to the east of China? They call it Nippon, if that helps?"
"Islands? There are islands?" Shun stopped himself. "No. Whatever it's called doesn't matter. What matters is you have a fighting style. You'll have to use it on her."
Fake Shirong's mouth worked. "She... she's a demoness! A snake demoness. What if she turns into a snake? I can handle a bigger opponent. I don't think I can handle a snake."
"Unless I'm mistaken, she can't use her powers until she's either free of the ring or under the command of her master. So we either break the ring and hope she doesn't come after us or you have to defeat her." Breaking the ring probably wouldn't help. At least, it wouldn't help Shun. Auntie Green was coming for him and he didn't have any way to fight her.
To his relief, fake Shirong said, "Then I'll fight. I don't think she'll leave you alone, otherwise." In an odd voice, he added, "I just hope she isn't another potential harem member."
Shun decided he not only didn't understand, he didn't want to understand.
The snake demoness took most of the night to show up. Shun, knowing it'd be fake Shirong doing the fighting, ordered his Shidi to sleep. "You should be as ready as you can be," he told the boy. "She may not have her powers, but she won't be easy, even so."
It was clear fake Shirong wanted to argue. Equally clear he had to admit he was tired. He curled up at the base of the shrine statue, leaving Shun to sit in meditation at the shrine's entrance.
At least nothing here denied Shun's right to exist. Whatever it was that would drag him into Hell and make him a Demon King hadn't begun its work on him yet. Or, if it had, it wasn't strong enough to for a holy place to notice. He wasn't sure which.
The snake demoness didn't show up until the first flickers of daylight shone through the cracks in the roof above them. The sound of her steps on the stairs were slow and deliberate, clearly intended to warn and intimidate. She had to know they were waiting for her. Had to know what fake Shirong would have to do in order to keep them both safe.
When she stepped into the shrine grotto, it was obvious she was deeply out of sorts with fake Shirong. Well, she had been tossed a good distance away from them earlier. Not only would she have had to work her way back to where they'd started, but she'd have to follow their trail in the dark.
He eyed her as she approached. Small and slender, her scales gleaming in the grotto's soft light, she didn't look like much of a fighter. He knew better than to make any such assumption.
"Letting your pet human throw me like that. Cruel." She resettled her clothes, flirting with him as she moved sinuously forward, her pale skin just visible beneath the sheer green fabric. "Auntie just wants what's best for you, Young Lord."
"I'm not your young Lord," Shun said as calmly as he could, looking up at her. "Nor is Su Shirong my pet." For that matter, neither was Song Shirong, but that amounted to the same thing right then.
Behind him, fake Shirong turned in his sleep. Muttered something incomprehensible. Whimpered. It seemed a pity to wake him, he looked so tired. But this wasn't the time for chat. "Shirong Shidi. She's here."
To his credit, the young faker was up and upright in a moment. "Yes, Shixiong."
"You still think you can master me?" the snake demoness demanded. "Wiser, it'd be, to forfeit and give that ring over to the Young Lord here."
Fake Shirong stood up. Walked towards the snake demoness. "I'm told I have to defeat you to master you."
"Good luck with that," she murmured confidently.
The phrase made fake Shirong wince. "I do wish you hadn't put it that way." He shifted his feet, set his hands in that same odd position as before. As the demoness moved at him, fingernails flashing in the light, he twisted sideways. Catching her wrist and arm, he bent the elbow backwards, other hand holding her wrist tight.
She somersaulted, landing back on her feet somehow. Lashed out with a slim and shapely leg, attempting to wrap it around fake Shirong's knee. He was gone before she could get to him, spinning out of her reach and striking her ribcage with his knuckles. That elicited a slight grunt of pain, but didn't knock her down. Instead, she dodged to the side, flung herself to the ground and skidded on her back, fingers arched as she attempted to catch him between the legs.
He caught her hand, twisted her wrist and forced her up on her feet again. "That'd get you kicked out of the arena back home," he told her. "But those rules don't count here, do they?"
"Rules? Did you think there are rules, human child?"
"Not really," he admitted. "Which means I can do this." He grabbed her hair, thrust one leg between hers to trip her, dragged her to the ground and drove his knee down sharply.
For a moment Shun thought she'd get up again even so. But fake Shirong had hit hard and hit precisely, his knee striking the demoness right in the solar plexus. Stunned, out of breath, she barely had the ability to sit up momentarily. She didn't have the ability to stay upright.
With a sigh, she grumbled. "Fine. You win. Master. This Mo Qingshe obeys you. At least until someone stronger kills you and steals your ring." She glanced slyly at Shun. "Isn't that right, Young Lord?"
Somehow, Shun had a feeling she was expecting him to be that someone stronger.