The Crab

By Soshi Mikano

Blood pours from my face. My lips are burst open and my nose is broken from the impact, but I feel no pain.

Even as the trunk of the tree smashed into my face, I felt no pain. The ogre stood in disbelief. Smashing a man's face with a tree trunk normally produced the same effect each time: a ready to eat man. It had never seen this before. Pulling my tetsubo from my back, I spit the blood from my mouth.

"My turn." I reared back, smashed the giant's left knee and heard it's kneecap shatter. Its goblin friends quickly rushed in to help their fallen leader, as it crumpled to the ground with a sick thud.

The goblins swarmed over me. I slowly beat them off of me, one by one, their thick, black blood covering me. They wrestled my tetsubo away from me as they scratched and tore at my heavy plated armor.

I pulled my Katana and began my plight anew, slicing goblin flesh like butter on a warm day.

Two days ago, I entered the Shadowlands in search of my brother. He left the Kaiu Wall on a quest for his gempukku. He was to find a Shadowlands creature and kill it, then return home. That was a week ago. In my search, I met many creatures of the Unnamable One and spoke with many ratlings, all of which led me to this clearing, where I was ambushed by the ogre and his comrades.

But I stand victorious. Ragged chunks of goblin meat scatter the clearing, and a fallen Ogre groans in pain as it struggles to stand. I approach the creature and swiftly cleave its head from its shoulders. Black blood spits from its neck, covering the ground.

"The last one was bigger," I say, spitting on the ogre's decapitated corpse. I walk away, tossing my shattered mempo to the ground, when suddenly I notice something. A small pool of red blood, dried on the ground nearby. It's recent. A few days old. I bend low to examine it, but a shadow blocks my view. I spin and stand, looking at my brother.

"Tamaka!"

But he doesn't respond. He faces the west, staring at some unknown picture on the horizon as the sun sets. The dark atmosphere made total vision impossible. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

He turns and looks at me, the left half of his face visible for the first time. It is eaten away, the eye socket empty and wanting. His mouth, which started with a half smile, ended in a horrific grin bearing all his teeth and part of his cheek bone.

For a moment, I am dumbfounded. I have seen men reanimated before, but this isn't just some man. This is my only brother. He is no longer my brother, though... it... is something else, something horrible. It is a monster of Fu Leng. It draws our family katana from its saya and slices my arm open. I wince in pain, but dodge the next slash, meant for my neck. I let out a mighty yell and leap into the air, bringing my katana down squarely in the creature's forehead. I then procede to cut it in half, from head to groin. The creature falls. I pick up our family swords and saya from the creature's undead clutches, and begin home.

Now I am the only son of Hida Nikamo. I am Hida Tamakamo.