Fates Parallel Chapter 390 - Mend (Patreon)

“Wake up! Yoshika, darling, I know you’re exhausted after your tribulation, but this is no time to be napping!”

Yoshika stirred at the sound of Jianmo’s voice. Jianmo? Wasn’t he supposed to be sealed? No, that’s right, she’d broken the seal. She tried to stand, but her body didn’t respond. Of course it wouldn’t—not after Yu Meiren had destroyed her heart.

Wait, that wasn’t right either. Hadn’t it been Xiao Chong? Her mind was hazy, and the memories blended together until she couldn’t tell what was real. Except the pain—that was unquestionably real.

“You’re not really going to die to a brat like that, are you? I didn’t raise you to be such an ungrateful student.”

Yoshika laughed, despite herself—though it came out as more of a strangled gurgle. Thanks to Jianmo, the fog was beginning to lift, just a little.

“You didn’t raise me at all, you jerk. You barely even trained me.”

“That’s the spirit! Now get up and kick that girl’s ass, before she kills your friends and comes back to eat us.”

“I don’t think I can. My bodies aren’t moving the way I want them to. It feels like I’ve been buried alive.”

She sensed a wave of confusion wash over Jianmo.

“You’ve still just got the one manifestation, dear. On loan from that spirit kitten of yours—you really should take better care of other people’s things.”

Yoshika paused. Jianmo was right, her bodies had been obliterated by the divine tribulation and she didn’t have the divine essence to reform them. Her only body was her new unified core, protected by a shell of Heian’s essence.

Then why did she—?

It all came back to her at once. The fight with Fan Zhu, Misun’s intercession, Yu Meiren’s appearance, and the fight to protect her family from the demon. Yu Meiren had been the one to destroy her heart. Kaede’s body had disappeared from her senses when it happened, but now she could feel it again.

She could feel Meili and her avatar as well. Yoshika didn’t know how that was possible, but she wasn’t going to question it now. Meili had provided her with one last ray of hope. One last bit of divine essence with which she could turn things around.

Sacred Art: Heartmender

The soothing power of the subverted technique came through her link to Meili in a painfully slow trickle. It had kept her from succumbing to Xiao Chong’s Miasma, but she needed more.

Yoshika reached out with her divine spark and seized the essence for herself. Thanks to Meili, most of the work had already been done, and the soothing power of her technique rushed through her, pushing out the toxic essence.

She clutched the blade buried in her gut and rose unsteadily to her feet.

Nearby, her friends were locked in a desperate battle against Xiao Chong and losing. Yue was unconscious and bleeding. Next to her, one of Melati’s bodies had been melted from the waist down—apparently having blocked a deadly attack for Yue—and the rest were taking cover in a barrier maintained by Ruiling, Ja Yun, and Iseul while Xiao Chong mocked them.

Everything stopped as Yoshika stood. Xiao Chong whirled around and scowled.

“What the fuck?! How in the emperor’s name are you still alive?!”

Yoshika carefully removed the shortsword with a pained grunt, the wound healing quickly behind it.

“That’s a good question. I thought you would have immediately tried eating my soul.”

“Yeah, well your little squad decided to commit suicide by fighting me first, so—wait, what are you doing?”

Heartmender spread out from Yoshika, propagating through her connections to purge Xiao Chong’s toxins from the nearby Awakening Dragon cultivators. Fang Guang was too far gone, but Yu Xiang and Han Yu were still alive, their wounds slowly closing under Yoshika’s power.

Zheng Long’s body still lived, but his soul was in tatters. Yoshika healed him anyway.

“Stop! Whatever that is, stop it!”

Xiao Chong rushed Yoshika, but to Kaede’s eyes her stolen martial abilities were far too easy to predict. Rote perfection without any understanding of the underlying principles—the price she paid for taking shortcuts.

Yoshika threw the blade at Xiao Chong to throw her off balance. She ducked it easily, but the delay gave Yoshika enough time to kick Jianmo up off the ground where she’d dropped them, bringing Xiao Chong’s charge up short as she leveled the blade into her path.

“Oh, I don’t hate that rough treatment! Let’s bring this cheeky bitch down a head, shall we?”

Xiao Chong stepped back, only to immediately rebound towards Yoshika, brandishing her poisonous claws. Yoshika stepped to the side, parrying the swiping claws with her sword, but one of Xiao Chong’s tentacles whipped around from behind her with the shortsword in its grip.

Kaede’s sword techniques were more accustomed to curved blades, but Eui’s experience with straight swords was enough for her to adjust. She twisted her body, barely avoiding the blade, then in the same motion, she swung her own sword upwards to sever the end of the tentacle.

Xiao Chong cried out in pain as the severed limb bled black ichor.

“Aaagh! I guess you changed your mind about not fighting, huh? This should be fun!”

Yoshika ignored her taunts, focusing on Heartmender. The Sacred Art spread further, to Yue and the others, healing their wounds and soothing their hearts. She could even feel Kaede’s body beginning to knit itself back together, ever so slowly.

Time moved differently for her other bodies, but Yoshika would need to address Meili’s situation soon. She was on a time limit.

Xiao Chong noticed what she was doing and laughed.

“See, this is why you’ll never be able to beat me, Yoshika. I don’t know where you got that last spurt of power, but I don’t have to worry if you’re going to waste it on others. It doesn’t matter how powerful you are as long as you have to split it between so many—my power is only for me!”

She lunged at Yoshika again, bringing both claws and all of the tentacles on her back to bear. All aggression, without any trace of the martial refinement she’d displayed just moments ago. Ironically, it made her attacks more difficult to defend against, but Yoshika stepped back, wielding Jianmo two-handed as she carefully deflected each blow.

“Yoshika, what are you doing? I know you’re a big softie, and I don’t hate that, but this one has earned it. Just kill her already!”

“I don’t think I could if I tried. Meili’s gift isn’t going to last forever, and even if it costs Xiao Chong more than it does me, she has more power to spend right now. She’ll overwhelm us eventually.”

“Then what the hell is your plan?”

Yoshika hesitated. She wasn’t sure. Appealing to Xiao Chong’s humanity hadn’t worked. Yoshika had managed to hit on something, some anchor that had allowed the demoness to hold onto her sanity all this time. She’d thought it was her original name, but that wasn’t it. She was missing something, and that kernel of humanity was fading with every moment.

If Yoshika failed here, then Xiao Chong really would be the monster she pretended to be.

She wracked her brain for an answer. What was the connection to Xiao Chong’s humanity? Why did she insist that her old self had died? Something about their first exchange stood out—she claimed that her old life was unimportant, that she didn’t even remember her original name, that her old self had deserved death for her weakness.

So why had Xiao Chong been enraged when Eui suggested that her old self was nothing more than her first victim?

“Who was it?”

Xiao Chong stopped mid-swipe and blinked.

“What?”

“Your first victim. The first soul you ate—who was it? What was their name?”

She froze, a horrified expression on her face.

“N-nobody. It doesn’t matter.”

Yoshika shook her head.

“I think it does. Something has kept that spark of humanity in you alive, something important to you. I don’t believe that you could have forgotten your own name, but you’ve insisted on discarding it anyway—why?!”

“Because I don’t deserve one!”

Xiao Chong trembled after her outburst, her words spilling forth like a dam had broken within her.

“Why can’t you just understand that I’m a monster?! Everyone else gets it! Your friend with the mind games got it! I’m a monster and I always have been—even before I changed. When my sect suffered around me, all I had for them was contempt. When my seniors bullied me, I just wished that I could have been strong enough to bully them instead.”

She chuckled mirthlessly.

“He loved me. Me. What a fucking joke. When he tried to help me, I just thought it was pathetic and annoying. I wished he would leave me alone. When he shared his ration with me I thought ‘what a waste.’ And then, when he died for me, do you know how I thanked him?”

Yoshika’s heart hurt, she knew what the answer would be, but she asked anyway.

“How?”

“It’s exactly what you think. I consumed his soul. Then I took the soul of his killer, and then each and every last one of my so-called ‘brothers and sisters’ of the sect. That was how I became a demon. There—are you happy now? You’re just like him, you know. Nosey to a fault. Maybe that’s why I hate you so much.”

“What was his name?”

Xiao Chong doubled over in uncontrolled manic laughter. She clutched her hair and shook her head, the breathless cackling devolving until Yoshika couldn’t be certain whether she was laughing or sobbing. Then she got her breathing under control and stood upright, her eyes betraying a deep sadness as she met Yoshika’s gaze.

“I don’t remember. I’m not sure I ever even knew. He loved me enough to throw his life away and I never even learned his name. Doesn’t it make you sick?”

Finally, Yoshika had found what she was looking for. She felt Xiao Chong’s pain—her sadness and self-loathing, her anger and regret. It was painfully familiar.

She touched her hand to her forehead, but of course there was no scar there—not on Heian’s form. Not on Eui’s either—not anymore. But she understood. She knew the pain of regret, knew what it was like to be unable to forgive herself.

Kaede still remembered Miyata Toshiharu.

“No, Xiao Chong. It doesn’t make me sick at all. I think it’s beautiful—that you had someone who believed that you were worthy of love, even when you yourself didn’t. Someone willing to die to protect you—to then become the source of your strength.”

“Pfft, I don’t think eating his soul counts.”

Yoshika shook her head.

“That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s not the essence of his soul that gives you strength, but his memory. You’ve held on to it this entire time, refusing to let your hunger consume you entirely, to live up to what he saw in you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think I do.”

She reached out across the new connection, through their shared experiences, to feel Xiao Chong’s pain as her own. Through that connection, what remained of her new power spread. Xiao Chong gasped as Heartmender touched her soul.

“What? What is this? What are you doing? Stop!”

Yoshika smiled—she could feel what her power was trying to do. Sense its intent on a fundamental level. The technique wasn’t just hers—it was part of her.

“I’m helping you find what you’ve lost. Reminding you of who you really are.”

“No! I can’t! I can’t go back! I can’t be that weakling again!”

“You can. It’s not too late to see the strength that Tan Zhong saw in you.”

Xiao Chong’s eyes widened.

“Wha—how?! How do you know that name?!”

“Unity is my domain—it’s who I am. Tan Zhong’s soul is still part of you, and his love still lives on. I don’t have much power left after healing everyone, but I can do this much at least. I can let you hear his voice one last time.”

“I—I don’t—”

Her mind hesitated, but her heart knew what it wanted. Heartmender’s essence suffused her soul, and through Yoshika’s domain manifested into the form of a plain-looking young man with a shy expression.

“Ahaha...well, this is a bit awkward.”

Xiao Chong’s eyes welled up with thick black tears, and she started to reach out before taking a fearful step back from the apparition.

“N-nosey? Is that really you?”

The boy grimaced.

“Still calling me that? Ah well, I suppose I earned it.”

“How is this possible?”

“Well, you’ve got my soul in you right? No afterlife or reincarnation for me, but thanks to our friend here I can at least come out and say hello. I don’t think it’s actually me, though—just a memory.”

She shook her head.

“This is a trick. The Yan girl getting into my head again.”

“Afraid not. Listen, I don’t think I have much time, so I’m going to be brief. I’m sorry. I wasn’t strong enough to protect you.”

“No! Don’t apologize! Don’t ever apologize to me! I’m the one who should be sorry! You did so much for me and I never appreciated it.”

Tan Zhong smiled sadly.

“I know. I always knew that. But I know that you were trying to protect me as well, in your own way. Don’t try to deny it, I’m part of you now—you can’t hide anything from me!”

He chuckled.

“I’ll always be part of you, so I’m not going to say goodbye. But before I go, I just want you to know this—I forgive you, Yang Qiu. If anyone was going to survive that hellhole, I’m glad that it was you.”

Yang Qiu fell to her knees sobbing as the apparition faded.

“You—hic—you’re a cruel woman, Yoshika.”

Yoshika didn’t respond. She knew just how much pain she’d put the girl through.

“Is it—could you do that again? If you regained your strength?”

“I don’t know. The power behind that technique didn’t come from me, I only subverted it. I might be able to recreate it in time, but even if I did there’s no guarantee it would work the same way.”

Yang Qiu buried her face in her hands.

“I hate you. I hate you more than anything. I hate you even more than I hate myself.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

She chuckled weakly and stood up, looking around at the devastation she’d caused.

“If I hadn’t done all this, you really would have protected me from Zheng Long, wouldn’t you?”

Yoshika nodded.

“With my life.”

“I hate that I believe you. Do you think it’s possible? For me to become the person Tan Zhong thought I was?”

“Maybe. You’ve held on to your humanity this long, so it’s definitely possible. Whether or not you can actually do it is up to you.”

Yang Qiu took a deep shuddering breath, then let it out with a sigh.

“What do I need to do?”

“Giving back the power you stole would be a start.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

Yoshika took Yang Qiu’s hand, ignoring the toxic sting of her touch.

“Let me worry about repairing his soul, I just need you to let go of it.”

“That’s what I mean! I can’t! I—demons aren’t good at giving.”

“You’re more than just a demon, Yang Qiu. You can do this.”

She gave Yoshika a startled look, surprised by the sound of her own name. Yang Qiu stepped back and looked between Zheng Long and Yoshika, hesitating. Then, she came to a decision and plunged her hand into her own chest, tearing out the fist-sized core within and holding it out.

“I can’t do it. Not alone. I need your help.”

Yoshika balked at the sudden act of self-mutilation.

“Are you okay?! What am I supposed to do?”

“Take it!”

She reached for the core, but Yang Qiu pulled it back, stepping away and shuddering. She squinted her eyes shut, straining against some invisible force as she forced her words out through clenched teeth.

“Ignore me and just take it! Please!”

Yoshika acted more decisively this time, snatching up the core before Yang Qiu had a chance to react. She didn’t let go immediately, and Yoshika had to wrest it from her grip, but she didn’t put up any more of a fight.

Once the core was in Yoshika’s hands, Yang Qiu let out a sigh of relief. Yoshika furrowed her brows, looking down at the swirling core of Miasma essence.

“I don’t understand. I didn’t think demons could live without their cores.”

“We can’t. You’re literally holding my life in your hands right now. As long as you have that, I belong to you. If you tell me to give back what’s left of pretty-boy’s soul, I will. I can’t do anything without your permission, can’t get too far away from you, can’t even cultivate unless you let me—or I die.”

Yoshika stared at the core in horror, and Jianmo’s voice rang out within her mind.

“Why do you think I cut mine away when Shen Yu was going to take it? Congratulations on your new slave—not how I would have handled it, but that’s what makes you so special!”

She shook her head.

“That’s not—this isn’t what I wanted. You don’t have to do this, Yang Qiu.”

“Too fucking bad! Did you think I was just gonna hug you? Cry on your shoulder and become friends? Join your harem? Fuck off! I’m way too much of a piece of shit to change by myself, so if you want me to play along with your fantasy of peace and love—make me!”

Yoshika pursed her lips, glaring at the core in her hands. She couldn't shake the feeling that she'd somehow just been beaten at her own game.