An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) Read online

  “Cole! Thank you for coming! You too, Chezarei.” Naia gratefully says with tear-stained eyes while standing from the couch in the living room.

  “Of course. Here.” I say and hold my left hand out before moving the bandages away from my palm.

  “Airi, if you’d please.”

  A maroon bracelet forms in my left hand and I hand it over to Naia.

  “Thank you, Cole.” Naia says and slips the bracelet on her right wrist.

  “Naia, what kind of magic did you try on the kidnappers?” I inquire.

  “Well, since we are indoors, I tried an illusion spell and a spell to put them to sleep.” Naia replies.

  “Just as Sara thought. I think I might have a lead on the kidnappers.” I inform her.

  “What is it!?” Naia runs over, grabs my shoulders, and starts shaking me. “WHAT DID YOU FIND!?”

  “I would tell you if you stopped shaking me!” I exclaim in a broken up fashion because of the shaking.

  “Sorry…” Naia replies and lets go.

  “It’s okay, I understand. Anyway, from what Sara said, dragons have a resistance to magic.” I tell her.

  “That makes sense; Ryuji got sick a few months ago and none of my spells would work on him. I had assumed it was because of dragon physiology or I was using the incorrect spells.” Naia comments.

  “If I remember correctly, Ryuji had something of a master in Chinatown, San Francisco. I think that’s our best bet for information.” I say.

  “Ryuji’s parents should have an address, or at least a phone number. I shall call Mr. and Mrs. Wright and let them know that we are coming.” Naia tells me and walks back to the bedroom.

  “Cole, can I tell you a story?” Cheza asks.

  “Uh, yeah… sure.” I reply.

  “Okay. It starts off with a woman who really wants to have a baby, but due to a traumatic event in her husband’s past, she can’t figure out how to talk to him about it. So, she decides to stop taking her birth control without telling her husband.” Cheza starts.

  “Cheza, I’m not really in the mood for horror stories.” I interrupt.

  “It’s not a horror story! Anyway, so the woman stopped taking her birth control and the inevitable happened.” Cheza continues.

  “Are you sure this isn’t a horror story? Because I think I’ve heard this story before.” I say.

  “You have?” Cheza asks.

  “Yeah, doesn’t it end with the wife pushing her husband into a wood chipper or something?” I inquire as I notice Naia coming back down the hall.

  “It might if the husband doesn’t stop being so idiotically dense…” Cheza mumbles.

  “What?” I ask Cheza as Naia walks into the living room.

  “Never mind.” Cheza replies and looks to Naia.

  “Alright, Ryuji’s parents know that we are coming, but they do not yet know why…” Naia informs us with a downtrodden tone, presumably at the prospect of telling Ryuji’s parents what’s happened.

  “Okay, do you have a picture so I can port us there?” I inquire.

  Naia walks into the kitchen and comes back with a Christmas card. The card shows a man and a woman standing in front of a fireplace, both white and looking so generic that I wouldn’t be able to realize that the card wasn’t a sample in a store if it weren’t for the personalized text: ‘Happy Holidays Ryuji and Naia! Love, Mom and Dad.’ Even though Naia and Ryuji still haven’t gotten married, I guess Ryuji’s parents already consider Naia to be a part of the family.

  “Will this do?” Naia asks.

  “Yeah, I can work with this.” I reply and set the card on the table.

  I grab Naia and Cheza’s hands, and focus porting to the fireplace from the picture. We appear in the living room of the San Francisco townhouse, standing in front of a granite fireplace. The pristine, cream-colored carpet beneath my feet makes me feel uncomfortable for standing on it while wearing shoes.

  “Mother! Father!” Naia shouts.

  Generic white folk numbers one and two enter the living room with puzzled expressions. Both of them are wearing cashmere sweaters. Mr. Wright is balding and wears glasses while Mrs. Wright has short brown hair; nothing else about them is even remarkable.

  “Naia? How did you get here so quickly?” Mr. Wright asks.

  “Oh! You must be Ryuji’s friend, Cole! The one that can teleport, dear.” Mrs. Wright tells her husband.

  “I see! It’s nice to meet you, son.” Mr. Wright says and holds his hand out so I shake it.

  “Where’s Ryuji?” Mrs. Wright asks and Naia looks down so I take over.

  “Ryuji’s been kidnapped. I’ve determined that dragons were most likely behind it and I remembered that Ryuji mentioned another dragon he knows in Chinatown that taught him something or other. I figured that they are probably my best bet for information on why any dragons would kidnap Ryuji and I thought you would know how to find them.” I explain. Ryuji’s mom wears a shocked expression on her face as she slumps down onto the couch.

  “Don’t worry; I promise that I’ll bring him back.” I tell her.

  “I’m pretty sure I still have the address. Just a moment.” Mr. Wright says and walks out of the living room, keeping a cool head despite the situation. Naia sits down next to Mrs. Wright on the couch and hugs her.

  “It is going to be okay, Linda. If anyone can bring Ryuji back, it is Cole.” Naia tells her with confidence.

  Although, looking at my track record with kidnappings, this can go either way. The situation with Lila was a win; the one with Addie… not so much. Maybe Ryuji has an edge because he’s not a small girl? Wait, I forgot about Kita… so I guess Ryuji only has a one in three chance of making it out of this alive… No wait, I forgot that Reyna and Natasha were kidnapped too; I guess they were okay after everything was said and done. So I suppose that Ryuji has a sixty percent chance of coming out of this on top… Hey that’s better than half!

  “Cole?” Naia asks.

  “His chances are better than half.” I blurt out without thinking.

  “What?” Naia inquires.

  “Well, I was thinking about all of the kidnapping cases that I’ve dealt with and realized that two out of those five died while the other three were fine… actually, the two that died were both kidnapped only because of me to begin with. So as long as this kidnapping isn’t my fault…” I reply.

  “Why would this be your fault?” Naia questions.

  “I suppose you haven’t heard that Tia was just killed because of a plot by Loki to hurt me by hurting those close to me.” I state.

  “What!?” Naia exclaims.

  “So if Ryuji wasn’t kidnapped because of you, then the odds are good that you’ll be able to bring him back?” Mrs. Wright asks and I nod in response.

  “What are the chances that he wasn’t kidnapped because of you?” Mrs. Wright inquires.

  “Honestly? Given the circumstances, not great…” I reply and Mrs. Wright starts crying.

  “But I can promise that, even if the worse should come to pass, those responsible get to look forward to a brutal killing in their future.” I reply and Mrs. Wright starts sobbing into her hands.

  “Wait, I mean the perpetrators being brutally killed by me! Them looking forward to it was sarcasm!” I exclaim.

  “Cole… stop talking.” Cheza says while slowly shaking her head.

  I get down on my knees in front of Mrs. Wright, take both of her hands, and gently pull them away from her face.

  “Linda, listen… the last person I lost on a kidnapping was my daughter… I don’t want to see you and your husband go through what I had to, so I promise that I will do everything I can to rescue Ryuji.” I gently tell her.

  “And that’s saying a lot from someone who can kill gods.” Cheza intercedes.

  “Have you really killed gods?” Mrs. Wright asks.

  “Yeah, I killed Venus three days ago for killing my sister.” I reply with a straight face.

  “See? Ryuji is going to be fine! Despi
te Cole being a bit of an idiot sometimes, he can bring Ryuji back if anyone can.” Naia reassures her.

  “I can’t find the address so I’ll just give you guys a ride there.” Mr. Wright says as he walks back into the living room.

  Naia mumbles something as Cheza, Naia, and I follow Mr. Wright to the door; I look back at her and see that her wings and tail are gone, but her aura still follows the outline where they should be. We follow Mr. Wright out to the driveway, where we all pile into his Subaru Outback… Can this man get anymore generically white? It takes about thirty minutes of slightly awkward silence until we reach the part of Chinatown that Ryuji’s master is located in.

  “Here we are. Li Zhang owns that building with the red door.” Mr. Wright informs us as he points across the street.

  “Thank you for the ride.” I tell him as I exit the car.

  “No, thank you, Cole.” He replies and drives away.

  Naia, Cheza, and I cross the street to the unmarked building and knock on the red metal door. A slot in the door opens up and angry almond shaped eyes look at us.

  “Hi, we’re here to see Zhang Li.” I say, unsure if Li is the first name or the last name, because it can be either, but I know that the majority of Asian cultures address names by last name first. Since Mr. Wright said Li Zhang, I decide that Zhang is probably the last name.

  A man’s voice speaks back in Chinese, not sure if it’s Cantonese or Mandarin… What? Just because I speak awful Japanese, I’m supposed to be able to differentiate between Cantonese and Mandarin? Most people aren’t even aware that there is more than one kind of Chinese! Realistically, I’m not positive this guy is speaking any kind of Chinese! I just know that he’s not speaking Japanese and that he might know English.

  “We owe Zhang Li money.” I reply and the slot slams shut.

  “Nice going, Cole.” Cheza says.

  “I got it.” I tell her.

  I start moving my bandage on my left hand aside before several locks click. The red metal door swings open and we’re led down a set of stairs by an Asian man, who is about five inches shorter than I and wearing all black clothing with a bright red tie that matches the color of the door. We follow him through a concrete room that contains half of a dozen tables lined with green felt, and I come to the realization that this is an underground mahjong den. At the back of the room is another metal door, behind which is a staircase.

  The man leads us up the stairs and into an office, where a beautiful Chinese woman in her early forties is lounging on a wood and silk couch while wearing a red and gold ‘china dress’. I say early forties, but I’m not really sure, and not just because she’s a dragon that possibly has an extended lifespan. I’ve noticed that a lot of Asian women are timeless until they hit sixty; for example, I always thought my Japanese teacher in high school was in her late twenties or early thirties until I found out that she had a daughter that was at least five years older than me. The woman shouts at the man upon seeing us and the two large men in the room pull guns from hip holsters.

  “So you must be Ryuji’s master, Li. Do you mind if I refer to you by your first name?” I ask over her shouting as Cheza starts to get a little frosty.

  “And who might you be?” Li asks with a light accent.

  “I’m known by several names, but probably the most well-known name is Feros.” I reply.

  “You are the third man to come into my abode claiming to be Feros.” Li replies and I engage my silver helmet.

  “This is always a good test since the silver helmet isn’t something that can be replicated.” I say with my modulated voice before disengaging the helmet.

  “For what purpose are you here?” Li asks.

  “For information. Your pupil, or at least acquaintance, and our friend, Ryuji, has been kidnapped. The perpetrators were most likely dragons, consider that the spells of a powerful jinni had no effect on them.” I reply.

  “Ryuji has been taken!?” Li asks in an alarmed fashion.

  “Four armed men with ski masks took him from his home in Seattle earlier today.” I inform her.

  “I was afraid this day would come to pass… Ryuji was most likely taken by the Longwang, the Dragon Kings, because of a prophecy.” Li says and I try not to snicker at ‘Longwang’.

  “What prophecy?” I ask.

  “A prophecy that was made nearly thirty years ago. It claimed that ‘the black one will bring about the destruction of the Longwang and usher in a new era.’ This prompted the other three Longwang to kill the black Dragon King of the north, as well as any black dragons that lived and have been born since. The Longwang gave orders to all dragons that any black dragons are to be brought to them.” Li explains and a small chuckle slips out of my mouth.

  “And Ryuji is a black dragon, I’m guessing?” Cheza asks.

  “That is correct.” Li answers.

  “Why didn’t you turn him in?” Naia asks.

  “Because that prophecy is too vague and stupid.” Li answers simply.

  “Do the Longwang have the power to kidnap Ryuji?” Naia inquires.

  “The Longwang’s reach is far and wide—” Li starts to say before I can no longer take it. I just start fucking dying with laughter; did she really just say that by accident?

  “Hahaha… alright so all we have to do is go to the Longwang, burst into their pitched tents, break through the shaft of their defenses, rescue Ryuji from their firm grips, and come back. I just hope that they aren’t beating him like he owes them money or jerking him around too much. So where are they?” I ask as Cheza rolls her eyes.

  “You know that you went from dick innuendos to masturbation innuendos, right?” Cheza thinks.

  “Yeah, but I ran out of dick jokes that made any contextual sense.” I reply.

  “Given the circumstances, Ryuji will most likely be taken to Ao Guang’s crystal palace at the bottom of the East China Sea since it is the closest. However, it is impossible to reach without being transported by a Shen dragon because of the barrier that camouflages the palace and prevents discovery through electronic means.” Li explains.

  “Oh, I don’t think that will be an issue. Can you get me the exact coordinates of the palace?” I request; I can utilize Neptune’s power to get down there so I don’t need to worry about a submarine.

  “I do not have the coordinates, but I’m told that it can be reached by heading ten kilometers northwest from the western tip of the Japanese island of Hateruma.” Li tells me. Well, I should be able to find it and I can always think of something else if I can’t…

  “Alright, thanks. Now I need to go rescue my friend. Goodbye.” I reply.

  I grab Naia and Cheza’s hands before porting back into the living room of Jason’s house in Niflheim.

  “Okay, you two are going to have to stay here. The only way I’ll be able to get there is if I use my ability to breathe underwater that I gained from Neptune. Since it only affects me, you two will drown if you come with me.” I explain.

  “Cole!” they both exclaim.

  “I’m sorry, but there is literally no alternative. I’ll go get Ryuji and bring him back here.” I reply.

  “Okay, Cole… be careful.” Cheza reluctantly says and I give her a kiss.

  “I always am.” I reply with a smile.

  “You are such a bad liar.” Cheza smiles back.

  “Take care of Sara; I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I tell her as I pull out my phone and look up satellite images for the island of Hateruma.

  I touch my Haglaz and port to the master bedroom our house in Bellevue; I doubt this is going to be non-confrontational so it is probably a good idea to grab the rest of my equipment. After sliding off my jacket, I clip on the rest of my holster before returning my jacket so that my Diamond swords are mostly concealed. Once equipped, I port to the satellite photo of Hateruma. As I stand on the beach of the island, I feel someone beside me.

  “Feros… it has been quite some time.” A Japanese man with long black hair, wearing a white a
nd blue kimono, says. It takes me a few moments before I recognize him as Susanoo, the Shinto god of the sea.

  “That it has, Lord Susanoo.” I reply.

  “What business do you have here?” Susanoo inquires.

  “Not here, about ten kilometers northwest of here. My friend was taken by the Dragon Kings and I’m going to get him back.” I answer.

  “So you are headed to Nirai Kanai… you shouldn’t have any issues seeing past the barrier around the place, but you will have problems going that far down. Head in that direction, and you will find yourself on top of it.” Susanoo replies.

  “Thank you, Lord Susanoo. Before I go, how is Inari’s servant, Yui?” I ask.

  “She looked well when Inari brought her to the last meeting a few months ago.” Susanoo answers.

  “Goodbye.” Is all I say before walking away.

  My arm flushes black as I tread through the waves. I push the water away from my body to avoid getting wet as I submerge myself. Enclosed in a bubble of air, I will a water current to propel me forward and down as I engage my helmet; it’s probably going to be rather dark near the ocean floor. After about thirty minutes, I come across something that looks like a dome with an aura. I set my hand on it and it sinks through with little resistance before showing me its contents. The crystal palace of the east dragon king is quite magnificent; azure colored crystals stick out of the ground and collect into a spiky pyramid shape that reminds me of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

  I notice that my hand is dry inside of the dome before hearing a bizarre sound. I turn to the right just before a gargantuan mouth swallows me.

  Chapter 15: Frogman Jones, Turtle Poon, and Atlantis

  I start freaking out for about fifteen seconds as I’m passed through a series of winding tubes, feeling like any cartoon character that has ever been flushed down a toilet and traveled through the plumbing. The large tubing, that must be an esophagus, drops me fifty feet into the center of a chamber that I can only assume is this creature’s stomach; I deploy my flight to keep from falling and I gently touch down onto the squishy pink floor. Green lights along the inner walls of the chamber slightly illuminate the area as I realize that there isn’t any water in here, which should be completely impossible. What the fuck is going on? Did I just get swallowed by Moby Dick? No wait, I’m thinking of the whale from Pinocchio… what’s its name…? Monstro?