Detective Yuki

23. Jujube

1. Jujube

On the other side of the destroyed compound, Aibo, disorientated and flung several hundred yards forward to the front gate of the Forbidden city. He could not comprehend what was happening, surrounded by fire and ash, his uniform slightly burned on the sleeves and chest but still recognizable. He limped slowly towards the entrance, but under the cover of smoke and dust came the silhouettes of cars and people shouting orders at each other. Wearing caps, steel helmets, white gloves and blue uniforms, these strangers were elements of the Peking police force. These individuals shouted to Aibo in a tongue he could not understand, leaving him confused and bewildered.

Seeing Aibo as unwilling to comply with their orders to surrender quietly, the police stood behind their plated automobiles, cocking their rifles in preparation to fire on the intruder. Unable to communicate with them, Aibo slowly raised his hands in surrender with ten guns pointed directly at him, only for a frustrated Senbi to break through a fallen piece of palace furnishing.

 "you!!!" the demon yelled upon sight of Aibo, proceeding then to charge at him and grab him by the scruff of his collar, stared at in amazement and shock by the surrounding police forming a blockade in and out of the fortress. The arrival of police managed to create a diversion too enticing for Senbi, occupying his time long enough brutally maiming them to allow Aibo to safely escape back into the inner sanctum of the ruined city, the outer moats choked with chunks of stone and burning wood.

Senbi enjoyed seeing the humans suffer dearly but was miffed by the sudden disappearance of his quarry, prompting him to give chase in the path of footprints left on the ash covered grounds. Meanwhile, unaware he was being hunted, the boy soldier ran through to the burning center halls of the palace, where he found Yuki and was comforted by her with a hug.

 "what happened to you?!!" she asked Aibo, who responded "I was about to come and find you, but Senbi burst out from the palace and tried to kill me. He very nearly did, but the police were also about to kill me beforehand, however Senbi stopped them, letting me slip away unharmed" Aibo retold his tale to Yuki, who was relieved at his wellbeing. 

"so, where is Senbi now?" she asked.

"the last time I saw him, he was attacking the police" Aibo pointed out.

 Yet, in a puff of blood red powder, a roaring cry broke the silence of the besieged complex.

 "this fortress will do nothing to protect you now!!!" Senbi said as he took a small black circle from off an intact shelf in the desolate building and placed it on the ground. Yuki looked behind herself, through the spiked hole blown into the side of the hall for a possible escape route, oblivious to the black circle placed on the floor by Senbi was rapidly growing and morphing into a gargantuan tortoise, with red eyes and a massive black body about half as big as the central hall was itself, a shell towering over the floor like a looming dome.

Looking down forty feet to Yuki and Aibo in the central courtyard, Senbi pointed one of his long ghastly fingers at the duo, enraging the tortoise towards the target, which began to trample over the ruins in pursuit of Yuki and Aibo, giving chase across the palace in a fit of incomprehensible anger, bellowing louder than the foghorn of even the largest ship. The huge tortoise brought chaos and mayhem as it continued its rampage, chasing its prey around the Forbidden city's outer walls, smashing through the layers of ancient stone like glass, raining to the ground as the dust settled over the ruins of the palace. From above, the tortoise's shell was attacked by the small bombs and gunfire from swarming Chinese biplanes over the city, called in from a nearby garrison to deal with unknown creatures attacking buildings across town.

Overlooking the towers of smoke and gigantic turtle, the whirring planes gave their all in subduing the creature, eventually bringing it down after several fly-bys and an outer shell of fire and burning metal. Yuki and Aibo immediately stopped in their tracks, looking back on the vanquished giant tortoise lying behind them. Its black hide turned to a ghostly white, before vanishing slowly into thin air. For a second, it would have seemed the battle was over, but now the duo had to face the wrath of a bombarding Chinese air force, who blew them away with a single blast to the outer courtyard, scattering the heroes over a hellish premonition the end of the world. As they came to, the sun as blocked out by rising smoke, and the ominous sound of biplanes could still be heard over the devastated complex. 

"Aibo, are you ok?!!" Yuki asked desperately to her friend.

His eyes opening, a groaning Aibo was helped to his feet before they stood before the horrific demon they had now come to fear.

 "I would leave it to those planes to kill you both, but that would be too easy" Senbi suggested to his rivals, who began a standoff over the burning heap of the magnificent palace.

 Clambering through the rubble, Namida, in his tattered wears had survived the cataclysm, that destroyed the Forbidden city and made it deeper into the sanctuary, finding Senbi facing off Yuki and Aibo without his mask and revealing his full demon form to other humans. He had arrived by Senbi's side just in the nick of time.

 "My faithful Namida, you have come to me. Finish them off!!" the demon ordered his ward as the Mexican standoff continued. 

"One is not called noble who harms living beings. By not harming living beings one is called noble." The wise young man spoke to Senbi, much to his dismay.

"what was that?!!" Senbi replied. 

"I said No!!" Namida defied his master, as the order he had just given was unthinkable to a Buddhist like himself.

 "you dare defy me, boy!!!" the demon looked back in anger, spitting fire forth while Namida retreated before the flames through a huge hole in the outer fortress walls and disappeared into the city under gunfire, leaving Senbi to take on the duo. 

The departure of Namida came as a surprise to Senbi, which only served to enrage him further. Chinese military pilots flying over the Forbidden City fired down, hoping to kill those who had vandalized the city fit only for the former Emperors of yore. The new aerial firepower forced Yuki and Aibo to duck and cover under a rain of metal and fire, tipping Senbi over the edge. In another feat of banality, Senbi took several lumps of brickwork and lobbed them directly at the oncoming planes, bringing them down like shooting stars at nigh and bringing about large explosions as the planes swerved uncontrollably into houses, buildings or inside the walls of the palace complex.