Prologue
"Ayame. Don't underestimate me. I won't hesitate to kill you."
She stopped and turned to face her challenger, "Everything is wrong now. Wrong is right and right is bullshit. Stay and fight it if you want but I'm leaving now, and I'm taking Kiku with me. There's nothing left for her here anymore."
She shifted the unconscious girl in her arms and turned around again. She was exhausted but she knew it was not the moment to show weakness.
First step away from this placed and a kunai embedded the hard wooden floor between her feet. She had already known it was coming long before it hit its mark and he had known too.
The moonlight was spread across the dark floor in silver pools and Ayame stared impassively at them as she spoke.
"It's over. I'm tired of fighting in the shadows – I know the light and the only way to stay in it is to leave now, before it gets any darker."
There was silence.
Then his slow, steady voice, "It's always darkest before the dawn."
"She won't last much longer in the shade. Let us chase the sunset Rikimaru."
And he did.
And she didn't look back.
She didn't have to.
She knew.