A/N: On a usual note, thank you for reading this far; I hope you are enjoying my story. On a not so usual note, I found an insanely large amount of typoes and spelling errors when I reread this and marked it up for editing. I did read it over twice and ran spell checker, yadda yadda, so it should be just fine. I tried really hard to make sure there were as few typoes as possible, and I'm not quite sure what made this chapter so different from the rest. Does anyone else out there have dyslexic days and spell "venom" with the "n" and the "m" switched? That was the biggest thing I noticed. Ugh... sorry that's such a long author's note. Moving on:

Warnings: adult situation, alcohol abuse, mild language, violence


Firefly Effect
Flood

Yashamaru leaned against the wall of his room, half empty jug of sake hanging limply from his right hand. Had it been full, Yashamaru would have been spilling the jug's contents with the angle at which he was holding the clay container. His small sake cup had been discarded a half hour earlier when drinking from it had lost appeal because it was much easier to drink from the jug. He hadn't intended to come back to his room and drink. In fact, his futon was unrolled, and his blankets were neatly laid across it, but the lure of alcohol to soothe his aching heart was to strong to refuse. Now he found himself a dozen steps from his bed and knew full well if he were to stand to get there he would not make it. He wasn't yet drunk enough to find the comfort of his mattress worth the indignity of crawling, even if no one was around.

This wasn't what Hotarubi would have wanted, a little voice in the back of his head chided. Yashamaru turned his cheek against the wall and closed his eyes, as though trying to block the thoughts out. Hotarubi would have wanted him to track down the hulking brute of a man that had killed her and slay him with the same coldness with which he had killed her. Tears leaked from Yashamaru's eyes and he tried valiantly to hold them in, a useless endeavor. He wanted to avenge her, he really did, wanted to see that oversized Kouga bastard burn in hell for what he had done. But he couldn't find the strength or the heart to do so. Hurt and sadness were foremost on his mind. Anger had taken a back seat. He took a long pull from the sake jug, then let it drop out of his hand with an audible thump. Its contents sloshed like a stormy sea and it wobbled for several moments before falling onto its side. This time a steady cascade of amber liquid poured from the jug's neck. Yashamaru didn't seem to notice the growing stain on the tatumi it caused, and even if he had, he probably wouldn't have cared.

Having found that pointing out that he was acting against Hotarubi's dying wishes was not causing the young ninja enough distress, his mind found a new thought to bother him with. You're useless to her, his drunken mind berated, somehow having connected enough arbitrary thoughts to reach that conclusion. What kind of lover are you? If you couldn't avenge her death? You should have been able to kill that brute Gyoubu right then. Yashamaru shook his head, not wanting to listen to his berating inner voice, but finding his muddled mind inclined to believe it. "I'm sorry Hotarubi-dono," he slurred, fumbling with one hand to grab the handle of the sake jug and lifted it almost in a toast like gesture. "I have failed you." He brought the now three quarters empty jug to his lips and downed the rest of the contents in several swallows without taking it away from his mouth. He let his arm fall away in an uncontrolled movement, and the jug knocked hard enough against the wooden support that a small crack formed in its surface.

Yashamaru stared blankly at his neatly laid out futon. It seemed to be blurring in and out of focus, or moving further away from him and back, or maybe it was moving from side to side. Either way, Yashamaru was quite certain that it would not lay still long enough for him to climb into it, so he leaned his head back against the wall and let his eyes droop closed. It seemed as though a picture of Hotarubi's face was imprinted on the back of his eyelids, but he wasn't grateful for the image. One instant she would be smiling shyly at him, then quite suddenly her face would contort inexplicably, and he would watch with exaggerated gore as she died. Tears leaked out from under his eyelids, making slow trails down his cheeks, and he shook his head slowly from side to side without lifting it off the wall, trying to urge the images to go away. When they wouldn't, he forced his eyes open again and faced the blurring world in front of him. It seemed he could find solace in neither his mind nor the real world, and he scowled when he came to this conclusion, then reached for the jug of sake. He lifted it to his mouth and finding it empty, tossed it across the room where it shattered. Just as with the sake stain, Yashamaru didn't seem to care.

He leaned his head back against the wall again, this time leaving his eyes open. He ignored the way the ceiling seemed to spin. He wasn't really looking at the ceiling anyway; he was looking through it, heavenward, toward Hotarubi. "I bet it's beautiful where you are, love," he told the ceiling, words melding together pathetically. "I bet the sake never runs out and the rooms don't spin and the furniture doesn't move." He cast a glare at his futon, which still couldn't decide which direction it wanted to go. "I hope you're happy up there." He felt more tears leak from his eyes and he didn't bother to wipe them away. "Because if you're not I'm going to kill the bastard running things." He shook his fist awkwardly toward the ceiling. "You hear that up there? You better be keeping her happy," he threatened. Anyone listening would have found it hard not to snicker at such bold words spoken in such a clearly intoxicated voice.

Quite suddenly, the tears turned to sobs and he dropped his face into his hands. "I know it's selfish of me," he choked out, "But even if you are happy, I want you back, Hotarubi-chan, I miss you." He cried until his hands were so slick with tears that it was hard in his drunken state to keep them pressed against his face. "I wish I could be with you, love," he muttered, a few more wayward tears trickling down his cheeks before he struggled to pull himself upright, bracing himself hard against the wall. Everything moved either toward or away from him and never all together. Even the floor seemed to want to slide out from underneath his feet, but he held himself upright, closing his eyes until some of the dizziness subsided. Then he stepped forward, one hesitant step at a time, gaining coordination with each one as he got used to the whirling world around him.

It was slightly more difficult to open his door, as it seemed that edge of the screen was constantly blurring out of focus, but he did manage to open it. The mild summer night air greeted him and he inhaled deeply before stumbling out it. After all, this would be the last time he would smell something so pretty as summer air. It was a bit of a struggle to find Hotarubi's rooms in the dark while in his inebriated state, but he did finally reach them. He tripped stepping up onto the wrap around porch and toppled over. He couldn't drag himself back to his feet, and pulled himself on his hands and knees to the shoji. With an extreme amount of effort he managed to drag it open from his place on the ground and drag his uncoordinated body through the thresh hold. The room smelled like Hotarubi, he noted with a wistful sigh as he dropped onto her unrolled futon. She must have unrolled it before she went to see him, a momentarily functional part of his brain informed him.

For a moment, he just laid there, splayed across his dead fiancé's bedding, and stared up at the ceiling. "I'm sorry, lover," he whispered, reaching with one hand toward the box to the right of the bed and flipping it open. "I know this isn't what you would have wanted either." He smirked bitterly. "It is rather cowardly of me." His fingers closed around a vial, and he lifted it out. "But look on the bright side." He uncorked the tiny container and downed the contents in one gulp. "I'll be joining you shortly." He reached a hand toward the box and lifted out another vial, uncorking and drinking it. Hotarubi had a dozen or so vials of her snake's venom stashed in that box, certainly enough to kill him he decided, fumbling for a third.

Across the way, Oboro sat awake in her rooms, contemplating the events of the evening, when she saw the light of an open shoji. She slid her own door open and peaked out into the night. Her eyes widened in startlement when she saw that it was Hotarubi's room that was alight, and she was even more surprised when she saw a figure moving with in it. Oboro scrambled to her feet, not thinking twice that it might be danger that she was racing to confront. She flung herself into Hotarubi's room. The first thing she saw was the bedraggled, pathetic figure of Yashamaru sprawled across the futon, uncorked vial in his hand. Two empty vials had been dropped carelessly beside him. "Yashamaru-dono!" she shrieked, dropping down next to him and swatting the vial out of his hand. It was easily knocked loose and the fragile glass shattered against the wall. "What are you doing?"

Yashamaru didn't seem to see her. Vacant eyes stared not at her, but through her.

"Yashamaru!" she cried, taking his shoulders in her hands and shaking them as hard as she could, which unfortunately was not with much force. "Yashamaru! Please! Answer me!" she demanded, tears spilling from her eyes when she still didn't get a reaction. With much exertion, she lifted the limp figure up against her, hugging him close and sobbing. "Yashamaru-dono, what have you done?" she choked out.

The screams woke Akeginu from her restless sleep, and when she recognized them as Oboro's she feared the worst. She was relieved when she found the Iga cheiftess uninjured, but it was short lived. Oboro was sobbing into the limp shoulder of a familiar dark haired body.

"Oboro-sama!" Akeginu jerked the girls shoulder just a little to get her attention.

Oboro turned large eyes toward her bodyguard and blinked furiously to hold in tears.

"What happened?"

Oboro sniffled. "He… he drank Hotarubi-dono's snake venom, two… t… two vials of it, I think," she managed, gesturing the empty containers, one of which had been shattered during the commotion. "I… I can't get him to answer me, Akeginu. He won't wake up…" her voice melted away into more tears.

Akeginu bit her lip pensively and reached around check Yashamaru's pulse. It still beat, slightly slower than a normal heartbeat, but not quite enough to be frighteningly alarming; there was still hope. Hotarubi's snake was not the most deadly of creatures. Its venom caused illness, but rarely death with one bite. However, it's venom was not usually ingested, and the amount of venom in the vials from when Hotarubi milked the creature was significantly more than would be released in one brief bite. Especially without Hotarubi to confirm anything, Akeginu could be sure of nothing.

"He's still alive, Oboro-sama," Akeginu comforted, "And his pulse is strong enough. We don't have to worry about him dying just yet."

Oboro turned pleading eyes on her. "But is he going to die, Akeginu-dono?"

Akeginu chewed her lip a little harder. "I don't know…" she trailed. Already more tears had started pool in Oboro's eyes. "I know an apothecary in Sunpu." She paused. If Yashamaru was really dying, then there was no guarantee that he would survive the journey all the way to Sunpu. "If anyone can save him, she can."

"Then we have to go to Sunpu." Oboro realized guiltily that she answered so abruptly because she knew Gennosuke would be in Sunpu seeking information about Lord Kunichiyo's death. She bit her lip and shook the selfish thought aside.

"Oboro-sama, it will be dangerous to travel all the way to Sunpu, and Yashamaru might die on the way," Akeginu reminded.

Oboro set her jaw and stared as defiantly as she could at her confidant, then turned sad eyes to look at Yashamaru, still limp in her arms. "We have to try. We can't let him die like this." A few more tears dropped from her eyes and landed on Yashamaru's cheek.

Akeginu sighed. Oboro was a strong willed girl, despite appearances, and her gentle heart was not going to allow one of her own to die if she could help it. "Very well, Oboro-sama," Akeginu bowed out, "I will start to make the necessary preparations."

Preparations were made hastily. The minimal necessities would be brought, and they were tucked haphazardly into pouches and packs, as Oboro insisted they leave as soon as possible. Pandemonium. That was the only word to describe it, Akeginu decided as she stuffed a kimono into her sack, scowling a little at the realization that it would be wrinkled beyond repair by the time they reached Sunpu and so opted to remove it and refold it. And of course, there was not a chance in hell that just she and Oboro would be allowed to take Yashamaru to the city. Tenzen decided that he, Koshirou, and Nenki would accompany them. This only added to the chaos of assembling packs. Needless to say, watching all of it, Rousai and Jingoro were happy to be staying behind to hold down the fort.

For all the trouble it was causing them, Akane-san better be able to cure Yashamaru.

xxx

"Akeginu," Oboro came up beside the older woman and leaned on the railing to look over the water, "how do you know this apothecary in Sunpu?" Oboro turned to look at her. She had never heard mention of this apothecary before last night.

Akeginu grinned just a little. "Akane-san is a bit of the mad scientist type," she explained.

Oboro's eyes widened a little in barely concealed horror at the thought of sending Yashamaru to a mad scientist, which caused Akeginu to giggle a little and shake her head.

"Don't worry, Oboro-sama, Yashamaru will be in good hands." She paused a moment. "As for how I know Akane-san, she tried for a little while to use my blood in medicines." At this Akeginu sighed and leaned her elbows on the rail and propped her head up in her hands. "It was a useless endeavor unfortunately. Toxic is toxic is toxic, and because at the time Akane wasn't in the business of selling straight up poison, she couldn't do anything with it." She laughed a little. "The woman has changed a little, though, since she started twisting sheets with Shogun Ieyasu. She might want to give it another try."

Oboro's eyes widened evermore and her face flushed at the casual reference to infidelity, again wondering if this Akane that Oboro spoke of could be trusted with Yashamaru's life.

"Forgive me, Oboro-sama, I didn't mean to frighten you," she apologized. "She's a bit of a character, but she's the most reliable apothecary you can find."

xxx

Akane was multitasking in her work room. She had a watering can in one hand and a list of the plants in the other. "Lactuca tatarica, better known as blue lettuce is pain reliever and a sedative. It has a variety of uses, namely treating insomnia, anxiety, and hyperactivity. I use it occasionally to treat coughs, too, but minimally. It's too easy and too dangerous to overdose." She turned to look at her daughter who was perched on a stool, leaning on her elbows and watching her mother intently. "Any guesses as to why?"

"It's a sedative?" Amaya wanted to clarify.

"Yes."

"Death by cardiac arrest? It slows the heart rate too much, and it just stops."

Akane nodded, then momentarily gave her complete attention to one of her plants. She studied her belladonna closely, reading the care instructions Takumi had been kind enough to tape to the side of the pot for her. Instead of just pouring water on it as she had her hardier plants, she took the small cup she used for measuring and filled it. She dumped three of these into the soil around the plant then detached the little packet of fertilizer Takumi had supplied her with as well. She reached her fingers into the substance that the herb dealer had assured her would increase her plant's life and took out a pinch, adding it to the mushy soil as well.

"How's it doing?" Amaya asked casually, leaning a little to one side to peer around her mother at the plant.

Akane searched the plant before answering, only finding one wilted leaf. She smiled. "Not too bad," she answered. Finished with the painstaking task of ensuring her precious belladonna's survival, Akane looked back at her list to regale Amaya with the detailed description of another plant.

She was interrupted by knocking on the door.

"One moment, Amaya-chan." Akane set her watering can down on the table and walked out into the outer room where she met with patients and clients.

"Akeginu-chan!" Amaya heard her mother greet someone brightly. "Long time no see! How have you been?"

The response was not so brightly spoken, and significantly quieter, so much so that Amaya couldn't make out what was said.

"Bring him in." Her mother's tone had lost all its previous traces of cheer.

Curiosity piqued, Amaya stood and peeked around the paper fusuma. Akane was unfolding the futon she kept stashed in the closet for the purpose of patients that were unable to stand. Amaya gasped when she saw whom it was for. She bit her lip to keep from crying out, and clutched the frame of the fusuma with a white knuckled grip to refrain from rushing to the unconscious Yashamaru's side.

"Well, what the hell happened to him?" Akane demanded of the staring figures when no one had volunteered the information by the time she had finished situating Yashamaru on the futon.

"He drank snake venom," Akeginu explained. "Two vials."

"I don't suppose any of you thought to bring the snake?" she snapped hurriedly as she checked Yashamaru's pulse. She then peeled his eyelids up and forced his jaw open. She made a little noise, as though taking note of something before untying his kimono. When no one had answered, she glared up at them.

"The snake is dead," Nenki volunteered.

Akane let out a flustered sigh. "It's too much to ask that one of you brought a sample of the venom then, isn't it?"

Guilty stares were all she got in answer from the group crammed into the small room, and she groaned before tugging the kimono off the rest of the way, checking Yashamaru's chest for any kind of breakout or rash, and finding none, she let out a relieved rush of air. "Then I'm going to have to do this the hard way."

"Will he live?" Oboro's small voice squeaked.

Akane's next sigh was extremely exasperated. "Of course he will live. He's not going to enjoy the process of revival, but he'll definitely live."

No one moved after the prognosis was given.

Upon noticing this, Akane sat back on her heels and rested her hands on her thighs. "I don't work with an audience, and you are crowding my workspace." She turned to Akeginu, "I need you to stay in case I need a hand?"

Akeginu nodded. Akane turned to examine the remaining four party members, then pointed arbitrarily at the youngest male among them. "You, stay here, too, because Akeginu is not going to be able to carry him back to your rooms."

Koshirou started a little but nodded.

"The rest of you, shoo." She made the corresponding gesture with her hand at the remaining three. They shuffled out.

"You – " she paused waiting for a name. Koshirou didn't get the hint, but just before the snarky apothecary could snap something to that point, Akeginu intervened.

"Koshirou-dono," she informed her slightly flustered friend. Akane nodded, taking the information in before turning back to Koshirou.

"Just sit over there – " she gestured the opposite wall, just to the right of the storeroom door, " – and stay out of the way."

Koshirou was a tad too shocked by the woman's behavior to protest her rudeness, and did as he was told.

Akane turned to Akeginu. "Due to lack of anything to work with to make an anti-venom, I'm just going to have to do everything possible to purge the venom from his system, which is going to suck for him, but its all I can do."

Akeginu nodded.

"Has he thrown up any since drinking it?"

Akeginu shook her head the negative.

"Damn!" Akane swore loudly. "Really going to have to do this from scratch. Give me one minute." She leaned her head back to look in the direction of her workroom, "Amaya-chan, I need you to bring me hyacinth flowers!"

Amaya had been lost in thought, and the order startled her so much she jumped before rushing back to retrieve several flowers. Her mother's hyacinth was one of the few plants she had kept alive longer than a year. The excessively fragrant flowers were associated with rebirth, and though they had little to no medical use if ingested, her mother had been selling off her hyacinth flower tea saying it would prevent aging.

She handed the light blue branch to Akane who waved it several times under Yashamaru's nose. The comatose patient's eyelids fluttered briefly, before settling open. "Hello there," Akane greeted the dazed boy beneath her, patting his cheek to further rouse him into awareness. Yashamaru for his part just looked stunned. Amaya made a point to dart back into the workroom before he could see her.

"Keep him conscious, Akeginu. It'll be really hard to make him throw up if he's not," Akane mentioned nonchalantly. The prone figure on the futon, though awake was not coherent enough to understand what they were speaking about, so Akane felt no need to euphemize. "I'll be back shortly." She gracefully got to her feet and walked into her workroom, debating what she would need.

She poured a handful of wisteria seeds into her palm and set them on the table. She crushed them to a fine powder with bottom of a bowl before sweeping the dust into the same bowl and adding water. It would taste terrible, but that would only add to the wisteria's nausea inducing capabilities. She brought that as well as a bucket – there for that exact purpose – into the outer room. Akane hoisted Yashamaru up against her chest, holding him in place with an arm around his waist from behind and lifted the bowl to his lips. "I need you to drink this," she informed him.

It took Yashamaru a moment to comprehend the order before his lips closed around the rim of the bowl and sipped at its contents. It took several minutes before he finished, and then Akane laid him back down. As she got back to her feet, she spoke to him. "Now, you're going to feel like hell any minute now. Do me a favor, and throw up in that – " she gestured the bucket, " – and not all over my floor. I charge extra if I have to clean up vomit."

Akeginu's eyes widened a little in surprise at this statement before she realized her friend was kidding. She never was good at understanding Akane's dry sense of humor.

"I'll be back in the work room, if he should have kind of complications," Akane jerked her thumb in the direction of the open fusuma, then sauntered through it.

Amaya watched as her mother collected ingredients she'd never seen her use, nor had she ever had explained to her. Whatever her mother was making was much more complicated than anything Amaya had been taught. Her eyes widened in horror, though, when her mother went to remove a jar from line behind which Amaya had hidden the bowl and pestle she had used to make the jasmine poison. She hadn't gotten a chance alone in the workroom since Kunichiyo's death in which to wash and put them away.

"Huh…" her mother trailed upon finding the materials, "I don't remember leaving these here." Her trained apothecary's nose detected the scent of stale jasmine berries, an ingredient she would most definitely have remembered using and would have been careful to clean the tools the substance had touched, and she turned very slowly toward Amaya. She cast a foreshadowing glare at her and pointedly walked over to shut the fusuma, cutting them off from the outer room. Amaya chewed her lip.

Koshirou's suspicion was roused when the fusuma closed, and he strained his ear on instinct to listen to what was going on inside.

"Amaya," Akane hissed, "were you using jasmine berries for anything in particular?"

Amaya gulped, debating if she could come up with a convincing lie.

When her daughter was silent, Akane moved on to her own theory. "Lord Kunichiyo suffered violent fits of nausea and vomiting before he died, classic symptoms of jasmine poisoning. And you, Amaya-chan, made his medicine that day."

Koshirou's eyes widened as he listened, and he was going to whisper to Akeginu to come listen as well, but the woman was holding Koshirou's shaggy hair out of his face as he lost the contents of his stomach.

Amaya couldn't deny it. "I… I can explain," she stammered.

"I don't want an explanation," Akane snapped. "I don't really give a damn that the little brat's dead, and I don't care why you killed him. What I do care about is how much of a risk you put us at. What if it had been traced back to you? At the best, we could have expected to be kicked out of the castle and tossed onto the streets, my reputation ruined and you without a prayer. At worst, Ieyasu could have had us all killed!"

Amaya stammered, trying to think of an excuse.

"Just shut up," Akane snapped. "And never speak of this again."

Amaya closed her mouth and bowed her head. "Of course." Her mother had no issue with keeping dirty little secrets, skeletons in her closet, or what have you, as long as they didn't get out. She wasn't the most honest of people, and her moral compass didn't point north anymore. As long as she didn't get caught, Akane could very easily turn a blind on the fact that her daughter had murdered the a potential heir to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Koshirou, on the other hand could not.

Akane mashed, measured, and mixed her ingredients with a little more force than she usually did, and her whole body was tense. She was rethinking the last few days, assuring herself that no one suspected Amaya's transgression. Amaya leaned silently against the wall, hands clasped behind her back, head bowed down.

Koshirou strained his ears further, hoping to hear more, but it was silent except for the furious thumps of the apothecary's tools.

Akane pasted a fake smile on her face just before she re-entered the outer room. She offered the mug of medicine to Yashamaru, who took it with trembling hands. Just to be sure he didn't drop it, Akane braced the bottom with a few fingers. She waited until he had finished it before speaking. "This will cause him to sweat out whatever of the poison is still in his system. Depending on how much is still left, it should take between one and three days. Keep him here until he's completely functional again, and if he starts back into the comatose state he arrived in let me know immediately. It shouldn't happen, but since I don't know anything about your snake…" The rest of the thought was understood, and Akeginu nodded.

"Thank you, Akane-san."

"Eh, don't worry about," the apothecary replied with a grin, all teeth.

Koshirou lifted one of Yashamaru's arms over his shoulders, clasping his wrist tightly in one hand to keep it there. He struggled a little under the slightly larger man's weight before he wrapped an arm around Yashamaru's waist to brace him better. When he was finally settled, he noticed the large eyes of the apothecary's daughter staring at him. He narrowed his eyes at her in a threatening glare. She didn't seem to notice.

"I'm sure Ieyasu has had rooms prepared for you by now," Akane said when neither Koshirou or Akeginu had turned to leave. After Koshirou was out the door and a little ways down the hall with Yashamaru, Akane caught Akeginu's sleeve and dragged her back in. "Drank snake venom?" she questioned in a harsh whisper that was intended for Amaya not to hear. "Did you really expect me not to question that? Was he poisoned?"

Akeginu shook her head sadly and looked at her feet. "He was trying to kill himself. The Kouga attacked three days ago. They think the Iga are responsible for Kunichiyo's death and used it as an excuse to escalate the violence. Yashamaru's fiancé was killed during the attack, and as you can tell, he took it hard."

A little gasp slipped past Amaya's lips, and her eyes widened in multifaceted horror. Her mind couldn't form a coherent thought. She felt familiar waves of guilt induced nausea crash over her, and she barely managed to stay standing against the wooden frame of the fusuma. She needed to get away, to be by herself, to think. Without a word of explanation, she left her mother's shop, every intention of curling up and brooding in her tower. She had no idea that she was being trailed by an infuriated Iga ninja.

Koshirou waited until they entered the uninhabited hallways of Castle Sunpu before announcing his presence. "Who the hell do you think you are?" he snarled.

Amaya whipped around, and found herself staring into frighteningly enraged gray eyes. "Ko… Koshirou-sama?" she struggled briefly to remember his name. "What are you talking about?"

Koshirou stalked closer, and the confused Amaya didn't have the presence of mind to turn and run as he did so. Instead she backed slowly away from him, one step back for each step he took forward until her back was to the wall. She looked from side to side, searching for an escape route, only noticing then that there was a mere eight inches between herself and Koshirou. He leaned forward, one palm pressed against the wall on either side of her head, effectively blocking any chance she might have had of escape. Wild, panicked eyes looked up at him, and suddenly there was a knife point careening toward his face. He snatched her wrist with enough force that she squealed in pain and dropped the weapon before it could do any harm. Koshirou couldn't risk losing control like that again, and with his free hand he caught her about the throat and lifted her against the wall. Her head thunked against the it, and she gasped for air through her constricted wind pipe. Koshirou didn't intend to kill her yet; his grip, though painful, wasn't going to strangle her. Amaya jerked her captive hand free and clawed at his hands, trying to loosen their grip on her neck and failing. All the struggle did was cause her kimono sleeves to fall and reveal the other knife. Koshirou reached with one hand and unhook it, tossing it casually to the ground so there was no way the girl could access it. She kicked her legs out at him, a useless endeavor because Koshirou could stand out of reach of any forceful blow and still hold her against the wall.

"What…" Amaya gasped for air, "do you want?"

"This is all your fault!" he snapped at her.

Confused eyes were his only answer.

He lifted her off the wall just slightly, then slammed her back against it, causing Amaya yelp. "It's your fault Hotarubi is dead, and it's your fault that Yashamaru almost died!" he accused.

Amaya could deny not a word of it. Tears leaked from her eyes, and she furiously tried to blink them back. She wanted to nod in agreement with him, but the grip around her throat would allow for no such movement. "I…" her voice was hoarse, and she wasn't even sure he could hear her, "I… I'm so… sorry," she choked out.

Koshirou hadn't heard her, only saw the slight gape of her mouth as she struggled to take in air, and continued. "And before I kill you – " he leaned forward in a slightly risky move so his nose was inches from hers " – I want to know why."

More tears strained from Amaya's eyes. Her motive was both selfish and futile, not something she really wanted to admit to, which was fine because Koshirou didn't really seem to have any intention of letting her answer anyway.

"Were you trying to tarnish the Iga's reputation?"

Already large eyes widened in horror at such a suggestion, and Amaya shook her head as furiously as she could in his grasp.

Koshirou snorted. "Or maybe you're for hire. Who paid you to kill Kunichiyo? You should really tell me," he hissed, "I might spare you and kill them instead."

Amaya wouldn't have been inclined to believe him even if she had had a name to offer.

"Okoi-dono, I think we have already been down this hallway," Kagerou suggested calmly, though her fellow Kouga was seething.

"Why the hell do these goddamn castles halls have to be so damn hard to navigate?" she snarled, completely ignoring Kagerou. "I mean seriously – " she cut off abruptly when she saw the scene at the end of the wall. "Kagerou, look!" she pointed ahead and then had suddenly darted down the rest of the length of the hall until she was mere feet from Koshirou. "Let her go, Iga," she snarled menacingly.

Koshirou glanced over his shoulder at the seething kunoichi. The woman was already braced on the balls of her feet, waiting for a fight. "Stay out of this, Kouga," he snapped back, turning back to face the girl.

"I told you to – "

"Okoi, get down!"

The woman squatted down just as five razor sharp pins zipped over her head. It felt like slow motion to Amaya, as she watched the thin blades cut across Koshirou's face, leaving five parallel gashes in their wake, blood slowly starting to seep from them. A line of blood seemed to split across each of his eyes, and then the world was in real time. Koshirou suddenly dropped her, and his hands flew to his face, blood dripping between his fingers as he howled in agony. Okoi took advantage of the moment and fell on top of him. Her hand wrapped around his throat, every intention of draining him dry.

Kagerou dropped to her knees beside the girl. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Amaya stared dumbly at the writhing Koshirou and didn't answer. Kagerou reached to wrap her arms around her and tug the girl against her chest. "You shouldn't watch that," she informed gently.

Amaya didn't know what was going on, but she was certain that if it was allowed to continue the woman would kill Koshirou. She tour free of Kagerou's arms and flung herself at Okoi. "No! Stop! You'll kill him!" The weight of her body startled the kunoichi and she toppled to one side, off the fallen Koshirou. "Koshirou!" she yelled at him, shaking his shoulders. "Koshirou! Koshirou, wake up!"

Okoi and Kagerou were left to just stare at her, confusion evident on their faces.

Amaya wrapped her arms around the unconscious ninja's shoulder and sobbed into his chest. She could feel the faintest traces of a heartbeat within. "Please don't die," she cried. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. I never meant for anyone to die. Please, don't you die too."

xxx

Akeginu sat back after finishing wrapping the bandages around Koshirou's face. He had refused to let Akane see him, which confused Akeginu, but she didn't question him. If one could exclude the fact that he would likely never see again, Koshirou's injuries weren't severe, though they would scar, and Okoi had not drained enough blood to be fatal.

"She killed him, Akeginu," Koshirou said coldly.

"What?" Akeginu was more than a little confused.

"Akane's daughter," Koshirou clarified. "She poisoned Lord Kunichiyo.""


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