Jin's reappearance the next morning at the village inn caused the innkeeper some consternation as he'd already given up the room to another guest. Jin stood patiently, a disquiet eyebrow the only evidence of his frustration, as the innkeeper rushed up and down the hall, checking rooms and muttering worriedly to himself. The little man yelped in horror when he looked in the last room. He rushed in and within a few seconds, he evicted two chickens, a small boy, and the oldest woman Jin had ever seen. The troop of four marched placidly down the hall, past Jin, and descended the stairs. The innkeeper's curses followed soon thereafter.
After a number of minutes that shed doubt on the actual cleanliness of the room, Jin was ushered into his new suite. Though he was hardly fatigued after spending the better part of one night and a day unconscious, followed by a surprisingly restful night under Momo's roof, Jin needed to lay down. Though he was accustomed to doing most of his thinking while walking, and he had long ago perfected his meditative rituals, he was overwhelmed by a desire to lay flat on the floor, stare at the ceiling, and…muse.
It was not his place to question his orders; Jin had killed without hesitation enough men over the years to fill a temple and had never suffered from remorse. If he felt any emotion at all, it was usually irritation: at his foes' and victims' lack of skill, lack of intelligence, lack of manners. This time, though, Jin was beginning to realize that he might harbor some regret at the end of his current mission. Momo's formidable girth matched her spirit and determination, and he hated to think he would be the one to end that life. This realization boiled in his gut and turned his usual slight frown into a full-fledged grimace for a moment, until he remembered, though he didn't understand the particulars, that Momo had bested him, yet spared him. At this thought, Jin stopped grimacing and began to clench his teeth in frustration. If only I'd finished this job in the forest! I wouldn't be laying here in this ridiculous inn waiting for some mysterious sign from the woman I don't want to kill. Jin fought to suppress any further unconstructive thoughts, and, as was his habit, began to recall previous encounters with opponents in order to analyze them for flaws in his performance. As such, within minutes, he fell deeply asleep.
ooooooooooooooooooooooo
"Tell me," asked Jin hesitantly, unsure of his own motives, "the vegetable seller, Tamaiko. How long has she lived in this village? Does she have a family?"
The innkeeper smiled as he set down a pot of tea at Jin's table. His eyes crinkled in delight at the thought that his taciturn but obviously high-class customer might have a crush on a local girl after only a few days. The samurai had been brooding for two days now, since his return from the forest. "Ah, isn't she special? I suppose you've seen her at market-time? Telling one of her stories?" At Jin's slight nod the little man continued. "Well, I've only lived here for five years so she's been here at least that long…to hear her say it, she was born on the mainland or the moon, depending on what day you ask her! But I suppose she's just got a fancy imagination, and has never actually left this area, except for business." He paused, glanced none-too-slyly around the main room of the inn, and crouched down to whisper to Jin's face, "You know, the one tale she tells, that I believe, is that her family was destroyed by Shimabara. Maybe not literally, of course, but I bet they were Christians."
Jin grunted. "Not uncommon," he said dismissively.
"Yes, yes, but to be alone in this world…for such a thing…" the innkeeper sighed expressively. "And then, a widow too…oh, yes, did you not know? She moved here after her husband died. Tsk, so now she's without a man. Not that she hasn't had offers, mind you, but our little Tamaiko says any man that would have her would have to speak to her father first." He sighed, stood, and began to clear Jin's table of dirty dishes. As he began to walk away, he called over his shoulder, "Of course, someone could always try to speak to her cousin, the pirate, if they could find him…" and at that he disappeared into another room.
The pirate? How many pirates could show up in this tiny village? thought Jin.
Jin rose abruptly. He had to talk to this woman, to have her explain her connection to Momo. Why didn't I do this before?
ooooooooooooooooooooooo
When Jin reached the sellers' stalls, insistent merchants immediately surrounded him. He had no time or patience for silks and fans today. He reached Tamaiko's vegetable stand and narrowed his eyes when he found it occupied by a tiny, wrinkled old woman with a meager basket of assorted greens in front of her. If this is the hired help, how does the woman make a living? Jin asked himself as he politely folded his long body to address the woman face-to-face.
"Oooh, good day, great sir! You are more handsome up close!" the woman cackled in delight.
Jin slowly slid his eyelids shut, his face a parody of pain. One, two…"Excuse me, is Tamaiko available?"
The crone cackled again. She opened her puckered mouth to speak but halted as she noted the approach of a customer. Jin stepped aside in annoyance, and surreptitiously shot intimidating glances at other passers-by, hoping to deter any other interruptions from potential customers. When the exchange was finished, half of the woman's goods had been replaced by a small clutch of eggs. Some businesswoman. Without preamble, Jin crouched down to continue his questioning. "Now. Madam. Tamaiko?"
She crossed her eyes at her interrogator. "You wish to speak to Tamaiko? Oh, so sorry sir, she is not here today. She asked me to sell the last of her harvest in her absence. You wouldn't be wanting her for vegetables, then, hmm, sir?" she queried insinuatingly. At Jin's tense twist of his head, she continued. "Well, then, great sir, I am sorry. I do not know when she'll return. She did pay me a whole month's wage, isn't that odd?"
Jin barely heard the little woman's increasingly garbled mutterings as he started to pay attention to a small but persistent buzzing in his head. Tamaiko's disappeared, she's given this old woman pay for a month. Momo's disappeared, but will let me know when she wants to give herself up. What is going on? Jin raised his head suddenly, then stood and whirled around, his swords banging against his legs, as he heard far-off cries approaching over the sounds of alarm in his head. He turned his head quickly left and right, trying to identify the source of the sound. "Sir?…" the vegetable crone gasped in question and concern as she pointed down the street to the forest's edge. A large group of people was amassing there, and Jin sprinted towards the crowd. He followed their upraised eyes and arms to see a dark cloud shaping over the forest. Near the ocean.
"Fire! Fire in the forest! The fishermen have seen fire at the forest shore!" one man gasped over the din of the concerned crowd. In an instant, the milling villagers erupted into chaos. Shouts and yells filled the air as bodies collided and ricocheted off each other as they all attempted to scatter in all directions at once. Jin froze in the center of this Brownian bedlam, unsure of how to proceed, when he suddenly smelled smoke. This was much closer. In the same moment of awareness, another man came running from the forest track. "Fire at Momo's hut! It's heading this way!"
This announcement was met with shrieks and angry orders flung back and forth across the village street, as men and women began to emerge from buildings bearing buckets of water, heading towards the forest. Jin noted, dispassionately of course, that in their haste more water was sloshing out of those buckets than the villagers would ever be able to use in their fire-fighting efforts. A teenaged girl brushed past him, struggling to carry a washbin full of sudsy water. As she did so, a splash of water fell on Jin's foot. He frowned in annoyance at the girl, who gamely met his eyes with an expression that was both a half-hearted apology, half grim determination. As her large calf's eyes met his dark narrow ones, for the second time that day Jin heard that buzzing in his brain.
What am I missing? Jin silent roar transitioned into a groan and his hand twitched as though he might have, had he been less self-disciplined, slapped himself in frustration over his own stupidity. The fire, he raged inwardly, this is the "time" Tamaiko said would come. The time for me to finish off Momo.
ooooooooooooooooooooooo
His waiting was over. Jin knew exactly where Momo would be waiting for him. Ignoring the tumult of the scrambling villagers, he veered away from the forest track to Momo's, and the nearly invisible track that would lead to the coast, where he knew a previously unknown little dock was burning itself into the sea. As Jin swiftly but quietly sped over the broken branches and underbrush of the forest floor, his mouth set in the harsh line of satisfaction that denoted the anticipation of a completed mission, he thought over the events of the last several days. He revisted the pang of regret he had felt at the inevitability of Momo's death; he recalled the lovely eyes and earthy charm of Tamaiko (Lovely? When have I ever found anything lovely? ); he could see in his mind's eye the setting sun's orange light cast on a lonely little dock, and the same dock cast in silver under the light of a round moon. It was gone now, and soon enough so too Momo would be gone, as well as any need to think of Tamaiko. Why can't I stop thinking about all this? Why is this assignment so…difficult?
Jin's pace quickened as his ears caught the faint sound of moving water. He felt no need to be secretive now. With a little leap over some brush Jin entered the clearing by the stream. There was no fire, there was no one breaking up an old cart this time. Instead, by the light of the nearly full moon, he could see a large huddle standing on the rocks at the stream's edge, the soft ploinks he heard presumably pebbles being cast into the moving water. Jin cleared his throat loudly, though the figure was already turning towards him. With a final toss, Momo flung a handful of stones behind her, into the swift current of the stream.
She stepped closer to Jin, who waited for her with his hands politely folded in front of him. She knew what was to come.
"Fate, eh? Here we are again," Momo sounded almost gleeful, but it was difficult to discern from her gruff voice. "Thank you for waiting for me. It was…considerate."
Jin was set off-balance once more by this strange woman's demeanor in light of her current situation. He resorted, as always, to formality. "Well, then, madam, by order of…"
Momo interrupted him once again. "Spare me…well, spare me the speech, anyway," she chuckled with a sound that was more like someone choking. "You'll have your due tonight; my, er, friends aren't here to protect me, but first, isn't there anything you want to know?"
"Excuse me?"
She took a half-step closer; her voice lightened. "Well, isn't there going to be any more to this than the killing part? Or is there nothing left to you but that?"
Remorse, self-pity, anger…these were all emotions Jin had witnessed before, but they had never touched him. Yet here was this woman, utterly resigned to her fate, to her imminent death, and there was nothing but pride in her stance and reproach in her voice. In that space, Jin suddenly felt trapped, buffeted by feelings long dormant, and this made him angry. His hand moved of its own accord to the hilt of his sword. He stood up straighter. Enough of this. She called me a dog, before.
"Well, then," said Momo as she brought herself up to stand straight before him. She was so still, so rigid, that Jin thought she was about to faint. Jin's eyes twitched with need for a good eye-roll at that prospect when the round figure suddenly jerked forward, as if she was going to attempt to wrestle him.
He didn't have to think to act. Jin's sword hand moved and though a tiny thought as to how much effort it might be to dispatch such a large body flitted at the front of his consciousness, he pressed forward as he always did, by carefully honed reflex. Unfortunately for Jin, his target slightly shifted with unforeseeable speed to the side (Ah, even the most brave are undone in the final moment, he thought) so that instead of impaling her directly like a spitted eel, he only managed to catch her frame a little farther from her middle. To his surprise, his blade slid easily through cloth and (What the hell? That's not bone.) something else until his hand and hilt bumped against the woman's belly.
Jin stepped closer in surprise at the contact with his victim. He gave his sword a little shake and was dismayed to find he could not move it easily. At his efforts, Momo gave a little hiss and Jin's startled eyes flew to hers. He was peripherally aware that she was smiling, but all he could look at were her eyes. As he stared into their golden brown warmth, something finally clicked into place in his head. Groaning slightly, he attempted to move backwards. He could only form one word: "Tamaiko."
"Ah, so the brain does work a bit, after all," she ground out through teeth clenched in that same tight smile. "But this time you'll have to finish me before I can drown myself in the river."He looked down at his hand, to figure out how to extricate his blade, and noticed that there was…no blood. What the…he barely managed to think before Momo…Tamaiko twisted herself away from his sword, to his left, with a cry as she suddenly turned. In the end, Jin was left standing in shock with his sword still extended, yet this time a stretch of several colors of cloth and what appeared to be the remnants of a sack hanging from it. Each were dark-spotted, and in the moonlight Jin could tell it was her blood but so little of it. Mouth agape, Jin looked up again to the woman, who was now standing a pace away, hand pressed to the gaping hole of her costume at her waist, panting slightly.
"So you see, I'm not so easy to kill after all," she said lightly but with heavy breath. Jin shook the offal from his blade and shuddered again. "Do it," she goaded. "Finish what the Shogun started so many years ago."
Jin steadied his stance. Momo.
"Finish what you started…."
Jin realigned his grip on his sword hilt. Lovely eyes….
"There's no bodyguard to stop you now…."
Jin's hands met as he swung his sword backwards, leaning forward towards the final blow. At the sea cliff's edge, she trembled slightly at the menace of the man in front of her. She trembled until she saw….
"Isn't it funny, though, that it's…."
Jin's sword ran forward. She saw…me.
"….that it's you, Jin."
Jin barely registered the sound of her voice. All he could hear was the cry of seagulls, the sound of water, the buzzing in his brain as it all slammed into his awareness, past and present, flame and moon, and with a desperate cry he tried to catch himself from moving but he couldn't. In the end, it didn't matter. What have I done? thought Jin as the blackness rushed up to meet him. A small thought reached him before he succumbed to the stars whirling in his vision, that once again his sword didn't feel quite normal when it struck its target.
He didn't have time to contemplate this mystery. Jin had fainted again.