Blackness clouded over half of my vision, and the other half was so unfocused that the world seemed like a shapeless blur. It was as if the world's creators had thrown their hands up, said, "fuck it," and stopped giving things definite shapes. It was also as if they'd decided "let's fuck with Souichi!" and replaced all flavors with metallic blood and burning acid. And why not throw in dull aches everywhere on my body? Just for the fun of it!

Bastards, all of them.

Though I didn't believe in miracles, by some occurrence like one, I managed to keep my eyes open enough to look up. My eyes met Morinaga's, distressed and wide. Concerned. Afraid. I would've scoffed if I could feel my voice. He wasn't the one about to get killed. He hadn't been starved and beaten relentlessly for the past month. Whatever suffering he'd experienced was luxurious compared to my own. Gods, I wanted to hit him…

What did he see in my eyes? What did they look like? Probably pathetic. Like an animal confined in a trap, only capable of whining and howling in pain. Well, I guess that was fitting. I probably looked like an animal, and while I couldn't speak, my body was screaming in pain. The fact that I could even stand floored me.

I'd hang in a few moments, though. At least then my legs could get some rest.

The guard who had manhandled me out here had his gloved hand on a lever. Well, I thought he did, anyway. I was still staring at Morinaga, whose fear and anxiety radiated so far off of his body that I could feel it from where I barely stood. Based on what I knew about methods of execution, the pulling of that lever would release part of the floor—the part I stood on. Then I'd hang, and either die immediately or have my neck broken and just hang there in agony until I bled out. Either way, those spectating would clap.

Whoever dictated how my senses reacted to my surroundings left my ears relatively intact, and they'd left me with a somewhat decent perception of time. At two minutes had passed, and I was still standing in the same place. And breathing.

Come to think, Morinaga's lips did move. What'd he say? Captive...something...shit, I knew I'd heard him scream something. What was it?

His lips continued moving, but now I couldn't hear anything. Not even the sound of my own shallow breathing. Whatever he'd said, it had angered the king, who now engaged him in what seemed like an intensely heated arguement. Morinaga pointed downward, in my direction. He was talking about me?

I tried making out what they were saying to one another, but the extra effort that required proved far too much for my mind. Everything around me blackened, and my legs finally gave out beneath me. I stumbled a bit at first, but after only a moment my knees buckled entirely. Some force wound around my middle, preventing me from truly falling. Would that fall have choked me even though the floor hadn't given out?

My head bent forward, and I stopped forcing my eyes open. However I'd looked at Morinaga had done something, for I wasn't dead. Yet.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Kunihiro's growled question may have broken the silence plaguing the courtyard, but it didn't break my gaze with Souichi. Had his expression changed? Everyone else's had, my own included. I thought his had widened a little more, but if they did, the difference was slight and had already happened.

"What nonsense are you calling?"

I still didn't reply to him, but this time it wasn't out of distraction. Rather, I needed to gather justification. Had I read anything regarding that before? The words didn't sound familiar, but what they implied did. In the late half of my adolescence I'd met an attractive young merchant who had an affinity for cheating and beguiling. During one of the times we'd gone out for drinks together, he'd relayed a tale regarding a criminal who had faced execution. Being that I'd been told this story years ago, its details were surrounded by a thick haze in my mind, but the gist was that the criminal had held a noble captive, but for a different charge, the criminal was arrested. Initially the criminal's punishment was imprisonment, but after the noble he'd held captive was tipped off, the noble used a law that allowed him to choose the criminal's punishment.

That story ended in the criminal being executed, but if the principle remained true…

"I call Captive's Choice," I repeated.

"What the hell is that?"

Hopefully this would sound somewhat convincing; I was half-drunk whenever this had happened. "It's this law regarding punishments," I started. "Basically, if the person who's being punished held another person captive, that captive has the right to choose the punishment."

His eyes narrowed at me. "And if I overrule?"

"You can't." I hoped.

"Oh? I'm above you, Tetsuhiro. I can overrule anything that you do."

"Check the laws, then," I challenged. "I'm sure you have the texts laying around somewhere."

"What're you accusing me of?"

"You know exactly what I'm accusing you of! You removed some of the law texts from the files because you didn't want me to save his life." I pointed down at Souichi.

"And if I did?" he asked. "Can you blame me for not wanting someone like that still breathing?"

"I can when you don't know everything," I spat. "He has a reason for doing what he did, and I want to know what that reason is. The dead can't speak, Kunihiro."

Anger flared in his eyes before dimming to a gentle but steady fire. "You need to learn your place, Tetsuhiro. And your place isn't here, dictating how he's punished."

"Neither is yours!" I hissed. "You can't decide what's fitting for him if you don't know what needs fitted!"

"He's a thief, a kidnapper, and a murderer," Kunihiro listed. "Moreover, he's a thief who's stolen from civilians, a kidnapper who abducted a prince, and a murderer who killed a king. How is execution not fitting?"

"I'm not saying that it isn't fitting," I placated. Screaming at him wouldn't get me anywhere. He wasn't a person to change his opinions and decisions easily. But nor was I. Not whenever I felt so passionately about the subject at hand. "What I am saying, however, is that you don't know how fitting it is."

His glare softened but only a little. His arms folded across his chest, he spat, "Explain."

"You don't know the motive behind the murder," I started. "That matters as much as the murder itself. What if he was being threatened by someone else? If that's the case, there could be another person out there who just didn't want to get his hands dirty."

That struck some nerve in him, for his gaze drifted down to where Souichi stood. I followed his eyes, widening my own whenever I saw his downcast head and the guard holding him up from behind. He was so close to death that it made me hurt.

"That is true," he allowed. His eyes returned to me. "But it's also true that he could lie to save himself."

"But we could investigate what he says further." I took a few steps closer and lowered my voice. "You can't fight me on this. It doesn't matter how much you want to—I was the captive. I have final say in what happens to him."

We stared at one another for eons. You could cut the amount of tension between us with an axe, but the blade would only be able to nick the surface. Between us I could see that little thread that connected us, long since frayed to a single thin strand. Now that single strand held up a mountain of anger and frustration.

Kunihiro grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me closer. "I am king," he hissed. "Brother or not, you're still below me. You still have to obey my orders, and I order that he die, regardless of what you call!"

I grasped his wrist none too gently. "Even if you are king, you still have to follow the laws set by your predecessors. You wouldn't want your followers to view you as unfair, would you?"

"You're talking out your ass," he retorted. "Everyone out there wants him dead."

"But now everyone out there knows I don't," I replied easily. "Know what they're doing now? They're asking questions. They're wondering why I spoke up. They're wondering if he's innocent."

"We both know he's not innocent."

"We both know he's not innocent in action," I corrected. "Neither of us know that he's not innocent in motive."

His grasp on my shirt tightened. "Public perception of you is already negative," he said. "Especially after you disgraced us with all the abominable things you've done."

I stiffened. The thread snapped, and all emotion disappeared from my voice. "It's clear that neither of us know all the details of Captive's Choice. So how about this: we review the law—the same one—together to gather all the details and determine the punishment from there."

I felt his grasp loosen, if only a little. "All right," he allowed. "That sounds—"

"I'm not done."

He quirked a brow at me. "Proceed."

"So we do that. However, you have to meet a few requests of mine, regardless of what the law says."

"And they are?"

"I have two. First—" I gestured to the gallows. "—if you want to make a public display of his death, you'll need him alive. If you don't kill him, his wounds will. Get him medical attention—good medical attention—immediately. Second, let me interrogate him. I want to find out his reasons behind the murder."

"Why should I let you execute the interrogation?" he questioned. "You're far too nice to extract any information."

"I won't need violence to extract information," I justified. "Besides, do you really think he'll talk to any of you after this month?"

"Do you think he'll talk to you, after you led to his capture?" Kunihiro retorted.

I didn't hesitate. "He is resentful of me, yes, but out of all of us, he knows me the best. I can't say that he trusts me, but I damn well know that he'd rather hang himself than speak to any of your men. So what'll it be, brother? Results or resentment?"

He gritted his teeth, but I could see him weaken. "And what if I don't agree?"

Again, no hesitation. Maybe I had more dirt on me, but Kunihiro wasn't innocent. "I'll release information regarding your failed engagement."

He widened his eyes, and for the first time that I could recall, his will to argue vanished completely. But in place of that will was anger, which he used to bring our foreheads together. "This isn't over," he told me. "You have valid points, as well as something to hang over my head, but that changes nothing. Use your 'Captive's Choice' for now. But believe me now, the moment I find something I can use to my advantage, I'll have him hanging from the battlements."

Kunihiro shoved me back and turned his gaze to the crowd. "The execution is postponed," he announced. "Bring the prisoner to the infirmary immediately." Without any further explanation or even a proper goodbye, Kunihiro stormed off the balcony.

I wanted to grin, but my anger only allowed me a slight smirk. Thank you, attractive merchant, for your unsavory ways. What was his name again? Junda? Juma? Junya? Ah, it didn't matter. I'd probably find out if I poked around enough. But that wasn't important right now. The gods smiled down upon me. Souichi would live. I won. The battle was over between us.

But the war had only just begun.