Chapter 10: Illusions
Five Days After Kuroh and Izumi's Talk
The music of the night plays, in the vinyl cases, in the fall of the black envelope that people will call the sky. Life in the endless crease of the folds of the bite of darkness becomes more complicated. It is a difficult machine, a computer of silvery wires and neutral spaces that even human find it very difficult to navigate in. In that sense, even the most simple person gets lost into this maze –and barely comes out alive, isolated from humanity.
In the HOMRA bar, we have a guest. Izumo is the first to smile, at this stranger. A few people are gathered. The members of the Red Clan are all full of the new loss of their King, the only man they will dare to die for and obey to get his wishes done. He was a man in a big sense with a big heart and soul. The suave man is almost unscathed in the new aftermath of grief.
The guest is a tall shadow, clothed in black, a man of the Faceless Men and the Night's Watch.
"Don't you have a place of your own?"
"It's too cold. I don't have anywhere to go to, like before." The stranger sits down and reaches a hand out to the table. The first Izumo notices are the cuts that line the stranger's tapered and long fingers. Cuts, bruises and a fresh wound. These fingers, he thinks to himself solemnly, are familiar. The air chokes with the stranger's smell: dirt and dried blood, iron born.
Another familiar smell.
"I don't intend to," the stranger tells him. The voice is clear but melancholic to pull off a deep voice.
"What do you want to do here then?" Yata huffs from his post. His eyes have no more fire in them, snuffed out by death and the sensation called grief and numbness.
"Drink myself out and talk a bit. I want to be able to see the Red King."
Yata squints.
Izumo knows why.
"Don't you know?"
The bar becomes quiet.
"That what?" The man's voice screeches. It becomes a mercurial sound, too. Almost a woman's voice.
"That Mikoto's dead."
More silence.
"Then I want a drink, Izumo-san. One Green Vesper for me. Life is no featherbed for me."
"How do you know his name?"
The stranger pulls his hood back down. As he pulls it, Izumo sees countless cuts. A myriad of fading bruises and cuts that cover some part of the stranger's skin.
A clean face with a cut near the chin, oval, and maturing. Eyes that shine with the joviality of a jaunty youth born of dried blood and iron and the hair – the deep green hair that was kept short. The strands were longer now. The fringe was now reaching to her collarbones and the mane was down to her shoulders. Violet eyes, lilac orbs that were at turns thoughtful and happy.
Izumo inwardly sighs. At the same time, he marvels at how fast she is growing up. She, he observes, is more tough-minded and is adapting marvelously to suit her beauty.
"Because I knew him. I knew you too. I know all of you. You took me in when I was alone."
"Your King's dead, too," Yata comments.
Her eyes blaze up at him.
"So what?"
Izumo hands her the Green Vesper.
"What do you plan to do now? You have a Clan now, don't you? Why would you want to spend the night with us?"
"I just don't feel like it, okay?" she snaps at Yata and downs the Green Vesper in one gulp. "Izumo-san, I hope you don't mind… But can you make me more?"
"How many, then? Please yourself."
"As many as twenty."
"Twenty Green Vespers coming right up!"
"Good."
"Is it the Black Dog?"
She frowns.
"What did you say?"
"I asked you if you were here because of the Black Dog. Is he the boy you were talking about, the one who was after you?"
"If you meant the ex-boyfriend? I made you think so. He's not my boyfriend."
"Then why would he be even after you in the first place?" Yata drawls.
"Because… I ran away from him. I stole something from him. I thought I was doing the right thing." She closes her eyes.
"So you took his honor, did you?"
"No."
She drinks more.
"I took a mission he had. And I was a traitor. I deserved to die, did I?"
Izumo offers her more.
"No. But you didn't die."
"Men must die, but they live first."
"True enough. Your King did not let you die. If it were not for his big heart, then you could have been killed. Anyone can be killed, girl. Be careful."
"I can be. I already am."
"Well, then, since the cat is out of the bag, fill me up about this Black Dog," Izumo orders. "I knew you were always hiding something. You've gotten a little too loose here in Shizume. You're not even supposed to be here –"
"Until that boy called Yashiro Isana came along."
They lock eyes and know it's true.
"How do you even know?"
"I'm Mikoto's right-hand man. I know things. I have my ways."
"I bet they involve tricking others into getting drunk so they can reveal more about themselves."
Izumo only smiles.
"Maybe. Maybe not," he jests.
"So you knew about me?"
"I knew you were not who you claimed you are."
"Izumo-san, I only did what I do. I did it for honor. I did it because I wanted to do something."
"I hope you rather have a good reason why."
"Why do you hope so?"
"Because you're a good kid, Sai. Nice body, not exactly the most beautiful woman but a looker one day, and some fire in you. You were not born for this. You were not born to be a girl trapped in a nunnery."
"Says the man who smokes and loves his bar the way most men love their Subaru cars more than their ex-wives."
Izumo laughs.
"So you read Murakami, huh?"
She shrugs.
"It's a nice relationship, me and the bar and the clan. Nothing too serious most of the time, and I enjoy it. It's mutual, all of us."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Let's play a game, then, Sai," he adds happily as he distributes more Green Vesper to her hands.
"What game is it then? Truth and Lies?"
"It's called ten questions."
"Game."
"Let me begin: you're the Black Fish's daughter. Am I right?"
"The Black Fish's daughter?"
She snorts.
"Of course I am!"
"Was your mother Kanako as beautiful as I've heard?" he teases. Of the weakest clan, he knew as much. He knows there is even the weakest clan of them all, the Colorless and their small retinue. Their deceased King is a man now dead, succeeded by the Black Dog. What makes them appealing is the mere presence of a powerful man and his wife.
The Black Fish, Fugaku Ishida and his wife, who was a renowned beauty made it more interesting.
He had heard about how strong Fugaku was. He had grown up with the Colorless King, a powerful warrior who belonged to a line of assassins. He was also very kind with his family and friends, and very skilled in dealing with combat, a man hardened by the environment of the Seven Clans. His spouse, on her hand, was equally strong-willed and fierce. She was reputed to be the daughter of a man descended from the River lords.
"Beautiful? She was beautiful, very much. I'm afraid I don't take much of her features. Very youthful, happy."
"Good. We have two down," Izumo jested again.
"Next question."
"Do you have a relationship with the Black Hound?"
Sai blushes prettily.
"No," she snaps. She is defensive. A mercurial woman, Izumo thinks, who is born of iron and the ice and fire.
"But you know him."
"Yes."
"How can you say you don't have a relationship with him? You blush when I mentioned him! How can a pretty young girl who works for the same King like him not like him? He is a handsome young man, Sai. How can you not?"
"I'm not just –"
"You forget." He clicks his tongue.
"You grow up together, but you have different genders. You don't feel something for him after all these years? How can you claim not to have felt something for him, not even admiration, excitement, passion? I've heard some talk that you two were friends. You two seemed to be very close."
"I don't want to elaborate."
"We're playing a game here. You agreed to it, Saika."
She licks her lips.
"I- I kissed him, that's all I remember."
"What for?"
"So I could get away from him, distract him from my real intentions. I had to leave his side to do his job. It wasn't mine."
"Where did this idea come from, then? Did you want an excuse to kiss him? You're a maiden bound to serve with him, you will marry a man like him. Most likely, you will marry him. Any girl would delight at the idea of sharing a bed with him. Have you never felt something like that ever?"
Sai becomes beet-red.
"I- I did. But the memories come out of nowhere." There is less strain now around her. It makes Izumo feel better to know she's unwinding. If it's the Black Hound, the best way is to let her remember everything to make it more in tune with the canon realities.
"Did you love him as a child? Did it spring from something?"
"I told you – I don't remember."
"Then do. It's really the Black Dog and you."
"I told you already. He and I were distant by the time I left. I only kissed him because the circumstances required it."
"Two halves of the same coin. You should rest a bit, after all those drinks." His frown delves further. "I'm betting on that pair of nasty tonfa you have that you just might get an even nastier hangover."
"How would you know?"
"Easy one. Been there, done that. You're only seventeen once, kiddo. And being seventeen, isolating yourself from what really is your link to reality isn't gonna help it."
The questions are tough to answer to the point the game is almost over.
"The game's over, Izumo-san. Thirteen questions you've asked – and it's beyond the game limit. It required ten."
He lays his cards.
"Game or not, you're always playing. I wish you can drop it, for now. You just have to wait and fix things in a way more civilly than you usually do."
"And what's that called? Betrayal? Negotiation?"
"It's called Diplomacy."
"Great. Last time I checked, it's a weapon. The Blue Clan uses it best for its own treachery."
- / -
"She isn't coming home, is she?"
As the Black Hound expects, the girl's mother is worried. She masks it in her pragmatic voice.
"I hope she will. I am very sorry, Kanako-san."
"Please, don't apologize. It's not your fault, Kuroh-kun."
"I am very sorry. It's my fault. She tracked the King, but I lost both of them. I lost the King first. Turned out he was no murderer."
"Saika tracked him?!"
Her voice is lighter.
"By some kind of wonderful accident."
"I never expected her to be this good…"
"She is. She will be able to surpass her father in time. She's amazingly loyal to her King, even if he is dead."
"But she won't talk to you."
"Yes."
"I think she's got something between you two. Maybe you can take the initiative to take better action."
"Oh, I will. I promise you."
"Does she mean anything to you, Kuroh-kun?"
He hesitates.
Does she?
"Somehow."
"Good. I hope she will."
When Mrs. Ishida has signed off the phone, he starts to look. He doesn't want to fail his oracle again – and he doesn't want to lose her.
- / -
Her resignation, she knows, to Munakata's eyes, seems a waste.
"Izumi-kun, think about it. You have potential to become a great King, if the Aura chooses you. You were very adaptable and compatible with the Blue Aura."
She scowls.
"How about a raise, then?" says Fushimi.
"Fushimi!" Seri Awashima is almost aghast.
"How about –"
"No. How about a week's leave?"
"A leave. I need to think about it."
When she goes home to her house, she turns on her internet connection and starts to do her work.
Misaki Yata
She types the two words into the search engine.
- / -
It seems like she's almost everywhere. The night tells him in his sleep – and in the morning, he looks around for ideas and stalks her shadow. He's seen the vision of her shape with long hair and sees the hotel the Skylark. Automatically, he drags Neko with him to it and checks in. He treats her food and occasionally cooks for her. When the cat girl asks for Sai's baking, he resorts to buying pastries.
When he checks in with the yakuza, he records the whole thing.
As he watches Neko sleep in the bed located within the four walls of the suite he checked in inside the Skylark hotel, he listens to it.
Yakuza guy: So what do you wish to talk about?
Kuroh: I'm wondering if you've seen this girl. She has green hair, long legs, and violet eyes. She smells like iron.
Yakuza: If I wasn't mistaken, I did, in this hotel and the love hotel called Alpha X.
Kuroh: Really? How did you see her?
Yakuza: Don't you know? You, as a vassal, should know. She's a high class call girl. They called her Gin.
Kuroh: How did you find her?
Yakuza: Some of my subordinates hired and checked out her services. We occasionally asked for women. I came to reserve a few suites here.
Kuroh: And so far?
Yakuza: They said she was quite fast. She demanded her payment before the actual performance of her work would be done. She has a very specific routine.
Kuroh: And what is that?
Yakuza: You pay her, she sleeps with you. Then once you're all comfy and pretty soon, sleeping, she leaves. That's how non-fussy she is.
Kuroh: Was she good at her job? Pretty?
Yakuza: My subordinates have told me yes. I was going to try to fuck her myself, but there's something about her that made me not do it.
Kuroh turns the recorder off.
He can't bear the thought of her sleeping with other men to get money. It pains him. She's a lady. Her maidenhead is a price for marriage.
But he continues to listen again. He needs to find her.
Yakuza: Why are you asking?
Kuroh: My King wanted me to take care of her and retrieve her.
Yakuza: Oh. So you wish to catch her tonight?
Kuroh: Precisely.
Yakuza: Good luck with that. She doesn't have a client tonight. She's not here today, but tonight, she'll come back.
The tape is over.
He has to catch her tonight. He owes Shiro his servant, Sai's service.
- / -
"What did you do to support yourself?" Izumo asks as she pays him.
"I used my looks," she replies bluntly. "I turned myself in as some call girl."
"But –"
"Hush. Nothing real hurts. It's an illusion I keep up with. The men think they're making love with some call girl but in reality, they don't."
"How do you even do that?"
"Easy one. I drugged their drinks and after some kissing, knock them out. No one did me all the way."
"That's hard, kiddo. Overnight, you'll get uglier. Don't go on like that. I thought you had so much honor in you."
"Yes, I do." She smiles as she leaves the bar. "Or maybe, I don't."
Note: This part is tricky, but I hope you won't be disappointed.