Game of Touhou

Chapter 11

Unzan

While the day had begun in a particularly memorable manner for Unzan, that was, being told by the good Lady Saigyouji that he was 'free to look' at her, but beyond being teased by the gadfly of a royal courtier, the day was otherwise yet another meaningless one of waiting in Lady Yuyuko's bedchamber. While he desperately longed to go out and look over King's Landing to gather more information for Ichirin and Ichirin alone, he had found himself feeling too guilty in leaving the woman alone to continue the habit.

Instead he kept her occupied, playing Cyvasse with her on a board Yuyuko claimed was from Dorne, a Kingdom of Westeros, the western continent that was, for the most part, too primitive to include women in the line of succession. Dorne was apparently the exception. Unzan scowled at the meaninglessness of Yuyuko's ramblings on foreign continents as he moved his Dragon to be diagonally in line with Ichirin's King.

"Oh, I'm in check!" Ichirin said with a smile, "Unzan, you're good at this..."

Unzan looked to Ichirin, with a slight sadness about him. She took her losing well, which was always a good trait in a queen, but strategy was never her strong point. He was finding it difficult to see the girl becoming queen without losing the kindness he so loved in her. However, before Ichirin could make her move, the door opened, and a certain white-haired woman walked into the room. Her face was full of excitement, and she seemed hardly able to keep it with her body.

"Good news, my friends!" Lady Yuyuko said with excitement, "The time has come!"

Unzan's eyes widened. He could scarcely believe the words that had just been uttered. Ichirin clearly couldn't believe it either, and asked Yuyuko a question.

"You mean... we're going to have to kill that Shotoku woman?"

"Not so loud, my Lady." Yuyuko whispered, "Yes, you shall kill her. She is currently sleeping in the royal palace, under orders of the queen. The queen and her hand are to fall asleep with the aid of essence of nightshade, so they will not stir. All Seiga has to her guard is a whore named Yoshika. I would send my bards to assist you, but... I would hope the confusion of trying to guess who are should slow the woman down while you..."

"...drive a dagger into her." Ichirin mumbled, "This is dishonourable, Lady Yuyuko. Killing a woman in her bed..."

"It is either that or kill her in the street, where you'll be caught and executed for treason." Yuyuko stated, "Honour does not give you power in King's Landing, I am sad to say. The blades you shall use are here..."

Lady Yuyuko walked towards a small drawer next to her bed, and took out a pair of daggers, both of them with gilded hilts bearing the sigil of House Shotoku, and blades made of the distinctive dark grey of Valyrian Steel. She handed one to Ichirin, and the other to Unzan.

"Your crone will accompany you, Lady Ichirin. Together, you'll kill her more easily. Watch for her whore, kill her first if necessary." Yuyuko said in a still quiet tone, "Lady Seiga is notorious for using her whores as bodyguards. That's why I have had these blades forged to bear the Shotoku sigil. An errant Shotoku knight of Seiga's was recently been tried in King's Landing- she was most likely not ordered to arrive her by Seiga herself. If you kill her, leave the blades, and the queen will assume that this errant knight was actually an assassin sent by Prince Miko. Do you understand?"

Unzan nodded, and Ichirin whispered, "Yes, my lady."

After that, they merely waited for nightfall to come, and from there, waited a little longer for Seiga to fall asleep. The tense atmosphere within the bedchamber had increased ten-fold, and time had slowed to the pace of a lame mule. Finally, the time that Unzan and Ichirin had been waiting for since the moment they had been told of their purpose in King's Landing had come, and Yuyuko appeared to be trembling as she wished them good fortune.

"My friends..." Yuyuko uttered as softly as satin, "...do not get killed, or worse, caught. It shall greatly aggrieve me to know I would send you to your deaths. Be quick, be quiet, and leave no witnesses but the knives. The royal palace's bedchambers can be accessed from the a small hole in the left side of the building, and Lady Tewi Inaba should be there to see you in. Seiga's bedchamber should be the one closest to that particular entrance to the hall..."

Ichirin and Unzan both remained silent by choice, and nodded. Taking their daggers in hand and sheathing them at their hips, they left the room under cover of night. While Unzan was able to edge as silently as a cat, Ichirin was a little more clumsy, her loose, priestess-like clothing slowing her down. Walking out of the well-paved area they were in, Unzan was rather surprised to see how truly empty the city of Muenzuka was when the peasants had retreated into their hovels. There was but a few people who were still on the streets, even fewer that were awake to notice them.

Finding the palace, they looked at the front entrance, flanked by guards with torches, and walked slowly, so as not to arouse their attention, to the left side of the building. Once they were around the corner of the building, they saw the person they had been told to meet. The girl seemed to be just another urchin, with simple light pink clothing that almost seemed to be transparent when illuminated by the torch in her hand.

"Greetings, my friends." Lady Tewi whispered, holding her torch a little into the hole in the royal palace's wall, "Lady Saigyouji told me to watch the entrance to this rabbit hole tonight. Once you enter, the tunnel will stretch for another fifteen footsteps, after which you must turn left, walk ten steps, and turn right and keep walking. While I would usually advise keeping a torch with you, I don't think they would be suited to your... purposes."

Unzan didn't want to trust this woman... if she was even a woman. She seemed to be closer to a girl, yet spoke like a person fully grown. However, her directions were the only ones he had, so even if they led he and Ichirin into a trap, it was a risk that had to be taken.

Holding Ichirin's hand, Unzan walked through the near pitch-black cave, counting his steps carefully. Once he reached fifteen, he turned left, and he began counting again. He reached ten, turning right. The rest of the tunnel was so dark that the only things Unzan could feel was the warmth of Ichirin's hand and the dank smell of rotting wood and stagnant water. Finally, they reached the hall of bedchambers they had been searching for, braziers lighting up the area somewhat.

The first door, Yuyuko had said. And there it was. Wooden, plain, and the one obstacle in their way. The sound of breathing could be heard on the other side, and Ichirin herself was breathing rather heavily. Unzan was beginning to think he should have simply gone on his own, if only to keep Ichirin safe.

Pushing the door open tentatively, Unzan flinched instinctively as a pale grey hand grabbed him by his left arm. Unsheathing his blade swiftly, he stabbed the person he had nary seen properly in the chest, and pushed her away, leaving the dagger in her chest.

She fell to the floor in a heap, her body hard to make out within the dark. Unzan stared at her for a short while, breathing heavily, and Ichirin walked towards the bed, where the shape of Seiga Kaku was beginning to move under the sheets, squirming out of the bed and screaming.

"Guard! Guard! Help!" Seiga yelled as Ichirin approached her, but she soon gave up and tried to run past Unzan, but Unzan grabbed the squirming woman, while Ichirin closed in for the kill.

However, just as it seemed Ichirin was about to land the killing blow, Unzan felt a sharp pain in his back. His breath seemed to leave him, and all at once, his grip fell from Seiga, and his head turned to face his killer. The whore he had murdered a moment ago was behind him, a large gaping wound in her chest that was leaking a thick, congealed blood and her eyes glowing a horrifying blue.

Ichirin called out, "UNZAN!" as the crone fell, and the whore pulled the dagger Unzan had used to impale her out of Unzan herself, slowly walking towards the woman.

Seiga walked back from Ichirin as Yoshika approached her, and looked down upon Unzan with a smirk, "...a priestess and a crone... Yoshika, capture the priestess. The crone is dying."

Unzan could do nothing but look back up at the woman, her smile sure and certain, his neck too weak to look across and see what was becoming of Ichirin. As blood wept from his body, he found himself thinking the same words over and over again.

Please, let her live. Please, my God of Renewal, let my death keep her alive. Let her live. Please, let her live...