"Are you insane, boy? Do you want to die that badly? Where are you getting all this confidence? You saw and felt firsthand what that witch is capable of. You're in over your head," muttered Tetsuo Akahori.
Yahiko Myojin replied, "Don't tell me what I can or cannot do, old man."
"Are you sure you're all right? You're sweating more than I am," pointed out Soujiro Seta.
"That's only because half of your sweat is steam, you weirdo! Leave me alone! Go protect your girlfriend already!"
Had the Heaven Sword stopped acting like a hero for a minute and let Yahiko protect Rin while he in turn defended Tetsuo, then none of them would even be in this mess they were in.
'Why do they keep calling me Seta-kun's girlfriend?' wondered Rin, her finger on her lip while her irises shook as though she were about to cry.
Soujiro decided to humor the presumably half-dead, heavily injured, and delusional Yahiko's request by doing what he was told. He sheathed his Kikuichi Monji and went in front of Rin Akahori while posed in a battoujutsu stance, shielding her from any of the Fake Battousai's attempts at her life.
Meanwhile, Yahiko himself bore responsibility in protecting Tetsuo Akahori's wellbeing, his inherited reverse-edged blade held right in front of him as he assumed kendo's most basic Water Stance or Chudan-no-Kamae. Meanwhile, Kaede Morinaga saw her chance at murdering either of her two most important marks dwindle exponentially.
If she were to attack either Soujiro or Yahiko, either of the two could intercept her while she was busy with one of them and double team her before she could even harm a hair on any of her intended targets. 'This goddamned brat... I thought he was already done for! How was he able to ruin my plans to take down the Ten Ken this easily?'
She eyes became sharp slits. 'Come to think of it, he's injured. How was he even able to punch the Ten Ken in the middle of his Shukuchi? I'm having a tough time enough keeping up with Seta Soujiro. Is that kid really just a pickpocket that Battousai rescued from the yakuza?'
Unbeknownst to anyone in the guestroom, Yahiko was merely replicating his successful tactic against a certain fighter named Genbu back when he and the rest of the Kenshingumi went off to Enishi Yukishiro's island hideout to rescue Kaoru Kamiya from his clutches.
Yahiko and three of the other gathered warriors who wasn't Kenshin or Misao (they got Megumi tagging along their little rescue party for Kaoru as their doctor too) had to fight Chinese quadruplet martial artists (seriously) under the leadership of the second-in-command of Enishi's Shanghai Mafia Organization, Heishin Wu (Heixing Wu).
Genbu (Xuan Wu), one of Heishin's Su Shin (Si Xing or Four Stars) or Su Shen (Si Shen or Four Gods), made use of a wooden stave that could collapse itself into segments.
This weapon rendered Yahiko's defense and counter ougi... the Hadome and Hawatari respectively... useless because every time he attempted to intercept the multi-section staff with a cross-armed block, all Genbu needed to do was collapse his weapon and let it slip from the boy's grip.
Using a modified version of the two-part succession technique of the Kamiya Kasshin School, Yahiko neutralized the san jie gun flail's disassembly by thrusting the handle of his shinai right at its tip. This allowed the boy to present the Su Shen warrior with a Catch-22 of sorts.
If Genbu were to retreat a step, he'd be countered with the Hawatari. If he were to step forward and force his attack, he'd be countered with the Hawatari. Myojin took a third option, destroying the stave-mace with his Hawatari.
The idea behind Morinaga's hostage trap involved playing mind games with an opponent by attacking two targets on either side of the room, which kept him guessing what she'd do next. With two people defending both targets, every choice presented to her became a no-win double team scenario regardless of who she attacked.
Tragically, if she hesitated too long with her choice, she, like Genbu, would be attacked by both Yahiko and Soujiro as well, leading to her defeat. The fact that she was forced to use her best counterattack, the Sasori Gatame, on Myojin proved that he was no slouch in battle either.
And so there they were.
"You're really going to get in my way, are you?" asked Kaede.
"Mochiron," answered Yahiko with Minoe's favorite catchphrase.
'He's a lot smarter than I give him credit for,' mused the bearded Akahori. 'My gamble paid off. Even though Amakusa had an ace up his sleeve in the form of the Battousai of Speed, I still have my spanner in the works. He's my wild card; the butterfly in Henri Poincare's chaos theory.'
'I misjudged him. Myojin Yahiko isn't a mere pickpocket street rat. He's the descendant of Tokyo Samurai. It must be his pride as a samurai that's urging him to fight on even when his body is at its limit,' thought Kaede.
"Speaking of girlfriends... Hey! Rin, was it? Thank you for saving my life. I'm going to repay you by saving the lives of your boyfriend and your asshole father... no offense."
"Thank you, Myojin-kun," Rin bowed at the spiky-haired young lad before gulping down a wet feeling inside her throat that reached to her nostrils. Was it her morbid imagination, or did it look like that the boy was saying his fond farewells to all of them?
Morinaga frowned, sensing something was amiss.
Yahiko took a quick glance at Soujiro and nodded to himself as the Heaven Sword's reddened complexion returned to normal. Even though the older male still looked like he went through hell and back, he was nonetheless a lot healthier than either the Tokyo Samurai Descendant or Amakusa's apprentice assassin.
Besides which, Myojin's charade allowed the Ten Ken to restore some of the stamina he lost from using the friction-inducing Shukuchi too much. He sighed in relief. 'Just as planned.'
Yahiko hadn't made a bigger, more thick-faced bluff since the multistory Fuji of the Juppon Gatana almost turned him into street pancake back in Aoiya. Of course, he was at his limit! He got stabbed in the shoulder and he could barely feel his arm!
However, his pride stopped him from showing how badly the Scorpion Death Lock hurt him, especially after how he survived two Kuzu Ryu Sen attacks from monstrously powerful opponents. Then again, the believability of his ruse wouldn't last for long.
Something important occurred to Morinaga. 'What am I thinking? I just stabbed him with the Sasori Gatame! He can't be all that healthy after taking that attack. This kid is trying to pull the wool over my eyes! He's only doing this to buy the Ten Ken more time!'
'Whoops. The jig is up,' the Myojin kid thought as Morinaga not only glared daggers but a whole armory at him. "Looks like it's time for me to use 'that'."
"Use what, Yahiko-san?" Soujiro chuckled. It seemed like Kenshin's prodigy had something interesting planned. "Are you talking about your God Hammer?"
"No. You'll see." Yahiko smiled at the person that would've been his rival had he the time to train and become stronger than he was now. He licked his lips and remembered Tsubame Sanjo's cute, cherubic face in his mind's eyes.
"Hey, Psycho-Kid. Take a visit to Kenshin's home sometime. He's in Tokyo, at the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Dojo somewhere in Asakusa. He's hard to miss."
Soujiro blinked at Yahiko's last statement. 'Yahiko-san, what in the world...?'
Figuring out Yahiko's plan, Morinaga fell into her Scorpio Stance, her uchigatana raised high above her head and her sakaba wakizashi held perpendicular to her waist. If she were to charge at the Son of Tokyo Samurai right then and there, he'd fall easily against her might.
There was never going to be a double team. The teenager looked like he was about to drop at any second. "You got me. That was an impressive bluff. You won't last much longer, though," Kaede said.
Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction Continuation by Chester Castañeda
Do you want to know who won in the end? Keep on reading.
Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others) are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 28: The Wild Card
"Hey, Morinaga. Back in the East Valley, you murdered the leader of the Fake Battousai Group by using the Sasori Gatame, disemboweling him in the process. My bowels are still inside me, and the only thing you hit on my shoulder, judging by how much blood I lost and its darkish color, was a vein."
Kaede didn't answer back. Yahiko continued.
"You kept complaining to me that I don't have the guts to kill people, yet you yourself held back with your Scorpion Death Lock. This after murdering nearly all of the Togakudan. Why is that?"
"It's none of your business."
"Yeah, it is, because this is my life we're talking about. I also want to know why you were crying back then after injuring me."
"I-I wasn't crying! I... don't know..." Kaede grabbed hold of her left, swollen eye as if it were on fire.
"Who are you really, Morinaga Kaede?"
"I...!"
"OH YEAH!"
Just as everyone thought that they'd run out of surprises, in came the swollen head of a bloody, bandanna-wearing man that broke through the wall, wielding a metal bat and sporting a toothy, insufferable grin.
At least the one that burst through the wall wasn't a humongous, anthropomorphized glass pitcher serving as a mascot for a flavored drink mix. Created by foreigners. From the future.
"G-G-Gan?" Yahiko stuttered.
Yahiko thought he'd lost his mind. Everyone else in the room did too (except perhaps Soujiro, who merely gave the scene a curious tilt of the head as though it were a normal occurrence back in his days with the Juppon Gatana), so he was in good company.
"Oh, cool! You took down Amakusa Kumamoto already! Good job, Yoshi-boy!" said the Great Gan as he spotted the supine form of the Hidden Christian.
Gan then took one look at Morinaga as he dusted off the dust, bits of plaster, wood shards, and other pieces of debris on his person, and asked, "Who the hell are you supposed to be? Samurai X?"
Under normal circumstances, Yahiko would've kept on staring at the idiot before him for hours, mouth agape, as he wondered how a decapitated, amputated, and otherwise mutilated corpse could come back to the dead, his body whole (if somewhat blood-soaked).
He didn't have time to spare for such nonsense, though. He had his priorities to attend to, and he was already "in the zone", so to speak. "Gan! I have no idea why you're still alive or if you're a ghost, but go protect the Oyakata's daughter! We're in a hostage situation right now!"
"Okie-dokie, Yoshi-boyee!" Gan gave Yahiko a wink and a thumb's up before barreling over towards the girl with the shaking eyes, cream-colored hair, and skin that was whiter than a piece of paper. She was hard to miss.
Morinaga realized Yahiko's plans in a flash. Now that this Gan person was there to take over Soujiro's place in protecting Rin, she could now be triple-teamed. Moreover, it left the Ten Ken free to do whatever he wanted. However, Myojin made one fatal mistake: She was going to attack him and Akahori anyway, so he should've had Gan protect the Oyakata himself.
"I got your back, er, front, Yuki-Onna! By the way, I'm the Great Gan!"
Rin nodded while brushing a strand of seemingly bleached hair away from her face.
"There's nothing great about you!" came Yahiko's side comment.
"Shut the fuck up!" retorted the Witty and Creative Gan.
Two things happened at once during Yahiko and Gan's playful repartee.
Left with only one option for attack, Morinaga disappeared from everyone's midst using her short-range speed and her Crypsis to hide her presence as she headed straight for the wounded Myojin and the Elder Akahori.
Now that he didn't need to worry about Rin's safety, Soujiro used his powerful legs to leap at and intercept the charging Battousai of Speed with a blinding battoujutsu strike.
Nevertheless, Kaede herself had recovered a bit of her stamina thanks to Yahiko's protracted sham, which allowed her to predict Soujiro's actions and react in kind, doing a Vise Grip and plucking his weapon out of his hands. She attempted a Deathstalker Stab at the weaponless swordsman, but he again slipped from her clutches.
It didn't matter. At that moment, the Ten Ken wasn't her real target. By the time Seta retrieved his Kikuichi Monji, it'd be too late. She would've already killed both Yahiko and Tetsuo.
Yahiko remembered the feeling he had when he punched the invisible Soujiro out even while the latter used the true Shukuchi. The samurai kid had to use "that" right now before he forgot the feeling. He raised his sword, shifting from the Water Stance to the Fire Stance as Morinaga herself prepared to attack him.
An afterimage flash of Kaede revealed that she'd reacted immediately to his change in position as she herself shifted posture and went into the Cancer Stance. Even if she were to hold back again with her Scorpion Death Lock, there was no way he'd survive the attack. Hell, he only had enough energy to pull off one more attack regardless.
Even now, as Myojin looked at Morinaga, he couldn't help but be reminded through her looks of how monstrously powerful Kenshin Himura (now Kenshin Kamiya) was and how his greatness overshadowed Yahiko's past, present, and future achievements.
The young man also realized that his hero worship of Battousai blinded him of two important points: Kenshin himself couldn't save everyone in his life. He also wasn't there with them inside the Shinshushin Mansion, so it was up to Yahiko to do something about this assassination plot.
Too much idolization was unhealthy, as evidenced by how Amakusa's charisma made him to develop a God Complex, drove his Hidden Christian followers to their deaths, and caused Morinaga to resort to cowardly extremes to kill the Akahoris whom Shogo loathed.
Kenshin was Kenshin. Yahiko was Yahiko.
The Yahiko Myojin of today wasn't strong enough to beat Soujiro Seta, Kaede Morinaga, or Shogo Amakusa. His entire stay inside the Akahori Mansion confirmed how grossly unprepared he was at handling fighters of the Battousai's caliber.
Nevertheless, Yahiko wasn't about to stand by idly and do nothing either, even if bluffing and distractions were all he could accomplish.
Most importantly, Kaede was Kaede. She was no Kenshin, no matter how much she looked like him.
Kaede asked earlier where Yahiko was getting all his confidence despite his injury. The fact of the matter was that he'd figured her out. In the middle of bleeding to near death as his soul hung between the Human World and the Spirit World, he realized something important about her.
Her out-of-place laughter and tears. The fact that she was a woman. Her surprise when he attacked her. That cross-shaped mark that was placed nearer her left eye than Kenshin's scar was. Her inability to kill him even after she scolded him for his non-killing ways. Her possession of a reverse-edged sword. Her zealot-like obsession with Amakusa. Everything clicked. He knew exactly who she was.
Yahiko brought the sakabatou down while Kaede brought her swords together to block the incoming assault. He then screamed:
"MIINNOOEE!"
About six years ago, before Sanosuke Sagara (nee Higashidani) bid adieu to his longhouse and his friends back in Tokyo as he avoided capture from the Meiji Government and wandered the earth...
"FUTAE NO KIWAMI! AAAHH!"
"How the hell did you do that, Sano?" asked a ten-year-old Yahiko after catching Sanosuke practicing his Dual Extreme technique he learned from the Juppon Gatana's Bright King, Anji Yukyuzan.
"Do what, Yahiko-chan?" queried Sanosuke while a fishbone jutted out from the corner of his mouth.
After Yahiko and Sanosuke came to blows for that remark... the boy "caning" the street fighter with his bamboo sword (a weapon that would later be known to the Western World as a Singapore Cane) until it broke as though the latter were a petty thief being punished by a grandfather, the child clarified his statement.
"How'd you blast that boulder into tiny pieces?"
"Oh, that? I punched it really hard twice. Like this." He punched the air and showed the boy the Dual Extreme in slow motion first by striking with the middle knuckles of his fingers, then by hitting with his fist's knuckles.
A scowling Yahiko threw a rock at Sano's head. As expected, the older man barely flinched. "I'm completely serious, kid. Try it."
With half-lidded eyes, Yahiko took another rock from the mess of rubble and debris Sanosuke made, placed it on the flat piece of rock that was left of the boulder, and punched it hard twice as demonstrated by Sano.
The spiky-haired boy yelped as his fist, fingers, and knuckles bled. "OW!"
"HAHAHAHAHA! You really tried it! What a dumbass!" Sano grabbed hold of his bandaged sides as he pointed and laughed at the humiliated Son of Tokyo Samurai. "
"Dammit! You liar! I knew you were just making fun of me!" With tears in his eyes, Yahiko threw another rock at Sanosuke, this time hitting his nose.
"You're an idiot. Of course it won't work the first time you do it, you dolt!" said a nasally Sano as he pinched his bleeding nose and conked the violent little runt on the noggin. "Don't worry about it too much, though. It took me a while to get it."
"For how long?" questioned Yahiko.
"About a week. And that was with the threat on my life over my head in the hands of a mad monk if I weren't able to master it in time," boasted Sanosuke. "I guess I'm just that awesome."
The Myojin kid groaned. As usual, the training methods of the man formerly known as Zanza, Master of the Zanbatou, was out of this world.
"Hey, 'Kamiya Kasshin Ryu's Greatest Student', if you're done playing with Sano, it's time for more wrist-crossing drills. Your Hadome is getting rusty, and Yuta-kun is quickly gaining on you on the skill department," drawled a smirking Kaoru Kamiya from the distance while using air quotes.
By "Yuta-kun", she meant the other "Greatest Student of the Kamiya Kasshin School", Yutaro Tsukayama, who'd recently arrived back to Japan from Germany. Damn, Yahiko hated that insufferable woman and her teacher's pet, Cat Eyes.
"Now there's an idea! To be honest, your bare-knuckle fighting sucks, kiddo. If you really want to try out the Futae no Kiwami for yourself, maybe you should use a sword instead of your fists."
"You really think so? You really think it's possible to do the Dual Extreme with a sword?" asked an eager, bright-eyed Yahiko.
Sanosuke shrugged. "Sure. In a hundred years, maybe... OUCH! That was my goddamn eye, you little shit! COME BACK HERE!"
Back to the relative present, inside the guestroom of the stately Akahori Manor...
'Did he say Minoe? As in Patches? Our Patches? Why'd he mention Patches at a time like this?' Gan thought as Morinaga flickered into existence after hearing the name. 'Was Samurai X the one who killed Patches?'
Meanwhile, Soujiro had already retrieved his sword and was now sheathing it into its wooden scabbard.
"..." said a wide-eyed, teeth-clenched Kaede as Yahiko brought his sakabatou all the way to his back, its tip pointing at the ground, to increase the power of his blow.
'Is this his Tsui Gami? No. It's something different. He's probably going to try and break both my uchigatana and wakizashi at the same time with twice the power!'
In light of this recent development, Morinaga uncrossed her swords and opted to avoid the strike with her Crypsis and short-range speed. She muttered a short prayer for the Tokyoite as Myojin's strike left him wide open for a second Sasori Gatame.
'Even after I've unconsciously spared your life, you insist on dying by my hand. You asked for this, Myojin Yahiko.'
"DOU GAMI!"
"What the...?"
The reason why Yahiko spoke to everyone as though it was his last day on the world of the living was because he believed that was the case. He didn't know if "that" would work or not. For the longest time, he couldn't do the Dual Extreme.
The technique that Sanosuke and Anji shared worked by letting the first strike absorb the initial resistance, then punching it a second time quickly to double the impact and produce perfect conveyance of the force with zero resistance.
This was almost impossible to do with a sword because a blade doesn't have knuckles or segments that allowed it to hit something twice fast enough to convey zero-resistance force.
However, thanks in part to the invention of the Tsui Gami or the God Hammer... a technique that could break a sword by using the recoil of its initial strike to hit the same spot twice over... it was now possible to strike something, anything, during that tiny window of opportunity where the perfect conveyance of force could be done.
In theory, anyway.
There was the likely development of the God on Earth not working, his blunted blade merely hitting the floorboards below him twice and making a dull, thumping dent on them before his body showered them with blood anew thanks to Morinaga's Scorpion Death Lock. If this wasn't going to work, then...
Rest in Peace: Yahiko Myojin (August 27, 1869 -November 6, 1884).
Hence his final farewells.
As Yahiko suspected, "Samurai X" (Seriously, where did Gan get all these moronic nicknames?) reacted and adjusted herself automatically to both his feint and his attempt to break her twin swords apart. Thank Buddha she reappeared after he screamed Minoe's name, because he had yet to learn how to detect her Takae-reminiscent Crypsis maneuver. At least those bets of his paid off.
At any rate, he'd been aiming for the floor from the start, remembering Gan's earth-shattering Happa and Fuji's crater-making strike. Even if she were to avoid his strike with a short dodge, she'd still be hit by the God on Earth, if it worked. All of those different techniques were in his mind as he executed his Dou Gami on the ground.
The teenaged samurai didn't quite expect what did happen, though. He'd seen Sanosuke pulverize entire boulders with a couple of blows from his right hand. A sword was bigger than a fist, especially a reverse-edged one that hit like a metal rod.
Because his recoiling God Hammer to the ground utilized the heavy, almost adamantine strike of the reinforced sakabatou, it transferred a greater amount of force at a larger area. He seriously underestimated the impact of the ensuing blast.
Yes, blast.
The force of the explosion flung both Myojin and Akahori straight through the space that used to be a wall and multiple yards outside the mansion. Morinaga flew up and hit the roof face-first instead of going the opposite direction Yahiko and the Oyakata went because she jumped up at the last second.
She fell to the ground a broken heap, her hips and back aching as she crushed the debris that had gathered below her. She got up and turned in time to see the image of Soujiro Seta in a battoujutsu stance vanish right before her eyes. He'd finally delivered what she'd been asking for: His only named sword technique, the Shun Ten Satsu.
"Oh shi...!"
Kaede saw a ray of light pierce through her one healthy eye, followed by darkness and a spinning, flowery rainbow kaleidoscope she'd seen before, when she asked Amakusa to demonstrate to her his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Succession Technique, the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, with a bokuto instead of a sword.
Her body moved on its own as it went into Scorpio Stance and then did the stance switch needed to give her Sasori Gatame that extra leverage for instantaneous stabbing and gutting.
At last, the Scorpion Death Lock and the Instant Heaven Murder were going to go head-to-head against each other. Which technique was the strongest?
Several yards away from the Shinshushin Mansion, as the break of dawn approached...
Yahiko didn't want to get up from where he lay. Not out of laziness but out of pain. He dully noted that his shoulder injury was bleeding again despite all of Rin's efforts to keep the puncture wound from worsening.
Ironically, he never felt more alive in his life. It worked! The Dou Gami worked! In spite of everything that naysayer, Yutaro, said, it worked like a charm! Granted, he had no idea if it'd work again or if his muscle memory and reflexes could recall and replicate it, but he'd cross that bridge later once he got there.
His head throbbed. He felt like vomiting out his pureed internal organs or else risk having them pour out through his pores in a red goop in place of sweat. He stayed that way for what seemed like days.
He sheathed his inherited sword and attempted to get up, but he sat down again because his legs felt too rubbery to support his body. He had no choice but to stare at the smoking wreckage and wonder if his new technique did any damage to the Battousai of Speed back inside the guestroom.
"YOSHI-BOY! OYAKATA-DONO! Are you two still alive?"
Now that the danger had (somewhat) passed, Yahiko allowed himself to freak out at the sight of the blood-soaked meathead running straight for him like a one-man stampede. "AH! ZOMBIE! OBAKE! PRETA! GAKI! JIKININKI! Get away from me and rest in pieces already, you ghoul!"
"Watcha talkin' bout, Yoshi-boy?" inquired the Petulant Gan while making his cheeks expand and balloon. "And what are you kneeling around for? Get up when someone's talking to you!"
"I would if I could, you dolt," the red-faced Yahiko grunted. That one last God on Earth sapped him of the strength to move on his own power.
"Are you honestly too stupid to realize you're supposed to be dead? I saw you get sliced into choice cuts by Amakusa with my own two eyes! I was talking to your severed head because I almost went insane with grief! Am I still crazy, you undead nincompoop? Am I dreaming that I beat the Battousai Group while I slowly bled to death?"
"Huh. That'd actually make sense, come to think of it," Gan pointed out.
"Well...?" insisted Yahiko.
"Oh! Right. Heh. Funny story..." said the Sheepish Gan with a chuckle and a twiddle of his thumbs after he put his kanabo-tetsubo on the ground. He then pointed at his crimson head, which were still spurting droplets of blood. How was he able to walk, much less run, with such an injury? Was this mansion somehow attracting all sorts of supernatural beings into it?
"I also thought I was dead even while I gave you that little pep talk to make you stop whining and crying like a little girl. I stayed there for quite sometime, accepting my fate, thinking to myself that maybe haunting that mansion wasn't half-bad at all. I mean, it's a pretty swank pad. At least my ghost wasn't going to get earthbound to a garbage dump or a cemetery..."
"Get to the point, you hairless gorilla," admonished the Tokyoite. The Garrulous Gan cleared his throat.
"Anyway, as I willed myself to move, sticking out my tongue as well as practicing my moans and scary faces, I heard something snap below me, which made me scream like a bitch in heat. It felt like my neck was on fire. I called for help from the rest of the corpses around me to lend a fellow ghost a hand, when suddenly, a hand popped out from under the floorboards."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. Thing is, I soon realized it was my own hand. My head was poking out from the ground not because it was sliced off, but because that goddamned Kumamoto made me fall into a ditch of sorts. I helped myself out before I heard the commotion at the guestroom. Whatever you guys were doing back there, you were really going at it."
"But what about that time I saw you get chopped up into bits and pieces? Don't tell me my eyes were deceiving me!" demanded Myojin.
"Yoshi-boy, I think we were drugged. After we saw that flash of light from Amakusa Kumamoto's shiny sword, our minds went bye-bye." Gan even created a bird with his two open palms and had it flap away in front of Yahiko's face to make his point.
Yahiko gripped Gan's pant leg, his eyes hidden by the shadows created by his bangs. "S-So you're not dead? I'm not dreaming or hallucinating anymore?"
"Uh, no." The Understanding Gan patted the Son of Tokyo Samurai on the head, his sharp bangs stabbing his palm. "Were you worried, Yoshi-boy?"
"Of course not, you idiot!" shouted Yahiko as he pushed Gan's hand away, crossed his arms, and stared at the other direction. "I-I still can't believe that we were drugged. Doesn't that sound a bit farfetched to you?"
"Your bandanna-wearing friend speaks the truth, Myojin-kun."
Two of the Three Stooges turned in time to see the split-faced Akahori walk up towards them while cradling the arm that Morinaga stabbed at earlier in her duel with Seta. Obviously, he survived from getting flung by the explosive God on Earth move as well.
"Oyakata-dono!" the Sanbaka duo (as opposed to trio) chorused.
"Amakusa has a technique called the Rai Ryu Sen. Or he used to have one, before he nearly died trying to fight off a government-issued army all by himself."
"Yeah. The Oyakata-dono's right. That was the technique Kumamoto used to make his sword all shiny and bright," confirmed Gan while nodding. "I think it contained some sort of powder maybe? I can't be sure. All I recall before everything went crazy was a bright flash."
The teenaged kendo expert tapped his finger on his chin. The Rai Ryu Sen in and of itself was an enigma to him. Even after a year of observing Kenshin and his Hiten Mitsurugi School, he had yet to see him do what looked like a cross between Udo Jine's Shin no Ippo and outright hypnotism.
"Wait a minute. It's a technique that Amakusa used to have? Meaning he can't do it anymore?" asked Yahiko.
Had he still sported his glasses, Tetsuo would've pushed it up his nose and let it glint in the moonlight. "Precisely. He can't do it by himself anymore, he has to rely on using an orb containing hallucinogenic drugs to perform the trick."
Gan smacked his fist on his open palm. "Yeah, I remember now! He had this small glass ball he sliced apart with his sword before Yoshi-boy and I went all... wonky. We saw all sorts of crazy shit back there, didn't we? So that Christian kook used hallucination drugs on us! That makes perfect sense!"
Akahori corrected, "Hallucinogenic drugs, but you're not far off, Gan-kun. It's oversimplifying things, but hallucinogenic drugs can also be called mind-control drugs. I'm guessing Amakusa used his body-freezing kenki and his knowledge of western medicine to create this new form of Lightning Dragon Flash."
Yahiko palmed his face. He couldn't believe it. That meat-bun-addicted idiot was so strong-willed yet stupid, he was hypnotized into thinking he was a ghost. However, several other things that happened in the ballroom started to make sense to him as well, if what Tetsuo said was true.
With a raised eyebrow, Myojin asked Akahori, "How do you know all this?"
The Oyakata answered glibly, "Because it was all part of my plan. He fired off that damned technique against my daughter, myself, and you as well as himself, probably. I figured that Amakusa could only carry so many orbs and utilize so much of his sword energy at a given day, so I intentionally did everything I could to make him waste using his signature attack."
Yahiko clenched his fist and turned away from Akahori before the urge to punch the politician's smug face overwhelmed him. The way Tetsuo manipulated everyone within the mansion... from Amakusa to the policemen to the Togakudan to everyone else including him... left a bad taste in the Tokyoite's mouth.
One other thing bothered Yahiko. "Hey, Gan. Do you remember the name of the technique Amakusa used to take you down?"
"Uh, Lightning Dragon Flash, was it?"
"No, the other one. The one that mutilated your head and neck."
"It's Ryu Sou Sen... something. I dunno."
"Was it the Ryu Sou Sen Garami?"
"Yeah, that's the one. I think. That hurt like a son of a bitch, man."
Yahiko had already heard of the Ryu Sou Sen Garami before. Kenshin admitted to using that version of the Dragon Nest Flash (the "Garami" kanji simply meant attacking the head) back in his hitokiri days, when he confessed to everyone of his friends in Tokyo the story behind his twin scars.
It was a technique that hit a single point on the body using multiple slashes instead of hitting multiple vital points at the same time. Even though this was the Surprisingly Durable Gan he was thinking about, Yahiko believed that the Ryu Sou Sen Garami should've been fatal and there was no need to use the Rai Ryu Sen to trick the hoodlum into thinking he was dead.
Why did Amakusa, who showed little to no mercy against Akahori's police army (save for an initial warning), decide to spare Gan? The teenager suspected he already knew the answer to that question. 'It was Minoe, wasn't it?'
"By the way... Well done, my boy. You've exceeded my expectations again. You're not only a dark horse in the cockpits, but also as a bodyguard as well!" praised the Oyakata, remembering the stunts that the Sanbaka pulled with Gan's androgynous hen-cock.
"Sure, whatever. It's not like I saved you because I wanted to, you bearded, two-faced bastard." Yahiko harrumphed. Come to think of it, hadn't he himself played into Akahori's plans as well? The old man certainly acted like that was the case.
Tetsuo smirked, then winced as his facial muscles made his injured face hurt. "If you say so. I'm grateful nonetheless, Myojin Yahiko."
"You're not going to kill Amakusa or Morinaga under my watch either."
"Fine by me, especially since I'm sure you won't let them kill me or my daughter either. I'll just have them detained and put into trial like the criminals that they are instead."
Gan scratched his bleeding head, wondering why Yahiko was acting so cold towards his temporary employer whose life he saved. Did something happen between the two of them while he thought he was dead?
"Hey, Yoshi-boy. Was Samurai X the dude who killed Patches?"
Yahiko choked on his spit. "W-What made you say that?"
The Curious Gan shrugged. "You were screaming his name at him." The beefy man grabbed hold of the boy's uninjured shoulder. "I didn't realize how much he meant to you. I'll miss Patches too."
"...Y-Yeah." The boy turned away and avoided Gan's gaze. "Oh yeah. 'Samurai X' isn't a dude, but a lady."
"WHAT? NO WAY! He's as flat as a board! Of course he has a penis!" Gan took off his bloody bandanna, wrung it dry, and wore again on his head. "Although those hips and ass do have me wondering..."
"Oh, did you mean Minoe, Myojin-kun? Isn't he the young eye-patched lad that was with you back in the Shinshu Cockpits? I remember him. He's one of the new recruits of the Togakudan, if I recall correctly. Did he die in the hands of the Battousai of Speed? Such a waste. My condolences," said the Oyakata.
For one reason or another, the Dense Gan felt as though the temperature of the morning air had dropped a degree or two, but he couldn't put his finger on why that was so.
"Akahori-san! Thank goodness, you're safe!" cried a fat-lipped, sleepy-looking police officer that emerged along with six other coppers from the smoking wreckage where Yahiko and Tetsuo stood about ten minutes or so earlier.
"I see the cavalry has arrived," commented Akahori. "Good morning, Lieutenant. How many casualties have been tallied so far?"
"The last report of the surviving Togakudan tallied around thirty or more casualties from both the officers and the spies, sir. Some people are missing and presumed dead, although there were a number of unaccounted deserters as well."
"Impressive. I expected a lot more casualties, seeing that this was the One-Man Army of Nagasaki we're dealing with. Even when he's at his worst condition, he's still quite the problem."
Yahiko recognized the voice of the policeman that greeted Tetsuo. It was muffled when he first heard it, but he was sure it was the same Kanagawa lieutenant who was trapped within one part of the mansion along with the rest of the remaining policemen thanks to Shogo's Dou Ryu Sen.
"Hey, it's you: Nishimura from Kanagawa. You were able to get out of all that rubble and debris, huh?"
"Ah! You're the boy who countered everything Amakusa threw at you! I'm so glad you survived! I was afraid that he had killed you too, seeing as how scuffed up Akahori-san's head bodyguard is!"
Yahiko snorted. He heard the same thing from the Oyakata earlier. Did he really look that unreliable against Amakusa? "Of course I'm still alive. I've been alive all my life," he sardonically added.
"He's actually the one who made the difference in the fight," revealed the Oyakata himself as he patted the growling teenager's hedgehog hair, which made the copper all but prostrate himself at Myojin. The young man could barely resist rolling his eyes.
Once he regained his senses and stopped ingratiating himself with the politician, Lieutenant Yusuke Nishimura made his true feelings known to the kendoist.
"You kept your promise, kid. Thanks a lot. Now stop making us policemen look bad and let us do our job, okay?" whispered Nishimura with a light punch to Yahiko's chin.
Myojin grinned. "What the hell are you talking about? Without you cops nearly killing Amakusa before we got to him, we would've been goners for sure."
The boy then turned serious as he asked, "What happened to Officer Kosaburo and Sergeant Sakaguchi? Are they okay?"
"I'm right here, Yahiko-kun," said a weary, sweaty, and dirty Sergeant Satoru Sakaguchi from the Kanagawa District. "Kosaburo-kun is all right. He's a bit dizzy after being knocked out by that landslide Amakusa threw at us, but he's otherwise okay."
The Tokyo Samurai Descendant heaved a sigh of relief.
"Officer Daddy! You're alive!" Gan greeted the husband of the Soba Shop Owner he stole food from with a big bear hug, his blood spilling all over the policeman's face.
"That's Sergeant Daddy to you, big guy!" jibed Satoru while he tried to squeeze himself free from the Overly Affectionate Gan before something inside his body broke. He'd accumulated enough damage from facing Amakusa already.
"You're a powerful son of a gun, the way you swatted that cultist bastard around like a common housefly! It must've been because of all the meat buns and soba you've been eating without paying!" said Satoru.
"That was a strange battoujutsu stance you used on Kumamoto earlier, Sergeant Daddy! How were you able to see him with your back turned?" asked Gan.
"I'm afraid that's a Sakaguchi Secret I'll take to my grave, Mister Food Bandit!"
"...You're not still sore about that food tab, are you? I already paid that in full along with a chicken that could either be a hen or a rooster."
"..." said Yahiko as Satoru and Gan laughed their passive-aggressive issues away. He turned his attentions back to the Oyakata and the last available members of the different police squads he gathered.
Akahori was now talking to a reed-thin man in Togakudan uniform. "Have you arrested Amakusa and Morinaga? How are Seta-kun and my daughter doing?"
"Uh, 'Morinaga', Sir?"
"Yes. The girl with the twin swords, a cross-shaped scar, and red hair. She came along with Amakusa as a backup assassin."
"Um, there was no one there with that description, Mister Akahori. The only ones we saw inside the guestroom were..."
"Wait, what happened to Morinaga?" interrupted Yahiko. "The one who calls herself the Battousai of Speed! Where is she?"
"Akahori-san! Yahiko-kun!" called out Officer Kosaburo Shinichi as he ran towards the gathering throng of cops and spies, his forehead wrapped in bandages. "We've searched high and low in the mansion! Amakusa Shogo is nowhere to be found!"
During that fraction of a second where Soujiro Seta and Kaede Morinaga used their finishing moves against each other after Yahiko blasted himself and Akahori away to safety...
On one scenario, there was Soujiro dashing so fast with his Reduced Earth, he broke the sound barrier and slashed Kaede apart with his Instant Heaven Murder even before she could even bring up her swords to block using the Vise or Scissor Grip, much less use her deadly Scorpion Death Lock.
On another scenario, there was Morinaga, timing and blocking the Shun Ten Satsu perfectly despite the small window of opportunity for her to react to it thanks to the supersonic speeds of the Shukuchi. She then countered the helpless Ten Ken with her Sasori Gatame, tearing his shoulder apart and gutting him like a fish at the same time.
What had truly happened lay somewhere between those two extreme scenarios. The flash of light Morinaga saw held an important clue to the truth of the situation.
Back inside the guestroom of the Akahori Mansion, before the officers trapped inside wreckage created by Amakusa's Earth Dragon Flash had escaped and secured the perimeter of the manor...
"Seta-kun! Seta-kun, where are you?" Rin called out while coughing primly at all the smoke and dust that Yahiko's unexpectedly powerful technique caused. Who knew that a recently injured swordsman could still pack that much of a punch with his strike?
She saw a silhouette of a young man with a bob cut grabbing hold of his shoulder covered by powdered dirt and dust plumes, the area surrounding him tinged with the smell of blood. "Seta-kun! Is that you? You're... hurt."
"Ah. Rin-san. I'm glad you're safe," said a perspiring Soujiro, his right shoulder bleeding and ruining his scuffed-up blue clothes with a purple and brown stain.
After noticing Rin's eyes travel to his injury, the Ten ken reassured, "I don't think this wound is as deep as Yahiko-san's Sasori Gatame stab, but it's still the most significant blow Morinaga-san landed against me next to that foot stab."
"Sit down. It'll help stop the bleeding," ordered Rin, and Soujiro obliged. "We should get you down to the infirmary. I have no more sleeves left to tie that wound down."
She then felt something cold and metallic beside her as she sat down, which made her jump. "What's that?"
"That's Morinaga-san's uchigatana. I sliced her weapon apart with the Shun Ten Satsu."
"Oh." Rin threw the broken sword piece aside and straightened herself out as she sat down again. "Did you kill her?"
After a slight pause, Seta admitted. "...No. I don't think so, because I'm still alive. But we almost killed each other."
"I see. Where is she now?"
"She escaped. She's probably long gone by now, along with Amakusa."
Even after admitting there was nothing left of her torn sleeves to make bandages with, Rin nevertheless tore another piece of her silken kimono off (the bottom part near her ankles, to be specific) for the sake of staving off the flow of blood from Soujiro's punctured shoulder.
'Even if we were able to complete our attacks against each other, the fight would've still ended in a draw, with both of us dead.' Soujiro shook his head and chortled to himself. 'You were even more interesting than I thought you were, Morinaga-san. Both you and Yahiko-san are.'
He was sure his Instant Heaven Murder landed right before Morinaga could complete her Scissor Grip block, which enabled him to slice right through her katana. As his battoujutsu was about to complete its bone-cutting arc, he felt something plunge into his shoulder. Afterwards, there was this flash of light.
He imagined killing her. He imagined being killed by her. He imagined he was dead. The next thing he knew, he felt shooting agony on his shoulder while a sliced piece of metal clattered on the floor right next to him.
"Seta-kun."
"What is it, Yuki-Onna?"
"Don't call me that. You sound like that scary big man with the bleeding head."
Seta giggled once more. "I'm sorry. What is it, Rin-san?"
"What was your truth? Which truth did you decide to adopt as your own? Himura Battousai's truth? Or Shishio Makoto's truth?"
He closed his eyes. "Neither. I haven't found a truth to follow yet. I want to think about it some more."
Soujiro's smile vanished as he felt something wet and soft touch his lips, his eyes snapping open in surprise.
"That's good to know."
With the Young Akahori's face as blank and neutral as ever before, Seta couldn't tell if the moist, tingling sensation on his mouth was from his imagination or not.
In the darkness, Kaede heard thunderous footfalls reminiscent of hoofed beats on the ground, which made her arms twitch and grab hold of the nearest sword handles her fingers could find. She needed to block the Heaven Sword's attack and counter it. She wanted to win their duel.
Morinaga opened her eyes and saw the Nagano landscape whiz past her as her undone hair flowed freely in the breeze. Her fingers felt the soft mane of a rather strong-smelling, four-legged creature. She was on a horse, and right behind her was Amakusa.
"Ah. You're awake." Shogo smiled and brushed her hair back because it covered her face and made her look like a red-dyed mop.
She felt blood rush to her face as she squeaked an affirmative while grabbing hold of the horse's neck. She then bit her lip as she felt a stinging sensation on her side.
She had all sorts of cuts and bruises on her person, and her left eye still felt a bit swollen from all the hits it took. She didn't have a broken bone in her body, but they all felt like they could snap at any moment.
"What happened to my sword?" she asked after feeling her cloth belt for her weapons and finding only the reverse-edged wakizashi made from of Battousai's broken blade.
"I'm afraid all that's left of your katana is the handle and the hand guard. The Shun Ten Satsu sliced it apart," said Shogo as he rifled through his clothes and showed the damaged weapon to his assistant.
"What happened back there, Shogo-sama?"
"We almost had them, and that was just the two of us. Imagine if we had all our allies working together to bring the Meiji Government down. Even Akahori won't be able to stop us."
"Okay." Kaede exhaled as everything came back to her. Her lengthy, back-and-forth duel with Soujiro Seta. Her (unconsciously halfhearted) Scorpion Death Lock against Yahiko Myojin. The final parts of her death match with the "original" Heaven Sword. The Tokyo Samurai Descendant's unexpected revival and interference. Her Sasori Gatame going against the Ten Ken's Shun Ten Satsu.
"So you used the Rai Ryu Sen to rescue me from the Ten Ken's Shun Ten Satsu, didn't you?" asked Morinaga.
"...Yes. I wouldn't call it a 'rescue' per se, though. By the looks of things, both your attacks were able to connect. You would've both died had I not interfered," admitted Shogo.
So that was what happened. Amakusa did a Lightning Dragon Flash and hypnotized her and Soujiro into thinking that they both finished each other off.
"You had a spare Gadamar Gem with you?" she asked.
"Surprisingly enough, I didn't. That was all me," said Shogo as he rested his tapered chin atop Morinaga's noggin.
"Sh-Shogo-sama! You were able to do the Rai Ryu Sen on your own? That's wonderful news! You're beginning to regain your old strength back!" she cheered.
"It took everything I had to do it though, which explains the getaway horse. Neither of us can move anymore. Just barely."
She bowed her head low. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault. We should've succeeded in our mission. You almost died back there. I should've tried harder. I should've won against the Heaven Sword."
The supersonic speed of the Shun Ten Satsu reminded her of the mock Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki slashes Shogo did to her with a wooden sword during their sparring sessions. They lost many a bokuto thanks to those practice matches.
Even after all that time, she still wasn't fast enough to counter something of the caliber of the Instant Heaven Murder or the Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash.
"No, it's not your fault. I'm the one who aborted the mission. I'm the one who forced you to act as backup. I didn't want to lose you there because of my mistakes. Besides, we can always try again." Shogo gripped Kaede's shoulder in encouragement.
"You exceeded both my expectations and Akahori's. You took the Ten Ken to the limit. I don't want to lose someone as special as you to a duel brought upon by my own carelessness. Who knows what you'll be capable of months or even years from now?"
She pouted and buried her face into the horse's mane. Parts of what Amakusa told her had an out-of-context double meaning that made her head spin. The other parts simply annoyed her, though.
"What do you mean months or even years from now? I'm as old as you are! I'm about twice as old as that Yahiko kid, for example. Stop talking down to me like I'm a child!"
Amakusa guffawed. "Then tell me the secret of your fountain of youth. I thought women your actual age were flattered when people mistake them to be younger than they are."
"S-Stop teasing me."
"Kidding aside, thank you for lending me your strength. I'm apologize for my selfishness. It's people like you that make me look forward to the future."
"Stop talking like you're my old man or something! It's creeping me out!"
Shogo sniggered before wrapping his arms around Kaede. "My bad. I'll stop now."
They stayed like that for about ten to twenty minutes before the female Battousai look-alike queried, "Shogo-sama?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for sparing Myojin Yahiko and Gan for Minoe's sake."
"...No problem."
Earlier in the Sixth of November, within the ballroom of Akahori's Mansion, about two hours or so after midnight...
"You almost blew your cover. I'm impressed that you were able to hide your identity for this long," Amakusa said, inwardly impressed at the new arrival's complete nullification of the Kuzu Ryu Sen. "Have all the Togakudan been taken care of?"
The petite man shook his head. "One or two of them might have survived."
"Really? Well, judging by all the corpses here, you still did an outstanding job. Those spies kept me on my toes more than the police squads did, Morinaga."
"Er, I'm not Kaede-chi," clarified Munenori Minoe... the wigged, unimposing double agent of the Kakure Kirishitan... his left eye and cross-shaped scar hidden by an overly large eye patch.
"Oh, right. Who are you this time? It's 'Minoe', right?"
"Yes. Also, I'm a professional, Amakusa-chi. It's my job to do this."
"Congratulations on a job well done, then."
"Mochiron!"
Shogo examined his sword for nicks and cracks. A few more swings from the spiky-haired young man's blade and it would've been all over for his Sword of Light and Darkness.
Minoe espied the boy he shoved about a couple of feet below him. "It seems that I've knocked Yahiko-chi out."
Amakusa breathed out a prolonged sigh and relaxed his shoulders after his nicked sword stopped shaking. "I'm still wondering why you were so adamant in keeping that boy and his friend alive. Are you doing this because he used to be a part of the Battousai's posse?"
"Huh? How did you know that, Amakusa-chi? I wasn't able to report to you much of anything since yesterday." Minoe blinked... or winked... with his one eye several times.
"When we fought, I noticed him holding the same sakabatou that Battousai once owned. Just like the one you're using as a wakizashi now, except yours is the copy. He also knows a bit too much about the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu and who the Battousai is. He's probably the same boy who fought Seta Soujiro after you massacred that gang of criminals who stole our name in order to terrorize that one Shinshu village."
"I see." Minoe fidgeted and adjusted the bowl-cut wig atop his head that was once used for kabuki; the silliest disguise he could find. "Amakusa-chi?"
"Hmmm?" the beatific Amakusa didn't bother turning his head, his eyes darting to the corner where Minoe stood.
Minoe stared at his reverse-edged backsword as though absorbed by its craftsmanship, his mind drifting elsewhere. "Did we really need to kill all of them? The policemen? The Togakudan? Couldn't there have been another...?"
"We had no other choice. I gave them the choice to give up or face the consequences of going against me. If we waffled or hesitated in the middle of our mission, then we would've wasted our time and effort. Our people back home would've suffered extreme cruelties for centuries to come. The Hidden Christians will not stay hidden any longer."
Minoe nodded slowly, remembering the condition of his leader's body after what it went through during the disaster known as the Modern Shimabara War.
"I understand the situation. Maybe I'm being naive. Maybe I want to believe in the same nonsense Yahiko-chi believes in. I wish there was a way we could save our people without resorting to killing. Save them like Jesus Christ did."
The pristine and glowing Amakusa tapped his pointer finger on his lips while the winds of his sword energy continued to ebb and flow like the tide. Such talk reminded him of his naive uncle, Hyoue Nishida.
"Are you getting cold feet? Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. After all, Doraku spoke quite highly of you, and I myself have seen what you're capable of."
"Akatsuki-sensei did? Huh. That's not the impression I got from him."
This time, Minoe shook his head, sheathed his searing, friction-heated short sword, and trailed his finger over the rickety railing full of Amakusa's missed sword slices.
"I'm not afraid. I look forward to lending you my strength and fighting Oyakata-chi's most powerful lackey, the Heaven Sword. Akatsuki-chi speaks highly of you too; if he believes that you're the one who'll avenge the Suzaku Clan's downfall and save the Christians from religious persecution, then I'll gladly lay my life on the line for you... like Kaede-chi would."
Shogo's eyes met Minoe's one eye before he stared elsewhere and smoothed his cape. "You'd do all that because Doraku approved of me? I'm impressed by your dutifulness and loyalty to your master."
"No. I do it because I believe in you too, Amakusa-chi. I've seen who you are and what you're all about with my own eyes." For the first time since the assault at the mansion began, Minoe allowed himself to smile from the bottom of his heart.
"You carry on your back the hopes and dreams of thousands of people on your shoulders. You've risked your life for them time and time again, and I bet you'd gladly do so in the future as well. You're no mere rebel or murderer in my eyes. None of the swordsmen here are worthy of fighting you, least of all me. Your mere existence has earned my loyalty."
Amakusa chuckled, but his smile died eventually as he tightened his grip on his bloody sword's handle. By instinct, he moved to place his weapon back into its scabbard before remembering a second later that the Myojin brat had already destroyed its custom-made, bladed sheath.
"Were you... fond of those two strangers? You certainly didn't look like you were only pretending to grieve when I finished off the big one."
Minoe fidgeted as he searched for the right words to say.
"Did they also earn your loyalty by merely existing as well?" Amakusa specified.
Minoe blubbered, "Have I not proven my loyalty to you by infiltrating the Togakudan's ranks? By providing you with all the information you needed to take down Oyakata-dono-chi's army of policemen? After all the spies were... finished off to keep them from mobilizing those police squads any further?"
"..." Shogo intimated as he looked away.
"Don't misunderstand, Amakusa-chi." The eye-patched man inhaled and exhaled to calm himself. "I would never betray you, if only for Kaede-chi's sake."
Amakusa reassured, "Ah, no. I'm sorry that I didn't make myself clear. I'm not accusing you of betrayal. I appreciate your trust, and I'm willing to give you my trust in return. I was merely curious about your relationship with those people you've met outside of the Togakudan."
Nevertheless, Shogo inwardly acknowledged to himself that he was quite used to the eventuality of betrayal. He'd been betrayed many times during his lifetime, and even Doraku himself... Minoe's master and former caretaker... was a traitor to most anyone he'd ever served. Those who were truly loyal to the charismatic leader had a tendency to die as well.
"I misspoke. Don't take any of my suspicions personally. There are times when even I tend to betray myself. It can't be helped," the Kakure Kirishitan said, which again rendered Minoe speechless.
"Was that another quote from your bible?" Munenori asked without irony, his hand rubbing his jaw as his lone eye's iris moved to the left while he contemplated Shogo's words. "How does one betray oneself exactly?"
In spite of himself and the gravity of the situation, Shogo cleared his throat in embarrassment. "What I meant to say was... I'm sorry for endangering the people you've come to care for within this mansion. That's the tricky part about being a double agent. If you become too attached with your fake identity, you can turn into your mask. Don't forget why we're here."
Minoe bit his lip. "Thank you, Amakusa-sama. I mean, Amakusa-chi. You're right. I must think of the bigger picture." Doraku Akatsuki's number-one disciple saluted the smiling, pink-faced Amakusa.
"Gan-chi is as much of an important person to me as all those criminals that died back in the East Valley were to others. They too had parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, friends, and people who cared for them."
From a distance, the sound of thumping wood echoed inside the mansion. Did the policemen Amakusa had trapped inside their munitions room already escape the rubble and debris surrounding them? Was this noise the thunderous clunks of the Ten Ken's feared Shukuchi?
Minoe should stop being so paranoid. Of course it wasn't the Reduced Earth. Didn't Morinaga successfully get the Akahori girl back? When the Togakudan double agent regained consciousness, Rin Akahori was already delivered unto his arms.
Munenori continued. "A life is a life. I shouldn't discriminate because I got to know Gan-chi better than the terrorists and spies that Kaede-chi massacred. The burden of taking human lives is a responsibility I'm prepared to bear."
Next: Consequences will never be the same.
In regards to the mention of the Singapore Cane, it's a rattan cane resembling the shinai that was once used against American Michael P. Fay on May 5, 1994 as punishment for his vandalism in Singaporean soil, which sparked a minor diplomatic conflict between the United States and Singapore. It also led to the shinai being called a Singapore Cane as well in the West, particularly during professional wrestling matches.
Open your eyes,
Abdiel
