The morning was already rising when the tired Yukemori finally released Mei from the empty secret room. Finally he had been able to convince the maid to leave, promising to take care of everything and close the room properly. How hard had it been to show his relaxed happy face to them all, knowing that it was the face of the Yukemori they knew. All the time his mind had been on Mei. While seeing the wu jen leave without any indication of Mei being hurt had eased his anxiety a little, he had been frantic all evening.
Mei was sitting in the darkness as if in trance, when the low light from Yukemori's lantern and the faint light of morning from the small windows illuminated her. She was hugging her knees but not shivering, staring somewhere beyond Ningen-do as the oyabun-sama did. Her face was very pale even beyond the normal golden-ethereal tone of it. Her eyes were like two deep black ponds, the infrequent sly mirth not softening the impression.
- "M-mei?" Yukemori's voice was soft and frightened. Already he could guess that she had not been at least entirely wrong about Giro.
She seemed to shake out of it a bit, acknowledging her friend with a focused look and a mirthless smile.
- "First I will tell you the good news, Yukemori-san," she said in an uncharacteristically flat and nuanceless voice. "You did not toss the die for nothing. My judgement was not erred. They do have wicked plans, and it was definitely warranted to spy on them."
She uttered a ghostly giggle that shortly died away.
- "Oh." Yukemori didn't know how to continue.
- "The problem though," Mei went on, "is that I do not know whatever in the name of all the oni we can do about it."
- "So what are they planning?" Yukemori wanted to know.
- "Giro," Mei said in that eerie, airy, indifferent tone again, "will awaken Kusatte Iru. It has been the cause of the tsunamis and storms, as the Water Magic School and the imperial spellcasters correctly suspected. But guess why the problems have ceased?"
- "Your disposition would suggest to me that it is not because of the valiant efforts of Sanitobi and the imperial ones," Yukemori said dryly.
Mei shook her head.
- "No. I could not see, of course, but Giro was talking about a 'magical conduit' of the others present, that had helped him and Yosuki to steer the beast towards the coast of Shou Lung. And they intend to fully awaken it, because... some gaijin who could prevent their plans is traveling to Kozakura. So that Kusatte Iru would kill him."
- "Yosuki?" Yukemori gasped. "As in THE Yosuki?"
- "Well, he didn't say. But it hardly can be anyone else. He called her 'the most skilled wu jen in the history of the empire'. Everybody knows that she is alive somewhere at the islands, of course... but now it seems that she has joined forces with Giro."
- "But why? Don't they realize that awakening Kusatte Iru could demolish everything for them as well as anyone else?"
Mei uttered that ghostly, chilling giggle again.
- "See, that is kind of the point. You know, to the point of tiresomeness there have been wicked ones challenging the power of the Celestial Ones, wanting to embrace part of it themselves. But Giro has nothing that minor on his mind. He wants Kozakura, and preferably Wa and Shou Lung as well, demolished. So that only raw magic and the elemental material arranged in the form of the lands would be left. When Kusatte Iru rips the Shou Lung coast apart, the carnage will ignite the First Oni's wrath, and he will finish all the life there is left of the empires of Kara-Tur."
Yukemori's heart beat too hard in his chest. He concentrated on breathing for a moment, then spoke.
- "This is... sheer madness, Mei! No matter their power, they will be destroyed in the process as well. They must realize that!" he said.
Mei shook her head.
- "See, it seems that Yosuki has arranged some sort of sanctuary for them, into Gaki-do. In the wicked realm of hungry ghosts! They will wait until the carnage is over, and create the world anew to fit themselves. I have always appreciated ambition, but..."
- "Stop, Mei. Don't go there. You have convinced me that your beliefs are just and honorable, and what you told me is nothing to make me change my mind. We must tell the emperor. Immediately! He and the shogun might yet be able to prevent this."
Mei sobbed and laughed at the same time.
- "I would urge you to consider the reality of Ningen-do for a second, Yukemori. A pretty little court woman, not a whore, but essentially the same. A fickle thing only fit for pleasure. A tanner's spawn and a yakuza, young newly made bakuto of Two Gates... and we go to tell that the most powerful ally in the area of arcane magics, the great Giro, is planning something like this. Especially as they think it is largely to his credit that the problems have ceased... no, they will execute us before believing."
Yukemori was silent for a long time, realizing that she was right.
- "Then," he said firmly, "we go to my oyabun."
