Chapter Twelve: Desperate Measures

As per usual, I wordlessly handed off the latest stack of messages to Chiyome. Also, as per usual, she ignored me in favor of sorting reports into various piles. At her elbow was a metal tipped pipe, which looked like it could double as a weapon, so I was inclined to be happy with the entire ignoring situation.

I started to leave the stuffy, tobacco scented room, then hesitated, a question stuck between my brain and my mouth. I had, apparently, angered Shingen more than I had initially believed. Why, I wasn't entirely sure. Was she even the right person to consult? Chiyome likely knew Shingen better than anyone in the castle, and thus had the added benefit of being outside of the normal grapevine. But she intimidated me more than nearly everyone except Kenshin.

While I mentally debated, I idly watched the smoke curl from the pipe, rising until it hit the ceiling to swirl in the faint bit of fresh air coming from the window. Though "fresh" was a matter for debate as well. It had been thick and humid all week, threatening to storm without following through. I glanced back at Chiyome, busy at her desk. No, maybe not. I edged back a step.

"Out with it, boy. You're making me dizzy with your back and forth." To my knowledge she hadn't looked at me enough to be made dizzy, but… details. Her brusque tone convinced me that it wouldn't be worth appealing to her for ways to restore my friendship with Shingen. I would likely come across sounding like a lovesick teenager. Which, I wasn't.

But I did have another issue she might be helpful with. I pulled out the arrow I had been carrying around all week. "Would you know of any smiths who-"

"Waste of time." She paused to take a long draw on the pipe. "Did Shingen ask you to trace that?"

"Er. No. He's, uh, d-d-displeased with me right now, so I thought…" I trailed off when she started laughing.

"That would be a waste of time too. Anything else?" Her tone suggested that if it was something that she would also consider a waste of time, then I would be unable to waste her time ever again.

"No. Thank you." I bowed, then hurried out, not in the mood to press my luck to the point of another knife to the throat situation.

Waste of time was the story of my whole afternoon. The only upside was that Shingen was unlikely to ask me what I'd been doing with myself this week. While Shingen had gotten over his mysterious (and in my opinion unwarranted) acute flare of temper, he had been distant to me all week, rarely requiring me to do anything more than deliver the daily correspondence. He had also stopped tossing me the puzzle to solve, which was more of a minor annoyance as I hadn't managed yet to put it back together… and I knew I could put it back together if I had more time.

That had left me at loose ends, but never one to be idle, I had started personally investigating the source of the arrow. Unfortunately, so far, all I knew, after visiting every blacksmith in an ever widening circle around Kasugayama, was that no one in the area had made the arrowhead. Showing the arrow to Chiyome had been more of a conversational punt, and I didn't agree that looking was a waste of time. It was possible that the same party that had hired the sniper who attacked Shingen's group last month had also hired the archer. If so, they probably had acquired the arrow in Azuchi, with the object of pointing blame to Nobunaga. But to confirm that, I would need to find another arrow to use as a comparison. Azuchi was too far away for that to be an afternoon, or even an all-day task. I'd likely be gone close to a week.

Meanwhile Mai seemed oblivious to the continued danger. Yoshimoto and I had, without discussing it, decided to stick close to her in case another attempt was made on her life. Instead of being careful, Mai continued to act as if nothing was wrong. Instead, she had decided to play matchmaker and was determined to convince me to reprise my "Moon Goddess" persona.

"You are aware that he goes to the lake nightly to see if she's returned, right?" She asked as she giggled into a cup of sake. I'd been about to leave the evening banquet, since someone would need to have a death wish to attack her while Kenshin was in attendance. But Mai had me semi cornered.

"I was not aware of this," I said. With Shingen freezing me out (not that he and I had ever really discussed his Moon Goddess anyway), any information I got these days had to come from the castle grapevine. Which, usually, was a somewhat decent source. Maybe my mind was having trouble keeping everything in and sorted out these days.

In fact, I wasn't even giving my conversation with Mai full attention. The back of my neck was prickling, as if it were receiving a message of doom. Again, that sensation of being watched. I looked around, but I couldn't detect any individual threat in the clump of vassals and soldiers. Everyone seemed content with their own conversations, and while some of them seemed impassioned, there was a friendliness behind that passion. Except…. for… Kenshin. Though he was chatting with a man whose back was to me, his focus was on Mai and me. Maybe that was what I felt.

I tuned back in to Mai's chatter. "You should go. As her," she said. "You two would be cute together."

It would have been more like, us three: Shingen, Katsu, and Katsuko, and I couldn't handle the confusion of being two sides in a love triangle … then I recalled Sasuke's joke about an acute angle, which prompted me to ask, "Where's Sasuke these days? I haven't seen him around."

Yep. Scatterbrained.

"Kenshin's been sending him out a lot lately. Stop changing the subject. Where's the harm in having some fun?" She glanced over to Kenshin and licked her lips.

She didn't understand how precarious my position here was. Yes, it might be fun, if this were a different world, or a different time. No. It wouldn't be fun. Not in any world. What are you thinking Katsuko? Not fun. Not safe. Not worth the risk. "First of all, it's too complicated for me as it is. Secondly, I'm sure he'll forget about the 'Moon Goddess' in another week or so… as soon as someone else catches his attention."

Mai waved her hand at me. "Pffft. If he was gonna forget about her, he would have already done so."

Logic wasn't doing the trick. I responded in a language she would understand. "Ok, well, there's also the fact that the only women's clothes I have with me are what I wear when I'm a maid, so even if I were to ignore the first and the second issues, I'm too vain to ignore them in an ugly brown cotton kimono." I like plain clothing, but the maid uniform that Fume required me to wear was about the most unattractive garment in the country.

"Ah ha! You have forgotten that you're talking to a des-seamstress."

"What are you talking about so intensely?" Kenshin appeared and sat down between Mai and me with a back-off death-glare in my direction. His hand was holding the hilt of his sword so tightly that his knuckles were white.

Alright Fifty Shades, chill out. "Clothes."

"Clothes?" He pulled Mai onto his lap, encircled her in his arms, and I felt claustrophobic just looking at the two of them.

"Oh yes, I'm almost finished with the rest of your order," Mai said in a rush of words that sounded like a prevarication, even though I knew it was the truth. "Although you should consider getting that additional item I mentioned."

"I'll give it some thought." I pictured myself in a cute kimono. Still nope. I pictured myself being cute in a femininely cute kimono. Still nope. There. Thought about it. Now done.

Kenshin continued to eye me suspiciously. It hadn't helped that Mai's nervous response had sounded suspicious to me as well. She was such a terrible liar that even when her words were plausible, she still sounded like she was telling the biggest whopper on the planet. In any case, Kenshin's kill-you-with-my-mind skills were clearly better than mine, so I excused myself while I still could, and headed to my room.

The following afternoon, once I had delivered the stack of messages Shingen had wordlessly handed off, desperation had not only set in, it had built an entire house. There was the issue of the two assassination attempts – whether or not they were connected, I had discovered little information on either one. I wished that Aki were around – maybe he would have been able to point me to a worthwhile direction. He had warned me he was going to be unavailable for a while, and I was used to his frequent absences in my life. But he'd never gone dark while we were in the middle of something, and he'd never disappeared for quite so long.

Honestly, I was feeling adrift. Old boss – disappeared. New boss – not exactly speaking to me.

After wandering past Shingen's favorite teahouse, I even paused and considered purchasing some apology sweets for him. Should I apologize to him? I hadn't done anything wrong, and it bothered me that I was considering making reparation for… nothing. Of course, given the number of deceptions I was engaged in that I couldn't apologize for, I ought to at least make this thing right to even the karmic scales. Except, I kept returning to the fact that I'd be apologizing when I wasn't truly contrite. I was sorry that my actions had (inexplicably) scared him, but I would not have behaved otherwise, even had I known it would upset him.

On the other hand, I missed talking with him and if bringing him a basket of dumplings would re-establish our friendship, then a small lie would be a justifiable cost.

I hesitated in front of the Tea House for a long moment, caught in indecision, when I saw the man that now I was certain was Kyubei. So he was here, after all. Why though? And if he was here, maybe he might be able to identify the arrow. But unlike the 'to apologize or not to apologize' soliloquy in my head, I could take action on this situation.

Just in time, I stopped myself from calling out to him. That would be the worst way to attract the wrong kind of attention. Instead, I followed Kyubei at a safe distance, until he went into an Inn. But which room was his? For that matter, what name he was using? A Kasugayama messenger would be too noticeable a visitor. For the first time, I was glad that plain brown housemaid's kimono was with me after all. Katsu might not be able to sneak into the Inn…

…but "Kaya" could. A maid could slip in and out of rooms without anyone being suspicious. Dressed as a maid, with the arrow stuffed casually in the back of my obi, and carrying a broom and pan, I went from room to room. Some were clearly unoccupied, some were obviously occupied by people who were not Kyubei, so by process of elimination, the last room ought to be it (if he hadn't already left town).

My search had already taken a while, and by the time I reached the final room, the sun had set. The room was dark enough for me to wish I had thought to bring a lantern.

I stepped inside the door, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark when two things happened. A lantern was unshuttered, shining directly into my eyes. And I heard the sound of a flint lighting the cord of a matchlock musket. I froze.

A cool voice came from a point somewhere behind the lantern. "I take it you know what this is, and what will happen if I fire it."

I nodded. Aki had taught me how to shoot a musket, but since I could shoot ten arrows in the time it took me to load one musketball, I chose not to bother with one.

"Good. I will use this if I don't like your answers to these questions." The man's voice was icy. "Who are you, why are in you my room, and who sent you?" With the lantern still shining in my eyes, I couldn't see who I was talking to, but that was not Kyubei's voice.

Slumping into the posture of cringing maid – I didn't need to pretend to be fearful – I lifted the broom and pan to indicate I had been sent to clean the room.

"I might believe that if I hadn't told the proprietor not to send any servants to clean my room." Again that dry voice from behind the light, like a jaded theater director dashing the hopes of an auditionee.

"I'm sorry, my lord, she did not mention that to me." Which, clearly was true, since I hadn't talked to her. But my awareness that the proprietor was female should at least give me some authenticity points. "My apologies for disturbing you."

I gave a low bow, and hoped I would be able to back out of the room.

"Do not move."

Not moving.

My interrogator set aside the lantern, positioning it so that I could see better. He had silver hair, amber eyes, impeccable cheekbones and was wearing an expression that convinced me he could and would kill me without remorse. "Do I need to ask again?"

I shook my head. "I-I was looking for someone, but you are not he."

He stepped closer, and with one finger he lifted my chin to look into my eyes. "Interesting. I rather believe that was the truth."

I decided to keep my mouth shut until prompted for more.

"And do you know who it is you have found?" He didn't give an evil laugh or rub his hands together like a cartoon villain, and yet I had the impression that he wanted me to think of him in just that way. I was half-convinced he was trolling me. Dude, Kenshin kills me every morning. I'm not going to pass out the vague insinuation of a threat.

Although I would feel better if he would take the match cord out of the musket.

"No, I don-" I paused, realizing that when he stepped forward, he revealed a table behind him contained a Shogi board. "I don't know, but I have a guess."

Silver hair, a shogi set, and in a room where I had expected to find Kyubei. This had to be Nobunaga's left hand man… Mitsuhide.