Ties of Loyalty
By The Unseen Watcher
Standard disclaimer. Sorry for the shortness of this chapter.
Chapter 2
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In a forest outside the city of Kyoto,
several figures crouched on the lip of a ledge, futility trying to pierce through
the darkness and distance with their vision to see to the foot of the waterfall
below.
Damn! We lost him. Did you have to shoot him off a cliff Schmidt? How
the hell are we going to collect our prize if it's under several feet of spraying
water?! One demanded irritably to another.
Schmidt gazed back coolly at his partner. Dead eyes chilled the quick temper of
the speaker, who grudgingly backed off. The named marksman smiled,
the expression without humor or life.
My job is to shoot, so I did. That was why you backed off in the first
place, is that no so Herr Schuster? he
answered in his whispery voice.
They locked stares until another voice cut in, sounding disgusted. #Jeez, guys. Can't you speak a civilized language? I thought
I told you to stop the throat noises already.#
The new speaker had the sense to step back as two glares switched to him. He
sweated slightly, but he managed to sneer back.
#German is THE civilized tongue, Herr Smith. It is your English that ve have to twist our mouths around.#
Schuster said haughtily.
#Linguistics isn't the important topic here. What is of consequence is what
happened to our quarry.# A fourth voice cut in
smoothly, his accent more refined than the third. #We
need to descend to the base of this natural phenomenon in order to ascertain
his whereabouts. #
His comments were met by a trio of blank looks and he sighed. #We need to go to the bottom of the waterfall to look for him.
# He explained patiently. The confusion cleared.
#I swear that ain't English. # Smith muttered as they
turned to their guides. #Hey there! Hiroshi
old buddy. You're supposed to know this place. Where do we go from here?
#
*
Masato Hiroshi smiled ingratiatingly, the slight rigidity of it lost on his
foreign employers. His boss, the leader of the biggest yakuza organization in
Kyoto, had told him to take good care of these strange men, along with their
seemingly bottomless wallets. He silently cursed his luck for getting this
assignment. He should never have learned that awful language.
Hiroshi had already lost a dozen men in a matter of minutes. Their target was
supposed to be drugged and disoriented. This was supposed to be easy.
When these men had come to the boss asking about strong Japanese fighters they
could take on, even the hardened yakuza boss had been put off by their strange
request. Then they'd started flashing gold and promises. It hadn't taken him
long to come around.
The problem had been that there weren't that many warriors of note left around.
Most had been killed in war or long ago retired their swords. There were some
rumors that the Battousai himself had been spotted in
Tokyo, but few believed them.
Then one of his subordinates, a useless bum that was more often drunk than
sober, had mentioned that he had seen a swordsman frequent one of the better
sake shops. He'd noticed the sword under the big cape and asked the storeowner,
after the guy had left, if he was any good . . .
"The besht, he shaid
boss, he shaid he was the besht.
He shertainly was a big one. I wouldn't wanna get inna fight with that
guy." He had slurred, grinning with what was left of his teeth after a
lifetime of self-abuse.
He didn't mention, because he hadn't been coherent enough to notice, that the
sake proprietor had been backing away in disgust from the ripe-smelling slob,
before booting him out for attempted shoplifting.
Despite the dubious source of the info, the foreigners had been interested when
the babble was translated. They got even more so when they caught their first
sight of the large form of the kenjutsu master. He
towered over the tallest of them, which was pretty high by Hiroshi's standards.
They'd eagerly made arrangements for guides.
The trouble started when they discovered that they couldn't get within sight of
their prey without him noticing them. They couldn't even scout out the area for
fear he'd detect their presence. This only encouraged the alien men, but it
chilled Hiroshi's blood. Someone that good would not be easy to take down. The
element of surprise was crucial, and they didn't even have that.
When he'd tried to explain it to his new employers, they'd conferred and come
up with their present plan. They'd learned he liked to drink. Well then, drug
the drink. The one who talked in big words all the time, Spenculu-san,
had guaranteed that it would be undetectable from the rest of the sake.
That's when Hiroshi had realized that they weren't simply going to challenge
the man. They were going to hunt him. Not above using nasty tricks in his
behind the law dealings, even His stomach twisted at the idea of hunting a man
like some sport animal. It was like some tale of a Shogun's eccentricities out
of an Edo era tale.
They'd had to drug an entire shipment in order to make sure their target got at
least one of them, but figured most wouldn't notice. An average man, Spencer
had assured them, would only seem to get drunk more rapidly than normal.
Someone who needed to move quickly, however, would run into problems.
So why hadn't this man?
He'd moved with a speed that had been hard to follow at times. If he was slowed
down at all by the drug, Hiroshi hadn't noticed it. The only reason he was
alive now was because he'd hung back to watch.
The idea of meeting up with him, especially after the drug's debilitating
effects wore off, did not appeal to the nervous yakuza in the slightest.
But back to the problem at hand. #Ah,
sirs, the path is this way. It will be hard to see in the dark, so be careful.
Should we not wait till day?# He asked hopefully.
The one called Schmidt shook his head. #Too good. Go
now while drug work.# He said in broken English, his
expression leaving no room for argument. Hiroshi nodded glumly and led the way.
He'd been afraid they'd say something like that. One of the men he brought, an
old member of the yakuza, was muttering under his breath. Hiroshi hissed for
silence. He couldn't wait for all of this to be over so he could get back to
civilization.
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