Things Fall Apart
Smoke coiled from their mutual cigarettes and blended somewhere in the air between the two of them. "I'm not saying you're wrong," Kenren said, not for the first time that evening. "I'm saying where do we go from here?"
Tenpou took a sip from his cup of wine. His hair, neglected again, hung in thick folds around his face, lank in the lamplight. "That's a little awkward. We didn't start this as an attempt to make ourselves some kind of rivals in power to Litouten . . ."
"Damn right we didn't," Kenren cut in.
". . . and it does seem to have worked, to some extent. Homura is now established as Toushin Taishi. Nataku is no longer the -- weapon -- that he once was. We've made progress." He refilled his cup, then Kenren's.
Kenren took advantage of the pause. "So what now?"
"We should perhaps be making preparations for some retaliation. I'm sure that Litouten would find matters much simpler without Homura as part of the equation."
"Well, yeah." Kenren waved a hand vaguely. "But it's not as if he can kill the kid, is it? And he's got no plausible reason to have Nataku do anything. Homura's in high good odour with the Imperial Presence. Killed youkai, upheld Imperial Honour, blah blah blah. So okay, maybe we've weakened his position a bit, but there's not much he can do back at us, short of, you know, one of us having an accident and falling out of a window on the twentieth floor with a dozen daggers in the back."
"Mm. Yes." Tenpou watched the glowing end of his cigarette. "At least Konzen's safe from that. Litouten's not going to go after the Bodhisattva's nephew and make an enemy in that direction."
"Marshal..."
"Yes?"
"About the Bodhisattva."
"Mm?"
"Would she -- he -- whatever, is there a chance she might do something about the current situation? Thought she was supposed to be merciful."
Tenpou considered. "I don't know. I can't predict which way se would jump, so to speak. The Bodhisattvas seem to act on more, I don't know -- divine? -- priorities than the rest of us. The rest of them don't seem to get involved in anything at all. Kanzeon Bosatsu's a wild card."
Kenren smirked. The alcohol was buzzing in him now, sparking reactions, linking thought to thought in a dazzling chain of brilliance. "You hate that, don't you, Marshal? Not knowing which way people are going to jump?"
Tenpou drew himself up straight and adjusted his glasses. "Sometimes they surprise me."
"Yeah, well. Don't sweat it." Kenren refilled both their cups. "Look, what about that idea you had earlier, that Litouten was behind some of the youkai breakouts which Nataku went to deal with? If you can get some kind of proof of that, would that help?"
"Possibly, but the problem is getting that proof. All the aristocratic youkai who were involved are dead or bound by now, and I don't think Heaven's going to take the testimony of commoners."
"Assuming commmoners knew anything," Kenren said glumly. "Okay. Try it the other way. Litouten can't have been running down round there himself. Mister high-and-mighty Great Minister get his robes mucky Down Below? Not likely."
Tenpou looked interested by this train of thought. "You're suggesting he had an agent to do it for him. To make contact with the youkai and incite rebellion."
"Well, he'd have had to, wouldn't he?"
"Mm." Tenpou stared blankly at nothing in particular. "I admit I've considered that question too, and there are several possible candidates for such a go-between. On the other hand, Litouten undoubtedly pays well, and any agent of his would have reasons to fear an assisted suicide if he tried to betray his master. We'd either have to pay better, or . . ." He trailed off, and gestured vaguely with his cigarette. "Other options would be preferable."
Kenren thought about where that sentence had been going. The thought went past the words, and he remembered stairs, and stone walls, and broken ribs, and the cut of the whip. He looked at Tenpou. The other man's eyes were dark stones behind the glass of his spectacles, ungiving, unforgiving.
I don't want him to be the man who'd do that --
"Yeah. Something else would be preferable," he agreed.
"And he probably doesn't keep records, either," Tenpou said regretfully. "A pity. Documentation in his own hand would be such a useful thing to have."
"Keep on thinking." Kenren lit a new cigarette from the stub of the old one. "We've got all night to talk about it."
"Yes, I heard you telling the junior officers that you were -- what was it -- "taking the Marshal out on a bender..." Really, General, this does nothing for your reputation."
"Leaves you squeaky clean," Kenren said unrepentantly. "I'm the rebel round here. Dragging you into trouble. I don't know why you put up with me."
Tenpou smiled, and his face warmed again from the previous coldness. "I'm sure there are reasons."
"Like I know all the places in Heaven you can get decent wine."
"Mhn. That too."
---
Later they went to look for another bar which Kenren swore he remembered from two years ago. The moon was huge and pale in the sky, as white as cherry blossoms, and the air was still and hushed. Not that it was a bar as such, Kenren explained in between swigs from the jug at his waist, just a place for people who liked to play cards and talk a bit, and if occasionally money transmigrated into the pocket of the guy who owned the house, that was just one of those things that happened, wasn't it?
Tenpou was too busy lighting his latest cigarette to reply at first, which was why he noticed the change in the quality of light from the street down to their left, and his first thought was, How curious, you would think that several people down there just moved to block the light, which would mean that they are coming this way, and his second thought was, Why should there be several people out here close to us taking pains to move quietly, and his third thought was, If I look behind me now and am seen doing it, they will realise they've been spotted, and will move in on us.
Kenren's head tilted. The other man's shoulders tensed. One notch. Two. "Marshal," his General said, "I left my cigarettes back at the other bar. Want to step back and fetch them?"
"Only if you're coming with me," Tenpou said casually.
The footsteps were audible now, both from ahead of them, and from somewhere behind. I underestimated Litouten. I didn't think he'd try anything this blatant.
A theatrical cough came from behind them. Kenren turned first, the skirts of his coat swinging out, and Tenpou a moment later, more delicately, one hand raised to adjust his glasses.
Yes. Tenpou recognised the man. His name was Zenon, and he was in Litouten's service. There was some sort of scandal about him, something to do with his frequent trips to Earth. Wonderful, I was looking for an agent and now I find one. Zenon had his gun slung casually across his back, one hand hovering near its butt as though he yearned to touch it. His single visible eye glittered in the moonlight.
"You got a problem?" Kenren asked.
"No, General. It's you and the Marshal who've got the problem." Zenon's lips came together in a thin, bitter line.
Tenpou wrapped authority around himself like a cloak. "Excuse me, Zenon-san, but it is not your place to inform us what we may or may not do."
"Funny thing, that." Zenon's hand twitched, hungry for the butt of his gun. "You see, Marshal, I've got this warrant here from the Great Minister for your arrest. Both of you. Now, see, I think that gives me all the authority and position that I could ever fucking need, right here and now."
And you've got a weapon and your men will be armed as well. Tenpou had to spare a moment of what would almost have been admiration for Litouten, if it hadn't been so flavoured with disgust. Who'd think of carrying weapons casually in Heaven, where nobody kills and nobody dies? Who'd think it was necessary?
"You can't just fucking arrest us," Kenren snarled. "Litouten can't do that. Because first, right, the army isn't under his jurisdiction that way, and second, because the Marshal here," he gestured with a thumb back towards Tenpou, "ranks Litouten, just like he ranks you, Zenon."
Zenon shook his head, and laughed. "You don't get it. You two are under arrest. Period. The Great Minister says so, and what he says goes, and that's all there is to it."
There were men in front of them by now, and men behind them, and they would all be loyal to Litouten -- who else, after all, would be sent out on a mission like this? -- and nobody would be coming out of the houses around them to investigate strange sounds by night, and who would have thought that this sort of audacity would be possible in Heaven? Through the clear swell of fury which moved through his mind, Tenpou thought, I warned Homura, but I should have taken more care for myself. Stupid. Stupid.
Kenren and Zenon were watching each other like wolves preparing to go for the throat.
Very softly, Zenon said, "Give me an excuse. Just give me an excuse, General."
. . . I let one of my men die . . .
"We are prepared to discuss the matter with the Great Minister," Tenpou said flatly. "Stand down, General."
Kenren flicked a glance back over his shoulder at Tenpou. "You sure about this, Marshal?" His tone was casual, but Tenpou knew what wasn't being said. You get out while I distract them.
"As before, General, you're underestimating the situation." Tenpou spun factors in his head. How long before somebody noticed they were gone, and started to look for them? How long before Goujun had a matter which he wanted to take up with him or Kenren, and found them gone? Or before Konzen or Homura made enough fuss to launch an investigation? Litouten might have the power to keep them under private arrest for a day or two, but by then Goujun -- or Konzen, or maybe even Kanzeon Bosatsu -- could pull rank and arrange some way to get them out. What was more worrying was what might occur in their absence. Homura alone, and Konzen, and Gokuu, and . . . No. Handle the matter as it was, get what leverage they could, keep Zenon off balance if possible. He smiled, and tasted his own rage. "Who are we to argue if the Great Minister sends such a polite request for us to come and discuss matters with him?"
Zenon's face was tight with aggression, lips drawn back in a snarl. "Yeah. That's a sensible attitude, Marshal. Real sensible. Might have expected it of someone like you. Now, the General's more the aggressive type, so it's a good thing you're here to talk your -- General out of it. Right?"
He wants me to attack. In the same moment, absolute and precise, Strike him down and Shall I let myself be provoked by so small a man? and He repeats words with no understanding, what insult to me is there in this? Yet something must have shown in Tenpou's eyes for that moment, for Zenon's hand flinched towards the butt of his gun as though he had seen a cobra spread its hood and rear in front of him.
"We are coming," Tenpou said mildly, conscious of Kenren's fury beside him, the guards spread around them, the silence of Heaven beyond that.
"Yeah." Zenon took a deep gulping breath. "Yeah. But I think I want to feel secure about this. Put the shackles on them."
---
Smoke coiled from their mutual cigarettes and blended somewhere in the air between the two of them. "I'm not saying you're wrong," Kenren said, not for the first time that evening. "I'm saying where do we go from here?"
Tenpou took a sip from his cup of wine. His hair, neglected again, hung in thick folds around his face, lank in the lamplight. "That's a little awkward. We didn't start this as an attempt to make ourselves some kind of rivals in power to Litouten . . ."
"Damn right we didn't," Kenren cut in.
". . . and it does seem to have worked, to some extent. Homura is now established as Toushin Taishi. Nataku is no longer the -- weapon -- that he once was. We've made progress." He refilled his cup, then Kenren's.
Kenren took advantage of the pause. "So what now?"
"We should perhaps be making preparations for some retaliation. I'm sure that Litouten would find matters much simpler without Homura as part of the equation."
"Well, yeah." Kenren waved a hand vaguely. "But it's not as if he can kill the kid, is it? And he's got no plausible reason to have Nataku do anything. Homura's in high good odour with the Imperial Presence. Killed youkai, upheld Imperial Honour, blah blah blah. So okay, maybe we've weakened his position a bit, but there's not much he can do back at us, short of, you know, one of us having an accident and falling out of a window on the twentieth floor with a dozen daggers in the back."
"Mm. Yes." Tenpou watched the glowing end of his cigarette. "At least Konzen's safe from that. Litouten's not going to go after the Bodhisattva's nephew and make an enemy in that direction."
"Marshal..."
"Yes?"
"About the Bodhisattva."
"Mm?"
"Would she -- he -- whatever, is there a chance she might do something about the current situation? Thought she was supposed to be merciful."
Tenpou considered. "I don't know. I can't predict which way se would jump, so to speak. The Bodhisattvas seem to act on more, I don't know -- divine? -- priorities than the rest of us. The rest of them don't seem to get involved in anything at all. Kanzeon Bosatsu's a wild card."
Kenren smirked. The alcohol was buzzing in him now, sparking reactions, linking thought to thought in a dazzling chain of brilliance. "You hate that, don't you, Marshal? Not knowing which way people are going to jump?"
Tenpou drew himself up straight and adjusted his glasses. "Sometimes they surprise me."
"Yeah, well. Don't sweat it." Kenren refilled both their cups. "Look, what about that idea you had earlier, that Litouten was behind some of the youkai breakouts which Nataku went to deal with? If you can get some kind of proof of that, would that help?"
"Possibly, but the problem is getting that proof. All the aristocratic youkai who were involved are dead or bound by now, and I don't think Heaven's going to take the testimony of commoners."
"Assuming commmoners knew anything," Kenren said glumly. "Okay. Try it the other way. Litouten can't have been running down round there himself. Mister high-and-mighty Great Minister get his robes mucky Down Below? Not likely."
Tenpou looked interested by this train of thought. "You're suggesting he had an agent to do it for him. To make contact with the youkai and incite rebellion."
"Well, he'd have had to, wouldn't he?"
"Mm." Tenpou stared blankly at nothing in particular. "I admit I've considered that question too, and there are several possible candidates for such a go-between. On the other hand, Litouten undoubtedly pays well, and any agent of his would have reasons to fear an assisted suicide if he tried to betray his master. We'd either have to pay better, or . . ." He trailed off, and gestured vaguely with his cigarette. "Other options would be preferable."
Kenren thought about where that sentence had been going. The thought went past the words, and he remembered stairs, and stone walls, and broken ribs, and the cut of the whip. He looked at Tenpou. The other man's eyes were dark stones behind the glass of his spectacles, ungiving, unforgiving.
I don't want him to be the man who'd do that --
"Yeah. Something else would be preferable," he agreed.
"And he probably doesn't keep records, either," Tenpou said regretfully. "A pity. Documentation in his own hand would be such a useful thing to have."
"Keep on thinking." Kenren lit a new cigarette from the stub of the old one. "We've got all night to talk about it."
"Yes, I heard you telling the junior officers that you were -- what was it -- "taking the Marshal out on a bender..." Really, General, this does nothing for your reputation."
"Leaves you squeaky clean," Kenren said unrepentantly. "I'm the rebel round here. Dragging you into trouble. I don't know why you put up with me."
Tenpou smiled, and his face warmed again from the previous coldness. "I'm sure there are reasons."
"Like I know all the places in Heaven you can get decent wine."
"Mhn. That too."
---
Later they went to look for another bar which Kenren swore he remembered from two years ago. The moon was huge and pale in the sky, as white as cherry blossoms, and the air was still and hushed. Not that it was a bar as such, Kenren explained in between swigs from the jug at his waist, just a place for people who liked to play cards and talk a bit, and if occasionally money transmigrated into the pocket of the guy who owned the house, that was just one of those things that happened, wasn't it?
Tenpou was too busy lighting his latest cigarette to reply at first, which was why he noticed the change in the quality of light from the street down to their left, and his first thought was, How curious, you would think that several people down there just moved to block the light, which would mean that they are coming this way, and his second thought was, Why should there be several people out here close to us taking pains to move quietly, and his third thought was, If I look behind me now and am seen doing it, they will realise they've been spotted, and will move in on us.
Kenren's head tilted. The other man's shoulders tensed. One notch. Two. "Marshal," his General said, "I left my cigarettes back at the other bar. Want to step back and fetch them?"
"Only if you're coming with me," Tenpou said casually.
The footsteps were audible now, both from ahead of them, and from somewhere behind. I underestimated Litouten. I didn't think he'd try anything this blatant.
A theatrical cough came from behind them. Kenren turned first, the skirts of his coat swinging out, and Tenpou a moment later, more delicately, one hand raised to adjust his glasses.
Yes. Tenpou recognised the man. His name was Zenon, and he was in Litouten's service. There was some sort of scandal about him, something to do with his frequent trips to Earth. Wonderful, I was looking for an agent and now I find one. Zenon had his gun slung casually across his back, one hand hovering near its butt as though he yearned to touch it. His single visible eye glittered in the moonlight.
"You got a problem?" Kenren asked.
"No, General. It's you and the Marshal who've got the problem." Zenon's lips came together in a thin, bitter line.
Tenpou wrapped authority around himself like a cloak. "Excuse me, Zenon-san, but it is not your place to inform us what we may or may not do."
"Funny thing, that." Zenon's hand twitched, hungry for the butt of his gun. "You see, Marshal, I've got this warrant here from the Great Minister for your arrest. Both of you. Now, see, I think that gives me all the authority and position that I could ever fucking need, right here and now."
And you've got a weapon and your men will be armed as well. Tenpou had to spare a moment of what would almost have been admiration for Litouten, if it hadn't been so flavoured with disgust. Who'd think of carrying weapons casually in Heaven, where nobody kills and nobody dies? Who'd think it was necessary?
"You can't just fucking arrest us," Kenren snarled. "Litouten can't do that. Because first, right, the army isn't under his jurisdiction that way, and second, because the Marshal here," he gestured with a thumb back towards Tenpou, "ranks Litouten, just like he ranks you, Zenon."
Zenon shook his head, and laughed. "You don't get it. You two are under arrest. Period. The Great Minister says so, and what he says goes, and that's all there is to it."
There were men in front of them by now, and men behind them, and they would all be loyal to Litouten -- who else, after all, would be sent out on a mission like this? -- and nobody would be coming out of the houses around them to investigate strange sounds by night, and who would have thought that this sort of audacity would be possible in Heaven? Through the clear swell of fury which moved through his mind, Tenpou thought, I warned Homura, but I should have taken more care for myself. Stupid. Stupid.
Kenren and Zenon were watching each other like wolves preparing to go for the throat.
Very softly, Zenon said, "Give me an excuse. Just give me an excuse, General."
. . . I let one of my men die . . .
"We are prepared to discuss the matter with the Great Minister," Tenpou said flatly. "Stand down, General."
Kenren flicked a glance back over his shoulder at Tenpou. "You sure about this, Marshal?" His tone was casual, but Tenpou knew what wasn't being said. You get out while I distract them.
"As before, General, you're underestimating the situation." Tenpou spun factors in his head. How long before somebody noticed they were gone, and started to look for them? How long before Goujun had a matter which he wanted to take up with him or Kenren, and found them gone? Or before Konzen or Homura made enough fuss to launch an investigation? Litouten might have the power to keep them under private arrest for a day or two, but by then Goujun -- or Konzen, or maybe even Kanzeon Bosatsu -- could pull rank and arrange some way to get them out. What was more worrying was what might occur in their absence. Homura alone, and Konzen, and Gokuu, and . . . No. Handle the matter as it was, get what leverage they could, keep Zenon off balance if possible. He smiled, and tasted his own rage. "Who are we to argue if the Great Minister sends such a polite request for us to come and discuss matters with him?"
Zenon's face was tight with aggression, lips drawn back in a snarl. "Yeah. That's a sensible attitude, Marshal. Real sensible. Might have expected it of someone like you. Now, the General's more the aggressive type, so it's a good thing you're here to talk your -- General out of it. Right?"
He wants me to attack. In the same moment, absolute and precise, Strike him down and Shall I let myself be provoked by so small a man? and He repeats words with no understanding, what insult to me is there in this? Yet something must have shown in Tenpou's eyes for that moment, for Zenon's hand flinched towards the butt of his gun as though he had seen a cobra spread its hood and rear in front of him.
"We are coming," Tenpou said mildly, conscious of Kenren's fury beside him, the guards spread around them, the silence of Heaven beyond that.
"Yeah." Zenon took a deep gulping breath. "Yeah. But I think I want to feel secure about this. Put the shackles on them."
---
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