Ekobean: So here's the second to last chapter. (exciting author note, eh?)

Midnight Flight chapter 6

Rioichi's shoulder had stopped bleeding for the most part. He had bound it thoroughly with a piece of his cloak that he'd ripped off. The blood-soaked fabric felt warm and wet, and made Rioichi feel sick to some extent, but he shut it out as best he could. He was focusing on only one thing: The daimyo.

The winding, wooden staircase was shorter than the previous two. Rioichi didn't bother with stealth as he had previously, Masaiya obviously knew that Rioichi had survived, or else he wouldn't have pushed the block down.

The staircase ended abruptly at an empty door frame. The room beyond was small and resembled the insides of storage shacks. This mildly surprised Rioichi. Daimyos usually lived a life of luxury, yet Masaiya was living in a ramshackle room lined with small burning candles and weapons. Large, square rafters were wedged between the walls of the hut only fifteen feet above his head.

Rioichi had stolen from the daimyo many times before. The surroundings had been fine and polished, worthy of the kings out to the west. But those had been in the daimyo's smaller palaces, ones that he would stay in while traveling. This was his main palace, and it barely made sense that he would live in such crude surroundings.

One thing immediately caught Rioichi's eye as he entered the room. Several candles burned about a small golden stand that stood at the end of the room. Upon the stand sat the leather bound book of the Cooper clan, the Thievius Raccoonus.

Rioichi looked around cautiously, and then applied the invisibility technique. Slowly, ever so slowly he tiptoed toward the book. Sweat soaked his brow, his hands were almost too slippery to hold his quivering canes. Half way across the room, Rioichi stopped.

A drawling, wavy voice penetrated the stillness of the air. "Ah, at last you have made it, Rioichi-san. You may show yourself, raccoon. I already know you are there."

Rioichi sighed and allowed himself to appear. The voice was coming from the rafters. On the rafter right above the Thievius Raccoonus was a small, shadowy figure. It was wrapped in a dark robe, making it nearly impossible to see. Had Rioichi been more patient, he would have spotted it in the first place.

The shape began to move, and it flipped down from the rafters and landed gracefully on its feet. A long, red tail waved lazily out behind the long robes. "It is nice to see you again, Masaiya-sama," Rioichi hissed acidly.

"I must say, Rioichi-san, that I expected more from you. You usually make off with all of my other treasures without a scratch. Why so different this time? Is it because the usual case has been reversed? That it is I that has stolen from you?"

"Why did you take the book, weasel? Of all the things you could have taken from my hideout, you took the one thing that I care about!"

"Because I wanted to show you what it is like to have something dear to you snatched away."

"What is this, daimyo? Revenge? Did you take the book because, shall we say, I hurt you so you're hurting me back? I never thought you could be so childish."

"Embarrassing as it is, that was my original intention. When my guards saw your tail slip into the hollow of the park tree, I saw an opportunity. When it was confirmed that you were away, I made my move. I must say that you possess quite the collection of treasures raccoon. I had my pick, I could have taken any of them. But I wanted to take something that would strike a nerve, that would drive you to the brink of madness. And that's when I found your precious Thievius Raccoonus.

"I had heard tales of the great book, handed down for generations by the Cooper clan. And that's when a new idea crept into my mind. Show the world that without the book, the Coopers were not as great as everyone else made them out to be. I believe," Masaiya gestured with his hand toward the Thievius Raccoonus, "that without this book, the Cooper line is next to nothing."

"That is not true," replied Rioichi in an almost sagely manner, "the Thievius Raccoonus does not create great thieves, great thieves create the Thievius Raccoonus."

"Ah yes, of course," chuckled the daimyo, "but you must admit that the book does help. Reading the book made that quite clear to me."

"You read it!?" Rioichi cried out.

"Of course I did you fool! How could I not? All the techniques, the power, the skills of the ancient Cooper family in my hands? Of course I read it! And now that I have, I also have come to realize the full opportunity I have here. Imagine it, raccoon, an army of samurai, all whose eyes have traveled across the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, all with this power. Why, with that power, we could overtake the world! And to think that your family has so selfishly kept it to themselves for centuries!"

"I will not allow you to do that!" exclaimed Rioichi, instantly drawing his canes from his back.

"You challenge me?" cried Masaiya boastfully. The daimyo reached back and drew one long, shining katana from his back, and then threw his robe aside. His body was thin and wiry. His needle sharp teeth were born. Without a second warning the daimyo dashed at Rioichi.