Chapter Twelve: Treacherous Thoughts

The smell of food wafted up through the inn and into the large room commonly shared by members of the Shinku Kiba. They controlled the entire upper level, but often congregated in the largest of the rooms for meals and discussion.

Cool air blew in through the open screens, revealing the balcony and the small village that spread out before it.

Empty sake jugs and smashed pottery littered the floor after the long night waiting as their friend Yamainu succumbed to his wounds in the next room over.

Perched on a mountain of floor pillows and bolts of horded silk strung out across the corner, Kaitou surveyed the room. Her pale lips turned downward. "What will we do now?" she asked, tugging at the white kimono loosely draped over her lithe form.

Hisuiiro turned from his place at the edge of the balcony and studied his young companion with a thin veil of contempt.

"Yaminu and Kyoudai are dead. We are now," she paused to count on her fingers, "five."

"And no matter how many times you mention it, nothing will change," Hisuiiro said wearily. "We are just as strong as a band of five as we were seven."

"But one man killed both of them. What if—"

The words died on her lips under Hisuiiro's icy look. In the distance, the steady rhythm of hammer to wood, as the local cooper worked, filled the quiet morning. "Tonight, we will mourn out friends and celebrate their lives," the leader said then chased the words with the last of the sake from the jug he held.

Stretching across the pillows, Kaitou fingered the smooth body of a sheathed tanto. "Will you celebrate my life when I die?" she asked softly.

Hisuiiro did not answer.

With a huff, Kaitou sat up again and looked about her belongings. "Should I dress in a flowery kimono like a girl or dress as usual?"

"I thought you were in mourning?"

"It doesn't mean I can't be pretty and mourn at the same time. How would you like me dressed?" she purred as she got up and approached him. She followed his gaze toward the doctor's house. "Forget about that woman. She's married and old." She wrapped her hands around his arm and clung to him. "I don't know what you see in her. I can be so much more entertaining. I can do anything to please you. What would make you happy?"

Hisuiiro slowly drew his gaze from the street and stared coolly at Kaitou. "What would make me happy? I would be happy if you would just shut up." With that he shoved her so hard, that she lost her balance, tumbling into the debris strewn about the floor.

"You bastard!" she screamed as she grabbed a jug and pitched it toward him. It smashed against the wall where Hisuiiro had been. Tears welled in her eyes as she struggled to her feet, scooping up her clothing as she went. "That old woman!" she snarled as she pitched a sandal toward the door. It smacked against Hagetaka's chest and nearly smashed a small red flower sticking out of the top of his light chest plate.

He stared dully down at the sandal on the floor.

"Sorry," Kaitou said dropping her stuff before flopping down in the pile of pillows again.

Beads rattled against each other as Hagetaka knelt and picked up the sandal, and then carried it across the chamber setting it down next to its companion. He remained there for a moment, studying Kaitou's mournful look. "I do not know why you fawn over him so much. "

"Is there nothing I can do to get his attention?"

"Hisuiiro doesn't care about you," came the plain response.

Which was, without question, the truth. Hisuiiro would have left her among the dead several years ago if he had not intervened and convinced the leader to let the girl follow them, that she could be used as a spy.

Freeing the flower from his chest plate he handed it off to the girl. "Here, you can look pretty while you mourn our friends."

She smiled and took the small plant, little more than a lovely weed that often appeared at the side of the road but it had managed to bloom and not drown in the incessant rain. Which must have meant something, Hagetaka thought.

Rising, he turned to look over the mess of the room. He would mourn his friends alongside the others, but the deaths of Yamainu and Kyoudai was equally auspicious. He could finally move forward on his plans.

The brothers had long supported Hisuiiro's leadership but without them he could move to push Hisuiiro out.

Kaitou reached for a flowery ornamented comb and started to tend to her long hair. "All he does is watch that woman. What does he need her for when he has me?" Settling on the open balcony, Hagetaka stared through the railing toward the doctor's house. All was quiet now, but he was certain there was much activity going on inside, more than tending to a wounded farmer was going on there. "Are you jealous?" he asked with a laugh as he glanced back over his shoulder. For a while he studied Kaitou as she carefully drew her hair up into a high knot. Doing that made her look like a boy, but he knew that was the intended effect. When she stood to dress, he turned his attention back to the street. "We should kill that woman. Punish her for praying at the shrine and bringing a ronin here."

"That's not what Hisuiiro wants."

"My faith in him weakens every passing day. He has imprisoned us here. We should be kings, not lording over some country village." With rain still lingering in the air, the usually busy street was a little sparse. Though it did not bother him, it just made it easier to see the comings and goings.

"You don't even act sad that they are dead."

"I am not a woman." Hagetaka frowned when he heard the rustle of cloth cease and knew he had raised her ire. "They took on an opponent who was better than them. That is always the risk in our way of life." He fingered a string of wooden beads that hung around his neck and spoke softly, "He must have been a duelist. Something they weren't used to."

"What?"

"They had gone soft rotting in this village. We will all end up like them soon if we do not get out."

"Hisuiiro does not want to leave."

"Why does he get sole say?"

"He is our leader." There was a pause and Kaitou spoke up again. "You are talking treachery again."

"I am being a realist. Hisuiiro has failed us."

rotterriter - It doesn't take much to make Mugen happy: Food, Females and Fighting. Elementray Magpie - Thank you very much! meow - Thanks! Silver Purity - You'll learn about Seijun...in the next post. poornmiserable - Ooops, this one is a little short too, but I'll make up for it with a post Friday...really, I mean it this time! (It's already written.)

A/N - Between DRL and paying off a fanfic debt. (Never make bets with evil people where the prize is a vignette of the winner's choice. They will always make it as difficult a possible.)

Next Chapter - About Seijun...really!