I limped down the street ignoring the burnt shells of buildings and smashed timber. Lord Shishio must have failed. Damn this pathetic, weak government! Why did people defend such a crooked system? Peace for all? What a crock of bull.
"Ouch." I hissed as I stumbled over an uneven patch in the street. Viciously I made a kick at the offending stone and ended up howling in pain. Today was not my day.
"Are you alright young lady?" An old man asked timidly from the shelter of a smashed shop. His white hair was in disarray and his eyes kept darting nervously.
I looked him over before smiling sweetly, "It's okay sir. I just got hurt with all the battle going on. Could you possible direct me to a doctor?"
This seemed to relax him. Politeness never failed. Couple that with the fact that I looked like an innocent, young woman, well, it was easy to get people to trust me.
"Well, the only doctor in the area was killed." He murmured sadly, and I felt a twinge of regret before I steeled myself. Lord Shishio's plan may have caused casualties, but it was for a good cause.
"I'm sorry to hear that. My apologies for bothering you; I will find a doctor eventually." I remarked with a small grin. I could stand a little pain. Now if only I still had my scythe to lean on. That would have made walking a whole lot easier than staggering around like a downed cow. At that moment my legs decided to contradict my statement, and I collapsed in a hissing heap of misery.
"No, no, you can't go anywhere like that!"
Oh yes I could. I had to see if Lord Shishio was alright. Well, of course he was, after all, he was Lord Shishio. But my heart niggled that I just had to see with my own eyes. Surely right now that dreadful Yumi was changing his bandages…?
Or not.
Shoving the old man aside hastily, I bolted towards the swaying female figure. After studying my enemy so thoroughly, I couldn't possibly mistake her, even from the back.
Unfortunately, I hit another of those blasted rocks and "stumbled."
Splat.
Oops.
Yumi turned around and tried to rake her nails across my face. No doubt she thought one of those drunks stumbled into her. Well, until she saw my face. Then she wasn't just aiming for my cheeks, she was going for the eyes. And, having been on the receiving end of those claws before, I hastily fell back out of range. I could feel a thin trickle of blood running down my chin and wiped the back of my arm across it. Oh yes, I had to look very bloody for this.
"Help!" I screamed, making sure that there were tears in my eyes. Really, that wasn't too hard to do when that wicked woman had belted me in the legs. Besides, guys can't tell the difference between tears of rage and a weepy woman. "Someone, please, help me! She's attacking me!"
Her jaw dropped open, hideous green lipstick and all, and made gurgling noises to protest her innocence.
"I was just trying to return something she dropped!" I pleaded with the crowd, "And she attacked me!"
"You bitch!" She fumed at me with narrowed eyes. I noticed one side of her hair was down. Mud dangled perilously, threatening to drop in her blazing eyes. I hoped it would. Better yet, let it be mixed with gunpowder and render her blind. Oh well. This would serve my purpose. After all, who could fault a young girl being a good citizen and returning a hairpin?
"Hey you, leave that young lady alone!" The old man shouted, and I had to suppress a chortle of glee. This was working out really well.
By now a crowd had gathered, most grumbling about this day and age where women brawled in the streets. Several men were either taking my side or Yumi's. It must be nice to be a sex object. Maybe I should give her a little twist to her breasts.
"Police!" The old man shouted, "Someone get the police!"
"Too late. They're coming already!" A person from the crowd called.
Instant panic.
Everyone wanted to see what was going to happen, but at the risk of getting caught by the cops, they lost nerve. Of course, most of them probably hadn't been doing anything wrong. A filched rice ball here or a broken piece of property there was nothing too big.
It's funny how people react when they're in a mob. It's like they're one, big, stupid animal guiding by instinct. All rational flies out the window leaving only a collection of single-minded creatures bent on carrying out their bodies' messages.
"Now look what you did!" Yumi hissed at me balefully, shoving back a lock of muddy hair. I noticed she was clutching something to her chest.
Ignoring the fact that I was, indeed, wanted by the police at the moment as an escaped criminal, I zeroed in on it. If Yumi was protecting it, then it was important to Lord Shishio. If it was important to Lord Shishio, then I wanted to be the one who presented it to him. A simple equation.
See, the two of us have always been at opposite ends. Only because of Lord Shishio an uneasy truce has been formed. Okay, the only reason I hadn't dissected her yet is because Lord Shishio would be angry with me. As it was, we simply did our best to make the other totally miserable.
"What's that?"
"None of you business!"
"But it is my business."
"Get away you dog."
"No. What is it?"
"Go, shoo! Lick your wounds somewhere else."
"There she is!"
Both of us jerked out heads at the new voice. A very irate woman with a pretty face and a lavender smock stood pointing… at Yumi. Interesting. Now seemed like an excellent time to back away.
Now how in the world had Yumi made an enemy of someone who could get the polices' attention so quickly? Oh wait this was Yumi. It was quite easy for her to make a moral enemy in the blink of an eye. Still, with the chaos in the city, getting the attention of the police, not to mention several officers, denoted some power over the local government.
"Now look what you did!"
I smirked, "What'd you do, murder someone?"
The look she gave me ran chills throughout my body. She didn't even have to vocalize confirmation. She had killed someone. Probably in cold blood.
Two things happened almost simultaneously.
One, a lithe, rather handsome man dropped down silently behind us. His cold eyes bore past us distantly and his hands rested lightly on his weapons. Even with clothing, I could tell by the way he was moving that he was healing from a horrendous injury.
Of course, I recognized him immediately. Aoshi Shinomori was a hard man to mistake.
The second thing that happened was that the police squad and woman had caught up with us.
"Kamatari!" Chou yelped in surprise. I blinked in a sort of shock, realizing the sword hunter was in the thick of the officers. No, he was not in the thick, but at their head. What in the world? Had the failed revolution somehow rocked the earth off it's axis and caused a rip in time? This was just too freaky.
I glanced at Yumi. Well, with Chou here, I couldn't exactly plead innocent and blame it all on the crazy woman beside me.
Unfortunately, my knees decided they had taken enough abuse on my behalf. They crumpled, leaving me in a damp heap. Instinctively I gripped my legs tightly and gritted my teeth. So much for making a run for it.
"Are you alright?"
The old man cautiously padded up and piped up, "She was hurt earlier; that woman over there attacked her. I saw it all with my own eyes."
The police glanced between us dubiously.
"It's true." I lied glibly, "I was on my way to find a doctor and I saw that this lady dropped a hair pin. So I picked it up and tried to return it to her. She attacked me." I glanced down with fake remorse, as if this were the most important aspect of the whole story, and said, "I lost the hair pin though. It flew out of my hands when she beat me bloody."
The woman approached me, ignoring Chou's protests. I submitted to being probed, wondering who she was and why she was after Yumi. I knew it all tied back into whatever Yumi was carrying.
"Sssst." I whistled through my teeth as she hit a particularly tender spot.
"You need medical treatment immediately."
"Who are you?"
"Megumi Takani. I'm a doctor."
"Oh. Well thank you."
The name sounded vaguely familiar. It tugged at my memory before slipping away into oblivion. Oh well, if it were really important, I would have remembered better. That's the way my memory works.
She pulled out a medical box and started splinting my legs. It was very uncomfortable, but I declined when she offered me a painkiller. Who knew what was in that stuff. It would probably knock me unconscious, and then where would I be? In a cold, slimy jail cell most likely.
"There." She said, not even glancing at Yumi the whole time. I could sense an underlying fury of hurt bubbling under her professional façade.
"Both of ya are comin' in fer questionin'." Chou said woodenly.
"I will escort them." Shinomori said icily.
I shivered. I'd rather have Chou any day. Really, the guy wasn't a bad drinking buddy and once you got past the sword obsession, he was a decent guy.
"But-." Chou started and was cut off by a particularly nasty glare. He shut his mouth promptly and said something to his men. They retreated slightly. Apparently none one wanted to mess with a slightly off-kilter ninja who was armed and dangerous.
Chou…a police officer? There was something so wrong with that. He must have cut a deal with the government for release.
The woman doctor gave the ninja a freezing glare of her own, but she didn't say anything. I think, despite her fiery personality, she was afraid of him. Maybe it went back to the past. She wordlessly handed me a vial and did some retreating of her own.
"—with me."
"I'm sorry?" I blinked, catching the end of his sentence. Get it together, Kamatari, I chided myself. What kind of warrior daydreams in the middle of a dangerous situation? I was about to be arrested!
"Would you two come with me."
"Yes your highness." Yumi spat, gathering her skirts around her balefully. She still hadn't let go of that container.
Guts got you places, but they also got you in trouble more often than not. Then again, Lord Shishio didn't respect politeness. To him, if you were strong then you simply took what you wanted from the weak. I tried to imagine Shinomori as a food item and giggled.
"I think you're insane." Yumi told me dourly. "And now Lord Shishio won't have what he wanted because you messed me up."
"Silence." Shinomori commanded, and I stuck my tongue out at his back. I just couldn't help it. The man made an iceberg look toasty.
We followed him, but it didn't take long to realize that we weren't going anywhere near the police station. Now that made me nervous. The government cut deals; Aoshi Shinomori cut necks. And I wasn't done serving Lord Shishio.
I swished around the bottle of liquid the nice doctor lady had given me, thinking about taking it. At least when I passed out that bastard would either have to carry me or leave me in a ditch. Plus, all this walking, even with the splints couldn't be good for me. What kind of warrior couldn't use their legs? Scythes were replaceable; body parts were not replaceable.
The man abruptly swung around with his swords out. Yumi gasped from beside me and I tensed. It was quite clear what the man was going to do next.
AN: There you have it folks, the next segment of our insanity!
I'd like to thank our only reviewer for this chapter Whisper of Nature for kindly reviewing. Nope, no spoiler, and trying to figure out the plot takes away half the fun of reading.
EEevee, my co-writer, blames my chapter for the lack of reviews. What, I thought it was hilarious! Come on, seriously people who would have thought of a plot like that? You'd have to be insane and seriously off your rocke—nevermind—it was a good chapter.
We thrive on reviews. If there are no reviews I lack the motivation to keep writing! Please throw us a freakin' bone people!