THE TANUKI RETURNS
"Wait!" came the cry. "Baron! Help me!"
The Cat continued discussing techniques with Gabriel as Muta continued to chase Haru round the practice room, holding the two-bladed battle axe high above his head. The large cat chortled in delight at the way the girl he had once accompanied into the Cat Kingdom fled before his wrath.
"It's unfair!" she wailed. "Muta's got a real axe, and I've got just this iaito!"
Gabriel looked up briefly from his talk with the Cat. "Keep it up, Haru," he encouraged. "Running away's one of the most important lessons you can learn on the field, especially when you're confronting someone wielding something that can break your sword." Then he went back to talking with the Baron.
"Come on, Haru!" laughed Muta. "None of the soldiers here want to have a friendly little tussle with me, so you're all I have left!" He brought the flat of the axe blade down, and it spanged off the floor just behind the fleeing girl. Of course, he was being very careful, but she didn't know that.
Out of sheer terror Haru leapt off the floor at an angle to Muta's overhead bash. She found herself landing with her feet on the wall, automatically careened off it and, with a backflip, landed on Muta's shoulders, balancing herself unsteadily on them as she tried to comprehend what she just did.
The giant cat did a good job mimicking a puzzled statue. "Haru? Did... did you just do what I think I saw you do?"
Haru looked down. While unclassifiable as a dizzying height, Muta's shoulders were far enough from the floor to make her crouch down and grab on to his ears.
"Ow! Let go!" he yelled. Haru apologized and released his ears, settling instead on securing herself by pulling the fur on top of his head.
"Yeowch! Hey, Baron! Look!"
As the Cat and Gabriel turned their attention to them, Muta whispered, "Well, go on, show them what you did."
Haru hesitated, and the wait made Gabriel say, "What? Are you two trying to imitate a pair of clowns in the circus?"
The taunt irritated Haru enough to make her jump off Muta's shoulders. Once again she aimed for the wall, and once again she was able to control her leap off it with a cat's grace, landing in a phoenix stance near Baron and the Swordmaster before straightening up with a flourish.
"I never saw that before," said Baron in admiration. "Could you do it again?"
"I-I think so." She concentrated and leapt backward, landing some twenty feet further away from her previous position. "Wow! How come I'm able to do this now?"
Gabriel put a paw under his chin. "Hmm. That's amazing," he said, as Haru gleefully jumped back onto Muta's shoulders. "It's too bad I don't know of any sword style that accommodates such an ability."
"I'm sure you'll think of something," Baron assured him. "Either that, or she might think it up on her own."
"Yeah."
Under Haru's urging Muta began jogging round the room while carrying her on his shoulders. To Baron they looked like a strange, unequally-sized and differently-specied father-daughter pair running about in a park, laughing and having fun.
"Let's start, shall we, Swordmaster?"
"Yes, let's. I'll use dual rapier this time."
------oOo------
The day after the next produced a startling surprise in the form of Shoukichi returning to the castle. Covered in a ratty brown cloak, he collapsed that morning before the astonished gate guards and was brought into the infirmary, where it was discovered that he had numerous bruises and small cuts on his body.
On hearing of his return, Baron, Muta and Toto quickly made their way to the facility and found Lune and Natoru already there. Lune shook his head as the Cat tried to enter the room Shoukichi was secreted away in.
"They gave him something to make him sleep," he said. "But before he lost consciousness, he gave Natoru and I a lot of information." Lune gestured to the voluminous papers the Secretary cat was holding. "Baron, your friend's been to the Isles and back!"
The Cat raised his brows in surprise. "He has?"
"Yes, and he joined the Phaecis Gang to get there! I can't believe the audacity of this friend of yours. With the information he's given us, we can now refine our plan of attack against the Pirate King."
"I rejoice with you, Your Majesty. But please stand aside. My friend is in that room, and I must see how he is."
Lune smiled. "Be careful, friend Cat. One look at you might convince him he's already died and gone to Heaven. He still thinks you're dead."
"Don't worry 'bout that," said Muta. "I'll make sure he realizes he's still in the land of the living. After all, he still owes me a pot of tuna casserole."
------oOo------
Things moved quickly after Shoukichi's return. The troop contingent that had been building up in the barracks behind the castle was now complete, and each morning they began to hold exercises outdoors, trying to mesh together as a cohesive fighting team before they were sent into the place where the gods of war held their life-or-death sway.
Seiji and Shizuku watched them from their favorite balcony when they could, but sometimes went out and viewed them close-up. Lune had released the restrictions and allowed them outside the castle, on the grounds that the agents of the pirates were probably long gone by now, to report what was going on to the gang, and that even the most ignorant spy could no longer be persuaded not to notice the concentration of armed fighting cats and military supplies that had taken up residence by the castle. The couple also sometimes made their way to the nearby round moat—which had been converted to do double duty as a sort of water park—and in the process earned a few charming busybody tag-alongs, mostly in the form of kittens who, amazed at their being human, hung around them and plied them with questions about their world. Shizuku had learned to entertain them with a little magic; she sometimes made sinuous water-dragons fly through the air, to the delight of the cat children, and even caught fish for them, making her catch rise out of the clear water and float into their waiting arms.
On one such occasion she was watching them scamper away with their prizes when Seiji prompted her.
"What?"
"What, what?"
"You've got a sad look on your face."
Shizuku sighed. "Nothing, anata." She watched the kittens some more. "Seiji, I want a child."
"Shizuku..."
"I know, it's been just a little over a year, but with all we've been doing... It disappoints me a little."
Seiji put an arm around her.
"I was so envious when Yuuko and Sugimura presented their twins to us at the wedding. Do you think we'll have twins as well?"
"Personally, I'd like one at a time," answered the violin-maker. "But if you want, we'll have twins, triplets, quadruplets even!"
The writer smiled. "Hey, look, there's a cat renting out rowboats. Want to?"
"Sure!" Seiji felt around in his pockets. "It's a good thing the King gave us this royal pass. Talk about a card with zero interest and forever to pay."
In a charmingly painted little orange-and-white boat they made their way to the middle part of the lake. The water was crystal-clear throughout, and they were kept entertained by the ever-changing underwater scene.
From where they were, however, they could still see the barracks, and the cats still training for battle.
Shizuku followed Seiji's gaze beyond the cliffs. "It's amazing how even in this fairytale kingdom there lurks the specter of war," said the husband. "Is there no place free of it?"
"Oh, Seiji. The only place you'll find that's free of conflict, where no beings struggle against one another," the wife returned sadly, "is the land of the dead. But let's not talk about that now! We're here, in an exotic place, under a bright sun! Now is the time to be happy! We'll taste what they're having soon enough, when we accompany them to the Lonely Isles ourselves." They had previously decided to tag along with the cats, because Shizuku had learned that Baron would be going with them, and Haru would be accompanying him along with Muta and Toto. She felt it was her duty to chronicle these events in her creation/not-creation's life, especially with the reemergence of Louise, and she was also worried about Haru's fate. From what she had seen of Haru's practice sessions with Gabriel and the Baron, the girl seemed determined to put herself in harm's way.
A call came across the water, and Shizuku turned to see a little tom waving at her, gesturing that he wanted her to perform some magic for him and his friends. She obliged him—and wetted her husband somewhat—by producing a water-bird, a phoenix made of spray that burst out of the tranquil waves and flew up into the sun, to dissolve in misty droplets that cascaded around the kids on the shore. The children cheered and frolicked happily in the glittering curtains.
------oOo------
It was some days later, and word had come down at last. On the morrow they would leave the castle, in small enough parties to minimize detection by the Black Cat's agents, and make their way to the coastal fortress town of New Lorum, where the contingent of Army and Marine cats would reassemble and board ships for the Lonely Isles. Baron, Muta, Toto, Haru, Shizuku and Seiji would travel with Gabriel and his Stormy Cat commando team. Shoukichi didn't mind being left behind this time; his wounds would not make the journey pleasant, and they had all the information they needed anyway. He told them he was looking forward to some peace and quiet and a lot of harem cats surrounding him, feeding him grapes. Shizuku said she would tell on him when they got back home, since Tama New Town was near Seiseki Sakuragaoka, where she still lived, but Shoukichi just rebutted her statement with, "Hey, I don't get to cut loose that often. I won't be naughty, but I'm gonna party, party, party while I can!"
That morning, the Cat and the Swordmaster were with Haru in the practice hall, talking about something.
"Baron, are you sure about this?" Gabriel asked, the concern in his voice obvious. "The lass doesn't have the skill you do. One of you might get hurt."
Baron waved Gabriel's concern away. Today was the day he was going to test Haru in a full-bore match. It was going to be a graduation of sorts from the truncated learning season, and had been Baron's idea. He couldn't dissuade her from going, and to make things worse Shizuku also insisted on coming along. At least the writer was going to stay aboard ship, where it was safe. As to Haru, Baron hoped she could at least assure him that she would be able to take care of herself through her performance in this match.
"The Black Cat and her allies will not be forgiving. It's better to get wounded here than in a faraway place where no help is available."
"But still..." Darn all the titles and social places, Gabriel just wanted to tell the Cat he was being stupid and be done with it! Dueling with real swords was just too dangerous for a tyro like Haru, even if they were wearing his special armor!
Haru stepped into the hall from the changing room. She was dressed again in a padded long-sleeved shirt and pants. A pair of black leather boots with stiff, calf-length uppers shod her feet. Her hands were gloved in chain and aluminum, and a mask like a fencer's covered her head.
She put a hand on her hip. The other was placed on the hilt of a smallsword, which hung from her hip in its tooled leather scabbard. "How do I look?"
At the sight of her the Cat was stricken. About the same height and build... if you just ignored the ponytail peeking out of the back of her head and what little human visage you could see, she resembled her more... and, unfortunately, it was his idea for her to wield a smallsword too...
"Baron? Baron?"
"Hmm? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking of something." He put on his own helmet; prudence dictated that he was going to wear armor for this clash. "You look fine. Let's begin."
------oOo------
The instant Gabriel left to attend to Seiji's last-minute self-defense lesson, the two began sparring. It lasted for quite a while. Baron was hampered by the lingering pain of his wound, while Haru still lacked the skill to make any real headway against him.
Gradually both of them began to predict the other. It was axiomatic that in combat one should remain unpredictable, so their contest dragged on and became more about physical endurance rather than skill.
At one point the Cat made a mistake, falling for Haru's beat on his blade and quick lunge-attack. Emboldened, she began to press her advantage, so that he was forced to defend himself from her flurry of blows.
But the Cat knew a trick or two himself. He lured Haru into a thrust, then parried her blade in such a way that he ended up controlling her body movement. With a rough push he shoved her to the floor.
Haru rolled upright, twirling her blade around her as she got up to prevent Baron from closing in on her while she was off-balance. She began another conversation of swords between Baron and herself, and broke the cadence of one of her attacks to tangle his blade up with hers.
Baron pressed against her, and instead of executing a disengage she trapped the Cat's cane-sword against her guard and pushed it out of line. He narrowly avoided the straight punch she threw at his face with her free hand.
Baron quickly grabbed Haru's extended forearm and yanked, causing her to lose her balance and fall forward. Then, with much trepidation at the back of his mind, he brought his knee up into her stomach, softening the blow so it wasn't as brutal an impact. Haru ended up splayed across Baron's upper leg like a child positioned for a spanking.
The Cat softly pressed the pommel of his cane-sword against the back of Haru's neck. "And you're dead. Let's reset."
The chagrined young lady stood up and backed off. Panting from their exertions, they saluted each other with their weapons, and this time Baron was the one who attacked first.
Haru opposition-parried her opponent's blade, then glided her sword down Baron's. To her utter confusion he knocked her sword away, breaking contact, then streaked past her, keeping his cane-sword at octave, then nieuveme to defend himself.
What's he doing? thought Haru, keeping close on the Cat's heels as he continued to run at full steam towards the wall of the practice room. Was he intent on colliding with it?
Just before he would have run straight into the wall, Baron leapt up and ran to Haru's right for three steps along the vertical surface. Then he came back down to the floor and charged at her from the new and unexpected direction.
Surprised, she turned to deal with him, but just then the demon of her clumsiness reared its ugly head, and she tripped on her own calf.
Baron landed in time to see her falling towards him. As she fell, she tossed her smallsword away so no one would get hurt by it. It clattered on the floor as he reached out and caught her by her right upper arm. His grip was so tight it hurt, and she groaned as she banged against him.
"Haru!" Baron whipped his helmet off, then removed hers and tossed it to the floor. "Are you okay?"
Haru, wheezing, raised her head to reply, and was at once aware of the nearness of his face, his warm breath, and the comforting scent he wore; the yellow shine of his eyes, winking and glinting like marvelous cabochons, promising unto her delights unknown by the rest of womankind...
Baron looked down at the face inches away from his. He smelled the fresh soap smell on top of her honest sweat, took in her smooth-toned skin and delicate features, and was sure he heard the flutter of her heart in her chest...
He watched her close her eyes. The tip of her tongue darted out lightning-quick to moisten her lips like a pink fish, then retreated nervously back into its shelter. The sight somehow sent a thrill through him, making her appear in his eyes a supplicant giving herself up for the delectation of a cruel, ancient god. He felt a compelling urge to partake of what she was offering him, to lay his claim on her, so virginal and innocent was she, and yet so alluring. There was simply no denying the attraction between them...
He got to his feet, and pulled Haru upright as well. Stunned, she stood motionless in front of him.
"Baron?"
"Haru," the Cat said in a voice so quiet she almost couldn't hear him, "you'd better leave."
"I'm–"
"Go! Or I won't be held responsible for what might happen next."
Baron watched as the eyes of the girl he had once rescued began to moisten. Her face paled; her lips—so ready to touch his some seconds ago—trembled, and she spun on her heel and ran from the hall.
The refined click of the door latches was the only thing that broke the deafening silence. Baron stood still for a long time. Then he flung his sword away, and sat down cross-legged in the middle of the open space. Propping his elbows on his knees, he covered his face with his hands and sighed heavily. Keeping him silent company were the discarded helmets and swords on the floor.