When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Fifteen

When Mayumi first heard both Tasuki and Kouji yell what seemed to be a signal, the first thing that she felt was herself being pushed by Tasuki into the wall of her prison. Then, though she can hardly believe it, the two guards that were holding Kouji down suddenly let him go and launched an attack on Kito.

Then the rest of the bandits came in.

Mayumi knew this because they were crying out loud as they attacked. You know, battlecries. And of course, they were fighting on Tasuki's side.

One of Tasuki's men had grabbed Kito arm, the arm holding the sword. Kouji was still down. The men must have done their job a little to well, and he was still rubbing his head and the back of his neck furiously. Mayumi could have easily blended into the wall, and could have just decided to wait it out, but after careful deliberation, and an accident involving a sword hitting the wall and almost hitting her, she decided to crawl away slowly, and cautiously.

Kito's real guards have arrived, and they were much to busy fighting Tasuki's men to notice her trying to crawl out. She made a beeline for Kouji, who was near the door.

"Kouji," she whispered, when she was close to him. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, and stood up. He was watching Tasuki, who was in a tussle with one of the guards. He had not yet produced his paper wolves or fire from his fan. He was much to busy dealing with his sword. "The guys pulled on my head too hard," he said, smiling down at her.

"You planned this whole thing out, didn't you?" she asked, moving a little to avoid being hit by a sword. Whether the sword was from an enemy or not, it was hard to tell.

"Yep," he answered, proudly. "There were a lot of us, and an ambush seemed like the best thing." Kouji looked serious, this time. "You better get out of here," he said, "there are a few of our men waiting outside. Go there, they'll take care of you."

"I wanna fight too!" she cried in protest.

"Yeah, in that condition?" asked Kouji, who was now practically pushing her out of the door, "No, go now."

"But-"

"No buts."

"But –"

"I said, no buts," said Kouji again, "now go. Tasuki will be out in a minute."

"No he won't."

"All right, two minutes," said Kouji, "GO!"

Mayumi, finding it completely useless to fight him any longer, nodded and stood up. It was painful. The cuts in her legs that have dried during the small amount of time that she was lying with Tasuki was stinging once again, her sudden movement making it open. Some were bleeding, and she could feel the slow trickle of blood in her legs.

The hall she was walking was deserted. It seemed that the entire guard was needed to fight Tasuki's men. They won't stand a chance, she thought with a slight satisfaction.

She had not walked this hall for two years now, and it seemed so familiar to her, yet, somehow, different. She knew why it was different. In the times that she was here, this hall, along with the rest of the house was not decorated elaborately with colorful silk sheets embedded with jewels and such. Now, it seemed as if the walls itself was made of jewels and the finest silk. It had lost its homely appeal, and instead, Kito had turned it into something like himself, elaborate, boastful, and – as she found that it was the only way to describe the state of the house now – greedy.

She tried to run out the house, but the faster she moved, the more painful her wounds become. Though slightly uneasy to know that her only option was to walk, she did anyway, but did prepare herself to scream bloody murder in case she finds herself face to face with anyone that would try to kill her. Namely Kito.

She cannot say that Kito had not taken care of her house. But she would not like to live here any longer. Even if it was possible to reclaim her house back from that snake of an uncle of hers, it would never be the same. She doubted if there were anything left in the house that was completely familiar to her and at the same time, untouched by her uncle.

A turn on the left would lead her to the front of the house, and eventually to the garden and out the gates, where Kouji said there would be people helping her, Tasuki's men, who would take care of her, and wait with her for Tasuki to come out.

Tasuki had not given her any indication that he was planning an attack at all. It must have been part of his plan, not to tell her, in case they were being heard. Or maybe he was just as caught up in the moment as she was and completely forgot the fact that he had to tell her about the plan and instead just sat there and kissed.

She smiled at the thought, and even laughed silently, then she winced. Man, those cuts are painful, she thought.

Though she knew that this was hardly the house that she knew anymore, she couldn't help but look around. She felt herself getting more and more pissed off at the thought of all the changes that Kito had made to what was supposed to be her house, and as she looked in one room, she felt herself freeze.

There, in the middle of the room, on top of a large marble table, sat a sword. It was old looking, with a golden hilt elaborately designed with a phoenix. The blade was a shiny steel, without a trace of rust in it. It looked like someone took very good care of it.

Mayumi gasped as she recognized the sword.

It was her brother's.

Her eyes traveled the entire length of the sword. She felt herself moving forward into the room. She looked at the entire perimeter of the room. The room it seemed had been solely dedicated to this sword and this sword only, as the only lighting in the room was solely dedicated to illuminating the weapon.

As Mayumi moved closer, her heart began to beat faster and faster, both in heartbreak and anger. This was her brother's sword. The sword he used when he and her ran away together. The sword he used when he was trying to protect her.

The sword Akira had that didn't stop him from dying.

Kito took it after he died.

It might even be the sword he used to cut Akira's head off.

Mayumi was shaking now, and the pain that she felt suddenly became numb. She couldn't feel it anymore. The only thing that she could feel was the white hot anger that was coursing through her body.

She felt tears in her eyes, when she looked at the table more closely. Below the sword, almost hidden in the shadows, was a small gold necklace.

Mayumi reached out her hand and took it. It was a simple gold necklace, with a simple gold pendant. The pendant was made of gold, and made up of several Chinese letters.

It spelled Mayumi.

Numb from anger, and adrenaline rushing through her veins, she took the necklace, and wore it around her neck. It clinked confortably next to her own necklace, which had her brother's name on.Wiping the tears of her face, she took the her brother's sword.

Cutting a piece of fabric from the clothes that Tasuki gave her that were from one of the guards, she wrapped it around some of her deeper wounds. She didn't even flinch when some of them started to sting. Right now, she couldn't care less.

Sword in hand, she turned around and walked out of the room.

Kito's going to die tonight, she thought, and I'm gonna make sure he dies in my hands.