"Rin. Pyō. Tō. Sha. Kai. Jin. Retsu. Zai. Zen…"
The meditating Shrine Maiden cycled through her chants and mudra. With each cycle, she lasered in her focus. Frustration gnawed at her resolve as minutes passed and the sacred flames did not find her inquiry worthy of response.
There was an imbalance. She felt it the moment Minako left. When Minako never returned the following morning as promised, Rei beseeched the flames for assistance.
Scratching and clawing from the outside of the door broke her trance. Rei sighed and relaxed her hands in her lap.
Perhaps her link to the kami was still damaged. Maybe there was nothing wrong at all. Minako was choosing not to return. The popstar probably wanted nothing to do with her. After the stunt she pulled, Rei couldn't blame her.
As she rose to her feet to let the crows in, someone opened the sliding door from the other side. Makoto let herself into the meditation room without knocking. Rei frowned at her comrade as she approached.
"Are you still meditating?" Makoto asked in an accusatory tone.
Instead of answering, Rei turned her back to her. She crossed her arms over her chest while watching Phobos and Deimos dance around her feet.
"You need to relax. Sailor V will come. She probably got held up somewhere. She IS the most famous idol on the planet, ya know. So why don't you get changed and come spar with me? Please?"
Rei inwardly scolded herself. She had forgotten all about promising Makoto a morning sparring session. Her thoughts and short term memory were still a scrambled mess. "I don't feel like it."
"Okay…" Rei heard her sneakers scuff against the floor. "If you're that concerned, why don't you just go to her house? You're an assassin. Sneak in."
Rei closed her eyes, unsuccessfully trying to combat the tears burning her eyes. "I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because…" Rei almost stopped. The old her would have kept her thoughts bottled inside. But, remembering the promise she made to herself, Rei forced the words. "Because I'm not going to intrude if she doesn't want me."
Makoto's firm, strong hand relaxed on Rei's shoulder from behind. "You think she's avoiding you? After she barged in on enemy territory and refused to leave your side until you got better?"
Makoto's reassuring words did little to lighten Rei's dark mood, but the Shrine Maiden had to admit that her heart hurt less.
"She's crazy about you," the taller assassin continued. "She'll be here. In the meantime, why don't you get changed and come spar with-"
Loud shrills drowned out Makoto's voice. Rei startled at the sudden, unnerving cries. Phobos and Deimos took flight, screeching as they darted through the open doorway. Rei turned as black feathers floated around her, suspending in midair until she regained her senses and ran after them.
She did not have to run far. After rounding the corner of the cobblestone path, Rei froze. Makoto bumped into her, gasping when she recognized the collapsed animal before them.
"Artemis!" Rei burst ahead until she found herself on her knees before the exhausted feline. Phobos and Deimos flitted about the cat, stopping to poke him with their beaks whenever he closed his eyes.
"Poor thing," Makoto commented as Rei scooped the animal into her arms. His breaths were ragged, as if he ran at full speed all the way here. Rei snuck her fingers beneath his collar. She smelled the note before discovering it, folded and tucked between his collar and neck.
Rei looked into his eyes as they struggled to stay open. His feline pupils were dilated. He was panting, and his heart pumped violently against his ribcage. More pungent than Mina's perfume was the scent of his fear. Rei tasted it in the air; the unsettling, unshakeable feeling of an evil presence.
"Thank you, Artemis." Rei gave Minako's pet a curt nod. "Rest now."
Rei cuddled the feline against her breast. One of his arms stretched up toward her neck. The pads on his foot relaxed against her pulse, and he quickly fell asleep in her hold. With her free hand, she unfolded the small sheet of paper and read the note.
"Well? What does it say?" Makoto impatiently approached.
While cradling the sleeping cat, Rei returned to her feet. The crows perched on her shoulders, vying for the piece of paper until Rei buried it inside of her hakama. The flames were restless now, bursting inside her chest.
The short message burned inside of Rei's mind. The content of the message was not unsettling. In fact, she could almost believe it were written by Minako; except for the glaring detail that Rei, who had exchanged dozens of handwritten messages with her, would never miss.
The handwriting was not Minako's.
After all of her time in the Animus, she knew exactly who wrote this note.
"Come play with me."
The weight of her hidden blade hung heavy on her forearm. Rei marched to the address designated on the note, keeping her gait steady while her mind ran in circles. Prepared to battle with a templar, Rei decided it would be fitting to wear the modern assassin attire: a white hood pulled up over her head, with a pointed tip resembling an eagle's beak.
Rei also smuggled Minako's Piece of Eden out of the shrine. It was buried in her back pocket. Rei planned to keep it safely tucked away, and give it back to her after everything was said and done. It didn't have any effect buried inside of her pocket, but Rei still felt the thrum of ancient technology against her skin.
Makoto argued against Rei coming alone. This was a sisterhood problem, not just Hino family drama. She was too weak to fight alone. She would be distracted by her feelings for Minako, and on and on.
While Rei couldn't argue the validity of her points, she stubbornly insisted on coming alone. She spent her entire life fantasizing about her revenge. Facing against her father in battle, making him pay for his crimes with his blood; these fantasies had consumed her thoughts for as long as she could remember.
Now that she was moments away from meeting him, Rei was conflicted. Artemis purred in her arms, but his body was tense and his ears perked. Holding Sailor V's pet irritated Rei's already heightened senses. She felt Artemis' fear and anxiety, which in turn made Rei more anxious. She couldn't stop worrying about Minako. She never intended for the popstar to get wrapped up in this feud between her and her father. And who knows what depraved things her father said or did to her?
Phobos and Deimos cawed in the distance. Rei refused to allow Makoto to accompany her, but she wasn't entirely alone. Her crow companions kept distant watch, observing from above. Rei gave them specific instructions not to get involved. This was her fight, and she refused to allow even the crows to intervene.
The sun was setting over the horizon, casting a vermillion and crimson haze across the skyline. The heavens exhumed flames of vengeance, pouring their likeness across the battlefield. Feeling the universe was on her side, Rei approached the designated coordinates from the note with the confidence of love and justice.
The latitude and longitude coordinates brought the assassin to an abandoned fishing dock beside a large, dilapidated building that she assumed used to be a distribution facility. The dock and parking lot were bare, save for an empty black SUV.
Rei closed her eyes, attuning her senses to her surroundings. Relying too strongly on one sense, like vision, was a recipe for failure. She needed to see with her eyes closed. To feel the kami around her, and the energy of every living creature in the vicinity. Rei sensed Phobos and Deimos high in the sky, observing but not interfering. She saw the fish in the murky water crashing against the decaying dock. The scent of the sea, emissions from the recently parked vehicle, and aster flowers…
"Rei!"
Rei's eyes snapped open. She turned toward the source, peering through the crooked planks of wood acting as a shoddy barrier to the facility. Bound to a support beam by her hands and ankles, looking worn and frightened, was the only person Rei had ever let into her heart.
Standing beside her, ready to snuff out her brilliant, bright light, was a despicable excuse for a man. A templar, a politician, and a man capable of murdering his wife and abandoning his daughter. Seeing him from the outside, instead of being him, was jarring at first. She didn't know how to be herself, outside of the anger and resentment she allowed to fester for too long. After being inside of the Animus, living as him, she knew there was much more to his story than she originally anticipated.
But none of that mattered when he had a gun pointed at Minako's head.
Artemis came to life. He leapt from Rei's arms before she could restrain him, making a beeline for his human companion. Rei's vision shifted from the running cat to Takashi's cold, bloodshot eyes, to Minako's wide, fearful pupils.
"Artemis, no!" Minako cried.
The silencer on the barrel of his magnum muffled the sound, but Rei heard the gunshot loud and clear. Artemis' white body collapsed and rolled across the damp pavement. Blood stained his pure fur. Rei turned away before the bloody pool growing beneath him consumed his small body. Her eyes burned at the sound of Minako's pitiful wails.
"You're a monster!" Minako screamed as she fought against her restraints.
Takashi swung his extended arm back toward Minako and cocked the gun. Without taking his eyes away from Rei, he threatened, "another sound and you're next."
Minako's mouth clamped shut. Though her sobs were silent, Rei could hear the hitch in her throat and the accelerated beating of her heart. Rei cast her a glance before forcing herself to address Takashi.
"You didn't have to do that," Rei snarled. "And you didn't need to threaten Minako to bring me here. Nothing would bring me greater pleasure than assassinating you."
"I needed you here." Takashi holstered his gun and stepped toward her. "Both of you."
His voice and stance carried the confidence of resolve. Rei couldn't imagine what was so important about this location. There was nothing remarkable about it. It stank of fish and mold. There was no sign of civilization for miles. Her eagle vision detected nothing out of the ordinary.
Rei took a deep breath. She wanted nothing more than to assassinate this man where he stood.
Except…
The one thing she needed to know. The one moment that changed everything. The memory that alluded her in the Animus. What Kaiou Michiru showed him in the mirror. A vision so compelling, so damning, it convinced him to murder the love of his life.
Rei hated her father with every fiber of her being. But after all the time she spent believing she was him, she could not deny that he loved Risa, and that his misery was real.
"Why?" Rei asked at length.
Takashi narrowed his eyes. He read the true meaning behind her question. She wasn't asking about the location at all.
"I do not have to explain myself to a child." He pointed his right hand toward her, extending the hidden blade from inside of his sleeve.
With one last glance at Minako, Rei mirrored his actions. She stared her father down, collecting the resolve and anger garnered through her lifetime, converting it into the peace of mind she would need to successfully overcome him. Their duel hadn't yet begun, and Rei was regretting not taking Makoto up on her sparring offers earlier. She wasn't afforded the luxury of having time to recuperate. Her body was weak from days of vegetation and starvation. She kept down a cup of green tea and a bowl of broth, but that was all. Her pants were loose and her eyes sank inside exhausted sockets, but she smothered her concerns for Minako's sake.
Takashi initiated the battle. Leaning forward, he lunged towards her with his bladed arm prepared to strike. Rei took a deep breath and launched. She was lithe and fast, closing the space between them in the blink of an eye. Their blades clashed. Metal sang, echoing inside of the crumbling building. Crows cawed from afar.
The adversaries pressed their blades together, testing each other's strength. Takashi's face was mere inches from hers. She could smell his breath. Sense the bloodlust. His eyes were cold, but the longer Rei stared into them, the more poignant his rage became. Gazing into his violet eyes was like looking in the mirror. Chill settled into her bones.
The young assassin knew she could not overpower him. Even if she were at peak performance, he was stronger by far. She was measuring his strength, learning what she had to contend with. Rei was also baiting him into expending a lot of energy quickly- she couldn't afford for this battle to drag on.
"Then you will die without the world knowing why you murdered your wife!" Rei slipped out of their standoff by twirling below and against the arc of his swing. Without her resistance, his blade arm swung and met empty air. Rei was aboutfaced before he recovered.
Takashi remained on the offensive. He pressed her further inside of the abandoned warehouse. Rei felt Mina's fear radiating from behind, but she focused on the immediate threat of her father's blade. He was growing increasingly frustrated as she continuously, and effortlessly, dodged his attacks. She had a unique advantage over him. So as long as she remained vigilant, she could stay unharmed.
Rei lived every hour of training he endured to become an assassin. Every parry, every bruise. She learned his fighting style, and it came more naturally to her than her own. Rei envisioned every shift in his pose and swing of his arm before he had time to execute his moves. Her clairvoyance extended the battle for many long minutes.
Every second she dragged the battle out was a second she could not afford to waste. She would tire long before Takashi. It was only a matter of time before she would make a careless mistake that would cost her the battle.
Rei turned the tides of the fight against him. Takashi ducked and slashed at her knee. He missed by only a fraction of an inch. It gave her enough purchase to force him onto the defensive. She pressed against his impenetrable barrier, blinking against the sweat in her eyes as she tried making contact. Rei swallowed a grunt of frustration when she was unable to get so much as a scratch on him.
It was time for a new plan.
It was time to lower her expectations.
Minako had to survive. Takashi had to die. Anything else Rei had hoped for was negotiable at this point.
Her breaths were labored. Her limbs were becoming sluggish and unresponsive. Rei could not keep up this dance for much longer. As long as she could save Mina's life, and avenger her mother's, this mission would be a success.
Choking back a sob, Rei executed her new plan.
Instead of striking another fruitless attack, Rei hesitated, giving him all the space he needed to land a blow. With his arm extended, she pivoted inside of his formerly impenetrable sphere, close enough to finally drive her blade home.
At long last. Rei found her fingers wrapped around his neck. The assassin's signature hidden blade jutted from the inside of her wrist, through his neck. Hot, liquid crimson bubbled against her palm and poured from the wound.
Takashi's eyes widened in shock. Blood pooled inside of his agape mouth. An indecipherable word gurgled in his throat before his life energy vanished.
Rei tried to laugh, but excruciating pain paralyzed her. She didn't need to look down; she knew where the lethal injury was, and what vital organs it damaged.
Rei retracted her blade from Takahi's dead body.
"Rei!"
Minako's cries thrummed inside of Rei's chest. Instead of feeling sadness, or fear of death, satisfaction washed over Rei. Minako was alive. Takashi was dead.
Everything was as it should be.
Father and daughter crumpled together onto the ground, embracing for the first time since he left her with the assassins years ago. Their blood mingled into a homogenous pool around their lifeless corpses. In death, there were no assassins or templars. No estranged fathers or lonely daughters.
Only blood and darkness.
The mournful song of her crows escorted Rei into oblivion's sweet embrace.