Chapter 13
There are many ways that agents can receive orders, some methods much more dangerous than others.
It came in her sleep, a soft whisper at first... a dream.
She did not realise what she heard and her mind shrugged off the tingling mutter, but as her consciousness became less muddled she woke with a start.
This was a method only reserved for the most dire of situations, there were multiple, unimaginable dangers that came with using a mind connection. An urgency crawled in her gut.
The enemy is approaching the eastern border of Aki. Two days...the hollow voice fizzled, crackled and the single word Haste was the last imprinted in her thoughts before it vanished.
Kasumi immediately knew what was needed. She moved instantly, ignoring her aching limbs and the dreadful stitch of her ribs, grabbing her already packed belongings, she raced to where the horses were kept, her earlier guilt erased by her urgency, the need to obey pulsing through her veins.
She chose the strongest horse and mounted it with a colourful selection of words as her injured arm brushed the saddle edge.
"Come boy, don't let me down." she urged as she nudged the horse into a trot and then a gallop.
Two days...
It echoed in her ears as she raced through the thick web of trees, small low-hanging branches smacking her in the face as she forced the horse under her to gallop once again.
Her face stung and bled, her cheeks cut in a hundred different places by sharp leaves and rough twigs, her tightly bound ribs howled with pain, her arm throbbing each time the horse's hooves hit the ground.
She had reached a point where the pain was numbing her thoughts, she had not slept, eaten or even rested in hours, she moved forward mechanically, her only objective to reach the Aki Province before nightfall.
/
The evening was darker than usual, Okita felt an ominous thickness to the air as he watched the sun drown below the horizon. So far he had managed to evade Hijikata and the rest of his friends, he felt their eyes on him during the day and knew that they were waiting for the opportunity to confront him. This knowledge made his already firey chest pain even more intensely, fear of being found out running like a poison through his veins.
"At this rate I might die from a heart attack before we even reach Aki" he muttered as he took the saddle from his horse's back and threw it in the soft grass.
They were only a few hours' travel from their rendezvous, tension ran thick amongst the men, rumours about their opponents, that they might not even be human, fueling already smoldering fears.
Okita felt a new rush of coughs rising in his chest and he quickly made his way to the nearest bramble. The coughs came violently now and he could not suppress them, blood dripped from his mouth as he knelt in the low-lit dusk, fire in his chest incinerating his lungs and throat. To his own shame he could feel warm tears run down his cheeks, making the small breaths he could manage come in strained hiccups.
Tears.
They were not only from the physical pain that ravaged his body…no…he mourned his own confusion and worry, a silhouetted female figure still prominent in his thoughts.
"All I wished for was to meet you, if only once." He thought, then shook his head knowing he was lying to himself. He wanted more than to meet her, he wanted to know her, touch her, hear her.
His heart sank even deeper into an dark, unknown abyss as he thought of his nameless, faceless infatuation, days have passed, maybe weeks since he had any sign of her, he had lost track of time as his condition had grown worse. To him, the only truth was that she had somehow left an empty space in his heart, her absence more painful than his expiring lungs.
A particularly ferocious cough burst from his lungs and left a momentary spray of red in the air, the droplets catching the last of the dying sun's rays, glistening rubies in the air.
"Okita-dono?" the voice came from the near dark evening.
Okita looked up dizzily, the pain muddling his senses to a point that he could not recognize the voice.
Susumu appeared, silently stepping from his hiding place between two trees.
"Okita-dono?" he repeated, shock clearly written on his face.
"Susum…." Coughs came tumbling from his mouth, fresh blood running over his chin. Susumu jumped to his side, immediately scanning his friend for wounds, when none where apparent he stepped back, staring at Okita in horror.
"Oh Hachi." he swore, the words falling like lead to the ground, lying there for them both to digest.
A deadly silence followed.
Slowly, Susumu knelt down next to his friend.
"How long Okita-dono?"
Looking up, his eyes bloodshot and tired, Okita could not answer as another cough growled in his throat.
Susumu's mind skimmed through the last few months, at closer inspection, he swore at himself, the signs were there, silently he reprimanded himself for not noticing anything earlier.
Okita's pale face, Okita excusing himself in mid conversation, Okita not having the strength he used to show, Okita's slumped, tired posture.
Understanding came to him like a hammer to his head. His friend Okita...was dying.
He had seen this disease before, the memory of his mother's pale face as she coughed her last breath still haunted him, a lone tear rolling down her sunken cheek, Susumu shuddered at the thought as he felt Okita break into a new bout of bloody coughs. A cold fear gripped his chest as he realised Okita's state and the fact that he, Susumu Yamazaki, could do nothing to help his friend.
A desperate "No" was all he could muster as he sat next to his ailing friend.
/
Exhausted, Kasumi fell to her knees at the bank of the small stream, water bottle in hand.
She had made good time and was close to her destination, with two hours until sunset she took some time to rest the horse and herself.
She gingerly unbound her arm, just to let out a yelp of pain once the pressure of the bandage was gone, it was swollen, very swollen and Kasumi knew instantly that the extra strain had put the healing back with a couple of weeks.
With a sting of loud swears, she carefully washed her arm before re-bandaging it. Sitting back to rest her tired body, her mind unwittingly wandered to a certain red headed samurai, her heart still dancing a butterfly-dance when she thought of him. Her hand moved to her satchel to make sure the two precious green vials were still where she had placed them, they were, and she let out a relieved sigh.
"Even if I can't have your heart…I can't sit idly and watch you suffer."
Kasumi's lips curled into a bitter smile, the image of Asuka in his arms still causing more pain than she was comfortable with.
"You are a stupid woman…" she chided herself. "Nothing would ever have come of it, and now, you still carry his cure in your pocket."
She let out a harsh smirk as she thought of her own romantic idiocy.
A distinct thud of a purposefully thrown rock sounded behind her. She turned to see a jagged clump between the green blades of summer grass, a dog-eared note wrapped around it.
"One extreme to another, heh?" she chuckled as she picked up the crudely delivered message.
Her stiff fingers struggled to untie the twine fastening the note, after a minute her patience had run out and she pulled a tanto from her leg sheath, cutting the twine in a single motion. Glancing at the glyphs on the piece of paper, her orders were clear.
A campsite.
Ranking Officers.
Kill.
Tonight.
"Easy enough." she shrugged as she slowly made her way back to her horse.
Even exhausted, she savoured the sensation of her blood simmering, the thought a of fight, a kill, bringing new life to her tired and broken body. She found that she had already checked all her weapons, already secured her armour, instinct and excitement taking over where her mind was too weary.
"Only two or three leagues left boy." She said to her nameless horse as she patted his neck, checking the bridle before lightly mounting, with a sharp flick of the reins she was off.
Her heart racing with anticipation.
Her target close enough smell and taste in the air.
/
It was quiet around the campfire as Okita stared at the flames dancing to an unsung rhythm, mesmerized by the flicker and twists of the fire, he found himself taken back to the night of the festival and the acrobats dominating the sky like the flames before him.
He thought of the fallen Yuki Ona and wondered if she was recovering from her injuries, with these thoughts came a more urgent worry for another woman of mist, thoughts more painful as he felt his disappointed heart lurch, a lone cherry tree looming in the night sky, a hollow in his heart, the worry for an unknown woman plaguing him relentlessly.
He let out an uncomfortable cough as Hijikata entered the soft ring of light created by the fire.
"Okita-san" Hijikata uttered his face painted with worry.
"Tori-san" Okita nodded nervously, feeling the tension radiating from Hijikata. He had been dreading this moment for months, facing his friends with the knowledge that they knew his fate and now, he had to explain why he had not said anything.
"Okita-san…are you still feeling unwell?" The question was loaded and Okita knew it.
"I am better, thank you Hijikata-dono, although I am still not back to my normal self."
An uncomfortable silence followed, neither of them knowing how to continue the conversation.
Finally Hijikata puckered up the courage to speak.
"Have you seen the doctor yet?" he looked at Okita, who in turn was intently staring at the fire in front of him.
"Yes." his voice was hollow, like someone not entirely there, deep in thought.
"Okita-san." Hijikata struggled with his own voice as he felt his emotions trying to clamber out of his chest. "Why? Why did you not tell anyone?"
Another silence came as Okita considered his friend's question.
"Would I be sitting here, right now, if you had known?" Okita finally looked at Hijikata, desperation clear on his face.
Hijikata found he could not look his friend in the eye as he muttered "No"
"That's why." Okita said softly. "This is my life Tori-san." The quiver in his voice validating his truthfulness. "I know nothing else and you, even from the best of intentions, would have taken that away from me."
Hijikata mulled over Okita's words before he spoke again.
"Can you fight?"
Okita's expression instantly changed to that of surprise, taken aback by Hijikata's question.
"I…I…think…"
An uninvited hissing interrupted them, made them stop their discussion.
It was the sound of a katana leaving it's sheath. They looked at each other, they knew, it was only a brief moment before they both jumped to their feet, their weapons effortlessly appearing, as if by magic.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Hijikata's voice rang clearly.
No answer.
Then a single bloodthirsty cry came from the dark.
The enemy was upon them.
