CHAPTER 20 – REN AND REINO
I returned to what was my territory before the next morning. I wanted to personally inform my former Clan, instead of letting the gossip take care of it. Gathering everyone in such a short time was difficult, but Yashiro and I managed to do it before the news about the end of the Tsuruga Clan spread.
As expected, people were bewildered by the unexpected choice they had to make. In the short period when the two territories were one, some families and various bonds of friendship were formed. Now that the unified territory splits again into two, they all find themselves in the impasse over which Clan to choose: Takarada or Hizuri.
The Tsuruga Mansion remains mine, for it was my residence before it even became the headquarters of the territory, but now it seems to me to be only a big and empty place. Especially because, two days later, half the members of my extinct Clan had already migrated.
I frankly do not know how to take care of this place alone. It would not be possible even if I still had Nick's help. Not to mention that I do not intend to spend much time here: Kyoko has explanations to give me, considering that her schemes made me lose everything I had. I will not rest until I know which part of our story was real, which part was an illusion.
Yes, I know that it was I who chose to ignore all the warning signs I captured in the eleven months we were together; I was also the only one responsible to deviate from the original plan to enjoy the dream of living with her. However, regrets are of no use if I do not find out where she intends to go with her plans, because my greatest concern now is to prevent her from harming the Takarada and Hizuri Clans. After all, the highest goal cannot be achieved at the expense of humanity's two main lines of defense against the iniquity promoted by the Koenji and Morizumi Clans.
The truth is that I feel responsible for her, as if she was the beast that I let go of the cage and now runs rampant making random victims. Except that her victims are not random, but Clan Masters and other Nobles, the supposedly best protected people in the world, and far from being driven by primitive and bestial impulses, Kyoko seems to know exactly what she is doing.
That is, the situation is much worse. Especially if I consider the damage she has already done as an Exile and as a procreative. I can only imagine how much worse is the confusion she is capable of provoking now that she has the resources of a Clan Master at hand.
The only consolation I have now is to know that Lory and Kuu do not run the same risk as I naively ran. It is an undeniable fact that Kyoko would not have been able to destroy my Clan if I had not been a lover more than a Master. In fact, this is the truth about which Yashiro continually tried to alert me and for which he was even willing to kill. My Counselor saw the danger where I only saw what I wanted to see. Likewise, it is impossible that Kyoko did not see the consequences of involving me in Sho's death, let alone that it would be a matter of time before the world associated her name with mine the moment she became a Master.
If Lory, Kuu, Yashiro and I came to some conclusion in our last meeting, it is that Kyoko is at least two steps ahead of us. Two bloody steps that are making all the difference, so I intend to fill this gap: either I bring her to our side or I find a way to stop her if she intends to harm us even more.
Days later
The only advantage of having lost everything is that now I do not have the obligations as a Master to stop me from using the time it takes to discover the whole truth. I began my errand by wandering incognito through her territory, listening quietly to the conversations of others, and asking the usual questions that any curious about the novelty of having a woman in charge of a territory would do. All information is welcome if I am dealing with a mind like hers.
If she managed to fool Lory, we're fucked up if she turns on us and we have nothing against her!
In a voice charged with deference, they call her 'Lady Kyoko'. "Because the Master is a woman!" Was how they explained to me. Tsk, as if I did not know that in detail of color, smell, texture and taste! The Fuwa territory has been comically renamed as 'Kyoto' in an obvious tribute to the woman who is re-configuring it in such a way that soon nothing will be left to remind us of what it was before. Yes, because calling it 'Kyoko' would be too obvious and changing a letter makes a lot of difference! Well, I understand her need to change the name of the Clan. It must have been unpleasant to be called "Master Fuwa" all the time. I know I'd hate it.
Ragged and hungry people look toward the hill where the palace stands and are thrilled to speak of the woman who ordered the dismantling of half of it to reuse the materials in the construction of decent homes to the Exiles. It seems that Reino is not so attached to the palace, if he allowed her to do such a thing with the sole patrimony he demanded for himself. Same destination she is giving to the walls that divided the three cities: the stones are progressively becoming residences.
"I heard she said we're rich; we only misuse our reso ... resour... what we have! And I did not even know I had something!"
She is turning symbols of segregation into opportunities for those already accustomed to the uncertainty of tomorrow. Hope is something these people never knew before Kyoko appeared. Hell, she's fast becoming a damn icon, and it only took her two weeks to do something like that!
With each passing day, more Diggers come from every corner of the world to join the Guild than Kyoko - no way I'm going to believe the idea came from Reino - created. In a contrary flow, several nobles migrated from the Fuwa territory (now Kyoto) to the neighboring Clans seeking asylum, frightened of what appears to be the end of their privileges. Against them, Kyoko decreed desertion and expropriation, and such assets began to fatten the resources she is mobilizing to reconfigure the three cities.
At first, I did not understand what she was trying to do until I discovered that she had delineated the F and G dig sites. No doubt, she did not do it for nothing: Kyoko discovered something big enough to justify the creation of a Digger Guild and to bear the consequent influx of the Exiles that such action provoked. Far from being left with a horde of idlers in her hands, she is controlling a large contingent of people capable of digging up enough treasures to make her territory thrive, despite more and more exiles entering her territory in search of better living conditions.
It did not take long for me to find out that pretty much my whole clan came here. I could swear that they had returned to their home Clans, but apparently the months they lived with Kyoko were enough for them to want to bet on her acting as a Master. On the other hand, it took longer than I expected to hear the first rumors about the Council's concerns about her decisions.
Initially, the Council did not see the depth of the changes she is initiating. They disdained the creation of a Digger Guild, since sites A through E contain nothing but junk. Damn, I wanted to see the face that they did when they discovered that Kyoko delimited sites F and G. I must remember to ask Lory when possible. I'm sure he will be quite theatrical when he plays the whole fucking thing. The idiots believed she was destroying herself by practically summoning a horde of vagabonds and troublemakers to her territory, while they celebrated the "cleansing" represented by the diminution of the Exiles wandering their borders in search of work or charity.
They stopped laughing when they found themselves in labor shortages and paying the double to the remnants poor bastards, who quickly understood the trump card in their hands. They are ignorant, but they are not stupid.
Indirectly, Kyoko is improving the living conditions even of those who did not want to leave their homes for a chance in Kyoto. It will not be long before the Masters realize they have no choice: either they improve their slums or they will see themselves without raw labor.
One month. She only needed one month.
In the streets, men stage a pompous and fat Nobleman shouting "she cannot do this!", to which the audience of men and women, young and old replies "oh, she already did it!" between laughs and celebrations. People who do not understand politics like her simply because she enervates the once unshakable and untouchable Nobles with alarming ease.
I suppose the Council finally realized the danger that Kyoko represents, since any rumors about what goes on inside it simply stopped. It is likely that the Nobles realized that rather than an adventurer taking drastic and bizarre measures that would culminate in her self-destruction, Kyoko quickly became the symbol of the hope of better days for the more subjugated classes. The fools took too long to realize that the same horde who followed her would die for her without a second thought.
She can only be trying to start a war, it was the conclusion I came to. She will calmly wait in Kyoto for the Council ultimatum, and when this happens, she will have an army at her disposal.
After a month of living incognito and listening to the streets, the time has finally come to confront her with more than questions. I understood what she intended and the madness that her plan represents. Yes, Kyoko has an army; but it is an untrained army of tired and malnourished people. It will be a massacre, especially considering the deconstruction of the walls that divided the inhabitants and that could protect them in an invasion. Is it possible that she does not see it? Does not she realize the risk she's in? She has cornered the Nobles in such a way that they will not be able to escape without fighting. Ignoring her is no longer an option for them as she proves to be a bigger threat every passing day.
Is that what you want, Kyoko? To become a fucking martyr?
I agree that ideas live much more than people and she has already become a symbol that will be remembered, especially if... she dies for the cause she defends.
I will not allow it.
I finally decided to infiltrate the palace and question her. To tell her that her suicidal maneuver is ridiculous and convinces her to change her mind. Until I find out she's not two, but twenty steps ahead of me.
###
The first time I saw Kyoko was at the fair where she was sold to the Fuwa Clan. She was six and I was five. The Master took me with him because he did not miss any opportunity to have me around, zealous as he was. To please me, because I was particularly withdrawn that day, he let me choose the child he would buy. "Choose a cute girl!" Was the only instruction he gave me. To me, all the kids looked the same except for one. There was something special about her, so I pointed her out without thinking twice.
It would take years before I realized that was the first time my ability had manifested itself. Few people know that I can differentiate the Exceptional just by looking at them. And Kyoko was the first one I identified.
Poor thing.
When I heard about the attack, I felt responsible. I was only thirteen, but I already knew the Fuwas enough to deduce what had happened to her. What was my surprise when I heard the rumors about the procreative Kyoko? She was alive, after all; and in trouble, it seemed.
Perhaps, if I helped her, the guilt I felt for having appointed her for the patriarch Fuwa would stop pursuing me. The problem was how to get closer to her.
I need not have worried: all I had to do was wait. The influx of power on the night she fled the Tsuruga territory was so intense that one of her projections inadvertently reached me. Before the little shadow managed to return to its mistress, I captured it. Then we started to "talk".
When we finally agreed to the terms of our alliance, we came face to face. I did not expect to find her as she was because she had never mentioned that I would have to shelter six more besides her, but at last, it was a pleasant surprise. Mio was the one I liked the most and her predominant image in the months that followed, until something happened and she began to soften and become Kyoko again.
Probably something Ren was doing was keeping my Mio quiet. One day she hated him, the next day she did not hate him anymore. For several times I believed that she would give up the plan because of him, only to be surprised by her cold determination to carry it on. It is a privilege to witness the sacrifices she is able to make to protect her child. Watching her, one side of me resents the fact that Julie did not fight for me like that, while the other side concedes that Kyoko has an odd resolve.
Perhaps this is her greatest exceptionality.
I'm excited to see how far she gets, how much confusion she can create. It is in the name of such entertainment and the guilt that I felt that I made available to her all the resources I had. I never wanted to be a Master, a lot of work and annoyance. However, I always wanted to get rid of the Fuwa family, and such was the gift that Kyoko gave me.
The ghouls, Exceptional that I secretly chose and trained to be spies and killers and eventually help me exterminate the Fuwas, warned me of the infiltration of that guy in the palace. After a month pretending to be another Exile, he finally decided to move.
It's so annoying to look at him. Everything about him bothers me, from the exceptional skills to the fucking luck he has had in life. The bastard has no idea how lucky he is. First Julie, then Kyoko. Argh, I wish I could kill him.
Fuck it. Best approach him at once and stop with the staging where he pretends he did not notice me and I pretend I was not noticed.
"You took longer to appear than I thought"
"Reino. Is it your habit to sneak around people's backs? Do you want to stab me, too?"
Hum, of course he found out I was the one who killed that bastard. Kyoko was right once again.
I watch him turn slowly towards me and his eyes are cold and bloodshot. Hatred, grudge and envy are written in them with solar clarity. Damn you! You have everything I've always wanted and you do not even know it!
"It depends. Are you a sadistic, perverted son of a bitch?"
He answers nothing and I can almost feel the intensity of his thinking. He is intelligent and insightful as Kyoko. Like her, he must also have guessed what I'd been through as a child at the hands of a despicable man obsessed with Julie, being so much like her.
"I expected one of your friends following me to approach me so that I could ask about Kyoko, but since they always kept a polite distance, I decided to let them live and I came personally to have an audience with her"
His face is blank and he could feel the ghouls following him. No doubt, he was very well trained.
"An audience, you say? Why, you are late. She left three days ago"
If the information surprised him, he did not show it. The Ren in front of me does not look like the impassioned idiot I expected to see.
"Oh? And where did she go? "
"Somewhere in the desert. I'm not sure, I've never been there and she never told me the way"
Finally a reaction. If he hated me before, now he's really pissed at me.
"You let her cross the desert in that state?"
It's comical to see how wrong he understood everything.
"Have you ever seen her in the desert? I have. She looks like a damn nomad, so comfortable and confident in her steps that it feels like she's home"
"What difference does that make? It's dangerous! You should have gone with her, at least!"
"I did not go, but Maria and that friend of yours did. Nick, I think this is his name. He tried to make her give up on the idea, but heck, when she puts an idea in her head, nobody can change it"
###
Incredulity and anger fight within me to decide what I feel most. The son of a bitch... no, sorry Julie! The bastard let a pregnant woman venture out into the desert with a child and a guy who never set foot in sand. I swear I'll kill him. First, I'm going to extract as much information as I can from him. Then I'll kill him.
"It does not matter who went along, Reino. It was your responsibility to be with her" Nick was right, after all. Reino does not deserve either her or the baby and I was going the same way.
"My only responsibility is to make sure her plan works, and for that I need to protect her. I would not be helping in the desert, the sun makes me sick. Not to mention that I have to protect the palace from the imminent attack "
Oops.
"...Imminent attack?"
"That's not something you can hear wandering the streets of Kyoto, right? Yes, imminent attack. According to Kyoko, the next maneuver of the Morizumi and Koenji Clans is to support Yayoi as the legitimate successor to the Fuwa Clan. They are already articulating with the Nobles to question that if a woman will be a Clan Master, Yayoi has more legitimacy than Kyoko"
Fucking hell. Kyoko is not two steps ahead of us: she's twenty!
"I do not blame you for the surprise face you're finally doing. I was also astonished when she calmly told me that this would happen. It seems that we still underestimate women, a mistake that Kyoko does not make. That bitch was completely forgotten by us, but Kyoko knew well enough that it was only a matter of time before she became a threat. The Fuwa Clan did not end because father and first heir died: the matriarch is out there, joining the usual flock"
Holy shit. I had no idea. I did not even remember Yayoi's existence!
I should not have thought, even for a second, that Kyoko would act without deliberation. Everything she did must have a purpose, since she has not gone this far to ruin everything now.
"...If I'm understanding correctly, the plan is to bring them here. But the city is unprotected by the felling of the walls, so-"
"According to Kyoko's prediction, the enemies will not attack the city with all they got. It would not make sense to fight for resources, human or otherwise, if they are destroyed in the fight. Therefore, instead of a direct confrontation they will send well-trained assassins to infiltrate the palace and kill both of us. Yayoi will officially become the only legitimate heir in a position to take over Kyoto and everything will have the approval of most of the nobles, pissed as they are with Kyoko's decisions"
She is brilliant. Deconstructing the walls, she secured the support of the majority of Kyoto's population and determined how the opponent's attack will be at the same time.
"Knowing this, however, will only ensure that you survive the first attack. Therefore, Kyoko will-"
"Counter-attack the rival Clans while they are weakened by having destined their killers here. Precisely!"
Fantastic. She will surprise them using exactly the same tactic they will use against her: infiltration and elimination.
"I need to warn Lory and Kuu. Kyoko will need all the help she can get"
"Yashiro is on the task. Now, do not be so surprised: your entire Clan is in Kyoto; it was only a matter of time before Yashiro joined us. Especially because you disappeared for a month, right?"
"My ex-Clan, you mean"
Yes, it makes sense that everyone has come here, even Yashiro. Kyoko has clearly demonstrated that she has a shrewd, audacious, and generous mind, a balm against the ever banal or cruel decisions we have become accustomed to. It pays to be near her just to witness what she will do next.
"Oh, how I hate you!"
Hm?
"Just looking at your expression of sorrow for having lost your precious Clan makes me want to kill you. I just do not do it because I know I would not have a chance against your enormous agility and strength"
It seems that Reino interpreted my sorrow for not being at her side as sorrow for having lost the position of Master.
"I'd like to see you try, Reino"
"Tsk, you do not know how lucky you are, do you? Guys like you are really annoying. They drown in self-pity having everything that guys like me would give everything to have"
"Like how you gave your Clan to her to have her?"
Somehow, the conversation became personal.
"I wish! I wish a Clan was the ridiculous price to pay for her. No, Ren: the Clan was an apology. It was me saying 'I'm sorry for choosing you at that fair and for having sealed your destiny as another toy for the Fuwas'. It was me giving her the means to do what only she could do. The Clan was the prize I gave her for being able to be a lotus in the mud. The Clan I would have given away for free, but unfortunately it was not: she paid a high price for it. Of all the sacrifices, hers was the greatest. I just had to give up some fucking status I never wanted; she had to give up your trust in her"
I feel my heart racing. Did she sacrifice the trust I had in her?
"What about the baby, Reino?"
"What about the baby?"
"Maybe he's just like Michael Jackson and does not want the baby!" Damn, I should not be hearing Nick's voice now.
"Do not you want the baby?"
Reino is laughing and I do not know if this is a good or a bad sign.
"It's really annoying that you're the favorite of the only two women I've ever loved being the complete idiot you are. Well, I need to concede that it is not always that we have the opportunity to follow a pregnancy. Then I guess I cannot blame you for confusing the body of a woman who has just given birth with the body of a woman in the fourth, fifth month of pregnancy"
What?
"It was your responsibility to be with her, Ren. You let her cross the desert with a child, a cheerful fellow and your less-than-two-months-old son"
A / N - Well, no one doubted the baby was Ren's, which is frustrating. T_T I really wanted to scare you guys. But everyone believed that Ren was right in his assessment, which was funny. Come on girls, we've all agreed that he's an idiot! An adorable idiot but an idiot XD
Michiyo, you were practically right! Except that Kyoko did not pretend to be pregnant: she just did not explain anything and let people draw their own conclusions. But well, the most important thing you guessed. :)
