February 28, 1855 in Edo, Japan
Sensei pointed to Tsume, Fumito, and Rangiku, "And you three will go with Kasai to the temples of Asakusa. Understood?"
"Hai Sensei!" the three answered in unison.
Asuka glanced over her shoulder through the yumi {bow} and quiver across her torso, "Well, let's get going. Those books won't save themselves."
Not more than a block into the heart of Edo had Tsume noticed a bizarre lack of crowds. Naturally a few people were still around. The man at the sushi bar was still keeping his business open. An old woman was walking her dog. Yet no customers or grandchildren were anywhere to be seen.
The Assassins had not traveled another two blocks before Fumito spoke up, "Oh this is going to be awesome! It's our first big assassination! I've been waiting for so long to do this that I put together a list of different methods we could use."
Tsume perked his brow, "You act like you're going to enjoy this."
"Why wouldn't I? This is what we've been training to do for years."
Oh right. Fumito is annoying. Tsume had been removed from him long enough that all of his agitating tendencies had been pushed far back into Tsume's mind. Tsume needed to come up with something to say to quiet him, "Have you ever killed anyone?"
"No, but how hard could it be? Stick them with the pointy end."
"That's the goal, hai, but your options are going to depend heavily on the situation. You won't need the list. I can promise that. Too much can go wrong, especially if you can't see all of your enemies."
"So nothing can go wrong if they can't see me."
"Yeah well we didn't see the Shinobi before they jumped us."
"Obviously you were good enough to fight them off."
"Yeah, I guess I was," Tsume smiled. Maybe talking to Fumito wasn't so bad after all.
"Then I just need to stick with you, Washio-san."
"Hah! Yeah! But we still got captured."
"But you've learned from your mistakes, right?"
"Kuso {Shit}, I wouldn't know. The shinobi... they're just as unpredictable their reputation says."
"Well we're still going to get the Templar, right?"
"Yeah, just watch out for Shinobi. I've seen Kennosuke and Sensei fight them well enough. I just don't know about you or Rangiku because neither of you have that same combat experience."
"So, what do I do if I see one?"
"Spread your arms wide and pledge your allegiance to the Templars."
"Tsume!" Asuka snapped.
Tsume halfheartedly shrugged, "What?"
"Do you think that shit's funny?"
"A little, yeah."
"Oh, so an Asashin turning Templar is funny to you?"
Tsume paused for a moment. He really wanted to mend this joke, but he knew he couldn't change Asuka's mind. Might as well try, "I just- I wasn't being serious."
"That's a really serious thing to joke about."
"I know. I'm sorry," maybe not-trying would have been better.
"I won't hear it from you again."
"Okay, Sensei."
Asuka whipped around, stinging Tsume's face with the back of her hand, "Listen to me, Tsume, because you will only hear this once: we are on a mission. This is not the time for jokes."
By the time Tsume mentally recovered, Asuka had already snapped back around and continued toward the temples.
"Go yo {Official business}! Josei {Woman}! What are you doing?!" a samurai called from around the corner with three other samurai behind him, "Why did you hit that man?"
What's this? The samurai were protecting Tsume for a change?
"You give me a reason why I shouldn't," Asuka snarked.
The samurai glanced at Tsume's swords, "Because he's a samurai!"
Oh, well that explained it.
"And why does a woman have swords?!" his voice kept getting louder. Asuka, who was taken aback at first now leaned to one hip, waiting for the samurai to finish, "And you're leading two men in a group?! I should test my new sword on you."
Tsume's brain flashed for a moment to the day his uncle Yuji was killed by a samurai testing his blade. He never wanted to see that kind of injustice again, but he was always powerless to do anything to samurai but throw rocks and run. Now a samurai was threatening Asuka with it. Now Tsume was not powerless.
Tsume kicked the samurai in the back of the knee. As he fell, Tsume raised his hidden blade. It dug deep into the samurai's chest from the corner of the neck, spraying blood over Tsume's arm. When the blade retracted into Tsume's wrist, he kicked the body to the ground.
"Sorry," Tsume said coldly to the samurai's men, "I needed to test my new blade. . . It works."
The three remaining samurai reached for their swords. Tsume clenched himself ready for a fight. Asuka's sword greeted one across the throat, then another in his gut, and the last in his skull. The men stood dead until Asuka sheathed her sword. She was admirably graceful with an extra person inside her belly.
"What the fuck is your problem?" her eye did not convey that same fluid grace. Instead it burned of rage, "We've already lost more than enough time because of you."
Shame pushed Tsume back, "Moushi-"
"Fuzakeru na {No more screwing around}!"
Tsume only wanted to apologize. He glanced over to Rangiku and Fumito. Rangiku was shaking her head unsympathetically while Fumito avoided making eye contact with Tsume.
"Kuso," Asuka muttered, "Fumito, get to the roof. Tell me what you see."
Without a word, Fumito nodded and scuttled up the building. Or at least he tried. He stumbled a bit going up the first story, but got caught on a beam. He soon regained his balance and managed the next two stories with relative ease before disappearing to the rooftop.
As Fumito floundered his way up, Rangiku approached Asuka, "Is something wrong, Kasai-gozen?"
"Look up north," Asuka pointed, "See the smoke?"
"I do."
"Okay, and west?"
"Hai, Kasai-gozen."
"Now look around the sky. Its full of smoke."
Tsume checked around as well and Asuka was certainly correct. Massive pillars of smoke stretched to the sky all across Edo. It looked like a bizarre forest of a sort, tainting the sky gray without the promise of rain or snow.
"I was afraid Egawa would do this," Asuka continued, "I knew he would start a few fires, but he has too many to be overseeing them all personally. He'll probably even have speakers at them all too. He's crafty like that, but he also loves being the center of attention."
"Does Sensei have a plan?" Rangiku asked.
"I sure as Hell hope so, but if he does, he hasn't told me. I still don't think I'll ever understand that man. Hell, I don't even know why he wants you two to work together. So, I'm going to work out a plan that will get Egawa killed and save as many books as possible."
"You two? Do you mean Tsume and me?"
"Yes well, the two of you had sex. It's best not to get too attached to your teammates. If you lose one, things get personal. You don't want things to get personal, because it distracts you from your Asashin duties."
"Well, if I couldn't work with any guy that-"
"I think it's best if you finish that sentence there," Tsume interrupted, "I'm right next to you."
"Tsume has a point. Don't piss off your teammates, either," Asuka added, "Especially not with personal problems."
"It's not personal. It was never personal," Rangiku continued as if neither of their warnings had any merit, "Tsume is a nice enough guy, but I'm not interested in him that way. It was just sex."
Tsume was actually relieved to hear that. He didn't really want to be too closely involved with a girl who would use sex as a random gift like Rangiku. In fact, he wasn't really all that interested in getting into any relationship with a girl. In fact, the very thought of love sounded like a liability in Tsume's head.
"I mean, sex is just a thing I do. I've had it with everyone but Kennosuke, Azusa, and Takanori."
Tsume's heart sunk at that one. Everyone? Seriously? Rangiku could have passed some kind of disease his way. It was a wonder that she was not pregnant like Asuka.
"Wait, even Joseph?" Tsume asked.
"Ew no. I'm not into gaikoku-hito {foreigners}."
"Hey, what's going on?" Fumito returned.
"Nothing is going on," Asuka answered, "because this conversation is over. What did you see?"
Tsume locked eyes with Rangiku and nodded toward Fumito. "Even him?" He whispered.
"There's a burning three blocks to the north and one block west," Fumito reported to Asuka.
Rangiku nodded to Tsume with her yes-and-it's-stupid-that-you-would-ask face.
Asuka addressed all of the Assassins, "That's on the way to Asakusa. We're going to kill whoever is feeding each fire on the way to the temples. When we reach Asakusa, we're going to split up and keep our eyes open for Egawa Hidetatsu. Tsume, do you remember what he looks like?"
Tsume nodded, "Squirrely man too small for his haori."
"Good. We won't deviate very far from the path to Asakusa. Understood?"
"Hai, Kasai-gozen," Fumito affirmed.
"Does everyone else understand?"
Rangiku answered, "Hai, Kasai-gozen," the same as Fumito.
Tsume only nodded again because his attention had gone toward the implications of Rangiku having sex with both him and Fumito. Who was she with first? Who was better? Was Fumito secretly- Tsume looked up, and the other Assassins were leaving without him.
Tsume sprinted to catch up. As he did, he noticed more people than just merchants or the odd apathetic continuing their day. Instead, Asuka and the other Assassins had already partially disappeared into what had become a crowd. Tsume pressed forward in his attempt to keep pace. He gently pushed some people out of the way so he could reach his allies faster.
In the distance, Tsume could hear the speaker, but understanding him at this point was impossible. He still needed to move another block west before he would even be able to determine if the speaker was Egawa yet. He could see the smoke drawing closer. Wherever he could find smoke, he knew there was fire.
"Tsume. Over here," Fumito tapped his shoulder, "Kasai-gozen told me to stay with you."
Tsume's eyes rolled, "Alright. What else did she say?"
"She said for us to go around the left, then split up and wait for her signal. That way, we can attack from all sides."
"Makes enough sense."
"Are you ready?" Fumito pointed his thumb toward the smoke.
"Let's go."
"Lead the way, Washio-san."
Tsume pushed forward, careful not to draw too much attention to himself or Fumito. As they approached the source of the smoke, the crowd became tighter. However, he could now hear the speaker well enough to understand him.
"We will not bow to the gaijin {barbarians}! We must not! They spilled the blood of Chuugoku {China} and they tell us that they come with peaceful hearts! They said the same to the red men of their own nation before slaughtering them like pigs! Like the red men and Chuugoku, we cannot fight them as we are! We must adapt their own ways or we will be crushed by them!"
Tsume was now in the square. The stink of the fire stung his nose. It smelled somewhat of mold. If the books and scrolls were old enough to gather mold, maybe it wasn't so bad to clear some room in the libraries and temples.
He turned back to Fumito, "You keep going. I'll move to the front of the crowd here."
"Hai, Washio-san," and Fumito vanished into the crowd with that.
Tsume redirected his attention to the crowd. He was directly behind a man who appeared to be a noble. To his right, a woman held her daughter's hand. He pushed between them to advance. He was getting closer. A poor man, a rich woman, a bearded samurai, a sumo, and a girl no older than Tsume all inadvertently blocked his path. They were also easily navigated.
As Tsume parted the last two people, he reached the clearing. The fire was surrounded by about eight samurai. Another samurai pried himself through the crowd with his arms filled with books. He uncaringly fed them to the fire before vanishing into the mass of people again. Then, from across the smoke appeared another man reading aloud from a scroll. He was too big to be Egawa, but he was definitely the speaker.
"To bring in the new, we must destroy the old! To defeat the gaijin with their own weapons, there can be no greater testament to the greatness of the people of Nihon {Japan}. We shall defend ourselves so we may continue our lives in peace!"
Tsume made a quick glance around the crowd for Asuka or Rangiku or Fumito. No sign of Asuka, but Rangiku subtly waved in his direction. Tsume waved back, keeping his elbows close to his chest. Rangiku pointed to a part of the crowd across the fire. Asuka must have been there. Tsume nodded and reached for his sword. Rangiku checked Asuka's direction. Slowly her hand moved to her sword. She glanced to Tsume as her feet shifted to a pre-combat stance.
Tsume didn't wait. He charged with his hand grasping the hilt. One samurai reacted to him, but was cut down by a slash across the gut. Another drew his sword to attack, but was skewered by Tsume's blade. A third samurai attacked Tsume, but was killed by Rangiku from behind. Tsume checked his own back in time to block an overhead strike from a samurai who did not expect to be gutted by Tsume's hidden blade.
As quickly as it had begun, the fight was over. Tsume checked the area, but all of the samurai appeared to be dead. The same could be said for the speaker, whose body lay at the feet of … Fumito … Great … That means he's going to be bragging endlessly. Subarashi {Wonderful}.
"How will we put out the fire, Kasai-gozen?" Rangiku asked.
Asuka pointed to a man in the crowd, "You there!"
The man was startled and pointed to himself curiously to ensure that she was talking to him.
"Yes. You," Asuka confirmed, "Retrieve the hikeshi {firemen}. Tell them that Egawa's fires are to be put out."
He shakily bowed to Asuka, "Hai, gozen." He didn't waste any time shoving people aside as he ran into the crowd to call upon the firemen.
"Kasai-gozen, that was incredible!" Fumito yelled with enthusiasm, "I can't wait to tell my dad that I'm a hero now!"
Asuka's hand calmly raised to silence him, "We need to keep moving. There are more fires and we aren't even in Asakusa yet."
"Hey!" a voice broke the cautious calm of the situation. The last samurai of the group dropped the books he had brought to burn. Tsume readied his sword. As the samurai reached for his hilt, an arrow threw him to the ground.
Asuka put away her yumi without making a sound. She faced the crowd and only made a 'move along' motion with her hand. The human curtain parted to make a path for the lady ronin and her three Assassin students.
As Tsume followed Asuka into the clearing of people, he caught glimpses of their reactions to his deed. Some bowed his way. Some jerked back from fear. One girl gave such a smile that Tsume discerned her intentions to be seductive. However, most of the crowd reacted with a great respect for the bravery of the Assassins.
When the swarm of people ended, Asuka decided to address the recruits, "Did you see that?"
"See what, Kasai-gozen?" Fumito responded.
"Their faces."
"They looked scared."
"A few, yes. But they didn't retaliate. Do you know why?"
"Fear?"
"No, because they support us. The Templars are trying to start a revolution. The people may be getting sick of Tokugawa and the gaikoku-hito {foreigners}, but they don't want to sacrifice their own culture to achieve it. They aren't so desperate yet. They just want to be left alone."
"So, what are you saying?" Rangiku asked.
"I'm saying that Egawa will not die as a hero. In a way, he's making our job much easier. Tsume, you check the rooftops. Tell me what you see."
Tsume dashed to the nearest three-story building. It had a ladder leading up to the second story. No problem. Tsume scaled the ladder with complete ease. Running up the next wall was simple enough, despite the fact that the wall was smooth.
From atop the roof, Tsume could see the temples of Asakusa not too terribly far ahead. He managed to count the blocks up to seven, but a stupid smoke cloud blocked his view. Wait, smoke cloud? Okay, there was another fire up ahead at an intersection. Hopefully, it would be the last one before Asakusa. Seemed to be.
Tsume had never been to Asakusa before, and he wasn't terribly excited to go now. The priests held a special place in Tsume's heart alongside the samurai. They had shunned the eta {outcasts} as preemptive criminals guilty of being poor. Tsume had to sleep many hungry nights because eta were not allowed to rise the ladder into polite society. He also pilfered many coin strings for the same purpose. It was a ridiculous cycle of desperation.
"Hey Tsume," Fumito said, apparently he had just climbed the building, "Kasai-gozen sent me to help you."
"I don't need help," Tsume answered, "I'll be going down soon."
"Actually, she said not to do that."
"You have my attention."
"She wants us to lead the way from up here. Said it would be easier."
"Alright. Let's go," Tsume ran toward the fire. He stayed along the edges of the rooftops to ensure that Asuka and Rangiku could see him, but not so close that he could fall off. In the street below, the crowd had thinned until only the odd elder, child, or shopkeeper had not gathered to a burning. Soon ahead, he leapt across a gap between buildings to cross the street. He checked behind to see that the other Assassins were keeping pace with him. They were.
Down in the street, Tsume could spot the population density growing again toward the smoke. Crowds of curious and terrified hundreds must have gathered like this around each fire in Edo. They needn't fear much longer, their heroes had come. Azusa would have loved to be the one doing the saving. Maybe it would be best not to tell her the story of this mission, just to stay on her good side.
Tsume slowed until he reached a stop. He now stood over the site over the next fire. The heat and moldy smell of the burning was a stark contrast to the chilly air. As the flames chewed away at the books, another orator read from a scroll while surrounded by samurai.
"Mashūperī {Matthew Perry} and the Amerikajin {Americans} demand that we open to the outside world or they will force us! Just as the kamikaze {sacred wind} protected us from the Mongoru {Mongols} so we still retain the favor of the kami {gods}! They will guide us on our path to victory!"
It was identical to the fire from before, if perhaps more cramped because it was in an intersection rather than a square. Tsume checked the street behind in case Asuka and Rangiku had caught up to him. They were just entering the crowd, but had quite a way to go before finally reaching the front. Fumito, however, was immediately behind Tsume, also taking in the spectacle.
"We will not bow to the gaijin! We must not! They spilled the blood of Chuugoku and they tell us that they come with peaceful hearts! They said the same to the red men of their own nation before slaughtering them like pigs! Like the red men and Chuugoku, we cannot fight them as we are! We must adapt their own ways or we will be crushed by them!"
"It looks so different up here," Fumito commented. He wasn't wrong. The smoke cloud stung at Tsume's eyes and nostrils, but it was still easier to see how important this whole mess was to the people of Edo. With or without their approval, witnessing the death of their culture was a big deal.
"Hey Fumito, I have an idea," Tsume muttered.
"What is it?"
"If we attack right now, we can get the drop on the samurai. By the time they realized what's going on, they'll be dead."
"What about Kasai-gozen? Shouldn't we wait for her order?"
"She'll probably reward us," Tsume didn't wait for Fumito's answer. He jumped from the corner of the building onto the orator. If he was not crushed by Tsume's landing, the blade to the neck certainly killed him. A samurai drew his sword, but was greeted with a cloud of dirt to the eyes. Tsume wasted no time to stab him with a wakizashi. Instead of allowing the corpse to fall, he shoved him to the next samurai. Once distracted, Tsume came around the corpse to stab the samurai in the chest with his hidden blade. Another samurai slashed down, but Tsume spun to the right, using the momentum to cut open a new hole in his throat. A fourth samurai stood in a combat stance. Using his sword, Tsume flung ashes from the fire to his eyes. The samurai swung at Tsume's sword to block it, but missed completely. Tsume took the opportunity to bury a blade into the samurai's skull.
"Tsume!" Rangiku called in distress.
Tsume turned about to see her dilemma, but instead watched her stab a samurai with her hidden blade and kick him into the fire. Apparently, Tsume was the one in danger.
"Thanks for saving me," Tsume bowed to Rangiku while he wiped samurai blood from his sword.
Rangiku's palm stung Tsume's face with almost as much force as Asuka's. "Kasai-gozen said to do that," she explained.
"Why? We got them."
"Because you didn't wait for my signal," Asuka entered the conversation, "Yes, you got the element of surprise, but I doubt you even know how many times these two had to cover your back. How many samurai were there? Did you get the book carrier? "
Tsume glanced around the clearing to see if any samurai remained. None did. For that, he was thankful, but he still wished he had known the answer to that sooner. A red cut on Fumito's kimono marked a recent injury on his arm. Tsume's gaze shifted to the fire to avoid looking Asuka in the eye.
"And you got Fumito hurt. Are you trying to endanger this mission?"
"But we got them," Tsume retorted, "What more do you want?"
"For you to listen! When we get to Asakusa, I expect you'll follow your orders as I say!"
"Excuse me, gozen," a man from the crowd approached Asuka.
Asuka's hand told him to wait until she finished with her student, "Do you understand me, Tsume?"
"Hai."
"Good," she shifted to the stranger, "You were saying?"
"Did you say that you are going to Asakusa?" the stranger asked.
"We are."
"Will you stop Egawa? He's gone mad there. He has an army of samurai protecting him while he destroys our books."
"More than the samurai here?"
"So many more. I think he has an army."
Asuka sheathed her sword, "What can you tell me about the fires in Asakusa?"
"Only one fire, but he's burning the Bukkyoto {Buddhist} texts."
"Ano yaro {That bastard}."
"Please stop him before he gives the gaijin what they want."
"Don't worry," Asuka's hand moved to his shoulder to assure the man, "We will protect Nippon {Japan}, but I need a favor from you."
"What is it, gozen?" the man bowed.
"Fetch the hikeshi. Let them know that Egawa's fires are to be put out."
"Hai, gozen, at once," and with that, he vanished into the crowd.
As Asuka approached the crowd that surrounded the fire, a rift formed to grant her passage to Asakusa. Her recruits followed shortly behind.
"So did you hear that?" Asuka said to her students in her I'm-about-to-teach-you-something tone once they had made sufficient distance from the mass of people .
"Egawa is in Asakusa," Rangiku answered.
"No, that he's well-guarded. The people of Nippon have long forgotten what an army looks like, so we won't need much. Maybe around ten ronin, twenty at the absolute most."
"What if he has more?" Fumito asked.
"Modern samurai have a tendency to stop fighting once their master dies. All we need to do is get the drop on him. There's just one problem, but Tsume can fix that."
"Me?" Tsume was startled, "Why me?"
"Rangiku and Fumito, we're going to split up here. I want the two of you to enter Asakusa from the eastern side. Hire every ronin you see until you can afford no more. Tell them to watch your backs."
"I don't have any money," Fumito scratched his head.
Asuka quickly removed some money from her coin pouch, which Rangiku and Fumito both accepted. "Four shu (1000 mon) each," Asuka explained, "A ronin will have a hard time turning down a shu (250 mon)."
"Hai, Kasai-gozen," they both uttered simultaneously.
"Oh, and Fumito."
"What is it, Kasai-gozen?"
"Get your arm wrapped. It doesn't look serious, but get it wrapped."
"Hai, Kasai-gozen," Fumito's free hand covered his wound.
"Fuzakeru na. Iku ze {Let's go}."
Tsume would have watched them leave, but Asuka turned him around so the two could speak directly, "You're the only one who can spot Shinobi, because of your gift."
"Erm, what gift?" Tsume had been told by Nariko to keep his gift of knowledge a secret. He never understood why, but he followed that order faithfully, except for that time he told Joseph ... of course Joseph would be the one to tell Asuka. He never could keep his mouth shut.
"Don't play dumb. Between Joseph and Nariko, you can't keep secrets from me."
"Wait, Nariko-san too?"
"She and Kennosuke are the only family I have, so we talk a lot. By the way, Kennosuke knows too."
Tsume glared incredulously.
"That's not important. YOU are going to scout the crowd for Shinobi. They'll probably look like regular civilians, so your talent is going to be invaluable. Granted, it would be much easier if you were taller as well."
"Did you really need to bring that up?" Tsume snarked.
"Did I stutter? You'll have to prowl the rooftops nearby and keep your eyes open for Shinobi. When you see one-"
"IF I see one."
Asuka smacked Tsume for the third time today, "No, WHEN you see one, you will slip through the crowd and kill him. Only do so quietly; we can't have you scaring the crowd against us. Come with me."
As she began walking toward Asakusa, Tsume followed shortly behind. "Don't worry about your gift," she assured Tsume, "I don't plan on telling anyone, and Joseph has such a loose grasp of it that he doesn't even think it's real. Now Kennosuke has grown up with his mother using her gift all of his life. I know them well enough to tell you that they would never speak of it to anyone they didn't deem trustworthy."
"Yeah, about that whole trustworthiness thing, do you think it was a good idea to send Rangiku with Fumito? I mean, they've had sex. I figure that was why you wanted Fumito to work with me on the rooftop."
"It is, but I had a talk with Rangiku and she isn't going to just throw her legs into the air the moment I'm not looking. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but she's more devoted to the Creed than anyone but Kennosuke. She won't directly jeopardize a mission because of whoever has been inside her."
"And Fumito?"
"He's lucky to have come as far as he has. I think that his enthusiasm is by far his biggest asset. He's strong and agile enough. If he didn't have such a frail spirit, he could be a much better Asashin. Even if his closeness to Azusa could help him improve, he needs to toughen up. I seriously thought that Asashin training would help with that, but he's acting like the same kid he was when I met him."
"What about me?"
"Do you want the truth?"
"Yeah."
"You've surprised me. I wasn't expecting as much from … pardon my language … but from an eta, but you've come pretty far. You're not afraid to fight dirty. It's not that you lack honor -you do- but you also lack shame. You have a tendency to alienate the others. Azusa and Kennosuke are the only recruits who have ever expressed interest in working with you, and Joseph is the only person outside of my family to think of you as a friend. Spending time fighting alongside them will help, but it's something that we need sooner. Understand?"
"I suppose. What about this team?"
"I think all of the teams are awful. There's no sense of camaraderie between anyone. They all just want to be the best. Arkwright tells me that you worked well with Kennosuke and Azusa at first, but when you came off of Fuji-san, they seemed relieved to be rid of you."
"Oh, I see."
"Wait right here," Asuka sped up toward a samurai-looking man in tattered clothes. His hair was long and free, but he retained a samurai's posture. He was clearly a ronin. Tsume always had some level of respect for ronin. They were at least humbled and sometimes gave him charity. Other times, though, they could be worse than samurai. That usually only depended on how long they had been ronin.
She spoke with him for a while. Tsume wasn't really listening. He knew what they were saying. She was going to hire him to help in the assassination.
"Tsume, let's go. Takeru and his friends are going to help us with the assassination," Asuka informed as she began running down the street.
Tsume picked up the pace, assuming that Takeru was the ronin she had just hired. He had three other friends with him, apparently proving that, even without a lord, samurai could never break their habit of traveling in fours. Must have had something to do with shi {four} sounding like shin {death}. Tsume never cared for superstition, but if it kept the people scared, then samurai would do whatever worked.
Perhaps it was his distrust of strangers or his upcoming need to use it, but Tsume turned on his gift. The aura of Takeru and his ronin was the same blue as the aura of Asuka and fellow Assassins. However something caught his attention. A flick of red appeared on a rooftop far ahead. A shinobi, perhaps? Templars and samurai were usually red but samurai were rarely on top of buildings.
"Asuka! Chotto matte {Slow down}!" Tsume yelled, pondering the implications of being outrun by a pregnant woman.
"What is it?" Asuka and the ronin slowed to a halt.
Tsume's finger aimed at what was now a stationary red blur atop a roof, "I suspect that Shinobi are watching."
"Up there?" Asuka pointed in the same location.
"Yes, in fact, I think they're preparing an ambush," Tsume pointed at a few places in the street ahead that also glowed red from hidden Templars.
"How many shinobi are up there?"
Tsume scanned the buildings again, "There's another across the street from him."
"Directly across?"
"Directly across," Tsume assured.
"Tsume, I want you to continue walking that way. If anyone jumps out at you, the ronin will watch your back. If they don't attack, show the ronin were to strike. I'll take care of the other guys," she removed her yumi from around her body and nocked an arrow over her head.
"Hai, Asuka," Tsume then motioned to the ronin, "Iku ze."
Tsume walked with caution so as not to make much noise. He pointed to a basket which housed a Templar. A shinobi retaliated from inside when the ronin got too close, but he was quickly decapitated by Takeru. The limp body knocked the basket toward his killers. A large object fell into the shinobi's corpse, spraying harmless bits of bamboo and blood in every direction. The black kimono and mask identified him as another shinobi. The arrow in his chest identified him as another dead shinobi.
Tsume heard a similar sound behind him. The other rooftop shinobi had also been felled and also landed on a basket which hid one of his compatriots. The last shinobi crawled from the debris and ran toward Asakusa, but could not outrun Asuka's arrow.
"Is that all of them?" Asuka asked her student.
Tsume checked the road toward Asakusa, "No, they're hiding around the corners two blocks up."
"Wait," one of the ronin interrupted, "So can this kid see through walls or something?"
"Something like that," Asuka snidely answered, "In fact, I suspect he may be a shinigami {death god} in training, so be glad he's fighting WITH you."
Shinigami? That was about as new as it was apt. Tsume couldn't wait to become a terror unto samurai. His name would become synonymous with death, and there was not a man brave enough to-
"Hurry up, Tsume!" Asuka called from ahead. She and the ronin had already begun a charge against the shinobi.
Tsume dashed to keep pace. Up ahead, the shinobi ambushed his allies. It was easy to tell that Asuka was easily the best fighter among them since she seemed to kill fully half of the Templar assailants. By the time Tsume had gotten close enough to enter the fray, the shinobi had already been reduced to bloody street litter.
"Tsume, any more?" Asuka asked.
Tsume checked the road ahead, but saw no red auras. He did, however, see something unusual in the distance. It was a whitish glow. He turned off his gift to allow his mind to rest from the burden of using a sixth sense as well as to get a clearer view. Where the white glow was before, he now spied the crowd. The massive space between the buildings ahead implied that they had finally reached Asakusa.
"Nothing," he reported to Asuka, "Nothing but the Asakusa district."
"Saiko {Excellent}, I want you to take to the rooftops. Keep your eyes sharp for any shinobi in the crowd. The rest of you will come with me. I need you to fend off the samurai while I kill Egawa. Is everyone clear?"
"Hai, gozen," Takeru confirmed. Tsume only bowed.
"Iku ze!" Asuka yelled before running to the crowd, ronin closely following.
Tsume climbed to the top of the nearest building. He could see the fire from here. Egawa was likely the man moving around the fire. He really did have a small army of samurai at his disposal. They were either feeding the fire with ancient knowledge or guarding it as the people helplessly watched it consume the very thing that made them Japanese. Kuso samurai. They accepted their orders without question, even if it meant a world without samurai. Actually, that probably would not be so bad.
Nevertheless, Tsume had a job to do. He activated his gift. Specks of red would occasionally mar the white of the crowd. Sometimes he would even notice blue that insured him of Rangiku and Fumito's safety as well as their own small ronin army. Funnily enough, Egawa would occasionally shout something like he was making a point and the people around the shinobi would rile up. Perhaps that was their purpose. Perhaps they weren't even shinobi, but just regular Templars. If that were true, then this mission just became so much easier.
Directly beneath Tsume, a red spot indicated the presence of a Templar adjacent to a street-level cart with a stack of hay which was itself near to a wall. The crowd's intermittent roars moved outward like a wave; a very quick wave at that. Yet they lasted just long enough. Tsume could likely dive into the bale unnoticed during one of those moments. Too easy.
They roared and Tsume took his leap of faith. He landed in the cart and quickly covered himself in hay before peeking through to the Templar. Just as planned, no one suspected anything. Tsume reached out from the stack and stabbed the Templar's heart before hoisting him into the cart by his arms.
Tsume jumped from the cart, intent on finding the next Templar. As he dusted the straw from his kimono, he turned off his gift. All of today's continuous use had given him a pounding headache. If he progressed cautiously enough, he should be able to avoid attracting Templar attention and help the ronin in holding off the samurai.
Then, as he was gently weaving through the crowd, Tsume caught a whisper moving from the front of the crowd to the back, "Did you hear? Egawa captured some people and is going to execute them!"
Tsume began shoving people out of his way so he could pick up his speed. He was sure to use his gift again so he could hear the rumors as they made waves through the human sea. He couldn't afford to lose any time; his headache would have to wait.
"...three of them..."
Exactly the number Tsume was hoping to not hear.
"...love each other..."
What?
"...woman is giving birth..."
Kuso!
"...going to kill her like the other..."
Tsume burst through the crowd, charging at full speed toward the gold-glowing Templar. Egawa must have heard Tsume's battle cry, because he turned and surprised Tsume with a punch across the face. Tsume retaliated by striking with his hidden blade, but Egawa caught his left arm. Tsume pressed harder, trying to push his now-fully-extended hidden blade into his target's throat. Egawa's free hand clutched Tsume's face, making the distance harder to close. The resistance in Egawa's eyes drove Tsume harder. His divine justice -his shinigami- had come.
"Asashin..." the Templar managed to mutter through gritted teeth.
Egawa stepped to the right to try to distance himself from Tsume's blade, but Tsume followed his motions so closely that it was futile. It only served to push Egawa's back to-
Thud.
Something shoved them both, causing the Assassin and the Templar to fall into the massive pile of burning books. With Tsume protected from the hungry flames by Egawa's body, he finally managed to deliver the killing blow through the neck. A shriek let out somewhere, but it was over.
Tsume leaned over Egawa in a colorless void. The Templar's blood stained his kimono from the wound down, but he did not look any worse from it. Instead he was perfectly calm. He didn't even seem to mind the puffs of smoke emanating from his clothes and hair.
"How long do you Asashin plan on keeping this up?" Egawa said as though he did not have a new hole in his neck.
"What do you mean?" Tsume asked in return.
"Hmph. That tells me everything I need to know. You Asashin have always managed to wreck our plans and keep us from moving closer toward achieving our goals, but you never try to understand us or our actions. You don't have any real motivations. You only want to stop the Templars."
"You were trying to destroy Japanese books. You want a war with the gaikoku-hito. Why would I not stop you?"
"I don't want a war. I want to save Nippon from a war. Do you think that we could fight anyone in our current condition? Nippon is three centuries behind the rest of the world. If Chuugoku wished to conquer us, what do you think would stop them? Mashūperī has already proven that you can't turn down a superior army with harsh words, but if you have the superior army, then you may act unquestioned."
"Mashūperī? But he's your superior officer. What do you have against him?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. He wants to protect Nippon just as badly as anyone else."
"Speak sense, Templar, or not at all."
"I am speaking sense. Did you not notice? Or are you too blind to see it? Oh, to know the Templars' plans would give you and your ilk such a great weapon in your fight against peace."
"How will destroying our history help you to achieve peace?"
"Stupid Asashin, even if I sat down and explained everything to you, you could never hope to understand what drives us to do what we do. I don't have that kind of time now, and it's because of your recklessness. Perhaps you should have thought of that before you killed me. This conversation is finished."
Tsume was jerked from the fire and the void by a ronin. His gift had been shut off, possibly for the best. The flames were consuming the lifeless body of the man with whom Tsume had just conversed.
"Are you okay, kid?" the ronin asked as he patted out embers down Tsume's kimono.
"What just happened?" Tsume replied as he pondered why he was not suffering Egawa's fate.
"You fell into the fire."
"How long was I in there?"
"Maybe a few seconds."
"Impossible, I just talked to him," Tsume pointed to the unmoving Templar corpse.
"I don't know how. You killed him pretty thoroughly and I pulled you out as soon as I could."
Tsume looked over at the fire. Two ronin were removing someone in a white kimono from the fire. The Assassin robes were largely reduced to cinders, but a man from the crowd pulled them off, revealing the Assassin to be Rangiku. She must have been the one to push Egawa into the flames. Unfortunately, this was not the same beautiful Rangiku that Tsume knew from a few hours before. Her skin looked like she had melted. The cloth that bound her wrists appeared to have charred until it broke. The man removed his haori and draped it over her shoulders to keep the winter breeze off of her body. It would have been much warmer than the sarashi wrappings that she had been reduced to exposing to the public.
As Tsume came closer, he saw that she was staring at Fumito's corpse. He was the one Egawa had executed. His kimono was a stark white contrast to the red pool of blood that poured from his neck. Asuka was nowhere to be seen, but she was presumably having her baby at this most inconvenient time.
Tsume placed a hand on her shoulder, "Rangiku, it's okay. You saved me, so thank you."
She moved away from his hand as if it hurt. Considering her burns, that should not have been a surprise. Then she looked up at Tsume, challenging all of Tsume's courage not to flinch. His scar looked like nothing compared to what she had just suffered. Her head shook disapproval at Tsume's words.
"Tsume," she pointed to Fumito's body laying with his face obscured by his hood and the earth, "Did you kill Egawa?"
"I did."
"Will Fumito be okay?"
"He'll be fine," Tsume lied, "but we need to get you to a doctor."
September 21, 2012 at the Abstergo facility in Rome, Italy
"Well, Dr Nakamura, you will be more than pleased to see that your lead was correct. Mr Marshall is, in fact, descended from Washio Tsume," Vidic's voice said.
"I knew he would be," answered a woman's voice with a Japanese accent, "Have I ever been wrong?"
"No, that you have not, Dr Nakamura."
The animus visor slid out from in front of my face. About time, too. I was more than ready to get the image of that burned woman out of my head. That Tsume must have seen some shit, because I can't shake the feeling that we're just getting started. Yet I already can't wait for it to be over.
I stepped away from the animus to stretch off all of that laying around. I quickly glanced over to Dr Vidic. As I expected, he was talking with a bespectacled middle-aged Japanese woman with an iPad clutched in her right arm. I know it sounded racist, but I was already getting tired of seeing Japanese people in the past. I didn't want to be dealing with more now. At least my home town of Philadelphia had a few other kinds of Asian. I really wanted to go back to that place. I wanted a cheeseburger with fries and a coke. God, I missed America.
Vidic, who seemed to just now notice both my presence and my awakeness motioned between me and... "Mr Marshall, meet Dr Mitsuko Nakamura. Dr Nakamura, this is Gabriel Marshall, as you no doubt know."
"Pleased to meet you," she extended her hand alright, but she very clearly was not pleased. If she really was pleased to meet me, she would not have been giving me the same level of interest that I gave to my ex whenever a new Twilight book came out.
I shook it and bowed from the hip, "Konnichiwa, Nakamura-san." Wait, did I really just do that?
She cracked an itty bitty expression that resembled a smile of mild amusement, "Close, I assume that the new enhancements to the animus are assisting you in synchronizing with your ancestor and harnessing the bleeding effect."
"Dr Nakamura," Vidic oh so rudely interrupted, "We have not discussed the details of the operation with Mr Marshall just yet."
"Have you at least explained why we need Washio Tsume?" Nakamura snapped.
"No, and that is to stay classified until we get closer to the memory we need."
She looked back at me, "Simply, your ancestors were very important."
"Wait, ancestors? Like... more than the one?" I was only aware of the one, but holy shit. I kinda wanted to see just how important my DNA could be. Maybe I was even the big oil well that they found in the basement of the house that they won in the lottery or something else that ridiculously unlikely.
"Hai, but we want to run a few tests on you first."
"What kind of tests? Because I promise I'm clean."
"Nothing much, Mr Marshall," Vidic answered, "We just want to see what kind of skills you may have picked up from your ancestor. Apparently, you're picking up on his language, so we don't need to run that test."
"Domo arigato, Dr Roboto," God, I hated that song, "So, Doc Nock, exactly what is he talking about?"
"We're going to test your combat skills and maybe your agility if we have time for it. We scheduled a meeting for you with Daniel Cross. He's an expert at hand to hand combat among numerous other skills."
"Ah, okay, so when will the famed Mr Cross get to bask in my presence?"
"Sooner than you think, kid," an unfamiliar male voice said from behind me.
I pointed my thumb to the origin of the voice, "That's him, isn't it?"
Dr Vidic placed his arms behind his back, "Yes, Mr Marshall."
I turned around, expecting either expecting some ginormous douchecanoe with no sleeves and sunglasses or some guy from the Matrix with a black trench coat and sunglasses. I was not expecting that he would be about my size, looking like a pretty normal dude in a normal black button-up shirt, even if he did look like the singer from Alice in Chains. He wasn't even wearing sunglasses. He had short blond hair, high cheekbones, and a somewhat pissed-off expression that looked like you couldn't cheer him up with a two-girl threesome. So yeah, he looked exactly like the singer from Alice in Chains. May he rest in peace.
"Gabriel, you're coming with me," Daniel said. He uncrossed his arms and proceeded around the animus and to the door. I followed him along with Vidic and Nakamura. I was admittedly curious to see how they planned to test my combat skills. Hopefully, we were going to a padded room without straightjackets instead of the parking lot. I was really not looking forward to getting flipped onto some hot asphalt. Dealt with enough of that shit in my imagination.
"Hey, Cross, I have a question for you," I spoke up.
"What is it?"
"JEYEYEYESUS CHRIST. Deny your mak-"
"Stop. You are not funny. That is not funny. We are not paying you to joke around."
"Do you at least-"
"Yes, I get that comparison all the time. That just makes it annoying."
He still acted like a douchecanoe. He pushed open a door to a room at the end of the Animus chambers. It looked a bit like a martial arts dojo, but slightly more... blank. There was nothing on the whitewashed walls. The only hints of color were the four people who had just walked inside as well as the black mat that covered most of the floor.
Daniel moved himself to the middle of the mat, "Marshall, I want you to attack me."
"Wait, really? You'd see anything coming from a mile away."
Behind me, Nakamura mumbled something mostly incoherent, but distinctly enough for me to hear 'Increased tactical reasoning,' so I guess great-great-whatever-great grandpa was teaching me something after all. I walked slowly toward Daniel, knowing that he was going to fuck me up if I got too close. So, I stopped and moved into Tsume's unarmed stance. Lean back on my left foot while facing my right leg straight toward the opponent. Hands held up in a fencing position. I moved in for an uppercut.
September 22, 2012 at the Abstergo facility in Rome, Italy
Beepbeepbeepbeep
I struggled to push myself up. Daniel 'Totally-not-the-singer-from-Alice-in-Chains' Cross did a hell of a number on me yesterday what with all of the flipping me onto the floor for a few hours that he did. I was at least thankful that he got so caught up with his combat exam that the other doctors didn't have time to give me their agility exam. I don't think I was paying much attention in my studies anyway.
Ah shit. 2am again? That could only mean ...
"Gabriel, please report to your animus chamber."
Dammit, Steve from Accounting.