[FFML] [fic][rk][cont] Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 28: The Wild Card

[Abdiel]

"Are you insane, boy? Do you want to die that badly? Where are you
getting all this confidence? You saw and felt firsthand what that witch
is capable of. You're in over your head," muttered Tetsuo Akahori.

Yahiko Myojin replied, "Don't tell me what I can or cannot do, old man."

"Are you sure you're all right? You're sweating more than I am," pointed
out Soujiro Seta.

"That's only because half of your sweat is steam, you weirdo! Leave me
alone! Go protect your girlfriend already!"

Had the Heaven Sword stopped acting like a hero for a minute and let
Yahiko protect Rin while he in turn defended Tetsuo, then none of them
would even be in this mess they were in.

'Why do they keep calling me Seta-kun's girlfriend?' wondered Rin, her
finger on her lip while her irises shook as though she were about to
cry.

Soujiro decided to humor the presumably half-dead, heavily injured, and
delusional Yahiko's request by doing what he was told. He sheathed his
Kikuichi Monji and went in front of Rin Akahori while posed in a
battoujutsu stance, shielding her from any of the Fake Battousai's
attempts at her life.

Meanwhile, Yahiko himself bore responsibility in protecting Tetsuo
Akahori's wellbeing, his inherited reverse-edged blade held right in
front of him as he assumed kendo's most basic Water Stance or Chudan-no-
Kamae. Meanwhile, Kaede Morinaga saw her chance at murdering either of
her two most important marks dwindle exponentially.

If she were to attack either Soujiro or Yahiko, either of the two could
intercept her while she was busy with one of them and double team her
before she could even harm a hair on any of her intended targets. 'This
goddamned brat... I thought he was already done for! How was he able to
ruin my plans to take down the Ten Ken this easily?'

She eyes became sharp slits. 'Come to think of it, he's injured. How was
he even able to punch the Ten Ken in the middle of his Shukuchi? I'm
having a tough time enough keeping up with Seta Soujiro. Is that kid
really just a pickpocket that Battousai rescued from the yakuza?'

Unbeknownst to anyone in the guestroom, Yahiko was merely replicating
his successful tactic against a certain fighter named Genbu back when he
and the rest of the Kenshingumi went off to Enishi Yukishiro's island
hideout to rescue Kaoru Kamiya from his clutches.

Yahiko and three of the other gathered warriors who wasn't Kenshin or
Misao (they got Megumi tagging along their little rescue party for Kaoru
as their doctor too) had to fight Chinese quadruplet martial artists
(seriously) under the leadership of the second-in-command of Enishi's
Shanghai Mafia Organization, Heishin Wu (Heixing Wu).

Genbu (Xuan Wu), one of Heishin's Su Shin (Si Xing or Four Stars) or Su
Shen (Si Shen or Four Gods), made use of a wooden stave that could
collapse itself into segments.

This weapon rendered Yahiko's defense and counter ougi... the Hadome and
Hawatari respectively... useless because every time he attempted to
intercept the multi-section staff with a cross-armed block, all Genbu
needed to do was collapse his weapon and let it slip from the boy's
grip.

Using a modified version of the two-part succession technique of the
Kamiya Kasshin School, Yahiko neutralized the san jie gun flail's
disassembly by thrusting the handle of his shinai right at its tip. This
allowed the boy to present the Su Shen warrior with a Catch-22 of sorts.

If Genbu were to retreat a step, he'd be countered with the Hawatari. If
he were to step forward and force his attack, he'd be countered with the
Hawatari. Myojin took a third option, destroying the stave-mace with his
Hawatari.

The idea behind Morinaga's hostage trap involved playing mind games with
an opponent by attacking two targets on either side of the room, which
kept him guessing what she'd do next. With two people defending both
targets, every choice presented to her became a no-win double team
scenario regardless of who she attacked.

Tragically, if she hesitated too long with her choice, she, like Genbu,
would be attacked by both Yahiko and Soujiro as well, leading to her
defeat. The fact that she was forced to use her best counterattack, the
Sasori Gatame, on Myojin proved that he was no slouch in battle either.

And so there they were.

"You're really going to get in my way, are you?" asked Kaede.

"Mochiron," answered Yahiko with Minoe's favorite catchphrase.

'He's a lot smarter than I give him credit for,' mused the bearded
Akahori. 'My gamble paid off. Even though Amakusa had an ace up his
sleeve in the form of the Battousai of Speed, I still have my spanner in
the works. He's my wild card; the butterfly in Henri Poincare's chaos
theory.'

'I misjudged him. Myojin Yahiko isn't a mere pickpocket street rat. He's
the descendant of Tokyo Samurai. It must be his pride as a samurai
that's urging him to fight on even when his body is at its limit,'
thought Kaede.

"Speaking of girlfriends... Hey! Rin, was it? Thank you for saving my
life. I'm going to repay you by saving the lives of your boyfriend and
your asshole father... no offense."

"Thank you, Myojin-kun," Rin bowed at the spiky-haired young lad before
gulping down a wet feeling inside her throat that reached to her
nostrils. Was it her morbid imagination, or did it look like that the
boy was saying his fond farewells to all of them?

Morinaga frowned, sensing something was amiss.

Yahiko took a quick glance at Soujiro and nodded to himself as the
Heaven Sword's reddened complexion returned to normal. Even though the
older male still looked like he went through hell and back, he was
nonetheless a lot healthier than either the Tokyo Samurai Descendant or
Amakusa's apprentice assassin.

Besides which, Myojin's charade allowed the Ten Ken to restore some of
the stamina he lost from using the friction-inducing Shukuchi too much.
He sighed in relief. 'Just as planned.'

Yahiko hadn't made a bigger, more thick-faced bluff since the multistory
Fuji of the Juppon Gatana almost turned him into street pancake back in
Aoiya. Of course, he was at his limit! He got stabbed in the shoulder
and he could barely feel his arm!

However, his pride stopped him from showing how badly the Scorpion Death
Lock hurt him, especially after how he survived two Kuzu Ryu Sen attacks
from monstrously powerful opponents. Then again, the believability of
his ruse wouldn't last for long.

Something important occurred to Morinaga. 'What am I thinking? I just
stabbed him with the Sasori Gatame! He can't be all that healthy after
taking that attack. This kid is trying to pull the wool over my eyes!
He's only doing this to buy the Ten Ken more time!'

'Whoops. The jig is up,' the Myojin kid thought as Morinaga not only
glared daggers but a whole armory at him. "Looks like it's time for me
to use 'that'."

"Use what, Yahiko-san?" Soujiro chuckled. It seemed like Kenshin's
prodigy had something interesting planned. "Are you talking about your
God Hammer?"

"No. You'll see." Yahiko smiled at the person that would've been his
rival had he the time to train and become stronger than he was now. He
licked his lips and remembered Tsubame Sanjo's cute, cherubic face in
his mind's eyes.

"Hey, Psycho-Kid. Take a visit to Kenshin's home sometime. He's in
Tokyo, at the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu Dojo somewhere in Asakusa. He's hard to
miss."

Soujiro blinked at Yahiko's last statement. 'Yahiko-san, what in the
world...?'

Figuring out Yahiko's plan, Morinaga fell into her Scorpio Stance, her
uchigatana raised high above her head and her sakaba wakizashi held
perpendicular to her waist.  If she were to charge at the Son of Tokyo
Samurai right then and there, he'd fall easily against her might.

There was never going to be a double team. The teenager looked like he
was about to drop at any second. "You got me. That was an impressive
bluff. You won't last much longer, though," Kaede said.


========================================================================


Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/223441/

Do you want to know who won in the end? Keep on reading.


========================================================================

Chapter 28: The Wild Card

========================================================================


"Hey, Morinaga. Back in the East Valley, you murdered the leader of the
Fake Battousai Group by using the Sasori Gatame, disemboweling him in
the process. My bowels are still inside me, and the only thing you hit
on my shoulder, judging by how much blood I lost and its darkish color,
was a vein."

Kaede didn't answer back. Yahiko continued.

"You kept complaining to me that I don't have the guts to kill people,
yet you yourself held back with your Scorpion Death Lock. This after
murdering nearly all of the Togakudan. Why is that?"

"It's none of your business."

"Yeah, it is, because this is my life we're talking about. I also want
to know why you were crying back then after injuring me."

"I-I wasn't crying! I... don't know..." Kaede grabbed hold of her left,
swollen eye as if it were on fire.

"Who are you really, Morinaga Kaede?"

"I...!"

"OH YEAH!"

Just as everyone thought that they'd run out of surprises, in came the
swollen head of a bloody, bandanna-wearing man that broke through the
wall, wielding a metal bat and sporting a toothy, insufferable grin.

At _least_ the one that burst through the wall wasn't a humongous,
anthropomorphized glass pitcher serving as a mascot for a flavored drink
mix. Created by foreigners. From the future.

"G-G-Gan?" Yahiko stuttered.

Yahiko thought he'd lost his mind. Everyone else in the room did too
(except perhaps Soujiro, who merely gave the scene a curious tilt of the
head as though it were a normal occurrence back in his days with the
Juppon Gatana), so he was in good company.

"Oh, cool! You took down Amakusa Kumamoto already! Good job, Yoshi-boy!"
said the Great Gan as he spotted the supine form of the Hidden
Christian.

Gan then took one look at Morinaga as he dusted off the dust, bits of
plaster, wood shards, and other pieces of debris on his person, and
asked, "Who the hell are you supposed to be? Samurai X?"

Under normal circumstances, Yahiko would've kept on staring at the idiot
before him for _hours_, mouth agape, as he wondered how a decapitated,
amputated, and otherwise mutilated corpse could come back to the dead,
his body whole (if somewhat blood-soaked).

He didn't have time to spare for such nonsense, though. He had his
priorities to attend to, and he was already "in the zone", so to speak.
"Gan! I have no idea why you're still alive or if you're a ghost, but go
protect the Oyakata's daughter! We're in a hostage situation right now!"

"Okie-dokie, Yoshi-boyee!" Gan gave Yahiko a wink and a thumb's up
before barreling over towards the girl with the shaking eyes, cream-
colored hair, and skin that was whiter than a piece of paper. She was
hard to miss.

Morinaga realized Yahiko's plans in a flash. Now that this Gan person
was there to take over Soujiro's place in protecting Rin, she could now
be triple-teamed. Moreover, it left the Ten Ken free to do whatever he
wanted. However, Myojin made one fatal mistake: She was going to attack
him and Akahori anyway, so he should've had Gan protect the Oyakata
himself.

"I got your back, er, front, Yuki-Onna! By the way, I'm the Great Gan!"

Rin nodded while brushing a strand of seemingly bleached hair away from
her face.

"There's nothing great about you!" came Yahiko's side comment.

"Shut the fuck up!" retorted the Witty and Creative Gan.

Two things happened at once during Yahiko and Gan's playful repartee.

Left with only one option for attack, Morinaga disappeared from
everyone's midst using her short-range speed and her Crypsis to hide her
presence as she headed straight for the wounded Myojin and the Elder
Akahori.

Now that he didn't need to worry about Rin's safety, Soujiro used his
powerful legs to leap at and intercept the charging Battousai of Speed
with a blinding battoujutsu strike.

Nevertheless, Kaede herself had recovered a bit of her stamina thanks to
Yahiko's protracted sham, which allowed her to predict Soujiro's actions
and react in kind, doing a Vice Grip and plucking his weapon out of his
hands. She attempted a Deathstalker Stab at the weaponless swordsman,
but he again slipped from her clutches.

It didn't matter. At that moment, the Ten Ken wasn't her real target.
By the time Seta retrieved his Kikuichi Monji, it'd be too late. She
would've already killed both Yahiko and Tetsuo.

Yahiko remembered the feeling he had when he punched the invisible
Soujiro out even while the latter used the true Shukuchi. The samurai
kid had to use "that" right now before he forgot the feeling. He raised
his sword, shifting from the Water Stance to the Fire Stance as Morinaga
herself prepared to attack him.

An afterimage flash of Kaede revealed that she'd reacted immediately to
his change in position as she herself shifted posture and went into the
Cancer Stance. Even if she were to hold back again with her Scorpion
Death Lock, there was no way he'd survive the attack. Hell, he only had
enough energy to pull off one more attack regardless.

Even now, as Myojin looked at Morinaga, he couldn't help but be reminded
through her looks of how monstrously powerful Kenshin Himura (now
Kenshin Kamiya) was and how his greatness overshadowed Yahiko's past,
present, and future achievements.

The young man also realized that his hero worship of Battousai blinded
him of two important points: Kenshin himself couldn't save everyone in
his life. He also wasn't there with them inside the Shinshushin Mansion,
so it was up to Yahiko to do something about this assassination plot.

Too much idolization was unhealthy, as evidenced by how Amakusa's
charisma made him to develop a God Complex, drove his Hidden Christian
followers to their deaths, and caused Morinaga to resort to cowardly
extremes to kill the Akahoris whom Shogo loathed.

Kenshin was Kenshin. Yahiko was Yahiko.

The Yahiko Myojin of today wasn't strong enough to beat Soujiro Seta,
Kaede Morinaga, or Shogo Amakusa. His entire stay inside the Akahori
Mansion confirmed how grossly unprepared he was at handling fighters of
the Battousai's caliber.

Nevertheless, Yahiko wasn't about to stand by idly and do nothing
either, even if bluffing and distractions were all he could accomplish.

Most importantly, Kaede was Kaede. She was no Kenshin, no matter how
much she looked like him.

Kaede asked earlier where Yahiko was getting all his confidence despite
his injury. The fact of the matter was that he'd figured her out. In the
middle of bleeding to near death as his soul hung between the Human
World and the Spirit World, he realized something important about
her.

Her out-of-place laughter and tears. The fact that she was a woman. Her
surprise when he attacked her. That cross-shaped mark that was placed
nearer her left eye than Kenshin's scar was. Her inability to kill him
even after she scolded him for his non-killing ways. Her possession of a
reverse-edged sword. Her zealot-like obsession with Amakusa. Everything
clicked. He knew _exactly_ who she was.

Yahiko brought the sakabatou down while Kaede brought her swords
together to block the incoming assault. He then screamed:

"MIINNOOEE!"


===


About six years ago, before Sanosuke Sagara (nee Higashidani) bid adieu
to his longhouse and his friends back in Tokyo as he avoided capture
from the Meiji Government and wandered the earth...

"FUTAE NO KIWAMI! AAAHH!"

"How the hell did you do that, Sano?" asked a ten-year-old Yahiko after
catching Sanosuke practicing his Dual Extreme technique he learned from
the Juppon Gatana's Bright King, Anji Yukyuzan.

"Do what, Yahiko-chan?" queried Sanosuke while a fishbone jutted out
from the corner of his mouth.

After Yahiko and Sanosuke came to blows for that remark... the boy
"caning" the street fighter with his bamboo sword (a weapon that would
later be known to the Western World as a Singapore Cane) until it broke
as though the latter were a petty thief being punished by a grandfather,
the child clarified his statement.

"How'd you blast that boulder into tiny pieces?"

"Oh, that? I punched it really hard twice. Like this." He punched the
air and showed the boy the Dual Extreme in slow motion first by striking
with the middle knuckles of his fingers, then by hitting with his fist's
knuckles.

A scowling Yahiko threw a rock at Sano's head. As expected, the older
man barely flinched. "I'm completely serious, kid. Try it."

With half-lidded eyes, Yahiko took another rock from the mess of rubble
and debris Sanosuke made, placed it on the flat piece of rock that was
left of the boulder, and punched it hard twice as demonstrated by Sano.

The spiky-haired boy yelped as his fist, fingers, and knuckles bled.
"OW!"

"HAHAHAHAHA! You really tried it! What a dumbass!" Sano grabbed hold of
his bandaged sides as he pointed and laughed at the humiliated Son of
Tokyo Samurai. "

"Dammit! You liar! I knew you were just making fun of me!" With tears in
his eyes, Yahiko threw another rock at Sanosuke, this time hitting his
nose.

"You're an idiot. Of course it won't work the first time you do it, you
dolt!" said a nasally Sano as he pinched his bleeding nose and conked
the violent little runt on the noggin. "Don't worry about it too much,
though. It took me a while to get it."

"For how long?" questioned Yahiko.

"About a week. And that was with the threat on my life over my head in
the hands of a mad monk if I weren't able to master it in time," boasted
Sanosuke. "I guess I'm just that awesome."

The Myojin kid groaned. As usual, the training methods of the man
formerly known as Zanza, Master of the Zanbatou,  was out of this world.

"Hey, 'Kamiya Kasshin Ryu's Greatest Student', if you're done playing
with Sano, it's time for more wrist-crossing drills. Your Hadome is
getting rusty, and Yuta-kun is quickly gaining on you on the skill
department," drawled a smirking Kaoru Kamiya from the distance while
using air quotes.

By "Yuta-kun", she meant the other "Greatest Student of the Kamiya
Kasshin School", Yutaro Tsukayama, who'd recently arrived back to Japan
from Germany. Damn, Yahiko hated that insufferable woman and her
teacher's pet, Cat Eyes.

"Now there's an idea! To be honest, your bare-knuckle fighting sucks,
kiddo. If you really want to try out the Futae no Kiwami for yourself,
maybe you should use a sword instead of your fists."

"You really think so? You really think it's possible to do the Dual
Extreme with a sword?" asked an eager, bright-eyed Yahiko.

Sanosuke shrugged. "Sure. In a hundred years, maybe... OUCH! That was my
goddamn _eye_, you little shit! COME BACK HERE!"


===


Back to the relative present, inside the guestroom of the stately
Akahori Manor...

'Did he say Minoe? As in Patches? Our Patches? Why'd he mention Patches
at a time like this?' Gan thought as Morinaga flickered into existence
after hearing the name. 'Was Samurai X the one who killed Patches?'

Meanwhile, Soujiro had already retrieved his sword and was now sheathing
it into its wooden scabbard.

"...." said a wide-eyed, teeth-clenched Kaede as Yahiko brought his
sakabatou all the way to his back, its tip pointing at the ground, to
increase the power of his blow.

'Is this his Tsui Gami? No. It's something different. He's probably
going to try and break both my uchigatana and wakizashi at the same time
with twice the power!'

In light of this recent development, Morinaga uncrossed her swords and
opted to avoid the strike with her Crypsis and short-range speed. She
muttered a short prayer for the Tokyoite as Myojin's strike left him
wide open for a second Sasori Gatame.

'Even after I've unconsciously spared your life, you insist on dying by
my hand. You asked for this, Myojin Yahiko.'

"DOU GAMI!"

"What the...?"

The reason why Yahiko spoke to everyone as though it was his last day on
the world of the living was because he believed that was the case. He
didn't know if "that" would work or not. For the longest time, he
couldn't do the Dual Extreme.

The technique that Sanosuke and Anji shared worked by letting the first
strike absorb the initial resistance, then punching it a second time
quickly to double the impact and produce perfect conveyance of the force
with zero resistance.

This was almost impossible to do with a sword because a blade doesn't
have knuckles or segments that allowed it to hit something twice fast
enough to convey zero-resistance force.

However, thanks in part to the invention of the Tsui Gami or the God
Hammer... a technique that could break a sword by using the recoil of
its initial strike to hit the same spot twice over... it was now
possible to strike something, anything, during that tiny window of
opportunity where the perfect conveyance of force could be done.

In theory, anyway.

There was the likely development of the God on Earth not working, his
blunted blade merely hitting the floorboards below him twice and making
a dull, thumping dent on them before his body showered them with blood
anew thanks to Morinaga's Scorpion Death Lock. If this wasn't going to
work, then...

Rest in Peace: Yahiko Myojin (August 27, 1869 - November 7, 1884).

Hence his final farewells.

As Yahiko suspected, "Samurai X" (Seriously, where did Gan get all these
moronic nicknames?) reacted and adjusted herself automatically to both
his feint and his attempt to break her twin swords apart. Thank Buddha
she reappeared after he screamed Minoe's name, because he had yet to
learn how to detect her Takae-reminiscent Crypsis maneuver. At least
_those_ bets of his paid off.

At any rate, he'd been aiming for the floor from the start, remembering
Gan's earth-shattering Happa and Fuji's crater-making strike. Even if
she were to avoid his strike with a short dodge, she'd still be hit by
the God on Earth, if it worked. All of those different techniques were
in his mind as he executed his Dou Gami on the ground.

The teenaged samurai didn't quite expect what _did_ happen, though. He'd
seen Sanosuke pulverize entire boulders with a couple of blows from his
right hand. A sword was bigger than a fist, especially a reverse-edged
one that hit like a metal rod.

Because his recoiling God Hammer to the ground utilized the heavy,
almost adamantine strike of the reinforced sakabatou, it transferred a
greater amount of force at a larger area. He _seriously_ underestimated
the impact of the ensuing blast.

Yes, _blast_.

The force of the explosion flung both Myojin and Akahori straight
through the space that used to be a wall and multiple yards outside the
mansion. Morinaga flew up and hit the roof face-first instead of going
the opposite direction Yahiko and the Oyakata went because she jumped up
at the last second.

She fell to the ground a broken heap, her hips and back aching as she
crushed the debris that had gathered below her. She got up and turned in
time to see the image of Soujiro Seta in a battoujutsu stance vanish
right before her eyes. He'd finally delivered what she'd been asking for:
His only named sword technique, the Shun Ten Satsu.

"Oh shi...!"

Kaede saw a ray of light pierce through her one healthy eye, followed by
darkness and a spinning, flowery rainbow kaleidoscope she'd seen before,
when she asked Amakusa to demonstrate to her his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu
Succession Technique, the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki, with a bokuto
instead of a sword.

Her body moved on its own as it went into Scorpio Stance and then did
the stance switch needed to give her Sasori Gatame that extra leverage
for instantaneous stabbing and gutting.

At last, the Scorpion Death Lock and the Instant Heaven Murder were
going to go head-to-head against each other. Which technique was the
strongest?


===


Several yards away from the Shinshushin Mansion, as the break of dawn
approached...

Yahiko didn't want to get up from where he lay. Not out of laziness but
out of pain. He dully noted that his shoulder injury was bleeding again
despite all of Rin's efforts to keep the puncture wound from worsening.

Ironically, he never felt more alive in his life. It worked! The Dou
Gami worked! In spite of everything that naysayer, Yutaro, said, it
worked like a charm! Granted, he had no idea if it'd work again or if
his muscle memory and reflexes could recall and replicate it, but he'd
cross that bridge later once he got there.

His head throbbed. He felt like vomiting out his pureed internal organs
or else risk having them pour out through his pores in a red goop in
place of sweat. He stayed that way for what seemed like days.

He sheathed his inherited sword and attempted to get up, but he sat down
again because his legs felt too rubbery to support his body. He had no
choice but to stare at the smoking wreckage and wonder if his new
technique did any damage to the Battousai of Speed back inside the
guestroom.

"YOSHI-BOY! OYAKATA-DONO! Are you two still alive?"

Now that the danger had (somewhat) passed, Yahiko allowed himself to
freak out at the sight of the blood-soaked meathead running straight for
him like a one-man stampede. "AH! ZOMBIE! OBAKE! PRETA! GAKI! JIKININKI!
Get away from me and rest in pieces already, you ghoul!"

"Watcha talkin' bout, Yoshi-boy?" inquired the Petulant Gan while making
his cheeks expand and balloon. "And what are you kneeling around for?
Get up when someone's talking to you!"

"I would if I could, you dolt," the red-faced Yahiko grunted. That one
last God on Earth sapped him of the strength to move on his own power.

"Are you honestly too stupid to realize you're supposed to be dead? I
saw you get sliced into choice cuts by Amakusa with my own two eyes! I
was talking to your severed head because I almost went insane with
grief! Am I still crazy, you undead nincompoop? Am I dreaming that I
beat the Battousai Group while I slowly bled to death?"

"Huh. That'd actually make sense, come to think of it," Gan pointed out.

"Well...?" insisted Yahiko.

"Oh! Right. Heh. Funny story..." said the Sheepish Gan with a chuckle
and a twiddle of his thumbs after he put his kanabo-tetsubo on the
ground. He then pointed at his crimson head, which were still spurting
droplets of blood. How was he able to walk, much less run, with such an
injury? Was this mansion somehow attracting all sorts of supernatural
beings into it?

"I also thought I was dead even while I gave you that little pep talk to
make you stop whining and crying like a little girl. I stayed there for
quite sometime, accepting my fate, thinking to myself that maybe
haunting that _mansion_ wasn't half-bad at all. I mean, it's a pretty
swank pad. At least my ghost wasn't going to get earthbound to a garbage
dump or a cemetery..."

"Get to the point, you hairless gorilla," admonished the Tokyoite. The
Garrulous Gan cleared his throat.

"_Anyway_, as I willed myself to move, sticking out my tongue as well as
practicing my moans and scary faces, I heard something snap below me,
which made me scream like a bitch in heat. It felt like my neck was on
fire. I called for help from the rest of the corpses around me to lend a
fellow ghost a hand, when suddenly, a hand popped out from under the
floorboards."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Thing is, I soon realized it was my own hand. My head was
poking out from the ground not because it was sliced off, but because
that goddamned Kumamoto made me fall into a ditch of sorts. I helped
myself out before I heard the commotion at the guestroom. Whatever you
guys were doing back there, you were really going at it."

"But what about that time I saw you get chopped up into bits and pieces?
Don't tell me my eyes were deceiving me!" demanded Myojin.

"Yoshi-boy, I think we were drugged. After we saw that flash of light
from Amakusa Kumamoto's shiny sword, our minds went bye-bye." Gan even
created a bird with his two open palms and had it flap away in front of
Yahiko's face to make his point.

Yahiko gripped Gan's pant leg, his eyes hidden by the shadows created
by his bangs. "S-So you're not dead? I'm not dreaming or hallucinating
anymore?"

"Uh, no." The Understanding Gan patted the Son of Tokyo Samurai on the
head, his sharp bangs stabbing his palm. "Were you worried, Yoshi-boy?"

"Of course not, you idiot!" shouted Yahiko as he pushed Gan's hand away,
crossed his arms, and stared at the other direction. "I-I still can't
believe that we were drugged. Doesn't that sound a bit farfetched to
you?"

"Your bandanna-wearing friend speaks the truth, Myojin-kun."

Two of the Three Stooges turned in time to see the split-faced Akahori
walk up towards them while cradling the arm that Morinaga stabbed at
earlier in her duel with Seta. Obviously, he survived from getting flung
by the explosive God on Earth move as well.

"Oyakata-dono!" the Sanbaka duo (as opposed to trio) chorused.

"Amakusa has a technique called the Rai Ryu Sen. Or he used to have one,
before he nearly died trying to fight off a government-issued army all
by himself."

"Yeah. The Oyakata-dono's right. That was the technique Kumamoto used to
make his sword all shiny and bright," confirmed Gan while nodding. "I
think it contained some sort of powder maybe? I can't be sure. All I
recall before everything went crazy was a bright flash."

The teenaged kendo expert tapped his finger on his chin. The Rai Ryu Sen
in and of itself was an enigma to him. Even after a year of observing
Kenshin and his Hiten Mitsurugi School, he had yet to see him do what
looked like a cross between Udo Jine's Shin no Ippo and outright
hypnotism.

"Wait a minute. It's a technique that Amakusa _used_ to have? Meaning he
can't do it anymore?" asked Yahiko.

Had he still sported his glasses, Tetsuo would've pushed it up his nose
and let it glint in the moonlight. "Precisely. He can't do it by himself
anymore, he has to rely on using an orb containing hallucinogenic drugs
to perform the trick."

Gan smacked his fist on his open palm. "Yeah, I remember now! He had
this small glass ball he sliced apart with his sword before Yoshi-boy
and I went all... wonky. We saw all sorts of crazy shit back there,
didn't we? So that Christian kook used hallucination drugs on us! That
makes perfect sense!"

Akahori corrected, "_Hallucinogenic_ drugs, but you're not far off, Gan-
kun. It's oversimplifying things, but hallucinogenic drugs can also be
called mind- control drugs. I'm guessing Amakusa used his body-freezing
kenki and his knowledge of western medicine to create this new form of
Lightning Dragon Flash."

Yahiko palmed his face. He couldn't believe it. That meat-bun-addicted
idiot was so strong-willed yet stupid, he was hypnotized into thinking
he was a ghost. However, several other things that happened in the
ballroom started to make sense to him as well, if what Tetsuo said was
true.

With a raised eyebrow, Myojin asked Akahori, "How do you know all this?"

The Oyakata answered glibly, "Because it was all part of my plan. He
fired off that damned technique against my daughter, myself, and you as
well as himself, probably. I figured that Amakusa could only carry so
many orbs and utilize so much of his sword energy at a given day, so I
intentionally did everything I could to make him waste using his
signature attack."

Yahiko clenched his fist and turned away from Akahori before the urge to
punch the politician's smug face overwhelmed him. The way Tetsuo
manipulated everyone within the mansion... from Amakusa to the policemen
to the Togakudan to everyone else including him... left a bad taste in
the Tokyoite's mouth.

One other thing bothered Yahiko. "Hey, Gan. Do you remember the name of
the technique Amakusa used to take you down?"

"Uh, Lightning Dragon Flash, was it?"

"No, the other one. The one that mutilated your head and neck."

"It's Ryu Sou Sen... something. I dunno."

"Was it the Ryu Sou Sen Garami?"

"Yeah, that's the one. I think. That hurt like a son of a bitch, man."

Yahiko had already heard of the Ryu Sou Sen Garami before. Kenshin
admitted to using that version of the Dragon Nest Flash (the "Garami"
kanji simply meant attacking the head) back in his hitokiri days, when
he confessed to everyone of his friends in Tokyo the story behind his
twin scars.

It was a technique that hit a single point on the body using multiple
slashes instead of hitting multiple vital points at the same time. Even
though this was the Surprisingly Durable Gan he was thinking about,
Yahiko believed that the Ryu Sou Sen Garami should've been fatal and
there was no need to use the Rai Ryu Sen to trick the hoodlum into
thinking he was dead.

Why did Amakusa, who showed little to no mercy against Akahori's police
army (save for an initial warning), decide to spare Gan? The teenager
suspected he already knew the answer to that question. 'It was Minoe,
wasn't it?'

"By the way... Well done, my boy. You've exceeded my expectations again.
You're not only a dark horse in the cockpits, but also as a bodyguard as
well!" praised the Oyakata, remembering the stunts that the Sanbaka
pulled with Gan's androgynous hen-cock.

"Sure, whatever. It's not like I saved you because I wanted to, you
bearded, two-faced bastard." Yahiko harrumphed. Come to think of it,
hadn't he himself played into Akahori's plans as well? The old man
certainly acted like that was the case.

Tetsuo smirked, then winced as his facial muscles made his injured face
hurt. "If you say so. I'm grateful nonetheless, Myojin Yahiko."

"You're not going to kill Amakusa or Morinaga under my watch either."

"Fine by me, especially since I'm sure you won't let them kill me or my
daughter either. I'll just have them detained and put into trial like
the criminals that they are instead."

Gan scratched his bleeding head, wondering why Yahiko was acting so cold
towards his temporary employer whose life he saved. Did something happen
between the two of them while he thought he was dead?

"Hey, Yoshi-boy. Was Samurai X the dude who killed Patches?"

Yahiko choked on his spit. "W-What made you say that?"

The Curious Gan shrugged. "You were screaming his name at him." The
beefy man grabbed hold of the boy's uninjured shoulder. "I didn't
realize how much he meant to you. I'll miss Patches too."

"...Y-Yeah." The boy turned away and avoided Gan's gaze. "Oh yeah.
'Samurai X' isn't a dude, but a lady."

"WHAT? NO WAY! He's as flat as a board! Of course he has a penis!" Gan
took off his bloody bandanna, wrung it dry, and wore again on his head.
"Although those hips and ass do have me wondering..."

"Oh, did you mean _Minoe_, Myojin-kun? Isn't he the young eye-patched
lad that was with you back in the Shinshu Cockpits? I remember him. He's
one of the new recruits of the Togakudan, if I recall correctly. Did he
die in the hands of the Battousai of Speed? Such a waste. My
condolences," said the Oyakata.

For one reason or another, the Dense Gan felt as though the temperature
of the morning air had dropped a degree or two, but he couldn't put his
finger on why that was so.

"Akahori-san! Thank goodness, you're safe!" cried a fat-lipped, sleepy-
looking police officer that emerged along with six other coppers from
the smoking wreckage where Yahiko and Tetsuo stood about ten minutes or
so earlier.

"I see the cavalry has arrived," commented Akahori. "Good morning,
Lieutenant. How many casualties have been tallied so far?"

"The last report of the surviving Togakudan tallied around thirty or
more casualties from both the officers and the spies, sir. Some people
are missing and presumed dead, although there were a number of
unaccounted deserters as well."

"Impressive. I expected a lot more casualties, seeing that this was the
One-Man Army of Nagasaki we're dealing with. Even when he's at his
worst condition, he's still quite the problem."

Yahiko recognized the voice of the policeman that greeted Tetsuo. It was
muffled when he first heard it, but he was sure it was the same Kanagawa
lieutenant who was trapped within one part of the mansion along with the
rest of the remaining policemen thanks to Shogo's Dou Ryu Sen.

"Hey, it's you: Nishimura from Kanagawa. You were able to get out of all
that rubble and debris, huh?"

"Ah! You're the boy who countered everything Amakusa threw at you! I'm
so glad you survived! I was afraid that he had killed you too, seeing as
how scuffed up Akahori-san's head bodyguard is!"

Yahiko snorted. He heard the same thing from the Oyakata earlier. Did he
really look that unreliable against Amakusa? "Of course I'm still alive.
I've been alive all my life," he sardonically added.

"He's actually the one who made the difference in the fight," revealed
the Oyakata himself as he patted the growling teenager's hedgehog hair,
which made the copper all but prostrate himself at Myojin. The young man
could barely resist rolling his eyes.

Once he regained his senses and stopped ingratiating himself with the
politician, Lieutenant Yusuke Nishimura made his true feelings known to
the kendoist.

"You kept your promise, kid. Thanks a lot. Now stop making us policemen
look bad and let us do our job, okay?" whispered Nishimura with a light
punch to Yahiko's chin.

Myojin grinned. "What the hell are you talking about? Without you cops
nearly killing Amakusa before we got to him, we would've been goners for
sure."

The boy then turned serious as he asked, "What happened to Officer
Kosaburo and Sergeant Sakaguchi? Are they okay?"

"I'm right here, Yahiko-kun," said a weary, sweaty, and dirty Sergeant
Satoru Sakaguchi from the Kanagawa District. "Kosaburo-kun is all right.
He's a bit dizzy after being knocked out by that landslide Amakusa threw
at us, but he's otherwise okay."

The Tokyo Samurai Descendant heaved a sigh of relief.

"Officer Daddy! You're alive!" Gan greeted the husband of the Soba Shop
Owner he stole food from with a big bear hug, his blood spilling all
over the policeman's face.

"That's _Sergeant_ Daddy to you, big guy!" jibed Satoru while he tried
to squeeze himself free from the Overly Affectionate Gan before
something inside his body broke. He'd accumulated enough damage from
facing Amakusa already.

"You're a powerful son of a gun, the way you swatted that cultist
bastard around like a common housefly! It must've been because of all
the meat buns and soba you've been eating without paying!" said Satoru.

"That was a strange battoujutsu stance you used on Kumamoto earlier,
Sergeant Daddy! How were you able to see him with your back turned?"
asked Gan.

"I'm afraid that's a Sakaguchi Secret I'll take to my grave, Mister Food
Bandit!"

"...You're not still sore about that food tab, are you? I already paid
that in full along with a chicken that could either be a hen or a
rooster."

"...." said Yahiko as Satoru and Gan laughed their passive-aggressive
issues away. He turned his attentions back to the Oyakata and the last
available members of the different police squads he gathered.

Akahori was now talking to a reed-thin man in Togakudan uniform. "Have
you arrested Amakusa and Morinaga? How are Seta-kun and my daughter
doing?"

"Uh, 'Morinaga', Sir?"

"Yes. The girl with the twin swords, a cross-shaped scar, and red hair.
She came along with Amakusa as a backup assassin."

"Um, there was no one there with that description, Mister Akahori. The
only ones we saw inside the guestroom were..."

"Wait, what happened to Morinaga?" interrupted Yahiko. "The one who
calls herself the Battousai of Speed! Where is she?"

"Akahori-san! Yahiko-kun!" called out Officer Kosaburo Shinichi as he
ran towards the gathering throng of cops and spies, his forehead wrapped
in bandages. "We've searched high and low in the mansion! Amakusa Shogo
is nowhere to be found!"


===


During that fraction of a second where Soujiro Seta and Kaede Morinaga
used their finishing moves against each other after Yahiko blasted
himself and Akahori away to safety...

On one scenario, there was Soujiro dashing so fast with his Reduced
Earth, he broke the sound barrier and slashed Kaede apart with his
Instant Heaven Murder even before she could even bring up her swords to
block using the Vice or Scissor Grip, much less use her deadly Scorpion
Death Lock.

On another scenario, there was Morinaga, timing and blocking the Shun
Ten Satsu perfectly despite the small window of opportunity for her to
react to it thanks to the supersonic speeds of the Shukuchi. She then
countered the helpless Ten Ken with her Sasori Gatame, tearing his
shoulder apart and gutting him like a fish at the same time.

What had truly happened lay somewhere between those two extreme
scenarios. The flash of light Morinaga saw held an important clue to
the truth of the situation.


===


Back inside the guestroom of the Akahori Mansion, before the officers
trapped inside wreckage created by Amakusa's Earth Dragon Flash had
escaped and secured the perimeter of the manor...

"Seta-kun! Seta-kun, where are you?" Rin called out while coughing
primly at all the smoke and dust that Yahiko's unexpectedly powerful
technique caused. Who knew that a recently injured swordsman could still
pack that much of a punch with his strike?

She saw a silhouette of a young man with a bob cut grabbing hold of his
shoulder covered by powdered dirt and dust plumes, the area surrounding
him tinged with the smell of blood. "Seta-kun! Is that you? You're...
hurt."

"Ah. Rin-san. I'm glad you're safe," said a perspiring Soujiro, his
right shoulder bleeding and ruining his scuffed-up blue clothes with a
purple and brown stain.

After noticing Rin's eyes travel to his injury, the Ten ken reassured,
"I don't think this wound is as deep as Yahiko-san's Sasori Gatame stab,
but it's still the most significant blow Morinaga-san landed against me
next to that foot stab."

"Sit down. It'll help stop the bleeding," ordered Rin, and Soujiro
obliged. "We should get you down to the infirmary. I have no more
sleeves left to tie that wound down."

She then felt something cold and metallic beside her as she sat down,
which made her jump. "What's that?"

"That's Morinaga-san's uchigatana. I sliced her weapon apart with the
Shun Ten Satsu."

"Oh." Rin threw the broken sword piece aside and straightened herself
out as she sat down again. "Did you kill her?"

After a slight pause, Seta admitted. "...No. I don't think so, because
I'm still alive. But we almost killed each other."

"I see. Where is she now?"

"She escaped. She's probably long gone by now, along with Amakusa."

Even after admitting there was nothing left of her torn sleeves to make
bandages with, Rin nevertheless tore another piece of her silken kimono
off (the bottom part near her ankles, to be specific) for the sake of
staving off the flow of blood from Soujiro's punctured shoulder.

'Even if we were able to complete our attacks against each other, the
fight would've still ended in a draw, with both of us dead.' Soujiro
shook his head and chortled to himself. 'You were even more interesting
than I thought you were, Morinaga-san. Both you and Yahiko-san are.'

He was sure his Instant Heaven Murder landed right before Morinaga could
complete her Scissor Grip block, which enabled him to slice right
through her katana. As his battoujutsu was about to complete its bone-
cutting arc, he felt something plunge into his shoulder. Afterwards,
there was this flash of light.

He imagined killing her. He imagined being killed by her. He imagined he
was dead. The next thing he knew, he felt shooting agony on his shoulder
while a sliced piece of metal clattered on the floor right next to him.

"Seta-kun."

"What is it, Yuki-Onna?"

"Don't call me that. You sound like that scary big man with the bleeding
head."

Seta giggled once more. "I'm sorry. What is it, Rin-san?"

"What was your truth? Which truth did you decide to adopt as your own?
Himura Battousai's truth? Or Shishio Makoto's truth?"

He closed his eyes. "Neither. I haven't found a truth to follow yet. I
want to think about it some more."

Soujiro's smile vanished as he felt something wet and soft touch his
lips, his eyes snapping open in surprise.

"That's good to know."

With the Young Akahori's face as blank and neutral as ever before, Seta
couldn't tell if the moist, tingling sensation on his mouth was from his
imagination or not.


===


In the darkness, Kaede heard thunderous footfalls reminiscent of hoofed
beats on the ground, which made her arms twitch and grab hold of the
nearest sword handles her fingers could find. She needed to block the
Heaven Sword's attack and counter it. She wanted to win their duel.

Morinaga opened her eyes and saw the Nagano landscape whiz past her as
her undone hair flowed freely in the breeze. Her fingers felt the soft
mane of a rather strong-smelling, four-legged creature. She was on a
horse, and right behind her was Amakusa.

"Ah. You're awake." Shogo smiled and brushed her hair back because it
covered her face and made her look like a red-dyed mop.

She felt blood rush to her face as she squeaked an affirmative while
grabbing hold of the horse's neck. She then bit her lip as she felt a
stinging sensation on her side.

She had all sorts of cuts and bruises on her person, and her left eye
still felt a bit swollen from all the hits it took. She didn't have a
broken bone in her body, but they all felt like they could snap at any
moment.

"What happened to my sword?" she asked after feeling her cloth belt for
her weapons and finding only the reverse-edged wakizashi made from of
Battousai's broken blade.

"I'm afraid all that's left of your katana is the handle and the hand
guard. The Shun Ten Satsu sliced it apart," said Shogo as he rifled
through his clothes and showed the damaged weapon to his assistant.

"What happened back there, Shogo-sama?"

"We almost had them, and that was just the two of us. Imagine if we had
all our allies working together to bring the Meiji Government down. Even
Akahori won't be able to stop us."

"Okay." Kaede exhaled as everything came back to her. Her lengthy, back-
and-forth duel with Soujiro Seta. Her (unconsciously halfhearted)
Scorpion Death Lock against Yahiko Myojin. The final parts of her death
match with the "original" Heaven Sword. The Tokyo Samurai Descendant's
unexpected revival and interference. Her Sasori Gatame going against the
Ten Ken's Shun Ten Satsu.

"So you used the Rai Ryu Sen to rescue me from the Ten Ken's Shun Ten
Satsu, didn't you?" asked Morinaga.

"...Yes. I wouldn't call it a 'rescue' per se, though. By the looks of
things, both your attacks were able to connect. You would've both died
had I not interfered," admitted Shogo.

So that was what happened. Amakusa did a Lightning Dragon Flash and
hypnotized her and Soujiro into thinking that they both finished each
other off.

"You had a spare Gadamar Gem with you?" she asked.

"Surprisingly enough, I didn't. That was all me," said Shogo as he
rested his tapered chin atop Morinaga's noggin.

"Sh-Shogo-sama! You were able to do the Rai Ryu Sen on your own? That's
wonderful news! You're beginning to regain your old strength back!" she
cheered.

"It took everything I had to do it though, which explains the getaway
horse. Neither of us can move anymore. Just barely."

She bowed her head low. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault. We should've
succeeded in our mission. You almost died back there. I should've tried
harder. I should've won against the Heaven Sword."

The supersonic speed of the Shun Ten Satsu reminded her of the mock
Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki slashes Shogo did to her with a wooden sword
during their sparring sessions. They lost many a bokuto thanks to those
practice matches.

Even after all that time, she still wasn't fast enough to counter
something of the caliber of the Instant Heaven Murder or the Heavens
Gliding Dragon Flash.

"No, it's not your fault. I'm the one who aborted the mission. I'm the
one who forced you to act as backup. I didn't want to lose you there
because of my mistakes. Besides, we can always try again." Shogo gripped
Kaede's shoulder in encouragement.

"You exceeded both my expectations and Akahori's. You took the Ten Ken
to the limit. I don't want to lose someone as special as you to a duel
brought upon by my own carelessness. Who knows what you'll be capable of
months or even years from now?"

She pouted and buried her face into the horse's mane. Parts of what
Amakusa told her had an out-of-context double meaning that made her head
spin. The other parts simply annoyed her, though.

"What do you mean months or even years from now? I'm as old as you are!
I'm about twice as old as that Yahiko kid, for example. Stop talking
down to me like I'm a child!"

Amakusa guffawed. "Then tell me the secret of your fountain of youth. I
thought women your actual age were flattered when people mistake them to
be younger than they are."

"S-Stop teasing me."

"Kidding aside, thank you for lending me your strength. I'm apologize
for my selfishness. It's people like you that make me look forward to
the future."

"Stop talking like you're my old man or something! It's creeping me
out!"

Shogo sniggered before wrapping his arms around Kaede. "My bad. I'll
stop now."

They stayed like that for about ten to twenty minutes before the female
Battousai look-alike queried, "Shogo-sama?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for sparing Myojin Yahiko and Gan for Minoe's sake."

"...No problem."


===


Earlier in the Seventh of November, within the ballroom of Akahori's
Mansion, about two hours or so after midnight...

"You almost blew your cover. I'm impressed that you were able to hide
your identity for this long," Amakusa said, inwardly impressed at the
new arrival's complete nullification of the Kuzu Ryu Sen. "Have all the
Togakudan been taken care of?"

The petite man shook his head. "One or two of them might have survived."

"Really? Well, judging by all the corpses here, you still did an
outstanding job. Those spies kept me on my toes more than the police
squads did, Morinaga."

"Er, I'm not Kaede-chi," clarified Munenori Minoe... the wigged,
unimposing double agent of the Kakure Kirishitan... his left eye and
cross-shaped scar hidden by an overly large eye patch.

"Oh, right. Who are you this time? It's 'Minoe', right?"

"Yes. Also, I'm a professional, Amakusa-chi. It's my job to do this."

"Congratulations on a job well done, then."

"Mochiron!"

Shogo examined his sword for nicks and cracks. A few more swings from
the spiky-haired young man's blade and it would've been all over for his
Sword of Light and Darkness.

Minoe espied the boy he shoved about a couple of feet below him. "It
seems that I've knocked Yahiko-chi out."

Amakusa breathed out a prolonged sigh and relaxed his shoulders after
his nicked sword stopped shaking. "I'm still wondering why you were so
adamant in keeping that boy and his friend alive. Are you doing this
because he used to be a part of the Battousai's posse?"

"Huh? How did you know that, Amakusa-chi? I wasn't able to report to you
much of anything since yesterday." Minoe blinked... or winked... with
his one eye several times.

"When we fought, I noticed him holding the same sakabatou that Battousai
once owned. Just like the one you're using as a wakizashi now, except
yours is the copy. He also knows a bit too much about the Hiten
Mitsurugi Ryu and who the Battousai is. He's probably the same boy who
fought Seta Soujiro after you massacred that gang of criminals who stole
our name in order to terrorize that one Shinshu village."

"I see." Minoe fidgeted and adjusted the bowl-cut wig atop his head that
was once used for kabuki; the silliest disguise he could find. "Amakusa-
chi?"

"Hmmm?" the beatific Amakusa didn't bother turning his head, his eyes
darting to the corner where Minoe stood.

Minoe stared at his reverse-edged backsword as though absorbed by its
craftsmanship, his mind drifting elsewhere. "Did we really need to kill
_all_ of them? The policemen? The Togakudan? Couldn't there have been
another...?"

"We had no other choice. I gave them the choice to give up or face the
consequences of going against me. If we waffled or hesitated in the
middle of our mission, then we would've wasted our time and effort. Our
people back home would've suffered extreme cruelties for centuries to
come. The Hidden Christians will not stay hidden any longer."

Minoe nodded slowly, remembering the condition of his leader's body
after what it went through during the disaster known as the Modern
Shimabara War.

"I understand the situation. Maybe I'm being naive. Maybe I want to
believe in the same nonsense Yahiko-chi believes in. I wish there was a
way we could save our people without resorting to killing. Save them
like Jesus Christ did."

The pristine and glowing Amakusa tapped his pointer finger on his lips
while the winds of his sword energy continued to ebb and flow like the
tide. Such talk reminded him of his naive uncle, Hyoue Nishida.

"Are you getting cold feet? Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will
see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. After all, Doraku
spoke quite highly of you, and I myself have seen what you're capable
of."

"Akatsuki-sensei did? Huh. That's not the impression I got from him."

This time, Minoe shook his head, sheathed his searing, friction-heated
short sword, and trailed his finger over the rickety railing full of
Amakusa's missed sword slices.

"I'm not afraid. I look forward to lending you my strength and fighting
Oyakata-chi's most powerful lackey, the Heaven Sword. Akatsuki-chi
speaks highly of you too; if he believes that you're the one who'll
avenge the Suzaku Clan's downfall and save the Christians from religious
persecution, then I'll gladly lay my life on the line for you... like
Kaede-chi would."

Shogo's eyes met Minoe's one eye before he stared elsewhere and smoothed
his cape. "You'd do all that because Doraku approved of me? I'm
impressed by your dutifulness and loyalty to your master."

"No. I do it because I believe in you too, Amakusa-chi. I've seen who
you are and what you're all about with my own eyes." For the first time
since the assault at the mansion began, Minoe allowed himself to smile
from the bottom of his heart.

"You carry on your back the hopes and dreams of thousands of people on
your shoulders. You've risked your life for them time and time again,
and I bet you'd gladly do so in the future as well. You're no mere rebel
or murderer in my eyes. None of the swordsmen here are worthy of
fighting you, least of all me. Your mere existence has earned my
loyalty."

Amakusa chuckled, but his smile died eventually as he tightened his grip
on his bloody sword's handle. By instinct, he moved to place his weapon
back into its scabbard before remembering a second later that the Myojin
brat had already destroyed its custom-made, bladed sheath.

"Were you... fond of those two strangers? You certainly didn't look like
you were only pretending to grieve when I finished off the big one."

Minoe fidgeted as he searched for the right words to say.

"Did they also earn your loyalty by merely existing as well?" Amakusa
specified.

Minoe blubbered, "Have I not proven my loyalty to you by infiltrating
the Togakudan's ranks? By providing you with all the information you
needed to take down Oyakata-dono-chi's army of policemen? After all the
spies were... finished off to keep them from mobilizing those police
squads any further?"

"...." Shogo intimated as he looked away.

"Don't misunderstand, Amakusa-chi." The eye-patched man inhaled and
exhaled to calm himself. "I would never betray you, if only for Kaede-
chi's sake."

Amakusa reassured, "Ah, no. I'm sorry that I didn't make myself clear.
I'm not accusing you of betrayal. I appreciate your trust, and I'm
willing to give you my trust in return. I was merely curious about your
relationship with those people you've met outside of the Togakudan."

Nevertheless, Shogo inwardly acknowledged to himself that he was quite
used to the eventuality of betrayal. He'd been betrayed many times
during his lifetime, and even Doraku himself... Minoe's master and
former caretaker... was a traitor to most anyone he'd ever served. Those
who were truly loyal to the charismatic leader had a tendency to die as
well.

"I misspoke. Don't take any of my suspicions personally. There are times
when even _I_ tend to betray myself. It can't be helped," the Kakure
Kirishitan said, which again rendered Minoe speechless.

"Was that another quote from your bible?" Munenori asked without irony,
his hand rubbing his jaw as his lone eye's iris moved to the left while
he contemplated Shogo's words. "How does one betray oneself exactly?"

In spite of himself and the gravity of the situation, Shogo cleared his
throat in embarrassment. "What I meant to say was... I'm sorry for
endangering the people you've come to care for within this mansion.
That's the tricky part about being a double agent. If you become too
attached with your fake identity, you can turn into your mask. Don't
forget why we're here."

Minoe bit his lip. "Thank you, Amakusa-sama. I mean, Amakusa-chi. You're
right. I must think of the bigger picture." Doraku Akatsuki's number-one
disciple saluted the smiling, pink-faced Amakusa.

"Gan-chi is as much of an important person to me as all those criminals
that died back in the East Valley were to others. They too had parents,
siblings, relatives, neighbors, friends, and people who cared for them."

>From a distance, the sound of thumping wood echoed inside the mansion.
Did the policemen Amakusa had trapped inside their munitions room
already escape the rubble and debris surrounding them? Was this noise
the thunderous clunks of the Ten Ken's feared Shukuchi?

Minoe should stop being so paranoid. Of course it wasn't the Reduced
Earth. Didn't Morinaga successfully get the Akahori girl back? When the
Togakudan double agent regained consciousness, Rin Akahori was already
delivered unto his arms.

Munenori continued. "A life is a life. I shouldn't discriminate because
I got to know Gan-chi better than the terrorists and spies that Kaede-
chi massacred. The burden of taking human lives is a responsibility I'm
prepared to bear."


===


Next: Consequences will never be the same.

In regards to the mention of the Singapore Cane, it's a rattan
cane resembling the shinai that was once used against American
Michael P. Fay on May 5, 1994 as punishment for his vandalism in
Singaporean soil, which sparked a minor diplomatic conflict
between the United States and Singapore. It also led to the shinai
being called a Singapore Cane as well in the West, particularly
during professional wrestling matches.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others)
are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen
Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallop, Studio Deen, and
ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted
material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me
please, I'm very poor.

Open your eyes,
Abdiel