Maiko

  Maiko let out a curse as she brought her guard up. Her eyes dashed between corners of the small room. And she barely caught the glint of steel before she dodged out of the way, rolling to her feet as she saw a knife strike into the door frame. She dropped into a defensive stance, eyes darting in every direction she could think of.

  “My disobedient girl,” The familiar voice of Masashi came from all directions, keeping her from finding a concrete spot to trace him to. “I ask you to take on a simple task, and you keep allowing yourself to be distracted. This time you were not near her for what, even three days? How am I supposed to work with such poor tools?”

  “It’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools,” she countered. She moved to press her back against the wall, only to curse that decision when a blade cut shallowly into her shoulder from the paper wall. Her twist and retaliation strike caught nothing but torn paper. “You sure do like to hear yourself talk,” she growled. She darted into the center of the room, pushing up the low table to try and buy her some cover.

  And lo, did she discover almost too late that it was of little help. A slash came from the shadows cast by the table, and she barely managed to avoid the blade before it could so much as cut her kimono. “You’ve learned new tricks,” she commented quickly.

  A face appeared in the northeastern corner, the familiar face of Masashi. He looked as smug as ever as he spoke. “Or, I simply never showed you all of mine. I certainly taught you everything you know, but I absolutely did not teach you all I know. Your inability to manifest Air Aura made sure that was going to be such even if I was willing to teach you more.”

  Her knife flew into his face, only to pass through with absolutely no resistance. “Kami be damned,” she growled. “So what, am I now a liability?”

  “You are a child,” his voice almost sounded like a concerned parent, which pissed her off more. “And you need to be taught a lesson. I would have thought that the last one was good enough. Were your efforts with Horobei not enough to gain her trust?”

  “Not everything is about your damned plans,” she countered. “We won’t be your puppets to be led without question anymore!” She caught the glint of a dagger in the corner of her eye, but as she moved to parry it, her blade passed through as if it wasn’t there. When the dagger glided past her cheek, she realised that it wasn’t even real. “Tricks?! Is that really all you have?”

  A sting on her shoulder showed her just how wrong she was. A knife embedded itself into flesh, but by the time she turned to find its source, she saw nothing but the continuously encroaching shadow. She pulled the dagger from her shoulder in a shock of pain, her eyes resuming their search in the moments after.

  “Should you be so surprised that I would not face you directly as you seem to want?” His mocking laugh filled her heart with fury. “It seems that Himari and hers have had too much effect on you. A few years ago, you never would have dreamed of playing fair.” Another knife came flying at her, and she ducked quickly. Without being able to differentiate real from fake, she couldn’t afford to treat any dagger as anything but real.

  But of course, she was quickly running into a problem. What little vision she had was being choked out, and she couldn’t see him in the first place. How could she fight someone she couldn’t see?

  It was at that moment that she first noticed the vibrations that she had been feeling recently. A step from behind her. She turned just in time to leap away from a knife being brought down at her back. Her eyes widened briefly, but an idea quickly formed.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She gave up focusing on any visual cues, any sounds in the room. And then she saw the vibration of a foot stepping closer to her. Instead of cueing just on that, she willed the vibration up into the body it occupied. And in that moment, she saw all of Masashi. His feet pivoting in preparation to throw. The motion of his arm as it moved with his wrist to flick forward and throw the blade. She only caught a brief glimpse of the weapon as it left his hand, but it was enough. She stepped to the right, and vaguely heard it clatter harmlessly against the ground behind her.

  He said something to her, but she’d long since pushed his words out of her awareness. She charged directly towards him, a knife slipping from her obi and striking for his shoulder. She watched the echo parry her blow, and as she rotated she pulled a second knife out with her left hand, slashing for his neck.

  There was a noise from him. She let herself smirk. Faint drops interrupted the vibration of Masashi. Blood. He pulled away. She pushed her advantage. Her blades struck like a storm of steel, forcing block after block, parry after parry.

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  “How? How can you see me?!” His voice penetrated her awareness briefly, and she pulled back in surprise for just a moment. There was something in his voice, something she’d never heard from him before: fear. She tamped down the well of pride that started to push up through her stomach. She still had to stay focused.

  She dashed at him again, her right hand feinting upwards. He took the bait, moving to block an already spoiled blow and failing to catch the strike that caught the tendons in his left leg. She sensed him fall, and the vibration of his knee hitting the ground resonated through her body. She turned quickly, each of her weapons coming for his head. He went to block her left hand, and her right turned swiftly as the hilt of her knife found purchase to the side of his head. She felt him crumble to the ground, and for a moment her own heart stopped. Her eyes opened carefully. Even seeing with her own eyes, the sight of Masashi laying on the floor felt almost unbelievable.

  Maiko fell to the ground, her breath slow and ragged. She stared at the unconscious body of Masashi for almost two minutes, as if waiting for the form to disappear. She’d been in his web for too long not to expect further tricks. But no matter how many times she turned away and looked, no matter how many times she expanded her senses to hunt for new vibrations, he was still there.

  She took a breath and got to work. A set of rope would not be sufficient to stop his tricks, but it would keep him from actually striking her. She tied him up carefully, making sure there were no weapons on him, no tools he could use to escape her bonds. Even after she was sure there was nothing on his body, the rope was interlaced between his hands to make them useless. She wasn’t about to leave anything to chance. She set him against the table and slipped out only long enough to get tea.

  Masashi woke up a half hour later. She sipped on her cup as she watched him recollect his bearings. As he looked at her and tested his bonds, her eyebrow lifted as he chuckled. “Color me impressed, Maiko-chan. You truly are no longer the child I have long treated you as. You must tell me how you saw through my illusions.”

  “Forgive, but I don’t think you’re in a position to question me,” she said calmly. “And I don’t think I am likely to give up my biggest advantage over you.” She sipped her tea again to allow a pregnant pause before she continued. “So instead we are going to talk about your plans. I am done stumbling in the dark while you dance us around like puppets. So we are going to talk.”

  “Very well,” he let out a dramatic sigh. “You may ask, and I will deign to answer if I may. I have already accepted that I am not likely to live through this interaction, so please do not waste my time with threats if you don’t mind?”

  “Fine.” She stated. She wasn’t going to let him get a rise out of her. “Then let’s start by cutting through the chaff. What is your endgame here?”

  “Oh, is it that simple?” He laughed. “I did not think I was THAT difficult to read. My success is very simple. I wish to see the Ichiya dynasty destroyed and Takahashi Makoto dead.” He smirked. “We are fairly close to that becoming a reality as well.”

  Her eye twitched at the statement. “I don’t understand,” she shook her head in disbelief. “If that is all you want, why bring Himari-sama and her family into all of this?”

  “Because Sato Kosuke is every bit as involved in my vengeance as the line of the Ichiya and every one of Ichiya Tsuhiko and his damned lineage. There is a need for a reckoning, Maiko-chan. And that reckoning started from the day the Ichiya dynasty allowed the death of my husband.” For the first time, Masashi had lost the cool sense of control that he always tried to cultivate. He seemed… angry. Maiko sensed no deception. Without the tricks he had always employed to keep her in line, she could see the bitter man that sat in front of her for what he was.

  “Do you think I wanted to cause all this pain? This suffering? But what else was I to do, Maiko-chan? How was I supposed to live knowing that the greatest love of my life was slain to inaction and treachery? Oh, no, I could not live with that. So I swore to guard my heart, to take vengeance upon the people who took everything from me.”

  Maiko stayed quiet for a long moment, contemplating what he just said. “All this time, I thought you were manipulating for your own power. You plan to rip the entire Empire apart for your own grief? And presumably Himari’s death is the culmination of that vengeance?”

  “Ohhhh, no no no. Ripping Seifu apart is the last thing I want to do,” his calm returned to him. His anger spent, he was almost terrifyingly calm. “You have no doubt seen her capacity to inspire people, no? People have rallied around her banner. And while I intend to take my vengeance, a new young Empress will need a guide.”

  Her eyes widened. “You… Why her? If you’re so dedicated to creating this new dynasty, why the hell aren’t you planning to be at its forefront?”

  “Because you are going to kill me here,” he answered simply. “I thought you would be the death of me someday. I admit that this is… earlier than I anticipated.”

  “You bastard,” she growled.

  “Oh, very much so. If I would confess to one crime, truly, it is that all of my work is to be passed off to younger generations. But I’ve no regrets. You now have your part to play in all of this. And I am glad to step off the stage, and hope that there is indeed where I can see my husband and Kosuke-kun again.”

  She stared at him. Her hand briefly moved to her knife. And then her hand relaxed. “No.”

  “No?”

  “I still need you for my mission here, loathe as I am to say it. And I am not going to let you avoid responsibility for your crimes. There will be a reckoning, Goro Masashi. But it will not be today.”

  “You have no confidence that I won’t try to kill you the moment you release these bonds.”

  “I do.” She answered simply. “Because I am going to give you what you want. I’m going to let you see the death of Takahashi Makoto.”