Fuel to the Fire

Chapter 12


The main gate was unlocked, pushed inward like an invitation to the two men. After a quiet investigation of the outer perimeter, Miki and Tatsu found no traps that would signal their arrival. Tatsu couldn’t imagine that Tamaki would have a contingency plan after what happened at the bathhouse. The two of them had gone ahead of the Imperial Guards, giving them time to regroup and send word to the Emperor. All they needed was a final order.

Miki proceeded out of sight around the east side of the estate while Tatsu remained outside the main gate. The streets in this district were empty, the late hours sending many to their beds to wait for the sunrise. Residents hovered indoors after dark, believing evil spirits haunted the streets. If only they knew how right they were. Tatsu turned as he heard footsteps coming fast from down the road.

Miki was already at his back, standing behind Tamaki’s main gate, both men awaiting their orders from the Emperor’s messenger. As they ran to Tamaki’s residence, he had time to contemplate his feelings for Yume, the woman who had made herself a large part of his life, publicly and privately. In all their years together, they had only shared one intimate moment, brought on by an illusionary dream that continued once she was awake. He had promised that night, while wrapped in the bliss of her legs, to always protect her from whatever she feared, and in any way necessary. Miki had no regrets about the time he spent with her, even though he knew she secretly did, especially about that particular incident. And now, he gained no satisfaction from knowing that she would never lie by his side again, and he would never soothe away the fear that her night terrors instilled in her. But what kind of protector would he be if he shunned his duties now? That was unforgivable.

Miki only caught bits and pieces of the conversation taking place on the other side. He was more concerned with listening to the area surrounding the main house. Faint lantern light cut through the darkness, signaling some form of life within the house. The tinkle of a wind chime was carried on the night breeze, and Miki thought he could hear dogs barking in the distance, and the patter of feet against a hardwood floor.

Giving his attention back to the gate, he heard Tatsu offer his thanks and murmured a short prayer of protection. Tatsu came back inside and quietly shut the gate, a hopeful look on his face.

“The guards just raided the Tosa headquarters, and they found Seimei,” he said, watching a small amount of relief cross Miki’s face. “They also found an arsenal of ninja weapons from the village, along with a stash of torches and several bolts of arrows created for a flame barrage.

“They didn’t find much of anything else, though. Tamaki, Yume, and Arashi must be here. The third division will station themselves outside the gates, but they will only come when they are called. The Emperor is leaving the traitor to us, using the term ‘whatever means necessary’.”

The two rivals prepared for the battle to come, checking all weapons and gear on their bodies. As they quietly climbed the stairs leading to the main entrance, they agreed that Miki would take the western side where he saw the light, and Tatsu would patrol the east side. Tatsu quickly discovered that the house was not lived in. The first three rooms had decorated walls and tatami floors, but there was no furniture, not even a folded-up futon. The fourth room, located at the east corner, was the bath area. The tub was dry, and there was no moisture to speak of in the room. It was possible the room had never been used before. Did this man spend so much time at the soap house that he forgot to ever come home?

Miki’s search was just as fruitless. There were more rooms with no furnishings, and no indications that the governor even used his residence except for the room that had one candle lit and burning in a lantern in the middle of the floor. He couldn’t find any other signs of life beyond that. As he rounded the corner at the back of the house, he heard dogs growling. Looking closer, he saw two dogs tied down near the home’s well. Their barks were weak, but it was their growls that caught his attention. Both dogs were facing the house, and the larger dog seemed to pulling against his restraints, as if he wanted to get into the house.

Miki bypassed the next two rooms and came to the one that the dogs seemed interested in. Putting his ear to the door, he listened carefully for any signs of life. The dogs’ growls became whines, waiting in anticipation of what may be on the other side. Through the stillness, Miki could hear something dripping. He grabbed the edge of the shoji door, and pulled very slowly. Before he could even get a look inside, the stench of the blood filled his senses. The scent also forced the dogs into another frenzy as they tugged and pulled against the restraints that kept them from getting to what they perceived as food.

Miki heard Tatsu’s footsteps round the far corner as he looked inside. It took him a moment to register the gruesome sight in front of him. As Tatsu came closer, Miki threw up his hand, telling the man to wait.

“What is it?” Tatsu whispered.

Miki could only shake his head before he stepped across the threshold. From what he could tell, it was a woman, bound by the wrists and hanging from the rafters by those bindings. Her head hung forward, and her body swayed in the breeze that now filled the room. Miki felt as if his chest would cave in when he recognized the kimono, especially at the moment when he discovered the source of the dripping sound. Her hair was matted to her clothing, chunks of it missing and strewn across the floor. The kimono was ripped from an apparent struggle, and the obi was shredded and discarded in the corner. He couldn’t see any visible wounds, but her tabi socks and the hem of the kimono were soaked in blood, a pool of it forming beneath her.

“Miki, what’s taking so long?” Tatsu asked when he finally came through the doorway, ignoring Miki’s prior warning.

Miki turned from the body to see Tatsu stumble backwards and fall to the wooden floor. He had recognized the body as well. He could hear Tatsu’s muttering pleads, begging to some God that this could not be her. He wanted to do the same thing, but as her protector, it was his job to see to her, whether she was dead or alive.

Tatsu could only stare in horror as Miki studied the body. The woman that was to be his wife was dead, her corpse waiting to be devoured by ravenous dogs. Where had he gone wrong? This was not how it was supposed to be!

Miki continued with his investigation by steadying the body against the wind. Both of his hands were covered in blood, and as he got closer, he sensed that something was off. When he touched the body again, it jerked awake. Miki swiveled her body around so she could see who was with her. Even though her face was covered in drying blood, he could see her smile.

“Do you think you can help me down?” she said in a weak voice.

Miki looked back to Tatsu, and saw the relief wash over him as he recognized the woman’s voice. He could see the tears glistening on his cheeks, unable to hide the fact that his worst nightmare almost came true. “Do you want to help me here?” Miki asked his comrade.

~*~*~

Miki was busy with Yume’s hair, cutting away all of the uneven length with a kunai. Yume was recounting how she came to be in her current predicament while Tatsu continued searching through the remaining unchecked rooms. It turned out that Tamaki was more sadistic than they had originally surmised. Yume explained that she had followed Tamaki when no one was watching for either one of them. She caught him by the taxi where he proceeded to knock her upside the head with a rock, so some of the blood that she was wearing was actually hers. Next thing she knew, he was tying her to the rafters.

“He was laughing while he chopped away at my clothes. He couldn’t be bothered to move my hair, so he just cut through it as well,” she said as she ran her fingers through her shorter hair. She took the kunai and wrapped her hair around the handle, securing it up and out of the way. “That bastard thought it was so funny, said that beautiful women never understood him, that maybe the two of you wouldn’t want me if he tore me apart.” She sat still for a moment, remembering what Tamaki had said. Yeah, I remember you from that first night. Emiko warned me about you. “Then, all of a sudden, he changed his mind, and poured pig’s blood on me instead, and tells me he’ll come back with Arashi when the dogs are done licking the flesh from my bones.”

She stopped for a moment, and turned to look at Miki. “How does he know about Arashi? Tell me my son is safe, Miki!”

Miki had forgotten during the confusion that she might not know what happened with the village and the children. He reached for her hands to keep her steady. She stared at him wide-eyed and demanding of an answer, her motherly instincts wanting to take over.

“It’s been a long day, my love. I’m not sure where to begin,” he said, trying to keep a calm tone while he revisited the day’s tragic events, and how they all led up to their current situation. He reassured her that Seimei was safe and on her way to the Imperial Palace, that she would be well cared for until they saw this mission through.

Tatsu arrived with a basin of water as Miki finished his tale. He was still holding her hands, a trail of tears shining down her blood-encrusted face. Shedding her sorrows quietly was the least she could do for her fallen friends and her missing child. Tatsu caught Miki’s eye, and motioned that he would leave. But Miki shook his head, and then looked back to the woman that he knew he needed to let go. He kissed her on the top of her head, careful to avoid the protruding kunai, and pulled himself away from his own personal haven.

As Yume removed the remains of her stained kimono, Miki stopped next to Tatsu. “I’ll inform the guards of our findings. There may be more places that Tamaki is hiding, and they can start looking while we finish up here.” Miki patted the man on the shoulder and disappeared into the night.

Yume was on her knees, awaiting her bath. She could only look at the floor, so many emotions swirling behind her eyes that she was afraid she would break just by looking at Tatsu. He sat next to her quietly, taking her left arm in his hands and started to wash away the filth. She turned her head away, wondering how they got to this place. What’s more, she was afraid he would blame her for everything. If not for her, he wouldn’t be here. And now her children were involved as well. Her intervention into his life had not stopped them from coming to this place; this horrible nightmare that led to the slaughter of innocents, to the destruction of the Moya village, and possibly to the loss of the four people she held most dear in this world. She had no defense or logical explanation for what she had done, she only hoped she could find forgiveness in Tatsu’s arms.

The cold water felt good against her skin, chilling her as it soaked into her undergarments. As Tatsu started to caress her skin, he said, “Why won’t you look at me, Yume?”

She silently sniffed back more tears before she responded. She didn’t want to give anything away because of her silly female emotions. “Do you ever wish you could go back and change one single moment of time? One decision that you made at a time when it seemed relevant, only to have it hurt you worse later on?”

Tatsu moved around behind her and started to unwrap her undergarments from her upper body. It seemed the blood had soaked all the way through because the strips were stuck to her skin. As each piece peeled away, he was able to see the scars that Nanaka beat into her skin years before. They had faded with time, just like her memories of her time with the Yakuza, but they had not completely disappeared. Most of her reminders of the past were only skin deep, but there were still some buried deeper within that he had been unable to touch before they were separated five years ago.

“I wouldn’t have gone to sleep that night many years ago. You wouldn’t have had the option of leaving me,” he said, soaking away the bloodstains from her back. “You would be my wife, and we would not be in this life we lead now. But I have no regrets about our time together or about the circumstances that brought us together this time.”

Yume looked to the floor again, a small laugh escaping her lips. The irony of the situation only made her confession harder. “You may have another opinion before the night is over,” she said softly.

Tatsu placed a wet hand on her right shoulder, taking the other arm into his hands to wash it clean. “I don’t understand,” he said.

Yume looked up again, this time gazing at the rafters where she had hung not too long before. She probably deserved it for all that she had put this man through. She had been played with so much in the past, and now she was doing the same thing to him.

“I am the reason you’re on this mission, Tatsu,” she said, another surge of tears collecting in her eyes as her confession spilled forth. “I requested you by name to help us.”

She could only put her clean hand to her face, the blood on her cheeks becoming damp under the flood of tears. Tatsu had stopped cleaning away the blood. He was no longer touching her, only sitting back to let her explain. He remained silent as she continued her confession.

“I hadn’t seen you in so long, and I wanted to make it right. I knew you were employed in the Emperor’s service. So during one of our meetings with the Council, I exclaimed how you would be a valuable asset, that you were best choice given the situation we were investigating. I knew you were coming that first night at the bathhouse, I knew all about where you had been the past couple of years. You left your job in Kyoto, and you were still looking for kunoichi when you came to Tokyo. The opportunity was there, and I took it. I could only hope that you still cared enough about me to help…”

Suddenly, Tatsu was kissing her full on the lips, cutting off her remaining words. Capturing her face in his hands, he wiped away all the dampness; all the regret she could ever have about how they came to be together again. He pushed her to the floor, not breaking the connection of their lips. Yume pushed his hoari coat from his shoulders, and ran her hands along his strong arms. She wanted to lie in them forever. They were the home she always wanted, but was too immature at that time to accept what he had offered. She was ready now, ready to give this man all of her mind, body, and soul.

Her hands continued lower, untying his pants, and letting his swords fall to the floor. Tatsu continued to kiss her until the point he entered her body, thrusting the two of them together again. He was unable to stop himself as he drove deeper into her. He didn’t care who could hear them; he wanted everyone to hear her cry his name in ecstasy. He needed everyone to know that this woman was his, and his alone. Yume wrapped her legs behind him, and pulled him deeper into her core. She clawed at his arms, pushing up one last time to force them both over the edge.

As she let go of him, allowing him to slip from her body, he grabbed her up into his arms. She allowed his body’s weight to press against her, letting him accept her and all the pain she had released. “All I ever wanted was for us to lie like this every day and night, Yume. Don’t ever doubt that,” he said.

~*~*~

Miki was waiting for them on the stairs to the main entrance. He raised an eyebrow as they approached him, both of them half-naked. Tatsumaki had shed his jacket for Yume to wear; her clothing had been irreparable. She kept the jacket closed with the belt from one his swords, the wakizashi bouncing against her hip as she walked.

The trio made their way to the main gate as Miki filled them in on his lack of findings. There was simply nothing in the home to help. It was a dead-end. Tatsu opened the gate and stepped out onto the street, and stopped in his tracks. Yume ran into his back, too busy talking to Miki to watch what Tatsu was doing.

“I was wondering what was taking so long,” said a voice that she had heard earlier in the night.

Looking over Tatsu’s shoulder, she could see Tamaki standing in the street. Arashi was standing in front of him, Tamaki’s hand draped across the boy’s shoulders.

I apologize for the long time between updates. For some reason this story has
become hard to finish lately. I promise, it is coming to an end soon!