Masters of Fate, Slaves to Duty

Chapter 13

“War – an act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.” – George Washington

“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” – George S. Patton


In their joint surprise, Yume saw the flash of metal too late to react. A small bolt streaked through the darkness and impaled itself in Jonathan’s arm.

“Now,” said the shadow, its voice still low enough to only be heard by his prey. “That should be enough to slow you down.”

In disbelief, Jonathan stared at the piece of metal jutting from his arm. It was only a small cylinder, but he could feel the effects of its contents almost instantaneously. Through hazy eyes, he tried to wrench it free, but in his distorted perception, he couldn’t seem to grab it. Yume was at his side when she saw him start to sway.

“Stop moving, you’ll only rush it through your system faster,” she said as she grabbed at both of his arms to steady him.

Jonathan tried to concentrate on the darkness beyond the door, but his eyesight still wouldn’t focus. All he could make out was something dangerous moving outside.

“Leave me,” he whispered as his thoughts seemed to fade away with his physical strength. “Get to safety.”

Yume ignored his plea as she helped Jonathan to the nearby cherry wall for support. Once he was steady against the wooden surface, she grabbed at the dart in his arm and yanked it free. The wound itself was actually small and barely bled. But the damage was already done to his system. Soon he would not have the strength to hold his body up even with the wall’s help.

“I’m not leaving you to die,” she said.

Keeping one hand on his arm, she disregarded the invisible opponent and searched the room with her eyes for anything that could be used as a weapon. The room itself was grand with its thick outer walls and painted landscapes along the interior walls, but it had long since been abandoned. Most of the furniture and decorations had traveled with the royal family to Tokyo. All that remained was old bedding and rusty lanterns.

But she did see something promising across the floor. Originally this was the room she and Tatsu were going to share, and in the room switch, he had neglected to take his baggage with him. And she knew from past experience that he always kept an extra weapon in his satchel. The only problem was that she couldn’t remember what he had taken with him this evening, his single-shot pistol or his short sword.

“If you are looking for an exit,” said the sinister voice, now closer, “I’m afraid the closet one is right here.”

Yume turned to the courtyard doorway to find the shadow taking substance. Out of the night, a darkly-clothed figure stepped onto the walkway, feet barely making a sound as they touched the wooden surface. From this distance, she could see the assassin was not much taller than her, and covered from head to toe in black cloth and armor. The only physical detail she could see was his eyes.

The assassin reached behind him, and slowly slid a short sword from a sheath strapped to his back. With the moves of a skilled master, he twirled the blade around and watched how the room’s candlelight glinted off of the blade. She knew he was only trying to intimidate her.

Next to her, she could hear Jonathan’s breathing become labored. Taking her eyes away from her enemy again, she frowned as she saw Jonathan’s pallor become more ashen. Gently, she tapped her hand against his cheek, trying to get him to focus on her.

“Come on, Foxx, stay with me,” she said as she tried to keep the fear out of her voice.

Instead of focusing, his eyes rolled back as his head drooped forward. Slowly, his legs started to give, but before his large body could slump to the floor, a gloved hand wrapped around his throat. Yume tried to turn around and move away from their opponent, but the assassin was pressed so closely to her that she was almost crushed between the two men.

With one hard tug, the assassin lifted Jonathan but kept him against the wall. His head simply bobbed on his neck since he had lost consciousness only moments before.

“It seems your ‘ex’ husband is having trouble with my poison. Odd, you survived it,” he said, his lips against her ear. “Then again, your survival made me change the formula.”

He lifted the sword to eye level so Yume could see it. “Maybe we should do something to help him stand.”

Yume tried to turn around again, to question what he meant. Instead, she watched as the assassin stabbed the short sword through Jonathan’s left shoulder. The force behind it was so strong that the sword pierced the wooden wall as it skewered Jonathan. His eyes shot opened as he yelled with the pain.

Yume’s reaction was to push against the assassin, to get him as far away from Jonathan as she could. She threw an elbow up as best she could in her position, aiming for his face. Startled, the assassin took a step back. Once she had the room, she turned around and shoved him away with all of her strength. He seemed stunned by her initiative, enough that he stayed out of her arm’s reach.

Turning her attention back to Foxx, she could see that even through the pain, he was starting to lose consciousness again. His legs were giving way, and as he started to sink, she could see the flesh around the sword start to tear under his weight.

She returned to his side, and frantically threw his uninjured arm over her shoulder and tried to help hold him up. She didn’t want to jar him too much and cause more pain, but she had to find a way to wake him up. The only thing she could think of was to remove the sword. At least then she would have a weapon, something she could defend them with.

As she moved to grab the handle, she heard the assassin laugh behind her. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

Ignoring the warning, she grabbed the handle of the sword, and tugged lightly, trying not to cause Jonathan any more unnecessary discomfort. However the sword was still stuck deep within the wall and it would take her weight behind it to pull it out. She felt movement behind her, and she heard the distinct sound of another blade sliding out of a sheath.

Quickly she turned around to see the assassin lunge in for another attack, and this time she was in his direct path. She reached for the protruding sword again, but before she could grasp it, she felt a large hand grab the neckline of her yukata and yank her away.

As she hit the ground on her rump, Yume looked back up at Jonathan, whose eyes were open wide. He mouthed the word ‘run’ as the assassin struck again, this time driving a sword through his right shoulder, immobilizing him further. The dark man stepped away from Jonathan as the Brit coughed and spit blood at him.

Clapping his hands together once before wiping his gloves on his pants, the assassin said, “There, now you should have no problem standing, or staying awake to watch what I’m going to do to your wife.”

The man’s low voice sent a chill through her body. Just his tone told her that whatever he had planned, it was going to be painful and unpleasant. Inside, she knew there was nothing she could for Jonathan, not without a weapon. And since she couldn’t tear the one from his shoulder, her only other option was to get to Tatsu’s bag.

Scrambling to her feet, she tried to dash across the room. Her bare feet easily grasped the tatami floor, and in an instant, she was halfway across the expansive room and well on her way. Then the ground was pulled from beneath her, and she came crashing down to the floor.

There was another yank, and she could feel something bite at her leg and tear into the flesh of her ankle. Yume looked back to find a thin fiber wound around her ankle, secured by a small hook anchor buried in her calf. The assassin stood a couple meters away with the other end of the string wrapped around his hand.

“Where were you going in such a hurry?” he asked snidely. “You can not leave before your turn starts.”

Refusing to acknowledge the searing pain in her ankle, she turned back to her goal. Tatsu’s bag was almost within reach, but she would need Jonathan’s help to distract this man enough for her to get to it.

Turning back to Jonathan, she saw the look of pain and fear in his eyes. She almost laughed at herself. Her body’s adrenaline was still thrumming through her body, fueling her mind to make swift decisions instead of reminding her that she should be afraid. In her head, she knew she should fear the man in the room who meant to do her grievous harm. But the only thing she could feel right now was their need to survive, and that was enough to push her forward.

Jonathan cleared his throat and spit another wad of blood to the floor. The assassin changed his focus for only a second, but it was plenty of time for Yume to signal what she needed from Jonathan. He followed her sight to the bag on the floor, and gave her a curt nod.

As if rehearsed, Jonathan started coughing and thrashing violently. Yume was almost startled by his sudden uproar, but so was the assassin. He gave up his conquest of Yume for the moment, and pulled a third sword from the sheath on his back.

“Why can’t you just be quiet like a good captive?” he asked.

The assassin let go of the twine, but Yume could see that it trailed from his wrist, so she knew she was still attached to him. With each step he took towards Jonathan, she gently pulled herself within a few centimeters of Tatsu’s bag.

The assassin turned the blade over in his hand. “I didn’t want to do this so soon, but if I don’t silence you, I fear my game might end sooner than I want.”

Yume could feel her fingers touch the bag’s rough fabric. Carefully, she felt around for the opening, and thrust her hand inside. She found clothes, an extra pair of sandals, a couple of scrolls, and something hard. Gently, she wrapped her fingers around the wooden grip, and found a hold on the pistol’s trigger. Yume said a silent prayer, hoping that their survival did not hinge on an unloaded pistol.

Looking in Jonathan’s direction, she froze as she watched the assassin drive a third blade into his body, this time into the center of his chest. But instead of yelling in pain, Jonathan simply smiled as two thin trails of blood seeped from the corners of his mouth.

“Kurenai, no….regrets….” he sputtered without looking at her. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see his eyes glaze over, or the look of peace on his face as he took his last breath. But as the candles in the room flickered, she knew he was gone to the other side.

The assassin pushed against the sword again, thrusting it so deep into Jonathan’s body that the only thing that showed was the hilt. With the man on the wall now dead, his attention reverted back to Yume. He could see she had her hand in something. He wrapped the string around his hand and tugged on it again, jerking her mind back to the danger before her.

“Now, what did you think you might find over there?” he asked curiously as he tugged again, pulling her further across the floor.

The last yank was enough to help her pull the pistol from the bag, leaving it open for view. Yume knew this was it, if she didn’t take this chance, she would not live to see the morning sun.

Before he could react to her exposed weapon, Yume rolled around onto her back, pointed the heavy one-shot pistol, and with only one thought in her mind, she fired.

~*~*~

Tatsumaki and Daven were lounging on the palace stairs overlooking the barren courtyard. Tatsu thought the sight was depressing considering that Kyoto was one of the more beautiful cities on this island, naturally speaking. No one tended to the grounds any longer, so the grass was dried up and flowers were wilted. The only living things he could see were a variety of oak, maple, and cherry trees, and even those had seen better days.

Along the surrounding walls, Tatsu could see a regular round of guards passing by. Walking in groups of two, they patrolled in timed intervals, with two groups each circling in opposite directions. Outside the walls, Tatsu had arranged for members of the Kyoto police to patrol the most prominent walls. Not only that, they were making sure that no innocent bystanders were in the general vicinity of the castle grounds. Everyone was aware that men could be climbing the walls at any time, and both the guards and the police were armed with pistols to signal for any intrusions.

With bellies full of food, Daven and Tatsu had decided to sit outside and take in the humid summer air rather than sit in another strategy meeting with the Council. Tatsu understood that everything the man did was for the benefit of the Emperor, but Tatsu had been questioning his decisions over the last couple of months, starting with the arrival of the Chinese army.

His latest judgment had his wife locked away in the Empress’s main house with her ex-husband as her guard. They were alone, and bait for a man that wouldn’t stop until both of them were dead. Even Daven had questioned the Council’s motives directly. He and Jonathan had been friends since they had joined the Royal Navy, but he still had doubts where the relationship between Yume and Foxx were concerned. He wasn’t certain Jonathan could remember that she was no longer his wife.

But the Council’s repeated response was that he was confident in Jonathan’s ability to protect her, and that regardless of past actions, he had nothing but the most honorable intentions toward Yume. Still, that did not comfort Tatsu, and as Miki silently patted his shoulder, he decided to drop the subject.

Beside him, Daven yawned. “What is keeping them? We can’t start our rounds without them.”

Tatsu simply shrugged, then started to remove an arm from the sleeve of his yukata. The night was too humid, the air too oppressive to function. When he had stripped himself of both sleeves and let the top part of the robe fall away, he leaned back against the stairs and folded both arms behind his head.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to rest my eyes while we wait,” he said as he stared at distant stars in the sky.

Daven couldn’t argue that fact. Tatsu could hear the young man removing his sleeves as well. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the summer night surrounding them. When he was at home, he could hear the distant lake lapping at the shore, and the toads singing to their mates. But the city was different. Here he could hear only the occasional cricket or bird. All of nature seemed to avoid the castle, as if they knew nothing was living here.

Tatsu could feel the footsteps before he heard the voices. Two people were walking in their direction, but he wasn’t alarmed. He knew who it was.

“Interesting,” said Miki as he approached from the main doorway. “I didn’t expect to come out and find the two of you snuggled up half-naked on the stairs. Should we leave you two alone?”

Tatsu grabbed a sandal from his foot and tossed it backward in the direction of the voices. He smiled when he heard it connect, but didn’t bother to see which one he hit. The muffled curse was enough, as well as the return throw.

“You would think after everything the two of us have been through that you have some sort of respect for me,” Miki said as he stopped behind Tatsu and stared down at the lounging man.

Tatsu opened his eyes and flashed a smile to his old rival. “And yet you still forget how much your mouth pisses me off.”

Miki picked up his foot, and threatened to stomp on Tatsu’s head. However, Tatsu was already on his feet, stretching his arms to the sky.

“Still too slow, ninja,” Tatsu laughed as he walked down the stairs to the courtyard. From behind, he could hear Daven scrambling to catch up.

“Wait up! I’m coming with you!” he yelled.

Miki and Akihiro were close behind. “I don’t think so, kid,” Miki said. “The old man’s with me. We’ve got some business we need to discuss.”

Tatsu let the comment go as he started to walk to the west, and had to suppress a laugh when he heard Daven groan. The kid had mentioned on the trip here how much he and Akihiro couldn’t stand one another, not that he could stand the silent bodyguard either. But he had to wonder why after two years of working together they still couldn’t get along.

He was well on his way along the patrol when he could hear Miki’s hurried steps trying to catch up with him. He didn’t care though; he knew the retired ninja could run laps around him any day.

“You know, you can really be an….”

Before he could finish his thought, Miki’s words were cut off by the distant sound of gunfire. Both men stopped and turned in the direction of the sound. Tatsu could see both Daven and Akihiro start to run, and he and Miki were quick to follow.

It didn’t take long for Tatsumaki to figure out where they were headed. His heart felt like it dropped to his stomach as he forced his legs to work harder. He shot a glance to Miki, but he only saw the same sense of foreboding on the man’s usually stoic face.

Guards were already standing outside of the Empress’s main house when they arrived, as if waiting for instruction on what to do next. Akihiro’s arms were moving furiously as he directed them around the house while he and Daven proceeded through the front door.

Instinctively, Tatsu and Miki both withdrew their swords, holding them at the ready as they followed the two men through the house. Everything was silent except for the footsteps. Tatsu could not hear a struggle, or screams, and his thoughts about the silence only caused more sweat to break out along his skin. Fear gripped his heart, and it was getting harder for him to take each step.

“Clear!” someone yelled up ahead.

Tatsu and Miki both looked up to the open door ahead. Daven was coming their way, and from what Tatsu could see, the boy was covering his mouth and he had gone pale. Tatsu let him pass, afraid to ask what he’d seen. But Miki quickly grabbed the boy’s arm and started to question him. Daven violently shook him off, and kept walking down the hall to the open air outside.

Tatsu remembered the last time couple of times he had approached a room where Yume was in danger. Both times she had come out alive, but from Daven’s reaction, was there really a chance that they wouldn’t find her among the living this time?

Akihiro met them at the door, the look on his face not giving anything away about the state of the room. All he said was, “Prepare yourselves.”

As always, Miki stepped in first, and Tatsu followed right behind him. Both men stopped at the sight before them.

The back wall was decorated with one long streak of blood spray. The liquid dripped darkly from the cherry walls, the false paint only visible because of the room’s candlelight. To the left was the body of Jonathan Foxx, pinned in place by two swords thrust through his shoulders and into the wall. From the way his body hung from the blades, they knew he was no longer alive.

Not far from him was a discarded pistol, still smoking from its recent firing. But what stilled them both was what lay in front of the courtyard doors. Yume was there, on her knees with a sword laid across her lap.

In front of her was an unidentifiable body. As they approached, Tatsu and Miki could tell it was a man, and from the dark clothes they easily deduced that this was an assassin. However, there was no head attached. Miki looked up to see it lying on the outside walkway, facing upward into the endless night sky.

“Don’t touch anything,” Tatsu said loudly to the men milling about the room. “In fact, just leave us. We’ll let you know when you’re needed.”

Akihiro stood next to Tatsu and directed the men out before the three of them turned their attention to the blood-soaked princess on the floor. Tatsu stepped forward cautiously until he was behind her quivering form. Standing this close, he could hear her the sounds of her crying.

Quietly he bent down next to her and put a gentle hand on her back. She was shaking with grief. With the one hand on her back, Tatsu reached in front of her and took the bloody sword from her hands. As he laid it on the floor next to him, he pulled Yume into his embrace. Easily she collapsed on him as another anguished cry escaped from her lips. Tatsu collected her in his arms, and rocked her while she cried.

Tatsu looked around when he felt someone approach. Miki was bending down on the other side of her.

“Careful with her,” he said with a low voice. “Her leg is injured.”

He looked to where Miki indicated, and he could see where her leg was bleeding. He could see lacerations wrapping around her right ankle, and a small hook buried in her leg. She wasn’t bleeding badly, but it looked like the hook would be painful to remove.

Miki carefully stretched her leg out in his lap, and went about unwinding the twine from her ankle. Rivulets of blood dripped from the rope that had dug itself into her flesh. Tatsu watched closely when he got to the anchor, and held Yume tightly as Miki worked the barbs free from her leg. But Yume’s cries did not change or subside; it was almost as if she didn’t notice the physical pain at all.

“Take her from here, Tatsumaki,” Miki said with a heavy heart. “She doesn’t need to see any more of this tonight.”

Tatsu took great care with her as he slipped his arms around her and hoisted against his chest. His skin was damp with her tears, and his heart was breaking from her cries. It made him sick to know that, once again, this was something that could have been avoided.

He looked to Miki again before he left. Miki only gave him a nod as he and Akihiro stood before Jonathan’s body. As he stepped into the darkened corridor, he could hear them pull the swords from the wall and the corpse fall to the floor.

~*~*~

“Jonathan’s body had four separate wounds, two to the shoulders, one to the left arm, and one to the chest,” said Akihiro. “From what we can tell, Yume managed to get the pistol from the bag that Tatsumaki left in the room. She fired and struck her assailant in the chest. But it wasn’t a killing blow.

“From there, it looks like he drew a dagger from his arm sheath, which we found still gripped in his hand, but Yume somehow managed to get to Jonathan’s body before he could strike. She pulled the sword from his chest, and swinging it around to defend herself from his potential attack, she decapitated the assassin.”

With his report complete, Akihiro stepped back into the line composed of himself, Tatsumaki, and Miki. The three of them were in the Emperor’s private receiving chamber giving reports to the Emperor and his Council.

“And we are certain she is not the one who killed Jonathan?” the Council quipped.

Tatsumaki gave the man a deadly stare, but before he could speak, Miki threw his arm out to silence the man.

“We found a small dart lying in the area next to Jonathan’s body. Its size matched that of the wound in his arm. From its smell, we can tell it contained some form of poison, but we can’t determine the type. Jonathan’s death was premeditated by this assassin that we knew was coming.”

The Council did not seem convinced. “But that doesn’t mean she didn’t render the final blow that killed Foxx. Perhaps she had somehow gotten a sword out of the same bag where she found the pistol, and used it to stab the good Captain before taking out the assassin.”

This time Akihiro stepped up. “Not possible. The sword was from the same forge as the two in Foxx’s shoulders.”

Tatsu was ready to throttle the man as he simply waved a hand in their general direction. “Perhaps,” he said as he moved back to the Emperor’s side. “All I’m saying is that the opportunity was there.”

“Enough!”

All eyes turned to the Emperor, stunned to silence by his sudden outburst.

“Slander my sister once more, and I’ll have your head stuck on a pike outside these castle walls.”

All four men remained silent while their leader began to pace the room. Never had they seen him angry, much less flustered. This was the side of the man that he could never show in public. It was not safe to have the masses see their leader during his ‘human’ moments.

His eyes fell on Tatsumaki. “Ayume, how is she?”

“She sleeps, your highness,” Tatsu said, bowing his head as he addressed the Emperor. “Her leg is injured, and her heart is wrought with grief for the friend she lost tonight, as well as for the life she took.”

“I see,” he said. “Then I give you leave to go to her side. I would not wish for her to wake up in this dark and dismal night alone. You are the only light that can chase her demons away.”

Tatsu bowed graciously at the waist before stepping away from the group and leaving. The Emperor nodded to him as he left, then turned his attention back to the others.

“Where is the young British soldier?” he asked.

Miki’s eyes fell to the floor before he answered. “Sire, he is with the police chief. The man is helping to make arrangements to transfer Jonathan’s body to his final resting place.”

The Emperor made a sound of agreement before he responded. “I suspect his spirit will find its way back to the open sea where he belonged. We owe him that much for his service to our country.”

“Sire,” the Council spoke up, “we need to prepare for what will come tomorrow. When the assassin does not return with his quarry, the soldiers will surely prepare to storm this castle.”

The Emperor did not disagree. “It will keep until tomorrow. Our family needs time to grieve this eve. When the sun rises again, these fine men will return to my side, and we will make ready for this silent war.”

His gaze returned to Miki and Akihiro. “Please see to any needs that Tatsumaki or Daven might have before retiring for the night. Tomorrow the four of you, as well as my most trusted guards, will prepare for the battle for your lives, and ours. I am proud to have men of such undying loyalty at my side. And I know that devotion goes unchallenged where my sister is concerned. Each of you love her in your own way, so I expect that none of you would lie down dead easily in her defense. May that determination transcend to the both of us.

“Now let us rest, for tomorrow the dawn will foretell the future of this nation.”


I can't believe I've been writing this story for a year and a half now. Hopefully I can conclude this tale before the holidays! Until then, enjoy!