by Nikita Thorn
“It is,” said Miya, without looking up from her reading.
Seiki observed each one of them. “You don’t have Level 22 Lock-picking,” he said again, slowly.
Itsuki giggled. “Someone sees through your trick, Ren-san.” She swung her legs around, sat up and looked at Seiki. “He’s just trying the good will route and hope you’ll give in, so he can save himself the trouble of going all the way to the Shinshioka black market to find a lock-picker.”
“Hey, remember whose side you’re on.” Renshiro shot her a disapproving look, before turning to Seiki again. “We’re trying to be reasonable. We can force you, but we’re not going to do that. You can walk away from this now with all your things, and a hundred plus extra gold. Last offer.”
“No,” said Seiki.
Renshiro grabbed the Sheathed Blade from the ground and glanced up at Seiki again with a smirk. “I can pull this right now and claim it. You know, I’m kinda getting tired of my old Tamakiri.”
Seiki simply looked at him and Renshiro’s eyes hardened as he closed his fingers around the grip. “Why be that loyal to Ichikeya, huh? What have they done for you? What have they ever done for anybody?”
The man tightened his hold around the hilt and was ready to pull, and Seiki was trying not to care but he had to look away.
“Oh, stop it, Ren-san.” Itsuki laughed.
“The kid’s stubborn,” Satoru said. “Like someone I know.” Seiki could now see that the ryoushi was slowly working on another one of his trapping nets, using a crude, thick needle.
“Give me back my sword,” said Seiki.
Renshiro put down the Sheathed Blade and picked up the bare Hikari from the ground, weighing it in his hand. “Haven’t used this one for a while,” he said with a smile. “Sorry. Can’t let you have it back yet, since you’re a bit dangerous with it, and we don’t want to accidentally fulfill your death wish.”
Seiki threw himself at the man. Renshiro had perhaps been expecting this, and he grabbed Seiki’s left wrist before he could reach the Hikari. “Don’t try—” The man’s eyes widened as he probably remembered that Seiki was not left-handed.
It was too late for Renshiro to do anything. Seiki’s right hand closed around the signal flare on the ground and, with a quick flick of the wrist, he tossed it directly into the fire. The bamboo tube exploded in a sharp clap and let out a loud whistle as it shot up toward the sky and burst into green sparks.
There was a second of shocked silence. Itsuki cursed.
Seiki wrung his wrist free and pushed himself away. Almost instantly, Renshiro was on his feet. He stared at Seiki in disbelief for a moment before letting out a scoff. “Well, you forced me, kid.” He drew his dagger.
Miya, beside him, looked up at the man. “Renshiro,” she said.
“We can’t let this thing go to Kano Castle,” said Renshiro.
“The Rangers are coming,” said Itsuki.
Satoru had packed away his net and picked up his bow. “Hey, Renshiro,” said the ryoushi with a pained expression. “We gotta go.”
Miya sighed and slid the paper she had been reading into her chest pocket.
Renshiro still had his eyes set on Seiki, and Seiki knew all he needed was a drop of blood directly on the lock. Without help from his companions, Renshiro slowly sheathed his dagger, freeing both his hands, and Seiki could guess what he was thinking.
The man needed to grab him, but he could not risk a strike, since if the houshi failed to Ward, Seiki would be dead in a second. And that left Renshiro with very few options.
As Renshiro rushed in, Seiki raised his arms to guard his neck, forcing Renshiro to go low with the tackle. Before the man could wrap his arms around him, Seiki grabbed the man’s shoulders and leaned forward into a sprawl, stopping his motion. He pushed back with his body weight, and pulled in his right foot to trip the man, somehow amused that he still knew how to do this.
The impact of the tackle was unavoidable, and Seiki’s health dipped. But he was now in a better position as he landed on the ground on top of Renshiro. Grabbing hold of the man’s left forearm, Seiki threw his legs around Renshiro’s chest to trap his other arm as he tried to lock him in place.
Seiki was not quite sure how this worked, but he did not need to win. He just needed to buy time, or to force them to kill him. His mind was now clear, and he had stopped worrying about the consequences, or whether he would be all right at the end, or whether he would be letting people or himself down. When he finally let go of the past and the future, all that was left was his decisions here in the moment, and he felt a strange sense of freedom.
His Hikari was still considered equipped, and upon death it would respawn beside him in the spirit shrine. He would need to give up the scroll and the Sheathed Blade, but there was nothing he could do about that.
Renshiro grunted as he struggled to free himself, but he was now trapped. With a violent jerk, the man pulled in his legs to place both feet on the ground. Unexpectedly, Renshiro’s body burst forward with impossible force. His arm slipped off Seiki’s grip and the odd-angled propulsion pushed them both several feet across the ground. Seiki’s eyes widened as he recognized that very familiar move as nothing else but the ronin’s Slide.
Seiki could hear Itsuki giggling. “Oooh, Ren-san finally forced to use a special?’
Renshiro flipped over and pinned down Seiki’s right arm, while Seiki swung his legs around to kick him.
“We should really go now,” said Satoru.
Seiki stretched out his free arm to push against Renshiro’s shoulder as the man tried to throw himself over him again.
“No, no, no,” said Itsuki in relish. “This is worth getting on the Rangers’ kill list for. How often do you get to see two ronins slugging it out?”
Renshiro’s second hand reached for Seiki’s throat. And as Seiki moved to block, the man clasped his fingers around his wrist instead—before twisting it in his grip, slowly dropping Seiki’s health. “Itsuki, hand me the box,” Renshiro said, as he tried to pull his dagger.
“Renshiro!” said Miya in disapproval, from somewhere behind them. “We’re not going to do this.”
Gritting his teeth, Seiki twisted his body to put both his heels on the ground. Conveniently, he now knew Slide broke through every kind of trap.
Renshiro was struggling for control. “Come on, Itsuki. We can’t let Kano Castle have that key.”
“What key?” Seiki had been mapping out a Slide, but the mention of a key put an immediate pause on it. He looked at the man, still gripping his wrist so hard that it was going numb.
“You know what key,” said Renshiro.
The content in this box right now was not a key, but a single piece of paper. Seiki had seen it. He had locked the box himself. He could guess what key the man was talking about, but he could not be sure.
“I don’t,” said Seiki.
He could see Renshiro’s eyes narrow as his opponent was trying to decide whether to believe him or not.
Satoru cursed, and that was when Seiki heard hooves on the ground approaching. From the sound of it, it was definitely more than one rider. Renshiro let out an annoyed sigh and released Seiki’s wrist.
“What’s going on?” said the stern voice of Yasuki of the Chubu Rangers [Level 25].
With one last studying look, Renshiro flipped himself over. Seiki raised his head to look and met a group of four riders in green and brown uniform. Yasuki, with his face slightly too far away to be properly lit by the firelight, appeared rather majestic from his tall gray horse. Behind him were three other mounted Rangers with identical bows in their hands: Ritsuka of the Chubu Rangers [Level 23], Tetsai of the Chubu Rangers [Level 21] and Masaru of the Chubu Rangers [Level 19].
“Good evening, officers,” said Itsuki, brightly.
The Rangers ignored the ninja girl. “What’s this, Renshiro?” asked Yasuki.
Renshiro picked himself up from the ground and gave a sof
t chuckle that could have very well been a scoff. “Just clearing up something.”
Seiki pushed himself into a sitting position, and just now noticed that his health was back to full. Miya must have healed him at some point, but he had been too busy to take note.
Yasuki turned to him. “Young man, these people giving you trouble?”
Seiki glanced around as he carefully got to his feet. Itsuki and Satoru seemed nervous, Renshiro defiant, and Miya just depressed.
These people thought he had been carrying a key. Probably the very same key that he had unknowingly delivered to Mimura, in the same blood-locked box he had right now. The key, which someone had been willing to buy for an absurd amount of money.
Renshiro was glancing at him with a strange look that was part confusion, part something else. Almost like a threat, or a plea. Or perhaps even, wary interest.
“No,” said Seiki to Yasuki and his Rangers. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath. “No trouble here.”
“You sure?” said Yasuki. He nodded toward the items on the ground beside the fire. “Those your things?”
“Yes,” said Seiki.
Itsuki smiled. “We were just comparing notes.”
Yasuki ignored the girl and looked toward Seiki again.
“Something like that,” Seiki said.
“Young man,” said Yasuki. “If you are being held under duress, I can assure you that no one will dare lift a finger if you pick up your things and leave with us right now. I can assign a Ranger to accompany you to your destination, wherever that is.”
Seiki secretly commended them for their professionalism, but this was perhaps his only chance to learn about what kind of mess he had started. Somehow, it was his mess, and his fight, and there were no shortcuts. “No, officers. We’re good.”
Satoru let out a small sigh of relief.
Under this blatantly suspicious situation, the Law of the Wild was not giving up that easily. “Who lit the flare?” asked Yasuki.
“It was an accident,” said Itsuki. “Um, we had a bet to see how close we could get it to the fire before the fuse started to burn,” she added, not even trying very hard to make it sound convincing.
Yasuki scoffed, but no one said anything else. The man grimaced and turned to the houshi as a last resort. “Miya?” His tone was gentler with her.
Miya looked at him. “It’s fine, Yasuki,” she said.
The Ranger shook his head. “I really don’t understand this, Miya. What are you doing with these scums?” His mouth distorted in an expression of disdain. “Look at what we’ve got here, thieves, traitors…”
Satoru inhaled and clenched the bow in his fist. Immediately, two of the Rangers behind Yasuki had raised their long bows with arrows nocked and aimed.
“Watch it, arrow boy,” said Yasuki in a dangerous tone. “Don’t you remember how it ended last time?”
Slowly, and with effort, Satoru lowered his hands, before striding off to the side and looking away into the forest.
Miya gazed at the Ranger. “Someone’s gotta keep people alive,” she said with a little shrug, after a bit.
Yasuki frowned but, since the houshi seemed adamant, he could do nothing else but signal the other Rangers to leave with him. “Play nice now,” he warned them. “If you don’t want to spend the rest of the month doing graveyard runs.”
“Thank you for your concern, officers!” shouted Itsuki after them, as they disappeared into the darkness.
Satoru sat back down by the fire and continued to work on his net.
Seiki turned to face Renshiro. “You’re after a key,” he said.
The ronin ignored the indirect question. “Open the box for us, kid, or we can continue right where we left off.”
“It’s not in there,” said Seiki.
A smirk appeared on Renshiro’s lips. “We’ll have to see, won’t we?”
This was not going anywhere. “I’ll tell you what I know, and I’d appreciate honest answers in return,” Seiki said.
Renshiro raised an eyebrow. “Okay, go on.”
“The Shadow Manor was supposed to let a client loot a key from their victim, but somehow they were betrayed and the key ended up at Ichikeya.” Seiki paused. “No,” he corrected himself. “Someone on the inside got the key from them somehow and asked me to take it to Ichikeya, which I did, without knowing what it was. So now, I’m just trying to figure out what kind of mess I’ve created.”
He checked their expressions. Itsuki’s eyes widened and she let out a delighted giggle. “You’re the kid at the Ichikeya challenge?”
Renshiro chuckled. “No wonder.”
Seiki was reminded again that more people knew about the challenge than he was comfortable with. Pushing that out of his mind, he asked Renshiro, “Was it your key?”
“You’re saying you don’t have it in that box?” said Renshiro.
The man was just avoiding the question. “Was it your key? Is that why you want it?” insisted Seiki. He needed to know if these people were the original owners or if they were just another party after a prize. “What does it open?”
“Unlock that box for us and I’ll tell you all about it,” said Renshiro. Seiki was not sure why the man now seemed amused.
“Hey, honesty for honesty,” said Seiki.
“Sorry, kid. No honesty among thieves,” said Itsuki, causing Satoru to look up from his net and glare at her.
Seiki glanced toward his possessions on the ground by the fire. “I’m leaving,” he said, making his mind to just go for it. If these people tried to stop him again, he would improvise then.
“Still can’t let you do that,” said Renshiro, the dangerous edge creeping back into his tone.
Seiki crouched to grab his Hikari, and he could hear Renshiro’s footsteps rushing in again. Seiki readied himself, wondering how long they were going to keep this up.
Before Seiki could move any further, thick gray smoke exploded in front of him, similar to the one that had scared Fubuki into rearing earlier. It did no damage. With a flash of purple, the ninja girl had thrown her body over the items on the ground, yanking at Seiki’s sleeve as she landed and almost pulling him off his balance.
Giggling, Itsuki rolled away. In her arms were the scroll, the sheathed wooden sword and the tiny blood-locked box—all of which she quickly pocketed. The bare Hikari was still on the ground, and Seiki reached for it through the smoke.
All of a sudden, the sword shot out from beneath his hand with a loud clank, as a horizontal low-flying arrow hit it perfectly on the edge of the blade. The Hikari skidded across the grass and right into Itsuki’s hand, who had leapt to her feet and positioned herself at the right angle.
“Thanks, Sat-chan.” The ninja girl lifted the sword off in one smooth motion and broke into a run a few feet away from the fire.
The smoke explosion had also caught Renshiro by surprise, and the ronin was now standing beside Seiki. “Itsuki!” he yelled.
The ninja girl gave him an innocent smile.
“Give me the box,” said Renshiro.
And as he took a step toward her, she leapt back. “Uh-uh, Ren-san. I’ll run.”
She was now waving the Hikari in her hand, unable to pocket a claimed blade. And for some reason, seeing his sword in someone else’s hand bothered Seiki more than he thought it would. “I could have told the Rangers!” Seiki said.
“Well, but you didn’t. That was your chance, kiddo.” Itsuki giggled. “And Ren-san, you can prick his finger all you want now but there won’t be a lock to catch the blood. I’ve got quite a few charms left and, thanks to the ridiculous anti-theft system the kid had on him, you’re now out of Pickpocketing charges for a while.” She shrugged. “So, I guess you’re going to have to kill me and loot the box back?”
Renshiro stared at her.
Miya, who had been silent this whole time, finally smiled. “Well done, It-chan.” She sat down quietly at her spot again and reached
into her chest pocket for the parchment she had been reading.
Renshiro continued to stare at his companions.
“Can everybody just please sit down for now?” said Satoru, sighing. “And, Renshiro, you’re in my light.”
Seiki stared at them, too, telling himself this was going to be a very long night.
Chapter 14
The evening was progressing on with the new moon high in the star-filled sky. Dew had started to form on the grass and the pine forest was refreshingly cool.
“It’s very simple,” said Miya. “One of you has to give in eventually. Either you unlock the box, or Renshiro tells you what he knows about the key.”
“Uh, those are not exactly the only options,” Itsuki pointed out. She had perched herself on a low branch on the nearest elm tree and was swinging her legs back and forth, as she balanced Seiki’s unsheathed Hikari on the back of her hand.
The fire was still burning, and the Wilderness was still dark and chirping with cicadas. Seiki now found himself in a strange kind of standoff.
“I told you it’s a piece of paper and not your key,” said Seiki. He was sitting with his back against a pine tree further away and on the opposite side of the fire from the ninja girl. He could still try to run, but then it would be back to the whole scenario of him grappling with Renshiro on the forest ground. Plus, he did not fancy having to claim both his Hikari and Kohagane back from the Bureau at the same time, as he was very sure it would take a lot more than ten Favor points to get them instantly.
Renshiro had reluctantly sat down by the fire and was not in the best of moods after what Itsuki had done. He looked over at Seiki. “Prove it. Just show it to me.”
“No,” said Seiki, for what felt like the hundredth time. “I’m not going to unlock the thing.”
“Even if it’s not the key, nothing’s gonna go to Kano Castle,” muttered Renshiro.
“Ren-san’s got issues with them, you see,” said Itsuki.
“What’s the key for?” asked Seiki. “Why do people want it so much?”
Renshiro’s eyes narrowed. “Who else?”
