Reprisal

by Charles Tillman

  Akio did not speak again until he pulled his katana back. “This is for Kenjii.” He brought the blade down, cutting through Isamu’s neck and lodging the blade deep in the wooden doorframe. The Forsaken’s bloody head spun through the air and landed with a dull thud several feet away from the torn and lifeless body pinned to the wall.

  Yuko stared at the mangled, headless corpse for a few heartbeats. “Justice is served,” she whispered.

  Akio looked away from her as he softly said, “No, not Justice. Vengeance. I’m not proud of it, but I promised myself many years ago that if I ever had the opportunity to avenge Kenjii, I would make Isamu experience some small taste of the agonies he has caused others over the years.”

  Yuko laid her hand on his blood-covered shoulder. “It is done, although he deserved much worse.”

  Akio was silent a moment before replying. “Hai, he truly did.”

  Yuko tilted her head down and peered up at him sheepishly before she murmured, “I rushed in again, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, you did. Do you now see the consequences of allowing your emotions to take control in a fight? Suppose you had encountered Forsaken in the pit instead of half-starved Nosferatu?” His quiet voice guided her to think through his questions rather than simply react.

  Yuko looked down. “Hai. I will do better.”

  “How many Nosferatu did you encounter?”

  “I think it was twenty. I lost count but judging by the fresh body parts on the ground when I was done, I believe that is fairly accurate.”

  Before he could respond, a soft scuffle from the tunnel the villagers had fled through alerted them that someone was coming. Both turned with weapons ready.

  “Human,” Akio confirmed as he lowered his sword.

  “Come on out, we won’t hurt you,” Yuko called.

  Koda Rii hesitantly stepped into the light from the dark mouth of the tunnel. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Akio, blood-splattered with a naked sword in hand, standing with Yuko.

  “For-forgive my intrusion, Shenshi-sama,” she stammered at Yuko. “I heard Sho Mitsuro as I was leaving, then a fight. I knew that if he lived, he would kill everyone who escaped. I thought to distract him to give the others time to-to try to get away.”

  Yuko looked respectfully at the brave young woman who was willing to sacrifice herself for others to escape. “You needn’t be afraid of him anymore. He seems to have lost his head.” She stepped to the side, revealing the headless corpse pinned to the wall by Akio’s tanto.

  Koda gasped as she saw the body in torn and bloody Imperial regalia stuck to the doorframe. She looked at Akio, her fear-filled gaze quickly turning to admiration.

  “Sho Mitsuro is dead? You killed him!” she exclaimed, relief washing over her face.

  Akio nodded. “It was a debt that was long overdue.”

  Koda stared at Yuko and then at Akio, who were both covered in blood from head to toe. Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth opened and closed as she searched for words. She finally blurted, “Master, would you be willing to train me? I wish to learn to fight so I can protect my people if this type of evil ever comes here again.”

  Before Akio could answer, Yuko interjected, “We will have to discuss it. We are guests of the government as our Queen’s representatives and do not wish to offend our hosts.”

  Akio remained silent. Yuko was the Queen’s Vicereine, and this request fell under her area of responsibility.

  Koda bowed to Yuko. “I understand, Shenshi-sama. I would be honored to train with you.” She turned slightly and bowed respectfully to Akio. “If it is allowed.”

  Akio returned her bow. “You honor me, young one. If it can be arranged with our host, I would gladly teach someone who would willingly sacrifice herself to a beast like Isamu that others might live.”

  The young woman looked confused. “Who is Isamu?”

  “That was the name I knew him by in the past.” He motioned toward the body. “Sho Mitsuro was a creation of his diseased mind.”

  Koda looked thoughtful for a moment but then nodded and glanced at the open door that led to the upper level. “Did you see two women, one about my age and the other older?”

  “Hai,” Akio confirmed.

  Her voice trembled. “Are they… Do they still live?”

  “They are alive but appear to need assistance,” Yuko informed her in a gentle tone. “Would you like to go to them?”

  Koda nodded. “Yes. Yes, I would like that very much.”

  Yuko led the young woman past Isamu’s body, which was still pinned to the doorframe. Koda pushed against the opposite side of the doorway, keeping as far from it as possible.

  Once the women had started up the stairs, Akio grabbed the hilt of his tanto and twisted it free. Isamu’s corpse crumpled to the floor.

  Akio stepped over it and followed the two women without a backward glance.

  Chapter Eight

  Uegusuku Castle, Kume Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

  The three of them climbed the stairs and discovered that both women were still kneeling at the foot of the throne, unaware of the events that had transpired around them.

  Koda rushed to them and threw her arms around the older one, folding her in a tight hug. “Oba-san, I was so afraid you had been killed,” she cried as she buried her face in the woman’s neck.

  When there was no response, Koda pulled back and stared at the woman. “Oba-san, Ono, what is wrong? It’s me, Koda, your brother’s daughter.”

  The woman remained unresponsive, so she shook her. “Oba-san, Ono, why do you not answer? Please answer me,” she wailed, more frantic with each passing second.

  Akio put his hand on the distraught young woman’s shoulder. “Isamu had the ability to affect people’s minds. Please step back and allow me to help her. When she comes out of it, she might be confused and violent at first.”

  As Koda stood and moved back a step, Akio knelt in front of the immobile woman. He reached out with his senses and touched her mind. It took only a moment for him to see that she was caught in a repeating loop of horrific images. All featured Isamu, his eyes glowing red, as he attacked and ravaged her daughter while she watched helplessly.

  Akio gently pushed calm into the woman’s terrified mind. Slowly, the images faded as he carefully worked to remove the compulsion that kept her reliving each terrible act and kept her body frozen in position until Isamu ordered her out of it.

  She started to tremble, slightly at first but more forcefully as Akio broke through the compulsion. With a sudden intake of breath, she fell sobbing into Akio’s arms. He gently lowered her to the floor and continued to push calm into her mind until she looked into his eyes. He broke the compulsion with one final push, and she started shaking violently as a low moan began deep in her throat and built into a long scream.

  She drew a shuddering breath and cried, “No! No! Please don’t hurt her anymore. Take me instead. Asai, my beautiful daughter, I’m so sorry!”

  Akio laid his hand on her brow and willed her to calm. It was like a switch had been thrown. One moment she was begging in terror, and the next she was quietly looking at the people around her.

  “You’re safe now. It is over,” Akio whispered.

  He stood and motioned for Koda to approach. “She has been through a terrifying ordeal. Care for her while I see to her daughter.”

  Koda took his place and pulled the woman into her arms. “Oh, oba-san. The beast is gone. We don’t have to be afraid anymore. These warriors have destroyed all of the monsters, and Mitsuro is dead. I saw his lifeless body with my own eyes.”

  Akio knelt before the younger woman and slipped into her mind. He was assailed by images of Isamu, his eyes red and fangs protruding from his mouth as he repeatedly took blood and other things from the helpless young woman. She would be drained almost to the point of unconsciousness, and then he would force his blood into her mouth. Not enough to turn her, but enough to keep her alive until she recovered enough for him to do it
again. He laughed as she cried and begged him to stop, enjoying her fear as he told her how he planned to keep her like this as his blood slave for many years to come.

  Akio wished at that moment that he had the power to bring him back from the dead, so he could kill him again.

  He carefully started to push images of happier times that he was able to pull from deep within her memories—a birthday party for a friend, swimming in the sea with the young man she loved, images of home and family, all the happiness she had experienced in life—until he was able to replace the horror show Isamu had compelled her to live in with images from her life before the harm he’d inflicted.

  When the compulsion broke, she fell unconscious into his arms, exhausted from living in the mental nightmare and physically taxed by the many abuses her body had suffered.

  He stood, lifting her in his arms. “Yuko, we need to get her medical attention. Her mind is healed, but her body is very weak. I don’t think she will survive the night otherwise.”

  She nodded and placed her hand on Koda’s shoulder. “Come, bring your aunt. We need to get medical help for Asai now.”

  Koda wore a pained look when she heard this. “We have no medical people here. Mitsuro killed them the first week when they protested his treatment of the others.”

  Yuko took Koda by the arm and gently pulled her to her feet. “We have medical facilities. Bring Ono and let us get Asai the help she needs.”

  Akio looked hard at Yuko. “We can’t do what you are planning. It could cause—”

  Yuko interrupted before he could finish. “Our Queen charged us to protect humanity from the UnknownWorld. We have failed these people, and it is my decision that we do whatever we must to ensure that this woman lives. It is a diplomatic decision.” She added softly, “It is also the right thing to do.”

  Akio nodded in agreement and said no more.

  Yuko helped Koda lead Ono out of the castle to the Pod Akio had already called down at the foot of the steps. Akio carried Asai inside and gently strapped her into a seat while Yuko secured Ono and then Koda.

  “Eve?” Yuko called over her implant as the Pod lifted.

  “Yes, Yuko?”

  “We’re on our way back with a severely injured woman. Please prepare the Pod-doc for basic regeneration. No enhancements will be made, but she does need all internal damage repaired as well as the external trauma and scars on her body. I also need you to contact the government liaison and advise him that we are still taking care of the problem on Kume. Inform him that the people there are in a bad situation and request that he prepare to send in medical people for support. Tell him we will have the situation in hand and will be ready for the assistance tomorrow afternoon. I will meet them there and direct the resources where they are needed.”

  Eve was waiting when the Pod door opened and the ramp extended. She had a floating stretcher that used antigrav technology waiting to take the injured girl to the Pod-doc.

  “The liaison advised that it is good you don’t need them sooner,” she informed them as a greeting. “He has a navy vessel going there now, but it is still some distance away. He advised that it can’t possibly get there any sooner than tomorrow evening, maybe later depending on the seas.”

  “Thank you, Eve.” Akio carried the young woman out of the Pod and placed her gently on the stretcher as Yuko helped Koda and Ono to the ground. Eve activated the stretcher, and it floated behind her as she took Asai to the waiting Pod-doc.

  Ono saw the small android taking her daughter and jerked away from Koda, running toward Asai. “Where are you taking her? Stop, don’t take her away from me,” she cried in anguish.

  Akio intercepted her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She froze when she saw his weapons and the blood-stained armor he wore. He projected calm toward her again as he told her, “Your daughter needs medical assistance. She has been badly injured. Eve is taking her to our medical facility. I assure you that she is in excellent hands and safe.”

  Ono noticeably relaxed from the combination of Akio’s words and the sense of peace he projected. “May I go with her?” she begged.

  Akio continued to project calm. “In a short time. First, you need to eat. Your body needs nourishment to overcome what was taken from you. Your daughter will need you when she recovers. You must take care of yourself before you can properly care for her.”

  Ono looked like she wanted to protest, but Koda gently took her arm. “Oba-san, they will care for Asai and help her. These are good people and they will not cause her more harm. Please let them take care of her and you.”

  Ono looked at Koda and then back at Akio. “Hai, you are right. I do not feel well. Perhaps some food will help.”

  “Let’s go get both of you something. Koda, you look as though you could use a meal as well,” Yuko told her.

  As Yuko led them across the darkened yard into a nondescript building, Koda stared in awe at the vehicle they had arrived in. She had been so concerned with helping her aunt that the trip had been a blur.

  “May I ask where we are, Shenshi-sama?”

  “Please, Rii-san, call me Yuko. You’re at our base of operations in Tokyo.”

  “Tokyo! That is fifteen hundred kilometers from Kume Island! We did not take that long in your vehicle.” She looked around with wide eyes, not believing what she was told.

  Yuko smiled at the bewildered woman. “It’s very fast.”

  Chapter Nine

  TQB Base, Tokyo, Japan

  Yuko brought the two women into the building and stopped at an elevator. She placed her hand on a nearby button and it flashed from red to green before the doors slid open. The three women stepped in.

  “Residential level,” she directed when the doors closed. The elevator descended rapidly, then the doors opened on a brightly lit hallway. Yuko led them to a dining area, where she went to the cupboard and pulled out some canned stew and two electrolyte-laden drinks that had been stocked in case of emergencies. Akio and Yuko did not eat them, but Eve had acquired whatever she thought might be needed for a variety of situations.

  After she set the steaming bowls of protein-rich stew and the drinks in front of the two women, she excused herself to clean up. Her armor had little damage, but the blood that covered it from her battle with the Nosferatu was caked and dry, and the dress she wore over it was a total loss.

  As she stepped out of the dining room, Akio met her in the hallway. His lips turned up in a slight smile, and his eyes glinted with barely suppressed mirth as he assessed her disheveled appearance.

  “What did you learn today?” he inquired while struggling, with limited success, to contain the smile that threatened to take over his face.

  “That Forsaken are worse animals than I thought,” she replied.

  “’Animal’ is too kind a description for Isamu and Ogawa,” he stated. “But always remember that Forsaken do not care about human life. They only care that they have humans to use for blood and slaves.”

  “I understand that, now,” Yuko replied. “Are all Forsaken like that?”

  “To some extent, those two were evil before they became Forsaken, and as such, they only got worse. But no Forsaken I have ever met does anything but use others for their own means. They are a disease that can only be healed by purging them.”

  “I will remember that lesson forever,” she quietly replied.

  “What other lesson did you learn from your actions tonight?”

  Her face flushed pink with embarrassment. “Not to allow my anger to make me act in a careless and reckless manner,” she told him hesitantly.

  “Hai, that is a good lesson to take from this. I’m certain that with the proper amount of training and motivation, you will remember that lesson much better next time.”

  Yuko groaned as she caught the gleam in his eyes, knowing he would ensure that the motivation was much worse than the training.

  All traces of amusement drained from Akio’s face. “You did well tonight, but as I said before, you wer
e very lucky. Had Isamu put other defenses into the trap besides mindless Nosferatu, it might have been fatal. If it had contained Forsaken, Weres, or even explosives, you might not have survived. You will need to be more cautious in the future if what I fear is true.”

  Yuko frowned. “What do you mean? Are there more of them?”

  Akio nodded. “I looked into Isamu’s mind before he died. He was not working alone. Judging by what I saw, he is only one part of what is happening. He was working with another I have encountered before, and what they plan is bigger than Isamu taking over one small island. Get cleaned up, and we will discuss it after we have seen to our guests.”

  Yuko stripped off her torn and bloody clothes and peeled her armor off while standing in front of the full-length mirror in her room. Her body still ached in places as her nanocytes worked to relieve the strain of battle from her muscles. She showered, and as she was dressing, Eve contacted her over her implant.

  “Yuko, the Pod-doc program will be complete in fifteen minutes. Do you want to be here when I pull Asai out?”

  “Hai. Asai was unconscious when we took her off the island. I might need to calm her when she comes out.”

  Yuko stepped into the room with the Pod-doc as Eve was preparing to bring Asai out.

  When the unit opened, Asai’s eyes slowly focused, and she started to panic as she realized that she was in a strange place with an unknown woman staring down at her.

  Yuko projected a sense of calm while speaking quietly but firmly. “You’re safe. No one can hurt you here, Asai-san.”

  The young woman calmed noticeably as Yuko’s voice and the feelings she projected sank into her mind.

  “How are you feeling, Asai-san?”

  “I feel…better. Much better,” she replied, confusion evident on her face. “Who are you?”