This wasn't part of the plan

Ras wasn't an abuser, at least as far as I knew.

He didn't beat his partner or any other family members, although to be fair he didn't seem to have any family besides Toshi and her father. He didn't steal despite living in Outer Town. Not that meeting the basic requirements for human decency was something to be particularly proud of.

He wasn't the most pleasant person to be around but he didn't go around routinely assaulting random people with his words. He didn't abuse the little power he had or take his frustrations out on those weaker than him. He wasn't anything like my other victims. He wasn't a danger to anyone.

Except me.

Most of the people who had been going missing in Inner Town all had the means to wander off and start a new life in some other village so, although it was slightly disconcerting, the residents had no reason to suspect they had been murdered. If anything, the friends, family, and strangers who had suffered at their hands were relieved. I still saw some of them regularly and the new light in their eyes had helped me feel like I was doing the right thing.

But, after some subtle investigating, Ras had been persistently asking about me, my new shop, Uchi, her shop, Toshi, and my other friends. It didn't look like he was afraid of venturing as deep into Inner Town as the guards allowed him and finding out as much as he could before he was chased away.

I didn't know how long it would be before he realised how quickly I had moved shop after his brother went missing.

Before he found out what the man had planned to do with his own daughter and anyone else he could get his hands on in the process. I had taken care of the accomplices I saw him with outside the run down inn but I couldn't be sure any of them had kept their mouths shut before their deaths.

It wasn't uncommon for people to go missing in Outer Town, often dying in the woods or being swept away by the river due to poverty and poor living conditions. Some of Uchi's patients had given up their own fights against their ailments and left the world on their own terms, but we didn't speak about that. But the accomplices of Toshi's father could have spoken to people they knew. To other sick-minded individuals who could have been part of the plan.

They could have spoken to Ras, who might have been an accomplice himself for all I knew.

But these were all possibilities and I had never taken a life based on anything less than pure certainty. All of the victims of my victims had become the proof I needed to take action. I knew taking a life was wrong but was it worse than turning a blind eye to those whose lives were turned into hell because of such people?

I chose the answer that made the most sense to me each time and turned my back on the stain each killing left on the purity of my soul. As far as I was concerned, the safety of the many people I could protect both now and in the future by removing those people worth the price I had to pay for it. It was a choice no one had forced me to make except for the monsters who had dared to engage in such foul activities in my presence or leave the evidence of their crimes wandering to my door for help.

And right now I was choosing to get rid of a piece of evidence that would allow me to continue doing so.

“Is anyone here?” called Ras on the other side of the Spiritless Tree. I kept quiet but he didn't move closer. “I got your note.”

He needed to be closer to the edge, otherwise things could become messy. I looked for a rock or something else I could throw to make him curious.

“Was it a lie?” he mumbled. “But why would anyone do that? It doesn't make sense.”

I found chunk sliver of bark, smaller than I would have wanted, and hurled it against the lip of the canyon. It made a dull sound but Ras' senses were probably heightened due to the anxiety and anticipation caused by the note I had left where I knew only he would find it, and he moved slightly closer.

“You can come out now,” he said, moving to peer around the trunk faster than expected. “Or just tell me where my brother is. You don't even have to show your face if you don't want to.”

I transformed hastily and flew into the upper branches of the tree but the sound of my wings was louder in the late night silence.

“Is that a … white phoenix?” He held up his lantern, awe momentarily overriding his anxiety. “No way.”

I leapt off the branches and disappeared as far into the night as I could without leaving him out of my sight for long. He had seen me. That was bad but it was better than him seeing me in human form. The only person who had seen my phoenix form and who could possibly be linked to me was Tatsuya but even he didn't know I was the secret friend who kept him company during the days he spent as a lonely dragon.

Still, it was just another potential threat I couldn't afford to overlook.

My white feathers worked against me, more so beneath the limited illumination of the moon. By the time I circled back and landed behind the Spiritless Tree again, Ras was already walking away from it with a barely visible frustrated grimace. I couldn't let him go back to Outer Town. There was no way he would trust another note and come back here. There was also no way I could drag a full grown man towards edge nor push him off it they way I had with the other.

But I had to stop him.

I had to make sure he couldn't talk or reveal anything he had seen tonight.

I followed him as fast as I could, my bird-shaped feet silent upon the wilted grass, transforming back into my human form at the last possible second. I broke out into a cold sweat even as fire burst from my palms and the anticipation of his pain hit me like a falling tree.

I would have to silence him by sealing his lips. Melting them until they fused so he couldn't scream for help before I took his life. If I let my other hand heat up enough if in the meantime and shape the flames into a blade, I might be able to slip it straight between his ribs and into his heart. A quick death. One caused by a weapon that no one would ever be able to find. It would be like performing surgery, only my patient would be awake and in excruciating pain while I carried. It wasn't something I had ever done before.

It wasn't something I had ever wanted to do to anyone, especially not to someone who didn't deserve it, but it had to be done.

I had to do it.

Ras' suffering would be intense but short lived, as long as I didn't hesitate. However his hearing clearly wasn't the only sense that had been enhanced by his emotions and the darkness around us. He must have smelt the fire or perhaps my own scent, equally sharpened by fear but not the anger I needed, and turned around.

“What's that –?” His expression switched from apprehension to confusion. “What are you doing here?”

He didn't see me as a threat. He would never expect me to hurt him, despite his suspicions about my activities. He just couldn't work out what the village healer would be doing by the Spiritless Tree in the middle of the night. My heart ached as if he had punched it. His face remained relaxed right up until he caught sight of my flame-engulfed palm heading towards his mouth and even then he reacted instinctively, narrowing his eyes and grabbing me by the wrist.

“Shizuka, what are you –?” He cried out as the blade of fire in my other hand plunged into his thigh.

If I couldn't silence him instantly, I needed to at least slow him down so I had time to make a second attempt. The blade went deep but not far enough to hit his femoral artery or do any significant damage.

“Sorry,” I whispered as I sliced sideways through one of the bigger muscles in his upper leg and winced as he screamed.

Every inch of my soul wailed in unison at how wrong this was. I fought against both my own body and Ras as I tried to rake my burning flame across his throat. He hit my hand away and stepped back, dropping to the floor as his leg gave way beneath him. I landed on top of him, trying to steady myself and consequently burning through his clothes in multiple places while he writhed on the ground. The glow of the fallen lantern reflected in his wide eyes and made his teeth glint. I hoped he couldn't see my face. I couldn't even imagine the kind of expression I was making right now.

This wasn't part of the plan.

He wasn't supposed to feel this much fear. I wasn't supposed to make anyone go through something like this. Neither of us should have had anything do with each other but we did. Because he was the brother of an abusive father. Because he either didn't know what was happening to his niece or didn't do anything to help her. Because Toshi had found Tatsuya who wanted to save her. Because Tatsuya had brought her to me and trusted me to keep her safe.

“Shizu?”

I thought I was hearing things as I reached for Ras' throat and he fended me off with both hands, grunting, tears rolling down his face as he struggled to stop me. Tatsuya's voice in the distance was accompanied a lantern that bathed him in a soft orange light and my muscles turned to stone.

My heart stopped and the breath I released shot past my teeth like a cold gust of wind as if my lungs had frozen. Why was he here? He didn't know I was the phoenix so he had no reason to look for me here. Even if he had found out somehow, there was no reason for him to be here right now. What was he doing here?

Ras took advantage of the moment and shoved me off him, crawling towards Tatsuya.

“Help!” he yelled, his voice hoarse. “Help, I'm being attacked!”

“Shizu?” Tatsuya's lantern stopped moving and he squinted into the night beyond the radius of its light.

“She's trying to kill me!” screamed Ras.

I changed form in the middle of getting to my feet and pushed myself into the air with several rapid beats of my wings. The air seemed thinner beneath them and it took everything I had to stay aloft. Flying as high as possible, I took the darkest route away from them and headed back home without looking back to see whether Tatsuya had spotted me.