Chapter 523:
Shift
Saki breathed out heavily with the weight of her future. ‘Like Yuki says, just think of it like a game. Eventually I’ll be out of this and it’ll be just a memory.’
Eying up her target, she wished that she had super powers, even the ability to jump unusual distances. It would have made entry far easier for her to achieve. With no insider to help her and a limited knowledge of the building, it was going to be more effort than she wished. ‘I’ve only got one night…’ This hadn’t exactly been the sort of training she had been put through.
When Lord Kumasaka discovered them, they were nearly dead thieving orphans. Thanks to still having their original intelligence, they were able to barely find ways to keep themselves alive. But it wasn’t enough in the end, they needed a sponsor and Kumasaka found potential in them, as he seemed to be fond of doing.
Their proven resourcefulness and strength made them ideal for martial work. The Lord had no need for soldiers given his status and clan, so bodyguards became the natural. It was because of Yumi’s father that they ended up meeting. Kumasaka needed them to be trained and the Kaoin had a talent for it. Yumi picked up rather quickly the unnatural maturity of them and she revealed herself to them.
From then on, they worked together under the Kaoin Clan tutelage to improve and get stronger. Within such an era, the strength found from the body would be of greater benefit to them. And for more than ten years they practiced and refined everything that they had to teach until they were approved to be bodyguards.
Elevated in status, they could be closer to Yumi when needed and hopefully in time, maybe become her bodyguard. However, that remained a distant and possibly now nearly impossible goal to keep. Aya couldn’t be allowed to die and as long as they had value to her, she would never let them go. And unfortunately, if the day ever did come, they would be killed rather than given freedom.
A cruel woman that commanded a cruel fate.
Chapter 523 – Different Beat
Watching the entrance with women out beckoning passing men into their establishment, Saki contemplated the first entrance. However, she didn’t really prepare for that sort of infiltration. Finding another way would have to be the solution. Plus that wasn’t something she was ready to handle.
Moving around to the rear of the building, there were no immediate signs of anyone making it a lot easier for her to sneak around unnoticed. She found a darkened part of the building and second floor roof to reach. Saki knew once she could get on top of the roof, navigating would be a lot easier out of most of the light and ambient eyes of people. Only the windows were a concern and most looked to be closed or curtained.
Saki measured the wall for hand holds and climbing options. Their training didn’t really cover such things as scaling a building, perhaps if she had been trained as a ninja rather than a soldier, though she didn’t even know if they did that sort of thing. She knew very little of historical accurate ninja in Japan. But she tried to push further thoughts back and focus on the task at hand for her.
Finding a hold for her hand, she cautiously began her ascent in the darkness. A groan and creak came from the building, but nothing that wouldn’t have been passed off as anything more than the wind or natural building movement. Being in her prime physical condition and trained, the climb to the second floor proved to be far simpler than she feared.
Locating the younger brother now became the priority for Saki. She had more than fifty rooms that she needed to search and little clue to the woman he spent his night with. ‘As a Lord or at least brother to a Lord, he probably pays well for his women. The higher paid ones from what I remember are in the corners and on the fourth floor furthest from the rest of the clients. I guess that’s a good enough place to start.’
Since she was already on the floor, she checked the corner rooms for signs of the brother, but found no one that matched him. Awkwardness aside, she continued on to the third floor to check out the next rooms, which also didn’t include any evidence of the target.
The fourth floor arrived and had the best chances of having him somewhere on the floor. She climbed up to the roof finding a loose panel that she could pry open. Enough room existed between the ceiling and the roof that she could crawl around getting a clearer view into the rooms and a more unseen vantage.
Her first steps onto the thick beams that supported the roof creaked a little giving her pause, but they relaxed and she proceeded smoothly into the ceiling interior. Breathing steadily, she tried to keep herself calm and collected. This was the first time she had to do something like this. Sneaking around to assassinate someone wasn’t part of any of her experience. ‘Come on Saki, keep it together…’
The building was a rectangle shape with eight rooms to the length and four rooms to the width. She made it through the length of one side so far and nothing. She feared he might have picked a less expensive woman being modest. However, he ended up being found in the corner halfway through the floor.
They were both talking at the moment, reminding her of what Aya did with Kumasaka. This sort of setting wouldn’t be the best to do it in since she couldn’t predict what would happen if she missed or was too slow in dealing with both individuals. She couldn’t alert the building.
Thus Saki waited out the evening trying not to grow lax in her senses. Nearby people would pass through the halls to other rooms and there were others in the neighboring rooms. Sometimes sounds would leak up into the ceiling, but she focused on her target.
It took longer than she wanted, but they finally were moving to the other room to continue their personal time. ‘There’s no better time than this. He’ll be down on his guard and without most of his clothes hopefully so I’ll have a clean kill.’ The woman did her job for Saki, starting to disrobe him.
Saki quickly checked on the surrounding rooms and made sure of her privacy. No one would disturb her and if she could get the perfect moment, she would be able to finish it quickly. ‘Come on, where is the right chance…’
Evaluating the scene, she knew that the woman would be a risk. ‘She’s already a casualty in this unfortunately. So I need her to keep her silent while I kill him. Any screaming is going to cause too many problems…’ Killing the woman first wouldn’t be an option as she examined the outcomes, the brother could easily fight back. She needed an instant kill against him.
As the seconds ticked with the two adults getting to their business, Saki continued to calculate ideas based on the changing situation below. She confirmed him with no weapons and naked. Fewer variables with him existed, she knew nothing about the woman. As long as she wasn’t another, Aya, she would be safe from that.
It was then that she spotted her chance. The woman was currently in a position that she couldn’t speak if she wanted to, so she would not get a better chance than now.
Her hand rested on her hilt as she pulled it free slowly. She had a short window to execute. Saki rose up to her feet, knelt down and lined up her attack on the unsuspecting brother. Breathing slowly, she readied her mind for the action. ‘I’ve done it before. Make it quick and painless. You can do it. They’re not real people.’ With her pep talk, Saki dropped down from the ceiling plunging with full force her blade into the skull of the younger brother as he stopped almost immediately.
Saki landed with a slightly heavy foot that she wished she avoided. The woman hadn’t quite noticed yet and Saki didn’t wait for her. She pushed the already dead man over on top of the innocent woman. A couple of attempts to scream in surprise, as she still didn’t know what was happening failed to escape her lips. The body of the dead Lord completely muffled her.
Now pinned, Saki moved her sword around and stabbed the woman through the ear and out the other quickly ending her sad unfortunate life. The little bit of blood that came out pooled on the sheets and futon padding. With the job finished she wiped off the blade of blood and returned it to the sheath.
Panting a little Saki stood up staring down at the two dead. Her eyes focused intensely on their bodies as the entire room and building melted away from her senses. She could only see them. ‘It’s so surprising how easy it was…they’re just gone…’ Her heart and mind tried to process the difference of a fake reality and the real sensations that she felt. If she didn’t think it was fake, there was nothing stopping her from believing everything that she saw and did.
‘What does this mean? I did it so simply…does being real enough make it real?’ She shook her head trying to get her to stop that line of thought. Saki soon noticed that her breathing was out of control. It took a few seconds, but she managed to start calming her body and breathing down. A little longer and her heart stopped pounding in her ears. Her mind stifled it down into its spot where it belonged. ‘Why is it bothering me? I’ve killed before…this shouldn’t be different…’
Saki looked around the room trying to figure out her next plan. It took a moment for her mind to start properly thinking the way that she needed it. Returning to normal came fairly quickly for her. ‘If this was the modern era, I would want to try to get rid of the bodies so that there was less evidence to trace it back. But they don’t have any sort of forensics in this era. Unless there’s actual identification, all they’re going to know is that they were killed with a sword.’
She paced around looking at the room as her mind went through the plan again. ‘Aya needs to frame Kumasaka for this. So she’s going to need a body to show that he’s actually dead. She’s an intelligent woman, she probably has everything else covered. It’ll probably be enough circumstantial evidence to point back to him.’ The job was completed and no one appeared to notice.
Leaving the scene quickly, she left out the window leaving as she found it and disappeared into the night. Taking a careful route back into the grounds, she returned to Aya’s room to find her working and Yuki still standing on guard. “It’s done.”
Aya stopped her writing and turned partly to look back at Saki. “The evidence has already been slipped to Lord Takasugi. Things will be progressing to the next stage soon. You two be ready. The path to hell awaits us.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
Yuki walked over to Saki, taking hold of her hand without saying a word. It felt surprisingly calm considering what she had to do. He looked over at her trying to see how she was doing. ‘She’s putting up a brave face, I know it…’
Yumi awoke to a seemingly normal day completely unaware of the plays in motion. She finished her morning exercise and work before being escorted over to the Matsushina by her father’s guards. With the coming war planned for the middle summer, she had been trying to do research into the region for her father and uncle as they would likely be the ones leading the charge.
It had been a somewhat long night poring over maps and texts on the region. The entire land had a wealth of history dating back long before any recorded documents that she could find. If possible she would have preferred to go out to the lands to understand them better, but her father already stopped her once from that. As a woman, she shouldn’t be doing such dangerous things, especially given her marriage. Eventually barring a child was important and only because they hadn’t taken time to arrange a suitable male, she had been spared that loss of agency.
For now at least.
She dreaded what her future would look like in this world if she couldn’t solve the mystery of it before too long. The loss of control over her own destiny bothered her more recently than ever. ‘I need to find something that can earn my rights back, especially if I’m to keep up with Aya in any sort of way…’
Such plans had to wait as when she arrived at the gates of the Matsushina estate the guards had everyone stopped. Chaos and panic seemed to be thick in the air and she immediately worried about what Aya had done.
Pushing through some of the crowds, she made it to the front. “Excuse me, what’s going on?”
The guard quickly recognized her and snapped over to her, stopping his aid to someone of lesser status. “Lady Kaoin, you haven’t heard?”
“No, what is it?”
“Lord Matsushina’s younger brother has been murdered!”
“Murdered?!” Yumi quickly covered her mouth with her hand as she looked over in the direction of where the Kumasaka Clan resided. ‘Aya…what did you make my friends do…’
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