Chapter 524:

Torch for the Fire

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It was hard for her to not make the assumption, especially given what they had told her the previous day. She knew the ambition and deadly games that went on in the court. Everyone knew the games and played them. The fact that nothing this severe had happened in quite some time only made it more obvious to be coming.

More troubling for Yumi was that it was Lord Matsushina’s brother that was caught up in it. The one that seemed the least likely for someone to target. He had no desire to move up. It was merely a threat to the Lord himself more than anything. ‘This is going to be a terrible day…’

It was going to be a far worse day than she could have imagined.

Chapter 524 – Torch for the Fire

Once the guards allowed her to pass, she hurried over to the main building. She looked around for her uncle among the sea of people crowded around. Blood seemed to be in the water and there were more than a few accusations being thrown about. None of them knew specifics, but it didn’t stop them from making whatever claims that they could.

The atmosphere grew tense by the minute as she hung around. A few threatening words tossed over shoulders began the downward spiral. She grew uneasy about being in the group and it became true when someone threw a punch. It knocked them back and into her as she fell back and bumped into someone else.

Immediately, the person that she crashed into turned already enraged and took it out on the person that they thought did it. Yumi had thankfully tripped in it all and fell out of sight. She did unfortunately help trigger a brawl. Not having a lot in the way of training, she couldn’t hope to defend herself with so much chaos. She quickly pulled out of the growing rage that built.

Once she was safe, she could breathe a little. The brawl cooled about as quickly as it began with half of the gathering too cowardly to keep up any sort of violence. But it added another ton worth of tension into the air. Everyone had eyes out for everyone else, not certain who was the one that did it.

Yumi was quite certain if any of them had been carrying a weapon it would have been far more lethal. A weapon in hand made men that were cowards into brave fools and soon to be dead ones. She felt grateful that nothing like that happened. But she didn’t rule it out from possibly happening in the future. If nothing was done about the tension, things could only get worse.

“Yoshi,” called out a voice through the numerous arguing voices. There was only one person that called her that and she quickly turned to the direction of the voice and rushed over.

“Uncle!”

He hugged her tightly checking on her how she looked with the chaos. “Are you okay?”

“Nothing that I can’t walk off. Tell me, Uncle, what do you know about what happened?”

A heavy sigh came from his lips as he encouraged her off to the side out of prying ears, though who knew if any of them could actually hear their conversation. Not taking the risk, they sat over by a well tended tree at a bench beneath it. “There’s not much to go on right now. We know Akira was killed by an assassin while he was at a brothel that he regularly visited. Both him and the woman he was with were found dead by the proprietress.”

Yumi swallowed hard thinking about the scene. ‘Did you do it Saki? I know you said you were the shadows while I was light, but to take it this far…’ It might have seemed a leap, since she hadn’t talked to them yet to confirm, but she felt she had enough evidence to put the pieces together. Now she just needed to know what was public knowledge, so she knew how bad things were. “How was it done? Poison? Blade?”

“A blade, which means unless we find clues it’s going to be nearly impossible to learn who did it.”

Monitoring the arguing in the distance, she thought about the impact it had already. “That doesn’t seem to have stopped them. Sides are already being formed.”

“Yes, I never knew things were so fragile. There’s some that believe the Lord did it himself, since he was a weak and ineffective leader. They’re saying that’s why he hasn’t come out and said anything yet. They’re split on whether to be proud, scared or seeking justice. I’d say most are scared, since so far he hasn’t given any signs of being so ruthless.”

Shaking her in agreement, she could see how they looked from that description. “Yes, Lord Matsushina has been fair thus far, though not against taking to ruthless actions or even betrayal. But loyal to the clan and ones close to him. It’s definitely hard to believe he would have his own brother murdered, at least not without reason. And certainly not in private.”

“Which leaves all the rest of the Lords and they all think each other did it. Right now, I’m less worried about who did it and more about how many more will die before this storm leaves us.”

She sensed something similar watching the crowd. Violence was a very real and likely scenario. ‘Is this what Aya planned? Did she want to remove competition? What is her end game to all of this?’ Yumi stood up, not likely to get much more from him. ‘I wish I could confront her directly, but I don’t know her well enough for that conversation to happen. I need to see Yuki and Saki…’

Bowing politely to her uncle, she departed his company to look for them. With the chaos of the day, she doubted any of the usual meetings were taking place. Until the Lord called the council together, she was likely free for the day.

After failing to find them at the room of Aya, she searched the grounds. All of the usual places that she expected to find them they were not. Then the less likely and until she found them in the one place that she never thought to look. In all of the chaos she had never seen them. They were almost next to her the whole time.

The guards posted around the main household of Matsushina had increased as expected. However, they had an additional two unassigned guards present. She could hardly make a direct conversation with them as she would have liked. But she still had something to play.

She approached the gate and the guards became quickly stern in their interest to see her leave. It seemed no one was welcome. “Good afternoon. I find it rather curious that Mistress Aya’s personal guards are loitering without being accosted.”

Yuki and Saki glanced quickly between themselves, already seeing Yumi’s approach. They made some agreements amongst them. “Lady Kaoin.”

“We await the return of our Mistress,” replied Yuki.

‘The woman’s inside…if she were an assassin I’d be concerned with that. But no, she’s been quite close with the Lord to the anger of Kumasaka. No doubt she already made this move to secure her safety in the power struggle to come.’ Yumi smiled politely acknowledging their answer. “The court is in an upheaval today.”

Saki nodded stiffly. “Yes, it is my Lady. We are keeping more vigilant.”

“I’m glad to hear it. One tragedy is more than enough.”

“Be careful, my Lady. I fear there may be more tragedies, as you put it, before things calm.”

“That would be terrible. We can’t afford to be fighting amongst ourselves with war on the horizon.”

“Your safety is of the utmost importance, my Lady. You are only human.”

“Yes, I’m acutely aware of my shortcomings. Be mindful of shadows, I fear there is darkness ahead of this path.”

“You may be right, but this is the path before us. Good day, my Lady.”

Yumi kept a grumble to herself with Saki cutting her off. She respectfully bowed to the two and turned away. Once she got away from all of the arguing, she sat down to think over what she learned. ‘Aya’s planning on killing more…or engineering more deaths…is this fighting her plan?’ From her position, she could still see some of them gathered. Many got fed up or tired and left thankfully, but nothing was resolved. There were only more risks involved.

Her mind tried to sort out the planning that Aya orchestrated. It was hard to see the way that Aya did, especially with her lacking a clear view of the woman. More than a few times, she wished that she could have been next to her to learn how she worked. Like those before her, the woman had natural gifts and talents that Yumi completely lacked. These weren’t areas that were needed in her age at least for someone like her. They never would have been learned.

If she was going to understand the woman and be able to solve the conditions of this world, she needed to get closer. Though that felt more distant at the moment with the impending violence that she saw on the horizon. ‘If I had been closer to her could I have prevented this outcome? Was this the only way it was ever going to go? Could I have even stopped her? Each of the women are like forces of nature and nearly impossible to stop their course. Only at the end once I understood them and solved the problem could their direction be changed… This could very well be the same…likely it is…’

Accepting it as an unavoidable outcome seemed worse. But she didn’t know any other solutions at the moment. Even dampening the force of her work might be impossible. Yumi knew that she had barely any sort of real authority within the court. She was a woman of curiosity that the men allowed. ‘I need to change things…’

She could do little until the day passed. It wasn’t until the next day when she managed to find Aya at her office. Things on the estate had only marginally calmed down, but everyone was no longer standing around yelling at each other. They had disappeared all to their own corners with plans moving. She feared the future turmoil that came.

That fear brought her before Aya now with Yuki and Saki in the back as the two women started their talk. “Mistress Aya, I’m glad you were willing to see me.”

“Lady Kaoin, it is quite the privilege to be able to talk with someone of your status.”

Even though there was no condescending tone to her voice, the words felt it. Yumi didn’t like how much power the woman radiated in such an effortless way. She was so much trouble. “I want to speak with you about recent events.”

“They are troubling states.”

“I’m going to get straight to the point. I want to side with you in the coming conflict.”

Eytha
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