The Opaline Blood - Antagonist Reveal

Jinko burst from the porch, sprinting toward his horse, Saru. He snatched the reins and saddle horn, mounting with frantic, uncharacteristic efficiency. Aika was a blur beside him, vaulting onto her horse, Yuki, which had been idly waiting in the same stable since her arrival the day before.

“Haaa!!” Jinko barked, viciously urging Saru forward. Aika followed close behind.

A shearing blast of icy wind tore across the path, blurring the outlines of the houses. This was no longer an ordinary winter morning—this was the beginning of a blizzard. Jinko realized the journey would become lethally exhaustive for both riders and horses if the storm worsened.

“AIKA! Ye think ye can manage?!” Jinko shouted over the gale.

“I shall be as fine as you are. Just keep going, if you please!” Aika replied, eyes squinting against the icy spray.

Jinko’s eyebrows tightened, but he nodded sharply and turned his focus forward—

“SARU, STOP!”

Powdered snow burst outward in a violent cloud as Saru came to a sudden, brutal halt. Aika followed suit, Yuki’s hooves digging into the dense snow.

“W–what… are ye doin’ here, Tenmichi?”

Tenmichi stood directly in their path, arms crossed against the cold, eyebrows knitted above eyes that held an unsettling stillness.

“Why are you two making such a ferocious dash to the Nagase House?” she asked.

The wind screamed through the village, a high-pitched, piercing whistle that stung their ears. Every breath spilled out in white puffs, fleeting as the flurrying snow.

Jinko exhaled heavily. “Ye know, the wind is so strong the path’s hard t’ see. Any stronger, and we mighta run right through ye without noticin’ ye were there.”

“Oh, I knew you’d stop. You’ve got those tingling samurai senses.” Tenmichi smiled.

“But you haven’t answered my question. Why the rush? What did Tenkai do? Or… did you get word about the rebel?”

Jinko wasn’t surprised. Tenmichi’s uncanny ability to dissect a situation from scraps of detail was terrifying—an assassin’s intuition.

“Them doctors… they framed Tenkai. Since ye remember we assumed the rebel was someone important—someone the Meiji might come lookin’ for today or tomorrow even—they figured they’d be in trouble fer aidin’ him. They feared they’d look like they supported rebel causes… so they made Tenkai the scapegoat.”

Tenmichi’s breath didn’t just hitch—her entire breathing pattern collapsed.

“Y-you can’t be serious… What is that supposed to mean?” she forced out.

“And… maybe there’s a chance that man’s related to her.” Jinko turned his head toward Aika.

Tenmichi’s gaze snapped to Aika, eyes narrowing.

“Oh… now that I get a good look at ya… you’re Jinko’s soon-to-be wife, Aika-chan, right?”

A heavy gust swept through followed by a loud thump. Jinko.. had just fallen off his horse.

“WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT??? HOW CAN IT BE?! HOW COME YE KNOW OF HER?? WHAT IS GOIN’ ON?? WHY DOES EVERYONE EXCEPT ME ACKNOWLEDGE THIS?! WHY’S EVERYONE SO UNSURPRISED?! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING OOOOOONNNNN?!”

Aika laughed softly, trying—and failing—to hide it behind her hand, which only fueled Jinko’s rage.

Tenmichi said, “Ahaha, uhm, you know how your mom and my mom were good friends since we were babies, right? So… every time they got photos of her and had their tea-time talks, I’d overhear them.”

“YE HAVE TO BE KIDDIIIIIIIING ME!! IS THAT WHAT YE REALLY MEANT BY A HOT GIRL MAKING ME FEASTS?!”

“Yeaaaah. It was. Heard she’s quite the cook,” Tenmichi replied.

“I do not see you denying the ‘hot girl’ part, darling,” Aika said with a smirk.

“Oh just— Y’know what, I don’t have time fer this.” Jinko scrambled back onto Saru. “Ten, if ye wanna come, come along.”

“You two go ahead. I’ll gather some preparations, just in case.” Tenmichi says.

Jinko nodded, then looked to Aika. She returned the nod, and they set off once more, racing through the storm.

Tenmichi watched their silhouettes fade into the swirling gale.

“…I have a plan of my own.”

---

At the Nagase House,

The rebel man had been declared physically healed, though warned not to move too much.

Tenkai finished bandaging his arm. “Phew! Alright… that’s the last bandage ya need, old man.”

“Can you stop calling me that? I’m in my mid-thirties…” the man muttered.

“Eh, whatever. I’m only fifteen. So you’re old to me.”

The man shifted the topic. “Well… all these days, you’ve done a lot for me. I’m grateful.”

“Oh nah, I ain’t done nothin’. Your wounds and treatment were all by the respectable doctors of this house. I’m only here to nurse ya while they’re gone.”

“And that is plenty. Most people wouldn’t bother. I’m looked upon as problematic… a nuisance. I’m sure the village elders will be here soon.”

“True. Since your treatment’s done and you're ready to talk, they will interrogate ya and decide what to do. Still—you're human. You're worthy of bein’ cared for.”

The man stared. His eyelashes, long and thick, caught the lamplight, casting fractured patterns across his vision.

“You’re just like the son I’d need to set me straight and be a good dad,” he said.

“Ehhh, don’t say that. Your daughter’s already plenty.”

“Hm. But she had a reason. You… you don’t particularly have one for being here except your morality.”

“Well, that is that… but honestly, I’m not doing anything ever, so I dun mind bein’ here. I mean—Michinori’s always busy tryin’ to get recruited by the new empire as he works under an apprenticeship for them, Jinko never socializes, Tenmichi just takes care of her brother and only hangs out with Jinko, and Danjiki… nobody can find the guy.”

“They’re everything to me… but the distance between us feels more vast than anything.”

---

Back to Jinko and Aika

They raced along the path that falls between the village’s main entrance across the river Sho.

“We’re halfway there!” Jinko called.

“Right!” Aika replied.

A sudden shout pierced the wind.

“YOU GUYS LOOK! A WHOLE SET OF MILITANTS ARE COMING THIS WAY!”

Whispers of dread spread instantly.

“It’s… It’s the Meiji…” another villager gasped.

Jinko and Aika pulled their exhausted horses to another stop.

“But our village is isolated… Why would the Imperial Government come here? The journey is too fierce…” someone muttered.

Jinko’s eyes widened.

“We… are a step behind… we haven’t acted on anythin’ yet… about… that rebel…”

Each pause in his sentence carried heavier dread.

Aika’s jaw tightened, but her composure held.

“Tch… those bastards…” she muttered. Then she shouted, “JINKO! THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO WORRY! IF WE GET THERE NOW, WE CAN STILL TAKE TENKAI AWAY BEFORE THEY KNOW!”

Jinko’s gaze dropped, shattered.

“B-but… upon questionin’, the villagers will give out who took care o’ him… Tenkai… is in trouble…”

He couldn’t meet her eyes. His spirit was cracking.

Aika snapped:

“YOU FOOL!! IS YOUR TRUST IN THE VILLAGERS THAT LOW?! NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR ASSUMPTIONS! YOU ARE A PROTECTOR. A SAMURAI. LIVE BY YOUR BELIEFS.”

Aika’s words smashed into him like a thrown shield.

"A SAMURAI. LIVE BY YOUR BELIEFS." These words echoed to him. Hasegawa's remembrance echoed along for what a samurai is.

His thoughts drowned. Drowning until they turned into a single, suffocating ache behind his ribs.

Jinko stared at his trembling hands on the reins.

He hated that he was shaking.

He hated that he was hesitating while Tenkai could be dying.

His breath turned shallow.
The guilt clawed at his chest.
The fear scraped his throat raw.

For the first time, he let himself feel it.

—Tenkai calling him “brother.”
—Tenkai’s laugh.
—Tenkai’s stupid jokes.
—The moments Jinko pretended not to care because caring made him weak.

His jaw tightened until something inside him snapped back into place.

He closed his eyes—only for a heartbeat.

The fear didn’t vanish.

He picked it up and held it tighter.

“…Right,” he whispered.

Not bravado.
Not courage.

Something colder.

“We’re saving him.”

He lifted his head, eyes calm and unblinking—focused like a blade that remembered its purpose.

Aika gave a thin smile.

They charged.

---

Back At Nagase's House.

Unaware of everything outside with the Meiji's soon-to-be arrival, Tenkai and the Rebel were still conversing.

“I think they find my presence so normal that they don’t care. I matter only when they need me.” Tenkai continued.

“You need better friends then,” the man said as he stood up and walked towards the desk behind Tenkai.

“Nah! They just need me to be in grave danger or die so I can haunt ’em as a ghost and find ’em cryin’ ’cause they miss me.”

Tenkai laughed, eyes closed—disguising his sincerity with humor.

“But y’know… I’m not a full samurai, so I doubt that’ll happ—”

A flash.

A whisper of steel sliding through cloth and flesh.

“Well then,” the man murmured,

“let’s fulfill that wish of yours.”

Tenkai’s breath caught in his throat.

Warmth flooded his stomach—not comfort, but heat.

He looked down.
The blade was buried deep.
His mind refused to comprehend.

His gaze rose—slow, trembling—to the man behind him.

The same gentle face.
The same calm voice.
But the smile…

…was wrong.

“Why… old man…?”

“Because, Tenkai,” he said softly, almost lovingly,

“you believed in me far too much.”

Tenkai collapsed to the floor, the impact cold and merciless.

“Honestly, what was the other me thinking… letting this loser ramble for so long. Good riddance.” the man muttered.

Before Tenkai’s shimmering blood could even spread across the tatami, the rebel had already taken clothes from nearby—dirty, but effective for escape—and slipped out of the house.

But he stopped.

A samurai in a white kimono stood before him, leaning casually against a snow-dusted pine tree.

“I was wondering when you’d try to leave,” the samurai said, voice calm. “Didn’t expect it during such an… alarming moment in the village, Mr. Bounty Hunter."

Danjiki stands before the cold-blooded traitor.