The Phosphorescent Chiaroscuro - End of Act I

"Let him go." A familiar voice says from afar, approaching.

"Huh." Danjiki and Jinko question audibly in unison.

"M-Michinori..?"

Michinori stepped through the curtain of white, hands clasped behind his back, posture immaculate. His face was unreadable, almost bored.

“You look disappointed,” he said flatly.

“Disappointed? Are ye daft?! What the hell are ye askin’ of?!” Jinko barked, eyes bloodshot, sword still grinding against Reizō’s blade.

Michinori didn’t blink.

“I am asking you to release Katsuragi Reizō.”

“SERIOUSLY?!” Jinko snapped. 

He jabbed his sword forward a fraction. “This bastard chased the Nagase doctors out, manipulated Tenkai, stabbed him, and damn near killed Danjiki!”

Reizō chuckled under his breath—low, unhinged. A needle through the tension.

Michinori barely spared him a glance.

“Quite the chaos-addicted fool, yes. But you still cannot kill him.”

The air tightened. Snow spiraled faster, like the storm itself leaned in to listen.

Danjiki, still kneeling and bleeding, spat weakly:

“Don’t listen to him, Pinco… he’s a Meiji bootlicker.”

Michinori’s jaw twitched—just once.

“Have you people thought—just once—about what happens if you kill him here?”

His voice sharpened, edge gleaming.

Jinko refused to waver.

“THEN SAY IT STRAIGHT, TENKAI ALMOST DIED DAMMIT!"

Michinori’s composure finally cracked.

He stepped forward, boots crunching hard in the snow, and roared—

“DO YOU EVER THINK WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN YOUR SWORDS?!”

“KILL HIM NOW AND THE MEIJI WAITING AT THE VILLAGE ENTRANCE WILL TAKE YOUR HEADS BACK TO EDO!”

“CONFISCATE HIM, AND THEY’LL TEAR THROUGH EVERY HOME IN SHIRAKAWA-GO UNTIL NOTHING IS LEFT!”

Silence fell—crushing, absolute.

Jinko’s grip loosened. His rage faltered into something colder… heavier.

“…So ye’re tellin’ me t’just let him go?”

“Yes.”

"DON'T KID ME MICHINORI. I'M A SAMURAI AND THAT GOES AGAINST MY CODE."

Michinori: "I COULD GIVE LESS OF A FUCK ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CODE, THE SAMURAI CLASS IS OVER AND YOU STAND FOR NOTHING ANYMORE."

"Tch.." Jinko is taken aback, his sword shaking slightly from the insult.

Michinori calms his tone down again, "Matter of fact, it's illegal to even have a sword right now, yet here you are, speaking of some imaginary code."

(CLICK! The distinct, metallic sound of a magazine being loaded into a firearm sliced through the sudden silence.)

"Oh but your government has brought guns for the new Japan haven't they?"

"Ngh?!" Michinori was instantly held at gunpoint from behind, a presence he hadn't felt until this very second, the chill of the steel barrel pressed against his temple.

"So I'll be allowed to kill you and not be slandered for using an abolished weapon, won't I?" Aika continues, her voice like ice shattering, marking her sudden, definitive arrival at the scene.

"AIKA!" Jinko exclaims.

Michinori slowly rotated his head, his pupils locking with Aika's, who held the firearm with unnerving stillness. "Well if it isn't the princess of Kōdōkai herself, pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

Aika strikes a venomous response: "Likewise, although I would have preferred to meet the infamous Makoto Michinori in a situation far different, I don't mind this all that much."

Michinori: "You will let go of the gun if you're as wise as they say you are, princess."
Aika: "Oh? Are you going to test my intellect?"
Michinori: "Allow me to rephrase then, it would be wise of you to stand your gun down, if you wish for the betterment of yourself and your..

...father."

(Aika's confidence slightly faltered, a ghost of fear passing over her eyes, but she refused to be provoked, keeping the gun steady.) 

"A bribe, ever so demanding, but ever so risky not to take. I will heed what you say but only if you explain, Makoto."

"Calling me Michinori will do." Michinori replies before continuing, "Your father is held captive in Edo right now. They may be readying for a grand execution of his in private as well, if I have to add more to that."

(Aika's eyes widened, fear starting to invoke into her like a physical tremor.)

"But, let me take Reizō away, and maybe, just maybe you'd be able to make a plea to get him out."

"HAH!" Reizo interjects.

"The Meiji aren't so idiotic that you'd give me back to them and they'd free Kōdō Arinori, he's a Kyoto noble turned National Enemy, there's no saving him."

(Jinko, Danjiki, and Aika were all found in absolute silence. Michinori's thoughts, however, were flooding the vacuum.)

(He pondered for a good moment, staring straight into Reizō's victorious face, letting his words sink. The cold whistling wind was the only sound.)

"Fair enough. Well then we can't do anything."

"Huh?!" Jinko, Aika and Danjiki question audibly in unison.

"Come now, Katsuragi Reizō, I must hand you to the Meiji waiting at the entrance of the village past the River Sho, as they've been waiting for me as well." Michinori says.

"Oh? So the time has come that you join us after years of apprenticeship?"

"Very well, I'll hand a word to the Emperor himself that you've carried your first task out exceptionally well." Reizo utters, he starts walking over, coming face-to-face with Jinko.

He grinned at Jinko, his voice a low, chilling mutter, "You couldn't get me for your lowly little friend."

(Jinko stared and grunted in anger, lost of words, his muscle memory screaming at him to strike, yet finding himself disallowed to utter or move.)

"You.. curse you.. you--" Jinko thought to himself, his jaw clenching but out of words to express even thoughtfully.

Michinori and Reizō walk away in unison. "We have a long way to leave this hill so come along quickly if your injuries make you able." Michinori says.

Reizō replies gruntingly: "I'll be fine, kid. Just walk faster."

(They walked until their silhouettes vanished against the swirling, desolate white of the landscape.)

"Tch.. I let him.. get away." Jinko says to himself, his sword falling slightly toward the snow.

"I'm.. a failure. Tenkai would've died in this case and I still wouldn't have been able to get him for that."

"Don't say that. We all let him get away, but it was because we were found with no choice. They had us good this time." Aika replies, lowering her gun but keeping it in hand.

"Yeah.. (grunts) well.. guess we have to plan something to take your father out anyway, won't we?" 

(Jinko picked Danjiki up and rested his arm over his shoulder, who found it hard to stand.)

Danjiki mutters, "It'll be useless, they probably have a good reason that we won't be able to sacrifice for again."

Jinko let Danjiki's bleak analysis sink in. He pondered, blinking slowly, the cold reality settling in before asking, "Where's Tenkai, Aika?"

Aika: "My two bodyguards followed us closely when we made our way here, so I handed him to them and came here as quickly as I could. They took him to the other nurse house."

(Jinko nods and the moment of decision comes to a bitter end.)

(Over at the entrance of Shirakawa-go, past the River Sho, the Meiji militants sat upon their horses, a disciplined, threatening line.)

Meiji Commander: "We ask of you to lend us Katsuragi Reizō peacefully. Shirakawa-go is a peaceful village with minimal involvement in whatever harm that befalls us, so we wish for you to keep your record clean."

(The villagers gathered talked amongst themselves, creating a low, worried, crowded noise.)

"I announce again, we ask of you to lend us Katsuragi Reizō peacefully! Shir-"

"Enough!" The Commander is interrupted by a sharp, commanding voice.

"I'm here, let's depart at once." Reizō commands, stepping out of the mist with Michinori trailing slightly behind.

"Right, Sir. Although you're my senior it's my duty to inform you, you can be in grave danger for assuming the disguise of a Shinsengumi officer to such a remote village for your antics." The Commander informs Reizō.

Reizō replies: "Quit whining Hisagi. Like always, I have my reasons to go around Japan and discover what could trouble our empire, and trust me, the Emperor will love to hear this one."

"Yes sir!" (The Commander had nothing to put forward anymore, resigning himself to silence as he turned his horse ready to depart.)

The Commander looks back to talk to Michinori, "Makoto, I assume you'll follow us with immediate effect to Edo?"

Michinori replies, "Correct you are, Commander, I will assume the role the Emperor assigns me with."

Reizō is found speechless but out of grimace, "Hm."

"Well then, let's depart! Ha!" (As the Commander took the journey, the rest of the militants followed pursuit, and so did Michinori and Reizō.)

(And with that, Reizō and the Meiji, have departed the village, with consequences far different than what Danjiki and Michinori himself had argued.)

(But Michinori, following the Militants back to Edo to take on a role in the Empire, did not look back.)

But his thoughts did.

"Hang on you guys, I know all that you are worried about.."

"And I won't let you down!"

The sound of hooves of the horses faded into the storm until only the wind remained — a hollow witness to what had been lost on that hill. Shirakawa-go returned to silence, but not peace. 

Somewhere within that silence, new resolve began to stir.

(Tenmichi looks on from the window of her house as they all depart. Her face is a mask of knowing determination.)

"Oh I knew you'd do this, Michinori." She speaks out-loud, "Not to fret, for I have my own ways to do things."

(She opens a chest, the lid groaning like a forgotten grave, and takes out the Tanegashima (Japanese Musket) and a Smith & Wesson top‑break cartridge revolver.)

"Dad's never around, but boy his work's left us some goodies." She says to herself, handling the two guns with surprising familiarity.

Tenmichi packs her things and coats herself fully for the cold. Ready to depart, she pauses by her little brother's room, who is sleeping soundly with their mother.

She thinks for a brief, agonizing moment, but dials her pupils forward in full focus, steeling her resolve, and leaves the house from the back door, her silhouette swallowed instantly by the swirling snow.

Just.. what is Tenmichi intending to do?

End of Act I.

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Afterword*: OH MY DAYYYYSSSS!!!!!! ALRIGHT. FIRST OF ALL. WE HIT 1K VIEWS ON THIS NOVEL!!!!!!! IT'S KIND OF INSANE BECAUSE AS OF TODAY IT'S A MONTH SINCE I STARTED! Thank you so much to everyone who's reading, we get around 32 readers per chapter and that's amazing for how many of you are keeping up with just 14 chapters released so far. As you can see, a lot has happened within this despite the slow-burn pacing start, I loved keeping things between arguments of our cast so important from both sides that readers think both are correct and it always ends in mutual jeopardy, anywho, we have reached the end of ACT I and will immediately commence to ACT II. What is Tenmichi intending to do? How and what is Michinori planning to do once he arrives in Edo? What will be of our folks Jinko, Aika, Tenkai and Danjiki in the village while all this happens? Please keep on reading to find out, please drop a like and a comment to help boost the series to even greater achievements, and thank you again for reading Dream Seclusion.