Jaguar

Eien Akagawa

After I slid the sliding door shut, the room shuddered again and I felt it moving up. This time I didn’t need to brace myself since I knew it was going to move this time. There was a flicker of movement behind me and I almost turned to look at the door fully. I glimpsed a dark blue background with bright lights painted on the door. I forcibly turned away from it and walked to the opposing door that would lead me outside once the room stopped moving.

After the room shuttered to a stop I opened the door and stepped outside. The sky was still blue but the sun was beginning to sip below the horizon, lengthening the shadows on the empty street. I basked in the gentle breeze and ignored the figure who was sitting on a large rock straight ahead of me.

Despite this being a busy area, the crowds were huddled on either end of the street. At one side were shoppers in the business district and at the other were curious geishas and courtesans from the pleasure district. Both sides were blocked off by the dark skinned men that I had the displeasure to run into earlier. The warriors of the Aztec empire.

Mentally cursing my luck, I finally looked at the man sitting on the large rock in the middle of the street. He had both hands on the pommel of his wooden sword. He had planted the sword point on the ground between his legs. The thick sharpened black glass lining the outside of the edges glinted in the sunlight.

“Eien!” the man shouted with a deep voice. He raised a hand in greeting before placing it back on the pommel of his sword. “You were quicker than I thought. I hope you didn’t give the young ladies to the seer inside? That would be a shame.”

I stepped forward with a hand on the pommel of my sword. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business Extli.”

“Well, now that’s quite a shame.” He shifted his shoulders exaggeratedly as he slumped forward, but his face was stretched into his signature grin. “As I have business with you.”

“Are you still holding onto the fact that I got the upper hand on you a while back?”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and closed his eyes in thought. “There is that certainly. We could have had a good fight to resolve our differences.” His eyes opened again. “But you had to go and use an underhanded tactic by bringing in the Shinsengumi.”

“You would wipe the floor with me Extli. I’m just a normal man but you were blessed by your gods.”

He held up a finger. “Not gods. Just one.” He pointed at the carving on his headdress. “The jaguar, Tezcatlipoca.”

“Be that as it may, you could easily overpower me.”

“Hmm, maybe, maybe not.” He shrugged and leaned back. “But you don’t have much of a choice this time. You can either fight me or be beaten into a pulp. You see, you have something I want.”

Damn it, he noticed what Kizuna was. Extli was at heart, a person who needed to be entertained. He didn’t like being stuck in Japan and wanted to go back to his home in the New World. But he had a duty to fulfill to his country and obtaining Kizuna would gain him significant clout with the clans.

“And what could I possibly have that you would want?”

“Your newest client.” He lifted his sword onto his knees and tapped the glass. “She’s clan born and almost awakened. I could feel the divine power coming off her in waves.” His grin widened as he planted the sword on the ground again. “Her outing with you is… unsanctioned.”

“Her clan knows exactly where she is right now.” I tapped my forefinger on the hilt of my sword as I bluffed. “If you get in the way of clan business, that’ll really look bad for your country.”

He laughed heartily for a few moments, his head tilting back towards the sky. “Now, aside from what I know about you, no clan would allow someone like her to walk around with only one man and his god. Too much of a risk, especially with the assassin making waves.”

An assassin? The way he said it made it seem like there was more to it than just a simple assassination between the clans. Something was happening outside of my reach and I would need to find out what it was. Maybe Kizuna would have answers from the seer.

“Besides, I have heard rumors on the streets about the young kirin princess being missing after the battle earlier today.” He stood up and his red and green cloak fluttered softly in the breeze. “I have been to enough dignitary meetings to know that she looks remarkably similar to the princess.”

I didn’t have a way out. I couldn’t use my gun on him thanks to the blessings of his jaguar god. Even if that somehow worked, the rest of his warriors would fall upon me. They took honor as seriously as the samurai did. What was even worse was that he was better than me.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than harass us?”

“I think I can make time in my busy schedule.” He twirled his wooden sword. “It’s a wonder how much time you can make for a runaway princess. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Hell, there was no way around this. Selling Kizuna to the highest bidder would probably gain him enough prestige to allow him to go back home. From my understanding he was the mightiest of their warriors but he had caused a disturbance. So he had been shipped off to be my problem until he could gather enough support politically to return home in triumph.

I unsheathed my sword and held it in my right hand, keeping the point lowered towards the ground. Then I took my jitte into my left hand and held it in front of me, just shy of a guard position. We slowly began to circle around each other in the street.

“I’ll even be nice about this little duel of ours,” he said. “I’ll hold back my strength to that of a normal man.” He flexed his left hand. “And as you can see, I left my shield behind.”

“How generous of you.” When I had reached the rock I stopped circling and he stopped as well. We stood facing each other for a long moment before springing forward at the same time.