WE zealed YOU AWAY. - End of Act II

Ichirō stood in the middle of the store, the scent of expensive tea and cedar a sickening contrast to the iron and sulfur of the basement. He was panting, his katana trembling in a hand that was slick with the blood of his kin.

In the center of the room, Seiko Tenmichi was stirring, her eyes fluttering open as she sat up on a velvet settee. She looked confused, her hand going to her head.

But Ichirō’s eyes weren't on Seiko.

They were on the woman sitting beside her, the one who had been holding Seiko’s head in her lap. The "special guest" Hades had requested.

The woman stood up slowly. She was dressed in fine silks even though she looked hurt, bruised and dirted, her face possessed of a familiar beauty—a face Ichirō hadn't seen for a couple months, a face that haunted the very foundation of his exile.

“You're-,” the woman said, her voice like a silken cord tightening around his neck. 

"You're him!"

WE zealed YOU AWAY. 

"You're the man who saved me!" The woman cried out.

"Huh?" Tenmichi rubbed her eyes, "Wait a minute.." Her vision blurred to sharpness again.

"AAAAAHHH!! YO-YOU'RE JINKO'S BROTHER!!" She shouted pointingly.

"HUH?! S-SEIKO TENMICHI?!" Ichirō raised his eyebrows while panting, "And y-you're the woman from then who I saved." He raised his pupils to the woman again.

"Huh..?" Tenmichi was audibly confused, "Pretty-Maid-Lady, what is he talking about?!" She asks looking to the woman.

"Ten-chan.. You remember the story I told you about before.. before I got kidnapped?" She doesn't remove her eyes off Ichirō.

"Huh...?"

Flashback to Chapter 18: A Crepuscule Lethe - 4

“They were going to kill me back then,” the woman continued, “but someone stopped them. A man from the shadows. He came in with a blitzing sword and struck them down all at once. He was like a nymph of some sort, he told me to run away before others make it to the cellar.”

"But I'm so worthless. I couldn't save Naomi-chan as I was scared, and I couldn't save myself either.. I got caught again."

Flashback Ends.

"HEHHH??" Tenmichi gasped, "YOU'RE TELLING ME THE MAN  WHO SAVED YOU THAT TIME WHEN YOU GOT CAUGHT RUNNING AWAY AFTER SEEING YOUR BOSS KILL HIS DAUGHTER...

WAS JINKO'S LOSER BROTHER?!"

"Hey.. Who are you calling a loser..?" Ichirō pouted.

"Oops. My bad." Tenmichi rubbed her hand behind her head.

The woman stared, her thoughts again blanking in her head to that fateful night.

"...That's right.. At that moment.. What I saw was.." The woman thought to herself,

"RUN AWAY! THEY WILL MAKE IT TO THE CELLAR, YOU HAVE TO.. YOU HAVE TO RUN AWAY BEFORE THAT!!" Ichirō shouted in her flashback.

"I.. I CAN'T DO THAT!! MY LEGS.. I.. I can't even walk.." The woman responded.

"JUST RUN AWAY!! Just.." Ichirō calmed down.

"That's right.." The woman thought to herself,

"He looked back crying..!"

"For Naomi's sake.. Run away." Ichirō said, looking back at her.

While the woman was recalling that night and connecting the dots after seeing Ichirō's face again, Tenmichi and Ichirō were caught up in an argument.

"I ALREADY TOLD YE I'M NOT A LOSER!!" Ichirō shouts.

"BUT JINKO WISHED FOR YOU TO COME BACK ON SHŌGATSU AND YOU DIDN'T COME!" Tenmichi shouted back.

"WELL HOW THE HECK WOULD I--"

"H-Hey.." The woman interrupted.

"Huh?" Ichirō and Tenmichi audibly question simultaneously.

"That night.. You cried.." She opened up, "And you said to run away for Naomi's sake, right? How do you know.. Naomi-chan?"

Ichirō stared quietly. He dialed his pupils down and let the wind catch his eyelashes.

"Naomi was my.."

"She was my soon-to-be-wife."

"AGH?!" The woman gasped, 

"Naomi-chan.. Never told me anything like that."

"Truth is.. Nobody knew.. We intended for nobody to find out." Ichirō frowned.

"But me and Naomi-chan were really clos--" The woman was interrupted.

"And the second someone found out.. Well you can guess the rest." Ichirō interrupted with his depressing conclusion hanging in the air.

"Don't tell me.." The woman took a step aback, "THAT'S WHAT.. HE KILLED HIS OWN DAUGHTER FOR?!"

Ichirō scrunched his nose in anger.

The woman started to sniff as her eyes tore up, her face turned red and she started to gush in tears blubbering.

"He.. He choked.. His own daughter to death.. B-Because she.." She fell to her knees.

Ichirō offered no emotion. He started to walk away to the entrance of the money exchange store, still scrunching his nose, not allowing himself to cry as well.

Suddenly, he felt his Hakama grabbed to which he looked at his left leg, finding Tenmichi pinching him.

"Y-You made her cry.. How could you walk away..?!" Tenmichi said in anger, her face pouted and red.

He looked down at her, giving a good thoughtful second to pass by, "And now I'm leaving to make things just, if that's allowed by you." 

The woman looked back up, her face gushing, "W-What do you mean..?" 

"I'm leaving now.. To kill him, he left around 17 minutes ago and will soon leave Takayama entirely, I can still catch him." Ichirō looked back at her to respond,

"I can still kill..

Katsuragi Reizō!"

---

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO FOLLOW ME!! AND NOT WITH THE DAMN BRAT ON BOARD TOO!" Ichirō shouted on his horse looking back.

"IF YOU'RE GOING TO GO TO REIZŌ THEN I DESERVE TO AS WELL!" The woman shouted on a horse right behind Ichirō's.

"Some group trip this is.." Tenmichi pouts to herself.

"Tch.. Looks like there's a storm ahead that's slowly making it's way here." Ichirō reads the weather from the strong winds, "That might actually be in my favour because it could mean he had to stop his horse." 

"You're pretty good at this!" The woman shouted. 

"WELL NO SHIT I AM!! YOU THINK I'D BRAINLESSLY INFILITRATE THIS COUNTRY'S BIGGEST UNDERGROUND BOUNTY HUNTER AND MERCHANT WITHOUT BEING SKILLED?!" 

"When you put it like that.." 

"Since you're Jinko's brother I'd like to think you are indeed that brainless." Tenmichi comes to her own conclusion pridefully.

"Tch!" Ichirō avoids the provocation from the six-year old.

---

"We've.. arrived." The woman and Tenmichi get off their horse.

"Yeah, the snow starting from here is too deep for any horse to run about. There's no way he went far from here, or anywhere for that matter." Ichirō explains.

"Well then that raises the question.." The woman responds,

"Where is he.. if not here?" Ichirō completes her question.

The wind brushes along, the strong breeze is cold enough to ring the ears and freeze the lungs.

Ichirō and the woman still looked around standing in the same spot, Tenmichi was trying to warm herself up to her best capabilities, and minutes went by in confusion for Reizō's location.

Suddenly.. 

"Saitou.. Ichirō.. I must say I'm impressed you arrived before even I did!" 

"Ngh?!" Ichirō turns around.

"Huh?!" The woman turns around.

"Ku--" Ichirō's eyes widen in horror.

"Kurogane!!" He shouted.

Kurogane fell to the floor with the Tanegashima in his hand, his body slashed and thrashed to a nimble.

Behind him was none other than the Cloaked Man and the Ex-Executive, both of them had saved Kurogane and Ichirō in the stairs when they were in a pinch.

"Y-YOU'RE..!"

"Hahaha." The man slowly laughed as it built up, "Hahahahahahaha!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He took his cloak off revealing himself.

"Reizō..!" The woman grunted.

Reizō carried himself like a relic of a cunning man, a man carved by eeriness, and patience rather than time. He was tall and broad-shouldered, his frame lean but imposing, the kind of build that suggested strength held in reserve rather than openly displayed. Even at rest, his presence pressed down on a room, heavy and arid, as if the air itself dried in deference to him.

His face was long and sharply defined, weathered in a way that spoke of deserted snow rather than years. Beneath his nose, his mouth settled into a thin, disdainful line, curling easily into a predator’s smirk. His eyes were narrow and hooded, dark and calculating, perpetually fixed on horizons others could not yet see. 

His hair was immaculate, slicked back and defying wind and disorder alike, reinforcing the impression of control he cultivated with meticulous care. A faint shadow of stubble often traced his jaw, lending him a hardened, almost feral edge beneath his aristocratic composure.

"You.. You bastard! You helped us in the stairway and killed your own subordinates just to trail us and catch me off-guard?!" Ichirō shouted.

"Correct you are, Ichirō-dono." Reizō smiled, calculatively.

"Then why.. Why not kill us on the stairway when we were most vulnerable?!"

"Oh.. That's what you're worried about?!" Reizō smirked again,

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH! You're a funny individual but I'll entertain it."

"Tch." Ichirō grunted.

"I wanted to see you run away from your friends dying off so you'd have to decide.. What's more important to you, killing me or giving away your life to save them." Reizō explained in a meticulously evil tone.

"Ngh?!" Ichirō widened his eyes.

"That helped me understand if you're desperate to live or if you're loyal, and I decided if I give you a sense of "I've still got a chance!".." Reizō paused,

"It'll be more fun to kill you when breaking your resolve twice." He smirked again.

"You.. YOU BASTARD!! HOW DARE YOU!" Ichirō grunted with anger, frowning his eyebrows in desperate rage.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Reizō laughed, this time as if he's mocking him.

"And.. AND THE PART OF YOU ALREADY HAVING LEFT WAS A LIE AS WELL?!" Ichirō needed one last confirmation.

"Indeed."

Ichirō unsheathed his sword,

"I've decided.."

"This is where you die, Reizō!" 

"COME! ATTACK ME SAITOU ICHIRŌ! LET'S SETTLE THIS HERE AND NOW!!" Reizō unsheathed his sword in response with a mocking laugh.

Steel rang against steel with a sound that cut through the forest like a scream. Ichirō and Reizō moved through the falling snow as if the earth itself had rejected them—footsteps biting into white, breath tearing from their lungs in harsh clouds. Their katanas met again and again, sparks flaring briefly before dying against the cold, each clash heavy with history neither man would name aloud.

Reizō fought with a cruel economy, his blade precise, almost indifferent, as though Ichirō were merely another obstacle fated to be worn down. Ichirō answered with raw resolve, every strike driven by something deeper than technique—by memory, by debt, by the simple refusal to let this night claim any more than it already had.

Their blades locked. For a heartbeat, they were close enough to smell blood beneath the iron and snow.

Then everything shattered.

A third presence moved at the edge of the clearing. The Ex-Executive—silent until now—lunged forward and seized Tenmichi from behind. His arm snapped around her small throat, lifting her just enough that her feet scraped helplessly against the frozen ground. The woman beside her cried out and rushed forward, only to be struck hard and thrown down into the snow, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs.

“TENMICHI!” The shout tore from Ichirō before he could stop it, instinct overriding discipline. His grip faltered for half a second—only half—but it was enough for Reizō to press in, blade biting close, forcing Ichirō back into the fight.

The Ex-Executive tightened his hold. Tenmichi’s hands clawed uselessly at his arm.

“Let her go!” the woman screamed from the ground. She tried to rise. A boot came down on her ribs and drove her back into the snow. She gasped, the sound wet and broken, and tears streaked down her face as her mind fractured under the weight of memory.

"I couldn’t save Naomi-chan.
I ran away when I saw her dying.
I couldn’t—"

The thought repeated until it drowned out the pain. Until fear turned into something sharper.

She pushed herself up again.

The man shifted Tenmichi away from her, snarling, tightening his grip. The girl whimpered, her face already paling.

“No,” the woman whispered, then louder, stronger, “NO!"

She stumbled forward, fingers finding fabric—Tenmichi’s hakama. She yanked it hard, not to pull the child free, but to buy herself a breath. Her hand slipped inside, where cold metal waited. She drew the Smith & Wesson tip-up revolver that Kurogane had given her with trembling resolve and raised it, arm shaking, barrel pointed at the man’s face.

“Let her go,” she said. Her voice cracked but did not break. “I’ll shoot.”

The Ex-Executive laughed, low and contemptuous, his arm unmoving. “Do it,” he said softly. “You’ll miss. And then she dies.”

Ichirō heard it all in fragments, caught between Reizō’s blade and the horror unfolding behind him. Reizō pressed harder, sensing blood in the air, forcing Ichirō to give ground inch by inch.

“Choose,” the man holding Tenmichi murmured. “Her, or—”

BOOM!

The shot came without warning.

The sound was wrong—too heavy, too final. The Ex-Executive’s head snapped violently to the side, and he collapsed as if his bones had been removed, Tenmichi spilling free and dropping to the snow beside him.

Silence fell. Absolute. Even the forest seemed to hold its breath.

Then they saw him.

Kurogane lay half-propped on the ground, bruised and bloodied, his breathing ragged. Smoke drifted from the mouth of the Tanegashima in his hands.

“That…” he muttered, eyes fluttering, “…oughta do… that.”

The gun slipped from his grasp and hit the ground. Kurogane slumped forward, unconscious once more.

Reizō grunted—a sound of irritation, of sudden calculation. Ichirō did not waste the gift. He surged forward and slashed, steel caressing deep across Reizō’s chest. Blood bloomed dark against the white, and Reizō staggered back, teeth bared in fury.

"That.." Ichirō panted, "was for my beloved Naomi."

Snarling, he abandoned the katana with one hand and drew a gun.

Ichirō moved, barely fast enough.

BOOM!

One shot. He missed.

CRACK!

Reizō reloads.

His finger clutched the trigger for a second shot.

Suddenly, Tenmichi screamed and threw herself at Reizō’s leg, tiny hands clutching desperately, teeth sinking into cloth and flesh alike. “DON'T.. KILL.. JINKO'S BROTHER DAMMIT!!!” she shrieked, her voice raw with terror and rage.

His finger pressed in.

The gun fired.

The shot went wide.

It struck the woman..

She jerked as the bullet tore into her chest, her body arching once before she collapsed into the snow. Red spread quickly beneath her, vivid and unforgiving.

For Tenmichi, the world ended.

"P-"

"Pr-"

"Pretty-Mai-"

"Pretty-Maid-Lady.."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Her scream tore through the clearing, thin and animal, a sound no child should ever make. She crawled to the woman’s side, shaking her, sobbing uncontrollably, her small hands slick with blood she did not understand. Horror hollowed every face that witnessed it.

"H-Hey.. H-Hey.. Y-You're okay right?!"

"Right?!"

"Hey, hey."

"Pretty-Maid-Lady.. Hey.."

She sniffed, "Hey...." 

Her cry was not loud at first. It began as a thin, broken sound caught in her throat, a breath that refused to become air. Her mouth opened, closed, opened again, as if her body could not decide whether screaming would make it worse or make it stop. Tears spilled before the sound did—hot, relentless, blurring everything until the snow, the blood, the fallen shapes all smeared together into something unreal.

Then the sound came.

It tore out of her in raw, choking waves, high and jagged, a cry stripped of words because words were too small for what she felt. Her shoulders shook so violently it looked as though she might shatter, her tiny frame folding inward again and again, as if she were trying to disappear into herself. Each breath hitched painfully, her lungs betraying her, dragging air in sharp, panicked gulps that only made the sobs worse.

Her face twisted into something unrecognizable—fear stretched too far, grief too large for a six-year-old body to contain. Her eyes were wide and glassy, unfocused, darting helplessly as if searching for someone to tell her this was a mistake, that this was pretend, that she could wake up now. Her lips trembled uncontrollably, her jaw quivering as she tried—and failed—to form a sound that wasn’t agony.

“Pr—”

The sound broke apart.

She tried again.

Nothing came.

Her hands clenched into the front of her clothes, fingers curling so tight they went white, nails biting into fabric as though holding on was the only thing keeping her from falling into the dark opening inside her chest. Her small body rocked forward and back, a desperate, instinctive motion, the way a child tries to soothe herself when there is no one left to do it for her.

Each sob seemed to hurt her. Her chest spasmed with them, ribs heaving, breath stuttering. Saliva and tears mixed at the corners of her mouth, her nose running unchecked, her face slick and red and utterly unguarded. She did not wipe her tears. She did not know how. She only cried harder, as if the sound itself were the last thread connecting her to the world.

There was terror in it—pure, suffocating terror. The kind that does not understand death but knows, with absolute certainty, that something precious is gone forever. Her crying carried confusion, guilt, fear, and a child’s unbearable question: Why didn’t it stop when I screamed?

Her voice cracked again and again, growing hoarse, but she did not stop. She could not stop. The crying came from somewhere deeper than thought, deeper than language, from a place where pain existed without reason and mercy did not yet have a name.

In that moment, she was very small.

And the world was impossibly, monstrously large.

Reizō saw opportunity in the chaos.

He lunged, driving his blade toward Ichirō’s chest.

Pain exploded—but not where it should have.

The straw doll—the one that Takeshi found, Saru brought, and he kept in his inner breast pocket—shifted the strike just enough. The blade tore through flesh at an angle, ripping him open and throwing him to the ground, blood soaking his clothes as he gasped in agony.

Reizō staggered back, wounded too deeply now, breath coming in harsh pulls. One look at the scene—the child screaming, Kurogane unconscious, Ichirō bleeding but alive—was enough. He turned, mounted his horse with a hiss of pain, and fled into the forest, snow swallowing his retreat.

What remained was ruin.

Ichirō lay in the snow, vision dimming, forcing himself to stay conscious. 

In his head, a question he was asked lingered.

Flashback to Chapter 19: The Hades Crusade - Preparation.

"Ichirō Big Bro, how come you haven't asked about your little brother?"

"Oh.. yeah." Ichirō recalls in the present day, wounded and losing blood,

"At the time I really didn't tell Saru anything about that question." He says to himself.

"Maybe it's just.. I know he's doing well..? Maybe I'm recalling the question right now cause I might.. die.. so it's regretful I can't see him again..

Or maybe it's.."

Tenmichi cried over the fallen woman, her sobs echoing endlessly. Kurogane did not move. Blood stained the ground, the trees, the memory of the morning itself.

And somewhere deep within Tenmichi’s mind, something fragile broke—never to be whole again.

---

Time has passed.

We don't know how long.

Tenmichi was found and returned to the village of Shirakawa-go soon. She's said to have not spoken a single word for three whole months before slowly regaining sentience.

Saitou Ichirō's whereabouts are unknown.

Kurogane's whereabouts are unknown.

The events of the Hades Bureau were reported by local authorities, however due to the Meiji Empire upcoming and the soon-to-be Boshin War between samurais and the Meiji ever so close, it was completely overlooked.

Katsuragi Reizō's whereabouts were unknown..

Until he somehow got the position of an external advisor for the Emperor himself, still retaining his "bounty hunter" gig to hunt down rebellious ronin samurais.

Due to the damages and killings of the bandits and rank officers of the Hades Bureau business carried out by Saitou Ichirō, the Kodokuna Sonae and Saru, the business is deemed to have stopped. However there's no confirmation.

---

This is the entire Hades Bureau Crusade:

Near Dawn: The 6 Warriors arrive in the money exchange store, killing the manager in front and breaking into the basement where the base is situated.

During the same time: Kurogane arrives with his bandits, the tied women, the Maid Lady and Tenmichi.

A few minutes later: Saru defeats the First Floor.

During the same time: Kurogane shoots his bandit subordinates.

A few minutes later: Shida takes down a brute in a floor with around 30 fighters.

During the same time: The Maid Lady kills Yahiko.

A few minutes later: Toshio requests to fight the Shatei-gashira, having known his father.

During the same time: The Maid Lady and Tenmichi set off to the market.

A few minutes later: Toshio defeats the Shatei-gashira and Ichirō, Kenichi and Tsuyoshi find themselves in the House of Mirrors hallway.

During the same time: The Maid Lady and Tenmichi finish enjoying their little food frenzies, heading with Kurogane to the money-exchange store and waiting upstairs.

A few minutes later: Ichirō finds the keys to the cells and the Tanegashima.

During the same time: Kurogane gets a few bandits in one of the hallways to come with him as they take Kenichi and Tsuyoshi as hostages.

The next minute: Ichirō walks out to the hostage situation. Kurogane reveals his real intentions, they go downstairs to where they are ambushed in closed doors by gunshots.

During this time: Tsuyoshi is deemed to be unsavable, Kenichi stays with him having injured his wrist. Kurogane and Ichirō run upstairs to be surrounded.

During the same time: Shida, Toshio and Saru are also surrounded, backup arrived for the Hades Bureau and this time they had guns, something swords can't win against.

A minute later: The Cloaked Man and the Ex-Executive freed from the prison cells save Kurogane and Ichirō.

The next minute: Ichirō arrives upstairs to find The Maid Lady and Tenmichi.

And the rest of the events.. play out in this chapter.

End of Act II.

----------------------------------------

Author's Note*: AND WITH THAT WE END ACT II. WOAH! That was intense to write, truth be told when I planned this chapter for the end of Act II, I did NOT expect it to be so intense to physically write the scenes.

Now for some real talk. I hope you guys enjoyed this Act, and the story too upto this point! Please keep looking forward to Act III.

I tried real hard to keep the foreshadows mentioned when it comes full circle like cloaked man as Reizō, Ichirō saving the maid woman in her backstory, the straw doll in Ichirō's pocket, Reizō telling Danjiki in Chapter 10 that he killed his daughter "with his own hands" and Act I having ended with Tenmichi taking out the Tanegashima and Smith & Wesson tip-up revolver.

How many of these did you notice, remembered or knew? Let me know!!
And with that I hope you keep enjoying Dream Seclusion!