A Risky Maneuver

As the jingling of keys sounded outside the door, Ryouma prayed she understood and could follow instructions. He took a deep breath as he concentrated once more on his glamour. The little girl retreated into her cage as the Interrogator and the Underboss came into the room alongside two others.

“Were you talking to this bastard?!” The Underboss banged on the top of her cage with a baton. “I thought I told you not to listen to what these rats tell you!”

“Hey! Don’t punish her for that!” Nishikawa shouted.

“Enough!” The Interrogator smacked Nishikawa with his fist. “The only thing you should be saying right now is where you hid the shit you stole!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. The–”

“Cut the shit, Nishikawa!” The Underboss snapped. He jabbed the baton into Nishikawa’s chest. “We know you gave the triad a fake. So where are you hiding the real one?”

Nishikawa laughed. Those shitheads must have verified the authenticity of the replica he’d given them. Maybe that was why they returned it so quickly.

“You’re never gonna find it…” He had to escalate now and hope his plan was going to work. “It’s not even in Japan anymore!”

The Interrogator pulled out a gun from the back of his waist and pistol-whipped Nishikawa before shoving it in his face. “Boss! I’m sick of this bullshit! Just let me end this!”

“No! We’ll do this properly!” shouted the Underboss.

He opened the dog crate and knocked the top of it with his fist. Nishikawa watched out of the corner of his eye as the girl approached him. He was bound to the chair, just like the man he saw her kill the first day their eyes met.

She looked up at him with round, glassy eyes full of fear. As she outstretched her trembling hands to his face, Nishikawa bowed his head toward her.

Just like he’d instructed her, the girl’s hands hovered right over his skin without making contact—so close that he could feel the heat radiating off of them onto his face. Nishikawa exhaled a shaky breath, then let his head slump down.

“That’s enough!” The Underboss barked. She withdrew her hands, and he prodded her with the baton. “Good girl. Go back to your house.”

Instead, she rushed the Underboss. The girl grabbed his legs and held on tight.

“When I play dead. I want you to give the person you hate the most a big, big hug.”

Shouts erupted. But before any of the men could take action, Nishikawa uttered his command. “Don’t move.”

All of them froze in place, shock written on their faces. While Nishikawa Tatsumi disclosed that he was a sorcerer to the Inukai Family, he’d only shown them cheap tricks to demonstrate his abilities.

That word magic was his ace in the hole.

As the Underboss’s body grew weak, he broke from the command and collapsed to the floor.

“B-Boss–!”

“You! Untie me,” Nishikawa commanded, looking directly at one of the subordinates that the two men in charge dragged along.

“Wh-wha–?!” The young man moved as if on strings. He undid the straps on the chair and removed the bindings on Nishikawa’s wrists.

Nishikawa stretched his shoulders as he stood up—they were sore from having his arms pulled backward and bound behind the chair for so long. Then, he picked up the chair and slammed it against the one who untied him.

He grabbed the sheet off the dog crate and threw it over the girl. That was her signal to cover her ears and keep her eyes closed until he said she could open them again. Under the sheet, she dropped to the floor and curled into a fetal position.

The command to hold them in place had been released, and the other two men started to move again. Nishikawa had to finish this fast.

“You!” He pointed to the Interrogator, then to the other subordinate. “Shoot him.”

“D-don’t–!” the man shouted. But the Interrogator pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger.

The Interrogator dropped to his knees in shock. Nishikawa put his hand on the man’s shoulder and crouched next to him.

“You know…They’re all still breathing,” he said. The Interrogator flinched away and pointed the gun at him. Nishikawa’s eyes narrowed, and he uttered his command. “Finish them.”

As the Interrogator stood up and shot the three incapacitated men in the head, Nishikawa picked up the little girl bundled up in the sheet. Making his way out of the room, he stopped in the doorway and issued one final command.

“When I close this door, you will shoot yourself in the groin.”

“Wha–?!”

Nishikawa slammed the door shut, and the gunshot sounded off. Muffled shrieks of pain came through the heavy door as Nishikawa left “The Kennel.”

The most important thing he’d learned as he was plotting the escape was a sort of loophole to the girl’s power. When she was still an infant, it was discovered that as long as the baby was swaddled, the power was ineffective. A perfect workaround for the individuals punished with her care and the way that guaranteed her rescue.

When they emerged from the annex into the night air, they were surrounded. The Interrogator probably sent some kind of signal to them as he bled out.

Ten men with guns drawn. He looked them over once, then sighed.

“Stay still. Don’t move.” Nishikawa pushed through them. Then, when he was at a safe distance, he called out another command. “Shoot eachother.”

He carried the girl into the main house in the ensuing chaos. He looked down at the trembling bundle of sheets and smiled. Let’s go find your grandpa…

As they encountered more Inukai men in the house, those men also met their end at his command—either by their own hands or those of their comrades, but never by Nishikawa’s. His hands remained firmly on the girl while the toll of his magic engraved itself on his body.

“Hey, what should I call you?” he asked, moving with purpose.

“Good Girl,” she said, her voice muffled by the sheet.

“Is that so?” He set her down at their destination. “Well, Good Girl, let’s go say goodbye to your grandpa together.”

She lowered the sheet from her head as Nishikawa opened a sliding door.

“Wh…Who’s there?!” In the middle of the room on a futon, lay the Inukai Family head. He’d suffered from a stroke the year before, but never quite became ambulatory again.

“Grandpa…?” The girl furrowed her brows in confusion.

Nishikawa beckoned her into the room as he crouched down next to the futon. “That’s right. Do you remember him at all?”

The girl shook her head no as she approached the bed, the dirty sheet trailing behind her.

“That’s too bad,” Nishikawa said with an exaggerated frown. He picked up the old man’s frail, wrinkled hand and patted it. “Anyway, your grandpa is going away, and he wants you to hold his hand one last time.”

The old man looked between the two of them, too weak to move away, his mouth flapping open and closed like a carp. He was about to receive a death far kinder than he deserved.

“Where?” Good Girl asked, kneeling next to the futon.

“Hmm… Let’s just say, he’s going to a place where they punish people for putting little girls into cages.” He smiled at the old man with malice, then gestured for her to take her grandfather’s hand. “Well? Let’s hurry!”

Good Girl held the old man’s bony hand with both of her tiny hands and closed her eyes. Already so old and weak, he was gone in ninety seconds. When the light left his eyes, Ryouma dropped his disguise. Good Girl’s eyes widened, filled with surprise and wonder.

“Good Girl,” he said with a gentle smile. “I’ll take care of you now, so let’s go home together.”

***

The cigarette had finished well before the story ended, and now Ryouma just absentmindedly held on to the filter between his fingers. At some point, Midoriko had placed her hand on his cursed one, giving it a squeeze during the hard parts.

“Xiǎomíng was beside himself when I brought her home,” he said, remembering it fondly.

“I can imagine…” Midoriko chuckled through her sniffles. Tears had been silently escaping her eyes since Ryouma recounted the horrors Itoko lived in under the Inukai Family.

He tossed the filter aside and, with his thumb, wiped away a tear rolling down Midoriko’s cheek. Ryouma adjusted his hand to hold hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m sure remembering that is hard for you.”

“I hope you don’t think I’m a monster for saying this, but I’m numb to it.” Ryouma gently stroked her hair as he spoke. “It’s easy to compartmentalize something like that when you have a constant reminder of it.”

She lifted her head and looked at him with eyes full of sadness. As much as he relished in her tears, he didn’t like it when they were full of pity directed at him.

Trying to deflect, Ryouma lifted his hair off his forehead to show off the small, faded scar from where he’d been pistol-whipped. “Look, we both have matching scars thanks to her!”

Midoriko wordlessly pulled back, then dug through the bakery bag for a pastry. She pulled out an oversized choux cream puff and started stuffing it into her face.

“H-hey! What are you even doing right now?!” Ryouma tried to grab it out of her hands, but she stuffed the rest of it into her mouth.

“I’mph!” She started speaking with her mouth full, then quickly finished chewing and swallowed. “I’m eating my feelings!”

Ryouma laughed. “What the hell?”

“If I don’t, I think I might cry again,” Midoriko explained, digging through the bag for another pastry.

“Then just cry!” He pulled the bag of pastries out of her reach, then patted his shoulder. “If you want to cry, then I’ll lend you my shoulder. It’s sturdy enough!”

“Nah, I’m good…” She flushed slightly and looked away.

When she turned her head, Ryouma noticed a splotch of choux cream near her mouth and wiped it off. Midoriko flinched at his touch, then felt herself turning red as she watched him lick the remnant of cream off his finger.

“B-by the way, I thought of something when you were telling me about Itoko,” she said, trying to seem unaffected by their current physical closeness. “If she was cursed to never be loved, then maybe unconditionally loving her would break it!”

“And you say I’m childish,” he scoffed. “Do you honestly think that’s the key?”

“Yes! If killing the person who cast the curse couldn’t lift it, and if love and affection were counter to the curse, then it has to be the way.”

“Then…” Ryouma laced his fingers through hers and leaned in closer. “What about me? Can love break my curse, too?”

He was teasing her now, but that was fine. Two can play at that game.

“Maybe it can,” she said, placing her hand on his thigh. “Have you even tried it?”

His jaw muscles clenched, and his eyelids fluttered as he swallowed hard. “You read too many books…”

He’s getting flustered, Midoriko thought, smugly. It was time to return the teasing.

“If you don’t think it’ll work, then why don’t we put it to the test?” she offered with a coy smile. “But I bet you can’t even make me fall for you–”

“I bet I can,” he cut in, bringing his other hand to her cheek. “I bet I can make you fall for me with one date.”

Midoriko’s eye twitched. This arrogant bastard…

“Oh, really? Do you think you can win me over that easily?” she asked incredulously, pressing her forehead to his.

“I don’t think so. I know so,” he said in that low, velvety voice of his. Midoriko felt his breath on her lips as he spoke. “I guarantee that I’ll impress you.”

The pitter-patter of little feet approaching from inside the house interrupted their racing hearts. With that, they pulled apart.