Chapter 8

I turned and hugged Kazuo.

“Thank you, Kazuo. Oh, thank you!”

He nodded and gave me a weak smile. “The Daimyo was not a good man,” he said. “Not like your father.”

He grabbed his katana. “Let’s go! I’ll cover you while you make your escape.”

When we exited the gate tower, we did not see Kiyo. Instead, we found ourselves facing the three guards we fooled earlier, accompanied by three additional guards that must have been on patrol in the city streets. They must have heard or seen the gate come open.

“What’s going on here?” one yelled angrily.

Kazuo drew his sword.

The guards drew theirs. Kazuo pushed me back against the tower wall and to the other guards, said, “Leave us be!”

I watched in horror as they surrounded him. He swung wildly at one. They laughed. One struck him on the shoulder with his blade. Kazuo cried out in pain.

He swung again. His katana cut the arm of one of the guards. The guard yelped and fell backwards, clutching his arm. Kazuo assumed the fighting stance of a samurai, katana raised valiantly against the overwhelming foe.

The six guards lunged at him together. Before he could take a single swing, they stabbed him each in turn with their blades. He fell to the ground. He fell swinging, doing his best against overwhelming odds, but ultimately succumbing to the merciless onslaught.

I collapsed, sobbing.

When they finished with Kazuo, they ran to me and grabbed me violently and dragged me towards the castle.

“You’ve made a terrible mistake,” a guard muttered angrily.

He likely did not know the half of it. He did not know that his Daimyo lay dead in his bed chamber. I did not care. I was now submitted to her fate and did not resist. The gate was open. Kiyo had the opportunity to escape. That was what I wanted anyways, wasn’t it? That was my solace. I closed my eyes, squeezing out her tears, and relaxed my tense limbs.

The crickets chirped. A lone owl hooted and flew from the eaves of a building towards the forest. The panting guards dragged me impatiently through the wide main avenue towards the castle.

As soon as we disappeared into the castle walls, Kiyo would take the chance to sneak stealthily out the opened gate doors. I thought the violent night was all but over. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

As we arrived at the castle gate and the end of the long wide avenue, the empty night silence was broken by the loud and echoing sound of a horse’s cold, haunting neigh. The ghoulish noise seemed to come from all directions. The guards jumped in fright and drew their swords, swiveling around, searching anxiously for the source.

Calm hooves stomped on dirt road, heralding the appearance of a tall, black mare from the castle stable. A dark figure sat tall on the powerful war horse’s back, silhouetted against the backdrop of the pale moon. The horse snorted in the frigid air, causing cold white condensation to billow like furious phantoms from flared nostrils. She stamped at the dirt restlessly with her front hooves and shook her mane in anticipation of the violence for which she was bred. The blade of the long naginata held by the dark figure glinted in the moonlight. It was Kiyo, ready for a fight.

She hoisted her naginata and pointed it at the six guards. “She comes with me!” she shouted.

“Do you know how to ride that horse, woman?” shouted one of the guards. “Try to take her, bitch!”

They raised their swords up in a ready stance and walked toward Kiyo in a neat formation, leaving me on the road, exasperated that Kiyo did not choose the chance to escape.

With her mouth she made a loud whistling sound, and she kicked her stirrups. The horse understood and obeyed her rider, jumping into a full gallop, racing straight for the waiting swords. Leaves and dirt flew up into the air behind the dark mare as if a windstorm had started to blow through. Kiyo leaned in, and with every ounce of strength she had, she plunged the naginata with surgical precision into the chest of the closest guard, causing the shaft of the spear to explode into splinters as the blade went through the guard. He let out a blood-curdling scream as he fell backwards onto the dirt, dying quickly as blood gushed from his body. The horse tackled another guard in the violent charge, throwing the guard, and causing his head to bounce with a sickening thud on the road. The others dove out of the way of the massive war horse and scrambled to a safe distance.

Kiyo tossed aside the shattered pole of the naginata and jumped from the panting horse onto the street, landing effortlessly into a crouch next to the body in which the naginata blade was stuck. She grabbed the naginata by the broken shaft like a sword, and, rising slowly like a shade from the underworld, pulling the blade clean from its latest victim. She whipped the blade, and blood whipped off, splattering into a dark arc in the dirt, then from the horse’s saddle, she pulled out Tanenaga’s katana with her other hand.

The four remaining guards circled around her, their swords raised. She waited in silence for them to make their moves, her eyes observing every small movement for signs of the first strike.

One lunged screaming, swinging his sword wildly in wide arcs. Kiyo stepped to one side, and in a brilliant silver flash of steel, the guard cried out in agony and fell to the ground, his insides spilling out from his abdomen. Another guard followed suit, and in another flash, he went down as well, his blood spraying across the dirt. The last two stood horrified at the result of Kiyo’s quick work. Their swords trembling in their hands.

“Walk away if you value your life,” Kiyo said calmly as she lowered both her weapons to her sides. The two guards ignored her advice, and instead charged in unison, their katana raised above their heads. The first that reached her brought his blade down with swift violence. Kiyo parried it aside with a sharp clang. As he stumbled past her, she sank the katana cleanly into his back and, with the naginata, parried, then riposted the second guard. The guard jumped back, gathered himself, swung again. Kiyo turned to her side to allow the swing to cut only the air, then she swung the katana down onto his outstretched arm, lopping it clean off.

The guard turned to face her in wide-eyed, his mouth agape in horror, with want to scream, but unable to produce it. Without wasting a breath, Kiyo thrusted both the naginata and the katana into him, one in his gut, the other in his chest. The guard coughed out a glob of blood and collapsed slowly to his knees. His last breath escaped his mouth in a gargling wheeze, and when life finally fluttered out his eyes, Kiyo kicked his body to the ground.

Silence fell again in the night. Even the crickets refused to chirp in the macabre, corpse-ridden aftermath.

Still numbed by what had just transpired, I gathered enough wit about me to clamber to my feet and stare numbly at the bloodbath.

The war horse walked over to Kiyo and put her muzzle to Kiyo’s cheek. Kiyo rubbed the mare’s muzzle then came to me to give me an embrace, but, frightened as I was at the violence I had just witnessed, I backed away.

My mind swum. I felt I was at the cusp of mad dream.

“Are you hurt?” Kiyo asked softly.

I was too numb to know if I was hurt, but any physical injury I might have been the least of my concern as I tried to put the tattered pieces of all the events that had transpired tonight leading up to this moment here, I with Kiyo, bloodstained, standing in the midst of a half-dozen slaughtered men. As the pieces started to stitch together, the picture that emerged was frightening. I looked into Kiyo’s eyes, and though they were the same eyes that I had come to love, I saw in them something I had not noticed before. They were ethereal, glinting like the grey moon beyond snow clouds, and piercing, like the steely eyes of a wolf of the high north, only she something even more frightful.

“W-What are you?” I asked, dazed.

Kiyo cocked her head to one side.

“What do you mean?” she asked, keeping her eyes intently upon me, unbothered by the blood that was splattered across her face.

“What they say about you is true, isn’t it?”

She took a step toward me. I took a step back.

“It makes sense,” I added, my voice cracking. “You bewitched me with your magic, haven’t you? And made me to feed you with my milk. You tricked me into killing my husband. You tricked me into freeing you. You… you… are a demon…aren’t you?”

I heaved through my words.

“Then what you are you?”

She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, smearing the dark blood that had spattered there across her face, across her lips.

Behind me, I heard the fire watchman’s bell resound, and when I turned to see the cause of the alarm, I saw flames spitting out from the high castle windows. From my bed chamber. Flames that must have come from the charcoal brazier I had thrown in my struggle with Tanenaga.

I turned back to Kiyo. The reflections of the flames danced in her eyes. She gave a slanted smile. I swear I saw the flashing of bloodied fangs.

She lunged at me and managed to snatch my wrist. I struggled against her, but she was swift and overpowering. She pulled me in. I stumbled into her, and she held me to stop me from falling. She put a hand on my cheek. It was a gentle hand, but I could feel the slickness of blood of the men she had just killed on it.

“What I am is a wretched creature who had won her revenge. And you helped me win it, but you did so on your own accord Do not blame me for what was in your heart to do.”

She let go of my wrist and I fell to the ground. I looked up at her in fright for what she had just said, and the forceful way she had just said it. I looked into her eyes and saw the frightful truth. Demon or not, it was as she had said: I had helped her win her revenge by my own accord.

My entire life had been chosen for me, from my marriage to Tanenaga to the clothes I put on every day, to the food I eat every day. Nothing I’ve done in my life had ever been my choice, that is, except the things I’ve done to have brought me here. She was right. It was in my heart to do what I’ve done. And what’s more, I did not regret it. In fact, I was happy to have done it.

I went to my feet, and I did again what was in my heart to do. I went to Kiyo and took her hands with mine and whispered to her, “I suppose then, that I am a wretched creature just like you,” then I kissed her, and she took the kiss, and then leaned into me to deepen the kiss as if to sanctify it.

Shouting, and the echoes of heavy footsteps broke the moment. Torches illuminated the walls of the alleys around us and grew brighter.

“They’re coming for us. We must go now,” I said. Kiyo nodded and hoisted herself up onto her horse, then offered me a hand.

I took the hand, and she pulled me onto the saddle. I wrapped her arms around her, and she leaned forward and kicked her stirrups. The mare took off into a gallop towards the open gate.

Though my husband’s loyal samurai took chase, they had taken too long to don their heavy armor, and did not ride their horses as swiftly. Their chase was futile. We disappeared into the night, and into the misty autumn mountains that I had not ever ventured before.

With her vengeance complete, I did not know where Kiyo intended to go. Wherever it was, I was going to follow, and I did not fear what awaited me. I was hopeful. I was happy.

Well, what did you think? By the way, comments are like cookies to me, and who doesn’t like cookies. Please leave some below for me to enjoy 🙂

Here are some songs I like:

APT – Rosé and Bruno Mars

my apologiesss – reina

Perfect to Me – Josh Tatofi

Caribbean Blue – Enya

She Just Likes to Fight – Four Tet