Blade Of The Immortal Fan Fiction ❯ Abstinence Education ❯ Part Thirty-Six ( Chapter 36 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

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The same weapon can both guard and destroy...

The characters and universe of Blade of the Immortal/Mugen no Junin are copyright by Hiroaki Samura and do not belong to me. Not one sen will come into my hands in consequence of this story.

Warnings for sex in various forms, including quasi-incestuous themes and a sixteen-year-old female paired with an adult male. Violence and dismemberment are legally required in any BotI fic... and here it is.


Abstinence Education
by Madame Manga

Part Thirty-Six



“Now?”

“Not yet, dammit!” Mado’s rapid jog jolted Rin so hard she could barely breathe. She hung over his shoulder, her arms trussed behind her. His long sheathed harpoon repeatedly slapped the side of her face as he vaulted over high roots and rocks. At least ten minutes since they had left the clearing behind, and Manji helpless in the hands of his two torturers. “If we get there quick enough – ”

“If we don’t?” Hebi pushed at the bushes ahead of them, breaking trail as rapidly as he could. In pursuit, the hirelings yelled and cursed. “We got a decent start, but – ”

“Then I’ll think about it!” A stone whizzed past Mado’s ear. “Crap – that brat with the sling!” He changed course to put a copse of small trees between them and the pursuers.

“Where’s the frickin’ path? Shouldn’t we have gotten to the path yet?”

“Bear five points to the east! Just a little beyond that big mossy tree!” Mado let go of one of Rin’s legs to point. Another sling stone flew over his head and rebounded from a nearby trunk. “Crap!”

“Put me down!” gasped Rin. “Put me... down!” Mado didn’t answer. “I’ll... I’ll come with you!”

“Hah?”

“I’ll come with you! Just let me... walk!”

He halted, heaved her from his shoulder and deposited her on her feet. “Don’t walk. Run!” Mado shoved her ahead of him. Rin started ahead on wobbling legs. The feeling came back into them after a few strides and she quickened her pace. Then her foot hooked a root and she lurched forward, unable to regain her balance with her arms bound.

“Aw, fuck it!” Mado grabbed the ropes at the small of her back and prevented her fall. She heard a metallic click and felt a few swift tugs, and suddenly the ropes slackened. Her bonds tumbled to the ground, slashed through. “Run towards that big tree, see it? We’ll be right behind you.” Mado shut his clasp knife in his fist and thrust it back into his sleeve.

Rin ran, panting and wiping tears from her face. “Manji... oh, Manji-san...” Fallen limbs, clumps of shrubs, rocks and animal’s burrows impeded her path, but all she could see in her mind’s eye was her bodyguard’s helpless agony. Could a cut tongue kill him? What were Ryonosuke and O-Hama doing to him now? She could see no way to turn back and find out, so she kept going. Falling into their pursuers’ hands would be a fate worse than nightmares, and her only protectors were the two Itto-ryu men.

Protectors? Realization jolted through her whole body. These men meant to shield her, Asano Rin, from any serious harm. That was what they had been doing all along, in their rough fashion. Though they had chased and captured her on the road and tried to shake her bodyguard’s pursuit through the forest, they had from the first attempted to keep her out of the clutches of Ryonosuke’s hirelings.

They had never really been working for him at all? Only for themselves? That much seemed obvious...

She reached the tree and ran on, guided by Hebi’s pointing arm over her shoulder. Mado had fallen back by a few strides and drawn his harpoon from its sheath.

“Almost to the path, Rin-san. There’s an old temple – maybe half a ri – where we can, uh, hole up.” She glanced over her shoulder at Hebi, who carried her bag and sword with him.

He grinned at her. “Those scumbags ain’t going to grab you, kid. Not least ‘cause we got our own sorry hides ridin’ on – ”

“Shut UP!” yelled Mado from behind them. “Wish that bitch had ripped out your fucking tongue, I swear!”

Rin began to cry again, still running. “Manji-san...” Her eyes blurred and she blundered into a boulder wedged in the roots of a tree.

“Aw, man...” Hebi put a long arm around her shoulders and assisted her. “Hey, that immortal bastard’s got himself cut to bits before this, and he’s still kicking... well...” He made a face. “Look, if anybody can take care of – ”

“How?” Rin shrieked in grief and anger. “How is he going to take care of himself like that?”

Hebi said nothing.

They reached the top of a slight rise and broke through thick clumps of tall ferns. Below them lay a narrow track, uneven and a little overgrown. Rin and Hebi slid down the steep embankment and landed on the path; Mado leaped down behind them a few moments later. The pursuers sounded very close now.

Mado grabbed Rin’s arm and pointed along the track to the east. “That way. Keep going, understand? We’ll cover you.” Hebi drew his twin swords and wiped sweat from his brow with his forearm.

Rin stared at the big foreigner, his implication startling her. Let her escape on her own? Didn’t they mean to sell her? Go whoring and drinking on the proceeds?

“You ain’t deaf, are you?” Mado turned at a crashing in the bracken above them and raised his black harpoon. Hebi took a stance behind him.

The paunchy bandit broke through the underbrush and halted at the top of the embankment, sword in hand. Mado hurled the harpoon; the bandit leaped backwards into concealment with a yelp and the wide barbed head of the weapon struck the earth where he had stood. Mado retrieved it with a yank on a thin rawhide cord knotted through the iron loop at the base. He caught it by the shaft and yelled over his shoulder at Rin. “Kid – move!”

Rin moved. She could run much faster on the beaten track, though tree roots curled up from the earth here and there and made the going hazardous in spots. A mossy marker stone nestled in the forest litter by the path, the carved writing so worn she couldn’t read it as she flashed by. She hitched her furisode up to her knees and tried not to stub her unshod toes on the stones. The Itto-ryu men separated again; Hebi followed several strides after her, while Mado moved a little more slowly, keeping watch on the path behind him.

For several minutes, Rin saw and heard no sign of the pursuers. Had they outpaced them? Was this old temple ahead a good place to stand and fight, or would she have to keep running until the hirelings gave up? She doubted they would drop out of the chase any time soon.

Out of breath, she had to slow to a rapid walk. Around a bend in the track ahead lay a steep-sided ravine that cut deep into the hillside; the path crossed it on a rough wooden bridge with low railings. The roar of the rushing stream over the rocks below grew louder as she approached the bridge; the water must be running high from the storm.

Just audible over the roar of water, a dry stick cracked. Behind her? Rin turned to look over her shoulder.

A stone whizzed from the top of the embankment and struck Hebi in the back of his shaven skull. His eyes bulged; he gasped and staggered. As he spun around to look for the assailant, another stone hit him in the temple. He fell to one knee and clutched his head. Rin darted behind a tree and crouched for shelter, trying to spot the slinger.

There he was! The shifty-eyed boy reloaded from his pouch and rounded a tree out of sight.

Mado hove into sight and rounded the bend at a fast clip; the bandit and Fujikata followed in hot pursuit. Both had drawn. At a wide spot in the path, Mado whirled and poised his harpoon. Just as he made to hurl it at the bandit, a stone struck him square between the shoulderblades. The weapon sped out of his hand, but fell wide of his target. Mado bent over, groaning. The bandit stepped on the shaft of the harpoon before he could retrieve it, and Fujikata charged him.

Mado met him with a shoulder block; his clasp knife appeared in his hand. He scored a cut down Fujikata’s arm, but the point of the ronin’s sword emerged from the back of his jacket, streaked with blood. Mado yelled in pain. He’d been wounded, perhaps badly!

Rin’s heart gave a thump. If both her defenders fell – and if she had no blade... Should she try to retreat through the woods, or stay with them? She bit her lips and looked over her shoulder. The forested slope steepened behind her towards a rocky drop-off. The ground lay deep with loose debris and dry leaves; a fall meant injuries, maybe broken bones. In the direction of the temple, the ravine and stream blocked all passage except over the bridge, and venturing onto the bridge offered the slinger a perfect opportunity.

Cornered.

Hebi staggered to his feet and yelled, hand to his bleeding face. “Now?”

“Shitfire!” Mado kicked Fujikata away and backpedaled on the path. The harpoon cord paid out from a coil at his belt. The bandit lunged forward to try to cut it, and Mado yanked hard on the cord. The harpoon flew past the bandit, the barbed head slashing his baggy pants at the knee. The bandit howled and grabbed his leg.

Mado hauled in the harpoon hand over hand, still retreating, and seized the shaft. He raised the weapon high in a warning stance and backed a little way off the path.

The pursuers halted and conferred. Mado leaned against the big tree that sheltered him and yanked out the chain of his brass whistle with his free hand. He put its narrow mouthpiece to his lips.

Its piercing call rose and fell, trilling a dissonant tune that hurt Rin’s ears. He’d used that whistle before, just after tying her to the tree in the clearing. But at that point he’d sounded only one loud note. This signal seemed to convey more meaning than his location alone. To whom?

Rin glanced up the path with a sudden intake of breath. Through the trees in the distance, she thought she spotted a moldering wooden tori gate that marked the precincts of a shrine. The path rose abruptly beyond the gate to climb a steep slope. The main temple buildings probably sat at the top of that hill and offered a view of the surrounding countryside. And the sharp sound of that whistle must carry a long way, even in the forest...

Right now this looked like a standoff; both Mado and Hebi had found protected positions to avoid the boy’s sling. The bandit and Fujikata hesitated at the threat of the harpoon. But Hebi looked half dazed, and Mado bled freely from under his jacket, a dark stain creeping down the leggings on his right thigh. That sword thrust might only have scraped his side, or it could have pierced his belly; he didn’t betray any sign of pain now, so it was hard to tell.

Hebi worked the strap of Rin’s bag off his shoulder. Was it encumbering him? Surely he didn’t mean to make a dash for it – neither he nor his companion looked fit to run far. Rin looked longingly at her sword. Hebi glanced over, swung the bag by the strap and threw it towards her.

The scabbard clattered against a stone when the bag landed a couple of arm’s lengths from her hiding place. Rin blinked at it, and then at Hebi. Now he was giving her a weapon? Was he suffering from that blow to the head? Hebi pointed his chin and turned back to face the bandit and ronin.

Rin stared at her sword a moment longer, then rose from her crouch and scanned the embankment. She took a step from behind the tree and reached for the bag.

A stone crashed into the earth a finger’s-length from her outstretched hand. Rin skidded back behind the tree, panting. How could any of them take out the slinger? At the moment, that dreadful boy threatened them almost more than the swordsmen. If only she’d had her Golden Wasps! Rin hugged the tree and gritted her teeth.

Fujikata made a charge at Mado. His sword rang against the iron shaft when Mado blocked with the harpoon; he quickly retreated. Mado’s whole right leg had soaked dark with blood; how much longer could he hold out?

As she crouched on hands and knees, Rin detected a slight vibration in the ground. A small earthquake? Those were common enough, but the vibration continued at a steady rate. Though it felt much lighter than a movement of the earth, its amplitude increased moment by moment. Rin put both hands flat on the ground and creased her brows, trying to feel out the source.

A cry startled her. The boy with the sling skidded down the embankment, yelling. Rin gasped; he looked like he’d seen a bear. He ran straight for her hiding place. Rin darted out and got hold of the strap of her bag just as the boy crashed into her.

They tumbled to the ground together and down the slight slope. The boy’s knee struck her in the mouth; Rin felt her lip split and tasted blood. They rolled over, the boy on top. He wrestled with her for the sword, his pimpled face sweating.

Someone else shouted: the bandit? Hebi gave a surprised yelp at almost the same time. “Holy shit – how the – ”

Rin struggled and fought with the boy on the ground. Both of them gripped her sword by the scabbard, their hands alternating. Although he wasn’t much bigger than she was, he had more muscle; he twisted the weapon and forced one of her hands off the end. Rin kicked at him and reached for the hilt. The boy grabbed for her wrist. Rin bit his forefinger and he let go of her.

But now he grasped her sword in both hands; he wrenched it away and jumped to his feet.

“Stop!” she yelled. “Give that back – it’s mine!”

“Make me!” He sneered at her and tauntingly held the sword high over his head.

Rin glared at him, circling to block him from the path. Out in the open, more shouting and the clash of blades – it sounded as if the all-out battle had begun in earnest.

Make him give it to her? He seemed to scare easily... but how could she startle him enough to make him drop a weapon?

She knew how. Almost before the idea formed, Rin yanked down the shoulders of her furisode, shrugged out of them and opened her inner robe. Her heart pounded so hard she thought its strokes showed through her skin. The boy’s eyes dilated.

Rin shed both sets of sleeves and pulled her clothes down to the waist, her upper body fully exposed. She’d have only a few moments before he came to his senses, so she had better make the most of them!

The boy’s face flushed pink; his mouth sagged. He lowered the sword and let it dangle from his hand. Rin moved forward, holding his gaze with her best approximation of a seductive smile. The boy reached for her with one hand. Just as his fingers brushed her skin, Rin leaned forward and seized the sword’s hilt. She jumped backwards and yanked the blade from the scabbard, evading his grasp at her breasts.

The boy threw down her bag and scabbard and dashed for the path, the half-naked Rin in pursuit. They emerged into the open air and nearly collided with the fleeing bandit. At the sight of him, Rin almost screamed.

Though he still had his sword, the bandit had suffered a hideous slash across the middle of his face. His nose and half his mustache were cut away, and his lower lip hung in a drooling flap, exposing broken and bloody teeth. The boy screeched and turned to run after him, and Rin gripped her sword and looked back.

Far down the path, Mado crouched on his knees, propping himself up with the shaft of his harpoon. A little closer, Hebi desperately battled with someone, his back to her. His twin swords flashed and blocked the spiraling strikes of a blade that moved so fast it blurred. Who was that – not Fujikata? The dueling opponents turned sideways, and Rin’s vision gave a dizzy lurch.

Her bodyguard.

Manji – or his animated corpse. Nearly naked in his loincloth, his death-pale body smeared from ears to soles with half-dry blood. His mutilated right arm hung at his side, useless. But he pressed Hebi hard with his shido spinning in his left hand, his teeth set in a terrible grimace.

How in the name of all hells had he escaped? Rin cried out and ran towards the duelers. “Manji-san! Manji-san!”

Manji turned his head and his eye opened wide. His flash of relief at the sight of her darkened almost instantly to black fury. His face contorted, and he swung at Hebi with a blow so vicious that the tattooed fighter’s right-hand sword shattered against the shido’s stout blade.

Hebi gaped at the useless hilt and dropped it. Before he could bring up his other sword to block Manji’s strike, the shido whirled down again.

Hebi’s right arm flopped to the path, amputated above the elbow. Blood spouted from the angled stump. He staggered backwards with a howl of agony, Manji in pursuit. Rin screamed.

“No – oh, no!” He wasn’t the one who should die!

Behind her, a pounding clatter of horse’s hooves on the bridge. The vibration she had felt! Rin whirled, trying to look in two directions at once. She scrambled up the rocky embankment to avoid the horse when it galloped straight for her with no sign of slowing. The rider gave a hard, clumsy yank to the reins, as if he had only a rough idea of how to control his mount. The horse reared back a little; before it had entirely stopped, the rider vaulted from the saddle and landed with his broadsword already clear of the scabbard.

A young man, thick coarse hair pulled back, wearing a striped yukata. Rin quickly gathered her hanging clothing over her breasts, blushing. He gave her a hurried glance and dashed down the path towards the battle. She glimpsed his sharp profile and a healing cut on his upper cheek as he passed. His clothes and the way he wore his hair weren’t familiar, but –

“Ma...” Her mouth dropped open. “Magatsu... Tai.. to?”

“Hey! Hebi? Where the hell is – ” Magatsu halted at the sight of the ghastly Manji, who stalked Hebi up the embankment. “Holy crap! Manji? What happened to – ?”

“Hey, man – get him the hell off me! Tell him – ” Hebi stumbled, the bleeding stump of his arm flung out in a vain attempt at breaking his fall. Manji lunged at him. “Gaah!”

“Manji-san!” screamed Magatsu. He sprang up the slope, sword held out. “Don’t kill him! Goddammit, he’s – ”

The shido impaled Hebi just below the ribcage; he cried out and tried to double up on the ground. Manji kicked him in the back. Just before Magatsu reached the two, he stamped on Hebi’s shoulder and aimed the shido at his chest.

“Stop!” Magatsu slammed Manji’s blade aside with his own sword.

Hebi let out a choked groan and sagged limp. Manji whirled on Magatsu. His eye bulged and his teeth ground with rage; he might almost have turned into the demon O-Hama thought him.

“Stop it!” Magatsu blocked Manji’s strike and backed down the slope again. “Manji! It’s me, Magatsu! I’m not fighting you!” He had to deflect another furious blow, but didn’t follow up with an attack. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Manji-san!” Rin called out to him, appalled at this turn of events. Her bodyguard didn’t even look at her – he seemed possessed by a berserker frenzy. How to persuade him to stand down?

Someone grabbed her from behind before she could draw breath. Her assailant clapped his hand over her mouth and twisted her sword out of her hand. Fujikata! He seized her around the waist and dragged her off the path and into the woods.

Rin kicked and thrashed, trying to break his hold. His hands felt soft, but strong and clinging, almost sticky. Her clothes fell to her waist again. Fujikata chuckled and whispered something in her ear that she didn’t want to understand. Out on the path, she heard Manji’s shido crash against Magatsu’s broadsword.

Fujikata shifted his grip on Rin, trying to grope her bare breasts. His tongue slid along her cheek and he breathed hard in her ear. Rin defended herself with her elbows, so frightened she thought she might vomit, or even let go her bowels. She screamed under his gagging hand and made only a muffled squeaking noise.

Manji hadn’t seen them in his blind rage? Was one of these horrible ravishers going to make away with her after all? She jabbed an elbow into his stomach as hard as she could and Fujikata grunted angrily. He tried to seize her by the hair and force her head back. Rin shook and tossed her head to flail her braid rings in his face. His hand slipped from her mouth and she screamed out loud.

“Let her go, flower-plucker!”

Mado! His heavy footfalls crashed after them. Fujikata hesitated, then shoved Rin to the ground. Her breath knocked out, she lay sprawled and still for a few moments. Fujikata stood over her and drew his katana. “Stand off, barbarian!”

“Or what?” Mado halted some distance away. Rin pulled her face out of the forest litter, spat out bits of leaf and tried to get up; Fujikata planted a foot between her shoulderblades and kept her down. “You gonna slice her if I don’t blow off?” He laughed. “You like ‘em that helpless?”

The big foreigner looked much the worse for wear, his clothes soaked in blood below the waist and down the front. A wide flap of skin hung from the side of his neck, exposing the tendons. A glancing blow from Manji’s blade? He gripped his harpoon in both hands, low in front of him.

“Throw down your weapon and depart!” Rin stealthily reached for the cord of Fujikata’s sandal, hoping to trip him. Then she felt a cold touch on the side of her face: the point of the ronin’s sword. She froze in place. “Or I’ll remove an ear... to begin with.”

Mado grimaced. “Now hold on there. No need to –”

“Ha! Such concern for a woman no relation of yours! You’re no common bandit, are you?”

“Who said I was?”

“No, neither you nor your tattooed friend! Who so persuasively insisted that you must aid our enterprise... and then sabotaged it from within!” The flat of the sword point slapped Rin’s cheek as Fujikata shouted; she dug her fingers into the forest litter and gritted her teeth. “Who is your real employer, gaijin?”

“If you don’t count a shipowner’s company on the other side of the world...” Mado pulled a face and briefly touched his neck wound; he looked pale under his freckles. “Hey, Jappo... why don’t we duel for her? Bushido and all that.”

“Bushido?” Fujikata gave a contemptuous laugh. “From a barbarian, with that crude weapon?”

Mado shrugged. “You already pinked me once, I guess.” He glanced down at his bloody clothes. “So kick my ass for good an’ all, samurai. If you think you can!”

Fujikata took the bait; he lifted his foot from Rin’s back and moved to the side. She tried to rise and he kicked her hard in the stomach. She crumpled up, gasping. Fujikata faced Mado and poised his sword high in both hands. “Then, gaijin, prepare yourself for death.”

“Sure, samurai-san. All according to the rules, right?” Keeping his harpoon laid across his thighs, Mado gave him a formal bow.

Fujikata charged while the foreigner’s head still bent low. Mado sprang from his crouch and collided with him in mid-stroke. The ronin spun around from the force of the impact; Mado stepped past him and backed up.

Fujikata stood with one hand clutching the black iron shaft protruding from his abdomen. He looked at Mado with an expression of surprised pain.

“Aw.” Mado shook his head in mock remorse. “Damn crude of me.”

Rin gulped air and pushed up on one hand. Her tender nipples stung from the twigs and sharp-edged leaves; she fumbled her clothes over her breasts again, trying to slip her arm into the sleeve of her inner robe.

Fujikata staggered forward with his sword in hand. Mado took a couple of steps backward and yanked on the cord attached to the harpoon shaft.

The wide barbed head ripped out of Fujikata’s flesh, and with it emerged what looked like most of his intestines. The veined loops spilled from a huge hole torn below his navel.

Rin forgot her clothes and clapped both hands to her mouth, bile surging in her throat. Fujikata looked down. Another slippery spill, like the pinkened tentacles of a cooked octopus. Fujikata fell to his knees in the midst of the tangle and dropped his sword.

“Fascinatin’, what’s inside of a man when you cut him open.” Mado casually wiped the harpoon on one of the few dry parts of his jacket front. “That why you samurai do that belly-rippin’ thing?”

Fujikata’s hands trembled. “I... I had written a death poem to recite at this moment...” He let out a cry of agony.

Mado rolled his eyes and sheathed his weapon. “Keep it short, Jappo.” He turned to look at Rin, as if to satisfy himself that she was uninjured, then raised a brow at her state of undress and quickly changed his gaze to the trees over her head.

“I can’t remember... the words.” Fujikata spit up blood. “At the end of a man’s life... all is... uncertain.”

“That’s for damn – aiigh!” Mado’s pale eyes opened wide. He flung his hands out and lurched to the side. Rin flinched with a shocked yelp.

So Manji had noticed her disappearance at last! His shido pulled a curving spray of blood with it on the backswing and arced back for another thrust that Mado barely evaded. Manji growled like an animal and circled him.

“Oh, no!” Rin scrambled backwards on hands and knees. “Please, Manji – !”

“Shit!” The big foreigner clutched his shoulder; a deep slash spurted blood between his fingers. The harpoon’s leather sheath showed an angled cut on that side, but the iron shaft had deflected the shido’s point and saved his spine from splitting in two. “You fuckwit Jappo – ”

Magatsu ran after Manji, panting, and pointed his broadsword at him. “Will you listen to reason, you crazy fuck? Talk to me! You didn’t need to do that!”

Manji snarled at him and aimed at Mado again. Fujikata’s moans increased; he knelt with his arms wrapping his stomach and his face nearly on the ground. Mado’s wounded shoulder prevented him from drawing his harpoon. He backed away and tangled his feet with the ronin’s fallen sword. Manji dove for him.

“Oh, crap!” Mado flung up an arm to defend himself. Magatsu scrambled to his aid; his strike turned aside the shido’s point just in time. Both blades barely missed the sprawling Mado.

“MANJI-SAN!” screamed Rin. “STOP!” Why was his rage so deaf to entreaty? Her eyes opened wide and she glanced down at her chafed and reddened breasts. “No – he didn’t do anything to me! Please don’t kill him!”

Finally her bodyguard seemed to hear her; he arrested his next swing and turned in her direction. Rin held out her hands to him. “The foreigner didn’t hurt me – neither of them…” Mado rolled over with obvious difficulty and crawled out of reach.

“Talk to me, you son of a bitch!” Magatsu sounded furious, almost to the point of tears. “What’s the matter with you? Just SAY something!”

“He... he can’t.” Rin wrapped her arms around her chest. Manji dropped to his knees beside her and let his shido fall to the ground. “He... she cut out his tongue...”

“Cut out his... huh?” Magatsu’s eyes dilated. “Who did? Why?”

“Well... sometimes there’s a factor ya didn’t take into account...” Mado slumped to sit against a tree, holding his wounded shoulder. “Funny how often... that turns out to be a woman.”

Manji extended his left hand to Rin, his face working. She took it; his fingers closed hard on hers. His mouth opened in a tense downward curve. He scanned her, his eye moving quickly down and up again. A flash of anguish contorted his face and he pulled her to him.

Rin embraced him and pressed her face to his chest, moaning dry sobs. Manji patted her head; he stank of sweat and drying blood, bitter and metallic. He made as if to kiss her on the temple, but halted before his lips touched her face. His fingers clenched in her hair and his chest heaved.

“Manji-san... it’s all right... Mado and Hebi protected me...”

Manji looked into her face, obviously confused, and tried to speak. Only low rasps emerged from his throat. He stared at her half-naked body again in an unvoiceable question, his forehead knotting. With an open-handed gesture, he indicated her swollen lip and gently brushed his thumb across the corner of her mouth.

Rin hastily pulled her furisode up over her shoulders. “No – no one tore my clothes off! I – um, I did that... to get my sword.”

Manji’s brows went up. Rin flushed, though she didn’t know why she should feel embarrassed. She’d only used every means at her disposal to defend herself... nearly all of which he had taught her himself.

“It’s true. I haven’t been raped. Anyway, the ones who meant to were only him – ” She tried not to look directly at Fujikata, still weltering in his bloody mess and letting out piteous groans. “Him... and that awful man with the mustache, and that nasty boy – I guess they’ve escaped. But none of them could really hurt me...” She burst into tears. “Because of the... the Itto-ryu!”

Manji pulled a brief grimace at Mado that could have been construed as apologetic. Rin laughed through her tears and reached up to stroke his cheek. “Oh, Manji... you’re alive!” He flinched when she touched him and closed his lips. “Oh, no... your tongue! You had to leave it behind...?”

He shrugged and showed her his handless stump. The bloodworms had begun to knit together the damage, but it was still in terrible shape, the flesh whittled from the chipped bones. Rin longed to kiss his wounds and cry over them, but knew she would only cause him fresh pain. They had to go back and find all the pieces he’d lost, or he might never heal properly!

Magatsu approached Mado. “Uh... you all right, gaijin?”

“Just dandy, Magatsu-san.” Mado raised his sweating face. “Will somebody finish off that gut-draggin’ joker? All that screamin’... is getting on my nerves.”

Magatsu rolled his eyes, stepped over to Fujikata and struck off his head with one sharp blow. The howls abruptly ceased. The ronin’s body fell sideways and his head rolled to rest face upwards, eyes closed. Somehow his expression, though still agonized, suggested a philosophical resignation to fate.

“Hebi-kun?” Mado directed the question at Magatsu, who grimaced.

“Dead. Mostly dead – I don’t know. We’d better go check.” He wiped his blade on Fujikata’s hakama and threw Manji and Rin a look of angry disgust. “Fuck this. Fuck them.” Magatsu jammed his sword into the scabbard and stalked off towards the path. Mado pulled himself to his feet, clutching the tree in order to stand, and followed. He pressed his hand to his midsection now rather than to his shoulder wound.

Manji tucked his shido hilt-foremost under his handless right arm, lifted Rin to her feet and took her out of the trees as well. She felt bursting tension in his shoulders and chest, though his body probably hung on the edge of failure. Once he could no longer hold on to his vengeful energy, the full effect of the torture would drag him down. Sweat stood on his pale brow and his eye looked glassy.

Rin put an arm around her bodyguard’s torso and tried to support him; he straightened up and stiffened his spine. Sweat stood on his pale brow and his eye looked glassy.

Magatsu stooped over the dying Hebi, attempting to tie off his bleeding stump with a rag. Mado sat on the ground nearby, forehead resting on his upraised knees. Rin gave the group a hurried glance and put both arms around Manji’s waist to halt his advance.

“Manji-san... how did you escape them? Did you, um, kill... ?”

He shook his head and lifted his lip to show his teeth. Then he pointed at his mutilated arm with his chin and made a slight thrusting or sawing motion, as if the missing hand held a knife to cut his bonds. Rin creased her brows.

Running footfalls pounded on the bridge, accompanied by high-pitched yelps. Manji’s eye flared; he turned around. Magatsu looked up from Hebi and reached for his weapon. The wounded bandit had returned! He’d lost his short sword, and his right hand along with it. He clutched his bloody wrist in his left hand. The boy ran with him, apparently uninjured but white with fear.

What, or who, had frightened them so much that they would flee straight back into the wild bear’s jaws? Manji took his shido from under his arm and put Rin behind him.

Another rider appeared up the path, moving more slowly than Magatsu had, but trotting close on the heels of the fleeing pair. The reddening light of the evening sun shone full on him. His shadow dragged over the uneven ground; the long ragged strip of darkness fell into the ravine as he crossed the bridge, and rose again as he came closer. Closer yet…

Rin stared at the rider with open lips. Manji’s protective stance and his weapon blurred before her; all she could focus on was the man who approached.

Manji stalked forward as the bandit neared. Seeing him, the man skidded to a stop and looked back at the approaching rider. He let go his hold on the stump of his right arm, and jittered back and forth for a moment as if he could not decide which adversary posed the greater danger. Then he turned to the side and took a running leap up the embankment, his mutilated nose and mouth bubbling with his terrified gasps. He fumbled for a dagger with his left hand.

Manji intercepted the bandit halfway up the slope and swept the shido in a wide arc. He spun the forked blade from the ring at the base so swiftly that it looked like a pinwheel in a gale. A whirlwind of steel...

Manji’s victim seemed to explode at the seams. His arms flew upwards, separated at elbows and shoulders; each leg departed his body in similar sections; his torso fell in halves and then into quarters. Split through the eye sockets and with the lower jaw sliced away, the pieces of the bandit’s head arced through the air, hit the slope and bounced down to the path. His left hand, still clutching the dagger, landed at Rin’s feet.

The boy jumped to avoid the flying dissections and skidded backwards. He crouched on the path and drew a knife, his mouth open and panting.

With a jerk of his arm, Manji lashed blood and shreds of clothing from his blade. He stepped over the still-palpitating assortment of body parts and approached the boy, aggressively rolling his shoulders.

From his station by Hebi’s side, Magatsu raised his hand in greeting to the rider, whose thick head-scarf obscured his face. He sat the saddle like a skilled horseman, though the slope of his shoulders betrayed fatigue. Across the front of his saddle he balanced an unsheathed blade; Rin spotted a dull glint of iron, its reddish tint only partly a reflection of the sun. Tearing free from her transfixion, she ran to pick up her sword.

Protection – from him? Fear flared in her belly and scorched down the insides of her thighs.

The rider reined in at a judicious distance, let down the weapon with a heavy thump on the far side of the horse, and dismounted with deliberate care. He wore a bulky padded winter coat over a bold-printed kosode and knee-high travel gaiters. He had tucked the garment up between his thighs to allow for straddling his horse. As he bent to retrieve his blade, between the horse’s legs Rin saw a slim-wristed hand clasp its hilt.

He swung the curving battle-ax to his shoulder with a clean motion, raised his head and looked directly at her. Under the dark overhang of the scarf: the narrow eyes of Anotsu Kagehisa.



Continued...