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This was bad. This was very bad. The mission hadn’t gone their way since the start, but the odds were never that unfavorable. But now?
They’re both gone
Kuguri stopped to catch his breath. He’d been gunning down the stairs of the Bloodshed Hotel, a few floors below the roof now. He placed a hand against the wall to steady himself. Why was he so out of whack? He’d lived his life with stringent discipline and here he was tired and running away from the job he was supposed to do like a coward.
The objective was so simple to accomplish. All he’d have to do was grab the target and then he could warp out without even needing to exert himself really. Rokuhira and those ninja were annoyances but he could handle them if only they stopped running away.
But the ‘target’ just had to go and mess things up. Iori Samura.
Samura
Ebon wings flapping in the pale sky flashed through Kuguri’s mind when he closed his eyes. Seiichi Samura, Tobimune in hand, had appeared above the hotel and thrown the Hishaku’s odds of success in the gutter.
Kuguri’s deep respect for the artistry of Iai White Purity style meant he had no illusions that, against the assistant master of the style, he’d have stood no chance against Samura without the involvement of the enchanted blade. With it, the Hishaku swordsman knew he’d lay in pieces before he would even realize Samura had moved toward him.
Just like them
The hand against the wall curled into a fist and slammed into the wall hard enough to crater it.
Why did that idiot Hiruhiko need to escalate things? The fighting on the roof had grown messy, but pulling out the Kumeyuri out had just doomed them all!
He saw it again. Samura suddenly appearing next to Toto and Hiruhiko. The Swordbearer had been so fast, Kuguri could only catch him sheathing the Tobimune after his attacks. The other two Hishaku members splitting apart and the spray of blood in time with the hilt of the enchanted blade ramming home against the sheathe.
Now it was just him.
He hadn’t succeeded in taking Samura’s daughter hostage, Chihiro Rokuhira had returned from the dead, Samura had just killed two of Kuguri’s comrades and the Hishaku had lost the Kumeyuri.
What would the others do when he came back to them like this? They wouldn’t kill him, the Hishaku didn’t operate like that. Take the enchanted blade he’d been trusted with away? Probably. Yura would strip Kuguri of the legendary sword and then have him serve as the next distraction against Samura or Rokuhira or the Kamunabi or whoever. A pawn being sacrificed in penitence.
“Why couldn’t you have just let me handle it,” Kuguri whispered to the image of Hiruhiko drawing the Kumeyuri in his mind. Other images of the boy, dismissing Kuguri’s offer to train him, sitting on the floor surrounded by origami creations, picking lazily at a meal Kuguri had prepared for them all flashed as well.
“Why did you have to bring him here? Why didn’t you get the two of you out first thing,” Kuguri said as memories of Toto came about. That morning getting breakfast in the market, sitting atop his back and reading while Kuguri did push ups, scolding him for how serious he was being.
And then the last memory he’d ever have of either of them, Samura standing above their decapitated corpses.
“Dammit!” Kuguri exclaimed, punching the spot on the wall he’d struck before and having his fist crash through the drywall and splintering wood fixtures.
Sweat was pouring down his face, a few beads mixing with the liquid running from his eyes.
“WHY COULDN’T YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING!” he shouted finally. It echoed throughout the whole stairwell, probably audible to whoever was left on the roof. He didn’t care. Whoever came for him, he’d charge through to scrounge whatever honor he could and at least die trying to complete the mission.
“What are yo-“
*CLANG*
Kuguri‘s wide and red eyes stared shakily at the figures who’d appeared next to him. The sword that he’d swung on reflex had been blocked, stopped fully by one of superior craftsmanship. Dantenseki blade gleaming, Kumeyuri held against Kuguri’s sword to prevent it from biting into a neck covered by a high collar made of black feathers.
Toto’s eyes stared nervously at the sword that’d nearly slashed out her throat. She’d backed against Hiruhiko behind her, who had protectively placed the Kumeyuri in front of the oncoming swing.
Kuguri lowered his sword swiftly, staring dumbly at his now alive companions. Toto cleared her throat before finishing her question from earlier.
“What are you doing?” the sorceress asked.
“But… you both-,” Kuguri began.
Hiruhiko coughed up blood from his mouth covered in it, interrupting Kuguri. “Are you okay? We still have to retrieve Samura’s daughter you know. Jeez, all that talk about discipline and he crumbles at the tiniest-OW!”
Toto lowered her elbow from Hiruhiko’s now bruised rib cage. She gave him her stern frown (the real one that came out when she was actually mad and not the fake one she’d use whenever she said Kuguri was being too uptight) before giving Kuguri an apologetic smile.
“Sorry for… interrupting you, but he is right. We’ve got one last shot and then we’re leaving,” his partner said.
Hiruhiko and Toto turned back to exit the stairway and onto the floor proper. Kuguri’s mind finally caught up to the present and he followed after them, attempting to compose himself.
“What were you yelling about anyway?” Hiruhiko asked.
“I was uhhhhh… trying to destabilize the building,” Kuguri covered.
“Oh, and that’s why you were punching the wall?” Hiruhiko speculated. Kuguri nodded. “Smart. The more chaos, the more opportunity to get Samura’s daughter.”
Kuguri just hummed in assent. The group stopped partway through the hall when someone emerged from the other set of stairs.
Chihiro Rokuhira’s cold red eyes scanned the Hishaku members before him, narrowing on the Kumeyuri and then widening when he landed on Kuguri.
“Have you been crying?” the Enten wielder asked.
Toto turned back to Kuguri, examining his eyes, while Hiruhiko kept staring at Chihiro.
“You know, your eyes are unusually irritated,” Toto observed.
“What? No, it’s just that-,” Kuguri floundered. “The sun has been blocked out for a few days now and suddenly having it pop back up messed them up. That’s uh… why I went back inside.”
“Kuguri you don’t have to lie to us,” Toto offered, seeing through him. Hiruhiko and Chihiro remained locked in place, staring each other down.
“Gah, FINE. I thought you too were both dead and-,” Kuguri tried to explain.
“You thought we were dead?!” Toto exclaimed.
“YES! I saw Samura slice both of your heads off!” Kuguri shouted.
“That was obviously an illusion created by the Kumeyuri,” Chihiro interrupted the Hishaku’s bickering.
“Obviously,” Hiruhiko and Toto both agreed in time.
Kuguri yelled in exacerbation as Chihiro and Hiruhiko launched themselves at each other. As they clashed, Toto placed a comforting hand on Kuguri’s bicep.
“Sorry, I thought you trusted me and Hiruhiko to be alright,” she said.
“Let’s just get Iori and go home,” Kuguri sighed.