“Gods,” whispered Yukiko.
“Daiyakawa province grows rice to this day.” Daichi curled his hands into fists. “But they don’t teach you why. Shima’s people never heard of the riot on the wireless, never heard the sound of that baby screaming.”
“It was Shōgun Kaneda who commanded you. Perhaps Yoritomo—”
“Yoritomo is his father’s child,” Daichi growled. “I have seen oceans of blood spilled by his command. Children. Pregnant mothers. Beggars hold out their hands to him and draw back stumps. He rules side by side with a cabal of zealots, turns a blind eye to Purifiers burning people alive for the sake of their ridiculous dogma.” He glared down at Kin, shaking his head. “And all the while, these animals meld their flesh with machines and fill our lungs with cancer.”
Daichi looked up at Yukiko, steel-gray irises growing dark with anger.
“We’ve burned dozens of fields since I arrived in this village, gods know how many more before that, and not one blaze has ever been reported to the people. We burn the refinery, the Communications Ministry says it was a fuel leak. We could cut off the Shōgun’s head and parade it down Palace Way on a spike, and the Guild would say he died of natural causes. And the people would believe them.”
“The Guild print the history books,” Kaori said. “The Guild control the airwaves. Every report, every word they speak to the common man is like a kick to his head. Cowing him. Making him stupid.”
“His kind,” growled Daichi, kicking Kin again. “Are poison.”
Buruu purred, eyes fixed on the gathered men and their steel. Yukiko could feel his approval. The arashitora agreed with the philosophy of the Kagé. She was shocked to realize that a part of her did too.
“Daichi-sama, please, let him go.”
“Wake up. The lotus must burn. The Guild must burn.”
“Burn,” murmured the Kagé.
THEY SPEAK TRUTH. THEY SEE CLEARLY.
They kill innocent people.
CHANGE IS SELDOM BLOODLESS. SOME EYES WISH TO REMAIN CLOSED. SOMETIMES THEY MUST BE CUT OPEN.
I can’t believe that. I won’t.
“Just let us go, please. We won’t breathe a word about you, I swear it.”
“Let you go?” Kaori laughed. “So you can take Yoritomo his prize? Hand over this beast to that rapist so his bastard Hunt Master can mutilate it some more?”
Yukiko felt a flash of anger, tilting her head and glaring at the woman through her lashes.
“Don’t you call my father a bastard. He is a man of honor.”
Daichi turned pale, slack-jawed and breathless as if she’d punched him in the stomach. Kaori’s eyes widened, and she glanced back and forth between her father and Yukiko.
“You are Kitsune Masaru’s daughter?” Daichi’s voice was a whisper. “Then your m—”
“Oni! Oni!”
A boy of eight or nine was running across the rope bridge toward them, hissing the word over and over, as loud as he dared. The assembled Kagé turned toward his voice, hands on their weapons. The boy broke through the crowd and knelt before Daichi.
“Daichi-sama, Kaiji-san reports oni on the western rise. A raiding party from Black Temple. Dozens.”
“Aiya, so many,” murmured Isao.
“Angered at their brethren’s deaths.” Kaori stared directly at Yukiko. “They seek vengeance. Skulls for their mother, Lady Izanami.”
DEMONS. MAGGOTS FROM THE YOMI PITS.
Do they come for us?
Buruu blinked at her, pawing at the ground.
DOES IT MATTER?
Daichi pulled the boy to his feet, one hand on his katana. His calm had returned as swiftly as it vanished, voice low, hard as steel.
“Isao, take this filth to the holding cells and lock him down.” He pointed at Kin. “Kaori, fetch the other captains. Make sure they are armed and ready to move. The rest of you, come with me.” He turned to leave, his cadre with him.
“Daichi-sama,” Yukiko called.
The man turned to look at her, eyebrow raised.
“We will help you,” she said. “If Kaori-chan is right and they seek revenge for the blood Buruu and I spilled, honor demands that we help send these things back to the deepest hell.”
She tossed her head. Defiant. Proud.
“I am also my father’s child.”
A long pause. A knowing glance shared with Kaori. A sigh. But finally Daichi licked his lips and nodded to Yukiko, running one hand across his scalp.
“If the Black Fox’s daughter asks it, then it will be so.” His stare unsettled her. “But when we return, we will speak more. There is something I must ask of you. Something important.”
He turned to his men and nodded.
“We move.”
23 Surfacing