Dreamlands (17 page)

Wolf started to step forward, and I grabbed him. He glared, and I shook my head. I was glad that Keno was okay and shit like that, but I didn’t want Murphy to scream at him. I had a feeling it wasn’t a good idea. Samojirou looked at me and smiled, that same snake feeling coming off him that I got the night before.

“There is no one here with that name,” Samojirou said coolly.

Wolf opened his mouth to argue about it and closed it again.

“Fucking gooks,” Murphy muttered.

From the way Samojirou stiffened, he knew what that meant. We all just had to figure out what Keno had told them, if he was still here.

Or was that the reason we were still alive? Keno was protecting our asses? I didn’t like that. Samojirou smiled at us coldly and motioned to keep on going.

We got to this hut, for lack of a better term, after a quick walk to the end of the practice field. I stepped inside, and the place looked like a very high-class bathroom with a big tub, filled with steaming water. If the thing had bubbles, I would be in heaven.

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“Scrub down first,” Wolf informed us, “everywhere. Then you soak in the tub.”

“I see that one of you is a civilized being,” Samojirou said.

“I told that nice lady that I had no manners,” I said.

I started stripping down. I had no trouble with being naked around Wolf and Murphy. Prison made me lose a lot of body issues. Wolf peeled out of his clothing, no problem. Murphy glared us at all for a minute and started washing. What I didn’t like was that Samojirou was getting naked with us. I guess he hadn’t had his morning shower either.

Out of his clothing, he reminded me more of a snake than ever.

There wasn’t anything I could put my finger on, but I knew he was
off
.

Maybe it was the fact that his body was hairless. I wasn’t checking him out, but it was something I noticed. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t staring too. I was pissed for a second but I remembered that he probably hadn’t seen a black guy before, or it could be the tattoos, since I had a lot from the joint. Some of them were nice and others weren’t, but all of them were part of me, and I wasn’t ashamed of them.

I wasn’t going to start nagging him about Keno, because I wasn’t that much of an idiot. Subtlety was what was going to get us information. Thinking and planning, two things I was piss-poor at. I knew my limitations. I wasn’t dumb, but that shit was beyond me. I didn’t have the patience to deal with it.

I scrubbed down and joined Wolf in the tub. Murphy eventually got in, pissing and moaning. I noticed that Samojirou was checking out Wolf too. The hot water relaxed me, and I had the stray thought that this was probably helping McGann.

I looked over at Samojirou. “You two aren’t doing anything weird with the girls?”

Murphy coughed at me for calling McGann a girl. Wolf looked worried for a moment.

Samojirou shook his head. “I assure you that my lady will not take advantage of your ladies’ virtue. She… such things are distasteful to her.”

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I was about to say more when the gang from the field wandered in, talking and laughing. I wasn’t the only one who noticed Keno wasn’t with them. It wasn’t hard: most of these guys were adult, tall, and well muscled, something that Keno wasn’t. Wolf and I exchanged glances, worried about him.

“Who’s the big guy?” I asked. “And where… He got his ass kicked, didn’t he?”

“He is called Kazuya-san. He is a squad leader here.” The Kazuya guy was talking a mile a minute, waving his hands around, looking pissed and happy at the same time. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. The rest of them were teasing him, and I would have sworn that money or something was changing hands with a couple of them. I looked over at Samojirou.

“If I understand what you are saying, then yes, Kazuya-san was not the victor here,” Samojirou said slyly.

“So the winner doesn’t hang with the posse?” I asked.

“Posse?” Samojirou repeated, sounding confused. I liked the fact that he had no clue what I was talking about.

I waved my left arm around, hoping it wasn’t an insulting gesture.

“The men here. They all work for Tamazusa-sama. They are what my people would call a posse. A gang―”

“A squad or cadre,” Wolf added. “Not to be―”

“Both of you….” Murphy started, sounding really pissed.

I looked at him. Wolf went blank again, and Samojirou smiled, bland and dangerous at the same time.

“I understand that you are all different races, different people,” Samojirou said. “Does that mean that you are from different groups? Or are all the same ‘posse’?”

“Fucking A, Mason!” Murphy exploded. “What―” 119

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“We work together,” Wolf said quickly, trying to have Murphy not melt down on us. “All of us. McGann and Anya are scientists. They study things.”

Samojirou nodded. I wasn’t too sure, but I bet he had picked up the sneers Romejinoff had been throwing the chick. I wasn’t too sure what their relationship was or even if there was one. They could have just gone out to the local equivalent of a movie or something like that yesterday, as friends. For all I knew, she wasn’t fucking him and was here because she wrangled Reavers.

Murphy was acting like he had a very large stick up his ass, but then, I
was
managing to piss him off more and more often lately. Him being angry wasn’t anything new to me.

“You mentioned that you were exploring the Dreamlands,” Samojirou said, ignoring the tension Murphy was giving off. “What were you looking for?”

Now was the time to mention that we were looking for someone named Keno, but something made me keep my mouth shut. Wolf didn’t say anything either. Murphy looked surprised that we were both keeping our mouths shut.

While the rest of the posse was cleaning up and slipping into other tubs, they were checking me, well, all of us out. I actually was a little freaked out about everyone staring at me. Last time that had happened, I had ended up in the infirmary after an ambush in the yard. I kicked ass, but I had been outnumbered. A couple of the guys started looking at my tattoos and gesturing and talking to Samojirou. He looked amused at the questions.

“The men want to know if the additional coloring is natural, or if it is not, what they mean,” Samojirou said to me, not waiting for Murphy’s answer about the exploration, giving him time to think up a bullshit story.

I was beginning to think that neither he nor Tamazusa cared why we were here. Maybe how we had gotten here, but not really. I wondered if Murphy and McGann had even bothered with something like a cover story. Me? I really didn’t care. But I was curious about FELICITAS IVEY

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why these two weren’t upset about finding us here, and how they had managed to track us in the middle of the woods, when we didn’t even know where the hell we were.

Murphy snorted over Samojirou’s words, and I resisted the urge to pop him one. Sad thing was that the only ex-cop in the place gave me less shit about this than everyone else. Murphy and the rest of the ex-military guys were always acting like I was an idiot because I had been in prison.

“They’re tattoos,” I answered. “I got them when I was in prison.” Samojirou nodded and translated. Wolf shook his head and said,

“You might have put your foot in it.”

I shrugged. “What else is new?”

More talking and Samojirou nodding a lot. I was surprised these guys didn’t act like he was the boss, but they respected him. So that meant that Tamazusa really was in charge. I guess the trick of turning someone’s insides into JELL-O got you a lot of respect. But I thought that even without that, the woman had a huge set of brass ones.

“Our tattoos are more colorful,” Samojirou said eventually. “That is why they asked.”

“While I know that only the Yakuza are tattooed,” Wolf said,

“many people get tattoos where we are. It is a fad for the young right now.”

“Fucking idiots that should know better,” Murphy said. “If my kids―”

“I think that it might be over when Sean and James get old enough,” Wolf said.

Samojirou smiled. “Your children?”

“Grandchildren,” Murphy growled. He remembered his manners for a moment. “They live with me because their father is in the military and their mother was killed in an accident.” 121

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“And if I may ask, why you were in prison?” Samojirou asked me.

“I killed a couple of monsters that looked human,” I said bluntly.

Wolf and Murphy winced. So much for me being polite to our host.

They should have known it wouldn’t last. “They were hurting kids, but that never came out at the trial. They were things that were just wearing human suits.”

“That can be said of some of us here,” Samojirou said with a smile.

“Only if you’re actually a Hákarl and squished yourself into that body like it was clothing. That’s what I meant. But they were too messed up to tell what they were, and I got a trip to the slammer.” Samojirou nodded, looking thoughtful. “That is an interesting story.”

“I ain’t going to freak out and start whapping the Reavers,” I said.

“Not unless they start it. I don’t like ’em, but the feeling is probably mutual.”

“You know what they are?” Samojirou asked.

I was getting a weird vibe off the guy, but it could have been because he was playing some sort of game. The guy was definitely a suit and should be watched, but me playing dumb and friendly wasn’t going to matter if there was a plan and I didn’t know it. I thought he knew it too and was just going to let me run my mouth off and see what he could get from me.

“Just what the scientists tell me. Bat wings? No face? Horns?

They tell me that’s what’s known as a Reaver. I don’t know what they do besides stand around and be creepy. Usually hanging with another monster.”

Wolf winced, knowing it was an insult. I laughed shakily, hoping that Samojirou didn’t decide killing me was a good idea because I had insulted him by accident. “Shit, that sounded bad.” Samojirou smiled. “The Reavers are my lady’s allies.” FELICITAS IVEY

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“Fuck,” I swore. JELL-O, here I come. “Well, I meant to say that they hang around with other uglies. And while I get myself deeper into this, I don’t think that she’s ugly or a monster. She hasn’t shown me anything that would make me think that.” Samojirou smiled a strange smile, and Wolf and Murphy just stared. I was in deep shit and was going to get reamed a new one as soon as we were alone. But I didn’t think either Samojirou or Tamazusa were going to be the ones to do it, so I was happy. Because either one of them could rip me a new asshole for real―not figuratively.

KENO

I WAS finishing my drill with the samurai when Samojirou came by with Wolf, Mason, and Murphy. I wasn’t really paying any sort of attention to them. We’d had bow practice, and now it was the time for individual practice bouts. A few of the other samurai had sparred, but now it was time for me to spar with Kazuya. He was one of the squad leaders here and as big as a mountain. He was also one of the gentlest men I knew, when he wasn’t swinging a sword.

“Do not hurt me too badly, Blossom,” Kazuya teased.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to hit him at all, never mind hurt him.

Okita laughed. “You are fast enough, Sakura, to get past his guard, and you are not going to hurt him, no matter what he tells you.” I didn’t know. We were using
bokken
and practice armor without helmets or face protectors. Stupid, because I was the only one who really had to worry about a head injury. I wasn’t going to be able to hit Kazuya on the head unless I levitated. He was good enough that he wouldn’t hit me, even by accident. Trading blows with a wooden sword wasn’t as deadly as using steel, but I was usually a bit bruised from my 123

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practice sessions. No one meant to injure me, but bruises were something that happened to everyone; they just healed faster than I did because they weren’t human.

I wasn’t surprised that Samojirou wanted to watch me spar. He liked that I was good enough to keep up in practice with men who had centuries of practice with a katana. I was surprised to see that Wolf, Murphy, and Mason were with him.

“Ah, that is true love,” Kazuya said. “A man who still wants to see you sweaty and panting even if it is not because of him.” I blushed bright red. I usually did when someone mentioned something like that to me. I also wasn’t too comfortable with him throwing the word love around. I trusted Samojirou, and he liked me, but I didn’t think it went beyond that.

There was general laughing at my reaction, but I spent more time blushing with these people than I cared to remember. Not that they were crude, but the samurai managed to tease me a lot, about my blushing especially.

“If all your blood is going to your head,” Okita called out, “then it is not going anyplace else.”

That made me blush harder, but everyone settled down after that.

Kazuya and I studied each other for an opening, before moving in for the strike. Whoever said that a samurai’s fight was won or lost with the first blow wasn’t lying. Kazuya shifted, and I moved in, we traded blows and jumped back. I had gotten in a hit on his ribs, and he hadn’t touched me. My arms ached from countering his blows, but that was it.

We circled some more, and I ignored everything else around me. We had a couple more clashes before Okita called a halt to practice.

“You won, Blossom,” Okita called out.

I grinned, proud about it. I was hot and sweaty, and I had earned that victory.

Kazuya laughed. “You are getting good.”

“It is all because of everyone’s help,” I said humbly.

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“The outsiders were impressed,” Okita said. “They watched you closely.”

I didn’t say anything, wondering if anyone had recognized me.

“They are strange-looking,” Nishiyawa said. He was one of the lesser samurai with Tamazusa, quiet and shy. “But then, when I was alive, Tokugawa had us as isolated as the Dreamlands.”

“The darker one is from Africa,” Okita said. “Or most of his ancestors were. The others are European. But I think from what they were saying that they are all Americans.” Nishiyawa frowned. “That place.”