The Hinomoto Rebellion (33 page)

Unable to control himself, D reached out and put a hand to Andrea’s cheek. Her hair was silky, her skin warm. She visibly tensed at his touch, but did not move away. “We understand why you are the way you are,” he said.

“No, you don’t.” Now she did turn away from him, leaving his hand hanging in the air as though he were trying to grab on to her for dear life. “Not unless you spent a lifetime in pain, having nightmares every night unless you exhaust yourself by training until you drop, not knowing where your next meal came from. I don’t wish that ‘understanding’ on anyone.”

“Andrea, I care for you. A lot. Please don’t turn away from me.”

 

“Of course you care for me, you just assured me you were my friend,” she started to take a step away from him.

“As more than that! Don’t you see the effect you have on me!? Don’t you see how crazy you make me!? I’ve never felt this way about anyone, but I can’t get close enough to you to figure out what to call these emotions because you’re too scared to let me!”

Andrea felt a shudder of panic leap through her. Her defense mechanisms immediately kicked in, and D knew he’d stepped too far with her.

“I am not afraid of you,” she growled through clenched teeth. “Claim that I am one more time and I swear I’ll punch you, friend or not.”

“Prove it! Prove to me right now that you’re not scared of me! Turn and face me instead of always making me watch you walk away! You made a good talk when you came back about not running away from your problems anymore, and that you were going to change! Prove that you meant it!”

That was all it took for Andrea to spin around on the ball of her foot, her arm outstretched with plans of connecting her clenched fist to D’s head.

Her punch never landed. D grabbed her wrist suddenly and yanked her forward. Before she knew what was happening, D’s arm was around her waist, holding her tightly to his body. Her lips were covered with his in a kiss heated with need. Andrea’s eyes went wide as she stared at D’s closed eyes, studying the expression on his face as he buried her lips with his.

An emotion welled up in Andrea so quickly that she thought she might pass out from the force of it. Her head spun, and the rest of the world seemed to melt away. Every sensation seemed amplified, from the pressing of his soft mouth on hers, his arm around her waist holding her to his hard, warm body. Her fisted hand went limp in his grasp, and she realized that her free arm was gripping D’s biceps as though it were her one means of rescue in an angry ocean.

After what seemed like an eternity, their lips parted. Andrea’s head was light and she felt like she was about to pass out. “I’m sorry, Andrea, I don’t know what came over me..” D said. His face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her skin.

“No, D, I’m the one who’s sorry,” she replied.
“What do you have to be sorry about?”

“I’m sorry that I apparently can’t be what you need me to be. I can’t keep my promise to stop running away right now.” Andrea turned and walked away quickly, having to keep herself from sprinting as fast as she could away from him.

Shibasaki awoke the next morning to a torrential downpour flooding the streets. The sky opened in the early morning and didn’t show any signs of quitting its cleansing of the city streets. The glass and concrete buildings seemed made of metal as the water made them sheen in the gray, muted light coming through the storm clouds. The streets were deserted as the rain beat down, driving all but the bravest souls inside.

Daimyo Yasakuto, Shogun Kunota, and the Aka Ryuu all had something in common that day since they were all trying to keep track of the news reports about the referendum votes. While the Daimyo and the Shogun could simply flip on the Shibasaki News, the Aka Ryuu had no access to the news networks. So, they found an old radio that someone had abandoned in the gardens and rigged it up to attempt to get a signal. The experiment worked, much to Roni’s delight since she had assembled it.

From listening to the news reports, all three parties gained the knowledge that the polls were slow. Every once in awhile, some soaked citizen would come in to cast their vote. So far though, the turn-out was much lower than had been anticipated, and the reports all predicted a higher turn-out once the rain abated. There was no telling which way the vote would turn in the next few days.

Things were relatively quiet in the old temple. The Aka Ryuu were trying to stay dry and warm, which wasn’t easy with a roof that had more holes than shingling, and get in some last-minute training before the big press conference. They also took some time to patch some of the holes in the roof between training sessions, mainly to have something to do than because of the rain getting in.

Things were awkward between D and Andrea and neither one would tell the others why they weren’t even looking at each other. Both seemed hell-bent on pretending that the previous night had never happened; Andrea by ignoring it, and D by letting her. It was obvious to the others though that something had gone on out on the bridge, because both D and Andrea were sneaking glances at each other when they thought no one was looking.

After a fiasco with the wood-burning stove, they ate a simple, cold dinner and settled in to reading and card games in the recreation room. Not long after they had sat down, a rumble of thunder shook the temple, and what little electricity they did have went dead. They shuffled around in the dark some until they came across some candles and matches that weren’t soaked.

26, Kanjou, Fushicho and Aki all sat in a circle in one part of the room, reading aloud from a book about war history. D and Nikko were close to them, listening in but not participating in the reading. About two meters away Roni had managed to drag Andrea away from her own books and was teaching her how to play a card game that involved four face down cards that were switched out for other cards in an attempt to get the lowest possible total at the end of the hand. Despite it being a highly chance-oriented game, Andrea seemed to have some natural aptitude for it.

“Okay, let’s see the cards!” Roni stated.

Andrea turned hers over. Two black kings and two red kings were in front of the silver-haired fighter. “Hey, that means I win, doesn’t it? The King cards are zeros, right?”

Roni’s eyes were wide as she stared at Andrea’s hand. “Maybe I should teach you how to play something else. You’re too good at this.”

“What are you talking about?” Andrea growled, “I was finally getting warmed up!”

In the next four hours, Roni taught Andrea every card game she knew, from Go Fish to Solitaire, and for once the silver-haired
ronin
seemed to be enjoying herself. The others trickled to bed slowly until finally it was just D, Roni, and Andrea left in the recreation room. Finally, Roni went off to her room as well, leaving Andrea to gather up the playing cards.

D and Andrea were quiet for a few minutes, Andrea pretending he wasn’t there. Tension filled the air between them and left a tangible electric charge in the room. When Andrea didn’t speak to him, D got up and pulled a lighter out of his pocket. He began to relight the candles that had gone out from wind drafts and random leaks during the evening.

The Tiger finished shuffling the playing cards back together, grabbed her book, and stood up to leave. D looked up to watch her while in the middle of lighting one of the burned out candles. She stopped at the door for a minute and then looked over her shoulder. “Wakame?”

D looked up at her expectantly.

 

“Don’t burn the place down,” she said before turning and walking away.

 

Shogun Kunota stared out the window of his office at the rain. It had lessened some as night had closed in, and now the city streets were shimmering with the glow of the colored neon signs. The TV that was in his office was on while the news caster was talking about the Shogun’s popularity polls.

“Let’s go to our guest for this evening, who will talk about this daring move by Shogun Kunota and what it could mean for his next three years as Shogunate. Please welcome..”

Kunota stopped listening to the television as thoughts of Shinrai filled his head. He’d tried so hard to hold himself together at the banquet the night before and all today, but his composure was beginning to wear thin. He found himself dreading the press conference. Without Shinrai by his side, how would he stand against Yasakuto? The Shogun felt helpless but knew he would continue to be nothing more than a puppet if he didn’t find some courage.

“-think that this move makes great sense for the Shogun. He’s young, he’s honest, and I think he’s doing his best to try to guarantee his re-election in three years.”

“Thank you very much, Daimyo, it’s always great to have you on the show,” the reporter turned back to the camera. “In a related story, police still have no concrete leads on the murder of Daimyo Yuki Shinrai. Police have released this sketch and description to the press.” A picture of a man with spiked hair and a headband on came up on the screen. “According to the police that arrived on the scene to see this man fleeing from the park, he is a brunet, muscular man about two meters in height. If you have any information on the whereabouts of this suspect, please call the Shibasaki police department at-”

Kunota sighed and turned away from the screen again. “Television, off.” he said. The video screen went blank at his command. He continued to stare out the window and pray for courage. He narrowed his eyes at the city.
Please, Shinrai, send me a sign that I’m doing the right thing. Give me the courage to do what is best, rather than doing what is easy.

Andrea found herself in Tony’s Place in the midst of angry flames. She stood in the middle of the bar as red and orange fire licked hungrily at the wood, roaring and crackling with enough noise to deafen her. From out of the inferno came six shadowy shapes that lumbered out into the circle of unburned wood that Andrea stood on.

The ronin looked at the six men that had emerged from the flames and felt icy terror grip her stomach.
Not this again...
she thought, frozen to the spot where she stood, her eyes wide. She stared straight ahead at a figure holding a piece of lumber with jagged edges. “Get away from me!” Andrea screamed.

The six figures closed in on her, and Andrea wanted to back away but there was nowhere for her to go aside from in to the flames. Her forehead and neck exploded in pain even though the figures had not reached her, and she suddenly found that there was blood rolling into her right eye. Once her vision cleared from the sudden phantom pain, she realized that she was on her knees with one of the men looming over her. She looked up, helpless as the board was raised. The flames snapped and snarled as they blackened her former home and made the edges of the shadow figures flicker hypnotically.

Andrea watched helplessly as the figure in front of her suddenly brought the lumber speeding down toward her face. She couldn’t move, even when the broken bit of wood burst into unnatural black flames as it came toward her. She screamed just as it hit her in the face, bringing with it a combination of heat and pain. As she fell to the floor, she felt her body ignite and her skin begin to crack and peel.