Chapter Sixty-One The Cost of Keeping My Creed
My body felt numb as I held the trash can over my head. I don’t remember walking into the alleyway and making this decision. Stepping forward, I threw the trash can at the dark figure after I glimpsed a flash of their blade between what looked like blood.
My heart pounded its angry retort as the can flew ever so slowly, awarding me time to regret this decision.
The trash can hit them, displacing them from the person they were on top of, spilling out its contents. Instinctively, I ran, but in the wrong direction, heading toward the figure on a collision course.
What am I doing!?
I collided with them as they tried to stand, knocking them down completely, as feelings started to return to my body. A scream, followed by tears, rang out, echoing throughout the alley, but it wasn’t mine. I reached for the hand waving in the air and pulled someone up.
The figure started to rise.
“Antwon, we need to run!”
I pulled my knife from my back pocket, squeezing the handle before reminding myself not to.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kai said…
“Kai!?” he was bleeding and crying, but I didn’t have time to find the wound.
“Run, get away from here!” The figure was up, and so was time. Kai darted past me, taking the source of the bloody scent with him.
I rotated the knife down and held my other arm in front of me, preparing for… for…
What the hell am I doing? Why didn’t I run, too?
The figure stepped forward under a flickering light that found its resolve. It was a woman with messy black hair.
I stood fast between brick buildings, knowing that I had trapped myself.
She stepped forward, but I couldn’t step back. If I did, she would chase after us, and my wobbly legs couldn’t do that.
“How brave of you,” she said, wiping the knife off on the leg of her brown uniform. “You saved your friend, but who's going to save you?” She moved closer.
My stomach turned, and I struggled to breathe.
I’m not supposed to die like this… Shit, shit, shit!
I stepped forward, matching her momentum, but not her resolve.
I swallowed regret.
She slashed once I was in range, catching the heat of where my body had been.
I rotated the knife up, thrusting for her stomach, wanting to wound her enough to run, but I missed.
My mouth started to dry.
The sound of her foot scraping the ground, the shift of weight.
She returned with an unarmed backhand.
I ducked, feeling something off about her.
I slashed at her ankle, but she moved her foot, only to return, kicking me in the chest.
I tumbled backward, and she stood there, waiting.
This f- f… Damn it! She’s toying with me.
I stood up, heat rising from my body. I calmed myself. I’d make her regret not killing me.
I stepped toward her with purpose, studying her body. The throbbing pulse in my ears limited me to sight alone.
She tilted her head as I stepped within range.
I swung the knife, aiming for her kidney, stepping in so as to catch her retreat.
She backed away but caught my wrist mid-swing, causing panic. I grew angry, I grew vindictive, and something caught her eye, because she looked at me differently.
She lifted my arm, exposing me, and some strange, sickly pleasure forced itself on my face, because I knew what she was doing. Her knife descended, and I knew it would be a kidney shot.
I moved in, avoiding the blow, and latched on to her jugular with my teeth, feeling her life pulse. She fell backward with me on top of her, still holding her life between clenched teeth.
The sound of steel hitting the ground rang out, but I still had my knife, and she still held my wrist.
I could end it right now… but I would have to kill a woman.
I could feel my saliva leaking from my mouth, I could feel my victory slipping away to a creed I made in my past life, and I could feel a hand gently stroking the back of my head… Providing comfort?
I unclenched my jaw, releasing her life, and crawled off her, staying seated in a position for her to easily slice my throat.
I should have let her kill Kai… My tears pooled. Then I could go home to Sakura.
She got up and retrieved her knife. And I could have had Nakamura walk me home one more time. She moved behind me, out of sight. Kami…
The world went black.
***
We pulled up to Minobu in the dark of night, and the streets buzzed. I looked at Kami and signaled for her to wait. I pushed through the crowd of people, expecting to find a body because the gods had turned their backs on me.
“Excuse me,” I said to a woman in her bathrobes. “Can you tell me what’s going on?” She frowned like she didn’t want to.
Precious moments went by, so I decided to keep looking. I pushed through the crowd until I forced myself to the barricade. I tried to signal to one of the Veil ladies in armor, but they ignored me.
There was an ambulance…so maybe there was another murder.
“Ms. Igarashi!” a familiar voice yelled from the ambulance. I tried to make out who had called my name, and one of the older Veil ladies approached me.
“Shit, it really is you?” She had strands of white hair, and age had reared its ugly head, leaving skin tags around her neck. “Don’t remember me, huh?”
“Sorry, but I can’t say that I do.”
She opened the barricade to let me in.
“Ten years ago, you saved my ass when the Ash attacked.” I tried to remember saving anyone, but everything happened so fast.
“Yup,” she said, guiding me to the ambulance. “After Trish rode in, things got crazy. I was fighting off three Daughters of Ash and losing. I thought that I would die that day,” she said, rubbing her nose.
It was an incursion; no one was prepared.
“I fell down; screwed at all angles. You didn’t fight like a blade,” she said. “You fought like a hand on my shoulder—always where I couldn’t see. You fought beside me as if you were my blossom.”
We reached the ambulance, and she grabbed my shoulder. “Listen, the kid has been attacked, and he hasn’t spoken to anyone. He keeps asking for a Jenie, whatever the hell that is. But he called your name, so… talk to him.”
I nodded, “Anything else?”
“Yeah, thank you. Before you, I thought Blossom was just a fancy name for the queen’s best friend, but you changed that for me.”
I walked over to the back of the ambulance door.
“Ms. Igarashi,” a crying Kai said.