Chapter Sixty-Nine When Queens Arrive
Shizuka kneeled, touching the knife’s bloody handle; she spun the blade until the handle pointed at me. She gripped the blade and stood. Her blood-soaked dress hugged her body, ensuring that she didn’t have another knife.
Once up, she leaned back against the wall behind her, handle and hand extended toward me.
“You’re mistaken,” I said. “I don’t want the blade that you used to hurt Antwon.”
I bent my legs, rotated Antwon’s knife, and guarded with my left hand.
Shizuka frowned, cocking her head to her right.
“You’re really going to fight me like this,” she held out her bloody left foot, “knowing that I can’t move much?”
I stepped forward with my leading leg.
“We’re both seasoned adults. Let’s get on with it.”
She brought her foot back to the wall, standing straight.
Shizuka’s eyes narrowed on me, retracting her offer, yet she didn’t grab the handle.
Could she make the first move?
The smell of blood hung in the silence of an empty room.
I squeezed Antwon’s knife, testing the weight.
My breath steadied.
Shizuka placed her free hand behind her back and started to bite her bottom lip until it started to bleed.
I could feel the hairs on my neck stand as my heart’s pulse gained momentum, and then my phone rang.
My feet moved before I could think.
Shizuka, still holding the blade, pushed herself off the wall toward her right.
She grabbed a broken chair and threw it at me.
I knocked it away.
Shizuka flipped the blade so the handle was in her hand. Then she stabbed the air where my lower body was.
I slashed the space her wrist once was.
We circled, the sound of blood beneath our feet.
She stretched out her hand, reaching for me.
I kicked her in the waist, pushing her back.
She staggered back, nearly tripping.
I pursued, stabbing where her chest had been, but she allowed herself to fall.
I moved to finish her off, but she kicked my stable leg from underneath me.
I fell on top of Shizuka.
She shoved her hand in my face, pushing me to her right side.
I grabbed her hand with the knife. I stabbed her in the thigh repeatedly.
She screamed and dragged her nails across my face.
I snarled, pulled my head back, and delivered a headbutt, striking her nose.
She kicked me in the chest, pushing me away.
I pushed myself up with my right arm while watching her.
She did the same. But when she put pressure on her left leg, she groaned and fell back down.
Shizuka sighed.
“I… guess you’ve won,” she said with heavy breaths, kneeling in a pool of her own blood.
I rose to my feet, glaring down at her, at the knife in her hand.
With heavy breaths, I walked over to the chair she had hit me with and lifted it.
She scoffed.
“Not very honorable… Are you going to beat me to death? Would your q—”
I struck her over the head, and the chair broke.
I tried to catch my breath, but my heart wouldn’t stop racing, and hers was still beating.
She still clutched her knife.
I raised the broken chair and struck her on the back.
She yelped back to life, turning enough to see me raise the chair again.
She crawled away from me.
And I struck her lower back.
She yelled and tossed the knife away.
“Stop! You’ve won! You’ve…”
I raised the leg of the broken chair.
“Shut… up!”
I came down hard on her left leg.
It broke, not cleanly.
Her scream was more feral than human. She writhed in the blood on the floor, painting her white dress red.
I stepped back, dropping the broken chair leg.
“Please just kill me,” she cried, refraining from touching her left leg, yet wanting to.
Her wailing seemed miles away.
“Death… is too good for scum like you,” I said, stepping closer to Shizuka.
“I agree,” a familiar voice said.
I turned sharply, knowing who it was, and kneeled, finding the ground before her.
“So, was this personal, or are you working for the Court again, Igarashi?”
She stepped forward along with her two guards.
“I was following Her Grace's orders. It was… a favor.”
She lifted my chin to meet her gaze. It was hard to believe that Jade Akagiri was the same age as Christina Tetsusen.
She wore modified ceremonial armor that accentuated her figure, making her appear more adult. The vest stopped just below her waist like most Veil armor; however, hers was red with white trims and gold tassels.
Jade gritted her teeth as Shizuka let out another scream.
Jade sighed. “For the goddess's salvation, shut her up,” she said, looking at one of her guards.
The guard ran a hand through her black hair. “I thought you would never ask.”
The guard walked over to me and picked up the chair’s leg, and then walked over to Shizuka, who was still screaming.
Thunk.
And Shizuka’s body went limp.
One of the women escorting Jade took Shizuka by her good leg and dragged her out of the room, leaving a bloody trail as evidence.
“Is she the one who caused much trepidation within my territory?” Jade’s voice was void of feeling.
“Yes.”
“And you can confirm this information before the Crimson Council?”
She removed her hand from my chin, yet I held her gaze.
"By Your Grace, I will."
"Good," she said, as her neutral demeanor slumped into a frown. “Good… now stand up… you were kneeling in blood.” She hastened to the doorway.
“Is something wrong, my lady?” her guard asked.
“This room reeks,” she said, and disappeared into the hallway.
***
Once outside, I scanned the squad of Veil guardswomen accompanying Jade for Kami or Mr. Carter, but she wasn’t there. My mind raced. Antwon's death marks mine.
I bowed before Jade, who was walking ahead of me.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty.” She stopped and turned. “There was a—”
“They’re fine,” Jade said. “The Ash woman holding the boy is alive, and I told the hospital to notify me if the boy passed.”
I looked up, face frozen, breaking protocol.
Jade waved off her guards, who were already starting to draw their swords.
“H-how did you… How did you know she was of the Ash?” I asked softly.
Jade shifted her weight, placing a hand on her hip and bringing the other to her chin.
“Who knows, Igarashi. Maybe her face and attitude gave her away, or maybe it was the golden charred cherry blossom on her upper back. You fought them, you should know.”
A golden charred cherry blossom… Kami’s a…
Jade crossed her arms.
“Let’s talk more in my car… after you’ve cleaned up a bit.”
We continued walking past half-cracked doors.
“I would have had her executed, but she was holding something precious. Besides, the gash over the tattoo diminished her overall value. Her death wouldn’t mean much.”
She was disowned by her mother…
“She asked to go with him to the hospital. So, if I change my mind, I know where to find her.”
I watched the golden tassels swing as she walked.
“Any questions, Igarashi?”
I considered Shizuka’s fate and started to ask if she would be executed immediately or if there would be a full investigation. But I lacked the jurisdiction or the clan backing to pry. No, I’ll take my blessing that Jade, herself, walked through the door.
“You called Mr. Carter a precious item… why?”
The breeze of the open world felt refreshing.
The building was surrounded by the Veil. Why wouldn’t it be? Jade was here, after all. Upon Her Majesty's signal, one of the Veil guardswomen handed me a towel and directed me to change into suitable clothing.
I stripped, removing my torn shirt and bloody jeans, showing them that I was unarmed.
She handed me a folded brown sweatshirt and pants. I wasted no time putting them on, covering my bare body.
“W-wait… My leg! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”
Shizuka started to thrash in pain until a Veil guardswoman violently kicked her in the head, knocking her out again; she was placed in the back of an ambulance with four guards.
A trunk would have sufficed.
“Daiki!” a man sobbed.
The man that I encountered in the hallway was hugging a boy. I assumed it was his son. He showered the boy in kisses. A moment that felt warmer than I expected to see.
I took an audible breath.
“Igarashi,” Jade said, waving off three of her guards. “Join me.”
I walked over to her car and got into the back seat. Jade joined me, and the car drove off.
We rode in silence for what felt like minutes.
I glanced at the driver’s reflection in the rearview mirror. She, too, looked familiar, but I needed to focus on where we were going.
Was Jade taking me to the council for questioning?
“Rika,” Jade’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Stop freaking out.”
She leaned back in her chair, tugging at her armor.
“I hate wearing this fucking thing. It’s cute, but it’s too sweaty.”
“I’m sorry —”
“Tsk. Stop calling me that when no one else is around us. It’s not like you call Christina Your Grace all the time.”
I glanced at the driver, who ignored us.
“I’m sorry, Jade. But you referred to Mr. Carter as a precious item. Why, if you don’t mind me asking?”
She rested her arm on the window ledge and stared out. Her hair, a sea of red, was neatly wrapped around a manicured face with crimson eyes, accentuated with red mascara.
She had grown from when she and Christina played together. But into what?
“He’s precious because he’s desired by the queens of Iron, or else I wouldn’t have bothered with a boy with no social standing. Christina wants him, probably for fun, and Trish is crazy enough to raze a city if her daughter loses her toy.”
A sigh escaped her. Jade observed me from her peripheral vision.
“Rika, sometimes I feel like a doll with strings. If the Crimson Council isn’t pulling my strings, Trish Tetsusen is finding destructive ways to make me dance. Some ruler, huh?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I heard a soft growl come from the driver.
“Jade…”
“I bet if my mother were alive, she’d be disappointed; she wouldn’t let this happen.”
I’m anything my queen needs me to be. So, why not an ear to her only friend?