The Hinomoto Rebellion (17 page)

“Ah, there’s my little sweetheart,” he said. He reached out and took Rekai from his wife, then smiled, “And my baby girl too.”

Shinsetsu grinned, her brown eyes lighting up. “I figured you wouldn’t be home for dinner,” she gave a glance at the mountain of papers on his desk, “so we decided to come visit you.”

Kunota put a free arm around Shinsetsu’s waist as their darkhaired baby squirmed in his arms. “You all stay here for dinner. I’ll order us something.”

“Oh no, I didn’t want to distract you while you were working or anything...”

Kunota cut her off. “It’s no problem. Actually, I can’t seem to keep the contents of those papers in my head for more then ten seconds, so I’d be grateful for the company for awhile. Besides, then we can talk about the upcoming banquet.”

“ Well...” Shinsetsu looked around the office. Then she glanced to her two eldest children who were looking back expectantly as they held their breaths, and finally to her grinning husband. She sighed. “Fine, we’ll stay here then.”

Kohaku and Ayaka let out a whoop of joy as Kunota picked up the phone and dialed his secretary.

 

One hallway in the temple had been nothing but guest rooms and meditation rooms when the place had been in use by monks. Since these rooms were large, one of them had been adopted as a sort of recreation room for everyone to gather in the evening and be together. In the three days that Andrea had been there, she’d never bothered to join them after dinner. Roni often went to Andrea’s room to try to get her to come and spend time with the rest of the group, but the Tiger had brushed her off each time she’d extended the invitation.

The silver-haired girl stood in the doorway for a minute, halfhidden by the weak light that illuminated the room but didn’t do much to beat back the shadows in the hallway. Roni and 26 were playing some sort of board game while Fushicho and Kanjou poured over a water-stained and dog-eared book that looked like it might be a Martial arts manual. D was brushing Nikko and humming to himself every now and then. Andrea assumed Aki had gone to her room, since she wasn’t there with the others. Finally, with a look of resolve, the silverhaired woman entered the room and walked over to one of the walls, sitting down with her back against it and opening the book she’d taken from the library earlier.

Reading was hard to concentrate on when five people were staring at you, Andrea realized. “What?” she demanded, looking up at them after a moment.

“Where did you get that?” Roni asked, sounding a little breathless as she pointed at the book.

Andrea scowled. “Well, if you all had pulled your heads out of the clouds and looked around some, you would have noticed that there’s a building behind this falling apart piece of crap you call a temple. And if you had gone over and opened the door, you would have looked inside and found hundreds of these!” She held up the book and waved it around mockingly. She was beginning to wish she’d elected to read in her room, but the light was always better out here.

Andrea went back to looking at the pages, and in a few minutes was suddenly aware that everyone else in the room was sitting around her. The silver-haired girl almost leaped to the ceiling. “What the hell!?” she screamed, dropping the book as she looked up into five eager faces. “Do you all
mind!?
”

Roni grinned. “Can we read too?” she asked.

Andrea cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t care.” she said. She grabbed the book out of her lap and handed it to Roni, an annoyed look on her face.

For the next two hours, they all took turns reading aloud from the ancient text, except for Andrea, who sat with her back against the wall, listening to the history of Hinomoto as read by a small group of rebels.

Chapter Six
Into the Den

Andrea stomped past the dining area the following morning, Kanjou close behind her. She was muttering something under her breath as she hurried down the hallway, her flowing silver hair swinging back and forth as she went.

Kanjou sighed and watched her disappear around the corner before he went into the dining hall. He knew she hated the meditation exercises. She made sure to tell him that every morning when he woke her up. She groused the entire way out into the forest about being up at the same time her body was used to going to bed, then she’d be silent for Kanjou’s teachings and would promptly pick up where she left off with her complaining. He got the feeling that she was actually trying to maintain her habitual bad mood for some reason.

Still, it had only been two days now. Kanjou hoped that she’d adjust to the new sleep schedule and that she’d see the benefits of meditating and centering herself. Until then though, he’d listen to her venting and keep dragging her out to the clearing each morning.

Kanjou’s thoughts were interrupted when he saw 26 leaning against the door jamb that led to the kitchen. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t have time to ask a question before she started talking. “We’ve got nothing to eat for breakfast,” she growled. “In fact, we don’t have enough food
combined
to feed all of us.”

Kanjou winced. He’d gotten almost used to the hollow pit in his stomach that hunger had settled in to. But he couldn’t force that upon the others, and the past days had provided no opportunities to get money or provisions. “Alright,” he sighed, “I’ll think of something.” He stepped in to the dining hall, averting his eyes from 26.

“Kanjou! You were supposed to think of something days ago! We can’t let Roni starve!”

 

“I know that, 26.”

 

“Well then you’d better do something about it. I can’t prepare what we don’t have!”

“ I can’t just pull money out of thin air! Give me a minute to think about it!” Kanjou rubbed his forehead and shut his eyes. He wouldn’t dare ask Shinrai to help them with this since the Daimyo had done more than enough for them already. Kanjou himself had no problem with going hungry and he was pretty sure that the others were used to it as well. It was Roni he was worried about.

A sound came from the doorway and Kanjou turned to find Andrea and D standing there. “So, we’re having money problems, are we?” Andrea smirked as she leaned against the wall, a mischievous twinkle in her ice blue eyes. D looked uncomfortable behind her, as though he thought she might explode at any moment.

Kanjou frowned at Andrea. “Maybe a few,” he admitted.

Andrea pretended to examine her nails, continuing to grin. “You all have Hinomoto’s most powerful tournament fighter with you, and you’re having money problems?” She clucked her tongue. “Sounds like poor planning to me.”

“What are you talking about?” 26 took a few steps forward, a look of distrust falling on Andrea.

“ I
grew up
fighting for money. If someone had said something, we could have entered me in a tournament and all your problems would be solved!”

“ There aren’t any tournaments this time of day though. We’d have to wait until tonight,” D broke his silence behind her just as Aki appeared in the doorway as well. “Besides, aren’t the police after you?”

She let out a haughty laugh.“I’d like to see them catch me,” replied Andrea, “And we don’t necessarily have to wait.”

“ Alright, I give up!” Kanjou threw his hands in the air, “What do you want, Andrea? Let’s hear whatever plan is hatching in your head.”

Andrea entered the room, taking a few strides over to the table and kneeling down at it. D followed, but Aki stayed at the entryway, looking half-asleep. Both Kanjou and 26 knelt at the table opposite Andrea.

“Even though the tournaments are over for the night, there’s a few bars in the underground that are still open. And they all usually have
ronin
hanging around at all hours. If we get to one of those bars soon, I can have them hold a little tournament. You know, one of those ‘Beat the Tiger and Win a Prize’ things. Except they won’t beat me, and I’ll get the prize.” Her grin grew larger as she spoke, as though the very thought of beating someone up today had made her entire outlook brighter.

One by one, Kanjou, D, Aki, and 26 exchanged glances. Then, they all looked back at Andrea. Aside from some dark circles under the girl’s eyes from her disrupted sleeping schedule, she seemed alert and ready to go ahead with what she’d planned. She knew in her mind already that she’d go do it anyway, but she’d prefer it if the Aka Ryuu knew what she was planning.
This way, they can’t say I’ve never done anything to help them out,
she told herself, grinning wider.

“And what if you don’t win? Then what?”

Andrea snorted. “Me? Not win against some half-drunk
ronin
? Yeah, sure,” she rolled her eyes, “I wasn’t aware I woke up in fantasy land. This is
me
we’re talking about here!”

“ Yeah, but no one’s going to just hold an impromptu tournament because you show up and tell them to. No one’s that dense,” argued Aki.

“ Yes they will,” the silver-haired
ronin
retorted. “Bartenders aren’t going to do anything to make a
ronin
mad. They make their livings on us. People don’t go to bars to drink, they go to watch a good fight. And if the bartenders start telling the
ronin
what they can and can’t do, they’ll find they don’t have any fighters left coming to their bar. Plain and simple.”

Kanjou rubbed his chin a little and thought. “Okay,” he said finally, “Which bars are open still?”

Aki opened her mouth as though she was going to say something, but D spoke before she could. “The Shark’s Den is still open. Actually, I think they don’t ever officially close, do they?”

“Ugh, I hate the Shark’s Den.” protested Andrea.

 

“So what? It’s close to here, it’s open, and there’s a grocery store not too far away from it,” D argued.

 

“Yeah, and a bunch of club-toting caveman types hang out there. The place is a genuine trash can for the human race.” D raised an eyebrow at Andrea. “Great, so it’s the kind of place you’re probably used to.”

Kanjou, Aki, and 26 couldn’t help but laugh at that. Andrea stared at D for a moment and blinked, her mouth opening and closing a few times worthlessly. Her expression changed suddenly to one made up of respect for the well-done jab at her. She settled for narrowing her eyes at him and huffing. “Fine, Shark’s Den it is.”

Fifteen minutes later, Andrea, Kanjou, D, and Aki pushed aside the gate that led out in to the city and made their way to the Shark’s Den. Roni and Fushi had been asleep, so Kanjou had told 26 to let them know what was going on when they got up.

Cement stairs led up to The Shark’s Den bar from the street. The actual building was brick that had seen better days. It was faded and discolored from years of sun, rain, and inclimate weather, and streaks of rust ran down it from where the metal parts of the lighted sign As the Aka Ryuu entered, the pungent smell of rancid smoke and alcohol wafted into the boulevard before it was caught up in the wind and snatched away.

Three rows of old fluorescent lights flickered from the ceiling, casting a urine yellow glow down on the scratched and dull wood of the tables and floor. Tables sat around an open expanse in the middle of the floor leaving no doubt there would be a fighting ring there when a tournament was held. Dark stains and a few deep gouges marred the floor in places. A long mirror ran the length of the wall behind the bar, streaked with dirt and dust but still able to somewhat reflect the entirety of the Shark’s Den.