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Chapter 1
Dark dreams came unbidden to the young Phoenix, causing her to stir and frown in her sleep, recalling days she'd rather not recall.
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"Where did he go? Did you see him" Asked Shiba Tsukiko, the leader of the group.
Shiba Sezuru shook his head, slightly out of breath from running around the mansion. "I thought I had seen him run into a room, but when I arrived and looked around, there was no sign of him." | |
"What about a secret passageway?" suggested Isawa Kuriko, "he might have escaped that way, could he not?" She was an Air Tensai; finding secret things was what she did best. The other two, both Bushi, were used to a more direct approach. |
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Uneasy, Tsukiko pursed her lips, frowning. This was quickly becoming more than a simple political intrigue. They had been sent here to investigate the strange death of a minor daimyo, and had quickly discovered that someone had poisoned him. Magic scanned the mansion for more traces of the poison, and it was found only in two more places; in the room of the daimyo's wife, on one of her kimono sleeves, and in a half-empty perfume vial. But who had put it there? |
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A thorough investigation of Omono the advisor's room yielded the answer, as well as many more questions. Magic was used to scan for hidden places, and a panel was found in the wall. When moved, it set off a trap that no normal advisor could have been able to prepare: poison spores shot out into Sezuru's face, stealing the breath from him. Thankfully, Kuriko's magic had, once again, come to the rescue. Behind that trapped panel, the investigators found a small coffer full of koku, and two vials of poison. One was almost empty. Casting a simple spell to make sure she would be telling the truth, Kuriko gravely announced, "This is it. This is what was used on the daimyo, and also what was almost the cause of death for his wife." |
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| They had their criminal. Now, the only thing left was to apprehend him, and take his life in payment of the daimyo's. It should have been simple...
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| They had run into Omono in the corridor, as they came out of his room. As he rounded the corner and saw them exiting his chambers, he had frozen in place, narrowing his eyes at them. The "Innocent Advisor" act had, all of a sudden, melted away from him.
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| "Stay where you are," commanded Tsukiko in a military tone, used to being obeyed. As she said this, Sezuru began to walk towards the man, a hand on his katana.
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| No sooner had Sezuru taken three steps, that the false advisor had raised a hand and thrown something to the ground, which erupted into white, blinding smoke.
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| "What is this?!" demanded Sezuru, still coughing slightly from the after-effects of the poison spores despite the spell used to heal him.
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| As the smoke dispersed, Omono was gone. And the three had been chasing ghost-images of him all over the mansion since.
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| "There is something I think I should mention, however," offered Sezuru as a second thought, while Tsukiko pondered. "He wasn't wearing his usual clothes, when I saw him. He wore a gray... He hesitated.
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| "Well?" demanded Tsukiko, her tone commanding him to continue.
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| "...a gray Ninja suit."
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| "A Ninja suit," repeated Tsukiko, half-sarcastically. She had never believed Sezuru's theories about Ninja. They were only an old wives tale.
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| "He might be telling the truth," added Kuriko, her smooth voice putting doubt into the leader`s mind. "I wouldn`t have mentioned anything, but as I looked through the garden earlier, I thought I saw a gray, human-shaped figure. I had almost convinced myself I had hallucinated, but now..."
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| The three fell silent as Tsukiko raised her hand, listening intently. Kuriko, now paying attention, heard it too; footsteps on the roof. Sezuru also noticed the noise, and as soon as they knew where the footsteps were heading, all three rushed to follow.
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| Tsukiko slammed open the front door of the mansion, rushing outside. There, to her great surprise, she saw Omono turn to face her, dressed in a gray ninja suit. She blinked slightly, amazed that the theories had suddenly been proven true.
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| The Phoenix village was small and sparse, and since night was now setting, no one roamed the paths. Omono, had he been quieter, would have easily been able to run through the small village, and into the forest nearby... And now, as he faced the three investigators, there were no witnesses...
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| Sezuru dashed forward to attack. Omono reached into his gray kimono and pulled out a strange round ball, which he lit with a torch that lined the entryway to the mansion. Sezuru's blade dug deep into his side, but the advisor still managed to throw the strange object at Tsukiko, who was protecting the Tensai while she cast a spell. The ball bounced off Tsukiko's blade as she lifted it in defense, but just before it hit the ground, it exploded violently in a cloud of dust, armor pieces, and blood. Tsukiko's limp body flew back against Kuriko, disrupting the spell and sending a flurry of blue sparks into the dust.
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| Sezuru tried once again to attack the ninja, but Omono was quicker this time. He reached into his kimono again, pulled out a Nagetappo, and just as before, vanished in a cloud of white smoke that left Sezuru coughing.
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| "Are you alright, Tsukiko-sama?" asked Sezuru through the smoke, too worried about his group to continue after the ninja.
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| "Sezuru!" called Kuriko, sounding slightly worried.
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| The man, suddenly gripped with worry for his commander, ran through the smoke in the direction of the voice, soon leaving the dissipating white cloud behind. He found Kuriko kneeling, Tsukiko's head in her lap. The bushi's left side was wounded terribly, a deep wound that Sezuru was loath to look at. "Can't you heal her?" asked the man, turning his gaze away under the excuse of keeping an eye out for Omono.
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| "Yes, but first I need to repair a few things, and for that I need you to go inside and fetch my surgery kit. It would be in my room, near my futon." Kuriko was an experience surgeon, steeled to blood as no one else Sezuru had ever known. "Also, get me Riu," she added, referring to her Eta assistant, whose job it was to actually touch the wounds, and perform the operations.
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| Sezuru rushed off to get the specified tools and the Eta, returning a few minutes later. During that time, Kuriko had staunched the bleeding as best she could with a thick cloth she fetched from a servant in the doorway. She avoided touching blood, but it was hard, especially to keep pressure on the wound, and reluctantly, she had to stop holding the cloth soon after the blood began to soak through. When she saw Riu, she sighed with relief, pointing at the bloodied bandages.
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| "Riu, keep pressure on the wound while I prepare the tools. Sezuru, could you fetch me some warm water? Half boiling, half cold should be the right temperature."
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| Once again sent for errands, but too worried to bring up the point just now, Sezuru did as he was told.
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| Kuriko, swift and precise, gave Riu orders on what to do, handing her the proper tools that were needed for each task. The Eta's practiced hand, having served in this aspect for a while, sliced, sewed, and removed bits of rock and armor as easily as she would make tea. When Sezuru returned, Kuriko began to help her assistant by pouring small amounts of water to clear blood away from where she worked.
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| It took two hours to clear the wound enough for a spell to be effective without permanent damage. Kuriko offered a smile to Sezuru, who had remained nearby but kept his eyes affixed to the horizon.
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| "I'm going to cast my healing spell, now. She's going to be fine," explained the Tensai with a smile.
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| Sezuru smiled back, and kept watch over her as she cast, making sure nothing disturbed the spell.
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| A moment passed as Kuriko offered a prayer to the spirits of water, and then she cast Path to Inner Peace, a faint blue glow rippling out from her hands like water in a pond. The glow remained for a minute, and the wound slowly closed.
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| As the spell concluded, Kuriko sighed and examined Tsukiko. Her body was mended, all signs of blood were gone, but she remained unconscious. She would remain thus for a day or two, while her spirit reunited completely with her mended body.
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| "Didn't you say she would be alright?" asked the bushi, concerned.
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| "She will be, but it takes a while for the mind to realize it is no longer hurt. Give her a day or two. Could you please carry her to her bed?" She asked the man, having no strength for such things herself.
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| Sezuru nodded, and carried the leader to her room, laying her carefully down. Riu came with him, to keep an eye on the patient through the night, just in case.
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~*~
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| Kuriko opened her eyes, and instantly knew she had sweat during the night. That dream always felt like a nightmare to her, even though it had ended alright. She sat up, and looked out through the rice paper wall; by the ambient light, she knew morning had come.
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| It had been two weeks since she, Tsukiko, and Sezuru had returned from that mission. Upon returning, Kuriko had been surprised, and disappointed, to hear that Tsukiko had declined being appointed as Inquisitor, due to the success of her investigation. She had, instead, asked to be assigned as an officer in the Phoenix armies. Sezuru, having always held Tsukiko in high esteem, had requested the same honor.
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| Kuriko had no place in the armies, and had her own career to think of; if she wanted to one day become Master of Air, the armies were not the place to be. So she, and she alone, had accepted to become Inquisitor. She would be assigned a new group to work with, Shiba-sama had told her.
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| With a sigh, Kuriko got up and gathered her yukata, heading for the castle's bath. Today, she would meet her new team members, with whom she would be trusted to handle any situation.
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| She had better look respectable.
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