“Lead me to the solitary confinement.” I turned to Kazan.
The head warden, Mui, had acted faster than I expected. At least, he was the one I thought to be most likely behind this. I remembered him as a man of few words. Someone that had lost faith in his village and a father that wanted to bring his son back. The son that he himself killed on the village’s orders.
Pretty tragic story, but important part for me was that Mui should be acting out of his personal interests and not out of the loyalty for the village.
The same couldn’t be said on who I suspected to be my current target, however. Not that there were many options to choose from. Ginji’s investigation revealed that thereindeed was a significant divide in the village. While most higher ups, representing Seeds of Grass faction, were strongly leaning towards pursuing more aggressive policy and utilizing the box of Paradise, the faction called Flowers of Grass opposed to the village pursuing the path of violence. If anyone would have infiltrated the rank of the guards of Hozuki Castle to foil the plans of Satori’s awakening, it would be them. And I did remember a certain woman with interesting ability that belonging that faction. If my guess was on the right track, there might be no need to turn this place upside down to find the pseudo-jinchuriki.
The disciplinary cell was located in another sector of the castle. We had to go through similar process of staying low as we approached the cell. If alarm was risen before we found Sora, the situation could became too chaotic sooner that it should.
I dropped another set of guards unconscious and Kazan moved to get the key and lead us underground. We encountered another iron door, and after Kazan handled me the keys, I dismissed the two. They would blend in with the guards and leave the moment they had a chance. They would not be able to contribute against Satori or Mui. I needed Zangei alive, after all.
With the two gone, I turned towards the final door of the cell and opened it.
The disciplinary cell was a dark confined room with no windows. If a prisoner managed to end up here, they would subjected to worse inhumane treatment than before, with a touch of sensory deprivation. In such environment, roughly three days were enough for someone's mind to start breaking. A bit more, and there would be a risk of sustaining a brain damage.
And here I thought I was supposed to be the bad guy. Guess how long a prisoner had to spent here on their first offense.
Inside of the cell, with her head hung low, seated on something reminiscent of a bed, was a woman with white hair. She glanced at me with face devoid of any emotion. That quickly changed when she looked me in the eyes and her eyes slowly widened in return.
“You…” she muttered with a slightly shaky voive.
I didn’t approach her closer, not wanting to further raise her wariness. “So you know who I am. This makes things easier.”
Her eyebrows furrowed at my words. “An infamous bounty hunter and a member of Akatsuki. Only an ignoramus would fail to recognize you.“ her expression reverted back to neutral and stood up. “I would like to know your purpose for coming here.”
The member of Flower Group’s worried yet calculative gaze gave me an idea of what kind of person she was. Her wariness about Akatsuki's involvement didn’t stem from fear of her personal well-being, but rather what it meant on the larger scale. Flower Group failed in stopping the Seed of Grass from getting ahold of the pseudo-jinchuriki. While her faction still held enough power to not collapse immediately, with an outside involvement like that, their situation would become far worse.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“First, you should know that Akatsuki hasn’t been hired to get involved in the internal conflict of the Hidden Grass. You don’t have to fear of us assisting the other faction.”
“Yet you're still here.” her tension lessened after sensing no killing intent, but her wariness didn’t decrease that much. Still, she forced herself to keep her composure despite the unexpected situation, and tried to understand it and find a solution.
“My presence here simply comes from my personal interest. To prevent whatever mess this village is about to create. I can’t have somebody awakening an ancient demon now, can I?”
“So you know about it.” She said with barely hidden frustration. Her worries were justified. What would it mean to her village and the world at large if Akatsuki came possession of yet another monster? Her reaction also confirmed of the creature’s existence along with other non-canon elements of the story and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “What are you planning to do, then?”
“I’d rather not risk confronting a demon. I need to find Mui and stop him from doing something foolish. I don’t know how much time we have left, but I recon it’s not much.”
Was I being entirely honest? Of course not. Did she have any illusions of anything otherwise? Of course not. Could she do anything about it? The answer was the same.
“But Mui has gone to sacrifice the kid. There’s a hidden room somewhere where the box is located. Yet I don’t know where that is.” Only clue I had was an underground laboratory where Mui sacrificed his son. I remember her being there, grieving over the boy’s death. “I need you to lead me to him.”
She spent a moment contemplating about her choices, or lack of therefore. The complex emotions her eyes barely revealed what she was really thinking. “What do you plan with the artifact? Hard to imagine Akatsuki won’t abuse the power of Satori if they manage to control him.”
So, the name of the demon was Satori. Come to think of it, this was the second demon I came across. I doubted it would be the last.
“I’m not here as a member of Akatsuki. The box is not something I could trust any of them to handle responsibly. And while I don’t plan to, or know how to even abuse the power of the box, I can’t really rid you of your concerns.”
“Do you expect me to simply trust your words?”
“I don’t ,” I responded. “But you have to pick your poison. You can either guide me and I can solve the demon problem, or I’ll be forced to find Mui myself.”
She wasn’t convinced, of course. Her choices were limited, and she had to decide which one would have least desirable worst scenario. She was hesitating.
Suddenly, the earth began to rumble and both of our eyes widened in realization. The awakening was starting.
“Fine.” she made her decision. “But I have a condition.”
----------------------------------------
The hidden laboratory was located underneath the warden’s office building. Ryuzetsu led us to the second floor, in the small room that led to the laboratory via the hidden entrance. She pushed a certain book on the shelf, and the hidden door revealed itself.
“Mui is the gatekeeper of that box.” she explained. “The elders believe that is the only one who can control the demon.”
“What will happen if we do kill him but Satori still awakens?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But it will probably go on a rampage.”
There was only two of us now, having sent Zangei accompanied by Kazan to safety. She couldn’t follow me into the fight. When Mui imprisoned her, he applied the Celestial Prison onto her. Her usage of chakra was severely restricted, and I had no way to dispel the seal that complex in such a short time.
One of the masks dislodged from my back and formed into the water affinity thread puppet. Ryuzetsu raised an eyebrow, but showed no other emotion about the creature.
“What is that?”
“In case Mui tries to escape, it will help. It can share its senses with me, so you can talk me through it.” I briefly explained before entering the hidden door and descending through the stairs.
The laboratory was located deep underground and took quite few leaps from staircase to staircase to reach it.
Rather than a room, calling it a cave would be more accurate. Stone floors and walls, with one corner housing a box with faces on it. There were shelves filled with vials containing different kinds if liquids and complicated machinery was placed in the middle of the room.
An boy was restrained and strapped to the table as he convulsed in pain. There was a seal applied onto his stomach, rapidly draining his chakra and supplying it to the box. Next to the boy stood two figures monitoring the process. One of them was the Lord and head warden of this prison, Mui, who was glanced at me with a complicated expression after detecting my presence. Yet, the eerily calm, almost emotionless aura around him didn’t change.
“You shouldn’t be here.”