MORNING

It’d been a ten-minute car ride before we found ourselves in downtown Saikou. Just like Miyafokuu, the place was bustling with men and women dressed in traditional Saikojin robes. Unlike the metropolitan Miyafokuu, though, Saikou was comparatively historic. Colossal skyscrapers and modern boutiques were replaced by dark wooden two-story buildings with the occasional tower with traditional curved roofs. The white and gray tiled roads were spotless despite the vast amount of men and women walking the streets.

Shuten Douji had given each of us maps of the city, and the others had already begun planning their day out. I’d been stumped, unsure what I would even want to buy with all the money I’d been given. I’d brought up giving the money to the Perrow Family in the car, but both Yugo and Shuten Douji said that wouldn’t work to draw Futakuchi-Onna’s attention. I looked over at the others to find Yugo eyeing a particular spot on the map like a child looking at a new game in a store window. Somnia’d been giving him a dirty look. Archie, meanwhile, seemed to be stuck between two different places.

It was only then, watching Archie’s head dart across the map, that I noticed how much we stood out. We stood at the head of a long street, underneath a Torii gate dressed in expensive kimonos, staring at maps like some overeager tourists. As crowds parted around us, I couldn’t help but notice the uncomfortable looks people gave us as they passed us by.

It’s only a matter of time before Futakuchi-Onna and her Honor Guard find us.

“Excuse me,” A familiar voice called. I looked up to find The Historian flying in front of us.

“Are you sure you should be out?” I asked.

“Mina and I can only be seen by those we wish to be seen by, Master Rui. Don’t worry about me. I appreciate your concern, though.” He floated over to Archie’s map. “Might I suggest stopping at the teahouse?”

“You hungry?” Yugo asked.

“I am quite peckish, yes,” The Historian admitted. “But this serves the purpose of letting the Honor Guard know that we are indeed together. At the moment, we look like a group of individuals who happened to stop in Saikou for a tour. If we eat together, it will be clear that we are indeed a party. Shuten Douji said that $50,000 is the threshold that draws Futakuchi-Onna out. Perhaps by recognizing us as a group, the money we spend today will be considered cumulatively – thus ensuring she makes an appearance and the Silent Hand’s money isn’t wasted.”

Yugo nodded. “That makes sense, but we can’t forget what Shuten Douji said about food poisoning. How do we know the food is safe?”

“We haven’t spent anything,” I posited. “Right now, we could be a group of broke tourists wearing expensive clothes. Or thieves in nice clothes. Spending money willy-nilly in the teahouse lets Futakuchi and her Honor Guard know that we’re really rich.”

“Precisely,” The Historian nodded.

“Sounds good,” Yugo said. “Now, we’ve gotta find a way to get there. If we’re going to play the part of aristocrats, we need to–”

“There we go,” Archie interrupted. He pointed to a procession of older men dressed in simple robes wearing straw hats that were pulling carriages large enough to carry two fully grown men. “We can have them take us.”

“Do we… have to?” Somnia grimaced. “I’d feel bad…!”

“We’ve gotta look the part,” I shrugged. “You have money, right? Tip em’.”

“Tipping isn’t a thing in Azuma Saikyou,” Somnia grieved. She took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll suck it up. Let’s just go.”

***

It would’ve been faster if we’d crawled to the teahouse. I sat with Archie, and the man who carted us around gave us a tour of the place before finally stopping at the teahouse thirty minutes later. Somnia and Yugo’s cart, meanwhile, had to stop because the man pulling them ended up collapsing from exhaustion. He’d apparently been working for two days straight to support his family, and when Somnia had frantically tried to tip the man the people around her gave her dirty looks. The man she’d been trying to tip even gave her a dirty look. In the end, we ended up riding in “style”, and Somnia had unintentionally flaunted the cash she had on reserve.

The teahouse we stopped at, named “Shiroi Chaya” was a nondescript brown building with sliding doors much like the other buildings in the area. The interior was much like that of the Seekers HQ; low-cut tables, warm recessed lighting, tatami mats, and wooden accents. After greeting the woman at the front desk – who’d looked at us like we were aliens, – we were seated at a table inclined slightly higher than the others on the far wall.

I hadn’t been to a teahouse in my life, so I had no clue what was good. Yugo told me to listen to Archie. I did, deciding to take a bubble tea with a fruit sandwich because Archie said it was “the safe option”. Yugo and Archie, meanwhile, had one of everything on the menu while Somnia had four cups of green tea she specifically asked to be made more bitter because it reminded her of home. Despite the luxurious appeal of the restaurant, the prices were all relatively low. Despite buying everything on the menu, Yugo and Archie hadn’t even broken $100 with their orders.

“You know, if the other shops are this affordable Futakuchi-Onna might not be that bad,” Yugo mused.

Somnia snorted. “It doesn’t matter if she has people give stuff away. As long as she’s putting innocent people at risk with her actions, she’s a threat. The Oni giving us this mission is a kindness. It’d be much easier for them to organize and wipe Saikou off the map and they know it.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Yeah, but then the Mamoru Clan would show up and wipe them out,” Archie noted.

Somnia scoffed. “You think so? There’s no money in it for them.”

Yugo smiled, but he didn’t say anything.

“Maybe not, but the Saikou Prefecture is too big for them to just ignore it being wiped out. Besides, we’re here to make sure things don’t get that far. So here’s hoping things work out.”

It’d taken about twenty minutes for our food and drinks to arrive. Somnia’s drinks came in four porcelain teacups while mine came in a plastic cup with a straw. The fruit sandwich was presented on a porcelain plate with a floral pattern, though, and it looked delicious. Archie and Somnia both had raised trays to the left of us with everything on them. It drew attention from everyone in the room. While the patrons gave looks varying between awed and nervous, the chefs and teamakers in the far corner of the room each held their heads high with pride as they watched us enjoy our food and drinks.

Both The Historian and the Minashire Monitor summoned themselves and ate with decorum. Lochness, though, insisted Archie load plates with food and dump them all into her mouth. Since she wasn’t invisible like Yugo’s Myths were, everyone – other than the prideful chefs and teamakers – watched the sight with either disgust or horror. I’d still wondered whether the food could’ve been poisoned, but considering how far along everyone was, I decided to dig in alongside them. I’m glad I did, too. Everything tasted just as good as it looked.

Eventually, the conversation turned back to our mission and how we were going to spend money fast enough to draw Futakuchi-Onna out. As good as this food was, blowing our money on tea and sandwiches wasn’t going to put us on her hit list.

“I’m going to the culinary district,” Archie had been saying. “When we finish up, I’m gonna speak with the chef and see if he’ll tell me where he got these herbs from. I might get some new knives too. As souvenirs.”

Somnia pointed to a weapon shop on the map that she’d spread on the table. “I think I could use some new swords. I don’t have enough longswords, and I can’t remember the last time I used a claymore that wasn’t cheap.” She paused, considering. “You think they have guns? Or is that too out there? Not regular guns, but Aura Channelers.”

“Those things burn through aura like fire to a forest,” Archie noted. “I don’t know why you like them.”

“They’re fun to use! I’d never use them in a real fight.”

Once again, I found myself looking through the map for something I wanted to do. There were elixir shops, plenty of weapon shops, a fashion district as well as the culinary district Archie mentioned, and a small red-light district near the edge of town. None of it interested me. I found myself wondering what my mother would’ve done, given the opportunity. If she’d have found her freedom and reconnected with her sister, how would they have spent their newfound freedom?

How would she want me to spend my freedom?

“DO NOT OVERTHINK A SIMPLE QUESTION. SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO SEE YOU FREE OF THE HORSEMEN. HOW YOU SPENT YOUR TIME AFTERWARDS WOULD HAVE MADE NO DIFFERENCE.”

You say that like you know her.

“DO NOT FORGET THAT WE SHARE A BODY, RUI PAYNE. I SPENT JUST AS MUCH TIME WITH HER AS YOU DID.”

Normally, I would have called Fallen Star out as being the one who went on to kill her. That wasn’t the case, though. Not fully, anyway. Zelos had made us both do it after Ares branded us and forced Fallen Star’s full power out. We’d both been manipulated. We’d both been violated. I didn’t say anything, and neither did Fallen Star.

“You’re lying! I watched your eyes light up the second you noticed the red-light district!” Somnia had been saying.

“It’s Yugo, what do you expect?” Archie shrugged.

“What happened? I wasn’t paying attention,” I noted.

“Somnia’s lying!” Yugo pleaded with me. “I told her I wanted to go to the elixir shop and Somnia thinks I want to go to the ‘Cabaret Club’ to ‘blow my money on expensive booze’,” He said with exaggerated air quotes. “How would I be able to focus on the mission at hand if I was drunk?”

“Name one elixir,” Somnia challenged.

Yugo gave her a defiant smile.

“Without using The Historian,”

Yugo winced.

“There’s… you know,” He tried, snapping repeatedly. “The potion of… leaping…?”

“Archie, can you go with him? I can’t trust him to be alone.

“Listen!” Yugo tried. “I’m not saying I am or am not going to this ‘Cabaret Club’ thing you keep talking about, but if I somehow hypothetically ended up magically finding myself potentially raising the notion of considering to go, it’d all be for the sake of the mission! Cabaret Clubs are–... might be expensive, and our job is to flaunt our money!” He crossed his arms. “The way I see it, I’m the only one taking this mission seriously.”

Before any of us could say anything to refute him, he placed a wad of cash on the table and stood to his feet. “You know what? I’m so hurt that you all would think so low of me! I can’t even stand to be around you all right now.”

“You can’t just,” Somnia tried, but Yugo turned his nose up at us.

“I need a minute. Don’t follow me.”

With that, Yugo “stormed off”, leaving the three of us in a confused daze. Somnia gave a weak laugh.

“No wonder my mother doesn’t like him. They’re like the same person sometimes,” She stacked her cups. “If we’re leaving, I’m gonna head over to the weapon shop. I’ll let you guys know if I see something you all might like.”

Somnia left, leaving me alone with Archie. We exchanged a look.

“You know, you never said what you wanted to do.”

“Nothing here looks interesting,” I admitted.

Archie gave me a mischievous smile. He shook his hand with his thumb and pinky finger extended. “Boy’s trip?”

“I… er… what?”

“You’re supposed to say ‘Boy’s trip’!”

“Sorry. Uh…” I replicated the hand thing, though I didn’t understand what it meant. “Boy’s trip…”