This was not how her grandfather said things would be. What was he thinking, sending that letter? Ordering her to “get close” to the hero. Worse, ordering her to seduce him. The thought made her skin crawl. He was a dogboy. She was a foxgirl. It would never work. And yet . . . And yet, she did what she was told like a good little granddaughter.
“It will bring great honour to the clan,” he’d said. What good was honour if she ended up dead for her troubles? Didn’t he know this team’s last healer died in their very first Lair?
“Oh, but you’re better trained,” he’d said. That was probably true. She was rather exceptional. Beautiful, talented, and an all-around rather exceptional student.
“When has any kin ever been able to resist your charms? It’ll be easy,” he’d said. And yet the boy wanted nothing to do with her. She even offered to take him to a Sunapunese bathhouse. She had basically offered to sully herself, and he had refused! She’d never been so insulted.
Yet she had let it pass and even followed him into a gauntlet type lair. Regardless of the increased difficulty, this would be nothing compared to what her clan put her through as a child, even if she had chosen Reiki over Ninja, she had the training for the latter.
She passed through the door and sniffed disdainfully at the tile floor puzzle. Was this a joke?
It took her less than a minute to rearrange the tiles to form an image of a pagoda temple that looked a great deal like the one in her clan’s main temple.
Yui gasped and took a step back from the image. She’d nearly been enthralled by it but stopped herself mere centimetres from stepping onto the tile and setting off whatever trap lay beneath. She shook her head one more time and moved to the passage that opened to her left after she solved the puzzle.
She descended the stairs and walked into a room she knew well. It was the training room from her family dojo, though the tatami mats were covered with dummies which stood in rows, their arms and legs held out, their positions stiffened by strings that pulled on their joints and pushed them up against springs. The blades attached to their hands would slash randomly from side to side in a blur, so that even a well-trained eye could not read them.
Yui sniffed again. “An obstacle course. Really? You’re going to have to do better than that.” Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a pair of gloves with sharp spikes protruding from the palms, and slipped them on. She took a few steps back and charged at the wall to her right. Reaching the wall, she placed her foot against it and scaled the wall quickly with her gloves, her glare intensifying with each hooked grip she found on the smooth surface until she reached the ceiling. She stepped on the wooden beams that spanned the room.
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Yui looked down at the obstacle course disdainfully and walked calmly across the room, completely bypassing the mess below. On the other end of the training hall, she dropped down, put her gloves away, and walked through, muttering, “Childsplay, honestly.”
The moment the door clicked shut behind her, she felt a rush of air past her ear, followed by a thump. A dart had embedded itself into the wall next to the door. In the centre of the room, a figure clad in an ankle-length dark-blue shinobi shozoku moved with practised ease, stowing away a blowgun and swiftly drawing a curved Ninjato sword. The hood of the garment obscured any features he may have had, except for two narrow slits that revealed two golden eyes.
Yui snorted, “You send a Ninja to face me? Really? Very well, allow me to show you what a real Ninja looks like.” She lashed out, throwing a brace of knives at the lair-born creature.
The Ninja raised his blade, quickly deflecting one knife after another and then leapt back as a glowing white fist struck the ground, sending a shockwave of energy through the room and almost knocking the Ninja from his feet.
“Against my Reiki you have no chance, false shadow,” Yui hissed, slowly drawing up to her full height.
That was when a second Ninja struck from behind, the blade cutting into Yui’s arm, drawing a little blood as she dodged aside.
Yui looked at the cut and snarled, “Do you have any idea how much this kimono cost me?”
Neither Ninja responded as they focused on her, circling her.
Yui waited patiently for the inevitable attack as she drew a Ninjato from the magic bracelet she wore everywhere, it was a gift from her mother.
They moved, and steel clashed, the two Ninja pressing her back. Yui grinned as she spun to the side, holding the two blades at bay as she swung a glowing white fist into the side of the closest pretender. Her fist passed right through him like he was smoke.
She frowned and quickly dodged aside again as the same Ninja reappeared behind her and attacked. Yui was certain she felt a blade pressing back against her own when she struck. How was it possible he disappeared and reappeared behind her that fast?
“You’re fakes, just illusions,” Yui realised. Still, she’d been cut by something. She glanced briefly down at her wound. It wasn’t a sword cut but a tiny pinprick. The foxgirl suddenly and viciously ripped her sleave off, revealing sickly black veins from where she’d been hit, not by a blade but by a poisoned needle. How could she have been so arrogant?
“You’ll pay for that,” she hissed in pain as something touched her neck in her moment of distraction.
She lashed out, cutting through smoke. The world was turning blurry, and her legs suddenly didn’t want to answer her. She fumbled for her bracelet, the gift from her mother. She had antidotes for most poisons in there. But her hand, it wouldn’t listen to her commands anymore.
Something pinched her leg. Then her stomach and her back.
Yui’s mind slowed to a crawl as the realisation dawned on her. It was too late for an antidote.
“Disrespect warrants disrespect,” a voice whispered in her ear as the world rumbled around her. There was a click of disappointment then another whisper, “I have overstepped. Now, get out of my lair!”