Kento woke up from a sound slumber. He slept like a child. He opened his eyes and he found himself on a mattress surrounded by half-crumbled walls constructed with wood. With the feeling that he had been sleeping for hours, Kento sprang to his feet. He was expecting a heavy toll of pain waiting to be diffused from his body. But he felt nothing. Somehow, he was feeling alright. Kento felt his right shoulder. He felt the bandage and under it were a few ground herbs. He felt a slight tinge of pain from the herbs, but it was certainly an upgrade from what he had been feeling before. He quickly rushed to the closet and found his sword, his hat and his pouch. He snatched his items and rummaged through the inventory in his bag. Everything was there in his bag, except the eight fragments of the Star of Izanagi.

He uncapped his katana and sped through the sliding door like a madman. He then saw Yamazaki and Kyuzo sitting on the floor while Hinako and that woman in the street Kento last saw were attending to Kumiko’s situation.

“Oh good, He’s awake. Young man, you wouldn’t mind giving your friend a bowl of broth I made for all of you now, would you?”

“How long was I out?”

“About thirty minutes. She is terrific with medicines and herbs. She managed to heal us all. Turns out Kumiko is the one hit the hardest from the attack. Michinobu had overdosed her with poison, she was knocked out the entire time,” Kyuzo said, handing his brother a bowl of soup.

“I wish we could help her get back to her feet, but there is nothing we can do to help her. Hinako is the only one among us with the healer’s hands and instincts.”

She looked over at Hinako, who had lain unconscious on the battlefield a few moments ago, now trying to save her friend. She was working very fast and with immense precision. Kento had seen her work before. But the thing that differed massively from the last times was the massive bandage enwrapped to her left arm. It looked like someone had treated it well. Hinako might be all fun and games. And most of the time she pretended to be this very carefree and easy-going person. But Kento, being the big brother always knew how trouble brought out the best in her. She was now working very hard, sweat beading her eyebrows, despite having major injuries. She shot a glance at Kento. Kento made his way nervously towards Kumiko trying his best not to get in the way of either Hinako or the lady. She muttered something looking at Kumiko and then went out with a grafting knife and a basket.

“How is she?” Kento asked Hinako, who stopped for a moment and dabbed her forehead.

“It’s a very uncommon poison Onii-chan. She told me that this was a serum made by mixing normal sedatives with more concentrations of narcotics and some other parts from some bizarre creatures.” Hinako said, looking at the woman, now behind her house selecting some more herbs.

“Hinako…what about your…”

“Onii-chan, not now.”

Hinako tried to focus on treating Kumiko, completely ignoring Kento’s inquiry, which she knew was going to be about her injury. She pretended to not feel the pain as much and put on a serious face while working on the medicine.

This softened Kento’s heart, bringing back a sweet memory of Kento’s reaction to Kumiko joining the team and coming to live with the rest of the gang. Hinako would jump over into Kento’s presence in a sweet manner, hug him tightly and shout in joy.

“Yay! I am getting another Onee-chan! Just what I have always wanted!”

Looking back, Hinako might have found it a little embarrassing now that she’s in her teen phase. But this was all that was needed to show how much she cared about Kumiko and how badly she wanted Kumiko to be present close to her.

Kento held Kumiko’s hand gently. Her hands were ice cold and pale. Her face seemed to look deflated. There were dark rings around her eyes that juxtaposed the smooth, milky complexion she possessed. She was not breathing properly. Kento felt her pulse faintly in her wrist.

“Poor Kumiko…”

That was all Kento could say.

He avoided talking too much, fearing that his voice would crack. He wanted to stay strong for his friends. Now more than ever. While holding onto Kumiko’s hand, Kento was reminded of the conversation the both of them had back in downtown Kyoto. When he had thought to head back home and distance his friends from danger as best as he could, Kumiko bravely refused the offer and decided to stick with him. If he didn’t allow her to stay in on the mission, she would have been alright. This was all his fault, he thought silently.

Kento wanted all of this to be over. Most importantly to get his friends into safety, the blockbuster which the monk in the marketplace spoke of was now materialising and Kento didn’t like where things were heading.

Kento was back and he saw Hinako’s hands going through Kumiko’s soft, dark blue hair. She looked up at Kento now, with tears in her eyes.

“I’m not supposed to say this, but I don’t think she can make it. The poison… She might have given in to it… too much,”

Hinako said, cupping her hands and moving away from Kumiko and Kento. She was sobbing, her cheeks flushed and tears rushing through her eyes. Kento immediately went up to her.

“Hey, hey, everything is going to be okay. We are going to get out of this mess. I promise. You are doing an amazing job. Kumiko’s going to be fine.”

Hinako looked away shaking her head “She has always been…my big sister. A loving Onee-san, even though we are not related by blood. How can I just…see her in this state?”

“I know. I can only imagine the pain you are going through. But trust me, everything is going to be okay.” Kento kept repeating what he said. His mind was strained by the thought of whether what Hinako said might be true.

“Do you remember back when we were kids, you and I used to sneak out from the house to the suburbs of Iga when new stocks of fruits came from the North?” Kento asked. Hinako slowed down her sobbing and nodded with a small smile making its way to her face.

“I remember that day when I fell from the window and twisted my arm, you helped me walk all the way home, bandaged me and sang to me while I dozed off. You were always such a caring person to me; I always forget to say that to you.” Kento continued.

Now there was a smile on Hinako’s face.

“We didn’t get to do that very often since then. After mom and dad found out. Grandpa was then forced to make us train all day every day for another two months…Hmph.”

Kento looked straight at Hinako and said firmly with newfound confidence, “It’s going to be alright.”

She nodded back, wiped her tears and headed back to Kumiko.

The woman returned with a few strange herbs in her casket.

“If these delinquents think for one second that they can mutate our medicine into narcotic poisons, they got another thing coming.” The middle-aged woman came into the house. She walked with a limp.

Kento was startled and asked the woman.

“What is that she was given? Is it too lethal?”

“I’m afraid it is so boy. This kind of poison is quite rare in these areas. I’m quite capable of sorting out which is which and I think that this is Opium, mixed with fugu poison. There are two stages in this disease. The first is full-body paralysis. The second is death. The poison from the fugu fish contains lethal amounts of the poison in its inner organs. The poison paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious; the poisoned victim is unable to breathe and eventually dies from the acute lack of oxygen. I am quite surprised that this stuff even got here since from what I remember, the Bakufu hasn’t really been a fan of the people consuming those pufferfish.”

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She continued after a small sip of water from her cup.

"She is a fighter. But she is lucky she still hasn't entered any of the stages. You children are lucky to have met me during these inauspicious times. But we must hurry with the brewing. Would you be a dear and get me my Suribachi? It’s on the top shelf.” The woman said, looking at Hinako.

Though Kento barely understood the wax lyrical she gave about the poison. What was such an intelligent smart woman doing in an abandoned town like this? Kento glared down at her herb palette and recognized some Japanese honeysuckle stems and some Ginseng roots.

“I don’t think I ever got the chance to introduce myself. My name is Kento, and these are my friends Yamazaki, Hinako, Kyuzo and… Kumiko. We are from Iga.”

The woman gave a small wrinkled smile and said, “Name is Hatsune Osada. Back in the day, I practised Kampo medicine back in Iga. I was kicked out of the village because of heresy. My husband was killed by the village folk and…the Tokugawa bastards. I was lucky enough to come out alive. Don’t worry, she will too,” she said looking at Kumiko, quickly changing the subject.

“Her body is fighting the toxins. She is a fighter, child. Give me a moment, I will brew up the antidote and she will be spared from the suffering soon.”

“Thank you so much. For everything that you are doing. But why are you doing this for us? You are risking your life by helping Igas near Kōga territory and you barely even know us.”

“That’s what you must think, child. I know Kumiko, a little too well.”

“Wait…WHAT?”

“Yes, boy. I know you find this a little too unbelievable. But hear me out, young blood. The thing is…I have known Kumiko’s stepmother since I was a teenager. Not only that, I also have heard rumours about Kumiko's actual biological mother. I’ll be honest with you. I was powerless to do anything to stop the draconian methods that she used to nurture her after her father passed away. But I felt the girl’s pain. However, I doubt Kumiko has the slightest memory of me. But I was very fond of her.”

Kento bowed to the woman as if he totally understood and comprehended what she meant. But he started to remember one important thing. So he hurried back to Kyuzo and Yamazaki. They were both speaking under their breaths. They offered Kento a seat.

“Guys…The star. Do you have it?” Kento inquired.

“Don’t worry, after we woke up, we took it out while you were resting and kept it by our side for safety. It’s in my pouch.”

Yamazaki said reassuringly.

Kento sighed with relief. The relief that he had been wanting to feel since this morning.

“The mission is…over. The stones have been collected with two hours to spare.”

But Kento still had that weird sensation running along the back of his spine. Just like the sense he got back in the dojo, which seemed like a very distant memory. As if a sign was telling him that things were far from over. That certainly can’t be it. This is the very last the Kōgas will ever get to hear about the Star of Izanagi.

The shack started to smell like fresh honeysuckle and ginseng. The antidote was slowly brewing and the moment of truth was coming closer. No one spoke during the next few nerve-wracking minutes.

The antidote was done and the woman carefully extracted the drops of the extremely concentrated medicine into a vial.

Yamazaki held Kumiko up and Osada passed the medicine down Kumiko’s throat.

For a few seconds which seemed like an eternity, there was no response. The room was dead silent, and the void drained out every single hope that existed saying that Kumiko was going to be fine. Kento felt as if his heartstrings were being pulled out from his living being. He desperately tried not to think that this was the bad twist that his instincts were telling him about.

Suddenly her lips moved and her eyes opened, Kumiko saw all of her friends and a strangely familiar face, all teary-eyed looking at her, smiling. She sat up straight and then her eyes rushed about, looking for the star. Her face immediately got clouded and disappointed.

“Kento I’m sorry. We lost the stone. It’s all my fault, if it wasn't for me, we could’ve gone home by now.”

Kento couldn’t help getting emotional. After all of this, after a battle with death itself, Kumiko was not concerned about herself, but she was depressed thinking that she had failed the mission.

“If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have solved the puzzles back in that hellhole. You kept my spirits up even when I started having second doubts. You always kept me going, with that smile of yours. THANK GOD YOU ARE OKAY, KUMIKO!”

Kento embraced Kumiko. Kento felt her heartbeat which he thought he might never get to feel again. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

She let go and composed herself.

“It’s alright, Kumiko-sama! We have all the eight fragments in the room. You know what that means right? We will be back in the palace with time to spare,” Yamazaki said with a smile plastered across his face.

“Waaiiit…really? Well for one second after being harassed by those goons I thought I might have jeopardised our mission. But it seems like we have managed to finally get back up and fix everything.”

“It wasn’t us who helped to get you back, it was Hinako and Osada-sama,” Kento said.

Hinako was crying and smiling at the same time. She was all over the place and she tried her best to calm herself. Hinako went near Kumiko, and Kumiko hugged her best friend. The feelings were reciprocated, and Hinako hugged her back. Then Kumiko looked at the woman who was standing behind the children, tightly clutching onto a napkin.

Kento nodded at the rest of his teammates and said, “We’ll give you guys a moment.” And they left the room leaving Kumiko with the vaguely familiar face.

“Kumiko-chan… It’s Osu-san! Do you…remember me?”

“It’s you! I can’t believe it! After all this time, I can’t believe you still remember me, did you save me?”

“Yes, it seems you have finally found some good friends who have your back. They are quite special. How's your stepmother?”

“I don’t really know. She doesn’t look after me now,” Kumiko scoffed. She remembered how her stepmother always despised Kumiko, and how much she cursed Kumiko’s mother for not leaving a boy. Kumiko spent most of her childhood alone, Miss Osada was the person who secretly took Kumiko out to the streets for a walk, when her stepmother was out in the market. One day both of them were caught red-handed by Kumiko’s stepmother. She felt betrayed by her best friend. They stopped talking to each other. Soon after that Osada was evicted from the capital for reasons Kumiko didn’t understand. She never even got the chance to say goodbye. Now, here she was, nine years later, still looking out for her.

“Might I ask why you kids are here? It’s quite a distance from Kyoto,” Osada asked, now quite curious.

“A package. We had to deliver a package to an agent inside the Council of Iga. It’s really important, that's why these people are coming after us, the Kōgas,” Kumiko lied.

“Well, I think you children are going out of your way to send parcels to a general,” Osada said, laughing.

“How is it here, Osada-sama? Do you miss home?”

“Please, call me Osu-san, I don’t like you calling me ‘ Osada-sama’. Well, as far as I am concerned, things are alright here. It’s peaceful; that's something I missed having back in Iga and Kyoto. Always bustling with noise. But yes, hard to say that I miss home. After everything, things can never go back to normal for me,” She said, sighing.

Osada was an exceptionally smart and kind person. To Kumiko, at least. Kumiko never even got to know who her mother had been. She’s only been told one thing about her. And that too came from her one and only stepmother herself.

“Your mother died from childbirth, as a price for leaving a girl instead of a boy.”

“It’s alright, I know that things can never get the same. That's what makes living interesting. We just need to improvise and get the best out of what we have. You saved my life once again, and I will never be able to repay you for what you’ve done for me,” Kumiko said.

A tear was rolling down Osada's cheek.

“Everything I knew about you is real. You really do have her heart. You haven’t changed a bit Kumiko-chan,” Osada said hugging her.

Then Kumiko and Osada left the room to rejoin the rest of the gang.

They were ready to hit the streets of Kyoto in celebratory fashion. They all thanked Osada for her kindness. Her house was a very small shack. She was living on one side of the woods. On the opposite side was the lake and the town square, where the battle had taken place.

Kento led the team out of the house. Osada slowly made her way to the house. And Kento suddenly felt that same buzz he had felt moments ago. It was then that Kento understood that things might not actually be…over. Adrenaline surged in. And Kento turned back and screamed,

“Osada-sama!”

It was too late; a shuriken emerged from thin air from above and darted through Osada. She dropped dead on the rubble. Another shuriken came swooshing, and it hit the shack. Then it exploded, causing everything in a five-meter radius to blow up and catch fire. From the fire emerged some shadowy figures. Kento and the rest took cover and tried to recognize who these people were. With the heat and smoke, they couldn’t even count the number of people out there.

Kento felt it. This was it. This was the final showdown. The reckoning. The last act of defiance. And only one was going to win, while the others would die slowly and painfully.