Kezia strode along the path, thinking that Chinatsu had probably gone to one of the shrines again to dig in the graves and play with the bodies.

There was something seriously wrong with that girl.

As much as her necrophilia mad Kezia shiver, Chinatsu was her ally and part of the Soulless Night. And she had broken Kazuno’s orders. The thought of the boss getting cross with her was no big deal, but why should Kezia have to deal with that too.

She spotted Chinatsu up the road and Kezia smiled. She picked up her pace and skipped along, her tale swishing to and fro. “There you are!”

“Oh, hey, Kezia.”

The cat girl took pause. Chinatsu was so young. The way she greeted Kezia was so innocent—like she was on her way home from some errand at the market and they were old friends, perhaps classmates.

In a way they were classmates.

Allies at least.

“I knew you would have gotten off to one of the cemeteries,” said Kezia with a narrowing of her eyes. She pointed a furry hand and a nail at the other girl. “I just got lucky finding you here, myeah?”

Chinatsu looked at her for a moment, but she said nothing.

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Don’t you remember what Kazuno said?!”

“Uhh…” she mused, putting a finger to her lips. Then she shrugged.

Kezia sighed. Stupid girl was going to get her in trouble—and Kazuno had a damn scary temper! “We have to get back right mnow, okay?”

Chinatsu smiled. “Okay.”

With another sigh, Kezia took up at the little girl’s side and they started walking back. “So… did you have fun?”

“Mmhm!” She glance up at Kezia, then she giggled. “Oh! I almost forgot. I met someone. Actually, I met a couple of people.”

“Who?”

“She was an oni girl like Severin was talking about. Pink skin… horns… There were two people with her. A little funny man and a—“

“Samurai?”

Chinatsu giggled and nodded emphatically. “Mhm!”

“Oh gods,” Kezia said, putting her hand to her forehead in frustration. How could this little fool be talking like this as if it was no big deal. “You know that’s the girl who killed Sir Alaric, right?”

“Mmm—okay.”

Kezia practically growled though her teeth at the other girl. “I’m going to scratch you if you keep being so dense, Chinatsu!”

“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t really give it much thought.”

“What happened? Where are they now?”

“Well,” she said, turning. “We kind of got into a fight and… oh—there they are now!”

“Whaaaat?!” Kezia glanced up, and sure enough a pink-skinned oni girl and a short little man with glasses came running down the road.

“This is so stupid,” she whined. “We gotta go! We gotta go ­mnoow, okay?!”

“What—but—“

“NO! Come!”

Kezia practically hauled Chinatsu off her feet as she yanked the smaller girl along. They needed to be fast if they were going to evade those two. The oni and her little friend were really, really fast!

Surely Kezia knew she could escape on her own, but with Chinatsu—this dope was a little slower than she was. Actually, she was a lot slower! Ugh!

“There!” Hans shouted with a point of his finger.

“I... seeee them!”

Rōkura raced forward after Chinatsu and the newcomer—a cat girl. She didn’t know who that was, but she was probably part of the same group.

The two girls ran under a group of trees as they headed for a bridge. Rōkura caught up with them, jumped and flipped over them. She landed in front of the two girls and turned around, bearing her blade.

It glinted in the sunlight and the two girls, Chinatsu and the cat girl—came up short. Chinatsu was already flicking shuriken toward Rōkura.

She sliced them away

“I thought I already hit you with one of my poison shuriken,” Chinatsu accused. “You should be dead right now.”

The other girl swallowed as Hans came up behind them. “You can’t get away,” he said.

Kezia turned, her apprehension increasing as she reached for her rapier. Putting her furry and clawed hand over the hilt, she prepared for a fight.

“Your poison won’t work on me, little girl!” Rōkura snapped.

“Huh… I wonder why.”

“Regeneration,” she said in one word, not wishing to explain herself to this little girl covered in dark makeup. “Now I’m going to kill you for what you did to Shinjiro.”

“I imagine if we have a sample of the poison, we can make him an antidote,” said Hans.

Rōkura flicked her glowing eyes up above the cat girls shoulders at Hans. That’s right! She glanced back toward the Shuriken that had missed her.

“If you let us go,” Chinatsu said, “you might be able to find one of them in the grass.” She giggled.

“I don’t think so,” Rōkura snarled. “I’m going to kill you right now.”

The cat girl pulled out her rapier with a hiss of metal on leather. “I’m mnot going to let that happen, mkay?”

“Who are you?”

“Her name,” Hans said, “Is Kezia Harwicj, and she’s part of the Soulless Night, as is our other acquaintance. I didn’t recognize her, so she must be new.”

Kezia leaned her weight onto one hip. She wore short mauve-colored shorts with glinting floral designs in thread of gold. Her blouse would have revealed ample cleavage had she not been as flat as a cutting board, and her sky-blue jacket reached down to her thighs and wrist where frilly lace protruded from her cuffs.

“That’s right,” Kezia affirmed with an added nod. “Mnow answerrrr my question, myeah?” she said, half turning to look at Hans over her shoulder. “Why did you kill Sir Alaric?”

Hans said nothing, leaving the answer up to Rōkura as he furtively glanced about. There were people out, walking on the path near the river and the machiya houses in this area were well kempt and one-story.

He figured there was a nice little warren of straight just ahead on the other side of the bridge. As it was now, where they were at brought the risk of having the City Watch called down upon them any minute.

“I killed him,” Rōkura said, “because I wanted to.”

Kezia laughed. “Is that rrrright?”

If she used her Oni Rage now, she ran the risk of inadvertently murdering a lot of people. But at least this area wasn’t packed, like a market or a town square. Even so, Hans would suggest that she did not go into her rage state now.

What am I thinking? Was Hans supposed to care? I’m starting to sound like Shinjiro in my own head.

“I like her,” Chinatsu said.

“We still have to kill her, myeah!”

As Kezia said the words, she was fully preparing herself to abandon Chinatsu to save her own skin. She wasn’t going to die here—torn and sliced to pieces like Sir Alaric because Chinatsu was too dumb to follow orders.

I want to play with their bodies. Chinatsu smiled.

“Were you there?” asked Rōkura.

Chinatsu looked at her dumbly.

“At the summit of Momori Kazō?”

Kezia’s eyes widened with recognition. “You’re… but you’re supposed to be dead!” How was this possible.

“Well I’m not!”

Rōkura surged forth with her katana outstretched. Kezia reacted with her own blade as Hans joined the fray. Skirling her blade toward the other girl’s face, she flicked her blade in just the right way to keep the deadly-sharp edges together and her face far enough from Rōkura’s sword point to stay alive.

Kezia gave ground as Rōkura’s screamed with ever sword strike, and every time she attacked, she was rebuffed with lighting fast reflexes.

As her attack stalled, the cat girls mouth went from a toothy little grimace into a grin, and she said. “My turn mnow!”

She attacked, her blade flicking and jabbing toward Rōkura’s body. The oni was forced to dodge those blows as she defended with her katana. But her reactions were far too slow as Kezia’s blade came in and nicked her shoulder, then her cheek.

They broke apart, little whirled of dust coming up at their feet.

Hans let loose with a flurry of blows at Chinatsu, but the little girl blocked all of them as his attacks smacked and thudded against her.

She groaned, her feet sliding back over the stones of the bridge. “Not very strong without your toys, I see.”

She grimaced. This is not good. Doing one of the few things she could, she flicked out her shuriken in a chink of metal-on-metal and spread them out like cards in her gloved fingers.

“You can try,” Hans said, “but you will never strike me with those. I am far too fast and agile for simple shurikenjutsu—even of your skill level.”

She tried.

And she failed.

Hans smirked with satisfaction as he pushed his glasses up. The lenses glinted ominously in the bright sun and Chinatsu worried that his next attack might finish her off. “Kez?” she called. “Kez!”

The cat girl glanced across the bridge toward her partner. Hans smiled. He was doing very well.

“You can’t help her, Cat!” Rōkura said to the cat girl.

“Tch!” she noised in a snarl of frustration. She’s right! But I’m way better with a blade than this klutzy oni. She smiled. “My name is Kezia, nyeah?”

Rōkura’s eyes widened a little. This cat girl was aware of something that she wasn’t, and that bothered her.

She giggled.

“You know what?” said Rōkura. “You piss me off almost as much as the little corpse girl.” She indicated Chinatsu with a thrust of her chin.

In response, Kezia’s smile deepened, then she struck out with her arm, angling her body sideways. She flicked the tip of her sword at Rōkura using her other arm for balance.

She tried to block, but Kezia dragged a sharp and hot line of blood across her wrist. “Akh!” Rōkura hissed and she jumped back.

“You’re slow, Oni.”

“My name is Rōkura.”

“I don’t care.”

“I don’t care about your name”—she lunged—“EITHER!”

Kezia darted back on nimble boots of supple leather that climbed to above her ankles and flipped over to present a wide leather rim. She was surprisingly quick. But Rōkura didn’t stop her attach, she turned her body arcing with another slash.

Every she struck, she snarled, and every time she missed, she followed up her attack with another attack, giving Kezia no time to breath.

Rōkura remembered telling Ogai-sama that she had fencing and completion training, but she remembered little of her actually time spent training, and yet her swordsmanship had stayed.

Kezia jumped out of reach, then like before, she angled the tip of her blade forward, seeking for an easy spot to wound Rōkura. Though the distraction of being cut slowed her down, and the smell of her own blood made her mouth water and her urge to rip and tear the foremost thought in her mind, because of her regeneration abilities, Kezia could not rely on wounding her repeatedly until she slowed enough for a killing strike.

Her rapier flashed and strikes of blood appear on her forearm and upper shoulder. Kezia laughed and Rōkura growled furiously with hate and rage. Her pent up anger for her killers and all those involved coming out to strengthen her.

And now that Shinjiro was in mortal peril.

Rōkura wanted nothing more than to punch a hole through this cat bitch!

She jumped out of reach again with an annoying little giggle.

“COME HERE!”

“Haha! You’ll never catch me moving like that, Oni-chan!”

Chinatsu swallowed. “Kezia!”

Hans lunged forward toward the little girl, striking out in a flurry of blows. Chinatsu jumped, dodged and generally tried to get away, but the combined fury of Hans blows and his upper level pushed Chinatsu to her breaking point.

Her guard broke and his fists pummeled her in multiple places, his hands coming in to slap and distract as she mounted a defense. Breaking it again, Hans hut Chinatsu’s arms so hard she was thrust off the ground.

With a grunt, he jumped, adjusted his glasses as he flew through the air, his cat-scheming smile one of victory.

He lashed out with his dress shoe, connecting against Chinatsu’s crossed arms.

The girl’s defense crumbled and Hans felt bones break as she cried out. The girl’s body arced through the air and landed heavily on the cobble stones.

Hans came down after her, landing smoothly and with ease.

Dusting his hands, he turned to glance past his shoulder. “It is done. Chinatsu is out of the fight, Rōkura.”

“Then!” Rōkura attacked, swinging her katana in wide arcs, slashing and jabbing. “Only!” her blade glinted.’ One!” She stabbed forward, missing the cat girl by a mere hand’s breadth. “Left!”

But Kezia jumped top her left, then angled back for an attack. She brought her knee up into Rōkura’s stomach. Her inside almost felt like they had been kicked out of her.

And then Kezia brought the pommel of her sword hilt into Rōkura’s back. The intense pain bloomed in her back and she slammed into the stone, her skin and her lip breaking.

“Look out!!” cried Hans, and he came in with a flurry of attacks. Kezia avoided them all, but Hans still managed to hit her upraised arm as she defended against his sudden onslaught.

Kezia jumped out of his short range and glanced up past Hans to the streets. A group of soldiers and samurai had coalesced and were coming forward.

He sighed heavily. “It was only a matter of time before someone called the City Watch on them.

“I truce,” Hans Bellefeuille?

“You know me?”

Kezia giggled. “I know of you, little man.”

“Fine. A truce.”

“Hmph!”

Kezia jumped over Hans, flipped forward and landed smoothly. The sound of her sword clicking back into her scabbard could be heard as she ran toward the City Watch samurai and soldiers.

She scooped up Chinatsu and Hans wasted no time doing the same as he bent next to Rōkura. He noticed blood on the paving stones and her face was bruised, her lip broken.

“Hans,” she said. “Hans—the blood.”

“Easy!” he said. He took his glove and wiped at her lips, wiping the inside of her mouth. “There—not a drop. Do not swallow.”

She nodded.

The footfalls of the guards could stamping in thunderous upheaval as Hans helped Rōkura to her feet. “Come on!”

Evading the guards was easy.

But when they got into a safe place in the woods, Rōkura growled and slashed at the tress and kicked up grass. “Hans—they got away!”

“I know,” he said.

He tried to calm her, but she needed to get her anger out of her system. He was too afraid to remind her of Shinjiro’s mortal danger right now.

Finally, he forced himself to bring it up. “We should return back to the mansion.”

She gasped, looked at him with wide eyes. “Shinjiro!”

“Hai,” he said with a nod, using the local word for “yes” that was not native to his own lands or world.

The short blonde-haired man with sea-blue eyes struggled to keep up with the oni girl as they ran back to the mansion without rest.

In an alley, Kezia lowered Chinatsu to the floor. The girl moaned and glanced up at her. “It hurts.”

“Of courrrse it hurts, nyeah?! You just got the fish kicked out of you, silly girl!” She yowled with annoyance, her claws coming in and out with little sharp sounds. Her heart was beating a faster than it had in a long time. “Kazuno told you not to wander off on your own, rememberrr?!”

“I’m sorry, Kez.” Chinatsu groaned, closing one of her eyes and mumbling through the pain.

Kezia clicked her tongue. Chinatsu might have been a little freak who liked corpses and necrotic filth, but how could Kezia remain angry at that cute little face. She reached down and took Chinatsu in her hands, squeezed her cheeks.

“Mmm!”

“Stop your squealing and let me look at you, myeah?” She looked Chinatsu over. “Your face is fine, but your arms are broken. “I have a potion, but your bones need set first.”

Chinatsu whined.

“Baby.”