The main street of the residential district was nearly deserted. Tobi would have liked to clear out all the civilians and call for a temporary curfew, just to make sure they were safe. Sadly, it wasn’t a feasible action. If any of the foreign invaders caught wind of his actions, they could take hostages to escape. So he’d decided to take action just this once without the strict policies that would normally be enforced.

He would not be alone, however. The strange red-haired woman had insisted on accompanying him, and when he’d refused to work with a criminal, she’d threatened to withhold the vital information. He’d known at once that threatening her with arrest would do no good, so in the end, he agreed. She was more talented at moving without being seen in any event, which could come in handy.

In order to keep a low profile and avoid notice, Tobi had discarded the white robe that marked him as a Master and Captain of Issho-Ni. He wore a dark grey tunic and breeches, a color that would blend well with the lengthening shadows of the evening without standing out. Black would be too dark. Of course, he would rely most heavily on his natural grace and speed to stay out of sight. He’d also left his principal weapon behind. If a fight broke out, he could rely only on his hands and feet.

“Are you ready?” The woman was beside him, and slightly behind. He glanced around at her. “The sun will be truly down in about ten minutes. That gives us just under an hour until the farming folk return.”

Tobi nodded. They had chosen to act in the brief window when they could expect the least amount of citizens to be around. There was no way of knowing who could be friend or foe, so they had to hide avoid being seen by anyone. He tugged a pair of thick leather bracers out of his belt, and quickly slid them on, tightening the strings. If he was going to be getting into hand-to-hand combat, he didn’t want to risk breaking something.

“Alright,” The woman’s voice came, quiet as ever. “Let’s do it.”

Remaining in a crouch, Tobi approached the edge of the roof. They were on one of the few buildings that had a shingle top, which could support their weight. As gently and quietly as he could, he swung off, gripping the lip of the roof to slowly extend his body to the window below. With a deft flick of his foot, he pushed the simple window inward, then swung inside.

He missed the small table that had been placed under the window by a hair’s breadth, and hit the soft carpet, rolling to absorb the shock and noise. M had said that there was guaranteed to be one of the invader groups here. It was his job to identify them quickly and dispatch them before they could raise the alarm. He ran, light as a cat, across the room, and through a door to the stairs.

One of the stairs creaked traitorously as he put his weight on it. He made no attempt to freeze or slow down, knowing that he couldn’t spare the time. He could hear terse muttering coming from the living area. Though he couldn’t make out the words, he knew that tone. It was commanding. Another voice, that of a woman, responded in obvious fear. So M had been right. There were intruders in this house.

He hit the very bottom of the stairs right as the conversation halted, and had dove behind an armchair as someone entered from the kitchen. He wore no armor, but he was armed with a longsword and buckler, clearly a soldier type. His eyes scanned the room, and he paced to the stairs, peering up to the dark second floor. He let out a quiet scoff.

“It’s nothing,” he called back to the kitchen. “You’re being paranoid, Zenik.”

Zenik, Tobi thought. Definitely a Mitenean name. While it wasn’t definitive proof of the Mitene Union invasion, it did unmistakably mark him as foreign. As he walked back into the pool of light coming from the kitchen, Tobi darted up behind him. He was revealed to the others in the small lit room for only half a second before he’d gripped the man’s head with one hand and slammed it into the doorway. He went limp without a sound.

There were two others in the kitchen, and Tobi was onto his next target before the third could even stand up, slamming his fist into the man’s jaw, knocking him out cold. He crashed back in his chair, and Tobi was vaulting over him, hands reaching out in a flash. He succeeded in silencing the man’s cry of shock. He brought his knee up, slamming it into the man’s head. In the space of about four seconds, the foreigners had all been knocked out.

Tobi turned quickly to reassure the woman he’d heard but saw M behind her, one gloved hand over her mouth, already cutting off her scream. He held up his hands. “I apologize for scaring you, madam. We’re here to get rid of these men and their comrades. Please, don’t make any loud noises.”

Though still wide-eyed with fear, the woman nodded her understanding, and M slowly withdrew her hand. She walked around the woman to begin hauling one of the unconscious men up. The woman, meanwhile, leaned against her wall, eyes closed and breathing deeply. Finally, she seemed to calm herself down and looked back at Tobi.

“You’re the son of Lord Tokugawa, aren’t you?” She asked. “You’re not wearing your robes.”

“They’re a little conspicuous,” Tobi said. She nodded her understanding. “Do you know which houses have been taken over, madam?”

“Aye,” she said shakily. “The smith, the scholar, and the seamstress have all been playing host ‘gainst their will. Are you going to free them, too?”

“That’s the plan, madam,” Tobi said. He bent down and slung one of the men over his shoulder. “First, we have to get these men bound and restrained. Can we keep them in your living area for an hour or two?”

“Of course,” she replied briskly. “My son will be back from the fields soon, and he can keep an eye on them.”

“Thank you,” Tobi said. “But I’d rather not involve any strangers. One of my men will stand guard until I return.”

They left the house the same way they’d entered, through the window of the room on the second story. Their landing on the alley below was less than silent, but nobody seemed to notice. Wasting no time, they moved towards the smith’s house, which was closer.

“More sizable force than I expected,” Maria said. “Sounds as though they have nearly two dozen men. They could do a lot of damage with that number.”

“Yes,” Tobi hissed back. “But not if we put them in the dungeons.”

“Curious how you didn’t kill any of them,” Maria commented. “Are you against killing?”

“I’d prefer to avoid it, obviously,” he muttered. “But I know it’s necessary sometimes. I only knocked them out to avoid traumatizing the woman.”

“I see,” Maria said. Tobi glanced at her, surprised to see her looking vaguely thoughtful. “I admit that thought didn’t occur to me.”

“Well, what do you expect,” he retorted. “You’re the leader of a thief gang. As if the innocent people would be your first concern.”

Maria only smirked slightly at that comment. They drew level with the smith’s back door. There was no sound from inside, of course, but his sharpened instinct was telling him that he could expect a similar situation inside. He tested the door gingerly. It was unlocked. As slowly as he could, he lifted the latch, hoping that whoever was inside wouldn’t notice the gradual movement. Once he was sure it was clear of the frame, he gave the door a hard shove and darted inside.

There were two men in the room beyond the door, and they jumped to their feet as Tobi appeared. Tobi was able to strike the first man down before he reached his weapon, but the other was much quicker. His blade rang free of its scabbard with a quiet hiss, and he swung a hasty blow at the stranger who’d burst in. Tobi jumped to the side to avoid it, then grabbed the man by the wrist and throat and slammed him down.

The carpeted floor muffled some of the impact, but he knew that it couldn’t mute the sound entirely. Abandoning stealth entirely, he rushed for the stairs. Already he could hear someone shouting in confusion and growing alarm. He reached the second floor just in time to see another soldier, wearing a thick leather helmet and breastplate, appearing on the landing with a drawn dagger.

He couldn’t quite make out Tobi’s appearance before he attacked, but his armor and reflexes saved him from Tobi’s first strike. He was no idiot either. The instant he realized that he was facing an enemy, he started shouting for all he was worth, swinging his weapon to ward his opponent off. Tobi cursed at the loud noise and jumped back to avoid the sword. Then, Maria came up the stairs, crouched low, and kicked the man’s legs out from under him. He’d barely hit the ground when she slashed her knife across his throat, silencing him.

“Should I not have done that,” She asked, standing straight and wiping her blade clean on the man’s tunic. “I’m not sure I have the strength to knock him out.”

“No point in whining about it now,” Tobi said quickly. “Let’s get outside. There are still two more houses.”

They burst onto the street through the front door this time, not caring about making as little noise as possible. The entire street would have heard the man shouting. Sure enough, even as he appeared, armed men were streaming out of the other two houses the woman had told him about. What was worse, two of them had civilians held tight as hostages. He cursed their bad luck.

“Thought you could get the drop on us, eh?” One of the men shouted. He put a knife to the throat of the woman he was holding. “You take one step towards us, she dies. Understand?”

Tobi lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. “I won’t move an inch from where I am.”

“Better not, boy,” the man sneered. “Now, we’ll be leaving the city, and if anyone tries to stop us, this girl’s husband will be back in the marriage market.”

At once, he began to take a step back, still pulling the woman with him. Tobi cursed internally, his eyes flicking from side to side. What could he do in this situation? He had a way to attack without moving, but the men would see it coming at once, and then the civilians would be dead. In an attempt to buy time, he drew himself up, trying to project the same aura of authority that his father had so effortlessly conjured whenever it was needed.

“You should know,” he said, his voice cold. “There is no place within this country that you can hide. My men and I will find you, no matter where you go. You’ll spend every night unable to sleep, waiting for us. Then, when you least expect it, we’ll kill you.”

The ice-cold hatred in his voice stopped the man for a moment. He almost appeared to reconsider his current course, but then the sneer reappeared. “You’re nothing but a boy, playing at a man’s job. I know perfectly well who you are. You’re nothing like your father, and we all know it. Stop pretending. We’re leaving now.”

Besides him, Maria let out a faint whistling sound. It was so quiet that, for a moment, they wondered if perhaps they hadn’t imagined it. Then Tobi spotted a flicker of movement on one of the nearby rooftops. Two men rose out of their hiding spots, already drawing back the strings of their crossbows. Before Tobi could call a warning, to tell them not to shoot for fear of hitting the civilians, they loosed their shots. He turned in slow motion towards the men holding the civilians.

With cries of pain, they wrenched their arms away, releasing the civilians, who staggered forward in shock. Each of the archers had hit the weapon hand of their targets, disarming them and freeing the hostages with one well-placed shot. Their accuracy was something to fear, not to mention respect, Tobi thought. But now, thanks to their attack, a new danger had presented itself. The citizens had been freed, but they were surrounded by angry, desperate men who had the reflexes of trained soldiers.

Tobi thrust his hand into the small satchel at his side, snapping the container open and yanking the contents out. They were thin metal spikes, inscribed with minuscule runes. They had been gifted to him by the wild mages of Zaban several months ago, at the end of his dangerous journey with his friend Samuel Bragg. He’d spent months mastering them, developing his own unique magic to use them to deadly effect.

He threw the spikes forward with all the strength he could muster. Mid-flight, his mana flared to life and filled them with energy. With small pops, they shot forward with renewed speed, each guided by his mind to a different target. He could only control four at a time, but that was more than enough. In the blink of an eye, they each pierced through one of the men without a check to their speed and force.

“Issho-Ni!” The shout came from somewhere nearby, startling everyone in the vicinity with its ferocity. As four figures barreled out of alleys and towards the armed foreigners, the words were echoed again. It was, of course, the time-honored call to action of Issho-Ni. It was the battlecry that mustered strength in their allies, and fear in their enemies.

Before they could come to terms with the sudden appearance of the new combatants, two more of the foreigners had fallen to Jakob Rainhall and Noda Itori. Then Aki Monato appeared in a blur of white robes, her staves cracking into the ribs of one man. With a nasty crunch and a scream of pain, he fell to the cobbles, his intended rush for one of the civilians brought to nothing. In a matter of seconds, the rest of the foreigners had fallen to the members of Issho-Ni.

Without warning, silence fell upon the street. Tobi glanced around quickly, mildly surprised to find no enemies in sight, to find, in fact, that the battle was over. Letting his tension out in a single short breath, he paced over to join his comrades. Aki was busy binding the hands of the man she’d knocked down. When her work was finished, she kicked him over onto his stomach, none too gently.

“How did you three know I was here?” Tobi asked, his tone angry. “Did you just think you could abandon your patrols without permission?”

He expected Aki or Noda to flare up with indignation, and he was ready to match them in kind. But, to his surprise, it was Jakob that stepped forward, coming invasively close. He stared Tobi down with a stubborn glare, mere centimeters from his face. Tobi had faced bandits, hardened murderers, and even a few wild monsters in his time. But the determined stance of his former apprentice was enough to stop him in its tracks. He took a step back.

“That’s enough,” Jakob said, his voice quiet so that it only reached Tobi’s ears. Aki and Noda might have heard him, but they were tactful enough to pretend to be checking on the status of the fallen foreigners. “You and your father trained me to fight criminals who harmed the innocents.”

“My father also trained you to follow orders,” Tobi snapped. “So what makes you think-”

Jakob cut him off with a curt hand gesture. “Yes. You are my Captain, so I’m oath-bound to follow your orders. But I also took an oath to support those who need it. Don’t think for a second that you’re more important than or highest calling.”

Tobi blinked in surprise. Jakob had never spoken to him that way before, even during the brief period in his first year, when Tobi had still been a senior apprentice. He expected his anger to rise up at any second, maybe even drive him to duel Jakob on the grounds of insulted honor. Instead, he found himself feeling a little ashamed. He didn’t know had come over his friend.

Seeing that Tobi wasn’t making a reply, Jakob pressed his advantage. “You’re the one who’s supposed to lead Issho-Ni. Not fight every battle by yourself, but actually lead. That means trusting the Masters you appoint. Unless you think it was a mistake to appoint us?”

“No.” The answer was so quiet as to be nearly inaudible. “But if I can’t lead like my father did, then I’ve failed.”

“You haven’t failed anything,” Jakob corrected him, his voice gentle. “You’re not your father. You never will be. You’re Tobito Tokugawa, mage-warrior and master of a dozen styles. You forge your own path, damn it all. Stop trying to copy someone you’re not.”

Hours later, after the surviving two criminals had been locked safely away in the dungeons under the palace, Tobi had retired to his quarters in the back of Issho-Ni. He still refused to take the Captain’s room, despite his rank. He was more comfortable on a city bed, instead of the thick pad that his father had rested on. Jakob’s advice bounced around his head, dominating his thoughts and preventing him from getting any rest.

You are not your father. He knew that more than anyone. His father had been an undefeated, elite warrior. He was the absolute example of peace and protection, and a legend. Tobi was a fresh-faced son who couldn’t be the prodigy the city needed. So if he couldn’t be the prodigal son, he’d just have to settle for the next best thing. His father had always kept Issho-Ni a pacifist group, not seeking out criminals before they could do more harm. He knew his purpose now.