~~~

The room sat empty, the futon covers untouched, the typical furniture and okiandon for such a place completely absent.

Rumours among the ant community warned that this particular territory was haunted, but to the four young ants sneaking in through the gaps of the balcony door panel, it seemed more like a showroom, pulling them in with the visual promise of no humans and no adventurous bears that might accidentally step on them.

The only odd thing was the large wooden box in the centre of the room, sat on a rug laid over the main tatami.

It probably wasn’t anything except ornamental, or perhaps a storage place for treasure stolen from beaten enemies…something rarely opened…yet it was quite odd that the lid seemed to be rattling.

Nope, confirmed the boldest ant, putting its leg next to the box. Definitely some movement inside.

It turned back to its comrades, giving them the signal to retreat, adding there might be something alive inside…before the lid shook itself off and landed edge-first on its head.

Not a pretty way to go…though it was fast.

The surviving ants scurried to the door panel, the quickest of them catching a brief glimpse of the sun outside before being swept up into the sudden purple storm and disintegrating.

On the other side of the room, the interior door panel slid open and Misora strolled in, a half-eaten pear in her left hand. Another head poked in behind her, a young girl with cropped hair, giving out a whispered, ‘is that her?’ before pulling back quickly as the panel almost slammed into her face.

Shouting through the rice paper for Yuka to go and do horse prep in the stables, Misora took a small bite of her pear and turned back round.

‘Ah, you’re up…’ she said, her eyes following the swirls of lilac for a few seconds before dizziness cut in. ‘Shall I come back later?’

The light show came to an abrupt stop, three streams of purple coalescing into one block and then etching out the familiar shape of Atta Noe.

‘Ah, your work face. Feeling better now?’

‘Update, quickly.’

‘About your two escapees?’

‘Quicker.’

Misora took another tiny bite of her pear, acting out an expression of disappointment. ‘Not the best news.’

‘Dead?’

‘All four of our men. In the ryokan lobby.’

‘The ashigaru, the idiot boy?’

‘Either very good at hiding or gone.’

Atta Noe put a hand on the side of her box, letting it slide into purple mist.

‘Green demon is gone too. Though we’re not exactly sure where.’

‘… … … … …’ replied the lilac demon in her own tongue. ‘Call for my box carriers. I must pursue them at once.’

‘That’s the other piece of not good news. Yukio Ka is sending me, Ichiko and that annoyingly curious girl outside in the annex chamber to go after them.’

‘Yes, good, and I will lead you.’

Another bite of the pear, a shake of the head. ‘Sorry, not on the table. Yukio Ka wants you to stay here.’

‘For what purpose?’

‘He didn’t say.’

Atta Noe let the rest of her arm retreat into mist form, then lashed out at the almost finished pear in Misora’s hand.

‘Hey, I was still eating that…’

‘Nonsense, Miso. Petty scheming nonsense. He sent you to tell me this?’

‘From his own lips.’ Misora stared down at the remains of her pear, searching for a surviving piece of flesh. ‘Apparently, you’re less likely to have a hissy fit if I’m around.’

‘… … … … … …’

‘A loose theory, of course.’

Atta Noe ranted a few more lines in her own language then gave her mouth and her limbs and the rest of her human form over to the purple swarm, streaming in and around Misora, swiping at her hair, the sleeves of her yukata, slashing at the door panel leading outside, before finally coming back to an exhausted female slump at the side of the box.

‘If it’s any consolation,’ said Misora, brushing down her yukata and re-ordering her hair, ‘Ichiko is a complete sadist. When she gets her hands on your targets…’

‘They’re mine,’ Atta Noe whispered, somehow loud enough to carry to the door panel and the ears of the young girl listening in, who had to suppress her ragged breathing a little just so the guard at the end of the corridor wouldn’t come over.

‘Okay…their corpses…perhaps.’

‘Not good enough.’

Misora stepped closer to the box, leaning down a bit and patting Atta Noe on the shoulder. ‘Sorry, but…Shingen’s orders.’

The lilac demon appeared to finally notice the hand on her shoulder, lifting her own hand up and pushing it off.

‘I hope you fail,’ she said, eyes stuck on the tatami.

Taking the hint, Misora dusted off her yukata again then headed out through the door panel, whispering to the young girl to get to the stables fast if she wanted to live.

‘Is she okay?’

‘Faster than that, please.’

The young girl tried to peer through the half an inch gap the door panel had left open, and was successful for a brief moment, catching sight of a purple eye staring back at her…but then it was gone, and Misora was grabbing her yukata sleeve and dragging her down the corridor.

‘The stables, Yuka…’ she repeated, as the young girl babbled about how purple the eye was. ‘No detours.’

‘I know, I’m going, but-…’

‘Or I’ll tell Ichiko.’

The guard nearby laughed, clearly familiar with the name, and said, ‘good luck’ to the now very silent Yuka as she passed.

‘Yeah, thought that would do it,’ muttered Misora, finally letting go of the sleeve.

~~~

An hour later, dressed in a less-slashed yukata and dōbuku combo, Misora stepped up to her horse in the main courtyard and told it to not make any annoying neighing sounds as she wasn’t in the mood.

‘Socialising with the equipment again,’ said the tall, ruler-straight woman next to her, already perched on her own horse.

‘It’s called respect, Ichiko.’

‘Well, at least you’ve bothered to show up. Where’s that idiotic new girl? She should’ve been here twenty minutes ago.’

‘Maybe Yukio Ka is giving her some private instructions.’

There was glint in Ichiko’s eye, though her face remained stone-like. And her hand edged ever so slightly towards the dagger tucked into her belt. Then stopped as Yuka emerged from a side door, walking a bit awkwardly at first then settling into an exaggerated stride as she approached them.

‘Where’s my horse?’ she asked, looking around at the courtyard drones, who all reacted by shifting their weight onto their other foot and looking down at the random straw scattered about on the ground.

‘In the kingdom under the sea,’ replied Misora, smiling to herself.

‘What?’

‘In the stable, you dolt,’ barked Ichiko, steering her horse around and glaring down at the young trainee. ‘Don’t just stand there gawping, go and get it. Now.’

Yuka visibly tensed up, her hands turning not into fists but into daggers. And her eyes…

‘What is the delay?’ came another voice from behind.

Misora glanced over, seeing the spymaster, Atta Ka Yukio, making his way over, his two twin servants trailing a metre behind on each side.

‘This third wheel is holding us up,’ answered Ichiko, backing her horse up a bit and nodding at her superior.

‘Is that so?’

Yuka looked down at the ground, mumbled something about getting her horse, then turned in a slow circle away from the Atta Ka Yukio and headed across the courtyard.

‘Stop…’ shouted the spymaster.

Before Yuka could do anything, the twins had dashed in front of her, their motion so fast that it registered to even the two ninjas as an impossible blur.

‘If we don’t get moving soon…’ Misora started to say, but was silenced with a swipe of the spymaster’s hand.

Moving up behind Yuka, he reached out his hand and traced a line down the length of her arm. When he got to her fingers, he stretched them out and tapped the nails on the end, whispering into her ear, ‘not your best work.’

‘I was in a rush,’ she said back, pulling her hand away and swirling into a brief state of purple mist before finalising herself in her usual human form. ‘Of course, if the orders had made more sense…’

‘You killed the girl?’ said Misora, cutting her off sharp.

Atta Noe turned and looked past the spymaster’s shoulder, directly at Misora’s face…which wasn’t the best idea as it looked even more stone-like than Ichiko’s, with hints of raging volcano barely quelled underneath.

‘Speak,’ commanded Atta Ka Yukio, redrawing her attention.

‘Yes, I killed her. Because she was useless. Having sex with one of the guards in the Sparrow Garden. Peeping through my door panel and making weird breathing noises. No work ethic whatsoever.’

‘And you thought you could just…ride out…on another little adventure?’

‘Obviously. That’s why I’m here. And Shingen would agree with me if you weren’t always hanging off his ear.’

The twins in front straightened out their hands, their eyes glowing.

‘Even now, we’re wasting time. I should be on a horse, and you should’ve already ordered two men to carry my box, not standing around this courtyard pretending to be disappointed.’

The spymaster folded his hands together, one slightly higher than the other, and took a long time to study Atta Noe’s eyes. Finally, he gave a diagonal nod to the twins and they powered down.

‘Your recent behaviour has been childish and unacceptable,’ he said, voice modulated into that of a child’s teacher. ‘And this is your reward. In one hour, you will board a palanquin and travel to Sunpu. There, you will deliver the elder Shingen to the Imagawa Daimyō and, after that, as a sign of our alliance, you will be retained in his service for one year.’

‘The Imagawa Clan? Don’t be ridiculous. They can barely hold together their own province.’

‘Correct, and as an auxiliary consul, you will be charged with rectifying that.’

‘Nonsense. Those incompetents are just-…they’re beneath me.’

Atta Ka Yukio straightened up to his full height, his head almost blotting out the sun crawling up in the sky behind him. ‘If you do not do it, you will not be beneath anything, nor above, nor in any position at all.’

‘You wouldn’t dare…’

‘Impudence, again. It is not I who dares. If it were, you would not be getting off so easily. No, do not speak again, I am tired of it. Go and pack. You depart in one hour.’

With another signal to the twins, the spymaster turned on his zori heel and glided seemingly without footsteps back inside the annex. Passing him on the way, was another young girl, costumed in the same way as Misora and Ichiko, and leading a horse behind her.

Atta Noe stayed rooted to the spot, her legs outlined with shimmering purple mist up to the knees. The guards continued to look down, pretending not to notice anything.

Outmanoeuvred by a geriatric, she thought to herself. And now a year with that Imagawa debacle. On Shingen’s command. No apparent way out…

The neighing of a horse forced her to blink, the new girl patting it on the nose to calm it down. ‘I’m Kanae, Yuka’s replacement,’ she said, finally turning to face her two seniors.

‘Hopefully a smarter one,’ said Ichiko, giving a side-glare to Atta Noe, then pulling on the reins and guiding her horse towards the gate.

Misora patted her own horse on the side, but didn’t climb up. Instead, she guided it over to Atta Noe and stopped behind, waiting to be noticed.

It took a while, but eventually the purple demon compromised and turned her head halfway.

‘You actually killed her,’ said Misora, looking down at the string-like purple tendrils whipping aimlessly out at nothing.

‘Must’ve been pre-meditated,’ answered Atta Noe, clearly lost in her own cause. ‘The ease of it. Sending me off for a whole year. Me. With my talents.’

‘Okay, fine. Enjoy your vacation. You deserve it.’

‘What was that?’

‘Nothing. I’m going.’

‘You’re angry? At me?’

‘See you next spring, sociopath.’

‘For what? I chose the stupid one, not you. Sociopath?’

Misora patted her horse again and led her out towards the gate, finally climbing up when they’d passed through to the street outside.

‘Ungrateful wretch,’ mumbled Atta Noe, watching her go.