~~~

The blueish greeny vein ran long and intermittent through the palm

faint in patches

at times vanishing completely

before reappearing and

‘I think he’s gone…’ whispered Aya at the rock face directly ahead of them both, the thing she’d been forced to stare at for the last twenty minutes. ‘Miho…you still there?’

Miho blinked like a farmer looking in confusion at a hundred green chickens, then cleared his throat, saying, ‘kuso, sorry,’ instantly as he realised it could’ve given away their position.

Luckily, no guard head peered over the side of the rock above, and no one called out, ‘who’s there?’ or ‘what’s that chatter behind the rock?’ so they were safe.

For the moment.

‘Are you staring at my hand?’ Aya asked, noticing where his eyes were focused.

‘Sorry, I was just-…’ He paused, wondering how normal it would be to tell her he’d been following the life line on her palm. Then deciding it wouldn’t be normal at all. In fact, back in his village, it was a sign of witchcraft. Not a good thing to say to a recently outed demon. Better just to change topic. ‘Is the guard gone?’

‘That’s what you’re gonna find out.’

‘Me?’

‘Okay, both of us, at the same time. Ready?’

‘What, now?’

Shaking her head, but keeping her expression mildly amused, Aya raised her head skywards, tilting to the left as she neared the top of the rock. As it turned out there was no need for such caution as the guard who’d come out from the tree line twenty minutes earlier had clearly gone back in as there was no sign of legs or Suwa uniforms nearby.

‘All clear,’ she said, shifting her feet and then using both hands to clamber up the side of the rock. ‘Though they might come back again soon. Best if we hurry. Stay low.’

It wasn’t a question exactly, but she expected some kind of response and when all she heard was a gasped ‘wah’, she bit her tongue, warned herself quickly not to lose it, and turned back to their hiding crevice between the larger rocks and the lake water below.

And said ‘wah’ too.

‘Is that the fox again?’ asked Miho, watching the blue field of light slowly start to merge with the sky in the distance.

‘Don’t know.’

‘A beacon of some kind?’

Aya repeated don’t know and continued her own open-mouthed gawping at the blue light show about two kilometres down the southern side of the shore. There was a chance it was the fox, incapacitating another batch of Suwa militia, but the colour seemed wrong, not white enough, and it would be suicide to announce its location like that a second time. No, far too reckless, even for a type like the fox. More likely it was…kuso…someone potentially worse.

The image of the twisted boy corpse from the castle flashed back into her head, provoking a flinch reflex. Not a shiver, or a shudder, or a tremble, she was too seasoned for all of that, but definitely a flinch.

‘What do we do?’ asked Miho, finally pulling himself up the rock face, using the bottom of Aya’s yukata for the final part of the ascent. ‘Go over to it?’

‘What?’

‘The light…if it is the fox, and the others…they could be in trouble. That could be a signal for help.’

Aya turned, about to launch into another vigorous shake of the head and tell him, sure, let’s head to the same place half the Suwa Clan will also be heading, to fight them with our bare hands…

Then stopped.

What…

Somehow, with some hidden pocket of instinct, she half raised a hand in defence as what her brain warned her was the trace of a ghost concubine used the handle of their dagger to jab her in the side of the head.

‘There…’ came out of her mouth, or throat, or somewhere, an owl hooting the rest of the sentence in the trees behind.

Aya stumbled back, grabbing Miho’s sleeve, shouting NO as the woman who definitely wasn’t a ghost stepped forward and struck her again, this time hard enough to send her onto the rocks below.

‘Wah…’ managed Miho, doing nothing to detach Aya’s hand from his sleeve and, as a result, falling down after her.

In normal cases, there would’ve been broken bones, possibly death from a crack of the head, but in this instance the rocks were liquid and wearing the gigantic costume of Lake Suwa, so the worst that happened was a sudden intake of freezing cold water followed by spluttered coughing as the two fugitives resurfaced.

‘It’s a guard…’ shouted Miho, attempting to move his arms in a swimming motion before quickly realising that the water was only waist deep.

‘Miho, run…’ Aya yelled back, tugging at the space near his yukata sleeve, looking up in annoyance and then down again as the woman assassin on top of the rocks jumped into the lake after them, landing cat-like, dagger not moving an inch in her right hand.

‘Calm down,’ the woman said, her eyes looking oddly kind and optimistic as she pointed the blade. ‘I don’t want you both. Just him.’

‘We’re Suwa citizens,’ blurted out Miho, steadying himself a little in the water. ‘Over there, our houses…just past the trees.’

‘Liar tongue, liar words.’

‘No…liar? Who?’

Kanae strode forward, tucking the blade in close as she went, frowning when Miho made not a single move to back away or, as most targets would’ve done, just outright pivot and flee deeper into the lake.

‘Me?’

‘Not that I blame you. I would probably do the same. If I were cornered by a predator.’

‘Aya…what’s happening?’

‘Sorry, but she can’t help you now.’

‘Who is this girl?’

‘Girl?’

‘Suwa guard? Ninja?’

‘I’m nineteen, actually.’

‘Aya…’

Miho followed his questions with a glance over to the Sessskat, who was rubbing her head wound and looking down at the surface of the lake around her waist as if it were a bear trap.

‘Don’t worry, she’s not on the list,’ Kanae explained, stopping in front of him, clamping a hand on his shoulder. ‘And just so you understand, this is not my decision. I don’t really want to do this.’

‘Do what?’

‘Even though you did just lie to me.’

‘Who are you?’

‘And call me a girl.’

‘What’s going on?’

Kanae frowned again, glancing over at Aya a few metres deeper into the lake, who had dropped the head massaging and was now edging her way back. Slow and weapon-less, thought the ninja, turning and refocusing on the blank-looking man-child. Wah, this was not going to be easy, his eyes were almost doomed chicken-like, pleading with her to explain why the knife was pointing in his direction, puzzled by the existence of a knife in the first place.

Had she got the wrong person?

Was there a chance that he really was an innocent Suwa citizen, out watching the sunrise with his girlfriend…who she’d just cracked the skull of?

No, couldn’t be…impossible. The description matched, the girl was with him, who else would be out in the middle of nowhere at this hour? No one sane. No one insane either. It was him. The one she had to eliminate. The poor chicken who didn’t understand that some people in this world wanted to eat poor chicken meat, and would train people like her to do it professionally, without sentiment.

Which she did not have.

Ever.

No sentiment, no attachments.

None.

Definitely not to humans.

Most humans.

Kuso…what was this? Doubt?

Her eyes drifted down to the dagger, tracing the line from grip to blade tip, the cold voice in her head telling her to focus on technique, not the strawman, not the non-existent conscience shaped like a lemon hovering dream-like inside her thoughts.

The target. The mission. Focus.

‘Look, whoever you’re looking for, it’s not us…’ continued Miho, putting his hand on her fingers, which were still fixed to his shoulder, and pretending the other ones with the stabbing weapon didn’t exist. ‘I’m Kenji…this is Aya…my girlfriend. We just came out to see the sunrise and…’

The words ceased, replaced by an off-kilter cough. Then another. Then a rasping breath as Miho’s hand let go off Kanae’s arm and switched to the dagger handle lodged two thirds of the way into his chest.

He tried to get a grip on the thing, but the wood seemed slippery somehow…and there was something in his throat, stuck in…

‘Miho…’ screamed Aya, losing all caution and rampaging forward, splashing lake water at the murdering lake witch ahead.

Most of it landed on a human statue, Kanae mesmerised by Miho’s hand trying to latch onto her dagger, then some drops got in her eye and she rebooted, pulling out the blade and reorienting it to strike the approaching lunatic.

‘I’m not here for you,’ she yelled, crouching a little, half reaching out a hand to grab Miho’s yukata as he started to collapsed backwards, hoping to reel him in and use his torso as a shield. But he was already on the way down…

‘Murdering…’ started Aya, getting close, both hand poised like claws.

‘Don’t.’

‘…witch-faced…’

‘No closer.’

‘…cunt.’

The last word hit hard, startling Kanae to such a degree that she stood up straight and was on the cusp of saying I’m the cunt, me? when a blur of yukata sleeve caught her eye.

To the left, bobbing awkwardly in the water, blood leaking out of both his chest and mouth…pulling a rock out of somewhere, trying to hold it up…to brain her?

Whatever Miho was attempting to do, there was no energy for it, not when he had to concentrate on coughing up his lungs, and the rock fell apologetic from his hand, sinking quickly into the shallow depths of the lake.

Behind him, Aya adjusted course, grabbing onto Miho’s yukata collar and yanking his head back up out of the water, telling him to stay awake and stop bleeding.

‘Rock…’ slurred Miho, disobeying and choking up blood directly onto Aya’s neck.

‘Don’t…’

‘…didn’t work.’

‘Miho, stop speaking. Stop. You have to conserve…’

‘Didn’t…’

‘…energy.’

His mouth shut, then opened again, going for one more shot at a sentence…but it was too much…too hard to even churn up blood…and the water was starting to feel slightly less cold…Aya’s arms were comfortable, soothing…and the night was creeping back in from the sides…

‘Miho, don’t close your…’ Aya started to say, switching her eyes to the blood slick surrounding them both, feeling the lack of movement from his arms, his chest, refusing to look back up at what she knew would be a death mask.

If you don’t look up, he’s not gone.

If you don’t look up, he’s not…

She looked up.

His eyes were open, as was his mouth. Pretending to be functional in his usual gormless village style just for her. But there was no breath escaping, no fluttering of the eyelids, no…

‘The water…’ someone mumbled from the side, probably the murderer, though Aya could care less about her. The witch had come for Miho and she’d taken Miho. Her only ally. The one person in this vicious fucking world who…

‘It’s roiling…’

Aya blinked, looking down at her wrist.

The murderer was right, there was something happening, bubbles popping up on the surface, visible currents swirling in frenzied loops, fish shadows darting away from the event horizon, a faint pink light slowly rising up from the lake bed.

‘What is this?’ shouted Kanae, pointing the dagger first at the abyss forming in the water, then at Aya’s neck. ‘What have you done?’

Aya looked at the tip of the dagger and painted her own throat onto it. Gripped Miho tighter towards her own body. Pushed the reflex tears from her eye sockets onto his scalp. Thought back to the time in Reiko’s Izakaya, the two of them eating together, drinking together, serving weird customers mountain asparagus together. Tangled her fingers into and between his. Leaned into his cold ear and whispered, ‘I’m coming too.’ Then closed her eyes and repeated it internally, like one of Himiko’s old parody mantras, doing absolutely nothing to stop herself and Miho being sucked down into the burgeoning alien-pink whirlpool of death.

‘What…this isn’t normal…’ shrieked Kanae, spinning round quickly, losing the dagger, lunging for the edge of the rock that had no real part for her to grip onto anyway…then shrieking again as the lake inhaled and sucked her in too.

Nearby, on the surface of the rock, a small ant watched the tragedy play out, tapping its front legs on a rough crack in the terrain, thinking to itself, that looks pretty awful.

Followed by a second thought, as the maelstrom gradually diluted itself, and Lake Suwa returned to its original serene state.

Glad I’m not a fish.