If she truly wanted to bring Jin’s murderer to justice, she needed help. The Tsenzu, limited though their resources may be, knew things about Jin no one else did.
Someone who may have wanted to hurt him.
***
The moon glowed in the sky. It was about to become full again. Yuri wondered how Kaito was faring with Mayumi. Seemed she was right to take him from the capital. Things were complicated here and she didn’t know who to trust.
She approached the door to the inn, looking both ways before tapping on the wooden frame. The door opened and she walked inside the inn. Murmured voices filled the main hall. People pointed and stared at her with worried looks on their faces.
Sesshu approached. “Good to see you, Yuri. Tell me, what can we do for you?”
He wore the same robes from a few nights ago, though there was more ink than cloth showing on the light grey fabric. His face was also covered in soot. Yuri bowed in respect.
“Master Sesshu. I was wondering if you could tell me if anyone would want Jin dead? A group that hates the Tsenzu, perhaps.”
“Not enough to do something as drastic as killing the Shogun.”
Yuri sighed. Another dead end. The entire room focused their attention on her. The conversations stopped and Yuri darted her eyes to each group of people as they stared back at her, angry expressions on every last one of their faces.
She whispered in Sesshu's ear, "Is there a reason everyone is staring at me?"
"You mean, you don't know?" Sesshu asked.
Yuri shook her head.
"Lord Kasaju issued a bounty on some of our brethren's heads. Almost everyone in this room thinks you are a spy."
"And you?"
"I still think you're on the right side," he said with a smile.
"Well, if you don't know anything, I'll just continue my investigation elsewhere."
She made her way to the door at a faster rate than normal. Several of the men blocked her from the exit. Their arms were folded across their chest as they scowled at her.
"Sesshu?" she asked, her voice cracking.
Yuri looked behind for any sign of Sesshu. All she saw were the ink on his robes and a door sliding closed. She swallowed hard, trying to think her way out of the situation.
"I'm not a spy. I had nothing to do with this, I swear."
The men came several steps closer. Yuri backed away and found herself encircled by everyone in the room. She could taste their malice and resentment towards her in the air. Even the gossiping inn keeper's daughter showed signs of hostility towards her.
Several of the men unsheathed their tachis. Nitsu seiba would've really come in handy right about now. Even if she did have the sun saber on her person, its power would be useless in the dead of night. Thinking of other ways to stay alive proved pointless as they jumped her and began beating her body until she felt nothing but pain.
She didn't have a choice. It was time to use that.
Yuri shouted and raised her arms in the air. Every single one of the Tsenzu went flying backwards in all directions with her body acting as the epicenter.
The technique she'd used was only to be used for quick getaways. It wasn't meant to take on a small army. Everyone inside her blinding solar field clawed at the air, grabbing onto anything solid — even if that something was another Tsenzu. The room erupted into chaos. Fists flew and blades danced as everyone fought each other, giving Yuri time to slip away.
She didn't bother closing the door. The spell would last for a few more seconds and those who could still follow her would find it impossible to see her. She ran for a nearby building, out of sight from the inn's vantage point in the center of town.
Her heart rate slowed, signaling the end of the spell. It was the first time she needed to use such a power. Only wielders of nitsu seiba knew how to use it. The knowledge of the spell was passed down through the sword itself like a master to an apprentice.
Yuri took a deep breath and readied her self for the long sprint to the castle. The Tsenzu wouldn't dare try attacking the castle with their numbers and lack of weaponry. All she had to do was lay low and hope this whole thing blew over.
Lord Kasaju's face entered her mind and she froze mid-sprint. Right now, she was more afraid of the Tsenzu than she was of Kasaju. Besides, the former Shogun didn't know anything. The bounties had to be a coincidence. She could hide in her quarters, go about her daily business and never set foot inside the city. It wasn't like the Kanrei needed to visit the city of Kyotomo.
Yuri slowed her breathing and walked the rest of the way to the castle wall, looking behind her every so often to see if anyone followed. No one did.
***
The interior of the boat leaked out of several freshly made holes from the storm raging outside. They hadn't heard from Eiji in a while. Kaito wondered how he was faring against the storm. The man knew what to do, but doing it all himself? That was crazy.
Mayumi didn't appear the least bit worried about the storm, which made Kaito suspicious. Was she using tsuki no ha-ken? A storm lasting this long was anything but normal. The moon was out, now which made the prospect of her manipulating the boat all that more convincing.
He couldn't remember what the moon looked like, or see it from his current location, but very little light was coming in from the windows below deck. If the moon was close to full, then this storm would make sense. The last time Mayumi used the lunar blade's power the moon was in the process of getting larger. The storm happening now was much bigger and a lot more frightening.
Jets of water burst from several leaking cracks along the walls. Mayumi payed it no mind. Now Kaito was curious. Why would she risk drowning everyone aboard? The room below deck started filling up with water at a high rate. Soon they were knee deep in water.
"Mayumi, if you're doing this. Please, stop."
The water reached his belt area and continued to rise.
Mayumi said nothing.
Was this her plan all along? To kill him and dispose of the body. To get rid of any evidence. The longer he thought about her motives, the more worried be felt. I'm going to die, he thought. And no one will even know.
Mayumi stood up. The water now reaching below her breasts. She unsheathed tsuki no ha-ken and transformed it into the crescent-shaped blade Kaito knew was the tachi's true form. She raised the sword and spun it over her head with her one hand, circling it from right to left.
Water inched to their chin.
She spun the blade faster. Kaito couldn't believe how she was doing this, and with one hand no less. He watched her, forgetting that in a few seconds the room would fill with water. Some of the salted liquid entered his mouth, snapping him back into the present.
The water level stopped. Kaito kept himself afloat, barely. He swam for the hatch and opened it. The sun shined above his head, blinding him for a moment. He shielded his eyes and walked on to the deck. There was no sign of Eiji.
Kaito spun around. "Eiji's gone!"
Mayumi came out from the flooded lower deck and looked around, her face calm and expressionless. What was she thinking? Killing the one man who knew how to pilot the ship. Now they were stranded in the middle of the ocean. That didn't even include the damage done to the ship.
"What have you done," he said quietly. "You killed him!"
"Just because you don't see him doesn't mean he's dead." She pointed to the front of the ship.
Kaito narrowed his eyes, trying to make out what she wanted him to see. No, it can't be.
They were here, outside Yoshino's royal palace.
Chapter Fourteen
Hope you enjoyed the first book in this serialized epic. If you'd like to get the next book, you can purchase it on Amazon or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited. Simply click here to find the book’s page. Moon and Star is the first saga in a larger world. If you’d like to learn more about it, visit my website at MikeBergonzi.net and click “Jakai Chronicles” at the top of the page. There you can get a behind the scenes l
ook at the creation of the story along with its relationship to the larger universe all my books are set in.
Thanks for reading.
Preview of Book Three
Kaito has made it safely to the Southern capital, but things have only gotten worse since he left. Yuri is caught between two warring factions inside Kyotomo. Meanwhile the circumstances of Kaito's birth become unravelled and nothing is as it seems.
Book Two in the first saga of The Jakai Chronicles. A tale of honor, magic, and politics.
Chapter Fifteen
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Chapter Sixteen
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MikeBergonzi.net
Chapter Seventeen
Already a hybrid author and no soon after he published his second novel on Amazon at age 24, Michael Bergonzi grew up with a love of all things fictional. Stories by Brian Jacques and J.K. Rowling inspired him at a young age to write, and get a mouse–which he named Luke, after the father of Martin the Warrior from Jacques’ Redwall series. He also got the first Harry Potter book in Scotland before it became big in the U.S. He was one of the few people at his school on halloween to dress as Harry Potter that year.
He is the founder of Audio Drama Reviews–a weekly review site dedicated to all things involving audible storytelling. His first novel, Moon and Star, is the first book in The Jakai Chronicles, a secondary world fantasy influenced by Feudal Japan. His favorite recent works include Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Series and Dan Wells' John Wayne Cleaver Books. Both of which amaze him and make him question his own sanity.
Moon and Star: Book One Page 10