[Samurai House] I Remember Myself

[Doshii Jun]

Kôsuka was glad for the rain pouring on her head, sending slivers of cold through her thin black hair and into her skull.

It wasn't a moment for her to be thinking. That had been done before the deed that brought her there. The rain made it so she couldn't think even if she wanted to. The cold drove out all potential thoughts other than getting to a warm place.

She made a kind gesture to the interior guard — a trainee — as she passed the gates of Samurai House, toward one of the wooden towers within the grounds. Samurai and trainees bowed in her direction after some of them gave her surprised looks. She was supposed to be on assignment and everyone knew it. That she was not there suggested bad things.

Had the war become worse? What of the Miharu, the ship whispered about in corners, the opposite of the open praise of Hanako-hime's vessel, the Eucharis? Was Kotori-hime dead? So many questions floated around everyone who looked at her that Kôsuka stopped glancing at them, tired of battering their curious eyes away. Her eyes glued to a target, stayed there until she passed it, then found another place to stick themselves.

No one outranked her. She avoided Hanako House, and the other major Houses were not on the path she took, which was clear and solemn compared to the others, especially in the rain. The single-story pagoda was painted black and only had the sign — "Shrine House." The wooden tablet in her left sleeve was an uncomfortable weight.

The keeper of that house was a higher-ranked Samurai. And was waiting at the house's entrance, wizened old crone she was at the ripe age of 20. Kôsuka never taught under her, but her exploits helped fashioned the very history of the Samurai — protector of the Royal Archives, contributing creator of several martial arts, the basics of one still taught to all Yamataian soldiers in basic training. She fought in the Elysian Wars as Samurai. She moonlighted as a Sentinel, when lesser family members were visiting the palace.

All while being named "Ai." The irony was poison to Kôsuka's blood, but trainees ate it up. Being young in spirit, they could handle it.

"Honored keeper," Kôsuka said in formal Yamataian as she approached the entrance, not leaving the rain. "I do not deserve this meeting. Please do not waste your time with me."

"Impossible," Ai replied from her small, plump-lipped mouth. Her eyes were the shape of almonds; their color, too. They exuded the warmth one showed to a time-tested comrade. "I always have time for honored Sentinels."

"Of course. It is an honor." Never do things go as planned. "Can I enter this sacred ground?"

"No," Ai replied, eyes narrowing as her smile widened. Her body shifted just slightly in her white top and black hakama; Kôsuka could tell because the hilt of Ai's knife, her yoroidoshi, moved across her hips.

" — Oh, of course. Allow me to dry myself at the entrance, please. And I will discard my shoes."

"No, no, that will not do." Ai's smile did not change. Her tone carried a mild sing-song quality to it.

"I-Is there somethin — "

"Why are you here."

Kôsuka felt a new cold seep down her spine. "I'm, sorry, honored keeper?"

"You are supposed to be on a ship protecting your daughter. Or some other member of the clan. Instead you are here. I am not going to welcome you into a place of truth and reflection without an explanation." An even wider smile.

"T-that is preposterous. I am on leave. Surely the keeper would not deny me entrance to meditate?"

"I can. I am. Explain yourself, Samurai."

"I am on leave!"

"You are away from your charge."

"My trainees are with her."

"You trust your trainees with the life of a clan member?"

"And another Samurai."

"A male, unnatural Samurai?"

"Such a judgment is unbecoming of you, honored keeper."

"Such lies are beneath you, Sentinel."

Kôsuka tensed under the rain. Slow breathing fixed that. Grace under pressure. I have a mission to complete. "If I speak of my purpose ... it will remain a secret."

"Well, I won't tell anyone." The crone's smile nearly produced wrinkles.

The Samurai let the rain's cold stab at her mind until it forced the words from her mouth. "The male Samurai ... he has died, but not failed in his mission to protect the Princess from harm. His wish was not to be revived, but to be honorably recorded and replaced by someone of merit. I am here to complete with his request."

"He did not wish to be revived? Why?"

"His honor was too strict, honored keeper. He was very new to the clan."

Ai's eyes narrowed, but her smile hardly fluctuated a millimeter. "I see. You have his Spirit tablet?"

Kôsuka slipped the ihai from her left sleeve and held it in front of Ai, arm pointed straight at her. It was lacquered black, with red lettering — "Ketsurui Hasegawa Sumaru."

"Ah, I see." Ai's lips went flat. "Come, then. Hide it from the rain. Male or no, Samurai must be treated with honor."

Thank you Yuumi-sama, Kôsuka thought, and stepped inside the House.

The room was similar to the Hall of the Fallen Samurai within the Empress' Palace. The walls were lined with the tablets, long staggered rows of them, some with candles in front of them, one or two with flowers. The Samurai here were not those from the Elysian War, but the more recent Mishhuvurthyar wars, and other miscellaneous conflicts. As such, the rows weren't full on one side. Most were labeled red (full samurai), with a few in white (trainees). Kôsuka saw no gold (direct protection of the family) or green (honorable suicide) names.

The ceiling — essentially the bottom of the roof covered by boards — had no red tapestry. The floors were tatami covering thicker boards than those above her head. Candle lanterns lit the way as the rain pounded above her head. Kôsuka walked ahead of Ai after taking off her Samurai boots. Her socked feet felt good on the wood, which gave high-pitched squeaks when she walked on it.

One of the squeaks must have been used as cover. Kôsuka didn't hear the knife being drawn.

She had not expected it, but she heard the weapon cutting the air.

The Samurai tried to draw, but the knife was already hilted in her twisted side before her weapons had made it out of their sheaths.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Re: [Ketsurui Samurai] I Remember Myself

Spy?! Kôsuka cursed, eyes going wide as they gazed at Ai's hands gripping the hilt of the knife. She could not open her mouth and risk coughing up blood. It would soil the house and all of the honored spirits inside it.

"You entered this house based on lies," Ai said. She spoke as if Kôsuka was a criminal. "You have ruined your honor forever!"

"It is for my daughter and her crew!" Kôsuka used telepathy, but not because she wanted to. She had enough control over her OS to force it to reduce her telepathy's transmission power down to a mere 50 meters. "SAINT's eyes ... it would know! ... " The urge to cough was clawing at the bottom of her throat.

"And so you use this House — these honored comrades — as a ruse? To protect what? Nothing is so valuable!"

Ai twisted the knife, just a bit. Kôsuka felt one edge scrape a rib. The ihai in her sleeve fell onto the wood floor. It hit on a corner, and splintered.

"Please! ... If the original traitor is to ever die, my secret cannot be revealed! SAINT will know!"

" ... " "The original traitor? More lies."

Kôsuka tried to breathe a sigh of relief. It hurt quite a bit. "My daughter, she and her crew plan to bring her to justice. To do so, they utilize methods ... methods even Yui-sama does not know. SAINT cannot know. They are close!"

"All truths must be laid bare in this House, Samurai! Do not play these ghost games with me." Another, more prominent twist. She could feel the back of the blade against her bone. Blood was pouring from the wound, staining her gi.

"Tell me what you know. Don't lie. Save what pathetic scrap of honor you have left." A third twist. The dull back of the blade against her rib caused her just enough pain to resist. Ai was talking now, and Kôsuka could see her face through another part of her skin. The Samurai was desperate, angry, unsatisfied somehow.

"Tell me! Or die as nothing but a pool of goo!"

Goo? Kôsuka almost savored the warm sensation of blood running down her leg and being soaked into her red hakama. It was so much better than the cold in her toes and fingertips. Her vision caught how much effort Ai's face showed from twisting —

A single-edged weapon.

The shock made Kôsuka clench her jaw so hard she felt a few of her teeth crack. Rich adrenaline flooded her system. Fury, too. The kind of fury that let her twist her waist enough to get her hands down to her wakizashi. She floated upward and away from the knife, and it left her body.

She only had a second. More would be on the way. Kôsuka, still floating, brought her sword down hard onto the impostor's head. The blade was plunged hilt deep through the skull, down the throat and into the lungs. The Neko's eyes would always be angry, now.

Kôsuka came down on the ground and grabbed the body's gi with her free hand. She drew her sword out slowly as she walked the body to the stoop of Shrine House. She wiped the blade clean on the gi, then shoved the body into the rain, spinning away from it as she sheathed her blade.

"We know," Kôsuka grimly thought as she stripped off her gi to tie it around the wound. The light-headedness was close. She was NH-29, but perfectly molded by SAINT and practiced in Ai-dono's movements ... but probably no more than a sprite. Cracked when I didn't divulge what I knew. But SAINT already knows enough.

The NH-27 walked slowly, but she was tall and confident as she crossed past the ihai to the back of the House. She was almost past a false wall when she heard the guns click behind her.

"We can dump your memory," the presumed leader said to Kôsuka's back. "It doesn't have to be hard."

"This is Irim's doing, isn't it," Kôsuka said, razors edging every word. "She won't even trust her own Mistress."

"Give up, and maybe she won't personally gut your OS," the leader said. Through her skin, Kôsuka saw two other agents. They had Type 28 SMGs; the leader was using a Type 30 NSP. The lasers were trained on the bare part of her back, below her sports bra.

They wore pure-white trainee outfits.

"Only three? But NH-29. Samurai security is not so porous."

"You've got three seconds, Kôsuka. Don't be a fool."

The shots were going to hurt, but she had to. In a smooth, spinning draw, Kôsuka hurled her wakizashi hilt-first. It cracked into the right agent's head and stayed there. The shots from the left agent's SMG spattered against Kôsuka's skin, blasting her left side's muscle tissue away. Which was fine, as she still had her right side. She floated low, nearly flat against the ground and at full speed, faster than either NH-29 could track her. She collided with the SMG wielder's legs, pulled her body up hard and came to a stop behind her.

The NH-29 was smart enough to have floated above the attack, her lower legs harmlessly knocked back. But she wasn't smart enough to dodge Kôsuka's punch to her throat, or durable enough to survive her mental core's link to the rest of her body being severed.

Pain broke Kôsuka's focus; the leader shot her in her collarbone on the left side, taking out a small piece of her neck. She was glad she didn't need to breathe. The NH-27 grasped her weaker sister by the neck and used every gram of strength she had in her to squeeze. The leader's neck was reduced to a bruised, wrung paper towel, and she joined her sister on the ground.

She grabbed one of their gis and tied it around her upper body using her one good hand and her teeth. No blood had touched any area outside of the stoop and the entryway, which was all that mattered.

* * *

Below Shrine House, about two meters under the stoop, was a CIES unit — one independent of PANTHEON, the kind YSS Hoshi used. It was attached to a Soul Transfer device, manned by the avatar. Its purpose was not to transfer souls from one body to another, but to store and proliferate the memories and knowledge of Samurai in a place where no one else, especially SAINT, could access it.

The unit was behind a vault. The kind of vault that had a protruding SLICS/SPINE reader outside of it to fully probe anyone who attempted to use it, which Kôsuka figured was why the SAINT agents had not simply shot her in the back. She was allowed inside.

As she sat down in the chair of the Soul Transfer device, a bland, black-haired avatar in a trainee's outfit materialized and smiled. "Kôsuka-dono, what can I help you with today?"

"I need a back-up restored to me. Here is the date. Knowledge forward of that date is to be removed, understood?"

"Purged entirely, Kôsuka-dono?"

"Yes. Please hurry."

The avatar lowered the Soul Transfer device's helmet onto Kôsuka's head. "Of course, Kôsuka-dono. It will be just a few minutes. Please relax."

The Samurai let out a small sigh. "I'll do my best."