Death Before Dishonor Page 27

  “What’re we supposed to do now?” Terry asked, taking the cue from his brother’s eyes, not his smile.

  “Yuri, is he really making fun of me?” Veronica had no clue what Terry was saying. His body language and tone, however, were unmistakable for a woman of her prowess.

  “Sure is. Terry does that to you often, don’t you, Terry? Make fun of people in a language they don’t understand, I mean.”

  Terry placed his hands his on hips. “Playing dumb isn’t going to make this better,” he said venomously. “You just made this far worse for all of us.”

  Yuri heard him, but Yuri just wasn’t listening; he didn’t care at all. The Fujibayashi weren’t going to do anything to him. “Well, you’re being Chatty Cathy today. It’s going to be a long couple of weeks. Come on, babe, I’ll show you where we’ll be shacking up.” Yuri grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off.

  “Yuri, you want to explain to me what’s going on?” Veronica whispered as they made their way along one of the paths that etched its way between the cottages. “I don’t have to speak Japanese to know that there is some real tension after last night.”

  “Nope.”

  “Were you boys unable to work out whatever differences you had in the hotel?”

  “No, we worked everything out—mostly everything, anyways. He’s just being sensitive about something going on here.” Yuri turned and looked at her with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “You know how family can be.”

  “Yuri?”

  “Don’t worry about it. My entire family is well behaved. I’m the only one who has behavior issues.”

  “Imagine that,” she laughed. “Which reminds me, we need to talk about you and my father.”

  “Can it wait until we get back to the States?” Yuri said, walking up the stairs of the porch to a cottage that bordered the river. “I don’t want to deal with any dating politics while I’m on vacation.”

  “Yuri.”

  He stopped at the rice paper door and turned. “Hm?”

  “You’re hiding something?”

  “Of course.”

  ***

  Akiko, Saki, and Terry had been looking all over for Kintake. They had found him returning to his suite after bathing in the river. There was no peace for a kōchō when he was in the village, especially this close to the ritual. Kintake’s face was marred with frustration when he saw Chunin marching in his direction, especially during such a personal time. Akiko’s gait moved with purpose, as did Saki’s. Terry, however, just seemed along for the ride. Kintake paused to wait for them, removed a layer, and began drying his short salt-and-pepper hair. He nodded at them and waited.

  Akiko was the first to reach him. She bowed swiftly and got right to business. “Father, Yuri is completely out of control.”

  Kintake barely had time to return the bow. He raised a hand, trying to settle her. “Calm down, daughter. That is a trait very typical of Yuri and not something to be alarmed about.”

  Saki and Terry came alongside her and bowed to the kōchō. He returned their respect with a nod.

  “Father, Yuri has brought an outsider into the village.”

  Kintake hung the damp garment across the back of his neck and rubbed his hand through his hair to see if it was still wet. “I am aware. Sumimito Sensei informed me as soon as Yuri and his guest had arrived.”

  “We have to do something.” Akiko’s face was beset with urgency; it even oozed from her pores.

  “Now is not the time for overreaction,” Kintake replied, his voice full of caution.

  “How is righting this transgression overreaction?”

  “Master,” Saki interjected, “Akiko is right. Yuri has blatantly violated the code, and it cannot be overlooked. The entire village is aware. Something must be done.”

  Kintake sighed loudly. “We’ve been over this; Yuri is going to fight. End of discussion.”

  Akiko couldn’t contain her disappointment and anger any longer; this was outrageous! Never in a million years would she have thought that she’d be entangled in such a hypocritical situation that tore down every ethic that held their very existence together. But here she was, standing on the river’s edge, listening to her father—the kōchō—disregard their very laws. “Father, you can’t be serious! Do you not see his blatant disregard for our traditions and laws—traditions and laws that have existed for centuries?”

  Saki couldn’t understand either. Was Kintake blind? “Why are you so adamant about Yuri fighting despite his behavior?” Saki asked.

  Kintake stroked his chin thoughtfully, noticing that the wind had picked up. “Akiko, the selection of warriors for this ritual is based not on choice but rather on destiny. Saki, Terry, and Yuri are destined to do battle.” He looked deep into his daughter’s eyes. “You are not.”

  Akiko’s face twisted with anger. “So, we are to let him continue to soil that which we hold most sacred and then allow him to carry dishonor onto our most sacred land unchecked? We are to do nothing?”

  Kintake didn’t like his daughter’s tone, but he understood her anger. For that, he let her words slide. “Terry,” Kintake said, turning his attention toward his silent Chunin, “have you nothing to add.”

  “I—I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say that we should uphold Ninpo, Terry!” Akiko blurted out, forgetting her manners and her place.

  Kintake gritted his teeth and exhaled frustration into the frigid air through his nose. “Daughter, I will not tell you to control your outburst again.”

  She huffed resentfully.

  Kintake continued, “Destiny is not always enjoyable, nor is it always agreeable. I do not condone Yuri’s actions, but I cannot change what Hattori Hanzo divined decades ago.”

  “Divined?”

  “Yes, daughter—divined. Hattori Hanzo communed with our ancestors decades ago about these exact moments, and the ancestors destined six specific warriors: three Fujibayashi and three Momochi. That is the reason I am so adamant. I cannot undo what the universe has written thus.”

  “Well, he divined wrong!” Akiko asserted just below a roar.

  Terry’s head snapped in her direction.

  She continued, “Yuri deserves to die for violating our code. He has become an enemy of Ninpo.” Akiko bowed and stormed off to seethe elsewhere.

  Terry followed her. She had Yuri all wrong, and he was determined to set her straight.

  “Akiko, Yuri’s wrong, but he hasn’t abandoned Ninpo. He has upheld it proudly for years; he’s just terribly confused right now.”

  “Greater Shinobi than Yuri have been hunted and eliminated for their crimes. What makes Yuri different?”

  “Are you hearing yourself? This isn’t some story we’re telling; this is my brother. We all grew up together. Think about that.”

  “Ninpo does not differentiate between confused disregard and blatant disregard, Terry. You would do well to remember where your allegiance lies.”

  Terry stopped in his tracks. “Are you threatening me now?”

  Akiko stopped too and spun to face him. “No—I am saying that we dishonor ourselves by allowing him to do whatever he chooses and to leave us to pick up the pieces. Dishonor will see us all to our doom. We must act swiftly and without hesitation.”

  “We mustn’t overreact. This is the twenty-first century, not the seventeenth. We don’t execute our own because of what we perceive as a slight to our interpretations.”

  “Both of you have changed.” Her voice echoed with spite. “Leaving Togakure Ryu damaged him—it has damaged you. Far from Ninpo, you have drifted.”

  “My brother is dealing with his own demons,” Terry said, patting his heart with his hand, “but I haven’t changed. I’m still the same person you knew.”

  Akiko raised her chin and stared Terry deep in his eyes as if he wasn’t almost a full head taller. “No, Terry, you are not.” And she turned and left.

  ***

  Terry leaned up against an uprooted tree, wearing his g
ray tunic, trousers, and tabi shoes, staring at the sky. Saki, dressed the same but with his cowl over his head to keep warm, wasn’t so serene; he paced in front of Terry. Yuri was supposed to have met them nearly forty-five minutes earlier but hadn’t shown. Instead, he was busy cavorting with the foreigner.

  Saki was growing weary of the constant tension between him, Terry, Akiko, and Yuri. Moreover, he was growing even more tired of the constant pressure from the Jonin. He felt as though he was being blamed for Yuri’s actions. And for Yuri’s part, he had totally abandoned that which was righteous and just.

  And just as Saki was feeling as though his patience had reached the breaking point, Yuri jogged up the walking path wearing a wool cap, sweatshirt, jogging pants, and cross-training boots, with his harness and ninjatō slung over his back.

  “Ladies,” Yuri greeted matter-of-factly, placing his hands on his hips and bending at the waist to catch his breath after his five-hundred-foot ascent.

  “Nice of you to finally show up.” Terry focused on his gloves as he adjusted them. “It’s not like we have a schedule to keep.”

  Yuri ignored him. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

  “You are really pushing the limits,” Saki said.

  Yuri snorted, unmoved, and stuffed his hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt. “What’re you trying to say, Saki?"

  Terry looked up finally. “He’s saying that we’re all being more tolerant of your behavior than you rightfully deserve.”

  “Don’t start,” Yuri growled.

  “No, you are going to listen—and listen well.” Saki spoke with his lips and never opened his jaw, trying to maintain his cool. “You would do well to remember who you are and your place. You are Shinobi, and forgetting that will cost you your life.”

  “Are you threatening me? Because it sounds to me like you’re threatening me, and I don’t like being threatened.”

  Terry pushed himself off of the tree, using his back. “We’re telling you to get it together. What you’re doing is wrong, and you know it.”

  “Terry”—Yuri clenched his fists in his pocket—“you better remember whose team you’re on. If you want to threaten me, I’ll take you out just the same.”

  Terry’s expression was dubious. “Nobody’s threatening you. Stop it.”

  “I am threatening you.” Saki yanked his ninjatō from its sheath and leveled it between them. Terry and Yuri both looked at him. Saki’s eyes were as serious as death. “In fact, I am going to end this now. I am going to return you to honor and deal with the kōchō’s consequences; his consequences are better than the dishonor of not defending Ninpo.”

  “We can both die today, Saki,” Yuri growled, whipping his ninjatō from its sheath.

  “Stop!” Terry yelled, jumping in between his comrades; he’d stirred the birds to chorus he had yelled so loud. “Look at us! Look—look what we’ve become! When did we all become enemies? Huh? When? We don’t even need to fight Momochi, because we’ll just kill ourselves! Because that’s what Ninpo demands, right? Saki, is that what it demands, that we kill our brothers?”

  Saki shook his head.

  Terry swung his head back toward his brother and implored, “Is that what it demands, Yuri?”

  Yuri responded only with the menace that had filled his eyes.

  Yuri’s body language wasn’t enough for Terry, who posed the question again, “Does it?”

  “Fuck Ninpo,” Yuri spat, “and everyone who follows it.”

  Terry snatched a handful of his brother’s sweatshirt and yanked him in close. “I follow Ninpo. Are you turning your back on me? Are you going to threaten to kill me too?”

  Yuri’s eyes grew rapacious, and he didn’t pull away. “I’m not scared of you. I’m not scared of anyone.”

  “This isn’t about fear; this is about what’s right! Look at us! We can’t tell friend from enemy! This is what we’ve become! This is what you’ve become! Aspirations of slaying your own kin!”

  “They’re no kin to me!” Yuri belched, straining against Terry’s grip. “My only kin are my dead parents and you! Although I think you’ve forgotten that.”

  Terry exploded at the evocation of his parents, drilling Yuri in the cheekbone. “Do you think Mom and Dad would be proud of this, you fucking sociopath?”

  Yuri toppled and rolled down the incline, his sword cartwheeling even further down.

  “Do you think they’d be proud of you trying to hurt the only people who have ever loved you?”

  Yuri, sliding a few feet down the hard-frozen incline, stopped on his knees and rubbed his face. Then he erupted. “They don’t love me!” His eyes welled with tears. “They don’t love us! They never have. We’ve always been outsiders. Kintake brought us here only to abuse us. We have the scars to prove it.

  “They all just want us to play their stupid ninja game! And for what? They got along just fine without us! They never wondered how we were doing, if we were able to survive them abandoning us! Not even Saki, our so-called brother!

  “I don’t want to be here! I don’t want to play their stupid game anymore! I just want to lead a normal life! I just want to be happy—like our parents were! I want their spirits to rest happily knowing that we made something of ourselves! I don’t want to do this anymore—I don’t want to be Shinobi! I don’t want to kill anymore. You won’t let me, though! You want to keep me trapped here with you!” Yuri clawed handfuls of frozen dirt from the ground and threw them at his brother. “Why don’t you want me to be in love with Veronica? Is it because you’re selfish and all you care about is your stupid code—your stupid honor?”

  “Yuri, I—” Terry tried to say, but then he realized that he had nothing. He felt instantly small.

  “No! Fuck your stupid code! I don’t care anymore! Why can’t I just be what I want to be? I want to be in love! I want to be a husband and a dad one day, just like our dad. But that’s not okay is it? I have to be brainwashed just like you!”

  “Yuri, you must not give up,” Saki said, finally lowering his ninjatō. “I am not your enemy. I am—”

  “Fuck you, Saki!” Yuri climbed to his feet. “Fuck both of you!” Yuri set off down the hill, back to the one thing that he felt was right in the world.

  Terry started after his brother, but Saki grabbed a handful of Terry’s harness.

  “Let him go, Terry.”

  Terry threw his arms in the air. “What is happening?”

  “I am not sure. There is something terribly wrong.”

  Terry sighed loudly.

  “We should go speak with Omiyoshu Sensei,” Saki said, returning his sword to its sheath. “Perhaps we can convince him that Yuri is no longer fit to fight. Perhaps we can convince him that Akiko should take his place.”

  Terry shook his head. “I don’t want to involve Omiyoshu Sensei anymore. He’s going to have us killed if we can’t get it together.”

  “Do we have another choice?”

  “Not if Yuri doesn’t come to his senses. But I’m not ready to take my brother’s life, nor am I ready to take my own.”

  ***

  Yuri didn’t sleep well. He lay on his mat, inside his sleeping bag, and stared at Veronica as she slept. When he had returned, he hadn’t cared about anything Fujibayashi, but as the night had pressed on, he’d started to question with whom he was so angry and so resentful and why. There was no dispute that he didn’t want to be part of Ninpo, but he didn’t want to be at odds with Terry—or Saki for that matter. They were important to him. His anger and disillusionment were causing him to lash out at them. Terry and Saki couldn’t help that they were unable to see Yuri’s perspective, and Yuri felt terrible about his reaction even if he meant every word of it.

  What really played havoc on his mind was Terry’s comments about their parents. Would they be unhappy with him and his choices? Would they disagree with his desire to choose Veronica over Ninpo? He doubted it, but he had no doubt that his parents would be disappointed if he abandoned his brother.


  He couldn’t abandon Terry. He was his brother’s keeper.

  Yuri got up and crept out of the cottage.

  Terry stretched on the floor of his cottage with his legs spread to either side. He reached for his toes, stretching his hamstrings and the muscles around his ribs at the same time. Then there was a knock at the door. He jumped; he wasn’t expecting anybody. Saki, who was on the opposite side of the room cleaning his weapons, rose to meet their visitor.

  “Terry?” Yuri whispered through the crack of the door as he opened it.

  Terry didn’t get up. “I don’t want to argue anymore, Yuri. You win.”

  Yuri came through the threshold and shut the cold out behind him. “I’m not here to argue with you. I just came to talk.”

  “Oh yeah?” Terry chortled, unamused. “Are you here to draw your sword and threaten me too? You going to call me selfish?”

  “No—I just came to talk.”

  “To be sure, by all rights, we should have killed you—Terry paused for effect—“and Veronica two days ago. We didn’t do that. You don’t respect that you are jeopardizing our core values. All you care about is this new crusade that you’re on. Which is news to me, because when we were in Rio a year ago, you showed no signs of turmoil. So, what is it you could possibly have to talk about, because I don’t love you if my memory serves me correctly?”

  “Terry, calm yourself,” said Saki.

  Yuri put a conceding hand in the air. “No, Saki, I deserve that. I just came to tell you that I’m going to fight.”

  Terry shot up. “My God, Yuri! Why? So you can change your mind and threaten everybody again tomorrow when you whimsically decide that it’s not convenient to your love life?”

  “Mom and Dad wouldn’t want that. They wouldn’t want me to let you put your life on the line alone. I’m going to finish this…and then move on.”

  “I’m not alone. I have Saki.”

  “You have me too.”

  “What about Veronica?”

  “I told you. I’m going to end this and then move on.”