Chapter 9   A Woman’s most potent weapon

(Hitomi)

The world spun round and round and I felt being sucked into a dark bottomless pit.
I remembered the heavy blow on my neck and my body crumpling onto the ground..  Then, total darkness.
“Am I dead?”
Strangely, the question being asked inside my head was devoid of feelings.  I knew I no longer cared.  
“Let Ikkenshi kill me, or do what he wants to me…” I resigned to my fate.  I deserved all these and much worse.  I had taken pity on Jun-ichi for his being blinded by his own wishful thinking.  What about me?  My world collapsed the instant Ikkenshi told the truth.  I had been used.  My plan, my life was nothing but a tool for those with their own designs.  But did that make me less guilty of the crime I had devised?  No!  I might be an unaware accomplice but certainly a conscious plotter.  If they had not used me, I would still have murdered my father!
Beasts!
My father was a beast!
And so was I!  
No matter how I would deny it, the blood flowing inside my vein belonged to the Satomi as well as the Hakatas.

He was carrying me up.  The short climb of stairs ended and a sliding door was pulled open and we were inside.
I felt myself being laid down on the tatami.  There was the shuffling sound of clothes and then of their being disposed into a corner.  I tired to open my eyes but the effort proved to be too demanding.  So, I waited, fully knowing what would inevitably follow.
My obi was untied and someone pulled at one end and my body made several rolls across the small room.  My undergarment was only loosely clinging to my body now.  A hand slipped in between the laps and cupped one of my breasts.  I summoned all my strength to put up resistance.  It was in vain.  My feeble strength could do nothing more than earn a mocking laugh.  I was sure of whom he was now though I knew from the beginning that there could be no other.  I felt my eyes getting moist and soon a drop of tears ran down my cheeks.  So be it!  I no longer cared.
He slipped my undergarment off my shoulders and before long; I was totally naked before his eyes.  His hands roamed over the curves, the thighs and the tapered legs.  Then, he forced open my legs.

I did not scream when he mounted and entered me.  The pain between my legs and that on my soul battled for the position of champion of my suffering.  That on my soul won.  He was moving faster and faster now, his hands on my breasts fondling and squeezing and an unearthly sound escaped his throat.
I braced my back so that my breasts would be held higher; their nipples must be bouncing in front of him, urging him on.  He entered deeper and harder.  I uttered my first moan and brought my weak arms to hold his waist.  
He was laughing now, the laugh of a victor, the ultimate conqueror of my body and soul.
I let him hypnotize himself on his victory.  Then, I counter-attacked.
“Aaahhhh…Katsuo…”
He froze!
As if I was some demon from the bowel of Hell, he recoiled from me and pushed me back onto the ground I opened my eyes just in time to see him holding on to his naked spent manhood.  His face was contorted in rage and horror...
I sealed my victory with a cruel smile.
He reached for his katana and drew it.
Good!  
I closed my eyes and waited for the blade.
It did not come.
Instead his hands were around my neck and I had to fight down the terror of being suffocated.  I must not show my fear!
I open wide my eyes and starred into his eyes.
“Slay me!” I dared him.
His fingers tightened and I by instinct began to fight for breadth.
Then he relented his hold.
“No, dear sister."  I will not let you die that easily.” He hissed. “You will see my victory over the Katsuo you lust so much!  Yes!  You shall see with your very eyes how I, Ikkenshi, will tear his forces to shreds as an eagle would to a sparrow and I will cut off his head, rip out his heart and severe his genitals before you.  Only then, I may consider granting you what you wish…may be.”
“You?” I let out a laugh of despise. “Katsuo can defeat you with one hand tied behind his back!”
“He will, won’t he? “ His over-confidence was making me uneasy.
“Let me show you something, dear sister of mine.”  
He dragged me by the hair and forced me to the verandah. There, I could see the valley open and the only road that would lead up to Sakurakijo and Tennoji.
“Do you see that wood over there at the left, dear Hitomi?”  It is there that Katsuo will meet his end.  He must be rushing here now, anxious to rescue his beloved sister from her plight.  What he does not know is that in that wood, two thousand best archers of the Uesugi army are lying in wait…”
I shuddered.  Ikkenshi had chosen his spot well.  Hidden from the bend of the road, such ambush would be difficult to spot and its concentrated fire deadly to the intended prey.  I could not bring myself to face the horror to see Katsuo and his men being massacred and there was nothing I could do to help.  The distance was close enough for me to witness the slaughter but too far for them to register any warning that my voice could deliver.
“I will kill you, Ikkenshi!” I swore.
That did not disturb him.
“I am sure you will, dear sister of mine.  But for now, I must prepare myself for the crowning victory of my life.”  
He gathered his clothes and walked out of the room.  Two of his men were guarding outside.  I snatched back my white undergarment in horror and covered my exposed body.
“Guard her well.  If she escapes, you die.  If she kills herself, you die!  I will have better use of her when I come back!”
The two guards stiffened nervously at the threat.
He turned to me.
“So, my pretty one."  Till then.” And he was gone.
I was dumbstruck for a long time.  
“Am I to bear such sad fate, to see Katsuo and his men being cut down mercilessly?”  No!  I must do something, anything!
I put back my dress on and fanatically searched the room for something that might help me escape some weapon perhaps.
There was none.
I recognized the room now, it was the one above Jun-ichi’s teahouse and we used to play here when we were much younger.  The thought of Jun-ichi saddened my heart and magnified the sorrow and desperation already engulfing me.  I sat at a corner and began to sob.  Then, between the narrow crack between the tatami and the wall my fingers touched something, something cold and hard…