Chapter 15    The Final Encounter  


(Hitomi)

I knew he would come.
I had betrayed him.  His long cherished dream was utterly destroyed together with his force and mercenary.
He would not rest until he had me executed.

“I will kill that bitch!” I heard his shouting as he stormed through the gate.
His pace was quick as there would be little time.
He must kill me before Katsuo’s men arrived so that he could still have time to flee for his life and the road to the Uesugi land still remained open.

“You fools!” The curse was followed by cries uttered in agony, doubtlessly from the two guards that were supposed to watch over me.  Their negligence in duty to prevent me from betraying the position of the hidden archers.  They had paid the price of that mistake dearly.  The heavy sound of body crumpling onto the ground followed.

The sliding door was pulled open by sheer force.  He was there, his bloodied katana in hand, his face shrouded in ominous clouds of bitter rage.

“I should have killed you and feed you to the rats!” he sneered.
“Yes, you should.”  I remained calm.  I must not let him know that my heart was beating at least three times faster than normal.
I did not fear death.  That would be a release.  But I would not let him have the satisfaction of finishing my life.  
He took one step forward and I backed off a similar distance.
He advanced again.  I repeated the same movement.
But the room was small and there was no more space for me to retreat.  My back was against the simple bookshelf where a few tantras were kept.

“You have ruined me, Hitomi.  And I will not let you get away from it.”
He raised his sword and raised it high.  He was aiming at my neck.
“So, you are going to kill me, Ikkenshi?”
“Yes!  And nothing can help you now.  Do not hope that your Katsuo will save you.  By the time he is here, you will be a corpse without a head!” he was slowly closing in, making sure that I could not have concealed any weapon up my sleeve.  There was none.
“Very well, then.  Do it!” He had me cornered now.  There was no way to run.
“Die! Hitomi!”
He lunged and just as the blade was to land on my neck, I made a movement that he had least expected.  I knelt!  His blade missed me by a fraction of a second.  Thinking that I was to go for his tanto still at his belt, he took a step backward with his right foot to put up more distance between my hand and the hilt of his shorter sword while trying to change the direction of the cut to a vertical one, aiming to split me from my skill into two.
But he was wrong.  I never intended to go for the sword.  Kneeling, my body was bent backwards and from one of the tantra scrolls, I grab something and thrust up!
It went straight into his exposed throat!
His eyes opened wide at the shock.  Slowly, he made the effort to pull his chin inward so that he could see the part of the broken flute with its sharpened end buried inside him!
“You…” he knew he was dying and made one last attempt to bring the blade down.
“See you in Hell, Ikkenshi!” I twisted my wrist and pulled and the hole was torn wide for the jet of blood to come showering down on my face.  He fell onto the tatami; eyes and mouth wide open in disbelief.
I stepped over his corpse to proceed down the stairs.  
The guards had fled and there was no one around the lily pond.  At the entrance to the teahouse, his body of Jun-ichi was left where he had fallen; unseeing eyes gazed at the void.  
My last ounce of strength seemed to be leaving me.  My shaking legs could hold me no longer and my knees buckled.  Kneeling by the pond, I could see the reflection of what was supposed to be me. Ikkenshi’s blood was all over my face and garment. I dropped the broken flute and looked into my palms, dyed crimson red.  What had I done?  What had I become?
I pressed my hands on the ground to support my shaking body.  And in the midst of hideous croaking of crows, I began to cry.