Kosai's Duel with Qinghong House

[Moon-Crescent Gambling Hall]

It was the end of the year in Edo. Snow fell thick through the night, yet the Moon-Crescent Gambling Hall still blazed with light. Young rakes, hardened gamblers, and idle spectators crowded so tightly around one gaming table that no one could squeeze through. Even Saki Katsuki, the most celebrated courtesan of Qinghong House, stood in the corner watching with cool eyes. Gold, silver, and promissory notes were piled in front of the dealer. Opposite him sat only one gaunt, long-limbed man who had lost all night and still refused to leave. "You have nothing left to stake," the dealer said coldly. The man spat, snatched up a sack from beside his feet, and slammed it onto the table. "Who says I've got nothing? I stake her." The sack fell open. Inside lay Ibuki Fujishiro, unconscious. She was the only daughter of the wealthy Kansai merchant Jinbei Fujishiro, a girl always cherished like treasure, and now she had been tossed onto the table like merchandise. The room erupted. Even the second master of the Fujishiro family changed color. The thugs were just closing in when the roof burst apart. A boy in white dropped from above, and with Kyonosuke Baba moving at his back, the two of them swept Ibuki away and left only one line behind: "I'll be taking her. Forgive the offense." Saki Katsuki and Kosuke set off after them at once. By the time calm returned to the hall, someone discovered the night watchman outside. He had frozen to death, and on his face there still lingered a strange smile, as if he had known all along that something terrible would happen before dawn.

[Bamboo Grove of Mist]

When Ibuki Fujishiro woke, she was already in a wooden hut deep inside a bamboo forest. Kyonosuke Baba had prepared a medicated bath to hold back the poison in her body. Kosai Katagiri leaned against the bamboo nearby, smiling like a scoundrel. Every time she cursed him, he answered back, until she was so furious she nearly wanted to leap straight out of the tub and hit him. Swigging wine from one hand, Kyonosuke told her the poison was vicious. If they failed to find an antidote within half a month, at best she would lose her sight and hearing; at worst the poison would destroy her meridians entirely. Ibuki kept up a stubborn face, but her heart went cold. Before she could even ask why Qinghong House wanted her dead, a familiar cold fragrance slipped into the air. Kosai's expression changed instantly. Turning, he seized the intruder who had slipped into the grove. It was Saki Katsuki. Saki refused to say a single word, willing even to bite through her own tongue before revealing anything. Kosai was about to force the truth from her when a heavy narcotic perfume suddenly spread through the bamboo. "Hold your breath!" he shouted, snatching up Ibuki, who had barely finished dressing, and leaping out of the grove. By the time they escaped the fog, both Kyonosuke Baba and Saki Katsuki had vanished. Only the night wind remained, and the pounding of their own frightened hearts.

[The Drunken Inn]

That same night the two of them fled to an inn. Only one upper room was left. Ibuki was furious, but Kosai yielded not an inch and laughed at her for being delicate. Out of spite she ordered a whole table of food and wine, swore she would never share a table with him, and then sat opposite him all the same, tasting every dish for poison while watching him devour everything in sight. Late that night Kosai pretended to be drunk and collapsed to the floor. Ibuki was just cursing him for being an eyesore when the inn boy sneaked into the room in the dark to steal their money. She was about to cry out when Kosai rose from behind him and struck his pressure points. He had never been asleep at all. He had only been waiting to see a good joke. Under questioning, the boy proved to be nothing more than a petty thief tempted by money. Kosai let him go, but the lesson was clear: they could no longer remain there. Before dawn broke, they were already riding away together on a single horse.

[The Shark-Fin Banquet]

"Better than hiding is waiting for them to come to us," Kosai said, reining in the horse in front of the grandest restaurant in Edo as lightly as if he were there for a feast. And in fact he really did go in to feast. Master To recognized him at once and laid out a whole banquet of shark's fin and delicacies. Ibuki still held her face stiff, but watching Kosai eat as if a storm had hit the table, she couldn't keep from feeling both annoyed and amused. Before the meal was over, however, Saki Katsuki entered in white and said calmly, "Our master requests both of you." A carriage was already waiting outside. Their eyes were covered, and the ride lasted about the time it took to drink two cups of tea. When the black cloth was finally removed, they found themselves before a secluded temple. The air within was heavy with incense, exactly like the forbidden old retreat on the Fujishiro estate, where no outsider was ever allowed to tread.

[Storming Qinghong House]

Waiting for them in the meditation room were Nun Gosei and Kosuke. Gosei said there was only one antidote, and whoever had the skill could take it. She ordered tea to be brought in. The moment the tea bowl hit the floor, the atmosphere in the room changed. Kosai Katagiri and Kosuke began testing their internal strength across the fallen bowl, neither willing to retreat first. Ibuki could not understand what she was seeing, but she could tell they were both forcing themselves to the limit. At last sweat broke first across Kosuke's brow. At that exact moment, while both men were locked at their greatest point of strain, Nun Gosei struck Kosai full in the chest with her palm. He coughed blood, but still reached out and pushed the bowl toward Ibuki. "Drink." Only then did she realize it was not tea at all. It was the antidote. The instant she swallowed it, Gosei burst into laughter and spilled out the hatred she had carried for twenty years. She hated Jinbei Fujishiro so deeply that she meant to collect every debt from his daughter. She had even destroyed the formula and left behind only this one bowl of cure, so that those before her would tear each other apart for it. Only then did Kosuke understand that after all these years he had been nothing more than a piece on her board, and his face went white. All the while Saki Katsuki had stood silent. Now she drew her blade and drove it backward into Gosei's heart. Her voice shook, but she did not look back. "Kyunosuke Baba was my own brother. I've done so much for you. My debt should be paid by now." The meditation room exploded into chaos. Ibuki had no time to think. She only gritted her teeth, threw the poisoned and wounded Kosai across her back, and carried him out through the temple gates.

[Breaking the Killing Formation]

On the wasteland outside, in the rain-black night, eight men in black soon caught up to them. On each brow was the same diamond-shaped mark. Their weapons were all of the frontier kind, and every stroke was aimed to kill. Kosai forced himself upright and stood in front of Ibuki, shielding her while looking for a break in the formation. "Qinghong House is only a shell for collecting money," he said as he fought. "Someone wants to swallow the Fujishiro family and then use Edo's power to stretch their hands farther still." The words had barely left his mouth when another figure cut through the rain curtain. It was Kosuke. With his help, the formation finally showed a weakness. Kosai borrowed wind and rain alike, using snapped branches to break iron and steel, while Kosuke took on the deadliest blows from the side. Moments later, all eight black-clad attackers lay dead. Kosuke lowered his hands and looked at Ibuki with a complicated expression. "This time," he said, "counts as repayment." Then he turned and vanished into the rain without another backward glance.

[Tears at the Fujishiro Estate]

When Ibuki Fujishiro next woke, she was back at the Fujishiro estate. The first thing she saw was Kosai Katagiri sitting beside her bed. Before she could even finish her relief, she noticed that when he poured her water his fingers kept searching in empty air and he could not even find the rim of the cup properly. The poison had damaged his eyes after all. The old master of the Fujishiro family stood at the door with a dark face and said that in the western regions there might still be an extraordinary healer capable of treating the southern poison. If they delayed any longer, Kosai would lose his sight for good. Kosai only smiled once and said "All right," as if he were agreeing to the most ordinary errand in the world. But everyone there knew that the journey ahead held life and death alike. Before he left, he pulled Ibuki tightly into his arms, as though he meant to carve her whole being into his bones and blood. She clutched at his sleeve and would not let go, tears falling too hard for words. The blazing sun shone over the Fujishiro gate, but the carriage departed fast and far, as if afraid that if it once looked back, it would never be able to leave at all.