OiRanze | Fight

Ranmaru and Katagami led Asa to the ageya. It was a short walk for that final stretch, even with the ageya on nearly the opposite end of Yoshiwara from the southern gate and the streets muddy. Arriving inside, the shinzo girl and guard at the front eyed Asa suspiciously, but made no comments. Ranmaru had no interest in stopping to chat and hurried past the foyer and towards the apartments.

“Muraji’s men might not be able to get here easily, but he’s still going to want to check on us,” Ranmaru said as they made it into the hallway and away from the ear shot of the foyer. “He saw my silver hair, after all.”

“I’m sorry, but, I’m not sure I’m really rested enough to be of much use at this point,” Katagami replied. “I ran through the last of my energy with that chase across half of Edo...”

“You’ve helped out more than I would have ever asked you to,” Ranmaru replied with a bow, coming to a halt outside Fuji’s door. “Get whatever rest you need.”

Katagami replied with his own bow and a polite goodbye before heading off. Ranmaru wasn’t sure if he was going to nap in the ageya or head home, but hoped to not need to know any time soon. Instead, he turned to Fuji’s apartment door and gave a quick knock.

A moment later the door opened, revealing a slightly guilty-eyed Fuji. Her expression changed in an instant as she realised who was at her door.

“Ranmaru! I was wondering where you were this morning.”

“On a rescue mission,” Ranmaru replied, gesturing for Asa to come over. “I found out Muraji was due back any day and rushed to bring Asa here. Unfortunately... any day turned out to be today, and Muraji saw me rescuing her. I think we need to hide her, because he’s almost certainly going to come by to check if she’s here.”

“Oh gosh... I see while you fell for her,” Fuji said, staring at Asa for a moment. “With a face like that you’d be an Oiran in an instant, Miss Asa.”

“Thank you, miss...?” Asa replied, glancing to Ranmaru nervously.

“Sorry, sorry. This is Hanamoto Fuji. She’s basically a sister to me. We grew up together in our home village,” Ranmaru explained. “And, Fuji, this is Lhamu Asa.”

“While we’re running through introductions, I’m Kane,” the actress said as she slipped into view. “Also, I can try hiding her at the theatre? It’s pretty empty right now?”

Ranmaru raised an eyebrow, glancing at Fuji, who answered only by blushing ambiguously.

“We probably can’t risk taking her outside. We don’t know how close behind Muraji is,” Fuji said, getting her blush under control. “I think we can, however, hide her in plain sight as a kunoichi would do. Oiran makeup is rather thorough, after all.”

Ranmaru nodded. “She doesn’t look the most Japanese, but, with her hair and skin tone covered, she could probably hide fairly well. Asa, are you comfortable with that?”

“I do not know all of what it means, but... I want to hide,” Asa replied.

“Can we remove your hair ornament? The one on the front there. It would make fitting the wig easier,” Fuji asked as she led Asa into her apartment.

“It can be removed. I would like to keep my brains though,” Asa replied.

“Yeah, we can tuck those in,” Fuji said.

“Before I go... where’s Ichi?” Ranmaru asked.

“Upstairs. She’s helping Saki pack. Akado is due this evening to make his downpayment for her freedom,” Fuji replied.

Ranmaru nodded and gave a thank you. That would likely keep her busy into the evening, and would keep Ichi out of harm’s way. That left him as the main point to worry about, and so he headed over to his apartment, to cook up a small portion of rice. If Muraji could be convinced Ranze was the only one here with silver hair, then it might make him leave to hunt other parts of Edo. After all, no one else at the ageya knew that Muraji was unaware of Ranmaru’s male form, so it seemed easy enough to get them to agree to a well worded statement. Ranmaru rehearsed his careful wording a few times as the rice cooked, feeling a bit nervous about what a slow process it was. That was rice, though. It required patience.

At last it was ready, and Ranmaru scooped some out into his bowl. He was both impatient and hungry at this point. The soreness in his ankles and shins was also kicking in, now that adrenaline was subsiding. A small meal sounded very nice. He grabbed a mouthful, enjoying the warmth of it for a moment.

Then his door slammed open. It was Muraji, rage in his eyes, rage that only amplified as those eyes spotted Ranmaru.

In fear, Ranmaru made an involuntary swallow. The tingle of the change followed, and Ranze was left feeling very conscious of how she’d shrank, even if it was only a small change. Muraji was intimidating enough in her male form.

As for Muraji, his eye twitched, apparently taking a moment to process what he’d see.

“What manner of succubus are you? Or is incubus the more fitting term?”

Not sure what either of those terms meant, Ranze focused on trying to find a plan. The first step was, obviously, to get to her feet. She wasn’t sure what to do after that. Her eyes glanced to her bokuto, and she silently wished she hadn’t put it aside near the door.

Muraji followed her eyes, and grabbed the bokuto, drawing it from its sheath.

“A wooden training sword? That’s what you brought to rob me, trickster demon?” Muraji hissed.

Ranze stared at him nervously for a second, silently cursing that the door was the only way out of her apartment. The windows were unmoving, to prevent clients from attempting to escape, and now kept her locked in and Muraji closed the door behind him.

“No witty words now, demon Oiran?” he asked, walking forward with the bokuto pointed at her.

Ranze tried to swallow her panic. If she was going to face whatever Muraji had planned she had to, at least, keep him from thinking he’d broken her with fear.

“I had some planned, but you showed up rudely early. That’s twice today,” Ranze said, trying to back away from him and hoping she might somehow circle towards the door.

“Well, I ask you, tempter, have you touched her? Have you defiled my prize?” Muraji roared, taking a swing with the bokuto that Ranze barely avoided.

“The only one here who’s done any defiling is you,” Ranze replied with narrow eyes.

Muraji bellowed as he swung the bokuto once again. This time it was a sweeping strike that Ranze could only manage to roll with to lessen the pain, rather than truly dodge.

“If I had known of your dark nature I would have never touched you,” Muraji sneered before swinging again.

Ranze could only grit her teeth and hold back the tears the pain of the impact was bringing.

“Do better research next time then. My nature is far from hidden from the clients of this ageya,” Ranze said, as a plan formed in her mind. “You were the one that came to me after all. I told you I carried Kitsune blood as well.”

Muraji’s eyes flashed with rage and he made another strike. This time Ranze caught the blow, ignoring the pain of wood striking her palms. She used the added leverage holding the bokuto by the long ‘blade’ provided to attempt to wrench the weapon from Muraji’s hands. Unfortunately the gap in upper body strength was hard to deny and Ranze was struggling even with the advantage.

“Don’t think you’re leaving this room alive, succubus,” Muraji hissed, struggling to hold on to bokuto.

“I can accept that, if I leave you in no condition to hurt Asa,” Ranze countered, the wrath swelling in her allowed her to wrest the bokuto free at last.

She had no chance to use it, however, as Muraji threw himself onto her, his hands around her neck as the pair slammed into the ground, nearly hitting her main wardrobe as they fell. Ranze attempted to use the bokuto to beat him away, but could gain no leverage from her position.

“I should have listened to the Portuguese, when they said Yoshiwara was nothing but a bit of depravity,” Muraji said, a grimace on his face that felt nearly as unsettling to Ranze as the hands around her neck.

Ranze attempted to force him off of her again, punching at his gut. It failed to dislodge him, but at least she managed to loosen his grip for a moment, letting her sneak in a gasp of air. She wasn’t sure she could manage that again, however, and needed an alternative.

That was when she remembered one.

Sliding open the bottom drawer of the dresser she was beside, she fell around blindly, her arm bent at an awkward angle, until she found it. The handle of the dagger she’d all but forgotten about. As she began to feel her world darken, she swung and slashed the dagger against Muraji’s gut. She couldn’t manage a deep cut from her position, but it was enough to break his grip as he lost his balance, having to spread his hand on the ground for balance.

Taking a second to get air back into her, Ranze then kicked him off of her, scrambling defensively into a corner with the dagger out.

“Do you really want today to end in death?” Ranze wrasped, still struggling to breath.

Panting himself, Muraji grabbed the now discarded bokuto and got to his feet. “I will have my bride back, and I will have vengeance for your efforts to lead me down a path of immorality.”

As Muraji made to strike, Ranze accepted the one way to end this was to take the blow. As he charged, the bokuto swinging down, she ignored every instinct and threw herself into the bokuto’s path, staying low to thrust with the dagger. The strike of the bokuto was painful against her back, but she knew the sickly feeling of her dagger plunging into Muraji’s thigh was deadly.

Her father had drilled it into her that the inner thigh was one of the best places to strike a foe, nearly as deadly as the neck and almost never guarded.

Pulling her dagger out, she tried not to be sick at the amount of blood that followed. Nor the way Muraji turned pale before stumbling backwards and dropping his weapon.

Ranze struggled to her feet as he wobbled. She could scarcely believe the guilt washing over her, despite how vile a man he was. Taking a life was still something she’d never done... so even with him it felt horrid.

“I’m sorry, but you asked for this,” Ranze whispered, her voice still not able to reach a proper volume.

Muraji fell onto his knees, before gracelessly slumping off to one side as the hatred and life in his eyes extinguished together.

Ranze’s efforts to hold down her stomach failed at that moment, which only left her feeling guiltier at what she’d done as she stumbled back. She was silently thankful she’d never gone into battle, if this hell was what it was like.

Shaking from adrenaline and still straining to breath, she headed towards the door of her apartment with no real plan. She didn’t want to be stuck in this room with that body...

A knock at the door made her jump.

“Are you alright?” Fuji’s voice called out. “A shinzou girl said there were weird noises coming from your room.”

Ranze rushed and stumbled over to the door, sliding it open a crack to see Fuji on her own.

“He was early,” Ranze managed to rasp.

“Pardon?”

Ranze swallowed, disturbed to realised that hurt a little, and slid the door open a little more. Fuji leaned in to see what was happening, and she paled as her eyes reached Muraji’s body.

“I don’t know what to do,” Ranze whispered. “How do you get rid of a body?”

Fuji gave a slow nod. “Yeah, that’s... that’s a problem.”

A moment of silence fell over them, Ranze still struggling with her stomach, even though she swore there was nothing else left to lose.

“At least you won?” Fuji whispered, at last breaking the silence.

“What are you two doing?” the voice of the head guard asked, the man walking into Ranze’s view a moment later.

Ranze found herself too emotionally trained to come up with any excuse, and Fuji seemed frazzled by the sight of a dead body, so neither was able to stop him from looking in in time. The head guard looked mostly confused by the body, rather than wearing the revulsion Fuji had on her face, and Ranze assumed she had on her own.

“I need an explanation. Now,” the man said.

“Uh, it... I... it was self defense,” Ranze rasped, coughing a little after trying to talk louder than her throat was currently ready for. “Sorry.. he...”

“I can see the bruises already forming on your neck, Mei,” the guard said, slipping into the room to get a closer look. “I’m not surprised that it’s that Muraji man... he gave me the creeps when he first arrived. I remember you trying to reject him too. I didn’t expect him to be the type to turn violent, but... I suppose it’s no great surprise. We’ll find somewhere undignified to drop the body.”

“You... you sound like you’d done this before,” Fuji muttered.

“There’s vile men out there. They usually go after lower ranking girls though... I’ve been trying to tell the Yarite we need to train all of you in self defense,” the head guard said as he stood back up and walked out of the room. “You should probably get a bath yourself.”

Ranze felt confused for a moment, before looking down to see just how covered in blood her hands and arms currently were. She hadn’t realised that much had gotten on her, and felt a wave of nausea hit her again.

“Is everything... oh kami! What happened?” Kane’s voice asked, drawing Ranze from her stupor.

She noticed the actress was holding a shamisen by the neck, as if it were a club, though she lowered it as she approached.

“Muraji,” Ranze whispered, still struggling to get any actual volume in her voice.

“Creep learned the hard way that Ranze’s a trained samurai,” Fuji added.

“He’s dead?” Kane asked, getting a nod from both Ranze and Fuji. She then turned to someone around the corner and gave a smile. “Well, looks like you’re safe now.”

With that, Asa rounded the corner, looking otherworldly in full Oiran makeup. Ranze, seeing Asa looking so beautiful, knew that what she’d done, the unclean nature of her fight and the negative karma it had no doubt brought her, was worth Asa’s freedom and safety. However, Ranze also felt she couldn’t look Asa in the eyes after what she’d done, choosing to study the floor instead.

Looking at the ground, she could still see Asa approach, walking up to the doorway to look in.

“Maybe he will be something better in his next life. Like a... slug? I think that is the word,” Asa said, Ranze’s heart racing at feeling her warmth so nearby. She then felt Asa’s eyes on her, even if she couldn’t bring herself to look up. “You. You have silver hair. You must be... I am glad it was you. He... he deserved it to be one of us. Women he tried to own... I never was good at fighting. Thank you.”

“I’m not sure you’ll thank me when you learn all the truth,” Ranze whispered, still not able to meet Asa’s eyes.

“That’s a matter for after you get out of the city though,” Fuji said, causing Ranze to stare at her in confusion. “The Yarite might look the other way at a client attacking you out of the blue, but... it won’t be hard for her to figure out what really happened with Asa around. Let’s get you two cleaned up, ready to go and... I don’t know, hope Mister Akado can lend you a horse?”

Ranze could only nod absently. Her planning abilities were still mostly focused on maintaining a steady supply of oxygen, so she was thankful for Fuji thinking ahead.