Reclaimed – Chapter 28

The Oda encampment outside the walls of Owari is a tree house fifty meters long and only about eight meters wide stretched across the tops of a series of trees on the edge of the Nogusa-hara. I drift underneath the lifted estate, rambling outdoor walkways connect doorways to bedrooms and even bathrooms (their pipes snaked along the tree trunks are easy to spot), then to a main building with a kitchen and lounge area.

“This is amazing.” All the small details are perfect, the buttressed floors, the drainage system, the retractable staircase. I can’t wait to get upstairs and explore. I want to see how the whole building is put together.

“My father was a fan of The Swiss Family Robinson when he was a kid,” Rai explains, a quirk of a smile replacing his worried frown of two minutes ago. He adjusts his glasses on his nose so he can look at the spots I’m examining.

“Me too.” Jiro pokes me in the shoulder. “I installed a pirate alarm outside of our bedroom on the Rokkaku estate in Yamato. Sanaa had no idea what I was talking about.”

“Really?” Rai turns to me, his mouth open, as the stairway descends in a slow graceful arc.

“Yes, really. My aunts weren’t into movies. Only books. Sorry to disappoint you.” I smile at the good-natured fooling around. Everyone wants to lighten the mood, even me. “But I was an engineer before I was an empress, and I love buildings and architecture with a passion.”

The bottom stair makes contact with the ground, and I shoot up the stairs. Running my hands along the dark brown walls, they appear warm to the touch but not wood or organic. “Is this a composite?”

“Yes,” Rai says, smiling. “Most of this house is made with a fire retardant material. If there’s a forest fire, the house should survive long enough for us to put out the surrounding trees.”

“Where’s your water source?”

“An aquifer. You can see the well to the rear of the building.” Rai crosses his arms. “You were an engineer before you were an empress? How does that happen?”

Sakai glances at me as he proceeds down the outer walkway towards the bedrooms. “Your bedroom is down here.” Sakai waves his arm to us to follow him.

“It’s a long story. Some other time.” I place my hand on Rai’s arm and squeeze. “I’m exhausted. Can I rest before we meet?”

“Well…” His voice trails off as he glances over his shoulder. Quiet talking floats on a breeze towards us. People are waiting to see me.

I start to sigh but stop myself. Remember, Sanaa. I am at the beck and call of the people. My life is not my own anymore.

“Just let me change and I’ll meet with you in a few minutes.”

“Of course. Take your time, Tennō Heika.” He bows from the waist.

He doesn’t really mean that, take your time. “Please call me Sanaa. You know, the animals call me Kōtaigō. I much prefer it.”

Rai only smiles in response.

I catch up with Jiro at our bedroom door. He slides it open and Kumo jumps up from a bed along the opposite side of the room.

“Sanaa! HiHiHiHiHiHiHi…” His tail wags, and he jumps up to lick my face a billion times.

“Hi, buddy. I’ve missed you so much.” I squeeze him around the neck and bury my face in his white fur.

“So glad you’re not dead. Missed you too.” He sits and breathes in my face, and I lean away.

“What have they been feeding you?” I laugh as he closes his mouth.

“Chicken, pork, and rice. The big guy hasn’t been here.”

My face falls along with my shoulders. “I know. He… he died in a fire a few days ago.”

“Oh.” Kumo dips his head, and I kiss the spot between his eyes and ears.

Jiro stares down at us, his eyes watery and mouth cocked to the side. “It’s sad that even the animals will miss Oyama.”

I wipe a tear away and blow out a slow breath to stop myself from crying even more. On the bed next to where Kumo was sleeping are two cats, one gray like Momo but with small black spots, and the other a dusky cream color. I don’t remember them from Oda’s house inside the walls of Owari, but they must belong to him anyway.

“I need to change and get back to Rai.” I unzip my backpack and pull out sleeping Himitsu, placing him on the dresser in the room, away from the cats.

“No way, Sanaa. Sit and rest.”

“Can’t.” I shuck off my shirt and pants, reaching for my Nishikyō grays. I forgot to pack more undershirts, so my dirty one hits the floor. At least I have clean underpants.

“I love it when you do that.”

I stop in the motion of stepping into fresh underwear. “What?”

“Just undress when I’m standing right here.”

Laughter erupts from my belly, laughter so hysterical and pure, Jiro starts to laugh too. I’m almost naked, but I throw my arms around him and squeeze him as I giggle into his shoulder.

“Thank you,” I say, wheezing to even get those two words out. He squeezes me and runs his hands down my back, my skin tingling with every stroke. “You always make me laugh when I need it.”

“It’s just…” He sighs, and the sound is filled with sarcasm. I giggle even more. “It’s always been a dream of mine to have women walk about my room naked. It’s nice that, even in this crazy world, some of my dreams can come true.”

Rai sits patiently for us in the lounge room when we join him. The floor is covered in impeccably maintained tatami mats and peppered with large cushions for sitting or lying down for a nap, like the two men in opposite corners sleeping right now. Arata kicks each in the feet and wakes them.

“Out. We have business to attend to.”

They both jump up, see me, and bow. “Of course,” they mumble, sleep clogging their voices as they back out the door.

A wide, low table in the center of the room is laden with snacks, causing my mouth to water. I sit down cross-legged with Jiro next to me and glance around, noting the exits and where each leads to. An old-fashioned clock on the wall, complete with exposed copper gears, ticks away each second of the day. I reach for a sandwich and stop, withdrawing my hand to my lap.

“Eat, Sanaa. You’re wasting away.” Sakai sits beside me, placing a plate of ham sandwiches, fresh greens, and carrots in front of me.

“I…” I glance out the door, hoping Oyama is in the kitchen across the breezeway, but he’s not. “I don’t know how to eat without Oyama.”

Sakai’s expression is so full of pain, I have to look away.

“You have no idea how much I blame myself for everything that’s happened these past two years. I should have left you to your life. I should have left Oyama to the restaurant he wanted to own and run. I…”

I stop Sakai by placing my hand on his. “What’s done is done. No more regrets.”

Pushing the plate away from me, I sigh and rub my eyes. I’ve lost my appetite.

“What’s the news from the field? Anything from Kazuo or Julia?”

Arata clears his throat and leans forward to pluck a sandwich from the pile. “Julia checked in early this morning. She’s combing the countryside with her team. No sign of Taira Clan or Maeda yet. Lucy has been downloading satellite images to her tablet for her, but we can’t get any conclusive data from them. Neither Miura nor his clan ever received tablets so Lucy can’t track them that way either.”

“You’re my point of contact for Julia?” Getting a rundown from Arata is a bit strange and out of place.

“Mark and I have divided duties. Even gave me a tablet.” He smirks but I notice he doesn’t have the tablet on him. He must not be comfortable with it yet.

“No word from Kazuo,” Sakai says. “I’ve messaged him, but he’s either out of reach or has the tablet turned off.” Sakai glances across the table at Rai, sitting quietly, his flying squirrel on his shoulder munching away on a slice of carrot. “We were hoping you made progress with the Koga Clan. Did they explain why they helped burn the city down?”

I pick up a carrot, turn it to examine it on all sides, and sniff it. It seems safe so I take a hesitant bite. Jiro, not afraid of being poisoned, has already inhaled one sandwich and is working on his second. Is he still breathing? Is his pulse racing? Is he losing consciousness? No. He’s perfectly fine. I take the next sandwich under his and set it on my plate.

“Did you just use me as your poison tester?” he asks, his mouth full of food.

“Can you blame me?” I peel apart the sandwich layer by layer and smell each ingredient — ham, a white cheese, and something mustard-like. Still, I let it sit on the plate for a bit. Best make sure no one dies in the next ten minutes before I eat. It wasn’t too long ago that I actually thought of suicide but poison is not the ideal method for ending my life.

“What’s the news from home?” I ask. I’m not ready to answer Sakai’s question yet, not when I can barely swallow.

Sakai looks between me and Jiro. “Usagi quit. He gave notice this morning.”

“What?” Jiro asks. He slams his sandwich into the plate so hard the plate jumps off the table. “He can’t quit.”

“He certainly can quit,” I interrupt. “He has the right to leave at any time.”

“But…” Jiro’s mouth opens and closes several times before I put my hand up.

“I’m not going to force people to work for me just because they’re family. Mark, give him a year’s worth of severance pay and tell him I don’t want the sword back. He can keep it.”

“But you didn’t fire him. He quit.” Sakai grinds his teeth, the only kind of stress I’ve ever seen him exhibit. He must be furious under that hard exterior shell of his.

“He’s going to marry one of my last remaining best friends, and they have Hiro now, one of my personal responsibilities. I want to make sure they’re well taken care of.”

I should have known he’d quit. When I last saw Usagi, he was on the porch of the temple and wouldn’t make eye contact with me, as Miko chased me out of the courtyard. He probably knew then he was done with this life. Good for him. Honestly. If I could quit, I would in a heartbeat.

I nibble on a corner of the sandwich and set it down again though my stomach is so empty I could eat this and five more after it. My temper grows short as my blood sugar bottoms out. Usagi couldn’t have picked a worse time to desert us. I’ve always admired his insight and enjoyed fighting with him. I calm my anger with another deep breath. I’m so hungry I could die.

Sakai clears his throat, his face paler than a minute ago. “Well…” He runs his hand through his hair. “Right after he quit this morning, he took Helena to the temporary city hall with everyone on the estate and they got married. Lucy performed the ceremony. Reluctantly, I might add.”

All the blood in my head drains, and when I find my voice, it’s small and childish. “She got married without me,” I whisper. For years, we dreamt of being each other’s bridesmaids, through a million sleepovers and, later, drunken nights out with Miko. I always hoped to have a real wedding someday, one at which Helena and Miko would stand by my side while Jiro and I married for real.

I stare at the wood grains in the table, drumming my stubby fingertips next to my neglected plate. I hate to admit it but this is betrayal, at its very core. Don’t I merit a little loyalty? Even a little?

Sacrifice, Sanaa. There is nothing else to do.

“Her happiness is my happiness. Please send them a gift from me. Maybe, find some way to give them a honeymoon. A trip to Takayama and the hot springs? I realize war is not far off, but they deserve something.”

I stop speaking and everyone remains quiet as the clock ticks away ten long seconds.

“Godsdammit, Sanaa. Does nothing make you angry anymore?” Jiro slams his fist into the table, his anger bubbling over and ready to spill from his guts.

“Of course I’m angry.” My face heats with a searing blush. “But not at Helena or Usagi. I can’t stop people from hurting me. If they want to hurt me or neglect me or whatever, they do it. I’m angry at Miura and Taira and everyone else who put their lives in danger. My life is nothing.” I poke myself in the chest, my finger bent on impact. “Their lives are everything, and it’s my job to keep them all from being killed. I’ve already failed several times at this. Getting angry with Helena for living her life is not going to solve anything.”

“You didn’t answer my question about Koga,” Sakai prompts me. “Did they explain themselves?”

“Sorry. No. Shiro Koga said the people involved with Taira and setting the city on fire went against his wishes to leave us alone. He would prefer to have nothing to do with us. He didn’t even want back our hostage. I made him take the man back. You’ll let Lucy know to drop him off at the northern edge of the black lake?”

Sakai nods. “If he doesn’t want anything to do with us, how did you secure a deal for cooperation? What do we owe them?” He grabs his tablet and powers it on. “I should check the stores so we can shuffle around goods if need be. Food? Metal?”

I shake my head, my throat so dry I want to cry. A glass of water on the table invites me to sip it, but I’ve not seen anyone drink from it yet.

“Labor? Weapons?”

I shake my head again and smooth out the front of my shirt. “No. He only wanted one thing from us but I took care of it. We both did.” I blindly grab for Jiro’s hand, and he grips my fingers in his.

“What?” Sakai asks, the force behind his question so strong I close my eyes.

“The Koga Clan want the next emperor to be trained in the old ways, ninja beliefs and mindset, much like you taught me. So… I bargained away my first-born male child.” I clench my eyes shut. Hearing the declaration come from my own mouth is sickening.

“You did what?” Sakai jumps from his seat, and Jiro pushes between us. “Are you crazy? There’s no way on Earth that’s acceptable.”

“We’re not on Earth anymore…” I point out but stammer to a stop. “I did what I had to do to protect the colonization. The Koga Clan are a valuable asset. They get him when he’s sixteen until he ascends to the throne, not one moment before.”

“No!” Sakai shouts down at me. Jiro puts his hand on Sakai’s chest.

“Sanaa and I agreed this was the best possible move. We can’t even be sure she’ll have kids or sons for that matter.”

I rest my head against Jiro’s shin, my whole life washing down the drain with each passing word.

“We get cooperation now for a probable future, if that. There was no other deal to be had.”

“I signed the contract, in blood.” Tapping my left index finger and thumb together, the point of contact stings where I poked my skin to produce an acceptable amount of blood for DNA mapping, if needed. “What’s done is done,” I repeat, but Sakai huffs, turns from us, and stalks out of the room.

“This is… not good.” Rai removes his glasses and rubs at his eyes. “The Koga Clan has been opposed to starflight and continued colonization as well. Do you really want them influencing your offspring? They refuse technology, refuse the chip and the animals that come with it. They are just as bad as Fujiwara.”

Silence suffocates the table and the clock on the wall ticks ticks ticks, echoing in my hollow chest.

“I knew you were crazy but I never thought you’d be this crazy.” Arata strokes his beard and eyes me, warily.

I push myself up from the table, my knees weak and legs wobbly. “Do you have your second kit with you?” I ask, ignoring his previous statement. I already know I’m crazy. Wild and crazy. Unpredictable. I always have been.

“Of course. Want to go shooting?”

“Yes.”