Reunited – Chapter 27

Jiro and I join Usagi and Kentaro by the front window after cleaning up in the bathroom.

“Did you all eat?” I ask, putting my arm around Jiro’s waist.

“Yes. Delicious.” Kentaro rubs his belly with his free hand since the other holds a drink of some kind. Hmmm, I wonder if I can get more saké.

I’m about to lean my head into Jiro’s shoulder and relax when movement in the street outside the window catches my eye. I angle towards the window, and when I do, Hideki comes out of the shadows of a building across the street and waves at me urgently.

“Jiro, look.” He, Kentaro, and Usagi start for the door, but I grab Usagi and tell him to get Sakai.

We cross the street, and Hideki is relieved to see us. He halts pacing back and forth and wringing a hat in his hands. “It took me forever to find you!”

“What’s the matter?” Jiro asks, but Hideki stares at me with my katana on my back, and his expression curdles.

“It’s her,” he says, pointing to me as Sakai comes up to my side. “She’s the one who did this.” His eyes blaze with vehement anger.

Jiro and Usagi tense, and they both step in front of me.

“What are you talking about?” Kentaro huffs. “Did what? Sanaa’s been here with us since we left.”

Hideki turns to Sakai. “They came last night. Took Kohaku and Hiro.”

“Who? Who came? And how did you get here so fast?”

“I hired a horse. I don’t know who they were, but they said, ‘Tell Sanaa she has three days to give herself up or your wife and son die.’” He shoots forward and grabs the front of my kimono between Jiro and Usagi, and everyone panics. Jiro pushes me back away from him. I stumble, my arms waving to keep my balance. Usagi draws his sword, and Sakai grabs Hideki by the shoulders holding him in place. My throat closes, and I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe! My eyes blur as Jiro rights me.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Kentaro screams at Hideki. “Don’t you ever touch her.” Jiro’s head whirls around, and he eyes Kentaro fuming at Hideki.

“What is it?” Hideki yells at me, spit flying from his mouth. “You think you’re better than my wife? My son? Give yourself up! Why are you even hesitating?”

“I’m… I’m…” I don’t know what to say. My mind is still processing the information. My fault, my fault.

“You don’t understand our situation —” Sakai starts but Hideki pushes him away.

“I don’t care about your situation. All I know is they want her, whoever they are, and they have my family, and you will give yourself up for them. You’re the strangers here. You have no right to deny us this.” Hideki breathes heavily, his chest rising and falling in great waves, his face sweating, and his hair sticking up at odd angles. He looks from Sakai to Usagi who still has his sword out and springs at me again.

This time everyone is too shocked to move because who would think he’d be stupid enough to try anything with swords out? He gets me by my hair before I can move.

“Go now! I don’t care who you are!” He yanks hard, and I shriek, pain ripping through my scalp. Kentaro decks him across the jaw, and Jiro tries to pry Hideki’s hands off my hair.

“Okay!” I scream. “Okay! Let me go!” But he just yanks harder, my body whips backwards, and I come crashing down on my butt before my hair is released. When I look up, Kentaro has Hideki in a stranglehold, and Usagi has a knife out, his katana re-sheathed. Too close quarters for swords.

Footsteps pound up the pavement from Izakaya Tanaka across the street. Lucy, Beni, Mariko, Yoichi, and Miko run towards us, and Helena is limping behind. Jiro helps me up, pulling me into a full body hug, and I hold back a sob.

“This is it for me,” I whisper in his ear. “The beginning of the end. Remember how much I love you.”

“No. You won’t do this,” he commands me, but I can’t listen. This is just the beginning of the ploys, the tactics my enemies will use against me until I’m dead. They’ll take my acquaintances, my friends, and then my family until they can get to me. I won’t let them get that far. “You can’t. Not after all that we just talked about.”

I push Jiro off me. Hideki is desperate now, fallen to the ground on his knees, not as angry or mad. He’s a man who rode a full day on horseback after his wife and child were abducted, and thought about how it was my fault the entire time. He’s a man who wants his family back.

And it is my fault.

“All right, Hideki.” I place my hand on his shoulder. “If giving myself up will free your wife and son, I’ll do it.”

“No, wait,” Sakai pleads, his hand going to my chest. “We have three days…”

Hideki jumps up and everyone twitches. “Two! It took me a day to get here!”

“We’ll go to Izumo right now with Hideki. We’ll find Arata Sasaki and see if he can lend us his support.” Sakai never gives up. Doesn’t he realize that it’s futile?

“How do you know about Arata Sasaki? And why would he want to ally himself with aliens?” Hideki has downgraded us in his mind. I expect him to spit on me at any minute.

“Because…” Sakai starts but I bring my hand up to his mouth and shush him.

“Don’t. It doesn’t matter.”

“No! It does.” Hideki pokes me in the chest. “Why should I introduce Sakai to Sasaki? Why are you so important?”

I sigh. He won’t rest until he knows. “I’m descended from Emperor Naruhito and next in line for the Chrysanthemum Throne. I’m sorry my bloodline has caused you so much trouble. I’ll do my best to get Kohaku and Hiro back for you.”

I turn from his shocked expression and smile sadly at my family and friends surrounding me. I love them, and I would do the same for any of them.

“It’s the least I can do.”

—-

Jiro is both panicked and furious on our walk up to the estate. I think he thought like I did about this whole situation. Fujiwara would come for me, and we’d fight him off or die trying. Instead, we’ve endangered our newest friends on this world. I had a feeling I was being watched while in Izumo. I know it was just a feeling, but it was there and I ignored it. Now look what’s happened.

“It’s probably the Uchiyama twins,” Jiro says.

“Doesn’t matter who it is.”

He grabs my arm and whirls me around at the gate. “I don’t want you to do this. We don’t owe them anything. We shouldn’t give you up the first time our enemies take someone.”

“Jiro! What if it were you? Your mother? My aunts? Beni? No.” I shake my head at him. “It would be any of them, eventually, as long as I’m alive. When I don’t give myself up, they’ll kill Kohaku and Hiro and move onto someone else until they find someone I care enough about to truly give my life for. Let’s stop this now before too many people die.”

“Gods, Sanaa! You’re being frustrating! Stop trying to be selfless and be selfish for once.”

I kick off my shoes at the door and keep moving straight down the hall.

“I’m always selfish. I’m the most selfish person on the planet. I want my life, and I can’t have it. At least, we had one fantastic last night together.”

The floorboards to our room creak and crack like a campfire, and I throw open the door, turning on the lights and startling Kumo awake. Heading straight for the closet, I ignore the barking and poor annoyed Momo, grab Jiro’s bag, and throw it on the floor between us.

“What? I’m not going anywhere! Are you insane?”

“Pack your bag. You’re going with Mark, you’re going to find Arata Sasaki, secure his allegiance, and if I’m kidnapped or give myself up before you return, you’ll come and rescue me. End of story.”

“No way!”

“You’re going to let Mark go alone? He represents Sakai clan. You represent me. Remember? You made that decision ages ago. Besides, we don’t travel alone on this continent.”

“I’ll send Usagi.”

“You’ll do no such thing. I love Usagi, but he can’t negotiate on my behalf like you can.”

I’m going to win this fight. I don’t want him to leave, but he has to go. He’s fuming, his temper aching to burst loose. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he crosses the room to me, stepping over the bag.

“Run away with me?” he asks quietly.

“We can’t. Too many people, and we have a town to care for.”

“Go into hiding?”

“They’ll just take more people I love from me.”

“Renounce your bloodline?”

“Ha! That’s a good one. If only I could.”

He throws his arms around me. “Sanaa, I don’t want to leave. I can’t lose you like I lost my father. I honestly thought I’d be alone for my entire life before I met you. I thought I’d end up like Mark, and Yoichi would have the family like my father did, because girls didn’t understand me. They didn’t understand my life. Only you have ever understood me. This cannot happen.” He presses his forehead against mine, and I lean in and rub my nose up the side of his.

“I’ll give you the time. Not tomorrow night but the following night. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll stand outside and shout that I give up. They’re watching us, obviously. It’s not a lot of time, but maybe if I give in, there will be leeway in which you can work something out and get me back. Promise me you’ll come for me if that happens?”

He reaches down, wrapping his arms around my waist and picks me up. “I will not rest until we’re back together again.”

“Do me a favor. If I’m gone, tell my aunts I loved them. That they were more to me than any parent could be.” I give him a big, wet, tear-filled kiss and hope it’s not our last. “I’m not leaving the estate again until this is over.”

I sit on the bed and watch as he packs his bag, slings the strap across his back, and stands in front of me. I lead him down the hall, our hands linked, through the main house, and out through the front. He slips on his boots, and when we exit to the porch, everyone waits. Sakai’s bag is packed, and Lucy is pale and distraught, her red hair a fuzz around her head.

“You two need to be careful and fast.” Lucy pulls Jiro in for a kiss on the cheek and a hug. She turns to Sakai and their lips meet in a passionate kiss I have to avert my eyes from. I feel Hideki’s eyes on me before I see him. We stare at each other for a minute before he bows and breaks contact. I hope he’s embarrassed by the way he treated me.

Jiro steps in front of my eye line, and I bring my face up to smile at him. “We’ll message tonight once we’re at Hideki’s apartment. It’ll be late.”

“I’ll be waiting anyway.”

I don’t kiss him goodbye in front of everyone. I want my last intimate memories of him to be in our room and our last tryst in the alley. Those are good memories to get me through. I replay them in my head as we smile at each other and wave before he walks off down the hill with Sakai at his side.