Abstinence Education

Continued from previous post...

Part 41, 2/2


Damn it all... Rin’s shoulders slumped. She was so tired of bloodshed. So tired, period. It seemed like she hadn’t slept in a week, and her tenuous hold on her emotions was growing unsteady. A lump obstructed her throat; to conceal her quivering lips, she put the back of her hand to her mouth and swallowed hard. No, she’d never have that unbending sense of purpose, like a samurai sworn to follow his lord even to hell — she had just quoted her worst enemy, for heaven’s sake! But Rin realized she had a creeping sense of a hidden adversary in this struggle. The controlling, devouring darkness O-Hama had hinted at. All this woman’s skill and drive and intelligence: held hostage somehow in a cage she couldn’t break. A father’s ghost... or a brother’s seething hatred? And the brother was still alive, though crippled...

“What do you say to forgiveness, killer of a hundred?” O-Hama turned her head and spoke softly. “Bushi born as you are? Have you forgotten how hotly you lusted for your vengeance? What you were willing to do to gain it?”

“Hell, no, I ain’t forgot.” Manji managed a one-sided grin, though he didn’t yet get up. “Almost had ya two kids cornered then. Didn’t I?”

“Yes... it must have been a miracle from the our guardian gods that allowed us to escape your — ”

“Miracle?” snorted Manji. “Aw, yer gods can kiss my hairy — ”

“Would at least ONE of you tell me what the hell happened?” Rin stamped her foot. “Now I’m dying of curiosity!”

Manji merely groaned, but O-Hama dipped her head. “If you wish.”

“I don’t want to hear any more hysterical junk about black magic! If you thought Manji-san hates poetry...” She gave O-Hama a warning glare.

“Very well. I’ll tell you only what I saw — he may confirm it or deny it as he pleases.”

That almost sounded... reasonable. O-Hama’s voice was soft and even, her heavy-lidded eyes demurely lowered. Rin blinked at her. “Uh... okay, fine.” She cast about for some piece of information she already had, not wanting O-Hama to determine how to begin. “So... you dropped his knife in front of him, after you...?”

“Such objects in my hands... I couldn’t discard them quickly enough.” O-Hama failed to hold back a shudder. “My lord caught me in his arms and comforted me. While helping me clean myself, he didn’t keep watch on our prisoner for a little while. Then, when I dried my eyes and looked up, I thought I had entered a nightmare.” O-Hama nodded at Manji as if for confirmation.

“Yer worst nightmare, bitch.” He laughed.

“That — that man had also recovered from his faint. The double-bladed knife lay on the ground before him. Though his legs were bound, he was able to move his feet slightly from the ankles. So he stepped on the knife’s handle and braced it against a root, the blades uppermost. His right arm was already hanging free — ”

“Because your boyfriend shredded the ropes along with my arm... like the genius he is. See a pattern here?”

“He lowered the mangled stump of that arm to meet the knife’s longer point... and plunged the blade straight into his open wound.” Rin drew in a shocked breath; O-Hama’s lips curved. “He groaned in agony, but he didn’t pull back. The steel grated through the shattered bones — he forced it deeper still and I covered my ears. Then he lifted his arm — the blade stayed in place, wedged in his living marrow.”

“M-Manji?”

He smirked, his eye closed. “How else was I gonna pick it up with no hand?”

“But — no one could stand to — that’s horrible!”

“No... one?” Manji started to laugh and began to cough. Blood spattered his lips.

“As he sawed through his bonds with the knife’s side-hook, the blade worked its way loose and fell,” said O-Hama in a hushed, significant voice, as if telling ghost stories by firelight. “He’d freed one leg; he reached out and drew the knife to him again — ”

Rin pressed her wrists to her own ears, forgetting to stay on guard. “Stop it! I d-don’t need to hear — ” Why did this seem even worse to her than what Ryonosuke had done, or O-Hama? Because Manji had inflicted it deliberately, to his own flesh?

“I had no choice but to witness this, girl. My lord and I remained rooted to the spot, unable to believe what we saw. What kind of... man... would even imagine turning his severed limb into the hilt of a weapon?”

“If you want to know...” Manji spat and wiped his mouth. “I got that... from a guy named Shira.”

Rin stared at him, a rush of hot and cold racing through her limbs, all the way to her fingertips and toes. Her chest shook with ragged breaths in its wake. “Shira? You never mentioned — ”

“Yeah... I guess I left out some details...” He rolled his head upright with an ironic smile and propped his elbow on his knee. “Because I didn’t want to... uh, freak you out or anything.”

“You said Magatsu killed him!”

“Far as I know... hrrk...” Manji cleared his throat and spat blood again. “Anyhow, Shira... I guess he’s the only bastard who could have done it... except for me. Heh, heh...”

“What do you mean?”

“Lost his hand, right? Just like I had. So the crazy asshole... whittled all the meat off that arm, halfway to the elbow.” Rin flung her own arm across her face. “Then he wrapped up the stump and sharpened both the bones to points... as a weapon.”

She couldn’t speak; she could only fix her appalled gaze on Manji’s still-bandaged hand. O-Hama made a slight sound, halfway between a hiss and a purr.

“Insane, yeah! He turned his hair stark white carrying out that little project. But if a bastard like that could see it through without quitting... well, I ain’t about to let him outdo me, see?” A chilling laugh, like a blade scraping on bone.

Rin stood trembling, her vision obscured with that dark reflection and her stomach churning. Her own yojimbo — in order to wreak his vengeance? Self-inflicted agonies he practically relished ... like the closest thing to a human demon she’d ever met? What she heard from his own lips had greater effect than anything O-Hama could possibly have invented. Rin shook her head and tried to clear her sweat-stung eyes. No, this was her Manji-san — not that nightmare assassin! He had to have done it so he could follow her captors and rescue her...

“So the second time, I pounded that blade in good and hard. Whacked the hilt against the tree roots to make sure it wouldn’t come loose. I nearly passed out again, but I didn’t give a shit...” Manji broke down coughing. “Crap...”

“When he had freed both his legs, he raised his head.” O-Hama’s voice slid in. “His tongueless mouth dripped blood... his teeth shone red in his black face... and he smiled at us.” Rin’s lips stiffened and her nostrils pinched. She’d been glad these people had seen Manji in his most frightening aspect, as she’d believed? “We realized we were in mortal danger and our terror sickened us, but somehow we could not rouse ourselves and flee...”

“Aw, too bad... well, that suited me just fine, because I was gonna rip you two apart until I couldn’t tell which pieces were girl or boy. I was just getting to the last ropes...”

“My lord finally revived. He dragged me to our horse, and with all his strength, he helped me to mount. We heard your bodyguard howling behind us as we struggled through the woods... but whether by miracle or fortune, he didn’t follow.”

Rin tried to rally from her own waking trance. “Because he w-went after ME instead! Isn’t that right, M-Manji-san?”

“Nope.” Manji started to stand up, but let out a hard pant and settled to his knees again. “No sense in that...”

Rin’s heart plummeted; she backed away from his bare-toothed grimace, streaked along the gums with blood. “Wh... why wouldn’t you?”

“They were in sight — you weren’t. I was gonna take ‘em first... but no such luck.”

Rin moved around a clump of rushes to get a little distance. She wasn’t going to cry, she wasn’t going to run... even if her imagination masked him in that dark robe. Just a moment or two to cast it off, that was all...

O-Hama glanced at her and then at Manji. “Why then, killer of a hundred? After such a diabolical effort, why did your prey escape you?”

“Because when I got loose, I yanked that blade outta my arm, took one step... and fell flat on my goddamn face.” Manji snorted and jabbed his shido into the earth. Ryonosuke looked over with an expression that struck Rin oddly; he lay only a couple of paces from Manji as he listened. “You idiots! You could have gutted me like a rabbit if you’d stuck around a little longer. I couldn’t move a limb for a good five minutes. Black magic... my ass.”

Again Manji tried to rise, pushing up on the shido’s hilt; he had nearly made it upright when his body convulsed. His expression drained blank with shock. As if every pang had dug further into him, working deeper past the barriers of flesh and bone, and now a final stroke penetrated his undefended vitals. His shido toppled and thumped at his feet; he groaned like a tree split in a high wind.

“My lord! Hold him!” O-Hama raised the short sword and ran directly at Manji. Ryonosuke lunged to his knees and tottered. Manji folded up and collapsed full length to the ground. Not quite unconscious, but writhing and arching his body with agony.

The spell shattered. Rin shrieked, leaped clear over the rushes and dashed for O-Hama. Idiot!

Just before O-Hama reached Manji, Rin intercepted her and swung with all her strength. O-Hama dodged the unconsidered blow; her sword flashed towards Rin’s head.

Overextended again, Rin dropped and rolled to avoid the stroke. She jarred out her wind and lost her sword, but she stayed between O-Hama and Manji. She flung up her arms. Win a chance for him to recover— even if she paid dearly. Her own foolish fear! What else could O-Hama have intended? Delay and divert, watch for her moment while her adversary weakened? To gain an opening against the real threat to their lives and liberty, not against a little girl with a sword!

Ryonosuke fell sprawling when Manji kicked him in the stomach. It wasn’t clear if he’d tried to obey his lady’s order. He lifted his head and retched up saliva, his face very close to Rin’s. He looked straight into her eyes as she wheezed and scrabbled at arm’s length for her out-of-reach sword.

Ryonosuke got up on all fours and threw himself at Rin, knocking her flat on her back. Freshly missing a leg obviously didn’t make him entirely helpless. Rin kicked and tried to knee him in the ribs; his armor absorbed the blow. Over his head, she saw O-Hama hovering, ready to strike again, but Ryonosuke blocked her way. She must be cursing the fool — he couldn’t even figure out how to back her up in a fight!

The bandage had come off Ryonosuke’s slashed and stitched-together nose; the skin looked swollen and puckered. He swiveled his head towards O-Hama, then turned to Rin again and reached up as if he meant to cover her skull with his hands.

Where was Manji? She couldn’t see with Ryonosuke’s shoulder shield over her face. Rin wheezed the air back into her lungs and doubled up her legs. He’d given her plenty of room to move— she shoved him aside and rolled out from under him. There was her sword, right above her head. She caught the hilt with her fingertips, but Ryonosuke reached for it too and still tried to cover her with his body.

Damn that armor — would she have to try for his throat? He looked straight into her eyes again, his expression almost pleading; he seemed about to speak.

Rin shot up a knee and bashed him square in his injured nose. He yelped like a puppy and reared up his head.

As Rin rolled free of him again, O-Hama stabbed straight down at her exposed legs. The sword plunged between her splayed thighs and through the hem of her shortened furisode. Rin shrieked. She tore a long slit in the silk as she tugged her clothes free and seized her sword. At the same moment Ryonosuke threw himself backwards with his nose gushing blood; his shoulder shield and mailed sleeve hit O-Hama’s sword, knocked the hilt from her hands and mashed the blade flat to the ground.

He fell in another ridiculous sprawl and O-Hama immediately pried her sword from the sticky clay, but his interposition allowed Rin to gain her feet and ready her weapon. Another clumsy accident? Either Ryonosuke was the worst grappler imaginable, or — Rin jerked her head in disbelief. She couldn’t imagine why O-Hama’s lover would try to protect her!

O-Hama stepped around Ryonosuke and tried to dart at Manji again. Rin slashed wildly at O-Hama, pinwheeling her strokes in wide arcs, and forced her backwards. “Leave him alone, you! He was shot and the arrow’s still in him — if you’re so big on a fair fight — ”

“An arrow deep in his body, and the demon still lives?”

“It’s the kessen-chu — the holy bloodworms he was given! It’s got nothing to do with — ”

“Again you believe every lie he tells you? He’s an ogre — he’ll devour you alive to sustain his rotting carcass — ”

“I’m not listening to you!” Sparks from the clashing blades dazzled her eyes. “Manji’s taken good care of me! He’s my BODYGUARD!”

“Then he’s supposed to protect you, not you him — look at yourself!” O-Hama set her pearly teeth, obviously on the edge of panic. “You know he can’t die, and yet you risk your life! You’re bewitched — ”

“You wouldn’t understand that, would you? You know what — I figured out what your problem is.”

“Mine?”

“You’ve got only one way of looking at anything... and when that doesn’t work — you get STUCK!” Rin jammed her hilt up against O-Hama’s, pushed her off balance and kicked her in the shin.

O-Hama staggered and cried out. Obviously she didn’t know the first thing about combat sweeps — her attempts at retaliation were tentative and obvious, easily sidestepped. She quickly disengaged but stumbled from a foot to her knee, and took off running.

Rin chased her even farther from Manji; she couldn’t see either him or Ryonosuke now. “I can whip your butt fair and square, and you know it! Surrender, and maybe I’ll let you live!”

O-Hama circled around and snarled. “Fair? You cat-fight like a tavern whore! That’s where he really found you, isn’t it?”

“Who’s calling who a whore, you WHORE?”

“Slut! Two-copper mat-carrier! You’ve bought his sword with your diseased cunt — you’ve got no honor to avenge.”

Rin rolled her eyes. “Is that all you can do? Make up dirty insults?”

Sweat ran down O-Hama’s face. “You’re... no swordmaster’s child! You’re as foul a ditch-dweller as your ‘Manji-san’ — he pimps you out to every drunken beggar to keep him in tobacco and sake! You’d lick a dog’s filthy prick and swallow his — ”

“What kind of disgusting thing is that for a samurai’s daughter to say? If I didn’t already know you lived in a brothel...” O-Hama swung at Rin; she ducked the blow and laughed. “Gee, maybe you learned how to lie on your back all day from that useless big brother of — ”

O-Hama stopped in the middle of her next move. Her eyes looked like black holes in her paper-white face. For a moment Rin congratulated herself on a well-barbed shot, just like Manji’s sarcastic taunts. Then O-Hama struck at her with such force that blocking the blow stung Rin’s palms and made her wrists ache. Another jarring blow — another —

Not those polished combinations. Real killing strikes. Her opponent didn’t have to fear Manji’s interference now.

Rin’s face went cold. Was that the reason she’d suffered only a scratch and a few humiliations so far? Icy sharpness rushed through her, an almost painful awareness of her danger. Her arm muscles burned, her legs shook; how much more could she do? O-Hama had tired herself too, but obviously her family’s shortcomings were a very sore point.

Beyond any doubt, now they’d find out who was the better fighter.

Rin drew back her lips and concentrated on O-Hama’s patterns again; they had changed from an elegant demonstration to an all-out display. Wider, harder, fueled by fury rather than the calculated desire to shame and taunt.

Rin’s vision narrowed down to her opponent; she thought of nothing except defeating her. Nothing at all, in a way; her training and her instincts collided and quickly coalesced into a physical ecstasy of unrestrained battle. They passed, clashed, parted and clashed once more. Rin poked a hole in the clothing over O-Hama’s ribcage, just missing her flesh; with the next thrust she ripped the band from her forehead and scraped her hairline with her sword point.

Blood poured from the scalp cut and dripped into O-Hama’s left eye. She blinked and tried in vain to clear it; tears and blood ran down her cheek. Rin stepped on her toes and kneed her in the thigh. O-Hama fell and rolled, but immediately pushed off with one hand and dashed in a half-circle and back to evade her attacker. Rin chased her down.

“Give up — you’re beaten!” Her chest heaved with her labored breaths. “Just... admit it!”

“I’ll never beg... for mercy...” The cut on her head stopped bleeding, but O-Hama’s face was covered with reddish streaks and smears, long strands of her hair had matted and stuck to her cheeks, and she looked feverishly hot. She pointed her sword at Rin, her arm trembling with fatigue. “N-not... from you!” Both women wheezed for air.

“Then I guess... we keep going...” Rin pressed a hand to her aching chest, where she had developed a severe stitch. “Ready... when you are...” Shoulders quivering, they stayed where they were for the moment, wiping sweat and blood from their eyes. Rin’s head spun and her lungs protested; she wished she could draw a long drink of water and retreat to the shade. A quick check behind her, keeping one eye on the drooping O-Hama: Manji and Ryonosuke still reclined a few paces apart. Ryonosuke sat up and gingerly felt his nose. Manji crouched on all fours with his head down.

O-Hama looked half fainting; she might be able to finish this quickly now. Rin executed a high sweep and ran at her. Her opponent straightened up and met the blow; she’d been shamming, though perhaps not by much.

“Sneaking witch! You have no right... to put my honored elder brother’s name... in your unworthy mouth — you can’t imagine the pain he suffers!”

“Honored brother? Look — I’m sorry Manji crippled him... but he didn’t have to make a bad situation... into worse.”

“You know nothing at all!” Their blades rang and scraped; neither of them had much form left.

“Come on! Even you made him sound... like a nasty jerk! Harping on torture and death! Drugging himself instead of acting like a man, wasting all your money — ”

“He can’t even walk — nor wield a sword...”

“He’s probably... even more educated than you are! He could have done some other work... even if he couldn’t be an officer any more.” They stood off a little way, panting again. “You might never have had to sell yourself, if — ”

“He is the head of our household... I did my duty!” To Rin’s surprise, fresh tears welled from O-Hama’s eyes. “I live to serve my obligations, no matter — ”

“What about the rest of your family? HE’S not the only one who counts!”

“You betray your own lack of buke morals! A sister can’t defy her brother’s will... or... or neglect his requirements...” O-Hama suppressed a sob. “His claim is absolute...”

“That’s what I mean — you’re so stuck on that samurai strictness that you can’t see any way around it. Him too! I bet what he really REQUIRED was a good sharp kick in the — ”

“Insolent witch!”

“Can’t walk? So he wasn’t going out to score opium by himself. Someone was buying that for him — like you? Maybe he’d be mad if you refused to obey, but he ought to realize it was because you loved him!”

Under the red streaks on her face, O-Hama went stark white again. Her lips almost disappeared.

“I wouldn’t have kept silent, even though I was only his little sister. I’d have told him he was digging a grave for the entire family and that I wasn’t going to hand him the shovel. If he had the sense of a squashed cockroach, he’d have forgiven you — ”

“Unforgivable.” O-Hama stared at her; again Rin felt that strange, intense frisson of conviction. “You — you can never be forgiven... nor can he.”

“Hah?” Rin blinked at her. “Are you talking about Manji-san, or — ”

“You deserve to be shamed — exposed. Both of you are guilty... and stripping you before him... would have proved it to the world.” Rin froze with her sword half extended. O-Hama mustered a vicious whisper. “When your ‘big brother’ lays his lustful hands on you... does he call you by a sister’s name?”

Rin nearly dropped her weapon. O-Hama’s eyes flared. “He slew his real sister’s husband. He drove her insane... and she is dead. Does he instruct you how to fill her place... you, sent to him as her proxy?”

Rin staggered backwards, gasping.

“Filth. Whore. Did you protest your own dishonor, even once? Did you tell yourself that you meant to ease his suffering... little sister?” The air around them seemed to blur with the sun’s heat. “His guilty conscience spares your maidenhead — so instead he uses you in unnatural ways. He grinds his naked body against yours... demanding your hands, your mouth... his seed befouling your skin.”

O-Hama’s words were soft, perhaps muffled by the blood pounding in Rin’s ears. But she could hear nothing but that voice; her lips wouldn’t move even to give a warning. That couldn’t be... a lucky guess. Even with a brothel-dweller’s experience — how did she know?

“Your murdered father weeps for his tarnished name... his heirs’ ruined honor.” Rin shuddered to the root of her spine. “He covers his eyes and turns away... as you squeal like a rutting sow with your own brother’s face in your cunt — with his prick reaming your shit-hole — ”

Rin screamed. So high and loud that a burn seared through her breast. Silence that woman’s awful tongue — rip it from her throat. The last thing she saw before she lunged was O-Hama’s mouth, wide open. The tears running down her filthy face.

Rin hit her chin so hard on O-Hama’s shoulder that she bit her own tongue. Acrid blood stung her mouth. Both women staggered, then O-Hama twisted oddly and crumpled. Rin’s sword yanked abruptly downwards with her opponent’s fall, but she pulled it free and raised it high again. She’d slash her over and over, disjoint her into quivering chunks, just like Manji —

From behind, someone grabbed her wrist. Rin screamed again, tearing at her throat. She fought him, but although his strength seemed barely more than hers, he held on. He forced her sword down and lashed his arm around her waist, trying to pin her elbows. He might have been shouting, but Rin could understand nothing. She threw herself violently from side to side, trying to dislodge him; he lost his balance and they went down in a tangle.

Her assailant’s greater weight pulled them backwards; he took most of the impact, but Rin landed hard on his body. As she continued to struggle, he locked one leg over hers and grunted painfully. She twisted to look.

“M-Manji?”

“That’s enough. You’ve won by decision.” He was sweating and gray-faced, but his heavy brows formed hard lines and his forehead creased.

“But — but — she said — I want to KILL her for that!” Rin kicked and tried to free her arms. “Let go!”

“No, you don’t. That’s not your job.”

“You didn’t HEAR — ?”

Manji pointed his chin. “You said you’d never cut a helpless person’s throat.”

Some distance away, O-Hama curled on her side. Her eyes were open and she breathed hard, but in a wheezing, sobbing rasp. Rin craned to look; blood seeped from under the woman’s ribcage. “She’s not fighting any more today, kid. Stand down.”

O-Hama’s sword lay within her reach; she apparently recognized what had happened, but although her eyes yearned at her weapon, she made only a vague move to grasp it again, and then let her arm fall to the earth.

Suddenly exhausted, Rin let her own sword go. It thumped to the ground next to them. Manji released her arms and she turned over on him to try to rise. She couldn’t; her thighs felt weak and her body quivered. Her knees straddled Manji’s thigh and her forehead dropped on his collarbone as she strove not to collapse entirely. “I shouldn’t kill her myself? You... you made me take th-that knife...”

“Yeah, I told you to do it, and you wouldn’t.” He cupped her head in one hand and rubbed his fingertips in her hair. “That’s my girl. That’s my Rin...”

Rin slumped a little more and let her cheek press on Manji’s chest. By contrast with her burning face, his flesh felt nearly cold. She wasn’t going to throw up if she could help it, though her stomach cramped and heaved painfully. Her soaked clothes stuck to her all over and runnels of cooling sweat tickled down her sides and between her legs. She would have liked to shed everything she wore and jump straight into the river... if she could have made it that far. Though her nerves and muscles still twanged and jittered, it seemed to take all her remaining strength just to pull enough air into her aching lungs.

In her dizzy throes, Manji’s familiar scent filled her nostrils with every indrawn breath. Little by little, she began to calm and revive. Her shoulders and torso settled down on his, though she stayed up on her knees. Resting on his body... feeling the rhythm of his living heart under hers. There couldn’t be anything wrong with taking some comfort after such a struggle — she could hardly do without it.

Manji didn’t make any objection; neither of them seemed able to get up yet even if he had. His fingertips continued to stroke her scalp and he loosely draped his other arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry... I’m so sorry...” Her voice scraped her raw throat.

“Sorry... for what?”

“Those things she said... and I let it get to me and she almost — oh, Manji — !”

“Don’t get tied in knots all over again, woman. You shut her up, but good.”

Ryonosuke, sobbing like a frantic child, crawled and slid through the puddles towards the fallen O-Hama. The flow of blood from her wound seemed to have slowed, though she had closed her eyes and clenched her fists where she lay.

Manji rolled a little to the side to pull his water container from his belt. Rin propped herself on an elbow and gulped water and air in alternation until the bamboo tube was empty and her throat felt better. She dropped the container; still a little dizzy, she put her face to Manji’s chest again. He tilted his head down and stayed where he was.

Rin slowly nuzzled along the line of Manji’s collar, barely brushing his throat with the tip of her nose. His skin was starting to feel warm to her again. Gradually her breathing slowed to something like a normal cadence. She sighed; she really ought to take her weight off a wounded man, but could she stay here just a little longer? Until she felt more like herself again, this person he said he knew...

“Rin. You hurt any?”

“No, if you’re not counting that little nick... oh, how are you?” She raised her head. “You’re okay? You’re feeling better? What WAS that?”

Manji slightly arched his back and shifted his hips with a sigh. “That damn arrow jiggling around in my guts, near as I can tell. It’s gone all the way in — the wound closed a while ago.”

“You scared me so much, Manji-san! I thought you were dying!”

“Not as much as you scared me.” He chuckled. “Took ten years off my life, I swear.”

Rin pushed her face into his throat to hide her shaky smile. “Oh, you’re joking!”

“Sure I am. What’ve I ever had to be scared about?”

Manji’s hands moved in slow unison to clasp her shoulders. His thumbs stroked lightly across the seams of her sleeves. Though he probably meant only to lift her, Rin’s face abruptly flushed and warmed again, her breasts tingling. As if in reply, Manji’s pulse accelerated steadily against her cheekbone. She remained quiet, but tensed.

He lay so still that his restraint conveyed more than any embrace, half-holding her and breathing as if air were a hazardous indulgence. Two scant inhalations, three... and Manji lifted Rin and put her aside so he could sit up.

They rose to their feet as briskly as they could, mutually arranging their movements so that they ended up facing in opposite directions. Rin wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed, her legs still unsteady; Manji slowly pulled a hand through his hair and rocked his head back to squint at the noon sun.

“It’s settled,” he said half to himself. “Duel’s over.”


Continued...