Chapter Text
“This hat is ridiculous,” said Taigen as he fidgeted with it, trying to make sure it stayed in place for longer that one minute. It was impossible. It had a funny shape, it scratched his ears if he pulled it too low, and it would fall back if he didn’t.
“And don’t get me started on the coat,” he continued, raising his arms to try to adjust the very tight sleeves and losing his hat in the process. For the third time in the last hour, Taigen had to get off the horse and run behind his hat. This time he let out a loud frustrated groan.
“So much for going unnoticed," grunted Mizu as she pulled the reins to stop her horse.
“Shut up! There is nobody on this road, we are in the middle of nowhere."
Mizu looked around. Taigen was right, but he should be more careful. The last thing they needed right now was some local farmer noticing them. Hence, the barbarian hats and coats. And it’s not like she didn’t agree with the sentiment. These clothes were very uncomfortable indeed, but they needed to blend in. Be plain, boring, forgettable.
“Come on, as soon as we get to the bridge we’ll go off the main road. Then you can eat that hat, for all I care.”
***
The stone bridge was exactly where Fowler had said it would be. Right after the crossroad, where the river bent, where the oak forest started.
“Huh,” Taigen said, “I can’t believe he was telling the truth.”
In silence, Mizu got off her horse and crossed the bridge. Deep down, she was also surprised. And a bit suspicious. Sure, Fowler had no reason to lie. After all, if her and Taigen got caught, disappeared or died, he would spend the rest of his miserable life in the hold of the ship where he currently was. Fowler knew he needed them to return. He also knew that he was only alive as long as he had useful information. It was impossible to completely trust the bastard.
“Ok, so now we go east, through the forest, for 5 miles, and that’s where the manor should be, right?”
Mizu nodded slowly without looking at Taigen, carefully taking in the surroundings. “We should find a place to hide the horses and rest”, she said, “we’ll continue on foot after sunset.”
And so they went, into the deep and dark woods, guiding the horses between the gigantic trunks and meandering roots. After just a few minutes, they found a small clearing that would keep the horses protected until they returned. Taigen sat on a log and started to pile some branches and rocks to make a small fire. It wasn’t very cold now, but it might be later. Taigen watched Mizu as he tied up the horses. Mizu’s elegant movements as he smoothly tied the reins in a knot. Mizu’s long fingers as they tenderly stroked the horse’s muzzle. Mizu’s soft and almost inaudible whispers as he calmed the animal down. Mizu’s… Taigen coughed to clear his throat and looked back down to what he was supposed to be doing, hoping that his staring had gone unnoticed. He kept finding himself unable to look away. More and more often.
When he had first joined Mizu in this insane foreign quest, he had done it out of spite, out of pain, out of not knowing what to do next. Just because he did not know what he really wanted. Of course, the Shogun’s family would probably still be grateful that his warning had saved some of them. He might have been able to get some nice palace position and live a comfortable life in the city, but he had not wanted to stay where Akemi was… Akemi! He so rarely thought of her now. It didn’t even hurt anymore. He wondered if it ever really did or if it was just his ego that had been damaged.
The sound of Mizu’s faint laughter interrupted his thoughts and made him look up again. The horse had snorted and softly nudged him in obvious ease and comfort, and Mizu was smiling in return. Taigen once again stared at Mizu’s lips as they curved slightly upwards and at Mizu’s eyes as he slowly closed them before meeting the horse’s muzzle with his own forehead. Taigen felt himself hold his breath, a jolt in his chest. There was something just so utterly mesmerizing about the tenderness of the moment. And it was just a moment, for barely a second later, Mizu’s face had returned to his usual stern expression as he sat in front of Taigen, his back resting on a tree, his gaze to the ground.
If Taigen hadn’t seen this before, he could have sworn he had made it all up. He kept being entranced by these very rare and almost imperceptible instances of captivating and irresistible warmth creeping up from under the ice-cold aloofness that he had so quickly associated with Mizu when they had first met. But Taigen hadn’t thought of Mizu as a cruel monster or a heartless demon for a very long time. Or at least not as only that. These past few months, first at sea and now in this strange land, had led him to believe that there might be a whole world to discover under those apparently impassive blue eyes.
“Wake me up when the sun goes down," Mizu said as he curled up inside his English woolen coat, “or earlier, if you also want to sleep.”
“Hm… Yeah, hm, sure… Yeah, I will.”
***
The moon was not full and the occasional cloud would cover it for a few minutes at a time, but there was enough light for them to comfortably walk through the shadowy forest. At least it’s not raining, Mizu thought, although she could see dark clouds gathering towards the north. A late summer storm, maybe. It really rained a lot in this place. This country was so sad when it rained. Muddy, dirty, gloomy. Even the city was filthy. People were rude, the food was disgusting, the language was stupid.
She stared at Taigen’s wide shoulders as he quietly walked by the trees a few feet in front of her, hand on the hilt of his sword. A sword given to him by the Shogun, no less, what an honor, as he would state aloud often. And yet a sword of worse quality than Master Eiji’s broken sword, which now sat in the forge as part of a lump of steel, waiting to maybe deserve to become her own sword.
Mizu sighed as she thought of the forge, and Ringo, and Swordfather, and not having been able to explain or say goodbye. She was long past rejecting help and company, but she had decided that the next part of her journey was for her and her alone. So she had not known how to react when Taigen had insisted (no, asserted) that he was going to travel to London with her. “Honor something something! Duel something something!”, he had cried, only to never bring any of that up again. For all that he whined and complained, she had to admit that she was glad to have him there. It felt a bit like home.
“That must be it,” Taigen whispered, pointing at some lights in the distance.
“Hmmm," Mizu nodded, catching up to him and following his gaze.
They continued, silently, aware of everything around them. Fowler had given them a lot of information about the manor. But Fowler had not been in this house or talked to its owner for decades. When they reached the end of the forest, they knelt behind a tree and watched carefully. The house itself was not large at all, but it did have some smaller buildings nearby and a lot of vegetation around it. According to what they had been told, the complex included a stable, a guardhouse and the servants’ quarters. A tall but old and crumbling wall stood around it all with what looked like a small gatehouse near the entrance. A lone figure slowly paced on top of the wall, near the back side of the manor, holding a musket up. Everything was eerily quiet.
“It seems like there’s nobody at the gatehouse," Mizu pointed out, “like Fowler said.”
“We are not just walking in through the front door,” Taigen said immediately, sensing where the conversation would end up, “we’ll climb the back wall and go through the kitchen, like we decided.”
Mizu looked at him. She frowned and pouted as a response.
“Fine,” she relented after a few seconds.
Still crouching, she quickly advanced following the line of trees, making Taigen pick up the pace to be able to follow. Once she reached the corner of the wall and without waiting for her companion, she grabbed the grappling hook and threw it up. With a loud clank, it found an appropriate hold. They waited for almost a full minute, in case the sound had alerted anyone, but nothing happened. Taigen shrugged. Mizu started to climb.
As soon as she got to the top of the wall, she realized their mistake. Nobody had reacted to the sound of the hook, of course, because the sentry had already been there, waiting for someone to climb. He was currently pointing the barrel of his gun directly to her face. He said something in English that she couldn’t understand and cocked the musket. Before he could fire, Mizu jumped to his side while sweeping him off his feet with her leg. The guard was so startled that he let go of the weapon as he fell. Mizu grabbed it in the air and hit him in the face with the butt of the musket. His nose started bleeding, and he was out cold.
“What was that?," she heard Taigen ask from below.
“Shush!”
Mizu crouched and waited to make sure that this time nobody had heard anything. There were no other guards on the wall sections she could see. There were no lights in the guardhouse. No movements in the yard other than the trees slowly swaying in the chilly night breeze. She looked at Taigen over the parapet and nodded. He made his way up the wall and looked at the unconscious sentry. Ugh, not great, but hopefully it would take the other guards some time to notice his absence.
As planned, they climbed down the other side and landed near some trees, next to the servants’ quarters and the kitchen. There was light in one of the windows next to the large kitchen door and they could hear some faint voices coming from there. Mizu peeked through. Two young women dressed as maids were sitting on one side of a big table. Two men wearing the same type of clothes as the guard she had knocked out sat in front of the girls. Their muskets were behind them, leaning against the wall. They were all chatting and giggling. A warm and cozy fire blazed in the hearth. Mizu could see several glasses and bottles on the table. Everyone’s cheeks were a fiery red color. They seemed happy.
She looked back at Taigen, and gestured with her hand to indicate that they would have to find another way in. They had not considered the possibility of a late-night unauthorized party. According to Fowler, there was a servant staircase next to the kitchen that connected directly with the master bedroom’s hallway on the other side of the building. Maybe they could still use it if they were careful.
Mizu went around the building and glanced up. There, on the top floor, she could barely make out a weak flickering light, maybe from a candle. That had to be the master bedroom. She just couldn’t believe her luck. She felt the adrenaline rush, the fire in her chest, the revenge demon suddenly very awake in her heart. Maybe he was here tonight after all.
She quickly scanned the rest of the wall and… Bingo! A back door. As Taigen stood guard, Mizu took the lock-pick kit out of her pocket and got to work. Once the door was unlocked, she took a deep breath and gently opened it, making sure the hinges made no noise at all. She walked in. Taigen followed. The foul smell of English food was overwhelming. Of course. This was the pantry.
Even though the room was dark, they could see the hallway in front of them thanks to the kitchen fire. They could also hear the voices much more clearly now. Mizu’s understanding of English was abysmal, but she could recognize a word or two in the loud and drunken conversation. “Rain… horse… forest," and once again a lot of laughter.
Taigen put his hand on Mizu’s shoulder to catch his attention and pointed to the hallway. There, barely visible behind a ragged tapestry, Mizu saw the doorknob and nodded, starting to advance in that direction. Taigen kept his hand on Mizu so as to stop him on his tracks.
“You are not going up there without a weapon, are you?," Taigen whispered.
“How many times do I have to explain that I…”
“I know what you told Master Eiji, but this is reckless, even for you," he insisted.
Mizu snorted and looked around. Rolling his eyes, he grabbed a kitchen knife and exaggeratedly pointed at it, before putting it on the back of his belt with an unnecessary flourish.
“Happy now?," Mizu said, raising an eyebrow so as to intentionally emphasize her irritation. No better way to hide the appreciation for his concern that she could feel creeping up underneath the annoyance.
Taigen didn’t answer, but stepped into the hallway to make sure that they could not be seen from the kitchen. He slowly opened the narrow door behind the hanging rug and peeked inside. The air in there was damp, and it smelled like it had been closed for a very long time, but there it was, as foretold: a cramped staircase.
Mizu was right behind him, his eyebrows frowned, his mouth tightly closed, his terrifying gaze looking through Taigen like he wasn’t even there. Mizu now seemed to be pure determination, his whole being focused exclusively on what might be waiting for him at the top of the stairs. There it is, Taigen thought. Mizu the warrior, Mizu the revenge-seeker, Mizu the demon. Not wanting to be in the way, Taigen stuck his back to the wall, watching Mizu as he walked by him and started going up without even looking back. Taigen closed the door behind them and followed. He had to remind himself that this was not his fight. At least not in theory.
Mizu opened the little door at the end of the passage. They were, once again, behind a tapestry, this one much richer than the one by the kitchen. The hallway was covered in wood paneling and lavishly decorated. Immense paintings, rugs, lamps, vases, tapestries, statues, decorative weapons mounted on the walls. Two full suits of armor stood tall, framing a large engraved wooden door at the end of the corridor.
“This has been suspiciously easy, do you think it could be a trap?," Taigen looked around him, but he really could not see any reason to worry.
Mizu ignored him and walked towards the great door. She put her hand on the handle.
“Don’t come in, under any circumstances," she commanded. She stared at Taigen’s eyes so intensely that the man had to immediately look away, visibly uncomfortable. He leaned against the wall, looking ahead at the empty and dim hallway.
“I won’t," he muttered under his breath.
With a sharp inhalation, Mizu turned the doorknob, entered the master bedroom, and closed the door behind her.