Yumi's limb's were furiously aching. The horse seemed to jolt with every step making her wounds spit or spill blood, she needed to provide both herself and Karasu with first aid and fast. She gathered her breath and, finally, pulled the arrow from her side with her right arm. Her left arm was completely numb and losing blood at an alarming rate, Jiros blow had severed the muscle almost in two making it limp. She had to rely on her left arm to do all the work and her eyesight was becoming hazy.
She felt Karasu's breath on her back, warm against the chill of the wind. The morning sun kissed her lip with a gently orange glow but no heat came with the light. She felt herself get a cold chill and once again a precognition of hardship came at her whilst looking at the town. Nairo's face popped into her head and then back out in a flash. She yawned broadly, putting this vision down to exhaustion. They both may have rested quite sufficiently for any person to be fully alert but both had taken injuries that drained them of it. Yumi found that by the they actually arrived within the town that the only thing on her mind was an inn. It wasn't too long before she found one either, a little shabby place named the "Raising Sun". The tiles of the place were old arched ones, turquoise in colour. The brickwork was scarlet yet it showed signs of aging, moss hung from the edges and most of the cement which held it together was crumbling. To Yumi's eye's, however, this place seemed a dream; what were the chances that anybody would find them in such a ramsacked and miserable place? Chances were that all the lowlifes in the land used this as a rally point, which would provide perfect cover as crooks helped crooks, and soldiers helped soldiers. A universal truth that at this moment warmed Yumi's heart.
Walking inn only confirmed her thoughts. Sat around various oak tables which swam with beer and ash were, bearded men playing cards, young overly dressed women dancing for cash and even as they walked in a fight broke out. Yumi made her way up to a counter carrying the still sleeping Karasu, above it read "rooms and customer relations" Yumi laughed at the latter of the sign and dropped Karasu into a nearby armchair. She was met by a burly gentleman with a whitened, scarred right eye and wild grey hair. He put a large, black haired arm on the counter and looked at her squinting with his damaged eye.
"Names Kurt. How cin I 'elp" he asked, through his accent Yumi could tell he was a westerner. She looked at him through narrowed eyes and then spoke.
"I need a room. 2 beds" she kept her words short and her tone mono. She found it hard enough to breath with a hole in her side as it was without wasting words on an old man.
Yumi had now placed her right hand over the tear from the arrow on her right side to staunch teh bleeding and breathed in with a rasp. The old man looked her up and down before handing over a key, sliding the key across teh desk he then turned and walked away.
"Pay int mornin'" he called back, "11, sharp" Yumi looked down at the small key on the counter, it read '7'. It was strange that the landlord had not asked about her wounds, nor had he even asked a name. Maybe this place truly was full of outlaws.
Yumi grabbed it, looking around to see if anybody was watching. She tugged Karasu's arm upwards and placed it around her neck heaving her up and making her way up the nearby staircase. Carrying Karasu was proving to be harder each step. The wound in her left leg was throbbing wildly and the pain had progressed a thousand fold. She closed her eye's concentrating on her breathing. They were moving at such a slow pace that Yumi thought they may collapse before even reaching the room. She dragged Karasu down the hall with a scraping sound on the carpet that somehow seemed strangely audible above the ruckuss downstairs. Puffs of dust srang from the carpet with each of their motions, looking around it almost looked as if they were in a cellar. Mucky chandeliers hung at an angle from the rotten ceiling and the floorboards creaked angrily at them as the walked.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, they reached room number 7. Yumi gently leant Karasu against the wall next to the door and carefully lowered her down it into a sitting position. She fumbled around for the door key and, upon finding it, slotted it into the lock and turned. The door swung open and Yumi picked up the Crow and guided her to the nearest bed. She let her fall onto it, with her legs hanging from the edge and walked to a small bathroom nearby. Inside she took off her shirt and cloak and began washing her wounds. Her arm stang and leaked fresh blood at first before she tore up a towel and wrapped it around. Her leg took much less time and she didnt feel the need to bandage it. Once it were clean of dirt it seemed to stop bleeding quickly. Next began the more difficult task of stopping the blood which flowed freely from her right side. She used her left arm, which after cleaning had become usable but not strong, to hold up her right breast so that she could dab the wound with the last of the towel. The pain was immense, she had to keep stopping due to the pain making her feel weak and making her hand shoot away as if on it's own. It took her a long time to deal with the bleeding even though the wound was less severe than that of her arm. After an agonising 20 minutes it was finally clean and had clotted nicely. She ripped the right sleeve from her kimono and wrapped it around her waist. She felt herself grow weary but knew she must chack on Karasu first and then she'd go look around to make sure they had not been followed.
She walked into the room and over to the bed which the Crow lay down, passed out due to her injuries. Yumi removed all the old and now blood-soaked bandages from her body and re-did them using the sheet from Yumi's own bed. She used a small flower pot to carry water in from the sink to clean Karasu's wounds again. She felt as if she were 15 again, caring for her 12 year old sister Kaori when she had gotten flu. After the Crow was finely patched again Yumi left some fresh water on the side table, and helped Karasu properly onto the bed before re-clothing and exiting the room. Locking it behind her.
Yumi pulled her hood up over her head to overshadow her face. She intended to snoop around the bar area. If they had been followed, or anybody knew where they were rumours would surely have already started to circulate. She walked down the corridor back to the stairs trying her best not to pay attention to the throbbing pain in her leg. Once downstairs she walked quickly over to the bar and sat on a high stool. The burly landlord trotted over and again leant his arm onto the woodwork.
"Wha'll it bi?" he said, his voice was proud and deep giving him the aura of an ex militant.
"I'll just have an ale" spoke Yumi, she looked over her shoulder and around the bar.
The barman propped up his arm on the bar several seconds later and slid a glass of dark liquid over to her. He held out his left palm,
"Tha'll be 2" he had to shout these words as Yumi was in her own world watching a fight errupt near the door.
Yumi looked at him as though dazed and said aloud,
"Add it to the room" the barman/ landlord "Kurt" nodded and walked away to deal with another customer.
Yumi followed Kurt with her eyes and his next customer, to her astonishment, had a face she knew well. He had tried to conceal himself behind a hood similar to Yumi's but she spotted him straight away, Nairo. She leaned to the side to hear what he said, acting as if she were simply resting on her left arm even though it caused her great pain to do so.
"Wha'll it bi?" spoke Kurt, though his voice had obviously changed. He seemed more concerned now.
In a whisper captain Nairo replied and it was almost impossible to hear but Yumi managed.
"I'm here to meet Kurosawa Jiro-sama"
Kurt took his arm from the bar and crossed them both. He spoke in a gruff, harsh tone and pointed out of the bar.
"Sir, I mus' ask tha' yer leave as yer 'ave obviously already 'ad yer fair share tonigh'. Maybe you'll find more look in the alley!?" Kurt said faking anger. He pointed a short stubby finger towards the door and turned away to talk to another customer.
Nairo looked around and directly at Yumi, luckily not realising what he had seen. He proceeded to get up pretending to wabble clumbsily and staggered away to the front door and out into the street. Yumi took one last swig of her ale and followed. Once outside she walked around the back, keeping to the shadows and minding her footing. She peered around from a corner to see Nairo talking to a man dressed in Seifugun colours. Anger brewed in her, all the past events clicked into place. Including why he had been such a lousy tactician.
The Seifugun soldier held out a small bag of gold. Nairo took it, and walked away in the opposite direction to where Yumi was. She watched him walk away, look in the bag and throw it gleefully between both his palms. The Seifugun tarried a while as Nairo walked away so Yumi took her chance. She ran out as fast as she could and barged the soldier into the dark alley behind him. There she held him up with her strong right arm and withdrew the katana with her left. She couldnt wield the katana well with her left arm in this state, but the soldier didnt know that. She pushed him against a wall by his throat holding the katana down at her side.
"That was Nairo, yes? What did you pay him for? Please answer swiftly, I've had a hard day and I'd rather not waste my time repeating myself!" anger shone through her eye's.
The soldier struggled and choked out words.
"F-for a favour. For a-a f-favo...ghhhhg" Yumi's grip tightened on his neck.
"Don't make me repeat. Answer in full!"
"A-a... ghhgh... favour. He helped take d-down-own a group of Shinseidan that were causing problems. Two wanted assasins w-were involved. Hiii-ggggghhhg-high priority."
Yumi felt her left arm slide the katana into his side and simlpy let him fall to the floor.
The soldier was alive, barely. Yumi walked away back to the inn, her head pounding. The team she had sided with, It was just as the Crow had said, all of them were the same. She now had two primary targets, Jiro and Nairo. What if Nairo's roots ran deeper? What if all the Shinseidans plans were known and thworted by the government? Questions ran round in her head making it impossible to think of anything else.
When she had got back to the room she unlocked the door, walked in and sat on her bed. Karasu, it seemed, was beginning to come round and Yumi had to tell her what she had learned.
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