New Jeanland

Kimiko stared down at the body as it turned into ash, a mixture of relief and shame in her eyes. Veronica nodded to her as she picked up the sword from beside the man. “Everything will be better now, my dear.”

“I… killed him.”

“Well, he did deserve it. Keep that in mind.” Veronica tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Did you have anything that you wanted to take with you?”

Kimiko looked at her stained kimono and then at the weapons rack in front of her. The various weapons of an ersatz martial artist hung there, tassels moving gently in the breeze entering the room from the hole in the opposite wall. She bit her lip as she thought through what she should claim. Her creator’s katana was payment for Veronica’s assistance. The fans were lovely, but not worth much in the way of protection. She finally pulled herself together enough to grab the chain whip. It was silvered, a fact that she forgot until she felt a burning pain in her palm. She quickly wrapped it in a piece of silk and secreted it under her obi.

Veronica smiled. “I daresay you will master that weapon quickly.”

Kimiko shuddered. “Where do we go next?”

“It would be best to part ways,” Veronica said lightly. “You can have your choice of directions, but I wouldn’t recommend staying here. As you killed him, you will have to answer to the Tribunal if you stay.”

“But…,” she started.

“I don’t make the rules. I can only recommend that you follow them.”

“You helped me.” Kimiko was sure of that. Veronica had seen how she had been treated by Tiernan; she had offered to help her escape in exchange for the sword.

Veronica shook her head. “The killing blow was yours. An ingenious usage of a stake… to stab a man from the back while he was talking to someone else.”

Kimiko’s eyes were dilated in fear. “But you fought with him as well.”

“I doubt anyone knowing your history with him will blame you for asking someone to come witness you telling him that you were leaving; as to what happened, the Knights will only be concerned with the twin facts that he is dead and that you must be brought before the Japanese Tribunal.”

“You have the sword!” Kimiko exclaimed, feeling cold all over.

“I have a sword. He had many more in his collection — one will not be missed. Besides, how do you know that he didn’t sell it to me?”

“You are a monster.”

Veronica shrugged. “You should know that I would take that as a compliment. You are lucky that I am not going to kill you where you stand — I would be helping the Tribunal.”

Kimiko’s hands formed fists, and she rushed at Veronica. Veronica stepped aside and hit Kimiko in the hamstring with the flat of the katana as she went by. “I bid you a good night, Fujimora-chan. Do try to stay ahead of the Knights.”

The very young vampire gasped as Veronica merely walked through the hole in the wall and disappeared into the night. She looked around the room one more time, panicked at the thought of the retribution coming her way, and then bolted out of the building.

Two weeks later, Kimiko was in a rundown o-chaya; it seemed to exist only to serve foreigners and other one-time visitors. The moon was waning, and one could barely see the shadows of objects outside through the thin paper walls. Kimiko nervously arranged her clothing again, trying to act appropriately in the surroundings.

She had been fortunate that the decrepit mistress of the o-chaya had taken pity on her and allowed her to sit in the vacant room during the festivities that were going on in the banquet hall proper. Kimiko’s new job was to keep the dishes clean and the teapots filled for the maikos. While Kimiko looked the part of a geisha due to Tiernan’s none-too-gentle instructions and copious amounts of makeup, but she had never been trained to sing or to dance. Tiernan had only taught her the rudiments of martial arts; she was ornamental to him, a wind-up doll with a pretty wardrobe.

A gentle hiss from the water in front of her drew her attention back to her job. She deftly moved the iron pot off of the heating source and settled back on her heels again. Kimiko considered herself fortunate to have found a lightproof place to stay on such short notice, but there were other places farther away from the village where she had met Veronica.

Two maikos startled her when they entered all in a bustle, dropping off empty teapots and picking up a full one apiece. They pointedly ignored Kimiko and left quickly, chattering about one of the very drunk foreigners in the next room.

She was just about to relax again when the door slid open. She looked up to see a gun leveled at her by a tall, blond man. “You are Kimiko Fujimora, correct?” The man holding the gun spoke in formal Japanese with a light accent.

“That is so,” she said in the same language, trying to stay outwardly calm and hoping that this was just some shakedown of the o-chaya for money.

“I am Anatoliy Comaneci. I have come to bring you before the Tribunal. Will you come quietly or…” Anatoliy ducked as the pot of scalding water was thrown at his head.

While the stranger was avoiding the iron pot, Kimiko opened the back panel of the room and ran into the garden, judging that she would just make it over the stone wall into the neighboring backyard if she jumped at the right spot. She managed the vault and didn’t spare a moment to look behind her, catching her borrowed formal robes up in one hand as she flitted through the next yard.

She made it through five tiny garden areas (almost knocking over what had to be a prized ancestral shrine) before she reached a wall which was impossible to jump over. The man was nowhere to be seen behind her at the moment. She continued to scan the immediate area, saw a ladder next to a tree, and climbed into the branches.

For five minutes, she sat as still as possible, listening to any sound below her and peering into the night to see any sign of the man approaching. She had spent her childhood climbing, and she was extremely light on her feet — she’d climb to the top and fling herself down, risking a broken bone if it meant that she would get away.

“Miss Fujimora.” The voice was coming from above her. Kimiko spun her head up and stared at Anatoliy. “Will you please listen to me before we have to continue this delightful chase?”

“How did you get up there?” Kimiko steeled herself to drop to the ground. He just needed to be distracted a bit more before she could reverse her steps and take another route through the town.

“I used the wall behind the tree,” he said agreeably. “I’m here from the Tribunal, but I’m not going to hurt you if I don’t have to. I was told that I was going up against someone armed and extremely dangerous.”

Kimiko gritted her teeth and clutched her chain whip a little tighter in her sleeve. “How do you know that I’m not armed now?”

“I don’t. I just know that you aren’t as extremely dangerous as I was led to believe. If you had a gun, I am assuming that you would have shot at me already instead of trying to douse me in hot water. Plus, your instinct was to run, not to fight. Now, judging from the angle of your arm, I can tell that you have something under your sleeve. I would appreciate it if you would bring your hands out where I can see them.” Anatoliy’s voice was quite calm.

Kimiko snapped her wrist, and the chain whip struck out at Anatoliy’s position. He raised an eyebrow as it utterly missed him and wound around a lower branch. “I think you need a little more training before you try that again.”

Anatoliy shifted on his branch to get a better look at the whip and nudged it loose with his foot. It fell straight down for its full length from her hand. Kimiko sighed and started gingerly trying to pull it back up. “I don’t want to see the Tribunal. They will kill me.”

“No, they won’t,” Anatoliy said reassuringly. “I’ve been in a similar position. They didn’t kill me — and considering that I was a snide little wretch, that’s saying something.” He jumped down from the tree and dusted his hands off.

“You aren’t going to shoot me?”

“No, not tonight. I prefer using a sword anyway, and I left mine at home. Now come down. I’ll get you to where you need to be, and you can settle your differences with the Tribunal.”

Kimiko gave him a penetrating gaze. His face was open and honest. His hands were held up to her, ready to assist her out of the tree if she wanted. She didn’t want to go in front of those people, and she still didn’t entirely trust this man, but she didn’t see many other options open to her.

Eventually, she nodded slowly and jumped down. He caught some of her weight and then respectfully backed away as she straightened her now torn, outer robe.

“I don’t mind if you keep the whip, but I’d appreciate it if you’d leave the stake behind,” he said as they started walking towards the street on the other side of the house in front of them.

She sighed, pulled that object out of her other sleeve, and threw it to the ground. “How did you know about that?”

“Lucky guess,” he said as he ushered her down the road.