Chapter 17

Kaoru sat down on the grass, her back propped up against a large tree trunk as she watched Enishi put in some exercises before they had their lunch. A book on China's history lay open on her lap, but as soon as Enishi started doing his katas, she forgot all about reading and focused on him instead.

His resolve for jinchuu is wavering, she thought. She did not need to hear him speak the words. The tension in his muscles last night was obvious to her as she lay beside him. She didn't know if she was going to be thankful or relieved. What could possibly give him the peace that he needed? More than anything she wanted him to see his sister smile, for she thought that he deserved that much. I need to get my hands on Tomoe's diary.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Jiao exiting the shed at the edge of the practice area, carrying what appeared to be a large crossbow in his hand. The man with the scarred face watched Enishi briefly before walking towards her.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Jiao said, grinning at her.

She matched his smile. "He will be fine," she said confidently, knowing that Enishi's form was flawless. "But thank you."

He noticed her looking at his weapon. "This is a repeating crossbow," he said, showing it to her. "A magazine feeds the bolts automatically so it has a rapid rate of fire. Less accurate than a regular crossbow but in close quarters it can work well."

"It's my first time to see one," she said.

"It's an ancient Chinese weapon that has been refined through the centuries," he said proudly. "But Mei concocts wonderful poisons that make it even more deadly."

As if on cue, Mei appeared, carrying a basket. Kaoru was surprised to see Soong An behind her, walking with a pair of crutches. "I have the poison you requested," Mei said, patting the basket.

"Good," Jiao said. He looked at Soong An. "Glad to see you on your feet. Or foot."

"She has been in bed for two days, I wanted her to get her circulation going," Mei explained. "And I also wanted to see how well the splint I made holds her leg when she starts moving around." She set the basket on the ground and knelt down beside Soong An, feeling the splint with her fingers.

Soong An rested her crutches against the trunk of another tree and slid down to sit on the ground, her injured leg extended in front of her. Her pretty face was expressionless as she looked at the group bent over Jiao's crossbow and Mei's basket before turning her gaze on Enishi, who was still doing his exercises, unmindful of the newcomers.

"How are you," Kaoru ventured tentatively, reaching out to the other girl.

"As well as can be. Thank you for asking," she answered, her voice flat.

Kaoru bent her head, wondering if Soong An still felt strongly about Enishi, the way the Chinese girl was watching him practice. Mei took Jiao's bolts from him and laid them out on a tray she took out of her basket. She got a bottle of clear liquid and she began to douse the bolts with it. "Is that the poison?" she asked Mei.

"Yes, it slows down the body's nervous system until the heart stops beating," Mei said. "It takes an hour for the full effect, but it's supposed to cause loss of consciousness in a minute. No antidote, as far as I'm concerned."

Kaoru shuddered at the thought. "No antidote?"

"As far as anyone knows," the doctor confirmed. "There are other ways to counter it, but since it's my concoction, I'm the only one who knows," she finished with a grin. She wrapped the bolts up and gave them back to Jiao. "There you go Jiao. Just don't shoot yourself in the foot when I'm not around."

"I'll wait until you are," Jiao answered, hefting the crossbow in his hand and pretending to take aim with it.

"I'm serious," Mei muttered, packing up her stuff.

Lei suddenly appeared from behind one of the trees. He eyed Mei's basket suspiciously. "So everyone decides to have a picnic and not tell me about it," he said.

"You're welcome to it," Mei said, nodding at her basket.

Lei sat down next to her and looked inside. "What's this?"

"It's Mei's poison," Mei said.

Kaoru raised her eyebrows, and the doctor shrugged. "I don't have a name for it, so I call it Mei's poison."

Lei winked at Kaoru. "Her ingenuity always astounds me."

Kaoru laughed as Mei took her basket back, feeling relaxed amidst the light banter. Even Soong An had a small smile on her face. She watched Enishi pause in his exercises to throw them a curious look before continuing. I wonder if he will feel jealous again, she thought mildly, realizing that she almost felt at home with most of Enishi's associates. Deciding not to take any chances, she excused herself from the group and stood up to go to him.

Enishi stopped in the middle of a swing and looked at her as she approached. "Everything all right?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, clasping her book in one hand. "Lei was just having a dig at Mei."

He let out a half chuckle as he took the towel she offered him. "He likes her."

"Oh?" Kaoru said. "What makes you say that?"

He shrugged. "I pay attention to a lot of details, Kaoru. Did you come out here to tell me something?"

She hesitated. "Well… I didn't want you to think I'm having too much fun with your friends, again."

"They're not my friends," he corrected her, his eyes glinting merrily. "And you don't have to worry about me." He reached out to grasp her waist at her ticklish spot, and Kaoru moved out of the way of his hand.

"Don't," she gasped as he caught her anyway. "Or your juniors will think you've gone soft."

"Don't you want to rub it in Soong An's face?" he asked her, still looking wicked.

She laughed, shaking her head. "You could be so terrible sometimes."

They made their way back to the group under the tree, Enishi still holding onto Kaoru's waist. As they sat down on the grass, Mei looked at him curiously. "Enishi, how's your back? Let me see those cuts."

"They're fine," he insisted. "How are things looking for tonight?"

"Oh, I've arranged for three carriages to take us to the restaurant," Mei said. "Father's usual escorts will also be there. It's a five-course meal that I ordered to be prepared. It's supposed to be good. What time are you leaving?"

"In three hours," Enishi said.

"Then I guess we'd better get to lunch, then," Mei said, standing up. She stepped over to help Soong An get on her feet.

They walked to the mansion, with Enishi and Kaoru lagging behind the others. "I need your help with fresh bandages before I go," he said.

She nodded. "After lunch?"

"Yes," he said.

"Are you worried about going out tonight?"

He scoffed. "They're a bunch of pansies with guns. Compared to that time I went after the Ryukage, this is going to be easy."

"I'll believe you," she said, pushing her usual worries away.

Two hours later, though, as she was wrapping a fresh roll of bandages around his torso, her fears came back. She said nothing, but he noticed the downward pout of her mouth as she tied his bandage in place.

"Don't worry," he said as he stood up to put on his jacket. "This will be the last time."

"The last time?" she repeated.

He nodded, checking his watou before securing it in its sheath. "After this, I'm quitting the syndicate and I'm just going to be an ordinary, boring house husband for you."

It seemed that the words had slipped out before he thought about it, for he caught himself and looked at her, still sitting on the bed. He bent his head, adjusting his glasses, before turning to the door. As he turned away, Kaoru caught the faint flush on his cheeks.

Enishi is blushing, she thought, a slow smile spreading on her face. That arrogant man is actually blushing. She stood up, reaching out to catch his hand before he stepped out.

"Enishi," she said, pulling him to her. She put her hands on either side of his face. "You will never be ordinary, or boring, and I don't think you could be confined to the house. As for the husband bit… I refuse to be proposed to in such an offhand manner. Even a sack of potatoes deserves better than that."

The ride to Nanjing was silent, which gave Enishi the opportunity to think on what had just transpired with Kaoru right before he left her. He shook his head at himself for letting himself speak without actually thinking about it first. He had been with Kaoru for almost two months, and in an unguarded moment he had somehow gotten it into his head that they would be together for years without actually asking her about it. Fortunately for him, she had quickly shoved him towards the door without waiting any further response from him.

"What's the plan when we get there?" Jiao asked, jarring Enishi back into the present.

"Just go in and kill everyone," he answered. "I want to do this quickly, Jiao. And mind where you point your crossbow later."

"Yes boss," Jiao said. "Are we going in together or are we going for a pincer attack?"

"Together," Enishi said, not wanting to be on the other side of Jiao's poisoned bolts. "You go in with your crossbow and I will cover you when you need to reload. Take down as many as you can before your bolts run out."

They reached the address, which turned out to be a compound surrounded by a high stone wall. The entrance was a wooden gate guarded by to men armed with rifles. Jiao did not need any encouragement, he fired several accurate shots as he was dismounting, hitting both men several times on their chests. Enishi dismounted as well just as the two guards fell to the ground. He unsheathed his watou, charging at the door with a powerful lunge that splintered the thick wood.

Jiao clicked his tongue as he followed Enishi inside. "What happened to 'do it covertly'? Ming will kill us if he knew we entered so forcefully without the evidence he wanted us to get."

"I don't need evidence," Enishi said, his eyes quickly sweeping the front yard as he heard an alarm being sounded. It was a large compound, but not as large as the one behind their brothel. There were buildings scattered throughout the area, most of them two or three stories high, built in western style. The buildings were identical, giving him no clue as to where their leader might be. They would have to check each structure.

"I will sweep this building, you sweep that," Enishi said, pointing Jiao to a building on the opposite side of the compound.

"What happened to you covering for me when I need to reload," Jiao complained.

"Deal with it," Enishi shot back, already on his way to the first building. He kicked open the door and walked in, stretching his senses. He registered four people in the room, all of them rising to respond to the alarm. They had barely gotten ahold of their rifles when Enishi cut through them like a tornado, his watou singing through the air as he expertly delivered his lethal attacks. Three bodies fell to the floor, lifeless, while the fourth man struggled against a table, holding his hand across a deep cut along his side. He was the one Enishi purposefully left alive.

"Where is George?" he asked in a no-nonsense voice, grabbing the man's rifle and breaking it over his knee. No sense in leaving any weapons that can be used against them later on. Besides, he had seen the ledger, and the weapons have already been paid in full.

The man shook his head frantically, and Enishi almost sighed at the stubbornness. He took the broken rifle in his hand and shoved the tip into the man's open wound as he held the man up by his collar. The man screamed in pain, and Enishi paused. "Tell me what I want to know," he said calmly.

He shoved the rifle into the man's side again and the man screamed. "In the main house," he gasped as Enishi stopped his torture for the second time.

"Which is where?" he demanded.

"Blue door," the man whispered, sweat lining his forehead.

"Finally," Enishi muttered, dropping the man. Before the man could fall to the floor, Enishi pivoted on one foot, beheading him. There was no use leaving any of them alive.

He swept the rest of the building, climbing up to the second floor to find it empty. He quickly descended the stairs and when he got outside, he found Jiao exiting the other house. There were five guards running towards them, and as soon as the guards spotted them, they stopped to take aim with their rifles.

Enishi waited a moment, and when he heard the crack of the rifle firing, he moved, relying on his superhuman speed. He turned to evade the path of the bullets and sprinted to the guards, knowing that it would take them at least five seconds to reload. He cut them down, one after another, flicking his sword after dealing with the last man to get rid of the blood.

"Their boss is at the house with the blue door," Enishi said as Jiao joined him. "How many men did you kill at the first building?"

"Eight," Jiao answered. He checked to see that his crossbow was loaded properly. "You?"

"Four, then five out here," Enishi said, doing a quick count. "Too few. I'm going after the boss. Watch my back."

He strode over to the main building, again forcing the door open. He found two guards inside and he barely dodged a bullet fired by one of the guards closer to the door. With a low growl, he disposed of them quickly with a clean attack. Jiao followed after him, stationing himself at the door, facing outward, to prevent any reinforcements from following them inside.

Enishi swept the first floor of the house, going from room to room. The sitting room had two guards, and he did not wait for them to fire. He launched into his Senran Tousei, effectively slashing at both of them and destroying most of the furniture in the process. He kept moving, searching every room on the first floor carefully before deciding to move up to the second floor.

The second floor's hallway was littered with about five guards. Enishi ducked behind a corner, realizing that the guards already had their rifles aimed and ready. He was just debating with himself whether he would be fast enough to dodge in such a narrow space when Jiao came up, holding his crossbow ready. Enishi jerked his head towards the corner, and Jiao quickly fired blindly, expending at least fifteen bolts.

The pair of them waited for a full five seconds before cautiously peeking around the corner. All five of the guards were down on the floor, each of them pierced by at least one poisoned bolt.

Jiao grinned. "That was a blind shot."

"Yes, it appears it doesn't take much talent to use a crossbow," Enishi muttered.

"I still saved you from getting a few bullet holes."

"I could have dodged them just fine," Enishi said. He led the way down the hall, his senses telling him that there were no longer any more guards to encounter.

He opened the first door to see that it was the study. He expected it to be more heavily guarded, but it was empty save for a man cowering underneath his desk. Enishi raised an eyebrow at Jiao. "I presume that's George," he said, recognizing the man from the bidding a few weeks ago.

He stepped over to the desk, grabbing the man by his shirt and throwing him on top of the table. "You were the one behind the attacks on the syndicate," he said, his steely voice not giving any room for doubt. "Why?"

The man was a foreigner, judging by his light hair and blue eyes. Enishi paused and repeated the question in English. "You may as well speak, because I am not leaving this room without any answers," he said matter-of-factly.

"The opium market," the man said, his eyeing Enishi's blood-stained clothes with fear. "We wanted to control it."

Enishi's eyes narrowed. "How did you know where our drug dens are?"

"Information from one of you," George said, talking rapidly now that he seemed to figure out that Enishi's temper might be diverted from him if he knew there was a traitor. "From Wu Heishin."

Enishi's eyebrows shot up. "Heishin is set to inherit my shares in the organization. Why would he destabilize it?" The idea seemed illogical to him, yet his temper threatened to go into a rage as he realized that George would not have known of Heishin if they had not conducted business personally. The pieces started to fall in place in his mind. The ninjas from Japan. Heishin was the middleman. He started to move on the organization, sending the ninjas, just after Enishi had left for Japan.

"I don't know, but it was all his plan," George insisted, feeling bolder now that Enishi's anger was directed at somebody else.

"The pig," Enishi muttered. He threw George to Jiao. "You take care of him. I will deal with Heishin." It seems the syndicate's problem would be resolved in Japan, not in Shanghai.

He was already thinking of the quickest ship to take him to Japan when his eyes fell on the papers littering the desk. It was a map of the syndicate's compound, with markings that accurately indicated where each guard post was. Along with the map were a few sketches of the seniors. He saw his face, and Ming's. Lei, Soong An, Mei… everyone, he thought, leafing through the papers. It was a hit list.

"Where are the rest of your men?" he asked George, his voice now taking on a dangerous tone. "This compound seems pretty empty considering you bought over a hundred rifles and pistols from us the past month." He already had an idea, and though his face remained neutral, his stomach was already sinking with the thought that Kaoru would be in the company of assassination targets that night.

George's fear returned at hearing Enishi's tone. "Ambush," he said finally, giving up. "At your compound tonight."

Enishi swore as he grabbed George and bashed his head onto a coffee table. He took his sword and was about to run out of the study when Jiao stopped him. "Wait, Enishi, we need to recover the assets we lost. The records must be somewhere here in the study."

"You do that," he said to Jiao, already halfway out the door. Once out of the house, he broke into a flat out run, leaping onto his horse outside the compound gates. He spurred the horse into a gallop, pushing it to the limit. He must have been at the compound for a full hour. Kaoru and the others must only be starting their dinner. The ambush would not take place in public, so it would have to be when they would be on their way home. Enishi hoped that Mei had prepared a long program for her father's birthday.

Note: Hello lovelies. I apologize for the long update intervals. I'm on holiday and I couldn't very well ignore my fiancé and hunch over my laptop could I? :) Thanks again for continuing to read this story. Things are getting exciting. Appreciate the reviews! See you again in a bit.