Kaguta - Or, Ankūro - The Warrior, The Thief and The Killer

13

In order to flee.
Many choices will be made.
A trial by steps.
- Bushubō.

They remained hidden in the temple until the sounds of people removing the bells ended, and for a little while after that. Kō hurried Kiriho past the temple priests, strung up upon the great, wooden gate of the temple entrance and then slipped away into the nighttime throng of people. She had already started to plan their escape from the city.

The next morning, after hiding in a filthy alleyway, Kō left Kiriho and the child while she prepared. With the few Osū and Inū coins she had left, she bought new clothing, the head of a three pronged rake and a length of rough cloth. Everywhere she went, she saw signs of Imperial patrols and had to use all her skills to remain unseen.

Now, wearing the clothing of a farmer, muddied and dirtied in the filth of the alley, she wrapped the cloth around her spear, tying the rake head to the detachable section, rubbing mud upon the sections where the black, lacquered wood still peeked through. A length of cloth tied around her head, covering one eye and another around her neck as a scarf, hiding the scar across her throat.

Kiriho made minor complaints as Kō cut her hair, tossing the shining black strands into the dirt. The remaining rough cloth, Kō used to strap down the girl's nursing breasts. Now, they were the image of a poor farming family, displaced from their home by the ongoing war. A tall, thin father, a son and a babe, seeking a new life in the still prosperous Imperial region.

Of course, should any take too close a look, no-one would believe either Kō or Kiriho were male, but it would serve a purpose, for now. All of the trappings of a wandering priest became abandoned, including the demon mask that Kō had grown an attachment to. She enjoyed the anonymity that the mask had provided.

At the gates to the city, Imperial soldiers stood watching as people trickled in and out of the gates. Kō hunched her back, resting an arm across Kiriho's shoulders as they neared. She put more support upon her disguised spear, her legs bowed, coughed many times, spitting phlegm to the side. As expected, the guards covered their mouths.

Many diseases ravaged the countryside, made worse by lack of nutrition and people having to sleep under the stars. The guards had no wish to allow anyone with such a disease to remain within the confines of the city, where an outbreak could cause untold damage to the populace. Without getting close, the guards ushered Kō, Kiriho and the child through the gates.

Only after they had placed a mile, or so, between themselves and the city, did Kō straighten her back. Several times, the child had begun to cry, unable to gain nourishment from Kiriho's strapped breasts, causing other travellers to gawp and stare, but Kō would put on her play of disease ravaged coughing and none came near.

"Where to now, mistress?" They had come to rest beside a river that once raged past this spot, now only a trickle, and Kiriho had unwrapped her breasts to feed the girl. "And must I play the part of a boy forever? Norūmo needs feeding more often than this and I fear the strapping may run my milk dry."

"Don't call me mistress anymore. Get used to saying 'Papa'." Kō could not rest. She stood, watching the road, a distance to the side, and making certain she had tied the rake head tight to her spear. "We travel to Osūji. Once there, we find out where this Sansui is. Hopefully, one of their retainers will have a loose tongue. And don't give the child a name!"

"More killings? Even after the deaths of those priests, the girl in the castle?" Kiriho laid the child aside, on a blanket, while she stepped down the embankment carrying the child's soiled underclothes with her. "Haven't you seen enough death yet?"

"Far more than I would like." She tried not to look at Kiriho, keeping watch for any passers-by, or Imperial patrols. "Far more."

When she had undertaken the task to bring justice to those that had ravaged Akāi, she had thought herself some hand of Divines inspired retribution. A just executioner. That seemed so long ago, now. Killing that girl had crossed a line. She had thought no-one innocent, that she could consider everyone a legitimate target for her wrath, but that girl's eyes preyed upon her. And now she had the deaths of the temple priests upon her conscience.