Daimyo

By Masako Moonshade

Prologue

---

The weapons formed a circle around her throat, like a thorny necklace. She gazed up at him, clasping onto some faint spark of...of what? Though a careless smile edged her face, her eyes were alight with terror.

Without hesitation, he turned, running back to her and the gunmen that surrounded her, no longer hearing the shouts of familiar voices as they called him back, nor feeling the clawed hands as they tore at his clothes, begging him to stop. Terrified, pale and frightened, she now stood alone in a sea of dangers, and she was all he saw.

Those eyes...they had worn concern, worry, caution, remorse...but never fear. And nothing ever so intense as this...

He shouted her name, and the calm facade lifted from her face, the fright giving way to absolute panic. One of her captors turned to face him, raised his gun, took aim—and screamed as ten daggerlike claws tore into his exposed back. The cry was echoed tenfold, with the reverberating thunder as nine men stumbled back, thrown by the recoil of their weapons. She staggered, her eyes wide, gasping for breath that escaped through unfamiliar holes in her abdomen and throat.

Grief, despair, rage, agony; all filled the howl that raced from his lips as he pushed on into the swarm of warriors. Yet his cries were lost in the horrific echoes that rushed back at him. All weapons were turned back at the dying woman, all of them discharged at once. The men without guns raced past him, pushing him back and away from her. He struggled against the fleeing crowd, blind except for a false scrap of hope that somehow, some way, she was still alive.

He stopped when the ground washed red at his feet. Mutilated, scorched, shredded, dozens of bodies lay scattered around a single figure, an ivory pillar, flecked with blood. This lone creature stood tall and proud, undaunted by the carnage that surrounded it.

“Ryuu...” he choked. Again, louder: “Ryuu! You're alive...but...how...?”

The figure turned, her once green eyes frosty, her face unnaturally cruel. Revulsion danced on his face at the sight of the ghastly holes that marred her body and clothes, at the flecks of red that he couldn't be sure were her blood.

“Ryuu...” he whispered, his face returning to the familiarity of hope and concern, reaching for her. “It's all right. I'll...I'll get you to a doctor. Everything's going to be all right. I'll take care of you, Ryuu. Please...”

Silent as the grave, twisted beyond description, the woman scowled, raising one clawed hand. Dry, crackling power emanated from behind it, and the man watched, transfixed by her pale eyes.

“Ryuu...” he whispered again, softly begging her now.

She didn't even see him.

Searing heat erupted all around him, behind him, inside him. Faded and weary, he could only just feel the iron grip of taloned hands grab him and pull him aside before the inferno engulfed him entirely.

“Ryuu,” he repeated stupidly, never registering the acrid stench of scorched feathers and hair. Behind him, the sound of heavy breathing went ignored. Ryuu was gone, vanished without a trace.

He crawled through the crimson mud, staring wide eyed around him, his eyes unseeing.

“She's gone,” he murmured. “Washii, she's gone.” His voice became suddenly loud, regaining its fierce, agonized cry as it echoed through the empty air. “She's gone, Washii!”

“I know, Akito,” panted the his rescuer, laying an empty hand on his shoulder.

“She's...”

“There was nothing you could do, Akito.”
“She was your Daimyo!” he roared, turning suddenly and striking her collar. Uncountered, he shook her, never pausing to wipe away the tears that stained his face. “You were supposed to protect her!”

“She ordered me to get you to safety,” Washii said, her voice receding into the practiced calm of centuries. “She said she could—“

“Forget what she said!” he sobbed, finally ending his assault, tearing uselessly at the shredded ground. “She's gone! She's...gone...she...”

Unsure, Washii reached forward, tentatively pulling him closer. The proximity disquieted her more than all of the corpses in their company, but she didn't end the embrace. More troubling was the empty air beside them, where Ryuu, Daimyo of the Northern Youkai had once stood.