Thine Brother’s Keeper pt.5

(Part one can be found here.)

Eight Moons ago…

“Makoto, was it?” The large and imposing Hrothgar asks, standing over the Au Ra, who somehow manages to look oblivious and nervous at the same time. He looks over to Gyodo, who has the same blank expression he always seems to have as he looks through his sack of coin. The Hrothgar smiles, his long whiskers bouncing up as he does. “Gyodo here has told us much about you. He says you felled a Baras with a single arrow at over 300 yalms.” He offers, with an impressed look about him.

Makoto blushes, with an awkward grin. “I, well… I think it might have been a little less.”

The Hrothgar lets out a loud “Gufah!” prompting his other two associates to also begin laughing. “And humble besides!” The three of them, all in casual Othard garb, look pleasant enough, though the other two seem strange… Nothing that immediately jumps out at Makoto, just… off. “Tell me, Makoto… Gyodo here says you felled a number of creatures before you finally sent Rudra back into the mountains… why was that?”

“Oh, well, you see…” He smiles awkwardly looking away.

“Think of it as a seasoned hunter teaching a greenhorn such as myself,” He offers with a disarming smile, “our secret, I promise.”

Feeling proud to be called a seasoned hunter, Makoto straightens up. “The Baras wasn’t even the most impressive kill, if I’m being honest with you. It was just the first. Scaring off the Rudra was going to take more than a few well placed arrows! I took down a Matamata not too long after the—”

He holds out a paw to place on Makoto’s shoulder. “One of the giant turtles? By yourself? Just with this bow!?” He asks, sounding shocked while gesturing the Makoto’s simple bow.

Whatever pretense of concern he had when he first saw Gyodo, counting his sack of coin, is lost now for young Makoto as he beams proudly up at the Hrothgar. “Oh it’s nothing really, I’ve been a deft arrow for as long as I’ve been drawing breath.”

“No. No I refuse to believe it. Come!” He calls to his compatriots who make a show of rolling their eyes and shaking their heads with a smile, as if oddly unsurprised by their boss’ sudden flight of fancy. “Come, we have to see this! You don’t mind do you? I’ll pay a sack of coin just for the display, you don’t even have to teach me. The name’s Bar-Weith, by the way.”

Now…

Rosetta rubs the back of her neck, wincing as she does so. The pain isn’t as bad as before between the Sage’s milprieves and a spare potion Matzugi carries around. She and Matzugi stroll through the streets Kugane, a compliment of Sekiseigumi’s finest following close behind them as they do as the Kojin is being escorted out of the city under orders. “Tell me their name again?”

He clears his throat and lowers his voice. “Maturin’s Shadow.” Matzugi says, before looking nervously over his shoulder.

Rosetta shakes her head. “Don’t worry about them, they’re city guard, Matzugi. They just want you gone. They won’t attack you here.”

“Rosetta…” He starts, sounding exasperated. “I feel I have failed to impress upon you the gravity of the situation.”

She sighs dismissively waving her hand. “I get it. Shadowy assassins working with some wayward voidsent to—”

He grabs her arm, stopping them both at the top of the stairs, to look gravely into her eyes. “Dragoon, I pray to the Kami, that you listen to me and hear me well;” He shakes his head. “I don’t keep an eye on them out of fear for myself, I do so out of fear for you. Maturin’s Shadow is not a typical band of thugs. Their means are not brute force, a collection of sell swords they use to maim or intimidate. They find the people they need and through bribery, coercion, black mail, or by threatening the lives of loved ones, get what they want.”

He leans forward, emphasizing his next words, but keeping them low enough that he’s certain the samurai cannot hear him. “I am looking at them nervously because any one of them, could be one of them, and you would never know it until it was too late.”

“Might I suggest you continue on?” One of the samurai asks, stepping forward and thumbing at the Tsuba where it meets the scabbard. “We’d hate for there to be further problems.”

“You need to find him, Rosetta. You need to find Gyodo. I’m sure they tried to killed him, but you and I know all too well how hard he is to get rid of.”

“Hey, he said move along!” A rough looking Sekiseigumi shouts, drawing up his katana.

Rosetta takes a measure of him, giving him a warning eye. “Wait! Hang on, alright? We’re just—We’re talking ok? We’ll be moving on in—”

“Stop him!” Another of the Sekiseigumi shouts as the rest of them draw their steel. Rosetta turns to see Matzugi dashing for the edge of the upper deck beside the hot springs, where he takes a hop onto the railing, then leaps into the Ruby Sea. All five Samurai get to the edge of the railing and look over, trying to catch sight of him, but not seeing any sign of the Kojin. The rough looking Samurai, young but with a lifetime of scars on his face turns and glares at Rosetta, who just looks back at him from the top of the cobblestone stairs.

“What?” She asks, increduous.

“You let him escape!” He snaps, pointing accusatorily as he takes a step towards her.

“Let him escape? First of all, I’m not one of your city guards. It’s not my job to detain him.”

His face scrunches in rage as his compatriots come away from the railing to join him. “How dare you! You know we told him to—”

“Second of all, you wanted him out of the city… well he’s out of the city.” She gestures to the ocean, cocking an eyebrow. “And third?” Without answering, she turns and dashes down the stairs and into the market. She hears them call after her but she doesn’t pay them any mind. They dash after her, but she’s already slipped around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, and as she hears them reach the bottom she leaps straight up, and onto the roof of one of the buildings. She watches them search the crowd before throwing up their hands in frustration.

They quickly begin blaming one another for what’s happened, but the market is so crowded Rosetta can’t quite make out what they’re saying. She turns her gaze to the ocean for a moment, thinking on what the Kojin said, before turning back to observe the guards. Could it be? Could any of them be working for Maturin’s Shadow? And if they were, how would you know, Rosetta? She wonders to herself. The Sekiseigumi are wound so tight their actions could just as easily be attributed to overzealousness as an assassination attempt, she concludes with a small chortle.

She takes a breath then shakes her head. “Seriously, I was just supposed to stop a wayward dolt from getting swindled by a fish. Not…” She gestures broadly, “this.”

5 Moons Ago…

Bar-Weith stands twenty or so yalms away, watching the boy prepare his shot. Naive as a newborn babe, but a talented hunter all the same. He watches Makoto pull up a handful of grass, and drop in just in front of him, gauging the windspeed. “You think this is the one?” One of his compatriots, a hyur woman with pink hair, asks?

“Smart enough to start.” Bar-Weith asks, then chuckles. “Well… practical enough. Smart is another story, but that would be to our advantage.” He watches the Au-Ra draw up his bow and take careful aim at the Matamata a little under 450 yalms away. With the arrow notched he focuses his eye on the target as he aims the bow up and slightly to the right. Never once breaking eye contact with the giant turtle, he looses the arrow fashioned out of the Baras tooth, and a few ticks of the bell later, it plunges through the top of the Matamata’s head. It groans for but a moment before collapsing on the ground.

Makoto, full of pride and vinegar, turns to the trio and bows dramatically low before shouting. “I have to go harvest it before one of it’s kin eats the important bits!”

“Go!” Bar-Weith shouts with an applause. “Go my friend, we’ll catch up! We have much to discuss!” As Makoto takes off Bar-Weith drops his voice. “Go take care of that damned Namazu, this is it. He’s the one.”

“Are you quite certain?” His Au-Ra compatriot queries, his voice pitched with a crackle. “You said half a malm, maybe more.”

“In optimal conditions, and he just hit a target two fulm wide at four-fifty.” He stairs the Au-Ra in the eye. “He danced with the impossible with a child’s toy. Just imagine what he coud do with a real weapon.” He turns back to watch Makoto run towards his kill. “Better yet, we’ll have moons to train him and push him to where we need him to be.” He smiles a deeply satisfied smile. “In Maturin’s Shadow.”

“In Maturin’s Shadow.” The two repeat in unison before setting off to take care of the Namazu as requested.

He smiles for a long while watching as Makoto cuts into the giant turtle’s neck with his hunting knife. “In Maturin’s Shadow.” He repeats, with a wicked smile.