On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Forty-Nine: Blaze

                 Some part of Niikhaan Ueno wanted to survive. Why he'd betray everything for another painful, rasping breath, Dai didn't understand. As a Kimsura and a son of the Dragon Court, he understood 'Death Before Dishonour, Death Before Defeat' and nothing but. Anything else was foreign. Foreign as the sensation of steeling had become.

Dai had forgotten what it was like to be calm. But anger had sated him well enough.

Now, after minutes or hours or days, Daiki Kimsura was nearly full.

The shogun withdrew his blade. He looked down upon the rebel, and asked again, "How long."

Gurgling, his victim tried to speak. To insinuate Yuina and save himself- brave as his custodian was accommodating. Dai took a fistful of slick, curling hair and helped purge Niikhaan's throat to make room for words.

Then, he dropped him.

Sidestepping the red puddle on the floor, Dai repeated himself a third time. "How long."

"Never... never-"

Fingers curled around the last clean scalpel. Niikhaan's body gave a jolt. Not many kept their vision at this stage. Not many turned their heads.

"You must believe me. There was... I did not plan to take her with me. She left of her own accord-"

Dull steel glinted as it danced over his fingertips. He held it over his brazier, dipped it in the flames. "You're not listening to me. I know she left on purpose. I also know that she came to collect you, probably with my son in tow?"

"No-"

Niikhaan flinched, recoiled as Dai drew a weapon far less sharp as a blade, but no less painful. A smile, stretched and cold. He approached the table, produced Yuina's hair stick for observation.

"You've got it wrong. She came to see it but... I didn't know she was leaving! We weren't together. There was no plan to-" A gasp, and not a scream. Barely even that. The hot scalpel punctured flesh and Dai let it sit there like a plug. Cauterizing itself. Those purpled eyes pinched shut. "...She didn't plan to leave you. Not as far as I knew."

"Why would she?" he asked, leaning against the table and looking at Niikhaan over the side of his shoulder. "I was a goldmine of information. But you convinced her." Another plunge. In the dark, blood oozed black.

"No-"

"You've written many letters."

"Trying to get information from her. She wouldn't give me anything! I swear!"

"She hid them from me."

"You don't understand!"

"I understand." He exchanged the dainty hair stick for a rusted blade, simply because it was closest. Infection didn't matter now. "But I'm asking you why now."

"You murdered my family."

"I've executed many families. This one wronged us personally."

"You slaughter people like infected chattel and... why is that not enough of a reason for you!?"

"It wasn't enough of a reason for her," he breathed, then he ran his tool along the ledge, listening to the echo of its eerie din.

"Her people!"

"Rebels," said Dai. "Allies."

"Family."

Closer.

"I am her family."

Closer. He lifted the tool, narrow and twisting, then-

"-She thought she could change you."