" YUANFEN " genji shimada.

vii | hanamura

yuanfen.
act one, chapter one.
"hanamura"

—

WITHIN ONLY A FEW hours, Dahlia and Genji arrived in Hanamura. The cyborg wasted no time before he leaped off the ship, taking off in the direction of his former home. Dahlia mumbled a thanks to the Blackwatch pilot named Fio who had flown them there before she followed after him. She had no idea why Genji had asked her to accompany to his birthplace, and he didn't speak a single word on the journey over; all she could do was blindly follow after him and hope that he wasn't stupidly leading them to their deaths.

    After all, it wasn't everyday that Dahlia willingly ran towards a castle owned by a Japanese Yakuza clan.

    Genji finally came to a stop right outside the walls of Shimada castle. The lights that adorned his cybernetic armor glowed brightly in the setting sunlight. He looked upwards, scanning the towering wall in front of him as if searching for a way to get over. Dahlia, having finally caught up with him, leaned over and rested her hands on her knees as she attempted to catch her breath. Genji glanced towards her momentarily, noting her fatigue, before saying: "Stay here."

    Dahlia straightened at this and narrowed her eyes in confusion. They were standing right in front of the looming gates that led to the castle grounds, right in the open. "What? What if someone sees me-?"

    She trailed off as she noticed that Genji was already darting away from her. She watched as he scaled the side of the wall effortlessly, disappearing over the other side without looking back. Dahlia huffed in annoyance and moved to sit along the edge of the wall. If she was being forced to stay there while Genji did who-knows-what inside the castle, she was at least going to do her best to stay hidden.

    "Why did I even agree to this?" Dahlia grumbled to herself. She picked at the kudzu that had begun to grow up the wall behind her, peeling it away and tossing it onto the ground aimlessly. "Stupid ninja."

    Dahlia had no idea how long she waited there, but the sun eventually set and soon she was casted into near darkness. The only light available to her was coming from a singular lantern hanging above the gates, lighting up only a few meters around it. She shivered as the cool breeze blew across her bare arms; because Shimada castle was located on the edge of a mountain high above the rest of the city, the temperature dropped drastically as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon.

    Dahlia knew that it had to have been close to an hour since Genji had left her there, and yet there was still no sign of the cyborg's return. Finally, after what seemed like lifetimes of waiting, movement near the gate of the castle caught her attention. She turned towards it, ready to cry out with joy at the thought of finally returning back to the airship, though she froze upon noticing several large figures approaching her. None of them were Genji, and each one looked meaner than the last.

    "Well, well, what do we have here?" A man said with a short chuckle as the group stopped in front of her. Judging by the fact that they came from within the castle's walls and were dressed in the same fancy attire, Dahlia guessed that they could only be Shimada gangsters. "What's a pretty girl like you doin' all the way up here?"

    "Did ya get lost, Koneko?" Another man asked. This one was the largest, with broad shoulders and more hair on his face than the top of his head. A smaller man, barely taller than Dahlia, reached out towards her. His fingers brushed along her shoulder, and immediately she swatted him away with a scowl.

    "Get away!" She warned them, which only caused them to burst out into a chorus of sinister laughs.

    "You are not from around here, Koneko. That was your mistake," the first man said to her. Dahlia felt herself being pushed up against the wall. The stone was cool against her back, though she cowered against it in an attempt to distance herself from the disgusting men in front of her. They began to speak in Japanese, and she dreaded to know what they were saying to one another. Then, the first man grabbed her, and she began to be dragged towards the castle against her will.