Detective Yuki

15. Sonamu

1. Sonamu

On an abandoned street facing three flaming hounds, Yuki took a stance with the sound machine to stand her ground. Aibo also took hold of his rifle firmly in two hands over the road, with windows and doors sealed shut for safety in preparation for the conflict to come. Finally, one of the Bulgae charged at the duo, followed by the other two, who jumped at Yuki and Aibo jaws wide open and flames coming from their skins. Yuki counter attacked with the sound machine, repelling and throwing one of the hounds into a nearby house, causing the structure to burst into flames and the occupants to flee down the street in a panic. Aibo dodged the fiery breath of another Bulgae, yet it caused damage to more of the surrounding buildings. He cocked his rifle and managed to shoot the murderous dog dead. Leaving only one Bulgae left, Yuki was about to use the sound machine on it, but Aibo shot it in the side.

As it fell to the floor and bled out orange blood, it howled out with its last dying breath, a sound that could be heard across the city like a country holler. This holler was heard by the receiving ears of Senbi, down on the shipyard as sundown approached. He realized what the sound meant and was startled by the fact someone had managed to vanquish his hellish monsters. Senbi was quick to react to this, and in doing so reached into his long black coat and held it open, unleashing a murder of crows in the direction of the dying howl.

 "what was that all about?. Dogs do not usually come right at you or spontaneously combust" Aibo lowered his rifle, right as a loud squawking and cawing could be seen coming to the street from the shipyard. 

The murder of black crows was big enough to blot out the moon briefly. Yuki could see the oncoming crows and told Aibo "stand back!!". 

She retuned her machine and shot it at the flying flock, disrupting its flow and causing the birds to retreat back to the yard away from the extremely formidable audio.

 "follow me Aibo!!" Yuki gave chase down the street, across town and back to the shipyard at twilight, when day and night became one in the sky.

Yuki could see the birds descend on the near empty shipyard onto an unknown white vessel waiting by the sunset with a human figure atop its decks. 

"who is that?" Yuki sped across the yard to the waiting ship as the light dimmed and the metropolis became illuminated for the night, unaware that scared citizens had called Japanese colonial police to the source from where they saw the Bulgae and crows derive: the shipyard, their sirens spooking Yuki and Aibo. 

When the urban lights grew strong enough, the face of the figure aboard the ship was uncovered, be it the mask of Senbi, which sparked intrigue and fright in the perusing detectives. Saying nothing but feeling very irritable at the sight of his two victims having survived again, Senbi took out a whistle from around his neck and blew on it hard, signalling the arrival of his samurai bodyguards that he had recruited from Okinawa over the sight of colonial police surrounding the shipyard.

The men, wearing red, black, blue, green and white hoods and sporting weapons from staffs to swords and stars, stood with Senbi facing the duo and the police. Senbi raised his hand, and the five samurai leaped off of the decking onto the pave work of the shipyard, but avoided Yuki and Aibo, instead heading to face off the police and incite a gunfight against echoes from a bygone age. 

As a new fight waged in front of him, Yuki shouted up to Senbi "I want answers Senbi, and I want them now. Go ahead and find a way to try and kill me and my associate, but we will not stop until you are brought to justice for your misdeeds". 

Accepting the defiance of his rival, Senbi simply responded "very well, come on board" Senbi advised as Yuki made her way up one of the anchor chains leading up to the upper decks of the ship. When she had made it to the top, she saw the imposing mask and dark image of Senbi standing in plain view.

"give me the answers Senbi!!" Yuki took out her sound machine and held it up to Senbi, who replied "I do like this little game, but now, at last this game can come to an end". 

This frustrated Yuki, who used the sound machine on Senbi, severely destabilizing him and making him shout out in pain. In a split second his pain turned to a rage, and he rapidly kicked Yuki off of the ship and cut the anchor and mooring lines, leaving the ship floating out of the shipyard and out to sea, leaving Keijo.

Yuki was sent down onto the hard stone of the shipyard, making Aibo rush over to her aid.

 "Yuki are you okay?!!" he asked as Yuki regained consciousness. On the top deck of the disembarking ship, Aibo spotted Senbi and what appeared to be a small monk standing by him with the night growing stronger.

 "good show!!. Now my boy, send them a line" Senbi waved at those on the shipyard while Namida stringed an long thin arrow with a note stuck through the arrowhead, and shot it from the back of the ship, the note flicking around in the sky until it came to land close to the water of the ship yard. By now, Yuki had regained the ability to walk after her encounter with Senbi and reached out to see the not, overlooked by Aibo at what it had to say. It read:

If you want to see us again,

Head for the colony of Chinese men

From here our power began to spread

The rising sun above its head

Yuki interpreted the note for a moment then hypothesized to Aibo "he is going to Taiwan. The first prime colony with the rising sun over its head, it is a colony of Japan, and one with a majority Chinese population would make Taiwan out best bet". 

Yuki was helped by Aibo in finding a safe way of evading the police and head for the Keijo airport, where they took the next commercial flight in a large ocean going plane over the east china sea to Taiwan, meaning they would arrive with time to spare because Senbi was traveling on a ship with almost three days voyaging ahead. For now, the duo had had their fair share of the water and now chose the skies as their new path on the road to stopping Senbi once and for all, oblivious to the fact that he was concealing an explosive device in the bowels of his ship.

This is NHK News Korea,

Our top news stories: five ex-samurai from the days of the Satsuma Rebellion were detained in Keijo two days ago after engaging in a conflagration with local police forces. In accordance with their principles of honor and nobility, a court martial sentenced them to death by the honorary suicide of Seppuku for the killings of several police personnel on the scene at the Gyeong-in shipyard.

In other news, the imperial diet and Emperor Taisho have been verified of documents intercepted from the colonial government offices in Korea that the Chinese nationalist government has been supporting the Korean nationalist rebels in the colony financially and militarily. Although the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo has continually denied Chinese involvement in Korean affairs, the documents have proved to be evidence that is damming enough to launch an inquiry by the imperial war office into the feasibility of a possible war with the Chinese. In the meantime, economic sanctions will be introduced against the government of President Duan, fanning the flames of deceit and tension between the premier powers in east Asia.