
"I am sorry Master but the illness took her in the night, there is nothing further that we can do for the Mistress now," The voice of the old man was shakey as he spoke, the man before him was once a kind if not a strict man but since the disappearance of his daughter and the progression of the illness of his wife had changed him, he had become, unhinged and unstable, quick to anger at the slightest word. There was a crash as the man's fist met with a small side table sending the white porcelain vase tumbling to the floor breaking it into pieces.
"I have paid you to help my wife, you are the best doctor money can buy," The Master of the House grabbed the old man by the collar of his jacket, "Now heal my wife" He shouted, his face turning red, his eyes glaring,
"Master please, I am sorry but I cannot raise the dead," The younger man screamed in frustration and anger throwing the old doctor against the wall before turning to the body of his now-dead wife, running his hands through her long white hair.
"Get out of my sight," The doctor picked himself up from the floor and darted out of the room, not needing to be told twice, another figure looked into the room through the open door, silently joining the man. "Hush my sweet Yuriko, I will find our daughter and we can all be a family again, just sleep now, Yuriko didn't respond, she couldn't as she had been dead for some time now, her skin turning grey and her lips blue.
"Goro, I am sorry to disturb you,"
"What is it, brother?"
"The man that you sought out from Crater City has been found and is on his way to the estate now, and I have had reports of the whereabouts of your daughter, shall I act now?"
"Yes Takai, Sumiko should be here for her mother when she wakes up. My little girl and my darling Yuriko," Goro ran his hand down the side of the corpse's face, her skin now cold to the touch.
"As you wish brother, I shall make haste and return my troublesome niece," Takai bowed and left the room sliding the door behind him leaving Yasuda Goro some privacy.
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The moon cut through the darkness in the room, the girl rolled over burying her face into the boy’s chest as she fought back against her body waking her from the slumber that she was enjoying, Sumiko had forgotten when she had joined Za in his bed but she found that she slept better feeling his warmth on her skin then she did on her own. She sighed finally admitting defeat as she opened her eyes drawing the edges of the blanket to her chest as she sat up, she looked over to Za's sleeping form and smiled planting a soft kiss on his cheek before leaving the bed reluctantly watching him as he did being careful not to wake him.
Sumiko walked through the halls barefooted one of Za's old shirts hung from her body covering her like a dress, there was a chill in the air as she walked through the hallway back to her room, there was something there that she needed to get ready, a gift that she was going to be giving Za in the morning, she had been working on it for the last few weeks since the accident and wanted to get the final bit of tinkering done to make sure that it was ready, sliding open the door of one of the closets that line her small room she pulled out a black lacquer arm with an intricate gold leaf design covering the surface of the wood she looked at it for a moment, pleased and proud of her work, she pulled out some tools and got to work for the night.
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Beyond the walls, there was the sound of a twig breaking underfoot, it was the type of ambient noise that Sumiko had come to ignore, like the chirping of birds or the howling and barking of dogs that guarded the grounds of the other Clan Houses, it was exactly what Yasuda Takai was hoping that she would ignore, he had played a part in nursing the young girl's talents have taken her hunting on more the one occasion, he never did think that one day it would be her that would be his prey. Takai wasn't a cruel man, only driven and ambitious and right now he was waging a war with the two halves of himself, the half of the young brother whose sister had just died and whose husband was overcome by grief and the half of the new young Master who could take the seat his brother in law held due to mad ramblings, it was always the brother that won and it was him that won now. He and his men were dressed in dark blue, all apart from the gold pinwheel icon of Clan Yasuda that they wore proudly on their shoulder, he signalled his men to move silently throw the grounds surrounding the outer walls of the room where Sumiko sat tapping away at the prosthetic arm in front of her, blind to the danger that was just about to hit her.
Sliding through the window like a serpent Takai made his away behind the girl, her humming masking the light sounds of his footsteps on the well worn wooden floorboards, he crouched down inches from her before striking grabbing her from behind covering her mouth with a cloth, Sumiko let out a muffled scream, other men joined him holding the girl down, in a panic, she kicked out at them and elbowed Takai in the ribs grabbing at his shoulder ripping the icon from his clothes, she was stronger than this, she should have been stronger than this but the noxious smell from the cloth made her weak, tired. Her limbs began to feel heavy like they weren't hers. Her vision was edged in blackness as she took lungfuls of the cloth's substance in, her consciousness was fading, she cried out weakly before going limp. As quickly as they arrived the men left, Takai carrying Sumiko over his shoulder as they faded into the darkness.
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