Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 40

Kogai really didn’t want to join us for our little trip, but we were pretty sure our odds of getting through the front doors would go up quite a bit by dragging him along, so we did so.

“Just so you know, I plan to drink the whole time. And you’re paying for it. That’s my price for playing tour guide,” Kogai said.

“Yeah, sure. Help yourself to this stuff. I think it’s your favorite,” I gestured to a big clay urn filled with liquor. Kogai popped it open, took a whiff, and was delighted.

I had been hoping for that reaction. Truthfully, I hadn’t bought him any alcohol for the trip, just snuck into his cellar and grabbed some of his own stockpile. He had so much down there that I doubted he would ever realize he’d been drinking his own alcohol.

We would be taking a large rickshaw for most of the trip, and several of Kogai’s servants would pull us along. It was mostly like a carriage, only pulled by people instead of beasts of burden. Truthfully, it would have been faster to run, since the three of us were all B-Grade and the servants were only D-Grade.

But even places like this had ideas about how members of high society would travel, so the trip ended up costing us most of the day. Sakura and I found more than one way to spend the time. Thankfully, Kogai drank too much and passed out just an hour into the journey, so Sakura and I didn’t have to worry about him.

Before we knew it, we were already there.

“This is it. The Rokubi Estate.” Sakura gestured ahead of us into the distance.

There were dozens of smaller towers scattered around the perimeter of the estate, and to my surprise, I realized each of the small towers was the same size and design as Kogai’s castle. But here, instead of the main fortification, they were merely perimeter keeps.

An expansive and carefully tended water garden stood near the entrance of the gate, which was flanked by statues of strange beasts and colorfully painted reliefs along the wall. Our rickshaw came to a stop before the gates, and we dismounted.

Sakura gave Kogai a nudge to wake him up, but when that didn’t make him stir, she resorted to a kick. Eventually, she just hauled him to his feet and shook his head until he groaned and opened his eyes.

“Ugh. My head is pounding...” Kogai clutched his brows.

I tossed him one of Bridget’s biscuits, which I knew from experience were decent hangover cures. He gobbled it down in one bite and perked up moments later.

“Alright, who’s ready to get laughed at and kicked out by the cockiest bastards on the planet?” Kogai asked, turning to us.

“You think it’ll go that badly?” I asked.

Kogai snorted. “There’s a reason I wanted to do this drunk.”

We hopped out and were greeted by the gate guards, both B-Grades who were only slightly inferior to Kogai in level. They were also both Oni, but they only had a single small horn in the center of their heads, much like Sakura once had. Perhaps these two had only transitioned to becoming Oni recently after hitting B-Grade and weren’t as far down the path of oni racial evolution.

Rokubi Branch Family Guard (Level 282)

Rokubi Branch Family Guard (Level 297)

Posting two powerful B-Grades as guards was a bad sign. It was both a show of force and a silent message that intruders were unwelcome. Grandma Luthrin’s branch of the Samhain Family on Glacia had hirelings of considerable power, but they were kept as valuable instructors, warriors, or guests. They weren’t standing guard by the gates.

“Greetings! I’m Kogai Miyamoto, here to see my honored cousin Shiki.” Kogai had his hands folded and bowed low to the gate guards, which was the greatest display of humility I’d ever seen from him.

“Young Master Shiki mentioned nothing about you coming to visit, Kogai,” answered one of the gate guards.

“No, but--“ Kogai began, but was abruptly cut off.

“The young master is busy with an important project. Go away,” the guard replied.

I had a hunch I knew which project was keeping this Shiki fellow busy. It probably had something to do with New Kyoto and any other shards the Oni might have taken over through their connections to Sakura’s family.

Kogai flashed Sakura and me a helpless shrug and walked back to the rickshaw.

Sakura stepped forward to try her luck.

“Please, my father is somewhere in that compound. If you could just pass along a message for him to meet us...?“

“What part of get lost do you not understand?” The guard was glaring now, and he’d picked his glaive off the ground and was pointing it at the two of us.

Anger lit in Sakura’s eyes. She looked at me as though asking if we were going to kick down the doors and storm the place. She might be able to handle one of these two gate guards, and with my help, I was certain they couldn’t stop us.

But I held her back.

“Carter, we’re so close! We can’t leave now!” Sakura protested.

I pulled her close to my side. “We’ll get in. Just not through these guys.”

***

We asked Kogai’s servant if there was lodging anywhere near here, and sure enough, there was a small town nearby. The Rokubi family had chosen to build their estate on good land beside a river, so, between that and the money servants of the Rokubi family no doubt spread around, it was only natural that people would settle here, much as they had around the Samhain Clan castle, Valkyrie’s Watch.

When we came to the settlement, the only real surprise was how small it was. This wasn’t like Valkyrie’s Watch, which was a castle suitable for a C-Grade local power. The Rokubi estate was far larger and the home of an A-Grade. It should look more like God-King Ted’s imperial palace with a sprawling city for miles in all directions around it.

Instead, it was a sad little town nearly a mile from the estate it should have surrounded. Mentally, I pegged the Rokubi family as a smaller-scale A-Grade power. They likely weren’t galactic powerhouses like Ted and the Dragon Lodge, but even a low A-Grade would be a planetary hegemon.

A low A-Grade would be exactly the sort of person I’d expect to hatch a plot to turn Kyoto and all the humans there into low-level laborers. A higher-leveled A-Grade wouldn’t need to resort to tricks like that to carve out more territory for themselves.

That line of reasoning was reassuring, and I asked Kogai a few questions about the place. He knew the reason for the small town’s size off the top of his head.

“Oh yeah, the Rokubi family is very elitist. The last thing they want is a bunch of farmers, general store owners, and general laborers living next to them, even if they hire those same people to keep their estate running. So they kicked everybody out of here.” Kogai shrugged, but his skepticism was clear.

Before now, Kogai hadn’t struck me as the best leader. But at least his city was a city that was stable and not on the brink of collapse. Considering it had a teleportation array facility, I was starting to think that Kogai might even be a good leader -- though only by comparison to the Rokubi branch. Perhaps I’d judged him too harshly based on our first encounter.

“So servants and laborers live here, right? And they commute to the Rokubi estate every morning?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess so.” Kogai shrugged.

I looked around and was pretty sure my guess was right. I’d had a hunch this would be the case, but I was glad to see it confirmed.

“Let’s find somewhere to stay for the night without drawing too much attention,” I said.

“So we’re settling in for a long wait, huh? If I run out of alcohol, there might be trouble. I don’t think we can buy more in this tiny town. There’s not even a brothel, let alone a brewery.” Kogai shook his head in displeasure.

“Don’t worry, this won’t take long. I said we were getting in, didn’t I?” I was already rummaging through my bag of holding for materials. I had my cloak already, and I had Sakura’s cloak too.

“How are we getting in, Carter?” Sakura asked.

“Through the backdoor,” I replied.

***

The following morning for Sakura, Kogai, and I were all disguised as Rokubi family servants. The cloaks were probably enough, but I’d secured some green dye from the local tailor. Normally, it was used for repairing clothes, but I mixed some clay with it until it was a paste.

“Why am I the only one that has to rub this shit all over me?” Kogai groaned.

“It’s just clay. And Sakura and I have enchanted cloaks that make us unlikely to draw attention. They are tuned to us, though, and won’t work for you.” I shrugged helplessly.

Kogai held his dye and clay-splattered fingers to his nose and took a whiff. His nose immediately curled in disgust.

“Are you sure this is clay? Because it smells like shit to me.” Kogai made a face.

“I am at least fifty percent sure it’s mostly clay. Now hurry up, we leave in a few minutes.” I waved Kogai to hurry, and to my surprise, he smeared the dyed green dung all over his face.

Pretty soon, we were moving and followed the other workers traveling up to the Rokubi estate. The other workers did their best not to notice us, though I wasn’t sure if that was because our cloaks were working properly or because nobody wanted to stand too close and get a whiff of Kogai.

We went right for the front gates, which were wide open now. The gate guards from before were still at their posts. B-Grades of their power wouldn’t have issues standing guard for weeks at a time if they had to.

They didn’t even pay the three of us a second glance, and all of a sudden, we had free access to the Rokubi family estate.

“Huh? That was it? I tried to fight my way in here three times in the past, and it turned out all I had to do to get in was smear a little green clay on my face.”

“Yep, clay...” I coughed. “Anyway, it’s time to search. Let’s split up.”

“There are few members of the Rokubi branch I get along with. I’ll find them and ask a few questions,” Kogai said.

“I’ll talk with the servants and see if they’ve seen anyone that matches my father’s description, though I don’t know how he’d change after transforming into an Oni...” Sakura frowned.

“I’ll peek inside a few of these keeps. I bet I can examine people without being seen. We’ll meet back here in an hour.”

After my parting words, the three of us parted ways.

I did a quick loop around the outer keep. I had planned on cutting through the shadow realm to get inside and get a good look at people, but within the walls of the estate, defenses were much more lax. Most of the keeps didn’t even have guards posted, and their owners were using them more as personal homes than as defenses.

I could simply fly up to an open window, and there was nothing to stop me from letting myself in. Normally, a flying humanoid would attract a bit of attention, but I was already wearing a cloak to mitigate that.

Perhaps others saw me and just assumed I was a bird before their brains could truly register me. It wouldn’t work if there were real guards and wards to bypass, but as things stood, it was enough.

A few people jumped up in startled surprise as they felt the telltale spine tingle of an examine being used on them while they were reading, meditating, eating, or training. But the casual entrance meant I could save my trip through the shadow realm for a quick retreat, and I was pretty sure nobody saw more than a flash of my cloak before I vanished.

Those who had seen me probably assumed I was nothing more than a gust of wind or a figment of their imagination, because nobody raised any alarms. Though a few unlucky servants unfortunately took the blame for disturbing their master’s concentration.

It was a bit fatiguing to see the Miyamoto name pop up again and again every time I looked at someone. I wasn’t sure I even remembered Sakura’s father’s first name. To me, he’d always been Mister Miyamoto. I vaguely remembered Sakura having a family portrait somewhere in her office, but that would be of limited use after the oni transformation he would have gone through after the integration.

I ended up taking the full hour to explore all the keeps along the perimeter. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the man we were looking for. I had hoped the Rokubi family would have given him a keep somewhere, but apparently not. That meant the only place he could be was in the main compound.

That place looked more like a palace than a castle, and breaking into it wouldn’t be as simple as slipping in through a window. An hour was nearly up, so I figured I should reunite with Sakura and Kogai before planning our next move.

I was the first to arrive at our rendezvous location. And the second to arrive was...

No one?

I waited a few minutes longer. There was no sign of Kogai or Sakura.

I looked around, hoping I would see one of them coming this way. But they were nowhere to be found. Kogai, I could understand. His understanding of timekeeping was probably involved in checking the height of the sun. But Sakura had several electronic devices with her that could keep track of time. She was also always quite punctual. She wouldn’t be fifteen minutes late for something important unless something happened.

I turned to the main family compound. It looked like I’d be opening those doors on my own. And this time, Sakura might need my help.

I fiddled with the clasp on my cloak. Discretion had gotten us through the outer doors, but now Sakura might be in danger. Perhaps it was time to take the gloves off and show the Rokubi family why they should have just let us in through the front door.

<Note>

Is tricking Kogai into rubbing shit on his face sufficient retribution for beating up Sakura?