Illustrated Warrior #6
Chapter Eighteen

It was a new Tomoe Gozen who stood in the park today.

She had followed a middle aged man into the park, a man now sitting alone at a park bench; a man she had seen before. He was a policeman, the partner of the new man in Ana's life, Peter DeNyse. When Tomoe had first discovered Ana was the one she was meant to kill, she had studied those parts of Ana's life that were unfamiliar to her, anyone who might be close to her, anything that might give Tomoe the advantage. Now she followed the same surveillance routine as before, out of habit as much as anything, unsure of exactly what she sought.

She wondered if Peter knew yet of Ana's death. Her body had no doubt been swept down river.

It might not be discovered for days.

But what of this man she had followed again?

From what she knew of the police in this country, they seemed to be constantly in motion. The moments that Peter had managed to spend with Ana had often seemed stolen away from his other duties. What would this policeman be doing, simply sitting in the park?

She watched from her hiding place as four men stepped from a car to threaten the partner of Peter DeNyse. She could tell by the way three of them swaggered over to the policeman that they were brutal men who ruled by force -- no different from those who had hunted Ana like an animal on that recent night.

She could see why Ana fought in this costume and this white mask; the costume Tomoe now wore. It revealed and concealed at the same time; causing uneasiness, promoting fright.

She thought of the words Miyamoto Musashi wrote upon the fire scroll. "You may threaten by sound. You may threaten by making the small seem large, and you may threaten by making an unexpected move from the side. These are the situations where fright occurs. If you seize the moment of fright, you can take advantage of it to gain victory."

She was not surprised by the actions of the newcomers. They were men who desired to use violence to gain their aims. They threatened the policeman, then hit him from behind. They meant to subdue the policeman by force, to bend him to their will. They would find Shi instead. She pulled the first of the arrows from the quiver strapped to her back and fitted it to her bow.

One of the men cocked back his fist to hit the policeman again. The man shrieked for only an instant as her arrow caught him between the eyes.

She moved quickly, running from concealment to finish her work. Tomoe Gozen was gone from this place. She was the Shi-killer now.

She discarded her bow and drew her katana. For once in her life, she did not serve Nara, nor some misguided, Westernized Oyabun. The freedom was almost intoxicating.

She sliced one across the belly, then took the third brute in the neck, driving the sword upwards with both hands until it emerged from the back of his head.

"The Shi-killer!" the leader shrieked.

She followed the urgings of the blade alone, responding to its appetites, and in the process, she acted nobly in defense of the innocent.

The leader, the last one standing, ran from her. It would be a simple matter to catch him, to silence this last yelping pig. But their victim bled from their beating. He demanded her care. He groaned as she lifted him from the ground. She would take him to a hospital, some place where they might tend to his wounds.

She looked at the three bodies scattered on the street. She was the instrument of this heartfelt destruction. She had killed, yet she felt blessed.

She wondered. Was this how Ana felt?

Illustrated Warrior

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