The Genji Main Dojo appeared vast and isolated under the veil of the rain.
Lily had finally returned. She was wearing a red kimono and shielded herself from the rain with the Sakura Parasol.
She had the servant take her horse and luggage back from the rear entrance while she herself entered through the main gate for she felt like strolling through the rainy street.
It was around the afternoon this time, after the rain became lighter last night and the cavalry unit made it past the valley, the rest of the journey was smooth sailing. It didn’t take more than half a day for them to reach Kamakura. These calvarywomen were much faster than your run-of-the-mill army, even Shimizu’s advance force was still a little more than ten miles away from reaching Kamakura.
Uesugi Rei and the cavalrywomen were stationed at the outskirts of Kamakura, so Lily returned to the dojo by herself first. Rei said she would come to stay at the dojo for a period of time while waiting for Lord Kamakura to confer the rewards.
Before Lily entered the dojo ground, a maid informed her that Nanako had arrived. Although she didn’t know why Nanako came to her with the status of an attendant disciple, she was still overjoyed. But since she didn’t know about this in advance, she hadn’t prepared any gift for her. As such, she decided to go back to her home to meet Nanako first, she was starting to miss her since they hadn’t met for so long already. The two sisters ought to have much to say to one another in that scenic and quiet waterside pavilion. Lily increased her pace as she thought about that.
Right now, in Lily’s house. 𝒾n𝘯𝒓𝙚а𝑑. 𝓬𝑜𝙢
Nanako was lying in the guest room and covered herself with a blanket. She wanted to inform Sakiko but she was already starting to feel dizzy. On top of that, she couldn’t get up due to the unbearable stomach pain, the only thing she could do was to cover herself with a blanket and shudder alone in the empty room. She was zoning in and out of consciousness and it had already been one day one night since she had drunk any water.
At this time, Kashima walked towards the house with an umbrella, a few other disciples were tagging along.
“That Nanako appears so delicate but she’s quite stubborn. She didn’t even scream or beg for forgiveness from start to finish!” Kashima complained while chewing on a grass straw.
“She didn’t come to get the antidote today, I bet she’s suffering from severe stomach ache right about now.”
“Well, she couldn’t have died in the house already, right?”
Tokugawa’s attendants chatted among themselves. Meanwhile, Tokugawa himself was wholeheartedly practicing his swordsmanship in the dojo hall. In the end, he was still a model ranked disciple and a well-behaved student in front of the instructors.
“If she really died, that’ll cause trouble for brother Tokugawa, we better go and take a look!” Kashima continued, “Although that drug isn’t fatal within seven days, that lass appears to be really weak after all, we can never be too sure. Ptui!”
With that, Kashima spits out the grass straw and they step into Lily’s house with their muddy shoes on.
“Slides!” Kashima pulled the door open and left behind muddy footprints on the wooden floor. The others followed him into the house and surveyed their surroundings occasionally for anything valuable to loot.
“Oi, come take a look, this cabinet seems to contain quite a few good stuff!”
One of them proceeded to open the chest stored within the cabinet.
“Don’t touch it, you idiots! Brother Tokugawa will be in deep s?h?i?t? if Lily ever finds out it’s our doing! Do you mother f?u?c?k?e?r?s? think we’re robbers?” Kashima chided them and continued, “We mustn’t leave behind any clues!”
That guy reluctantly closed the chest.
As a matter of fact, Lily had already entrusted most of her valuables to Sakiko, such as most of her money, Michizane’s Iron Seal, the Aubergine Teacup, and so on. What was left in the chest were merely some useless tools and small changes for emergency use in case Sakiko wasn’t around when she got back.
“Hey, that lass is over here. This looks quite serious,” the other disciples entered the room and surrounded Nanako with their dirty shoes.
Kashima squatted down to take a closer look at Nanako, “Oi! Get up! Are you dead?”
Nanako endured the pain and opened her eyes to stare at Kashima, “If I die here, Sister Lily will never forgive you!”
Kashima then revealed a twisted smile, “Oh my, I’m so scared~ Lily is merely a weakling ranked in the fifties, other than her good looks, what else is she good for! I am an elite ranked in the early twenties! One of the Mikawa Three Tigers! You think we’re scared of her? Hah, dream on! However, we’re not really trying to kill you here, it’s not like we haven’t killed anyone in the dojo before, but it’ll be very troublesome to clean up the mess!”
Kashima took out a blue pill and said, “This is the antidote, take it and you’ll feel better immediately. For my own good, as well as yours, if you agree to do our bidding, I will give this pill to you, it’ll save us all so many troubles, what do you think?”
With her hazy vision, Nanako gazed at the blue pill with a cold yet unwavering look. She put up with the pain and voiced out with a trembling tone, “Despicable!”
“In this chaotic world filled with monsters, can despicable even be counted as swearing? Hahaha!” Kashima leered at Nanako teasingly.
While donning the parasol, Lily finally arrived in front of the house at this time.
“Huh?” The platform was wet with muddy water and there were footprints leading into the house. Moreover, they were footprints of grown men.
In this dojo, nobody would walk into the house with their shoes on as that was a common courtesy.
Lily felt that something was not right, and these footprints still looked fresh.
She put the Sakura Parasol aside and drew her Crescent Moon, then she stepped onto the platform and walked into the house on high alert.
Lily took off her shoes and sneaked past the living room without making any sound. The unfamiliar and powerful aura she felt from inside gave her a really bad feeling.
“Eh?” Lily found a headscarf on the floor.
“This looks like… Nanako’s headband!” Lily recalled seeing this headband before.
“Kyaa—!” A sharp yet delicate scream came from deeper inside the house. That was Nanako’s voice which she hadn’t heard of for so long.
“Nanako!” Lily rushed into the inner section of the house.
The scene that unfolded before her made Lily dumbfounded.
Two brawny disciples were holding Nanako up from the mattress while Kashima was crouching in front of her, trying to force some foreign material into her mouth.
“Eat it! Just listen to us and slip the drug into Lily’s drink! Do you f?u?c?k?i?n?g? want to die, b?i?t?c?h??” Kashima shouted impatiently.
Nanako twisted her head to the side and muttered, “In your dream! Even if you kill me, I will never betray Sister Lily!”
“Slap!” The brawny guy beside Kashima slapped Nanako, making a mess of her long hair, “Take the pill and stop talking b?u?l?l?s?h?i?t?!”
“Brother Tokugawa said not to hit her face! You blockhead! If you want to hit, hit her legs instead, …” Kashima picked up a solid teapot, tore the blanket away and smashed the teapot towards her shank.
At this very moment, Lily could feel the blood rushing into her head and killing intent immediately sparked off in her eyes! The so-called dojo rules, composure and rationality were the last things on her mind!
“How dare you bully my Nanako!”
At the very next instant, a red figure appeared behind Kashima followed by a flash of light in her hands.
“Spurrrrt!” Lily chopped off the hand Kashima used to hold the teapot and her blade drew a string of blood.