Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The suburbs of Edo were a strange place at night. In contrast to the busy days and evenings, only a few people were on the roads cast in shadows. Some of them barely conscious on their way home from a drunken night, some more alert, intent on either robbing said drunken people or doing other shady business. You could say that it was not a place for normal people to be out and about.
And then there was their group. Six people, clad in black, on their way to a house where the lights went out an hour ago.
She thought that six people for such an appointment were clearly overkill, but she would not question her master’s orders. She looked to the man slightly behind her to her right and nodded. They were ready to go in. He nodded back and she had no idea how he could even see her, wearing his sunglasses, but he somehow managed.
The group silently went up the wooden stairs and she tried the door. It was not locked. How easy did this guy even want to make it for them? Or was it maybe a trap?
She carefully slid the door to the side and entered the hallway. Two boots were laying askew across the floor and she stepped around them. Behind her, the other men entered.
Thankfully the moon shone enough to illuminate the small flat. She could hear breathing behind one of the sliding doors and slowly opened it. What she saw reassured her that she actually needn’t bother to care.
On a futon laid their prey without a blanket, snoring deeply, limbs laying haphazardly in every direction, thick bush of hair concealing his eyes and drool slowly making a way down his chin leaving a stain on the mattress to his left. He didn’t look anything like she last saw him, fighting Amanto left and right, with an aura of power surrounding his whole being. The man laying on the futon before her was just a drunk person that didn’t even manage to change into his pyjamas after a wild night out. She made a grimace. It smelled like stale alcohol and sweat. Disgusting.
She kneeled next to his face, and he still snored. Way too easy… She got the soaked cloth out of her pocket and was about to press it on his face when a hand stopped her. Bansai motioned for her to wait and positioned himself at the guy’s torso, motioning for the other men to come nearer. Damn that guy was cautious. But as long as Shinsuke-sama was pleased with their work, she didn’t care.
She pressed the cloth down on nose and mouth, and the guy immediately reacted.
His hand shot up to grab her hand, but Bansai interfered and pinned the hand to the ground. Matako had lost her grip a little and digged her other hand into the thick hair to hold him still. Red eyes were staring at her as he struggled, and she could have sworn that she saw recognition in them even though she was completely covered in black. He seemed to have realized his situation now, he started kicking and tried to move his body out of the grip. He was strong. Bansai had to throw himself on top of the guy so he didn’t get free.
Finally his struggles became weaker and Matako knew that the drug was at last working. He gave her a kind of offended look before the eyes closed and the whole body went limp. Damn that was harder than she thought, if Bansai hadn’t been so cautious, they might not have succeeded. She had no idea what Shinsuke even wanted with his old war comrade, and she was pretty sure that involving that guy was a bad idea, but as long as Shinsuke was pleased with her work, she would also be pleased. She gave the signal for the return.