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"They've come,” Iida called out from the balcony.

I glanced around the room, looking for some sort of weapon, which I didn't find. What I noticed instead was one of Iida's big guys in the room with me, approaching me with his hands out. He just grinned at me and lunged, like he was trying to catch a chicken. I dodged out of his way, knowing that once he got his hands on me, I'd be in deep trouble. He stumbled, and I darted around him and then pushed from behind so he was further off balance. It worked and he fell flat on his face.

"Stop fooling around,” Iida ordered.

I ran to the door, yanking it open because it was a hinged Western-style type and ended up running right into another of Iida's henchmen. I tried to dart around him, but the guy filled up the entire door. He grabbed me by my arm, spun me around, and then twisted my arm behind me.

"Don't bruise Samojirou-sama's blossom too badly,” Iida told him.

The man grunted and frogmarched me out to the balcony, while the man I had pushed was up on his feet and glaring at me when I went past him.

Iida pushed my hair out of my face, making me shudder. “So pretty,” he cooed. “Would he like you if you weren't as pretty?"

A knife magically appeared in his hand, and he stroked it gently down my face, the point tracing some sort of pattern over my cheek but not breaking the skin.

"What's your connection with the Trustees?” I whispered, trying not to sound as scared as I felt.

He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Wouldn't you like to know?"

His breath smelled and felt foul. He licked my ear, causing me to involuntarily exclaim in disgust and jerk my head away from him. He slapped me with his empty hand for that. I shook my head to clear it. I felt like I wanted to pass out again, he had hit me so hard.

"You're going to have to stop being so delicate,” he said smugly. “I know that they'll give you to me. You're not one of their favorite people right now.” He clicked his tongue a couple of times. “You were a very bad boy."

"It was worth it,” I said. I knew what he was talking about. The Trustees must have been really angry with me. I guessed I'd done a lot more damage than I'd thought when I'd destroyed the servers. Enough so that they'd hurt me more than Murphy had.

"Mmm. Will you think so after I punish you for it?” he asked.

He went back to stroking my face with a finger, causing me to squish into the chest of the man holding me. Even so, I couldn't avoid his touch. My stomach churned, and I reacted instinctively. I pulled back my leg, and then I kicked him in the thigh more than where I had been aiming: his groin. Iida stumbled back, dropping the knife, and I tried to twist out of the grip of the man behind me. I thought that I had surprised him, because I was able to slip out of his grasp, my arms aching a bit from the way he had been holding me. I ran forward, more intent on trying to escape Iida than doing anything else. I wasn't proud. I knew when I was outclassed as a fighter, and I didn't want Iida to touch me again.

It almost worked, except that I stumbled over the edge of a rug, and Iida was able to grab me by my hair, pulling me back against him, holding me with his arm across my throat.

"I think that we're going to wait for those who showed up for you,” he called out gleefully.

I struggled, but he cut off my breath, making me feel like I was going to pass out from the lack of air. “I'm surprised that the great Inuzaka Keno tried to escape rather than kill me,” he said.

"I'm thinking of changing my mind,” I gasped. I really hadn't. I was concentrating on breathing.

He nuzzled the side of my face with his cheek, loosening his chokehold a little. His free hand lightly traced down my chest and stomach, lightly scratching me, before it snaked underneath my
fundoshi
, touching me where I really didn't want to be touched, his fingernails prickling me like claws. I let out a half-choked scream and stamped on one of his feet, which he ignored. All I did was hurt my bare foot on his heavy sandals. The two goons were grinning like idiots, and I vaguely heard the sounds of fighting in the hallway, even with the thick walls and heavy door.

"Such a delicate blossom,” Iida taunted me.

"You....” I gasped, feeling stupid and helpless because I couldn't do anything to stop him from doing this to me. I thought about kicking him again when he tightened his grip on my privates.

He laughed, licking the side of my face, making me jerk as far away as I could, ignoring the pain in my groin. “Keep still or you will regret it,” he threatened.

I felt the slow trickle of blood down my right leg after that and stood as still as possible. I had gotten the message: he'd really hurt me if he wanted to, and I was cowardly enough to want to avoid it, since I wanted to try to escape again. I knew I couldn't do that if he truly injured me. He'd just scratched my thigh or something this time.

The door burst open, and I wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment. Samojirou was there in armor with his katana drawn and covered with blood. One of the goons lunged at him, and he easily beheaded him, making it look almost like an afterthought.

He took one look at what was happening and growled, “Let him go!"

"I want to see how far Inuzaka is willing to go to make that happen,” Iida laughed.

When Iida said that, I could see the rage and the sorrow in Samojirou's eyes. I knew what he was afraid of. I was afraid of the same thing.

Genpachi burst through the door behind him, his katana equally covered with blood, and took care of the other goon. A second behind him was Wolf, with his broadsword drawn, also blood spattered.

"This is amusing,” Iida said, ignoring the fact that his goons had just been killed. “I seem to have the upper hand here. I suggest that you put your weapons down."

Samojirou took a step forward, his eyes wild, not bothering to lower his sword. Genpachi flicked the blood off his katana and sheathed it, circling to the right a bit. His eyes were watchful, and I knew that what he had done really wouldn't keep him from killing Iida if he wanted to. Wolf stepped into the room cautiously, and then he stopped, stunned by what he was seeing. “Keno,” he said quietly.

"I'm fine,” I managed to get out before Iida tightened his grip on me, choking off my breath again.

"Now that we have all the players here, I wonder how this part of the Game is going to end,” Iida laughed.

"You won't live through this,” Samojirou vowed, his rage turning his voice ice cold.

"Neither will he if you play this wrong,” Iida said. He laughed again, and I wondered how sane the man was. This was something that sane people didn't do, baiting three men who were very willing to kill him. “Blossoms are very fragile."

"What do you want?” Wolf asked. I didn't like the fear in his eyes. But I was glad too. He wasn't berserk. I didn't think I could have handled that.

"I don't think you can give me what I want,” Iida said with a high-pitched laugh. “What my master wants."

"What are you talking about?” Samojirou demanded.

"What do you think will happen when the Dreamlands goes to war? When those here destroy themselves with their fighting? While the Dreamlands just
are
, what do you think they are?"

"What master do you serve?” Genpachi demanded.

Iida laughed. “My master is called many things, some of which you might know. But all I will tell you is that he will revel in the Dreamlands’ destruction and rebirth."

"Rebirth?” Samojirou asked.

"Your peace is what keeps the Dreamlands stable. That is why there are nothing more than skirmishes, for all that the Southern nations call out for war. War has come, and it will destroy you all!” Iida laughed and scratched me again with his nails.

Wolf went still, his nostrils flaring. I heard a growl deep in his throat, I swear. I guessed that he'd just caught of whiff of my blood. I tried to swallow, my mouth suddenly dry. Wolf just screamed and threw himself at Iida. From the look on everyone's face, they hadn't expected he would do that.

Iida stood his ground, using me as a shield, which was stupid, because the man was a head taller than I was. Mason limped into the room, clutching a katana he had gotten from somewhere. “For fuck's sake, not again!” he exclaimed.

I threw myself forward, trying to make myself a smaller target, struggling to get out of Iida's hold, not caring what got broken in doing so. I felt his nails shift and dig into my left thigh. With my right foot, even though I was horribly off balance, I tried to kick him in the groin again. This time it worked, because his grip loosened, and I was able to get away. Wolf got one wild swing in as I hit the floor and rolled away from the two of them. I managed to get to my feet away from the fighting and head toward Mason. He handed me his katana without a word.

Genpachi went into the corridor to take care of the second wave of fighters that had just arrived, seeing that Wolf was taking care of this problem.

"Are you hurt?” Samojirou asked.

"Just scratched up,” I said as I winced, feeling the damage done to my thigh. “You go help Genpachi."

"And you?” he asked.

I looked at the fighting in front of me. Wolf was still swinging wildly, trying to get to Iida, who was dodging him with ease, letting him chase him around the room. He was blocking some of the blows with his knife, matching Wolf's wild strength easily.

"I'm going to stay here, just in case he needs help,” I told Samojirou softly. “When he's done with Iida."

Our eyes met, and I lunged forward to kiss him. It was passionate and all too brief.

Iida saw what we were doing and laughed wildly. “Will you still want your blossom when he's drenched in blood?"

Samojirou whirled and went out into the corridor to help Genpachi. If he didn't, I thought that he'd have attacked Iida. But he knew that Wolf might think that it was a good idea to attack him too if he did that.

Wolf ignored what we were doing, and I could almost admire his single-mindedness. Iida scooped up a katana, dropped his knife, and fell into a defensive position. Wolf circled around him, breathing heavily before moving in for the kill. He had calmed down a little, but I still didn't think he was going to be acting logically soon.

"I didn't think that Wolf was so fond of you,” Iida said with a smirk. “He is truly in love with you."

"You're full of shit,” Mason scoffed. “No offense, kid, but I don't think that he likes you that way."

"I know,” I said, trying not to feel miserable about it. If he had.... But I had Samojirou now, and that was better than anything I could have had with Wolf. But there was still a part of me that was attached to my first love.

Wolf growled and swung wildly at him, wide swings that Iida parried easily. But he wasn't able to go on the offense, and Wolf was driving him toward the balcony. I didn't know if that was a good thing or not. I wasn't surprised that Wolf wasn't saying anything, because he was too focused on trying to kill Iida. If this were a battle, this would have gotten Wolf killed.

"I regret that I'm not going to see the end,” Iida said, sounding breathless and tired. He almost sounded sad too. “This Game is a glorious one.” He laughed. “Our wild one here is not going to like one of the players."

I had a feeling the man wasn't talking about what most of the nobles here called the Game. It was like they were playing Go, and he had set them up to play chess or even poker, and they didn't know that. “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

"A smart blossom,” Iida said, backing away from Wolf. Part of me wanted Wolf to kill him and another part of me wanted to know what Iida was talking about. “You see more than the others."

"We should try and stop Wolf, but I don't think that the fucker's worth it,” Mason said behind me. “He's a bigger asshole than the Trustees are."

"From the mouth of babes,” Iida called out.

That was the last thing he said. Wolf lunged forward and took the man's head, because Iida at last was unable to block one of those wild, powerful swings. Iida's body fell one way and his head went sailing out the balcony door. Iida's torso sprayed blood all over Wolf, and that seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he had been in.

He looked down at himself in horror, before he looked over at us. “What happened?"

"You went bugfuck again,” Mason told him bluntly. “Killed that fucker Iida."

The sounds of fighting had died down out in the corridor. “It's clear,” Genpachi called out.

Samojirou came back in the room, his sword sheathed, even though he was covered with blood and other detritus. He opened his mouth to say something when the building started to shake, as if there was an earthquake.

"Time to leave,” Genpachi announced, as if this was a party.

"The Dreamlands do not have quakes,” Samojirou said. “This is some sort of evil spell."

"You don't have to tell me twice,” Mason said. We all moved out into the corridor and picked our way around the bodies there. Some of them looked human. Others were more deformed than a
tengu
. The smell was terrible, and I felt the building disintegrating around us. We managed to get out just as the walls started to fall. If we had been on a floor higher than the third, we wouldn't have been able to make it out of there. Samojirou picked me up and carried me out. I buried my head into his neck and shook, because everything that had just happened was catching up with me.

We stood in the empty lot next to where Iida had been keeping us, that building reduced to rubble. Samojirou kissed me, murmuring in my ear until I stopped shaking. After a minute, I heard Mason say, “Get a room."

Genpachi started laughing, and soon we all joined him, relieved that we had gotten through this, at least.

Samojirou

I returned to Inumura's stronghold in Edo with the others. I didn't want to leave Keno just yet. I had almost lost him again.

"I think that Kyushu's going to be more difficult to deal with than you thought,” Keno told me quietly.

He'd had his wounds tended to. They were not serious, but had been messy, since Iida had almost unmanned him with his nails. If he had been a little more to the right, he would have. Wolf had killed the honorless bastard too quickly and easily. He should heal without a scar, though. We were lying quietly in Keno's room now, wrapped around each other, needing to know we were safe.