The Perfect Bodyguard - Chapter 11
Jurina picked up the hammer and hit at the hot red metal again. After a few more hits, the girl picked up the metal with a pair of tongs and looked at the glowing red shape. Satisfied, she dipped the metal into the barrel of water on the side and watched as the water sizzle under the intense heat coming from the metal. Not wasting any time, Jurina lifted the metal back up and placed it on the table. Picking up a cloth from the side, ignoring the heat that was still radiating from the piece of metal, Jurina started polishing it. Within minutes, the metal had turned from a grey black colour into a more shiny silver colour. Throwing the cloth aside, Jurina stacked the metal with her small pile of throwing stars on the table and placed them back into the small pocket on her belt. Another throwing star made, another day had past. This was the fourteenth throwing star Jurina had made since her leg recovered.
Ignoring the soldiers that were still working at the forge and were bowing at her, Jurina walked out and made her way back towards the palace, where she was now forced to stay at instead of her own home with her mother. Jurina didn’t understand, she was healed now, yet the emperor had ordered her to stay behind instead of going back to Sakae and finishing the job that she had failed to complete.
***
>>Flashback<<
“Alright, try moving your leg. We’ll see how much progress your leg has made since last week,” one of the healer said as he pulled Jurina’s blanket away without warning.
Jurina frowned at the healer’s action. Not only does Jurina hate people doing things to her without telling her first, which in this case was taking the blanket away, she also hates it when people disturbed her sleep. But knowing that these are the personal healers of the emperor himself, Jurina clenched her fist and held in her anger.
“C’mon, hurry up, we haven’t got all day,” the same healer said again, clear impatience in his face and his voice.
Jurina sat up and slowly placed her leg onto the floor and stood up, eager to finally move around again.
“Wait! Don’t stand up yet! I said move it, not stand on it! You’ll ruin all the healing we’ve been doing the past few days if you suddenly put so much stress on it!” The healer shouted as he tried to push Jurina back down onto the bed so that her leg won’t be made to hold up the weight of her body.
Jurina smirked and grabbed the healer’s hand and twisted it behind his back, the corners of her lips curling higher as the healer shrieked in pain. “I hate people touching me,” Jurina said as she pushed the healer onto the bed and placed her lips right next to the healer’s ear, “and you are in no power to tell me what I am to do and what I am not to do.”
“Let go off my arm! You’re going to break it you stupid Matsui!” the healer screamed and waved his free hand around, trying to hit Jurina who just simply tightened her hold on the man’s arm and pressed down harder. The others in the room watched in fear as their head healer screamed for help while the emperor’s personal hitman inflicted more and more pain on him.
“Your job is to heal people,” Jurina said, “and my job is to kill people. It would not be in your interest if you anger me.”
Before the healer could say anything, a deeper voice spoke from across the room, “That’s enough, Jurina.”
Jurina’s ears twitched at the tone of voice, annoyed at the sound of command, but choose to obey knowing who the voice belonged to. Jurina unlocked the healer’s arm and roughly pushed him away from her while he scrambled onto his knees and bowed to the voice like the others that were in the room. Jurina on the other hand, just stayed standing.
“You didn’t have to do that to him,” the voice spoke again. Jurina ignored him and fixed her clothes. Although used to it, the voice still frowned from the lack of response. Turning to the kneeling figure on the floor that was holding their own arm trying to reduce the throbbing pain, the voice asked in a darker tone, “What did you do to her?”
“I-I-I-I didn’t d-do anything, my lord! I s-swear! I-It was j-just a re-regular checkup!” the healer said with a voice that was shaking from both pain and fear.
The voice spoke no more, knowing that the healer spoke the truth. With a wave of his hand, the healers went back to their work, including the head healer. “I take it that your leg is healed then?” The voice asked again.
Jurina didn’t even bother to nod this time. Stating the obvious was something she hated about the emperor who had just decided to drop down for a visit into the room without notifying anyone else. Swinging around her healed leg a few times, Jurina jumped on the spot to get back to using her leg and then reached for her daggers that were laid on a table beside her.
However, a hand stopped her before she could even walk towards the table. “You don’t need to go anymore,” Togasaki said as he gently laid his hand on Jurina’s daggers.
Jurina looked up, confused. ’You told me before to get the job finish as soon as my leg finish healing, and now that it has, you’re telling me that I don’t need to go anymore? Make up your mind already!’ Jurina thought to herself as she stared at the emperor and started to get annoyed at the emperor touching her weapons. Ever since she returned to Sakae, Jurina have been feeling more and more annoyance towards the emperor than she had ever felt. Things that she found annoying about the emperor before but managed to ignore, was now annoying her more than ever.
Feeling Jurina staring at him, Togasaki looked up from Jurina’s dagger and said, “Informant tells me that Yuasa is planning an attack on one of the main camps of our army. Your job is being put on hold for now. Stay by my side, my girl, I need you to be there when the attack comes.”
“That’s not my job,” Jurina said coldly. It’s true, like Airi had said many times before, that Jurina likes her job too much. But that doesn’t at all, mean that Jurina likes killing people. Jurina only likes her job because it’s challenging. Having to figure out different ways to approach her target, different ways to carry out her attack and different ways to escape. Those, are the things that Jurina like about her job. Yes, Jurina also likes fighting, she would never deny that fact, but that doesn’t mean she likes killing. Her job is only a way of survival. And now to be requested to stay by an emperor’s side in the event of being attacked? ’My job is to destroy. Not protect,’ Jurina thought to herself.
***
>>Back to the present<<
Jurina lazily slid open the door of her temporary room and pushed herself inside and threw herself on the bed without even bothering to close the door, knowing no one would dare to disturb her at this time of the night. After looking around the uncomfortable room, for the first time, Jurina noticed how the moonlight shines through the window in such a way that the room is bright enough without needing to use any candles. Although the emperor had given the Matsui ex-captain’s room to her temporarily, Jurina didn’t like using the room at all. One reason was because it was Sakiko’s room, and the other reason was that Jurina just wasn’t used to sleeping in beds like this one. She preferred to sleep on a tree than the big double bed with silk sheets any day. It was comfortable, yes, sleeping on one once in a while. But sleeping on it for too long makes Jurina uncomfortable.
Slowly, Jurina made her way towards the window and leaned against the wall as she stared at the moon. Then as she shuffled around to get into a more comfortable position, something reflected off the moonlight and caught her eye. Jurina reached out and took the small object for closer inspection.
’This is......’
Looking closer at the object, Jurina’s eyes widened.
’Is this..... Sakiko’s team?’
Jurina brought the photo frame closer to her face and looked at the photo. In the photo, was the female captain with a group of others who Jurina assumed was most likely to be the captain’s team. Looking closer, Jurina saw a strangely familiar man standing next to Sakiko. The man was dressed in basic black plate with a katana in one hand and the other hand resting on Sakiko’s shoulder. Everyone had a smile on their face, even Sakiko, which was something Jurina don’t see often. Looking even closer at the familiar man, Jurina’s mouth opened wide in surprise when she saw the weapon strapped on the man’s boot. Realizing the weapon the man has is the very double dagger that Jurina’s uses, without delay, Jurina ran out of the room with the photo clenched tightly in her hand.
***
Airi leaned against the tree trunk and watched as the sakura petals fluttered down with the wind. A bird fluttered down from the tree and landed onto the ground near her legs. Airi stayed still as she watched the bird hop closer, not wanting the bird to fly away. It surprised Airi to see the bird staring back at her intensely and kept hopping closer step by step. Seeing that the bird seems to be unafraid of her, Airi reached out slowly and stroked the bird’s feather. The bird cocked its head, looked at her and then hopped onto her lap. A small smile formed on Airi’s face as she watched the bird.
As Airi stroked the bird, her heart ached when memories started flying back to her mind. Memories of her and Jurina. Back when she and Jurina were still young, Airi remembered that they sometimes used to run around chasing off big flocks of birds that gathers on the field after a rainy day. When her mind again remember what happened to her and Jurina, Airi’s smile faltered and a small tear drop rolled down her cheeks.
Suddenly, a voice appeared out of nowhere, “You shouldn’t cry. Smile more, Airin, you look really pretty when you are smiling.”
Airi looked up at the intruder with disbelief as the bird flew from her lap and onto the intruder’s shoulder. Turning around, Airi chose to ignore the words and looked away. It wasn’t that she hated this person in anyway, it was just that Airi wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act around the princess who was now talking to her and was being nice to her even though she had tried to kill the girl.
Although no reply came back to Akane, she stil sat down next to Airi onto the floor. Silently, Akane held out her arm and the bird from before hopped off the young princess’s arm and onto Airi’s lap, instantly gaining the girl’s attention. “That’s Papi,” Akane said in a small voice as she watched Papi hopped around on Airi’s lap.
Airi remained silent but kept thinking to herself that somehow, the bird’s name sounds really familiar. Then she remembered. It was the same bird that was with the princess that night when Airi tried to kill her. Airi reached out and started stroking Papi’s feathers again. And then, surprising Akane, Airi spoke. The soft word that the girl had said since Jurina left.
“Sorry.”
Akane looked at Airi and saw that the girl was only looking at the bird, but somehow, Akane felt like that the word was not just directed to the bird. Akane’s lips pulled back into a big grin, “You finally talked to me!”
Without saying anything again, Airi kept staring at the bird and stroking its feather. After a while of silence, Airi scopped up Papi and gently laid him back onto Akane’s lap instead. Akane looked up at Airi, confused with what the girl wanted to do, but Airi says nothing and just stood up and began to walk away, hoping to get some private time alone before she felt even more bad about herself hurting someone as kind as the princess.
“Where are you going, Airi?” Akane called after the girl.
Airi didn’t want to answer and kept walking. However, she stopped when a sudden deep sound rolled between Akane and her. Clenching onto her own stomach tightly, Airi looked away as she waiting for the embarrassing sound of hunger to past away. It was then, did Airi finally realized that she had barely eaten anything since Jurina had left and it was about time to find something to fill her stomach.
A soft giggle reached Airi’s girl which surprised her and gained her attention immediately as Airi knew no sound that could match the sound she had just heard. Not even Jurina’s long extinct laughter, one of the sounds that Airi loves hearing the most, could match it. And for the first time since Airi parted with Jurina, Airi looked at Akane with a small smile on her face.
The small princess’s lips grew wider when she saw the smile on Airi’s face again. “Let’s go get you some food, nee Airin?” Akane grinned excitedly, happy that her effort of taking care of the girl was finally paying off. However, even till now, Akane had no idea what made her want to look after Airi so much. Was it the despair and guilt that Akane saw in the girl’s eyes? Or was it just because Akane felt surprisingly safe around Airi, despite the girl having held a sword against her own throat before? Akane didn’t know, but for now, she didn’t care either.
Airi nodded at the princess’s request and turned around, preparing herself mentally to memorize the route that Akane will take to bring her to some food.. It would be nice to get some food settled into her empty stomach that was calling out for help. However, just as she was about to start walking towards the palace, Airi heard a small shriek. She spun around just in time to see Akane lost her footing as she stood up and was falling forward. Without a tint of hesitation, Airi reached forward and grabbed Akane’s waist and held her tight to stop her from falling face first onto the ground.
Akane looked up, surprised and shocked at the same time, of both her clumsiness and the sudden contact. But she quickly recovers and whispered a word of thanks as she felt her cheeks grow hotter each minute with the arm that was still around her. Airi too, suddenly felt heat growing on not just her face, but also her arms as she pulled Akane up and made sure the princess was standing up by herself before releasing her hold and turns around again and starts walking without saying anything else. Akane smiled and quickly dusted the sakura petals that was stuck on her kimono and caught up to Airi. The girl started humming a soft tune as she slowed down to a strolling pace and led the way.
Airi hung back and watched Akane’s back as the princess skipped forward in small steps as if she was dancing along the path. ’Why did I reach out and help her?’ was a question that Airi couldn’t get out of her head as she walked. As she thought about the many reasons, a small smile formed on her face without herself realizing.
***
Jurina looked up and down the dusty bookshelves, her frown dropping lower and lower as the object she was looking for could not be found. Suddenly, a small twinkle near the bottom of the bookshelf caught her eye. She kneeled down and her frown was turned upside down as she stared face to face with a small dragon seal that has lost its golden shine due to the layers of dusts and spider webs that was covering it. Jurina reached forward and twisted the head a few times and waited impatiently as a small sliding sound was heard, indicating the opening of the secret passage. When the dimly lit hall way was fully in view, Jurina couldn’t help but grin as she reminded herself how lucky she was to have found one of Togasaki’s guards drunk that night and heard him talk about this place and how to access it. And then, remembering why she was here, Jurina ran into the hallway without thinking anymore.
Thanks to her feet pounding against the hard floor, the guard on duty heard Jurina coming before she even saw her destination. Seeing that it was Jurina, the guard relaxed and greeted Jurina with kindness that Jurina doesn’t see from most of Togasaki’s troops often, “Evening, Matsui-san. What brings you here at this time of the night?”
“The emperor send me here,” Jurina answered without thinking.
“May I see your pass please, Matsui-san?” The guard held out his hand. Jurina looked at the guard, hoping for a further explanation while trying to hide her confusion. “The interrogator pass that Emperor Togasaki gives to all that he sends down here after dinner time,” the guard explained.
Jurina cursed her own stupidity of not thinking about definite securities like this before she came down.
Seeing Jurina’s hesitation, the guard instantly knew that Jurina did not come down here on the order of the emperor. It was rare, afterall, for the emperor to send someone down at this time of the day. And even if the emperor did send someone down at this time, it certainly would not be someone like Jurina. “Go back, Matsui-san,” the guard started again, “no one can talk with anyone here without Emperor Togasaki’s permission, I’m afraid.” Being answered by nothing but Jurina’s silence, the guard spoke again in a slight pleading voice, “Matsui-san, I’ve really liked you since the first time you came down here with the emperor, and although it is not the right time nor am I in any position to say such things, but you capture so much of my heart I really don’t want to have to hurt you. However, if it was the only way to keep my life...” The guard’s head drooped lower, as if in shame of himself valuing his life over something he loves.
Jurina stared at the guard, surprised at the sudden confession but kept her reaction under the surface of her skin. Jurina’s hand tightened around the photo in her hand for a second and then she said a word which really surprised the guard, “Please.”
The guard frowned and hesitated. He really wanted to help the girl, but he couldn’t. He looked up at Jurina and saw Jurina staring back at him with eyes that was filled with pain, sorrow and loneliness. After a little more thinking, the guard surrendered to his heart and backed away, unlocking the keys from his belt as he did so. He held out the ring of keys to Jurina and said, “I would risk my life for you, even though I know you would not do the same. If this is what makes you happy...”
Jurina took the keys and looked at the guard with a small smile which the guard knew he has never seen on the girl’s face before. “Thank you,” Jurina thanked the guard in a whisper. “What’s your name?” Jurina asked, a rare question coming from a person with a job like hers.
Without hesitating, the guard replied immediately, “Takashi. Nakamura Takashi.”
Jurina nodded and said as she turned around, “I’ll remember you, Nakamura.” With that, Jurina made her way towards the only cell that was plated with metal, leaving the guard behind, flustered. Slowly, Jurina pushed the key into the lock and twisted the key, before pulling it out again after hearing the clink that indicated the gate unlocked. Without saying anything, Jurina stepped inside.
The person lying at the back of the cell looked up, surprised at having people coming down to see her after she had been healed at dinner already. It has never happened before. Jurina frozed as she stepped inside, staring back at the person with just as much surprise as the person had, surprise to see the person in so much of a better state than the last time Jurina had saw her.
“Jurina...” Sakiko broke the silence first with a whisper. Jurina stayed silent and stayed by the gate, unmoving, staring at the captain. “What are you doing here, Jurina? You are not supposed to be here,” The captain said, seeing that Jurina didn’t look like as if she was going to do anything but stand there.
Jurina looks down at the captain’s feet and said, “You’re not supposed to either.”
Sakiko laughed the first time in a while, “It was only by luck that I wasn’t here a long time ago.” Jurina stayed silent but walked towards the chained but healthy girl and dropped the photo next to the captain. Sakiko picked up the photo and looked at it, a small frown formed on her face. Jurina pointed to the man dressed in black. Sakiko sighed and looked back up at Jurina, “Make yourself comfortable, Jurina, it’s a very long story.”