RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The First Move

840 AD, 9th Century of Japan (Kyoto)

***both Crowned Prince Shin and Commander Rei were twenty-two years old during this time***

He was not supposed to step out of the palace grounds since the day he returned from the last battle he had been sent to. The very advice of the Royal Ministry in the past three months was for him to strictly stay inside and be guarded at all hours within the royal chambers because of the threats that the royal family had been received lately due to the pressure weighed over the upcoming enthronement of the crowned prince. Prince Shin already knew this perilous situation, crucially to him as he was the one who will be taking over the position. But immensely driven by his selfish desires, he still went and sneaked out through the barriers, in hopes that he would see her again. 

Lady Aoi... He wanted to see her face once more. 

It had been exactly three months as well, since the very day he had returned, when he had last seen her. And they did not even get to talk. He just saw a glimpse of her face from afar in the middle of the crowd where she was watching the parade and their eyes only met briefly. It was not enough for prince Shin, as it turned out. He decided that he needed assurance that she still knew that he was still pursuing her. Their marriage was still going to happen.

Taking his usual route, prince Shin had planned it all out days before he even tried to attempt the sneak-out. And although this was not the first time that he was disobeying the royal orders and escaping the palace unguarded and at risk of any danger, Prince Shin still felt a little nervous when he managed to leap over the walls, without being noticed and he carefully and meticulously slid down the roofs of a small storage quarter just behind the palace with caution and carefulness. The feeling of freedom the moment he finally took a step on the ground outside the walls gave him an absolute sense of fulfillment as he lowered the hat he was wearing as a form of his disguise and rushed in incredibly light and easy steps as he ran further into the deepest part of the woods that he already knew like the back of his hand. He had been taking the same route in the past ten years of his life trying to outwit the guards of the palace. 

Past the wet muddied ground, filled with thick bushes, dried leaves, and the smell of humus and musk blending with the thin fog forming in the evening chilly air that was covering the entire atmosphere of the forest being overshadowed by huge trees and tall prickly weed,  Prince Shin navigated his way. He followed the directions he had known most of his life as he skidded through the messy tracks of turns and complex obstacles down the twisted path. It must have been over an hour when he had finally managed to reach the most suburban part of the capital, where he knew was only a few more blocks away from where Lady Aoi was residing.

He was already fixing his disguise, brushing off some of the little broken fragments of twigs and dried leaves stuck on the fabric of his robe when he walked out of the trees and silently took his time to clean himself up before going out into the opened empty alley. 

It must have been way past the store hours, and there were no people on the streets, and Prince Shin tried to wait for a good moment to come out from where he was hiding behind a wall of a closed storehouse. He was trying to listen on in the silence, feeling out if there was someone who might suddenly pop out of nowhere, but when he was already sure that there was none, he slowly moved and started to walk. But not before he could even take his first clear step, he immediately heard a rushing speedy sound of footsteps tapping against the wet ground from a distance and Shin immediately ducked down behind a big water pot, trying to conceal himself in the darkness. 

He held his breath, waiting for them to leave, thinking that they might be the royal guards sent from the palace to search for him... perhaps, upon discovering that he had been missing, they were ordered to look all over the capital. But as the suspense went on, he heard a few words spoken by them in hushed voices, confirming that he was wrong.

"The Elder is planning to move the chosen ones out of the capital," one of them said, a man's voice as Prince Shin had suspected but guessed incorrectly as it was not a royal guard, "But I doubt it would happen tonight."

"Of course, it won't. We have to be careful now. The seater is already deathly sick," another one spoke and it seemed to be that there were just two men, but this time, the voice of this other guy was pretty deep and incomprehensible as if he was speaking deliberately that way to mask his real voice, "It's only a matter of time before he dies from the poison. The Elder might not admit it, but it's going to happen soon. And only then we can finally kill the rest of 'em... once the change has been made and that unworthy bastard takes the throne. We will take action... surely."

Prince Shin suddenly got chills upon hearing those words. And even though it had been stated vaguely, he had quickly realized what it meant when one of them said to "kill the rest of 'em". These men were actually talking about a ridiculous attempt to infiltrate the royal palace and get rid of the royal family... Was this real? Was he really hearing this all and just learning this right? They were planning to revolt against the king? Out in this dark night? In an empty alley... Prince Shin tried his best to peek without being discovered from the shadows of the wall where he was hiding.

He can't clearly see their faces, and they wore black clothes, but they stood together, over the roof of a house just across from where Prince Shin was crouching down, and he quickly noticed the sword from one of them.

Oh total damnation, he mentally thought. He recognized that sword... That same sword that was carried by one of the warriors sent into the war with him. A sword that was particularly unique and recognizable especially to Prince Shin, for he had fought beside the same man who had used that particular sword during the entire battle they had gone to just months ago.

Angered by this unexpected betrayal against his empire, Prince Shin immediately resolved to a haste escape back to the palace after seeing the two men leave in the darkness. He already forgot about meeting Lady Aoi and was fueled by wrath upon discovering such treachery. He can't believe this... He was a complete traitor... THAT DAMN REI TAKUGAWA... 

But even with this knowledge, Pince Shin had still decided not to expose him to it yet, even years after his enthronement when the late Emperor finally died, leading him to take over the seat. Thinking that putting the damned man under his total control after becoming the Emperor himself, would give Shin the supreme power to penalize Rei for his ultimate disloyalty against the crown, he waited for the right time to punish him.

But if only he knew... how their fate was heading towards an unlikely end, he could have tried to change his plans. Yet it was untimely, and such kind of ending had already been written down by destiny. An ending that will have to take a few more centuries first before finally achieving a rightful conclusion to it.

The end of a rivalry.

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PRESENT, 2020 (Tokyo)

Going back to Tokyo made her feel that she was waking up back to reality again. Though it still had not sunk in on her, the remaining relief of being away for a while had her feeling renewed as she tried her best not to overthink about the impending stress that was about to come her way. Yuko Amazawa drove her way back to the city and just knew it. There would definitely be another wave of stressful problems once she gets back to her office tomorrow morning. And realizing how much she had to prepare herself for it, she tried to encourage her mind by smiling at her own reflection from the rearview mirror.

Expect the worse, as usual. That was her motto, same as what she had always told herself in the past few years she had been working nonstop for Kurosaki. At least to her, it helped greatly with overcoming the terrible situations she had to deal with in trying to keep a good image of him in the news and social media. Now, the only thing she must be bothered more about was the case of Ami Komatsu. Yuko already knew that Osamu would definitely be on her beck and call anytime trouble happens, but it was not the same with Ami. For Yuko, the woman who carries the soul of her past lover was still an entirely new enigma and she can't try to get a good gist of what Ami Komatsu might be planning about when she offered to sponsor Kyouhei and even advised an explicit way in going through the entire competition. It was a bit of reckless and daring of her, and Yuko felt the sudden pressure of trying to get along with the woman.

She just could not figure her out... There was something very dark and ominous about Ami Komatsu and this deeply made Yuko even more curious and skeptical. In fact, the mystery around Komatsu was a very huge deal for her and Yuko knew how crucial it was to try and look into everything about Ami, just in case something rather conflicting really happens. You just never know. Nobody can ever know. And the world of fame and politics was never really even that constantly flamboyant and stagnant. 

As a matter of fact, that circle was so wild, completely messy, undeniably ugly, and filled with many unethical things that could happen for so many reasons... It was a sordid society built of vain pride and selfish obsessions... Yet, for Yuko, she had already learned how to maneuver around it. But she also knew that it would never be that constantly easy every single day. Things would always come in a grip of a shock and you can never really be sure of when will the bad day gets to you.

Anticipating the worse was the only other way to fully work out and conquer this abhorrent nature surrounding this kind of society. And Yuko knew that. This was just a small start for everything that might be infinitely possible, and both she and Kyouhei were still at the beginning steps in the most poisonous path of the political ladder. Yet for some reason, instead of feeling scared with what might come their way, she was beyond excited... Fired up, even. Yuko was more engrossed over the fact that they were now getting nearer... Nearer and nearer to where she really wanted to go.

And that reminder was more than enough for her to get rid of all the hesitations.

----------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Twenty-Eight