Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 28 of 44

Kuroba left the black stone palace at Rin's back and did not look at it again. The platinum light had bled out of him by the time they reached the horses. Bobby helped Jackie into the saddle. Jackie's ribs were wrapped in strips torn from Bobby's shirt. They rode west through the pass and into the valley before dawn. Kuroba felt the dojo before he saw it. Chi moving fast on the packed square. Many bodies. Two of them he knew. They crested the ridge and pulled up. Below, the dojo gate stood open. Men in mismatched armor crowded the yard. Kuroba counted twenty. A wagon sat behind them with the tailgate down, ready for whatever they meant to load. On the porch, Tish stood barefoot with her heels kicked off beside the post. She held a short knife low against her hip. Ona stood in the yard with the bow across her back and a blade in each hand. "They're robbing the place," Bobby said. He reached for his sword. "Wait," Kuroba said. Ona stepped into the first man before he finished his swing. She read the ground the way she always had. She put her heel into a stone she had set there herself and pivoted off it. Her knife opened his arm and she was past him before he dropped. Two more came at her together. She moved them into each other's line. One tripped on the raised board at the edge of the square. The board Kuroba had made her walk a hundred times. She took his knee out and left him. Tish came off the porch behind them. She did not run. She walked the way she had learned to walk on cobblestone, each heel set between the stones, weight low. A big man swung a club at her head. She stepped inside it and put the knife under his ribs the way Kuroba had shown her at the wash-house post. She pulled it free and stepped back before the blood reached her skirt. She said one word to the next man. "Down." He looked at her and at his friend on the ground and he went down. Ona finished the last three at the wagon. It took under a minute. Kuroba had not moved from the ridge. Bobby let out a slow breath. Jackie laughed once and grabbed his ribs. "Bro," he said. "They didn't need us." Kuroba rode down. Tish was wiping her blade on a rag from her apron. Ona was already checking the wounded for anyone worth questioning. Kuroba dismounted and looked at the two of them. He did not speak for a long moment. Then he said, "How many got away?" Tish did not look up. "None." Ona lifted her chin toward the wagon. Kuroba nodded. The dojo entrusted to the students now if needed.