“You have to come with me,” Sen said.
“Go to hell!”
“Rui, they’re gonna kill you!”
She raced forward, to the rocky shore, just before he could reach the dock itself. With one hand, she leaned down and grabbed a fistful of small stones, and started throwing them at him in response. She was so scared, he realized. “Go away!”
“I’m not going to do that,” Sen said.
In a fury, she swung the sword sideways at him, cutting at his waist, but Sen was ready, and leaped back quickly, startling Rui and sending her off balance. Two feet scratching against the wooden planks and he was in the air, leaping high and nimbly as the crow monks had taught him. He struck with the wood staff, hitting her on the shoulder, and sent her sprawling to the sand.
Rui screamed with fear, and rage, and fought like a mad animal.She thinks I’m here to kill her, he thought.To arrest her and bring her to Hakaru…
“Rui, stop! I don’t want to hurt you!”
“Fuck off!”
She rammed into him, striking again and again, as if she were splitting a log;her grasp is too tight, Sen thought, and again he dodged easily, hopping to the side and lashing out with his staff. The blow struck Rui at the back of the knee, tipped her sideways, onto the sand again.
She rolled with the motion and scrambled to her feet, swinging wildly to stop him from coming close.
“Rui, it’s me,” Sen said. “It’sme.”
“They’re gonna kill me,” Rui said, rising once more. And threw the sword at him.
Sen knocked it aside, and then leaped forward, grappling with her and holding her in a bear hug. “Just stop, just stop.”
“Get off!”
Rui was more solidly built than Sen, and in a moment she had flung herself backwards, away from the water and onto the shore. Rolled in the dirt, kicking, clawing. Sen landed a blow to her ear that sent her reeling back, stumbling, dizzy.
Then she was on her feet, swinging and clawing wildly in all directions, not so much a series of attacks as the desperate movements of a trapped animal.
Sen pulled back and evaded everything. The crow monks had taught him well. Rui’s strikes seemed slow and unbalanced, and soon he had twisted her aside, grabbing her wrist and forcing her to the ground.
“Rui, please,” he said.
Rui kicked backwards, spraying icy water in the air and hitting him in the stomach before she scrambled away, exhausted, shoving, kicking and screaming at her friend.
“Just go,” she hissed at him. “I won’t do anything again, I won’t…”
“I’ll talk to them,” Sen said. “Justlisten—”
Rui grabbed the boat-pole from beside the dock and lunged at him, but Sen quickly knocked it out of her hand, twisting sideways, and as she reached for it, he leaped onto her back, wrenching her into the freezing dirt and kneeling on her to prevent her from moving.
“How… how did you do that?” she gasped.
“You can’t keep doing this,” Sen said. “They’ll hunt you.”
“I don’t care!” Rui fought him, trying to break free.
“Listen to me! What do you think they’ll do if you get away? What about the outvillage, what about Koroku and Otsu, and Goro? What about them?”
“What’re you talking about?”
“No’in are subject tocollective punishment!” Sen tried to catch his breath. “What do you think is gonnahappen?”
Rui paused. It was clear that this affected her, but she was too worked up to admit it. She tried to ignore it, shoving away and trying to get around him once more.
