[Today has been insanely hard to find time to write but here’s a short amount! Gotta write every day!!!]

Hold on, I protested. I think I should have the reins here.

“Not yet, if I’m right and she’s here, you can’t fight her,” Ikiru answered as he moved swiftly through the castle. There weren’t as many guards as I thought there would be. Strange I thought to myself as he avoided the few that we came across.

I wonder where everyone could be? I mused as he avoided a group of servants by hiding in a side hall while they passed.

“Let’s just be grateful for the stroke of luck and do what we came here for.” He whispered back to me and darted around another corner.

How do you even know where he is? I asked him, our original plan had fallen to pieces after all.

“I have my ways, once I meet someone like Shi Fan, it’s hard for me not to smell his stench, even from far away.” And with that, he kicked in a sliding door, sending the wood paper door shattering into peices on the floor. Across the well lit room, I could see a wall size window overlooking the city. Shi Fan sat at a table on a set of cushions facing the window. Though we couldn’t see his face, I could tell it was him. A beautiful woman was pouring him a cup of tea. Neither seemed fazed by the intrusion.

There was a pause as both Ikiru stopped moving and the woman finished pouring the tea without looking Shi Fan said, “Yashimuro-dodo, how good of you to join us.”