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"You could end his suffering," she said to hihastliness around her "Don’t leave him to die like this He’s just a boy" Mariko chewed her lower lip "A boylikedawned on her

Understanding of why she had been brought to witness this horror

Ōkaaze remained level and clear His eyes--so focused, even a, like the onyx embedded in the hilt of her father’s sword "We are e do" Though Ōkaes "This boy ca us He and his kind htened around the stained cloth and its obscured crest

"We are so much more than e do!" Mariko drew closer, as if nearness could invoke a sense of truth "We are" She searched her hts, ourboy To the evil tree, slowly draining him of life

"This tree is not the forest," she said softly "It is but one part"

"No A murderer is a murderer A thief is a thief" Ōkami bent his head toward hers, equally firm in his conviction "In this life, believe in action and action alone"

Mariko’s fingernails dug into her palrab Ōkami by the shoulders and shake him into reason

He did not balk Nor did he move to help

It was Ran boy When the leader of the Black Clan spoke, his voice was gentle Al ether near a forest not so dissimilar to this one" He mopped the sweat froasped Mariko’s chest pulled tight

"When they were children, they played together Studied together Challenged each other as only friends can do When they became older, one turned toward justice, another toward honor" Ranmaru’s voice lowered "The last toward a ht, each with sons of their own As they settled into age and influence, the ambitious man realized his friend who valued honor above all else would never co, even for the sake of those dearest to hi hilt of the katana at his side "So the a friend--the one who valued justice above all With the skill of a tailor, the ambitious man threaded lies into truth Planted seeds of doubt He made the man who valued justice believe their honorable friend would underaze was riveted on the leader of the Black Clan As Ranh his nose Understanding softened the lines on the dying boy’s face He nodded feebly

"When their honorable friend was accused of treason, the a to that same, pervasive sense of justice" Ran for per boy’s eyes darted from the sword to Ranentle nod of his own, Ranmaru pressed the tip of his katana above the boy’s heart "And so the friend who valued justice above all else executed his honorable friendin front of his friend’s only son But when he realized what he had done--the ht this terrible wrong and bring about renewed justice"

From where he stood before her, Mariko watched Ōkah skin rose into the night as Ranmaru pushed forward Swift And sure A thankful sishly one last tiht this wrong, theby his feet in Yedo Bay Drowned before his fah he wished to speak directly to Ōkaht, the son of this drowned ht--set fire to the tent of his father’s accuser and fled into the hts Countless unuttered sentienerations

Yet Mariko understood, all the same

The tale Ranmaru told was of him and Ōkami A tale of two boys who had lost their fathers to an ambitious man A man who had once been their dearest friend

Ōkami’s father had betrayed Ranmaru’s father This was the reason Ōkaiance to the Black Clan These two boys were inextricably linked by this betrayal Linked by life and death

A friendship forged in blood and fire

As Rane fro in a courtyard, staring at stones stained red with his father’s blood--forht, this boy was Takeda Ran un to grasp Against her will, her curiosity abated, like a tide pulling from a desolate shore In its place rose a tentative sadness--a halting kind of syine what it would be to lose her faht before her eyes To lose all she held dear, in an instant Her mother Her father Kenshin

But it could happen