Punk Samurai Slash Down by Machida Kō Lammers Wayne P

Author:Machida, Kō,Lammers, Wayne P.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78308-127-1
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC

“I guess it’s been a while, Ōura,” Naitō said, approaching the monkey commissioner with a broad grin stretching across his face.

“Yes, it has,” returned Ōura, surprising himself by how calmly he was able to say it.

Naitō’s grin was of course his way of saying, Tee hee hee, serves you right, and the same sentiment had been expressed quite plainly in the laughter that had burst from the other clan members during the performance. Had Ōura still been living and working in close quarters with Naitō and the others, it would probably have stung far worse. But he was now in a different place, and refreshingly immune to such nastiness. What’s more, the events on stage earlier had given Ōura a new sense of distance even from his role as a performer, and this had rendered him quite fearless.

“I know you came here to mock me,” he said. “You dragged the whole clan out here to make me your laughingstock. Well, you wasted your time. Because, to put it bluntly, I’ve realized that whether you’re a monkey commissioner or a high councilor, you’re both just as wretched as the other. I may feel sorry for myself, but I feel just as sorry for you and the rest, too.

“Aren’t you funny. You feel sorry for me? Fine, pity me all you want. But that’s what you call a retrograde position. It’s sour grapes. You let yourself get carried away by your emotions and, in a word, you blew it. All my alarms have now been vindicated. The Bellyshakers showed up just as I said they would, and they’re running amok all over town. None of us can get back to the castle.”

“You sound rather pleased about it.”

“In some ways, I suppose I am. But it’s not because my counsel was accepted. I’m just glad to finally have it demonstrated once and for all that you were wrong. And I’m a little bit relieved, too, because, as a matter of fact, I was actually feeling a twinge or two of conscience earlier as I watched you on stage with your monkeys, knowing I was the one who put you there. But then all of a sudden the Bellyshakers really did appear, which tells me that if you’d had your way, we’d have been caught completely flatfooted, powerless to respond—and that means you got exactly what you deserved. That’s what pleases me.”

“Listen to you. I suppose you actually believe your own lies. I’ve figured all along that if the Bellyshakers showed up like you said, it’d be because you made it happen.”

“What could possibly give you that idea?”

“I’ve traveled around the country with my show. I know perfectly well that the Bellyshakers were wiped out.”

“And I suppose you plan to inform Lord Naohito of that fact?”

“No. I like the monkeys. I enjoy practicing and performing with them. Though I pity myself a little for feeling that way.”

“But you pity me, too.”

“That’s right. I pity you, too.”

As it happens, this was not the conversation that anyone standing nearby would have overheard.

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