Akayuki (Red Snow) Part 2.2

Warning: The following contains strong language. Reader discretion is advised.

Author's Note: This concludes chapter two. There's a lot of backstory I need to tell you but for this chapter: Freddy gave up his demon powers. He's mortal again. Nica was his apprentice before she was forced to return and become heir of the Akayuki clan. You can probably figure out who the masked ronin annoying Jason Voorhees is. 🤭

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction. It is intended for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to actual persons living or deceased is purely coincidental.

~o~

When we reached the Krueger house, Nancy refused to let me inside.

“Why? Because I didn’t bring him a bottle of sake?” I sneered.

“Because he doesn’t want to see or hear you, Charles Lee Ray,” Nancy answered from the other side of the rice paper door.

“I don’t want to see him, either.” I looked over my shoulder at Nica’s Bodyguard. “Hey. Catch me. I’m gonna take a short nap.”

Nica’s Bodyguard arched an eyebrow, but I ignored him, and…

“Ah!” I cried out in fright as I lost all feeling in my legs and feet. My knees buckled and I wobbled as I pitched forward. Thankfully, my bodyguard caught me before my face kissed the cobblestones.

“Thank you,” I said, looking into his eyes then looking away. His left eye…I had been meaning to ask, but since he didn’t talk I saw no reason to bring it up, but…

He hoisted me up in his arms bridal-style.

“Nancy!” I yelled at the still closed door. “It’s Nica, not Chucky. Please let me in.”

The door slid open about halfway and Nancy poked her head out. She saw me in my bodyguard’s arms, my arms wound around his neck, and I gave her a sheepish smile.

“Hi.”

“You’re definitely Nica,” Nancy deadpanned. She slid the door open and beckoned us inside. “Come in.”

“Thank you.” I looked up at my bodyguard. “It’s okay. Carry me inside.”

“Where did you find…is he a ronin?” Nancy asked as my bodyguard carried me into the house. She wrinkled her nose as though she thought all ronin smelly and unwashed.

“Was,” I corrected her. “He’s employed as my bodyguard for the time being.” I smiled up at him. He appeared nonplussed.

“He can’t stay,” Nancy told me.

“I can’t walk and I can’t ask Chucky to walk for me,” I reminded her.

Nancy rolled her eyes.

“I know. I was going to ask…”

“I was going to ask you where Freddy was because I didn’t come all the way here to argue with you,” I interrupted her.

Nancy scowled at me.

“At least make your bodyguard take his shoes off.”

I sighed in exasperation but my bodyguard settled the matter for me—he stepped out of his sandals, and he did so without dropping me.

This satisfied Nancy and she finally led us into the house proper.

A few of the teenagers Freddy kept around stopped work to gawk at us as we passed through the front of the house. I recognized a few of them from my days there. I smiled shyly at them then turned my face towards my bodyguard’s chest.

We stopped at the last door on the right and Nancy announced us.

“Nica brought a bodyguard.” The eye roll was unnecessary, Nancy, I thought but didn’t say.

The rice paper door shot back and Fred peered around the doorframe at me and my bodyguard. Specifically, he saw me riding in my bodyguard’s arms bridal-style, which was embarrassing but I couldn’t walk.

Fred scowled but all he said was, “Get in here.” Maybe he wasn’t mad at me or maybe he was waiting until we were alone in the room together before he yelled at me.

My guess: He wasn’t mad, just irritated by my bodyguard’s presence. Like a typical father, he was overprotective and jealous of the other men in my life. It made me smile, get teary-eyed, and annoyed me in that order.

Nancy shut the door behind my bodyguard once we were inside Freddy’s bedroom. I was officially on my own now.

“Who hired the bodyguard?” Fred asked, looking over my bodyguard. Judging by the sneer on his lips, my master wasn’t impressed.

“I did,” I answered truthfully. “He saved my life, and I…”

“Get rid of him,” Fred ordered.

“Excuse me,” I retorted. “Are we doing that again? Because you’re not my father and I’m not a child.”

“Your pet carries a big nasty sword,” Fred reminded me, unnecessarily. “And I don’t think his loyalties run deep.”

My bodyguard scowled back at Fred.

“Look,” I interrupted before a fight broke out. “Let him set me down and we’ll talk. Like we used to.” I added a “Please” at the end to apologize for my flare of rebelliousness a moment ago.

Fred acquiesced and called for Nancy, who opened the door as soon as he said her name.

“Bring a cushion for Nica.”

“And stop eavesdropping,” I added. Chucky leaked out.

Nancy scowled at me then slid the door shut.

While we waited for her to return with the cushion, Fred returned to his futon and drew the covers over his legs.

He had been an old man when we met—he was in his early sixties then, me in my middle twenties. His hairline had receded by then and gone gray. His beard had also turned white and gray.

None of those features had changed but I now noticed the liver spots on his hands. The way his chest sunk in through the parted collar of his green kimono.

As for the cough he had, I looked to my bodyguard and tried to tune out everything. My master wasn’t ill. He had a cough, yes, but people with colds developed coughs. Fred would be fine. He must have exaggerated his illness in his message to me so I would come visit him. What a crafty old man.

Nancy arrived with the cushion and she helped my bodyguard get me settled on the red pillow before excusing herself to resume eavesdropping outside the door.

My bodyguard stood behind me, his back to the wall, his right hand resting on the hilt of the katana at his side.

I gave up hoping he would relax and instead I focused my attention on Fred.

“Your message about Blue Moon,” I began.

Fred coughed—this time to clear his throat—before filling me in on the situation with my family’s rival clan.

“There is a masked ronin stalking the Blue Moon compound every night. I don’t know who they are, but they’re attacking and killing the guards and any servants who happen to wander outside after hours.”

“It’s probably just Jason having some fun.” Jason Voorhees was Blue Moon’s masked assassin. He was a simpleton who only understood killing and the beauty of nature. Still, you did not want to meet him alone at night.

“Jason isn’t the culprit and he’s pissed he can’t catch this new masked assassin on the block.” Fred coughed again and not to clear his throat this time. “Whoever is under the mask, if they murder a Blue Moon elder or heir, there will be war.”

“You mean they assume Red Snow has hired this masked ronin,” I guessed.

“Why not?” Fred countered.

“The Elders don’t want war.”

Fred snorted but I continued anyway.

“They objected to my bodyguard. So, why would they hire a ronin themselves?”

“Why would you do so much for a ronin you barely know?” Fred asked me while looking behind me at my bodyguard.

“He saved my life. I owe him.”

“You don’t owe him anything, Nica.”

I scowled, not because he had a point, he did; no, he used my first name in such an affectionate way.

“You’re not my father. And he stays because he wants to.” I looked behind me at my bodyguard. “Right?”

His black eyes shifted from Fred down to me and he nodded.

I turned back to Fred, smirking.

“See?”

“Means nothing,” Fred said.

I decided a change of conversation was in order.

“How are you?”

“How do I sound?” he retorted after another coughing fit.

“The truth? Awful.” Please tell me I’m wrong.

“That’s how I feel,” Fred said. “Tuberculosis I could han…cough...dle.” He coughed some more.

I had heard of the lung illness. Specifically, I had heard how people died from it and how easily it spread.

Fred noticed my panic and shook his head once he could speak.

“It’s not tuberculosis. It’s not good news, though.”

“What is it then?” I think I know.

“Cancer of the lungs. Likely,” Fred told me. “Doctor is guessing at this point.”

“You…will you recover?” I asked, choking back my tears.

“No. Not at my age. Fine by me. I’ve lived long enough.” He raised his voice then. “Nancy!”

“What?” she answered from the other side of the bedroom door. Still eavesdropping.

“Bring me a glass of water.”

I listened as Nancy’s footsteps faded down the hall before asking my next question.

“Does she know?”

“Nancy? She was the one who sent for the doctor.” He scowled. “I took his fee out of her salary.”

I smiled.

“I’m sure that taught her not to meddle in your affairs.”

Fred snorted.

“Nothing will teach her that. She’s a meddling bitch.”

We both laughed until his coughing resumed and Nancy returned with the water.

“I have to go,” I told Fred after he had gotten his cough under control. “I’ll try to come back, but…”

“The clan elders will lock you in the house for today’s stunt.”

“I wanted to see you. What happens after doesn’t matter,” I told him.

“You’ll regret those words later, but for now, come give me a hug.”

“Pick me up, please,” I instructed my bodyguard, who obeyed and lifted me off the cushion. In his arms, he carried me bridal-style to my master’s bedside, where he set me down on the tatami mat floor.

I had to pull myself a bit closer before Fred and I could embrace properly, but we did and we held each other until his coughing forced us apart.

We parted once I was sure he would be okay, and my bodyguard and I left the Elm District and returned to whatever fate awaited me back in Hackensack.