Frustration
22 October 1998
by Jason Postma

The Scorpion had finally admitted to wrongdoing, but not in any place Jinjiro could use it, and not to any extent that he could take offense. He had admitted, to Jinjiro's face, that he was an honorless Scorpion. Jinjiro's teeth ground (now that he was out of Takiro's view) at his continuing inability to face Takiro with evidence of his misdeeds.

The murder was as good as solved. Takiro no longer wished to deal with the loose end that Tsume Retsu had represented, so he had used his agents to remove him. An assassin trained to appear as a geisha. A messenger disguised as a ronin. A bribed sergeant. Poison in the sake. Retsu had been a fool to invite the Scorpion into his home. But Takiro would escape. He had escaped already.

When would justice be done? How could his father rest when the man who killed him lived? Retsu was but the blade Takiro had used to kill Jinjiro's father. Who carries guilt, the blade or the hand that guides it? The geisha or the master who commands her? The day would come.