Mari felt Kou tug at her hand. Facing toward the same door, Mari couldn’t help but note the determined look on his face and feel a pang of jealousy. This is supposed to be her mission. Her goal. Her crucifix. Yet, here is Kou standing beside her, ready to pull off something that almost would assuredly get them caught. Even worse, he had to drag her into this. Mari wasn’t sure whether to be ashamed or irritated that Kou would interject himself into this, no matter how at fault he felt over her missing crucifix. She was pulled from her own thoughts as Kou jerked her hand forward as they headed toward the door.

Mari tried to pull her hand away from his, but to no avail. “Wait, Kou. You don’t have to do this!”

“Yes, I do, and that’s final. Anyway, it’s too late to turn back now.” Kou opened the door with a very audible thud. “Let’s go.”

Giving up arguing with him, she followed behind Kou. She couldn’t help but notice once again how spectacular the rooms look. They were in a long, but wide hallway. The same lanterns illuminated the white walls in a similar manner as the main room. The ceiling was the truly spectacular piece – a giant samurai surrounded by a large battlefield of foes that he defeated. Mari stopped moving for a moment to grasp the image. She was not used to seeing such a beautiful painting. Feeling that she could get lost in the artwork for hours, she pulled her eyes back down and followed close behind Kou, who had already made his way down toward the end of the long hallway. Emphatically motioning her over to him, Kou knocked on the door with his other hand. When Mari finally caught up, Kou mad already began to slowly open the door.

Why he was doing so when the Masters have super hearing was beyond her. Still, Kou was treating this as a top-secret mission, so she left his logic alone. As Kou got halfway through opening the door, he seemed to either come to the same realization and opened the door as quick as he could.

The room was empty. With the exception of a couple bags in the corner of the room, there was nothing there. The bed was neatly made with a set of spare clothing on top that was neatly folded. The table was devoid of anything except a few sheets of paper that neither could read and a small lantern. The room itself was pretty tranquil compared to the rest of the rooms they had seen. It had simple green and white wallpaper covering the walls with a lantern on each wall.

“Good, he’s not here. Let’s find the crucifix and get out,” Kou immediately closed the door behind him and walked toward the bags. “Check the table.”

Mari complied. “Why is it a good thing that he’s not here?” She spread the papers on the table hoping to find something within the sheets but paying close attention to how the paper was organized. Nothing.

“We can just take it without having to worry about him having something to say.” It definitely made sense to Mari. While a part of her wanted to thank him for saving her life, she would much rather not get caught by the Masters.

“I don’t see on the table.”

“I don’t see it in any of the bags either. They were really heavy too. He had a ton of stuff in there.”

They moved over to the bed, checking under the sheets and the bed. Mari unfolded all the clothes and searched every place that the crucifix might be. Nothing still.

Dismayed, Kou leaned against a nearby wall. “No. It has to be here. We just didn’t look hard enough. It has to be somewhere.” He darted over to the bags again, checking even more frantically than before.

“Kou, it’s not here,” Mari said after watch Kou search the bags over and over again for several minutes.

“No. It’s got to be. I saw him take it.”

“Maybe you were just seeing things.”

“No, I saw it! It has to be here!” His voice was cracking as his search became more erratic. He stopped worrying about keeping everything in its place and dumped the whole bag on the floor.

“Kou!”

“What?!”

“We need to go,” Mari sounded much more subdued now. She bent over and began putting the belongings back in the bag. “It’s not here, and we need to go before we both get contract extensions. I’ve been here long enough. Please, I’m so close. Let’s just go.” Kou glanced at her. Mari tried her hardest to keep a calm appearance, but inside she was furious. All this and still no crucifix. She just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. It wasn’t here. Now, there’s no telling where it was. Either way, now was not the time to find out. They took a great risk coming up here without permission. Now was the time to get out of here while they still have a chance.

“I’m sorry, Mari. I thought- I thought he had it for sure. Maybe it’s on him.”

“Well, we can’t stay to find out.”

“I know.” Kou put away the last of The Foreigner’s things and placed the bags back against the corner were they originally were.

“You know, you two would probably get in deep trouble for being up here and snooping through my things.”

Mari’s blood went ice cold. They had been caught just when they were about to make their big breakaway. She could tell that Kou felt it too. His body began to shake slightly as they both slowly turned around to face the man behind them. Now illuminated by light, they could more vividly identify what he looked like. Tall and strongly built, the man towered over both of them. His blond hair was tied into a short ponytail. His eyes were a deep red, signifying that he had recently fed. He was in a plain black hakama that looked too small for his giant frame. The red sash was tied loosely, revealing a built chest underneath. Draped over his left shoulder was a giant katana in a black sheath, adding even more to his intimidating appearance. If Mari could find a way to get her legs to move, and The Foreigner wasn’t blocking the only exit, she would run as fast as she could to get away from him, as feeble as it would be. Unfortunately, she was too paralyzed by fear to really move. Kou’s feet looked as steadfast to the ground as hers was. Feeling lightheaded, she felt her body fall backwards. She tried to push herself toward the nearest wall and make herself as small as she could.

Kou stood in the same place. “He can’t possibly be thinking of fighting him.” Mari looked closer and saw pools of sweat emanating from Kou. They were definitely on the same page on this one. This looks bad.

Really bad.