It All Comes Down To This, The Second

Was it really about to go down? Shiroi almost had a hard time believing it. The tests were in a sealed envelope. Nobody had seen the results yet. Well, some people had, but Shiroi was not one of them, nor was the nurse accompanying her. What the nurse had seen, however, was the results being printed. She had seen herself stuffing the envelope under her clothes, outside of the reach of others.

Shiroi would have the nurse follow her the rest of the day. Shiroi had a handful of things to do, and Gwendolyn was about to finish her shift anyways. So Shiroi was paying her a reasonably large amount for very little real work. In fact, they really were just walking. Shiroi would have a few things to do, but Gwendolyn would not.

Even so, Shiroi could sense the unease from the woman.

"I get you don't trust me," she said when they were in a slightly more secluded area, but still within moments of a busy street. Shiroi had been careful to keep to places like that as much as possible. It would make Gwendolyn feel safer while making flee attempts impractical. "I'm not asking for your trust. At least, not now. But I hope that, over the next few days, you'll at least be able to give me that much. And not just you. Oh and I'm not "borrowing" you for a few days. You're good to go sometime before midnight, though I can't say exactly when yet."

Gwen remained silent, as she had been this entire time. That did not bother Shiroi, much.

They arrived at the gates as a bit of a... scene was developing. A man, one that looked strikingly familiar, seemed to be missing his documents. There seemed like to be a fight brewing if nobody stepped in. Thankfully, Shiroi thought, she had arrived in time.

"Pardon me," she said, speaking up over the yelling of the guards, but speaking to the mysterious man. "Would you happen to be the father of one Sara B. ?"

The man looked to her. His face was ragged, that of a man that had barely slept. His clothes were unkempt, those of a man who had slept in the woods. Of someone that had traveled far. "How do you know that n-"

"I was sent here to make sure you were granted access into the village. As you match the description of the man I was sent for, and you appear knowledgeable as to who Sara is, I shall assume that is a yes. Please, come with me. We shall file your paperwork in a less congested area so that the guards may properly process the other newcomers and returning individuals."

The man showed obvious apprehension himself, but followed along, the guards letting it happen due to Shiroi's position within the village. This was one of the very, very few times Shiroi had purposely left her village insignia on display. Their next stop was the Library. They needed a quiet place to talk. The Library had a plethora of places to choose from.

And so they talked.

Fast forward a few hours. It's night time. There is a collection of people at a bar, talking plently loudly, though not loudly enough to make out what they are saying.

Oddly enough, the building goes quiet as Shiroi and her two followers approach. How peculiar. Not that it was unexpected. Shiroi informed them this would probably happen. That did not prevent them from being nervous nancies as the trio entered. Shiroi walked up to the bar, sat down, and ordered a drink. She gave the bar a few moments to respond, the bartender certainly doing nothing.

"So, let's clear the air a bit," she began. "I'm here, you don't want me here, I want me here... there's a clash of interests." She swiveled around on her stool to face the majority of the bar, leaning against it. "One of us isn't getting their way. But hey, maybe that doesn't have to be the case. I know you guys are planning something. In fact, I know a fair bit of what you're planning. And no, you don't have a spy in your midst. I'm just really good at guessing. Now, I don't need to speak to your leader. Hell, I doubt they're even in this building. I just want to talk to someone that can answer my questions. Maybe that's all of you. Either way, I'm going to ask the first one. Faster I get answers, faster I leave. So, question one: What happened to Tomi Udgorn?"

"Don't you know!?" shouted out one of them.

"No, actually. I've been out of the village for the past few weeks. Had my own business to attend to. Just know that I tried to find him when I got back, and he ain't here."

About five people looked like they were about to explode and yell out that ninja killed him. But one person, much calmer than the others, walked over to Shiroi. "He left the village of his own accord."

"Any idea as to why?"

"Either he gave up on the village or left to purchase outside help in the overthrowing of the current regime."

Calls from the crowd came out. Traitor. Ninja aider. etc. "Shut up!" said the man to them all. "Do none of you recognize her? She's a jounin level ninja. She could kill us all before we could blink. It's best to answer her questions truthfully than try and conceal anything."

"Well, thanks for being blunt, I guess. Yes, I am Shiroi Shinzo, I am a jounin level ninja of this village. Yes, I could technically kill you all before you could blink, but I'm not here to threaten you. I'm just here for answers. If you want to provide them, I'll take them. If you don't, well, I don't leave. And I come back every night until I get them. So how about we skip a few more days of awkwardness and just get it over with now?"

A few people in the bar were visibly shaken. The dissenters were also quiet. It may as well have been just Shiroi and the one man now, and the two she had brought with her.

"Jeremiah," he said, not extending his hand, but not being uncordial either.

"You already know my name. This is Gwendolyn, who is primarily here because I'm offering her a lot of money to follow me today, and this is Sam, who has his own reasons to be here. So, Tomi has either permanently left, or is off to essentially hire a ninja village to push out the "old guard". That truly does nothing to dissuade my fears. So I guess my next question has to be, are you guys followers of Tomi, or someone else?"

"I'm not telling you who we're following."

"Not Tomi. That's... unfortunate. It means the next few days are gonig to be much bloodier than they need be. I pray that you all choose to not fight. If you do, I pray that I can end everything before you are unable to return to your loved ones." Shiroi got up to leave, but Sam spoke up.

"There was more you were going to say."

"Not if Tomi isn't the leader. He's level headed. I know him. I know he won't misuse the information."

"These people deserve to know."

"... I will not deny that,but there is safety in secrets."

"I'm going to tell them."

"... As you wish."

"My name is Samuel DeMartin Duchamp." At that, several people, the older ones within the bar, perked up. "Some of you may remember my name. I was the personal doctor to the Queen some twenty years ago. But I am no doctor, nor do I have any training in medicine. I... feel ashamed to this day of what I did, but that is what happened. I come from a wealthy family. I met the late Queen at a dinner sponsored by my father. There were... sparks so to say. It was entirely physical in nature, but it... led to something. A child, a beautiful blond haired child."

"You're saying there's another heir already of age," said Jeremiah.

"Yes." he said blankly.

"Where are they?"

"In this village. There's history you need to know about them, though. They were kidnapped at a young age. I do not think it was over her heritage, but rather part of a common child kidnapping at the time, in that place. It was.... I kept searching for her for ten years, but I burned through my wealth and could no longer afford it. But Shiroi here, she thinks to have located the heir. We've done a DNA test, comparing that of her blood to the hair of the deceased Queen. Shiroi has not seen the results yet, nor have I. But Shiroi is convinced it will be positive, and therefore so am I."

"And how did you come across the Queen's hair?" asked Jeremiah.

This is where Shiroi piped in. "That would be me. There are advantages to being a high ranking ninja, including near free roam of the palace. I acquired her hair from a hair brush of hers, one the maid claimed had been unused and unmoved since the Queen's passing. I did bring the entire brush to the hospital, asking them to perform the tests themselves. Gwendolyn here has the results, still sealed. I've not looked at them myself, but I have little doubt in my reasoning. Were all the connections to be a coincidence is almost unfathomable. But either way, Gwendolyn, please present the documents."

She would remove the documents from her clothing, handing them first to Shiroi, who refused them and pointed towards Jeremiah.

"There's... something you should know about the results," she began. "I've not seen them myself, but the technicians told me they did not trust your hair samples. They figured out what you were trying to do, to match with the Queen. They worried that you would use false hairs for the purpose of fooling us. So they used samples they already had. Going back a few generations, to verify lineage. They, they ran the hairs too, but... don't trust the hair test!"

She seemed so scared as she said that. Shiroi's face, however, was actually very please. "Wait, the hospital had DNA samples!? GLORIOUS DAY! I was worried that we'd have to excommunicate the body to get more accurate samples."

"You're- you're not mad?"

"No. If the match fails, then it means I was wrong. If it matches now, then it means with near certainty that I'm right."

Jeremiah removed the sheets. The first had a sticky note reading 'HAIR'. There were about ten test results on the page. Each read "likelihood of lineage: high". Jeremiah said such, and went to the next page. The big sticky note on this page read "ARCHIVES". It had several tests, though against multiple samples. There was different degrees of perfect matches. The important thing was, the tests using the Queen's DNA, they all had a high chance of lineage. Those of the Queen's family had a high chance of relation. It was verified now, Shiroi knew who the heir was.

And she was in the room with them.

The next few hours were spent at the bar, a growing amount of conversation between the parties. Shiroi informed Gwendolyn that she could leave whenever, having already paid her for her time, but the woman choose to stay. She had been convinced that Shiroi was out to con the people, that the secret tests would prove the fatal flaw in Shiroi's plan. But that was not the case. That confused the woman, confused her idea of what ninja were.

Jeremiah wanted to help the situation. He was level headed. A lot like Tomi. He he also knew who the leader was. Shiroi had not gotten him to state who exactly it was, but from the way he speaked of them, she knew it was one of those two: So Chan or Ceri Siors.

For those not paying attention: That was bad news.