The soft grass that he stepped on, on the far side of the bridge, felt crisp and alive under his feet. The smell of clean water and the well-kept grass was something altogether impressive and not something that he expected to encounter deep within the city he now found himself.

The tall Asian man approached a slender figure who had their back turned to them. The figure carried a parasol over their shoulder. He couldn't get a good look at the figure's clothes. Only a woman would have a parasol and he knew that this was Fumiko Nakahara.

The parasol lowered and the woman turned around. Simon was struck by the woman's beauty. Her skin was pale, almost white. This only served to accent and draw attention to her soft, ruby red lips. Her black hair was done in a high royal bun, but she had a good deal of hair hanging loose and straight down to either side of her head, framing her face perfectly.

Her face wasn't oval, more of a soft curvature that angled softly around her cheekbones sliding down in a gentle curve to her delicate chin. Her eyes gave off the illusion of being made of glass. They were black, but they reflected the light around them almost perfectly. Simon had never seen anyone that looked like this, and probably never would again.

The woman stood up and approached Simon. She was wearing a long deep-sea blue kimono. The black trim of the garment only heightened and accented her pale skin. The deep shimmering blue of the kimono had trails of cherry blossoms running in diagonal swaths from her neck down her sleeve, and then another that cut across her waist. Her shoes seemed to glide on the ground as she walked, he couldn't hear her steps, and being that he was a vampire, that was beyond impressive.

The woman stopped a few feet from him, "What do you have to show me?"

Simon was a little jarred by the straightforwardness of the woman. He had let himself be lulled into a sense of tradition and comfort. Was he really expecting tea?

Shaking himself mentally he reached into his pocket and pulled out a memory stick. "I have some things on here, shipment schedules, manifests, and business transactions that you may find very interesting," Simon began.

"Why would this interest me at all?" Fumiko asked.

"Because these are the business transactions of House Dukart. And if you look carefully at the addresses and the type of things being bought and sold, and delivered, you'll find that House Dukart, while not making any overt moves on your territory, are pushing up against your interests, and competing with your people."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Fumiko gazed at him with the serenity and depth of the heavens. Simon was no push over but he found himself being drawn into those eyes. He knew now what it felt like to gaze into the eyes of the Sphinx. To gaze into those eyes and learn all the secrets of the universe, if only you could answer all the riddles of the universe first.

"Why should I believe you, Simon? What business or grudge do you have against House Dukart? Kenneth has been very restrained in his dealings with House Brandt, so far. Why would he go against the wishes of the Council of Houses?"

Simon held up the memory stick, offering it to her, "Madam Nakahara, I don't expect you to believe anything I say at face value. I acquired this information from his own servers and computers…"

"How?" Fumiko asked.

Simon thought for the briefest moment about lying to her. That would not be the best choice. House Himura didn't have any mind reading or clairvoyance abilities that he was aware of, but her cold logic might give her the ability to sniff out a lie. Besides, he had no real reason to lie anyway. He was an outsider with no skin in this game that the three west coast Houses were playing with each other. He just wanted to take down House Dukart. And he needed Fumiko onboard to help make that happen.

"One of my people broke into one of his distribution facilities and uploaded a trojan horse program to give us access to his files and records," Simon responded. "My computer tech has spent a long time combing through their files and records to compile and bring you this information. I'm not asking you to trust me on blind faith, you don't know me at all…"

"I wouldn't say that, Simon," Fumiko answered with a small smile. Her delicate lips curved up at the corners in a small gesture that gave the impression, in his mind, of a rose blossoming.

"I know more about you than you might think. I know that you are probably here because of Alessandro's death. And I know that you are from House Ghatti, a long way from Italy. The only reason you would be here, offering information that may be potentially harmful to House Dukart, is that you don't like Kenneth and want to bring the whole House down, or at least, depose Kenneth. He killed Alessandro, didn't he?"

Simon knew about the pure logic of House Himura, but until this moment he hadn't realized just how potent their logic and deductive reasoning could be. She was almost completely right on all points. But he wasn't eager to fill in the small gaps that she had left out. His survival instinct kicked in and was now hyper-aware of what he said. He would have to be very careful.

"Yes, he did," Simon answered. "I wasn't there for the murder, but I was brought to where his body had been, with Kenneth standing over the dead form of Alessandro."

"Alessandro was over three hundred years old, how was Kenneth able to kill him?"

Simon answered, "I don't know. I know what I saw and as you said, I'm a long way from Italy. I do want Kenneth dead. If House Dukart falls, well? House Brandt and House Himura might find uses for a few displaced vampires, if not they'll learn how to fend for themselves. I have little sympathy for them."

Fumiko finally reached out and took the memory stick from Simon's hand. She slowly rotated the stick in her small white fingers. "What sort of reward are you expecting from this?"

Simon gazed evenly into her black eyes, "If House Himura makes a move against House Dukart, I want to be there, and I want to kill Kenneth."

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