Kame understood Jin´s reasons for being full of doubts. Even though he showed calmness and persuaded the older one that everything would be just fine, he wasn´t so sure about the result of their upcoming negotiation. He knew the Blackfeet Tribe´s Indians well enough to know that they really didn´t like any intruders on their territory, no matter the reason anyone had for trespassing in it.
Nevertheless, he also knew that the Tribal Chief was a wise man, who was well aware of the events all around the United States. It was highly probable that the Indian tribes would not own any lands at all in the quite near future. The red nation was doomed at the very moment, when the first immigrants and soldiers from old Europe set their feet on the shore of their spacious homeland, and haughtily entitled it as the New World.
Many Indians hadn´t given up yet, but the end of those days when they could trot across the wide plains freely was very close. Every day, they were forced to retreat and leave more and more space to the greedy white men. Not to mention there were also the persons who made the rest of their calm times even more miserable. And Raynold Karnaka was one of them.
Kame really believed that if Jin told the truth about his intentions, the Indians would be willing to help him. Even if only for some indirect revenge on Karnaka, because they simply couldn´t afford to carry it out themselves. In these days, even one small incident could have brought disaster upon any peaceful village, in a form of regiment of soldiers razing it with the ground...
Kazuya raised his hand and made an oval gesture in the air, greeting the Indians who stopped their horses three meters away from them. The Tribal Chief – who had obtained his name Flying Feather after the famous fight with a very strong Indian from the Sioux Tribe, whose pueblo was located far in the south – nodded his head slightly. The Chief´s son – Manipi – and Liwan, who were accompanying him, repaid Kame´s greeting in the same way. But none of them got down from the backs of their horses. Instead, Manipi moved with his hand again, pointed at Jin and spoke in Indian language.
"If he wants to just talk with us, why does he have his guns?"
Kame didn´t respond right away; he had checked the newcomers´ backs first, where the long bows could be seen, and he chose the words for his response very carefully.
"You came armed too, Manipi. If you want him to put them away, you should do the same."
"That is nonsense!" the Chief´s son hissed upset. "We have no reason to trust any White Face!"
"It´s the same for him," Kame objected firmly.
"What´s going on?" Jin asked quietly, noticing anger in the Indian´s voice.
"They want you to put your weapons aside," Kame informed him in English.
Akanishi focused his eyes on the small group.
"Will they do the same?" he asked then.
"That´s what I want them to do, too," the younger one murmured.
"If he wants something," Manipi spoke again, "…he should be begging us, and not..."
At that moment, the unfriendly Indian was signalized by his father himself to be quiet.
"We will leave our bows here with our horses and have our conversation unarmed," Flying Feather said in a calm voice. "Please, ask him to do the same."
Kame nodded right away, satisfied with the deal and even though Jin didn´t look very happy about it, he took his revolvers and left them lying behind without any complaints.
*
Five men were sitting in the grass, creating a small circle.
The Indians were watching Jin with unreadable expressions in their faces, while Kame was informing them about the circumstances, which led Akanishi to ask for permission to enter their territory. He told them about the plan to present the bear´s head as a gift to Karnaka, but didn´t continue in any further details. Flying Feather rather asked the questions himself and watched the other one responding.
As Kame expected, the Tribal Chief started to ask about more specifics as soon as Kame was finished. He asked every question in Indian language and Kame translated it as well as Akanishi´s responses, trying to keep the proper meaning of each word. Liwan and Manipi understood English, so it was not necessary for them, but the Chief had been always refusing any proposals to learn it.
"Why do you want to use the bear trophy as a gift?"
Jin was prepared for the questions, so he responded right away: "I need to get close to Karnaka, to make him trust me."
"And why do you seek that?"
"So that I will have a chance to kill him," Jin answered in a cold tone.
"Why?" the Chief asked strictly.
"In order to avenge my friend."
"What did Karnaka do to your friend?"
A dark shadow appeared in Jin´s eyes, as he replied: "Karnaka intended to buy the house and land, which my friend inherited from his father. He didn´t know why Karnaka wanted it, but he was not willing to sell it anyway. Only later we found out that a rich source of kerosene oil was found in the north part of the property and Karnaka couldn´t let it slip between his fingers. So one of his men, working for the local sheriff, created a false incrimination and let my best friend hang from the gallows. After that, they forced his mother to sign the documents for the property transfer, moved her away and got the lands."
That was very like Karnaka´s methods, Kame knew it very well and could clearly imagine, how messed up the whole situation was.
"Do you realize that this revenge will not return your friend back?" the next Chief´s question was somewhat unexpected for Kame and he translated it after a short hesitation.
"I do," Jin answered seriously.
"So what will you have from it? What do you expect?"
The young gunslinger kept silent for a while, before he responded the question too: "It will prevent Karnaka from doing this to anyone else."
When Kame translated, he could see that the old Indian was satisfied with that kind of response. He thought that Flying Feather wouldn´t ask anything else anymore, but he was wrong.
"Is your friend the only reason why you want revenge?" Kame asked Jin slowly, wondering what the answer would be. He saw Jin stiffened after hearing that.
"No," the gunslinger said after a few silent seconds. "I have my personal reasons as well."
"For what else do you blame him?" Kame interpreted another question, not exactly surprised.
"For destroying also my family," Jin´s voice changed during those words, it was deeper and darker.
He didn´t say anything else, didn´t give any more details and Kame saw that Flying Feather took his time to decide, if it was enough for him to know. After a minute of tense silence, the Tribal Chief slowly nodded his head and turned his attention to Kame directly.
"He is full of suppressed anger and it can be very dangerous for him in this situation," Flying Feather said in a serious voice, looking in Kame´s eyes. "But I appreciate that he is honest and he has a good heart. You can tell him he is allowed to hunt on our territory, but as soon as he accomplishes his goal, I want him to keep away from here."
"Thank you, Flying Feather," Kame reacted with a huge relief.
"As for you, stay away from this man from now on," the old Indian continued to Kame´s surprise. "Otherwise, you will get yourself into troubles."
Kame stared at the Chief for a while, considering if it was worthy to notify him about one simple truth - that he already is in trouble anyway. But he didn´t do it in the end.
"Will you assign one of your tracers to him, as I had asked you to? To help him to track down the animal sooner?"
"No. If he wants this, he should do it himself," the Indian reacted a little stiffly.
"I understand," Kame lowered his head and turned to Jin again.
The black-haired man started to be a little tense again, when he heard for how long the Chief was talking, but he held himself back and didn´t say anything, waiting for them to finish the conversation in the language, which sounded so unfamiliar to him.
"You have their permission," Kame informed him finally.
Jin would have been lying to himself, if he didn´t admit he felt a great relief. Although, it was a little strange that the old Indian was speaking so long and from Kame it came out only as a short sentence.
"That´s great..." he breathed out. "How can I say ´thank you´ in their language?"
Kame smiled, obviously pleasantly surprised that Jin even bothered with something like that.
"Obrige tamaši," the younger one informed him.
Jin faced the Tribal Chief and lowered his head repeating the words, which made the eyes of all three Indians go wide.
*
"You made a good impression on them," Kame said, when he was sure that the Indians couldn´t hear them.
"Really?" the older one snorted in disbelief.
Kame looked at Jin´s face, which was surprisingly gloomy considering the fact their meeting ended more than well.
"Yes," he confirmed seriously.
Jin didn´t react. He just put the hat back on his head, covering his eyes with the wide brim and went away from the meeting spot. Kame followed him slowly, wondering what might have been the reason of the other´s gloominess.
They got into the saddles of their animals, which were waiting for them patiently, and set off on the way back to the city, in the opposite direction than the Indians did. Kame, riding as the second one, saw Jin´s back stiffened under the black coat.
"I´ve also asked them to help you with the tracking, but the Chief refused it, I´m sorry," Kame revealed another information regarding to the negotiation.
"It´s all right, I can handle it alone," Jin reacted, still looking directly ahead. "But thanks anyway."
Kame didn´t say anything else. He noticed that Jin was lost deep in his thoughts and didn´t want to talk. Probably, the discussion about his past brought the memories back to him. Memories, which weren´t happy at all and about which he didn´t want to ponder. Kame understood. He knew something like this quite well himself. He also had his painful past, which he didn´t reveal to anyone.
So, the young riders spent the way back to Bozeman in sympathetic silence.
***
On the following day in the evening, fortunately not a busy one, Kame was glad that mainly a certain deputy was not present; he went to take the plate after Harada was finished with his dinner, when he was stopped by the man.
"Kame, hold on a minute," the saloon´s owner pointed at the chair opposite to his. "Sit down; I need to talk to you."
Kame obeyed without hesitation; there were not many guests in the saloon, so he could afford not to be behind the bar for a while.
"We´re almost out of supplies, especially alcohol," Mr. Harada started, while looking at some papers at the table in front of him. And Kame already knew what to expect, he was well aware of that fact himself. "Franko keeps everything what he has to himself and we´re not expecting any stagecoach for next two weeks at least. So, I´m leaving to Billings tomorrow in the morning, to do some shopping myself."
Harada raised his head and looked at Kame, who was listening to him carefully.
"I´ve decided we would close the business for a week. Those two explorers left just today, and we´re without guests except that Akanishi guy. I´ve already spoken with him yesterday and he won´t have a problem with that. Moreover, as you know Miss McBain is sick and she stays in the bed, so I guess there will be no more convenient time for me to leave."
"Do you want me to go with you as the last time?" Kame asked.
"No, I will take Mike with me this time. Doctor Best said he´s fine and can travel."
Kame didn´t mind that decision. He realized that Harada wanted to give the boy an opportunity to earn some more money.
"I want to you to keep an eye on the saloon," Harada continued. "And in case there will be a problem with that, to notify Grenet, that ´closed´ means the bar is closed for him, too."
Kame just nodded. He remembered the unpleasant issue they had with the sheriff´s deputy a month ago, because the bar ran out of alcohol.
"I understand."
"I will let you have the keys, just for a case something happens. I depend on you, Kame."
*
Returning to his duties, Kame checked the people on the way back to the counter. Only one new appeared since the moment he had gone to serve Mr. Harada – Jin was sitting behind the table in the corner, his coat hung over the empty chair, hat put aside at the table. The young gunslinger was smoking and not giving any attention to his surroundings. Not even to the pretty harlot, who was clinging to his left side, trying to talk him into some pleasure time.
Kame didn´t see the black-haired one since previous day´s noon, when they returned to the city. He just overheard at Franko´s Store, that the young newcomer was looking for some things, which had to be ordered in advance because of the long waiting period, and the fat storeowner was making stupid jokes about it. Kame assumed that Jin was preparing everything necessary for leaving into the woods for hunting.
The bartender went behind the bar to clean up the dirty glasses and dishes first, watching the one-side conversation in the corner, before the girl finally gave it up and left with a quite aggrieved expression to another customer. Only after that, Kame headed for the corner´s table.
"Didn´t you like her?" he asked curiously. "She´s one of the most beautiful Sukina´s girls."
The gunslinger blinked surprised and raised his eyes to the bartender.
"Who do you mean?" he asked helplessly.
At that moment, Kame really started to wonder about what that guy was thinking.
"That girl, who was talking to you in the past few minutes," he reminded Akanishi slowly.
"Aah, her... Well, she was pretty. But I´m not interested right now..." Jin inhaled the smoke from his cigarette deeply and again, that distant expression appeared in his eyes.
"What would you like, Jin?" Kame asked carefully, not sure whether he would receive any response.
"Whiskey, please."
Well, it seemed that he was taken into consideration at least.
"Right away," Kame nodded.
*
It took Jin quite a while before he drank that one shot. All other customers were already gone by that time and Harada asked Kame to lock the saloon before he left for his house, which was located right next to the building.
The two of them were left alone and Kame approached the unusually silent gunslinger.
"Don´t you want another one?"
Jin doused the cigarette in the full ashtray and shook his head: "I have to save up," he murmured.
"On my account," Kame reacted and Jin raised his eyebrows. "To celebrate the good result from yesterday?" he added as an explanation.
"Really?" Jin seemed to be flattered about the offer. "Fine, but only if you take one with me."
Kame got surprised by that: "Well, I don´t drink so much…"
"Just one shot," Jin was already putting on the pleading eyes. "I don´t want to drink alone…"
Kame hesitated for a while, before giving it up. There wasn´t anyone else anymore, so why not.
"Just one."
He returned to the counter to prepare two glasses and Jin followed him with somewhat more relaxed expression.
"How are your preparations going?" Kame asked.
"Well, slowly…" Jin snorted. "But I will set off tomorrow, anyway. I wanted to wait for a rifle, but that cocky merchant said it would take two weeks, and I can´t wait for that long."
While Jin was talking, the bartender prepared two drinks and put them at the counter. There was one idea flickering on Kame´s mind and he wasn´t sure what to do with it. Should he say it, or rather not?
"Cheers!" Jin raised his drink for the toast.
The younger one copied him and soon both liquids disappeared in their throats. Kame shook from head to toes feeling the alcohol burning his throat and Jin giggled a little.
"You really don´t drink often, right?"
"No way... I spend almost every evening in the alcohol haze, so I´m not exactly fond of it."
"Then you have my gratitude for drinking with me," Jin smiled. "Thank you, Kame. You´re a nice guy…"
Kazuya looked in the older one´s eyes, which were very dark at that moment. He remembered what Jin said during the meeting with the Tribal Chief and what pain he saw in Jin even though the he was trying to hide it. He spoke up before he could have changed his mind.
"You know… I can help you with that hunt, if you like. I´ve learnt a lot of useful stuff from the Indians about tracking and such…"
Jin stared at Kame confused.
"You would go hunting with me?" he asked slowly.
"Well… Only if you don´t mind. It was just an idea. I won´t have anything to do for a week anyway, so…" Kame caught himself blabbering so he rather shut up.
"If I don´t mind? It would be great!" Jin´s face brightened up. "Two are always better than one. To be honest, I thought about asking you for help, but I didn´t want to bother you anymore…"
"It´s no bother," Kame denied, shaking his head slowly. "I´m willing to help you in anything, if it means that Karnaka won´t be able to accomplish any other dirty deals."
"Great! I take you at your word. So, can you leave with me tomorrow?" Jin asked excited.
"Yes, but… It will be better if no one sees us leaving together," Kame assumed. "Let´s meet at that old oak next to the northern road, all right?"
"Sure thing!"
*
Math Grenet was sitting in the sheriff´s office, smoking his third cigarette within half an hour and going through the notices about the wanted criminals. There were a few of them, some with quite bad drawings, but none of them looked like their annoying greenhorn.
Who the hell was that guy? He could shoot too well for somebody that young…
A short knock tore Grenet out of his thoughts and he spat out an invitation to come in. His subordinate entered the smoky room, obviously tired and quite dirty.
"Brad? It was about time," Grenet welcomed him snorting.
"Evening, boss," the man fell on the free chair. "I was riding as fast as I could."
"So? Did you find out anything?"
"Well, nothing interesting in Livingstone. The people said that they just saw that youngster going through the city, he had some meal in the local saloon and left. I rode even further then, that´s why I got back late, boss."
"So, you were in Billings, too?"
"Yes. And only there I finally found out something. He was living there until recently. His father is dead, there are rumors it was a suicide. His mother died even before that. He also has a brother, but nobody knows where that guy is."
Grenet kept quiet for a while and let the information sink in.
"Fine, anything else? Other relatives? Friends? Where did he get his money from?"
"I didn´t find anyone, who would know him so well, or they didn´t want to speak. I wanted to contact Trent, he is a sheriff there now, but he was out of town. Should I go back there again and try to find out more, boss?"
"No, I´ll send a telegram to him. Any more details about that suicide?"
"People said that man was a real asshole. Drinking, vulgar, aggressive, his wife was totally out of nerves from him. He was beating the kids too. Two months after his wife died, he supposedly shot himself in the head. Our guy was eighteen at that time."
"Ah, poor Akanishi," Grenet grinned, overacting.
"Yeah," Brad laughed as a right toady. "Should we follow him, boss, just for a case?"
"Hmm, no, let him be for now. I´m quite curious if he manages to catch that bear of his. I will report him to our dear superior later."
***
Kame was a little surprised in the morning, seeing the blue sky above Bozeman. It was quite unusual in this part of season for the weather to be nice and so warm. It looked like Jin was lucky enough for not having to deal with the wet cold woods, and so he was.
He packed up his stuff the previous evening already, asked Lena for picking up the medicaments from Dr. Best and talked himself out of her questions. His mother wasn´t happy with him being away for a longer time, but she didn´t complain, neither pleaded him to stay.
First of all, he helped Mr. Harada and Mike prepare a carriage for the road and showed them out. During the preparation of horses, he spotted Jin leaving already, so he hurried up. He made sure nobody stayed in the saloon, locked all doors and hung the notice with the closing warning at the main entrance. He also bought some supplies at the store and then he went to pick up his mare.
Ukushi tolerated the saddle, which he had to put on her this time, as he had some stuff to take with him. His mother even came out to the back yard to see him off, even though he was trying to keep her in bed. Kame said his goodbye, while assuring her he would be back soon, and set off to the meeting point.
*
Kame could see Jin´s horse Kuro chewing on his green breakfast from far away already, but his master was nowhere in sight. He urged his dear Ukushi a little to get to the huge old oak, whose treetop was creating a wide shadow. Kuro raised his head and watched their arrival calmly, without giving out any sign of warning, as if he would have known they were not enemies.
Ukushi carried him almost under the first branches of the impressive oak, when he finally spotted two legs in high boots stretched in grass. Jin was lying under the tree, half-leaning over its trunk, the hat covering his face, and the dry grass straw between his lips. His coat was completely open up, exposing the half-unbuttoned shirt under it and the slight breeze was playing with the ends of his hair. The young gunslinger seemed to be so relaxed as if there was no Karnaka or Grenet nearby at all.
Kame stopped Ukushi and watched the older one for a while, waiting for any sign that Jin had noticed his presence. Until he caught himself waiting for too long, observing the young man curiously, like some very nice picture of calmness and peace. He cleared his throat a little before speaking.
"Jin? Are you even awake?"
There was no response at first, but then one of the other´s hands rose up lazily, shifting the hat aside. The dark sleepy eyes focused at Kame, who was sitting in the saddle with his eyebrows up.
"Aah, it´s you," Jin mumbled. "Good morning."
"And who else?" the younger one reacted. "Didn´t you want to set off as soon as possible?"
Jin put the hands behind his head and let it rest in the palms.
"Yeah… But I think I got up too early this morning," he yawned like a cat, closing his eyes again.
"Are you kidding?" Kame asked honestly surprised by the older one´s attitude. "Get up."
"I don´t want to…" Jin murmured.
"Then I´m returning back to the city," he informed that lazy idler coldly.
Jin opened his eyes immediately: "All right, I get it! Will you help me to get up?"
"What? What are you, a kid?"
"Pretty please…." the older one put on quite convincing puppy eyes.
Kame sighed. He had already noticed that Jin was a real mood switcher. This side of a seriously good shooter was surprising and a little annoying, but at the same time somehow cute and Kame had to suppress an amused smile, which started to form on his lips. He dismounted his dear mare and approached that lazy ass.
"Come on, you spoiled one," he offered Jin a helping hand, which the older one accepted with a firm grip.
Kame helped the grinning gunslinger get up on his feet, pulling his body up. All of the sudden Jin was so close, that Kame could feel the warmness of his skin.
"Thanks."
"Well, you should for this," Kame informed him stiffly and wanted to let his hand go, but Jin didn´t release the grip.
"I mean it," the older one said more seriously now. "Thank you. I´m really glad that you´re helping me out. Somehow, it gives me the feeling I´ll be able to do it, you know?"
Kame blinked confused from a sudden change and looked in those deep eyes, feeling the firm hand on his.
"You can thank me after we catch that bear, what do you say?" he reacted and Jin finally let him go, when Kame stepped back a little. "Come on. We should set up a camp somewhere before the dark comes and it rather would not be here."
"It seems to me that I´m very lucky to have someone so responsible with me," Jin said smiling widely.
Kame rolled his eyes and went to his mare.
"If only I knew you would be such a troublemaker…" he murmured on the way.
An obviously mocking ´sorry´ was heard behind him. Kame jumped up on Ukushi easily by one swift move and looked back.
"And this is what you didn´t mean," he complained.
And Jin, already sitting at Kuro´s back, started to laugh: "You got me."
Kame reached with his hand into one of the bags tied up to the saddle and threw something at Jin so fast, that the older one managed to catch it just in the last second right in front of his face, almost falling down.
"Whoah! What the...!" he stared at the big apple in his hand.
"I guess you didn´t have time for breakfast," Kame grinned at him.
Jin repaid the grin even more widely, before biting into the tasty fruit. And side by side, they headed to the dark woods.