The Dreams

Chapter Forty Eight

Souma was not in his cell. Rina froze with panic. Her mind would normally jump to a million different conclusions in a moment like this, but now she just shut down. She even stopped breathing for a moment or two.

The need for oxygen forced her to get back to something resembling normal working order. Souma was gone. There was only one way he would leave this cell. He had to be going to his trial.

They had never bothered to tell her his trial was starting. She could not believe they left her behind when it was the only reason she had come here.

Actually, she could believe it. They had been too nice and lenient by far and now she was finally seeing why. They wanted to get her guard down. Now she was left out and utterly lost. Her purpose in coming here was ruined and she did not know how to recover.

She turned on her heel and dashed back into the palace proper. Then she realized no one had ever told her where the trial would be taking place. She ran down a list of possibilities. She had not explored much of the palace. Once she knew where to find Souma she had pretty much spent her time there or in her room.

The great hall where she had first met King Yama seemed like as logical of a place as any. She did not know of any other place that would hold a large group of people.

The closer she got to the hall the more oni she saw standing around. Even the ones that were milling around seemed to be doing it in an official capacity. Something had to be happening around here for so many oni to be gathered in one place.

She decided to investigate for herself rather than trying to pry information out of one of the oni. Her limited experience with them told her that she would waste a lot of time and get very little information for her trouble. She would have a better chance of figuring it out for herself.

At the doors to the hall, her path was blocked by two red oni standing guard. As much as the others seemed to be standing poised for action these were the only ones that seemed to care one way or another that she was here.

"No one is allowed to enter while the king is holding court," the oni on the left announced.

It was more of an explanation than she had expected and it actually confirmed that she was in the right place. She tried to look at it on the bright side and consider herself lucky to have at least made it to the right place. It was not easy to suppress her frustration once she realized that she was going to have to find a way past these guys. She wished that it was anyone other than a red oni. Her nerves were not quite up to dealing with their bad tempers considering the urgency of the situation.

"Look, I'm supposed to be in there," she insisted. "If it's alright with you I'll just slip in there and stop bothering you."

She tried to step past the oni and open the door but the oni blocked her path. She retreated a few steps and tried to see a different way to approach this situation.

"The king is holding court, right?" she tested the waters to see if she could talk her way into the hall. "It's a trial and I'm supposed to testify for the defense."

Neither of the oni at the door looked interested in speaking to her. She did not even register as enough of a concern to keep an eye on. They were looking straight ahead and gazing out into the middle distance. If she jumped around and waved her arms she might be able to draw their attention again, but that seemed like it would be counterproductive.

She eyed the door and wondered if she was capable of rushing inside without getting caught. It seemed unlikely. The oni were big and strong, and they had weapons. She would rather not get skewered just now.