Page 6 of Blossoms of the Heart
Chapter 2
Tai
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Iran my gaze along the shiny sword in the glass display unit.
Had to be worth millions. Guaranteed. The sword looked old and of the priceless variety. The authenticator here had estimated it to be 8thcentury.
I remembered seeing a standard katana once in an auction. Some lucky bastard purchased it for one and a half million dollars and thought he’d gotten a bargain.
Must have been nice to have money to throw around like that.
I had money behind me, but I wouldn’t be the one to spend it on priceless artifacts. I wasn’t rich. I would most likely say that I was comfortable. Comfortable enough to own a two- story beach house on Kamakura beach, a garage in Tokyo and a few fast cars. Couldn’t help myself when it came to a fast car. Especially the good kind like a solid American muscle. Give me a Mustang or a Buick any day. I was lucky enough to own both.
My cars were the one thing I missed when I was in the Marines, and my bike.
When I saw a little symbol near the hilt, I narrowed my eyes at the sword. The thing was still being verified but I felt it was a masamune sword, One said to embue its wielder with supernatural abilities.
I may not have verged down the academic path most people here had, but I knew a thing or two of value. Plus I had the best teacher anyone could have.
My uncle, Akito.
There were two men that I’d always looked up to growing up. My dad and Akito. I may have given them hell, and even been a handful as a boy, but I looked up to them.
Being a Marine was a given because my father was one. He’d been the kind that went on the crazy-assed missions you’d see in films and won medals for it.
He’d inspired both myself and my younger brother, Neo, to join.
Akito, on the other hand, inspired me in a different way. I came to Japan every summer to go on one adventure or another with him.
That led me to this point where I’d decided that my heart was in Japan, and rather than be the free spirit I’d been for the last two years, I wanted to be here, helping with the family business, so to speak. While I accompanied Akito’s team on various locations for their excursions, he’d hired me as the business manager. It put my business degree to some use and allowed me to do something different with my life.
I couldn’t have timed being here better for this discovery.
This was going to be big for us .
When I looked at the sword all I saw was money. The money its popularity would bring in to the center in all sorts of ways.
The excursion assistant at Akiyoshido Cave may have found the hidden path, but we were the ones who ventured down the path and found the samurai with his sword and journal.
I’d already planned out a number of things we could do and put to use for our advantage.
I folded my arms and looked at the glass encasement holding the skeleton of the samurai still decked out in his armor.
I didn’t like skeletons or mummies. This guy was a mix of both.
“What’s the story, man?” I asked grimacing at its horrid appearance.
Having him inside the center didn’t sit well with me. Finding a person like this was the worst. This man died in a cave. Alone. No proper burial equaled one sure way to become an evil yokai—spirits and demons of the worst kind that were feared throughout Japan.
I blamed my mother for that way of thinking. Her and Akito. She was his youngest sister. She got the superstition from him and passed it on to me, filling my head with ghost stories when I was younger.
Stories aside, I was interested to see where this would take us. It was all the talk at the moment on the news and people were excited about watching our investigation unfold.
The exhibition would be in four months’ time. August. Just in time for Obon, one of the biggest festivals of the summer.
People would be coming from all over the world for the occasion anyway, but this discovery would be an added bonus we could bank on.
