Page 56 of The Last Tiger
Kenzo rubs his breastplate where I pushed him. He looks sheepish. “Who says that my plan was going along with Isao?”
I stare at him. “What?”
Kenzo stands unmoving for several seconds. Then he sets his helmet down on the floor and begins to unfasten the armor from his chest.
I back away, suspicious, as he tosses the breastplate to the floor, throws his silver undershirt over his head to expose his skin, then begins unbuckling his belt, which has a ring of keys latched to it. They follow the breastplate to the ground.
“What in the spirits below are you doing?” I demand, appalled.
Kenzo’s next words, directed at Seung, take us both by surprise.
“Take off your clothes.”
Seung balks. “ Excuse me?”
“Now that’s a twist,” Jin quips from the corner.
I watch, bewildered, as Kenzo tosses the keys. They clatter at my feet.
“I said,” Kenzo whispers, bending over to unlace his boots, “give me your raggedy old clothes, man. Do you wanna get out of here or not?”
Seung and I exchange a glance. Neither of us move.
“Take my armor. We’ll trade places. The soldiers will accompany you and Eunji out the door and to the ceremony.”
“You’re breaking us out,” Seung realizes. He looks stunned.
“Way to catch on.” Kenzo rolls his eyes. “Isao is holding the Tiger Slaying Ceremony and the wedding together, so this is your chance. Your only chance. The tiger will be right there onstage. If you play this right—”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask. “How can we trust that it’s not a trick? I thought you wanted the tigers to go extinct. To free yourself from your so-called curse.”
“Please, Eunji,” Kenzo says urgently, his voice earnest, “if there’s any time to believe me, it’s now. I want to help. I’m telling you the truth.”
“What about that big speech back there?” I ask. “Was that true?”
Kenzo pauses, a trickle of sweat running down his neck. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I think it matters.” I take in the sight of him, the false prodigy, my childhood tormenter, now standing half-naked in the prison hall.
“Well,” Kenzo replies, lowering his head. “Considering the way that I see you feel about him ”—he glances at Seung, then back to the floor—“my feelings are not…relevant.”
He runs his fingers through his hair. “But if they were relevant, then maybe I’d say…” His eyes rise for a moment, catching mine. “You’ve surprised me in many ways. You’ve taught me more than I ever wished to know. But now that I know, I’m…grateful. Let’s leave it at that.”
His words reverberate around the stone walls.
Part of me feels strangely let down by his answer. Not because I want him to tell me that he really loves me, necessarily, but because after everything we’ve been through, I think I just want some part of him to be fully honest, to be true. To not be wrapped in layers of politics and calculation.
But maybe this is the closest Kenzo will ever get to that.
“Please, Eunji, you don’t have much time.”
Kenzo lifts the keys up to me, pressing them into my hand. “It’s the gold one, three from the right end.”
I select the correct key, slide it into the opening, and turn. Click. The iron gate creaks open.
Seung and Kenzo regard each other. Then Seung reaches up and offers his hand.
“Thank you,” he says, looking Kenzo in the eye.
Kenzo stares at Seung’s hand. Then he takes it, tight-lipped, and they shake.
From there, they work quickly, swapping their clothes, before switching places.
It’s a strange sight to behold: the two boys with Tiger ki, each dressed as the other. Surprisingly enough, Seung somehow makes a convincing Dragon soldier beneath all that armor. Maybe, in another life with more resources and opportunities, he’d have passed the Exam and become one.
Maybe, in a life free of familial duty and expectations, Kenzo would’ve chosen differently too.
“We’re going to save her,” Seung says to Kenzo and Jin. “Then we’ll come right back for you. It won’t be long. I promise.”
Kenzo reaches forward and pulls the iron gate shut, locking himself in.
“Jin?” Seung says, worried.
Jin is quiet. She stirs a little. “Go.”
Seung swallows, looking pained. He nods. As I step back, I can’t help but linger at the sight of Kenzo standing behind the bars.
“Don’t look at me that way, Eunji,” Kenzo says. “Don’t pity me. I don’t deserve that. You want to know why I’m letting you two go?” His lips slide upward into a smirk. It doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
I play along. “Tell me.”
“Plausible deniability. If things go wrong out there…I’ll claim that you used your wicked Tiger powers to trick me.
Father will think I’m weak. But at least he won’t think I’m a traitor,” Kenzo says, shrugging with false ease.
“I’m not fit for a life on the run. Clearly.
Which is just what you two will be resigning yourselves to, if you try to free the tiger and fail. ”
Again, I shouldn’t be disappointed. I don’t know why I am.
But I don’t buy it—the face that he puts on, that line he always resorts to, that everything and everyone is ultimately selfish.
He joined me on this journey to make sure that I’d be okay. He held my hands outside the cave when I nearly shut down. He saved my life, twice—and now, here, he’s saving it again. Sure, all those moments can be boiled down and explained away as self-serving actions.
I guess I just want Kenzo to admit, for once, that he’s doing something good. To let all of that go.
Although maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he is just being selfish.
“That’s pretty clever,” I reply flatly.
“Isn’t it?”
Kenzo backs away into the shadows, pressing himself into the far wall. The darkness passes over his face as he tears a strip off Seung’s tattered sleeve and ties it around his eyes as a blindfold, concealing his features.
Seung squeezes my hand. It’s time for us to go.
I turn back to him, nodding.
Then I yank the metal crank down—and the door swings open.