Stefano shook his head. "The Tanakas only had Akiko. They had a very famous line and it was regarded the world over that no one was left."
"That's not true," Ricco said. "There was a little sister and brother. I was there. They came to the tournaments to cheer Akiko on. They came with their father. And the girl was in training. You should have seen her take down Nao with that double kick. I'm telling you, she was a Tanaka. So was the baby boy."
"It wouldn't make sense that this child would want to assassinate you when you saved her and her brother," Taviano said.
"What did she say her last name was?" Vittorio asked.
"Majo, and the kanji characters mean 'female devil.' The name was given to her. She said, and I heard truth in her voice, that her mother was an American. She'd been told that her mother was a whore on the streets. Later she abandoned her children and disappeared. Mariko believes that to be true."
"Tanaka married an American woman. She left him, and their shadows were torn apart. She didn't remember her children or marriage or anything about riding shadows, and he was lost to all of us as a rider," Stefano said. "But there was no mention of any child other than Akiko that I can remember; however, if Vittorio heard about more, then it is probably so. The lineage was remarkable. Admired and respected despite what the family thought about his marriage. Surely a son and daughter would have been welcomed by every rider family."
Ricco shook his head. "Akiko was looked down on by every family, all riders and her own grandmother because she was mixed race. The grandmother, in particular, treated her horribly, and all the families followed suit. Although Akiko was mixed race, she looked more like her father. If Mariko is a Tanaka, she obviously looks more like her American mother. Still, when I asked about what happened to the two remaining children, Yamamoto told me a family took them in."
"It still wouldn't make sense for the girl to come after you. It's pretty hard to forget the boy who saved your life," Giovanni objected.
"She was three, Gee," Francesca pointed out. "What do shadow riders do?" she asked softly. "They carry out justice. It's ingrained in them. It can't be personal, right? You call in other riders to cover anything personal. If Mariko is a rider, then someone called her in. Someone investigated, and someone called her in. The fact that she didn't carry out her assignment in the prescribed way means she isn't convinced that you're guilty and she's conducting her own investigation. What other reason is there for her waiting to try to kill you? She didn't have to come out into the open. She could have slid into the shadows like you all do and it would be over. You wouldn't have seen it coming."
Except Ricco was always vigilant. He made certain of that. Made certain there were unseen alarms that would be tripped by anyone moving around his house at night or during the day whether they slid out of a shadow or not. For several years he'd been convinced someone, a shadow rider, had slipped into his home on numerous occasions. He'd invented a screen to hook under the doors of his family to prevent riders from sliding into their bedrooms unseen. The weird feeling that an intruder had visited had ceased when he began using the screens.
"Francesca is right," Emmanuelle said. "Why take a position unless she needs to know more?"
"Say that's all true," Taviano said. "Who sent her? Someone had to have contracted with her people in Japan, Ricco was investigated and she was sent. Whoever sent her must believe he's guilty of killing the Tanaka family just as Yamamoto threatened. Maybe the findings were turned over to the new council when Yamamoto died?"
"This has to go before the international governing family," Stefano decided. "Or we're going to find ourselves in a war."
"If you go to them, we may find ourselves in a war anyway. The moment the new council in Japan comes under the governing family's investigations, they'll feel dishonored. They'll believe Saito and Ito. Both will lie. They'll have to. The culture is very different from ours," Ricco objected. "I know I'm asking a lot, because every one of you is at risk, but I know this woman is mine. I know I was born for her. I need a chance. I'm asking all of you to give me that chance."
Stefano sighed and looked around the room at his siblings and wife. "Ricco, more than risking us, because I doubt anyone is that stupid to come after our family, you're asking all of us to allow this woman, a trained assassin, to remain in your home with you."