Ink Stained

43: strings attached*

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Kouta was curious about a lot of things. Admittedly, that wasn't exactly an unusual thing – he was always curious – but this was different, because there were certain dangers involved that he couldn't discern.

That wasn't a good position to be in.

Things were relatively calm now – as much as it could be, when he had to watch Pai and Shiori come to terms with the fact that they knew why Motomi Shiharu had killed herself – but that didn't mean he could be lax now. There were still so many things he needed to look deeper into, to find the answers to, because he didn't know when the next thing that happened could have been prevented if only he'd had answers.

He wanted to know what happened to Pai in the three years of her disappearance, what exactly had been bad enough for her to get the Marie-Antoinette Syndrome, and why she wanted to die after she'd been poisoned by the Onihitokuchi and possibly locked in her own mind, with those memories. He wanted to know who the woman in her subconscious was that Shiori told him about, the one that cried tears of blood. That especially was something that disturbed him greatly. Kanou said that it wasn't normal, for something such as that to happen.

A part of him he couldn't help but wonder if he had, really, made a mistake in letting Pai stay with them. He saw her as a little sister now, someone he wanted to protect and keep safe – but the mysteries surrounding her past couldn't be ignored just because he wasn't sure he wanted to know what answers lurked there. Most concerning of that was the disappearance of the Momozono family, leaving not a trace of their existence behind.

And the more concerning part of that was, how the hell could it be that all the people who once knew the Momozono's couldn't remember them any more?

Still, he couldn't deny the fact that Pai was here had been a good thing. She'd somehow survived the Torimaku and gotten Shin's True Ayakashi under control again without suffering any grievous bodily harm of her own. He wanted to know how she'd done it – he knew what Shin's True Ayakashi was like – but he was grateful that she had somehow done it. That wasn't the only reason he was glad for Pai's presence in their lives; it was just something he couldn't ignore, either.

He wasn't sure how he felt about Shin admitting that Shinigami was more than a little curious about her, though. The little he'd seen of Shinigami told him that it was best that he and Pai remained as far apart from each other as possible.

Shinigami's interest in Pai did raise an interesting flag, too. True Ayakashi were parts of Hengen that were locked away, but they were still part of the whole. That Shinigami would be curious enough about her that Shin consciously realized that meant, in some way, something about Pai had piqued Shin's interest as well.

That was...something to keep an eye on, at the very least.

He wanted to know why the Onihitokuchi targeted Pai specifically. There were plenty of other humans around at the time, easier to get to than Pai was. He wanted to know why the Onihitokuchi had lain in wait; only coming out when Pai was alone. Why hadn't her aura worked to repel the Oni from her?

Asking the Oni Council about it would be pointless as well as ineffective. They wouldn't answer his questions, for there were as many Shimo Oni as there were Yori Chiisai, whose numbers were incalculable. Even if they had a way to track down and keep watch over every Oni in the world, they would see Kouta's asking them why the Onihitokuchi and Amanojaku targeted two people under his protection as a weakness.

Just like with Hengen, allowing Oni to sniff out any weakness was dangerous. Letting them know that Pai, a human, was under his care would be doubly stupid and a complete waste of time and energy. It would only endanger her life, and she'd been through enough as it was.