Ink Stained

75: beginning of the end*

She couldn't say anything as she stared up at him helplessly, unable to reassure him that she was fine after she'd taken in that her first thought was, Am I going to die, and realizing that she was not fine for even thinking that in the first place. There was something wrong with her. She'd never before felt that so strongly, but she knew there was something fundamentally wrong with her.

There was something broken in her.

There was never anything broken in you, Kuniumi murmured soothingly. Not until Midori broke you.

Shin whirled around. In a flash, he was no longer at her side, but by Kagetora's. She yelped in surprise when Shin slammed him back into the wall, his forearm pressed against the smirking King's neck. Spiderweb cracks splintered the wood from behind Kagetora.

Shin's lips were pulled back over his teeth as he growled in a low voice, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Shin – " she started, right before Kuniumi traipsed in again.

Don't fret, she cooed. Kagetora won't hurt you.

She couldn't believe her gall. He just threw me off a balcony!

He knew Shin would catch you.

Her heart hammered. What gives Kagetora the right to do that?

He won't hurt you, Kuniumi goaded her with her silvery voice, as if that made everything better.

You know that, but I don't, and neither does Shin. She snapped back.

All the more reason not to interrupt.

They can kill each other, Kuniumi! I came here to keep Shin alive, not to see him get himself killed.

This confrontation was long in the making. Shin is a lighted fuse and Kagetora is the fire fuelling his rage. Let him take out some of that anger, and see where it leaves them. Once some of it is gone there will be less to ignite him, and he can pour all his soul into Kagetora's training.

She didn't know if she could trust Kuniumi's advice. Nothing she'd ever said before had proven false – yet – and she was usually spot-on with her stray observations of people. Maybe she was right about this. Maybe Shin needed to confront Kagetora like this, even if it did lead to a fight. Maybe it was better in the end, this way.

Or maybe Kuniumi was just a fucking lunatic Ayakashi inhabiting Pai's mind and refusing to leave because of some obscure revenge she was hell-bent on, and claimed only Pai could help her in exacting it.

Kagetora, to his credit, was amazingly calm. He raised his hands up in mock-surrender as he smirked sardonically at Shin. "Demonstrating a point. You weren't going to listen to anything I said anyway, so I chose to show you why I need the fake Tengu."

"You chose wrong." Shin snarled.

The Kitsune remained unfazed. Ignoring him, Kagetora looked around Shin as if he was totally oblivious to his seething rage, and grinned at Pai. His eyes glimmered in a way that made her all the more uncomfortably aware of Kuniumi.

Her gaze sharpened on his as she wondered if his ninetail powers allowed him to sense Kuniumi's presence in her, through her. What if he made some passing comment about it? How the hell was she supposed to explain something like that to Shin when she barely understood any of it herself?