浮かばれない霊
It took them two days to get to their destination.
She'd spent most of the journey to the island of the Restless Dead alternating between reading, listening to music from playlists she made containing anything from two to thirty tracks, and staring out of the window of the plane, then train, then bus, wanting to sleep to pass the time, yet unable to. There were too many things to think about, crowding the space in her mind, confusing her, raising more questions than answering them. Pai couldn't fall asleep because of it all.
Not to mention she was nervous as hell about finally reaching Ukabarenairei. She had no idea what to expect when they got there, or what kind of training was entailed in teaching Shin control over Shinigami. There were so many stories about Ukabarenairei, and she half-expected to meet more than a few Goryo.
Then there was the fact that even though he'd agreed, Shin still hated Kagetora. He wasn't doing this willingly. She'd practically forced him to do this.
Not only was there that lovely scenario to look forward to of the two coming face to face again, but the nagging reminder that she still needed to arrange a meeting with Aihara when they got back loomed over her like a black cloud over a bright, sunny day. She was someone Pai didn't know, didn't trust, yet knew something about her that few should – she couldn't afford to ignore Aihara, much as she wished to.
Every time she glanced at Shin, he was doing more or less the same thing; staring into space. She knew he was thinking, all the time, but she couldn't begin to guess at what. He frowned a lot, and looked plenty scary when he did that she didn't even try to speak to him. He was most likely thinking about the impending trial of his training that loomed over both of them.
But she wondered.
Sometimes, she caught him watching her in a way she couldn't quite understand, an emotion broiling in his eyes that she didn't know. When she asked him what was wrong, he simply said, Nothing, and went right back to glowering out windows. It confused her, but she didn't know how to approach him about it.
Kuniumi was there sometimes, keeping her company when she was bored herself. Other times she hummed tunes that didn't sound like anything Pai had ever heard, or anything that could be easily reproduced. Listening to Kuniumi sing made her heart ache with nostalgia, longing for something she didn't know, or couldn't remember.
When she didn't feel like humming, Kuniumi played her game of questions. She asked them and let Pai ask random questions in return, slyly dodging those she didn't want to answer. Most of the time Kuniumi simply wasn't around.
When they landed in Mikurajima they wasted no time and got on a bus that dropped them off at the top of a cliff that most people usually made their way down from to get to the beach below. They weren't most people, though. As soon as the bus rattled away, Pai and Shin went to the edge of the cliff. She hadn't had any time to admire – or be intimidated by – the view. It was night when they got there. There was no moon yet to illuminate the world around them.
Still, Shin was able to see enough when he picked her up as easily as he had the last time. They flew across the quiet sea, wind rushing past them. In spite of the restlessness she felt at being enclosed in Shin's arms, she couldn't help being overcome with a sense of peace.
They were single, solitary, in the vastness of a world that would keep on turning even if they weren't there to turn with it anymore. That peace that filled her to the brim distracted her enough that she didn't focus too much on Shin and turn into a little ball of embarrassed fire at being so physically close to Shin again.
Things got interesting when they finally came to settle on the only piece of land in sight for miles and miles around; Ukabarenairei, the island of the Restless Dead, home to shy Yori Chiisai who became dangerous when you got too close.
×
Pai stared in dumbfounded confusion.
She wasn't sure she was seeing right, but no matter how many times she blinked, the person standing in front of her didn't suddenly morph into someone who made more sense to be there, waiting for them, than the person who was actually standing there. It couldn't be possible, yet she knew she was awake. She wasn't in some sort of dream, and nor was she hallucinating.
This was real.
"To – Tomoha-san?" the name popped out of her mouth, so stunned that she couldn't stop herself. "What...what are you...?"
Seiran grinned and tipped his head in a mock salute. "Yo, Pai-chan. Nice to see ya."
She was taken so completely by surprise that she didn't notice Shin's hands tighten ever so briefly around her waist before he set her down on the pale green grass under their feet. If she had noticed his territorial move, she would have blushed like an incorrigible maniac.
As it was, her mind was too far gone with the fact that Tomoha Seiran, her classmate at Odori High, was standing in front of her, smirking and looking exactly like a Kitsune who knows something you don't.
He stood at the foot of a hill that rose sharply behind him, dense foliage from the trees gathered so close around them to obscure whatever could be at the top of the hill. He was dressed in a dark purple-and-black kimono that highlighted his burnished gold eyes that so many girls at school swooned over. Dark hair curled over the tips of his ears, stopping just past his nape, the tendrils swaying gently from the strength of the wind breathing through the forest they were surrounded by.
The trees sheltered the unusual trio from the worst of the howling wind, but it also made everything quiet. So, so hushed, with every little sound magnified tenfold by the silence. She could hear her breath breezing out of her nose; in, out, in, out. She heard her blood pumping in her head, louder than she was used to. If she really listened, she could even hear the quiet creak of the leather of Shin's sheathed katanas as he shifted. He moved so that he was standing by her side but still slightly in front of her, in a very obviously protective manner.
Completely ignorant of the hostility coming off Shin in waves – similar to how he'd been with Kagetora at the festival, dampened a bit, but no less lethal – she made a move to step towards Seiran in her surprise. Shin grasped her wrist before she could, stopping her.
"Careful," he warned in a low tone, his lips close to her ear, his words for her alone. She looked up at him to see a muscle in his tightly clenched jaw tick. "He's the Hengen from school."
"But...what is he doing here?" she asked quietly, eyes sidling over to where Seiran stood a few feet ahead on a low knoll of grass, patiently waiting for them with that sly smile painting his face. He didn't move, and he could have passed for a statue if not for the wind ruffling the curls of his hair about.
"He's Kagetora's brother."
She blinked stupidly. The words didn't register. They repeated themselves in an endless loop, but they weren't sinking in. She couldn't understand what they meant and she couldn't grasp why she couldn't get it.
Kagetora has a brother?
Two, in fact.
What.
Kuniumi's grin – unseen yet felt right under her skin – infuriated her to no ends. Yep. But we won't tell you who the other one is.
Why not?
Because then you'll know who his mother is. She doesn't like people knowing who she is, or who her sons are. He doesn't like letting anyone know who his mother is, either. They are in tandem to each other in that way, don't you think? Kagetora loves his mother very much, as she does him.
Her eyes darted to Seiran's again as she came to the realization that Kagetora wasn't a lone man in the Ayakashi world. Seiran was living proof of that. He was Kagetora's family. Kagetora had a mother.
It was so normal, so ordinary – indeed, it as expected, obviously – but Kagetora was just so...he seemed so solitary, and totally independent of everything and everyone. That was why she found it so jarring that Seiran was his blood kin.
Kagetora was someone's son, someone's brother. Maybe even someone's lover, or husband.
No, more. No more.
What?
He was someone's lover. Kuniumi ached again, her pain seeping through the cracks into Pai, making her shoulders sag as she fought against the leeching grief that clung to her so desperately, seeking company in its empty misery. He was her more than.
Kuniumi, she warned, even as she forced her attention outside of herself, to Shin. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and a desperation clawed at her to make Kuniumi stop feeling so strongly that emotions latched onto her and refused to let go. Please. I can't –
We are sorry. We are sorry for our pain, for your pain, for his pain over hers and yours. We are sorry, Bibari, Touka, Shin, Shinigami, Hiyori, Manami...Pai.
With that she slunk away, taking with her some – but not all – of the pain that stole into her whenever she talked about the person that had once, once, been so part of Kagetora, and was no more. Pai fought off a sigh of relief when it faded away.
She looked up at Shin and spoke in hushed tones. "He is the Hengen in school." She said it more to voice out the fact than to point it out.
She knew that Shin knew he was the Hengen. Shin taught them Maths every day except Thursdays. Of course he knew. The question was, had he known all along that it was Seiran? If he had, why didn't he say anything all this time about it?
At that moment, she was struck with the reminder that to Seiran she, too, was a Hengen pretending to be human in the school. He didn't know that she was actually human. Or at least, he shouldn't. To him, she was supposed to be Tengu, a Hengen just – if not quite – like him.
She needed to remember that, if he was going to be around for the rest of their time there. She needed to remember that even if he wasn't; she didn't know what other Hengen were around, and she didn't know what Kagetora was thinking, either.
Shin nodded tightly, eyes fixed firmly on Seiran. It was not to her that he spoke to next.
"Where is he?" he called out.
"The idiot sent me down to meet you," Seiran drawled.
The idiot? Seriously? That was how Seiran talked about the King of the Kitsune?
She wondered if the reason she felt like she knew Kagetora from somewhere was because she shared so many classes with his younger brother. He was a smaller, more sharp-eared version of Kagetora, now that she had seen the both of them and knew what they looked like.
"Why didn't he come himself?" Shin asked.
Seiran grinned savagely. She stared at the elongated canines, even as the Kitsune's amber-gold eyes began to glow momentarily before melting into red.
"Paperwork." He turned then, and Shin tensed. The Kitsune pretended not to notice and started walking to his left, hiking the ends of his kimono up so that he didn't trip over any hidden roots. "This way, unless you wanna camp out here. There're snakes. They bite."
She turned to Shin when he still hesitated, watching Seiran expertly walk to the left and push back a clump of low-hanging tree branches to reveal a stone staircase. Moss, roots, grass, and other plants had grown over the steps, obscuring it from view so that no one would realize it was there unless they knew of it. Seiran began climbing, and the branches he'd held to the side snapped back into place, concealing the staircase again. This time, unlike before, she could see the first step just below the branches.
"Hey," she mumbled quietly, hesitantly reaching out to touch his arm when he didn't react. "We have to go."
He stirred, finally, eyes flicking down to hers. They were completely shut off, concealing whatever he was thinking and feeling behind a tall brick wall. "I don't like this."
She tried smiling in reassurance. It failed, the fake smile wobbling and tripping off her face. Her stomach was a tight bundle of frenzied nerves, jumping about nauseatingly. "We do not have a choice, Shin-san."
"You do." Shin walked in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders, bending his knees slightly so that he was looking her straight in the eye instead of down at her.
The nerves of her skin under her dark purple sweater were lighting on fire at his touch, burning her all the more through her chilled skin. She waited with bated breath for him to speak, watching some silent battle being fought in his eyes, a battle whose combatants she couldn't see.
"You can still go back," he said tightly. "You don't have to be here. Please, go back home."
Home. If only we could.
She narrowed her eyes, even though her heart splintered into little pieces to see him pleading with her to leave him behind, leave him alone. "I am not going anywhere. The only way you are getting rid of me is if you fly me back yourself."
I'm not leaving you alone here.
He gazed at her silently for a moment, diamonds forged of steel watching her contemplatively, desperately. "I could."
Her lips twitched, annoyed that he would threaten to do that, frustrated with herself for being able to understand why he wanted her to leave. "Do not even try it, Shin-san. Besides, I do not like snakes."
She reached up and pulled her bag down from his shoulder without another word. He let it slide down, handing it to her with a carefully constructed blank gaze. She quickly fit her arms through the straps and without looking back, started walking towards the stone staircase Seiran had revealed. The grass didn't crunch the way it would if it was dry.
Glancing up, she saw dark clouds pregnant with the promise of rain begin to roll in, blotting out the sharp light of the stars. This island looked like the type to have constant storms raging around it. She frowned as she looked through the canopy of leaves over her head, trying to see through to what sky she could.
That's strange, she thought. Tonight's supposed to be a full moon.
By her watch she knew it was already nine o'clock in the evening. The moon usually rose long before now. So where was it?
As she started to ascend the flight of stairs carved into the little hill they climbed up, a hesitant sigh of relief breezed past her lips when she heard Shin walking up behind her. She furtively glanced back to see him following behind her, a furious scowl strewn over his face. She bit her lip and turned back to face front, unwilling to look at him and know that he was so angry because of how stubborn she was being.
She also didn't want to trip over an unseen root and make a complete fool of herself in front of him.
It took three minutes to climb the hill, which was deceptive in how low-rising it looked. It was much steeper and taller that it first appeared. Long-reaching branches of the trees whipping in front of their faces didn't help in making the climb any easier, and neither did the stray crawling bugs that scattered over the steps help any. She was breathless by the time she reached the top of the staircase, holding on to her sides as a stitch accompanied her cramps and delivered blow after painful blow to her aching stomach and abdomen. She wondered if Kagetora couldn't have chosen a better time to bring them here for an unwanted hike.
She didn't know what she was expecting. There hadn't been enough time for her to sit and mull over what she thought they would find when they got to Ukabarenairei. No ghosts met them on their way over, and she wasn't shaking with the tell-tale frigid air that permeated all around the area Yori Chiisai chose to linger in – there was only a slight pinprick chill in the air. She'd certainly wondered what kind of place they'd sleep in when Shin wasn't training, and perhaps she'd thought that it would be dark, and gloomy, like the rest of the island had proven to be when they flew over it.
Now, all thoughts of stitches, or cramps, or Shin silently pattering up the steps behind her faded away into nothing as she stared up at the sight before her, at the beauty all around her.
Dangling from the branches of the trees closely packed together were what looked like fairy lights that decorated trees during festive seasons. At first she thought that they were just small strings of light tied to the trees, but when she stepped towards the tree closest to her on her right, she blinked in amazement when she realized that the little balls of light were Yori Chiisai. They were tiny bodies encased in a soft glow that emanated from within their fragile bodies, in all kinds of colours.
They floated lazily about, sliding up the branches and leaves of the trees, hovering at the base, winding all around the strong trunks of the trees. The grass at her feet was a pale green, the way it would look were there a full moon hanging over and illuminating it. Surprisingly, the little Yori Chiisai avoided hanging around near the ground, and she wondered if it was because they had enough sense to not get trampled on by big lumbering bodies, what with how small they were.
A sparkle zipped past her face, and she couldn't suppress a quiet giggle as she stepped back to avoid being hit. The little Yori Chiisai fluttered away in a drunken fashion, a trail of glittering pink light following behind as it floated up into the trees above to join its beautiful brethren. None of them seemed to have any particular direction or aim in where they flew, but by the way their lighted bodies twirled around, they were content enough to simply be.
This place, all of it, was the most magical thing she had ever seen in her whole life. At Kyoto she hadn't really felt like she'd been in some place separate from the modern world. She knew that a large part of the main village at Kyoto was lodged in some weird in-between place, but she hadn't seen it. She hadn't felt it.
Here, here, it was so clear to her that two worlds existed in this place, mingling together. She felt no cold settling in her stomach, no anxiety at the sheer number of Yori Chiisai that surrounded her, but in her gut she knew that she wasn't completely in the human world anymore.
A full-blown smile of amazement was painted on her face, one she couldn't wipe away even if she tried as she stepped to the side, her hand reaching out to a little bauble of soft green light. The Yori Chiisai hung in the air an inch from the trunk of a tall, thin tree, before spinning three times and floating slowly, almost hesitantly, towards her outstretched finger. Distantly, she thought she could hear the faintest tinkling in her ear. It was only when the Yori Chiisai was a mere touch away did she feel any cold, but it wasn't as numbing as it was with other Yori Chiisai...like Teke Teke.
Almost as if the little creature could sense her thoughts of the terrifying Teke Teke, it spun away and zipped up the tree faster than she'd seen any of them move so far. She was about to call out to it, but she stopped herself in time. A little frown of disappointment tugged her lips down. She dropped her arm back to her side and stepped away from the tree as she followed the green light's path up to the spindly branches of the tree. Then she turned her eyes forward again, to where she spotted Seiran walking ahead of them. Her mouth fell open in shock.
It's a tree house, she thought to herself, astounded, eyes wide as saucers. It's a mansion...as a tree house.
She could only think of it as an architectural marvel, something she hadn't even seen in the main village at Kyoto, considering many of the constructions she'd seen in the main village were built as tree houses.
Before them, cradled up by the stout branches of the strong trees all around them, was a traditional-style mansion built entirely out of wood. It looked like an ancient mansion, but she could tell that it wasn't old, and that it was well-maintained. There wasn't just one structure, either – it was several of the same type of houses built together under one massive roof, sprawling over such a huge area around them, she couldn't imagine how many trees supported it all, or just how big the entirety of the mansion was.
Soft blue sparkles of light hovered seemingly untethered at the top of wooden ladder-staircase that sat beneath the mansion, extending all the way up to the large platform that served as the front porch. No railings lined the perimeter to stop anyone from taking one wrong step and plunging down to the ground.
The same little balls of flame, each a slightly different colour from the other – ranging from blue to purple to pink to green – burned at regular intervals between pillars that rose from the flooring of the platform up to the roof that had curved chigi horns at the corners. They weren't the Yori Chiisai dancing lazily about in the trees, but she couldn't tell what they were, either.
Seiran was already halfway up the ladder. He didn't bother to look behind him as he called back, voice tinged in Ayakashi undertones, "My brother's waiting for you up there."
Ironic, isn't it? Kuniumi murmured, returning without a single whisper of her arrival.
She frowned as she stepped to the side, giving Shin room to reach the top of the stairs, considering that on either side of them – all around them, in fact – were trees so closely packed together. It was difficult to freely move around. She avoided looking at Shin as she started on after Seiran, eager to simply get where they needed to go, wanting to avoid lingering.
What is? She asked, biting when she knew she probably shouldn't. Even if she asked, it wasn't likely Kuniumi would give her a straight answer.
The King of the Kitsune chooses to surround himself with the very thing he can so easily destroy with his true fire.
His kitsunebi? But he wouldn't let that happen. He can control them. They're his. Her eyes widened as she realized what Kuniumi was saying. Wait, those flames up there are kitsunebi?
So many of them?
Watchdogs. Kuniumi sang out. They tell him when an unwanted visitor's decided to drop in.
On the heels of those cryptic words Kuniumi vanished, leaving only a wisp of her presence lingering in Pai's mind like smoke. She clenched her teeth in irritation, lips pulling back ever so slightly. If anyone had looked at her in that moment, they would have been terrified by the fierce anger burning in her.
As it was, in another second she got her volatile emotions under control by pushing all thoughts of Kuniumi out of her mind as she stalked forward to the ladder. When she reached it and glanced back at Shin, she had returned to her normal self, carefully arranging her face to mimic an utter emptiness.
Shin nodded at her, slowing as they came to a stop at the foot of the ladder. A frown of intense concentration lowered his brows as he glanced up the length of the ladder, silently watching Seiran swiftly clamber up it, before focusing his attention back to her. "Go first."
She dropped her eyes from his and looked up the ladder, catching the last glimpse of Seiran's kimono before he disappeared up onto the platform. Hesitantly, she reached out and gripped the first rung of the ladder. As she started climbing and listened for the sound of Shin following behind her, she realized what he was doing. He was taking up a defensive spot by being behind her.
They were in foreign territory, with people neither of them trusted. Uncomfortable and unwanted as the idea was, she realized she would be just as tense as Shin the entire time. Maybe even more so.
Shin could protect himself, at least. She was human. She was weak. What could she do if Kagetora – or Seiran, for that matter – decided to turn the tables against them? What if they decided she was no longer needed, or what if they wanted to deal a blow to Kouta through Shiori, by attacking her?
Now she thought she could see why it would have been better if she and Shiori weren't so close. If Shiori didn't care so much about her. Pai was a weakness, the link in the chains that could so easily be broken. Shiori already risked her life once for Pai – what happened if she did it again and wasn't as lucky as before?
Her stomach tightening with discomfort at her unwanted realization, she quickly made her way up the ladder, wishing she could get away from her problems just as fast. Behind her she could feel from the mild sway of the ladder that Shin was following close behind. The thought made her immensely self-conscious, even as she tried to ignore that part of her that was always too aware of everything Shin did these days.
Just before she reached the top rung, an unfamiliar hand, slim and a bit pale, appeared in front of her face. She looked up to Seiran stood over her, smiling in a surprisingly genuine manner, hand extended down to her. "Need a hand?"
She was about to refuse. She could climb a ladder on her own, she wasn't that pathetic.
But between one blink and the next Seiran's hand disappeared as something whizzed by up her so fast that she couldn't see it. She stopped climbing, frozen as she stared above her.
She gaped in shock to see Shin already on the porch. He had pushed Seiran right up to the very edge, gripping Seiran's arm, the one Seiran had held out to her, in one iron hand. In the other he held his tanto pressed up against the young Kitsune's neck, hard enough that if he moved just the right way, Seiran's neck would be sliced open to spray a fountain of blood on them.
It all happened so fast that she hadn't even seen it happen. She hadn't seen anyone move. One second she was sure, she knew, Shin had been climbing the ladder right behind her. The next he was standing with his tanto pressed up to the neck of the blade's namesake, Seiran.
It wasn't Shin's childhood best friend, though; this was a Kitsune who'd hidden himself as a human being in the same school Shiori attended, and just so happened to be a King's brother. In that moment she knew, with absolute certainty, that Shin could slit his throat without hesitation if Seiran so much as breathed wrong.
Seiran was smiling up disarmingly at him.
Shin was far from amused. His eyes melted to red, and when he spoke, though his canines weren't as sharp as they were when he came out, she couldn't quite tell it was Shin speaking. He sounded exactly like Shinigami. His voice was distant and cold, so completely unlike the man she knew that her breath halted in her chest. A shiver of unease crept down her spine. The hairs at the back of her neck stood on end as she tried to calm the wild stampede of her heart.
"I am sure you value your life." He said.
Seiran grinned. "What living creature doesn't?"
He sounds like Kagetora, she found herself thinking as she gawked up above her at the two. She'd never actually exchanged more than a 'good morning' with Seiran before. It was only now that she could draw similarities between the apparent brothers.
Shin didn't blink. The red of his eyes were so bright they glowed. "Then do not touch her, or ever attempt to. If you do, I will end you."
Seiran didn't say anything for a moment, watching the lethal Tengu in front of him through hooded eyes.
Her chest was beginning to hurt. Her fingers cramped around the flat wooden side of the rung she gripped onto. A strong wind, now that they were coming up to the treeline, swayed the ladder. Her stomach rolled nauseatingly, but she couldn't bring herself to breathe, or move, arrested as she was at the confrontation above her.
With a minuscule move, Seiran nodded. He lifted his free hand up in surrender. She couldn't tell if he was doing it to tease Shin or if he really meant it.
Shin stayed where he was for another second that lasted longer than she could have thought possible, before releasing Seiran's hand and stepping back. Seiran moved forward so that he wasn't so close to the edge, and lifted a hand to his neck. From where she was, she couldn't see if Shin had actually cut him. The two stood a foot apart, eyeing each other warily.
Seiran stepped aside with a low, mocking bow. She wasn't sure how smart an idea it was to antagonize Shin when he was in such a riled state. "As you wish, sensei Hayashi."
Shin didn't acknowledge his words as he stepped aside and bent down, tucking his tanto back in his boot in the same move as he reached down with his other hand for her. The white of his Mask was a startling contrast to all the black he wore.
She watched as his dark hair fell over his forehead, long past overdue for a haircut. The red irises dissolved back to blue, and his face remained a perfectly blank slate. She could discern nothing from him.
"Come on," he offered in a low voice. "Take my hand."
Hesitantly, she reached out. He grasped her hand and quickly pulled her the rest of the way up the ladder like she weighed no more than a cloud. Even in this situation her neck reddened. She desperately fought to keep the blush from staining her cheeks when her feet hit the wood of the porch.
Shin held on to her hand for a second longer than necessary before letting go. To hide the trembling of her nervousness, she gripped the straps of her bag. She gulped nervously, trying not to fidget with her fingers by pulling and tearing at the skin as she was prone to do when she felt uncomfortable.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, standing close to his side.
His eyes flicked down to hers before he looked away, unresponsive. A lance tipped with a spiked metal head dripping in white-hot hurt stabbed her heart. She didn't have time to think of the pain when a sharp clap sounded from their right, once, twice, three times.
The sound startled her and she whipped around in surprise to find the source. It reminded her of the memory where she'd seen Midori, decked out in Agent's uniform, arguing with the light brown-eyed boy. It so reminded her of that horrible memory that her heart pounded in her chest like a train about to crash into another, the fear that she was being pulled into that memory even when she was awake so palpable that a cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
It was Kagetora.
He walked towards them dressed in a simple dark red kimono lined in with wide black hems around the edges. He was just as carefree and at ease as she remembered him back in Kyoto. He didn't look like he had a single care in the world, and lived only for the pleasures and games in life. His crimson eyes flashed in merriment when she met them. Pai wondered if it was possible for him to ever not feel like he was in control.
Seiran walked around to stand in front of them, and though she could feel him glancing her curiously, she refused to look at him.
She could smell the King as he approached. It wasn't that he smelled bad – it was that a waft of smoke, a very specific kind of cigarette smoke, drifted over to her. She inhaled it in unwillingly. Kuniumi shifted in surprise inside her at the scent of mint behind the tobacco.
He still uses the same one...the same way she did... she mumbled quietly, words spoken aloud but in a way that made her think that Kuniumi hadn't wanted her to hear them. She sighed heavily, and a part of Pai noticed Kuniumi realizing she could hear every word. Her next words were deliberate, but Pai couldn't fathom why. He will never forget her, Bibari, and he will never forgive those who lie about what happened to her. Even you, you being who you are to him.
What are you talking about? What am I to him?
When the time comes and he asks you for the truth, give it to him, even if what you can give may seem like it is nothing to you. You, and those you love, will be safer that way.
Pai stilled. Beside her, Shin looked down at her when he noticed her breathing stop, but she didn't move.
I thought you said he won't hurt me.
He won't. Kuniumi paused. Until you answer him. We don't know what he'll do when he sees the truth. We don't know how far bent he's already gone. A tinge of madness, a whisper of insanity licked her spine. She shivered inwardly, reminded yet again that even when Kuniumi seemed sane, she wasn't. She wasn't whole as she faked herself to be. We haven't seen him in ages, have we? Ages past, ages gone, long long llloooongggg gone.
She darted a quick look at Kagetora and saw him holding a cigarette in his hand, almost as if he had conjured it out of thin air. He lifted the slim white roll up to his lips, a curving smirk teasing her as he dragged in one long lungful of smoke and expelled it slowly in a white stream in her direction.
As she had already so many times, she wondered how Kuniumi knew him, and if he knew her, too. If he did, could he sense her? Did he know that she was inside Pai, inside her mind? Or had Kuniumi hidden her presence so well that even a ninetailed Kitsune couldn't tell she was there?
She glanced up at Shin to see him clench his jaw so tight she worried he might break it. His eyes snapped back to red, and he took a single step forward to stand in front of her again. That couldn't be good. She knew the red was a sign that he was allowing Shinigami closer to the surface, closer to control, closer to becoming the most dangerous thing around for miles. There was no way that was a good thing to do when Shinigami was already strong enough to break through a Mask that was failing in its one and only task; keeping him in control.
Guilt gnawed at her. She swallowed around a lump in her throat the size of an orange.
"Marvellous, marvellous, how wonderful," Kagetora applauded, punctuating each word with a clap. He stopped a few feet from Shin, like he could feel the hostility rising off him in waves and was choosing to remain a safe distance from him. "That was a wonderful show you put on for us. Shin, Pai," he tipped his head to her, the way an English gentleman of old might to a lady. "Welcome to my humble abode."
Humble my foot, she thought, glancing at the sharp, almost cold beauty of the Yori Chiisai floating in the trees, and the colourful kitsunebi hanging like braziers of fire in circles around the pillars.
Shin's lips curled contemptuously. His voice returned to normal from the Ayakashi undertones that made him too much like Shinigami for comfort. His eyes had returned to blue as well. That only made her worry all the more, at how quickly – and easily – he was going back and forth. "It wasn't a show. The same warning goes to you."
Kagetora smirked. "I wouldn't dream of hurting the lovely young maiden. Would I, Seiran?" he asked, looking down at his brother.
She tried not to openly stare at the two standing together, wondering how she hadn't realized that Seiran was the Hengen in school. Even after she'd met Kagetora, she hadn't seen the obvious physical resemblance the two shared until now. How stupid was she to have completely missed it? And what about how Seiran managed to keep his identity hidden all this time? How powerful was he that he could do that? Was he a ninetails too, or had he been using some talisman all this time?
Her lips twitched in irritation at all the questions she couldn't help thinking up, angry at herself for not knowing the answers to them.
Seiran rolled his eyes exasperatedly at his brother before turning his back on Pai and Shin and starting to walk away. As he passed Kagetora, quick as lightning, he snatched the cigarette still burning between Kagetora's fingers.
The King narrowed his eyes in accusation as Seiran paused at his side and closed his hand into a fist with the cigarette trapped in it. She watched smoke curling in dying tendrils through the gaps in Seiran's fingers, heard a little fizz. Seiran opened his palm and dropped not a cigarette, but solid ash to the floor where it disintegrated to smoke when it landed.
He shook his hand, nose scrunched in disgust, as if touching the cigarette had violated some ethical code of his. "I hate these things."
"I love them." Kagetora replied, unperturbed.
Seiran sighed heavily and started walking away. He didn't look behind him as he called back, "I brought them here, so I'm leaving, brother dear." It was only after he said this that he glanced back. It was not to his brother he looked at, or Shin, but Pai. "Careful with my brother. He forgets that others have different limits to his own."
She didn't need Kuniumi to laughingly inform her that Seiran was giving her a warning. She wondered how much use that warning was when they were already here, in Kagetora's territory. A lone Tengu and a human girl pretending to be one of the supernatural beings she grew up fearing.
"Lovely words of encouragement, as ever, Seiran." Kagetora chortled at the acidic tone in his brother's voice as Seiran disappeared around the corner of the house Kagetora had just rounded the corner from.
Then they were left alone, Pai, Shin...and Kagetora.
Before Kagetora could say anything else, and before Shin could issue another threatening warning, she spoke. Curiosity burned in her like a fire that couldn't be put out.
"Why am I here?"
Kagetora turned his blood-red gaze from watching Shin in vague amusement to her. He smiled. There was nothing reassuring about it at all. "It's simple, really. I'm surprised Kouta didn't inform you."
"He did," Shin answered. "But that doesn't explain why she's here."
"Of course it does. Besides, she can help take care of you when you're too whipped to do it yourself." He added in an afterthought.
"That's not good enough," Shin muttered, eyes flashing angrily at his words.
Kagetora sighed heavily. "Like I said, I need her."
"For what?" she asked, mind still bogged down in confusion about how she could possibly be needed by the King of the Kitsune for anything. "What is it you think I am supposed to do? What for?"
Kagetora's grin widened, eyes sparking with alarming glee. "For this."
Pai was standing and warily watching Kagetora as he smirked at her like he knew something about her that she didn't. Next thing she knew, Kagetora's red-and-black form blurred. For one perfect moment everything in the world slowed as she blinked up at Kagetora suddenly standing before her. From her periphery she saw Shin moving, but it was – slow. So slow, like he was moving underwater.
Kagetora, ignoring Shin, grinned at her. He stood so close that she could feel his breath stir the hair on top of her head as he exhaled. He lifted his hands as if to embrace her. She didn't see it, but she felt a touch on her shoulder. It was feather-light, barely there.
It was enough to send her flying back right over the edge of the platform they stood on, plunging down to the ground far, far below, with the sound of Shin shout of her name filling her ears.