僧正坊鞍馬
She was left in awe at the sight of the Royal Palace all over again, after a whole month had passed since she was last here. She'd thought that its incredible beauty was forever etched in her mind, but she was wrong. As she and Shin walked through the halls of the Palace, Tengu bowing deeply before Shin as they passed, she found herself marvelling at things she hadn't noticed before.
The green dragons coiling through white clouds painted on the backdrop of red walls of the Palace weren't made from paint, but instead jade stone that was hewn into the shapes of the mighty beasts and slid into crevices cut into the wall. The arching bridges connecting one landing to the other were like sculptures out of some incredible fantastical story woven into the fabric of her reality. The sturdy wood of the floor was polished to a gleam, and she knew that attendants and servants must have scrubbed furiously to get it so. She felt guilty for walking all over their hard work, and had the absurd thought of wondering when shoes with little cleaners attached to the back would be invented, so that her footsteps would be cleaned away instead of leaving behind dirty imprints. Or maybe floating shoes to avoid the problem entirely.
Every Tengu who set eyes on her did a double-take when they saw her white hair. She'd come to Kyoto this time without dyeing it, more out of lack of time than anything else – and a little bit suspicion that Shiori wouldn't dye it just black, because now that she knew what Pai's hair looked like in a different colour, she seemed to be on a mission to give Pai something called 'lowlights'.
She felt their eyes follow her every move as she walked, and she kept shifting her shoulders under the sweater she wore, skin pulled tight from the awareness of their gaze fixed on her. Whenever she looked up from her feet, she met someone's eyes skittering away from hers. It all made her queasy.
She and Shin had arrived a few minutes after Kouta. It was already evening by the time they got there, and after a little while speaking with his father, Kouta came back and told them that the meeting would take place early the next morning. He showed her to her quarters, now on the same floor as his and Shin's.
Her room was right next to Shin's, in fact.
From the sly smirk on Kouta's lips as he turned and went on his own merry way, she knew that the arrangement had been wrangled about by him.
Before she went into her room Shin asked her if she wanted him to keep her company. She'd contemplated saying yes, already missing his touch, but she'd only smiled and said that she was okay, just tired and needed to sleep.
That was really only half true. She was tired, especially with Kuniumi's disappearance after helping her use her [ability], if only for a few seconds. There was also the confusing, disturbing sliver of Kuniumi's memory to ponder on, even if she knew that no matter how many times she turned it over in her head, she wouldn't make heads or tails of any of it.
But she also said no because she was afraid to let her heart leap to her throat in unfair anticipation of his kiss, yet seeing the hesitation in his eyes as he moved an inch away, giving her space she didn't want.
Now, as she stood trembling before the ornate, massive double doors to the Main Hall, where Sojobo Kurama and his council awaited, she wondered if she could really go through with this.
Of course she'd realized what it meant to come all the way to Kyoto. Of course she'd realized that she was going to have to relive all she already had with Kouta and Shiori to his father, the King. But it was only now, before the imposing doors of bronze and gold carved with the menacing images of a Tengu flying into battle dressed in fierce armour, did the full import of what she was about to do hit her.
A hand touched her at the small of her back. She startled with a tiny gasp, eyes shooting up to Shin. He smiled down at her, dressed almost severely plainly in a black short-sleeved yukata. Leather braces clad his forearms, and a belt holding the sheathes for his dual katanas was strapped around his trim waist. She'd caught him twirling his tanto blade as she'd exited her room to meet him only five minutes ago, and she knew that it was tucked safely in his jikatabi boots.
When she walked into her room last night, she'd found three pairs of homongi waiting for her on her ready-made futon. It wasn't by much, but each was slightly different to the other, with pretty little white flowers embroidered along the hems, or swirling designs sewn in to the fabric in a shimmering colour just a shade lighter than the rest of the fabric.
That, more than anything, told her that her visit this time to the Palace was different. Last time her homongi were plain and uniform as those of the servants who rushed about the halls. She wore one of them now, in simple dark blue hemmed in white at the sleeves. She hoped she looked presentable.
Pai nervously pulled at the end of her braid dangling over her shoulder. Today was the first time since Shiharu died that she'd forced herself to plait her hair in the way she used to, the way she had on that dreadful day. Kuniumi had asked her why she did that.
Pai hadn't answered. Kuniumi could see the truth in her mind without Pai spelling it out with words.
"Hey," he stepped in front of her. Ignoring the two armoured Tengu guards standing to frightening, single-minded attention on either side of the doors, he chucked her chin so she had to look up at him instead of keeping her terrified glare fixed on the ground. "You okay?"
"'Okay'? That's, um. Good question, huh." She gulped, trying to find solace in the reassurance of his eyes on her, his presence beside her. "I don't know. I don't know if I can do this. Kouta-sama said that there'll be others there."
He'd warned her that Sojobo Kurama would be there, as well as Misao his wife (the Queen), and the entire council. He'd cautioned her to be careful because the Ookami and Kitsune's Heirs would be present as well. The Kitsune Heir was serving as an ambassador, there on official business on behalf of the absentee Kagetora. As he was apparently prone to, Kagetora had gone AWOL. No one could contact him, and whenever this happened – often, it seemed – it was the Heir who dealt with Clan matters in Kagetora's stead.
That shocked her at first, wondering if Kagetora had had a child with his beloved Touka, until Kouta added that Heirs weren't always children of Kings. An Heir was anyone officially recognized as such by the Clan King. Unlike Kings, who could only be stripped of their titles through death or if their actions went against the Clan, Heirs could easily be changed and named again.
No one really knew what connection the Kitsune Heir had to Kagetora, only that he was someone the King trusted enough with the position. When he said that, she immediately thought of Seiran. Who would someone as taciturn as Kagetora trust more than his own brother to fulfil that role? Really, as far as she could tell, no one else fit that strict criterion.
"It'll be all right," he said, cupping her cheeks in his hands. Her eyes wandered to the guards who stared fixedly ahead of them. Shin caught her attention by letting the blue fade into glowing crimson as he looked down at her. "I won't let anyone hurt you."
Her bottom lip trembled. She bit it to keep it still and lifted her hands to hold on loosely to his wrists. "He's your King, Shin. What if he decides I'm too dangerous to keep around? Because I am," she said earnestly, hoping he understood that. She didn't want him under any false pretences by choosing to be with her. "People die around me."
"You're not to blame for any of it."
"I don't remember if I am or not," she muttered.
"You're not, Pai. Don't doubt yourself like that." He leaned down, and her breath halted in her chest. She thought he was going to kiss her. There was a sly gleam in his eye, a wicked grin playing about him. Instead, he brushed his lips over her cheek as he whispered in her ear, "But if he does try to hurt you, he will find out why Shinogami are feared even by the gods."
Ooh, Kuniumi shivered in glee, delighting in the dangerous parts of Shin that surfaced every so often. How frightening. Could you ever have imagined you would capture the heart of one of the fiercest Kamigami to exist, Pai?
"Hey," he bumped his nose against hers, a surprisingly intimate move that almost had a smile bubbling out of her. "Focus on me, butterfly. Not her."
Annoying idiot, Kuniumi grumbled, taking back what she'd just said. He's annoying.
Her lips twitched in a faint smile at Kuniumi's childish behaviour. She finally nodded after a long moment, catching a glimpse into a side of Shin he never showed her, a side of him that was dangerous to anyone who threatened those he loved. She remembered his reaction when she told him about Akira, the way she knew he would have ripped that tree in half if he hadn't seen how scared that made her.
Her hands tightened on his as she tried to mentally prepare herself for what was coming. "Okay."
He smiled at her, trying to reassure her even though she didn't miss the dark look hiding in the depths of his eyes. "Ready?"
She nodded. "I'm ready."
Kuniumi grinned savagely. Liar.
×
The first thing that took her by surprise was no sharp objects pointed in her direction the second she walked into the Main Hall, with everyone demanding she stop moving and march over to the prison Shiori had told her about, located somewhere in the belly of the Palace. She saw people there, noted their presence, but they all took a back-seat as the full wonder of the Main Hall itself overcame her.
It was just as grand as she'd thought it would be – more so, perhaps. The room was cavernous, with impossibly tall marble pillars raised at the four corners of the room, and six more arranged in a perfect, large circle at the centre. The floor was made of marble, smooth and polished, gold shot through with white.
Around the room hung ornaments of refined taste, and lowly-raised platforms of white granite rose at the foot of each pillar, with the tallest pulpit set at the head, where the King stood with his back to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows with coloured glass, overlooking the hustle and bustle of the village below.
The walls outside the Main Hall were artfully decorated with the rolling sceneries of Japan's ancient history, but here, inside the Main Hall, that history continued into modern day.
She saw breath-taking visages of the story of a lone Tengu with long white hair and the traditional long-nosed, wrathful Tengu mask flying high above a mountain, watching as the lands around him slowly morphed from forests and lakes to cities with towering skyscrapers that stood taller than the mountain itself. Something about the story made her nostalgic for a time before; before man corrupted the world with his greed for the riches only he deemed worth anything valuable.
It was when she followed the end of the story – somewhat chillingly ending as a blank on the red wall, as if the original artist was waiting for the end of the world to know how to complete his creation – that she saw the King of the Tengu for the first time.
Her mouth snapped shut as she remembered why she was here; who it was she was here to speak to. She flushed in embarrassment at how stupid she must have looked, gaping in awe at everything around her.
Standing in two rows on either side of the head dais was Kurama's council, eight men and women dressed in discreet black robes and with a signature cap atop their heads. They all held something in their hands, scrolls of paper, notebooks. Two had tablets in their hands, fingers poised over the screens as they typed on them. It was a jarring sight, to see something out of the modern world in a place that looked straight out of the pages of a fantasy story.
Those are iPads. What the hell?
A man standing at the corner of the dais the Sojobo stood upon announced them, naming Shin as Daitengu, and giving only her name as any identification for who she was. He didn't say if she was Hengen, or human. From the puzzled frown on his face as he read from an iPad in his hand, he didn't actually know what she was.
But she knew they could all tell she wasn't Hengen. Her birthstone ring, infused with trace amounts of Daichi's blood, only hid her presence from Yori Chiisai. She'd brought Kanou's pendant with her, but she left it in her room in favour of wearing only the necklace on which hung Shin's feather. She never took it off these days, touching it whenever she wasn't with Shin to remind herself that she wasn't floating in a dream where he told her he loved her.
There were seven daises, but only two were occupied besides the head one. On one to her right was a young girl in a beautiful white and red kimono with gold imprints of wolves running along its hems. Her eyes were an incredible amethyst, sharp and piercing as they tracked Pai's every step with a deadly glint that belied her petite, otherwise gentle countenance. As Pai's eyes danced over the girl, she saw tufts of fur along her pointed ears, and her nails were too long and sharp for normal people.
For humans.
The girl's appearance made her think of Kiku and Chiasa. The two Agents had to be Hanyou no Ookami, she realized, wondering why when she'd first seen them in her memories, she hadn't thought more about why they looked more Ayakashi than the humans she'd mistakenly thought them to be.
Ariwa's daughter, Kuniumi provided, naming the Ookami King's sole Heir, his only child. Yukari Mei. She's beautiful, isn't she?
Pai nodded before she stopped herself, knowing she would look insane if she said something in reply when there was pin-drop silence in the room. Shin was the only other one in the room who knew that she spoke to a disembodied voice in her head. She looked up at him, and though a coy smile teased his lips at her wonderment at the sight before her, he didn't look as awed as she was. Probably because he must have seen this many more times, already.
She is, she thought, agreeing.
Lethal, too. She once cut off a man's pride and joy because he got frisky with her after she'd already rebuffed him. Much like her mother... Kuniumi trailed off into silence.
Pai tried not to show her confusion on her face. How did Kuniumi know Ariwa's wife, Mei's mother? Daichi told her that the woman died in childbirth. No one actually ever spoke of the Ookami's deceased wife. It was not often that Kings married for love, but when they did their story was told with near-reverence. Kurama and Misao were one such marriage, as had been Ariwa's before his beloved passed away.
When she looked away from Mei, she was drawn to the left, and she stumbled slightly in surprise. Standing on the pulpit with his arms rested comfortably in the opposite sleeves of his glamorous red-and-black kimono was Seiran, grinning at her like they were old friends.
This bloody Kitsune, she stuttered in disbelief.
The dark curls of his hair made him look too young to be in this gathering, giving him a boyish air. The sharp glint in his eyes, however, countered that child's look about him. His smile only grew when he looked at Shin, and winked. He clearly didn't seem to take to heart Shin's threatening to slit his throat only a few weeks ago anymore.
Then Pai finally looked upon the man she was here for.
Kurama, surprisingly, looked younger than she'd thought. He only appeared to be in his mid-thirties. Legends of the Sojobo led her to imagine an older, bigger man, with a long nose and white hair flowing down his back as he looked on with fierce intensity at his subjects.
The real Sojobo had silver-blond hair pulled back at his nape, in a fashion similar to Kouta's regular look. Atop his head sat a kanmuri hat. He was bedecked in spectacular apparel, a traditional sokutai. Baggy white damask trousers worn under a voluminous yellow outer rob tucked in at his waist only seemed to emphasise the golden-yellow of his eyes.
Pai blinked as she spied Kouta standing on Kurama's right. Side by side, she could instantly tell that Kouta was his father's son. The two were practically identical, with the same pair of yellow eyes that looked to be glowing unnaturally as Kurama looked down at her. Even the shape of their nose was the same, although Kouta had a more angular face than his father, and Kurama was an inch or two taller than his son.
Her breath caught when her eyes rose to the woman standing beside him; Akiyama Misao, queen and wife of the Sojobo, and Kouta's mother. Her beauty stole Pai's breath away. Her skin was pale as snow, lips a soft pink, doe eyes turned up at the corners that gave her ingenuous appearance a teasing look. She was tall, enough to confidently stand beside her husband without being dwarfed by him.
Misao wore a junihitoe, an extremely complicated and elegant kimono worn only by court ladies, in gold, scarlet, white, and black colours of different patterns. The only place where the twelve layers she wore were easily discernible was at her sleeves and the neck. Her hair was incredibly long, tied behind her but still flowing down her back, past her waist, and cut at the sides of her face in a layered fashion.
She couldn't imagine how strong Misao had to be to wear it, and stand for long enough. Junihitoe could easily weigh up to twenty kilograms alone. Then Pai remembered that Misao was Ayakashi, and physically stronger than most women.
Kouta stood on his father's right hand side while his mother was on the left. He was bedecked in as refined a manner as his parents, only his attire didn't look quite as complicated or lavish. Pai blinked owlishly at the Royal Family, stunned at how Misao and Kurama seemed to have morphed perfectly together in the form of their son. Kouta smiled encouragingly at his two friends, and her lips twitched in an automatic move to smile back.
Pai and Shin slowly approached the dais Kurama and Misao stood on. All eyes in the room were on the two as they halted ten feet away. Her joints creaked as she walked, feet pattering quietly on the golden-white laced marble of the floor. Recalling Shiori's crash-course coaching, she went to go down on her knees and bow before the Sojobo.
Shin's hand on her elbow stopped her.
She looked up at him, shocked. What was he doing? She shut her mouth at the grim look on his face. He didn't take his eyes off Sojobo Kurama as he bent at the waist in a respectful bow. She caught the cautious shake of Kouta's head. Shin's hand tightened briefly on her elbow, and she followed suit, thrown into disarray.
This wasn't supposed to be happening.
As they bent and came up, he whispered lowly, "You're here as mine. If you kneel before him, he will not recognize that."
She snapped her attention forward again. Her heart thudded, squeezing tight at the way he claimed her, terrified at how Kurama might react to this breach of conduct.
Perhaps she saw the panic in her eyes, for Misao smiled gently and inclined her head slightly. A shaky sigh breezed past her at the unspoken acceptance. When she dared to glance at Kurama, the faint scowl on his face was enough to set her knees buckling again.
Don't be pathetic, Kuniumi snapped irritably. She remained unfazed by everything that was happening. You are not weak. You are strong. Act like it.
She fought to keep Kuniumi's sneer from showing on her face. If anything, Kuniumi was angry at the way Kurama regarded her. As if Kuniumi didn't think Kurama had any right to even look at her. That made her wonder; who was stronger? Kurama, the Sojobo of the Tengu, or Kuniumi, the unknown being claiming not to be Ayakashi at all?
But Pai wasn't Kuniumi. She'd only just discovered – rediscovered? – her [ability]. She couldn't use it on her own without Kuniumi's help, and then she still collapsed soon after from total debilitation because of it. If she didn't get her emotions under control, force herself to remain separate from Kuniumi's emotions, she'd slip and make a grievous mistake. She couldn't let that happen.
Praying that it would work now where it hadn't when she'd revealed her secrets to Shin, she attempted to dull her emotions. They were acting against her now. She was too worked up with them now, the nerves broiling into a full-blown panic attack. She needed full control of herself if she was going to get through this without getting herself thrown in prison, or getting Shin in trouble because of his territorial insistence to keep her close to him at all times.
What are you...oh.
Kuniumi was disappointed. Pai didn't know why. The ability to care for the reason why was fading away, as were her emotions. By the time she was done, she didn't even have anything left to feel triumphant at killing her emotions without Kuniumi's help.
She didn't think she could do this if she had to battle the pressure of her anxieties at the same time.
Shin glanced down at her sharply when the light slipped out of her eyes. Kurama's frown deepened as he watched her speculatively. Pai wondered if he and Shin were strong enough to feel the void that was Kuniumi's aura swallowing up her own as her emotions died and buried themselves somewhere so deep inside her, she wasn't sure she'd find them again. Even Misao's eyes widened minutely as she watched.
Pai looked around herself again. Without her emotions, everything she'd been so amazed at lost its colour and splendour. The story unravelling on the wall didn't make her quite so sad. The gleam of the Main Hall's elaborate ornaments and antiques had dimmed. Everything was so flat and ordinary now.
From the intense look on Kurama's face, as if he was waiting for Shin, and the stiffening of Kouta's shoulders, she knew that Shin was doing something wrong. Or maybe not wrong, but unexpected, and clearly the Sojobo didn't appreciate the deviation from custom. There was a rustle of clothes as people shifted, the tension in the room building, but no one made a sound.
Kurama watched him, but Shin didn't lower his eyes for even a moment, steadily holding his King's gaze. Kurama glanced at her, at Shin's hand still on the crook of her elbow. If she'd still tenaciously held on to her emotions Pai would have quailed under the intensity in that golden regard. But she only stared back impassively at him.
Maybe Shin was supposed to stand beside Kouta or Kurama himself, as both their loyal retainer. Maybe he was supposed to be doing something else entirely – but remaining by her side was not it. She looked up at Shin from the corner of her eye. It took less that a second for her to see, from the stubborn set of his jaw, that he wasn't going anywhere.
To her surprise, when Kurama spoke, it wasn't to reprimand Shin for doing something he wasn't supposed to. When he spoke, it was to her he addressed.
"My son has informed me as to why you are here, to tell your story to everyone in this room, so that I may hear it with your own voice. Do you object to this, Momozono-san?" his voice was languid and silver, flowing yet resonating in leashed power.
She found herself remembering the legend that claimed Sojobo had the strength of a thousand normal Tengu. She didn't find it hard to believe.
Fake courtesy, Kuniumi muttered. He doesn't care if you 'object'.
I guessed as much, she replied flatly.
With a blunt voice and impassive face, she said, "No."
Shin stiffened at her side. Did she do something wrong by not referring to any of Kurama;s many titles? Or could Shin sense the change in her that was all her own doing?
Kurama waved a lackadaisical hand. Vague irritation at how calm he appeared swirled in her gut. If Kouta already told him about what was happening, why didn't he seem more concerned? Why did he look like he didn't care either way?
"From the beginning, if you will. Who you are," he said pointedly, still in that almost frighteningly soft voice. He gestured at the two Heirs present, and the council standing before him. "For the others."
Careful with what you say, Kuniumi warned. He's as good as Kitsune with words. He has had centuries to refine his skills. A bitter smirk. Why do you think he is both loved and feared?
Pai didn't care. She was here to do a job – tell Kurama what she told his son. What he did with the information after she delivered it was no longer her concern.
She cleared her throat. When she spoke, her voice rang clear in the large room. "My name is Momozono Pai. I am not Ayakashi."
Whispers rang out in the room.
She continued. "Four years ago, my entire family disappeared. I was found a year ago by the Koki Sakura Hime, Matsumoto Shiori, who has been my friend for years. But the rest of my family is still missing. I do not remember much of what happened while I was gone, and it was only recently that I started to regain some of my memories. They show me that for a time, I was in an organization that hunts down Hengen."
No one spoke.
No one moved.
It was like everyone in the room, save for Kouta, Shin, and Pai herself, stopped breathing. Everyone – except Kurama and Misao – stared at her with a mix of emotions playing over their faces. Many looked shocked, surprised, shaking their heads in disbelief. Mei looked angry that Pai would insinuate the Ayakashi were weak enough to be hunted at all.
Then they started talking, throwing questions at her that she ignored, whispering and muttering to themselves.
Kurama observed the people before him, eyes flitting from one person to the other as he took note of their reactions. Kouta, in turn, was carefully watching his father, trying to get a read on him. Shin, by her side, was still as a statue – but his hand was dangerously close to his katana. She'd seen how Shin fought before; if anyone made a threatening move to her, she knew that katana would be out and spraying blood in under a second. She wasn't sure the guards stationed around the room would be fast enough to stop him, either. She knew how fast he could move.
Pai regarded their reactions with cold detachment, waiting for them to settle down. But when she glanced over Seiran, her eyes widened infinitesimally. Unlike everyone else in the room except those who'd walked in knowing what this meeting was about, he didn't look surprised in the least. In fact, he looked dejected. Like he was disappointed that nothing more interesting was happening.
He knows, she realized when he caught her eye and smirked. He knows about So Fu.
Hm, Kuniumi hummed in affirmation. You know Kagetora knows of their existence. Do you think little Seiran wouldn't?
Pai frowned as the gears turned in her head. So Fu had been around for two hundred years. Kagetora was, at the least, a thousand years old. How many tails did Seiran have? Was he a ninetails too? Was he old enough to know about So Fu the way Kagetora probably did? Or was it just that Kagetora told him about them?
Why had neither of them said anything?
"Quiet down, please."
The gentle command was spoken by a gentle voice that immediately captured everyone's attention. It came from Misao. She smiled at their acquiescence. Things in the Ayakashi political world obviously ran differently – if this was a human imperial court, Misao wouldn't have dared to speak.
"Momozono-san is not quite finished with her tale, is she?" she continued, eyes going from one person to another, holding their gazes for a few seconds before moving on.
Like clockwork, they readily agreed with her, puppets deafly obeying their master's every directive. They all turned to Pai again. She tried not to curl her lip in disdain at their easy, quick obeisance.
Nevertheless, she continued.
"Their name is So Fu. I do not know if those who lead them are human or Onmyoji. What I do know is that they use Hanyou – half Ayakashi, half human beings – and train them to be assassins. They target Hengen who are of notable positions within their Clans."
At this, the muffled cacophony of incredulity started up again. This time it was Kurama himself who stopped it with a stern look at his council. They shut up instantly, and he kept an eye on them for another second before Kurama angled a look at her. Anyone else would have shrunk away from it, but she held her ground and stared blandly back.
"Hanyou," he enunciated slowly. "Are incredibly rare. Many think them myth. How do you know this So Fu uses them?"
"I was used by them," she replied bluntly. "Because that is what I am."
The council fluttered. Mei didn't bother to hide her shock as she stared openly at Pai like she had just morphed into some disgustingly fascinating creature. Seiran was full-on grinning now, the tips of his elongated canines poking at his bottom lip. He looked entirely too pleased, she noted.
Everyone fell silent again when Kurama raised a hand signalling for it. "Why should anyone believe your account, Momozono-san?"
Pai clenched her jaw as she lowered her eyes from his. It was not a show of submission, but more of forced deference. If she didn't do that, she knew she'd end up glaring at him, and she wasn't interested in finding out what the Sojobo did to people who showed any hint of discourtesy.
It was one of the reasons that she had survived so long in So Fu. She emptied her soul and put on a blank face when she had to interact with anyone of a higher station than her. That way, they couldn't find a reason to punish her as an errant trainee, the way so many others like her had been before they figured out the same trick for themselves.
Kouta was a good man. There was no denying that. He was Sojobo Kurama's son, and he was a good man, but that did not mean he was Kurama. He might not have cast her out after everything she revealed to him, but his father was a different story. His father had millions of Tengu to rule over and protect.
The life of one hybrid was far outweighed by the lives of millions of pureblood Ayakashi.
Pai stretched out her hand, steady as her dead heart was. Shin looked down at her, but he didn't say anything. He knew what she was going to do, and even though she could feel the waves of disapproval coming from him, he didn't try to stop her.
The ice around her heart cracked when he reached down and laced his fingers through hers, gripping her other hand tight in his. Warmth flooded her at his touch. The corner of her lip trembled, so filled with the need to just turn away from everyone here and hold onto the man by her side that her resolve wavered.
She glanced up at him and he nodded, lips pressed thin. He knew no one in this room would believe her unless they saw for themselves what she was, and what So Fu could be, what it was because of all the others like her, still stuck in that black pit.
She turned back to the Sojobo and council.
"I will not hurt anyone here." She said when she saw the guards around the room shuffle at her move. She pitched her voice so that it carried clearly to those in the room. "You ask me why I should be believed when I claim to be something impossible. This is why."
It was easier, this time round.
She clenched her jaw tight and closed her eyes, looking so deep into herself that she wondered if she'd be able to come back out. She didn't know how Kuniumi had done this last time, and she didn't want to ask for help, either. She wanted – needed – to do this on her own. She needed to do it on her own to prove to these people as much as to herself that what she was telling them was real, and could kill.
Then, there. She found it.
A pool of something unnameable, it swirled lazily inside her, patiently waiting to be called on. She reached with two hands and yanked it out, gripping it as tight as she could and refusing to let go when she felt it resist her call, wanting only to return to its otiose state where it could pass time unfettered by life even as it longed to be acknowledged.
And then it talked.
[leave]
And she spoke back.
I need you.
[leave]
Please.
[you have not needed us]
I'm sorry. I didn't know you. I forgot you.
[we want her]
I need you on my own.
[she likes us we want her she doesn't hate us]
I don't hate you. I hate what you were used for. Never you.
It was the truth. She didn't think she hated it, even if it was a symbol of her inhumanity, of what she was and what she wasn't and could never be again. She hated what she was forced to do with it.
But never it.
[will you forget us again]
No, she promised, because she wouldn't. I won't forget.
She was so far inside her own head that she barely registered the first tug in the pit of her stomach. She felt the second, and opened her eyes to see the thick rope of black lightning that sprung from her outstretched hand and struck the ground five feet from her. Her shoulder jerked back as if she'd just pulled the trigger of a massive gun. It was only Shin's arm wrapping around her shoulders that kept her from falling back. Something heavy, with no sound, rolled through everyone present in the room, slicing into stomachs like scythes cutting ribbons of flesh.
The black lightning striking the ground was so strong a blow that the stone didn't just crack; it splintered and broke into two large slabs of rubble that launched into the air before gravity forced them back to the ground, where they rolled away from where they had been placed for thousands of years. She instinctively flinched at the first impact, squeezing her eyes shut as if expecting the stones to fly right at her.
Total silence reigned in the room following the last dregs of sound of the stones rolling across the wide expanse of floor on either side of her. Opening her eyes was like forcing the seams of stitched leather apart; it hurt, when the light struck her pupils. She blinked rapidly to be rid of the tears that sprang to her eyes from the pain. Exhaustion swept through her, and her hands began to shake.
That was when she noticed it. Shin's hand arm around her shoulders, tight, not letting go of her even when she opened her eyes.
When her hands started shaking he let go, but it was only to wind his arm around her waist to keep her steady against his side. She almost sagged in relief at the slight lessening of weight on her own feet, though she kept herself upright as she could, even if her head rang with a white noise she could barely hear through.
She looked up at him to thank him, saw his lips moving, but she couldn't hear. She guessed what he was asking from what she could read from the movement of his mouth and nodded.
"It's fine," she whispered.
He remained unconvinced. His eyes were filled with concern when turned to her, but it cleared out when he lifted his head back to the room, assessing everyone's reactions. She couldn't help wondering what he would do if Kurama ordered the guards to take her prisoner right then and there. She didn't think his katanas would stay sheathed for long, not with how tense she could feel he was, like a live wire ready to snap at the slightest touch the wrong way.
Everyone around her – save for Kurama's impassiveness, Misao's interest gleaming in her eyes, and Kouta's irrepressible shock – started talking all at once. The council lobbed question after question at her like they were tennis balls, but they simply bounced off her. The ringing in her ears made her deaf to every single sound outside of her own head. She could see Mei was angrily talking to Kouta, and Kurama had turned to look at Misao as she quietly spoke to him.
Seiran...
For the first time since entering the Main Hall, she saw Seiran's expression change. It went from amusement while she talked to vague interest when she'd held her hand out – then transformed to one of pale-faced recognition when the black lightning streaked from her and tore a hole through the ground.
He knows something, she thought, gritting her teeth to keep her knees from trembling. He knows about So Fu. He knows this power.
Kagetora does not tell him much, to keep him safe, Kuniumi mused quietly. But Kagetora has told him some things. Others, he has learned over the course of his life.
Does he know of So Fu from Kagetora?
Yes.
Does he know of you from his life?
Kuniumi stilled.
Pai had been keeping that question at the far reaches of her mind for long enough that Kuniumi couldn't have seen it until just this moment. She'd hoped to catch Kuniumi off-guard, just enough that Kuniumi would slip and at least reveal something of herself without the confusing riddles. If she could get even a hint of Kuniumi's past that was clearer than the foggy images of the sliver of memory from before, of someone she knew and someone she could find a way to get them to reveal what they knew, it would be better than the riddles that were the only thing she had to go on.
Kuniumi cackled. You're getting smarter, Bibari. Maybe you'll survive, yet.
I am not Bibari.
Maybe not now.
I am not Touka, either.
No, Kuniumi thought sombrely. You're not. Pay attention, lest you be eaten by the power in this room like she was.
Kuniumi slipped away into the crevices of her mind, present but silent as she watched the proceeds. Pai shook her head, forcing the lethargy away as she fisted her hand around the material of Shin's clothes at his back, trying to keep her attention focused on the people standing before her who stared with gaping mouths.
Shin was the only anchor in her life at that moment, the only thing keeping her steady when all she wanted was to fall.
She forced herself to speak. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth, but she was clear when she spoke. "Have any of you noticed your people dropping off the map without a trace over the last few decades? Healthy Hengen, people you know, disappearing before turning up dead from seemingly natural causes?"
No one responded. From the unsettled look in their eyes, she could tell they knew what she was taking about. She wondered how many people had she killed that they'd known. She wondered if any of them knew who the Mizushima family had once been, before she ended them.
"That is what So Fu does," her voice rang like bells in the cavernous halls, a stark contrast to the exhaustion digging clawed fingers deep into her bones. "They kidnap your people using those like me, and then it is only a matter of time before they turn up dead somewhere. More often than not, So Fu kills those Hengen and make their deaths look ordinary."
"Assuming what you claim is true," one of the councilmen spoke, a greying man with hair so thin that it was practically three hairs combed over the shining egg of the top of his head. His voice sounded like worn tires skidding over rough roads. "How do we know you are not a spy of this So Fu?"
She gestured at her white hair. Maybe it was good that she hadn't dyed it again. If only for the shock factor, it would at least help convince them she was telling the truth.
"I tell people that my hair is white because I have an illness from birth. The truth is that it turned white because I was tortured close to death by So Fu as a punishment." Her words were delivered with brutal curtness. "I got out. I will end my life before I do anything more for them."
"How did you get out?" another asked after a heavy pause, a woman this time.
"I do not know," she answered honestly, flinching as the pain like lightning shot through her shaking hands for a moment before it abruptly stopped. "I do not remember."
Yet.
"Where are these So Fu? How can we verify what you're saying?"
She never wavered. She never promised anyone all the answers. "I do not know."
"Did they have something to do with your disappearance?"
That was certainly something she'd considered. "Maybe. I do not know for certain."
"Where are they based?"
Kyoto. Here. Right in your home.
"I do not know." She didn't. They were in Sapporo, and Kyoto, but the cities were big. None of her memories ever showed her right outside headquarters, or anything that could be used as a location marker. When she wasn't killing outside, she was dying inside. There was no in-between in her memories. "In the big cities, but I am not sure."
Misao raised her hand then. The nigh on overwhelming tidal wave of questions and chatter dwindled to agitated whispers, before even that stopped. Kurama turned to his queen, and they talked quietly for a few seconds before he shook his head wryly and turned to face Pai again. She was faintly surprised to see a little smile on his lips. That set her suspicions on high alert.
Men like Kurama didn't smile like that, so knowingly, without reason.
Misao stepped off the dais, and Kouta instantly moved behind his mother to accompany her as she carefully made her way over, followed by two discreet female attendants in tow. Pai's stomach clenched at every step that brought Misao closer, and she shuffled closer to Shin's side. He reached for her hand and held it tight, winding his fingers through hers. Misao looked down at their hands, a soft smile on her face as she came to a stop inches away.
"Hello, Shin-kun," she said, smiling sweetly at him. Misao's voice held a soothing quality to it that made her want to listen to it forever. "It's been a while."
He tipped his head respectfully to her, lifting his free hand to place over his heart. "My queen."
"Hm." She briefly turned to wink at Kouta as she leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "Am I really? It seems to me you've found a beautiful queen more deserving of the title than I."
Pai blinked, genuine astonishment worming in her at the pleased expression on Kouta's face, the teasing lilt that held a note of truth in the queen's voice. Kouta nodded encouragingly at Pai. She looked up at Shin when he didn't deny the words. A smile curved his lips as he watched Misao without saying word.
Did we just get the queen's blessing?
She's better than her condescending husband, Kuniumi tittered, amused.
Pai was so taken aback by Misao's easy acceptance of her and Shin's relationship that she couldn't even think up a retort to fire back with.
Misao turned to her then. She frowned, concern etched on her face. "You are tired. Does it take so much out of you to use your power?"
Pai pursed her lips, wondering what to say. She didn't want to show her weakness to anyone, least of all a queen like this. She didn't want to admit that she could be wiped out for days, if she used enough of her [ability] to warrant it. Her silence, though, was answer enough.
"How long have you known you have this power?" Misao asked gently.
She swallowed. "A few days."
Misao nodded. "So it is as you are learning to use them again, is it?"
She nodded.
"Does it mean you can do more when you can use them the way you once could?"
When she moves, it happens instantaneously.
A deep tug in the pit of her stomach. A chill creeps over her body, raising the hairs on her skin. The rain condenses as it falls around her, pebbling her. She feels nothing of it. Hail could fall from the sky, she would turn bloody and become nothing more than a bag of meat, and in this moment she will still feel nothing.
Something cold, wet, alive writhes over her free hand at her side. A moment later there is the sharp sound of wind sucking into a vacuum. She jerks her shoulder forward and her left hand moves, her finger is squeezing the trigger of the black gun borne from the nothing she fears and needs. She has conjured the gun from the dark power Kuniumi taught her to tap into, the power that is her [ability]. It allows her to create anything that can be used as a weapon of death.
The bullet explodes out of the gun in shadowy mist, curving through the air, flying straight for the middle of Kagetora's forehead.
"Yes."
Misao nodded slowly. "Will you tell me what you can do?"
"No."
It was Shin who spoke. Both Misao and Pai looked at him. She was confused, wondering why it was a problem if she said what she remembered she could do. Even if it wasn't by much, he seemed more at ease around Misao than Kurama. She was about to ask him, but when she saw the hard, expressionless mask he'd donned, she closed her mouth and dropped her head to look back at Misao.
Who smiled.
She didn't look annoyed or frustrated in the least. If anything, she appeared amused by Shin's refusal to let anyone in the room know more about Pai than had already been divulged. Pai glanced to where her husband stood. He had on a carefully bland face, but she could see the vague irritation in his golden eyes. Behind his mother, Kouta's lips were twitching as he fought off a smile.
Misao spoke again.
"May I see your memories, Momozono-san? What you do remember, at least," Misao requested with a kind smile. She glanced over her shoulder at the council, only too eager to start up their clamorous questioning. "Will that be enough to satisfy you as to the truth or falsity of her words, council?"
Reluctantly, one by one, they all nodded their assent. Despite the air of indisposition about them, they agreed easily. Pai immediately shot Shin and Misao an alarmed look.
"What? What do you mean?" she asked. What is she talking about?
"Oh, Shin-kun. Didn't you tell her?" Misao gave Shin a gently reprimanding look.
Shin remained unfazed. He didn't let go of her hand or loosen his old. "I didn't expect it to come to that point."
She can see people's memories, dear Bibari. Kuniumi answered. No one will doubt us if she sees what we have.
She tensed. She wasn't sure she knew who Kuniumi meant by 'we'. She wasn't sure she wanted someone else poking in her head.
Will she see you?
We will not let her. She will never know we are here, she stirred restlessly, and Pai winced at the unease tightening her stomach. But be careful. The most dangerous ones are those we find ourselves trusting easily.
Misao raised an eyebrow at Shin's response before turning to Pai. She looked at her for a moment, and Pai feared that she had noted her unease and would comment on it. Instead, she smiled genially and said, "I can see people's memories, to a certain extent, and only if they permit me to do so."
Pai frowned. Misao didn't look like she could harm a fly, but she knew it was insanely foolish to trust a person's outward appearance. How someone looked on the outside could easily be faked. It was their true intentions masked behind that outbound countenance that was hard to figure out.
She wavered with uncertainly for a minute, two, watching Misao's kind eyes warily, keeping close to Shin's side because he was the only one she truly felt safe with. She'd come here to do a job, and she had more than delivered with her show of her power, no matter how little it was.
What Kurama did with the information afterwards was up to him. If he wanted to do nothing, he would be hard-pressed to justify that course of action when his own council may advise otherwise. Maybe Misao could convince him to take action rather than to leave the dragon that was So Fu to continue picking his people off.
But she wanted them to believe her. She needed them to know that she wasn't lying about any of it.
So Fu weren't strong enough to take down Kings, obvious from how they avoided letting their actions be seen in the light of day. Even if there was more to Kagetora than was obvious, he was still a King, and So Fu expressly forbade Agents from going after him, and any other King they may encounter.
So Fu weren't enough to take down Kings, but they were still strong. They were still a threat – because they weren't taking the Ayakashi world down from the top. They were breaking apart the foundations that built the Ayakashi world from the ground up.
And she had been part of it.
She looked at Shin again, a question in her eyes. He nodded, his grasp tightening on her hand in reassurance. Whatever else happened, he was there for her. He wouldn't abandon her the way Midori had. The way she abandoned Rikuto, who might still be in So Fu. If his humanity hadn't already gotten him killed, that was.
"Will you see all my memories?" she asked, thinking about all that had happened between her and Shin. She didn't want anyone else seeing that. Those were precious, private moments.
"I can rarely control what it is my sight lets me see," Misao admitted with stark honesty. A shiver of unease traipsed her spine, even as the queen smiled benevolently at her. "But I will try to look only at what's there from before you were found last year."
She pursed her lips. Hesitation tied a rope of steel around her limbs, immobilizing her in indecision. She didn't like the thought of someone poking and prodding in her mind. Kuniumi doing that was more than enough. But she didn't exactly have a choice, did she? If she refused, Kurama and everyone else here would think she had something to hide. They might think she was lying.
She wasn't.
Slowly, she nodded. Misao angled her head gratefully.
Pai remained by Shin's side for another moment, taking a deep breath to rally herself up, before stepping forward, away from the protected sanctuary Shin was. She was now only a foot from Misao, having to angle her head up to look at the tall, beautiful woman. She didn't know what to expect from the fact that Misao could see people's memories. She didn't know how it would happen.
But she wasn't expecting the mental blow to her brain and how exposed, raw, and stripped bare she felt when Misao leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
When it was done, Pai's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell, all strength deserting her. Shin caught her in his arms just before she would have hit the floor. Her head lolled over his arm as consciousness slipped from her grasp. A quiet sigh – his name – escaped her lips as she looked up at him, stringed words struggling to fall out of her lips, to tell him it was okay, she was okay, to get that look of terrified worry out of his eyes. He looked so scared, his hand fluttering over her face as he searched for some way to help her, to see what was wrong.
His name was all she managed before she slipped and all faded to black.
×
The council gasped collectively in surprise – no one had ever actually fainted after Misao was done with them. Even the Ookami Heir, scowling all the time, looked concerned about the unconscious girl. s
Seiran wasn't particularly bothered by any of it. He, if anyone, knew that Pai would be fine so long as Shin was beside her. He'd actually be more worried about anyone who tried to hurt Pai when Shin was around than for Pai herself.
Kouta started toward his friends, but at the low growl emanating from Shin and the melting of his eyes from deep cerulean to blazing crimson, he stopped dead. Everyone in the room felt the pressure in the air drop, heat pooling in their stomach like molten lead, hairs rising on their arms and at the back of their neck.
It was not difficult to imagine a whirling storm of barely leashed power whipping a furore around Shin as he cradled Pai protectively in his arms. It wasn't difficult for any in the room to realize that they weren't in the presence of just a Daitengu; it was a Kamigami they were trapped in a room with, a Kamigami who was a trained soldier – and clearly very, very angry.
A silver track of tears glistened down Misao's cheeks as she knelt before Shin, clothes rustling in the resounding silence as she moved. She shook her head ruefully at the accusing glare he shot her, but he didn't relax for a second. She reached out to tenderly touch her fingers to Pai's ice-cold cheeks. Anxious worry coiled tight in her gut when the girl's eyelids fluttered, and a trembling started in her hands that shook her slight body.
Pai remained unconscious. She could have been sleeping if not for how pale she was.
"You poor child..." she whispered, marvelling at how peaceful the tortured young girl looked as she sank into oblivion. Sorrow clogged Misao's throat at what she had just seen. When she lifted her eyes, the anger and fear swirling in Shin's scarlet gaze only made her feel worse. "I am sorry. I am so, so sorry, Shin-kun."
No one but he knew what it was she apologized for.