契約

Shin flipped the card to where the gilt-stamped digits were printed on the nondescript card. The sides were folding in on themselves from all the times he'd twirled it, crumpling the corners before straightening them out again in frustration. For a moment, he held it aloft between them, glaring at it, before stretching his arm and holding it out.

"Here."

Gingerly, as if it was a hot potato he took between his two fingers rather than a business card, Kouta took it and inspected the phone number. A little wrinkle worked its way to his brows. "Tokyo. I always thought he's probably based there."

Shin lifted an eyebrow. After sitting on the card for over a week while he stewed about what Pai did, and what he should do, Shin was surprised that that was all Kouta said when he finally saw the card.

"Seriously? That's all you have to say?"

Kouta lifted his shoulders in a carefree shrug. "What do you want me to say? It's not like I didn't consider other places. For a while I thought he was in Yokohama. But it's not big enough. Kitsune like big, busy cities. Tokyo's actually the perfect place. After Kyoto, of course." He grinned like a smug child. "Kyoto's always the best."

This idiot, he grumbled mentally. Out loud Shin said, "Maybe you could instead be saying that this is a bad idea and we shouldn't go through with it?"

"That this is a bad idea is common sense." Kouta readily agreed. "But it's our only idea. Dangerous as it was, I can admit that I applaud Pai-chan for taking the initiative we were twiddling our thumbs to avoid. A bit."

"Are you saying you're fine with what she did?" Shin asked, a little of the lingering, unresolved anger he still felt at the risk Pai so blindly took leaking into his voice. He sat up and slung his arm over his raised knee, turning away from Kouta to look out over the forest. The sun was setting just over the line of trees, and he squinted at its bright rays, watching it slowly, ever so slowly, sink behind the trees.

Kouta scoffed. "Hell no. But Shiori's already given her hell for it, so why should I add on to her ear damage?" he asked, referring to the very loud argument practically everyone had heard from Pai's bedroom after Shiori (and everyone else) found out about what she did.

Shin managed a vague smile at that. He thought he was angry with Pai for what she did – but that was nothing compared to Shiori. He knew that it was really just pure terror at what could have happened to her that made Shiori so angry, same as it was for him. Still, last night was the most furious he'd ever seen the princess, and she had a hair-trigger temper. She'd already gotten angry plenty of times in the three years everyone had lived together.

Despite the gravity of the situation, it was amusing to see how much of Obaasan's personality had filtered down the generations into Shiori. No one could question that she was Obaasan's granddaughter.

Everyone was extra friendly to Pai after Shiori was done with her, politely pretending they hadn't heard anything through the walls of the house, pitying her for ending up on the princess' very wrong side. Even Ryu postponed carrying out the prank he'd been planning to play on Shiori, choosing to stay well clear of his apocalyptic sister for days afterwards.

He scowled as an image of Pai sitting on the bed in the infirmary floated through his mind. He'd lost his temper with her right then and there. He felt horrible for lashing out at her for fear of what could have happened to her while she was alone with Kagetora, but it was nothing compared to everything she'd said to him.

A frustrated sigh worked its way up his chest as he unwillingly recalled everything she'd said; her eyes too bright for normal as she accused him of giving up on life so easily. The worst part of it was that she was right.

If he didn't take Kagetora's offer of help now, he really would be giving up his life. He wouldn't be dead in the strictest terms but it wouldn't be him living and controlling this body – it would be Shinigami. How could he face anyone then? How could he face any of his fellow comrades, Kouta, Pai, after they'd all done so much already so that he could live?

Still. That didn't mean he wasn't angry with her for the foolish risk she'd taken to her own life. "What she did was stupid."

Kouta, surprisingly, chuckled. "Point me to someone who hasn't done something stupid in their lives. Several times, might I add. Remember that time I got so wasted in Susukino you had to carry me back home bridal style?"

"I still don't understand what was wrong with fireman's carry. Less embarrassing for both of us."

Kouta gasped in scandalous outrage. "But that's not romantic at all!"

Shin shot a glare. "If you ever get that drunk, ever again, in my presence, I'll dump you at a police station and leave you there to sober up."

Kouta let out a belly laugh at the memory, more of a boozy haze to him than anything else. "Yeah, yeah, grumpy." He shook his head wryly, still somewhat in awe at Pai's bravery.

She didn't show it as much, or as easily, as Shiori how much the Ayakashi world still scared her, yet, against all odds stacked against her, she'd gone straight up to King of the Kitsune and requested help from him. That took guts. She had a spine of steel for doing it.

What interested him more, though, and was quite frankly shocking, was that Shin was accepting the offer.

Kouta wanted to know what Pai said to him to get him to agree, but he didn't ask questions. He trusted Pai and knew that if she felt like he needed to know more about what deal she'd made with Kagetora, she would tell him in her own time. What surprised him more was that Kagetora had taken Pai up on her request, and asked for so flimsy a return in exchange for helping Shin.

That, more than anything else, was what bothered Kouta.

A promise to answer his one question truthfully. Was that really all there was to it? Everything pointed to a yes, but Kouta couldn't help feel like there was something more. There had to be. Nothing in life was so simple and innocent as that. Even then such a thing alone was dangerous. They had no way of knowing what it was Kagetora wanted to know from Pai. None of them had a clue as to what he would do if she couldn't – or could – answer him. They didn't know how he would react when she did answer him.

Kouta sighed heavily. He hated desperate situations. Things got complicated, with too many holes and uncertainties for comfort. There was no room for mistakes in such situations, but there was much room for the very real possibility of slipping and falling into a pit they couldn't climb out of.

"Remind me again why you're talking while it's my life that hangs?" Shin asked, closing his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kouta watched him, recognizing the tell-tale signs of a headache bothering Shin. "Because you are a hormonal teenager where any danger to her is concerned. Kagetora constitutes as a very big risk because of the interest he's shown in her."

Shin opened an eye to glare at him before flopping back on the roof, crossing his arms behind his head to stare up blankly at the blue sky overhead, splashed with vibrant shades of pink and yellow colliding in one beautifully chaotic, live mosaic.

"That's not an actual answer."

Kouta rolled his eyes. "Fine. It will be me talking because I'm not going to 'accidentally' insult Kagetora. I've grown up on the complex idiocy of pretend-diplomacy, and I'm the Heir. It makes sense that it'll be me arranging the training of my retainer to learn how to live without his Mask. Or do you disagree with any of the above?"

Shin grunted begrudgingly and crossed his ankle over his knee, closing his eyes again as a frown brought his brow low. "Do it before I change my mind. Which I am very close to doing."

"Don't be impatient with your Heir, slow-footed ninja."

"Don't push the limits of your Daitengu, flightless bird."

Kouta's eyes widened. "Flightless bird?"

Without moving, or opening his eyes, Shin said, "Do you think I forgot how you couldn't fly until you were six?"

Face reddening at the embarrassing fact of his past – most Tengu children learned to fly at five– he looked away with a begrudging smile. "Fine. You win."

The smile faded away as he dropped his eyes to the card he held in his hands while he dug his phone out of his pocket. Slowly, he keyed in each digit. When he was done he double-checked the number, vaguely surprised to find that despite the spell on it to prevent it from being copied elsewhere, tapping in the phone number in his phone came with no difficulty.

He put it on loudspeaker, and the two listened as the dialling tone rang out at slow, measured tones.

Birds free-wheeled over their heads, doing their final rounds of frantically flapping their wings about as they searched for this and that, tiring themselves out so that they would have a peaceful sleep in the night that toppled headfirst into the day that was quickly disappearing.

Kouta had to admit a part of him hoped that the phone would keep on ringing endlessly. That no one would pick up. He kept his gaze fixed on the screen as his ears perked at every tone, watching, waiting. When there was a click, his shoulders sagged with relief and disappointment in equal conflicting measures that had his stomach twisting uncomfortably.

"Can't say I'm surprised it's not sweet little Pai calling. How goes it, Kouta?"

Kouta had to physically stop himself from grinding his teeth in irritation at Kagetora's complete lack of honorifics or formal speech. They both walked in the same political circles of the Ayakashi world but they were still strangers to each other, even if one was a King and the other still only an Heir. It annoyed Kouta that the Kitsune spoke with such familiarity, as if they were old friends.

"Kagetora-san," he said, forcing the fakest smile on his face. "How did you know it is me?" he asked, choosing to use formal speech. If Kagetora wasn't going to, then he would.

A low chuckle. "How couldn't I, is the real question."

Kouta struggled not to audibly click his tongue in annoyance, deciding not to skirt the issue as the 'idiocy of diplomacy' normally would have him doing. Doing so would be a waste of time for everyone involved.

"You know why I am calling, I take it."

"Of course," came the Kitsune's silken smooth reply. "Shin's survival. Lovely topic for conversation. Let's not beat around the bush, what say you, eh, Kouta?"

"My pleasure," he responded, voice dripping in the same acidic honey the King's was.

"Wonderful. As I recall, I did say I would train him to live without his precious Mask, didn't I?"

"Yes," Kouta answered warily. "Under an admittedly strange condition."

"Strange?" Kagetora repeated, faintly amused. "What, pray tell, is so strange about it? I'd think it an innocent enough request."

Exactly, he thought, discomfited. That is what's so strange about it.

His eyes flicked over to Shin when he moved, laying his leg out flat on the roof and crossing his legs at the ankles as he put his arms back over his head. At some point he had taken out his tanto. Shin threw it up and watched it spin in the air before catching it, playing a dangerous game of snatching it out of the air by its sharpened tip before it could cut him as it fell back.

Kouta knew that though he was playing with the tanto, he was listening to the conversation as well. His jaw was clenched tight, and his eyes were glowing blue orbs with slivers of red bleeding in as he unconsciously glared at the shades of pink, blue, and orange of the darkening sky overhead.

Kouta focused his eyes back on the phone lying flat along the length of his palm. "How do I know you are not lying?" he asked, testing. "I would be a fool not to consider the possibility, you understand."

"Kitsune do not lie, as I'm sure you already know, young one. We simply don't. Call it a code of honour, if you will."

His lips twitched in irritation, brows lowering in a consternated frown. "Kitsune are masters of deception, as I am sure you know."

"Wary as ever, Kouta. Very well, how about this." A short laugh echoed down the phone. "As a show of good faith that I won't harm dear Pai, or Shin, for that matter, I'll tell you who the Hengen in that little human school is. I do believe you're aware one of our kind mingles with those human youngsters, yes?"

Kouta stilled. The whistling of a tanto slicing through the cold evening air stopped abruptly.

Shin sat up, staring at the phone in unconcealed shock. Kouta's gaze shot to Shin's for a split second before snapping back to the phone. Kouta pressed his lips to a tight line, prickled that Kagetora – perhaps – already knew who the Hengen at Odori High was.

It irked him that they hadn't been able to find out who it was, after all these months. If the Hengen was Tengu they would have revealed themselves the instant they sensed Shiori close by. No such thing happened, which meant they wasn't Tengu.

He knew the Hengen was likely using their own power to heavily mask their aura so that the Daitengu disguised as teachers there wouldn't be able to pick them out. Or, equally probable, the Hengen wasn't strong enough to do that, and was instead using spells bought from an Onmyoji to hide, one that worked in reverse ways to Pai's pendant.

Either way, it did not come as good news that Kagetora might know who it was while Kouta didn't.

"And," he continued. "You can trust my word when I say I know who it is."

That's a laugh.

"Hm." Kouta hummed speculatively, buying for time as he contemplated the merit of anything the Kitsune King said.

His gaze flicked to Shin when the Daitengu pulled his tanto out of the air and started twirling it around his hands in the way he did when he had too much nervous energy. Shin's eyes were shut off, mental walls crashed down to conceal his thoughts.

He asked, "Why should I, exactly?"

"Because he's one of my own."

Kouta raised an eyebrow, suspicion elevated. Now why would Kagetora admit that? "Kitsune?"

"My younger brother, Seiran, is the ever-elusive Hengen attending Sapporo Odori High School."

In all honesty, Kouta had absolutely no clue how he was supposed to react, or respond, to that. His mind momentarily blanked as he scrambled, casting his memory back as he tried to remember if his father – or anyone, for that matter – had ever told him that Kagetora had a brother.

Kouta glanced at Shin...who didn't look as surprised as Kouta would have thought, though he did sit tense and frozen with his forefinger and thumb tightened around the tip of the tanto blade.

When Shin met his eyes Kouta mouthed silently, Did you know?

Brother? Shin asked soundlessly. Kouta nodded. Shin shook his head, and because he knew Kouta could read lips well, mouthed, I suspected Seiran was the Hengen. I didn't know he was his brother.

Why didn't you tell me?

I had no way to confirm it.

Kouta wished he could say that he'd known, but he hadn't, and that infuriated him. Ayakashi politics were incredibly tricky, more so than human affairs. One had to prove capable of handling the taciturn world of supernatural politics with ease and efficiency, to be known as one who wouldn't be chewed up and spat out by it all. That meant knowing everything about one's opponents.

He scowled, recognizing Kagetora's reveal of a brother no one knew he had for what it was; it was a power play, through and through. Kagetora was showing that even if Kouta knew everything there was to know about him, there would always be something about the Kitsune that no one could ever guess at unless he let it be known. That he would always have something else up his sleeve. He was showing that there was always the very real possibility that he knew something those around him simply didn't.

But that was the problem that came hand-in-hand when dealing with someone like Kagetora. No one actually knew anything about him. Not even Ginoza was able to find anything, and he was Sojobo Kurama's most trusted aide. Ginoza was an accomplished expert at covertly collecting information about people, even things the person being investigated didn't know.

No one knew who Kagetora's parents were.

No one knew how old he was.

No one knew where he was born or where he grew up, who his family were. It was like suddenly, out of nowhere, he popped into existence, into the fabric of people's memories where previously there had been no mention of him.

It was like one day, those who walked the political circles that Kouta and his father did began hearing whispers of a strange ninetailed Kitsune who blatantly refused to accept the Ueno's as his King. Then that same ninetails – strategically, some muttered behind closed doors – killed the Ueno's.

Now he sat as the King of the Kitsune.

Kagetora was a perpetual ghost in the supernatural world ruled by the alphas that Hengen were. Being in such a high place of power as King tended to strip away all the mystery behind those who ruled, held as they were under a microscope by the rest of the Ayakashi world. Yet somehow, Kagetora managed to keep the shroud fixed firmly around him. No one even knew his family name, if he had one, or if 'Kagetora' was his family name.

As Kouta glared down at the slim phone in his palm he wondered, not for the first time, what Kagetora's agenda was. What was his angle? Why had he asked so simple a thing from Pai in return for training Shin to become independent of the Mask? Was it really as uncomplicated as it looked to be on the surface, or was there more hiding beneath the strange request?

"I was not born yesterday, Kagetora-san." He finally answered, keeping his tone level and devoid of any emotion that could betray what he was thinking. It was hard, though, to keep from sounding condescending as he continued. "I appreciate you informing me that your younger brother is attending the same high school the Koki Sakura Hime – my betrothed – is enrolled at, in a city within Tengu territory. What I would like to know, is what your game is."

"Why, oh why, must there be a game, Kouta?" another breezy laugh. "And if it is a game, who are the players, might I ask? I'd so love to know, considering how I've only just been informed that I seem to be a part of this unknown game."

"Let us call it a game," as he spoke, Kouta allowed his True Ayakashi to leak into his voice. The yellow of his eyes melded to red as he fixed his gaze on the sakura tree in the courtyard of Ayashi House, a smaller replica of the one that stood tall, proud, and beautiful in Kyoto. "A game where a certain King seeks to learn a little more about another, a little more about a certain young woman born with a special past tied behind her."

"Mhm." Kagetora hummed speculatively. "Shiori's certainly an interesting young lady, though I do believe you're focusing on the wrong past. Make no mistake, Kouta – I am not interested in the Koki Sakura Hime. She's yours, and I'd be stooping to grounds far beneath me were I to ever so much as entertain stealing her from you."

"But her handmaiden is not off-limits, is that it?"

"Oh, come now, Kouta. I'm not a cannibal – and you can tell Shin that, too. All I want from Pai is an honest answer to an honest question."

"What question?"

"That is between the young girl and myself." He could almost hear the smile in Kagetora's next words. "I'm sure as Heir you can appreciate the confidentiality of a business arrangement. That's all this is, Kouta. A business arrangement between Shin, teetering on the brink of control, and me, the ever so diabolical Kitsune...and Pai, of course, caught somewhere in the middle. So, taking into consideration that you have called me on the number I gave Pai, I take it to understand that Shin has agreed?"

Kouta's lips twitched in irritation again as he glanced at Shin, who hadn't even considered trying to distract himself with his tanto again. Shin focused his whole and undivided attention on the conversation playing out before him, watching Kouta closely. His eyes, too, glowed iridescently, though they remained a sharp navy blue where Kouta's had gone crimson.

Shin's lips thinned, jaw clenching as he nodded slowly.

"Yes," Kouta said, pushing his relatively docile True Ayakashi back behind the wall that separated the two. "He has. When will it happen?"

"Hm, let's see...how does two days from now sound?"

Kouta lifted a brow in surprise. He hadn't been expecting it to be that soon. He looked at Shin, who nodded again. "Sounds good."

Before he could say anything else, though, Kagetora spoke again. "I do have one requirement."

Kouta frowned dubiously. "I thought you already made your condition known."

The chuckle that rang down the line was full of dry amusement. "Oh no, this isn't for me. This is a requirement that will be part of Shin's training. Sort of like a dumbbell you need to use when doing arm exercises, if you catch my meaning."

He did, but he couldn't imagine what that 'dumbbell' could be when it came to training Shin to live without his Mask, something Kouta had once thought to the most essential part of being Hengen, and what separated them from the Yori Chiisai. Power was what elevated Hengen from Yori Chiisai, kept them on par with the dreaded Oni. The Mask was a symbol of that power.

What would Shin be when he was no longer hindered by the Mask as Hengen were?

"What is it?" he asked, unsettled by his line of thinking, connecting barely visible dots he had long since suspected of their origin and what exactly it was he thought defined his race.

"The girl. She will come with him."

Kouta's muscles tensed, and from his periphery he watched Shin straighten in alarm. Neither of them needed any clarification on who 'the girl' was. He only briefly glanced at Shin before fixing his yellow-eyed glare on the tip of his boot. It was a struggle to keep from growling. "Why?"

"As I am fairly sure you have noticed," Kagetora enunciated slowly. "Shin reacts to her in ways I'll need him to for his training."

"That," he ground out. "Does not explain why she needs to be there."

Kagetora sighed heavily, as though consternated he was talking to an idiot.

"To be blunt about it, she is his trigger. You should know this, Shin," Kouta glanced at Shin, both abruptly realizing that Kagetora had known all along that Shin was listening in on the conversation. "I am training you to live an ordinary, mundane life without the shackles of your Mask. The ordeal will require you to be pushed to the very limits of everything you are. The problem with you is that you have an iron will, and I do commend you for that, truly. But to push you, I need my hands on a trigger that will actually work."

Shin's lips pulled back over his teeth as he glared down at the phone. Disconcerted, Kouta watched slivers of red seep into the blue, swimming like lines of blood swirling in a sea of diamonds.

"No."

"No, you don't believe I need her, or no she's not coming?" he asked, a taunt lilting his voice.

Shin clenched his jaw so hard, Kouta worried for a second that he would snap it. "She's not coming."

"Do you or do you not want to remain in control of who you are?"

"This has nothing to do with her," he ground out, an almost audible animal growl building up inside him. "So leave her out of it."

Kagetora laughed, as if that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard come from Shin. "On the contrary, it does, Shin, and you know that." A thoughtful pause. "You would not be agreeing to my help in the first place if not for her, would you?"

Shin remained silent, and the Kitsune laughed smugly again. Kouta realized that, intentionally or not, Kagetora had just demonstrated why he needed Pai to aid in this training.

"I will send instructions with this number on when and where to meet. You'll be gone for three or four days, but pack enough for a week. You will bring her with you. I'm sure the princess can survive a few days without her precious handmaiden, can't she? She must have plenty at hand...unless the delectable young maiden you're all so keen to keep away from me is not entirely as she is shown to be?"

Before either of them could say anything in retaliation or denial, the line flattened out and went dead.