最初の血

"Do you have a death wish? I am sure Shin-san would not mind sending you to Yomi-no-Kuni. I think he would be glad to."

"Whatever do you mean? Poor little old me has done nothing to warrant such violent behaviour. Breakfast's in roughly an hour, by the way."

She gave him an entirely unamused look, even though her heart clenched when she met his unearthly eyes. "You know exactly what I mean. He hates you more than I can even understand. He might actually try to kill you if you push him too far."

Kagetora burst out in rancorous laughter, as if her words rhymed with some private joke only he was privy to, and leaned against the wooden frame of the doorway as his eyes twinkled down merrily at her. He gestured widely with his arm sweeping out, bowing his head before looking back up at her with a wink. "I invite him to try."

Her lips twitched in irritation as she twisted around on her heels and walked across the length of her needlessly large room to the window, set opposite from the door. Her room was plain and undecorated, but with lots of closet-space (so maybe it was not a bad thing that she packed so much. At least she had somewhere to put it all). Her bed was a simple futon rolled out on the tatami mats. She had been led to her room just yesterday by a floating ball of purple-tinged fire that vanished into smoke as soon as it showed her to her room, and Shin to his.

She reached out on either side of her and shut the wooden window, giving the beautiful view of a massive swathe of forest stretching out endlessly before her one last longing look. She had thought to spend at least most of her day just staring out at the forest the way she had her first days at Ayashi House.

It wasn't often that one was treated to such an amazing view, albeit dark and mysterious. She often found herself staring at things unseeingly when her mind wandered aimlessly. She liked to look at nature when she did, something her mother had encouraged her to do when she noticed Pai's inclination to staring while deep in thought.

Her mother always said, Better to look at something beautiful, created by nature, than at the steel and stone structures made by man.

Or maybe she would have gone to sleep. She hadn't been sleeping well lately, and it was starting to show in the bags that nestled under her eyes, gaining weight every day. She'd been especially too keyed-up to sleep well last night.

The upside was that no memories plagued her that way. Neither did Kuniumi torment her with her questions and riddles. Usually she had at least a few nights without a memory immediately after having one. She wanted to relish in the little peace she was awarded for as long as she possible could. But, of course, nothing ever went her way.

She didn't look at Kagetora as she walked out of her room, spun around, and slammed the rattling door shut. He just managed to leap out of the way, and he put a hand up to his chest, giving her a look of affront. "Why, you could have killed me right here and now."

"It is not like you did not try to kill me yesterday," she retorted. "When you knew I cannot fly."

"And where would that leave you, I wonder," he asked contemplatively, tapping his chin with a single finger. Her attention was momentarily diverted by the sight of a long red thread wound around his pinkie finger, double-knotted and then tied off with a small, neat rabbit-eared bow. Not for the first time, she wondered what the story behind why he wore that red thread was. "Me, dead, and Shin without the knowledge to control his Makashi."

Refusing to rise to the dangling bait, she shook her head. She dragged in a deep breath to try calming her aggravated nerves as she gestured at him. She would have loved to stomp away from him in the direction of wherever it was he wanted to take her, but she had absolutely no idea where she would be going if she did.

What a fool she would be, going off the wrong way in her ingratiated choler. She'd seen that happen in dramas and movies enough times to know that experiencing second-hand embarrassment on the girls' behalf would be nothing compared to actually experiencing the embarrassment herself.

No thank you to that. She thought resolutely.

She turned to Kagetora and gave him an almost sickeningly sweet smile. "Lead the way. This is your 'humble abode'."

Kagetora grinned as he turned on his heel and started walking away from her. Lips twitching like an angry rabbit, she hurried after him, only giving him a quick glance from the corner of her eye when she saw him put his hands behind his back. Her stomach was twisted to knots. Her palms were damp, her heart beating a tad bit too fast for normal. She was really trying her hardest to relax a bit, but she simply couldn't. She didn't trust Kagetora, despite extracting the promise that he wouldn't hurt her out of him yesterday.

They walked together in silence – an extremely uncomfortable one on her part. She tried to direct her attention elsewhere by looking around her and taking note of her surroundings. The corridors they traversed were low-lit with lamps hanging at regular intervals on the walls.They occasioned on a few Tsukumogami of varying types going about their duties, but it was only when they reached the large sliding door that served as the entrance and exit did she realize something.

There was no one else around.

The only other living soul she'd seen here besides Kagetora was Seiran, and she didn't even know if he was still around. She hadn't left her room since yesterday, but she hadn't heard any commotion in the house at all. She frowned as she glanced up at him, quickly following his sharp turn that was headed in the direction of the ladder leading down to the ground below.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"A clearing. Shin's waiting there."

Her stomach curdled at the thought. She hadn't seen Shin since the purple kitsunebi had shown them to their rooms last night, despite his room being right next to hers. All he'd said to her was a curt 'goodnight' before disappearing into his room.

She hadn't heard anything coming from his room since then. She hadn't even heard him leaving, whenever it had been. She was worried about what he would say – or not say – to her when he saw her. She was more worried about how he'd react when he saw her with Kagetora.

It will be fine

You don't know that.

We do.

Can you see the future?

No. Yes? Yesno.

Which is it?

Kuniumi sighed like an exhausted mother dealing with the childish temper tantrum of her kids consumed enough sugar to give a water buffalo a heart attack. Shin knows you did what you did for him. He knows he has no right to be angry.

Knowing someone betrayed you for your sake never made anyone less angry about it.

Her heart twisted in her chest, and she was barely able to keep the snarl from showing on her face as Kuniumi's reaction to her words distorted into foxed rage. He didn't. He didn't betray us for our sake. He did it for his own.

What? Who are you talki –

She gasped silently as Kuniumi vanished in a cloud of anger, relief sweeping through her whole body. Worried that he might have seen evidence of her silent conversation on her face, she glanced at Kagetora.

Luckily, he wasn't paying attention to her...but the derisive smile that was usually on his face as a default was absent. A frown brought his dark brows low over his eyes. It made him look scarier than normal, even though he was more than attractive, if one didn't know who and what he was.

To distract him, she cleared her throat and asked, "Where is everyone?"

"Everyone?" Kagetora repeated, glancing down at her. He went over to lean his shoulder on the wooden pole stuck fast to the platform, the base of which had one side of the rope the ladder was made from tied around it. "By everyone you mean...?"

"I do not know," she grumbled. "You are King. Your people."

"Kings don't always need to be around their subjects. Not in this world, at least."

She faltered momentarily as she unwillingly thought, That sounds lonely.

As if he wasn't accepted by his own people – but she knew that couldn't be true. She'd seen Takashi's face, the Kitsune at the festival in Kyoto. She was ecstatic when she saw Kagetora. She had no doubt that Takashi probably would have hugged the King right then and there.

That had her wondering if Kagetora was a hugger in the first place. She couldn't be sure – he looked like one but at the same time he looked just as likely to burn the hair off of anyone who tried to hug him as he did to accept it.

Shaking her head to wipe such thoughts from her mind she said, "Your servants, then."

Kagetora gave her an amused look. "I don't like servants. Most of them are useless anyway. Blundering around and touching things they shouldn't, getting fingers and bits chopped off..."

Her eyes widened in horror. She couldn't tell if he was joking. From his deprecating grin, he wasn't about to tell her so either. She gulped nervously.

"Who...cooks?" she asked. That was the only other chore she could think required anyone other than a Tsukumogami to do. Tsukumogami tended to destroy food they attempted to cook rather than actually make it edible.

He angled an inquisitive look. "I assume you can cook."

She wasn't sure if she should be affronted by his insinuation that she might not know how to cook, or if she should go with her curiosity at wondering who usually cooked. Did he do it for himself? That was a surprisingly mundane skill for the Kitsune King to have.

"So there is no one else here?" she didn't find that reassuring. Her, Shin, Kagetora, maybe Seiran too, all stuck under one admittedly expansive roof on an island rumoured to be cursed by the enraged souls of dead soldiers. Yes, that was going to go so well. "Besides Tomo – " she trailed off uncertainly, thrown off by the realization that maybe his family name wasn't actually Tomoha. "Besides Seiran-san."

He shook his head, smiling ruefully. She blinked when she caught a stray wisp of something in his eyes, something that wasn't mockery or laughter. It looked like...regret?

"I wouldn't say that, exactly. But I like it here for precisely the reason that no one likes coming to this place." He cocked his head. "Who in their right mind would willingly travel to a reputedly cursed island encroached with the wrathful souls of the accursed dead?"

Kuniumi giggled maddeningly, returning just as quickly as she disappeared. He's making fun of you.

Shut up. I know.

"Is it?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. "Cursed?"

"Who do you think is responsible for the stories?" he grinned, winking conspiratorially.

As he did she caught a glimpse of elongated canines that made him look very much the inhuman he was. She looked up at his dark hair and noticed that the fox Mask he had the first time she met him wasn't there. Nor was it anywhere on his kimono-clad person. She was just about to ask for it, but he beat her to it.

"Ah, curious about where my Mask is?" she didn't say anything in response. He knew that she wanted to know. "I told you. I don't need it."

"Then why do you wear it at all?" she asked. If she was Hengen and didn't need to wear a Mask, she never would. It would be annoying to have to carry something everywhere she went, unless it was small and nondescript like the Tengu's Mask was.

"Like I said," he answered. "Sentimental reasons. And it would be quite troublesome if real Hengen came asking where it is and realize I'm not exactly like them for not needing it. You think humans are bad when it comes to those who are different from them?" he chuckled mirthlessly. "They're nothing compared to us."

The way he looked at her when he said that made her think that he was subtly hinting at something she should know, but she had no clue what he was talking about. What, was it that she was human pretending to be Hengen when she wasn't at home? That that was risky was something she already knew and didn't need reminding of.

"'Not like them'?" she repeated, frowning. "What do you mean?"

With a half-smile, he pushed himself off the pole and turned to face the forest stretching out before him. The wind whistling through the trees ruffled the fabric of his kimono, gently billowing it out behind him. He was quiet when he spoke, eyes staring off into the distance, as if he wasn't really paying attention to anything around him. "You will know what I speak of if Shin makes it through the training."

"What?" she stammered, stepping closer as a touch of panic froze her heart.

If. If?

If?

"What do you mean if he – "

Before she could finish, he laughed, and took a single step forward.

She barely suppressed a surprised yelp as she leaned forward to watch him plummet like an arrow for the ground, reminded too much of her own close-call with it just a couple of hours ago. She expected to hear a thud when he landed, but it was like he was a cat – and that was saying something, considering he was an inch taller than Shin, who stood at six feet.

Not a sound was made as he reached the pale green grass and bounced nimbly to his feet half a second later. He started walking on ahead without looking back to see if she was following. Letting out an aggravated sigh, she went to the ladder and hurried down it. It was only when she got to the bottom that she realized she was still only dressed in her pyjamas. Thankfully she'd thought to put on some proper shoes – her trusty sneakers.

It was still early in the morning. A light mist hung around the trees around her. There weren't as many bobbing Yori Chiisai lights as there had been last night, and she wondered if it was because they were nocturnal and slept in the day. The thought brought an odd smile to her face as she rubbed her hands over her arms in an attempt to coax some warmth in her body.

She looked around herself through the mist and caught sight of Kagetora's tall form disappearing through the trees. She dropped her arms and rushed after him, wanting to call out and ask him to wait, but loath to do so.

It was difficult not to trip over the roots of the trees that grew inches above the soil, and to avoid slipping on the dewy grass while keeping Kagetora in her sights. She didn't have so much as a single moment to admire the dark beauty of the forest around her, for it was still dimly lit inside amongst the trees. Kagetora was moving so quickly ahead that she knew he could vanish from sight if she didn't pay attention.

Then it was over.

She burst out standing on top of an abnormally large boulder set at the edge of a big clearing, grass flattened out as if a meteor had swept through it but forgotten to land. She wobbled as she fought to keep her thrown balance around the curving surface of the boulder.

Once she did, she glanced back in startled confusion, realizing the path she'd been running on had been a little ridge whose end had grown into and stopped at the boulder. The forest at her back looked suddenly dark and foreboding, and she took another step forward, moving away from what had looked so beautiful and inviting when she hadn't actually been in it.

Just like the Ayakashi world, Kuniumi murmured. It must look so magical and dazzling on the outside to humans, yet it is dangerous and lethal on the inside.

Which side are you on?

Kuniumi didn't answer. She remained lingering but stoically refused to say a word.

Shaking her head, she looked around herself, trying to find Kagetora, but she couldn't see him anywhere. Where did he go? Then she remembered where he'd said they were going – a clearing. This was one, wasn't it –

"Pai?"

She whirled around at the sound of a familiar voice speaking her name so close to her, to find Shin standing right behind her. Dressed in a loose pair of black slacks sitting snug at his hips with grey stripes down the sides and a sleeveless washed-out black vest, he looked like he always did when he went to train with the other Daitengu. Distractingly attractive enough to have a bright blush explode over her face.

His Mask was tied securely around his wrist, a white contrast to the black he favoured in his clothes. She couldn't see his katanas, but what with how on-edge he'd been since setting foot on this island, she wouldn't have been surprised if he'd made them invisible. His eyes were still the cobalt blue she loved, but his face was twisted in angered confusion. In that moment, he reminded her of Shinigami, baffled with her answer when he asked her why she wasn't afraid of him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

She gaped soundlessly at him, at a loss for words as she struggled to think of where he'd just come from when no one had been behind her while she looked at the forest. What was she doing here? She wondered that herself.

"Kagetora-san," she started. "He brought me here. I mean, he told me to come here."

He clenched his jaw. "Why?"

That's it?

Her shoulders sagged a bit in spite of herself. Her heart pulsed with some unnameable pain, and all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and disappear.

That's...that's all he'll say to me?

Not even a hello? Was he so angry with her that he couldn't bring himself to properly greet her, the way he used to when they crossed ways in Ayashi House? And why did it hurt her so much? She thought she'd prepared herself for this kind of rebuff, but it still hurt more than she could shape into words.

"To test a theory."

She jumped out of her skin when she heard Kagetora's voice. Shin spun around to find Kagetora standing behind them, hands in the opposite sleeves of his kimono in a way that reminded her of Daichi. He flashed a quick smile at her, tipping his head to her as if in approval for keeping up with him. She frowned in response.

The smile grew.

"What theory." Shin returned bluntly.

She wanted to reach out to him, to tell him to relax, but she didn't think she had any right when she was no more at ease than he, and when it was her fault they were here in the first place.

"That would be telling," Kagetora replied in a sing-song voice.

She flinched, jarred to hear those words, coming from him of all people. She tried not to let it show on her face as she rearranged her expression to liken one of stone so that she wouldn't give away how uneasy it made her to hear Kuniumi's habitual chant-like voice whenever she didn't want to tell Pai something, in his.

Without another word of explanation, he twisted round on the balls of his feet and walked to the edge of the boulder. He jumped off it as easily as he had from the platform back at the house, and walked on ahead to the centre of the clearing. Shin made to go after him, a furious glower darkening his face, before he hesitated and looked back at her.

She gestured at him. "You go. He did not tell me why I am here. So I will just sit right," she looked down and round at herself, searching for the perfect spot. When she found it, a little dip in the stone that was just right, she plopped down on it and crossed her legs, flexibility easily allowing her to cross her calves and put her ankles on her thighs. "Here."

Shin looked down at her for another long moment. She held his gaze, disconcerted as she watched a thin fragment of red dart through the blue. Then he broke away, turning and leaping over the edge of the boulder to the ground not too far below. He started after Kagetora, who stopped walking only a few feet away from them, and was watching them with a curious glint in his eye.

When Shin reached him, she saw them exchange a few words, but she wasn't close enough to hear what. She propped her elbows on her knees and put her chin in her hands as she watched the two opposing Hengen talking. Shin grew more agitated by every word coming out of Kagetora's mouth. She frowned as she watched them argue, wondering and hoping that Shin's hatred for the Kitsune wasn't so much so that he wouldn't even learn anything from this training.

As she sat with her chin settled comfortable in her cupped hands, she wondered what exactly this 'training' would entail. Would it be physical, like the way the Daitengu did combat training every single day? Or would it be a series of mental exercises, like meditation or something? Which one would be better, would help Shin more? Or would it be better to do combinations of both, to make whatever it was that would help him control Shinigami stronger?

"Pai," Kagetora called.

She started, realizing that her mind her started to drift off to nonsensical wanderings. She glanced up to see Kagetora cheerfully waving for her attention, a bemused grin on his face, as if he knew what she was thinking about and it made him laugh.

Hesitantly, she stood up, brushing the back of her pyjama trousers off of any clinging soil or tiny pieces of loosed rock. She walked over to the end of the boulder and leaned over the edge, inspecting whether or not she was agile enough to jump down to the ground like the Hengen men before her had, or if she should play it safe and just slide her way down.

Deeming it sane to go with the second, she quickly clambered down the side of the boulder, jumping the final metre to the ground.

Once grounded again, she hastily made her way over to where the two men were, stopping a foot away from both of them. Shin stood with his hands on his hips, not even bothering to hide how much he hated the man standing opposite him.

Kagetora, on the other hand, grinned wolfishly at her once she reached them. He was either daftly ignorant of Shin's hostility or choosing to ignore it. She went with the latter.

"This is dangerous." Shin muttered, glancing at her before looking back at Kagetora. A gust of wind sent strands of his hair flying around before flopping over his forehead. His hair was already long enough that he had to tie most of it back at his nape. She tried not to stare, tried not to think about how she wanted to run her hands through his hair. "For her," he continued irritably. "And everything around us."

"Everything around us will grow back anyway." Kagetora rolled his eyes. "Take it off. I'm sure you'd love for a chance to slit my pretty neck," he urged.

"Take what off?" she asked, bewildered.

Shin glared at him for another moment, and then looked down at her. His eyes were closed off. He might as well have not been looking at her at all. "He wants me to take off my Mask."

She baulked, unwillingly bringing to mind the memory of Shinigami taunting her with news of her own impending death, and staring down at her with eyes flickering between black and red before Shin finally wrestled back control over his body.

She snapped her head to Kagetora. "That is – "

"Dangerous?" He shrugged coolly, as if making such a request meant nothing. "I have been made quite aware of the fact."

"Insane," she harshly corrected, her throat closing up. "I was going to say that is insane."

"What if I lose control?" Shin asked before Kagetora could quip back, narrowing his eyes.

Kagetora chuckled. "Just what exactly am I here for, then?"

Shin hesitated for another moment, staring at Kagetora with a hard look, as if he was trying to peer right into the Kitsune's questionable soul to see what his true intentions were. Though he clearly didn't find Kagetora's response reassuring in the least bit, he reached over and slowly began unwinding the white Mask. Shin did it quickly, letting it drop to the grass, but she was watching him as he did.

She saw the white lines of tension bracketing his mouth, the nervous tick of his fingers as they worked at the Mask. His eyes were shut off, and she knew by now that that was a sign that he was either hiding his ire at the situation, or trying to conceal just how scared he was. He was doing exactly what had been done to him last time that put him in this situation, only now he was doing it with his own hand.

Shin stared down at the Mask for a long, long time, totally still. She wasn't sure he was breathing. She made no move to rouse him from whatever thoughts possessively claimed him as he looked at the only thing that kept Shinigami prisoner.

Finally, he lifted his eyes up to glare at Kagetora. Her heart beat as a thing of broken glass cutting her up from the inside as, in stupefied silence, she watched his eyes waver from blue to red to blue to red before snapping back to darkened diamonds.

"Happy?" he growled. The Ayakashi undertones in his voice faded in an out sharply. "Now let her leave."

Kagetora watched him silently for a moment, the condescending smile he wore like a mask wiped from his face. This was the chilling side to him, the side she had only glimpsed at before.

He cocked his head, gaze sliding to where Pai warily stood off to his right. "Pick it up."

She frowned at him. "Why?"

"Someone needs to hold on to it for him. Wouldn't want some little creature with itchy fingers stumbling upon it lying on the ground somewhere, would we?" He nodded expectantly down at the Mask, still remaining with his hands in the opposite sleeves of his kimono. "Pick it up."

This Kitsune is trying to get me killed.

Wavering resolve had her hesitating before she shook her head and walked forward. She reached Shin's side, but she couldn't bring herself to meet his wildly switching gaze. She didn't want to see him look at her with the same hatred he did at Kagetora. Even if it was only Shinigami's hatred leaking through into him, she didn't want to see it.

Call it denial, but despite knowing what she'd signed up for when she went back on her promise to him and approached Kagetora, it still hurt to know that he didn't trust her anymore. It hurt to remember how she'd so instinctively reached out to hug him after he'd told her what happened to Seiran so long ago, how he'd spiralled out of control until he was forced to leave the village, his home.

It hurt to remember how, instead of pushing her away like she'd feared, he'd held on to her like he needed her.

Slowly, as if he were an animal she was afraid of scaring or angering, she bent down and closed her fingers around the white sash. Just as before when Konohana first gave her the sash, she felt nothing. Kouta had warned her that Hengen could not touch another's Mask because the residual aura of a potentially violent Makashi could incapacitate them, but it still surprised her that it didn't affect her. Not in the least.

She stood, peeking up at Shin. She almost stopped moving entirely when she saw the look in his eyes, the look of his eyes. Red warred with blue in a kaleidoscope of conflicting shades. The rage of the imprisoned Shinigami fought with the desperation of the salvation-seeking Shin. He held himself absolutely still, muscles rigid as he stared down unseeingly at the grass where the Mask had been a moment ago.

He was fighting so hard to control Shinigami, right now, right in front of her, and she hated that she could do nothing but watch. She hated that in the end, all this traced back to her. Back to the moment when she couldn't tell that an Onihitokuchi was stalking her. To her inability to protect herself and needing to be saved like a stupid damsel in distress.

"I must admit, your will without the control is commendable, Shin. It wouldn't take even a second for another in your situation to lose control without the Mask." Kagetora complimented. Astonishingly, there was no trace of mockery or jest in his tone. "Now we just have to break that interminable will of yours."

Shin ground out, "If I can't get him under control again, if I – " he flinched, muscles spasming.

She instinctively reached out to him but she was stopped when Kagetora moved, stepping forward. She glared at him, blaming him for Shin's suffering now, but Kagetora didn't spare her a glance. He was focusing all his attention on Shin, watching him, inspecting his every little tick.

She turned back to Shin when he inhaled sharply, and she was torn to shreds to see the desperate look he gave her. He didn't need to say anything for her to know what he was trying to tell her without speaking aloud; run.

"Leave." Kagetora spoke in a low voice, completely unlike the wisecracking side of him she had seen so far. "Now."

She glanced at him to see that he was watching her and Shin together with such an intense look on his face, she wondered what he could possibly be thinking. More like, she wondered how nothing in the vicinity burst to flames.

She swallowed thickly, nervous for Shin, for herself, for whatever Kagetora was planning. "What are you going to do?"

"What both Shin and his Makashi do best – fight." Kagetora replied, finally removing his hands from the kimono sleeves.

He took a step back, but it wasn't to walk away – he was turning his body round, so that he was only half-facing Shin. She recognized it as a fighting stance, loose but ready to move in any direction at a moment's notice.

"Now leave, before you get caught in the cross-fire. If he comes out, I can't guarantee your safety. Relatively." He gave her a nonchalant look. "I did make a promise, didn't I? I'd like to at least try to keep it. Wouldn't you?"

Leave. Kuniumi warned as the Kitsune turned his eyes back to the Tengu standing before him, struggling with the part death god living inside him, as a slice of him she didn't think he could ever truly get rid of. You want to stay, but must leave. You don't want us to come out and protect you if Shinigami attacks you, do you?

Kuniumi was right. She knew that it was the smartest thing to do.

She turned to go, casting one last look Shin's way, before picking up her pace as she walked away. Pai didn't even realize she was running until a kick to the stomach reminded her of her period and the cramps that always accompanied it. She slowed to a walk, her eyes burning with tears she refused to let fall.

A few seconds later she reached the boulder, but she was too drained to bother climbing up to the top of it again. Just the thought of trying to had her arms aching with the effort of it. She turned around and pressed her back to it's cragged, cold surface before sliding to sit cross-legged on the ground, dropping the white sash on her thigh.

Her heart wasn't just broken glass in her chest – it was melting, boiling from a raging torrent of lava that burned her veins as she leaned forward and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes.

I'm not going to cry, she thought desperately, dragging in a deep breath, deep as she could go, until her lungs ached with holding it all in. Then she let it out in one explosive whoosh as she thought again, I am not going to cry.

Her hands jerked. She pulled them away to see their trembling had started again, after so long of being absent. She straightened her fingers out as a low buzzing echoed in her wrists, paining them. She watched her fingers shake, as if she was overcome with emotion, when really it was just her messed up body reminded her how fucked she was, if what Shinigami told her in the Torimaku was true.

Pai still prayed, hoping against hope that he was lying, cruelly toying with her the way he was wont to, considering his particular tendency to hurting everything and everyone around him in whatever way he could. But she didn't know if there was a point in denying it.

Shinigami was a part death god. His name meant 'death god', plain and simple. Just how much longer did she think she could go on denying it?

And then, without warning, it began.

×

Kagetora attacked Shin in a blinding flurry that left her unable to keep up with most of anything he did, any way he moved.

She thought she'd seen it all. She thought she knew what a deadly fight between Hengen looked like. She thought she knew what a fight between Hengen and a freed Makashi that hated everything and everyone looked like, and fought with a terrifying fury without the fear of death.

She knew nothing.

One second, Kagetora was standing in front of Shin, five feet away. The next, his form blurred as he darted forward. Shin barely had enough time to reach back and pull out his katanas, instantly making them visible at his touch, before yanking them forward.

Metal screamed, sparks flying as the katanas stopped the odachi Kagetora was pressing down on him, forcing Shin to go lower, the sharpened edge of its blade in line with Shin's eyes – and Kagetora was doing it all with just one hand. He was grinning madly when he reached up slowly and gripped the long hilt of his odachi with both hands, pushing down harder on their crossed blades. Shin's arms were visibly shaking, his face screwed up in a silent growl as he struggled to keep the odachi from piercing his eye out.

After another second Shin rallied up enough energy to burst forward, shoving Kagetora back, his katanas singing sweetly as they whistled through the air. The Kitsune leaped back spryly on his feet, a gleam of the madness in his smile lighting his eye.

Pai blinked in shock, sprang to her feet, her shaking hands hanging uselessly at her sides. She couldn't breathe as she gawped at him, unable to form a coherent thought as she struggled to come to terms with how fast he moved. She hadn't been able to see anything of his fighting style. She hadn't so much as seen Kagetora move. Where had the odachi even come from? He hadn't been carrying it with him when he came to fetch her from her room.

He lifted his odachi to eye-level, aiming it at Shin, who stood warily opposite with his katanas held out in a defensive stance. Her eyes dropped to Kagetora's legs, and she saw him bend just a bit. Her eyes snapped back to Kagetora, watched his hands tighten ever so slightly around the hilt of his deadly weapon. She started forward –

Kagetora, without looking away from Shin, called out to her, "Don't even think about it. If you stop this now, you'll be stopping Shin from controlling the part of him that hates you for tying him back under the Mask, and wants you dead for it. So be a good girl, sit tight, and watch."

"But – " What if you kill him? What if he kills you?

There will be no death. Neither will ever be able to kill the other.

You don't know that! She railed, frantic worry gnawing at her bones.

"Pai."

This time it was Shin speaking.

She stared at him in open shock as he looked back at her, eyes shifting crazily from red to black to blue and back.

He smiled at her, a smile filled with such longing and sadness that tears pricked her eyes again. "Stay back. Please."

Kagetora didn't give him any more time. He moved again, disappearing in a flash of his dark kimono, a blur that moved with unbelievable speed. Shin danced back and lifted his katanas again, knocking aside the blow that would have taken his head clean off his neck.

She flinched from the sound of the three blades screeching as they met for barely a second before Kagetora whirled around again. She caught sight of the grin on his face, the gleam of insanity in his eyes, as he brought the odachi sweeping. Shin jumped back in time to avoid having his arm loped off.

"Fight back!" Kagetora laughed. "Aren't you Daitengu? Fight, don't react. Fight, like what you really are!"

"I'm barely controlling him, you son of a bitch," Shin snarled, crouching low as he lifted one katana up to protect his upper body, while he kept the other low and pointed to the ground.

"I don't want to fight you – I want him. I want the madness, the rage I saw nine years ago." The crazy Kitsune taunted.

Kagetora slowly circled Shin like a panther stalking its prey, but Shin didn't allow for any chance to get behind him.

"You're fucking insane!" Shin snapped back, knocking aside another glancing blow.

Kagetora grinned rakishly. "Few more than me. This is day one, Shin. We fight until first blood. Do what you will to keep him in control, or, you could even let him out. Let's see who he attacks first, eh? Me, or the girl."

She saw Shin glancing back at her, and they both realized almost instantaneously how bad an idea that was.

Kagetora noticed the distraction and leaped forward. This time Shin wasn't able to block the attack fast enough. A hot ball of fear for Shin churned in her stomach as she watched him jump impossibly high, right over Kagetora's head. He flipped in the air, using the momentum and kicking back at Kagetora with his left foot.

Kagetora twirled away before any contact could be made with a bark of snide laughter. Shin landed on his feet behind him, whirling around half a second later to stop the odachi that came swinging at his head again.

Kagetora wasn't just attacking him for the sake of drawing Shinigami out. Pai knew, she knew, he was attacking Shin with the full intention of killing him. As she watched in dumfounded, terrified silence, she started to notice something. About Shin, and Kagetora.

Shin was fighting without his Mask, and because of that his focus was split in two. A part of him held back as he parried blow after blow. It was a part of him that was doing everything to keep Shinigami from breaking out. That stopped him from delivering any attacks of his own.

Then there was Kagetora.

The speed with which he moved, the strength he used to attack, the way he twisted and turned and danced in this battle...it was all uncannily like Shinigami, what she remembered of him attacking Yuu before she stopped him. Kagetora wasn't holding back at all. In fact, he was simply more. It was more than Shin; more than Shin was able to without letting Shinigami out to fight as well.

Ice crept over her body as her heart jumped to her mouth in sudden realization.

He doesn't wear a Mask.

He doesn't wear a Mask.

He doesn't need to wear his Mask.

No.

Kuniumi, does that mean...

She didn't know how to word it, this unthinkable concept, even though she was starting to understand that if Shin made it through this 'training', he might become like that as well. Her eyes glazed over as her mind travelled a million miles ahead, scrambling to connect dots and tangling threads that she hadn't thought could fit together.

Is Kagetora using his Makashi right now, to fight? Is that what he wants Shin to do?

Yes, that is what he wants from Shin. If the two can fight as one, they will be intrinsically tied together as a single entity rather than split apart as they have been for so long. It won't happen immediately. Kagetora said it; Shin's will is interminable. That strength is the only thing separating Shin from Shinigami now. It needs to whittle before any change can come.

And what about the other one in him?

She felt Kuniumi rear back in surprise. Shock coursed through her veins as sudden walls were thrown up in Pai's mind, emphasizing the thin line that separated Pai from Kuniumi.

She narrowed her eyes. Do you think I forgot what I saw in Shin's room? Do you think I don't remember what you said? Who will Shin be when Shinigami is no longer a problem, but there's still that – that other one in there?

Astoundingly, Kuniumi didn't disappear the way she always did when Pai pressured her for answers. Kuniumi fidgeted in her mind, her presence coiling into a tight ball of uncertainty, fear, loathing, hatred, betrayal, all thrown into a mix that made Pai's stomach wheel. Oddly, it felt like a parent facing their sullen child, scolding them for misbehaving. Odd, because she was sure Kuniumi was older – far, far older – than Pai.

We...we can't.

Can't what? She sniped, nettled. Tell me? Like everything that matters that you know, you can't tell me, again?

Yes.

Why?

Because we can't, we can't, we can't! Kuniumi exploded, screaming in bitterness and rage. He'll know, he'll know if we reveal him, he always knows and then he'll disappear again, again, again! He will run. He will run. He will run, and we will not wait another miserable century for him.

She was queasy, as if she was about to vomit. She hadn't thought too much about the mysterious Kamiumi the woman inside her so clearly loathed with all her being, but she knew that he was the one Kuniumi was after. He was the one she hunted, the one she so desperately wanted to make pay for some betrayal he'd done to her.

And he was like her. He was like Kuniumi, more than in name. He was like Kuniumi because he resided in Shin's mind the way Kuniumi did in hers. Pai didn't know if Shin was aware of it, and she didn't know how to tell him without revealing Kuniumi's presence in her own mind.

Her attention snapped back into focus as she looked up again, narrowing her eyes, trying to see clearly when all she could really make out was two figures clad in dark clothes blurring as they fought.

Kagetora continued to taunt Shin, saying things that were lost to the wind and the wild dance of their battle. Shin never rose up to the bait, but she saw him slip once or twice. That was enough to tell her that whatever Kagetora was saying to him, it was having an effect on him.

Then who is Kagetora? She asked, trying, in her own way, to shift Kuniumi's focus from the man she hated so dearly.

It worked. She felt Kuniumi's answering frown of confusion, her bitter anger slipping away as quickly as it had appeared.

What do you mean? Kagetora is Kagetora. We are we. You are you.

If he doesn't need his Mask, then it means nothing is separating him from his Makashi. How do I know the Kagetora I've seen isn't his Makashi?

Kuniumi cackled in mad gleefulness, hers a laughter of crystal marbles striking stone but remaining unbroken. You're finally getting smart, but no. To understand Kagetora, you must think differently.

She didn't care to understand Kagetora. All she cared about was Shin.

Will Shin become like him? What will he be like when can live without the Mask? How will we know it's Shin or Shinigami then? Will he be like this, like Kagetora?

Never. He wasn't born the same as Kagetora – but he has the potential. Kaede and Haru, too. They have what it takes.

What? She repeated, failing to understand the twisting track Kuniumi's words ran on, wondering what the other two Daitengu had to do with it. What potential?

It was too late. Kuniumi had already vanished, leaving behind only a stray wisp of her presence, almost like she was keeping a part of herself fixed to Pai so she could continue watching the fight from afar– wherever that distance was.

Shin twisted on the balls of his feet and brought his katanas scissoring down. The blades rang as they met the odachi. Kagetora and Shin remained that way, almost frozen for but a second before Kagetora abruptly let the odachi fall to the ground. He was grinning in triumph, lips kicked up as he crouched low to the ground. He spun round, faster than she could see, his leg sweeping out. Shin easily jumped over his outstretched leg, landing on the ground at the same instant as Kagetora sprang back up.

It felt like everything that happened next passed by in an agonizingly long moment that dragged into infinity.

Shin still had both his katanas gripped tight in his hands. Kagetora was without a weapon. Both were winded, although Kagetora looked more exhilarated from the adrenaline than tired. From all this distance away she could see dark circles imprinted under Shin's eyes, eyes that were blue tinged with red around his irises. Sweat dripped down his face, wetting his hair, darkening a patch at the back of his shirt as the two men circled one another.

If this had been a normal fight, if Kagetora was a normal man – even just a normal Hengen – it would have all been over then and there. Shin had the upper hand. He still had his katanas, whilst Kagetora didn't have anything with which to defend against.

But Kagetora – he dropped his odachi. It wasn't knocked out of his hands – he let it go.

She saw the gleam of a hidden blade an instant before Shin did.

Kagetora slipped a dagger from his wide kimono sleeves, flicking it out. He darted forward, faster than before, and Shin tried to move away from Kagetora's line of attack. It wasn't enough. He'd already gotten used to the rhythm of fighting with long blades against another one. It threw him off to have to parry a blow from such a small dagger. Kagetora's back was to her as he moved, but Shin was facing her, and she saw the look of startled realization hit him.

She was running toward them before she realized what she was doing, her lips parting to scream out a warning, something, anything to get Shin to avoid the blade.

"Shin, Shin watch out – "

It was already too late.

Kagetora rammed the dagger into Shin's torso, reaching out and gripping his shoulder as if to keep him in place...to drive the blade deeper in.

She yelled out again as Shin dropped his katanas, groaning as pain twisted his face. He leaned heavily against Kagetora, fisting the fabric of Kagetora's kimono in his hand as he tried to keep himself upright, but he was already sliding down to his knees. Kagetora bent over him as if he was trying to set Shin to kneel before him as gently as he could. Then Kagetora yanked out the knife he'd buried in him, stepping aside to reveal Shin clutching his rapidly bloodying abdomen, panting for breath.

"Shin!"

Kagetora glanced back, surprise widening his eyes, as if he'd heard something in her voice he hadn't expected to. It was the first time anything other than mocking amusement lighted his face. She completely ignored him as she skidded to a stop by Shin's side, unable to keep any semblance of balance on the slippery wet grass.

He looked up at her blearily through the pain, listing to the side. She reached out just in time and caught him against her body as he fell. He gasped sharply as the move jostled the freely-bleeding wound, dark and heavy and hot over her hands. She scrambled back as hastily but gently as she could so that Shin was lying on the ground with his head and shoulders rested on her lap.

The buzzing that accompanied the shaking of her hands wasn't there anymore, but her fingers trembled as they fluttered uselessly about him. Even with Shin lying on her, bleeding, she was fleetingly distracted as she stared wide-eyed at her fingers, noticing a thin haze of black smoke lining them. A single tendril of grey curled in a wisp over her index finger, swaying in the wind.

She blinked. Whatever it was vanished in a moment.

She shook her head and, remembering something from her memories, something useful and not something killing like all she'd ever done in that time, she reached out to press her hand against the wound, desperate to staunch the flow of blood. If it kept on going like that, if blood kept on leaking out like a forgotten tap, he could lose too much of it. This island was uninhabited – there weren't any hospitals she could take him to.

"Shit," he managed under his breath, his eyes weeping into diamonds of the deep blue. "Fuck, that son of a – " his breath hitched as he pulled on the wound, eyes filling with pain. She pressed down, unwilling to hurt him more but not knowing how else to stop the blood. "There's something on that fucking knife,"

He pressed one hand to his abdomen while the other clenched around the pale grass under him. Their fingers slipped over each other in blood, touching, grounding them together. The warmth of it seeped between their intertwining fingers, painting them red.

"No," she whispered, her brows scrunched together to keep the fiery tears from falling down her face as slipping, slipping, slippery blood, thick and heavy and wet and warm and dripping from her red hands, leaking out of her eyes, her ears, her nose as she aims the gun and pulls the trigger and the bullet shoots, it rips out and embeds itself right in the middle of her forehead – "No, no, Shin, Shin – "

"You'll be fine." A curt voice said over their heads. She looked up to find Kagetora standing close behind her, gazing down at Shin with indifference. "The wound isn't deep. I didn't hit anything important. There's a mild poison on the blade, though. It'll keep you incapacitated, writhing in pain, for half an hour. That's your punishment for failing."

"You did this on purpose!" she snapped at him, a blinding rage tingeing the edge of her vision red.

Kuniumi appeared out of nowhere. She said nothing, slipping back in to the crevices of Pai's mind. It was quick work for her to dampen Pai's emotions enough that rational thought filtered in. But Pai hadn't asked for that – she wanted to be angry. She wanted to strangle Kagetora with her own bare hands.

How dare he do this when she'd gone to him for help? Was everyone right? Had she made the worst possible mistake in asking him to help Shin?

Kagetora's eyes flicked down to hers, emotionless as she had never seen them. Her anger was doused in a bucket of ice cold water as she stared up at them, at this new, heartless version of Kagetora she hadn't paid attention to the glimpses of she'd caught before.

He looked like an entirely different person, one capable of doing absolutely anything and everything he deemed necessary for whatever goal he worked toward. He looked like the type of person who wouldn't have a problem snapping the neck of one of his Kings and beheading the other simply because it all suited his needs.

"Did I ever imply this would be easy?" he asked her, only briefly glancing at Shin when he tried to move, to sit up, but pulled on the wound again. "I believe I made it abundantly clear to both of you that it wouldn't be."

Shin glared up at him, his breath coming out in short, harsh pants. "You stabbed me with a poisoned knife, goddamn it – "

"And you will heal. You're one of the strongest Ayakashi around, Shin." He replied, straight-faced and without a hint of trickery in his words. "This is a paper cut compared to what you've faced." He cocked his head to the side. "You have been there when those older than you faced down their demonic gods. You came away unscathed where many perished – are you saying you can't handle a little dagger, after all that?"

"Fuck off," Shin riposted bitterly through clenched teeth.

She noticed that he didn't deny Kagetora's words, though. Now, with all she knew about his past, all she still didn't know about it, she didn't think Kagetora was wrong. But what gods was Kagetora talking about?

Kagetora merely smiled vaguely at Shin's swearing, a move that made him look sadder than she'd ever seen him.

"That does not mean you go around stabbing people just because you know they will heal," she snapped, discomfited by the sliver of pity that wiggled its way into her heart at the sight of Kagetora like that.

"True. The world would be a much bloodier place if people did that." He acceded. "As if they don't already, though."

You wouldn't be doing your job if you really thought they did, Kuniumi murmured, speaking as if she thought he could hear her.

When he glanced at her a second later she worried, for a brief moment, that maybe he had. Maybe he had heard Kuniumi. Maybe he knew who she was. Maybe he knew why she stuck so steadfastly to Pai.

Then she decided that was impossible. Kuniumi managed to hide even her thoughts from Pai. Of course she was good enough to hide her presence from people around her. Even if they happened to be Kings. Even if...they happened to be astonishingly strong Ayakashi who didn't need the aid of wearing a Mask when every other Hengen did.

She did not like the feeling of uncertainty that swirled restlessly in her stomach.

"But this is not an ordinary situation." He walked around to stand in front of her, then knelt by Shin's side, looking down at the wound he'd inflicted. He looked at Pai and Shin's hands lying over one another to keep the blood from free-falling. Something flickered in his eyes when he saw their intertwined hands covered in leaking red, but he made no comment on it. "See. The blood is already clotting. The poison gets in and keeps you in pain, but it doesn't stop wounds from healing."

She dropped her eyes down to it when Shin lifted his hand, hers on top of his, to check if Kagetora was right. He was, both noticing that the blood wasn't flowing as steadily as it had been. She fought off a sigh of relief, not wanting Kagetora to see it and mistakenly think she had miraculously forgiven him.

Maybe the wound would heal, but Kagetora dipped that dagger in poison that would keep Shin in pain for another half hour. He had planned this. She wasn't about to forgive him for doing that. But she couldn't help being glad when the tight band of apprehension and fear, clenched around her heart and stomach, eased its hold infinitesimally.

Kagetora bounded to his feet, hardly making a sound as he slipped his hands back in the opposite sleeves of his kimono. She eyed the sleeves warily, wondering what else he was keeping hidden there. She glanced around herself quickly, but didn't see the odachi Kagetora used to fight. Confusion clouded her mind. Where had it been to begin with, that she hadn't noticed it when Kagetora came to get her from her room? Odachi weren't exactly inconspicuous weapons like a tanto was.

Kagetora breathed in deeply, tipping his head back to look up through the circle of the sky visible, no trees blocking view of the quickly lighting blue sky, only lining the clearing they were in far out on any side of them. She watched him suspiciously, hyper-alert to his every move after what he just pulled.

"Tomorrow, at dawn. Expect the same thing, and it's up to you if you get yourself stabbed again. No one in life fights fair, Shin. Least of all me." He gave the sky one final, lingering look before he turned on his heel and walked away, waving as if he were a friend leaving them after a riotous night out.

"Wait – what poison is it?" she asked, frantic to know before he left. There was no way she wasn't going to treat the wound in any way she could. But she needed to know what the poison was; otherwise she'd be working blind.

"I'm sure Kanou gave you tips on how to treat such wounds, Pai." He answered coolly. "You don't need to worry about the poison. Once a half hour's up, it'll wear out of his body, and everything will be happy-dandy again."

Happy-dandy my fucking foot, she thought furiously as Shin's breath hitched painfully again.

"How long," she called out to him. He paused, and though he didn't face her directly, he turned his head just enough to show her he was listening. "How long will this go on for? This training."

A low chuckle. "Shin will only be able to control his murderous Makashi if he can use him to beat me when we fight. To make me bleed. Maybe even kill me. Beat me, and it will be over."