Written in present tense because present tense is sexy. Also, Yuya = my favourite heroine ever, so I'm really not trying to bash her. I just got sexual butterflies (yeah, they exist) from the Shinrei-Yuya kiss. I wanted the what-if. Also, major love for Shinrei. I think one of Shinrei's faults is that he tends to make snap decisions. This if the "what-if-Shinrei-made-a-different-snap-decision" fic. Deviates from the main canon in Chapter 94, when Shinrei kissed Yuya (yum).

Yuya wakes up most nights with her heart racing painfully quickly from nightmares.

Kyo spends most nights staring outside, getting drunk and waiting. He doesn't know what for.

Shinrei broods. Shinrei wonders about the morality of his actions. Shinrei looks down, and decides to go to back to sleep, while one person feels ridiculously guilty for being a failure, and the other wakes up covering her mouth to stop the noises waking anyone—because of his actions. Shinrei tells himself it's for the good of the Mibu clan, and this makes it right. All the same, the haunted look on the girl's face has glued itself to the inside of his eyelids when the sun goes down, and the feel of her haunts him.

Yuya still feels Shinrei's hard, unyielding hand grasping onto her shoulder tight enough to bruise—if she slides down her sleeve, she can see it there, still nastily green and blue—Shinrei's hard chest against her own, his hard lips pressing rudely against hers. Everything about Shinrei is hard as granite, completely immovable.

The three or so seconds still give her nightmares.

Kyo hears her nightmares, and sits there, every time, arguing whether he should cover his ears or not. In the end, he never does anything, and listens as punishment. It pains him, but that's why he does it.

Then he gets drunker, and listens more carefully for enemies. He wishes someone would attack them, just so he could make up for that, that awful lapse in his judgement, in his power. The alcohol clouds this, soothes it.

Along another line of impulse in Shinrei's mind, he looks at the connection between Kyo and Yuya, and makes a snap decision. He grabs Yuya to him, holding her in an iron grip against his chest, and, knowing he has only so much time before they go for him, barks out his speech.

"I'm letting you off today on Muramasa's account," he says, locking eyes with Kyo, feeling the dislike that rises to the surface every time he looks at the demon child. "But in exchange, let's make a bet, shall we? I'll be taking the girl with me—compared to your own pain, you seem to react better to the pain of others. To save the girl, you have sixty days to try stopping the Mibu clan's wild ambitions… Their first mission, to assassinate Ieyasu and destroy Kyo's body, has already begun. After you've succeeded in stopping them, return to the village where the Mibu clan reside… come to me… or this girl will just be waiting for her death."

Sheer shock seems to paralyze most of the members of their party. Ieyasu's heir, Hidetada, seems especially dazed, and stands there, his hands shaking on his miserable weapon. Muramasa's face shows mainly appalled disappointment, which Shinrei feels a brief twinge over, brushing aside quickly.

Kyo, predictably, animal he is, snaps out of it first, charging for Shinrei. "You…," he growls, rage clear on his face. "You must be joking!" he roars, twisting to try and avoid the girl.

Shinrei simply moves himself, closing his eyes and focusing, taking the girl with him a minor strain of effort.

"Shinrei! Damn you!"

Having quietly knocked the girl—Shiina Yuya, if he is not mistaken—unconscious, he hides himself somewhere where they will not find him, and announces to all of them, unable to resist a small piece of flamboyancy, "Kyo! Put on a great show! Show me what you're capable of. Can you learn the four techniques and regain your body? Or… will the Mibu clan rule, and this girl die? Let me see the reason why you're called 'hope'," he says, knowing his voice twists bitterly over the word 'hope'. "Whether you, a demon, can oust the Divine Clan," he finishes mockingly, letting his voice trail off and looking down at the girl beside him, softly asleep. What on earth does she see in Kyo? Why do they follow him? Why?

Shaking his head, he leaves, the girl unceremoniously over his shoulder.

Muramasa sits with his hands in his lap, stopping himself from burying his head in them. Shinrei, oh, Shinrei. Why did he believe in the Mibu clan so much? Why did he refuse to listen to reason?

His mouth tightens. Yuya-san… Cheerful, hard working Yuya-san, so out of her depth but managing to hold herself up anyway, being used as a pawn to get to Kyo. He glances at Kyo, who is staring moodily out into the trees with sake in his hands on par with the past few days. Kyo has been drinking on an impressive scale to match Yukimura's. Benitora sits silent and ashen, not at all his usual self, and Sasuke is gruff and rude. Okuni is sullen because Kyo is, and Yukimura is simply unusually quiet while thoughtful. Bontenmaru lurks on the fringes, and is nowhere to be seen for the moment, off doing mysterious Bontenmaru things.

Muramasa is still unsure about Yukimura. If the Mibu clan were to succeed in their plans for Ieyasu, that would put the Sanada clan at an advantage. He wasn't especially close to Yuya-san, and thinks like a chess master. Yukimura's thoughts have been extraordinarily conflicted recently.

He sighs, picking up his tea and draining the cup, making a face. Somehow, Okuni simply can't make it the way Yuya-san did. He can see her pout when she put it in front of him, trying to fill a hole left gaping wide. "Here you go, Muramasa-san, some tea… I thought you might like it… It probably won't be any good, but, ah, well" and then she had floated off again, to stare at Kyo and weigh up whether it was worth it trying to tease him.

"Kyo," he says, breaking the silence. Half the people in the room jump. Kyo swings his head around like a belligerent bull, locking eyes with Muramasa. Muramasa feels bubbling resentment, a ridiculous amount of anger, and a small undercurrent of loss and guilt building up the anger further. He stifles another sigh. Oh, Kyo. "I need to talk to you. About the future. Would everybody else please leave?" he asks, politely.

Benitora gets to his feet abruptly and stalks out, weapon in hand. To Muramasa's surprise, Okuni drifts after him elegantly, covering a yawn. Yukimura walks off decisively, Sasuke following him with his hands in his pockets moodily.

When he is sure everyone has left earshot, he straightens up, looks Kyo in the eyes very seriously, and announces, "Kyo, choose quickly. To die now… or to die later. Two options… pick one." Kyo starts a little, surprised. His mind races behind surly, slow eyes. A bird lands on Muramasa's shoulder, but he doesn't smile. He lets it rest there. "If you don't learn the Mumoyojinpuryu, you can't even dream of defeating the Mibu clan." He pauses, and continues utterly seriously, "Instead of that, let me send you to heaven now. In any case, even if you want to be the successor of the Mumoyojinpuryu, neither I nor Yuya-san has much time left. And in the succession process… there is high chance of your life being in danger. In short… there is an 80%-90% chance that you will die…"

Kyo remains silent, his gaze sharpening and considering. He is thinking it through. Muramasa already knows what he will chose, but still, tries to convince him of the danger. He assures Kyo, "You don't need to worry about me. I lost my life a long time ago. Alright… choose quickly." Silence echoes through the room. Kyo's thoughts are too conflicted to read easily. "Kyo… since it's so dangerous… are you sure still want to learn the real Mumoyojinpuryu? Or…" He trails off, waiting for the reply, knowing it will probably kill him, expecting it will.

Kyo's face stays deadpan, and then he breaks into that smirk that Muramasa knows so well, making his heart sink. Kyo is sincere, and determined. "Aren't things like that… decided by fate at the very beginning?" he says.

Muramasa cannot help but to smile at that. He has come so far from the tiny, torn demon child. "I knew you'd say that." Then he breathes in deeply, preparing himself. "There's no time left. Let's begin now." Then he smells smoke, and silently welcomes their visitor.

"So touching!" Bontenmaru breathes, outside, smoking his pipe. Kyo glares at him. He laughs. "Can that crap, you just want to save little Yuya-san, right?" When Kyo doesn't reply, he tilts his head towards him and gives a leering grin. "Why remain silent? I think you might as well admit it! The reason why you want to become stronger… is different from what it used to be…" Muramasa's eyes flit downwards, amused.

Then Kyo smirks again. "Don't make wild guesses… I want to claim the title of the strongest, so I need to kill the strongest man… That's all."

Bontenmaru smiles, facing away, smoking away at his pipe. "Oh… is that all? Kyo…," he says carelessly, staring off into the surroundings, "you've really changed…"

Everyone has acquired a purpose after they leave Kyo and Muramasa to their talk. Okuni announces that she will go and find Kyo's body, and flits off determinedly to accomplish half their task. Benitora leaves to make use of himself, out of some mysterious desire to get stronger for his Yuya-han—Muramasa still can't quite figure what happened during that time he was off with Okuni—and save his father from the Mibu, accomplishing the other half of their task. Sasuke follows Benitora, mocking him about being unreliable. Yukimura goes to Kyoto, saying dark things about repaying what's owed.

Muramasa smiles to himself as each person makes their bold declaration, looking to the bird on his shoulder. If Yuya-san could see them now… She wouldn't think she was a pawn at all. Yuya-san is the entire reason behind this group of people, the glue holding them together.

He knows he will likely never see her again, and breathes a goodbye to her, for a moment unbearably sad. It's rare to meet someone so lovely, and achingly sad that they only had such a short time together.

"Yuya-san," he murmurs, "always do your best, no matter where you are…"

"Why didn't you finish them off, Shinrei?"

Shinrei crossed his arms resolutely. "I'm sorry!" he says, trying to make it sound heartfelt.

"I sent you to deal with Muramasa, the walking corpse, and Kyo, who's as weak as an infant, yet this is the result. If I had known, I wouldn't have sent you…" Shinrei waits, deadpan.

"Aye! Everything's unpredictable!" someone else drawls, grinning sickly.

"All the members of the Taishiro are furious. You have to think of a solution soon! I guess this calls for us, the hand of the Gyousei!" Saishi says cheerfully, scrawling down things on a clipboard, the sound echoing throughout the chamber irritatingly.

Shinrei remains calm, although his heart is beating uncomfortably fast. He would not like Saishi to learn about the captive he took. He steels his face seriously, and replies, "I'm willing to accept any punishment, regarding this situation." He thinks of Muramasa, pleading with him not to kill their 'hope', and his fist tightens involuntarily. He is sure Chinmei notices.

"What punishment?" Chinmei asks lazily, laying back. "Instead of resorting to violence… I'm sure everything can be settled if we just calm down, relax and talk it over."

"Chinmei!" Keikoku barks. "You're always like that… What I meant was, giving this mission to Shinrei was a mistake in itself."

"Keikoku," Saishi sings, consulting her clipboard, "your blood pressure will rise again if you get agitated like that! Look, it's already at 40!"

Saisei cuts in, more the voice of reason than Saishi, who is only interested in irritating things. "Our targets aren't just Muramasa and Kyo… what should we do now?" she asks more pragmatically.

Shinrei tunes out for a while Saisei talks to Taihaku, knowing it's just the same discussion they've had time and time again. He simply listens to her voice, enjoying it. He only snaps back when Keikoku jumps into the conversation.

"Let me handle it!" he demands. "Let me kill Muramasa and Kyo with my own hands. Rest assured, Shinrei, I won't embarrass myself like you. This will clearly show who is the stronger one of the two of us." Shinrei glares at him, then looks down.

"Will things be that simple?" he wonders aloud to bait Keikoku, thinking of the plan he has already set in motion, thinking of the girl he has hidden in a chamber elsewhere, who will be waking up soon.

Then he broods over the red cross on Kyo's back—or, rather Kyoshiro's. Why?

He remembers his captive, and leaves with Keikoku, in the opposite direction, to go check on her.

Yuya wakes up with a start, breathing quickly. Her eyelids feel glued shut, unpleasantly heavy.

While she tries to open them, she pats around her, feeling blankets that are too soft and comfortable, and a thick mattress rather than a thin, functionable futon. Her hands wander off the mattress onto thin air, and then make contact with fabric, a person below. Her hand twitches and retreats quickly. "Ah! Sorry!" she says automatically, finally succeeding in opening her eyes. Everything is far too bright, and she closes them again quickly.

"It is nothing," someone says stiffly, and she recognises the voice. Shinrei!

Involuntarily, she shrinks away from the direction the voice came from, distrusting immensely. She forces her eyes to open painfully, and sees him kneeling uncomfortably close to her, taller than her kneeling even on the thick mattress. She looks away again quickly, feeling vulnerable and lost.

She swallows. The silence is overbearing. "Where am I?" she asks, trying her best to sound confident and demanding. From the look he gives her, caustic and dark, she knows she simply sounds quiet and thin.

He gets to his feet, and she has to stretch her neck out to look at him. "You don't need to know," he tells her. "You're just here as bait."

She looks around her. All that is in the room is the mattress, the blankets. Yuya will go mad if she is left in here for 60 days—or is it 59? 58? She has no way of knowing. Then something strikes her. She looks down at herself, and realises that she is not wearing her kimono, with her gun, her precious that her brother gave her. And then it clicks that someone undressed her, and in the spirit of thousands of women before her, her eyes widen and she gets to her feet shakily, angrily.

"Who changed me?" she demands, her voice gladly stronger now. "Where's my kimono—my gun—my money?" Shinrei just smiles at her, a smile that is not at all cute or endearing or amused.

"Be quiet," he tells her arrogantly. "It doesn't matter."

She crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at him fiercely. The kimono she is wearing is not even really a kimono—it's white, and thin, and short. It looks like the castoff of a child, and she knows it is unflattering, and is showing more than it should be. Men are all the same, she chants in her mind. Whether it's Kyo, or Benitora, or even Shinrei…

"It does matter! It matters to me!" she spits. She looks down, then up again. A question that has to be asked… "You—didn't do anything, did you?" she asks, swallowing awkwardly, her hair falling around her face, out of its usual ponytail.

Shinrei's eyebrows rise, seemingly surprised by the question. "No, I didn't," he replies shortly. I'm not that kind of person hangs in the air between them, clearly reflecting in his face, and Yuya finds this enrages her. He has kidnapped her. She has every right to be suspicious of him. He can't act all high and mighty.

"What does it matter, in any case," he continues, looking down at her as if she is something dirty on the underside of his shoe, "I've heard how Kyo uses you whenever he can't find anything better." Her blood pounds in her ears for a moment.

No. He didn't say that. He didn't. "I've heard how you crawl to him," he adds cruelly, "and Kyo never turns down women, as filthy as he is. How many men have you had?" He raises his hands in the air and shrugs, still haunted by the sting of Muramasa's disappointment. "Even if I had done something, you have no right to look so petulant, Shiina-san."

Yuya snaps, and rushes forward on legs that are still weak. She raises one arm to punch him, curled into a lose fist that won't hurt her hand too much, and Shinrei simply catches it, pulling her closer. She closes one of her eyes, gritting her teeth, and tries to attack him with the other. Shinrei catches that too, with ease that pains her, smiling grimly. When, as a last resort, she kicks him, he moves to the side, pulling her with him, and pushes her down onto the mattress. She kicks her legs upwards again, and he pushes forward aggressively, practically sitting on top of her. Her legs are pinioned by his, her arms trapped, the wrists held by one of his hands easily, held in the air. It is a resounding defeat, and she still struggles, refusing to be beaten.

"Get off!" she growls, squirming.

Shinrei remains still, his face smoothed over, refusing to admit to himself that this is the dirtiest trick he's ever pulled. It's her fault, he tells himself. It's all true, about her. Just look at her. How is a woman—no, a girl, she's definitely a girl—making a living by herself at this time? Not by any honest means. She must be travelling with them as some kind of… 'companion', he decides. He is entirely justified. He doesn't need to feel any guilt for calling a spade a spade.

He blinks, pushing aside any wayward thoughts, and leans in closer, a careful smile on his face. "But, Yuya-san," he says, and she is not unaware of the sudden first name basis, "isn't this what you do for Kyo all the time?"

She shakes her head fervently, twisting pleasantly underneath him. Shinrei admits to himself that perhaps he hasn't spent as much time with women as he could have, or Shiina Yuya wouldn't be feeling this pleasant to dominate. Perhaps he should have returned Saisei's advances. That way he would be immune to this girl-child's attempts—she was clearly trying to get a rise out of him. "Get off," she repeats angrily.

"And if I don't want to, Yuya-san?"

"Just—just—get off," she barks again, beginning to feel panicked. Her chest rises and falls faster as her breathing speed increases, and she is enraged to see Shinrei's gaze go to it. Damn this fabric, damn whatever clothing she was in, damn Shinrei!

He leans away a little, letting go of her hands, shaking his head dismissively. "I wouldn't want Kyo's leftovers anyway."

She blanches, and her mouth hangs open for a moment in shocked dismay. It's all almost comical, he thinks. Then she punches him, landing one askance on his jaw, knocking his head back for a moment. He remains there, his hand going to his jaw almost questioningly. It… hurts. It actually hurts. Yuya beats on his chest too, trying to rise up and throw him off, but there's no way that's happening, he thinks grimly, catching her again and pushing his head right up against hers, breathing quicker than he was a moment ago, definitely.

All the same, she looks back defiantly. "You can shut up about Kyo using me like that," she tells him, almost smugly. "I've never, never, been with Kyo like that. Not with anyone." She looks him right in the eye, cagily, proudly. "You can shut up." Yuya figures Kyo's groping doesn't count for anything. That doesn't mean anything, to either of them, though it upset her a lot more in the beginning. She softens for a moment… Kyo. She feels almost like an arm or leg is missing, without Kyo nearby. There's a vulnerability she's feeling that wasn't there before.

For a moment, Shinrei's stumped. No. She can't be that capable—for god's sake, she's a little girl, travelling with Demon Eyes Kyo, who'd chase anything with breasts that moved. And travelling by herself before—but her eyes aren't lying. They're steadfast and unwavering. Shinrei looks away first, unsure. Anyway… what is he doing? Didn't he take her just to spite Kyo, more than anything else?

Shinrei's eyes narrow, remembering how Kyo had actually moved to defend her while she was in danger, remembering how Yuya-san's face softened a little every time she mentioned his name. She said his name without honorifics, first name basis… They were very close, for people who hadn't been intimate…

She struggles a little underneath him, and he blinks, brought back to the present. "So," she says, uncomfortably, "if we've settled that, can you get off? My legs have gone to sleep… You're heavy…"

He almost laughs. Her audacity is startling. "Well. If you haven't 'been with Kyo like that'," he murmurs, entirely seriously, "I wonder… How upset would he be if someone else got there first?"

Yuya-san's face goes a little pale at the suggested threat, and she renews her struggles to get away. "No!" she cries. "No! He wouldn't even care," she says, her tone worried. "And—anyway—you—you wouldn't."

He looks down at her, his face unreadable. "I'm glad you have such faith in me, Yuya-san." You shouldn't was implied. But this was Shinrei, who made pretty speeches and was aloof and slightly awkward. She didn't know him, but he hadn't seemed like this sort of person at all.

His other hand rests for a moment on her shoulder, then twitches the fabric sideways. Yuya jumps, causing an interesting ripple effect which he watches solemnly. Shinrei is almost mechanical, not at all like Kyo's lecherous violence, and Yuya thinks that for a moment she catches shame in his eyes. She stares upwards unflinchingly, having figured out finally that resistance is futile—he's so much stronger, and unlike Kyo, he doesn't let her fight back out of amusement.

Just when she thinks he's going to back off at least, Shinrei leans back down faster than she could have anticipated, and kisses her.

He is cold and hard like his attitude, and she panics for a moment, twisting away, but his hands hold her head still either side in a vice grip. His mouth moves around hers, capturing it completely, more violently than is necessary, and when she opens her mouth to try and cry for him to stop, his tongue slips in, and sweeps around her mouth aggressively. Something else slips past as well, and as she swallows involuntarily it goes down her throat. She freezes for a moment, alarmed, and Shinrei retreats, biting her lower lip for good measure.

His hips grind into hers for a hot second that clouds over her face in blushes, and then he gets to his face, leaving her lying there stunned, with her kimono-shirt-thing half off, revealing some of her chest, and absolutely frozen.

She looks at him, and he refuses to meet her eyes.

"Even if you escape," he says in a monotone that completely vetoes what happened just seconds ago, "one of my water dragons is inside you. I will find you… and hunt you down. It also means that if you go too far from me, it will bite through your heart and kill you."

He doesn't need to look at her to see her horrified expression. He can imagine well enough. The set of his shoulders is stiff and ashamed. He reels off the details he had come in to tell her in the first beside, before she stirred his temper. "I will bring you food twice a day. If someone discovers you, do not tell them about anything. There's a chamber pot for… your needs. Other than that… any questions?"

She says nothing, now staring at the ceiling blankly. He can see her out of the corner of his eyes. "I will… provide some books, or amusement for you while you are here. Pray that your friends come soon." A door appears out of the wall when he lays his hand on it that was not previously there. He turns back at the last minute.

"Ah… and, Shiina-san… You have 57 days left."

With that, he steps through the door and it disappears.

Yuya is left in light that doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere, and all she can think is, Kyo never kissed me.