Disclaimer: All characters belong to Kazuya Minekura.
Quick note: While there are no major spoilers, the event referenced takes place in the Reload timeline.
The Errand
She was blushing, he noted out of the corner of his eye, as she approached him on the balcony lookout of Houtou Castle. It struck him as odd that she wasn't with their master's sister.
"Yaone, what's wrong?"
She fidgeted with her wrist guards. "I…I have a favor to ask," she said softly.
Well, that didn't exactly answer his question, but at least it didn't sound as if anything were the matter.
"What do you need?" he asked, trying to see into her eyes, but she kept her head down.
"Can you watch Lirin-sama for me?"
He smiled. "Of course. For how long?"
"A couple hours. I have a really important errand to run, and if it were any other time, I'd bring her with me, but she's not supposed to leave the castle and I don't want to upset Kougaiji-sama—"
"Yaone," he said, gently grabbing both her shoulders. "I already said I would."
A smile crept across her lips, the blush still coloring her cheeks. "Thank you, Dokugakuji. She's in her room. I'll—I'll be back as soon as I can," she said quickly, escaping from his grasp.
"Ah, Yaone!" he called. "Be safe!"
She turned and nodded, then dashed off.
He chuckled and shook his head. First him, and now her. It was about the same time last year that those two acted strangely. The others didn't seem to notice. It was as well, for who knew what that sleezeball doctor or that bitch would do if they caught onto the pattern.
He yawned, scratching the back of his head. There was never anything interesting to look at in the normal hallways. Just the same old columns and the same old wires stemming from machines wound throughout the entire castle. He wondered if the halls were grander before Gyumaoh was suppressed five hundred years ago.
"Yao—oh!" exclaimed his master's sister in surprise when he opened the door to her room. "Where's Yaone?"
"She's out on an errand. You're stuck with me for a bit," he said, grinning a cocky smile.
She let out a mischievous giggle, her eyes twinkling in a way that he knew his couple hours with her wouldn't be uneventful. "Soooo," she said, crossing her arms, her head cocked to the side. "What kind of errands did Yaone have to run? She would bring me if it wasn't so important, right? So, what is it? Is it a surprise?"
He wondered the same thing himself. "Dunno. It's her business anyway." Like hell it was. He was worried when his master was gone, and with her gone too, his mind was definitely not at rest. If they weren't under the thumb of that bitch and enemies of the Sanzo priest and his cohorts, then things would be different.
"Aww, you're no fun," she pouted, slumping down on her bed.
"Hey, I'm loads of fun," he countered, squatting down in front of her. Quickly, a plan formulated in his head. He had no idea where his master could have gone off to, but he had a feeling he knew where she would be. "Like…I say we go on some errands of our own."
"Really?"
"Yes," he said, pushing himself up. "The kind that lets us aimlessly and foolishly wander away from the castle."
"But I'm…" she trailed off. The gears seemed to be clicking in her head. "But Yaone's not here…and Oniichan's been away since yesterday…OH!" she gasped, jumping to her feet. "Can we get some meat buns?" Can we, can we, can we?"
He laughed, rumpling her hair playfully. "Of course! That's an important errand that'll take us a good hour or so to accomplish," he said in a fake serious tone. "So, we'd need to leave now before Yaone returns."
Immediately she was up and tugging his sleeve—and him—towards her door. "Come on, come on, come on!" she said impatiently.
"Hey now, we have to be quiet," he said, taking away his abused sleeve. "No one's gotta know we left. And if they found out, word would get back to your Oniichan and Yaone, and you know how mad and worried they'd be then."
She grimaced, her face paling ever so slightly. "Okay," she whispered, her footsteps softening as she moved up on her toes. "I'll be quiiiiiet."
He stopped and chuckled seeing her tiptoeing along very slowly. Without warning, he picked her up and put her on his shoulders. Carefully, he wrapped his arms around her legs and gripped her ankles.
"You'll be doing that for a while at that pace," he teased as he started to run quietly down the hall.
The marketplace seemed fairly busy when they arrived. Just in case, he'd grabbed two cloaks before they left and made sure she'd keep the hood up. Like any town, there had been troubles with youkai attacking townspeople and this one was no different.
"Ack!" she cried, jumping back into him. "Ya—Yaone! Yaone's over there!" Her shaky finger pointed towards the person in question, she looking very much like a human. No doubt she had a power limiter on.
"Come here," he said, dragging her over to a nearby alley. Together, they peered out from their hiding spot, and spied on her.
"I can't see! What's she getting?" she whispered, craning her neck out as far as it could go.
"Once she moves, I'll be able to see better. Right now, there're too many people…" he said, narrowing his eyes as he concentrated, mentally wishing the people would move.
Finally, one of the people, an old woman, moved away and he caught a glimpse of something gold…or was it silver?
"Hm, I think it's—Lirin?" He looked down and found her space presently unoccupied.
He sighed.
He would have seen her leave if she had wandered out the way they came. But the sounds of the marketplace continued on through to the other side of the alley. Turning, he just saw the tail end of her cloak disappear around the corner.
"Of all times…" he grumbled, chasing after her.
He would have thought that finding someone wearing a cloak would be easy to do, but it apparently wasn't his day for such assumptions to be true. The next stretch of the marketplace was teeming with travelers and others probably from nearby towns.
"Ah! HEY! You have to pay for those!" came the yells of an irate shop owner a few stalls down from the alley's entrance.
He cursed under his breath and scooped up the cloaked offender as she darted past. "Inconspicuous, inconspicuous…" he muttered to her as she continued to chomp down on a stolen meat bun.
"Whaffs zhaff?" she said asked through a huge mouthful of food.
"Hey, you the one watching this brat?" the shopkeeper exclaimed. "What kind of parent lets their kid do that?"
He frowned, glaring into the shopkeeper's eyes. Wordlessly, he pulled out enough money to pay for the ones she'd taken and a few more, and left. And the shopkeeper made no more fuss about it. He seemed too terrified to even move when he saw his clawed fingers doling out the change.
"Oi…you can't keep doing that. That stuff's what gets your Oniichan upset," he said quietly as they reentered the alley.
"…Sorry…" she mumbled.
Silently, he patted her on the head. "S'okay. Just know that we all worry about you."
"Mmm…"
Gently he smiled, handing her another meat bun. "Now let's see what Yaone was looking at, huh?"
Her entire disposition brightened up instantly. "Yeah!"
Upon resuming their positions at the corner, they saw that she was gone.
"Ohh, does this mean we can go and see what she was looking at?"
"Yes, but quickly. I just have a feeling that we'll have to bolt out of here right after."
Pushing through the crowd of people, they made it to the stall and were rendered confused.
"Jewelry? What would Yaone want with jewelry? And how come she couldn't bring me if she was looking at it?" she grumbled as they pushed back through.
"I don't think this would count as an important errand. Something else is up here," he wondered out loud. "In any case, we need to be heading back. We accomplished our errand for the day," he said, smiling again.
Upon tying the long distance dragon back up—and noticing that a couple others had returned—he slung his master's sister back up on his shoulders and bolted towards her room. He didn't want either of them mad at him either. As an afterthought, they yanked off their cloaks and continued on their way. He'd go back and pick them up later.
A couple of turns, up a flight of stairs or two, and soon they were on the homestretch. He dove down a different hallway, that'd take them up by the balcony overlook and if they got caught there, he could just say they were out walking around the castle.
However, he caught the sound of voices as he turned the corner towards the balcony and stopped abruptly.
"Hey, what—"
"Shh!" he hissed, peering around the corner. "See?"
His master had returned early from whatever he had left to go do. Casually he was leaning back against the railing, and she was holding something behind her back. The shade of the awning helped hide her blush.
Their voices became so soft he couldn't hear what they were saying any more. All he could catch was, "…to replace what she destroyed."
Her mouth moved more, her head bowing down as she held out a small package. And she fell silent as he took it away, opening the small box.
A smile spread across his master's face, his expression soft and caring. He'd only see him give her that expression, and only her. It was different from the one he got and the one his sister got.
It made him grin too.
"Okay, we've seen enough," he said, turning around.
"But, I wanted to see what she got!" she whispered loudly.
"I'm sure you will soon enough."
He could feel her sigh, her arms resting on top of his head. Slower now he traversed the halls and took the normal way back to her room. There didn't seem to be a reason to rush anymore.
"Hey, Dokugaku?" she said, her close voice loud in his ears.
"Hm?"
"Wasn't today the day a few years ago when Yaone joined us here? Oniichan always seems a little happier on these days."
He smiled and shrugged. "You'll have to ask her yourself. Like I said, that's not my business."