(AN: I'm back and I have more! I'd really like to keep this on a schedule of updating at least once a month, but I feel like I have less and less time for writing these days. I will continue to try and put this forth at a more reasonable pace than I have been, though!
Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, fav'd, and followed this story. It gives me so much motivation whenever I see a kind review, even just a short one - and of course constructive criticism as well. Enjoy!)
Chapter 3 - The Dueling Clans
Togao was exhausted down to his bones.
The Osafune clan had been an obvious first choice for him - they were huge, nebulous, powerful. But more importantly, they were cruel in their power, and so he'd made it a personal mission to destroy them first. Even stepping foot onto their land seemed to fill him with a kind of righteous fury, as they wandered through the demon settlements and he saw fellow inuyokai living in squalor. The conditions reminded him of human slums, a startling parallel - no dog demon should be so helpless, but here they were, crushed under the greater power of the nobility. He was angry in a way he'd never been before.
Satsuki had not tried to stop him, her own eyes filling with vengeance when he told her his plans to take them down.
"The sooner the better," she spat. From then on, despite whatever had passed between the two of them in the past, Togao and Satsuki were united in this one particular goal.
The battle that followed his message to the highest ranking clan lord came out of nowhere. It seemed like the soldiers had arrived from mist and shadows, armed and ready to take Togao and everyone who followed him to the netherworld. But where they had the element of surprise, Togao had numbers behind him - and he was nothing if not tenacious. The Osafune had attacked in the dead of night; by morning, the mercenary encampment was a bloody crater, strewn with bodies and entrails and reeking of death as the sun began to climb up over the horizon. A number of them were Togao's - humans, demons, men and women - but the large majority of the corpses were not.
After that he received no further contact from the Osafune's leader. While the survivors of the battle rejoiced in this, Togao knew what it really meant: he had made an extraordinarily powerful enemy, and worse things were yet to come.
Even quicker than he'd anticipated, he received another message - this time from a clan called the Tsukino.
"What can you tell me about them?" he asked Satsuki as she read over the invitation. He felt tense, irritated, still wound up tight from his latest battle. "Why do they want to speak with me?"
"Hush, your growling and yapping is making it hard to focus," she snapped. He plopped down, glaring at the paper in her hands like he could make the words pop off of of it and explain themselves to him. "The Tsukino hate the Osafune, and have for a long time. They're both too big for this place and they're constantly fighting over their borders."
"So they liked my challenge to the Osafune?"
"I think it's something like that. Their leader is the most conniving bitch you'd ever have the misfortune to meet," Satsuki laughed humorlessly. "She knows how to bargain. She could take everything from you and still make you believe you'd gotten the better end of the deal. I'm going to guess that she thinks you're too dangerous to be left alone one way or another."
"Do I take the invitation?" he muttered, furrowing his brows. "Or is this a trap?"
"Yes and yes," Satsuki laughed again. "For what little it's worth, she'll try her hand at negotiations before she does anything else."
"And then what?"
"Don't take anything less than we deserve from her. If she offers half, you take whole. Don't give her any reason to think you won't overpower her if given the chance."
Togao frowned, a feeling of foreboding deep in his gut, as he set out to write the Lady Rei back.
o0o
The day of the Inu no Taisho's visit came fast upon Rei and Izanami, and Izanami was nearly bursting with eagerness to see how this would unfold. She knew how to behave herself, of course, but there was still a part of her that felt a certain sense of delight in this kind of scandal and drama, a youthful love of turmoil.
She was also curious to meet the man who had given their rivals so much difficulty. In her mind's eye she envisioned a bastard, roughened from battle, uncouth and unlikeable. Her mother had warned her that she should be extremely careful of herself, not to be offended outwardly by his mannerisms no matter how poorly he behaved.
As they swept into the meeting hall and settled down on their platform she'd quite convinced herself that this would be a very entertaining visit. She was not totally wrong.
He entered the room before he was announced, a serious breach of etiquette, but he was either ignorant or rude and didn't appear to notice it. Izanami found herself trying to adjust herself suddenly to the swell of yoki that followed him in, an overwhelming aura that seemed to blaze around the room for a moment before settling. Rei straightened her back, smiling serenely, and gestured for him to kneel before the pair.
The Inu no Taisho took his place, fists on his knees, and stared at Izanami's mother almost defiantly. Izanami felt an odd jolt run through her, something she couldn't identify immediately; this man was hardly out of boyhood, it seemed, only just older than her. She took in the sharpness of his eyes, the markings over his tanned cheeks, and almost laughed out loud at his youth and freshness.
But he had defeated some powerful foes, and she knew it, so she pressed down her laughter and waited for her mother to speak.
"We are truly grateful for your presence today," Rei said, light and noble. "I, as you know, am the Lady of the Western Lands, Rei of the Tsukino clan."
She swept a hand out in front of Izanami, gently curling it and dropping it back into her lap.
"And this is my heiress, Izanami. Welcome to our home."
"Not that you gave me much choice," the man snorted, tilting his head. "Why did you ask me here?"
"There is a always a choice," Rei replied smoothly. "And I will get to that. I don't enjoy wasting my time any more than yours, so do not worry."
The Inu no Taisho shifted, already uncomfortable in his seiza. Izanami watched him with a certain sense of fascination, amazed at his indelicacy.
"I have heard many things about you," Rei began, leveling her head to stare directly into his eyes. "Of who you have defeated, where you have been. But what I find most interesting is the issue of your birth - you are Yasuko's illegitimate child. Don't be surprised that I know this; I had known her many, many years before you were born, before she or I had even transformed for the first time."
"You knew my mother?" he asked, the guarded expression on his face flagging for all of half a second before his hackles were raised again. "What's your point?"
"The Inazuma and the Tsukino clans have never been unfriendly with one another." Rei explained. "And now I come to find that you have fought our bitterest enemy, and won against them… well. It can only be natural to see you as a potential ally."
"I am not your friend," he told her, his face dark. "And in fact, I will tell you exactly what I told them: the reason I challenged them was not out of passion for conquest. I don't want your lands or your titles. I want to see your poor and weak cared for and treated with dignity, and if you will not see to it then you'll pay for their suffering yourselves."
"A very noble cause," Rei sighed, folding her fingers together. "But misplaced. The Osafune may take pride in their people's poverty, but we here detest it. I should not need to tell you myself; go into the lands around Saigoku and see for yourself. We care for our own."
"I understand your angle, Lady Rei," he replied. "Yes, in comparison to the Osafune, your lands are a paradise, but that's only because their standards are so shockingly low. I know why you asked me here; you wanted to strike while the iron was hot, and get rid of me before I caused you any trouble."
Rei laughed, clapping her hands together. Izanami sat still, waiting for her mother to deliver the final tactical blow.
"I certainly did, dear boy! We do not care to fight with those we can befriend. Ask any of the families who have willingly joined us," she told him, still smiling. "They may hate my guts, but I can very much promise you that they are better off with me than against me. You will be, too, and I'll see to it myself."
"You presume too much."
"I presume correctly," she interjected, holding up a finger to shush him. "Tell me, was your battle against the Osafune difficult? Did it exhaust you?"
The Inu no Taisho was silent, contemplative. Izanami watched a sort of sadness pass over his face, the darkness under his eyes suddenly more obvious to her.
"It was, and that was only to test your skill, for them to judge exactly how powerful you really are. They will have more to throw at you, all before you even have time to recover. You may have won," Rei finally said, "but you haven't won for good."
He heaved a deep, heavy sigh. Still, he maintained a certain defiance, a defensive and strong posture.
"What could I possibly gain by allying with you?" he asked her, slowly. "If you know I don't want land, money, or infamy?"
"I can give you what you crave the very most: the power to change injustices as you see fit," Rei told him simply. "With our power combined they may finally relent their persecution of both my people, and of those whose land they desire."
Izanami heard her mother soften, wind down, and immediately knew it was her turn to speak. She had done it many, many times before - though not tender hearted by any means, she was younger and came off as more sincere. If Izanami could not convince him, nobody could.
"Inu no Taisho," she said, watching his eyes snap over to her. "Your hesitation is understandable, but it is ultimately unnecessary. We are not interested in harming you."
"I'm a threat," he pointed out, his fangs flashing for a moment to prove it. "You are going to want to neutralize me one way or another."
"Of course, we can't have loose ends," she replied. "But you must understand the bigger picture. We could kill you, yes, but all that would do is remove you. What about the people you lead, who might want revenge? Where would that leave us with our troubles in dealing with the Osafune?"
He was very quiet, taking it in. Izanami thought it was a good sign that he seemed to be seriously considering it, and she finally pressed forward to her final point.
"We need you, Inu no Taisho, and you need us. Let's not allow our own prejudices to destroy what we've both worked so hard to cultivate."
She watched him, carefully staying honest and gentle; she didn't find it hard. They did need him - though they'd get on without him if they had to - and at the very least they'd been able to make an impression on him, to plant the idea in his head. At last he nodded his head once, looking back to Rei.
The fire behind his eyes glowed hotter. Izanami wondered at his intensity, if he was always this way, if he ever cooled off.
"I will consider your offer," he told the Lady. "However, I promise you nothing until I have discussed it with my tactician and my troops. I suspect they will have a lot to say on the matter, and my first duty is to them. I'll return to give you an answer in a week."
"Of course," Rei said, standing, and both Izanami and the Inu no Taisho followed her example. "I do so look forward to hearing your decision, and I thank you for your time. Please, stay a while and refresh yourself before you return-"
"No," he cut in. Another breach of etiquette, but this time it appeared intentional. "I will take my leave of you now. Thank you, Lady Rei, Lady Izanami."
He gave them each a curt bow, bending at the waist, before sweeping himself out of the room and away from the castle.
"It went well, even though he is an insufferable brute," Rei laughed, gesturing for Izanami to follow her out of the hall. "Come, daughter, let's go for our noon tea."
o0o
"Have you lost your mind completely?!"
Satsuki was in a bad mood, which Togao had expected and anticipated, but still had found himself dreading.
"You shouldn't even be considering it, let alone want to! They want to use you! They want to use all of us to do their bidding! I told you that there was no dealing with them," she hissed, her arms folded over her in anger. "You can't give them anything that they want or they will very literally take everything. Nobody will ever follow you into this!"
"You don't know that, Satsuki," he said, trying not to shout back and worsen her temper. "Where else are we going to get the chance to do something like this? How in the hell would we be able to defeat the Osafune on our own? You know how much trouble they've given us already, and that was only a fraction of them."
"We still won, moron," she snapped, pointing her finger at him. "You made all this fuss about humans and having enough manpower and now you decide it's not good enough? After we've already dragged everyone out here?"
"There still aren't enough of us, and the humans might help, but they are so damned fragile that we can't rely totally on them at this point," he groaned, rubbing his temples in annoyance. "We are going to have to get involved with the inuyokai's politics, whether we like it or not! It may as well be on our terms."
"Fine, if you want to sell your soul to the enemy, I'm not going to hold you back, but don't say I never warned you."
"Hiro wanted me to use my connections with them, Satsuki," he pointed out, watching her stiffen up. "That's why she put me in this position. It would be disrespectful and foolish of me to come this far only to ignore the rest of her plan."
"Keep her name out of your mouth, boy, if you're going to say things like that," Satsuki growled, her eyes narrowing. "I knew her longer and far, far better than you and she never would have turned us all over to them…"
"That's not what she told me-"
"How dare you."
Satsuki was breathing heavily, her pupils contracted into slits. Togao was quiet, knowing that it would be better to wait out her fury than try to argue now.
"You are our leader. We will follow you if you decide to do this, even if we disagree with your choices. But if you lead us astray, or betray what we stand for at our core, I will personally have your head."
Togao watched her go, felt the tension drain from the tent as she did. When she was gone he slumped, suddenly exhausted.
He couldn't decide on his own.
Satsuki was right, obviously, in many ways. He did not trust the Tsukinos and had a deep, gut feeling that they were going to give him an immense amount of trouble. The mother and daughter both seemed slippery somehow, polite at one moment and then frighteningly serious the next, unpredictable. He couldn't quite pin them down.
Still, he stood by what he'd said; Hiro had wanted him to use his connections, not abandon them. It was why he'd been chosen over anyone else to lead and guide her mercenaries, and why he'd been able to grow it into an army.
He pondered over it until his brain ached and he wanted to throw up, no solution ever coming to him, no guiding hand reaching down and showing him the right path. When he fell asleep that night, worn down by the stress of it all, the last thing on his mind was that perhaps Hiro had made a mistake in choosing him after all, and that his only true destiny was indecision and failure.
He dreamt of his mother and father, of their warmth and patience. Somehow it seemed so strange to him that either were capable of violence - but he knew that they had been. He had heard of his mother's clan, and seen his father kill firsthand. The images in his brain morphed into his little sister, of her laughing and dancing around the back hallways and open courtyard, her white hair whirling around her like frothy waves on a beach.
She'd been so young.
A voice whispered inside of his head that he should have just listened to her, that her wisdom had far surpassed him despite her age, that if only he had just chosen something definitely she would still be alive. He tried not to think about it in his waking hours, because it hurt, and because it was self indulgent to become obsessed with his own pain when the people around him had pains to be cared for too. But when he slept he couldn't forget her, her sweet face and bright eyes, how much he had loved her.
Uzume had warned him, and he hadn't listened-
Togao's eyes flew open, his body bolting upright in the darkness, cold sweat rolling down his spine. In a hurry he stood and dressed himself, slipping a sword through his obi and throwing his heavy fur pelt over his shoulders. He hastily sat, writing a note quickly in the darkness.
He was going to the north country. He would be back in two days. There was someone he had to see.
o0o
His homelands had changed very little since he saw them last.
The great, stretching mountains welcomed him with their clean, crisp scent, the air thinner and clearer. By memory he sought out the cave he'd been to many, many years ago, relieved to discover that the pack of wild dogs still roamed there and led him to the correct place.
Upon walking through the entrance he felt anxiety roll over him in a wave, so strong he almost turned around and left. The last time he had been here, he'd made a fool of himself and disgraced both him, and his sister. He didn't know if the inugami was still alive, or if she'd be happy to see him - but so much hung in the balance, so he pressed onward.
Uzume had not died. She was in the same place she'd been before, poking at a small fire and then turning to a rabbit that she was about to start skinning.
"I knew you'd return eventually, Togao."
He shifted nervously, tapping his toe awkwardly against the ground. "My lady-"
"You need help, don't you?"
"I… need to apologize," he sighed, as she stood and turned to face him. "I have behaved very foolishly."
"You have. But it is in the past," she replied, cloudy blue eyes fixed towards him. "You have had enough bad news to last you a lifetime, and there's still more to come."
"Ah," he breathed, the anxiety swelling again.
"Come, sit. I have much to tell you."
He walked over to her where she stood by the fire, and they both arranged themselves so that they were seated and comfortable on the rough straw mats that lines the cave floor. She was silent for a while, preparing her tea, offering him some, which he took gratefully. Finally she spoke up.
"I understand that your sister and father are no longer with the living," she sighed, tapping her fingers against the cup. "I am sorry."
Togao made a low noise in his throat. "There was so much I should have done, and didn't."
"And so much your kin shouldn't have done, but did," she echoed, her head lowering. "It pains me to tell you that I know of your mother's death as well. I do believe she passed easily from this world and into the next."
He swallowed down the bitterness that rose in his throat - still he knew that it was coming, and that he would not be there for it when it did. He had not choice but to internalize it, to accept it, and hope that her spirit would find peace. There was another moment of silence, Uzume allowing him to come to terms with it, before she decided it was time to move onward.
"Now, explain to me why you have come."
He went over the details of the Tsukino meeting, his conflict, the trouble between Satsuki's advice and Hiro's wishes. Uzume sat through it all, listening carefully as he talked, and at last she cracked a smile.
"Ah, I think the answer is already inside of you."
"I don't feel sure," he replied, sighing. "There are too many lives depending on me for me to get this wrong."
"A problem you will face many times over in your life," she said. "I can't just tell you what the correct choice is, although even I cannot say if there is one that is totally right or totally wrong. It's simply a matter of different pathways."
"That's not helpful!"
"Well, what's the conflict? You don't want to betray Satsuki or ignore your doubts, but at the same time Hiro left you instructions that you feel you must follow, and you desperately long for the chance to have a victory on this scale. Which is more important to you?"
"I don't know, that's why I asked you."
Uzume laughed, reaching forward and patting his knee.
"Listen to yourself, Togao. After so many years and so many battles you still sound to me like the young man you were when I first met you. You can't do anything unless you trust yourself."
"It's… hard to trust myself. I've gotten it wrong before and it cost me all that I had."
"But you picked yourself out from the ashes and went on living, didn't you? You love your little army like a family, and it would be a frightening thing to lose them, but losses will happen whatever you do," she explained. "Who are you, really? If you can't answer that question, you will never be able to decide what the right choice is."
He stared at the cup in his hands, watching the little curls of steam rising from the surface. He'd never given much thought to who he was, only where he was supposed to go - and he found the more he considered himself the more clear it all became.
Togao had been born the bastard child of a inuyokai noblewoman and an outcast inugami, had gone out into the world and risen in rank, and had even secured the fear and attention of the two most powerful inuyokai clans in all of Japan. He was part of a greater force, some unseen plot by the very gods that he had disobeyed.
"I'm called the Inu no Taisho," he finally said, quietly. "I'm a commander."
"Dog General," she repeated, a slow grin spreading across her face. "What does that mean to you?"
"It means that Hiro knew what in the hell she was doing," he laughed, finally feeling a little relief from the stress that had plagued him for the last few days. "Satsuki will be furious with me."
"There are always going to be people who disagree with your actions. Satsuki isn't wrong for distrusting the Tsukino, nor is she wrong for feeling anger and betrayal," Uzume explained. "But Hiro… she was a little like me. Not a seer, exactly, but she had a strong sense of intuition. I would not tell you to trust her final requests unless I believed them to be wise."
"I see."
"Like I said, the answer was already inside of you," she said, shrugging. "Next time you will be able to find it yourself."
"And what about the Tsukino," he asked, hoping for one last hint. "How do I handle them?"
Uzume laughed, long and loud, before she was able to reign it and and tell him what she thought on the issue.
"Get used to them! Don't trust them as far as you can throw them, but for your own good? Keep them close."
"Strange," he muttered, finishing his tea. "Very strange."
"You'll thank me for that advice," she laughed again. "Now let us catch up a bit before you go. I've missed the company."
o0o
The Inu no Taisho's promise held, and he returned to the Tsukino castle a week after their first discussion. Izanami was strangely thrilled by it, ready to see where his decision would lead. No matter what, there would be much to do and prepare for.
If he said no, they'd have to ready themselves to fight him and his army - that would be an easy enough task, given their superior strength and resources - but it would be a waste of his potential.
If he said yes… they would prepare to go to war with the Osafune clan, with his help. The prospect of finally putting their longest standing enemies in their place was delicious to her - they would savor that victory for a long time, if it did come to pass. But so much relied on the Inu no Taisho's choices, and Izanami knew better than to get over eager or excited about someone who was still such a wild card. She readied herself for anything he might have to say.
On the day that he returned to them, Rei had given the palace guards strict instructions to only allow him to leave if she gave the go ahead - her determination to either win him over or fight him to the death was driven by the knowledge she had procured since their last meeting. The council had gone over it all with her, at her insistence, after scrounging up all possible information about him.
The Lord of the Nomiya clan, Yatsuhiro, had been the first to come forward with it, since he'd been the one to bring it to their attention to begin with. The Inu no Taisho's real name was Togao, given to him by Yasuko of the Inazuma after she vanished into the mountains. He had no close, living relatives - the Inazuma were absorbed in bits and pieces by other clans during a period of extended peace. Some married into the Osafune, some into different clans in the northern mountains, and others were absorbed into families living in Tsukino territory. The bloodline was mixed, no longer pure, and the name was extinct.
"His mother, father, and sister are all dead. There were never any records of either child officially," Yatsuhiro explained to the gathered members of the council. "But we were able to track down the place where he grew up, and some of their servants still live. He left shortly after childhood."
"May the gods bless their souls," Rei said somberly, closing her eyes slowly. "But it brings us to an interesting predicament. There is little he has to lose."
"Perhaps, my lady, but I believe that he is still vulnerable to fear and misjudgment as anyone else would be," an elderly lord chimed in. "Perhaps more so… with his mentors all dead and gone, he has little guidance."
"We must still be wary, and not underestimate him," Izanami said sharply, causing the old man to bow his head in submission and respect. "He may still prove to be a danger to us, as he was to our enemies."
"An excellent point," Rei said, smoothing her elegant hands over her obi. Izanami's spine prickled with pride at her mother's compliment, straightening her back and holding her head higher. "It's almost certainly too soon to judge him as a simpleton - and from all we have been able to see he is far from vulnerable or alone. Thank you all for your time. You are dismissed."
After they departed, and the two women began to walk through the quiet back pathways to the large, central meeting hall once more, Rei spoke up.
"The Inu no Taisho is extremely dangerous, I've learned," she said, voice lowered so that only her daughter could hear her. "He was the one who killed his father. The servants were quick to offer that information."
Izanami swallowed her shock. "How did it happen?"
"The inugami went mad and killed his daughter, before turning on his son," she explained. "And the boy ended his life right then and there. I would expect the same of my own child, of course, and I would certainly not fault him for having the strength of conviction to get rid of… foul connections, no matter how closely related."
"But my lady has reservations?"
"I suspect that his compassionate, idealistic behavior is only a front. He is Inazuma; their ways were brutal and their people were battle minded. They say that you could always count on an Inazuma to be the last one standing, that they would keep on fighting until they'd either been defeated by death or there was nobody else left to fight. He has found a target… I believe he will not relinquish until he is either killed himself, or he is victorious."
"Much like us," Izanami replied, understanding.
"Almost too much like us. I do not trust him," she instructed. "If he decides not to take our offer, he will be detained and killed. It's simply too risky to let him live otherwise."
"As you say, my lady." Izanami nodded, her gut twisting strangely. Already she had been duped by this man, and though her mother may not have known it she felt foolish and ashamed - he'd appeared every bit as upfront and honest as he wanted them to believe he was. This time, she resolved, she would be far more observant, more critical, more controlled. The pair of them eventually reached their destination, walking in through an arch towards the back of it and sitting down on the thin cushions laid down across their platform. Izanami adjusted her fur around her, letting it fold over her arms like a great, long snake, fluffing herself up to appear larger. She did not want to appear small or delicate for this meeting - neither did her mother. The time for political charm and negotiation had passed, now that his choice had been made, and what followed on its heels was much more immediately dangerous.
The captain of the guard, Kenta, announced the Inu no Taisho's arrival, and instead of leaving once he'd arrived he stood by the entrance and blocked it bodily behind the other inuyokai. The Inu no Taisho did not appear phased, though he'd clearly taken notice of this. In fact, he smiled, his face self-assured and confident despite the possible threat. Izanami read this as either a good sign, or a very bad one; either way, he was certainly plotting something.
"Welcome back," Rei announced loftily, pleasantly. "It pleases me greatly to see you once more."
"And I you, Lady Rei," he replied without missing a beat. Izanami noticed now that he appeared more comfortable, and with the comfort came a certain kind of roguish attitude. He smiled brilliantly at the pair of them, his teeth glinting like ivory daggers over his bottom lip as he sat himself down and placed his open palms over his knees.
"You have considered our offer, then?"
"I have," he told her, nodding. "And I have decided that it would be mutually beneficial if I accepted."
"Ah, excellent! Then I am sure you have considered that there will be conditions?"
"Of course, my lady," he laughed, a deep, resonant sound. "And I'm sure you know that I'll have my own, but I will hear yours first."
"Wonderful. Scribe," she called to a kitsune servant that was waiting behind their platform. "Be sure to write this all down."
"Yes, my most honorable lady."
"The first is very simple: if we catch wind of any plotting or betrayal on your behalf, your head belongs to us. There will be no bargaining and no second chances."
He nodded, and though his smile barely faded, Izanami caught him swallowing heavily.
"Secondly, as you have brought to my attention before, your army may take issue with your decision. I ask that you release any of those who do, since it would not serve either of us to have insubordination. The troops that remain under your watch from that point forward would be at our disposal - but any tactical decisions, of course, would include your input."
"You run your military like you run your territory," he pointed out. "I accept that condition as well."
"Finally, I expect that on the occasion that we defeat the Osafune, you agree that those lands become the Tsukino's lands. You are not a lord, and have no need of them. If this displeases you, then you are free to remove your support now."
"Of course not," he half-snorted. "It's as I've said before. I don't want anyone's land."
"Then you have agreed to all of my terms?"
"Yes, but you haven't heard mine," he replied, flashing an even brighter grin.
"Go on."
"I only ask that when this is over, you allow me to maintain command over the troops that I have now and any new ones I've acquired by the end of this campaign - assuming they were not yours to begin with."
"Simple enough!" Rei replied happily.
"And one more thing - I ask that I be allowed to live here until the battle is finished. I want to know the people that I'm offering these services so exclusively to, and I'm sure you'd rather be able to keep a close eye on me anyway."
There was silence, and it was deafening. Rei was rarely ever shocked into silence, and a quick glance told Izanami that her mother had not prepared for such a request. Her face had lost its pleasant, aristocratic smile and had been replaced with raised brows and tight lips. She looked like she was scrutinizing him, trying to discover his angle, mentally going through what ulterior motives he might have had. After a little while the smile returned, but Izanami recognized it as being cracked by hesitation.
"That is, I'll admit, an unusual request," she said. "But I will allow it. Just remember my first rule, and no harm will come to you."
"We have a deal."
Rei stood, a cue for everyone to follow her example. She gestured towards the guards who were lined up against the opposite wall, and they lowered their weapons - the Inu no Taisho turned at the sound of metal clinking and shifting and visibly tensed, his dark, heavy brow creasing. He must have realized how near he'd been to utter disaster, because the cocky smile was gone when he faced Rei again. Perhaps it wasn't totally a front that he was a young, inexperienced idealist, because he looked truly surprised.
But then, she simply couldn't be sure. Everything about him was wrong to her, the way his speech kept on switching between polite and improper, the fact that he dressed and looked like nobility but seemed to swagger around and hold himself almost carelessly. In her consideration of him she had lingered too long, and his gaze caught hers - she was inwardly embarrassed, afraid she may have shown her confusion, but she leveled him with her iciest glare.
He swallowed heavily again, the game of chicken over when he looked away.
o0o
Togao got the impression that he was walking through hell, that all around him the fires rose and licked at his feet, his hands, his face. One wrong move with this family and his head would be cut clean from his neck without so much as a warning.
Still, he could not help the rush of triumph and joy that swept over him when Lady Rei had agreed to his slightly unorthodox request to live with them. It was simply that he was following Uzume's advice, and was keeping them close by at all times. The troops would also be close by, in the sprawling grounds just out of view of the castle itself, so he would be able to pass from place to place as he pleased. It all felt like things were coming together, and he congratulated himself as a monkey servant showed him to his quarters, where he would stay for an undetermined time.
He slipped inside and breathed deeply, looking all around him.
The Tsukino palace was massive, clean, and light. From the outside it almost appeared to be floating high above the ground, surrounded by clouds and swirls of delicate white mist - it was sentimental of him, but it reminded him a little of his childhood home in the mountains. Here, however, there were no happy screeches of laughter, no warm, comforting scents of his family, just space and air and unfamiliar yokai. It was the slightest bit unsettling to him, but he was sure that it wouldn't take long to get used to it.
He'd halfway settled into his bed chambers when he heard the heavy tread of a soldier coming down the hallway, and immediately he bolted stick straight upwards, eyes on the door. It was the guard from before who had blocked his pathway, a man who he guessed was the captain. He stopped in the doorway, tapping the butt of his spear once on the ground - Togao noticed the head of it was shaped like a crescent moon, a detail he found a little excessive - and announcing himself as Kenta.
"The Ladies Rei and Izanami would like to ask that you meet them for the evening meal," he said slowly, his voice deep and drawling. "Since you are living as a member of the household now."
"Ah," Togao said, partly dumbfounded. He had been looking forward to being away from them for the evening, to soothe the stress of the day, but he suspected that refusing the invitation would be foolish. "Tell them I'd be delighted."
"Of course," Kenta replied, raising an eyebrow. "A wise decision on your part. There will be a servant sent for you in a half hour. Please be prompt."
And then he was once again alone, and considerably more baffled. They had sent presumably their most capable guard just to ask him to dinner - Togao connected their behavior from earlier and realized that they were treating him with caution, more than he had treated them with. To them he was dangerous; a wild grin broke out over his face, another rush of delight going through his veins. It was tempered, just slightly, by the fact that he could be disposed of in a moment's notice. He'd give them a hell of a time though, if they tried.
After a while another servant appeared, this one an inuyokai and dressed in slightly finer clothes than the monkey. She bowed, her white hair falling over her shoulder and obscuring her face, barely mumbling "please come with me" as she straightened up and began to walk away. Togao caught up to her and followed her, down three large staircases and through the gleaming, fresh halls of the main section of the palace. Finally they turned, where the rooms became darker and more comfortable, personal. He was not having a public meal: if he should have been flattered, he was agitated instead, feeling unsafe and claustrophobic here.
"How lovely," Rei exclaimed, clapping her hands together as he walked in. He gave her a curt bow, enough to be polite but not gracious. "Does our guest find his accommodations acceptable?"
"Very, my lady," he said, following the servant to where she gestured for him to sit. It was at one end of the table, opposite the other three - there was a man he had not met before sitting beside Rei, but not as closely as Izanami. "It may be more space than I'm ever going to need, though."
Rei smiled cloyingly, gesturing broadly with her arms.
"What's ours is yours now, isn't it? Please eat."
Togao could hardly say no to that; he hadn't eaten in a good few days and though an inuyokai could handle going that long without food, it was still pleasant to have a full belly. The table was filled with good tasting things; the shanks of a wild boar, the tender bits of meat from the back of a fat, unworked ox, delicately removed organ meats and offal. He took a deep breath and it all seemed to smell as it should, delicious and not tainted with anything that might poison him, so he decided it might be safe to eat.
"I don't believe you have had the chance to meet my husband," Rei chimed, finally reaching and pulling a plucked, raw pheasant towards her. "Toshiyuki. Izanami's father."
"Pleased," Togao said, nodding at the man. He only nodded back, saying nothing. It was strange how still he was - his face was impassive and reserved, almost inanimate. He had not been involved with any of the political dealings thus far. Togao knew that it was a matriarchal clan, but to see such a quiet husband still surprised him a little. He said nothing about it.
"So," Rei began, leaning her upper body forward in interest. "Surely you are aware of the exciting implications of your decision to ally with us?"
"Which implications? There are many, my lady."
Izanami snorted, a delicate sound, before she took a sip of her tea.
"We must make it public knowledge!" Rei told him, apparently delighted at what she was about to reveal. "The members of our house, court, and council must know who you are to avoid offense. There's really only one way to do it."
He raised a brow, unsure of her meaning. Izanami spoke up next.
"A party," she explained, her smooth, pleasant voice also tinged with amusement. "It puts more of an impression into people's heads than a council meeting or a declaration. You'll be a guest of honor, of course."
"Oh."
"What did you expect?" she said, the gleam in her eyes teasing him. Togao felt his mouth go dry - there was something unusual about Izanami, a certain reserved cleverness, like her full potential was nowhere near discovered. Her dainty, small smile made him feel suddenly stupid.
"I hardly know what to expect," he returned, flashing his brightest smile back at her. "All that has transpired today has been… unconventional."
"Well said," Rei laughed, and busied herself with another pheasant.
It was not until after dinner that Togao, once again, realized that he was being constantly interrogated, always watched and picked apart. Rei was almost like some sort of sorceress, able to cast him into a stupor with her pretty words and deceivingly kind demeanor. Satsuki had been right; she was conniving, slippery as an eel, too clever to be outdone. It was taking all of his mental power to keep up with her.
And that said nothing of the daughter. Though she had not spoken much, everything she said had a purpose; she was bewitching, a curiosity. As he lay on his futon and tried to sleep off the large meal he found her passing through his head, over and over. Her tiny, painted mouth smiling secretly, her bright gold eyes as she laughed at him…
He had fallen asleep before he had a chance to understand what his thoughts about her meant.
(edited as of 3/27/2018)