Chapter 37 - Muchitsujo-rei Moves
Muchitsujo-rei circled the rebuilt anchor, shocked, outraged and, although he was loathe to admit it, not a little alarmed. He'd had no idea it was capable of achieving anything like this strength. He could no longer afford to pick away at it with his underpowered anchor; he needed a much bigger hammer, and very soon. Reluctant as he was to engage them, he decided he would need to employ dai-youkai. There was one he could count on to react reliably to a perceived threat.
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Very little escaped the notice of the Lady of the Sky Dog Clan. She watched, smelled, and listened to everything that passed by on the winds, weighing each snippet of information for what threat or benefit it offered to the Clan's standing. Although it was well outside of her declared domain, she observed the flaring of an aura to the East that could not fail to arouse her.
"How very curious," she mused, tapping her claws on the arm of her seat of observation. "It's almost as if he's returned. But I know he's gone; I sealed the tomb myself."
However, she had sufficient reason for doubt. The pearl that sealed the tomb's gateway had vanished soon afterward, along with one of his swords. She suspected the duplicity of his personal minions; they never had accepted her authority. Still, she had not been able to determine just what they were trying to do, and so many years had passed that it no had longer seemed important. Now, though... Was there some plot to hide him deep underground until they had mustered the strength to oppose her openly?
No. He was gone. Too many things had happened since that day that would have had him out of hiding in a heartbeat. So, just what was that aura?
She had not done a tour of the domain for a while. It would give her a reason to depart the palace while she discretely investigated the curiosity to the East.
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It wasn't a dragon, but the elemental was still a powerful water spirit. The village had been very surprised when it had reared up out of the river at dawn, demanding restitution for some slight to its honor. InuYasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Kaede had all been summoned immediately.
Kagome and Kaede were currently talking to the elemental, trying to find out the nature of its insult and what they could do to appease it. Miroku and Sango had stationed themselves at one side of the crown while InuYasha hung at the other edge, enough separated from the villagers that he could move if need be, and listened in on the negotiations. A bad feeling was flirting about at the back of his head and he was having difficulties restraining the impulse to jump in and snatch Kagome away to safety. He passed the time studying the creature.
At about thirty feet long, it combined elements of fish and salamander, with silvery, iridescent fish scales, gills and a fishlike dorsal fin attached to a salamander's long supple body. The long slender tail sported a rippling fin structure down its length, top and bottom, and the salamander feet and hands were heavily webbed and tipped with slender, stiletto claws. Large black eyes, a carp's whiskers on its snout, and a multitude of small, sharp, backward curving teeth in its mouth completed the picture.
Kagome was remarkably effective when treating with youkai and spirits. She was one of the rare mikos who believed the spirit had as valid a viewpoint as the mortals she served and she could generally negotiate a suitable settlement in even highly charged atmospheres. Today, however, it wasn't going well. The creature's complaint remained unidentified; it insisted that they knew what they had done and were just being obstinate. Kagome was at a loss for ideas; the spirit had angrily rejected all of her suggestions and roared that it was tired of being trifled with.
InuYasha reviewed the last week or so in his head, trying to think of anything unusual that had happened. It didn't make any sense. The river was just beginning to flood from the spring thaws and no one in their right mind went anywhere near the icy, rushing waters which were laden with floating debris from the mountains. It was just too dangerous. He wondered idly if that damned otter had anything to do with it. No one had seen him for about a week.
Meanwhile, even further in the background of his consciousness, another dialog entirely was taking place. The elemental was subtly probing at his youki, testing its strength and coherence. InuYasha's vortex stirred and rippled slightly, declaring itself with a warning surge of dark power and sending out with its own probe. InuYasha had never really interacted with youkai before on this level. Up to this point, his hanyou senses had not been keen enough to detect it. Wondering, he followed the flow of his youki as it quietly informed the water spirit he was not a pushover.
The spirit was not buying it. It looked him over again with feigned indifference and decided it was a clever, hanyou bluff. InuYasha became certain that the whole thing was a show trumped up to require offerings and steal influence from the local water spirit, who was a gentle creature, friendly to the village, but with no temperament for fighting. He loosened Tetsusaiga in its sheath and pulled quietly farther away from the village council, giving himself room to maneuver.
To InuYasha's horror, Rin appeared at the back of the crowd and started working her way around to InuYasha's position holding a fussing baby Noriko. Rin was visiting again, one of her regular seasonal visits, and she had been pressed into baby-sitting duty along with Shippo for this crisis.
"Rin!" InuYasha snapped quietly, "Get her out of here!"
"Um, it's just, she's getting hungry," Rin said anxiously. "Is there something I can give her?"
Rin was looking stressed herself. She and Shippo had been dealing with InuYasha's brood all morning, but this was the one thing they couldn't handle. InuYasha glanced quickly back at the water spirit, took a deep breath and fought down his escalating anxiety.
"We would be honored to provide you with a cask of very fine sacred white sake," Kagome said, bowing gracefully before the creature. "Inari has always found it pleasing, it was brewed from the first fruits of the harvest..."
The creature ignored her and glanced toward InuYasha and Rin, noticing Rin's arrival with interest.
"Oh, great," InuYasha muttered, detecting a surge of glee in the water spirit's aura.
"I accept the gift of the maiden and the infant," it declared, looking directly at Rin.
"Ohh!" Rin gasped, wide-eyed with shock.
"Shit!" snarled InuYasha, savage with dismay. That just blew the whole situation to Hell. He stepped firmly in front of Rin and drew his sword, letting its youki flare to life.
The river spirit surged up from the bank, supple and far swifter than one would imagine a water creature would be on land, knocking aside the two mikos and confronting InuYasha directly. Kagome seized Kaede's arm and half-dragged her off the riverbank. Together, the mikos herded the villagers toward the high ground of the shrine while Miroku and Sango covered their retreat.
"Hand them over," the water spirit commanded. "This is the price my honor demands."
"Not a chance," InuYasha replied. "This whole thing stinks of a fishing expedition."
"The insolence," the water spirit muttered, flinging a torrent of water from the river at InuYasha.
InuYasha broke the flow with Testusaiga, then used the water vortex to form a backlash wave. This idiot needed a fast lesson, right now. While the spirit shook off InuYasha's attack and reformed his youki vortex, InuYasha seized Rin and carried her to the high ground of the shrine. Riding high on the escalating gyre of his own vortex, InuYasha skimmed out across the air to confront the elemental again.
The spirit called the river up out of its banks, flooding the lower fields and pulling the water ever higher, toward the village houses and shops.
Ah, damn, this was going to be about as bad as fighting a kami. InuYasha felt his own vortex spinning into a fever pitch as he reengaged his opponent. His senses sharpened, he felt as light as the air, Tetsusaiga was a ray of light in his hands. The rising heat of his youki blood jolted through him, hotter with each pulse of his heart, but the darkness did not overcome him; his mind remained clear and focussed, his passions controlled. Something had clearly happened since the dark days of Kagome's abduction. He wondered how far he could he trust it.
The water spirit formed the flooding waters into a water spout and sent it dancing toward the village watch tower. The hapless man on duty collapsed to the floor of the platform, crying out to the village kami for his salvation.
Pure force was not going to take this creature out; water could break and reform around a physical blow. He needed to sap it down. Dragon-scale transformation? He knew he couldn't absorb all the youki of an entire river, but he just needed to shatter his opponent's vortex. He opened up his senses, seeking through all the twisting, spiraling, youki currents surrounding this youkai for the true heart of the vortex. It had been a very long time since he had had to use this level of precision; the rippling distortions made it hard to find the heart of power in the midst of the undulations. He unfocussed his eyes and let his preternaturally sharp nose seek out the currents, pointing him to the thread he needed to follow. Ah, there it was, a silent eddy shimmering with scents of fresh fish and wild wasabi spinning behind the water spirit, reaching out to the river itself for its immeasurable power. And to disrupt it, he needed to cut just - so. Testusaiga sliced out in a wide flat arc, just skimming over the water spirit's head, casting a razor-fine line of power across the sky. The spirit's vortex blew apart; the water spout wobbled, faltered and fell back to the flooded fields as the form of the water spirit itself grew translucent and wavered on the edge of substance. The spirit grew darker, pulling itself back together.
"Kongousouha!" InuYasha swung Tetsusaiga around in a great circle and followed up with spray of diamond spears that lifted the elemental into the air and blew it across the river, sealing it on a large rock on the far bank. An outline of the spirit remained impressed into the rock, pierced with a handful of diamond pinpricks while the rest of its body melted away and ran into the river.
As InuYasha's vortex quickly dissipated, he drifted back to earth and resumed his normal capabilities. He had expended far more power in those few short moments than he normally put out in a week. His knees felt watery as he touched ground and he missed the youkai that flew overhead as his head swam in exhaustion. He wobbled to a nearby tree and clung to its trunk while he waited for his vision to clear and the roaring to leave his ears. By the time Kagome had run down the stairs from the shrine and bolted across the square to his side, he had slipped down and was sitting propped against the trunk of the tree, shaking.
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The Lady of the Sky Dog Clan circled over the battle site three times as she sniffed the air rising from the conflict. She had not been mistaken; the scent rising from below was nearly identical to that of her long-dead mate. This close in, though, she could detect the human musk, the mortal depletion, that would not accompany a full youkai. This must be that hanyou bastard. She had known about him, of course, but had ignored his existence; a dai-youkai would not let such a small thing disturb her. After all, most of them died, unmourned, in a handful of years.
This one was proving stubbornly long-lived. He also appeared have become strong enough to require serious consideration. If that was indeed Tetsusaiga in his hands, the sword had acquired unexpected capabilities since she had last seen it. The woman hovering beside him, acting like a bitch aiding her mate, was a powerful human miko. She sniffed the air again, then frowned in consternation. He was also breeding up a pack, the first step an ambitious dog makes when acquiring a domain; there were already three pups that were a strange and potent mixture of youkai and miko. This must be dealt with, now. Another unexpected scent drifted across her nose, the scent of that little girl her son fancied, now grown to nearly a woman.
The Lady had thought very little escaped her notice, evidently she was wrong. Very many things were happening about which she knew nothing. Hasty decisions at this point could prove disastrous, but she must move decisively to secure her position. She turned her attention to a tour of her borders as she pondered her next move.
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"Come on, Jaken-sama, I've been ready for ages!" Rin picked up her towel and fresh clothes and stood, waiting impatiently, for her escort.
"I certainly hope Sesshomaru-sama appreciates the sacrifices I make for him," Jaken grumbled as he picked up his staff and plodded after the girl. He still found escort duty for Sesshomaru's young ward beneath him.
"I'm sure he appreciates listening to you whine," Rin replied nastily.
"That is no way to speak to your betters," snapped Jaken.
"Yeah, well, about that..." Rin remarked, tying up her hair. Now fifteen, she was, if anything, even more full of herself than she had been at twelve. Lately, she had taken an inordinate delight in needling Jaken whenever possible, smugly secure in her privileged position with Sesshomaru.
"Enough," Sesshomaru said firmly. Both his retainers jumped and scurried off to the hot springs up the hill.
Sesshomaru could tolerate the bickering. They did it so much he had become used to it. He could not tolerate the delay. They had been in this location too often of late; it was Rin's favorite bathing spot. He did not want to establish a known travel pattern. It was bad enough that he regularly touched base with InuYasha for Rin's visits.
Rin and Jaken had only been gone a few minutes when Sesshomaru felt the aura of another youkai. Eyes narrowed, he sniffed the air for more information. It was a dog of respectable strength, although not on his level, one he had known well at one time. Karimaru, a vassal lord serving his mother - what brought him here?
"Come out. I know you're there." Sesshomaru said quietly.
A strongly built man, appearing about thirty-five years old, wearing the uniform of Mother's household and a brown fur cape across his shoulders walked out of the hazels at the edge of the clearing. Hand on his sword, he bowed curtly to Sesshomaru and said, "Sesshomaru-sama. Your honored mother sends her regards."
Damn! She'd found him.
Sesshomaru nodded back and said impassively, "My honored mother is often in my thoughts."
"But seldom in your presence," Karimaru responded, his eyes opaque, his thoughts invisible. It was Mother's script, Karimaru was merely playing the messenger. Sesshomaru waited for the rest of the message.
"Your honored mother, The Lady of the Sky Dogs, requests your immediate presence."
Of course she did. She didn't have any other whelps left to destroy with her machinations. Even her mate was now long gone. He was the only one left.
"I will come at my earliest convenience," Sesshomaru replied.
"I have no doubt you will. However, the Lady has charged me with ensuring the case." Karimaru's hand was on his sword as he spoke.
Sesshomaru knew he could cut Karimaru down, but it would serve no purpose. Karimaru was far too cagey a warrior to come alone; he no doubt had several dogs hidden in the background to support him if needed. Sesshomaru could probably deal with them too, but that put Rin at risk.
"Very well," he said, "I ask your indulgence for a brief errand, then I will be at her disposal."
Karimaru relaxed and nodded. "No doubt that can be accommodated." Then his eyes flashed a brief warning as he remarked, "Sesshomaru-sama is advised to come bearing a suitable bridal gift."
Sesshomaru's eyebrows rose. So the old bitch had found another mate to burn up. He would have thought her reputation would warn away any suitable prospects. She must have found someone from far away who did not know the gossip. She was still beguilingly beautiful and could fascinate the unwary for a long time before her cold, conniving nature became apparent. This was the best news he had heard from that quarter in years.
"Indeed. I will need some time to consider."
"Not too long, my lord," Karimaru cautioned. "Her patience runs thin." And who knew how long Karimaru had been hunting his lady's last son.
Sesshomaru thought about what would please his mother while he waited for Rin and Jaken to return. She had an unfortunate taste for sweet, young innocents; he wondered if she would consider something more robust. Or perhaps a rare artifact: she enjoyed exquisite baubles, especially if imbued with some magic power.
A short time later, Rin and Jaken reappeared from around the rocks and hopped the last few stones into the clearing. They were still bickering.
"Well, excu-use me if I ... Ohh!" Rin pulled to an abrupt halt when she saw Sesshomaru's visitor, Jaken blundering into her from behind.
"What are you doing, Rin?" Jaken grumbled, pushing her to get her moving again, then falling silent as he, too, saw their visitor. Karimaru looked at them casually, but Sesshomaru was disturbed to see the veiled interest in his eyes.
"It would appear I have an invitation to visit Mother," Sesshomaru informed them.
"Oh!" exclaimed Rin, looking intrigued and excited. They had met Sesshomaru's mother once before, and she was curious to know more.
"You will not be going," Sesshomaru said. "I will be taking you to visit InuYasha's family while I am there."
"But we just left there!" Rin cried rebelliously. "Please Sesshomaru-sama, I..."
"No," he said shortly.
"Don't you trust me?" Rin snapped. "I'm not a baby."
"I have no concerns about your conduct," Sesshomaru replied. "It is Mother whom I do not trust." Rin was growing far too close to womanhood. Mother had not quibbled about the young Rin, but now she was nearing the age of Father's human lover when he had first met her. Mother was unlikely to permit a second such transgression in the family.
"Oh," Rin said, looking puzzled. She had no idea how ruthless Mother could be.
"Jaken comes with me," Sesshomaru added, knowing Mother would ask too many questions if he came completely alone.
Jaken puffed up smugly as Rin fried him with a jealous glare.
"It won't be pleasant," Sesshomaru informed them both; they were too locked in their petty competition to heed his words. So be it.
Rin grumpily slipped her belongings into her shoulder bag, then she and Jaken mounted Sesshomaru's dragon-steed. Sesshomaru chose to lead the beast today, so he could talk to Karimaru privately as they flew.
"What does Mother have up her sleeve this time?" he asked quietly as they set off to Kaede's village.
"My Lady does not take me into her confidence," Karimaru demurred.
Sesshomaru snorted under his breath. Mother did prefer to keep her plots private, and Karimaru cultivated the air of an inattentive bumbler, but Sesshomaru knew Karimaru made it his business to know exactly what she was doing at all times. His and his clan's survival depended on it. Whether Karimaru was being reticent because he was being monitored himself, or whether he had other reasons for silence, it appeared he was not going to tell Sesshomaru directly what to expect. Very well, let's see what he could find out.
"Of course. Have there been visitors to the palace?"
"There have been visits from the matriarch of the Storm Dogs recently," Karimaru replied. That would have been general knowledge, a thing he could safely say.
Sesshomaru considered it carefully. Old friends, bitter rivals; it was impossible to say which way the wind was blowing this time. Sesshomaru grew even more wary as he reflected on what those two bitches could be plotting together.
InuYasha was very surprised to see Sesshomaru back so soon, and with an escort. He and Karimaru eyed each other discretely, each sizing the other up.
"What's going on?" he asked Sesshomaru quietly as he helped Rin slide off the saddle with her belongings.
"Mother has summoned me," Sesshomaru said shortly.
InuYasha looked at the competent Karimaru again and replied, "I see."
He didn't, really. InuYasha had never been considered powerful enough to entertain Mother's notice. As far as she was concerned, he was just the by-blow of her mate's unfortunate infatuation with that little human maiden long ago. He had no idea how fortunate he was that Mother considered him insignificant.
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The breeze sighed softly through the hut, sending a loose strand of hair tickling across Shiniri's face. He scrunched his nose up, blew at the strand, then swept it out of his face with his hand. With those brief motions, any pretense of meditation dissolved and he returned to the world of petty grievances. A stiff ankle, an itchy arm, the whine of an early mosquito, all conspired to ground him firmly within his skin, a separate being from all the world around him, bored, and obliquely annoyed.
He was supposed to be considering the question: 'What is the sound of a blooming flower?'
He cast an exasperated glance at his master, Kurumi-sensei as he resettled into his lotus posture. How was the answer to this inane question supposed to lead him to anything useful? He wanted instruction about how to achieve the path to Nirvana. This was leading absolutely nowhere.
Kurumi-sensai, himself, was meditating on the puzzlement that was Shiniri. The young monk had turned up on his doorstep, ragged and hungry, just as the last warmth of autumn was giving way to the bleakness of winter. He seemed the embodiment of the storm that drove him there, raging, wailing, a soul in utter disarray.
Kurumi had brought him in, served him tea as a balm. Shiniri had completely shattered the tranquility of the ceremony with his desperate needs.
He was a refugee of Azukizaka Honganji, and before that, some nameless farming village. His traumas had left in him an aching yearning for security. The True Land sect of Amida Buddha spoke to that need, but had failed to give him security in this world, in this time. He burned for a fast path to Nirvana, a place he envisioned he could curl up in with utter security as the agony of the world passed him by.
Kurumi was a Zen master. For him, the world was here, immediate and inescapable. In Zen, one did not escape the world, one escaped into the world, became one with its entirety, all its singularity and multitudes, caught in the purity of a single moment as a lone plum petal lands on the undisturbed surface of a garden pool and ripples it imperceptibly.
The silence and emptiness of Kurumi's tiny garden was filled with the entirety of the Universe. Here, he wandered among the stars, rode the summer breezes, became the dreaming butterfly as it fanned its wings in the early morning sunlight, to die today and be born again as the ancient pine tree who watched the man it shaded, the butterfly it supported.
And here Shiniri sat, so filled with his needs and passions that he was barred from the Infinite. He was a great disturbance in the garden, a raging ball of self, walled out of the world by his perceptions.
If there ever was a soul who needed the wisdom of the Enlightened One, it was Shiniri, but he clung tenaciously to his desires, his needs, the fierceness of his self-centric viewpoint. He would not release the familiar comfort of his agony to touch the silence that would save him.
Kurumi sighed and allowed his thoughts to dance on the flickers of sunlight reflected on the garden pool. How could he help Shiniri to understand that to attain Nirvana, one must first lose one's self?