tarantella two: down to earth, by way of sea
(women who burn from love, how pitiful)
Riku looks over to his madam from where he's perched against the window sill. They're in the meeting room of Kirinmaru's flagship, currently battling stormy waves en route to the Kanto region.
"Ane-ue, are you sure it's not time yet to awaken Kirinmaru-sama?"
Zero purses her lips. She's still content to keep her brother out of the loop for now. She had already decided not to involve him until the time came for immediate action and that wouldn't be until the children were born. As it stood, Sesshoumaru had all of his eggs in one basket; the hanyo's safely tucked in their mothers womb. He would have a much easier time protecting them as long as the three were one.
Also, if she's being honest, she's not sure Kirinmaru would be completely on board with what she's planning. Giving him an opportunity to think things over and negotiate with Taisho's son before his children were born wasn't likely to work out in her favor. Secretly, Zero was banking on the fact that her brother was prone to doing uncharacteristically rash, imprudent things whenever he felt backed into a corner.
"Yotsume's dream gazing spell will be sufficient for now. No need to escalate the situation prematurely." The owl yokai puffs out his feathers in satisfaction.
"It's an honor to be of such assistance to you in this most vital of matters, Zero-sama," Yotsume says with pride.
Zero rises from her seat and moves over to where Kyuki is gazing into her crystal ball. She stands next to the female member of the Shikyo and watches the parade of scenes that play within the glowing orb. A mass of glimmering stars. Sesshoumaru's bride climbing and falling from a ladder. The girl thrashing about in a starlit pool. And the grand finale—The burning sphere; the harvester of the couple's doomed romance, falling from the heavens to destroy them both.
She lets her face fall in mock sympathy. "Another nightmare for the little human wife? You know, sometimes I think what we're doing might be just a little cruel."
Kyuki responds, doubtful but with a knowing smile. "Cruel, Zero-sama?" she says. "My lady, you've been merciful so far. As has Kirinmaru-sama. We've spent so many years trying to do the honorable thing while those western dogs mindlessly chase their tails and run themselves to ruin."
Kyuki moves her hands over the glowing orb and summons back the nightmare.
Yotsume puffs out his feathers again and adds his two mon. "I agree with Kyuki-sama; we all know it's long past the point that Taisho's descendants got what's been coming to them."
They view the images in the crystal ball as they replay again from the beginning. This time, when the human woman emerges from the water to the embrace of her dream-husband, Zero's mocking frown becomes uncomfortably genuine. It wasn't like she hated the girl or anything. Why, she'd never even met the doll—No, her problem with Sesshoumaru's wife was simply that she was a common mortal who had no business carrying on the bloodline of the illustrious dog general.
If anything, Zero thinks the girl deserves better. What would someone like that get out of being Sesshoumaru's human pet anyway? Warming his bed for a few decades—The shamefully brief period of time human women had before becoming withered and feeble—and then dying and passing into an afterthought; a minor diversion on his endless journey?
Really, if the poor dear was content with that…well, as far as Zero was concerned, any suffering she endured as the result of questionable choices was entirely her own fault. If only she'd stayed in her place and married a nice human boy, she could have lived out her days unbothered and in rightful anonymity.
But no, Zero thinks darkly, she'd had to reach far beyond her grasp and Sesshoumaru—refusing to take any sort of lesson from his father's disastrous actions—had lowered himself to meet her.
"Ane-ue, you look so sad," Riku chimes in. "If you don't like being cruel, why continue with your plans?"
Zero bites back an exasperated sigh. Riku had come a long way but the boy still had an annoying habit of taking things too literally.
"Riku, if I look sad, it's only because I'm in mourning for what's become of the great daiyokais of this land," she says. "With things the way things are right now, cruelty is...necessary."
That was right, necessary. Zero was only trying to set things right. Protect her brother from humans and hanyos.
"Suffering is a fact of life, Riku. Think of it like we're actually doing them a kindness; teaching them a lesson that recklessness and desertion of duty has consequences."
"Hasn't Kirinmaru-sama deserted his duty? Doesn't his slumber make the entire Eastern Domain vulnerable?"
"That's what the four perils are for."
Riku doesn't question her any further and goes back to looking out the window. A process watcher by nature, he often kept track of the ship's trajectory while it returned from sea. He'd scan the scenery for landmarks, noting which islands they were by passing by and how close that meant the vessel was to reaching its destination. A seagull flies over to peck at the window and Riku smiles and playfully waves at it through the glass.
Kyuki reacts with exaggerated disdain and Zero wonders if she's aware that Riku is more capable and dangerous than her and the rest of the four perils combined.
"I don't know why you bother, Zero-sama," Yotsume says in a low voice. He throws a glance back at Riku, then sticks up his beak. "He's hopeless. He never listens to any of us—"
"You mean he doesn't listen to you, Yotsume," Zero interrupts, her protective instinct for the boy kicking in.
The owl's four eyes widen a bit at the dig and he changes the subject.
"I've been meaning to ask; Sesshoumaru's mother—Should we be expecting any interference from her?"
"Yotsume, if I feel there are going to be any problems relevant to your involvement in this, you'll be informed. You're on a need to know basis, in case you've forgotten," Zero says.
Yotsume's dream gazing spell was a vital part of her plan but this temporary importance to a major plot between powerful daiyokais had gone to his head. He seemed to forget sometimes that he wasn't even a member of the Shikyo.
That he questioned her about the lady mother specifically was a factor in her shortness with him. Although she understood why he did it. She didn't know when and how, but somewhere along the line, the owl yokai had gotten on her bad side and bore a resulting leeriness of the crescent-mooned bitch.
As for Zero, she didn't think they had anything to worry about when it came to Taisho's first wife. For that fact she's simultaneously grateful and also, frankly; disappointed. Sesshoumaru is an adult and far removed from his mother's apron strings, but she still wonders how the woman can possibly sit back and let her son conduct himself this way without any attempt to intervene. Zero has experienced taunts from the sneering dog queen for having emotions she considers beneath her. She would counter that, perhaps, if the cold and unfeeling woman had cherished her husband the way Zero had cherished him, she might have given a damn about what was happening to their son. She'd meant what she'd said to Riku earlier—The cruelty was necessary. People just didn't care anymore. They needed the sense knocked back into them.
She believes Sesshoumaru's mother is the reason why she never warmed to him. She'd found it hard enough even when the man was a pup. As soon as he was born, Taisho would proudly show off his son to his comrades, acquaintances and, when he ran out those, any proximate yokai with a functioning eyeball. But for her, Sesshoumaru simply took too much after his mother. By the time he'd reached adolescence, the last time she had any sort of intermittent contact with him, he reminded Zero almost entirely of her beloved's wife and not at all of his charming father.
There was one way, however, that Sesshoumaru had taken after his father and, unlucky for everyone involved—It happened to be the worst way.