Chapter 6
Wearily he opened his eyes at the sound of a glass being set beside his head. Turning he saw his cousin step into the hot spring with him. He was beginning to hate the task mistress before him. His hands ached from all the sword work she'd put him through, not to mention learning Sankon Tetsusou and Hijin Ketsusou. His legs ached from the running and leaping and that damn slow, precise youkai kata she forced him to do three times a day. And if she called him baka deshi one more time he'd scream.
"I think your ready Cain." Her voice was as calm as ever. He wondered if she felt half the pain he was feeling. "Now it is your turn to be the sensei. How did you track me."
"I remembered everything you taught me about Amatsuotome, and then I added what I knew of you. I stopped at any bar I passed, got some of my best information on you that way. But this will be a bit different." He paused thinking, allowing his mind to travel all pathways and probabilities. Finally he spoke. "We know that whoever did this has not attacked anyone else. So either it was an isolated incident, or it was directed at our family." He heard her soft growl and continued. "With the recent problems Uncle Se and Dad told me about when I went to the office, it is possible that they are connected. It would distract both of them from business dealings. I still think there is more that I haven't been told. I do think it is safe to assume that whoever did this specifically targeted Keiko, for a purpose other than just an assault on a college freshman."
"So how do you suggest we proceed?" She asked impressed at his reasoning. Like her Uncle Inu, she was never one to strategize, she depended on her strength, speed and ferocity to win the battle. But here was his own son, totally opposite.
"First when we return to Tokyo, we need to back track Keiko's trail. Visit the places she went the week before the attack. Someone might know something, or have seen someone following her, asking too many questions about her."
"Wouldn't the police have done that?"
"Yes, but people will tell a beautiful woman or handsome man things they won't tell a police officer."
She chuckled, "There is the Cain West I met."
As the morning sun rose two figures bowed before the shrine of two legendary fighters, silently asking for their strength and wisdom in the upcoming battle. As one the turned and walked to the waiting bikes, training was over. Now was the time to walk the trail of vengeance.
Having visited every spot Keiko had been they started over, night after night they had gone to bar after bar. From dawn to dusk, from the highest class nightclub to the lowest class bar with its nightly fights. Leena was beginning to appreciate Cain's determination. 'No wonder he was able to find me.' She smiled to herself. The routine was always the same, enter the bar separately and always him first. She entered knowing that her silver white hair caused stares, she would go straight to the dance floor and stay there for a couple hours, while he milled through the crowd. With a soft growl he'd indicate it was time to leave. This bar was nothing new, she had been dancing about an hour when the song came on. She didn't mean too, but it was the one she always did her kata's too, her body moved easily into the flowing moves.
From his seat near the dance floor he turned to watch, forgetting his date and the friends he was with. He watched noting the power in her carefully controlled and slowed movements. Like a moth to a flame he rose and moved to stand in front of her, matching his movements to hers. When the motion required it she moved easily into a backflip. When her arm stretched over him, he too executed an easy backflip. She dropped her leg sweeping under his now airborne form. Landing behind her his leg swept to down her, but once again she leapt into the air. Neither noticed the dance floor clearing or that the DJ had repeated the song, only the slow, demanding and precise movements of the youkai kata which must be obeyed. When completed after the third repeat of the song, emerald eyes stared into emerald eyes. Both fighters took deep breaths clearing their minds. Smiling at the red head before her, the female turned to walk out of the bar.
With a deft motion of his delicate hand he called one of his companions to his side. "Get the women a taxi to take them home. And Hiei, find out who that woman was." Never in his three hundred years had he seen a hanyou with such power. She was Himesama he had no doubt, but which Taiyoukai was her sire?
Himesama = daughter of a nobleman