Chapter 5. Fox Eye Opening
Inu-Yasha worked like a man at with demons on his heel as he furiously read the reports his men had given to him. It has been a month since the day Lady Kikyo was taken from the Ichiban no Sakura. Since that day, Inu-Yasha seemed like a man at war with himself. To him, the rest of the world no longer existed. Only his goal of finding the traitor kept him going.
But nothing about the investigation seemed to going as planed. Many of the leads resulted in nothing but a dead end; the rest needed more time for the follow up. Only one report from his agent Miroku concerning the Rat's activities seemed promising. The report noted that Naraku have estates in the northern border and before the invasion, he often had dealings in that area. During the last five years, he often vacationed at that estate even though the fighting was so close by.
Miroku was quite through in his compilation. Every activity from the name of the whores Naraku frequents to the thugs he keeps on the estate was included. But as thorough as the report had been, there were no outstanding evidence to suggest Naraku was the traitor or even in support of the traitor. His shady dealings were hinted aplenty, but there were only whispers for support.
On the other hand, a minor official with just enough authority to have access to the necessary information seemed to be making visits up north every two month, "tenant problems" supposedly. Nothing too out of ordinary because the fighting had caused many families to abandon their farms in search of safety. Though it did not seem like his family was wealthy enough to support the espionage enterprise, there was always the possibility of hidden funds and partners in this scheme that Inu-Yasha's agents had not located.
'Too bad there is nothing to tie Naraku to this guy besides the obvious,' Inu-Yasha thought in disappointment. Frustrated to the point of pulling out his long silver-white hair, he shouted out loud, "Arg! Why couldn't the fuck'n bastard just hang a sign that says 'I'm the traitor'! Making my life a living hell. Bastard mutant rat."
Besides obstructions
in the investigation, the gap between Sesshomaru and him seemed to amplify.
The last time the two brothers spent any span of time together was at Sesshomaru's
wedding. Their perspective fathers arranged the marriage and neither
the bride nor the groom seemed to object. The weeding it self slipped
by in a blur. Inu-Yasha recalled neither the wedding ceremony nor
the party afterwards. He barely recalled meeting his sister-in-law,
Lady… For the life of him, Inu-Yasha could not remember her name.
Since then,
Inu-Yasha had spent more and more time alone. He no longer ate dinner
at the old manor, thinking that Sesshomaru would want to spend time with
his wife. But all that was irrelevant to his current investigation.
A muffled sound outside his door suddenly alerted him that he was no longer alone in this part of the manor. He had his manor built about a half-hour's ride from the center of the city for its peace and quiet. The possibility of the sound penetrating his office from the road outside the gate was next to impossible; only the fireworks from new years ever reach that part of the manor. In this case, a sound that was almost in audible, near his office, and during that time of the night instantly made Inu-Yasha suspicious.
He quietly lifted his sword, the Tesusaiga, from the mantle on the wall and walked cautiously out of the room. The noise came from the direction of his bedroom. Though almost nothing of real importance was placed in his bedroom, some valuable not to mention sentimental items, like his mother's book of poetry, were left there. Using every once of stealth he could muster, Inu-Yasha slipped into the room hoping the intruder had not notice him.
Fortunately, Inu-Yasha was a skilled stalker and the intruder was too busy concentrating on his task of searching through the drawers and shelves within the room to notice his entrance. When he finally noticed Inu-Yasha, it was too late for him to get away. With a swift swing with the back of the Tesusaiga to the base of the skull, Inu-Yasha knocked the man into a world of darkness.
Not wanting to
cause a big commotion within his own home by waking the servants, Inu-Yasha
quickly and quietly relieved the man of his weapons, mask, and sandals.
Afterwards, he diligently tied the intruder's hands and feet together in
a secure knot. When there was nothing more to do, he began to wait
for the thief's revival to the world of the conscious.
Inu-Yasha examined
his room during his short wait, taking stalk of what had been disturbed.
The valuable items that thieves would go for first in the room seemed to
have been moved left mostly untouched, slightly out of place but none missing.
Instead, the papers and books looked like a typhoon blew through them.
Letters and reports lay scattered all over the floor. Pages were
ripped from books and crumpled into little balls and thrown all over the
room.
Though the search
seemed to be at random, Inu-Yasha can't help but feel that the man was
searching for something specific. Some instinct triggered by the
search in his room forced him to check his office. Just as he reached
the door to close it, he saw another dark form slipped noiselessly out
of his office. With the agility of a cat, the second intruder vaulted
over the balustrade surrounding the garden carrying a small sac in his
hand.
Enraged that his home was being invaded and not wanting to be out done by some petty thief, Inu-Yasha raced to catch him. They splashed through the empty water lily pond and raced through the dying trees while each man trying his hardest to catch the other unaware. Even with his incredible agility, the thief was no match for Inu-Yasha's speed brought on by rage. Before the thief could reach the outer wall of the estate, Inu-Yasha was on him.
It was a silent game of tug-o-war between the two as each tried their best to hold on to the bundle of stolen goods. Inu-Yasha clearly had the upper hand in the strength department since the thief was chosen for their stealth not strength.
Unexpectedly, the silence of their struggle was broken by the sound of the tearing fabric as the contents of the sac spilled on to the ground. Distracted by what the objects that fell from the pouch, Inu-Yasha gave the thief the precious moments to allow him to scoop up an item and made his escape. More surprised by the contents of the bag than upset at the thief's escape, Inu-Yasha absentmindedly picked them up and went back to his prisoner. By then, the captured thief had wakened from his unnatural slumber and was struggling with the bindings.
"Don't bother trying to escape," Inu-Yasha coldly informed the prisoner as he studied the man. The man, no, the boy had a round face that was showing early signs of puberty, ordinary brown eyes, but a remarkable rust color hair and a slight frame that would be ideal for thieving. But despite his features, there was something about the man that tickled his memory.
"Who sent you?" Inu-Yasha impatiently asked his prisoner. Silence greeted him as his angry golden eye bore into the insolent brown ones. "I will give you one more chance to answer me, who sent you?"
"No one, we came on our own" was the defiant reply.
"Now, let's not lie to the angry man with the sword." Inu-Yasha gave the boy a cold smile. "If you think you could fool me with your pathetic excuse for a lie, then you are wrong. Or, if you think you can goad me into killing you before getting my information, then you have another thing coming. Now answer the damn question, who sent you?"
"You can't force me to do anything, you… depraved peasant. Your father may be a great lord but your mother was nothing but a low class peasant!"
Angry that the boy would dare insult his mother's memory, Inu-Yasha struck out at him. "Don't you dare to taint the memory of my mother! And where the hell did you hear the word 'depraved' from? You say it like you just learned it."
True, his wonderful mother came from a house much lower in station than his illustrious father. But she was no common peasant. Besides, only few people even knew of their differences in rank. The outrage of that marriage had long blown over and only a select few people knew the whole details concerning it. But the mere fact this intruder knew of it suggested in depth knowledge with the inner workings around the palace.
"I may not be known as a philosopher, but even a child could figure out where you came from. In fact, you sound like a child. Okay here's what we are going to do. I'll even make it easy on you. You answer all of my questions and I won't torture you. If you lie, I will start braking your bones starting with those quick fingers you have."
Inu-Yasha saw the struggle in his eyes before he bowed his head in defeat.
"I'll start out easy this time. What is your name?"
Hiding behind a curtain of rust colored hair with a subdued air, the boy answered "Shippou. My name is Shippou."
***
Sesshoumaru
was filled with nervous energy. Even lounging in his study, calm
eluded him.
The current tension at court was so thick that the daily bouts of bickering between Naraku and the brothers had become full-blown war of words. His spies at the palace informed him that a probe had been ordered by the emperor to look into the possibility of a traitor. This news seemed to make The Rat's seat catch on fire. The fact that Inu-Yasha had been chosen to be the head of that probe caused no small amount of irritation and surprisingly, pride.
'My little brother, all grown up. Doing important missions for the emperor. He could've at least told me! But… no use for anger now, more important things are at stake. Who could the traitor be? Inu-Yasha no doubt will uncover many devious plots of the palace, but he does not have the right mind set for fine-tuned espionage detection. I guess it's my duty as an older brother to help him. What would he do without me…" Sesshoumaru sighed.
With his normal scowl firmly placed on his face, Sesshoumaru rang the bell to summon Jaken.
***
"So what you are telling me is that, the ring of thieves you belonged to were told to break into my house in the middle of the night to steal something you don't personally know. The other boy, Kahoka, knew because he was the leader. The fact that no one, save this Kahoka, knew who exactly controls this rings just makes it all the better! And whatever garbage you sprouted about my mother was just a random guess on your part." Inu-Yasha surmised the information he forced out of Shippou, the thief.
"What kind of moron would break into someone's house, on orders, and don't know what to steal!?"
Angry, hurt and tired beyond endurance, the fuming young thief bit out with no small amount of hatred, "the kind that don't have a choice, jack ass!" That brought a halt to Inu-Yasha's tarred.
"You are an war orphan," Inu-Yasha stated without a hint emotion as to how he felt about this bit of news. He knew that the war was won at a grate cost but he had never personally seen the devastations of that war. Looking into the eyes of the young thief, Inu-Yasha realized for the first time that the glassy look in this young thief's eyes were the same look in Lady Kikyo's eyes.
Exhausted from the late hour, the fight, and thinterrogation, Inu-Yasha decided to givee the young thief a chance. A part of him that was rational and alert tried furiously to stop the insane plan but he firmly squashed that voice down.
"I'm too tired to argue with you right now. So here's what I'm going to do to you: if you swear that you would not betray or steal from me then I'm going to let you go. You can stay here from now on. I don't care. I will provide tutors and any other living necessities for you. In return, I may in the future need you to run some errands for me, nothing completely illegal. However, if you don't swear the oath or betray that oath, I will lock you up and make sure that you will live till the end of your days without ever seeing sunshine."
Shippou nodded his head emphatically and promised with all of his heart to all of Inu-Yasha's conditions. But through it all, he looked at Inu-Yasha like he lost his mind.
'Perhaps I have lost my mind,' thought Inu-Yasha with grim humor.
***
The sound of a sliding door woke Shippou from his slumber. His confused mind still could not comprehend his sudden turn of fortune. Two weeks ago he belonged to a gang of thieves, stealing for a living. Today, he had become a houseguest of the great General Inu-Yasha, the greatest war hero.
'That guy is kind of cool,' Shippou thought to himself, even if he would never say those words out loud. But looking at the new kimono the servant left in the room, Shippou quickly revised his opinion of Inu-Yasha, 'that guy is the biggest jack-ass on the face of the planet!' He can't believe Inu-Yasha was stupid enough to give him a child's kimono to wear, again!
Shippou gradually grew use to the routine at the estate. The two weeks had passed in a flash. He still put up a show of distaste on principal but respected and admired Inu-Yasha greatly in secret. Though many times, Shippou employed great amount of self-control to stop himself from lifting a valuable from the house and hit Inu-Yasha on the head.
'I swear he makes me do the writing lessons as a way of torture,' Shippou thought sullenly. 'Why do I have to learn to read and write? "Make sure the ink doesn't drip; the sleeves must be kept clean; correct pressure on the downward stroke, blah, blah, blah." That guy is such a egotistical jerk.'
While he was reflecting on the unfair punishment he was now forced to endure everyday, the servant Myoga quietly slipped into the room. "Shippou the master bid me to inform you that he will not be home to eat with you tonight. He will be at Lord Naraku's estate for the birthday celebration."
"That insensitive jack-ass! Making me write this crap all day and then doesn't even have the decency to come back and check it."
Myogo just shook his head and quietly slipped out of the room.
Inu-Yasha did not really want to go to the birthday celebration for Naraku. But an opportunity to look at the grounds and poke around was too good to pass up. He invited his friend, confidant, and agent Miroku to accompany him instead of his servant Myoga. Miroku would be much better at finding out secret information about The Rat than the flea Myoga.
Miroku was dressed for the occasion like Inu-Yasha. His Hair gleamed in the tight low ponytail; his earring sparkled under the firelight; his kimono impeccable in a tasteful blue. Despite these civilized touches, there was something about Miroku that always made Inu-Yasha feel like being cautious. Of course, the problem with Miroku's lecherous habits was not the cause of those feelings.
Inu-Yasha broke away from Miroku as they entered the dinning hall. Miroku knew what needed to be done and Inu-Yasha had no worries about him. He just hoped to be able to tolerate the gloating smile on The Rat's face during the celebration. In Inu-Yasha's mind, even providing a distraction for Miroku was not enough of a incentive to be in Naraku's company.
He was prepared for hours of torture-like display of cordiality and formality. Inu-Yasha was not prepared for the sight that greeted him behind the screen door. At the head table, Naraku sat in the seat of honor. To his right sat Prince Shinwa representing the emperor. Inu-Yasha's place would be to Naraku's left in honor of both Sesshomaru and him.
But behind the three seats, sat a woman of exceptional beauty. Her lowered head could not hide the looks of curiosity at the party. Inu-Yasha knew her pinned up dark hair could cascade like waterfall down her back and her gray eyes could sparkle like a diamond. For the first time in almost two full moons, Inu-Yasha had come face to face with Lady Kikyo.
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