While Watsuki Nobuhiro and Joss Whedon certainly aren't responsible for the behavior
of the characters in this chapter, I don't feel wholly in control of them either. Somebody
please load up the Yukishiro-specific tranquilizer darts?
Edodale
By wombat
Chapter 16
Yumi ran back along the path from the koi pond, skidding to a stop in the leaf-strewn
courtyard. The familiar icestorm of Enishi's hair was visible beyond the festival booths
and decorations. He was still half-crouched in front of the shrine entrance, swivelling to
look under the row of torii he'd leaped down from. Both of them must have just missed
Kaoru's exit. "Hey," she called across at him.
His watou's forward slash whirled back into a casual salute when he recognized her,
grazing his hair with the blade. "Yumi, love." Slinging the sword over his shoulder again,
he strode to meet her in the middle of the courtyard.
At worst, he looked mildly vexed, which was reassuring. Not that there was ever a good
way to tell what he was thinking, but his crazed attack mode was always really obvious,
and this wasn't it. Affectionately, she said, "You stupid. One of these days you're going to
chop off your head when you do that. If it rolls into the bushes, I won't help you find it."
"Plenty of other excuses to head into the bushes, aren't there?" His teeth flashed
moonlight at her. After a quick kiss, she boosted herself up to sit on the counter of a
booth behind her. He did the same with the booth across the aisle. "But what're you doing
here, and who's that you're chasing? Just run off under the torii, whoever it was; wasn't
Battousai, by any chance? Didn't quite have the look of him, but you might know better
than me."
"Nah, that wasn't him, just the little bluebird he's taken up. I guess he's done with her for
tonight, so he sent her back out."
"He'd never. You're having me on, aren't you?"
"Well, not right now, but I might if you're nice to me." She blew a kiss at him.
He pretended to be flung against the booth wall by its impact. Still lounging on his side,
he brought his legs up as well to rest an arm on one knee. If the counter were higher, he
probably would have been swinging the watou back and forth by the cord around his
wrist, but instead he just tapped the end of the sheath against the flagstones. "He's letting
her fly away home? Did you tell him he can't get my sweet dove back from me, or isn't he
even making a proper go at replacing her?"
She shrugged, with more flourishes than strictly necessary. "Not my problem. So, what're
you here for?"
Lightly, Enishi leaped back down, flicking his attention back up to her face as he crossed
the aisle, even though her half-unzipped cleavage was now at perfect eye level for him.
"Well, if he's really given up on Tomoe, praps I needn't much worry. You planning to
stick with him now?"
"I'm kinda on my own these days, actually. So I keep track of how Bats is doing, but I
don't really hang around with him much."
"Must get a bit lonely," he murmured. "Jineh's not with us these days, so you're welcome
to come back if you'd like. Two's company and three's even better, hey?" He toyed with
the tendril of hair trickling down her neck, twining the strands around his fingers and
lightly caressing her skin.
Damn, she'd forgotten how good he was at this. But this was not a good time for it.
Double damn. Where was Kenshin, anyway? And for that matter, where was Hiko?
A surreptitious glance at the torii answered the latter. There was the boss creeping in now
around the booths, looking for the best way to use that one crossbow bolt he had with
him. If he had an extra bolt, he wasn't holding it in his teeth ready to whip into place. Oh,
crappy freaking crap. There was only one way for everybody to get out of this, but she
was prepared to make that sacrifice.
Before Enishi could notice anything strange, she leaned forward and mashed his face into
her chest. While making the appropriate sounds, she used her free hand to frantically
wave Hiko away, then whipped off her overcoat and flung it behind her in the direction
of the koi pond. Weighted down by the gauntlets stuffed into the pockets, it landed with a
satisfying thump. So did she as Enishi pulled her off the booth counter. Hiko better have
taken the hint. She sure couldn't tell which way he was going.
---
There was a plate of perfectly good kitsune-zushi in front of the fox statue that Sano was
leaning against. Or at least the rice-stuffed pockets of tofu seemed perfectly good except
for being as cold as the stone pedestal they were sitting on, when he'd furtively poked
them a few minutes ago. If anything, they were probably even colder now. But food was
food, darn it. On the other hand, even though he still wasn't sold on this whole kami
business, it might be a bad idea to steal snacks from between Inari's own paws.
After okonomiyaki at Kaoru's, he'd ambled toward his own home. But even before he got
to the front porch, he could hear his parents arguing and throwing things, and that was
with the doors and windows closed. At least one of them had to've been drinking tonight,
so neither of them would've cooked anything anyway. It was better to stay clear for a
while longer. He left his bookbag on the doormat and wandered off again for a few hours
in search of odd scrap to turn into weapons or pocket money. Or maybe even both; he'd
known all along that fishbones made out of pure silver would be way too soft to be useful
in combat, but Kenshin had talked him into making a bitty prototype anyway, and better
yet, paid him for it. Okay, it was annoying to see Kenshin getting all the benefit from that
now, but Kaoru did seem to like it as jewelry, so maybe he could make a few more for
Hiko's gallery to see if they'd sell.
The UC Edodale campus was the major scrounging zone that was the farthest one from
home, so he'd gone there. At the end of every school year, the out-of-town students
always threw out everything from their dorms or apartments that wouldn't fit into their
cars, so he could rescue all kinds of perfectly good gadgets, dishes, and other stuff the
local pawnshops would love. But it wasn't even the end of fall semester yet. All he'd
found tonight was a denim jacket that someone had spilled bleach onto. But other than
that, it was practically new, and it was bigger than his old one, which was getting thin at
the elbows and tight under the arms. In fact, it was big enough to layer on top, so he was
slightly warmer than usual, despite the frost. Maybe he could talk Kenshin into redyeing
it, as long as it didn't end up that wussy pink color. After that, he could plaster "Aku"
onto the back by himself.
In the meantime, Megumi's shrine wasn't exactly on the way back from campus, but it
wasn't that far out of the way, either, and it would delay getting home for a while longer.
But now that he was here, he wasn't sure what to do, other than look at the kitsune-zushi
with impious thoughts. That, and wonder what Hiko's car was doing here. Either he'd
signed in for the new ritual tonight after all, or he was here to pick up Kenshin. And that
looked like Kaoru's mom's car beside it, so it must be about time for everyone to come
out and go home. Car number three probably belonged to Megumi's mom or stepdad.
He kind of wanted to talk to Megumi, but he wasn't sure he wanted to do that with one of
her parents around. Or what he wanted to say. He couldn't really ask her out on a date,
any more than he could've asked Kaoru or Yumi. Not if he wanted to treat her to a dinner
that wasn't frozen pizza, and there was no way he'd be able to afford the kind of stuff
Megumi was probably used to, as the daughter of two or three doctors. But it didn't look
like he'd ever be able to detach Kaoru from either version of Kenshin, and he wasn't
about to get between Yumi and Hiko.
But he didn't want to give Megumi the idea that she was his last resort, either. Back in
kindergarten, he'd been put in the time-out corner with her and Kaoru after all three of
them had taken apart the classroom dolls in different ways, and they'd been friends ever
since. But toward the end of intermediate school, she'd taken some test that qualified her
to go cram a year of college-level courses into six weeks of summer camp. Now he felt
weird and dumb around her-- not too much to just hang around, but enough that he didn't
feel comfortable flirting with her the way he automatically did with Kaoru.
Frustrated, Sano scrubbed his fingers through his hair and decided to go home after all.
Halfway through the parking lot, though, footsteps came pounding down the stairs into a
flying leap at his back. When he rolled over to punch his attacker's face, he got head-
butted in the stomach instead. He crawled halfway under one of the cars for his own
protection and heard an astonished, familiar voice from farther behind. "Why on earth are
you attacking poor Sanosuke that way?"
"Oh jeez." Kaoru apologetically tugged at one of his feet to help him out again. "Sorry,
Sano, I thought you were someone else. What're you doing here, anyway?"
"Spitting gravel," he demonstrated. He leaned back against a tire to adjust the shoe Kaoru
had pulled loose. "Is Megumi still up there? That looks like her bike by the entrance,
right?"
"Um. Mom, can I stay here and talk to him? My bicycle's still here too, you know, or
maybe I could ask Mr. Hiko to drop me off instead."
Joyce Summers sighed, unlocked her car, and settled behind the steering wheel. "I don't
think so. You're acting really strange, the way you're walking looks almost dizzy, and
see, your face is all hot and flushed. I'm worried you might be coming down with
something."
"Can I just talk to him while you warm up the car, then? He can help me bring over my
bike and load it in, too."
"Oh, all right. But hurry up, or you'll catch a chill. You really must be starting on a cold
or the flu already, or otherwise I don't know what's gotten into you tonight."
Sano got to his feet as Joyce closed her door and turned the ignition. He muttered to
Kaoru, "Maybe she doesn't know, but I bet it had red hair."
She growled and kicked his shin, making him hop after her toward the bike rack. "Shut
up. Listen, this is important. Yumi says it looks like Tomoe's gotten powered up again,
and I saw Enishi running around up there with a ridiculously dangerous-looking sword. I
was going to grab the box of fishbones and extra crossbow bolts from Hiko's car, but now
I've been caught by the Mom Police. So you've got to take the box up there instead.
Okay?"
"And who are Emu and Tennessee?" She kicked him again, and grabbed the handlebars
to finish walking her bike to the car. "I'm joking! I know, I know-- they're Kenshin's old
pals like Yumi, only they're still bad guys, right?"
"Right. I don't know if Hiko's car is open, but if you've got your lockpicks, that shouldn't
be a problem."
Wrestling the bike into position inside the trunk, he protested, "I'm a law-abiding citizen."
"With a really short memory, because you helped me unlock my bike last week when I
left my keys at home. So can you help or not?"
"All right, all right. See you Monday, unless you're too sick to take that history test." As
Kaoru waved out her window, Sano waved back, then kicked the gravel underfoot on the
way to Hiko's car doors. She hadn't said if she'd already killed Kenshin for the night, but
Sano figured that otherwise she wouldn't have left the shrine yet. It didn't occur to him, or
Kaoru, what else she might have forgotten to tell him.
---
Why had Kaoru said nothing about Megumi? Hiko wondered, among other things. He
folded Yumi's coat over one arm, as his silver gauntlets were too bulky to extricate from
her pockets either quickly or quietly. Neither of those adverbs seemed to apply in great
measure to the diversionary tactics Yumi was deploying on Enishi. While it would be
imprecise to speculate whether she knew what she was doing, Hiko hoped that she had
evaluated the possible risks beforehand.
A clearly marked path led away from the courtyard, a few paces beyond where the coat
had landed. Yumi's aim had been remarkably good for such an impromptu trajectory.
Presumably Kenshin and Megumi were waiting at the other end of it, though he saw no
sign of them when he reached the edge of the koi pond, where the path forked to encircle
it. The surface rippled with lantern light, and the splashes of insomniac frogs or fish
echoed from the waving reeds on the far shore. However, one branch of the path led
toward a little island with a gazebo perched on it, and the scent of smoke blew across
from there. He went to investigate. The gazebo's interior lay in shadow from the moon
overhead, so it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and another to
interpret what he saw.
"Miss Rosenberg?" She lay on the floor like a doll that had been dressed and discarded by
an impatient child. Her clothing was both familiar and strange-- he'd certainly never seen
her nor any of her fellow students wearing anything like this, but he recalled old family
photographs of his grandmother as a young woman, stiffly posed in a similar long skirt
and narrow-waisted jacket.
He lowered the crossbow, setting it aside. Carefully, he lifted Megumi up onto a bench
and spread Yumi's coat over her. She was breathing shallowly, but appeared to be
unharmed. He rummaged in his own coat pockets for his emergency sake supply and
tipped the flask against her mouth until she spluttered weakly. "Ooh. My head hurts.
Where is everyone?"
"I was hoping to obtain that information from you. However, Yumi and Enishi are in the
courtyard and Kaoru has gone home."
"Yumi and--? Oh, yikeypoo! Wait a moment, how did you get here? Or-- hey, we're in
the shrine again, aren't we? You guys weren't waiting here all this time for me and
Tomoe, were you? So where'd she go? Did she take Kenshin with her?" Hiko offered her
the sake a second time, but she waved it away. A long shimmer of silver spilled out of her
jacket as she sat up. It was the fishbone necklace which Kenshin had given Kaoru. He
followed its trail to the floor, where he found his own sword left beneath the bench.
After leaning the wrapped katana upright against the wall, Hiko picked up the necklace
and wrapped the chain into a neat bundle around the pendant. He shook the sake flask
contemplatively before closing it and setting it aside.. "I suspect I had better save this
until I have a better grasp of the situation. Now, start at the beginning, continue through
the middle, and then when you reach the end, stop."
---
"You always liked it fast," Enishi complained good-naturedly from inside Yumi's leather
jacket. "Seems to me we've both been waiting long enough. Haven't had a proper chance
at this since Tomoe took ill."
She smacked the glasses parked on top of his head. "And you're the one who always
wanted to slow down and smell the roses, so enjoy it while you can."
"Oh, is that what these are, roses? Too bloody dark, I can't tell. You've definitely got
something pointy in here. It's all fun and games until some poor bloke loses an eye on
them." He obviously decided to risk his mouth instead. Yumi squirmed, delighted to have
solved so many current dilemmas so neatly. The scabbard of his watou was an
uncomfortable long ridge beneath her back, but it seemed a better alternative than trying
to kick the sword out of reach. If she tried that, he'd be sure to notice, and he'd still be
able to make a leap for it before she could roll upright and try to grab it first once Hiko
and Kenshin came back. Whenever that was. They were sure taking their time, but so was
Enishi. Whee!
In fact, more than whee. Lots more than whee. Right now, she was almost willing to
forgive him for the past three years of ignoring her while he muttered about getting even
with Bats, not to mention the times before that when he'd let Tomoe's name slip out at
delicate moments. Maybe even for wearing those biohazard-orange pants; whenever she'd
complained about those, all he'd ever done was offer to appease her aesthetic standards
by removing them. And, of course, grin at her.
Between him and Bats, she used to wonder if getting demonized made guys lose their
color vision as well as their conscience, or if those two just never had any fashion sense
to start with. But except for their dorky favorite colors, their clothes were actually okay,
compared to Jineh's stupid hat which would've looked ten times more stupid in anything
else besides the basic black he at least had the decency to keep it in, and whoa, wicked
cool tongue action, golly, wowsers.
As she caught her breath again, he scuffled around with her bodice zippers. She wasn't
sure whether they'd confused or entertained him at first, but now he was making train
noises as he ran them up and down her torso with his teeth. "Zheese r fhun," he
murmured between two chugs and a whistle.
"Cut that out-- if you drool on them they'll get rusty."
"They will?" He peeked inside the zippers. "Want me to oil them?"
She smacked him again. "Not those. How're you doing? Want anything for yourself?"
"World peace and a warm puppy?"
"Sorry, I'm fresh out of those."
He sighed, gazing up at her with the sad-puppy-eyes equivalent of an entire dog pound.
"Well, blast it all. I'll just have to settle for some naughty touching."
---
By the time Megumi had finished comparing notes with Hiko, she felt much better. Okay,
so even freakier things were going on tonight than she had previously imagined possible,
but her wounds had all healed up somehow, no one was threatening to make any new
ones to replace them, and she'd had some mochi to eat, as well as a bit more sake on an
otherwise empty stomach. It resulted in a nice floaty feeling, at least for her. Hiko still
looked really stressed out, though, or as much as he ever let that kind of thing show. Eyes
narrowed, he tapped his sword against the bench with his gauntlets on. "So Enishi and
Yumi are accounted for, but neither Tomoe nor Kenshin, who may have become
Battousai by now. What concerns me most is that we still have no clear explanation for
this chain of events."
"At least Kaoru didn't say he'd gone Battousai by the time she ran into you," Megumi
pointed out, and hiccupped gently.
"She scarcely could have done so in front of her mother, though I imagine that if she'd
deemed it necessary, she could have given some indication that he was out of sorts. Still,
it sounds as if Tomoe's powers reawakened on their own, or at least without requiring
direct activation from Battousai as was the case with Yumi. And yet Enishi's
mistreatment of you failed to benefit him in that regard."
"He was using Tomoe's knife. Maybe things would've been different if he'd used his own
watou sword thingy instead, or does he still have it?"
"He certainly does." Hiko offered Megumi his arm, but she just blinked at it. "Miss
Rosenberg, I believe you ought to leave the shrine if you possibly can, unless there is
some assistance you can offer that would outweigh the risk should you remain. Can you
walk?"
"My legs still feel wiggly," she said mournfully. "But I think I'll be okay if I just stay in
here."
"Even though this is where Tomoe brought you?"
She pointed at the inner edge of the roof. A shimenawa hung around it, with one loose
end dangling to form a gap. "I was going to finish tacking that up once everybody got
here, but I guess Kenshin and Kaoru didn't notice. They probably had other things on
their minds. Hey, you don't think that whatever they did on their own is what started
everything, do you?"
"I should hope not, but I intend to have words with them all the same, if events allow it.
You're certain the shimenawa will protect you once the circle's complete?"
She hooked her box of supplies with one foot, dragging it closer to her bench. "I've got all
this other stuff in here too. If nothing else works, I can always throw sake on someone
and set it on fire."
"Very well," Hiko said reluctantly. "I'll leave the crossbow with you all the same. Perhaps
it would serve best as a signalling device-- if you see anything unusual, put some mochi
on the end of the bolt and set it alight before firing into the air, toward the courtyard." He
fastened up the shimenawa before he left, heading back down the path with his sword.
The clothing Tomoe had swapped with her while she was unconscious again was actually
pretty warm. The boiled-wool skirted suit completely covered her from chin to ankles,
and there were at least two or three layers underneath: a blouse and petticoat, plus a lot of
weird-feeling lingerie that the extra-long tabi seemed to be attached to. She folded
Yumi's coat into a pillow and curled up on her side, poking at the box with one hand. Her
notebook was sitting on top-- the others must've brought it here from her bookbag-- but
the plans she'd originally had for tonight weren't going to be very useful now. She ripped
out the first page of plans, looked at it upside-down, and started to absent-mindedly fold
it into origami while she tried to think of something to do.
It would be tough to kill Battousai without Kaoru around, because if he was here, he
probably wouldn't let just anyone else kill him. But maybe Kenshin was just talking with
Tomoe somewhere around here. If they were lucky, Enishi wasn't any more dangerous
right now than any other cheerfully psycho guy with a five-foot sword, and Yumi wasn't
a problem any more, at least not in that way. Jineh was probably still looking for jigsaw
pieces of himself underground. So really the main threat right now was Tomoe.
She'd finished her origami, and propped it up in front of her face to see what she'd
automatically folded this time. It was a fox. Big surprise. "I do not like them with a fox,"
she mumbled to herself. "I do not like them in a box. Not in the dark! Not in a tree! Not
in a car! You let me be!"
Her brain slowly caught up to her mouth. Tree. Tree? She pulled out the big fir branch
that was sticking up from the box, and waved it around swoopily. Definite tree! She sat
up to tear the branch apart. When the little side-twigs were all stripped off into a pile
beside her, she made another origami fox and put it next to the first one. Now came the
twiddly bit. She just hoped she had enough paper and mochi.
---
Water poured into Kenshin's nose and mouth, as well as the wide slash across his throat
which would have kept him from screaming if he'd had any air left to do it with. When
Tomoe dragged him back out into the reeds, he vomited up sunset clouds of foam,
streaked with blood and fire. With wistful curiosity, she asked, "Why aren't you dead
yet?" He couldn't answer her, of course. She dipped her fingers into his wound, pressing
into the raw edges of his trachea as she half-lifted him toward her. "This hurts me as
much as it hurts you, don't you know? Everything has, ever since you made me kill you
last time and a piece of your soul lodged into me with my own. I have enough of my own
pain without needing yours. Take it back, I don't want it any more."
Despite her tightening grip, he shook his head uncomprehendingly. She dropped him
back into the freezing mud and fished around inside his coat, which she'd taken from him
and put on after exchanging clothes with Megumi at the other side of the pond. The thin
linen shift flashed pale as she drew out her knife again. Its jewel was still flickering,
neither the glowing crimson of his own sword's ruby nor the golden topaz that Tomoe's
eyes shone now, but caught instead in an intermediate russet-amber like Megumi's hair.
"It's as much yours as mine now," Tomoe mused. "I made it yours so it would bring us to
you, but now it won't come back to me. I thought it would if I killed you with it, but how
can it work if you won't stay dead?"
He coughed a stunned-looking fish out of his throat and tried to hold the gap closed so he
could speak, but the best he could do so far was a bubbling sort of whistle. "The little
vixen changed back to her former self," she continued, "and I didn't even have to kill her.
Maybe she would've died from what Enishi did to her with my knife, but that all went
away from her when we came here. All of her scrapes healed up, just like my face. That
should've weakened you from the start, because we used your strength to do it. But then
you're not really yourself right now, are you? Not if part of you is still part of me. That's
what Enishi always says, you know." She'd been toying with the blood-streaked buttons
of her nightgown, but now suddenly stopped and tilted her head in thought. Casually
planting her knife back into Kenshin's chest, she rolled back the coat sleeve to expose the
ribbon-tied lace at her wrist, and pulled a glinting silver strand from the knot.
---
Something very strange was certainly going on, Enishi thought abstractedly, with the
portion that wasn't devoted to enjoying Yumi's attentions. She certainly wasn't telling him
everything. She'd already as good as admitted that she'd met up with Battousai here just
now, but she'd said precious little else about the brat. Was he still here, or had he
scarpered off? And she hadn't said a word about the weapons she wasn't carrying-- her
own naginata was nowhere in sight, nor the unfamiliar sword he'd seen her carrying
earlier. So even if Battousai didn't have his own sword with him at first, he had one now.
Meanwhile, just what was Yumi after with him, besides the obvious? "Oh, that's lovely,"
he murmured to her, straightening his glasses. "Just a bit higher. And have a care with
those fingernails of yours, if you don't mind."
She rolled her eyes. "Sheesh. You used to be disappointed if I didn't scratch you up."
"Just like you'd make a fuss if I didn't cut you up a treat? 'Fraid I don't have any soy sauce
or vinegar to rub into it, but I see you've got a knife with you."
"Hey!" A moment too late, she leaped away from him. He'd already pulled the knife from
her belt, and slammed her back down into the leaves.
She still looked upset, even when he traced her lips with the blade's point. That'd been
one of her favorites, too. Something was wrong for certain. "So what is it you've been up
to with Battousai? Come on, you can tell me. As long as he never tries to take Tomoe
from me again, I've got no quarrel with him, but I wouldn't say no if you wanted to leave
him and stay with us."
"I told you, I'm on my own now. And I'm staying that way, so get off me."
"Don't think so," he said tenderly. "Why'd you bring him a sword tonight? Did something
happen to his old one, and maybe your naginata too? Or did he take that away from you?"
He pressed harder with the knife until both of them flinched with shock.
Her violet eyes were more furious than ever, despite the dark trickle down her cheek. She
was bleeding? He licked it to be sure, and there was that telltale taste of salt and iron, like
teardrops on steel. "Yumi, sweetheart. What did Battousai do to you? Tomoe said
something about him clipping your wings, but I didn't know what to make of it. Praps if I
could--"
"I said get off!" He let her kick him away, if only because it might make her feel better
somehow. She snatched for her knife, but he held it away from her for a moment before
reconsidering and tossing it back.
As she caught it, he scooped his watou back up from the ground. "That would've been a
nice keepsake to hang onto until I can bring you back, but you should ought have
something to remember the rest of us by in the meantime. But now I've more reason than
ever to peel the skin off that little snake, so he can undo whatever it was he's done. So
where's he gone, then?"
She jerked her clothing back into place, with ferocious snarls of zippage. "Go away,
Enishi. Just forget about it and go away."
"I can't just leave you here like this, can I? If you're going to be this way, I'll just have to
bring you along willy-nilly. It's for your own good, really." She slashed at his hand, but
while it hurt, it didn't cause any real damage. His bones gleamed white from the smiling
gash. Resigned, he brought his sheathed watou up across her throat and pulled until she
stumbled to her knees, choking. He pulled Tomoe's crimson undersash from his pocket
and tied Yumi's wrists together, with an extra loop up to her neck that would choke her
again if she tried to work loose.
This would've been easier if she'd come on her own-- it wouldn't be easy to carry her
back across all those torii-- but maybe he could drag her down to the bottom of the hill
and throw her across the wall. Or would that work after all? She was going to be fearfully
breakable until he could get things squared away. He turned her around and chucked her
chin. "You going to behave now and let me help you?" he enquired. She glared at him,
then averted her eyes as if in disgust. Or wait, that wasn't quite right either.
He leaped away from the direction she'd glanced at, just in time to miss the quick arc of a
sword. It was the same one she'd been carrying before, but its wielder wasn 't Battousai. It
was some big dark-haired bloke he'd never seen before. And with any luck, he'd never see
him again, either.
Launching his sheath straight up into the air, Enishi swooped the blade down and across.
The bloke moved fast for someone that size-- he was taller, and had a slightly longer
reach, but not enough to make up for the watou's extra length. As the katana lunged in
return, Enishi bounded above its range, caught the falling sheath, and prepared to
thoroughly enjoy himself.
---
Dang, this box was heavy. It was a little lighter after Sano took most of the fishbones out
of it and stuffed them into his jacket, but all that really did was redistribute where he was
carrying the same amount of weight. When he reached the first landing, he flopped down
on the bench for a rest.
The Hikomobile's locks had been tougher than he'd expected. The others probably didn't
even need him by now. For all the good he was doing, he might as well have been the
supply mule. At least a supply mule would've had a feed bag. He should've eaten that
kitsune-zushi at the bottom of the stairs after all, he thought, wincing at the squeal his
stomach made at him.
Wait a minute, that wasn't his stomach, or he would've felt that and not just heard it. He
looked up toward the next bend. There was that noise again, and it definitely wasn't his
stomach this time. It sounded more like... Yumi? Entirely forgetting the box of crossbow
bolts, he dashed upstairs toward the main grounds of the shrine.
---
There was just enough mochi to get everything done. Megumi had to soften it up by
dripping sake into the plastic bag and mooshing it around, but after that, it was easy to
pinch out pea-sized lumps. Now she had a tiny forest of fir twigs on the gazebo floor,
each one held upright by a bit of mochi at its base. Most of them were in a snaky conga
line like all of the torii over the stairs. She'd scooped some water into a big bowl, and
poured some sake into that as well before setting it down in the middle. This could work.
She had a warm, fuzzy feeling about already. Either that, or Hiko had given her just a
little too much sake. Nah. This was definitely going to work.
She went back to tearing pages out of her notebooks and making more origami foxes.
Intent on this task, she didn't notice anything outside the gazebo until there was a thump
beside her. Oh, that was weird. Kenshin had shown back up all muddy, and he'd decided
to take a nap on the floor. Whatever. She rolled him under a bench so she could finish the
job.
---
At least Yumi had been able to get out of the way, which was one less concern. But the
only unmitigated advantage so far was that the festival booths were sufficiently close
together to impede Enishi's range of motion, as well as sturdy enough not to fall apart
when struck. However, Hiko did not consider this to be adequate grounds for
complacency.
Before the initial mission to recover Yumi, he'd followed Megumi's suggestion of tucking
ofuda inside the coil of silver wire around his katana. Not having had the occasion to test
the improvement then, he'd simply left it in the same condition ever since. Gratifyingly, it
appeared to inflict a fair amount of damage to his opponent.
Enishi had seemed nonchalant about accepting the first glancing blow. The wrapped edge
couldn't break his skin by itself, though the cut from Yumi's knife didn't seem to bother
him at all. But the silver had seared his flesh, kindling a flame around the katana's blade.
The ofuda were burning, Hiko supposed, but this was lingering longer than would be
expected from a few strips of paper.
Since then, the duel had become far less playful. The watou was still sharp-edged along
all its deadly length, and its scabbard was nearly as dangerous. Dark streaks of char ran
across Enishi's shoulder and the opposite arm, and the silver shock of hair was singed
across one side, but Hiko was limping from a blunt strike across the back of one leg and
his neck was bleeding.
The key was to focus on Enishi, instead of his own katana. Its fiery blaze would only
increase night-blindness. Before being half-lamed, Hiko had driven him toward the torii,
but now Enishi was forcing him away again.
Unexpectedly, Enishi backed off and paused. "So," he said. "What's the likes of you want
with Yumi? You think you can get her away from Battousai if I can't?"
"I have no intention of getting her, as you put it. She may disport herself as she pleases,
as long as she and her companions are equally willing."
"Right. So after she brings you this sword of yours, you don't even want her? Seems a
shame to let her go to waste."
"She is not your property, nor mine. If you have no further business with her, I suggest
that you leave her in peace."
Enishi snorted. "Think I'd rather leave you in pieces, mate. Have at you, then." Abruptly
concluding the truce, he stabbed at Hiko again, striking the katana aside with his
scabbard. Hiko twisted out of the way, to the grave detriment of that ankle, but brought
up his burning blade against Enishi's side. Enishi snarled, kicked Hiko's bruised leg out
from under him, and rolled away to quench his smoldering coat, tucking the watou close
against his body. As Hiko stumbled up, the watou's scabbard hurled into him from the
darkness, knocking him down again.
Good. Enishi was getting desperate. Hiko seized it and levered himself to his feet, ready
to fight two-handed in turn. Bracing himself for the next attack, he cast about for the
other man's position. But how could Enishi be standing directly beneath the torii?
The scabbard wrenched out of his hands from behind, where Enishi had landed. By
reflex, Hiko swept his katana across, catching him again, but his leg had had enough. He
should have worn his boots, he thought as he fell, or something that provided more
protection. Grimly, he watched Enishi's silhouette loom over him again, dimly outlined
against the night with red and golden embers. "Praps you're right and Yumi isn't mine
after all. But it seems for certain that she won't be yours." The watou rose over him,
splitting the silver moon, and fell.
---
Damn Enishi, and damn his knot-tying expertise, and damn the tensile strength of silk.
Hopelessly snared in the length of gauze he'd tied around her, Yumi squirmed around,
trying to find her knife again. She'd gotten it to fall back out of her belt, but now it was
somewhere under the leaves. If she could just figure out where it was and brace it against
something to cut Tomoe's undersash, everything would be great. Other than the whole
mess of Enishi and Hiko thwacking at each other on the other side of the courtyard, and
whatever had happened with Tomoe and Megumi, and where the heck was Kenshin after
all this time? "I am going to slap the red right out of his hair for taking this much time,"
she growled to herself. Hey, was that her knife in front of her finally? But what was it
doing up in the air, and for that matter, why would it be sticking out of the end of
Kenshin's coat sleeve?
"You can't do that, pretty Yumi. Not unless you wait your turn."
Oh, crap. "Gosh. It's great to see you, Tomoe. How're you doing?"
"I humbly thank you, well well well."
"Uh, would you mind not waving that in my face?"
"But it's not in your face yet. Would you like it to be?" The demure tone and facial
expression were completely at odds with the molten pyre of her eyes, and the topaz in her
tanto's hilt shone oddly red, as if filtered through a film of blood.
"No, that's okay. Really. Hey, did you know there's a piece of gum or something stuck to
your knife?" Yumi would've liked to continue the conversation, but Tomoe kneeled
between her shoulderblades, pressing her mouth into the flagstones as the undersash
pulled tight around her throat.
---
He'd known his old jacket was done for anyway, but this just made sure of it. As Sano
grabbed out a bunch of fishbones, the pocket tore through. The rest of the fish on that
side scattered down the stairs, but he was nearly at the top anyway. There'd been fighting
noises just now, and then they'd stopped. Just when he'd thought he hadn't missed all the
action this time, he had again. Sheesh! Hiko was looking at him funny from the
courtyard, probably about to give him some sarcastic greeting about timely arrivals. How
did he manage to set his sword on fire, anyway?
Or was Hiko looking at the guy standing on top of that wooden crossbar? Nope, Hiko
was definitely looking at him, or he'd've paid more attention to crossbar guy launching
himself up and over him, and knocking him down with a ridiculously big-ass sword? This
was so not good.
As crossbar guy prepared to slice up some Hiko loaf, Sano let loose with some prime
fishbones. At least one of them hit well enough to make the guy jerk backwards,
unexpectedly overbalanced by his own sword. He recovered and hacked down at Hiko
anyway, but by then Hiko had time to roll out of range. Rolling wasn't going to get him
very far, though. Why wasn't he getting up?
Okay, ridiculously big-ass sword guy was probably Enishi, based on what Kaoru had
said. Whoever he was, he didn't like getting a fishbone to the throat. He hurled it back at
Sano and started after Hiko. Sano slowed him down with another barrage of fishbones,
but after a few more exchanges, Enishi pulled the most recent hit out of his chest and sent
it straight into Hiko's shoulder, hammering it down with his scabbard. Sano winced as
some of the fishbone spines shattered, fountaining out in a spray of blood.
Looking pleased, Enishi leaned down to twist the fish's tail. The katana flicked up toward
him, but Enishi kicked the hilt out of Hiko's hand. The blade's flames hissed and
sputtered out. Sano prepared himself for a dead run into hand-to-hand fish-slapping, but
before he got farther than a few steps out the torii, something else got Enishi's attention.
It was Sano's old coat, out for a walk around someone who wasn't Kenshin, and with a
long gauze scarf trailing behind her.
"Tomoe? Little dove? However did you get out here?" Enishi reached toward her,
disbelievingly. "It's not safe for you out in the open. Once I've finished up, I'll take you
home. You do want to go home, don't you?"
"Home is the place where when you go there, they have to take you in." She took off her
scarf as she came to Enishi and wrapped it around his neck, drawing him close. Enishi
bent to kiss her, but faltered and stumbled. Tomoe leaned forward, tilting him back and
leaving the gauze wrapped around his neck as she pressed her knife deeper into his chest.
He crumpled to the ground with his watou still in hand, as slowly as the snow that was
beginning to fall from the cloudless, moonlit sky.
---
Kenshin was taking a serious nap here if her chanting wasn't waking him up. Oh well.
Megumi shrugged and kept mixing her slurry of salt and water. She'd already set up
origami foxes in the approximate positions of all the shrine buildings, as well as the two
actual stone foxes in front of the first torii. The bowl at her feet represented the koi pond,
so she was standing where the gazebo would be. Even though she was already in the
gazebo. Gosh, this was recursive. There'd only been one open space left in the middle of
all of this stuff that had been big enough for the incense burner, and that was where the
courtyard was supposed to be. So there it sat, crammed with all of the incense sticks it
could hold, as if the courtyard were being taken over by a giant perfumed porcupine.
The slurry still looked runny. She added a handful of rice to it before scattering the
mixture over the entire model she'd constructed of the shrine grounds, and repeating the
purification chant for good measure. Was this working after all? She wasn't sure, but at
least it was giving her something to do. She sprinkled the last of the sake around for good
measure. Once she set the incense on fire, she'd be out of supplies and ideas, and then
maybe she could take a nap too. She lit the last glob of mochi on the tip of the crossbow
bolt, and aimed it at the incense burner.
---
By habit, Sano stuck out his tongue to catch the first few snowflakes. But since when was
snow salty?
By now thoroughly freaked out, he checked out Tomoe and Enishi. She was kneeling
over him, both of them completely motionless even though smoke was rising from every
flake of salt that struck their bodies. He scrambled over to where Hiko was lying, a few
yards away. "Hey. What's going on?"
Yumi crawled out from behind a booth, coughing. "She untied me. Is the boss okay?"
"I have certainly felt better," Hiko rasped. "Mr. Harris, can you reach my sword?"
He gingerly crept around Tomoe and picked it up, but as he passed her again, she
withdrew her knife from Enishi and knocked the katana away as she stood up. "You
won't be needing that," she said, and walked over to Hiko as Sano leaped aside. Enishi
struggled up as well, the crimson gauze rippling back from his throat like a river of blood.
"Tomoe, sweetheart," he pleaded. "Now that you're well again, everything will be all
right. Don't leave me for him, the way Yumi did. Come back to me, won't you?"
She didn't even turn to look at him. Instead, she waited for Hiko to sit up, firmly wrapped
one of his silver gauntlets around her knife's hilt, and helped him stab her with it. A
swirling rush of fire burst out along the black blade as soon as its tip touched the ground
through her body. The light flickered from amber to garnet to white-gold citrine, finally
crystallizing into the pale, dead grey of ash just before the tanto fell apart. When Hiko
opened his hand, a topaz tumbled out onto Tomoe's still form. A silver thread still clung
to its surface, held by a smear of soft rice candy, but it crumbled away and was lost in the
autumn leaves.
The salt snow had turned to rain, but each droplet still blistered Enishi's skin, though it
had ceased to burn Tomoe as soon as her tanto was destroyed. His face twisting with rage
and despair, he poised his watou to cut through Sano, Hiko, and Yumi all at once. But a
halo of white smoke rose around him, enveloping him in a cocoon of scent that thickened
to opacity and then vanished.
He was gone. The rain stopped. Sano and Yumi looked at Hiko, who had removed a
gauntlet to tug at the fishbone embedded in his shoulder. "If you keep picking at it, it'll
never heal," Sano said, and got up to find Megumi.
-----
(Only one review for chapter 15? Snif. Nooobody loooves meeee. Going on vacation for
a week or so; hope y'all will be a bit kinder to this chapter, even though I'm finishing it up
on far less sleep than sensible. Thanks in the meantime to Jason M. Lee for his review, as
well as to Firuze Khanume for cheering on Enishi (who may not have actually needed it,
but hey).)
Inari's own paws: as mentioned in previous chapter notes, Inari isn't a fox per se, but trust
Sano to not really care about the details. There's a very nice webpage (in English!) for
one of the three largest Inari shrines in Japan at http://www.kasama.or.jp/english/ ,
including a brief rundown on yabusame (mentioned last time). However, I'm still playing
very fast and loose with Real Shinto.
Start at the beginning: stolen from one of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books, I think.
With a fox: slightly rearranged from _Green Eggs and Ham_ by Dr. Seuss.
Should ought: the redundancy is technically called a "double modal", which term also
covers the similar construction "might could" which I may've also been slipping in. Quite
possibly not actually in whatever regional dialect Spike uses, but then I don't know how
stringent Whedon is about such things either.
Well well well: _Hamlet_ III.i.103
Home is the place: Robert Frost, "The Death of the Hired Man", lines 122-123.
of the characters in this chapter, I don't feel wholly in control of them either. Somebody
please load up the Yukishiro-specific tranquilizer darts?
Edodale
By wombat
Chapter 16
Yumi ran back along the path from the koi pond, skidding to a stop in the leaf-strewn
courtyard. The familiar icestorm of Enishi's hair was visible beyond the festival booths
and decorations. He was still half-crouched in front of the shrine entrance, swivelling to
look under the row of torii he'd leaped down from. Both of them must have just missed
Kaoru's exit. "Hey," she called across at him.
His watou's forward slash whirled back into a casual salute when he recognized her,
grazing his hair with the blade. "Yumi, love." Slinging the sword over his shoulder again,
he strode to meet her in the middle of the courtyard.
At worst, he looked mildly vexed, which was reassuring. Not that there was ever a good
way to tell what he was thinking, but his crazed attack mode was always really obvious,
and this wasn't it. Affectionately, she said, "You stupid. One of these days you're going to
chop off your head when you do that. If it rolls into the bushes, I won't help you find it."
"Plenty of other excuses to head into the bushes, aren't there?" His teeth flashed
moonlight at her. After a quick kiss, she boosted herself up to sit on the counter of a
booth behind her. He did the same with the booth across the aisle. "But what're you doing
here, and who's that you're chasing? Just run off under the torii, whoever it was; wasn't
Battousai, by any chance? Didn't quite have the look of him, but you might know better
than me."
"Nah, that wasn't him, just the little bluebird he's taken up. I guess he's done with her for
tonight, so he sent her back out."
"He'd never. You're having me on, aren't you?"
"Well, not right now, but I might if you're nice to me." She blew a kiss at him.
He pretended to be flung against the booth wall by its impact. Still lounging on his side,
he brought his legs up as well to rest an arm on one knee. If the counter were higher, he
probably would have been swinging the watou back and forth by the cord around his
wrist, but instead he just tapped the end of the sheath against the flagstones. "He's letting
her fly away home? Did you tell him he can't get my sweet dove back from me, or isn't he
even making a proper go at replacing her?"
She shrugged, with more flourishes than strictly necessary. "Not my problem. So, what're
you here for?"
Lightly, Enishi leaped back down, flicking his attention back up to her face as he crossed
the aisle, even though her half-unzipped cleavage was now at perfect eye level for him.
"Well, if he's really given up on Tomoe, praps I needn't much worry. You planning to
stick with him now?"
"I'm kinda on my own these days, actually. So I keep track of how Bats is doing, but I
don't really hang around with him much."
"Must get a bit lonely," he murmured. "Jineh's not with us these days, so you're welcome
to come back if you'd like. Two's company and three's even better, hey?" He toyed with
the tendril of hair trickling down her neck, twining the strands around his fingers and
lightly caressing her skin.
Damn, she'd forgotten how good he was at this. But this was not a good time for it.
Double damn. Where was Kenshin, anyway? And for that matter, where was Hiko?
A surreptitious glance at the torii answered the latter. There was the boss creeping in now
around the booths, looking for the best way to use that one crossbow bolt he had with
him. If he had an extra bolt, he wasn't holding it in his teeth ready to whip into place. Oh,
crappy freaking crap. There was only one way for everybody to get out of this, but she
was prepared to make that sacrifice.
Before Enishi could notice anything strange, she leaned forward and mashed his face into
her chest. While making the appropriate sounds, she used her free hand to frantically
wave Hiko away, then whipped off her overcoat and flung it behind her in the direction
of the koi pond. Weighted down by the gauntlets stuffed into the pockets, it landed with a
satisfying thump. So did she as Enishi pulled her off the booth counter. Hiko better have
taken the hint. She sure couldn't tell which way he was going.
---
There was a plate of perfectly good kitsune-zushi in front of the fox statue that Sano was
leaning against. Or at least the rice-stuffed pockets of tofu seemed perfectly good except
for being as cold as the stone pedestal they were sitting on, when he'd furtively poked
them a few minutes ago. If anything, they were probably even colder now. But food was
food, darn it. On the other hand, even though he still wasn't sold on this whole kami
business, it might be a bad idea to steal snacks from between Inari's own paws.
After okonomiyaki at Kaoru's, he'd ambled toward his own home. But even before he got
to the front porch, he could hear his parents arguing and throwing things, and that was
with the doors and windows closed. At least one of them had to've been drinking tonight,
so neither of them would've cooked anything anyway. It was better to stay clear for a
while longer. He left his bookbag on the doormat and wandered off again for a few hours
in search of odd scrap to turn into weapons or pocket money. Or maybe even both; he'd
known all along that fishbones made out of pure silver would be way too soft to be useful
in combat, but Kenshin had talked him into making a bitty prototype anyway, and better
yet, paid him for it. Okay, it was annoying to see Kenshin getting all the benefit from that
now, but Kaoru did seem to like it as jewelry, so maybe he could make a few more for
Hiko's gallery to see if they'd sell.
The UC Edodale campus was the major scrounging zone that was the farthest one from
home, so he'd gone there. At the end of every school year, the out-of-town students
always threw out everything from their dorms or apartments that wouldn't fit into their
cars, so he could rescue all kinds of perfectly good gadgets, dishes, and other stuff the
local pawnshops would love. But it wasn't even the end of fall semester yet. All he'd
found tonight was a denim jacket that someone had spilled bleach onto. But other than
that, it was practically new, and it was bigger than his old one, which was getting thin at
the elbows and tight under the arms. In fact, it was big enough to layer on top, so he was
slightly warmer than usual, despite the frost. Maybe he could talk Kenshin into redyeing
it, as long as it didn't end up that wussy pink color. After that, he could plaster "Aku"
onto the back by himself.
In the meantime, Megumi's shrine wasn't exactly on the way back from campus, but it
wasn't that far out of the way, either, and it would delay getting home for a while longer.
But now that he was here, he wasn't sure what to do, other than look at the kitsune-zushi
with impious thoughts. That, and wonder what Hiko's car was doing here. Either he'd
signed in for the new ritual tonight after all, or he was here to pick up Kenshin. And that
looked like Kaoru's mom's car beside it, so it must be about time for everyone to come
out and go home. Car number three probably belonged to Megumi's mom or stepdad.
He kind of wanted to talk to Megumi, but he wasn't sure he wanted to do that with one of
her parents around. Or what he wanted to say. He couldn't really ask her out on a date,
any more than he could've asked Kaoru or Yumi. Not if he wanted to treat her to a dinner
that wasn't frozen pizza, and there was no way he'd be able to afford the kind of stuff
Megumi was probably used to, as the daughter of two or three doctors. But it didn't look
like he'd ever be able to detach Kaoru from either version of Kenshin, and he wasn't
about to get between Yumi and Hiko.
But he didn't want to give Megumi the idea that she was his last resort, either. Back in
kindergarten, he'd been put in the time-out corner with her and Kaoru after all three of
them had taken apart the classroom dolls in different ways, and they'd been friends ever
since. But toward the end of intermediate school, she'd taken some test that qualified her
to go cram a year of college-level courses into six weeks of summer camp. Now he felt
weird and dumb around her-- not too much to just hang around, but enough that he didn't
feel comfortable flirting with her the way he automatically did with Kaoru.
Frustrated, Sano scrubbed his fingers through his hair and decided to go home after all.
Halfway through the parking lot, though, footsteps came pounding down the stairs into a
flying leap at his back. When he rolled over to punch his attacker's face, he got head-
butted in the stomach instead. He crawled halfway under one of the cars for his own
protection and heard an astonished, familiar voice from farther behind. "Why on earth are
you attacking poor Sanosuke that way?"
"Oh jeez." Kaoru apologetically tugged at one of his feet to help him out again. "Sorry,
Sano, I thought you were someone else. What're you doing here, anyway?"
"Spitting gravel," he demonstrated. He leaned back against a tire to adjust the shoe Kaoru
had pulled loose. "Is Megumi still up there? That looks like her bike by the entrance,
right?"
"Um. Mom, can I stay here and talk to him? My bicycle's still here too, you know, or
maybe I could ask Mr. Hiko to drop me off instead."
Joyce Summers sighed, unlocked her car, and settled behind the steering wheel. "I don't
think so. You're acting really strange, the way you're walking looks almost dizzy, and
see, your face is all hot and flushed. I'm worried you might be coming down with
something."
"Can I just talk to him while you warm up the car, then? He can help me bring over my
bike and load it in, too."
"Oh, all right. But hurry up, or you'll catch a chill. You really must be starting on a cold
or the flu already, or otherwise I don't know what's gotten into you tonight."
Sano got to his feet as Joyce closed her door and turned the ignition. He muttered to
Kaoru, "Maybe she doesn't know, but I bet it had red hair."
She growled and kicked his shin, making him hop after her toward the bike rack. "Shut
up. Listen, this is important. Yumi says it looks like Tomoe's gotten powered up again,
and I saw Enishi running around up there with a ridiculously dangerous-looking sword. I
was going to grab the box of fishbones and extra crossbow bolts from Hiko's car, but now
I've been caught by the Mom Police. So you've got to take the box up there instead.
Okay?"
"And who are Emu and Tennessee?" She kicked him again, and grabbed the handlebars
to finish walking her bike to the car. "I'm joking! I know, I know-- they're Kenshin's old
pals like Yumi, only they're still bad guys, right?"
"Right. I don't know if Hiko's car is open, but if you've got your lockpicks, that shouldn't
be a problem."
Wrestling the bike into position inside the trunk, he protested, "I'm a law-abiding citizen."
"With a really short memory, because you helped me unlock my bike last week when I
left my keys at home. So can you help or not?"
"All right, all right. See you Monday, unless you're too sick to take that history test." As
Kaoru waved out her window, Sano waved back, then kicked the gravel underfoot on the
way to Hiko's car doors. She hadn't said if she'd already killed Kenshin for the night, but
Sano figured that otherwise she wouldn't have left the shrine yet. It didn't occur to him, or
Kaoru, what else she might have forgotten to tell him.
---
Why had Kaoru said nothing about Megumi? Hiko wondered, among other things. He
folded Yumi's coat over one arm, as his silver gauntlets were too bulky to extricate from
her pockets either quickly or quietly. Neither of those adverbs seemed to apply in great
measure to the diversionary tactics Yumi was deploying on Enishi. While it would be
imprecise to speculate whether she knew what she was doing, Hiko hoped that she had
evaluated the possible risks beforehand.
A clearly marked path led away from the courtyard, a few paces beyond where the coat
had landed. Yumi's aim had been remarkably good for such an impromptu trajectory.
Presumably Kenshin and Megumi were waiting at the other end of it, though he saw no
sign of them when he reached the edge of the koi pond, where the path forked to encircle
it. The surface rippled with lantern light, and the splashes of insomniac frogs or fish
echoed from the waving reeds on the far shore. However, one branch of the path led
toward a little island with a gazebo perched on it, and the scent of smoke blew across
from there. He went to investigate. The gazebo's interior lay in shadow from the moon
overhead, so it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and another to
interpret what he saw.
"Miss Rosenberg?" She lay on the floor like a doll that had been dressed and discarded by
an impatient child. Her clothing was both familiar and strange-- he'd certainly never seen
her nor any of her fellow students wearing anything like this, but he recalled old family
photographs of his grandmother as a young woman, stiffly posed in a similar long skirt
and narrow-waisted jacket.
He lowered the crossbow, setting it aside. Carefully, he lifted Megumi up onto a bench
and spread Yumi's coat over her. She was breathing shallowly, but appeared to be
unharmed. He rummaged in his own coat pockets for his emergency sake supply and
tipped the flask against her mouth until she spluttered weakly. "Ooh. My head hurts.
Where is everyone?"
"I was hoping to obtain that information from you. However, Yumi and Enishi are in the
courtyard and Kaoru has gone home."
"Yumi and--? Oh, yikeypoo! Wait a moment, how did you get here? Or-- hey, we're in
the shrine again, aren't we? You guys weren't waiting here all this time for me and
Tomoe, were you? So where'd she go? Did she take Kenshin with her?" Hiko offered her
the sake a second time, but she waved it away. A long shimmer of silver spilled out of her
jacket as she sat up. It was the fishbone necklace which Kenshin had given Kaoru. He
followed its trail to the floor, where he found his own sword left beneath the bench.
After leaning the wrapped katana upright against the wall, Hiko picked up the necklace
and wrapped the chain into a neat bundle around the pendant. He shook the sake flask
contemplatively before closing it and setting it aside.. "I suspect I had better save this
until I have a better grasp of the situation. Now, start at the beginning, continue through
the middle, and then when you reach the end, stop."
---
"You always liked it fast," Enishi complained good-naturedly from inside Yumi's leather
jacket. "Seems to me we've both been waiting long enough. Haven't had a proper chance
at this since Tomoe took ill."
She smacked the glasses parked on top of his head. "And you're the one who always
wanted to slow down and smell the roses, so enjoy it while you can."
"Oh, is that what these are, roses? Too bloody dark, I can't tell. You've definitely got
something pointy in here. It's all fun and games until some poor bloke loses an eye on
them." He obviously decided to risk his mouth instead. Yumi squirmed, delighted to have
solved so many current dilemmas so neatly. The scabbard of his watou was an
uncomfortable long ridge beneath her back, but it seemed a better alternative than trying
to kick the sword out of reach. If she tried that, he'd be sure to notice, and he'd still be
able to make a leap for it before she could roll upright and try to grab it first once Hiko
and Kenshin came back. Whenever that was. They were sure taking their time, but so was
Enishi. Whee!
In fact, more than whee. Lots more than whee. Right now, she was almost willing to
forgive him for the past three years of ignoring her while he muttered about getting even
with Bats, not to mention the times before that when he'd let Tomoe's name slip out at
delicate moments. Maybe even for wearing those biohazard-orange pants; whenever she'd
complained about those, all he'd ever done was offer to appease her aesthetic standards
by removing them. And, of course, grin at her.
Between him and Bats, she used to wonder if getting demonized made guys lose their
color vision as well as their conscience, or if those two just never had any fashion sense
to start with. But except for their dorky favorite colors, their clothes were actually okay,
compared to Jineh's stupid hat which would've looked ten times more stupid in anything
else besides the basic black he at least had the decency to keep it in, and whoa, wicked
cool tongue action, golly, wowsers.
As she caught her breath again, he scuffled around with her bodice zippers. She wasn't
sure whether they'd confused or entertained him at first, but now he was making train
noises as he ran them up and down her torso with his teeth. "Zheese r fhun," he
murmured between two chugs and a whistle.
"Cut that out-- if you drool on them they'll get rusty."
"They will?" He peeked inside the zippers. "Want me to oil them?"
She smacked him again. "Not those. How're you doing? Want anything for yourself?"
"World peace and a warm puppy?"
"Sorry, I'm fresh out of those."
He sighed, gazing up at her with the sad-puppy-eyes equivalent of an entire dog pound.
"Well, blast it all. I'll just have to settle for some naughty touching."
---
By the time Megumi had finished comparing notes with Hiko, she felt much better. Okay,
so even freakier things were going on tonight than she had previously imagined possible,
but her wounds had all healed up somehow, no one was threatening to make any new
ones to replace them, and she'd had some mochi to eat, as well as a bit more sake on an
otherwise empty stomach. It resulted in a nice floaty feeling, at least for her. Hiko still
looked really stressed out, though, or as much as he ever let that kind of thing show. Eyes
narrowed, he tapped his sword against the bench with his gauntlets on. "So Enishi and
Yumi are accounted for, but neither Tomoe nor Kenshin, who may have become
Battousai by now. What concerns me most is that we still have no clear explanation for
this chain of events."
"At least Kaoru didn't say he'd gone Battousai by the time she ran into you," Megumi
pointed out, and hiccupped gently.
"She scarcely could have done so in front of her mother, though I imagine that if she'd
deemed it necessary, she could have given some indication that he was out of sorts. Still,
it sounds as if Tomoe's powers reawakened on their own, or at least without requiring
direct activation from Battousai as was the case with Yumi. And yet Enishi's
mistreatment of you failed to benefit him in that regard."
"He was using Tomoe's knife. Maybe things would've been different if he'd used his own
watou sword thingy instead, or does he still have it?"
"He certainly does." Hiko offered Megumi his arm, but she just blinked at it. "Miss
Rosenberg, I believe you ought to leave the shrine if you possibly can, unless there is
some assistance you can offer that would outweigh the risk should you remain. Can you
walk?"
"My legs still feel wiggly," she said mournfully. "But I think I'll be okay if I just stay in
here."
"Even though this is where Tomoe brought you?"
She pointed at the inner edge of the roof. A shimenawa hung around it, with one loose
end dangling to form a gap. "I was going to finish tacking that up once everybody got
here, but I guess Kenshin and Kaoru didn't notice. They probably had other things on
their minds. Hey, you don't think that whatever they did on their own is what started
everything, do you?"
"I should hope not, but I intend to have words with them all the same, if events allow it.
You're certain the shimenawa will protect you once the circle's complete?"
She hooked her box of supplies with one foot, dragging it closer to her bench. "I've got all
this other stuff in here too. If nothing else works, I can always throw sake on someone
and set it on fire."
"Very well," Hiko said reluctantly. "I'll leave the crossbow with you all the same. Perhaps
it would serve best as a signalling device-- if you see anything unusual, put some mochi
on the end of the bolt and set it alight before firing into the air, toward the courtyard." He
fastened up the shimenawa before he left, heading back down the path with his sword.
The clothing Tomoe had swapped with her while she was unconscious again was actually
pretty warm. The boiled-wool skirted suit completely covered her from chin to ankles,
and there were at least two or three layers underneath: a blouse and petticoat, plus a lot of
weird-feeling lingerie that the extra-long tabi seemed to be attached to. She folded
Yumi's coat into a pillow and curled up on her side, poking at the box with one hand. Her
notebook was sitting on top-- the others must've brought it here from her bookbag-- but
the plans she'd originally had for tonight weren't going to be very useful now. She ripped
out the first page of plans, looked at it upside-down, and started to absent-mindedly fold
it into origami while she tried to think of something to do.
It would be tough to kill Battousai without Kaoru around, because if he was here, he
probably wouldn't let just anyone else kill him. But maybe Kenshin was just talking with
Tomoe somewhere around here. If they were lucky, Enishi wasn't any more dangerous
right now than any other cheerfully psycho guy with a five-foot sword, and Yumi wasn't
a problem any more, at least not in that way. Jineh was probably still looking for jigsaw
pieces of himself underground. So really the main threat right now was Tomoe.
She'd finished her origami, and propped it up in front of her face to see what she'd
automatically folded this time. It was a fox. Big surprise. "I do not like them with a fox,"
she mumbled to herself. "I do not like them in a box. Not in the dark! Not in a tree! Not
in a car! You let me be!"
Her brain slowly caught up to her mouth. Tree. Tree? She pulled out the big fir branch
that was sticking up from the box, and waved it around swoopily. Definite tree! She sat
up to tear the branch apart. When the little side-twigs were all stripped off into a pile
beside her, she made another origami fox and put it next to the first one. Now came the
twiddly bit. She just hoped she had enough paper and mochi.
---
Water poured into Kenshin's nose and mouth, as well as the wide slash across his throat
which would have kept him from screaming if he'd had any air left to do it with. When
Tomoe dragged him back out into the reeds, he vomited up sunset clouds of foam,
streaked with blood and fire. With wistful curiosity, she asked, "Why aren't you dead
yet?" He couldn't answer her, of course. She dipped her fingers into his wound, pressing
into the raw edges of his trachea as she half-lifted him toward her. "This hurts me as
much as it hurts you, don't you know? Everything has, ever since you made me kill you
last time and a piece of your soul lodged into me with my own. I have enough of my own
pain without needing yours. Take it back, I don't want it any more."
Despite her tightening grip, he shook his head uncomprehendingly. She dropped him
back into the freezing mud and fished around inside his coat, which she'd taken from him
and put on after exchanging clothes with Megumi at the other side of the pond. The thin
linen shift flashed pale as she drew out her knife again. Its jewel was still flickering,
neither the glowing crimson of his own sword's ruby nor the golden topaz that Tomoe's
eyes shone now, but caught instead in an intermediate russet-amber like Megumi's hair.
"It's as much yours as mine now," Tomoe mused. "I made it yours so it would bring us to
you, but now it won't come back to me. I thought it would if I killed you with it, but how
can it work if you won't stay dead?"
He coughed a stunned-looking fish out of his throat and tried to hold the gap closed so he
could speak, but the best he could do so far was a bubbling sort of whistle. "The little
vixen changed back to her former self," she continued, "and I didn't even have to kill her.
Maybe she would've died from what Enishi did to her with my knife, but that all went
away from her when we came here. All of her scrapes healed up, just like my face. That
should've weakened you from the start, because we used your strength to do it. But then
you're not really yourself right now, are you? Not if part of you is still part of me. That's
what Enishi always says, you know." She'd been toying with the blood-streaked buttons
of her nightgown, but now suddenly stopped and tilted her head in thought. Casually
planting her knife back into Kenshin's chest, she rolled back the coat sleeve to expose the
ribbon-tied lace at her wrist, and pulled a glinting silver strand from the knot.
---
Something very strange was certainly going on, Enishi thought abstractedly, with the
portion that wasn't devoted to enjoying Yumi's attentions. She certainly wasn't telling him
everything. She'd already as good as admitted that she'd met up with Battousai here just
now, but she'd said precious little else about the brat. Was he still here, or had he
scarpered off? And she hadn't said a word about the weapons she wasn't carrying-- her
own naginata was nowhere in sight, nor the unfamiliar sword he'd seen her carrying
earlier. So even if Battousai didn't have his own sword with him at first, he had one now.
Meanwhile, just what was Yumi after with him, besides the obvious? "Oh, that's lovely,"
he murmured to her, straightening his glasses. "Just a bit higher. And have a care with
those fingernails of yours, if you don't mind."
She rolled her eyes. "Sheesh. You used to be disappointed if I didn't scratch you up."
"Just like you'd make a fuss if I didn't cut you up a treat? 'Fraid I don't have any soy sauce
or vinegar to rub into it, but I see you've got a knife with you."
"Hey!" A moment too late, she leaped away from him. He'd already pulled the knife from
her belt, and slammed her back down into the leaves.
She still looked upset, even when he traced her lips with the blade's point. That'd been
one of her favorites, too. Something was wrong for certain. "So what is it you've been up
to with Battousai? Come on, you can tell me. As long as he never tries to take Tomoe
from me again, I've got no quarrel with him, but I wouldn't say no if you wanted to leave
him and stay with us."
"I told you, I'm on my own now. And I'm staying that way, so get off me."
"Don't think so," he said tenderly. "Why'd you bring him a sword tonight? Did something
happen to his old one, and maybe your naginata too? Or did he take that away from you?"
He pressed harder with the knife until both of them flinched with shock.
Her violet eyes were more furious than ever, despite the dark trickle down her cheek. She
was bleeding? He licked it to be sure, and there was that telltale taste of salt and iron, like
teardrops on steel. "Yumi, sweetheart. What did Battousai do to you? Tomoe said
something about him clipping your wings, but I didn't know what to make of it. Praps if I
could--"
"I said get off!" He let her kick him away, if only because it might make her feel better
somehow. She snatched for her knife, but he held it away from her for a moment before
reconsidering and tossing it back.
As she caught it, he scooped his watou back up from the ground. "That would've been a
nice keepsake to hang onto until I can bring you back, but you should ought have
something to remember the rest of us by in the meantime. But now I've more reason than
ever to peel the skin off that little snake, so he can undo whatever it was he's done. So
where's he gone, then?"
She jerked her clothing back into place, with ferocious snarls of zippage. "Go away,
Enishi. Just forget about it and go away."
"I can't just leave you here like this, can I? If you're going to be this way, I'll just have to
bring you along willy-nilly. It's for your own good, really." She slashed at his hand, but
while it hurt, it didn't cause any real damage. His bones gleamed white from the smiling
gash. Resigned, he brought his sheathed watou up across her throat and pulled until she
stumbled to her knees, choking. He pulled Tomoe's crimson undersash from his pocket
and tied Yumi's wrists together, with an extra loop up to her neck that would choke her
again if she tried to work loose.
This would've been easier if she'd come on her own-- it wouldn't be easy to carry her
back across all those torii-- but maybe he could drag her down to the bottom of the hill
and throw her across the wall. Or would that work after all? She was going to be fearfully
breakable until he could get things squared away. He turned her around and chucked her
chin. "You going to behave now and let me help you?" he enquired. She glared at him,
then averted her eyes as if in disgust. Or wait, that wasn't quite right either.
He leaped away from the direction she'd glanced at, just in time to miss the quick arc of a
sword. It was the same one she'd been carrying before, but its wielder wasn 't Battousai. It
was some big dark-haired bloke he'd never seen before. And with any luck, he'd never see
him again, either.
Launching his sheath straight up into the air, Enishi swooped the blade down and across.
The bloke moved fast for someone that size-- he was taller, and had a slightly longer
reach, but not enough to make up for the watou's extra length. As the katana lunged in
return, Enishi bounded above its range, caught the falling sheath, and prepared to
thoroughly enjoy himself.
---
Dang, this box was heavy. It was a little lighter after Sano took most of the fishbones out
of it and stuffed them into his jacket, but all that really did was redistribute where he was
carrying the same amount of weight. When he reached the first landing, he flopped down
on the bench for a rest.
The Hikomobile's locks had been tougher than he'd expected. The others probably didn't
even need him by now. For all the good he was doing, he might as well have been the
supply mule. At least a supply mule would've had a feed bag. He should've eaten that
kitsune-zushi at the bottom of the stairs after all, he thought, wincing at the squeal his
stomach made at him.
Wait a minute, that wasn't his stomach, or he would've felt that and not just heard it. He
looked up toward the next bend. There was that noise again, and it definitely wasn't his
stomach this time. It sounded more like... Yumi? Entirely forgetting the box of crossbow
bolts, he dashed upstairs toward the main grounds of the shrine.
---
There was just enough mochi to get everything done. Megumi had to soften it up by
dripping sake into the plastic bag and mooshing it around, but after that, it was easy to
pinch out pea-sized lumps. Now she had a tiny forest of fir twigs on the gazebo floor,
each one held upright by a bit of mochi at its base. Most of them were in a snaky conga
line like all of the torii over the stairs. She'd scooped some water into a big bowl, and
poured some sake into that as well before setting it down in the middle. This could work.
She had a warm, fuzzy feeling about already. Either that, or Hiko had given her just a
little too much sake. Nah. This was definitely going to work.
She went back to tearing pages out of her notebooks and making more origami foxes.
Intent on this task, she didn't notice anything outside the gazebo until there was a thump
beside her. Oh, that was weird. Kenshin had shown back up all muddy, and he'd decided
to take a nap on the floor. Whatever. She rolled him under a bench so she could finish the
job.
---
At least Yumi had been able to get out of the way, which was one less concern. But the
only unmitigated advantage so far was that the festival booths were sufficiently close
together to impede Enishi's range of motion, as well as sturdy enough not to fall apart
when struck. However, Hiko did not consider this to be adequate grounds for
complacency.
Before the initial mission to recover Yumi, he'd followed Megumi's suggestion of tucking
ofuda inside the coil of silver wire around his katana. Not having had the occasion to test
the improvement then, he'd simply left it in the same condition ever since. Gratifyingly, it
appeared to inflict a fair amount of damage to his opponent.
Enishi had seemed nonchalant about accepting the first glancing blow. The wrapped edge
couldn't break his skin by itself, though the cut from Yumi's knife didn't seem to bother
him at all. But the silver had seared his flesh, kindling a flame around the katana's blade.
The ofuda were burning, Hiko supposed, but this was lingering longer than would be
expected from a few strips of paper.
Since then, the duel had become far less playful. The watou was still sharp-edged along
all its deadly length, and its scabbard was nearly as dangerous. Dark streaks of char ran
across Enishi's shoulder and the opposite arm, and the silver shock of hair was singed
across one side, but Hiko was limping from a blunt strike across the back of one leg and
his neck was bleeding.
The key was to focus on Enishi, instead of his own katana. Its fiery blaze would only
increase night-blindness. Before being half-lamed, Hiko had driven him toward the torii,
but now Enishi was forcing him away again.
Unexpectedly, Enishi backed off and paused. "So," he said. "What's the likes of you want
with Yumi? You think you can get her away from Battousai if I can't?"
"I have no intention of getting her, as you put it. She may disport herself as she pleases,
as long as she and her companions are equally willing."
"Right. So after she brings you this sword of yours, you don't even want her? Seems a
shame to let her go to waste."
"She is not your property, nor mine. If you have no further business with her, I suggest
that you leave her in peace."
Enishi snorted. "Think I'd rather leave you in pieces, mate. Have at you, then." Abruptly
concluding the truce, he stabbed at Hiko again, striking the katana aside with his
scabbard. Hiko twisted out of the way, to the grave detriment of that ankle, but brought
up his burning blade against Enishi's side. Enishi snarled, kicked Hiko's bruised leg out
from under him, and rolled away to quench his smoldering coat, tucking the watou close
against his body. As Hiko stumbled up, the watou's scabbard hurled into him from the
darkness, knocking him down again.
Good. Enishi was getting desperate. Hiko seized it and levered himself to his feet, ready
to fight two-handed in turn. Bracing himself for the next attack, he cast about for the
other man's position. But how could Enishi be standing directly beneath the torii?
The scabbard wrenched out of his hands from behind, where Enishi had landed. By
reflex, Hiko swept his katana across, catching him again, but his leg had had enough. He
should have worn his boots, he thought as he fell, or something that provided more
protection. Grimly, he watched Enishi's silhouette loom over him again, dimly outlined
against the night with red and golden embers. "Praps you're right and Yumi isn't mine
after all. But it seems for certain that she won't be yours." The watou rose over him,
splitting the silver moon, and fell.
---
Damn Enishi, and damn his knot-tying expertise, and damn the tensile strength of silk.
Hopelessly snared in the length of gauze he'd tied around her, Yumi squirmed around,
trying to find her knife again. She'd gotten it to fall back out of her belt, but now it was
somewhere under the leaves. If she could just figure out where it was and brace it against
something to cut Tomoe's undersash, everything would be great. Other than the whole
mess of Enishi and Hiko thwacking at each other on the other side of the courtyard, and
whatever had happened with Tomoe and Megumi, and where the heck was Kenshin after
all this time? "I am going to slap the red right out of his hair for taking this much time,"
she growled to herself. Hey, was that her knife in front of her finally? But what was it
doing up in the air, and for that matter, why would it be sticking out of the end of
Kenshin's coat sleeve?
"You can't do that, pretty Yumi. Not unless you wait your turn."
Oh, crap. "Gosh. It's great to see you, Tomoe. How're you doing?"
"I humbly thank you, well well well."
"Uh, would you mind not waving that in my face?"
"But it's not in your face yet. Would you like it to be?" The demure tone and facial
expression were completely at odds with the molten pyre of her eyes, and the topaz in her
tanto's hilt shone oddly red, as if filtered through a film of blood.
"No, that's okay. Really. Hey, did you know there's a piece of gum or something stuck to
your knife?" Yumi would've liked to continue the conversation, but Tomoe kneeled
between her shoulderblades, pressing her mouth into the flagstones as the undersash
pulled tight around her throat.
---
He'd known his old jacket was done for anyway, but this just made sure of it. As Sano
grabbed out a bunch of fishbones, the pocket tore through. The rest of the fish on that
side scattered down the stairs, but he was nearly at the top anyway. There'd been fighting
noises just now, and then they'd stopped. Just when he'd thought he hadn't missed all the
action this time, he had again. Sheesh! Hiko was looking at him funny from the
courtyard, probably about to give him some sarcastic greeting about timely arrivals. How
did he manage to set his sword on fire, anyway?
Or was Hiko looking at the guy standing on top of that wooden crossbar? Nope, Hiko
was definitely looking at him, or he'd've paid more attention to crossbar guy launching
himself up and over him, and knocking him down with a ridiculously big-ass sword? This
was so not good.
As crossbar guy prepared to slice up some Hiko loaf, Sano let loose with some prime
fishbones. At least one of them hit well enough to make the guy jerk backwards,
unexpectedly overbalanced by his own sword. He recovered and hacked down at Hiko
anyway, but by then Hiko had time to roll out of range. Rolling wasn't going to get him
very far, though. Why wasn't he getting up?
Okay, ridiculously big-ass sword guy was probably Enishi, based on what Kaoru had
said. Whoever he was, he didn't like getting a fishbone to the throat. He hurled it back at
Sano and started after Hiko. Sano slowed him down with another barrage of fishbones,
but after a few more exchanges, Enishi pulled the most recent hit out of his chest and sent
it straight into Hiko's shoulder, hammering it down with his scabbard. Sano winced as
some of the fishbone spines shattered, fountaining out in a spray of blood.
Looking pleased, Enishi leaned down to twist the fish's tail. The katana flicked up toward
him, but Enishi kicked the hilt out of Hiko's hand. The blade's flames hissed and
sputtered out. Sano prepared himself for a dead run into hand-to-hand fish-slapping, but
before he got farther than a few steps out the torii, something else got Enishi's attention.
It was Sano's old coat, out for a walk around someone who wasn't Kenshin, and with a
long gauze scarf trailing behind her.
"Tomoe? Little dove? However did you get out here?" Enishi reached toward her,
disbelievingly. "It's not safe for you out in the open. Once I've finished up, I'll take you
home. You do want to go home, don't you?"
"Home is the place where when you go there, they have to take you in." She took off her
scarf as she came to Enishi and wrapped it around his neck, drawing him close. Enishi
bent to kiss her, but faltered and stumbled. Tomoe leaned forward, tilting him back and
leaving the gauze wrapped around his neck as she pressed her knife deeper into his chest.
He crumpled to the ground with his watou still in hand, as slowly as the snow that was
beginning to fall from the cloudless, moonlit sky.
---
Kenshin was taking a serious nap here if her chanting wasn't waking him up. Oh well.
Megumi shrugged and kept mixing her slurry of salt and water. She'd already set up
origami foxes in the approximate positions of all the shrine buildings, as well as the two
actual stone foxes in front of the first torii. The bowl at her feet represented the koi pond,
so she was standing where the gazebo would be. Even though she was already in the
gazebo. Gosh, this was recursive. There'd only been one open space left in the middle of
all of this stuff that had been big enough for the incense burner, and that was where the
courtyard was supposed to be. So there it sat, crammed with all of the incense sticks it
could hold, as if the courtyard were being taken over by a giant perfumed porcupine.
The slurry still looked runny. She added a handful of rice to it before scattering the
mixture over the entire model she'd constructed of the shrine grounds, and repeating the
purification chant for good measure. Was this working after all? She wasn't sure, but at
least it was giving her something to do. She sprinkled the last of the sake around for good
measure. Once she set the incense on fire, she'd be out of supplies and ideas, and then
maybe she could take a nap too. She lit the last glob of mochi on the tip of the crossbow
bolt, and aimed it at the incense burner.
---
By habit, Sano stuck out his tongue to catch the first few snowflakes. But since when was
snow salty?
By now thoroughly freaked out, he checked out Tomoe and Enishi. She was kneeling
over him, both of them completely motionless even though smoke was rising from every
flake of salt that struck their bodies. He scrambled over to where Hiko was lying, a few
yards away. "Hey. What's going on?"
Yumi crawled out from behind a booth, coughing. "She untied me. Is the boss okay?"
"I have certainly felt better," Hiko rasped. "Mr. Harris, can you reach my sword?"
He gingerly crept around Tomoe and picked it up, but as he passed her again, she
withdrew her knife from Enishi and knocked the katana away as she stood up. "You
won't be needing that," she said, and walked over to Hiko as Sano leaped aside. Enishi
struggled up as well, the crimson gauze rippling back from his throat like a river of blood.
"Tomoe, sweetheart," he pleaded. "Now that you're well again, everything will be all
right. Don't leave me for him, the way Yumi did. Come back to me, won't you?"
She didn't even turn to look at him. Instead, she waited for Hiko to sit up, firmly wrapped
one of his silver gauntlets around her knife's hilt, and helped him stab her with it. A
swirling rush of fire burst out along the black blade as soon as its tip touched the ground
through her body. The light flickered from amber to garnet to white-gold citrine, finally
crystallizing into the pale, dead grey of ash just before the tanto fell apart. When Hiko
opened his hand, a topaz tumbled out onto Tomoe's still form. A silver thread still clung
to its surface, held by a smear of soft rice candy, but it crumbled away and was lost in the
autumn leaves.
The salt snow had turned to rain, but each droplet still blistered Enishi's skin, though it
had ceased to burn Tomoe as soon as her tanto was destroyed. His face twisting with rage
and despair, he poised his watou to cut through Sano, Hiko, and Yumi all at once. But a
halo of white smoke rose around him, enveloping him in a cocoon of scent that thickened
to opacity and then vanished.
He was gone. The rain stopped. Sano and Yumi looked at Hiko, who had removed a
gauntlet to tug at the fishbone embedded in his shoulder. "If you keep picking at it, it'll
never heal," Sano said, and got up to find Megumi.
-----
(Only one review for chapter 15? Snif. Nooobody loooves meeee. Going on vacation for
a week or so; hope y'all will be a bit kinder to this chapter, even though I'm finishing it up
on far less sleep than sensible. Thanks in the meantime to Jason M. Lee for his review, as
well as to Firuze Khanume for cheering on Enishi (who may not have actually needed it,
but hey).)
Inari's own paws: as mentioned in previous chapter notes, Inari isn't a fox per se, but trust
Sano to not really care about the details. There's a very nice webpage (in English!) for
one of the three largest Inari shrines in Japan at http://www.kasama.or.jp/english/ ,
including a brief rundown on yabusame (mentioned last time). However, I'm still playing
very fast and loose with Real Shinto.
Start at the beginning: stolen from one of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books, I think.
With a fox: slightly rearranged from _Green Eggs and Ham_ by Dr. Seuss.
Should ought: the redundancy is technically called a "double modal", which term also
covers the similar construction "might could" which I may've also been slipping in. Quite
possibly not actually in whatever regional dialect Spike uses, but then I don't know how
stringent Whedon is about such things either.
Well well well: _Hamlet_ III.i.103
Home is the place: Robert Frost, "The Death of the Hired Man", lines 122-123.