Disclaimer: (see first part)
So, I guess I kind of lied, since there is an epilogue/end which will be Part VI. I really hate to leave on a cliffhanger, but it was pushing maximum density on my brain and it just seemed like such a natural way to end this section. I mean, pack in too much action and emotion and I think that suddenly the impact is slackened. Honestly, I'm not trying to torture anyone. Well. . . maybe Enishi sometimes. But that's just because I love him. Heh.
Augh. Back to mostly Enishi now that Kaoru has been taken out of commission. This is also known as 'the hard part'. ::authoress crosses her fingers and jumps into her pool of creativity::
As always I'm getting worried about rushing this, but considering it was originally going to be three parts and quite a bit more abbreviated, maybe my worries are just so much wasted thought. Fairy tales are pretty condensed too, I guess.
Oh, and again, sorry for mistakes. I didn't edit this very well. Heh. I'll try to fix stuff later when I post Part VI. (Or maybe not. I get a little lazy about editing since I've never had a beta reader.)
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Part VI will be out soon soon.
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Part V
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It wasn't until he found the tatters of his shirt that he became well and truly alarmed.
He had gotten too anxious and couldn't wait any longer to see Kaoru, but ended up being ultimately disappointed. Enishi had been sitting at Kaoru's home for a week now, waiting for her to come back. There was no sign of her anywhere near the southern port or on the roads. After a few days he had gotten so desperate that he went to question that friend of hers down the road. The girl had stammered and tried to answer his rapid fire and impatient questions, but she couldn't give him anything besides what he already knew: Kaoru was in the city and she was going to be back soon.
How had he known this would happen? He left and now she was gone, leaving behind nothing but his own slowly frosting heart.
There was no reason to stay in the house, but he did anyway. Enishi slept in her bed which he had himself occupied for a few days. He almost expected to wake up and find her next to him like that first night. Damn those relatives of hers. All he wanted was to protect her before everything in the country went to the dogs. Lord Himura at that very moment was putting together his strategy for invasion. Of course, Enishi had only agreed to letting the stupid man use his highly dispensable troops to create a diversion. The real idea was to keep Goro too busy and therefore force him to let his guard down. The only hard part was going to be the fairies. . .
The bed still smelled like her.
How could they just leave everything behind? They didn't have much money, which was painfully obvious, so how could they afford to just pick up and run? And how did they manage to drag Kaoru with them? They had a promise. Like it or not, Enishi had sworn something he never wanted to take back. He would find her and they would be together if he had to kill every last person in his way.
Hm. She might not like that.
The absence didn't bother him until he found, stuffed into a chest of trinkets in her room, some tatters that he recognized as formerly being part of his shirt. The shirt she said she had thrown away. The only thing he had left behind.
Now, his brain swiftly went into motion. If she left this behind then she thought she was returning at some point, right? That meant that either she was taken by force or simply lied to. In each case she would have to figure it out at some point and then be coerced to comply with whatever her relatives were demanding. He had to stop sulking here and go find her!
Enishi stood up, ready for action, and then swore.
There was no way he could spend that much time to find her while Himura was in the middle of his coup and Enishi's own reserves of control were stretched thin just in keeping the troops from attacking Himura's own personal forces. This meant the only answer was to simply finish off the princess and then throw his whole effort into finding his precious bride to be.
Bride to be. It was a good epithet, and one which he had been using in reference to her more and more. He wanted more than a promise from her to be with him, he wanted her to be really bound to him. Whether it was through heavenly or demonic powers, they would be bound together. But that couldn't happen if he couldn't find her. Maybe if he pushed Himura just a little harder the man would move up his time table.
It would only take another day or two before the princess was resituated anyway, so he had plenty of time. Even if he didn't, Enishi would make sure he would do his part anyway.
With a longing backward glance at Kaoru's room, Enishi swept out to take care of the hasty arrangements.
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Goro was surrounded by paperwork, arched fingers obscuring his face as he bent into them and spoke slowly to be able to keep up the mask of indifference. The stresses of the past days were almost enough to drive a man insane, but The Wolf was made of sturdier stuff and he knew his own limits. Right now, staring into the eyes of the impassive senior fairy, Goro knew he was approaching one of those limits.
"I said, remove her to the castle at Briar Rose. Are you deaf?"
"No, Your Majesty, but I think it is a grave mistake to take her somewhere that has no buffer to protect Kaoru from the. . ."
Goro broke in. "And it worked so well before did it?" He stood up and threw a packet of papers at Aoshi. "See these? This is the newest correspondence from my spies on the western border. Himura is gathering an army, and not a mortal one. He'll make his bid too, and if it looks like he's going to win then I stand to lose at least 30% of my supposed loyal retainers. People look after themselves, Your Excellency, and no one cares whether or not my comatose daughter lives or dies." The king turned away as he spoke the last sentence, lest Aoshi see the way that last sentence truly affected him.
"I realize this is a tense time. I simply wished to point out that Sanosuke, Soujiro, and I may not be enough to hold back the sorcerer should he make a full out attack. . ."
"With what forces? He's lent them all to Himura, that traitor. I face a tough battle in the next few days. Just organizing all the troops again is creating enough chaos to make people panic. Country people are streaming into the city in droves, seeking protection within these walls, and I don't know if I can protect them or even myself. I'll take care of my front to protect my country. I trust you to protect my daughter. This audience is over." Aoshi knew when he had hit a brick wall, and right now Goro looked pretty stony. With a simple bow, he left.
Goro watched the door close and then took out from a drawer an amethyst ring. It would have matched the necklace. But now he couldn't even give her that much. Personal and important were distinctive concepts. Kaoru, the daughter he loved enough to die for, could not be placed above an entire kingdom of people right now. She would be moved, and that was final.
Even though Tokio wasn't speaking to him.
Even though he was well aware Kaoru was more vulnerable this way.
Kaoru was a distraction, and Goro needed every edge he could get for the up and coming test of his rule.
"I'm sorry." He spoke to himself in a vague manner before putting the ring away again and sifting through papers that claimed portents of doom. What a week.
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"This isn't even a. . . a. . . phalanx! Or whatever it is soldiers organize into!" Sanosuke smacked the wheel of the cart that was slowly pulling Kaoru towards the dilapidated castle to the north, called Briar Rose for what used to be prized rose gardens before the civil war gutted its small economy and left it and the surrounding village mostly deserted.
"It does no use to complain, the queen gave us all the forces she could. These are her personally trained forces. It's amazing she could get this many to come with us." Soujiro tried to find something good to say even if he too felt the support was lacking.
Aoshi simply focused on leading the small caravan and chose not to comment. Right now was a crucial time, with Goro distracted and perhaps even lulled into a false sense of security because the sorcerer had fulfilled his sister's curse. That wasn't all Enishi had wanted, and they were all too aware of it, but Goro seemed to not want to even think about it.
Oh how Aoshi understood. It would be nice just to distance himself from Kaoru, but he would feel like a father abandoning a helpless child. He felt more like her father than Goro right now, and for him the idea that anything, even the fall of a miniscule king in an isolated kingdom could not compare to the importance of this girl who lay so still and deathly in a canopied cart heading for a rotting castle. He'd had years to prepare for it, but now that it had actually happened he felt stripped of his defenses.
The soldiers that were with them, sent by the queen who shared the fairies' sentiments and would have come with herself but for the panic her removal would have caused, looked tired and irritated to be called away from what would surely be battle soon to guard someone would couldn't even move. They didn't understand, but then how could they? They hadn't met Kaoru. They didn't know how arbitrary and unfair a punishment it was to wreak on anyone, let alone someone as loving and beautiful of spirit as Kaoru. Then again, Aoshi was quite biased. Getting mad at people for being ignorant never helped.
"Oi! Aoshi! Is that it?" Aoshi looked up and away from the road directly ahead and more to the left. "It's a total heap! We'll be lucky if it doesn't crush us from just walking in it!"
Sanosuke's colorful language was correct. The castle looked to be in terrible repair. Most likely it had been used as a base and even the site of several battles as many large structures had been all over the kingdom. The stonework would hold, despite Sanosuke's skepticism, but it certainly would be drafty and unpleasant as a residence.
They arrived by early evening and some troops left to go find where they could get some water. The farmers hopefully hadn't fled this area yet, even though it was moderately close to the capital. Mostly, the fairies were left alone to see to their charge on their own. With a little help from some magic, they transported her to a room in the heart of the castle, solid and windowless to prevent drafts. The bed they conjured was more to ease their own minds, because it wasn't as if Kaoru could feel it.
Once she was all laid out, still in her purple dress, hair down, they all stood there as if she had been placed in a coffin. Sanosuke coughed in the silence.
"So what now?"
"I don't know." Aoshi answered. "We never thought it would come to this. Not really."
"I think that we should set up some defenses. We could take turns. . . each of us can come and stay for a few months and then rotate with. . ." Soujiro didn't take his eyes off of Kaoru.
Sanosuke exploded. "We all know how impractical that is! Face it. We'll be guarding her until Enishi dies, or until the day he finally gets past us all and murders her. If we leave her here then that's the same as murdering her ourselves. What solution could there be? I can't live like this!" He ran over and punched at an old shelf that collapsed in a cloud of rotten wood and dust.
"Sanosuke's right." The other two stared at Aoshi in shock. "It is too much to ask of either of you to stay with Kaoru. I insisted on raising her, and I dragged you two along. If you want to go, you can, and I won't blame you. I will watch her. As long as it takes." Her brushed her bangs back from her face, feeling the cold skin of her forehead, before they fell back again.
Soujiro put his hand on Aoshi's shoulder. "Don't martyr yourself just yet. We all agreed to stay because we wanted to. We wouldn't have stayed as long as we did, any of us, if not for the fact that it was our choice to. Just give me some time to think this over."
"That goes for me too." Sanosuke came over to look at Kaoru again. His fist descended on a post on the bed, making it shake but not breaking it. "Damn that Enishi." A spark of something made his eyebrow arch and his mouth quirk into something like a smile. "Hey, Jiro, you said something about defenses, right?"
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There weren't even flashes of light in the distance. The cannons had disappeared behind Enishi as he made his way to Briar Rose. That would keep Goro busy for a while. This would teach them all. . . in war there were no winners. No one should benefit from war, and Goro had benefited the most so he must suffer for all of them. That's why he thought Tomoe had attacked him all those years ago. It was such a hazy memory in some ways.
He picked his way down the dirt road. No one was out. Why would they be? They were all within the walls of the city, which would soon fall. Who would cross him anyway? He knew that the Manslayer was busy slaughtering his minions left and right. Enishi could care less; they were just grunts. Plenty to spare.
The warm night was so humid, and even this little bit of walking was causing him to sweat in his clothes. Instead of using his magic and alerting those stupid guardians of the princess, Enishi shed his cloak, his gloves, and the shirt he wore over the black under layer. That was better. It was a pain to stifle his natural aura, but it was necessary. Surprise was part of the plan.
But then he noticed that the fairies had set up their own little surprise for Enishi.
Miles in the distance Enishi made out a twisting mass of something. It surrounded the castle as a new wall. No doubt it was the first of many challenges, but Enishi didn't fear any of that. He had a mission and nothing was going to prevent him from finishing what Tomoe had begun.
A scrape of something alerted him to the soldier bearing down with a sword from behind. The queen had trained her forces well, but none of them would ever face the likes of Enishi unless they had sparred with the Manslayer. Of course, they would never do so now, because Enishi had no reason to spare them. His large sword could chip slices from rock without losing its edge. Human flesh was no challenge for it, and Enishi wielded his large blade with astonishing speed. The soldiers were just a passing nuisance.
A few miles and just as many battles later, Enishi found himself facing a large and rather daunting blackberry bush. At least, that's what it resembled. He didn't have to walk around it to know that it covered the circumference of the castle and that it was at least twenty feet high. Who knew how thick it was? Not that it mattered, since Enishi tackled this like he had tackled everything else so far. His sword hacked a path through the thorns which tried to bite at his skin and closed in almost as soon as he had progressed a little into the thicket.
A foot in, it was nearly dark as night, as the twisting wall of thorns almost blocked out all sun. But that was just fine with Enishi. He didn't need light to function and the darkness simply made him feel more at home. With some regret he thought of his discarded cloak as deep gouges seemed to spring into existence as he progressed. Now that he was thinking about it, he should have just burned the whole thing before striding in as if there would be no contest to his conquering this false bit of nature.
Then again, why did it have to be before?
While Enishi carved a place in the spiny bushes for himself to sit down, Soujiro and Sanosuke were having a serious discussion. Aoshi sent them to deal with the magician while he remained with Kaoru. Soujiro, who had been the one to erect the wall of thorns in the first place, was having a hard time managing it and concentrating on what Sanosuke was trying to tell him as well. The energy it took to grow the initial wall was easy, but to force the thorns to grow at the speed it would take to even slow Enishi's path was causing the young fairy's head to pound from inner pressure. All this could do was divert the sorcerer for a while. It was really all up to Sanosuke.
"I don't know if that would work. I mean, wouldn't just using your wand be wiser?" Soujiro tried to sense what Enishi was doing now that his movement had stopped. All he could tell was that he was starting some sort of common spell, but nothing specific.
"Nonsense. This will be far more satisfying. Trust me on this. I was never good at those magical battles. But hand to hand combat, that I can do. Finally I'll have some wings I can be proud of. . ." Sanosuke was weaving the transformation about his body and Soujiro watched as he started to enter the first stages of the shift. While Sanosuke was transforming he would be vulnerable and Soujiro needed to make sure that he bought the fighter more time.
Therefore it was with no little panic when he saw smoke billowing out of the brambles. The dry summer day promised no damper, and if it was left unregulated this fire might spread past the brambles and into the countryside. . . this was absolutely evil. Soujiro should have expected nothing less from the sorcerer.
Enishi was hacking easily through burning brush, and Soujiro had to exert himself far more to simultaneously keep the fire under control and to continue to obscure Enishi's path. Sanosuke just needed a few more minutes, but even then Soujiro didn't know if he could hold out.
Sweat covered the young fairy's brow as he watched Sanosuke growl in pain at the way his bones were elongating and twisting to fit new muscles and different tendons. Smoke blew over them and Soujiro coughed, he could barely see in all the smoke. His fingers tingled with numbness and he realized at some point he had been driven to his knees and had been resting with the tips of his fingers buried in the earth. He willed the brambles to grow faster, to react more aggressively, but it was almost impossible to think. Soujiro coughed again and spat, as his mouth went dry with the foul acrid smoke. Enishi broke through with a laugh, and Soujiro saw him exit through another waft of smoke before he passed out face down on the grass in front of the castle's main entrance.
Neither Sanosuke nor Enishi saw Soujiro pass out, but without his energy managing the brambles even minimally, they simply collapsed in a heap of cinders, smoldering in this section as the fire spread around to the other parts of the wall. Soon, everyone for miles around would see the smoke and even those in the city would know that the attack upon Briar Rose had begun. Enishi hoped the king and queen were still alive to see it. He tried to laugh again, but inhaled some smoke and ended up hacking until his eyes watered.
Now was not the time to relish this small victory. He kept his sword unsheathed as he made his way forward, only to be greeted by a monster at the gate of the castle. Its reptilian head was full of sharp teeth, giving it a permanent grin, and the tail behind it whipped back and forth impatiently. It looked at its claws and gave an experimental flex, admiring the sharp tips before glancing back at the large bat wings. For a dragon it was rather small, but small was a relative measurement because the beast was still bigger than standard traveling carriage. Size didn't matter, anyway, while speed did, and Enishi knew that small dragons had incredible mobility. The fairies were putting up a decent if ultimately futile defense.
Finally, the beast spotted him, and the feline eyes narrowed as it howled with a jet of crimson flame not far behind. Enishi rolled to the side, avoiding the guttering flames that were far more dangerous to him than the ones in the brambles. For one thing, he hadn't created this flame, and for another, the dragon breathed much hotter flame than any needed to burn a plant. This flame could melt metal.
After continuing the roll, but forward this time, Enishi popped up and brought his sword over the scales of the dragon, making it scream from the impact but not succeeding in breaking the skin. That was somewhat worrying to Enishi. He searched his mind for information on any sort of weak point as he ran and jumped behind a rock while flames curled over his head and singed his hair while he quickly ducked more efficiently to prevent any truly serious burns.
Wait a moment.
Enishi heard the thing start to flap its wings and he saw the smoke move in strange curls above his head. Once it was airborne, his chances would be even worse. Even if he managed to prevent the flames from boiling his body to nothing, he still had to contend with the teeth and claws and tail. Where had those damned fairies found a dragon? He had thought they had all gone extinct except for the few that went underground. . .
By everything evil, Enishi should just give up his crystal ball and renounce his magicianhood. Of course dragons were nearly extinct! No baby dragon, and that's what this would have to be, would be here without its mother, and every magic worker worth his salt knew that those damned fairies were experts at transformations. Back in the bad old days you could hardly walk around a forest without coming across some stupid prince or lord who had been transformed into a bear or a frog or a rosebush or something.
Logically that all pointed to the real flaw in the form the fairy had chosen. . . and that was that it wasn't a natural form. Enishi withdrew his wand, and poured more power than he could really spare into a dispel enchantment. That ought to take the wind out of that fairy's sails. Now if he could just unload it at the right time.
He heard the flap just in time as he jumped to the side, sword abandoned but still clutching his wand, and heard the claws scrape against rock even as he saw the sparks they raised. It had been close. The smoke was both curse and blessing in that it gave him cover but made aiming this spell very difficult. He'd only have one shot at this, and then he'd have to try something else. That was assuming, naturally, that he would live through one failed attempt.
The only way to make this work was to get out into an open area and just take a chance. He had had good luck so far, so he knew he probably shouldn't push it, but without courage he wouldn't get any further than now. Today would be the day. It had to be the day.
Enishi took a breath low to the ground to avoid more smoke in his lungs and then ran for the inner courtyard just beyond the arch that led into the castle. The almost gleeful scream that descended upon him from above was easy enough to track, and Enishi threw himself sideways so that he landed on his back and faced the dragon as it fell upon him, claws outstretched, while Enishi used two hands to point the wand squarely in the beast's direction.
The blast of energy hit the dragon and instead of raking Enishi up his whole body and splitting the sorcerer into two messy halves, it crashed yards away and flopped uselessly into the stone arch. The body was smoking and twisted. Even if the fairy survived, as Enishi assumed it had since it seemed to still be breathing, it would be out of commission for a while. He could easily finish it off when he had more time and could find a way to get through the scales. If he waited, it would just transform back, as it was starting to even now, and then it would be even easier to deal the fairy an efficient death. Either way, he could continue on for now.
Loudly, Enishi swore as he picked himself up off the ground. That fall had been harder than he had thought it would be and his body complained. There would be bruises all over tomorrow, and in addition to the cuts and scrapes he looked a lot worse than he felt. At least his clothing wasn't ripped too much. Nothing would be more embarrassing than having his rear hanging out of his trousers when he was killing the princess. It wasn't a very noble image.
After finding his sword, Enishi began to search the castle. Most of the smoke was staying outside of this area, and only a faint smell of it lingered on him as he walked through room after room with no success. Where were other traps? Where was the princess? Part of this quick strike was to prevent his enemies from being too well prepared, but it was always possible that they were more resourceful than he had counted on.
It took maybe twenty minutes of aimless wandering before he found a portion of the castle that had dusty footprints leading up a set of stairs. Good thing he was observant at the moment, else he would have been at this all night and he'd prefer not to have to deal with boredom as well as battles for his life. In some ways boredom was much worse than the battles.
He followed the footprints to a door made of solid looking wood. The footprints only lead back in the direction he had come, and with something like a cross between relief and jubilation, Enishi put his hand on the knob and pushed the door open even as he backed away quickly and flattened against the wall. At the very least, he had been expecting some sort of trap. Only silence and the inner darkness of a lightless room met his eyes. Enishi felt his skin crawl as instincts hold him to remain cautious. They were quite right.
"I wondered." A voice in the darkness reminded Enishi of some unpleasant associated memory. "I suppose the others are dead."
"Not yet. I'll clean up later." Enishi allowed himself to smile even as his mind raced to remember where the second fairy had been. He couldn't remember, but he didn't feel all that alarmed by it.
"I'd fight you with magic, but I think you have made this more personal than I can overlook. We'll do this right." An orb of light sparked and illuminated the enclosed room.
Enishi's sword dropped from his nerveless fingers just as the devilish smile he had been sporting was wiped from his face.
It was Aoshi.
Albeit, this was a much changed Aoshi, in the tight robes of his kind and looking very much more like a magical being, but nevertheless he was the Aoshi that Enishi knew and didn't particularly like. This Aoshi was even more hateful, as he clutched a sword in each of his hands, slim and of different lengths. The way his body was positioned, Enishi knew that Aoshi had been trained to use them and had over a century to perfect that art.
That wasn't what made Enishi heart twist and break.
It didn't take a genius to figure out just who it might be who lay beneath the canopied bed in the center of the room.
"What's this? The great lord of the Western Spire losing his will to fight?" Aoshi's voice was deadpan but had the aftertaste of spite to it. "Why stop now when you're so very close?"
"Shut up." Enishi didn't want to think about this. It was all wrong. The hate was trying to slip away, being replaced by soft throbbing feelings too human to be anything Enishi recognized by name in himself. He had to hold on to the mission, to Tomoe. With no little effort, Enishi forced himself to pick up his sword again.
Aoshi's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure this is what you want?"
"It's what I've always wanted."
"Things can change."
"Are we going to talk or are we going to fight?" Enishi backed into the hallway. Aoshi followed.
Blow for blow, they seemed evenly matched, but Enishi had been forced to draw his dagger and wield his sword one handed to be able to block Aoshi's two handed fighting method. This was worse even than fighting that little Manslayer. Then, the speed of that red haired devil had been his undoing, but while Enishi had greater speed compared to the fairy, he didn't have the years of experience. Once Enishi grew tired and his speed lessened, then he would lose. He had to end it quickly. But when you faced an opponent who gave you no openings, what did he have left?
Cheating.
It was dishonorable, and it was only a temporary fix, but he knew it would provide him with all the time he wanted to do what he needed to do.
After fighting down to one end of the hall, Enishi forced them to circle one another while trading blows. Assured he was in a good position, Enishi flashed a smile at Aoshi and then threw his large sword at the man. Aoshi was thrown off balance and hit it away, but that brief stagger was enough time for Enishi to get to the door to the princess' room. He threw his weight at the door, closing it, and then he broke the knob off after throwing the catch to lock it.
Even with a spell, it would take Aoshi a minute or two to get past that door.
The still glowing orb cast an ethereal sheen on Kaoru's face. Enishi clutched the dagger in his hand and raised it above her chest. He was sure this was what he had to do.
Wasn't he?
He knew what the spell was. He knew the conditions for its release.
Still unsure of his feelings, or even of why he was doing this when victory was in his grasp, Enishi bent down and kissed Kaoru on the lips. He wanted her wake up. He wanted to know if this was love or if it had just been a fickle princess' trick on a random wanderer. Either way, he would have to kill her in the end.
The pounding on the door couldn't distract him from his intent stare at Kaoru's reposed face. Each hit against the door was like a second ticking away as he looked for signs of life.
When he could not wait any longer, Enishi let his feelings of betrayal surge and amplify his anger at the failure to wake his sleeping princess. The dagger rose high as he wanted enough force to get it through the ribs and into the heart.
It was in that position that Aoshi found Enishi as he slammed the door to the ground and off of its iron hinges.
It was in that position that Kaoru found Enishi as her eyes flickered open and blue met turquoise in unfocused confusion.
