AUTHOR'S NOTES: First, a quick note about time. In the last chapter, I noted that five days had passed in Kagome's time, but in the Sengoku Jidai, it's been a little over two days that have passed. It's out of sequence, but that's on purpose. It'll even out very soon, I promise.

Another note is that neither Inuyasha and Kagome, nor Miroku and Sango, show up in this chapter. It's pretty much confined to the ronin, Naraku, Kagura, and Kikyo. The Inu-tachi will be the stars of the show next chapter, I promise. It's just that the chapter was getting too long with all that was going on with the ronin army and who's doublecrossing who, so I decided to cut it off and start with the good guys next time. I will say that there is a big battle coming up very soon.

Finally, a little note about geography and samurai organization. I have no idea where Inu-Yasha is supposed to take place, but I remember it being mentioned that the Higurashi Shrine is in Tokyo. Therefore, Kaede's village is probably just north of the old town of Edo. So I'm assuming that Kouga's den is somewhere in the mountains up north. As for Arashikaze's ronin army, I have used the modern equivalents of battalions, companies, and modern ranks rather than the Japanese, for ease of gaijin reading.

REVIEWER'S CORNER:

Darkless Vasion: I wish I could take credit, but Kathleen Batey is again to be thanked for the idea of an actual Inu-Yasha legend. I just expanded on it...it makes sense to me. And yep, things have been changed, so Mrs. Higurashi is understandably frightened.

Hawker 748: (Hmm. You must be a fan of the HS.748?) Thanks. The Banpei funny hat must be tipped towards Grimtash and T-Dog for getting me interested in Inu-Yasha–it's a great series, though Eva remains my favorite anime series. I've been a Rush "convert" for a few years and really like their stuff. No BTO TCB for Inuyasha, though–that song is reserved for the crew of the good ship Bebop.

Inny-Hakky: In a nutshell: the legend is the Inu-Yasha series. Everything that happens in it becomes obscure Japanese folklore that, by our time, nobody believes. Until Kagome gets pulled into the well, that is...

Cowboy Beboper: You want it, you got it. Naraku breaks out in "Tomorrow" from Annie in this. Well, actually...no he doesn't.

MUSIC DEPARTMENT: "Clubbed to Death" by Rob D. from The Matrix soundtrack was perfect for the Arashikaze-Kikyo-Naraku confrontation, and II Air from End of Evangelion was pretty good too. For battle music, try anything from Lodoss...

CHAPTER NINE: A GAME WITH THE DEAD

But can we dance into the fire

That fatal kiss is all we need

Dance into the fire

To fatal sounds of broken dreams

Dance into the fire

That fatal kiss is all we need

When all we see is a view to a kill.

–Duran Duran, "A View to a Kill"

The first warning of the attack came with the screams.

Lord Takashi Arashikaze was instantly awake, katana already half out of its scabbard. It was still night out, though Arashikaze's inner clock told him that it would be dawn soon. His trained ears thought he detected the sounds of battle. He threw back the thin blanket, tightened his sleeping kimono, and left his tent. His guards were instantly around him, and torches were being lit. "Lieutenant!" Arashikaze shouted. A samurai rushed over and knelt. "What's going on?"

"Lord Soryu's battalion is under attack, sir!"

"Rouse the men immediately. Defensive deployment!" He noticed Ishikawa. "Ishikawa-san! With me!"

"My lord!" Like Arashikaze, Ishikawa was barefoot, dressed only in his sleeping kimono. He wore both his swords, however, and carried a quiver of arrows over one shoulder. He caught a bow thrown to him by another ronin, and followed Arashikaze towards the sounds of battle.

They went over a small rise to where Soryu's men were encamped near the stream and the sacred tree the locals called the Goshinboku. Torches had already been lit and gave a hellish illumination to the battle. Ronin in various states of dress were wading into battle; Arashikaze spotted Soryu at the head of his men, katana flashing in the light of the torches and the moon as he swung at something. There were figures almost invisible in the darkness, but Arashikaze saw a hoe rise and fall, and a ronin go down beneath it. "Peasants," he said, amazed.

Ishikawa began to nod, but suddenly whirled, dropped to one knee, nocked an arrow, and fired it into the forest. Steel sang out of scabbards as Arashikaze's retinue drew their swords"Ishikawa-san?" Arashikaze looked at the older samurai, who had pulled another arrow from his quiver and was preparing to fire again. He hesitated, peering into the forest. "What did you see?" Arashikaze asked.

"I'm not sure, my lord. I thought I saw something move...but it's gone now."

Arashikaze looked behind him and saw the lieutenant rushing up behind him with a loose company of men. "Lord Arashikaze," the lieutenant panted, dropping to one knee. "Lord Fujii reports no activity on his flank or from the village." Noriaki Fujii was Ishikawa's second in command.

"Very well. Lieutenant, take your company into the woods. Report back to me on anything you should find there. I shall be with Lord Soryu."

"Hai, tono!" The lieutenant scampered off with his men behind him. Arashikaze turned to another of his retainers. "Yamada-san, go to Lord Fujii and tell him to surround the village, but not for him to move against it until I give the order. Then find the old miko Kaede and ask her if any of her people are missing. Be polite, but very firm. Understood?" To be sure, Arashikaze had Yamada repeat the order back to him, then sent him on his way. Then he moved down the slope towards Soryu and the battle.

The battle was over by the time he reached Soryu. The ronin commander was wiping his katana free of blood, his kimono torn and splattered with gore. He bowed quickly to Arashikaze. "My lord. I fear you have arrived too late for the battle."

"So it seems, Soryu-san." He toed the decapitated body at Soryu's feet. "These are peasants."

"Yes, sir. They attacked completely without warning. How the nightwatch missed them I don't know–the fools may have been asleep. Onuki-san there sounded a warning." Soryu pointed to a badly wounded ronin being seen to by some of his comrades.

Arashikaze looked at Ishikawa. "Send for Lady Kikyo immediately. I don't care if she's asleep or not. Drag her here if necessary." Ishikawa bowed and was gone.

"This is how the villagers repay us for our mercy," Soryu snarled, practically shaking his katana in rage. "Lord Arashikaze, we should burn the village now. Kill everyone in it. They must pay for this outrage!"

Arashikaze said nothing for a moment. He bent down and examined the body of the peasant. The man had been brutally slashed across the chest, cutting through bone and flesh in what had to have been a fatal blow. "Soryu-san. Did you do this?"

Soryu, taken aback for a moment, looked down. "No, my lord. He was already cut there. I took his head. Probably one of the nightwatch got in a cut before he was overwhelmed." Arashikaze nodded and walked over to another body. It too had been slashed in a number of places, and bloody footprints, along with a disgusting length of intestines, showed where the peasant had somehow walked forward only to die at the hands of another of Soryu's swordsmen. Something nagged at Arashikaze's mind, and he rubbed his chin in thought.

"My lord," Soryu said, walking up to him. "Let me do it. There is no need for you to sully your hands with peasant blood! If there is bad luck for killing the old miko, then let it be upon my head!" When Arashikaze said nothing, Soryu's temper broke. "My lord, either let me burn the village or order me to commit seppuku now! These are my men that are dead! I cannot live with this shame!"

Arashikaze whirled on him. "Soryu-san, you forget yourself! These were my men as well as yours, and I am quite aware of the situation!"

Soryu was instantly down on one knee. "Lord Arashikaze, I must have vengeance or I will have death."

"You will have neither. You will, however, organize your battalion and assist Lord Fujii in surrounding the village." He looked down at the body again. "Bring your torches, but you will not move until I give the order. If you disobey me, I will have you crucified."

Soryu nodded, got up, and began organizing his battalion as ordered. Arashikaze stood still for a moment, then delivered a savage kick to the body. He then walked back to his tent.

Ten minutes later, he was dressed, wearing his breastplate but no other armor. Dawn was only a pink line on the horizon, but the village was awake. Arashikaze could hear the villagers murmuring and occasional wails of terror. He looked over the area from his position on the rise. He could see the old miko, Kaede, her white kimono stark in the darkness, moving from peasant to peasant, reassuring them–or organizing them; Arashikaze could not be sure. In any case, it did not look like the village was at all prepared for what was going to befall them, which did not make sense. Either they thought he was weak, a thought that angered him momentarily until he decided that was unlikely. He had shown the villagers mercy, but not that much. Another possibility was that it was some young hotheads. Even so, the village would have to be punished–unless there was a third possibility. He had a feeling that Kikyo knew something she was not telling. Soryu stood nearby, dressed in his red armor, barely suppressing his anger. One hand was on the hilt of his katana; the other held a burning torch.

At last, Ishikawa arrived with Kikyo in tow. She looked disheveled in her traditional miko robes, but wide awake and furious. Good, Arashikaze thought. He wanted it that way. He noticed Naraku heading towards them, and motioned him over.

"Lady Kikyo," he said with a small bow–much less than the cordiality he had shown her before.

"What are you doing?" she asked imperiously.

"What am I doing?" he answered. "It would appear that I intend to burn your village to the ground."

Her eyes flashed with anger, hands curling into fists. "You lied to us–"

"I did no such thing!" Arashikaze shouted, in such a display of uncharacteristic anger that it shocked even Kikyo. "Perhaps you can explain to me why, for the past two nights, my men have been attacked and killed. You assured me that it was not the villagers, and I agreed. Tonight we saw the villagers attack!"

"Lord Arashikaze," Kikyo said tightly, "the peasants of my village are not samurai and they certainly are not ninja! How could they have stood a chance against your ronin, even for a moment?"

"You tell me," Arashikaze replied simply. Kikyo's mouth opened, then closed, and she looked away. Naraku, hovering nearby, saw his nemesis trapped, and smiled unseen beneath his mask.

"You do not know?" Arashikaze asked rhetorically, then turned to Soryu. "Burn it." Soryu saluted, and began to march towards the village. He had already decided that he would throw the first torch.

"Wait!" Kikyo exclaimed in nearly a strangled scream. She looked at the ground. "It was not the villagers. I swear by every kami that has existed or ever will exist."

"I'm sure the kami appreciate that, but as a man I demand more proof than a miko's words," Arashikaze answered coldly.

Kikyo looked to the village, then to Naraku, then to Arashikaze. "But I do not lie," she said quietly. "Your men were not murdered by the villagers. There are...others..."

Arashikaze's hand went up, and Soryu stopped, seething. "I'm listening," the ronin lord told Kikyo.

"The houshi and the taijya that were here. They went for help. Assistance. It may be other ronin they have hired, or even ninja."

"Or youkai?"

Kikyo nodded. "Yes. It was probably youkai."

"The hanyou Inuyasha?"

"No," she insisted vehemently.

"I don't believe you."

Naraku stepped forward. "My Lord Arashikaze. I believe the Lady Kikyo may speak the truth." Naraku's eyes shined with triumph behind the baboon mask. "She knows, because she helped them escape. It was why she was wandering around the other night."

Arashikaze merely raised an eyebrow towards Kikyo. She hesitated, then nodded. Arashikaze reached down and drew his katana. He leveled it at Kikyo's throat. "Then it was you who lied to me, Lady Kikyo."

Kikyo sighed. Slowly, she fell to her knees, reached back, and pulled the tail of her hair over one shoulder, exposing her neck. Arashikaze shook his head. "Not yet, Lady Kikyo. Tell me why you lied."

"To save my village. If you had found the houshi and the taijya there, you would have butchered the village." She looked up at him. "They pose no threat to you, Lord Arashikaze. It's Naraku that wants them dead, for his own reasons!"

Naraku snorted derisively. "I have no ambitions, Kikyo. I serve Lord Hitomi. It is he who placed the price on their heads, not I. I do not question my lord's orders."

Arashikaze slowly moved to one side of Kikyo, keeping the sword in place. "Lady Kikyo. Answer my next question very carefully. Tell me where those two have gone for help, and I will spare your village, and you."

Tears ran down Kikyo's face. "You killed Ayane for similar reasons."

"I had to do that. She killed my men. You have done nothing but saved others, including my men. But if I am not satisfied with your answer, rest assured that I will kill you, but only after you watch your village and your shrine burn to cinders."

Kikyo stared at the village again, then said softly, "They went to seek the assistance of the youkai wolf tribe, led by the one known as Kouga."

Naraku nodded. "Lord Arashikaze, I know where that is. Three days march north of here."

"Their numbers?"

"About four dozen warriors," Naraku replied. "But they are youkai, my lord, and this Kouga is rumored to have shards of the sacred Shikon Jewel in his legs. His tribe does use swords, and claws."

"That would explain the cuts," Ishikawa supplied.

Arashikaze pressed the tip of the sword into Kikyo's throat. "Is Lord Naraku telling me the truth?" Kikyo only nodded. The ronin withdrew his katana, spun it, and sheathed it in one fluid motion. "Lord Soryu!"

Soryu jogged up the hill. "Sir."

"Tell your men to extinguish your torches."

"My lord?" Soryu's face darkened with anger.

"Don't worry, Soryu-san. You'll have your chance at a battle, against worthy foes, not stinking peasants. How do you feel about killing youkai?"

Soryu grinned. "They bleed red the same as we do, my lord. It will be an honor and a pleasure."

"Good. Strike your camp and prepare to march. I will give you orders within the hour."

Soryu bowed deeply and quickly, nearly burning himself with the torch. "Yes, my lord." He handed the torch to another ronin and began shouting orders.

Arashikaze took Naraku aside. "I don't believe in peasant stories, Lord Naraku, but I have seen too much to entirely discount them. Will Lord Soryu's battalion be enough against youkai?"

"Not alone. However, I know of a way to even the odds."

"Yes?"

Naraku made no effort to hide his smile this time. "Fight youkai with youkai. I believe I know someone who will do very nicely. His name is Totoroki, and he is worth five of the wolves. He can meet Lord Soryu on the way."

"Very well. Send for this Totoroki immediately." He returned Naraku's bow, then walked over to Ishikawa. Naraku walked past Kikyo, who still knelt in the grass. He bent down slightly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Most impressive, Lady Kikyo. I should think that one who is made of clay could not weep." He sauntered away. Kikyo did not reply; she only stared at the teardrops on her fingers.

Arashikaze walked slowly back to his tent, ignoring Kikyo. Ishikawa fell in with him, but did not speak until they reached the ronin lord's tent. Arashikaze sat down heavily after ordering one of his men to brew cha, green tea. "What is on your mind, my friend?" he asked Ishikawa, now standing in the doorway of his tent.

Ishikawa glanced outside to make sure no one was listening, then squatted. "Takashi-san, I hit something in the forest with my arrow. I don't know who or what, but it left a blood trail...and this." He handed Arashikaze the scrap of white cloth, with just the hint of pink on it. "It's from a kimono. None of us wear white kimonos with pink trim...but Naraku's consort does."

"You feel we're being manipulated?" Arashikaze sighed. "So do I."

"Should we go after this Kouga, then? And sending Soryu-san? He's very hotheaded."

"Which is why I'm sending you with him. He is still a good samurai, and if I keep him here, he will do something stupid."

"What about Naraku?"

"I can handle him." Arashikaze pulled a piece of parchment from a leather case and a ink block. "We must meet Kouga and his so-called wolf youkai in a place of our own choosing. You know that ground well, old friend. Pick a good spot." Selecting a brush, Arashikaze began writing. "I'm giving you two companies from your own battalion. Better too many men than not enough. If this Totoroki gives you trouble, kill him. Soryu will want to force march his men, but make sure he does not. Face your enemy at rest–let Kouga come to you." He paused in his writing. "Kentaro-san, if you get an opportunity to parley with the monk or the demon hunter, do so. I want to hear what they have to say. I don't care about the youkai, but I want them both alive if at all possible." He went back to the orders. "I only hope we have not stepped out of one trap only to enter another."

Naraku met Kagura at the edge of the forest. "You're hurt," he said, though it was only an observation. His voice held no concern for her well-being.

Kagura nodded. "Arashikaze's retainer, Ishikawa Kentaro, shot me with an arrow. Very swift for a human." Her arm was bandaged with a strip of cloth torn from her kimono. It would heal in a matter of hours, but that made the wound no less painful.

"Did he see you?"

"No. He wouldn't have shot me if he had. I think he reacted instinctively–he probably only spotted movement in the trees."

"That one suspects too much. We'll have to kill him at some point in the near future. And you need to learn to be stealthy!"

"I must move to dance the dead," Kagura explained.

Naraku shrugged, too pleased with the way things were developing to scold Kagura too much. He had been correct–Soryu had been all too easy to manipulate. Kikyo might suspect Kagura's involvement, but she could never prove it, and Arashikaze was too much of a noble to suspect his "consort." Had he been a mere peasant, he might have believed tales of Kagura the Wind Witch. "I am sending Totoroki with Soryu. Nonetheless, he's not reliable. I want you to follow them at a distance. You are also to help the ronin destroy Kouga's tribe. Make sure Totoroki and Ishikawa both meet an honorable end in battle." Kagura nodded.

They stepped into the clearing and walked to the Bone Eater's Well. Totoroki stood, leaning against the tree that blocked it. "Lord Naraku." He grinned toothily. "I hope you've brought me something to play with. I'm getting rather bored just guarding this well."

Naraku smiled. "I will do better than that, Totoroki-san. You remember Sango, the taijya, of course. Would you like a chance for vengeance...and some entertainment?"

"Show me the way," Totoroki chuckled. Naraku outlined his plan, and the youkai's smile widened. He bowed ironically. "I live to serve."

"Stay out of sight and meet Soryu's battalion near the Tone River crossing. Kagura will be on hand to assist you."

"Lady Kagura," Totoroki greeted her.

Kagura only gave him an icy glare. "Who will guard the well in Totoroki's absence? Kanna?" she asked Naraku.

"Kanna would be too obvious. I was thinking of Sango's dear brother, actually." He laughed. "Yes, I think Kohaku would do nicely."