Yes, I know, very odd cliffie for last chapter. But hey, I'm the author, and I get to screw with fictional and non-fictional people's heads if I want to, right? Any other author who claims they don't is either a liar or has somehow managed to avoid such things as unforeseen plot twists and cliff-hangers. Is that even possible?
Disclaimer: I know, I haven't put this in in a while. Shiku?
Shiku: Yu Yu Hakusho is in no way owned by Niana, except for a frightening amount of merchandise. Seriously. Half her wall scrolls are YYH, she has two figurines and a plushie of Kurama, and she even— —gets whacked in the head by Niana—
Enough already! Just finish the disclaimer.
Shiku: —rubs head— Fine, fine. Any attempts to sue will get you nothing more than a bunch of merchandise that you could buy just as easily with the money you'd pay the lawyer.
Arano Honou: I know, I couldn't believe it either. He knew they were sibs, but no idea that they were twins. Go figure. The Atsuko feature sounds interesting. I'll have to take over a library computer so I can wander over and read it one of these days. —once again rails at the stupidity of rock-brained DSL servers— I miss my cable internet.
The results of the binding—once they get all five, and they will, it's just gonna be how that'll be interesting—are currently top secret. But I think you'll get one hell of a kick out of it. And no, I never said that last chapter's end was a good cut-off point. I just said that I was cutting off there because that was a good-sized chapter already. I agree, it was strange.
Silverwing013: Of course the carrot-top's gotta be left out of the loop. It's a story-line tradition, even in the anime! Everyone else is just getting mild revenge on the toddler. —evil smile—
Magus784: Gomenasai, demo sore wa himitsu desu. At least as far as the reason goes. And what makes you think the top layer has any sanity at all? Remember, that's where Yusuke's Team ends up during the Chapter Black story arc, and it was pretty well deserted except for the dregs. —checks her watch— Aislin, how long do you plan to run around like this?
Aislin: Wheeeee!
……Apparently a little longer. -,.,-! Anyway, sorry for not updating sooner. To quote a fanfic version of Kuno that is frighteningly accurate: 'Manure occureth'. On the upside, my friend Tom made it home a few Sundays ago from boot-camp. Pity the poor bastard, he lived through it. n,.,n
Darknesspirals: I love the wild-hair look and the markings. The one on his chest, particularly. I'm sure he'll get the whole 'demon-time' thing sooner or later, the question is more along the lines of how Keiko will cope. (For those of you who have somehow managed to watch until the end of the anime, SHH! I wanna find out for myself! Of course, that means waiting for Zaku to let me borrow the new DVDs as they come out, but oh, well!)
KuramaIsFine: I didn't really want to make a cliffhanger for a change, but that's life.
Chirishman: Au contraire. While sashimi is plain raw fish, sliced thin, sushi also consists of raw fish—just with a few more ingredients, especially the seaweed rolls. Generally, only things like the barbecued eel (yummy!) is cooked. This is the voice of experience; we have a fabulous Japanese restaurant in Novato called Taki's. His scallop nigiri (fish on top of rice for those who don't know) is fantastic, especially with a dipping sauce of soy and wasabi! (Mmm, wasabi…) And his green tea is the only kind I actually like. Kind of smoky and not bitter like most. He also has this wonderful dessert: green tea ice cream. Kind of like the milk teas you find in the local specialty stores, but frozen. It's really good!
Kitsune Kit: Hope your obaa-san gets better soon, and I've had similar comp problems. One time when I was in high school and I borrowed the second Utena DVD from a friend, I made my dad's comp crash no less than six times just trying to watch it. (We didn't have a DVD player back then, gasp!) Electronics do not equal my friends. Please remember to breathe while cursing.
Shadowkitsuneonna: You have my deepest condolences. Math. Yuck! English, okay, but my opinion of math was stated by Kohaku a few chapters back.
————————————————————————————————————
"Yermm, that's Yusuke's scent all right," a certain wolf youkai sighs as she travels her way slowly into a forest deep within the Makai, far beyond her family's territory and the place known as the Forest of Sorrow. Nao has been left in Japan as punishment for shredding her favorite pair of chibi-winged socks. "Sweat, booze, cigarettes, and that really nice deodorant of his. And all that lovely energy nearly burying everything else." A glance up at the canopy flashes sunlight off the familiar sparkly-violet eye-shadow as well as a faint dusting of glitter on the backs of her furry ears and across her cheeks.
She continues to pick her way around obstacles—like the two wood youkai completely oblivious to anything but each other (she sneaks past hoping she doesn't blush hard enough to explode her head) and the melee between roses and irises in a sunny clearing. Man, and just when she thinks the Makai doesn't get any weirder.
It's been a couple of days since Yusuke went in search of Obsidian, Hiei, and the love-birds, and with no word from any of his employees, Koenma has finally sent in his 'nose'. Despite the fact that her suspension was supposed to last for a month, with some kind of punishment to follow. A derisive snort: it was either her or Kuwabara, and without the same kind of training the rest of his team-mates have gone through, the young man has no hope of surviving for long here. Besides, it's not like the carrot-top would be able to find anyone here with all the youki choking the air.
"Feh, being the one person on the team with a wolf-youkai's sense of smell can be a real pain sometimes," she mutters to herself, adding loudly to thin air, "And you're upwind, whoever you are. Try taking a shower more than once a year."
"Uh, halt and be recognized?" comes an uncertain voice from above in the trees. Kohaku rolls her eyes. A novice. Lovely.
"I'm Kohaku Piers, niece to Ikazuchi Blade-Arm. I've come to visit and share some news." Her clearance is spoken with no little impatience, and again the uncertain voice speaks.
"Oh, um, okay. Hang on a second, please." A faint rustling indicates motion, Kohaku choosing to simply stand there with her hands in her pockets humming a favorite techno song. Some short time passes before a tall, brindle-blond man comes stepping out of the underbrush.
His butter-yellow eyes light up at the sight of the chocolate-brindle female standing there with one iridescent-coated eyebrow lifted. "Hello, Uncle! Greetings from me and a whole bunch of other people!" And she's swept up into one of her uncle's infamous wolf-hugs, getting spun around several times before being set on her feet.
"And fair skies, my young rain-caller! How fare you?" His tanned arm slung across her shoulders, he leads her into the underbrush, back the way he had come.
"Oh, just fine, Uncle. Cousin Mavelle says to tell you that the hunting's been good this year and you should expect a lot of little lungs to be singing come the end of fall at home. Aunt Rhadhia wanted me to remind you that you still owe her forty silver full-moons for some bet or another, and Far-singer said I should see if I can't give your home area a good soaking to see if that would replace some of the air in your head. The usual."
"I keep hoping Rhadhia would forget about that wager; guess I should know better by now."
"Yup."
"Business call?"
"Uh-huh."
"Obsidian?"
"Yup."
"Yusuke's already tried and nearly got his head bitten off by Aislin-sama."
"That's too bad. Guess I'll just have to be subtl—yeek!" The forest and her uncle disappears, Kohaku finding herself at the foot of Genkai's temple staircase, her raised foot comfortably set on the first step. In the air in front of her is neatly written a single sentence of cold fire.
"Don't even think about it, wolf-girl." Judging by the scent of the youki now coating her head to foot as well as the writing, it's a safe bet for Kohaku that this is purely Aislin's work.
"What?" she questions empty air. "Don't I even get to say hello to my boyfriend first?"
—
"Aislin-sama, was that really necessary?" Ikazuchi sighs when his retired boss appears beside him with a soft 'poom' sound of air being displaced. "She's less of a challenge than Yusuke would be if he chooses to fight us."
"It was quite necessary. She would remind Hiei of his previous oaths to Koenma, for starters, and I don't particularly care to break 'Dian out of jail anytime soon. Second, she would also be another distraction, someone for us to keep an eye on for while she is in our territory. Not to mention she would make taking the Dragon's Tear a near-impossible task."
"But teleportation? You could have left something behind, a lung, maybe." The ice apparition fixes him with one of her Looks and he amends, "Or not. But really, I don't get to see my niece that often and we were having such a nice visit."
Aislin turns and starts walking the three hundred feet back to the Lair's entrance, her white wool standing out against the dark greens, browns, and bruise-purples that make up the foliage. "You still have a very strange sense of humor, lightning-wolf. I suggest you throttle it for the time being while we plan what we'll do."
——
"Sorry, Koenma, no luck. I barely got to say hello to my uncle before I got plunked at Genkai's place. Aislin's keeping me at arm's length and it really sucks. I miss my fluffy-fur."
"Kohaku…"
"Sorry, habit. Anyway, like I said, no luck. Not even a whiff of Obsidian's youki or body-smell at all."
"But you know where the Lair is?"
"Uh-uh, Koenma-san. No dice. That's one location I'm not revealing in a million, zillion years. That'll put a lot of people who are in the care of my uncle in jeopardy and as a wolf I can't do that. And don't even try to get Shikyo in on this, 'cause Hiei's the one who set my mind-wards up nice and tight."
The Spirit World prince sighs in resignation. "All right, then, I won't try. She's trained to only read the minds of those who have agreed or who are otherwise incapacitated, like some of my field-agents, anyway. Go on home, I'll have Botan contact you if a mission comes up that doesn't involve the Avalon."
The wolf-girl salutes crisply and exits, leaving Koenma to sink back into his chair and wish that the whole damn thing would be over already.
——
There is a large commotion at Stone City's Museum the next afternoon, with security-personnel taking a drastic upswing as well as all guests being politely asked to leave. The cause of it all? A single piece of paper the size and shape of a business card in ivory, upon which is written in elegant script; 'Tonight at ten o' clock we will steal back the Dragon's Tear. Signed, the Talons.'
What the museum's owners don't know is that 'the Talons' are the Alpha and Beta squads from the Lair, since it is common practice for the groups to come up with their own names for their teams so as to further confuse the populace about their real identity.
Of course, the fun part is the secret the Talons are keeping until tonight.
The guards waiting at the designated time see no one walk past them into the building, but what is shown on the security cameras is a different story. A small, petite woman with flowing white hair marked by strips of wine-berry-red by her ears drifts through the hallways, disabling the cameras and sensors with her mere presence alone. Mist fills each corridor that she walks in, obliterating visual fields into a wall of silvery-gray.
Unaccosted, the intruder walks into the room holding the Dragon's Tear, a room filled with guards, sensors, and alarms. The female slips past them all, picks up the stone, and conjures another in its place, leaving a tiny scrap of paper at the foot of the display pillow. As she turns to the one remaining security camera, the screen it's connected to watched by all the guards tied up by the grinning group of thieves, the exotic female dissolves, lengthening into a young black fox that grins at the camera, giving it a cheery 'V' and then sprinting out, setting off every alarm in the place.
The other thieves slip out while the guards are running for the plundered room, meeting up with the fox outside and racing off for home. When the piece of paper left behind is found, the owners don't know whether to start laughing or yelling at all the expensive guards they'd hired for nothing.
The card reads: 'Congratulations! You're the first to be tricked by the Forgotten Avalon! Unfortunately, you won't be getting the Tear back, since it belonged to someone else in the first place. Please refer to our future contestants for details. Signed, the Forgotten Avalon and the Talons.'
——
"I see the spell worked, my winsome kit."
The young black fox reaches into the pocket-space he'd snugged against his back before the raid and produces a huge stone with a diameter equal to that of a regulation-sized basketball, tapering into a needle-sharp point at one end with the other round and smooth as glass. "So did the plan. We left the place boiling like an ants' nest and came here as fast as we could." His golden eyes are dim in thought. "The curse-key said something about binding, but are we supposed to bind the stone to us or to each other?"
"Let us do both, and so take no chances," Aislin says in a logical tone, gesturing the tired band ahead of her into the warm welcome of the Lair, cradling the Tear gently in her arms as they walk. "Lord and Lady, but it has been a long time since I've seen the sparkle of this stone in the starlight. It is a welcome sight."
A silver vixen trots alongside the black male and the ice apparition, her cinnamon-colored orbs brimming with confusion. "Aislin-sama, can we do both? I've only heard of one binding ceremony, and that was for a sympathetic-magic spell."
The turquoise eyes shine an eerie pale silver-blue in the moonlight as the ice apparition tilts her head up to reply in a voice as gentle as the breeze blowing 'round them, "Youngling, if one puts one's mind to it, there is no such thing as 'can' or 'cannot'." Her special smile, the one only the two of them ever see, flickers across her face for a moment. "Now come along, and let us unlock the first step in this puzzle."
——
There are only three people standing in the faint glows cast by the numerous clusters and spires of stone in the sanctuary known as the Crystal Chamber, two dressed in white, one dressed in deepest black. The one dressed in black is our adorable renard who turns to his mentor with a bemused expression on his face. "Aislin-sama, why are we dressed like this?"
"Because," is the koorime's serene reply, "you two are effectively two sides of the same coin. To dress you as the two halves of the Taoist Balance is an outward symbol of that. Not to mention the fact that these colors suit you two."
The twins share a glance that says without words; knew there had to be an ulterior motive. Figures. But Aislin flows around them, touching this crystal and that so that the chosen stones glow with the energy locked within. The amethyst gleams a steady blue-violet, the quartz burns a flickering, flame-like pale green-blue, and so on, each color tinted by the youki contained by the graceful spires and glittering clusters. Soon there is a circle of lit masses, softly lighting the room in a dream-like moonsilver blue shaded lavender and green.
The koorime woman sets the Dragon Tear directly in the middle of the circle, beckoning the two foxes to stand on either side. To each she gives a tiny knife made from the crystals of this room, water-clear and unflawed before she steps from the circle.
(!("Illuminate,")!) she says in a strange tongue that neither kit has heard before but still somehow understands, the crystals blazing up until they burn in a solid band around the pair. (!("Hiruiseki shed at the birth of the worlds, awaken.")!) A deep crimson light flickers to life within the diamond, growing until it forms a tiny, sexless body in the heart of the stone.
(!("Lady of the Deep Winter, I am awake.")!) The voice is barely a voice, seeming more of a mixture of bells and birdsong than words, as the tiny creature bows inside the Dragon's Tear. (!("What is your wish?")!)
Aislin gestures to the two staring down in wonder at the spirit of the Ryu no Hiruiseki with a faint smile. (!("These two desire to offer you a contract. Let me make known to you Obsidian Avalon and Ivory Zephyr Avalon-Uotani.")!)
A feeling of being weighed by a very ancient mind pours into the minds of the twins, as the tiny spirit looks up at them with a featureless face. For several long moments, the three stare at each other before that feeling of measurement vanishes and the little crimson head nods.
(!("Accepted. Terms?")!)
"Um, we really hadn't thought that far," Obsidian admits, kneeling down so the stone spirit can see him better. "You see, there's been a curse placed on us and there are five keys that we need to bind…um, contract with, to break it. We don't really want you to do anything for us besides that."
The spirit seems amazed and no little flattered. (!("You really don't want me to do anything? Really?")!)
"Really," Ivory confirms, kneeling down as well. "Do we have to do anything for you?"
(!("Nothing at all!")!) cries the Ryu-Hiruiseki in delight. (!("I accept the terms of your contract!")!) The two kitsune look to their mentor, who gestures that they should cut their palms and press them to the stone. The tiny blades slice through the skin like paper, taking on a ruby tinge from the blood that swiftly begins to drip before their palms flatten against the diamond.
(!("Spirit of the Dragon's Tear,")!) Aislin intones softly, still in that unsetting-yet-comforting language, (!("you are hereby entered into a lifetime contract with Obsidian Avalon and Ivory Zephyr Avalon-Uotani. There are no deeds to be done by either party, only a soul-link to be forged by itself. You have accepted these terms, as have they. So witnessed, so declared. It is done.")!)
Light blazes from every crystalline substance in that room, blinding all whether or not they're wearing eye-gear or if they've flung up an arm to protect their eyes. It is slow to fade, and those who can see the soonest slowly follow the stuff to its source in the Crystal Chamber. Curious, brave Ikazuchi is the first to peer into the space, blinking away reaction tears to find that each of his young friends now has a tear-drop stone set into the middle of their foreheads.
And are currently passed out on the floor to the exasperation of their teacher. "Oh, for the love of Inari…"
——
For the first time, Obsidian walks the paths of the Void by himself. It is strange comfort he finds here, for everything is familiar and at the same time it is utterly foreign. He doesn't quite understand what his teacher and the stoic Hiei had been talking about in their past conversations of this place. The only stars he sees are set into a midnight-velvet sky overlaying this wonderful enormous garden filled with unnumerable blooms. The way they talked they made it sound as though it was like what space must look like. He wonders briefly if this is his own soul—and if so, when did it become so complicated?
He continues to wander, some tiny fragment of his Self worrying that he'll burn himself out in this place while the rest of him scoffs at that fretful voice. Burn out here? How? By walking himself to death?
That fragment continues to nag but he shoves it into the farthest reach of his mind, content to walk through the night's scents and breezes. This place is far too comfortable to be any kind of danger, right? Looking around him, he has to smile. Flowers bloom in a profusion of organized chaos, letting their perfume dance on the air and add to the scent he associates with 'night'. There's no one else around; no Reikai authorities, no other demons, no one. He isn't being chased, there's no need for him to be anywhere—
Oh yes there is! shouts that little doubting fragment.
—And he doesn't feel like doing anything else but wander, barefooted, over dew-soaked grass. This is truly what it means to be fox, he thinks to himself, sighing in content. To truly feel the rhythm of the land and the plants around you, to hear their voices sing softly in content…
His footsteps falter. The plants aren't singing. It's pure silence here, not even birdsong. The only noises that reach his ears are the ones made by his own two feet. The silence jars him as nothing else would and he turns in a circle with his ears pricked to listen. Nothing.
Too silent! That doubting fragment cries. Too silent, too quiet, too isolated! Trap! Traptraptraptraptrap!
"Calm yourself, my apprentice," a soothing voice says from a shaded arbor. "There is no trap here, nor is there truly anything else but you here in this place. This is your Voidscape, the place you will come to when your soul leaves your body for brief periods, no longer than a night. This is the place where you can ask questions and find the answers and know them for Truth."
He approaches the arbor with extreme care, relaxing when he finds only an oversized Arctic fox curled comfortably on the carved wooden seat, with maroon-tipped ears tilted in leisure. Her glittering turquoise eyes are serene and patient as he regains control over his doubt and once more finds comfort in the solitude. "What am I doing here?" he muses aloud, and is answered as promised.
"The link with the Dragon's Tear is not simply a magic one. It is a soul bond, and a stone like that was here long before youkai walked the realms of the Darkness. To link with it is to share in that power, as it will share in your life force and your emotions. A bond is a thing of give-and-take, winsome kit, and that is something you must always remember. There truly is no such thing as a free lunch." One snowy paw rises to point farther into the garden. "Yonder lies your vision-pool, the place where you will See without seeing. Why don't you go take a look?"
Obsidian had turned his head to follow the paw, but when he turns back the fox is gone, leaving only the faintest dusting of platinum powder to show that it had not been entirely delusion.
He spots a cherry tree in full blossom in the distance and strolls over, standing beneath the frothy boughs as the petals shower down beneath the moonlight.
Ivory Dreams too, walking through a hedge maze with her other Self keeping pace beside her. "Where do you think we are, Self?" the vixen inquires softly to her companion, who shrugs.
"I don't know, but I think I like it here. It feels like I've been here before."
Eyes the color of dried blood flecked with ruby glance sideways at the dark-silver girl. "We have, I should think. This feels like the Void."
"I thought the Void was that place Aislin took us to, with all those stars…" Flavors and colors swirl around them, all reminiscent of winter: snowcones and plain ice, hearthfire, wool, fox musk and fur, the clean crispness of a cold wind, the sharp taste of mint and rosemary, spiked with apple cider, warm amber and the dancing of flames. With that as proof, the two fall into a quiet conversation of how they might have gotten here in the first place.
They've decided on the Dragon's Tear being the culprit by the time they reach the exit of the maze and emerge into an enormous garden. Zephyr catches the sleeve of Ivory's kimono, pointing to where a giant cherry tree rises into the air with branches buried under masses of pale pink flowers.
Beneath that tree is the reenactment of the 'human' girl's calmer dream; a dark form stands quietly beneath the branches with his back to the trunk and the wind, dressed in a billowing black silk shirt and close-fitting black velvet trousers, his feet bare in the ankle-deep grass. Long ebony hair swirls over his shoulders as petals shower around him at the slightest breeze; he turns deep gold eyes towards the new arrivals to his Voidscape.
From nowhere, that voice Zephyr had heard before speaks into the silence. She barely recognizes it as her own. "In the distance of my vision, there stands a stranger all alone. Who balances against 'forever' a carved and polished marble stone. Their hair is long and black as sinning, in their eyes are suns of gold. Bent long with the weight of searching until the very hells grow cold."
"Welcome to the Void, my sister," comes the soft whisper on the breeze. "Come and see my tree." With sure footsteps silenced by the lush blades of emerald grass the two half-soul maidens approach and stand beside the renard under the protection of the sakura.
Neither needs to speak to know that this tree will be the heart of all of Obsidian's future trips here, if he has any more. Neither knows whether or not this will be their last solo visit here, so they savor all that the isolated place holds. Eventually, though, they lace their hands together and walk on, seeking the 'place' that will be the silver vixen's heart-place here in the 'scape they have crafted.
The sound of running water draws them to a hollow in the rounded land, through a circle of wisteria to discover a small pool being fed by a tiny waterfall. There are several rocks here coated in thick moss, perfect for seats, and the two smile. This is the perfect place for her—and their place for Truth-seeking visions.
And then everything disappears as darkness claims them.
Obsidian jolts awake to find himself staring upward at the patterns of light cast by their fish tank in their room. He feels utterly exhausted and there's a sharp pain lancing across his temples. A hand raised to rub at his forehead finds something small and slick, faceted like…a jewel? What the in the name of Inari?
Dream, a voice whispers softly in his mind. It sounds familiar…Dream, young master, and fear not the path of Dreaming. Through the Void one can find Truth in all its forms, if one knows how to ask and look. So Dream, and ask, and look. Learn. For knowledge, as they say, is power. You will need that power before summer draws to a close.
As oblivion claims him for the third time that night, he thinks he feels a cool hand brushing his hair from his forehead.
——
"Our spy says that the two have successfully bonded with the first key, milord."
"Excellent. I tell you, it's a win-win situation for me, Shkatha. If they don't succeed I have my revenge against that damned Whiteout and her brood. If they do succeed…well, if they do the three worlds will never be the same." A cold laugh. "Oh, yes, I do indeed enjoy these Games I play. Tell our informant to keep watching."
"Yes, milord. Right away, milord."
——
The first week after the Solstice finishes and is replaced by the second, that starts out as a clear, sunny day. Kohaku walks over pavement on one of her habitual think-paths, the trails she takes when she's trying to work out a problem or somesuch in her head.
When a flash of snowy white zips past her nose, however, she removes her head from the clouds and blinks up at the tall woman who had just thrown the white thing past her. Turning her head, Kohaku finds that a ghost has been struck by the white—which turns out to be an elaborately inked piece of paper.
"I tell you, ever since my daughter disappeared these damn ghosts have been poking their dratted noses everywhere," growls the woman under her breath as she points at the ghost and says one sharp word. A faint shriek later the ghost is gone, along with the writing on the paper fluttering to the ground. It is only then that the woman notices the dumbfounded ookami girl standing with her mouth hanging open. "Oopsie."
"Never saw a ghost get sent to the Styx that way before," Kohaku tells the air in a conversational tone as she starts to walk off. She pauses again when a playful breeze happens to bring the woman's scent past her nose. Hey, she smells like…"Uh, forgive me if I'm being rude, but are you Ms. Uotani?"
"Depends on who's asking," comes the curt reply.
"I'm a friend of your daughter Zephyr—eek!" The wolf youkai takes a step backward when the woman's face goes from wary to hopeful and her shoulder is caught in a steel grip.
"Do you know where my daughter is?"
Oh, hellfires! No one's told her yet! Giving her brain a good kick to inspire her creativity, Kohaku finds a plausible lie tripping off her tongue. "Yeah, actually. She went on an inter-school fieldtrip last week to another island, I think. They'll be gone for at least another week and there's some pretty bad reception out there so she might not have been able to call you. It was a kinda last-minute thing without a lot of warning. I didn't even know about it until I got some notes from my classmates."
"Why do I not believe you?" the woman queries, her coppery eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"'Cause you're a parent who hasn't heard from their kid in a week?" Kohaku offers, not wanting to find out if that paper-stuff can affect her as easily as the ghost. The hand is removed, Ms. Uotani chuckling weakly as she puts a couple feet of distance between them, restoring personal space.
"That might be it. If you can get ahold of Zephyr for me, that would be wonderful."
"Sure thing, Ms. Uotani. Oh, hey, she'll probably ask how her kitten's doing." This little bit of 'personal' information was easy to guess, since the burgundy shirt the woman wears is covered in cat hair and the scent of young feline.
"Kizi-chan is doing fine, although she misses her 'mom'," replies the platinum blonde, flicking her waist-long braid back over her shoulder. "Thank you for letting me know, miss…?"
"I'm Kohaku, Kohaku Piers. Pleased to meetcha."
"Likewise. Have a good day, Piers-chan."
"You, too, ma'am." And the wolf jogs off towards home, eager to get to a place where she can perform her new task without attracting too much attention. Behind her, the tall human woman pulls a round pendant from beneath her shirt and critically eyes the color, which wavers between pearly white and smoky gray.
"Truths and half-truths. Just what I'd expect from a youkai." Copper eyes follow the bouncing chocolate ponytail going around a corner. "But what is a wolf doing in the middle of Tokyo?"
——
Ivory is in the middle of a substantial breakfast when a young neko-youkai comes trotting up with another male pacing behind him with a pleasantly empty smile on his face. It almost seems like the male's attention is taken up with something else far beyond his physical self. The conversation around them of what the day's activities would be—repairing water-pipes, smoothing out the new quarters for the just-mated couple from Squad Twenty-one, the upcoming hunting trip, etc—quiets around her.
"'Scuse me, Ivory-chan, but this one's got a message for ya," the neko, named Sprite, tells her before trotting off to resume his duties outside. The wolf gives her a courteous bow before awareness fills the golden eyes.
"Ah, my apologies, I was speaking to my star-singer of a cousin," he tells her cheerily. "I have a message for you via her."
"Ookay…"
"Let me see if I remember her exact wording." A slender finger is tapped against a dimpled chin. "Oh, yes. It was 'call your mother, she's having fits'. Endquote. Also, your kitten is doing well and the current cover story is that you are on a field-trip of some sort for another week. Jya ne, little moon-fur." And he strolls right back out of the Lair again while Ivory's mind remains frozen.
"Oh…shit."
"Yes, yes mom I'm fine, you can stop yelling now! I said I was sorry a bajillion times already! I forgot to call! Ow! Yes, yes! No. Yes."
"What's she doing, boss-sama?" Obsidian queries under his breath to his teacher, watching as his sister makes interesting faces while using Aislin's communication mirror like a cell-phone, using numerous reassurances and apologies in a vain attempt to soothe the human woman's temper.
"She's giving her mother an apology-call, winsome kit. The day you snatched Ivory back here to the Makai, you neglected to give our chibi-Yoko a chance to warn her mother that she'd be going off helter-skelter with you."
"Oopsie."
"I promise I'm learning a whole lot, there have not been any attempts on my life—" Not serious ones, anyway. "—I am not trying drugs, they're feeding me to the gills, and I swear on my life I will call again every single day. All right?" A drooping of her shoulders. "Aw, Mom, do you hafta ground me that long when I get back? It's not entirely my fault…" A long sigh. "All right, Mom. All right. Yes, I'm practicing that too. There's a lot of that kind of activity around here. Okay. Okay. Love you too, Mom. Bye."
The com-pact is clicked shut with a sigh of relief. "I take it that went relatively well," the koorime woman states to a reluctant grin.
"I'm only grounded for two months when I get back, so I guess you could say that."
The black renard beside the koorime rubs the jewel stuck to his forehead. "Sorry, sister, I didn't mean to get you in trouble with your human dam."
Zephyr shifts back into her kitsune form with a shrug. "Things happen, brother. Two months grounding is worth it since I got to meet you. So, has anyone figured out the rest of the curse-keys, yet?"
Aislin replies with a calm, "Yes, actually. Hiei and Yoko are off researching them in the Library Cavern at the moment." She sits beside her pupil and swipes a strawberry from a bowl by the silk-clad knee. "The eternally blooming flower is the Eien no Yuri, the Eternity Lily. The 'link' is the Blood-star Ruby, the eye is the Agate Eye, and the Light is the Sunstone." The fruit disappears in two bites, the green top set into another bowl being used for that exact purpose. "The odd thing is," she continues while licking her fingertips clean, "is that all of these stones were reportedly once part of the same creature, that dragon that watched the worlds be created. At least if you know the older legends."
"Really?" chirp both youngsters in fascination. The koorime nods, stealing another strawberry.
"Yes. The Lily and the Eye were supposed to be the dragon's real eyes, the Blood-star its heart, and the Sunstone its soul." An upward quirk of coral-pink lips. "Which would make it very interesting indeed if the legends are true. Higurashi would be playing a very dangerous Game…" She trails off, turquoise staring into nothingness.
"Why is that?" Obsidian asks, yanking her attention back to the conversation. He's answered with a sly smile and a pale finger being held to those lips.
"Sore wa himitsu desu."
Both kits facefault at the reply, righting themselves with sweatdrops by their heads. Of all the times for their teacher to turn secretive. Ivory just shakes her head before resuming the interrupted topic. "So do we know where the rest of the stones are?"
The laughing eyes shimmer into sorrow as once again Aislin gazes into thin air. "Well, I know where one of them is hidden…"
———————————————————————————————————
Ryu-Hiruiseki: Dragon's Tear
Sakura: cherry blossoms (although anyone who does not already know this term cannot call themselves an 'otaku')
Jya ne: casual good-bye. Along the lines of 'see you later'
Sore wa himitsu desu: that's a secret.
Ooh, the plot thickens. Bad me, another cliff-hanger. I should really stop doing these. n,.,n-♥
Starling: Is that possible?
Um, prob'ly not. n,.,n!
Shiku: Do you even want to bother?
Not really. Imagining the outrage of my readers is too funny.
—
In other news, Life has conspired against me yet again. Because I was broke and couldn't afford to continue in sculpture class, and so withdrew, and because I totally bombed beginning Chem (how the hell do people come up with stuff like that? It's so confusing!), I am now one of the poor 'academically dismissed' people from my JC. Thus, if I want to get my tail back in, I have to pass a 3 cred course this summer with a 'C' or better. Which means no Judo, which I've been looking forward to since my sister got me interested. Yeah. Creative Writing 4B is going to be boring, I can tell already. Thank Inari it's only until July.
Good news? I've got a job at Albertson's, a semi-local grocery store. No more inhaling dog hair, w00t.
Also, by the time a number of you read this, I will have hit the highly overrated birthday number twenty-one. Seriously, it's so fricken' pointless. I don't drink, and I don't waste my money gambling (I waste it on more entertaining things like brain-rotting anime), the two big things that become legal now. My mom wants the family to go to Reno to celebrate, but it's not shaping up too good. If I do go, think I'd look too weird with my nose buried in manga in some hotshot casino?