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Strangled Time
Chapter 33
"I don't remember this being so complicated." Kagome complained.
Toga smirked. "It is not. You are simply making matters more difficult than they need to be."
"I am not." She huffed and leaned forward. "I just want to keep this corner clear, but you've made it a total mess! There's no place for me to go that would make any sense!"
"Your sights are too narrow. Look beyond the corner. The ultimate goal is to claim, not to defend."
"But if I send them out in the open you'll just take them hostage like you did last time."
"That is a risk you must be willing to take. Sometimes to conquer means to make sacrifices. If you survey the entire battle field and predict your opponent's moves, you should be able to minimize the death toll by creating small diversions that mimic larger strategy and draw your enemy's eye."
"Death toll? You're killing my men!?" Kagome looked up at him, incredulous. "I thought you were just taking them prisoner."
Gold irises sparkled with a glint of danger when he raised his cup and grinned, as charming as a bush viper. "You would not think me so foolish as to keep that many of the opposing faction alive within my hold, would you? Doing so would only chance an internal rebellion. No, only the most prominent officers are worth holding as collateral."
"You tyrant!" She gasped, looking down at the stones that lay discarded at his foot. "Fine! I wanted to do this as peacefully as possible, but if it's war you want, then it's war you've got!" Roughly, the priestess clacked down one of her little black pebbles on a crosshair closer to Togashimaru than herself. The move surrounded three of his white soldiers, which she claimed with a smug look. "Beat that."
"As I said," The dog demon began calmly as he brushed his sleeve away, picked up a white piece from its wooden box using his thumb and middle finger, and placed it down gently on the board. "You need to adjust your focus to the larger picture."
With that single stone the General had encircled over half of the game grid. Kagome gaped as one by one Togashimaru pinched up her captured stones as if he were deadheading a flower bush and set them to join the others on the floor. She'd lost. Even if she were somehow able to capture what remained, the majority of the territory and hostages were already his with no way to reclaim them.
"When did you…"
"Forethought and planning are your allies on the battlefield, Kagome." He said before refilling his little procaine glass with plum wine. Then he found one of the clean cups still stacked on the serving tray and filled that one as well. Offering it to the young woman he asked, "Do you pass?"
Kagome scowled at the offered drink and then back down at the Go board. Distracted and miffed, she took it from him, brought the cup to her lips to take a single polite sip, and then drew it back to stare at the contents within, eyebrows high. She hadn't expected it to be so sweet. After a moment's hesitation and a sniff, Kagome took another sip.
"I pass." She replied, formally ending the game. Setting her cup on the corner of the wooden board, the priestess began to collect her stones back in their box. Then, eagerly, she asked, "Best three out of five?"
Togashimaru hid a delighted smile behind his drink.
"With pleasure."
…
"I won?"
"It appears that you have."
"No way." Kagome looked at him from where she was holding herself up over the board. Her long hair nearly brushed the pieces out of place. "Count it again."
Togashimaru chuckled. "I have counted the results twice, Kagome. You are the winner, by a significant margin."
"I won." She repeated in awe before letting loose a squealing bouquet of giggles. Unable to keep herself steady and still much longer, Kagome fell back on her butt and pointed across the board to her opponent, happy smile loose and words beginning to slur. "Suck it, Saburo! I beat you! I beat you good!"
Pride tickled the dog demon as the girl continued her gloating over the victory, pausing only to take a drink from her sake cup. While she had not been able to best the experienced General in any of their sets, she had picked up quickly to his strategy—very quickly. Because of this, despite being more familiar with the game and facing Kagome while she was beginning to feel the effects of her drink, the blacksmith didn't stand a snow flurry's chance in hell against her.
Instead of being upset by the loss, the large human took it in stride. He lifted his own cup to widely grinning lips; it was still his first and nearly full. Togashimaru doubted that the man had any intention to drink the entirety of it.
"You wanna play again, Miss Kagome? I'm just warmin' up."
"Oh?" Togashimaru responded to that, genuinely surprised by the man's sudden shift in confidence.
The priestess perked at the challenge and then her smile darkened with a wicked glee. Settling herself back into a cross-legged position before the game board, she gripped a knee with one hand and waved forward with the other to provoke her opponent like some sort of drunken bandit ready to settle a gambling score.
"Bring it, shop guy." She said in return.
Oh, yes. The General was going to be quite entertained by that next game.
There was only one thing that he could think of doing to intensify the atmosphere even further.
So he did it with immense satisfaction.
"The tumultuous Lady Kagome, still hungry from her recent victory, has stepped forward to lay waste to your armies and claim more of your land for her territory." Togashimaru narrated low between them, dramatic and perhaps a might bit pickled. He turned to the roguish human man to his left. "Lesser Lord Saburo, how do you respond?"
"Lesser Lord?" Saburo's grin quirked up on one side. He raised his chin to look down at Kagome, stepping into his newly appointed role with ease. The persona suited him about as well as a poultry foul wearing a priest's ceremonial cap. "I'll have ta fix that, now won't I?" With a sureness he hadn't had in the previous round the man picked up a stone from his box to flip in the air before dropping it right in the center of their cleared field. "I vow ta take yer titles and avenge what you stole from me before that there candle runs dry."
Entertaining indeed.
"Whaaat?!" Kagome drew out her exclamation in disbelief before shaking it away and straightening up like a pin. She snapped her fingers. "I don't think so little Lord! Just you watch; I'm going to kick your ass to next Tuesday! For I, the mighty Lady Kagome the Demon Kindred, have come to uphold my father's legacy and build upon my great and powerful kingdom!"
They couldn't help it. All three of them broke out laughing at Kagome's heady declaration.
The battles that followed were boisterous with jeers, villainous monologues, and victorious cries that lasted well into the late of night.
Somehow they didn't receive a single noise complaint.
…
After the laborious effort of changing out of her day kimono and into a fresh inn yukata for sleeping, Kagome started back to the men's room. Forgetting that they had a direct keyhole connecting the two, she stumbled across her floor, over all of the things that had somehow gotten strewn about in the change, and managed to find the door to the hallway.
Bracing herself against the wall, the priestess stared out into the darkness. She blinked, eyelashes so heavy that the motion bobbed her head. That was the wrong way, wasn't it?
There was an almost inaudible clack at her back that reverberated in the quiet of the space. She nearly jumped. Actually, she nearly tripped—she wasn't capable of jumping at that very moment, not with the ground moving the way it was, as if a globe was rolling around beneath her toes. Gripping the frame of her doorway, she turned. Once she was facing the opposite but correct direction, she caught sight of someone's back, retreating soft footed into the night.
Kagome squinted.
The inn keeper? It had to be. She couldn't think of anybody else so short.
And she was way short.
The grey of the old woman's hair seemed lighter than she remembered. It glowed an eerie silver, catching some unseen light source as the hostess rounded the corner that would take her deeper into the building.
Weird, but Kagome didn't follow.
She felt her way to the other room's door and slid it open. Candle light and moonlight complimented each other in the space; one a gentle caress, the other a living thing dancing across the ceiling. When she stepped around the screen Kagome noticed that only one of her companions was inside. He was sitting out on the deck with the rice paper screen wide open, allowing the cold night's chill to intermingle with the inn's warmth.
In his hands he was twirling something small and green. A leaf from one of the garden trees.
He tucked it away when she joined him out there on the wooden platform.
"Where's Saburo?" She asked.
Togashimaru shrugged. The hair that had been draped up and over his shoulder slid down his arm like a sheet of glittering scale-plated armor.
"That man works upon his own agenda." He didn't turn his attention from the night sky as he spoke. "I did not ask when he left and he did not offer to divulge his secrets."
"So, bathroom." Kagome surmised with a silly snicker. Toga was so uptight when it came to Saburo, but she was in too good of a mood to scold him for it.
Dropping down to curl beside the dog demon like he were some sort of personal space heater, the drunken priestess reached across his lap to the sake bottle he had sitting in front of him. In spite of its heavy weight, nothing poured from the jug into Toga's cup when she tilted it. Frowning, Kagome brought it to her eye to inspect. Why was it still so heavy if there was nothing left inside to drink?
"There are plums inside the bottle." Toga said, body rumbling against her as he answered her thoughts aloud. "They are what give the wine its flavor."
"Well, how do you get the plums out?" She asked. She bet they were delicious.
"You break the bottle."
Duh. That was an easy answer, wasn't it?
Without giving the action a single thought Kagome raised her arm above her head, bottle and all, preparing to enforce her divine justice on the wood of the deck so that she could harvest the sweet piñata goodies that lay trapped within the offending container. The demon grabbed her flimsy wrist before she was able to seal the fate of the brown clay jug.
"Perhaps it is time that we rest." He said, voice low and soothing. It didn't take much to pry the bottle from Kagome's grasp and place it out of reach.
"Aw." The young woman whimpered. Arm placed gingerly back by her side, she slumped against him. Whether or not it was because she'd gotten too weak to hold her head up didn't matter. He was comfortable. She was tired. It was a match made for leaning.
Kagome giggled without knowing why.
"But it was so good." She slurred out. "It shouldn't be gone."
"It was quite delicious." Her odd companion agreed. "But all good things must come to an end for them to remain a pleasant memory."
She frowned, not liking that but unable to think up a valid reason to dispute it. Her thoughts were fuzzy and the blood in her veins was pulsing like the ocean. Her feet itched to carry her away across the garden, to explore into the night. Quick as a whip her thoughts changes direction, and once more she found herself beaming.
"Do you want to dance, Toga?" The priestess asked him suddenly. "I could really dance right now." Twisting a weird way to face him, Kagome tried to push herself up.
It didn't work.
Her arms were made of limp angel hair pasta.
Toga had to wrap an arm around her shoulders to prevent her from falling. He was shaking. Kagome realized that he was laughing. His smile was reserved as he gently laid her down to rest her head atop his lap, but somehow it held more emotion than she'd ever seen him show.
Her mind was too much of a cloud factory to decipher any of it.
He swiped bangs from her eyes with the lightest brush of a claw.
"Can you not see that we are already dancing?" He asked her softly.
Of course, she thought, that explained why the garden and awnings were spinning around them.
Content with that, she smiled.
A hum like a purr rose from the dog demon, satisfied.
Quiet surrounded them like a blanket when Toga turned back up to face the moon and the stars burning high in the cloudless sky above. They flickered and winked, but Kagome found she couldn't focus on them as easily. They were only making her dizzy. So instead she closed her eyes.
The air was chilly, but the night was so very warm.
"I like dancing." The drunk and oh-so-tied priestess mumbled almost incoherently.
Then she curled into a tight ball against him, a little cocoon of body heat and childlike trust. It was there that she fell fast and deep into sleep.
But not before hearing his soothing, near silent response.
"As do I."
End Chapter