Act II
explorations, discoveries and grudges
"Hey, Gozu. Do you and Mezu happen to be free?"
Suspicion was immediately thick in Gozu's voice. "Depends. What do you want us for? I can't just leave the mountain on your whim."
"You're guarding west." Rikuo countered. "You're just being dramatic. With the stuff going on in Kyoto, there's not anything going to come from there. Leave, maybe. But not come."
Gozumaru's sigh was long-suffering over the line. "Fine. I still want to know what we're getting ourselves into, though."
"Come and find out." Rikuo hung up.
That was the last call he could do with modern ways. Then again that was probably a good thing since Nura Clan internal business wasn't anything he should drag his Toono friends into. Itaku for sure didn't have the patience for what looked to be a long investigation with only the occasional ass-kicking.
A human wanting power, that's what Daruma had explained. The power of yokai and power over yokai. Greedy bastard more slimy than most then, who fed on fellow humans. Ew.
Slimy, underhanded, but also smart and subtle. Evidently knew how to play the long game.
Clan of a Hundred Tales.
The sun burned down. Rikuo sat in the sakura tree, both legs dangling over the side as he gazed at the main house and the chaotic activity caused by Kyoto preparations plus internal unrest.
It was pretty bad.
They were caught between two fronts. Or one front and one parasite.
The parasite almost killed his dad all those years ago. Rikuo remembered only flashes. The puddle of blood growing. Some….one. Screaming.
Dad swallowed from his sight.
Hearing the words 'dying' and 'everything will be alright, Rikuo-sama'. The panic everywhere. Grandpa.
Getting more puzzled and upset when dad was gone and he couldn't see him for weeks. Becoming afraid.
Dad turned out being fine. But it was too late, because Rikuo got a taste of it. A taste of fear and fear of loss.
It might be possible that Rikuo was still a tiny bit upset about that.
(He never wanted to feel that way again.)
Sanmotot Gorozaemon or at least a yokai minion of his probably pulled the strings eight years ago. The guy himself might still be dead but his followers evidently hadn't all been wiped out three hundred years ago. While that was well possible, there was also the chance that someone was merely using the name. In any case though, Rikuo might be looking at something as big as a Clan. That meant a lot of agents. Hidden agents. Meaning spread out, wearing different faces and names. Sleeper agents.
Rikuo might end up stirring up more than one yokai family out there if they end up being infiltrated, meaning trouble on two fronts could very quickly become more. Caution was called for but Rikuo had no intention whatsoever of letting even pet of the Hyaku Mongatari Clan escape unscratched because it found itself a nice new owner to hide behind.
Then again there was also the possibility that only remnants remained of them and that those remnants were mad enough to try take on the Nura on their own without even realizing their folly (for if they had, then Rikuo would be looking at the Clan-scenario again). Those remnants would be nothing to worry about on a large scale and only launching a strike every once in a while when the odds looked good. Like using an ambitious tanuki for example.
Rikuo jumped over the wall, heard Tsurara's shout of frustration, and went on a walk.
Whatever was going to happen, the Nura Clan would emerge greater than ever before. Rikuo would make it so.
"Rikuo-sama?"
"What?"
Tsurara traded a meaningful glance with the Gozumaru.
"What are we doing in this place?"
Rikuo-sama gave her a glance that was slightly more expressive now than it would be when night fell. "What's wrong with coming personally?"
"It is not so much what is wrong," she hedged.
"For the Heir to walk into a possible enemy and or trap infested ground isn't a smart idea. That's what she's trying to get through your thick skul." Gozumaru said bluntly.
"Gozumaru!"
"What? It's true."
Rikuo-sama smiled. "I see you're still annoyed."
"Damn right I am! We didn't come all the way from Nejirame-yama to play watchdog for a reckless moron."
"Gozumaru!"
"So you didn't want to come inspect a potential enemy stronghold which may or may not be bursting with dangers." Rikuo-sama said drily. "I'll remember -"
"I didn't say that!" Gozumaru cut in quickly. "It's the you being here that's the problem!"
Tsurara tried to catch her master's eye. "Exactly, Rikuo-sama. You could have gotten a report back at the main house."
Rikuo-sama only looked very put-upon."...I could have come alone, you know."
"That's even worse," Tsurara and Gozumaru said in tandem with very different tones, one horrified and one annoyed.
Gozumaru folded his arms. "I pity you bastards at the Main House. One Nurarihyon. Two Nurarihyons. Three Nurarihyons. How do you ever get anything done if you got to run after each and every one of them? Like glorified babysitters."
Tsurara felt her mouth drop open. "Excuse you, you backwoods bug! Serving the Masters at the Main House is a great honour!"
After looking at her for a long moment, Gozumaru rolled his eyes, muttering something no doubt insulting under his breath.
Tsurara decided that barbarian without respect was no longer worth her attention. "Rikuo-sama, why did you call someone like this? I on my own am more than capable of protecting you."
"I doubt that," Gozumaru said snidely.
"I enjoy hearing you bicker," said Rikuo-sama without a backwards glance.
Tsurara spluttered.
He grinned over his shoulder. "Just kidding. What's wrong with inviting friends on an adventure? It's more fun together."
"Friends? Rikuo-sama, couldn't you have chosen someone other than this bug brained minion?"
"Oi!"
"Yes, friends, Tsurara. And I mean you too."
Tsurara's brain died. "F-f-f-f-f-f-friends, Rikuo-sama? I-I-I-I-I d-d-don't k-know what t-t-t-o say. Me? I'm unworthy Rikuo-sama." She had to check if her face had melted yet.
Bug boy snorted. "You're acting like he just asked you to marry him."
"M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-a-a-a-a—a-a-"
"Oi, Gozumaru, quit it. She looks like she is going to melt."
"...What are you turning red for?"
Rikuo-sama kicked the disrespectful brat.
"Urgh. Suddenly I feel like a third wheel. Where's Mezu? I think I prefer turning over rocks with him."
The air moved as a new body joined them. "Rikuo-sama!"
At the familiar, tense voice Tsurara peeked out behind her sleeves.
"A report from the Main House! 'The sword has been taken. The perpetrator is of yet unknown. The guards have all been killed.'" The only daughter of Karasu Tengu reported, kneeling. Signs of the no doubt breakneck speed used to report to Rikuo-sama as quickly as possible were visible in her ruffled hair and feathers.
"Stolen?" Gozumaru hissed. "Really, what are you yokai from the Main House doing? Isn't Headquarters supposed to be the most secure place of all?"
Master Rikuo didn't move. He stood as he did before Sasami-san had arrived, still in mid-step. His expression was unreadable but the spark in his eyes was dark and cold. "Odd," he murmured at long last.
"It's more than just odd," Gozumaru growled. "I can't keep up count how many times the Main House fell short in the last decade alone!"
"Not that," Rikuo-sama said darkly, turning and continuing deeper into the main house of the Three-Eyed Party. "They still had the ability to remove something from our custody without us noticing. Why then did they choose the sword and not the yokai who according to my latest knowledge claims to be Sanmoto Gorozaemon himself – who should be their Head. That claim hasn't changed yet, has it?"
"No such information reached me," confirmed Sasami-san.
"That yokai was transferred away from the Main House. Maybe they could only take something from the Main House," scowled Gozumaru. "Like, you've got another impersonator or a real traitor."
Rikuo-sama smiled grimly. "But Gorozaemon used to be at the Main House. Why not act then unless the sword is for some reason more important?"
"Rikuo-sama. You had been at the Main House then." Tsurara reminded him. "You and the Nidaime and the Shodaime. It would have been foolish to attempt."
Rikuo-sama considered. "Perhaps." He slid open a shoji door. Rows and rows of yokai sat, all but bound to their knees by the suspicion of treason cast upon them by the actions of their false-Head. They were prisoners in their own home. "Oi, one of you give me a tour of the compound."
"You are not returning to the Main House yet, Rikuo-sama?" Sasami-san wished to clarify as the tree-eyed clan member's debated with looks only who got the chance to be helpful to the heir – and thus gain a chance to prove their innocence.
Rikuo-sama frowned, eyes focused."It's already over. There is nothing I can do back there now. The Hoho Clan will already be increasing security on Gorozaemon. No," he said. "What I need to know is what kind of enemy we are dealing with. The best chance I have for that is here."
Sasami-san bowed and disappeared.
One small servant yokai had shuffled to the front of the crowd, keeling all the way down.
Rikuo-sama looked at it, brown eyes hard but not without sympathy. "I want to see Mitsume Yazura's quarters and know all about his habits. You can do that?"
The little one all but flattened to the floor in deference. "Anything, honoured Young Master."
Rikuo-sama smiled and tapped his sheathed sword against his shoulder. "Lead the way."
The Three-Eyed Party's base was not as old as the Main House but it was the same style, traditional to the last. The signs of yokai were far more obvious here too and Tsurara doubted Rikuo-sama could have invited his friends here and gotten away with feigning innocence.
The small ko-oni stopped in front of a set of Shoji doors. "Mitsume-sama's quarters, Rikuo-sama." It slid the door open for the Young Master. "About three decades ago Mitsume-sama said he wished for more privacy, so we are only allowed to enter the first chambers. To my knowledge none of us have disrespected his wishes since."
"If you had it probably would have saved us a lot of trouble," Gozumaru muttered.
Rikuo-sama didn't even hesitate to breach said area of privacy. Tsurara jumped to shield him from any possible trap, but nothing happened. No fire, no poison, no spears, no holes in the ground swallowed them all.
In fact, the second inner room was no different than you would expect of the chairman of a branch. An unfinished letter on the desk, ink and a brush, art on the walls.
"What the hell," Rikuo-sama muttered and opened the next door, the one to the most inner room.
Nothing again. Just sleeping quarters, a made futon on the floor.
"What did the hell Mitsume do when he wasn't around for his servants to fawn over him?" Wondered Gozumaru, a look of deep suspicion on his face. "And how much time was that anyway?"
The little Oni did not once raise his gaze above knee level. "Whenever Mitsume-sama would return from the Main House, he would inform us if any tasks had changed. If they had, he would conscientiously instruct us. If not he would leave us and withdraw to his quarters as there are many responsibilities only he as head can complete."
That sounded very wrong to Tsurara. As Supreme Commander Rihan-sama had far more duties to attend to yet in all of Tsurara's years with the clan, he had always had time to, er, entertain himself, irritate his closest guards into searching for him all over the region and for Wakana-sama and Rikuo-sama.
"So in other words when he wasn't ordering you around you didn't see hide or hair of him." Gozumaru summed up, rolling his eyes. "And you didn't think that suspicious at all. God save us all."
"You can't blame the household for this, Gozu. They just made the same mistake we all did - assume Mitsume was who he said he was." Rikuo-sama frowned at the futon. He kicked the covers back. "Nothing hidden here either..."
This far without results, Tsurara felt she had a chance so she tried again. "Rikuo-sama, may I suggest that you leave investigating to the specialists? Your time can be much more efficiently used in other places."
"What specialists?"
"Well," Tsurara hesitated. "The kind who has intimate knowledge about traps. And tricks. And subterfuge and the like."
Rikuo-sama's lips were twitching. "You mean like a spider and its net and those who know a lot about spies?"
"Yes, like..."
Gozumaru was inspecting the room like a spider its prey, eyes and hands skimming over every inch.
Tsurara felt her face heat. "...like the Gyuki Clan." Who made it a game to pick out the spies trying to get past their mountain and who did have their reputation for a reason.
"I know its easy to forget with how he acts," Rikuo-sama agreed wisely.
Gozumaru threw a tatami mat at them. "Oi. I'm the one doing all the work here, you know. If it doesn't please the Young Master he can stuff it."
"Sorry." Rikuo-sama did not look very sorry. "Just cause you're irreplaceable doesn't mean your ego doesn't need a beating."
"Look who's talking!" Bug Boy lifted another mat but not before Tsurara caught his flushing face. "You're the spoilt prince of the two of us!"
Hehe. No one was safe from Rikuo-sama's charisma. Even though Bug Boy didn't deserve the regard (as easily as Rikuo-sama gave it).
Gozumaru let out a noise of triumph. "I found something. Check this out."
They moved to look over his shoulder. Gozumaru rapped his knuckles against the wooden floor boards. They produced different sound in two places.
"Hoh," said Rikuo-sama, eyes gleaming. Removing the wood revealed a pitch black hole. "Good job, Gozumaru. What do you wanna bet that this leads somewhere outside the compound?"
"Are you stupid?" Gozumaru rolled his eyes before addressing the oni. "This seems to be going east so go find Mezumaru and tell him to search the woods east from here."
"Go." Confirmed Rikuo-sama, and the oni went.
"Rikuo-sama, you don't really wish to follow this yourself, do you?"
"What do you think, Tsurara?"
Tsurara stood with her arms on her hips. "If I cannot stop you then I will at the very least insist that you do not go first," she told him smartly, and slid into the hole.
Rikuo-sama landed not two seconds after her. "Oi, what are you doing? It could've been dangerous."
Tsurara huffed. "Honestly, Rikuo-sama. That is the point. Protecting your vulnerable body is my task."
"I don't want you to protect me." Rikuo-sama sounded truly irritated. "I don't need you to either. Just leave it. I'm not a little kid who needed to hold your hand all the time."
Tsurara sucked in a breath. "Well that's too bad for you." She marched (hurriedly) off. Definitely because her eyes were stinging, because they definitely weren't.
"Good job, moron," she heard Gozumaru's voice drift after her. It sounded like he clapped Rikuo-sama on the shoulder. It was followed by Rikuo-sama's confused, "what? What just happened?"
Tsurara walked (ran) faster.
Until she smacked head first into a wall.
Stupid Tsurara. She was a yokai. She should at least be able to look where's you're walking. She sniffed. No wonder Rikuo-sama didn't need her.
Inspecting her surroundings revealed only a dead end. Why a dead end? This tunnel had to lead somewhere. Had she missed the path splitting somewhere? Oh no! What if she had gotten separated from Rikuo-sama? - Wait. She already was separated from him!
Something wet hit her on the nose.
Tsurara looked up. For an earth tunnel the ceiling was awfully smooth in this one place. When she touched it, it was obvious that it was actually stone. And not just any stone. Bricks.
She pushed against them and an entire set lifted. Natural light reached through the cracks. Tsurara moved the stones to the side and climbed out. What met her eyes was...
….Rikuo-sama would want to see this place.
Tsurara wished she could stop him.
There was no where for her too look that didn't make her feel sick.
When Rikuo-sama arrived, lifting himself out of the hole, he stared. "Are those...?" Gozumaru shoved him aside to climb up as well, but Rikuo-sama's gaze remained fixed as though nailed.
"Human bones." Tsurara whispered.
"Not just them." Gozumaru brushed the tip of his sheathed katana against a white skull. "This was a yokai's. Urgh. I don't think I want to know how they died for their bones to remain."
"Where the hell are we? Why did no one notice this?" Rikuo-sama looked out a window. "...in town?"
Outside was a street, parked cars, modern style houses opposite, even a garden with blooming flowers.
Tsurara unlocked the door and stepped outside. They had climbed through the floor of small, neat, white painted house. It looked no different than any other.
Gozumaru muttered a swear. "We would've never looked in a place like this."
No fear. No yokai aura. Nothing vaguely yokai like. Normal yokai would get goosebumps, frequenting something so thoroughly un-yokai-like. Wouldn't think to hide in them even if there was a manhunt out for them.
Buildings like this were just so...Flat. Uninspired. Un-haunted. Natural. Normal. ...mortal. Bo-ring.
Buildings looking like this just didn't have the aura anymore that made them look like this when yokai were involved.
Rikuo-sama pulled a face. "Let's see what we can find."
Inside were another three rooms downstairs. Everything looked like it had only recently been built. No dust, Tsurara noted, and her guard rose. But they found nothing that didn't belong in normal mortal house.
It was only upstairs that they discovered something. Paintings of servants with yokai traits on the wall emitted their own Fear.
Rikuo-sama stabbed his sword through one. It made a noise, the Fear dispersed and there was an empty frame left.
"Am I the only one who thinks these are flip-a-button house-cleaners?" Gozumaru's eyebrows were raised though his overall dark expression didn't change.
"I think they're here to keep the house in the right state to keep appearance." Tsurara inspected another before freezing it. "Houses that look abandoned are inviting."
Rikuo-sama stopped."...Speaking of appearances...what name do you think this house is registered to?" Rikuo-sama began smirking wide and dark. "Since it's in a place like this, appearing like this, it's all got to be legal. Legal and human stuff leaves paper trails."
Rikuo-sama would know. Trurara remembered Rihan-sama's glee when he announced that if Rikuo wished to lead the Clan in the future he could start dealing with the paperwork involved. She also remembered Rikuo-sama's consequent mood and revenge.
"I think this may turn out to be a treasure grove," he said slowly.
Tsurara smiled at the young master's pleasure.
His gaze suddenly dropped away from hers. "...Sorry about before," he muttered.
...eh?
Rikuo-sama apolo...gi..s..ed…? Words didn't form in her haste to reply and before she could gather herself. Gozumaru's voice interrupted.
"You may want to rethink that treasure thing." Gozumaru's stood in the doorway of a room, his back to the hallway. Tsurara couldn't see his voice, but his voice was tight in a way he would tear something to shreds if it were allowed, his body tense. "Rikuo-sama. You must see this."
Rikuo-sama moved to shoulder past Gozumaru, but for once the Bug Boy did his duty and held him back. Tsurara felt her stomach drop.
Curtains drawn closed with the sun sinking outside the room was grey in half shadows, but to see they didn't even need that much.
Walls were plastered with articles, some as old as a couple of centuries. Photos, people circled in the background of photos, names connected with lines, events connected to those. Small notes stuck at certain points.
All images and mentions of Rihan-sama – slashed again and again until they almost became unrecognizable. Slashes of fury in the wall, through the paper.
Rikuo-sama's breath stuttered and froze.
The step he took seemed as unconscious as the hand he lifted.
Tsurara's heart must have dropped somewhere back into the tunnel, but she followed his line of sight. To a woman. The painting of one. And the photo of an identical girl.
"O...nee-san…?" Rikuo-sama's voice breathed, and Tsurara's head snapped around to him so fast she felt her bones creak.
The expression on Rikuo-sama's face was somewhere between confused and hurt. He was transfixed on the image.
The image had a line drawn from it to Rihan-sama's. A line identical to the one connecting a photo of Rikuo-sama himself to Rihan-sama.
"Wait. What?" Gozumaru's voice was low and angry. "Unless someone really seriously forgot to mention something in the last decade or so, you never had a sister."
Rikuo-sama didn't appear to hear him. His breath was harsh and his eyes didn't seem to focus.
"Rikuo-sama." Tsurara took his hand. "Are you alright? Do you recognize those women?"
Rikuo-sama's breath only became harsher.
"Oi. Rikuo." Gozumaru tried not to show it but he was becoming uneasy. "Oi." He waved around in Rikuo-sama's face.
Rikuo-sama bolted. Clumsily.
Tsurara was like frozen. She heard the steps of her master stumbling down the stairs. Heard the front door open. It took three heart beats for her to snap out of shock and hurry after him.
"Rikuo-sama!" Tsurara had never felt as helpless as she was when she discovered Rikuo-sama outside on the ground. Head burrowed between his knees, held up only by the wall he was leaning against. "Rikuo-sama." She knelt by his side. Hands fluttering uselessly, she ended up brushing hair out of his face.
Cold sweat met her touch. What she saw of Rikuo-sama's face was pale. His hands griped his head in a white knuckled grip. His pupils were dilated.
Rikuo-sama. Reaching her arms around his shoulders, she pulled him against her. Like when he was a child, she stroked his hair. "Everything will be alright."
A shadow fell over them. She looked up. Gozumaru's face was tight and white.
"Exploration over," she said.
He nodded.
"You're a moron, you know."
Rikuo groaned and rolled over. He said something that was muffled by his cover.
"What?" Zen cleared his ears. "Can you repeat that? I can't hear you over the sound of the Nura Clan's future collapsing."
"I said I've heard that enough times in the last few days." Rikuo rolled over again and glared at Zen. "And don't exaggerate. It's just a cold."
Zen couldn't help but snort. "You left not only the Main House, but the entire region." Zen ticked off his fingers. "It's a cold you caught while going into unsecured, hostile territory with minimal guards, recklessly endangering your own life - thus the future of the clan – and the lives of your subordinates. It could have been any kind of incurable virus that laid you out. All the while the Shodaima and Nidaime are absent. While you have highest command; meaning nothing can move until you say so. Which, might I remind you, you can do without voice but can't do without consciousness."
Zen let him sit on that a bit. Moron. In the meantime, he studied the conscious version of his sworn brother. Face still red, but expression set in one of irritation, blanket pulled up to the nose he seemed well enough.
Zen crossed his arms. "You know, I could give you doctor's permission to get up-" Rikuo's face turned hopeful. "- but sure as hell won't until you fess up. What the hell is wrong?"
Hope vanished as though it had never been there - how Nurarihyon-like. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yeah. Right. And I'm the prime example of physical health." Zen's glower had to be very impressive because Rikuo actually shrunk a bit. "That 'cold' you have is a symptom of severe mental shock. Wanna try that 'everything is fine' again?"
Rikuo, the little brat, glowered like he thought he could set Zen on fire. The yokai around here had to grow a backbone. How could they take care of their (future) Head(s) when they were too busy falling over themselves to obey his (their) every command? "I don't wanna talk about it."
"That so?"
Brown eyes narrowed in suspicion - Rikuo knew him too well to take Zen's easy surrender for real.
"I guess I'll have to excuse you from your duties until...well, your age gets another digit. That should be long enough." He rose from his position at Rikuo's futon. "As your doctor, you know."
Rikuo lasted impressively until Zen was about to slide the shoji door closed behind him. "Wait." It must really be serious.
Zen waited.
Rikuo glowered a bit more.
Zen still waited.
"I'll talk."
Well. That concession sounded more painful than walking over embers. But Zen still wasn't about to let Rikuo get out of using actual words.
He slid the doors closed behind him and returned to his original position. "I'm listening."
Rikuo looked away from him and stared unmoving at the ceiling. His eyes were hard but there were too many emotions to count behind that. Condensed, chaotic.
Yeah, if Zen hadn't thought it was serious before, he would have certainly noticed now. Hesitation, stubborn silence, brooding – those things Zen had never actually heard of any Nurarihyon doing in all of their centuries of history for any amount of time.
As a kind they were wild, willful, mischievous, greedy, impulsive, paced and did what they wanted how they wanted when they wanted and mercy on the fool standing in their way. Accumulating of emotions, biting down on them – that didn't happen.
Either something was that wrong or action proportionate to emotion was going to follow soon.
"I remembered something about that night," admitted Rikuo finally, and Zen knew his sickbeds were going to be filled with injured in the very near future.
TBC
