Chapter 28 Dubious Mercy

"WAIT!" a voice cried out and Hakkaku and Ginta dared to hope they had been given a reprieve from the executioner's blade.

The creature and its copies turned their attention towards a man, an actual human, who was nervously pushing his way to the front. He appeared to be wealthy as far as humans go, his kimono was a dark blue with a lighter watery pattern printed on it and made of silk.

"Dongsaeng, my brother in suffering," the creature in the shape of a man said in a genuinely friendly voice, which struck the wolves as bizarre considering his evident cruelty. "My generosity does have its limits you know."

"Yes of course," the man answered with evident fear in his voice. He addressed the creature dressed in the strange clothing and ignored the others crowding around him. "You do yourself a disservice though in killing those two."

"How so?"

Ginta noticed the man had an accent to his words also but heavier and of a different flavor as he continued, "Did you not tell me earlier you chose this town because of an encounter with a lord? An encounter that was brought about by chance? You wanted a place with many Japanese did you not? Does killing these two seem as though it will provide you the entertainment, the satisfaction, you desire?"

"Well..."

"Spare yourself the trouble of randomly coming across such places. These are clearly wolf youkai and must have a pack. Allow them to leave and they will bring their pack after you, thus saving you the trouble of hunting them down." The human's brown eyes sought out theirs and passed both a silent promise and a plea to them. I will be waiting for you, bring more and end this madness.

The human then turned his eyes to his murderous companion, "They must and will bring their pack to avenge their leader."

"Yes..." Ginta breathed. This human was smart; he was not only saving them he was arranging the possible downfall of this false-human. "We will."

The creature turned his attention towards Ginta and Hakkaku again; its hungry eyes seemed to weigh them in the scales of its deranged mind, trying to decide whether the desire for blood was best met now or later.

Ultimately though, the desire for a greater bloodletting won out. The man that was not a man gestured contemptuously toward the glassy eyed Kouga. "Go then and bring me more to kill. Take your leader with you if it will stir your pack's blood and inspire the need for vengeance."

The creature and all its pseudo twins, in an obvious gesture of contempt, mockingly bowed and gestured towards the door.

"Hey," Hakkaku called out as he and Ginta made for the gate with Kouga's body. "How will we find you?"

A copy wearing samurai armor turned and flashed a knife like smile at the wolves. "Just follow the trail of corpses."


Hakkaku was smiling and that angered and confused Ginta enormously.

Kouga, their prince and friend since early childhood was dead. Kouga had always possessed an aura of invincibility, the sort of dynamic presence that electrified their pack and gave them the feeling that he would always be around; a rock steady source of leadership. But today that rock had been shattered into dust and their clan was left leaderless.

And yet somehow Hakkaku found something to smile about.

"What are we going to do now?" Ginta asked Hakkaku through gritted teeth as they carried the body of Kouga away from his place of death. Ginta very much wanted to grieve for Kouga, but somehow the death of their leader just seemed unreal.

Even if it was his literally dead weight they were carrying.

Ginta just kept expecting Kouga to cuff them both on the side of the head and shout something like, "Let me down you dimwits; I'm not dead!"

Ginta would have happily endured any amount of physical abuse if it meant Kouga would be alive once more.

Of course that couldn't happen now, but something far worse just might. If they went straight back to the pack and announced Kouga's death, even during the period of ritual mourning their clan mates would start jockeying for positions of power. A succession dispute and perhaps even an outright war would occur because Kouga and Ayame did not yet have an heir who could take on the mantle of leadership. All the wolf tribes Kouga had joined as one could very easily fragment as old lines of division asserted themselves once more.

Hakkaku must have known this and yet still that damned smile was on his face, as though the world and everything in it was just peachy.

"We're going to Kagome's village." Hakkaku announced with a gleam in his eye. Very rarely in his life did inspiration hit Hakkaku, but when it did it always felt as though a star had exploded in his mind. Right now, the way to stop an internal war in his pack and save his leader was filling his mind like a red giant.

"What? Why?" Ginta asked suspiciously. "What are you thinking?"

"Sesshoumaru's tomb is there and so is Jaken right?" Hakkaku asked. Kouga had never been all that talkative about Kagome's village or his visits there but word got around regardless.

"The Tensaiga is what we need and Jaken is who we need to see about it."

Ginta looked at his long time friend realizing the implications of his words almost immediately. The legendary nature of the Tensaiga as a life-restoring sword was well known but there was a serious question of whether they could actually use it.

Guess we will find out soon enough, Ginta thought to himself.