A/N: Special thanks to everyone who has followed and reviewed since the last chapter! If I had known people would like this concept so much, I would have posted the story much sooner!
Before I begin, I feel like I need to clarify some things about this story's universe. I'm certain you all will remember that I said this would be a ~faux historical fic~ in the first chapter. For plot purposes, I will not narrow this story down to a set point in Japan's history. This is why I describe the noblemen as wearing Heian dress (link to the specific dress on my profile) even though the inspiration for the setting comes mainly from a mix of Sengoku jidai and Edo jidai. I'm also going to use a bit of creative license in regard to how this government works.
There is an Emperor, but they (typically) act as active rulers instead of merely symbols/puppets. Because of this, a shogun will not be present. There are, instead, three "Great Lords" who preside over different areas of the country – Lord Tokudaiji (our favorite Papa Dog) rules the West, Lord Raikatuji (Ryukotsusei) controls the East, and Lord Katsushika (The Panther King, whose first name will be Keitaro in this story) controls the North. I made a hand map for this; the link is on my profile! (FF doesn't allow direct links, so replace the words in parentheses with the appropriate symbols). The small area between the three regions is the capital (aka, the Emperor's palace and the smaller cities/villages in the immediate vicinity).
Within each territory, there are "low lords" who control a city or group of cities and the small villages surrounding them. Lord Kusakabe (the dead guy) and Lord Yukinaga (who'll be introduced in this chapter) fall into this category.
Those gray areas won't come into play for a while, so just ignore them for now.
Enjoy this chapter!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale. This story is merely for fun and practice.
Edit: 01/12/21 – The usual.
SONG OF THE WEST
an Inuyasha fanfic
iii.
The peach-gold light of morning fell on her face, warming her and casting everything in the small building in a dreamlike glow. Insects hummed near her ear, but she was much too exhausted to swat them away. The roaring pain in her injured hand had waned to a dull throb overnight, and she cradled it close to her chest. A horse whined and stamped its hooves in the adjacent stall. She heard people making small talk on the other side of the thin wall next to her – not nearly as much noise as was expected from the second day of a summer festival, even in the morning. With a small sound of discontent, Rin pushed herself from the unpleasant pile of forage she had fashioned into a place to sleep and tiredly went about picking the remnants of dried plant from her hair with her good hand.
She was sure she had fallen to the lowest point of her life.
When the trio had emerged from the alleyway the night prior, the traffic on the streets had dwindled significantly. Fearful of any additional attacks, most people had either left or retired to the encampment surrounding the city. Rin, though thoroughly shaken from surviving an explosion, nearly being raped, and witnessing the death of her assaulter, was further disquieted by the silence.
"All will be back to normal overmorrow," Lord Tōga had promised. He pushed her along, prepared to catch her if her enervated legs failed again.
Rin did not know what overmorrow meant, but his voice held warmth, which helped her breathe.
Tōga and Sesshōmaru had not planned to stay the night; thus, none of their belongings had been damaged in the blast. The same could not be said for the other nobleman who had chosen the Grand Inn. Servants scrambled about the hotel's foreground, trying to collect the pricey items that had been haphazardly scattered in the clamor. Guards were busy keeping the poor from stealing these treasures. One young guard, clad in light armor, approached Lord Tōga and bowed deeply, his forehead grazing the earth.
"I-imperial Lord!" He stuttered. He seemed to be out of breath from running around. "Lord Yukinaga and the Masters Ishida request an audience with you."
Toga glanced back at his son. Their gazes exchanged words their voices and miens did not.
"I will not have her in a cell. Find good shelter for her," he bade before following the guard.
Sesshōmaru had already been walking away by the time Rin turned to face him, his long strides leaving her in his dust. Though exhausted, she quickened her pace. She wanted him to slow himself but could not seem to find the voice to tell him so. After passing countless buildings, each with dozens of people huddle inside, a small structure came into view. She could make out the sleek silhouettes of animals despite the dim light.
"A horse stable?"
The young Lord paid her high-pitched voice no heed. The small gate opened with a rasp and the pair passed wide-eyed steeds until they finally arrived at the last stall. When Sesshōmaru motioned for her to enter, Rin gawked at him as if he were a specter. A sliver of silence went by before he spoke.
"How foolish of you to assume I would procure another suite just for you to nap in," he said, his lovely deep voice cruel and unforgiving. "I assume you are accustomed to lying on your back in uncomfortable places; sleeping should be no different."
His barb did not fall on deaf ears. Rarely had she ever felt this much irritation towards another person.
Some prince, she thought bitterly.
Still, his hateful gaze matched the intensity of her negative feelings tenfold, and she walked into the stall without another words. She did not try hard to veil her discontent.
Sesshōmaru stayed only to ensure she was inside the stall before vanishing into thin air.
Upon reflection, the overnight stay in the stable hadn't been terrible. Though she was in the same area as the animals, the stench of ordure was surprisingly missing from the air and the barn had been silent most of the night. Plus, she liked horses. She recalled the many times she and her brother had lingered around the stalls, attempting to pet the beasts and fleeing when their owners would return. One horse, a great dark thing with a lustrous mane and gentle black eyes, had even poked its head over the divider to peer at her with a sagacious gaze from time to time.
She felt a heavy breath on her crown and an uncomfortable tug on her knotted hair. The dark stallion was picking hay from her hair with his teeth, catching a few tangled locks in the process. With a nettled groan, she gently began to bop him on the nose.
Two unfamiliar presences appeared behind her, blocking the sunlight.
"This must be her," one spoke.
Rin grimaced and glanced upwards to see a pair of city guards staring down at her. They both wore impassive masks and the light armor of the guard that had spoken to the Inu no Taishō the night before. They gazed at her as if she were a mere plaything. Her blood ran cold.
"Stand!" The other commanded. "We have been ordered to escort you to the trial."
The trial commenced precisely when it was supposed to. Sesshōmaru silently observed as every nobleman in the city, all dressed upon in nori or kariginu of the finest fabric, filed into the audience hall, stopping to bow in deference to him and his father before taking their seats on the zabutons below.
The Western Lords had not slept at all that night. Though his father had implied that the meeting with Lord Yukinaga and the Ishida brothers would take mere minutes, Sesshōmaru knew the trio would spend hours trying to convince the Imperial Lord of the West of their innocence.
A servant had been waiting outside the most prominent restaurant in the city to escort Sesshōmaru to the private floor where the distinguished group of men had met. By the time the young man entered the grand room, the tension had reached a palpable state. Tea, water, and sake had been served, but the air was far too fraught to partake of it. Sesshōmaru could feel the eyes of the Ishida brothers, the owners of the ruined luxury hotel, follow him as he walked from the open shoji to the empty zabuton near his father. They would have only been partially prepared to deal with the Inu no Taisho; both he and his son's presence were more than enough to make them squirm. At only twenty-two, the prospective Lord of the West was already known far beyond his borders for his acute callousness.
Quite frankly, Sesshōmaru thought them both milksops.
Lord Yukinaga, with his long visage and reptilian features, was the only one to uphold a veneer of courage. "I would have formally welcomed you to my city, Your Excellency," he began, giving the Imperial Lord a slight bow of deference, "if only I had known of your coming. It is not often that an Imperial Lordattends the festival."
"A beautiful city, it is," Tokudaiji Takeshige mused. "Unfortunately, I was not able to visit the festival."
Lord Yukinaga smiled and turned to Sesshōmaru. "Did you enjoy it, Your Grace? I was told you were able to attend."
"It was passable," Sesshōmaru replied, his coldness radiating from his form.
Lord Yukinaga's smile evanesced instantly. "We sincerely apologize for the…inconvenience. Something like this has never happened before. Soldiers have been dispatched all about the city searching for suspects and witnesses."
Izumo, the youngest Ishida brother with light brown hair and eyes, worked up the gall to clear his throat. "Two of the perpetrators have been caught."
The Inu no Taisho's thick brow raised in wait.
"Guards apprehended the son of some farmer from the village across the brook, who then named one of the kitchen wenches," the hotel-owner continued.
"There is still a third perpetrator on the loose." Ishida Tatara spoke up. Both brothers were antsy about what the implication of one of their servants could lead to. "Unfortunately, he could be anywhere by now."
The Western Lord glanced at Sesshōmaru, who said nothing. "Fortunately," Lord Tokudaiji jested darkly, "the third perpetrator should not present a problem. I believe he is lying dead in an alleyway."
The Ishida brothers blinked. This time, Lord Yukinaga's brows furrowed. "Forgive me for saying this, Your Excellency, but it is not…," he fumbled with his words, "customary…in this city to execute without a trial."
Sesshōmaru fought the urge to roll his eyes. Hericide must be time-honored, then.
His father gave a grin that bared all his teeth. "Of course, Lord Yukinaga. However, the boy showed extreme hostility towards my son and presented a threat to the safety of other civilians. Considering hotel guards failed to capture him at the scene—" amber eyes flickered towards the Ishida brothers, who shuffled uncomfortably on their zabutons "—I assumed that allowing him to roam free would have caused more harm to your fine city."
Silence rang and the tension grew thicker. Lord Yukinaga's pretense seemed as if it were beginning to falter. He nodded, "Well said, my Lord."
"Now," Lord Tokudaiji took a graceful swig of his tea. It was bitter. "You mentioned a trial."
The Ishida brothers looked to Lord Yukinaga to speak again. "It will take place first thing in the morning. We, as well as other nobles affected by the attack, will be in attendance. Since you are the most powerful man in the city, the honor of presiding over the trial will go to you, of course."
An air of contentment fell over the Inu no Taisho. "Excellent. This should be quick."
The criminals themselves were the last two to arrive. The boy was escorted into the room in chains, his yukata a tattered and bloodied mess. His female companion looked significantly less dramatic in her plain red-brown yukata. The guards roughly pushed them towards the very center of the room before the dais that he, his father, and Lord Yukinaga sat upon. Sesshōmaru could hear small talk of witnesses on the other side of the shoji. Why his Lord Father had allowed the little gamine to be absent was beyond him.
With all in attendance, Lord Tokudaiji moved to start.
"We shall begin." He spoke, his booming tenor drawing all attention to himself. He glanced at Lord Yukinaga, who sat near him. "As this is your city, I will allow you to lead questioning."
"I humbly accept this honor, Your Excellency," Lord Yukinaga simpered and bowed his head before turning to the crowd of noblemen. "As you all know, a good portion of the Ishida Inn was devastated by an explosion meant to harm His Excellency the Imperial Lord of the West. Lord Kusakabe was killed in the blast; the hotel and many valuable items were damaged."
A low grumbled passed through the room. Sesshōmaru knew most of them could not care less about Lord Kusakabe's demise — it was their lost chattel they were out to avenge.
"Before you sit Gojo and Aina, two perpetrators of the crime," he gestured towards the commoners, his long silk sleeves flowing gracefully.
"And what of rumors of a third?" One nobleman asked. "Does he still roam the city?"
"The third, a boy named Kahei, died shortly after the blast," Lord Yukinaga replied. "His body is currently in the possession of the Ishida clan."
The tension in the room dwindled after Lord Yukinaga's clarification. The pretentiously dressed man turned back to Gojo, who stared blankly at the floor.
"Gojo has since confessed to his crimes," Lord Yukinaga said. "Do you still stand by your statements, boy?"
"I do," Gojo said. He took a deep breath before speaking. "Kahei and Aina made a plan to kill His Excellency and asked me for help. Aina worked at the inn; she helped us sneak past guards and plant the explosives. She also poisoned much of the food."
The faces of the Ishida brothers, who sat closest on the floor to the dais, grew waxen with perturbation as whispers began to fall from the lips of the noblemen. Lord Yukinaga turned to the girl, who sat as still as a statue.
"That is not true," Aina stated calmly. "I was not involved in this plot, Your Lordship, and I poisoned no food. If he and Kahei found a way inside, it was without my assistance."
"She lies!" Gojo insisted. "She is the one who received the poison. Search her things, and you will find it."
His father's eyes narrowed. "I was told that merchants were not allowed to sell poison in this city, Lord Yukinaga."
Sesshōmaru had not visited Yobetsu since boyhood, but even he knew that poison had been forbidden in the city for decades. Too many noblemen traveled in and out of the city to take such chances.
"They are not, Your Excellency," Lord Yukinaga said. "Possession of poison in this city is a criminal offense."
"Then only an outside source could have provided it," Sesshōmaru spoke.
Gojo and Aina's eyes widened simultaneously.
Lord Yukinaga turned to the guard who manned the door. "Send someone to scour the servant's quarters of the inn."
"I did not have poison!" Aina asserted again.
"Then you don't have anything to worry about," Lord Tokudaiji said. Then, turning to the guard: "Check her quarters."
Aina pushed her lips forward in frustration. "There is a girl he is trying to protect. She is the one who poisoned the food."
Gojo whirled to face her with an incredulous look on his face, the chains binding his hands clinking against each other.
"A fourth perpetrator!" Lord Yukinaga exclaimed. "Who is this girl?"
"If this talk of poison is true, all the food would have had to pass the oni no ma without fuss that night," Ishida Tatara fiddled with his sleeves as he spoke. "It must have been whoever served your food."
The mere mention of a trial had seized Rin's heart with fear. Had not the Inu no Taisho pardoned her the night before?
The guards walked fast and with purpose, shoving her along the dirt footpath with none of Lord Tōga's gentleness. Bystanders regarded her with narrowed eyes and twisted mouths, stopping to whisper as she walked by. She was quite a sight to see — her yukata was ragged and soiled with dried blood and char and mud. Judging by how people wrinkled their noses, she probably smelled like a corpse.
The large building the guards led her to was nearly as grand as the hotel, but with a distinct air of austerity she had never before felt. The door opened effortlessly, and she was prodded into a long, wide hallway decorated with gorgeous art and pottery. One guard disappeared into a room before her, then peeked his head out and motioned for his partner to bring her forward.
The room itself was massive. Its gleaming wood floors, walls, and columns seemed to glisten in the light that filtered through the translucent paper of the shoji. Eminent men clad in luxurious fabrics and hues sat in two rows of zabuton opposite each other, forging a broad aisle that led to a dais at the front of the room. On that raised wood platform sat Lord Tōga and the ever-impassive "prince" Sesshōmaru, both shining bright behind the long table before them. An unfamiliar man sat on his left. Beyond them was a fusuma that bore a breathtaking mural of lush flora and pellucid water, a rose-colored depiction of the forest and river on the path between her village and the city.
Two people of her social stratum sat pitifully in the middle of the room, two jarring antitheses to the resplendence encircling them. They turned to her when the guards led her in. Rin's eyes widened when she recognized the farmer's boy whose virginity she had supposedly taken the day before, muck and ash splattered over his yukata. His hands were in fetters behind him. Alongside him was the girl who had asked her to deliver food to the Inu no Taisho. The guards dropped her unceremoniously next to them before leaving.
All eyes in the room were on her when the unfamiliar man spoke. "You are being accused of aiding in the assassination of Lord Kusakabe and the attempted assassination of the Imperial Lord of the West."
She had been wrong about the stables: this was the lowest point of her life.
Rin's heart skipped a beat. "What?" She looked towards Lord Tōga and Sesshōmaru. They both had unreadable looks in their eyes. The Young Lord completely ignored her.
"We were told you delivered poisoned food to the His Excellency and other noblemen last night before the explosion," the man said, annoyed.
A multitude of eyes bore into her, waiting for a response. Rin could feel the air leaving her body at once. It was imperative that she defend herself now, but she physically could not voice her thoughts. It was as if someone had shoved cloth down her throat to silence her.
Fate, an unexpected ally, came to her rescue.
A guard entered, or rather, was roughly pushed into the room, drawing all attention to the door. Lord Yukinaga's eyes flashed with outrage. "What?"
Embarrassed, the guard gulped, stood up straight, and spoke: "Now entering the second daughter of His Excellency Imperial Lord Katsushika, Lady Karan!"
Lady Karan entered the room with a bemused smirk on her face, turning her fan over and over in her tan hands. She was not a beauty, but with her sharp chin and thin nose, her face possessed a certain feline quality that made her striking. Even more arresting was her fiery shoulder-length hair, even shorter than what could pass for pretty in Rin's poor village, and her thick, upwards slanted brows positioned just above eyes as red as her mane. Her clothing was as luxurious and plentiful as the other noblemen's. All on the floor bowed as she walked past, her brown kiri-bakama and light yellow kazami trailing behind her. She showed perfunctory obeisance to Lord Tōga and Sesshōmaru when she finally made it to the dais.
"Good morning, my Lords." Lady Karan chirped. There was a boyish manner in her tone and the way she moved that suggested impishness.
"Good morning, Your Grace," Lord Yukinaga forced a smile and inclined his head. "Was the journey from Hyōkusui pleasant?"
"It was hot. And long. And bumpy." She hit her wooden fan against the palm of her hand as if she were prepared to bludgeon Lord Yukinaga with it. "And when I finally arrive, there is no one to meet me! And all the festivities have been canceled for the day. My journey was all for nothing!"
"We apologize for the inconvenience." Lord Tōga replied. Exasperation had dulled any life in his voice. "What business have you here?"She frowned at the curt, unfavorable response. "I heard of Lord Kusakabe's death and the explosion at the hotel as soon as I entered the city. I came to witness the trial myself."
"You wish to attend the trial, my Lady?"
"I'm certain my Lord Father would want a representative from Hyōkusui present during a trial to determine who turned one of his vassals into carrion," Lady Karan drawled with utmost confidence.
"This trial is already in session," Sesshōmaru spoke, his voice deep and forthright and saturated with discontent. "Moreover, women are not allowed to take part in matters of law."
Lady Karan's easy expression lit up like a sudden summer storm. "I'm not some little girl, cousin! I—"
Lord Tōga let out a long sigh and turned to Lord Yukinaga. The small lord nodded and stood from his seat.
"I will bequeath my position to you, Your Grace," Lord Yukinaga grimaced. Lady Karan flashed a self-congratulatory grin and made herself comfortable on the warm zabuton.
With a flick of Lord Tōga's wrist, the trial resumed.
"Let us try this again, girl," Lord Yukinaga said, staring her down from where he stood below the dais. "Do you confess to delivering poisoned food to the Inu no Taisho?"
Rin swallowed nervously. "…I delivered food to the Inu no Taisho, but I don't know about any plot to kill him! She," she used her good hand to gesture towards the serving girl, who stared at her with startled eyes, "asked me to deliver it. She said the kitchens were busy, and I helped by serving him his food."
Anxiety had caused the poor, pitiful girl's voice to warble as she spoke, making her words sound very sincere. The serving girl could say nothing to counter this.
"Bring a witness from the hotel kitchens!" Lord Yukinaga ordered.
The guards brought in the woman who had yelled at Rin outside the hotel the night before. The woman took a quick glance at the pitiful young people in the center of the room as she walked past. When brought before the three Lords and Lady near the dais, she histrionically fell to her hands and knees in deference. Rin watched as Lady Karan barely suppressed a laugh in response to gesture.
"My Lords! Your Excellency! Your Grace!" she exclaimed. "Please forgive me for the damage done to the festival! I promise you; I knew of no dastardly deeds in my kitchen!"
"Stand! You have served us all well in the past. No one doubts your loyalty to this city and the Grand Inn," Lord Yukinaga said. He turned to Rin, who had begun to grow weary from stress and fatigue. "This is the girl who delivered food to His Excellency and other guests last night. Certainly, you are familiar with her."
"The first time I ever saw her was last night, outside the hotel," she said, her gaze steady on Lord Yukinaga's face. "She was wandering near the kitchens. I could tell by her short yukata and koshishimo and the coquettish way she coquettish way she walked that she was some ill-bred slu—"
"You will use respectable parlance in this court," Lord Tōga spoke smooth and stern.
The woman recoiled. "Yes, Your Excellency. I thought she came to beg for leftovers, so I chased her off. I dare say she stole into the building while I was away."
Rin's sprained fingers began to throb harshly.
"What was it that forced you to abandon your duties long enough for her to sneak in and deliver food to a highly esteemed guest without being noticed?" A random personage scolded angrily from the rows of noblemen.
"There were some…complaints last night," the woman visibly shuddered. "Bad tasting food. I had to address them."
"An unusual amount, I bet," Gojo spoke suddenly. "It was the poison! Aina added trace amounts to the food to create a distraction for you."
The woman gasped and whirled to face him. "I have known Aina since her girlhood. She is far more trustworthy than you or that harlot. How dare you attempt to disgrace my word!"
"You claim she gave you trays to deliver," Lord Tōga addressed Rin directly, gently urging her to speak. "Are there any other details you remember?"
Rin thought long and hard of the scene from the night before. Aina had given her two trays to deliver, one for the Inu no Taisho and one for a room at the beginning of the hall. She had been very specific about where to go and who should have received which tray. In her excitement, Rin had bypassed one of the rooms all together and went directly to Lord Tōga's suite. She had then blindly placed one tray on the table and set the other plate to the side.
Considering they were both alive and well in that grand room, she had thankfully given him the food with trace amounts of poison. She had eaten too little to notice a bad taste.
"She gave me two trays to deliver…" Rin willed her voice to stay. "She was specific about which rooms to take them to. I must have given you a different tray."
Aina tried to speak again. "She's—"
"I can't let this continue," Gojo said. "Aina poisoned the food and is trying to blame it on this girl. She's probably already discarded the bottle. Kahei visited the whore regularly and Aina is attempting to frame her out of jealousy."
"Why," Lady Karan groaned. "This is like bad theatre."
For all her previous coolness, Aina's face turned a blood red at his words. "Slander!"
"Enough!" Lord Yukinaga ordered. "You are making a mockery of this court and a mockery of this city. I should sentence you all to death for insolence."
"I agree!" Lady Karan grinned. "We're wasting our time on this!"
"Lord Yukinaga, Lady Karan," Lord Tōga called. "You both forget that we still do not know where the poison came from, or who killed Lord Kusakabe."
The farmer's boy shifted uncomfortably. Tōga picked up on his unease with almost bestial instinct.
"Is there something you would like to tell us, Gojo?"
"The bottle of poison had Lord Kusakabe's seal on it," Gojo admitted.
The room grew tense again. Lord Tōga frowned, his brows coming closer together. "You mean to implicate a Lord in my attempted assassination?"
Gojo released a shuddering breath but continued. He had long given up on the chance of living to see the next day. "Our plan was never to kill Lord Kusakabe."
"And if his seal was on the bottle meant to kill you, Your Grace…" Lord Yukinaga muttered.
"It's simple then! Perhaps he provided the poison and killed himself out of guilt." Lady Karan waved her fan for emphasis, smirking as if she were the smartest person in the room. "He was the mastermind behind the whole thing. Who else could have killed him and his guard without making a noise? And these fools certainly couldn't have come up with this plan."
The noblemen around the room nodded in hesitant agreement.
Lord Tōga blinked incredulously. "Lord Kusakabe was a warrior. Do you think he and his guards would have so spinelessly split open their own throats and periled the lives of his wife and children?"
"No one else was caught," Ishida Tatara reasoned. "It would have taken a militia to defeat Lord Kusakabe. Our guards would have seen them."
"I walked in and out of the Inn without passing a single guard," Sesshōmaru spoke so sardonically one could feel the acid trickling from his words. "Any watchman who allows some waif to enter a building with ease is no watchman at all. If not for the damage to your building and reputations, and your piteous expressions, I would suspect you two were involved in the scheme to kill my Lord Father as well."
The Ishida brothers rushed to defend themselves, their discordant words coming together to create a cacophonous mess.
"I think my Lord Father would agree with the Ishidas." Lady Karan looked to the noblemen. "All we have left to do now is sentence them. I'll send a message to my father to tell him about the trial."
Lord Tōga bristled but made no move to protest. "End this then, Lord Yukinaga."
Sesshōmaru glanced curiously at his father.
Lord Yukinaga looked down at Gojo first, a predatory light gleaming in his eyes. The boy was resigned to his fate. "For your crimes against the kingdom," the City Lord began. "I hereby sentence you to death. Your execution will take place this very afternoon."
Rin could feel the gag in her throat again, and when she blinked, she could see her head on the city's walls, a warning to all visitors of the consequences of crime. She had only wanted to speak to the Inu no Taisho; she did not mean to potentially harm anybody. This would not be her last day on earth, would it?
Next was Aina, who now looked as if she were about to vomit. "For lying in the presence of an Imperial Lord and dishonoring the court, you will be flogged until you confess your crimes, whereupon you will meet the same fate as your co-conspirators."
The poor hotel mistress shook like a leaf when Lord Yukinaga's eyes fell on her. "Though you were not involved in this plan, you still defended a liar. I believe you are deserving of a few lashes."
She had escaped death, but not the cruel stroke of a scourge. The woman sighed but continued to shake.
Finally, Lord Yukinaga's eyes alighted upon her. Rin felt faint. "As for you—"
"A whore, they said?" Lady Karan interposed, slapping her fan against her palm in an impish, vulturine manner. "I heard the numbers of Hyōkusui's red light district is beginning to dwindle. But she'll be a hard sell, as underfed as she is."
"It is quite unbecoming of you to speak so much, Lady Karan," Lord Tōga did not try to hide his annoyance. As Lady Karan's face reddened with embarrassment and ire, Tōga looked Rin in the eye and continued to speak. "She is to be pardoned."
"P-pardoned?" Lord Yukinaga sputtered. "She was possibly involved in a plot to assassinate you, Imperial Lord."
"She is clearly innocent," said the Inu no Taisho. "After she served my meal, we broke bread and conversed for a while. When we were done, I decided to escort her out of the hotel, which took me away from the brunt of the explosion. If she had known about the plot, she would have never eaten poisoned food or spoke with me so long. Besides, the poor girl can barely sit down without tiring, much less plot an assassination."
"Forgive me, Your Excellency;" Ishida Izumo began, "surely this does not erase the fact that she trespassed on private property?"
Lord Tōga waved their concerns away.
Lord Yukinaga conceded, but not without dubiety. "If that is what you wish, Your Excellency." He turned back to Rin with a grim expression on his face. "His Excellency Imperial Lord Tokudaiji of the West as showed you mercy, girl. You should be grateful!"
Rin nodded and bowed deeply. "Thank you, my Lord."
Lord Tōga took a deep inhale of incense. "This trial is finished."
As the noblemen bid their goodbyes and slowly exited the room, Lord Tōga turned to his son, who had begun to stand as well.
"Sesshōmaru," he hailed. "It's not fitting for her to go around in those clothes. Find something clean and someone to prepare a bath for her."
Sesshōmaru's brows rose in contempt at the very idea of running errands for the wench. "There are plenty of public baths in the city."
Tōga rolled his eyes at the implication. "The poor girl is traumatized. The last thing she needs is some lout fondling her in a bath."
"Considering her reputation, I do not think it would be such an issue."
"Sesshōmaru," Tōga reprehended sharply. When Sesshōmaru turned to face his Lord Father, he found that the man's eyes were as hard as amber. Sesshōmaru's own eyes narrowed, but he didn't deign to say anything further against the girl. He gave Rin a sharp look as he passed her to exit the room.
As Tōga drew nearer to her, he found his eyes drawn to the hand she so gently cradled. If the smell of her clothes bothered him at all, he didn't show it.
"You're hurt," he said. "Let me see your hand."
Rin shrugged and held her out her hand for him to inspect. "It's just a bit sore."
Lord Tōga thoughtfully vetted her sore and puffy fore and middle fingers, which appeared slightly contorted. Without warning, he took them in his firm grasp and heaved them into a different position with a grating pop. A loud yelp broke the silence, and the doe-eyed girl felt droplets of water roll down her cheeks.
"Sorry," he said. Her sudden tears startled him. He pulled the blue silk ribbon from his hair and wrapped it around her fingers. Free from their binding, his white hair fell about his face and his shoulders, making him resemble his son even more. His elocution was far more relaxed with her than it was last night or with the noblemen. "Use this until we get to a room. I can't believe you walked around with two dislocated fingers without uttering a word to us."
Rin sniffed. The silk ribbon felt nice and cool. "You were busy," she explained, "and Lord Sesshōmaru…"
Tōga laughed. "Understandable. You must forgive my son. He can be exceedingly uninviting at times."
Sesshōmaru's icy gaze and mordant words had told her that much.
The Western Imperial Lord titled his head back and released a heavy breath. The edges of his profiled glowed with sunlight.
"Come on," he said. "You can rest until the execution."
a/n: I'm sorry that this ends so abruptly! This chapter was originally bordering 9000 words — I split it into two separate sections for quick reading. That trial scene made up the bulk of it and took the most time for me to write. I'm also sorry that there is so little of Sesshōmaru in this. He gets a lot more time in the second half of this chapter, ha.
Speaking of Sesshōmaru, I'm so glad that you all seem to like him and Tōga so far! I'll make sure to write plenty of scenes from his point of view in the future.
See you next chapter!