Chapter Fifty-Three

There was a part of Akira, a very deep part of him, that was aware of his own lack of confidence and how it affected his perception of the world. It was true that there were other tengu in his tribe that had bullied or talked down to him because of his plain features and timid personality. However, it was also true that there were many who encouraged him for his strengths and treated him well.

After all, one did not achieve the title of diatengu simply because they were beautiful.

Unfortunately, his shortcomings made it difficult for him to believe compliments, and insults were easier to remember. Such trauma came from a place much deeper than mean children and petty women, and had formed his personality into what it was. Something much more potent had long ago affected his ability to be truly confident in himself and his actions. Something much closer to home and to his heart had tarnished his ability to interact normally with those around him.

"I never should have married you. Look at this ugly son you gave me."

The first time he had truly understood those words, he had already been old enough to understand his father's actions. Especially how those action had confirmed his father's loathing. Still, there was something different about spoken words, something heartbreaking for his then child mind. It would have been no different than his father outright telling him that he did not love him. He had been an unwanted child, an ugly child, with no place in his father's world.

But his mother had been different.

Despite his ugliness, even though he was unwanted, his mother had still protected him. She had still tucked him in at night and sang to him sweet lullabies. She had been the light in the dark, a calm in the storm, and he had wanted to protect her. With all the strength in his tiny child body, he had wanted nothing more than to keep her from being hurt because of him. Failing, for years, had silently killed him inside. If only he had been born beautiful, life would have been different. If only he had been stronger, his father would have never dared to lay hands on him or his mother.

Now, hundreds of years later, Akira had developed a severe intolerance for the abuse of anyone. Especially, for someone he cared about.

Power spewed forth from him as intense pressure that vibrated in the air, and even the sky seemed to darken as the sound of crows became raucous above them. The red daitengu mask slipped and clattered to the ground at his feet as Akira slowly stood. Uncovered features were stone-like and dangerous, and they appeared completely unnatural on his usually shy face. Behind the shadow of his short hair, the stormy depths of his irises flashed scarlet when they focused past Tomoe and upon the man hurting her. The unexpected threat of his presence captured the attention of the serpent demon, and uncertainty finally appeared to reflect something real on his face.

A single crow swooped in to perch on Akira's shoulder, and its laughing caw echoed loudly in the empty section of plaza. All other spectators had cleared a wide circle around them in recognition and fearful respect. From what seemed was out of thin air, twenty armed tengu touched down on silent feet, their eyes focused and dangerous upon the serpent demon still squeezing the air out of Tomoe's lungs. Loose feathers of shiny black fluttered around them like softly falling snow.

Without even a signal, two of the tengu guards shot forward, their halberds precise and quick. In a mere second, the sharp blades from the long-poled weapons were pressed to either side of the serpent's neck. No time had been allowed for negotiation.

Directly next to Akira, the only male tengu without a weapon bowed formally in greeting.

"My Lord."

One of the female guards, with her weapon to the serpent demon's throat, grinned wickedly.

"Shall I demonstrate to this snake why we're known as a 'murder' of crows?"

With his chin raised and his mouth finally closed, the serpent seemed to understand his situation well, and his tail slowly loosened around Tomoe's body. Stumbling away from her captor and gasping for air, she was caught by a gentle hand at the shoulder. One of the remaining tengu guards smiled amiably down at her, his undrawn katana held behind him and parallel to his spine.

"Are you alright, My Lady?"

Swallowing and straightening herself, Tomoe nodded gently.

"Yes. Thank you."

As if drawn to him, Tomoe's coal black eyes slid past the tengu in front of her to stare at Akira, who was still silent and unmoving. Somehow, Tomoe found that she could not look away from him, this man that she realized she truly did not know.

Focused and unyielding, scarlet eyes blinked once, slowly, as he stared down the green-flecked gaze of the snake. The foreign stone expression of his features did not once crack. Minimally, Akira's hand twitched to have him removed, and the male tengu bowed in acceptance.

"Of course. Leave it to us."

The weapons were withdrawn, and the serpent secured. A quick salute was aimed at the daitengu, and the snake demon was dragged away through the whispering crowd.

The tengu next to Tomoe bowed to her quickly as he prepared to follow. "Don't worry, My Lady. We'll leave him at the police station." The, what she realized was, younger tengu smiled in open pride. "It was a good thing our lord called on us. That weak snake wouldn't have been able to handle Lord Akira's power."

The older tengu next to Akira echoed the sentiment with clear approval, and Tomoe switched her attention back to them.

"It was a pleasure to finally be called upon, My Lord. Please do not ever hesitate to rely on us again in the future." The remaining tengu took flight into the air, and the hundreds of crows circling the plaza dispersed with them.

The sky lightened as the pressure lifted, and the innocent bystanders seemed to breathe as one. Like a rising tide, conversations and movement returned back to normal, and the spectacle was officially over. After all, confrontations were fairly normal between opposing demons.

As he came to his senses, Akira's dark eyes blinked rapidly and returned to their usual stormy swirls of dark grey on black. Hesitantly, Tomoe came nearer, and those eyes darted quickly to her, almost fearfully.

"A-are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Though Tomoe would not say so to him, there was a dull ache across her torso, from her shoulder to her hip. It was an old ache now, but twinged sharply in irritation from the crushing pressure of the snake demon's tail. Nothing could be done about it, and there was no point in bringing it up.

"I'm fine."

Black eyes must have stared too long, because his own darted awkwardly to his feet. A moment later, he snatched up the red mask still lying forgotten on the stone blocks and pressed it over his face to hide. All of the confidence born from his offended wrath had disappeared, and had left behind the sweet, clumsy, and timid man of his everyday life.

"W-we should go to the hospital anyway. Even if it doesn't hurt right away, something could be wrong." His muffled voice was anxious, for her safety but also her reaction. Tomoe stepped closer, and he nervously stepped away.

Gently, she touched a hand to the mask and he paused automatically. Looping her purse over her forearm, she bracketed his face with both hands and carefully pulled the mask free. He released it reluctantly, but watched in nervous silence as she tucked it securely against her chest, with the long red nose resting between the curve of her wrists. When he had the courage to look at her face, she was smiling softly.

"We agreed I would hang onto this during our date."

"R-right, but…"

"I'm fine. I promise."

Turning, Tomoe hooked a hand under his elbow so that they were standing side-by-side, and then urged him forward.

"Thank you, for taking care of me, Akira-kun."

Red flushed his face instantly, and he tripped and stumbled over his own feet. The combination of praise and the more familiar use of his name had been too much. Giggling, Tomoe patiently helped him stand, and thought he could not be cuter.

From across the plaza, Sōjirō smiled as he watched Tomoe and the daitengu head off towards the cinema. Paying that serpent demon to stir up some trouble had been worth it. Everything was falling perfectly into place. The woman was calm and reasonable, and had reacted logically instead of emotionally to the high stress situation. Better still, she was weak.

Yukishiro Tomoe was exactly what he needed.

X

Exhaling long and slow, Kaoru stared across the large dank chamber and into Kenshin's violet eyes. Without so much as a glance away, she twisted her right wrist to point her first two fingers upwards, and rows of small blue lights filled the room from wall to wall. Before they could get into any advanced training, she had to demonstrate that she had working control over when, where, and how she conjured her blue flame. Apparently, such a demonstration was also necessary for Megumi to allow her to leave the subbasement.

While Kaoru had told Kenshin she was fine with staying, and she had meant it at the time, she could admit she was getting bored with her location. She wanted to go outside again. She wanted to hug Tomoe and joke with Enishi. She wanted her drawing book back, and her headphones. She wanted to take a real bath again, and soak in the hot water until her skin wrinkled.

She kinda wanted to be alone with Kenshin some, too. Somewhere that didn't have cameras staring down at them at all times.

Kenshin smiled at her, but she fought her muscles to stay focused. He had set her goal at twenty balls of fire, but hadn't realized that she was never satisfied with simply meeting a goal. Something inside her always demanded that she surpass it. Instead of a handful of flames, there were closer to one hundred, and they filled the chamber in a perfect grid pattern. Only where she and Kenshin stood did the flames circle, and Kenshin remained perfectly still to allow her full command over the situation.

His presence served a purpose; to show that she had spatial awareness of obstacles and people. The fact that he didn't move or surround himself in fire was a tribute to the trust he was placing in her. She had no intention of disappointing him.

Upon his request, she carefully extinguished individually picked flames in what appeared to be random parts of the grid. Then she relit them in a different order. Multiple were put out at once, the flames were reorganized, and then more added on. After a time, she was given free-reign to provide her own demonstration. Humming the first tune that popped into her head, she sent the balls of onibi flame into waves, spirals, and jumping rhythm as they disappeared, reappeared, and swayed with the motion of her arms.

After a time, she giggled to find one of Kenshin's red brows lifted at her. Even after he smiled to show amusement with her antics, he spoke concern that she might be getting cold. Following their prior predicament with the ice formation on her hands, Kenshin had insisted that she maintain the flames further away from her body to avoid harming herself in the future. Still, with as many flames as she was currently controlling, and within the confined space, it had lowered the temperature drastically.

Acknowledging her limits, as that was something her father had taught her long ago, she snuffed out all of the flames at one time with a simple jerk of her thumb. Almost immediately, the temperature spiked, and her cold hands and ears thawed under the heat emitting from Kenshin's frame.

"Woo-hoo!"

The happy shout reverberated inside the chamber as her hands jerked straight up into the air in triumph, and she laughed when Kenshin jumped in surprise. Skipping her way over to him, she flung her arms around his neck happily.

"What do ya think, Teach? Was that enough for a passing grade?"

Chuckling and rubbing her back to generate extra heat for her cold frame, Kenshin sighed dramatically.

"I'd say that was more than enough. You're certainly not one for the status quo, are you?"

Kaoru grinned impishly.

"Nope."

Holding her by the shoulders when she stepped back, Kenshin glanced over his shoulder at the cameras on the far wall. Behind that wall, was the main room where Megumi and the others watched. Raising his voice appropriately, Kenshin made sure the mics picked up his every word clearly.

"Are you satisfied, Megumi-san?"

Their answer came from the heavy grind of metal. The small door leading into Kaoru's cell slid behind the wall, and from the other side, the larger door separating them from the main room swung audibly open on its hinges. The speakers crackled, and Megumi's voice invited them outside.

"Well, get out here. I'm sick of watching you two flirt."

A small flutter of nervousness trembled Kaoru's insides as she followed Kenshin through the large open door. As with him, it felt like she knew everyone, and, simultaneously, like it was her first time meeting them. They knew her as the amnesiac and mute Kaoru, but while she wasn't a different person, per se, she felt different. She felt more aware, more perceptive, and a just bit more isolated.

The demonstration had been planned, and as a result, everyone was there, with the exception of Genzai. In his place, Sōzō had been sent over, and he stood in the back of the room watching as Tomoe and Enishi crowded close to the door to greet her. Half-shy but flashing a grin, Kaoru waved a hand at everyone even as she chewed her lip.

"H-hey."

Enishi smirked.

"Hey back."

Without any fanfare, Tomoe stepped forward to hug her tight into her chest.

"Hello, sweet girl. How are you feeling? Cold? Hot? Are you hungry? What about your hands and feet? Have they healed alright?"

Hugging her happily back, Kaoru smiled so hard her face hurt. Tomoe had a gentle, calming smell, and a warm heart. Sometimes she missed climbing into her futon at night to sleep.

"I'm fine… Can I call you Onee-san?" The question blurted out before she lost her nerve, but there was no need to be anxious. Gentle fingers petted the back of her head, and Tomoe's soothing voice was serious and affectionate.

"You most certainly may."

"Yay!" Kaoru giggled, and hugged the woman tighter.

"I knew you were trying to steal my big sis." Enishi's input was meant to be taunting, but when Tomoe turned slightly to smile at him, Kaoru grinned impishly from her comfortable position near her shoulder.

"Come on, Nishi-nii. We can share."

The mock glare on his features dropped in surprise at her 'big brother' reference. Then his cheeks flushed red and he stuttered unintelligibly.

"W-wha…?"

"I like that. It's cute." Tomoe smiled down at Kaoru who nodded her head seriously in turn.

"Kenshin laughed at me, but it's fun and easy to say. I don't see what's wrong with it."

Emerald eyes glanced up to find Kenshin's features brooding and slightly dark. It was clear he wasn't a big fan of Kaoru's way of addressing him, but he was keeping it to himself in order to appease her. An arrogant part of Enishi instantly wanted to use Kaoru's bond with him as a way to provoke the fire demon, even knowing their bond wasn't as strong as her bond with Kenshin was.

Throwing an arm over his sister's shoulders, Enishi joined in on the mischievous grinning, but aimed the expression at Kenshin.

"Guess I got a little sis now, too. Looks like you're going to need to ask permission next time you take her anywhere."

Red eyebrows disappeared behind his hairline, and Tomoe tilted her head into the side of Kaoru's crown.

"Sorry, Himura-san, but it would only be polite to earn our approval before you date our little sister."

From the back of the room, Sōzō laughed loud and in open hilarity. Akira looked just a bit nervous, since he had not previously asked Enishi's permission before taking Tomoe out.

"How did this turn on me?" Resigned and becoming used to the teasing, Kenshin merely sighed, but hid a grin when Kaoru piped up in his defense.

"Don't worry, Onee-san. He's a good one."

"Oh, I know, sweet girl, but we have to make sure he stays that way. Besides, he's monopolized for the past two months. He needs to learn to share."

"Agreed." The deep cavernous voice of the stone golem chimed in over Tomoe's shoulder, and Enishi's hand came down on Kaoru's head to ruffle her hair. "So, what do you want to do first now that you're out of there?"

Kaoru opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Megumi waiting by a large table. Though she had decided to tolerate their reunion for the sake of her own mental health, her patience had worn thin.

"Before that." Everyone turned to look at her, and she tapped a finger in front of a chair across from her. "I need her to answer some questions."

"Does it have to be so immediate, Megumi-sensei?"

"Yes." There was no room for argument in her voice. "She's had more than enough time to get all her memories straight." Leaning forward, Megumi braced her hands on the tabletop and scowled at the lot of them. "In case you've forgotten, some little shit brought her back from the dead, and I doubt it was to keep her as a pet. More than likely, he's brought others back as well. Whatever he's got planned, historically, necromancers have caused the world massive damage. The only reason I haven't involved the government yet is because we can't be sure how they will react to Kaoru being human. After all, we already know one government official who tried to have her killed. Since she's an invaluable resource, keeping her alive is for the best."

"Megumi-sensei…" There was disapproval in Tomoe's voice, but the vixen straightened to cross her arms.

"I'm not running a daycare here, Tomoe-san. You've become very comfortable with this situation, but forget that I'm not doing this because I like that girl. I'm doing this because it's interesting and I don't like my world fucked up. Are we clear?"

"I-it's okay." Kaoru pulled away from Tomoe and smiled, though it was shaky. "I want to try to help as much as I can, but… I don't know how much that will actually be."

"At least she has some sense." Megumi seated herself at the same time that Kaoru did, and they blinked at one another before Kaoru tried to smile.

"I don't really like you." The statement was matter-of-fact, and Sōzō, still seated near the door, snickered again. Kenshin had enough self-control to hide his amusement as he settled himself next to Kaoru. Cinnamon irises briefly tossed Sōzō a droll glare as she shifted in her seat, but her features were unfazed by Kaoru's confession. "But… I don't really hate you either, I suppose."

"I suppose I feel the same about you."

"Okay." A small nod accepted her response. "Sōjirō never spoke of his plans in front of me. The only time I saw him was when he forced me to use… my blue flames. I actually spent… more time with Gein."

X

A/N: I was very, very happy with Akira in this chapter. I've been wanting to showcase a bit of his strength, and how such strengths can oftentimes be overshadowed or overlooked because of a person's demeanor. In lore, a daitengu is the most powerful tengu, or crow yokai/demon. Which means, he had to work his ass off to earn that title, spurred on by a childhood trauma that left him feeling powerless and incapable. I also kind of hinted that he's never actually used the title before, until Tomoe was in danger, that is. I enjoy these types of characters. In a way he's like Kenshin, in that they are both strong and humble, but their personalities reflect their humbleness in different ways. Kenshin can be social and handle interactions with others well, but Akira isn't used to or comfortable with socializing (in my story). I think he's just the cutest like this.

I wanted to get through the entire conversation with Megumi in this chapter, but alas, it was starting to get really long and involved. I also realized that I need to put some more time into it since it is an important conversation. Therefore, I did not get to Tsubame as promised, but she will be in the next chapter. Kaoru will reveal what her time spent with Sōjirō was like, an unexpected bit of information will be shared with her from an unexpected source, and perhaps we might check in on Yahiko. Thanks so much for all the sweet words of encouragement and congratulations last week. This many chapters in one year makes me happy, because that means I got to share even more of my story than excepted with everyone. Sending all the love and positive vibes as we work towards Spring! See you next week!