Chapter Sixty-Eight
The large, tinted bubble that surrounded him no longer swirled in hues of red, orange, and gold. In fact, to Kenshin, it didn't look like a bubble at all any more. Instead, while it was still translucent, it appeared harder, textured, and nearly blood red. The interior air felt thicker than before, as well, or more intense. The hot atmosphere was charged with power, and Kenshin felt it down to the tips of his hair. His core was no longer a place of simple comfort, but one that was teeming with life and strength.
At the center of his core, the Kagu-tsuchi remained, but it, too, seemed to have awakened. Staring from a distance, Kenshin watched the sword glow and pulse in a slow, rhythmic ebb and flow, as if it were yawning after a long, deep nap. The golden wrapping around its hilt darkened and lightened as it spun minutely in place, and the perfect sheen of the metal reflected strange images onto the inner walls of his core. In a strange twist, however, the flames that had at one time poured forth from the sword like an active volcano now barely trickled from the guard at the base of the blade.
One thing that had not changed was the loud and persistent snoring coming from high above him. Feeling almost rueful towards the sound, though the noise was highly obnoxious, Kenshin's violet eyes glanced upwards to confirm that the large, colorful bird was indeed still there. It slept away, like it had not a care in the world, and its beak was open wide enough that he could see straight through its mouth. As he stared up at the wings spread and draped over the top of the sphere, and then absently followed the line of the large bird's stomach down the curve of his core, a surreal observation made Kenshin frown. With the texture of the bubble now hard and rough instead of smooth, it looked for all the world like the bird was sitting on top of a gigantic egg.
An egg that had been cracked before it was ready to hatch.
Comfortable now in this strange, recurrent dream, Kenshin wandered over closer to the walls of his enclosed space until he was standing directly next to the portion of his core that was shattered in the shape of an X. Throwing a cursory glance at the old and still unhealed wound, Kenshin ignored it to instead look straight down through the floor. Still hanging freely into nothingness, the bird's legs dangled off the edge. They were a familiar sight now, but what swayed softly behind them was new. Somehow, Kenshin had missed the bird's impressive tailfeathers. They stretched into oblivion, and unlike the rest of the bird's bright and multi-colored body, the tailfeathers were dark. Almost black. With the faintest hint of deep green.
Red lashes spread wide as his stomach lurched, and he jerked his head back towards the ceiling.
"Hey!"
Marching closer to the center of his core, Kenshin lifted his voice to an angry, but slightly disturbed, yell.
"Wake up! HEY!"
"DO NOT WAKE HIM."
Kenshin's chin dropped as the deep, reverberating voice rattled him to the very center of his being. Looking around for the dragon that had at one time encircled both the sphere and the bird, Kenshin only just realized that it was gone. The space surrounding the bird was empty.
"IT IS KINDER TO LET HIM SLEEP."
It was a powerful voice, but it was not frightening. It had a calming effect, like the tone of someone trusted and safe.
If it was not the dragon speaking, then who? Turning in a full circle, Kenshin sought the source, and became increasingly agitated when he failed to locate it.
"Where are you?" Stopping to instead look only with his eyes, Kenshin's voice lowered. "Who are you?"
"I AM WHERE I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN."
Now the voice lifted assertively to claim its own existence, and intense violet eyes relaxed as he settled them finally upon the length of the Kagu-tsuchi.
"I AM WHO I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN."
Because his brain could not fathom what was happening, it took him too long to respond.
"You're… speaking to me." Kenshin had known that the sword had a will of its own, but it was neutral and had seemed, for the most part, indifferent towards the world and its vessel. His father had never mentioned it conversing with him, or with anyone for that matter. Before that moment, Kenshin had never considered it capable of speech.
"DO NOT WAKE HIM." The words echoed within the space again as the Kagu-tsuchi ignored his incredulity, but this time the voice went on to elaborate. "HE IS NOT A VESSEL, AND THEREFORE CANNOT CONTAIN MY POWER. IT IS SHERE STUBBORNNESS AND THE UNIQUE PROPERTIES OF HIS BODY THAT ALLOW HIM TO WITHSTAND OUR COMBINED FLAME."
Frowning, Kenshin looked away to intently study the wound in his core and where the bird's stomach covered the crossed section like a make-shift band-aid. Upon closer inspection, the smaller feathers along the bird's stomach burned and bleed and crumbled to ash. Moments later, his flesh and feathers reformed to start the cycle over and over and over again. The pain should have been unbearable. Lifting his chin straight up, Kenshin stared in horror at what he had assumed was a beast enjoying peaceful, uninterrupted sleep.
How can it sleep at all?!
"BUT HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO SO FOREVER. YOUR STRENGTH IS GROWING, AND YOU ARE NOW CAPABLE OF SUPRESSING MOST OF MY PRESENCE. BUT YOUR GROWTH IS STUNTED. YOU MUST MEND THE WOUND. FREE HIM AND YOURSELF."
Stepping closer to the Kagu-tsuchi, Kenshin could feel a frantic sensation crawl up from his gut. Something important was just within reach.
"Free myself from what? How?"
"FIND WHAT IS LOST."
The voice became muffled, as if the blade was falling back into a deep slumber, or Kenshin was waking up. Kenshin's frown deepened in confusion.
"What did I lose?"
"DO NOT FEAR. IT IS SAFE."
The Kagu-tsuchi's voice was distant now, and the reassurance whispered to him softly. Staring down into the polished surface of the blade, Kenshin froze at the sight of his reflection. In shock, he gaped at the massive horns sprouting from his hair, the blood-red scales covering him in patches, and the deep, pearlescent of his violet irises that were split clean in two by slitted pupils. The dragon no longer resided outside of the sphere, because it was now inside, waiting to fully form.
X
"I don't know what to tell you, Ken-sama. There's just nothing there." Megumi stared up at the scattered imaging on the screens, and her voice was slightly dismissive and bored. They were currently inside the main room of Kaoru's host lab, and most of the testing had finished before Kenshin had arrived.
"Did you double-check? I definitely felt something." Impatient, and irritated since he knew something had caused Kaoru's fit the day prior, Kenshin's voice was challenging. The fox, however, merely gave him a droll look, and she crossed her arms at the same time that she cocked her hip.
"Who do you think you're talking to? We checked every way possible, three times each." Three fingers were held up in emphasis. "You said the episode was serious, so I took it seriously. Physically, her body is perfectly healthy. Whatever was affecting her is either gone or dormant. Didn't you say that you suppressed the fire you felt? Maybe you got rid of it." She shrugged, and he frowned.
Did I? The solution sounded much too easy. Even if I did, that doesn't explain where it came from.
"Are you sure it wasn't just heartburn and the little thing overreacted?"
Violet eyes narrowed, because he couldn't tell if she was teasing or being flippant. Either was annoying.
"She had smoke coming out of her mouth."
One dark eyebrow lifted over the vixen's cinnamon-colored irises, and the expression was designed to make him feel foolish.
"You are a fire demon, Ken-sama. Did you maybe kiss her a little too hard?"
Kenshin's jaw clenched, and his features darkened at the easy way it appeared Megumi was failing to take him seriously.
"I know what I saw."
"And I know what I don't see." Finally, her voice dropped, and her foot began to tap in agitation. "I also can't do anything about something that I can't find."
Kenshin hated that she was right. He also hated that Kaoru had been right the day before about them finding nothing, because it meant there was nothing they could do.
"Look, we'll keep an extra close eye on her, but you're more than likely going to be the one who notices anything is wrong. You're closer to her than the rest of us, and she's more open with you. It may not be something that's visible until she's symptomatic. If she starts exhibiting signs again, then call me immediately. Don't wait nearly twelve hours to tell me like you did with this last episode."
Because he didn't want to argue why he had waited, Kenshin ignored her accusation. Being between two women, no matter the situation, was not fun.
"So, what? Hope for the best, but expect the worst? Is that what you're telling me to do?"
"Now you're getting it." She patted his shoulder in such a condescending motion of placation, that he closed his eyes and huffed out a sigh.
"If we're done discussing your little pet, I have something more important I wanted to talk to you about. Namely, your little episode that you had yesterday." Her fox eyes slanted a sly look at him. "I barely received the notification before a very concerned phone call came through my direct line. Would you like to guess from who?" Kenshin remained silent, and Megumi grinned around point canines. "Prime Minister Aritomo Yamagata. He wanted to know if there was any reason why he shouldn't marshal the military. Apparently, some dangerous pillar of fire briefly threatened one of the quieter districts yesterday morning, and he needed my advice on how to handle it."
"And?" Being locked up was not going to be very helpful.
Idiot. Think before you act.
"I told him you were more than likely entertaining some child with your pyrotechnics and there was nothing to worry about. He agreed to leave you alone, but mentioned that there was some minor structural damage to a playground. You'll be receiving a fine in the mail, I imagine."
A long, suppressed exhale released his fight or flight response.
"That's fine."
Kenshin turned to walk away, but paused when her hand touched his arm.
"Ken-sama." The way her voice lowered hinted at something serious. "He let you off easy this time, but don't take that for granted. It was most likely unintentional on his part, but he mentioned that he didn't have time to deal with you because he's been dealing with an assassin."
His expression darkened.
"Sōjirō?"
The vixen nodded at his terse input.
"Do you remember what Sōzō said about Ōkubo? I looked into it, and there have been at least ten other assassinations since him. I suspected that Sōjirō was behind Ōkubo's death. If he's killing others, as well, we can assume he's putting his plans into action. I'm sure I don't need to say this, but you need to be vigilant. Kaoru's body is not her own. It's just a doll, and he holds the strings. If she acts… odd in any way, don't dismiss it. For our safety, and hers."
"…I know."
Behind them at one of the desks, Tomoe stood, and the light way she cleared her throat was nervous and out-of-character. She had remained silent throughout the course of the conversation. Which was also strange.
"A-are we sure… that we can't locate any information on him? Nothing at all that might be helpful in capturing him?"
Megumi half-turned to include the coal demon in their conversation, and her tapping foot became louder.
"There's nothing. It's like the little shit doesn't even exist. It's normal for plenty of demons to live off the radar, but we should have been able to find something: a photo; security footage; property documents. But there's nothing. I don't know how that arrogant ass is doing it, but he's erased every trace of his existence with the exception of the footage we have of him inside this lab last year. Even that spider, Gein, disappeared two hundred years ago."
"W-what about… tracking him after he left the lab? Was there no way to figure out where he went?"
"We went over this already." One clawed hand reached up to rub Megumi's forehead. "No. He disappeared after leaving this room, like he melted into the shadows."
Tomoe seemed to deflate, but Kenshin tilted his head thoughtfully.
"What about Kaoru?"
Both sets of eyes turned on him.
"Kaoru walked from wherever she escaped from. There has to be some footage of her, right?"
Coal black eyes seemed startled at the suggestion, but Megumi lit up.
"That's brilliant, Ken-sama. Why the hell didn't I think of that?" Strong hands gripped him unexpectedly by the skull, and he strained in vain to escape the kiss she smacked on his cheek. When she pushed him away, he burned the smear of lipstick off with an expression of horror. "I believe we have a little techie on staff that's about to be twiddling his thumbs now that his work is done, too. Sifting through hours of CCTV footage should keep him busy."
"O-oh." Tomoe folded her shaky hands in front of her, and she looked down at the floor. "We shouldn't keep Akira-kun here any longer. He has a job to get back to with Genzai-sensei."
"I was told to keep him as long as I want." Off-handedly, Megumi dismissed Tomoe's concern, and missed the upset curl of her brow.
"I don't mind." Akira's input caused Tomoe to jump, and she gasped as she turned toward the entrance door where the daitengu stood. He smiled softly at her, but her features dipped sadly in response. From behind him, the salamander pranced in happily and slipped straight into the rec room without pause or fanfare.
Ignorant of the lack of warmth in their interaction, violet eyes followed instead the progress of his hair charm.
"How's his flying lessons going?"
The stormy dark eyes of the crow demon shot up to Kenshin, but the previously subdued delight in his gaze had diminished completely in the wake of Tomoe's less than accepting reception.
"He's doing great. He still has some troubles landing, but he'll get it eventually."
"Thank you, for helping him." Kenshin's deep bow flustered the shy daitengu, and he laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. His hand gripped the mask pushed up on the crown of his skull, but he barely refrained from covering his face to hide.
"I'm not doing anything a friend wouldn't." His tight smile dropped along with his hand, and he waved his fingers fast enough they blurred. "I-I mean… not that I'm assuming we're friends, o-or that I'm friends with Kamiya-san… I just don't think I've done that much and…"
One red brow lifted at the ruffled man. "It's not the worst assumption, or completely untrue."
Akira's shoulders lifted, and even Tomoe smiled softly with closed eyes. Though her features were slightly pained.
Excusing himself, Kenshin followed the salamander into the rec room, but stopped for a moment to study Kaoru's back. She was still seated at her desk, a place she had been since his arrival. Upon waking that morning, he had sent her a message asking for a small favor. One that she had jumped on immediately, it seemed. Though he had been there for nearly an hour, they had not yet greeted one another. Inhaling deeply, he quietly approached to attempt a peek at the sketch she was putting together. The salamander was already curled up and resting in her lap.
The drawing was still crude, but he was surprised by how much it already resembled the bird in his dreams. He was hoping a physical sketch would help him identify what type of creature it actually was. Leaning in a little too close, he smiled when she jumped and turned. When their eyes connected, though, her face turned a brilliant shade of red. At first, her reaction confused him, but then the words of promise he had spoken to her the night before rattled through his brain. Clearing his throat, he quickly straightened to put distance back between them. A greedy voice in his head intrusively claimed that 'next time' was practically 'anytime' now.
"T-the tailfeathers were longer."
Air gasped into her lungs, and she dropped her eyes back to her sketch book.
"Longer than this?" Disbelief filled her voice, but it squeaked just slightly with nervousness. Her shaky fingers gripped her pencil hard, and she gently stroked the paper to extend the tailfeathers appropriately. "A-and you said… the feathers were red, gold, blue, and green?"
"The wings and the back, yes. The breast and stomach were a deep red. The tailfeathers were dark, almost black."
White teeth openly bit down on her bottom lip, and Kenshin recognized the action as one she used to contain her excitement. Suspicious and surprised, he touched a finger to the corner of the paper.
"Do you… know what kind of bird this is?"
Sapphire eyes glanced back up at him, and she looked confused by his question.
"You don't?" When he shook his head, her eyes widened slightly, and then she frowned. "I… I guess maybe I don't either. I just thought it looked like…" She trailed off, and he reached forward to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
"Like what?"
She shrugged. "…Like a phoenix." Kenshin's brow-line lifted with such a look of incredulity that she laughed. "I mean, it's not like I've ever seen a phoenix. I've just seen pictures in books, and this looks similar. Of course, those were human books, so they're probably totally wrong. I'd like to know what a real phoenix looks like, though. They'd be pretty similar to fire demons, right? Strength and power wise? Since they're basically supposed to be a fire bird."
A slight frown had won Kenshin's expression, and he picked up the sketch book to bring the drawing closer. His confession was offhand.
"I don't know what a phoenix looks like. Even to demons, they're more myth than reality."
"Really?" Kaoru was nearly more surprised by the fact that even demons had myths.
"He's right." The five-tailed fox stood in the doorway, and her crossed-arms seemed to reinforce her impatient scowl. She wasn't really one for fantastical things. "No one's ever seen a phoenix. More than likely, they're not real."
"Wait…" Kaoru turned slightly in her chair to half-face Megumi. "Dragons are real, but a phoenix isn't?"
"I-I wouldn't say that." The surprising contradiction came from Akira as he entered the room. A slight bow was given Megumi as he slipped past. "There are plenty of stories, and stories come from somewhere. May I see?" He held his hand out for the sketchpad, and Kenshin handed it over. While the daitengu studied the crude sketch, Megumi sniffed derisively.
"I'll believe it when I've seen proof. It sounds much too convenient for any creature to be able to die, burn to ashes, and then be reborn from them."
"It doesn't sound very convenient to me." Kenshin's half-joking response was met with a scowl. Trying to break the sudden tension, Akira nervously pointed at the drawing.
"Did you draw this from memory, Kamiya-san? It looks a lot like some of the mainland concept pictures I've seen of the phoenix."
"Oh, no. Kenshin asked me to draw it. I just used what details he gave me."
"You've seen a phoenix!"
Stepping back at the sudden enthusiasm in Akira's voice and on his face, Kenshin made the split-second decision not to tell anyone the bird was from some recurring dream he was having. Explaining that seemed more embarrassing than lying.
"I don't know if it was a phoenix, but I saw… something… bird-like."
Though, to be honest, if it was a phoenix, it made a lot of sense. Of course, that would mean accepting and believing that the phoenix was a real creature. What else would be strong enough to heal from the Kagu-tsuchi's power, though? That, however, birthed a plethora of other questions he had no answers to. The least of which was, how did a mythical phoenix end up wrapped around his core?
Honestly, the tailfeathers had originally given him a false sense of hope that the bird was something else. Someone he knew. More specifically, a rooster he knew. The long shot seemed even more ridiculous now. Even though he knew the idea couldn't have been true, his shoulders still sagged in disappointment.
While caught in his thoughts, Kaoru and Akira began chatting about random details they both had read about the phoenix. Across the room, Megumi rolled her eyes and was about the leave when Kaoru said something staggering.
"Oh, and sometimes the phoenix is referred to as an 'Autumn Rooster'. Isn't that neat?"
Feeling very much like he had been kicked in the gut, Kenshin doubled over to flatten both hands on the desk. His eyes were as wide as they would go.
"W-what?" Kenshin's interjection brought Kaoru's smiling features over to him, and she adjusted her posture with a happy wiggle. His expression was mistaken as one of interest and she eagerly continued.
"I've also heard that there's a breed of chicken called the 'phoenix', and the roosters have these really long, dark tailfeathers, just like this." Her hand pointed at the sketch, and Akira nodded along as if he had already known and agreed. He expanded with more information.
"They were bred by humans to look that way, but the name was given to them because of how similar they appeared to the mythical phoenix. They're quite beautiful."
Could Sano really be…
"The stories I read made it sound like there's only one, so I guess it would be pretty hard to believe the phoenix is real. Unless you met him. If he can hide his true form, a lot of people might not even know they've met him." A slightly sad slump dropped Kaoru's shoulders a few degrees, and her animated speculation turned sympathetic. "If he can't die, and just keeps being reborn, I wonder how old he is… and if he's lonely."
I hardly know anything about Sano, so speculating doesn't seem right. But then… how was he able to fight so closely with Sōzō and myself during the war? I never questioned it, but others could barely tolerate our presence at the same time. Dry, hot air meant death to most water-based beings, especially when it was sucking the moisture out by force and burning the left-over, withered husks to ash. But he never even complained!
Wandering deeper down the rabbit hole, Kenshin's mind tossed up other questions that reinforced the theory.
How could he withstand my flames long enough to make it to me when I overheated? How is Megumi's marriage seal still present? How does Kaoru feel his presence, even faintly? What does all of this mean? Did he not die? Did I not burn him alive?
Can I still save him?
Violet eyes glanced over at Megumi, now frozen in the doorway, and his brain stalled.
But why would his wife not know if he really is a phoenix?
The longer he studied her, the more he felt how confused she was. Confused, but vulnerably hopeful. Swallowing, because he knew it wasn't right to give her hope for something he couldn't confirm or guarantee, he looked at the other two with a small, sheepish smile.
"I'm sorry… it was just a dream. I didn't actually see this bird."
"Oh." Kaoru was blatantly disappointed, but then she pursed her lips as her optimism took over. "Maybe you had a dream about rebirth. It could be a good omen."
The daitengu launched into lore about dreams and what it meant to have visions about certain creatures and events, and Kaoru easily allowed herself to be side-tracked into the new topic. Out of the corner of his eye, Kenshin watched Megumi frown, drop her arms, and walk out the door. For someone so doubtful, however, she looked unconvinced about his words, and no longer about the existence of the legendary phoenix.
X
A/N: Yay! I've been looking forward to this part. As soon as I read that the phoenix is also sometimes known as the Autumn Rooster, I knew it was just perfect. -happy sigh- I love it when things are perfect. I apologize for not posting last weekend. Unfortunately, I'm going to have warn everyone that I may not be able to post regularly for a short time. (I will try my hardest, but I just wanted everyone to be aware.) We are currently trying to sell our house, and find a new one half-way across the country. Getting a house ready to sell is just exhausting, and majorly time consuming. (Being sick on top of it didn't help. Though it might have been the reason I got sick, tbh.) Finding a new one is stressful as well. I'll be so glad when this is all over with. I've been doing my best to keep up with posting once a week, despite all the cleaning, maintenance (inside and outside), updates, rebuilding the deck, etc., etc. This last week it just got to be too much, and it was almost a relief to give myself some time to just do nothing. That being said, I may have to do that off and on for the next two or three months. (Hopefully just two, but I don't want to be too optimistic here.) I'm not just doing this for my own sanity, either. I don't want to ruin this story I've put so much time and effort into. At a certain chapter, I realized that I really love writing this story, even if it's not extremely popular. I want to keep writing this. I want to keep growing the characters and exploring the plot line. I've loved stories before, but I don't think I've ever been this attached, to the point where I could be the only person in the world who still likes it and I'd still keep going. I really do want this story to reach those who need it, and I would love it for others to enjoy and love this story as well. Since the start, I wanted this story to spread love to those of us struggling to remember how good this world can be. It just didn't initially occur to me that… I needed to feel some of that love, too. Thank you so much for the words of kindness, encouragement, and excitement. I really appreciate the time you take out of your busy day to leave such wonderful reviews, with joyful speculations and warm acceptance. Please allow this story to fill your heart with warmth, and please look upon the things in your life that you love with appreciation. Let what you love, love you back. It's a very peaceful feeling that I hope more people can enjoy.