Chapter One Hundred Fourteen

That last step off the train had been jarring for Kaoru. Instead of landing on the concrete behind Kenshin, she had stumbled and fallen into a world of total darkness. The disorientation of being surrounded by nothing but empty space rolled her stomach with nausea, and she would have thought herself blind if not for being able to see her own hands and body. She was kneeling, but there was nothing underneath her to kneel on. She was upright, but there was nothing to orient her to up and down. She was breathing, but she had no perception of time. Only one thing truly stood out to her: it was cold. Cold like Death.

Climbing slowly to her feet, the movement of her limbs hesitant and searching to confirm there was indeed something solid for her to stand upon, she stood starting into the abyss for several deep breaths. Abruptly, the chill washed over her from behind, and she twisted with a sharp inhale through her nose. Spread out like a sea of flickering, blue flame, thousands of onibi hovered in the dark, their weak light incapable of casting reflections upon the nothingness around them. They had gathered in a half-moon, like a pack awaiting direction from their alpha. Their cold forms froze the air, but it was their poisoned, negative emotions that made her shiver. A multitude of buzzing whispers hummed along her eardrums and vibrated in her chest, and they were soaked in hatred, disgust, and hostility. Such emotions frightened her. She did not want to give into that desire. She did not want to be like them.

"Stop it!" Covering her ears with her hands to block out their silent screams of toxicity, Kaoru hunched inward as if to make herself smaller. "I don't feel the same as you! I don't want to hate or wish others to die. Please! I don't want to be an onibi!"

Dead silence cut short the murmuring of voices, and the vacuum of nothingness once more unbalanced her soul. Glancing up, she was almost surprised to find the onibi still there.

"You are not one of us." The statement was matter-of-fact.

"You have never been one of us." But also confused by her claim.

"We knew the moment we found you."

"You are not onibi."

"You are… something else."

One at a time, but in quick succession, they communicated with her, separately, but nearly as one. Standing straight, Kaoru stuttered. "I-I'm just a human."

"No."

"Not human."

"None of us are human anymore."

"We all stopped being human when we died."

"But…" Kaoru inhaled shakily, and her features creased inward with sorrowful compassion. "That doesn't mean you're not human anymore. Being human isn't just a physical state of being. Having humanity is much deeper than that."

A long pause absorbed her words into the ether, and then a musical hum spread outward among the onibi.

"You are so warm."

"Such a bright light."

"So warm."

"So safe."

"We had forgotten the warmth."

"You are not like us."

"You are different."

"Different?" Hugging herself against the chill air, Kaoru shook her head sadly. "H-how am I different? I still… I still feel those ugly desires."

As she studied the group of onibi, she found that they would brighten when speaking. Their tendency to speak fast on the heels of each other made the halfmoon of blue flames twinkle like distant stars.

"But you chose not to follow them."

"You chose to be different."

"Warm."

"You chose not to harm."

"Safe."

"You could have been like us."

"But you chose not to be."

Trying to follow their cadence, Kaoru's chin jerked back and forth as there appeared to be no rhyme or reason in their order of speaking.

"You chose to save."

"You are comfortable and safe."

"That is why we were drawn to you."

"You can be trusted."

"To guide us where we need to go."

"Your soul is soothing to those like us."

"You are warm."

"Full of love."

"Even for those that you could hate."

"You have eased our resentment for the living."

"Without it, we were able to come to a decision."

"We are tired of being stagnant."

"We wish to follow where you lead."

"Wait. Slow down." Now holding up her hands, Kaoru's trembling became less for the cold, and more for her own fear. "You want me to lead you? Where? How?"

"On."

"We wish to move on."

"To Death."

"I… I can't do that. My onibi flame wouldn't work on other onibi." The voices whispered all at one time again, and their tone was full of agitation.

"She doesn't know."

"How would she know?"

"How would she not?"

"Know what?! What don't I know?!"

"You have gained power."

"Immense power."

"Power enough to change."

"You mean, through my marriage seal with Kenshin?" One hand covered her chest. "I know that. But it's… too much. It's overwhelming. I don't know what to do with it, and I'm so afraid of what it's doing to me."

"Only you can choose what it does."

"Power unlocks potential."

"You are not onibi."

"You have gone down a different path."

"Power unlocks potential."

"You are not onibi."

"You are not like us." Their words began to repeat as their voices rose into a crescendo, each sentence growing faster and faster.

"You are a guide."

"You are a comfort."

"Power unlocks potential."

"You are not onibi."

"You are safe."

"You do not take life."

"Not onibi."

Frightened and overwhelmed, by the foreign power flooding her body, the unkind desires still plaguing her mind, and the cacophony of voices bombarding her from all sides, Kaoru once more pressed her palms flat over her ears, and knelt to flatten her face into the nonexistent floor.

"You provide guidance."

"That power is neutral."

"You must choose."

"Use it."

"Harness it."

"Be like us."

"Or be like you."

"Power unlocks potential."

"Don't be afraid, Kaoru. I'm right here."

The reassuring voice was softer, but it overpowered the others with ease. It was filled with a warm promise that banished the cold from her body. Kenshin had whispered those words to her just before they had departed the train. His hand, so strong and stable, had steadied her as they stood, and his eyes, so worried and attentive, had studied her drawn face.

"I'm right here."

Light speared through the darkness, chasing away the shadows like the sun rising over the horizon. Blinking at her knees, Kaoru instantly strained her neck up to find the source of the light. Violet flames flickered a comforting heat from somewhere behind the halfmoon of onibi, and when she stood, she could see the roaring sphere that was Kenshin's core.

"Don't be afraid."

It was several long moments later before she realized the onibi had fallen silent. Swallowing, Kaoru licked her dry lips, and found that the permanent connection she now had with Kenshin had steadied her.

"What else… could I be with this power?"

"There is only one."

"It is what you truly are."

"Death touched you."

"Not onibi."

"You touched Death."

"He is in your eyes."

"You are his."

"You are his reaper."

"The guide that leads lost souls to Death."

X

The rooftop door to the building Sōjirō had decided to temporarily use as an outpost slammed abruptly open, but the action did not startle the shadow demon as he calmly turned his closed-eyed, empty smile in that direction. Nearby at one of the roof ledges, Tomoe jumped, but she only spared a brief glance in the direction of their visitor when she realized that it was one of the Kaoru dolls. Her glance turned into an angry jerk of her body when the doll spoke, however.

"I brought her, like you asked." Bowing theatrically, the Kaoru doll quickly opened her umbrella. "Oh, and she had this on her." Throwing a wooden sword onto the ground between them, the Kaoru doll walked nonchalantly over to the nearest ledge. A twisted grin was thrown at Tomoe. "Time for some more fun." The doll stepped off the ledge into nothing, but never hit the ground.

Standing where she had left her near the door, was the real Kaoru. Her head was bowed, leaving her eyes covered by her bangs, and her arms hung loosely at her sides like a toy waiting to be wound. Next to one ear, there was a streak of white hair.

Clasping her hands tightly together, Tomoe cast a small frown at Takibi next to her. The dragon doll had immediately detained her from moving, but so far his eyes had remained fixed on nothing and were not aimed in a direction to actually see Kaoru. Sōjirō's fake smile looked genuinely pleased as he stepped closer to Kaoru's unresponsive form.

"Do you see now, Kaoru-chan, how little will you truly have? You are mine, and you will do whatever I tell you to do. Isn't that right?" Forming a complicated hand-sign, Sōjirō waited for the short delay while the runes in her body received his commands. There was a twitch in Kaoru's muscles, and her neck bent to one side. The smile on Sōjirō's face fell.

"What's this? Are you still trying to fight me?" Circling her, Sōjirō studied her body carefully. "That's not right. I could feel something was off when I took control. Did that fire demon do something to you, Kaoru-chan? Did he think he could override my ownership of you?" Stopped at her front, he formed a different hand sign with a less complicated command. Smoothly, Kaoru's hands shed the coat that she was wearing before grasping the hem of her sweater and lifting it over her head.

"Stop that!" Jerking against Takibi's tightly coiled fingers, Tomoe protested Sōjirō's strip search.

With her top now bare, with the exception of her bra, the marriage seal between her breasts was clear and proudly displayed.

"And what is that?" Sōjirō, however, had never seen a marriage seal. Such a bond was foreign to him, and as he had never been educated or seen the need to study them, he reacted to the seal in ignorance. "A surface seal will never win against my internal runes. What a silly attempt at freeing a captured soul. The fire demon must be a novice when it comes to sealing. Otherwise, he would have known that surface seals are the easiest to remove."

"You shouldn't do that." Tomoe's attempt to caution him was less a warning and more a formality. A small smile even twitched her mouth when the shadow demon ignored her.

One of Sōjirō's hands flattened over the dark seal imprinted into Kaoru's skin, and the world around him instantly flickered like a mirage with intense heat. Thick, nearly solid lava plopped onto his right shoulder to dribble down his chest, but before he could even register pain, his closed-eyes snapped open to find his vision filled with rows of lava-coated teeth. Above him, was the inside of a very large, red gullet.

Half a second later, Takibi had torn him from the vision by the cuff of his shirt and tossed him backwards onto the rooftop. The dragon doll stood between them as a shield, but seemed to be more aware than Sōjirō of what not to do when confronting a marriage seal. Shaking his right arm violently, like a child trying to be free, it took Sōjirō much longer than a few seconds to realize that there was no lava clinging to his body, as he had believed. There was also no beast positioned over-the-top of Kaoru's still standing form ready to eat him alive. The only thing that remained a reality, was the burns decorating the right side of his body.

Covered in sweat, Sōjirō oddly felt a chill wash over him, the fine sheen of liquid freezing along his skin in forewarning of something else. The control he had over Kaoru had been briefly weakened by the fire demon's seal activating. Slowly, her head was lifting, and the time around them warped outward. Dark lashes swept upwards, their path directing her pupils straight upon him. There was something strange about her eyes. Though still glazed with unconsciousness, there was something different. Irises of blue fire glowed within a globe of jet black, and Sōjirō was caught off guard by the terror that squeezed in his chest.

"No!" Hastily forming multiple hand signs to regain control, Sōjirō shouted frantically. "Cover your eyes! Cover them now!"

Compliantly, Kaoru's hands lifted to press the heels of her palms into both eye sockets, and the warped bubble of time around them snapped harshly back into place. Breathing heavily, Sōjirō gained his feet, the sweat still clinging to his forehead frosted along his temples. Pointing at Tomoe, he ordered her to obey him with fear still in his voice.

"You. Blind-fold her."

Quiet and observant, Tomoe had watched the spectacle with calm interest. Saying nothing, she unwrapped the scarf from around her neck, and walked over to Kaoru slowly. Making certain to keep her actions unthreatening and gentle, she tied the scarf over Kaoru's eyes, then bent to pick up her sweater. While Tomoe helped her dress, Sōjirō scrounged through Kaoru's coat and came up with her phone. Only then did the smile come back to his blank features.

"I think I'll have you hold onto this." The phone was handed off to Takibi, who accepted the device without hesitation and tucked it into a pocket. His vacant, vermillion eyes continued to stare off into the distance. "I doubt they'll use it to track her, but we should still plan for the possibility."

Tomoe retrieved the coat from Sōjirō, and watched from out of the corner of her eye as the shaken shadow stared Kaoru down from a safer distance.

"It appears your eyes are too dangerous a power to use." Contemplative, he ruminated his thoughts under his breath. "I do so love your onibi flames, but they're not quite the power I need at the moment. Which leaves me with your voice. I've never really liked your singing. It isn't a reliable power, but I've seen how it does have its uses. Are you ready to sing for me, my little parrot? Afterwards, you should say hello to the Emperor. I really think Himura-san would like that."

X

Genzai waited patiently for Megumi's attention to return. Her cinnamon-tinged irises were currently unfocused, her six fox tails twitching at her back sporadically, and she had gone quiet in the middle of their preparations. By the door, Sōzō stood guard, his one good eye fixed upon the vixen as he too waited. Such an occurrence did not happen often, but they both recognized what her actions meant. She had already explained Tomoe's situation, and the fox fire she had leant the coal demon for surveillance and safety. Sōzō had hated the plan at first. Admittedly, he still hated the plan as it placed Tomoe in too much danger. However, he understood that the information they were obtaining from her infiltration had been invaluable.

A soft inhale marked the end of Megumi's trance, and by the frown on her face, they knew what she had to say was not good.

"He's got Kaoru, and he plans to start a war between Ken-sama and the Emperor."

"Anything else?"

"Plenty." Her frown turned to a scowl. "But I'm most disturbed by Tomoe's failure to inform me that Ken-sama decided to wife that little girl up."

Instead of joy, Genzai and Sōzō both looked grim and sorrowful. The tenko bowed his head with a regretful sigh.

"I would love to congratulate them, but their marriage will make it very difficult if we have to activate the dome."

Caressing a hand across her own marriage seal, Megumi tightened her jaw and then kicked a trashcan across the room in a fit of frustration.

"Fuck!" Flopping into a nearby chair, she leaned her chin into one clawed hand and stared angrily at the screen in front of her. They had spent hours already contemplating different ways to stall for more time, but there was nothing reliable enough to bet the entire world on. Feeling like a failure, the heat died slowly from her eyes, and her voice was flat when she lowered her hand to the keyboard. "Finish the preparations. When the time comes… I'll be the one to activate it. He already hates me. He doesn't need to hate you two."