KOTODAMA

"The soul that resides within words"

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Chapter XXV

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InuYasha was in one of the back rooms in the Kyomu, and was staring at the clothes rack, hanging from the wall. In one of them, there was a dark-gray suit, while on the other, hung a white shirt with a tie; they were all ironed and ready for use, while on the floor, there were two black, unblemished shoes to go with them. InuYasha was observing the set with malevolence.

"You should just wear them, and be done with it," he heard Jakotsu say, by his side, "It's a good suit, and so are the shoes."

InuYasha huffed with a rough sound; not the first he had let out that day.

"I'd add a handkerchief to the jacket's pocket, I've got a few," Jakotsu joked, and pointed to a bordered one, with shiny threads, that he kept on his own jacket's pocket, which was far too tight to be called masculine.

InuYasha took a deep breath, holding back a new growl.

Jakotsu sighed. "Alright, do whatever you want. I have to go back to the main room," he said, turning to leave what was his office in the lower floor, "by the way, Kagura wants to speak to you."

InuYasha took another deep breath, and let it out in a sigh. Nothing would be achieved by keeping his current attitude, he knew, his fingers massaging his temple in an attempt to relieve some of his tension.

"Alright," he replied. It was pretty much the first word he uttered since he had appeared at the Kyomu that afternoon, and that wasn't filled by his annoyance.

"Would you look at that! You know how to talk! I thought you could only growl and huff." Jakotsu, ever so loyal to his own personality, mocked him as it was due.

InuYasha, however, was not in the mood for laughing, so he went straight to the matter at hand.

"Who is working tonight?" He wondered, his tone completely neutral.

Jakotsu made a brief pause, maybe considering his friend's mood.

"Kyokotsu, Mukotsu… Kōga won't be coming today. Bankotsu is at the new place, assisting with preparing it. Kagura and Kanna, like always." Were the details he gave him.

"Renkotsu?" InuYasha's tone remained indifferent.

"At the annex, with Bankotsu."

The place was filled by silence again, and while InuYasha seemed to be staring at the suit, his thoughts were elsewhere.

"I leave you alone with your thoughts. But put on the suit." After those words, he heard Jakotsu leave, closing the door behind him.

InuYasha was annoyed. No, annoyance did not do it justice; he was furious. And the damn suit in front of him only served to remind him further how fucked he was. Naraku was a master at playing his hand, and in comparison, he was but an apprentice. He thought he knew better, enough to slip through the web that man weaved with caution and patience, yet his current situation was proving him how wrong he really was.

"Fuck." He cursed, then took the suit that Naraku had left for him. He had to face ahead with a careful step.

Once he was ready, leaving behind the jacket, the waistcoat with it, and the tie, he headed to Kagura's office. Past the narrow stairs, giving access to the second floor, he found Kanna; the girl was always by Kagura's side, and wore her traditional white vestments as her hands hung, entwined, in front of her.

"She is expecting you," was the phrase the girl voiced, emotionlessly, without a shred of intention or will.

InuYasha nodded, then stepped past the girl who didn't even attempt to move. He didn't know what kind of history there was behind Kanna, nor had he seen her anywhere else but by Kagura's side. Maybe, it was time for him to reconnect with the intricacies of the Kyomu and its people; to cut ties with them would not be easy, and so he knew he'd require as much information as possible.

The door to the office was slightly open, yet InuYasha still knocked on the wooden surface twice, before pushing it. He found Kagura standing, her back to the door and her body resting against her desk. Her hand held a smoking pipe with a cigarette at the end, consumed half-way, as she observed the bustle in the Kyomu through the wide window.

"Kagura." InuYasha called her, calmly. It wasn't a greeting, just the simple exposure of the fact that he was there now.

The woman took a puff of the pipe, then stood straight as she held the smoke in her lungs. She didn't look his way, not until she shook the ashes off on a small porcelain bowl. There, InuYasha saw her release the smoke to one side, in one elegant motion that showed, perfectly, the profile of a young woman who was stepping into maturity. At the end of that whole ritual, she met his eyes.

"You look good in a suit." Was her simple remark.

"Thank you." InuYasha's answer was just as brief.

"Naraku has good taste, I can't deny that," Kagura added, resting the elbow of the arm holding her pipe, on her opposite hand. InuYasha interpreted the gesture as a hostile one, something that didn't surprise him.

"You wanted to see me," he mentioned, putting an end to any preambles.

Kagura remained dramatically silent, a dramatism that only seemed to rise higher, given the vermilion dress she wore, whose only adornment was a golden brooch, in the shape of a fan, on her chest.

"Naraku sent you. Why?" The question sounded calm, which became a stark contrast to the edge in the second one, "Have you come to replace me?"

InuYasha hadn't considered what Kagura could think about his sudden change of jobs inside the Kyomu. The truth was, he had barely thought about what he himself felt about it.

"No."

Was his simple yet decisive answer. Kagura seemed at a loss, her brow furrowed as she took another puff of her pipe, the red flaring at the end of the cigarette.

"What is your purpose here, then?" She insisted, as the smoke slipped through her lips and words.

"I can't tell you."

InuYasha's reply was, once again, decisive, his eyes following Kagura's movements as she put out, not delicately, her cigarette, while her dark thoughts began to escape her, one after another.

"Well, I don't really care if that man wants to slave you to this place, like he did with me…"

"Kagura," InuYasha interrupted, "I have no intention of replacing you, nor of staying longer than necessary. Do your job, and don't get in the way of mine."

The woman remained still, processing InuYasha's sharp words. He was special to Naraku, she knew, which was why the man had allowed him to work independently of her; however, and despite herself, she had to acknowledge his skill.

She watched him taking a step towards the door, and gave him some last words.

"InuYasha," she stopped him, "The sooner you finish, the better."

"If you don't interrupt me, I'll be done sooner," was his reply, before exiting the room.

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InuYasha didn't find it hard to reach the annex that was being prepared for the Kyomu, even though he had never been there. Jakotsu had pointed him the right way with easy-to-follow indications, and InuYasha knew those streets perfectly as well. It didn't take him long to come to stand before the side-door giving access to the place, and there, he saw how the building, despite being named "annex", could rival the original's size. The door served as the entrance to the workers renovating the interior, which was why he found nothing barring him from stepping inside. He didn't stop to observe the new private zones being added to his left, under the high office that still had no crystals, nor did he pay attention to the luxurious bar that had just been installed. His gaze remained on Renkotsu, by one side, his back turned as he held a lit cigarette between his fingers, as he gave indications to the workers with that same hand. InuYasha approached him with a steady stride, and almost as if warned, Renkotsu turned around in his direction.

The man's first reaction, InuYasha observed, was that of a furrowed brow, as if ready to demand a reason for his presence here. However, that attitude changed an instant later, giving way to comprehension and surprise. An almost wild-like growl filled InuYasha's chest, one that slipped through his teeth as Renkotsu backed away; not long nor fast enough before InuYasha's physical charge. Holding the lapel of his jacket, he pushed him against the wall as Renkotsu blurted a bunch of curses that got stuck in his throat, as soon as InuYasha pressed his forearm against it. There, the man didn't take long to become redder and redder, out of fury, and out of the lack of air.

"You have either some big balls, or you are just plain stupid," InuYasha flared, his voice filled with an anger that had been slowly burning inside him, since he concluded that Renkotsu had been the one to inform Naraku about Kagome. "I think it must be the latter," he continued, adding pressure to the man's throat, who was holding onto his arm as if he could do something to move it, and so save himself.

"Son of a bi…" Renkotsu tried to curse at him, only to drown in his own words.

"Do you really think you can say something to offend me?" InuYasha's question was given along a cold and malicious smile.

Renkotsu mustered all of his will to breath in, and then, throw a kick that InuYasha blocked with his free arm, as the background became filled by the workers' whispers around them. Renkotsu's hands took hold of InuYasha's shirt, weakly, for a man of his size. Oh, how easy it would be to keep pressing his throat until his trachea gave in; he could do it, yet…

"You do know I can make it so you can't ever speak if its not through signs, right?" He warned him through a sharp whisper, filled by a heavy and sinister threat. "Is that what you want?" He could see Renkotsu closing his eyes, furrowing his brow, as the words he wanted to say, remained stuck in his throat. "Exactly; that's how your conversations will go from now onwards."

InuYasha heard the sound of the door bursting open, a few meters away, and quickly grasped who could it be, and what could happen next. Long had he spent in that kind of life; calculating different factors happening around him was easy, from the workers, to Bankotsu's men that would be here in but an instant.

"Can you imagine how hard it will be to speak to a girl?" InuYasha added to his threat, not easing a shred of his hold on Renkotsu's throat "Can you imagine yourself always being the weak end of the chain?"

InuYasha pressed his throat even further upon finishing that phrase, listening how the drowning sound that had once been Renkotsu's voice, became thin and thiner like a thread of air. Then, he saw how a prey that knows itself already caught, gives in and raises its hands in sign of surrender.

"I see you get it," he sentenced, observing the smoldering fury in Renkotsu's eyes, despite his nodding. InuYasha knew he couldn't trust that bastard to do the right thing, however, he did know the power of fear.

He let go of him as soon as the man, swiftly approaching them, was but a meter away.

"What the hell is going on here?!" The tone and words Bankotsu used, were meant to appear strong, something far from what power is. That was why InuYasha just gave his back to Renkotsu, who was in the middle of a coughing fit, and put his hands in his pockets as he looked at Bankotsu.

"Nothing now, really," he said calmly, not missing the two other men escorting Bankotsu.

"Renko?" Bankotsu wondered, seeking the gaze of the man behind InuYasha. He made a negative gesture with a hand, as he massaged his neck with the other.

Bankotsu seemed annoyed at not being able to make a big deal out of this, while InuYasha remained silent; relaxed, outwardly at least.

"Don't you dare believe that because you are back, you can take everything for yourself," Bankotsu muttered.

"I'm not back," InuYasha clarified.

Bankotsu observed him sideways, for an instant. Then, he almost shook his head, a gesture he himself stopped.

"I don't care, just stay out of my business." InuYasha took that warning as what it was; useless. It wasn't in his plans to stay around too long, and so he didn't need to respect the limits anyone may try to impose him.

"Sounds good, as long as you keep your people out of mine." Bankotsu understood, perfectly so, hence he didn't need to point at Renkotsu.

Silence. That was the answer InuYasha got, and he did not need anything else. He stepped aside, and through Bankotsu and his men.

"You can't come here and threaten one of mine."

InuYasha heard those words, and although he considered them no better than a child's tantrum, he still chose to answer it. "Any complain you may have, you can take it up to Naraku," he said, shamelessly. Maybe, if he were lucky, Naraku may take him out of that job he had forced onto him.

He heard Bankotsu muttering something else, in a low voice and to his back, however, InuYasha stride remained ever steady as he left.

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Kagome didn't know if to be mad or not, when InuYasha spent days without reaching to her. She could understand that he didn't have a phone she could call to, and that his multiple jobs could keep him busy for too long. However, that did not take away her frustration, a frustration that in turn, annoyed her further before the fact that they, actually, didn't have a relationship beyond business with each other, a business that wasn't but a verbal agreement. She had no right to get angry at an acquaintance that she could, maybe, call a friend, for not being available to her. She liked him, and even if they acted quite close when they were together, she hardly knew him.

Ayumi had warned her already.

For that reason, she had decided to take this with as much calm as she could muster. It was a good day to go out for some drinks, and conversation, with a few friends. It was supposed to be like that, and the mood in the place they had chosen should be perfect for it; Ayumi was smiling with genuine happiness, as Eri and Yuka were talking about a karaoke that had opened recently, around where they lived, and of their plans to go and see how it was.

"You girls should come," was their invitation.

Next, Ayumi told them how Kagome had helped her organize her shoes, and so make room for the new boots she was currently wearing.

"A shame Hōjo couldn't come," Eri regretted. Kagome was slowly sipping from her glass, knowing where her friend was going with that.

In that moment, she heard a notification coming to her phone. She placed her hand on the device, by her side and on the table, while trying to keep up with the conversation, as to not be rude.

"He has made a new male friend, and hopes to introduce him to us sometime," Yuka added to Eri's words.

Kagome looked at the phone's screen; she had a message from an unknown number. She found it strange, since she couldn't recall having given her number to anyone besides InuYasha, a fact that made her heart race, hoping, as she tapped the notice in order to ascertain her suspicions.

"That would be great!" Ayumi voiced her characteristic enthusiasm, "Kagome has also made a new male friend."

"What!?" Eri and Yuka shouted at the same time.

Kagome looked at Ayumi in panic, not expecting her friend to put her on the spot without so much a warning, however, she made a gesture of surrender before her friend's smile. Then, faced with the situation of having to speak about her private life, she began to wonder if it really had been a good idea to go out with her friends.

She smiled.

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To be continued.

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A/N

KOTODAMA is now entwining with the central path I had imagined at the start of the story. Up to here, we've seen what has shaped the characters, and now we know how they are, and how they may behave before the vicissitudes that are coming.

Thank you for joining me, reading and commenting,

Anyara.

This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart