KOTODAMA
"The soul that resides within words."
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Chapter XV
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The rain wouldn't weaken their laughter, as they ran through one narrow street, bound for the apartment Kagome shared with her friend. A soft drizzle had followed them since they left Kaede's izakaya, to the train station, and once out, they found themselves beneath a heavy pouring that forced them to race, even if doing so wouldn't help them much anyway.
They turned at the last street, their steps splattering on the small ponds, only making their lone presence more evident, then stopped in front of the building's exterior door, where Kagome brought out her key as she rearranged her wet bangs with a hand.
"Alright, let's get inside." She gestured to InuYasha as soon as she opened it.
"No, you get in. I'm leaving." He answered.
"You are drenched. You should come up and dry yourself a bit," Kagome didn't want to appear too pushy, but it was obvious he was completely soaked, and even his hood was stuck to his head due to the water it held.
"Don't worry. It's not my first rain." He wanted to laugh, but noted he was trembling instead.
"InuYasha…" She insisted, naming him with intent.
"What about your friend? What will you tell her about me?" He wasn't so sure to want to involve himself further into Kagome's world, no more than he had already done at least.
"That you are a friend," she reasoned, then added, "because you are a friend, right?"
InuYasha found himself feeling the strength and responsibility held within the concept of friendship; yet it didn't deter him from wishing for it, eagerly.
"You could say that." He accepted that friendship, but as a step to something he yearned while knowing it wouldn't be good for him to have it.
"It's decided then, you are coming in." Kagome declared with absolute determination.
That's just how she was, InuYasha thought as he took a deep breath, a flare of understanding glimpsing into that thought as something deeper, confusing, for it seemed to come from knowledge born from a long time.
He let himself be led through the stairs at once side of the building, feeling restless before the prospect of having to stand before someone who was important to Kagome, for she wouldn't live with someone if that weren't the case.
"You still haven't told me why Ms. Kaede called you dog-boy," he heard her insist on that, and that persistency made him smile.
"It isn't an interesting story." He shrugged, thinking that he also didn't feel at ease talking about it.
"Maybe it is for me," she looked back, just as they were arriving to the third floor.
A smile threatened to surface on InuYasha's lips, and the only thing that helped him hold it back was the wonder he felt. He realized he couldn't count the times he had smiled in Kagome's company today.
"Will you tell me later?" She asked, with her keys in hand.
InuYasha only nodded.
He stayed silent as they approached the door, which Kagome opened soon enough, allowing the outside light to pour inside. There, InuYasha felt suddenly overwhelmed before the idea of soon being under someone else's judgement, of a stranger's. He wasn't good at meeting people; he didn't like that feeling of everyone putting on a facade throughout a first encounter, nor the will he needed to withstand the scrutiny of the other party. That was something he hadn't experienced with Kagome, who had somehow made that first contact fluid and oddly comfortable given the circumstances surrounding the moment.
Maybe her friend is like her, was his thought, an idea his mind immediately refused to believe; there was no one like Kagome, not for him.
He took a step back then, scared by his own conclusions.
What was this?
"C'mon in." He heard her say, from inside the apartment.
"I… I think it's best… Shippo must be waiting for me," he attempted an apology, as his steps pulled him back.
"InuYasha," she spoke from the door.
"Some other day" he offered, then put on a smile, one that was a far cry from the ones he had enjoyed that afternoon.
There, in her expression, he saw her disconcert and disillusionment; another emotion that was somehow familiar.
Kagome? Came a voice from inside.
He didn't dare look back again.
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The last few days had been miserable, and although InuYasha didn't want to admit it, they were mostly due to the thorn stuck to his side after leaving Kagome in her apartment. Since then, he hadn't seen her, despite wishing to, trying to keep himself busy preparing lessons for Shippo, aside from putting in some hours of work in what he could. The boy, on his part, was alright, and in a few days they would remove the plaster from his arm.
That was giving him some breathing room, and today he needed it particularly bad.
Half an hour he had been walking now, towards a meeting he couldn't delay anymore, a journey he had began from the house he was sharing with Shippo, to Horaana, the cave, the place Naraku usually was in.
His gaze settled on a phone cabin a moment longer than what was necessary, and like every time that happened, Kagome appeared in his mind like a recurrent thought that would not leave him. He had said he would call her, yet he kept holding himself back despite his inner wish of being with her and become prisoner, for a couple of hours, of the spring she seemed to bring with her. He couldn't begin to fathom what was happening to him, she just had somehow made a nest in his thoughts, with no clear intention of ever leaving them. If he had to define her, Kagome was like a gale that would constantly pass through him, again and again, and that even then it would grant him peace.
He left the cabin behind, then turned to the last street he had to walk through. A few steps away he found the entrance to the restaurant stablished in the lower part of the Horaana, a place ruled by Kikyo where she could give free reign to her refined taste, with elegant furniture and an excellent kitchen not many could afford. The rest of that elegant five-store building belonged to Naraku, where he went about his white-collar business, aside from living there. InuYasha could live there too, if he wanted to; Naraku had offered him as much in many occasions, yet he would much rather enjoy the meager freedom that living in an abandoned house could give him.
He wouldn't owe anyone explanations there, at least.
He went straight to an entrance at one side of the building, by the restaurant. The first door opened without an issue, yet to cross the second one he needed to introduce a six-digit password or else he would not move from there. Soon after entering those six numbers, he heard the electronic lock giving way, and once inside, he climbed the stairs to the second floor, taking the elevator there. Usually, he would take the stairs to the fifth floor, but today he wasn't in the mood, feeling the urgency of being finished with that business as soon as possible.
He could already guess the new lecture Naraku was about to give him, saying how much he was missing by not acting like he considered, and although InuYasha knew he couldn't take that man lightly, he also didn't want to be completely in his hands, not again. Much had cost him to keep himself just within their reach.
Once on the target floor, InuYasha found that long corridor that ended in a traditional, beautifully painted door, made out of wood and rice paper, and as soon as he stepped near it, it was opened by two women in kimono, kneeling to slid the panels open. Inside, the floor was covered by tatamis, which were also bathed in natural light and spread around an inner garden with its own stream, filling the room with the murmur of water falling on the stones. Everything there spoke of an attention to detail, from the kind of plant decorating the room, to the wood chosen for it. On the other end, he saw Naraku, dressed in a dark blue yukata, on a floor made of lustrous wood and seated on a pillow of an ecru color, while keeping a lotus position. His eyes were closed, while his long hair was tied in a curled updo. InuYasha stepped forward, making sure to keep a three meters distance from him, as Naraku usually requested of visitors, and waited.
Minutes began to pass, and InuYasha began to wonder if Naraku even knew of his presence. His gaze wandered, to the tip of his sport shoes, then to the rubber outsole, then up, to the rooftops of nearby buildings one could see through the wide windows, as he took a deep breath.
"Have you eaten?" Naraku inquired, as a way of greetings. It was past midday.
"Yes." He lied.
"Do you mind if I do?"
"I don't."
With a gesture of his hand, one of the women present, and at his service, disappeared through a side door; InuYasha observed the action with feigned indifference, and soon noted Naraku's gaze on him, who proceeded to step closer, seemingly regarding his aspect.
"I see you are well," Naraku mentioned, "but it seems you've been walking a lot lately, your shoes are worn-down."
InuYasha remained impassive, trying not to show any reaction to his words.
"You should stop by the fourth floor and get some new ones," the man said that when his inspection had passed through InuYasha's back, and was starting to return to the front, "you should also get another jacket, I'm tired of seeing you with that red."
"I'm grateful, but it's fine." He had learnt one could be polite even when telling someone to fuck off.
Naraku smiled.
"Blunt as always. Alright, to the matters at hand then," he started towards a side room, and InuYasha followed.
It was the library, the place where Naraku usually had his meetings. One of the walls was teeming with books, from floor to ceiling and side to side, while at the end of the room, there as a crystal cabinet where Naraku kept his collection of ancient scrolls. The place only had one window, small and up high, a stark contrast to the wide windows from before. To one side, centered, there was a desk in front of an exposition of different objects that were part of an antiques collection he could show to his business partners.
"Sit," he offered.
"I'd rather stand," he tried to keep his independency, even if it was just a front.
Naraku remained up, behind his desk, staring at him with an expression that had ceased to be the relaxed one he had wore a moment before.
"What have I done to you?" The question surprised him. "You refuse to eat with me, you refuse to accept my gifts, and now you refuse even to sit so we can have our meeting."
InuYasha remained silent for a moment. He had known Naraku since he was but a ten year old child, and albeit the man had never done anything too bad to him, he knew he had done so to others. Back when he had been living under his roof for but a week, eating what was served to him, they had taken him to district in Tokyo, one specialized in the vice of men. He could remember they had talked about money, about a debt that could not wait to be paid… and that day, InuYasha came to know how you could break a man's arm, a man's will. That day, he learnt what meant to be obedient, and to be afraid.
"I don't mean to be unpolite; I just want to finish this soon," he half-explained.
"A girl?" Naraku inquired.
That was usual of him, to show friendship until close enough for him to drop his guard, to feel at ease, before reminding him that he was but a tool. Someone else may feel alright with it, there were those who lived like that, those who would accept his gifts then pay whatever price they were asked. But not InuYasha, he needed something more, he needed freedom.
"No," he wouldn't tell him, "just a job."
"Oh, one of those insignificant things you've been doing as of late." There it was, the judgement.
At first, during those years when he was but a child at the doors of his teenager days, those kind of comments had mattered to him; Naraku was the closest thing to a fatherly figure he had ever had, after all.
Yet now, he preferred to give a shrug as an answer.
"It would be better if we talked about a real job, one of those where you really shine," he spoke, almost with pride.
InuYasha chose to remain silent, or rather, he lacked the words to express the situation he was in. It wasn't like he needed Naraku, but his web was large and well woven, strong enough to wrap a prey and left them hanging until he were to have need of them. That was his mentor, a spider that could wave such wide nets that even in a place like Tokyo, you couldn't run from them.
InuYasha sunk his hands a bit deeper inside his pockets, then played with the position of his feet on the ground.
"That. That is what I saw in you," Naraku pointed out, "that carefree indifference. The way your body language tries to tell me I don't scare you, despite that you are here because you have no choice in the matter," he began to circle the desk, as if stalking him," Who are you, InuYasha? You have no surname to resort to. You are a stain on the system, a nobody."
He did know who he was, having looked into it already, even if Naraku wasn't aware.
"You depend on me, despite yourself," he insisted, and InuYasha couldn't help thinking that he seemed to depend on him just as much.
The silence became heavy then, as Naraku seemed to weight his pupil's courage, a pupil who kept staring at some point on the wooden floor, unable to ignore the man in front of him. Then, InuYasha heard him let out a sigh, as if disappointed. He didn't care, however, having long lost the need to prove anything to him.
Naraku sighed again.
"Well, if that's what you want," he continued, then brought out an envelope from his desk, "I need you to deliver this to Muso Zanyo."
InuYasha stepped closer, and received it.
"Zanyo… The one working for Kaguya Yasei?" He wondered, with a certain spontaneous disbelief he quickly reminded himself he should hold back. In any case, the job was odd.
"The very same." Naraku looked straight into his eyes, meaningfully, so that he could understand how relevant such a fact was. Then, he set his gaze on the papers on his desk. "I'm sorry, boy. If you don't want to accept the role I'd want for you, you'll have to be the one to run my errands."
A smile appeared on Naraku's features then, one so small it could be just his mind playing tricks.
"Time limit?" Inquired InuYasha, switching to his professional side instantly.
Naraku's smile widened for just a second, before disappearing.
"Four days." The man informed.
InuYasha's mind began to work then, shuffling the many possibilities he had to find the target. It came to him easily, far too much. Much to his detriment, such jobs made him feel like a demon who had just let its instinct free.
He heard a door opening then, opposite from the one they had used to step inside the library.
"We are waiting for you, my lord." Were the words of the woman who appeared through that door. InuYasha observed her, his gaze stopping at her dark hair, loose and wet, falling over her back, as her robe made of organza let him glimpse upon her pubic hair, and the nipples crowning her beautiful breasts.
Through the corner of his eyes, InuYasha caught Naraku gesturing to her with a hand.
"I'll be there soon, pretty Onryo." Were his words. The woman took another step in, before languidly turning around and disappearing through the door again, as if she wished to expose herself even more, albeit with a certain elegant bashfulness that greatly differed from her vestments.
Once she was out of sight, InuYasha turned toward Naraku.
"She likes you," said the man, "Why don't you stop by the ofuro for a short while? I'm going to eat for now.
InuYasha caught his meaning clearly. It wasn't the first time he was there, and more than once he had seen him walking out of that huge ofuro in the next room, rarely alone.
"Do you need confirmation?" He asked then, going back to the errand, changing the topic drastically.
"That's your way of refusing," Naraku commented, however, "don't tell me you are still a virgin." Again, that small smile.
If he was or not, it wasn't any of Naraku's business, he thought. The man sighed again, disappointment thick in his breath. InuYasha hoped Naraku wouldn't run out of patience, at least not before he could save enough to get out of Tokyo.
"Confirmation?" He asked once again.
"I would say that I don't need one. That since its you, I trust in your word, for you never have failed me…" His voice was calm, even pleasant to the ear, "But I can't play favorites among my associates."
"I understand." InuYasha accepted without complain.
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To be continued.
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A/N
This story isn't a fast one, that's for sure. Still, I like how it grants the time needed for the characters involved to show themselves, as they are, and the space within they move… aside from leaving small hints about what I want to write about later.
I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and that you tell me in the comments.
Kisses,
Anyara
This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart