It was only after I'd walked up to the dais of the Counsel that I realized that coming here carrying the bloodied child of one of the council members and in full yukoi form, might not have been one of my brighter ideas. From the threats being howled from the Fire Clan's section of the arena, I'd say they thought I was less then bright too. Least I'd washed the blood off myself that hadn't evaporated away.
Akihito looked up from my shoulder where he'd buried his face during the transport spell to protect himself from the harsh winds that accompany it. "Why are they all staring at us?"
"I think they though you were dead," I whispered back. "And maybe I killed you."
The little boy looked at me, clearly puzzled. "But I'm not dead."
"Minor detail. You're covered in wounds- who's to say I didn't cause them?"
"It does not smell like your work," a small, feminine voice said from the right of the dais. Tama-chan, the nameless ruler of the Soul Clan turned those large, iris-less eyes on Akihito and I, her face unreadable. "Though you are correct in your assumption that others might think so, Inu Cara. What brings you here in such a state as this, dog?"
"Momi-chan," Akihito said with a smile though his eyes were still shadowed with pain and worry, I guess for her. "Cara-san saved me from a Teashioni that seemed rather bent on killing me. She hacked it to pieces, even though it could have killed her and me both. I owe her my life and you know that is not a light debt."
"No light debt indeed," Momi said, her diction a bit on the archaic side. As if she were speaking Japanese from Shakespearian times, a rarity in modern Japan. "And why, pray tell, were you in such a place that she could save you, Akihito-kun?"
"That's something we'll talk about later," Dokkasomaru said from his council chair. "Mokuka, if you would take our son please, we can continue with this meeting. He does not need to see what has been found."
"What did you find," Akihito asked, echoing my own thoughts.
"Nothing for your eyes," a woman said as she came up to us from the Fire Clan's bleachers. It had to be Akihito's mother, Mokuka, if only because they looked so alike. Mokuka was delicately formed, heart shaped face framed by some of the most unusual hair I'd ever seen. Akihito had told me she was a Priestess of the Great Flame, a high standing miko that few dared to challenge even among yukoi known for flame abilities. Like the clan's sacred fire, her hair flowed from her head in a reverse flame, yellow at the roots, turning orange around her ears for about two feet and the rest of her thigh-length hair was the crimson of a hot flame, dangerous to the touch in more then just appearance. Most of her body was hidden by the Fire tribe's seemingly customary blue cloak, hers edged in bands like her hair instead of the flames that licked up Akihito and Dokkasomaru's. A yellow skirt and mid-riff baring top edged in red and orange plus a pair of coal black boots completed her clothing. Spiffy.
She held her arms out for her son and I smiled as I handed him over. "I think his ankle's badly sprained if not broken. Its got ice on it now but its melting fast."
"Thank you," she said, her voice gentle and soft. Mokuka smiled at her child and then at me. "The Fire Clan will not forget what you have done this night. My husband and I thank you for care and the battle you fought for Akihito, Inu Cara. You are welcome among the Fire Clan, daughter of the Moon Clan. You and Meele should join us for dinner at some point."
After giving her invitation, before I could say anything, Mokuka walked off, carrying Akihito as if he weighed nothing at all. I looked to Meele, standing beside my mother on the dais like her attendant. He nodded to me and I turned back to Mokuka, speaking as she set Akihito down among his people. "We would be honored to accept your hospitality."
"A civil tongue to go with her supposed warrior's blade, how surprising," a voice from the Moon Clan's bleachers said. "I find that laughable." Why is it that the bad guys, or gals in this case, always heal faster? Shimori, the ice cat who'd torn me up so nicely, was alive and well, standing there glaring at me seemingly fit as the proverbial fiddle. Wish she sounded as nice. "She's not even strong enough to take a kill that's hers."
Instead of glaring back, I pulled at that curl of magic I'd wrapped around her heart, bringing her to her knees in a crushing, fiery pain she could not escape, howls and screeches of agony erupting from her mouth. I knew from experience that that little curl of magic felt like a heart attack crushing her chest. It wouldn't kill her but few things could hurt more without slicing her limbs off. After a moment, I released her, stopping the pain that wracked her body. "Anymore smart-ass remarks, Shimori? I own your heart now, so please, either give me a reason to shred it or shut the fuck up."
A glare was the only answer I got from her before she crept back into the bleachers. Yukio, her elder brother, hissed at me but said nothing. Some nights that's all you ask for.
"If you're done with the theatrics," Tama-chan said with a wave of her hand. "I have something that to speak with the joint counsel about, Inu Cara."
I nodded to Tama-chan. "Of course, I shall take a seat with my clan."
The violet haired girl smiled at me and walked to the center of the room as I took a seat hastily cleared for me on the bottom of the Moon Clan's bleachers. I watched Tama-chan point to her throat for a moment before speaking again, her voice carrying through the room as if she were only five feet away from any given person. Nice trick.
"I have received a report of a rouge hanyu this night," she said, carefully not looking at me. "A creature of vile tastes and past times. Rather then tell you what I have discovered I shall show you from the vantage point of one of my own, one of the Spirit Clan what this monster has done. For their own sanity, I have blocked the senses of those under age in here. This is not for their knowledge."
Thunder rumbled through the room as she clapped her hands, a sphere of swirling images growing between them as they spread wider and wider. The sphere grew to fill the center of the arena as she poured her power into for all to see. "This is from the eyes of young girl of my clan. It shall be obvious by the end of this why she is not here tonight."
Darkness.
The fluttering of eyes one feels as one awakens. The girl's hands as she rubbed sleep from her eyes, a sudden gasp of fear with the realization that some of the shadows are moving.
Screams building in her throat as someone reaches from the darkness for her, a hand that's obviously a man's but almost dainty due to its small size, though to the girl it appears huge.
That hand, roughly yanking the bedding away from her body, her eyes following the flying coverlet, showing a thin cotton nightgown, its color indistinguishable in the dim light flowing from the window. A street lamp outside gives enough light to cast her attacker in shadows.
The hand clamps on her throat, fingers tight, the second hand bearing sharp claws that shred the cotton nightgown.
The girl's cries of horror, pain... mindless terror and agony....
His face, a glimpse of it in the street lamp's meager offering... a face I knew....
