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  He took a deep breath and entered Lord Ishikawa’s chambers.

  Every man’s aura within went on high alert. Most were ready to attack although he noted that some were prepared to flee. He felt his lip curl up in disgust. He was one man. And then he pushed the thought down. Had he not been mortified at his own behavior just a few moments before?

  He bowed to Lord Ishikawa.

  “You sent for me my Lord.” It was a statement not a question.

  “Yes, I wanted to inquire if you truly felt better. It would appear that you do have better control over your episodes.”

  Takiyasha-hime smiled and stepped forward. “Would it be ok if I inspected you one more time, just to be sure?”

  Riku hesitated a moment before nodding. She stepped forward and laid her hands against his temples and closed her eyes. Riku felt no pain this time, just a gentle probing.

  And then she gave a little gasp and her eyes popped open.

  “You truly are a wonder” she said. She brought her hands together and brought them prayer position to her mouth, her eyes dancing with glee.

  She turned to Ishikawa, “you have nothing to fear from him for now. He has taken my little binding and built a little wall out of it” she clapped her hands again.

  Looking at Riku again she said “you can trust him.”

  Lord Ishikawa gave a curt nod of his head.

  “We knew what we planned was risky. Some men have died at your hands. It is true. But I believe they have not died in vain. They are part of a new class of men. The samurai have only just begun to understand their potential. Part of their legacy will be their honor tied with their fierce willingness to fight for that honor. I plan, with your help, to rid the rot of corruption that is the heart of the emperor and those who hold the title of Sessho.”

  “I want the wars to stop.” Riku said.

  Lord Ishikawa nodded and said. “Tomorrow at this time we will have a meeting to talk strategy and next steps. I hope you will join us as an honored guest.”

  Riku nodded and Ishikawa dismissed him.

  After Riku left Takiyasha-hime turned to Ishikawa.

  “Of course I do not think this is what Sutoku had in mind when he made his bargain with you.”

  Lord Ishikawa’s eyes narrowed. “What are you implying?”

  “That Sutoku wanted to taste the blood of Emperor Go-Shirakawa personally, and if not, then that of his children and his children’s children. You have effectively locked him into the body of your son.”

  Lord Ishikawa inhaled sharply but she merely waved her hand at him and continued on.

  “Truly you do not think that I did not know the nature of your bond with Riku? Or even who his mother is? For that matter who his grandmother is!”

  Lord Ishikawa responded “I do not know who is grandmother is, I did not think such things matter to fox spirits.”

  “Ooooooo, but Lord Ishikawa, you DO know who his grandmother is. Almost all of Japan knows the name of Tamamo no Mae.”

  Lord Ishikawa felt his blood turn to ice.

  Chapter 4

  Inoue bared her teeth at Shinji. “You are so stupid. So fucking stupid.”

  She didn’t scream it. It just came out in a cold, hard voice. The kitsune had swirls of Chakra coming from her in her rage, Shinji knew he must be careful. Inoue was kitsune, and kyuubi at that. She was powerful and normally she was in control of herself. That she was not made her more than a formidable enemy. She was one he could not hope to defeat.

  The two monks, samurai and fox spirit sat in the Kodo section of the temple complex.

  “Honorable Inoue” he began but she cut him off.

  “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you this instant” she hissed.

  Shinji took a deep breathe. “For the same reason you want to talk to me, I am the only hope of bringing Riku back alive. He has transformed. And that means he will be next to uncontrollable. Already rumors have begun to spread about an evil consuming men at Lord Ishikawa’s castle. If there is any hope to bring him back then it is through his connection with his world. We need to connect with Riku and pray the demon has not taken complete control.”

  “Lucky for you, I want him alive, but if you fail and he doesn’t kill you, I will kill you myself.” Inoue answered.

  Haruhisa stepped forward and then kowtowed before the fox spirit.

  “Great spirit, forgive us and our stupidity. How do we go forward, everything I have read about Hanyo have made them out to be very unstable and powerful. I also want to help but I have no idea how to help.”

  Inoue looked at the prostate monk. “Get up you old fool” and Harushia felt an icy stab in his heart. “Any help you give them is through a messenger relayed through me.“

  She looked at both men“Hanyo” she spat out, as if the word itself were dirty. “Riku was a Hanyo and now he is even more than that. Sutoku had succeeded in bonding with him. Do you have any inkling what that means?”

  Shinji was the one to answer, although the one he gave was the one he devoted years in prayer that he never would have to say. “That Sutoku has his portal to the way of flesh from the land of demons. He now straddles both lands and is all the more powerful because of it. And he may now have the power needed to take over the entire empire and hold Japan at his mercy.”

  “Exactly. He will destroy this land in his quest for revenge and he finally has the means to do it.”

  The men began to speak about what they thought their next move should be and how to go about bringing Riku back to the path and bringing Lord Ishikawa down.

  Inoue was lost in her own thoughts about what her next move was to be. She had been playing defense instead of offense for way too long. Ever since she had inadvertently set all of this into play.

  “If only I had been able to kill Sutoku before he made the deal with the Shinigami for his soul. I knew that Shinigami was looking for a way to meld himself with the flesh and all I managed to do was put it off by a couple of decades. And in the process I managed to get my sister and her child tangled up in all of this as well.”

  She looked around at the men who were earnestly speaking among themselves as if they honestly had a chance against Riku now. Almost as if reading her thoughts Shinji spoke up.

  “We have no idea what Riku’s powers are other than that they are immense. We also have no idea what exactly Lord Ishikawa plans on doing. We can count on it being a play for power, maybe even for the thorne. Or he could intend what I fear, which is that he has no other intention other than to spread the destruction and therefore the pain he himself has experienced and felt. If it was just him we could deal with it. But with Riku, who was powerful before he bonded, now bonded with him, we need help from the supernatural world. We need to turn to those who can help us fight yokai. Normal men can not.”

  As the men all turned to her Inoue nodded. For a moment she continued her internal “if only” game before answering. “If only” her sister had not fallen in love with a man who would be destroyed by the Minamoto hatred for the Taira clan, a hatred that threatened to engulf the entire country. “If only” she hadn’t become pregnant by him. And “if only” her own mother had not tried to take over the country through controlling the emperor Toba in the hopes of taking his place. If only, if only, Alas, there was no if only, only now.

  As furious as she was at Shinji, she knew the true reason she did not kill him was because she was even angrier at herself.

  She looked at the group of men assembled. “There is only one man who can help us.” Her eyes turned to Haruhisa “And this is one way you would truly be of help. For Shinji does not have the connections and the man we need would rather battle me than speak with me.”

  Her voice trembled around his name but she forced to spit it out. “We need Abe no Tanetadai.”

  Chapter 5

  Abe no Tanetadai was worried about the rumors of violence occurring outside the capital but even more concerned about how to broach the Sessho and explain to him that dark time
s were only going to get darker. Being onmyōji was more dangerous than it was prestigious at the moment. Times had become dangerous for all, even members of the imperial family were not immune, let alone retainers and servants.

  “It is that blasted Kiyomori no Taira” he thought to himself, for such a thing he would never dare say out loud. Although powerful in the occult world he would rather die than call upon dark forces to serve him, even if it would mean avoiding his own death.

  “That is the problem with these men who fall in love with fox spirits and such. The two worlds touch but should never intermingle. This is where the balance gets upset. That is where havoc comes. And we have not been safe since that fool Toba took a nine tail fox as consort. Master Yasunori may have removed her from direct interference, but he was unable to remove her taint. And now it is spreading it’s dark tentacles throughout the land.”

  He blamed Tamamo no Mae for everything that had happened to the imperial court since. For how else could a man like Tadamori no Taira have become so powerful and risen to such prominence himself, paving the way for his son Kiyomori no Tairai to take the title of daijō daijin or great minister of state.

  “The son of of the head of the police! A group of minor nobles meant to be the ruling force behind the samurai to keep the lower born in order, have somehow become the rulers of not only their own clan, but have become actual rulers of Japan.”

  And as much as he hated to admit it, it was true. Not only had Kiyomori managed to marry his daughter to the emperor, but he then manipulated his way into direct power by forcing the emperor to abdicate and now his baby grandson Antoku was not just the new emperor at 2 years old, but Kiyomori was now sesshō.

  Abe no Tanetadai sighed deeply. Troubling himself about the past was not going to help him in the future. These things were done and Go-Shirakawa owed Kiyomori no Taira a debt for his role in helping rescue him when he was kidnapped by the Minamoto alone. That he had been instrumental in defeating those who had sided with the retired emperor Sutoku in his bid for a return to the throne paved the way for his present position.

  “And yet that man is not good for the court or for Japan. The son of a servant woman, even if his father was the emperor at the time. Shirakawa was perhaps too virile for his own good. The old emperor was well known for the seed he scattered. Perhaps Toba would not have taken up with that fox spirit if he hadn’t had to look at his father’s son as his own. Giving Kiyomori to Tadamori to raise may have resulted in a son Tadamori was proud of, but now look at the mess he has brought upon Japan.” The onmyōji shook his head again.

  “Why am I so distracted! Constantly pulled back into the past today.” He decided to do a ritual cleansing, convinced that something was attaching itself to his energy. Even with the stones that he had been casting revealing such disturbing possibilities, it wasn’t like him to dwell in the past.

  “The past is for investigating how to make the future better, not dwelling in” he chided himself. “And yet, I am sure that the spirit world has been brought into this. I just can not divine how.”

  Nothing was more convoluted than normal in his castings. What does waking death mean? And yet when he tried to figure out how Kiyomori was involved the only thing he could find was heavenly water. Which would suggest that he had the blessings of the Gods. But if he did, then why did everything come across as tainted, doom and waking death?

  As he prepared for the ceremony to cleanse his rooms, he couldn’t help but feel that the effort would result in little more than a temporary reprieve. For the dark cloud he fought against was not just threatening to engulf him, but the whole of Japan.

  Chapter 6

  Suke Izumi wrapped her little baby up, it was such a solemn child. She so rarely cried unlike the other newborns, she merely began rooting around for her breast when she was hungry. She never became frustrated when she could not find it. Merely kept at it, or sometimes would let out a deep sigh. All the other women told her she was lucky to her face, but she knew what they said when they thought she was out of earshot.

  Unnatural.

  Possibly possessed.

  Not long for this world.

  Won’t make it past the 100 days, just you wait and see.

  But her little baby did make it past the 100 days. She never had so much as a sniffle. Just this look as if she was deep in thought.

  She had named the baby Tan. Another thing she was chided for. But she did not want to reveal the true name she had chosen for the child. Akemi. Such a royal name and one that the other women divers would not just chide her for. They would tell her she was getting ahead of herself. Putting herself and especially the child above all others. She could hear them now!

  “You are inviting in trouble with such a name. Yes, an amil diver needs strength, and the ability to fight for what others are too weak to try for, but they are not royalty!”

  And that is what they would say to her face, behind her back they would surely go much further.

  “That Suke has lost her mind! Even if the child could grow up normal, which I doubt she will, I mean no baby is so serious who is meant long for this world, but still! Who would interact with her and take her seriously. A pearl diver with such a name. Asking for trouble!”

  And the asking for trouble is where Suke was worried. For although the game was to downplay their independence and downplay how separate they felt, Suke as a diver herself, knew how unique they felt. And how much pride they felt in it.

  After all, did they not dive for the seafood that not only fed their table and that of others in the village, but retrieved abalone for shrines and even for the emperor himself.

  No other woman could claim such independence within Japan. Not even the royalty from whom she took Tan’s true secret name.

  The ami were right in their pride. And also right to protect it. Being special and different came with many gifts and just as many dangers.

  She cooed to her baby at her breast. The child starred up at her with big calm eyes.

  “You are not possessed. You just had such a hard time coming into this world. Such a fight. I know they say the first time is the hardest. But you had more than a hard time. The midwife said it was like you had to battle your way out. Almost killing me and you in the process. Your cord was wrapped around you when you arrived. So close to losing you. But I do not care what they say. A mother knows her child. And you are meant to be here. You even told me what you wanted to be called. I don’t know how you let me know it, but you are so obviously an Akemi. But Tan is also ok, our special name for everyone else to know you by.”

  She kissed the baby again, Grateful to have her Akemi, grateful that they made it past the 100 days and they were still going strong, and grateful that the rumors of violence in the rest of the country had yet to make it here other than in terms of stories.

  “Now, if only we could stay that way” she thought.

  Chapter 7

  As Abe no Tanetadai was beginning his cleansing ritual, Takiyasha-hime was just finishing her own ritual of investigation.

  She rocked back onto her heels and for once she was not laughing.

  She stood and went straight to Lord Ishikawa’s rooms. Once her presence was announced she was admitted immediately, which she had been expecting.

  Offering her tea, she sat down and accepted it, blowing onto it gently before sipping it. She could see Lord Ishikawa’s agitation. She knew she shouldn’t agitate him on purpose, but it was important that he knew he needed her more than she needed him. So long as he believedthat, all would be good.

  Finally the Lord spoke. “I assume you are here about the inquisitions you wished to make before we proceed any further.”