Ink Stained

78: two sides of a coin*

硬貨の両面

Pai struggled not to go ballistic every time Shin stumbled back to her with a fresh new wound delivered to him by Kagetora, bleeding more than she liked and barely able to keep standing because of the poison Kagetora infuriatingly never forgot to coat along the blade of whatever he sliced or stabbed at Shin with.

The hours where she was left on her own were long. She struggled to fill them with things to do, ways to stave off the boredom – both her own and Kuniumi's. She stayed in the house mostly, wary of leaving when she didn't know what lived on the island even with Kagetora's claim that he was the one to spread the rumours of all the scary things on it.

She cooked, making meals Yukiji had taught her in all the time Pai had been at Ayashi House, or what she could remember her mother teaching her. She read a lot, and often watched things on her phone, but cell reception on the island wasn't...great.

When all that failed to occupy her, she explored the house whole keeping a look-out for Seiran. A part of her wanted to see him, to ask why he was attending Odori High – coincidentally the same school the famed and desired Koki Sakura Hime was enrolled in. A bigger, more convincing part of her didn't want to see him at all. He would only be a reminder that Kagetora wasn't just a mercurial, infuriating Kitsune who derived endless entertainment from toying with people. He had a brother, a family, a past, something that explained him and the way he behaved.

She didn't want to see it.

She wanted to hate him for what he was doing to Shin every day that had him coming back to the house, to her, with some new injury. If she had undeniable proof that he was connected to someone other than himself, she knew she wouldn't be able to hate him as much as she did. It would make Kagetora more human. Kuniumi's confusing grief and amusement at his every mention was already difficult enough to deal with.

Luckily, she didn't bump into Seiran anywhere.

But unlike what Kagetora implied, they weren't completely alone at the house. There was a young boy, a Kitsune named Onoe, who served as an errand boy. He lived on the other side of the island with his parents. They were a solitary family of three who chose to remain separate from the rest of their Clan for reasons known only to themselves. He was far younger than Pai or Shiori, only eleven or twelve years old.

Onoe told her that he attended to Kagetora because he was King, and because he had helped Onoe's family in their time of need. They had been forced to go into hiding, and though Onoe wouldn't tell her why, he did reveal that Kagetora permitted them sanctuary on Ukabarenairei for as long as they needed, despite the fact that the King never allowed anyone else on the island.

Onoe conspiratorially whispered that last time something tried getting on the island, a group of daft Shimo Oni, Kagetora ended up ripping half of them to shreds and sending the heads of the other half to the Kings and Queens of the Oni with explicit instructions not to venture near Ukabarenairei lest the same fate fall on anyone else who dared. Even if it was a King or Queen of the Oni.

No more infractions from the Oni had happened since. Apparently, even the Oni knew of Kagetora's reputation.

Kagetora refused any form of payment whatsoever from the family for providing them asylum from what they ran from, but Onoe's father didn't want to simply ignore the debt he owed Kagetora. It was Onoe's mother who suggested and negotiated with Kagetora that her son help him in miscellaneous chores around the house and on Ukabarenairei.

He was a nice boy, so nervously polite to her and downright terrified of Shin when he happened on him. That was rare, considering all Shin was capable of doing these days was hauling himself out of the house to go train with Kagetora, then sleeping away most of the time in his room. She had never known him to sleep so much. She was glad that he rested so well, but it disturbed her that he needed so much sleep after the harrowing ordeal with Kagetora when typically he only had three to four hours of sleep.