The Taisho fire

Inheritance

"My mother's been dead for twenty years."

Disappointment shot through her chest; yet another lead severed before it could bear fruits.

"Oh..."

"Yeah."

There was an inflection of defeat in his voice that sent a pang in her heart.

"Tōga...", she said, setting a hand over his arm. "I think there is some Yōkai blood on your father's side. Probably diluted by time, but still... could it be possible ?"

His tall frame suddenly toppled over, landing squarely on the mattress with a wistful look. Arms outstretched, he seemed to be addressing a prayer to the heavens.

"I always wondered, yes," he said, then turned his attention back to her. "But when you're being told you're crazy, it doesn't give much ground to go forward other than intuition, right ?"

Gwen's chest tightened at his confession; they would have to speak of Izayoi's refusal to acknowledge his past life in depth. But not now. The discovery was too important to delve upon the past, especially his marriage. Crawling beside his form, Gwen felt his hand settle upon her waist; she wrapped her upper body over his chest with a satisfied hum.

His body was unyielding and welcoming at the same time, incredibly open to any of her cravings. She would never have expected Tōga to be such a cuddler, but Inu were pack creatures. She couldn't imagine how lonely his days had been in the past years. Her hand landed on his chest, right above his heart, and she concentrated on spotting the tendrils of Yoki that danced around him in a soothing wave.

Golden orbs watched her without blinking, unreadable. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of the General he had been, tall, proud and ready for battle; thank God Tōga would never be her enemy. Then his gaze softened, and warmth spread in her veins. He was magical in every possible way.

"That sensation she described is a dead giveaway," Gwen chanced. "Now, if your mother didn't have the sight, she couldn't have seen the Yōki. But given what she wrote, she felt it. She must have been pretty sensitive to energies and aura."

Tōga cocked his head aside in such a canine expression that she couldn't help but smile. The lines of his face were slightly tense, creating that lonely crease between his eyebrows. Fifty-two years old, and not a line upon his youthful face but this one.

"It might explain why you age slowly," Gwen mused, laying her head on his chest.

"And why the instincts are still here, nagging at me when I get angry. Or possessive."

Her hand rand alongside his ribs in a soothing gesture, the memory of a boxing match clear in her mind.

"You mean the way you rise to challenges ?"

He nodded, his hand covering hers.

"Yeah. I had to learn to control my aggressivity. My dad was raised with the legends of my country, and he compared me to an alpha wolf in my youth. Damn ōkami, I am no mangy wolf !"

Gwen laughed at his affronted look. The insult made no sense to her; wolves were considered more feral and noble than their dog counterparts in Europe. It didn't seem to be the case for Yōkai. Swallowing her mirth, she ran her finger on his cheekbone, tracing the place where his markings used to be.

"I've done a lot of research about reincarnation," she said. "They say people are reborn in their line. It would make sense then."

Tōga's gaze returned to the ceiling.

"To think Izayoi pushed me into therapy to get rid of the dreams."

Anger bubbled in her chest, but Gwen clamped the feeling down; she wasn't about to participate in his ex-wife's bashing, even though she was just starting to assess the damage she'd dealt. Izayoi didn't have the sight to guide her after all, and they had been tangled in a loop of loss and karma.