The Long Road to Freedom 2: Fire on the Water

Caveat

1404 early-Muromachi Period, Autumn, Shanghai

Kintsuke worded her proposal carefully, mindful of the deepening scowl on her grandfather's face. Suddenly, he laughed, but he did not sound amused.

"It must be a family trait, I suppose, this brazenness. I'm curious to know how you've survived all these years in such manner; a petty half-breed with barely any claws of its own gallivanting about as though it were a creature of any significance. Surely some true demon or other should have crushed you under-foot for your impudence by now, and yet."

Kintsuke swallowed down the urge to smile.

'Oh, how they tried...'

He stroked at his mustache for a moment, continuing to size her up before seeming to come to a decision.

"This...artifice of yours... you realize it's only feasible if you are able to master the other hues, I'm sure."

Kintsuke simply nodded. He saw right through her, as she expected he would.

"Of course, that is your plan. That is your profit in this, further knowledge and training."

He mused.

"Yes. Well, it could be entertaining, I suppose. Either way, it would be a waste not to at least examine the potential, with so few of us left."

She resisted the urge to speak, or even to move, lest she alter his temperament. He was coming around, she felt, slowly, but surely, like a wolf inspecting a bone. She waited patiently as he considered. One day, two days, three; finally, he acceded. Should she prove herself capable of harnessing another hue, he would accept her proposal.

Her trials began almost immediately. He tested her first for basic combat abilities with her green and purple flames. To say he considered them lacking would be kind, and he gladly showed her how it was supposed to be done with his own flames, nearly running her ragged as she danced and tumbled out of reach of the ravenous green. She tried to counter with her own, to block with tangible purple, but she wasn't anywhere near strong enough to do anything but deflect.

He drove her back, and she stumbled against one of the braziers marking the combat circle, filled with natural red and yellow fire. She forgot to reach out to those flames, to taint them with her youki as she caught herself hands-first in its bed of coals. She was too slow to save her hanfu from them, throwing herself back and away as she cradled her charred hands to her belly.

She heard her grandfather guffaw, and he mistook her expression of pain for one of humility.

"Do not be shamed," he laughed, "Daiyufan wasn't fireproof, either."

She fought the urge to narrow her eyes at his gleeful countenance; he was having far too much fun with this for her taste.

***

1407 mid-Muromachi Period, Winter, Shanghai

It had taken Kintsuke every bit of three years to bring herself to the level her grandfather demanded and become acquainted with her new hue. This one was blue, calm and almost cool; a neutralizing flame that ate away at such toxic things as shouki or miasma. It wasn't one that reached terribly far, only a few feet at most, and she found that depending on the strength of what she was dissolving away, the fire consumed varying amounts of her energy.

She was appalled by how little she actually understood of her own powers, and equally amazed that she had managed to make it this far on her own, considering. So many shades of power... As she came to understand them, to 'see' the prism more clearly, she found she could no longer hold a grudge against Shoucheng for desiring it so badly; though she still had no regrets about killing the woman. All was fair in the struggle to survive, after all.

One day, she thought to herself, I will truly be a force to be reckoned with. She let her mind wander through the lush forest that was her future. She had grown so much, and she felt that even without the mastery of any other hues, there was nothing now that she couldn't do. She could live alone if she so chose; she could establish a humble domain to lord over if it pleased her; she could settle nowhere and instead travel on a whim. In fact, there was nothing she could conceive of that she desired or would require which was beyond her ability to obtain.

The road before her continued to stretch on beyond the distance she could, at this moment, perceive. She knew, too, that it was filled with perils she could not yet fathom, but with every beat of her heart, every twinge of pain and fatigue, every time she dragged herself again from the floor, her power only increased and she was that much closer to fulfilling her dreams.

Unbeknownst to the little hanyou, her grandfather saw it, too; and it was exactly what he wanted.

***

Musashi

Sesshoumaru examined the still-healing wounds on his torso from his battle earlier in the day. The hot water of the spring he'd found stung something fierce, but it eased the stiffness and fatigue from his muscles, so he endured it. Hot springs were an uncommon luxury in his travels, and he found no reason to deny himself their substantial rejuvenating benefits.

He was making slow progress in his hunt for his father's tomb, and even slower progress in furthering his own power. If he was honest, he was angry with himself for it. Jaken, of course, noticed nothing, or at the very least said nothing. The imp seemed to believe every word spoken and every choice made was the result of some masterful deduction and intent on Sesshoumaru's part; a well-behaved vassal, indeed.

'When he has the good sense to be silent.'

He slipped under the water one final time and hoisted from the pool, ensuring the imp was not around before bounding easily into the chilly clouds, releasing his guise to run among them in his true form until his fur was smooth and dry. The cold didn't bother him much, and this far up, he could see for miles; across the plains and into the snow-covered mountains.

He could even spot the picketed fortress he knew belonged to the taijiya, a group of humans well-trained in the arts of slaying demons. His father had been on benevolent terms with them when he was alive, and while Sesshoumaru still could not fathom why he, a superior demon of great age and skill, need be mindful of such upstarts, neither did he wish to test their firmly-established reputation of being the finest slayers in Musashi.

He alighted down to the spring once more, dressing and collecting his entourage before making his way towards the northern mountains just beyond the edge of his personal territory. There was a particular Tengu prince he needed to have words with.