Chapter Thirty-Seven

Whispers

"Where do all these pipes lead?" Nekohiko's snake form hissed as he slithered down one of the polished fulgurite pipes, just to see where it would take him. "And what does all this wind do, coming through them?"

He did want to find out the answer.

But mainly, Nekohiko was just trying to act cute.

He was tired of sitting all depressed and forlorn on his windowsill and thinking about Abihiko and his... bedtime manners. And tired of following Aomi around to find more information about his soul being Bound to a tree. By now, he had already surrendered to the idea that any research about this in Nagare was moot.

The Nagare library could not possibly contain such a peculiar and obscure piece of information. While it was great at discovering technical aspects and advances of Binding -- it was mainly concerned with the physical stuff. Third-force matter and Second-force qualities at best. The First-force Binding aspects -- the conceptual and the Spiritual, like will, or soul, or cognition, or personality traits -- was not something Nagare Binders excelled or even cared about. Their interest was one-sided like most other Great Lords' finds were.

The truly diverse Binding literature was either in the Emerald Palace library or in Izumo archives. Nowhere else. Kasuga and her research were wasting her and his time.

Then again, he also was painfully aware that in her position -- being at war with Hisome Kingdom in which Izumo was located, and holding the Emperor's own family as hostages -- she could not go to either place to gain this knowledge. Mucking up on her own was her only solution, however meaningless it would end up being.

And being a hostage, Nekohiko and Abi siblings weren't allowed to send letters or messages anywhere. Let alone about such arcane subjects as soul Binding.

So instead of wallowing around or being sliced up by Kataji, he sometimes slithered into one of the bigger fulgurite pipes in the hallway and followed their length till it would take him... somewhere. Anywhere as long as it led him to the only person in the entire Nagare castle he wanted to meet.

The Wind Listener.

What had Aomi said about knowledge and digging for information? If one wanted to find it, who better to ask than the person who could eavesdrop on any conversation the wind breezed through?

So while he slithered through the pipes, he also spoke out-loud about it. He wanted that person to hear him. And to know he wanted to meet them.

Perhaps, he wanted them to find his behavior endearing or be entertained by it?

Please, do not find this creepy, he also prayed in his mind. This is not creepy at all! At least not when compared to someone who listens to everything that goes on inside the castle.

A true pervert recognizes another, as people say.

So far, his searches hadn't garnered him any results. The Wind Listener never responded to his pipe conversations, and everything the Nagare soldiers or servants talked about was daily minutiae, or some bizarre gossip about one or the other Nagare family member's sexual fetishes, allergies in food, or who "could share their toilet rags, please? Mine fell into the toilet just now."

Ugh, why were most people's conversations so meaningless? Couldn't he stumble upon something important? Something amazing once in a while?

Other times, Nekohiko sat on his cozy little window sill on which he had amassed cushions and blankets to make it his personal nest. He looked in the window and thought.

He thought of many things. Some of which he tried his best not to obsess over. But he just couldn't stop himself.

Abihiko was... one of them.

He had always been, ever since Nekohiko had awoken from his tree-like slumber -- but after his recent spying fiasco, the new dimensions added to his thoughts were particularly troubling. He simply didn't want to think of Abihiko in such ways. Abihiko-the-friend didn't exist to him anymore. Neither Abihiko-the-lover.

Most of the things in the past didn't matter because they had all been a lie. The moment that knife cut through Nekohiko's windpipe, everything good between them had become forever lost to the betrayal.

Thus, Nekohiko needed a distraction. The Wind Listener worked for that just fine.

He knew very little about this person -- nothing other than it was someone obviously related to the Nagare Family since nobody but the true Nagare Lord would be able to control the winds to such a degree.

He had only met one exception in his lifetime.

Lord Yakabe.

Kazuragi's husband. A person not related by blood to the Nagare line. Yet one who could command the winds just as easily as the Great Lord of the Skies himself.

So, could this Wind Listener be the same for Kasuga? Somehow, he doubted that. From what he'd learned about Kasuga, this young girl had only one real obsession in her life. And that was her Kingdom. Her people. And the military technological research that would help her with improving and strengthening both.

She had no time for epic love stories. She'd even had little time for her own Family members as Nekohiko had noticed a couple of times. Her bottomless reserves of politeness could only compete with her vast disinterest in anything that wasn't war or national security.

Nekohiko's best guess was -- that Kasuga had split her Nagare Lord's power and had given the lesser half to... somebody she could trust. Exactly as her fathers had done before her.

But who could be that one person she trusted so much? And why had this person interacted with Nekohiko directly once when Nekohiko was sitting on this very windowsill at night, brushing his fur with the breeze -- but never again afterward?

Well, he had a bizarre guess on to draw this person out.

Daily, as Nekohiko sat on his windowsill and contemplated the ethereal view of the outside, he talked to the drafts that prowled the room as though he were talking to a real person.

Just to be nice. Just to be kind.

"It's raining today, which is weird since it shouldn't be raining at such an altitude," Nekohiko told the window with a sigh. "I wonder what that's all about."

"Aomi's playing only gets worse with more practice. How is that even possible?"

"Another rain. Oddly, but the Nagare city is such a melancholy place... and I thought that away from the mortal earth, people should be happier, with more sunlight and rainbows..."

Talking came easy when he didn't feel the need to fake it. Something told him the person on the other side of this conversation would enjoy... anything, really. As long as it seemed heartfelt.

And Nekohiko's heart was so full of sorrow that speaking about it felt natural.

"It seems there's going to be a party tonight in Nagare's inner family circle? I overheard that one of Kasuga's little cousins has a birthday, and most everyone is invited. Even Kataji and Aomi... Though I don't think they'd go." He shrugged at his own reflection. "Maybe Aomi would. She has many dresses she wants to shock people with."

The wind rustled his back as though a caress. Nekohiko twitched his ears.

"Myself, I'm not in the mood for parties," he said. "I don't even like people that much. Never did."

He'd been saying stuff like this for a few days since that first time the Wind Listener had ruffled his fur as though to console him. That one small act of kindness he had received in return for his vulnerability was the sole basis of this relationship.

It gave Nekohiko a hint of what to do next.

"Thank you for listening to me," he told the wind. "Everyone needs it sometimes. A kind listener our words can reach. Don't we?"

He received no answer. Only silence.

But a fraught one. Because the draft seldom stopped winnowing through the rooms of the castle. Now, it stopped.

Nekohiko turned back to his window, waiting like a predator in an ambush.

He didn't want to be so predatory to this person but, truly, the ability to listen to all the winds in the Empire was an incredibly useful feat. Especially for someone who craved more knowledge about what people around him did. And why.

After a few long moments, the whistle in the pipes swelled again like a sigh.

"Yeah," Nekohiko heard in the wind, faint as a breath.

A very young person's voice -- raspy and shy.

The fur on his back twitched again when he lifted his muzzle as though to taste the wind's currents. "I could listen to you too in return. Since we're talking and all."

Honestly, he felt a bit ashamed to be so blunt and forceful. But someone had to.

The timid person on the other side would never do the first step himself. Even taking the second step felt like such an impossible task for him.

"Unless you shouldn't talk to me or anyone you're listening to?" Nekohiko went on, advancing. "I wouldn't want to endanger you. I understand how intimidating Queen Kasuga can be. She scared me that one time," he said quietly. "I bet she wouldn't like it that you're talking to one of her 'military' research targets--"

And his bait worked fast enough.

"She's not like that," the person said very clearly. "She isn't intimidating me. Don't... talk about Elder Sister in this way, please."

Ah.

Very predictable, this young man.

And Nekohiko had kind of expected it would be him anyway. Who else other than Kasuga's own little brother? It would even make sense for him to inherit half of the Lord of the Skies' power. This person wasn't blood-related to Kasuga or to any of the Nagares as well.

Like father like son.

"She wants me to be safe, that's why she doesn't want me to converse with the potential enemy," the raspy boy kept mumbling low in the draft.

Nekohiko stretched his back languidly. "I'm not your enemy, Mikawa."

This time, the hush in the winds was like a slap, so harshly it erupted. And so long it lasted.

"...you know my name?"

"Yes. Your father told me," Nekohiko replied, already content that the boy had taken the bait and now wouldn't let it go no matter what. "Both of them did, many, many times."

All he had to do was finish the dirty deed and snatch his catch while it was still too confused to guard against him.

Nekohiko jumped off the sill and made his confident way to the doors.

"I'm going for a walk through the castle. See you there, I guess," he said.

Now that he had a distraction on his mind, no melancholy thoughts of Abihiko bothered him again. Which was exactly the point.

***

Mikawa psst-ed at him when Nekohiko was passing a secluded niche in one of the corridors. The niche was small, just enough to host a small, lean boy -- and a tail-less cat.

Perfect.

"You aren't going to phase through the wall and run from me again, are you?" Nekohiko told him as he surveyed both halves of the hallway for passersby.

"Nobody is coming this way for a while," Mikawa told him breathily. "Trust me."

"How could I not -- you're the master of the winds around here." Nekohiko sat on the small ledge in the niche's wall and gave Mikawa a thorough, albeit skeptical look. "Though neither of your and Kasuga's fathers used it quite in the same manner as you do. I am unsure of how they would have reacted if they knew."

Both Kazuragi and Yakabe had children from their first marriages. Yet though Kasuga and Mikawa weren't blood-related, judging by what Nekohiko knew of Kazuragi's views, they would be raised together.

More than this -- they would be raised closer than Kasuga would be with any of the real blood relatives of Nagare family. There was one very peculiar reason for that. A tragic and gruesome one.

After all, the Nagare family members hadn't exactly liked Yakabe. And hadn't exactly wanted him in their midst. With which they had succeeded grandly.

Alas.

Hearing his dads mentioned in such a familiar manner, Mikawa blanched.

"You knew them? When did you--? Who are you?"

Not so fast, young man.

"How much have you heard about me from my conversations with Aomi and Kataji?" 

At the sound of Kataji's name, Mikawa blushed so hard, Nekohiko had no more doubts.

The boy had heard everything. Everything he and Kataji had talked about. About Kataji falling in love, about sleeping in the same bed, Aomi's jokes regarding Kataji's sex toys... agh.

Damn it. No privacy in this castle...

Yet the timidity and frailty of Mikawa gave him such a jolt of recognition, he couldn't feel mad at him for too long. 

Understandably, this boy had the exact same features as Yakabe. Mild, slightly worried, very harmless-looking. Younger than Kasuga, probably even younger than Aomi. But not much below that. He also wore Nagare's uniform even though this one didn't feel all that militant in comparison. What caught Nekohiko's attention most was Mikawa's birdlike motion with which he slightly turned his head as though he was hearing something most people wouldn't.

"It's all right if you heard," Nekohiko calmed him down. "I don't mind it. I have nothing to hide."

The boy had crouched down on the floor to be level with Nekohiko and now looked at him, eyes wide-open, his raspy breaths labored in high emotion. "Really? You aren't mad at me?" He dropped his eyes, shy. "Most people would be."

Nekohiko spread his paws. "You're in luck. I am not most people."

And with that, the boy finally eased down somewhat. It was a start.

Nekohiko was indeed unconcerned with what the boy had overheard or not. He would never say anything in Kataji's or Aomi's presence that would hint at his true identity or the true identity of his future victims. Duh. He wasn't stupid. So most likely -- Mikawa was only the third person who knew exactly the same thing about him as the two Abi siblings did.

Two people -- three people? What was the big difference? All they knew about him was a lie. He wouldn't mind it even if Kasuga knew, honestly. Not like any of them could do much with such flimsy information.

"I swear I don't do it because I enjoy encroaching on other people's personal stuff," Mikawa told him earnestly. "It's just that... you are the enemy. And so..."

"Espionage. Surveillance." Peeping on something you might not necessarily want to? Then paying the price in shamelessness after it bites you back in the butt. Sure, Nekohiko had heard of something like that from somewhere... "I understand."

"Anything that helps the Elder Sister in this war," Mikawa whispered, eyes pained. "We don't have much to work with, you see? It's three against one. It's unfair, so..."

House Towa, House Hira, House Hisome. Against one House of Nagare.

"...you had to get creative," Nekohiko finished for him.

The two sat in silence for a moment. Then, as though remembering about his suspicions, Mikawa's gaze grew heavy. He drew back a bit. "So who are you? I know you're not related to Aomi or... Kataji." Again with the blushing! Nothing happens between me and Kataji! Nekohiko growled in his mind. Mikawa stammered but forced himself to go on. "I know about Tenma, the man you want to have your revenge upon. But... where did you come from? And how did you know my fathers?"

Nekohiko gave him what he imagined was a soothing smile. "I met them a couple of times. They were Spirit Wayfaring a lot, and so was I. All Binder pilgrims are bound to meet on the Spiritway sooner or later, as the idiom goes."

As though a breath of fresh air touched Mikawa's expression. His cheeks dimpled when he smiled. "Spirit Wayfaring. Ah. That must be nice to be one. I envy you." He suddenly realized his mishap. "I meant... sorry. I guess you cannot go Wayfaring anymore..."

"No, I cannot."

Nekohiko didn't add more. With people as nice and easily-flustered as Mikawa, it was best to leave them to their own devices rather than to placate them at every turn. First of all, the boy would only grow more humiliated if Nekohiko tried. And second of all... if the boy felt a bit guilty toward him, it was for the better.

Guilty people were useful people. Or at least easily-coerced into many things they would otherwise refuse.

"You can hear everything anyone does? Just like that?" Nekohiko let out a disbelieving laugh. "How had Nagare still not defeated everyone else with someone like you at their side?"

"N-no. It takes... focus and... my Binding. People usually know it when I snoop around with the Winds. They feel my aura touching them. It is only in Nagare castle with all these..." He pointed a finger up to the whistling fulgurite. "Pipes. Here, I don't need to Bind so close to others, so they can't sense me. But even in this castle, the wind movements are... restricted. Elder Sister doesn't want me to hear everyone, of course."

"I wouldn't either," Nekohiko said. "Most people's conversations aren't remotely nice."

"Mn," came the barely audible reply.

"Is there a reason you haven't told Kasuga the truth about me?" was the last thing Nekohiko truly needed to check.

Mikawa turned to the side as if embarrassed. "No. I just... thought... that there is no real need to tell... She would be too worried about it. She would try to help you if you told her the truth yourself! But since you didn't... I feel that it would only worry her for no reason and bring her more trouble than she needs right now."

With the war at the borders, yes.

Nekohiko cocked his furry little chin, studying Mikawa's hunched little figure with much more understanding now. The boy truly loved his big sister. Such neediness and blind faith never came from nothing, though.

"I didn't want to lie to your sister either," Nekohiko whispered. "But she is intimidating, and I didn't know if she wouldn't harm me, so..."

Nervous, Mikawa nodded like a toy head-bobber. "I understand. Plus, I didn't think you were dangerous to her, otherwise I'd tell her straight away. You seem... nice? I kind of... relate to you. In many ways."

Nice?

Nekohiko felt a little bad for having manipulated this little boy so much already. Though he hadn't done that on purpose. He had really been sad and lonely when he told it to Mikawa that hideous, "perverted" night. But to think that if he was "sad and lonely" that somehow meant he was a nice person?

Oh, Mikawa. Such a young, naive boy...

The idea was heartbreaking. Yakabe's child, trapped in Nagare family's castle, hiding from sight even though he literally held half of all Nagare power in his hands and could hear everything that went inside the castle...

With how much the Nagare family had always hated Yakabe, Nekohiko didn't doubt that Nagares hated Mikawa too. What terrible words about himself or his blood father had Mikawa overheard in this place? If most people weren't even aware that the Lord of the Skies could hear them and thus weren't restraining their mouths...

Worst still, what if Mikawa had hidden those words from Kasuga as he had hidden the truth about Nekohiko from her -- just to keep her mind away from worries?

No wonder this boy was so easily spooked and constantly traveling through the walls, afraid to go into the hallways or be seen by others.

"Sad and lonely" gained many new facets when viewed from this angle.

"Thank you," Nekohiko squeezed out. "And thank you for listening to me talk all those times. I wasn't lying when I said that you can talk to me, too. Any time you want. In fact... Kataji and Aomi also wouldn't mind--"

"No! No, no! I wouldn't want to bother anyone!" Mikawa started coughing with how frightened he became. "I'm very sorry I bothered you too much already!"

Mikawa...

"I just wanted to hear something about my fathers. I haven't had many opportunities to talk about them with anyone, so..."

Nekohiko leaned his muzzle to his shoulder as though to rub his ear against him. As gently as he could, he said, "I have all the time in the world, Mikawa. What would you like to know?"

***

It was only the beginning. He couldn't push the boy too far in his machinations. He wanted to find out many things, but he also understood that Mikawa would only buck away if he was too forceful about it.

In fact, the boy already suspected he was being used in some way.

The two of them walked back to the rooms, Mikawa shying away from being seen by anyone and flinching at everything he found too scary.

But it didn't stop him from being straightforward with things that mattered to him most.

"Could you... stop slithering through all those pipes every day, please?" Mikawa looked stunned with his own audacity, so he quickly explained. "It hurts my ears when you do that. I mean, if it's not too much of me to ask. I wouldn't want to stop you from doing something... you enjoy..."

Damn it, boy. Who enjoys slithering through pipes? Who do you think I am?

"I'll stop," Nekohiko promised.

But Mikawa was still bothered. "Why do you do that, though? Were you really trying to find me through them? Or did you... spy on Elder Sister? Because if you did... please don't. Even I'm not allowed to listen in on their military councils or any of the commanding officers' talks. Also..." He paused, hiding behind a corner because he spotted one of his Nagare relatives from afar. "If you spy on Elder Sister for some other Kingdom's benefit, that would make you our enemy. So I wouldn't be able to speak to you if that is the case. You understand, I hope..."

This boy was entirely too pure for his own good. Making him do something for Nekohiko would be much harder than Nekohiko had initially thought, huh.

Time to improvise.

"I was merely trying to find out something from Kasuga about my situation." He sat down, giving Mikawa the most catly, big-eyed expression he could summon. "I want to know what she researches about me. After all, it is my body. It is my life. I want to know what happened to me when I was Bound to this tree and why." Subtly, he cocked his head. "Perhaps... you could help me with that instead?"

There it was. The slight ache on Mikawa's face as the boy confirmed his suspicions of being "used" by Nekohiko. But Mikawa nodded nonetheless. "Of course..."

"I would like..." Nekohiko went on quickly to stop the boy from getting upset about it. "...your Wind Whispers to find out about the Emerald Fir trees in the Empire. Can you?"

The most innocent thing one could ask for.

Just to throw Mikawa off his doubts.

Indeed, the boy blinked at him, surprised. "Emerald Firs?"

"Yeah. That's me. I am a log of one, but I have no idea where my tree had come from. Can you understand how frustrating that is?" Nekohiko checked that the corridor was clear once again, then took the lead down it. Mikawa shuffled behind, clearly intrigued and far less suspicious than before. "There are very few Emerald Firs, to begin with, so if I can check which one of them had been cut in recent years, that would probably be my tree. And from that, I'll find out the rest of the things I want to know. See? Simple."

"Check out all the Emerald fir trees in the Empire," Mikawa repeated, thoughtful. His face lit up. "Mn! That doesn't sound so hard."

Nekohiko gave him a smile. "Thank you, Mikawa. You have no idea how much it means to me to have found you. I felt so lost and lonely before... with no one to really talk to."

Too obvious?

Too creepy?

Whatever, as long as it worked.

Mikawa blushed severely, then nodded and ran away. And Nekohiko, once he got back to his windowsill to lounge upon, did exactly as he had promised to the young boy. He shifted to his snake form and tried to backtrack it to whichever way Aomi's and Kataji's quarters were.

But that took him quite a while. And to quite unexpected places.

He only heard the trail of the conversation from the small corridor he was passing, but...

Etsuko.

Saying Abihiko's name to someone. Only from afar, but so distinctly.

His heart jolted in vain. The information being said wasn't very much related to him or his plans. But it was something he found astounding nonetheless and couldn't help but want to overhear. Finally! Something that wasn't a conversation about toilet rags or Seventh Nagare Uncle's frilly dress fetish!

Three sets of footsteps slowly shuffled on the glassy floor as though the officers were pacing or tapping their feet on one spot. Or wishing to go but restraining themselves.

Etsuko's harsh voice was mumbling.

"...no matter how hard they hid it, the truth still got out. Of course Kasuga will one day find out what that bastard did. And how that foster of his, Okinaga, helped him."

"But Hiras aren't our real enemy. They can help against the Towas and would definitely band against Hisomes," another voice tried.

Etsuko cut them all off with a dry, bitter chuckle that sounded more like a grunt.

"These people are as traitorous as Hisomes themselves. Trust no Lord and no Lordling, even someone known to be as righteous as Hira Okinaga. Lord Kazuragi's blood is on the Emperor's and Okinaga's hands."

...

Nekohiko stilled.

Abihiko... had killed Lord Kazuragi?

When?!

Last time Nekohiko had seen Kazuragi, Kazuragi had still been alive! Of course he'd read in historical records that brave Nagare Lord had died during the sacking of the Emerald Palace on the same night Nekohiko had died -- but he had thought Kazuragi had fallen to... an enemy. To one of the Usurper's guards or assassins or whatever?

But never to... Abihiko and Okinaga!

Because -- how could that be? Kazuragi and Okinaga were allies in that battle. More than that -- Kazuragi was one of Abihiko's role models and idols! Abihiko would never raise his hand on Kazuragi like that!

What was even going on with these people?

"...I heard the rumors, but..." one of the male officers said, tsking. "Truly? Hira Okinaga backstabbed the Sky Lord just like that? After all they've been through together?"

"I was there," Etsuko said hollowly. "That night, many things happened that I wish I could forget. But Lord Kazuragi's death will never be one of them."

Nekohiko listened, only growing dizzier as his brain refused to absorb this information. So nonsensical it was.

"We cannot allow her to fall prey to these people's sweet words like her father did," Etsuko's voice now trailed further away as though turning a corner. "No diplomacy. No armistice is worth it."

"But His Supreme Divine Majesty had sent ambassadors to--" the male officer began again.

Nothing could rival Etsuko's hard, metallic attitude. "Sent them away. And tell them that if they keep pestering us, we will send the Emperor something else in return."

The silence lasted only a little, but Nekohiko had a terrible hunch of what she was speaking about.

He knew this woman and her strategic methods of destabilizing her opponents all too well.

"The Spiritway law doesn't allow anyone to lay a hand on the Emperor's little sister, yes? But his little brother is seventeen already, is he not?" Etsuko asked the other two very quietly. "He can be harmed. He can be killed. He can be used to his fullest advantage against his traitorous brother."

Nekohiko's heart, already disrupted by the absurd news about Kazuragi's death, now chilled till painful.

"Yes, Commander."

"The boy is seventeen, Commander."

He could imagine the cold glint of a smile in that woman's eyes even though her lips would never betray one.

"Good," she said and marched away, flanked by both of her subordinates. "Young master Kataji is our biggest asset in this war, then. And he doesn't need to keep all four of his limbs by the end of this parley, does he?"

Queenfisher

/busy drawing +_+. Can't promise I can draw the meme doggo picture (because the fire is simple and perfect in the original, but the many chibi characters in its stead might be too busy for one picture and thus drown it out in nonsense!), but the idea inspires me and makes me want to try ^^. The Picture Dump chappy will be Monday, with the Nagare Family members and their Glossary pages (Yakabe/Kazuragi, Mikawa and Kasuga, ~nya)...  since it's overdue, I think! *_*