Chapter Sixty-One

Property

 

On their ride back to Hira Okinaga's mansion in Nara, Nekohiko jittered, trying to regain his calm after what had happened in the Palace. Luckily, he and Kataji had run down the Palace stairs and were off to their carriage in a matter of minutes. But behind them, Nekohiko had heard some commotion as the Imperial bodyguards and some of the dummies rushed out to search for someone.

Not for me, right?

Please, not for me.

Nekohiko threw back skittish glances out of the small window while their carriage trundled out of the square before the shadowy park that surrounded the Palace. Dark, sprawling trees and shrubs sailed by, lit by glowing lights. Such a lengthy ride, so slow... his nerves were strung taut and he found it hard to focus his thoughts on anything other than Abihiko's wild stare.

Other than Abihiko's low, predatory voice as he had whispered at him:

I will not let you go.

Never.

Nekohiko's heart wound up faster, fluttering in his chest like a trapped bird. Angry at himself, he shut his eyes and switched his mind over to the seashell. Just to know what was happening around Abihiko...

It wasn't much. The reception was still going, only now Abihiko was forced to hang around Sakami and Morokata as Morokata kept talking to some other nobles who had come to congratulate the Emperor and his soon-to-be family members on the wonderful news.

Abihiko's chin was lowered, his body motionless, even lifeless under the admiring gazes of so many people. Sakami's -- worst of all. That young woman never stopped glancing at him with a concerned, stabbed expression like a puppy that wanted her master's attention but knew she wouldn't get any.

Abihiko didn't even consider her proximity to him, but neither he considered Morokata's or anyone else around.

His heart was skipping and fluttering in his chest all the same, as if in a coincidental echo of Nekohiko's agitated pulse.

This wasn't helping.

This was only making it worse, and now Nekohiko couldn't think of anything else other than Abihiko's dumb heart rate!

He forced himself to shift back to his doll self and peer out the window again. Where were they?

The Palace park... the bridge over the moat surrounding the Palace... passing the entrance arch now...

After the Palace gates, the carriage finally gained speed comparable that to a horse.

"Kataji." Nekohiko put his hand around Kataji's wrist, exhaling in relief. "I think we need to get out of this carriage once we get to a livelier street and then go to Okinaga's mansion on foot."

Compared to him, Kataji had not succeeded in reclaiming his peace of mind. He was still seething, lips pressed hard and nostrils flaring as he glared at the floor beneath his feet.

"Why?" he said, barely restrained.

"Your Eldest Brother might have sent some dummies or people after us."

Knowing Abihiko and how persistent he could be with a goal in mind, Nekohiko accepted this outcome as a given. Yet he shouldn't be able to, since as mere Itsuki, an utter stranger to Kataji's brother -- he wasn't supposed to know Abihiko that well, no?

But Kataji didn't notice this slip.

"He might," he said, taking a peek outside. "That's very much like Abihiko. To chase after, to hunt down. To take, without asking. Just the way he... looked at you back there... The way he grabbed you. That utter lack of respect for others. That... insolence."

His fingers slowly curled into a fist on his lap. Not wanting Kataji to keep steaming in his suspicions and anger toward his brother, Nekohiko cleared his throat and tried another topic.

"Do you think Mikawa is sleeping--?"

"He pushed me away with his Binding when I tried to shield you from him, too," Kataji kept going as though transfixed. "Binders always abuse non-Binders. But for my own brother to do that to me while he was trying to steal what's mine and just... take for himself..."

Steal what's mine?

Erm...

"This place is good," Nekohiko said after another glance outside. They had already arrived at a corner of one of the main entertainment streets, so even so late at night, lanterns, music, dummies, bustling people, and all the fascinating scents of the perfumed stores and exotic dishes filled the air. 

No better place to lose their potential pursuers in.

Nekohiko jumped out and caught Kataji when he stumbled down the carriage steps clumsily. The carriage never stopped, drawn by its Bound mechanism back to Okinaga's mansion no matter what -- and through the most picturesque route in Nara as most local carriages were charmed to do unless ordered otherwise.

Good. The carriage would waste so much time on the navigation that the two of them could get way ahead of it.

"Let's go." Nekohiko took the lead, dashing through the crowd of oblivious passersby to shortcut to the mansion before the carriage would arrive there.

But he didn't try to hold Kataji's hand anymore. Ah, Kataji was surely a big boy to be able to follow by himself. Plus, Nekohiko wanted nothing to do with how Kataji was still so obviously pissed at Abihiko...

Nekohiko was also pissed at Abihiko, but for different reasons. And these reasons were very hard for him to define. There were just so many of them...

Abihiko's stupid wedding.

Secluded preparation for the ceremony.

A forced one-to-six-months retiring from the Imperial duties? A one-on-one honeymoon with his new wife?

Sure. Why not.

"Was he beautiful to look at?" Kataji's voice suddenly came from behind him.

Nekohiko almost tripped in shock. "...he?"

"You know who I'm talking about. Abihiko," Kataji said hollowly. "You hardly took your eyes off him and you kept blushing and... squirming and... sounding so fake and coy with him. It just made me wonder if it's true..."

Who in their right mind would tolerate insinuations like these? Nekohiko swung around to face him. His tone was chilly. "...if what's true?"

"That Abihiko is just an overall better version of me." Kataji smiled at him, trying to not sound so frustrated. But he failed. "And that he is, apparently, so irresistible for most people."

"We have to hurry if we want to get to the mansion before our carriage," Nekohiko snapped, pushing Kataji down another charming little bystreet they were cutting through. "This isn't even the first time he and I met, remember?"

"And the first time you and he met, you bit him for no reason. Then allowed him to catch you in his arms and cuddle you," Kataji's low reply came.

Argh, Spirits! Was it hard to not gnash his teeth now.

What a low kick, to give to Nekohiko when he needed this humiliating reminder least...

Nekohiko pretended he didn't hear anything and picked up his running speed as he rushed down the district's alleys. And luckily, Kataji didn't prod the topic again.

It wasn't long before the recognizable spiky, elaborate outline of Okinaga's mansion popped at them from beyond the neighboring garden treetops. The night had softened all the edges of the buildings and trees making the empty street in front of the mansion gates seem so alien and foreboding. As though in anticipation of something insidious to happen.

"Not through the gates," Nekohiko said.

He slunk past the cedars lining the street, keeping by the tall stone wall of Okinaga's mansion. Kataji followed behind, not as quietly as Nekohiko wanted him to. Just tolerable enough that when the noise of an approaching procession reached the two of them, they could melt back into the shadows of the trees unnoticed.

The carriage they had abandoned hummed and sizzled with the Bound mechanism propelling it forward while several strands of horse hooves clopped behind it on the cobbled street.

The first among them was a stout man in the Imperial bodyguard's emerald uniform, his mirrory green helmet covering the upper half of his face like a mask. He spurred his steed Bound from dark silver toward Okinaga's gates. The Imperial Bound dummies and other men on metallic horses followed suit, clearly already disinterested in the empty carriage.

"Open," the Imperial guard commanded to the mansion's dummy guards who manned the gates. The doors swung ajar that same moment, all the dummies and even the human guards of Okinaga's bowing deeply to the intruding guests.

"Abihiko would go to such lengths to follow us because he thinks you are some kind of a spy who manipulates me?!" Kataji hissed in dismay. "Is he mad?"

Tsk, so naive.

Nekohiko shushed him. "I will go in and wake Mikawa. With him -- we can avoid anyone following us since nobody has as good control of the winds as he does."

"You're not going anywhere!" Kataji spat. "Don't you see that Abihiko has actually sent his own bodyguards to take you and me back to the Palace? That bastard... what have we ever done to him!"

Nekohiko spoke, his tone leaden.

"Kataji, I don't plan on getting caught by him or his men tonight, trust me on this."

Not under such circumstances.

Not when Abihiko had so much power against him. If Abihiko wanted, he could imprison him by his political power at any moment, destroy or harm him magically, dominate his meager doll body physically. What kind of odds were these?

There was only one circumstance under which Nekohiko would ever want to approach Abihiko on his own.

If he had reclaimed his magic. And with Morokata's and Hibiki's help, that was a very good chance. If he made the best use of his time, he could even have a body that accessed all his powers by tomorrow's evening.

Good odds.

Perfect odds, in fact.

Provided they weren't caught and made it to Hibiki's doll shop before the morning.

"But there are so many guards and dummies there! Look!" Kataji panicked, gripping Nekohiko's sleeve in his fingers, not letting him go. "Alone, you won't be able to get rid of them all!"

"I don't have to. You will."

...

Kataji blinked, startled, and Nekohiko leaned to him to whisper in his face -- as reassuringly as he could. "You stall them. You will demand to be shown written orders. You make them miserable, in general. Can you?"

The young man's eyes burned on his ashen face, his red lips quivering around words that refused to come out. "I can. And you...?"

Since there was not much point in concealing his magic trail here, Nekohiko's small spells wouldn't even alert anyone to his presence. Yet, at least.

He rucked up his pant leg, exposing his wooden ankle. With just a minuscule stroke of Nagare Binding, he sheared off a sliver of his own wood from the leg. A thin slice -- a chip of wood. He gave it to Kataji.

"We can communicate through it so that you'll know when you can leave and find Mikawa and me elsewhere."

"Mn!" Excited, Kataji squeezed the chip in his fingers as though suddenly finding faith in this endeavor. "I have to doodle on eyes and a mouth on it, though. If only we had a pencil--"

But Nekohiko already Bound a few threads from Kataji's robes onto the wood chip in the shape of the eyes, ears, and a mouth. Much better than drawing with pencils. For a Binder, every material was both a canvas and graphite.

"Oh. Being a Binder is truly a wholly different level of existence, isn't it?" Kataji mused, grim. His eyes flicked to Nekohiko's for a fraction of a heartbeat, then fell away with an unpleasant shade of dark humor in them. "Must be nice."

Was it, though?

Not when Nekohiko had to use so many spells one after the other as he carefully hopped up the mansion wall while trying to remain hidden from the unwanted eyes. Kataji had already marched off to the gates, preparing his haughty, demanding persona to assault the Imperial guards with. Nekohiko had only a few minutes of this diversion when he could scale the walls, land down in the mansion's immense garden, and stalk through the trees and arches to the main building. To the window of Mikawa's room.

The nightly gloom and the hush of the backyard behind Okinaga's main house invigorated him. Leaves and grasses rustled in his ears while the agitated voices of Kataji and the guards came to him from afar.

His hands never stopped casting. A floating spell, an obscuring spell, a speeding-up spell, the spell of inattention over the mansion's servants, and the spell of disabling one the Okinaga's dummies he met. Too many spells at once. His control was slipping and so did his ease in using his doll body parts.

But he managed. Just when he prepared to cast a propelling spell to fly himself into Mikawa's window, the boy's short-haired head popped out over the sill, peering at him.

"I heard everything," Mikawa told him, his eyes round and white-edged with fear. "Come on in!"

A warm gust of wind, considerate yet powerful, swept through the backyard under the window. The gusts clutched Nekohiko in their intangible grip, then lifted him up and into the room as easily as a mother cat would -- her kitten.

Yes, this boy was indispensable.

Nekohiko had no idea what he'd be doing tonight without Mikawa here.

The boy's room flickered in the cozy glow of his shrine lantern, harsh shadows highlighting the disarray the room was in. Mikawa was darting through his things, gathering them in his arms.

"You two plan to stay somewhere else," Mikawa was saying as he packed. "I heard you say that. Some inn far from the main streets, yes? We would need a change of clothes and money, if so..."

Ah, Mikawa was made for adapting to dire situations, wasn't he? Nekohiko quickly stripped the rigid outer layers of his fancy gold gown and reached for his day clothes Mikawa had already carried over from Kataji's room.

"The most important things we need," he said as Mikawa helped him get the tiresome jewelry and hairpins out of Nekohiko's elaborate hairdo, "are the Hisome Family's invitation pendants. The ones King Morokata gave you and Kataji in the restaurant. You still have yours, yes?"

Mikawa nodded.

"Good. Keep it." Nekohiko darted into the hallway to cast a searching spell into Kataji's room because he had no time to look for the second Hisome pendant himself.

The pendant hadn't been stashed too far away. It flew into Nekohiko's hand almost instantaneously, and the entire preparation to leave was over.

He'd been dreading having to wake up Mikawa and explain to him the sticky situation they were currently in -- but none of that was necessary.

Look at this youth, standing in the middle of the room, dressed, tidy, with a packed bag over his shoulder, his frail-looking face upturned, enormous eyes staring -- waiting for Nekohiko to tell him what to do next...

What an admirable, noble young man.

Yakabe would be so proud of you, Nekohiko thought, and his chest stirred with a long-suppressed ache.

"Mikawa, have I ever told you how lucky I am to know you?"

And to have known your fathers?

But the boy grew frightened by this confession. "W-why are you telling this to me now? Did... I do something wrong?"

Nekohiko couldn't help but smile. "No! Not in the world. Don't mind me. I'm only rambling..."

The two climbed out of the windows of Kataji's room, ready to take flight when--

Kataji's fingernail very insistently scraped the surface of Nekohiko's wood chip in his hand.

Like Nekohiko's personal alarm.

Nekohiko clung to the window frame to not fall while he was checking in on Kataji, then shifted his mind to the woodchip.

And there...

Oh, there was misery and pure unbridled frustration surging around.

The front yard of Okinaga's mansion swarmed with flocks of servants and dummies some of which had been awakened from their beds by all the commotion. The bright fires in all the yard's lanterns threw jagged shadows of the agitated people to the tiled ground. Everyone gaped at the center -- where the House Lady Saeko had a face-off with the Imperial guards sent to demand access to Lord Okinaga's home.

She would have allowed them in already because Abihiko had always had free reign over anything Okinaga had. Yet this time, the situation was slightly different.

Kataji, the house guest, refused to acquiesce. And as his hostess, Saeko could not allow the Imperial guards to force him without written orders by the Emperor himself stating so.

Nekohiko's consciousness emerged in the middle of all this just in time to hear the end of the Emperor's order being read aloud by the captain of the guards. Kataji's hands around the wood chip were shaking, but not with fear. Instead -- with such deep rage, Nekohiko couldn't believe the wood chip hadn't yet split in half.

The Imperial guard's low, hoarse voice reverberated through the yard.

"...and the Imperial bodyguard squad sent there has free reign to do anything to reclaim Our Supreme Divine Majesty's property and bring it to the Emerald Palace as soon as possible while avoiding any harm or trauma to the said property or to Our Majesty's beloved brother Kataji, and thus--"

"His Majesty's property?" Kataji's voice sounded chillingly in the yard's hush. "His fucking property?!"

As though whipped, Saeko stumbled back while the Imperial bodyguards only narrowed their eyes at Kataji. Even as the Emperor's own brother, Kataji would not be allowed such freedoms as cursing the ruler of the Empire without consequences. But since the order had explicitly stated that no harm could come to Kataji, the bodyguards didn't know how to react to this.

And Kataji abused the hell out of it.

"His property? In which fucking way is my doll, my dummy -- my own project -- his property?!" he roared, teeth bared.

Unfazed, the captain of the bodyguards lifted the scroll with the order on which glowed a very distinct insignia of the Emperor's power.

"This insignia ¹The same brand that was back in the 1st Chapter. has been branded and imprinted onto the wooden log of the Emerald Fir tree his Majesty sent to you in the Red Stone estate," the captain said, inclining his head when Kataji stepped forward to see better. "His Majesty says this Bound insignia would have marked the entirety of the log grain and thus any part of the said log would still bear his own brand if checked with Binding. Which makes anything made, crafted, and Bound out of that log -- His Majesty's indisputable property."

Even as a mere wood chip, Nekohiko choked in indignation at this idea.

Abihiko's property?

Excuse me?!

"We have only come to claim what is the Emperor's, nothing that does not belong to His Majesty."

In an aggravated rush, Kataji ripped the scroll out of the guard's hand and tried to tear it to shreds. The nearest bodyguards caught him before he could, and the captain himself cast a spell to protect the Emperor's order against physical damage.

But Kataji wasn't that easy to quell.

"You are harming me! This is harm to the Emperor's brother!" he screamed, shoving the guards off himself. "I will tell him how you treated me!"

Fully aware of how badly that could turn out for them, most of the bodyguards drew back, afraid to so much as touch Kataji when he was having his tantrum. But it wasn't as though his tantrum stopped them from invading the mansion in search of their primary goal.

A few already moved to the entrance while the others maintained a careful half-circle around Kataji to not let him obstruct their way or harm himself on purpose.

"Take your stupid order and shove it up Abihiko's--"

Nekohiko didn't need to hear more.

He only slipped to Kataji in the feeblest of whispers, "Get out of there," and switched back to his doll body.

They were ready to leave. Kataji didn't need to distract anyone any longer.

Back in his doll form, Nekohiko turned around sharply, poking his head back inside Kataji's room through the window. His fingers moved, casting a simple magnetic spell that summoned all similar objects to each other.

From the different corners of Kataji's room, the remnants and small shavings of his wood form flew to him. Wood chip, splinters, failed and broken body parts as well as spares. Mikawa readily stuffed them in his bag even without Nekohiko having to explain what he was doing and why.

Out of all people, Mikawa would have heard everything the soldiers had said and thus would never need explanations. But Nekohiko still felt he needed to elaborate on this.

So when Mikawa looped Nekohiko's arm around his back and lofted both himself and Nekohiko into the air, flying away from Okinaga's mansion, Nekohiko tried to make some sense to the boy of what tonight's disturbances had all been about.

"Abihiko... um... hated that Kataji stole his wood to make my doll form, so..." he began awkwardly. "He wants all this wood back regardless of which form it would come in..."

Mikawa listened, face grave with thinking. The gentle night wind splashed his short hair and Nekohiko's long locks and beat their clothes flapping all around them as they flew. Roofs of mansions and estates swept by beneath them, the enormous tree-buildings of the governmental district rushed by in the translucent, glowing branches and rustly canopies. Like Nekohiko had asked him, Mikawa took his route down toward the Artists' district, and the familiar outlines of streets Nekohiko had fallen in love years ago soon drew him back into a better mood.

But not Mikawa.

"I understand." He landed softly on the grass in one of the gardens behind the inns on the Potters' street. "His Majesty... likes you. And wants to take you from Master Kataji."

This time, Nekohiko actually choked. "No. N-no! What?"

Why did it sound as if he was actual property changing hands because everyone coveted him?

"Master Kataji's anger wouldn't be this high otherwise. I mean..." Mikawa averted his eyes. "He hated it when Elder Sister wanted to take you from him. But it's not the same level of... resentment he feels now..."

Nekohiko shook his head, annoyed. "He's just cranky after the reception at the Palace. You know how he hates big gatherings."

But Mikawa's voice was steady, if faint. "His heartbeat is all wrong and his breathing and even his body temperature... I don't think tonight is at all like the other times."

...damn it. Not something I wished to know, but...

"You can have such an intimate portrait of a person through the winds, huh," Nekohiko said.

Mikawa stilled, instantly uncomfortable. "I usually do not, yet tonight, Master Kataji's emotions alarmed me so much that I wanted to check if he was all right. Please do not tell him. I won't ever do it again."

"I won't. But please -- if you can -- do it again," Nekohiko said. He jerked his chin to the side to invite Mikawa after himself and took a casual stroll out of the garden and into the street livened up by rare passersby. Nobody so much as noticed them. "Not to prod at him but just to see... if he's fine. I worry about him a lot. He can sometimes get these anger flashes..."

"Mn. He does."

"I don't want him to hurt himself. Or others. So," Nekohiko dithered, not wanting to sound as though he was ordering Mikawa to spy on Kataji's emotional well-being. Even if this was exactly what he was doing, "if you hear his emotions suddenly spike up like they did today, could you tell me so that I could take care of it?"

The boy nodded and Nekohiko left it at that. With their flight from Okinaga's mansion not being followed, Nekohiko's tension finally dissipated. They were safe. And right where they needed to be to hide from Abihiko's pursuit for as long as they liked.

Yes, Abihiko was the Emperor. But as Nekohiko had seen back in the Palace -- even the Emperor had boundaries beyond which he couldn't go. Or at least this particular Emperor had such boundaries. If Nekohiko was on the throne, he would never allow anyone to restrain his powers or his reach in such a pathetic manner. But oh well. Not all Emperors were destined for greatness.

The sprawling mansion of the Hisome family began just a few street blocks away. A mesmerizing building -- soft shades of lilac just barely tinted with silvery dapples as though a pre-dawn mist in which the last light of the stars scattered. Right alongside it, stood the famed Doll Palace -- the opulent, and most popular doll-and-dummy store in Nara, its water windows brimming with luminance.

This was Dollmaster Hibiki's personal empire. And just like Hibiki himself, his house also never strayed too far away from his beloved Mist Lord's.

Yet contrary to Morokata's mansion that lay open and welcoming to any visitor, the Doll Palace was warded on all sides with walls and fences, guarding chimeras and humans on every corner to protect their master's secret Binding techniques. The front courtyard of the Doll Palace was seen from the outside only barely through all those gates and metallic bars.

And even though it was still a deep night, already, a few potential customers had camped beneath the fence to wait for the store to open in the morning so that they could be the first in line.

Poor souls. They would never even get to see Hibiki or his legendary skills. That honor was only reserved for the richest and the most influential people in the Empire. Or those rare ones who had the grace of King Morokata's attention.

Nekohiko rubbed the cool watery Hisome pendant in his fingers as he regarded the dim murk of the oncoming dawn in which both Morokata's mansion and the Doll Palace looked especially mirage-like. As though dreams that would vanish as soon as the light hit them.

This was where his last tonight's stop lay. But before it, he had to prepare for something else first.

For example, Mikawa's safety. The boy had to stay somewhere safe while Nekohiko and Kataji marched on to the lair of the predators that were Hibiki and Morokata. There was no way in hell Nekohiko would bring an innocent child to any place those two monsters were in. Plus, he and Kataji were now homeless as well. It would never harm to have a place to sleep in at night.

The Petals in Amber inn right across from a cute little tea house was like a gift from heaven. Small, secluded, charming. A bit expensive, but Nekohiko was willing to spend Kataji's money on getting them a room for a couple of days. He even consulted with Kataji about this and was given a free pass on any monetary splurges he needed to make.

As long as they were safe and out of Abihiko's grabby hands.

During their check-in at the Petals in Amber, Nekohiko frequently switched off to the wood chip that Kataji was pressing in his fist to his chest. The young man had already escaped Okinaga's mansion and had caught a driving carriage to the Artists' District some time ago. All he needed now were the specifics, and Nekohiko gave him those once Kataji confirmed that he wasn't being followed.

The address, the news about him and Mikawa being all right, the fact that there was a lovely eatery just outside their windows where all three of them could order a meal and finally rest after the night's frenetic troubles.

Ha-ha, all those pesky troubles. Each of them over now.

With a tired groan, Nekohiko fell backward into the bedroll in their rented room. He spread his arms and legs in a starfish position and just lay there, numb and buzzing with all the stress these past few hours had unleashed on him.

By the window, Mikawa turned to give him a worried look. The boy's face was already lit up with the first pink rays of the rising sun even though the sky outside was dark.

"You look terrible." Mikawa nodded at the street beneath the window. "And so does Kataji. Frankly, you two need to sleep first, then go to the Doll Palace later..."

Kataji was already here?

Finally.

As if in reply to Mikawa's concerns, all Nekohiko could do was smile.

How could he wait till later? He had to do it now -- as soon as possible after he made sure Mikawa and Kataji ate something and he wouldn't feel so guilty for pushing Kataji to escort him to the Doll Palace. However tired he was, however anxious -- the Doll Palace was the only place he wanted to be in.

Letting out a defeated sigh, Nekohiko creaked up back to his feet, then stretched his wooden arms with another delightful crackle down his ball joints.

"Well, the Human Palace sucked and ruined my entire night," he told Mikawa, yawning. So cheery he felt, that he even winked, though unsuccessfully since his control of his facial muscles had never been that great. "And because I want to make this night slightly better before it ends -- as the wisdom goes, if you don't go to sleep, the night isn't over yet, is it?"

He went to the window and gave approaching Kataji who looked at him from the inn courtyard below with the most nervous eyes -- a welcoming wave of his hand.