This is it, Kiba thought to himself. He had Inuko in his room, now all he had to do was not screw up. He wasn’t sure whether he should try to seduce her or just spend the whole night catching up with her. On one hand, she might be too tense for him to get any further than a light conversation and he might as well have been wearing his shirt. On the other hand, she might be so happy to see him she’d be willing to do anything with him. The best option, he decided, was to take a middle path and base his actions-whether that being talking or taking her to bed-upon her reaction. He wrapped his left arm around her belly and his right arm around her shoulder. He moved his head closer to whisper in her ear.
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Unexpectantly, Inuko kicked him in the shin and he let go of her. She dashed forward as he stumbled back. She whirled around, and the two soon faced each other from opposite sides of the room, with Kiba’s back at the door. Not even a second path before both of them had their hands on their swords. The blades remained sheathed, however, and the tension was thick enough to be cut. “Not expecting me to be at the top of game, were you Kiba?”
“Oh, no, I expected you to be doing well.” Said Kiba, moving slowly to his right. “In fact, I was counting on it. I also expected a ‘hey, Kiba, it’s so good to see you’, or maybe a ‘oh my god you’re still alive’. Is it to much to ask for a ‘sorry I punched you in the face and left you for dead’?”
Inuko also started moving slowly to her right, and the two circled each other as they talked. “You can’t blame me for that one. You…you…you caught me off my guard.”
“It was just a simple yes or no question…..”
“Way too personal.”
“Which reminds me, you never gave me an answer….”
“Not if Urashima had a hand in it!”
At this, Kiba stopped. “Who’s this ‘Urashima’?”
“Urashima Izawa. Best looking boy in the Imperial City.” She knew this was hurting him, and played off his weakness. “I’ve been dreaming of going steady with him since I was 12. And a month after I hit you, that dream came true.”
Kiba was silent for a moment, then spoke slowly. “That name rings a bell, but I can’t say I know him. He’s not one of the Daimyos of this land. No, nor is he anybody important to me. If he isn’t either of those things….he must be……” he paused, letting Inuko grow more impatient.
“What?!?!?! He must be what?!?! Just say it!!!”
“A notorious criminal.” Kiba cracked his neck bones as a murderous look came over his eyes. “Tell me, where’s the bastard sleeping?”
Inuko jumped to the door, and Kiba away from it. They had completely switched positions from when they started talking. “Don’t even think about it! He’s a respectable son of a legit business man! What are you even doing here?”
“What am I doing here? This is my room, and you walked into it.”
“Your room? This entire place belongs to Shogun Isamu Honma!”
“Isamu may have paid to have this place built, but it’s on our land. So ownership of this place is a legitimate dispute. Okuri decided we’d determine ownership the old fashioned way: Duel to the death, winner takes all.”
So this was Okuri’s plan: Let the Shogun’s men build the Shogunate on his land, and then kill the Shogun when he came. That way, he’d save himself the trouble of hunting him down and got a castle on his land, free of charge. With the other Shogun coming, it would work even better than he originally intended. But what about the Emperor?
“He’ll kill the other Shogun, just to get it off his list, and probably the Emperor too. Not that he would become Emperor, in fact, he told me he’d hate that job. I guess he just needs to put someone in charge that’s more afraid of him, that’s all. And as for that Imperial Regalia? It’s gonna do no good.”
“You traitorous bastards.”
“Traitorous? Don’t give me false names. We’ve been against the Shogun, enemies of him, since day one. We would only count as traitors if we pretended to be his friends.”
“You’re still bastards.”
Kiba took his hand off his sword. “Well, in a matter of hours, Okuri will be number 1, and I’ll be number 2. Look,” he said, spreading his arms out and walking towards her, “if I know somebody’s name but I don’t know who they are, that usually means they’ve done something really bad. So why don’t you just forget about Mr. Izawa……”
Inuko slid open the door behind her and broke into a full run down the hallway. Kiba stuck his head out from the doorway and watched her get further and further away. Nice going, idiot. He turned around, closed the door, and let himself fall onto his fur pile. All you had to do was talk to her, be nice to her, catch up with her, but what happens? We just spent the entire time yelling at each other. I’ve accused her boyfriend of being a criminal and made it clear I wanted to kill him. I bet she hates me now.
Okuri walked in from his room. “You didn’t have to tell her our entire plan.” He snarled. Kiba looked over at him apologetically, and Okuri softened his voice a bit. “Ah, don’t worry. Even if she does tell anybody, I’ll still be Shogun before the sun rises.” Akamaru entered the room and licked Kiba’s face. Okuri, having recently decided he needed them, had just finished applying the red fangs to Akamaru’s face. They would now be there permanently. “You’re gonna make a lot more mistakes before your time is done, and this might be the least of them.” Okuri bent down to Kiba’s face. “And as for that Urashima jerk, she’ll leave him for you once she learns his nickname.”
“His….nickname?” Kiba asked confusedly. Okuri chuckled and began to explain.
