As Okuri disappeared around the corner, Kiba’s smile slowly grew fainter. Akamaru looked up at his master and whined. He hadn’t seen him like this in a long time. Kiba slowly turned around and walked away. Akamaru followed him sympathetically.
As he wandered the halls, the courtyard and climbed the tallest tower, Kiba’s mind was trying to decide whether or not what his brother was right about killing the cult.
“FOLLOWERS OF THE FLAME! MY PEOPLE! I have hijacked the signal of every channel to deliver my important words to you. The current Shogun, Okuri Okami, has massacred 1000 of your kin! He stands in the way of my domination, our domination, the burning of the Flame! He is even more of an obstacle than the new found Emperor! He controls the military of this land, who is to say he won’t spontaneously turn it on us, or some other group? We must destroy him! For the Flame! For the-”
This Homaru did have the same ambitions as Daichi Tadaka, but the question was….did he have to die? And would everybody else?
Finally reaching the top, Kiba reasoned that if the members of the cult weren’t willing to die, they’d just leave. He was certain Okuri wouldn’t go after members who had left the cult. As Akamaru scrambled over his head, Kiba finally felt sure that what he was about to do was right.
So that just left Inuko to worry about.
When she woke up, she was so determined to find some alcohol that Kiba had to tie up, gag and leave her in his room all day just so she wouldn’t get hammered again. As if she wasn’t devastated enough that her father was dead, now he would have to go away for a very long time.
Kiba put his hands behind his head and stared up into the starry night.
Although she’d never admit it, she was falling for him. Maybe not as fast or as hard as he wished, but she was falling nonetheless. He could see the signs; he recognized her gestures from people in love that he’d seen before. The way she looked at him, the way she said his name, how she’d casually flutter her eyelashes at him now and again, and the way she’d straighten up his room a little while he wasn’t looking. Yes, she loved him. Maybe she wasn’t madly in love with him, but he always thought he was lucky she even tolerated him.
Kiba, on the other hand…..he was enchanted by her. She held him spellbound in an almost magical state of mind, where his pain and her bliss were nothing but ways to show he cared. Mom always told him that the meaning of life was not to kill as many people as you could, not to gain as much power as you could, not even to get as many friends as you could, but to find someone you love and never leave them. Life without Inuko would mean less to him, and during the warring months ahead, perhaps only thoughts and memories of her would be able to keep him going.
Kiba spent a long time staring up at the sky.
