Kyuubi ignored her. The pearl began to shine with magical light, and Kaede put on a burst of speed. She collided with Kyuubi, sending them both sprawling. The pearl sank into a nearby snowdrift. Kyuubi dove after it, but Imari caught up. She brought her sword down at the perfect moment, and Kyuubi's eighth tail fell away.
Enraged, Kyuubi abandoned her search and turned on them. She leapt several feet in the air, her entire body glowing blue as a brilliant beam of fire burst from the end of her sword. To Kaede’s relief, Imari managed to dodge it. The ground exploded where she had been standing a breath before, leaving a steaming crater behind.
When Kyuubi landed, the two of them met in a storm. They crashed together like thunder and lightning, swords flashing, blue sparks scattering into the night. Kaede picked herself up, hurrying to Imari's side and helping her push Kyuubi back toward the cliff. Soon, they were balanced on the edge, tilted into the fierce wind battering the mountainside. Through sharp flecks of snow and strands of her own hair whipping about her face, Kaede saw the black drop beyond. They were only a few meters away. Almost too close.
Kyuubi rushed at her with a snarl, reversing their positions. Suddenly, Kaede found her back to the cliff. She fell into a defensive form, but Kyuubi forced her back, tipping her over the edge.
Kaede dropped Mizu-no-Hamon and grabbed out in desperation. She clawed at Kyuubi's kimono, clutching the fabric for dear life. Her fingers slipped off the fabric, but she found a hold—right in the middle of Kyuubi's final tail. With a jolt, she stopped falling, and she heard a pained cry from above her. Kyuubi grasped the edge of the cliff with both hands, struggling to pull herself back up. The fox kicked out, trying to force Kaede to let go, but she held on tighter.
"Not a chance," Kaede growled. "If I'm going down, you're going with me."
"Neither of us has to go down!" Kyuubi said, speaking quickly. "Imari, pull us up!"
Kaede peered up past Kyuubi and caught sight of Imari standing at the edge of the cliff. She looked panic-stricken and she held her sword limp at her side, as if she wasn't sure what to do. After a moment, she seemed to come to a decision. She reached for Kyuubi's hands, preparing to grasp them.
"Don't!" Kaede shouted
"I'm not letting you fall," Imari called back above the roaring wind, her face frighteningly pale against the night sky above her and her eyes wide.
Kaede shifted her grip until she was clinging to Kyuubi's tail one-handed. Her arm burned from holding the entire weight of her body, and Kyuubi squealed above her, but she ignored it all. With her free hand, she reached for her obi, drawing her wakizashi from its saya. She fumbled in her hurry, and the grip almost slipped from her numb, shaking hand, but she managed to wrap her fingers around it.
Imari must have seen the glint of silver, because she shook her head. "Kaede, no!" Her voice sounded faint and distant, and Kaede could barely hear it above the deafening throb of her own heartbeat in her ears. She gazed at Imari one last time. In her mind, she replaced Imari's look of agony with one of love.
"I love you," she said, bringing up her blade. "May we meet again across the Roaring Ocean."
She cut through Kyuubi's final tail with one swipe. As soon as it was severed, she fell, hurtling down into the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A SCREAM SHATTERED THE air, shaking the mountainside, primal and desperate. The scream of a lost soul, of a breaking heart. Imari's ears ached with the sound, but it wasn't until sharp fire lit up her throat that she realized she made the noise.
She barely saw Kyuubi's expression of shock and dismay, or the life leaving her eyes. She barely noticed the fox tumble into the void after Kaede, dead before she could hit the ground far, far below. Her mind couldn't process it, because she was stuck on a single thought: Kaede was gone.
She dropped her sword and scrambled to the edge of the cliff, peering down in desperation, but there was nothing. All she could see was inky blackness. With a wail, Imari collapsed to her knees, unable to do anything but weep. The wind lashed at her face, freezing her tears half way down her cheeks.
It was over, and Kaede was gone.
Even though it broke her heart all over again each time, she replayed Kaede's final words in her head over and over. “I love you May we meet again.” She didn't want to meet Kaede in some other life, or across the Roaring Ocean in the place of Last Resort. That wasn't good enough. She wanted her lover back. Her best friend. Her heart.
"I didn't mean it," she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. "You aren't a coward, Kaede. You're the bravest person I know."
"Really?"
Imari blinked away her tears, letting her hands fall away. She looked up, certain she was seeing some kind of hysterical hallucination. Kaede stood before her, floating as if on the air.
"Go away," she shouted at the specter, lashing out in anger. "I know you're not real."
Kaede didn't go away. She stepped back onto the cliff, offering Imari her hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."
That was the moment Imari realized Kaede had survived. Only Kaede would worry more about making her cry than almost dying. "You idiot," she cried, shoving Kaede gently in the middle of the chest. "You stupid, awful, wonderful—"
Kaede cut her off with a kiss, and Imari sagged into her embrace. The warmth of Kaede's arms kept off the cold and thawed out her heart once more. "I thought you were dead," she muttered between kisses, shaking terribly. Kaede's lips were rough and chapped, and her own weren't any better, but she didn't care. "You fell off the cliff."
"Yes, but I fell onto a dragon. Look."
Imari looked over Kaede's shoulder to see Suanni floating beside the cliff. It was difficult to tell on their large lion's face, but Imari thought they looked pleased with themselves. "Thank the Ancestors," she breathed, tucking her face into Kaede's shoulder again. She didn't know how Suanni had managed to arrive at exactly the right moment, but she didn't care. Kaede was alive, and that was all that mattered.
"Hey," Kaede said, gently trying to extract herself from the embrace, "I love you and I'm really sorry for almost sacrificing myself, but we have to go."
"No," Imari said. "I don't think I can let go."
"We need to check on Rin and the others.”
Imari knew Kaede was right, but it was still difficult to unwind her arms from around Kaede's waist. She was still overwhelmed with emotion even though her tears were happy ones. It wasn't until Kaede bent to pick up their fallen swords and offered her Wujian that she felt able to move on her own.
Once she regained control of her limbs, she faced Suanni, bowing deeply. "Thank you," she said, hoping her sincerity would come through in her voice. She wasn't sure what else to say. What could she say to the one who had saved her lover's life?
Suanni lifted their head, peering at her with lamp-like yellow eyes. "It wasn't Kaede's day to pass to the other shore. I'm only glad I arrived in time."
“Did you stop the shogun?” Kaede asked, sheathing Mizu-no-Hamon.
“I did. I was able to disturb some of the rocks on the pathway down. It was more than enough to stall them.”
“And Kyuubi? Is she?”
"The fox is dead," Suanni said. "I will go and retrieve her body. It needs to be disposed of properly. Despite all she has done, she is yokai. We have our customs."
Imari thought Kyuubi could rot on the mountainside until next spring for all she cared, but she didn't say so. Instead, she took Kaede's hand. "We'll go and check on the others. Hopefully everyone made it."
"That is my hope, too. Kyuubi has already caused enough death and suffering." With a final bow, Suanni flew off into the night, disappearing from view.
Still holding Kaede's hand tight, Imari headed over to where they had last seen Takeshi and Kenta. To her relief, the Hibana brothers were up and moving when she arrived. Kenta had regained consciousness, and though the back of Takeshi's kimono was stained with blood, he sat upright.
Kaede, however, only had eyes for Rin.
She dropped Imari's hand, running to kneel beside her friend. "How is she?" she asked Kenta, who was crouched near Rin's haunches.
"Still alive for now," Kenta said. "I don't know, Kaede. It doesn't look good."
Imari hurried over to join them. Rin was still breathing, but her eyes remained closed. "It was a bad hit," she said, flinching at the memory. She was sure a human would have been killed instantly. Kaede brought Rin's head into her lap, petting between her ears. "You have to wake up, Rin. I survived falling off a cliff. You're not going to let a little lightning stop you, right?"
"Back up," Kenta said, "you survived falling off a cliff?"
"Not important right now," Takeshi groaned. His face was a mask of pain. "Kyuubi's dead, right?"
Imari crawled over to sit beside him. “Yes. She won’t be bothering us anymore.”
Takeshi began to say something else, but he lost his words. Instead, he turned, looking back toward the castle. Imari followed his gaze, a big smile spreading across her face. Stumbling toward them through the snow were three familiar figures, two humans and one wolf.
Imari raised her hand and called out, but to her surprise, it was Kenta who jumped up and rushed over to greet their friends first. He took Hayate’s weight from Gin, who seemed the least injured and was doing her best to support him. With a little limping, the four of them made it back to Rin.
“What happened?” Hayate panted, kneeling beside Kaede with Kenta’s help.
Kaze sniffed around Rin’s face, smelling her breath and nudging her with his nose. “She’s badly injured.”
“What should we do?” Kaede asked.
“Move her somewhere safe and warm,” Kaze said. “I’ll carry her on my back.”
“You can’t,” Hayate protested, but Imari cut him off, taking control of the situation.
“If Kaze says he can carry her, I believe him. We’ll all help. We can’t stay out here, and we can’t leave her alone.”
Together, they managed to lift Rin onto Kaze’s back, standing three on each side. Hayate and Takeshi weren’t much help with their injuries, but Kaede seemed to have the strength of ten people all on her own. Imari was half-certain she could have carried Rin alone if she’d had to. Slowly, they trudged off through the snow, making their way back to the castle.
“Nearly getting killed by a fox with magic lightning, playing doctor to a spirit wolf,” Gin muttered from her place on the line. “Ancestors, the things you've all dragged me into." Despite her complaining, she carried Rin the same as the rest of them, holding one of the wolf's hind legs steady.
"Think of it this way," Kenta said, "you'll be a hero to your village. I'm sure Empress Tomoyo herself will take a special interest in revitalizing the town when she hears what you've done."
"She's the Empress. She should have taken an interest before things got bad." But through Gin's grumbling, Imari noticed her smile. "As annoying as you all are, I'm glad everyone made it out."
Imari saw Kaede stiffen in front of her, and she could almost hear her beloved say, Not everyone.
***
The next morning dawned cold and grey. Kaede was awake to see it break in muted colors through the window, because even though she was tired to the point of shaking, she hadn't been able to sleep. She had remained at Rin's side all through the night, waiting for her to wake up. Thankfully, she hadn't been alone in her vigil. Imari, Kaze, Hayate, both Hibana brothers, and even Gin had insisted on remaining with her in the room the Toyotomi guards had shown them to upon their return to the castle.
Doctors were by during the first part of the night to bandage their wounds, dressing the worst with poultices to prevent infection and soothe their burns. Rin, however, was a difficult case. Except for a small burn on her chest, she had no visible injuries. The doctors had been reluctant to examine her, and Kaze's insistence on curling up next to her and fixing his yellow eyes on anyone who came near hadn't helped matters.
Still, one of the doctors had tried to offer some hope. He claimed that the longer Rin's condition remained stable, with no change in her heartbeat or breathing and no rapid movements of her muscles, the more likely she was to recover. That was why Kaede had stayed awake even while every muscle in her body screamed and her eyes ached with exhaustion.
The others hadn't been so stalwart. One by one, they had drifted off into healing sleeps, stretched out on pallets the doctors had brought. Imari had lasted the longest, but even she had eventually rested her head in Kaede's lap, claiming she only needed to close her eyes for a moment. Kaede hadn't minded. Stroking Imari's hair gave her worried hands something to do as she greeted the morning alone.
As strips of pale sunlight stretched across the floor, Kaede listened to the sound of everyone's breathing. It was hard to hear Rin's ragged sips of air beneath the thunderous sound of Kenta's snoring and Takeshi's low moans of pain, but it was there, faint and reassuring. As long as there was breath, there was hope.
"Kaede?"
The whispered sound of her name made her turn and blink in surprise. After a few moments of bleary confusion, she realized Hayate had woken up. He held himself awkwardly, with his shoulders at a tilt, but he had managed to sit up on his own.
"Go back to sleep," she murmured. "Nothing's changed."
"I was about to tell you the same thing," Hayate said, "but you haven't been to sleep at all, have you?"
"I can't." Kaede gazed back at Rin. "What if I close my eyes, and a few minutes later, she…" She couldn't say the word “dies,” but she thought it loud enough for Hayate to hear.
"I'm sorry," he said. "If I had been stronger and kept going, maybe she wouldn't have gotten hurt."
Kaede shook her head. "No, Hayate. You did your part and claimed one of Kyuubi's tails. I was proud to fight by your side again, and I always will be. I'm glad you're alive."
Hayate remained silent for a long time, as if considering her words. After a while, he said, "That isn't the only thing I need to apologize for. My jealousy is why we're here in the first place. I was so wrapped up in proving myself to Setsuna, proving she should love me more than you, I didn't see the warning signs. If I'd realized Kyuubi was manipulating her sooner, we could’ve done something before now."
"Hayate, you've already apologized for this. We could play this game forever. If I'd given you more time with your mother instead of clinging to her, you wouldn't have gotten jealous. If I hadn't run away from home, things would’ve played out differently, too." Kaede looked down at Imari, still fast asleep in her lap. "Assuming Rin makes it, I don't have any regrets. And if she doesn't, you're the last person I'd blame."
"I know," Hayate said. "I just look at Kaze and wonder, what if it had been my best friend?"
They lapsed into silence again, gazing at the two wolves. They were still curled up together on the largest of the mats.
"So," Hayate spoke up again, his voice still a whisper. "Change of topic. Your friend, Hibana-san. He's really something, huh?"
For the first time since her reunion with Imari on the edge of the cliff, Kaede smiled. "Which one?" she whispered back wryly, "because they're both single, but only one of them is a member of our court."
Hayate gave her a sheepish smirk then nodded subtly over at Kenta. He was still snoring away, his mouth hanging agape. He wasn't exactly the picture of handsomeness, but perhaps Hayate saw something she didn't.
"Lucky pick," Kaede said, her heart lifting a little. "I'll drop a hint in his ear, if you're prepared to hear him talk yours off. If you two get to know each other better, maybe something good can come out of this."
"Something good already has," Hayate said. He glanced pointedly at Imari, who let out a soft sigh and shifted position, as if she knew she was being observed. "I'm happy for you, Kaede, even though she almost killed me."
Kaede gave a quiet laugh. "She's normally sweet, I promise. You'll see once you get to know her."
Imari yawned and lifted her head, blinking sleepily. "Kaede? How's Rin?"
"The sa
me." Kaede's heart sank once more and her stomach turned into a sucking pit of worry.
"But that's good, isn't it?" Imari said. "The doctors said to give her time."
Kaede didn't answer. With Imari awake, she stood up, shifting over to Rin's pallet. As she had done countless times throughout the night, she stroked the soft space between Rin's ears. Her movements woke Kaze, who cracked open his yellow eyes and snuggled in closer to his sister. His tongue flicked out to clean the side of Rin’s cheek.
"She smells better," he said, trying to offer reassurance.
Kaede gave him a weak smile. She appreciated what Kaze was trying to do, but she wouldn't feel better until Rin was awake. She hunkered down next to the wolves, closing her eyes and resting her cheek on one of Rin's paws. From her new place, she could feel the soft puff of Rin's breath every few seconds.
"If I open my eyes, will you stop staring at me and get some sleep?"
At first, Kaede thought she had imagined things. She looked at Rin again and her heart leapt with joy. The wolf's blue eyes were open—glazed with exhaustion and pain, but open.
"Rin!" she shouted. She threw her arms around Rin's neck, squeezing tight and burying her face in her best friend's fur. "Ancestors, I thought we were going to lose you."
Rin snorted softly. "No fox can stop a wolf. But please, softer. You're hurting me."
Kaede pulled back at once. "I'm sorry. Are you okay? What can I do for you?"
By that time, the rest of the room had woken up. All of them crowded around Rin, Imari and Hayate first, then Kenta and Gin, who had been woken by Kaede's shouting. Takeshi was the slowest, but he too dragged himself off his mat to come and greet Rin.
"It's so good to see you awake, Rin." Imari reached down to stroke her fur.
"It's good to see you, too," Rin said, "but please, tell me what I heard you say about Kaede going over a cliff was a bad dream."
"Suanni caught me," Kaede replied.
Imari shook her head. "Don't worry, Rin. Kaede and I will be having words about that later."
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