Bound Together (20 page)

I smiled. Lord Isao's belief in his own supremacy, his belief in the inferiority of women, combined with his desperation and need to control, would most definitely give
us
the edge we needed to succeed.

“I have an idea.”

tactics

I woke up feeling more rested than I thought I would. I suspected that had a lot to do with the cute girl currently wrapped around me. Misaki was still asleep, though I knew once I started moving she would awaken. Her ears flicked a few times in her sleep and I stifled a chuckle as I noticed she'd been drooling. My right shoulder was soaked.

I slowly disentangled myself from her and sat up on the futon. Misaki stirred and opened one green eye, then the other. She wiped her mouth and yawned hugely, showing off her slightly prominent canine teeth.

“Good morning, cutie. You drooled all over my shoulder, by the way.”

Misaki blushed, her tail springing up to punctuate her embarrassment. I laughed and stood, wiping the remnants from my shoulder with a tissue before I started getting dressed. I'd set out sensible clothing choices for the both of us: leggings and lace-up boots with good ankle support and close-fitting tops that wouldn't restrict our movements or offer an enemy an easy handhold in a grapple.

I pulled on a sports bra and a fitted shirt before my favorite leather jacket. Misaki got up after a moment and started dressing herself. I'd been keeping my hair cut fairly short at just above chin-length, so there wasn't much I had to do other than run my fingers through it a bit and pat it down with a bit of water and mousse.

A quick glance in the mirror of the room's vanity told me I looked reasonably fresh for having bathed two nights ago. Misaki, on the other hand...

“My hair is a disaster,” she whined. It really was true. Her long, wavy locks of flowing red-tinged gold were matted and tangled.

“Get Mama to brush it out for you,” I suggested. “She'd probably even enjoy it.”

Misaki's expression brightened and she scampered into the front of the house. I could hear Mama's voice intermingled with Misaki's and smiled. I'd take my few minutes of solitude while I still had them.

I stepped out onto the porch and sat down on the bench, pulling a cigarette from my pocket. We still had a few of the milk coffees from the trip to Kyoto, just sitting on the porch outside, so I opened one and took a sip. It was almost as cold as if I'd just pulled it out of the fridge. I suppose that made sense.

I lit my smoke and puffed on it in silence, recalling the reactions Star and Misaki had to the plan I outlined last night. First the astonishment, then the disbelief, then the far more humorous reactions, especially from Star. After I explained the rationale behind my idea, Misaki was fully on board and seemed more determined than ever.

Star had been less impressed and demanded to alter certain parts of the plan. Her alterations made good sense and we all managed to agree on the insane, desperate strategy to confront the lord of the Tsukimura clan in his stronghold.

I took a long drag and blew smoke from between my lips. I knew this was going to be difficult. The chance that both Misaki and I would be walking away from this encounter in one piece was slim, but it was better than the alternative.

It was getting close to time to go. I stubbed out the smoke and stood up, walking back through the bedroom and into the front of the house. Misaki was sitting on one of the chairs at the kitchen table and my mother stood behind her, an ornate hairbrush in one hand. I could tell that she'd been pretty successful at taming Misaki's hair disaster.

“That feels really, really good, Yoshiko,” Misaki purred. Her tail, fully visible—there wasn't much point in hiding it from Mama anymore—was lashing back and forth and brushing against my mother's legs.

“It's supposed to,” Mama said as she brushed and gently worked out the knots and tangles with her fingers. Misaki let out a squeak of pain as a particularly tough tangle required more force, but she didn't seem to let it bother her.

“You've got such beautiful hair.” Mama set the brush down on the table and got both of her hands into Misaki's thick locks, trying her best to break up the chaotic masses of hair without breaking any strands.

Misaki was grinning pretty widely, likely more from the compliments than the actual work my mother was doing. I stood, leaning against the wall and drinking my milk coffee as Mama finished removing the tangles and started to massage Misaki's scalp.

“Mm, thank you so much! This is really nice! Karin isn't nearly this gentle at getting the knots out of my hair.”

“Not a surprise,” Mama grunted. “Karin's always been a rough-and-tumble girl, even when she was little.
Especially
when she was little.”

Misaki's ears twitched. “That's not true. Her hugs are really, really gentle and warm. And so are her kisses.”

“Nonsense. My eldest daughter's a lummox with two left feet. Don't ever ask her to dance if you value the bones in your toes.”

I gave the both of them a sour look. “You know, I
am
standing right here.”

“I wouldn't bother teasing you if you couldn't hear it,” my mother responded without missing a beat. She moved her hands, shifting from rubbing Misaki's scalp to scratching behind her large fox-like ears. They promptly laid down flat and forward and Misaki let out a slurred sound of obvious enjoyment.

“There, all done,” Mama said, stepping back from the chair and walking into the kitchen to wash her hands. Misaki stood up and walked over to stand next to me, leaning to kiss me on the cheek.

“What was that for?”

“Just because,” she said.

My eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Because what?”

“Because I love you.”

I felt my cheeks heating up, probably because Mama was now watching and Misaki was very obviously teasing me. The both of them were getting an awful lot of enjoyment at my expense this morning.

“Sit down, you two,” Mama commanded. “If I can't stop the two of you from doing something so dangerous, I'm going to do my part and make sure you get a good healthy breakfast.”

My mother came out of the kitchen bearing several serving dishes and pots, laying out a truly impressive spread that must've taken her a few hours to put together. I blinked in astonishment and stared at her.

“Mama, this isn't breakfast, it's a feast. You didn't have to—”

“Shut up, Karin.
Of course
I didn't have to. I wanted to, and besides, if you're going to go rushing headlong into a fight that has a good chance of getting the both of you killed, I don't want to be responsible for that because you weren't properly fed first.”

Misaki and I remained silent while my mother served our plates. Grilled fish and beef was accompanied by steamed white rice, small onigiri filled with smoked salmon, an assortment of stir-fried vegetables, a big bowl of well-fermented kimchi and several different selections of fresh fruit. We also got a small side bowl of miso soup to finish the meal off with.

It was a lot of food and Mama really loaded up my plate. I hoped I'd still be able to move well enough to fight after I ate all of this. I glanced at Misaki's plate and noticed that Mama had given her very little vegetables and three times as much meat as me.

“What's with her plate?”

“Oh, don't think I didn't see those teeth.” Mama waved her hand absently. “Misaki has the aspect of the fox within her. It only makes sense, yes?”

I rolled my eyes. Misaki didn't seem to mind
at all
. She was happily tearing into her grilled shortrib and mackerel, not even bothering with her utensils. Maybe Mama was right. There was definitely a wildness to the way Misaki ate whenever meat was involved.

I picked up my chopsticks and took a piece of shortrib with rice and kimchi. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious, the shortrib so tender it melted in my mouth. My mother was an excellent cook.

What was more surprising was how well Mama adjusted to the weirder aspects of my current job and Misaki's nature. I suppose she handled it a little better than I did; she had always been at least a little superstitious. My mother was properly a progressive Buddhist, but she always had a love for old legends of
youkai
and
kami
, spirits and gods.

That the supernatural
actually existed
seemed to make far more sense to Mama than it did to me. I'd always been well-grounded in science and the material world—though, to be fair, there was surely a consistent scientific explanation for all of this apparent magic and spirit stuff. After all, AEGIS managed to mimic this alleged magic with technology. If it could be broken down and reproduced that way, there had to be a scientific explanation and couldn't properly be called supernatural.

Mama had been happy when she learned that I'd fallen in love with Misaki. Now that she knew the whole truth, she seemed even happier, likely convinced that a romance between a spirit and a human was a sign of great prosperity to come.

Or maybe she was just happy we told her everything instead of just letting Star wipe her memory. I shuddered at the thought. Misaki used such techniques multiple times during our work, but I definitely didn't want to think about it being used on Mama.

Instead, Star settled for Mama's signature on a nondisclosure agreement. I didn't like the ominous terms of the agreement at all, but it was still better than the alternative.

“This is really good,” Misaki stated as she devoured a hunk of mackerel, ignoring the bones as if they weren't even there.

Mama fairly beamed. “Thank you! You're so well-mannered, Misaki. Unlike certain other girls at this table.”

“I see how it is,” I grumbled. I picked up the last bite of my shortrib and rice, then turned my attention to the miso soup. I sipped at the salty, savory broth and felt a pressing need to loosen my belt, except I wasn't actually wearing one.

I turned to Misaki, my dour expression fading and becoming more serious. “Star will be coming back with the wardstone soon. We should make sure we're ready to go as soon as she gets back.”

“I'm not looking forward to absorbing it,” Misaki muttered.

“We don't really have a choice.”

I pushed my chair back and stood up. Mama and I cleared the table away and cleaned up the dishes. Misaki took the leash off the wall and wrangled Kaede to take her for a quick walk while we tidied up.

When I was alone with my mother, she turned to me and gave me a look that defied description.

“Karin, I've been thinking.”

Unable to resist the temptation, I fired off my own barb. “Oh? You can do that now?”

“Shut up, dear. Yes, I was thinking about the future. Father and Mother are... well, you know the situation. They're old and they're dying. There's nothing anyone can do about it at this point. Their caretaker called me this morning. Mother's come down with pneumonia and they don't expect her to recover. She has maybe another week or two, at most.”

I didn't know how to feel about that. We both knew that I wasn't especially close with my grandparents, but they were still part of my family. What I didn't expect was what Mama said after that.

“It won't be long before they both leave this world,” she continued. “When they're gone, there will be no more reason for me to stay in Osaka. I've been planning to move back to America, to be closer to my daughters.”

“Especially since So-yi's going to be a mother soon, right?”

My mother didn't miss the jealousy I couldn't quite keep out of my tone. “Stop that, Karin. Yes, part of it is because your sister will be having a baby to care for soon. I can help her with that—I
want
to help her with that.”

“But that's not all of it?”

“Karin, I know you seem to think I consider you a failure. You aren't and you shouldn't assume things about your mother like that. I didn't come back to Japan, to the Takeda house just for fun. I came back to care for my parents during their final days. That task is nearly complete.”

I frowned. “What about your job? Will you be able to transfer back to the States?”

“Oh, that's not a problem.” My mother waved her hand dismissively as she stacked plates and glasses in the cabinets. “I'm going to be retiring. I've already put in my paperwork and given notice.”

“Giving up babysitting corporate drones for changing your grandchild's diapers?”

“A trade I would make without a moment's hesitation,” Mama said with a grin.

Before I could respond to that, a Caucasian man dressed in casual clothing walked into the kitchen. I knew it was one of the two AEGIS hunters assigned to protect the house; he wore an inactive Spell Engine on his left hand.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Ashley, but I need to speak with your daughter in private, if you don't mind.”

“Back to work, it seems,” I said, favoring Mama with a wry grin.

Mama shooed us away. “All right, out with the both of you!”

I followed the hunter—I think his name was Malcolm, or something like that—back into the study, set off from the rest of the living room and kitchen area, where we could not easily be overheard.

“Star will be returning shortly,” he informed me. “Are you and Miss Misaki prepared for your part in the operation?”

“We are—well, we will be when she gets back from walking the dog. You're... Malcolm, right?”

“Yes, ma'am. Star's orders are that I and my partner, Renne, will accompany you to the Tsukimura ancestral shrine. Our assistance should give you and Miss Misaki a considerable advantage in the battle.”