FicWad

Shigure stopped in front of what had to be the most inconspicuous shop in all of Mizaka. The entire building was old and decrepit, and as it stood among the elegant shops it gave the impression of a toad squatting among water lilies. Still, he could think of few places he liked half as well. He pushed the door open and waited for his eyes to adjust to the gloom.

The lamplight flickered as he shut the door, making the shadows dance over the bookshelves. Picking up one of the new titles on the counter, he opened the book and breathed in the dry, crisp scent.

"Nothing compares to the smell of a new book. Isn't that right, my lord?"

He looked up at the wizened old man who emerged from the backroom. "Oh, I don't know. The scent of a woman's perfume is pretty damn incomparable too."

The old man sniffed. "Young men are too energetic. At your age, my lord, you should already be thinking about taking a bride. Wild oats very rarely produce legitimate heirs, you know."

Shigure laughed as he put the book down. "Me, married? When I'm having so much fun? And by the way, Miyamoto-ojiichan, you really shouldn't 'my lord' me anymore. Times have changed. Even the 'sama' the people at the Manor insist on tagging on my name sounds too stuffy by a half."

"I agreed to that only when others are present," Miyamoto retorted. "The old traditions must be kept alive if one is to have a sense of history, as you ought to know, Shigure-obochama," he added pointedly, as if to remind Shigure that not so long ago he'd been running around in short pants making mischief and getting his behind smacked by this vanguard of tradition.

Shigure shook his head fondly. "Now you sound like one of your books. Non-fiction, I might add. But that's not what I came here for." He reached into his coat and pulled out an object, laying it on the counter. "What can you tell me about this?"

The old man's eyes widened and his breath hissed in his throat. With a shaking hand he reached out and lifted the object, letting it dangle between his fingers. "By Akkan," he breathed. "I never imagined I'd lay eyes on this in my lifetime. My lord, where did you find this?"

"Never mind that for now. I'm guessing you know this thing, then?"

"Yes. Oh yes." As Miyamoto explained what the object was, Shigure struggled to maintain his neutral expression. At that moment he would have given half his fortune to be able to know just who had sent this object to him, and why. Or more precisely, why /now/. He suddenly realized that the old man had finished his explanation, and simply staring at the thing with a mixture of awe and dread on his lined features. "Is there something else you'd like to tell me, ojiichan?"

"Just that for it to appear now-" The old man swallowed and composed himself. "My lord, do you believe that there is no such thing as completely random occurrences? That everything that happens is part of a greater chain of events guided by an unseen force?"

Shigure raised an eyebrow. "You're asking me if I believe in destiny?"

"Well, for lack of a better word, yes."

He thought about his dreams and Momiji's visions. The Ashari and the chieftain's missing boy. The storms. Kana's letter, and now this. He remembered an old saying among the fishing villages: Every river flows into the same ocean. Everything was connected. Unbelievable, really. He was a man who dealt regularly in the realm of the imagination, but he was still leery about melodramatic concepts like fate and destiny. As far as he was concerned, they had nothing to do with reality. But now...the image of a girl in a blue housedress flickered in his mind. It seemed there were quite a few things he needed to think about.

He straightened as his senses picked up another presence. Somebody was coming, somebody who was looking for him in particular. The newcomer was not alone, but Shigure already knew who he was and was mildly amazed that the man could manage with only four aides bowing and scraping at his feet. "Better bring out your finest coffee, ojiichan. You're going to have guests." He tilted his head. "Or brandy. I get the feeling one of us will be needing a drink after this."

Miyamoto did not appear surprised at Shigure's sudden announcement. "Should I bring out my finest cigars as well?" he said dryly, making the younger man laugh.

A few minutes later, the door opened and a tall, impeccably suited man walked in, followed by four others. Mud-brown hair was swept back from an angular face, softened not at all by the pair of spectacles perched on a thin nose. The man's sharp gaze swept over the room and rested on the dark-haired man leaning nonchalantly against the counter.

Shigure smiled. "Governor Takei. And here I thought you had no sense of poetry in you."

"Sohma-san," the governor returned stiffly, and Shigure's amusement heightened at his visible struggle to keep his dislike of him from showing. "I'd like to speak to you, if you please."

"I'm sure you would." Shigure plucked up the bottle and snifter Miyamoto brought in on a tray. "Brandy? You look like you could use some warming up, ne, Makoto-san?"

The governor's lips tightened at Shigure's casual use of his first name. "In /private/, Sohma-san."

Shigure glanced at Miyamoto. "The upper room's available?" The old man nodded and Shigure led the governor to the upstairs parlor, where he immediately slumped down on a couch. The governor disdained to sit, choosing instead to stand at the window, his back to him. "Really, Makoto-san, the lengths you go to just to get a signed copy of my book," Shigure drawled.

"Very droll, Sohma-san," came the dry reply. "But tell me, how is Amano-san doing these days?"

Shigure tensed. The question seemed harmless, but he didn't make a living manipulating words for nothing. This was going to be worse than he thought. "My uncle's fine, although I think you'd be in a better position to know. After all, his friends are your friends, too," he said silkily.

"Indeed. A very loyal, very honest man, your uncle. No doubt an exemplary leader of your clan."

"What's this about, Takei?" Shigure said, tiring of the verbal fencing.

"I need information, Sohma." The governor faced him, his spectacles glinting in the weak light, hiding his eyes. "The execution of the bandits will be held two days before the Sun Festival, and there is talk of an impending march by the Outers that day. I want to know who's behind it."

Shigure took a sip of brandy before speaking. "Why'd you close the gates?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why'd you close the gates?" he repeated. "One by one, you ordered the gates closed. You know perfectly well that doing so would kill off the markets servicing them. The Inner businessmen may have lost some income, but the Outsiders lost their jobs. This hostility and aggression you're so worried about, your actions were all but begging for them."

Takei stared at him as if deciding whether to answer him or not. Finally, his shoulders sagged and he sank down into a chair opposite Shigure's. "You know your history, Sohma. You know the reason why the wall was built. Two hundred years ago, this city was nearly destroyed by a powerful invading force. In the end, our ancestors managed to defeat the invaders and rebuild our city, and the wall was built to ensure that such a thing would never happen again. However," he added darkly, "I believe history is about to repeat itself, and I intend to thwart it before it starts."

"Why come to me then? Why do you think I have the answers to your questions?"

This time, it was Takei who smiled. "Because Shigure Sohma knows things. Isn't that what they say? Shigure Sohma isn't just the charming, eccentric novelist he seems to be; he's a sharp businessman with an uncanny gift of knowing when and where something will happen. If I remember right, you gave orders for your ships to set sail ahead of schedule, just before the storms hit. As a result, you've kept the damage to your vessels to a minimum. Indeed, Shigure Sohma is a difficult man to surprise. Isn't that what they say?"

/Damn him/. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Makoto-san," Shigure said, laughing. "You and I both know that all it takes is a good intelligence network to do business in this city."

"And yet it is to you I come with my questions." The smile on Takei's face turned cunning. "Really, Sohma-san, your uncle spoke so glowingly about this gift of yours. You don't intend to disappoint him, do you?"

/Damn him to hell. And my uncle, too/, Shigure seethed, the amused smile never leaving his face. All those times he'd told Momiji and Haru not to draw attention to their abilities, and he ended up making the same mistake he'd warned them about. It was his fault for using his gift too much. Damn it. There was nothing for it, he'd have to play Takei's game for now. "/Maa, /all this praise will go to my head. Well, then. As far as I can tell, the heart of the unrest is a group that's been wanted for arrest for a large number of crimes. They'd broken up but have reformed, stylizing themselves as freedom fighters for the Outsiders."

"That explains the rash of crimes on Inner merchants."

He nodded. "These people have become heroes in the eyes of the Outsiders. Getting them to betray the group will be difficult, which is why I strongly suggest you reconsider the execution. The last thing you need is for these rabble-rousers to have a new set of martyrs to the cause."

"These criminals have murdered at least three Inners, Sohma," Takei bit out. "This is not the time for leniency. These so-called Ashari freedom fighters have been terrorizing the fishing villages, and now they've moved their operations to the Outer City. That these foreign devils would overrun our city with their trumped-up charges of kidnapping and murder and incite our own people against us? Unforgivable! They must be taught a lesson-"

"They are not Ashari."

Takei paused in mid-rant. "What did you say?"

Ignoring the chill radiating from the governor, Shigure drew out a cigarette from a small silver case and lit it. "I don't believe these rebels in the Outer City are Ashari. Cigarette, Makoto-san? No? Anyway, the real Ashari confined their attacks on the villages. As for these rebels in the Outer City, if they're Ashari, then I'm the goddess of the moon."

The governor looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "How do you explain their ridiculous accusations that we kidnapped their chieftain's son and murdered his companions then?"

Shigure took a deep drag, looking as if he were considering the question. His mind, however, was racing far ahead in search of the answer. It was his gift and his curse, this peculiar ability to touch minds across distances. It was admittedly rather limited, given that he could connect easily with some minds and not with others, but it was undeniably useful. With his 'assistants'-people with whom he could link minds and could trust with his secret-scattered all over the city making it their business to learn things, all he needed to do was reach out and pluck the information from them, often while carrying on a decent conversation at his end. The moment the governor began plying him with questions, he'd stretched his mind toward his people. However, they hadn't yet been able to dig up anything more and Shigure had resigned himself to bluffing his way out of this interrogation until another mind, obviously one far stronger than his, reached out to /him/. It was a miracle he'd been able to conceal his shock from Takei. The sensation was disorienting but not unpleasant. Images tumbled into his consciousness just quickly enough for him to weave them into coherent revelations, and with the governor watching him, Shigure was unable to do anything more than gratefully accept the help.

He held the last question up, and images flashed behind his eyes. A red-haired boy leading some men through a dark, dense forest. A settlement hidden somewhere between the Deadlands and the city. A proud-looking man staring down at the mutilated body of a warrior who still clutched in his hands a battered shield bearing the emblem of Mizaka. A girl traveling alone through the desolate hills, a small brown pig trotting at her heels. The last image confused him. For some reason, the girl reminded him of Tohru, although he couldn't imagine why. Shigure wasn't the visionary in the family, so it couldn't have been a glimpse of the future. He set it aside to ponder it later, as the governor's eyes were practically boring a hole right through his head. "It's not a trumped-up charge, as far as the Ashari are concerned," he explained. "The boy was leading an exploratory expedition when they were ambushed by what looked to be Mizakan scouts. None of his companions survived, and he himself was taken." Mizakan scouts? Nobody in the city had issued any order to capture the refugee boy, or Shigure would have known. Who would take to the trouble to deceive these people? And what was the point?

Takei grunted, reluctantly impressed, and Shigure would have enjoyed the moment more if his head hadn't been aching from the barrage of information flooding through the psychic link he shared with-/her/? His unexpected savior was female? Now this was interesting. He fought to keep the speculative grin off his face as he probed the link, and the vision of a hauntingly beautiful girl with long black hair streaming over her black cape filled his mind. Cape? With a few mental tweaks, he adjusted the image so that the girl stood clothed only in that luxurious cascade of hair. Dark eyes flashed, and in a ripple of power the cape returned.

Mou, couldn't you have kept it off just a little while longer? he whined.

She gave him an inscrutable look before turning away and vanishing behind an impenetrable mental wall. /Idiot/, came the whispered thought.

Now he was really intrigued. The governor however chose that moment to speak again. "Where is their base of operation, this group you spoke of?"

Damned if I know/, Shigure thought peevishly. Takei was using him to patch up holes in his own intelligence, and he was getting annoyed. He tossed the question through the link, not really caring if he got an answer, and the image she returned nearly sent him to his feet. /No, impossible/. /They were destroyed two hundred years ago. Their power was broken at the price of our own.

/If you doubt, Sohma-san, then look to yourself and your two cousins. The thread of fate binds you too, whether you believe in it or not/, she replied coolly before breaking the link.

"Sohma, I asked you a question."

"I heard you, Takei," Shigure said curtly, his patience wearing thin. "My subordinates have yet to find out where their base is. Why don't you try the warehouses near the pier? There's always something going on there. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."

He stood up and headed to the door, but the governor's voice halted him. "Sohma-san, I suggest you treat this matter with more respect. Lawbreakers exist even in the highest circles, after all, and even Mizaka's best families have a secret or two. Or three. Isn't that right, Shigure?"

Shigure smiled coldly. "And I suggest, Makoto, that you remember who you're speaking to, or you'll find out much more than you bargained for. You know the way out, ne?"

He left, shutting the door behind him. Downstairs, he found Miyamoto trying to calm a nervous Mit-chan. "Get his coat. You're leaving," he told the governor's aides. Takei followed shortly, and the three watched the party depart in silence.

Miyamoto spoke first. "I take it that didn't go very well?"

Shigure chuckled. "Ojiichan, ever the master of the understatement. /Are/? Mit-chan, get a grip, it's only the governor. The flies are getting in," he joked.

Mit-chan closed her mouth with a snap. "Sensei, we have problem," she said to Shigure.

He sighed. "Don't I know it. Any progress on that thing I wanted you to look into?"

"No, nothing yet, but that's not the problem. It's Tohru-chan."

He looked up sharply. "What about her?"

"She's gone. I went back to the house to ask her some questions, and I just found this note-Sensei? What's going on-Sensei, wait!"

But Shigure was already out the door and running.