FicWad

Notes: This feels so much shorter than the other chapters, but it was a good place to end off, and I'm really happy with some of the humour I managed in this. Namely Kotaro's constant paranoia that everything is a trap.

Please see Chapter one for full disclaimers and summaries.

Mucho love to my lovely betas Mchan and Kat. With you two, I cannot go wrong!

/Kotaro's POV/

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Enemy of my Enemy - Chapter 12

I watched Oyu closely after my outburst. I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I just watched Magoichi take care of her instead. As much as I wanted to kill her, I didn't want her daughters to go through the same thing that I had, especially if she had come this far for them. I hoped that she was telling the truth. If she had been lying then I would be the first person to kill her for it. I closed my eyes, listening to their voices mumble in conversation that I wasn't interested in. We were so close to Nobunaga, I could feel it.

I started awake when I felt something poking me in the side. "The hell...?" I cracked an eye open and looked up into those brown eyes.

"Ready to go, sleeping beauty?" Magoichi leaned over me, bringing our faces close enough for me to smell the tobacco on his breath. I wanted to reach up and grab him by his coat, just to pull him down to kiss me. Instead I rolled over and grunted a bit, hoping he'd let me sleep for a bit longer. The floor was surprisingly comfortable.

"Hey, you. This is definitely no time to catch up on missing sleep," I felt him nudge me with his boot. "Come on, kid!"

I grumbled something at him and crawled to my hands and knees; slowly getting to my feet. "How do you know that we should go now and not in ten more minutes?" Right then, I would have traded anything for ten minutes of extra sleep.

The tone of his voice told me that I was out of luck. "I was scouting around the castle and the dark barrier that was blocking off the main tower just disappeared. We've got to move." His feet scraped across the floor as he walked away from me, Oyu's smaller steps echoing behind him.

I grit my teeth at their sound and quickly gathered my things. I realized, as I tightened my wrist guards, that her presence was making me uneasy. Just because I let her live didn't mean that I would let her distract me. That, of course, was Magoichi's job. I sighed, wishing somehow that I weren't so weak around him. Our meeting after escaping from Gogandantess kept replaying in my mind, and I really wanted to see what would happen between us after we killed Nobunaga. Part of me was desperate to feel his lips on me again, but now was not the time. The weight of my vest as I tightened the final straps helped bring me back to reality. It was that pressure that I focused on as I hurried to catch up. I had to keep my focus, and hope that letting her live wouldn't turn out to be a mistake.

+++

Magoichi was already out of sight by the time I slid the door open and climbed into the corridor. Oyu was standing there, waiting. "Kotaro," she started, taking a light step towards me. I watched her movements carefully, a small piece of me happy that she wasn't attacking. "Magoichi said he'd meet us up at the bridge. He already cleared away most of the demons that got in his way."

"Great," I mumbled, continuing along the hallway. I moved to give her space to walk beside me, but I didn't say anything more. If we could spend our time together in silence, then I would be happy.

"He seemed very concerned for your safety," she said lightly.

It seemed she didn't want me to be happy.

I nodded, keeping my mouth shut and instead looking around for any demons that decided to show up late. "You two must care for each other very much."

The twitch in my eye started when she said it. "Why do you say that?" I asked, keeping a smile on my face and looking at her for a second.

"There is something about the way he talks to you," she kept on, not noticing how I didn't want her to say it. I really didn't want to talk to her about this. "There is just... like a feeling of caring that he has for you that I don't see when he talks to anyone else."

Really? I didn't hear anything like that when I talked to him. Was she trying to get on my good side? Just because I was walking with her didn't mean that I wanted to talk about how great I thought Magoichi was! I had to keep my focus. Nobunaga came first.

"It's obvious you like him," she said, and I couldn't stop my head from spinning around to gape at her; I wasn't that obvious... was I? "You get this look on your face when you're talking to him, or thinking about him... I, um, you're thinking about him now, aren't you?" she covered her mouth to hide her giggle.

I hunched my shoulders, "Whatever," I mumbled, sharply looking away from her. She was getting too friendly. "So, did you have any plan to kill your brother?" I figured the change of topic would be nice. At the very least I could test her to see if she was lying again. I'd held back from killing her for the sake of her daughters, but that was the only thing that had stopped me. Right then I could have used a reason to change my mind.

"Oh, I hadn't really thought about that," she sighed, sounding like I'd just asked her what colour kimono she wanted to wear instead of how she planned to kill her brother. "I thought I could talk to him, maybe get him to lower his guard so I could do it quickly. I didn't really have a plan for how... exactly."

"Uh-huh," I grumbled, feeling a headache starting. "So you don't know any of his weaknesses or how the demons increased his power?" It was worth a shot to ask, and I rubbed at my temple in anticipation of her answer. She really was telling the truth. I was convinced of it now, and I was beginning to wish it wasn't true.

"Not really. I just felt responsible for it, somehow. I didn't want my family destroyed, so I thought I stood as good a chance as anybody. I managed to buy this armour on my way over..."

I led the way to the end of the passage, instinct telling me where to go as I listened to Oyu talk. I could almost hear Magoichi laughing at me then, pointing out how I had first thought she was a spy. It seemed ridiculous now, since she was looking more and more like a regular woman to me... I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Instead, I kicked at the door that blocked our way.

It burst open and a blast of hot air hit my face, enveloping my entire body in a burning heat. It felt like I was walking out into hell. I didn't let my guard down for a second as I stepped out onto the roof of Gifu castle. The clouds were an angry shade of purple and the air felt like it was burning straight from the demon's realm, hot and smoky. It was a preview of what would happen if we failed and I couldn't help trailing my eyes to Oyu to see her reaction to her brother's plan. She was clutching at her chest, the tears that fell down her cheeks drying before they could fall from her face.

"Oyu-" It took a few seconds for me to catch my breath. I coughed a few times, my eyes watering with the strain. The air was too dry.

"My brother..." she was having trouble talking as well, only it might have been something more than the air that was making it difficult. "This is what he wants? If he wins..."

"We're going to stop him," I said, cutting her off before she finished. We both knew that we couldn't fail.

My senses were alert as we walked forward, feeling for the slightest shift in the air that would signal a demon attack.

We'd come out at the topmost tower of the castle, which had little more than a narrow walkway framed by puny railings that were supposed to guard us from falling over the side. Unfortunately the wood was so old and dried out that they would probably break if you looked at it too hard, let alone touch it. Further down the walkway I could see a bridge with a large archway towering before it, and beyond that, the second tower of Gifu castle.

This was it.

I pushed my legs to keep moving forward, even though the one shred of fear inside of me was begging for me to turn back. The second tower was so thick with demonic energy I had trouble thinking about what my next move would be. Everything was so hazy. I think my legs began to lose feeling, but I couldn't focus. A dark shape in the sky caught my eye and I focused all my attention on it, trying to ignore the evil aura that was trying to overtake me.

I watched it float through the air, zooming towards me and then moving away. It took me a second to realize it was a bird, and with that realization I could see it clearly as it flew further down the bridge. It landed on the outstretched arm of a man who stood just beyond the door of the tower. I wouldn't let myself stop short of defeating Nobunaga; not while this man could stand there without any fear.

I looked behind me at Oyu; she was frozen in place. For a second I thought about leaving her there, but then thought better of it. I'd hate to be left behind, and she would be in more danger on the defenseless bridge than inside the tower. I reached back to grab her arm and pull her along with me.

The closer I got, the easier I could see through the aura. It wasn't until I was standing in front of the man that I realized that it was Magoichi.

"It's about time you showed up, kid," he said with that amused tone that irritated and thrilled me at the same time.

"You could have woken me earlier, jerk," I sighed, noticing the homing pigeon that was perched in his hand. "What's that?"

"Just keeping in contact with some friends," he shrugged, lifting his hand up so that the bird could fly away. "So," he looked between me and Oyu, "are you two ready?"

+++

The door wouldn't open when we tried it, but that didn't mean that Magoichi had to use gunpowder to persuade it.

"He'll know we're here now!" I yelled at him as he led the way through the opening he'd made in the brick.

"I think he did before," he grinned at me. I felt my heart skip a beat.

I was losing my focus again. I couldn't get distracted. I quickly looked at Oyu, seeing how she clutched at the hilt of her sword with shaking hands. Was the demon's aura still affecting her?

"Hey, girl! You up for this?" It seemed Magoichi was thinking the same thing.

"I-I'll be fine," she said with the kind of fake confidence I'd had on my first mission. "Just worry about finding a way to get to him..."

I nodded at her and looked around the circular room, trying to see anything that would lead us up to the next level. There was a strange structure in the centre, with a tube leading upwards and into the ceiling above us. Magoichi went directly to it; probably attracted to all the mechanical parts that were visible.

That left the rest of the room to me; which was nothing impressive, by demon standards. The walls had a living quality to them, sending shivers up my spine when I touched the alien surface. There were several windows further up the walls, but it would only lead outside and while I knew that climbing the tower on the outside would be all too easy for me, I couldn't take Oyu or Magoichi with me. I had to find another way.

"Kotaro!" Oyu called out to me and I rushed over to her, meeting Magoichi as we looked up to where she was pointing. "There's a ladder up there that leads into the next level," she said, her fear having been replaced with confidence at her discovery. "But it's too high to reach!"

"Why would they build a ladder so far off the ground?" I wondered out loud. "Maybe it's a trap!"

Magoichi snorted, "You think everything is a trap, Kotaro. It's just a ladder."

I glared at him and folded my arms over my chest. "Well, it looks too easy. My ninja training says that there's got to be another way."

"Well then, Mr. Ninja, while we're looking for the key to bring the ladder down to us, why don't you see if you can find a better way?" His back was already turned to me as he looked around for a device, or whatever it was he thought would bring the rungs any closer to him.

I looked at Oyu; she seemed to still be excited that she'd found something of use. She wouldn't admit that there was another way, which meant that it was up to me. "Fine, I'll meet you guys up there, then."

I think Magoichi said something about us needing to stick together, but I was already climbing the wall up to the windows I'd seen earlier. I couldn't ignore the feeling of his eyes on me while I crawled through the small opening. Their weight was unmistakable, and while I would have loved to look back to see what kind of expression he had on his face, I was too determined to show him that my way was better. He was still yelling for me to come back even after I'd begun climbing the tower wall from the outside. I wouldn't turn back. This was my turn to save the day and I wouldn't let him talk me out of it. Besides, I'm a skilled ninja; what could go wrong?

~End chapter twelve~