InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ In Pursuit of the Green Dragon ❯ Faulty Intelligence ( Chapter 20 )

near Kasama, 16th-century Japan

In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have taken the damned Jewel, after all.

Envy awoke from one of his increasingly-frequent blackouts, his head pounding, and found himself sprawled in the middle of a rice paddy.

He was in dragon form and the air was thick with the scents of smoke and bloody death. Looking around blearily, he caught sight of a cluster of smoldering debris—splintered planks and scorched clothing, and the broken bodies of humans and livestock--where a small village had once stood. Fuck!

Not that he particularly cared about a bunch of grimy-faced peasants and their squalling spawn, but he wanted to be the one to choose when to mete out death and destruction. In this time and place, he was a lord, not a pawn, and especially not the pawn of a fucking pink sphere!

Besides, he liked his creature comforts, most of which were made possible by the tithes paid—had been paid--by the peasants like these in his feudal domain.

But we need the fear, the despair. We starve without it…and she becomes stronger, whispered the Jewel, its voices an annoying tickle in the back of Envy's mind. We cannot allow Midoriko to win.

Shut up! he raged silently. Just shut up!

He was fucking sick and tired of hearing the damned thing whispering to him, day and night.

His red stones had always hummed with the human lives they were comprised of, but they had never fucking talked to him!

Or taken over his body in an unguarded moment!

Envy growled, and uncoiled. He took a last look around the ruined rice paddy, its dikes crumbled and its young crop churned under into a mass of swampy mud, and headed back to his fortress.

The number of his human servants had been dwindling at an alarming rate over the past few weeks. Now, only a hardcore group of the palace guard remained. They had taken to calling themselves the Sons of the Dragon--weird bastards--and seemed proud of the fact that their master was not only inhuman but downright dangerous.

Whatever. Envy's staff had gained a number of youkai to make up for the lack of human servants, but the tricky little bastards were always trying to steal the jewel from him. Besides, they sucked at performing even the most basic of maintenance or housekeeping duties, and it was remarkably easy to yield to the Jewel's pleas and eat the little fuckers whenever one of them annoyed him too much.

I have to teach that fucking Jewel that I control it, not the other way around! I need that taiyoukai's soul, and the sooner, the better!

ooOoo

"Lord, there is a human at the gates, a travelling monk." The little foreign magpie youkai bobbed an anxious bow in Envy's direction. "He claims to have information on the taiyoukai you seek."

Finally! I was beginning to wonder if this dog-demon even really existed! Envy grinned, and dismissed the demon with a sharp gesture. "Well, what are you waiting for, bird-brain? Bring him here!"

It had been three days since the unfortunate destruction of the village, and Envy was still stewing about his loss of control. He hoped Naraku had been telling him the truth about this whole soul business...but what other choice did he have?

The magpie-demon's blue-green feathers flattened against its body in alarm, and it hopped quickly away, not quite taking flight but exuding the strong desire to do so.

Stupid little Chinese pest. Envy knew it was just waiting for the opportunity to try to snatch the Jewel...

As he awaited his visitor, Envy took the opportunity to alter his appearance a little, giving himself fancy lacquered armor and an even fancier sword, but making himself look a little younger in the process. Harmless, even. Can't scare the human too badly, lest he forget what he wants to tell me...

There. Now he looked like a young daimyo, new to his position, and a little uncertain of his authority. Perfectly disarming, not at all the fearsome dragon that the monk might have heard stories about...

The magpie demon returned, leading the visitor with a careful arrogance that made Envy want to howl with derision.

The monk, following close on the little demon's heels--if birds could be said to have heels--was one of the itinerant vagabond kind. He was surprisingly young, with mud-splashed robes and dirty feet.

Well, if any human was in the position to hear interesting rumors, Envy thought, as he studied his visitor, a traveling monk would be it. Still, there was something a little suspicious about this one...maybe an assassin?

Now, that might be fun. Envy wanted the promised information, but a chance to legitimately vent some of his frustrations by taking an enemy apart...slowly...also had its appeal. He would wait and see.

The monk bowed low, and the broad-brimmed hat slung around his neck slipped forward. "Lord," he said, still bowing, so that he was addressing the tatami mat rather than Envy. "Is it true that you are offering a reward for information about the son of the fearsome Inu-no-Taisho?"

Well, okay. Maybe this monk was for real, after all.

Envy assumed a thoughtful pose, leaning forward on his dais, and propping his chin in his palm. "That's correct, houshi-sama. I'm offering five ryou for solid information about where I might find this dog-demon."

"That's a generous sum in gold, lord." The monk dared to look up, and his gaze fixed unerringly on the jewel that hung around Envy's neck on a silver chain.

"Well...?" Envy prompted, after a few moments of silence.

"Ah, yes. Of course, lord!" The monk tore his wide-eyed gaze away from the Shikon no Tama, and bobbed into another bow. "The son of the Inu-no-Taisho is presently to be found in Musashi's domain, in a village a day's walk inland from Edo."

Envy nodded. "Which village, houshi-sama?"

"I don't know its name, lord." The monk's gaze returned to the Shikon no Tama like iron filings drawn to a magnet.

At Envy's snort, he added hastily: "But there is a famous well there, lord, known the Bone-eater's Well. Everyone in the area knows of it. Ask for the whereabouts of the miko Kaede-sama."

The Bone-eater's Well? Envy controlled his startled reaction with an effort. He knew that place...he'd come through that well after escaping from his captivity in the confusion of the earthquake.

"Very well," he said, keeping his voice calm and disinterested. "And you can confirm that there is indeed a dog-demon there? What can you tell me about him?"

"Lord, he is a powerful youkai. He carries a famous sword, bequeathed to him by the Inu-no-Taisho, and he has several human followers, as well as a small youkai. In particular, there is a human girl he goes to great lengths to protect..."

I'll be damned, thought Envy, as the monk continued to talk. There had been a young girl and a small imp trailing the taiyoukai in the image that Naraku had shown him.

"Are you telling me, houshi-sama," Envy inquired, just to make sure. "That those humans are not food or slaves, as would be proper for a demon of his stature, but rather that they're his... pets?"

"He calls them his friends, lord," murmured the monk, scuffing one dusty, horn-skinned foot against the tatami.

"Disgusting!" muttered the magpie youkai. "For a youkai to lower himself like that--"

Envy glared at him. Kill him! urged the voices of the Jewel. Kill him and feed on his life...

Some part of Envy's human guise must have slipped. He saw the little youkai's glossy feathers instantly press tight against its body in alarm.

The monk blanched, and fell to his knees, forehead knocking against the floor.

Irritated, Envy forced his attention away from the Jewel's annoying pleas and back to the monk.

"Is there anything else?" he asked.

He let the monk babble for a few minutes, until he noticed that the man was beginning to repeat himself under Envy's unflinching scrutiny

"Well, then, I think you have earned your reward," Envy said, interrupting his visitor mid-stream.

In fact, the news was better than he had expected. Not only did he know exactly where to find the taiyoukai, but he had human pets he valued. Envy could use that to his advantage.

At his gesture, the magpie-demon hopped forward, and handed the monk a tiny purse of embroidered silk.

"Your reward, human," it said, sulkily, quickly snatching away its fingers, as if it feared contamination.

The monk rose to his feet, weighing the purse in his palm with a faintly disbelieving air, as if amazed that he had not only survived the audience, but had actually received the promised amount.

"Thank you, lord!" he said, bowing again, deeply. Then he scuttled out of the audience hall with comical speed, and was gone.

Why didn't you eat the human? We grow hungry... whispered the souls trapped in the jewel.

Well, it would have been less expensive than paying that scruffy charlatan, thought Envy, but word would have gotten out.

He knew from long experience that it was never a good policy to harm informants--who knew when they might come in useful again?

The voices protested, growing more insistent as the Jewel's hunger grew.

Envy's eye lit on the magpie demon. "You," he drawled. "What have I told you about interrupting during audiences?"

The little demon fell to his breast, and buried his beak in the tatami. "He was just a miserable human, lord," he cheeped, miserably. "I didn't think you'd mind!"

"You thought wrong." Envy's hand shot out, his arm unnaturally elongated.

His fingers closed around the feathered form, and he felt delicate, hollow bones creak in his grasp.

The little magpie demon began shrieking, and ear-piercing sound didn't stop until Envy popped it into his mouth, and bit down, feeling the pleasant crunch of bones and the less-pleasant crunch of feathers between his teeth.

He felt the rush of youki as it left the little demon's dying body, and was absorbed by his red stones.

Tastes like chicken, he thought, ironically, as the tormenting voices, temporarily appeased, faded to a distant mutter.

ooOoo

The monk waited until he had walked a fair distance away from Envy's castle. Then, reasonably certain that he hadn't been followed, he let his disguise melt away, and summoned a shikigami to give him a ride.

Walking was for humans. Besides, it really sucked.

It had been a gamble, coming here on Naraku's orders, thought Byakuya of the Mirage. But it had paid off handsomely. Naraku would be pleased.

Oh, he had told the dragon the truth, all right—a son of the Inu-no-Taisho was indeed keeping company with humans near the fishing village of Edo.

But while Envy was clearly hunting the great Sesshoumaru, Naraku had told Byakuya that it would be good to ensure that both the hanyou Inuyasha and his miko encountered this troublesome not-a-youkai-but-not-a-human-either.

Envy's retainers had referred to him as a dragon, but he didn't resemble any kind of a dragon that Byakuya had ever met, or heard about. For one thing, dragons were not shape-changers by nature, and Envy had conducted his audience in human form. Yet, Naraku had also seen Envy in dragon-form.

It was all very odd, but ultimately, it didn't really matter.

Envy had been pushed in the direction that Naraku wished him to go. Now, all that Byakuya had to do was watch, and wait for Envy to kill Inuyasha, or Inuyasha to kill Envy. Either way, he would be watching and waiting for the chance to retrieve the Shikon-no-Tama in the confusion.

A brilliant plan, really, thought Byakuya, as the shikigami swooped into the sky, and headed in the direction of Naraku's castle. His master might be weakened by the loss of the jewel, but he was by no means powerless.

ooOoo

Several days' walk away from Envy's fortress, Kohaku left the tiny village at dusk, carrying several leaf-wrapped packages of food, payment for ridding the village of a troublesome insect-youkai.

Though his life was being artifically sustained by the jewel shard that Naraku had embedded in his back, Kohaku still needed to eat and drink, and had even grown a little in the months since his death and resurrection.

He would need to alter his youkai-leather armor soon, he thought, as he walked the path along the top of the dikes separating the rice paddies, heading for the treeline up ahead.

She would be waiting for him there, he knew. She did not need to eat, or drink, but she was always kind enough to allow him to take what time he needed to tend to his frail human body.

The young youkai exterminator stopped at the edge of the forest, concentrating his senses in a search for his companion. The shard tingled between his shoulder blades, as if calling out to the one who had purified it, thus keeping him free of Naraku's malign enslavement.

Kohaku turned slowly, feeling the shard's reaction growing stronger, then tucked the packages of food more securely under his arm, and trotted forward through the dark shapes of the trees.

"Kikyo-sama," he greeted her, as he entered a clearing in the forest a short while later, and spotted her, seated in quiet meditation under a large tree.

She opened her eyes, and looked tranquilly at him. "Did you eat well, Kohaku-kun?"

"Yes, Kikyo-sama. And one of the villagers had a most interesting story to tell me when I asked for news," Kohaku said, eagerly. "He told me that his son was a servant at Kasama castle, four days' walk from here, and that many strange things had happened there. The daimyo was killed and his position usurped by a dragon--"

"Is that so?" Kikyo said, politely, but without any real interest. But she folded her hands in her lap, and waited for Kohaku to continue.

He knew the next tidbit would interest her. "The man also said that this dragon possesses a magical jewel that makes it too powerful for anyone to defeat--"

"The Shikon no Tama! Has Naraku now taken the form of a dragon?" she exclaimed, and rose smoothly to her feet. Stooping to pick up the bow and quiver that had been resting on the ground next to her, she turned to go. "Did the villager tell you in which direction this castle lies?"

Author, Canon and Language Notes:

- Daimyo: Japanese feudal lord.

- ryou - medieval Japanese gold coin

- Chinese magpies: the European species are black-and-white. The Asian species have blue-green coloring...very pretty!

- Once again, many thanks to the fabulous kokoronagomu for serving as my beta!