InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Conspiracy ❯ Secret Keeper ( Chapter 2 )

Secret-Keeper

 

It was true that there were times when the old man wavered, when he wondered if it would not have been better to simply accept the inevitable; to accept that there were some things even his master could fail to achieve.

There had been times when he had felt that the only thing his master's son would ever surpass the master at would be stubbornness.

Perhaps there was a reason behind the madness of his master's plan; or, more accurately perhaps, a reason for the madness of the master's plan.

If anyone else had asked…

Even now, despite the identity of the one that had asked, the old smith felt his shoulders shake. This plan would drive him to madness - if he survived long enough to see it to its conclusion that was.

Loyalty was one thing, confidence quite another. The first time he had spotted the thread of sanity, had been the day that he had felt one pulse in the distance. With every strike, a sliver of his soul was beaten into each blade he forged; when a sword pulsed, his heart shuddered too. A second surge, moments later, had settled into a soft, steady rhythm that had echoed through his chest like a second heart. Even so, it had felt wrong, almost cavernous. Hollow.

That idiot had actually managed to awaken the sword and ignore it at the same time.

He had gone anyway, contemplating as he did so that this thread of sanity should have eased the weight on his shoulders rather than intensified it. The reason, of course, was the knowledge of where this plan was going, of what would happen next.

`As you gain in strength…'

To have taken his words so literally… how that arrogant jerk could have mastered it so easily and at the same time missed the point so completely was beyond comprehension.

Why had the sword insisted it was time? Some swords were capable of puzzling even a sword smith. It worried him - it was his life that was on the line. After all, who else knew the answers? Who else knew the questions? And when that became obvious…

That day had been approaching far too quickly. Now it was almost here. When the sword's growth had stagnated, an impasse had been reached with only one path left to walk. The master's plan had unfolded with the grace of a hydrangea; a spark of colour within the gloom, this beauty in the darkness preceded far worse weather - the old man had been relieved to not be a party to what would happen next, until he had remembered what would come next if the test was actually passed. Who would come next.

The only one with the courage or will to lift the lid on what had been hidden for so long…

And then?

Then all roads would lead right back to him. That loyal retainer, that sword smith. That secret-keeper.

Toutousai grabbed his ink.

It was time to leave.

 

FIN.