Spell 11 - Whispers of Naraku

"You brought a witch here?!" a voice echoed violently through the room.

Ren had barely stepped through the threshold when Iori was already on him. She then turned her glare to Kagami, who was walking into the clinic a few steps behind Ren, like a queen in disguise. Her tail curled slowly around objects nearby.

"I did," Ren answered. "It's a long story..."

"A long story?" Iori's voice sharpened even more as she walked toward him. "You brought that in here, and you think it matters what kind of a story it is?"

Kagami yawned, unbothered by the hostility in the air. "That?" she repeated, amused. "How flattering."

"Are you perhaps enjoying this?" Iori went, clenching her hands into fists. 

"Oh, absolutely," Kagami replied, stretching out her entire body as she welcomed the newly found heat in the room. "I like being underestimated. It's a guilty pleasure of mine proving the theory wrong."

But before Iori could snap back, Mika intervened, breaking the tension.

"Enough," he said, stepping in from a back room while drying his hands on a cloth. "Iori, stop wasting breath. If she wanted to turn this place to ash, she would've done it already."

Iori couldn't argue with Mika. She never did. Instead, she just glared at everybody except him with distrust. Especially Kagami.

But Ren wasn't there to argue or prove anything to anyone. He just wanted answers about what he was seeking.

"I need information. You both know the underworld better than anyone else I can ask," he said, looking between them. "Have you ever heard the name Kagami before?"

There was a brief moment of silence as the name was spoken, leaving a trace of importance in the air that Ren felt immediately but couldn't explain. Iori's expression changed as she heard it. Her prior anger quickly turned into wariness, and then she glanced at Mika, uncertain of the reaction she should have.

But Mika's face stayed as it was. He looked at Kagami for a moment, piecing together in his mind events that had recently taken place since he found Ren back at Izanami. Then back at Ren.

"Everyone has heard of her," Mika explained. "The witch with no master. She who walked among Clans freely, without any pact to bind her to anything or anyone."

He folded neatly the cloth he had entered the room with and placed it carefully on the desk nearby.

"She used to be around the Kurohana Clan," he continued, "The Black Bloom. Her role in that society was more than just a mere spellcaster, unlike most witches. People admired her and feared her, too."

Iori's gaze darkened as she listened to Mika speak about it.

"It's said that she was betrayed, then killed during the Clan Wars. She was burned by those who feared her power was becoming more of a threat than anything else. So they made the decision to execute her while they still held the ability to do so."

Then he looked at Kagami directly, without any restraint.

"But it seems," he added with a lower tone in his voice, "history only got part of that right… Didn't it?"

Kagami's eyes met his, and for a moment, her gold irises flared bright. But she said nothing to give it the right meaning. No confirmation or denial of Mika's explanation. Then, after a while, slowly, they dimmed into their usual golden streaks.

Ren noticed the tension right away. He filed the new information alongside everything else he'd learned about Kagami, though it only managed to raise more questions. How much was still hidden? How many secrets was she holding back for reasons he couldn't begin to guess? He had never dealt with non-humans before, and frankly, their thinking seemed almost… counterproductive.

"I'm looking for her eyes," he said, seeing no point in circling around it any longer. He wasn't ready to share the details of that, but he needed answers, so for now, this was enough. "That's all I need to know."

Iori's expression tensed even more, hearing his question, as she could already guess where this was going. She glanced toward Mika again in search of a silent confirmation. Mika gave the faintest nod, so she exhaled while folding her arms tightly across her chest.

"There's one place that might interest you…" she said. "If you're chasing something like that… you'd probably end up there sooner or later anyway."

Ren watched her closely and didn't interrupt.

"It's called Naraku. People forgot about it after the Clan Wars ended, but it was once considered a sacred place by the Clans themselves. They even built their residences and infrastructure around it at the time. It was a neutral ground, or so they claimed, because, in truth, it was where the underground power truly resided."

She then hesitated as if considering her next words carefully.

"Kagami ruled it."

Suddenly, Kagami hissed from where she sat, as if hearing her name told in a story like that clearly affected her.

"When the wars broke out, most of the noble residences around it fell, and everything burned with them. But Naraku endured. When the fighting ended, the Clans that were left standing all agreed on one thing: that the place would be sealed. Locked away. Hidden from scavengers and anyone else who had no business going near it. But since you're a pact barer, you might be able to cross over."

Ren looked towards Kagami and could clearly see hatred in her eyes, as feline as they were. Her gaze was fixed on Iori, unblinking, burning with something dark. Like she was ready to burn to shreds the entire underworld if that could get her closer to what she wanted.

He then turned back to Iori.

"I want to go there," he said. "Tell me how to reach it."

"Pfff!..." she scoffed in a mix of amusement and annoyance as well. "You're clearly begging to be torn apart by Hollows or Ghosts, or who knows what other nameless creatures crawl in that place. But have it your way..."

Iori gave him the directions he was asking for without missing any details. She named streets, forgotten paths, and buried landmarks no outsider would ever find without guidance. She knew the underground well, better than most.

Mika watched quietly from the corner of the room. When Iori finished, he took a few steps towards Ren as if to make sure his words would land properly. "When you're done with what you seek over there, don't forget this place. You'll need it sooner or later. And when that happens, we'll be here."

Ren considered his words.

"I'm also interested in your bond," Mika added with his usual calm but calculating tone. "I want to study it. My experience only goes as far as my own, and there aren't many pact-bearers who willingly walk these streets nowadays."

Iori's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't want to contradict him despite how she felt about such things.

Ren's first instinct was to refuse, but he stopped himself before actually saying anything. The more he thought about his situation, the clearer it was that his quest was as difficult as one could imagine. He had no support except the presence of a witch who seemed unwilling to help in the most dire of situations. And what happened back at Izanami could easily happen again. So he reconsidered.

"Fine," he said. "I'll come back."