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The Past
The mountain air is crisp and the trees are a wash of yellow and orange, almost as beautiful as the eyespots of Kinme Tengu, Yasufumi muses.
A sight that is becoming rarer as more Kinme Tengu are being hunted. The neko yokai sighs, sitting at the base of a nearby tree and stuffing his hands in his sleeves with his tails curled around his feet.
He's heard reports from all over of the Kinme hunts. Yokai and humans, working together to hunt down what was once a species that was barely known existed.
He's seen the captives himself. Tengu kept in cages, wings clipped and heavy chains weighing them down.
The trophies.
Wings cut off and feathers plucked, displayed behind thrones and in ceremonial halls.
Yasufumi has burned more than a few of these halls to the ground when he's been invited to partake in their banquets.
After fifty years, however, he's seen less and less of his favorite birds. The last time he saw any Kinme Tengu was during his and Ukai's reunion five years ago, right after the death of Ikkei's son and heir, Sora. Yasufumi hasn't seen any other living Kinme Tengu in a decade.
There's a faint rustling and a gust of wind that blows his hair back from his face, Yasufumi opening his eyes to look up at his oldest friend.
"So you're still alive, you crazy old crow." Yasufumi grins, wide and cheshire.
"Ha," The King of the Kinme Tengu lightly flaps his wings, the fourteen eyespots blinking and glaring at Yasufumi.
Still so pretty. He can understand why his rare birds have become such a precious commodity, just because of their beautiful wings.
"I'm surprised you don't have any other birds with you, Ukai," Yasufumi fishes for information, glancing at the tree branches above, searching for darting shadows protecting their king.
There are none.
His heart sinks and he does a quick sniff, hiding a frown when the only scents in the air are his and Ukai's.
Ukai pulls his wings in and rolls his eyes. "Just because you're blind, doesn't mean that I'm alone."
The top three pairs of eyes on Ikkei's wings blink and it's a tell Yasufumi knows.
He lied. Ukai lied, and he is alone. The last of his kind, the lonely king. I will not let him be alone. He will be safe, even if that means I must cage him to do so. Just as we planned.
Yasufumi pounces, claws tucked away. The whisper of feathers are beneath his paws until the wind forces its way between him and his friend, his prey.
"Bakaneko," Ukai goads as he flaps up into the trees and smirks at him from his perch above, "have you gone senile in your old age? Why are you acting like a kitten with a chance of catching me?"
Yasufumi's tails twitch as he circles below, moving his weight from one foot to the other. Pupils dilated, he lunges again, his claws tearing through the edge of Ukai's robe as he flaps to another tree. Ukai squawks at him, scolding him with a loud, rattling cry.
"Damn cat, quit playing around!" Ukai snaps, feathers bristling. He pulls out his fan and threatens him with a gesture. "Do you want me to send you flying? I can and I will, do not test me."
So busy is Ukai in scolding him, the tengu king never sees the other neko yokai around him until they're flying at him. One of Yasufumi's people lands on the old tengu's shoulder, throwing them both forward, Ikkei's wings flaring out to catch the wind as they fall from the tree.
It's truly unfortunate that particular neko is unable to stay on, for Yasufumi sees the ruse is up.
Ikkei lands on the grass a stone's throw from him, a devastatingly empty look on his face.
"You too, Yasufumi?" Ikkei's wings sag, feathers pushing against the ground and bending at awkward angles.
"You know that I'm not one to be so easily taken in by rumor, Ikkei," Yasufumi gently denies. "I don't care if keeping a Kinme Tengu grants me military success. If having one of your kind would make me conqueror of Japan. No," he denies, "I only care that my friend is the last and will be hunted until his death."
Ukai sighs, his wings rising with his relief. "Thank you, old friend. But I think even you know that I will accept no cage, not even one as safe as yours would be. You knew that when you arranged this ambush," he gestures out towards the circling neko yokai, waiting for a command from their chief.
Yasufumi laughs, grinning at his oldest friend. "That I did." His eyes open to something predatory. "But I've come too far now, my friend. I care too much to see you hunted and too twisted to let you go."
Three of his yokai attack, two lunging for his ankles and a third with a length of rope tries to lasso a wing. None of them succeed, Ukai's powerful wings blowing them back while he releases his spiritual energy and slams it down upon them, collapsing all but Yasufumi to his knees.
"You truly are worthy of the title of 'king'," Yasufumi praises as he crouches, claws extended at his sides.
Ukai's laugh roars out of him, his smirk stark white against the red markings tattooed on his face. "Just as 'King Cat' has always suited you." His wings slowly beginning to flap and the eyespots dare Nekomata.
Yasufumi lunges, Ukai jumping to the side to avoid him.
"You don't have another tengu to watch your back, Ukai. That's something all you crows need," Yasufumi goads, trying to herd him under the trees and away from the open sky. Ukai knows him and his own weaknesses too well to be caught by his trap, the crow flap-hopping the perimeter of the meadow to keep out of his reach. Yasufumi's people are still out of it from Ukai's unrelenting spiritual pressure and can barely get to their feet, much less help in the chase.
"You can't take to the sky fast enough, otherwise!" The Cat King jeers, tackling the crow. Gravity brings him down on top of his prey, soft down under his claws.
Gravity's not fast enough. Not faster than Ukai's wings.
Ukai hits the back of his wings into the ground and before all of Yasufumi's weight can settle on top of him, he's on arched over the neko yokai, wings scooping the air.
First Yasufumi feels Ukai's knees bracing against his chest, weight pushing him down. Ukai's weight rolls back to his shins, to his feet, digging into his stomach and both air and bile is squeezed out of him as those great wings pull Ukai away from the earth. One desparate hand digs into feathers and he's able to pull out three small feathers- black, white, and sunset gold. A few red drops of blood leak onto his hand and splatter his cheek, the reek of iron to earthy in this moment of wind and storm, the sky growing black with thunder as Ukai unleashes his magic.
The wind howls and the trees scream. Drops of water like large jewels begin to hit the earth, cold and miserable.
"Ukai, no!" Yasufumi shamelessly begs his friend, hands clenched at his sides, claws digging into his palms and blood runs down his hands in rivers. His old bones creak as he forces his legs to run after Ikkei, his body pleading for rest. "Please! Please, let me protect you!"
Ikkei doesn't acknowledge him. Doesn't look back, doesn't call out.
And that's what become the worst part of this entire day.
Yasufumi acknowledge his own betrayal. He knows someone wiser would have freely offered sanctuary. Would have done something better for their friend.
But he is a cat. And cats are not known to be wise when it comes to those they deem as theirs.
He is left there, in the meadow they have met in every summer for the past five hundred years, bloody hands clenched around soaked feathers and yowls his frustrations. At himself, Ukai, this world that takes so much from any who dare to live in it-
It's not fair.
It's not fair that Ukai Ikkei is the last Kinme Tengu, the Lonely King, and that there is nothing Nekomata Yasufumi, the Cat King, can do about it.