One needed brimstone hearth to travel in Naraku, it was also possible to do it in reality, in Kurana.
Ran raised his hand and called for the red core. The glow started slowly and enveloped his hand.
He manifested brimstone rich fire around all three of them, extended his claws and bled himself, then moving forward to slash his friends on their arms before the fire could lick and consume them.
They became immaterial essences in the wind and he whisked them away to his father's home.
They reformed within his room in the Kaitos' Japanese Manor.
It was a bedroom fit for a daimyo reborn. It spanned far wider than tradition ever demanded and its fusuma was painted with sweeping cranes and silvered clouds that seemed to shift subtly in the soft moon light.
The shoji screens let in a filtered glow, washing everything in pale gold.
A low platform bed, lacquered and black, lay neatly behind him, its silken sheets became slightly indented as Ran sat on it, facing his friends.
The air smelled faintly of hinoki wood and incense—frankincense and sandalwood, ancient and clean.
Someone had been looking after his room while he was away. He had an idea who it was.
"I shouldn't have said that name," Haru said, looking down.
Ran nodded but sighed. "Please, just call her Yōsei no joō. Not that name. Never that name."
Kigana sat on his bed beside him and took his hand in hers. "Who's that, Ran? What happened? Can you please tell me? I need to find out if you're doing alright."
He nodded and realized these were the closest friends he had. Haru had been by his side even against his mother's words.
Now he realized it, nepotism had helped him save his father. It hadn't really been a coincidence that Haru had approached him or that Mukoku had been compliant to helping him.
No, it had been an act of kindness from family. Probably the kindest he'd got considering the amount of evil people he shared blood with.
And Kigana, she was his cousin even if not by blood. She'd always been by his side when he was younger and had helped him take care of his father when he was sick.
They deserve to know the truth. Thankfully she hadn't sealed his mouth so he'd be unable to speak a word of it to anyone.
"You have read the Book of Calidation right? Even more than me," he asked Kigana and she nodded as he'd expected. "And you have probably read other books about the nature of Naraku."
"The First Book of Damnation through to the Seventh, the Hellgraph, Hyrus' Book of the Dead, Annals of Hellfare, and the Black Book of Bodeki amongst others," she listed, gaining an impressed look from him and Haru.
"Well, that would help you follow this story," he said, sighed and got right on with it. "My father never spoke of my mother to anyone. As far as the village was concerned, I was born of a ghost. Well, the truth is that my mother was, is, a Fey."
Kigana gasped and her grip on his hand became so tight it almost hurt. "I..is she Ti– No, sorry, I mean Yōsei no joō. Is she your mother?"
Ran nodded. "I was born during an Eclipse of Eternity. It means even without my mother being who she is, I'm fated to not die except it is destiny. But death, I've seen things worse than death, things that have made me realize that immortality, whatever form it comes in, is a curse," he said, narrating the beginning of his story.
"I was not born the son of Kaito Kenija, I was born to the Lord of Dragonhearth," he said, waiting for the reactions.
He got them. Kigana was rendered speechless and Haru instinctively took a step back.
He rushed to continue before they could get over their shock and bombard him with questions.
"Being the son of Rushifā, yes, Lucifer is my father. This meant that I had lots of enemies growing up. My mother abandoned me, left me all on my own to survive. Other Feys cared for me, but she eventually found out she had use for me and came for me. Then I was overjoyed. Parents have a kin bond with their children, for Assarians as powerful as the Fey that bond is even stronger. There was no day when she was not there that I did not miss her, no moment of torment I did not wish she'd come save me from. So I was grateful rather than upset when she finally came. She brought me here, had Kaito Kenija adopt me and raise me and everyday she visited. She told me stories of how I had to grow to face my destiny."
He took a deep breath and delved into memories he'd rather wish remained buried in the past.
"One day, something happened. Our bond deepened and I could see what she was seeing, feel what she was feeling. Unfortunately that moment coincided with an event where she was mowing through a city on a path to power. She commanded nature to do her bidding, every corpse slain became a new soldier in her army, every soul severed from mortal coil became a new spirit of war. She killed hundreds of thousands and by the end of it even her eyes were red with the blood of her victims."
Kigana's grip tightened gently on his arm as she sought to comfort him.
"She knew I'd been sharing that experience with her. She went extra miles to be even more cruel—tortured her victims, made families watch each other burn. When I saw her that day, she asked me if I'd enjoyed it. That was when I first started to fear her. Then she started talking about how it was my destiny to cause even more death and destruction, to shed the blood of trillions. I refused to believe her, but she was steadfast in trying to convince me and…let's just say that was not the last time I experienced chaos and gore through her. I started to hate her as much as I loved her, my guilt drew me the way of the former and my kin bond with her drew me the way of the latter. One day she said she was going to give me what I wanted, freedom from my destiny. She was going to give it to me through a vow."
Haru let out a curse, making both Ran and Kigana look at him. "Never make an oath, vow, promise, pact, or agreement with a Fey," he said. "The Yōsei will always find a way to use it against you."
Ran nodded. "I know that now. She made it very enticing. Said she'd be bound by kin to keep her word."
"What was the vow?" Kigana asked.
"That she'd let me be and not force me into my destiny if I accept that she'll no longer be in my life. I will see her no more, speak her name no more, and become a stranger to her."
"She was using the bond against you," Kigana said and Ran nodded.
"But she added that when she's gone, if I'm the one to ever come look for her then I'd be bound by the vow to fulfil my destiny, to be her hand of death and destruction on her path to power."
"And, what did you do?" Haru asked.
Ran lifted his head to gaze up at his friend.
"I made the worst decision of my life."