#we shadows

Where Yuki cried openly at the funeral, Kenshin was stoic and impassive as ice, only the tight clench of his hand around his second wife’s hand betraying him. Sasuke Sarutobi was appointed to the empty slot a week later. It was a good fit. The former bodyguard was quiet and polite enough to evade faux pas, but strong enough to win over Kenshin’s utilitarian facade, and the wheels of time moved on. 

They sold the little one room townhouse for a larger one. Rose even moved in with them, for a time, until her own son was born: Shingen Takeda. He was a redhead like his father. 

As for their own child, Gin Toyotomi-Akechi (they’d gotten into a bit of an argument about whether or not to name him ‘Nobunaga’, which was shut down when she pointed out that ‘Nobunaga Toyotomi-Akechi’ was a mouthful) grew like a weed. He was five when she became pregnant again with Saburo, their second son. And--last of all, when Gin was already fifteen and Saburo ten--Kaito Nobunaga Toyotomi-Akechi (they relented) was born, an eerie echo of both his fathers. 

“I think you had yourself a chimera child,” Ieyasu remarked, doing a check up on the two year old. He was a frequent sight at the house; his four children, Masamune’s daughter, and the junior Yukimura and Shingen (and Shingen’s half-sister) were forever emerging in the front lawn and begging to play. “That’s rare.”

“What is that, exactly?” Hideyoshi hovered anxiously. “It’s nothing, I hope?”

Masamune grinned. “Hideyoshi, you’re gonna go grey faster if you worry like that.”

Ieyasu brushed him off with a scowl. “We aren’t certain. The best theory we have so far is that it started as twins, but the eggs merged together.”

Kaito stared at Ieyasu with huge gold eyes. “Does that mean I’m a cabbage?”

“A what?” Ieyasu softened at the child. 

“A cabbage! Shingen said that cabbages are people who eat other people--”

“That’s a cannibal, a cabbage is a vegetable.” The blonde corrected gently. “And no. You’re not. Also, someone needs to talk to that child.”

They were in their late thirties and early fourties now, and Mitsuhide wondered where he’d ever gotten so lucky.

Their house filled with the chaos of three growing boys and a million different machines, all prototypes of their mother’s. The Nine kept them all busy, but god if he didn’t give everything in him to their family. He nestled alongside her on the porch, his knees stacked with hers and the gentle brush of her thumb insistent over his knuckles.

She chuckled softly, resting her head onto his shoulder. “Can you ‘see’ Hideyoshi out there?”

“No. I think he’s beyond my sight. What’s happening?”

“Mmmm.” He knew that sound. She pulled in closer to him, the hum of her arousal nearly vibrating off her skin. He loved how attractive they were to her still. He never doubted, not for a moment, that she was as in love with the two of them now as she’d ever been. “He’s wrestling the boys. Gin kind of has him in a headlock, and Saburo is trying to pull his arms down. He’s holding on to Kaito to keep him from getting hurt. You know how he is.”

He chuckled and wound his fingers between hers. “I do. Do you want me to call him inside with us?”

“Oh?” She played coy, but he heard the tease. “Whatever for, love?”

“I don’t need my eyes to read you. I think we could all be doing a bit of wrestling ourselves.”

The giggle was music to his ears. He nuzzled his nose into her neck and listened to her laugh, her hands running through his shoulder length hair. God. He was so, so, so very lucky. He wished that all would have the same fortune he had. 

“What’s going on here?” Hideyoshi emerged panting.

“Nothing much--currently. We could rectify that, if you get Gin to watch the other two and grant us three some time alone.”

“Oh--Oh!” He heard Hideyoshi’s blush. “Ahem. Uh. Yeah. Absolutely. Hang on, I’ll--I’ll be right behind you two.”

“Oh, I know you will be.”

“Mitsuhide.” 

He restrained a genuine laugh and followed her inside. 

---

Eighteen years after the incident at the Well, it finally opened to them. 

Yukimura and Masamune inspected it first before returning to the others. Even then they didn’t exactly provide a report. “Hideyoshi?”

“Yeah?” He answered uncertainly. 

“Could your wife come with us?”

“No.” All those ancient fears of whatever lay under the city reared their ugly head. “Absolutely not.”

“Hide--”

“No!”

“I promise it’s wo--”

Mitsuhide clamped a hand over Hideyoshi’s shoulder. “Why?”

“There’s... shit, I don’t know how to explain this. Yuki?”

The other man squinted at Masamune as if he had three heads. “What makes you think I’m better at this? It looks up her alley is all. It’s not dangerous or anything--we’re pretty sure.”

“Pretty sure?” Hideyoshi barely kept his tongue in check. Fortunately, Mitsuhide intervened. 

“That’s fine, so long as we go with her.”

---

She, Hideyoshi, Mitsuhide, Yukimura and Sasuke all descended beneath the well one at a time. Hideyoshi squinted down the long, damp pathway each way, crinkling his nose. “When was this made?”

“Judging by the stonework? I’d say that this was a construction contemporary with the oldest of our structures in the City.” Sasuke cleared his throat. “Approximately the same time, I’d imagine.”

“Thanks for the translation, Encyclopedia.” Yukimura scoffed, rolling his eyes at his best friend. “Come on. Follow me.”

Further and further into the dark they crept. Yukimura lit a lamp, but it cast a feeble glow. Hideyoshi wrapped his wife protectively beside him (and she cast him an amused stare but allowed it regardless), and finally they found the item in question: another lamp, with a single fraying wire beside it. 

“Here.” Yuki tapped his flame to it, and--

SsnnnnnsnAP! A ghastly sizzling sparked off the tip of the wire and crackled along. Bit by bit, the hallway before them burst into life, weak lamps struggling in the dim yellow glow. She gasped with shock. 

“What happened?” Mitsuhide asked. 

“Uh--” She hesitated. “Apparently the residents down here figured out how to formulate some kind of electric lighting system. It is bad, but it works.”

“Fascinating.”

“The lighting appears to be wired in afterward.” Sasuke shoved his glasses up his nose. “Interesting.”

“Right.” Yuki coughed. “Well, it only stays on for so long. The lights get dimmer and then start going out, and we’d really like to clear this place once and for all. I don’t suppose you can figure out a way to fix it?”

“Fix it?” She echoed, her eyes lighting up. “I’d love to. This would be incredible to study.”

“Are you sure...?” Hideyoshi cautioned. An uncertain fear lurked in his throat. “Especially given the past of it...”

“I know. I won’t be down here alone.” She smiled and pet his hands. “Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll be just fine.”

---

The month passed slowly. Bit by bit, she restructured and rewired the lamps, changing out their filaments, discovering their secrets, illuminating the lost pathways under the city with greater clarity. Sasuke, for his part, did his best to research its uses and came up blank. 

“Damn,” Kenshin muttered, rapping his fingers across the table. “Ishida would have been very useful for this.”

“I know,” Nobunaga agreed. His black hair was shot with silver now. “But it is what it is.”

Hideyoshi visited down there as often as he could. She was delighted; he saw it in the way she handled the artifacts, prodded them for information and learned what the ancients knew. He almost warmed to it too, except for--

On one of his days off, he was in the kitchen, getting ready to come visit her in the well, when his front door slammed open.

“Hideyoshi!” Ieyasu screamed. 

He was already halfway to his sword. “What happened?!”

“Just--just come on!”

They sprinted toward the alleyway. Masamune staggered out of the narrow opening first, what looked like grease coating his hands. Next came Nobunaga and Kenshin, both of their arms supporting her between them. Hideyoshi grabbed hold of her and checked every inch of her, blacking his hands with the viscous liquid sticking to his skin. 

“Are you alright--are you--what happened--?”

Mitsuhide emerged last of all, his mouth grim set, the black substance streaking down his face and through his ghost-white hair. Over his shoulder he dragged a figure so bloody and ragged he barely recognized him: Yukimura. 

---

It was a while before Yukimura stabilized and she was coherent enough to explain what happened. Mitsuhide, for his part, knew nothing. All he understood was they were under attack and then--and then Yukimura crumpled, and he couldn’t see but he knew well enough that his wife was down there, so he just threw all of his magical arts in a massive cone and hoped it did the trick. Presumably it had. The longer they scrubbed away the tar-like substance, the more obvious it was that it wasn’t just any liquid. 

“I think,” she managed shakily, “I think that was abandoned for a reason.”

Kenshin settled in by her knee. Hideyoshi almost snapped, but reason held firm and he just rubbed her arms, stilling her. “What happened?”

“So--” She inhaled deep, stabilizing breaths. “We got to the underground palace. It has--it’s really beautiful, you know? Really beautiful. Obsidian walls, fantastic carvings--Um, anyway--” Another breath. “I was up in the rigging, changing out some of the lighting, and then there were... shadows.”

“Shadows?” Kenshin echoed. “Of something?”

“No. Just... just shadows. Nothing else.”

Sasuke paused. “This... might be crazy, but do you think the lower levels were both lit and abandoned because this was known?”

“Rabid, killing shadows?” Nobunaga questioned. “This isn’t like anything we’ve heard of before.”

“I can take a look into the Royal Collection for any mentions.”

“Please do.”

“So--so what, then?” Hideyoshi managed shakily. “So we just close it back up then, right? Can it not live in the light, whatever it is?”

He knew before they said anything that it was a foolish hope. She pinched her nose between her fingers and inhaled. 

“I don’t know, honey,” she answered. “I don’t know. There was plenty of light when they attacked.”

“Then we have a potential threat on our hands.” Kenshin swept coolly up from his chair. “If light kept it at bay this long, we will have to discover a way to intensify it. Can you do that, Princess?”

“I can definitely try and figure something out.”

“No!” Hideyoshi snapped. “No! She might’ve died! Yukimura nearly died!”

“I agree,” Mitsuhide added, “This could’ve gone very poorly--”

But the flash of Kenshin and Nobunaga’s eyes stilled them both. It didn’t need to be said. The unspoken reminder of the Invasion swirled between them, and the ghastly silence settled uncomfortably.