"Taisho, I've placed all the charms around the temple. It should ward off the spirits," Gabimaru announced, his voice echoing in the hollow hall. He sat in the centre of the vast, open space, striking flint until a small fire began to lick at the dry wood.
"Come cook the fish, the fire is ready," he called out to the servant boys.
"You did well," Yorimitsu replied, his gaze drifting upward.
The temple was a skeleton; all the shoji screens had been torn out or rotted away, leaving the room exposed to the biting mountain air. The air was cold as if the outside was inside.
"Ha... this takes me back," Omaru whispered, settling cross-legged next to Gabimaru.
"?!"
"Oh, right. I didn't tell you, did I?" Omaru said, a wry smile touching his lips. "I was once a Negi's apprentice."
"Haaaaaaa!" Gabimaru's mouth hung open, the firelight dancing in his eyes. "Then what are you doing here? If you were a priest's student, why—"
"I ran away," Omaru cut him off, staring into the flames. "I was tired of the life. Being a vegetarian who does nothing but transcribe ancient texts for sixteen hours a day... it wasn't living, so I stole all the offering meat and ran away.
"Mmmm," Gabimaru nodded eagerly. "A life without meat sounds like a dull life indeed. You did the right thing by running away, friend! How about it? Why don't we drink to your freedom? What do you say, Taisho?"
"Taisho...?" Gabimaru called out again.
Yorimitsu didn't turn. He remained standing by the open threshold, his silhouette framed by the twisted bamboo outside. His head was tilted back, eyes locked on to the sky.
"What do you think about the stars today, Gabimaru?"
"Mmm, I have no idea. I never learned the Esoteric Arts," Gabimaru responded, his playful tone still lingering as he added another bamboo to the fire.
"Ha. It would be a miracle if you could read the stars," Watanabe interjected, his heavy footsteps thumping on the floorboards as he approached Yorimitsu. He reached into a pouch and pulled out a strip of tough, dried meat, offering it to Yorimitsu.
"Here," Watanabe said plainly. He leaned against the doorframe beside Yorimitsu,
"So, do you know how to read the sky?" Gabimaru shot back at Watanabe, his grin widening as he waited for a retort.
Watanabe didn't respond. Instead, a faint, embarrassed streak of pink flushed across his cheeks, visible even in the dim firelight.
"You can't do it either, can you?" The thought fluttered through Yorimitsu's head, accompanied by a soft, internal chuckle.
…
"Why do you look so concerned?" Wabonoske's voice was small and trembling. "We have already set up the talismans, right? The Yokai can't get in."
"Yeah, if we were still in the capital, it would be alright," Yorimitsu replied, his eyes never leaving the tree line. "But here, it's different. We don'—"
"GGggrgrgrgp…..GGGGrrrrppppt."
A soft, harmonic growl echoed through the wide, screenless opening of the temple. The sound was unfamiliar, perhaps of a beast; it vibrated like a throat filled with stones and honey.
Shhh-sh… Shhhhhh.
The sound of dry bamboo leaves being crushed followed in infrequent, heavy successions. The squad froze. Every head jerked toward the darkness beyond the threshold.
"Ha... a woman?" Watanabe whispered, squinting his eyes against the flickering light of the fire.
"Help! Help me!" a woman cried out.
She stumbled into the dim radius of the temple's light. She wore a high-quality kimono, now shredded and soaked in dark, drying blood. Every step she took was a painful, dragging limp, her hair matted against her pale face.
The group surged toward the edge of the door, hands instinctively moving to their weapons.
"What are you doing? We should help her!" Wabonoske's voice shot up, louder and more certain than it had been all day. He moved to step past the threshold, his face set with a desperate kind of courage.
"Whoa! He's suddenly brave now that there's a woman in need," Gabimaru teased, a wide smile stretching on his face. "Behold, our white hero of Taira..."
"Taisho..." Omaru whispered, looking to Yorimitsu for the command to move.
Yorimitsu didn't move. He stood perfectly still; his eyes locked on the woman's dragging foot.
"Oh, come on," Yorimitsu said, his voice dropping to a flat, unamused tone, "Just look at her more closely. That thing is not human."
He pointed a steady finger toward her shadow.
…
"Tch... you're right. What was I even looking at?" Gabimaru's eyes widened, the firelight finally reflecting off the truth.
"What kind of legs are those?" Gabimaru's voice rose.
…
"Shit." The woman hissed.
Her head twitched; the woman who had been sobbing and bleeding was gone. In her place stood a creature with the mangled legs of a goat, its joints bending at unnatural angles. As it looked up, its eyes weeping black tears, her pupils glimmered with a predatory, sickly yellow light.
"Ohhhhh... come on," the creature sighed, its voice losing its melodic plea and turning into a grinding rasp. "Do you know how hard I worked to prepare this disguise?"
It picked itself up, unfolding its limbs until it stood nearly ten feet tall, mirroring the height of the wolf-man statues outside. Its head bobbed and twitched fantastically in the air, as if its neck were made of wet rope.
"KKKKKKkkkkkkkk... Finally, humans. I haven't smelled a scent so sweet in a while. All the others ran away fifty years ago," the thing hissed, its yellow eyes scanning the squad with a starving intensity.
"What should we do?" Watanabe whispered, his hand white-knuckled on his blade. "It's so old... no wonder it dares to approach a holy site. Its malice has outlived the shrine's power."
"What other choice is there?" Gabimaru barked, his bravado returning as he reached for his weapon. "Our mission is to rid the world of these demons. Taira boy! Hand me my sword!"
Gabimaru surged forward, intent on being the first to draw blood. He took a single step toward the threshold, his body leaning into the darkness.
But before his foot could fully plant on the stone outside, Yorimitsu's hand clamped onto his shoulder and yanked him back with violent force.
Trrrsssssh!
A jet of concentrated, steaming acid splashed exactly where Gabimaru's foot had been a millisecond ago. The stone hissed and dissolved, sending up a foul-smelling plume of green smoke.
"You rash idiot!" Yorimitsu hissed, his voice cold as the mountain air. "Can't you tell that this is a trap? It wanted you to charge recklessly, can't you sense it is not alone?"
Yorimitsu stepped to the front, his shadow cast long and jagged by the fire behind him.