"Mai-dono!" Bukowari, a sharp young warrior from the Mishin clan, called out over his shoulder.
He had been intensely investigating the lip of the stone well for several minutes. "The spiritual residue has completely vanished. But based on the lingering displacement in the air, this is undeniably the use of the teleportation technique."
"Tch... the tracking map shows me that the signature has migrated incredibly far from our current sector," Mai muttered.
He looked down at the specialised parchment in his hands, watching a bright, crimson drop of blood pulse rhythmically against the inked topography lines of the map.
"Mai-dono," Bukowari called out once more, stepping away from the well.
"I heard you clearly the first time, Mishin," Mai interrupted smoothly, his gaze finally shifting away from the piece of paper to stare into the surrounding fog. Behind him, several vanguard troops were already dismantling the complex tactical arrays they had erected around the perimeter beforehand.
"What exactly did you uncover?" Mai spoke to the seemingly empty space around him, his voice low, almost bored.
"I discovered that there are active priests on this island who worship a deity made of green jade... a god they claim governs the harvest," a muffled voice answered.
Out from the deep, violet shadow cast by Mai's own boots, the young Shinobi whom Mai had aggressively pinned earlier materialised into a crouch. His previous injuries were completely healed, his posture steady as he squatted within the darkness.
"You people from Iga sure heal fast don't you?" Mai spoke, folding his paper.
"What does a primitive harvest priest have to do with our current objective?" Mai's brow furrowed slightly. "We are hunting an Ubume, not some deity, are we not?"
"W… well, according to the records I managed to seize, these priests regularly make a pilgrimage to a heavily guarded sector known simply as the Sanctuary," the hidden Shinobi explained rapidly.
"From the reconnaissance I gathered, that specific region possesses an incredibly dense concentration of Reiryoku. If the Ubume fled to any corner of this island to regenerate, it would undoubtedly be there."
"Ha! That makes even less sense," Mai countered coldly, stowing the pulsing map back into his robes. "A sanctuary implies a holy, consecrated domain. There is absolutely no way a cursed, blood-soaked Yokai like an Ubume could cross such a sacred threshold without being instantly vaporised by the wardings."
"But there's more, Mai-dono," the hidden Shinobi murmured, his voice shaking ever so slightly. "The intelligence states that for several years now, not a single person who ventured into that domain has ever returned. Furthermore, considering that I cannot detect even a fraction of divine blessing across this entire island, it is safe to surmise that the Sanctuary may currently be entirely unattended."
"Mmmmmm... I see," Mai responded coldly, cracking his knuckles one by one.
'It is undeniably concerning that no one has ever made it back alive from that Sanctuary,' Mai reasoned internally, a dark ambition clouding his thoughts. 'But I am left with absolutely no choice. If I wish to return to the Capital bearing enough merit to satisfy Father, I must infiltrate that domain. And then there is the matter of that bastard Minamoto... if he managed to survive that ambush from before and gets to the sanctuary before I do, it will make me look utterly incompetent in the eyes of my father. Tch.'
Mai's brow furrowed aggressively, his fingers curling into tight, trembling fists.
'What under the heavens does Father even see in that boy, anyway? Ever since he received word that Minamoto was enrolling in the Academy, that boy is the only name that ever leaves his mouth.'
Exhaling his frustration, Mai raised his chin, his sharp voice instantly cutting through the damp fog to command the entire vanguard cohort. "Listen up! I have successfully locked onto the spiritual trail where the Ubume has escaped."
"What? Truly? Mai-dono's tracking skills are unmatched! With him leading us, this campaign is as good as won!" Several of the lower-ranking scouts began to mutter excitedly among themselves.
Within a matter of moments, the elite squad efficiently finished packing up their arrays. Dropping into a vanguard formation, they began navigating the eerie, deserted streets, marching directly toward a weathered, small shrine nestled in the far western edge of the village.
As he walked, Mai closely observed the architecture. Structurally, this settlement was no different from the impoverished ruins of Kitakami Village. Yet, there was one glaring discrepancy: the inhabitants here clearly possessed far more vaguer than those in Kitakami.
But Mai's sharp eyes had already pieced together the gruesome reality behind their artificial abundance. The villagers had managed to sustain their numbers through the brutal winter by butchering and eating their own dead.
"Tch... It's a good thing we are finally leaving that place. It was starting to make my stomach turn," one of the Taira boys muttered, adjusting his armour with a sneer. "What kind of people could live in such squalor? Truly nothing but savages."
"Yeah, you have that right," his companion agreed, shaking his head in disgust. "When I heard that the local women were disappearing, I naturally thought they were being abducted because they were extraordinarily beautiful. But all I have seen since we arrived are withered old hags and ugly, dirt-caked brats. Tch. What an absolute disappointment."
"We are here," one of the pathfinders abruptly called out, halting the vanguard's advance.
They had reached a small, dilapidated shrine that looked as though it were barely holding itself upright against the damp island wind. The structure groaned; even as they watched, a few rotting black tiles slid down the slope of the roof, hitting the stone courtyard and shattering into a thousand jagged pieces. The vermilion paint of the building itself had long since faded into a sickly, washed-out grey.
Yet, what caught Mai's immediate attention were the giant, rusted iron needles driven into the earth all around the perimeter. Coarse, heavy Shimenawa ropes were threaded directly through the massive eyes of the needles, binding the entire building in a suffocating, cage-like seal.
Stepping past that unsettling boundary, the vanguard found themselves enveloped in a heavy, suffocating darkness. The only illumination came from a few scattered ceramic lamps casting a ghastly, flickering green oil flame against the rotting wooden walls.
"Huuu... this is completely freaky," one of the female warriors whispered, her hand instinctively resting on the pommel of her sword as her eyes darted nervously across the rafters.
Nestled deep in the furthest corner of the defiled temple was a heavy, reinforced wooden door. Positioned directly in front of the threshold sat a wide, shallow stone basin carved with unsettling, foreign runes.
"Ha... it seems we need a sacrifice before we can pass through," Mai spoke coldly, his eyes tracking the dark, dried stains lining the bottom of the stone bowl.
Before Mai could even command, one of the young lords hailing from a smaller, subsidiary clan eagerly thrust himself to the front. "I will do it! Allow me to offer the blood, Mai-dono!"
'Now is my chance to finally get Mai-dono's attention, the young clansman thought eagerly, his heart hammering against his ribs as he stepped out from the ranks and approached the stone basin.'
'Tch... what kind of idiot volunteers for something as obviously cursed as this?
At the very rear of the vanguard cohort, a solitary figure clad entirely in sleek black gear watched the spectacle with narrowed, critical eyes.
'This whole thing is dripping with suspicion,' the hidden warrior thought, shaking their head in silent disbelief. 'How can these fools blindly put their trust in one single person like that? The way they hang on his every syllable... It's less like a discipline, more like some sort of unhinged, fanatic cult.'
The person adjusts the grip of their fan, letting out a low, private breath.
'Then again... I almost fell for his pace, too. I don't know what kind of sorcery or lineage trait it is, but his very scent subtly alters the air around him. It makes a person instinctively relax, dropping their natural defences until they're ready to march straight into a slaughterhouse for his sake. I have to report to the miss that there is another one with Kō'