Kohei looked through the large bag of supplies as I dropped it at his feet. I was sore and ready to rest with the others.

Ignoring me, he picked up and inspected a few items, then sat them back down. "Very good. You may return to your quarters."

That was all I needed. So I did as he said and walked out of his small office and into the main area.

I stepped past the men sitting on their sleeping mats and finally made it to mine.

Sora was reading some text on his bed next to my mat, as he was usually doing. Mahiro was at my other side, unhappily involved in his thoughts.

No one was available to speak with, and I didn't feel very talkative after my long conversation with Hayato. We were packing our caravan and making our way to the last yokai sighting tomorrow. I knew I should sleep to make sure I could keep up with the others.

So I did. I lay down my head on the stiff mat. It was hard to sleep, people spoke and lights were lit all across the large room.

Sleeping was a commodity for me. My schedule had become extinct, and time was almost impossible to keep track of in the eternal dark. Sleeping was easier when the sun was locked to the horizon, but in the eternal dark your mind can only think of the world as night, and time passes almost without notice.

All I could do was lie on the ground with my insomnia as hours passed. Soon all the men went to sleep, but I was left awake.

The waves of the ocean crashed against the shore as my eyes slowly grew heavy.

Finally, my mind was able to relax as I drifted into-

I felt an unexpected kick to the side. As I jolted awake I saw the dark-eyed man, Mahiro, standing over me. He spoke louder than I had wished him to. "It's time to start packing..."

A sigh escaped me as I begrudgingly sat up and looked around the room. People had already left the building. "Thank you for waking me, Mahiro." He shrugged and left the room without conversation. "So much for pleasantries..."

I followed Mahiro out of the large tent and into the busy yard. The men were already packing our belongings on the back of dozens of horses, by the looks of it. One horse for each man.

A younger man led a horse over to me. "Sir. We need you to pack your belongings on the horse."

Without more than a nod from me, he handed me the lead and ran to his next destination.

My horse moved along with me as I walked back to the sleeping quarters.

I looked the animal in the eyes. It was bored and probably tired from the hassle it had been put through this morning... Or night. I wasn't sure.

I tied the horse's lead onto a small post outside the recreational building and quickly headed inside.

First, I rolled my mat as compressed as possible, then moved over to my armor. The black and blue metal shined slightly in the firelight. I moved the armor off of the rack and put it on.

Soon all was left was the helmet. Shaped to protect both your head and neck from attacks, along with a metal mask to protect your face from injury. Finally sat a golden imperial decoration on the forehead, to signal which company I worked for.

The heavy helmet sat comfortably on my head. I was nearly finished as I attached the face mask.

The final attachment to my armor sat within my kimono pocket. Reaching through the armor, I accessed the pocket and retrieved the small, white flower.

A small slit in the breastplate of my armor would make the perfect place put the flower. And there it sat firmly. I awkwardly bounced up and down to make sure movement wouldn't move the sun lily. Luckily no one was around to see.

I rushed back to my supplies and picked them up. I couldn't help the loud clanging of metal as I rushed out the door and back to my horse.

There was just enough rope to securely tie the supplies to the back of the beast, with space for me to sit in the front.

Kohei yelled something in the distance. Men hurriedly rode their horses to the sound.

I quickly boarded my horse and rode with the others. Soon I was met with Kohei, sitting atop his battle-worn horse.

He spoke loudly and sternly. "we are finally setting off on our first hunt!" The crowd of men cheered at the sound. Kohei yelled again at the group of samurai. "Hold yourselves! We still have a long ways to go before we reach our destination... It will be a three-day ride, or, it would be..." The faces of the men changed from excited to confused. Kohei explained. "Well... The Shogun has assigned us the last member of our company. Yet another transfer from camp fuman o matsu."

Another from camp fuman o matsu spelled danger for me. One of Cho's men was a likely candidate. They couldn't have gotten far in their attempted escape, so I suppose the Shogun brought them back and gave them a deal. I was a target for them and had caused their plan to backfire. If this was one of Cho's men, then I would have to watch my back at all times...

Kohei waved at the group of men and turned his horse around, facing the path ahead.

Our group started moving slowly, eventually speeding up as people grew a safe distance apart.

I was near the back of the group, so all I had to do was follow the riders ahead of me.

The world grew overly familiar, and the path felt like we rode in circles.

Hours passed uneventfully. Every so often we would pass a village or town, people staring as our large group of samurai passed by.

It had been hours since our last stop, and the horses needed to rest. Kohei noticed this and waved his hand, pointing us down a separate path near an empty river.

We had a hard time slowing down. One of the men in front's horse suddenly stopped as it reached the river and sent him tumbling into the water.

As soon as our horses came to a halt we ran to the edge of the river, looking for the man. Another soldier shouted and pointed downstream, where the man had crawled onto the bank.

Kohei walked over and spoke to him a bit. He wasn't injured, only shaken a bit from his unexpected dive. Laughter could be heard through the caravan as the samurai slowly stood up.

Sora and Mahiro were paired next to me in our horse's formation. I would meet up with them and see how they've been holding up.

My eyes searched through the few dozen men. Sora caught my eye as he crouched down and scooped some of the water into a metal canister.

I walked over to him and squatted next to the river, filling my own canister. "Sora."

He glanced over and nodded. "Kenshi."

I had gathered that Sora wasn't the best at conversation. He was quiet, I thought that he liked my company, he just didn't have a talkative nature like Hayato. The conversation had stagnated a bit while I was enveloped in thought, but I was confident in keeping it going. The words came out of my mouth a bit awkwardly as we stood. "Ah... That was funny earlier, wasn't it?"

Sora made an effort to show his emotions and smile. "Yes. Lee has been notorious for his clumsiness of late. I'm honestly surprised he still has all his limbs."

I let out a chuckle at Sora's remark.

Before I could reply, Kohei yelled at our caravan of samurai. "Men! Start finishing. We've got to get back on the road."

Sora waved at me, and I back. I started making my way back to my horse.

As I walked past the front of the line I met with Lee. The one Sora had mentioned earlier.

I walked closer as he turned to greet me. With a smile, I spoke. "Hello! I thought I would compliment you on your roadside entertainment. I don't think I've ever seen our company all laugh simultaneously."

He laughed at my comment. "Thanks. I'd like to take responsibility for that stunt, but I'd be lying if I said that was intentional." He smiled.

He was young, possibly the youngest in our group. I might guess he was in his late teens or very early twenties. His hair was shoulder length and wet, along with his beaten and battered armor.

Lee reached out his hand and I shook it. It was nice to make another acquaintance.

I gave him a small wave as I headed back to my horse.

My horse was looking around idly, not particularly caring when I sat atop it.

On my right, Sora climbed atop his horse. And to my left was Mahiro. I suppose our positions while riding were the same as were we slept.

Mahiro spoke to me unexpectedly. "You almost ran into me while we were stopping."

It was true. We weren't close enough for it to be a big problem when riding at high speeds, but when slowing down you have to be careful whether you move left or right. "My apologies."

He nodded. "It's fine. You ride better than the young one in the front at least."

I wasn't quite sure if that was an out of character joke or not. It was an awkward moment before I decided if his joke was intentional or not. "Ha. That was an extremely graceful display."

Mahiro looked like he forced back a smile. "Indeed."

I opened my mouth to comment again, but Kohei spoke before I could.

He clomb back on his large horse and yelled our orders. "We're only a short ways from picking up our final companion! Move out!"

With that, we slowly started moving back our horses on the original path.

Eventually, we caught back up to our original speed and spread back out to our original spacing.

I kept an eye on where Mahiro was, I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

We kept moving through the forests.

Eventually the scenery started turning more civilized and soon we were met with buildings.

The city was in sight, the one I assumed we would be picking up the last member of our party. If it was, then Kohei didn't lie about it being close.

Kohei confirmed my theory and started taking us to a halt.

Our caravan finally stopped at the outskirts of the town as Kohei spoke. "I need two men to come with me and collect our new companion!" Everyone seemed comfortable in their seats, and none wanted to walk all the way into the city. So Kohei looked around and picked for us. "Um..." He looked over to one of the men next to him, he was strong and looked like he could handle the spear he wielded on his back. He spoke to him for a moment at a pitch I couldn't hear from the back. The man nodded and Kohei looked back into the crowd. He eventually pointed through the men and said the one thing I didn't want him to. "Kenshi! You know this man, don't you? Come with us."

This was bad, but I knew I couldn't say no. So I begrudgingly climbed off my horse.

The walk wasn't far as we started making our way into the city.

Inside the city was uneventful, only a few shops and one or two farms near the edge.

Eventually, we were met with a smaller and more discreet building, he was in there, any number of Cho's men could be behind that door, all most likely holding a grudge against me ruining their plans of escape.

Kohei opened the door and walked into the torchlit room, the bulky spear wielder and I entered soon after.

A samurai was waiting for us and instantly started speaking to Kohei as we walked through the door.

He talked about only what I already knew. Another transfer from fuman o matsu, he seemingly was given the same deal I was.

Kohei acknowledged all this and signed a small contract, confirming that the inmate had made his way into Kohei's custody.

After going through the process, we finally opened the door to the inmate's chamber.

Whoever this was, wasn't going to like the sight of me.

I tried to move past the bulky samurai, trying to see which of Cho's men was sitting in wait.

After finally moving out of the way, I saw him.

My mind froze for a moment, taking in the information my brain hadn't accounted for.

The bright torchlight reflected off of his white hair. His wrinkled face curved into a dastardly smile at the sight of me.

The old Doctor broke the silence and spoke to me, not breaking eye contact. "Oh, hello again, friend."