The huntsman inspected the path of destruction in front of him. Trees were torn from their roots, buildings vandalized and turned into nothing short of rubble.

I walked silently behind him, inspecting it for myself. It was obviously a yokai's doing, but with stakes like we had, a wild goose hunt was the last thing we needed with the Shogun breathing down our necks.

We could have already been on the trail if the hounds had something to smell, but we couldn't find anything, and the Doctor hid his stash of flesh to study for himself.

The Huntsman stood from his spot in the snow and looked over to Kohei. "This is our yokai, I'm sure of it."

Kohei nodded. "Then we know what we have to do."

Yasuo grabbed the lead of his horse and moved closer to the clearing. "Our path is set before us. All we need now is the strength to follow it."

It was unsettling, looking at the thing's path of destruction. There was no running, no clever way out of the situation. Only facing it straight on could bring a definite solution.

I pushed myself up by my knees, moving my attention to the uneasy company of Samurai.

Our small group had moved closer together, under Kohei's nose. Once Mahiro eased up to Lee we slipped him into the back, and while Yasuo was still in the front, he had moved to the edge, letting him move back easier.

And sitting in the passenger seat of one of our carriages sat the Doctor. And even he, with his dark ambitions circling the yokai, looked as though he was unsure.

But there was nothing more to do, I moved back to my horse and the others.

Sora spoke. A frown cracking his stone face. "Is this really the smartest action to take?"

I used one hand to nervously stroke my beard as I put my other atop my horse. "Possibly... No, Definitely not. But we have no other choice. It'll be a hard climb, but one we have to proceed with."

Lee, somewhat preoccupied with settling into his new spot, had doubts. "I've heard that it's steep and unstable. Will we be able to take our horses?"

My mind pondered whether to nod or shrug, but eventually I decided upon nodding. "We can take them up the base of the mountain, at least."

I mounted my horse as I contemplated...

Every camp we made I would watch Mt.Fuji. Slowly growing larger and larger, but ever silent. Dead.

What I left behind, I doubted I would find again.

What there was, was a yokai. A yokai I didn't even notice we had gotten so close to until just then. Watching the mountain grow closer was like watching the moon slowly shift from full to crescent.

Kohei shouted, breaking me from my pondering. "This is the last yokai sighting! And as we expected, it leads us straight up Mt.Fuji and to Lady Amaterasu's palace! And our yokai couldn't have gotten far on foot, meaning we can still catch it at the base!" Kohei acted excited and valiant. A facade. One that his men wouldn't participate in.

Yasuo took over for him. He may not fix the situation, but he made it better. He was incredibly strong, tactically minded, and caring. A real leader. "I know it seems dire, but we are ambassadors of Nihon's force of will, and of the light itself! WE. WILL. PREVAIL!" That was enough to get the Samurai excited. Yasuo continued with his zealous speech. "Now, let's climb this mountain, and kill this bastard!"

We all shouted. "Yeah!"

Yasuo had a knack for turning entire companies of soldier's moods around. He had even gotten me to join in with the rest, although the high lasted only so long.

I assured myself that we would be fine as we started moving our horses down the path.

It very quickly turned steep, so we moved to a road that went in a spiral up Mt.Fuji. We'd reach our next destination as fast as we would have climbing it on foot.

Although I hated stepping foot on Mt.Fuji, I was ready to kill this yokai.

I recalled what was inscribed on my sword, which had been used in my past. "Demon, shroud in the dark. May steel devour you with a zealous mission." In my rage decades ago, I had destroyed the second inscribing on the other side of its hilt. But even then, on my way towards facing the demons of my past, I couldn't bear to recall it in its entirety.

But the first passage coursed through my veins. It had been like this since the beginning, the countless primitive evils at war with the solemn and sophisticated good. The ever consuming dark and the creative light. And the balance was severely disturbed. Righteous fury was still within me, the same holy hatred that I had so many years ago, before I had lost my way.

I was prepared and ready to slay this beast, and in only a few short days, possibly even less.

We had moved up the spiral a considerable ways, without me even noticing. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I had barely realized that time had passed, but there was not much attention that I needed to give to the ride, so I continued.

The Doctor told me why young Asao turned into a yokai that fateful day. Sin and evil coagulated like a fungus, hiding from the light and maturing in the dark and cold. But since the sunset, anywhere was prime for their emergence. And innocent Asao was like a sponge to whatever happened at his home.

It wasn't fair, for children to turn into such horrendous things. And to think I could have prevented the living hell we were in, the torment so many had gone through, it gnawed at me.

Our ride up to the last yokai sighting from our hotel took quite a while, and I could sense the tiredness in everyone. And I bet Yasuo and Kohei could too. We would have to camp soon.

Mt.Fuji was crawling with yokai, so it didn't seem like the best idea to set up there, but we had to sleep.

Kohei's horn sounded, signaling us to stop. And it only felt like we had just started. But I could see a snowy clearing, most likely the most suitable place to make camp for quite some time. And I supposed Kohei must have also noticed it and decided to take the opportunity for an easy spot to rest.

Kohei shouted. "We make camp here! Tomorrow we finish the spiral, leave our horses, and finish our hunt!"

The Samurai nodded and murmured to each other. Lee looked over to me. "This is all going a bit fast, don't you think?"

I shrugged. "Time quickens when you're faced with such stressful missions. We just have to be prepared."

Lee and I got off our horses and started grabbing our supplies as he spoke. "You must have killed a lot of yokai back when... When you were younger, right?"

"Quite a few, yes. And I can tell, you'll be just fine if you keep your wits about you."

He held his bedding under his arm as we walked into the clearing. "You think?" He thought for a moment, then spoke to me soberly. "To be honest, I fear my clumsiness will be the death of me..."

I was shocked by those words. Lee was almost always the optimist when faced in situations like these. "Don't say that. You'll be perfectly fine, we all will."

We went the rest of the way in awkward silence. I didn't know what to say, how to ease his fears more than the most basic support, so I just stayed silent, and eventually, we split to do our separate duties.

Unknown Faces opened the back of a carriage and pulled the large tarps and tents into the soft snow. It looked as though we would only be setting up the necessities. Sleeping barracks, latrine, and a few others.

With nothing but a nod, Sora walked over and helped me drag a large tent to the center of camp.

As we began to pull it up and into shape, Yasuo shouted throughout camp. "It's very dangerous on Mt.Fuji, so we'll be making a stricter guard schedule from here on out! First on guard duty will be me! Next is..." He thought for a moment, then pointed to me. "Sir Kenshi! Then you, Kira.." He picked quite a few other's, but I didn't care to listen after he called my name. I was on guard duty, which meant that I had an hour of walking campgrounds, then to alert the next.

I pulled the tent into place and then made sure the stakes were properly embedded into the ground before jogging over to Yasuo. "Me first, huh?"

He shrugged. "You were the first I saw. Besides, first shift is better than in the middle of the night." Yasuo looked over to me, turning more serious. "And I trust you more than anyone else in this place. I will sleep soundly with you watching over me." He looked around camp for a moment, making sure no one was slacking off on their duties. "You are truly someone worth relying upon, Kenshi. Do not forget it." After that, Yasuo walked into the crowd of busy Samurai. I could still easily see him, towering over everyone else, but even if I went and spoke to him again, I would have nothing to say.

I supposed that all I had left to do was get ready to take guard duty since Sora and the others had already put the final touches on the sleeping barracks by themselves. So I made my way over to Kohei, who was reading from a list, most likely filled with what needed to be accomplished before he could call it a day. I spoke to him as he noticed me. "Yasuo put me on guard duty. What do I require to get started?"

He didn't bother to look up from his pad as he replied. "Take a torch and circle camp until the water clock is full, empty the compartment of the clock and alert the next in the cycle." He started to walk off but remembered something. "Oh, and of course, alert all of us if you see a yokai"

"Yes, sir." With that, I retrieved a torch from the supply wagon and lit it.

Soldiers had just gotten the water clock up and running, so I assumed that meant I had started.

The perimeter of camp wasn't large, and an hour of walking was little more than boring. Overall, it was better than being stuck cleaning horse shit.

I started my walk, but not before long I was already being pestered.

The Doctor, who only sat in the middle of camp, had noticed me and decided to pay me a visit. He spoke as soon as he caught up to me. "Your dear friend Yasuo sent you to walk in the snow for hours on end? How pitying."

"And your friend Kohei thought you too useless to work, so he just left you to freeze in the snow all alone. How pitying."

The old man chuckled as we walked. "My dearest friend Kohei would never think so lowly of me. He left me to study."

I rolled my eyes. It seemed like it had been a while since the Doctor played these mind games with me, these discrete moments of flaunting power. I supposed I was overdue. "And what are you studying this time? The best recipes for cooking small children?"

"Oh no, children are much too tender for my tastes." That made me look back to him. He smiled slyly. "But what I have been studying is something you would have already noticed if you weren't completely dense." He lifted his hand to his ear, telling me to listen. I heard nothing but deadly silence, except then, a sudden noise. Howling, yipping, moaning, like an animal, except it wasn't, it was twisted. The Doctor smiled wider with a malicious gleam in his eye. "Now you can hear them. The yokai. They solemnly vocalized when around humans, when they were hunting, killing. But now, in the place that they all seem to gather to, they communicate."

That sent a shiver down my spine, more than the cold ever could. I was there when these things emerged, and I knew that they had more organization than they let on. But knowing that these things were so abundant on Mt.Fuji that they openly communicated was fear-inducing. But I played it like it was insignificant. The Doctor would try to kill my spirit even further if I showed any response to what he said. So I simply responded. "Was that all you had to tell me?"

He looked disappointed at my lack of response, which meant it was a success. "No, not much else. I've been too busy speaking to your friends..."

I grinned at that sentiment. "Oh, they've already told me all about their visit to your room. And I don't particularly care." I lied about not caring, but it worked wonderfully with getting under the Doctor's skin.

The old man brushed his fingers through his fraying and silver hair. "Oh. Uh... alright then. Yes." I could see that he was bothered by not getting the usual response out of me, and it made me extremely happy.

He accepted defeat and walked away.

I spent the next half hour or so basking in my victory. Every once and a while Sora, Yasuo or Lee would join me in my walking and speak for a while, but it was nothing significant.

And then, before I knew it, my shift was almost done. The water clock had been filled around three-fourths of the way full.

After the Doctor made me aware, I couldn't stop listening to the endless back and forth tittering between the yokai.

One chirping only grew louder, which concerned me greatly. I would instinctively slow down in the area it was louder.

My eyes drifted the tree line when my suspicion became reality.

A smaller yokai wandered between the trees of the upward slope, between us and Lady Amaterasu's palace. I considered heavily whether to disturb the camp or just see if it would leave on its own accord. But eventually, I settled on an alternative.

I jogged over to Yasuo's personal tent, not caring to let my presence be known. He was sleeping, but I was loud enough entering to make him jump awake. "What? What is it?"

My eyes stayed locked on the yokai as I spoke. "There's a yokai just outside of camp. We need to gather some men to kill it quietly. It'll alert others if we make a ruckus."

When I looked back, Yasuo was already on his feet and getting properly dressed for the cold. "I'll gather some archers and spearmen. We can kill it before it even realizes."

I nodded as I jogged back into the cold and towards the yokai. I stood and watched as my mind buzzed. I thought to myself.

kill it. You've taken hundreds, even thousands before by yourself. Prove that you can do it again.

No, no. I shook my head and pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind. My time would come to prove myself still worthy.

I quietly followed as around a dozen men gathered to me. Yasuo had his spear at the ready and Sora had his bow and arrow set to fire.

Without speaking, I pointed towards the ashen black figure. It wasn't quite clear enough a shot for the archers, so the spearmen and I moved forward.

We reached the edge of the forest as I noticed it's lack of movement. It had stopped dead in its tracks.

Instantly, it turned its head to look at us.

Yasuo backed up, thinking about what to do as he cursed. "Shit!"

As the creature opened its maw, an arrow pierced its skull.

Yasuo pulled me into the snow without a word as more arrows flew through the air. And before the demon could vocalize, it had died.

I looked up and saw Sora, front and center, holding his bow, no longer with an arrow in hand. Since he was in the front, I could only assume he was the first to fire, the first to kill a yokai in our entire company.

As we all got up and brushed the snow off of our coats, I shouted over to him. "Nice shot!"

Sora's blank expression turned into a smile.

I ran over to him as the spearmen made sure the thing was really dead. "What happened to your sword, oh magnificent swordsman?"

His smile faded away as the rush of battle ended. "I... Forgot to bring it."

I chuckled, which brought him to smile again, slightly. "You did well, Sora."

Crisis averted. And my quite eventful time as the camp guard was over.

Now it was time to steel myself, to prepare for what was ahead.

It was time to end the damned campaign, once and for all.