We entered through the cloth drapes and into the large tent.

Candles lit the tent as dirty and thin criminals chattered to one another. As we passed them by, several near emaciated and sickly looking women walked over to Hayato and, to a lesser extent, Anzen and I. I supposed Hayato seemed like a more gullible buyer.

Hayato shook his head as I simply told them we weren't interested, never slowing our walk.

Anzen looked over to me and spoke. "You should take that out of your mouth before we meet their leader."

For a moment I didn't realize what he was speaking about, but then I remembered the grain I had hanging from my mouth. I had forgotten I had been chewing on the long pieces of vegetation since we started our trip. Just chewing on something seemed to make the hunger easier. "No, we need to seem casual. I think I'll be fine."

Since Anzen commented on my appearance, I thought about it. Were we really fit to see whoever the leader of this mob was?

Hayato had his near shorn haircut and his friendly demeanor. He looked strong and mature, but still had a small bit of child-like plumpness in his cheeks.

Anzen looked very similar to Hayato, but his hair was longer and unkempt just shorter than his shoulders. His eyes were less enamored with the world and while he also looked strong like Hayato, his cheeks looked thin and he seemed leaner.

I still had my beard, just longer than stubble. Didn't seem as though it'd grow any longer. My hair was quite long, but I had pulled it in a topknot. I had a long cloth wrapped around the hair, causing it to stick into the air, with all the loose hair blowing behind me. I was strong and I had a longer face than most. We all wore commoner kimonos, Hayato bright red, mine was dark red, while Anzens was grey.

I nodded to myself. We were perfectly suitable to see whoever this was. I wasn't going to pretend I was going to meet the Emperor when in reality I was selling a horse to a mob boss.

The man leading us stepped to the side and drew open a cloth doorway, through the doorway was a sitting room, where what had to be the leader of this group sat in wait, his head held looking towards the ground.

We hesitantly entered and sat on the cloth floor of the large tent.

I spoke softly, not trying to disturb the silence that had culminated in the room. "We have a horse and supplies. We're looking to sell them. Anonymously."

The man didn't respond, only lifted his head, revealing his strangely familiar face.

He looked at me as though he was sensing the same familiarity. There was a strange darkness in his eyes. He seemed sickly, but not with a physical abnormality. Something much more egregious afflicted this man. Something sinister.

The leader's eyes squinted at me, then opened in realization. He murmured to himself. "Bait."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"I didn't recognize you at first, with the beard." He looked me up and down as the twins and I just sat there awaiting further explanation. "You look stronger than you were back then, all frail and weak."

My hand drifted over my swords sheeth, creeping closer to the handle. I was usually quicker than this. I should know who this is by now. "What do you mean by that?"

The man shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, nothing. I just found how you've changed interesting."

I urged the man before he continued a new sentence. "Who are you?"

He grinned as I grabbed my katana's handle, Hayato followed by hovering over his as Anzen clenched his fists. The man finally explained, putting my curiosities to sleep. "You were our bait. Something to lure Cho and the sentries away from the toppled tower next to the wall. Your fight with Cho let us all escape, remember?"

I stood up quickly, causing Hayato and Anzen to snap their attention from the man to me. "You're the bastard that manipulated Cho into fighting me back at the prison!?"

"The very same." He spoke without care as he waved me closer. "It's been close to six months, hasn't it?"

His extremely casual demeanor was suspicious, but getting on the bad side of the criminal world as well as the law when it might not be necessary was the last thing we wanted at that point, so I sat back down."Where's the rest of your 'friends'?"

He chuckled. "Funny thing. As soon as we got out of those walls, we all realized we didn't give a shit about each other."

"And what, did you all just give each other a bow and walk in opposite directions?"

"Of course not. Some did leave without a fuss. Others let loose with their bottled hatred and started fighting. It was a mess and not to my plan, but we all still escaped."

Anzen leaned forward and gave a look to Hayato in my peripheral vision, which I saw Hayato shake his head, both being clueless as to what we were speaking about. I continued not caring about the two of them. "And you haven't seen them since?"

The escaped prisoner raised a finger. "Not exactly. You remember how Cho was turning into a yokai? Well..." He raised his shirt, revealing an abnormally large and protruding ribcage, the skin stretched into an ashy black, with some small hint of purple veins seen. "We all started getting the same symptoms as Cho had, so, with enough effort, we met up once again and talked plans. We all agreed that the old Doctor Cho had working on a cure was our best bet. He already had more study under his belt than we would get in our now short lifespans."

I forced myself to breathe deep and slow breaths. This man was the force that nearly killed me all those months ago, and for him to get into the camp for so long had to have already killed others, I felt as though I wanted nothing more than to draw my sword and fight, but I had to remember revenge wasn't something possible in our situation anymore. I played dumb, not wanting to put myself more into his story than possible. "Did you find him?"

The man's expression changed. He was displeased. "No. We even went all the way back to camp fuman o matsu, but the old man wasn't there. We interrogated officials, searched far and wide, but in the end we found nothing but a valley of shallow graves..."

He must have been talking about what happened at the base of Mt.Fuji. I had to continue playing the fool. As far as he knew I was on the other side of Nihon. "How do you think that happened?"

His displeased expression turned into a full frown. "I thought you would know... They did say you were there with him."

Shit, he already knew from the start. I dropped my facade. "He's off with the Shogun. There's nothing I can do to help you find him. Now if you remember the reason we came here, I'd like to talk about selling our goods."

The criminal muttered under his breath. "Ah, yes. Selling your goods..." He thought for a second, then continued. "Didn't you say you had to sell them anonymously?" I didn't like where that was going. "Seems strange to be so adamant about your identity being secret... Unless you had someone looking for you... I heard the old man was with the Shogun, which means you'd have both on your tail." After a pause he repeated the first word we heard him speak. "Bait."

Anzen stared down the criminal as Hayato turned to me and spoke in a hushed tone. "Maybe we should leave..."

I stood up from my seat a final time. We were either making our trade or we were leaving, as Hayato suggested. "We have no time fo-"

My sentence drifted off as something entered the tent. A white owl peered at us with an endless gaze. Its eyes no longer shimmered an orangy glow like when I noticed it earlier. Now that it was closer to me, its eyes illuminated the candle-lit room with a bright orange hue.

The criminal stood up and shouted. "What did you bring here!"

Samurai yelled from somewhere near the entrance of the large tent the criminals lived in. "In the name of the Emperor and by the word of the Shogun, we have come to claim men wanted by the law!"

I drew my sword. "I guess you're getting attention from the Doctor sooner than expected."

Hayato stared at the owl as he drew his sword. "They've been following us the whole time!"

Anzen started to pull his sword from its sheath, but instead just raised his fists. "So it would seem."

I looked back to the criminal, who glared at me furiously.

In front of us, metallic footsteps could be heard of at least three men.

"We're going to have to fight our way out!"