Masami took quick stock of her surroundings. Bed, stained with blood and other more vile fluids. Small room, tight wooden walls. All sterile and utilitarian. Stool. Tray of instruments, some so wicked in appearance she wondered for a moment if she had found herself in a torturer’s chamber. And one old, hunched woman who stood over Masami, a look of surprise on her face.

“Well. That is unexpected,” the healer managed. “Can you speak?”

“Just about.” Masami’s voice was thin and hoarse. “Where am I?”

“Kurume. In my office. How do you feel? Any pain remaining?” The woman watched her closely.

“Like someone boiled the blood in my veins. So yes, pain remaining. It’s a wonder I’m conscious at all.” She gritted her teeth and shifted to rise, but the woman stopped her with a stare.

“The venom I understand. Not how you survived, but its workings. What happened to your arm?”

Masami sighed. “A long story. Forget you saw it; it’s hardly an ailment you could cure.”

“Demon-touched?”

“You could say that. Leave it be. I’m not interested in having it ‘fixed,’ nor do I think it can be.” She leaned back against the hard mattress of the cot. “I had a companion, a young man. His name is Toshiro. Did he bring me here?”

The old crone nodded. “Him and a dangerous looking young woman. I left them in the waiting room. Drawing venom is not for the weak of stomach.”

Masami shuddered at the thought. Her gaze was downcast and she murmured “I’d like to see him. To apologize.”

“Of course. I will send them in.”

She slipped out the door, and Masami heard her call for the pair outside that they may enter in her quiet, commanding voice. Masami took a few deep breaths. The pain was terrible, but not the worst she had felt. She gritted her teeth and did her best to wipe the grimace from her face.

Jiro?

No reply.

The door burst open.

“Mrs. Hisakawa!” Toshiro charged her, knocking her back with a fierce hug.

“Toshiro,” she choked, “gentler!”

He backed up, abashed. “Of course, I’m so sorry.”

Masami smiled weakly and looked past him. Yasuko stood next to the door, just inside the room, as calm and commanding as ever. A small inclination of her head was all Masami got from her. Cordial and controlled like always.

“You’re not the one who should be sorry, Toshiro. I messed up. Badly. I should never have tried to fight that thing. And when I did, I shouldn’t have let myself lose control.” She hung her head. “It won’t happen again.”

“Hey, it’s okay! Really! You killed that thing, and you made it out. No harm done, right?”

Masami closed her eyes and sighed a deep, exhausted sigh. “I admire your optimism. I’m afraid though, that quite a lot of harm was done.” She gestured at her left arm, frowning. “For one thing, I can’t feel my arm anymore. Can’t summon its power. And for another, it’s going to be a while before I can stand again. Isn’t that right, Kaiya?”

The old woman chuckled from her corner of the room. “Ha! So you do remember me!”

“Could hardly forget,” Masami grimaced.

“I suppose not. You are correct, you won’t be leaving this room for a week. If you’re lucky.”

Toshiro’s gaze darted between the women. “You know each other?”

“We do.” Masami’s voice was quiet. “Under less agreeable circumstances, in hindsight.”

“We all did what we thought was best.”

“I know. It just so happens we were all wrong. But enough of this, I harbor no resentment for you. Only your bastard lord.”

Toshiro tried and failed to hide his confusion.

“I’ll explain it all to you soon, Toshiro. For now, you and Yasuko should find somewhere to stay nearby. There’s some coin in my pack. Take it. If memory serves, there’s a boarding house for travelers not too far from here, back towards the gates. Tell them I sent you.”

“Will you be alright here?” Toshrio asked. He seemed hesitant.

“She’ll be just fine in my care. Now get out, my patient needs her rest!”

Cowed by Kaiya’s commanding voice, Toshiro nodded meekly and left. Yasuko nodded again, murmuring “it is good to see you awake and recovering, Masami,” as she slipped out the door behind him.

“Never thought I’d be back here again.”

“I never thought I would see you here either, Masami. You’ve been extra reckless of late it seems.”

“I got careless, yes. Can you really blame me? It’s been twenty years since I called on Jiro. It’s...hard not to get drunk on his power. Now, it seems that power is gone.”

Kaiya nodded. “Used up, more like. I don’t know what you did to the Ōmukade, but I do know how draining it must’ve been to keep you alive these past two days.”

Two days? That was longer than she’d expected to last.

“All-out suffice it to say. Can you fix it?” She bristled even as she made the request. “I’m going to need the strength again soon.”

“So I’ve heard. There are rumors of bright lights in the mountains, and villages going quiet.”

Masami nodded. “You’ve heard right. Ichinomiya is a ruin now. We’ve passed no one on the road since leaving Amagasaki. People are scared.” She paused.

“They’re right to be.”

Kaiya took Masami’s left arm in her hands as she spoke. She pressed and prodded at the stony flesh, gauging Masami’s reaction.

“I wasn’t kidding about not being able to feel it anymore. I can’t sense Jiro at all. He’s just...gone.”

“Well, if he was properly dead, this arm would’ve shriveled up with him.”

“More than it already is?” Masami chuckled. “Good to know it can get worse. What can you do for it right now?”

“I’m going to set it in a sling so it isn’t dangling around in your way. Other than that, it’s what you do that matters. Which means getting plenty of rest.” The woman noted a flicker of frustration cross Masami’s face. “No arguing! You said it yourself that you couldn’t even stand right now.”

Kaiya turned to head for the door, taking the candle which was the room’s only source of illumination with her.

“Kaiya?” Masami’s voice was soft again.

Kaiya looked back at her, face unreadable. “Yes?”

“Thanks.”

Kaiya simply nodded as she left. There was no need for more words, and Masami knew it. She rolled over onto her side and let herself drift off. The deep black of her mind was inviting as she slipped back into unconsciousness. Nothing at all like the oppressive nothingness that had consumed her in her coma. She let herself float gently on her back, the waters soothing her dreaming body as they lapped at her.

The next morning, Toshiro and Yasuko arrived with a bit more liveliness in their steps. Yasuko, Masami noted, still had her hair down, and the faintest of smiles graced her lips. Seriously? She raised an eyebrow at Yasuko, who gave her a perfectly calculated stare in return. Masami flashed her a grin as she rose to sit up in her bed.

“So, what’s on the docket?”

Yasuko spoke. “Well, you are still supposed to be resting. So for you, nothing. I have already tried and failed to get Lord Kubo to agree to send aid to Ichinomiya, which makes my stay in Kurume largely pointless. I was planning to leave this morning. Takeo needs every bit of help he can get. I should be there.”

Masami waved her hand. “No, I’m going to need you here. I’ll be pulling some strings with Lord Kubo. He owes me. Bigtime. And I’d like your help with that, because if I go up there alone, I’m going to say things I’ll regret the next day.”

Yasuko brightened, almost imperceptibly, at the suggestion. “If my services are required here to ensure proper aid comes to Ichinomiya, I am happy to oblige.”

Uh huh. You’re welcome kiddo.

“Great. You and Toshiro can come up with a diplomatic gameplan then. I still hold some sway with Kubo’s personal guard, we can use that. And you know, the whole thing about saving his daughter from being murdered by Oni while she was a baby. Work that into whatever you’re prepping. And see if you can’t gather some intel. I want to know what people have seen. Especially anything you can find about Akuma.” She frowned, growling “I still don’t want to believe he’s back, but if he is I’ll have his head.”

“What’s so significant about him, anyway?” Toshiro asked.

“You did not tell him?”

Masami gave them both a pained expression. Suddenly she felt very tired. “No. I haven’t. But I guess there’s no avoiding it.” Turning to Toshiro, her voice a hoarse whisper, she choked out “Akuma was the demon they put in Satoshi. If he’s back...” Her voice caught. “If he’s back, Satoshi could be too. And I’m going to have to kill him. Again.”

“Oh. Mrs. Hisakawa, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’ll do what I have to. Why don’t you two leave me be for a bit? We can check back in tonight.”

Toshiro gave her an apologetic look as he left with Yasuko. She gave him a meek smile back to reassure him, though she wasn’t sure it worked. With them gone, she leaned back into the sheets and closed her eyes in meditation.

Toshiro and Yasuko did as they were asked, sitting in the common area of the inn with a steaming pot of tea as they worked.

“I have already impressed upon Lord Kubo the seriousness of the situation in Ichinomiya. Any further appeals in that line of reasoning are likely to be futile. He is too concerned about reinforcing his own walls and protecting his own people to see that we will lose the few who survived come winter if we don’t get aid.”

“What about all the stuff Masami said? About his daughter.”

“We can use that to get her in the door, and perhaps to sway his mood. But he will still require plying.”

“Well what didn’t you try?”

Yasuko stiffened at that. “I did everything I thought was proper.”

“Right, right, of course, I didn’t mean to imply...” Toshiro flushed as he backpedaled. “I’m just wondering if there’s a part of Lord Kubo we could appeal to that would make him more receptive to our arguments.”

“We will need to do more research to learn that. I am told his sons will be participating in a tourney tomorrow. Perhaps we could find them there and ask for ourselves.”

“Sure! I guess today we should go around and ask about sightings and things?”

“Yes, that sounds agreeable. I did not get a chance to see much of the city before. I suppose if we are to stay for longer, it would be nice to wander about it while we find information for Masami.”

Wander they did, for the rest of the afternoon. They ate lunch at a small restaurant owned by an extremely talkative middle-aged man, who directed them to all the best gossip hubs in town. By the time the sun dipped below the treeline in the west, they’d heard nearly two dozen stories of various demon sightings. Precious few about Akuma, they noted, though plenty that mentioned a streak of flame in the sky, and lights in the mountains near Takayama.

As they headed back to Kaiya’s practice, there was a fire in both of their eyes. They’d gathered more information than they could have hoped. Now it was time to sift through it all with Masami. As they took turns repeating what they remembered, a clear picture started to form. Demons were amassing all across the country, and then heading for the mountains. They ranged from the lowest of goblins to beasts that could swallow entire houses whole. Swift victory was seeming less and less likely.

When Toshiro and Yasuko finished, Masami took a deep breath, blowing it back out between her teeth. “Shit. Alright, things are more urgent than I thought. Good work you two. We’ll get Lord Kubo’s aid to Ichinomiya as quickly as we can, and then we’re heading straight for Takayama.”

“We?” Yasuko raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, we. I need people I can trust to join me. Think Takeo’ll mind?”

“And what if I mind?” Yasuko stood tall, chin forward, the perfect image of power. “You are simply assuming I will travel with you, rather than return to help my people?”

Oh I’m betting on it alright. You’re not as good at hiding things as you think, kiddo. She kept the thought to herself. “Consider this a formal request from me. You can say no, of course. But we’ll have a much better chance with you along. Or are those swords you carry around only for show?”

Masami knew, of course, they were not. Yasuko was one of the few who could best her in single combat. The nudge had the intended result, and Yasuko looked ready to murder her then and there. She composed herself in an instant.

“You know better than most how capable I am. Of course I would join you. I will have a letter sent at once to inform master Takeo.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Alright, more like this tomorrow and we’ll have everything we need. You said you were going to some tourney to see Kubo’s sons?”

They both nodded.

“Good plan. See what you can get from them. And enjoy yourselves, alright? For the time being, we’re not on the warpath. No need to exhaust yourselves with this. Now, let’s all get some rest.”

When they left, Masami couldn’t help but notice Yasuko’s hand slip into Toshiro’s as she led him out the door. Kids.