Kazu and Sou dragged Toshio back to their makeshift camp. The arrow had pierced his shoulder through a gap in his armour. He screamed out in pain with every bump and jolt.

“Here, put him down here!” Riko cleared a bed for him, and the two men put him down as gently as they could.

“We need to get the arrow out.” Sou snapped off the end and noticed something was attached. He looked at Riko. It was a note, wrapped around the end of the shaft. He unrolled it.

“‘Settle in. The fun’s just getting started.’” The characters were beautiful, elegant even. But the message behind them made Sou’s blood boil. “She’s toying with us.”

“Settle in? What does that even mean?” Riko asked.

Sou stood up and put a hand on Kazu’s shoulder. “Riko, Ayane, you two get that thing out of Toshio.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Come on Kazu, let’s go.”

Toshio would live. He was supposed to live. If she wanted him dead, he would be.That was the message.

The fun’s just getting started.

“What are we gonna do?” Kazu asked, running to keep up with Sou’s strides. A few brave men had refused to run and were still trying to take down the nurikabe. Most had fled. The scene before the castle gates was carnage. He had lost hundreds of men, all for nothing.

“We’re gonna kill that nurikabe.”

“We’re gonna… wait, what? How?!”

Sou unsheathed his sword and ran up the hill. In full armour he looked like a demon out of hell, and that was exactly the impression he hoped to make on his enemies. Next to him Kazu looked like a child, but he also drew his sword and ran screaming towards the monster. Sou smiled. That spark he had seen in him back at Oohara Castle was there again, as though another person was in control of his body.

They hit the nurikabe at the same time, both plunging their swords into its back. Sou wasn’t sure if the creature could bleed. It turned out it could. It turned and swung wildly, hitting Kazu in the head with the remains of the body it had been chewing. Its arms were long but thin, its legs short and bulky. If they could tip it over, perhaps it would be unable to get back up.

The creature looked at Sou and seemed to smile. Its face was covered in the flesh and blood of his men, the sight grotesque. It made his blood boil even further. Out the corner of his eye he could see Izue sitting on the castle walls, watching them with her legs crossed like it was some kind of game.

“Kazu!” he yelled. “Are you okay?”

Kazu stood up, holding his head. “Just got hit in the face with a torso I think… I’m good.”

“We need to tip it!”

“Uhhhhh tip it? How?”

One of the nurikabe’s arms swung back towards Kazu. He saw it coming and ducked, slashing it with his sword as it passed overhead. Foul smelling blood landed on the grass beside him.

“Your back!”

“My what?!”

“Get down!”

Sou began moving uphill. The nurikabe was slow to turn, and its focus was on Kazu.

“Turtle!”

Kazu ducked another arm, looking at Sou with a blank stare before the lights finally came on. He smiled and nodded. “Got it!”

He kept the nurikabe’s focus on himself while Sou ran uphill. He could see archers hiding in the walls. They didn’t fire at him.

“Now!” he screamed. Kazu dropped to the ground and braced himself for impact. Sou took off running at full speed down the hill, whispering a silent apology to Kazu. He leapt, hit his back in a single bound and continued forward, letting momentum take the full mass of his size and weight into the top of the nurikabe. He hit it shoulder first, so hard he heard his shoulder crack. The nurikabe landed face-down in the grass, arms swinging wildly behind it.

It worked.

Sou ripped his helmet off and began hacking at the creature. He had no idea where its brain was, or if it even had one, but it had to die at some point. Blood splattered everywhere, and the creature’s muffled screams were thunderous. Sou continued to stab and hack, a wild fury taking over him. Eventually the creature’s movements began to dull, and then finally stop. It was dead.

Sou jumped off it and wiped the blood and sweat from his face. Kazu hobbled over to him, holding his back and wincing in pain.

“That was… uh… something…” He looked scared.

“Thank you,” Sou said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Kazu gestured with his hand that it was nothing. “I’ll have a giant foot sized bruise for a while, but nothing’s broken. I think. Looks like I can still walk so hey, my spine’s still in-tact!”

Sou smiled and Kazu winced. He supposed it wasn’t the most handsome smile in the state he was in. Izue continued watching them from her vantage point. She began clapping.

“Well done, Oni of Miharu,” she began. “Truly outstanding. I’ve never seen anyone deal with a nurikabe like that before. Well, to be honest, I’ve never seen anyone deal with a nurikabe to begin with!”

The grounds before the castle stank of death. Sou had never seen so much blood before.

“How did you do it?”

Izue tilted her head, the smile still on her lips. “Do what, my dear?”

“Why was it working for you?”

She shrugged her shoulders and began to inspect her nails. “What makes you think it was working for me? Why, I’m just as surprised as you are that it was there.”

She was lying, of course. The rumours that she was a witch suddenly didn’t seem any less credible now she was right here in front of him. She stood up.

“Well, as fun as this has all been, the stench is terrible. Oh, and please make sure to clean up before you go. All these piles of flesh are terribly unsightly.” She blew a kiss and disappeared behind the castle walls.

Sou clenched his jaw. Kazu handed him his helmet.

“What are you going to do, sir?”

His helmet was covered in the blood of the yokai. The blood of his men. Good men.

“I’m going to burn them all to the ground.”