Kazu and the three men he’d hand picked to join him on his mission made their way up the Aogame River. They had a single night to reach the castle, get inside and open the gates. Sou and his men would be waiting at dawn. Everything was riding on this. He couldn’t let them down.

“What are we gonna do if they catch us?”

“They’re not gonna catch us.”

“But if they do, I mean, that witch… do you think she eats people?”

“How am I supposed to know. If we’re lucky maybe she’ll eat you.”

“Hey!”

Kazu rolled his eyes. Perhaps he should have picked quieter men. Something splashed nearby. They all froze.

“Hey, isn’t that…” his voice trailed off. A group of kappa were swimming nearby.

“Shh!” Kazu whispered as loud as he could. “Out! Get onto the bank! Now!”

The men quickly made for the shore and struggled up. Kazu followed, but it was too late. The kappa had seen them, and the largest was heading their way.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Kazu grabbed the tufts of grass on the riverbank and tried to pull himself up. The grass gave way and he fell back into the water with a loud splash.

“Kazu!” Motohisa, a large yet surprisingly nimble man put his hand out. “Come on!”

The kappa was getting closer. On land kappa were easier to deal with but still a struggle. They were more likely to kill a man than not, and a kappa protecting its family could be ferocious. But trying to deal with a kappa in the water, its natural habitat, well that was suicide.

Kazu grabbed Motohisa’s hand and pulled himself up.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me yet, it’s still coming.”

“Get back.” Kazu held his arm up. Motohisa didn’t argue with him. Kazu backed up warily. The kappa climbed out of the water and slowly approached him, sizing up the situation. The scratches on Kazu’s face began to throb when he saw the size of the claws on it. Not again. He didn’t need matching whiskers.

“Hi!” Kazu smiled widely at it, holding up a hand in greeting. Perhaps he could charm his way out of the situation. Kappa weren’t exactly known for fall for human charms, but it couldn’t hurt to try. The creature continued its slow approach, its eyes scanning both Kazu and his men for any sudden movements.

“Uh…” He needed to think quickly. The kappa had closed enough distance between them that if it decided to leap now, he would be dead. Painfully dead.

“My name is Kazu! It’s nice to meet you!” Kazu bent over at 90 degrees, hands dead by his sides, waiting for pain to rip through him.

“What are you doing?!” Motohisa hissed.

The kappa stopped moving. Kazu waited. He chanced a glance at the yokai and it was staring directly at him, frozen on the spot. Was it deciding which part of him to tear off first?

“Good evening, Kazu. It is nice to meet you, too,” the kappa greeted him and also bent over at a full 90 degree bend.

The men behind him gasped. It was impossible for a kappa, a proud and honourable creature, to not reciprocate a greeting. Kazu had heard that somewhere once, but he wasn’t sure if it was true and had staked his life on it. It worked, and as the creature bent the water from the bowl on top of its head spilled out. A kappa without its water was significantly weaker and Kazu seized the opportunity. He leapt and grabbed the creature around the neck as it let out a gasp of surprise, wrestling it to the ground. It struggled wildly, stabbing Kazu several times with the barbs on its shell. He refused to let go, no matter how much it rocked and bucked. He squeezed around its neck tighter, holding on for dear life. It might live in water but even kappas needed to breathe, and its neck wasn’t protected by its large and spikey shell. Finally the kappa’s movements slowed, and then stopped. It was out of air.

“What do you want?” The words came out ragged.

“Swear your allegiance to me.” A defeated kappa had to remain loyal to whoever defeated it. Kazu had won. The creature sighed. At least, it sounded like a sigh.

“You win, Kazu the Deceitful. You have my allegiance.”

Kazu smiled at his men. They were looking at him absolutely dumbfounded. He patted the kappa on the cheek and stood up, dusting off his soaked clothes.

“That was amazing, Kazu! How did you know it would do that?!” The men came running over once they saw the kappa no longer planned to eat their intestines for dinner.

“I’ll have you know I’m quite knowledgeable on many yokai,” Kazu boasted. The men turned to the family, still swimming in the water nearby.

“Look, there’s another three of them still there! If we sold the shells we could live like kings!”

The kappa growled and made to move towards the men.

“Hey, hey!” Kazu yelled at it. “Stop!”

One of the men, Tomoki, fell harshly on his backside as he attempted to retreat in fear.

“We’re not killing its family. What are you, barbarians? It’s going to be our guide up the mountain.”

“Our guide?”

“Are we deaf as well now?” Kazu turned to the kappa and pointed. “Do you know the way up that mountain?”

“Yes, master.”

“Good. We need to reach the top before the sun rises. You’re going to show us. Lead the way.”

The kappa side-eyed Tomoki as he stood up and dove back into the water.

“Very well. Come, humans. We don’t have all night.”

The men cautiously followed the creature back into the water, waiting to see if it would betray them the moment it regained its strength. It didn’t.

A short while later they approached the bottom of the mountain. The moon shone through the clouds above as a soft rain fell, but the forest ahead was pitch black. The kappa turned and swum up a small stream descending from the mountain.

“Come, humans, this way. Humans may ascend the bank if the water too difficult, but this way is quickest.”

Kazu was already breathing hard, as were his men. They quietly followed the kappa into the darkness.

“I sure hope you can trust it,” Tomoki whispered.

“I can,” Kazu replied. “You should be a little more kind to it however, it owes no fealty to you.”

Tomoki stopped talking.

“I’m a ‘he,’ you know. And I can hear you,” the kappa replied from up ahead. “Hurry up.”

The men reached a small waterfall. The kappa quickly scaled it like a lizard on rocks and looked down at them from the top.

“Uh, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to do that,” Hisayuki, hand picked after Kazu saw him mount a man like a horse and slice him 10 different ways before he hit the ground, looked uncertainly at Kazu.

“Humans may ascend there,” the kappa pointed to a slope nearby. The men climbed onto the bank and helped push each other up the steep slope. They crumpled at the top, struggling for air.

“Humans so unfit,” the kappa remarked, swimming in circles on its back in the stream. Kazu just looked at him, his breathing slowly returning to normal.

“You can feel free to invade the castle for us then.”

“Kappa have no interest in human wars.”

“What do you have interest in?”

“Human meat.”

“… oh.”

“Also cucumbers. Human have cucumber?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Kazu stood up. The forest around them was so dense that only the tiniest slither of moonlight shone through. He could only see the kappa by the sparkle in its eyes. They brought no lanterns that would give them away, only gourds of water to get through the night.

“Alright, lead the way.”

They followed the kappa alongside the bank of the stream, but as the kappa had warned them, it was slow going and the rain was making the ground wet. Tree roots continually tripped them up, mud kept trying to suck them in, and branches kept trying to scratch their eyes out.

“We’re not gonna make it by morning if we keep going like this… how much further is it?”

The kappa dug its claws into the bank and looked up at them.

“At current human speed, humans reach castle in three nights.”

“Three nights?!”

“Humans terribly unfit.”

“Okay, okay, that’s enough out of you. How much longer does this stream go on for?”

“Human speed?”

“Yes, human speed.”

“Hmm. Human speed, we reach waterfall at end of stream when moon is high in sky. From there, humans must continue on land. Takes time, very dangerous for kappa and human, but humans reach castle before sun rises, if unfit humans move faster.”

They had no other choice.

“Get back in the water.”

The men sighed and jumped back into the stream. The kappa swum a circle around them and continued upstream once more.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Motohisa whispered.

Kazu hoped the same.