~~~

‘Go on, you can do it.’

‘Kanae…’

‘A little bit more.’

‘Kanae…stop it.’

‘Just a few more centimetres…’

‘Are you listening?’

‘Don’t worry, it’s not a big drop.’

‘Kanae…’

‘I’ll help you down if you like?’

‘Gods of Saitama…Kanae.’

The ninja trainee perked her head up, just in time to see Ichiko’s hand fly past from the left and smack down hard onto her forearm.

‘Hey, you killed it,’ she whined, taking her forearm away and scanning for the corpse of the ant that had been crawling bravely across the surface. ‘No, wait…it’s not there. Wah, where did it go?’

The next slap hit Kanae on the side of the head, followed by a hushed bark to stop messing about and focus on silently watching the scene twenty metres ahead.

‘Nothing’s happening. It’s just a giant hole and a nutty ritual for some dead guy.’

‘Then just focus on the silent part,’ said Ichiko, clipping her one more time for good measure then shuffling an inch closer to Misora and Reiko. ‘Any sign of tracks?’

‘We’ll have to get closer for that,’ answered Reiko, throwing away the leaf she’d been rolling up.

‘Good idea,’ added Misora.

‘Bad idea. There are too many guards.’

‘Where?’

‘Here. Right in front of us.’

‘Sorry, are we looking at the same place?’ Misora gestured with a cramped arm at the two very stationary objects that could be called guards, both clearly dozing off yet somehow staying on their feet by the dead body. ‘Those two?’

‘The monk could be difficult.’

‘What, with his totem sticks?’

Ichiko breathed out fierce, looking again at the ritual scene unfolding ahead. The monk may not have been a fighter, but he was probably fast and agile and…they always did that face, when confronted with the threat of violence…the patronising, kill me and no heaven look that she despised and…what the hell was he doing anyway? Inhaling the smoke from those green slabs of wood?

‘I will admit though, you Suwa lot really are a weird bunch,’ said Misora, unwittingly agreeing with Ichiko’s thoughts.

‘There’s method behind the weirdness,’ replied Reiko, pulling herself up onto her knees.

‘Which part?’

‘All of it. The green totem sticks surround the corpse and act as a protective cloak, to stave off the demons trying to trick the departed into Hell, and they have to be lit to produce the herbal aroma that demons hate.’

‘You do this for all your fallen?’

‘Mid to high ranking. Mostly during Onbashira, when the fear’s high. Ah, finally, muttering part’s over.’ Reiko switched from knees to feet, brushing loose dirt off the dōbuku she’d stolen from the castle. Then pulling it in tight to cover up the prostitute’s yukata underneath. ‘Action time.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘To have a chat with the monk. Misora, you can be my assistant. From the West Suwa Temple. Come on, get up, follow me over.’

‘Wait…’ hissed Ichiko, holding out a hand to yank them both back, but it was a ghost grip and they were already halfway across to the hole anyway. ‘Kuso…’

She lowered herself back down, shifting over to a larger crop of grass as one of the stationary guards made a grunting noise and woke up.

‘So reckless…’ she muttered, as Reiko raised both hands in a sign of peace and sent them back into their trances.

‘Hey, I found it…’ said Kanae, smiling from down by her ankles. ‘It wasn’t dead, it was fleeing.’

‘Shut up.’

‘Quick-witted, little ant…’

Kanae put her hand out flat on the ground and let the creature crawl onto her palm and it was such a ridiculous sight that Ichiko had no choice but to get up, pull her own stolen dōbuku in tight and walk out towards the hole, mentally switching to her role as second assistant from the West Suwa Temple.

I’m here to bless the corpse.

No, too direct.

I’m here to assist Sister Reiko in blessing the recently deceased.

Better.

I’m here to track the same guys as you, only I’m gonna kill them on behalf of Lord Shingen.

No, no. Instant death. For the guards.

She exited her internal roleplay and pulled her shoulders in, making herself more spiritual.

For some reason, none of the guards seemed to notice nor care about her arrival, so she bowed at the oddball monk and Reiko, and then continued on until she was standing by the edge of the impromptu grave, looking down at the same prints in the dirt that Misora was squinting at.

‘Only two…’ Ichiko said, following the tracks over to the treeline on the other side. ‘One small, one average.’

‘The girl and the boy,’ answered Misora, checking back on Reiko, who was now kneeling down by the corpse, serenely shaking her head. It wasn’t close enough to hear the words she was spinning out to go with it, but something generic like oh dear, so tragic, wouldn’t have been a terrible guess. Whatever it was, the monk appeared to be appreciating it.

‘What about the ashigaru?’

‘Gone a different way. Him and the fake mage, probably.’

‘They split up?’

‘Got split up more like. The tracks are over there.’ Misora pointed left, about five metres across. ‘Two large feet, and paw prints that vanish before the trees.’

‘A creature from the forest…’

Before Misora could answer, Reiko appeared, putting arms around both ninjas’ shoulders and whispering that the corpse was partially eaten…either by a wild animal…or a lunatic ashigaru running on herb fumes.

‘The demon fox…’ Misora muttered back, rubbing some loose dirt off Reiko’s fingers.

‘That would make the most sense.’

‘Do you think it really-…’ Reiko stopped, redirecting her eyes to the not at all disguised HEY YOU GUYS coming from the nearby treeline. ‘Gods, is she ever quiet?’

‘She will be once I cut out her tongue.’

Ichiko detached from Reiko’s arm, looked back at the guards to see if they’d heard the sound too, blew out air in relief when she realised they were still comatose, possibly from the green totem smoke, and then hurried over to the treeline to gag the rookie.

‘I found some tracks,’ Kanae said, her right arm surprisingly fast enough to block Ichiko’s opening slap. ‘Down here, look.’

‘Then you wait for us to come over. Never shout out into a clearing…especially when there are enemy guards standing nearby. Understand?’

‘It wasn’t a shout, I was-…’

Ichiko slapped again, this time unblocked.

‘Okay, fine. I won’t say anything. Ever again.’

‘Good. Now, what we need to do,’ continued Ichiko, as Reiko and Misora caught up, the group of four manoeuvring themselves behind a nearby tree trunk, ‘is divide into two groups. Reiko and Kanae, you go after the boy and his girlfriend, Misora and I will handle the ashigaru and the pseudo-mage.’

‘What about the fox demon?’

‘Simple. If it makes a move, stab it.’

‘Err…’

‘No arguments. I’ve followed your lead all night, now it’s my turn.’

‘Okay…comrade.’

‘No sarcasm either.’

‘Fine, we’ll split up then.’ Misora glanced at Reiko, who appeared to be fascinated by the dirt on the ground. ‘If you do find the boy, let Kanae deal with him. The girl can go free.’

Reiko half nodded, then looked at Kanae, who had her palm against the tree trunk, waiting for the ant to crawl off. ‘Are you ready, ninja?’

‘Five more seconds.’

‘Kanae…we have to get going.’

‘I know, I’m just-…the ant is moving, five more seconds and it’ll…’

A hand flashed forward, crushing the ant’s body just as it stepped onto the bark.

‘…be safe.’

‘Now we can go,’ said Ichiko, wiping her hand on Kanae’s half-open dōbuku.

‘Sociopath,’ mumbled the young ninja, waiting for her two seniors to get at least ten metres in the other direction before saying it again louder.

‘It was a fine ant,’ said Reiko, deadpan, patting her new partner on the shoulder. ‘But we really do have to get moving.’

‘Yeah, I suppose…’

‘As a matter of fact, I may know a shortcut down to the lake. If my memory holds. With a bit of luck, we’ll get to them before the guards do.’

~~~

‘How many?’

‘Not sure.’

‘Five? Ten? Five hundred?’

Daiki adjusted his position on the ground, sticking his head up a little higher over the half-destroyed wooden cart they were using as cover, and attempted a count.

‘Well?’

‘From what I can tell…about twenty of them. No, wait…there’s five more by the shore. Blended in with the signage boards outside the boat house.’

‘Kuso…’

‘I don’t think we’re gonna be able to get in there. And we can’t go up to the road again either. Far too many guards.’

Akira hit the dirt with his fist, cursing a second time, then tapped on the red and white beads tangled up in Daiki’s hair. ‘Hey, fox demon, you still in there? We need you.’

‘It’s recharging, it won’t come out.’

‘There’s twenty guards in our way, blocking the boathouse, and if we don’t get past them then you’re never getting anyone on that precious list of yours. None. Not even that weird orange monk who tried to drown me.’

A faint glint of silver put a stop to Akira’s half-hearted threat, the eight-tailed fox materialising with the face and body posture of a plague victim. Even its tails looked deflated.

‘Gods in a cave, what happened to you?’

‘… … …’ slurred the fox, not in Japanese.

‘Looks like you’ve just crawled out of a leper’s ass crack.’

‘I’m recharging…the mage just told you.’

‘Yeah, well put that on pause for a minute. We need you to do that bright, come-to-heaven light again, knock out those guards.’

‘Impossible.’

‘Just one blast, that’s all we need. Then you can crawl back into his hair and recharge for as long as you like.’

‘I’m not a performing eagle.’

‘What, you’re saying you can’t do it?’ asked Akira, doing a faint trill of a whistle. ‘A legendary fox demon like yourself?’

The fox raised a paw…its eight tails tensing straight up behind…and then dropped it down onto the ground, exhausted. ‘It’s no good. You’re too far away to scratch.’

‘Okay, fine. You take a rest like a pensioner. I’ll go and look for a real fox to help us.’

Akira didn’t move, but Daiki put a hand out to pull him back in anyway. Then leaned in to his ear and whispered, ‘no point aggravating, it really does take about six hours to do a full recharge.’

‘Then we might as well walk back into the dungeon ourselves.’

Daiki looked back at the small regiment of guards, some of them smoking festival crack sticks, and the boat house beyond. Akira was right, it would be impossible to get to it without the fox’s light trick.

But maybe that’s not the best way, he thought, switching to the eastern side of the shore. A boathouse is an obvious target. So obvious that the guards probably should’ve hidden inside and ambushed them. But they were out there now, in plain sight, and…it wasn’t a boat house they needed…just a boat…

‘I think I know somewhere,’ he said, turning back to Akira and the sunken-faced fox.

‘That isn’t the dungeon?’

‘Not too far from here. Off the map too.’

‘Does it have a boat?’

‘It did when I served there.’

‘Served?’

Daiki nodded, padding down his robes. ‘I wasn’t always a mage.’

‘Military?’

‘Temple.’

‘Wah, so that shrine story you spun in the dungeon was true…fucking monks.’ Akira tried to fake spit on the dirt, but some phlegm really did spill out so he did it again, hitting the fox directly in the eye.

‘You’re dead, ashigaru.’

‘Sorry, wayward shot. I’ll make it up to you later. When Holy Daiki here gets us to that temple. How far is it exactly?’

‘I don’t know for sure it has a boat…but it will probably be empty. No one lives there.’

‘Which means no one can rat us out or chop our heads off. Right. Good. Here’s the plan then. We crawl back to the treeline, get up slow, pretend to be a tree and then run. And this time don’t step on that drunk guy. Okay?’

Daiki answered by rotating and starting his crawl, while the fox glimmered just enough silver to get its body airborne and float back into the red and white beads.

‘That was easy,’ said Akira, taking a last look at the guard encampment and muttering kuso under his breath as he saw another figure arrive, this one tall, blue-eyed and fond of twisting up the bodies of young men into…something not nice to look at.

Ah well, he thought, shifting himself around, at least the demon General’s over there and not hiding at Daiki’s temple.

Which better have a boat.

And no lurking guards.

Otherwise…