~~~

‘Why are you out here?’

‘Err…’

‘Tongue. Speak.’

The lead guard who had stealth ambitions one day to be First General of the Suwa Clan looked around at his subordinates for help, for a distraction….and then mentally cut off their lips as each one in turn pretended that the dirt on the ground was more interesting than his immediate future.

‘Because you are an incompetent,’ finished the blue-stained figure of Lord Jun’ya, gesturing at the troop standing around the boathouse, at least two of them hiding a rolled-up, still burning herb joint inside their mouths. ‘Lounging around outside like Heian poets, advertising your presence to everyone and anyone in the entire province.’

‘General…’ The lead guard raised a hand, coughing to make it a little less challenging. ‘It was obviously not my intention to assemble outside in this fashion.’

‘Yet here you are…’

‘No, but when we arrived, we had to make sure the boathouse was clear, and…after that, I was going to give the order to conceal ourselves inside, wait for the prisoners to appear, ambush them...’

‘And yet here you are,’ repeated the Suwa General, emitting a warning flash of blue light at a nearby guard who had just started to leak out smoke.

‘Yes, but only due to the arrival of the ancillary troop. We came out to…to tell them to be quiet, to hide inside and…things got a little complicated. And then, of course, you arrived.’

‘I understand.’

‘Err…thank you, General.’

‘You are weak and incompetent. And will be executed as soon as the ink on the order is dry.’

The lead guard told himself not to freeze, it would make him look even weaker, but his face wasn’t listening.

Not only did he freeze, but he stammered out a faint, ‘please, no,’ too.

‘However, as the rest of your troop is equally incompetent, I will give you one final chance to avoid your fate. Find the prisoners, and the punishment is rescinded.’

‘Rescinded…that means reversed? Not going to happen?’

Lord Jun’ya rubbed the dried-up cranberry juice, blood, battle paint, whatever it was on his cheek and then gradually turned it into a harder and angrier scratch the more he thought about what he was surrounded by.

Was this the best Suwa had to offer?

Incompetence and superstitious nonsense. Dragging those giant trees down to the temple gardens, digging in those green sticks everywhere, not having the brains to invent electricity, computers, space craft, TV serials, coffee machines, magi-bongs, guillotines, agoniser booths, the internet.

Kuso, he thought, looking to the trees. The quicker I find that backdoor portal the better.

‘General, what should we do now?’ asked one of the guards he’d brought with him from the dungeon.

Lord Jun’ya stopped scratching and examined his fingernail. There was a deeper, moister shade of something blue on it…his own blood. Noticing the stares of some of the nearby guards, he quickly wiped it on his yukata and pointed over at the eastern side of Lake Suwa.

‘Send a group of six to the eastern road block, check if they’ve seen anything. And another two to the shoreline rocks. The prisoners may try to escape through the weeds.’

‘You think they’d risk it…Sir?’

Biting down on the top of his tongue, the Suwa General ran his eyes up the shore and then slowly back down again. It was getting lighter now, dawn was almost breaking, and he could just about make out a dot in the distance.

‘Would they know about that?’ he muttered, mostly to himself.

‘General?’

‘That little pocket temple down shore, is it inhabited currently?’

‘Err…I don’t think so. The monks just go there to throw blessing salt on the water.’

‘Does it have a boat?’

‘I’m…not certain. Probably not.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Would you like to send some men over there?’

It was a long minute before Lord Jun’ya answered, and when he did, the two guards with herbal rollies in their mouth finally lost the battle and spat them out.

‘Add those two to the execution list,’ the Suwa General told the lead guard, who was still in a slight daze from picturing his own head being lopped off the week after.

‘Yes, General.’

‘As for the temple, I will go myself. With the two of you, and three others. You may choose at your own discretion from among this wretched supply.’

The guard from the dungeon turned and did a quick head count of the troop assembled, checking to see that the numbers matched the new commands.

Luckily, they did.

But it meant there would only be eight guards left to keep watch over the boathouse. Including three who were now scheduled for execution. Not the best way to keep your men motivated.

But then he was just a guard, not a seasoned General from a province on the other side of Japan.

With a weirdly ill-fitting face.

And mysterious, blue blood.

No, he cautioned, slapping himself mentally. Don’t think about it. Obey the order. Follow your superior.

‘Well, are you broken?’ prompted Lord Jun’ya, already three gigantic strides down the shoreline. ‘Select the men and follow. Now.’

‘Yes, General,’ answered the dungeon guard, flinching as, for some reason, his brain showed him a picture of his own head bobbing on a Hell lake of roiling blue blood. ‘Right away.’

~~~

A few kilometres farther along the shore, where the treeline retreated deeper inland and a long patch of jagged rocks took its place, two silhouettes slowly morphed into the coloured-in figures of Miho and Aya as the sun crept over the mountains to the east.

In one way, extra light was an asset, highlighting the wet patches on certain rocks and preventing them from slipping into the lake. Or slipping and cracking their heads on other rocks.

But from the human aspect, it was trouble. More light equalled a much greater chance of guards spotting them from the treeline, or the shore to the south, which they’d just reluctantly left behind.

‘You think there’s anyone in there?’

‘The trees? No, not here. Too random. And the road’s not that close at this part.’

‘What about Akira and the others, you think they’re okay?’

Aya stopped, moving her right zori away from a slippery patch she almost hadn’t noticed.

‘I know I’ve asked it already, but…’

‘Seven hundred times.’

‘…I’m worried about them. They went the other way and…I don’t know…just feels like we should go back, try and find them.’

And get caught again, thought Aya, choosing a spot on the rock opposite and jumping across. Or worse, murdered on the spot. Or worse than that, murdered by that psychopathic fox.

‘You’re not answering,’ Miho said, his voice edging towards insistent.

‘We need to keep going, get to the north side of the lake. Put distance between us and the Suwa guards.’

‘And the others?’

‘They’re probably doing the same thing.’

‘You really believe that?’

‘Akira’s not stupid. Neither is the fox. And they have weapons.’

‘Yeah, the fox…’

Miho dangled his zori over a jagged shard of rock, losing himself in its sharp lines for a moment.

Then looked across at Aya three rocks away, preparing herself mentally to jump to the next one.

Sex cat, he thought, knowing it was the wrong way to pronounce it. Not human and zero conscience…according to the fox…who had eaten a guard in front of them…well, partially eaten…borderline feral…but Aya, a sex cat…possibly on the run from a murder charge…responsible for getting them out of the dungeon…strangely calming to be around…princess of lies and no backstory.

It was confusing. Perhaps dangerous.

But also still Aya.

He blinked a few times, filling in the rocky scene, watching one of the only friends he had in this province jump across to another rock.

No, she couldn’t be a murderer, it was impossible.

The fox was wrong.

Or misinformed.

Or manipulating them all.

‘Are you pretending to be a totem?’ Aya called over, careful not to put any depth on the volume of her voice.

Miho blinked again and instinctively jumped over to the nearest rock. And then over to another. And another. Until he was only one behind his comrade.

‘We really can’t go back for them,’ Aya said, shaking her head to give it a visual cue.

‘It’s not that.’

Aya opened her mouth, possibly to say what is it then, then ran teeth along her bottom lip instead.

‘The fox…’

‘Ah, that again.’

‘…it said you murdered someone.’

‘Can we talk about this after we’re on the north side of the lake?’

‘Said that your type is sociopathic…the sex cat…that you don’t care about anyone else.’

Aya laughed, kicking a little rock fragment into the water. ‘Sessskat.’

‘Sesss kat,’ repeated Miho slowly.

‘Better.’

‘Sesss kat.’

‘Yes.’

‘Sessskat.’

‘Okay, okay, you’ve got it. A sessskat. That’s what I am. Not of your world. Not human.’ Aya paused, trying to look Miho in the eye, but holding it only for a second before glancing down at the water grating against the edge of the rocks below. ‘Every night, for around four or five hours, I turn into a…kind of mosquito. With toxin that can put humans to sleep. That’s how I knocked out the guards at the dungeon. If you were still wondering…’

‘A little bit.’

‘Well, now you know.’

Miho slouched down a bit, trying to catch her eye. ‘There’s nothing else?’

‘You mean my criminal record?’

‘Err…differences…between sex…sessskat and humans.’

‘No.’

‘Nothing inside…like blood colour or…’

Aya dug her heel into the rock, so hard it made a little white scuff mark. ‘I think that’s enough for now.’

‘But-…’

‘If we get caught again, I’ll draw you a diagram, okay? Until then, just…I’m not human. That’s it.’

‘Okay.’

‘And not a murderer. Or a sociopath.’

The last line was spoken in a muttered voice, almost too faint to catch, but Miho was close enough to hear it and definitely close enough to call her a liar. Or to ask her to prove it. Or to turn around and start walking back the way they’d come, away from the demon Sessskat and her rhizome network of lies.

But he didn’t.

He took a breath, and jumped over to her rock, feigning a slip on a moderately wet patch and then letting her reel him back in with a surprisingly strong arm.

‘The more I think about it…the fox…is probably not the most trustworthy demon out there.’

‘That one? No. Not even close.’

‘You know others?’ he asked, switching back to his normal, curious about everything tone.

‘One or two.’

‘In Japan? Or…the other place…your land?’

Before Aya could respond, or make an excuse not to, an owl hooted from the treeline about fifty metres away. Both of them glanced over, expecting to see a pair of yellow eyes staring back, but then they realised it was sunrise and it probably wasn’t an owl, but a daytime bird.

A daytime bird coming out from the trees, cloaked in a Suwa-issue yukata, with a katana fully drawn.

‘Down, quickly,’ said Aya, pulling Miho by the dōbuku sleeve and almost sending them both into the water below.

‘Kuso…’

‘Quiet.’

Luckily, the rock was dry, and their zori could get a decent foothold.

‘You think he saw us?’ asked Miho, his nose almost touching Aya’s cheek.

‘I don’t know.’

‘His katana was out.’

‘Yeah.’

‘I think he saw us.’

‘We’ll have to wait. See if he comes over. Jump into the water and swim if we have to.’

Miho pulled away a bit from Aya’s face and took in the full spread of Lake Suwa. He wasn’t good at arbitrary measurements, but it looked at least a hundred miles wide. Maybe fifty. Or less.

‘Just…stay quiet.’

Miho nodded, clipping Aya on the forehead as he turned back, forgetting how close she was.

‘Sorry…’

‘It’s okay. Not fatal.’

He edged his arm up, putting his hand on the spot he’d collided with, and started to gently rub.

For once, she didn’t say anything.

Or try to curb it.

She just sat there, wedged between two large rocks, and allowed herself to be rubbed by a human.

A human friend.

A human friend who had no idea who she really was…back in the other place…that she would never, ever go back to.

Not for anything.