Ebume, Mutsu Province, 1541

Sen watched the other children run through the town laughing and playing the whole way and briefly wondered if perhaps his newfound hobby would, maybe, make them like him before he quickly shook away the thought and stayed hidden in the bushes, watching them have their fun. The last time they had found him, the only thing he had received was a well-aimed rock to the temple. The cut still stung from time to time despite it having scabbed over. A part of him ached for the ability to play, to laugh with other children, but he knew better than to believe that they would see him as anything other than what the crazy old priest had convinced them he was: a monster.

He looked down at the small folded carp in his hands, made out of bright washi paper and covered in pretty painted scales, and instantly knew that they would find some way to twist his gift into a reason to torment him. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Whatchya doin'?" The voice made him jump with a yelp and spin around to see a girl staring at him, blinking back at his surprise. "What're you holding?" She looked down at his cupped hands and blinked at him again when he dropped his eyes to his bare feet and refused to look at her. She reached out and grabbed ahold of his wrist and opened his loosely curled fingers to reveal the carp, which she took from his hands and turned over in her own. He was waiting for her to hurl some form of abuse when instead she giggled and handed it back, "It's pretty! Can you make me one?"

Sen's head shot up and his eyes widened as he found the girl grinning at him, "Ah..." He wasn't quite sure exactly what to say.

"My name's Itsuki! What's yours?"

"...S-sen..."

"My dad is the blacksmith! Someday, I'm gonna be a blacksmith, too! Just like him!" Her smile fell when she saw him staring at her in surprise and she cocked her head to the side quizzically. "What's wrong?"

"You... you're not afraid of me?" He asked hesitantly, preparing to run if she somehow realized who she was talking to,

"No...? Should I be?" She furrowed her brow, "I always see the other kids being mean to you. They... They're mean to me too. They say a girl can't be a blacksmith. I think they're just stupid."

"Hey! Look! Soot-face is being nice to the demon spawn!" Sen felt his back stiffen up as he heard the voice behind him as a cold pang of fear took hold of him. He knew the boy. Hamu. "Might wanna go somewhere else, Itsuki. You'll catch the crazy standing so close to him!"

"Back off, Hamu!" Itsuki shouted back, stepping forward to stand beside Sen, who still had his back turned to the other children behind him. "Leave us alone!"

"Hey, demon spawn!" Hamu ignored her entirely and shouted at Sen's back. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Sen was rooted in place. It felt like his legs were wrapped in coiled vines that held him fast and rigid as the icy lump formed again in his stomach. "Maybe you should leave..." Sen muttered as his eyes slowly looked to Itsuki, who looked back at him in surprise.

"Did you hear me? Turn around!" Hamu shouted again and Sen flinched like the words were stones.

"Leave him alone!" Itsuki turned from Sen and shouted back, and he quietly hoped she would leave before they did what they usually did to him when they saw him around town.

"Know what we do when he won't listen?" Hamu leered, and soon after Sen felt a sharp crack against his skull and briefly saw stars as he stumbled forward. He felt a small rivulet of blood down the back of his neck and heard the dull thump of a rock fall behind him before the kids all started to cheer and another one slammed into his shoulder blade, making him whimper and arch his back defensively against the stones.

"Quit it!" Itsuki shouted as a rock whizzed past her head and hit the side of the abandoned house beside them.

So long as none of them hit her, Sen didn't mind it. They could hit him as much as they wanted.

When one of the rocks hit Itsuki right above her eye instead, Sen wheeled around, "Stop it!" he screamed, and when he did, his hands slashing in front of him, a gust of wind seemed to materialize from nowhere and sent the children in front of him tumbling to the ground with shrieks of their own.

"Freak!" Hamu shouted behind him as he took off running down the street towards the old priest's house with the rest of his group in tow close behind him.

Sen looked down at his trembling hand before he looked back to Itsuki, who was staring at him wide-eyed as she held the side of her head where the rock had hit her. He wanted to explain, wanted to let her know why, but his throat closed up and all he could muster was the tiniest and meekest little, "I'm sorry." Without waiting to hear her response, he took off sprinting across the bridge, ignoring her when she called out after him and not stopping until he had reached the top of the old stone steps.

---

"Something needs to be done about him!" The priest shouted at Ujiyo, who blinked and sat back as he glanced once at Myugou, who was watching both parties – the priest, the mayor, and several of the parents of the urchins who roamed the streets and poor outnumbered Ujiyo – safely from a corner nearby.

"The boy," Ujiyo continued as he sat up straighter, "appears to be manifesting the early onset signs of an onmyoji. There's nothing "demonic" about that."

"Then stop him!"

"Oh, like I should stop him breathing?" Ujiyo countered with a venom that Myugou hadn't been expecting. The onmyoji stood up and straightened his clothes before he folded his hands in front of him and frowned, "Onmyodo is not something that can be stopped any more than you can be stopped from breathing or blinking. It is an inherent part of him. You should be grateful your little guttersnipes haven't caused him to kill someone!"

"Don't pin your blame on our kids!" Myugou knew the one who spoke. Hamu's father, an equally slovenly man with a meek mouse for a wife that thought his son shit gold and spewed breathable air when he spoke.

Ujiyo narrowed his eyes, "Your pig of a son is the ringleader. If Sen has an outburst, it'll be that ingrate's fault."

"Why, you weaselly little-!"

"Ujiyo is correct," Myugou finally decided to speak up as he pushed himself off of the wall and walked into plain sight. Ujiyo was going to need backup... as usual, he mused to himself as the mayor and his gang of lunatics all turned to face him. "Sen is experiencing an awakening of his powers. Until someone can teach him and help him keep them under control, it would be best not to antagonize him. Magic responds inherently to strong emotional reactions."

"I would have expected a monk to understand us better," one of the parents snorted and crossed their arms.

"I am approaching this more logically than you lot," Myugou frowned in reply. "Sen is not a demon."

"You contradict my divine visions?" The priest huffed out, offense painted clearly in his voice. "How dare you-!"

"Or don't listen to me. Let your kids continue to bully him and let the outbursts continue. By all means!" Myugou threw out his arms, "Because what would a practitioner of magic and a master of the craft know about any of this?"

With their needs not being met, the mayor and his group huffed and grumbled out of the shop, leaving Myugou and Ujiyo standing there in the quiet. Myugou sighed and lowered his arms as he heard Ujiyo sit down with a sigh behind him. "They're idiots," Ujiyo spoke up behind him, and when Myugou turned he saw him going back to working on his magic slips. "Poor kid... He's going through growing pains and getting beaten up at the same time. No one deserves that."

"Do you believe them?" Myugou asked. "About Sen being a demon?"

"What, with a grandfather like his?" Ujiyo looked up and wrinkled his nose. "No, he would have drowned the kid a long time ago. Sen is just an onmyoji by birth..." he paused and looked up at Myugou, "Unless you believe he could be something more."

Myugou hesitated. He had seen the boy before, but...

"No pressure," Ujiyo chuckled, "and thank you. For helping me with them. I doubt they would have left quietly if it was just me."

"Is that priest...?"

"Insane? That's being nice." The two chuckled before a comfortable silence fell between them and Ujiyo looked up at Myugou with a smile, "I miss our traveling days."

Myugou smiled and nodded, "I won't lie... They were nice."

"Do you really think that he's..."

"I believe so. The visions I had..." He paused and shook his head, looking at Ujiyo, "He has to be. I can feel it."

Ujiyo sat back on his heels and nodded slowly, "And for what it's worth... I believe you."

---

Sen sat curled up beside Hashi, his head resting on the yokai's lap as his large friend snored quietly as he leaned against a wooden beam. The two had decided that taking a nap was better than trying to do any work with Sen the way he was, and that was how Myugou found them later that day. He chuckled quietly and rang the old bronze shrine bell once, making both of them give shouts of surprise as they woke up.

"Well," Myugou laughed. "Enjoying the lovely afternoon, are we?"

"Myugou!" Sen sat up excitedly and jumped up to run over and throw his arms around the monk's waist.

"Hello to you, too, Sen!" Myugou hugged him back and smiled down at him. "I heard you had a little outburst today."

At the comment, Sen's smile dropped and he stepped away. "I'm sorry..."

Myugou smiled and rested a hand on Sen's shoulder, "Come along now... No need to be embarrassed. You can use onmyodo. There's no shame in that."

"On...onmyodo?" Sen looked up at Myugou and seemed almost panicked.

"Magic that is based on the principles of yin and yang. It is nothing to be ashamed of," Myugou's quiet ministrations seemed to slowly ease Sen's mind as the boy began to ever so slightly look up at him, his eyes nervously looking between him and Hashi, who had since stood up nearby. "I want to help you learn how to control it."

"You can do that?"

"Only if you're willing to try."

Sen went to reply before his eyes locked onto someone behind them. Myugou turned and saw what he did. A young girl in a dirty yukata stood looking between them, holding something in her hands. "I... I'm sorry. I can come back later..."

"No, you're perfectly fine, child. Are you here to see Sen?" Myugou smiled at her and stepped aside so Sen could see her clearly, and he couldn't help but smile again when her face broke into a broad smile of its own and she hurried up to the boy and proffered out her hands.

"You forgot your fish!" She exclaimed happily, and when Sen looked down into her outstretched hands, he saw his carp resting in them.

"You..." He stared down at the paper fish and then back up at her, "You brought it back?"

Itsuki blinked at him in surprise before a grin came back to her face, "Yeah! That's what friends do, right?"

"Friends?"

"Thanks for helping me," She reached out and took him by the wrist, placing the fish in his hand and smiling into his face. "We are friends, right?"

"You... want to be friends with me?"

"Yeah! That wind thing you did was cool!" Itsuki bounced excitedly before she looked at Myugou, "Are you going to teach him how to do it? Can I watch?"

Myugou smiled and looked down at Sen, "Would you like her to stay?"

Sen looked from the fish to Itsuki and smiled, "Yeah."

---

Every day, Sen trained on tempering his emotions with Myugou, and every day he tried his best to avoid his grandfather and the town's bullies. He would slip past his grandfather in the early hours of the morning and make his way to the shrine where Myugou would often be praying in front of the old statues of the Nio and Bishamonten. It was a curious thing for a priest to devote much time to, but Sen didn't mind it all that much. He sat down beside Myugou and watched as his hands ran through the prayers one by one, his hands sliding the amber prayer beads through them with care and grace that he always marveled at in the monk's simple gestures and ways.

"Do you know why," Myugou spoke, eyes still closed, as Sen sat down next to him and crossed his legs, "Yokai often flock to Ebume?"

"No," Sen rested his hands on his knees and watched Myugou intently, sensing the beginnings of a story coming slowly on.

"They say that somewhere, hidden from the eyes of mortals, lies a spring where all yokai come from. Old legends say that there are seven of them scattered across Nihon and that each one is overseen by an ancient yokai god," Myugou continued as his eyes slowly opened and his hands lowered slowly into his lap, but his attention stayed firmly on the figure of the mighty Buddhist deity before him.

"Is that true?"

"I think it is," Myugou turned to look at Sen and nodded. "I once knew a man who had seen them before."

Sen's eyes widened and he rotated himself to face Myugou fully, "You did?"

Myugou met his wonder with a laugh, "Indeed! We had known one another since childhood. Together in our youth, we traveled across the land and battled many great evils with our friends. Of course, I might be exaggerating. My youth seems much more exciting now than it probably was."

"Who was he?" Sen leaned forward, eyes still wide with wonder. "Was he a samurai?"

"In a way... He was a kensei from the province of Mino. He was called a Hachiman no Deishi – a warrior who fought for both humans and yokai," Myugou nodded and couldn't help but laugh as Sen sat back on his heels and frowned. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"Are you lying to me?" Sen asked as Hashi emerged with a great yawn and sat down beside him, looking between Myugou and Sen before he crossed his legs with a snort and looked again at Myugou quizzically.

"No! Hashi can attest to their existence. Hashi, you knew the Deishi, didn't you?" Myugou smirked when he saw Sen's eyes widen as Hashi gave an exuberant nod of his head and began signing.

Warrior, he gestured with a thump to his chest and a gesture around his head followed by another gesture over his heart, Brave.

"Wait... He was real?" Sen gaped at Hashi, who nodded again as Myugou gave Sen a triumphant smile.

The old monk sat back and grinned at him as he gestured the two around him as he rotated his body to face them, "Let me tell you a story of a kensei from Mino, who was stranded in the land of the Ainu and who became the living sword of a kami..."