"Let's get in and out of here nice and fast. This place makes me itch."

"That's normal when you're a criminal."

"Hey! I'm not a criminal! I'm a mercenary!"

"Pretty sure your anti-Shogunal activities make you a criminal, Naoyuki."

"Fuck you."

Maru smirked as they passed down winding dirt roads through a number of fields. It was starting too look more like farming country. Rice farming, specifically, if the vast flat fields were any indicator. It reminded Maru of the flowing fields of Michizane, and he could see a castle looming in the distance surrounded by a walled town and scattered farming villages around that. It was a more familiar sight than what he had been seeing, and a strange part of him felt more at home now than when he was wandering the roads. He glanced over and saw Avery sketching something out in an old weathered journal. When he looked, he saw a number of drawings - plants, local animals, people, and now a rough sketch of the city of Kajiwara that lay before them. For being such a large, bulky man, Maru had to admit that Avery surprised him with how inquisitive he always seemed to be. He was always watching, always listening, and a part of him appreciated it. Maru leaned over and pointed to the castle, "That's called shiro."

"Shiro..." Avery tested the word out on his tongue and then seemed to rewrite the word using his own characters on the paper. "A castle." He paused and then looked down, writing out the word on the paper and then showing it to Maru, "Here's how we say it." The characters were foreign to Maru, and unlike his own, there were more than one. Maru took the thinly pointed stick of charcoal and drew out the singular character for castle beside the word.

"Ah, so it's different from the character for "white", too. Okay, same as the one used in Ming..." Avery looked down at it and nodded. "What about this?" Avery gestured to the wall around the town and looked to Maru inquiringly.

"That's kabe. This whole settlement is joukamachi. Naoyuki, could you explain what jouka is for him?"

Naoyuki looked surprised, but nodded as he turned to Avery, "Kabe means wall or fortification, and joukamachi are castle towns. The area around a castle is jouka, and..."

"Machi is a city or district, right?"

"Hey! You're learning!" Naoyuki clapped before nodding to Maru, "He's getting it. Slowly but surely."

They continued on the road and chatted the whole way. Maru was reasonably impressed that there hadn't been much commotion on their end after Shoda had gone. Maybe, he considered as Naoyuki paused up ahead, things were actually going right in his charge for once. Naoyuki held up a hand, signaling Maru and Avery to halt as he stood in the center of the road, still as a statue the entire time. Maru could tell from the way he stood that he was listening for something and quickly moved to stand next to him, eyes locking on to the horizon as he too let himself really listen.

"Hooves... One set, I think..." Naoyuki's voice was barely a whisper as he slowly pulled his rifle from his shoulder. "Big, though."

"Oni," Maru nodded as his hand went to his kusarigama. "One of the big ones. Looks like a horse."

"Yeah. I know the ones," Naoyuki turned and whistled for Avery. "Brace yourself, big guy! Ogre incoming!"

"Ah, bloody wonderful."

"He's as excited as we are," Naoyuki chuckled as he stood and looked in the direction where the sound was coming from. "Oh... Oh, shit..."

It didn't take long for Maru to figure out why he said it. In the field were a number of farmers - men, women, and even some children - all out tending to their crops, and barreling straight towards them, spiked club in hand, was a massive red oni. "Get the farmers!" Maru shot past Naoyuki and beelined directly for the ogre. "Avery and I will deal with the oni!"

"Got it!" Naoyuki made for the farmers as Avery swore under his breath and hurried to catch up with Maru.

The two halted in the center of the field as Maru unhooked the kusarigama from his belt and slowly began to let out some of the chain. The enormous creature came to a sliding halt before them, it's huge eye blinking wildly at them as two clawed hands held an enormous spiked club that dragged the ground. A single horn protruded grossly from its forehead, and it's entire body past the torso was like that of a massive bull, all bulging muscle and red, leathery flesh the color of a shrine maiden's skirt.

"That..." Avery muttered as the oni pawed the ground and lowered it's head, "is one big, ugly fucker."

"I have no clue what you said," Maru's hand slowly began to draw back the weighted chain of his weapon, "but I agree."

Maru and Avery braced themselves as the oni charged forward, spiked club in hand, but before it could make it much closer, a roan horse in barding slammed into it from the side, it's own body shoving the creature off balance. The hooved beast stumbled and tried to regain its footing as the horse's rider shoved a spear into it. The oni screeched and tried to grab the spear jammed into its shoulder blade, but by the time it almost had it, the rider had pulled it out and was riding in circles around the beast. It swung the club, but with barely any urging the horse jumped aside and ran another tight circle around the beast.

Maru turned his attention to the rider. A samurai. His armor was red, his jinbaori and clothes black, and he wore a kabuto with the bamboo shoot kamon of the Minamoto family mounted on the front and flanked by deer antlers. His red fanged half-somen covered his mouth, and from where Maru was he couldn't make out much else. He watched as the samurai thrust his spear into the ground and drew his sword before leaping from his horse and stabbing his  sword through the beast's neck as he stood on his back. The oni bucked several more times, the final one throwing the samurai from its back, before it collapsed lifeless to the ground with a loud groan. Avery snapped from his stupor first and rushed over to the man, and Maru gave his head a shake and followed him, finding Avery offering out a hand that the samurai took.

"Thank you," the samurai spoke as he stood and put a hand on the side where he fell with a grimace. "I was hoping to not get thrown off and look rather stupid during a rescue operation, but here I am." He reached up and pulled off his somen to reveal his face. Maru had to admit... he was handsome. He had a severe look about him and a handsome face that lessened the severe effect when he smiled. His skin was tanned from being outdoors, his eyes were a bright brown, and his face was accented with cleanly trimmed facial hair. "I apologize for taking so long to come to your aid. I am Nobuhiko, eldest son of Lord Kajiwara Sessei. And you are?"

"Maru. Just Maru. This is..." Maru trailed off when he realized he wasn't sure how to introduce Avery, who settled for reaching up and pulling his zukin off to reveal his pale skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. "Ah..."

"Avery," the large foreigner nodded simply.

Nobuhiko stared at him blankly for a moment before he seemed to become more pleasantly surprised than anything and put one fist on his hip. "Huh," he looked to Maru with a smile, "a gaikoku-jin? How did you get your hands on one of these? Is he your servant?"

Maru laughed almost hysterically at the idea of Avery being his servant, and Nobuhiko didn't seem to get what was so funny about it. "Oh, oh! No! Kami, no! We're travelling companions. I saved his life and he saved mine, so we're just wandering together."

"Did he die?" Maru sighed when he heard Naoyuki call from behind them, and when he turned he saw the mercenary hurrying up, rifle in hand, and saw the man's face drop when he caught sight of the samurai. "Dammit! He lived!"

Nobuhiko frowned and turned to Maru, "I... wasn't expecting you to travel with one of the Saika-ikki."

"He's not as bad as he seems," Maru attempted to supply helpfully, but Naoyuki snorted as he approached from behind them.

"They make all of you bastards with sticks up your asses or did you get special ordered that way?"

"Naoyuki!" Maru hissed as he saw Nobuhiko narrow his eyes at the mercenary. "Sorry about him. He's barely socialized."

"Hey!"

"Thank you for killing that oni," Maru followed up before Naoyuki could continue to make things worse. "Fighting that thing on foot would have been a nightmare."

At the thanks, Nobuhiko turned his attention back to Maru and smiled. "It's no trouble, really. These things have been running rampant through here lately. The fighting has them all stirred up. I take it that you three are passing through, then?"

"We're following a group - a yokai, two Buddhists, and a group of three warriors. Have you seen anyone matching that description?" Maru asked as he handed the crumpled, water-stained image of Hashioni to Nobuhiko, who unfolded it and looked it over for a long while.

"I'm afraid not," he replied with a shake of his head and handed the picture back. "I have been too busy dealing with the influx of oni and Rotted yokai pouring in from everywhere else to pay much mind to most travelers. If you'd like, we can ask around in the city proper. Someone may have seen your yokai." Nobuhiko whistled and the roan whinnied and trotted over in response. He reached up and took the horse's reins in one hand and stroked the massive creature's neck with the other, "Come along. I'll escort you."

---

Kajiwara was like Michizane had Michizane never had the Brother's Rebellion. The large castle  stood towering above the town, separated by a deep mote. The city around it was built up and developed so much more than what Maru was used to. It wasn't the size of a large city like Edo or Kyoto, but it was a booming metropolis compared to the small villages he had seen before. There was a large smithy that caught his eye, but what made him pause was an ippon-datara standing there and helping the smith hammer away on his metals. The one legged blacksmithing yokai turned to him and frowned before turning his attention back to the metal, quickly pulling it out and quenching it. Maru watched in awe when he pulled the metal from the water to reveal the unsharpened, curved blade for a katana. He quickly found his attention pulled to the number of merchants with their shops opened for the day, all hawking wares from fine pottery all the way to beautiful bolts of finely woven silks. People parted enough so that Nobuhiko could lead his horse through the crowded streets, stopping briefly to bow as he passed. 

A young woman hurried up to him and quickly bowed as she proffered out a vase filled with flowers, "Lord Kajiwara, I have the arrangement your grandmother asked for. My father just finished it this morning." Maru was impressed by how perfectly balanced the ikebana arrangement was. Whoever had made it clearly had a grasp of color and balance that only a master could have.

He saw Nobuhiko smile and caught the girl's cheeks redden. "Thank you. I'll be sure that she gets it as soon as possible. Thank you, Kiku." He turned to place the tall, thin vase into one of his empty saddlebags before he continued down the road, seeming not to notice how the girl nervously brushed her hair behind her ear and watched him with a dreamy smile on her face.

"You're popular," Maru mused, prompting Nobuhiko to chuckle.

"It isn't lost on me, believe me. There are more important things to me right now than marriage, however," the samurai brought his hand to his neck and rubbed it self-consciously with an almost sheepish smile as the other hand flexed around the reins of his horse.

"You also knew her name."

"I spend a lot of time down here," Nobuhiko responded with a smile over his shoulder at Maru.

"Take any advantage of your dashing good looks?"

"With the local girls? Heavens no! The scandal it could cause...."

Naoyuki snorted from somewhere behind them, "I didn't know that they made you lot with consciences."

"Can... can you try not being antagonistic for just a moment?" Maru slowly turned around and stared at Naoyuki, who met his gaze with one of his own.

When he wasn't trying his best to keep Naoyuki from offending their newest friend, Maru was taking in the lay of the land as they made their way to the Kajiwara estate that rested to the east of the castle that loomed over the city like a white and grey giant. The sheer amount of yokai mingling with humans was what truly surprised him the most, and the fact that no one seemed to have much of an issue with it either way made him a bit confused. Seeing them aid with simple tasks and in general just be helpful wasn't what he was used to seeing. What surprised him were nastier looking yokai, ones that were part skeleton or grotesquely inhuman, lifting heavy objects for people.  Nobody seemed at all put off by any of it, either. 

When they arrived at the estate, what surprised him more than anything as they passed through the gates was the presence of a large yokai armored from head to toe standing in the courtyard with the man that Maru assumed was Sessei. The yokai turned its head, bright amber eyes glowing from under the brim of the helmet and above the visage of the somen, before turning slightly to look at Sessei, who also turned when he saw them approach. Sessei was a tall man like his son, but the yokai beside him towered over him by several heads like a looming, bulky statue. Sessei himself looked like an older, more stony version of his son. Maru genuinely believed that the softer handsomeness must have come from his mother, because the stony-faced Sessei was all hard lines and dark hair speckled with silver that bled into his eyebrows and beard. "Nobuhiko," he spoke, his voice as weathered from commanding as the harsh lines of his face, "who are they?"

"Otou-san, this is Maru of the Sayonakidori. He is accompanied by his... companion, Avery, and Naoyuki of the Saika-ikki," Nobuhiko gestured to the group as he introduced him, with Naoyuki's introduction being met by a raise of one of Sessei's silver brows. "This is my father, Kajiwara Sessei, and that rather large friend of ours is Hossumaru."

"Why are they here?" Sessei cut in almost before Nobuhiko had finished. "We have pressing matters to attend to. You know, like the oni attacking our farmers."

"I killed one," Nobuhiko nodded before gesturing to Maru, "and that's how I met Maru. He might be able to aid us in that regard."

"I have three sons who are more than capable of dealing with this problem. We don't need assistance from outsiders," Sessei was unflinching.

"Jitou," Hossumaru looked over at him, crossing his arms and displaying his clawed hands, "take your son up on his offer. One of two things will happen: the oni will die or he will. I see it as a victory either way."

"Ouch," Naoyuki whispered behind him, prompting Maru to look at Sessei.

"Why the animosity, my lord?"

Sessei frowned and uncrossed his own arms, "Because your vermin tried to kill me."

---

"They did?" Maru trotted to keep up with Nobuhiko as they made their way through the estate's halls, their feet thumping against the polished wood as servants stepped aside for their lord and guests to pass.

Nobuhiko nodded, his face grim, "Yes. At one point, they sent assassins after my father for refusing to allow them to kill Hossumaru. For context, mind you, he has served our family since my grandfather's era and saved him during the Onin Wars. Before that, Hossu was said to have even guarded my ancestors during the Gempei Wars as well. Apparently, he owes them some life debt."

"Hell of a lot of life debts around here," Maru heard Naoyuki muttered again under his breath behind them.

None of that made any sense to Maru, however. "But... Reneging a contract is commonplace..."

"There wasn't a contract," Nobuhiko spoke over his shoulder as he nodded at some of the lower ranked samurai who bowed as he passed. "They claimed that he was a liability with the sudden spike in the Rot. My father told them to go to hell. Next thing we know, they're trying to kill my father and Hossu in one go."

Something smelled rotten. Maru knew little of the sects past Mino and Owari. He knew that they tended to be somewhat zealous, and perhaps that was what fueled their belief after the release of Kazegumo's writ... Except that this sounded like it happened long before the writ reached them. Coupled with the caged yokai they found, Maru was starting to get the feeling that something was very, very wrong.

"Hey, Hiko!" The group paused as two men began rounding one of the corners of the large open walkway and making their way towards them. They had to have been Nobuhiko's brothers judging from how they looked. All of them were practically carbon copies of one another, though one of the two brothers was tall and heavily muscled while the other looked like he couldn't have been older than sixteen. The taller man seemed to be the one who spoke, and he approached with a rather high amount of purpose. "Get your gear back on. We just got word of a small horde moving in towards the southwestern farms. If we head out now, we can head them off."

"Nobuhide, are you taking Nobumaru?"

"You know it. Little Bro here needs a little experience," the larger man ruffled the younger man's hair affectionately, and the boy swatted his hand away in annoyance. "We just got word from father. He told us to get you to grab the nightingale and the crow and hurry up. We need as many hands as we can get."

Nobuhiko paused and glanced over his shoulder, "We just..."

Nobuhide gave a sinister chuckle, "He screamed it at us." He looked over Nobuhiko at Maru and grinned, "You better be as good as they say, Nightingale. We'll need all the help we can get with those ugly beasts."

Naoyuki raised an eyebrow as he held up a finger, "Your father better pay me for this. I don't work for free."

"You do all the time."

"Not now, Avery."

"Oh, you'll get your money," Nobuhide chuckled. "All your money and then some."

"What I need is information," Maru cut in. "I'll forfeit payment in exchange for anything you know about a yokai travelling through here with a group of people."

"Chichue informed us," Nobumaru nodded. "He said that if you kill the oni, he'll tell you everything we know."

---

It had been a long time since Maru had been in the presence of so many samurai, and while it felt comfortable for him, the only thing he saw in his company was a very anxious Naoyuki and an awe-struck Avery. "Okay, but what is the armor made out of?"

"Kozane."

"What are they?"

"Small metal plates - what are you doing? Writing a treatise?"

"What? I've never seen armor like this before."

"What's he asking about?" Maru asked as he leaned back to look at the two of them.

"What their armor is made out of," Naoyuki wrinkled his nose and readjusted his rifle on his shoulder. "To be fair these people's armor is different from ours by a long shot."

"What are there's like?"

"Big metal sheets shaped to the body and little ringed pieces of metal all put together to stop slashing. It's impressive. Clunky, though."

"And a yoroi isn't?"

"I never said those big metal, corded abominations weren't just as bad."

"Naoyuki..."

Distant bellowing made everyone turn their attention across the fields, and that was when Maru saw what they were up against. Suddenly, he could understand the urgency. The massive bull-like oni were surrounded by several bipedal ones of varying shapes and sizes, all with vibrantly colored skin. One of the bipedal ones seemed to spot them, brought the most horrifying looking horagai to it's lips, and blew. The distorted, cracking horn filled the air as the oni all charged. Maru picked one out to handle. A large blue bull-like oni was his target, and as Nobuhiko and his samurai went in on some of the others, that was the one he decided to hit first.

He knew about that variety. They were dangerous on a number of levels, more feral and more aggressive than many of the other garden variety oni out there. That nasty beast even had two huge yellow horns protruding from his forehead. He reached for the kusarigama as he sprinted towards the oni, and quickly began unfurling the long chain as he did. If everything went according to plan, it wouldn't have a lot of time to react. The one good thing about it was that it was slower than its friends, too. There was a crack from somewhere behind him and saw another oni that had been running up from his left drop to the ground. Another that was coming from the right got shoulder slammed by Avery, and Maru was genuinely happy that he had his friends with him. That would have been annoying, to say the least.

The oni before him bellowed and pawed the ground as he began to gently swing the weight, slowly building up speed as he planted his feet to prep for the throw. "Naoyuki! Keep them off of me for a second!"

There was another crack as another oni fell skidding to the ground. "On it!"

He took a breath as the oni began to lumber forward, working on building up speed, and he slung the chain out.

Maru saw the weight do exactly what he planned for it to do. It swung and made the chain wrap around the oni's neck and around itself. He gave a hard tug to tighten it, making the large blue creature cough and grab futilely at the chain as it was forced to stop by the chain pulling back on its neck. Maru slammed the sickle into a tree as he drew his sword and ran forward. He dropped to one knee and brought his sword hard into the back of the creature's ankles, severing tendons and making it collapse to the ground. He circled it and met it's two crazed eyes before he slammed his sword straight through one, causing the great oni to collapse to the ground as he yanked his blade from the eye socket with a grunt. There was a large sound from somewhere behind him, and when he looked for the source of the sound, he found himself staring face to face with the source. Avery was perched on top of one of the collapsed creatures, his sword stabbed through the back of the oni's skull, and he all in all looked rather pleased with himself.

Maru turned and saw another of the bull oni running towards them at full speed and suddenly found himself regretting his life choices when Avery flung him aside and snatched a discarded spear from the ground. The oni slammed into it, but to Maru amazement, Avery was able to stop it dead in its tracks with a loud grunt.

"Holy fuck!" Avery snarled as he pushed back against the oni's club, the two locked in a stalemate. "Maru, fucking kill it already, you dumb bastard!"

Maru shook himself and quickly got to his feet as he drew his sword, but before he could do anything else, Nobuhiko ran up with his wakizashi and thrust the blade through the creature's neck. The oni screeched and reared up before it fell backwards and went still on the ground, leaving a panting Avery with shaking arms nodding gratefully to Nobuhiko, who returned the gesture with widened eyes. "Your gaijin is strong as hell," Nobuhiko replied with a breathy chuckle.

Maru laughed and sheathed his sword, "Yeah... Yeah, he is..."

---

Maru looked over Avery's hands as they sat in a side room and waited for Nobuhiko and his siblings to join them. The skin was reddened and broken slightly in some places, and it genuinely surprised Maru that they weren't worse. He figured that the man's thick calluses must have had something to do with it. "We need to put something on these..."

"Eh, he'll be fine."

"Naoyuki..."

"What?"

Before Maru could continue his mini-rant into the importance of cleaning and caring for wounds, Nobuhiko emerged with his second brother in tow. Nobuhide was looking pleased with himself and Nobuhiko was carrying a small box that he handed to Naoyuki. Judging from the mercenary's reaction when he opened the small wooden container, he was paid rather handsomely for his services. "Now, for your payment, we have some good news," Nobuhiko smiled at Maru before turning his gaze expectantly to Nobuhide.

Nobuhide smirked, "Yeah, we've seen your yokai. The nun with them mentioned that they were heading for Kyushu."

"Kyushu..." Maru frowned. What in the hell was waiting for them there, of all places?

"Did they say why?" Nobuhiko asked as a frown began to crease his face.

"Apparently, they're hoping to see a diviner that lives there to help their yokai friend of theirs."

"That's matching what we heard," Naoyuki nodded and turned to Maru. "Kyushu... Is it the diviner that works for the Otomo?"

"Hell if I know," Nobuhide shrugged. "All I know is what she mentioned. They said they'd be stopping in Mino for a bit before heading for Izumo."

"Then we know where we need to go," Naoyuki clapped his hand on his box excitedly and looked to Maru. "So, what's the plan, boss?"

"I'd like to come with you," Nobuhiko nodded before Maru could reply and took a step towards the group. "If this yokai is indeed Rotted, then you might need more than just them to help you take it down, and you helped my people. Saved my life, even. I owe you a debt."

Maru looked to Avery and Naoyuki. Avery just looked between everyone in the room, slightly confused, but seemed happy enough with his situation. Seeming to notice that Maru was looking at him for an opinion, he glanced at Nobuhiko and then nodded his head with a small shrug of his shoulders as if to say "Hey, your choice". Then, he looked to Naoyuki, who was already shaking his head vigorously at the possibility of Nobuhiko joining them on their grand quest to hunt down the yokai

Maru turned his attention back to Nobuhiko with a smile and a nod, "Alright, you're in."

"Aw what-? No!"

Nobuhiko smiled and returned the nod, "I promise you, you won't regret bringing me along."