Ebume, Mutsu Province, 1555

Footsteps crunched on the dirt road, a group of men hurried through the darkness, and nothing but the distant sound of frogs and insects permeated the night. Even the birds had gone silent. The area was blanketed in a thick layer of fog that obscured all but what could be seen directly in front of them, and even then it was iffy if they were actually seeing things correctly anyway. Their armor was worn and broken, the sign of deserters who fled from a battle or scavengers who had pulled off the armor on an unfortunate ashigaru or a fallen samurai. They had heard a rumor about Ebume, its small peaceful existence a tempting fruit for those who made their living scavenging, stealing, and pillaging from those left weak by the war or too far removed from it to know how to defend themselves.

"Come on!" One man, his armor better than everyone else's, hissed into the dark. Ten other men stood behind him. "We have weapons! These people won't even fight back."

The man directly behind him hesitantly looked over at the old bridge. With the heavy fog had fallen over the area, and they were lucky if they could even see halfway across, let alone to the other side. "Listen... Not that I don't want an easy score, but... This is Ebume, boss. You heard the stories."

"Oh, yeah, stories about some undead warrior and a yokai, right?" Another man asked as he too looked back to their leader, "I think Ennosuke has a point, boss. Maybe we should... I don't know... Maybe pick a different village?"

Their leader stood before them, dumbfounded that his usually intrepid companions were suddenly cowering at some local legend about this stupid old bridge. He knew better. Yokai may prowl through the shadows, but the talk of ghosts and righteous demons was almost too much for him. He turned to them and snarled, "What? Some old hag gives us a cryptic little warning and suddenly you all are too cowardly to deal with a simple village?"

"Boss, any other village, and I'd agree with you. Remember Kyohei? His group came here and they never came back!" Ennosuke spoke up, his eyes darting around his boss and to the bridge, where he swore he saw something move in the fog.

"Yeah, and Kyohei was a little bitch who was scared of his own shadow! Now, you either follow me, or I'll chase you out of this gang myself!"

The others reluctantly followed their leader as he approached the bridge, but when they did, there was a loud stamp that resonated through the fog and made them stop in their tracks. Out of the fog appeared a shadow. It held an odachi in one hand, and when they edged closer to try and see what it was, the figure stamped the weapon against the bridge again, the sound of lacquered wood on wood echoing through the fog.

"Leave," a voice echoed out from the figure, making the men stop in their tracks. "If you stay, you will die."

"Th-the Wolf!" One of the men choked out. "He's real!"

The leader frowned, "He's just a man!"

Wind blew and the fog cleared enough for them to see the snarling visage of a wooden mask facing them. Long black hair spilled over it from the wearer's head, and some of the men backed away. The figure was lean and stiff, unmoving in the moonlight that peeked out from the clouds overhead, its stillness making the already twitchy men even more nervous than before.

"I won't tell you again," the figure slowly raised its sword and began to pull the blade from its sheath. "Leave this village."

The leader drew his sword, and as he did, something stirred in the fog behind the lone figure. Slowly, a greater black shadow rose from the fog and it seemed to spill off of the shadow like water as it rose up behind the lone figure. It was massive, towering over the man at least twice, and in its hand was a naginata that was even taller than he was. Four great fangs were set upon its face with two burning yellow eyes, and when it unfurled itself to its full height, it let out a deafening roar that made several of the men throw down their weapons and bolt off into the shadows down the road, some screaming as they did.

"The Demon of the Bridge," Ennosuke stuttered out as his trembling hands desperately tried to cling to his katana. "The old woman was right!"

The smaller figure walked forward and slashed his sword across the edge of the bridge where it met the dirt road. "Cross this line, and you won't cross it back alive." He pointed down to the gouge he made in the dirt and stabbed his sword point down into the bridge. "Now, leave."

At the command, even more of the men fled, leaving Ennosuke, three stragglers, and their leader standing there, looking at the two shadows guarding the bridge.

"Boss, let's just go-!" Ennosuke reached for the man, but instead, he took out across the bridge with a yell. Ennosuke could do nothing but watch as the smaller figure snapped the odachi up and cleaved the leader's head from his shoulders with one swift move, sending the head rolling down the bridge's narrow slope and stopping just short of Ennosuke's feet. The body stumbled forward slightly before the larger figure grabbed it and slung it back across the bridge. It landed with a tumble just past the edge.

It was all the other bandits needed to see. With a scream, they took off running back down the road, leaving the two figures standing on the bridge, cloaked again in fog.

There was a long beat of silence as the two figures stood there, before the smaller figure finally spoke, "I can't see shit. Are they gone?"

The larger figure nodded, and the two finally heaved a massive sigh of relief as the smaller figure pulled off his mask and looked up at the yokai behind him, "I really expected that guy to run, I won't lie to you, Hashi."

Hashi let out a great sigh through his nose and sat down, looking up at Sen with a shrug as the man sat down in front of him and ran his hand over the back of his neck.

Sen waited for a beat before he squinted and looked up at Hashi, "Are they calling me The Wolf of Ebume? Do I look that emaciated?"

Hashi looked him over and shrugged again, prompting Sen to frown at him and roll his eyes.

"Okay, maybe I do need to eat a little bit more, I will concede that." He paused and looked at the dim outline of the man's head and body lying just over the bridge. "Uh... Should we... bury him? Or something? I mean... I feel bad leaving him out here, you know?"

Hashi followed his gaze and seemed to consider it for a moment before he nodded and stood up with Sen following suit. Together, the two quietly gathered up the man's remains and carried him up to Hashi-ji, leaving the town below unaware that they had even been in danger at all.

---

Years had passed by. The sting of Myugou's death became an old ache over time, but the lessons hadn't faded. Sen had fallen easily into life at Hashi-ji. The prayer, the training, the introspection, all of it kept him busy and safely away from Ebume, who grew less and less hostile as time progressed. Hamu's father drank himself to death, the old priest faded from memory, and Yunosuke went with the tide of public opinion and had no more qualms with Sen if nobody else of substance did. Nobody went out of their way to help them or be nice, of course, but he wasn't getting chased out with torches and rakes, so he figured that most people had forgiven and forgotten most of what happened in the past, or at least couldn't be bothered with it any longer.

Ebume was a small town and in that, it never changed. The old rickety wooden houses with their thatched roofs remained the same as they had always been. The worn dirt road never wavered. Goemaru's smithy stayed running all year round, and Hashi-ji stood as stalwartly and quietly as it always had. Not one soul had stepped foot over the old bridge in and out of the town if they meant any harm. Sen and Hashi had seen to that without so much as the dimmest hope for praise. It was what they had been created to do, it seemed.

The world was at war around them, yet Ebume sat as if it rested in the eye of it all – quiet and alone.

It was exactly how Sen liked it. He was sitting down beside the small pond in Hashi-ji's courtyard, watching the large koi that Myugou had brought one summer, and for one moment between his jobs letting his mind wander off for a moment. The large fish darted through the water and let their bright scales catch the spring sunlight and reflect it back in flashes of white and orange. He caught sight of his face and took stock of it, his new nickname given by wary outsiders still ringing in his ears. He kept himself clean-shaven, but his high cheekbones and dark ringed eyes brought by sleepless nights when rumors of bandits caught his ears did give him a certain look, he figured. His wild hair must look like a wolf's mane when it was down or something, he decided when he looked at his hair, pulled messily back from his face, and tied up. Or perhaps, he considered, it was his tilted eyes that rested beneath a brow that always made him look mildly angry that did the trick. He wasn't quite sure. He passed his hand over his face and decided it wasn't the lack of facial hair either. He didn't see it, but at least this name of his gave him some semblance of credibility and fear that were remarkably useful when dealing with bandits. Sen smiled when he heard the light stamping of feet behind him and saw the reflection of his Jorogumo in the water and she peered down from atop her eight tall legs.

"Hello, Kumohime," he turned to look up at her as her six eyes peered down past him and her mandibles clicked softly. "Heading out?"

She turned her head to him and brought her arms down from where they rested on the first of her eight legs. "Yes," she began, the odd intonation in her voice making him smile. "I believe I found a new warren. If it goes well, perhaps I will no longer be such a burden."

"You're not a burden," Sen turned to her and stood up. Even then, she was still taller than he was. Not that it was difficult, he muttered inside his head. "I'll be sad to see you leave."

She smiled at him and reached out with one human hand and pinched his cheek, "Such a sweet boy." For many in the town below, the spider-bodied woman with a human torso was something to fear. For Sen, she had been one of his closest friends for many long years. "You do not need to worry about me." There was screaming from down below as children all bolted out from the river, and Sen knew it must be Kawataro playing jokes on them again as Kumohime rolled her eyes in a sardonic toss before she walked away back towards the thicket of trees that she had made her home for the past several years.

He saw the kappa hurry up out of the water with a cackle and stop when he saw Sen glowering down at him. "Oh... Hi, Sen!" It waved one of its bony hands as it spoke in its creaky little voice.

"Kawataro, you know better!" Sen scolded as the kappa let out a groan.

"But Sen!" He protested. "They were stealing my pretty things!"

"Kawataro."

"Ack! Fine! Just don't throw prayer slips on me again! They make my shell itch!" The kappa threw its hands up and scrambled up the bank before rushing into the pond and submerging itself up to its eyeballs in the water, watching Sen with a glower.

"Knock it off," Sen frowned at him. "I don't want you to get some demon hunters or an onmyoji called on you."

Kawataro vanished beneath the pond's surface and Sen couldn't help but sigh. He reemerged holding a small shell and handed it to Sen as if it was some form of compensation to get him out of trouble or another lecture. Noticing Sen's face, he cracked it open to reveal a pearl and raised his eyebrows expectantly, "Well?"

"No, you're not getting out of this."

"Oh, come on!"

The two paused when the sound of shoes hurrying up the freshly cleaned stone steps made them both turn to it. Kawataro seized Sen's distracted attention to plunge himself down into the pond and vanish under the dark surface. Sen, however, found himself staring at the path, only to be greeted by the figure of Itsuki finally reaching the top. She paused and hunched over with her hands on her knees, clearly attempting to catch her breath before she looked up and saw him.

"Sen!" Itsuki sprinted up to him and caught him by the arms, her eyes wide with excitement and her face barely containing the massive grin she had on her face. "I have news!"

"I can tell," Sen smiled at her as she spun them around. "What's so exciting?"

She clasped his hands in hers and grinned, "Chichi is letting me go to study smithing! I'm going to be traveling all across Nihon, seeing the sights, learning the secrets of blacksmithing from the masters!" She bounced up and down excitedly, making Sen's arms bob with her.

"I'm happy for you," he smiled at her, hoping the little pang of sadness wouldn't shine through. "When will you set out?"

"In the next day or so..." She stopped and watched his face for a moment before the excitement seemed to leave her. "I... I'm gonna miss you, you know."

"I'll miss you, too. You probably knew that," Sen smiled at her and then took her hands in his with another smile, "but I know for a fact that one day, you'll be the greatest smith that Nihon has ever seen."

Itsuki blinked at him before she grinned, "Hell yeah, I will be! I just, uh, need to convince one of those dodgy old men to actually let me behind a forge..." She paused and glared down at the ground beside them as she spoke, "Yeah... That's gonna be difficult."

"If anyone can convince them, it's you." Sen smiled at Itsuki again as she looked up with a new resolute look in her eye. "You have a... an indomitable will, let's say."

Itsuki frowned at him as she released his hands, "Is that your nice way of saying I'm bossy?"

"No, not at all. More like... highly insistent."

"Ass."

The two of them stood before one another, seeming to search for words to say before Sen settled on a small smile back at her, "You'll be the finest smith that Nihon has ever seen, Itsuki, and someday you'll be making blades for the shogun. I know it."

She scanned his face before she grinned back at him and wrapped him up into another tight hug, "Thanks, Sen. I couldn't have asked for a better friend." She paused and looked over his shoulder at the pond, "Uh... there's a kappa."

"Oh..." Sen turned and saw Kawataro watching the two of them from the pond, and Sen jabbed a finger at him, making him slink back and narrow his yellow-green eyes. "We're not finished yet!"

When he looked back at Itsuki, he saw her staring at him with narrowed eyes, "Are you legitimately fighting with a kappa right now?"

"It's a long story, honestly..."

"I don't know why they bother you as much as they do..." She shook her head and put one hand on her hip. "Old Man Ujiyo says it's a gift to connect so easily with yokai. I dunno, seems more like a hassle."

Sen snorted and shook his head, "Only for a few of them. It tends to be more useful than most people realize."

"How so?"

"Well... Yokai have elemental powers, so sometimes they can help with things like smithing or fishing," Sen supplied as Itsuki followed him to sit beside the pond. "Sometimes they like to help out with housework – you know, possessed objects. We had a carpenter's hammer that showed up the other day. His master had come up to work on a Date project in Dewa and left him behind."

Itsuki stared at him, not necessarily in disbelief, but more in something he swore was exasperation.

"What?"

"Sen... Now, I'm saying this lovingly... You're weird."

The two locked eyes before they burst into a peal of laughter. Itsuki's laugh was loud and raucous like her father's while Sen's was barely more than a sustained chuckle that was almost lost beneath Itsuki's own. Their laughter died down and gave way to a comfortable silence before Sen looked at her again, "Will you ever come back to Ebume?"

Itsuki paused and looked down at the water before she looked off across the river, "Honestly? I don't know. As much as I hate it, Ebume is my home. Maybe after I've made a name for myself or... I don't know, I forge a sword that smites an ancient god or something, maybe then I'll come back. For now, I'm going out into the world. I'm going to explore, see all the holds, visit Kyo, see a real castle!" She turned to him with a gleam in her eyes that he had never seen before, "I want to work for a daimyo! For samurai! I want to make a blade that slays a mighty lord! A naginata that slays the head of a group of vicious bandits! A tanto that is in the hands of a cunning shinobi! I want to get out of this little dump and make a name for myself in my steel and my forge." She paused before she locked eyes with him, "What about you? Will you always stay here or does our favorite Wolf of Ebume have other plans?"

"I... I would like to travel when the wars die down. Until then, Hashi and I... Our place is here," he nodded, even if he would have enjoyed the chance to travel and see what the world beyond Ebume had to offer. He couldn't just leave Hashi. After all, wherever his friend was, home was.

Itsuki smiled and nodded as she let her eyes drift back to the pond, "Hashi is lucky to have a friend like you, but... I do hope you get to go somewhere you choose someday, Sen. Everyone deserves to decide what life they live and where they go."

---

After Itsuki had left, Sen resumed his work on fixing up the many small buddhas that populated the temple. Many had been carved from wood by unknown hands, their faces long since worn away by weather, while others looked as new and shiny as the day that they had been carved. He took a small measure of comfort working on restoring them to their former glory, carefully re-carving faces and rearranging them, repairing arms, noses, ears, and feet.

He had just resituated a rather small Buddha when he heard the door slide open behind him. He turned around to see who it was and was greeted by Hashi, who had returned with a large bundle of firewood and, from what it looked like beneath the small pack which held the logs, new tatami mats.

"Well," Sen rotated to face him as the yokai dropped the small pack of firewood down with the rest of it just inside the door. "You got busy today. Did Miko give you any issues?" He stood up as he asked the question and Hashi gave a shake of his head and waved a dismissive hand. Miko may have woven the best tatami mats in all of Mutsu, but that didn't change the fact that she wasn't exactly fond of Hashi. "That's good. Any special news from the village?"

Hashi shook his head with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"Itsuki will be going out to study smithing," Sen supplied with a smile as he hefted one of the mats up as Hashi took the other one. "Her father finally relented." Hashi chuffed out a snorting laugh as Sen clambered up the ladder to the next floor and pulled his mat up after him before taking the one from his friend's hands. "She'll be a wonderful smith someday so long as she can get a master to agree to teach her. Do you think she'll have trouble?" He slid down the ladder and looked up at Hashi.

The yokai shook his head and made a gesture to his chest and arm. Strong-willed.

"I agree," Sen nodded and followed Hashi back to the main room where he hurried and pulled the water from the fire for their tea and set the pot down on a tray. Hashi opened the door from them as they went to sit down on the straw mats they had laid out specifically for their afternoon tea sessions together.

Hashi sat down beside him as Sen passed him a cup of tea and sighed, "Just another day in Ebume."

Hashi grunted out a laugh and took the cup from him, bringing it to his lips and taking a long sip with his head tilted back. Sen had to admit, the days where nothing happened were good. He and Hashi could sit and drink tea and act like they didn't have responsibilities at all for a little bit, and it was a nice change from having to stay up on late nights and watch for bandits. The yokai beside him eventually turned to him and tapped his ear. Heard something.

"What did you hear?"

Hashi gestured again, his language all his own and one that Sen had learned very early on in their friendship. He made a gesture for a sword and gestured around him. Warriors. Lots of them. Then he gestured to the north. In Katsu.

Sen frowned, "Why would they be there?"

Hashi shook his head and looked down at his teacup before he set it down and patted his chest before gesturing back North, continuing on as Sen carefully watched him. I'll go North. Stop any raiders. Likely be gone for a few days.

"Need me to come along?" Sen asked as he rested his elbows on his knees as Hashi shook his head in reply. "Guess I'm staying here..." Sen never liked it when Hashi went off on his own. He knew he worried too much about his incredibly tall murder demon, but he always figured to expect the worst considering their luck most of the time. "Be careful, yeah?"

Hashi chuffed a laugh again and reached out to pat Sen's head, making the man snort out a laugh and playfully shove his arm away.

"Stop patronizing me," Sen chuckled as Hashi patted his head again. This time, Sen just let it happen and rolled his eyes with another smirk as Hashi downed the rest of his tea and let out a huff. The two lapsed into a comfortable silence as they watched Ebume go about its daily routine. Sen saw the smoke rise from Goemaru's forge, he heard the distant drone of merchant voices, and he let the cool breeze rolling down from the northern mountains blow back through his hair and ruffle his clothes. Ebume was peaceful sometimes, he decided, and he could even like it. "What are we doing for our evening meal? Fish again or do we want to get fancy?"

Hashi thought for a moment and then slowly turned his eyes nervously to Sen.

"You want fish, don't you?"

Hashi gave a tiny nod in reply as Sen snorted a laugh.

"Okay, okay! No need to look embarrassed about it! Fish it is!" He reached out and patted Hashi's arm. "I'll go catch some – quit eyeing up the koi!" He smacked the back of Hashi's head when he stood up and saw his friend staring with an excited gleam in his eyes at the large fish swimming in the pond. "It's not even like they're good eating. They're carp!"

Hashi turned to him and narrowed his eyes, but reluctantly turned away from the pond and stared off over the overlook, grumbling quietly to himself as Sen passed him to grab a fishing rod from the temple.

"Stop grumbling. I'll catch you something that will actually taste good," Sen called over his shoulder. He only hoped that days like this would happen more often, even if he knew that with a war going on, this was likely as close to peace as he would ever get. He paused as he grabbed his old rod and saw Hashi's naginata on the wall with Myugou's old prayer beads wrapped around it. He smiled knowing that at least when his friend went off, he would be watched over by their old friend. That would have to be enough.

---

Days without Hashi blurred into one another as Sen fell into his routine of getting up early in the morning, doing minor maintenance on the temple, and running cursory errands in the town below. He would speak to few people, especially in the days after Itsuki had left, with most of his conversations staying relegated to Goemaru and his wife. From time to time, the townsfolk saw him stop in to speak to Ujiyo, only to emerge with a handful of prayer slips or incense. No one dared to speak to him.

Yato watched him pass one day and quietly thought of his nickname before he approached the young man and coughed, making Sen pause and turn his eyes to him. Yato could see how he earned his nickname. His face was hard for a man not yet thirty, but despite how his face looked, all sharp lines and a furrowed brow, it was the wariness in his eyes that made the old hunter wonder if the name was true. "Ah... Sen. I noticed that you do a bit of fishing, but not much hunting. Would you be interested in any red meats? Venison? Pork? My wife is getting ready to slaughter our cow soon..."

The man slowly turned to face him and dropped his eyes to his feet, "No. Thank you, Yato."

"Oh... Then perhaps..." Yato went to protest, but Sen again shook his head, his eyes cast off to one side as his hands flexed anxiously. "Is there anything else you need with Hashioni gone?"

Sen was startled by the question. Many people barely seemed to acknowledge that he was present half of the time, and they conveniently liked to forget that Hashi existed until they needed him. He lifted his eyes from the road for a brief moment before he again shook his head. "No, but the offer is appreciated."

Yato watched as Sen went to go turn away before he stepped forward towards him, "We know about the bandits and the deserters. We know how much you help us, so... if you need anything, please, tell us."

Sen glanced over his shoulder once more before he gave a quick nod and hurried towards the bridge, the sudden feeling of people paying attention to him unwelcome as the little pangs of his past came back to gnaw at him. How many years had it been, he wondered, since the incident with the river? Perhaps it didn't matter. The wounds were still raw and his fear of the people of Ebume was still painfully too real for him to forget so easily. Perhaps they were trying to apologize in their own way. Maybe, but it would take him time.

He preferred the quiet, he realized as he hurried his way up the steps to Hashi-ji, each step easing some tension in his shoulders the higher he climbed. He didn't dislike the people of Ebume. Most had been civil if not kind to him, and more often than not he enjoyed the brief visits to town to see Itsuki and her family, and Yato had always been kind. When he passed through the arch of trees, he let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and the tension seemed to leave his body in a mighty wave. It was an old habit, he knew, from his childhood days. That expectance of violence...

He knew that those children had grown up, and that Hamu was gone, but there was always something that would knot up inside of him when he had to go down for supplies. It shamed him, and most of the people didn't deserve it. Sometimes he figured that facing down bandits was preferable to facing the people of Ebume.

He looked up and saw the old noderabou kneeling and praying by Myugou's marker, so Sen headed over to join him. "Hello, Tousen," he spoke as he knelt next to him and laid his sack of supplies by his legs. "Seeking guidance?"

"Father Myugou was..." the yokai turned to him and furrowed his hairy brow, "unusual among men, but he was good. I pray that in my next life, I can follow his example and lead a good one." Tousen looked over at Sen and rotated his body to better face him, "What about you, old friend? Why do you pray here?"

Sen looked down at the marker and remembered peaceful childhood days with Myugou and Hashi and couldn't help but smile to himself. "Myugou always gave me good advice. I feel like I can still seek his guidance here."

The noderabou nodded and turned back, his black monk vestments rustling as he did, "That is a good reason." They sat in silence as the water of the pond would occasionally move and swish with the carp inside of it, and the river rolled along below and caressed the rocks. The wind blew through the boughs of the trees and made the leaves whisper above them. It was a good quiet, the kind Sen liked to let himself relax in.

Though he had to admit that the temple felt emptier and lonelier without his staunch friend around. Life without Hashi was a foreign concept for Sen at this point in his life. They were together every day, and he couldn't help but worry when his friend would vanish off into the night to scare off bandits that dared to try and attack them or harm Ebume. It was a necessary job to keep the village safe, of course, but it didn't make the apprehension go away.

However, what wound up surprising him more than anything was Hashi returning home ahead of schedule. As he finished sweeping the temple veranda, he found himself staring directly at his returning friend, who held his hand close to his body as he approached with a grunt of greeting. "Hashi?" Sen leaned the broom up against the wall and hurried quickly to his friend's side, taking ahold of his wrist and dragging his hand out to get a better look at it. It seemed as though Hashi had grabbed the blade of a weapon, a rather gutsy move all things considered, and rather outside of what the yokai normally did. "How did this happen?"

Hashi shook his head in a gesture of embarrassment and tapped himself and then his temple with another shake of his head. Not paying attention.

Sen examined the wound. It had barely scabbed up, which was never a good sign, but at least the cut was straight and clean. Had it cut much deeper, there would have been some problems with the hand itself. The wound was on the surface, nothing a little time and effort couldn't heal. He sighed and looked up at Hashi, "How many times have we gone over the concept that grabbing the blades of weapons is a bad idea?"

Hashi threw his eyes in a sardonic roll and grumbled something under his breath as Sen smacked the side of his head.

"Oi! You don't get to be mad! I've been dealing with this nonsense here for the past two weeks!" He sighed as Hashi narrowed his eyes at him. "I am glad that you're back in mostly one piece," he finally smiled at his friend, and Hashi returned it in kind, drawing the corners of his mouth up on either side of his fangs as his eyes brightened. "Itsuki left a few days back. You missed her, but she told me to tell you that she said goodbye..." Sen reached over and pulled one of his old robes out of his pile of folded laundry and ripped off one of the sleeves as he took hold of Hashi's wrist and rotated his hand. "Yato brought up some venison. I told him not to bother with it, but he insisted that we have some game for when you got back, so... deer steak tonight, I guess. I was thinking we could throw it in a stew and salt the rest, save it for winter when the fishing gets scarce. Uh... Hm, well, let's see... what else did you miss...? Oh! Right. The temple is good to go..." he continued as he tied the strip of cloth around Hashi's hand and the yokai listened attentively, "and Tousen is thinking about maybe taking a pilgrimage. Kumohime left last week for her new warren and Kawataro is... Kawataro. He needs no explanation." Sen sat back after he tied the strip off around Hashi's wrist and nodded. "That's about it."

Hashi nodded his thanks and looked around with a grunt of approval that made Sen crack the slightest of smiles.

"I finished fixing the buddhas," he added. "I think I may work on scraping the moss off of the jizos soon. They and the inari have gotten pretty..." He trailed off when he saw Hashi blinking away sleepily and yawing rather loudly. Of course, his friend would be tired. Why wouldn't he be? "Sorry..."

Hashi shook his head and reached out to pat Sen's before he settled down at the foot of the steps, trying hard to listen to what Sen was saying.

"No, it's fine. You had a long trip. I have your bed ready inside," Sen stood up and opened the door for Hashi as the yokai lumbered past him. "Take a good long sleep. You've earned it."

Hashi looked back over his shoulder with an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry about it. Get some rest. When you wake up, I'll tell you everything."

---

Days passed into one another, and before long a whole week had gone by with little occurring of note besides the occasional bandit that would wander in and try to stir up trouble. Sen had taken to fixing some of the roof that had gotten a tree limb dropped on it during a storm. Eager to stop the incessant dripping and complications from the water damage, he and Hashi set about to patching it, buying new tiles from one of the potters and going to work making the old temple not as much of a soggy mess as it had been.

"Hashi," Sen called from on top of the roof, "mind passing me the tiles?"

Hashi grunted and bent down to grab one, only when he went to lift it up to Sen, his hand spasmed and he let out a growl as the tile clattered to the ground and broke in two. He glared down at the tile and then looked up apologetically at Sen, who quickly slid down the ladder.

"You alright?" He asked as Hashi gave a quick nod. Rather than simply leaving it at that, Sen reached out and took his wrist, flipping the hand over so his palm faced upwards and frowned. The wound still hadn't closed. If anything, it was looking worse. Grey ashy skin has begun to form around it, eclipsing most of the red broken flesh, and it was spreading put around the wound itself like a scab. When Sen ran his finger near it, an ashy residue came off with his finger, but Hashi himself did not react. "Did you feel that at all?"

Hashi hesitated for a moment before he shook his head.

"Okay... not good. Come on, let's go see Ujiyo," he went to pull Hashi along, but the yokai hesitated, looking from his hand back to Sen before he gave a worried frown and shook his head a little. Sen sighed and moved back beside him, "Come on, for me?"

At the look Sen had on his face, one laced with worry, Hashi reluctantly nodded and followed him down the steps of the temple.

They made their way through Ebume with some people attempting to be friendly while others simply watched them pass until they came to the slightly expanded shop belonging to the town's lone onmyoji. Sen shoved the stubborn door open and found Ujiyo hunched over a large scroll, brushing his hand over his chin and humming all the while as a young girl hurried around arranging his things, seemingly preparing him for a voyage of some sort. However, upon seeing Sen, she froze and then turned hurriedly to Ujiyo, "Sensei, someone's here!"

Ujiyo half jumped and spun to see Sen standing in the doorway with Hashi almost sheepishly behind him. "Oh! Sen! What brings you here?"

"Show him your hand," Sen looked to Hashi and then gestured to Ujiyo with his chin as he stepped aside. Hashi reluctantly ambled forward, ducking beneath rafters and hanging lights, and held his hand out to Ujiyo, who took it and looked down at the wound. "It's been like this for over a week. The ashy stuff is... new."

"New," Ujiyo's face darkened, "and concerning."

"Concerning?"

"It... appears to be The Rot."

"The Rot?"

"An illness," Ujiyo released Hashi's hand and wheeled to his scrolls, quickly running his finger along each of them, until he found one that he plucked out and spread across the one he had been reading, "that affects yokai specifically. It spreads like fire through the veins, consuming all of the yokai's senses and turning them into primal beasts incapable of intelligent thought. The last time this illness was seen in bulk was during the Onin Wars. No one knows why or how it spread – well, no human knows why."

"But what is it?" Sen asked as he hunched over the scroll.

Ujiyo threw his hands up, "If we knew, we could fight it. Alas, I have heard a thousand different variations of what it is and still nobody knows." The onmyoji stood still for a moment as he considered his options before he rotated himself to look at Sen, "We could ask Ebume-no-kami."

Sen stared at him before crossing his arms, "Do I need to jump into the river again?"

"No, no... I don't think so. No, this time, we go to his shrine. Remember that old boarded-up cave beneath the bridge?"

"Uh... yeah."

"I did that to keep people out. It's his shrine. Come, we'll go have a chat!" Ujiyo proudly clapped his hands, seemingly satisfied with his solution, and marched past Sen before he quickly turned back to the girl, who stood by nervously, "Jingume! Do me a favor and finish packing. We will have to leave for Edo posthaste if this turns out to be correct!"

As they stepped out, Sen looked at Ujiyo and frowned, "Who was the kid?"

"My apprentice, Jingume. She was sent to me by an old colleague from a little village somewhere in the central provinces. Think the place was called Kingo... Either way, she and I are departing for Edo. I had my first vision in quite some time and I think it may be linked to your departure," Ujiyo paused and looked at Sen, "albeit if Ebume-no-kami thinks it proper for you to leave."

They walked through the town again, this time attracting more confused looks as Ujiyo guided them off the beaten path and down a small barely noticeable side road that led under the bridge. Their sudden appearance startled Yato and another man as they fished, but if Ujiyo noticed them, he paid them no mind at all. When they approached the old boarded-up section, Ujiyo tapped it with his fan, and the boards folded away as neatly as if they had been paper, and with a proud smile, he stepped inside with Sen and Hashi in tow.

The inside was cool and dark, the walls and floor were all damp, but the ground remained firm despite that. It was surprising more than anything else. The small walkway opened into a large room made from smoothed river stone, and in the center sat a shrine over an ancient spring that seemed to emanate with a light all of its own and gave the room a gentle blue glow. Sen had never seen anything like it in his entire life, and judging by Hashi's bewildered expression, he hadn't either.

Ujiiyo cleared his throat and then spoke, "Ebume-no-kami, we would like an audience with you!"

There was a sound as if a rock had been dropped into the spring before a Mizuchi burst forth from the water with a shriek and dragged itself up onto the land, its body moving like a snake across the smooth stone before it began to shrink and morph into that of a human. Before long, the creature standing before them took on the form of a young man dressed from head to toe in court dress. His face was painted in white shiranuri and red flecks sat at either corner of his eye while his bottom lip was shaped into a small, red half-circle of sorts. There was a playful smile at the corner of his mouth and he walked forward with the sound of wooden shoes on the hard stone echoing from everywhere.

"Well, Onmyoji, welcome. And welcome to you too, Sen. It has been quite some time since I have last seen either of you, and my dear Hashi has also arrived. What brings you to see me today?"

"We believe Hashioni has contracted The Rot," Ujiyo's voice was grave and his brow furrowed as he spoke, and upon mention of the illness the jovial face of the local god also shifted into a thin veil of worry. The onmyoji turned to Hashi and nodded for him to go forward, and when he did, the god took his hand and looked down at it before hissing and drawing back as if Hashi had the pox. "I... take it that's an affirmative."

"It is. Forgive my reaction. The Rot is contagious among our kind and highly dangerous," Ebume-no-kami watched Hashi cautiously before he let out a long sigh. "This is bad, to put it mildly. The Rot is beyond my area of expertise, unfortunately. I know little compared to my counterparts and other practitioners who make their living studying such ailments."

"What can you tell us?" Sen pressed.

"Little. The Rot was born from a long-forgotten era – before my time, even – when a great war erupted between the yokai gods. They attempted to contain the influence of a tatarigami to no avail. The Rot was the result of that fallout."

"Can it be cured?" Sen asked again, taking another step forward towards the god, who brought a tentative hand to his chin.

"Perhaps... I have heard stories, but the best person to ask isn't me..." Ebume-no-kami hesitated for a moment before he seemed to decide that there was only one course of action. "You must seek out Owari no Hoshiga. He is in the service of an Otomo Tsukiyoru in Kyushu. Out of anyone I can think of, he seems to be your best bet."

"Wait, Kyushu?" Sen looked from Hashi and Ujiyo back to Ebume-no-kami in a mild panic. "That's across the country!"

"Yes, and if you do not seek him out, then Hashi will wither away both mentally and physically until he is little more than a violent brute," the god's frankness made Sen clam up. He spoke the truth on that count, at least.

"Wait, Owari no Hoshiga?" Now it was Ujiyo's turn to be surprised. "The great onmyoji of Kyushu? That Owari no Hoshiga?"

Ebume-no-kami seemed surprised at the onmyoji's astonishment and folded his hands nervously in front of him, "Uhm, yes..."

"He's legendary! I heard he managed to slay the plague demons infesting the Otomo estate and that he healed Otomo-dono from the brink of near death! Among men, he is a scholar of no equal, and among onmyoji, he is peerless!"

Ebume-no-kami watched him and frowned, "Are you quite alright, Onmyoji?"

"Ahem, yes, quite. I just... He's a legend among us," Ujiyo cleared his throat and shuffled as Hashi looked down at Sen and shrugged when Sen cocked an eyebrow as he looked up at him.

"All of this is foreign to me," Sen finally turned his head back to Ebume-no-kami. "What precisely can this man do, exactly?"

Ebume-no-kami smiled at him, "There was a rumor that Hoshiga was looking into The Rot after several rotted yokai emerged in his domain in Kyushu. If anyone has a theory on exactly what to do about this curse, then it will be him. Putting it mildly, there are few in this land that know this better than him."