The next day they once again all met up back at Lawrence’s dorm. The bird ate its food as per usual, but no change was seen. It was still just a bird. Mark and Lawrence had taken the day off of research so they could help out, and since according to Shuryo they were supposed to receive information that could help them out anyways, they didn’t feel bad about taking a day off pouring through the books in Jeremiah’s library. Strangely enough to Inari, her wound had healed extremely quickly from just the other day, and she asked Lawrence about it.

“Oh the jelly stuff? It’s actually a mucus secreted by a Youkai I know. That stuff saved my life, and has really weird healing ability. A little bit on a scrape get you good as new. Plus Doro makes enough of it anyways.”

“Doro huh, you know quite a few weirdos don’t you.”

“Quite a few Youkai I’m sure you meant to say.”

Oku turned into a human quickly and walked next to Inari.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any dreams about me would you?”

“About you? No, Why?”

“No reason I was just… wondering I suppose.”

“If I had one I would probably just tell you.”

“Eh, you never know.”

They arrived back at the shrine nearly at the same time Shuryo finished blessing the graves, and he joined them as they ventured into the forest. The trees looked as if they were looming ever closer to them, and Mark seemed like he was claustrophobic.

“Afraid of the trees?”

“Shut up Oku I just-”

“Actually it wouldn’t be that bad of an idea to be afraid of the trees in a spiritual realm. Most things have their own souls.”

“What? Where are we?”

“The cow didn’t mention anything like this…”

Suddenly they stood atop a very large overlook, down at a clearing in the trees. They were pretty high up, but Oku spotted a safe way down to the bottom where she could feel the most spiritual energy.

“If she’s anywhere, it’s right up ahead.”

At least this part of the cow’s story was true. Inbetween the rocks ahead was a hole, and not just a hole but a cave. It looked big enough to live in, but Oku didn’t sense that anyone was there at the time.

“So this is why I could never find her. She was separated from the human realm…”

“Why do you think she did this?”

“If I had to say, she was probably so fed up with the humans she wanted a place to be alone forever. What do you think Lawrence?”

“That does seem like a possibility.”

Just then Oku’s ears cocked to the side. Inari heard something too, and Lawrence and Mark looked around. Oku motioned for them to hide in the bushes, and they were just able to before a nice young looking Youkai walked into view. She was happy, and honestly looked very similar to Shuryo. If this wasn’t Shimasu he would be surprised. Lawrence wanted to go confront her, and began to get up, but Oku held him down and whispered.

“If she came here because of her hate for humans, what do you think she would do if she saw one?”

Oku pointed to herself then to Shimasu then to Shuryo. Looked like she wanted to do the talking herself. A bead of sweat ran down Lawrence’s forehead and Mark looked horrified, but she did it anyways, pulling Shuryo out with her.

“Hello Shimasu!”

The Youkai almost dropped the berries she was carry, but turned towards the odd pair. Shuryo waved shyly and Oku beamed as if she had just figured out who the murderer was.

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“Sh-shuryo?!”

“H-hello love.”

“How the hell did you find me?”

“A Youkai told us you should be here so I just put the pieces together… wait were you hiding from me?”

“You wanted to stay at that burned down hut after those pigs destroyed it! What else could I do! I’m not one to sit back and take the abuse of humans you know.”

“But you’ve been gone for fifty years… isn’t it time to forgive and forget. The humans are probably dead and gone by now!”

“Excuse me if I may intrude, why don’t you want to be with him? Aren’t you in love? Married? Can’t live without each other?

“We were! But then I learned just how weak he was. He couldn’t even stand up to insolent humans that burned our shrine down! I couldn’t take it anymore after that, and left for this peaceful realm. At least I can hear myself think here.”

With that last stinging comment she walked away and back down into her cave which seemed like it may create it’s own space as well. Probably an ornate home in there. Lawrence looked at Shuryo.

“That sounded painful.”

“M-mister Lawrence!!! What am I going to do!!!”

Shuryo had dropped the cool act and seemed absolutely desperate as he clung to Lawrence's coat. He was acting like a five year old.

“Hey get off! We just need to change her mind about humans is all. I hope.”

“You hope?! Lawrence!!!”

“Fine fine, Oku, Hato, can you-”

He looked toward the ground.

“Of course I can go talk to her, just wait right here Lawrence.”

Oku quickly went inside the cave as Lawrence looked down. Shuryo was still clinging to him, but he managed to peel the Youkai off and go sit down next to a tree as he continuously nagged at him.

Mark walked towards the edge of the small cliff they were on and looked down. Quite a long ways. When he looked behind him Inari was standing there.

“I don’t know if it’s my place but… who is Hato?”

Mark became stern.

“I suppose it’s about time you found out.”

He sat down on the ground and sighed to himself, preparing.

“Hato was… is… our friend. She is the dove in the cage in Lawrence’s room. A Youkai. When we went to Kazha forest-”

“A forest? Kazha? What did it look like?”

“I thought you wanted to know about-”

“Mark what did it look like.”

“I don’t know there was a big tree in the middle of the forest where Oku was.”

“Was it exceedingly large with a hole in the bottom the side of a small house.”

“How did you know?”

“It’s been in my dreams…”

“What? So Lawrence’s dorm wasn’t the first time you’ve dreamt about us?”

“I had no idea…”

“Well… anyways… Oku turned evil somehow and needed to be purified. Doro and his furry friend thought they could, but Oku was too powerful and in the end it took Hato’s life to turn her back… now we just have the string of her mask and the dove itself… Of course the library doesn’t really-”

“Library? Endless ocean of books? Everything you could ever need and more?”

“How the hell-”

“How long have I been dreaming about you guys is the real question here.”

“I suppose it is. I would tell you to go tell Lawrence about that but… He’s who takes anything about Hato the hardest… he couldn’t take it for a while.”

Just then Oku was visibly thrown out of the cave and onto Mark, who struggled to get up.

“Don’t you give me that!”

Soon after a door could be heard closing from the cave. Looks like it really was bigger under there.

Oku popped up from beneath Mark and looked back at the door with an angry expression.

“Damned woman! She’s so… angry. She’s angry! You.”

She pointed towards Shoryu who once again looked horrified.

“Yes?!”

“Was Shimasu always liked this? So angry?”

“That’s why I have no idea what’s happening! She never used to be this mean…”

“Well then I think I have an idea at what happened. She’s been hooked by an anger leech.”

“A what?”

“An anger leech. Believe it or not one got me a long time ago as well, but I was able to remove it. I’m not sure what they’re actually called but they suck your spirit energy and force you to think negative and angrily. I’m not sure if they’re all that dangerous either… but if we remove it she should turn back to normal.”

“Do you really think there’s some sort of bad leech on her Oku…”

“Lawrence I had one too, I can safely say they exist.”

“Alright let’s assume she has one. Can you safely remove it?”

“Well they don’t bore into you like leeches in the human world, they simply suck on your skin. Get your spiritual energy.”

Every word seemed to be going over Inari’s head, but the two finally came up with a solution. It involved using Shoryu as bait to get into Shimasu’s house, then just chasing her around until they were able to find and remove the leech. There was the chance that the leech either didn’t exist or wasn’t the cause of her anger but it was an embarrassing chance that Oku was willing to take. She wasn’t one to normally bet her pride on the line so there must have been some truth to her story.