Back at the inn Inari and Hato were having a hard time of it. Finding Kuun in such a place was so hard, when you had to sift through thousands if not millions of random Youkai.
Hato was still feeling a bit worthless as she sat at the table facing the television. Inari sat on the ground, orb in her lap, in a trance. She was trying as best she could to get to Kuun, but it was proving difficult as there were countless Youkai's lives to look through. Hato had warned her that it might be pretty strange in there, but this was out of her expectations. Doors opened perpendicular to the ground, and memories whizzed past her at different speeds, appearing as if they were on small screens. She was quick enough to be able to see many of the faces, but none of them even came close to a match. A lot of them were beat Youkai, looking nothing like the human-esque one that she was looking for. At least Youkai didn't all look like humans, or she'd be in for hell.
Outside of her body, Hato still sat there, holding a mug. Inside of the orb, she could see what was going on. It was strange, like watching someone else’s dreams or something. She wondered though... she had a pretty strong connection to limbo after all that had happened, could she help in any way? She put a hand out towards the orb, feeling her spirit energy rush into it. Suddenly she was right next to Inari.
"Whoa! What?!"
"Hato? But how..."
"I felt like I could come help, so I did!"
"I'd love to say you being here makes it a lot easier, but I'm not sure. This seems impossible."
Hato smiled at her.
"It's no problem! We find someone that looks like him, and enter their memories!"
At that moment one whizzed by that looked as if he could be Kuun. Hato reached out and caught the thing, sticking a hand into it. She took Inari's hand as well and stuck hers into the white mass. It was warm... like a beach.
She saw large palm trees on a sandy shore, with almost nobody on it. Nobody, that is, save for a tall lanky Youkai sitting in the sand some distance away.
At seeing them, he stood up to wave, and they walked over.
"Hi! It's not often you get visitors in limbo, how are you?"
Inari skeptically looked him up and down.
"Oh, we're great... but actually we're looking for someone. It might be you, and it might not. You do look like him though."
"Oh really? Who are you searching for?"
"We're looking for Kuun! Kuun the Intrepid!"
"Really? Now what does a human and a dove want with someone like him?"
"You know him?"
"Human, we spirits spend a lot of time in limbo. We get to know just about everyone, given enough time."
"You know where he is then?"
The Youkai turned to Hato with a sad smile.
"Been a long time since I've seen anyone. I'm afraid not, but if you ask around long enough chances are someone's seen him in the last hundred years or so.
Maybe you'll get lucky."
They thanked him and left him back to his sunny beach, which he laid out upon. It did look comfortable, but they had a job to do, as impossible as it seemed.
Back in the strange area between memories, they began to look again. Many memories looked to be nothing that could help them, things whizzed back and forth so quickly it was hard to catch them all. But this time, Inari caught one. It was cold, like some sort of blizzard, but the Youkai had dark hair and a slim figure. The only thing she wasn’t sure about is that he was wearing a mask. Sadly there was only one way to find out if he was Kuun or not, and she shoved her hand into the mass. Hato joined her, and soon they were in the middle of a camp in the mountains. Men warmed themselves around the fire and ladled some sort of soup out of a large pot into wooden bowls. The small tents they walked into were almost as bad as their weapons, and everything seemed to be cheap in the place. Inari and Hato searched for the Youkai they’d seen to no avail until finally asking the men around the fire.
“Him? Oh yeah, just went out to watch a few minutes ago. Should be ‘round over there somewhere.”
He brandished his spoon off in a direction away from camp and got back to his eating. Knowing that they weren’t going to get more, they walked off in the vague direction given to them by the soldier. In a few minutes they’d found yet another soldier, who told them the Youkai they were looking for had just got farther towards the mountain. It felt like they were in a while goose chase until Hato finally found tracks.
“Here! This must be him!”
They walked further up the mountain until finding a small camp in a tiny indent, barely able to shield him from the blizzard. The Youkai in question was sipping a large drink over a warm fire, and sat on his knapsack. He didn’t immediately notice them.
“Hello!”
“Oh! Gods you almost made me spill! Who are you? You aren’t in my dream, are you?”
“Actually no, we’re looking for someone.”
The slim Youkai scoffed.
“Looking for someone in limbo? A bird and a human? Alright, lay it on me. Who.”
Inari rolled her eyes.
“Kuun the Intrepid.”
“Whoah, you’re really searching for him? Man I think he died in the war isn’t that right… Well I’d love to help you if I could. Actually… he was on this expedition. Yeah! If you walk back to camp you should be able to see him!”
“But that’s just a dream Kuun, isn’t it?”
“Oh… that’s right, sorry.”
“No Inari, we aren’t sure about his face. This could give us a good look, if we’re lucky.”
“Great idea Hato! And thank you, you’ve really helped us.”
“No problem! I hope you find him!”
The Youkai raised his tin cup and waved as they walked back into the storm. It was raging even harder now and their path down to the camp was equally as difficult. Once they’d finally made it they approached the same soldier from before.
“Do you know where Kuun the Intrepid is?”
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“Kuun? Intrepid? I dunno about that, but Kuun’s in the tent o’er there.”
He waved his spoon in a vague direction the other way, and they complied. The first tent was a no go, a beast Youkai was taking off his armor, and the second held three sleeping stone Youkai. The last had one strange looking human-esque Youkai inside of it, and they quietly entered the tent, careful not to wake him.
“So this is Kuun?”
“Hush Hato you’ll wake him!”
“Well we need to confirm it!”
Suddenly the Youkai leaned up.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my tent?”
“Oh! Are you Kuun?”
“I am. Why are you in here?”
“That’s all we needed, thanks!”
Hato look Inari’s arm, and in seconds they were once again in the strange area between memories.
“You didn’t even explain anything Hato, you just left.”
“He was a dream! He wasn’t even real, now let’s find the real Kuun, ok?”
“Please, we’ve been in here way too long already…”
It took a long time, but finally they found someone that had to be Kuun. Inside of the memory they were dropped off near a forest. In the distance they could see a military camp, where tents surrounded a large path through the mountains. Inari guessed it might have been the only way through the mountains, and the troops were guarding it to prevent any enemies from gaining easy access into their lands. It was a regular strategy, block a small area and force the enemy into a choke point. Simple, but effective.
Hato and Inari walked down a small dirt path towards the camp, which was bustling. It seemed that there was nothing wrong, but messengers and soldiers ran around the camp in a flurry as if a battle was about to commence.
“Pretty busy around here…”
“Hey Hato, I never really thought to ask, but how old are you?”
“Me? I’m about three hundred years old. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. Even being alive for that long must have had you see quite a bit.”
“I think birds live a bit more boring than you think Inari!”
“Oh come on you must have seen some cool things!”
“Well… I saw quite a bit while I was in the capital. That’s where I began actually, some sort of god’s wish created many of us at the same time. We used to just be doves, but I’m glad he was nice enough to give me a life!”
“Youkai’s lives really are strange, aren’t they?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, while you can just be instantly created and have the form of adults, humans have to grow up and all that, and our lives are spent on making every moment count. Not to be insensitive, but you could literally go out in a forest and meditate for a hundred years and still have thousands left. Wasting all that time wouldn’t affect you at all, and two generations may have come and gone in that time.”
“Well yeah, and a lot of Youkai hate the fact that humans live in the moment. It’s too much going on for them!”
“Hmm… so what was the capital like back then?”
“Honestly nothing’s really changed since I left. A lot of the doves were simply created and left instantly, so I was probably only there for a few years. It was peaceful I think?”
“Hmm, I-!”
Suddenly Inari knocked into a tall man with a long ponytail.
“Hm? Are you the Orchid’s messengers?”
Inari and Oku looked at each other and gasped.
“The Orchid?!”
The palace was enormous… Koichi had been there more often than Seph, but to both of them one look at it required a few deep breaths.
“The king compensatin’ for his size? Heh.”
The chief turned around.
“Those jokes’ll have to end around here. If we make too much of that type of noise we’ll get locked up too. Then you won’t exactly have any way to get your friend back will you?”
“Wha- you think these losers can take me?”
He brandished his sword and Koichi put a hand up with a rather annoyed look on his face.
“Idiot, you want to fight the entire capital’s army? Put the fakecalibur away already!”
“Hey, you said it might not be fake!”
While the three of them argued, Aimai looked towards the large doors. After a few moments she could see a crack of light coming through them, which slowly got larger.
“Guys, the doors are opening!”
They stopped arguing and half expected to get arrested then and there by a few guards. Luckily it was simply one of the secretaries. She was about the same height as the chief, some of her defining features being an I-really-don’t-care face, and long black hair that was pulled back into one long ponytail. She had a mask, but it was off to the side, and her brown eyes gouged into the chief.
“Chief Kano? What do you want…”
“Hey there Tomoe! How are you today?”
“The more you butter me up the bigger favor you’re going to ask…”
“Favor? How dare you think I’d only come to see you for a favor!”
“When was the last time you just came to talk then?”
“Well if you really want to give me the third degree I’m looking to reopen a case.”
“Fairly simple if you’d just give me the details-”
Seph, who was still a little peeved about not being able to die in glory fighting the entire Youkai army, piped up, once again at a terrible time.
“We’re gonna reopen the case on Orchid.”
“WHAT?!”
“Idiot… Well, we were hoping that you could help us out! Tomoe?”
Tomoe was charging full speed down the stairs towards the chief. Stopping right in front of him, she gave him quite the earful.
“You think you can open a case the king has stoppered? You think you can just override something like this? Chief Kano of the dying defense corps?”
“Hey now Tomoe, if you’ve read the file you can see that it’s basically a kangaroo court, can’t you?”
“I’ve read it, but it doesn’t matter what I think. The king’s orders are his orders.”
Koichi, who was thinking off to the side, decided to spring his trap.
“So, what if we had convinced the exorcists to go after her? Force the king to hand her over?”
“What? You would need reasonable suspicion to reopen the case in the first place! It isn’t like you can just do whatever you want!”
That was what he was afraid of. They weren’t going to get through this the easy way. This meant only one thing, where before only one of their plans could work for a win, this meant that all three had to. If they didn’t, they would never get Oku back. They could no longer rely on Kuun coming back through Inari to overturn the war crimes charge, nor could they rely on the exorcists to force the king to hand Oku over to them, nor could they rely on the case being reopened for a real in depth look at the facts. If their plan was going to work, it would be by all three of them having total success.
“What a pickle… Tomoe, may we at least see the file? Is it under too much security?”
“No, you can take a look, but what good will that do?”
“Loopholes madam, there’s always one.”
“In contracts maybe, but this is a war crime charge. How will this help?”
“I really just want to see the specifics…”
Finally Tomoe gave in and started back up towards the door.
“Don’t take too long, or you’ll get found out.”
Aimai jumped onto Koichi excitedly.
“Wow! Great job Koichi! That’s why you’re the best!”
“Don’t know why I couldn’t just cut through em till we found the file.”
The chief knocked Seph on the head.
“Because you’d probably burn down the entire place!”
“How?!”
“You’d find a way I’m sure.”
Tomoe led them to a room behind her desk and inside was one single filing cabinet. Seph was horrified to see there was only one, but Tomoe quickly explained that there was a space inside of the filing cabinet that allowed for an infinite amount of papers to be put inside. You simply had to think about the case being mentioned and it floated up towards the surface. With a somewhat sour look on her face she handed over a large file and Koichi set it down on a table. The chief sat beside him and started to sort through papers, which there seemed to be a lot of with the simplicity of the case. Man he really didn’t expect to see a hundred page case file for something that ended with the king giving a rash verdict…
A lightbulb went off in Koichi’s head.
“So he’s making this hard on me huh? Oh it’s on!”
He started sorting through the papers at a speed faster than the human eye could process, and Seph looked on in horror. Aimai seemed to be having the time of her life though.
“What the hell is he doing!”
“So cool! He’s finally in tryhard mode!”
“Who needs an entire mode just for trying at something!?”
“That’s my partner for ya!”
Though Koichi’s tryhard mode was pretty damn scary, Seph had some faith. At least it wouldn’t be him looking through that stupid huge file of papers. Seph wouldn’t be doing any filing at all.