My feet ached as we marched forward on the seemingly endless road.

Hayato groaned. "I miss Koji."

I moaned back. "We immediately released that monkey. You knew it for a maximum of an hour."

Anzen interjected. "You should be glad we didn't eat it."

Hayato raised his hand defensively as I peered exhaustedly into the distance, seeing lights of a nearby village. "I still believe he wouldn't have caused any problems."

I rolled my eyes as I started to lean against our horse, but returned to walking regularly when I realized it was most likely more exhausted than all of us. "Small animals like that are always a nuisance. I assure you the monkey would have found some way to hinder us."

Hayato shook his head. "I expect this kind of heartless train of thought from Anzen, but you too, Kenshi? For shame."

I sighed, making sure to correct my attitude towards Hayato. The tiredness seemed to make us all rather irritable, except for Hayato, who seemed unaffected by the long trot. "We're almost to a place we can rest and get food. Please let it go, Hayato."

"Koji could have performed and made us food."

Anzen put a hand on his forehead in exhaustion rooted frustration. "Leave it, Hayato."

With a mumble, Hayato finally ceased his constant defense of a monkey already leagues behind us. With that finished, I could concentrate on finishing the last bit of road until we could rest at the nearby village.

I knew I would have to take the fatigue, even with my newly healed leg. All of us would. We hadn't seen or heard anything from the Shogun in quite a long while, and I knew he had to be rallying whatever ember users he could muster. But that was not what I feared. Not in the slightest.

The Doctor had been eerily silent. With his wits and position, he could have overthrown the entire shogunate if he wanted to. But rather than all of the options put before him, he chose to lurk in the shadows and scheme. And what a scheme it would have to be.

I shook the thoughts off and instead looked into the distance beyond the oncoming village. I gazed at the moonlit Mt.Fuji in all its grandeur, knowing that Amaterasu's palace waited for me. The final bastion for the hope of a world I once knew. Amaterasu was hidden somewhere within it, and every moment we wasted the greater the danger she was surrounded by became.

We would regroup with Sora and Lee in the next few days, then we started the climb.

Soon, very soon,

But for the time being, I had to find us something to eat.

As we reached the final stretch to the village, Hayato pet his horse's snout and pondered out loud. "Do you think we'll be safe in this town?"

I shrugged. "There's no way to know for sure, but it seems small and discrete. Perhaps the Shogun overlooked it entirely when sending out our bounty."

Anzen shook his head. "Wishful thinking."

I wanted to say something unsavory back to Anzen, but I realized that the empty stomachs and overworked legs were getting the best of all of us, so instead, I kept myself silent.

The rest of the walk was quiet. We barely had enough energy to walk the rest of the way, let alone make unnecessary conversation.

After a grueling final mile, we found ourselves stumbling into their local tea shop. Cheaply built wooden walls soaked in a grimy substance with an overbearing smell of grease greeted us along with the large man behind the counter.

He grunted as we stepped on the elevated floor and took a seat at one of the many unoccupied tables.

The sweaty and fat man walked over and spoke. "What do you want?"

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Still looking for breath, I answered. "Water. Food."

"What type of food."

Without speaking I reached into the coin-purse tied to the strap of my kimono and took out a palmful of coins. Dropping them onto the table, I looked up at the man. "Whatever that buys."

The man nodded as he turned and left.

We took a minute to catch our breath before Hayato took a deep breath and spoke. "You were right, Kenshi. I've looked everywhere in this village and haven't seen a single samurai."

Three plates of something that resembled food were sat at our table as Anzen looked around the room.

After we all shared a few bites of whatever that was, I decided to ask Anzen a question. "What are you looking so intently at?"

Anzen swallowed and answered. "The paintings in this place are interesting. Look." He pointed behind me, and upon looking, I saw a woodblock painting of a monstrous squid-like creature tearing a fishing vessel apart as its crew jumped ship. Anzen raised his brow. "I don't think I've ever seen a squid that large."

Hayato and I shared a gaze with each other. One of disappointment and mild surprise.

I gestured to Hayato, letting him explain. Anzen and I's relationship had been recuperating since our confrontation the few days prior, so I thought it best to let Hayato answer instead.

Hayato shook his head. "I thought I taught you better."

Anzen sighed. "I had to have forgotten. It's not important anyway. Forget I asked about it."

I took another bite of my food as Hayato continued. "Don't be like that. It's very interesting." Hayato spanned his arm across an imaginary horizon as he set the scene. "So, I've just been stationed at the beach. I get on my pedestal and before I begin I notice that there are no big boats. I keep that in mind and I ask one of the fishermen once I'm finished working. He said that nobody could get beyond our shores without their ship being torn apart from that thing. So there was no need to make anything for longer trips."

Anzen scratched his head. "But why is it like that?"

Hayato shrugged, so I thought I would intervene. "Well, of course, you know about the elder dragons and their cosmic battles. The cataclysm scattering their scales across the sky and all that." Anzen crossed his arms as I spoke, but he still seemed curious, so I continued. "Once the elder dragon conquered the others and grew tired, it decided to rest inside Mt.Fuji. But before it did, it saw the people of Nihon and grew attached, creating that thing to protect us from falling off the ends of the earth straight into neither heaven or hell. Just oblivion."

Anzen sighed. "You seem to know a lot."

I chuckled as I played with my food with the chopsticks between my callused fingers. "That's just what happens when you're raised next to a monastery."

Hayato questioned. "Then why does it destroy everything and not act more peaceful towards us?"

"Things seem to devolve over time. Evil festers everywhere. It grows in the shadows and creates yokai. It grows from the sin hidden within us and turns our very selves into yokai. I'm sure that the evil has corrupted that creature at least somewhat."

Anzen sighed. "At least being killed by it is better than falling into nothingness."

I finished the last of my meal. "That's true at least. What an optimist you are, Anzen."

Anzen scoffed as Hayato also finished his meal.

After Hayato put his chopsticks down I stood, causing Hayato to mutter. "Are we going so soon?"

I nodded. "I'm afraid so. I feel as though the Doctor and the Shogun are planning something. Best to move as quickly as possible."

Hayato groaned as he stood with Anzen. Hayato didn't seem fatigued on the actual walk, but it seemed it all caught up to him once we sat down and filled our stomachs.

I pushed through the curtain door and back onto the dirt road in the small village.

The village was quiet. No children played in the streets and no workers hauled their carts of goods. The people of Nihon were much quieter and less lively when the sun had set, but not this quiet.

In the silence, I could hear something that put my guard up. The flapping of wings sounded from behind my head.

Quickly turning on my heel, I found nothing, so I searched further. Standing tall and trying to look at the curved roof of the tea house, but I still found nothing.

Hayato exited the shop first and looked at me curiously. "What are you looking at?"

I shook my head and turned. "Nothing, apparently."

Hayato unhitched the horse as Anzen exited the building with us. Soon we were back on the road, only a few days from hitting Mt.Fuji, where we would circle it to the north side and meet with Sora and Lee in my old home town.

Leaving the village was quick and easy. The village was dead quiet and empty.

Although our walk was uneventful and quiet I felt even more at unease as we left the village onto the dirt road.

To our left was a forest, above the trees, the behemoth Mt.Fuji could be seen. To our right was a running stream, reflecting the bright blue light of the moon.

In the blue moonlight, something caught my eye. A glimpse of orange in the forest to our left.

I quickly turned my head, alerting Anzen and Hayato. Squinting, I could finally see what was causing the orange light in the forest.

A glowing orange owl sat atop a tree branch as it watched us curiously. Soon the quiet surrounding us was ended as the sound of two horses galloped speedily towards us.

Hayato's eyes widened as he also recognized the glowing owl. Anzen quickly started searching our surroundings, cursing under his breath.

There was no way we could outrun two men on horseback. We would have to fight.

Turning around, I saw three men on horseback. One, sunken-eyed and pale, with a deadly and sinister grin around him, the same crazed puppeteer as last time. One was muscular and wore only a pair of baggy trousers while a small boy sat behind him, eyes glowing a bright orange.  A fight was afoot, and during that fight, we had to figure out the new samurai's Ember. Joyious.

"That damned owl!"