Without nightmares to plague him, the next thing Kuro knew was human fingers grabbing Kuro’s ruff. Kuro woke immediately, his alarmed barks echoing off the stone chamber.

“Stay still,” Ren ordered. It was his hand holding onto Kuro’s ruff.

Ren was okay! He was more than okay, he was awake. Kuro panted and dove for Ren’s face to lick him all over in joy. Ren jerked on Kuro’s ruff, holding him back.

Ren was fine, and very obviously still furious with Kuro, judging by the thin line of his mouth and his sharp tone. Did he find out about the Leaf Fire Water game? Kuro whined.

“Knock him unconscious,” Ren ordered Yumi. Oh good, Yumi was awake too, half-hidden behind Ren as she fed sticks into the fire.

Except for the part about her knocking him out. He’d known he’d dragged Ren away from his Very Important Business, and maybe Kuro deserved to be punished for that, but he’d learned to use his foxfire! That must be worth having to come all the way out there.

Kuro would show him, and then… and then Ren would know that Kuro had been playing games, while Ren lay there, dying. That Kuro had been playing games instead of training.

Shudders wracked his whole body, his skin pricking beneath his earth as if it could already feel the bite of Ren’s sword.

Yumi balked. “What?”

“I said, knock him unconscious,” Ren ordered again.

“But he helped us,” Yumi said. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a full-on blizzard raging outside, and he’s the only one who can possibly fetch more firewood.”

“He’s not leaving my sight. I won’t let him.”

“And where’s he going to go? Again, blizzard.”

“Just do—”

Kuro didn’t wait for Ren to finish. He threw his body into Ren. He hadn’t expected much, as Ren had bested Kuro’s every move in their duel at the castle, but Kuro must have caught him by surprise. Ren’s wrist twisted and he released Kuro. Actually released him. Kuro forced his mind away from amazement at his small victory, and raced for the cave entrance.

Kuro dove into the snow wall. His momentum carried him halfway through the packed snow. He pinned his ears back, but snow still tried to cram inside his ears, his nose, his mouth. His hind legs and tail remained exposed inside the cave, just begging for Ren to grab him or Yumi to punch him with enough spiritual force to knock him unconscious. Kuro waved his tails as a distraction, and bent his hind legs to power through the snowbank. Even with that extra force, it was all Kuro could do to wriggle through the snow, more swimming than ploughing. And like a river, the snow was cold enough to freeze him and heavy enough to drown him.

Kuro would have shook his head to get rid of the thought, if he hadn’t been so focused on wriggling through. His hind paws touched snow. Ren shouted inside the cave, but with the snow muffling all sound, he couldn’t tell what he’d said. Probably all the horrible punishments Ren would inflict on him. Or the hope that the snow did drown Kuro, and get rid of him forever.

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No, he mustn’t think about that. Kuro still had the fragment strapped to him. Ren either hadn’t the time to remove it, or hadn’t thought it necessary. Kuro could still get the sword fixed, and offer it to Ren, and Ren would think he was still worth having around.

Kuro’s head burst through the top layer in one last thrust of his hind legs. Not that there was much of a difference. The blizzard was almost as thick as the snowbank, but at least he could move his head. And breathe. Breathing was important.

A hand touched one of his tails, and Kuro jumped the rest of the way out of the snow bank. He arched over the top layer, only to fall into a shorter bank that he could keep his head above. The blizzard was not going to make escape easy for him.

Behind him, the snow wall crumbled, exposing the cave entrance. More than enough room for much smaller humans to crawl out after him. When Kuro lifted his head, he spotted Ren crawling over the snow bank, without even his straw cloak on.

“Come back!” Ren barked.

Kuro whined, pausing on his hind-legs before making another jump.

“Ren!” Yumi grabbed hold of Ren’s ankles. Ren kicked, but she held firm. “You can’t go out there. It’s suicide. We’ve already almost died once.”

Ren rolled his head to face her. “He’ll die.”

Kuro’s flanks twitched with the need to crawl back into the cave, to nuzzle Ren until he stopped sounding so frightened. Kuro shook his head. Ren wasn’t frightened for him. He was angry, furious, raging. Kuro leapt out of the bank, following the trail half by jumping, and half by ploughing through.

Kuro couldn’t return, not yet. Not until he had the Kusanagi. He raced as fast as he could through the blizzard. The snow level fell, as the wind must have blown it off the side of the cliff. Kuro grinned on the inside. Luck was finally on his side.

As usual, he was wrong.

His hind paw slipped on hidden ice. He careened toward the cliff. The cover of cypress fell away, the cliff too steep and jagged for any but the most tenacious sapling to grow upon. He clawed at the snow to keep on his paws, but his other hind paw slid along the ice patch. His hips went over the side toward the sharp drop.

Shit, Ren was right, he was going to die.

No, he was wrong. Kuro clawed at the path with his front paws, and tried to find a paw-hold with his hind. One hind paw caught, and Kuro scrabbled for a hold to haul himself up.

Above him, a perfect white face with perfect charcoal eyes and perfect crimson lips peered down at him.

Kuro swallowed a whine. The Yuki Onna’s straw cloak and white kimono snapped in the wind, but not a single snowflake landed on her.

The paw-hold crumbled beneath his hind foot. Kuro jerked as his weight yanked him down. He dug his front claws into the snow and ice. It’d be enough. It had to be enough.

The Yuki Onna raised her boot.

“Don’t!”

She stepped onto his paw, pushing his pad into the snow. Against his will, his claws flexed, losing their grip. He slid further down. He snapped at her, but she was too far away to bite.

She quirked her lip up, then raised that foot to step on his remaining paw.

His hind legs sought something to grasp, but his paws slid off the edge.

Kuro plummeted, falling freely through the air with nothing to hold onto, no slope to tumble down. Just falling, a black snowflake amidst all the white, just like growing up. A Black Kitsune among the Celestials. Kuro laughed maniacally in his head.

He hit the ground with enough force to rattle his bones, even with the snow to cushion him. He cried out. A pile of snow Kuro must have loosened fell on top of him.

Lying on his side, his legs tucked into his body, Kuro panted. Pain lanced through his sides, but nothing he wouldn’t heal given enough time. Black edged his vision of white snow and exposed rock.

Feet crunched on snow behind him, light enough to be a human. More than one, Kuro thought through the fog descending in his mind. Or the blizzard had finally made it inside his head. Ren and Yumi must have found him. He was safe. He hadn’t fallen into a trap. Right?

He sank into the blizzard as the footsteps surrounded him. Then a feminine voice said, “Come with us, weary traveller. We’ll take you to shelter.”

Stupid Yuki Onna.