Chương 15: Book 1: Chapter 6 - The Favor [Part 3]

This time, the pyres were built properly, or as properly as the circumstance allowed. Soldiers cut branches while others dragged drier timber from the ruined lean-tos. The coolies, now under the eyes of armed men, carried wood until their legs shook. Oil was brought from Master Hieda's supplies and purifying salt was scattered. The yōma remains were separated and burned in a pit of their own, surrounded by paper charms pinned to branches. The Buddhist priest took charge of the human dead.

He asked for names where names existed: Kuroda Genzō, Mizuno Sōbei, and Kume Jirō. Sakurai Iori's body was not placed with them. The retainer gave one look at it and ordered it burned with the yōma flesh after the head had been shown and wrapped again.

"The face he wore may have had ancestors, but the thing beneath does not," Nagai declared and no one dared argue. The Buddhist priest stood before the larger pyre when it was ready. Incense smoke coiled upward, gentler than the corpse smoke and somehow sadder for it. He rang the small bell once. The sound passed through the hollow, clear and fragile. Then he began to chant. Shimon did not understand all of it, but he understood enough. Pass beyond suffering. Release attachment. Water for the thirsty.

Light for the lost. Tarō knelt with his head bowed and Shimon knelt beside him because standing felt wrong. As the sutra continued, the shrine priest moved around the hollow with the ōnusa. He waved the wand in measured strokes, paper streamers whispering through the air. More salt scattered from his fingers. He touched marked paper to trees, stones, the ground where blood had soaked deepest. His mouth moved in older words. The chip reacted to it.

[UNKNOWN CARRIER SIGNAL DETECTED] Signal Strength: Moderate Pattern: Structured Connection Status: None Protocol Compatibility: None More gibberish, the young man thought even as the shrine priest passed near Shimon and the paper streamers lifted toward him. Not with the wind, but toward him nonetheless, and the priest stopped. For a moment, the man's eyes met his. They were dark, old with fear, and not unkind. Then the priest slowly moved the ōnusa once over Shimon's bowed head.

[WARNING] Unknown Carrier Signal Strength: High Connection Attempt: Detected Connection Status: Failed Shimon felt pressure behind his eyes, like a storm beyond a locked door. Then it faded and it was then that he noticed that the priest's hands were trembling. The holy man said nothing and continued walking. The young man decided he hated priests. Not personally, and not even in the way that some atheists come to hate religion.

Not that way, but because they seemed to make the invisible things, the things he wanted hidden, more visible, and Shimon had a strong preference for keeping his secrets private. At last the pyres were relit and the flames rose properly this time. Heat pushed men back, the smoke climbing thicker above the forest above the forest, thick and dark. Nagai Morichika stood beside Master Hieda at the edge of the firelight. Tarō and Shimon were called forward. The ronin rose slowly and Shimon followed him a pace behind.

Master Hieda looked at them both, then at the burning dead.

"You went in as a group," he stated.

"Yet, only two return." They both said nothing, letting the silence serve them better than words ever could.

"The coolies brought warning," Hieda continued.

"They spoke of screams, monsters, and dark things. We came with what men could be gathered quickly. I expected to find bones. Perhaps less than bones." He paused for a moment as his eyes moved to the wrapped proof.

"Instead, you bring proof of yōma slain, proof of routed enemies, and proof that a man known by name entered under witness while wearing a false soul." The phrase made Shimon's skin prickle. Nagai Morichika spoke next.

"Yōma appearances have worsened these past seasons," he said, his pet lizard-bird squawking in agreement.

"Travelers missing, livestock missing, and graves disturbed. Villages working with fear in their shadow. Men call everything a curse when they are afraid, but not all fear, it seems, is foolish." He looked toward the separate fire where the yōma remains burned.

"Yet nothing this brazen has been seen near this castle in twenty years." The shrine priest, standing nearby, whispered something to Hieda. The fat man nodded grimly.

"We suspected human hands," Hieda added.

"Too much disorder follows the routed armies. Or perhaps traitors, for there were too many storehouses opened where no beast should know to look. And, too many fires laid for the wind to fan into chaos." Nagai's expression hardened.

"We thought at first that it was the Hojo remnants who might be driving trouble toward us. Poisoning roads arteries. Stirring villages. Feeding tales of yōma so that the farmers flee who give succour to our armies." Unfortunately for Shimon, it seemed that the chip combined with his brain was still having difficulty parsing the words spoken, making it poetic in parts. Meaningless in others. Tarō looked up.

"Those were Hojo men."

"Some," Nagai returned curtly.

"But Hojo dogs do not butcher their own wounded and feed them to yōma while one of their agents hides among our hired blades." Hieda's smile returned, but only as a ghost of itself.

"Which leaves a third party." The words settled over the hollow, and the young man did not like the phrase"third party." It sounded like too much complication in a life that was difficult enough when it was simple. Nagai turned fully towards the pair.

"You survived what killed veteran men. You brought proof. You returned instead of just vanishing. This is courage, whether born from discipline, vengeance, or just lack of better choices." Shimon somehow felt personally attacked by the last one. The retainer continued.

"My lord rewards useful courage. I recommend brave men to him." Tarō bowed low.

"You honor us." Shimon hastily bowed, too just as the orange screen opened. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. [QUEST UPDATE] Hunt the Yōma Objective: Join a hunting party clearing routed soldiers and yōma drawn to the Konodai battlefield. Investigate reported activity and bring proof of yōma slain [Completed] Optional Objective 1: Identify source of yōma activity. [Partial] Optional Objective 2: Rescue surviving non-hostiles.

[Failed] Optional Objective 3: Acquire proof of guild recognition. [Pending] Local Reputation Increased. Reward pending. Shimon stared at "partial" and hated it with the particular hatred of a player who knows a quest chain has not ended. However, a part of him really, really wanted to keep it at "partial." They remained at the hollow until the flames had done enough that the priests were satisfied. The dead would not be buried there.

Instead, some ash and bone would be gathered later, the Buddhist priest explained. But for now, the fire and rites was all the dead had to help them on their next journey on samsara. As they left, Shimon looked back once and for a second, he could almost believe that the fire had erased what happened there. Then a crow landed on a branch above the camp and reminded him that nothing was ever fully erased. Only processed by something else.

The journey back to the village and then toward the castle town passed in fragments. Villagers stared as the party emerged from the forest. Some bowed, some made signs with their hands, and one woman began crying when she saw the proof sacks upon the litter now dragged by the coolies. Shimon did not know whether from fear, relief, or simply at the sight of men returning where others had not.

Master Hieda spoke with the headman, Nagai sent riders ahead, and the shrine priest tied fresh paper charms to the boundary rope. The Buddhist priest remained a little apart, washing his hands again and again with water poured by his acolyte. Shimon was given water. He drank too quickly, nearly choked, and then drank more slowly under Tarō's warning look. They did not stop here long. The rat catcher once the rats were gone was never welcome. So, the larger party moved westward along the road toward the castle town.

The sky had begun to change as evening came closer, clouds gathering in the colorless way that promised cold rain. Master Hieda was now seated upon his fine traveling chair, borne upon the backs of strong men. Nagai walked part of the way rather than ride, which the lost young man suspected was part of the performance officers had engaged in since the dawn of time. Solidarity with the common rank and file. Tarō walked beside Shimon and for a while, the two survivors said nothing. Then Tarō spoke.

"When they ask, speak little."

"That is growing to be my specialty," Ayanokouji scoffed. Tarō glanced at him, not understanding the weak joke for what it was, but recognizing the attempt at something.

"Say what happened. Do not make it bigger. Do not make it smaller. Great men dislike both. And do not say strange things," he offered, hissing at the last part. After a moment, Shimon said, "I will try." The ronin grunted, his ration of words used for now. The rest would be taken up by his grief, or by the thoughts in his head. The castle town was louder than Shimon remembered from that morning. Market stalls were being shut. Dogs barked and children were pulled indoors as the armed party passed.

A pair of monks near a roadside shrine bowed to the Buddhist priest and then looked sharply at Shimon, as if some smell of spiritual clung to him. Perhaps I do smell, the former pro e-sports gamer thought to himself. Instead of being taken directly to the castle, Shimon and Tarō were escorted to a ryokan within the castle town, an inn finer than anything Shimon had expected. It had a wooden gate, paper lanterns, a narrow courtyard with stones arranged in deliberate simplicity.

There were also servants who looked alarmed when they saw the condition of the guests, but trained well enough to hide it quickly.

"Bath," Master Hieda demanded, as if issuing a military command.

"Clothes. Food. Then sleep. You will be presented when summoned."

"To the lord?" Tarō asked.

"To the lord," came the fat man's curt reply. Tarō bowed and Shimon bowed too, a fraction slightly late. The bath nearly broke him. It was not modern. There were no white tiles, no plastic bottles, no temperature controls, no shower head delivering endless hot water. There was a washing area, wooden buckets, steam, and a very large tub that could have drowned a large family that smelled faintly of cedar. Servants brought hot water, and others took away their ruined outer garments.

Shimon washed blood from his hands and discovered that some of it had entered the lines of his skin so deeply that it seemed reluctant to leave. He scrubbed until his fingers hurt. The water in the tub was hot. Actually hot, and for one irrational second, he nearly cried. Tarō slowly lowered himself into the water with a hiss and closed his eyes. Bruises had begun to darken across his ribs and shoulder. The wound at his scalp had been cleaned and bound.

Without armor, he looked younger and smaller than he had in the forest. Shimon let himself sink into the heat and felt his body remember that being alive could include sensations not immediately connected to fear and pain. Shimon closed his eyes.

"Mochi," he whispered. Tarō did not open his eyes.

"You speak to yourself a lot. Or, perhaps the spirits." The young man cricked his neck, feeling the stress from between his shoulder blades loosen a fraction.

"Yes," he supplied.

"Do they answer, the spirits?" the other man inquired. Shimon thought of the eye.

"Unfortunately, sometimes they do," he replied, causing Tarō to open one eye. Shimon looked away.

"Joke."

"Bad joke."

"Yes," the gamer shrugged indifferently. After the bath came clothing. Nothing grand, but clean and functional for their purpose. A dark kosode, a plain hakama, an underlayer that did not smell of death, and a belt suitable for his swords. His armor was taken away to be cleaned, inspected, and repaired. Shimon had a brief moment of panic at being separated from it before realizing that wanting to keep stinking armor in the bath were not the thoughts of a sane man.

The swords, however, were returned to him cleaned and polished. Food came next. Rice, soup, pickled vegetables, grilled fish, and something sweet made from beans. And, after that, the payment arrived after dark. Master Hieda came with the Za official from the market, the same broad man who had stood on the barrel and shouted men toward death. He looked much less cheerful indoors. With them came Nagai Morichika and a clerk carrying a box. The proof had been accepted.

The heads of routed enemies, the yōma teeth, and the monstrous head of Sakurai Iori, which had all caused quite a stir. Coins were counted before them. More than Shimon had yet held in this world. Strings of them, small and large, copper and silver-colored, some stamped differently. To Shimon, it looked like an amount of money large enough to set him up nicely. To Tarō, judging by his expression, it looked like a future that had arrived missing half its owner.

"Bounty for three yōma," the clerk said.

"Bounty for enemy heads, hazard addition by order of Nagai-sama, and a discretionary commendation by Master Hieda. Less contract witness fee, but inn and clothing advance, waived by order of Nagai-sama."

"Waived?" Shimon repeated before he could stop himself. The clerk looked at him as if he had asked why rain was wet. Nagai said, "You will not be charged for washing yōma blood from your hair before meeting our lord."

"Thank you," Shimon said gratefully, choosing the safest answer. The money was divided. Tarō received Jirō's share as next of kin after the clerk asked about family. Kuroda and Mizuno's shares would be held for claimants or by the Za if none came forward. Shimon received his portion in a weight of coin that made his sleeve sag. [REWARD RECEIVED] Coin acquired. Experience awarded: 35. Local Reputation Increased. Adventurer's Za Recognition (Acquire proof of guild recognition): Pending formal entry.

Exp: 28/172 Congratulations, you have advanced to the next level. You have been assigned advancement points: 3 Attribute Points and 1 Skill Point. Bonus points awarded for completing all quest objectives: 1 Attribute Point and 1 Skill Point. [All advancement and bonus points must be spent within 20 minutes or they will be randomly assigned.]