"So, you're saying you sent your Shikigami ahead to scout the town...?" Gabimaru asked as they dashed forward through the night.
A bite of lingering cold hung in the air as they ran beneath the moonlight. Silver beams flickered through the dense canopy, glinting off the polished edges of their drawn blades with every silent stride.
'Neko?' Shion pictured Inoue's cat form for a brief moment.
"Yeah... and from what he's gathered, it's closer to a curse than a standard Yōkai," Yorimitsu replied. His voice carried effortlessly over the rushing wind as he leapt from one thick tree branch, landing gracefully onto the next. "It's been devouring every spirit in the vicinity, but lately, it's begun taking the town's children as well."
"The town's children." Watanabe mummed, his head turning to face the moon.
Yorimitsu shifted his gaze back momentarily, taking in the formation behind him. Shion and Gabimaru trailed a few paces back, while Watanabe kept pace directly by his side.
'Mmm... I understand why Shion is lagging slightly behind carrying our equipment inside her shadow makes her physical body much heavier,' Yorimitsu silently noted, his eyes narrowing as his focus shifted to the boy beside her. 'But what is going on with Gabimaru? His Reiryoku is flickering uncontrollably... One moment it feels completely depleted, like that of an ordinary human, and the next, it flares up so violently it nearly eclipses my own, not that I think about it must be because of that marking that was placed on him last time. What exactly is that sorcery'
Watanabe's head tilted back towards the rest of the group. 'The captain did tell us to rest during the afternoon while it was still safe... but it seems none of us was actually able to sleep,' Watanabe thought, his knuckles turning white as his hands tightened into rigid fists. The harrowing memories of what had transpired back in the previous town flooded his mind once more, burning with unvented frustration.
'I know something horrible happened in that town... Ever since I received the blessing from that Ubume spirit, I can hear them... the lingering cries of the damned. And that old woman... she had the most sorrowful voice I have ever heard in my life.' His pace slowed down.
"Look out, Watanabe!" Yorimitsu shouted.
The sharp warning snapped Watanabe out of his spiralling thoughts just in time for him to twist his body mid-air, narrowly dodging a thick, protruding tree branch.
Yorimitsu leapt down from the high canopy, landing firmly on the forest floor below.
"Focus!" Yorimitsu barked, his commanding voice booming through the dark woods. "We don't have time to lose track of our surroundings! People die if we lose our concentration!"
The sharp reprimand acted like a cold bucket of water, causing both Watanabe and Gabimaru's eyes to snap wide with renewed focus.
"I know that you may have your own situation, but keep them at bay till we are done, tray thought can get you killed!"
"Yes, Captain!" they responded in unison.
…
Meanwhile, back in the Rokuhara district, absolute chaos had erupted.
Every single child under the age of ten had vanished without a trace. Desperate mothers, grandmothers, and older brothers flooded the rain-slicked dirt streets, their panicked voices calling out into the gloom, but no answer came from the dark.
"Shizune...!"
"Sashimaru...!"
"Orami...!"
The weeping cries of the parents echoed through the relentless downpour as torrents of water churned through the alleyways, already rising ankle-deep against their legs.
"Tch... I heard a rumour..." a passing villager chimed in, his voice shaking.
"What? What did you hear?!" another demanded, grabbing his collar.
"About that creature... a monster that can mimic human voices. It must have taken them!"
"Tch! What the hell are you talking about?!" a shopkeeper roared back in denial. "There can't be any monsters here! We are protected, remember?! The shrine! We did exactly what that travelling monk told us to do. There aren't supposed to be any Yōkai left in our town!"
Mixed amongst the crowd was a man with a black covering against his head while others cried whipped; he stood there smiling, and his voice muttered low.
"Yes, that is how it should be: cry, panic, be angry, blame each other; all those negative emotions are needed to make that thing grow stronger. Hehe Hehe, she is sure to be happy with this, I am sure." The figure whispered, his head snapping in the direction that Inoue was moving towards.
"Ohh, what this…"
…
"Oh... so that's how it is," Inoue muttered, shaking his head. "Tch. This is why fools shouldn't dabble in spiritual affairs they don't understand. If you aren't careful, even the holy thing you conjure to protect you will turn around and devour you."
Inoue stood perched atop the roof of a broken, dilapidated shrine. Scattered across the altar below were cracked charm tags, spilt bottles of ceremonial sake, and a crude wooden knife plastered onto the weathered wall with dried blood. He stared over the direction that had placed the fainted Sanju-maru, then back to the shrine.
"Mmm, I see," Yorimitsu replied through their mental link as he bounded through the trees. "So you're telling me that someone set up a shrine and birthed a Shinigami from the villagers' desperate faith? And now, this creation has grown so powerful that it has grown its own Ego?"
"That is the core of it, Master, though there is another layer to its frenzy," Inoue reported, his ears twitching. "I gathered that many of the town's men have been away working the far fields for months. With fewer people living in the district, fewer spirits are born, and fewer mortals remain to offer prayers at the shrine. The entity became starved... and in its desperation, it turned to an extreme source of sustenance: the children."
"Mmm. Understood. We are close," Yorimitsu noted, his eyes glowing in the dark as his speed picked up. "Within the span of an incense stick, we will arrive."
"Understood, Master," Inoue responded.
Ending the connection, Inoue leapt down into the shadow of the broken shrine, his twin cat tails fanning out as they emitted a soft, swirling dust of sparkling spiritual energy.