Yokai: Winds of the Yakuri

Konomi charged the soldiers. As she got closer, the four soldiers quickly fanned out to try and overwhelm her. Their katanas were held upward to chop down, footsoldiers. Only good for firewood. Konomi stopped and slashed her Kama-Yari from right to left to keep them at a distance. The first soldier quickly broght his blade to the left side of his head to block. Releasing her left hand, Konomi made a much weaker swipe with just her right, this time going back from left to right. The soldier blocked with more power this time, trying to knock her off balance. Konomi quickly tossed out a firecracker. The resulting flash blinded the footsoldiers and Konomi swung around with the butt of her weapon. It tripped the soldiers on the left and Konomi quickly followed up with her kaiken. Before it plunged into the soldier’s neck, she heard Sato shouting. Konomi’s eyes flashed up just in time to see an archer loose his arrow. She quickly rolled to the left as the heavy shaft flew past and destroyed the tree behind her. Konomi stared in shock at the destruction the arrow had caused. The archer stepped out from his hiding place. His bow was giant, nearly taller than him. He hoisted a heavy arrow back into the twine. Konomi blocked an incoming attack from the foot soldiers while keeping her eyes on the archer. She quickly paced back, keeping the four soldiers in front of her. They moved like a line, coming closer together and being pushed back just the same. Another flash would disoriate them. Maikubi-smoke would lose them, but that archer. His brows were furrowed, his arms were taunt. He stood just waiting with his long bow. She would need something better for him. 

Konomi brought both hands onto her spear. She swung the bladed tip, keeping the weight of the weapon close to her. The soldiers used basic blocks against her weapon. They would adjust the weight of their katana down before bringing it back up to their right ear. A slow process. However, to take down one, Konomi would need to keep them separate. Konomi glided past one of the soldier’s chops, coming to the back side of the group. Instantly, she heard the heavy bend of the archer’s bow. She let the Kama-Yari slide through her hands and caught it at the very end. Using it’s full weight, she latched the hook of the spear onto one of the soldier’s chest armor. It wasn’t strong enough to piece through his skin, but as Konomi swung her whole weight into the turn, she brought the soldier out of his line. She spun the dazed man in a circle, now blocking the archer with his own man. Unable to restrain such a mighty bow, the archer was forced to loose his arrow once again. It flew with terrible speed. Crushing through the mast of Sato’s ship. There was no going home. 

Konomi grabbed one of the hornet darts from her obi and jammed it into the soldier’s back. He began to charge forward, still trapped on her spear. She used her spear to steer the yowling soldier towards his archer friend. As he neared, the archer swung his heavy bow around to knock his own soldier to the side. The weight of the man was more than Konomi could hold; she quickly let go of the now limp weight and rushed the archer with her kaiken. He swung his heavy bow around, but the much faster and lighter Konomi slid under it. His strikes hit like a mountain. When the but of his long bow hit the earth, snow and dirt flew like an earthquake. However, each blow took time to prep. As soon as the bow struck the earth, Konomi leapt over it. Her narrow kaiken flashed into the gray light. The archer brought his left arm up. Her blade buried itself into his thick forearm skin. With a shout of pain, the archer jerked his arm down, causing Konomi to lose her balance as she clung to the knife. She quickly pried it free but not in time to stop his blow from slamming into her stomach. Konomi slid her kaiken down at the archer’s wrist but missed as she was thrown back. She rolled back some distance to her Kama-Yari. Standing, the straw-hat ronshin felt blood pooling out of her mouth. Her organs had taken a beating. The foot soldier had begun to reawaken. Konomi slid her long spear out from his armor before kicking the back of his head. The archer went for his bow; he quickly nocked an arrow, but Konomi stood tall. As his bow began to bend from the incredible weight, there was a snapping sound. He looked down to see a thin line in the heavy twine. Konomi smiled with blood on her teeth. The great bow snapped from the string and the arrow went flying into the air. Konomi began to charge when suddenly snow whipped in front of her eyes. A heavy blizzard obscured her vision. Snow flew like shuriken and the ronshin was forced to guard her eyes and face. She pulled the Maikubi-bomb from her obi and threw it into the wind. It took a moment but finally there was an explosion. The blizzard stopped in an instant and Komoni could see clearly. There floating above the archer was a powerful winter spirit. A Yuki-onna. Her long, ghostly kimono glided behind her like it was suspended in water. Her lower body was completely invisible, and her waist was nearly incorporeal, bathed in a soft blue light. She hovered above the archer, bringing more gray snow with her. Then another blizzard began. Konomi rushed at the winter spirit. She shouted in rage as the winds whipped all around her. Then, in a flash, the snow was gone. So too were the soldiers and any chance of finding what happened to her father. Konomi stabbed the ground with her long spear and spat blood on the ground. Frothing would not help. She surveyed the battlefield, but it was covered in snow. She sighed and began to walk back towards the pier when something caught her eye. Half-burnt an incicle remained on the ground. Konomi smiled as she walked up to it. 

“What was that?” Sato’s voice called as he walked out on the fresh snow. 

“It seems the locals are beguiled by a Yuki-onna.” Konomi picked up the icicle and dusted it off. Despite the warmth of her wrapped hands, no water formed. 

“Our boat is wrecked; it’ll take me weeks to repair it.” 

“We can find another one; first we need to find out what happened here.” Sato walked up behind her at the now frozen fireplace. 

“You think you can kill that thing?” 

“Hold this,” Konomi handed him the icicle. Sato quickly tossed it between his hands, trying to relieve the sudden cold. 

“What is it?” 

“An answer; keep looking at it.” Sato stood, staring at the icicle as Konomi walked into the small hut the archer had been in. It has a fireplace, which had been quickly doused. There was a short desk with scrapes of paper. Strange Kanji was written on it. Konomi held up the parchment, trying to guess its meaning. 

“Is there something inside this thing?” Sato asked. Konomi rifled through the writing materials until she came to what she was looking for. Amagawa ink. From the royal palace in Tokiwa. She took the stamped ink bottle and slid it into her kimono. There were other papers. One caught her eye. It had the symbol Konomi knew well: “Ronshin.” She quickly scanned down the hastily inked letter. It was an unsent message to the Tokiwa shogunate. Konomi took the letter and ink and walked back out into the gray light. Sato’s vision had become fixed on the icicle. Blue began to swirl in his pupils as the ice took form. A long white kimono, pale ghostly skin, and silky black hair. She grew too large for his hand and Sato quickly stepped back as the Tsurara-onna fell to the ground. Her legs were injured and she struggled weakly on the ground. Tears spilled from her eyes and soft sounds came from her mouth as she tried to get away. Sato’s eyes were wide. 

“What is that?” 

“A Tsurara-onna, usually harmless but in our case, a spy.” The Tsurara-onna shook her head weakly and up her sleeved arms in protest. Her mouth moved but only clicks and whispers came out. Dark tears ran down, ruining the painted shadows around her eyes. Sato watched as Konomi drew out her kaiken. The yokai began to plead, throwing her head onto the ground and reaching for Konomi’s feet. The Ronshin hoisted her up by her long hair, bringing the dagger to her neck. The yokai clasped her hands together, shaking them feverishly. Bubbling clicks and tears were the only sound she made. 

“There was a Ronshin brought here; what happened to him?” Konomi pointed to her hat. The Tsurara-onna was hysteric; she continued to shake her head in a despearte plea as tears ran down her face. Konomi yanked her hair to the side. 

“There was a Ronshin here! What happened to him?” Her voice grew louder as she dug her nails into the yokai’s scalp. The Tsurara-onna only begged with her hands held together. Konomi threw her to the ground, landing a heavy kick into her lower ribs. Instinctively, the Tsurara-onna tried to cover her stomach only for Konomi to kick her chin, throwing her head back. 

“A tall man wearing this hat!” Konomi shouted down at the struggling yokai. The creature’s slender arms tried weakly to cover its face. Konomi stabbed her spear behind it, causing the yokai to cease its scampering. She reached down, picking up the lithe Tsurara-onna by its neck. Her kaiken pressed against its breast. The creature just murmered and clicked, terrified. Realization spread across Konomi’s eyes. She laughed and shook her head. 

“You can’t speak, can you.” Seeing the kindness of her tone, the Tsurara-onna stopped crying. Its blue eyes locked onto Konomi’s trying to hold back its tears. Konomi smirked and sighed. Before she could jam the kaiken into its neck, Sato suddenly stopped her by looping his arm through hers before she could stab. Konomi looked back at the pilot, glaring daggers into his neck. 

“Wait,” 

“Did I not just say a Yuki-onna was beguiling the soldiers? Now you want to be beguiled by one of her concubines?” 

“I’m not beguiled!” Sato shook his head resolutely. “I’m thinking only practically. She can’t understand our language, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know something. My mother was mute; perhaps I can try to learn something from her.” Konomi weighed his words against the slender neck of the Tsurara-onna. She toyed with the blade before a sour scowl went across her face. The pilot was right. And Konomi hated to admit it. The letter would only tell them where the men were. It would give her no clues about where they were now. She stepped back, releasing the yokai. It fell onto the snowy ground before them weeping and covering its head. It looked up at them and bowed its face into the snow three times. Konomi turned away from the pathetic thing, looking at the snow around them. Night would be coming soon. They couldn’t stay here. 

The pilot dumped another stack of freshly cut wood onto the fire. It clattered for a moment before igniting. He kicked one of the sticks that nearly fell out from the pit back inside. Konomi waited at the edge of the light. Her eyes scanned the fresh snow. The endless gray was illuminated by an incredibly strong moonlight. Blue shown off the heavy snow, like waves on an ocean. The plains were empty, save a lone stag that stood baying into the wind. Konomi turned back to their lodging. A collapsed tree made for a good place to hide. There was nothing they could do about their footprints and the smoke, but Konomi hoped they saw however was coming first. 

Sato sat down across from the Tsurara-onna. They agreed to tie her hands, not that it meant much. So long as the yokai was alive, it was a stain on her master’s honor. Komoni sat down on an overturned log and drew a whetstone out from her obi. She began to work on the head of her Kama-Yari. Sato produced some jerky from a plain cloth. 

“Do you think she’s hungry?” Sato looked at the yokai. Konomi stopped grinding the tip of her blade for a moment. She considered all the possible things she could say in this moment. Then scowling, she shook her head. 

“You shouldn’t encourage her; Tsurara-onna usually marry the man that summons them.” 

“Summon?” 

“Tsurara-onna are lonely ice spirits frozen into icicles. If they aren’t found, they melt, but if they are, it is said the longing gaze of a man can bring them to life.” Sato shook his head. He held out of the dried fish to the yokai.

“I have a wife.” His voice was slow and choppy, like he was speaking to a child. Konomi rolled her eyes and continued to sharpen her blade. The baying stag droned on. The Tsurara-onna smiled warmly and took the food. She opened her mouth wide and, with one motion, at the entire fish. Then, feeling Sato’s strong gaze, she blushed and covered her face. Sato laughed jovially. 

“I hope my baby eats that well!” Seeing his happiness, the Tsurara-onna clapped her bound hands. 

“You’re as noisy as that stag.” Konomi groaned. The pilot nestled back into a grove in the overturned tree. He bundled up, tucking his face into the fox-pelt scarf he wore. The three sat as the fire continued to burn. A cold silence had fallen upon the frozen landscape. Konomi glanced up from her work at a small group of lights moving across the frozen plains. She narrowed her eyes, trying to see what they were. 

“Relax,” Sato said gently. “They’re Kō-nu.” 

“Hunters?” 

“Not from Tokiwa. They live in the snow here. They must be after that stag you mentioned.” Konomi watched the small group cross a ridge as they came down into the deep snow valley.

“Are they friendly?” 

“They trade with us. Usually steel for pelts or food. I don’t know what they think about all this fighting.” Konomi continued to stare at their small white torches as they moved across the snow with ease. “They’re big. With beards like I’ve never seen.” Sato motioned to his chin with a broad, sweeping motion. 

Konomi nodded. The group was nearing a ridge. They went over the side and their small lights disappeared. Konomi made one last look around the camp. The Tsurara-onna was lying in the snow. Her blue eyes watched Konomi. Her fear brought the Ronshin great pleasure. The pilot would sleep soon. Konomi took out the letter. It was written with great detail by a skilled author. The letter started off with a series of platitudes and thanks. Worthless drovel. Then the author wrote about something useful. It was a request about a straw-hat Ronshin. It seems Mastaku wasn’t hired by the emperor. According to the letter, he was disrupting their way of life further. Further? This wasn’t the first letter. Konomi skipped along to the end. They were once again requesting no further Ronshin be sent and instead requesting to pay off the straw-hat Ronshin to leave. Strange. Likely due to the Yuki-onna’s influence, but odd behavior indeed. They requested no further Ronshin meaning that the Shogunate had already dispatched one. This other Ronshin might prove to be useful if he hadn’t already frozen. 

As she settled back, Konomi kicked one of the embers towards the Tsurara-onna. She watched the yokai startled to wake and rush to bury herself in the snow before more of her melted. The Tsurara-onna’s fearful eyes watching Konomi with terror gave the straw-hat enough peace to rest until sunrise. 

Or whatever counted for sunrise on the frozen north island. The sky went from a hazy blue to a hazy orange. Konomi opened her frozen eyelids. She brushed frost from her kimono and stood above the weak fire. The black embers coaked warmth back into her fingers. She squatted by the warmth as the long gray skis slowly warmed. Sato walked up to the fire and gently placed his frozen scarf next to the flames. It stood upright on its side. Only the Tsurara-onna seemed happy to sleep more in the snow. 

“What’s our heading?” Sato rubbed his hands together, trying to get some warmth back into them. 

“Seems the Shogunate sent a Ronshin here. If there’s a Yuki-onna perhaps he knows something about it.” 

“How do we find a Ronshin in all this snow?” Sato looked out at the endless drifts around them. The white ground glittered with weak sunlight but offered nothing but obscurity. 

“If you want to catch a Kuro bōzu you bring a fat man for it to feed on. If you want to catch a ronshin,” Konomi looked down at the sleeping Tsurara-onna in the snow. “You bring a yokai.” 

Konomi pulled the rest of the tree down with her Kama-Yari. The old oak had been frozen in the snow for far too long. Its rotten wood might not hold up. Sato fed fishing line through holes in it to make the netting. 

“It’s not perfect." He held up the first makeshift snowshoe. He slid it under his sandals and pressed down on the matted snow around the pier. Konomi took a long branch and ran her hands over it. The wood was soaked. 

“How do you usually find these Kō-nu?” 

“They find us. When a ship rolls in, they come out with their wares.” Konomi nodded firmly. Her hazy eyes watched the Tsurara-onna frolicking in the snow. The yokai splashed and dashed around in the drifts like they were spring rain. She would leap and fall into the powder only to roll out covered in white fluff. 

“How are you going to get a Ronshin from her? She looks like a puppy dog.” Sato remarked as he whittled off the end of his next shoe. 

“I imagine we give her a knife and let her run amok in some settlement for a day or two.” The Tsurara-onna popped out of one particularly big drift with snow still in her mouth. She smiled widely and danced around. Sato and Konomi stared at her for a while. Then Sato went back to his work. 

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Sato finished his shoes and stepped out onto the deeper snow. He didn’t sink, much, which was progress. The snow was getting worse though. These shoes would need to hold out long enough for them to find the real settlement. 

“Let’s go,” Konomi began to walk out into the snow. Flakes whipped past. It was getting colder despite the sun. They should move. 

The wind had gotten worse. Snow began to rush past as Konomi searched the endless white for any tracks. The pilot was hunkered down behind a small hill, trying to avoid the howling winds. The usual hyperactive Tsurara-onna was uncharacteristically quiet. The ice yokai followed behind Sato at a close distance, keeping her eyes on the howling winds. Something was off. The cold winds battered against Konomi’s face. There in the white darkness was something else. It appeared first as glowing blue eyes. The hovered about head height above the ground. Konomi drew her blade as the rest of the ghost’s body formed. It was just the shadow of a man. With glowing blue eyes like fire and no body to be seen. The Tsurara-onna clicked in fear and Sato had to yank her back as she tried to run. Konomi had never seen a yokai like this. And as two spectral wolves formed beside it she hoped she never saw one again.