Morning came.

  Uzu was the first to wake.

  Soon after, the others stirred. Kurenai had already slipped away to wash.

  Leborgne groaned at the light.

  Ku busied herself preparing breakfast.

  Then a sharp cry echoed from the riverbank.

  Ku and Uzu rushed toward the sound.

  Leborgne stayed where he was.

  Those weren’t cries of fear.

  They were the sounds of someone fighting.

  “She can handle herself,” he muttered.

  By the time the others arrived, Kurenai stood ankle-deep in the river, loosing arrow after arrow into the water.

  “Bunagayabi!” she snarled.

  “Are you hurt?” Uzu asked.

  “That damned yokai burned my foot.”

  Ku stepped forward instinctively.

  “Stay back,” Kurenai warned.

  Leborgne approached slowly.

  “What exactly are you doing?”

  “Trying to kill it.”

  “With a bow?”

  Uzu cleared his throat.

  “Human weapons cannot kill a yokai. With very few exceptions.”

  Kurenai rolled her eyes.

  ---

  They resumed their journey.

  Uzu explained the Bunagayabi, nearly invisible in rivers, and the Bakeneko, a cat with long claws capable of starting fires.

  Leborgne listened, pretending not to.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Ku walked close beside him.

  They reached a forest known for its absence of Kodama.

  The air felt wrong.

  Heavy. Silent.

  “The source is here,” Uzu said quietly. “Can you feel it?”

  Kurenai scoffed.

  “I’m not afraid of a few Akumas.”

  “Except the river ones,” Uzu whispered to Ku.

  She smiled.

  Then something crashed through the trees.

  A Haradashi leapt forward, grotesque and grinning.

  “Charming,” Kurenai muttered.

  The ground trembled.

  A monstrous creature burst from the undergrowth — half cow, half spider.

  It struck Leborgne first.

  He shielded Ku with his body before the blow sent him sprawling.

  Ku caught him and deployed her wave.

  Uzu and Kurenai attacked from both sides.

  Their blades struck vital points.

  Nothing.

  The exoskeleton absorbed every blow.

  Ku dragged Leborgne into a hollow tree to keep him safe.

  When she returned, Kurenai forced her into the front line.

  Ku immobilized one of the creature’s legs with her wave.

  Her blade shattered against its shell.

  They began to tire.

  Then—

  Hundreds of blades erupted into existence.

  They spiraled around the Oni like a storm.

  Each leg was severed cleanly.

  The blades converged, fusing into a single colossal sword that drove straight through the creature’s body.

  Silence fell.

  The massive blade shrank, splitting into four normal-sized swords before flying back toward Leborgne.

  Beside him stood a small creature of fur and round shape.

  Kurenai crossed her arms.

  “I could have finished it.”

  Uzu turned to Leborgne.

  “How did you manage that?”

  “I attacked.”

  “Normal blades cannot harm an Oni like that.”

  Leborgne glanced at the furred creature.

  “Mine aren’t normal.”

  The creature transformed—

  Back into the masked child from the tournament.

  “I helped,” he said casually. “He only needed to touch me to amplify his weapon.”

  Kurenai raised her bow.

  “You again.”

  “And you’re still unpleasant.”

  “Careful.”

  Leborgne sighed.

  “He’s with me.”

  “I am a Kijimuna,” the boy said proudly. “An Oni.”

  “That explains your face,” Kurenai replied.

  “Enough,” Leborgne said.

  Uzu stepped forward.

  “My name is Uzu. This is Kurenai. And Ku. You’ve already met Leborgne.”

  The boy smiled faintly.

  Ku’s eyes lit up.

  “You’re the child from the arena.”

  “And older than you think,” he replied.

  “How old?” she asked.

  “Over two hundred years.”

  Ku blinked.

  “Impossible.”

  “I remained within a source for a year.”

  Leborgne folded his arms.

  “That is not how sources work.”

  Uzu nodded.

  “The duration of a source’s effects remains consistent for the individual. If it lasts two months once, it will always last two months.”

  The Oni clicked his tongue.

  “You humans love ruining dramatic moments.”

  ---

  They finally found the source.

  This one protected against corruption and memory manipulation.

  One of the mysterious three.

  Its effects came through visions.

  Leborgne had always refused to enter any source.

  This time, under pressure, he stepped forward.

  The water recoiled.

  As if recognizing him.

  As if refusing him.

  Kurenai smirked.

  “Afraid?”

  He stepped further.

  The water parted around him.

  Ku focused her wave, formed a sphere of water, and dropped it over his head.

  For the first time—

  Leborgne felt water.

  Cold. Soft. Real.

  The entire source began to boil without changing temperature.

  A faint red glow flickered beneath the surface.

  Then—

  Stillness.

  The water no longer rejected him.

  It accepted him.

  Kurenai laughed.

  “See? Reconciled.”

  Leborgne moved deeper.

  An unseen force pulled him toward Ku.

  Their eyes locked.

  Then—

  A violent current dragged him downward.

  He vanished.

  Ku screamed his name.

  Ten minutes passed.

  Then twenty.

  He did not resurface.

  They dove.

  Nothing.

  An hour.

  Two.

  Kurenai turned to the Oni.

  “This is your doing.”

  “Why would I?” he replied calmly. “For ransom? For friendship? I have neither family nor interest in eating him. And if I did, he would taste bitter.”

  His honesty unsettled Uzu.

  Two days passed.

  Leborgne did not return.

  The Oni stayed with them.

  He watched Ku carefully.

  And though he would never admit it, he had grown attached to Leborgne.

  Ku named him properly that day.

  Kiji.

  Kurenai suggested they move on.

  Ku refused.

  So did Uzu.

  They would not abandon him.

  In the heavy silence of waiting, something invisible began to bind them together.

  Human and yokai.

  Something deeper than circumstance.

  Something none of them yet understood.