A Fox's Whisper

13: Ҝ卂乙ㄩ卄卂

I felt as if I were being watched. Unseen eyes tracked my every movement...always watching. The wind whispered urgently in my ear, and silent warnings brushed anxiously about my mind. After what I'd heard the ronin mutter to himself the night before, I had no lenience to let my guard down.

My wounds had healed completely due to the draught Legion had given me. I wondered what it had been made of to have such healing properties, though I thought it best not to ask.

As I walked behind Legion, I stayed alert, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling with every unusual noise and movement. I remembered feeling such a way when I'd traveled with Haru, always having to stay vigilant for the ever-present dangers that followed us. I wondered if Legion noticed it too. If he did, there was no visible intonation that he cared.

"Kaedehara Kazuha..." Legion said, his long strides slowing as he glanced over his shoulder at me. I looked up upon hearing my name. "You seem knowledgeable in the ways of life," he stated. It was difficult for me to understand him, between his slurred, raspy words and the mask.

"I have become quite attuned to it, yes."
I thought his next question would be rank with darkness or menacious undertones would seep through the surface like venom.

I was taken by surprise when he said, "Then is Tatarasuna a territory frequented by yokai?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Well...yes, it is."
The Enenra was proof of that, as well as those monkey-dog yokai. "Yokai are drawn to elemental energy. Tatarasuna is drowning in it."

Legion slowed further so we walked side by side. The garish colors of his mask seemed dull in the shadows of the forest, its hollow eyes always unseeing and yet all the same... observant.

"Tell me more about the yokai you battled yesterday," Legion said.

So I slowly recounted what they'd looked like, their movements and mannerisms when they attacked, and how they had the ability to mimic anyone's voice, including the cold one from before. I shivered just remembering it.
Having seen no record of their prior existence made the information I relayed seem brittle and incomplete.

Legion didn't ask further questions about those strange yokai, nor did he appear remotely interested in any further observations. "What other yokai reside here, aside from those and the Enenra?" He asked.

My brows furrowed as I thought for a moment. Why was he suddenly so concerned about yokai? Never once had he so much as mentioned caring about them. Then I remembered Haru mentioning Legion's entire reason for heading to the Shrine had to do with his search for 'answers.' Answers to what?
For the number of questions he asked were indeed numerous.

The ronin most definitely was not someone who studied yokai as some scholars did, intent on uncovering their mysterious, mystifying ways. And he didn't seem inclined to look for them on purpose.

"Yamauba like it here because of the forests and mountains," I said. The yokai I was referring to took on the form of an old hag, pretending to be kind but then taking advantage of their victims through theft and other such horrid things. "Amanojaku tend to live further inland. They're a sort of goblin yokai, though it's rare that you'll ever see them."
Amanojaku provoked a person's darkest desires, instigating them into committing the wickedest of deeds.

I named a few more yokai, each one devious and inclined to trick and ruin the lives of those naive or ignorant enough to come across them. I felt a sense of worry sneak over me at the possibility of Inari, Sora, or Haru encountering any of the yokai. It had been troublesome enough with the Enenra and the monkey-dog yokai, but any one of the other creatures I'd named could be deadly enough in their own right. I could only hope that Inari, something of a yokai herself, would see through whatever guise would be presented before them, were that the case.