The Cursed (Yokai Watch)

Chapter IV: Lost

Once night fell, the trio chose to make camp away from the road, off in the cover of the woods where their chances of discovery by a nighttime passerby would be slim. Originally, Fumi agreed with the logic of this plan, however, now she wished she'd made an objection. Her body was already sore from walking in her uncomfortable wooden sandals, but the hard, lumpy ground upon which she slept made the pain in her aching limbs feel downright excruciating. Swarms of merciless, biting insects filled the humid air, and left massive itching welts in their wake. Her kosode and knee-length jeans beneath it gave the bugs free access to her legs, and if they weren't dining upon her lower limbs, they were making a meal of her face and scalp. She never realized how grateful she was for insect repellent. What she would have given in that moment to have such a luxury.

"Kagero," she whispered to the shadow spirit as she slapped at a mosquito buzzing past her ear. "Kagero, help me, what do I do?"

There was a rustle of maple leaves from above Fumi's head. She looked up to see Kagero peeing down at her from the lowest bough, his red scarf flapping in the breeze.

"Huh, what?" He sounded confused and tired.

"The bugs," she hissed, trying not to wake Muramasa, present only as a dark lump of clothing curled up against the base of another maple. "They are biting me all over, and keep flying up the skirt of this stupid outfit. What do I do?"

"I don't know." He yawned around his words. "I'm a yokai, they don't bother going after me."

Fumi groaned, feeling a new welt rising on her elbow. She scratched at it with such ferocity that her skin tore.

"This is ridiculous." Panic crept into her voice while tears began to condense at the corners of her eyes. "I can't do this, why did I ever think I could do this?"

It was almost comical that she had thought this quest, this bizarre trek through a land miles and ages away from home, would have been easy. Walk cheerfully through the countryside with her crabby guardian and his cheerful former toady, meet all sorts of interesting folk from days gone by, kill Muramasa's mysterious adversary (thus freeing him from the shackles of his evil curse!), and send her homeward bound before anyone even realized she was missing! What a joke. Perhaps it was the hot, moonless night, or perhaps the fatigue, but it suddenly dawned upon her that the world around her was unforgiving.

She let herself cry, sobs that were quiet but so intense that they wracked her body and tightened the muscles in her gut, turning it sour with misery. She missed her bed, and her family, and her comfortable home free of bloodthirsty bugs. She missed Keita. She missed Kanchi and Kuma. And for all Fumi knew, she might never see them again.

Something closed over her face, clinging to her mouth and nose. A scream rose from her throat; suddenly she didn't care if Kagero or Muramasa heard her.

"Sssssh. Shut up, you're going to wake this entire god damn forest, and if something comes to kill us, it's going to be me who has to deal with it."

The heavy cloth was pulled down around her neck and then tied in front like a hood by two alarmingly gentle bandaged hands. Fumi was firmly spun around so a folded bundle could be shoved into her arms.

"There," Muramasa said in hushed tones as he further adjusted the makeshift hood around her face. "It won't keep them all out, but it will keep out most of them. You can use the shirt to cover your legs."

She struggled to hold his gaze, his sleep-rimmed eyes were even more unsettling when they were looking at her with something other than thinly-veiled annoyance. His nearly featureless face scarcely looked human at all, but his sudden expression of genuine concern made him seem far less alien, an unsettling reminded that he had once been living.