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In the rays of dawn, more than the day comes to light.

In the dark of night, mens' hearts become shadowed.
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Okuni always clearly recalled the day that she was hired to care for the shrine.

It was shortly after her parents died, and she had been wandering about for a while, doing odd jobs here and there to keep herself alive. She had happened upon a larger town, where a government official was trying to recruit shrine keepers for a place a day's walk away from town. It was dirty work, he'd said; the shrine was in disrepair and overrun with vermin and spiders. She supposed it was that last part that deterred people from taking the job, even for a group of men who were experienced shrine keepers. But Okuni had grown up on a farm; she was accustomed to sharing her space with spiders and other creatures, and making piles of dirt into her playhouses. So, she asked about the job, and was scheduled to travel there the next day. It was strange though; until she had expressed her interest in the work, the other, more experienced shrine keepers had stayed away from the official. The second Okuni accepted the job, they too wanted to go.

In hindsight, that should have been her first hint that something would go wrong.

It was pouring rain when the five of them arrived. That meant that they would have to put off their work until the storm let up. There was much to do, and they would receive payment twice a month for their services. Okuni learned the names of the other keepers; they were brothers, all disciples of some priest who lived in the mountains, and named for the four winds. All of them wore the same garb, but there were still ways to tell them apart.

Kita was a portly, short man with a red face who always smelled like onions. Mitami, on the other hand, was tall and handsome with defined features and a smooth voice. Then there were Nishi, who always had his brow furrowed, as if he was angry, and Higashi, who spent ages preening himself in the mornings.

And she was simply Okuni, a runaway from a village by a forest, cast out with no parents after a plague had ravaged the village, and whose home had been repurchased by the government for a minimal price after their deaths.

That money had been spent long ago, unfortunately. There was only so far one could survive, even living as frugally as she had been; or at least had been trying to be. And so the four disciples became her "companions," and she did not think that life at the shrine would be too difficult.

That was, until three days later, when the storm finally let up. she would soon learn that her companions were not nearly so harmless as they seemed.
"Be good, little Okuni, and take care of the shrine while we're gone," they had said to her.
"Where are you going? Why leave me to tend to the shrine by myself?"
"To town," they'd said. "We'll be back in a few days, just start cleaning or something. You can handle that much, can you not?"
Reluctant but subservient, she turned from them with a sigh. She had signed on for the job, and herself had no reason to travel to town, so she did just that.

There were piles of garbage and rubble in and around the shrine from wayfarers who would use the place as shelter. Though, "using it as a shelter" may have been putting it nicely. It looked more like they'd used the long-abandoned walls as they would a teahouse; empty sake bottles and papers and torn, discarded cloth lay about everywhere. She was able to find a use for them, however. Finding utility in ruin was one of the finer points of surviving alone. She burned the papers and cloth, with the exception of bits that she could salvage. The bottles could be used for storage of lantern oil and water.

It was after she finished her tasks that first day that she was finally able to take in the area around the shrine. It was a small lake, fed by a tiny waterfall that gushed from between two rocks high above the area. She worried that the lake would flood if there were more storms like the one the day before, but the shrine was built high off the ground, so such worries were unnecessary.

The disciples did not return for several days, and during that time the only company Okuni could find were the spiders that made their home in the rafters of the Haiden. She wondered briefly if she should put them outside and remove their webs, but they were not bothering anyone, and in fact, they took care of many of the more harmful insects that wandered about. Besides, she found the pattern of their webbing to be fascinating, something delicate yet strong that humans could never hope to construct. When the sun shone through a crack in the wood, the silk webs sometimes looked as if they were spun of gold.

There was one in particular, one large spider with a fat body and legs long enough to match the span of a hand, which lived right above the entrance to the Haiden. Okuni was initially paranoid that she would drop onto her head as she entered, but never had any problems with any of the shrine's residents.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

Three days later, the disciples returned.
It was with horror that she met them. She had thought that they were in town in order to speak to people and offer prayers. She did not expect that what they were doing was spitting directly in the face of their so-called beliefs. The four disciples brought a woman to the shrine, taking her into the depths of the Honden, along with a large quantity of liquor.
Okuni had warned them against it; she was certainly no priestess, but she did come from a village rife with superstition, and everyone knew that no one could enter the Honden unless it was for a very specific ritual. Yet, the four were defiling that place and (as she would later learn) gambling away the money the official sent to the shrine as payment.

Okuni burned inside.
Though she knew what they were doing and had lectured them about it, even threatening to tell the officials about it, they did not stop. Every few days, they would go to town, their absence giving her peace of mind (though a great deal more work on her own...not that they ever did any work anyway), and return with a woman. She never saw the women after they went into the Honden, but assumed that they left in the morning once their 'work' was complete. The men ignored all threats and warnings.
It got so bad that Okuni eventually started locking the doors to the shrines, trying to keep them away from the place. They became angry with her, tried to break down the doors of the shrine, telling her that they had every right to be there.

She knew it was part of her duty to report it to the officials, though without proof of what they were doing, who would believe any of it? Gradually, their visits to town grew longer and longer. Sometimes, they were away for as long as a month at a time, and other times they would be gone for only a day, returning and beating on the shrine doors once again.

It was on one of their visits to town, when a vicious storm was beating on the outside of the Haiden where she had taken to staying, that it all began.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

"Ahhh! No, not again!"

Cold rain caused a young woman to freeze in her tracks as rain started to pour from nowhere. She'd been on her way to collect the plaques from the Ema so that they wouldn't get damaged in the storm. It had been raining on and off for days, and today was no different, but the sudden torrential downpour had prevented her from finishing up her task. She turned on her heel, already soaked through from the rain, and retreated into the Haiden (she had yet to clear out the small cabin near the shrine which had been intended for sleep, and was honestly a bit afraid of what disaster she might find in there). Soon huddled up with a blanket to dry, she sat in the center of the room wishing the storm would stop.
"Haaa...why won't it just go away? How am I supposed to get anything done at this rate?"

She put her hands together, fingers interlocked, and looked up the rafters dramatically.

"O, great Kami-sama. I appreciate your gift to mankind, but could you please let up for a day so that I can care for this shrine like I was hired to do?"
There was no answer, of course, save for the howl of the wind. She shivered and pulled her legs closer to her.

"Well, at least this storm means that those four will stay in town longer..."

Kita, Mitami, Nishi, and Higashi...she could honestly say without hesitation that if it came down to it, she'd rather it keep raining forever if it kept them away. They usually only stopped in front of the shrine and tested the doors to see if they were locked, but the thought of them trying to break in again made her fearful. If they got in the next time...there was no telling what they'd do to her.

With that thought in mind, she closed her eyes and prayed again; this time wishing for the rain to fall even harder. As if in answer of her wish, the wind howled louder, the water fell harder, and she heard the crackle of thunder a short distance away.

The girl smiled.

That was, until she heard a faint dripping sound and, opening her eyes, saw that a trickle of water had started to come in through a crack in the ceiling. She made an awkward, strangled noise before scrambling to her feet and snatching up a box by the door. The box contained old scraps of cloth, which she used to stuff into the crack. It worked, but there were suddenly several other leaks, all of which she frantically worked to fill. As soon as she reached the large crack, the one that let in the light behind a glistening spider's web, she nearly fell back on her rear in fright as a knock came on the doors (impeccably timed with a lightning flash and crack of thunder).

A shriek escaped her, making the web's resident retreat further into the rafters, and she held a hand to her chest that held a rapidly beating heart.

Her first, most horrific thought was that the four brothers had returned, until she remembered that they would never knock. No, their arrivals were usually heralded by much fiercer pounding accompanied by a lot of yelling.

"Okuni! Open up, you worthless girl!" they would have said immediately. But this visitor did no such thing.

Cautious, she held up the lamp which she gripped with shaky fingers and raised it to the door. With equally shaky hands, she unlocked the doors, carefully pushing one open partway.

"H-hello?" she called out to the person on the other side. "Is someone there?"

For a moment, no one answered, but then she had to stifle another scream as someone stepped from the darkness. She stilled her fearful heart as she realized that it was not the four. No, this stranger was a great bit more...well, for lack of a better term, strange. His outfit was incredibly brightly colored, even in the darkness. Teal, green, red, yellow, rich purple...this stranger was covered in color. Even his face was not devoid of it; odd red lines decorated his nose and the skin around his eyes.

"U-um..." she stammered, still shaken. "You are...?"

"Just a simple medicine seller...seeking shelter from this storm." the man answered slowly.

Okuni could not help but stare a bit at the way he seemed to pause between words. She'd never heard such a speech pattern before. Nonetheless, she opened the door a bit more, relieved that her fears were unfounded.

"Oh, of course. Please, come in."

With that, she shoved the door open the rest of the way, allowing the medicine seller to enter. She got another fright as she turned from closing the door; the shrine's largest arachnid resident had chosen that time to descend right in front of the man.

Instantly, Okuni scrambled forward, catching the spider in her hands.

"Kureha!" she admonished the creature. "What was that? You've never done that before!"

Indeed, the spider made it a point to avoid anyone who entered the shrine, with the exception of Okuni herself. For some strange reason; the spider liked to descend from her web and settle near the lantern whenever Okuni was close. For that reason, as odd as it seemed, the girl had come to see the spider as a sort of...pet. Of course, calling the spider by name in front of the stranger made her feel a bit embarrassed.

"Kureha?" the man asked calmly, glancing at her hands.

"Oh...I'm sorry. This is Kureha." she answered, opening her hands so that her palms were side by side.

There sat the spider, large and fat; with rather attractive bands of teal and yellow coloring, patches of a bright pink decorating its belly. The legs spanned nearly the entire length of the girl's fingers, and to any outsider it was altogether an unusual, sort of frightening sight. Yet the spider showed no hostility towards the girl, sitting calmly in the warmth of her palms.

"There's an old story about the founder of this shrine. They say that she was a beautiful priestess, talented at weaving. Many men tried to court her, both for her skills and her beauty, but she refused them all. She said she was bound by her duty to the shrine, and would not marry. One day, a samurai, in a fit of anger, strangled the priestess and threw her into the lake near this shrine. The priestess' name was Kureha. This spider...seeing her somehow reminded me of the story, so I gave her that name..." she trailed off, feeling embarrassed again. She didn't particularly want to explain that she viewed the spider as a companion. How foolish would that sound?

"I see. Then it is a pleasure to meet you, Kureha." the man said in that odd, pausing manner. He was glancing down at the spider, who slowly descended the girl's hands with a strand of silk before scurrying up the wall.

"Oh, I haven't told you my own name, have I? How strange, introducing a spider but not myself," the girl laughed. "I am Okuni. I take care of this shrine during the day."

She didn't ask for his name, just sort of stared oddly at him, trying to decide if she should fear him or not. The more she looked at him, though, the more she felt guilty for just standing there for so long. He was dripping water onto the floor, his clothes soaked through and adding weight to his form; he was already carrying a large medicine chest with him. Okuni felt even more foolish.

"Ah! I'm so sorry! Here I am babbling while you're soaked to the bone! Please, come this way, I'll build a fire."

She tugged on one of the colorful sleeves, carefully leading the man across the room to a small portable hearth she had placed in the corner. She had initially worried that having it there would defile the shrine, but she only used it to cook and boil water, it wasn't as if she was tearing off chunks of the wall and burning them.

"I'm sorry it's so small, but if you sit there you should dry off fairly quickly." she said. "At any rate, I would advise against traveling the road at this point. The storm doesn't seem like it will stop any time soon."

At that, she cast a glance towards the doors again, where a close rumble of thunder had made the doors rattle a bit. Shaking her head, she moved to fetch some sort of towel or cloth that the medicine seller could sit on, so that he was not sitting in a puddle.

"I must thank you for your hospitality," the man had said quietly as he settled in.

"Oh, not at all. What other purpose does a shrine have, if not to be a haven for travelers?"

'Just as long as he's not some decadent fool like the ones who wrecked this place to begin with.' she added to herself.

Okuni watched with interest as he unstrapped the medicine chest from his back and set it beside the hearth. He opened one of the drawers on the front and withdrew an item which, to her horror, leaked a stream of water onto the floor. The rain must've permeated the chest

"It's all ruined, isn't it?"

"Most of it," he answered. "The storm caught me on my way to the capital. Most of my wares have been ruined. I will have to buy more ingredients when I get the chance."

"Oh, that's too bad. But...now that I think of it, I think I saw some of this growing in the woods near here." Okuni held up a limp, slightly wilted cluster of leaves with a few small red berries attached. "Ginseng, right?"

"You know about this plant?" the man asked, though it felt more like he was just trying to humor her. She wondered if she was annoying him with all her talking. But really, she hadn't had company in so long. Or at the very least, company that wasn't yelling at her and threatening her.

"Sort of. I do a lot of foraging for things to eat, so it helps to know what's edible and what will poison you," she explained.

"Oh? You don't receive any compensation for caring for the shrine?"

"Er, well...I do, but um..."

"Yes?" the man seemed suddenly intrigued, which caught her off guard just slightly.
She leaned back, away from him.

"Um well..." she squirmed, uncomfortable. She was not sure if it was prudent to tell a stranger about her problems. It was not for him to worry about. "It's nothing."

"Then perhaps you could tell me about this shrine?"

"Ah, certainly, Kusuriuri-san." she took a deep breath, glad to stray away from the other topic. "Well, I don't really know much about it, other than what I've heard. I'm not a priestess or anything of the sort, just a caretaker. From what I hear, this place was originally built to worship a kami of rain."

At that, the medicine seller gave a very slight chuckle.

"Fitting, wouldn't you say?" he commented.

"You're right about that," Okuni laughed a little. "Well, they claimed that the waters of the lake nearby had healing powers, and people came from all around to test its properties. Many tried to take the waters and sell them as a miracle elixir of sorts. Naturally, that would have angered the kami, as the waters were not put there for selfish gain. It is said that the kami punished the people by denying them rain, resulting in a hundred-year drought. The lake dried up, and the waterfall ceased to flow."

She concluded her tale, adjusting her legs beneath her as they had started to grow stiff.

"But the lake is nearly overflowing now," said the medicine seller, sounding slightly amused.

"Yes. Someone must have done something particularly pleasing to the kami." Okuni chuckled. It was rather ironic. "Either that, or he is punishing the people a second time by flooding them."

The room fell silent after that, the only sounds coming from the storm outside. Suddenly, Okuni's stomach gave a rather loud growl, breaking the silence, and she cringed in embarrassment at the slight chuckle that came from the medicine seller.

"Ah, I've been so busy today that I haven't eaten. Would you like something? Um...I'm not sure that there's much though." she offered, smiling sheepishly.

"Certainly. Whatever you can find is fine." he answered, returning to examining his ruined wares. He certainly did not seem concerned with much of anything.

Okuni, meanwhile, retreated to the other side of the room, sorting through some boxes until she found a small wooden one. Thankfully, it was untouched by the rain. Inside was a bundle of dried sweet potatoes, as well as a bundle of dried fish. She frowned, hoping there was more than that. Beneath the two bundles was something wrapped in a cloth, which turned out to be a few rice balls. Ah, that would do! She picked up the box and returned to her seat next to the hearth, setting it down between them with the lid open.

"I can cook the sweet potatoes and the fish, if you want, to soften them up."

"No, that's not necessary. I can just eat these," the man said, picking up one of the rice balls. "Besides, you've already done enough for a traveler like myself."

"Well, if you say so. I wish there was more I could do, but it's difficult not having much money. If it wasn't for those four..." Okuni trailed off.

"Oh? Then you aren't the only caretaker."

"No. There are four monks that come here from time to time. We were all supposed to care for the shrine, but honestly, they display the most disgraceful behavior I've ever seen." she said with a sigh.

"Then that is the reason you have to forage nearby?"
She nodded. "An Official sends payment for our services twice a month. But, the others don't do anything at all. They're hardly here, and when they are it's only to take the payment and return to town."

"And what is it they do there?" the medicine seller asked, examining a strange, metallic object.

"They gamble, drink, and indulge themselves. When they return, it's always with a woman. They try to go into the Honden, even though I warned them that it is a sacred place. I grew tired of it, so I keep the doors locked. Now, the only way to the Honden is through the heiden. And as you can see, the only entrance is through here." Okuni gestured towards the entrance to the hallway a few feet away. Latticework separated it from the room they were in.

"Ah...forgive me. I should not trouble you with such things."

"No worries," he replied with a small smile. "I enjoy hearing the stories of the people I meet on my travels."

"Is that so? Well...I'm going to go find some candles." Okuni announced, standing up and swiftly crossing the room.

It fell into quiet once more, the medicine seller looked over each item in the medicine chest, while the girl searched a shelf for some candles to light the room better. The storm roared like a hungry beast outside, and the spiders lay still in the shelter of their webs. Once the candles were set out and lit, Okuni retreated to the corner once more, huddled in the blanket again.

For a while, she simply watched the man's inspection of his inventory; he'd take out an item, turn it this way and that, and then either place it back in the chest or toss it into a pile. Sadly, it seemed, a large portion of the goods went into the pile. Only things that were in a case or wrapped in cloth were spared. At one point, he pulled out a stack of what looked to be books and Okuni, curious to see what they were, leaned a bit closer.

"Curious? Have a look," the medicine man said with a slight smirk, tilting the books towards her.

She struggled to find words, mortified at what she saw. Finally, she composed herself.

"That...doesn't look like medicine to me." she said at last, tone rather casual sounding despite the red that decorated her face.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

The rain must have lulled her to sleep. Some time later, Okuni found herself jolting awake with a gasp. She had had an odd dream, she recalled, but the details of it were already growing faint. There had been a woman in a colorful kimono, and blood...so much blood. That was all she remembered, but upon waking she could not shake the feeling of foreboding that felt like it had draped itself over her.

Groaning, she shifted to stand so that she could rekindle the hearth, which had started to burn lower. The large medicine chest still sat there, the contents having been sorted through a while ago. But there was one thing missing; where was the traveler? Had her guest been insulted by her falling asleep and left? That wouldn't have been particularly smart, with the rain still pounding on the outside of the shrine.

Rubbing her eyes a bit, Okuni took a glance around the room, briefly thinking in horror that the man had gone deeper into the shrine. However, that was not the case; instead, he was standing near the entrance, sticking slips of paper to the walls.

"Um..." Okuni spoke. "What are you doing?"

She'd known the man was strange, but she hadn't really thought to question him about his origins. None of her business, after all. Still, his style of dress was odd, not representative of any regions that she knew of. That was just one clue that he was...unusual.

'Then again, I am just a country girl. Haven't exactly traveled the world, have I?'

The materials suggested that he was much more than he claimed his profession to be. His style of speech was odd and almost mystic in a way, but she'd mostly ignored that since he was a traveler in need. However, this certainly took the cake. What was he, some wanna-be exorcist?

"These are protective charms," he answered. "For warding away evil."
He really WAS a wanna-be exorcist. Ignoring the fact that she already knew what the slips were for...Had the world decided to go to hell as soon as she fell asleep? Or was he trying to con her somehow?

"Evil? But this is a shrine. What kind of evil would infest a place like this? Is there something...?"

"It is merely a precaution."

"Precaution?" she echoed.

"There is no telling what forces would try to sneak inside...while the caretaker is asleep." the man said slowly. "Why? Is there something?"

He was reflecting her question, just a harmless question really. Still, Okuni couldn't help but feel, just slightly, that he was accusing her of something.

"No. I mean, I feel strange all of a sudden, but it was just because of a dream..." she answered.
"A dream?"

"There was...a woman. And a room painted with blood. That is as much as I remember. It was just a dream."

Then why had she woken up gasping for air? It had certainly felt real...

"Okuni-san, I wonder if you might help me with something."

The medicine seller's voice brought her back to reality. She blinked fiercely, as if she'd been caught up in something. He was crouched by the medicine chest again, a middle drawer pulled open as he withdrew several objects.

"Oh. Of course. What can I do?"

"If you would, simply carry these to the door," he said, gesturing at the objects. Okuni took that opportunity to look down at them as she gathered them in her arms.

"These are...?"

"Scales," he answered. "A tool of my trade, of course."

"Of course." Okuni said quietly, not quite believing the claim.

They were the strangest scales she'd ever seen. Bejeweled, gleaming, and incredibly light, she couldn't figure out how they worked. Nonetheless, she carried them over to the door as instructed where, to her surprise, they moved on their own. One by one, they floated upwards, setting themselves in a straight line before the door, two tiny bells hanging from the ends.

Okuni stared at the spectacle, wondering if she was still asleep. A discreet pinch told her otherwise. Certainly, she'd seen some strange things before...when she'd been a child. Every child imagined they were oni-slayers or pretended that their toys were alive.
Growing older meant growing out of those childish imaginings. Granted, she was a rather superstitious person, having grown up where superstition was widespread. She spent her childhood hearing all sorts of stories of spirits and demons her mother would tell her. Her father instilled in her many beliefs about when to plant and harvest crops. Both of her parents had warned her against certain practices, more so than a city family would have. Thus, she was not completely against the idea that strange things would happen.

But the things she'd witnessed since the traveler's arrival...the odd attire of the man, the dream, the scales moving on their own...they were certainly not things she'd ever expected to witness first hand. It was as if, with the traveler's arrival, everything else had come along at the same time. Had he brought the storm as well?

"Who are you exactly?" she asked the man, suspicious.

"I'm just a simple medicine peddler," he repeated his earlier answer, to her slight annoyance.

"If you say so," she shook her head. Why bother even asking? The man seemed like he would have been perfectly happy without speaking at all. Perhaps she was lucky he was answering her.

"Well then," she decided to dismiss it. As long as she had not accidentally invited in some crazed murderer, and he respected the place, she didn't particularly care to learn more. "is there anything else we should-"

The man raised a hand, a single finger raised, as if to hush her.

"Listen."

At first, she didn't hear anything beyond the sounds of the storm outside. She thought that perhaps her guest was toying with her, and looked to him skeptically for an explanation. Still he held up his finger.

And then she heard it.

Pounding...no, thrumming. It was sort of distant sounding, like a soft beating on a drum, like a faint heartbeat. And all at once she felt her own heartbeat jump.

"What...is that?" she asked, breathless with surprise. "What would make such a noise?"

The thrumming was growing louder, as if it were coming closer. It was surrounding them now, the distance it was coming from impossible to discern. She was growing a bit paranoid, heart pounding furiously against her ribcage, breaths coming in shallow, quick puffs to match her frantic heart. Whatever it was, it was definitely not caused by the storm. No, this sounded almost as if it were alive. The noise seemed like it was a...pulse.

"Mononoke," said the medicine seller, answering the question she'd nearly forgotten she'd asked.

"Mononoke? Why would one be here at the shrine?"

"You've heard of them." It was not a question.

"My mother warned me against things like fox spirits, and my father told me about oni. I have heard of them, but I did not think I would ever encounter one. What would one be doing here?" her voice was slightly panicked, full of fright.

"Who knows? Mononoke do not think in the same manner as humans. Its reasons for being here are beyond our comprehension. Okuni-san, I don't suppose you've seen anything strange?"

"No," the girl shook her head. "I've been living here almost a year and haven't seen anything unusual...unless you count the four monks. What makes you think there is a mononoke here?" she inquired.

She was cut off as the thrumming returned, this time louder than before, sounding like it was pounding against the walls of the shrine.

But what did it want from her? If it was a mononoke, why choose now to make itself known? She quickly went over a list in her head, trying to remember if she'd forgotten to do something, or had broken some cardinal rule that would have attracted something to the place.

Had she broken a strap on her geta? No, they were fine. She would have remembered breaking one.

Had she broken a tooth of her comb? No, it was in impeccable condition.

Had she slept facing north by accident? It was possible, given that she had fallen asleep without intending to. But that wouldn't have done it...would it?

"Oh no. I brought it here, didn't I?" she stated, horrified.

"Hm?" the medicine seller glanced up at her. Was she admitting to something?

"I slept facing north! Everyone knows that sleeping facing the north summons ghosts to visit!" she muttered, flustered.

"Such a menial thing would not have brought it here," he assured her with some amusement. "Besides, you didn't fall asleep facing north. There is no need to worry."

"Then...why-"

A loud, sharp thump cut her off, and a second later, the same sound slammed against the shrine doors, punctuated by a loud shout.

"Okuni! Open these doors right now, you useless girl!"

The girl's eyes widened in shock.

"No...Why would they come back during the storm?"

"Someone you know?" the medicine seller asked casually.

"It's those four I was telling you about!" replied she. "But they usually wouldn't come back from town so soon! Not with the weather like this!"

The medicine did not answer. Instead, he stepped to a smaller box next to the medicine chest, the lid opening on its own. From within, he withdrew a glimmering, golden sword with a strange face shaped into the end. Okuni was about to ask about it, but a second demand came from the other side of the door.

"Open up!"

Okuni shook herself out of her momentary stupor, cautiously approaching the door that they were pounding on furiously.

"I won't let you in! After what you've done, how could you even think that I would?"

"Let us in, you little brat!" another of the men chimed in.

"I won't!"

"Let us in!"

"So you can defile the shrine again?" she retorted.

"Open the door now!"

"No! Leave!"

"Open up now, or I'll-"

Any and all arguments the man may have had were cut off by a long, horrific scream and a loud crunching noise. Okuni's eyes widened even further, and suddenly, one of the scales on the floor lowered on one side.

"So it finally shows itself," said the medicine seller.

Okuni probably would have asked him what he meant, were it not for the fact that she was frantically scrambling to undo the latch on the door. Wicked men or no, whatever had happened out there sounded horrifying. The doors were quickly thrown open and Okuni, frozen in place, saw what had happened.

The prideful monk lay dead in front of the shrine's steps. Vibrant even in the dark; blood splashed the steps, the ground, and the doors of the shrine as well. His body lay mangled, limbs twisted grotesquely and bent at odd angles, and his torso had been torn in two.

Horrified, Okuni could not move her eyes from the scene, even after the remaining three monks shoved past her, pushing her to the floor in their haste.
For some reason, it was not the blood that disturbed her, nor the sight of the mangled limbs, twisted as if in a macabre dance. No, it was not even the stench and the permanent scream fixed on the man's face.
It was the sight of eight spindly shadows retreating into the darkness.
She remained there, her eyes staring unblinking into the night, until a pair of hands seized her and forced her to stand, turning her eyes from the horrific spectacle. There stood the medicine man, the golden sword held in one hand.

"What did you see?" he asked of her.

"I saw..."

Okuni looked up at him, rain-soaked hair sticking to her cheeks, and she spoke but two words.

"...a spider."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Notes:

This story was written about two years ago, after I watched the series for the first time. So enamored was I with the rich colors and storytelling and music that at the time, writing this was the only thing on my mind. It feels very trite and cliché now that I read it again, but it's all in good fun.
In the story, I mention that some of the characters are "brothers," however they are not actually related. This is more referring to the "brotherhood" of a monastery.
I also mention a couple of terms to do with shrines.
Haiden- A building in front of the heart of the shrine, where ceremonies, worship, etc take place. This building is open to the public.
Honden- The shrine's most sacred building, closed to the public. It is separated from the rest of the area by an outdoor walkway and is enclosed in a small fence. It is believed that the area's kami is enshrined here. The difference in this and the story's depiction of the honden is that I envision this shrine to be completely enclosed, so instead it is connected by an indoor hall, with a lattice door showing the hall at the haiden and a solid door closing off the honden proper.

Ema- Small wooden plaques on which worshipers write their prayers or wishes. Often hung outside the shrine next to a path, the ema are received by the shrine's kami.
If you want more information on the layout of a shrine, visit the page on Shinto Shrines on wikipedia.
Normally I would discourage using wikipedia as a reliable source of information. However, the page has a handy diagram of the basic layout of one such shrine as described in the story, and will give you a much better understanding of the layout.

See you all next chapter.