So this was a commission for the absolutely, incredibly wonderful and kind professor-maka, who asked for a SoulxMaka Princess Monoke AU. Thanks so much, proma, i freaking love you! I ended up writing it as what happened after the movie ended. I really love Princess Mononoke- it deals with such heavy themes, from environmental destruction, to forgiveness, to redemption and trust and true, complete love. those are themes that i've always felt really strongly in the SoulxMaka relationship too (except maybe environmentalism lolll) so I tried hard to create that same amazing, fairy-tale atmosphere that the movie had, where even the worst sins can be forgiven, and where the love between living things is of utmost importance.

anyway uhhh the point of all that: i love Princess Mononoke, and this was a blast to write. If anyone else wants to commission me, go to my tumblr (raining-down-hearts) and click the link on the side for more info.

Nago was rage. Nago was the broken body of a boar-god, warped and twisted by pain, with madness burning hellishly in his eyes, and Soul could only scream as cloven hooves pierced him again and again-

"Wake up," said Maka brusquely, prodding him with one bony finger. "Wake up."

He surfaced from the nightmare with a choked gasp, his chest pumping and mouth dry. The stars above the forest were reflected in the gentle water beside them, and in Maka's sharp, jade-green gaze. Two tiny, glimmering kodama were perched on her shoulder, their skeletal heads rattling, and Oni's antlers shone in the moonlight as he lifted his head to see what was wrong.

"I had a bad dream," Soul murmured at last, yawning and turning to curl into Maka's warmth. A warrior shouldn't admit something like that, but Soul had only ever fought because he had to, to save his village and his friends, and Maka would understand.

She snorted, twining one dirty, calloused hand through his shorn hair, as tenderly as she knew how. "You humans are very emotional."

"You're a human too," he told her, for the thousandth time, though her answering smile was purely wolfish, a predatory crescent moon in the night. "Why are you up?" Usually Maka slept so deeply that he sometimes got worried and checked to see if she was breathing. She was always secure in the knowledge that her wolves would warn her if anything hungry came too close.

"You woke me up with your shouting."

"Sorry."

"Go back to sleep," she murmured. "It's safe here. The Shishigami's watching." He'd never thought anything could make him feel so sheltered in a forest full of gods and monstrous beasts, but Maka managed it.

The next morning, she stood beside the rippling lake and watched him head back to Irontown. A hundred golden rays of morning sun pierced through the canopy, surrounding her like prison bars, and the grass at her feet glittered with crystalline dew. His chest, healed from the curse but still full of scars, ached along with his heart at every step he took away from her.

"You'll come back soon?" she called, when he was nearly out of earshot.

The question meant she missed him, which made him smile, but he still hesitated. There was a lot to do still in the new Irontown, and Lady Eboshi was as harsh a leader as ever, even without her arm and her old, bitter hatred. It was a farming settlement now, but that didn't mean surviving next to the mountains was anything close to easy. Irontown needed him; after all they'd done for him, and for the spirits, he couldn't run away. He'd run from his family. He'd hated it, but he'd had no choice, not with Nago's curse eating away at his chest. This strange new family, though, had more than earned his loyalty.

Maka would smell it on him if he lied, as much as he wanted to, just then. "When I can," he shouted back. "I'll try to come back soon. Don't go anywhere."

"Where would I go?" she laughed, throwing out her arms and spinning in a joyous circle, surrounded by the Shishigami's endless mountains.

Lady Eboshi was in fine form, striding up and down past the massed crowd of Irontown citizens, a flurry of colorful silks and dark, shining hair.

"Winter is coming," she shouted, voice high and clear like a bell, so even those in the back could hear. "Winter is coming fast, and our storehouses are not full! This is not our first winter together, but it is a new kind of winter, and I will sell my soul before any of your children starve. We need to work hard before the first snow sets in, do you understand? We need to hunt-" Here her eyes met Soul's across the distance. "-And we need to gather enough to make an offering to the god of the forest, to thank it for the animals it gives us to eat. Don't fail me now!"

The villagers did not quite roar, but there was a very definite rise in volume as everyone scattered industriously to their various tasks. The former lepers were nearly running, but they were always nearly running, enjoying their newly healed legs. More than one woman was singing, and Soul would have been tempted to join in if not for the positively raunchy lyrics; Liz was probably responsible for that. Lady Eboshi was smirking as Soul approached.

"Good save," he said quietly, raising an eyebrow.

She laughed, wagging a finger at him. "You're always going to be my watchdog, aren't you? Making sure I don't slip, making sure I don't get greedy again?"

She was right, but he only shrugged uncomfortably. That was only part of why he'd chosen to stay; it was a choice made from love, as much as from fear. "I'm just here to help the people who helped me. That's all."

"Hmm. The prince has fallen so far." Her sly smile fell away, and Soul began to shiver as a cold wind swept down from the mountains, screaming through the gaps in the village's high log fence. It smelled of fresh pine and sawdust in Irontown now, instead of smoke and sour, oiled metal, as it had when he first arrived. "When you slip away again to see your wolf-girl, tell her she's welcome to come stay here when the snow falls."

Soul snickered before he could stop himself, and judging by Lady Eboshi's slight scowl, she wasn't fooled by his pitiful attempt to disguise it as a cough. "I don't think the entire boar clan could drag her in here. Uh, no insult intended, but she still isn't very fond of you. You killed her mother, you know." Among other sins.

"Her mother killed herself long ago when she offered her own child as sacrifice to a hungry wolf goddess," Lady Eboshi snapped, precise and merciless as ever. "The offer still stands. You should convince her, if you care for her the way you say you do. She's strong, but there's safety in numbers."

There was something dark in her voice, iron-hard and cold. Soul put his hands in his pockets and studied her, wishing he was as good at reading people as Maka was. It was ironic, considering he was the one who'd actually been raised with humans. "What's going on?"

She sighed, pursing thin, scarlet lips. The empty sleeve at her side flared like a wing as she turned to point at the forest, barely visible through the village's smoke and the low, gentle mists. "The Emperor is not a man who gives up easily, Soul. He's used to getting what he wants, he's growing old, and every day makes immortality sound sweeter. I know how the minds of men work. They see something of value, and they'll never let it go. There'll be other mercenaries coming to kill the god, and soon. I almost hope the snows will come early, and block the passes. Irontown was destroyed once, and I won't let it happen again. The god can't die, but men will still come to try." She paused, and now he was sure it was protective fury on her face. "Why do you think we haven't stopped manufacturing rifles? We may need them."

Soul had to close his eyes, and his chest burned as he put a hand over his face. The scar on his cheek that Maka had given him was rough against his palm. He whispered bitterly, "Still, after everything, you think they'll try?"

"As long as the Emperor will pay. And believe me, he'll pay more than one mercenary could spend in a hundred lifetimes. It's tempting bait." For a moment, she looked away; it was as much shame as a woman so proud would ever show.

"Damn it!" he hissed, shocked at his own oversight. "I- I have to go. I'll bring back something for the women to eat." It was an inadequate apology for leaving again, when every bit of manpower was needed so very much, but it was all he could offer- and he had to warn Maka. They had to come up with a plan to protect the Shishigami, the forest, Irontown, and all the lives within.

"Go on," said Lady Eboshi calmly. "Do what you have to do."

The icy wind howled, and the forest moaned as a hundred thousand trees swayed, but Oni was warm and sure-footed as he carried his rider through the massive gates, back towards the chilly, emerald shadows.

Maka met him barely a mile up the mountain. She was astride one of her ghostly white wolf-sisters, and the red fang tattoos on her cheeks matched the last autumn leaves lingering on the ancient, serpentine maples twisting behind her. "What is it?" she said instantly, searching his face.

He didn't ask how she'd known he was coming. She always knew, or the forest told her, in the same mysterious and instinctual way she knew when he was worried. It was one of the things he liked best about Maka. She wasn't always easy to talk to, but then neither was he, and she was always patient when he needed to gather his confused thoughts.

"Lady Eboshi- don't make that face, just listen to me- she said that the Emperor hasn't withdrawn his reward. I didn't even think of it, and I should have. Everything in the village has been so busy-" That was a poor excuse, and he knew it. Shame and nervous anticipation burned in his gut, the familiar feel that always came before a battle, and he reached back automatically to touch the reassuring weight of his quiver. It bristled with arrows, but he'd need to make more, and soon. "There'll be more men coming for the god, and soon, unless we do something."

She growled along with her sister. "I'll kill them all!"

"They'll come in disguises," he said despairingly. "Besides, you can't kill every traveler who comes through the mountains, Maka. Some of them are innocents."

"Watch me!" she barked, but she was frowning fiercely. She knew he was right. Anyway, she'd begun to ask him little questions of late, about the women of the village and their lives, the things they enjoyed and the ways they passed their time. She was curious about the humanity she'd rejected so strongly; her hatred had faded. He even had a feeling she'd ask him to teach her to read soon, since she loved the old legends he lulled her to sleep with so much. "So we need a plan," she decided at last, swinging down from her sister and beginning to pace. Her leather shoes were whisper-quiet on the rich, velvety moss.

"We need to do something, anyway." To say the least. He turned to pull Oni's saddle off, then sat on it as the elk began to graze, keeping a wary ear turned toward the wolf. "Can you speak to the boar clan? I know your mother was allied with them a long time ago. Maybe they could watch the northern passes, let us know who comes in and out of the valley. The warning would help."

"Yes," she murmured, earrings swinging in time with her necklace of fangs as she strode back and forth. "I think I could convince them. There are treaties between our clans that aren't so old. Those pigs have long memories. They won't have forgotten."

Soul remembered humans crawling in the bloody skins of dead boars, and their blind, white god sprouting cursed tendrils and squealing hate before his monstrous, deluded death. "Are you sure?" he said quietly, pulling his hood up as the chilly wind kicked up again.

"Don't you believe in me?"

"Of course I do." He meant it, too, with his whole heart. Maka would take her mother Moro's place now, as leader of the small wolf clan that remained, one of the guardians of the forest's secrets, and Soul knew it. It was what she'd been born for, and it was a job nobody else could do. "You know I do. You can do anything because you're the most absolutely stubborn woman in the entire world. I'm just not sure the boars… well, without Okkoto or Nago to lead them, maybe they're turning stupid. Maybe they're turning back into nothing but animals, like Okkoto said."

"Just because an animal can't speak in a way you understand doesn't mean they're stupid," Maka said, lifting an arm as her wolf-sister pushed her massive nose beneath it. Two piercing sets of feral eyes fixed on him accusingly.

Soul began to feel faintly outnumbered. "Uh," he said apologetically. "Yes. Sorry. I just wasn't sure."

"I know, but they'll have found another leader by now. If I explain it right, they'll understand the danger. They lost enough family to the Nightwalker, they won't want to go through that again. I'll go speak to them tonight. I don't think they've gone far... I'm not sure they trust Irontown yet."

"Should we try to find the Shishigami?"

She swallowed audibly. Though she never let her fear touch her face, Soul knew that some of the forest god's perfect purity was forever soiled for her. After those horrendous, nightmare hours spent chasing after the god's severed head, while the mountains boiled with black poison like clotted blood, and the dying kodama screamed with their trees, he didn't blame her. "Yes," she decided at last. "Yes, we should warn him."

Her strength made him so proud, even as it humbled him. "Would you like me to go?" he said, hating the way her hands were trembling. He also hated the way his voice squeaked on the last word. Soul had only seen the Shishigami in the forest once since the god's head was returned, a distant shadow passing silently by on the gentle waters, but once had been more than enough. Maybe the Shishigami was the god of life and death, but it wasn't the life part that worried Soul.

"If you like," she said arrogantly, tossing her snow-white fur cloak.

Soul tried and failed to suppress a snicker. "You know, Lady Eboshi does that exact same thing with her fancy kimono."

Maka's jaw dropped. "How dare you!"

"It's true!"

"So what?" She leapt on him with a puppyish war cry, and he toppled backwards off Oni's saddle, flailing.

"Don't- stop it- I'm ticklish!" he gasped, rolling about ineffectually.

She had him pinned in two seconds flat, mostly because he wasn't trying very hard at all to escape, and then she was grinning with her nose smooshed against his. He wrapped an arm around her waist, digging his fingers into her cloak. "You're cross eyed," she said mockingly, clearly enjoying her victory.

"So are you. It's very unattractive, you know."

She pinched him, then turned suddenly serious, in one of her usual, mercurial mood shifts. "We can do this, can't we? We can protect the forest?"

He brushed her tangled golden bangs back gently from her face. She was the forest, eyes as green as the mountains and hair like sunlight, and he was always secretly awed when she let him touch her. "Yes. We have to, don't we?"

She sighed deeply into his neck, her fingers tightening possessively in his hair. Then she scrambled off him in an instant and swung aboard her sister, who gave a haunting howl as she bounded away. A heartbeat later, they were both gone, disappeared without a trace into the dark depths of the gigantic trees.

Soul blew out a breath and let his head thunk back onto the mossy ground. "Oni, she's going to kill me one way or another," he said idly. Oni only snorted at his master's antics and ripped up another mouthful of sweet grass.

It took hours to reach the Shishigami's pool. By the time he did, the sun was setting. The patches of sky visible through the twisted branches above- skeletal, and nearly leafless as winter approached, but very thick- were scarlet and purple, like bruises. The whole forest seemed to still be hurting from the devastation of the god's wrath, and it was quieter than Soul remembered. Even the faint birdsong was hesitant. New life was growing with enthusiasm, but all the magic of all the gods in the world couldn't replace the healing passage of simple time.

He loosed Oni to graze and knelt by the edge of the crystal water, cupping his hands to drink. It was perfectly clear, so cold it made his teeth hurt, and so pure he felt he might live forever. The stones deep at the bottom seemed only an inch away. When he lifted his head, he froze. Massive, tangled antlers rose proudly above the Shishigami's strangely human face.

Soul closed his eyes with a shudder and bowed his head low, until his forehead touched the smooth stones of the bank. There was no sound at all in the holy meadow but his own hushed breath, no rippling water or dancing wind. It was utterly, absolutely still, quiet as the grave. A long time passed before he felt able to speak. He had to let some of the acid guilt ease. When he sat cautiously up, the god was still there. It stood on the water, watching him inscrutably with bottomless eyes the color of the sunset.

"Shishigami," Soul rasped, fighting the nervous urge to reach for his bow. "I came to warn you, and your forest. More men will come to take your head. Not from Irontown, I promise you on my life, but from places far away. Places that haven't learned yet what you can do."

The reddish, nearly-human face did not change its expressionless, stony regard. It seemed as frozen as Maka's battle mask. Soul was reminded of the first time he'd seen her, spitting out her wolf-mother's blood and smearing it across her chin as she glared.

"Be careful, please, Shishigami. Be cautious," he added at last, shivering. The god watched impassively as Soul got slowly to his feet, then it turned with majestic slowness to walk away across the water. Its footsteps did not make ripples, and the perfect serenity was undisturbed.

Soul realized he was digging his fingers into his once-cursed chest, hard enough to hurt. He was panting as if he'd run a mile. After everything, the god had healed him. Mercy like that was hard to find among humans.

"How can you forgive Eboshi?" Maka breathed, late that night while the crickets sang and the stars spun slowly above their dazzled eyes. "She's the one who turned Nago into a demon. She's the one who got you cursed in the first place, and the one who shot the god."

He pulled her closer and thought about mercy. "I don't know. You forgave me for being a human. Maybe you showed me how that sort of thing is supposed to work."

She traced the scar on his cheek, then pressed dry lips to it. "I'll try to forgive her too, then. But give me time. She hurt you."

He smiled into her skin. "All right."

"I set the boars to watch the passes," she said. "And we wolves will help, too. The apes- well, they're still hiding, but at least they're not causing trouble. The snow will fall soon. A week, three at most. We just have to last 'till then, and we'll have a whole winter to build our defenses. Nobody gets through the mountains until the first thaw."

"Defenses?" he asked, sliding his icy hand up the curve of her spine beneath her furs, delighting in her quiet yip and the quick, punishing bite she gave to his earlobe. "You've figured out an idea already, then. I'm not surprised."

He was surprised, as always, that she didn't taste like copper when she kissed him. "Of course I have a plan. Did you doubt me?"

"Never," he said fervently, shutting his eyes as she tilted his head back roughly and dug her teeth teasingly into his neck.

"Good. I'm not sure you'll like my plan, though."

"Why's that?" he asked, already resigned to whatever it was. The gods themselves couldn't figure out what went on in her brilliant, feral mind.

She lifted up on one elbow and put her hand over his heart. Her voice was heavy with grief when she said, "I need you to tell me how to kill the Emperor."

"No!"

"Just listen to me-"

"No!"

"We've gone over this, Soul, even Eboshi says the Emperor'll never stop, and he could live for years!"

"There's no way in hell I'm letting you do this! You don't understand, you've never been outside this forest! He's got more soldiers than you could possibly imagine, he lives in a fortress inside a massive city. It's nothing like Irontown! You can't just barge in and expect to assassinate the Emperor-"

"I don't have a choice! The humans are coming, and they'll keep coming! The forest will die without the god!"

"Maka, there's got to be another way. You'll die before you ever get to him. Listen, we'll- we'll set guards on the Shishigami. The boars, the wolves, and I'll help. Some of the villagers might help too. If anyone comes into the forest hunting him we'll stop them."

"And if we make even one mistake, if just one hunter slips by us, what happens? Do you think the Nightcrawler will stop this time, do you think he'll quit before the entire forest and beyond is dead and black? He's the god of Death, he won't let you humans get away with taking his head again, and we barely stopped him last time!"

"Maka-"

"Don't. Don't, just- I don't like killing, I remember every life I've taken, but this one is necessary, and you know it."

"I know you don't like it, but we can handle this together."

"Don't lie to me, Soul. I know what you think I am."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You think I'm a beast! An animal! You think I'm-"

"I used to think that, and don't you dare put words in my mouth! Don't run, listen, you showed me you're not! You're not human, and you're not an animal, or a god, you're better than all of those things because you're something in between! You say you hate humans, but you don't look at the body, you look at the spirit, and that's what you judge! That's why you're beautiful!"

"I- you- fine, then. Let's go over this again and figure out some other way to keep the forest safe. It's my job now, you know, with my mother gone."

"I know. Shh, it's okay. If anybody can figure this out, it's you."

"Are all humans so silver-tongued when they think they're losing an argument?"

"What-"

"It'll work," Soul said grimly, thunking his fist onto his thigh for emphasis. "It has to. Unless you want to go assassinate the Emperor."

Lady Eboshi, admirably, only went wide-eyed for a moment at his incredible disrespect, then resumed swirling her steaming tea. "No, thank you, I've lost enough body parts for one lifetime. You understand this is ill-advised. Have you gone mad again? Did you catch yourself another curse?"

"No, although sometimes you make me a little insane."

"Hmph. Men can be so fragile. You'll need a lot of luck, but it might work. It's not a completely terrible plan, and I know strategy."

Soul rolled his eyes and began to rub his temples, still faintly surprised when he felt his short hair. It was growing, but it wouldn't ever be the same. "That's so very reassuring, my Lady."

She touched the stump of her shoulder absently, and Soul wondered if she felt her arm there, if she remembered the pain of Moro's tearing fangs. "It should be. How many guns will you need?"

"All of them. All you'll give me. We won't fire them-" He hoped, he prayed. "-But we'll need a show of force. We need to prove our dedication."

That gave her pause, as he knew it would, and her iron-grey eyes narrowed. "That's a lot of my guns you want to take. And how many of my people?"

"As many as will come."

"Why hasn't your wolf-girl come into my village to tell me her plan herself?"

Soul bristled. "You really have to ask?"

Lady Eboshi laughed, loud and wild, throwing her head back and slapping the table hard enough that tea slopped out of her cup. "Fair enough. All right. Take the guns, take my women, take their idiot men too, if you like. But you'll leave me just enough guns and manpower to defend Irontown. That's not negotiable."

"All right. It's a deal. And I already know you'll be staying, too," he said. Maka would be irritated, but Soul wasn't surprised. Lady Eboshi loved her people, would protect and serve them until the day she died, but she also knew that they deserved to make their own choices.

She also knew that they deserved a safe home to come back to. He leaned back in his rough chair and looked out the small, square window. The sky was grey and dull, and each breath he took tingled in his lungs, carrying the crisp sharpness that came with imminent snow. When he sighed, his breath was as pale-white and translucent as the little kodama.

"Your eyes are red, just like the forest god's, you know," Lady Eboshi told him unexpectedly. When he glanced at her, she was staring out her window, too. "I'll never forget that thing's face. If I hadn't met you first, I'd think the forest and the wolf-girl were rubbing off on you."

Soul didn't know what to say to that, so they sat in silence together, watching the fire burn down to glimmering orange coals and listening to the wind..

As Maka and her wolf-family emerged from the forest, the crystal dagger he'd given her shone against her breast, catching the clear sun like the white-hot flash of a shotgun.

The crowd, assembled in front of Irontown's heavy, freshly rebuilt gates, began to murmur. Liz, ever vocal, reached to tug on his sleeve. "Are you sure this is a smart idea?" she said skeptically. Her equally blonde and tempestuous sister Patti, who was always shadowing Liz, gave a fierce scowl and hefted her rifle.

"Yes, I'm sure," he said tiredly, rubbing his chest. "Well, I'm not sure it'll work, but I know it's the best idea we have. If the Shishigami dies, so does Irontown. Anyway, there's still time to go back, if you want."

The women all gave a great, unified shout of disdain, and even soft-spoken Tsubaki, who was usually content to hide in the background, nodded righteously. The men were a bit less enthused, except for the strange, blue-haired one, who was always accidentally destroying things, but who had been so helpful during the rebuilding. That man was currently standing on his hands, balancing his rifle on his feet; Soul shook his head.

Still, nobody turned to go. The former lepers were too grateful to the Shishigami to turn their backs on it, and the former prostitutes would follow Lady Eboshi's every word, to hell and back. Maybe these people weren't the highly trained troops of the Emperor, but they were loyal, and they'd touched the silken petals of the flowers that grew in the Shishigami's footprints. They had seen the terrifying power of the forest spirits, knew the stakes, and knew what a long trek they faced.

Still, Soul had absolute faith. These were the people who'd taken him in, fed him, healed him and laughed with him. They were the ones who'd sweated and sang beside him, as they all made a brand-new Irontown over the ashes of the old.

Maka and her wolves came up the road very slowly. Soul knew she was still wary, and also that she was trying to reassure the villagers. She, and the two sleek white shapes of her siblings, had nearly reached the crowd by the time the boar clan began to boil out of the trees, long brown lines of glittering black eyes and gleaming tusks. That brought another nervous murmur from the citizens, and a strangled whoop from the blue-haired man, but the kodama, coming next, brought only an awed hush. The tiny spirits came behind the boars in one massive, glowing wave, more numerous than the stars. They tripped and jumped and bumbled cheerfully along, rattling their ghoulish faces, until Soul could feel it in his bones.

"What are they?" asked Liz, softly, for once.

"Tree spirits," he supplied, stroking Oni's sleek neck. "They're sweet spirits, they couldn't hurt anyone if they wanted to. The Shishigami will keep the forest alive while they're away." According to Maka, that was. He still wasn't completely sure how she knew that, but she was certain, and the kodama would never leave their trees to die if there was any risk.

"Oh," said Liz thoughtfully.

Tsubaki, standing beside her, said quietly, "I've lived in this town for three years now, and I never knew."

"What d'you mean?" Liz asked.

"How many spirits there were in the forest. I had no idea. I knew there were a lot of them, but…" Tsubaki shook her pretty head, dark ponytail swinging.

Soul didn't bother to hide his proud smile, though he was aware he probably looked a bit deranged. "That's not all of them, either, not even close."

"And they're all here to help us? We're all gonna help each other, to save the trees and the animals?" said Liz's little sister, still stoutly holding her rifle, which was as tall as she was.

"Yep," said Liz, ruffling her hair.

"Good!" said Patti, beaming as if she might burst.

Maka had arrived now, head held proudly upright as she walked. Her siblings were stepping softly with their giant paws, lethal heads lowered. It wasn't submission, but it was respect.

"Hi," said Soul, praying to all the gods that he wasn't blushing like an infatuated boy. Liz's immediate cackle told him his prayers had failed.

"Hello," said Maka, smirking as she gave Oni's nose a pat. She turned to look out at the ocean of kodama, and the great, snorting mass of the boar tribe. Then she turned to the wide-eyed humans. "Let's go save our god."

In the first week of the trek, the three groups stayed apart.

The humans huddled around their fires at night, while the boars watched disdainfully from their warm huddles, and the glowing kodama perched in the treetops, blinding everybody but too cute to yell at, though Patti tried. Soul and Maka moved back and forth, offering support and encouragement. Every morning without fail, the caravan began to move again. Dust rose behind them and turned the sun red.

By the second week, as they moved towards the edge of the forest, the kodama had won everybody over. Tsubaki, in particular, was rarely seen without ten or twenty of the tiny spirits swinging from her hair or cuddled in her coat, and the blue-haired boy seemed to take deep joy in trying to challenge her- usually something along the lines of, "I can carry more of 'em than you can!"

Tsubaki blushed, giggled, and soundly defeated him every time. The kodama, of course, absolutely loved it.

The third week marked their exit from the Shishigami's realm. They were walking through flat, irrigated farmlands now- a painfully familiar sight to Soul. The villagers who stopped to gape at their otherworldly procession could have been his cousins, his family.

By the fourth week, Patti was the tiny, blonde pet of the boars, who let her swing from their tusks and ride on their rough backs with only half-hearted attempts at disgust. The kodama curled up with the humans at night to keep them warm, and the long, weary days were filled with song.

During the fifth week, the great wolves joined in. Their cries spiraled up towards the glorious moon as the fires crackled, and Soul watched with a swelling heart as Maka leapt to her feet and cupped her hands around her mouth to howl. It was the wildest music he'd ever heard, and the most beautiful.

"This is all because of you," he told Maka, curling a hand around her knee.

She paused in her tribe's haunting song to grin toothily down at him. "No. We did it together. That's why we won't fail."

In the sixth week, word of their strange exodus had spread. In each city they passed by, they gained more followers. A pale boy with golden eyes began to follow them first, three white streaks in his dark hair showing where something had clawed him. Then came two girls, one with strange, strawberry-blonde hair that was nearly pink, the other with huge, somber eyes and a beautiful lantern that she never let go out. More and more humans swelled their ranks, and the odd spirit too, until Soul realized with shock that he strode at the head of an army.

"We're gathering the misfits," Liz said darkly one night, poking at her sputtering fire. "That'll sure impress the stupid Emperor."

She and her sister were huddled beneath Maka's white fur cloak, and a boar lay snoring at their backs, cocooning them in warmth to fight the winter's bite. Snow was falling softly, sugaring the fields with dazzling white. The flakes sizzled as they hit the coals. It made travel much harder, but it was also reassuring; it meant the Shishigami was safe, for now.

"They're not misfits," said Patti grouchily.

"Well, I sort of am," put in the golden-eyed boy, cheerfully enough. "But I like it here, either way. I've always liked the spirits."

Patti blinked at him. "Then so are we, I guess. But the good kind. We all love each other."

Maka, who was resting her head on Oni's shoulder as he snoozed in a tight, catlike ball, looked up at that, and Soul met her gaze. They were so far from anything familiar, but it felt like coming home.

"Yes," he said quietly. "We love each other."

She hid her tears, and her smile, in Oni's fur.

It was deep winter when they finally reached the Emperor's city, and they slogged wearily through snowdrifts as tall as they were, shivering and thin. The mighty boars had held up best, but even they were tired, and the kodama no longer danced.

The citizens of the incredible, glittering city lined the streets to let them pass, watching quietly, with startled, open mouths and round eyes. Some had probably never seen a spirit in their whole lives, let alone anything as majestic and terrifying as the wolves or the boars. Soul spotted Imperial guards here and there. They were regal in gleaming scarlet armor, and Oni pranced past them nervously, but they did nothing.

Maka walked straight past them all like a true goddess, towards the curled golden roofs of the palace, rising high and lovely in the distance above the smoky maze of streets. She was filthy from travel, her fine furs tattered, but her spine was straight, and her face had the same beautiful determination as always. Her white wolves flanked her with snapping teeth and flashing eyes, and behind her followed the waves of spirits and humans she'd united.

It seemed to take a very long time to reach the tall, ornate walls of the palace, and yet no time at all.

Maka stared up at the tremendous, gilded gates. This city, huge and industrial, full of more humans than she probably had ever imagined, had to be intimidating to her after a lifetime in the forest, but she showed no fear. Soul watched as she lifted a finger to stroke the scaled nose of a carved dragon, then banged her fist three times on the doors.

"We're here to see the Emperor," she roared. The crystal dagger around her neck flashed, as fine as any empress' jewel, and the boars began to stamp their feet in a warlike rhythm. "On behalf of the Shishigami, the god of life and death, and on behalf of his forest! Let us in!"

There was a moment of utter silence as the entire city held its breath, and then the great gates creaked slowly open.