A/N: Alrighty, finally getting into the story proper. In order to fully understand this arc, I recommend at least watching the aforementioned Umibozu arc (episodes 3-5, I believe), as events that occurred in those episodes will be referenced and some characters from that arc will appear here.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Kuon I
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
At the bottom of a traveling bundle sat a box made from Banyan wood. By all accounts an extremely plain box, the small container held within it a Daruma with one eye. Next to this tiny package, there was a hand-bound diary. The Daruma and the diary had been acquired on the very same day by a former shrinekeeper. Fate had played them into the hands of Okuni, sole witness to the event's of the Kureha shrine's downfall. For three months after the disaster, Okuni had wandered aimlessly, and in her wandering happened to make her way to a town celebrating the spring blossoms. It was there that the young woman had first seen the cover of the diary and inspiration had struck. The diary instantly joined the sparse belongings in her traveling pack, and the Daruma joined after and gained sight in one eye.
Two and a half years had passed since that day, and though the diary had since filled up and been joined by several others, the web-patterned cover still held a treasured place both in the woman's heart and within her travel gear.
One such tome, its cover displaying a cheerful pattern of camellia, lay open on the floor of the guest quarters in a passenger vessel. The ship, bound for Hokkaido, was strangely quiet as it glided over the surf.
The ship was full, so it was not to an absence of passengers that the quiet hung in the air. In fact, many passengers had to share quarters with at least one other. Okuni was no exception, but her companion (a young girl around her same age) had darted out of the quarters the moment the ship cast off, likely to find herself some sort of entertainment. The former shrinekeeper imagined that things would not be so silent if the girl had stayed in the room.
Thus, the silence made the growl of her hungry stomach a bit later rather jarring. With a wry smile at no one, she decided she had done enough writing in the camellia tome for the moment. Besides, it couldn't hurt to explore the ship a bit and stretch her legs. She closed the diary and stood for a stretch before making her way out.
Outside of the guest quarters, things were quite a bit more lively. Passengers passed by on their way to see various activities on the ship, or to look through the clear glass panel on the ship's bottom, where one could see fishes and coral beneath the surf.
Okuni's destination was not any of those places, however. There was but one place to satisfy one's hunger, located three doors down from where the guest quarters ended.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
There was always a sort of feeling of discomfort for Kayo when it came to ships. Whether it be from the vast emptiness of the sea, or the difficulty in navigating, or the incident with the Umibōzu when she'd been traveling to Edo...Whatever the case, she was feeling a bit queasy when she boarded the passenger vessel.
There was really no avoiding it; her endeavors to find a way of living in Edo had proven unfruitful, as the amount she was paid for work was not enough to cover her cost of living. Thus, she had a new destination in mind. She would try again, this time in Hokkaido. She'd managed to gather enough money for a ticket, and so boarded the ship the next day. Though, she would have preferred a smaller boat after the last incident...
Almost as soon as she thought of the Umibōzu, an image of the mysterious medicine seller sprang into her mind. She did hope that nothing like that last time would happen again, though wondered if she'd ever meet with the man again. Ha, wouldn't it be something to meet him again on this very ship!
It was unlikely, she thought. No, her current companion was a woman whom she had left alone in the quarters. She had kept to herself for most of the day, for which Kayo was grateful, but Kayo could not help but think that there was something a little strange about the woman she was sharing her space with.
For one, her hairstyle was odd, worn long, and straight with bluntly clipped bangs. Her kimono was fairly plain, a deep midnight blue without any sort of patterns. Her obi was a golden color, a red pinwheel decoration on her obi cord, and she wore an underkimono of deep crimson. All of these were uncommon features for a young woman. Most girls her age liked to dress up in multicolored kimono with elaborate jewelry and ornamented hairstyles. This girl though, had none of that, just a blue flower hairpin and lines of purple over each eye (along with a dot of crimson at the outer corners). It was not among fashions that Kayo was familiar with. Other than that, there wasn't really anything too off about her, but Kayo was struck by the woman's silence.
Upon seeing that she'd likely not be much of a conversationalist, Kayo had left to seek out other forms of entertainment. She was a little surprised, as she wandered into the ship's kitchen area, to find the very woman there preparing something for herself.
"Um...hello," she greeted awkwardly.
"Oh, hello. Good to see you again miss..."
"Ah! Sorry, my name is Kayo." Kayo felt weird offering her name to the woman, honestly not too concerned with making her acquaintance. She hadn't been very entertaining before, and seeing her again was a bit uncomfortable.
"A pleasure to meet you, Kayo-san. Though, we've already met technically. I don't think I introduced myself. I am called Okuni."
Kayo was struck by the girl's politeness, feeling a bit rude now that she'd spoken to her.
"Did you find anything interesting on this ship?"
Ah, so her absence had been noted. Well, no use thinking about it, really. They'd part ways once the ship arrived at the destination. Kayo sighed and sat back.
"No. The captain was playing Sugoroku with some guests, but that's it. There's nothing to do at all!"
"Well, I have something back in the quarters that might be more interesting. Shall we head back?" Okuni suggested.
Kayo still wasn't too keen on making friends, but decided to humor her.
"You do? Okay, I guess I would like to see it. Anything is better than just standing around here."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Kayo quickly found herself staring at her companion again.
"So um...where are you from, Okuni-san?"
Okuni stopped to regard the other girl. She looked as if she was thinking, almost like she had forgotten something.
"A place called Harami," she answered at last. "It is a village far to the south."
"To the south? What are you doing so far north then?"
"You were wondering because of my attire, were you not?"
Kayo paled, feeling a bit of the awkwardness melt away at her companion's observational skills. She laughed a bit.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."
"Don't worry," Okuni smiled at last. "I know my clothing is fairly strange. It's simply out of habit. Harami is a farmer's village, so I grew up dressing like this."
"Ah...so what is it you're going to show me?" Kayo asked, skillfully changing topics.
The other girl smiled again.
"You'll see. You said you were bored, but I think what I have to show you will fix that problem."
As soon as they arrived back at the guest room, Okuni went straight to where her books were stacked and took up a butterfly-patterned tome. Handing it to Kayo with a small smirk, she laughed at the disappointed expression on the girl's face.
"Don't look so sad, Kayo-san! Just read a bit of it. I think you'll find it unlike anything you have read before."
Skeptical, but willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, Kayo's eyes widened slightly as she carefully peeled open the cover and read the words there, scrawled in neat characters.
"Toward the North; a Chronicle of Yōkai, Spirits, and Mononoke?"
Curiosity piqued, she turned a page, reading the lines of neat text that looked to be hand-written. Something about a spider spirit, trapped within a shrine and bound there by its regrets?
"Wow...mononoke You know about mononoke?" Kayo pondered out loud.
"It is something that I've been putting together on my travels," the other explained. "I have heard many things, yes. I am a housekeeper by trade, but that is merely to fund my travel. My true passion is as a folklorist."
Kayo smiled then, feeling her companion was a match made in heaven for her journey to the north. Her smile quickly died, however, as she realized something.
"What's wrong?"
"I just remembered my coin purse. I must have left it in the kitchen."
"I'll go with you to get it then."
"You don't have to, it's alright," Kayo protested.
"It's getting dark now, so you shouldn't go alone. Besides, I could use a bit more of a walk."
Okuni reached within her bundle once more, retrieving a little rectangular lantern, which she used the stationary lamp in the room to light. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she stood up next to Kayo.
"Shall we go?"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
It was, just as Okuni had said, very dark by the time they exited the quarters. There were hanging lamps which provided some illumination, but Kayo found herself grateful for the handheld one Okuni used to light the walkway ahead. Perhaps because it was so much closer, and she didn't have to worry about it vanishing around a corner. The steady light was comforting, a beacon in the darkness and the silence that always followed the dusk. The other passengers were no doubt in their quarters by then, for only a few lingered chatting lowly in doorways. This chatter, and the somewhat muted licking of the waves against the ship, were the only sounds
"It's so quiet out," Kayo murmured.
"Are you feeling worried?" the folklorist asked her.
"A little," she confessed.
"Did my writings happen to have anything to do with that?" Okuni's lips curved into a smirk.
"Ahah, maybe."
"Well, don't worry too much. Of all things I've written about, I've only actually seen a few for myself," the other girl assured her. "Ah, there's the kitchen again."
Their footsteps halted as they came upon the doorway, slightly ajar. The kitchen appeared to be dark, and as Okuni slid the door open the rest of the way, she heard a wet plopping noise somewhere towards the back of the room. Her geta slid over something dark and slippery.
"What's this?" Okuni crouched down to see what she'd nearly fallen in, mindful of the lantern in case the substance happened to be oil. The light revealed a deep crimson puddle.
"Blood?" Kayo asked in alarm.
Okuni gave it a sniff.
"It is. But from what?"
The lantern slowly traced a path over the crates of food as the folklorist stood once more. More blood splashed across the tops of some barrels, along with a few upside down insects. Beetles, by the look of it, and centipedes.
"I don't like this," Kayo whispered frantically and scooted closer to the other woman.
As the light fell upon the area where the cabinets were, a tall male figure blocked the illumination and scrambled backwards.
"Don't come closer!" the figure growled out.
The chattering of insects accompanied his movements as he opened the cabinet, as if he was covered in them. Before their eyes, he appeared to fold himself into the cabinet. The doors slammed shut and, suddenly, the kitchen lit up. Kayo screamed.
"What? What's going on here?"
The ship's captain stood in the doorway with two other men, each holding a bright lamp. Kayo and Okuni turned to face them, startled beyond belief.
"What's going on?" the man repeated.
"Y-you didn't see it?" Kayo whimpered.
"See what?"
"The cabinet! That man, he..."
The girl trailed off as her gaze swept across where the bloodstains had been. The floor was completely dry.
"Wha? It's gone? But I just saw-"
"I don't know what kind of prank you may be trying to pull," the captain interrupted. "But you're disturbing the other passengers. I'm going to have to ask that you return to your quarters."
"But I—there was just a man here!"
One of the men accompanying the captain approached the cabinet and opened the doors. Nothing was out of the ordinary. No insect husks, no blood, and certainly no folded-up man.
"Does this satisfy you? Now please, I am trying to be reasonable."
"But I swear!"
"Come on, Kayo-san," Okuni finally spoke, gently gripping her elbow and tugging her toward the door. "Let's just go for now."
The trek back to the quarters (for a third time) was far shorter. Kayo flopped down, annoyed and breathing hard as Okuni moved to do something with her belongings.
"Can you believe that? That captain was so rude! I really did see something there! Didn't you see it too?"
"I saw blood and insects," Okuni answered. "As for the man, I did see him, but he vanished once he said not to come near."
"How can that be?"
"I stopped looking," Okuni answered calmly. Kayo stared at her, incredulous. The ex-shrinekeeper gave a laugh.
"Relax, Kayo-san. I saw it too. As soon as the doorway lit up, it hid all traces of itself. I'm not sure what we saw, but it's impossible for both of us to lie or to imagine the same thing."
"Then...might it be a mononoke?"
Okuni nodded once. Kayo suddenly became excited.
"Any idea what? Have you seen anything like it before?"
"No. At least, none that I can recall. But my books might have something. Would you help me look?"
"Of course! Where should I start?"
The folklorist handed Kayo the spider web-bound book, and together they read in silence.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
For a while, they sat reading without incident. However, it soon became clear that none of Okuni's tomes had hints of what the entity in the kitchen could have been. This deeply disturbed the folklorist, yet at the same time, a sort of thrill crept through her. It was an excitement at the possibility that this could be something completely new. A completely original entry in her books...now there was a thought to treasure.
"It's too bad that Stranger isn't here," she said aloud. "He'd probably know what it was right away."
"Hm? Who are you talking about?"
"A wanderer. A man who exorcised the Kureha shrine while I was still its keeper. I never learned his name. In fact, I wonder sometimes if he ever had one to begin with."
"A nameless man? Um..did he have a golden sword with him? And a big medicine chest?"
"Yes," Okuni blinked in surprise. "You know him?"
"The Kusuri-uri!" Kayo seemed pleased. "I've met him twice now. Once, on a ship like this, and before when I worked at the Sakai manor. And you met him too! When?"
"Ah...I would say about two and a half years ago. The memory is as vivid as yesterday."
"He does have something memorable about him, huh?"
"You sound fond of him," Okuni laughed.
"Well, he did save my life twice!"
"Ahah, I can see that. But we're really not getting anywhere with these books. Whatever that was, it's not anything I've seen or heard of before."
"But, if it really is a mononoke, what should we do?"
"If it is one, I can only do a little. I'm no exorcist, and I only know the basics of purification. So much of what I know is merely lore."
"And if it isn't one?"
"Then we're either crazy, or there's something else going on. Maybe a prank? Either way, why don't we return to the beginning?"
"You mean go back to the kitchen? We would have to sneak back because of the captain."
"Mhm. We'll go carefully. I'll give you the lantern this time so I can carry some other things."
Okuni handed over the light source before taking up a small bundle of paper, a vial of water, and wooden rod with two zigzag paper streamers. Kayo had no clue what any of it was for, but decided not to question it. Instead, she took the lead and allowed the door to slide closed with a light click.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
The kitchen was as empty and silent as before. Kayo set the light on one of the barrels while Okuni strode to the cabinet the man had folded himself into. Inside were only a few bags of rice and a single dried beetle carapace.
"Strange," she muttered. "How can there be nothing at all?"
"Could we really have just imagined it? It was dark and we'd just been talking about spirits..."
"No, we didn't imagine anything," Okuni said. "My only question is what caused to to appear in the first place?"
"Maybe we walked into it," Kayo suggested. "What if it was here all along?"
"You mean we may have simply caught it in the act of something? Hmm. Maybe. Who really knows, though?"
"The way that mononoke think and act is very different...from those of humans."
Both females jumped at the sound of a new, but familiar voice. To her credit, Kayo didn't scream a second time. Both she and Okuni did gasp sharply, though.
"Stranger!/Kusuriuri-san!" their voiced blended together.
There, seated casually next to the lantern, he rested. He looked exactly as he had every time before, his colorful attire easily recognizable. The huge medicine chest sat on the floor near him. Instantly, both women rounded on him.
"How have you been? It's been so long!"
"Didn't I warn you that you'll kill someone from fright if you keep that up?"
The man merely smirked before speaking calmly.
"Okuni-san and Kayo-san. It has been a long time. What brings you here?"
"The same thing as you, no doubt," Kayo said.
"Mononoke," she and Okuni mumbled.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
End Notes:
-Harami is a completely fictional village, so don't bother looking it up.
-A daruma doll is something people buy when beginning an endeavor. It is typically red in color, can vary in size, and has blank white eye. At the start of the endeavor one eye is filled in, and upon completion of the goal so is the other eye.
-The name of this arc, Kuon, has two different meanings. Bonus points to anyone who knows both.