AN: So, I'd like to start out by saying that this story is stretching out into something much bigger than I thought it would be. I originally estimated I'd be able to tell it in maybe 150,000 words, but we're 70,000 in and I'm really just getting started. But I'm having too much fun to stop now! :) Also, I'd like to remind you that this is rated Mature and within the next couple of chapters it's going to earn that rating. Things have been pretty tame so far, but it's about to get crazy. My biggest reason for writing this story has been to stretch my skills as a writer. Although I could only choose two genres in the description, this story is going to cover many different genres. As some of you pointed out, it does kind of feel like a creepy horror movie right now. That is on purpose. I chose Makai as the setting mainly because it has so much potential for a diverse range of thematic elements. Although the story will get mature, if you're afraid it's going to get too dark, don't worry: I don't have the stomach for truly disturbing stuff.

Sorry to get chatty. As always, thank you immensely for the feedback and I hope you enjoy!

Soul Magic

Chapter 13: Stranger Still

Kurama sat at the edge of the east side dock where they had first crested the little floating crane village last night, his bare feet hanging over the edge and his palms planted on the smooth wood. He purposely kept an unconcerned demeanor about him, although he was anything but. In fact, he was highly concerned. He mentally recapped what he'd been able to ascertain about the village this morning.

First, and strangest, was that there were exactly four people living here, not including himself and Kagome of course, despite the fact that there were no less than fifteen buildings in the community, thirteen of those appearing to be residences. From what little he could ascertain by peeking surreptitiously through windows, every one of them had the look of being recently occupied. So the empty houses were strange.

Then, there was the largest building in the community, presumably a gathering place. Presumably because all five of the windows had been covered and nailed hastily shut with boards and the sliding wood door was nailed shut as well with long, crooked nails driven into the doorjamb. So that was pretty strange, too.

Then, Kurama had gotten close enough to hear inside the building. It wasn't something he could usually do, because despite housing the soul of an ancient kitsune, he did actually have a human body. But he could "borrow" some of his predecessor's physical traits if he chose to, and he'd been using that ability for most of the morning to gather intel. And the thing was, when he passed by the building, casually so as not to appear as though he were listening, he heard a breath. There was someone inside.

And for some reason that someone had been sequestered away from everyone else, against their will if the nails were any indication.

So that was another strange thing.

Then, there were the three cranes he'd met. This morning, soon after they'd woken around 11, they had left on wing, saying only that they would be fishing in the marsh before leaping off the dock, instantly taking the form of three giant red-crowned cranes and flying out of sight to the south. It was now nearing four in the afternoon and they had still not returned. Ashi, obviously the oldest and the leader of them (although "leader" was perhaps too strong a word for the lethargic middle-aged man), was an enigma. When Kurama had asked him about the empty houses, the youkai had told him simply that "the others left." When pressed (gently, the avatar didn't want to arouse suspicion by being too curious), he could provide no further explanation. Kumo and Nami were no more forthcoming and had the same kind of dazed manner as the older crane. And he hadn't really noticed it last night, but in the daylight all three of them had kind of a round figure, bellies appearing almost distended under the faded gray and blue kimonos. But again, maybe that's just what cranes always looked like. All of these details coupled with the disturbing scene they'd witnessed yesterday when that bird had thrown itself into the ocean in a suicide dive had him very concerned, indeed.

The only scenario he could come up with to fit all of these clues was that the crane village had been swept with some kind of contagious disease and that they were looking at the last survivors, having quarantined the sick in the communal building, only one of which was still clinging to life inside. The distended stomachs and even the lethargy could be the first symptoms. However, there were some key issues with this theory. One, that he detected with his preternatural olfactory sense no hint of death in the village and no hint of sickness on the three cranes. Two, that the breath he had heard beyond the walls of the building at the center of the village had sounded healthy as well, not at all strained or indicating discomfort.

So that was a dead end for now, it would seem, at least until some new evidence presented itself to him. Still, the possibility made him anxious. If it was a disease it could very well be contagious to humans, namely himself and Kagome.

Turning his mind's eye back to what usually occupied it these days, he considered the miko who was currently fishing on the west side of the village. It would seem that sleeping in was going around today because she hadn't emerged from the women's residence until after 2 in the afternoon. He'd been a little worried, but remembered Hiei mentioning that she'd need to get more sleep than usual to recover from the unprecedented outpouring of holy reiki she'd performed several days ago. Although he would have preferred to have let her get that sleep she needed before now, their urgency for water had simply been too great. So after he'd assured himself that she was only slumbering deeply, he'd proceeded to sniff around the village and the surrounding marsh area, never out of earshot, looking for any more clues.

When she'd woken, Kagome had apparently taken only enough time to change before exiting the women's residence swiftly and marching to the nearest open edge of the dock with her bow like she was on a mission. Startled by her sudden appearance and the fact that she didn't even stop to get her bearings in the village or ascertain his location, he'd watched with interest from where he stood at the other end of the walkway that ran through the center of the village and connected the parallel east and west docks. She had stood with her back to him and he observed as she strung an arrow, took aim, and after a few moments in which she seemed to be following the movement of something in the water, shot the arrow straight down into the marsh.

He actually heard it hit something and couldn't help but give a surprised little bark of laughter at her obvious marksmanship. He'd also couldn't help the bitter, sneaking thought that surfaced in his mind that if he'd given her a bow when he'd had her trapped down there in those caves all those years ago things probably would have turned out a lot better for her. Never mind the rational part of him that knew she still wouldn't' have escaped alive, whether or not he was dead and whether or not she could ever assuage his guilt with an arrow to the heart.

But, how now was she going to retrieve her prize? The avatar had watched as she grabbed onto something and began pulling it up and he realized she had tied a thin little rope to the arrow before she'd shot it and now she was reeling it back in. He'd shaken his head before continuing down the east dock where the cranes had departed hours before to keep an eye on the horizon for anything unusual while he kept his ears on the woman fishing.

However, he had been sitting here contemplating things for long enough now, he thought, and he was becoming restless waiting for the cranes to return. He briefly reconsidered trying to make contact with whomever was locked inside the communal building while the cranes were gone, but the person didn't seem to be in distress and he didn't want to show his hand just yet. He didn't want to let on to any of them, including the one quarantined, until they made the first move. It was a strategy that had served him well in both his lives. So, he decided it was time to discuss their situation and what meager information he'd been able to gather this morning with Kagome and he stood and made his way across the village to her, listening intently again as he passed by the boarded up building and finding no change in the occupant's apparent state.

When he found Kagome she was sitting on the edge of the dock, her bow, a couple of arrows and a rope, and the canteen beside her. She was holding something in her hands but he couldn't see what just yet, having approached her from behind. He immediately noticed the pink irritated patches of skin on her shoulders. It looked like a strangely patterned sunburn. Then, he realized why he was seeing the burns for the first time: she was wearing only a camisole and a pair of tight, black athletic shorts. It was the warmest time of the day on the marsh, about 25º C under the cloudless sky, and she'd apparently worked up a sweat drawing her bow and pulling in fresh seafood for over an hour now. Her lovely, toned shoulders glistened in the sunlight and short, loose strands of her hair, in its customary loose braid and resting over one shoulder, clung to her damp skin at the base of her neck. Leaned forward as she was, the thin, white material of her top had ridden up on her trim waist, leaving her lower back and two delicious little dimples exposed. He couldn't help but stare for a moment, catching a glimpse of something black on her skin peaking out from under the bottom of the cami on her left side. Was that another tattoo?

Kagome, feeling his footsteps through the boards on which she sat, twisted around on the dock to look up at him and before he could stop it a laugh had escaped Kurama's lips. It was a crab she'd been holding in her hands, blue and tan speckled and about the size of a dinner plate and missing most of its legs and meaty parts. She looked to have been caught off guard, stormy blue eyes and coal black lashes wide with surprise, cheeks round with crabmeat, apparently, and her lips and chin splattered with bits of the unfortunate creature. Her face flushed red and she swallowed her mouthful, swiping the back of her hand across her mouth. "Kurama!" she said, surprised and embarrassed to have been caught eating so messily. There just really wasn't any neat way to eat a raw, whole crab with your bare hands. Somehow, though, she doubted that would pass for an excuse if her mother were here.

"I'm sorry I startled you," Kurama said, trying to keep the humorous smile off his face and pretend he hadn't just all-out laughed at her a moment ago.

"Oh, no, you didn't, I just… um-" and she looked sheepishly down at the front of her shirt and her legs splattered with crab and the impressive mound of crustacean carcasses peaking out of the water meters below her feet. Kurama spotted it and his eyebrows shot up into his bangs. "I was hungry," she finished lamely. The avatar gave her a look. Indeed.

The miko returned his look sheepishly and then offered him a crab leg. He smiled in thanks. He hadn't had anything to eat yet, actually. He'd had too much on his mind and too much to investigate this morning to worry about food. So he took a seat next to her and ate the freshest Makai crabs he'd ever had.

While they ate, they talked. Kagome explained to him that Dr. Tik Tik had told her that she would be very hungry and sleepy after putting out so much reiki at once, embarrassed both by her voracious appetite and the fact that she had somehow managed to sleep for twelve hours in a strange, suspicious little village when she was supposed to be "keeping her eyes open." Kurama, of course, was understanding and so they moved on to more important matters. He told her about what he'd been doing this morning while she slept and the cranes were away.

"I kinda noticed the fact that there was no one else here but us, but I kinda figured it was midday and maybe they were all out finding food and water or something. I don't really know what a crane youkai does all day, and to be honest I was so hungry I just didn't think much of it," she said, blushing again.

Kurama nodded. "I looked inside each of them. They all looked well lived-in, only recently vacated."

"I wonder what could drive what had to be 90% of the village to leave their homes?" Kagome asked, standing with her bow and roped arrow again, having spotted a crab in the shallow water below. Kurama could see now that one end of the long rope she'd cleverly tied to the dock through a natural knot hole in the wood so that it wouldn't fall into the marsh. The miko expertly notched her arrow and pulled back the string in one fluid motion, the wood creaking audibly under the strain of the draw. He held his breath as she took aim and with a swoosh and a thud she'd speared another hefty crab. She crouched to grab the rope and start pulling in her prize. Kurama couldn't help but notice how much definition she had in her legs and shoulders.

"Where did you learn to do that?" it wasn't what he'd meant to say, but it was what he'd been thinking.

"Hm? Oh, I saw a little boy doing it once in a village on a river," she explained, pulling up the crab and yanking the arrow out of its carapace before taking her seat again and handing it to Kurama. He took it and started breaking off legs for them both to eat. "It was winter and we were passing through. They had this little dock that went out over a shallow, rocky part of the river and he was standing out there shooting fish. The ice over the rocks was paper thin so the arrow went right through. I asked him if he could show me how and he did." She smiled with the memory. "Toru was his name. He was really good, especially to be so young. See, you've got to compensate for the weight of the rope…" She had a faraway look, as though she were remembering that centuries-gone boy and the village that was worlds and eras away now. "Well, anyway, I was looking around the women's residence after I woke up and I found these arrows and rope and it came back to me all of a sudden."

"Clever boy," Kurama smiled. "Sorry to get off topic, I just had never seen that before."

Kagome shrugged. "I picked up a few useful skills in the Feudal Era." They were quiet for a few moments. Then, Kagome cleared her throat. "Where do you think they get their water? We're going to need to leave here soon, most likely. We need to figure out where to go."

"We can try asking Ashi when they get back, but I get the feeling he won't be much help."

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"I talked to him this morning before they all flew off. He didn't know much of anything, or at least wasn't willing to tell me if he did. There's something strange about them… lethargic, dazed or something. Maybe that's how they usually are, but… It seems off to me," he said.

"Ashi did come off a little bird-brained last night, but… Do you think they had something to do with everyone else disappearing?"

"I don't know. It's possible… There's something else weird. I didn't notice it last night, but they all have round stomachs. They don't look natural. So much so that it made me think that perhaps it is a contagious disease that has spread through the village."

The miko gave this point serious consideration, because that was a possibility that she hadn't thought of and if it turned out to be true, they could be sitting in the hot pot right now and not even know it. "Wouldn't we have seen bodies or graves or something? Some indication that a lot of people had died here recently?" She frowned when that brought to mind countless images of fresh mass graves she'd seen in war-torn ancient Japan.

"Not if the progression of the disease culminates in flight and suicide. Remember the bird we saw drown itself?" he reminded her gravely.

She suddenly looked a lot more serious than she had moments ago. "Kurama, this could be bad. This could be really bad. If that's the case and whatever it is that killed these people is contagious to humans… there's no way. We've slept in their beds, we've drank their water… We're out in the middle of nowhere. We'd never make it out of this marsh alive. And then, even if it's not contagious to humans we'd be carriers. We could risk spreading it beyond the marsh, we could take it all the way back to the inner territories!" Kagome was getting ahead of herself now, and she was starting to get a little flustered. The possibilities were suddenly overwhelming. "What if the cranes don't come back? What if they went to the sea like the other one we saw? We could be waiting around here, exposing ourselves further to this disease!"

"Kagome," the avatar said gently, laying a hand on her arm to draw her attention away from that train of thought. She looked over to him with worried eyes. "We don't know yet that that is what happened here. We could be getting ahead of ourselves. Like you said, we've already drank the water and slept in their beds. If we were going to be exposed to something, it has already happened. It does no good to fret over it now. We cannot leave the village yet; we have no idea which way to go to get out of the marsh or how far we'd have to go. All we can do now is wait for the cranes to get back and try to figure out our next move then," he explained calmly.

And when he laid it out like that, well, it did help calm her down a little.

But there was one point that he hadn't revealed yet to her: the person in the communal building. He knew why he was hesitating. Because he (or some part of him) had known her for over four hundred years, and albeit he had only seen her in one very narrow ray of light in the spectrum of her experience, he knew that she would want to try to talk to the person in the boarded up building. Because she would assume that person was in need of help, and she was a protector.

And, if he were honest with himself, he had some misgivings about that as well. He knew what his mother would say was the right thing to do. But he wasn't willing to risk his or Kagome's safety to possibly help a stranger, even if Kagome was willing to risk her's. It could just as easily be that the one in the building was patient zero, or that they were in some advanced, dangerous state of this disease. It could be any number of inconceivable possibilities. They simply didn't have enough information to make such a bold move, in his opinion. If they tried to seek information from the stranger in the community center, then that was another loose end. If they didn't agree to let the person out, perhaps the prisoner would threaten to tell the cranes that the newcomers had talked to them and make up any number of things to turn the cranes against them.

However, it could be that the three cranes wouldn't return at all. They could have succumbed to the same tragic fate as that bird they'd seen yesterday. In that case, it would be practical to exploit that particular route of information. And the sun was getting low in the sky…

The decision, however, was made for him.

Kagome squinted at something over his head and Kurama looked over his shoulder to see the cranes approaching in the classic V formation from the northeast. Kurama noted immediately that the bird in the lead, Ashi most likely, faltered in his descent. The two mostly humans stood slowly to face them as the three birds landed heavily at the end of the west side walkway, transforming effortlessly from bird to humanoid in the moment before their bare feet touched the dock. Waiting to see what they would do, the couple tried their best to look nonchalant.

The cranes didn't immediately do anything. Kagome, who was getting her first good look at them in the daylight, observed them with interest from her position just behind Kurama. The three of them stood clustered together at the end of the dock, looking at them speculatively with black, beady eyes and heads turned slightly to the side in a distinctly avian manner. Their posture was a little stiff and unnatural for their humanoid appearance and their movements were somewhat jerky. Enflamed by the crimson light of the setting sun, their "almost human but not quite" features took on a sinister glow. The miko immediately chastised herself for feeling a little frightened of them. Just because they looked and acted a little strange didn't make them guilty of anything. This could all just be a weird misunderstanding on their part. But she did notice what Kurama had pointed out about their stomaches; they were unmistakably swollen. If they'd been women Kagome would swear they were heavily pregnant.

The silence was getting a little awkward. Kagome cleared her throat and stepped forward to stand beside her companion. "Good day of fishing?" she asked conversationally, raising her voice to make sure they could hear her from where they stood at the end of the dock meters away.

Silence. Ashi blinked, cocked his head.

She fidgeted anxiously. Kurama tried, "We thank you for your hospitality. We hope we haven't inconvenienced you."

When Ashi finally spoke, Kagome almost sighed in relief. "Fish, yes. Pulled many fish," he said, seeming to ignore Kurama's statement. Then he tilted his head back on his slightly too-long neck and made a motion with his beaky mouth that reminded her of a bird swallowing its prey whole. It just looked creepy on a humanoid.

"I'm glad. We had some luck fishing ourselves… Um, well, we don't want to be a burden on you." Kagome looked to Kurama, raising her eyebrows in a silent question. Where did he want to go from here?

So, he stepped in again. "We've rested and refreshed ourselves sufficiently. If you'll tell us how to get out of the marsh, we'll be on our way." His first priority was determining their escape route. Second was uncovering whatever these cranes were hiding so that they could figure out how to proceed.

Nami and Kumo looked to Ashi and Ashi looked out to the marsh. It was a long moment before he answered, so long that they thought he wouldn't. "Tiger's on the marsh. She hunts under the moon."

The two humans shared a look. Kurama said, "We'll wait till morning to leave, then. We came in from the southeast. How far inland would we need to go to get out of the marsh?"

"The marsh is big," Ashi answered unhelpfully.

Nami, the shorter of the two younger cranes, cocked his head to the side, blinked. "The women's map," he said as though he were just remembering it.

Ashi seemed to consider that for a moment. Then, "Yes, the map. The map shows you where to go."

"You have a map!" Kagome jumped on that possibility. She bounced on the balls of her feet when she said it, unable to contain her excitement. "Please, I'd love to take a look at it!"

"You can see the map." Ashi started abruptly down the walkway toward them, the others following, and Kurama and Kagome followed him as he led them back to the storage building. Kurama studiously avoided looking at the boarded up building across from them as they all entered the storage building. However, he didn't miss Kagome's furtive appraisal of the nails in the sliding door or the boards nailed over the windows as though it was the first time she was noticing them. It probably was. She wasn't nearly as observant as he thought she should be.

When they were all inside, red sunlight pouring through the windows to light the small, dusty room, Ashi motioned Nami toward an old wooden trunk in the corner. The younger youkai went to it and, after rummaging for a moment, pulled out a rolled piece of parchment tied with a string. He brought it back to them and, after looking to Ashi for confirmation, handed it to Kagome. She immediately dropped to her knees and rolled the yellowed map out on the floor in front of her, holding the ends down under her palms. Kurama stepped up behind her to look down over her shoulder. Nami dropped to one knee facing the miko on the other side of the map. Out of the corner of his eye the avatar saw Ashi step back towards the doorway and Kumo step forward in the same moment, blocking his view.

Keeping his ears focused behind him on the eldest crane inching backwards, he observed Kagome with the map. She had put her right knee on the edge to free her hand. With her fingers she traced over the image of the coast and immense marshland. There were half a dozen small red dots scattered in the marsh and the key indicated these were crane villages. However, they weren't labeled individually. "Which one are we?" she asked Nami, indicating the red dots.

Nami blinked and turned his head to the side, cornering his eyes down at the map. "I don't know. We can't read it."

The miko gave him a disbelieving look. "What good is a map if you can't read it?" Maybe that came off rude, but really. She was starting to lose patience with these birds.

The youkai just blinked, his expression blank and his beaky mouth pursed. "We can't read it."

"Yes, I got that." She blew up through her bangs in exasperation. "Ok, ok, let's think about this," and she poured over the map, tracing her fingers south down the coastline and muttering under her breath.

Behind him Kurama heard Ashi step quietly out of the doorway.

"Now here's where the river flows into the estuary. I'll bet that's where you get your water from, isn't it?" Kagome asked Nami. At that moment Kumo decided to enter the conversation. He crouched next to Kagome, leaving Kurama the only one still standing in the room.

"The river. Yes, water comes from the river," Kumo agreed.

Kurama reached down to brush his hand over Kagome's shoulder. She looked back at him and he gestured toward the door. Glancing around, she noticed Ashi's absence and dipped her chin in understanding. She would figure out this map with the younger cranes and he would follow Ashi.

And so, while the miko had both of them distracted, Kurama employed some of the finely honed stealth skills he'd inherited from his predecessor and slipped out the door without their notice. Outside the light was fading. The sun was nearly down over the horizon now, leaving the clouds streaked deep violet and crimson and the eastern half of the sky deepening into the aubergine of the Makai night. Casting his gaze up and down the walkway, he just caught the sight of the Ashi's back as the crane leapt down over the edge of the east side dock. With his enhanced hearing he heard a splash when the youkai landed in the shallow water below.

Pausing only long enough to listen in on the mysterious occupant of the communal building and ascertaining no apparent change in their condition, he stalked silently down the walkway, harking back to a lifetime of creeping and thieving as a wild kitsune, until he reached the east dock. There, he dropped to his belly and crawled to the edge to avoid silhouetting himself against the backdrop of the setting sun behind him. Peeking over the edge, he saw Ashi wading out into the marsh in the direction of the coast, still in his humanoid form. Where was he going? And why wasn't he flying to get there?

When he thought the bird was far enough out so that he wouldn't hear him, Kurama found a support beam and lowered himself feet-first over the edge, gripping the smooth wood of the beam with his bare soles. His limbs warmed as youki flooded through them, lending him a strength and stealth far beyond the abilities of any human. When his feet entered the water at the bottom, they didn't make a sound.

Taking only a moment to check his surroundings with his sixth sense, he hunched and crept like the fox he'd once been east after the crane.

He had some misgivings about leaving Kagome alone with Nami and Kumo, but it was necessary. Besides that, despite the unwarranted an unwanted feelings of protectiveness toward her, he knew the young miko could take care of herself. Yusuke had seen to that, and if nothing else the toushin could be trusted to take his training very seriously.

What he was more concerned with at the moment was getting to the bottom of the mystery of the crane village. Where were all the other inhabitants? Why were these three acting so strange, and who did they have boarded up in the communal building? Besides the insatiable curiosity common to kitsune, it was imperative that they figure out if they were in danger of taking whatever it was that was going on here back with them to the inner territories, and beyond to Ningenkai.

So, he followed Ashi at a safe distance as the crane waded through the hip-high grass and the shallow, warm water into the night. He was beginning to the think the crane was determined to walk all the way to the coast, to drown himself perhaps like the other crane they'd seen, so determined in his path he seemed to be, when the crane suddenly stopped.

Crouching in the reeds, Kurama watched with interest as the crane stood very still, seeming to wait for something.

Two full minutes passed, insects chirping in the distance, clouds drifting overhead, silent sentries dampening the light of the half moon and casting the marsh in an eery, quiet darkness. Still, the crane stood, tall and exposed out in the open. Hadn't he mentioned a tiger?

Then, from the east, the direction of the coast, came a light. Only, it wasn't from the sky. It seemed to be moving through marsh, lighting the tall, rippling reeds with a pale blue luminescence from below.

And still Ashi stood still, seemingly unconcerned, as the strange light moved ever closer until it closed in on him.