Author's Note: I'M SO SORRY!

I am procrastination.

Yeah, I don't really have a lot of reasons why I held off on updating for this long. I was planning on starting this a few days ago, though to my defense, I landed a job interview that I was busy (nervously) preparing for that happened yesterday. Once that was over, I felt much more relieved and more than happy to start writing this properly. This turned out a lot longer than I had thought it would, and my pinky is paying the price (remember, I physically write these out before transcribing onto the computer).

Don't worry, I will have the next chapter of Neya's perspective out really soon, because I already know exactly what I need to write. To anyone who actually was patient enough to read this before immediately starting the chapter after my four-month hiatus, I commend you.

Chapter 21. Utsuho - Next Time, Listen to the Crazy People

The boat ride had been abysmal in Utsuho's opinion.

Akane could not have been more clingy and flirty. It was painfully obvious she was gunning for him and, while it would have been slightly flattering under normal circumstances, it was detrimental to his newfound intentions toward Neya. The more he had checked, the more she was near Yakuma, and he did not miss her tripping only to be caught by the gallant, honest, responsible, suave Yakuma. Utsuho should have been the one to catch her and to just keep holding tight so she'll never go anywhere or to any man.

Yeah, he had it bad. The possessiveness was fully kicked-in.

Little to his relief (greatly to Chouza's), they had landed in Saikaichi. It was not as alive as the previous port, but it was more pleasant. Nao managed to beat everyone off the ship, forcing Neya to rush off too followed by…Yakuma, of course. Chouza managed to get down with Uzume and Minamo's help, then Hikae held out a hand for Iwashi to take gracefully.

Utsuho had never been particularly interested in the princess and her goings-on. Now, after having been oblivious to her actions all this time, it seemed she was getting along exceedingly well with their immortal friend. Well, if it kept Hikae entertained, then all the better. Besides, he still cared for her as a friend and wished her to find happiness with someone besides himself.

He managed to trudge off the boat behind Akane's troupe with the woman herself nobly standing at his side. There was no shaking her. When they all gathered back together among the throng of disembarking passengers, they all headed to the first shop to ask for directions.

The knobby old man at the first stand did not look up from his work of moving fish when they approached.

"Excuse me, sir, would you point us to the road that will take us to Kyoto?" Yakuma asked.

"Hm," grunted the old man, "on the western side of town is the main road. It'll take ya to the capitol." His hand pointed in the direction they needed as clarification as he eyed the lot of them with wary old eyes. "Just stick to the road and don't go wandering off from it."

That piqued Utsuho's interest. "Why?"

"Spirits in the mountains, boy! They'll come after you if you trespass on their territory, so don't go through the mountains, follow the road. I pity any poor wretch that wanders into their forests. They get mighty angry." The old man finished his small tirade, settling into his chair to rub his most likely stiff shoulders, only bothering to give them a glance.

"Got it, old man!" Utsuho cheerfully chirped, "No going off the road! Thanks for the warning!" He took off through the street with a gleeful stride, compelling the others to hurry after him. He didn't believe in spirits, and the mystery of whatever was there was intriguing. It certainly took his mind away from his personal problems.

xXx

Travel had been smooth for the past several hours and everything seemed perfectly normal to the itsuwaribito (to his disappointment). There was nothing dark or mysterious about the road they traveled along that ran at the foot of the mountain.

"It was likely just old folklore in the village," said Yakuma.

"Cheh," Utsuho scoffed, bored by the lack of development. He had really wanted to investigate!

"I count my blessings from the gods that it is merely a tale," Akane said, clearly relieved.

Neya glanced at the entertainer in a friendly manner. "Do you not like spirits or the supernatural, Akane-san?"

"None whatsoever! It is too terrifying a thought!" Utsuho could feel the corresponding tug of his sleeve as the girl sought comfort in his presence from her inner musings of ghosts and demons and oni*.

"I suppose—" Neya began before she was interrupted.

"Waah! Help!" The meek cries echoed through the forest to them. His first thought was to call back to the voice, and possibly have the chance to investigate those so-called "spirits", but his plans were ruined as Neya dashed into the woods with an agitated Nao.

"That was a child's voice!" she called back as if that were explanation enough without stopping. Yakuma was moving out after her just as quickly.

"Oi, the villager said we shouldn't go, is it okay for you two to go like that?!" Chouza called to the doctor.

"No matter, I need to check just to make sure that if someone is injured, I can help them!"

"Wait for me, Nee-chan!" called Uzume, whom also dashed off with what appeared to be some sense of purpose.

"Is it okay to let them go like that?" asked Hikae, wearing an innocent yet cheshire-cat smile, as if he was completely unconcerned with what happened.

'Dammit!' Utsuho thought. Everyone was acting on their own accord quicker than he could stop them. With the situation as it was, someone had to stay back to protect Akane and her troupe at the same time as making sure the three of them knew where to come back.

"I'll go get them back. The rest of you stay here," ordered Utsuho.

"Oi, oi, Thread Eyes, we don't take orders from you, don't go thinking you'll be going by yourself. Uzume also ran off. The brat and I are coming, too," demanded Chouza.

"Fine, fine, let's just get going," Utsuho said, already hurrying to the forest edge. "I'm counting on you, Hika, to take care of the others!"

His sandaled feet dashed forward, followed by the sound of three other sets of footsteps. That briefly confused Utsuho.

"Wait, Utsuho!"

Utsuho checked over his shoulder at the lagging figure of Akane as she attempted to run in her restrictive kimono. Rather than argue it, he focused all of his attention on catching up to Neya and the other two.

Ahead of them, the mountain forest proved vast and thick. The canopy of trees filtered most of the sunlight, significantly dimming their view and causing progress to go slow. As they ran, he and Chouza called out the names of their comrades.

"Uzume!"

"Nee-chan!"

"Ane-chan!*"

"Yakuma!"

"Isha!*"

"Neya-san!" called out Akane.

Yet as much as they yelled, the shouts emptily bounced through the thicket of trees and no reply came back.

"Chibikko!*" Minamo nodded her head, understanding the itsuwaribito's bark that was an unspoken request.

"Uzume and Neya and the other two are here…yet not here. Minamo does not quite understand."

"'Here yet not here'? How did that happen?" wondered Chouza.

"Maybe it has to do with what the old man in the village mentioned," Akane spoke up worriedly. "Spirits could have taken them, then…" She did not dare voice her thoughts.

"Your companions have entered our territory, that is how."

Utsuho's neck whipped to the right where a person (maybe?) stood. He was not quite sure if he could define them as a normal person upon observing his obscure getup. The stranger was dressed in the robes of a Yamabushi* monk with the pom-pommed sash and small black cap. In his hand was a ringed, Buddhist staff, the Shakujo*. Upon his face was a top-half mask depicting an angry, red, twisted expression leading down into an extended upper-half of a sleek, black beak that managed to mostly shadow the lower half of his face. What was most peculiar, though, was the set of black wings attached to the stranger's back.

"A tengu-sama*?" Akane ventured uncertainly, voicing the thoughts of everyone there.

"Indeed," answered the stranger.

"And you're saying the reason we can't find our friends is because of you?" asked Utsuho. He supposed to some degree he could believe tengu exist given the existence of talking tanuki that can transform into others and command people with their given names. That did not mean he was going to allow one to get the better of him.

"Indeed."

"Any way you can go ahead and let us get them?"

The answer this time was not as immediate as the previous two. "Indeed."

Utsuho waited in silence, inviting the tengu to explain himself, while his own eyes slid open.

"If you are able to win a game against me, I will allow you to meet your companions."

"If I lose, then what happens?"

"You and the three with you shall be punished for trespassing onto our mountain."

"Oh no!" Akane once more hid clinging to Utsuho, though this time in genuine fear.

'Our?' thought Utsuho. 'That could mean there are more than just this one, but that is not certain. He could be lying to mislead me into believing he has other allies. I'll have to tread carefully, but I'm still worried about Neya.'

"Do I get to choose the game?" he asked with a kind smile.

"No," came the quick reply.

"Thought so." His mouth cocked into a more challenging half-smirk, fully seeing this guy as his enemy.

The tengu pulled out three simple black ceramic cups from his robe, a bamboo flask*, and a pile of identical square-folded packets (the type that usually held medicine). He set them on a fallen log and sat before it, gesturing Utsuho to sit on the other side.

"Here is how the game works. You are not allowed to receive any help from the three people there. I will fill all three of these cups with water. Then, while you are watching, I will pour a single dose of this poison," he held up one of the packets, "into one cup. I will switch the cups around and you must then choose a cup to drink from. You do not have to drain the cup, just a decent sip is acceptable. Then, it will be your turn to place a dose of poison into whichever cup you want, switch them, and I will then have to drink from a cup. The game continues in that manner. First let me explain that though this poison is not lethal without extremely large doses, it still has side-effects. With a sip from one of these cups carrying a single dose, you will begin to feel nausea. With a sip from one of these cups carrying a double dose, you will also become dizzy and your thinking cloudy. Finally, with a sip from one of these cups carrying a triple dose, you will lose consciousness. When that occurs, you lose the game."

"How do I know the poison will affect you as well? This may work on humans while being completely useless on tengu. Or you have already built an immunity to it," challenged Utsuho.

"You can only take my word, as a guardian of this mountain, that it affects me as well as it will you. Should you refuse to believe me and choose not to partake in the game, we cannot move on and I will be required to punish you." The tengu said it so simply without a hint of uncertainty either way. Chouza began lifting his clawed hands threateningly to prepare for a fight, but Utsuho held his arm in front of the poison-user signaling him to stand down.

"Agreed."

The tengu uncapped his bamboo flask, proceeding to fill each cup halfway. Utsuho watched carefully as his opponent worked on unfolding one of the packets to empty a tiny amount of white powder into the cup on Utsuho's left, then at a moderate pace, moved the three cups from left, center, right, center, left, etc. It was simple to keep track of the poison cup that ended up in the center.

'Essentially it's a game of keeping track of how much poison is in each cup and not be the first one to drink a cup with three or more doses. All three cups will end up with at least some poison, so it's inevitable both of us will drink some. Add to that the side-effects of the poison, it will become harder to concentrate on which is which and thinking about your next move.'

Internally, Utsuho began his categorizing by identifying the poison cup as cup #1. Then #2 was the one currently on his right, which he chose as the one he would poison on his turn. That left cup #3 on the left as the last un-poisoned cup following his turn.

He picked up cup #2 and took a sip and placed it back down, then emptied a packet into it. Utsuho moved his hands steadily and quickly, swapping the positions of the cups at a still followable pace. Now, cup #1 was on the right, cup #2 was in the center, and cup #3 kept its place on the left.

The tengu drank from #3 before also poisoning cup #3. He swapped them around, with #1 on the left and #3 on the right.

'Now the real fight begins.' Utsuho drank from cup #3, using the logic that it had less time to evenly dissolve the powder after sinking to the bottom than cups #1 and #2. After his drink, the tengu refilled all of the cups to the halfway mark. Utsuho waited patiently, then put the second dose of poison into cup #1. Shuffling the order a bit faster without spilling, Utsuho tried to read his opponent's expressions with no luck due to that bulky mask. The tengu, seemingly undisturbed by his choice, slowly reached out for cup #3 again, allowing time for Utsuho to start feeling his stomach churn uncomfortably. The tengu drank from #3 and then added the second dose to cup #1 followed by his swap.

'Cups #1 and #2 both have two doses, and cup #3 keeps being the choice of drink. I could drink from #3 and add to one of the other two so there would be one of each dosage. He would probably follow by adding to #3 and then I would have to drink one with a double dose. I could then poison one of the double-dose cups, so he would have a 1 in 3 chance of drinking only a double-dosed cup. After that, though, he could make all three of them triple doses, leaving me at a loss. I can't do that. However, he never gave a limit to how many doses we could put in a cup, which means I can put four or more in a single cup. If that's the case, then I want to drink from #3 next (which still only has a single dose), and then put a third dose into #1 or #2. He would drink from #3 again, and likely put it's second dose in. At that point, I would take a drink from #3 or the cup that I did not triple dose on my previous turn, and then put a fourth dose into the same cup as before. One cup would have four doses, and the other two would still have only two. With that, he'll drink from one of the double dose cups and put a third dose into one, leaving it at double, triple, and quadruple dosages. Finally, I drink from the double dose cup and put the third dose into that same cup and he will be left with no other option on his turn but to drink one of two triple-dosed cups or a quadruple.'

Satisfied with his logic, Utsuho drank from cup #3 once more, willing himself to have a stomach of steel. The nausea was becoming slightly inconvenient. He then placed the third dose into cup #1. After his rearrangement, the tengu expectedly drank from #3 again, then placed a second dose into #3. Both #2 and #3 now had double doses and #1 had a triple dose.

Utsuho drank from #2, bracing himself for the oncoming dizziness on top of the continuous nausea. He placed the fourth dose into #1 and, with growing difficulty, repositioned the cups. #1 had four, and #2 and #3 still had two just as he had planned.

Once more, the tengu drank from #3, then poisoned it the third time. Although his hands did not move as briskly as before, the tengu's movements were still as sure.

Presented now with only one real option in the form of the double-dosed #2, Utsuho unsteadily reached out to grab cup #2, somehow managing to aim the lid of the cup at his mouth and letting the toxic liquid slide in. He needed to finish this game in the next move before he could no longer keep track of the concentrations in each cup and the positions. His fingers, bereft of their nimbleness, did their best to open the small (confounding, annoying, damnable!) packet and poured it into the cup he was reasonably sure was #2. With his best attempt at that point, he shuffled the cups.

'Hah! My win, Tengu! Like some non-lethal poison was going to stop me from getting to Neya! And even if you don't agree to help and back out on the deal, I'll shove some more of these damn packets down your throat…rip that stupid mask off your face and pluck your wings clean, or maybe even Chouza…'

As his muddled thoughts of more "punishments" for his opponent tumbled on, said-person picked up cup #1 and drank, which halted Utsuho's thoughts and he saw that the tengu did not show signs of instantly fainting.

"Wha—?"

"Your…move, intruder," spoke the masked creature, his voice no longer solid and smooth.

'Did I make a mistake?' worried Utsuho suddenly. 'I can't even tell if I lost track or if he cheated, but all the cups are supposed to be triple-dosed at this point. Based on his voice, he's not immune to the effects of the poison, meaning if he didn't pass out just now, that was the double-dosed cup #2…it was #2, right? and…I poisoned the wrong cup? Oh, he's pouring poison into the cup he just drank from. Maybe he's toughing it out. The winner of the game is…simply the last person awake. No matter what, we're both ingesting more poison…meaning…it still adds up…no matter what. I just need to drink…drink what? Drink…drink less…Concentrated! That's it! Less concentrated water.'

With that uncertainty resolved, Utsuho tried with what little clarity he still had to keep track of the tengu's similarly disoriented movements. Somehow, that wobbling and shaking and lack of precise motion further confused Utsuho and he was struggling to remember which was the cup the tengu just drank from as well as poisoned.

When the shuffle was finished, Utsuho grabbed the right cup and drank.

Everything promptly became black.

Author's After-note: Yay! The little asterisks are back! That means post-chapter explanations! A lot of the new stuff this chapter was actually from Wikipedia, so I will simply give a short description and direct you to the page that has all of that if you are really interested. I had decided a while ago that I wanted to introduce tengu since Itsuwaribito Utsuho allowed tanuki, and for that reason, I fully took advantage of the information on Wikipedia to inspire what I should do with them.

Tengu: A mountain guardian or spirit, sometimes depicted as a demon, that is an avian-type humanoid (?). There are actually many depictions of a tengu, but the one I used here with the black wings and a mask (most of the time, it is of a long nose, not a beak) and the Buddhist staff like the one Miroku from Inuyasha carried and the robes with those fluffy balls on their chests is the most common depiction. The Wikipedia page of the same name. Explains just about everything.

Yamabushi: This is the type of monk that wears these clothes, and the kanji literally means "one who lies in the mountains". They are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. Check out the Wikipedia page of the same name for an explanation.

Shakujo: The Buddhist staff that I just mentioned being the same as Miroku's.

Bamboo flask: I hope you guys have watched enough anime and read enough manga to know that I am referring to those long cylindrical containers with one portion of the wall of the container coming up above the lip to direct the liquid when you open it (I believe).

Oni: These are different from legitimate Japanese demons; they are closer to ogres.

Ane-chan/Isha: Chouza's method of calling Neya and Yakuma respectively. "Ane-chan" is a cute and more respectful way of saying "Older sister", while "isha" is the Japanese word for "doctor".

Chibikko: Utsuho's method of calling Minamo. It is a conjugation of "chibi" which means "small/tiny" and "child".

I hope you guys were not too confused by the game explanation and Utsuho's thoughts. If you need further explanation, you might want to draw a small chart labeling cups #1, #2, and #3 in three columns along with turns as the rows going down to keep track of who poisoned which and who drank which. That might help…? Also, let me know if I have any spelling errors or anything.

See ya!