The river flowed beneath the bridge. A normal low to the ground stone bridge. The river split the larger town in half, flowing across it from east to west with ducks floating gently on the surface as they bobbed for food. It was a rather peaceful town compared to recent stops, one that had Kayo thankful for a simple location for once.

But that was where the simple stopped. Few were willing to acknowledge their existence. The town was rather unfriendly and almost felt abandoned.

"They didn't have to be so rude and slam the doors in our faces," Kayo complained. "Even the eatery. I really wanted some noodles."

The medicine seller handed her one of the rice balls from the last town. They had made quite the sale, able to purchase a large amount of sticky rice balls that would last them for some time on their journeys. He had to admit though a bowl of noodles did actually sound good.

He set the medicine chest down, sitting down on the riverbank as he picked at a rice ball. Something about this town bothered him and it wasn't just the hospitality. Something lurked deep within this town and likely behind closed doors. Perhaps it was just some yokai or a deep dark secret they didn't want to get out. Either could create a mononoke but perhaps it was just a paranoid town.

Kayo huffed, sitting down next to him and chewing on the rice ball. They did really hit the spot though noodles were still on her mind. "This place is just weird. It's like they're all hiding something."

He grinned just a bit. So she had noticed it too. Perhaps it was just an uninviting, paranoid town. Nothing had quite scratched at the back of his senses just yet, but that didn't mean it wouldn't. It also didn't mean that it would. If nothing came, they'd be on their way to the next town or to camp somewhere upstream.

But something had intrigued him about this town as much as it unsettled him. He sat in silence for a moment. The town truly felt deserted as he watched the southern half across the river. For a sunny spring afternoon, there was no one in sight. The streets were remarkably empty, no signs beckoning people into shops or peddlers selling their wares. Someone swept in the distance before scurrying back inside. A hushed conversation was in the distance. There were people here, they had seen them, but the streets were practically abandoned.

Kayo wrinkled her nose. It almost felt like he was waiting for something to show up in this weird town but nothing came. He was just staring across the river. There was always the chance he was seeing something she didn't, but he had made no move against whatever he was observing.

She stared down at the bits of rice stuck to her fingers before picking them off. "Say, when do I get to have a medicine chest?"

She really wasn't expecting any sort of actual answer. Perhaps who knows or no comment. That was the usual answer for many things, but he wasn't exactly stingy with his. She knew where things were located and he trusted her to be able to handle it. She'd seen the depths of the mysterious bottom drawer that held questionable materials like phosphorus and gunpowder. She could locate all the spices and salves. The taima was always kept on the top and he had a lot of charms in the middle.

The medicine seller glanced back at his own chest before looking at Kayo. She'd been with him for quite awhile now, but she had never asked for her own.

"Or is it some sort of apprentice thing not to have one?" she added before he answered.

He couldn't admit to ever having an apprentice before. He'd originally said yes half by her insistence, half from his own curiosity on how she would handle the situation. Perhaps there was some amusement thrown in there as well, given her tendency to attract mononoke. There was a part of him that actually felt for her too, given how many mononoke she had encountered and the horrors she'd been subjected to. Somehow he'd become fond of having an apprentice and companion.

"There is hardly some requirement, though they are quite heavy," he replied.

"Yeah yeah, I know, I've carried yours before," Kayo puffed her lip out. She did complain about how much they traveled at first, but her feet had become used to constant walking. "Maybe a little one."

Reaching back to the chest, he hooked a finger around the handle and fished for the stash of yen. Spreading the coins out, he made a rough count of their supplies. Chests of his size didn't run exactly cheap and they had to spread their funds across two people. "After the next sale and perhaps in a more inviting town." He dropped the coins back into the small bag and tucked them back in the drawer.

"Seriously?" Kayo lit up. When she started this journey, it wasn't something she would've considered, but now it somehow made her happy. It made her feel official.

The medicine seller nodded. "We should be on our way. This town has little to offer." He stood up, reaching for the medicine chest before stopping and looking up. "Well this is a surprise."

Kayo leapt up and turned, expecting to find some yokai standing behind them. "Is that…. Mr. Genyosai?!" She hadn't seen the traveling ascetic for some time, not since the boat trip across the Ayakashi Sea. She didn't want to think about the horrors from there.

"Fancy meeting you two here!" Genyosai greeted them. "And together, no less! Is that to say a mononoke would appear since you're here too, Mr. Medicine Seller?"

"Who knows," he replied, amused at the not-exactly-incorrect assumption.

Kayo glanced at the medicine seller for a moment. It was that usual vague answer but he wasn't exactly watching anything but Genyosai so perhaps he was screwing with the ascetic. "What are you doing here? This place is pretty remote."

"I do travel much like the pair of you do," he flicked open his fan, fanning himself. "There is always a place for a budding exorcist and a traveling ascetic of course. What brings you two here? Is it just coincidence that you both are here together? Or are you two… married?" he added a rather amused grin with the last word.

"I'm his apprentice!" she screeched at him. "A-ppren-tice!"

The medicine seller smirked in amusement.

"Ah right right!" Genyosai laughed nervously, throwing his hands up in surrender. "Apprentice! My mistake!"

"Everyone just assumes we're married, but even a working woman can be a medicine seller!" Kayo fussed some more, jabbing a finger into his shoulder.

"Well it's not like I was implying anything of course," Genyosai quickly defended himself. "You had said you wanted to marry on the ship."

"Of all the things to remember! Not the ayakashi fish or that creepy hollow boat or anything in between!" Kayo hissed. "Well there are more important things now anyway! Like freeing mononoke from their ire. Right?!" She turned back to the medicine seller for confirmation, seeing that he was no longer looking at either of them.

His attention was elsewhere as he peered upstream. Something was starting to pull at his senses, something supernatural. Perhaps it was whatever caused the streets to be empty and the town to appear completely deserted.

"What is he looking at?" Genyosai questioned. "You think it would be hard to not hear this conversation."

"I've been working with him for years, and I can't even figure that out half the time," Kayo replied. "Normally I'd guess he's watching some yokai, but I don't think that's the case."

"There is something here," the medicine seller informed them.

"What sort of something?" Genyosai questioned. "Is it possibly-" he shrieked an interruption as the river before them suddenly streaked with red. "Is that…. Is that blood?!"

The medicine seller watched as the red pooled in the river then faded as it floated downstream. In the middle of the blood was a handful of bones then something else washed ashore. A head.

Kayo leapt onto the medicine seller, clinging to him. "Is that a head?!"

"It seems so," he said, staring down at it. "I believe we have a mononoke on our hands."

...

Author's musings

Nothing quite interrupts a conversation like a severed head in a river.

I've been wanting to directly include a character from the original series, though since most of them are kinda dead, it was a bit more difficult. But Genyosai did survive! And he's such a fun character to have around, especially when there are severed heads involved.