The medicine seller curled his toes in the sand, staring out at the sea as the stars danced above it in the sky. There were a number of yokai that dwelled in the sea, though most preferred the open coastal seas. The Seto Sea was inland, enclosed nearly on all sides by land. The larger sea-dwelling yokai tended to live elsewhere, but most things had the potential to become something supernatural. Something had been scratching at the back of his senses since the tsunami suddenly manifested, and it hadn't stopped trying to call out to him ever since.

He stared down at the taima sword in his hand. It was silent at the moment.

"I would've figured you had gone to sleep, Mr. Medicine Seller."

Slipping the taima sword into his sleeve, he turned just enough to see the priestess approach. "Simply watching the stars."

She peered at him intently for a moment. "Somehow I get the feeling you're watching something else, something that most cannot discern."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he evaded.

"Just who are you exactly?" Kawa questioned.

"A simple medicine seller, nothing more," he replied.

Perhaps she was thinking too far into this, but everything about this medicine seller screamed strange. The slightly inhuman features, the supernatural air that seemed to surround him, the way he was intently staring at the sea. She was certain she wasn't wrong, but whoever he was, he didn't seem willing to talk about it.

Kawa turned back to looking at the sea. "Well, simple medicine seller, you seem to be the only one concerned with what truly happened today."

"Tsunami do not happen in the Inland Sea," he said. "Nor was there a storm to cause such a wave."

"Which would lead it to being supernatural in origin," Kawa said, glancing at him.

He continued to look out to the sea, watching the calm waves lap against the shore. She had sensed it too, but she was a priestess. A legitimate one. Her supernatural senses were likely quite strong.

He glanced at her for a moment. The note was genuine, as if she knew he could handle the information. It certainly was a nice change from monks and priests who seemed to think he was just a merchant who didn't know his place. The statement didn't seem to be an attempt to back him into a corner, so he simply spoke honestly as he saw it. "There are at least a dozen yokai which could cause a wave like that. Akaei, akkorokamui, various ayakashi, perhaps some funayuurei."

She nearly sighed in relief as the medicine seller listed off legitimate sea-dwelling yokai. Whoever he was, he had more knowledge than the scholar who thought he knew everything about yokai. "Many of which do not live here or the conditions are wrong for their appearances," Kawa shook her head. "I've run over the possibilities at least a dozen times, and none of them make sense. Mr. Tanbei rattled off ideas after dinner, but he couldn't get a single name right."

"That man couldn't tell his left foot from his right," the medicine seller commented.

"Exactly. At least the night has quieted him down." She knelt down, drawing a finger in the sand to write out various protection spells. Work in the sand would be fleeting as the tide came in, but at least it would give her some peace of mind for the night. Whatever was out there could attack more ships, even ones that tried to rescue them. This could make leaving the island much more difficult and at some point, it would need to be dealt with. She stared as the water suddenly receded. "Oh no."

Drawing the taima sword from his sleeve, he pushed it forward and split the surge of water and waves in two. The pressure was intense. He braced the sword with both hands, feeling the water sharply cut at his arms. He had hoped this was a yokai who had simply inadvertently caused the tidal wave, but it seemed that scratching suspicion had drawn him to his purpose once again. "A mononoke has arrived."

Kawa stared at the medicine seller's back, watching him split the water with the sword. He definitely wasn't ordinary as he claimed, but thankfully that lack of ordinary was keeping them from getting sloshed around. She knew the words he spoke, she knew of mononoke and their origins. If one had truly appeared, the other passengers were in danger. "The camp!"

The medicine seller gritted his teeth, the fangs appearing at the back, as he fought against the onslaught of water. A dark mass shot out of the water, wrapping itself around his waist and squeezing him tightly. It felt like it would crack his ribs as it attempted to force the air right out of his lungs. As he gasped, the water attempted to overwhelm him and choke him.

Shrieks resounded from the camp behind them further up the beach.

Kawa placed a hand on the dark mass. "Evil spirit, be gone!"

The mass reeled back, unwrapping itself and discarding the medicine seller on the sand. It sloshed back into the sea, the water from the waves draining back with it. He grasped at his side, coughing up seawater for a moment.

Kawa flopped backwards in the sand for a moment. She had read about mononoke, studied the supernatural, but never had she actually faced one before. They certainly were more angry and powerful than described.

The medicine seller took to his feet, stumbling for a moment and grasping at his side before heading for the camp. Kawa unburied herself from the sand and followed him. The makeshift campsite had been torn apart, the campfire extinguished and the food and supplies scattered. The passengers had been sloshed about, sitting in small puddles of water while Kayo stood with a small container of wet salt, shaking like a leaf.

"Mr. Medicine Seller!" she exclaimed. "Th-th-there was an arm in that water! Was it… no please don't tell me it was a mononoke!""

"It was," he confirmed. "And it seems to be after someone who was on this boat."

"I told you I hate boats!" Kayo cried. "Every time, there's always a mononoke! I hate boats so much!"

"A mononoke? That's preposterous!" Tanbei exclaimed.

"That's rich for someone who researches sea yokai," Kawa said sharply.

The medicine seller glanced around the ruined campsite. Aside from Kayo and himself, any one of them could be the mononoke's truth. The fisherman and his wife who used the ferry to catch fish and pay their taxes. The carpenter who worked at the ports but wanted to see the world. The scholar who studied sea yokai but couldn't get a single name correct. The priestess from a seaside shrine. They all had a connection to the water, to the Seto Inland Sea.

"A mononoke has a truth, form, and reason," the medicine seller ignored the scholar's cries. "Once all three are revealed, the mononoke can be slain. Until then, it will continue to attack, its ire impossible to satiate."

"I just want to fish! I don't want to be taken by that thing!" Hama sobbed into her husband's shoulder.

"There is no thing!" Tanbei insisted. "And what makes you so knowledgeable about this, you suspicious medicine seller?!"

"It would be wise to trust the one with a sacred sword if we want to make it through the night," Kawa pointed out. She still wasn't certain why a medicine seller of all people had one, but however he attained it, it wasn't by theft or by accident. He knew how to wield it and control it, and she was willing to believe he knew how to slay a mononoke with it as well.

The medicine seller sat politely on his knees, the taima sword resting between his hands. The saltwater still stung the fresh fine cuts on his arms now puffing up and threatening to bleed. They were visible from his sleeves, showing the group what the mononoke was capable of doing here and now. Not that the tsunami and the ship capsizing was any less of an indication of the power this mononoke possessed.

Kayo settled down next to him, still tightly grasping the container of salt. She wanted to take his arm and bandage it up, but she'd save fussing at him for later. She knew what he was doing, patiently waiting for anyone to speak up. The situation was dire enough already with being shipwrecked, but the mononoke destroying their camp was a reminder of what was to come. She fidgeted on her feet.

Kawa knelt down, drawing prayers into the sand. A prayer had forced the mononoke back into the sea, but she knew it wouldn't last forever. It would be back soon enough. She paused in her drawings, standing up as she spotted something lodged into the sand. Digging it out, she found a scroll that was covered in seaweed and damaged at the edges. She unwound the seaweed, pulling the scroll open. "A Parade of 100 Sea Yokai."

The medicine seller peered at her curiously as she unrolled the scroll even more.

"Ah, my missing scroll!" Tanbei exclaimed. "My greatest work. I did hope it wasn't lost at sea."

Kawa kept the scroll just out of reach as she squinted at it. "'An illustrated manual of sea yokai and phenomenon by…. Kinichiro?'"

"Kinichiro?" Kayo echoed. "I thought his name was Mr. Tanbei."

"It is," the medicine seller said. "Do tell, Mr. Tanbei. Who is Kinichiro?"

.

Author's notes

S-s-s-scandalous! Just who is Kinichiro, I do wonder?!

yokai that the medicine seller lists off:

Akaei - a giant stingray the size of an island that surfaces to shake off sand and rocks that have settled on its back

Akkorokamui - a giant octopus god of Ainu origin (indigenous people of Hokkaido)

Funayuurei - ghost ship and the spirits of dead sailors