Kohaku hadn't been able to sit by since Hyoga had attacked. Ever since they narrowly won that conflict with a combination of luck and good planning she'd been training furiously with Kinro and Ginro. She'd also taken up guard duty. Kinro tried to dissuade her, he claimed her skills would be better used somewhere else. But with the village badly damaged by the fire, Homura started and so many people left exposed he wasn't able to argue with her for long. Not that there was really ever any point in arguing with her. No matter what she was going to do what was best for her people, what was right. And for now, as Senku, Chrome, and Kaseki set about creating something she couldn't even begin to understand, being a guard and a warrior felt like all she could do.

She was glad she had. She could see, off in the distance, movement through the trees. It was swift and direct. Whatever was coming their way wasn't wandering. It was aiming at them, coming at the village. She drew her knife, "Kinro."

The lean man was just returning from a walk around the perimeter, his spear held between his hands at the ready. He looked at her, and seeing her serious expression, nodded and turned in the direction she was facing, he squinted into the trees but there was no way he'd be able to track the movement Kohaku was following, even if he didn't have the fuzzy-eye sickness, "How many?"

"Eight, I think," Kohaku breathed, eyes scanning over the different tracks of movement, "but seven of them are much lower down than the other...it's...not human whatever it is."

Ginro came up from the other side, his spear lazily resting over his shoulders, his arms hung over it at the wrists, "What are you two doing? Lazing off on the job?'

Kohaku wheeled on him bringing her first down hard on his head, "Idiot."

"Learn to read the mood, Ginro," Kinro sighed, giving an all too familiar look of disappointment to his younger brother.

"What!" Ginro whined, much quieter this time as he rubbed the sore lump on his head, "Why'd you hit me?"

"Something," Kohaku said, jabbing her knife toward the woods, "is coming, get ready."

"S-Something? D-D-Don't you mean someone?"

"No. Something. It's not human whatever it is," she turned to Kinro, "I'm going around behind it if I can get there, get ready."

Kinro gave her a firm nod, his head lowering at the woods as he readied his spear. She jumped up into a tree, hopping through the branches trying to stay wide to avoid being detected by whatever was going at them. The last thing they needed now was some beast stalking the innocent villagers when they already had Tsukasa and Hyoga to deal with. As she jumped back down to the forest floor and made her way around she decided; whatever it was she wasn't going to give it a chance to hut her people.

Senku had busied himself as soon as he returned or rather, as soon as he explained to a furious Kohaku where he'd been and gotten Suika to release Sazae so she could return to Umeka's home. It was a rough estimate but judging by the description Gen had given him about Tsukasa's hideout and the locations he now knew; Ishigami Village and Umeka's house, the three places formed an obtuse triangle with Umeka's house as the wide center point. It took him the entire morning to get back to the shack and his legs were still trembling from the effort.

He wanted to stay up, finish drafting out the plans for the cell phone. He wasn't a particularly good artist, but anything he could give Kaseki might help him apply his insane artisanal skills. Despite his determination, he was falling asleep. His head rocking heavily toward the skin he was drawing on. He'd just dozed off when Ginro's high pitched scream shocked him awake so hard his head snapped back.

"Ah!" he hissed the muscles of his neck seizing painfully. Still, he scrambled to his feet and stood at the top of the ladder looking out at where Ginro was.

"Huh!" Chrome shouted, his voice thick with sleep, scrambling to his feet behind Senku, "What was that?!"

"Ginro screaming bloody murder."

Chrome blinked, his eyes suddenly shooting wide, "Someone was murdered?!"

"What? No. It's…," Senku sighed, rolling his eyes, "It's an expression. Come on."

He turned, climbing down the ladder and trying to look off into the distance. It was hard to see in the dim light of the waxing moon above him but he stopped hurrying toward them when he made out the shapes. Seven dogs and one incredibly long-haired girl. He chuckled to himself, stopping by his equipment.

"Uh, hey, Senku, don't know if you forgot but Ginro just screamed so maybe we, I don't know, hurry over?!" Chrome fussed behind him, hands flailing in Ginro's direction.

"Eh, he'll be fine what's all the training for otherwise?" Senku smirked, "Besides, if what I think is happening is happening, and I'm like...ten billion percent sure it is, we're gonna need some light." He gathered a lightbulb and a battery, slipped a clay disk in the rope cage from a broken pot, and put them together. An incredibly crude lantern. Turning on the light, he nodded toward the noise, "Now we can go."

Ginro's whole body was shaking. Kohaku said that there was something not human coming out of the woods. He figured that meant it was a boar or a big deer or something. Not the scary forest spirit in front of him now.

He and Kinro had stood at the ready as Kohaku told them too, waiting for her to flush the creature out. Or, as he hoped she would just handle it herself so he didn't have to get involved. It felt like she'd been gone a long time.

Then Kinro heard a rustling noise, just out of their field of vision, whatever was in the forest stepped out and spoke but neither of them could make it out. Then it went silent. It didn't sound like it was moving. Then it shouted, clear as day, "S-Senku!"

Kinro had immediately launched into action, "Come on!"

They had run and as soon as Ginro made out the shape of the spirit and their seven evil-looking lumpy, teeth bearing familiars he'd screamed, high and loud.

Now they were at a standoff. The vengeful forest spirit's hands raised, definitely ready to do some awful magic, like turn him into a toad or something. All of the scary beasts circling her legs and growling. They held their spears, though Ginro's arms were shaking terribly, and the creature for whatever reason didn't do anything. One of the familiars suddenly snapped, its teeth flashing toward Ginro making him cry out and jump back.

The spirit jumped toward the beast, casting a spell, "Sueno-" but before it could finish, Kohaku landed behind it grabbing the monster from behind, and holding her knife to the creature's throat.

"Call it off!" Kohaku demanded.

The creature grasped at its throat, clawing open its skin and pulling out a thin straight bone that it put in its mouth. Nothing happened, there was no sound or flash of light or anything but all the familiars stopped and laid down. Their eyes still flashing looking between them.

Kohaku, brave to a stupid degree, squeezed the creature making it fight weakly, "Who sent you?"

"No one," Senku called out, walking up on an absolute disaster scene. Maybe Chrome had been right and they should have rushed a little more, not that he'd admit that. "At least I don't think. Anyone send you Umeka?"

Umeka, eyes wide with fear in Kohaku's grasp shook her head, "N-No," she twisted a little trying to look at Kohaku, "Could you put the knife down?"

"Ha! Yeah right!" Kohaku chided sharply.

Senku caught her eye and nodded, "Yeah probably just. Put that down."

"What! She came out of the dark with beasts in tow and you want me to just let her go?" Kohaku shouted over Umeka's shoulder making Umeka flinch at the sound.

Senku scanned his eyes over the stressed dogs scattered around them. He spotted Sazae and lowed his light near her, "Look familiar?"

Kohaku blinked, unintentionally loosening her grip on Umeka. Umeka swallowed with relief, her neck finally free of the press of the knife.

"The dog from earlier…" Kohaku's eyes shifted back to Umeka, "You're the one that helped him."

Umeka nodded quickly, her eyes moving nervously over the weapons still pointed at her. Senku sighed, walking up between the brothers and putting his hands on the spears pushing them so they pointed at the ground, "Sorry about the welcome wagon, I'm not a very good party planner."

Umeka smiled at him weakly, she held her arms across her chest, and in the low glow of the lightbulb, he could see tear stains on her face. Before he could say anything else Ginro spoke, "You didn't tell us that you met a forest spirit! You just said it was some girl."

Senku rolled his eyes, "Because it is a girl. There are no such things as forest spirits. Though I guess Princess Mononoke...does kind of qualify."

He grinned at her briefly and laughed when she rolled her eyes and frowned at him.

"The-Then explain her lumpy evil familiars!" Ginro demanded, his voice hitting the notes of a bratty child.

Senku deadpanned, he wanted to just ignore him and figure out why Umeka had shown up in the middle of the night but he knew Ginro well enough to know that he wasn't going to let it go until he got his asinine questions answered. Senku abruptly lowered the light above Sueno, who laid just in front of Ginro, his eyes not moving from his face, "There are dogs..or wolves...both probably? With packs tied on."

"..." Ginro blinked, deflated at the simple answer, "Well...well what about the spell?!"

"Well," Chrome interrupted, "I think we've all learned spells aren't real."

Senku blinked, thinking. He wasn't sure, obviously, it wasn't a spell but he didn't know what Ginro thought he heard or saw. He looked to Umeka who began to open her mouth but Kohaku spoke over her shoulder again, "She said, 'Su-eh-no,' right when that one jumped at Ginro."

"Oh," Senku nodded, smirking slightly, "That's just the dog's name. He's a jerk. She was probably trying to stop him from getting you."

Umeka nodded vigorously.

"Well fine!" Ginro pouted worse now, folding his arms with his spear still in hand, "but I bet you can't explain how she pulled a bone out of her chest, and then all of the dog-wolf things just stopped and laid down. That has got to be magic."

Senku narrowed his eyes at Ginro. He lifted the lantern to Umeka and, smirked, stepping toward her. He reached out with his free hand and hooked a finger under the chord that hung around Umeka's neck. On it hung a long thin tube, a small notch in the top toward one end, "This," he lifted the chord and gave it a gentle shake, "is a dog whistle. It makes a note too high for human ears to hear but absolutely perfect for training dogs. And," he looked back at Umeka, "very impressive to make by hand in this Stone World."

Umeka looked up at him, shifting a little on her feet as Kohaku let her go, "I had a lot of time to work on it."

He chuckled and turned back to Ginro, "Satisfied? Umeka isn't some forest spirit, she's just a girl that's trained some big dogs and lived out here on her own."

"You trained all these dogs?' Chrome said, suddenly moving toward Umeka and leaning in to look at the whistle, "That's so bad!"

She blinked, smiling at him awkwardly, "Thank you?"

Chrome, with a stunning lack of respect for personal space, picked up the whistle and pulled it toward him making Umeka lean her shoulders lean in at him, the chord pressing into the back of her neck. For whatever reason she didn't say anything, she just glanced around uncomfortably as Chrome spoke, "Wait...so how does it work? Like how do you know what dogs can hear-"

Kohaku reached out and smacked him, "Don't just pull on her things!"

"What!" Chrome yelled, rubbing his head, "You were holding a knife at her!"

"I thought she was going to murder us I wasn't asking her about a science whistle!"

"Well. Technically any whistle is a science whistle but that's semantics," Senku mumbled, picking at his ear, "How about we start a fire and let Umeka explain why she came for a visit so soon. I kind of at least expected a whole day, to pass before I saw you again, ya know?"

Umeka held her hands out toward the fire, trying to warm up after the bone-chilling walk through the woods. She'd pulled the packs off the dogs and piled them up at her feet letting them all curl up in a heap just behind her. The long walk with all the bags tied to them must have worn them all about because they were sleeping incredibly soundly now.

Senku was explaining how the dog whistle worked to Chrome. Well. And to her. She'd just messed around and carved things until she couldn't hear it and the dogs clearly could. Beyond knowing how to make a whistle she really didn't understand anything about it so while she was trying to pretend like she wasn't, she was listening intently.

"-so knowing that any noise you hear is just air being moved we're able to measure it by measuring the vibrations themselves. When it comes to sound there are two," Senku explained holding up two fingers, "major tools. Hertz and kilohertz measure the frequency and decibels measure the air pressure, or in lay man's terms, the loudness. Human ears are only good at detecting and making sense of a certain range of frequencies, typically somewhere like twenty hertz to twenty kilohertz, of course, when you get older your ears lose a little sensitivity to some noises and the range drops to more like fifteen to seventeen," He nodded his head toward the blond girl that had grabbed her, "course, there's always an exception to the rule even with science. There's probably some ear version of Kohaku out there with hearing above the normal range. But with most dog whistles coming in the twenty-three to fifty-four kilohertz range they'd have to be a real freak to hear a dog whistle."

"That is so bad!" the one with a rope tied around his forehead shouted, gripping his hands into fists in front of his chest.

Senku grinned, nodding and then shifting his eyes to her, "It is pretty cool, especially that you made one just by trial and error."

She blinked. That was the phrase Tsukasa had said before. She grimaced, must have been taught in high school or something.

Senku tilted his head slightly, "Uh...everything okay?"

"Oh!" she flushed, "Yeah sorry, I was just. Thinking."

"Sure…" he smiled a little, "so...why did you come so soon?"

Umeka took a deep breath. She'd managed to stop crying a while before she wandered through the trees but she was worried that now, telling the story over, she might cry again and she doubted that would look good. If nothing else it would be embarrassing. She looked around at them all. Senku had mentioned a village, he'd mentioned people by name, but somehow she still hadn't expected as many people as she now found herself surrounded by, she breathed out, "I decided to run. I...Tsukasa-"

"Tsukasa!" Chrome and Kohaku shouted at the same time. Kohaku instantly getting defensive, ready for a fight Umeka didn't want to give her.

"We're never going to get answers, ya know?" A smooth sounding voice called just beyond the glow of the fire, "If you keep cutting the poor thing off," the man spoke walking into the firelight. His hair was just in a weird pattern, a section blunted into a rectangle that hung by his chin, half black and half white. He smiled, but his eyes were sharp like a hawk, "My name is Gen."

Umeka blinked. He looked really expectant. When she didn't give him anything he gave her a pouty frown, his voice comically whiny, "How uelcray! Tsukasa never told you about me?"

"I think I'd remember that," she said, dropping her head in embarrassment when Senku suddenly laughed at her small joke.

Gen didn't seem to mind, he smiled and sat beside her, "Go on. Tell us more about why you came."

Umeka looked at him for a moment and nodded, "I promised Tsukasa I'd finally go to his group's hideout when Senku was in my house. It was raining and Tsukasa wanted to stay and I wouldn't let him and then I thought if I told him no to going to his group he'd get really mad and then maybe he'd hurt me or he'd go up anyway and find Senku and kill him cause Senku acted like he'd get killed if Tsukasa found him but when I saw Senku off in the woods Tsukasa was at my house and then he took me to his group and they were all scary and he had a throne which he somehow didn't find weird even though it is and then he tried to bully me into staying and I yelled at him and then he looked sad and said I could go home but I had to come back tomorrow and I don't want to do that so instead I packed everything I could and then I came here cause Sazae knew the way from bringing Senku back earlier," she took a deep breath, blinking in embarrassment at the blank stares around her, "…..and that's...why….I'm here…"

Gen recovered first, "And why did you come here and not just run off somewhere on your own?"

"I had to leave my house and all my traps in the woods, rebuilding all that now would be really hard. And...Senku…" she flushed again.

"Well, I did invite her. Might as well try us instead of jumping right to a hard mode reset, right?" Senku said, seeming to jump in on her behalf.

"Okay well, how do we know she's not working for Tsukasa?" Kohaku asked, raising an eyebrow, "I'm sorry but. It all seems a little too convenient."

"Kohaku has a point," the tall dark-haired boy with glasses spoke for the first time that Umeka heard.

Senku grinned, "Well. Umeka could have handed me over to Tsukasa when I bumped into her. Coulda killed me herself. She could have had the dogs rip me apart when I got to her house. She could have poisoned me since I ate food that I didn't watch her prepared. And she could have killed me in my sleep cause I stayed the night at her house. It's not a perfect alibi but...that is a lot of opportunities to ignore." He cast his eyes over to Gen, "Besides, Tsukasa doesn't really strike as the type to try the same plan twice," he pointed his thumb to Gen, "especially not when the last time lost him a valuable resource."

Gen gave a wicked grin, acting bashful suddenly, "You flatterer."

Senku rolled his eyes but still smiled, "Yeah, yeah."

Ginro suddenly spoke up, his voice sounding like a kid that got thrown in a time out, she wondered if he was a little upset he got told off about her not being a forest spirit, "Okay but...maybe Tsukasa knows all that. Maybe that's his plan."

Chrome nodded his head like he was trying to decide between things, "Surprisingly, he's got a point."

"Than-Hey!"

"Well," Gen cut in quickly, "Let's think as Tsukasa then, shall we?" The air around him seemed to change. Suddenly he was giving off the same intimidating aura Tsukasa did, his mannerisms even changed to the familiar gestures of Tsukasa, when he spoke his voice was deep and warm just like the man she'd run from and it spooked her so badly she scooted toward Senku who glanced at her but didn't seem to mind, "Umeka is important to me, she has resources I need for my people and skills very few, if any of us, have. I recently found out my enemy Senku is alive and well, so I decided I should finally get Umeka to join me so she wouldn't join Senku's side," then Gen rolled his neck, and every trace of Tsukasa melted from him, "Seem about, right?"

"I guess…" she frowned.

"Yeah okay, so she's important if he has her stuff why not send her though?" Ginro protested.

Gen sighed, "Okay. Let me put it this way then. Tsukasa met Umeka before Hyoga attacked the village, I know this because I was there when he came back and shared the news. Some of the...less intellectually inclined suggested we just send a group to go take her stuff if she didn't want to join. It is, to date, the only time I saw Tsukasa actually yell and threaten any of his men. From then on, if Tsukasa was going to visit Umeka it was well understood no one in the group was welcome to go with him. In fact, as far as I know, he was the only one that knew where she lived. Understand?"

Everyone else seemed to nod or shift around. Out of the corner of her eye, Umeka saw Senku tense, that funny stressed smile spreading on his face again. Everyone seemed to understand something new except herself and Ginro, "So what! I don't get it! And I still think she could be a spy!"

"Seriously, Ginro," the other guard grumbled, rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

Gen was looking at Umeka, he gave her a small strangely comforting smile, and then rolled his eyes to Ginro, "Basically, I'm saying if he wouldn't even let his own men know where she lived or go to see her there's no way he'd ask her to go on a spy mission. Especially not," he tapped her foot against a bag in front of Umeka, "With a bunch of supplies."

That seemed to be the last piece. Now she was even happier she brought all that stuff. Everyone seemed to relax, Gen tucked his hands in his sleeves, sharing a small look with Senku that Umeka just noticed before Gen quickly looked away.

"Good point so, what's in the bag anyway!" Chrome yelled, suddenly hopping forward to them.

Senku lifted his foot, jamming it against Chrome's face and pushing back, "Back off. We can loot Umeka's supplies tomorrow. It's late. We should go to sleep and figure the rest out tomorrow." He put his hands behind his head, stretching for a minute, then he dropped a hand to hold his belt and glanced at her, "Well come on, guess you can stay with us in the science shack for now."

She blinked, a little shocked at how easy it was. Sure there were witchcraft accusations and a knife to her throat earlier but, somehow, she'd never really felt scared. Maybe she was just tired from earlier, all out of fear from her fight with Tsukasa. But maybe, she could just trust them and that thought made her smile. She followed Senku, Chrome, and Gen to their shack pulling out bedding she'd brought from home and completing a little square on the floor with the three of them. They fell asleep as easily as though she'd always been there and she listened for a while to their breathing and Chrome kicking around in his bed. It was hard for her to sleep with so much noise, she was used to complete silence, but it was comforting to not be alone and when she finally did doze off it was the best night's sleep she'd had in years.

He'd known when he told her to go home she wouldn't come back. At least, he thought, she didn't lie because she never actually said she would return. Somehow that hurt less. That even if she wanted to avoid him she didn't lie to his face.

Even knowing she wasn't going to come back to him he'd hoped, foolishly, that she'd be at her house. Just scared by his pressure to move. But she wasn't. Standing at the base of it now, he could tell she'd run. Things were scattered on the ground, the remaining plants in her garden had been trampled by her and the dogs. She must have been truly afraid, he didn't feel she'd step on her plants any other way, even if the frost would soon begin to set in and kill them.

He put his hand on the rope ladder, looking up. He started to put a foot on the rung but then he remembered her strong rejection and he stopped. He thought about calling up to her, but that made him feel even more foolish. He sighed in frustration, rubbing his forehead. He shouldn't have waited. He should have gone after her right when she left. He could have explained himself, they could have compromised. But he'd thought it would be better to give her some space. Now it was going to be harder to find her and work this out.

His heart tingled uncomfortably, he frowned, his fingers subconsciously touching his chest. He didn't understand how it could have gotten so bad that she'd risk being off on her own without shelter in the winter over living with his group. He looked around what she'd left, hoping to find a sign, anything that might point him in her direction so he could find her and calm her down. Make his apology and ensure she was safe. Even if it meant she lived in her home and he had to travel to visit her.

There wasn't much to see. She'd dropped some bowls. She'd left the frame she built for cleaning game. She'd left her water barrel too because, of course, it was far too big for her to move. Then his eyes fell on the bucket beside it. Sitting there, still waiting to be washed, were two bowls and two spoons. He stared at them for a long time feeling his muscles tense, he clenched his teeth and turned in the direction Umeka had walked toward him from just the other morning. Maybe she hadn't run away from him. Maybe, he thought, she'd run to someone else.