"I just need a place to stay until the morning. It's terribly cold."
The medicine seller opened his eyes. He could feel the warmth of the temple being pushed away by the cold of the open front door. The temple was just as it was when he and Kayo had first arrived though with remarkably less snow on the ground outside. A woman in a blue kimono and furs stood at the doorway, shivering.
"I'll pay you for the night. Please," the woman begged.
"We do not allow women here!" Tadakata insisted, grasping her by the wrists. "Do you know what temptation a woman here would be?"
"Why are you looking at me like that?" the woman stared at him, wide-eyed. She tried to pry her hands free. "Let go of me! Let go! Stop! What are you doing?!"
The medicine seller felt a hand wrap around his arm. The cold rushed at him, snapping him back to reality. Kayo was curled up underneath him, shivering and barely conscious. He had collapsed on top of her, barely shielding her from the cold as he'd received some sort of memory from the mononoke. And now someone had grabbed him.
"Mr. Medicine Seller!"
The hand released him and soon two hands dug through the snow. He squinted at the monk peering back at him, the light obscuring his view for a moment.
"Thank the kami," Akimune sighed in relief. "We've been searching for you, hoping you hadn't been pulled outside or frozen to death."
The medicine seller pushed himself up and out of the snow, finding that the younger monks had accompanied Akimune in the search. The snow had caked the entire hallway, coming in through the windows and pouring out several of the side rooms. Carefully he picked up Kayo in his arms, feeling the cold trying to overtake her body. "She is far too cold."
"Quickly, let's warm her up," Akimune said. "The inner sanctuary is the only place not overtaken by the snow."
The medicine seller followed the monk, soon setting Kayo down by the fire and wrapping her in a blanket. He sat next to her, not really certain who to trust at the moment with Kayo unconscious and cold. That vision the mononoke had given him implied at least Tadakata had his way with the woman in the blue kimono before she died, but it wasn't the whole truth or reason. The sword hadn't chattered yet.
He glanced around the room at those who had survived the mononoke's snowy attack. The younger monks were gathered together near the fire. Akimitsu was helping gather blankets. Yoshimune stared off at the window unmoving. "Did Master Tadakata not survive?"
Akimune shook his head. "I'm afraid not. He was frozen much like Master Masanobu was." He pursed his lips. "There's only two of us left now. If this continues, there won't be a temple much longer."
The medicine seller glanced between the two living elder monks. "It can stop, but I must know of the woman in the blue kimono."
"The one that was in the yard?" Akimune questioned. "I'm afraid I don't know much more than she's been sighted before. I had heard it from the trainees and went to investigate local legends and yokai. Unfortunately I didn't turn up anything on my last trip to the nearby village."
The medicine seller shook his head. "A living one in a blue kimono who had stopped to ask for a place to stay." He heard Yoshimune audibly gasp as he stared at the wall.
"I don't…" Akimune turned to stare at Yoshimune with wide eyes. "There was another visitor, wasn't there?"
"There was," the medicine seller said. "And Tadakata turned her away, though not without possibly having his way with her."
Akimune gasped. "No. There's no way. We are sworn to celibacy."
Yoshimune grumbled. "Everyone has their needs, Akimune."
Akimune gasped again. "You're not saying… that you… and the others…"
"Several times."
"That is not our way! We are celibate and we do not bring harm to our fellow man or woman!" Akimune stared at the head monk. "And then… what happened to her? What happened to the woman in the blue kimono?"
"Tadakata abandoned her in the snow," he replied.
The medicine seller sat with the taima sword resting between his hands as it chattered in confirmation. "The mononoke's truth has been revealed." Perhaps it was a good thing that Kayo was unconscious. She wouldn't have to hear of such abuse again. The bakeneko's truth and reason had shook her enough. It was best she didn't hear this one.
"How terrible," murmured the young monks.
The words he'd heard in the snow made sense now. No one would help. The monks had to pay for what they did. "The reason for the mononoke's anger is abandonment, the sadness for being abused by people who were believed to be welcoming," the medicine seller reasoned. The sword chattered once again.
He slipped the sword into his obi, sitting Kayo up still wrapped in the blankets. He felt like only one person wouldn't repeat the same events as with the woman in the blue kimono, the only one who was not involved in the mononke's truth. "Master Akimune, please look after Miss Kayo for a moment."
The monk took Kayo's shoulders gently in his hands as he stared at the medicine seller. Akimune was still shook from everything he'd heard. The master he'd looked up to was nothing more than an abusive sleaze. It was a lot to take in. "What are you going to do?"
"Slay the mononoke so it will be relieved of its pain." The medicine seller stood up, taima sword in hand as he walked towards the hallway. "The form is a yuki-onna, a woman of the snow, a hunter that feeds on life energy. It is time to put her to rest."
The sword chattered in confirmation as the medicine seller dove into the snow pile. "Release! Release!"
His inner self grasped the sword and withdrew it, the colorful blade cutting through the snow and dissipating it. He stood in the hallway facing the yuki-onna. She stood facing him in her icy blue kimono and matching paper parasol. She looked rather annoyed that he was standing there in his way.
"You should've stayed buried," she said. "I have unfinished work to do! They must pay for what they did!"
He silently outstretched his hand, the mirror on his necklace appearing in his hand. She stared at her appearance, touching her face as if she didn't recognize it. Her expression twisted from ire to sadness as the edges of her lips downturned in the reflection.
She wasn't a bad person. She was simply a sole traveler who wished to have a safe place to stay at night. A temple should've been the perfect sanctuary, but instead they had betrayed her trust, violated her, then left her to die. It was a sad situation that ended in tragedy.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror. She could still see that old self in there somewhere, crying to be let out, but the rage and sadness in her heart was so overwhelming. "You can stop this, can't you? You can make the pain go away, right?!" She dropped her parasol, grasping at her kimono in pain. "I want it to stop!"
"I can." He drew the sword backwards. "It is time for your soul to rest." As he sliced through her, he saw the faintest of smiles before she disappeared. His outer self tucked the taima sword back into his obi.
The snow in the hallway receded, yielding to the ice that coated the hallway underneath. Just outside the door, the snowstorm began to quiet, but the snow blew sideways once again. Icicles formed along the open door before bursting inward. The attack caught him by surprise, one slicing the side of his arm before pushing him backwards down the hallway. The sharp winter winds blew fiercely as more icicles formed along the walls.
He drew the taima sword once again, using it to repel the next set of icicles. The force of the attack threw him backwards, and he tumbled several times before skidding to a stop in the inner sanctuary.
"Mr. Medicine Seller!" Akimune exclaimed. "What happened?"
He gritted his teeth, the fangs in the back visible as he felt the pain in his arm from the icicle attack. "It seems we have two mononoke on our hands." How troublesome.
…..
Author's musings
So back in "Black Magic Horror Tales" during the teahouse incident, the medicine seller had remarked that two mononoke would be troublesome to deal with. In the end, the dolls turned out to be two halves of one mononoke. (Did you all remember this? I certainly did huehuehue) So now there is a second mononoke in this temple after the horrors of the first one. I wonder what this one's truth, form, and reason is.