A bit of gossip, a bit of how Koichira feels about her new life. Inane action.

Ch 8: Laundry Day

The village women scrubbed their laundry in the river before leaving it to dry on flat rocks. The sun was merciless. The older children looked after the younger children underneath a large oak.

While the women worked, they gossiped about the visitor. Misa, a middle-aged woman with graying hair, scolded, "It's absolutely disgraceful, the way the monk carries on with her in public!"

Kenta, a young woman only recently wed, said, "I think it's romantic. Takayuki-san is so handsome, and Koichira-san is beautiful."

"Nonsense," interrupted Hiroaki in her gravely voice, "Takayuki-sama wouldn't do such a thing. He's merely being kind to a lost soul, the poor girl."

Misa retorted, "That 'poor girl' is a fire demon! When she burns down half the village, don't come crying to me for pity."

Yumiko said quietly, "She saved us from the firerat. My Shoji was badly burned, but he says she defeated it single-handedly, even after she was hurt. We all owe her our thanks."

"The quiet one's right," Hiroaki pointed out. "She may be a demon, but she's the reason my grandson now walks without a limp."

"And my nephew was being poisoned by the river water," Kenta added enthusiastically. "I'm so glad she was able to talk to the river spirit and calm his anger."

"Don't be such a silly girl," said Misa. "There are no such things as spirits."

"You're wrong," Hiroaki croaked. "When I was young, we honored the spirits every time we killed a bird or fetched water. Life was hard, but the gods were good to us."

"All the elderly say that life was better when they were young," Kenta teased. "Why so fond of the past, Baa-san?"

"Humph," Hiroaki answered.

"Kaa-san! Kaa-san!" one of the older children was yelling, "We can't find Toshio. We've looked everywhere."

Misa panicked. "What? You've lost my boy? TOSHIO! Darling, where are you?"

The older child was stammering through tears, "We were playing a hiding game, but we searched and searched, and we can't find him. Something terrible has happened, I just know it!"

Hiroaki said sternly, "Stop blubbering, child. That won't help anything. Where did you last see him?"

The child cried even harder. "He was going into the forest, Obaa-sama."

Misa shrieked, "My child, my little boy!"

Unnoticed, Koichira unwrapped her legs from around the tree branch she'd been reclining on. Sighing, she hopped from one branch to another, then landed beneath the large oak.

The women were badly startled, and exchanged guilty looks. Had she heard them gossiping about her? Misa took one look at the demon and began shrieking again. "You bitch! You kidnapped him, didn't you? I knew it! I knew you were jealous . . ."

Koichira crossed her arms and leaned back against the oak's trunk. "Really, Misa-san, you shouldn't use such language around the children." Misa's jaw dropped and she sputtered, incredulous. "Hiroaki-sama, could you tell me what she's screaming about?"

"Her son wandered off." Hiroaki asked dryly, "Did you eat him?"

Koichira gave a bark of laughter and answered, "Little children have so much baby fat, they give me indigestion. Besides, I never eat humans between meals." Her face became serious. "About the boy, though . . ." Her eyes were unfocused as she stared into the distance.

"Where is he? What have you done to him?" screamed Misa, who was on the edge of hysterics.

Koichira shifted her gaze to glare at the woman. "Shut up. How am I supposed to hear them if you keep babbling?"

The women exchanged glances. Them? Kenta whispered, "She's talking to the spirits! This is so exciting."

Koichira ignored the women and reached out with her mind. The river was happy and relaxed, which meant that no little boy had drowned. A couple of birds had been startled by something and were scolding it angrily. The rabbits had also been startled, but didn't consider the curiously-shaped creature a great threat. A wind jinn was beside itself with excitement about its newest toy: a hairless fawn that was bleating nonstop.

Koichira laughed at this description. She explained hastily to the women, "The boy is fine. A wind spirit is looking after him." Several of the women looked skeptical. "Follow me; he's up this hill."

The little boy had wandered quite a distance in the ten minutes he was left unattended. His anxious mother seized him and smothered him in kisses. "Toshio-chan! Are you hurt? Don't ever wander off like that again. Are you listening?"

Toshio stared at his mother with wide eyes, trying to figure out what all the excitement was about. "Kaa-san, don't cry! Please don't, mommy."

Misa sniffled and turned to the fire demon. "Koichira-joshi, thank you for finding my son. I'm, uh, sorry about what I said earlier . . ." She blushed.

Koichira shrugged. "Whatever. Just don't expect me to baby-sit again, OK?"

"You . . . you forgive me? Just like that? But . . ." Misa protested guiltily.

Koichira cocked her head. "I'm a demon, remember? I only found your son because I felt like it." She grabbed an overhanging limb and swung herself up into the branches. Swinging from branch to branch, she cursed herself for getting involved. The villagers were all spoiled rotten from having Takayuki heal every scratch and bruise, they hardly needed a demon to watch their children. By the time she reached the monk's hut, she had worked herself into a black mood.

The truth was, she had lost track of which one of them, monk and demon, owed a debt to the other, but she didn't want to admit it. Admitting that she was no longer paying attention to favors meant a level of familiarity with the monk that she hadn't shared with anyone for more than a decade; even her love affairs were always cautious exchanges. Koichira spotted the object of her thoughts pulling weeds from the vegetable garden, and felt an unexpected wave of tenderness towards him. "Baka," she scolded herself, "it's just lust. He's handsome, caring, and utterly unattainable. Of course you're fixating on him." She'd always prided herself on her self-control and her ability to be sensible in love affairs. Now, Koichira knew, she was acting just as stupid as everyone she had ever mocked. "Kuso, how did I get myself into this fix? Hopelessly obsessed with a dying monk?"

Her thoughts were interrupted when Takayuki doubled over, coughing. He fell down on his hands and knees, his body still convulsing with the coughing. Koichira gritted her teeth and left deep scratches in the tree branch with her claws, but she resisted the urge to run to him and help. The fire demon had promised herself not to become involved until the monk himself told her that he was dying and that he wanted her help. Even Koichira wasn't sure if she wanted those words as proof of his trust, or if she just wanted him to humble himself by begging her for help.

She waited until his coughing had stopped and he had done his best to wipe off the blood staining his lips before she dropped down from the tree and approached. "Eh, Houshi-sama!" she called, "what are you doing sitting in the beans? Here, I'll give you a hand." She helped him to his feet, but was alarmed by the way he continued to lean on her, as if he could no longer support his own weight. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Houshi-sama, have you eaten today?" He mumbled something about not being hungry, but she brushed this off. "You go inside and prepare lunch for both of us, I'll fetch water."

Just as she reached the stream, Koichira felt herself crumbling; tears leaked out of her closed eyes. "Shimatta! What happened to the self-control I was so proud of? He's only a human, after all, they live such a short time under the best of circumstances . . ." She splashed icy water on her puffy eyes and dropped her hands back into the water. The current tugged gently at her fingertips in a comforting gesture. Smiling wryly at the water, she admitted, "I guess I'm not as strong as I thought I was." She was startled out of her misery by a fish jumping high in the air, just in front of her face. The scales on its twisting body and the spray of water both sparkled in the early-afternoon sunlight. She thanked the river and asked it not to worry. "I'll be fine, and I promise to take care of your monk. To the end."

Koichira filled the bucket and stood, but paused. There was a strange scent on the breeze. It reminded her of a damp cave filled with old snake skins, animal bones and spider webs. The fire demon was edgy the rest of the afternoon and insisted on sleeping beside the monk's door. It wasn't until shortly after midnight that the enemy attacked.