Dozens upon dozens of wara-ningyo were now nailed to anything and everything wooden. To the incense gazebo, to the sake containers, to the trees, and even to the brooms. Everything except the place where they now stood. It was the only place that seemed to be devoid of dolls and holes.

The medicine seller glanced between the wara-ningyo across the courtyard and the lack of them nearby. He seemed perfectly calm even with Kayo now clinging to him, quite the opposite of everyone gathered. He had to admit that many wara-ningyo suddenly appearing was a first, but there was no need to panic about it. Yet. It seemed to be a symptom rather than the mononoke itself.

"There's no way there could be a mononoke here," Fuku stared in shock. "This is sacred grounds."

Kayo peered around the medicine seller to the miko. It was the first time someone seemed to know what a mononoke was, but this was a shrine maiden. They had supernatural knowledge, after all.

"Mononoke can be borne anywhere humans are capable of creating such strong emotions and regrets," the medicine seller noted. There was a graveyard here. Funerals and weddings and prayers happened all in the same place. But simply having these here weren't enough to spawn a mononoke. The death had to happen here and it likely wasn't pretty.

"Worry not, I'll construct some wards to keep this thing at bay," Yoshimune announced.

Kayo watched the priest scamper off with a bottle of ink and a brush along with some papers and other oddities. His tools were nothing like what the medicine seller used, and he seemed to scurry more than do anything effectual. "Is that even going to work?" She unwound herself from him hesitantly, setting her feet back on the ground and eyeing the medicine chest. "Should we help him?"

The medicine seller smirked in amusement. The man was trying but given how quickly and quietly the mononoke's effects showed up, it was unlikely anything he tried would do any good.

"Yoshimune is quite good wards," Fuku informed them. "I'm sure whatever dark spirit or yokai that has found its way into the shrine, he can ensure that it doesn't return. Sumi, we should start removing the wara-ningyo again." She turned to a nearby miko who stood frozen in fear.

Sumi nodded hesitantly before nearly gluing herself to Fuku as the two left.

Kayo watched the pair scamper off, turning back to the medicine seller. He had barely moved since the wara-ningyo had appeared. He hadn't reached for the taima sword or the scales or even suddenly plastered the area with spell papers. Then again, how does one plaster an entire shrine plaza with ofuda papers? She peered at him some more, noticing that he seemed to be staring at something that wasn't the priest or the miko.

"You suspect something, don't you?" she asked, not sure how much of an answer he'd actually give. He was often quiet about things until they were gossiping. In the past two months, she'd come to understand that he didn't always communicate in words. He was hard to read, but his actions did speak a conversation.

"Who knows," he replied.

She puffed up. She expected the vagueness, but once in awhile, she'd like something in reply.

"Wara-ningyo are often used in protection spells, but they can be used for curses as well," he continued after a moment of her glaring at him. "I do wonder which one it could be." The statement was rather ironic. It was obviously the latter, as a protection spell would hardly be the source of a mononoke's ire even if it were to protect against a mononoke. Someone was trying to curse someone else and something went wrong. Or perhaps it went horribly right.

He finally moved, flipping open the top compartment of the medicine chest and slipping the taima sword into his obi. They wouldn't have much time before the mononoke returned. It definitely wasn't the first time it had shown up given the number of wara-ningyo holes in the trees and wooden structures.

He beckoned for Kayo to follow him, knowing full well she wouldn't wish to stay alone out in the open. His geta clacked against the stone terrace as he approached the nearest structure, the wooden house for the large bell and incense. A multitude of straw dolls were nailed to the post, each without marking or connection to who or what was intended to be cursed. He reached forward, wedging the nail out of the wood and pulling the wara-ningyo down.

Kayo peered at the straw doll in his hand. She'd had enough of creepy dolls after the encounter in the tea house and enough of things that looked like people after those creepy candles. What hadn't been creepy since she started traveling with him?

"You can drop them in here."

Kayo and the medicine seller turned to find the younger miko, Sumi, holding out a basket filled with a few wara-ningyo already.

"Is this a common occurrence?" he asked, dropping the straw doll into the basket.

"Only the past few days," the miko replied. "Each time, there are more and more of these things. The locals are afraid and no one comes to visit the kami anymore. I don't know what started this. It used to be just once in awhile we'd find one, not find the whole shrine covered in them."

"Once in awhile?" Kayo questioned.

"Sometimes people would sneak into the shrine at night to perform so-called spells," Sumi replied. "Nothing more than superstition. I hear it happens to other shrines in the area. I've never really thought too much about it until now."

"Well that would explain the rumors about a woman in a white kimono," Kayo reasoned. She stared at the medicine seller as he meticulously pulled the nails out of the wood with his fingers alone.

He paused for a moment to stare at the last doll he pulled from the wall. It was the one highest up, but it seemed to have a small amount of light-colored hair stuck in the straw. It didn't appear to be human hair, not matching a natural color unless the origin of the mononoke was a foreigner. "Have there been any deaths lately?"

"Deaths?" Sumi questioned, peering at the medicine seller than quickly turning back to her work. He was asking a lot of strange questions. "We haven't even done funerary rights for days."

"Not even a death here in the shrine?" he pressed for more information. She was hiding something, perhaps some portion of the truth that she didn't wish to reveal.

She glanced at him for a moment before picking up the basket and moving around the corner just out of sight. "Not unless you count the dead crow I found in the pond."

Kayo peered at the miko. She was sure acting suspicious. Maybe she could convince the miko to speak with a bit of girl talk. She managed to get the doll mononoke to speak and to convince them of the truth, even though that kinda backfired and the medicine seller was thrown through the wall. Maybe she could make it work right this time before people were thrown through walls.

She practically pushed up her sleeves, rounding the corner to wrap an arm around the miko's shoulders. "Why don't we have a little talk, woman to woman."

Sumi stared at Kayo for a moment. "I don't think that's-"

"Oh come now," Kayo waved off the concern. "You're too uptight. I get it. This sort of thing is wild."

The medicine seller smirked in amusement. Kayo sure was getting good at this sort of supernatural investigative business, even if it frightened her a good majority of the time. She offered a more feminine and human approach than he could ever offer. Perhaps that was necessary given how the miko all seemed to skirt around the priest.

Speaking of which, the priest had busied himself with writing something along the stone walkways in thick ink. It seemed like such a waste of ink, but perhaps the medicine seller could sell him something a bit more potent when this was all done. He had to get funds for food somehow.

He set the straw doll on the edge of the incense housing and approached the priest. He watched him write, staring at whatever pointless drabble the man was actually writing. The script was gibberish, just a series of characters that actually weren't proper kanji at all. It had no effectual meaning or purpose whatsoever. Certainly strange for the priest of the shrine not to know simple wards. There was just something about how this priest carried himself that just irked the medicine seller.

"Worry not, I'll be done with this soon," the priest informed the medicine seller. "No need to be frightened about mononoke or any of that nonsense."

"I see." The medicine seller didn't exactly seem impressed with a priest who dismissed the supernatural so easily. He was beginning to doubt this priest was actually legitimate. "Have there been supernatural issues here before?"

"Of course not," the priest quickly dismissed the notion. "This is sacred ground, after all."

The medicine seller frowned just a bit, shifting his stance as something pulled at his senses. Something was watching them, and this man was completely unaware. He wasn't exactly concerned with the man's wellbeing, but if he was somehow linked to the mononoke, keeping him alive would help find the three truths he needed.

"Nothing to worry about," the priest reiterated.

But there was something to worry about. The sound of sandals slapping against the stone walkway began to ring out in the relative quiet of the shrine. The priest tensed up, dropping the brush. All the miko were behind him but the sound was in front of him.

Nothing had yet manifested but the priest felt the swift slap of something cold, the impact sending him careening past the medicine seller and rolling across the stone terrace. He skidded to a stop, his robes battered and torn as he pushed himself up. "But the wards!"

The medicine seller ignored the priest's cries about the wards, turning back to the source. The mononoke was still here. He could feel the cold chill of something standing before him but he still couldn't see it.

He pulled the mirror from his necklace, flipping it out to face whatever stood before him. "I know you're there. Reveal yourself so I can quell your rage!"

The mirror's magic revealed someone surprisingly human. She wasn't very tall, dressed in miko's attire. Her white top was stained in blood and ripped near the heart. Her long black hair was pulled back and tied with a white ribbon. The most telltale sign that she wasn't human as she seemed was the large, toothy grin that stretched nearly ear to ear.

"Oh my." Well this wasn't what he expected.

...

Author's musings

Well well well, the mononoke has finally made herself known. Not that several hundred wara-ningyo suddenly making an appearance wasn't a good indication one was near.

I've always fancied the medicine seller using the mirror in combat. He only uses it during the umibozu arc, but I was fascinated with how he was using it as an extension of himself in combat and in investigations. Here he's used it to find the mononoke, whatever she is.

Also that priest. He seems pretty useless, doesn't he?