Sumi could feel herself shaking. She gripped the broom so hard, she nearly snapped it in half. First Kichi had been turned into some kind of mononoke. Now she heard that Fuku had killed her. This was far too much. "How…. how could you?! Kichi's our friend!"

"It wasn't intentional!" Fuku protested. "I didn't want to do it!"

"What happened?" the medicine seller questioned calmly.

"I.. I wanted to expose Priest Yoshimune without harming the other miko," Fuku replied. "Each time we try to say anything, he would harm us. I don't want anything to happen to them."

The priest hissed, leaping forward to quickly shut Fuku up. "How dare-"

The medicine seller cut off his words by plastering an ofuda across his mouth and holding the priest against the incense hut with his hand. "Please continue."

Fuku looked unnerved at the priest for a moment but quickly realized that the medicine seller had effectively quieted him. "I wanted to perform a ritual. I knew he couldn't counter it, so I tried to perform the Ushi no koku mairi spell."

"The what now?" Kayo stumbled over the words with the fire now effectively out.

"Ushi no Koku Mairi," the medicine seller repeated. "One of the strongest and deadliest of spells known to black magics. It requires the caster to nail a wara-ningyo to a tree each night at the hour of the Ox when the world of the living and dead are closest. The caster must dress in a white kimono with a rather strange set of accessories on their person."

"The mysterious woman in white with fire on her head," Kayo reasoned.

"An upside-down cookpot tripod with the legs set ablaze," the medicine seller informed her. "A key part of the ritual."

"That sounds ridiculous," Kayo commented.

"But effective," he added. "If the target was Kichi."

"It wasn't!" Fuku protested. "I wanted to cast it on the priest! But there's a problem with the spell. If anyone sees you, you have to kill them. Kichi saw me."

Kayo gasped in horror.

"I thought about stopping the spell, but it was the only way to get rid of the priest so we don't have to endure his lies or shame!" Fuku continued. "I didn't mean to! I didn't want to do it! Kichi was my best friend!" She fell to her knees, sobbing.

The sword chattered. The truth of a mononoke was never easy, especially when one was forced to resort to black magics to save themselves from a terrible situation. The medicine seller didn't often feel for those who had committed atrocities to create a mononoke but this situation had become so painful for those involved, it had spiraled out of control. He felt for them. "And the reason for the mononoke, the pain which binds it to the human realm, is the regret that the spell wasn't yet complete."

The sword chattered in confirmation. "Release! Release!"

The medicine seller shoved it further into his obi. "Hush." The mononoke wasn't here yet. He'd have to wait until her return.

"We couldn't leave!" Fuku cried. "Kichi and I wanted to so many times! But each time, he threatened to exile us or publicly shame us as frauds! I should've just done the ritual with Kichi! She wouldn't have to die!"

"How terrible," Kayo sniffled. "They're like Lady Tamaki."

"Humans can be so cruel," the medicine seller empathized. He didn't move much as the fox fire erupted across the courtyard, setting the incense hut ablaze. The flames of the fox fire climbed high into the sky, encircling the hut, the medicine seller, and the priest. The smell of burning flesh reached his nostrils as he stood stall between the flames, the taima sword drawn in his hand. His long white hair billowed behind him, unaffected by the flames as he stared with his darkened eyes at the mononoke.

He could see its true form now, a kitsune contorted by a cruel situation. It was in pain, suffering, longing for freedom.

"You did not save the priest," the mononoke observed.

"I'm not here for him," the medicine seller remarked. "I'm only here to relieve you of your suffering."

The mononoke stared at the burning body of the priest. "I've done what I needed."

He observed the mononoke for a moment. Most of the mononoke he encountered were engulfed by their rage, but a few had been aware. Some had asked to be relieved of the pain. Others had accepted their fate. But this one. Her rage was quelled.

"I want to rest," the mononoke pleaded with him. "I want to finally taste freedom. Please tell Fuku that I don't blame her."

"I shall."

The flames began to die on their own. The hut was left charred along with the priest's burnt body next to it. The medicine seller knelt down on the ground, the taima sword held out to the side, a small fox laying dead at his feet. Tucking the taima sword into his obi, he picked up the fox, cradling it in his arms as he turned to Fuku.

The miko shook like a leaf, horrified and terrified, unsure of what to do with the fox the medicine seller now offered to her.

"She does not blame you, Miss Fuku," he informed her. "She wished for you to know that."

The miko stared at him, then the fox, then him again.

"The form that held the ire of her soul," the medicine seller explained the fox. "Bury it somewhere you believe she will rest."

The miko took the offered fox, sobbing miserably as she held it.

….

He shook out his arm as he gritted his teeth, the fang at the back visible with his frustration. The medicine stung almost as much as the fire had. He'd managed to only burn his arms and not the kimono. Arms could heal. Kimonos were expensive.

Sumi laughed a bit at his troubles. "For a man who fights the supernatural, I expected you'd have some supernatural way of healing."

"Just ordinary medicine for an ordinary medicine seller, that's all," he mused.

"Come here, Mr. Ordinary," Kayo yanked at his arm.

"Ow, stop, you're going to yank my arm off," he fussed.

"Stop being a baby, you can't wrap this on your own," Kayo insisted. She was well aware he was much stronger than she was. He could easily just take his arm back, but he'd conceded rather quickly. For someone she wasn't sure was human, he certainly felt human. He was warm to the touch and was wounded just like anyone else. Though she wasn't sure that anyone completely human could've survived that fire quite like he did.

She began to carefully wind the bandages around his arm. She'd learned quite a bit about caring for someone in her travels with the medicine seller. She liked to think she'd become at least a little artful at bandaging and basic first aid.

"I really should thank you though, Mr. Medicine Seller," Sumi admitted. "I know the others are thankful as well. Even Fuku."

"Simply putting a mononoke to rest, that's all," he stated, digging for some soothing ointment in the medicine chest.

Sumi grinned a bit. He certainly was rather humble for what he just did. "It really wasn't the greatest of situations we endured, and I didn't even think it would end. I just wanted to honor Inari and become one of his miko. I didn't think I'd be trapped in this mess like I was. None of us did."

"Humans are capable of terrible things," the medicine seller remarked, "but they can be capable of good."

"He's right, you know," Kayo nodded. "People can be good. You could always start at a new shrine so you can still serve Inari. No shame in that, honestly. Find a place that treats you right and makes you feel good."

"Right," Sumi nodded. "We can't give up our desire to be miko. I just hope that Fuku will recover from everything."

"She probably needs time to mourn," Kayo reasoned. "Are you angry with her?"

"Of course," Sumi replied, "but that doesn't mean I really hate her for it. She was trying to help us all. Fuku's always been a big sister to us, taking all the abuse so we didn't have to. I want to do something for her after everything. Does it seem strange I would?"

Kayo shook her head. "You obviously care for her."

"I do," Sumi nodded, suddenly looking out at the courtyard. She noticed the medicine seller watching as well. There she was, Kichi walking through the courtyard in her full miko attire. She had a small parade of fox spirits following her. They seemed to march happily along the courtyard in a chipper rhythm before disappearing through the torii gate. Yeah, they would be just fine. They'd endured this far. Now it was time to start a new life without Yoshimune and his lies.

...

Author's notes

Meanings of the names:

Fuku – good fortune

Kichi – possibly means good luck

Sumi – blank ink

Yoshimune – good faith

The Ushi no Koku Mairi spell has to be the most bizarre thing I came across. It is considered the most powerful onmyodo black magic spells, but it also is the most utterly ridiculous thing I've read. What the medicine seller says is how the spell must be performed, all down to having a cookpot on your head with the legs lit on fire. Unfortunately if anyone witnesses the spell, it actually invalidates the magic unless you kill the witness. Poor Kichi.

The reference to the mononoke being a kitsune again points to the theory that the medicine seller isn't actually completely human! There are so many legends about half-kitsune people having extreme magics, and kitsune aren't harmed by their own fire (at least in some tales). Whether or not the medicine seller is half kitsune, I'll leave that up to you.