"Rin, it has been a long time."
She smiled up at the old medicine woman and offered her a polite bow.
"It has, hasn't it?"
"How are you and your brother holding up? I was very sorry to hear of the passing of your parents. Our village lost many good people this winter."
She smiled politely and thanked the woman for her concern. Conversations like this one were the reason she had avoided making trips into town after the death of her parents. Everyone wanted to offer their condolences, everyone wanted to know how they were doing, but all they truly wanted to hear was that everything was fine. When she had been caring for her ailing parents day and night, and was exhausted to the bone by the work, not one of them had offered any help. So she couldn't find much space in her heart to care overmuch about their condolences now that all was said and done. The village had abandoned them when they'd needed it most, and it was not something she would soon forget.
"It was a difficult winter," she conceded before asking for a small amount of miso to go with the herbs she had requested.
"It won't be long now before the fields are overflowing with food once more," the old woman commented with a knowing glance. "Won't that be nice?"
Rin smiled politely and collected her small parcel of goods, "Yes. I look forward to that day. Thank you for your help."
Offering the old woman a polite bow, she retreated out the door of her small hut and back up the worn, narrow path that led from the village to her family shrine. She waited until she had reached the set of stairs that led from the road to the shrine before picking up her pace and racing up them. She had no particular need to rush, but for some reason she wanted to be there when the man regained consciousness. After all, it felt like she should be there. Fate had thrown them together quite unexpectedly, and she would feel somewhat disappointed if she missed that small window of opportunity to determine what type of man he was before his defences went up.
"Any change?" she asked her brother as she breezed up the short set of stairs to the engawa that wrapped around their home.
"Did you run all the way from the village?" he asked with a lift of his brow.
"Of course not," she lied. "Any change?"
"Not that I've noticed," he answered with a light shrug of his shoulders. "He sleeps like the dead."
She rolled her eyes at her brother's tasteless joke and handed him the small container of miso. "Please brew up some of this. He will need a healthy meal when he wakes if he is to regain his strength."
Before he could argue, she stepped into the small room where they had placed the stranger to recover and slid the door closed behind her. The encompassing quiet of the room greeted her the moment the door was shut. Though she was worried for the man laying prone on the floor in front of her, the energy within the room was peaceful and immediately set her at ease. She liked to think it was her ancestors' way of letting her know that everything would turn out all right in the end.
She took a minute to light a small stick of incense and place it in a holder before setting it on the floor near where the man lay. It was their own blend of incense, something her father had developed after years of trial and error. He insisted it was the best incense in the region. She had burned it day and night while her parents were sick, hoping that somehow it would help. It hadn't, and now there were but a dozen sticks remaining.
As the scent slowly filled the room, she felt her heartache ease and set about the task of preparing the herbs the medicine woman had given her. White willow bark to reduce fever, dried reishi to ward off infection and inflammation… She set the willow bark aside to be brewed into a tea, and parceled out a small amount of the mushrooms to soften and add to the miso soup.
Once she was finished, she checked the wound on the man's arm once more. She held her breath as she untied the tourniquet and when blood did not ooze out as it had before she exhaled a sigh of relief. It was the first bit of good news she'd had all day. She retrieved a small bundle of bandages from the low table where she'd prepared the herbs and began wrapping up what remained of his arm.
She studied him as she worked, her eyes lingering once more on the markings that cut across his face. There was another one as well, a crescent moon shaped birthmark on his forehead she had uncovered after removing the worst of the dirt. She had never seen markings quite like the ones he had, and it left her mind swirling with questions about who this stranger could be. He had the body of a soldier, and his muscles beneath her hands were rigid from years of training or battle. She'd thought him nothing more than a common soldier at first, but perhaps she had been wrong.
It was as she tied the final knot in the newly wrapped bandages that he stirred. She placed her hands gently atop his shoulders and tried to reassure him as best she could.
"Everything is okay," she said softly. "You are safe here."
She watched him carefully, hoping he might wake long enough for her to explain, but instead his body thrust upward from the floor catching her by surprise. She pulled back with a gasp and he turned on her with fangs bared and crimson eyes glowering at her. They hadn't been crimson before at the river, she was certain of it, but there was no mistaking the red glow of them now.
"It's okay," she said again, not knowing what else to do. "You're safe."
He looked as though he might lunge at her, but his eyes rolled back into his head instead and he fell back against the floor. Rin exhaled the breath she'd been holding and watched the even rise and fall of his chest until her heart stopped racing. It was as though he had never awoken at all, but she knew what she'd seen. The man she'd rescued from the woods, the man she'd brought into her family's shrine, was most definitely a demon.
oOo
The demon hadn't stirred since that brief moment when he'd awoken, eyes red and fangs bared. She hadn't told her brother about her discovery because she knew what his response would be. He would demand they remove "it" from their shrine and let nature do what it would with him. She had no wish to see the creature suffer, even if it was a demon. And besides, though his demonic features had been intimidating, he hadn't struck out at her.
How different was his reaction to awaking in a strange place surrounded by strangers than when her mother had awoken delirious with fever, demanding to know where her recently deceased husband was? They weren't so different, at least in her mind, so she held vigil by his bedside, though maybe seated a little further back than before, and considered the sort of circumstances that would lead a demon to her door.
"Has he not woken?" her brother asked from the doorway sounding mildly frustrated. She shook her head and lit a fresh stick of incense.
"No, not yet," she lied. "His wounds were serious. It might be a day or two before he wakes."
Her brother responded to this news with a dismissive grunt. "How were things in the village? Did you talk to anyone?"
"Only the medicine woman. She offered her condolences on the passing of our parents."
He made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat then stepped out into the hall. Most days he avoided speaking about the passing of their parents. The grief had been too much for him at first and he still wasn't quite ready. She understood, of course. Grief affected everyone differently, but she so badly wished she had someone to talk to. Keeping all of it inside made her feel as though she were slowly drowning in it.
When she looked up the doorway was empty and she rose to slide the door closed. She loved her brother, but sometimes she wished he wasn't so impossibly selfish. Returning to the side of the demon, she set out a bowl of water and a bar of soap. His hair was practically caked with dried blood and mud. She didn't imagine he would want to wake to find his hair filthy. She knew she would appreciate it if someone were to do the same for her if she were unable to care for herself. So, she set out soaking sections of his long hair and gently using the soap and her mother's comb to wash out the grime.
"I used to do this for my mother when she was ill," she explained to him just in case he was conscious enough to be curious. "This soap was her favourite. When my father would go to Edo, or sometimes Kumamoto, he would return with a bar or two as a special gift for her. She died at the end of winter, and my father just before her." She went quiet a moment, her eyes and hands focused on the task in front of her.
"I'm not sure why I'm telling you all of this," she confessed with a shake of her head. Her comb passed smoothly through his long hair now that it was clean and she marveled at the colour of it once she'd rinsed it in the water. It was soft like down and white as snow.
"You have beautiful hair…" The comment was out of her mouth before she could stop herself and she hastily picked up her container of water and switched to his other side.
"I have many questions for you once you're feeling well enough to answer them," she told him. "I don't even know if you remember meeting me, but we met at the river. One moment I was gathering water and the next you were standing across from me looking…well…I'm sure you remember that part."
"I've wrapped your arm and washed off the worst of the blood and dirt, though I'm sure you'll want a proper bath once you are feeling better. Our shrine also has an onsen you can use. Its healing waters have been purified by my family for eight generations-,"
She stopped there, suddenly realizing the futility of bragging about the healing powers of a purified onsen to a demon. He would never be able to use it unless he was keen to die.
"Forgive me, that was a foolish suggestion," she amended with a self-deprecating smile. "I've never seen a demon that looks like you before. In fact, I've never seen a demon at all until now. But from what I can tell you must be one. What other reason could there be for these interesting markings?" Her fingers slid indulgently along the markings that wound around his forearm.
She looked at him as though she expected a response but he did not stir. Uttering a quiet sigh, she dried the freshly cleaned sections of his hair and departed with the small tub of water to empty it. It wasn't until she was outside that she noticed the threat that had descended upon them. Her brother stood alone in the courtyard with his hands raised, pleading with what looked to be a group of armed thugs that they had no rations or money to spare. She tried to quickly retreat back inside, but two of the ruffians spotted her and caught her by the arms, dragging her to where her brother stood with the others.
"Found another one," he called to their leader. He nodded and a leer crossed his lips as he studied her brother.
"Give us what we want, or we might just take our frustrations out on her."
"I swear to you we have nothing to offer," Einosuke pleaded with them. "It was a long, hard winter. Anything extra we had we've already given away to families in the village."
"Search the shrine," the leader instructed his crew, dismissing her brother's protestations entirely. "And don't forget the outer buildings."
Rin tried to wrench herself free from the men who held her with a firm hold around each arm, but they only tightened their grip.
"Leave us be," she shouted at them. "We already told you we have nothing to offer."
"We'll be the judge of that," the man she assumed was their leader replied. "Though if you're offering to distract us for a time, I'm sure you will find takers," he suggested with a leer.
She scowled at him in reply and her brother hastily instructed her to keep her mouth shut. She'd never been very good at that, but saw it might be prudent to simply let them search the shrine until they were satisfied they had been telling the truth and then leave.
"The storehouse is empty," one of the crew reported. "Only a barrel of rice and some pickles remain."
The leader heaved an impatient sigh, "Take them. Beggars can't be choosers, after all."
Rin exchanged a loaded glance with her brother. If the thieves took the only food they had left, they would starve in a matter of days. There was no food in the village and it was several days' voyage to the nearest large town where they might acquire more. Panic tightened her throat, and she struggled futilely once more against the hands that gripped her arms.
From near the main building came the faint sound of two cries, each abruptly cut off.
"What's going on over there?" the leader called, his hand already on the handle of his sword. When his men did not answer, he nodded at two others and sent them to investigate. When they did not return either, the leader made an impatient noise in the back of his throat, mumbled a curse under his breath, and went to search for himself.
As the moments ticked by, Rin glanced up at the men holding her. Their attention seemed wholly focused on the building their leader had disappeared around.
"Perhaps he needs help," she suggested with a lift of her brow.
The pair exchanged a glance with one another over her head, then dragged her and her brother in the direction their leader had gone.
"Come on!" one growled at her as he pulled her behind him.
They rounded the corner of the main shrine building to find a field of corpses before them. Each of the bandits lay in a bloodied heap atop the ground and in the midst of them all was the demon. Rin's eyes glanced between the bodies and the demon as she wondered how he had managed to kill them all in such a state. When she'd last seen him the man could barely open his eyes, but suddenly he was capable of eliminating an entire gang on his own?
"What the hell is this?" one of the bandits holding onto her shouted at the demon. "Did you do this?"
The demon's eyes slowly glanced his way, his expression indifferent to the brandishing of their weapons. He lifted his hand as though to swat them away like some sort of irksome fly. Instead, what looked like a glowing green rope emerged from his claws. With a flick of his fingers the rope whipped through the air and the men who had held her captive collapsed at her feet, dead.
Astonished, she glanced up expecting to see red eyes and fangs but instead found a pair of golden eyes studying her. They'd been gold at the river, too, hadn't they? Relieved to finally see him awake, she slowly moved towards him.
"Thank you for saving us," she called out to him. He offered no reply, but turned and took two steps towards the gate before collapsing to one knee and then onto his side.
"He killed them all," Einosuke said aghast as he slowly picked his way around the corpses that now littered their shrine.
"And thank goodness he did," was all she could think to retort. While death did not sit well with her, she had little doubt how their encounter with the bandits would have ended had they been left to their own defences.
"Help me get him inside," she demanded and ran to the demon. She knelt at his side and cautiously turned him over. He still breathed and there was no obvious sign of injury. She exhaled an audible sigh of relief. It had taken all of his remaining strength to defeat the bandits and now he was unconscious once more.
"Thank you," she said, and offered him a smile as her hand settled atop his chest. "You really saved us."
The demon, of course, did not reply. When her brother arrived, they carried him together to the shrine. With the demon situated safely back inside, Rin went in search of their shovels. They had no small amount of graves to dig before nightfall.