3. By This Still Hearth

They left the vicinity of Mount Hakurei the same day, deciding to head south. One thing was abundantly clear: They couldn't stay where they were recognised, not at first.

Anywhere they hadn't been to after Naraku had revived them, no-one seemed to be too suspicious of the group of men that came to the village. The further they moved, the easier it became. The bad thing was that the original idea–pilfer what they needed to get by and head on to a larger settlement to see if anyone was hiring fighters–wasn't practicable. The people here had nothing to steal, let alone weapons. The first town that was rich enough was also well guarded.

At the end it was Renkotsu who suggested that working for their gold would be the best plan. The place had a decent smithy, and he impressed owner by crafting a beautiful sword for him. He and Ginkotsu all but took the entire business over. The two smiths were an old man who was getting too feeble for the job and his son, who had been disinterested for a long time. Now they taught him skills his old man could only have dreamed of.

Bankotsu, on the other hand, felt the life slowly draining from him. Well. Maybe he was being dramatic, but there was little he was capable of besides fighting. The town had a militia. It was large enough to warrant one, but he didn't want to put up with it. He'd never seen such a disorganised mess before. So he sat at the fire in the evening, feeling useless and bored, until Jakotsu poked him. 'Eh?' he made.

'I said, I talked to a few of the soldiers. Apparently the town's rulers care a lot about gold and not at all for security. Has been so for a long time, but now the top commander or whatever died, and after a bit of infighting, a certain Makoto has taken over. Problem is, he is an old geezer and incapable.'

'Well, at least they can't overwork themselves.'

'No, but he's worried. If something happens, they're completely unprepared. He says they need someone to take care of them, a real leader.'

'All right, Jakotsu, I hear where you're going with this.' Bankotsu shrugged. 'But I can see two problems. One: We're not staying here. It's still too close, our only goal is to get enough money to buy sensible weapons, and then we can finally go back to normal.'

'The version of normal that got us all killed?' Kyoukotsu asked. 'Twice?'

'I'd prefer if we could skip that bit,' Bankotsu said. 'But before we get into the how of that, we need … something.'

Renkotsu leaned forwards. 'You mentioned two problems, Ooaniki.'

'Yes, I did. The second one is that we're still keeping a low profile, as I have to remind people.' Mukotsu smirked at this, but he ignored him. 'And walking up to the military leader and killing him so I can take his place isn't that.'

'Why kill him?' Ginkotsu asked. 'Go and talk to the man. It worked for us.'

'Way ahead of you,' Jakotsu said. 'I had a word with Makoto. Anyone willing to take over from him is welcome to it. He just agreed so they'd stop pestering him. And when we leave … well, it's no longer our problem.'

Bankotsu thought about this. 'You'd have me teach a bunch of idiots how to hold a sword?' He scratched his head. 'Do you really believe this is a good idea?'

'It pays well,' Jakotsu said. 'And I'd be with you.' He passed a piece of parchment to Kyoukotsu on his other side, who took it and frowned at it.

'That's the salary? Well, if we can negotiate a discount at the smithy, we can buy passable equipment from him in … three months.'

Renkotsu stared at him. 'Huh?'

'There, look. Adding what your smithing earns you and … hey, what's that on the left about, Jakotsu?'

'What left?'

Kyoukotsu chuckled. 'Sorry. It says three people. Who's the third?'

'That would be me,' Suikotsu answered.

'He scraped one of their guys off the floor the other day,' Jakotsu explained. 'That's how I got talking to them in the first place. They decided to keep him.'

'Ah. So adding what Mukotsu earns us with his elixirs and you two with the smithy, we can buy swords for all of us, maybe a couple of daggers, and still have coin to spare in the middle of summer. I think it would be wise not to walk away the moment we have what we absolutely need. We don't know how fast we'll reach a place where no-one recognises our names. And then we want someone who can hire us for less dull work and pay more decently than these folk.'

Renkotsu shook himself visibly. 'Yes, that … makes perfect sense. But since when can you calculate?'

'I always could,' Kyoukotsu said slightly sheepishly. 'Or I used to be able to.' He looked at the fire, his expression distant. 'I was once a lord's son and posted in his honour guard. Except I was really sick. Mukotsu … saved my life.' His lips twitched. 'I understand I was little more than a successful experiment, and the downside was that it destroyed my mind. The beautiful thing about being stupid, though, is that you don't miss what you lost. And if I'm honest, I'd have taken that bargain even if I'd known.'

'Can you fight, too, then?' Bankotsu asked. 'You look like a willow branch.'

'Willow wand,' Renkotsu said automatically.

Bankotsu threw a small wad of rice at him. 'Thin. But you have trained combat, apparently. The traditional sort, I mean.'

'I'm able to fight with different types of weapons. I … probably lost my muscle memory at some point, but I'll get it back quickly.'

'Then the first sword we can buy should be for you,' Renkotsu said. 'So you can re-learn. Or you join the guard and practice with the recruits. The salary will be negligible, but you'll get your experience back.'

'I like that plan,' Bankotsu said. 'That way I can help training you myself.' He looked to his left, where Ginkotsu was staring at the wall. 'And where are you?'

The other man shook himself visibly. 'I wonder what has changed,' he said.

'Changed?' their leader echoed. 'If we stick with the original plan and steal things, we'd have to run. In that case, we have to play this game again until we've got all we need. Maybe by the time we reach another town, people have been warned if they're friendly with the lot here. I'm not wiling to risk it. We can go back to normal–whatever normal–when we're secure.'

A soft smile tugged on Renkotsu's face. 'I don't think that's what he wanted to say. Ginkotsu, if you're a bit more specific, we can discuss it. And I believe we should discuss it.'

'What I mean is …' He looked at them, all of them. 'Take you, Jakotsu. You always hated Suikotsu. As in, the Doctor, you were fine with the killer. Now a guard gets injured, and you run to fetch him? And speaking of you, you treated a guy who was bleeding severely. Did you feel anything other than that you wanted to help him?'

'No.' Suikotsu's expression was distant. 'All I felt was the need to save him. To do the best I could. There was nothing else. I didn't even think about … the other one. And at the same time, I was furious because his injury had been caused by one of his comrades being careless.' He looked at Renkotsu. 'I don't remember ever being that mad before. Not until …' He faltered and stared back at the fire, his face dejected. 'Not until I changed.'

Bankotsu shrugged. 'But you didn't change now. You stayed in control. Don't be so hard on yourself.'

'What I believe,' Renkotsu said slowly, 'is that we have left a lot of the weight that drove us to destruction behind. We are who we are. We always will be. But you, I think, don't need to worry. You're saner now than ever before.'

'Is he a mix now, of both of his … whatever that was?' Jakotsu asked.

'Perhaps.' Renkotsu answered. 'I'm not sure if it's that simple. But his mind is quieter. At least mine is. Maybe the past doesn't weigh as heavily on people who have died twice.'

'Are you saying we're going soft?' Bankotsu asked.

'That's too drastic. But something is happening. None of you can deny it.'

'All that has changed,' Mukotsu stated, 'is that I am too old to rebuild my resistances. I have to be more careful around poisons because if I'm not, it will kill me. Other than that, I want the same things. And I'm willing to take them.'

'Just make sure you don't take anything–or anyone–that isn't yours while we're here,' Bankotsu said. His tone was light, but there was an undercurrent of threat in his voice. They were all familiar with it. Regardless of the change Renkotsu was talking about, it still did what it should: Mukotsu averted his eyes and nodded.

'Of course, Ooaniki, I wouldn't risk our opportunity here.'

Bankotsu disliked his tone and decided to double down. 'Wise. It would be the last mistake you ever make.' One thing he was sure about: They weren't going to doubt he'd keep that promise.