Years ago, a man came to the valley from far away.
His features were quite different, and the language barrier separated him from them. For whatever reason, he had come to for the dark idol and seemed to have knowledge of it or some kind of connection that none of them had.
When he tried to take it, he was killed by Lord Tanashiro.
This incident was mysterious, as they never really learned anything about the man, where he came from, how he'd heard about the dark idol, or why he wanted to take it.
Perhaps the most notable thing about him was his pink hair, something Master Haru Tengen had never seen before. Pink hair was so exotic and peculiar that he thought he'd never see it again.
Eight months after the incident, he stepped outside and found a baby girl crowned in little tufts of downy pink hair naked in a basket on his front step. He already had Momo, who had appeared in his life in a similar manner, so he simply brought her inside and raised her on watered down goat's milk.
It wasn't perfect, but she survived.
The poor workers who lived in the valley often abandoned newborn baby girls, because if they can only afford to feed one extra mouth, it will usually be that of a son. Many baby girls were thrown into the river or smothered quietly on the night they were born, with parents announcing that their child passed away during childbirth. It was said that female babies were simply weaker, and everyone would simply nod because they were all in on it, knowing that they weren't truly weaker, they were just being killed by mothers who wanted sons.
If things weren't so desperate, it would be different.
Perhaps Momo's parents simply didn't want a daughter and didn't want to kill her, but since Ayame was clearly the foreigner's child, he believed her conception was likely an act of violence, and she was certainly born in secret to someone who didn't want anyone to know what that man had done to her.
Even though the valley was fertile and blessed with bountiful farmland, the people had struggled with scarcity since Master Haru first came to the strange shrine.
The peasants work hard, but they are not permitted to eat meat except on rare celebrations in the lord's honor. If they hunt in the mountains, Lord Tanashiro views this as stealing food from him, and while there are hunters that go into the woods, their catch goes up the big hill to the castle.
Lord Tanashiro throws huge banquets where servants cook more than ten times what the attendees can eat, showcasing the glory of the valley, and at the end of the night, when most of it has been left uneaten, instead of sending it to the valley, he feeds it to his pet pigs.
Yet if Lord Tanashiro died, another lord just like him would appear, in this world of sorcerer warlords. Their greed and violence knew no end, and they dragged the rest of the world right along with them. It seemed like there would be no end to it, with common people forced to live in the violent world of sorcerers.
Haru liked to dream of a future where maybe a time would come when the strongest sorcerer would say, 'no more, we will live in peace.' But sorcerers are greedy and violent, and sorcery erodes their humanity, day by day.
And so, rambling one afternoon over some tea made from the wild herbs that grew over the mountain, a fourteen-year-old Michizane Sugawara and sixteen-year-old Momo Tengen hear this old man talk about a better world where sorcerers banded together to protect humanity from curses and sorcerers who might do them harm. Humanity, in turn, would be free to live in peace.
These are silly things to say in a world where the strongest sorcerers rule everything—why would they ever give that power up?
Yet even old men were allowed to have naïve dreams.
Ayame thinks that sounds good too, but as someone with so little cursed energy it basically didn't exist for her, she is an inhabitant of the world that is owned by violent sorcerers, while Momo and Michizane are low members of the ruling class.
She's not really about worrying about things she can't change, and at the moment, is happy to dote on Hoshi, the newest member of their family.
"Are you really going to take that thing everywhere?" the master asks.
Michizane found a kitten on his most recent errand out of the valley; cats were in the process of very slowly conquering the island. They hadn't made their way to the valley yet, so while he had described what a cat is like to the girls, they were unprepared at how obnoxiously cute a kitten actually is.
He said he really couldn't care for it himself, although everyone at the castle would have been thrilled to have a cat around. The real reason he gave Hoshi to the girls is because he knew it would make them happy.
Michizane grins at her. "It's like he's your baby."
"He is! Look at Hoshi, my furry little son."
Master Haru says, "Don't spoil him too much. Once he gets big enough to catch mice, he's going to be working harder than any of us."
"My son is noble and will not be doing any common chores," Ayame answers, and the cat adds a 'meow!'
Michizane brings news about the eastern front; Kenji Fujiwara broke through the defenses and claimed what used to be some of the smaller fiefdoms on the far side of Tanashiro's lands. The only thing that stopped him from pushing through even further is that he has another war in the north that demanded his immediate attention.
He doesn't say it at the table, but among sorcerers, it seems inevitable that Fujiwara will eventually topple Lord Tanashiro.
It is perhaps only a matter of time before the war comes to this verdant valley, and only a matter of time before Tanashiro throws Michizane at the monster and his Ten Shadows in hopes of slowing him down.
Michizane's voice seems as bright and hopeful as always, but he tends to hide his true emotions under the bandages wrapped around his eyes. After all, he's still a kid, and he has dreams. He's already been to the eastern front, but as a helper, so he's seen what happens, what it actually means to be killed.
Hearing someone died in war is nothing compared to seeing what a battlefield looked like after everything was over, and the ground was covered with blood and broken bodies, intestines spilling out here, severed body parts that seem to have no owner, bits of bone and brain splattered everywhere.
It's also understood without needing to be mentioned that when Tanashiro's army arrives in the valley, it's not only the soldiers who will suffer. He will reward his soldiers by letting him take what they want. The peasants don't have much but a few young women and girls, and if that is their reward, they will take it.
Momo has sorcery abilities, and she can escape, and even prevent people from harming her, but Ayame? Her extraordinary beauty and her unusual but lovely pink hair probably put her more at risk than anyone else.
Then again, it wasn't different for anyone down in the valley, looking into the future and knowing there's little they can do to protect themselves or their families that they have loved. If Fujiwara makes it to the valley, his men will leave it scarred forever, and every single person will be hurt. Many will die. And then they will be a vassal state of a warlord who frankly only wants the valley so he can feed his armies.
When it is over, the peasants, worse for wear, will still be working to feed a greedy warlord's ambitions.
Michizane and Momo try to spar after their tea, but it's always her barriers against his, and that's not entirely interesting. Momo's powers are strange, and growing by the day; like Michizane, she didn't come from a sorcery clan who could teach her. So anything she learns, she has to learn the hard way, which means progress can be slow-going.
Momo wants to use her technique to hopefully seal the dark idol away forever to ensure that it never harms anyone, and considering her abilities, Haru doesn't think that is an impossible goal.
There's also a strange restlessness that comes with the news that Fujiwara will probably win his war against Tanashiro. If Tanashiro is letting him take land, it means that he himself is unwilling to go to the front and stop him. Perhaps he will flee in the end, like others have, rather than facing inevitable death in battle like all the soldiers and sorcerer-slaves that he has forced into the grave.
Momo wonders if she might somehow be able to protect the valley with her powers if she was strong enough. Maybe she could against an army of ordinary people, or even weaker sorcerers. But it would be silly for her to consider the possibility that she could stop Kenji Fujiwara from doing anything he wanted to do.
She's still just a kid, after all.
What will happen to them? Her duty is to the dark idol, but there's no telling what Fujiwara will want to do with it. Lord Tanashiro has mostly supported the efforts to keep it sealed away here at this shrine on the mountain despite his occasional considerations about its potential as a weapon, but there's no promise that a new lord would feel the same way.
While Momo worries, Ayame doesn't think about any of it.
It's more fun to have hope and dreams than to think about how scary war is.
Sometimes, she feels like in the end, she will be a burden to the people she loves, who can do more to help themselves.
She wishes she was strong like Momo in secret even as Momo secretly wishes Michizane would look at her the way she looks at Ayame. It was a simple case of the girls wishing they had what the other had, but if they could switch places, they'd do the same thing again because it really wasn't too much to ask fate for the power to survive war and also have love.
Later that afternoon, a visitor was spotted riding up the hill, so the priest orders the girls to make themselves scarce.
It's Lord Tanashiro, away from his guards at the moment.
The weight of everything seems to be pulling at him, the inevitability of Kenji Fujiwara and the Ten Shadows already at the gate in his mind. He has come to inquire about the dark idol again, wondering if that is the factor that will allow him to turn the tide on the war.
Tanashiro was the strongest, and his father was the strongest before that. He had more lands than any lord on the island five years ago, but in a world where only strength in battle matters, there is a math problem whenever he tries to add up what would be needed to stop Fujiwara.
He is surprised to find one of his sorcerer-slaves at the shrine, but finds Sugawara was simply passing through and stopped to rest.
Sugawara is one of the favorites, a hard worker despite having a rather peculiar technique and being a bit absent at times. He is one of the few that is allowed to travel and do errands without supervision, perhaps not out of his loyalty, but because he understands what would happen if he ever tried to leave.
Tanashiro tugs on that invisible chain as he proceeds to the room where the idol is kept.
He stares at it, curiously, intently, almost desperately.
"Sugawara, with your enlightened vision, is it still your conclusion this cannot be turned into a weapon?"
Sugawara ponders his lie again, because this little object can absolutely be weaponized. He's not clear on exactly how to do that, but it holds incredible power and human bodies don't tolerate incredible power well. That said, he believes that using it this way, the warding spell that is intended to keep the idol from being used will probably make the wielder go mad, and then what?
Tanashiro being evil, insane, and indescribably powerful didn't sound like a good idea. He was bad enough in his default state of apathy towards his subjects.
But if he weaponized the dark idol, maybe he would kill Fujiwara, and war wouldn't come to this area.
No, that would just curse other people. If Tanashiro became powerful enough to topple Fujiwara, he would do to villages in Fujiwara's kingdom exactly what they fear in their home.
Tanashiro feeds fine dishes to his pet pigs because he holds them in higher regard than ordinary people.
"Maybe…" Tanashiro mumbles out loud.
Sugawara answers, "Master, you don't need this crazy old thing. You're so powerful that you can defeat any enemy. You're the strongest, and your name would be sullied if you resorted to such a tactic."
Master Haru stands in the hallway and listens to the lord and his slave talk.
Tanashiro is usually rather blunt and has an intimidating presence; he says the bare minimum and doesn't really engage socially with his subjects. He's different with Sugawara, who seems to have earned the lord's favor. Without any sign of fear, the boy is able to persuade Tanashiro with flattery that his legacy and reputation would be ruined if he messed with the dark idol.
It's quite impressive, but then again, Sugawara is a very charming and charismatic kid. He always seems to know what to say unless he's standing in Ayame's presence, in which case he will say some of the strangest and most foolish things out of nervousness at times.
Tanashiro detects strange residue all over, and says, "Is there another sorcerer here? There are remnants of a barrier."
Master Haru feels nervous, because he doesn't want the lord tumbling toward his likely end to find out that Momo has such powerful barrier techniques, but Sugawara says, "That's just me. I've been experimenting with different ways to use my barrier. Sometimes it doesn't work the way I want."
"Ah. You're quite diligent, Michizane."
The teenager cracks a wide grin. "Thank you, Master. Anyway, it's almost winter, so everyone is going to go home for a while. Surely we can wait until spring before we do anything crazy, right? In fact, if we leave right now, we can probably make it back to the castle in time to eat leftovers."
Tanashiro seems to snap out of his daze, and he's grateful for the cessation of hostilities that the freezing months bring. It's a relief to think about going home and resting for a while.
The lord lets out a little chuckle. "I am the lord of these lands. I do not eat leftovers, Michizane."
"Seriously? You're missing out. Sometimes food tastes better when it's had a few hours to sit and the flavors all mix a little better."
"Is that so?"
"Mhmm! I mean, yes, Master."
Even though Michizane had been planning to stay the night and probably linger unnecessarily in the morning, he successfully convinces Tanashiro to stop having apocalyptic longings for the dark idol and that they should ride back to the castle to have a nice dinner instead.
Master Haru gives Michizane a nod of appreciation as he heads out of the shrine with his master.
When they get to the horses outside, Michizane waters them, and while the lord waits, he says, "The priest seems to know you. Do you visit here often?"
"Sometimes I stop to rest here when I am travelling on official duty. The priest is a gracious host and always offers tea and a hot meal."
Tanashiro says, "Is that so? Is there no one else in the valley who will provide a mat and a hot meal to a servant of their lord?"
Michizane didn't mean to imply that anyone else was being inhospitable, and maybe the shrine was a bit out of the way. His charisma fails him as he struggles for an answer.
With a laugh, the lord pats him on the back. "Relax, I ask in jest. I know that old man has two beautiful young shrine maidens living here with him on this mountain that you seem to often ascend for no apparent reason. Life is truly filled with grand mysteries."
"As a slave, such mysteries are above my humble understanding," Michizane answers with a smirk.
The lord is in a good mood now, and as they ride down the mountain, he says, "I think I will promote you to being my armor bearer. You do good work, and I trust your judgement. In the spring, you'll go with me into battle."
"As you wish, Master."
This was good and bad news for Michizane, because it meant he was going to the battlefront, but good news because he wasn't going to fight. The fact that Tanashiro was holding him back meant that Tanashiro had recognized that it would be a mistake to waste him as fodder.
Sorcerers experienced an explosion in power and potential as their bodies reached adulthood, so he was probably only half as strong as he would be even in two or three years, and the fact that Tanashiro was going to perhaps give him that time to grow meant a lot.
Some of the other sorcerer-slaves that were the same age as him were going in the spring, which meant that Tanashiro had deemed them only valuable as an encumbrance to enemies rather than prized fighters.
When they arrive back at the castle, Tanashiro is still having a nice time being entertained by his slave, so they bathe in the castle's main bath and then sneak into the kitchen through a back entrance, which scares the kitchen staff half to death.
Michizane knows all of them and what they do and proudly takes him on a tour introducing him to people that have been working for him for ten or more years in some cases.
Tanashiro notes how much everyone seems to regard Sugawara's appearance with joy; they are happy to see him, and he flatters them. He tells a seventy-year-old woman how beautiful she's looking and compliments the cooks and how great the kitchen smells and how clean the floor is, which they seem to take pride in.
The servants respond to their lord's presence with fear and uncertainty. Their lips are right, their posture rigid. They fear him, as if they're afraid he will punish them for whatever he will find during his surprise visit to the kitchen.
An armor bearer is both a literal title in the sense that in battle, Michizane will carry the lord's weapons and armor, but it is also a ceremonial title essentially naming him a direct assistant of the lord. An armor bearer is someone who tends to the lord exclusively, only accepting work or duties directly from the lord, which means if Michizane goes to do a task, anyone would know that as Tanashiro's armor bearer, the task is at the lord's behest or for his benefit.
On one night in the dead of winter about a month after his promotion, after dismissing Michizane from his office where he was trying to catch up on work, Lord Tanashiro remembered he wanted Michizane to make a trip to the valley.
It was dangerous to ride horses in areas where the animals couldn't see the ground because they could break their legs quite easily, so Michizane's peculiar ability to move swiftly from place to place was quite an asset in the winter.
While looking for Michizane, he went through the kitchen and to his living quarters, but eventually found him in the outer courtyard, talking very quietly to a girl.
It was a former servant girl, around Michizane's age, who Tanashiro's oldest son had recently taken as a concubine.
The lord quietly snuck around to listen, thinking it might be something inappropriate. For a concubine to meet another man in secret was something far beyond unacceptable, but he decided to listen and see what they were doing before calling for the guards.
Tsuki was an attractive young woman but mostly chosen because Lord Tanashiro's son saw her all the time and a certain kind of long-term want developed. Tanashiro let his son have her to celebrate an important victory in battle but hadn't thought much of it since then.
Michizane was talking when he approached, saying, "How bad is it?"
"It's deep purple, and it hurts so bad. Every time I take a breath or cough or sneeze. If I lay flat on my back, it hurts too."
"Why'd he do it?"
Tsuki answered, "There's something he likes to do…something maybe unusual. Maybe it's not unusual. But it hurts me. I asked if he wouldn't do it anymore."
It's unclear what act she's referring to, but it was clearly a sex act, or something done while having sex.
Since the lord began eavesdropping in the middle of the conversation, all he determines from context is that his son hurt his concubine, and she was upset about it. She was the same age as Michizane, and as friendly as he was, it would be more unexpected for them not to be friends since they both grew up here at the castle.
Michizane has no idea what to do or say, because the heir to the Tanashiro lordship, Kyomaru Tanashiro, is not a nice or good person at all. While his father is callus to the needs of those around him, his son is purposefully malevolent to others.
He knows what he wants to say, but contrary to what the lord might believe as he lurks in the shadows, no one can sneak up on Michizane. He knows Lord Tanashiro is there, knows exactly where he is, and felt his approach from far away.
Tsuki asks, "Should I see a physician?"
"No," Michizane quickly answers, "That's the worst thing you could possibly do. It sounds like you have a fractured rib, and if that's the case, a doctor won't be able to help you anyway. There's no treatment for that. It just hurts for a couple of months and then you move on. If you go to a doctor, it might cause people to whisper about Kyomaru and then he would punish you for humiliating him. You'd make your situation worse with no benefit. I've had a broken rib before, so I know it hurts. I'll borrow some herbs that dull pain and leave them with the kitchen so they can deliver them to you.
"Please remember that you're Kyomaru's concubine now, so we can't just talk like this. Try to make friends with older ladies, they probably know more about what you're going through. We could be killed for talking like this, so it can't happen again. You should head back. I won't walk you to the door, but I'll watch over you from here, okay?"
What he really wanted to tell her was that she needed to just make it for a little while longer because Kenji Fujiwara was probably going to waste the entire Tanashiro clan. He didn't know what kind of weird sex thing he did to her that caused her to suffer so much she refused, but whatever it was, he stomped on her like a horse in retaliation and seemingly broke one of her ribs.
He was disgusted and angry, but he holds his tongue and says what he needs to say for Tsuki to be as okay as possible for a little while longer.
Michizane doesn't acknowledge Lord Tanashiro's presence and simply heads to his own quarters.
The Lord decides not to acknowledge him either, and retires for the evening after sending another servant to deliver the message to Michizane.
Tanashiro thinks about whether he should do anything about what happened. A concubine meeting another man is wildly inappropriate, but on the other hand, it clearly wasn't for inappropriate reasons.
As the lord considers whether to have the girl beaten or executed, he doesn't consider consequences for his son who beat his young concubine.
Michizane didn't betray their family, advising her to keep her mouth shut, protect Kyomaru's reputation, and not to make such a dangerous mistake again, and Tanashiro thought that might be the best outcome and that not punishing them was probably the best course of action.
He thought about talking to his son about being gentler, but his son takes things personally and it's really not worth it over some female.
Fundamentally, Tanashiro views the subjects of his kingdom as just that: subject. Subject to whatever whims they might have, and he knows that the villagers in the valley despair over the fact that his pet pigs eat better than they do.
Besides, if he is unable to defeat Fujiwara, his son will likely not survive unless he flees the lands he was supposed to inherit.
His frustration bubbles up, and he thinks about the dark idol at the shrine, wondering once again if it might save him.
Meanwhile at the shrine, winter brings reliable peace and quiet.
The girls play in the snow, do chores, work on their studies, and life at the shrine continues as it has even though the future remains uncertain.
Yet Tanashiro continues to look at the passing days as each of them being one day closer to when the snow melts and the fighting resumes. Desperate for survival against Kenji Fujiwara, the lord decides to try and forge an alliance with another warlord who is also threatened by Fujiwara.
Once again relying on Michizane's ability to travel swiftly in the winter without a horse, Tanashiro decides to send the slave to Heian Kyo with a pack of provisions and strings of gold coins to deliver a scroll to Lord Katsuragi. It is a very long journey, but Tanashiro knows that Michizane will complete the task without incident or complaint because he is trustworthy and reliable.
The teenager is a bit intimidated by the task he has been entrusted with, but when he hears that he'll be going to Heian Kyo, he remembers the old priest studied there. Wherever the priest studied, there were writings about wuji, about the nature of everything.
So before he leaves the area, he drops in on the shrine.
Momo greets him out front, where she is chopping firewood.
"Oh, is that you, Soup Boy? It's been a while!" she says.
"Sorry. I got promoted at work, and I have had less time to myself."
He points at the stack of logs needing to be cut and they break apart into a mountain of smaller pieces with one burst of cursed energy.
"I see you're still a showoff."
"I can't help it, it's just who I am."
Momo says, "Have you been well?"
"Mostly. I am Lord Tanashiro's armor bearer now, so I have to follow him around everywhere."
"What's that like?"
"Probably exactly like how you would imagine."
Momo says, "I was kind of hoping you'd tell me that the lord was misunderstood and that he has a big heart. That he cares for his subjects deeply, and we simply don't comprehend how he expresses that."
"There's no misunderstanding. He has no heart."
"Then maybe he'll die."
"If you knew his heir, you would spend all day praying for Lord Tanashiro to live forever."
Momo always seems quite stern, but she's kind, and he knows that she has great empathy for others.
"Michi!"
He turns to find his pink-haired crush behind him, carrying water from the wall in two huge buckets balanced on a carrying pole across her shoulders.
"That looks heavy for you," he says, moving to help her.
Ayame sticks her tongue out. "I'm stronger than I look. Do you know how far the well is?"
He takes the carrying pole from her shoulders and answers, "If I give you the exact measurement from here to the well, you'll thump me on the nose and Momo will call me a show-off. It's 292 shaku."
Ayame thumps him on the nose, and Momo rolls her eyes. "Show off!"
With an impish laugh, he carries the water inside to the kitchen, and then goes back for another load, and then places the firewood in the storeroom to dry.
Master Haru is meditating to create new seal papers to keep the dark idol quiet for a few more months, so Michizane helps the girls with the chores and catches up with them.
He can tell that Momo's technique has evolved somehow, and she is operating at a much higher level than the last time he saw her. If she was a boy, she would probably already be kind of famous, but female sorcerers are usually just used to make more sorcerers. It's extremely rare for them to ever step foot on a battlefield.
After the chores are done, Ayame plays bamboo flute for him while they sit in front of the fire in the living quarters of the shrine.
Hoshi the cat remains stretched out across her lap, and Michizane learns from the girls that Hoshi befriended some local rats and often goes outside to play with them.
It's so peaceful and happy here.
Michizane doesn't really have people, a family or anything like that. But whenever he thinks about places where he's felt a sense of home, this place stands out. None of them are related to each other, but they chose to engage in this family-like behavior because they all need and benefit from it.
Coming to this shrine makes his heart stir and causes him to feel incredibly unhappy with his circumstances even though on a day to day basis, it's easy to just do that day's work. Every day is a series of tasks, and he does them without complaint, eats, and goes to sleep.
When he's here, he has crazy fantasies about what he'd do if he was free and there was no war. What he really wants to do is go to the continent and learn everything about everything. But if he was going to leave, he'd want to take Ayame with him, and they would drink sake together in the shrine first because he's honorable.
Ayame has those sorts of dreams as well, but they're very young and he is a slave. In order for them to be together, a lot of things would have to happen, and it's unlikely anything was going to play out in their favor.
So it makes her a little mad that he's so charming. How can a man she can't love be so handsome and kind and strong and funny and…she drifts off and comes back to reality to find him very smugly gazing upon her as if he knows she was daydreaming about him.
"Something on your mind?" he asks.
"No!"
"Looked like you were having a thought that made you happy. You weren't thinking of some other handsome guy, were you?"
"Of course not. I don't know any guys as handsome as you. I mean, no. You know what I mean!"
Momo bops him on the head lightly with a wooden spoon, and says, "It's not really a compliment. Master doesn't really let us talk to any other boys. I'm sure if she went down into the valley to meet men, she'd find tons she likes more than you. You're full of yourself, and I think you might have a disease I read about."
"I came to visit you and all I get is, 'you're not cute and you're probably diseased.' What's my diagnosis?"
"There's some kind of disease where people are born with white hair and usually pink eyes. They can't go out in the sun or they blister."
Michizane answers, "That sounds very gross. I'm a very healthy boy. The sun loves me, and I love the sun. Just kidding. The sun comes out every day just to cook me and no other reason, but I have my technique."
"It protects you from the sun?"
"It protects me from everything."
Momo's honey-colored eyes dart over, and she lightly bops him with the spoon again. "Didn't protect you against that!"
Ayame says, "It didn't save you when I thumped you either."
Michizane answers, "Why would I stop pretty girls from doing anything to me? I learned this year that some men like it when women do bad things to them."
Master Haru's cane hits the back of his skull so hard that briefly, he is left seeing stars. "We haven't seen you in all this time, and I come out and you're talking about such deviant matters?!"
"That's nothing. You should hear how the people our age at the castle talk," he complains, rubbing his head, "You know the mind is in the head. That's what they believe on the continent. I learned that at the castle."
Momo says, "That seems wrong. I imagine the mind is deep in the chest."
Michizane answers, "I know you haven't seen anything like this, but I think anyone who has been to war would agree. Getting hit in the head hard enough that the bone breaks is almost always fatal. People can survive getting stabbed just about everywhere except their head."
"Really?" Ayame asks.
"Mhmm. Sometimes weird stuff happens too, like if someone gets hit hard in the head and they live, maybe their personality will change or they'll be forgetful or crazy or whatever."
Haru sits with them and says, "Enough, enough. No more war talk. No more talk about men who enjoy abuse from women. Honestly, did you come here to menace us?"
"Yes, I woke up and decided I'd come here and be terrible for a little while. Just kidding! The lord is sending me on an errand to Heian Kyo."
"Now?"
He nods.
Master Haru asks, "What is the errand?"
"I'm not allowed to speak on the matter."
The priest could make a guess, and he assumed he would probably be right that Tanashiro is weighing his options and allying with Lord Katsuragi to the south might be his best chance.
Michizane adds, "You said you studied about wugi in Heian Kyo. Do you think it would be possible for me to go to wherever those scrolls were and read them?"
"Yes, I have friends in the city. I'll write you letters of recommendation so they know they can trust you. It's been some time since I've been back, so some may have passed away or moved on, but I believe a letter will get you where you need to go. Would you deliver a couple of personal letters as well?"
"Sure, no problem."
Master Haru puts the boy up for the night and then spends much of the evening writing letters to his old friends and colleagues from Heian Kyo about everything that is happening there.
He considers asking Michizane to take Momo and Ayame with him using his technique, and leaving them to stay at the temple where he studied. The war might come to them soon, but for Kenji Fujiwara to consolidate his power all the way to Heian Kyo would likely take a much longer period of time and by then, perhaps he would be stopped. Besides, since Heian Kyo is the loveliest and most valuable city and trading center on the island, anyone who gained control of it would have no reason to destroy it or the people who worked to make it function.
On the other hand, Momo would be needed if he passed away, either from age or illness or war, to keep the dark idol safe behind barriers and seals, so sending her away was a big risk to the valley, and he truthfully didn't know if Ayame would be better off alone in a strange distant place than here where he could protect her.
If Lord Katsuragi is amenable to an alliance with Tanashiro, the valley might be saved, and with it, this shrine sitting on the mountain at the edge of it.
The old man decides to wait and see before he takes any drastic action, and packs Michizane's pack even more with introductory letters, personal correspondence, maps, and some extra provisions, even some good tea he was given as a gift.
They feed Michizane a big breakfast and wish him well when he departs in the morning, and he begins his long trek south.