[1] Kenshi

• 四 Four 四 •

The songs of cicadas and crickets filled the wooded forest that lay beneath the dark night sky as the newly formed pair walked under the trees. They had travelled a considerable distance from Edo in a little over an hour, having moved from the fields surrounding the town to the forest that lined the horizon. This was mostly Yohei's doing as he was a fast walker, Hana just struggling to keep up with her bodyguard's pace.

As Hana walked behind him, she heard a bell ring in the distance. It was on a hill with a tree in it, a white robed figure sitting directly underneath it which disappeared as soon as she blinked, Hana's blood immediately running cold with fear.

"You know, I don't think it was a good idea to leave the time we did." She commented as she began looking around into the trees, an uneasy look growing on her face.

"What makes you say that?" Yohei said, facing forward with a bored look in his eye.

"The forest... When it gets dark, we could always be at risk of bandits, or even yokai!" Hana exclaimed with fear in her eyes.

"You're just scared of the dark, aren't you?" He confronted her.

"A little." She looked down and blushed as she walked, embarrassed.

"Stick close then. I'm actually feeling a little suspicious about this place too. There's smething strange about this part of the woods." Yohei said, looking around. He noticed that Hana was now much close behind him.

After some walking, the pair found themselves at the edge of a dead silent village, not a single light to be found.

"That's odd. Usually there's one or two lights somewhere." Yohei noted. Behind him peeked out a spooked Hana who gripped onto his kimono.

"I don't like the looks of this place." The young girl spoke with a shaky voice.

Yohei looked down at her behind him before returning his attention to the eerily silent town in front of them.

"Nah, I wanna get some rest. I was supposed to sleep at that inn we met in but I figured it would be too noisy." Yohei suddenly began walking forward, pulling Hana along with him. "These houses should be empty." He told her, peeking in through the wooden bars of one of the doors, inspecting the inside of the house. Finding it was empty, he slid open the door, stepping in.

At this very moment, something gleamed in the darkness to his left right beside the door, seeing a kama (a scythe for farming) go straight for his head. Yohei reacted quickly, easily catching the wood underneath the blade, a pair of hands positioned just underneath his. He looked to the wielder of the weapon, noticing he was just a villager. "Looks like I was wrong."

• • •

Moments passed from after this attack, Yohei and Hana sitting on the floor of the house across from their attacker. In between them sat a boiling kettle over a fire.

"My name is Satoshi. Apologies for earlier." The villager bowing his head down in both shame and embarrassment. "My sincerest gratitude for not ending my life right then."

"No biggie." Yohei shrugged off the attempt at his life. "Just tell me what's up with this place. Are you the only one here?"

"No. Most of houses here are filled with residents such as myself. At day we are a rather active and tight-knit village, but when night falls we must return to our homes, extinguish the lights, and remain silent." Satoshi's face was pale, and his look was one of visible fear.

"Why's that?" Hana asked curiously, speaking the question that was on Yohei's mind as well.

"A yokai haunts this village, an onryo."