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"Having to rely on him to heal us…" Tomoe says. "It doesn't sit right with me at all."
Ryuzo just shrugs.
They're sitting by a fire in the middle of an abandoned farmstead, one they had cleared out from possessed Mongols and some oni recently enough that no one from among the living has moved back in yet.
Once they were done, everything became normal, the way they remember it being from back when they were still alive themselves. Here, on the other side of that passage they have crossed, everything is its proper color and everything somehow feels more real, at least until the demons appear. It makes it worth fighting them still. For things to become as they should be once they're gone.
And there's a strange kind of satisfaction in enjoying the most basic of things just being how they should be, too. The mud on the ground, the warmth of the fire, the warmth of Jin's body when he is sitting right next to Ryuzo.
They must still be looking weird to the people who are properly alive when they see them, because most of them run away from them immediately, especially if they are not wearing masks, but looking at each other or at themselves, they don't see anything unusual anymore. Being here feels a bit like being brought back to life.
And yes, a lot of things have changed. Their ability to regenerate from any injuries is gone, for instance, and has been replaced, for some reason, by Ryuzo's ability to heal both himself and the other three, if he chooses to.
"I can also not heal you," he says to Tomoe. "And see how you'll fare then."
He doubts she would have died, since they're all still already dead and they probably can't truly die again, but he also thinks that what would have happened to her wouldn't have been particularly pleasant.
Of course, not healing Tomoe is out of the question. They still need her. There are still both Mongols and oni left to fight on Tsushima, plenty of both actually, and they do need to defeat them, because maybe then that strange storm over the sea around it will end and things will go fully back to normal. They don't know what will happen to them then, but maybe, it won't be something terrible.
"Besides, why are you complaining?" Ryuzo asks. "You were on the Mongol side as well. And while I had tried to kill Jin, you did kill him for real. Not to mention what you two did to the shikken before that."
"Don't blame me for succeeding at everything you failed at." Tomoe shrugs, too. "Maybe I'm worried precisely because you're incompetent."
"Cut it out," Jin speaks up when Ryuzo opens his mouth to answer. "Once we're done, we may be able to go our own ways," he says seriously. "But for now, it is what it is, and we have no choice but to work together."
Tomoe scoffs and then busies herself with cleaning her sword, looking away from them.
She seems to be generally unhappy about how things turned out for her, Ryuzo thinks, maybe even ever since Jin had found her on the mainland back when she was still alive. And considering that she'd left Tsushima before that leaving her broken bow behind and vowing to stop being an archer, which is something Jin eventually told Ryuzo about, Ryuzo isn't particularly surprised. But this may still be what she deserves, even just for what she did while on the Mongol side.
If they will be able to eventually go their own ways for real, though, she won't stay with them, that much Ryuzo is sure of.
As for the rest of them… He has no intention of leaving Jin's side anymore, but he would have gladly left Tsushima, if it became possible, maybe finally gone to the mainland then. Even if he's dead, it would still be nice to finally get to see it. And then, maybe the rest of the world, too, if they had enough time.
That leaves Kazumasa. But he has it much harder. Because what is he supposed to be doing in the world of the living, when everyone he has ever cared about is already dead but, besides Jin, gone somewhere else? Would he be able to go to where his wife is in the end? Gyozen doesn't answer any questions they may have. The only message he has for them is to continue fighting. But while they are all called Ghosts now, this is still first and foremost Jin's fight only. The rest of them are in it for one reason or another, but mostly because all of them are hoping for something better at the end, because this doesn't seem to be the endpoint it might have appeared to be from the afterlife after all.
It's another weird place to get used to, more than anything. Developing a healing ability was not something Ryuzo would have expected to happen to him, for instance. Jin was puzzled by that happening as well. And he also seemed not quite ready to trust Ryuzo with it at first, even after everything they had already been through together at that point. It hurt a bit that he was still so suspicious, but Ryuzo stayed quiet about that.
And maybe it made sense in the end. After all, there had once been a time when he would have done everything for Jin. And then everything he'd done since he'd taken lead of the Straw Hats after Komoda Beach, he had done for his men. It was not like he had ever been unwilling to do whatever had been necessary to keep them alive. It was just that, back then, it had taken him to all the wrong places.
The other strange ability he gained after crossing that gate, that of summoning a spirit dog, is at least one Jin absolutely loves, even though it's clearly a Mongol dog. Jin doesn't seem bothered by that. He even told Ryuzo a story about befriending one of the Mongol dogs back when he was alive and how it then followed him around for a time. Ryuzo believed him. Because if anyone could do something like that, tame a Mongol dog trained to kill, it would be Jin.
"I'm leaving for now," Tomoe says and gets to her feet. She's finished cleaning her sword in the meantime and she sheathes it before starting to walk away. Her broken kitsune mask is hanging on the hilt.
"I'm not sure you should go anywhere," Jin speaks up.
Tomoe looks at him over her shoulder, clearly challenging him to say anything more.
The last time she left like that, Ryuzo thinks, Jin followed her, and it turned out that she had gone to Hiyoshi Springs. To Ishikawa.
"I don't think we're supposed to be disturbing the living like that," Jin points out.
Maybe. But Ryuzo knows that Jin himself hasn't been adhering to that rule he and Kazumasa had set when they had first arrived here, either. That he had been looking for that thief, Yuna, all over Tsushima, until he learned that she had left for the mainland a long time ago, back when it had still been possible, maybe even because of him.
And once, Jin took Ryuzo along to Cedar Temple in the north, to look at some warrior monk there from a distance. He didn't approach him, but Ryuzo realized that maybe that was precisely why he was there with Jin, so he wouldn't.
"Sensei Ishikawa has it bad enough after all his students turned out to be traitors," Jin says. "He doesn't need you showing yourself to him repeatedly after your death on top of that, Tomoe."
"It's not for you to decide." Tomoe turns away and starts walking, but she stops right away. "You know nothing," she continues talking in the end. "You're obviously not lonely like me, stuck in this situation as you are with your father and your boyfriend by your side, after what you've made me do, so don't lecture me. You're all still doing that as well anyway, following the living around. You're not any better. You think I don't know that?" She scoffs. "I'll be back when you need me," she says over her shoulder, before finally leaving.
She will have no choice anyway, Ryuzo thinks. Once they are needed somewhere and called by Gyozen, they are just magically transported there anyway, with no choice but to fight their way out
In the end, Jin lets Tomoe go.
"I have not been following anyone," Ryuzo points out. Everyone he might have wanted to see was dead anyway already, so why would he have bothered? "You, Lord Sakai?"
Kazumasa talks even less now than before, now that there are four of them, and it's been a while since Ryuzo has last heard him speak at all. He flinches at the question now and the scales of his armor make a rustling sound.
"I have not approached anyone," he says, "but I admit I went to take a look a few times. Lady Adachi somehow realized that I was there, too."
"What did she say?" Jin asks, not questioning his father about approaching the living at all, like he did with Tomoe.
"She asked me about her family," Kazumasa answers. "Nothing I could help her with."
"The living know about us anyway," Ryuzo points out. "I think we've all heard them discussing us. They don't know our identities but they came up with their own names for us."
"That doesn't excuse what Tomoe's doing," Jin insists.
Maybe he specifically feels guilty about Ishikawa, Ryuzo thinks, being one of those traitors he trained.
"But she's right, Jin," Ryuzo says. "She has it the worst. And you won't be able to stop her anyway."
"I'm leaving as well." Kazumasa puts on his mask and gets to his feet, too.
Jin will not question him leaving either, Ryuzo thinks, though they also have an idea of where Kazumasa is going. While Kazumasa was unwilling to go to Omi Village back in the afterlife, he goes there all the time now. And as far as they know, he spends his time at the Sakai family cemetery there, where his own grave is, but also his wife's. Ryuzo went there with Jin once and they discovered that Kazumasa had also made a grave for Jin there, although it was empty, which kind of made sense in a way, but was also somewhat disturbing. Ever since then, Jin started to keep away from Omi Village.
Kazumasa walks away and it's just the two of them left.
"You have somewhere to be, too, Jin?" Ryuzo asks.
That does happen at times, that Jin goes to scout various locations alone, since he's the best at moving silently. He may also be clearing out regular Mongol camps on his own, though Ryuzo would have preferred for him not to do that while he's not around to heal him if he needed it.
"No." Jin says. "I'm fine here. With you."
He reaches for Ryuzo's hand then. His hand is warm.
"Good," Ryuzo says. He prefers not to worry about where Jin would have gone. And he has no one else but him to keep him company anymore, either.
Who knows how long this will last, he thinks, and what's supposed to happen to them once they're done here, but this has to be good enough for now.
And maybe it will do for the rest of eternity, too.