Chapter Text
A lone person is making their way up a winding mountain path at sunset. A katana sits at their left hip and clatters restlessly with each step they make forward. The sound of gravel crunching beneath their waraji rings out sharply to interrupt the silence and hangs in the air like harsh static against the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind.
This person is unique. Not just anyone is allowed to wield a blade, only those who are trained in the art of hunting yōkai to protect the common people are.
There's a thick, grey blanket of cloud cover unfurling across the dusky sky. Brilliant hues of the setting sun are painting the dark grey thunderheads with some oranges and reds that make it look more threatening. The hunter is dressed in an understated dark blue kimono with a pair of hakama pants sitting around their waist for comfort. They also wear a woven kasa on their head. It's nothing fancy—they don't care about appearances, really—the garb and kasa's purposes are solely for ease of movement and modesty.
"It should rain soon..." the hunter whispers, their bright teal eyes upturning to look at the pale slate of rain clouds hanging ominously above them.
This yōkai apparently only appears on this mountain during rainfall, and as such, its been given the name lady in the rain by the dwellers who live in the villages near Pearl Mountain. It apparently takes the form of a beautiful woman who, according to reports from the locals, lures men into its home located near the mountain's peak before it eats them.
When the soft pattering of droplets of rain begin to touch on the shoulders of hunter's haori, they turn their gaze straight ahead to resume their trek up the mountain. With night also descending on the mountain, they quicken their pace, eyes sweeping through the falling darkness for any sign of a person matching the yōkai's description.
It supposedly takes the form of a young lady dressed in a lavish kimono. They've also heard this creature has large and striking dark blue eyes and wears its hair done up and off its neck neatly, its appearance described as stunningly beautiful. Its looks seem to be a part of its guise, which it uses to trap men. This is why the village of Pearl Mountain has specially selected this hunter for this job.
Itoshi Rin, the hunter in question, is the most skilled in their village—strong and fast, strict and disciplined in carrying out their contracts in a swift and professional manner despite their less than friendly attitude. This hunter was selected for this contract for all of these reasons, but most of all because they are one of the only hunters who is not really hunter, but actually a huntress.
Hunters happen to be predominantly men, and while men who live in Rin's society are allowed to train themselves to become hunters, soldiers, and breadwinners for their households, women are expected to stay at home and care for their children and household. This life and its bland expectations are not at all what Rin has ever wanted for herself. From a young age, she always found herself following around and fitting in with the village's groups of boys more than with the girls. She always had a strong will and an adventurous spirit, and strayed far from the path of a young lady early on in her life.
Rin never wants to get married, and she most definitely does not want to bear children. She would rather die than submit herself to the boring fate of an assigned gender role like that.
So in being what people refer to as a "lady hunter", she had been selected to embark on this journey up this mountain to slay this pesky yōkai, supposedly because women can't be attracted to other women. Or at least she figures that must have been one of the reasons.
This doesn't make any sense to her, though, because from what she understands there actually are women who are attracted to other women out there. Not that she even cares about all that. There has never been another person Rin's ever fancied in such a way, so whether she was a man, a woman, or something else, it wouldn't have mattered; in her mind, hunters who are men being weak to the sight of a beautiful woman are just weak, plain and simple, and this weakness of those fool hunters is something the yōkai can knowingly exploit.
"Where are you?" she mutters, peering off into the bloody skyscape that's streaked with lines of rain dyed red by the sunset.
"Who're you talking to?"
Rin snaps around, rainwater dashing off her clothing as she looks behind her.
There it is, and it appears to have actually been following Rin. She scoffs and bites her lip, closing her fingers around the hilt of her katana while she gazes into the yōkai's eyes.
Its appearance is exactly what Rin expects. It is fairly short and appears as a dainty young lady, dressed in a beautiful green and blue kimono with an ombre-hued obi tied neatly about its waist. Its skin is smooth and pale and its eyes twinkle with a near-midnight glow in the falling dusk, beautiful but so very mysterious.
The yōkai's eyes fix onto the sight of Rin's katana and it purses its lips. "Oh, it's one of you," it says coldly.
"Any last words?" Rin hisses while she unsheathes her blade.
The yōkai just rolls its eyes and continues to walk the path, proceeding past Rin, seemingly unbothered by her animosity.
"I'm not the one you want to slay," it says to Rin while it walks past her, "It's raining. Come with me, you'll catch a cold out here."
"Shut up..." Rin growls. When the yōkai walks past her, her gaze lands on the sight of the creature's nape peeking out between the base of its hairline and the back hem of its kimono. It's slender and delicate looking, no doubt this is what first catches the eye of the men this monster bewitches.
With her blade brandished, Rin dashes after the yōkai and thrusts her blade out into the impending darkness. It seems to slice through droplets of rain and she slashes upward, creating an arc that splashes out in a half-wheel, but the strike doesn't land. The yōkai seems to have avoided Rin's attack with ease, and it looks back at Rin while it tilts its wagasa to appraise the huntress.
"I said I'm not the one you want to slay. What's with all of you hunters being so brazen?"
"I said shut up! How many humans have you lured up here to their deaths?!" Rin steps and advances, her blade pivots and arcs downward, and the yōkai jerks backward, the blade whipping right past it.
"Lured? Oh my, is that what you humans think is going on up here?"
"Your kind are known for being tricksters. We all know what you're doing, you filthy scum. You've taken this form to lure men in so you can eat them!"
Crouched, Rin stands and follows through with a final upward swing in her combo. The yōkai dances out of the length of Rin's blade with apparent ease.
"Your kind know nothing of my kind," the yōkai snaps, and its expression seems to show a souring mood, "I never lured anyone anywhere. Don't you get it?"
Rin decides to change the nature of her attacks to throw the creature off, so she lunges at it with the intent of tackling it. It seems to be caught unaware, and while it does move swiftly to try and avoid Rin's tackle, her left arm wraps around the creature's waistline and they go tumbling down into the wet dirt together.
The yōkai's silken wagasa is knocked from its hands and it goes tumbling away into a puddle, out of arm's reach. Now the monster's kimono is soiled with streaks of mud, and its picture-perfect garb is being soaked by rainwater.
It's not like Rin normally pays much attention to the yōkai she slays. They're conniving and are known for using words to try and mislead human hunters, often to their demises. And yet...
This yōkai's azure eyes seem to be round and sparkling with surprise. Its pupils, which are vertical catlike slits, begin to widen with fear. It had appeared moments before as something nearly divine, inhuman, untouchable—but the creature that reaches back for its wagasa, with the dirty kimono and the panicked expression, looks nothing short of human.
A faint twinge of guilt rings sharp inside Rin's heart... If only for a moment.
"Wait!" it gasps, wet tendrils of its hair falling free from its perfect updo. A silver hairclip drops from the soaked tangles of its hair, and it flashes crimson with dusk sunlight while it plummets into the mud beside it, releasing the monster's hair from its restraint.
Onyx strands of its hair cascade atop its shoulders, and as it seems to give up on reaching for the wagasa, it opts to shield its pale face in fear, instead.
"Listen, I... I know how it looks! My kind and your kind have never coexisted. But just give me a chance to explain!"
Rin's eyes narrow with blue-green distain. Every hunter knows not to trust these creatures—their words are as misleading as their appearances, or so she's been told. But then why is this monster seemingly having such a genuine fear response to being brought beneath Rin's blade? She brings the sharp edge of her blade out horizontally, to be in line with the yōkai's neck. While she holds it like this, the thing's lips part, shining softly with trails of rainwater.
Rin bites her lip and her nose wrinkles. She straddles the vulnerable yōkai and pushes her blade down, directly in line with its neck. The yōkai falls onto its back into the mud with a shocked exhale.
"I'm trapped!" it gasps, and Rin pauses, her blade now kissing the fair doll-like skin on the monster's neck.
"... What?"
"I said I'm trapped! Trapped here by another yōkai!"
"What a shitty fucking lie," Rin spits.
"It's not a lie. Listen, I've been following you since the rain started falling. I didn't attack you because I was hoping you'd listen to me!"
Rin frowns petulantly. "Why the hell should I listen to you?"
"Because... If you really want to kill the bad guy here, you don't want to kill me. I've been stuck here on this mountain for a long time with no way out."
"I've got no reason to believe you. Yōkai are known for using deception as a tactic to protect themselves, especially when they're backed into a corner like you are now."
"That's partly true, I suppose. But as I said before, I've been following you since the rain started falling before you knew I was there. If all I really wanted was to eat you, I could've done that before you even had a chance to defend yourself. A split second would've been all it took. Right?"
"Maybe you just like playing around with your prey before you eat them, I don't fucking know how you work."
The yōkai chuckles nervously at this, its eyes softening while Rin's blade begins to unintentionally inch away from its neck.
"What else have they told you about my kind?" it asks her quietly, "That we're all heartless monsters? Evil, even?"
"Well, yeah. 'Cause you are."
"Sure, some of us are. Just like some of your kind are ruthless and cold-blooded killers."
"We're only like this because of you creatures preying on us. We've had to adapt to defend ourselves from your kind and have learned to hate all of you equally for what you are."
"We do have our differences. We can agree to disagree on that." The yōkai extends its arm apprehensively, reaching for Rin's free hand. Rin glares at it while it takes her hand. They both flinch when the yōkai's skin touches the human hunter's, though Rin doesn't pull away. She lets her hand be guided slowly and carefully, its palm being placed gently onto the bare and damp skin on the yōkai's collarbone slightly left of center. That's when she feels it.
The frantic pattering of a pulse that's tapping nervously beneath her hand.
"I'm scared. I can't lie to you because you're the only hope I have left. Please, will you listen to me?"
Rin's breath hitches while she considers the cadence of the yōkai's pulse singing a frightened little song beneath her palm.
She's spent so much time killing these creatures without thought, because all she'd ever known about them was that they were too dangerous to interact with. And yet, despite what she's heard about this yōkai having lured people in to deceive them and eat them, she finds herself questioning her objective.
The yōkai did not try to attack her, she is the aggressor here. This thing, even if it's a hungry monster, still does genuinely seem to be afraid.
Rin is, without a doubt, ruthless, but she is not entirely heartless.
"You have one minute to explain yourself to me, yōkai," she snarls, blinking her piercing eyes down at the pathetic looking creature in the mud.
"There's another yōkai who lives in this mountain. That one is truly an evil one. I've been sealed here by him for a long time. I'm a water-dwelling yōkai, but there's no water out here except the rain, so basically, he has sealed me to this mountain, and I only have any strength to come out when it rains."
"Him... You just called it a him? Why?"
"We do have two separate sexes, just like your kind does. Although our sexes are a little bit different than yours."
"So you're..."
"What humans would call female."
"And what of this form? Yōkai are known for being tricksters. Is this some sort of shapeshifting?"
"I suppose that's a little more complicated for me to explain."
Rin sneers. A shiver claws its way up her spine as the rain continues to pelt down from the dark sky above her, soaking her clothing and chilling her down to the bone. The yōkai seems to be relaxing while Rin stares down at it, silently appraising its disheveled appearance.
"The rain is beginning to die out now already..." the yōkai says, "Please, huntress, if you want to save your people from a truly evil yōkai, proceed further up the mountain. He dwells past the peak, on the other side of the mountain."
Rin sheaths her blade, stands, and glares down at this yōkai, this one known as lady in the rain. The creature's form is definitely convincing, she has to give it that.
"So if you expect me to believe this, that you're being held captive by another yōkai, then where have all the men gone missing to who come up here? Why do all stories I hear of you seem to corroborate?"
The lady in the rain, with her soiled clothing and messy hair, looks up at Rin then past her, her eyes fixing into the inky darkness of the sky above them. An odd expression decorates her face, maybe something even along the lines of sadness.
"What's your name, huntress? I hope I can see you again on the next rainfall."
"Hm?" Rin looks above her and realizes immediately that the rain has stopped falling, which means, if it hadn't been lying, the yōkai would most likely disappear.
"It's Rin." She turns her head back down, but it would seem the lady in the rain has already disappeared with the weather than beacons it out. Rin frowns down at the mud where she knows the yōkai was laying in only moments before. It seems the creature's wagasa has disappeared as well.
*
Having failed to slay the yōkai known as the lady in the rain, Rin has made her way back to Pearl Mountain's village, where she hopes for an audience with the village's nanushi. When meeting with him, along with the other two men who help run the village, Rin bows deeply and sits across the chabudai from them atop a small cushion. They offer her a drink of sake, which she silently declines with a wave of her hand.
"What news does the huntress bring me?" the nanushi asks her forthright.
"The yōkai lives. It begged for its life to be spared, and in doing so it told me that it's been trapped by another yōkai, apparently more powerful than her."
"Her?" the nanushi laughs loudly in Rin's face at this, "Oh, we're calling these things hims and hers now? Ridiculous. But we can't expect women to do the tough job of a hunter without letting her emotions get in the way."
Rin's eyes narrow into cold slits of glacial ice, the malice she always carries in her heart growing more intense. The sound of the boisterous laughter of men never fails to flare her temper, but she chooses to hold her tongue about this as she always does. She supposes that even if this yōkai had explained that it does, indeed, have a sex like a human does, that doesn't mean these pig-headed men would really care to hear her out about it.
"I propose that we leave the lady in the rain as it is, for now anyways, and target the more powerful yōkai who apparently dwells on the other side of Pearl Mountain. I will carry out the deed myself, I only ask that you go along with my plan since you're the one who's paid me."
"Hah!" The nanushi barks, "How about this, huntress. If I pay you double, will you kill both of them? Or is that too tall an order to fill for a pretty little thing like you?"
Rin scowls. She has half a mind to clock this arrogant man for talking to her as if she wasn't a hunter, but some silly little wallflower.
She opts to hold her tongue again, though, and nods a brisk agreement, her eyes flashing from beneath the brim of her kasa. After she does, the nanushi fetches another pouch of coins to pay her the double he'd promised her.
*
A few days later, when Rin arrives at Pearl Mountain again, it's late morning and the rain has been falling for a few hours already. In contrast to her first trip up the mountain, this time the rain appears in a light sort of misting, not as a downpour of larger droplets. Though the path she follows is muddy, it isn't nearly as much so as it had been on her first trip up.
"Achoo!"
She sneezes, blows her nose on a handkerchief she keeps in her bag, and tucks it back away afterward.
Grumbling under her breath, she continues her trek up the mountain, this time checking behind her regularly just in case this tricksy little yōkai decides to try sneaking up on her again. It's broad daylight this time so her line of sight is clear.
Another chill wanders along the back of her neck, and she pulls her haori tighter over her shoulders to stave it off. It seems her first journey up Pearl Mountain has given her a bit of a cold, and right now she's starting to feel it worsen while her clothes dampen again.
"Hey!"
The sound of a call from the distance makes her snap around. She's on guard, her sharp eyesight sweeping the mountain trail behind her, but all she sees is rain, trees, and dirt. No sign of the yōkai to be found anywhere. Confused, she flickers her gaze back around to search the trail in front of her again. Nothing.
Then she looks up.
With a pale halo of misty sunlight surrounding it—it's her. The lady in the rain. Her eyes are alight as blue moons, glowing with apparent joy that's highlighted moreso by the wide smile that's spread along her pink lips. Her outfit is clean and dry, and the silver hairclip that had fallen into the mud the last time they'd met is clean and placed neatly back into her hair. The most mesmerizing thing about her right now isn't any of that, it's the fact that she seems to be floating down from the sky. Her figure drops gracefully through delicate beads of rain, falling as elegantly as a feather on a breezeless day.
On guard, Rin readies herself for a fight, placing her sword hand around the hilt of her katana and taking up a defensive stance. When the creature that's falling from the sky sees this, her eyes widen and she grins a toothy smile that beams confidence.
"I was hoping you'd return, huntress!"
"Don't get your hopes up," Rins calls up to her, "I came to—"
"Catch me!"
Rin chokes in surprise, and as the one she had returned to destroy plummets from the sky, with the wagasa clutched in her hands seemingly slowing her fall, she suddenly tosses the umbrella aside and falls faster with her arms wide open.
"Tch...! You idiot!"
Rin gives up on her defensive stance, lets go of her katana's hilt, and lunges for the falling girl with her arms open. Just in time to catch her.
The girl feels surprisingly warm and soft in Rin's arms. She spins to help stop the momentum from knocking them down, and kneels with the stupid yōkai clutched tight against her.
This feels like something out of a dream. Or maybe more of a nightmare, actually. This stupid, idiotic, ridiculous girl has just done possibly one of the most careless things Rin has ever had the displeasure of having to endure. When they push apart, Rin is noticeably scowling at her.
"Thank you, Rin!" she beams, "That was lovely of you!"
"Love...ly? You've gotta be the dumbest fucking yōkai on planet earth."
"Maybe I am, but I just wanted to see if I can trust you. Something tells me I can, I think."
"Hmph. Well for your sake of dignity I decided I wouldn't kill you right away, but just so you know, I will be killing you once I deal with that yōkai on the other side of the mountain."
"I see..." the blue-eyed girl whispers, "I understand. I'll fight you with everything I have when the time comes, then."
"You won't be—AAAH—CHOOOO!!!!"
She sneezes so loudly that the yōkai is startled and flinches, grinning nervously. Astutely aware of the growing flush on Rin's cheeks, the lady in the rain unabashedly places the back of one of her hands on Rin's forehead.
"I think you've caught a chill," she says matter-of-factly.
"Shut up."
"Make me."
With her smirk unwavering, the cat-eyed girl smooths her hand on the front of her kimono. Her sapphire eyes twinkle faintly while she thinks.
"Gotta get over the mountain..." Rin mutters.
"Why don't you rest at my place for the night, then head there tomorrow? You'd be better off facing him at your full strength."
"'Cause... You're..."
Rin's words catch while she struggles to articulate her words, but the mysterious creature feels Rin's meaning nonetheless. With her sapphire eyes blinking calmly, she retrieves her wagasa from the ground and lifts it back over her head. She then extends her hand out to Rin.
"Let me help you," she says softly, so much so that it almost pisses Rin off.
The hunter stands and shakes her head, ignoring the hand that had been extended to help her up. "Piss off," she growls, "Showing mercy for you doesn't mean I need to be friendly with you, yōkai."
The yōkai lowers her hand steadily. "Alright then. But you really didn't need to catch me like that."
"No, I didn't. You just caught me off guard."
"Hm... Right. Okay then."
"... And anyway, what was with that stunt? You expect me to believe you're just testing me for trustworthiness or something? I came back here so I can kill you, and I fully intend to do that."
"Right, right. Of course. How could I forget. Anyway, Rin, would you like to have some tea with me today?"
The shorter woman begins to walk away, up the mountain path that leads to its peak, without looking back to check if Rin is following her. Rin's steady gaze doesn't move from the yōkai's figure; from between the green of tree leaves rimming the walkway, she is a single, lonely looking figure. Rin's feet begin to move before she even thinks twice about what she's doing.
"Tea... Maybe. Uh, do you creatures have names or whatever?" Rin asks when she's trailing just behind the girl.
"You'd like to know my name? Ah... Well, a yōkai's true name isn't something to be shared with a human. You can just call me Isagi."
Rin stares at the porcelain neck and the dip of the yōkai girl's shoulders beside her. If she wasn't walking and talking the way she is right now, Rin would assume she was a doll because of how downright perfect she looks.
"Did you just make that up or what?" the huntress mumbles.
"Not really. Well, it's a bit complicated."
"You said that when I asked about your form, too. I don't trust you and your secrecy as far as I can throw a stone, for what it's worth."
"—But. You're curious."
The lady in the rain begins to hum a little tune to herself, the sing-song of her humming sounding as soothing as a cat purring to a human's ears. It's then that Rin freezes.
"Stop doing that," she growls, returning her hand to her swords grip.
Isagi looks back, her lapis gaze seeming bright and pure when tendrils of subdued sunlight touches the side of her face. She smiles at Rin softly; it's a forlorn sort of smile that makes something inside of Rin ache for her.
"Sorry," Isagi apologizes, "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. My singing has healing properties to humans, though. And you do appear to be sick."
"How do I know that's not a lie? That your singing isn't just a spell you use to lure people in or bewitch them?"
Isagi snorts back a laugh, and Rin glowers.
"As I said before, I've never lured anyone anywhere. That's the truth."
"So then answer me. I asked you before what happened to the men who came up here and you never answered."
Isagi's eyelids flutter, and one dainty hand closes a little tighter around her wagasa's handle.
"I ate them," she replies without hesitation.
"Of course you did, monster."
"Monsters aren't just yōkai. You know as well as I do, Rin. There are human monsters, too."
"... Eh?"
"You know what I'm talking about. I have my own reasons for preferring to take this form, but... Human men seem to believe it's for them and not for me. I'm sure you know what it's like, don't you? To be looked at as an object, or perhaps a tool to be used for a human man's pleasure? You can say what you want about yōkai, and the stereotypes are mostly true, but at least our males mostly treat us as equals."
Rin finds her gaze falling to the ground where she can see Isagi's feet, and her ankles peeking out from beneath the length of her kimono. The huntress feels fury burning hot inside her chest, a flame that grows with each passing moment.
Because she sadly knows exactly what Isagi is trying to say.
"So you ate them because they...?"
"Well, they certainly did try. One too many men trying the same thing on me certainly has grown tiring. You would think they'd learn, but they're all just the same. Human men really are stupid, selfish, disgusting creatures."
Isagi blinks at Rin. She purses her glossy lips, and they curl up into a satisfied smirk.
"Yeah, they are." Rin agrees, cracking her knuckles, "They're stupid and disgusting, they all look at me like I'm just a little girl without realizing I could kill them all. I could slit their throats faster than they would even know what to do to stop me, but all women are and can ever amount to in their minds is an object of their lust."
"You're right..." Isagi turns away from Rin, averting her eyes in an almost shy way, "So when I saw you, not a hunter but a huntress, thought maybe you'd be different than them. Maybe you'd hear me out. Maybe I wouldn't have to try bargaining with a buffoon who only sees me as a piece of meat. I see how you look at me and I think... I still think that I can trust you. I'd like you to know, you can be yourself with me just as I've been myself with you."
Rin is feeling a bit speechless, so when Isagi turns to head back up the trail toward the mountain's peak, she follows silently.
The sun's rays reaching through the misty rain glow opalescent around Isagi, and in that moment, for the first time since meeting this creature, Rin finds herself letting her guard down... Just a little bit. She realizes she's never spoken with a yōkai like this before, and she feels the faintest bit guilty about it now.
"I became a hunter because I enjoyed it, but now all I ever feel like I do is try and prove peoples' stereotypes of me wrong. It pisses me off. My reputation as a hunter is good, yet I don't find that I'm treated any better for it."
"All because you're a lady," Isagi finishes her thought for her. That's when Rin realizes they're actually strolling side-by-side up the mountain path as if they weren't natural enemies.
"I'm not a fucking lady," Rin corrects her dejectedly, "I don't wanna be... I don't wanna be that."
"Being a lady doesn't necessarily mean wearing makeup, donning fancy kimonos and jewelry, or being polite and submissive like other people expect of us. Being a lady, to me, just means following your heart and doing what you're most passionate about. In my opinion, beauty as a lady just comes naturally as a byproduct of passion." Isagi smiles aside at Rin, flecks of rainwater glimmering like small stars trapped in the space between them, "That's why you're so beautiful, I think."
Rin stops. And stares. Isagi also stops and looks back at her confusedly.
"Sorry, did I say something offensive?"
"You called me... Beau... Beautiful? What the hell is wrong with you? Who just says that?"
"It's true, though." Isagi blinks innocently. For some reason it only makes Rin feel angrier.
"You seriously can't be real. Seriously." The huntress huffs and shoves her way past the oblivious yōkai.
Rin's manner of dressing is plain, simple, and obviously mostly suited for comfort. She wears a basic kasa on her head woven out of bamboo, and her hair is always tied back in the same length of a dark green braid that lays down the center of her back. In her mind, her way of dressing is lackluster, and she has not ever thought of herself as anything even remotely close to beautiful.
But from the perspective of this yōkai girl, she is a shining star with eyes that glow with the intensity of passion and resilience. She is noble and strong, brave and principled; the type of person Isagi thinks everyone should strive to be.
Rin may see herself as the furthest thing from beautiful in existence, but to Isagi, Rin is possibly one of the most beautiful things she's ever seen.
And she hopes, perhaps beyond reason, that this beautiful huntress will have a change of heart about her.