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"They'll come again before winter, mark my words," old Mrs Hamasaki muttered as she alternated between washing clothes and wringing her hands. "They'll come and we won't have anything left to live off."
Mrs Miyamoto nearly dropped the bundle of towels in her arms. "Hush, please! You'll scare the children," she cautioned and glanced over her shoulder, worrying her lower lip with her teeth.
"And why shouldn't she?" the third of the women standing by the river, Mrs Fukui, sighed. "They're not fools. They know what's been happening just as well as anyone else here and they deserve to know what to expect in the future. They might even learn to keep close to home and stop daring each other to run up to-"
"Stop!" Mrs Miyamoto did drop the bundle this time. Drops off blood appeared on her lips where her teeth had managed to wear away the skin. She knelt down and began picking the towels back up with shaking hands. "D-don't..."
Mrs Fukui huffed and rose from her seated position. "And why not?" she questioned as she began hanging her share of the laundry on the nearby rack. "I know she was your daughter, but you're a grown woman. You know that not talking about something won't make it go away." She straightened out the last of her sheet, made sure it hung evenly. She narrowed her eyes and fixed a glare at Mrs Miyamoto's bowed head. "Or at least you should. Set an example for your son!"
"Needling each other like this won't do us any good," Mrs Hamasaki cut in. Her laundry now lay abandoned and she'd crossed her arms over her chest. She too had narrowed her eyes, but her gaze was focused on Mrs Fukui. "Leave your sheets here to dry Sumi and go home to your husband. Call for me if you have trouble with his bandages."
Mrs Fukui met Mrs Hamasaki's gaze with a blank expression. Then, without another word, she turned around and walked away.
"Thank you," Miyamoto murmured, her eyes still fixed on bundle she was recreating. It would need another washing.
Mrs Hamasaki's only reply was a grunt of acknowledgment.
Not far from the three women, a small group of children had gathered on the meadow between the river and the village's outer edge - though, being such a small village, the 'outer edge' was more or less its center.
Now, no matter how far or close to the village they were, they were close enough to the river to have heard the conversation between Mrs Hamasaki, Mrs Miyamoto and Mrs Fukui. They had in fact been listening very intently, while trying to look as if they were doing everything but.
All four of the children sat very, very still as Mrs Fukui passed them, arms full of freshly washed clothes. As soon as she was out of earshot, Kado, a boy of ten-and-two years, straightened up from his reclined position and said:
"Do you think it's true?"
"'Course not! Mrs Hamasaki is such an old worrywart. Why would they steal from us again? It's not as if we have anything worth stealing," answered Taree, the girl to his left. Her words were spoken in the matter-of-fact tone few over the age of five possessed. She was eight.
"We should pray to the gods for guidance," the girl sitting on Kado's other side said and nodded sagely - or at least tried to.
"Cut it out Yumiko!" Kado groaned, echoed by Taree and Jiro - the fourth member of their group. "You don't have to preach all the time, just because our priestess-" He faltered for a second, but recovered. "Just because the last priestess liked you."
"She said I had talent!" Yumiko stated, hands at her hips.
Jiro pulled up a handful of grass and let it rain back down onto the ground, watching it fall with mild interest. "Yes, we know. It's not like this the first time you've told us."
"Or the second," Taree cut in.
"Or the third. Or tenth, really."
Yumiko frowned. Her hands left her hips and joined Jiro's in the mission to relieve the meadow of some of its greenness. "Well it's true," she muttered and pulled at a tuft of grass with a little more force than was necessary.
"Then why don't you prove it?"
Taree, Yumiko and Kado all started.
"What?" Yumiko mumbled, not quite meeting Jiro's eyes.
"Prove it!" Jiro repeated, his smile just a tad too happy. "Go up to the shrine tonight and preform the ritual. I'm sure you could get the sun goddess herself to come down and help us, since you're so talented."
A long, silent pause followed his words. More hands pulled at the grass, which never the less seemed persistent to stay on the meadow.
Finally Taree spoke up. "But didn't you hear what Mrs Hamasaki said?"
"And didn't you just say she was an old worrywart?" Jiro retorted. "There's a road all the way up. It's not as if I'm asking her to run through the forest in the middle of the night, is it?"
They all had to agree with that, even Yumiko.
"All the grown-ups will be at the meeting tonight. We'll all sneak out, go here and see you off." Jiro's tone of voice implied: 'to make sure you really go'. "And then you call down the gods and let them fight the bandits. Or are you scared?"
Yumiko's ball of grass met the ground with more velocity than most grass-balls ever achieved in their lifetimes. "Nuh-uh," she replied, "I'm not scared of anything."
And thus it was decided.
Yumiko had never remembered the woods near the road being so dark. She'd visited the shrine a hundred times, before, but somehow she'd never quite thought of the road up to it as creepy. Then again, there had been lanterns lit all the way up and she'd usually gone with her mother or older sister.
Walking the entire way took her longer than she'd hoped. Well at the road's end twilight was over and done with and had been replaced by night. Her only lights were the waning moon and the few stars that had bothered to join it.
The shrine lay empty and dark, possibly even darker that the night outside it. Its entrance had been left open, leaving it to give the impression of a drowning person gasping for breath underwater. Yumiko shuddered.
She hesitated on the doorstep for more than a few moments. Once her eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside the shrine, she took a hesitant step forwards. Nothing happened.
The shrine looked just like she remembered it; sparsely furnished, with the bowl for leaving gifts on the shelf of the far wall. The only difference were really the amount of dust (more) and the (lack of) light.
Heartened by this - and the absence of robbers and ghosts - Yumiko hurried to fetch the priestess' spare robes. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it properly. Or at least as close to proper as she knew how.
The robes were several sizes too large, but hopefully the gods wouldn't care about that. Mimicking the memory of priestess Miyamoto, Yumiko knelt down and began to pray, as loudly as she dared. She couldn't quite recall all the right words, so she had to pause and think up new ones every now and then, but she wasn't disheartened. After all, the priestess herself had said it was more about faith and words.
Without warning, a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders.
"I've got to admit child - you're brave. Or maybe you're just stupid."
Yumiko tried to speak, to shout for help, but ended up just opening and closing her mouth. The hands turned her around. The man the hands belonged gave her a gap-toothed grin. He reeked of sake and sweat.
"Must say you're a disappointment. The last one was quite a bit older." His eyes unfocused a bit, as if he was looking at a memory. "Pretty too. Such a pity the boss is paranoid and had to go and stab her, when we could have had so much fun..."
Yumiko got the impression that she and the bandit - because what else could the man be? - had very different ideas of 'fun'.
"As if the gods would bother to send anything to guard such a small village," the man went on, his grip on Yumiko's shoulders loosening. "I mean, if the emperor himself can't bother to send help to you, why would the gods be any better? In times like these... Well, let's just say you're most likely not the only one groveling in front of an altar."
Yumiko froze. The man's eyes were focused again - focused on her and her half-finished attempt at sneaking away. His grip tightened.
"The boss would be more than happy to see you dead I think," he hissed, one of his hands leaving her shoulders to seek out the dagger that hung on his belt. He placed it against her throat, his grin even wider than before. "Happy enough to give me a nice reward, if I hand him your head. Or what do you think?"
Yumiko squeezed her eyes shut. The steel of the dagger was cold and the man was digging his fingers into her shoulder so violently she was sure he'd break all the bones in it and...
"What was that?" the man inquired, leaning closer. His breath, still heavily scented with sake, washed over her face. "A little louder my dear, even the mice didn't hear that."
Yumiko opened her eyes and glared. With all the bravado she had left she shouted:
"Amaterasu, goddess of the sun, mother to us all, help me!"
The man's grin faltered for a beat. Yumiko kept her glare as steady as she could. Her lips trembled once, but only once. Then, as nothing happened, the grin returned onto the man's face and he pushed the dagger harder against Yumiko's throat, nearly drawing blood. Tears welled up in her eyes. Still, she glared, preparing to be defiant until the end, like all the brave people in the legends always were.
"It would be in your best interest to unhand the priestess."
The man and Yumiko both started - which almost cost Yumiko a lot of blood. Sluggishly the man turned around halfway, to see who'd addressed him. He withdrew his dagger to point at whoever was at the shrine's entrance, but didn't move his hand. Yumiko, having made an attempt to blink away the tears in her eyes, leaned as far to the right as the grip on her shoulder would allow her, to peek around the bandit.
A young man stood in the doorway on the far side of the room. He wore fine clothes and shoes that would have caused most human beings to experience vertigo, swiftly followed by broken legs. In his hand he held a wooden flute.
The bandit squinted at the young man, then relaxed somewhat. "And who's going to make me? You, pretty boy? You wait your turn. There's one sick bastard back at camp who I know would be more than happy to play with you and I could use having him in my debt."
A smile made its way onto the young man's face. It was the sort of polite smile most people saved for relatives and rich people they really, really didn't like. "Such language. And in front of a lady at that. I would have given you another chance to surrender, but seeing how crude a character you are I believe I shan't. En garde!"
With a flick of his wrist the young man twirled the flute around, reminding Yumiko of a street performer she'd seen at a festival in a village much further down the mountain. The flute stopped twirling in level with the young man's face, where he caught it in one hand and held the other against it. Suddenly it shrank, only to slowly grow, glowing with a green light.
The expression on the bandit's face would have made any goldfish proud. Yumiko wasn't doing much better.
"Shall we then?" The green shine left faint shadows in the air as the young man waved the sword back and forth playfully.
All that left the bandit's mouth was a small 'meep'.
Seemingly without a sound, the young man glided across the floor and hit the still stunned bandit over the head with the hilt of the glowing sword. The bandit fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
Yumiko snapped her mouth shut as she noticed the young man was look at her. To her surprise he once more flicked his wrist - this time with the result of his sword turning back into a flute - and bowed, one hand across his chest, the other stretch up into the air.
"I am Ushiwaka, but Waka is enough when a friend addressed me. And I am quite convinced we shall be friends, little priestess. What is you name?"
"Y-yumiko." She hurried to wipe away the tears that had managed to escape down her cheeks.
Waka's smile was much warmer this time around. "A pretty name, for a pretty girl. But we better get you back to your home now. Even priestess should take time to sleep."
Taking her by the hand Waka began to lead Yumiko out of the shrine. Yumiko, after a moment of indecision, halted. Waka looked over his shoulder at her, raising an eyebrow.
"I-it's just." She looked down on her too large clothes. Part of the robe had fallen off one of her shoulders, revealing her regular state of dress. "I'm not a priestess!" Somehow it was a relief to say - or rather, shout - it.
Waka's raised eyebrow lowered itself back to its usual position again. "And what makes you say that?" he asked and started walking again. Yumiko had to follow or let go of his hand. She chose to follow.
"But I'm not. This robe belonged to priestess Miyamoto. I just borrowed it to-"
"To pray to the sun goddess for help?" Waka interjected as they stepped out into the faint moonlight. "Sounds very much like the actions of a priestess to me."
Yumiko opened her mouth to reply. At that exact moment a man came running out of the woods across from the shrine. Yumiko recognized him at once and gasped.
Waka immediately placed himself between the man and Yumiko. Having lost the reassuring hold on Waka's hand, Yumiko grabbed onto his clothes, closed her eyes and prayed. If she was lucky the gods would show her mercy this time as well - and hopefully Waka too.
The man came to a halt right in front of the shrine. He was the largest man Yumiko had ever seen, a man whose size alone warranted legends being written. He was also the bandits' leader. She'd seen him just a month before, when they attacked the village. He been sitting on a horse then, watching as his men took any money and food they could find. Surely not even a magical sword could be enough to defeat him? He'd break Waka in half!
The bandit leader stared with wide eyes at Waka and Yumiko was more than a little surprised to find fear in them. What could such a big, armed man have to be afraid of?
Then, suddenly, the bandit leader ran towards them, shouting at the top of his lungs. Yumiko bit back a scream and clung to Waka, not daring to open her eyes. Seconds later she heard a clunk and had to look up. Her eyes widened.
Waka had once more brought his flute up, but this time only to block. He'd caught the bandit's sword mid swing and was pushing back. The bandit was pushing forwards and down with so much force that the cords in his neck stood out, but his sword wouldn't move and the flute stayed whole.
The sound of running broke through the tense silence. It wasn't the sound of running feet, oh no. Whatever it was that was running had paws. Tearing her gaze away from the sword and the flute, Yumiko tried to find the source of the sound.
A wolf came rushing out of the woods. Or at least, it looked like a wolf at first. Slowly Yumiko began to make out red markings in its fur. And what fur it was. The parts of it that weren't red were white as snow, mixed with long tendrils of pure light. Green beads floated around the wolves neck, like gigantic prayer beads and Yumiko was quite sure she could make out a sword floating among the shining coils of fur.
The bandit pulled his sword back and cried out. He made to run off again, but was tackled to the ground by the wolf. Yumiko covered her eyes with her hands. She heard the bandit's sword clatter to the ground and a choked off scream. Then, silence.
Finally Yumiko's curiosity forced her to peek through her fingers. The wolf was still there, but the bandit lay perfectly still. Yumiko held her breath and waited for it to attack.
The wolf, however, did no such thing. Instead it walked over to them, whined and nudged Waka, tugged at his clothes with its teeth.
"Ah, do not fret so - I am perfectly all right, ma chère." Waka said, completely at ease. "It was only one man, after all. You really should have saved your strength for more important tasks."
The wolf gave a loud huff through its nose, but let go of the fabric. Yumiko gave a squeak of fear when its eyes met hers. The wolf gave a short whine that sounded almost like a question and looked up at Waka.
"Looks like you're scaring your priestess," he said, in a far too teasing tone for someone addressing a wolf that just had killed a man the size of a bull. At least in Yumiko's opinion. "Maybe you could...?"
The wolf stretched and yawned. It titled its head and looked at Yumiko, almost as if it was sizing her up. Then the lines of its body began to - well, fade is the only word Yumiko could find to explain it. It was as if the wolf was a freshly painted drawing someone had spilt water on. The blurred form suddenly flared with light so bright Yumiko once more covered her eyes with her hands, to shield them.
When the light had died down and she dared look again, she gasped. Before her stood a woman - no a lady. She was dressed in a red and white clothes of fine fabric, but wore no shoes. Her white hair was longer than any of the village women's and ended in a sort of tail with a black tip - maybe it even was a actual tail. On top of the lady's head, Yumiko spotted a pair wolf-ears. She couldn't make out if they were real or if it was just the way the hair was shaped, but they were most definitely there.
The lady slowly brought one of her hands up to her face and lowered her mask. At first glance the face under it appeared to be that of a human woman - one who'd painted red markings on her face in preparation for a play. But Yumiko looked twice and couldn't stop herself from staring.
"Amaterasu," she whispered and was rewarded with a small smile.
"Now that all the necessary introductions have been made-" Waka began to speak, but fell silent when the ground shook. It wasn't a violent shaking, more like a tremble, but it forced Yumiko to tighten her hold on Waka or fall.
Waka and Amaterasu both stood very still, barely breathing. Amaterasu was resting a hand on the hilt of the sword that hung at her side and Waka had his flute at the ready, which Yumiko would have thought looked funny if she wasn't so scared.
Something began to move. It was too far away and too dark for Yumiko to actually see what it was, but it was big. It took a step and the ground shook. Only the warmth of Waka's hand on her arm stopped Yumiko from screaming her terror out loud.
"Let me handle this, ma chère. It took one of my swords - it would only be fair that I got it back with my other."
The ground trembled twice more before Amaterasu answered. When she did it was with a shake of her head. She drew her sword, then gestured towards the shrine with her free hand. One moment Yumiko was on the ground, the next Waka had grabbed her under the arms and jumped. She didn't even have time to squeak.
They'd landed on the shrine's roof, which luckily enough was flat at the top. Below them Amaterasu widened her stance, sword at the ready. The thing, still shrouded in darkness, stopped moving. Instead it spoke and Yumiko wished it hadn't.
"My servants were weak. I am not. No more servants for either of us! Fight!" If Yumiko ever had imagined what the voice of a demon sounded like, this creature's voice replaced all her former ideas.
No sound came from Amaterasu. Had Yumiko looked closer she might have noticed Amaterasu's tail-or-hair slash across the air in a decidedly un-hair-like way. She would also have noticed the mist rise from the ground before it obscured Amaterasu from her view.
"What-" she began to ask, but Waka only smiled and put a finger to his lips, urging her to silence.
Yumiko spent several endless minutes staring into the thick mist, flinching every time the sound of steel crashing against steel echoed up to the roof. All the time Waka stood next to her, appearing completely relaxed.
When the mist finally faded away Yumiko couldn't believe her eyes. Amaterasu was alone, her sword once more sheathed, another in her hand. There was no sign of the monster ever having existed and the ground was covered in flowers.
Once more Waka put his hands under Yumiko's arms and jumped - though Yumiko was quite sure he actually flew. No one could land so gently after having jumped from a roof. And his hair - or was it just a part of his strange hat? - look suspiciously like wings.
Amaterasu stretched, seemingly unaware that anything at all out of the ordinary had happened. After that she threw the sword she'd been holding to Waka, who gave a laugh, then turned to the small pool in the shrine garden. She put her hand up one of her sleeves, rummaged around a little and pulled it out again, now holding a small coin, which she threw into the pool. Yumiko couldn't even muster a hint of surprise as the water began to swirl.
"And thus ends your bandit problems! Seems we should be off then," Waka said, fastening the sword to his belt. Amaterasu nodded.
Waka gave Yumiko's arms one last pat, before he walked over to the pool and Amaterasu. "Good bye little priestess!" he crowed. "Would love to stay and chat, but there's a lot of cleaning up to do down here. Unless you wish me to tell your fortune of course? I have quite the talent for prophecies."
Amaterasu gave a small, impatient growl and again gestured in the direction of the swirling water. With a shrug and another bow Waka jumped and somersaulted into the pool. Yumiko had to choke back a giggle as Amaterasu huffed and rolled her eyes. She gave Yumiko another small smile, before she put her mask back on.
The outlines of her body seemed to fade for a moment. Her entire body began to shine, bathing the shrine and the woods in white light. Yumiko shielded her eyes for a moment. The light faded, leaving a wolf in the goddess' place.
It leaned its head back and gave a howl so powerful it had to have been heard all the way to the village. Then, tongue lolling out of its mouth, it barked once, happily, before turning around and jumping into the pool's swirling water.
Yumiko stared into the water until it stilled. Then, through pure force of will, she shook herself, stifled a yawn and decided to head back home.
When she saw the road that led to the village her face split into a big grin.
The lanterns were lit.