~~~

After a rough dream-stroke-nightmare where Miho chased Aya around the Jewel of Kai courtyard, trying to gift her Himiko’s decapitated head, he woke up and saw the same girl standing over him, asking in a brusque tone why he hadn’t fought for space on the futon.

‘You’re back…’ he slurred, rubbing his eyes, rustling his hair, then quickly checking to make sure he had some clothes on.

‘If you give anything to these thugs, even futon space, they’ll laugh at you and take even more.’

A spluttered cough from the futon on the right told Miho that Akira was still there, and, when he turned to see what kind of condition he was in, gave out a confused huh? as it turned out the ashigaru wasn’t even awake yet.

‘Ah, never mind, let's just go. If we hurry…or you hurry…we can be out of here before he wakes up.’

She used her foot to push his bag and yukata into his hip.

‘What time is it?’ asked Miho, sitting up and squinting at the dagger of light shining through the gap of the door panel.

‘Past sunrise. Come on, up, get dressed. I won’t look.’

‘Where did you go last night?’

‘For a long walk, thinking about things, got a bit lost. Here, yukata on first.’ She bent down and practically forced his arms in, then dug her hands under his armpits and pulled him up. ‘Grab your bag, your dōbuku.’

‘What about him?’ asked Miho, gesturing towards the ashigaru with his face now buried like a drunk owl in the futon.

‘We’re near Suwa already, he won’t care.’

‘Seems a bit rude to leave without saying anything.’

‘Not to me. Quick, out through this way, don’t want to bump into that weird couple again.’

‘Ah, actually…’ Miho stopped, pretending to struggle with the bag on his shoulder. The same bag that had the stone the yellow-skinned demon had gifted to him. Should he tell Aya about that? Would she believe him?

‘Stop stalling and move,’ she said, dragging him by the dōbuku sleeve to the door panel and then letting go so he would have at least some dignity as he went outside. ‘Based on my co-incidental reconnaissance last night, the road into Uehara is down on the south-east side. Not too far.’

‘We’re not going to Fujimi?’

‘For what? We’re basically past it already. Might as well head to the next town north.’

‘I suppose…’

‘Then we can get to Suwa faster too.’

‘Yeah. Do you think we can grab something to eat first?’ asked Miho, peering over at the main entrance as they passed round the side of the fake wood storage shack.

‘No time.’

‘But I’m quite hungry…’

‘We’ll get a proper meal when we get to Uehara.’

‘How long will that be?’

‘About an hour.’

Miho hesitated slightly, then reached out to Aya’s shoulders and pulled her to an abrupt halt.

‘We’re not going in there,’ she said, her tone exasperated.

‘I know, I know…’

‘Then why are you dragging me back?’

Miho pointed at the ground in front of her, where a huge crater was no more than a few milimetres from gobbling up her feet. ‘Pothole.’

‘Kuso…’

‘It’s quite well-disguised.’

‘Are you being caustic?’

‘Core sick?’

‘It’s the size of a bear’s head. Why didn’t I see it? Kuso.’

‘Fatigue, probably.’

‘Or distracted by your food questions.’ She stepped around the hole that seemed to have a small reservoir of muddy water at the bottom, which was odd as it hadn’t rained the last few nights. Bear spit perhaps? ‘How about we walk in silence for a while? At least till we get to the main road.’

Miho looked back at the entrance, shrugging.

‘Shrugging means okay?’

‘I suppose.’

Aya took a lighter hold of his sleeve and guided him round the hole like a pensioner, telling him that saying err… was better than shrugging so he should return to doing that.

‘Fair point,’ replied Miho, quelling the urge to tell her that, actually, he liked to alternate between both of them.

‘And the next time there’s a futon, don’t surrender your half.’

‘Err…’

‘Unless it’s a sick person. Or a baby. Or a woman you’re attracted to who doesn’t like you back. Or the emperor…I guess.’

‘Don’t know if that’ll ever happen…’

‘No, edit that. Emperors should be down to earth. Sharing is okay.’

‘Noted.’

~~~

Aya’s time prediction turned out to be fairly accurate as just over an hour later, they left the trees and the birds and the creepy sounds of vague wildlife behind and entered the town of Uehara, an ancillary of Suwa about two kilometres north.

Architecture-wise, it wasn’t that different from Fujimi or Kōfu; the same wooden structures for houses, shops, trade fronts, izakayas, massage parlours, clan barracks - all of it sectioned into distinct zones - with the main road running parallel to the River Kami, and announcing its entrance with a small, relatively bustling market.

Miho and Aya stopped at some of the stalls, looking around for buns or snacks, but none of the hawkers seemed to be interested in the concept of food sales, so they kept moving, kicking occasional pebbles into the river, until they came to an izakaya at the corner of a busy junction with a wooden bridge.

For some reason, it had a lit okiandon hanging outside, even though it was barely even midday, and that factor, plus the rogue group of ashigaru with Suwa insignia milling about on the bridge up ahead, persuaded Aya and Miho to give it a try.

‘If they ask us anything, just say we’re visiting from Nagano,’ whispered Aya, as she slid open the izakaya door panel.

‘As brother and sister?’ asked Miho, squinting at the dimly lit room they were walking into.

‘No, we don’t look alike. It’ll have to be lovers.’

‘Yuki won’t be happy about that.’

‘We don’t have to physically do anything, just pretend. Maybe hold my hand if they really look sceptical.’

‘Don’t know if they’ll be able to make it out,’ replied Miho, almost knocking over the waitress coming to greet them as he gestured at the darkness with his arm. ‘Sorry, I didn’t-…it’s quite dark in here.’

‘Yes, by request of one of our patrons,’ the waitress said, smiling.

‘Who, a bat?’ asked Aya.

‘There’s a slightly brighter seat over here, if the shadows are too uncomfortable for you.’

‘Sounds good,’ replied Miho, reaching down to Aya’s hand and squeezing it…then getting squeezed back harder in return.

The waitress, who gave her name as Reiko, led them to a table near the open window, which acted like a small pocket universe of trapped sunlight within a black hole. ‘You do have coin, don’t you?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Sorry, I have to ask. We’ve had some youngsters come in and order and then leap out through that window when it was time to pay the bill.’

‘Don’t worry, we’re too tired to do anything like that.’

‘Good. You do have money though, correct?’

Aya dipped her hand in her bag and took out a small purse, rattling it hard to make the coins inside clink.

‘Can you open it up and show me?’

‘Seriously?’

‘Sorry, I have to insist. We had a belt merchant in here a few weeks ago, shaking a purse of replica coins at us.’

‘Ah, those guys…’ said Aya, stealing a glance at Miho, who flinched and looked out the window at an old man itching his crotch. ‘Okay, here’s all we got, if you can see it through all this shadow.’

She tilted the bag and a small avalanche of coins flowed out onto the table, one of them getting a little carried away and sailing right off the edge of the table.

Switching to reflex mode, Aya made a daring lunge forward as the coin dropped towards the floor, pulling back at the last millisecond when she saw another hand coming in from the other direction.

‘Wah…’ she cried, as the other hand caught the coin in its palm…then dropped it again in response to her wah.

Stifling an instinctive laugh, Aya bent down to retrieve the coin, but was stopped a second time as the other hand pressed one finger down on top of the copper piece and then shot upwards, seemingly magnetising the coin enough to bring it up just behind.

With a faint clink, it landed on the pile of coins on the table.

‘Unfortunate lapse for the first part,’ said the owner of the magic hand, a man with features that were almost redundant due to the red and white stripes painted on his neck, coupled with the matching accessories branching out of his hair, both of which were more than enough to distinguish him.

In fact, his markings were so distinctive that Aya and Miho took a long while to stop staring at them and, by the time they did, he was already turning to leave.

‘Wait…’ said Aya, finally, stretching out an arm. ‘How did you do that?’

‘Magic, of course,’ he said, half turning.

‘Yeah…but how?’

‘What did he do?’ whispered Miho, who’d been too busy picturing belt merchant revenge scenes on the scenery outside.

Aya shushed him and asked again, this time asking for specific details.

The man scratched the red stripe on his neck and looked at Reiko. They seemed to have a brief telepathic exchange, concluded with a nod from both sides.

‘I leave you with my agent…’ the man said, pulling his dōbuku tight and heading towards the main door.

The instant the panel slid shut, the light from the three windows spread further into the izakaya, brightening the whole place and making one of the patrons shout out loud, ‘thank fucking gods for that.’

‘That was the patron I was referring to earlier,’ Reiko said, leaning down.

‘And you’re his agent?’ asked Aya, still looking at the door panel.

‘His little joke. I do help promote some of his street performances, but they’re quite rare nowadays. Says he has other things to do, important things.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Kao Nashi.’

‘That’s real?’

‘Stage name. I just call him Daiki, but I think that’s supposed to be a secret. Anyway, what can I get you? The chef is doing some pretty good fried tofu today, if you’re looking for something light.’

‘There’s a kitchen here?’ asked Miho, raising his head up and looking over at the counter on the other side of the izakaya.

‘Annex, next door.’

‘Tofu sounds good,’ answered Aya, coming back to the table and the small mountain of coins.

‘Drinks?’

‘Just green tea. Very hot.’

Reiko nodded and headed back to the main counter. Miho waited until she was out of earshot, and the few other patrons looked occupied, before he nudged Aya and asked again what had happened.

‘Cheap magic trick,’ she replied, picking up the coins.

‘Doing what?’

‘Coin related. Doesn’t matter. Key point is the light is back in and we can actually see again.’

‘Don’t know. I was almost getting used to the dark.’

‘Yeah, it’s good if you want to get robbed. Or groped by a pervert.'

The door panel slid open again, cutting off Miho’s you mean me? response. The same group of ashigaru from the wooden bridge entered, surveyed the now well-lit environment, grinned when they saw Aya and Miho, and swaggered with hands on their belts over to their table.

‘Not again,’ yelled Reiko, intercepting halfway and, despite being about five inches shorter and unarmed, pushing them back towards the door.

‘Get your hands off me, woman,’ shouted the lead ashigaru, a tall, scrawny type with hawk-like eyebrows.

‘I’ve told you a hundred times, stay outside or I’ll go direct to your daimyō.’

‘Your threats are water. And your face is doughy.’

‘And you look like a hangover shit. Move. Out.’

The lead ashigaru turned to his cronies and shook his head like he was head thug in an amateur street play. ‘These irritating nags…’

‘Don’t act tough for your friends, leave.'

'Woman...'

'Go. Get out. Move.’

In a continued act of insane boldness, Reiko switched from pushing to prodding with three bunched fingers and eventually forced them back against the door panel. The ashigaru’s hand hovered next to his katana guard, but didn’t go any further, and after another hard prod from Reiko, he slid the door panel across and stormed out, kicking the first random passer-by he saw outside.

‘No brain thugs,’ yelled Reiko after them, wiping her hands on her yukata and then turning to see which oddball was doing the clapping.

It was Aya, though she soon stopped, settling for a more reserved cheer of ‘good job.’

‘Akira was right,’ mumbled Miho, helping Aya put the last of the coins back in the purse. ‘It’s like watching a bunch of animals.’

‘Of course, they’re ashigaru.’

‘Yeah…I’m learning that.’

‘Learning?’

Miho didn’t respond, he just handed her back the purse and looked out the window again.

‘Well, at least we don’t have to deal with them. Or your friend, Akira, who took all of the futon.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Definitely a good thing.’

~~~

After eating a pretty impressive plate of fried tofu and sipping volcanic-heat green tea, the two pretend lovers walked further down the river and asked a few random pedestrians, which town was better, Uehara or Suwa?

Most said Uehara, obviously, but a few crossed the line and said Suwa, mainly cos it was next to the lake and, therefore, closer to god.

God being nature, apparently.

‘If they like it better, why don’t they move there?’ asked Aya, more to her own hand then Miho, who seemed to be entranced by the gently rippling current of the river.

‘Don’t know.’

‘Unless they just prefer to visit sometimes…’

‘Probably.’

‘It is quite near, not that hard to get there…’

‘Right.’

Aya picked up a small twig from the path and threw it at the side of Miho’s head, blurting out, ‘wah, sorry,’ when it hit him just above the eye.

Luckily, he barely noticed, interpreting the strike as an insect scraping against his forehead and giving it a quick brush.

‘Did that tofu hypnotise you or something?’

‘Huh?’

‘You’ve been blank all afternoon. Just a lot of yeah and probably.’

‘Yeah. Probably.’

‘Kuso…’

He looked dazed for a second then broke into the slightest of smiles. ‘Joking. I’m still here, don’t worry.’

‘What are you so deep in thought about? Where to go next?’

‘Not really.’

‘Wah, you’re not still worried about that ashigaru, are you?’

‘A bit.’

‘Why? He’s a thug.’

‘Just feels wrong…leaving like that. Not saying anything to him.’ Miho looked up at Aya, keeping a lock on her eyes as they tried to dart left. ‘Taking some of his coins.’

‘Ah, you noticed that…’

‘It was pretty obvious.’

‘Yeah, and deserved too. He took them from those other thugs, I took them from him. It’s the circle of economy…or trade economics…whatever you call it.’

‘If he catches up with us…’

‘He won’t.’

‘But if he does…’

She picked up another twig and threw it into the river, almost hitting the youngest of a family of ducks swimming by.

‘There’s a good chance he’ll come here, to Uehara…’

‘I’m hungry. Are you?’

‘What?’

‘Dinner. Do you want some?’

‘Isn’t it a bit early?’

‘Not if we walk slowly back to our new favourite izakaya.’

Miho stared at her, then at the path on the opposite side of the river. They’d only walked about half a kilometre, so if he squinted, he could just about make out the sign of the place that was actually pretty good. In fact, he’d been half hoping Aya would suggest it and now she had, he was forced to act wary, as if he hadn’t eaten at the same izakaya in his village about seven thousand times in a row.

‘Well?’