Sasaki and her master found the girl in a shadowed part of the encampment. The dust around her feet were unsettled, disturbed, with clear marks that denoted sweeping footwork. In her hands were two blades. One was a blueish katana which had belonged to Kutama and the other, a straight sword. On further inspection, the latter looked like a jian but it wasn't quite as thin as one. It had a small rarely seen cross hilt and a small short tassel hanging from the pommel.

She was at rest, both swords held in a relaxed manner until she slowly opened her eyes. With a sharp intake of breath, she struck out with both swords. Swinging them in prearranged patterns that Sasaki had never seen before, Suzu paid no heed to the arrival of the two. The blade work was far from perfect, the katana was obviously heavier than the jian and it slowed down the simultaneous strikes. Suzu spun, swung and struck at the imaginary foes, uttering not a sound as she moved tirelessly.

Akane for her part saw no harm in the katas, though she could feel the emotion that was carried in each swing. They stood a fair distance away, far enough to be able to foresee a strike. She nudged her student forward a bit though, as if saying "Show me your spirit."

---

In the distance, on a small hill with a clearing on top in the forest stood two travelers. Dekasamechin Sourou and Yoichi had just crested it on their journey where they finally spotted a faint light in the woods. It was a warm glow unlike the ones of Yure. The moon was well on its way in the night sky and the wolves had starting howling, their call and response breaking the silence of the peaceful night. They were of no threat if one had fire and since the two had no such things. Perhaps it would be wise to seek out the glow.

Stepping slowly, in a meandering fashion, Youchi approached the campsite. Taking time to admire the moon he kept a slight smirk upon his face, continuing onwards he pushed forth to camp's outer edge, hailing the current camp guard with a wave of his hand he continued towards the fellow with intent to enter.

They came upon Suzuki, and Mitsuki watched as the girl swung two swords. One that she assumed was the girl's and the other that she recognized as Kutama's with a cringing feeling in her stomach. Suzuki was engrossed in a training routine with both swords, and swung them deftly, barely even acknowledging their arrival. Even to her, an inexperienced swordsman, Mitsuki could tell that this was more than just a simple exercise. It was as if she could feel the passion behind every meaningful stroke. There was a melancholic atmosphere that the three of them seemed to share in that moment.

It was then that she felt a nudge at her back from Akane, and without a word, Mitsuki knew what she was to do. She placed the earthen cup with the ginger tea onto the ground and stepped forwards, just out of range of Suzuki's swinging blades. Her war fans fell into place at her hands and she opened them silently and spun with both arms out and the fans outstretched. The path of her fans seemed to nearly graze the blades, but they never touched. Mitsuki spun on her heel, changing the path of her fans to match that of Suzuki's; their movements never colliding though woven seamlessly like two cogs. She felt her mind slip away as she simply became one with her body's movements.

Sourou removed the hood of his cloak as the light illuminated him to allow the guard to see his face.
The other traveler seemed to want to speak with the guard, so he waited patiently for the guard to address him.

Staring into the distance, Ryouichi notice something in the distance. Two figures were heading towards the camp. One of them signaled at Ryouichi with a wave while the other removed a hood from his head. The two men seemed relatively friendly, so Ryouichi called out to them.

"Hello, what is your business here?", he recalled from his days standing guard.

"Oh! So I did wander the right direction after all." Youchi nonchalantly exclaimed, approaching ever closer to the guard. "Well, I've come all this way to join the caravan." he added as he brushed away his pink 'jacket' with smile still at face.

Sourou retrieved a tattered sheet of paper from somewhere in the folds of his cloak and held it up for the guard to see. "I'm tracking a criminal eastward. If you've seen this man, please let me know. Average height and build, dark hair, covered with scars." Normally he would never bother traveling so far for a bounty, but this man was a killer of nearly a dozen men, so the price on his head was enormous.

Compared to Suzu's harsh movements, Sasaki's seemed much more gentle, flowing elegantly, and much more feminine. That is why Suzu drew away from her. Whimsical Hurricane weighed four times that of a sword of its kind and she was starting to tire. Sheathing the weapons, she waited for Sasaki to finish her flourish.

"I already know the tale of his death, save the one told by you, Sasaki-san."

It was but a petty omission but such was her personality. Akane sighed, the child had been sheltered and spoiled too much and now that Suzu actually had the strength comparable to her will, it could only get worse from here on out.

There was a bit of a commotion on the far side of camp and though Akane wished to hear what Sasaki had to say, she could find out later. It so turned out that there were two strangers on the fringes of the camp. The guardsman had stood watch obediently and had stopped the pair from approaching closer, only interrogating them innocently without cause or forethought.

One was the bounty hunter seeking to travel eastward in pursuit of a man that seemed vaguely familiar yet was of no relation to anyone in camp at the moment. The other seemed liked Nari's kind, though his looks suggested that he was far more than just a simple drifter. Perhaps he was an actor, though Akane couldn't guess further.

"I'll handle it from here guardsman," she said to Ryouichi, handing him what's left of her ginger tea, though lukewarm was still more than half-full, and turned to the arrivals, "I am Yamaken Akane, the caravan master. Though we are headed to Heaven's Watch, you are free to travel with us as long as you have no problems tolerating our colourful traveling companions. If you have further questions, ask them now, or go greet the others in the caravan."

Noting the two strangers, yet recovering from his hangover, Nari still had enough juice in him to make himself known. He went straight to the two strangers, he stared at them, and jumped right infront of them. "Hi, I'm Nari!" Then he took a rather whimsical bow. "And who the HELL are you two?" Nari then waited for a response.

Mitsuki twirled once more with a gentle jump and landed lightly on her feet, her fans closed and her arms falling to her sides. She knew that Suzu was still not yet at peace. To Mitsuki, the brief exercise had given her a slight reprieve from the negative feelings that had been stirring before, though dealing with Suzuki's grating feelings seemed to splash her back into reality.

"As you wish Hohoemi-sama" she said with a sad sigh, she gazed upwards at the sky recalling the night of horrors. "As you recall, that night the yure were fierce. They arose everywhere, and fought like never before. I myself was nearly overtaken by a group; had it not been for the intervention of Ryouichi-san, I would not have been able to perform the adequate exorcism. It was after that skirmish that Onimodo-sama asked us to join him and we did. The village was in such a state of destruction...the buildings burned...bodies lay about..." she had to stop for a moment to reflect upon what had happened. It hit her once again how close they had all been to being defeated by the yure.

"We were joined by others who fought alongside us, they were foreigners. It was then that we were faced with a monstrous giant yure like none I had seen before. Onimodo-sama posed the question as to whether we should stay and fight it, or go to defend the temple grounds...I wanted to stay...I truly did. The others said that it would be best to go to the temple." Mitsuki closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists.

"...He told us to go...that he would fight the beast...I wanted to stay...he told me that if I wished to save others then I must first save myself. We headed to the temple...and that was the last I saw of him. I just...I just don't understand...What about himself?!"

Akane approached Ryouichi and the two travelers. She told him that she'll take it over from here, handing him a cup almost full with some leftover ginger tea. Looking down at the cup, Ryouichi waited for a few moments, hearing that these two men will join the caravan. With some sly intentions, Ryouichi used this opportunity to cut his guard duty short. He headed back to the sleeping area and tapped Shu on the shoulder lightly.

"Hey buddy, your turn to guard. There are a few newcomers talking with Akane, so you should probably head there when Akane leaves."

Stirring forth from his position outside, lying on his side slouched against his arm, Youchi watched as Shu moved about the camp preparing for his turn at playing guard. Removing a long kiseru from a pocket tucked away in his tunic, Youchi carefully packed tobacco into the narrow bowl of the pipe, lighting it with a home made sulphur match. After a few moments of silence and allowing the crop to burn Youchi inhaled gently as he began to take notice of a horrid hissing noise. Remaining still though Youchi continued to smoke, he felt oddly out of danger where he now lay.

Shu acknowledged Ryouichi's statement with a slight nod. Though it didn't seem that he had been standing watch all that long, that would serve Shu's purposes quite nicely. There were a few things that needed to be tended to. He glanced over at where Akane and the two strangers stood, conversing. He could only hope their arrival wouldn't complicate things.

The sun had finally sunken below the horizon, cloaking the landscape in darkness. Everyone would probably be going to sleep soon, and then it would be his turn on sentry duty. He heeded Ryouichi's advice and decided to wait until Akane was through dealing with the newcomers. Until then, he sat idly, mentally listing off the things he needed to take care of during his watch.

Suzu listened quietly. It was hard to not tremble as the tale wore on but as soon as Sasaki had finished by asking about himself, she shook, almost uncontrollably. Not from sadness but from anger. Sasaki was right in questioning the hypocrisy of the late Kutama. She never knew him to be self-sacrificial. It would have been fine if he made a sound tactical decision but her heart could not accept the real reason for his death. But then again, she had never known him long enough to know about it. Another regret.

"Do not blame yourself Sasaki-san. I will drag him out of hell itself and then we can both scold him properly. Good night."

And thus Suzu left, knowing what she had to do, retiring for the night.

((I'll be skipping ahead now that you're all in a big enough group. Fill in the blank of time if you need to or want to.))

It happened as the second watch was changing to the third, when most of the camp was asleep and unaware. The two who were awake, Shu and Suzuki, heard it though. It was low hiss. From the depths of the forest, a ghostly blue mist started to envelop the surrounding trees. As soon as the camp was surrounded by nothing but a wall of ethereal mist, the hissing stopped and soon it was replaced by a sizzling sound, like that of a bar of metal being eaten away by acid. The horses were restless, whinnying incessantly. Suffice to say, something was amiss.

Finally, it was Shu's turn to stand watch. Restlessly, he picked himself up, grabbed his satchel, and headed for the outskirts of the encampment. He looked around and, seeing nobody, stepped out into the wilderness beyond. There was something he needed.

He trod lightly, as if afraid to disturb the ground below his feet. He searched and searched, all the while keeping an eye on the camp in case of any dangers. After nearly half an hour, Shu found what he was looking for. He reached down to pluck it from the ground and stowed it in his satchel before heading back to the camp site.

The rest of the night was uneventful, and Shu's turn as sentry was nearly at an end. The time seemed about right. He withdrew what he had found from his bag, a valerian root. This herb was widely known as an aid for insomnia, and he had been using it for years. Shu took a bowl and placed it on the still hot embers of the campfire, then poured some water into it from his canteen. While he waited for it to heat up, he took a small piece of the root and ground it with his mortar and pestle. When he was done, he stirred it into the water and drank the solution. Hopefully, he would now be able to get a good night's sleep.

With his things backed back into his satchel, Shu went to awaken the next man for his watch. He went over to where Suzuki was and shook him awake.
"It is… your turn to stand watch." He said succinctly, then wordlessly moved to return to his mat. Before he could take two steps, however, he was halted by an eerie sound, like the hiss of a snake, coming from the edge of the encampment. A strange, overwhelming blue mist had all but enveloped the campsite. The hissing quickly escalated. Shu wondered if there might not be supernatural forces at work. He looked toward Suzuki to see how he would respond.