Suzume threw up her hands and shook her head furiously, her hair whipped back and forth as she did so. “You can’t blame this one me!” She stopped shaking her head and jabbed a finger towards Kaito. “I was at the old woman’s hovel all night. You saw me, you were there! There’s no way I could have awakened the god... if it even was a god. I’m still thinking this fox has something to do with the missing idol. Why was the acorn here? Maybe we should be investigating other explanations here!”

The pair of them stared at her with identical dumbfounded expressions. “Are you finished?” Kaito asked. He was grinning and it only intensified her embarrassment.

There’s no way I unleashed that god. Sure, a couple of strange things happened when I was here yesterday but when I broke Kaito’s seal I felt something. I felt my powers reaching out to the seal. I didn’t feel anything here.

She glared at him but it had lost some of its intensity. “Yeah. I’m finished.” Her shoulders sagged.

Kaito looked at Rin. “Tell us, other than a bright light and a bald man, what did you see last night?”

Rin sat down on the pedestal where the idol had been. She crossed her leg over her knee and her robe hitched up nearly to her hip. Kaito’s eyes flickered in that direction and Suzume’s temper, already frayed, reached a boiling point.

“Cover yourself. You look like something from the red district,” Suzume snarled at Rin.

Rin gave her a placid expression and pulled her robe down an inch. She cleared her throat. “I told you all of it basically. The god—or whatever he was—was sitting here where the idol used to sit, I’m assuming.” She shrugged. “He had a chain around his neck made of large coins and he was humming a tune. I called out to him and when he saw me he screamed. Then I screamed. He bolted past me before I could get anything out of him.”

“That’s all?” Kaito asked. He looked at Rin like he was chastising his child.

She smiled up at him and batted her long lashes. “That’s all, master.”

The way she said master made Suzume’s skin crawl. Get it together. You don’t care who he flirts with or how trashy she is. “I have to know, how do you two know each other?”

“That’s not important right now,” Kaito said, waving away her question. “If you did unleash this immortal, it means your powers are not under your control in the least, which explains why you were so irresistible to that spider...”

Rin’s ears perked up and swiveled towards Kaito. She looked at him with wide fearful eyes. “Spider?”

“A huge one whose poison caused vivid hallucinations before it drained its victim of all of its life energy.” Kaito wiggled his fingers and moved towards Rin.

She shrieked and ran away from him. He chased her around the pedestal. What is wrong with these immortals? Is everything just a game to them?

Suzume stepped in Kaito’s way. He nearly collided with her but caught himself at the last minute. She jutted her chin towards him. “We don’t have time for your flirting. We need to find this idol.”

“Jealous,” he purred.

She dodged his hand before he could touch her. She scoffed. “Hardly.”

Suzume stomped out of the shrine and out onto the road beyond. She looked both ways. If I were a god where would I go?

“He went into the woods behind the shrine,” Rin said. She pointed at a wooded area that led up the hill behind them.

Suzume bit her tongue to keep from saying a sharp retort. Rin’s input may have been unwanted but it was at least helpful.  I’ll make a onetime exception to listen to her.

“What do we do once we find him?” Suzume asked.

“Well, I for one want to know what unleashed him,” Kaito said. His expression was pensive. Suzume stared at his profile. His brow was crinkled slightly and his lips were parted. She had not seen him look so thoughtful before. It softened his face and she could see the handsome man beneath the taunting, infuriating creature she had come to know. Why does he want to know who unleashed the idol? Does it have anything to do with me breaking his seal?

A sharp pain in her arm brought Suzume back from her musings. “Ouch!” She shouted and spun around to see Rin grinning at her. “Why did you do that?” Suzume demanded.

“Do what?” Rin swished her tail behind her and flattened her ears. She gave Suzume a look that belied innocence. She’s anything but innocent.  

“You pinched me or something...” Suzume rubbed her arm where the pain had started.

Rin scoffed and tossed her auburn hair over her shoulder. “I did not. You’re delusional.”

Suzume was considering scratching her eyes out when Kaito intervened. “Ladies, you don’t need to fight over me.”

“This has nothing to do with you,” Suzume snapped.

Rin coughed and it sounded like she was saying something. Suzume scowled at her. Suzume thought of saying something rude but she didn’t want to appear like the only one causing trouble. Rin was still swinging her tail and acting innocent as she whistled. I’m on to you, fox.

“Enough bickering,” Kaito said, with a half-smile,” let’s go find this god, or whatever he is.”

Kaito headed towards the woods. After another snotty glance between the two women, they followed after him.

The forest behind the shrine was thick with undergrowth. Plants were tangled up along the roots of the massive trees which towered over them. The ground was left in fractured shadow as the day light struggled to break through to the forest floor. Suzume had the impression that the villagers did not come this way very often.  As she fought through the undergrowth, while Rin and Kaito seemed to have no trouble, she felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck.

She rubbed the short hairs that had risen up and looked over her shoulder. There was nothing around but the sound of bird calls and the wind rustling through the trees. There’s nothing here. It’s just my imagination.  After a few feet, the undergrowth gave way as the incline grew steeper. Suzume stumbled and struggled to keep up with Kaito and Rin who climbed the hill effortlessly. Damn immortals. I bet she’s loving watching me flounder, too. Suzume glared daggers at Rin’s back.

While she thought this, Suzume lost her footing and fell down to the ground. She caught herself with her arm and pain shot up and down as she landed hard on a rock. She cried out in pain and Kaito stopped. When he saw her, he doubled back leaving, Rin farther up the hill. Rin made a mocking face to Suzume behind Kaito’s back. Rin pretended to fall to the ground and rubbed her hands over her eyes like she was crying. Suzume pushed up, with her good arm and brushed off her hands as Kaito reached her. She held her arm close to her body and pretended it didn’t hurt though it was throbbing in pain.

“If you want, I can carry you. It’s only going to get more treacherous the higher up we go.” He held his hand out for her but Suzume ignored it and climbed to her feet.

“I don’t need your help. I can climb on my own.” She held her head up high, like the princess she was.

He smiled but made no comment. He hurried back up the hill to a waiting Rin. Rin took Kaito’s hand as he approached and he didn’t shake her off. I’d like to see her smile when I rip her hair out. Suzume thought. What does she want with him anyway? I cannot believe he just lets her fall all over him. Didn’t he say he loved Kazue? He must have been unfaithful and that’s why she sealed him away.

Suzume liked this idea and it helped her climb the remainder of the hill. By the time she reached the top, the forest had begun to thin and she could see the mountains in the distance and specifically the mountain where their journey had started. She couldn’t see the temple from this distance but she could imagine it sitting against the backdrop of the blue-grey mountains, clouds swirling around it. I thought we had gotten farther away than this. She sighed. Are we ever going to reach the palace at this rate? With everything else that had happened as of late, she had almost forgotten her original motives. I don’t even know what I’ll do once I get there anymore.  

She could not chase this thought further because the forest had grown silent. She could not hear the birds nor the wind in the trees. She glanced around for her companions but they were nowhere to be seen. Not this again.

“You know, I’m really starting to get tired of these hide and seek games.” Suzume shouted.

“Tired of the games.” A voice echoed back at her.

Suzume spun around looking for the source. Nothing was there.

“This isn’t funny!”

“Not funny!” The voice cackled. It sounded like it was right by her shoulder. She arched her head in that direction.

There was nothing there but a slow rolling fog.

“Kaito, Rin?  Where are you guys.”

“All gone, they left the priestess alone.”

A chill ran up Suzume’s spine. She didn’t like this not even a little bit. She stepped forward. The fog was swirling around her ankles like a veil and it obscuring the forest floor.

Something brushed against her leg inside the fog and Suzume shrieked and backed away. She ran into something solid. She felt up and down and realized she had been backed into a tree.

“Tasty, pretty, tasty.” Something hissed inside the mist.

Why is this always happening to me?

Whatever it was came closer. She could smell the decay hanging from it like a cloud. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she felt the tingle on her skin. Her power was burning her fingertips. Suzume concentrated and listened for the sound of the creature. A tree branch cracked nearby and she focused on the spot where the sound came from. She felt a wave of energy shoot from her fingers towards the sound of her pursuer.

The creature hissed and squealed in pain. Then slowly, very slowly, the fog began to fade. Suzume stayed with her back against the tree for a few moments. Her heart was still hammering and she could hardly believe she had reacted that quickly. Once she regained her composure, she went over to look at the creature. It looked like a hunched over old man, with a sparse covering of hair over its head and long pointed teeth in its mouth. In the middle of its chest was a burn mark where her power had hit it dead on.

Well at least my powers came to my rescue when I needed it.  

Footsteps fell on the soft ground covering and Suzume glanced up to see a very short bald man with a round belly standing at the edge of the clearing.

“You! You’re the idol from the shrine,” she pointed at the bald man. Her voice seemed to echo back at her in the empty silence of the forest.

The short man gave her a serene smile. “That I am and I’ve been looking for you.”

“For me?” Suzume asked and pressed her hand to her chest. Why me?

“Yes. I owe you one more wish.”