Adam was sitting on the floor with an apple in his hand while Pumpkin sat in front of him.

"Apple! Repeat after me, a-p-p-l-e! Apple!"

"Meow!"

"No, I said apple."

"Meow?" Pumpkin cocked his head to the side.

"Yes, I know you're saying 'apple' but you should reply in English, not in Meowlish. Hmm, this isn't working at all." Adam rubbed his chin.

Adam thought teaching Pumpkin would be easy since they were communicating telepathically but that wasn't the case at all. Pumpkin understood what Adam meant but replied with meows because he wasn't associating the word 'apple' with the object itself. Fortunately, Adam could understand some of Pumpkin's meows now, unlike previously when all of Pumpkin's meows sounded the same to him.

"Oh well, this would have to do for now." Adam chomped on the apple.

Nearby, Nezuminosuke was fast asleep on a futon. An elderly lady with short spiky hair was removing needles from him. Earlier, she tended to his wounds and helped him change into a clean kimono. Then, she started inserting needles into him until he was covered from head to toe. He lost consciousness before she even used a quarter of the needles.

"Hakusen-san, how are his injuries?" Adam looked toward the old lady.

"There's no need to worry, Edamu-sama. Nezuminosuke-san will be up and running by tomorrow."

Adam raised an eyebrow. If he had suffered the same injuries, it would have taken him at least a few days to get out of bed. Either Nezuminosuke healed faster than him, or there was something to Hakusen's medical abilities.

"Good." Adam eyed her. "You're a hedgehog yōkai, aren't you? Impressive skills, I almost didn't see through your shapeshifting. I didn't think there were any hedgehogs native to Japan though."

"Yes, I fled here after the fall of Great Ming."

"The Ming dynasty? I see." Adam nodded. "So, how did you find out we're here?"

Hakusen arrived shortly after Adam and Nezuminosuke made camp here. Her timing was too impeccable.

"Kuzunoha-sama has eyes and ears everywhere." Hakusen looked back at Adam coolly.

Adam narrowed his eyes. His actions seemed to have drawn the ire of Kuzunoha. She knew he could have easily escaped with Nezuminosuke or helped him deal with the oni earlier. He only chose not to because he wanted to test how far Nezuminosuke would go to follow his command. She sent Hakusen as a warning for him to behave.

"I see, will you be accompanying us?"

"That is the wish of Kuzunoha-sama."

"Very well, welcome to the team."

While waiting for Nezuminosuke to recover, Adam looked for ways to pass the time. He tried teaching Pumpkin more words but the little rascal was more interested in napping for the moment. With nothing else to do, he took out a volume of the Onmyōdō Fundamentals and started studying Water Walking and Water Breathing. This wasn't a decision he made on the spur of the moment. He had the idea ever since boarding the cruise but he had been busy working on turning the nure-onna into his shikigami. Later, after getting off the cruise, he had the time but ended up procrastinating instead.

The next morning, Adam was woken up by shouting from outside and sat up from his sleeping pad. Pumpkin crawled out of his shirt and went back to sleep on the pad. He got up and washed up before filling his stomach with some leftover snacks he bought previously. However, he was still feeling hungry after finishing them. He snuck a peek at Pumpkin before opening a can of Pumpkin's wet food and licked a dab off his finger.

"Hmm, not too bad."

After finishing the can of wet food, Adam opened a second can from the same brand but with a different flavour.

"Yuck, what is this crap!" Adam spat a few times to get the taste out of his mouth.

He continued trying out the various cat food until the gnawing hunger was sated. Fortunately, there was still enough left for Pumpkin to eat for an entire year when he was done.

"Meow!" Pumpkin reached forward with his front paws and arched his back with his rump in the air to stretch his body. He was woken up by the irresistible smell of food.

"Here, eat up!" Adam placed a large bowl filled to the brim with cat food in front of Pumpkin.

"Meow?" Pumpkin eyed Adam suspiciously. The portion was several times larger than his usual breakfast serving.

"What's wrong, aren't you hungry?" Adam let out a yawn. "You need to eat more now that you're a yōkai."

Pumpkin cautiously sniffed the bowl of food. It smelled like a mixture of his favourite brands of wet food. Unable to resist the heavenly aroma any longer, he happily devoured his breakfast while remaining blissfully unaware a certain oni had been taste-testing his food.

While Pumpkin was inhaling his food, Adam prepared a meal for Tanaka Izumi as well. He lit a stick of incense in an incense holder and placed a can of wet cat food by the side. While the dead could no longer draw sustenance from food for the living, it was a source of enjoyment for them.

"...t-thank you." Izumi hovered above the incense stick and took a deep breath. The incense stick started burning at a rapid rate. In a short while, the incense stick burned to the bottom. She returned to her skull and left the can of cat food untouched. As for the nure-onna, she couldn't feed on incense like Izumi without freeing her, so Adam infused her soul core with his yōki instead.

Adam changed into a sweatshirt and sweatpants and left the house with Pumpkin in his arms. Outside, Nezuminosuke was practising kata while wearing only pants.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Nezuminosuke shouted each time he punched or kicked.

Adam stood there with Pumpkin in his arms and watched until Nezuminosuke finished his practice. Halfway through, Hakusen joined them outside.

"My apologies for making you wait, Edamu-sama, Hakusen-san!" Nezuminosuke bowed at the waist.

"We'll leave once you wash up."

This time, the group managed to reach their destination without any trouble. However, someone was ahead of them. A figure familiar to Adam was facing off against the Kuchisake-onna.

"Rin! Pyō! Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!" The monk made nine cuts in the air with his index and middle fingers.

A net of light, consisting of five horizontal lines intersecting with four vertical lines, flew towards the Kuchisake-onna.

"Hmm?!" Adam widened his eyes. The attack reminded him of dōman's crest.

"Aaargh!" The Kuchisake-onna tried to dodge the attack but it still clipped her arm.

Enraged, the Kuchisake-onna lunged at the monk while wildly waving her scissors. He remained still, seemingly still recovering from his previous attack. Just as her attack was about to reach, he placed his hands together and uttered a mantra.

"Oṃ maṇi padme..." A barrier of light appeared around the monk as the words left his mouth.

The Kuchisake-onna's scissors stopped just inches away from the monk's neck.

"Hūṃ" The barrier of light rapidly expanded and sent the Kuchisake-onna flying away.

"Aaargh!" The Kuchisake-onna crashed into a wall. She got up and took one last look at the monk before making a run for it.

The monk unravelled the prayer beads wrapped around his arm. As he swung the prayer beads like a whip, they grew longer and wrapped around the Kuchisake-onna. She tried to pull the prayer beads off herself but her actions proved to be futile.

"Cease your pointless resistance, these prayer beads are a relic left by—"

A torrent of fire descended on the Kuchisake-onna and turned her into specks of light.

The monk retracted the prayer beads and turned in the direction of Adam and his companions.

"Hmph! That damned oni and the dogs of Kuzunoha! I was wondering where that stench was coming from." The monk tightened his grip on the prayer beads.

"Oh, you want to face the three of us in your current state?" Adam cocked his head to the side.

"Tch, I'll spare you this time!"

The monk retrieved the ringed staff he dropped before Adam arrived and hobbled away.

"Edamu-sama, why don't we..." Nezuminosuke made a throat-slitting motion.

"Hmm? Be my guest, I am leaving though."

Adam picked up the surgical mask dropped by the Kuchisake-onna and headed back in the direction they came from.

***