The next twenty-four hours were a blur.

They left the auction house. It proved to have been built directly into a limestone cliff, the soft material scooped away to form the back rooms and huge hall. The front of this whole structure was a small tea house that was in absolute shambles from having near a hundred people rush out of it, pursued by various legendary beasts. They could still see the creatures spread across the city as they emerged from the wreckage, fighting some of the auction-goers through the city streets. It was an amazing scene – flashes of spiritual energy, ki¹気 (ki)., creatures soaring through the air or spitting glowing fire or ice, earth-shaking roars. Eitsu joined in the fun and relieved some of her feelings by casually reaching for the wooden shopfront and tearing the sad remains of it down with a single, clawed hand, revelling in her increasing strength.

Tsubaki sat down on a stone nearby and stared blankly out across an ocean.

They appeared to be in a seaside city, built into limestone cliffs. A pretty place, it was currently in chaos as fighting broke out up and down, the citizens hiding within their homes as legendary creatures clashed with the greedy auction participants. Eitsu watched for a while, but none of the residents were harmed; people in uniforms were emerging throughout the city, their bodies and weapons flickering with ki. The fighting had evidently drawn the attention of some very capable people.

Eitsu finished dismantling the entire shopfront, then knelt down beside Tsubaki.

"Hey, Tsubaki-san?"

"..."

"That was pretty dangerous, you know? ...You could have died." Her voice was gentle and without blame.

"... So?" The word slipped from Tsubaki's lips, unintentionally, which made her purse them even more and turn away.

Eitsu examined her carefully. Tsubaki's beautiful eyes were bright with the light of the moon as it sat low on the horizon, but it was a trembling, desperate beauty.

“Who were you... are you, to me?”

The tiny scars on Tsubaki's hands shifted as she clenched her hands.

“Who was... am I, to you?”

A voice whispered in the back of Eitsu's mind. It sounded like Tsubaki's, but the moment she paused to listen, it disappeared.

Eitsu was shorter than the dancer, but with the latter sitting down, it was easy for her to fold her arms around the woman and hold her carefully. "I'm sorry."

"... For what?"

"I'm sorry that I don't remember anything. I'm sorry that I've probably been wandering around carelessly without any understanding."

Tsubaki said nothing, she simply lay against Eitsu's warm body.

"You came to save me twice now... in this life, at least. Tsubaki-san... were you ready to die?"

"Who's going to die?" Tsubaki retorted coldly.

Eitsu stroked her tangled hair, and began smoothing it. "No one. Not me, not Tsubaki."

The sun was preparing to rise. A golden wash was creeping up over the ocean, diluting the dark night.

"Tsubaki-san, it's been more than three lives, hasn't it?"

Eitsu continued to comb her nails through Tsubaki's long hair. The faint perfume of camellia oil clung to her fingers. She combed as the sky grew pink and gold with a new morning.

“I've been dreaming of you, I think.”

“And?”

“They were nightmares.”

“Good.”

The fighting had ended. The monk and their companion, along with another woman, had exited the remains of the teahouse and begun to speak with some of the creatures who still lingered. The pale foreign woman had admired Eitsu's handiwork with dismantling the shopfront and gave her a thumbs-up that Eitsu accepted cheerily. The others smiled at her - the monk cheerfully polite, the newest addition to the group, a woman who seemed to be half-demon, softly and wearily.

Eitsu watched them communicating with the remaining legendary animals. Tsubaki toyed with the box containing the pelts. She spoke without looking up. "You could probably gain your full memories and powers back by examining these furs closely."

"Mm. Probably."

On the dawn horizon, a passenger ship was approaching. A fresh breeze blew around them, and Eitsu breathed deep, relishing the smell after so long in the limestone caverns.

She took the box from Tsubaki.

"I'll look at them later."

---

The ship brought a surprise.

A young girl, about eleven years old, came running ashore, and seeing the chaotic damage above her, came anxiously pelting up the cliffside roads. Eitsu recognised her as one of Tsubaki's assistants.

"Ts- Tsuba...ki...dono," she gasped, collapsing in front of them.

Tsubaki's forehead wrinkled slightly. "Ayame²菖蒲 (Ayame) – 'Iris'.?"

All at once, the little girl burst into tears. Eitsu thought she might pass out at any moment, between the panting and the crying.

The monk and their companions appeared to have completed their discussions and were walking over as Ayame burst onto the scene. The monk produced a bottle of something aromatic and waved it under the girl's nose while pressing firmly on her shoulder. The woman with demonic energy rubbed Ayame's hands while the foreign woman lurked awkwardly in the background.

Now that Eitsu looked closer... didn't she look more like a man now?

As Ayame was recovering, a confusing three-way conversation emerged. The demonic woman could speak a little of the same language as Eitsu and Tsubaki, Yamato-go³大和 (Yamato) - 'Big Republic(?)'. - 語 (-go) – 'Language'.. Xiǎng⁴想 (xiǎng) – 'to think'/'to wish'., the language of the country they were in, Shísuàn⁵石蒜 (Shísuàn) - Red Spider Lily., was spoken fluently by both the monk and the demonic woman, while the foreign woman... no, man now, could apparently only converse in the common tongue that had developed to facilitate trade over multiple countries across the world So they stumbled their way through, adding charades, written characters, and drawings in the limestone dust beneath their feet, to assist.

The woman with demonic energy was called Zéyì⁶则溢 (Zéyì) – 'Overflow'.. She was dressed as a demoness, but her energy fluctuated strangely, dark one moment, incredibly pure the next. When it was pure, Eitsu could smell clean, fresh water. When it was dark, the clean water fell away to odour of ancient dust. She didn't seem well.

The monk introduced themselves as Yuān Yì Fēng ⁷鳶奕风 (Yuān Yì Fēng) – 'Hawk' and 奕风 'abundant'/'graceful' and 'breeze'/'wind'., who, along with the foreigner, had been investigating the disappearance of legendary creatures across the country. The foreign man with the similar cold energy to Rei, had no name. Eitsu tried to ask what his abilities were. Tsubaki read the characters they wrote in the dust.

“Sorcerer⁸方士 (houshi) – 'Sorcerer'.?”

“That doesn't seem right.”

The man was drawing. Next to the two characters of 'sorcerer', he had drawn a skull.

“... a necromancer⁹妖術師 (youjyutsushi) – 'Necromancer'. In the Xiǎng language, 方士 is how 'necromancer' is written, hence the confusion.?”

Why would Rei, a kitsune, have a similar energy to a necromancer?

The investigators asked about Rei, and Eitsu drew a fox's face in the dust, then circled the words they had written previously about the necromancer. The necromancer nodded grimly, without surprise. It seemed that he had met Rei before.

“That Rei has powers of the dead,” Zéyì managed to explain, although her tongue rolled on the R so it sounded like 'Li'¹⁰狸 (prn. Lei in Zyu and Lí in Xiǎng) – 'fox'..

Eitsu's brow furrowed even more.

The city they were in as called Yùhǎi¹¹玉海 (Yùhǎi) - 'Jade' and 'Sea/Ocean'.. In the end, the investigators were going to head along the main route that ran from Yùhǎi all the way across the land far into the west to find more evidence of the legendary animal kidnapping and trading. The woman Zéyì needed medical treatment; she too was headed west, although only so far as a country called Zhàng¹²嶂 (Zhàng) – 'cliff'. that Eitsu and Tsubaki had not heard of.

"What do you want to do, Tsubaki-san?”

The dancer stared. “Why are you asking me?”

“Hmm... I just feel like doing what you want.”

“I have no desires,” was the flat reply. The monk Yuān Yì Fēng ran their dark eyes over the trio and pressed a small pouch on them with a smile. It contained a collection of medicinal and nourishing herbs, that Eitsu thought, with a sigh, they all probably needed.

With a bow from the monk, the other three departed.

Eitsu returned to the newly recovered Ayame. "So where are we exactly?"

"Two days west by boat of Yamato, over the sea. Tsubaki-dono-"

Tsubaki stood up and began to limp away. West.

Eitsu stopped her. “At least have some tea first.”

“I'm fine.”

“But I want some tea, and so does Ayame-chan.”

“I do? Yes! Yes, I do, Tsubaki-dono!”

They managed to extract a pot to boil some water in from the ruins of the tea house, and a passing hou-ou¹³鳳凰 (hou-ou) – phoenix. kindly lit a fire for them as it soared way from Yùhǎi. The herbs that Yuān Yì Fēng had given them quickly became an aromatic tea that they drank gratefully.

Eitsu whispered Ayame's ear. "What happened in the past few days?"

The little girl poured it all out with no filter. "After Rei-dono stole her cat, she suddenly started giving away all her possessions. Her hair ornaments, her jewellery, even her finest robe! We girls were terrified! We tried to find out the reason why, but Tsubaki-dono refused to say anything. She looked so scary.

"And then she boarded the passenger ship to come here without a word to anyone. We pooled our money and I came to find her. What happened here... and who are you?"

This funny girl had only just now become suspicious.

Eitsu smiled. "I'm her pet."

"..."

"As for what happened, that fox was very rude to her."

"Fox?"

"Rei."

"What? We all thought he liked her. Was he just playing?"

"He was certainly playing," Eitsu responded, her voice calm and her narrow eyes full of teeth.

Ayame fumed. "How dare he break our beautiful Tsubaki-dono's heart!"

... Okay, take it that way.

Tsubaki acted as through she couldn't see the other two whispering in front of her. Eitsu finally addressed her directly.

“Tsubaki-san, don't you think it's time that we gave each other all the information that we know?”

No response. Tsubaki sipped her tea. She flinched as Eitsu suddenly appeared before her. There was no hint of playfulness in the kaibyou's eyes.

“Tsubaki-san, will you at least tell me why you've been hiding things from me?”

The dancer's gaze drifted over the box of pelts that sat nearby. “You'll know soon enough. And then...”

“And then?”

“... the reason is simple. I'm a coward. I'm greedy. You'll understand when you retrieve your memories.”

“Are you afraid of me?”

Tsubaki lowered her voice. “Of course. You're a god.”

“So you knew.”

Tsubaki finished her tea. She placed her cup down among the rubble and began to walk west once more. Eitsu let her go.

"We should go back,” Ayame called anxiously. "Everyone is so worried!"

Eitsu watched the lone, cold figure moving away from them, delicate and frosty as a flower of ice. She sighed, head cocked. "Do you really think she'll want to go back?"

"Eh? Why not?"

Ayame clapped her hands to her sore forehead after Eitsu suddenly flicked it. "Why?"

"Silly girl. What did she give you when she left?"

The child fumbled in her bag and produced a kanzashi. It was beautifully made, the stiff silk flower intricately folded, white with a yellow centre, below which hung little metal pieces that clinked lightly together.

"A camellia."

"This is one of Tsubaki-dono's favourite pieces!"

"... And you still ask why she won't want to go back? I'm surprised we didn't find her shoes side-by-side at the edge of a dock here¹⁴In Japanese popular culture, there is a trope that people take their shoes off and leave them somewhere side-by-side when they commit suicide. [Please seek help if you are experiencing suicidal ideation. We still need you in this world <3]."

"What... do you mean?"

"Come on, Aya-chan. Let's follow her."

"Hey, I don't even know who you are! How can you call me so familiarly?"

“Like Tsubaki-san keeps saying – 'You'll know soon enough'.”

“Argh!”

They followed after Tsubaki with the rising sun at their backs.