Yokai: Winds of the Yakuri

The wolves attacked in tandem. The first latched onto Konomi’s Kama Yari and dragged her forward into the snow. The other began nipping at her other arm, trying to sink its fangs into her skin. Konomi pulled her arm close against her body and kicked the phantom under its chin. Despite their ethereal appearance, the wolf buckled from the kick like any animal would. As it rolled away in the snow, Konomi lost sight of it with the rushing snow. Now with both hands free, she punched the wolf’s nose ferociously. It yowled and released the wood. Konomi quickly faded back, sweeping with the hook spear. The phantom snarled. Its blue eyes remained locked on Konomi’s neck. Sensing this, Konomi flourished her long weapon, exposing her whole body for an overhead swing. The wolf, still locked on her neck, leapt in to outpace her slow attack. Konomi instantly pivoted on her foot, bringing her body just outside the wolf’s chomp. It snapped its powerful jaws on thin air and Konomi’s trap was finished. She brought the full crashing weight of the center of her Kama-Yari, slamming the wolf under her with no way out except through her blade. Konomi yanked back, sliding the Kama-Yari through the wolf’s neck. It disappeared into a blue trail of frost. A howl cut through the snow. Konomi jerked around. The phantom wolf stood over Sato. He was spared its icy teeth only by the thin log clamped in the beast’s mouth. Konomi rushed to her companion. Before she could reach him, wind like a hurricane threw her off her feet. She was lost in the snow. Endless white. Then specks of blue. 

The spirit struck while Konomi’s numb hands could barely hold onto her spear. An icy dagger flashed in the endless gray. Konomi rolled out from the snowbank and tried to find her balance on the heavy banks. The spirit appeared with a flash of blue and stabbed at her stomach. She quickly pivoted, blocking with the base of her Kama-Yari. Before she could counterattack, the spirit vanished into the blizzard. Konomi pushed her hat up and spun around. The endless snow obscured everything. 

“Fight me!” She shouted. Another flash; this time she was ready. As the spirit stabbed in with its icicle knife, Konomi struck first. She swung the Kama-Yari down with a growl. The long hook spear stabbed into the snow without stopping. Not far off, the jeering spirit glided away into the mist. Konomi wasted no time; she quickly ran through the snow and leapt off the bank. Sato was nearing the end of his strength and had kicked up his legs under the blue wolf. Konomi landed on the spirit’s back and stabbed into its see-through side with her kaiken. The spirit panicked and quickly fled into the billowing snow. With Konomi atop it. The spirit tried to vanish into the wind, but Konomi continued to pierce its side. She didn’t need her eyes any longer, so no matter how much snow the spirit summoned, she just kept ramming her knife into the wolf’s side. Until it too vanished into the snow. Konomi was now on her knees in the deep powder. The blizzard was raging, but the spirit was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where’s Tsu?” Sato suddenly rushed to her side and helped her up. 

“Tsu?” Konomi looked around for the sapphire-eyed spirit. 

“The Tsurara-onna!” Sato shouted. Konomi quickly looked around at the gray blizzard. 

“She’s run off! Likely to go bring more snow-yokai!” The pilot looked dejected but quickly sobered up. 

“Where should we–,” Before he could finish, a sudden burst of cold air hit the pair. Konomi’s eyes locked on the sapphire eyes of the spirit. Its full icy power flowed out, freezing everything in its path. Konomi rushed towards the blue eyes with her knife out. As she closed in, her body began to slow. Ice started to form on her fingers, but her heart beat with a fire. Her kaiken neared the spirit’s eyes, set to stab between its steely eyes before she fully froze. Right as the dagger reached the eyes, the spirit moved just slightly to the left. While Konomi’s eyes tracked its movement, her hand was now covered in a full layer of ice. The spirit jeered at her as its blue knife appeared. Konomi’s right arm struggled to bring her Kama-Yari. Ice. The freeze covered her entire body. The spirit approached easily. It brought the knife back. And suddenly a Hirokane-steel katana thrust through its eyes. Then a second katana slashed off its incorporeal head. The ice cracked and Konomi finished her thrust into the air. She took in long, warming breaths. There in the gray snow was another Ronshin. Tall, with neck-long black hair. His armor was deep green, adorned with the Tokiwa three-leaf crest. He wore a hood for the cold with a long yellow straw raincoat. 

“How did you find us?” Sato was furiously rubbing feeling back into his hands. 

“A local pointed you two out.” The Ronshin furnished a quick smile before sidestepping to reveal the Tsurara-onna standing sheepishly behind him. 

“Are you the Ronshin the shogunate sent?” Konomi spoke with bitterness in her voice. 

“That’s right.” The Ronshin stood with his katanas still akimbo. 

“Then you must be Mitikori Kotoba.” 

Mitikori’s camp was nestled into an abandoned outpost. The walls had been made that spring with fresh, white birch. It was mostly buried in snow, but the hearth was deep and warm. The building was made in the style of the gazebos in Tokiwa with a wide arched roof pointing out in the eight paths to heaven. The Tokiwa Ronshin searched through a sizable wooden pack for a moment as Sato warmed himself by the fire. The gentle sound of drawers clicking open and close was a welcome reprieve from the howling wind outside. Finally, he produced something in a clear bottle. He passed it off to the pilot, who took it hesitantly.  

“It’s rice wine.” Upon hearing that, the pilot downed the whole thing. He smiled. 

“Feels warm.” 

“I don’t think I got your name—” 

“Sota Sato.” Mitikori raised a quizzical eyebrow. 

“My father wasn’t imaginative.” The Ronshin looked to Konomi for guidance. She just shook her head. 

“It’s what he told me too.” 

“Well, Sato-san, why were you both nearly freezing to death at the hands of a Ruposhika?” 

“Is that what they’re called?” Konomi muttered. The Tsurara-onna sat down next to Sato as he was leaning heavily to the right. Konomi looked up at Mitikori, moving for her dagger in her kimono without taking her eyes off him. It was only when Sato finally slumped over that Konomi quickly stood. Mitikori set his katanas aside. 

“He needed a rest, and we need to talk.” 

Konomi and Mitikori left the sleeping pilot inside. The Tokiwa Ronshin had moved him to a small straw mat and left him dozing. The Tsurara-onna followed them out of the hot camp into the windy blizzard outside. The snow continued to blast across the buried landscape. Snow. Ice. And nothing in between. 

“The Shogunate reported a straw hat killing villagers and attacking settlements.” 

“So who are you, Mitikori Kotoba? The Ronshin they send to hunt Ronshin?” Konomi didn’t answer his question but the fury rose in her chest at his accusations. 

“No. I came for answers. There are many yokai with the ability to impersonate others. And in this snow, even I wouldn’t know if it was a straw hat or just the cutting wind that killed me.” Konomi nodded. 

“So what did you find?” 

“It seems the Yakuri are split.” The wind howled again. The Tokiwa Ronshin wrapped his sleeves tight against his body. “Any survivors I’ve found haven’t been friendly and this blizzard makes finding them nearly impossible. I’ve seen them…” His voice trailed off. “The Kō-nu aren’t trading with them; it seems relations soured. The survivors don’t have supplies and someone is cutting off all the ports. Those who did survive have nothing to eat. Nothing except the dead.” His voice dripped with disdain. 

“The straw hat was hunting a yamauba. Or even the noble samurai got hungry in this cold.” 

“They’re not samurai. They’re just villagers, peasants, mostly. Taken here to settle in a land they didn’t want.” The Ronshin looked out across the wide plains. Konomi was taken aback as she saw hints of red leaves blowing past. “I didn’t come here to put down the straw hat; I came here to show the Emperor these lands should be left alone.” Konomi sighed. 

“The straw-hat is Mastaku. He’s my master. I found his body floating ashore not two days ago.” The Tokiwa Ronshin nodded understandingly. “Whatever killed him will taste my revenge sevenfold. But it seems our goals may be in alignment. I found soldiers stationed at the port under the influence of a Yuki-onna. The one Sato calls Tsu is one of her underlings.” The Ronshin glanced at Tsu watching them from the snow. She had waited patiently as they spoke, carefully watching their mouths move. “The pilot hoped she could help us find the Yuki-onna. She doesn’t speak, which is making getting information from her rather difficult.” 

“If you find this Yuki-onna, what do you plan to do?” 

“Kill it,” Konomi spoke without hesitation. The Ronshin glanced at her. 

“I don’t doubt your intentions, but if she has the help of the Yakuri soldiers, we’re horribly outnumbered and walking into a blizzard.” Konomi had no choice but to acknowledge his words. 

“What do you propose?” 

“Since we’ve arrived, we’ve had an audience. White torches on the ridge.”

“The Ko’nu?” 

“If there is trouble in the north, perhaps we should ask those that live here.” 

The two Ronshin stepped further out into the snow. Just as Kotoba had said, Konomi saw the torches waiting for them in the endless gray snow. The Tokiwa Ronshin motioned for the Tsu to follow them. Konomi looked to protest but decided against it. They could always use her as bait. The torches remained stationary as they approached. A group of hunters wearing blue and brown leather clothes stood in a line on the edge of the ridge. Their clothing was covered in square-like geometric emblems with rectangles and lines pointing towards each other with no clear end or beginning. It was folded in the front like a Tokiwa yukata but seemed to lack an obi. Unlike southerners, their faces were rough, whipped by the snow and winds of the north, not slick from sweat. Konomi watched their movements as three leaders wearing red clothes stepped back as a smaller man with a hawk mask stepped forward. 

“You are hunters.” His voice carried the Tokiwa dialect well. “We are hunters. Do you hunt us or do we hunt you?” Konomi began to step forward with her Kami-Yari, but Kotoba held out his wrapped hand to stop her. 

“We hunt a snow woman.” The group of hunters laughed with eerie incohesion. 

“She is that one.” The hawk-masked man pointed an iron-tipped spear at Tsu. 

“Not that one.” Kotoba shook his head. The torches around them held strong despite the wind.

“You seek the wife of Yakuri?” the hawk-masked man asked. 

“A monster with the powers of the snow, it can fly and summon ice.” Konomi helped the lost Tokiwa-Ronshin with some useful descriptions. 

“The Yakuri bride?”Hawk-mask, repeated.

“Yes, what do you know of her?” The Tokiwa ronshin’s eyes had begun to shift to the red-garbed hunters waiting. Konomi felt for her dagger. 

“Tell me first,” Hawk-mask’s voice shifted. It carried an edge of challenge. “Did you come here to hunt or to be hunted?” 

“I came here to find answers—” Kotoba was cut off as Konomi spoke in a clear voice that all the onlookers could hear.

“I came to hunt the monster that killed my father. The one that brings ice and blizzards and freezes the lands we walk. I have come to kill it and bury it in the frozen ground.” The Ko’nu looked to her and there was a clicking among their group like hollow wood against rock. Hawk-mask held out his hand to her. “Then we will show you how to kill the blizzard.”