Wolf and Keeper

Chapter 35: The Lady of Murakami

When Avery steered the ship to port, the storm was still raging overhead as they managed to anchor safely back on the mainland. The crew all stumbled off the ship, everyone shaken by what they had encountered in the midst of the storm, and when Naoyuki collapsed to his knees on the dock, he turned to look at Sen, who was helping Hashi navigate down the gangplank and attempting to keep him from throwing up, if the slightly sick tinge to the yokai's face meant anything. "What," the mercenary asked as he turned on his hands and knees, "in the seven hells was that?"

"Dragons," Maru replied flatly, still trying to wrap his head around what he had just seen.

"Yeah, no shit!" Naoyuki squeaked as he shakily got to his feet. "We... we got saved... by fucking dragons!" He spun back to Sen, "What exactly did you do?"

"I... I don't know," Sen admitted with a shake of his head. "I just held up the magatama and then... Then they showed up." The memory of Watatsumikome came to his mind, and suddenly he began to believe that he wasn't just having vivid hallucinations. The magatama was a gift from the sea dragons, and the fact that it had done exactly what she claimed it would meant that the legends were turning out to be a little more than just legends.

"So the stories..." Emi turned to look at Sen.

"I think we need to start putting a little more stock in these local legends," Avery's voice came from behind him as he walked up to them with the startled captain in tow.

"You speak," Naoyuki stopped and held his hands up as he spun to him next, "near perfect Japanese!"

Avery stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to look at Naoyuki, "I just evaded a massive water demon with the help of two enormous dragons, and the only thing you're worried about is my speaking skills?"

Maru shook his head as he watched the two argue and looked over to Sen, who helped Hashi sit down on some boxes and patted his back slowly. "Got any more tricks up your sleeve?"

"Doubt I can top the sea dragons," Sen replied as he glanced over his shoulder at Maru. "Know anything about Murakami?"

Maru shook his head, "Just that we don't have any sects there. Every time we tried to set one up, the whole place would get wiped out."

"Ah," Sen nodded, "wonderful. Hopefully our reception is better." He turned his attention back to Hashi, who was losing the seasick look on his face as he sat with his eyes closed. His breathing ahd evened out, coming in steady inhales and exhales. He was still looking somewhat ill, but Sen figured that this was better than nothing. He reached up and felt the Rotted arm. It was almost like it had a fever of some kind.

Hashi opened his eyes and looked down at him, giving him a small motion of his hand. I am okay.

"Take it easy," Sen smiled up at him before he looked back at Maru. "Think you could get him some food for me? I don't want to leave him."

Maru nodded and left the group to recover as his mind began to process what he had just seen. If these Deishi were capable of forging pacts with the sea dragons, of all prideful people, then he could understand why Kazegumo was so worried about their influence. Still,he had heard the stories on his previous trip to Kyushu. Watatsumikome was revered as a hero. Her journey to Ryugu and her pact with Ryujin, the dragon king of the sea, was something out of a fairytale. At the time, he had only been interested in learning about how to defeat umibozu, but after seeing Sen standing on the bow of the ship, magatama in hand, he started to wonder just how many of those stories he heard along his trips had actually been true.

He paused when he saw people rushing past him carrying bowls of food and small censers of incense, and he followed them with his eyes to a crowd of people. They were gathered around something, and when Maru managed to see what it was, he couldn't help but stare. A shrine had been erected around a small, old, weathered statue of a woman, and in her hands was a magatama. The crowd was praying and leaving small offerings at the shrine's base, and he overheard them talking about who it was.