Wolf and Keeper

Chapter 41: The Longest Journey

Hashi ambled along behind the group as they continued on their way. His arm was hurting more than usual, though he was trying his best to keep Sen from seeing how much he was hurting. The last thing he needed was to be worrying about Hashi while he had other things to focus on. He glanced down at his small friend as Sen walked just ahead of him, lost in thought judging by the distant look in his eye. He bumped Sen with his shoulder, startling him and making him look up as he smiled down at him.

What are you thinking about? Hashi signed to him with a cock of his head, making Sen smile up at him.

"Just... Everything. A lot has happened..."

Need to talk to me about it?

"I don't want to bother you, really. That, and I think I just need some time to process everything, you know?" Hashi nodded as Sen fell in step beside him, adjusting his pack and Odachi with a small grunt. "I am happy that Avery has taken over your stuff, though. That pack was heavier than the weight of all of Yuzuha's sins."

"Hey!" Yuzuha looked over her shoulder and snapped.

"More like all of my sins!" Naoyuki called back from up at the front of the group, just behind the carriage.

"That's too heavy," Nobuhiko quipped back, prompting Naoyuki to frown and narrow his eyes at him.

Hashi heard Emi and Hachirou chuckling furiously at the comment as Naoyuki began going on a tirade about Nobuhiko, and he glanced back at Sen to see him trying not to smile as Yuzuha joined him at the back, leaning over to whisper conspiratorially in his ear about something. It made Hashi smile to himself. It had been a long time since he had Sen so happy with people other than him, and it gave him a small measure of peace.

He let his mind wander a bit as the group quibbled and jabbed one another, tossing playful barbs back and forth that even Avery was getting in on. It reminded him of his old friends, of Myugou and, he thought amusedly, of Jimyoin before everything. Time had healed that wound, though it took a long time. He remembered days on the road with Myugou after his journey when he would fight with Aoi and Shigezane or ceaselessly tease Rokujo. When Sadayoshi had been there, the endless sarcastic wit had been a boundless source of amusement. Now, they were gone, and this new group had taken their place. He had been worrying about Sen when he would be gone, but seeing him with them, him holding Yuzuha's hand out of sight of the others, laughing at the surprisingly sharp yet playful insult from Emi to Nobuhiko, he wondered why he had ever worried in the first place.

Something slammed into his shoulder from behind, and he lurched forward with a grunt and spun around in time to narrowly dodge another arrow as the kitsune in the front with the carriage all began to let out laughing shrieks as they each turned into large foxes one by one. 

"Hashi!" Sen shouted as he ran up to pull the arrow out from his back, and when he looked up in the trees, he saw the Sayonakidori. They didn't look like the ones from before, but he'd recognize the masks and armor anywhere.

Hashi snarled and went to move when the pain in his arm erupted into a tight burning sensation that caused his arm and shoulder to spasm violently. The pain was blinding, and he collapsed to the ground with a grunt because his body literally couldn't hold itself up anymore. His muscles would slacken and then tense up again and again, but what really got him was the fact that he could feel that familiar fog coming on again. He tried to fight it back, but it began to cover his entire mind like a blanket. All he could do was lay on the ground and watch as the other began to try to fight off the Sayonakidori as he began to succumb to the fog that covered his entire mind and began sending his consciousness off to another part of his mind.