The Dreams

Chapter Fifty

At first, the shrine to Inari did not seem to have any Tenko monitoring it closely. Considering how small and isolated the nearby village seemed to be, it probably only received the bare minimum amount of attention from Inari's attendants. Souma knew they would not be able to go unnoticed forever, but he had hoped that they could settle in for a time before drawing unwanted attention.

They had not had nearly enough time before the Tenko started sniffing around. Yuzu noticed first. They bumped up against her barrier and unlike most beings they noticed it. She could feel them investigating, testing the limits of her abilities. As long as they were out there Souma, Yuzu and Hisako were not free to leave.

The knowledge that they were out there and they had no way of knowing just what their intentions might be weighed on all of them, but Yuzu seemed to take it the hardest. Souma wanted to do nothing more than comfort her, but she drew away whenever he came close to her.

She sat in the corner of the room, watching everything around her and looking far too strained for her condition. He watched her and she glared at him. She said nothing, but in that look, he felt her accusation. He brought her here even after she protested. He told her they would be safer here and this did not feel like safety.

He knew he had no defense against those accusing looks. He tried to make things better and in his hurry to get away from one type of danger he had managed to drag them into something that had the potential to be so much worse. She tried to warn him. She had pleaded with him not to take her away from the world they both knew and understood. His hatred of the way he was treated by the other nogitsune had spurred him to look for a place to live where he would not be judged for his heritage. The constant wars had been a concern, often an even greater concern than his feeling of ostracization.

The human world had seemed like such a good option at the time. He had not anticipated the abundance of shrines to Inari or how difficult it would be for them to exist in complete isolation. He took so many factors for granted. He knew he failed Yuzu by rushing into this. He just never expected to see her accusing him of his failure.

Seeing her look at him with such accusation in her eyes nearly broke his heart. He counted his lucky stars that Hisako discretely stayed out of their spat. He had been afraid at first that they would be butting heads a lot, but she seemed to know that he understood his part in causing Yuzu distress and did not rub his nose in it. She did not neglect Yuzu's care for even a moment, but still miraculously managed to stay out of their relationship. Souma did not know how she managed it, but he was glad to know that he would not be fighting with both of them at once.

He resolved himself to finding some way to solve this issue before it did any more lasting damage to Yuzu's mental or physical health. He had a responsibility to her and to their kit to keep them safe. At this point, he did not see any way of doing that other than to go out there and talk to them.
The Tenko had them trapped here. They were under siege and he needed to end the siege.

For the first time in a very long time, he hoped that he looked more like his father. It might not make a difference, but considering they had no alternatives available to them, he hoped they would be willing to cooperate with him a bit more since he looked more like them than a nogitsune.

Yuzu did not need to know he was going. He considered telling her but decided against it almost immediately. The way she looked at him these days shamed him, and the last thing he wanted to do was add worry into the mix of emotions she already had to deal with. He hoped to go out, deal with the issue and return with good news before he was missed.

He slipped out quietly, realizing when it was too late to turn back that his departure would be noticed by Yuzu since she was on high alert for anyone or anything interacting with her barrier. Their near-constant poking and prodding at the barrier might mean that she would not realize it was him crossing over from the inside.