By an unusual stroke of luck, despite Akagane refusing Hisui's offer for dinner and thus stalking off to his own little hole in the world, Hisui still thought enough to first take me to the village's storehouse to provide me with some food before bedtime. True, it was merely some rice and pickled vegetables, but that was the best rice and pickled vegetables I'd ever had.

"Sorry I didn't have any meat for you," she said as she picked up my plate once I had finished. "Since most everyone in this village is an artisan, there are very few with the skills and tools necessary to hunt. We mostly just grow our own vegetables and purchase the rest from merchants, though now that winter is coming we're just going to be relying on our storehouse. So don't be a glutton, okay?" she teased, poking me in the nose.

So I was still mostly going to be on my own for food, I thought, as I followed her out of the storehouse. Sometimes I cursed my inability to survive on a vegetarian diet. I didn't know how long I was going to be staying in this village now that my curiosity about the Shikon no Tama had been satisfied. However, continuing my journey through the winter seemed unnecessarily treacherous, and Hisui had already offered to keep me that long. If I spent the winter here, it would give me time to formulate how to get the jewel back from Akagane and be on my way.

I had a sudden twinge in my stomach. Bad pickles? Looking up, I noticed Hisui had led me to the manor at the rear of the village from before; the one where Akagane's sister was apparently staying. It was that same beckoning sensation that both somewhat unnerved me and piqued my curiosity.

"I know, it's probably needlessly exquisite for such a small village, but this is where I live," she explained, smiling helplessly. She then turned to me and placed a finger to her lips. "But remember that I have a houseguest who would probably be upset to see you, since she's unwell, in bed, and afraid of dogs. So keep a low profile, okay?"

I nodded as she lit a lantern by the door and led me into the house. The farther I ventured into the house, the stronger the pulling sensation became. We walked down a hallway, and as I passed the door to an adjoining room, my legs almost stiffened, as if trying to prevent me from walking away from it. I turned and tried to peer through the paper panes of the door, but in the darkness I couldn't make anything out. I didn't even smell anything coming from the other side.

Hisui noticed my pause and turned to pet me. "I know you really want to go in there and reassure her that she's going to get better, but I don't want to risk scaring her. The last time she saw a dog, she went into shock and wouldn't speak for three days." She beckoned me gently, and it was enough to get me moving again, the strength of the pull lessening, but still nagging at me noticeably. That meant that whatever was beckoning me had to be in that room.

Finally we arrived in Hisui's room. She hung the lantern at the door and began rummaging through her things in the corner. It was... definitely not the kind of room I had expected. The firelight shone off of many small glittering pieces of metal, gemstones, and tools scattered around the floor. I sniffed at a piece of metal pressed into the shape of a flower. It had her scent on it all right.

Hisui walked up behind me holding her bedroll. "Do you like it? That's the latest one I've been working on." She picked the metal flower up and held it to her hair. "I'm still debating what more I should do with it, though. Should it pin or clip? Would it look better over the ear, or as part of an ensemble in a headdress?" ... I wasn't really the one to be asking these kinds of things, since women's fashion was not exactly something I took much note of. My response was a disinterested yawn.

"That's what Akagane said, too," she accused, sticking her tongue out. "Though I suppose it's okay, since I'm not really interested in those weapons and armor he makes. I guess they serve their function well enough, they're just not very artistic. Not like what he used to make." So he made all his gear himself, huh? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since I didn't know what self-respecting merchant would think he could sell a getup like that.

She set the floral hairpin aside and began undressing for bed. She removed her green kimono and layed it over her bed as a blanket, then proceeded to start undoing the thinner pink layer underneath. However, she suddenly stopped, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I cocked my head in confusion. "Is Akagane just letting you stay over here so you can report back to him what you saw?" she accused, winking. Saw? What am I looking for? That her undergarments were pink? You could tell that even when she was fully dressed.

"I know, he's got too much on his mind right now to care much about something like that," she said, almost sadly. "Still..." She pulled a folding paper barrier from against the wall and trotted behind it. "No peeking!" Peeking at what? Did humans have something special under their clothes that they didn't want others to see? I was currently sitting there naked and no one seemed to care.

I was in the middle of gnawing at an itch on my rump when she reappeared a moment later, wearing a plain white nightgown. She'd pulled her hair out of its ponytail as well, and it simply hung freely at her back. "This is so exciting, I've never slept with a boy in my room before! Well, except for Father, but he doesn't count." ... Yay?

She snuggled into her bedroll and I curled up against her side. It felt nice, having someone warm and breathing beside me, but it made me miss my mother all the more. Was I really right to stay here all winter instead of looking for her? What if she was alone and cold somewhere? It made me feel guilty that I was happy with the setup I had now.

A hand reached out and pet my head comfortingly. "Don't be too hard on yourself... she knows you're doing your best..." ... What? I turned to Hisui in shock, and saw that she was mumbling in her sleep. How... did she know? "Kogane-chan... doesn't hate you..." she continued. Kogane? I seemed to recall that was the name she'd used to refer to Akagane's sister. So she wasn't talking about me. That was slightly less creepy, at least.

Still, she had a point. As worried as I was, I couldn't honestly see my mother hating me for taking so long and stopping to rest once in a while. If anything, knowing her she'd berate me for being so hard on myself. So hopefully she'd forgive me... for taking a break... With that, I was finally able to drift off to sleep.

I awoke abruptly sometime in the middle of the night when my head bumped into a wall. I stumbled momentarily as my consciousness faded back in, and I noticed that not only was I on my feet, but halfway down the hallway as well. I was... sleepwalking? I'd never done such a thing before in my life.

The reason for the sleepwalking became readily apparent, though, as the tugging sensation in my chest had renewed its force. It must have overtaken me when I wasn't conscious to ignore it. I had stopped in front of the door from before, resisting as much as I could to not get pulled through it. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep at this rate, so I was tempted to just go in there and find out what the heck was going on.

But... there was that whole "afraid of dogs" problem. If I went in there and spooked her in her sickly state, if she'd gone into shock before, there's no telling how much damage that would do, and I was not going to have a worsening of her condition on my shoulders. So if I was going to go in there... I couldn't be a dog.

I looked around myself just to make sure my sleepwalking hadn't woken Hisui and alerted her to my location. Once I'd assured myself the coast was clear, I quickly changed back into my human form. Yeah, I wasn't exactly fully "human"-looking in this form, either, what with the white hair and the tail, but hopefully I was less intimidating to someone with a fear of dogs, at least. With that, I took a deep breath and slid open the door.

The room was dimly-lit with moonlight streaming in through a slatted window. In this lighting, I could see that there was a bedroll in the center of the room occupied by a sleeping little girl. I crept towards it as slowly as I could, even though I felt like I was getting dragged towards her by some invisible force. As I approached, though, I could see that her eyes were open. Crap, I wasn't stealthy enough.

"Um, hi..." I whispered nervously. "I'm... a friend of Hisui's and she told me you were sick, so I just wanted to come pay my regards... in the middle of the night..." Please don't freak out, this was already an awkward enough situation. The girl - "Kogane", I guess - didn't respond, but merely stared blankly at the ceiling. I didn't know if that was because she was ignoring me, or if she was too scared to move.

I continued creeping closer, not wanting to do anything that would potentially startle her. I was never really informed as to the exact nature of her illness, or if it was even an illness at all. Injury? Mental handicap? The only thing I was noticing so far was that she didn't really have a scent that stood out from her surroundings. In fact, Hisui's scent stood out more, emanating from a butterfly-shaped ornament in her hair.

Finally, I reached the side of her bed and peered down at her. She was still staring, unblinking, at the ceiling and hadn't reacted at all to my presence. Suddenly having a very unnerving feeling to accompany the now intense pulling sensation in my chest, I listened carefully and could make out no signs of breathing. Though lit by moonlight, her complexion was far too pale. And even at this range, I could sense no heat from her body.

She was dead.

I stumbled back a ways, covering my mouth. Oh god... my initial thought was that I had still inadvertantly spooked her to death. But... no... she wouldn't be so cold if she had only died moments ago. And her garments, which I had initially thought to be a white nightgown like Hisui's, in fact appeared to be burial robes. No... she had been like this for a while. Likely at least before Akagane went to visit her earlier in the day. And since he hadn't shown any reaction indicative of his sister unexpectedly being dead...

So, basically, these people were keeping her corpse in their house, and "visiting" with her and "putting her to bed", and still speaking of her in the present tense as if she were still alive. I knew Akagane had some sanity issues, but Hisui, too? This was just... morbid, keeping a dead, rotting...

But... she wasn't rotting. There was no scent from her, not even of decay. And given how Akagane and Hisui were treating this with an air of normalcy, either they were completely nuts, or she'd been like this for a very long time. And yet, she could still reasonably pass for a living person at first glance. None of this explained what this strange beckoning sensation was, though.

Suddenly, Kogane's head snapped to the side and her eyes locked with mine. Immediately, my body went rigid and I was frozen in place. What the heck?! What's going on, she's dead, isn't she? As I struggled against the force that bound me, Kogane slowly sat up, her head rolling limply forward before gradually rising to meet my eyes again. The eyes were still dead and empty, her skin still cold and pale.

I was really freaking out now. I tried with all my might to move as her hands slowly reached up and gripped my cheeks. First it was a soft grip, but it gradually tightened as she began pulling herself up towards my face. The sensation in my chest was overwhelming now, like my heart was trying to escape through my throat.

Kogane opened her mouth and let out a soft whimper before she clamped her mouth over mine. Her lips were freezing, and I let out a startled "Mmph!", trying to pull away. As I did so, I could feel cold tendrils of energy snaking their way down my throat, as if trying to pry into the very core of my being. Saying that I was feeling violated was a gross understatement. What the hell was she trying to do, suck out my soul?

Finally, my panic empowered me enough to break free of my stasis, and I immediately shoved her away from me harshly. Kogane fell roughly to the floor atop her bedding and merely lay crumpled there in a disheveled heap. I didn't have time or really the thought to apologize as I bolted for the door, clutching my chest and breathing raggedly.

I tore down the hallway towards the exit to the manor. I had no idea what just happened, but I did not want to stick around to find out. Screw staying here for the winter, I was going to get that jewel back, get out of this crazy place, and find my mother.

As I ran through the front door, a hand grabbed me roughly by the back of the collar. I flailed and dug my feet into the ground, yelling incoherently, when a familiar voice darkly intoned, "You did not honestly think I would leave you alone with Hisui and my sister, did you?"

I turned my head fearfully to confirm it was who I thought it was. Akagane was leaning against the side of the house, his spear resting at his shoulder, though he was still in his civilian garb. Wait, so had he been staked out here all night, expecting me to pull something?

I grabbed his arm and began struggling against his grip. "I didn't mean anything, I'm sorry! I didn't know what kind of state your sister was in! She was the one who forced me to go in there!"

With a metallic clank, Akagane's spear was immediately pointed at my neck. "My patience with you has already worn thin, bake-inu, so you shall not dare insinuate my sister was at fault for your trespass."

He cocked his head slightly as footsteps were heard from inside the manor. Obviously, the commotion had woken Hisui and she had come to investigate. Akagane glared back at me and said, "And I specifically ordered you not to change forms without my permission, so if you desire to live for the next few seconds, you will change back now."

When Hisui opened the door, all she saw was Akagane holding a very frightened puppy up by the scruff. "Akagane, Kogane-chan was... she was out of her bed and on the floor, someone must have come in and..." She cut off as she saw Akagane beginning to squeeze my neck. I choked and pawed frantically at his arm, but he merely glared at me murderously.

Hisui ran to him and grabbed his arm. "Akagane, don't! Kogane-chan was fine, though!" Well, fine aside from being dead. "Even if it was your dog, he didn't hurt her! He was probably just going in there to comfort her, and she ended up spooked." Oh, yeah, because SHE was totally the one scared out of her mind in there.

I was running out of air... His grip was crushing me, and I could only weakly kick at him to try and pry him off me. Hisui looked back and forth between him and me fearfully before finally shouting, "Akagane, if you kill that dog, I am never going to forgive you! This isn't going to make anything better and you know it!"

I hit the ground with a thud, coughing and gasping for air. Hisui knelt down and held my back to make sure I was okay. "Thank you..." she whispered. "I don't want you to be burdened with any more regrets." She picked me up and nestled me in her arms as I continued to catch my breath. I turned my head slightly and saw that Akagane was now slumped against the side of the house with his head bowed, his hand to his face.

Hisui looked at him worriedly. "If... there's anything I can do, please..." she offered tentatively.

Akagane took a breath and looked up at us. He looked... weary. "... Give me the dog," he finally said. "I must speak with it. Alone."

"You're... not going to hurt him, are you?" Hisui wondered as she cautiously held me out to him. Nonono, I don't want to go with him. Don't give me to him, pleeeease. I was still too weakened from my ordeal to fight him off, so I was totally under his power.

Akagane gripped me by the scruff of the neck, then held me at his side like one might carry a bag. "I will not kill him," was all he could honestly answer. "Though do not be surprised if you never see this dog again."

"Just... don't do anything that would make me hate you," she warned as he began walking towards the village exit with me in tow.

I'm sorry, Mother. I am going to die.