“STOP right there, Xu Fu!” I cried.
Somehow, we really had broken out of the labyrinth. I spun around. Mr. Takahashi, behind me, crossed his arms with a resolute nod.
“Unbelievable,” mumbled Xu Fu, stiffening as his eyes widened in shock. “I half-assed that labyrinth, sure, but a novice shouldn’t have been able to just bust out of it.”
As I jabbed my finger in his direction, I sensed something odd. “Huh? Is it just my imagination, or is there a strange smell in the air?”
Mr. Takahashi chuckled. “I already know who it belongs to.”
“Hold on a second. I want to guess for myself.”
“Good luck.”
My spiritual senses were sharper than ever. The answer arrived before I even had time to think. “I’ve got it! Tsukushi was here, wasn’t she?!”
“Indeed,” the samurai replied.
Xu Fu furrowed his brow in displeasure. “Right you are.”
When he said nothing more, I bowed my head to him. “Please, Xu Fu, tell me where Tsukushi and Shinozaki are!”
He shot a half-lidded glare at Mr. Takahashi. “How, good sir, did you train her so thoroughly in such a short amount of time?”
“I did nothing,” insisted Mr. Takahashi. “She achieved this through her own effort and courage. Well done, Lady Kaede.”
“Th-Thank you!”
“Spare me,” Xu Fu grumbled, pursing his lips in disgust like a high school girl. “There’s nothing I hate more than a smooth talker. Guys like you give me the ick.” He stood with an air of resignation. “Well, no matter. If you keep improving at the same rate, Kikui, all the better for me when I poach you.”
Mr. Takahashi laughed. “She’ll only continue to grow, Lord Jofuku. If you’re going to poach someone, it’s better to select a talented individual with experience. In that sense, if you truly intend to recruit her, returning her to Shino for a while would be wise, no?”
“You make a fair point,” Xu Fu conceded. “Training this inexperienced oddball from the ground up wouldn’t give me the most bang for my buck.”
He looked up and let out a deep breath. The room wavered like haze, and we returned to the inside of the van.
My eyes widened. We were still in front of the Chikushi entrance of Hakata Station. We were actually in the van the whole time, weren’t we?
“Buckle up,” Xu Fu said. “If we’re going, we might as well make it quick.” He started the car, peeled out of the roundabout, and merged onto the highway. Gradually, we neared a familiar area.
“Um, where are we going, exactly?” I queried.
“A place you know very well,” he replied.
“My, uh, parents’ house?”
He rolled his eyes. “Why in Tenjin’s name would we be going there?”
“I see,” said Mr. Takahashi beside me. “The foxes are still atop Mount Tachibana, are they?”
The van sped down the highway, and soon, we exited at the Higashi Ward interchange and headed toward the base of Mount Tachibana.
As Xu Fu drove us up a mountain road barely wide enough to accommodate the van, I gazed out the window. The leaves had started to turn red and gold with autumn’s advent. “This reminds me of climbing Mount Tachibana on field trips,” I murmured, admiring them.
“Oh?” said Mr. Takahashi. “Children in Higashi Ward are taking field trips here now? I had no idea.”
I nodded. “Yep. Since I live on the seaward side of Kashii Station, I rarely make it out here by myself. But come to think of it, I did visit the mountain several times with Tsukushi.”
“Ah. Perhaps she wanted you to remember your past life.”
“Mr. Takahashi?”
“Yes?”
“Back in Yanagawa, Tsukushi erased my memories without giving me a choice. After that, she and Shinozaki left without saying goodbye. Am I being a nuisance by barging in uninvited?”
“If I said you were being a nuisance, would you turn around and go home?”
I met the samurai’s gaze and shook my head. “Even if we have to go our separate ways, I want to tell them how I feel as Kaede, not Sakura.”
“Letting others know how you feel is important, especially if you love them.” He smiled gently and refolded his legs as his eyes grew distant. “Just before my death, I received a letter from my worried son, whom I’d sent to marry into another family.”
A wistful shadow fell over Mr. Takahashi’s profile. “He urged me to retreat so that we could fight together. But I didn’t answer his plea. After all, that battle was my final duty. I had resolved to lay down my life for it. My son understood that, of course, yet he still sent me that final letter.”
“Mr. Takahashi…”
I knew only the faintest outline of his life, which I’d skimmed on the Internet. His small band of men had withstood the siege of a much larger army for a period of time. In the end, their sacrificial last stand allowed reinforcements to come to his son’s aid. Mere words on a screen had already conveyed his heroism to me. Yet, to see the actual man sitting beside me, an amiable smile on his face, filled me with a sense of wonder.
“Telling your loved ones how you feel is a wonderful thing,” he said, “whether it changes the outcome or not. At the very least, I deeply appreciated my son’s concern.”
“Mr. Takahashi…” I mumbled again.
“For you to speak your mind, however, we need fertile ground for conversation. Otherwise, the foxes will run away again.”
“Exactly. That’s what I’m worried about.”
“So what should we do to ensure they don’t run away?” He considered. “Hmm… Perhaps I should teach you one of my tricks.”
“Really?!”
“Indeed. I’ve got you covered.” He whispered his idea into my ear. The ingenious plan, simple and easy to understand, caused my heart to race with excitement.
“Thank you so much! I’ll give it a shot!”
“Are you two done talking yet?” Xu Fu had parked on the shoulder and was eyeing us in the rearview mirror. “Hold on tight. I’m about to catapult us there using spiritual energy.”
“Huh? What do you—”
I felt the van lift off the ground and snapped my eyes shut. When we alighted once more, I opened them to find myself standing outside the van somewhere deep within the mountain forest.
“Where are we?” I muttered. The wondrous surroundings appeared woven from illusion. Crimson autumn leaves canopied the area like a dome of fire.
As I glanced around in awe, Xu Fu tapped my shoulder and nodded toward my feet. “Look,” he said. “Those are the hokora of the Chikushino siblings.”
“Huh? I don’t see anything…”
Then I squinted at my feet. Sure enough, two fist-sized rocks nestled against each other under a layer of leaf litter. They were so overgrown with moss that I hadn’t noticed them at first. Kneeling on the ground, I brushed aside fallen leaves and dirt to reveal the stones.