Houjun listened to sleeping Nyang-nyang, who was draped on his back, breathe heavily as he reached what seemed to be the peak of the rocky mountain. It was quite a tall mountain, and a sea of clouds spread out over the whole surface below.

"...Oh boy."

Houjun, at any rate, took a breath. And then because Nyang-nyang was threatening to slip and fall off his back, he pushed her up into a better position.

Casually looking ahead, he saw there was an old, tiny shrine. However, Houjun's eyes latched onto the very short, stooped-back figure in front of it, and he walked toward her.

"Excuse me, but I would like to visit for awhile..."

Dressed in clothes for working in the fields and carrying a hoe, the old woman turned her head as he asked his question.

"Da...da!" Houjun uttered the strange sound without thinking and threw his head back when he saw that face.

"What do you mean 'Da?' Do you have any business with me?" answered the old woman, who you could easily think was a living fossil that exceeded one hundred years of age, as she shook all over due to the way she spoke.

"Yeah. Do you recognize this child?" The old woman glanced child sleeping soundly on Houjun's back.

"That's Nyang-nyang..."

"Ma'am, you know her!?" Houjun suddenly moved sideways in front of the old woman's eyes and leaned way over. The old woman was right overhead. There was over eighty year's age difference between Houjun and the old woman, and they were staring at each other from three inches away: point blank range.

"You have a carefree look on your face, don't you?" the old woman burst out, laughing, when she saw Houjun's fake fox-mask face.

"Wha...What are you laughing at? Your face is..."

"Sunakake baba¹... That's what you're thinking."

"I... I wasn't thinking that...!"

Sunakake baba is, well, right, I suppose... he thought silently.

"Um... So, I'd like you to tell me about Nyang-nyang..." After Houjun made the request, Suna baa² pointed at the girl in annoyance.

"This child is a child from the village in the mountains below. Take your eyes off her for a minute, and she'll fly off somewhere."

"A child from a house in the village in the mountains below..."

"This place has some sort of association with abandoning stray children. You've properly escourted her back. Look, the lost kitty of a lost child~ Nyang-nyang meow Nyang-nyang Nyang-meow-nyang o/~³" When Houjun saw the old woman suddenly burst out into song, he immediately tried to leave there to avoid getting affected by her sand.

"Wait!" Sunakake baba called to Houjun's back, and he twisted around.

"You insult me! Who comes to the summit of this mountain and doesn't even visit the shrine!"

She commanded him forcefully without saying anything at all, and as Houjun was forced towards the shrine, she said to his back, "You're a priest in training, aren't you..."

"Yeah. Well, something like that..."

"You're tired, aren't you? Rest in the shrine today."

"Okay." As he looked at the decrepit building that looked like it was falling to ruin even now, Houjun replied genuinely with, "By the way, what is this mountain called?"

"Fool!!!!"

"This is Mt. Taikyoku. There isn't a monk in training who doesn't know that name."

Mt. Taikyoku--

Well, I feel like heard I've name or something like it before, but... Houjun tilted his head to the side in doubt and turned around.

"...I... don't."

Behind Houjun, Nyang-nyang, who should have been held by the old woman, rubbed her sleepy eyes then and just stood up.

*

"Surprise and comfort is good!" For some reason after arriving at the summit of Mt. Taikyoku and spending the whole night in the shrine, which was prepared with fluffy bedding and plentiful meals, Houjun and Nyang-nyang were cheerful and energetic.

After walking down the path half a day, they reached the village at the base of the mountain. It was totally different from Seisengou, and as for relaxation it was a really declining village.

"Well, let's go to your house, Nyang-nyang," Houjun suggested to the child.

"This way, this way!" Nyang-nyang jumped up and down happily, while galloping up the village lane, creating a cloud of dust in the process.

"Nyang-nyang, cut it out." After going back and forth between the same places for hours as if she was mocking the adult, Houjun faced the child, who was searching for her home, and snapped at her.

"Wa...wa...wahhhhh!" The girl started crying like she had caught on fire, and Houjun was at a loss at what to do.

"Do...don't cry..." he said. When he knelt in front of the child in a fruitless attempt to humor her, the child's body fell on the center of Houjun's chest with a thud.

"...She's fallen asleep again..." Charrying the child on his back, Houjun went from house to house, checking each private home.

"There ought to be a family in this village that calls itself this child's relatives, but..." And then after hours without even one person knowing her relatives, finally the time for the sun to set came.

At what was perhaps the last house, Houjun knocked on the front door with an exhausted look on his face.

"What is it?" A thin middle aged man showed his face from inside the dilapidated house.

"I'm searching for this child's house... Are you her..." The man looked at the sleeping child on Houjun's back and gasped.

"I am her relative. Ah, this child is our child! Yesterday, we were worried because we didn't know where she was," said the master of the house on the outskirts of the village, and Houjun let out a sigh of relief from the bottom of his heart.

"Well, come on in." Nyang-nyang's father gently picked his sleeping daughter off Houjun's back.

"From now please take good care of your daughter."

"Yes, I will do that. Thank you so much." The father bared his yellowed teeth and smiled.

After leaving the house of her relatives, he walked for a short while. Then suddenly Houjun had a chilling sensation run throughout his body and his legs stopped.

"...Maliciousness...!?" Houjun's body was surrounded by a repulsive thought. It was the first time he had felt such a sensation. Houjun concentrated on the with all his might.

"...what is it... This voice is...!?" The familar male voice laughed cruelly and echoed inside Houjun's head.

"Nyang-nyang!" Houjun dashed off. He knocked on the front door of the house he had been to earlier, and opened it.

"Wha...what business do you have with me..." The disconcerting man's face twitched while smiling happily. Houjun angrily slammed his shakujou onto the dirt floor.

"You're a slaver! Give the girl back!"

"What are you talking about? Didn't I tell you that this child is my child?

"In that case, try telling me that child's name!" Houjun said, and the man faltered for a moment.

"Name? She's... that's right... Min-min." As the man said that, he suddenly had an aggressive expression on his face.

"That child is Nyang-nyang."

"Damn, it was cat, not cicada⁴, huh?" he exaggerated. When he yanked the child to his chest, Nyang-nyang woke up. After she realized she had been caught by a man she had never seen before, the child started bawling.

"Hey, you damn brat!" The man drew a dagger from his breast and pressed it against the child's throat.

"Yo, monk. If you don't leave this house immeadiately, I'll slit her throat."

"......"

"You have no relationship to this brat, do you! Get out fast!" Houjun opened his eye wide in rage.

At that moment the man's body grew completely stiff. Before the man, who could only move his eyes about restlessly, Houjun walked forward briskly and took Nyang-nyang into his arms. Nyang-nyang's face was crumpled up from crying, and Houjun gently patted her head.

"I'm sorry... for scaring you..."

After leaving the house, Houjun gasped and stood there stunned. Standing there like the two guardian Deva kings⁵, was the old farmer woman.

"This happened because you thought to interfere with this girl's life. You made that assumption about him without knowing whether or not that man was a slaver. How are you a monk in training?" The old woman from the summit of the mountain thrust her hoe at Houjun

What she said was certainly true. It's true that the man who claimed to be her relative appeared and with that I was relieved to hand over Nyang-nyang over to him... That feeling blurred so I couldn't even sense the maliciousness of the evil man.

"However... the one who said the house of this child's relatives was in the village below... was you." Houjun objected slightly.

"Who said it was in this village? There are many villages at the foot of the mountain."

"......"

"Right now you think I'm a shitty old hag, don't you?"

"...I wasn't thinking that..."

Shitty old hag is, well, right, he thought silently to himself.

"Umm. Could you please tell me exactly where this child's village is..." Houjun said gracefully to the old woman with some restraint.

"Hmmm. To get to that village you need to cross through the deep forest a little further on. Monsters who are dreaded worldwide inhabit it. Going there now is dangerous. Tonight you ought to ask to stay at that house." The mysterious old woman pointed at a house, and then began walking briskly.

"Oh brother. He still hasn't had enough training..." she sighed with her back to him.

*

The next day after thanking the people for staying overnight at their house, Houjun and Nyang-nyang left the outskirts of the village to stand before the forest.

"Nyang-nyang, do you know that old woman?" Nyang-nyang nodded vigorously.

"She's my grandma⁶!"

"...Is that so..."

If what that suspicious old woman of unknown character said could really be believed, Houjun was a bit confused, but if she was Nyang-nyang's relative, they were probably ok. After Houjun had prepared himself, he pulled the child by the hand and advanced one step into the forest.

They pressed on through so many densely-packed overgrown trees that sunlight didn't even reach them.

"The lost kitty of a lost child. Nyang-nyang meow Nyang~" Their voices rebounded in the giant trees and shrubbery and echoed back to them multiple times.

"Don't be scared, you're with me. Don't be scared, you're with me!" Nyang-nyang's face was beaming, and Houjun, who was holding her tiny hand, told himself that no matter what happened, he had to at least protect this child.

I wonder how long we've been walking.

Rustle, rustle.

Not long after the two of them heard a loud sound like something trampling on dry twigs, a pitch black shadow stood in their way.

"Aiie!" Nyang-nyang clung to Houjun.

Houjun eyed the shadow before them. It was a huge snake about ten meters long. While lifting its curved neck and flicking its red tongue, now the huge snake was surely in the middle of aiming in order to strike the two of them.

Houjun instantaneously turned his shakujou, which was in his right hand, horizontal and concentrated intensely at that spot.

Whoosh!

With an awful sound, the snake went towards Nyang-nyang. The snake, which was planning on swallowing the child in one bite, came into her view, and was splendidly repelled.

Houjun thought, Alright! in his mind. He had raised a barrier around Nyang-nyang.

I was able to protect her...

However, after that moment of relief, Houjun let out a groan. The huge snake, which had given up on the child, had quickly wrapped its tail around his body, and was squeezing him with straggering strength.

"Houjun! Houjun!" Nyang-nyang yelled frantically from the other side of the barrier.

"...Ugh... If it kills me, the barrier around Nyang-nyang will get... cut off..." Houjun closing his eye, tightly grasped his shakujou, hooked his rosary beads around his neck on his left hand thumb, and held only his first and middle fingers of that hand straight up. All the while the huge snake continued squeezing Houjun unmercifully.

"...Ughhh..." Due to the intense pain, his ability to concentrate got disrupted.

"Houjun---!" Nyang-nyang's yelling voice grew farther and farther away.

"...U...ugh..."

It's useless... at this rate I'm going to die...

"...can I..." Within Houjun's fading consciousness, the resolution he declared in that dream pushed itself forward like a tidal wave.

"If I can't even protect one child... how can I protect Suzaku's Miko...!" Houjun finally opened his eye, as incantation-like words escaped from his mouth, "Kaiha⁷-------!"

Boooooooooooooooooooom!

The huge snake rolled like electric current was running throughout its body, crashed into the trunk of a large tree, and then ceased moving.

Nyang-nyang ran up to him, and when Houjun's shoulder moved as he breathed, she steadied him in her arms.

"How far are we going to have to go..." After he had exterminated the huge snake, they walked and walked without being able to see the way out of the forest, which greatly perplexed Houjun.

"At this rate we won't have any place to rest when night falls..." Houjun casually glanced to the side and saw Nyang-nyang playing alone while wearing his hat.

"...I might possibly be able to do... it." Inside Houjun's head an idea was rising to the surface.

Just one time before he had been touching this hat and kesa and suddenly appeared at a strange place. If he thought about it hard enough, he might be able to do it. Houjun wanted to chide himself for not realizing he had the ability to do it sooner.

"Nyang-nyang... listen up."

After Houjun spread his kesa on the ground, he said to the lost kitten of the lost child, "If you want to go home, wish for it really really hard." Nyang-nyang nodded in agreement and meekly obeyed.

"I want to go home! Home, home."

"That's right. Home, home. That's h-o-m-e, h-o-m-e!"

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

Both their voices stopped upon hearing that sound.

"...Houjun... the huge snake from earlier is..." Where Nyan-nyan was pointing, the huge snake, which should have been exterminated, with glowing eyes that were burning for revenge was proceeding toward them.

"...It had just fainted..." While he was grinding his teeth at his immature jutsu, Houjun urged the child on.

"Listen, we're going home! H-o-m-e! H-o-m-e!"

"Yeah. Home, home." While the huge snake was closing in, the two of them continued chanting their goal of home.

"Eeee, the huge snake!" Nyang-nyang covered her face.

In front of the huge forest monster with its curved neck and its mouth open wide, Houjun had in his mind, (Let's go to Nyang-nyang's house!) And then was holding Nyang-nyang under his arm, wearing his hat securely on his head, and ringing his shakujou on the ground. In the next moment Houjun and Nyang-nyang, continuing with the hat, kesa, and shakujou, disappeared.

*

Houjun looked around and fell down onto his shoulder.

"This isn't your home. This is where you met me..." A north wind blew between the two of them as they stood speechless on the rocky mountain. The instantaneous transportation had been successful, but its results made Houjun get another attack of trembling due to the feeling of incompetence.

"Nyang-nyang... listen up. I want to devote myself to training to be a Suzaku Shichiseishi soon. So, if you're always with me, it puts me in huge bind... so..." In a twinkle Nyang-nyang's face crumpled up and tears started pouring out of her eyes.

"Wa... wa... wahhhhh!" Houjun scratched his head.

"Ah, I understand. I was wrong... I won't talk about that anymore, so don't cry..."

"Grandma! I want to see grandma!" Nyang-nyang said suddenly while hiccupping.

"By grandma, you mean that Sunakake babaa?"

"Grandma! Grandma!" If they didn't stop at their goal of Nyang-nyang's grandma, Houjun would be exhauted.

Well, I suppose it's fine

Thinking there was no way he could do that, Houjun clasped both hands together while holding up his first fingers, and thought hard.

"Sunakake babaa!"

Pop!

After the line of smoke that it produced cleared up, Nyang-nyang jumped at him.

"Wow, it's grandma!"

Arriving at the summit of Mt. Taikyoku, Houjun pulled Nyang-nyang by the hand until they had walked before the shrine. Almost exactly as he predicted, the mysterious old woman was there.

"Well, well, you're still wandering around here aimlessly?" the old woman griped, as she arched her eyebrows in amazement and stared fixedly at Houjun.

"Besides, what is it? If only I was more beautiful. Then my body would be enough as is," she said, and pulled Houjun's mask off his face with a pop.

"Now with proper feelings you'll transform. Even though your mimickry is a first rate performance, it's been eliminated in the first match."

"I have a favor to ask of you..." Houjun said hoarsely. "If you know how to transform... I'd like you to teach me..."

"Me?" The old woman shook her head.

"I wouldn't know that sort of thing. Figure out what you can do for yourself." Having said that, the old woman sighed and turned her back towards him.

"Oh brother. You still haven't had enough training..."

"......"

After going a short distance, the Sunakake babaa, who had lapsed into silence, warned Houjun, "Visiting the shrine is dangerous. Don't be innocent about it."

¹ Translator's Note: "Sunakake baba" is a Japanese folktale character. Basically she's a very ugly old woman who throws sand in the face of people walking outside alone in the dark. Back to reading
² Translator's Note: "Suna baa" is just a shortened (and thus more colloquial) version of the name "Sunakake baba." Back to reading
³ Translator's Note: "Look, the lost kitty of a lost child~ Nyang-nyang meow Nyang-nyang Nyang-meow-nyang" is actually the line from a very famous Japanese song (the o/~ at the end is an ASCII approximation to a music note.) Here the song is used as a play on words. Nyang-nyang's name (which is a Chinese name meaning "girl" or "daughter") sounds the same as "meow meow" in Japanese. The words that were translated as "meow" were actually "nya" in Japanese, but also mean "meow." Back to reading
⁴ Translator's Note: A "minmin" is a specific type of cicada. And as mentioned earlier, Nyang-nyang's name sounds the same as "meow meow" in Japanese. Back to reading
⁵ Translator's Note: The guardian Deva Kings are deities of the 12 directions (north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, up down, sun, and moon) in Esoteric Buddhism. In Japan many temples have two statues of these deities guarding a gate. This phrase refers to those statues. Back to reading
⁶ Translator's Note: To be polite when addressing or talking about strangers, Japanese people will refer to (or address) the stranger as aunt, uncle, brother, sister, grandmother, or grandfather depending on the stranger's approximate age. Here Houjun refers to the old woman as "grandmother" to be polite, but when Nyang-nyang replies it's unclear if she realized he was talking about the old woman or thought he was talking about her grandmother. Back to reading
⁷ Translator's Note: This incantation literally means "open destruction." Back to reading