Yuki continued through the large herb garden, which was quite different from the landscape gardens that she had seen from her small window within the wall. The herb garden was a mixture of forested land, and small patches of open glades where the beds for herbs were planted. There were dozens of meandering paths leading to the separate sections, giving the area a labyrinthine quality. Yuki thought it best to chance her luck and stay on the paths, instead of cutting through the forested areas, for if they were discovered it would seem much less suspicious. She could give the excuse that she was coming back from entertaining at the castle, and if anyone asked about the animal she was holding, she could merely dismiss Tanuki as some kind of exotic plaything. Animals were sometimes used by entertainers, and so this would not be a particularly strange coincidence.

  She did her best to navigate the paths successfully but became turned around rather quickly. The tall trees hedged her in and prevented her from seeing the northern walls, and the paths with their frequent branches did not help. Tanuki admitted that he had never spent much time in this bailey, at least not on the ground, and could do little to help point her in the right direction.

  Eventually, they arrived at a small clearing in the forest. In the center stood a small wooden building, which almost resembled a shrine. Yuki thought about turning back at first but then decided that there could be something within to help them find their way. As she approached the building, she could see that it was frequently used. There was notable wear on the steps and on the grass leading up to the building. In fact, it had been used so often that the grass had become trampled into wet dirt. Curious, she took a moment to poke her head inside and saw that there was nothing in this small room, except for what appeared to be a trap door in the very center of the floor.

  “This must be the entrance to the corridor...” whispered Yuki.

  “Should we try to go that way?” Tanuki asked, sounding hopeful.

  “No. It will only take us into the district, and there is no hope there.”

  “And none this way as well,” another voice rang out from across the clearing.

  The two whirled around to see the dreadful figure of the Lady standing where they had been only minutes ago. Yuki’s face went pale white, and her knees felt like they were going to give out from underneath her.

  “Ishihara…” she whispered in defeat. A great fear struck her, as flashbacks of that terrible hour ran through her mind.

  The Lady nodded and laughed. It was a snide, cruel, heartless laugh. It was a laugh of gloating and triumph. Yuki, upon hearing it, seemed to quake with despair.

  “That is not her,” Tanuki suddenly insisted, rousing himself from her arms and hopping down to the ground despite her trying to stop him. “That is no human, if the Lady can still be considered as such,” he continued. “That is her false kami, Kitsune.”

  “Well, well,” the Lady, or the mere illusion of the Lady, replied seductively. “I thought I was sent here to silence a pesky rat. I did not think that I would get to rid the world of a stray dog as well. What fun!” The figure slowly began to move forward.

  “How did you find us?” Tanuki snapped, positioning himself in front of Yuki as if to protect her.

  “The Lady was being prudent, as she is wise to be on such an auspicious evening. She sent me back to make sure that anyone who saw her would be silenced for good. But I must admit, I did not think that this unfortunate girl would be the same one that has been eluding my mistress for weeks. It should not surprise me, for my Lady always gets what she wants eventually. What does surprise me is that I did not expect to see this one with the likes of you.” The kami continued to advance, her eyes sparkling in the reflected light of the moon overhead.

  “We are bound!” Tanuki declared. “I am not as weak as I once was!”

  “Do you think that frightens me?” Kitsune replied, bending her head back as if to laugh. “Do you not remember, little dog, that I am the essence of fear?”

  The aspect of the Lady transformed instantaneously, and what she became made Yuki fall back in horror. She had become a tiger, a fully grown, man-eating tiger, and her yellow eyes were staring at her with ravenous hunger. She had never seen a tiger before, for they were only legends upon the Islands, but they were always regarded as symbols of might and ferocity. But now that she had seen one, she wished she never had. She would never forget those yellow eyes and the monstrous visage of that beast in the moonlight.

  “Yuki, run!” Tanuki commanded, drawing up on his hind legs. “You must go! Now!” The urgency in which he said this contained such passion, that it momentarily overwhelmed her fright and shocked her into consciousness.

  As the tiger made to advance and spring upon her, a giant form of a brown bear rose to meet it. The great beasts collided, and their cries of fury echoed throughout the clearing.

  “GO!” Tanuki bellowed. Without looking back, Yuki sprinted away from the battle and into the dark forest. She ran as hard and as fast as she possibly could, nearly tumbling over several times, but managing to keep her balance. She ignored the cuts and scrapes she got from the brush beneath her. It was almost as if she could feel the hot breath of that tiger behind her, its claws retracted to split her open, its yellow fangs ready to end her life. She ran and paid no heed to anything else.

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  After some time, she finally emerged from the forest and saw the great northern walls before her, looming high and insurmountable. It was at this point that she paused and let herself look back. Over the pounding of her heart and her wild breaths she could not hear much of what had happened in that clearing, and now, as she rested, there was silence.

  “Tanuki...” she whimpered. She knew, however, that she could not stop now, for Kitsune as that hideous tiger could come out of that forest any minute or take on some other terrifying form. To the northeast, she could see one of the gates, but it was still quite a way off.

  “This is it!” she resolved. “The final stretch!” Gathering the rest of her energy she turned and strode off towards the gate. She did not know what she would do when she got there. She imagined that if she could just get there, that would be enough.

  Yet another problem suddenly arose, for now, as she emerged from the forest, she had finally drawn the attention of the guards posted atop the walls. At first, they were unsure of who she was at that distance, and so they merely shouted for her to stop. But when she ignored these instructions, they began to take sterner measures. Arrows began to fly overhead. They were clearly not meant to hit her, but to give her a warning that she was getting too close. She could also see in her periphery, that some of the guards were exiting from the walls to pursue her on foot. Despite their chase, she did not let up in the least but continued her wild sprint towards the gate.

  She could also feel another presence begin to stalk her from above, and when she glanced upwards, she could see the grim silhouette of a raven soaring overhead. It was difficult to see, for it was well camouflaged by the inky night sky, but she could feel it, nonetheless. It began to swoop down, and she imagined that it was the Lady’s kami there to deliver the finishing blow. She felt like a game animal, with men shouting all around her and a hunting beast on her heels. Yet she kept on running, and the gate rose in her vision like a haven. She pushed even harder with all her might towards it.

  She was about a hundred yards away from this gate when she felt the harsh grip of the raven land upon her right shoulder. It flapped wildly about her head and drove its claws into her flesh. She shrieked, swirled, and nearly lost her footing, but was consoled by a familiar voice.

  “It’s me!” the raven said, barely audible in the cavern of her mind. She knew that voice belonged to her kami – Tanuki. Soon, the bird turned back into the familiar raccoon-dog and slumped down into her arms. He looked truly wretched, breathing in short gasps and was bleeding from wounds he had obviously received during his battle with the tiger. His eyes were half closed, and the rising and falling of his chest was interrupted by intermittent spasms of pain.

  “Tanuki!” she cried in desperation. “What should I do?” She was now well within range of the gate, and suddenly the arrows stopped, for the guards suspected that they would soon be able to trap her against the closed gate and take her into custody.

  The kami could not speak but groaned in anguish and writhed helplessly in her arms. She did not know how severe his injuries were, but she could feel the warm and sticky sensation of blood upon her forearms. She continued on, and her mind raced faster than her legs could move.

  “We’re almost there!” she cried, giving him a slight nudge in her arms. “I need you for this! I cannot do this by myself!”

  This seemed to rouse the kami, but only enough for him to cry out in pain and snap his sharp teeth at her.

  She was so close to the gate that it and the wall were the only things she could see. The cries of the men from behind her were growing louder and nearer by the moment, and her limbs began to burn with the pain of exhaustion.

  “Keep...running…” Tanuki whispered from her arms. “Keep...”

  She did. She pushed on for one last effort. The thick wooden gate was the only thing left to her now, its sturdy planks were reinforced with iron to prevent it from being pushed open. It was at least double her height and many times heavier than her. It was seemingly unassailable, and it stood as the final barrier between her capture and freedom.

  “Tanuki!” she yelled out, as tears streamed down her eyes. She was crying because she knew that it was the end. Her kami was either dead or dying, and she had no other way to get across the gate. Now, with her enemies closing in, she would reach her goal but still utterly fail in her hopes to get through. She had finally been defeated.

  It was at this final moment, when she was an arm’s reach of the gate, that she felt something strange come over her. Somehow, Tanuki had managed one last transformation, and as she was changed in the twinkling of an eye, it shocked her to the core. She had grown in her new form, perhaps double, or triple her size. She was unable to slow down before the wooden gate, which had shrunk considerably in her view. She plunged headlong into the sealed door which groaned at first, but then cracked and gave way before her mighty bulk. She seemed to explode through it with almost as little effort as if she were running through the flimsy paper doors of her father’s house far away in Kokoro. Splinters and dust enveloped her like a cloud, and she reared her head in a wave of ecstasy and roared.

  Why she roared like this, she could not say, but the sound did not come from her own voice, but from the body she was now concealed in. She looked down and identified the reddish hue of her leathery skin, the fists with jagged nails which were akin to claws, and she could sense two large, protruding horns upon her brow. Tanuki had turned her into an oni.

  She was not just any oni, but like a king among oni, though she did not realize this until much later. She felt the strength of a hundred men course through her veins and the rage of the burning coals of hell in her breast. At the same time, she was still herself, and knowing that this transformation would not last forever, glanced down at the limp body of her kami lying in the palm of her massive hand.

  She swirled around to find the guards, who, at that moment, were petrified in a state of abject horror. With another great breath, she roared at them as loudly as she could – so loudly that even the bravest of men dropped their weapons and lifted their hands to cover their ears. The lesser men simply fell over in fright, pretending to be dead.

  After delivering this crippling blow to their hearts, Yuki swiftly passed under the gateway and lumbered down the bridge. On the far side, there was no other defense, and the dimly lit streets of the New Capital opened their arms to her. By the time she had reached the end of the bridge, she was an oni no longer, but a girl once again. Turning back, she looked to see if anyone had followed her, and was relieved to know that she was completely alone. She ran off into the darkness, grateful that the grim castle was growing smaller, and the reach of the Lady was diminishing. Through all this, Yuki thought that she could hear what sounded like the clashing of blades far off in the night and felt a strange sensation that despite her miraculous escape, a part of her remained within those dismal walls.