The Looking-Back Ghost Tale (A Side Story of 'Hoichi with Ears') [Night 6] The Loyalty of Kakuichi and Hikoshichi (Serialized Short Story)

A ghost tale told every night by a woman of Seikan-ji Temple.
What is told is the ending of someone who lived in Gion—
However, that ending is not singular.
The same mystery, different endings.
The truth is left to the ears of the reader.
'Hoichi with Ears' side story 'The Looking-Back Ghost Tale', now opening.

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Night 6: The Loyalty of Kakuichi and Hikoshichi, Part 1

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—Well, well.

What I shall tell you tonight is a story of loyalty.
Yet, whether that loyalty brings happiness or misfortune—that, no one can say.

People always live while making choices.
The path they take, the words they speak, and... where they spend their lives.

However, there are rare occasions.
A path that seems to leave no room for choice.
A path where one had no choice but to believe in one thing and move forward.

—Even so.
If, somewhere along the way, they had stopped and taken a different step.
What would have awaited them there, I wonder—

Fufu, let us leave that for after the tale is finished.

Their names are Kakuichi and Hikoshichi.
Two order-bearers serving in Musashi Province.
Please, listen with your own ears to the path of loyalty these men walked.

...Please, accompany me for a chapter of their long journey.

First, from a mountain village in Musashi where spring is still shallow—

Plink.


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A morning with signs of spring, though frost still lingered on the soil.
In a mountain village in Musashi Province, the wind was strangely quiet.

When a farmer put his hoe to the edge of the field, he felt a strange, squelching resistance.
What appeared from the turned-up soil was the figure of a dead man with a bloated belly.

Though his face and clothes were frozen, looking like a stone Buddha—
Only his belly was swollen, as if it were about to burst at any moment.

The rumor spread quickly.

'This is the third one this month.'
'The dogs don't bark when night falls. I don't even hear the crows cawing.'
'...The wind is blowing from the west.'

An invisible presence had begun to drift through the village.

Around that time, a lone horse was traveling along a mountain road.

The rider was the Onmyoji, Tsuchimikado Harebare.
With skin like white porcelain, cool eyes, and a quiet aura, he was a man of the law, though still young.

He stopped his horse and closed his eyes quietly, feeling the mountain wind.

Inside his robe, an origami crane trembled faintly.
It was not something to show others. It was a secret shikigami that was always by his side.

'...In the far west, has that seal... been broken?'

There is a land that was once sealed with a hundred arrows.
The source of a cursed, ominous blight.
It had now begun to carry miasma on the wind, flowing eastward once again.

Harebare pressed his lips together and lightly spurred his horse.
He was heading to the Musashi Province mansion—to Hojo Yoshinobu.

◇

In the great hall of the mansion, Hojo Yoshinobu was waiting.
As soon as Harebare sat down, Yoshinobu asked.

'Is it true... the seal?'

'Yes. Cursed energy is leaking intermittently from the western land.'
'It is being carried by the wind and has begun to reach this land as well.'
'The recent anomalies—the bloated corpses, the silence of the dogs, the disappearance of the birds. They are all signs of this.'

Yoshinobu placed his fists on his knees and fell silent.

'...There are eight shrines around Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto.'
'We must collect all the ancient talismans remaining there and reseal them here in Musashi.'

'The place for the sealing is—'

'Okunitama Shrine would be best. It has the power of the land and the intersection of barriers.'

'Will we make it in time? If we have to collect all the talismans and return here by the festival...'

'It will not be easy. However, if those who can run move without setting a fixed number of days, it is possible.'

Yoshinobu nodded and called out to the back.

'Kakuichi, Hikoshichi—come in.'

Behind the tatami, the shoji opened and two men appeared.

One is Kakuichi.
Tall, with a straight posture and sharp eyes.
He carries a katana at his waist, and the air in the room tightens just by him standing there quietly.
A man of few words and great loyalty, yet deep within that silence lies an unshakable conviction.

The other is Hikoshichi.
Shorter than Kakuichi, with a relaxed stance.
He carries a short spear on his back, a smile always on his lips, and while he observes the etiquette of a samurai, there is a certain lightness to his words.
He seems to dislike stiffness, but his eyes were always keenly observing his surroundings.
'Both of them are order-bearers of the Hojo family and the ones I trust most.'

'They are fast on their feet and strong of heart. They should also be skilled with horses.'
'Lord Harebare, what do you think?'
Harebare looked at the two and smiled quietly.

'I see two men worthy of entrusting this life to.'

'What awaits you at the end of your journey is darkness filled with will-o'-the-wisps and miasma. But if it is you two—'
Kakuichi bowed deeply and answered quietly.

'Even if it costs us our lives, we shall fulfill this duty.'

Hikoshichi also grinned and said,

'Well, I have a wife who is scarier than any ghost.'

'...We will go. Eight talismans. We will collect them properly and return.'
Harebare took two cloth bundles from his robe.

'These are purification charms. Please be especially careful by the river at night and on roads where the wind stops.'

Kakuichi and Hikoshichi carefully received the bundles and tucked them into their belts.

Hojo Yoshinobu looked at the two quietly and said this.

'It would be good if this journey is completed by the Gion Festival.'

'But—do not push yourselves. ...No, it is a mission that requires pushing yourselves.'
Hikoshichi laughed softly, and Kakuichi nodded.

Then, the two left the mansion.

They mounted the prepared horses and took the reins in silence.
A mountain wind, still far from spring, blew, and the scent of plum blossoms drifted faintly across their backs.
What they were looking at was not the east.

It was the road leading west—to the source of the curse.
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—Now then.

Loyalty is not something given, but something chosen.

For whom you spend your life, that is decided by your own heart.
These two, Kakuichi and Hikoshichi.

What kind of path the journey that begins now was—


...Plink.

I shall see you again in the next tale.

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