The Wings of Dreams

piled with a lot of supplies.
    It was three months until the Summer Solstice, the next opportunity to leave the Yellow Sea. If they didn’t want to starve to death in the meantime, they’d need all that food. Thinking about it that way, somebody like Gankyuu must be out of his mind making the round trip on a single kijuu while carrying only what he could.
    “But he’s not,” Shushou mumbled to herself.
    Gankyuu hadn’t brought along any rice. Shushou would have expected him to pack rice and barley. He hadn’t at all. Only a sack of what looked like flour. It made up the bulk of every main meal. Boiling water added to a half-filled bowl would expand enough to top off three full bowls. The gruel was flavored with locally-found herbs, or shavings from beef jerky, dried shrimp or seaweed or tea.
    The equivalent amount of rice, wheat or barley couldn’t be crammed into a space so small. Gankyuu only packed provisions that’d allow them to leave at a moment’s notice. Come to think of it, Rikou carried much the same. How did he know it’d be so necessary?
    At any rate, because they traveled so light, they could leave almost at once when youma attacks came.
    Kiwa was hauling along an extremely generous amount of supplies. He was a man of considerable weight. Literally. But was that the wisest strategy? Especially with youma ready to pounce on them at any moment.
    “Hey, Shitsu-san, don’t you think maybe it’d be a good idea if we went back?” When Kiwa regarded her with a sour expression, she added, “Even discarding most of the luggage, it’d probably be the safest course.”
    “Do that, Shushou, and the two of us would have to walk the rest of the way.”
    “Most everybody else is already walking. It’s hardly impossible.”
    “But not something I could do. Surely you understand that much.”

Chapter 25
    [4-2]  E ven when Kiwa stopped at noon, he pitched a small tent and spread out a ground tarp. Wheat flour was kneaded into dough, pan-fried over a fire (using a bisque), and served with soup and tea and fruit.
    Shushou couldn’t stomach the meal. This wasn’t the kind of food that people traveling in the Yellow Sea should be eating. Come nighttime, Kiwa thought nothing of lighting another fire to cook rice.
    “Maybe we should hold off on the fire,” Shushou said, stopping what she was doing.
    But Kiwa only responded with a surprised expression. “Without a fire, we won’t be able to eat anything.
    “Didn’t the goushi say not to light any fires back when crossed those fallen trees?”
    “We’ve traveled well beyond that point.”
    Now Shushou was the one taken aback. There was a youma down this road, dangerous enough that the goushi were literally going out of their way to avoid it. That’s why Kinhaku said to keep a low profile, to not light fires and not slaughter any livestock. Because any youma in the vicinity would sense a human presence, see the fires, and smell the blood.
    All the more so since they might have passed within a stone’s throw of the creature.
    “They didn’t mean that only fires back there were dangerous. They’re a risk everywhere.”
    “Fires are a risk?”
    “That’s why the goushi only make small fires and put them out as quickly as possible.”
    “And so will we, as soon as possible.”
    “But in a place like this—”
    Kiwa had halted the wagon beneath a tree alongside the road. The tent covering the wagon was fully exposed to the broad expanse around them. Nothing shaded the light of the fire. Like the goushi, they’d fenced in the fire with a screen of branches but clearly didn’t understand why.
    The care Gankyuu took in that regard was obvious without explanation. The canopy of the trees masked the presence of human and kijuu and fires, especially from the eyes of flying youma. When the concealing canopy was high above, boughs could be pulled down to form an overhanging lean-to.
    Likewise, the screen around the campfire concealed the flames as much as possible. No matter how many branches were stuck around a fire, they’d have no effect if it was stuck out in the open.
    “Shitsu-san, the branches surrounding the campfire—”
    “Oh, that,” interrupted Kiwa. “You’ve seen those before, haven’t you, Shushou? That corpse hunter does the same thing. A windbreak, I imagine. Or maybe a warding spell. Those corpse hunters do strange things. I have to wonder if it actually amounts to anything.”
    Shushou couldn’t believe her ears. He’d