Huff. . . huff . . .

I'd run so far, I barely noticed when my legs gave out beneath me. My back hit the trunk of a dead tree, its bark biting into my skin. Everything around me-white. Blurred.

My breath came in short gasps, my throat torn raw. I was soaked in snow, sweat, and blood. Not that I could feel much of it. I'm not a shrine maiden anymore.

Just a fugitive. A sacrifice. A bride to something I never believed in-never wanted.

Ayumi once wrote in her journal that wolves roamed the woods at night. But the forest was silent. Too silent. Like it was waiting for something.

Like a ray of hope, I spotted people with torches from a distance. They could help me! I forced my sore legs to move.

When they noticed me running towards them, they stopped.

"What's a young lady doin' here, eh? Woah, look at the mess you're in!"

Men with torches. Hunters, maybe. Their figures blurred through my haze. I forced myself up, stumbling toward them.

Thank the gods, they can protect me!

'Please . . . you have to-'

I tried to speak-anything-but my voice cracked and died in my throat. My throat was probably too damaged for me to speak since I inhaled the cold air while I was escaping. I just hoped they could still understand me.

"Hey, you're quite a beauty." One of the hunters caressed a strand of my hair.

"Looked like you got into a war, haha! I don't know where you came from or how you got here, but with that weird hair and those creepy lookin' eyes of yours..."

Don't tell me . . .

"I bet you're worth a ton of golden ryō, missy. You'll be popular in the brothel once we sell you!" The elder hunter suddenly grabbed my wrist, gripping it so tightly that it ached.

Eugh! Perverts! My blood chilled. I tugged my arm back, teeth clenched.

"One tough whore, huh?!" They laughed and kicked my ankles, shoving me down on the snow. I felt so exhausted that I couldn't even run or move anymore.

Everything hurts. The elder hunter pointed the tip of their dagger at my nape. The other moved my arms to my back and tied my wrists with a rope.

Maybe these are the wolves that Ayumi referred to in her journal.

"Hey, boss! Why don't we have fun with her before we go back? Her skin is smooth!"

"Yeah! This one's got to be a virgin!"

Inaudible voices filled my ears, but I sensed they're going to do something really inhuman. I should at least have an ounce of strength left to knock them down.

No . . . I'm going to pass out . . . My eyelids are going heavy. At this rate, they're going to . . . Ugh, I can't even think . . . I'm so tired . . . I shut my eyes and hoped this was all just a stupid nightmare.

I'd rather die.

"That girl . . ."

Someone spoke.

There were a few ounces of consciousness within me, but my head felt too heavy to see who came.

Judging by the tone and sound of the voice, it's not any of the hunters. It sounded painfully familiar, but I couldn't even think of anything or anyone anymore.

"Huh? Who're you, punk?! We're in the middle of business here!" One of the hunters scolded.

"That girl's not your bride, is she?"

"It's none of your business!"

"Yeah! What the boss said!" said the younger hunter.

Someone... Anyone... Whoever came...

'Please help me . . .'

"As the bride commands."

The last thing I heard before slipping into darkness was the shriek of one of the hunters and the sound of a blade being drawn.

❁

"Mirai. Shall we go?"

I opened my eyelids to find myself on a bridge at a zen garden beautifully decorated with sakura trees as petals-real ones- fluttering in the wind.

The sky was sunny and clear, and it felt like spring. I looked down at my arms to discover that I'm dressed in a pristine shiromuku.

Is this a dream?

"Miraaai . . . " Someone's bored yawn echoed from a distance. I must be getting married to someone.

Could it be Kenichi? My heart fluttered. I lifted my long robes and ran towards the direction of the voice, which came from a corner of the pagoda beside the bridge I stood on.

Wait, why am I getting married to Kenichi?

"I can't wait all day, you know?"

"I know! I'm coming!"

Since when did Kenichi get so impatient? I guess marriage does show you who someone is. Not that I'd mind if he were a little improper or silly. His voice sounded different, too.

"I'm here!" I joyfully called when I saw Kenichi, his back facing me, as he stood before the statue of the Shinigami King. My surroundings changed into the grounds of the Urami Shrine.

"Kenichi-niisan..?" I reached out a hand to touch his shoulder. Higanbanas instantly blossomed around us, and the sky-the entire world- turned black.

I looked around my surroundings, letting my eyes take in the vivid and glowing colors of the flowers.

Red and blue.

When I turned back to Kenichi, a different figure stood . . .

!!!

I woke up with a jolt, air sharp in my lungs. A dusty black haori, patterned like spiderwebs, covered my body like a blanket.

My miko robes still clung to me, torn and crusted with blood. No matter what, it belonged to someone who rescued me from those perverted hunters.

The hut smelled of smoke and wet earth. No one else is inside. My hands still ached. My throat burned, but I was alive.

I rose from the mat and stuck my head out of the hut's windows, scanning around the silent woods for someone who rescued me.

Despite the misty skies, it was bright outside, with the snowflakes continuously pouring as ever. The woods's all empty, and it gave me shivers aside from the cold.

Have they gone somewhere to search for firewood? I mean, their haori was still with me. Then, I'm more in debt!

"Searching for me?"

My soul almost escaped my body when a voice called out from behind me. I spun around to look at a tall man standing with his arms crossed.

Kiri no Tsujigiri stood there, arms crossed like he owned the place.

"You're not injured, are you? Oh wait. Of course you are. I was this close to killing you. The little droplets of blood you left were helpful."

Terror rose in me. I lifted my hands to discover the scars had been healed. Returning my gaze at him, I noticed there was not a single blood stain on him as if last night never happened.

My body stiffened, and a haunting chill ran down my spine, before I shifted into a defensive stance.

He frowned slightly, as if confused rather than intimidated, before tilting his head to his side with a raised brow.

"Getting defensive, are we?"

My eyes darted to his sheathed katana lying beside him. He would have killed me the moment he took me away from the hunters, but he didn't.

'What have you done to-' I opened my mouth. There was no vibration in my throat, nor a sound coming out.

What the hell?! I tried to pump a voice out of my throat, but-nothing!

Whatever. I can still defend myself with a Shizuka Family combat move! If I ran away, there was nowhere to run to.

How could I exorcise or knock out a ghost without a voice?

No. The real question was; why did he rescue me?

"You're probably asking yourself: oh no~! Why did such a handsome ronin rescue me from the greasy clutches of those old geezers?" He spun, arms wide like he was in a kabuki play. "Oh nooo, the bride can't speak! Whatever shall we do!"

Kiri no Tsujigiri started laughing to himself. For a ghost who killed the love of my life, he dared to make a fool of me. My hands were trembling again.

Rage bubbled in my chest, tangled with grief, exhaustion, and something else I couldn't name. I grabbed his collar with what strength I had left.

My voice was gone, but my feelings weren't.

"Easy there, Maira-or was it Mia? Let's call you Mari." He rolled his eyes, pushed me away, and brushed my hands off like I was dust.

"This started off pretty badly, and I don't like causing misunderstandings. I didn't kill your boyfriend, alright?"

Boyfriend..?! Shaking that thought away, a warm sensation of relief washed through me when the thought of Kenichi alive and breathing came into my mind.

Still. I'll never forgive him for taking the priests' lives.

"I was going to come after you when he started throwing snowballs at me like the pathetic little kid he was. Didn't expect you to run so fast," he chuckled, picking his fallen haori from the ground and wrapped it around himself.

"Back to the topic." His expression then turned serious, his glare piercing into my soul once more as if his eyes could kill.

"We meet again, Shi no Hanayome."

That name again.

"It was honestly hilarious how you failed to exorcise me last night." His lips curled into a smug as my brows furrowed in disdain.

After reading my perplexed expression, he sighed in exasperation, "The Shi no Hanayome can be determined through the spiritual power she possesses in her voice and other qualities that deem her fit to be the Shinigami King's bride. But that changed, didn't it?"

His katana was already out, the tip brushing my throat. I swallowed hard as I felt a bead of sweat roll down my cheek.

"Hair as white as the eternal winter, eyes as dark as shadows, and the voice of a ghost. Shi no Hanayome . . . I've searched for decades for you and taken many lives while I was at it. There's no escaping."

His gaze swept over me. Slow and deliberate, from my hair to my eyes and lips. I felt a chill prickling down my spine.

The legends . . . they weren't just stories. He was real. The escort seeking the Shinigami's Bride.

I had known he was real, but never had I imagined him to appear in a form like that-a human form, just like the statue.

My thoughts flashed to the women who danced in the cold, their breaths visible in the frigid air, offering themselves for peace.

Ayumi. She would've been next. I clenched my fists, the cold biting into my skin. The peace after each ceremony felt more like a cruel joke. The lives people took for decades. The life I took last year.

It was all for naught.

"I was supposed to rip out your heart and all that, but honestly? You made it so hard. Not in a fun way, either." He scoffed and pulled his katana away from me before sheathing it back into the scabbard hanging on his side.

"There's no way I'm delivering the bride to the Shinigami King when she's not ready, blushing and complete."

When he mentioned that, then he must've meant that the only quality I lost was my voice. Weirdly, I've come to understand all this easily, let alone trust him.

If he was lying, he wouldn't have to go through all this, sparing my life, and I doubt he had other motives than this.

He started to smug, "If I remember correctly what happened last night, you would've finished me off with that silly chant until your stupid boyfriend got in the way."

Kenichi only did that to save me. And besides, it's not like I had enough time to finish the song while he was set loose, wild and free.

"That's why you should be grateful I spared your life and kicked those hunters' asses. I even took all the trouble to carry you here and start a fire for you. You can thank me by-"

Still, I sensed something wasn't quite right. I thought breathing in cold air damaged my throat but, after hearing what Kiri no Tsujigiri said, it felt like there's a lot more to this than just the random loss of my voice.

This was an opportunity!

". . .and all's well that ends well...HEY!" His voice faded into the distance.

"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING?!"

Moving my legs, I stormed out of the hut towards who knows where-anywhere-but around that mass murderer!

I wasn't giving a damn to what he just yapped about but it's probably nothing useful other than this whole Shi no Hanayome business which bought me time to recover.

All the more why I should escape from that damned Tsujigiri! I've outrun him before, and I'm sure I can do it again!

That would keep him busy until the day I exhaust myself to death.