The New Winds

They had won. It had been a hard and long fight but they had won.

But Kenji couldn't go to sleep now, not with a body charged with adrenaline and his head full of raging thoughts.

He went to the bathhouse and prepared a bath. He heated the water and lit some lanterns to have light. He disrobed and washed himself more thoroughly than usual.

Before his inner eye were still those creatures, Kazuko, the giant Moto and all the blood that was spilled.

He lay down in the water and pulled his knees up to his body.

Aiichiro would neither, at least for now that the risk was greater. It didn't matter there were guards, because they were overpowered before, and they did not scream. People here were not trained for that. He went to the bath house to clean himself from any possible taint, even after getting jade before.
The small Kaiu did not expect to see anyone else there. Before undressing or even entering, he asked, sitting near the water and looking at it.
"Did you change the water before entering?"

"I had to refill it, yes." Kenji replied absently. He took a short deep breath before recognizing the voice speaking to him. "Aiichiro-san? Is that you?"

"Yes. If someone else entered in the same water, they could have tainted it. I don't have doubt of that. They don't know the risks."

"You say that very often. What is that 'Taint' anyway?" Kenji asked.

He sighed. "Demon corruption that destroys your body and soul, in short."

"Are we already damned then?" Kenji asked "Did we get tainted by fighting these things?"

"If you got hurt, or had contact with the Zokujin then your wounds or mouth, you may have been tainted."

He shook his head. "I was lucky, they never touched or hurt me......"

"But what about the Moto, or Otomo-sama, Togashi-san or Utaku-san? They all got in contact with them, are they all tainted?"

"Probably. I told people to get jade and instead they went to loot tainted knives." He put the things on his obi aside. "Jade is the only known thing that retards the corruption. It's also the only thing that penetrate the hide of most oni. That's why it is so important."

"I see......" Kenji said with sadness in his voice
"I failed Otomo-sama Aiichiro-kun, she called out for protection, but,..... but i was to slow,......"

"What she did was stupid. People who don't know about war shouldn't get involved in it. At least she learnt her lesson." He says in a harsh tone whilst too putting the obi away.

"It doesn't matter if it was stupid or not, when someone from the imperial family asks for protection, you have to follow. "And I failed in that duty,...... If I'm unlucky, they'll deny me my Gempukku for failing."

"Some of the shadowlands stories they tell to make children obey in the Crab start with someone overestimating themselves. And some of those are real. Like a daimyo who thought they could clear the Shadowlands forever and rode with almost all their soldiers in."

" They really rode off into Shadowlands? What happened to them?"

"We needed to elaborate tactics against skeleton horsemen. We still use them."

"The whole thing feels so... unreal. The day was almost like any other and suddenly there were all these devilish creatures everywhere,... like,... how,.."

Kenji took a deep breath

"How do you deal with it? The fear. I was scared, Aiichiro-kun, as I've never been scared in my life. How do the crabs handle it? It must be hell...." Kenji said with a hollow voice, just starring straight ahead.

"It is literally hell attacking us. So, like, a good coping mechanism is thinking on the worst that could happen from anything. For an example." He started to walk with the kimono now open around the pool's edges. "Why don't I fear slipping?"
He looks to his feet. "Because I know the worst that could happen, which would be falling straight down, injurying myself, and then falling into the water and getting my only set of clothing wet too."
"So it is not a big consequence. Wow, an injury no worse than the ones I get every training because I'm only half a bushi. And getting myself wet, which is the objective of a bath. And getting my clothes wet when someone could lend me spares."
He now concernedly looks to the water and steps back. "This is what I mean by thinking on the Shadowlands the entire time. If you accept that you will die, it comes easier. But you know what I am worried about, Kenji-kun?"

"What is it?" Kenji asked

"Those things were not goblins, but Zokujin. They were easier to fight than goblins."