The little girl’s head bobbed dozily with every sway of Gaignun’s giant lizard. She was sat right behind the oni, but the size difference made it difficult to tell whether or not Gaignun even knew she was there – and from time to time, it looked like she might fall off without him noticing. She had said nothing, done nothing but glower and sulk in the midday sunshine. She practically leant on Gaignun’s shins during the initial meeting, and even during the terse, silent journey she seemed to be pressing her tiny body as close to the oni as possible.

Of course, barely anyone would’ve understood why the little oni did what she did; only those from the bustling port towns of the east would recognise a Zashiki Warashi when they see one. It was the midday sun that was causing all of the hassle...Zashiki felt it beating down on her skin, it hurt in the back of her eyesockets and the headache was intolerable. It was noon when Zashiki was the most tranquil she could be. Her internal body clock told her it was long past her bedtime, and with the abominable sunlight shining it was practically impossible to remain focused. With a sigh, she pressed her forehead against Gaignun’s battle armour, feeling particularly exposed in her thin, ragged shorts and sleeveless tunic. Whether or not her travelling companion was sympathetic to Zashiki’s plight was unknown, but she had noticed that he walked a lot slower when the shadows shortened compared to the rest of the days she had spent with him.

A brief murmur of conversation from the back barely registered with Zashiki; she was particularly against striking conversation in her current state, and seemed to be keeping quite the distance from Tatsuji. Were it not for the loud and bawdy song which erupted from the general vicinity of the supply caravan, it was likely Zashiki would have continued sulking until the very end of the mission. Instead her head swivelled around, revealing her inky and inquisitive eyes. It didn’t take long for her to smile, and that smile revealed two neat rows of jet-black, shark-like teeth. The girl gave Gaignun two feeble punches to the back (given her size, it was likely the only way to have caught the towering oni’s attention), muttered something to him and promptly fell off and under the giant lizard, undoubtedly crushed as the beast put its foot down where she should have landed.

Only there was no sign of her presence; she appeared to have vanished under the lizard and out of existence entirely. It was only when Chiyoe made an idle remark about Hidari’s singing prowess did a loud, childish and ever-so-slightly grating voice explode from the gloomy depths of the supply caravan; Zashiki had somehow managed to appear on the edge of a crate, camouflaged seamlessly in the shadows.  “OHHHhhh, I don’t think his singing is THAT bad!” she cried, almost certainly too loud for any decent conversation. It had to be intentional, some sort of signal or code, since her volume dropped to a more tolerable (but still irritating) volume immediately afterwards. “But I guess a song about whores might upset a Kitsune,” continued the little creature innocently. She flashed her smile at the human once more, but in the darkness it looked more like a menacing grin.

“Human, human, why’d you join the Hakumei? This is no samurai taskforce.” Zashiki barely gave Chiyoe a moment to respond to her wry remark; her raspy, grating voice took on a singsong quality as if she openly teased Hidari, leaning as far forward as she could whilst avoiding that sharp, clear line of sunlight in the end of the caravan. “This is no brothel, human, I can’t see any golden groves, not a lot of gold here at all...” Zashiki trailed off and looked upwards, at the flicker of a red parasol. “...Unless you knew where to look. Is that why you joined, human? You sing like the port-town man but dress like a merchant, where you from, human?”

The barrage of questions seemed to go on for an age, but stopped just as suddenly as they started when the caravan went over a ditch. The light shifted back and the oni stopped talking as her face was put into sharp relief, revealing the chubby cheeks, rounded eyes and pouty lips of a toddler. It was as if she expended a short burst of energy and the sudden distraction threw her momentum as her head tilted and came to rest on the adjacent storage container; Zashiki still stared down at Hidari eagerly, but her body language clearly displayed the exhaustion that she was poorly hiding.