Feature Writer: Snekguy /
Feature Title: DEMON GATE 7 /
Copyright: © 2018 by Snekguy
Story Codes: MF, FemaleDom /
Synopsis: Satou is arranged to be married to the daughter of a neighboring landowner, but when he stumbles across a mysterious woman in the forest, he must find a way to balance the expectations of his family with his burgeoning desires /

Demon Gate 7

Chapter 7: Proposition

Higa emerged from the woods at the edge of the camp site, a freshy killed doe hanging limply across her broad shoulder. She set the carcass down beside the tanning rack, then planted her massive cudgel in the ground, leaning on it as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

“That’s three today,” she announced, looking over to where Satou was preparing a stew beside the fire pit. “I swear, they’re so loud and careless when they’re horny.”

“Just like you,” Satou replied. She marched over to him and lifted him off the ground with one arm, feigning anger as she playfully bit at his neck, his feet scrabbling in the air.

“Set me down, I have to stir the stew!” he protested between bouts of laughter. She placed him back beside the crackling fire, and he resumed stirring the broth that was cooking inside the large, iron cauldron with his ladle. After a few stirs he brought the ladle to his lips, blowing on the liquid to cool it and then taking a quick taste.

“Let me try,” Huga said, crouching as he lifted the ladle to her lips. She took a sip, smacking loudly as she played the broth over her tongue, and then nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, this is good! You’ve become quite the cook over the last few days, little Satou.”

“Well, you taught me where to find the herbs and how to prepare the meat,” he added as he resumed his stirring.

“You’ve improved on the recipe, this is better than mine. I’d better not teach you to hunt or I’ll be out of a profession.”

After their night of passion he had decided to stay with Higa for a while longer, and they had been living together in the camp for five days now. She had been teaching him how to cook and how to forage for food, how to track animals and how to build his own tent. She was imbuing him with all of the knowledge that he required to make his own way in the world, as she had promised. It had been like a dream for Satou. He got to spend all of his time with her, there were no nagging family members or tedious duties to come between them, and they had made love every night. Once or twice during the day, too. Higa seemed to enjoy his company as much he enjoyed hers, the life of a trapper was a lonely one, and he was becoming proficient at more than just cooking…

She walked back over to her latest prize, skinning and butchering it as Satou finished preparing their meal, hanging its pelt on the rack with the rest. When she sat down by his side on the grass, he passed her a large bowl, and she began to eat hungrily. She must have worked up quite an appetite during her latest hunt.

“So have you thought about what you’re going to do about your family yet?” Higa asked, pausing as she fished out a hunk of venison with her fingers. Satou had tried to push the thoughts of his family and his shoen from his mind while they had been bunking together, not wanting to let it ruin his good mood. His short-lived escape from reality had been pleasant, but he couldn’t keep putting it off forever. Eventually he would have to decide what he was going to do.

“I’ve been trying not to think about it,” he admitted, staring into his own bowl of stew and watching the pieces of root vegetable float about on the frothy surface.

“You can stay with me,” Higa offered, “if that’s what you really want. I have to leave once the hunting season is over, and I’ll be heading back up the mountain. I could take you with me. Truth be told I think I’d miss you, I’ve come to enjoy having you around, you’re good company. Problem is, the air up there is thin and the environment is cold. I don’t know how well you’d fare, and past a certain point turning back becomes difficult. I can’t just take you home if you decide that you don’t like it.”

“I did say that I wanted to scale those peaks on day,” he muttered, turning his gaze up towards the towering mountain in the distance. The snowy cap shone white in the glare of the sun, wispy clouds cloaking its bare rock face above the tree line.

“I think you should return to your farm,” Higa added. “At least once, just to see what’s been happening there since you left. Maybe your parents have cooled down by now and reconsidered, they could be worried sick about you.”

“What if I stay here, and you leave?” Satou asked. “When would I be able to see you again? Would I have to wait an entire year until next spring?”

She seemed conflicted for a moment, her brow furrowing as she considered her reply. Satou got the impression that she liked him a lot more than she let on, especially since their first escapade in her tent. The Oni seemed to want to remain detached, more of a teacher than a lover, like she was humoring him for her own entertainment and not because of any deeper romantic connection.

But Satou wasn’t stupid. He had seen it in her eyes when they made love, felt it in the way that she clung to him during their most passionate moments, as if afraid that he would escape her grasp. He had awoken to her gazing longingly at him on more than one occasion, and when they slept together she liked to stroke his hair, holding him close to her and burying her face in the nape of his neck. He had even heard her murmur his name in her sleep once, as if she had been dreaming about him.

“I … don’t know,” she replied solemnly. “During winter and autumn, travel on the mountain is very difficult and dangerous, sometimes impossible if there’s a lot of snowfall. For six months out of the year it’s usually unsafe to travel to and from the Oni village.”

“And what if you were to stay down here?” he suggested.

“The summers are a little too hot for my kind, but more importantly my village relies on me to bring them meat and pelts to last them through the winter.”

“Are there no other hunters besides you?”

“There are,” she admitted, “but I have an important role to play. I can’t just abandon my kin.”

Perhaps Satou should not be abandoning his kin either. What of Nagao and the other villagers, what would become of them if he should shirk his duties to follow Higa up the mountain? His brother could take his place in time, even marry the Lady Sasaki in his stead. But even if he felt justified in rejecting the sham marriage that had been forced upon him by his parents, he could not bring himself to forsake his shoen and all of the people who lived there. He had left the village angry and exhilarated, but now his head was clear.

“There must be some way to make this work,” he grumbled, “some way to make everybody happy…”

“I think that if you try to give everybody exactly what they want, you’ll end up being disappointed,” Higa said as she finished off her bowl of stew.

“Exactly what they want…” Satou mused, deep in thought as Higa looked on curiously. “You’re right,” he finally said after a minute of deliberation. “I at least need to try to patch things up with my parents. It’s a long shot but perhaps they’ve come around. I’ll head back down the mountain tonight and see what happens. If my fears are realized and they’re still furious, I’ll be back again before morning and my decision will have been made a whole lot easier.”

She reached down and ruffled his hair sympathetically.

“Don’t worry too much kid, things are rarely as bad as they seem.”

xxxxx

The moon lighting his way, Satou descended the mountain, he now knew these forests well enough that he didn’t have to rely on the stream to guide him. He had thought it better to arrive after nightfall, as there would be no villagers tending the fields, and so he could visit his parents relatively unmolested.

It had only been a few days, but as he emerged from the trees by the edge of the terraced rice paddies it felt like had been gone for years. The crop was growing quickly, the green chutes reaching higher than the last time that he had seen them, that was good. It was the first time that he had been away for so long, it was so odd not knowing what had been happening within the tightly knit community since his departure.

The village was quiet, the small huts spread out at random between the fields as they made use of what space was available, dirt paths worn away through years of use linking them together. At the top of it all, perched on the highest terrace, was his family’s house. It was grandiose compared to the rest, even though the building materials were not too scarce, and it was only lavishly furnished in comparison to their neighbors. Even the quality of a person’s home was tied to their social status, all of these people could have built similar dwellings for their own families, but some misplaced sense of duty and obedience kept them from doing so. What had once seemed so natural and orderly to him now seemed perverse and unnecessary.

He arrived at the door, and rapped his knuckles on the wood, waiting a moment as he heard the sound of shuffling feet from the other side. When it opened, he was cast in a golden glow from the flickering candles within, his mother standing before him in one of her flowery kimonos. She wrapped her arms around him before he even had a chance to greet her.

“Oh Satou, you’ve come back! I was so worried that you might have gotten lost or hurt!”

He had been prepared for a shouting match, but her uncharacteristic show of affection softened his heart, and he returned her hug. After a few moments she stepped back, looking him up and down. On top of his clothing he was wearing a downsized version of Higa’s fur cloak, camouflage for when he accompanied her on hunts. Satou had also foregone his straw sandals, choosing instead to bind his feet with furs and strips of tanned hide, more practical for hiking through the rough terrain of the forest. Higa went without shoes, and she seemed to have done so for her whole life, but Satou lacked the tough soles and callouses that she had developed. He must have looked strange to his mother, she had only ever seen him dressed in more formal attire.

“I’m so glad,” she continued, “have you finally come to your senses?”

“I was going to ask you and father the same thing,” he replied. At that he saw a shadow cross the room, and his father appeared behind his mother, who then bowed her head in deference and stepped out of his way. Satou stared the man down for a moment, his gaze unflinching.

“Have you reconsidered your marriage to the Matsuyo girl?” his father asked, not even taking the time to greet him. He was a stubborn man, as immovable as an ox, and he seemed just as angry with Satou as the day that he had left. Satou wanted to reply in kind, but he wasn’t here to butt heads. He had been given a lot of time to think during his descent down the mountain, and something that Higa had said had stuck with him. He might not be able to give everyone exactly what they wanted, but what if he could give them something equivalent, perhaps even something better that they didn’t even know was a possibility? He had formulated a plan, drawing from much of the knowledge concerning the operation of the shoen that had been drilled into him over the years by his father, and now he had to set it in motion.

“No, father,” he replied.

“Then you have no business in my house,” the man said, turning his back.

“Wait,” Satou continued, “I have a proposition. A solution that I think will work for everyone.”

His father paused, and for a moment Satou wondered if he was going to reject the very notion, but then his mother spoke up.

“At least hear him out,” she pleaded, and after a moment his father’s shoulders seemed to physically sag as he gave in.

“Very well, but be quick about it.”

Satou stepped over the threshold and joined his parents around their table, his father refusing to make eye contact even as they sat across from one another. His mother seemed nervous, but optimistic, clearly happy just to have her son back in their home again.

“You have arranged for me to marry the Lady Sasaki,” Satou began, laying the groundwork before pitching his recently concocted idea. “You intention is to unite our two families, and in doing so, combine our two shoen. We would have a larger work force, more land, and we would produce more rice.”

His father waited, stony-faced as he sat there in silence.

“This cannot happen,” Satou continued, his father’s brow furrowing. “The marriage was arranged without my consent or my knowledge, and my heart belongs to someone else. However, I have a responsibility towards my family and my shoen, one that I do not intend to shirk. I have a different proposition, a way to expand the shoen and bring prosperity to its inhabitants without me marrying the Matsuyo girl.”

“And what is that?” his father scoffed.

“When grandfather founded this community, it was to escape unjust taxation and the mistreatment of farm workers. He wanted us to be free, self-sufficient, is that correct?”

His father nodded.

“And yet even today, do we not pay a significant portion of our rice crop in taxes and bribes? To the point that we have scarcely any for ourselves and must subsist on inferior grains like millet?”

“Now you suddenly concern yourself with finances and bureaucracy?” his father complained.

“Is it not true?” Satou pressed, “how much of our crop do we give away in exchange for being left alone by the greedy magistrates down in the lowlands?” He directed the second question towards his mother, who handled most of the finances herself. She looked to her husband for a moment, as if waiting for his permission, then decided to reply.

“Eighty-five percent of the yield goes to taxes paid to the regional Daimyo and bribes for local officials. Much of what remains is used in trade or sold to merchants.”

“What if we could keep all of the rice that we produced?” Satou added, “one hundred percent of it? What if we only had to part with the take that we chose to sell or trade, and none of it went towards lining the pockets of corrupt officials?”

That seemed to peak his father’s interest, but the man remained surly and skeptical.

“How would you propose that we achieve such a thing?”

“I will ask the Oni to carry a message to her people on our behalf, and request an alliance between our two villages. No debt collector would dare come to the valley if they knew that we were allied with Oni. We could also trade with them, they’re fine hunters, we could exchange rice and other grains for meat and furs. The entire village could feast on venison and rice every day, we would have ample stores of food for the winter such that we would not longer need to ration during the coldest months.”

“Then this Oni that you speak of is real?” his father asked, “it was not an ill-conceived excuse to avoid marrying?”

“She is as real as you or I,” Satou replied adamantly. “You see the fur cloak that I’m wearing? She made it.”

His father considered, stroking his chin as he went over the details of Satou’s plan.

“You would have me reject the rule of the Daimyo, reject the traditions and the laws of my forefathers? You know well that is not the place of a mere farmer to defy his betters.”

“Grandfather removed himself and his people from a society that treated them with cruelty and contempt,” Satou argued, “and yet the culture that originated that cruelty still persists. You have brought it with you, kept it alive. Tell me, what does it matter if the Daimyo gets his due from our poor farming community or not? If the magistrate is denied a fraction of his ill-gotten wealth, then what of it? Why cling to these traditions when all they do is harm us? If we are to become truly self-sufficient as grandfather intended, then we should make our own rules, our own customs. The only reward for our obedience is poverty, we get nothing in return for our taxes.”

“And what of the Matsuyos? Would you have me go back on my word and disgrace our family too? I promised them a marriage and an alliance.”

“Marry the Lady Sasaki to my brother. There is legal precedent, the practice of gyauenkon. But ‘only’ if he consents. The two are very alike, both bookworms who prefer to spend their days indoors. I’m certain that they will get along well, but the choice must be his alone to make. Arranged marriage is an ugly custom that we should have left behind on the lowlands.”

“But your brother is too young to support a family,” his father protested.

“He’s only a few years younger than me, and this was always going to be a political marriage. The girl will live here with you regardless, a wife is married as much to her new family as she is to her husband, so what does it matter? The goal is to unite the two shoen, heirs will follow in time.”

“Then you would give up your title and your inheritance so that your brother can take stewardship of the shoen in your stead?” his father asked. “If so, how will you forge an alliance with the Oni that you speak of? Without a title you cannot bring their family into the fold through marriage.”

His father was still thinking in such rigid terms, as if he could only see the world through the narrow lens of lineages and inheritance.

“It would be an alliance of friendship, not of blood,” Satou explained. “They have things that we need, meat and furs. We have things that they need, grains that they can’t grow up on their peak and goods from the lowlands that they can’t access any other way. Just imagine it, two shoen and an entire village of Oni, all trading and cooperating together. We would have access to the yields of both farms with no taxation, enough rice and meat for everyone, furs enough to make a coat for every villager during the winter. The whole mountain would become like a nation unto itself.”

“And you are sure that these Oni would protect us in the event that the Daimyo sent tax collectors after us?” his father asked.

“Why would they not? The benefits are obvious for all parties. Even if the Daimyo marched an entire army of Samurai up the valley and demanded tribute, a single Oni could knock them down like a game of daruma otoshi. I’ve seen one of them kill a bear in a single strike with an iron cudgel that was longer than a man is tall. The threat alone should be enough to dissuade them.”

His mother and father exchanged glances, clearly surprised and intrigued by what Satou was suggesting. He had presented a solution that they didn’t even know was an option, and it would benefit everyone who had been wronged by his refusal to marry. Even his father’s expression had softened, could he be winning the old man over?

“This is … a lot to take in all at once,” his father finally said. “It seems too good to be true, and it will be a challenge to convince the Matsuyos. It all sounds like an elaborate excuse to get out of our obligations. I must admit that I am not yet convinced myself.”

“What would it take to convince you?” Satou asked.

“I would like to see this Oni with my own eyes, for one.”

“We should hold a meeting,” his mother interjected, her excitement at the prospect making her unusually outspoken. As the bookkeeper of the shoen, perhaps she had more insight into the potential financial gains than either of the men did. “We should invite both the Matsuyos and the Oni to the village and hold a meeting between all three parties. Then they would be able to see for themselves that Satou’s Oni is real, and we could discuss the arrangement in greater detail.”

“Very well,” his father said, “I accept your proposition Satou. We will send word to the Matsuyos and have them send a delegation. It will be your responsibility to bring the Oni here. Do not let me down again.”

Satou knew that all was not forgiven, but at least now he had a chance to make amends in his family’s eyes, and to fulfill his obligations to the shoen. If everything went according to plan, the villagers would become far more prosperous than if he had simply gone through with the marriage.

His parents stood, and Satou followed suit, rising from his kneeling position at the low table.

“It will take at least a full day for a courier to reach the Matsuyo shoen and then return with their answer,” his father said, “return tomorrow night.”

The implication was obvious enough, Satou’s father did not want him staying in the house overnight. His wife glanced at him, but she didn’t try to make Satou’s case. It was of little concern, he preferred living with Higa in the woods anyway.

His parents escorted him to the door, and then he gave them a respectful, low bow before vanishing into the night.

xxxxx

“But I can’t make this decision for my village, I’m just a hunter!” Higa protested. Satou leaned forward and stoked the fire with a long stick, a plume of grey smoke rising into the starry sky.

“Think about it, you’d have all the rice that you could eat, amongst other things. Goods from the lowlands, medicines, you name it. Do you think that your leaders would refuse the offer?”

“Well, no,” she grumbled. “I’m sure they’d jump at the opportunity. We never sought to build a relationship with the human settlements on the mountain because of their superstitions, we assumed that they would drive us off. Remember when your friend told you that I would eat you, or cause an earthquake to destroy your village?”

“Yeah,” Satou replied. It had seemed humorous at first, how off the mark Nagao and the other elders had been, and yet it posed a serious threat to Higa and her people. Even now it would take some convincing to sway the more superstitious villagers, but if she had his father’s blessing then the rest of the shoen would no doubt fall in line.

“But I don’t have the authority to make promises on my people’s behalf,” she continued.

“Who does?” Satou asked, “do you have tribal leaders or a Shogun or something?”

“The oldest among us make the decisions together,” she explained. “But there’s no way that I can climb up to the peak, ask them to deliberate, and then return with their decision in time for the meeting. The journey takes days.”

“You’re confident that they would agree, though?”

“Pretty confident, yeah.”

“I’m sure that both shoen would agree to postpone the deal until you can bring back a decision from your elders, but if you don’t make an appearance in the village, nobody will believe that you exist. Oni are creatures of myth to us, like Kappa or Dragons.”

“Just wait until the Dragons hear about this,” she muttered.

“T-There are Dragons!?” Satou exclaimed. She shot him a grin, and he leaned over to punch her arm playfully. “Very funny, now are you going to visit the village or not?”

“Fine,” she conceded, “I’ll go.”

“Thank you!” Satou said excitedly, a wave of relief washing over him. “If they can just see that you’re real with their own eyes, then everything will work out, I’m sure of it.”

“You know, it’s funny,” she added. “Your father insists that you’d make a terrible leader and that you only try to avoid your responsibilities, that you never listen to him and don’t pay attention to your studies. But now look at you now, you’re brokering a deal between three different clans that will benefit everybody, you’re drawing from all of the knowledge that you supposedly ignored. Sounds like the behavior of a leader to me.”

“You think so?” Satou asked, his cheeks flushing.

“How else would you describe it? Maybe the people in your village need a fresh perspective, someone who is going to take risks and try new things. See, that’s the problem with adhering to tradition, you can’t adapt to changing situations.”

Satou stared into the dying embers of the fire pit, feeling a swelling in chest. Was that pride?

“Well, I’ve given up my title and my inheritance to my brother, so I can’t be their leader, but if I can make this work then I will have done enough good that I can leave with my head held high.”

“You think they’ll still want you to leave after all of this?”

“I … don’t know,” he replied. “By law if I have no title I have no status, and a person with no status is a vagrant, they can’t stay in one place for too long. It makes me the lowest of the low, worse than a peasant or a merchant. That said we’re going to be bending a lot of rules to make this happen, maybe they’d be willing to bend a few more.”

Higa ruffled his hair again, then stood, yawning widely and exposing her sharp tusks.

“We should get some sleep, come on little Satou.”

He perked up at that, rising to his feet and following her towards the tent. Sleep would no doubt occur, after a time…

---

The Matsuyos had sent their reply, they were open to Satou’s plan, and they would attend the meeting so that they could see the Oni for themselves. The date had been set, and now it had arrived, the Matsuyo family was traveling to the Hisatomo shoen and Satou had been tasked with bringing his giant companion.

Higa walked beside him as they made their way down the mountain towards the village, her fur cloak draped over her shoulders and her giant cudgel slung across her back. He had been a little wary of letting her bring the weapon along, but he thought it best to demonstrate the martial prowess of the Oni, it should make the two families feel more confident about defying the tax collectors.

“I’ve never been to a human village before,” she said, “are there any special customs that I should observe?”

“Not really,” he replied, “just let me do the talking. They’ll probably be too scared of you to raise a fuss if you fail to bow at the right time or if you mess up a tea ceremony. I’ve never seen you nervous before,” he added with a chuckle.

“I’m not nervous!” she protested, “it’s just … I’ve never been around so many humans before. If you hadn’t noticed by now, I don’t attend many formal functions.”

“Don’t worry about it, everything will be fine, just follow my lead. If you can teach me to hunt and cook, I can surely get you through one meeting.”

They reached the edge of the treeline and emerged at the top of the terraces, the sprawling village spread out across the inclines below. The sunlight reflected off the rice paddies, their green stalks forming orderly rows, the lowlands visible in the far distance at the bottom of the valley. Higa took a moment to appreciate the view. It wasn’t often that the day was clear enough to see so far, they could even make out the silver gleam of the snaking rivers that spread out across the plains.

“So, how does a human village compare to an Oni one?” Satou asked.

“It’s smaller for a start. I suppose you don’t get as much snow down here, everything is at ground level.”

“Oni dwellings aren’t on the ground?”

“They are, but they’re raised on stilts, otherwise the snow would bury them.”

“Interesting…” Satou muttered. “We’d better get moving, the Matsuyo delegation is probably here by now. My house is over there,” he said as he pointed to the largest building. “Remember, just follow my lead and let me do the talking, unless they want to ask you a question directly.”

He led her down the slope, the Oni having trouble keeping to the walkways between the paddies with her oversized feet. There were villagers working in the paddies, some of them staring in awe of the towering, red-skinned woman. Others quickly made for their homes, shutting the doors behind them and peering warily out of their windows as she passed by.

Satou noticed the kago that the Matsuyo family used to travel, they were empty, resting on the ground a short distance from the house. The bearers who were standing around them scattered as Higa came into view around the side of the building, her head high enough to skirt the roof, retreating to a safe distance. She seemed more amused than offended by their reaction, which was fortunate.

Satou knocked on the door, and after a moment his father opened it.

“Ah, Satou, right on time. The Matsuyo family has already arrived. Where is your…” He leaned out of the doorway, looking to and fro as he searched for Higa. It didn’t take long for him to spot her, his eyes slowly climbing higher and widening as he examined the eight foot Oni. “ … friend…”

“Father, this is Higanbana, she is an Oni who hails from the mountain peak.”

Even his father forgot his manners for a moment, staring at the giant figure, her white hair blowing in the wind.

“H-How do you do,” he finally said, giving her a low bow along with the formal greeting. Higa looked to Satou for advice, and he gestured that she should do the same, and so the giant Oni bent at the waist to return the greeting. “If you’d like to proceed inside,” Satou’s father continued, “we can get underway. I … uh…”

He sized up the doorway, realizing that there was no way to get Higa’s massive frame into the house, she was far too tall and broad-shouldered. She could perhaps have crouched down and turned sideways, but even then there would be nowhere for her to sit, and it wouldn’t be very dignified.

“Perhaps we should hold the meeting outside?” Satou suggested, “it’s a nice day after all.”

“Yes,” his father replied, clearly relieved that Satou had suggested a solution to the problem. “I will fetch the other guests.”

He went back inside, closing the door behind him, and after a couple of minutes he emerged again. One by one the rest of Satou’s family left the house, each one reacting with surprise when they looked over and saw the Oni. His brother Nishio seemed more awed than afraid, and his mother simply stared in disbelief. Next the Matsuyos walked out into the sunlight, recoiling when they noticed the towering demon. It seemed that they hadn’t brought their daughter, which was probably for the best. Not only would Higa have terrified her, but Satou didn’t want to have to explain why he had rejected her hand in marriage…

They exchanged stilted greetings, then assembled in a clearing near the house. The bearers brought pillows for the Matsuyos to sit on, and a few of the villagers did the same. Before long everyone was seated in a circle, Higa towering over them, happy to sit cross-legged on the grass as she looked down on the humans in their formal kimonos. She seemed so out of place, yet her presence was commanding, making everyone else feel as small as they looked. His father cleared his throat, getting everyone’s attention.

“Now that we are all assembled, let us begin the deliberations.”

xxxxx

The discussion dragged on until the sun was just starting to dip behind the mountain, the two families going over the finer details of Satou’s proposition, working out everything from trade routes to rice yields. Higa became more relaxed the more that people engaged with her, and soon she was discussing the treacherous climb to her village, and what logistical difficulties merchants might encounter during their journey. She was only a hunter and so she didn’t know too much about the financial details of her village, but she knew the terrain better than anyone alive, and so her input proved more useful than Satou had anticipated.

The Matsuyos were receptive to the idea, as Satou had known that they would be. It just made too much sense to refuse. More than simply doubling the yield of rice and the size of the work force by uniting the two farms, this way they could multiply their take by a factor of eight while having to make comparatively few changes. The merger between the two families would still happen of course, but later down the line, it was no longer a pressing issue. It seemed that his brother’s marriage to Sasaki would not even be necessary for this new partnership, although it would be welcome.

The Oni was of course of great interest, and they quizzed her at length about the day to day activities of her village and the culture of her people. She explained how her settlement was located near the mountain’s snowy peak, and how their large, stone dwellings were raised on stilts or perched atop the rocks to prevent them from being buried beneath the snow. Each house was equipped with its own fire pit, used for both heating and cooking, and thick fur coats kept them warm when they had to venture outside. It seemed that several generations ago, likely due to humans encroaching on their territory, the Oni had decided to live further up the mountain. Their existence had since passed into legend, living on only as myths and stories that most dismissed as either allegory or pure fantasy.

Her people might not have many of the amenities that were enjoyed in the shoen, they had no land suitable for farming up there and they didn’t engage in trade, but they had some advantages over their human neighbors. Higa’s cudgel for example had been forged in their village, which meant that the Oni had the ability to smelt their own iron. Currently, all of the iron tools that the shoen required had to be bought from merchants, and so that presented yet another opportunity for trade.

Satou was surprised that the two families had accepted Higa so quickly. While her appearance might be fearsome, once they had managed to get her talking it had been obvious to everyone that she wasn’t a monster, but rather a perfectly reasonable and articulate woman. Their apprehension had melted away, replaced by curiosity, which Higa was more than happy to indulge. She was boisterous, she liked the attention, and it was the first time in many weeks that she had been able to talk to anyone besides Satou.

When the meeting was adjourned, everyone said their farewells, then the Matsuyos followed Satou’s mother into the house. They would stay overnight again and return to their own village in the morning, the mountain paths were treacherous in the dark. Satou got up to leave, gesturing for Higa to follow, knowing that he was not wanted in his family’s home. He didn’t let it bother him, there was nowhere that he would rather be than sleeping beside Higa in her patchwork tent.

He made his way back towards the edge of the forest, heading in the direction of Higa’s camp, but he was stopped by a figure that emerged from one of the houses. He paused, gesturing for the Oni to stop, worried that one of the superstitious old women was about to pelt his companion with soybeans as part of some banishing ritual.

Instead Nagao emerged from the shadows.

“Nagao!” Satou exclaimed, “I was worried that I might not get to see you again before I left.”

The old man looked the Oni up and down, his expression remaining neutral.

“Miss,” he began, “I’ve seen a lot of strange things in my years. But you’re by far the most unusual thing I think I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“Uh, thank you?” she replied hesitantly. The old farmer turned his attention back to Satou, his wrinkled face breaking out into a smile.

“Looks like you didn’t get this Oni business out of your system like I had hoped, young Satou. I suppose it can’t be helped. Now this unfortunate woman is stuck with you. At least your sons will be stout and healthy, that’s all a man can really ask for in this world.” Satou gestured hurriedly for Nagao to be quiet, Higa already starting to laugh. “Looks like I don’t have to keep your secrets anymore, and rumor has it that your brother is going to be taking up your mantle and leading the shoen in your stead. It’s a shame, that. He’s a bright boy, but you’ve proven your worth as a leader. Is it true that we won’t be paying taxes to the crooks down in the lowlands any longer? That my family will soon be able to eat rice and venison every night?”

“If all goes according to plan,” Satou replied with a nod.

“That’ll be another new sight for these old eyes.”

The two friends embraced, then Satou and Higa continued on their way. As the pair reached the edge of the forest, he heard someone call his name.

“Wait Satou!”

He turned, and was surprised to see his father making his way up the terraces towards him. He looked at the man in confusion, waiting for him to catch his breath.

“I wanted to tell you,” his father continued, “that I may have acted … rashly. I thought that you had forsaken your family and your responsibilities, that you had rejected everything that your mother and I had tried to teach you. That wasn’t the case, I see that now. Even after we let you storm off into the woods, you still found a way to help your shoen. If this … woman,” he said as he gestured towards Higa, “means so much to you that you would go against the wishes of your family … then I cannot stand in your way. You can return home, if you so choose, we could even build accommodations for Miss Higanbana if she wishes to remain here with you.”

“Thank you for the offer,” Higa said before Satou could reply. “But I have my own duties to attend to. I must return to my village to relay your proposition, and then once the hunting season ends I won’t be coming back down the mountain until the following year.”

“But it doesn’t have to be permanent,” Satou added, looking up at Higa. “What if during the hunting season, you and the other hunters set up camp in our village? We’re right in the middle of the forest, you’d have access to the whole mountain without fear of being driven off. It’s better than being out on your own in the wilderness, right? We have food, shelter, everything you’d need.”

“I suppose,” she replied, considering. “It would give us access to new hunting grounds too. I’ll suggest it to the elders when I arrive at the village.”

“And until then?” Satou’s father asked.

“Until then I’m staying with Higa,” he announced, giving her a pat on the thigh. “I’ll return to her village by her side.”

“You did always talk about wanting to scale the peak,” his father replied. “Very well, you have my blessing.”

They exchanged one last formal goodbye, and then his father turned back, Satou and Higa heading off into the forest. Satou could scarcely believe what he had just heard. His father never apologized, and he had never known the man to change his mind once it was set.

“That went pretty well,” Higa said once the village was out of view behind the dense trees. “When I left my village at the start of the season, I didn’t imagine I’d be serving as an ambassador.”

“I think I’ve finally earned my father’s respect,” Satou replied, “and all it took was me disgracing the family and running into a mythical creature in the woods. If only I had thought of that earlier…”

She gave him an affectionate pat on the head.

“Are you sure you want to come back to the village with me? It’s a long hike up and down the mountain, and it’s going to be pretty cold at the summit.”

“Yeah, I want to stay with you,” he replied without hesitation. “And when I say that I want to stay with you, I kind of mean … long term. Is that something you’d be okay with?”

She scratched her chin, feigning indecision for a few moments as he looked on.

“Well … you are more portable than an Oni bed warmer, so you’ve got that going for you.” She grinned at him as he trotted along beside her, peering up at her expectantly. “Aww hell kid, you look like a lost puppy, how can I say no to those eyes? My life would get pretty boring and lonely without you around anyway. At least I’ll have someone to stoke the fire pit in my hut when I’m out gathering wood.”

“You mean it? You really want me to stay with you?”

“Sure, you can travel with me when I’m hunting, and you can stay with me in the village if you think you can cut it. Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone snack on you when the venison starts to run out. You’ll be able to visit your family again when we set up camp in your village. You have to do something for me first, though.”

“Anything!” Satou replied excitedly.

“Recite your poem again, the one that you left for me on the rock when we first met.”

“O-Oh,” he stammered, his cheeks already starting to flush. “I’m not sure that I remember it…”

“Of course you do, you wrote it, didn’t you? And knowing you, I bet you agonized over every line for hours.”

She laughed at his expression, knowing that she was entirely correct. He had poured his heart into that love letter, as if perfecting every word would somehow cause her to fall madly in love with him. In a way he hadn’t been wrong, it was only because of that poem that they were together right now, it had been the catalyst that had set all of these crazy events in motion.

He began to speak, Higa smiling as she listened to him.

“I chanced upon you in the pool, the shimmering water a reflection of your beauty. Skin the color of fire and passion entranced me, like no one had before. I would weather the blows of your mighty cudgel, for just a moment of your company.”

Satou wasn’t sure that the Oni would ever admit it, but he could see how his words warmed her, the way that her mischievous grin took on a more sincere and sentimental quality.

“You dork,” she giggled, patting him on the back and very nearly knocking him off his feet. “You’re a cute dork though. Real cute. Let’s hurry back so that we can put that silver tongue of yours to better use…”

THE END OF CHAPTER SEVEN