could not be ignored, I crept around the house, peering down the slope into the graveyard.
It was no longer empty.
The entire cemetery glowed with a strange, sickly green light that illuminated the dozens of bodies shambling between graves. They were naked, emaciated creatures, with sticklike limbs and bloated, distended bellies. Vaguely human, they walked hunched over or crawled through the dirt like animals, their gaping mouths showing rows of jagged, broken teeth.
Gaki.
I crouched in the shadows of the hut, realizing my mistake. This village was haunted, but not by a single yurei. Gaki were the spirits of greedy or wicked humans who had died and returned cursed with eternal hunger. No matter how much they ate, they were always starving, and nothing could satisfy them. They were creatures to be pitied, and a single gaki wasn’t normally considered dangerous, but if no food could be found, they were known to turn violent, seeking anything, living or dead, to quell their agonizing hunger.
Watching the gaki shuffle between gravestones, a cold fury began creeping through my veins at the realization, fed by Hakaimono. The villagers had known about this. Now I understood the fear and anticipation. We weren’t “honored guests” as the headman would have us believe: we were sacrifices to the gaki.
Carefully, I drew back, and suddenly realized I was not alone. The monk stood beside me, also gazing down at the roaming gaki, his face hidden in the shadows of his hat. Before I could do anything, he raised his staff, the metal rings glimmering in the darkness, and brought it down with a thump in the dirt. The rings chimed, a metallic jangle that echoed like a gong in the silence, and as one, the gaki whirled, their hollow, burning eyes fixed on me.
I leaped away as, with howls and piercing shrieks, the gaki rushed forward, scuttling over the bamboo fence and swarming up the rise. Darting into the hut, I ignored the snoring ronin and hurried to Yumeko, grabbing her by an arm.
“Yumeko!” She blinked as I hauled her upright, her eyes wide with astonishment as I set her on her feet. “Get up!”
“Tatsumi? What are you—”
A shriek interrupted her, as a twisted, lanky form appeared in the open doorway. Mouth gaping the gaki screamed and lunged at us, curved nails grasping like bird talons. Yumeko gasped, and I leaped between them, Kamigoroshi flashing from its sheath. The blade sliced through the gaki’s bony chest, and the tortured spirit wailed as it shivered into tendrils of black-green mist and writhed away.
“Get the ronin on his feet!” I called, as more gaki appeared through the frame, eyes blazing with madness and hunger. Planting myself in the doorway, I met them with my sword drawn, blocking the way in. Hakaimono, its rage forgotten, flared with excitement at the prospect of killing, bathing the mob in purple light.
Howling, the gaki lunged, teeth bared, claws snatching at me. I cut them down as they surged forward, slicing through limbs and heads alike, splitting sticklike bodies in two. The gaki showed no fear or self-preservation as they came forward, throwing themselves on my blade with mindless fury, their consuming hunger driving them mad. Even if I cut off a limb, the owner would still press forward, raking with the other, or trying to bite me if both were gone. They dissolved into ethereal mist as they were destroyed, but there were always more, a seemingly endless horde crowding the tiny entrance of the hut. A talon got through my defenses and ripped a gash across my neck, and the smell of blood seemed to drive the mob into an even greater frenzy.
Something buzzed by my ear, inches from the side of my face, and an arrow thumped into a gaki’s forehead, sending it writhing into mist. As I slashed through another, a second arrow flashed between my arms, and a gaki howled as it disappeared. Through the chaos and fury of battle, I vaguely realized that the ronin either had perfect aim and timing to shoot through a doorway with me still in front of it, or he was getting insanely lucky.
“What are these things?” I heard Yumeko cry, somewhere behind me. “What do they want?”
“Gaki!” the ronin called back, as another arrow buzzed along my ribs and hit one in its bloated stomach. “Hungry ghosts! You can’t reason with them. Poor bastards are starving and will try to eat anything, including us.”
Another talon got through and latched on to my sleeve, ripping