heard it, drifting through the tunnels: a low, shuddering noise, like something gasping for breath. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck and caused the hitodama to lose form, shivering once more into a ball of light.
“What is that?” Yumeko whispered. She cocked her head, ears twitching, and a frown crossed her face. “It almost sounds like...someone crying.”
“Right, because that’s not alarming at all,” the ronin muttered. “I can think of several things that live in dark, lonely, horribly depressing caves, and all of them are things I’d rather not meet, crying or not.”
The sound faded away, and there was only silence again. Yumeko shivered and looked up at the hitodama. “Suki-san, do you know what could be down here?”
The ball of light floated toward her, rippling into the image of the girl again before shaking her head. “No,” she whispered. “I just know...that it is dangerous, and we should try to avoid it if we can. But...this is the only way...through the valley. If we want to reach the Summoning site, we must keep going.”
“Do not worry about us, Suki-san,” the noble said. “Whatever is down here, we will meet it with honor. And we will not let it stop us from completing our mission. So please...lead on.”
We continued, following the glow of the hitodama as it drifted silently through dark, narrow passages. For a time, all was quiet, but then the sound of sobbing arose once more, chilling and faint, echoing all around us. It didn’t seem to be coming from any one direction, and the sound rose and fell in waves, growing in volume before fading to barely audible whispers. As if the entire cavern and cave system was suffused with some terrible grief that pulsed from the very walls.
The deeper we went, the louder the sobbing became. Eventually, it was impossible not to hear the shuddering gasps of pain, the low, continuous moans of sorrow. Whatever was down here, we were getting steadily closer.
Yumeko suddenly paused, twitching her ears forward as if something had caught her attention. She blinked, then stepped off the path and crouched down, her gaze on the ground in front of her. Curious and wary, I stepped forward as well, and saw something small and fragile-looking in the shadow of a stone. A moment later, I realized it was a flower. An iris, the petals so dark a purple they were almost black.
“How is this growing here?” Yumeko wondered softly. Her hand hovered over it, glowing softly with foxfire, casting the tiny plant in a hazy, flickering light. “It looks...almost sad.”
“I don’t know, but maybe you shouldn’t touch the weird flower in the creepy moaning cave,” Okame suggested. “It probably drinks blood and spits out poison spores or centipedes. Something nasty like that. I say we leave it alone.”
“Whatever it is,” I muttered as Yumeko rose, and the foxfire in her hand winked out, “it means we’re close to whatever is living down here. If it’s living at all.”
“You just had to add that last part, didn’t you, Kage-san?” The ronin groaned and unshouldered his bow. “Not sure how much help I’m going to be if we meet a sobbing ghost with a penchant for man-eating flowers, but I’ll do my best. Anyone bring any exorcism slips?”
He caught himself at the last moment, wincing, but it was already too late. Yumeko sniffed, her eyes going glassy for a moment. “I wish Reika was here.”
“Yeah.” Okame sighed and put a hand on her shoulder, making a small part of me bristle. “Me, too, Yumeko-chan. But we can’t dishonor her memory by forgetting what she did. As Taiyo-san would say, she died in the noblest way possible, protecting the ones she loved. We have to follow her example and do the same. So...” He squeezed her shoulder and lifted a hand, pointing down the tunnel. “Onward! To victory, or our most glorious death.”
The shout echoed through the cave, cheerfully insolent and defiant. As if he was challenging whatever entity lurked in the darkness to do its worst. The rest of us winced or, in Yumeko’s case, flattened her ears, and continued.
As soon as the ronin stepped away, I caught up to Yumeko, touching