side of the door. It was elegant in its simplicity, with warm tan walls, thick tatami mats and a small alcove with a single ayame-iris in a vase. There were no beds, as it was too early for the futons to be pulled out of the closet, so a low table sat on the floor in the center of the room. A tray with a teapot and cups had been placed on the table, steam curling gently from the spout.
Tatsumi shut the door, removed the straw sandals the inn had provided for interior use and placed them by the door. I followed his example, and he nodded to one of the pillows at the table. “Sit down,” he ordered, without any explanation of why or what he was going to do. I did as he instructed, gingerly lowering myself onto the blue pillow, clenching my jaw as my leg throbbed with the movement.
Tatsumi knelt at the end of the table, reached under his obi and drew out a packet of colored paper that could fit in the palm of my hand. He placed it on the table and opened it carefully, revealing small amount of what looked like green dust. As I watched, fascinated, he poured hot liquid from the teapot into a cup, then carefully trickled a few drops onto the powder.
“What...is that?” I asked.
Ignoring me, Tatsumi mixed the green dust with the water until it became a paste. Picking up the entire square, he held it gently in his palm and looked up. Glittering violet eyes met mine, and my stomach turned over.
“Where did the kamaitachi cut you?”
I hesitated, feeling my heart beat faster under my robes. He was so close. The scroll was safely tucked away in the furoshiki over my shoulder, but would he see it? Would he get close enough to feel it?
Tatsumi didn’t move, eyes flat and expression blank as he waited. I paused a moment longer, then carefully pulled up the hem of my robe, showing the long, straight gash on my thigh. It was red and angry-looking, and it throbbed like a dozen hornet stings, but it still wasn’t bleeding. And somehow, seeing it clearly made it hurt all the more.
Tatsumi didn’t blink. In one smooth motion, he scooped up the green paste in two fingers, reached down and smeared it firmly onto the cut.
“Ite!” I yelped, jerking my leg back, startled by both the sudden, dizzying pain of my wound, and the casual treatment from the human in front of me. He gave me a puzzled look, as if he didn’t understand my reaction.
“It’s a healing salve,” he explained. “It will numb the injury and keep it from becoming infected.” He reached for my leg again, and I flinched away, making him frown. “Do you not want aid? We have to take care of the wound now or it will start to bleed soon. Let me see it.”
“It hurts,” I gritted out, pulling back my hem to expose the gash again. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been cut by a sickle weasel, Tatsumi, but this is my first time, and it hurts quite a lot. Please, be more gentle.”
“Gentle.” He gave me another puzzled look, as if the concept was completely foreign to him.
“Yes. Kind? Tender? Not making it feel like my leg is going to fall off?” He still looked baffled, and I frowned. “Haven’t you had injuries treated before?”
“Of course. But the intent was always to treat the wounds as quickly and efficiently as possible. Showing pain is a weakness—it exposes you and lets your enemies know you are vulnerable.”
“Oh.” I was starting to understand my cold, dangerous travel companion a little better. “We were raised very differently, I think.”
He tilted his head, regarding me with appraising violet eyes. “You weren’t punished for showing weakness while injured?”
“No. Denga-san once said that I didn’t need to be punished when I injured myself doing something stupid, because the injury was all I needed to learn not to do it again.”
Tatsumi frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, I learned that you really shouldn’t climb onto the temple roof at midnight during a rainstorm. And that if you’re going to pop out of a closet to scare a martial arts master, be ready to duck. And if you have to flee an angry bear in the forest by climbing a tree, you should first check that there aren’t any hornets’ nests hiding under the branches.”
Tatsumi only stared at me, looking faintly bewildered. I sighed.