Hime to Kaeru Part 2

"Excuse me, dear frogs, but the sun is up and the moon is on an exclusive waiting list. Hmm, that's a good one, I'll need to remember it." Abbot Okawa mumbled to himself (more than anything) as he pushed a stick into the stone lantern outside the temple. As the old monk brushed old kindling out of the lantern and brought more out from his bag, the frogs leapt away, towards their destination of The Merchant's Quarter.
Even though the sun had barely started her journey across the sky, the market stalls and worn-down streets were as alive as a wildfire.
And with just as much grace. Thought Akito.
Who would notice two frogs hopping across the thoroughfares and between the stalls?
Magda had no idea where her friend was, or if he could even help them, but she knew that somewhere in The Fisherman's Quarter, people who met him regularly could be found.
"We're going the wrong way," Akito hissed, his froggy voice lost beneath the market din. "I recognize that sake stall. We passed it three times."
"We’re circling to lose attention," Magda replied calmly. "We’ll cut through the shrine alley and approach the fishmongers from the south. Fewer people."
"We are frogs, Magda. No one is watching us."
"You’d be surprised."
As if on cue, a shadow slinked from the edge of an alleyway. A squat, round man stepped into their path with a rustle of too-long sleeves. He wore a battered straw hat that drooped over his face, and his robe was festooned with tiny bells that jingled with each movement.
He stood in their path dramatically, arms folded.
"I see you."
The frogs froze.
The man leaned forward, the straw hat tipping to reveal a sly grin, a nose like a radish, and sharp, clever eyes.
"Two noble souls trapped in unfortunate skins," he said, voice low and theatrical. "how very... poetic."
Magda tensed. Akito blinked.
Run!
Their legs were shorter, just barely, but they were small enough to be able to dodge into allies and under stalls.
After a few turned corners, another man appeared, looking similar to the first.
"You cannot outwit me with such simple movements, my slimy prey." He said and wagged his fat finger.
Is it the same man from the street back there?
"The unlucky nobles run away, hoping to evade their pursuer!" said the man in a booming voice.
Another mad dash, hopping onto a passing Norimono, then a horse, and finally down a gutter, ending up in an unused warehouse near the docks no bigger than a few horses.
In the dark, they could hear isolated tunes of a Shamisen, being fired at them like warning shots.
When a piece of cloth flew from the window, they could see the same man as before, now strumming a shamisen carelessly.
"Who are you?!" Shouted Magda towards the round man blocking the exit, but humans cannot understand frogs.
"A wanderer. A sage. A connoisseur of mischief," the man replied, voice lilting as if rehearsed. "Some call me Tantanmaru, some call me their worst nightmare."
He struck a dramatic pose, then paused. "...Was that scary? Be honest. Did I land it?"
Akito croaked in confusion.
"The trickster awaits his applause." whispered the portly man to an unseen audience.
"What?" Whispered Magda.
"I overdid it, didn't I?" Said the fat man, still frozen in his pose. "Was it scary?"
"No" said Magda.
"Not really, no" concurred Akito.
"Ah, blast!" the man sighed, dropping the pose entirely and tugging off the hat. A pair of fuzzy, rounded ears flopped free, followed by a puff of smoke and a transformation. The squat man was gone, and in his place stood a Tanuki; round-bellied, bright-eyed, and grinning with mischief.
"Much better," he said. "names aside, you two are very interesting. Especially you," he said to Akito. "Your aura smells like arrogance and desperation. Delicious."
Akito recoiled. "How do you know who we are? And I must ask you to refrain from smelling my...aura..." he said with diminishing conviction for each word.
"Because I watch, little prince. Because I listen. And because, unlike most of this city, I'm not blind to the wriggly little truths hiding under the floorboards."
Magda narrowed her eyes. "What do you want?"
"The heroes ask the right questions!" exclaimed Tantanmaru.
The tanuki raised his paws in mock surrender. "Want? Nothing! Except maybe a duet with the flute player outside the sake shop. But more importantly, I’m here to offer a... partnership. Temporary. Adventurous. Delightfully unpredictable."
He spun in place and bowed with a flourish. "I hate Kantan. He's boring. Predictable. All doom and gloom, no rhythm. He ruins perfectly good marks with his deals and his masks and his ssssnaky little voice."
He looked up at them with sudden intensity.
"You want to stop him. I want to make his life miserable. See the overlap?"
"Will this make make human again" Magda asked.
"Not just human, I want to become who I was last week!" Added Akito.
"Why wouldn't you get what you want?" said Tantanmaru.
"That's not an answer!" bellowed both frogs.
The Tanuki laughed and rolled around like an errant ball in a summer breeze, before freezing in a face of stern gravity. "When Kantan's debts are paid, all deals all null and void, including you two and that pervy old man."
"You've seen Saburo?" asked a quick-witted Akito.
"I saw you both, when I met you on the party island, before Kantan tricked you into his hut of horrors."
Akito looked to Magda, who stared long and hard at the tanuki. At last, she spoke.
"What's the catch?"
"Catch? Me? Oh no no no. I’m slippery. And besides, if I was tricking you, I’d be doing a much better job." He grinned.
Akito groaned. "Why are the only people who want to help us lunatics?"
The tanuki clapped. "Because all the sane ones are busy being swallowed by the lies they swallow! Now! Onward, my slimy comrades! We have a wizard to wreck, and I cannot do it without you."
And with that, he skipped ahead, jingling merrily, disappearing into the crowd as if the street itself had swallowed him whole.
"Our sagely guide saunters along, froggy friends in tow!" Sang Tantanmaru to himself.
Akito stared after him. "I already regret this."
"Come on," Magda said, hopping forward. "He knows the way."
And so, two frogs and a trickster marched into the unknown, toward the fishmongers, toward secrets, and toward the festival that would change everything.

The Fisherman’s Quarter bore a different rhythm than the Merchant’s bustle; wet stone and stagnant air, mold-darkened alleys where shutters were drawn even in the rising light of morning. Crude laughter floated from behind cracked doors, and children peered out with fishlike eyes before vanishing behind curtains.
It was here Magda led them, trailing frog-sized through the refuse and ankle-deep water, following memory more than sign. At first, Akito had grumbled, but the farther they went, the quieter he became. The filth, the decay; it was like walking through the inside of a rotting body.
They passed the same wall three times before Magda croaked softly and turned toward a broken arch swallowed in ivy. Beneath it, a sewer tunnel gaped, dry and half-collapsed. Her little frog-hand brushed against a brick etched with a crescent within a spiral; subtle, ancient.
She traced the carving with her slippery pad, and shuddered.
Akito shuddered in response, as if the chill Magda get spread to him like a disease.
"We're close." said Magda.
"To what?" Whispered Akito.
"And That is my cue to exit, companions! I'll go figure out what our mutual doctor-friend is up to. Don't look for me, I'll find you!" shouted Tantanmaru, who now was across the street, backing up as he spoke.
"You must tell me who your friend is, right now." Akito pleaded as Magda led them through more streets. They'd become quite good at staying clear of cats.
"When I was a little girl, my father told me a story told to him by his father, of a man who challenged the gods and got punished. I've heard it told he was cursed by a witch, and some say he was a sorcerer who dabbled in the darkest magics. I don't know which version is true."
They turned a corner, and came up to an abandoned alley leading to an old pier with an attached silo. The silo was supposed to store surplus fish, but had been empty for years.
"I don't think he knows either, but I know he's real, and that he followed me to Rokugan. I don't know why, but I've heard stories from my clients at The House of Foreign Stories. It has to be him, and he has to have something to do with those who worship Onnotangu."
Akito stopped, and watched as Magda hopped towards a shadow-draped corner.
"Are you that desperate? Are you saying the rumors in the opium dens are true? That Ryoko Owari Toshi has a group of moon worshipers?" said Akito, barely loud enough for Magda to hear.
She stopped, and turned around. "Oh, does the young prince partake of The Dragon's Breath?"
"Magda, please." he pleaded, hopping closer.
She turned around again, so that Akito couldn't read her face. "We need help, he's powerful."
Akito could still read her body-language from behind, she was shivering in the warm summer sun.
"They call him Garo, the Starving Crow."

The old building was falling apart, but the Silo still stood defiant against the decay. A small crack big enough for frog or two stood out, offering them a way into the silo.
Inside was cold, colder than the sun should allow; cold and silent, the noices from the bay and port melted away, swallowed by the thick wooden walls. The silo’s top had long since been removed, leaving a shaft open to the sky, exposing the inside to rain and hail alike.
Inside was not a room, but a wound; a space gnawed into being by a hand that did not care if it bled. The air felt thick and damp, like the breath of a sleeping god; heaving as the wood bent, and every surface bore the weariness of something too long hidden. Rust and salt crusted the stone and wood in gritty veins, and spiderwebs clung to the corners, sagging with the weight of damp ash.
The silence inside wasn’t peace, it was pressure. As if sound itself feared to linger.
A narrow altar sat in the center, fashioned from scavenged planks and sea-worn stones. Around it, candle stubs melted into the earth.
That altar—constructed of driftwood, bone, and weathered offerings—was set in the silo’s center like a growth, rising from a base of melted candles and salt circles, surrounded by bones so small and fragile they might have been birds or children. The wood had been carved, not with precision, but with intent.
Akito shivered. Not from cold, but the feeling of being watched.
From above?
The smell was wrong. Not decay, not incense. Something faint and metallic, like blood behind a wall. It tugged at the nose without source, an itch in the brain that whispered:
This is holy, but not for you.
They couldn't see a way into this place, only the open top and the small crack they entered from.
But people had been here, recently.
Makeshift futons.
Broken opium-pipes.
Crusted cloths and sake-cups, still wet.
Magda hopped forward. She scratched a rune into the side of the altar—something foreign, old and sharp. Her hand trembled.
"What is that?" Akito asked, afraid that his words might draw the attention of...something...
"We need to leave." Magda said curtly, as she hopped back out, desperate to leave. Akito did not need to be convinced.

Outside, the two frogs finally took a breath, the rancid air of The Fisherman's Quarter felt like life itself, Magda almost cried, Akito cried.
"I hate magic." Akito said, once they were out of sight of the silo.
"How are you feeling?" Magda offered her sympathies.
"Better, you?" He returned.
"Good, I'm sorry for not telling you more beforehand."
"That was worse than Kantan, why did you think this would help us?"
"It's not over yet, we're meeting him on the docks the night before Kiku Matsuri. I wrote the runes for Frog, pier, and tomorrow on the altar. Someone will see it and tell someone higher up, eventually word will reach him."
"I'm not sure I want that." said Akito, pleading.
"We have a little bit over a day until he find us, let's wait nearby until Tantanmaru finds us."
"Tell me about your homeland, and leave Garo out of it, if you can." Akito requested as the prince and geisha hopped away.
The two of them ended up on the shore, watching the boats go by as Magda told Akito fanciful stories of wolfs as big as houses, and snow-covered mountains as old as the world.
Akito, in turn, told her of the fantastical gardens of the Crane capitol, Kyuden Doji. He had studied arts and politics under the finest tutors, and recited some poetry from memory.
Magda had learned a lot of poems by heart as well, from listening to suitors and slightly drunk samurai.
Every third or fourth poem, Magda could finish from hearing it before.
Eventually, they made a game out of it, until Tantanmaru returned.
"The hero returns, to feed the warriors!"
"I thought we were the heroes, Tanuki." corrected Akito.
"Presently, Tantanmaru is the hero, because he brought food!" Boomed the tanuki, currently in the shape of the portly man, swinging a small basket or assorted fish and bread.
"How did you buy that?" asked Magda, while reaching for a piece of fish.
"Tell me their name and I'll have them reimbursed" added Akito, as he plated the food and prayed in gratitude.
"I've been following Kantan and Saburo all day. Settle in, kids!" Tantanmaru sat down violently, causing both of the frogs to bounce up slightly.

"Shosuro Palace , noon, the sad man meets with the grumpy governor! Our clever hero hides nearby and hears their schemes. They talk for ever about boring things, things that cannot possibly be remembered!"
"Please, Tantanmaru, what did they say?"
"Blah blah blah, something about the shiny inn, blah blah blah, the governor's daughter. Fiance busy, Akito entertains because of similar age to Kimi, sad man leaves."
The tanuki ate some of the rice, seemingly remembering more details the fuller he got.
"Saburo will be at The House of the Morning Star during Kiku Matsuri, I lost Kantan after they both left The Licensed Quarter."
"Kantan can't leave the island without express permission from his patron. He's supposed to be as trapped as I am."
"That dirty old man! In the guise of Akito, he's arranged a date with the Shosuro Kimi. THIS is what he uses my face for?!"
"Ah, but the plot thickens! The witch-doctor TOLD Saburo to make sure to kiss Kimi before the moon reaches its zenith!"
"A kiss is a contract, like the handshake! That's how your hex transferred to me! Kantan must be trying to get to Kimi!"
"So now we know where one of the villains will be during our climax, and what they want to do. But where oh where is the main antagonist?"
"He's gotta be somewhere to finish his ritual, somewhere he won't be interrupted."
"But at least we know where Saburo is"
"The final act approaches! Let's hope Magda's terrifying friend can help us out!"
As the night carried on, the three companions ate their food, and talked about where they would hide, were they Kantan.
Eventually, they fell asleep under a pier, all three feeling well ahead of schedule, Kiku Matsuri was almost two days away.
When Magda awoke, Tantanmaru had left, and Akito was nowhere to be found.

At the darkest point of the night, at their most vulnerable, the bats had taken Akito away.
They flew silently, after spending several days tracking the frogs by the scent of their blood.
Akito had awoken to a noise and, not wanting to wake Magda, gotten up to investigate it.
Black leathery wings and relentless claws had quickly draped him in darkness, and carried him through the night sky towards Teardrop Island, to the top of The House of the Morning Star, where Saburo had rented a small belfry.
"For master! For blood! For master! For blood!" cried the bats as they shoved the frog into the small cage he had woken up in several days ago.
No protest from Akito was heard over their cackling, and no struggle could avail him from their grip. If one of them dropped him, three more would swoop down and catch him.
A few of the bats appeared to attempt some professionalism in their kidnapping, while some wanted to show off for their bat friends.
Even bats have a tapestry of minds, it seems.
"Keep him here, until master returns!" screeched one who appeared to garner some sort of...not respect, but fear?
Two of the more jovial bats held him down while another bit into his neck, causing Akito to black out once more.
"The blood! The blood!" they cried, as his essence was spat out into jar, awaiting Kantan's return.
He awoke later, when the sun was already up, two bats standing guard in the top of the belfry. From here, Akito could see almost all of Ryoko Owari toshi. The spires of the Shosuro Palace and the Grand Temple to Daikoku stood out as the highest peaks.
"Your froggy friend will think you have abandoned her." taunted a bat as it poked his belly with a sharp talon.
"You spread the curse to her, and then left for Teardrop Island to cure yourself. That's what she'll think!" he prodded some more.
"Magda knows I pay my debts, she's seen me promise reimbursement to every citizen we've taken from these past few days, and even helped me keep track of them." replied Akito, stalwartly.
"The storehouse near the Festering Pit, the fish-merchant on pier 2, the abbot near the temple of Amaterasu, the squid-griller near the Garden of Daikoku." He counted on his finger, then stopped and looked his captor in the eyes.
"Will your master pay your debts? Have you ever seen him keep his word?" he challenged the bat, who paused his prodding and began to contemplate.
"Don't listen to him!" screeched the larger bat, further away.
They can hear as well as I thought.
"Master will reward us, and punish those bats that disobey."
"Only if he wins, he's collecting a lot of debts at the moment." said Akito, calmer than he had any right to be.
"The room he has downstairs is in my name, using my face. If you help me restore my face, I'll restore this belfry. Look at me, you know I do not lie." he stared at the smaller bat in his cage.
The larger bat, outside the cage, gave a warning look.
Akito stood up, and walked towards the edge of the cage, which now only opened from the top.
"Even if you do not help me escape, I will not take revenge."
"You promise?" asked the smaller bat, tentatively.
"If I live, it'll only be because of you. No matter how this ends, I'll owe my life to the belfry."
The bigger bat twitched his ears.
"You don't have to help me, you'll just have to not warn the others, and tell them how I'll get you all a better belfry." promised Akito.
The smaller bat, smiling wildly, lifted Akito out of the cage, out of the belfry and into the evening sky.
They made it almost all the way across the river, until the other bats caught wind and followed. Due to not carrying a frog, they were bound to catch up.
The smaller bat desperately tried to explain how nice and tidy the belfry would become as they others caught up, but to no avail.
Ahead, Doji Akito could see the pier Magda talked about, and he imagined she was there, waiting for Garo.
Through the light of the setting sun, Akito could see a dark, irregular cloud approaching quickly.
More bats?
No, they were much too fast, and made more noise than the bats had done.
The sky split into ribbons of wings and shrieking. Crows descending in a frenzy, black feathers flashing like blades as they tore into the bats mid-flight.
Feathers against leather, talon against tooth. Akito clung to his steed, its face contorted in fear and confusion, wind screaming past his ears. Another bat burst apart in a spray of withered petals and bone-charms, and Akito shouted
"Stop! Don’t! I’m still here!" but his voice was swallowed by the storm. A claw grazed him. Another wing clipped his ride. Then, with a sickening spiral, he tumbled, spinning, spinning—down through feathers and moonlight until the river’s black mouth swallowed him whole.
Cold hit like knives. The current dragged him down, and he barely surfaced before a hand, soft, shaking, familiar, pulled him from the water.
"So that's where you've been all day, my prince" she said between gasps, both hers and his. Above them the crows and bats slowly separated.
"That must be Garo's crows. Every story about Kråkan (he goes by Garo now) contains those birds, as spies or companions." she explained as she looked straight up.
"Fascinating, are we safe now?" Akito gasped as he climbed back on firm land.
"Safer, at least. The sun is setting, let's get to the pier."

"What do you want, Magda?" asked Akito, seemingly out of the blue, as they sat on the lonely pier, watching boats go by in the night. The river licked at the posts below like a drunk lover, all tongue and no shame.
"I'm sorry?" came the reply, after a small delay. "Did we not have this conversation earlier?"
"When somebody can overpower you and want something from you, they don't need to negotiate. When you are their servant, they don't need to negotiate. For everyone else, there's diplomacy."
"Is this your free lesson on Crane Diplomacy?" she said with a raised eyebrow.
"It can be many things at once. It is rare to have somebody actually want to destroy you. Kantan doesn't want to destroy me, he only needs my blood. He only needs my blood because he has decided to perform this unholy ritual that'll take place tomorrow. I'm not his enemy, I'm just in his way."
Akito kept going, leaning back and looking at the stars. "So," he continued, “you give them what they want. Or make them think they have it. Or make it easier for them to not want it anymore. That’s diplomacy.”
"That's manipulation."
"Manipulation is just getting what you want without stating it. Manipulation is for the very weak and the very strong. The beggar cannot afford to tell the samurai what he'll use the koku on. The emperor doesn't need to tell anyone what he wants, he'll get it anyway. Manipulation is the key behind politics and courtesy and personal relations. Manipulation is civilisation." He kept going, never taking his eyes of the stars above.
"You have the power to destroy people with words, you should wield it more carefully."
"People are already on the path to their own destruction. I just get out of their way."
A small pause.
"There's three ways of getting what you want: force, trickery, and negotiation. Everybody wants to get what they want, naturally. The question is..." he turned to Magda "what does your friend Garo want?"
A crow landed behind them, staring at the space between them.
Before they could react, it was joined by countless more.

Garo didn’t arrive. He simply was...already standing there, back turned to us, as if he'd been watching the moon for hours.
His posture made no sense: feet flat, spine bent backwards in a bow impossible for the living. His silhouette wavered in the wind like threadbare laundry left too long in the rain.
He didn't look at them, at first. He was facing the empty night sky and the solitary clouds lit by the moon. Akito couldn't be sure, he couldn't really see his eyes.
He was a skinny, corpse-pale man, rail thin like a beggar moments before they passed on, or maybe moments after.
His feet stood planted firmly on the creaking pier, as the rest of his body seemed to bend in the wind, like a bunraku puppet left to rot.
He was dressed like a beggar, with cheap rags knotted around his waist, while his upper body looked like it was carved from ancient wax.
His hair draped across his gaunt face and pallid back, impossibly whiter than his skin. In one of the sockets that should hold one's eyes, Akito could spot the glint of an old coin.
His hair was parted in his forehead by a huge metal spike sticking out of it, like the horn of a unicorn, bursting from his forehead. Akito couldn't see a wound, so it must have been there a long time.
He finally spoke, after several agonizingly still moments.
"Good evening, Magda."
"Garo..."
"What do you want, Magda?" he asked, a voice as eerily still as his face.
"Garo, Kråkan. I know you've tried contacting me before, and I apologize for not finding the time to...do so" Magda stuttered out, expecting to be interupted.
"They treat me like a god, Magda. They only want me when they want something from me. What do you want, Magda?"
"I...I want to become a human again, as does Doji Akito!" She hastily introduced Akito, who had yet to make a word.
Akito fell to his knees, and Magda followed. "My name is Doji Akito of the Crane Clan, I've been put under a curse by the Maho-Tsukai Kantan and I beg you for aid to lift the curse!"
"Will that bring you pleasure?" asked the pale man, looking down at the bowing frogs.
A pause. Akito could not find an answer before The Starving Crow spoke again.
"It's the end of every road. Pleasure. Some chase it now, drowning themselves in sweet rot, others mortgage their souls for later; honor, duty, heaven. But it’s all taste. All craving. A man might drive himself mad from drink, choosing a heap of pleasure now, and paying for it later. A man might sacrifice his life for honor, hoping to end up in Yomi. It's all about pleasure and pain. I am alive."
He squatted, facing the frogs. "What about you?"
He's insane. This man cannot be trusted to help us!
"Birds fly according to instinct." The pale man rose, silently, like an birch reaching for the sky. "Noone told them how or why. To survive? To connect? Just to die a ruthless death? That's life. Only humans die of old age."
"Kantan will destroy this city! Maybe not you, but your followers and this city will be lost if he wins!" Magda croaked, as defiant as a dove against a storm.
"Why did you not seek out your countryman until you were desperate? Because it felt good to do so, and it would have felt bad to come see me. It's just a mechanism. The brain is a device, the heart is an organ. But humans are more than what they are. A machine simply reacts, before the moon's domination."
Garo's arms shot up, faster than any of them could see, reaching towards the shining moon above them. "As worthless as the Sun above clouds, we all reign!"
Not as sound could be heard, not the crows, not the creaking of the boards.
Was the moon making a noise? Was it getting bigger? Why does my heart feel like it's stopped?
"Kantan is at the Festering Pit's Cemetery." Garo finally said, lowering his arms. "He's setting up a ritual in time for the full moon, a lot of people will die." He was calm now, still as the grave, and spoke matter-of-factly.
"Come see me when this is all over, Magda."
"I will, Garo." she replied, reflexively.
Then the moon blinked.
And he was gone.
Not even the crows stayed behind.