“What do you mean?” Cara asked.
“Are they not demons themselves?” I asked. “They certainly carried the foul taint of the demonic.”
Kai looked at Cara, then at me, but she didn’t answer straight away. “Let’s go into the house and find Toshiro. There is some explaining to do.”
“I will continue out here,” General Koshu said.
Kai and Cara followed me through the main hall and out back of Toshiro’s house, crossing the practice courtyard and entering the peaceful garden. Here, we found Toshiro sitting at the table where we had talked the previous evening. He was still wearing his samurai armor, but he had taken off his helmet and laid it on the ground beside him. The old warrior was deep in thought, but he looked up at us and smiled as we approached.
“Ah, here you are,” he said. “My servant Win told me you were on your way. I’m glad to see you. Leo, Cara, I trust you have profited from the recent battle? You have gained more upgrades?”
“More than that,” I said to him. “We gained a whole new Persona.” I gestured to Cara.
She held her arms out to show Toshiro the beautiful costume she was wearing. As he looked appreciatively at her, she summoned the combat aspect. The Persona shimmered and transformed into the hunter outfit, with the long bow and twinned blades looking impressive in the bright afternoon sun.
“I am very glad to hear it!” Toshiro smiled as Cara changed back to the non-combat aspect. “You will need every advantage to fight and defeat the evil that is in this land.”
“You mean ‘we’,” I said. “I’m hoping you will come with us when we go.”
“I’m honored by your request, but surely you will not want a non-magic user like me along with you...?”
“On the contrary,” I interrupted him. “As you say, we will need every advantage. I’d like you to come along with us. If you are willing, of course.”
If this had been Saxe, and I was working for Thane Johan, I could have forced this warrior to take up arms and join me. But this wasn’t my homeland, so I went for a request rather than a command.
“I plan to go with them,” Kai put in, “and I’m no magic user.”
“Not yet, at least,” Cara said under her breath.
I glanced at Cara and found her giving me a private smile. Her meaning was clear. She seemed keen on the idea of me sleeping with Kai to give her the power to use Personas.
“There are ways you can gain the power of the Personas,” I said ominously, sparing a quick wink in Cara’s direction.
“There are?” Kai asked, genuinely intrigued.
“If this is so, then I must learn them!” Toshiro’s excitement far outweighed that of Kai.
“Uh,” I said, not realizing that Toshiro would be as interested as Kai. “Well, you see, I don’t exactly enjoy the feel of a man’s flesh, and I prefer to penetrate rather than be—”
Cara slammed an elbow into my side, and I shut up right then. I knew of some Saxen men who enjoyed the company of other men in their tents at night, but I was certainly not one of them. A pair of breasts and a tankard of mead was all I desired. Well, perhaps more than a single pair of breasts.
The thought of such things made my attention turn to Kai, whom I realized was staring at me, her eyebrows knitted together as she waited for me to speak.
“There are ways,” I said. “Toshiro, I don’t believe you could achieve them. Kai, however, may yet be capable of wielding Personas.”
“Very well!” Toshiro said, standing up suddenly, as though to hide his disappointment. “I will go with you. I will be glad of the opportunity to free my old friend Yakuna from the influence of the Kanosuru.”
“Yakuna?” Kai asked. At the mention of this man, she seemed to have forgotten how I hadn’t really answered her question about how she could wield Personas like Cara and me.
Quickly, Toshiro explained to Kai about Yakuna, the brave samurai who had traveled into the hills behind Otara to fight the Festering and had never returned. Kai listened thoughtfully, nodding her head.
Servants brought cool drinks for us, and more chairs. We sat around the little table to discuss our course of action. Kai told us that she had been through Otara recently, and that the Shogun there was under the influence of the Festering.
“The way it manifests in him is different to the others,” she explained. “For Shogun Morai, it’s more like he has control over it, not the other way around. There is no sign of the chaos and terror that the Festering usually brings. Yet there are strange tales of dark spirits that roam the streets at night. These monsters eliminate any of Otara’s rivals in dreadful ways.”
“What did you mean when you mentioned the Tengu earlier?” Cara asked. “You said something about them fighting on the wrong side?”
“That’s right,” Kai answered. “I was coming to that. The mindless, enslaved creatures that we have seen and fought on this battlefield are a corrupted form of Tengu. In Otara, there is a group of Tengu who are the main players in the resistance against the Shogun’s tyrannical regime. The resistance fighters are led by a Tengu woman, a charismatic leader named Nika. She is a friend to me. The Tengu are persecuted in the city, and that makes them less willing to submit to the Shogun’s decrees. But Nika has disappeared. We need to find her before we can do anything about what is happening in the city. We will need her help to rally the resistance against the Shogun.”
“The Keeper mentioned four enemies in Otara that we would have to face,” I said.
“The Keeper?” Kai asked.
“He’s the man who sent Cara and I into your world. I’m not sure exactly who—or
