"Sir, what exactly is this creature?"
Looking at Sayu, who had thrown herself into her arms and refused to let go, Tatyana turned to Bai Luo with some helplessness.
This thing that resembled a human child also seemed somewhat like a tanuki.
Could it be that the Shuumatsuban, in order to train sufficiently wild operatives, actually handed their young over to tanukis to raise?
"Ah, just think of her as a human-shaped tanuki," Bai Luo said dismissively.
But his words made Sayu, clinging to her last shred of dignity, stubbornly turn her head away.
"I'm Sayu! And this isn't a tanuki outfit, it's a mujina outfit!"
"It's a tanuki."
"It's a mujina!"
"It's a mujina."
"It's a tanuki!"
"See? She admitted it herself."
"..."
Bai Luo couldn't be called the best at handling children, but he was undoubtedly the best at taming unruly ones.
Having once worked under The Doctor, he had dealt with many children.
He had also volunteered at the Hearth.
Unlike his colleagues, who relied on scolding or hitting, Bai Luo excelled at getting along with these children—while also suppressing them from their own perspective.
In short, he was the king of children.
Perhaps this was one of the reasons The Doctor had favored him back then.
After all, in the entire Fatui, Bai Luo seemed to be the only one capable of this.
"Alright, pack up. Time to move out."
Under Bai Luo's "supervision," Sayu had already finished eating, so there was no need for the three of them to stay any longer.
The shipment of Mora to Watatsumi Island would take some time, so he planned to use this period to handle another matter.
"Sir, where are we headed?"
Though he said "pack up," there wasn't much to prepare.
They just took some non-perishable rations and filled a flask with milk.
Sayu, however, seemed particularly fond of eggplants, secretly stuffing two from the fruit pile into her clothes.
She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but lately, she kept catching whiffs of a faint fishy smell in the air.
"Is that thing really that tasty?"
Noticing Sayu's little maneuver, Bai Luo couldn't help but ask.
"The flesh of this fruit is excellent for replenishing sugars and hydration, and the juice from its skin can be specially processed into dye for secret signals. Such a perfect thing is a great emergency food for ninjas!"
"Oh, so when you've been eating eggplants lately, you've been..."
"..."
A few minutes later, the eggplants Sayu had hidden in her clothes had all disappeared, replaced by incredibly sweet sunsettias.
Bai Luo remained unmoved by Sayu's protests, even giving them a fancy new name—"sunset eggplants."
The trio crossed Tatarasuna and arrived once more near Nazuchi Beach.
But compared to before, the beach was now far more heavily guarded.
The sound of the Divine Cannon firing some time ago had reignited tensions between the two sides, who had previously been at a standstill.
Several small skirmishes had already broken out on Nazuchi Beach, the battlefield.
After Bai Luo's intel about the refugee ship reached Watatsumi, the rebels—who had initially been at a moral disadvantage—finally regained the high ground.
Due to the lingering Tatarigami miasma, the sunken ship had never been cleared, so it was obvious the rebels weren't lying.
But the Shogunate's newly appointed tengu general was no fool.
Faced with the rebels' accusations, she didn't try to hide or evade.
First, she solemnly mourned the refugees killed in the bombardment, then vehemently condemned her predecessor's inhumane actions, stating he had already been punished under military law.
Though this "punishment" was merely a demotion.
Once the uproar died down, she would return to the Tenryou Commission in Inazuma City and resume her post as general.
And Kujou Masahito, the "punished" officer, would also be reinstated.
After apologizing, she then turned the tables, claiming the refugees had been deliberately infected rebels sent to spread the disease to Narukami Island's citizens.
It had to be said—people were selfish creatures.
The Tatarigami incident, already sensationalized by certain parties, had caused an uproar in Inazuma City, with vivid descriptions of the afflicted circulating widely.
After the tengu general's explanation, the Shogunate's reputation in Narukami actually improved.
Regardless of the Shogun's Vision Hunt Decree, Kujou Sara's prestige in Inazuma City was unmatched.
Add to that the fact that the Tatarigami had only been unleashed because the rebels tampered with the wards, and this war of words ended with neither side gaining a clear advantage.
The rebels suffered no major losses, and the Shogunate remained unscathed.
The real losers were the ordinary people of Yashiori Island.
While the generals waged their war of words, another battle raged unnoticed.
Under the Tatarigami's influence, Washizu had lost his mind, even sacrificing villagers and innocents to [it].
Yasumoto clung to the Naku Weed left by Naoko, tirelessly researching ways to defeat the Tatarigami.
Everything seemed calm—yet nothing was calm at all.
...
"Hold on! You have to hold on!"
On the road to Fort Fujitou, Teppei called out again and again to the one-eyed man on his back.
Logically, with such a severe eye injury, the man had every reason to retire to a safer role.
Yet when the first real battle after the propaganda war began, he had been the first to volunteer.
Teppei had joined as well—though not as a fighter, but as a medic.
As Bai Luo had told him, this was called being a "field doctor."
Even so, the sword at his side was already chipped.
"Teppei, kid... put me down. I know my own body."
The one-eyed man's arm was completely gone, the jagged wound still showing traces of bone.
He had gone to the battlefield seeking death, with no intention of surviving.
"You can be saved—you can! If we just ask Her Excellency Sangonomiya—"
"Teppei!"
With strength that shouldn't have been possible in his weakened state, the man sharply cut him off.
Then, in a frail voice, he said, "Put me down... I want some water."
After a moment of silence, Teppei carefully set him against a tree and reached for the canteen on his back—only to find it had been slashed open at some point.
If not for that canteen, the blade would have killed him.
"I'll get water. I'll go get water right now."
Teppei's hands shook as he dropped the ruined canteen, turning to search for a water source—but the one-eyed man stopped him.
With his remaining hand, the man picked up the tachi beside him, gazing at it with sorrow.
In his current state, he couldn't even draw it.
"Teppei, kid... can you do me a favor?"