I closed my eyes tightly and grabbed the fude brush, my left hand numbing to the cold resonating off of the handle as I pulled my arm back and swung it against Karamatsu's temple. With a shriek, he let go of me and staggered back with his hand pressing against his head while I scrambled away, still clutching the brush. Gathering my clothing around my shoulders, I used the downward slope of the mountain to try and outrun the angered yokai. A warmth coated my left hand and I glanced down to see it covered in blood, realizing that I had used the fude handle like a weapon.

Shaking off what blood I could, I slipped the brush back into its holding pouch and focused on running down the treacherous path. My lungs and legs worked overtime, the cold air stinging as I sucked it in.

I heard a snap before I lost my footing, falling onto the ground and crashing into a tree. The air rushed out of my lungs while my body cried for rest. I don't know how long or how far I ran, but I couldn't see either yokai pursuing me.

The wind howled around me as the snow began to fall again, the thick snowflakes clinging to the furs I wore and creating a blanket over me as I stayed huddled against the tree. I knew that I couldn't stay out in the cold for very long, but there was a chance that I would become more lost if I ventured out into the snowstorm now.

----

"(Y/n) (l/n), this is Ichimatsu Matsuno, your betrothed."

I opened my eyes to see a young man sitting across the table from me, flanked on both sides by his parents. My mother and father were sitting on either side of me, talking with the other parents about arranging a marriage and what the dowry would be.

The young man, Ichimatsu, didn't really look me in the eyes and kept his head partially lowered, as if he was against the whole purpose of this meeting. He was dressed fairly well, but his unkempt hair was a sign that he normally didn't dress in the nice silks that he was paraded in. I glanced down at my own clothes, seeing just as fancy silks adorning my body while the throbbing in my scalp reminded me that someone had spent almost an hour pulling and pinning up my hair.

The Matsuno family weren't strangers to me or my parents. We had grown up together in the same town, gone to the same school (although in different subjects), and had spent a majority of our time playing in the yard. The sextuplets had always been close with one another, but when we all turned ten, our parents had decided to play the wedding game with us.

This was my fourth wedding meeting while it was Ichimatsu's first, being the fourth-born son of the Matsuno family. The previous three had turned down the offer my parents had made and both families were almost desperate at this point.

With an agreement reached between the mediator and our parents, I was allowed to 'date' Ichimatsu, although one could say that it was a trial period for the relationship to foster.

Ichimatsu and I were then walking down a street together, the road strangely empty for the evening time.

"These brushes," Ichimatsu started, pulling out his own for emphasis, "I don't think it's a good idea to use them."

I hummed in agreement, "I think so, too."

"Then why didn't you stop me?"

I turned to face him when his voice took on an odd tone, taking a few steps back as I saw him in white and purple priest robes, with two cream-colored vulpine ears sticking out from underneath his dark hair while nine cream-colored tails fanned out behind him. Bright red markings dotted the corners of his mouth while partially outlining the outer edges of his eyes and creating a line underneath them.

"I didn't know that they were bad!" A cold spot started to form on my right hip, my voice shaking with uncertainty.

"You used us as a test."

Ichimatsu's appearance shifted once more as his ears and tails swelled in size, two of his tails sweeping under his feet to lift him up while the robes stained themselves to a light purple color, the hems turning into gold while the clothing shifted about his appearance to reveal more skin. The red markings on his face stretched in size to create a thicker red border while the one line divided into two separate lines. A long purple sash floated above him while the small bells that were on his original clothing grew in size.

"No, you weren't...!" I shook my head furiously, tears forming in my eyes as I realized I was trapped in a nightmare.

"Then why aren't you with us?!"

Once more, the vulpine features of Ichimatsu's body grew in size and completely darkened while his clothes shifted even further, pulling apart and showing more skin while its bright and vibrant colors faded to black. The red marks had spread further along his face and the color tinted her eyes a red color.

He took several steps forward, his bare feet barely touching the ground while he reached out to me with a clawed hand.

"Why did you leave us alone, (y/n)?" His voice deepened before his image was shredded from the inside, a black taloned hand reaching through the image and grabbing a handful of my kimono, dragging me towards the rift that the hand came through. The rift widened as someone pushed through it, a blackish hood with a gray hem partially revealed a royal blue tassel hanging from something underneath the hood. Piercing red eyes glared at me from underneath the hood's shadow as the figure completely stepped through the rift, revealing Karamatsu wearing a wicked sneer on his face.

"Do you think you're any better than us?"

His black taloned hand dragged me forward towards his fanged mouth, the cold feeling against my hip growing into an unbearable pain before snow swirled around me, freezing Karamatsu mere centimeters away from my skin and the summer night scenery vanishing amidst a snowstorm flurry. Karamatsu shattered and broke apart, the icy fragments growing smaller and joining the storm as a woman stepped through the barrier to stand in front of me.

Her long black hair trailed behind her as her bare feet were seen through the small seam in her pure white kimono near the ground, the only other color on her clothing was the pale blue sash wrapped around her waist. Her snow white skin was near dazzling to look at in the snowstorm, but her black eyes held no comfort as they looked down at me. The pale lips on her face turned downwards into a frown.

"Yuki-onna..."

The snow woman didn't say anything as the cold on my side grew worse, only reaching out and laying the tip of her index finger against my forehead. Her skin was cold, much colder than the pain in my side, and my breath left my mouth in visible wisps as I shuddered from the contact. I clung to the furs surrounding me and trembled as I opened my eyes to see the snowstorm had vanished along with the images of the street.

There was an old wooden roof over my head, the support beams not showing any signs of weathering as my eyes traveled down the walls of plaster. It was a small room, with a nearly broken sliding door revealing the snowstorm outside through one of the lower panels. The room was warm, the cold sensation on my side fading as my mind began to wake up. I curled up more into the furs, bringing my knees up and pulling one of the edges down to form a makeshift blanket.

The fur was a lot longer than I remembered.

"...you're awake, then."

I paused for a moment before propping myself up and looking behind me, towards the source of the voice. My heart leapt into my throat.

"Ichi...matsu..."

The furs laying across my body shifted a little before I remembered the face of the tanuki, smiling down at me with a wicked grin after taking off his disguise. I quickly rolled off the 'tails' and pressed my back against the wall opposite the kitsune, narrowing my eyes to try and perceive the deception. 'Ichimatsu' watched me with a calm look on his face, his vulpine ears slightly lowering as he pulled his tails back behind him.

"You don't think it's me."

"No...I don't..."

"...then what can I do to prove that I'm actually me?"

Memories of laughing with the disguised tanuki rose to mind, remembering that the disguised Todomatsu knew of everything secretive between us as children, "...I don't know..."

His ears lowered even further as his gaze shifted to the wooden floorboards, pressing a thumb against his bottom lip in thought. The wind outside shifted against the shack that we were in, making the wall creak a little before settling down.

"You had a chance to use the brush...why didn't you?" Ichimatsu spoke after a few moments of silence. I looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"What...?"

"Any other person would've used it, especially against a yokai like the ao andon," His tails shifted behind him to create a cushion, his back leaning onto it as he held eye contact with me, "So why didn't you?"

"I..." My voice trailed off in thought before I steeled myself, "I couldn't risk missing the chance to protect you. If I used it, then I may have turned into..."

The image of the snow woman flashed in my head, her angered expression sending a chill down my spine.

"...something I would regret."

"It's not the duty of the woman to protect the family, (y/n)," Ichimatsu's voice was much closer, drawing my attention back to him as he settled in front of me with a hand cupping my right cheek, "Granted, I've been a terrible fiancé so far...but I want to change that. I've found something that may help."

My heart skipped a beat as I took a sharp inhale, watching his movements carefully as he pulled out a weathered book from underneath his robes, laying it gently on my lap before removing his hand from my face.

"It talks about some kind of cursed brush that was used to seal away monsters. The family that owned them were close to the emperor."

I took the weathered book in my hands and gently opened it to the first page, the meticulous handwriting almost looking like it was printed. It described how a family was plagued by demons and they had reached out to someone for help. This person had devised a way to seal the monsters into ordinary objects, rendering them powerless. The journal continued to tell the tale of the family as they learned the art and helped out those in similar positions, keeping most of the objects in a hidden vault. I continued flipping through the pages before the last page revealed that the latter half of the journal had been torn out, the rips obvious near the spine of the book.

"Where did you find this?"

"...in Nagoya," Ichimatsu settled into a relaxed position, "From here, it'll take about a week to travel on foot."

"Will...you stay with me this time?" I closed the book and lay a hand across the sash where my brush rested.

"Why wouldn't I...?" A look of slight confusion crossed his face before realization settled on it, "Ah...yeah, I'll stay with you. You're still my betrothed and I still want you to stay human for as long as you can."

Tears flooded my eyes as his words brought to mind the promise he made before he vanished five years ago, my body leaning forward as the book slid off my lap, my hands reaching out and clinging to the kimono sitting on his shoulders. His ears flicked forward in surprise before holding out his arms to catch me and bring me close, nuzzling his face into my hair. I clung to my fiancé for as long as I could before my body succumbed to the wave of exhaustion that crashed over my body when relief washed through my system.

Ichimatsu was by my side once more, giving me a clue just like he had promised all those years ago.