'Say, why are you wearing this paper bag on your head?' I asked Kū with an awkward smile, as we headed to the Sho workshop all together, alongside Kōmori-san.

Everyone on the road seemed to be staring at us while we walked and it wasn't only an impression. It was definitely not common to see someone walking around, her face covered in a paper bag, with two holes pierced into it for the eyes.

'I'm way too shy to show my face in public,' she murmured, uncomfortably.

'Oh, I- I see,' I said, dumb-founded.

I had never met anyone this timid in my life!

As we came across of a clothes shop, suddenly I had an idea.

'Wait for me here!' I told them and hurried into the shop to buy a scarf. I opted for a long pink one, hoping that Kū would like the color.

'That's a lot better, don't you think?' I told her, taking the paper bag off her head and offering her the scarf in its place. She wore it immediately, covering her neck and the bottom part of her face with it.

Unexpectedly, she broke into tears, puzzling me.

'I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong?' I asked, anxiously and she shook her head, answering, 'No. Not at all. Thank you.'

These were tears of joy.

'Tsk! It's hard to tell when she's happy and when she's sad!' commented Hi, and Sui berated him, 'Don't you pick on her!'

And they began to quarrel all over again...

The workshop hadn't been difficult to find. Everyone knew the Sho around town.

Of course, the habitants of Tsukiyama weren't aware of the real legacy of Hatsu's family. For the town-folks, the Sho were renowned for their weekly local gazette. Their office was situated close to the train station.

But the Sho also owned a store eastward at the periphery of the town. It was there that- under the cover of office material store house- they fabricated their special firearms. I only had to ask around a bit to be indicated the way.

Unfortunately, when I reached the store, Hatsu wasn't there anymore. I doubted that he had returned to the manor, so I decided to search for him around town.

The streets were very crowded for the Obon festival was being celebrated in Tsukiyama and the whole region. In Toda, Obon was celebrated at a different time.

As we were walking around town, I glanced over my shoulder at Hi and Sui who were busy quarrelling with each other. They were never in agreement with each other over something. They were always in conflict. I guessed that it was their opposite affinities that wanted this.

It didn't take much time for their quarrelling to degenerate into a physical fight. As I watched, Sui shoved Hi backward and the latter bumped into a young boy who dropped his ice-cream. The kid began to weep.

'Don't cry! Be a man! Real men do not cry because of an ice-cream!' Hi muttered at the boy.

'What are you saying?' Sui growled. 'You made him drop his ice-cream; apologize immediately!'

'I point out to you that it's you who pushed me! Why should I be the only one to apologize?'

Seeing the turn of events, the kid scooted away before they would start hitting on each other.

'WOW!' exclaimed Chi, in all of a sudden, making all of us jump. Our eyes zeroed on her where she was standing in front of a stuffed animals shop, her nose glued on the window in which a range of articles were displayed. 'It's so cute!'

I couldn't help but feel a bit cynical.

She put up a quiet and tough look, but she was extremely fond of cute things.

'I want it!' she declared, her eyes set onto a stuffed cat. She readied her punch, preparing to break the window when, I jumped in the middle.

'Wait! What are you doing?' I exclaimed, almost having had a heart attack. 'You need to buy it if you want it!'

She paused to stare at me in the eyes.

'Then buy it for me! I want it!' she stated with an intimidating look.

When we left on a mission, the members of the organization were given some capital for traveling and other important expenses necessary for the accomplishment of the assigned mission. All expenses that didn't have anything to do with the mission were deducted from our payment.

It was going to be a little embarrassing to mention the purchase of a stuffed animal in my report.

'Okay! Alright! But you wait for me here!' I decided, before rushing into the shop and buying her the stuffed cat.

She was rubbing her face fondly against the stuffed animal and smiling happily to herself when we resumed our walk.

Well, well! She seems to be on cloud nine!

'Oh, if only Chi-sama could take me in her arms and fondle me in the same way!' declared Fū, hugging himself and squirming, imitating a kiss.

Chi's expression twisted at this and enraged, she punched him in the face, snapping, 'Pervert!'

I giggled.

***

A small while later...

We ended up in the northern part of Tsukiyama where the land formed a small cliff with the mountain in the background. It had been made a public space, where we could have a nice view over the town.

The ground was paved, the edge of the cliff secured with a balustrade. There was a beautiful fountain in the middle, with benches all around the place for people to sit.

The area was desert though.

By the large river which crossed through Tsukiyama, there was a carnival for celebrating Obon with summer festival foods, games and rides. I guessed that it was where everyone was gone. I wondered if Hatsu was there too. I should have probably searched for him at the carnival.

'Are we going to have to walk for any longer?' groaned Hi.

'Will you quit complaining all the time?' Sui growled at him.

'What?! That's not true! I don't complain all the time! And even if I did, how is that your problem? I complain if I want to!'

'"How is that my problem?!" Are you really asking me the question? You're a pain in the neck to all of us!'

'Oh yeah? Will you repeat that? Maybe you think that you're too perfect?'

Oh no!

They had fisted each other's T-shirt now, their noses almost touching, their eyes set into glares.

What followed wasn't very surprising.

Sui punched Hi in the face, knocking his off several meters away where he crashed on the ground. The latter picked himself up almost immediately and to my stupefaction, he blew a jet of fire out of his mouth.

Sui skipped the attack just in time but it hit the mountain, burning part of the forest on it instantaneously to cinders.

My mouth went agape.

'You want to play it like this, huh? Alright!' sneered the blond and a whirlpool shot out of his palm in a dash which he aimed at Hi.

Sui missed the redhead but he didn't give up, continuing to assault him with the same attack, half-flooding the place as he continued to missed the latter, while Hi shot jets of fires randomly.

My heart jumped to my throat. WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!!!

'Bloody idiots! Will you stop it?' Chi snarled at them as she kicked the ground with her foot, breaking it inside out, knocking Hi and Sui down.

I was utterly floored. I wished I could pass out now.

'What-What took over you?' they demanded at her, awe-struck.

'Oh my goddess, that was so classy!' exclaimed Fū who threw himself at Chi to hug her only to be cut off in his stride with a kick in the gut.

He fell onto his back on the ground, holding his stomach and grinning widely like a happy fool.

'No, it can't be! Where is it?' exclaimed Chi, hysterically in all of a sudden and she searched through the rubbles. 'Where did it go?'

I realized that she was looking for her stuffed animal in the ruins. When she didn't seem to find it, she turned towards Hi and Sui, her expression a terrifying mixture of diabolism and sadism.

'You mongrels! It's all your fault!' she exploded, preparing to jump at the two terrorized boys like a wild animal. Kū and I reacted on the spot and grabbed her arms, holding her back. She struggled with us and I wasn't sure that the two of us would be enough to restrain her.

Kū, who had been weeping ever since the boys had started hitting on each other, started to cry even harder, begging the dark-haired girl to stop while I promised Chi to buy her another stuffed animal, but nothing seemed to be able to calm the latter down.

'Shun, have you been looking for me?' called a familiar voice at that moment and my head snapped around to see Hatsu. He stopped several feet away, his eyes traveling around the place, his expression puzzled. 'But wait! What happened here?'

Out of the blue, from the corner of my eyes, I noticed a human-shaped figure composed entirely of smoke behind the girls and me. My head snapped around on the spot to see the creature dash at us.

Reflexively, I pushed Chi and Kū out of the way and the creature went into me head on.

My eyes had closed on themselves and when I opened them up, there was no trace of a smoke. I had felt a shock upon impact, but that was all.

At least, that was what I believed until I began to suffocate and I realized with horror exactly what happened. The smoke hadn't disappeared; it was inside of me! And it was choking me; killing me!

No matter how hard I tried to breathe, I simply didn't seem to be able to get oxygen into my lungs. It was, as though, I was trapped into an insulated room with the air filled with carbon monoxide.

I clenched my throat, coughing out smoke, tears filling in my eyes and my head spinning, while the others stared at me frantically. My legs gave up under me very quickly and I fell onto my knees, holding my stomach.

Through my blurry eyes, I saw the faces of Chi, Kū, Fū, Sui and Hi in front of me, the girls supporting me by my shoulders to prevent me from falling all the way to the ground.

'Get the hell out of her!' Hi shouted, as the others and he performed a few hand signs, and they expelled the creature out of me with a shove of their hands. In perfect sequence, Hatsu emptied the charger of his gun onto the monster, killing it.

The feeling of suffocation had ceased the moment the creature of smoke had been ejected out of my body and I could breathe properly now.

'What took over you?' Chi shouted at me, angrily. 'Why didn't you jump out of the way to save yourself instead of shoving us away! You know very well that we cannot be destroyed! And even if we are to be destroyed, we'll simply reappear, fully regenerated!'

'I know,' I murmured, weakly. 'I simply wanted to prevent the two of you from getting hurt.'

Her frown deepened but some of her anger dissipated. She helped me to my feet.

'Are you alright?' Kū inquired, voicing everyone's concern, and I nodded.

I turned around to look at the dead monster which has been reduced to a pile of ashes on the floor. Without any doubt, it was an Enenra. These monsters resided in bonfires.

Fire marked the commencement and the closing of the Obon festival. The Enenra must have definitely appeared during the Mukaebi.

Enenra were said to be born from the smoke which emanated from bonfires in which innocent villagers- which were not involved in battle and had died as collateral damage during warfares in the feudal era- were put to burn by soldiers in order to get rid of their corpses. Enenra were the fruit of the anguish of those innocent victims.

'I learnt this morning that two people have died during the last two days by suffocation with no apparent cause,' Hatsu informed me. 'So, I decided to investigate. I have a friend who works at the morgue and so, I went to see him. It must have followed me from there.'

'I see,' I said, and yawned, feeling very sleepy suddenly.

My eyes closed on themselves and when I opened them up again, the first thing that I realized was that I was being carried pigging-back by someone and that person was none other than Chi.

The others were still there too with Hatsu.

'You're up?' she said. 'You fell asleep.'

'Yes. I'm sorry,' I apologized and she put me down.

I looked around of us, taking in our surroundings. We were in a long desert alley lined with trees on both sides that led to a museum. It was a beautiful place, very serene and for only sound, the blowing wind ruffling the leaves.

Hatsu moved to stand beside me, telling me, 'I thought that you'd like to say goodbye to them before they leave.'

I gave him a grateful smile before I gazed at Chi, Sui, Hi, Fū and who were facing me, a tender smile on their lips.

'Thank for having saved my life,' I murmured. 'And thank you for having been there for me all along.'

'It's only normal,' said Sui. 'If we failed to protect our mistress, we'd lose all our honor.'

'I never thought I'd ever say this but I think that I'm going to miss this form after all!' declared Hi, with a sigh, and Sui clamped his hand over his mouth, scolding him, 'Do you want to make her sad?'

Kū broke into tears at that moment, her voice half-chocked as she said goodbye to me.

'It's not a real goodbye. We'll still accompany her through every day of her life in our original form,' Chi comforted her.

'Shun,' Fū told me then, in a strange tone. 'I have something to ask from you.' He glanced at the others. 'Can you promise us that you'll miss no occasion of being happy in your life?'

My eyes widened at him.

Of course! They were the manifestations of my Godai Shakujō. They have seen everything that my eyes have seen; gone through everything that I did. They knew my doubts, my fears and everything.

I didn't know what to say.

'Goodbye!' they greeted me altogether and after I had greeted them back, Hatsu said the spell, reverting them back into my five Shakujō.

The scarf and the stuffed animal I had gifted to the girls were left behind and I picked them up, deciding to keep them as souvenirs.

'Well, well, you're lucky that there was no witness at the cliff, else you sure would have been arrested for destruction of public property!' stated Hatsu and I flinched.

I had totally forgotten about that incident. I hung my head, moaning out in misery.

'I guess that all this agitation calls for a drink!' he exclaimed, then, excitedly, giving me a large pat on the back. 'And I remind you that you owe me one! So, it's at your cost!'

I let out another moan.

Thank you for reading!

Glossary

Obon festival - the Festival of the Dead

Mukaebi - bonfire marking the start of the Obon festival