***

Don’t attack people, Kouya asked the youma. The youma would kill any living creatures it laid its eyes on when it was hungry, so Kouya developed the habit of hunting animals to give to the youma. The youma would heed Kouya’s plea when its stomach was full.

Even though the youma could stave off from attacking people this way, people hated the youma and Kouya as usual. Showers of arrows would rain upon them whenever they neared cities. There left no reason to visit the other side of the sea anymore, but Kouya could not make up his mind to stop going back.

Kouya longed to meet people more and more as he grew up, but he never had a place where he could mix with people. The youma didn’t change to call him by the name Kouya. Kouya could not but talk to himself.

Sometimes, Kouya could not but think that his encounter with Rokuta was nothing but a dream. Whenever he thought back, it was just unbelievable that such a person who never feared youma and spoke to Kouya with friendliness could ever exist. So, though it might look incomprehensible, Kouya insisted on calling himself Kouya and the youma rokuta. He offered food to the youma even though he was hungry. He never forgot to hunt food for the youma whatever pain his body needed to go through. Kouya believed that he could relate to Rokuta if he could keep his promise with Rokuta: never eat people.

Kouya dreamed of some place where he could settle in, where the number of moans from being stoned and the number of arrows being shot to him would diminish. He had considered leaving the youma and looked for the place at Kankyuu, but the thought fizzled out whenever the youma called “small one” with love.

After all, Kouya was the son of a youma. He could never mix with people.

On the verge of giving up, Kouya met Atsuyu (斡由). Just the same as when he met Rokuta, the encounter took place at the shore of Black Sea (黒海, Kokkai), within the province of Gen (元州).

***

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