Snow Village

As they followed the Yukinko, their footsteps echoed through the cave, occasionally breaking the group’s silence. However, it wasn’t an awkward silence; it was a vigilant one. Yukimura was watching the Yukinko as she held onto her blade. I don’t know what it will try to pull. I don’t know when it will act. Maybe it’s trying to have us lower our guard… I got it.

“Hey, Shin…” Yukimura broke the consistent silence by asking, “How did we end up in this cave?”

“When we were falling, I used my arm to propel us upward, but the closest thing I could get us to was a hole which led to the cave.”

“Thank you. If you didn’t, we would’ve died.” As Yukimura thanked Shin, he chuckled, and when he did, the Yukinko started sprinting.

Yukimura immediately chased after it, leaving Shin to run after her. I knew it! Yokai are not to be trusted! It’s probably going to turn a corner to ambush us, and that’s when I’ll slice it down.

However, despite Yukimura’s expectations, the Yukinko continued to run straight ahead until suddenly coming to a stop. Yukimura stopped shortly after, before bringing her blade to its neck. “Why did you start running out of nowhere?” The Yukinko couldn’t speak, so it only pointed. Its finger pointed to the right of Yukimura, and her blade pressed down on the yokai’s neck as she looked down.

There were dozens, if not hundreds, of igloos beneath them. Surrounding those igloos were more Yukinkos. Does one igloo belong to each Yukinko? If that’s the case—

“Whoa, it looks like a snow village!” Shin said after he finally caught up to the two. When he did, Yukimura lowered her blade from the Yukinko’s neck, only to see some Yukinkos looking up at them.

Before Yukimura could decide how to react, the Yukinkos waved at them. The Yukinko waved back at them, so Shin joined in as well. The only one not waving at this moment was Yukimura, but she eventually caved in, giving the yokai a slight wave with her left hand.

“See, they’re friendly. But how do we get down?”

“You want to go where there are more of them?”

“Yeah! They might be able to show us the way to get back on the trail.”

“Shin—”

“Yukimura. You said you’d trust me, so trust me already.” Shin delivered these words with a smile.

“Fine.”

After Yukimura agreed, Shin crouched down to the Yukinko’s level. “So how do we get down, buddy?” The Yukinko demonstrated by jumping and slowly floating downward like a snowflake. When it landed, it gave a thumbs up, signaling the two to do the same.

“I don’t think we can survive that jump. Do you have an idea on how to get down?”

“Yeah, but you might not like it.”

“What is it?” Yukimura asked, expecting Shin to give a response, but he didn’t. Instead, he bit his right thumb, causing his right arm to glow. “S-Shin, what are—” Shin didn’t elaborate as he picked up Yukimura and leapt. He didn’t even give Yukimura enough time to grab her sword.

As they descended, Yukimura had no choice but to grip him tighter. Shin’s face melted, but he didn’t let himself get distracted as her body pressed against his. He focused the mana in his arm to use a tiny burst of it to propel them slightly upwards. Shin continued to do this until they gracefully made contact with the snowy floor of the Yukinko’s settlement.

When they landed, Yukimura immediately let go of him. Her face was red like a beet as she spoke in a tone Shin could never expect. “What’s wrong with you? Tell me next time before you do that type of thing!”

“It all worked out in the end. So it’s fine.”

“Don’t ‘it’s fine’ me!”

“Okay, I’ll tell you next time. Sorry.” As Shin apologized, all the Yukinkos around them started to smile. They didn’t say anything, but from their body language, the two could tell they were laughing.

“Don’t you guys laugh either!” I’m already sick of this place. Where is the Yuki-onna? Yukimura was about to storm off, but that was when the Yukinko with the bowl cut tugged on her coat while pointing at an igloo nearby. “What?”

“I think it’s inviting us inside its home.”

“You can go. I can’t. I need my sword before I go in there.” That was when another Yukinko poked at her. She whipped her head around to see what it was doing, but it was offering something to her: her katana. Hesitantly, Yukimura pried the blade from the Yukinko’s unnervingly cold hands.

“Do you think you can go now?”

“Shush!” Yukimura said, holding her sword close as she entered the igloo, leaving Shin to follow behind her again.