Ten minutes later, a rustling ca from the bushes as Bai Luo returned to the Hilichurl camp, slinging the unconscious Kuki Shinobu over his shoulder.
"Done."
Bai Luo gave her an "OK" sign as he laid the senseless Shinobu before Yae Miko.
He was no stranger to the art of the "sucker punch." Since becoming a Harbinger, most assassination duties were handled by his subordinates, leaving this particular skill to gather dust on the shelf. Who knew it would co in handy today?
"What took you so long?" Yae Miko looked at him with suspicion. Ten minutes... that was more than enough ti to get up to all sorts of mischief. Could this man have...?
"I was just curious about what she looked like under that mask." Bai Luo didn't bother hiding his actions. He'd taken off her face-guard to satisfy his curiosity, but then found himself struggling to figure out how to put it back on correctly. It had taken a few tries to get it right.
"When will she wake up?" Yae Miko knelt to examine the girl, surprised to find not a single mark on her. According to Bai Luo, he had clubbed her unconscious, yet there wasn't even a bruise.
"Based on the force I used, she should wake up around 8:30 tomorrow morning. Until then, you could do almost anything to her and she wouldn't stir." Bai Luo tossed the wooden stick—borrowed from the Hilichurls—aside with a proud smirk.
Yae Miko: "..."
'To be able to pinpoint the ti down to the minute... how exactly does one beco this "practiced"? Just how many people has he knocked out in the past?'
"Ahem... it's just a little trick. If you want to learn, I can teach you." Bai Luo looked eager, almost reaching for the discarded stick again.
"I'll pass. I know your routine—you'd probably pull that 'to learn it, you must first experience it' nonsense on . I'm not falling for that."
Yae Miko had grown accustod to Bai Luo's way of thinking. She just had to ask herself what *she* would do in his position to guess his next move.'
'Knock her unconscious? Please. With his personality, there was no way he wouldn't cause trouble while she was out.'
More than that, she was wary of his intelligence gathering. They hadn't separated since leaving his house, yet Bai Luo had headed straight for Arataki Itto's location as if he'd known it all along.
Even when Miko used her foxes to drive the gang toward a different area, Bai Luo had adjusted his course instantly. If she didn't already know the backgrounds of everyone in the Arataki Gang, she would have suspected a mole.
'Could he communicate with his surroundings like she did with foxes? Is it the wind? The clouds? Or...'
Her gaze dropped to a blade of grass that had been brushing against her thigh since she knelt down. What was the most abundant thing on the Byakko Plain? Foxes? Hidden Nobushi or Hilichurls? No. It was the vast, endless sea of grass. She recalled Kamisato Ayato's files—his Anemo Vision was likely just a glass ball; his *true* elent was rumored to be Dendro.
She realized the truth.
"Hmph."
With a cold snort, she ground her heel into the blade of grass, her eyes turning cold as she glanced at Bai Luo's lower half.
Bai Luo: "???"
'Why is she looking at like that? What did I do? At least wait until I actually do sothing before giving that look! It makes feel like I'm failing to live up to my reputation.'
They entered Konda Village and stashed Shinobu at a farmwife's house. As they walked toward the Arataki Gang's campsite, Bai Luo noticed Yae Miko—now in disguise again—stomping extra hard on any grass that reached above her knees.
'Does she have a grudge against grass? That makes no sense?'
***
anwhile, at the Arataki Gang's fire:
"Why isn't Shinobu back yet? Maybe I should check on her?" Itto was starting to worry. More importantly, only Shinobu knew how to roast Lavender lons to perfection. Without her, they were going to starve.
"Boss, we'll go. You stay here and guard the lons so nobody steals 'em!"
The lackeys—Mamoru, Akira, and Genta—donned their hats, grabbed their wooden clubs, and headed into the darkness calling Shinobu's na. But before long, their voices vanished too. It was as if sothing in the pitch-black fields had swallowed them whole.
"Mamoru? Akira? Genta? Shinobu?"
By the ti Itto realized sothing was wrong, the plains were silent. Only the whistling wind and the rustle of grass remained.
"H-hey... quit scaring , or I'm gonna eat all the lons myself!"
He gulped. He desperately wanted to follow them, but the sound of foxes and the constant rustling kept him glued to the only source of light. Ironically, despite being an Oni, Arataki Itto was terrified of ghosts—a fact well-known to his gang, though it would be a laughingstock to anyone else. He convinced himself his boys were just playing a prank on him.
"I... I'm really gonna eat them!"
He grabbed a lon from the fire to prove his point, completely forgetting how hot it was.
"Hot, hot, hot!"
He dropped the lon and clutched his mouth. Before the pain could fade, a hand rested on his shoulder.
"Shinobu! You're back?" Relieved, Itto turned around, ignoring his burnt lip. "What a sha, the Great Itto was just about to eat all the—
"WAAGH!"
He turned to see a pale, mocking mask staring back at him. In the flickering firelight, it looked positively ghoulish.
"GHOST!!!"
Itto scrambled back, forgetting his lons and his dignity. The mask looked familiar, but terror prevented him from placing the face. As he turned to flee the other way, a woman in a kimono with fox ears stepped out of the bushes.
"MONSTER!!!"
With a ghost behind him and a monster in front, the Oni was trapped by his own campfire. As he looked at them in despair, both of them smiled and raised their hands.
"Friend," they asked in unison, "have you heard of Miss Hina?"
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