Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12
“Gogo, stop!” Taru said frantically. It was the first time he’d been anything but calm.
Gogo slowed, but it would take time for her to stop.
“Gin!” Ichiro launched himself out of the window. Suki, Reizo, and Taru grabbed him, so he didn’t suffer the same fate Gin did. They pulled him back inside.
“We can’t do anything until Gogo stops,” Reizo told him.
“My sister is out there!” Ichiro said wild eyed. He blinked back tears.
“I know, we’ll get her,” Suki put her arm around him.
“No, I mean she’s right there! She’s sitting alongside Gogo!” Reizo poked his head out of the window. The wind wasn’t rushing quite so fast now, but it still dried his eyes.
The younger Kitsune was clasped in a giant paper hand. She held on to the thumb and sat on the pinky. She waved at Reizo and pointed ahead, but her words were lost in the wind.
“Gogo! Put her back inside!” Reizo demanded. “Everyone sit down, Gin’s coming in!”
As everyone sat down out of the giant hand’s way, it lifted Gin through the window opening, which grew to accommodate them. It put Gin on the bench in between Ichiro and Suki. The giant hand shrank down and held her in place.
Four more paper hand shot out from the benches and pinned Reizo, Taru, Suki, and Ichiro in place. “Gogo, stop this at once!” Taru and Reizo both cried.
“You no go go.” A voice sounded like two women singing in harmony came from everywhere. The paper hands stayed in place.
Despite being pinned to their seats, everyone could breathe and the paper hands stretched so Ichiro and Gin could hug each other.
Reizo and Taru looked at each other. “When did Gogo start talking?” Reizo asked him. He looked around with his kami sight. Everything looked as it did before.
“Now was the first time,” Taru said.
“Now go go,” said the musical voice again. Gogo accelerated so fast Gin, Suki, and Ichiro felt like they were pulled out of their seats and Taru and Reizo were pushed back into them.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” Everyone screamed in terror. Then the feeling stopped. A few tense seconds later, they rapidly slowed. More paper hands held their heads in place so when they stopped abruptly no one was hurt.
“Done go go.”
The hands released them and melded back into the seats. Gin started giggling, then Suki, Ichiro, Taru, and finally Reizo. Whatever strange thing Gogo did, they’d survived it.
Reizo and Taru exchanged a look that said, “Whatever happened to Gogo, we’ll figure it out later.”
Ichiro saw shimmery trees outside his window and an open field out the other side. Gogo had stopped behind a copse of trees and stayed hidden. He could smell smoke, but not the strong smell of recently burned flesh. It was horrible watching them all burn, even wrapped up like they were. He remembered Big Fork’s funeral pyre when ever he smelled smoke.
“There’s a fire,” Gin said. Her eyes took on the haunted look of bad memories and Ichiro knew she remembered, too. She began rocking slightly. She hears the laughter. “Look at your pretty green kimono,” he said. Anything to keep her from freaking out now. Suki started fussing with her hair, which had come loose from its braid in the wind. Gin hugged her knees and shrank into her self.
“Do you smell a fire?” Reizo asked Taru. Taru nodded.
“Yes, it’s a cooking fire. Rabbit stew perhaps?” Taru sniffed the air.
“Yes, rabbit stew,” Ichiro agreed. Gin relaxed slightly.
“Bandits like the summer as much as anyone else,” Reizo sighed. So this was going to be done the hard way. He pulled his Ofuda out of his sleeve and checked them one last time.
“We never saw any on our way to The Capital during the winter,” Ichiro said. Gin was quiet. Quiet Gin didn’t cause troubles, but she seemed just…not there. Talkative, flighty Gin was desperately holding on to normal, which gave him hope.
"Ichiro, go see what's going on," Reizo told him. Ichiro nodded. He squeezed his sister’s shoulder one last time. He asked a breeze kami to hide him, and another to eat the sounds from his feet. Gin gave him a brief smile and squeezed his hand.
“Be careful, big brother.”
Two fish slippers encased Ichiro’s feet, their mouths opened as he stepped out. A step formed out of the side of the carriage, then smoothly reabsorbed.
After so many wonderful experiences today, Suki hoped that Ichiro would turn into a little Kitsune. She wondered if she could pet him. Instead, he vanished before her eyes. Gin’s hand darted out and squeezed the air.
“Can you do that, Gin?” She asked hoping to comfort the young girl who’d been through so much.
Gin nodded. “I’m not very good at it, though. I’m better at smells.” She hugged her knees tighter. Every time she spoke, Suki felt homesick. Her accent was the accent of home.
“What kind of smells?” Suki put a hand on her shoulder, since her hair was fixed.
Cherry blossoms fell from the ceiling and their scent filled Gogo. Suki gasped and reached out for one. It fell through her hand and vanished before hitting the floor. “It’s wonderful, Gin.”
Gin crawled to the window and looked down. “We’re not floating anymore. Gogo was pulling herself through the air.” She leaned out further. This time Suki grabbed her immediately. “Now the two horses are sitting down and munching on grass. Or trying to. Kami don’t eat grass!” Gin explained to Lady Suki.
Meanwhile, Reizo looked out the window for the third time and saw the characteristic shimmer. Gogo (and therefore his wife) were still hidden. What the crazy Kitsune said was so bizarre, he looked further out the window for the fourth time. Then he sat down and deliberately decided not to think about what he just saw.
Taru belted his swords on his left hip, two of his knives over his center, and slung the quiver of arrows over his back. He held his bow and sat down to wait.
Suki felt like she should do something, too. She pulled out Junko’s paper and said, “Gogo, close the curtains.” Shink, went the curtains on the rod. “Gogo, open the curtains again.” Shink.
“We are safe here, Gin. Gogo will keep us safe. We’re still hidden, aren’t we?” She looked at Reizo for an answer, but both he and Gin answered, “Yes.”
What an idiotic thing to do, Reizo thought. My wife has lost her mind. He was about to tell her that when it hit him: it could be the last thing she heard from me if things went bad.