Grouse Thicket 腐敗 ogamu-juku

she could not part from the orchard yet.

slinking as carefully as she could between the trees, hovering within reach of the more pristine, freshly-fallen bulbs of red; she thought, kikyo would have taken them all to themselves.

and then, tsujiya would have stopped him. they would fight, until morohe— !
the level-headed brother, too invested in himself than in the samurai way, attentive to his looks in the manner of a high-born woman...

there was a sense that she was not alone here. satsu's thoughts emptied like water through a grasping palm. she looked up from the pile of apples; there, distantly, a shape —

O-nīchan..?

satsu knew not to trust in the kami of this strange, new land; but her heart ached, and her vision blurred.