"I can see it!"

Kairi felt his pupils dilate. His hearing was drowned out momentarily, as if sea-shells had covered his ears. Blood crashed against granite tile, heavy and dark, like ink. There was a meaty *thud*, and the confusion of the moment gave way to stillness. It was a hot summer afternoon. Deputy of the regional police, Gendo Serizawa, laid as motionless as the rock and wood of the abandoned shrine that now guarded his body.

The sound of insects and the vital smell of blood and fresh grass wafted on a strange wind.

Like Serizawa, Kairi's body was also frozen in place. His eyes shifted rapidly, trying to arrest the fractured series of moments echoing through his mind. He saw with clarity the quirks of Serizawa's sword technique, his bearing of casual menace, his small brutish eyes. He strained to reconcile those fleeting images with the heap that lay before him, when he finally let the pangs of knowledge grip his body.

"I've slain a man."

Moments passed. The sun was going down.

"Yo!" -- the noise was like a knife in Kairi's awareness. His body jolted.

He felt even more rude, loud, words tugging at his attention; Kairi was uneager to hear them.

"I see you've made a fine mess of that bastard!" the voice continued.

It was a familiar voice, but Kairi willfully didn't place it right away. A methodical thinker at times, he let the sonance vibrate in his ears, silently absorbing the meanings underlying the initial crash of sound-waves.

The young man slowly turned toward the voice. He saw the shadow of what might be an unkempt, Buddhist monk, the silhouette of his robe tattered and frayed against the red sky, his shadowed hand raised in casual greeting. The monk emerged from the steps that lead upwards to the mountain shrine. Kairi's eyes narrowed, and he stood patiently, waiting for the monk to come into focus. The stranger continued into the shrine clearing.

The monk easily approached Kairi, though the boy's weapon was still drawn.

Recognition.

"Muzo-san", Kairi greeted him. He regained his composure. Fluidly tossing the blood off his sword, he sheathed it.

"Heh, I wasn't expecting too much", Muzo replied.

Muzo made his way to the incident splattered in front of the main altar; it seemed vaguely sacrificial to him, and he chuckled at the notion. He eventually came upon the corpse itself. Strolling around it, he surveyed the bloodshed, like someone used to that sort of thing. The blood had seeped into the spaces between the stones in the path-way, and was abundant enough to outline some of the squares that were too distant from the source to be covered entirely.

"You're still kind of new at this, I guess", said Muzo.

"Sorry", Kairi replied. "I... I think I felt my sword get stuck inside of him, and I tried to force it out, but his blood... there was a lot of it", Kairi heard his voice waver.

Muzo nodded absent-mindedly, scratching the coarse hair of his chin, his dim eyes lightly fixated on the body. "Except on you."

Kairi look at himself quizzically. He was right. There was barely a speck on him.

Muzo continued, "...And you nearly sawed him in half! Normal people can't even do stuff like this."

Kairi was silent.

"It's freakish." he concluded.

Muzo deftly changed the subject, "Sato and his guys are on the way. Hopefully we can make most of this disappear over night."

Kairi felt intimidated by his assurance.

"Is it really that simple?"

Muzo sighed.

"It could be simpler..." conveying less annoyance than resignation. Muzo chuckled again. "This is truly an awful sight."

"Y-Yes."

A crow cawed.

"You should try to leave the province soon", Muzo said. "Do you have any money?"

Kairi nodded.

Muzo's eyebrow twitched. He noticed something.

"Hey! You do have some blood on you!"

Kairi's right sleeve was torn just slightly, and he became aware of a trickle of blood that had been running down his arm.

"Ah... I see." Kairi replied.

Muzo scoffed. He held Kairi's arm up and to the side, as he pulled back the sleeve of the young man's dark-blue haori, exposing the wound. Muzo scrutinized the cut with a deliberate look on his face.

"Is it deep?" Kairi asked automatically.

"Have Kei take a look at it -- and don't let anyone see this on your way back!" replied Muzo. "They might tie you to what happened here."

While he was talking, Muzo tore a length of fabric off the sleeve of his tattered disguise and tied it -- taut -- over Kairi's flesh-wound. That sudden pressure on the recently exposed tissue of his arm yanked Kairi sharply out of the daze he kept lapsing into.

"That'll keep you from leaking out everywhere, like our friend here!" Muzo proclaimed with a nod at Serizawa's body, making no pains to hide the amusement he consistently gained from Serizawa's death.

They started walking to the steps of the shrine. Kairi made a mental push with each step, as if the dead body behind him exuded a gravitational field, pulling him back to that dark series of moments. With distance, came some level of ease, and he slowly began to move unimpeded.

He looked at Muzo as they walked. Kairi finally noticed the smell of rust constantly emanating from the man, and it was starting to nauseate him.

"Maybe you should retire that outfit", suggested Kairi. "It smells like we haven't moved an inch from that guy."

Muzo looked comically indignant.

"What you don't realize is that this robe is good-luck -- it's not 'my' blood that stains it."

Kairi snorted. "How can someone like you lecture me about discretion?"

They split-up at the base of the steps. Muzo walked through the huge, utterly red torii that serves as the shrine's gateway.

"Until next time!" Muzo cheered as he departed.

Kairi prudently allowed several minutes to pass before setting off on his own. It was getting dark. As he made his first steps on the path, he felt his knees tremble slightly. He regained his footing and tried to maintain a steady gait toward the village.