Ereshan opened his eyes with a gasp—only to feel the wind slicing past his face, his limbs dangling helplessly in the open air. He looked up in horror.
Gripping him in iron-like talons was a colossal birdlike yokai—Karasutengu, the Sky-Binder. Its feathers shimmered with oil-slick hues of obsidian and violet, and its long wings spanned wider than a temple gate. Its hooked beak curved cruelly, and a crown of burning feathers danced atop its head like war-torn fireflies. Crimson eyes gleamed with mischief and disdain beneath a sharp mask of bone. Ereshan screamed. "PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN!"
He flailed, but the yokai's grip only tightened, claws cold as winter steel against his sides. The trees below became mossy blurs; the sacred bonsai groves now mere patches of green lost beneath the mist. He spun his head, searching frantically. "Hajime! Mizuchi! ANYONE?!"
The wind roared louder than his thoughts, yet Ereshan closed his eyes. Focus. Remember. Something's not right… His breathing steadied, though panic trembled in his throat. Slowly, he searched his memory—tracing back through fragments blurred by fear. The last he remembered was the Elder Kamis, their voices echoing in his ears. Then the whispering of ancient winds. Then—The sky split. His eyes widened. It wasn't now that the bird came. It was then. Right after they left Eternal Bonsai.
Karasutengu had fallen upon them from the sky like a curse unleashed. Ereshan had barely time to react. He remembered the sudden gust, Hajime's shout, Mizuchi drawing his blade in reflex, the boat tilting violently as the bird's shadow blanketed the river. Then talons—like knives—wrapped around him and yanked him from the boat with such force it knocked the air from his lungs.
Back in the present, dangling high above, Ereshan gritted his teeth. Fueled by panic and instinct, he twisted his body, kicking upward with all the strength he could muster. His foot slammed into one of the yokai's talons. It didn't budge. "LET! ME! GO!"
He screamed, twisting again. His fingers clawed at the yokai's scaly toes. He thrashed, kicked again—once, twice, again—and finally, the beast shrieked. Its talons loosened.
Ereshan flipped his body with one last desperate jerk. The grip broke. He fell. The wind howled around him like the cry of a dying world. The sky spun, clouds blurring. The world flipped, and below—a thick forest rushed to greet him like a crashing tide of green.
He lay sprawled across a mess of broken branches, half-hanging in a thicket of tangled roots, the scent of moss and damp soil filling his lungs. The rain whispered through the trees as Ereshan staggered to his feet. Every muscle in his body screamed with each step, but he forced himself forward, one arm clutching his side, the other gripping a broken branch like a crutch. His vision blurred. His knees buckled.
That damn bird... again... A shriek tore through the sky—raw, vengeful. He looked up, and there it was. Karasutengu had returned, its wings slicing the clouds like blades. Its glowing red eyes locked onto him with an animal hunger, a promise of no escape. Its massive form spiraled downward in a deadly dive.
"No, no, no—NOT AGAIN!" Ereshan muttered, half limping, half running through the brush. "Someone! Anyone! HELP—"
A flash. A blur. Then steel gleamed in the sky. "YAAAAAAAA!"
Hajime, coat billowing like a banner of war, leapt from a tree branch, sword raised high. With a gleam in his eye and a grin on his face, he sliced downward in a perfect arc—cleaving through the bird's left wing. The yokai screeched, flailing in the air.
Mizuchi followed a breath behind, his slim frame twisting in the wind. "Watch your head!" he shouted, flipping mid-air and plunging his blade into the creature's right wing.
Feathers and blood sprayed across the clearing like a morbid fireworks show. The bird crashed into the undergrowth, flapping furiously, flailing with its broken wings.
"Nice timing!" Ereshan gasped, falling to one knee.
"Less talking, more running!" Hajime barked.
Mizuchi landed beside him, hair perfectly in place, as if gravity simply respected him. "Also, maybe don't get kidnapped next time?"
"I didn't plan it!" Ereshan wheezed.
A cawing echoed behind them. Then another. Then… dozens. Hajime turned, eyes wide. "Oh no."
From above, the sky darkened as a flock of Karasutengu emerged, wings outstretched like a thousand slicing blades. But they weren't just diving. They were descending into nests. Giant, messy, horrific nests. Ereshan didn't even get to ask what that meant before—CRACK—CRUNCH—CRASH!
The ground gave way. They fell. All three of them. Right. Into. The. Nests. It was a mess of mud, bones, feathers, broken shells, half-eaten yokai snacks, and whatever else these bird demons thought was "interior decor."
Ereshan groaned, stuck under a giant egg. Mizuchi coughed up a feather. Hajime… was upside down, somehow stuck in a ribcage.
"This," Hajime muttered, spitting out a wishbone, "is not my most heroic moment."
"Why is everything… so moist?" Mizuchi grimaced, trying to peel his robe off a sticky egg sac.
Ereshan lay still. "...I just wanted to return a stone."
Above, the Karasutengu screeched in fury, swarming down.
Hajime righted himself, sword back in hand. "Alright, boys. Plan?"
"Fight, run, or cry?" Mizuchi offered.
"I vote cry," Ereshan raised a hand weakly.
"Too bad," Hajime smirked, eyes shining. "We're doing all three."
Ereshan ducked as a Karasutengu swooped overhead, its talons slicing through the air where his head had been just seconds ago. His breath hitched, lungs burning, legs coated in muck and bird slime. Around him, feathers and fury reigned. "Hajime!" he screamed.
"Busy!" Hajime shouted back, cleaving a bird straight in half, its corpse tumbling through the air like wet laundry. "Try not to die!"
"Working on it!"
Mizuchi appeared beside him, swinging his blade with surgical grace, his movements fluid even in the chaos. "They're not after us," he said, panting lightly.
Ereshan blinked. "WHAT?! Then what are they—"
"The stone!" Mizuchi snapped. "They're drawn to it!"
Ereshan's hand instinctively flew to his pocket—yep, still there, pulsing faintly, almost like a heartbeat. "Wait. You think they can smell it?!"
"Or sense it. Kami knows what kind of magic it holds. But one thing's clear—you're the main course."
"Wonderful!" Ereshan yelled, narrowly dodging another swipe. "Just what I needed, avian death cults with psychic rock radars!"
A Karasutengu barreled toward him, shrieking. Before he could react, Hajime intercepted, sword flashing.
"I told you not to keep shiny things in your pockets!" Hajime growled, knocking the bird back.
Mizuchi turned to Hajime. "We can't let them get the stone."
"What do you suggest?"
"Hot potato."
Ereshan's eyes widened. "Wait, WHAT—"
Mizuchi snatched the stone from Ereshan's pocket and hurled it across the nest. "CATCH!"
Hajime caught it mid-leap, twisting in the air and kicking a bird square in the beak. The Karasutengu instantly shifted direction, chasing after him.
"Oh this is a brilliant plan!" Hajime shouted as four birds swarmed him. "I LOVE being bait!"
He flipped backward, slicing through wings and feathers. Then, with a grin, he chucked the stone back at Mizuchi. "YOUR TURN!"
Mizuchi caught it with one hand. "Why am I not surprised you throw like a drama queen?" he quipped, darting sideways as birds redirected again.
Ereshan watched, stunned, as the two danced across the battlefield, flinging the cursed stone between them like a deadly game of tag. The birds—confused, enraged, but obsessed—swarmed whoever held it. "WHY ARE WE PLAYING CATCH WITH A DIVINE ARTIFACT?!"
"It's strategy!" Hajime grunted, stabbing a Karasutengu through the beak.
"It's suicide!" Ereshan snapped.
Mizuchi ducked and rolled, hurling the stone back to Ereshan. "Your turn again, Chosen One!"
"NO THANKS!" Ereshan shouted, nearly dropping it. Birds screamed above him.
"THROW IT!" both Hajime and Mizuchi yelled in unison.
He did. The stone arced high, spinning in the air, glinting like a cursed star—and then slammed down, cracking the edge of the nest, bouncing down into a lower pit filled with bones and torn feathers.
The birds shrieked. The nest shuddered. Everything went quiet for one heartbeat. Then… CRACKKKKKKKK! The nest collapsed. And all three of them plummeted downward with a choir of angry screeches following. Something cracked. Ereshan hoped it was the floor and not his ribs. But judging by the stabbing pain in his chest every time he breathed, the odds weren't in his favor.
He groaned, blinking against the shadows, barely able to lift his head. Everything hurt. His back, his legs, his ego. Above them, the sky had been replaced by a jagged ceiling of roots and stone, the gap they'd fallen through just barely visible—a distant hole filled with the fading shrieks of angry Karasutengu.
Mizuchi groaned somewhere to his left. "Still alive?"
"No," Hajime replied flatly from somewhere nearby. "I died and came back just to complain."
Ereshan coughed. "Can we… never do that again?"
A pause. Then all three started laughing—dry, cracked, bitter. The kind of laugh that only comes after a brush with absolute madness.
They were crumpled together in a narrow, rocky tunnel, barely wide enough for their bodies to lie side by side. Ereshan couldn't even sit up. His legs were jammed against the wall, his arm numb under Mizuchi's shoulder. At least the birds couldn't follow. That was something. A small win. If you ignored the broken bones.
"I think I cracked my collarbone," Hajime muttered.
"My pride," Mizuchi added.
"My entire soul," Ereshan groaned. "Also possibly my spine."
Above them, feathers drifted down gently like cursed snowflakes. One landed on Ereshan's forehead. He batted it away like it owed him money. "Okay. So. To recap… We fell into a cursed bird nest, fought off a bunch of murder parrots, played fetch with a divine artifact, collapsed said nest, and now we're trapped in a stone coffin. Did I miss anything?"
"I think one of the birds bit my butt," Hajime said.
Mizuchi gave a pained laugh. "Kami help us."
"No offense to the Kamis," Ereshan groaned, "but if this is divine guidance, then they need therapy."
Hajime turned his head slightly. "They said you're the chosen one, remember?"
"Then I officially resign."
"Denied."
A moment of silence. Then Mizuchi murmured, "You think the stone's still down here?"
"I think my leg is fused to a rock," Ereshan replied. "So unless the stone has healing powers, we're screwed."
Hajime managed to nudge his boot against something round and solid. He grunted, reached with trembling fingers… and pulled the stone into view. Somehow, the damn thing wasn't even chipped.
"Of course it's fine," Ereshan muttered. "Why wouldn't the indestructible cosmic pebble be perfectly okay while we look like we lost a bar fight with a tornado?"
They all lay there for a while, too broken to move, too tired to think. Just the sound of shallow breathing, dripping water, and a faint glimmer of light from the stone.
Then Hajime sighed. "You know what the worst part is?"
"What?"
"I think… this is still better than the time I got cursed by a toilet spirit in Iko."
"…Kami help you," Mizuchi muttered.
"Already tried. She laughed."
Ereshan closed his eyes. "Wake me up when reality makes sense again."
Mizuchi yawned. "So never?"
"Exactly."