Chapter 15:A corpse. 

*Song* *Song* *Song*

Birdsong rang in my ears and the sunlight stung my skin, causing my heavy eyelids to slowly flutter open. 

"Where do we meet?"

Still with slight somnambulism in my gaze, I begin to look at the surroundings from the elevated position I seem to find myself in. Below are areas with trees, rocky areas, and moderately tall grass. 

"Still on the mountain, after the fight and seeing that they were still following us, we tried to lose them by walking in circles. Then we hid and that's how we ended up on this tree."

Saya's explanation sheds light on the matter at hand, on the other hand, and as I try to move, I feel something semi-solid being broken, at the same time a rather foul smell enters my nose, making me frown and my ears perk up from the olfactory impact. 

"Oh shit, tell me that's not it."

Speaking softly to myself and receiving a strange look from Saya, I extend my arm to see it with red spots. With some hesitation I look at my tails and they are in the same situation, to finish I look at my yukata which shares the same disposition.

"It's dried blood, a token of your victory last night."

"What a token of victory or anything, this sucks, I need a bath right now!"

Releasing the tails holding me attached to the tree, I get up from my recumbent position and jump off the branch landing softly on the ground. Finishing that, I pull the tail keeping Clouded Fang clutched closer and place it back on my waist, next to the broken katana sheath, before I start running in the direction of the river. 

"Not so fast!"

With Saya's shout spreading throughout the mountain, due to being dragged by the distance limit, I kept running without looking back. 

...30 minutes later... 

"I'm dying, just stop, let me get into the pod."

"Don't overdo it, we're almost there, I can even hear the water flowing."

After what seemed like 20 minutes, I had realized it wasn't the best idea to run at full speed. Sweat plus dried blood was a horrible smell to inhale, but I still kept up top speed and in another 10 minutes I was rewarded with hearing a river flowing.

It was a beautiful river, well at this time any body of water would look beautiful to my eyes. This river corresponds to the one that runs through Izayoi village and is the only river on a good margin of land. 

"Cannonball!"

Shouting a childish phrase, I stepped on a rock to gain momentum and jumped into the river fully clothed. The cold water touching my skin feels like true divine salvation, so soothing and hygienic. 

"Shit, Clouded Fang."

Quickly touching my waist, I noticed that the two swords were missing. As I started to turn pale, I felt a tail hit my back and turning towards it, I managed to see the swords being grabbed by another tail. 

"They are my heroes, I have to admit."

With words of admiration towards my tails, I remove the not so fictitious sweat from my forehead and suddenly dive into the river, letting the cold water cover my entire body. Obviously I do not make the same mistake twice, then leave a tail on the surface and she holds the sword. 

This happiness remained undisturbed for quite a while, in which I washed every corner and area that can be reached, clearly I do not have any hygiene items, but it's better than nothing. On the other hand, as I set out to wash my sixth tail, Saya interrupts my action by letting out a cry of doubt. 

"A corpse, not maybe a yokai in human form? Although it has too much positive energy, its souls? Is it an accumulation of souls in a body? What the hell is it... "

Returning to the surface due to Saya's erratic words, I turn my attention to where he is looking. On the surface of the river and being swept away by the current, there is a corpse dressed in white and red robes, a priestess or miko outfit would be around these parts. 

What? Those clothes are among the best known in the West, along with the yukata and kimono. Pure culture some people would say. 

"Are you going to help her?"

A strange situation, the one I was presented with, the body of a miko floating with the current and most likely unconscious, this could make for a complex story. 

As I fell down the rabbit hole that is my thoughts, the body floats past me and before it manages to drift away, my tails pick it up to pull it out of the water. 

"It's a woman's body."

"It seems to me that we still can't talk about body or corpse, I manage to feel inside her multiple souls.... Then it seems to me that it falls into the category of living beings."

She has a height of 1,60cm, black hair long to the waist tied with a strange white bow, brown eyes and white skin at the same time cold to the touch. That's the general description of the woman I just pulled out of the river. 

You might be wondering how I know her eye color if she passed out, the thing is that she regained her consciousness for a few seconds and tried to reach out her hand to my forehead, but then passed out again in a few moments.

"This will get messy, if you don't even know what we're up against."

While talking to Saya, I walked towards the river bank, shifting the water in my path. 

"It's not that I don't know, it's possible that my memories are fuzzy and the art could have appeared or changed in the last 700 years."

Reaching the shore, I left the woman on the grass, before gathering wood from nearby to make a quick campfire and I began to dry myself.