Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Above other things, Bishamon had always hoped that she had been fair to them. The mortal world has already been unfair enough to the wandering ghosts she takes in as shinki, plucking them from the Near Shore before their time. But she is a lone goddess, a war goddess at that. All she can do to correct that wrong is to take them in, give them a warm home and a second chance at living a human life.

The umbrella Kazuma holds collects flakes of snow on its oil paper surface, and she's warm in her lined haori and shawl. 

"Shall we have lunch?" He holds out the bundle of warm bento boxes. "I know the road isn't the best place for it in this weather, but from the looks of the sun, we won't be making it to any other towns or shrines before sundown."

She stares off at the harbour. Without warning, she steps off the terracotta path into the unbroken bed of snow, trudging towards the edge of the lake.

"… Viina?"

"It doesn't seem right to enjoy these things in front of others right here in need of them."

Kazuma follows her gaze, quizzical, then he sees the white-haired spirit by the broken bridge. The pale figure appeared bowed, his dark, gaunt face grimacing as he hugged his thin coat closer. 

"Perhaps we should… assess him a little first?” Kazuma lowers his voice. “Maybe ask him if he knows any spells or techniques. We really do need to improve the overall quality of your shinki, Viina… let’s see, Kuraha is a good steed, the two girls are fine garments, but we could really use a medic—”

She looks at his fingers instinctively held up to illustrate his calculations and laughs, making him redden. 

"Was it something I said?"

"We don't need to weigh shinki up like that all the time, Kazuma. Look at him, he's cold and has nowhere to go. He needs a place to stay, and I am going to give him one."

And that's all she thinks as she names the white-haired man by the frozen harbour.

Thy name is Kuga, thy vessel Roku.

It should have been a thought noble enough.

Come, Rokki!

Chapter Text

Kugaha proved to be a valuable asset to the Ha clan, despite his vessel form being too cumbersome to take on daily patrols. True to his form as a pair of scales, he had a keen sense for detail, and a vast reservoir of expertise in herbal medicines. Those qualities drew Kazuma to him for advice. 

"The theory of medicine I specialise in is about restoring balance," Kugaha said, measuring out more powder from his mortar on the left side of his weighing scales. "The general idea is that if you eat things with too much ‘heat’, you start coming down with fevers and sore throats. You drain that heat away with medicines that cool the body. But if the patient runs low on warmth, they get joint pains and fatigue from the cold. Of course, this is mostly based on anecdotes of the Near Shore, but I have found that it has been just as effective in easing our master’s aches and pains.”

“Fascinating.”

Kugaha nodded in satisfaction. “It is quite elegant, isn't it. What's more, I've been discovering that the medicines made from these herbs could interact with the other forces at play with the godly constitution.”

Kazuma's brows furrowed. “I’m not quite sure I follow."

“Well, as you and I know, the emotions of shinki have a great influence on our master’s health. Take anger, for instance. A shinki's feelings of anger or jealousy would be hot. So I could check that with something that cools, like cucumber, or chrysanthemum. Other emotions like sadness and disappointment are cold emotions. It leaves the god feeling hollow on the inside. That can be replenished with something with heat, like cinnamon and turmeric. As a crude rule of thumb, those would be things you’d reach for on hot or frosty days, respectively. There’s more subtlety the deeper you study it, obviously. The heating and cooling properties assigned to cherries and stinging nettles may surprise you.”

Kazuma was silent for a while, taking in the information. “So which would be better, if you had to err on the side of caution?"

"Neither,” Kugaha said shortly, meting out the last smidges of golden powder to even out the scales. “What you want to achieve is an equilibrium. Nothing more, nothing less.”