… a few days later …

  Out in the fields, the farmer and his family were working. The father yelled at his ox, a big stubborn brute of an animal that never listened. His son and daughter were helping his wife pick vegetables from the small garden in front of their house. He was out on one end of the small field of wheat. A simple scarecrow hung from a post in the middle of the wheat field.

  No one noticed when that scarecrow’s head started to shake. A moment later, he jumped down from the pole and walked through the field. As he walked, the hay that stuffed the clothes fell away and eventually he ripped off the burlap sack that was the head. Minoru kept the floppy hat on his head, though. He kind of liked it and it kept the sun from his face.

  The father saw the skeleton stand on the edge of his hay field and he ran over to his family. He gathered his children in his arms and he stared in shock. His wife stood next to them and she patted his shoulder. He didn’t seem to notice his wife. Frozen with fear, the man shielded his kids’ faces from the demon.

  “Oni,” he breathed out and pointed towards the walking skeleton.

  The wife was now hitting his shoulder until she finally got his attention. He yelled and looked up at her, and she just pointed at the skeleton. She mouthed the name a few times until it finally came out, barely above a whisper.

  “Minoru.”

  The wind kami ignored the family. They were of no concern to him. The family could stand there and watch him. They’d probably tell their friends how the gods blessed them and they were going to have a marvelous crop. Minoru kneeled down and grabbed a bit of the freshly plowed soil in his bony fingers and let it fall bit by bit. The wind kicked up around him and blew the dirt away softly before it landed. He watched it with interest.

  The last bit he held to his nose, or where his nose would be, and breathed in deep. It was sour. There was something off in the world. Something wasn’t quite right with the aura of the world lately. He knew about all the newcomers to the world. The half cultivators with their animals that his brother brought here somehow. He even met one of them. They seemed promising, to be honest, but they didn’t belong.

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  He threw the dirt back onto the ground and then stood once more. One hand rested at the katanas on his side that appeared when the hay fell away, and he looked over at the family. He was on the southern part of the continent. The god knew about the strife between the regions, but that wasn’t why he was here.

  The skeleton looked up at the sun, and then he scanned the sky, looking for the moon. Once he found it, he breathed a single word softly, a name, a name. “Chunari.”

  It wasn’t bad enough that his brother was rampaging through the planes of existence now she had to…

  The family was still standing in half fear and half awe. At least they weren’t pointing at him anymore. Minoru looked over at them. He couldn’t directly help them, not without asking for help from his sister. He was going to leave them without a scarecrow. He looked at a sack sitting beside the field. It was full of the seeds the farmer was planning to plant.

  The man tried to stand up and stop the walking skeleton from stealing his seeds, but before he could get to his feet, the skeleton raised one of his boney hands to stop him. With his other hand, he grabbed the sack and hoisted it up before dumping the seeds.

  “No! Wait! Please!” The father yelled. He fell forward, trying to stop the creature from wasting his entire crop.

  Though the wind swallowed the man’s voice. The wind kicked up and blew the seeds towards the half plowed field. Minoru did nothing but watch. He didn’t need to. He was the wind, and the wind was him. The seeds flew about and went to the field they buried themselves into the earth.

  The ox gave a soft bellow and just stood there.

  Minoru walked over to the family, his hand still resting on the katanas at his side. Now the mother cried with her husband. The skeleton couldn’t help that. Mortals were such simple beings. One last look up to the sun and then to the field before he looked at the cowering family. They were all huddled together, and he shook his head.

  His voice came on the wind, and sounded hollow as he spoke to them. “Your seeds will grow strong and you shall have a bountiful crop. Me and my sister Aiko shall make sure of it.”

  They looked at him and the adults’ eyes went wide. The wife was correct. A sort of satisfaction showed in her eyes that pleased the wind kami. He knew she would never let her husband forget the day that he called the god of rice and grains a simple demon.

  Minoru nodded at them and walked away in the tattered clothing that belonged to a skeleton. A gentle laugh played on the wind as he thought about how the woman would rub her husband’s face in it.