[ A journey is not what he bargained for. But then again, Subaru has had little left to bargain with, flesh preyed upon by divinity and a prophecy self-fulfilled, bone wet with remembrance of what it was like to be broken, piecemeal love. That he is somewhere else with this same whole body and same halved heart... he supposes where makes no difference, only that he continues to be. Against his wishes — no, his singular wish.

His hauntings don't flee so kindly either, as it goes. Time amalgamates, burdened with its own passage, the longer he walks these unfamiliar woods rife with magics he does not know, but feels as though he could. Had his own abilities not been dampened so thoroughly that even conjuring up a sparrow's worth of a shikigami familiar seems a labor, he may have noticed sooner.

Footfalls stilling in the cold mulch, Subaru cranes his head to look at what lays before him like a homecoming: beautiful stone steps, vermillion lanterns. White trees crested by white sunlight. Petals of the cherry blossom trees, dancing on that fragrant air.

It gives Subaru pause. Had this not just been a decline, the humid maw of some gulch or gulley?

Other footsteps cause his hands to withdraw from his pockets, one holding some kind of paper scrawled in ink where his thumb presses to it, ready to incur a hallowed papercut just to keep his head on straight, his nerves alive. He is not threatening but stern when he warns: ]

Don't look. They're not real. [ Even when they flutter and reach so lovingly. His gaze drifts, wary. ] What do you see?

[ What will he also see? ]

[ It stands to reason he wouldn't be the only one left to wander a cursed forest (though it would not surprise him if he was, necessarily...) but the incursion of equally disheveled traveling companions and slavers out to pad their bounty is a lot to take in all at once. Subaru is not necessarily obedient, but he is temporarily compliant enough with capture to avoid losing the tools of his trade: the use of his hands. For now. For now, what he needs is time. But he is a man of compassion before he is one of rebellion no matter what the taciturn set of his brow and mouth say. Thus: ]

IF YOU ARE TRAIPSING ABOUT THE FOREST —
[One hand comes to seize you by the shoulder. Following its line, you are met with a man who has a large rock hefted in his other hand. Alarming surely, but he is very slight, and doesn't look as though he could bludgeon you with it without more effort than he currently seems to be capable of. Instead, he nods ahead. ]

Wait. May I?

[ Yes, he is asking permission to throw the rock. ]

IF YOU ARE MOUTHING OFF TO THE SLAVERS BEYOND THEIR MINUSCULE PATIENCE LEVEL —
[ He will just straight up take a punch for you. Face, gut, doesn't matter. How did he even get over here so fast? Sorry he is just Like This.

Alternatively, you can fight him for the honor and really throw the bandits for a loop. ]

IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT ALL COLD IN THE ~RUSTIC SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS —
[ Something warm and heavy comes to lay over your shoulders. It is a coat — one that is unfortunately now stained with the forest's muck but also nice and sturdy enough to fend off some of the chill. Nothing for the disquiet or creeping misery of being imprisoned, though. ]

Here. Just for a while, if you're opposed.

[ Coming to a seat as if offering the clothing off his own back is a natural enough occurrence, Subaru holds the contents of its pockets in hand: a lighter, cigarettes, what look to be pieces of parchment. There is a tilt of apology in his mismatched eyes; he can't offer the use of the lighter without being caught. ]

[ To say that the emergence of their party once freed into the festivities of Kei-Waihu is a culture shock is, well. A bit of an understatement. Subaru wanted for neither, truth be told, the alien bonds of imprisonment or the blissful processions touting the love of old. And yet it is the latter that commands his attention, not because of such a love made palatable by bright and gaudy celebration, but because of the familiar sickness left in the wake of something that yearns, something that seeks and clings. His senses may not have filled out entirely just yet, but he feels it in the weave of this place, beyond the sugar, florals, and lamenting.

So, Subaru allows himself to be "wed."

This goes about as well he expected it would when nightfall sees his "bride" turning, bone and teeth and fur made malleable by the ancient malice she bears. Call it an exorcist's intuition. Instantly, the quarter they share is quite literally upended in a vengeful flourish, the stout table that held all manner of drink and delicacy being flipped and thrown with her lunge. Glasses and liquids scatter, twinkling and fractured. He begs her understanding once, twice, finding no purchase in her madness. It culminates in Subaru being thrown to the nearest wall and the arm he'd raised to fend her off being seized in a clamp of her powerful jaws. She growls at the taste, guttural and rotten, squeezing blood from muscle until it patters onto the floor. Subaru, sweat on his brow and expression fixed, makes eye contact with the fox as soon as he senses members of the retinue near. Yet he throws his free arm out as a ward. ]

Don't... harm her. [ Muscle trembles, twitches. ] It's the — parchment. Look for the parchment...!

[ Festively scattered about the floor now in no particular order. ]

This isn't right. It was a slaughter that cased this curse.

[ His words lay thick in his mouth, almost irritated. It is not his place to tell anyone of this world how they ought to solve their problems. Really, all of this, from the mounting hunt to the tragedy of the brides, the people who had been captive and then welcomed alongside him, none of it has anything to do with him.

But old habits die hard and are easily stoked. He sports the impressive dressing of his bite wound and takes up no weapon, but he does pause at outset to pet every idle hunting dog. (So sue him.) ]

I'm not going to participate. [ He said, taken to one knee to dourly squish the face of a hound between his slender hands. ] But there is something I want to see for myself.

[ It does read like an invitation to join him if you're not the blood-wants-blood type. Or maybe you are! It takes all kinds. ]