"There used to be village here." Hokusai mumbles. Inuyasha sniffs the air. They were indeed where a village should have been. Now all that was left were empty huts and stables.

"Did they get attacked? There are still fire pits that look fresh."

"No." Inuyasha answers while sniffing again. "I can't smell blood but I do smell a lot of scents. They're probably a day or two ahead of us."

"Oh." Hokusai says. Maybe they were a nomad village? It was rare but was not unheard of.

Hokusai sighed. So much for stopping and looking for clothes of sorts.

Inuyasha's ear twitches and he starts to sniff at the air again. Hokusai continues forward.

"Something's coming."

"People?"

"Oni…" The hanyou looks toward the monk. "Probably smells you."

"Oh." Hokusai says it with a shrugg, a blank expression on his face. "If it comes looking for a fight I'll just cleanse it." Inuyasha snorts and rolls his left shoulder. "Or I could take care of it first."

"Like I said, if it comes to us looking for a fight I'll cleanse it." Inuyasha ignores him, Hokusai sighs, "Fine if it attacks you can get first hit."

This makes Inuyasha flex his fingers and smirk.

The Oni turns out to be a rapid one that's lost an arm and has human intestines hanging out his mouth. Hokusai scrunches up his nose in distaste because it smells and it really is a horrible sight.

Inuyasha happily takes care of it without any help from the monk (because the Hanyou had already descended upon the oni before the monk could say anything).

Oh well, the problem is solved. However there is a new problem that arises.

"It stinks." Hokusai hisses as he looks at the blood on Inuyasha's hands and sleeves."

"Tch, you don't need to tell me that," Inuyasha doesn't even sniff to know it reeks. The blood on his fire rat robe would burn off in time but the grime on his hands and under his claws would be a problem.

Hokusai gives him a blank stare, black eyes looking him up and down before sighing and walking away.

Inuyasha huffs, bastard didn't even say thank you.

They find a small pond and Inuyasha doesn't waste time in cleaning his hands. Hokusai doesn't seem to pay any mind to the pond or the fish inside. Inuyasha doesn't say anything. If the human wanted to starve than so be it.

"Do you smell anything?"

Inuyasha wipes his wet hands on pants of his robe. He sniffs, "We're close to a village or a group of people." There aren't any youkai around that he smells.

"Good, I need clothes." The monk says and walks in the direction they were headed before. Then he stops and looks over his shoulder at Inuyasha. "Are you comfortable with being around people."

"Oh, I'm just fine." The hanyou rolls his eyes, "Fucking peachy, it's the people that aren't okay with being around me."

Hokusai slowly blinks at him, in a way it reminded Inuyasha of an animal- a feline to be specific. It was weird- especially with how black Hokusai's eyes were.

"Fine," The man turns back around and continues walking, "If they have a problem we'll just leave and head to the next."

"So that's the plan?" Inuyasha asked while shoving his hands into his sleeves, "Just go from village to village until a year is over with?"

"Japan is big enough for us to explore on foot and then some," Hokusai doesn't even turn to look at him as Inuyasha easily catches up with him. "It would be nice to see how much has changed…" He mumbled the last part to himself but Inuyasha's ears caught it.

The hanyou kept silent.

He was right.

It was one of those nomad villages, where the villages would constantly travel.

Inuyasha chose to stay behind, in the trees where none of the humans could see him. Hokusai didn't pressure the other.

"Hello?" He greeted a woman who came up to him the second he managed to get close enough. He mentally noted, that there weren't many men around. Most of them were young.

The woman didn't seem much of a threat. He could tell she wasn't a Miko but the way she walked gave away that she might be the one in charge.

The woman's eyes went wide at his voice and he was once again reminded that he's wearing a dead miko's clothing.

"Hello to you as well," She seemed to regain herself and greeted with a small bow to the head, "Might I ask what a miko is doing here..?"

"I am a monk," Hokusai informs with amusement dancing in his eyes, "Forgive me for throwing you off, this was the only clothing the last village could give me with my size."

She nods, "A monk you say? M-Might I make a request? We should be able to salvage some clothes and rations for you if you accept!"

"Speak, milady."

"There's an Oni, around where we last were. We ran into it earlier in the year and it seems to keep following us. We could never seem to catch it because after it attacked us it always seemed to disappear. Now it has been… more successful and as you see we don't have many able men…"

"This Oni," he says once she's trailed off, "Did he happened to have one arm?"

"Yes! Have you-"

"My companion slew it," Hokusai reassures her. "We ran into it this morning while coming this way." Hokusai cringes at the memory of how it smelled. "It's gone."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Someone- a young man that looks quite similar to the woman walks up. He was eavesdropping, Hokusai knew it, apparently, the woman did not because she seemed suddenly alarmed and flustered.

"Ryuu-"

"How do we know you're telling the truth?!"

"You'll know when you won't die in a few days." Hokusai deadpans him and the boy flinched. "You all can go back to the area and see it yourself. It smelled so awful I'm sure its remains have yet to be eaten."

The boy's faced twisted into an unreadable expression and he stormed off. The woman sighed. "I'm sorry," She apologized, "He's still a bit emotional. Um…"

"Clothes," Hokusai gently reminded her with a small smile and she nodded.

The clothes are big and loose on him but he doesn't really mind. They fit better than the miko clothes, that's for sure.

"If there's nothing else would you like to travel with us? We're heading towards the mountain to meet up with the other half of our village. If it's not too much trouble for you to travel with us we can give you food while you're traveling with us."

"So you wish for protection?" Hokusai asks bluntly.

The woman (he found out her name was Sayuri), blinks but nods, "Y-yes, if you would please?"

"I will have to ask my friend."

Thank you all so much for the reviews.