Their searching finally came to an end at the port, after they realized that out of every possible places they'd forgot about one. As Alpha knew, a port town always had some kind of inn next to the ships in case the crew wanted to take a short break after they unloaded the cargo or while their captain went away for making some business. But there were cases when a traveller wanted to catch a ship early in the morning, but wasn't sure if he could get there from the heart of the city. Yeah, there should at least one place like this near the water if Inaba was indeed a port town.

He hoped the sea serpent spared it.

The inn what they've found had a great view to the sea, but obviously not many travellers wanted to stay near the raging sea monster for too long, so the prices must be high, since they needed the money for a possible attack in case. They put all their hopes into the rich wanderers who were famous for searching danger and giving out extraordinary amount of money to sleep in the mouth of death.
Traces of an earlier attack were all around them and it seemed at a certain part of the harbour, whole jetties were ripped out of their places, leaving only broken logs surrounded by sediments what still glided on the waves. Secretly both of them gave thanks to God, because at least the demon's victims haven't floated on the surface of the water. Just thinking about how many innocent lives were lost when the monster attacked, gave them Goosebumps.

Fortunately, inside the house they've met a friendlier atmosphere than they first expected. It wasn't ruined at all. The walls were decorated with shells and other sea gizmos fished out of the sea. By its appearance this was the most original inn among every place they've visited that day, but Alpha thought about the location he was immediately reminded to the great fee they possibly had to pay if they decided to stay there. It must be hard maintaining an inn with a raging monster out there, but somehow he was curious how they managed without any damage. From the looks of it, the walls, even the front door was old and it never needed any repairing. It was a unique case so he hoped the owners were simply lucky.

The first person they've seen was a little girl, who put the cushions at the tables to their place while collecting scattered coral pieces from the floor. She flinched like a scared little bird as soon as she saw the unexpected visitors. She stared at them as a deer in the spotlight then she quickly made an escape through the nearest door.

"Tsu-Tsu-Tsunami-san! Where is Tsunami-san? Customers!" her voice echoed through even the closed door "Finally! Customers!"

"I think we found the inn we were looking for." noted Fey with a shocked expression on his face. After all, if someone was THIS happy by just seeing a few dusty travellers, she won't ask too much money for the room either. Alpha just nodded in agreement.

"Tsunami still hasn't arrived back and Rinka, you were wrong the last time as well." said someone in the room "They'll only ask for directions then everyone goes back to their business like always."

"But Yasuo! They're obviously travellers! Real , living travellers! I've never seen them in the city and I'm sure they want to sleep here! Maybe they'll stay for a few days! You'll understand when you look at them! There is a tall one with a really ugly, strict stare and a smaller one who still has summer clothes!"

"Sorry, won't believe it... Still sounds like your imagination."

"You're mean, Yasuo!"

The conversation went on for a while and the mentioned duo exchanged confused looks between each other as they heard their description. Fey was grinning like an idiot while Alpha was himself again.

"She kind of nailed it. You could kill with this ugly look." whispered Fey to Alpha while he tried to prevent himself from laughing too loud.

"I don't know who is the one who walks around in a skirt all year long" he shot back.

"It's not a skirt." said the youkai, angrily pointing at his orange clothes. "I don't have any other clothes. Not everyone lives in a castle like someone, with thousands of new clothes. If you don't like this, then buy me a new one!"

"Sew it for yourself. I hope you at least wear a fundoshi..." he prayed silently, without changing his expression. It was the same, cold Alpha with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, so the whole situation and the topic was unfitting to him and made everything a hundred percent funnier.

"What? Of course I wear one!" the boy blushed at the mere suggestion of having no underwear. He wasn't that poor. "I'm not a tanuki! How can you even think about this? Alpha, you're a pervert!"

"I'm not. You were to one-"

Coughing. Then another one, what was followed by a much louder cough.

"Am I interrupting something?" asked someone. They jumped apart like two frightened bird at the voice. The mocking remark came from the door, from a boy whose hair looked like the foamy, blue waves of the sea. He stood there with folded arms while the following thought could've been read out from his eyes "the little one wasn't playing around this time", then at the fresh smell of new guests he picked the friendliest smile he could.

"Sorry, but you're not going to explain yourself out of this, soooo I thought this would be the right time to ask: Are you really here for lodging?" he asked with noble simplicity.

"Yes." Alpha nodded. To this, the boy, who was apparently Yasuo, lost his momentum from the answer and silently gaped at them like a fish.

"Ja-Jahana!" he called for help and another figure appeared behind him in the door. This time it was a taller girl, with greenish cat-like eyes. They reflected a particular seriousness and decisiveness. She wore similar attire to Yasuo but there were colourful jewelleries made of coral around her neck and her wrist.

"My name is Jahana Sango." she introduced herself with more routine than her predecessors. "Can I help you?"

"Ah, we are searching for a place where we could stay for an indefinite period, so if it's possible I would like to speak with the owner of this place." said Alpha in a strikingly business-like manner.

"Sorry, but the owner is currently not in the city. Apparently, none of them." she smiled sympathetically. "I'm just a waitress, so I have no right to interfere with this kind of business. But if you seriously want to stay here, we can give you a cheaper room until the owner returns."

It seemed they would do anything to keep them there until the owner arrives back. But where was he again?

"Where is your boss exactly and what do you mean by 'cheaper'? "He wasn't interested in the price, but in the quality.

"He is out of town, getting supplies with the other workers for next month." she explained "For a room for two people three copper coin per night will do? But if you want to eat here the price will be seven copper coins for a person per night. I'm sorry if this seems too expensive but we have a small traffic nowadays. But if you want separate rooms I can ask-"

"No, thank you. The big room will be perfect." Alpha interrupted her because she could start another monologue. He needed time to think through the advantages of this.

This price was shockingly low compared to the inns where they asked almost fifteen coins for a night, moreover, he had to admit that for that much money food and lodging sounded tempting. Though it sounded a pretty suspiciously, asking Fey's opinion wouldn't help him either. It seemed the boy tried to understand their conversation, but he wasn't aware of the value of money and obviously couldn't understand what was cheap or expensive.

Yet there had to be a trick somewhere. After all such dangerous place should've been expensive due to the sea serpent... Then again, why was this the opposite? He couldn't figure it out. They couldn't spend their money on repairing, right? Everything was old as time itself.

"Be it" he agreed, despite the weird factors.

殻

It turned out, the replacement innkeepers couldn't serve dinner because, as they said, 'they'd run out of stocks'. They refused a deeper explanation to this and the duo hasn't felt like playing detective for the missing food. They will survive just like they did before the forest inn.

Despite the lack of food and the chaos Rinka and Yasuo created downstairs in less than two minutes, their room was at least clean and comfortable. The owners used similar design patterns in the rooms as in the ground floor, so the walls were covered with seashells and other painted motifs.

But Fey's favourite aspect was the fresh sea air, which filled the entire room. The cool, salty scent reminded him of a lot of nice memories and looking the sea from Inaba was different than from Oki. While on that tiny island he constantly imagined the life of the city, now, that he reached his goal Fey's thoughts wandered back home. He leant out of the window to the waist to take a deep breath.

"I'm glad we stayed here." he said while laying in the window. As he peered at the water he could see the sea serpent sparkling, white scales on the surface of the water. "But I'm still wondering about why didn't you asked for separate rooms? Wouldn't it be cheaper if we stayed in smaller rooms?"

"Yeah, it would. But there are too many reasons against it."

"Majority of them involve me, right?" commented Fey, but a smile could be heard from his voice.

"Don't be so egoist. My world is not centered around you." he stated as he put down his small luggage, his sword next to his futon. "It's safer like this and you aren't disturbing too much water here."

"Thanks." he beamed. Alpha couldn't understand his response, but he gave up on solving Fey's little mind a long time ago. He wanted to say 'you're welcome', but he couldn't. Some things better left as they were.

鮫

During the night Fey was awoken by muffled noises coming from the floor under theirs. Alpha was sleeping and the voices didn't bother him, but as a rabbit youkai Fey's hearing was better than average people's so he could clearly understand every word even if he didn't intend to.

"Shindou, let's head back." muttered someone.

"We have nowhere to go, until we know what happened exactly." another voice joined to the previous one, presumably he was Shindou. Fey became more and more curious about their conversation, so he crept to a spot where he could eavesdrop effectively. No, wait. He didn't eavesdrop. No. He just checked the other guest. Maybe they were dangerous.

"But this way your title as the crown prince will be taken away! They will get what they want!"

"Kirino. Listen. I want to go home too, but this isn't possible while every gate is heavily secured. You know what would happen if they caught us, right?"

"O-Of course. I know. But promise me we'll go home after you finished investigating Inaba and solve the problem there." he paused for a moment "I can protect you! I made an oath when I became your guardian and they can only hurt you over my dead body! So-"

"Kirino..."

"I know… Promise me, you will speak with your father about this."

"I promise."

"You're not very convincing." Kirino laughed, this time his mood lightened up a bit.

"I'm sorry. It's difficult to be persuasive when you stare a hole into my soul."

For the remaining minutes Fey sneaked back to his pillow and tried to exclude the rest of the conversation. It started to become too private and he already got enough information.

Things can get really ugly if they aren't careful enough.

A/N: Slowly but surely the story seems to be picking up a steady pace~! And the inn crew is the Oumihara team! So many questions, so many plotholes and new characters! But in the next chapter the Wonderbat arc will finally come to an end~!