Shuten

First night out in a thousand years, and my knee buckled. The ink isn't dry yet, so we'll call this one unwritten.

• KohaMy lord, a picture of you on your knees fetches quite a price. Mind if I sell it around, say, three places~
  ShutenSell it. Just hand me the names of whoever buys.
  KohaMy, you know how to strike a deal. This is why I love the old ones.
• BanshuMy lord! What in the world was that pose, I doubted my own eyes.
  ShutenIf you're old, doubt your eyes first.
• TogashiSeal Hall entry number three, whereabouts confirmed as of last night. You have five days to self-report.

One paper stuck to my neck and suddenly everyone's less afraid of me. Funny how no one's asked yet whose hand wrote it.

• MitsuhaIt's not that they won't ask, it's that they can't. The moment you learn the answer, it costs you.
  ShutenYou already have the look of someone who knows, Doctor.
  MitsuhaKnowing means buying the drinks, and my salary doesn't stretch that far.
• ItsukiWhoa, that angle is genuinely terrifying... I just dropped my brush mid-copy
  ShutenPick it up.

The toll man raised the fare from two coins to three. Two for a person, one more for a beast, so I'm the one who paid that third coin.

• BanshuThat's not the fare going up, that's your face getting a price tag, boss.
  ShutenSays the one who used to shake down tolls under this very bridge.
• KohaThat toll gang's hands have been shaking counting talismans for three days now. I'll sell you the reason for one coin.
  ShutenPut it on credit. I already spent three coins today.

A bell rolled out of my sleeve, and the tooth marks on it were still mine. A thousand years, and it's always this kind of thing that never fades.

• SoyoYou can't cast silver like that anymore. All the old men who made those bells are dead.
  ShutenThen this is the last one. I'll have to be more careful where I bite from now on.
• NagiThere are still those in the south who remember that sound.
  ShutenLet them remember. Just don't let them call it.

Cold rain fell for three days straight, and the paper on my neck hasn't run at all. Some hands, it seems, never meant for their strokes to fade in the first place.

• ItsukiIt's not the paper that's fine, it's the brushwork. Everyone in the copying room knows exactly whose hand that is.
  ShutenIf you know, keep it to yourself. Whoever talks about what they know disappears first.
• AyameA soaked talisman doubles the upkeep cost, you know.
  ShutenThen I'll carry an umbrella. Even beasts get out of the rain.
• TogashiThere's no provision for a talisman that gets wet and doesn't run. I'll be checking again.