"Oh uh," she was put on the spot for a moment. "Well, I'm not particularly familiar with Spiritsylvania, let alone the eastern part. I believe that's home to the Bellmoth family though? Ah but yes, it's possible that that's what happened. Forest are home to many paths to the spirit realms."

"Ahh, the Bellmoth family," Keiji said, nodding, exactly as if he knew them. "One of the lesser vassal families of the Kitsune, I believe?"

"Stepping through a spirit portal is an easy mistake to make, they're almost never marked on maps for fear of marking a path that would guide spirits into the world of mortals," he said, nodding. "And once there, it wouldn't be easy to get back, even for Hiruma scouts. Especially with, you know, the giant moths in the Bellmoth province." He nodded knowingly at Hikari.

"I'm not sure what you've heard, Kitsu-san, but moths, giant are not, are relatively harmless provided you don't keep them in the wardrobe."

"But an army on the move can hardly carry wardrobes with them," Keiji persisted. "They must carry all their clothes on their backs, and perhaps on supply wagons. And although I would have confidence in the ability of the Hida to fight off moths in physical combat, even giant ones, these would be spirit moths, which would be another thing entirely. And it seems unlikely the Crab baggage train would've thought to provision themselves with mothballs for such a campaign."

"Perhaps," she said, playing along, "I confess I have not encountered the spirit variety of giant moth yet. Still, to return to the matter at hand, one does consider a portal quite likely. Then of course the question becomes a portal to *which* realm."

“What spirit realms do you think are most likely, Seppun-sama?” the Lion inquired. “There are so many of them, it seems hard to guess.”

"Chikushudo would seem the most obvious. I'd be very surprised if the forest of the Fox harbors portal to more evil realms."

“Perhaps the Crab are even now faced with fighting off crazed lemurs and other denizens of Chikushudo,” Keiji suggested. “But is there any hope that they might return? The loss of an entire legion would be most unfortunate for the Crab. Still, with no word from them for so long...” The Lion gave a small shrug. Sometimes, no news was bad news.

"It is not inconceivable. It is possible they're surviving in the realm. It is also possible time flows differently there, at least according to some accounts. They might find an exit after a month inside, only for a century to have passed here."

"What a fascinating notion!" Keiji replied, obviously intrigued by this strange idea. "To return after a century, as if only a few weeks had gone by. How strange that would be!"

The Lion paused a moment to compose his thoughts, then said in a sing-song voice:

"Into the forest
The Crab samurai traveled
Strange things lay within
In the woods, a spirit door
A mighty legion was lost

A hundred years pass
Somewhere, a door reopens
The legion returns
Will they hear stories of us?
Or will we be forgotten?"

Keiji fell silent with a thoughtful look. The poem had come out sounding rather more wistful than he had intended, but the words had seemed fitting.

Hikari was, self-admittedly, somewhat surprised.

"You have quite the talent there, Kitsu-san, to be able to come up with that so quickly."

"Ah, it's nothing much," Keiji said, with a modest wave of his hand. "In truth I drew inspiration from your words. The notion that one might step through a door, then step back, and *poof*, a hundred years have passed... I must admit, the idea captured my imagination."

"There are a few stories like that. But whether these stories are true or not, I can not say."

"Sometimes there are stories are good enough that they should be true," Keiji ventured. "I've always heard that the denizens of the spirit world like their mysteries. One wonders if they are pleased with the stories we tell of them."

"If they are," she said, a smile on her face that halfway suggested she knew much more than she let on, "they rarely show it to be so."

"A simple sailor such as myself would not know the thoughts of spirits," Keiji admitted. "But perhaps a priestess ... or a Jade Magistrate... might know more...?" Having picked up on Hikari's hint, he looked over at her, as if inviting her to go on.

"Such would be the common expectation, indeed."

But it appeared as if she wasn't going to be particularly forthcoming.

"But such beings much prefer to remain enigmatic about such things. It would not be for one such as I to rob them of their mysteriousness."