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Yoka flew above the Nagasaki Kaido in her tengu form. Rin was tucked in her arms, peering down at the shocked travellers as she searched for Matsukura Aoko and his procession of palanquins.
They had almost reached Nagasaki but there was no still sign of their target.
Rin's fingers dug so deeply into the nape of Yoka's red neck that she drew blood. But the tengu didn't seem to feel pain at all. It was smirking, taking pleasure in the frenzied shouts of the travellers running for cover at the sight of it.
'Tch!' The young mistress ground her teeth. 'Head to Shimabara. They've probably arrived by now. We're too late.'
Yoka smirked. 'Are you sure?' The tengu shifted the small girl in its arms to a more comfortable position. 'What if they're still kidnapping children along the way?'
Rin let go of the tengu's neck and examined her sticky red fingers. 'Nothing we can do about it. Instead of finding them, it's more likely that we'll miss them altogether. Look for their base and wipe them out all at once.'
The tengu dipped its ugly red head, its smile widening. 'Understood, Ojou-sama.'
Now that they knew the kidnapper was Matsukura Aoko, it was easy to figure out why he did it.
He was raising an army to take back his domain by force.
According to Tsuguru, these kidnappings have been happening for a few years already. So it was clear he was willing to wait.
The question was whether he was selling these children for money to afford an army or training them to fight for him.
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