A New Beginning

Urokodaki's kids

Thankfully, the two of them understood that perfectly, and didn't wish to pressure him. A small smile slowly made its way to his face as he remembered them.

Mitsuri however was a different case.

"Quickly! I'll catch you!"

He had told Giyuu about it, how different it felt to be with someone like Mitsuri. Obanai didn't want to see her angry face after telling the truth, he just wanted to come clean about it. He wanted to know why out of everyone Mitsuri was the only one he could feel safe around.

"I'm sorry." Giyuu turned back to him as she still ate the onigiri in her hands.

"You don't need to apologize. Mitsuri saved you after all." From experience, she had seen a lot of people fall in love with their saviors, and even after the final battle, a lot of people had married someone they saved.

For Iguro, who didn't know that, it felt like a wave of relief had been lifted off his shoulders. His worries about being hated by them were gone.

"Iguro-san, you seem to know a lot of stuff about scavenging." Kanae came to bring him out of his daydreams.

He looked back at her, "Urokodaki-sensei would make us hunt our own food. He told us that food tastes better when you work for it." And he was right, after hours of training and a tiresome hunt for food, Sabito and him would devour anything that was on their plate.

Kanae hummed, "Kaburamaru is a great help no?"

Iguro stopped for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Kanae stopped with him, her face also tilting as she looked at him.

"It was something I had forgotten, that's all." He said. Kanae stopped questioning and simply headed back with him to the camp.

Iguro was now more attentive towards them, keeping a close eye on the girl who had known Kaburamaru's name without being told.

You are exaggerating, Sabito could have told her. His logical side was thinking, but the feeling in his gut still lingered. Kaburamaru looked up at him, also a bit wary of Kanae. Nonetheless, they still headed out. Besides, it wasn't a big deal anyways.

Right, I'm being paranoid.

"If it's not much to ask, who is your cultivator, Iguro-san?"

"Urokodaki-sensei."

He swears he just saw Kanae's smile twitch.

"Oh? Then, could you tell me more about them?"

"You want to know more about the old man?" Both of them looked to the front of the forest, inside all of the mist and the boulders around them, Sabito was present next to a small little house that had been built for the gods.

Kanae hummed, her smile still intact. "Of course. My~ I have always been fascinated by all kinds of breaths and styles!" Her words, sweet like honey, had struck even harder as the light of her innocent and curious eyes shone with the most adorable puppy face they had ever seen.

"Ahg." Sabito was always weakened by these kinds of people. "Fine then, there isn't any other choice."

"Thank you!" Kanae clung to the side of Sabito, instantly making him blush at such proximity. Though he quickly recovered and went on to talk to her about Urokodaki's techniques and students.

Weird. Obanai just ignored them.

Out of nowhere he felt a shiver run up his spine. He turned around to see in between the trees that a small set of purple eyes were scanning them. It was Shinobu, the youngest, staring down at Sabito as though she was preparing her 34th kill of the day. He gulped and turned around, pretending to not have seen her before he became the 35th.