To the Flames of the Sun

Chapter Three

Here we have Rengoku Katsuro. In case some of y'all still haven't realized, he's that ancestor of our Rengoku who first started the use of Flame Breathing.

Midori's POV (which will sound like an adult's POV even when she's a child because I said so)

I had lost Miri.

Which terrified me.

I had spent the night at Katsuro-san's last night, so I'd probably forgotten her there but, what was worse, was that I hadn't even realized that Miri wasn't with me until an hour after breakfast. Now, after I had looked all around every place I could think of in the house but hadn't found Miri anywhere, I knew I'd forgotten her at Katsuro-san's house.

Huffing softly, I walked out of the room I shared with Daddy and headed to Uncle Michi's room instead. He was there alright, wiping his katana clean before he set off to head to his practice. His back was turned to me, and that itself made me well up and go running to him to grab the hem of his haori.

"Yes, Midori?"

He asked without turning to look at me, still engrossed in wiping his katana, and I sniffed once.

"It's Miri! I forgot her!"

"Huh?"

Now he turned to look at me, brow raised.

"You forgot her? At Katsuro's?"

"Yes! And Kaito has pwobably hurt her by now!"

"Come now, I'm sure Katsuro's son isn't that evil to a girl four years younger than him."

"But he is!"

I yelled indignantly, recalling all those times that that meanie had liked to pull my hair or jump on me or even snatch Miri from me just for the fun of it, aware that I couldn't do anything to fight back because I was too small compared to him.

"We need to go back! I have to-"

The familiar screeching of a Kasugai crow echoed through the air and I groaned aloud. Those birds were so annoying sometimes, always showing up at the times they were definitely not supposed to show up at. Uncle Michi passed me an apologetic smile and patted my head, before rising to his feet and walking out to the garden through the portion of the engawa outside his room, right as a crow landed on his shoulder. I pouted. As annoying those birds were, they were still luckier than me because they got to sit on my father's and uncle's shoulders like that, throwing around missions at them that kept taking them away from me. I didn't understand much of what my dad, uncle or all the other adults around me did for work; they told me that I was too young at four years old to know about their job while Kaito told me that I was too stupid at four years old to know about their job. But what I did understand was that whatever it was they did was important. The Master had told me that the first and the only time I had met him last year, claiming how all the grownups I loved and cared about worked hard day and night to get rid of these evil monsters called demons, thus making them demon slayers. He had been a nice man, who had given me loads of mochi, and so I had easily been able to grasp what he had tried explaining to me. He also told me that all the grownups were not just regular people in their line of work but were, in fact, known as the Hashira; the pillars of their entire work group, known as the Demon Slayer Corps.

My dad was the Sun Hashira and my uncle was the Moon Hashira, and that sounded super cool to my ears.

Recently though, the Kasugai crows had been showing up with new orders more frequently and sending Daddy and Uncle Michi out on longer missions. I hadn't even seen Daddy for three weeks now, while Uncle Michi had returned home after two weeks only last night. I had been living with the Rengoku family with both my guardians gone, and had managed to keep Miri safe from Kaito, until last night when I was so excited to be told that Uncle Michi had finally come to pick me up that I had forgotten all about my sweetest best friend.