мѕ.gяα¢є αη∂ мя.муѕтєяу •𝔐𝔬𝔫𝔬𝔫𝔬𝔨𝔢•

𝓝𝓸𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓾 𝓕𝓲𝓯𝓽𝓱 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻

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"I told you to bring me more sake! What are you doing?" Ochou's late husband screamed. They were still in the past.

"I-I'm sorry!" Ochou apologized while standing in the kitchen where she spent most of her time. It was her safe space. Her own customized prison. It was her life. Everything at once.

"Ochou, just get us more sake!" Another voice shouted.

They only wanted Ochou to fulfill their needs. That was the life of the newest addition to the family, the one that didn't belong there. The one whose soul belonged to everyone, as she didn't have one of her own. Even the criminal knew that she only had one mission in her life. It was up to Kusuriuri to help her and Shinju at the same time. That was the exorcist's mission.

"What a worthless wife you have." "A lazy girl indeed." "Brother, whyever did you take her in?" "Her mother begged me to." "If your first wife hadn't hung herself, would you ever have accepted her into your home?" "Well, she's a pretty good cook, and good in bed too!"

Their conversations were sickening. It was as if they didn't know that Ochou could hear them. It was as if they intended to make Ochou listen to their degradations. Whatever it was, she wasn't paying attention: the reflection of the man she loved was on the waterbuck she was looking at.

She stood up. She acknowledged why he was there, but still, she accepted him. With a slow and seductive movement, her hands grazed the kitchen knife he held.

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"Ochou. Who did you kill?" Kusuriuri asked again. His cold eyes glared at the figure of the ex-prisoner. He wanted to know everything and slay the Mononoke, just so he can make his pupil understand the life she was about to live, the life she had been wishing for.

"Stop it." She beseeched.

"Please, Ochou. You can do it." Shinju encouraged. If Kusuriuri was the one being firm and wanting to do his job as soon as possible, without caring too much about the interrogation, she was the complete opposite. There wasn't going to be an answer fast if there wasn't any kind of emotional support or threat, and she knew that. The two of them were working together, and completing the other one's flaws.

"Stop it. Stop it. Stop it... Stop it! Stop it!" The images of all the gruesome deaths the members of her 'family', caused by her, traveled through her mind. It was overwhelming for her, and she couldn't say anything else.

The two merchants looked at the woman. Shinju was biting her lip, not knowing how to help her overcome her sudden breakdown. Kusuriuri was standing further away from them, just like his ideals about interacting with humans: as furthest and littlest as possible.

"That mask is not a Mononoke."

"Huh...?" The pearled girl's purplish eyes widened in shock. She moved her head so that it faced her teacher. "What do you mean that it is not a Mononoke? You fought with it, you tried to see if it was the Mononoke's... Form...oh."

"A Mononoke controls the masked man." He finished.

"Wait, what?!" That wasn't the answer the occultist fan was expecting. Her theory about the mask not being the Mononoke wasn't near that one. She wanted answers, an explanation.

"Neither the human nor just a mask form was classified by the sword of exorcism as the form. Still, it received information. It is a friend, it is simply being controlled by the true Mononoke, the one pulling the strings."