Picking up his scythe, Hidan jogged to catch up with her as she walked off through the trees, following on behind and noticing how much more tranquil the forest seemed now he had her with him. She walked as if she knew exactly where she was going, even without the path, something which instantly ignited his curiosity, as the forest was so huge, and it had taken him roughly an hour to find a small town in it. Yet she ambled through like she was walking down the street to a particular building, and didn’t seem dwarfed by the sheer size of the place at all.
Then suddenly realising something, Hidan looked up and over at her, and questioned,
“So you don’t live in the town?”
“You’re kidding me, right? Baby, d’you really think I’d live there if stuff like what happened with your appearance occurred all the damn time? They don’t think much of me either.” She shot back over her shoulder with an indignant look, causing Hidan to look down, embarrassed at his stupid question, yet at the same time in awe at how quick and just generally shameless she was. She didn’t feel the need to any hesitation or doubt, whether defending him in the town and risking her own life, or just stating her own opinion. But then, with people acting like that towards you, you probably learn to just not care.
And ultimately, it made him kind of speechless.
“Yeah, but, you live here permanently, right? So why the fuck do they treat you like that?” Hidan finally managed to speak up, to which she replied with a shrug, and a softer answer of,
“They treat me a little less fiercely than they might have done you because I’ve lived here all my fucking life, but like I said, I don’t live in the town. I do things and work differently to all the shitty people living there, and so they don’t trust me as much. But you might have it worse. So sticking together might not be such a bad idea, especially with what happened. Aah! Here we are.”
Turning suddenly, she halted in a small clearing with a medium sized...well, waterhole. Trees surrounded it in a haphazard manner, but there were an inner circle of trees that were perfectly placed in an almost barrier-like way. Narrowing his eyes at it, Hidan span round to look at them, the trees not being particularly big, but somehow giving off a much more powerful vibe than the others. The grass was much thicker here, and the water was clear, running off in a little stream to the right.
“This place is protected by the gods, if you’re wondering. It’s how you can sense something with a higher power,” She abruptly stated from where she was, disappearing into the trees nearby for a second, only to come back with some sort of fruit cradled in her arms. Sitting down in the middle of the clearing, she laid it out in front of her, and looked up at Hidan, watching and waiting to see if he would join her.
Pausing for a second, he shook his head and walked over, slumping on the floor, his eyes remaining on her the entire time. Feeling slightly uncomfortable in the intensity of his gaze, she glanced down and then up again, blushing, and found the perfect excuse to change the subject, smirking, and gestured to the clearing around her, adding on to her before statement,
“And the higher power you feel...it’s connected to how I sensed you were a Jashinist. But you should probably eat first. It’ll solidify the healing your body’s gone under.”
Suddenly realising he’d been staring at her; Hidan quickly looked away, taking her proffered hand which contained the strange fruit. Something else that was alien to him, he studied it carefully, wondering if it was going to taste as bad as everything else, but then gave up, sighing, and took a bite, and was...surprised. It was a weird taste; the definition of unusual, but it was...good. Really good. Taking more and more bites out of it, his hunger suddenly catching up with him, Hidan only stopped when a laugh broke through the clearing, causing him to look up, and ask what was wrong, to be replied with,
“Just your face, that’s all. The look of such surprise.” Pausing, her smile suddenly softened at the look in his eyes, realising how weirdly sweet he was, before she coughed nervously and shook it off, adding,
“Wipe your mouth, sweetie.”
Doing so, and ultimately afterwards chewing more slowly, he kept his eyes on her as they both finished eating, leaving a silence behind afterwards that wasn’t awkward, but wasn’t entirely companionable either. It wasn’t until Hidan looked up to see one of her fantastic smiles again, accompanied with a hand, apologising,
“I’m Tsukai, by the way. It kinda seems rude with me talking to you and coming after you to not know your name, and for you not to know mine.”
“I’m, uh...Hidan.” He finally managed to mumble in return, a little taken aback at her politeness as he took her proffered hand, before she continued with,
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
But somehow with those words he felt reassured, and as such grinned in return, stating with a raised eyebrow,
“No. The pleasure’s all mine.”
Giggling girlishly at his comment, Tsukai looked away, now her turn to not know what to do, trying desperately (and failing) to brush it off—though her smile never faded. Hidan, however, merely grinned and laughed himself in the sudden reversal of roles, and decided to pursue what he had wanted to know in the first place; how she had known he was a Jashinist. But looking over and just beginning to ask the question she sighed and stood up, going over to the edge of the clearing. Though as Hidan began to think she was leaving him alone, she merely picked up some fire wood, returned, placed it in the centre of the marked area, and with one flick of her fingers, set it alight.
Blinking in surprise for a second at that sudden ability, Hidan almost questioned as to how she had done that—as to what she could do. But knowing that he would just get sidetracked, a benefit reaped entirely by Tsukai, he shook that fact off and continued with his interrogation, only to be met with another sigh as she glanced away, before finally looking back to Hidan’s eyes. What he saw there was not poker face eyes, trying to smother the idea that she wasn’t going to tell him, or smother out any secrets that Hidan normally would need to know. Instead he saw a genuine...curiosity. Almost a care for him; one that probably had been there when she chose to come back and see how he was doing and heal him; when she had helped in the town in the first place. And for a moment he was frozen; not understanding her sudden affectionate concern, until something hit him;
How often was it that Tsukai had this kind of conversation?
Hidan knew that the villagers didn’t like her, so it wasn’t as if she’d be standing around talking to them heart to heart. She didn’t live there in the first place, so she had no form of true connection to those in the village. Talking openly and casually about everything and anything was almost a luxury to her, so when she asked softly,
“Before I tell you, explain a little about yourself, huh?”
He nodded quickly and smiled tenderly back. Now he understood why she came back. Why she intervened at the village. Why she wanted to help him in general after he’d turned up in the middle of nowhere uninvited.
And he wasn’t about to brush her off now that he did know.
