"One-san!"
(Y/n) woke up startled by Dororo's yell. She didn't hesitate to run out of the room and ran to the entrance. Mio had left a while ago and Hyakkimaru and the priest still weren't back. The thought of either of those two being the cause of Dororo's terrified yell made her blood run cold.
"Dororo! What happ-" (Y/n) stopped in the tracks and gasped in horror. In front of her, behind held up by the priest and Dororo, was Hyakkimaru who was now missing his right leg. Tears weld up in her eyes as she noticed all the blood he was losing. "Get him inside, now!"
They got him inside and once he was laying down, (y/n) and the priest got to work on cleaning him up. (Y/n) wrapped up his leg quickly and made sure to tie a rope around his thigh tightly to try and stop the bleeding. It wasn't until they had finished, that (y/n) heard whimpering and gasping. She blinked and looked around, almost thinking that it was Dororo.
"It's his voice" Dororo said a bit sadly as he sat next to his sister, "the priest says that when he lost his leg, he gained his voice" (Y/n)'s eyes widened as she looked over at Hyakkimaru. Of course she was happy to hear him, but at the cost of his leg?
She didn't know what to think exactly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the morning, (y/n) and Dororo stayed by Hyakkimaru's side, along with the priest. Dororo had just told (y/n) that he followed Mio last night, to help Toboro feel a little at ease about her working for both sides. But what (y/n) heard shocked her. Of course, she kind of had her suspicions. Mio worked from night to morning, what other jobs were there in that time frame? Even so, it still shocked her that Mio did that kind of work.
"Hyakkimaru!"
Everyone turned to see Mio running into the room to check on Hyakkimaru. Takebo tried to get her to go to bed, but Mio insisted to stay and help clean up Hyakkimaru. She raised her sleeves and Dororo froze. (Y/n) noticed that and turned her gaze to what he was looking at and her eyes widened when she saw the big purple bruise on Mio's upper arm. Mio noticed their stares and lowered her sleeve to hide it from them. Dororo shut his eyes closed and ran out. (Y/n)'s gaze followed him as he ran outside.
'I don't blame him. He must have remembered back then' she thought sadly
Hours later, everyone was busying themselves around the house while Hyakkimaru sat by the entrance.
He hated the feeling of not doing anything, especially when he could be out there killing that demon that took his leg. If he killed it, surely, he should get his leg back. He grabbed his sword and tried to get up, but it wasn't steady enough and he fell forward.
"Hyakkimaru!" Mio called when she saw the sword fly near her, "you must stay put" she said as she laid him back down and ran back to grab the cloth she dropped. "You mustn't go. I understand that you're frustrated, but what if you die?"
Dororo was about to walk in when he heard Mio talking to Hyakkimaru. Same, for (Y/n). She was about to check up on him but looks like Mio beat her to it.
"I pushed myself too hard as well, so I get it" Mio said. Hyakkimaru looked up at her, "I'm so stupid. I knew it wasn't easy to make money" she whimpered, then she rubbed her tears away, "no, no. I'd already promised I'd never cry because of a samurai ever again. You too. If you try too hard and die, you lose" she said as she helped him lay back on the wall. "Then who'll take care of Dororo and (Y/n)?" she asked smiling, "anyways, I heard you found your voice. That's amazing. Try to say something"
(Y/n) peaked her head to see the two. She saw Hyakkimaru shake his head and covered his ears. She tried not to chuckle at his actions.
"Is your voice too loud for you?" Mio asked and Hyakkimaru plugged his ears with a sad look in his eyes. Mio chuckled "You'll get used to it. Dororo said you are now like a beast in a cave" Hyakkimaru only shook his head again, "Then, how about a song? Dororo says you like mine and (Y/n)'s songs, right?" She mentioned and took a small breath, "Pick a red flower" she started and Hyakkimaru put his hands down, "I sing whenever I feel sad" she mentioned before continuing, "Instead of crying pick a red flower to give. I will put the flower"
That's when (Y/n) noticed Dororo and the Priest at the foot of the stairs. When did he come back? But it looks like he's about to leave. She noticed that he was talking to Dororo and then Dororo looked back at the building. Looks like they were probably talking about Hyakkimaru. (Y/n) was about to go out and say goodbye to the Priest when Mio stopped singing.
"Don't look at me so much" she heard, "you can see people's souls, right? The colors of them. Please don't look at mine. It's probably filthy. Really filthy." (y/n)'s eyes narrowed at what Mio said. If there was one thing she hated it's when someone thinks the negative in themselves. And it was clear that Mio thought the worst in herself because of her work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mio grabbed some stuff and was heading out. She was about to step out of the house when she noticed the (h/c) colored girl was leaning on the wall next to her.
"Oh (Y/n), I was just heading out" she smiled
"I know" she replied, "Dororo told me what you do"
Mio's eyes widened for a bit and then looked down in sadness, "oh, I see"
(Y/n) looked at her and turned to face her, "You're not tainted you know" Mio looked at her in shock, "you think your soul is filthy because of what you do to gain money, but that does not mean you are" (y/n) said, "your soul is not filthy, it's not ugly, it's not disgusting. If anything, you must have a pretty and pure soul" Mio's eyes widened, "you took in all these kids. You're providing for them. You took us in when you didn't even know us" she said, 'Compared to me, who has stolen and hurt people' she thought, "Just because this is what you do does not mean that you have a filthy soul"
Mio smiled and wiped the tears off her eyes, "thank you, (Y/n)" she smiled
(Y/n) smiled and nodded, "I just thought someone should tell you" She said as Mio bowed and continued to walk, "oh and by the way, he can't see the color of your soul specifically, "color wise, each thing has the same color. So, you don't have to worry about that" Mio blushed lightly and continued to walk, hoping that (Y/n) couldn't see it from where she was.
"Dororo" (Y/n) called as she saw her little sibling walking ahead of her with a plate of food, "where are you going?"
"Taking this to aniki so that he can heal up" he said
"Good thinking, if we don't make him eat, he's going to end up starving" (y/n) chuckled as she followed behind him. They walked into the room and they sweatdropped when they saw Hyakkimaru making a stump for himself.
"Here you go" Dororo said as he pushed the plate close to him. Hyakkimaru only ignored the plate and went back to what he was doing. (Y/n) narrowed her eyes and placed her hand, carefully, on top of the wooden stump.
"You have to eat, Hyakkimaru" she said but the man simply moved the stump away from her hand and continued his work. (Y/n) lightly growled and grabbed the bowl of rice from Dororo.
"Uh, one-san?"
"Eat" she said a bit harshly as she took the chopsticks and stuff a bit of rice in Hyakkimaru's mouth, making him put down the stump and chew, "if you don't eat, you won't get better, and you won't get stronger" she said as she continued to feed him, "You lost your leg, so what? You gained your voice back! You need to start talking, Hyakkimaru, we can't keep playing charades every time you need to do something" she scolded lightly.
Dororo tried not to laugh as he took in his sister trying to lecture Hyakkimaru as if he was a small child. (Y/n) turned to glare at him when she heard him chuckled, "ah, sorry" he said and then grabbed the small plate, "don't forget his greens!" he said as he joined in feeding him, "greens are important when it comes to getting stronger too, right one-san"
Now it was (y/n)'s turned to lightly chuckle when she realized how they both are trying to feed him, "yes, that's correct" she chuckled then stopped when she heard Hyakkimaru cough, "oops, here have some water" she hurriedly gave him the cup of water, "sorry about that, we shouldn't be rushing you to eat" she said as she took the cup after he drank it.
"Hey, aniki" Dororo spoke, "you won't lose to it will you?" he asked, confusing (y/n), "you'll never become a monster, right?"
"Dororo? What are you talking about?" the girl asked while Hyakkimaru went back to work, "none of that, you need to eat" she told him, "You can finish later" None of them noticed the children who were peeking around the corner in awe at Hyakkimaru's blades.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day, (y/n) sighed while Dororo smiled at Hyakkimaru, who was practicing his swings with the kids around him, fascinated. He had finished the stump he was working on and he was now practicing his stances with it.
"I wish he would just sit still" the girl muttered
Mio then came up next to them, "I'm heading to work, but don't let Hyakkimaru go to fight it" she said, "his body isn't ready for it"
"Don't worry about it" (y/n) said, "just go off and be careful"
"We got it" Dororo smiled at the man
A couple minutes later Takebo took Hyakkimaru inside to show him something. Dororo and (y/n) followed them and saw that they had a bunch of swords hidden away under a floor board.
"We found them at the battlefield. Look, pretty nice huh?" Takebo said holding one out for Hyakkimaru. This unsettled (y/n) as she saw Hyakkimaru hold the sword.
'He's getting ideas' she thought as she walked up to them, "that is pretty cool, but how about we keep them away for now? Don't want the wrong people getting to them, right?" she winked at the kids playfully
"Okay!" they all answered
"One-san, what's wrong?" Dororo asked quietly
"Hyakkimaru's getting ideas with those swords, we'll have to make sure he doesn't sneak past us"
"Oh, okay" he replied confidently and winked at her
(Y/n) looked at him then remembered what he asked the day before, "hey, what did you mean by "turn into a monster" yesterday?"
Dororo flinched lightly then whispered to her, "the old man told me that aniki has red around his soul. That if we're not careful, the beast that comes out of the cave will end up being a demon instead"
(Y/n)'s eyes widened at this and looked at Hyakkimaru, who was outside practicing again. Now she was even more worried with this new infomation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple hours later, (Y/n) had just finished putting the kids to sleep when she walked out of the room to go check on Hyakkimaru. But, to her horror, he was not in the room. She growled lightly and ran out of the house. As she ran down the stairs, she saw him running off. 'Oh no you don't' she glared as she pushed herself to run faster, "Hyakkimaru!!" But of course, he did not stop. There were close calls where (y/n) was close enough to grab his sleeve, but each time, Hyakkimaru pushed faster. "Oh, come on!" she yelled as she gasped for breath, "Hyakkimaru, stop!" But this time, he did and (y/n) ended up bumping into him, making her fall back. She stayed on the ground, gasping for air, "Hyakkimaru...let us...go back" she said, "you're not ready" but she was interrupted when something came out of the ground in front of them. "Oh no" she gasped. She didn't even realized that they had made all the way to where the demon was.
"One-san!"
"Dororo?"
"I thought you were watching him?" he said rather angrily
"He left while I was busy with you all!" she yelled back
They both looked at the battle, feeling sort of helpless. What else could they do rather than just stay out of his way? If they tried to help, it would cause Hyakkimaru more trouble. They both gasped when they saw the demon grab on to Hyakkimaru's peg leg and break it. But, this time, Hyakkimaru had hidden a sword within it and managed to stab its mouth and jumped up. As he fell towards it, he readied his blades and managed to cut its head off.
"He did it" the siblings say softly
Hyakkimaru climbed out of the hole and Dororo went to grab his arms. Once they were back up, Hyakkimaru started shaking again. The sword on his leg had fallen and (y/n) caught him before he could hit the ground. He groaned in pain before his leg grew back.
"He got his leg back" she said softly and Hyakkimaru got up to start walking, a bit off at first but he got the hang of it again.
"Jeez, how could you both go without telling me?" Dororo said as they made their way back to the shrine
"I ran after him! What do you mean "you both"?" (y/n) said
"Mio was worried too!"
"That's right, she even reminded it us before she went off to work"
"But good thing your leg grew back" Dororo said but Hyakkimaru suddenly stopped, "What wrong, aniki?"
"Dororo" (y/n) called, and the boy turned around to see smoke coming from above the trees
"The temple!" he cried as the three started to run.
When they reached the top of the stairs, they were met with a horrid sight. Everything was on fire and there soldiers around trying to make the fire bigger.
"What is this? Who are you!?" (Y/n) yelled in anger as she pushed Dororo behind her
"Who are you? Are you one of them too?" the big man asked pointing his spear to two bodies behind him.
Dororo and (Y/n) starred in horror when they saw that it was Takebo and Mio. Both them and the rest of the children were next to the burning shrine, bleeding out from stab wounds the men obviously inflicted on them.
"This girl came to do lewd business at our camp, but we saw her enter the Sakai camp last night. She's been disposed of for being a spy"
"but she..." (Y/n) was too shaken to finish her sentence
Dororo ran around her, "Mio! Take!" he ran to them, but was picked up by the big guy, "Let go, idiot! How could you!" he yelled as he punched and kicked him but the man only threw him harshly at the ground.
(Y/n)'s eyes widened as she gasped. This feeling a bit too familiar to her as she ran to him, "Dororo!" she yelled as she covered him in a protective way.
The man raised his spear, "I see you're both with them, too!" he said as he was about to stab them, but then Hyakkimaru got there and slashed off his arm before he could harm them.
"Hyakkimaru..."(y/n) said sniffed sadly as Dororo ran over to Mio.
"Mio, wake up! Take!" Dororo called gaining Hyakkimaru's attention
"Pick a red flower to give to her..."
(y/n) lowered her head into her hands as she cried and Dororo let out a yell of agony as they heard Mio's song. Hyakkimaru, recognizing the song, realizing who it was and what was happening, let out a yell as well and started going on a rampage. Slashing each one of the soldiers with no mercy.
"No, aniki" Dororo whispered as tears slid down his face. (Y/n) had lowered her hands when she heard Hyakkimaru and now starred in horror and sadness.
"Spare me, please, I beg you" the man pleaded as he moved away from the enraged Hyakkimaru. Not baring the sight anymore, (y/n) in front of him and tried to push him back, to no avail. "NO! Hyakkimaru, you mustn't!" she yelled as she tried to push him back
"Stop it! Aniki, stop!" Dororo yelled as he grabbed him from his side. Hyakkimaru pushed them both off, only for them to jump back on him. "Don't! You can't turn into a monster!" Dororo said while Hyakkimaru continued to try and go after the man who ran off, "Please aniki, come on!" finally Hyakkimaru turned to look at Dororo, "Aniki, Mio had this with her" he said as he held up the pouch, "it's seed rice. She really got it back from the samurai. To make her own rice paddy. So, you can't lose either. Please!"
Hyakkimaru finally calmed down as he looked around and heard all around him. He could hear the burning of the wood and Dororo's sobs as well as (y/n) who was clinging to his side as she cried as well.
He walked over to Mio and picked her up carefully. "Mi..o" they heard him say slowly and sadly
~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning, they had buried the bodies right at the center of the temple. At the center of their home.
(Y/n), still sniffing every once in a while, placed the bag of seed rice into the pouch that Hyakkimaru carried with him for safe keeping, placed it around his neck and he tucked it into his kimono. With one last look at where the temple was, they made their way down the path. Continuing their journey. Dororo, seeing his big sister still sad, decided to hold on to her hand.