The third night of the Final Selection on Mount Fujikasane.
Heavy rain.
Sui stood beneath a tree, sheltering from the downpour, holding out a hand to feel the raindrops. Something seemed to occur to her.
"Hey! Woman! Hunt demons already!" Shinazugawa shouted at her, iron shears in hand.
Sui waved him off, signaling that tonight was for resting.
"Tch. So the pampered young lady doesn't want to get rained on." Shinazugawa slung the shears over his shoulder. At last he had learned to be snide without exploding on the spot.
"Yes, I am a young lady," Sui replied with a smile. "So I'll have to trouble Lord Shinazugawa to kill a few extra demons for me. A proper lady is surely entitled to at least that much preferential treatment, wouldn't you say?"
Veins stood out on Shinazugawa's forehead. His command of language was still far too weak for this kind of exchange—he had no chance of winning. He jerked his head, flinging the water from his hair, then leapt off into the rain-drenched mountain.
Sui watched his departing back and genuinely could not understand why he had bothered shaking the water out of his hair right before charging into the rain again.
A moment later, she headed off in the exact opposite direction.
She returned to the place where they had killed the grotesque demon before.
Kuroba Chiyo was still there, propped against the rock, unable to leave. The bandages over her wounds had already been soaked through by the rain, and the crimson stain beneath her body was spreading wider and wider.
"Ah... so it was you who came."
Kuroba Chiyo lifted her head to look at Sui. Her wet hair clung to her pale face, and her lips were utterly drained of color. If Sui had not come, she likely would have died here in silence.
Sui bent down and lifted Kuroba into her arms. The girl was very small—no, more accurately, frail. She could not compare to Sui, who had been pampered and carefully raised since childhood. Sui had already known that from tending her wounds before. She was all skin and bone, her ribs painfully obvious, and as for any softness in her figure, that was out of the question.
When Sui picked her up, it was like lifting a doll.
"I didn't think I'd end up causing trouble for Lady Sui again," the girl murmured. "I really must be useless."
"Then live properly," Sui said, carrying her into a cave and lighting a fire. The flames chased away the cold clinging to Kuroba Chiyo's body. Sui removed the girl's soaked clothes and set them near the fire to dry. Wrapped in Sui's haori, the girl curled up in one corner, leaving only a pair of bright eyes visible as she watched Sui's busy profile.
"Lady Sui... you're very good at taking care of people."
Sui's movements paused.
"Taking care of people? Me?"
"Yes." The girl's voice was soft. "Very gentle. Very reassuring. Like... a mother."
Sui stroked the girl's head.
"Someone taught me."
"Who was it," the girl asked, "who managed to teach someone as amazing as Lady Sui?"
"My adoptive mother. A somewhat unreliable shrine maiden. Have you heard of Fushimi Inari Shrine in the Kyoto region? It enshrines Inari deities led by Ukanomitama-no-Kami. Every year, countless worshippers come there to pray for bountiful harvests and prosperous business."
"I've heard of it—that's a great shrine!" The girl's eyes lit up. "Does that mean your adoptive mother was a legendary high shrine maiden?"
Sui thought of that woman. Technically, yes, she really had been a true high shrine maiden. Even so, she had always felt more like an overgrown little girl.
"Yes," Sui said. "She was a high shrine maiden."
"That's incredible!" Kuroba Chiyo's eyes widened with naked admiration, but soon her gaze lowered again, settling blankly on the burning fire. "Then... Lady Sui... would you be willing to hear my story?"
"Go ahead."
"I don't even know where to start..." Kuroba Chiyo drifted into memory, unconsciously clutching the haori wrapped around her more tightly. "I never had a mother or a father. I was a thief from childhood. The man who took me in had taken in many other children too. He'd send us out to steal, and if we didn't bring back enough valuables, he'd beat and curse us. We tried to run away, but we were always caught and dragged back."
She paused, then continued.
"About three years later, that man turned into a demon. It was a Demon Slayer named Tomioka Giyu who killed him and saved all of us. I didn't want to just be sent off to an orphanage. I wanted to become a strong swordsman like Lord Tomioka. So I trained at Senior Tomioka's side for a while, and then he introduced me to his former teacher—Mr. Urokodaki."
"And in the end... I came here."
Breathing in the floral scent lingering on the haori, the girl sounded drowsy. It smelled nice.
Kuroba Chiyo was not someone who opened her heart easily. Her past had made her as skittish as a startled bird, wary of everything around her.
But beside Sui, it felt warm.
Warm enough that Kuroba Chiyo felt she no longer needed to hide her thoughts. She could let them spill out as she pleased, and perhaps even cling a little, and it would still be allowed.
"Lady Sui, are you investigating that grotesque demon?"
"Yes," Sui said. "But I have no leads. Even after being tormented for an entire night, that demon still refused to give up anything useful."
"Then... maybe it was a Blood Demon Art."
A Blood Demon Art...
Sui had nearly forgotten. Among demons, the stronger ones sometimes possessed special abilities beyond mere monstrous strength. Unlike ordinary demons, who were only immortal and unnaturally powerful, stronger demons could develop one or even several bizarre Blood Demon Arts.
"If that demon truly knew nothing," the girl added, "couldn't there be a Blood Demon Art that erases memories?"
"I'll remember that. Thank you, little Chiyo." Sui smiled.
"Mhm. I'm happy I could be of some help to Lady Sui."
The girl narrowed her eyes like a contented kitten.
The fire crackled quietly. Outside the cave, the sound of rain gradually softened.
Sui patted the girl lightly on the back, the rhythm light and steady, and before long she had soothed her to sleep.
Kuroba Chiyo was badly weakened already—injured, rain-soaked, exhausted.
Sui lowered her gaze to the small, curled-up girl wrapped in the haori and softly hummed a lullaby.
When the fire finally burned down, Kuroba Chiyo jolted awake.
She could not remember when she had fallen asleep. She only knew that her body felt warm, as if her soul had briefly returned to a mother's embrace.
The girl sat up, and Sui's haori slipped from her shoulders. She looked around the cave. There was nothing there but the dead fire.
Sui had already gone, leaving only the haori behind.
Bright sunlight poured through the cave entrance, and faintly, Kuroba Chiyo could hear thunder from somewhere beyond the mountain.
Deep within Mount Fujikasane, two figures crossed paths again and again.
"Damn it! You woman are completely unreasonable! The food I roasted ended up in your stomach again!"
Shinazugawa roared.
After a burst of thunder, Sui landed lightly on a tree branch, twirling the skewer of roasted rabbit in her hand.
"Oh, come on. This is a perfect chance for you to repay your debt for having your life saved. Offering me a bit of game right now would settle things between us nicely. You wouldn't want me going around later saying, 'My, my, so Shinazugawa nearly died during the Final Selection? How could a swordsman like that ever be trusted with anything important?'"
Shinazugawa's pupils quivered.
How did this woman manage to say something so shameless with such a perfectly serious face?
"Well then, goodbye, Mr. Shinazugawa. And thank you for the roast."
She tipped backward off the branch, and the next moment her breathing shifted, dark-violet lightning flashed, and she vanished into the forest.
Only after the leaves began to flutter down from the aftershock of Thunder Breathing did Shinazugawa realize she had escaped again.
"You bastard! I swear I'm going to kill you!"
The white-haired porcupine of a man could do nothing but stomp in place in fury.
Join here to read ahead.
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter100)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 60
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 50
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 50
The Way the Umamusume Look at 31
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 26
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