September 2.
I t a man who radiates lightning. He killed Arashi Gojo. With nothing but his bare hands, he broke my sister and . Hotaru is dead. I didn't cry. I begged him to take in, but he didn't answer. He just turned away. I thought there was no hope, but in the end, he opened the door.
September 3.
He agreed to take as his disciple. I'm happy. The training is brutal. The Soul Split Katana is so much heavier than my old blade. After a day of swinging it, my arms shake so much I can't even hold my chopsticks. But I'm getting stronger. I can feel it. We t a man with stitches across his forehead. After a few words, we were dragged into a nightmare. Blood and ghosts everywhere. I thought I would die, but he protected . He killed the Ogre King. I helped. I was the one who cut off its head.
October 2.
He's teaching how to refine my cursed energy. He held my wrists today to adjust the angle of my strikes. His hands were so warm. He's incredibly strong. I want to learn everything.
October 19.
We were traveling late, and I ntioned it was cold. He didn't say anything. The next morning, he ca back with a dead tiger over his shoulder. He skinned it and dried it. Three days later, he threw a heavy rug at . It's very warm.
October 27.
He taught how to use the reverse cursed technique to regulate my body temperature. Now the winter won't bite so hard. I took the tiger rug and wove it into a shawl for him. He looked surprised for a second and said nothing, but he hasn't taken it off since.
November 6.
He's stopped talking. He used to answer my questions, but now I can ask ten things and I'm lucky to get a single nod. Am I asking too much? Am I annoying him?
November 11.
Neither of us speaks anymore. We walk in silence. We eat in silence. We barely even look at each other. The quiet is suffocating. It hurts. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
November 20.
He keeps leaving behind to hunt sorcerers on his own. I know the opponents are strong and I'm a burden, but I wish he wouldn't leave. I can learn. I can be useful.
December 2.
We saw the stitch-faced man again. He has a new body, but the scar is still there. I don't care about him. They're planning to kill the Ten Shadows user on December 22. My master's expression was... different. Is he actually uncertain?
Today is December 6.
Sixteen days left.
***
Kashimo sat against the base of a tree.
The bark was rough against his back, and the sparse leaves overhead let the dying light of dusk filter down in jagged, dappled shadows across his face. He sat with one leg pulled up and the other extended, looking as if he were simply waiting for a friend to arrive for a drink.
A few paces away, a corpse lay in the dirt.
The sorcerer's head had been reduced to a pulverized ss of bone and gore. Kashimo's gaze was fixed on the body, or perhaps he was looking through it at sothing far beyond.
Fuka stood nearby. She stayed at a distance where she could see every line of his face but remained just out of reach. She watched the way the twilight played across his features and listened to the rhythmic, tallic click of the Ring of Lightning on his finger.
There was no conversation. No eye contact.
She opened her mouth to speak. She wanted to ask if he was hungry, where they were going next, or if he even rembered what tomorrow was. But the words died in her throat. His expression told her everything: he didn't want to talk.
It was always like this now. She would reach for a conversation only to pull back at the last second.
Dusk deepened. A cold wind whistled through the trees, carrying a few withered leaves. One landed on her shoulder, but she didn't brush it off. She just stood there, watching the man by the tree. He never looked at her.
Kashimo shook his head, as if trying to rattle the lethargy out of his bones. He pushed himself up from the trunk, his joints popping with a series of dull cracks.
"Let's go."
He walked past Fuka without a glance. The tiger-skin shawl swayed with his stride, a dark, heavy brown in the fading light. After a few steps, he spoke again.
"You should sleep early." He paused. "You'll need the energy for training tomorrow."
Fuka froze. It was the most he had said to her in over a month. She watched his back, her gaze lingering on his pale hair and the shawl she had made with her own hands. Her lips trembled. A single word escaped her.
"Why?"
Her voice was thin, carrying a tremor she hadn't realized was there. Kashimo stopped. He turned his head slightly to look at the red-clad figure standing with her head bowed. The shadows were thick now, blurring her silhouette, but he could see her shoulders shaking.
"Why have you beco so cold?" she asked. "Why do you act like you're tired of ? Why do you go off to find sorcerers and leave standing there alone? Why are you going to fight the Ten Shadows without ?"
The questions ca out in a desperate rush, her voice cracking as she forced the words through her teeth.
"Why!"
Fuka kept her head down, hiding her face. Her hands were clenched so tight her knuckles were white, the fabric of her robes bunching under her grip.
"Every ti you walk away, my chest tightens," she whispered. "I'm terrified that you're going to leave for good, just like you did to that other girl. I can't catch up to you. If you leave, I'll never find you again."
A soft, muffled sob broke through. She tried to swallow it, but the sound escaped anyway, drifting through the quiet woods. It felt heavier to Kashimo than any of her accusations.
"I keep wondering," she continued, her voice hitching as she struggled to speak. "Why does it hurt so much when you're gone for even a mont? Why does everything you do control how I feel? Why does it matter this much?"
Tears tracked down her cheeks, shimring in the last of the light before soaking into the dead leaves at her feet. Kashimo watched her, his expression unreadable.
Fuka raised a hand and wiped her eyes with a violent, frustrated motion, rubbing her skin raw. She took a deep breath, lifted her head, and turned to face him.
She forced a smile. It was a ssy, painful look, her face stained with tears and her eyes bloodshot, but she looked him directly in the eye.
"I want you to stay by my side," she said, her voice finally steadying. "Like you used to. Teaching . Correcting . Caring about ."
She paused, her lips moving softly.
"Can this feeling... be called love?"
***
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A/n: 350 power stones = 1 bonus chapter. Don't forget to vote with your power stones!!
For early access to 15 chapters ahead: p@tre~~/Demonic_Fiction (Link is in the synopsis and my profile).
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