43 The Weird Inn Keeper

"Here's some onigiris I made Kiyomi! I heard that you didn't eat anything without fish, so I added a variety of fish ingredients in them! Hope you have a good trip! Did you forget anything? I can get it for you if you want! But if you don't then I suppose I'll see you in a year I guess. Do remember to introduce me to your little brother okay? And also send some letters from time to time, see you then!"

Kanae pushed the box containing the onigiris she made as she nagged like a mother who had just found the fun in annoying her children.

Kiyomi listened with a stiff smile on her face.

'This is the Kanae I know.'

As soon as Kanae finished her last sentence, Kiyomi ran away as quickly as she could, not even bothering to say goodbye.

Kanae watched as Kiyomi ran to the door.

"Jeez~! Kiyomi's always in such a hurry..."

Shinobu heard Kanae's complaint and immediately rebutted:

"...Isn't the reason that she is in such a hurry because of you? You're like a changed person in front of Kiyomi. Usually, you'd talk a lot sure... but not that much!"

Kanae scratched her head and stuck out her tongue, embarrassed.

Smacking her sister on the head, Shinobu frowned and sighed.

"I'm going to be doing my research, you'll have to find someone else to take over the rehabilitation training of the injured."

"Eh~?!? You won't be helping me!?"

...

"I haven't seen you since forever, Kiyomi!"

Sabito said all smiley as he walked side by side with Kiyomi.

His disaster mask hanging on his head, imitating her style.

Not giving much of a response, Kiyomi ignored Sabito and continued to walk as she munched on an onigiri that Kanae had given her.

She muttered to herself: "...Kanae should be a chef, these are delicious! ...But I miss my onigiris with Doma's ice. Looks like I forgot to bring my frozen midnight onigiris... I'll need to remember to get those on my way back."

*Nom*

Her cute little tiger tooth bit down on the rice ball.

Seeing this cute appearance, Sabito's heart almost melted.

'Kiyomi is... so Kawaii~!!!!!!!'

Sabito took a deep breath.

But before he could say anything, a loud voice that sounded very much like Ubuyashiki's rage reached their ears.

"KIYOMI!!!!!!"

Smiling at this, Kiyomi immediately took Sabito's hand and started running, laughing as much as she can along the way.

Sabito, who was far too gone in his spring dream, didn't even bother to resist.

'Sugoi... it's so... bouncy...'

He swallowed a big gulp of saliva.

Glancing over at Sabito's face, Kiyomi expected him to be a little confused as to why Ubuyashiki yelled her name in rage.

Noticing that Kiyomi was about to turn her head, Sabito immediately used his super-quick reaction and tried looking somewhere else.

But Kiyomi was faster and saw him looking at her face, his face flushed a brilliant pink and had also spread to the root of his ears.

And now it was her turn to be confused.

She looked at Sabito with doubt, and then she touched her neck with her free hand and said:

"Is there something on my face?"

Feeling that Kiyomi had just given a way out of this touchy situation, Sabito replied:

"There some rice stuck on your cheeks is all."

Sabito pointed towards the side of his mouth.

Licking her lips, Kiyomi found the remaining rice millet and took it into her mouth.

"Oh~ Thanks for catching that."

Letting go of Sabito's hand, Kiyomi decided that she had run far enough as to avoid Ubuyashiki sending people to catch them back to the headquarters.

And Sabito inevitably felt a little lost as Kiyomi's small and cold hands left his.

Kiyomi then took out the box full of onigiri that Kanae gave her and started munching away.

"Right, what was it you wanted to ask me?"

Flustered, Sabito waved his hands frantically.

"It was no-nothing..."

Shrugging off Sabito's weird talking, Kiyomi and Sabito continued walking in silence.

While Sabito was internally screaming at himself.

Kiyomi felt a little unhappy that she didn't get to prank Sabito.

'Hey, shouldn't he have asked me about the yelling? Jeez~ No fun..'

Sneaking a peek at Sabito, Kiyomi thought to herself as she finished the last bit of onigiri in her hands, still not satisfied:

'Sabito won't have a crush on me would he?'

Walking for another hour in silence, they finally reached a village when Kiyomi also reached her conclusion.

'Probably, but.. nah~ It's not possible, I mean come on~ Sabito? Me? Hehehe~'

*Sniff~*

'Two demons...' Kiyomi kept her expression the same as she walked into the village.

Walking around, they found what seemed to be the best inn in the village and decided to rest there for the night.

When they were just about to pay the innkeeper for a night's worth of fees, the man saw Kiyomi's face and immediately waived all fees.

And just like that, Kiyomi and Sabito rented two separate rooms for free.

Following the innkeeper to their rooms, Sabito soon reached his room and went in to settle down.

The room was a little shabby, but it was clean and had a bed, some candles, a small table, and a mat.

Kiyomi however, continued to follow the innkeeper further down the corridor.

Opening the door to her room, which was the furthest and away from the other rooms, Kiyomi stood there with a stiff smile.

"Is this a joke of some sort?"

The innkeeper smiled at Kiyomi and bowed.

"I assure you miss, this is the best room we have. If you have any dissatisfaction, you can tell me and I'll do my best to change it for you."

Looking at the inn keeper's face for a little longer, did not reply to the innkeeper and walked into the room.

'This isn't an inn room, this is literally a presidential suite! How the hell do they even have working and running hot water?!'

After getting settled down and inspecting their rooms, Kiyomi accompanied Sabito to find some food.

Since she has already eaten, she really didn't need to eat again for a long time unless she wanted to.

But her goal wasn't for food, it was the demons.

Soon after leaving the inn, Sabito noticed the strange atmosphere in the village.

And Kiyomi was still thinking about the weird innkeeper and her room while staring at the ground.

Suddenly, Sabito held his arm up to stop Kiyomi from walking any further.

"Demons."

He frowned and took out the nichirin sword from its sheath hanging on his waist.

In front of them stood two perfectly normal looking humans, but they had the scent and aura of a demon, especially the one wearing a purple haori.

Kiyomi also looked up at this moment, but she did not hurry to take out her sword from its sheath.

"You can take the left one." Kiyomi said to Sabito, while staring a certain six eyed man with a smile.