Kusuriuri sighed as he looked at Otome tied in the middle of the room.

How did they get to this? Well the reason was quite simple.

They were here to slay a Mononoke. But they seemed to think that Otome was sneaking into the house to steal as she seemed to stare at the lower window of the house. Someone seemed to catch that and thought she was about to enter the house to steal.

Kusuriuri didn’t pay attention at first, but when the man shouted 'Thief! Thief!' they both looked and before Kusuriuri could say anything else, the people indoors had already come out to catch her.

Otome seemed to indicate him to not say anything. Which he was utterly confused about.

Why would she do that, he didn’t know. But he didn’t want to ask. He knew better than to ask Otome her intentions.

An assassin is always discreet. Their target is to kill, not to fight.

It was a foolish decision to question her out. And he understood why she didn’t say anything as she was taken.

The said building was actually a restaurant, and had a number of people in the place, however, they took her to another room. Kusuriuri entered the place after sighing for a while, "Please let her go, sir, she is with me." Kusuriuri spoke up.

The manager, Kota, a middle aged man wearing a dark brown and red kimono looked behind and gasped, "When did you come in?"

Kusuriuri didn’t answer, except, he motioned for them to release her. The owner of the restaurant, Haku, furrowed his eyebrows, "Why should we believe you? You could be with her in stealing." he seemed like he was aged at least 50, most of his standardly tied up hair white, with a little bit of black here and there.

Otome sat motionless on the floor, looking calmly at the big room. Kusuriuri seemed to notice the negative energy as well, and thus, he didn’t want to waste anymore time.

"I am a simple medicine seller, not a thief."
"We don't need medicines for the time being. You can go."

"I am not here to sell medicine, sir." Kusuriuri promptly spoke as he stepped further into the room, "We are here to cut the Mononoke lingering here."

The Mononoke lingering. Otome's gaze shifted at that word, "Someone's coming."

True to her word, someone came in, "Sir, I have brought more ropes in case." It was a server in the restaurant. It was a fairly young woman dressed in a red kimono with yellow flowers designed all over. She wore an orange sash belt and had tanned skin. Her beauty was glowing. 

Otome sat on the floor casually, "Are we going to stop the formalities now? Please do so. I don’t think we can waste anymore time."

Haku looked angrily at her, "Shut up. We don’t trust you yet."
"At least trust him then." she motioned towards the medicine seller with her chin.

Kusuriuri was seemingly at a loss for words at her shifting the situation to him instead. But he didn’t seem to dwell on that. And brought out some ofuda talismans, "For protection, let me cast the-"

"What black magic are you performing now?!" Kota yelled at him, extremely cautious seeing the talismans. He didn’t like occult things to begin with. Seeing things like talismans and all didn’t sit well with him.

Otome's hands were freed instantly as she stood up, her face expressionless, "Those can protect you from the Mononoke for a short while."  Contrary to her expressionless face, the others except for Kusuriuri, who was also expressionless, were frightened by her hands suddenly being freed.

"You, you, how did you do that???????" The young woman, Kyouka, screamed out in fear. Otome didn’t speak, but showed something instead.

It was a knife.

Kota, Haku and Kyouka instantly paled seeing it.

"You- you- you really are a thief!" Haku yelled out, his face sweating. Otome couldn’t help sighing, "I am not. I don't have any reason to steal."

She looked at Kusuriuri finishing applying the talismans with an even look, "Done with that already?"
"Hn."

Otome batted her eyelashes a little, "You didn’t seem to ask why I didn’t say anything upon being caught."

Kusuriuri brought out a scale, "To avoid involving the customers of course."
"Damn. You are too smart."

The other man didn’t react, although in his mind he thought only one thing.

'Look who's talking.'

He didn’t seem to say anything as he mumbled chants. Haku on the other hand, grew more agitated, "What are you both doing??? Kota, Kyouka, let's get out and lock the room. These guys are extremely fishy."

"Don’t go out now." Kusuriuri warned with a serious expression, "If you do, you will become prey to the Mononoke."

Those words seem to enter through one ear and get out from the other, as he tried to escape by opening the door quickly.

Otome quickly dashed forward and brought him back with one yank of his what she deemed as a place for a collar. And although she was short in height, her arm strength more than made up for it. Haku was baffled to see a woman pull him so roughly with such strength.

Kusuriuri's stern but calm look fell on him, as well as Otome's intense but calm look as well. Kusuriuri's gaze was cold, like a stormy blizzard in a frozen mountain, reprimending, sending a shiver down his entire body, regretting disobeying him. Otome's eyes were cold, like the blood dried cold after a murder done long ago, twisting a knot into his stomach, signalling several alarm bells about one thing and one thing only.

It would be foolish to disobey them.

"Didn’t he tell you guys to not go out of here?" Otome's tone was as if the knife she had held a few moments prior.

Haku felt his knees almost go limp under their gazes.

Kusuriuri promptly put his sword before him, "It's coming." the ofuda talismans on the walls changed pattern and the patterns turned red.

Soon enough, someone started banging on the door. It was the Mononoke. Kyouka started shivering in fear, "Wh-wh-wha-what is that?????"

"It's the Mononoke." Kusuriuri spoke as a matter of fact, as if it wasn’t out of the ordinary that a supernatural being was banging on the room door.

"Don’t be foo-foolish. It could be a p-person. Yes. It's a person." Kota tried to decide the delusion is the solution, however, under the force of the door banging, it was clear that he was scared.

Otome sighed, "Delulu is not the solulu." she whispered to herself. Saying that, she moved towards where Kusuriuri was.

Suddenly, the banging stopped.

"Let's get this party started then." Otome excitedly whispered as her lips twisted into a dark smile.

✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°✦°

Kusuriuri looked at her looking at some more knives in the market place. They had initially come to take groceries, but after they were done with that, she wanted to buy a few more knives.

'One isn’t enough I suppose.' he mused. The one she had used today was a normal sized knife, however, the quality was definitely good. She knew how to buy quality weapons.

Kusuriuri guessed as much. As an assassin, she knew which knife was of the best quality. She wouldn’t have bought that one if it didn’t pique her eyes.

Even now, she stared at the knives like a hawk to see which one she could buy. Her lifeless eyes, that were full of light before, were now shredded in extreme darkness.

She went for a shrill knife, "This one, please." pointing her finger at it. Even her talking tone was unsettling.

The shopkeeper had already felt on edge with her, the sudden speaking scared him slightly. Kusuriuri couldn’t help feeling bad for the man. A woman looking so keenly at knives would throw anybody over the edge.

It wasn’t uncommon to see people buying knives, as they were needed for cooking. But they wouldn’t look at knives as keenly as her. It was like she was looking at dead bodies, he felt. But maybe that was because he knew she was an assassin.

"I am done here." Otome smiled sweetly like always to cover up her dark wisdom. Her maroon eyes were similar to blood, as if she was destined to kill people.

Kusuriuri nodded, "Let's go then."
"To kill a Mononoke?" she asked lazily as they started walking.

"No, we have already killed one today. There aren’t any here for now." he informed in his usual poker face.

Otome tilted her head a little to look at him, "By the way, I wanna know some songs here and there. Do you know some?"

Kusuriuri smiled.

Otome grinned, "Sing a little."

"Here?" He eyed her from the side, his smile dropping. Otome shrugged, her hands showing it, "Alright then. When we go to an inn or something."

"Hmm." he liked that idea better.

"Can you play any instruments?" Otome asked with anticipation in her eyes.

A nod.

This piqued her interest, "Which one?"

"Koto." he looked at her, "What about you?"

Otome looked slightly distressed by that question, her smile straining, "Uh.....I play a different instrument, but, it’s not a stringed instrument."

It was the keyboard. But, she couldn’t really say that to him. Because keyboards weren’t invented yet. And he doubted someone from Japan of this ancient time knew about any keyboard instruments of this time, like a harpsichord or a clavichord. Pianos were invented in the 1700s, which was still a lot later than the time she was in.

"So, a drum instrument then?" He inquired, quite curious.
"No."
"A type of flute?"
"No..."
"Horagai or Suzu then?"

Otome denied with a shake of her head, "It's neither of them."

Kusuriuri promptly remembered that she was from a very long time ahead in the future, the instruments could always change. But, were the instruments of the times now not used at all?

"So, it’s not either of them? Then what is it like?"
Otome was reluctant to reveal it up, "It’s like a...key instrument." she left out the board part.

"Key?" Kusuriuri got even more confused.
"Well, have you heard of an instrument called harpsichord?" she nervously whispered. Otome didn’t want to change the past by revealing something from the future.

It would become troublesome to handle and fix the mess.

Kusuriuri shook his head, "I have not."
"Ah, it's an instrument similar to that. I can't really show you because...well...there is no way to. But if you come across one, you will know." She didn’t elaborate on the topic any longer. Kusuriuri understood the reason very well, and decided to leave it at that.

"Do you know how to play any of the stringed instruments?" he asked instead.

A shake of her head. Otome lamented, "I never could for some reason. I couldn’t ever understand the way of stringed instruments." she pouted, signifying that she had tried a lot, but failed.

Kusuriuri felt something warm spread across his chest as he saw her lamenting about something so small. It wasn’t even a big deal to not know how to play an instrument. Not everyone could get the approval or opportunity to learn it. He extended one of his pale hands, and caressed her little head slowly for a few seconds. Compared to him, who was taller than most people, and compared to her, who was smaller than most people, she looked so incredibly tiny to him. Even though he knew how dangerous she was, was he any less dangerous than her?

The answer was clearly no. They were both dangerous, being danger magnets. Their lives included playing with the danger. What reason was there to differentiate, when there weren’t many differences between them?

Otome seemed to get extremely shocked with him caressing her head slowly as they walked. It was only a few seconds, but her eyes grew wide like saucers. And for the first time since Kusuriuri met her, he saw wonder and surprise in her gaze, something she had never shown before. He felt even more warmth deep beneath.

His lips curled up softly, sweetly, something he didn’t even know himself. He didn’t know how caring his usual cold eyes looked right now. He didn’t know how his face, now, was the farthest thing away from frost.

"It’s alright. No need to worry about it."

Otome's hand unconsciously trembled slightly. Memories assaulted her mind without her consent. She could never block them away when it came to him.

She could never block away the loneliness she felt when she thought about her time of being alone for years.

If someone only ate bitter food for all their life, they wouldn’t know it’s bitter, and would be used to eating it. But if someone tasted that sweet food once, they would know the bitter from the sweet, and would never want to eat the bitter food again.

That was her right now. She felt pained thinking of that time,she felt happiness thinking of now. But, how long will 'the now' last?

Otome quickly masked her thoughts with a smile, equally as soft, before her mind was visible in her eyes.

"Mn. I guess it isn’t after all."

For now, she could relinquish in his company.