Chapter Text
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Chapter One: Murderer
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As Kohaku placed the final red blossom in her elaborate flower arrangement, she stood on a small rock to check if the long-haired murderer she had been following was still within sight – and from the very distant, but still visible, figure she could see, he was.
Nodding her herself in determination, she gently cradled the bundle of flowers in her left arm as she set out to follow the stranger in earnest.
He had covered a lot of ground while she had been gathering the flowers; so much ground that he had eventually gotten further and further from her while she had been busy. But because the flowers had been essential to her plan, she made the decision to momentarily let him walk on ahead in order to make preparations that would make her first strike more effective.
She followed him for over half an hour, using shrubs and rocks and large trees for cover. He seemed to be in a hurry, but speed wasn't a problem for Kohaku.
Make a large flower arrangement; follow the long-haired man; hide my weapons in the flower arrangement; walk as if the flowers are a present; get close enough to be within fighting range; stab him in the neck, heart, or genitals. Simple. Then I'll pick up my pot and get today's first batch of hot spring water for Ruri-nee.
No, before that, I should take a bath in a different hot spring, and wash my clothes, too. I can't let Ruri-nee see me covered in blood. She'll worry.
I wonder if father would ca-
A small twig snapped under her shoe, and Kohaku cringed and immediately crouched behind a berry bush.
That's what I get for not being focused...
As quietly as she could, she used her right hand to part just enough leaves in the berry bush so that she had a tiny hole to peek through. The man was turned slightly in her direction, spear in hand, as he quickly scanned the area for threats.
Finding none he could see, he relaxed his stance, and Kohaku was about to sigh in relief, but then he started walking, and she realized...
...he's walking slower than before.
Kohaku gritted her teeth in frustration.
If Kohaku had attacked earlier, when the man had been walking forward at a very fast pace, she would have had the advantage because it would have taken precious seconds for the man to halt his forward movement, come to a full stop, and turn around.
But now that he was walking forward at a much slower pace, he barely had any forward movement, which meant that quickly stopping and turning to face Kohaku would be no problem at all.
He wouldn't slow down for an animal. He knows he's being followed by a human.
One of my advantages is gone... but maybe I can find a new one...
She inspected his body from behind her berry bush, looking for weaknesses.
Unfortunately, she couldn't find any.
He was the tallest man she had ever seen – taller than her father, even. The stranger seemed to be a couple of years older than her, but that didn't make sense – Kohaku had only ever heard of one criminal being exiled from Ishigami Village, and that was from her parents' generation, so this couldn't have been that man.
Or maybe... maybe when the criminal had been exiled, he had taken his child with him, and this man I'm following is that child?
But the problem with that theory was that with children being the most precious people in their village, no matter how heinous an adult's crimes would have been, there was absolutely no possibility of any village chief banishing a child along with his or her parent. In that scenario, the child would have been taken in by childless or older couples in the village, which was what happened in times of famine or natural disasters.
And even if this long-haired man were the child of an exiled criminal, that didn't explain who the other people had been – the gentleman sorcerer he had killed; the woman he had taken hostage; the man who had thrown the gigantic boulder at him.
Was the criminal exiled with his... four children? Did this man I'm following try to kill his three siblings?
Unbidden, her right hand gripped the leaves she was holding apart just a little bit tighter. Kohaku had tried so hard, for several years, to save her only sibling. She had already been following this man to destroy him for murdering the gentleman sorcerer, but the idea that he had been willing to kill his own siblings made Kohaku even more incensed at the thought that he was still alive.
Not for long, though...
As they both continued to move forward, Kohaku noticed that the slope of the hill they were on was now a little steeper, which meant that they were both more noticeably going downhill. As the fighter coming from the higher position, that would help her a little.
She continued her inspection.
He was wearing some kind of animal pelt she had never seen before. Judging from how it was one large piece, it wasn't several rabbit or fox furs sewn together; it was all from one animal – likely one he had killed himself, as he had seemed the largest and most muscular of the four people she had seen.
Then again, while Magma's larger and more muscular than I am, he's definitely not stronger than me. Maybe he killed the gentleman sorcerer because he was afraid of his sorcery?
“Fifty-seven meters behind...”
Kohaku flinched violently in surprise.
“...to the right.”
His words repeated in her head.
“Fifty-seven meters behind, to the right.”
The first murderer Kohaku had ever seen knew exactly where she was.
She reached into her flowers and gripped one of her daggers.
In a few moments, Kohaku would be a murderer, too.
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(End of Chapter One.) (10/May/2023.)
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