A Different Approach to the same Dream

"Hahaha!! You can't catch me~ You can't catch me~!"

Kiyomi ridiculed humorously as she ran away from Doma, carrying the wounded Kanae on her shoulder like a corpse.

Doma never gave chase, as he watched Kiyomi run away with the prey he was planning to devour along with a few stalks of his frozen snow lotuses.

"Tsk! Damn it! You don't even need to eat human flesh! Why do you keep on stealing my food?!" Doma cursed as he knew he wouldn't be able to catch up with Kiyomi's speed.

Whizzing past the front gate of Doma's mansion without letting anyone notice, Kiyomi giggled gleefully at the successful mission of saving Kanae.

Putting on her mask and grabbing the frozen snow lotuses in her tails' grip, Kiyomi turned back into her human form and ran away from the mansion gate.

The mark on her neck also disappeared with her hybrid form.

Since she had no idea when the exact death of Kanae was, she took the information she already knows and estimated the time that Kanae had died at the hands of Doma.

Unluckily, she had been camping near Doma's mansion for a month before finally seeing the Kocho sisters.

*Cough! Cough!*

Laying on Kiyomi's shoulder like a dead fish, Kanae let out a few coughs to try and get rid of the blood that was stuck in her lungs.

"Oh hey! You're awake!" Noticing the movement, Kiyomi greeted Kanae.

Taking Kanae's injuries into consideration, Kiyomi slowed down to a walk as to not agitate her injuries even more.

Kanae's eyes were blurry from using her breath of flowers' final form: Equinoctial Vermilion Eye.

It is a focusing technique that raises her kinetic vision to its maximum, while using this technique, the user perceives the world as if it were in slow motion.

The usage of this technique, however, is highly dangerous, as the tremendous strain caused to the eyes ruptured blood vessels and could cause partial or complete blindness.

But thankfully, Kiyomi had interrupted Kanae's fight with Doma a few minutes before Kanae would have become partially blind.

The first thing Kanae said after feeling a little better was: "Are you... *Cough!* ... a demon?"

Kiyomi replied nonchalantly: "Yep! My name is Kamado Kiyomi, and I'm a demon that does not eat humans! What's your name?"

Hesitantly, Kanae looked at Kiyomi's face, which seemed so incapable of lying that Kanae inexplicably felt a sense of trust in her heart while still having many questions in her heart:

'Where are her ears and tails? Is it her blood demon art?'

"...My name is Kanae Kocho. And you said that you... don't eat.... humans? Why were you in upper moon 2's mansion collecting... frozen... frozen.... "

Forgetting the name of which Doma had said, Kanae left her sentence hanging.

"Collecting Frozen Snow Lotuses? Well, that's one of the ingredients for my famous Frozen Midnight Onigiris! No human meat or anything in it~ Fully edible for humans!"

When talking about her onigiris, Kiyomi had a different kind of glint that was shining in her eyes, and Kanae was directly stunned by Kiyomi's drastic face change.

"How come...?" Kanae said with a slight tone of sadness.

"What?" Kanae was the one to always smile and be optimistic at everything and everyone, even demons, so Kiyomi was very confused as to why Kanae would show sadness.

"Why can't the other demons be like you?? Why must they kill and devour humans? You are clearly capable of eating regular food..."

Chuckling at Kanae's misunderstanding, Kiyomi revealed a little about herself:

"Well~ they can't eat regular food as I do, because it tastes like crap to them. I know this because I can only eat things that contain fish in them, and anything else tastes horrifyingly bad."

"The normal and average demon would never be able to resist human flesh if it was placed in front of them, as it is their natural instincts as a demon to devour human flesh and bones. So it's quite hard if you want them to be able to eat human food as I do, and you'll never be able to achieve peace with those kinds of demons."

Kiyomi said, breaking Kanae's dreams.

Kanae seemed a little more lifeless after hearing Kiyomi's response.

Kiyomi, taking a look at Kanae's delicate face that was stained with blood, noticed her downfall expression.

"There are only a few demons that are like me, Kanae. You should give up trying to make peace between the demons and humans. Try to work and destroy the bad demons, and not give them undeserved compassion. Most demons have already let go of their human identity, enjoying the pleasure of devouring human flesh and the screams of the unfortunate."

"... Yeah..." Kanae felt that what Kiyomi had said made a little sense.

Why must she give compassion to those who reject it?

Protecting the chaos will only create more misfortune.

Only by destroying it and rectifying it will peace become true.

Thinking about her previous worldview and actions, she suddenly felt that her thoughts were a little childish.

If she met a demon who could consciously hold back their desires, she has decided to spare them.

But from now on, if she meets a demon who has abandoned their human past, then she will not hold back anymore and do her very best to eliminate that harm from human society.

Smiling, Kanae offered a word of thanks:

"Thank you, Kiyomi."

Seeing that she had changed Kanae's thoughts so easily, Kiyomi smiled even brighter.

Holding up her uninjured hand to block the rays of light illuminating from Kiyomi's smiling, Kanae muttered as to not damage her lungs:

"Does this kind of bright smile run in your family or something? I feel like it's both a blessing and a curse."

Ignoring Kanae's comment of her smile, Kiyomi notified Kanae:

"Well~ I remember you had a companion? I'm going to go and find her and drop you off with her, okay? The next time we meet should be a few years later."

"Uhm? Wait! Why don't you come back with us? I still want to introduce you to the rest of my colleagues!"

Hearing this, Kiyomi hurriedly rejected Kanae's proposal:

"No thanks. I have my own plans!"

Kanae insisted and started asking questions about her.

"No! I'm not going! And I can't tell you how either!"

Taking off her mask to be able to breathe better, Kiyomi spotted a girl with short hair, standing still on a bridge, looking worried.

Realizing that this was Shinobu, Kiyomi ran to her in a flash and dumped the Kanae that was on her shoulder into Shinobu's arms.

"See you in a few years! Bye!"

And with that, Kiyomi finally got rid of Kanae, leaving behind a dumbfounded Shinobu, who was having a little trouble holding up Kanae.

"What just happened?"

...

Back to the present time.