48: Dearly Departed

Nobuo shouts in disbelief, looking to the sky and thanking the gods; holding her so tight, he is terrified she will disappear if he lets her go.

"I thought I'd never see you again! You have no idea how happy this makes me!" He wipes tears from under her eyes with his thumbs then buries his face in the crook of her neck.

"It's by the grace and mercy of the Creator that you are here right now! Oh! How they've shown us favor!" He holds her shoulders and looks over her, "you're so beautiful, Umeko, even more than before," he cups the back of her head and her cheek while looking at her.

"Where've you been all this time? Where did you manage to escape?" He caresses her cheek with his palm and cups behind her ear.

Searching her irises with his brown, green-flecked almond eyes. She nuzzles her cheek into his comforting touch, smiling dumbly.

"I thought I'd never see you again. Anyone," she grabs his shoulders and he leans his forehead against hers.

"I was saved by Tsukiyomi-sama. I live in his palace. Sanemaru," she gestures to her new friend, "has been looking after me."

The horse yokai waves at them as her gentle gaze returns to Nobuo.

"W-w-wait--what?" He furrows his brow and jerks her from Sanemaru until they are a short distance away, not knowing the yokai has an impeccable sense of hearing.

"Have you cast your mind away? You can't stay in a place with their kind! You must come back here-- where you belong," he points back at the hut.

"We need to rebuild and make Sankan no Machi even better than before." He grips her upper arms, keeping his eyes on her.

"But... You don't understand, Nobu, I'm happy there. ...sort of… Anyways, I can't leave yet." She states gently, tugging from her friend's grasp.

He releases her with a devastating aggression, "you've been bewitched by demons! Placed under their spell." Nobuo glances from his spear to Sanemaru, Umeko side-stepping closer to it.

"We don't belong with them, Umeko. They'll prey on you until you're an empty shell with nothing left but regret and sickness." The biased judgment frustrates her spirit.

Invisible walls form around her heart as she refuses to let her opinion of Tsukiyomi or Sanemaru be tarnished.

"You don't know what you're saying. Who do you think buried our clansmen for us?" She tries to reach him, hoping he will not be so blind by his teachings.

"Do you -hear- yourself right now? How could you possibly think--! Those monsters could've defiled them! Or devoured them! How could you be so stupid?!" Pain and rage floods his reddening face as he shouts enough for droplets to flee and kiss her cheeks.

"You're calling me stupid?! Where were you after the attack? When everyone needed to be buried?! Tsukiyomi and Sanemaru are good people!" The control on her temper wavers.

"People?" He tilts his head while squinting in disbelief.

"They're not people, Umeko. They're disgusting, beguiling, hungry monsters that were created in the shadowy darkness of the underworld to destroy our lives! The only reason they exist is to deceive us! They even mock us by hiding behind beautiful faces to make it easier to trick us into trusting them!" He spits in her face while pointing shakily at Sanemaru, "have you fallen for his beauty so easily, that you can forget what we had and not take my side?"

Nobuo clutches the air in front of him, his body shaking as though he is attempting to clutch reality itself while recalling the trauma he endured.

"I wasn't here because me and our friends were getting stuff to surprise you. They were helping me gather plants and animals to present to your family for when I asked your father for you to be my wife. I was going to travel with you, anywhere you wanted in the world! For however long. ...so you wouldn't have to go alone."

He collapses, shaking his head while muttering just loud enough for her to hear, "I thought that's what was holding you back… That I never offered to go with you so you wouldn't have to be alone...like your father at the start of his journey."

~ Awww… He was listening to me that day I wondered if my dad was afraid but was too prideful to ever say anything. But by the time he met mom, he was able to swoop in and save the damsel in distress… And as I think about it like that, is that why I'm falling so hard for Tsukiyomi? Because he keeps saving me?… ...in so many ways… ~

"We were supposed to feast and drink and dance and... None... None of that'll happen..." He roughly wipes his face with his forearm before staring up at her with disdain, sensing she wasn't listening to him.

"Keh, I see now we'll never be together. Not because you're dead," he pauses and sucks up snot.

"But because you sided with our natural enemy... I never want anything to do with you again, you demon whore! Do you understand that?!" He jumps to his feet, kicking the dirt while pacing back and forth.

"How can you be such a traitorous wench?! You had me convinced you were at least smarter than that, Ume!" He points in her face, "you're sympathizing with human-eating beasts! I don't believe this." He hangs his head and stares at the ground.

~ Woah now, words hur--. ~

Raising his head to look her in the face, "do you have any self-respect?" His question digs shards of broken clay into her spirit.

~ (T.T) That's IT! ~

"Is it so bad to sympathize with them when everything we held dear was ripped from us by the hands of men?" She claws at the air in front of her, animating her perspective to project it clearly to anyone listening in.

"Not demons, Nobu, Humans!" She kicks dirt back at him, pacing around his spear so he cannot attempt to grab it with her back turned.

"Human beings raped and killed my mother before coming after me. Our -own- kind cut down and robbed defenseless people-- children too! In cold blood." She picks up his spear and points it at him.

"If it weren't for Lord Tsukiyomi," she directs the tip to the mountain, "I would be in one of those graves too!" Directing the spear to the mounds behind them, she spits in his face before kicking him in the shin and holding the spear to his chest, preventing a forward lunge.

"And Sane doesn't eat humans! He only eats plants." Breaking the spear in half over her knee, she throws the pieces off to the side and screams into the sky.

Crying for the future that slipped through the cracks of time, she laments knowing she would have been married to her best friend and presently embarking on her own adventure if the bandits had never found them...

"Umeko..." Sanemaru whispers, cupping her hand in his and leading her from Nobuo.

"I'm sorry me being here made things worse..." He walks with her to the graves before glancing over his shoulder, Nobuo bellowing into his hands as he sits on the ground in a crying slump.

"I just wanna say good-bye and leave. If my closest friend feels nothing but hatred and betrayal because I befriended demons, then they can all suck a filthy bag of ticks." Resentment seethes through gritted teeth as she grips Sanemaru's clothes and pulls.

Blinking hard when she feels his clothes give, she turns to see the result of her action. Instead of taking in a white, undergarment robe, his hard, olive chest with dark nipples and eight pack derails her train of thought.

Admiring the bulky muscles of his physique, she finds herself swallowing hard before letting him go and hurrying ahead.

Peering closer at the singular stone on every grave, she double takes Sanemaru and nearly jumps with mirth.

"Are those... They are! They're names! ...Every grave has the person's name..." She turns to Sanemaru, tugging his loose robes in excitement, "every grave has a name?!"

"Yeah," he chuckles softly with a half-hearted smile. She scans the neat mounds in nine by nine rows, equally spaced apart.

"Tsukiyomi-sama told me he can connect to the diminishing energy that lingers when a soul leaves its body... That's how he knew who was who..." Sanemaru fixes his clothes.

She wanders between the graves until she stops at the last row where five graves stand out from the rest. Smooth and polished, glittering pink stones lay with small bouquets of white, wilted chrysanthemums.

Umeko's heart stops as she falls to her knees with an inward sob. The graves shown the most care are the ones marked with the names of her mother, father, grandmother, and younger brothers.

Sanemaru's hand on her shoulder distracts her briefly, his warm touch wrenching heavier tears.

~ How could Nobu say these kind-hearted creatures are monsters when they're so thoughtful and compassionate?! ~

"Here..." He hands over the bundle of yellow flowers and she wobbly accepts, dabbing tears with her dress's sleeve before grabbing the cloth from her belt and holding it to her eye.

"Thanks... Sane?"

"Yeah?..."

"Could you stand somewhere else so I can be alone for a while?" She requests quietly, never withdrawing her eyes from their grave stones; the last ounce of their confirmed demise settles into her stomach like wet heaps of dirt.

~ No denying it now... They're gone... *sniff* …and I would give anything to have them back... ~

Sanemaru walks between the graves to the road, crossing his arms over his chest and keeping an eye on Nobuo and the other surviving humans hiding inside the hut.