My hair is fine!

Morning soon arose, and I woke up as the sun began to hit my face. Above me was the blue sky; the long-awaited freedom I yearned for was here. Master smiled at me when he saw me awake.

"Took you long enough; now let's go; we got to sell the loot we got yesterday."

"Yes, Master Ryoga!"

Master Ryoga was kind to me; he even prepared breakfast for me. I was getting a weird feeling about him. It felt like a strange sensation in my body. I just never wanted to be separated from Master Ryoga ever!

We were eating lunch in peace alongside the river. It was pleasant; the air was clean, and no danger was nearby. I was enjoying my meal while glancing at Master; he didn't look happy.

Honestly, it looked like the food didn't taste good to him. Was it because of me? Did I do something to upset him? No, it couldn't be.

"Master, why do you always look angry?"

"Do I? I hadn't noticed. Sorry, Ukyo, it's nothing to do with you. I had it rough before, that's all."

So it wasn't me. What could have been? What could make someone as calm as Master upset?

He looked uncomfortable after I asked, so I left the theme aside and tried to cheer him up with a trick. I am trying to remember where I learned it, but nonetheless, I showed him my beauty of nature trick, which made a flower grow out of my hand.

He looked amused by the trick and even more so when I handed him the flower. Maybe it was too on the nose because Master turned away as his face turned red.

"That's a cool party trick Ukyo, well done."

"You think so, Master? I made it for you. I want to see you smile like yesterday!"

"Uky- mmph." Master wanted to say something, but he restrained at the last second. Ryoga stood up and got ready to leave. He tried to hide his emotions from me; it was kind of cute. I quickly rushed to his side, and so we walked back to the city with a bag full of rabbit skins.

When we returned, Master began looking for a place to sell his skins. Thankfully, an accessory merchant wanted some skins, so he bought all our bags for 2 pieces of silver. I felt defeated. I had put so much work into it, but we only had enough money for lunch. 

However, Master looked pleased. "We'll just have to sleep outside tonight, too; I hope you don't mind, Ukyo."

"Not at all, Master!"

He patted my head again; oh, I loved it when he did that; it felt nice. My tail must have been waging again because he stopped too soon.

Master was evil, after all! >:c "Now that I look at your hair some more, I can't help but think that it needs a severe rearrangement. It's all over the place."

"Master!"

"Don't worry, I'll fix it for you."

Once we sold the skins and had the new goal of "Fixing my hair," We stormed off to the weapon shop we had recently been to.

"Oh, hey, kid, you're back sooner than I expected. How can I help you today?"

"You've got any scissors I can borrow? I need to trim her hair. It's too messy."

Hey! Why did you say it like that, Master?! There was nothing wrong with my hair! It was perfectly normal for it to be so long. Besides, I hadn't washed my head in a long time, so it was bound to be scruffed after you forcefully made me clean it last night. 

The owner didn't take long; he had a giant pair of scissors that he handed to Ryoga.

"I only have this kind of scissors, and if it's only to trim her hair, I will let you borrow them until you're done; now go to the back and do it there. I won't let you leave a mess in front of my shop."

"Thank you, old man." Ryoga pulled me into the backroom and quickly began to cut off a lot of my hair, and I mean a lot. 

Long strands of hair fell onto the floor, and I looked horrified as more and more kept dropping.

"Isn't it a bit much already?! Please, no more, Master!"

"Hold up, Ukyo, I'm almost done. You have a lot of hair. It's actually insane."

I wanted to move away, but for once, Master held me down by force. He was determined to make me bald! >.< Once he cut off what I thought was all my hair, he finally let go of me.

"Waahh! Ahh! I'm bald now! wahh!" *sight*

"No, you're not; look at you in the mirror, drama queen."

I looked back at the mirror and realized that I still had hair. It wasn't short, but not long either. I didn't know what to make of the style Master had chosen, but I didn't look bad at all. It suited me quite well, if anything.

"Is that me?"

"Yeah, I tried doing something nicer, but I can only do so much with these giant scissors. Sorry if it isn't of your liking."

"Not at all; I like it, Master!"

He didn't have to apologize to me. Why did he do that? I was only his slave, so why did he apologize?

Master's actions only made me feel that strange feeling in my stomach again; it felt like I would melt at any moment. What was with that emotion? Could I be? No, already? Maybe I didn't want to admit it, but I knew what it was.

Grandma said my body would tell me whenever I met my true other half. So, was this feeling coming from within me because I thought Ryoga was my other half? No, I don't think of Master that way, do I? I was blushing so much that it felt like I would pass out before him. 

"Ukyo? You okay?"

No!!! I'm not okay! You make me feel strange! Please stop being so kind, or I will not be responsible for what happens next! Somehow, we got out of that weird exchange and left the shop once I finished picking up my hair from the floor.

Ryoga requested something strange from me as I was cleaning up, too. He asked for a strand of hair, and I did give it to him. Master made my hair disappear with his pole; I don't know how he did it, but it all got absorbed by the jewel incrusted in it.

Leaving all that aside, we headed back onto the fields to repeat the process. I went on killing more monsters as Master watched.

Now, knowing that I had to get more kills so we could get more money motivated me to put all my effort into it! I was racking up kills relatively fast until Master called me back before noon.

"Hey, Ukyo, come back. I have a better idea."

"What is it, Master?"

"Can you distinguish this herb from this weed?" Master handed me some weeds and asked something quite puzzling. 

"Uhm, smells like washing oil."

Washing oil, where did I know that from? I recognized it, but from where? Master interrupted my train of thought with.

"Perfect if you can tell the difference, then we might be able to make more money if we also sell medicinal herbs instead of just skins."

So that's what he wanted me to do. I didn't hesitate to search for more of those strong-smelling weeds. If more smelly weeds were what my Master wanted, then I would collect as many as I could!