Burial
In the small town of Mahoroba, there was a huge skirmish between the local bandits and the large army that was passing through here in the outskirts of the town, the Maniwa ninja corps to be precise, because the bandits thought that they might not only get weapons and food as their trophies, they also thought that they are strong enough to pull it off.
But they paid their overconfidence with their lives as the Maniwa ninjas made swift work out of these bandits and moved on, leaving a mountain of their corpses behind. Chikane Himemiya, the local miko of the town, feared that the bandits might become zombies if their bodies were left unattended, asked the men in her town to help her carry their corpses into town, where she sends them off properly before burning them.
"Thank you Girochi, for helping me with these corpses."
"Well, no sweat at all! I am doing it for my little Himek- I mean for my sister! You know how scary she can get when she gets mad…!" Girochi replied in embarrassment, although the entire town already knew about his infatuation with Chikane's six year old orphan, Himeko, hence labelling him a pervert, everyone knows that heis doing it only because Himeko asked him to.
After Chikane sees off the men who helped her with the ceremony, she turns to face the burning fire and clapped her hand a couple of times and closed her eyes to pray for their safe passage.
"Okaa-sama!" Himeko called out as she ran towards her mother, her curiosity turned to the flames when she got close to her. "Done playing with your friends?" Chikane asked as she lifted Himeko up from the ground, slowly making their way back. She then realised that Himeko was looking at the fire. "Okaa-sama, what are you burning?" she asked, "Bandits, dead ones." Chikane answered baldly, "I am going to bury them at the cemetery later."
"Why do you not use them as fertilizers in the farm instead? It's not like that they will appreciate it." Himeko said with much hate and malice in her words, ever since her parents were killed by bandits, Himeko had always hated them with a passion.
Knowing her beloved Himeko's pain, Chikane tried to think up an answer to her while trying hard enough not to make her angry, then in a few seconds, she finally answered this.
"You are right, these people are nothing but thugs and lowlife, but why do you think we build cemeteries in the first place. True, it may seem pointless to you, but... cemeteries are meant to serve as a reminder that goes like this: 'We'll never forget you. We'll remember you every time we stand at your grave. And we won't let the fear of death, which each of us knows, stop us from living our lives, because my friends will remember me when I'm here.' And so, no matter how horrible these people may be in their past lives, there is still a place for them here, at least somebody bothered to remember them like this, rather than being forgotten."
Himeko was a little stunned by Chikane's elegance during her little speech.
"…err, sorry about that, was that a little too tough for you?" Chikane asked. "You are right Okaa-sama, guess I don't really understand." Himeko said with a confused a tired sigh, Chikane walked home with a smile and Himeko in her arms, leaving the fire to burn off into the night.