Ginko's Apprentice
"Lesson One…"
They spent the day on the trail seeing many common and harmless mushi on the way. Ginko pointed most of them out and stated what it was called. When they made camp that night Ginko pulled out some scrolls.
"Midoriko, lesson one, names and effects of mushi."
"Yes sensei" Midoriko said taking the scrolls and opening them and beginning to read about each type of mushi, the condition they liked, what they could cause in a human being and so forth.
Ginko watched the girl read and could almost watch her absorbing the knowledge right off the pages. Ginko smiled a bit amused by the girl.
It was starting to get a little too dark to read in Ginko's opinion. He looked at how many scrolls Midoriko had read stunned that she was almost done with the last one.
"Okay Midoriko, that's enough for tonight, you'll get minago mushi at this rate." Ginko laughed a bit as Midoriko finished the scroll.
"I'm done any way Ginko-san." She handed him back all the scrolls and he handed her some dinner.
"Here, eat I can't have my new apprentice dying of hunger on me"
Midoriko smiled and ate her meal happily. Ginko was amazed that the girl could be so happy and carefree after everything that happened to her. He was also stunned by her interest in mushi. She was a little gem of a girl, and a quick learner to boot.
"Hey, Midoriko, why did you want to start studying mushi in the first place?"
"Oh, because I could always see them at first I thought they were just in my imagination from stories my grandmother told me. Once they started killing off my village I wanted to know why and how I could help, or at least stop it from happening to another town. Hopefully save another girl like me from everything I lost."
Ginko looked at her absolutely stunned at how simple an answer it really was. This little orphan girl who had gone through so much was still so sweet, innocent and pure.
"Well that's very simple and very noble." He smoked some of his mushi tobacco and stared off towards the stars.
"Get some sleep now Midoriko, hopefully tomorrow we'll hit another town and I can teach you how to recognize mushi related illness."