Chapter 32
-Kaneyama-
The prince and his escort have departed from the city four days ago which means their are only two days remaining before the end of the festival.
After selling all of their stocks, the hunters of Shirakawa are packing their stall and preparing themselves for the return to their village.
Kamui hopes she will be able to surprise Kotai with her early arrival.
No, she is sure that he will be surprised.
She thinks back to the four last days and the unending waiting line of customers, her victory during the archery contest gathering even more people around the stall.
Which means more money for her in the end.
"What is our paragon doing?" The chef asks when she sees Seiji hissing while grabbing his left arm with his right one after putting a crate down.
Mitsue smiles smugly. "A cramp I guess."
She sighs. "How useless can you be."
"Stop mocking me!" The orangette whines before flinching when he moves his arm.
Kamui shrugs before lifting two of the remaining crates, Mitsue following her example.
The rest of the loading goes smoothly and they are all ready to go, if everything goes as planned, they should reach the village before the sun sets.
But before they can go, the group of children who have been following Kamui during the festival approaches her with a bouquet of flowers.
"Miss..." The blue haired girl carrying it calls timidly. "We picked up... flowers." Her voice getting smaller the more she talks, the end of her sentence almost unintelligible.
The knight takes the bouquet from her outstretched arms with a warm smile. "Thank you."
The mayor's son speaks up next. "Will you come back Nee-san?"
"Maybe for the next festival." She turns her head, hugging the flowers.
As she discusses with the children, the youngest hunter, Nobuyuki, whines. "I want a bouquet to..."
"You should have won the contest." Mitsue smiles before turning his head in Kamui's direction. "But it is true that she is really good with children."
What the young man has noticed is that whenever an adult or even a teenager tries to talk to her, she goes on the defensive, it is not noticeable immediately but when you spend five days with her, you see that she has trouble with them.
The children however, are another story.
It does not take long for them to make Kamui open up in whatever conversation they start. She loses her annoyed expression for a more calm one, her sarcasm disappear to let curiosity (even if not always genuine) take place.
They even make her smile sometimes.
Mitsue does not know how the children do this, he is not a psychologist, he does not even know what a psychologist is.
But he would really like to be able to make her happy.
He is not stupid nor delusional, he knows that he arbors feelings for the knight but he is also aware that telling her about it would only draw them apart.
For she is to distrustful.
After his small stunt when she had gone to the shrine, she has all the rights to be so.
He sighs as the chef climbs back in the cart and sits across from him. "Let's go." She says before waving goodbye as the eldest of the hunters makes the horse start in direction of Shirakawa.
-Four and a Half Hours Later-
-Emiya Household 2.0-
Kotai is resting on Kamui's armchair after having played with the energic Aiko and Aimi, accompanied by the quiet Raiden.
His eyes are on the big egg resting on a cushion Kamui had put on an unused chair she found in her room.
Two more days before she comes back, he sighs.
Crack
Crack?
He glances at Maiko who heard it too and is searching for the origin of the sound.
Crack
It definitely comes from the egg's direction.
...
Is it hatching?
The albino approaches and there is indeed a crack on its back. "Miss Maiko!" He turns toward the maiden with an alarmed expression.
"A-alright!" She takes the egg and puts it on the ground delicately. "This should do!" She exclaims, panicking.
As the two are getting more and more anxious (or is it excitement in Kotai's case?), the hunters have entered the village and are already surrounded by the villagers.
Mitsue does not even have time to say a word before the twins jump on him with happy looks, their mother, Yua, giving the eldest of her children a warm smile.
Nobuyuki gets kidnapped by his big sister, and the two other hunters go back to their families.
Kamui may seem indifferent on the outside but she is searching for her own among the crowd.
But they are not there.
She frowns, not knowing that they are in fact overreacting over the wyvern egg's hatching.
The knight takes her trophy and the money she gained and makes he way toward her house.
Yua, who saw the girl's expression, leaves Aiko and Aimi under Mitsue's care, the latter whining about his predicament, and follows the knight.
The blond girl stops in front of the door, her frown deepening when she hears the agitation inside.
She opens the door and...
...right in front of her is a baby wyvern covered in albumen and stumbling in her direction.
Kamui lets her bag and her trophy fall on the ground as she rushes toward the hatchling, she kneels down in front of it, no, it is a 'she', and stretches her arms around the baby without touching her, she is not sure about what to do.
The small wyvern falls on the hem of her kimono and snuggles with her, spreading the viscous liquid all over the clothe.
But Kamui does not care, she has never seen something so beautiful in her life and finally, she finds the courage to wrap her arms around the wyvern who purrs happily.
Maiko and Kotai both come back rushing in the living room with towels and cleaning products and both stop when they see the tears traveling on the cheeks of the girl hugging the reptile. However, she is crying from joy, genuine joy. Kamui does not really know why she has this kind of reaction.
Maybe she is just happy that nothing bad happened while she was away. Or the fact the baby wyvern choose to go in her direction, or maybe she has to blame the emerald eyes looking up from her lap.
Kamui caresses the hatchling without caring about the albumen as Maiko wraps her towel around the green eyed wyvern.
"Onee-sama!" The albino jumps on his guardian's back. "You are back!"
The knight suddenly finds the situation quite awkward. "Yes, I am." She sighs to try to calm herself.
"Is everything alright here?" Yua appears at the door with a worried face.
She looks down and sees Kamui covered in albumen with a baby wyvern wrapped in a towel purring on her lap. The mother of tree then meets the eyes of the hunter. "Are you okay?" She rushes next to Kamui.
"Yes, there is no need to... worry." She says, making a small pause when the woman puts her hands on her cheeks, making them face each other. "I am really alright." She frowns, taking Yua's hands off of her face. "You can go now."
"If you say so..." Yua makes her way toward the door with hesitation. "If you need anything, come see me."
Kamui hums as the woman closes the door before cradling the young wyvern. "When did she hatched?"
"Five minutes ago." Kotai smiles while petting the new addition to the household. "I think she is hungry." He adds as the hatchling nimbles on Kamui's kimono.
The knight stands up with the wyvern in her arms who chirps happily. "What does a wyvern eats?" She turns to the albino.
After all, it is him who has lived with wyverns for a year.
"Wyverns eat meat most of the time, but they are also able to eat some vegetables." He nods at himself. "They love potatoes."
Maiko looks at them with a confused look. "Potatoes?"
"So Maria may like potatoes." Kamui rubs the chin of the green eyed creature with the towel.
"Maria?" Kotai raises an eyebrow.
The knight hugs Maria tighter. "That is her name."
Now that she is dry, the inhabitant of the Emiya Household 2.0 are able to see the true colors of her scales.
Maria is a black wyvern with emerald eyes. Her throat and her jaw are a dark shade of silver and when she goes into the light, her dark scales make a purplish reflection, similar to how a hummingbird feathers change color depending on the lighting.
Kamui sits down on her armchair and cleans Maria from the viscous liquid, the wyvern purring on her lap.
"How was the festival?" Maiko asks, helping Kotai clean the floor from what remains of the egg.
The knight's gaze does not leave the black creature. "Look at the bag at the door."
The maiden lifts it and makes a surprised expression when she hears the distinct sound of money. She opens the bag and all she sees is money, a lot of money.
Kotai tiptoes to see what is inside and mirrors Maiko's expression. "So much gold!"
"I know." The knight smirks.
"And what is this?" The child shows the wooden statue.
Kamui takes a look at it. "My trophy."
Kotai puts it on the table. "Trophy of what?"
"I won the archery contest." She puts Maria down to let her explore.
The albino's eyes widen in excitation. "Onee-sama is so strong!" He turns the trophy to see all of the angles before looking back at her. "Also, when will I learn magic?"
The hunter stands up and makes her way toward the kitchen followed by a clumsy wyvern. "The day after tomorrow."
As Kotai almost jumps in excitement, Maiko approaches the knight, trying not to step on Maria. "Can I, perhaps, if you want of course..."
"Learn magic?" Kamui finishes the sentence while grabbing different vegetables and some meat. "Kotai! Can baby wyverns eat like adults?"
"Normally yes." The boy enters the kitchen to witness Maria's attempt on climbing on Kamui's leg, resulting on the wyvern falling on her back with a yelp.
Kamui helps her back on her legs before giving her the meat, which she attacks with no hesitation. "To answer your question, Maiko, you will try with us in two days." The maiden nods with a smile. "But if you have no potential, you will have to abandon the idea."
"Alright." She agrees to Kamui's terms while helping her feed Maria. "But I think you should clean yourself."
The knight sighs when she takes a good look at her kimono.
A/N
Hi! I am sorry if it took so long for me to do this chapter but the beginning of this fanfiction was so cringy that I had to at least update it a little (from chapter 1 to 7 if you wanna know), I will surely edit from chapter 8 to whenever Kamui and Kotai reached Shirakawa.
It means that Kamui has a little change of personality, at the start, I made her a cold girl who would help people in need of assistance. Now, she does not care as long as she does not know them or that other conditions are not met. You could die because of bandit, she would not care about it. You could be hunted down by a wild beast, that is not her problem. Your presence can trouble her peaceful life, she does not care about any family or friend waiting for you at home. You guessed it, Kamui is now more apathetic than before.
I mean... I am trying to make her that way. *sighs*
So here is chapter 32 and the beginning of whatever arc I planned for later. :D
review reply:
Dragonmaster150: I will get a beta reader whenever I finish updating the beginning of the story. ;p