"Wake up, Miyasha." A vaguely familiar voice firmly ordered in my ear.

"GAH!" I woke up suddenly, yelling and rolling off the futon in fear. But when two giggling voices greeted me instead of Shigeno-sensei's yelling, I instantly threw the pillow in the direction of the sound.

"Oomph!"

"HA! Looks like my aim ain't that bad after all!" I gloated as a still giggling Hiroshi helped Hitoshi off the floor.

"Nah," Hitoshi disagreed, "Your aim is as bad as before. It's just that I tried to deflect— that's why the pillow hit me."

That caused both of them to dissolve into giggles again, making me glare at those two brats.

Since the day when the demon suddenly popped up in our temple yard, the twins have not left me alone for a single day. Nope. They have been following me around and 'teaching' me stuff because they thought I needed 'help'.

Well, to be honest, I actually did.
They helped me a lot with the training part too— especially since I accepted the offer to do some under Shigeno. Or Shigeno-sensei, more like.

"Why don't you call him ojisan, like we do?" Hitoshi asked one day as he was showing me the ten forms of breath of the snow.

"I... am not much comfortable with it, yet. Forgive me if it felt odd to you all..."

"Hitoshi, your posture is off. Don't be so stiff while doing the fourth form— it needs the full flexibility of your body..." Hiroshi commented offhandedly from the branch he made himself comfortable on, "And Miya-chan..."

"Yes...?"

"Why is your speech so formal?" Hiroshi asked with a strange sharpness in his eyes. I initially stiffened momentarily under his unexpected sombre gaze, but soon forced myself to loosen down.

"I was taught to speak as such... I was not exactly aware it was considered formal." More in the sense that I actually forgot— my main concern for the while was to just stay alive and to learn the basic surviving skills, speech and behaviour was not exactly a priority until I needed to pretend.

"You always spoke like this?" Hitoshi gushed, "That's so cool! Was your family noble? Or priest like ojisan?"

"No," I firmly denied, wondering for a moment if it was right to open up to them. "I... I was born in a brothel."

Waiting for the impending questions, I quietly looked up to their faces— only to see visible confusion etched onto them.

"What..." Hitoshi started, as Hiroshi ended the sentence with "...is a brothel?"

I stared at them for a solid five minutes to see if they were joking, but they honestly looked lost.

"You... honestly don't know what a brothel is?"

"No." They chorused innocently, leaving me with the responsibility to explain what a brothel is to them.

'I think it was wrong of me to think that they would know about it...' I mused as the brothers suddenly gathered around me. 'I mean, they indeed are children and not to mention, Japanese people are always more on the prude-r side.'

"Okay, let us first start with the basics; are you familiar with how babies are made?"

"No..."

"...That is where we will begin from, then. So, babies are human infants who are conceived when—"

And that, was how I helped them in return— with my knowledge and advises. The twins were very attentive too, I am not going lie, but a little too curious at times.

Not that I hated their curiosity— no; it was just a tad bit at the wrong times. Not to mention they had almost zero social skills to begin with.

"Toshi-senpai..." I sighed as he turned to me with a genuine look of confusion, "We don't ask if someone had sex so directly or publicly..."

"But why not?" He asked, "I mean, are we not made by that? You were the one who said it was a very natural thing like eating or sleeping!"

I sighed again, shaking my head at his innocent question. "Sex is a very... private thing. Just like how you don't let anyone touch you there. It's a very private thing and that's why people feel very shy and flustered to talk about it."

"Oh..."

"And remember what I said the number one rule about it?"

"To always ask for consent!"

"Good. You should ask for 'consent' when you ask someone about it too. Also, try avoiding to talk about it to anyone who is not close to you, got it?"

"Yep!"

It took me quite a bit time to adjust properly into my life into the temple— but as soon as I did, I actually noticed how messy it was.

And how much these three males needed a mother. Including Shigeno-sensei, sometimes.


"How do you know I'm not Hitoshi, Miya-chan?" Hiroshi asked suddenly one day while helping me in the kitchen.

"Because you are not him...?" I answered uncertainly, a bit taken aback by his question.

Hiroshi was always somewhat weary of me, for some reason. That was why it was very surprising for me when he offered to help me in the kitchen instead of Shigeno-sensei, who was out in the village for his usual petrol.

The reason why the nearby village did not had any children or was so isolated, (that I finally found out from Hitoshi) was due to the abnormal number of marechi being born there - in fact, half of the villagers had that specific blood type, causing them to be one of the favoured food by demons. Which was as horrifying as it sounded. This was the reason why the children in the village, as soon as they were born, were sent to a temple near the wisteria garden and were educated and taught there till they were adults. And that was why Shigeno-sensei went on patrolling around the village at odd times to keep an eye on the villagers— because even though everyone had a bag of wisteria, he didn't wanted to take any chances.

"What I meant was, how do you know it's me, not my brother? How do you know who is who, even when we don't tell you...?" Hiroshi stared directly into my eyes, sincerity and somehow a slight desperation slipping into his bluish-green eyes.

"You... both are similar," I started carefully, diverting my eyes towards the soup cooking in front of us. "But similar is not equivalent to being same. You both have some distinct features too, like how you are quieter and more observant than Toshi-senpai, and how you always prefer to stay in rather than going outside... And your eyes are different as well."

"My eyes...?" He blinked in surprise, "My eyes and Hito's eyes are same in colour...?"

"Not really," I bit back a smile as he looked at me with genuine interest. This was almost the first time he ever let his guard down; even if not much. "Your eyes are greener than Toshi-senpai's... And more open too."

"...open?"

"Hai, open." I stirred the soup over, checking if the vegetables were not left uncooked, "Your eyes talk more than you do, Hiro-senpai. But Toshi-senpai's eyes are more on the bluish side and seems colder than yours... maybe because he 'talks' more than you do."

Hiroshi stiffened significantly as I continued, "You both may seem similar, but are very distinct, senpai. Almost contrasting, especially when you both fight together... or stand together against the world."

"What do you mean?" He asked firmly, his voice dropping a few octave. It was very interesting to see how an eleven year old can be so mature and protective of his brother.

"What I mean to say is that not everyone is against you, senpai." I gave him the brightest smile I could manage, "We are with you, standing beside you two. Though, you could only see us if you both ever looked beyond each other."

"...So, you are telling me to leave my brother?"

"I'm telling you nothing, senpai. I'm just suggesting you to, maybe, look beyond the dependency you have on him. After all, you both are two very distinct humans, even if you may have a connection no one else can share or understand."

Hiroshi stared at me with an intense look in his eyes— just like everyone in the manga, these two were also the victim of their time. And the saddest thing was to see it happening in front of my own eyes.

I decided to move on and get some work done; "The soup is done! Let's call Toshi-senpai and Shigeno-sensei and start ea—" I called out, but was interrupted by Hiroshi.

"It's hard to believe you are only four." He offhandedly commented, his demeanour suddenly turning very casual and laid back. It was almost like he found out what he wanted to, and was satisfied with it.

"I'm actually five now." I mumbled out in reply as he poured the soup in the bowls I brought and helped me carry the smoked fishes.

"Wait, your birthday passed? When?"

"A few weeks ago...?"

"And why the hell did you not tell us?!"

"...You didn't ask."

And that was how I received the first smack I ever had in this lifetime.

"Hey, stop fighting! And Hiro, we shouldn't hit girls!"


All the craziness aside—
(Well, that would be putting almost all of my both lives aside, but oh well.)

My training was going well.
Even though I had outright refused to train to be a demon slayer and to even learn the breath of the snow, I was still shown how they did it and how to perform it. I mean, I have no interest in doing anything with the plot and was planning to leave this temple as soon as I could— but maybe training was indeed needed if I didn't wanted to end up being some demon's snack.

Hitoshi seemed to struggle with the forms a bit, but Hiroshi's forms were smooth and beautiful— but just as dangerous, if not more.

One thing I noticed though, (which kind of disappointed me to no end) is that the techniques didn't unleash any actual elemental attack. It was just an illustration in the manga or anime to make the attacks look cool— and that fucking boiled my blood to no end.

I mean, you bloody mean to tell me that these sword techniques are just fucking slashing of swords and that's it?

"Concentrate, Miyasha!" Shigeno-sensei's voice brought me out of inner musings, making me block his incoming sword with mine. Shigeno Koji was a very dedicated teacher and a damn good observer. And maybe that was how he could teach a daydreamer like me at all.

I was at a stage where I still practiced with my wooden sword; and since I was not learning the forms of the breath style, Shigeno-sensei just went on to teach me the basics of how to fight with a sword.

And I kid you not, it was way more than just slashing as they showed in the films.

Not only your hands or arms, but your whole bloody body worked and moved during a single swing of a sword and watching it may be very empowering, but doing it was more tiring than anything. Especially for my five year old body. Shigeno-sensei's ruthless training didn't help much either.

It was like, he never hesitated to hit me whenever he found an opening even once. And even though it was good for my training, the soreness my body had was almost not worth it.


x


"Ojisan, are you not being a little too harsh on her...?"

"No, Hitoshi. She needs this."

"But she's only five! You didn't started training us like that since we were almost eight..."

"She is different, Hitoshi. And I don't think she will learn anything if I do not force it into her bones. She thinks too much and always tried to find the easier way out of doing things; if I don't teach her to work hard from now, she will never start and will always try to opt out of things as much as she could."


x


"This is stupid... Why are we to climb such a steep mountain in the middle of the night?"

"To meditate in the morning." Hiroshi replied, his eyes shining in amusement. Since that day in the kitchen, (when I got my first smack for this lifetime) he started behaving more and more casual and somewhat attached to me, which I necessarily didn't mind until both the twins kept bugging me like no other.

It was like I was their source of entertainment at this point.

"Meditate...? Were we not doing it in the temple, these past few weeks?"

"It's different under the waterfall though." Hitoshi replied casually.

"Under the waterfall?!"


"AACHOO!" I sneezed loudly as I lied on my futon miserably.

"I think we shouldn't have started that part of the training this sooner..." Shigeno-sensei mumbled as he changed the cold cloth on my forehead.

Yeah, like no shit, Sherlock.

Apparently sensei trained his students to meditate and maintain their concentrated breath under the high pressure of the waterfall, so that they could get used to doing it under extreme conditions.

Turned out that I passed the supposed lesson on the very first class. (Since I've been practicing it full time)

But unfortunately, my body didn't.
And now I was as sick as I could get. For the first time in this lifetime too, surprisingly.

"But you did very well though, Miyasha." Shigeno-sensei praised, as he pressed the wet cloth on my forehead again. "I can't say I expected you already to master doing the concentration breath all day long before today's training."

"Here's the rice porridge!" Hitoshi suddenly declared loudly as he opened the door for Hiroshi, who brought a large bowl of rice porridge on a tray.

I tried to sit up, but my hands trembled under my body weight and almost made me topple back onto the futon.

"Shh, let me feed you!" Hitoshi claimed as sensei helped me sit up properly.

And before I could even say anything, he suddenly stuffed a spoonful of warm porridge into my mouth, almost making me choke.

"Hito! At least ask her first!" Hiroshi scolded Hitoshi loudly as he smacked his twin's hand, "Let me feed her. You go on and do something else."

"Ojisan! Hand over the cloth! I will do that!"

"You won't do that properly either."

"Ojisan, Hiroshi is bullying me!"

"...you two are about to be twelve, don't act like five. Otherwise I will give you twice as much training as you both already do."

The silence that followed sensei's statement made me giggle loudly. Maybe change wasn't that bad after all.

But that thought went out of the window as Hiroshi spoon-fed me the porridge— it had absolutely no taste.
Did they even put salt in it...?

"Did you," I asked as I somehow swallowed the porridge in my mouth, "put salt in it?"

"You put salt in porridge?"

...
How in the name of Heaven and Hell did these three survive these past few years?


So, here's the chappie I promised you in last chapter~!

A really long one, I know - and most likely almost all chapters will be long like this one. Hope you don't mind! (Comment if youdo!)

Sorry it took time, but I have to prepare for my Constitutional law viva for tomorrow, lol. Wish me luck xD

I really can't wait to get over this arc and start with the next one! Especially since we'll meet everyone there!

Anyway, onto the reviews now!

Einklley: I absolutely don't mind your comments! I know how to take criticism and honestly, your comments help me more than anything! I can also actually imagine you as Giyuu after you pointed it out-! Anyway! I didn't thought you would notice that xD Honestly speaking, I kinda made it intentional. I mean, I didn't (And most likely won't) show how young they were when Shigeno saved them, but they were pretty young and had picked up most of their speech pattern by then. However, they also learned to speak formally (or rather, semi-formally) from their teacher, who himself speaks in a semi-formal way half the time due to being practically brought up by his own master, who was a priest.
This is why they sometimes can't control the transition from casual to somewhat formal. Miyasha speaking in a very formal way doesn't helps them much either. I'll clear it up in next chapter more clearly, if needed!

I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter! (I know most of the people ain't reading this, but oh well!)

Please review if you want to - I love reading from you guys, and honestly, it motivates me like no other :D