After Old Man Bocchon's departure, Mitsuki had regularly sneaked herself out to visit the village below without showing herself even once. Carefully, quietly, she observed upon the many soul spread across the village. During observation, Mitsuki had figured out a few things on her own.

Firstly, the way the people dress seemed to be different from what she expected, even as she was not sure where her assumption even came from. Then, there's the matter of the language as well. She could understand the language for sure, but there's some difference here and there from what she knew instinctively within her. Wondering if it was the case of dialect differences, Mitsuki went and studied the new, yet still familiar pattern.

Then, thirdly, and the most important one, was the people's soul and the relationships. As she saw the humans interacting with each other, Mitsuki saw how their action affected each other's soul, sparking variously colored flame within their soul. There's also the weird thing that formed a pattern within their soul, which is seemingly combined and passed down to some extent to their offspring. Offspring, family, parents, brother, sister.. Those label came up naturally to Mitsuki's mind as she observed the community on. Then, she thought back about her, and the Old Man.

"What are we, actually?" she thought to herself, unable to find a word to describe her relationship with the old man. Observing a family, Mitsuki thought to herself that it was not what it is. Firstly, there was no blood bond, then other part that she saw within the family, was absent in her relationship with the old-man as well. Parents nurture and protection towards their kids, their affection and warmth how the kid respond in likeness due to their love towards their parents. She didn't feel such connection with the old man. There's something about how he treat Mitsuki that felt like that wasn't it. There was certainly no affection between them, as if there was an invisible wall between the two of them, preventing them to connect properly to each other.

For Mitsuki, she was indebted to him. After all, he had been taking quite a good care of her, whether he admit it or not. But as for Bocchon's side, Mitsuki knew that the way he treated Mitsuki was devoid of affection. It seemed to her that he was deliberately avoiding forming emotional connection with her. They also barely talked to each other, and he had shown no interest in her outside of their hunting lesson, where she was expected to listen and obey without much question. Somehow the relationship between the two of them felt suffocating for Mitsuki, and for that, she envied those families she saw in the village. Silently, Mitsuki wondered, will there even be a time where she could be allowed to have, or even forge, such relationship?

Therefore, Mitsuki had increasingly felt so isolated, and so alone, as the time went by without news from the old man while she kept her side of promise about not showing herself to other people.

Months passed, and eventually Mitsuki had decided to stop her observation of the village as it filled her with envy every time. Unable to bring herself to break her promise and actually formed connection with others instead, Mitsuki decided to avoid the painful feeling of loneliness all together, since it had started to feel more painful being alone among people, compared to actually being alone, physically and emotionally. It was then, when she started to notice the unusual control that she had over the force of nature.

It all started with a coincidence, as the clothes that she was drying after washing get blown away by the sudden gust of wind. In panic, Mitsuki tried to catch unto the clothes, and when she failed, in her frustration, somehow she ended up taking control of the direction of the wind and safely returned the cloth to her hands with her newly found control. Curious about what else she could do, Mitsuki started experimenting more and more with her own power, to test the limit of her skill. Starting from her unnatural perception, followed by experimenting on attuning unto nature's energy, energy absorption and transfer, and how it affects herself, the plants and other living being around her.

Being fond of animal and cute things herself, Mitsuki admittedly avoid experimenting too much on them in fear of hurting them. She had never liked the smell of blood either. The first time she had to watch Bocchon butcher his hunt, the smell of blood as he skinned and butchered the animal almost prompted her to vomit. For that, she was reprimanded, as the old man taught her about how in the circle of life, and even among human themselves, it was most often a world to eat or to be eaten. To survive, they need to eat, and therefore, they need to kill. Surviving on plant nutrient alone are often not enough for hunters and humanities to survive, as they tend to provide less energy for survival and require bigger amount to provide enough energy for the daily grind. And so, seeing as how she enjoyed the taste of meat herself, after partaking with a few hunts that involves predatory animal as a target, it was not long until she could accept the concept that the world is a place to "eat or be eaten". Then she came to think about Bocchon's word, that such rule also applies within human community and human relationship itself, albeit figuratively. According to him, human survived by trampling on other beings and other human, and often time they would rationalize hurting other for their own sake, which he had taken unto himself as well, as he told Mitsuki that it was not worth the risk and the pain to care or be kind to other selflessly. However, as she started to observe the villagers on her own volition, Mitsuki had started to doubt if that was always the case. Nevertheless, back then, she didn't dare to challenge him. After all, it was true that she knew so little about the world.

After a few more months, the old man finally came back to his hut. He had managed to sell some of the cloth, save for the outermost one that he kept for his search of Mitsuki's origin. Apparently, he had found no clue yet even as he scoured multiple surrounding cities. No rumors abound, not even a smallest inkling of a missing noble princess. As he felt more and more unsure about the next step to take once the fund from selling the kimono would ran out, the huntsman decided to go back to check up on the girl first and ask her more question that might serve as a clue.

When he arrived back at his hut, the girl was still there, waiting for him patiently.

"Ah, welcome back," said the girl without any strong emotion. No excitement, no disappointment. Surprised by the girl's new vocabulary, the old-man questioned the girl without answering her greeting.

"Where did ya learn that? Did ya go and visit the village while I was gone?"

"Don't worry, I didn't show myself or interact with any of the villager. I was bored, so I went down to people watch sometimes," said the girl, more fluently than ever. Her dialect too, had changed as she had tried to copy the speech patterns that she noticed from the village on the foot of the mountain. The girl's rapid change surprised the old man, but he didn't seem all too pleased or impressed by it.

"That emotion inside him, anxiety, anger?" Mitsuki thought as she saw the colored spark within the old man's soul. During her people watching sessions, Mitsuki had managed to sharpen her senses in detecting and reading people's emotion by matching their expression and subtle mannerism with the color of the spark inside their souls. She felt like it helped her understand human emotion more, even if she was still not that familiar with it as she had never interacted directly with anyone to find out more about it yet. Frowning, Mitsuki met the old man's gaze, unsure of what was wrong. After all, she had indeed kept her promise. Seeing Mitsuki's challenging gaze, the old man didn't say a word and just sat down instead, putting his luggage on one side of the table.

"Listen, kid. I need more information. No way I'm going to take care of ya forever. If ya got some idea from whence did ya even came from, spill it," said the old man, with a mix of both exhaustion and impatience in his voice.

The old man's question annoyed Mitsuki. Those families below in the village, would at least answer their sons' or daughters' greeting before anything else. Then sometimes, they would ask each other about their days, or what happened in any time passed where they had been apart. The fact that the old man paid no heed to both of those things even after they hadn't met in a while, made Mitsuki sure that the both of them are not what would be considered family.

"After all, no normal family is this cold and devoid of care, isn't it?" she thought to herself. She was glad that she hadn't allowed herself to expect too much from him, else she would feel more disappointment. After all, learning from what she saw within the humans' soul, she had noticed how Old Man Bocchon had no intention of forming any emotional bond with her.

"Nothing came to my mind. My memory is still blank, and as for memories, it was just that I started to recognise more and more things as I find them. It's unlikely that I'll remember those things unless I find a trigger, I think," said Mitsuki plainly.

Hearing Mitsuki's answer the old-man sighed once more upon the trouble he had found himself in. He had no idea how would he be able to get on with his plan without any clue from her.

"Ah, but I guess, I can do weird things. Can you or any other people do this as well?" said Mitsuki as she waved her hand and forced the air within the room to circulate with ease, surprising the old man. Then, a thought came to him.

"Could it be, you're a shinobi?" said the old man in surprise as wind filled the enclosed room.

"Shinobi?" Mitsuki tilted her head in confusion, unsure if she could recall anything about the term. Ignoring Mitsuki's confusion, the old man drowned himself in his own thoughts.

The possibility of the girl being a shinobi opens up a new window of possibility. It could be that her expensive clothing indicate that she was a member of prestigious shinobi clan, or she might be a body double of some nobles. But if that was the case..

After careful consideration, the old man decided to test her first, to make sure he wasn't just wasting his time this time. So does the continuation of their hunting lesson begun.

If before, Mitsuki was only tasked in detecting and retrieving the prey and helped with the skinning and carving process, now the old man had allowed her to wield her own weapon. Since there was no way that he, as a civilian near a small village, would have the kind of funds that was needed to procure shinobi weapon, the old man had Mitsuki settle with the second best option. Unable to wield axe and sword as both felt too clunky in her hand, Mitsuki opted for a knife, and a set of bow and arrow. The later, somehow felt familiar in her hand, and she was right. During the hunt, it was obvious that her proficiency on bow and arrow far exceeds her proficiency with knife. Something about the way she hunt so calculatedly also fits well with her choice of weapon, as she seemed to prefer taking down the enemy from a safe range, reducing the risk that she could face.

Seeing the girl's proficiency with weapon, and her movement's agility as well as her ability to traverse to high places easily, the old man was even more convinced than before that the girl he had taken in was a shinobi. What was left for him was to decide his next course of action, and meanwhile, the girl could be helping him with his hunt. Somehow he felt satisfied with the turn of event. At least, the girl would be of more use to him even without finding someone who would ransom her. Besides, it had only been three year since the last shinobi war, and it was likely that the shinobi village will do all they can to bolster their numbers, and therefore, there was bigger chance for him to trade her in for something of value.

On the other hand, Mitsuki disliked the turn of events. Since then, she was forced to help the old man with his hunt, and sometimes he even expected her to hunt her meal on her own if he was unable to hunt enough food for both trading purpose as well as for their own needs. Knowing that she didn't had the physical prowess needed to bring back big prey, Mitsuki had to opt for smaller prey instead, which she dreaded as it meant that she would need to take more lives to have enough amount to eat. However, 1 year passed, 2 year passed, and it was not long since Mitsuki had gotten used to her new duty. The old-man had never accepted her reluctance, saying that the girl needed to earn her keep on her own, and try as much as possible not to burden him further. After all, he was providing her with lodging and clothing, as well as food and other necessity, even if some of those are procured from the money earned by selling Mitsuki's old clothes.

Meanwhile, Old Man Bocchon started researching unto close-by shinobi village's lineage in hope of finding Mitsuki's origin. Using his rough idea of Mitsuki's ability on perception, without knowledge of chakra and ninjutsu, the old man compiled a list of possible candidate to approach. After he compiled enough to make his travel worthwhile, again, the old man set out. This time, his destination was the shinobi's villages. Planning his route carefully, with animal pelt and material along with him, the old man set out, leaving Kirigakure as his last option, knowing the rumor about the harshness of the training there. Even if the old man did not care much about Mitsuki, for sure, if Kirigakure heard a thing about her, they would likely take her in since they were on the losing side of the recent shinobi war. Hence, if he were ever end up finding those who would put much more value in obtaining her, it would be disadvantageous for him. So again, he set out for a long journey.

Again, Mitsuki was left at a loss. The old man had never bothered telling her about his destination or how long the journey will take, and Mitsuki had learned that unless she was getting talked to first, it was unlikely that the old man will answer her question. Somehow, her heart felt empty, and for some reason, she felt the return of a sensation of pain that her brain somehow identified as loneliness, once more. She was not particularly missing the old man, but it was as if she was forced to realise that she was alone in the world, with no one else to know or care about her, a big difference with those people in the village. Mitsuki would really like to get rid of those feelings, but she also didn't want to break her promise with the old man. After all, despite his motivation and lack of care, the old man was still her benefactor as well as her teacher

"Actually, why did he not want me to interact with other people again?" Mitsuki pondered with frustration in her face. If she remembered correctly, the old man had never specified the reason behind his rule. Recalling her previous conversation, Mitsuki tried to find herself a leeway within the old man's word.

"Maybe, if it's woman and child, it's not as bad as man? Also as long as there was no way for the old man to figure out that I haven't been following what he asked me to, it would be fine right?" Mitsuki thought, as her loneliness took over the better part of her judgement.

"Un, it should be ok," she convinced herself, as she decided to venture further out this time, avoiding places where the old man might have known if she were to visit those locations.

In a village, 2 days journey apart from the hut, Mitsuki braved herself to enter the distant village. Inside her was both excitement and anxiety. After all, she had never interacted with another people beside Old Man Bocchon, and somehow, she was looking forward to finally creating a connection of her own. However, she was also nervous and scared, accompanied with her understanding and realization that she lacks something that the others have, fed into her worries that she really didn't belong anywhere, and she would never be able to form a bond with anyone because of that. Without direction and filled with hesitation, the girl travelled aimlessly, until a salivating smell caught her attention. Before she realised, her feet carried her towards the source of the smell.

"Little girl, do you want some, 10 ryo only and I'll give you 5 skewer," said the vendor.

Seeing the vendor, Mitsuki took a step back. "It's a male," she thought, "I wonder if it's ok to talk to him?"

"What's wrong? Don't you have money? Sorry girl, I don't do no charity here. No money means no yakitori, understand?" the vendor frown as he saw the perplexed look on the skinny girl's face. The girl looked rugged with thin limbs and oversized clothes, he wondered why he even bothered to ask her previously.

"Money?" Mitsuki tilted her head. Old Man Bocchon had mentioned it a lot, but she had never been able to ask him about it since he had always seemed to be unhappy whenever he mentioned it. "Right, humans use money to trade," Mitsuki thought. Unconsciously, she had always been identifying other people as human, yet she had never dared to claim to be one herself, as she noticed the critical differences between her and the others, despite how her outward appearances didn't reflect it. Realising this, Mitsuki was lost in her thought, drifting away from her current predicament. "What.. exactly am I? Am I the odd one out? Am I not one of them?" As the vendor slowly got frustrated over the girl's silence, suddenly, a loud voice of a boy woke her up from her rumination.

"Uncle, give me 10 ryo worth of yakitori!" said the boy.

"Right on!" said the vendor, while waving away to Mitsuki as he went on and packed the order with his other hand. "As for you, little girl, no money means no food, sorry!" he said as he gestured for her to go away before handing over the skewers to the boy.

Understanding what the vendor meant, Mitsuki retreated away from the stall. Not long after, the boy left the stall with his order, and happily took out one skewer and chewed on it. Still curious, Mitsuki followed him from a distance, not so subtly. Because of that, the boy soon noticed the presence tailing behind him.

"What? Why are you following me?" he said as he turned back.

Unsure of how to answer, Mitsuki kept her quiet as she maintained her eye contact with the boy, giving him the creeps.

".. Weird girl.. Stop being creepy and say something!" the boy continued with a frown as he received no answer from the girl.

"Weird? Creepy?" Mitsuki muttered as she pondered upon the words. Her action only drove the boy further to confusion, prompting him to turn his back once more and continued his walk.

"Hey, why am I weird, or creepy?" said Mitsuki suddenly, thinking that the boy might have been able to see through her too, and might know more of what made her different.

"Huh? You can speak after all," said the boy as the girl's voice caught his attention. The boy's word reminded Mitsuki of her first meeting with Old Man Bocchon.

"Firstly, stop staring at me with those empty, big eyes! It's creepy!"

"Empty? But I got eyeballs, just like yours," Mitsuki muttered with confusion, causing the boy to scratch his head.

"See, this is why you're weird!" said the boy in frustration, creating a frown on Mitsuki's forehead.

"I don't.. understand," Mitsuki muttered softly, before her stomach rumbled loudly, to her embarassment. Hearing the surprising loud noise, the boy laughed.

"So that's it? You're hungry? Is that why you followed me? Well, just say so, then!" said the boy, as he picked out a skewer from its packing and offered it to Mitsuki. Seeing the food, Mitsuki's eye sparkled, even if her general expression didn't change. In that moment, the boy felt a sense of relieve.

"Hmmm, it seems like you're human after all!" the boy smiled as he noticed the change in the girl's emotion. Then he added. "I almost thought you are a monster from my mother's story!"

The boy's word surprised Mitsuki. In her mind, images of what she automatically perceived as monster appeared. What comes to her mind was fierce, giant looking beast, not something that would look like her.

"Why would you think so? Mitsuki asked with a frown. To her question, the boy shrugged, before turning his back once more.

"Well, I'm supposed to meet with my brother somewhere soon, so I need to keep going. Feel free to follow me if you want and I can answer you along the way," said the boy before turning back and continued his steps, followed with Mitsuki.

"Isn't what you meant Youkai?" Mitsuki confirmed as she took another bite from her gifted skewer. During their walk, the boy had told Mitsuki about various tales of shape-shifting demons and spirits. Somehow, Mitsuki felt a sense of familiarity towards the tales, but then again, she didn't think that it was about her.

"Aren't they the same?" asked the boy in confusion over the term that the girl used.

"Not really, hmm.. Even so, some youkai can eat human foods too you know," somehow, the words just spilled from her mouth, as if it was natural for her to know.

"Hee.. now you are scaring me. So, are you one?" said the boy teasingly.

"No, I don't think so.. at least.." Mitsuki herself couldn't answer with certainty, as what she knew about herself weighed her mind. As more and more doubt came over her, she added, without even changing her expression, "I.. hope not.." Seeing the girl's uncertain reaction and vague answer, however, the boy put on a judgmental face.

"Ehh, how creepy.. Maybe I should really run," said the boy. Suddenly, a bigger palm slapped the boy's head.

"What are you even saying to a girl, you rascal.."

"Ouch, Ichi Nii-san! Since when are you here?" The boy screamed as he recognised the source of the voice.

"Ichi.. nii.. san?*" hearing the ridiculous way the boy called his older brother, a smile sparked unto Mitsuki's face as she chuckled lightly, surprising the boy.

"Ah, you can smile after all! And here I was, thinking you're some kind of shape-shifting fox who didn't know how to make human expression!"

Upon hearing the little brother's remark, the older one gave his younger brother a gentle chop on the head.

"I'm sorry, my little brother has been very rude," said the older brother in behalf of his younger one. However, Mitsuki was unbothered. Instead, she touched her lips, after realising the meaning of the word "smile",

"I see.. people smile when they are happy.." she muttered, confusing the brothers. "Am I happy now?" she thought out loud, prompting the younger boy to whisper to his older brother.

"See, nii-san, she is weird, right?"

"Sssh, such thing is rude to say!" the brother whispered back.

Seemingly oblivious to the discussion, Mitsuki continued as she smiled gently once more, "I don't think that I am especially happy, but.. I guess.. you two are funny," she said as she grinned towards the brothers, confusing them.

Hearing the girl, the older brother smiled while the younger one scratched his head.

"Missy, where's your family? Are you here alone?" ask the older one.

"Family.. hmm.. What is family, actually? The one you stay with for living? Or.." Mitsuki asked, as she found her chance to ask about what had been bothering her, slightly frowning. After all, old-man Bocchon should have been family to her, yet..

"No, dummy, families are the ones with blood ties to you, OUCH!" the little brother's words ended as the older one gave his head a light smack.

"Blood ties?"

"Same parents, same grandparents… like so!" the little brother added.

"It's not always like that, sometimes it is more of the bond created than the blood ties," the older brother's smile was slightly sad as he articulated his word.

"Then, how do you know if you are family or not?" frown returned to Mitsuki's face as she found it hard to understand the older brother's explanation.

"Uuuh, I think that would take long to explain.." said the older brother apologetically as he remembered that it was about time for their curfew.

"Hey, if it is OK, can we meet again? I want to talk to you guys some more," said the girl, still with a smile. Silently, the boy responded with a nod.

"Then, tomorrow I'll be here again," said Mitsuki as she dashed away after finishing the last meat on her skewer, "Thanks for the food!"

"Wait, I still haven't caught your name!" shouted the boy, without receiving any response before the girl disappeared in the distance.

Author's note:

Gosh, writing this portion after Mitsuki had changed so much in the future pained me.. It's so depressing I ran to write future chapter :') (Then I came back here again after receiving depressing news after anxiety woke me up in the midnight)

Next chapter we will go back to the present first since I already touched on part of the past that will relate to the next part.

Also no illustration this time cos I've been busy making clothes for Itachi-kun('s plushie that just arrived)

So I'll share photo of him and his new family instead (go to my tumbler tsuki-no-yomi-project x'D I want to make a doll of Mitsuki too to accompany him, but I guess I'll have to wait till I replenish my wallet!

Extra note:

Ichi-ni-san, is basically one two three hahahaha SORRY FOR MY DUMB JOKE