As Ren was getting used to the demon world with her newly made friends and the Demon lord Orochi; her parents were in a state of panic and worry for their missing daughter.
Sanyu had gone through nights with his men searching the forests for his precious daughter. It had been nearly a month since his daughter had gone missing.
His hope was slowly dwindling every night he came up with nothing, his men who had been helping him mindlessly search for her were beginning to lose confidence in their commander.
Slowly, the men had come together one day before the nightly search and told their commander Sanyu the news.
"Commander, I apologize for this but we believe that there is no hope of finding your daughter. We have been looking every night and come up with nothing but lost hope. Your health has been slowly deteriorating throughout this whole event. We want to end the search." The men behind the bravest one all nodded in agreement.
Sanyu's back was turned to them at the time. He had disagreed with his men about this but he too had begun to lose hope as well. Nights had passed with no results of his daughter, his wife was becoming so depressed that she hadn't come out of her quarters in two weeks.
They had arguments almost every night now because she didn't know how to take her daughter's missing presence.
His appearance had gone to his all-time low. He had bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep, dark circles formed under them, bloodshot eyes and unshaven hair had begun to grow on his face. He hadn't eaten much over the month and barely had enough strength to keep going.
As he turned around, he knew that he couldn't keep this fruitless search going. The aching feeling of losing a child was destroying his life and killing his relationship with his wife Kumi.
"I understand, I am deeply sorry for this. I am just very heartbroken by the turns of events. I am deeply thankful for your hard work. Please take this time to recuperate from this."
The men bow and take their leave, Sanyu felt that his wife wasn't going to forgive him for this. But he hoped deep down that she would understand his reasons to let the search dissipate.
He replayed the night over and over in his head every day of her disappearance. She had only gone to the market like she usually had but when it started to get later into the day Kumi had begun to worry about her daughter.
It wasn't like her not to return home, she knew that as her parents we are very overprotective of her. The night came around and they started to worry about her that night.
No sign of her had appeared that night or even in the early morning and that's when the panic set in for him.
He was now going him to wife and was going to tell her the unbearable news. Every time he walked in, he would see his once lovely Kumi that was so full of bright smiles, energy, and life; was now staring out the window unmoved by the sound of the noise he would make when he would come home.
Her beauty was just a dim light now, of course, she dressed like she always has but that inner beauty she had wasn't there anymore. Her eyes seemed to have lost that sparkle.
He walked up to her and grabbed her hand, it seemed so lifeless now. She never gripped back as she had before.
Her motivation to keep going was gone. He was afraid of losing her because of this. "Kumi, the love of my life. I hope you understand what I am about to say."
But she still looked out the window and into the forest. Since that night, she has spent most of her days here, hoping that she would catch her in the forest possibly.
The green had calmed her but it was just a numbing effect to her. She spoke barely anything to anyone besides basic words.
"I'll try." Her voice was barely audible to him.
Sanyu looked down at her hand, "I have decided to call off the search. My men have given up hope in searching. I'm so sorry, I wish I could ease the pain but it goes too deep. I miss her so much as well but I think we need to take the time to better ourselves. I love you so much please understand."
He looked up to see her eyes water with tears, and a single tear brimmed over and rolled down her cheek. His heart cracked in two knowing she was suffering in pain in silence.
Being a mother with a missing child was frown upon and she had been the most prideful about Ren. The only daughter of the Lotus was gone and there wasn't anything they could do to make her comeback.
"I understand." But Kumi broke after she uttered the words, an uncontrollable sob erupted from her and tears flowed non-stop. He felt his chest ache in sadness for her. His arms wrapped around her small body and held her close; hoping that it would allow some comfort to her.
Kumi wailed in his arms, tightly holding her husband in grief. Sanyu was the only one who understood her in this world and she knew that there was nothing they could do for their daughter.
She was gone and they had to face the fact that she was. Nothing could help them with the grief besides being there through it all. The Lotus had lost the most precious person to their clan, the first woman born since Aiya. Kumi had lost her first child.
Sanyu held Kumi through her tears until she passed out from exhaustion his her arms. He lifted her in his arms and carried Kumi to their room to rest. He prayed that everything would get better eventually.
He walked into Ren's empty room and looked at her belongings. This was her favorite place to be when she was alone. Upon looking at her room he realized something, the shamisen that he bought his daughter for her birthday; was missing...