Nobuo stares intently at the girl's pristine face in disbelief, at a loss for words.
Finally breaking his trance to look up to the sky, he thanks the gods watching over him for delivering her back to him.
Holding Umeko tight, terrified she'll disappear again if he lets her go, "I thought I'd never see you again."
Cupping her cheeks to examine her face closely, "I've never been happier!"
Wiping tears from under her eyes with calloused thumbs as the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes glaze his eyes.
Burying his face in the crook of her neck, "It's by the grace and mercy of the Creator that you're here right now," he caresses every bit of her body in reach of his exploratory hands.
"Oh," Nobuo shouts to the Heavens with tears of joy running from the outside corners of his eyes, "Thanks for showing me favor! I'm going to work so much harder this time!"
Wrapping his fingers around her shoulders, he absorbs her new look from head to toe, "You're so beautiful, Umeko."
Looking upon her as though she's the first break of daylight amidst years of darkness, he whispers under his breath, "Even more than before."
Caressing the back of her head then cheek, he inhales the floral oil in her hair and the familiarly longed for, sweet and spicy musk along the nape of her neck. Staring intently, incapable of leaving any part of her body untouched, "Where've you been all this time?"
Worried she's a figment of his imagination, Nobuo curls his fingers into his palms then gently grazes his knuckles past her cheek to her ear. Searching her eyes for every unanswered question forming in his mind, "Where'd you manage to escape to?"
Stroking the back of her neck, he searches the depths of her irises with brown, green-flecked almonds; she nuzzles her cheek into his familiar, comforting touch with a dumb smile.
"I thought I'd never see you again. Anyone," she grabs his biceps.
As he leans his forehead against hers with a sigh of relief, "I was saved by Lord Tsukiyomi. Sanemaru," she gestures to her new friend, "Has been looking after me."
The humanoid, horse demon casually nods at them before her gentle gaze returns to a surprisingly wrinkle-faced Nobuo.
Eyes widening as his brain glitches and his face wears a stutter, Nobuo visibly has a hard time processing her words as he finally gets out an uncharacteristically unconfident, "W-w-wait--what?"
Grabbing her wrist and jerking her a short distance away from the dark, towering yokai, Nobuo has no idea the fire-haired apparition has an impeccable sense of hearing.
Glancing past her face at Sanemaru, "Have you cast away your brain?"
Immediately getting back up in her face, just barely brushing her nose as his eyes closely examine hers, "Or was it taken from you?"
Grazing her nose with his, the boy's tone comes out harsher and louder than she expected as he passionately expresses, "You can't stay with their kind."
Lowering his voice and tucking his chin, bushy eyebrows sink into sternness, "You must come back."
Snatching her body up against his, Nobuo molds himself into her for the first time since the last time their bodies were intertwined.
Reveling in her lean comfort, he breathes in a breath of gratefulness; having spent countless moments, day and night, dreaming of every time he did this simple act, his heart was working to accept the bitter truth that he would never hold her again.
Feeling the furnace of joy within his heart revving to life and beating into every capillary, his soul feels a warmth it thought would never return, "This is where you belong, don't you see?"
Turning his attention back over his shoulder to the simple hut, "We need to rebuild."
Returning hopeful, hazel eyes to his first love, "And make Sankan no Machi greater than before like everyone that didn't make it would want."
Gripping her upper arms as if his very life hangs on her response, "Better than anything our parents and the other geezers could've done. Our village will survive any attack with everything we know between us."
Delivering as compassionately gentle as she can muster, "I don't think," nudging the front of her body apart from his sweaty, tan skin wrapped around a runner's body, "You don't understand, Nobu."
Shaking her head slowly left and right before fixating on his confused gaze, "I'm happy there."
Raking her teeth over her bottom lip, she rethinks her choice of words, ". . .sort of. . ."
Shrugging, "Anyways," delicately attempting to tug free, "I can't leave yet," she realizes she's trapped in her best friend's vice-like grasp.
Releasing her with an aggressive push that almost sends her into a backward stumble, Sanemaru's quick to embrace her out of nowhere; supporting her upright onto stable feet, he shoots a murderous glare at Nobuo.
Gulping, the Sankan no Machi's greatest hunter takes a backward step.
Balling trembling fists as the largest, most ruggedly handsome yokai he's ever seen stands at his girl's side, "You've been bewitched by monsters!"
For the first time, he finds himself threatened by the thought of Umeko connecting with that thing because they have similar shades of skin in common. Comparing himself to the creature from head to toe as he questions what she sees in him, the Nobuo witnesses with his own eyes the way they care about each other from a simple glance.
Fed up, no longer recognizing the angelic face he's dreamt about spending the rest of his life with since the first time he saw her, Nobuo points in her face, "Placed under their spell."
Nodding most assuredly as he figures out what he must do, like a predator ready to hunt his prey, Nobuo glances from his spear to Sanemaru; Umeko side-steps closer, recapturing the boy's frantic focus when her intuition tells her to keep her eyes on him.
"We don't belong with them, Umeko," he raises an eyebrow while trying to get through to her, "You know all they do is feed off people until they're an empty shell and nothing like what they used to be."
Kicking dirt as he crosses strong forearms over hairless pecs, "Left with nothing but bitter regrets and sickness," he spits off to the side in disgust while glaring at Sanemaru.
Nobuo's biased judgment frustrates her spirit until invisible walls form around her heart; Umeko refuses to let her opinion of Tsukiyomi or Sanemaru be tarnished by fear and ignorance rather than everything they've done for her.
Hoping her reasoning can reach beyond his brainwashed understanding of yokai (spirits), "You don't know what you're saying."
Sighing sadly, "Do you know who laid our families to rest for us?"
Raising her eyebrows to keep eye contact, watching to see how he reacts, "Because, I couldn't do it and from what I've heard, they didn't get any help."
"Why would we help them? What the--Do you hear yourself right now?!"
Pain and rage floods his reddening face, "How could you possibly think--!"
Shouting loud enough for droplets to flee his lips and kiss her cheeks, "You have no way of knowing if those beasts defiled or devoured any of them!"
Stomping dusty, worn-sandaled feet into the dusty, earthen path, "How could you be so stupid, Umeko? You can't honestly think they give a fuck about helping you?!"
Flinching with fluttering eyes when he taps her forehead with his index finger, "You're gullible as fuck if you think anything they do has no threads attached!"
When Sanemaru starts to step in to defend her, Umeko slaps the back of her hand against his clothed chest without looking.
Eyeing Nobuo with the fury of a thousand daggers, she pushes the half-naked, young man back by his sweaty chest, "You're calling me stupid?!"
Stepping forward to push him further back, forcing him to stumble as he recollects his footing to keep from falling, Sanemaru remains out of it.
"Where were you after the attack?"
The control on her temper wavers and her tone grows harsher, "When our people needed to be buried?"
Losing the confidence she can convince him to see them the way she does, "Tsukiyomi and Sanemaru are good people but you're too blind to even try to see."
Tilting his head, unfaithfully squinting at her, "People?"
Chuckling sarcastically, "They're NOT people, Umeko," he shakes his head no.
Nobuo's tone lowers until the gravel in his voice strikes, "They're disgusting, beguiling, hungry freaks that were created in the shadowy darkness of the underworld."
Rubbing closed eyes with both hands and a groaning exhale, "They were made to destroy our lives for fun!"
Kicking at the dry, earthen path with dusty, bare feet, a particle cloud erupts between them, disappearing on the wind, "Deceit and games are all they know!"
Clutching the air helplessly, "You're looking at one of the ways they do that right now!"
Pointing at Sanemaru, "They mock us by hiding behind beautiful faces to trick us into trusting them!"
The humanoid horse demon looks over both his shoulders before staring at the boy offended.
Spitting in her face as he shouts loud enough to jump, "Did you really forget what WE had because of that thing's looks?"
Grabbing her shoulders to jostle her violently, Nobuo reconsiders his tactic to shake some sense into her when the towering mass of sensual chocolate takes a few steps closer.
Disgruntledly settling down and letting her go, "How can you not take my side on this when you're mine?"
Placing her hands on her hips, "What we had? Yours? I can't believe you!"
Tapping his shoulder with a restrained fist, "You're always so damn focused on getting whatever you want that you can never see anyone else's side!"
Nobuo clutches the air in front of him as his tone pleads, "What?"
His body trembles as though he's failing to grasp reality itself, "You really think I'm that selfish after everything I've done for you?"
Scoffing at his childhood friend all grown up, "You wanted to know why I wasn't here during the pillage?"
Instantly recalling the moment of bliss they last shared, entwined in each other's naked embrace before trauma ensued, he shakes his head hard enough for a tear to fly off his bottom lashes, "I wasn't here 'cause me and. . ."
Taking a ragged step, he quickly recovers to stand poised and arrogant, "Our friends," he scrutinizes her up and down.
Nodding solemnly at Umeko then back at the hut, "Were getting stuff for my big surprise."
Flaring his nostrils, staring daggers at the bronze beauty before him, "Rin, Tasha, Ginta, and Haru-- to present when I asked your parents for their blessing."
Phlegm sinks into his throat, cracking his voice as his nose begins to whistle, "I was going to travel with you--anywhere you wanted!"
Collapsing to his knees with a dusty THUD, "For however long," a snot bubble glistens in the sunlight before popping.
Rounding his back and slumping, he mutters, "So I could stay by your side knowing you're alive. Instead of spending the rest of my life in a make-believe happiness wondering where you are and how you're doing. . ."
Nobuo shakes his head as a man who recognized defeat.
Just loud enough for her to hear as she stares at the top of his mostly-shaved head with a long, black ponytail in the middle, "I guess I hoped that's what was holding you back this whole time. Me not leaping with you."
Laughing quietly, more at himself than towards her, "But it had nothing to do with me, did it? Even if I offered to go with you so you wouldn't have to be alone like your father was on his journey, I still wouldn't have been enough for you."
Awww. . .he was listening to me. By the time he (dad) met mom, he was strong enough to swoop in and save a damsel in distress. And as I think about it. . .is THAT why I'm falling so hard for Tsukiyomi-sama?
Roughly drying tears with his sun-bleached forearm, "We were supposed to feast and drink and dance a-and. . .none."
Staring up at her with disdain, "None of that'll happen now."
Knowing her well enough to sense she'll never see things his way, "Keh, after all this time."
Angrily sucking his bottom lip while biting it, he releases paler flesh, "We can't be together."
Lips full of blood as sweat drips around the bow of his upper lip, "Not because you died," he pauses to suck up snot and swallow. Umeko frowns, awaiting the verbal lashing she can tell is coming.
Roughly snorting, "But because you sided with our natural born enemy. I never want to see you again, you demon-loving whore!"
Jumping to his feet, nearly foaming at the mouth as she takes an appalled step back, "Did'ya hear me?!"
Kicking up dirt at Umeko with his bare right, calloused foot, she shields her face from the dust and Sanemaru stealthily approaches to remain a few paces behind her.
Growling, Nobuo paces back and forth away from them, screaming with his hands, "How can you be such a traitor AND slut?!"
Groaning like a mad man, "I thought you were smarter and virtuous-er than that, Ume!"
Facing her head-on to run up to her face to face without laying a hand on her, "How dare you call me selfish while you're out, running around fucking human-eating fiends."
Hanging his head as she takes a diagonal step back to put her closer to Sanemaru, "Of all the things we could be talking about now that you're back-- it's this shit?"
Gesturing to Sanemaru before looking at her like a total waste of time that eats shit and should die, "Do you have any self-respect left?"
Nobuo's question digs shards of broken clay into her spirit. Holding back tears, refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he can hurt her, she grits her teeth.
That's IT! I do NOT deserve this! I help people when I can because that's who I was raised to be and someone that helped me FIRST needs my help right back!
"Is it SO bad to care about them," with a sweeping gesture she spans from Sanemaru to the mountain, "When everything we knew, everything we loved," her forehead wrinkles with a grievous grunt, "Was ripped away by the hands of men?"
Clawing at the air in front of her, animating her perspective to project it clearly to anyone listening in, "They came to the rescue?"
Pacing around his spear, "Humans! Not demons," she blocks any ideas he might get to grab it with her back turned, "Raped and killed my mom then came after me."
Picking up his spear to point it at him, "Our kind robbed and killed and raped defenseless people in cold blood."
Directing the jagged stone tip to the mountain, "If it weren't for Lord Tsukiyomi," she points it at the mounds behind them, "I'd be dead somewhere without a grave. They chased me to the other side of Kinshi Forest!"
Umeko kicks him in the shin with her wooden shoe and smiles inwardly at her success of capturing his agonizing wince.
Nobuo quickly glares at her.
The hairs on the back of Umeko's neck stand up when she recognizes the look in his eyes.
Holding the spear across his chest with both hands to prevent a forward lunge, she sends him back with leveraged, brunt force before he can push her.
Watching Nobuo correct his gait to keep from falling, she nods to the mohawked creature adorned in shimmering, charcoal gray fabric, "Sane doesn't even eat humans."
Breaking the spear over her knee with a hefty huff, "He eats plants," she tosses the pieces off to the side.
Turning her back to a guy that she used to know, she walks a few steps in the direction of where the safe security of home used to be.
As Sanemaru comes up beside her, she finally just wails at the sky with a bellow that makes him cover his ears.
Crying for a future that slipped through the cracks of time, she laments knowing she could've been married to her best friend and presently embarking on her own adventure-- if only the bandits had never found their peaceful village.
Whispering, "Umeko," Sanemaru rescues her from dismay while cupping her hand in his empty one.
Directing her further away from Nobuo, closer to the graves, "I'm sorry," he brings her warm, tender flesh to his lips before planting a delicate peck upon the back of her hand.
Glancing over his shoulder to bear witness, Nobuo screams into his hands as he sits on the ground like a sniveling pile.
Flaring his nostrils while pursing his lips to one side against his teeth, "I know you didn't want to come."
Horse ears twitch as they turn from the howling young man to Umeko's back, "But if I knew me being here would make things that much worse, I--."
Umeko's frustratingly loud grumble cuts Sanemaru short. Raising the front of her gown to allow more movement for her feet to shuffle quickly in wooden heels, "That shit wasn't your fault."
A tiny smile of relief touches Sanemaru's lips.
Reaching to cup her shoulder as he maintains her slow pace with his long legs, she suddenly gains some pep in her step. Moving from under the shadow of Sanemaru's broad hand, she finds herself driven to get as far away from Nobuo as possible.
Willing herself to keep from turning around to sock him to his back, "He's an entitled, spoiled, asshole-y, brat-headed meanie."
Nodding positively before looking back to gauge the short distance between her and a trailing Sanemaru that picked up how she needed some space, "I'm just glad I wasn't alone when I told him I wasn't about to go along with his silly little, childish fantasy."
Sanemaru chuckles quietly and returns to his normal stride along the path until he has to keep stopping for her to catch up.
After the third stop and go, Umeko realizes that even when she focuses only on walking, she still can't keep up with the humanoid steed while in platform shoes.
Groaning, "He's just mad he's stuck diddling himself at night as the fifth wheel to the sound of those four horny bees without an adult around."
Stopping in her tracks to take a deep breath, regret spills from the words that fall from her lips, "I just wanna say good-bye and leave."
Shaking her head while sucking her teeth with her mind made up, "If my closest and oldest friend hates me because of my new friends. . ."
Resentment seethes through gritted teeth as she grips Sanemaru's clothes and pulls, "Then they can ALL suck a filthy sack of ticks!"
Blinking hard when she feels his clothes give way extremely easily, she turns to see the result of her childish action.
Instead of the typical undergarment robe for men's jackets, she's graced with the breath-hitching sight of his rock hard, dark chest and trim eight pack; derailed from her caravan of thought, cinnamon eyes admire the bulky muscles of a rare and unique specimen.
Feeling as though she's stared too long when his eyebrows bounce playfully, she makes sure her mouth is closed and pats the corners of her lips for extra measure.
Healthy pecks jump in front of her face, recapturing her curious gaze until she swallows hard.
Trying to walk away only to find her hand is still gripping his jacket, she lets him go with an embarrassed grin before hurrying ahead and keeping her eyes off him.
Maybe Nobu was on to something. . .
Coming up to the first row of pebble-soiled mounds spaced evenly apart as her head remains in the clouds, she starts to take notice of a repetitious pattern.
An ankle-high, round stone accompanies each grave. Peering at the symmetrical, singular stone marking the head of each final resting place, she does a double-take.
Darting her eyes from Sanemaru to the various headstones, she nearly jumps, "Are those. . .?"
Leaning in closer, watching her step, she carefully reaches the side of the closest grave. Almost fainting from holding her breath too long, she quickly catches it in time to refill her lungs with life. Learned eyes begin to recognize the lines carved into each grayish white, mighty rock, "They are!"
Jumping in place without allowing her heeled feet to leave the ground, she grabs her skirt to keep her wits, "They're names!"
Sighing in disbelief, "Every grave is named."
Covering her lips as Sanemaru approaches, she yanks at his loose robes while trying not to get too hopeful in case she's mistaken, "Every grave has a name?!"
"Yeah," he chuckles softly with a half-hearted smile.
Scanning the neat mounds in nine by nine rows, "Connecting to the diminishing energy that lingers when a soul leaves its body is an easy feat for Tsukiyomi-sama."
Sanemaru's temporary upper body nakedness as he fixes his top goes unnoticed by Umeko.
Watching her timidly move through the mounds, surely in search of specific ones, his deep voice reaches her ears as she tries not to crowd her, "That's how he knew who was who."
Following her wandering steps between the graves until she stops at the last row, the five center graves stand out from all the rest.
Smooth and polished, glittering pink stones sit with small bouquets of white, wilted chrysanthemums at their feet. Umeko's heart stops.
Down on her knees with an inward sob, the graves shown the most care are the ones etched with her mother, father, grandmother, and younger brother's names.
Sanemaru's hand on her shoulder briefly distracts her from instantly drowning in her emotions; the weight of his hot touch wrenches heavier tears.
How could Nobu say these kind-hearted creatures are monsters?!
Bringing the bundle of yellow flowers into her view, "Here," she struggles to get her hands to cooperate enough to receive them.
Setting the flowers in her lap, "Thanks," she dabs away some tears with her dress's sleeve.
Pulling her new handkerchief from behind her belt, Umeko holds it to her eye without looking from the sunlit stones, "Sane?"
"Yeah?"
Requesting quietly, "Could you stand somewhere else so I can be alone for a while?"
The last ounce of hope pertaining to their possible survival settles into her stomach like wet clay.
No sense in denying it anymore. . .they're really gone.
Sniffling, forcing herself to keep breathing through the quakes infesting her body, she holds back a howling sob of sorrow.
And I'd give anything to have them back.
Falling onto the raised dirt at the foot of her mother's grave, every nerve ending in her body lights up with an intolerable grief.
Hearing her sniffling cries echo, Sanemaru walks between the graves all the way until he gets to the road.
Barely able to hear her as long as he doesn't focus on her, he crosses his arms over his chest; keeping an eye on Nobuo and the presence of two male and two female humans in the hut, the faithful steed hums an upbeat tune when her cries begin to amplify.