Time passed quickly.
During these days, Sen Getsusa frequently traveled back and forth between Cat Hill and Swamp Bottom to play with Kuromaru and the cat spirits. Over time, the girl had become able to understand most of the cats' expressions from their reactions.
——As they say, when learning any language, the first thing you learn is how to swear.
Sen Getsusa was a bit eager; she really wanted to understand what that droopy-faced cat, which always lay in Aria's arms, was thinking!
Ha, ha, ha! Just you wait until I get back! You damn cat!
Yubabas Sister:... Is it necessary to go to such trouble? You'll naturally learn it in a few years.
"Naturally?"
The witch smiled and said nothing.
Sen Getsusa had no expectations for this mysterious witch—she didn't even have the interest to ask further. She brought the sea bream, Daifuku, and hot soba noodles to the table.
That's right, today's meal was sea bream, Daifuku, and hot soba noodles.
For these few sea breams, Sen Getsusa had put in a lot of effort to get Yubabas Sister to buy them from the Cat King. For this mutated fish, which was as long as a girl's leg, the Cat King wasn't that generous.
He licked his paws with a proud face, completely ignoring Sen Getsusa's pitiful expression. After licking his paws and washing his own face, he started washing the faces of the rest of the kittens.
He just ignored her anyway.
Later, who knows what price Yubabas Sister paid to get the Cat King to let go (literally let go) of that fresh ingredient.
By the way, as Sen Getsusa expected, the subordinates he sent out to find catnip... indeed did not return.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
The fat orange god looked puzzled: How could a little bit of catnip make my incomparably loyal cat warriors abandon their faith just like that?
The god, refusing to believe in ill omens, decided to continue sending more men to the Human World.
Alas, the warriors who go and never return, facing the sunset... Wouldn't it be better to just not send cats... Sen Getsusa thought helplessly.
Because of the sea bream incident, the Cat King's stinginess made her a bit unhappy. The girl decided not to remind him for now ╭(╯^╰)╮
"Kuromaru can walk steadily now. Oh, that little fellow really has a stubborn temper." Yubabas Sister used magic to give Kuromaru four legs, and now that brave cat can run all over the mountains.
Like a cyberpunk cat.
Sen Getsusa was helping Yubabas Sister portion the fish when she suddenly thought of the date.
"Eh? Has it been a month? Is it my turn to go today?"
"Oh my, didn't little Yuesha do a great job last time? I'll leave it to you again this time." It was dividend day again, and Yubabas Sister sprawled lazily in her chair, patting her belly.
It was visibly fed bigger by Sen Getsusa.
"Lately, I've been raised lazy by little Yuesha. Speaking of which, I really want you, my granddaughter, to stay here forever."
"And then you can just eat and drink every day..."
"Isn't this the kind of old age life little Yuesha always talks about! Ah ha ha ha!" Yubabas Sister grinned and winked at Sen Getsusa: "Speaking of which, isn't there another function? Hmm? Hmm?"
?"
"A Child, a Child! When will my granddaughter give this old lady a Child? That sister of mine is acting so smug."
Sen Getsusa turned her head away and began to admire her nail polish and fingers by the light.
"Sigh, people get old. I don't know how many more years I have left. How can I not see my granddaughter's Child?" Yubabas Sister looked at Sen Getsusa with a face full of regret, slapping her thigh.
"Sha? little Yuesha?"
You're overacting, Grandma. You've already lived for several hundred years.
"Is there anyone you like? You can talk to Grandma about it."
"I'm finished eating, I'm going out." Sen Getsusa helplessly put down her chopsticks, walked to the door, and started putting on her shoes.
"Please wait for me to come back to clean up the rest."
"Oh, we haven't finished talking yet... I say."
"See ya, Grandma."
Bang.
"This fellow... ha ha ha ha ha."
————Sen Getsusa: My boots!!————
"Today was a close call." Meeting again, White Dragon's expression was still sparse, but facing Sen Getsusa, he was visibly much gentler.
At least the two of them talked for a long time today.
"You did better than the last time you saw Grandma," the impossibly young River God praised.
Because they didn't come to blows this time, White thought that this young girl had finally learned to protect herself.
"Also, the Ferris wheel you mentioned is very interesting. In my memory, it seems I've heard someone mention it too."
"In your memory? Don't you rarely remember the past?" Sen Getsusa mumbled with a candy stick she'd swiped from Yubaba's desk, her hands in her pockets as she walked and chatted with White Dragon.
"Yeah... since becoming Yubaba's apprentice, my memories have become fewer and fewer. Names... it's a matter of names."
"Ah, I know. She stole your name." Sen Getsusa squinted, chewing the candy in her mouth.
"It wasn't exactly stolen. I traded it voluntarily." White's face was full of regret, but his words were still directed only at himself.
"It was the price I voluntarily paid to learn magic. So..."
"But Yubaba also concealed the details of the transaction. Where we come from, that counts as fraud." She looked up at the sky; a giant black Crow flew out of the Bathhouse, quickly streaking over their heads and glancing down during the flight.
"It's Yubaba," White Dragon calmly explained to Sen Getsusa. "Her magic allows her to transform into a Crow."
"Patrolling the territory?" Sen Getsusa watched the massive Crow begin to circle clumsily and said, "She saw us."
The Crow ignored them and flapped its wings toward the distance, occasionally gliding at a low altitude to intentionally show off its massive head. White Dragon watched the departing Yubaba, lost in thought.
Sen Getsusa drew a circle with her hand: "Does she have to patrol all of this?"
White Dragon nodded and was about to say something when he suddenly closed his mouth. He pricked up his ears and tilted his head; a faint, indistinct shouting seemed to come from below the stone steps.
"Help!"
The two looked at each other.
Below the long stone staircase, the Spirit Street was already bustling with business.
A girl wearing pink shorts and a white T-shirt was wandering among the Shadows of a group of monsters.
The center of the T-shirt was printed with a horizontal green stripe, looking just like a small strip of wasabi smeared on a long rice ball.
It was exceptionally eye-catching.
White Dragon stared down solemnly, deep in thought: "A human? She's..."
"Let's go, take her out first." Tsukisa tapped White Dragon's hand to interrupt, signaling him not to just stand there dazed.
The two of them quickly ran down the steps, each grabbing one of the girl's hands, and dashed toward a corner at the end of the alley.
"You can't come here, go back quickly!" In a gap while running, White Dragon glimpsed the girl's face and seemed to discover something. He suddenly looked anxious and shouted at the girl: "Go back quickly! Return the way you came, before it's too—"
"It's already too late." The three of them hid; Sen Getsusa lifted her hair and peeked out from the corner. After pulling back, she said to White Dragon: "The guests' boat has already arrived."
The entire street began to light up, as if a switch had suddenly been flipped.
Horned divas began to play mystery and eerie melodies; the noise grew louder, and more black figures appeared.
"What should I do? My Mama and Papa, I want to find my Mama and Papa..."
Sen Getsusa pulled the helpless little girl into her arms, rubbing the top of her head with her chin, and quietly glanced at White Dragon.
"Alright, it's okay, don't cry. We'll help you find your Mama and Papa."
Sen Getsusa gently patted the little girl's back and came up with an idea.
"I'll take her to Yubabas Sister's place," she said. "If it's Yubabas Sister, it should be fine."
White Dragon seemed to think of something while hesitating and took a black pellet from his sleeve, handing it over.
"Eat this first," White Dragon said. "Chihiro, open your mouth—right, chew it up and swallow it, quick! You'll disappear."
Amidst her struggle, the girl discovered that her arm had actually passed through the wall easily, like a transparent Shadow.
——Sen Getsusa recognized the Existence Jade.
She nodded to White Dragon, took it for the girl, gently pinched her cheek, and spoke softly: "Come on, little one. Open your mouth and eat it, otherwise you'll disappear. Be good."
The girl in her arms looked up—the older sister hugging her had clear eyes, and her pupils reflected the girl's own uneasy face, seeing straight into her heart.
The lashes at the corners of her eyes were slightly upturned, and a small tear mole was dotted below the corner of her eye.
So beautiful.
"Hey, eat it quickly." White's anxious urging interrupted, only to receive a glare from the girl.
She ignored the anxious White nearby, pouted, picked up the Existence Jade from Sen Getsusa's palm, gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and stuffed it into her mouth.
So spicy, so bitter—
"Do you know her?" Sen Getsusa asked only after the girl had calmed down.
She had noticed the name White mentioned just now.
"Yes, I knew her when she was very young..."
Sen Getsusa swore that the look White Dragon gave Chihiro was absolutely indescribable.
A perfectly good atmosphere for saving someone had suddenly turned romantic.
Having just gone through a breakup, I really want to smash my own dog head.
?＞.＜?
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