𝓘 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓮 𝓨𝓸𝓾 ||𝑲𝑵𝒀 𝑿 𝑶𝑪|| (HIATUS)

出会い

Encounter

𝔞𝔣𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℜ𝔇𝔏 𝔞𝔯𝔠

After weeks of healing and getting back her strength, Saito went back to her regular schedule. She would sometimes stop at Shinobu's place to check on the boys before she head back to her village.

It pains her that her kouhai's are there, bedridden with tubes in them. It made Saito insecure. It made her question if she was even strong and able to protect people.

"I barely did anything in that fight. I barely got hurt while the kids suffered greatly. Am I even a pillar? Uzui lost an arm and eyes and here I am with just a few scars and broken bones.

I'm not doing my part the way it should be. Pathetic. Can't even protect the people whose lower-ranked than her. And I call myself a pillar? Don't make me laugh."

"Shut up! I can't be thinking shit like this! There's no room for self-doubts here. I can't be doing shit that will affect my performance. It doesn't matter if your kouhai's are stronger! Just continue to work harder. This is no competition!"

Saito scolded herself for thinking such depressing thoughts. Reminding herself what Rengoku wished for her. There's always room for excellence.

Saito was assigned to look into a town that keeps having missing people reports. Police say that there's no evidence to track that leads them to the suspect. As if the victims just disappeared, one moment they're active and present then later they'll just disappear.

The only information that the police and guards were able to connect was the victims are primarily males. And most of them are married. Saito is already aware of what's gonna happen once she touches this issue.

It's located in the coastal area of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. This part of Hamamatsu is Ohno*, a small town primarily occupied by farmers, gardeners, and merchants. Gentlemen in the village would usually become a farmer or a hunter, while Ladies are either tailors, cooks, or housewives. (*ⁱ ʲᵘˢᵗ ᵐᵃᵈᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵘᵖ)

When Saito arrived at the small town she was greeted by locals doing their own jobs. She also noticed that this place is filled with beautiful flowers. And there are quite a lot of flower sellers on the streets.

Walking through the place Saito eyed all of the residents. She saw a crying lady asking a vendor, begging for something. Saito slowly approached the lady to eavesdrop.

"𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝑺𝒊𝒓. 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒊? 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒔. 𝑯𝒆'𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍? 𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆? 𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆."

The young lady said. Raising her hand over her head to mimic her husband's height. Behind the lady is a happily sleeping baby girl.

"𝖮𝗁 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗆𝖾𝖺𝗇 𝖨𝖼𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗈? 𝖳𝖺𝗆𝗎𝗋𝖺 𝖨𝖼𝗁𝗂𝗋𝗈 ?" The male vendor asked which the lady confirmed to be her husband.

"𝒀𝒆𝒔. 𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕."