~My Cherry Blossom~ !Yoriichi x Reader!

~17~

"Am I the only one who's hearing screams right now?" Yoriichi asked when we entered the famous forest of our town. It wasn't exactly a big endless forest, but big enough for demons to be lurking around.

"I just heard one too...let's hurry. I think the screams are in agony...terrible ones," you said, furrowing your eyebrows.

"Let's split up again. It'll definitely be easier. You look through injured ones in the village, and I'll go for the demon. I can feel its presence in there," he said, as you both nodded firmly at each other before taking different ways.

You carefully slid open a hut's door, to reveal a dim, small kitchen and living room that seemed big enough for a family of 3. Suddenly, you sensed an object flying towards you.

Immediately backing your head away, you saw a wooden bow flying across. You looked around to see who possibly threw a damn bowl at you.

Your eyes landed on two kids sitting in the corner of the room.

They were hugging each other tightly while trembling. The boy seemed to be older, around 13 or 14. The girl he was hugging seemed approximately 11 or so. They were both staring at you with fear, but the boy tried holding a brave expression and pushing the girl behind him. 

The girl behind him had dried up tears that went down her cheeks. Both of their cheeks were dusty.

You sensed something else about to hit the back of your head from behind. You instantly pulled out your katana and held it above you while turning around.

Something snapped in half and fell onto your head.

When it fell loudly to the floor, you saw that it was just a toy wooden sword.

Looking up, you saw a young teenage boy around the age of 16 or so. He had a few fresh cuts on his cheeks, plus some bruises all over his arms and neck. 

Poor boy...

His stare on you was cold and firm for a few seconds, until he noticed his "weapon" was destroyed on the floor.

His face instantly turned pale, and struggled to look back into your eyes. 

Suddenly, he dropped to his knees, and almost slammed his forehead onto the wooden floor. You were confused and were about to speak when he beat you to it.

"P-please! Don't hurt my younger siblings! You can take my life...but just...please, don't hurt them...I beg your mercy on them..." His voice seemed so tired and stressed that it would break down any second. He even had extreme voice cracks at the end.

"Sir, I'm not going to hurt anybody. Please calm down, I'm here to help the village," you said, crouching down to his level, and cupping your hands around his cheeks to lift his head off the floor. His face was full of hope and relief. 

"R-really? You're going to help us?" he asked with hopefully raised eyebrows.

"Yes, I will help you all. May I examine your wounds? And your siblings'?" You kindly asked, as you both sat in the same level.

"T-thank you so much...I-i...thank you," he mumbled as you saw his eyes getting a bit watery.

"What happened?" You calmly asked, turning his face around towards the dim lightning. "Well, a few hours ago we started seeing a black shadow figure ramming into other houses. There was always this distinctive trail of blood following behind it for a bit whenever it left a house. We were scared..." he said, as you looked through your haori for any sort of ointment or bandages.

"I see....must be a demon. May I ask where your parents are?" "M-mother passed away a few weeks ago due to illness. We've never seen our father before..." (I promise his dad didn't go to get milk)